Category Archives: thoughts

meta-blog, thoughts

Fire And Rain: aka a Look at the Future

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My WoW life yesterday started out pretty well – I beat Blackhand (and I did it in style – top of Recount, baby!) and I was feeling pretty good about the future, about 6.2, about my alts, and so on.

Then, after I logged out for the day, Blizzard dropped the bombshell which I’m sure most of you have heard about by now: We’re getting no flying for the rest of this expansion, and don’t get your hopes up about it being a thing in future expansions, either.

I probably should have seen this coming, but it still felt to me like a punch in the gut.  Partially because it seems like such a weird step backwards in regards to content accessibility.  Partially because the announcement came right after I was feeling really good about the game.  And partially because of the fact that this was all apparently first mentioned offhandedly in some interview with a third party site rather than, I dunno, on the WoW forums or something.  It all just came out of nowhere and felt weird.

On to the topic itself – I have written before about why I wanted to see flying in the future, so I won’t recount all of my reasons here.  Suffice to say that flight was one of the big things I was looking forward to seeing in the future.  I was looking forward to exploring Draenor in a whole new way.  I was looking forward to doing archaeology properly rather than starting a dig, looking at a big mountain, and promptly changing my mind.  And I was really looking forward to being able to finish those Treasure Contract garrison quests, which I’ve done ten million times by now, in five minutes instead of twenty.

But now it looks like none of this is going to happen, and, silly or not, it put a big damper on my mood last night.  And I say this as one of the most hopelessly optimistic video game bloggers you’ll probably ever meet.

flightIt got me wondering about my future with the game and my motivations for playing it.  For the most part I have been a staunch supporter of Warlords of Draenor and of garrisons (beyond a few annoyances), and it was weird to feel negative about it for the first time.  I wondered – and still wonder – how long the feeling will last.  I wonder if I’m being melodramatic.  But I also wonder if I’m not.

That said, I still have a blog to write (and I am having a blast being back, by the way), and as of writing I still have something like two and a half months of game time left thanks to WoW token.  So I suppose for now the best I can do is continue to play until then, and then see how things are and how I feel about them.

We’ll just have to see!

hunter, i love hunters, screenshots, thoughts

I Am Going To Play a Hunter Forever. Probably. Maybe.

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Did you know that in just a couple of months this blog will be eight years old?  Yup.  I have been blogging about this dumb game almost as long as I have been playing this dumb game.  And the entire time, I have been maining a hunter.  Sometimes I play another class as an alt or something (like that druid I raided with in WotLK) but that’s just, you know, an alt.  Not a main.

When I started playing World of Warcraft all those years ago I rolled a hunter because why not; and now here I am nearly a decade later still playing a hunter.

WoWScrnShot_051815_163348Sometimes I think it’s my lot in this Warcraft life; to play a hunter forever.  Which I am fine with, of course.  But then I remember that I also once thought I would never switch mains and yet here I am playing a completely different character.  (Same class, of course, but.)

So things can change.  My life in Azeroth can change.  I can’t guarantee I’m going to play a hunter forever because hey, if I changed mains then I can change classes too.

But I’m probably going to play a hunter forever.

Why?  Because I’m Pike.

Pike groks hunters.

thoughts

I am super NOT READY for the next expansion yet

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So rumors abound that the next expansion is going to be much sooner than usual.  I have no idea if any of these rumors are founded in reality, but they mostly have to do with the fact that the Draenor storyline seems to be drawing to a quick conclusion.

And what do I have to say about all that?

I have to say WAIT

WAIT

I STILL HAVE ALTS TO LEVEL BECAUSE I WANT LIKE TEN MILLION GARRISONS SO I CAN MAKE SERIOUS BANK!

I STILL HAVE LIKE TEN TRILLION ACHIEVEMENTS TO FINISH

I STILL HAVE BATTLE PETS TO LEVEL

I STILL HAVE TITLES TO GET

I STILL HAVE MOUNTS TO GET

over-enthusiastic-kermitYes, yes, it is me.  Pike, the one person who wants Blizzard to SLOW DOWN with content.

Man.  Maybe I should’ve come back a year before I did, back when nothing was happening…

meta-blog, thoughts

On MMOs

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As a returning blogger after a long hiatus I have opted to participate in a lovely program called the Newbie Blogger Initiative this year.  I do feel slightly, uh, awkward being involved as a newbie when this blog is almost eight years old, but I digress.

The Newbie Blogger Initiative is aimed towards video game bloggers, and most of the ones I’ve seen are blogs about MMOs.  Most of which are not WoW.  What I find interesting is that MMOs, as a genre, have such a following.  Many people proudly call themselves MMO gamers.  Not me.  I’m just a gamer.  (Or, to use my preferred term, a “video game enthusiast.”)

ENTHUSIASM!
ENTHUSIASM!

Many people can clearly remember the first game they played.  Not me.  I was born alongside the Atari 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Commodore 64 and I grew up with my tiny little paws wrapped around a joystick.  There has not been a time in my three decades of life that I cannot recall games as being a major part of my existence.  When I began playing WoW oh so many years ago, it was not because it was an MMO – it was because it was another video game (and one set in a world I was already familiar with, since I’d been obsessing over Blizzard games for many years already.)

To this day, I don’t really play any other MMOs.  I don’t really have anything against them.  But between all of the other games I regularly play the heck out of, I suppose I feel like I only have time for one MMO.  And that MMO happens to be my first true love in the genre – one World of Warcraft.

Quel'Thalas is the greatest of the nations in lore. Fact.
Quel’Thalas is the greatest of the nations in lore. Fact.

So yes.  To any curious newcomers to my blog:  That is my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.

…there might be time for FFXIV though.  Maybe.  Maybe.

thoughts, Uncategorized

Why Do I Want Flight in Draenor? It’s a Matter of Time.

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The debate for flight in Draenor continues to rage, and the debate has even spread into dubious “They should just [do this] so people can stop whining” territory.  I am not here for a debate, nor am I here to dismiss anyone’s concerns as whining.  I am here to tell you why I support flight in Draenor, as I haven’t seen any official talk on this particular aspect by Blizzard:

Put simply – time is money, friend.

Fashion-Chic-GoblinI would like to be able to fly in Draenor because it would save me five or ten minutes on Apexis dailies and five or ten minutes doing those Harrison Jones repeatable quests.  I know, I know, that may not seem like a lot.  But let’s say you’re saving, on average, ten minutes a day.  That’s 300 minutes a month.  That’s five hours that could be spent raiding, playing alts, playing other games, watching Netflix, or any number of other things.  And I feel like ten minutes a day is at the lower end of the spectrum.

For those of us who started playing WoW in our college days, well… most of us are “all grown up” now.  We have other responsibilities.  Dumping an extra few hours into one game may not have been a huge deal back when we were younger.  But now?  Time is rare, time is valuable, and time is precious.  I could write a few freelance articles in those five hours and get paid for them.  Time is money.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I support flight in Draenor.  It really wasn’t a huge deal to me when I was still leveling, but now… come on, Blizzard.  It’s almost patch 6.2.  Listen to the goblins.  They are wise.

garrisons, thoughts

I Just Love Garrisons So Much

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I was thinking about this the other day – I needed to make some buff food but I didn’t have quite enough of the correct kind of fish, so I ran up to the trader and exchanged some garrison resources for some.

And it was just perfect.  It’s just perfect for if you need a little bit of something.  You can snag it right there in the garrison without even running to the auction house or anything.  I love it.  I love it so much.  It’s so streamlined.

I love garrisons in general.  I know some people say that it takes away player interaction, and I guess I can sort of see it a little?  But ultimately I don’t spend much time there, and I only ever do invasions with another player.  (I hate doing invasions alone, in fact!)  So for me, anyway, I don’t feel any sort of loss.  If anything it’s relaxing to have a safe place to retreat in-game every so often.  I am a nerve-wracked and high-strung soul, at heart.  It’s nice to have a personal little sanctuary, and a centralized hub to return to between all the other stuff you gotta do.

So yeah.  GARRISONS.  I love them and I’m going to miss them when Blizz inevitably pulls a Pokemon and retires a good idea.  But maybe next we’ll get something better?  Who knows!

 

thoughts

What Do You Want In A New Expansion?

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Do you know what would be awesome?

A spider-themed WoW expansion.

Yeah, that’s right.  Like Azjol-Nerub except THAT’S THE ENTIRE THING, IT’S ALL UNDERGROUND AND NERUBIAN THEMED.

Can you imagine huge bug cities?  Awesome tunnels leading from above ground, at various points around Azeroth, to the immense, sprawling world beneath?  How amazing and alien it would be and how fun it would be to explore?

Yeah.  I want this.  Nerubian-themed expansion, Blizzard.  LET’S DO IT.

How about you guys?

screenshots, thoughts

And Dreams of Adventures Yet to Come

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There has been much talk, lately, of the recent sharp decline in WoW subscription numbers and the related idea of content, or lack thereof.  Now on the one hand, I feel sort of… not qualified to talk about this because honestly I’m pretty satisfied with this expansion (I wouldn’t be playing and blogging if I wasn’t!) and I’m also enjoying what I’ve seen of Blackrock Foundry so far.  However, I started to think a little, and it hit me that something has, indeed, been missing from the game – for me, anyway.

WoW_LunapikeAgainstNightSky2

Long ago, when I was new to this game, the prevailing feeling was that there was always something up ahead.  Something to aspire to.  Something to claw my way towards.  First it was a mount.  Then it was Ice Barbed Spear from Alterac Valley.  Then it was an epic mount.  Then it was max level.  Then it was instances, and heroics.  Then it was Karazhan, glorious Karazhan.  By that point there was about a year left in the lifespan of Burning Crusade, and I felt that the impending new expansion was moving towards me much, much too quickly.  I still had TONS of raids left to do!  Heck, I still had Heroics I hadn’t done!  (Shattered Halls, I’m looking at you.)  How could I finish it all in just one year?

You see, raids back then were not terribly accessible.  It was normal for an average guild to languish in tier four raids for months or even years.  Was it frustrating?  A little.  But what it did do was give me a big ol’ carrot on a stick.  And I loved it.

Wrath of the Lich King hit – I never did finish all the TBC raids – and I loved the new expac.  I even got in with a progression guild and did all sorts of content when it was new.  It was pretty neat.  But then I quit.  Why?  Well, partially because I wanted to play other video games.  But also partially, I think, because it was the last raid of the expansion and there was nothing left to chase.  There was still a ton of content that I hadn’t touched at the end of TBC.  Not so much at the end of WotLK.

This isn’t to say that I don’t like accessible content.  I love it, I think they it’s a great idea, and LFR gives someone like me – with a really weird work schedule – a way to see the raids.

But I do sort of wonder if maybe there’s something to be said for a goal that’s just out of reach…

AlthalorAndTheRake

Something that we can continue to aspire to, even eight years later.

WoWScrnShot_050815_115513

thoughts

RU-FI-O

Have you guys seen the movie “Hook” starring Robin “God Bless Him” Williams?  In it, Peter Pan has forgotten how to be Peter Pan.  The Lost Boys try to re-teach him, but he has forgotten everything he knows.  He’s a grown-up, now, not Peter Pan.

But then, one day, it all comes back to him.  Rufio (the guy in charge of the Lost Boys) tells him “You are the Pan.  You can fly, you can fight, and you can crow!”

That’s a teeny tiny bit how I feel right now.  I AM The Pike!  I can raid!  I can do heroics!  And I can… uh… I guess I can crow?

"Has anyone in this family even SEEN a chicken?"
“Has anyone in this family even SEEN a chicken?”

Coming back is really neat.  It’s not easy, especially after such a long hiatus.  But I’m making progress, and it’s, well… it’s comforting, for lack of a better word.  It’s good to be back!

thoughts

You Wanna Know The #1 Thing I Miss About Playing Alliance?

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Mechanostriders.

300px-MechanostridersYup.

Bar none the best mount in the game, and Horde can’t get a single one.  Not as a rare drop (a la the ZG raptor/panther or Kael’thas’ hawkstrider) or anything.  Nope.  We just do not get mechanostriders.

Why, Blizzard?  Why must you torment me so?  I recall so many days spent farming the Argent Tournament dailies specifically to get the greatest of all mounts, the glorious Gnomeregan Mechanostrider.  And now I never even see it anymore.  Guess that’s what I get for being a filthy faction-switcher.

Maybe someday all my dreams will come true.  Maybe someday us Hordies will have access to that most glorious of High Tinker Mekkatorque’s inventions, the marvelous, magnificent mechanostrider.

Until then I’ll just sit over here dreaming.  /sigh