28. combats pets I’d like to see, in order of incredulousness

Run you fools!

Combat pets are on the way and that got me thinking, what new pets would I really like to see going at it?  The answer is below placed, as promised, in order of incredulousness:

Tiny t-rex – I don’t know why… wouldn’t ‘you’ like a Tiny T-Rex? You’re a hunter and have the TCG Savage Raptor mount and your T-rex pet, now you just need a tiny T-Rex pet.

Wriggling bag – every now and then some 'thing' escapes and crawls to join the fray

Hairless cat – comes with definite Mr Bigglesworth overtones

Helper monkey – an archaeology pet, has wings ala Wicked Witch of the West monkey army and a little cap - only... it's NOT helping!

Piranha – it runs on stubby little legs and when within 10 yards of a water body dives in and a red mist rises in the water ala Borean Tundra cooking quest.

Balloon animal – 5 different types of balloon animal, can try for a different type every 10 minutes, animation has character making little squealing rubber sounds and crafting animation.

: )


M.

27. 2012 is the new 1985

2012 is so 1985

Giant pandas? Really Blizz?!

I actually laughed out loud when I read this. My interwebz reading is often focussed on gold making and sometimes I miss this kind of information. I am mildly surprised that the prospect of giant panda bears doing Kung Fu (no doubt sporting a Jack Black-ish persona in an astonishingly similar manner to recent celluloid) evaded my notice but there you are.

Soo… nerd rage abounds over the announcement. Stalwarts believe that this is a bridge too far in terms of game lore. I’m assuming that these same folks were not keen on giant blue space goats falling from the skies during BC. : )

For myself I’ve never played a goat, they’re hokey and odd, but I love that they’re around and I love that the pandas are coming to join us (welcome panda bothers and sisters, the bamboo’s over there…) – you’re telling me that large hard-drinking and eating rolly polly teddy bears are joining the game? Great! I may even play one. Vive la différence!

And the other thing that I like from my Blizzcon reading… ? War with the horde! Whacking the horde is going to again come back into vogue (although for some of us it never really went out of vogue) and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t think it’ll take any concrete form – evidence suggests that there’ll be no new world PVP zone ala Halaa, Wintergrasp or Tol Barad but as a meme I’m all for the spice it’ll inject into Alliance/Horde relations.

Now, onto this post’s title and the graphic above. Back in 1985 TSM brought out Oriental Adventures. I was a keen AD&Der at that stage (yes kids, gather round and hear a tale from the days of yore… ) and we were all interested in something very new: the prospect of taking the gaming system we knew and loved and converting it to something that was unfamiliar and fascinating. There were new weapons, new classes, new locations and a new concept called honour. The very differentness of Oriental Adventures was what drew us to it. Campaigns were written by friends where ‘oriental’ met the standard western milieu and were great fun. The out of place hero in the new locale is very contemporary, just think Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon. ; )

Mist of Pandaria and Oriental Adventures for me juxtapose quite neatly. MoP is very ‘different’ to the WoW we are familiar with: it introduces, amongst other things, unarmed combat (although I think Brewmasters use polearms, details are a bit sketchy as yet), healing through combat and of course large panda bears. In the long term though as future xpacs roll out it will become simply part of the levelling experience and an added layer of complexity to the game. It won’t break anything as WoW is an evolving beast, much as early dice rolling games such as AD&D were plus we’re talking unfamiliar and fascinating folks which is always a drawcard for peeps who like MMOs. Reactionaries may game quit over this but if they do it’s a mark of a woodenness that WoW, as a game, can probably afford to loose.

Stay liquid guys,

M.

26. you can't take it with you

Wanna bet!

The move is made folks.  : )  I've brought five toons over to Frostmourne and let me tell you it's great!  There are folks dueling outside SW, both AHs are veritable hubs of activity and there are over 30k auctions up at any one time.  I can tell already that I've made a loss on a bunch of things that I had little choice but to convert my gold into on Thaurissan but there's items that'll draw a good profit as well.

I'm apping for a good PVP guild which hopefully I'll get into as I'm keen to get into some RBGs but mostly just loving being on a server which is so vibrant; I was able to get my bank guild sorted from some helpful guys in the human starting zone.  An extremely different experience from what I've been used to on Thaurissan where everything had to be done the hard way.

I've been out to Tol Barad to do the dailies to get a feel for the world(ish) PVP and had the odd experience of the Horde quietly turning the other cheek as they got on with their dailies.  On Thaurissan the general rule was to get in hard and often as you knew anyone you turned your back on would be back later with friends looking for the Alli 'rare spawn'.  Here I was questing alongside other Alliance - unheard of!  I actually had the opportunity to take a few Horde down but didn't - without the huge faction imbalance it felt odd.  I'll have to get used to that.

So here's a look at what I came over with.  You'll notice that only four toons are shown - got to keep a little mystery  : )

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

25. a poet by any other name...

...would smell as sweet!

I had 15K gold left over the 250k and decided to put it to good use - the poets of Thaurissan delivered.  A four-line poem was required with prizes of 5k for the winner, 2k for second and 1k for third.  I also did four honourable mentions for 250g each.


This was an absolute blast and really got me thinking about what sort of experiences we make for ourselves in MMOs.  Anyway, now's not the time for philosophising, onto the poems.


The winning entry was posted by Savahna and had a great visual quality to it and made me laugh  : )

Second prize was Yokono's effort - nicely done!

Lastly this gem from Victim:

This comp was a great way for me to remember this server where I had so much fun raiding and PVPing.  A great bunch of creative, fun people.

One last one before I go - loved this:

That was a bunch of fun - thanks guys!

Stay liquid (but only to 250K),

Mogul.

24. you are here!

50k to go!

Five of my guys are going across to the new server so that’s 250K liquid I can take. Recent purchases were another truckload of ore and herbs for buckles, chant mats and glyphs and many portable holes for my first alt on the new server. Once I get down to the 250K I’ll have effectively purchased, shuffled and crafted my way through 900,000 gold which let me tell you was much harder than making it ; )

I can’t believe I’m now so close; the short booms and long gluts for resources on this server have been annoying.

But I’m almost ready to move!

Just in time too… on average we now have about 4000 auctions up at any time. This is dismal and a clear indicator that bad things are happening to the faction population-wise. For reference Frostmourne has over 30,000 auctions up at any one time. A key indicator that I scan for is the price drop across the first page when searching highest price – on Thaurissan it falls to 1500g items with the first 50.

More on why people stay on this type of server and why Blizzard lets them later.

Stay (limitedly) liquid folks,


M.