Monday, November 30, 2015

Quick Question: Keep or Sell?

What do you do with relatively hard to get, or perhaps even no-longer-in-game, not-yet soulbound items?

I have the Tremendous Tankard O'Terror on a character.  Actually, I have 3.  One is for level 100 and the other 2 are for level 90.  Assuming I keep one for transmog, which I will, is it worth it to try to sell the level 90 ones on the auction house?  On that server they were going for about 3,500 gold a piece.

So, it is something that a level 90 twink might like and since that specific item is no longer in game, it can be worth a fair amount.  But then, I don't get that item for myself.  And I have a level 90 Shaman that would enjoy using them, if only for a little bit.

See, there's the catch. If I use it for myself, I get a short time out of it, that I'll enjoy but probably quickly replace.  On the other hand, if I sell it, yay money but I don't get to use it for my bun, short as it may be.

This isn't the only item I have this issue with, just the one that came up this weekend.  I'm kind of a horder* on some things.  Too many things.

I think I spent around 500 gold this weekend saving non-quest-reward gear to a void storage because I like an item and might want to transmog it on another character. But, I'm running out of room in my regular storage so off to void storage.  Not much for a max level character per se but that'll add up fast.

Transmog closest can not get here fast enough.

I will buy all of the tabards.

I will have so much bag space.  I will not know what to do with myself.

And with some of the not-toys-for-no-good-reasons becoming actual toys...I don't care about saving reality, give me bag space!

Also, when did I become Grumpy?  And do I have to pay him royalties for blogging like this?

*For the Hording!

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Friendly Mooseseses


I’m pretty sure this sums up my blogging style.

I really do try to focus and Crooked had a great definition of causal in the comments of my last post that I wanted to expand upon. Plus I still need to talk about deleting characters, LFR, and such. But a rambling comment on another site became a post. Oh well.


There have been a few discussions about Friendship Moose and all of that and the one got me to babble today was Navi’s.

#FriendshipMoose and Free Moose runs - An example of a great WoW community? Or an administrative nightmare?

I'm torn about a couple of things as far as this topic goes. Not about people offering to help though. I think that is great and as much as I personally would probably never buy a carry, I can understand the logic of selling them. Especially if carrying people (and the effort it took to get the skill level needed to carry people) causes a lot of armor repairs.

When the community steps up to do something a business or group is not doing, it reflects the good in the community. Great. But, for some people, it then kind of justifies the larger entity (business, government, etc) not doing anything to help solve the problem. They can get in the mindset of, "oh, our users/citizens will step-in and solve this issue so we don’t need to do anything". Yes, they likely will, as there are good people out there, but they shouldn't have to. It reminds me of the debate about support* services for the needy versus government programs.

Now, a moose run is nothing like support services. One is just fun optional stuff and the other can be critical to survival, so I don't mean to compare the two in terms of scale. But still, there is an obvious problem in the community (frustration over the requirements to get the moose mount) and the community is solving the problem, not the business.

But aren't people getting their mount? Yes and perhaps new raiders and good will in the server community will come of this. Those guilds and those people that do the carries will be greatly appreciated and likely respected, so there are a lot of upsides. But I still don't know that I like how we are getting there. That the community is taking a "bad" situation and improving it speaks well of the community. In my opinion, it speaks poorly of the company.

The other reason I have hesitation is, of course, the nature of a carry. I don't see it as pride or anything like that, but just a desire to not be a burden on others for something pretty unimportant. I have no problem asking for help when I need it for something important. But for something like this, it just seems unnecessary for me.  Not an opinion on others getting carries mind you.  Just for me.

I know that I cannot perform at the level needed for heroic raiding and so a carry would be my only option. And so while I’d like the moose on some level, and I’d like to be able to help my spouse get it, the effort and requirement just to get a place to be carried are more than it is likely worth to me.

I’m not saying those requirements are unreasonable. They actually seem reasonable to me but I don’t know if they are. I would assume a guild capable of carrying in heroic knows what is necessary. Whatever the case, my thoughts about the requirements were perfectly captured by Crooked:

“...if presented with requirements to participate in something, a casual is more likely to not participate…changing specs, using a certain voice chat, installing addons, doing pvp, whatever, if they don't want to do something, they would rather not participate at all…”

All of this is something of a moot discussion for me anyways, as I don't think I have a 100 on any server running these (although I haven't check recently) and those 100's I do have are not yet 710. So why am I writing on this? Well, where would you be without my wall-of-text opinions?




* or, since this was originally a comment over at Frostwolves, should that be suppourt? :)

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Casual

My original name for this blog was going to be Oddly Casual but someone had already claimed it, so that plan was dashed.  Dashed, I say.

But I wanted it because I felt it described me pretty well.  My modified moniker works as well, so not too much disappointment. The point is that I generally see myself as a casual WoW player.  But am I?

That's the problem. What does it mean to be casual?

Quick note: I place no value judgement on casual or any type of player.  This is not an evaluation of good versus bad but just me trying to define what a casual player is.

What's in a word?

Does a casual:
- Use Wowhead?
- How about Mr. Robot?
- Add-ons?
- Read blogs?
- Write blogs?
- Read Blizzardwatch?
- Read forums
- Get silver proving grounds?
- Use LFR?
- Use the group finder for non-LFR raiding?
- Have the legendary cloak or ring?
- Do the brawler's guild?
- Complete Long strange trip?
- Have the Draenor gold looting achievement?
- Have heirloom equipment?

This is obviously far from an exhaustive list and were really just some of the first things that came to mind.

Let me lay out two examples, myself and my spouse.

We both use Wowhead to look up quest chains, items, achievements, mounts, pets, bosses, etc. I'm probably more savy with navigating it but we both use and get around fine.

Neither of us use Mr. Robot.  I only became aware of it a year or so ago?  I'm 99% sure my spouse has no idea what it is.

Both of us had security concerns about add-ons and didn't use them for a long time. I only started using add-ons a few months ago and while I love the few I have, I actively try to avoid getting them and am still a bit wary of possible exploits. When add-ons break due to patch updates, I can sometimes find how to fix them but other times not.  The spouse has no add-ons and no plans to use them anytime soon.

I read a limited number of blogs and, obviously, write this one. My spouse hopes to find time to read mine.

I read Blizzardwatch but not all of the time or exhaustively. The spouse does neither.

I generally avoid the forums, although occasionally I risk my sanity and check things out.  The spouse is wiser and never does.

I have succeeded in silver proving grounds on my mage, druid, paladin, and hunter.  I have just recently, and with great headache, passed with my warlock. The spouse has not tried them yet and would not be aware of them if not for me mentioning that it was necessary for the legendary ring quest line.

I used LFR a fair amount at the end of MoP but not much right now. The spouse has joined me so as to see the story, but has never run one without me, I think.

I used the group-finder to get in some SoO raids to be able to get my legendary cloak quest completed and to get my Garrosh heirloom.  The spouse have never used it to my knowledge.

I have the legendary cloak on one character. Two or three others didn't finish in time (no bitterness there). I just finished the legendary ring quest on one character last night (a post on that coming soon?).  The spouse has zero cloaks and almost nothing started on the ring. I held off on completing the ring quest on this character because I knew that it was unlikely the spouse would see the story if i didn't.

I am maybe rank 2 or 3 in the brawler's guild?  Somewhere in that range. My spouse has had 2 fights I think?

I have completed a long strange trip and hated every minute of the mandatory PvP. I know the spouse was very, very close but I can't be sure if it is completed or not.

I got the Draenor looting achievement a while back.  Not as fast as Grumpy but still, a while ago.  The spouse got it a week or two ago.

I have all heirloom equipment except for pants (no guild with that achievement yet), the rings, the trinket from Darkmoon Faire PvP (or whatever it is), the fist weapons, and the new mythic dungeon heirlooms. Most everything goes up to at level 90 with a few things going to 100.  The spouse has the same gear (except the intellect plate heirlooms) but half or less go to 90.

Just taking those things, are we both casual players?  Just the spouse?  I wouldn't call myself hard-core by any means, but am I really a casual player?

Why does any of this matter?

I don't really care what category I fall into in terms of social status or rank or other nonesense, so it doesn't matter in that sense.  I'm pretty use to being outside the norm in many instances. What matters is that if I am typical, then Blizzard is not really addressing the desires of the bulk of its players.  And if my spouse is closer to the average, then Blizzard is really missing the mark.

Now a company like Blizzard has to have the statistics on players enough to know the characteristics of a typical player.  It's been 11 years so they have something going on right.  But as they keep pushing this raid-or-die mentality, as they keep pushing certain thing in game play, it feels to me that they don't really know or don't really care about those of us they keep leaving out.

Some time ago, over at Tome of the Ancient I put it this way:

"Whatever Blizzards idea of a player is, I feel I don’t fit it at all and I’d be curious to know if I’m really that odd or not.

And while previously I felt benignly ignored as a player on the best days, I’m starting to feel actively pushed out."*

That was back during the time of no-flying ill-will, when the alts-r-bad vibe was very strong.  Things have...well not improved but they've not gotten worse.  Given some of the things Fiannor writes about, I'm probably just  less focused on it now.  Whatever the case, I've just always wondered what do other people think fits the term "casual"?

* By the way, here's the apostrophe I misplaced.  ----> '

I guess it was a timelord. <----I have no idea what I was referencing when I wrote this.

Secondary note - this was actually written weeks ago, perhaps even in September or October.  It was actually intended more as a discussion of what it means to be casual.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

How do I get back up on this horse?

In order to 1) bury my previous post of shame (in the hope that it is lost to time) and 2) try to get back to this, let's create a post!

I have been absent from blogging and commenting for a number of reasons. The two main reasons were being busier at work and having a hard time getting into this account at work.  Work is less busy now, but I'm still having some troubles logging on.  Still, I'm able to get in today so I want to get back to this.

When I was here last there was a very wide ranging conversation going on about LFR and such.  Things have moved on to 6.2.3 and Legion, but it was interesting while it lasted.  I'll probably hit up on it soon and reply to what was said, even if it's really just talking to myself.  It helps me to think through this some.  I'm not sure I'll really be able to add much to what has already been said.

Speaking of 6.2.3 and Legion...I'm disappointed in the moose situation. Fiannor pretty much hits what I would need to say, both in the post and the comment that follows up.  I haven't really been reading much on Legion...it's too far out for me (as in number of months) and what is out tends to be depressing to me.

A few things I wish weren't happening
Combat Rogue change
Hunter Change
Frost Death Knight dual wield only
Removal of Mistweaver melee/healing idea (Fistweaver if you must call it that)
Removal of Gladiator Stance


The thing I'm looking forward to:
Transmog change

I'm very excited about the account wide transmog thing, but I'm confused.  Everyone seems excited about this and like it is a done deal.  Perhaps I've been too pessimistic, but I'm not counting on that until it is in game, live, and I've used it.  Blizzard has promised way too many things for an expansion that were dropped from game (Path of the Titans).  Am I being too pessimistic or is everyone just so caught up in the hype that they've forgotten how much is promised at Blizzcon and what makes into the final game?

As above, you'll notice that I listed class changes a lot.  I'm not against change.  In fact, I hate keeping something the way it is simply because of tradition or momentum.  But I just don't understand why they feel the need to change it and, more importantly, they are once again telling me the proper fantasy for the class.

Now, it is their game, so yes, they can say whatever they want about their classes in their game.  But there is something in how Blizzard goes about doing this sort of thing that comes across less "this is our idea of this trope. this is our take on it" and more "here is the one and only proper way to understand this idea".  They do this with many things but this class remake, and especially the "fantasy" buzzword they keep throwing around really rubs me the wrong way.

And this all leads back to why I'm not really reading much or talking much about it.  Because if I do, I'll have to acknowledge how the game and I continue to part ways.  And if I look too long into that void, I might begin to see that maybe this is the end for me.

I'm trying not to give up on the game, because it has been so fun for me and such a great escape when I needed it.  But when I look at what I want in a game and where Blizzard has been and continues to head, I just don't know how long I'll be continuing on.

Sorry to end on the more down note.  This format is not great at expressing emotion.  I'm not really that down, although I'm pensive about it all.  Just wondering where it all goes from here.

I'll try to get back to blogging more regularly.  If my next post in about my wrap-up on LFR thoughts, it might be about deleting characters and why that is a challenge for me and why I'm still trying to find a few.

Friday, November 6, 2015

613,526 (nevermind, I'm an idiot)

Update seconds later:

I wasn't thinking, that's just the YouTube Subscribers number.  I'm leaving this here as evidence of my post but yeah, this is a lesson in thinking things through before posting.

Original post begins here
---------

I know I've been gone a while, and I'll get to that soon.

But, have you watched the new Legion trailer that is in the Battle.net launcher?

If you mouse over the image in the lower right corner, you see this


It says:

World of Warcraft

613,526 subscribers

I haven't watched the rest of the trailer, maybe that says how many people have bought the expansion?  Or how many people there are now?  Or I don't know.  I just thought it odd and worth mentioning.  I know some numbers were just released so maybe that is this?  But to give such an exact number seems weird.  I don't know, just odd.