Huzzah for trying to revitalize your blood!  Ok so I said I’d try to be more post-proliferic and here it goes:  We got hella bored with beating our heads against ToGC last night.  I mean… I really hate hard modes that pretty much are RNG, you must have ABSOLUTE PERFECTION to them.  I really do.  Doing it in 25 man mode is just redonkulous.  (Haha see what I did thar Euri? XD)

We’ve been doing Trial of the Crusader for about a month or so now, and I think we just got fed up.  i know I did.  We’d get so close, but we were missing two of our heavy hitters and it showed.  I don’t like this absolute perfection demand.  It’s the casual in me that scream OMG WHY ARE WE DOING THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN. ARG BORING!

I know Fio’s bored, I can’t wait for Ice Crown to come out.  I want to put my dainty little clothie boot in Arthas’s face!  And I also need to not be writing this at work.  >.>  Buuuuut I’m being a rebel XD

Not really.  Just being silly.  More to come!  /flail

For those of you who never really ventured past computer-based RPGs, here’s a quick rundown.  Children have been roleplaying since time immemorial.  Cops & robbers, cowboys & indians, and in even less refined forms than those simple games.  Did you ever draw wings on a cardboard box and pretend it was an airplane?  Congratulations, you were roleplaying.  But for a long time, there was no adult equivalent (except maybe Civil War reenactments and those murder mystery dinner parties – for the life of me I can’t find out when they appeared on the scene).

Then back in the dark era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a strange confluence was born.  Wargaming was becoming popular – miniature based combat simulation.  Essentially, it was the top-down real time strategy game of the day, you just had to do all the random number generating and moving of pieces instead of a computer.  Fantasy wargaming was a particular subset of the genre, where you had wizards, knights, archers, elves, and all the familiar Tolkeinesque trappings.  For the most part though, there was no roleplaying involved.  It was numbers crunching, troop squishing fun, but ultimately just a sophisticated wargame.

Then one fateful day, a conversation happened that probably went something like this:

Steve: “Okay Evan, my phalanx takes the north side of that hill there, and that’s the last of its movement allotment.  Your go.”

Evan (drunk): “Yeah man, okay, my uh, barbarians are going to charge your phalanx.”

Steve: “Dude, my phalanx has a huge defensive value, and that’s not even accounting for the high ground you’d be charging up or the fact that because of the ravine on one side you can’t do your little ‘the barbarian horde surrounds you’ trick you always do.”

Evan (still drunk): “Yeah, but don’t you get it, man?  They’re, like, barbarians.  I know I’m gonna lose, but that’s what they’d do.

And in that fateful moment, the core of modern gaming was born.  Dungeons and Dragons was the first major player on the scene in 1974, but a host of others hit the scene in the 70s and early 80s.  Tunnels and Trolls, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, etc.  The core of an RPG is the fact that you are not playing some nameless piece on a game board, but a character who has certain skills, motivations, and is in essence an individual, much like an actor playing a role (hence, ROLE playing).

I’ll be getting into this a bit more in an upcoming post, but there are generally two broad component categories to a roleplaying game.  For all you cooks/bakers out there, think dry ingredients vs wet ingredients.  These are commonly referred to as “Crunch” and “Fluff.”

Crunch consists of the mechanics of the system, the intricacies of its rules, and the depth, ease and accuracy with which they model the intended subject.  It is the skeleton of the game on which the world, the characters, and everything else is hung.  It is what stops the age-old Cowboys and Indians argument of “I shot you!”  “Did not!”  Fluff is the trappings that give the game its own unique character.  The environment, the history behind the world and the characters, the story that hopefully keeps people coming back.

People tend to like a varying degree of each in their games, but they are not necessarily inversely proportional.  True, there comes a point where too many or too detailed rules slows things down.  Similarly, there is a point at which a lack of structure makes resolving conflicts difficult and stalls the game just as surely.

So, what you end up with as an “RPG” is essentially a game where you take on a role the same way an actor does, and interact in a world (usually) directed by another person.  Depending on the game and the group you play with it can be anything from a hack and slash game where the deepest character motivation is to get more treasure, to a deep philosophical exploration of the nature of reality and human consciousness.  Most fall somewhere in between.

LARP (Live Action Roleplaying) just adds another dimension to the game – instead of sitting around a table saying ‘My character does X,’ you actually get up and do it to some extent.  Obviously, a lot depends on the nature of the game and how accurately you can enact it.  A LARP about dogfighting space pilots is probably going to be a flop unless you happen to have a few custom flight simulators sitting around.  And similar to tabletop games, you can go from primarily hack and slash types of larps (boffer larps for those who are familiar with them) where people actually fight with padded/foam weapons, to more esoteric larps devoted to a certain concept or situation (Intercon-style LARPing, again for those familiar with it).

Anyway, that’s it for now, I’ll resume soon.

That being said, I’d like to solicit the opinion of all 3 of you who will probably read this.

I will be perfectly honest in that I’m somewhat lacking inspiration for this blog.  Talking about WoW seems off, because I’m not the type of person who is going to crunch numbers for you to a high degree of accuracy (see Greylo at http://graymatterwow.blogspot.com/ ).  Nor do I want to simply repost what others have posted – patch notes, what’s coming next, etc.  Occasionally I may have some new point to make, but I don’t think WoW fodder is going to keep my attention on this blog.  However, I’m leery about turning this into a “Dear Diary, today I did X…” type of blog.  No one is going to find that interesting besides a small circle of friends.

So I ask you, what do you want to see here?  The only “happy medium” I can see is expanding into more gaming stuff in general – LARPs, Tabletop, console, other computer games, etc.  So tell me what you want to read, and I’ll tell you if it’s something I can write.

Getting Bansidhe to 80 like two some odd weeks ago!  Right, well that’s not all of what I’ve been up too.

I’ve been reading, a lot.   If you get over to your local library (which I highly recommend as a place of awesomeness!) look up P.N. Elord.  Her Vampire Files series is teh bomb.

Jack Fleming is an awesome vampire. ^.^

I’ve revitalized my old L.A.R.P. character (Fianna Galliard of EPIC) and have oodles of story to play with there.  I totally bombed on NaNo this year.  Ah well.  There’s always next year.  And other stories that are itching to be written… eventually.

This is primarily my wayof saying I’m still alive.  Things with WoW are good, but I never have been one of those theory crafters.  I’m a firm believer if it works and feels right, then it’s good.  As long as no one’s dying, then you’re doing ok.  I just respec’d back to holy and solo grinding as holy isn’t so bad.  I miss Penence, but I welcome back LoLcircle and am having fun with Surge of Light (weee instant Smite!)  As for gear… gah, I healed (at least tried) heroic Old Kingdom as my first lvl 80 heroic and got thoroughly pwn’d.

Then I got some gear, started my Son’s of Hodir grind, and now I’m good to heal Heroic Utgard Pinnical.  So, as far as gear goes… I have more things to read to make sure I’m prepared for Naxx in January.  XD

I’m not sure if I should be more scared that it is necessary, or scared that people THINK it’s necessary.

Therefore, I am proud to announce the formation of a new activist organization, the A.S.P.C.A. – Azerothian Society for Persistent and Consistent Anatomy.

In our world today, millions of quest mobs suffer an egregious lack of critical organs.  Boars roam the farmlands, turning a jaundiced yellow from lack of livers.  Nearly naked dinosaurs roam Un’goro with, at best, a single scale vainly attempting to preserve their flesh, never mind their dignity.  There are even numerous examples of grotesque caricatures of creatures roaming the landscape – half (or more!) of a species’ population existing only as mysteriously mobile inflated balloons of skin and sinew, lacking flesh itself.

Indeed, these bizaare circumstances are not limited to beasts!  In Hillsbrad, an entire community scrapes together a precarious existence where only the privileged have anything more than a shapeless mass for a face.

Statistical studies have shown that nearly fifty percent of all quest mobs may suffer from a lack of critical organs.  Furthermore, this evidence points to a critical threat to those species beyond the obvious problems that come from living without skin.  Adventurers looking to secure their own existence routinely have to slaughter large populations of creatures in order to fulfill even relatively small requests for a home cooked meal.  After all, if you only had to kill three pigs to find three that had a face, there would be no need to butcher the ten (or more!) others that routinely are required to make a bowl of soup.

Here at the ASPCA, we believe that all quest mobs have the right to an equal number of organs.  For just a few bytes per day, Blizzard could alleviate the silent suffering of these misbegotten multitudes.  Only by working together can we end this intolerable situation.  Please join me in giving a voice to those that cannot protest themselves – probably because they don’t have a mouth or a tongue or something.

First off, let me give you where I am coming from, in general, so if you wish weigh my views in the light of whatever bias I may have, you can do so.  I’m registered as a Republican, but I’m probably closer to what most would consider a Libertarian or a Constitutionalist.  I think the government should be as small as feasible, tax me and everyone else as little as possible, supply short-term aid to those in financial crisis, and keep the roads, infrastructure, etc working.  I also think the government should stay the hell out of my bedroom, my marriage, and as much as humanly possible, my wallet.  I believe that people should have as much freedom as possible, but with that freedom they should be responsible for their actions and choices.

Where does this put me on the hotbutton issues?  I think that businesses should be given tax breaks as much as possible.  If it could be implemented, I would love to see a flat percentage tax for everyone, one for individuals, one for businesses – no more arguing about earned income credits, etc.  I think that economic aid of any sort should be race-neutral and based on economics.  The poor white kid from the same ghetto as the poor black kid should have the same shot to compete.  I don’t support abortion except in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is in danger.  It’s not a religious issue, really, it’s more of a responsibility issue.  Having a baby or not is a woman’s choice.  I just think that the choice is made when you decide to have sex, especially if you’re having unprotected sex.  If you’re not being careful, then this baby you’ve created shouldn’t be the one to pay the price.  I think that the right of individuals to keep and bear arms is critical to the underlying foundation of our government – I’m not the type that thinks we need automatic weapons and hand grenades, but a semi auto rifle or pistol is certainly within the bounds of reason.  I don’t like gay “marriage” only in the sense that it is using the word “marriage,” and I’m a stickler for definitions.  Call it Civil Union or Partnership or Hoobadabbadism or whatever, and give it 100% of the same rights and responsibilities, and I’m on board.

So, you can by that where I trend.  Right on most financial issues, kind of over the board on social issues.

Now, on to the actual discussion of what happened:

Both McCain and Obama are proven liars.  Obama, admittedly, has fewer lies and blunders on record, but that’s simply because he’s got little record in the first place, and has three decades of political shenanigans to catch up on.  No matter who won last night, in my opinion at least, we elected an untrustworthy, unqualified person to be President.

So why do I say that we got the slightly worse option?  I would have preferred to see control of Congress split from the executive branch.  So basically, I wanted either Obama to win and the senate/house to flip, or McCain to win, and the senate/house to remain as it is.  Unfortunately, the Democrats control it all right now.  The only check Republicans have left is a filibuster in the Senate.

What it boils down to is that in this economic crisis, we need to make sure that everyone is on the same page, and that no one group controls everything.  Splitting control of the government would have ensured that one side HAD to talk to the other to get anything done.  With one party dominating, there are few, if any, checks on their initiatives.  They’ve got a blank check, and in a crisis like we are facing right now, I think that any one group with that amount of free reign is a bad idea.

ADDENDUM:

People have asked for examples of both parties’ lies.  Off the top of my head:

McCain – Half-truths about voting record w/ Bush, lies about pork put into his bills.  For more, here’s a random link I found.  Some of the entries are pretty silly and just propaganda, but some look to be valid:
http://www.mccainpedia.org/index.php/Count_the_Lies

Obama – Pledged in writing, along with McCain, to take public election funds and adhere to the new ethical guidelines for campaign finance.  Last minute, turned down those funds and thus was able to raise about four times what McCain raised because he wasn’t hobbled by the new restrictions.  Lied about campaign donations over the past 12 years from an indicted business man (money laundering, wire fraud, extortion) notorius for working his political connections to those ends.  For more (same disclaimer as the other one, some of it is obviously silly, but some are valid, you can probably tell the difference):
http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/fashion-shows/

I can reply to someone’s thread no problems, but create a new one and it says I’m logged in under the wrong acct.  But when I try to log in with the beta info, it doesn’t accept it.

SO:  You all get to see my frustrated post to the designer for priests.  Until I can get it posted there.

ARG!

[Suggestion] Race Change/Option

Ok Blizz, I give up.

Now that you’ve taken away most of our class uniqueness by giving all other classes mana regen, AoE heals, no more race specific spells, etc and you went back on that whole “We’re never going to allow PvE to PvP server transfers”, give it up already.

Give us a quest, give us an option, LET US CHANGE OUR D*&^ RACE ALREADY.

Let me tell you a story:

Way back when I was a little noob, who was just experiencing an MMO for the first time ever, I was told, “Hey we need healers if we’re ever going to raid MC!”  So I left my 60 rogue on the shelf and rolled a priest.

I was alliance, when I asked advice on the best race to pick for an alliance priest?  “Dwarf, hands down.”  The magic words were FEAR WARD.  [u]At the time[/u], it was the best race to be, raiding wise.

Ok, I can do that.  Other cool things came up, and there were some dwarf racials that I kind forgot about until BC (Stoneskin?), but here I was, wanting a human because they had a cool casting look, spirit, and hell, that rep bonus was great for the rep grind… but no no no, you want to get a spot?  Roll dwarf.

Fine, I rolled dwarf.  Because it was the BEST CHOICE I had at the time.
___

Now 2 years later I’m STUCK with a fugly priest that doesn’t PvP, a little wiser in how the game is played and what my class can actually do, and while I could Change her name for $10, no chance to change her race.

After the Fear Ward nerf, we should have seen this coming.  But then, my priest was well into T4/T5 raiding with my guild, my friends, and there really was no choice in taking the time off to reroll another race.  I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess I’m not the only one who was stuck in this predicament.  The character has accomplished so much and spent so much [u]time[/u] in the game, why should I or anyone have to reroll to get the other race?  If you boo boo’d on your name, BAM, $10, it’s changed.

It’s not going to break the game.  You can only change to a race that has that class, etc.  Maybe you can or cannot change factions.  Make it similar to the character realm transfer cooldown, or make it a one time deal.  I don’t care.  I can’t see anything BAD from something like this.  The only possible exploit I can think of is if someone leveled Human then switched races.  Well fine, take away 10% of their reps if they make the switch.  They aren’t as “Diplomatic” as they once were.

Come on guys.

Please, make it happen.

Some how, some way, someone there WILL SEE THIS.  I hope.  If you can post this to the beta priest forums for me, please, be my guest.  I just want to see this happen (hey, they did PvP to PvE!)

Today, we are going to be looking at Glyphs.  Apparently, in Lich King, you can tattoo your ass to make you more powerful.  Awesome.

THE BASICS:

As of the current build, each player can have 3 major and 3 minor glyphs.  There is an ability in the game (though not currently attainable by any known means) that allows you to unlock an “extra” glyph slot.  It is not specified if it is major, minor, or could be used for either.  Most speculate that this extra slot will only be available to Scribes, to give them an advantage the same way other professions have BoP items, etc.

Unfortunately, most of the glyphs that have been found in the game are not actually implemented, they’re simply accessible by parsing the game files.  So it’s not certain which are major and which are minor yet.  We have been given the rough guideline that “Minor glyphs will have a cosmetic effect, or allow you to cast a spell without a reagent, or something like that.”  (Paraphrasing from a blue post I can’t find for the life of me right now).  So, here’s a quick look at things as they stand.  I’m separating them into categories based on the spell the Glyph affects, and I’m including my initial impressions of each.  Disclaimer: these are from the perspective of a raider.  If you want to talk about PvP usefulness in depth, feel free, but I don’t have a good perspective on that. 

BALANCE:

Glyph of Entangling Roots – This seems like it could be worthwhile if you have a spare slot.  I’ve never actually seen math on how much damage Entangling Roots can hold against, so I’d have to try it to see if the effect is noticeable.  Now that we can use roots indoors, this could have some application in dungeons/raids, but for the most part seems like it would be a PvP/Soloing ability.

Glyph of Hurricane – I honestly don’t see this being useful.  It appears that the slowing effect is only while the mobs are in the hurricane itself.  It might have limited application in PvP, but I don’t see it being that great anywhere else.

Glyph of Insect Swarm – Again, this might be useful in PvP, but in a raid setting at least, the 2% miss on a target is worth far more than the extra damage.

Glyph of Moonfire – This one is interesting.  Your inital moonfire hits will be for almost nothing, but it significantly increases the DoT portion.  Some lunch-napkin math here in the office seems to indicate that you’ll do more total damage with the glyph, as long as your crit is < 50% or thereabouts.  Plus, there may be some synergy with the Glyph of Starfire (see below).

Glyph of Starfire – So, with this glyph, your 3 second cast Starfire adds 3 seconds onto the duration of your Moonfire effect.  Factor in Nature’s Grace and spell haste, and that means that you could toss on one moonfire and theoretically keep it up for an entire fight.  Heck, if they don’t cap the duration of moonfire, you could possibly see a moonfire with a duration of 30-60 seconds on a boss by the time he’s dead.  Add in the Glyph of Moonfire, and you’ve got a powerful DOT that pretty much self-renews.  This could end up being the bread and butter of level 80 raiding for Balance.

Glyph of Starfall – Most of you haven’t been able to play with Starfall yet.  because of the way it functions, there’s debate about this Glyph.  Starfall drops 20 stars maximum on targets within 30 yards of you, for 10 seconds.  If this glyph increases the duration without increasing the maximum number of stars dropped, it will be useless in most AOE situations, which is where Starfall shines.  If, however, the maximum stars are “silently” increased in proportion, as if it were a DoT “ticking” an extra time, it would go up to 24 stars total.  This could be great for AOEing, or it could just suck, we’ll see.

Glyph of Wrath – Pretty self explanatory.  50% pushback prevention, useful for PvP mostly.

Glyph of Thorns – Reduces the casting cost of Thorns?  Seriously, even if it made thorns free…yeah, I can probably find something better for that slot.

Glyph of Innervate – I want whoever came up with this to have my babies.  Seriously.  The only question that comes to mind – if you innervate yourself, do you get 120% of the innervate effect, or is the smaller one overwritten?  This might lead to druids “trading” innervates.

FERAL:

Glyph of Growl – Less chance for the mob to resist a taunt?  Win!

Glyph of Mangle – In my admittedly limited experience, this seems like it would help both DPS and tanking by keeping the debuff up longer, thus requiring less energy/rage over a fight to generate damage & threat.  My feral math fu is not the best, so I can’t give an in depth analysis, but this seems like a pretty decent glyph.

Glyph of Rake – “Prevent from fleeing” isn’t too specific, but I’m assuming this will put a rooting effect on Rake.  Could be useful in PvP, or for stopping runners in PvE.

Glyph of Rip – Feral DPS mathings is weak!  No idea, ferals, you tell me!

Glyph of Shred – Again, my Feral DPS is the weakest point of my druid knowledge.  My only observation is that stunned/incap targets are far more common in PvP, so it may be geared more that way.

Glyph of Swipe – This seems like it would be great for tanking, helping to hold multiple targets on the druid.

Glyph of the White Bear and Glyph of the Red Lynx – Cosmetic, but cool!

RESTO:

Glyph of Healing Touch – The key here is whether or not the healing coefficent for healing touch is reduced along with the casting time.  If so, the glyph is utter trash.  If not, you would trade mana efficiency for a moderately higher HPS.  Still, with Nourish now available, I doubt it will be super useful.

Glyph of Rebirth – This could be a little useful, but only once every 20 minutes (or whatever the battle rez cooldown ends up being).  I’d pass, myself.

Glyph of Regrowth – This actually looks pretty cool.  As long as you’re juggling your HoTs and cooldowns right, you could get a large boost in Regrowth.  This could help make druids more viable as tank-focus healers.

Glyph of Rejuvenation - This could be really useful as well.  +50% healing whenever the target drops below half health, as long as you have a Rejuv up.  Again, this would seem to work best on a tank or otherwise designated target.

Glyph of Swiftmend – ZOMGWTFBBQ?!  This is incredible.  This means that swiftmend can be used at almost any time as long as you have your HoT rotation going, providing a large burst heal, and not having to worry about the target dying due to sudden lack of dots immediately after.  Plus, it doesn’t interrupt your rotation for more than the cast of swiftmend itself.  Definately a winner.

Glyph of Wild Endurance – I’d probably use this if it only took a minor, or I was soloing a lot.  Just for convenience, more than anything else.

And that’s it for now!

My work here is done…