General: September 2008 Archives

I have been blogging a little less than often in the last few days, but I promise I have a few good reasons. I tried to get some posting done in advance, and it worked, to a degree. I did run out of advance writing on Friday. The reason I was in need of working ahead, is because I had a couple of important events in the last week. The first was a private event in game, and while I will not go into what it entailed, let's just say it was an added level of connection for me, and involved a collar.

The second, this past Saturday, my Draenei Paladin was married at an as yet undiscovered location in the world by most players. I will be posting screenshots as soon as possible, but I had several high stress days where I tried to write the  words and timelines for both of these ceremonies, which mean a lot to me. Once the wedding was done, I decided to take a day to relax, and then I realized that my game time expires on the 30th, and I wanted to spend as much time as I can in game, in case I can't come back until around the time that Wrath is released.

I should be back into the writing now, and will do my best to get a few more 'in case' posts which can be posted just in case I am not able to write something on the day of. I also plan to do a podcast episode in the next day or two, and will try to edit it for release by the end of the week. In the meantime, enjoy the vibrant worldwide economy, check out my past posts, and see ya soon!

I figured that since the Achievement is quite possible the most asked about feature amongst my audience, I would give you a small peak at the ones I find neat, cool, or otherwise interesting.

1. It's Happy Hour Somewhere - This is cool simply because most of us drink so few beverages, just our normal water for the caster's among us. I would be interested to see how many people can find before they have to rely on the alcoholic beverages in the game, or whether most will simply head there first!
2. Well Read - 42 of the books found throughout the game, this will be one of the most widespread achievements to accomplish spanning from Tirisfal Glades to Tanaris, Northrend to Netherstorm. This is one I would consider worthy of more than 10 points, but I think that is the basic one for those that pretty much anyone can do.
3. Friend or Fowl? - This is one of the neatest, and most insanity causing quests in the new contest. I do not recommend even trying at the base, instead go and try when you get near the Explorer's League camp for the quests there.
4. To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before - This is another well traveled quest, with the idea being that you need to /love to each of these critters. To my knowledge no actual feeling of love must be felt, and no penalty is given if the critter is slaughtered immediately after. Most of the critters can be found in multiple locations, though there are a few with single zone locations. The highest level zone is Zul'Drak, though you can always try to run your way there and /love before you are dinner for the trolls there.
5. What A Long Strange Trip It's Been - There is a different one for each faction, but the general idea is the same. Complete all of the holiday achievements. This will take at least a year to complete, as only a few of the past holiday achievements are noted and each holiday has several of them. Essentially if it results in you getting an item, and you have the item still, it will recognize it. I imagine this will be a great deal of fun come the future holidays, and I am sure that at least a few of the composite achievements have titles.
   

So there you go, a peek at my top 5 neatest achievements in the Wrath beta, and coming Soon™ to a realm near you! What Achievements do you find cool, neat, interestingly named or just plain notable in the listings online? Let me know in the comments, Please!

My dear friend Jen from the Inside my Head and Hyper nonsense podcasts has begun to play on my home realm, Argent Dawn, in order to get to the level she wants to be at in order to be at the wedding of one of my characters to his in character paramour. I asked her the other day if there was anything I could help her with, and she responded 'a bag'. Being flush with mats and knowing any helpful guildies, I promptly went out and made her level 15 rogue 5 Netherweave Bags.

It was as I was mailing them off today that it hit me. 'Maybe this won't be the most helpful thing for her'. Playing over on the Beta servers, with limited resources and auction house prices that would make any capitalist glow, my little Death Knight has been stuck with mostly the bags he finds and the ones he had at creation. That is to say, 12 slot and 14 slot bags. I thought back to my days of leveling, and I recalled how much I hated to have to choose between items if my bags got full too far from a vendor.

I am beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, helping lowbies excuses them from learning some of the key lessons that any character leveling up needs to learn. How to wipe gracefully. How to conserve bag space. How to manage what you spend on to allow for training and repair. How to find a group for an instance. These and more are things that we all have to learn, but also things that I think we often forget. Back when I was playing the original beta I was a Leatherworking Paladin. Yup, I wore my leather gear proudly until just after the time when a Warrior I had become friends with asked 'why are you wearing a robe?'

To be fair, I was holy at the time, but even then I already disliked group healing as too often people died. Of course I was stacking totally the wrong things and didn't see that I was to be the healer in plate who could survive where the priest might be turned into Night Elf Jam. I was wearing resto druid gear, not Holy Paladin gear. This was the first of many lessons I learned leveling up, and I wonder if far too often these days, as the game is over ten million now and only going to grow as Wrath gets closer; do we spare our friends the lessons we learned at their own detriment? I still sent the bags, and will still help where I can, when I can. I will always wonder, though, how much I really help. 

I was sitting in game today, farming some herbs in preparation of the upcoming needs of inscription, and listening to my guild's run through Kara. As the leader ran through the do's and don't s of the Shade of Aran fight, I listened as one of our newest raiders, a fresh 70 priest named Thelvyn, made a point about an aspect of the fight that was different, and I was figuring this would quite possible be destined to be a 'Remember when...' type of moment.

I recall mine. My 'remember when...' moment was my first run through Kara. It's always a first, isn't it? Anyways, it was the fights leading up to Attumen, and I was right by the tank on every fight, meleeing my way to what I hoped would be a flaming stead. So when I heard that Midnight and Attumen charge, I wasn't worried, since those charges hadn't affected me before. Ha! I got too far from the group, then got aggro from some unlucky crits, and then BAM, the horse charges the dog pile, stunning almost everyone, then comes back to me, who died in about one and a half hits cause I had no healers.

I heard some voices piping up in vent, and recalled a few other folk's remember when moments. The one that came to mind was the rogue who, being new to Kara, didn't quite get the idea behind flame wreath, or perhaps had bad info, and wiped the raid. She took a few moments, gained her composure, and helped take Aran down the next try, and is now well dressed in epics and does more than her fair share of dps in any run.

We all have those moments, those times that we look back on and revel in our shame, our noobishness, our lack of knowledge of the game, or just forgetfulness. What are your 'remember when' moments? Do you have any feats of unbelievable luck, killing the boss with 1% left? Or are your moments all about mistakes made, noted, and learned from? Let me know in the comments!

I was thinking, recently, about the massive amount of pop culture in the game. There are things that others notice, and things that make me grin like a nerd often enough to be noticeable. I figured I would give you a list of my favorite pop culture references in WoW.

• Captured Firefly. This little thing is not only a neat looking vanity pet, but it is also a great throwback to the Series Premiere of the TV show Firefly.
• Strange Engine Part. This is another Firefly throwback, to an episode where the ship's engineer, Kaylee Fry(found in game as K. Lee Smallfry) mentions the Capissen model, but also in the Movie, where she says "Don't ride in anything with a Capissen 38 engine, they fall right out of the sky."
• BSG references are plentiful, from the Arena Tournament promos to the boss in SSC Fathom-Lord Karathress, a tip to Kara Thrace in BSG, to an actual mob in the Wrath beta, Kara Thricestar <Air Traffic Controller>. Clearly some BSG fans on the development team.
• Stargate SG-1 is another sci fi show with tips of the hat from WoW, with the team SG-1 being almost completely in game in the forms of Lieutenant Karter, Captain O'Neal, and Lieutenant Jackspring in the Champion's Hall in Stormwind. Guard Hammon also seems to be a tip to the General Hammond character from the start of the show's ten year run.
• One final sci fi reference I wanted to point out was one I noticed when we got close to the release of Burning Crusade, and that is the name of the leader of the Draenei, the Prophet Velen. This is a clear throw back to the character of Valen from Babylon 5.
• Now for a couple non Sci fi. Ok, so this one is a little sci fi, but if you were a kid back when I was, you recall Masters of the Universe, who's main character Adam you will find near the Alliance battle masters in Shattrath City right by his trusty orange mount, Battle Cat, and who talks about an undead stalking him in search of a Grey Skull.
• Lastly we have The Seal of Danzalar which comes from SSC as well. The flavor text refers to the final season of Buffy, and the item is a play on "The Seal of Danzalthar", which is the name of the seal that covers the Sunnydale Hellmouth.
  

Other shows that get references are The Simpsons, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Finding Nemo and much more. Check out WoW Wiki's Pop culture page for your favorite TV shows, movies, and bits of culture in woW, then post them here for the rest of us to read!