Unsubscibed

So, I got two comments on my previous post, apparently from the same person.  Someone named Anonymous.  I'll have to see if that name has any specific meaning.

First they said:

Should have stuck with wow.

Then they felt the need to come back and let me know that they were:

Unsubscibed.

Seems like something they could have done the first time.

Maybe they'll make a third post when they find the "r" they are missing.


On a more serious note, I had actually hoped to avoid antagonizing anyone, despite how that post and this response seem.  I had my "announcement" post up specifically because I wanted people to be able to avoid a politics discussion if they wanted.  As I said then, I can appreciate the desire to keep politics out of escapism.  It's nice, in principle, to have a place to retreat when the world is too much.  But the thing is, that place of retreat isn't always the "neutral" place you think it is.  In many ways, the rigid structure of a game world makes the issues of the world more obvious.

Simple examples?

Skin tone variation is pretty limited in WoW
Body dimensions are even more restricted
In-game, NPC same-sex relationships not exactly common

Now, to the first two items - well, there can be an argument made about coding and the endless myriad of combinations that would need to be accounted for.  But while the coding argument has a fair basis and certain defaults must occur, it doesn't address where the line is drawn between what is included and what is excluded.  It doesn't acknowledge that the same default is used across so many games and how that can make some players feel, time after time after time.

And yes, not everyone cares.  Some people want to be the Platonic ideal of hero and there is nothing wrong with that.  But for those that do care and feel excluded, the world that you see as a place where we are "all the same" isn't the place you think it is.

But for Anonymous, I have to say, I'm kind of sorry you left.  Well, okay, not really as it seems like you are averse to others having strong opinions that do not match yours.  But, while I'm writing this for me, just me, and only me, I would like to be able to convince others to listen to my point of view and perhaps change their ideas.  I can't say I want to change my ideas and opinions about the world, but I hope that if I was convinced someone else was right that I would have the courage to re-evaluate myself.  I know I've done it before and likely will again.

Oh well.  Well, here's a bit of WoW for ya: Spouse and I are working on the Netherwing rep grind right now.  Oh, and the Shieldwall rep quests too.  Between the broken quests and the slow grind, whee those are fun.

So, where have I been? And what’s next?

In short, restricting this blog to just WoW made it difficult to post when other, more important things came up.  I wanted to talk about WoW (and what I was doing and what was going on in game), but there were also bigger things happening and they weren’t appropriate for what this blog was.  This really made it difficult to post at all, which then slowed all other momentum and then stopped me completely.

I’ve decided to modify this blog and open it up to more than just WoW and I wanted to let my readers know before I made the move.  I’ve always appreciated the attempt most bloggers make to keep politics and real-life to a minimum when talking about the game.  It’s not fully possible, nor is it a good idea, to completely avoid real-life concerns in a game though.  And I don’t just mean idiots talking politics in trade chat.  I mean topics that touch on real-life issues of the players.  Still, I do appreciate and embrace the need for escapism so that you can handle reality.  On the other hand, some never get to fully escape because our shared fantasy world is swimming in normative reminders of real life that may be invisible to most people.  And to pretend that we are all the same erases the issues some people face.

Whatever the case, I will still be posting on Warcraft and related whatnot, so I hope to be able to still have conversations with my readers.  But there will be other topics floating around as well and I wanted to give a heads up to readers and the people that added me to their blogroll in case they like to keep those lists tightly focused on WoW or at least gaming.

I started this post a while ago and have been trying to get it finished and posted.  I wanted to say more and edit it and refine it, but it is unnecessary and I need to make the switch soon.

The above was the summary of the navel-gazing below. 

When I first started this blog I briefly hit on the why of it:

Why am I doing this? 

I don’t know. Well, that’s not strictly true. I have some ideas of why but it would be hard to put them into words. I think, for now, it would be safe to say that I’m doing this because I want to.

 

There were a number of reasons but one, among the many, was possible depression*.  At the time, writing those posts was giving me an escape and a way of dealing with things. It was one tool that helped me cope and I think it did it well. 

One of things I have liked about having this blog is that I have tried to keep it focused on WoW as much as possible.  I was able to leave other things out and just focus on the game.  Now though, I’m feeling more and more confined by some personal limits I set that I think are preventing me from using this platform for what I want and need.

I’m in the US and as you are likely aware, we are having our presidential election this year. During the primaries I had quite a bit to say and as we move to the general election I’m sure I’ll have even more.  In addition, there are just too many things going on in the world that I'm not talking about and I want to.  While the internet doesn't really need one more opinion out there, I need to be able to talk about things.  I need to be able to talk about this letter.  I need to be able to talk about Orlando.  Even if there is no one to listen, I need to be able to write about it .

Moving forward

I was absolutely tickled when I was added to some side bars on a few blogs, and by people that I really enjoyed reading!

I guess that’s why I want to make this post.  I am planning to transition this blog to something less focused purely on WoW and be more of a personal journal, of sorts.  I still plan to post and talk about WoW, especially with Legion approaching, but I won’t feel like I have to edit myself quite so much.

And since I’ll be bringing in my opinions on various controversial topics, I wanted to make readers aware, especially those that added me to their side bar.  It's important to say that I'm not doing this because I'm mad at anyone that added me or any nonsense like that.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  It is because of my gratitude that people took an interest in my limited writing that I want to alert them as I change topics.

[And here is where I've been editing and deleting and revising. As I mentioned above, there is too much going on for me to keep waiting until this perfect.  So please forgive the clumsiness of this post.  I think the main idea comes across.  I'll leave this up for a few days so that anyone who wants to remove me from their reading can.]

* I was never officially diagnosed with depression, because I never went to a doctor about it.  Which I know can sound like a red flag, but I honestly never felt it quite hit that stage. A risky thing, I know, but I did talk with the spouse and we both kept an eye on things.  As a quick reminder, depression isn’t sadness.  For formal, clinical information, go here:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression-what-you-need-to-know-12-2015/index.shtml

But for a good, deeply emotionally and resonant view, go here:

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

Is the gaming treadmill getting faster or am I slowing down?

The likely answer: probably both.

I play Hearthstone pretty casually (surprise) and usually hit, but rarely break, rank 20 each month. I put some effort to reach that level (in case I'd like the card back) but typically not great amounts. It can take me a while to hit 20 some months and I think my best ever ranking was maybe 17?  It is also something I can play on my phone or tablet to pass the time.  I prefer it on my computer but when there, I'd rather be doing something else.

Casual credentials established, the recent announcement about Standard Mode, Wild Mode, and the retirement of some cards kind of disappointed me and highlighted how out of sync I am with the game. It's not that I don't understand the issues with overly powerful cards or the need to keep the game "fresh" and also accessible to new players.  I just really dislike the way they are going about it.

Old expansions no longer being available for purchase means unless I craft them, which can be exceptionally hard to get the dust I would need, I will never have some cards. That's pretty disappointing. Not end-of-the-world, gnash-teeth, rend-garment but simply "oh, that sucks."  Being unable to collect items in a DIGITAL collection game is pretty weird and annoying.

The limited time* nature of future decks in standard play is also annoying. This is what really inspired my treadmill question. If you want to stay current and have a chance at winning, you'll likely need to have the most recent expansions.  And you'll need to stay current or you'll just be left with the basic cards.  It's not that you can't win with a basic set, but that you will be at a disadvantage most times.


The game is moving in a direction where you'll need to really keep playing and current with the decks or else be left pretty far behind.  And I really don't like that kind of game.  I don't want a static world per se, but this constant (and to me quick) change discourages me from investing myself in the game.

If I can't learn, explore, and experience the game at my own pace; if I have to rush through things and stay with the pack or get permanently left behind and miss out on things, that game is probably not for me.

I'm kind of this way about aspects of WoW too. I actually prefer the long gaps between major events and changes because it gives me a chance to play the game the way I like it.  I can try different classes and storylines.  I can be different races or specs.  I can spend time in the game, enjoying it without feeling like I'm permanently missing out on something.

I don't mind if I'll always be behind the pack in a game like this unless that means that I'll NEVER have the chance at something.  I have the Core Hound mount from the 10th anniversary event and I hated getting it.  Not because the raid was hard.  I had a very good and easy raid, actually, and was even lucky enough to even get the pet on my first run though.  I hated it because I felt I had to rush to 100 and then I had to get geared up enough to get into the raid.  All because it was for a limited time.  That wasn't fun to me.

Did anyone that got the mount feel like the fun part of it was the limited time?  Does anyone really feel extra special that they have the mount and others don't when it may simply be that the other person didn't have enough time?

I also happen to think that longer gaps give more time to produce good quality games when they finally are released as opposed to...well, Warlords of Draenor.

(Quick note: I, of course, realize that many people prefer a faster pace and want more content to consume faster.  This post is not intended to convince them they are wrong**.  I'm just examining my own relationship with current gaming and my preferences.)

I fully realize that if the gaming treadmill is speeding up, it may only be by a small amount and it's actually that I'm just slowing down more.  Nothing wrong with that but ignoring it or being in denial about it can cause problems.

And I guess that's what I'm trying to grapple with. The path that Blizzard is going with their games, seems to be one that I'm not very interested in following.  Obviously, once the multi-billion dollar company sees my post they'll change their ways.  Until then, I kind of need to come to terms with what it means that I'm not the target audience anymore and never will be.

Earlier this week, Fiannor had a post or two that also thinking about game audience. Just some more food for thought.

As I said at the beginning, I think it is most likely a combination of the gaming industry just moving faster and me becoming even more resistant to my leisure activities always being rushed. Still, as Blizzard keeps pushing new ideas that they think will keep the game fresh and pull in new people, it's a little sad for me because it seems to end up pushing me out of something I enjoy.


* The card backs are limited time too, which does bother me, but I've been thus far willing to work within that, since I can use Hearthstone to pass down time at work or wherever.  The card backs are also unrelated to game play.  I won't win or lose based on the card back.  Not having access to current cards, which often have new and more powerful effects, that does impact game play.

** Which of course, they are :P

Personal Gold Challenge: 3 weeks left

I've got about 3 weeks left to finish my gold challenge.  How am I doing?

Well, let's consider that question in two different ways:

How am I progressing towards my goal?

vs.

 Am I enjoying progressing towards my goal?

   

A few quick notes for reference:

My goal is to reach 40,000 gold on one character before my time card ends on February 25th.

I am focusing on three characters on this secondary account: a warlock and a shaman that had reached 90 before the original trial account time ended and a warrior that was boosted to 90 when I got WoD.  All three are on different servers so I can't pool their gold.  The warlock and the warrior are DPS and the Shaman is healing but I was planning to pick up the DPS off-spec.

How am I progressing towards my goal?

 

Tackling the success angle first, allow me to present you with this high-quality, totally worthwhile graph.

Half-assed Nerdery

The sudden drops in gold are when I hit 100 and had to pay for the level 3 garrison.

Okay, so when I play for more than a few minutes at a time I can make a fair amount of money.  Despite the advice people gave, I haven't been consistent in gold generation from my garrison.  The suggestions were good, I just haven't taken the time (or really had the time) to set everything up and get it rolling.  The large gain for the gnome had been a day when I had been able to run something like 8-10 LFRs with DPS goodie bags, plus some old raids and other such.  That was a good day.

Real life has intruded some, so I haven't been able to get on every night to play.  Sometimes I can get on and do garrison chores, but sometimes I can't even do that.  That's to say nothing of the 12 or so other garrisons I have on my main account, so that if I do get time to get on, managing the other garrisons and these can take up a lot of my time.

But what I have gained out of this experiment so far is that IF I focused on one character and IF I could put in some consistent, reasonable amount of time to playing, I could almost certainly make gold each month.  I'm not declaring my challenge over but I think I can rule definitively that I could make the gold necessary to purchase WoW tokens.

Yes, I would still need to make double what I do now, since this challenge is over 60 days and not 30, but looking at how things are going, when I do play for sustained amounts of time, I could probably do it.

With that in mind, I'm continuing the challenge for my own satisfaction and because there is another part of it.  Not just the generation of gold, but how I have to change my playstyle to do it.

Which brings me to the second question

Am I enjoying progressing towards my goal?

 

As you can likely surmise, not so much.

The biggest issue is that I feel compelled to play each day and to focus on activities that generate gold.  And not just play each day, but restrict myself to characters that can make the most gold.  So if a character is better at soloing old raids or knocking out dailies or whatever, they get to take priority over the sub-30 alt I've been itching to play or the slow characters that I just like to do whatever on.

 

Another issue is that LFR goodie bags referenced above are probably my best daily source of gold.  I can run old raids once a week for gold and do the weekly LFR 150whatever gold reward, but that's once per week.  The 500+ gold that comes from the LFR baggies alone is a nice bump.  The catch is, that the DPS goodie bag is not reliable.  It's happening a LOT now but still not every time.  It is one of the reasons why I'm thinking of switching to my shaman for the remainder of the challenge.  I do see the baggie come up a lot more often on the healer role.  But, I'm not sure I'm good enough to be someone the raid needs to depend upon so much. Yes, there will be other healers and the raid likely won't fail, but I already dislike how much I get carried as a DPS, I'd prefer not to be carried as a healer too.

 

Even if I was top of the charts with healing or DPS, it still means I have to do LFR, which means grinding the same fights over and over and over again, in that unpredictable atmosphere that is LFR.  Where you can have good raiders in for their weekly valor or just fun or you can have the people who seem to be playing World of Abusecraft and I am their content.

What's next?

I had been reading Fussypants' post about healing and it made me remember how much I can enjoy playing a good support character. The Shaman is sitting at 92 with a level 2 garrison, so it'd be a bit of work to get her to 100, with as little of time as I've had to play lately.  But I think it might be fun and perhaps worthwhile.  If nothing else, if I get her to 100 I get a level 25 pet stone and can get some more heirloom upgrades pretty easily.


I do still like my gnome warrior although I feel pretty clumsy with her.  She's fun and I love her attitude, but I haven't gotten a hang of the warrior mechanics yet, so I'm pretty weak there.


I'll also need to figure out what to do with the gold when this challenge is over, since I'm pretty sure I won't be using it for a WoW token.  The guild the shaman is in could use any and all gold it can get.  The other two, well, it's not like those guilds couldn't use the influx but it might be an opportunity to get the garrison mounts and pets I haven't bought yet.  We'll see.

My own personal gold challenge

So, background. A while back, the spouse and I decided we wanted some Recruit-A-Friend (RAF) mounts and the short-term leveling bonuses that came with it. It was during one of those sales where the base game costs $5 and the current expansion is like $15 or something. We looked at the cost of the game plus 60 days (since you need to do that to qualify for the RAF mount) and what we’d get out of it and decided it was worth it to us. So we created second accounts, got our mounts, and leveled up some alts quickly. It was fun and, for us, worth it. We let the time lapse and the accounts went inactive.

This past Christmas break, I received a 60-day time card. Now, I could add it to my main account but it was an opportunity to try something for this blog and my own curiosity. Are WoW tokens an option for me? Could I realistically support my WoW playing via the token?

The RAF account I was thinking about already had two 90s on it and I was going to get a boosted 90 since WoD was on sale. I decided to try to level to 100 quickly and I opted to purchase the garrison upgrades, since I figured once that was rolling it would pay for itself. It has on other characters, but that has been over the course of a few months of mostly neglectful tending. I don’t check all of my characters every day. It would take too long. But the ones that I do check more often are doing well and a few could purchase a token.

For the RAF account, these characters basically started off level 90 with no gold, or at least under 100 gold, and I’d like to get them up to self-sufficiency. I’d like to see if I can generate enough gold before the time card expires and how I have to play to do that.

What is your gold goal?

40,000 gold, on one character, by February 25th.

Why?

To be able to purchase a WoW token and still have gold to upgrade garrisons or anything else that is needed. Basically, if this were a realistic thing, I wouldn’t want to spend all of my money on WoW tokens but not have enough left over to do anything. The goal is above the recent token prices by a little more than 10% for this reason. Plus, by being a fair bit above the average, when the price fluctuates I’d still be able to buy a token that month.

Any limitations?

Nothing yet per se. Not making this a huge personal challenge like the ironman or anything like that. Just curiosity really. I was using BoA gear and leveling potions to try to get up to 100 quickly so I could run old raids for gold and doing other dailies.

What things have you done so far?

Questing mostly. Bonus missions and quests have been pretty good for generating gold. I’m planning to get the level three Inn for missions and more followers but beyond that, I’m not going to go out of my way to do a lot of crafting and other collection based gold-making on these characters. (The because to that why is in the next question.)

The biggest daily influx of gold has been from doing the LFRs that have the bonus satchel. That’s close to a minimum 700 gold per run. It isn’t something I can do everyday, but this past weekend I was able to run 3-4 LFRs with the baggie in one day. As a DPS. Which I think says something, but that’s for another post.

What about crafting and playing the auction house?

I’ve never been great about playing the auction house but I’ve had some success. Still, that is not a game for me. I could research it and perhaps get better but that is not something I want to invest my time in. I could stand to be better but I don’t log on to play World of Auction House.

That might come across as looking down on those that enjoy the auction house, but that’s not my aim. It is just isn’t what interests me. So while I’ll do those things, and perhaps get better and learn to support myself more, that isn’t the way I play nor would I want to.

Why not just do it on the account you already have? See if you can generate the 40,000 gold on already established characters?

Well, that’s kind of the point. I am curious if my playstyle would allow me to both explore the game as I like to and generate enough gold to pay for it. If I started off with money in the bank and established garrisons and full-speed flight etc, it doesn’t address what it would be for me to both experience the game the way I like it and make enough gold.

60 days is not a month.

That’s true and an even greater point for my playstyle. If I can’t even make 40,000 gold in 60 days, there’s no way I can do it in 30. This extra time gives me the greatest chance of success and I’m still not very optimistic.

I’m tracking my 3 WoD characters on the account. One is 91 (resto shaman), sitting in the level 1 garrison not doing much, with about 1,000 gold. She’s a healer, so that might be a good way to go because healers and tanks get the bonus satchels much more often. But right now, she’s just gathering resources and leveling followers while I work on the other characters. I plan to get her garrison to level 2 soon so that I can start doing the mine at least – although again, another character to log onto and do chores with.

Another character is 99, just short of 100 (arms warrior) and has around 4,600 gold and is in the level 2 garrison. She’ll be getting to 100 soon and I hope for her to be my main focus for this. Because I like her the best as a characters, not because she's good at generating gold. She’s not having the very good gold luck.

That would be my, begrudgingly, 100 destruction warlock (because demonology). She’s just short of 10,500 gold and has had a fair amount of luck on drops and gold and LFRs.

My initial thoughts are that while I could support a subscription with WoW tokens, I don’t find it very fun so far. I have a chore I have to do every day (make over 1,300 gold) and every day that I don’t do that, it gets a little higher the next day. I need to log on and check follower missions, run raids I don’t really care about, do other events that are good for gold flow but aren’t really fun for me. And most importantly, for an alt-loving person like me – I can’t play my other, lower alts very much. That’s to say nothing of how draining it is becoming to log on to each and every garrison and do the chores.

This is not a new problem I’ve discovered. Many others have talked about it for a while, and I think even I mentioned it at some point. But in trying to focus on these other characters to make the gold necessary, it really brought it home how much it isn’t working for me yet.

I have said “so far” and “yet” because I am trying to be open to the possibility. I’ve mentioned before that one of my favorite characters I’ve ever made was on a RaF account and it is the warrior mentioned above. She is such a fun little gnome warrior. Love her. I’m not very good with her yet but I enjoy playing her and she just looks awesome. But I can’t justify paying for this second account and I won’t. But if I could pay for it with WoW tokens? Would it then be worth it?

To be honest, that’s a whole other problem I have with WoW tokens. For me, specifically. The money I spent on the token could be used to purchase some mounts I don’t have. Or toys. Or pets. Or support other characters as they get garrisons. 40,000 gold would upgrade a garrison to level 3 with most (all?) buildings to level 3 and I’d be able to do that each month.

The 60 day time card will expire on February 25th, so I have over 35 days left to make the money I need.

We’ll see what comes of it by then.