Dead Body Ads in Org

Came across a few dead-body ads in Org the other day. Clever. Perhaps annoying. I'm wondering how long this use of body art will be tollerated.

Feifer Hits 80

In a grind atop a parapet in Icecrown, Feifer hit 80. The final ding, the disappearance of the health bar, and it was done.

Here's a pic of Skrah and Feifer a while back.



And here's what we look like now:

Onyxia Raid

We've started raiding as a guild, and it's a lot of fun. Last night we did Onyxia successfully, which was a big boost. Here's a tad of video taken after we killed the boss. Next time, I'll try to record the boss fights in full.

Class-itis

I've been suffering from class-itis lately: the syndrome in which one can't quite decide which class to be. I want to be a healer, but which healer? The pally is a bit too much like my warrior, the druid's heals don't seem that powerful, the shaman's totems are kind of annoying since they all stay in one place, and the priest is, well, just a priest.

So, to respond to this, I've been trying the shaman. And really, the only reason I don't like my priest is that she's a troll. Troll females simply scare me.

And here's a random picture of Skrah sitting next to some dude. They're getting all friendly in the image; giggle.

Let Bylaws be Bylaws

a month or so ago, Skrah and I redid the website and added a bunch of "Guild Guidelines" for chat, bank, promotions, etc. It's part FAQ and part ounce of prevention. Our idea was to make expectations clear so that we wouldn't have people on chat being rude, homophobic, racist, etc. In short: keep it clean people!

We were worried that this would seem like policing, and maybe make folks think we take this game too seriously. But so far, it's proven to have the opposite effect. Guildies are happy to maintain the chat and the bank and the guild ranks, and these guidelines give them a way to do it. Plus, we can tell new members to just go read the site. It's quick, easy, and painless (well relatively).

I must say, though, once again that our guild culture is so nice because the guildies want it to be that way: they maintain it by their generosity and sense of humor. So thanks guys for taking such good care of the guild :)

Life in the Queue

Just as our guild has reached 250 members, just as we're both almost 80s (or close to it), and just as we're starting to figure our raid dynamics ... our server has become a clogged metropolis called Queue Land.

Where once upon a time we could log on quickly and at any time, now we have to plan ahead, queue up, and wait in line. 500, 800, over 1,000 people ahead of us we wait to play a game that approximates work and "real life" in so many ways. Checking auctions. Dealing with guild business. Leveling up.

And yet we wait, unwilling to transfer off our home planet for fear of some difference Off World. Of course, our friends wouldn't be out there on some new colony ... but the world would be the same, right? We don't know, so we queue. Queue time is a reminder of simpler games, cards, puzzles, the Unplugables.

Oh wait, I'm third in line. Time to plug back into the business that is this game.

Guild Banker

Does your guild have a guild banker? While I used to use my regular bank/auction alt to maintain the guild bank, with the growth of our guild, I recently split up those duties and created a dedicated Guild Bank Alt. This is awesome. Whereas I used to have to keep track of what auctions I was selling and what auctions were for the guild, as well as which stacks of materials went where, now the Guild Bank Alt's action is entirely dedicated to the guild.

And man do we need it. With a growing guild and five tabs, the Guild Bank Alt is constantly pulling items for the bank, disenchanting, and restocking. Extra gold gets rolled into the guild ... as we look ahead to a 6th tab!

MegaGuild

We haven't posted here in a while, which is pretty normal as far as blogs go. You know: you start a blog, get all excited about it, and then, after a few weeks or months, either lose interest in it or forget all about it.

We have, however, been playing the game quite a bit ... and the guild is going strong.

In fact, we now have a MegaGuild. What was a four-person operation is now a guild with five bank tabs, 200+ toons, and an average of 12-20 players online at any time. Amazing.

With this growth has come some growing pains: the guild chat has gotten a bit nasty at times, and two players have been kicked out of the guild for disrespecting their fellow guildies. A few high-level players left the guild ... only to return. While they were gone it just wasn't the same without them, but now that they're back, things are all the better.

And yesterday, to try to maintain some structure in this new MegaGuild, Feifer wrote up some bylaws and posted them to our website. They're pretty simple and try to articulate what is probably our main goal with the guild: to maintain a culture of fun, kindness, and helpfulness. That doesn't take much, but as the guild grows it's becoming increasingly clear that the guild culture could shift in undesirable ways as well.

..............

In other news, Skrah popped 70 a few weeks ago. Though 70 is the new 60 now that 80 is on the scene, it was kinda fun. With that ding came a new focus on leveling up engineering, and a groovy pair of mote-seeing-glasses were involved. Plus a copter.

Stuck in a Crack

Given the most recent patch, there is a whole new landscape of WOW. Everyone seems to be chatting about inscription; there is a new pet tab; talents and talent points are all fwizzled up; and more. You can even get your hair done.

Having gone with arms again for Skrah (lvl 63 warrior), I'm pretty happy with the various buttons that resulted. In testing them out, I even nixed a couple of Allies (both a bit lower than me, but whatev) without much trouble. Then nixed them again just to be sure.

On the topic of nixing, it should not go without saying that the other day, Monday, I got stuck in a crack. Reapmeister, an outstanding member of our guild, put together a little raid party, and when this party disbanded, I found myself atop a high tower covered with a maze of ramparts. I stood. I joked around. I danced. And then an ally on a flying mount landed right on top of me and started kicking my butt. With about 10 health left, I jumped ... and that's when I got stuck in the crack.

Here are a couple of screen captures of the carnage. My body ended up wedged in the crack about 500 ft in the air, making it unrecoverable from above or below.

Bringing the Crowd to Orgrimmar

Our guild, Sinister Legion, has always been obsessed with the fishing-pole-as-weapon. From the first time Skrah killed a low level ally with his pole, to the constant jokes about using a pole to beat down that annoying person who keeps attacking you with no hope of actually doing any damage . . . our guild has (slowly and surely) become obsessed.

So, what's a guild leader to do? How about sponsoring a Naked Fishing Pole Fight Tournament . . . out front of Orgrimmar? I offered 20 gold in prize money--and, of course, eternal fame--to contestants. Skrah will upload some screen shots later (I hope).

The best part was not the actual beatings, which were freaking hi-larious, but the audience that gathered to watch. We even had a few people join after Skrah put this message on the general:

"Want to join the guild sponsoring the naked fishing pole fight out front of Orgrimmar? Pst me!"

Oh they did--in droves.

But I must admit, we were finally hounded out by a "real" tourney of sorts: The Fighting Irish sponsored a 40-49 dual tourney that was, shall we say, a bit more official--but certainly less humorous.

On Being Found!

I've been leading the guild for a little while now, and although we've had some ups and downs, the guild seems to be getting stronger: we have several new players who are devoted and funny and fun to play with, everyone has more access to the guild bank (which, by the way is four tabs teaming full of stuff), we have a couple of new officers (and I couldn't be happier--Hi GUYS), and we have several events for this weekend all lined up: a dungeon run, and hide-n-seek.

I will say it again: I love this guild.

But maybe this is all a bit hyperbolic now for me, in part because we were found out(!) by a simple Google search for "feifer" and "wow" Oh my! Funny how simple it is to find us in this big net-thang.

So you might ask: how do you feel about having the guild know you blog?

Right now, it seems ok with me. A funny extension of the alternate life I lead in Wow for several hours of the day. My RL friends read my RL blogs, so why not have a Wow blog that my virtual friends and guildies can read? Guess we'll just have to be a bit more careful, about giving away those secrets . . . right skrah??

Guild Leadership

About a week ago, the leader of our guild got swamped and decided to pass the leadership on to Feifer. A wow moment on WOW. At first it was exciting, then it was stressful, then it was fun, then it was stressful again.

The first thing Feifer did was run over to the deadalus project a read a study of other guild leaders. "They all said it stunk," Feifer reported, upon finishing the article. And that was that.

Since taking over the guild, Feifer has done a ton of stuff to make it better:

• promoted folks
• bought an extra bank tab
• had a fun meeting
• promoted folks
• delegated duties
• and brought in new members

To try to help, Skrah has been running the bank (organizing things and stuff).



But yesterday, when we learned that two of our fave and most active players had left the guild for a new one, BUMMAH rang through the house. Why why why? Even though we're working hard to make this whole guild-leadership thing cool, it's bound to have ups-and-downs and plenty of stress. When logging onto a game feels like work, there's a problem. So we'll have to see.

On Becoming a Guild Leader

I've been playing WoW for maybe 6 months now and, as I've mentioned, Skrah and I have been in and out of a bunch of guilds. This last one we've settled into "Sinister Legion" is a relatively new guild--I even went to the first guild meeting back over the summer. We like the folks, we like the bank, we like the leaders.

But over the past month, things started to change: leadership shifted, a couple of times, really, and we were somewhat out of the loop until the last leader stepped up and we got to know him/her better. So Skrah and I started planning activities and checking in with the leader regarding the latest scheme. Well, after a few events, and a few emails, I received a doozy, something to the tune of "Feifer, this guild needs a new leader. Would you be up for it?"

And so I contemplated, and pondered, and decided, ultimately that this was what I--and Skrah--wanted: to lead our guild that we love and to do it well. So I accepted, power was shifted one more time; and I'm happy to say the last leader is staying on-board in the guild!

I changed a few things, promoted a few people who were overdue, and decided on a date for the next guild meeting. TONIGHT! Since we're a fun-loving, and not a real raiding guild (our guildies are still lvling actively and we're short on our number of 70s), Skrah and I decided that the meeting should be fun more so than formal. So no stadiums, no posturing, just some good discussion and a few snowballs and fireworks.

This is gonna be a challenge, for sure. This whole leadership position. But I have good officers, and what's more, good people in the guild. I'll keep you posted.

On Hitting 60

Skrah bobbed up to 60 yesterday, and if you're reading this in a few months, that will mean a lot less ... 60 will be the new 50 when the King Package pops the cap up to 80. But for now, 60 still matters.

60 is all about speed: a new mount that can zip instead of run, and with a little help from Feifer, Skrah bought one. In a game where speed is glorified, 60 is supposed to be a big moment. A moment when, suddenly, you can get away from just about anything and catch that fleeing Ally just ... in ... time. And it's true, the new mount is fun for these reasons.

But playing my lower alt lately, a lvl 14 mage, I'm reminded of how well running works. So as I move Skrah up the ranks, I want to remember the fun in these simple things in the game:

• jumping off tall stuff
• exploring
• swimming in the sea under the moonlight
• kiting
• befriending Allies
• a simple dance party
• goofy gear and outfits
• those 12 lbs. catfish

.....................


And on a completely different topic, here is a pic of Feifer in her groovy new armor set:

MultiBoxing

Over the past two days, first Feifer and then Skrah ran into some multi-boxers. Of course, we had no idea what we were looking at or that there was such a thing as multi-boxing, but after some online research and a chat with a very robot-like GM, we got it all figured out.

This vid tutorial pretty much says it all, covering how to multi-box very thoroughly. Very thoroughly.

And here's a screenshot of the multiboxer Skrah saw out there doing it. It's a rough image, but you get the picture. I had a short convo w/ him, and he said that this was his first time "doing hunters." Ohhhhkay.



Commentary: Okay, at first I thought multi-boxing was either a scam or cheap, but having seen a few tutorials, I kinda think it's awesome. The cloning aspect (it seems multi-boxers prefer look-alikes to throw off enemies in PVP) is very weird, and in that one player can be five is a variation in the game. A variation? I simply love any little variation in a world that can be so predictable. Now I want a multi-boxer in our guild!

Doing It From Behind

As a rogue, I love my backstab. It makes me happy, it makes my friends happy, it really pisses off Allies . . . what more could I want?

Well, I'll tell you what: a little face-to-face with these beasts and humanoids. I realized while playing last night that I rarely, if ever, get the chance to see the cool details in this game--the faces, the helms, the clothes, cause I usually have my head up the ass of a crab, or murlock, or bear. Ok, ok, so my head just looks like it's stuck up the ass of a beast, but either way, I really need to get out more--out front, that is.

I wanna see the expressions, feel their pain. And, well, let's be frank, stop staring at a blob of a back. Maybe Blizz could create two-faced monsters so that we rogues can at least see more than red cloth or tails or hair.

Then again, maybe it's just my issue. I am an assassination rogue. I suppose I signed up long ago for the whole head-up-the ass thing.

Cornering a Market

When we started playing, one of the silliest things (and there were a lot of silly things) was that we had absolutely no understanding of how the auction house worked. I remember going over to an auctioneer once, clicking open her little window, seeing nothing for sale, and then not going back for about another 10 levels.

Now, when Feifer and Skrah play, a good portion of the time spent (usually after questing or whatever) is spent working the auction house angle. We both make stuff to sell, buy mats and materials, and just generally cruise the auction house. Kinda strange that a game would consist of that kind of "play," but the game is full of surprises.

So, recently Skrah got into Thorium in a big way. Mining it, sure, but also buying thorium ore cheap and selling thorium bars (once smelted) a little higher. In one day of doing this, Skrah can make a good 10 or 20 gold. Then came Uktheredon (name changed slightly), who, on our server, decided to corner the thorium market.



I noticed it first when all of my thorium got bought out by Uk, and when I went to sell more, I saw that s/he had bought everyone out and completely stabilized the market in terms of price and numbers of units. Where as thorium bars were once selling for anywhere from 32g to 50g for a stack of 20, now there were only stacks of 5 and each was 8g. Go Uk go!

So I got in on it, starting to price my own stacks of 5 just below Uk's price. But Uk was having none of it, and kept buying me out ... which, of course, worked for me. In a few hours of this, I made 100 gold. Then I ran out of thorium and had to wait. Boo!



Anyway, I'd never seen someone in the game try to corner a market before, and in the long run, it was only minimally effective. With thorium, at least, there are just too many people out there with it who are willing to sell for whatever price. But I'm still convinced that Uk's moves pushed the overall price up, which was clearly one of his/her goals.

Guild Gratitude

I love my guild. Skrah and I have had some bad experiences, but this one is a real keeper; and, to top it all off, we've stayed in and been involved enough that we've even become officers. (I hope we're good officers and very helpful).

Being an officer has changed things a bit. We can now see "notes" on other players--and even make some notes if we so desire; we can take more from the guild bank; we can try to boost morale. Of course, the ironic thing is that we're the high lvls now, so we mostly need to give to the bank, not take from it . . . plus, there's very little of use to us in there anymore.

But beyond riffing on officer status, I'd like to offer a suggestion: wouldn't it be great if there were guilds--GOOD guilds--in real life? If you had a chat line that would contact everyone who could help you with a problem? If there was a communal bank of goods that was at your disposal? If there were events like naked wrestling and fish fighting? Well, ok, the last two could get weird. But the general principle is a good one, I think. A support network that's made up of people who are working hard to advance, who like what they're doing, who want to help each other so that the larger group can succeed.

Damn, I wish I had that in RL! And don't even try to suggest that family counts . . . that kinda guild comes with guild guilt, which will have to be the subject of another post.

To a universal chat line! To phone a friend! For the Horde!

Floaters

I'm a sceenshot fanatic. When Feifer and Skrah discover a new place, I take a screenshot. If I see someone in a groovy getup, I take a screenshot. When I ride the bat, I take a screenshot. And whenever I encounter a glitch, I take a screenshot. Not that glitches are all that common in the game; I'm continually surprised by how few glitches there are.

Floaters are one seam in the works that I particularly enjoy. You kill a beast or dude near some kind of object, and because of the object, the beast or dude ends up with their corpse just kind of floating there, hung up by the object. Corpses don't wrap well. In some cases, which are particularly fun, the objects are removable, leaving floaters up off the ground. (Miners know this well.)

So here's my little gallery of floaters, including Skrah floating on top of where some copper once was. Floaters are a reminder, in a game with so few glitches, that there are still ways to find and create the un-real in gameland.

Pet Me: Skrah's Little Dragon

Skrah recently upped his engineering by making a dragon companion. Yes, making. I love the idea, first an foremost, that you could take piles of metal and ore and craft a cute (*CUTE) dragon who will follow you so loyally wherever you may go. Granted, the dragon only sticks around for a short time, and we often find his little body dead on the road after a long hike . . . but still, the little guy is precious and makes me almost wanna have a pet of my own. You know: I don't wanna have to do all the chores associated with a pet: summon it, feed it, take it out for walks in the Hinterlands. But pets, companions, minions, and vanity pets are absolutely fun.

The Epic Dolls know all about vanity pets--their latest post on the subject rocks. Amazing to think of a whole bank full of pets . . . it would be illegal, or at least not "free range" if this weren't wow.

Maybe Skrah will post a picture of his little cutie . . . in the meantime, here's one I like.

Update: That image.