What in the World (of Warcraft)...?

Yes, the rumors were true, I had been playing World of Warcraft again.

HAD.

I pulled the trigger on a 10-day free trial, and you know what I found out? Blizzard put the game on easy mode.

It was not tough to do quests, because they show you where to go on the map and who to kill to complete them. Dungeons required no effort, because they show where each boss is, and you can constantly pull enemies into combat. It cut the time of a crawl down from 120 minutes to 20 minutes. Leveling up is cake too, because now you get experience from picking herbs and mining for ore.

It's disgusting. When I first played WoW, it required a lot of effort to get tuned up to go to the Molten Core. Now? I bet my four-year-old nephew could get up to level 90 in a matter of hours.

I think, with no proof once so ever, Blizz caved into the whiners (Lerrilin) who wanted to access ALL the game content that came with their $15 monthly subscription. Goddamn millenials and their sense of entitlement...

Sorry, Clint, Chris, and Cynthia, but I'm not coming back on a permanent basis. I just don't think it's worth it. Besides, I've got more important stuff to do. My girlfriend is moving in with me, I'm applying to the MBA program at the University of Minnesota, and I've got some team to cheer for.

I love you guys, and I want to come back to play with you again, because I feel I've got some unfinished business to take care of in Azeroth. But right now? I've got some real-life quests to complete...

Friends in Low Places

Blame it all on my roots.

Nearly 4 years ago, I started playing World of Warcraft at the suggestion of a couple of buddies from college who had moved away from the Fargo-Moorhead area. It was great. I was able to interact AND play video games with these people on a daily basis, like we were still in school. Like they had never left.

I also met some new people through the game. Some were douchebags (I think we all know who they are...), but others were really awesome. Or, should I say, ARE awesome. People whom I can call and talk shit about for an hour. On a regular basis. AND they'll call me. Or we'll talk over IM. Shoot e-mails back and forth. About anything and everything. Make jokes, tell stories, open up to.

It still seems a little weird to me, though. These people are essentially complete strangers, whom I've never met in person (or only just once), but I feel like I can talk to them about things I couldn't with my other friends (no offense). They won't judge me. They totally accept me for who I am, which makes me feel great.

Friends like Chris, Clint, Cynthia, Duane, Kara (lots of love to all of you). Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for letting me into your lives. Thank you for being a part of mine. I don't know what I'd do without you. I hope nothing ever changes between us, because I don't want to lose you.

(My apologies to anyone I may have forgotten from Azeroth. And my apologies to my other friends as well. Please don't take this to mean that I don't love you, 'cuz you're just as special to me.)

Somewhere I Belong

You know, it's weird. I've been playing World of Warcraft off and on for the past two years now, and it seems like Azeroth is the only place where I've felt like I truly belonged.

My buddies Vern and Jared had talked me into joining them in Azeroth, and as soon as I had started, I was invited to The Wolves of Azeroth. No questions asked. Ard and Cith were glad to have me as a member. And as the months progressed, everyone in The Wolves were more than willing to help me out with anything and everything (except, of course, RUNNING the guild, but that's another story...).

It's still a little weird to be back with none of them around. But I found some people to latch onto and suck the life out of... I mean, um, hang out with... Lan and Sina are doing their darnest to twink me out so I can play with them on a daily basis. And it's always a ball to talk with them on Vent and listen to them bitch and moan and talk shit to each other. Most fun I've had in ages.

Dynasty will never be like The Wolves. But I think I'm finally somewhere I belong, once again...

What's a night elf to do?

After a nearly nine month hiatus, I have returned to the World of Warcraft. Mostly to keep myself occupied during the upcoming North Dakota winter, but also to reconnect with some friends I made in-game.

Things have changed a lot since I left at the end of January. Most of my guildies recently took time off, and those few that are still around have pretty much moved on. I can't say that I blame them; it'd be silly to expect them all to put their virtual lives on hold while waiting on me.

After waiting a couple of days for an guild invite to Warcraftier that never came (most of my friends join them after we dissolved our guild), I hooked up with Dynasty, which has some of my friends from my Molten Core raid. And although I'm starting to feel comfortable and accepted by their members, I still feel like I'm on the outside looking in.

In the 10 months since The Burning Crusade came out, most of them have had ample opportunity to farm rep., learn the strategies, gear up, and go raiding. I was gone, so I'm nowhere near they're at, and I have no ida what to do about it.

I only reached level 70 a couple of weeks ago. I need to spend several more weeks getting my reputation up so I can purchase alchemy recipes. I need better equipment. I don't have an elite flying mount (I got about 600 of the 5000 golod necessary to purchase one). And I want to wrap up as many quests in the 5-man dungeons as I can.

There lies the problem. I'm a non-raider in a raiding guild. In fact, since I returned, I've had interest from 3-4 raiding guilds for my services (all of which has some of my former guildies (The Wolves of Azeroth) or MC raid members (Ayedtt's Raiders). I can't find guildies to run 5-mans with me, cuz they're all raiding or running heroic 5-mans (which I might be able to do, but they aren't doing the ones I need). The worst part is, I'm a hunter, so players like me are a nickel a dozen (that's right, a nickel, not a dime)

I've tried using the Looking For Group tool, and I've had some success. I've managed to find a few good groups and complete some runs. But most of the time, my groups fall apart before we even get started because we can't find a healer and/or a tank, so I have to re-queue. In addition, I've had some problems joining the LookingForGroup channel manually, so I can't monitor the chat and find a group for more than three locations at a time (a limitation of the LFG tool). Finally, I can't join a group for an instance outside of my level range using the LFG tool, so I won't auto-join groups going to Slave Pens, or even Lower Blackrock Spire (still got a couple of pre-BC quests in there I want to finish out). I spoke to a GM about this issue, but he wasn't much help. I ask my guildies in Dynasty for help, but my requests are usually met with silence (not that they're purposely ignoring me, they just aren't interested in running something they've done a couple dozen times before, or are busy... yup, you guessed it... raiding).

It's almost enough to make me quit. Again. But that won't solve anything. I'd just fall further behind. I could try to convince my former guildies to come back, but I've never been a very pursuasive person, and I doubt they'd want to invest the time and money needed to get me out of pre-raid limbo.

The next expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, might solve some of these issues, since it somewhat puts everyone on equal footing again, so we all start at the same point to try to get into the raids. But that's at least a year off.

I'm going to talk to some people, get some advice, figure out what to do next. Until then, I guess I just have to continue my work to get ready for raiding. Maybe finish leveling up my pally (he's 64 right now). Maybe do a little PvP. Maybe get my reps up so I can finish my work in alchemy. And continue to wait for those groups to form up.

Now I know how all these pro athletes feel when they come out of retirement to play with the big boys again.

They're pulling me back in!!

Ever since I decided to stop playing World of Warcraft, at the end of January 2007, some of my in-game friends have been constantly asking me when I'm coming back.

Well, here's your answer: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/.

It'll be at least a year until it comes out. But I'll be ready. I owe that little whiny pussy, Arthas, a SERIOUS beating.

Return of the Fritz

Well, I guess I'll make this official. I'm back.

I've been debating it for a few weeks, but have no had enough desire to take to time to sit at my keyboard to write.

Here's what happened since Dec. 2005:

1. I let World of Warcraft consume my life. Big mistake. Sometimes 6, 8, even 10 hours a day. I never should have accepted the promotion to Guild Master.
2. Parents moved from Hawaii to Colorado. They came to visit twice. Each occurrence was a Thurs.-Tues. weekend.
3. Moved to application development at Phoenix International for about 3 months, before finally getting rolled over to full-time desktop support technician.
4. Improved my Linux-y skills, thanks to my guild website.
5. Preparations to sell my parents' house and move into an apartment.
6. I'm starting to recruit golf buddies for the upcoming summer. I would have picked up golf last summer, but I couldn't spare the roughly $300 investment for golf equipment as a temp.
7. Bought a laptop, so I can sit in my recliner and surf the 'net.
8. Watching Scrubs, Star Trek: Voyager, Adult Swim, House, and WWE Raw. Yes, I know it's fake. That doesn't make it any less entertaining. If you have a problem with that, I got two words for you: SUCK IT!!

I guess that's about it. No guarantee as to how often I'll blog in the near future. Oh well. *shrug*

Where am I?

You may be wondering why I haven't posted a thing in nearly two months.

World of Warcraft

Amazing, addictive game. Like heroin. A full write-up when I can stop playing for more than 15 minutes.