RL trumps WoW

I spent the last 2 weeks travelling around Europe, utilizing almost any man made mode of transport available (save for a bicycle, strangely). Sometimes I wished I had a handy griphon flight route, but in the abscence of that, I had to make do with a jet. So I think I got over my fear of flying, but only just.

I was hoping to get some WoW time during my travels, but business has a way of ending the day in the local bar/pub/restaurant, so with 6 hours of sleep daily (tops) I just didn;t get around to it. The last thing I did before leaving was get my rogue out to Outland. Now that I have a free day or two I can play freely and all I can say is PHEW! I'm really happy to see the BC content again - the ease of play is amazing.

As for patch 3.1 0 well, for me it's really hard to say at the moment, as my chars are lowbies mostly and I dont log into the odd 80 I happen to have. I sure love the mini quest item icons though. Fantastic.

The WoW psychology

I'm not a psychologist, my girlfriend is. I'm a sociologist. Life's funny that way. Anyhow, I take a deep interest in all things related to how we interact and how we think about stuff we do. WoW is a great place to look for new mechanisms that give a clue about people's behaviours. There are some funny things I noticed along the way.

First up, battlegrounds! Once you hit 80, finding a BG is not a problem, as most of the player base seems to gather in the top-end bracket. The intriguing part is the lower lvl BG's. For whatever reason it would seem that finding a full lowbie BG on a PvE server is easier than on a PvP server. Now I have a vague idea about battlegroups and how they mix up all types of realms, but the fact is at lvl 35 I wait an hour to get into a BG on Ravencrest EU (PvP) and mere minutes on Aerie Peak EU (PvE). Could it be that the world PvP is so engaing that less players on PvP realms can be bothered? Is it possible that from a PvP player's point of view it's smarter to roll a toon on a PvE server, since getting BGs there from the get-go is so much easier? Maybe someone smart knows these answers.

Another thing is the Shaman and all his shiny totems. Besides the standard perks you get from plopping these fellows down here and there, they have a psychological effest. If you put them down right on top of the flag, the opposing players are visibly less willing to attack. 3 players without a shaman look like just 3 players. With 3 players and 3 totems, we're talking about a lot of shiny stuff and a crowded-looking group. It works!

Then there's taunting. I Just came out of Warsong Gulch, where 3 rogues worked nicely together and camped the alliance graveyard. Too bad they were hordies. Anyhow, after getting backstabbed a few times, I created a /laugh macro and used it on them. Apparently all of them became so fixated on trying to kill me they not only lost their guard, but apparantly the ability to play too. Sure, we didn't win that one, but after my small /laugh diversion I steamrolled each rogue a few times.

So here's a tip. Use psychology and do it smartly. Don't go for the obvious.

I'm an altoholic

I think it's time I have to face the truth. I don't take extatic pleasure in having a single, geared toon, like my friends do. I like all flavors.

I leveled my rogue up to lvl 56 and hopped back to a lvl 20 priest, promptly taking him up 15 levels. I then noticed some toons on other servers which I have all but forgotten. First up was a lvl 20 warlock and then a lvl 33 hunter. I'm having such a blast!

It has to be said that I take most pleasure with the hunter at the moment. After not playing that guy for more then a year, I find I can easily steamroll through anything Blizzard throws at me; not only that, I end every Arathi Basin in the top 3, and that's coming from a guy who doesn't do PvP! I haven't had such a blast playing a character in WoW for a long time. Hunters = awesome.

I'm also leveling my proest, but I'm on a PvP server and since he's specced holy, I limit my appearences to instances. It's all great fun, but for leveling purpouses I get a friendly lvl 80 to come along.

Worse things happen at sea

I left my home city for the seaside and sent three days there. It was work mainly, but using my amazing knack for relaxing regardless of circumstances, I lounged a tad, too. I didn't play Warcraft though, because I'm a tard and forgot (or rather, lost somewhere) my laptop power cable.

Still, perhaps it turned out for the best. I spent my time on drinking coffe and staring out at the sea from the comfort of a warm hotel cafe. Good times.

Cichacz, my rogue, is taking a break. I went back to Ravencrest EU, helped out a friend with some titansteel smelting (a cooldown is always handy!) and went back to my lvl 22 priest. I took an hour to add two more levels with an 80 friend and it was a blast. We will see how it goes.

State of the state

I'm around level 54 now and I can feel the magnetic pull of the Outalnd gate. Ah, new gear, better quests and a boatload of Death Knights await! Seriously, I can't wait.

Having said that, great things are afoot. The world is changing, as two prominent bloggers have thrown in the towel recently and moved on to take care of other things. For whatever reason, just before a patch or an expansion hit the web, people quit. It happens all the time.

With BRK though I have a feeling it's different. BRK, if you ever read this, whatever's going on, it's gonna get better. Hold tight.

Surprise! BRD!

Someone whisps me in Feralas and asks me to come to BRD, because they have a full party. How can I say no?

I wasn't around before BC so I guess this is what old-world instancing was like most of the time. Sure, BRD is drab, boring and monochromatic (well, orange mostly), but damn, that's one huge instance! We didn't do it all and the tank was terrible, but it was a helluva a lot of fun.

For whatever reason my DPS was terrible - so bad in fact that I suspect my recount was messed up. I never used the bloody thing before and it showed me way below the healer, even though he didn't do any damage at all. Funny, that.

Also, I made the most noobish mistake ever and didn't repair. Halway through I was one dagger down and my torn pants were hung in place only by the sheer muscularity of my nelf's buttocks.

Darkfall delivers... well, something

I gotta admit that after reading stuff about Darkfall on Tobold's and Ixobell`s blogs, and also looking up the community for a little bit, I wrote the whole game off, mainly because I don't like nasty people and the place seems full of them. But then I got to read about some accounts on how open-world dungeons with PvP and collision detection work and how incredibly awesome the whole world PvP thing is shaping up to be and I gotta say I'm intrigued.

It all sounds like a WoW and EVE trainwreck, with all the negative conotations you can imagine. Still, the graphics seem uninspiring and the game is riddled with technical problems which will keep me away for sometime. But I think I'm closer to picking it up one day for a bit then I ever was before.