Ravven's Glass: Writings on MMORPGs, WoW, Art & Design

Link to New Site

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 13:37:42 GMT

I'm trying a new blog system that will allow people to comment without being LJ members. The new blog is here. Most new entries, at least for the foreseeable future, will be there - keep in touch!

Best of all in the new year - let's try to make 2007 a memorable year!

Pre-Holiday Update

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 17:02:23 GMT

I haven't posted lately; work has been as tough as always, I've been tired. Kit made Knight-Lieutenant, and acquired some PvP gear to replace the green gloves and Elven Chain boots that she's worn for ages. Still not very close to a black war ram, unfortunately, due to my habit of pugging battlegrounds. I've been a bit discouraged with PvP, actually, since the patch - AV is unplayably laggy, and WSG and AB are filled with Tier 2 premades, which makes it tough to do anything.

The holiday festivities have been fun; I love the seasonal events in WoW. Snowballs are rampant, people are raiding in gnome costumes, and everyone's first job upon logging in is to blow a kiss at the holiday revellers in the inns. Last night I gave everyone in the guild a snowshoe rabbit which I'd giftwrapped, sending them from an alt who was acting as Secret Santa. It was a lot of fun, and I have a shot of our raid last night, when BWL turned into Watership Down. :D

Aside from that, I'm feeling a bit burned out and at loose ends...I can't wait until Burning Crusade.

Grinding for HKs

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 08:48:05 GMT

This weekend was mostly spent grinding in BGs, in preparation for Wednesday's patch. Kit was 95% of the way through Sergeant Major last Wednesday, so I wanted to get her to Knight. Knight-Lieutenant would be great, although I don't dare hope for that. Every time I tried to get into Alterac Valley, either I had to go and do something else, or leave early. That hour wait is a killer.

Kit did LBRS last night, and picked up a Bloodaxe Worg (Grimm) and also a worg pup. They look adorable together. ;) We did it in a PUG that was actually pretty good, with a warrior who really knew his stuff and a druid for a healer who did an amazing job. It was a lot of fun.

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 12:58:53 GMT

There has been a lot of discussion recently in the various forums and blogs about people who basically don't feel like playing until TBC comes out. Raiding seems a bit pointless now, less for our guild who are doing, and will still be doing, Naxx - but much more so for guilds who are still struggling with BWL and MC. Why bother?

I've been lucky - I'm still having an enormous amount of fun. My hunter has finally dinged 60, and I am learning what a hunter's role in raids is. I have pets that I want to tame (one of the panthers from ZG, which I will call Sorrow, and one of the Bloodaxe Worgs from LBRS, which I will call Navarre. Both of those are Ladyhawke references, in case you didn't know - Navarre from Rutger Hauer's character who was a black wolf at night, and Sorrow from the conversation between Phillippe the Mouse and Ysabeau:

"Are you flesh, or are you spirit?"
"I am sorrow."

One of my favourite movie lines...

Raiding on Ravven is still pretty boring, as raiding tends to be. I need to start PvPing with her a bit, to see if I can get to like it with a lock. I love it with my hunter, and I'm hoping that I will make Knight by next Wednesday.

And I am very much looking forward to starting my Draenei. :D

Kitsunecho Dings

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 12:36:51 GMT

This weekend, Kit hit 60, after 12+ days played - four days faster than I did it on Ravven. She dinged in Burning Steppes, and I was trying to get a good ding shot, so I got very very close and then looked for a Black Drake to kill. Finally found one (I dodge them every few minutes when I'm trying to do something else). Killed it, with interface minimized etc....and didn't ding. Just shy of the necessary XP. So I dinged on a Wyrmkin. *sigh*

After dinging 60 she did ZG and AQ20 the first day...no loot, but quite a busy day for a brand-new 60. We also tok down a world dragon. I did my Nat Pagle fishing quest, and my next project with her is to tame a black panther with stealth in ZG, and a Bloodaxe Worg. :D

Quite a busy weekend...and with Ravven, our guild took down Anub'Rekhan in Naxx. Finally!

Miz and Ravven are the Ninja Sisters.

Hiatus, and Return

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 12:51:25 GMT

No WoW for a week, as I went back to the States to visit my family. (Well, to be completely honest, I did buy a copy to try to get them hooked, but since they're on dialup, we couldn't download the patch.)

Since my return, aside from taking Ravven to Naxx a couple of times, I've mainly been PvPing in Alterac Valley with Kitsunecho. God, do I love AV. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that for some reason Alliance tends to win in AV and lose in WSG and AB, which naturally affects my enjoyment of it, but it's also because this is what raiding should feel like, and never does. I love the mad dash, the feeling of being in real battles...if you could bring a premade and have TeamSpeak, I'd be in heaven. There's not enough communication, too many leaders and not enough followers, but still it's the most fun that I've had in ages. Yesterday I was in a battle that lasted almost two hours, and I had to leave the battleground as Naxx was starting in five minutes - disappointing, but I had something like 546 HKs.

I need to start grinding on Ravven...Naxx repair bills of 25+g per raid night are going to wipe me out awfully fast.

It Gets Better...

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:04:21 GMT

My luck in anything is normally abysmally bad. I can't win a roll to save my life, I never have anything of value drop. And this morning, as I was grinding trash mobs in Eastern Plaguelands, I had a Dwarven Hand Cannon drop from some highbourne wraith. My first purple drop not from a raid instance. Bind on equip, and possibly selling in the 500G range.

Oh. My. God.

Hey, I can make 500g while I drink my breakfast coffee - how about you?

(That probably pissed off all the gods of drops, and from now on I'll only get grey drops.)

My Precious

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:37:41 GMT

So last night, bored and only online for a bit before bed, I was trying to level my fishing a bit by fishing the canals of Stormwind (euuuw, as if you'd ever eat anything from the canals) and guess what I found in a fish: The One Ring. (Description reads: "Not as good as The Two Ring".)

60-65 gold on Aggramar. OMG.

Well, that will cover two nights of Naxx repair bills. :)

First Steps Into Naxx

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:31:40 GMT

On Sunday we made our first foray into Naxx. (I'll have to post screenshots later, but I'll have to do that from home.) It was awesome: it felt a lot like Undercity, very cool and spooky. We had decided to try the Death Knights wing as a first step, and the initial trash mobs weren't bad at all...until we made it to Instructor Razuvious.

From 4pm until 8pm we wiped, and I ended the evening with a repair bill of over 22g. Yep...for a clothie. One of our (new) warriors who had died a lot had an initial repair bill on the field bot of 35g - no idea what his final tally was. But hey, it's only money, right?

It's a very technical fight, with our priests having to learn tanking skills (they mind-control his students in rotation, which are used to tank the boss). For the rest of us, it was a line-of-sight fight much like Chromaggus, ducking in and out.

I think he had a special hard-on for me, since every time we tried to run for the stairs (when it was clear that we were going to fail) he would almost invariably target me. Once I was standing in a hidden nook with one of the mages, and he ran up, swatted me, and ran off. He must not have seen me pointing at her: "Take her! Take her!" lol...

Overall though, it was a lot of fun. With each death, I just kept thinking "at least we're not in AQ40 tonight".

In other news, I just discovered Alterac Valley with Kit. I freakin' love it. How could I have gone this long without going into AV? It's like a raid instance...except fun. There are quest to complete, and shiny rewards to be won, and it feels more "real" than the capture-the-flag stuff in WSG does. It feels like a real battle. I'm hooked. :D

Kitsunecho: Attuned to the Core

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 14:55:07 GMT

Today, via a very kind offer from a friend on Moonglade, Kit did her attunement to the core. I was quite nervous, which was strange - I would have been bored with Ravven. Neither she nor Ennui embarrassed themselves, which is good. Good group, too - good players, good conversation.

She finally managed to complete Onyxia attunement up to Marshall Windsor, as well. Doing Dragonkin Menace was tough because of all of the farmers and bots camping that area, running their set patterns with Boar or Cat. I finally decided to make a game of it, and try to use the bot to kill my tagged targets...to some success, since they were usually much faster at tagging things that I was. Fucking gold farmers really piss me off.

We're enjoying a lazy weekend, as next weekend I go back to the States for a visit. Very nervous about it.

They decided to give me a new title at work: Web Director. No more salary than I had as Project Manager, though. :/

We're starting (initial planning stages) of a phase of the project that I am very excited about, the 3D social/game area. An MMORPG, actually, that could be used for 3D chat or teaching or gaming. We're working in partnership with a local university, as they're excited about the project as well. Should be fun.

No Fun

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:07:38 GMT

Although we're looking forward to Naxx, and still making AQ40 runs (we still have Twin Emperors, C'thun, etc. left to take down) we're also still doing BWL runs on a regular basis, and would consider that instance to be on farm status.

Or it was, until our guild leader and main tank re-specc'd to Fury, so he can't tank anymore.

We wiped on Nef, over and over and over again. When we finally got him down, there was still an hour or so of raid time left, but everyone logged off, frustrated and sick of the whole thing. Very expensive, wasted night.

If the priests had suddenly got a wild hair and decided to re-spec as shadow priests, he would have gone ballistic. It affects the guild as a whole. We've always known that, on tough bosses, as soon as the MT goes down we're in danger of wiping, because the others just aren't as geared up as he is, and -hate to say it- just not quite as effective.

I don't feel like raiding anymore. I certainly don't want another expensive wipe night.

/rant over

No Paid Transfer Love

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:00:23 GMT

I was quite excited when I heard that Blizzard had changed policy, and you could transfer a recently-transferred character after one month on the new realm, rather than six. Some people were, indeed, able to do so...within the extremely short window of opportunity sometime in the middle of the night last night, when Account Management was working and before Blizz decided no, sorry, you have to wait three months. Three months is better than six, but it still means that Kit won't be able to come home and do the final levels to 60 on Aggramar.

Boo sucks. Boo totally sucks.

You see, not being a very social type, I've had a lonely time of it on Moonglade. It's supposed to be one of the best roleplaying servers, which is why I moved there. And it very well might be...were I the type that could go out, meet people, initiate roleplay in front of the auction house or the bank or wherever you're supposed to do it. But I'm not. So she has solo'd as much as possible, and done no roleplay, and (having been given the cold shoulder by the guild that I'd wanted to apply to) not done much else.

It will be three months in mid-November...too late to take her to 60 before the expansion. After that, she'll lie dormant for a while, as I'll be involved with BC content, levelling Ravven to 70, starting my Draenei priest, etc. Unless I want to grind my way to 60 without going mad. There are pickup groups, of course...if they'll take a hunter. If I can find one where someone doesn't ninja the best drops and hearth out.

Boo Blizz.

Naxx

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:50:15 GMT

I did my Naxx attunement today...that was SO expensive. I couldn't face the rep grind to Revered, so I just paid through the nose for everything.

In other news, we finally took a peek at the Twin Emperors...and died quickly, as expected. And so to bed. :)

TGIF

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:48:36 GMT

Yaaay for weekends with nothing to do. Especially if they're weekends with hot water and warm houses (fingers crossed about the plumber being able to fix the problem with the gas intake on the combi boiler without bankrupting us or killing us all with a gas explosion).

I need to find out how expensive Naxx attunement is going to be - at only half way through Honored with AD, I am absolutely not going to have the time nor the energy for all of that grinding.

Miz and I had fun yesterday exploring a small dungeon with my rogue and her shaman - I'm assuming there are quests for this area, but we were just exploring. After playing casters and ranged DPS for so long, I really love my troll rogue. I was doing voices for her as we played: "Cast spells at me? I'll KICK you in the face! Take that! You want some of this? I'll kick you too!" lol...I love being the little whirlwind with a death wish...but in all fairness, Miz only needed to rez me once. Like I knew that druids in cat form can see you when you're stealthed. :D She's dual-wielding maces, which is unusual, and I learned poisons, so they're dripping with green goo. So much fun.

Kitsunecho is starting the Ony attunement quest chain, and let me tell you...Dragonkin Menace is damned near impossible when the whole area is carpeted with gold farmers and bots. All hunters, with pets named Cat or Boar. She can only take the level 52 elites solo right now, and trying to get to ANY of them is impossible, let alone picking and choosing. So I took her to Felwood, and fought my way through the tunnel to Winterspring, so she'll have two new grinding areas.

So, lots to do this weekend. :)

Pure Evil

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:45:39 GMT

Since we had to stay home and wait for the plumber to bring a part over which would hopefully fix the boiler and give us hot water and heating (no luck - try again tomorrow), I did some levelling on my rogue, and then went to work Lizzie, who has led a life of leisure recently.

I think her head rotated around several times, and I kept expecting projectile pea soup. She was Evil on Four Hooves, just pure spite.

I actually had an audience watching from the fences and in the arena, waiting to see if I could get her back into the barn safely without getting killed. Bastards.

We both need to get out more. :(

Horde Guild

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:30:54 GMT

My baby rogue joined a Horde guild tonight, the feeder (under 50s) guild for a low-level raiding guild (ZG and AQ20). Everyone seems ok so far.

Otherwise? Absolutely shattered from work. I know that I'm posting here because I was sick of keeping a personal journal when I felt so stressed and negative, but it's hard to get away from. I came home tonight and my head felt as though it was a nest of snakes. Imagine a knot of snakes, intertwining and knotting, all writhing around and not making any sense...that is what my thoughts are like. I sat in the bathroom and cried for ages.

Imagine, in the space of a few months, creating Myspace. Now add a school connection, a communication platform between teens, parents, and schools, and a VLE. Add in an incentive programme that uses a full ecommerce site. Add in gaming. And have a nervous breakdown. That is what I've been going through.

I feel as though I'm not going to survive it...

Blah, Blech and sigh

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:20:21 GMT

Well, after having a lack of sympathy for the poor buggers whos servers were down for extended maintenance, Aggramar is presently down until sometime tomorrow. So much for my decision to stop raiding...no one is raiding tonight.

I've been thinking about what I want to do when I grow up. I.e., in January when I can hopefully decide if I want to end this contract or not. I'm thinking that I would like to try going back to two of my earliest loves, and combine them into sensual fantasy portraits. Nothing so tacky as a normal boudior portrait, but something shot in a fantasy studio setting, then painted digitally. I think there would be a market for it, if I could sort out the logistics of having large digital images printed on archival canvas. The high end of the market is where you would want to be on anything like that.

Gods...wouldn't that be nice. No more nine-to-five, no corporate stress. Finally being creative again.

Guild Drama, Guild Ennui

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 12:13:08 GMT

After last night I feel like not raiding anymore. It's become less and less fun over the past weeks, when not doing my job I find myself reading a book rather than participating in guild chitchat, and I can't wait for the instance to be finished so that I can go and do something fun.

Did you catch that? In a game...waiting so that you can do and do something fun. There's something wrong there.

Rather than make an announcement, I'm going to just quietly be unavailable for a week or so, and see if it's really raiding and the guild that I'm so disenchanted with, or if it's something related to my enormous stress and unhappiness with work. That's possible, I feel like shit most of the time, and WoW is my only release right now, my only escape.

There's been the normal amount of guild drama over loot and such, there's a lot of boring bragging about how much damage people do, even more boring stats discussions, and the people who are dicks are still dicks. Normal stuff, but it's getting to me.

On the other hand, I may do something entirely different, and just go play alts for a while. I may decide to go Horde, and start levelling a horde main. To that end, I started an undead rogue who may become my PvP twink, so I can keep levelling Shadowfyre. I hate not being able to play her (she's on the verge of levelling out of 19). I took her fishing in Ratchet last night before the raid, and someone whispered me and said:

THEM: Twink?
ME: No - why? (offended in some obscure way, even though she is undeniably a twink)
ME: I don't have any enchants
THEM: I was just wondering if you'd like to join a twink guild
ME: (hmmmnnnn...possibly) What's your guild called?
THEM: Gief Healz Plx
ME: lol...I'll think about it, but thanks for asking me

Would I have said yes had they had a different name? Possibly. I'm shallow like that. :D

Shadowfyre

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 10:20:45 GMT

As I've written before, I'm really in love right now with my baby troll rogue. She just hit level 19, and I'm going to keep her there for a while for twink pvp. She doesn't actually count as a twink, of course, since (although I've tried to buy the best gear that I could) I haven't spent close to a thousand gold on high-level enchants.

See The Many Realms of Relmstein for a good account of twinking level 19 rogues for pvp:

Here's an idea of what the Rogues were using in the 19 BG:

Head: 150 Engineering Goggles with 100hp item enchant
Shoulders: Serpent's Shoulders from Lady Anacondra (WC)
Chest: Blackened Defias Chestpiece from VanCleef (DM) with 100hp enchant
Pants: Leggings of the Fang from Commander Cobra (WC) with 100hp item enchant
Shoes: Boots of the Lynx from the AH with minor runspeed enchant
Bracer: Forest Leather Wristguards from the AH with +9sta enchant
Gloves: Level19 Gloves of the Monkey with +7agi enchant
Back: Sentry Cloak from AH with +70AC enchant
Belt: Deviate Hide Belt from Leatherworker
Ring1: Bloodstone Ring
Ring2: Seal of Wrynn from Quest
Weapon1: Assassin’s Blade or Cruel Barb with +15agi or +5 Weapon Dmg enchant
Weapon2: Cruel Barb with +15agi enchant

lol...not a hope. Ridiculous to spend that much on a level 19 twink.

Anyway, I absolutely loooooove pvp on Horde side. We win. All the time. It's nice to win. It's frustrating to play with a bunch of Alliance noobs who run off to die every which way. Hey, call me shallow...but everyone likes being on the winning side. On one WSG battleground, we took two flags quickly, and then the flag carrier just held onto the flag for ages while everyone farmed HKs. For ages. I played two battlegrounds, and ended up with 140-something kills. It was sweet.

This is what I learned:

1. Everyone stick together.
2. Avoid the guy with glows emanating from every orifice, as he has been twinked and enchanted to the hilt.
3. Stick together. That's it.

This is what I love about this game: after an afternoon spend wiping over and over again on Princess Huhu in AQ40, I can go and do something completely different, and have a blast.

Thunder Bluff

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 11:49:05 GMT

Yesterday, in a post on Metroblogging Azeroth, I wrote about home cities and why we choose them. Is it a purely functional choice, or is there something more? Does it require easy access to bank, auction house, training, or do you choose to set your hearthstone to a place that has deeper meaning for you?

Thunder Bluff, the Tauren home city in Mulgore, is a good example. This morning while I was having coffee before work I ran my baby rogue down there to pick up some weapons training. It is the most beautiful area, capturing perfectly the atmosphere of an idealized Native American village. All of the NPCs looked as though they were doing "real" things, rather than just standing around waiting to be talked to. It was fresh, colourful, clean, bright in the morning sun...and I felt such a sense of peace being there.

I would never set my hearthstone there, as one of the things that I need is easy access to the AH. But still...so lovely. That's one of the things that Blizzard has done extremely well, is the sense of place that they can convey. I've been in Stranglethorn Vale in the early morning, fishing (again while having breakfast before work), and sitting on that beach, with that pale-gold morning light reflecting off the water perfectly realised, I felt at peace. It's not the same as being there in person, obviously, but it is extremely impressive for a game to provide that level of immersiveness that you can enjoy a dawn, or a sunset, or the stars at night.

Community As Gaming Experience

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:34:25 GMT

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about a new generation of community site: the website as game. The paragraphs below were taking from an initial spec that I worked up this week for my development team, which will guide usability and interaction choices that we make on the site, which is a social networking/incentive/e-commerce/community site. And then, I stumbled across an article that said exactly what I'd been mulling over.

I won’t repeat everything that was in this article, but much of what I’ve been thinking about is discussed there. Read it carefully, as they make a lot of very good points.

This concept ties in very closely to several areas, such as rewards, the profile areas, and all user-created content on the site. As the above-referenced article states, there are basic concepts of game design that relate directly to this type of site:

• Basic action-reward feedback system
• Levelling your character
• Exploring the environment to find new rewards and challenges
• User created content

Every area where the user has interaction with the site can provide rewards, whether those are represented tangibly (spendable rewards points) or not (trust rating, higher access levels). I’ll refer to these rewards as monetary (points), status (ratings) and vanity (downloadable pets, avatar extensions, site graphics or premium themes).

We could handle the explanation of the rewards in a single page, explaining the rewards associated with different levels. This way it is totally transparent to people who don’t care about that element of the site, but is accessible to people who want to work towards premium levels.

Transgressions against the Code of Conduct (trolling, harassment, language, unacceptable posts) could also remove status and vanity ratings.

“Levelling” actions:

1. Creating an account (we had talked about giving them a few initial points) – monetary
2. Completing tasks and goals – monetary, also possibly status and vanity, if we reward for certain levels/amounts of tasks accomplished – this also provides a benefit for children who have tasks/goals that are not tied to points.
3. Creating content – personal content, community blog/forum posts, reviews, artwork, video, music, etc. - status and vanity.
4. Participation in focus groups, both as a participant in the group and a teacher/mentor of the group. Higher levels of reward for contest winners. –monetary, status and vanity.
5. Long-term, we could have users creating high-level content for e-learning material and gaming, such as in the MMO development. This would be “paid” work in terms of points, premium themes, documented “developer” status, and also in high-level items available for use in the 3D areas. –monetary, status and vanity

And so on, cut for NDA purposes. I truly feel that this is where community/social networking sites are heading, and it's why I am pushing for development on MMO/3D environments for social interaction, for learning, for gaming.

Never forget the game. Always ask "Where is the fun?"

it's been a while since i've posted screenies...

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:49:05 GMT

Found these lurking in my screenshots folder this morning:

Almost full Nemesis - I don't look like Barbie anymore!

Dead in AQ40 - floating in midair

Barrens gazelle in the morning - gorgeous

An "ah, crap" moment in UnGoro

Hello, My Name is Ravven, and I am an Addict

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:29:41 GMT

The project that I'm working on has been a nightmare: so many problems, so many delays, and we're facing being late with launch. Not only late, but VERY late.

I read an article that quoted someone who said that, during the nightmare of their first year of teaching, Warcraft saved them. It was their escape when everything was unbearable. I wish I could find the article that referenced that, because it really resonated with me.

But then again, to be honest perhaps I'm just finding excuses for a major WoW addiction. :) As something else that I read, though, pointed out: the average person watches 28 hours of TV per week. That amount of time investment is considered to be reasonable by a majority of people. In that context, I don't have an addiction at all, I have merely replaced TV with Warcraft.

Yeah, I know - just another saddo addict making excuses.

Discovering the Horde

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:26:06 GMT

I've played Horde characters before, but dropped them all within the first ten levels. Now, though, I've discovered one whom I'm really enjoying, my troll rogue. Meet Shadowfyre, my Horde rogue pvp twink. :D

(Why, yes, I did intentionally choose one of "those" rogue names. You know, Shadow this and Darkness that. So sue me.)

I levelled her to 14 this weekend, and that included an afternoon clearing BWL and Onyxia on my main. I've never played a rogue before, and it's actually a lot of fun - all that extra damage, plus the ability to stealth, makes solo levelling much easier. Another night or so, taking her up to 16, and I'll see about twinking her out for PvP...it will be nice being on the winning (Horde) side for once.

Professions are herbalism and alchemy, with fishing on the side.

Updates: Raiding

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:01:10 GMT

We're still wiping on Huhu in AQ40, and while new bosses are interesting, wipe runs are never fun. I still don't have a bug mount. *pout*

Not much happening in game otherwise...my hunter on Moonglade is still 51, my mage is levelling tailoring but not much else, and since I dinged 50 I haven't done much PvP. I need to go back and do some more...it's not as though I was winning everything single-handedly even when I was still in the 40-49 bracket. :P

I've started an Orc warrior, and I've been having fun with her. I do love alts the best of all...as boring as the starting areas are, I still like starting new characters. I can't wait for BC.

Ho-hum...half an hour, then the commute home. Stable, dinner, then game. I need to get out more. :D