PRE WOW LOOT WOOT!

It was the year I was 9 and my sister was 7 – brother was 5. Life was wonderful for us We were always exploring our surroundings especially since our dad was in the service and we moved at least once a year. Stuff was always new and exciting.

We were in Florida this time and one day we found an unopened can of beer in the gutter and dropped it, causing a tiny, tiny hole. The hot beer spewed forcefully out of the hole arcing into the sky, seeming to us like a wondrous fountain of fun. We did NOT put that in our mouths, we played in it. RIBL. (rolling in beer, laughing)

Parents used to have friends over and they would play poker and smoke and drink * gasp * hard liquor. Siblings and I would get up early the next day after those parties (parents snoozing happily) and we would wander through the house finishing off the partial glasses of whatever and eating match heads. Yes. We would eat the burnt heads off the matches in the ashtrays. They were salty and very good. (Sulfer I guess doesn’t harm in small amounts – wait – maybe that’d explai. . . nevermind.)

My sister ate the head of a fly once while I watched. Ewwww. A babysitter in Germany let us have raw bacon sandwiches for lunches. “Mom, mom, we like it raw!” …”WHAT!?” (ummmm bacon)

I remember crying with my tongue stuck to a frozen pop treat one day as mom and dad tried hard not to laugh at me. That was NOT funny!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, this one day when we were 9 and 7 and 5, we were sooo excited. We played and had sooo much fun with our find. Then, it was time to go in for dinner. Mom and Dad got so . . . Well, as a child I wasn’t sure what. They weren’t really mad, but they were yelling at us. They were very stern, yet we didn’t get sent to our room for a paddling. We stood, dumbfounded, eyes wet with fear, and nodded listening.

“But we found it, it’s ours, (sob)”
“Where!”
“Outside. (sniffle)”
“Outside where? (stern look)”
“In the back alley where we play with rocks.”
“Was it in a box or a sack or anything?”
“No, Daddy, we didn’t steal it, it was lost on the ground. (poutyfaces)”

They admonished us sternly and then they took our free, not broken, funny balloon away, and let the air out of it. WAH!!!!!

We learned, never, never put balloons we just “find” outside or “ANYWHERE for that matter!” in our mouth. They never did tell us why.

(I did not understand the seemingly irrational behavior of my parents until years after this event. I laugh still.).

What does this have to do with World of Warcraft? /loot woot!! It's mine I found it!! /nod I know it has a gazillion armor and stamina and I'm a priest...but it's purty!!!

“Is This A Role-play Realm or Not?”

I see that question in General Chat and Trade Chat often. I understand why people ask. The fact that there are Role Play realms indicate that there might be people actually doing it. However, some of the answers coming across the channel indicate that the only people watching the channel are non-role players. That makes sense as people that role play probably turn off the extra channels in order to keep up with and thoroughly enjoy the role play without loads of “chat” interruption. /shrug?

On the game World of Warcraft, characters inside a city are busily running from the bank, to the auction house, to the mailbox, to the trainers for either their class or their skills -- cooking, sewing, first aid, blacksmithing, jewel crafting, leatherworking, etc. You get the picture. Busy, busy, busy! Usually the only ones walking where I play are NPCs that are selling something like bread, fruit, or guards that are busy making sure the THEM aren’t going to get me. LOL.

I have found that it is a good thing for me to change my pace in the game sometimes. It becomes more relaxing and fun to simply walk, not run. On my keyboard my forward slash key toggles from run to walk. Believe me, in a city where everyone is running on foot or riding fast through the city, someone walking stands out. If you want a bit of attention (I admit at times I do), just walk. What I desire when I do this is some nice role-play adventure.

So the other day, I went to realm Argent Dawn and walked around in Stormwind with my little female dwarf. She is only level 3 or 6 (why can’t I remember?) and she has absolutely not one cent left to her name. Here is why. She walked into the city and went to the inn and talked to the inn-keeper there . . (imagination must come into play) …The inn-keepers’ prices were too high for Cantique, so she told her she was welcome to build a fire outside near the inn, “But don’t harm the tree out there, mind!”

Cantique walked outside and found that she didn’t have a way to make fire. She realized that she needed to seek out a cook somewhere in the city and get a fire kit. She walked up to a guard in the trade center and asked for directions, which he promptly gave, smiling and nodding his head before snapping back into his watchful stance on the corner.

(Note, all this was played out verbally in the chat pane, of course the NPCs didn’t /say anything, but Cantique acted and spoke as if they did.)

She walked out of the Trade Center and stopped at each signpost and sounded out the words to make sure she was finding her way to Old Town. During the walk (I) looked around and noticed that there was a night elf following and listening. I attempted to draw him in by smiling at him. No response.

Anyway, when Cantique arrived at the Pig and Whistle and found the cook, the price he wanted for the training to learn to cook and build a fire was more than she had. She needed 95 coppers. Cantique looked at the woman standing nearby who had flour and spices to sell and she asked the woman if she would like to purchase her dress. Well, Cantique must’ve look pretty desperate, because the woman did indeed purchase the thin dress and Cantique ended up with 95 copper. She looked into her coinkeep and there was not another penny. She could now make fire.

(And THAT is odd because she had some few coppers and the sale of the dress made the EXACT amount she needed – I’ve always been fortunate IRL with having exactly what I need when I need it…that this carries over into the game is spooky. My hubby is always amazed that when I make new toons I “loot” bags pretty regularly. /grin)

She looked into her coinkeep and had not another penny, but she could now make fire.
She walked (did not run) back to the Trade Center and found her way back to the front of the inn, build a fire and sat down, her tummy grumbling.

During all this time, no-one spoke to me, neither role-play wise nor OOCly (out of character). A couple of folk stopped and “listened” and/or watched but did not comment or interact. I was amazed at the lack of even a derisive comment. Maybe I was in an alternate universe. (play eerie music here) But more likely the timing was wrong and when I go back and walk again, so many toons will talk I won’t be able to keep up with all the chatter.

But that day, I simply finished out my story and faded away. LOL…I still had fun. Am I crazy? Please tell me.

Screenshots of life.

In the spirit of Spring I did some cleaning in game this week. My friends list updated, my ignore list ignored and last night I cleaned up my World of Warcraft screenshots folder. (While you are playing the game, at any time you may push the [print screen] button on your keyboard and a picture of your screen is automatically saved in a folder in your World of Warcraft folder. This folder is titled “screenshots”.)

I had pictures of pillows on a bed in an inn in Dalaran, flowers on a ledge, ceiling detail, the picture at the top of this blog (Ulduar) and many, many shots of my character flying off into the sunset. /laugh.

Just as some of my screenshots took some time and thought to get them to come out “just right” it also took some thought before I deleted them. My character’s life is just like rl (real life) in that there are things that happen that will never happen again for her. The day she turned 80, the day she got 11,000 damage per second in a 5-man raid, the day someone whispered something really nice to her. (In World of Warcraft, people can whisper to you and it shows up on your screen in the chat box.)

I had screenshots of heartfelt conversations with other characters that were telling me how they felt about this or that in the guild, or how they dealt with something in their real life. I kept the majority of those. I had some screen shots showing a couple of acquaintances telling me how stupid I was in my rps. I deleted those. I don’t need the reminder of the bad times. I kept those screen shots initially as a defense if anyone else tried to grief me about the same subject. They are gone now, as are the tears and hard feelings.

Thinking of all this makes me wish someone were taking “screenshots” of me as I sit at my computer laughing at silly chat or being totally immersed in a dungeon. Reminders of how much fun I’ve had with this newfangled kind of game. I know there will come a day when I am no longer able to raid with my friends and will only be able to slowly make my way around Azeroth picking flowers, standing on my corner in Stormwind or Orgrimar looking wistfully around for someone who will stop long enough to role play just a bit about nothing much -- the weather or the prices in the auction house.

Being an older person gives a different perspective of what it takes to be able to raid. My fingers hurt sometimes. They don’t move as quickly as they used to – All the fish oil in the world won’t make my hands young again. My eyes lose the cursor more often. I wipe my glasses and get a larger monitor, but I still wish I could make my cursor a vivid hue of color so I can find it again. I wish I could reach up and touch my monitor with my finger and have the cursor center to my touch. That would be very good. I would target the enemy with my finger - /point /say “Okay you oogly damned scourge, time to pull up yur panties and get serious.”

Please don’t tell me to get a life. I have a life. This IS what I want to do right now. Playing this game isn’t any worse than sitting for hours watching soap operas or other non-interactive shows on the television. I choose my entertainment to be World of Warcraft. I at least get to have a part in the drama. It is very entertaining. It uses more of my senses than television. It tugs my heart like a good movie, it makes my heart race like an action film.
Cleaning out my screenshots file was necessary, to make room for memories of new in-game experiences. AND I AM READY!

Whiney Post Day

Whiney Post Day – TODAY!

I’ve heard in the blogging world that March 17 is whiney post day. Imma take advantage o’ that right now.

So, I didn’t even get on WOW yesterday. What did I do after you work? I actually cooked (tore the top off a bag of veggies and opened a box of frozen fishies)! What else? I watched “Unbreakable” and “Sleeping with the enemy”. Did I miss the game? Sure did. Did I miss getting pugged by a feral druid that rolled heals just to get quicker runs? Are you kidding!?

I can’t really whine about bad pugs though, since the majority of them are pretty good, really. So, lets see, what can I whine about?

Simply put, I do NOT have enough energy to play my favorite Massive Multi-player Online Game as much as I wish! Oh I know, “Get Real! Is that all you have to whine about?” /nod – pretty much.
Raiding, though very fun, is exciting and makes my heart rate and blood pressure go up. Tiredness creeps in. I have a raid tonight, so last night I stayed away from WOW to store up enough energy for today’s run. I want to have fun!

Dwism wrote Whiny post day: When you run out of fun

I had to smile. Hubby and I sit next to one another each night and play, he with his character of the moment, (he has like 8 or 9 80s and never raids-gasp!) and me with either my Alliance priest, or my horde Mage. We aren’t playing together, we are sitting together. “Hey look at this!” or “Argh!! We wiped again!” and we take turns encouraging one another. (In an earlier blog I mentioned why we have two accounts Hello again -- Cantique here, sorry for the delay ...)

So, it was different for him last night, as I sat all snuggled up on the couch watching movies: He kept turning in his chair and looking at me and then would get involved in the movie and just sit there with his back to WOW. He couldn’t quite get himself totally away from his system, though. LOL! I did not mind. I could stretch out and have the whole couch! (And hey Dwism, if you are reading this . . . I hate watching news at the same time as hubby cause he can’t shut up either!)
I love that noob.

2 posts today

Bless the Healers little heart.

In a non- heroic pug last night, and the healer said in party chat,

“If the pants drop off (boss) can I have them?”

Silence.

He continued:

“I've been coming in here over and over and over trying to get those pants.”

Silence.

I finally typed “Boy! Haven't we all?”

“If they drop and I don't get them, I'm leaving.”

Silence.

I was waiting to see if someone would initiate a /kick and had my fingers poised.

Nothing.

I finally typed

“Now we see how you are.”

Silence.

Boss downed, no pants drop.

Healer typed,

“I wasn't really going to leave.”

Total silence.

Why am I just standing here?

When I am online with my level 80 character, I have time to stop and smell the roses, one of the roses being in the form of /guildchat. Whether I am flying around looking for pretty plants, or fishing in Wintergrasp and fighting off the occasional hordie, I have time to read what my guildmates are doing. If I want to, I can chime in with a few "LOLs" or "Grats!" or I can simply be quiet. My guildmates don't know whether I'm actually at my computer watching the screen, so If I don't respond there is no guilt on my part and no angst on theirs (hopefully) during quiet times.

On Horde side I have a character, Monjini. She is busy. She is only 75 and working hard to level to become an asset somewhere. She wants very much to be able to go into Naxx. When I began playing with her again the other day, it just felt weird to be guildless. It was too quiet, even if I didn't want to actually "say" anything, there was a void without the "chat." So, when a nice person invited me to their guild I joined after asking about the size of the group. I wish to be a part of a certain size guild so there would be "chatter" and a possibility of raids later on.

Now the conundrum. After joining I found out that my new guild doesn't really use guildchat -- they interact via teamspeak. When I asked about communication for raiding it did not occur to me to ask about their communication process in general--during the "rest" of the time. In fact several times in the course of my second night in the guild the only guild chat basically consisted of a reminder to activate teamspeak for all communication, the guild announcement for the day, and as achievement auto-announcements popped up my "Grats".

So the "Get to know your guildmates" is done verbally.

That means headset and microphone (check) and the teamspeak program (check).

Pros: For raids, and instances, yes. I like that. Officer decisions, totally good.

Cons: I wear a headset all day at work. Sigh. I don't want to wear one constantly. I am willing to wear one for instances and decision making process, BUT NOT ALL THE TIME. >.< My ear hurts.

I want a bit more anonymity. I want to be able to ignore questions I feel uncomfortable answering with simple on screen silence. It is easier for me to Type "um I'm not ready to discuss much of my real life" than to hem/haw around in voicechat.

Voicechat is not a comfortable thing for me. Typing is.

When I am concentrating on questing, it takes all my brainpower to do it. I know, some of you can do this stuff, talk, chew gum, and knit a sweater all at the same time. I cannot. So, I was trying to quest, with my headset on, and trying to be somewhat attentive to the chatter and not miss out on a cue if they were speaking to me and I really got flustered. I stopped questing and found myself just sort of hanging there, in mid air, on my flying carpet, not going anywhere. (Funny, troll fems loose their straightback posture and look undeadish standing on the carpet.)

Don't get me wrong, those I've met through the guild using this venue of communication all seem very nice. Helpful. Calm. Mature. It's not them, it's me. I am not comfortable.

I have to decide how much time to give myself to find my niche. This is the trial period after all. A time not only for the guild leaders to see if a potential full member will fit with them, but also for the new member to see if the guild dynamics are a comforting presence in her life online.

For now, I want to just stand here. I chose discomfort over running away. I want to give us time. Like two individuals that have just looked into one another's eyes, there is wonder and trepedation. It is okay to be uncomfortable, it adds a tension that causes growth and excitement. So just standing here, quietly watching and shyly smiling is okay. I will find the roses in this new encounter.

It's hard to be "new".

Potential for personal growth FTW!

Nervous

I am totally lost.

When I get bored or stressed out in game, I make a new character, play until about level 10 or 12 and delete them. Over and over, I have done this, wasting time and in-game resources. I have had multitudes of Alliance side toons and a few Horde side. Always deleted.

Yesterday I did something different. I paid for a faction change and moved a level 73 character to Horde side. Since I paid for this and since I’ve already invested much time in the character, I will be more inclined to stick with it.

I am excited and scared at the same time. I am totally lost. I ported to the city of Dalaran, and then had to figure out where the horde blimp docks out there in the wilderness. Simple things are no longer so simple.

As I roam around as the other faction (OH MY! …I am the THEM now!) my sight is filled with a totally different “look” of the game. Imagine my surprise when I came upon an enclosure full of pigs and Alliance deserters. The dwarves were just sitting in the pig slop. I felt like laughing and at the same time, I felt insulted. I will get used to it I know. I am already enjoying the differences. Heck, I might even get to spend more time in the Wintergrasp fortress. LOL!!
Why am I nervous about this?