Tuesday, November 29, 2011

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 2

Hi folks – below is part 2 of this series but a little something about patch 4.3, which dropped this morning, before I get going. Chaos orbs are currently tumbling onto the server like so many over-ripe plums, sugary sweet from been kept in storage for so long and needing to be eaten soon. But hold off a little. Currently on Frostmourne there are 600 auctions up with the buy price dropping already from 325g each to just under 200g each. I’ve heard reports from other servers that orbs are as low as 100g. The stockpile of these items could be huge indeed – personally I’ll be waiting until the orbs on server hit 100g or less before buying up a few stacks. A reasonable loss could still be made buying at these prices but not a total bath.

Now onto the post.

how to enjoy playing WoW - part 2


Keep it simple

Log on – log off
Try this: log in to WoW with something you want to do, something discrete with a fixed end point. If you’re levelling it could be gaining a level, if you’re PVPing it could be doing one BG (okay, maybe two), if you’re PVEing it could be doing an instance. Once you’ve completed this task hearth back to the inn and log out from WoW. Now, go do something else. You’ve had a nice time playing the game and stopped playing before you get frustrated and begin trolling /2. Playing this game in short bursts keeps it, and you, fresh.

Don’t be leet
You want a miserable time? Then focus totally on one element of the game for an entire xPac (ie, raid progression or dare I say it… gold making. No wait, I don’t dare ; ) The cutting edge in this game is where the hardcore meme says you need to be. Leet also comes with a social obligation – if your leet mates are doing something you will have to as well. Before you know it your time is not your own and the time you spend is based upon someone else’s “WoW view”, not yours. I’m not saying don’t do hard things (see post tomorrow) but whilst hard can be fun don’t burn your precious time for leetness unless you’re really enjoying yourself.

Keep it simple
Do one thing at a time. I’m levelling my priest at the moment and it’s a bunch of fun. I love learning the new skill, both the getting of it and the exercising of it. Doing one thing and focussing on it provides a beginning, middle and end to a process. Flipping from toon to toon is not restful and will likely decrease your enjoyment.

Last part of this post incoming tomorrow folks.

Stay liquid,


Mogul.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 1

As time has gone by I’ve become increasingly phlegmatic about this game called WoW. Below are a bunch of ideas as to how to enjoy WoW. The intention is not that you do them all at the same time; many are contradictory if taken together. They’re simply a bunch of things that I’ve thought about as I tailor the way I play this game to counteract the built-in methodologies that Blizzard employs to keep you burning your RL time on their game and correspondingly keep your wallet open and your sub active.

In order not to crit you for 9000 with a wall-o-text this post is in three parts.

Stop it before you go blind
Counterintuitively, one of the best things you can do to enjoy WoW is to stop playing it! WoW is designed to get you to sub each month and keep you playing repetitively, reinforcing the habit. As such like many MMOs it employs various techniques to keep you in; large MMOs are not always working in your interests. Take a month off and see what else is happening in your life. At the very least you should be able to monitor and control the amount of time you spend and keep it to a level that’s fun. Grinding anything for 10 hours at a time is ‘not’ fun.

Don’t grind (and the exception: grind when the grinding’s good)
WoW is a grinding game. Everything is set up to entice you to carry out actions on a daily basis. But doing the same things on a daily basis, especially when you may not enjoy them is not called a game, it’s called work. Grind if you think the reward is good and worth it but don’t simply move from one mindless grind to another.

Try new stuff
Try different specs, modes of play (pve/pvp) – work to the strengths of the game. Try not to get hung up on ‘perfecting’ your art. Blizzard deliberately ‘unperfects’ your art at each xPac (and recently at each patch) so perfectionism in WoW is a losing game. Wow is large, complex and pretty interesting, built to try to meet the needs of as many players as possible so launch into it and try something new!

More tomorrow folks.

: )


Mogul.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

29. update update update...


Olla folks!

Here we go:

Gold
I’ve sold one of my Raptor mounts I bought for 80K… for 142K, giving me a 55K gold profit.
I’m buying all the reasonably priced mats I can for the crafting pvp armor with the upcoming patch.
I’ve stopped selling glyphs on the new server – I’ll tell you why later, but basically it’s a lifestyle choice.
My store of pets, bought for a max price of around 2K each, continue to sell on this large server for around the 4K mark.
All ten of my choppers I brought to the new server have sold putting about 165K back into my pockets – should have made more but I had thought I’d be struggling to move ten.
The gem market is dead on server with blues going for less than 5g in some instances – I’m posting but not competitively, holding back to see what joy the patch brings.
I’ve become a flipper in the pet market, best flip so far was for 6K on a Disgusting Oozling – I’m also flipping regular vanity pets; big server numbers mean that competition occasionally drops blue pets down to around the 1500-1800g level. I pick up two or three at a time when this happens.
I’ve been playing around in the transmog market, buying up anything interesting in the less than 300g market (unless it’s a really good deal). We have a single poster who is capping and regulating this market so I’m focusing on the rarer items to ensure exclusivity. I’m thinking of posting these in two bands, 750-1200g and 1000-1500g.

Toons
I levelled my hunter to 85, set up macros and keybinds and got him into resilience gear ready for 4.3.
I’ve topped out my lock for justice points and honour points ready for the new PVP season. It’s going to be a close match between him and my hunter as to who I preference; hunters are ‘fun’ in PVP with a lot of utility in the class.
I’m levelling my priest. It is a bunch of fun. I’ve got my priesty up to level 44 as I write this having levelled through instances as smite spec since level 36. This is the first time I’ve ever played heals and I’m finding it very rewarding. I’ve had only one wipe so far and liken this style of heals to kitty dps in terms of timing and managing cooldowns. Who’d have though I’d get into healing in such a big way. It’s fun to see all the old instances and one of the joys of levelling this way is you have great gear through drops whilst healing pugs which is unpredictable and fun.

Stay liquid folks,


M.