Recently in Events Category

I will beg your forgiveness in this, but this will be a post meant for both listeners of All Things Azeroth, my podcast, and From the Abbey to Outlands, my blog. I want to wish you, one and all, a great holiday. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzea, or if your greatest celebration this holiday season is the Feast of Winter Veil, I hope you have a truly amazing, friend and loved ones filled holiday season.

While Greatfather Winter has brought presents for us all, and the Achievement spam is at an all time high, we might begin to lose patience at the constant crashing of rocket cars, but remember, that this is a time of love and peace, and we should all take a few times before we gank our neighbor, to remember this is when we should spare that killing blow, and let our enemies bow in safety and go on their way. Take care of yourselves, /love your neighbor, and spread /cheer throughout the world(of warcraft)!

Hallow's End is long in the past.
The Wrath Day glow just didn't last.
We travel North to continue our tale.
As closer comes the feast of Winter'Veil!

With all that has happened in this game in the last few weeks, it can be forgiven that we might have lost track, forgotten the upcoming holiday. While Winter's Veil has lost some luster as compared to the events with seasonal bosses like Hallow's End, Midsummer, and Brewfest, I still think that Winter's Veil is one of the most exciting times. The cities of Orgrimmar and Ironforge get decked out in lights, and Greatfather Winter sets up in his rightful place on his seat. Holly is passed around and gifts are given. I still recall fondly my first Winter's Veil, when people were desperately trying to figure out where to get their Greench's from, how you became a helper gnome elf, or how you learned to make your very own Snowmaster.

While a part of me hopes Blizzard adds a bit more to this year's event, I chuckle a bit to myself as I notice that a number of my alts still have unopened presents in their bags at this late date, and I know Blizz has more in store for us. We know the Clockwork Rocket Bot was available last year, while a new Achievement this year, Crashin' Thrashin' Racer tells us that we likely have Crashin' Thrashin' Racer Controller coming to us this year. Arita already has one due to an unopened present from '07, and I have to say it looks awesome! What are you looking forward to most from this year's Festival?

This game... this community, has seen a lot of changes in the 4 years of live and another 6 months of beta before that. I have seen it progress from the Stress Test leveling contest that was extended due to a Hurricane, to an open beta where thousands beat down the virtual door of File Planet to get access. When the game launched, it did so with a fanfare to rival blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings, and books like Harry Potter. Within days the game had broken the records for MMO sales, and subscribers, the 500,000 peak of the past mere dust in the trail of World of Warcraft to the top. I was live on WoW Radio that day, 4 years ago, when the station owner Athalus interviewed the CM Caydiem live on the air via cell phone, since she was at the Fry's opening in Fountain View.

We have seen patches, nerfs, buffs, and complete game revamps many time since then, with all classes and specs getting their own share of love and hate. All through this, from Northshire Abbey on my first Paladin, Medros of course, on the Mannoroth PvP realm, to Medros, the 71 Paladin on Argent Dawn, who runs alongside 3 other high level characters and in a guilg that I do not think has a rival in the game, there has been a lot of names of the past. Dedric, who I played that stress test with, who played on Bronzebeard least I heard. Arcaron who was at WoW Radio, but loved to another server in the free transfers that came in those early days.

Even with the Shadow Walkers, I have seen a significant number of changes, from officers coming and going, to changes in the top 2 ranks of the guild. The game, my gametime, and how I play has changed a lot over the last four years, and so has the method of my interaction with the community. I went from fledgling show host with a few thousand tunes on WoW Radio to a Podcaster with hundreds of regular downloads with All Things Azeroth and a co host who not only knows her stuff, but has a desire to see the show grow, and improve. How can life, my memories, my game get any better? A polar bear cub pet, of course!

I have mentioned excitedly before what my plans were for the Wrath Launch events, which was to go to the local EB Games and wait eagerly for my Collector's Edition which I had paid for, $10 more than what I was told at pre order, the Saturday before. The 5 hours at work that night were agonizing, as I could mentally count down the hours in my head. At precisely 9 pm I left work, though I spent a bit of time recruiting a new player to WoW, and headed out. I stopped at home, trying to get my podcast and blog up, and then headed out to walk the 4 blocks to the store.

When I walked up, there was 2 empty fold up chairs, and two guys sitting in their van out front of the store. I proceeded to move to the far side of them from the door, and the wait began. The minutes ticked by, and the line began to grow. By ones and twos the line eventually grew into 50 or more people, all enjoying the weather to get Wrath of the Lich King. Ner'zhul, Malygos, Draenor, Exodar; all these realms were mentioned for those in line close to me. Staff began to show up, and the numbers inside the store increased slowly.

As midnight grew closer we watched as they rolled up posters(giveaways) and chatted comfortably behind the glass. When midnight rolled around we all waited eagerly. As 12:05 came and went, we all grew impatient. 12:10 and people were getting mad since the 'staff' inside were clearly just chatting and stuff, not doing actual work. These folks stood around in a nice warm store and we shivered in the winter weather. Finally at 12:15 a staff member came and opened the door, advising us they couldn't start taking orders yet, cause their system wouldn't let them, but we could at least get in. We rushed in, the first 5 or 6 people, and were told to stay back from the registers.

Then aggravation turned to anger. The 'staff', or at least 5 of them, stepped up to the counter to pay for their own copies of the Wrath Collector's Edition. I watched, surprise on my face, as the realization that these were not staff, but friends of the staff, who got to bypass the line and get up first, and get out first, with their Collector's Editions. It made me wonder if these folks had to do anything by the 'rules' at that store. Once they were done, I stepped up and presented my receipt, knowing I would just sign a paper and walk out. The first sign of trouble was 'ok, so I am sorry to say but...'

That ended with the fact that, after raising the price on my 1 week before, they had raised it again. 'We only found it out a few seconds ago when our machines started taking orders' the staff member who originally took my $5 pre order back in September and who lamented then that the $70 price tag was pretty high. Interesting, I thought, that the registers were not live when we got in, and they didn't need to tell their friends that when they paid for their copies. What do I think? I think they knew, and tried to do a slow progression rise of the price, but I paid mine out too soon to launch, and that made me notice more.

I got mad, and asked them what they were doing, and after a few minutes the guy who took my 'final' payment a few days before looked at me and said, essentially, that's the price, if you don't like it, leave. I looked at him with anger, and told them that I would not be canceling my preorder yet. I stepped out of line, trying to think of who I could call at 12:20 AM to bring me $12, finding no one who was up, when one of those close to me in line, a guy by the name of Brian(server currently unknown) came back into the store and offered to use the last few bucks he had on his debit card to help me pay off my Collector's Edition.

I got my game, then I got his name and number, and have now made arrangements to pay him back. I came home, and recorded the Unboxing video you have likely seen if you read my blog, and began to install my game. The reactions and thoughts to my podcast rant have been overwhelmingly on my side. I thank everyone for their words of support. So where do I go from here? Well, once this is up, I will spend Monday ensuring that EB Games know of this bad PR, and that I will never be shopping at their places again. I have a new place to buy my Game Cards, and will happily give a more honest, upfront, less greedy, and more professional company. I hope that some, if not many of you all do the same. If this company is willing to screw people, then get mad when they react badly, being rude and unprofessional, well, then they don't deserve the business of any gamers who value these things. What do you all think?

This is a link to my Wrath CE unboxing. It's my first try at this king of video, hell any kind of video, so be kind!

I know, I know, I promised that tonight there would be a live All Things Azeroth recording, and while it likely won't go out as a podcast item, there will be an event tonight on Stickam. I will be doing unboxing, first showing you all my original Collector's Edition for the game's launch, then my Wrath Collector's Edition. These will likely go live about 12:30 or so CST, and last about 15-20 minutes. If I can do it, I will put the video out on YouTube or something, so that you who cannot make it due to purchase lines and stuff can still see the glory of the CE. Graece may be there as a watcher, though her eagerness to get into the game will be hard to beat. So come on, join me tonight, and we'll all revel in the CE together!

I was working last night when the Lich King began his attacks on Orgrimmar and then Stormwind, but his attacks were still underway when I got home to try to record All Things Azeroth. Once that fell through, I headed into game and took a look for myself. I was very happy with the event, though wish it had gone longer. What was especially nice, for someone who is concerned a lot with the impact of epic world events on lower level characters, was that lower levels who ventured to the docks were not attacked by all the aggresive mobs that were out.

As an end to the Burning Crusade era of World of Warcraft, I couldn't ask for a better, more epic experience, and it might not even be over yet. Right now the servers are still down, a mail bug that occured on maintenance and vanished all of our mail(the work of the LichKing no doubt), but when they come back up, who knows what might be happening. Will the event have progressed? Or will repeated attacks on major cities be the end of the Burning Crusade era of this game we all love. Farewell, Lord Illidan. We were not prepared when we flooded through the portal, but we leave to face new challenges, new enemies, new adventures. /salute

Well, it's November 2nd, and that means that while it seems the Scourge Invasion is still in progress, the Hallow's End festival is now done for another year. How close are you to your particular faction's Hallowed by Thy Name meta achievement for a wicked 'The Hallowed' title? Don't forget, 3.0.3 will bring a change to that particular meta to remove the Mask For All Occasions achievement from the current live version of the meta. Me? I got no new helms for my toons. I still have no Sinister Squashling, though I will admit I did not summon the Horseman as much as I could, only doing about 30 or so summons between all my toons.

I wish Blizzard would make them more plentiful, as well as the new item The Horseman's Reins, but I think they best we are going to get is that the Squashling and Helm now come in the treat bags. I did get The Horseman's Helm on Telaan, making it 2/2 on my plate wearers, and Ameland got the new The Horseman's Blade, which looks awesome and has a nice Greater Agility enchant. I have about 150 Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern stored away on my mule, and those will be used to get my Death Knight the Check Your Head achievement and the rest will go on the AH around the end of Novemeber so all the other Death Knights can get their heads checked on time.

Lastly we have a little reminder. As it is the beginning of November, it's time to run out to Nagrand, to Aeris Landing, and grab your free container of gems, also known as Membership Benefits, if you are friendly or better. If you have no rep, I would hold off until the end of the month, since rep for these beings is faily easy to grind and honored is not that hard to get. The item you get is based on your rep at the time you complete the quest, I beleive, so it is always better to hold off and see what you can hit by month's end.

Wrath is approaching quickly, and the plans that many bloggers, sites, even Blizzard themselves are arranging for the launch night have begun solidifying into events. While Blizzard is planning many events, from Austin to Anaheim, San Francisco to New York, the more numerous events are from bloggers like Mania and BRK in Florida, Mike Schramm of WoW Insider will be partying it up in Chicago, and my own live podcast after the launch.

I have pointed out on the show a couple weeks now that my co host and I, Graece, will be doing a live recording of All Things Azeroth as each of us installs our copies of the expansion. The show, as always, will be live on Stickam, and should go live about 12:30 am Central time. I will have the channel live early, likely when I leave for the line, so if you hop in and see Graece chatting up, say hello. I will be getting my copy from the EB Games on Empress and Ellice in Winnipeg, so if you can make it out, I hope you'll come up and say hello to me. It's only 13 days to go now, and the excitement is building!

On another note, the new episode of All Things Azeroth, Episode 59, is out. Enjoy!