http://www.twistednether.net/2008/06/23/episode-5-patches-and-pikes/
There's the link, if reading my written ramblings isn't enough for you and you want to hear it as well. ;P
Oh, and apologizes for the very poor sound quality from my end. I was on my laptop at the time =P (Also wow, no idea I talk that fast...)
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs. Show all posts
Monday, June 23, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Just a Quickie
The Twisted Nether Podcast, hosted by the two bloggers Breana and Fim, is going to have me on the show next week. What they're going to be asking me and what I'm going to have to talk about I've no idea, though it seems to involve my pets (who are all considerably more well-spoken than I), so it can't be all that bad, right?
Anyways, if you have any burning questions you want to hear me address (such as "How is Tawyn pronounced anyway?" or "Do VanCleef and Mr. Smite really merge into NegaVanSmiteMon* in Heroic Deadmines?") then be sure to toss the fine folks an e-mail and let 'em know!
* I maintain that the third season of Digimon was one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. And I have no qualms about saying so.
Anyways, if you have any burning questions you want to hear me address (such as "How is Tawyn pronounced anyway?" or "Do VanCleef and Mr. Smite really merge into NegaVanSmiteMon* in Heroic Deadmines?") then be sure to toss the fine folks an e-mail and let 'em know!
* I maintain that the third season of Digimon was one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. And I have no qualms about saying so.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Two Subjects, One Post
I remember when I was about to hit 70 on Tawyn. I remember frantically running around Netherstorm, doing quests and killing random things, slooooowly watching my experience bar inch towards the end of the row, knowing it wouldn't be long before that experience bar disappeared and my game experience would all change.
I had a similar feeling today with Lunapike. Except that it wasn't for level 70. No... it was for level 62.
I had been waiting for this moment for a while and I'd actually prepared for it in advance; knowing halfway through level 61 that my [Ironstar Repeater] would be far too fast of a weapon to have so I found another quest that I did specifically for a bow that was sort of a side-grade but had a beautiful 2.80 speed.
The second I dinged I flew to Shattrath, hopped into the portal to Thunder Bluff (Because Thunder Bluff is clearly superior to Orgrimmar) paid a visit to my old friend the Hunter Trainer, hearthstoned back to Outlands, found the first random mob that I could, and unleashed a barrage of bona-fide Shot Rotation.
It was marvelous. Marvelous. Granted, it all feels sort of vanilla right now without Kill Commands to spice things up. But Steady Shot, oh Steady Shot, how I've missed ya. Welcome back, buddy.
And now for something completely different...
The other day I asked several fellow WoW-bloggers via Twitter if they told a lot of people about their blog. I got a few different responses, some people didn't tell anyone whereas some people told friends and guildies. I myself didn't come "out of the closet" to my friends and guildies until recently for various reasons, but the reaction has been rather positive so I'm pretty happy with that.
I wonder sometimes, though, if there's a way to "plug" your blog on WoW without it sounding showy. Perhaps I've just yet to hit on it. But there's a reason why when people ask me for hunter advice, I typically do not link them to my blog. Because I sort of fear that it will come off as sounding like I'm showing off or something.
Yesterday when I was playing Lunapike, I was approached by an Orc Shamaness who was extremely well-spoken (which always garners my immediate positive attention) and told me that I should look into investing in a Ravager for maximum DPS over my other two pets on that character-- a cat and a windserpent. She said she had a level 70 hunter, to which I responded that I had one too (followed by the inevitable "Yes, I know this is my second hunter.") We had a brief discussion about pets and it didn't take long to realize that this shaman was very knowledgeable about hunters and especially pets. I was impressed and sort of wanted to bring up my blog because she seemed like a really neat person but I wasn't exactly sure how to go about it. Then she brought up Mania and Petopia and asked if I knew about them, to which I responded that yes I did, and in fact, if you look at Mania's blogroll you'll find my own hunter blog!
And that's about when the conversation fizzled out and the shaman had to go and used Astral Recall to get to Shatt.
It's sort of unfortunate that the conversation ended when it did, because I didn't mean to come off as bragging about being on somebody's blogroll, rather I was hoping it would enable me to sort of bring up my own blog, it just didn't happen. Anyways, Orc Shaman on The Venture Co. who knows a lot about hunters, if you happen to be out there reading, I appreciate the fact that you offered to give me advice, even if it happened to be advice that I already "knew". =P We need more people like you who are willing to give good advice to newer hunters in a friendly and very intelligent fashion.
Next time on Pike-TV: The Official Intro-to-Steady-Shot Post, Stats for Hunters Part 2, The Initiation of a new Character Spotlight Feature, and Oh-My-Gosh-Does-Pike-Actually-Have-A-Level-29-Resto-Druid.
Same Pike-time, same Pike-channel.
I had a similar feeling today with Lunapike. Except that it wasn't for level 70. No... it was for level 62.
I had been waiting for this moment for a while and I'd actually prepared for it in advance; knowing halfway through level 61 that my [Ironstar Repeater] would be far too fast of a weapon to have so I found another quest that I did specifically for a bow that was sort of a side-grade but had a beautiful 2.80 speed.
The second I dinged I flew to Shattrath, hopped into the portal to Thunder Bluff (Because Thunder Bluff is clearly superior to Orgrimmar) paid a visit to my old friend the Hunter Trainer, hearthstoned back to Outlands, found the first random mob that I could, and unleashed a barrage of bona-fide Shot Rotation.
It was marvelous. Marvelous. Granted, it all feels sort of vanilla right now without Kill Commands to spice things up. But Steady Shot, oh Steady Shot, how I've missed ya. Welcome back, buddy.
And now for something completely different...
The other day I asked several fellow WoW-bloggers via Twitter if they told a lot of people about their blog. I got a few different responses, some people didn't tell anyone whereas some people told friends and guildies. I myself didn't come "out of the closet" to my friends and guildies until recently for various reasons, but the reaction has been rather positive so I'm pretty happy with that.
I wonder sometimes, though, if there's a way to "plug" your blog on WoW without it sounding showy. Perhaps I've just yet to hit on it. But there's a reason why when people ask me for hunter advice, I typically do not link them to my blog. Because I sort of fear that it will come off as sounding like I'm showing off or something.
Yesterday when I was playing Lunapike, I was approached by an Orc Shamaness who was extremely well-spoken (which always garners my immediate positive attention) and told me that I should look into investing in a Ravager for maximum DPS over my other two pets on that character-- a cat and a windserpent. She said she had a level 70 hunter, to which I responded that I had one too (followed by the inevitable "Yes, I know this is my second hunter.") We had a brief discussion about pets and it didn't take long to realize that this shaman was very knowledgeable about hunters and especially pets. I was impressed and sort of wanted to bring up my blog because she seemed like a really neat person but I wasn't exactly sure how to go about it. Then she brought up Mania and Petopia and asked if I knew about them, to which I responded that yes I did, and in fact, if you look at Mania's blogroll you'll find my own hunter blog!
And that's about when the conversation fizzled out and the shaman had to go and used Astral Recall to get to Shatt.
It's sort of unfortunate that the conversation ended when it did, because I didn't mean to come off as bragging about being on somebody's blogroll, rather I was hoping it would enable me to sort of bring up my own blog, it just didn't happen. Anyways, Orc Shaman on The Venture Co. who knows a lot about hunters, if you happen to be out there reading, I appreciate the fact that you offered to give me advice, even if it happened to be advice that I already "knew". =P We need more people like you who are willing to give good advice to newer hunters in a friendly and very intelligent fashion.
Next time on Pike-TV: The Official Intro-to-Steady-Shot Post, Stats for Hunters Part 2, The Initiation of a new Character Spotlight Feature, and Oh-My-Gosh-Does-Pike-Actually-Have-A-Level-29-Resto-Druid.
Same Pike-time, same Pike-channel.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Geek is the New Black
Now I'm not one to hide my nerdiness and all-out geek pride.
But on the other hand, it's not something I bring up with a whole lot of people. Largely I think it's just because I assume that not very many people can relate to me if all I ever do is talk about Linux and video games. In order to get to know people, I sort of subconsciously stay on their level of interests, which I'm pretty sure in most cases is not mine.
But I sort of got tired of it today. Tired of beating around the bush. Tired of going "Um, er, ah..." when people ask me what my hobbies are or what I do in my spare time and I wonder what sort of blank stares I'd get if I told the whole truth.
Somebody asked me today what I'm doing tomorrow. I said "Raiding Karazhan with my guildies in World of Warcraft." "Oh... okay," was the semi-stunned response. It was all slightly awkward but I felt good. I'd unabashedly outed myself and it was nice.
In the breakroom at work today somebody came in and sat down across the table from me. We sat there munching on donuts and he asked me what I did last night. I said "I played video games." "Ooh, what games?" "World of Warcraft." "Ah yes," he said. He'd never played it but he knew a lot about it. We talked about XBox 360 games and Starcraft 2 for a while before he finished his donut and made his exit.
Not long after he left, two other people came in. One was a departmental manager and the other guy was someone who started working there not long after I did. They had McDonalds and they came in and sat down at the table and set up their food. Then the manager turned to the other guy and said simply: "I'm telling ya, mining, herbalism, and an epic flying mount, and you'll be set for life."
The other guy replied, "Well, I've just got mining to supplement my engineering. I finally learned how to make the +10 damage scope for myself yesterday!"
The engineer, as it turns out, began playing five months ago or so and is a level 65 hunter.
I told him if he made Goblin Jumper Cables, people would love him if he feigned death in an instance and could then rez the healer. He was pretty impressed with this idea.
He said he was trying to work on gaining rep with a lot of factions so he would have kind of a headstart when he got to level 70. I told him to start working on his Cenarion Expedition rep so he could nab Glyph of Ferocity.
Then my break was over.
I foresee some more fun chats between the two of us in the future.
Apparently I was underestimating the world's geek level. And I'm glad to say so.
On a completely different note, my boyfriend, Mr. Pike (though he prefers to be called "LS"), the infamous warlock who little level six Tawyn trekked across the world to find, started his own blog a little while ago and now feels he has enough content to warrant some visits. So go on, head over to Wearing Black in the Back and read what he has to say about roleplaying (both in and out of WoW), warlockery, and a variety of other goodies.
*pushes you over*
But on the other hand, it's not something I bring up with a whole lot of people. Largely I think it's just because I assume that not very many people can relate to me if all I ever do is talk about Linux and video games. In order to get to know people, I sort of subconsciously stay on their level of interests, which I'm pretty sure in most cases is not mine.
But I sort of got tired of it today. Tired of beating around the bush. Tired of going "Um, er, ah..." when people ask me what my hobbies are or what I do in my spare time and I wonder what sort of blank stares I'd get if I told the whole truth.
Somebody asked me today what I'm doing tomorrow. I said "Raiding Karazhan with my guildies in World of Warcraft." "Oh... okay," was the semi-stunned response. It was all slightly awkward but I felt good. I'd unabashedly outed myself and it was nice.
In the breakroom at work today somebody came in and sat down across the table from me. We sat there munching on donuts and he asked me what I did last night. I said "I played video games." "Ooh, what games?" "World of Warcraft." "Ah yes," he said. He'd never played it but he knew a lot about it. We talked about XBox 360 games and Starcraft 2 for a while before he finished his donut and made his exit.
Not long after he left, two other people came in. One was a departmental manager and the other guy was someone who started working there not long after I did. They had McDonalds and they came in and sat down at the table and set up their food. Then the manager turned to the other guy and said simply: "I'm telling ya, mining, herbalism, and an epic flying mount, and you'll be set for life."
The other guy replied, "Well, I've just got mining to supplement my engineering. I finally learned how to make the +10 damage scope for myself yesterday!"
The engineer, as it turns out, began playing five months ago or so and is a level 65 hunter.
I told him if he made Goblin Jumper Cables, people would love him if he feigned death in an instance and could then rez the healer. He was pretty impressed with this idea.
He said he was trying to work on gaining rep with a lot of factions so he would have kind of a headstart when he got to level 70. I told him to start working on his Cenarion Expedition rep so he could nab Glyph of Ferocity.
Then my break was over.
I foresee some more fun chats between the two of us in the future.
Apparently I was underestimating the world's geek level. And I'm glad to say so.
On a completely different note, my boyfriend, Mr. Pike (though he prefers to be called "LS"), the infamous warlock who little level six Tawyn trekked across the world to find, started his own blog a little while ago and now feels he has enough content to warrant some visits. So go on, head over to Wearing Black in the Back and read what he has to say about roleplaying (both in and out of WoW), warlockery, and a variety of other goodies.
*pushes you over*
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Special Announcement!
This is post number 100 in Aspect of the Hare.
This blog began in August of last year, when I had only been playing for a few months and was just level 48 or 50 or so. I realized that I was spamming my Livejournal with WoW rambles and decided I needed a new place to put them. So I started this blog and began posting my WoW rambles here, convinced that nobody would ever read them or even want to read them. In fact, now that I think about it, it probably would have turned into another one of my unfinished projects: I'd write for a while and then quit, and nobody would notice.
And yet here I am; six months later and level 70, and I've made 100 posts and Feedburner tells me I have no less than 149 subscribers. I have no idea if that's accurate or not but regardless, I'm here to thank you all. Thank you to everyone who has ever linked to me or read my posts or commented on my posts or came here from Google searching for hunter advice or WoW-On-Linux advice. I have read every single one of your comments. I don't always respond to them, but I read them all thoroughly and I cherish every compliment and take to heart every bit of advice.
I have no idea why you guys find my ramblings so interesting or entertaining, but thank you.
Here I would also like to throw out a special shout-out to Kestrel for being the first person to ever comment here. Kestrel, I'm not sure how you found me-- I'm gonna guess through my Blogger profile link in a comment at BRK, or something-- but really, look what you did! All of a sudden I seem to be popular! =P Thank you for showing me that I was in fact a not-too-terrible blogger and inspiring me to branch out and really start to participate in the WoW-blog-community.
The other day my boyfriend and I were talking a little bit about some of the awkwardness that comes with the transition between a "casual-hanging out" guild and a "casual-raiding" guild; my main's guild is going through that transition right now and I won't deny it's been a little awkward to have to go from being "the guild's main hunter" to "one of several good hunters in the guild". I've been spoiled, I think, and I have to keep reminding myself that I am no longer one of the few people around that can do my job, and that it's not a bad thing.
But lemme paraphrase what I told him last night. I said: "In the end, I don't have to be the best hunter on the server, or even the best hunter in the guild. I just want to be the girl who loved her class the most and made the most of it. If I can do that, then I will have succeeded."
And I mean every word of that. And my blog is like that too. This isn't here to be the most informative blog or the funniest blog or the most popular blog. This is here so passers-by can stop by for a bit, take a deep breath, and re-experience a little of that joy and magic that I feel so often in this game. There are a lot of little things in this game that make me happy. And I want to share that happiness with you. Because too often we get caught up in drama or problems or making the game less fun than it's supposed to be. And if one of my posts has reminded somebody for just a split second, "Hey, this game can actually be pretty fun!" ...well, then I've done my job.
I sat down with a pencil and paper for the first time in a while today:
It's sketchy and unfinished, but I kinda like it that way. Tawyn, Tux, and Locke all say "Thank you".
Now, on to the next 100 posts!
*tosses confetti*
This blog began in August of last year, when I had only been playing for a few months and was just level 48 or 50 or so. I realized that I was spamming my Livejournal with WoW rambles and decided I needed a new place to put them. So I started this blog and began posting my WoW rambles here, convinced that nobody would ever read them or even want to read them. In fact, now that I think about it, it probably would have turned into another one of my unfinished projects: I'd write for a while and then quit, and nobody would notice.
And yet here I am; six months later and level 70, and I've made 100 posts and Feedburner tells me I have no less than 149 subscribers. I have no idea if that's accurate or not but regardless, I'm here to thank you all. Thank you to everyone who has ever linked to me or read my posts or commented on my posts or came here from Google searching for hunter advice or WoW-On-Linux advice. I have read every single one of your comments. I don't always respond to them, but I read them all thoroughly and I cherish every compliment and take to heart every bit of advice.
I have no idea why you guys find my ramblings so interesting or entertaining, but thank you.
Here I would also like to throw out a special shout-out to Kestrel for being the first person to ever comment here. Kestrel, I'm not sure how you found me-- I'm gonna guess through my Blogger profile link in a comment at BRK, or something-- but really, look what you did! All of a sudden I seem to be popular! =P Thank you for showing me that I was in fact a not-too-terrible blogger and inspiring me to branch out and really start to participate in the WoW-blog-community.
The other day my boyfriend and I were talking a little bit about some of the awkwardness that comes with the transition between a "casual-hanging out" guild and a "casual-raiding" guild; my main's guild is going through that transition right now and I won't deny it's been a little awkward to have to go from being "the guild's main hunter" to "one of several good hunters in the guild". I've been spoiled, I think, and I have to keep reminding myself that I am no longer one of the few people around that can do my job, and that it's not a bad thing.
But lemme paraphrase what I told him last night. I said: "In the end, I don't have to be the best hunter on the server, or even the best hunter in the guild. I just want to be the girl who loved her class the most and made the most of it. If I can do that, then I will have succeeded."
And I mean every word of that. And my blog is like that too. This isn't here to be the most informative blog or the funniest blog or the most popular blog. This is here so passers-by can stop by for a bit, take a deep breath, and re-experience a little of that joy and magic that I feel so often in this game. There are a lot of little things in this game that make me happy. And I want to share that happiness with you. Because too often we get caught up in drama or problems or making the game less fun than it's supposed to be. And if one of my posts has reminded somebody for just a split second, "Hey, this game can actually be pretty fun!" ...well, then I've done my job.
I sat down with a pencil and paper for the first time in a while today:
It's sketchy and unfinished, but I kinda like it that way. Tawyn, Tux, and Locke all say "Thank you".
Now, on to the next 100 posts!
*tosses confetti*
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
My First Ever Arena...
...was a 2v2, me (BM hunter) and a warlock vs. a warrior and a priest.
I really didn't know a lot about what I was doing because I'd never even been inside an arena before. Somebody told me I should "run up the ramp" so I did. The warrior started pounding on the warlock first which gave me ample time to pop Beast Within, Abacus of Violent Odds, and Rapid Fire, and start devouring the warrior.
I actually got his health down quite a ways, but, ya know... he had a priest. So it was all to no avail. (In retrospect we probably should've attacked the priest first, but I didn't see him for a while.) I eventually died, which I expected-- I am so geared for PvE right now that it's not even funny how gimped my stamina and resilience are-- but to be honest I did better than I thought I'd do. I guess having 7000+ lifetime honor kills gives me a wee bit of an advantage despite my lack of gear.
I also played ten Arathi Basin games yesterday; I figured "why not" because it was still the holiday weekend for it and also because I had this sudden idea to record the results of the ten games, just for some fun statistics to look at.
Of the ten games I played, all PuGs, seven were against premades and were thus losses. (Though funnily enough, only two of those premades wound up actually five-capping us, the other five were all long grueling battles that lasted just as long as if it hadn't been a premade anyway. One comes to mind where we constantly had two nodes capped and the premade only managed to keep three... they kept trying to take our other nodes, and they kept failing.)
So only three of the games were good ol' fashioned PuG vs. PuG matchups. Of those three games, Alliance won two and Horde won once. For the first Alliance win, the Horde seemed to be off the ball right from the start, Alliance was ahead the entire way and won about 2000-1200. The second Alliance win was actually a very very close race for about 75% of the game, at which point Alliance somehow pulled off some crazy epic 5-cap maneuever and clinched us the victory. The one Horde victory was a pretty resounding Horde victory, they were ahead basically the entire game and it culminated in a 5-cap for them.
All and all I was satisfied; it showed me that despite all the premades you still get the occasional really fun matchups. I've been taking a break from PvP for a while but yesterday may have given me "the bug" again. I need to get some gear, afterall, if I'm going to be doing arena!
And now for something completely different: more and more WoW blogs are being hosted on Wordpress, and that's fine and all except that for some reason, blogs hosted on Wordpress seem to have a lot of issues loading for me. I think it has something to do with "Google Analytics" because that's always what shows up at the bottom of my browser, by the loading bar: "Waiting for Google Analytics". Seriously though, I had a Wordpress blog open in a Firefox tab just now and it took no less than ten minutes to load. They're all like that for me. And it takes me forever to leave a comment at those blogs, for the same reason. =/ Does anybody happen to know what's going on? So many good blogs are hosted on Wordpress and I'd like to make them easier to access.
I really didn't know a lot about what I was doing because I'd never even been inside an arena before. Somebody told me I should "run up the ramp" so I did. The warrior started pounding on the warlock first which gave me ample time to pop Beast Within, Abacus of Violent Odds, and Rapid Fire, and start devouring the warrior.
I actually got his health down quite a ways, but, ya know... he had a priest. So it was all to no avail. (In retrospect we probably should've attacked the priest first, but I didn't see him for a while.) I eventually died, which I expected-- I am so geared for PvE right now that it's not even funny how gimped my stamina and resilience are-- but to be honest I did better than I thought I'd do. I guess having 7000+ lifetime honor kills gives me a wee bit of an advantage despite my lack of gear.
I also played ten Arathi Basin games yesterday; I figured "why not" because it was still the holiday weekend for it and also because I had this sudden idea to record the results of the ten games, just for some fun statistics to look at.
Of the ten games I played, all PuGs, seven were against premades and were thus losses. (Though funnily enough, only two of those premades wound up actually five-capping us, the other five were all long grueling battles that lasted just as long as if it hadn't been a premade anyway. One comes to mind where we constantly had two nodes capped and the premade only managed to keep three... they kept trying to take our other nodes, and they kept failing.)
So only three of the games were good ol' fashioned PuG vs. PuG matchups. Of those three games, Alliance won two and Horde won once. For the first Alliance win, the Horde seemed to be off the ball right from the start, Alliance was ahead the entire way and won about 2000-1200. The second Alliance win was actually a very very close race for about 75% of the game, at which point Alliance somehow pulled off some crazy epic 5-cap maneuever and clinched us the victory. The one Horde victory was a pretty resounding Horde victory, they were ahead basically the entire game and it culminated in a 5-cap for them.
All and all I was satisfied; it showed me that despite all the premades you still get the occasional really fun matchups. I've been taking a break from PvP for a while but yesterday may have given me "the bug" again. I need to get some gear, afterall, if I'm going to be doing arena!
And now for something completely different: more and more WoW blogs are being hosted on Wordpress, and that's fine and all except that for some reason, blogs hosted on Wordpress seem to have a lot of issues loading for me. I think it has something to do with "Google Analytics" because that's always what shows up at the bottom of my browser, by the loading bar: "Waiting for Google Analytics". Seriously though, I had a Wordpress blog open in a Firefox tab just now and it took no less than ten minutes to load. They're all like that for me. And it takes me forever to leave a comment at those blogs, for the same reason. =/ Does anybody happen to know what's going on? So many good blogs are hosted on Wordpress and I'd like to make them easier to access.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Spotlight on... you guys!
If you are one of those people who comes and visits my actual blog as opposed to reading it through a reader, then you may have noticed that the two very long blogrolls on my sidebar are no longer there. They had a noble life though, and as much as I would like to keep them there they were simply getting to be far too unwieldy and as such they have been retired. ...or, at least, moved. I now have a completely separate page for my blogrolls:
Pike's Blogroll
And that is what will appear on the sidebar. I contemplated leaving a few "Best of the Best" blogs on the front page but it's just too hard for me to pick favorites when there are so many good ones. So everyone from the most popular bloggers to the very-newest-bloggers all reside on the same page.
Why are my blogrolls so big? Because I maintain that a lot of my skill as a player comes through posts made in WoW blogs, and as such I want to help to promote blogs and articles that continue to educate (and entertain) me. See, look, here's just a brief sampler of some of the neat stuff that's been posted in the past week alone:
Mirshalak tells us how he solo's Scholomance as a Survival Hunter and shares his views on how, on some situations, the cookie cutter talents builds might not be quite as effective as the more unusual ones.
Pelides has a very informative post about Feign Death and when and how to use it.
Trackhoof tells us about meta gems for hunters in various situations.
Drotara has a super-informative post about shot rotations, it's really one of the most nicely-summarized articles I've seen on the topic and it's definitely worth a look.
Over at Great Green Hunter we have a post about the pros and cons of using various popular pets in arena.
Siha at Banana Shoulders made a super-useful jewelcrafting reference sheet.
Critical QQ has some handy tips regarding that urge to go spend time in battlegrounds mid-leveling.
And Trollin' spills the beans and tells us just how he made that awesome click-able blogroll of his that everybody has been drooling over for a while now. ...at least, I know I have.
See what I mean about learning from other bloggers? That's why my blogroll is so gigantic. So go take a look if you haven't already, and maybe you'll learn something new! =D
Pike's Blogroll
And that is what will appear on the sidebar. I contemplated leaving a few "Best of the Best" blogs on the front page but it's just too hard for me to pick favorites when there are so many good ones. So everyone from the most popular bloggers to the very-newest-bloggers all reside on the same page.
Why are my blogrolls so big? Because I maintain that a lot of my skill as a player comes through posts made in WoW blogs, and as such I want to help to promote blogs and articles that continue to educate (and entertain) me. See, look, here's just a brief sampler of some of the neat stuff that's been posted in the past week alone:
Mirshalak tells us how he solo's Scholomance as a Survival Hunter and shares his views on how, on some situations, the cookie cutter talents builds might not be quite as effective as the more unusual ones.
Pelides has a very informative post about Feign Death and when and how to use it.
Trackhoof tells us about meta gems for hunters in various situations.
Drotara has a super-informative post about shot rotations, it's really one of the most nicely-summarized articles I've seen on the topic and it's definitely worth a look.
Over at Great Green Hunter we have a post about the pros and cons of using various popular pets in arena.
Siha at Banana Shoulders made a super-useful jewelcrafting reference sheet.
Critical QQ has some handy tips regarding that urge to go spend time in battlegrounds mid-leveling.
And Trollin' spills the beans and tells us just how he made that awesome click-able blogroll of his that everybody has been drooling over for a while now. ...at least, I know I have.
See what I mean about learning from other bloggers? That's why my blogroll is so gigantic. So go take a look if you haven't already, and maybe you'll learn something new! =D
Friday, January 25, 2008
Why I'm Still Here
So firstly I just want to say that I am probably more amused than I should be at the fact that Google Reader is recommending me to myself:
Anyways, on to the meat of this post.
First we had Someone and now just today Laser Chicken, two great WoW bloggers who have decided it's time to quit playing the game and move on with their lives . While it's sad to see them go, I'm also glad that they're doing what makes them happiest, and on top of that... it's really just the nature of our hobby. As I've said in a few different comments now... I'm going to quit playing someday too. It's not so much a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when". All the games I have ever been really obsessed with, I have eventually stopped playing (or slowed down enough that it can be considered "over"; with WoW you get more finality than with other games because you actually have to cancel your account and then you can't play again until you re-subscribe.)
Lemme tell you a little story. Before I played WoW I played Neopets. A browser-based cross between virtual pets and an MMO. Now despite this game's reputation as being just another kiddie site, let me assure you this is a very deep site with legions of adult fans. It has an economy the intricacies of which I'm sure are more in-depth than WoW's. It has an astonishing amount of stuff to do and an astonishing number of goals to accomplish, goals which can often take months-- or more-- to reach.
I played this game every day throughout the day (being a browser-based game, you could multitask and play it and do other things at the same time, which was nice) for probably about a year and a half or two years or so. What really got me hooked was the money-making aspect. There are a few different ways to earn Neopoints and I earned mine through restocking; refreshing a shop page every few minutes, buying up all the items and then reselling them for more in my shop. I got good at this. I could tell you what the best deals were to resell. I could tell you what the rare ones were that you could nab. The economy was changing constantly and I had to deal with that and I loved the challenge.
This was all really fun at first. I had one goal I was working towards: I wanted the rarest most expensive Neopet in the game. It would cost about 2.5million Neopoints.
It took me a year.
One year of restocking. One year of playing games. One year of scrounging up every last Neopoint I could get my hands on. And then I did it: I got him. The rare dragon-like Draik. It was an immense accomplishment for me. And yes I know it sounds super-dorky. But I was really proud of myself.
I kept playing for about a year after that, because after I'd accomplished my main goal I'd sort of gotten greedy and there were dozens of other goals that I wanted. I wanted to collect all the avatars I could. I wanted to collect all the special sidebars that I could. I wanted to get as many trophies as I could on my user lookup. I wanted more Neopoints so I could buy the second most-expensive Neopet, and so I could paint all my Neopets rare fancy colors.
And as time went on... it quit being a game.
It became a job.
I would log on in the morning and do my dailies and maybe half-heartedly play throughout the day to get my allocated 10,000NP (my minimum amount of money I'd allow myself to make in one day) and then I would just be glad when I was all finished for the day. I was no longer having fun. I was merely playing for two reasons: a.) to maintain my status as a successful Neopets player, and b.) because I'd made some friends who I would chat with on the chat boards.
Finally this past May I started playing WoW. I continued to sort of play Neopets after that... less and less... recently my Premium Neopets subscription expired (you can play the game for free, but Premium nets you a bunch of benefits). I chose not to re-subscribe and I haven't played since.
I look back on it and at first glance I see a couple years spent playing an online game, making online currency, so I could make some pixels on a screen look nicer than they do by default.
...but ya know what? I still feel some of those accomplishments I made in an online game were legitimate accomplishments. I set a goal. I worked for that goal. I achieved that goal. Yes the goal was merely fantasy, pixels that aren't tangible. But the process of working hard and achieving something is very real. That feeling of accomplishment has stuck with me. I don't regret the time I spent playing Neopets. I learned more about supply and demand than I ever did in school, I made new friends, and I learned that if you can put your mind to something you can accomplish even the most far-off-sounding goal.
When I started WoW I determined that I was not going to let it become a job. I was going to take it one day at a time, enjoy exploring the world and playing it how I want to play it, and then when I got tired I would quit. And that's how I've played it. I've met lots of amazing new people and made new friends. I've found something that I can take pride in (playing my hunter). I've learned a lot about teamwork and group work... more than ever before I feel like I know what it means to work as a team, simply because of what I've learned from when I do an instance. And this will sound strange but because of WoW I feel like I have a new way to connect to my siblings (all of whom were WoW players long before I was) and my boyfriend and I also have a multitude of new things to talk about. If I do start to feel overwhelmed, I take a break. Usually the feeling passes pretty quickly.
"But Pike, it's not real. It's just a game." Yes. But without launching into a whole 'nother essay about why video games have helped me become a better person, I'll just say that I read somewhere that it's not that playing video games or enjoying other hobbies is a bad thing. It's the time that you pour into something that you could be evenly distributing with other things. I play WoW a lot. I read/write about WoW a lot. Yes. But I also have a job that I enjoy, family and a boyfriend that I hang out with, and even the occasional forays into the outside "social world" (I have never been a social person, so honestly, it's not like WoW has gobbled up my "social time" because I rarely had any "social time" to begin with. =P) However, I will say I'm glad I waited to play WoW until after I graduated university. (Quite glad!)
Anyways, the key is in variety and if you can maintain that variety and that balance then you're doing good.
Will I quit playing WoW someday the same way I quit playing Neopets? Yep. I'm going to try my hardest not to let it burn me out the way Neopets did though. And I can tell you that all the benefits I've reaped from WoW and other video games are benefits that are going to stay with me. The game world is not real, but the people you meet are and the things you learn and the feelings you have are. So try your best to make your experience a positive one. It's a game-- have fun. =D
Anyways, on to the meat of this post.First we had Someone and now just today Laser Chicken, two great WoW bloggers who have decided it's time to quit playing the game and move on with their lives . While it's sad to see them go, I'm also glad that they're doing what makes them happiest, and on top of that... it's really just the nature of our hobby. As I've said in a few different comments now... I'm going to quit playing someday too. It's not so much a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when". All the games I have ever been really obsessed with, I have eventually stopped playing (or slowed down enough that it can be considered "over"; with WoW you get more finality than with other games because you actually have to cancel your account and then you can't play again until you re-subscribe.)
Lemme tell you a little story. Before I played WoW I played Neopets. A browser-based cross between virtual pets and an MMO. Now despite this game's reputation as being just another kiddie site, let me assure you this is a very deep site with legions of adult fans. It has an economy the intricacies of which I'm sure are more in-depth than WoW's. It has an astonishing amount of stuff to do and an astonishing number of goals to accomplish, goals which can often take months-- or more-- to reach.
I played this game every day throughout the day (being a browser-based game, you could multitask and play it and do other things at the same time, which was nice) for probably about a year and a half or two years or so. What really got me hooked was the money-making aspect. There are a few different ways to earn Neopoints and I earned mine through restocking; refreshing a shop page every few minutes, buying up all the items and then reselling them for more in my shop. I got good at this. I could tell you what the best deals were to resell. I could tell you what the rare ones were that you could nab. The economy was changing constantly and I had to deal with that and I loved the challenge.
This was all really fun at first. I had one goal I was working towards: I wanted the rarest most expensive Neopet in the game. It would cost about 2.5million Neopoints.
It took me a year.
One year of restocking. One year of playing games. One year of scrounging up every last Neopoint I could get my hands on. And then I did it: I got him. The rare dragon-like Draik. It was an immense accomplishment for me. And yes I know it sounds super-dorky. But I was really proud of myself.
I kept playing for about a year after that, because after I'd accomplished my main goal I'd sort of gotten greedy and there were dozens of other goals that I wanted. I wanted to collect all the avatars I could. I wanted to collect all the special sidebars that I could. I wanted to get as many trophies as I could on my user lookup. I wanted more Neopoints so I could buy the second most-expensive Neopet, and so I could paint all my Neopets rare fancy colors.
And as time went on... it quit being a game.
It became a job.
I would log on in the morning and do my dailies and maybe half-heartedly play throughout the day to get my allocated 10,000NP (my minimum amount of money I'd allow myself to make in one day) and then I would just be glad when I was all finished for the day. I was no longer having fun. I was merely playing for two reasons: a.) to maintain my status as a successful Neopets player, and b.) because I'd made some friends who I would chat with on the chat boards.
Finally this past May I started playing WoW. I continued to sort of play Neopets after that... less and less... recently my Premium Neopets subscription expired (you can play the game for free, but Premium nets you a bunch of benefits). I chose not to re-subscribe and I haven't played since.
I look back on it and at first glance I see a couple years spent playing an online game, making online currency, so I could make some pixels on a screen look nicer than they do by default.
...but ya know what? I still feel some of those accomplishments I made in an online game were legitimate accomplishments. I set a goal. I worked for that goal. I achieved that goal. Yes the goal was merely fantasy, pixels that aren't tangible. But the process of working hard and achieving something is very real. That feeling of accomplishment has stuck with me. I don't regret the time I spent playing Neopets. I learned more about supply and demand than I ever did in school, I made new friends, and I learned that if you can put your mind to something you can accomplish even the most far-off-sounding goal.
When I started WoW I determined that I was not going to let it become a job. I was going to take it one day at a time, enjoy exploring the world and playing it how I want to play it, and then when I got tired I would quit. And that's how I've played it. I've met lots of amazing new people and made new friends. I've found something that I can take pride in (playing my hunter). I've learned a lot about teamwork and group work... more than ever before I feel like I know what it means to work as a team, simply because of what I've learned from when I do an instance. And this will sound strange but because of WoW I feel like I have a new way to connect to my siblings (all of whom were WoW players long before I was) and my boyfriend and I also have a multitude of new things to talk about. If I do start to feel overwhelmed, I take a break. Usually the feeling passes pretty quickly.
"But Pike, it's not real. It's just a game." Yes. But without launching into a whole 'nother essay about why video games have helped me become a better person, I'll just say that I read somewhere that it's not that playing video games or enjoying other hobbies is a bad thing. It's the time that you pour into something that you could be evenly distributing with other things. I play WoW a lot. I read/write about WoW a lot. Yes. But I also have a job that I enjoy, family and a boyfriend that I hang out with, and even the occasional forays into the outside "social world" (I have never been a social person, so honestly, it's not like WoW has gobbled up my "social time" because I rarely had any "social time" to begin with. =P) However, I will say I'm glad I waited to play WoW until after I graduated university. (Quite glad!)
Anyways, the key is in variety and if you can maintain that variety and that balance then you're doing good.
Will I quit playing WoW someday the same way I quit playing Neopets? Yep. I'm going to try my hardest not to let it burn me out the way Neopets did though. And I can tell you that all the benefits I've reaped from WoW and other video games are benefits that are going to stay with me. The game world is not real, but the people you meet are and the things you learn and the feelings you have are. So try your best to make your experience a positive one. It's a game-- have fun. =D
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Irony
The other day I was in the middle of a Steamvaults run (which we ended up scrapping halfway through because the tank was disconnected and then apparently the login server went down), when somebody said something to this effect in guild chat:
"Ugh, I'm grouped with another huntard. Tawyn, you need to start writing guides on how to be a good hunter and post them online so we can send all the huntards there."
...I giggled.
And I told her that as a matter of fact... I sort of already try to do that. I said that there's a rather expansive online "hunter community" of people that want to lend their advice and experience to newbies, and that I'm a part of it.
Now what you've gotta understand here, is that very few of my guildies know about my blog. It's not because I'm hiding it from them or anything. It's mostly that I don't really like tooting my own horn. Somehow, for some crazy reason, this site is currently getting over 130 hits a day. Now I dunno about anybody else but I consider that to be a resounding success. But I can't help but fear that it might put me in a sort of weird authoritative position in the guild that I don't find myself to be deserving of, considering how awesome my guildies are. (Though to be fair, you could argue that I'm already in an "authoritative position", since I am an officer and probably unofficially the "hunter class leader", considering the "I need advice" whispers I often get from various lower-level hunters in the guild.)
Anyways while I'd love for more of my guildies to see this blog at some point, I'm holding off on it because I'm waiting for a time when it's less awkward for me to bring it up. So when the aforementioned person asked for a website to refer the huntards to, I said BigRedKitty.net. Because there is no denying that not only is BRK probably one of the best hunter resources on the net right now, but he also holds the position of being sort of the "central hub" to this hunter community, and as such his site is a really good starting point-- if you spend enough time at BRK, you will eventually find a lot of other good sites too.
And once again I find myself vouching for the help that the WoW-blogging community offers. I've been having more and more people recently asking me how I learned to play my hunter competently. And really my only answers are "lots of reading online" and "lots of practice." Others in my guild, after hearing me mention this, have started doing their own research and reading on their class and I think it's showing. We are developing a really strong group of players and it's really exciting.
Anyways, blog-talk time over. I met one of my goals this weekend:
That is my new Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow, which was promptly equipped with an Adamantite Scope. I was hoping to have it a day earlier, but it turns out the Estimated Honor was even more inaccurate than I'd assumed and I wound up about 180 honor short. But a few AVs and 24 hours later... yes. I am a happy hunter.
I went and tried it out on the level 70 elementals in Nagrand, and the improvement over my last bow is just insane. I'm so excited to try this out in an instance. I also need to get my crossbow skill up, so I can bring my crit back up.
Speaking of crit, my unbuffed agility is now over 500. At this point, I think I could probably decently pull off a 0/31/30 spec. It's difficult for me to imagine life without the Big Red Pet and all the benefits that 41/20/0 comes with (like Serpent's Swiftness, oh how I love this talent); but I feel like I have left hunter territory unexplored if I don't try out a lot of different specs. Besides, I've noticed lately that my crowd control is pretty critical in instances; now I think I'm a decent trapper as it is, but I often feel like I could be bringing more to the table and improved traps would help with that. I know I can think of more than a few times lately where I've wished, mid-instance, that I had better traps. So I've informed my fellow-instance'ers to let me know if they ever feel like they need improved traps, and if so, I will respec post haste.
*glances up at wall of text*
...I really do talk too much, don't I?
"Ugh, I'm grouped with another huntard. Tawyn, you need to start writing guides on how to be a good hunter and post them online so we can send all the huntards there."
...I giggled.
And I told her that as a matter of fact... I sort of already try to do that. I said that there's a rather expansive online "hunter community" of people that want to lend their advice and experience to newbies, and that I'm a part of it.
Now what you've gotta understand here, is that very few of my guildies know about my blog. It's not because I'm hiding it from them or anything. It's mostly that I don't really like tooting my own horn. Somehow, for some crazy reason, this site is currently getting over 130 hits a day. Now I dunno about anybody else but I consider that to be a resounding success. But I can't help but fear that it might put me in a sort of weird authoritative position in the guild that I don't find myself to be deserving of, considering how awesome my guildies are. (Though to be fair, you could argue that I'm already in an "authoritative position", since I am an officer and probably unofficially the "hunter class leader", considering the "I need advice" whispers I often get from various lower-level hunters in the guild.)
Anyways while I'd love for more of my guildies to see this blog at some point, I'm holding off on it because I'm waiting for a time when it's less awkward for me to bring it up. So when the aforementioned person asked for a website to refer the huntards to, I said BigRedKitty.net. Because there is no denying that not only is BRK probably one of the best hunter resources on the net right now, but he also holds the position of being sort of the "central hub" to this hunter community, and as such his site is a really good starting point-- if you spend enough time at BRK, you will eventually find a lot of other good sites too.
And once again I find myself vouching for the help that the WoW-blogging community offers. I've been having more and more people recently asking me how I learned to play my hunter competently. And really my only answers are "lots of reading online" and "lots of practice." Others in my guild, after hearing me mention this, have started doing their own research and reading on their class and I think it's showing. We are developing a really strong group of players and it's really exciting.
Anyways, blog-talk time over. I met one of my goals this weekend:
That is my new Gladiator's Heavy Crossbow, which was promptly equipped with an Adamantite Scope. I was hoping to have it a day earlier, but it turns out the Estimated Honor was even more inaccurate than I'd assumed and I wound up about 180 honor short. But a few AVs and 24 hours later... yes. I am a happy hunter.
I went and tried it out on the level 70 elementals in Nagrand, and the improvement over my last bow is just insane. I'm so excited to try this out in an instance. I also need to get my crossbow skill up, so I can bring my crit back up.
Speaking of crit, my unbuffed agility is now over 500. At this point, I think I could probably decently pull off a 0/31/30 spec. It's difficult for me to imagine life without the Big Red Pet and all the benefits that 41/20/0 comes with (like Serpent's Swiftness, oh how I love this talent); but I feel like I have left hunter territory unexplored if I don't try out a lot of different specs. Besides, I've noticed lately that my crowd control is pretty critical in instances; now I think I'm a decent trapper as it is, but I often feel like I could be bringing more to the table and improved traps would help with that. I know I can think of more than a few times lately where I've wished, mid-instance, that I had better traps. So I've informed my fellow-instance'ers to let me know if they ever feel like they need improved traps, and if so, I will respec post haste.
*glances up at wall of text*
...I really do talk too much, don't I?
Monday, December 17, 2007
Bwahar. Customization!
You will (hopefully) notice I have a shiny new layout on my blog! Yes, I've spent a little while messing around with HTML and various other customizations and now my previous two-column blog has turned into a spiffy three-column blog. I think that this will help ease the crowding on my sidebar, since I now have two sidebars to split my things between.
I did have to make some further changes though:
Firstly, I now have so many blogs that I read and link to, that having all of them in one long list was just turning into a gigantic wall of text that I'm not sure anyone would want to wade through. So I've split my blogroll into two parts; hunter-related blogs, and other class/general WoW/general gaming blogs. There were a few blogs that I was having trouble placing; for the most part, if you talk about hunters but you also talk about a lot of other stuff, I put you in the "general" section. If you see your blog in my links, and you would rather I shift it to the other blogroll, let me know and I can do that for ya. =D And of course, I will keep an eye on you (in a non-creepy way) and if your blog ever shifts focus I will try to move your place in my lists accordingly.
Also I have noticed that while on the one hand, my blog appears somewhat cleaner, it also, paradoxically, appears a bit more cluttered because I've got text on the left, text in the middle, and text on the right. This is something I'm going to work on; seeing if I can shorten my blurbs of sidebar text so it's not such a strain on the eyes. Let me know if you have any ideas or comments for me regarding making my layout more attractive in that way.
And yes, I know the title image looks off-center now; it's because the text on the image is off-center. I've been thinking of doing a little revamp of my title image anyway, so I will probably do that at some point.
In the meantime, pardon any dust as I continue to move things around a little. I will return you to your regularly scheduled blogging as soon as I can.
I did have to make some further changes though:
Firstly, I now have so many blogs that I read and link to, that having all of them in one long list was just turning into a gigantic wall of text that I'm not sure anyone would want to wade through. So I've split my blogroll into two parts; hunter-related blogs, and other class/general WoW/general gaming blogs. There were a few blogs that I was having trouble placing; for the most part, if you talk about hunters but you also talk about a lot of other stuff, I put you in the "general" section. If you see your blog in my links, and you would rather I shift it to the other blogroll, let me know and I can do that for ya. =D And of course, I will keep an eye on you (in a non-creepy way) and if your blog ever shifts focus I will try to move your place in my lists accordingly.
Also I have noticed that while on the one hand, my blog appears somewhat cleaner, it also, paradoxically, appears a bit more cluttered because I've got text on the left, text in the middle, and text on the right. This is something I'm going to work on; seeing if I can shorten my blurbs of sidebar text so it's not such a strain on the eyes. Let me know if you have any ideas or comments for me regarding making my layout more attractive in that way.
And yes, I know the title image looks off-center now; it's because the text on the image is off-center. I've been thinking of doing a little revamp of my title image anyway, so I will probably do that at some point.
In the meantime, pardon any dust as I continue to move things around a little. I will return you to your regularly scheduled blogging as soon as I can.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Quick Blog-Related Question
The new current fad seems to be switching from Blogger to Wordpress; BRK just did it yesterday but a lot of other bloggers have done it recently as well.
What I'm wondering is... would it be worth it for me to make the switch as well? I know a lot of people have been praising Wordpress for being more customizable and whatnot... I guess I'm just curious to know a comparison of some of the features they offer verses some of the ones Blogger does. Because up 'til now I've sort of been taking the view of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", which is why I've been sticking with Blogger.
Another reason I'm wary of switching is because I don't want to annoy people with having to update bookmarks or RSS feeds or blogrolls. And I worry my readership might take a bit of a hit-- not that I'm super popular or anything, but 60-70 hits a day really isn't too shabby, and I kinda like those hits... makes me think I might actually be a decent writer or something! =P
So I will leave the opinions open to you guys; because you guys are the ones who read my blog so I'd like to know what you think. Do the benefits of moving to Wordpress outweigh the possible cons? Are there any other good blogging software or sites out there that I should consider also? My personal journal is over at LiveJournal (and has been for over three years) but even though I love LJ it's more for exactly that, personal journals, instead of blogging.
What do you guys think?
What I'm wondering is... would it be worth it for me to make the switch as well? I know a lot of people have been praising Wordpress for being more customizable and whatnot... I guess I'm just curious to know a comparison of some of the features they offer verses some of the ones Blogger does. Because up 'til now I've sort of been taking the view of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", which is why I've been sticking with Blogger.
Another reason I'm wary of switching is because I don't want to annoy people with having to update bookmarks or RSS feeds or blogrolls. And I worry my readership might take a bit of a hit-- not that I'm super popular or anything, but 60-70 hits a day really isn't too shabby, and I kinda like those hits... makes me think I might actually be a decent writer or something! =P
So I will leave the opinions open to you guys; because you guys are the ones who read my blog so I'd like to know what you think. Do the benefits of moving to Wordpress outweigh the possible cons? Are there any other good blogging software or sites out there that I should consider also? My personal journal is over at LiveJournal (and has been for over three years) but even though I love LJ it's more for exactly that, personal journals, instead of blogging.
What do you guys think?
Monday, December 3, 2007
Roleplay & Character Choices - Combining my Comments into a Post
I've seen a lot of blog posts around lately that seem to be hitting on sort of the same note; that is to say, the idea of playing a gender different than your own (the subject may or may not involve roleplaying).
I've been responding to a lot of these posts and I noticed that a lot of my responses were coming out pretty much the same so I figured I would turn it into a full-fledged blog post.
On Roleplaying: Roleplaying and things related to roleplaying (coming up with new characters, giving them stories and backgrounds, imaging their life in Azeroth, etc.) is pretty much 90% of what draws me to WoW. The other 10% or so is the mechanics of playing my hunter. And I'm sure you all know how much I love playing my hunter, so you can definitely see just how important roleplaying is to me. That's just my personality and how I am-- I like imagining things. I definitely understand why roleplaying isn't everyone's thing, in fact, I don't think it's most people's thing. But, it is my thing. It is a huge, huge part of what makes WoW interesting to me. (Yes, I'm a geek, I know. =D) If you were to take away Tawyn, Night Elf Hunter who I've invented this huge story for... and replace her with an equally-leveled but different character that I did not invent, it would be very, very hard for me to keep playing the game.
And where is this leading to?
This:
On Playing as a Character That is the Opposite Gender:
For a long time, I've been just a little confused on why so many people play as the opposite gender. It wasn't that I had a problem with it, it was just hard for me to understand why someone would play as a character that they couldn't identify with on that base level. Yes, you could make the argument that the opposite gender looks more attractive to you, but for me that wasn't nearly as important as being able to play as a character that you could really identify with. (And I say this as a very, very tomboyish female. My characters are tomboys, but they are still female. Like me.)
And then, thanks largely to an excellent article at Big Bear Butt Blogger, it hit me. I'm looking at the game a lot differently than most people are.
That is to say, I am a roleplayer and a daydreamer and I imagine my characters as extensions of myself, and... avatars of myself in a parallel universe, so to speak.
The majority of you guys, I imagine, are a bit more normal than me, heehee =P And you play the game as just a game, or as a movie. Big Bear Butt said that he liked playing female characters because he likes watching female characters kick butt, like in a movie or TV show, for example. It has nothing to do with creating a character that is an expression of yourself. And that's a very normal thing, and it makes a lot of sense. I had just sort of forgotten that, and assumed that everybody was like me and into the whole roleplaying thing.
So, thanks Big Bear Butt for hitting me back into reality for a few minutes and helping me understand a lot of my fellow WoW players better. I'll try not to dig myself so deep into the RP-hole next time. (Even if it is a lot of fun down here!)
P.S. A lot of roleplayers actually play the opposite gender too... because good character ideas are not limited by gender. So it's not a roleplayer thing, I think, so much as it's a "Pike" thing. =P
I've been responding to a lot of these posts and I noticed that a lot of my responses were coming out pretty much the same so I figured I would turn it into a full-fledged blog post.
On Roleplaying: Roleplaying and things related to roleplaying (coming up with new characters, giving them stories and backgrounds, imaging their life in Azeroth, etc.) is pretty much 90% of what draws me to WoW. The other 10% or so is the mechanics of playing my hunter. And I'm sure you all know how much I love playing my hunter, so you can definitely see just how important roleplaying is to me. That's just my personality and how I am-- I like imagining things. I definitely understand why roleplaying isn't everyone's thing, in fact, I don't think it's most people's thing. But, it is my thing. It is a huge, huge part of what makes WoW interesting to me. (Yes, I'm a geek, I know. =D) If you were to take away Tawyn, Night Elf Hunter who I've invented this huge story for... and replace her with an equally-leveled but different character that I did not invent, it would be very, very hard for me to keep playing the game.
And where is this leading to?
This:
On Playing as a Character That is the Opposite Gender:
For a long time, I've been just a little confused on why so many people play as the opposite gender. It wasn't that I had a problem with it, it was just hard for me to understand why someone would play as a character that they couldn't identify with on that base level. Yes, you could make the argument that the opposite gender looks more attractive to you, but for me that wasn't nearly as important as being able to play as a character that you could really identify with. (And I say this as a very, very tomboyish female. My characters are tomboys, but they are still female. Like me.)
And then, thanks largely to an excellent article at Big Bear Butt Blogger, it hit me. I'm looking at the game a lot differently than most people are.
That is to say, I am a roleplayer and a daydreamer and I imagine my characters as extensions of myself, and... avatars of myself in a parallel universe, so to speak.
The majority of you guys, I imagine, are a bit more normal than me, heehee =P And you play the game as just a game, or as a movie. Big Bear Butt said that he liked playing female characters because he likes watching female characters kick butt, like in a movie or TV show, for example. It has nothing to do with creating a character that is an expression of yourself. And that's a very normal thing, and it makes a lot of sense. I had just sort of forgotten that, and assumed that everybody was like me and into the whole roleplaying thing.
So, thanks Big Bear Butt for hitting me back into reality for a few minutes and helping me understand a lot of my fellow WoW players better. I'll try not to dig myself so deep into the RP-hole next time. (Even if it is a lot of fun down here!)
P.S. A lot of roleplayers actually play the opposite gender too... because good character ideas are not limited by gender. So it's not a roleplayer thing, I think, so much as it's a "Pike" thing. =P
Friday, November 16, 2007
Desktops & Blogs
This is a screenshot I took today of my current computer desktop:
The wallpaper was made by the extraordinarily talented artists over at The Bronze Kettle, which is a very good WoW blog that I would recommend looking into if you haven't already.
Speaking of blogs, I've finally updated my sidebar's blogroll; in fact, thanks to Google Reader and some code, it should actually self-update now every time I find a new blog to read. (Thanks to Mania for originally pointing out that you could do this!)
My blogroll has gotten very big in such a short amount of time, if it gets much bigger I might have to make a dedicated "page" for it. But I like having all the links on the blog itself.
Ding 63 and I got my [Survivalist's Pike]! It even has my nickname in it, so you know it's gotta be a good weapon. =P
The wallpaper was made by the extraordinarily talented artists over at The Bronze Kettle, which is a very good WoW blog that I would recommend looking into if you haven't already.
Speaking of blogs, I've finally updated my sidebar's blogroll; in fact, thanks to Google Reader and some code, it should actually self-update now every time I find a new blog to read. (Thanks to Mania for originally pointing out that you could do this!)
My blogroll has gotten very big in such a short amount of time, if it gets much bigger I might have to make a dedicated "page" for it. But I like having all the links on the blog itself.
Ding 63 and I got my [Survivalist's Pike]! It even has my nickname in it, so you know it's gotta be a good weapon. =P
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Random Ramblings!
So my Sitemeter tells me that I've had like 100 new visitors just in the past few hours thanks to a link on Big Red Kitty. To coin a term, I have been BRK'd. Wow! Thanks BRK! And welcome to any new visitors. Please feel free to browse around my little blog, and pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable if you so desire. *passes out cookies and tea for the readers, and a variety of pet foods for their pets*.
(Edit: And a link on Mania's Arcania too? Wow, thank you!! I might just have to make another "shout-out" post sometime soon.)
Now then, Outlands:
This screenshot was taken shortly before heading through the Dark Portal to get to Outlands. Yes, I've had my hearth set to Shatt since level 50 or so, but there was no way I was going to miss out on going through the portal.
The irony is that the screenshot is already "outdated", so to speak, since in the short time between then and now I have already managed to replace two pieces of gear as well as my ranged weapon, all with stuff that is better than my old-world gear to a ridiculous degree. I already love Outlands though-- it's fun, it's challenging (the "yellow" mobs are more like "orange" mobs, and I love that challenge), and of course, there's all the new gear!
So here I am, on the fast-track to level 60 (ooh, remind me to do more farming... need epic mount cash) and enjoying every bit of it.
Other bits of interest: My teal kitty has been christened Locke. This name has a double meaning for me; firstly, John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher, just like Thomas Hobbes... so there is an in-joke there, a nod to both the Calvin & Hobbes comic and to BRK. Secondly, Locke Cole is a character from the Super Nintendo game Final Fantasy VI, which is one of my favorite video games. Locke the kitty and Tux the owl have been taking turns playing in Outlands with me, all the while being lavished with roasted quail.
Also, I have decided that I'd like to improve upon my PvP skills. I've been doing a lot of battlegrounds recently (since once I hit a level ending in 8 or 9 I hightail it over to the battlemasters... you might say I have a bit of an addiction) and while I would call my self an "okay" PvPer and I tend to be towards the top of the damage charts at the end, I still am not a "good" PvPer. A lot of times in PvP I'll get caught of guard or people will sneak up on me, and then I seem to spend the duration of that duel trying to get back to range and doing very little non-pet damage. It's definitely time to practice my technique here.
I do have an interesting PvP story to share. I was in Alterac Valley the other day, and was somewhere out in the middle of nowhere when I ran across a lone orc warrior. He was level 51, and I was level 59. Now I know it's battlegrounds, I know player-vs-player combat is the whole point here... but I couldn't bring myself to attack him. Not with eight levels separating us. Besides, since we were both out in the middle of nowhere I figured he must have been doing a quest or something. So I hopped on my mount and rode right past him. Not long after this I paused to catch my bearings and decide where I wanted to go. And who should come jumping on me but that level 51 warrior! We fought, and obviously Tux and I triumphed. But I have to say that little incident left me admiring the orc player's courage and mindset. He knew what PvP was all about. He was willing to try taking on a player that was eight levels higher than him. Whereas I, well, I love a good battlegrounds game but I'm really just a carebear at heart. It was an interesting juxtaposition of two different playstyles and I /salute that orc warrior, wherever he is.
Alrighty, enough pseudo-philosophical rambling. Back to Outlands!
(Edit: And a link on Mania's Arcania too? Wow, thank you!! I might just have to make another "shout-out" post sometime soon.)
Now then, Outlands:
This screenshot was taken shortly before heading through the Dark Portal to get to Outlands. Yes, I've had my hearth set to Shatt since level 50 or so, but there was no way I was going to miss out on going through the portal.
The irony is that the screenshot is already "outdated", so to speak, since in the short time between then and now I have already managed to replace two pieces of gear as well as my ranged weapon, all with stuff that is better than my old-world gear to a ridiculous degree. I already love Outlands though-- it's fun, it's challenging (the "yellow" mobs are more like "orange" mobs, and I love that challenge), and of course, there's all the new gear!
So here I am, on the fast-track to level 60 (ooh, remind me to do more farming... need epic mount cash) and enjoying every bit of it.
Other bits of interest: My teal kitty has been christened Locke. This name has a double meaning for me; firstly, John Locke was a 17th-century English philosopher, just like Thomas Hobbes... so there is an in-joke there, a nod to both the Calvin & Hobbes comic and to BRK. Secondly, Locke Cole is a character from the Super Nintendo game Final Fantasy VI, which is one of my favorite video games. Locke the kitty and Tux the owl have been taking turns playing in Outlands with me, all the while being lavished with roasted quail.
Also, I have decided that I'd like to improve upon my PvP skills. I've been doing a lot of battlegrounds recently (since once I hit a level ending in 8 or 9 I hightail it over to the battlemasters... you might say I have a bit of an addiction) and while I would call my self an "okay" PvPer and I tend to be towards the top of the damage charts at the end, I still am not a "good" PvPer. A lot of times in PvP I'll get caught of guard or people will sneak up on me, and then I seem to spend the duration of that duel trying to get back to range and doing very little non-pet damage. It's definitely time to practice my technique here.
I do have an interesting PvP story to share. I was in Alterac Valley the other day, and was somewhere out in the middle of nowhere when I ran across a lone orc warrior. He was level 51, and I was level 59. Now I know it's battlegrounds, I know player-vs-player combat is the whole point here... but I couldn't bring myself to attack him. Not with eight levels separating us. Besides, since we were both out in the middle of nowhere I figured he must have been doing a quest or something. So I hopped on my mount and rode right past him. Not long after this I paused to catch my bearings and decide where I wanted to go. And who should come jumping on me but that level 51 warrior! We fought, and obviously Tux and I triumphed. But I have to say that little incident left me admiring the orc player's courage and mindset. He knew what PvP was all about. He was willing to try taking on a player that was eight levels higher than him. Whereas I, well, I love a good battlegrounds game but I'm really just a carebear at heart. It was an interesting juxtaposition of two different playstyles and I /salute that orc warrior, wherever he is.
Alrighty, enough pseudo-philosophical rambling. Back to Outlands!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Blogs, and bad hunters (not together, fortunately)
It never ceases to amaze me how expansive the blogging community is, even in a single subject (in this case, WoW.) I've been finding myself linked to in blogs and even mentioned in blog posts (thanks again Matticus! It was a very interesting article too) so I keep finding more and more blogs to read. I'm afraid I may run out of room in my Bookmarks Toolbar Folder before long. I need to find a nice, easy way to keep track of all the blogs I read-- is Google Reader good? I need some recommendations.
While we're on the topic of blogs, I also want to mention that I do in fact read every single comment that is posted here, thanks to Gmail notifications. I even read the ones made on really old posts. I just wanted to mention that because I've been getting some comments on older posts recently, and I wanted to make sure everybody knew that they are all read and quite appreciated.
Anyways, I've been coming up with a lot of things I've wanted to write about lately; but I think this post is just going to focus on... bad hunters. Yes, hunters seem to have a bad rap for having the highest quantity of bad players. To be quite honest I'm not surprised. The amount of people I've run into who don't have "Hunter 101" down is astonishing. (I think Hunter 101 probably consists of one sentence: "Send your pet in to hold aggro for you and shoot things from afar." Seriously I think some hunters have not yet made that connection.)
I once grouped with a level 40-something hunter whose strategy in an instance went like this: use multi-shot or volley to get as many mobs as possible to aggro onto you, and then melee everything. Yes, I'm serious. Now, it's one thing to be a self-professed delusional hunter and do stuff like that for fun ;) , but it's another thing to seriously use that as your main method of attack in an instance. (For the record, that guy wound up aggro'ing everything in a particularly bad room and everybody died except me, and I even managed to dispose of all the offending mobs. I was pretty proud of being able to survive such a bad wipe. It's moments like that-- moments where the odds are stacked against you, and you experience the thrill of coming up with a way to survive-- that really make me love being a hunter.)
It's even worse when other people are grouped with bad hunters and then they feel less inclined to group with hunters again, later. My boyfriend occasionally runs instances while I'm gone or busy; many times I have returned home to be met with "Pleeeease get on WoW and group with us, we just had to kick this horrible hunter who can't use traps/feigns death at the worst times/can't control his pet/keeps wiping us/*insert something else here* and we need you." It's flattering that he and his friends turn to me when they need a reliable hunter, but it's sad that it's so hard for them to find reliable hunters in the first place.
Now maybe it's just easier for me to pick out bad hunters because hunter is really the only class I know much about. Maybe I've grouped with lots of bad players of other classes and just haven't noticed because I'm not very experienced yet. But I don't know, I'm pretty sure I have met poor players of other classes (the rogue who was out-DPS'd by my pet, when I was Marksman-spec'd, comes to mind... granted I don't know much about rogues, but that struck me as rather, erm, less-than-stellar), but bad hunters are just everywhere. It sort of makes you wonder why that is so. Maybe this is just one of those classes where you really need to have a "Eureka!" moment before you finally get it. Or maybe it's a more gradual process... or maybe it just depends.
There are definitely good hunters out there, though. And it always makes me happy to see those. As I have said before, that's what I'm aiming for... being a good hunter. I don't think I'm there yet but at least I know I'm not bad. It warms my little huntery heart to see really good hunters in battlegrounds, even if they're of the opposing faction and beating me into oblivion =) So keep up the good work, guys!
While we're on the topic of blogs, I also want to mention that I do in fact read every single comment that is posted here, thanks to Gmail notifications. I even read the ones made on really old posts. I just wanted to mention that because I've been getting some comments on older posts recently, and I wanted to make sure everybody knew that they are all read and quite appreciated.
Anyways, I've been coming up with a lot of things I've wanted to write about lately; but I think this post is just going to focus on... bad hunters. Yes, hunters seem to have a bad rap for having the highest quantity of bad players. To be quite honest I'm not surprised. The amount of people I've run into who don't have "Hunter 101" down is astonishing. (I think Hunter 101 probably consists of one sentence: "Send your pet in to hold aggro for you and shoot things from afar." Seriously I think some hunters have not yet made that connection.)
I once grouped with a level 40-something hunter whose strategy in an instance went like this: use multi-shot or volley to get as many mobs as possible to aggro onto you, and then melee everything. Yes, I'm serious. Now, it's one thing to be a self-professed delusional hunter and do stuff like that for fun ;) , but it's another thing to seriously use that as your main method of attack in an instance. (For the record, that guy wound up aggro'ing everything in a particularly bad room and everybody died except me, and I even managed to dispose of all the offending mobs. I was pretty proud of being able to survive such a bad wipe. It's moments like that-- moments where the odds are stacked against you, and you experience the thrill of coming up with a way to survive-- that really make me love being a hunter.)
It's even worse when other people are grouped with bad hunters and then they feel less inclined to group with hunters again, later. My boyfriend occasionally runs instances while I'm gone or busy; many times I have returned home to be met with "Pleeeease get on WoW and group with us, we just had to kick this horrible hunter who can't use traps/feigns death at the worst times/can't control his pet/keeps wiping us/*insert something else here* and we need you." It's flattering that he and his friends turn to me when they need a reliable hunter, but it's sad that it's so hard for them to find reliable hunters in the first place.
Now maybe it's just easier for me to pick out bad hunters because hunter is really the only class I know much about. Maybe I've grouped with lots of bad players of other classes and just haven't noticed because I'm not very experienced yet. But I don't know, I'm pretty sure I have met poor players of other classes (the rogue who was out-DPS'd by my pet, when I was Marksman-spec'd, comes to mind... granted I don't know much about rogues, but that struck me as rather, erm, less-than-stellar), but bad hunters are just everywhere. It sort of makes you wonder why that is so. Maybe this is just one of those classes where you really need to have a "Eureka!" moment before you finally get it. Or maybe it's a more gradual process... or maybe it just depends.
There are definitely good hunters out there, though. And it always makes me happy to see those. As I have said before, that's what I'm aiming for... being a good hunter. I don't think I'm there yet but at least I know I'm not bad. It warms my little huntery heart to see really good hunters in battlegrounds, even if they're of the opposing faction and beating me into oblivion =) So keep up the good work, guys!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Pics or it didn't happen! *grin*
There are really three parts to this blog post:
The first part is, I want to say thank you to all of you who commented on my last post about taking my time through Outlands. Thank you for the tips and support, and I think I'm going to be telling any over-eager friends that I will let them know when/if I need their help, and that I don't exactly need it right away.
Secondly, Kestrel posted over at his blog that when it comes to girls on the internet... "Pics or it didn't happen!" ;) So off I went in search of a picture...
It's nothing exactly stellar... and yes I know I look a lot younger than I really am (I am in my mid-twenties! Really! Honest!) but it's the best I could dig up for now... and my boyfriend really likes this picture (he actually took it) so I guess it can't be all that bad! =P And yes, that is a Firefox shirt I'm wearing. Geek pride all the way, baby!
Lastly, I wanted to expand a bit on a comment I made in another blog. Grumpy had an interesting post on his blog, called "Do you regret your choice?" It asks if you ever regret rolling a hunter because of all the flak that hunters seem to get with being "easy-mode" and "overplayed". This was my response:
"I have to say that sometimes I feel a tad bit embarrassed to be yet another "female night elf hunter", but on the other hand it reminds me that if I want to stand out, I have to become a really good hunter. That was one of the first things to really inspire me to start looking up hunter information online and start practicing my skills-- I decided early on that I wasn't going to be "another night elf hunter", I was going to be "a good hunter".
I don't regret being a hunter because I love the class so much. But sometimes I do wonder if it's just because it's the first class I ever played so maybe it's like a "first love", so to speak. I wonder if, had I picked another class, I would have fallen in love with that one instead. I guess we'll never know..."
And yeah, I think my comment pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. Is it annoying to often be lumped with "all the other millions of bad night elf hunters who need to learn to play"? Yes, it most certainly is sometimes. But to me, that's all the more incentive to truly become a good hunter. I want to become good at my class and stand out. I know I still have a long way to go, but I think that I'm at least on the right path.
It's true that I also have been wondering if I would love hunters so much if it wasn't the first class I picked. I want to say I would have anyway, but we'll probably never know. I'm glad I picked the class I did though, and yes, I'm proud to be a hunter. Most overplayed class? According to Warcraft Realms, yes. The easy-mode class? Debatable, but I'll accept it. But nonetheless, I'm proud.
The first part is, I want to say thank you to all of you who commented on my last post about taking my time through Outlands. Thank you for the tips and support, and I think I'm going to be telling any over-eager friends that I will let them know when/if I need their help, and that I don't exactly need it right away.
Secondly, Kestrel posted over at his blog that when it comes to girls on the internet... "Pics or it didn't happen!" ;) So off I went in search of a picture...
It's nothing exactly stellar... and yes I know I look a lot younger than I really am (I am in my mid-twenties! Really! Honest!) but it's the best I could dig up for now... and my boyfriend really likes this picture (he actually took it) so I guess it can't be all that bad! =P And yes, that is a Firefox shirt I'm wearing. Geek pride all the way, baby!
Lastly, I wanted to expand a bit on a comment I made in another blog. Grumpy had an interesting post on his blog, called "Do you regret your choice?" It asks if you ever regret rolling a hunter because of all the flak that hunters seem to get with being "easy-mode" and "overplayed". This was my response:
"I have to say that sometimes I feel a tad bit embarrassed to be yet another "female night elf hunter", but on the other hand it reminds me that if I want to stand out, I have to become a really good hunter. That was one of the first things to really inspire me to start looking up hunter information online and start practicing my skills-- I decided early on that I wasn't going to be "another night elf hunter", I was going to be "a good hunter".
I don't regret being a hunter because I love the class so much. But sometimes I do wonder if it's just because it's the first class I ever played so maybe it's like a "first love", so to speak. I wonder if, had I picked another class, I would have fallen in love with that one instead. I guess we'll never know..."
And yeah, I think my comment pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter. Is it annoying to often be lumped with "all the other millions of bad night elf hunters who need to learn to play"? Yes, it most certainly is sometimes. But to me, that's all the more incentive to truly become a good hunter. I want to become good at my class and stand out. I know I still have a long way to go, but I think that I'm at least on the right path.
It's true that I also have been wondering if I would love hunters so much if it wasn't the first class I picked. I want to say I would have anyway, but we'll probably never know. I'm glad I picked the class I did though, and yes, I'm proud to be a hunter. Most overplayed class? According to Warcraft Realms, yes. The easy-mode class? Debatable, but I'll accept it. But nonetheless, I'm proud.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Beware My Rudimentary Art Skills
I have made a topbanner for my blog! As I do not have access to a working scanner at the moment, the characters were mouse-drawn in GIMP. Then they were pasted onto a picture of Elwynn Forest. I think it turned out okay. The hardest part was figuring out how to center the image because, by default, it aligned to the left. It's still sort of stuck to the top of the banner but it looks okay for now.
Let me know if you're having trouble reading the banner, I realize the bright blue text is kind of an iffy idea but I tried to make the text large enough to still be easily readable.
Other blog-related news: I've added my e-mail address to the sidebar. I don't know if anybody would have reason to e-mail me but I thought it would be a good idea to have it there, just in case!
WoW-related news: My boyfriend admitted to me the other day that Tux's wings annoy him sometimes. This is understandable and the curse of pets with big flapping wings. I love Tux and would never part with him but as I get closer to "the higher levels" of the game (aka the Outland Levels), I figure it's time to start thinking about an alternative pet to use when the people I'm grouping with would rather I not have a bird. I have my raptor in the stable, but I've also been thinking about the ever-so-classy cat. Decisions, decisions, on what my third pet should be...
Let me know if you're having trouble reading the banner, I realize the bright blue text is kind of an iffy idea but I tried to make the text large enough to still be easily readable.
Other blog-related news: I've added my e-mail address to the sidebar. I don't know if anybody would have reason to e-mail me but I thought it would be a good idea to have it there, just in case!
WoW-related news: My boyfriend admitted to me the other day that Tux's wings annoy him sometimes. This is understandable and the curse of pets with big flapping wings. I love Tux and would never part with him but as I get closer to "the higher levels" of the game (aka the Outland Levels), I figure it's time to start thinking about an alternative pet to use when the people I'm grouping with would rather I not have a bird. I have my raptor in the stable, but I've also been thinking about the ever-so-classy cat. Decisions, decisions, on what my third pet should be...
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Here's To The WoW Bloggers
As a few of you may know, I am fairly new not just to the hunter class, but to World of WarCraft as a whole. When I was first starting out, I was a pretty terrible player. I really had no idea what I was doing, or what I was supposed to be doing. Today I look back on some of the epically bad newbie mistakes I made ("Hey, putting my pet on aggressive in Deadmines is a great idea, right?") and cringe.
Fortunately for me, I was bright enough to realize that I was... lacking in the hunter skills department. So one day I went on a Google rampage to see if I could find some information to help me become a better player.
The two blogs that came up were The Hunter's Mark and Big Red Kitty. These blogs really need no introduction; they both provide a wealth of information on the hunter class and WoW in general and both helped me immensely in my newbie-hood. Lassirra and BRK are hunters that I have huge amounts of respect for and I /salute them. However, after a while, I also noticed that they weren't my only mentors-- the commenters and readers of these blogs had a lot to offer too! Slowly I started visiting their profiles and sites and following various blog links that I stumbled across and building up a little collection of blogs to read. Some of these blogs are bigger and some are smaller but they have all helped and continue to help make me a better hunter and WoW player.
Kestrel's Aerie is chock-full of information and help regarding pretty much anything and everything that is WoW-related, and also includes highly interesting features such as UI/addon reviews and a frequent "blog roundup" listing some of the most interesting blog posts of the week.
Little White Lion chronicles the both the ups and downs of the adventures of a hunter as she gets closer to level 70, and has shown me a lot about what I have to look forward to as I get there myself.
Balls of Z is a highly informative and entertaining blog about mages and a couple hunter alts. (I certainly don't blame anyone for having more than one hunter alt, I can't even count how many hunters I play by now.) Mages are possibly my second favorite class in the game and this blog, while still fairly new, has been a solid reference for my own baby mage so far.
Mirshalak's Lair is to Survival what BRK is to Beast Mastery. This blog also has a lot to offer about various aspects of WoW, and these informational posts are accentuated with an inherent thoughtfulness and introspectiveness which makes a very good read overall.
Little Black Kitty is a newer blog that documents the adventures of leveling a draenei hunter. It's been a remarkably fun read so far and the posts are often accompanied with absolutely adorable pictures of the blogger's real life kitties!
Thrill of the Hunt features Top Ten Lists and a lot of information on everything from raiding to "budgeting your WoW checkbook".
Bubble-Hearth is a pally blog (as you've probably guessed from the title =P) which I started reading not too long ago but from which I have already gleaned some advice on video capture and reducing lag, and which I look forward to reading more of.
Grumpy Old Dwarf is, well... about a grumpy old dwarf! This is another blog that I just started reading recently, but it has a lot of personality and is always fun to read.
Saber Squadron I actually just started reading today =P Because I found out that they were linking to me and I regret to say that I didn't know about the blog earlier! It's about somebody who has gone all out and is multiboxing five hunters. It sounds like a fun adventure and I'm excited to read more about it.
And that is my listing of all the WoW blogs that I currently read. I am always looking for more because I am an avid reader/learner, so give me a shout out if you know of any others that deserve looking into! But this post is largely to say thank you to the WoW blogging community, particularly the hunter subset of that community, for unknowingly helping to raise this little hunterling. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a good hunter yet-- I'm still low-level, and I'm still learning-- but I think that I am getting there, slowly but surely, and a large part of it is thanks to you guys. I hope that someday I'll be able to help newbies with my blog the same way your blogs helped me.
So I raise my Brewfest cup to you WoW bloggers today! =D
Fortunately for me, I was bright enough to realize that I was... lacking in the hunter skills department. So one day I went on a Google rampage to see if I could find some information to help me become a better player.
The two blogs that came up were The Hunter's Mark and Big Red Kitty. These blogs really need no introduction; they both provide a wealth of information on the hunter class and WoW in general and both helped me immensely in my newbie-hood. Lassirra and BRK are hunters that I have huge amounts of respect for and I /salute them. However, after a while, I also noticed that they weren't my only mentors-- the commenters and readers of these blogs had a lot to offer too! Slowly I started visiting their profiles and sites and following various blog links that I stumbled across and building up a little collection of blogs to read. Some of these blogs are bigger and some are smaller but they have all helped and continue to help make me a better hunter and WoW player.
Kestrel's Aerie is chock-full of information and help regarding pretty much anything and everything that is WoW-related, and also includes highly interesting features such as UI/addon reviews and a frequent "blog roundup" listing some of the most interesting blog posts of the week.
Little White Lion chronicles the both the ups and downs of the adventures of a hunter as she gets closer to level 70, and has shown me a lot about what I have to look forward to as I get there myself.
Balls of Z is a highly informative and entertaining blog about mages and a couple hunter alts. (I certainly don't blame anyone for having more than one hunter alt, I can't even count how many hunters I play by now.) Mages are possibly my second favorite class in the game and this blog, while still fairly new, has been a solid reference for my own baby mage so far.
Mirshalak's Lair is to Survival what BRK is to Beast Mastery. This blog also has a lot to offer about various aspects of WoW, and these informational posts are accentuated with an inherent thoughtfulness and introspectiveness which makes a very good read overall.
Little Black Kitty is a newer blog that documents the adventures of leveling a draenei hunter. It's been a remarkably fun read so far and the posts are often accompanied with absolutely adorable pictures of the blogger's real life kitties!
Thrill of the Hunt features Top Ten Lists and a lot of information on everything from raiding to "budgeting your WoW checkbook".
Bubble-Hearth is a pally blog (as you've probably guessed from the title =P) which I started reading not too long ago but from which I have already gleaned some advice on video capture and reducing lag, and which I look forward to reading more of.
Grumpy Old Dwarf is, well... about a grumpy old dwarf! This is another blog that I just started reading recently, but it has a lot of personality and is always fun to read.
Saber Squadron I actually just started reading today =P Because I found out that they were linking to me and I regret to say that I didn't know about the blog earlier! It's about somebody who has gone all out and is multiboxing five hunters. It sounds like a fun adventure and I'm excited to read more about it.
And that is my listing of all the WoW blogs that I currently read. I am always looking for more because I am an avid reader/learner, so give me a shout out if you know of any others that deserve looking into! But this post is largely to say thank you to the WoW blogging community, particularly the hunter subset of that community, for unknowingly helping to raise this little hunterling. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a good hunter yet-- I'm still low-level, and I'm still learning-- but I think that I am getting there, slowly but surely, and a large part of it is thanks to you guys. I hope that someday I'll be able to help newbies with my blog the same way your blogs helped me.
So I raise my Brewfest cup to you WoW bloggers today! =D
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