Ohhh, you mean the Blog Azeroth Shared topic is old!

The ones that get advertised on Twisted Nether Blogcast?

The one about whether my alts know each other?

The one that I read about at Illumination, where there is that family tree?

Pfft… what would you know about old?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/05/23/are-you-calling-my-alts-old/

Whoooo Hooo… it’s my Secret Santa!

I can’t wait to unwrap this and….. Ohhh Noes…. that’s what happens when a Plate wearing Paladin goes Cloth Destructo-Mage!

hehehhehe… I love it….

I love the post, and I love the end result!

Thank you Ophie the Bossy Pally, but maybe not a Mage!

This is the best Secret Santa I could have wished for…

Without further ado…

——————————————————————————————-

For Christmas, All I Want is to be a Gnome Mage, a Guest Post by Ophie the Bossy Pally

When I found out I was going to be writing a little something for Gnomeaggedon for Christmas, I was super thrilled! I’ve always wanted to slip into the mind of a fire ball casting, face melting, dream destroying, and absolutely huggable little gnome. The master himself was away, dropping off gifts for his friends and attending Jong and Megan’s crazy parties, so I had to go to my alt bin to find a mage capable of providing such an experience. I found her in Ironforge, nurturing her dreams of becoming the bestest of all firey mages.

“Come little mage!” I told her. “Let us be epic and run heroics!”

Slipping into the mind of my little bundle of deadly power, I brought her to Icecrown Citadel. We had to go around the back to find what we were looking for. Forge of Souls, it is called. I was excited. As a paladin, I’ve never had more than 2 or 3 spells before! I wasn’t sure of which buttons to press, so I tried them all. I took a screenshot of my efforts.

Ok, maybe the learning curve is a bit too steep for me. Maybe PvE just isn’t my thing. After all, I’m all about the face melting. PvP is where it’s at. Besides, with my amazing timing skills on my side, it’s almost time for Wintergrasp! You silly hordies better look out! I’m on my way!

….

Well, my adventures in PvP can be summed in one picture.

Alright, I’ll admit defeat. This maging thing is tougher than I bargained for. You can’t just mind control a mage and expect to insta-win without some skill. I still have some time left, though, so I might as well put her to good use and run some dailies.

I give up. From now on, I’ll leave face melting to the masters. I’ll have my plate and my shield back, please. But…um…now I sort of feel bad for all the times I’ve been impatient about my food. Or been too pushy about a port. The good mages make it look so easy, but what I’ve learned from my afternoon as a wannabe deadly killer is that those good mages are worthy of quite a bit of respect.

I raise my helm to Gnome and to all the mages out there who, unlike me, spend more time alive than dead.

Happy holidays to Gnomeaggedon and to all Armaggedon’s Coming readers!

With /hugs, Ophie the pally-not-mage.

——————————————————————————————-

How awesome was that!

Just a couple of minor points of clarification…

I was attending Jong’s and Megan’s crazy panties… not parties

“I raise my helm to Gnome and to all the mages out there who, unlike me, spend more time alive than dead.”

Well, I wont speak for the rest of them, but I spend a lot of my time dead…. it’s just a case of learning to live with it.  I remember the one and only Pally I rolled got shelved at level 10 because it didn’t die… where’s the fun in that?

For an idea of the Miss Saresa’s Secret Santa posts that are yet to come, checkout the thread at Blog Azeroth.

Better yet, to get an idea of what has already been written, check out the post at Twisted Nether!

Miss Saresa’s Secret Santa (aka Blog Azeroth Kris Kringle)

Gnomer and Out, Ophie and Awesome!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/12/24/for-christmas-all-i-want-is-to-be-a-gnome-mage/

• I could live without WoW for 5 days…
• I could live without a fridge for 5 days…
• But I was really struggling without my Blog for 5 days!

So I got to thank that Horde-Loving Gnome-Rolling Pie for coming to the rescue and showing us his ingredient list for his forthcoming Gnome Pie and Squidly Souffle… not to mention increasing the membership of Armaggedon’s Coming.

The Joke’s on Me!

Onto the meat and potatoes of the post.

Every now and then I get a little silly, not too often you understand, most of my posts are Srs Gnome Bzn, but once in the while I take the queue from the sillier of our blogging community and write a post that is intended to be silly from the moment the post title is born.

It’s one of those throw away posts, you expect to get a few hits on, that you expect to lose thousands of subscribers over (if you have them, otherwise the subscription list stays and a nice constant 1.. yes I subscribe… what’s wrong with that? If I was running for President of Azeroth I’d vote for myself too!). Yet somehow it is my most popular non-guide post – by a long stretch!

So I write this April Fools joke post and fill it with the most absurd things I can think of, things that will NEVER EVER come true unless it’s a Blizzard April fools joke.

I was smart too.. I could have titled is:

Mages to get healing tree, PvE Frost spec, PvP Fire Spec plus more in 3.1 patch notes

But knowing that patch 3.1 was due to drop any day, I suggested they were patch 3.2 notes. They were in the vein of those release notes that we often see around the forums that send us in to fits of mock rage when we discover that Tanks will lose Rage and Paladins will lose their wings.

There was no way any of it could possibly come true!

• Mages get healing tree
• Frost PvE DPS fixed
• Efforts to reduce Mage v Warlock QQ in forums

The Mages to get a healing tree has outraged many readers and feed a few trolls.  It was in fact an good reader’s response to an angry comment that reminded me this post still existed.  You see that post is in maintenance mode now… I delete the occasional spam, I read the troll comments and chuckle, then I just walk away… until the other day.

I’m sorry to say that Blizzard haven’t come through on the 3rd foolish idea… although for some reason Locks and Gnomes… err Mages, seem closer than ever at the moment.  Maybe by Cataclysm we can reclaim the Locks, pimp them up in pretty robes and call them Mages.

However that little one sandwiched in the middle made my jaw drop as I reread my silliest of posts. Let me quote a little bit from the April Fools post.

Well it appears that Blizzard have been listening to my Frosty colleagues. Frost will soon become the most sought after PvE Raiding Mage spec.

In other related news, Fire is to become the new Mage PvP spec…

FROST A VIABLE END GAME SPEC? OUTRAGEOUS!

Yet true…

Krizzlybear is obviously gobsmacked.  Hundreds of posts about the state of Frost, yet he hasn’t left WoW since the changes came in… not even to post about his new found joy… Hell I had to guest post just to bring things back from Steampanku!

Fire goes BOOM BOOM in Battlegrounds!

Euripedes got excited about Fire PvP, but seriously, who wouldn’t?

Fire is the ultimate in I am going to rip your face off and feed it to the dogs, so it makes sense that now we can do so instantly and at no cost to our mana pool… after all, there are lots of Horde that need to burn… burn…. BUUUURRRNNNN!

I need more absurdities to post about!

So tell me folks, what never-evers do you need me to post about?

Maybe this Gnome punches above his weight (if still below the belt).. maybe just maybe I cna post something else that is so silly it will never happen…. only to have it happen!

Speaking of silliness and absurdities…

• Did you play the game of “Where’s Gnomer?”
• Did you find me?

Alright, consider this the solutions at the back of the textbook… I have done 3 more guest posts now (4 if I remind you of Sideshow & Syrana’s) I have one 99% complete and another in the “hell the hell will I write for this awesome guy stage”.

So starting from oldest to newest…

Sideshow & Syrana

They just celebrated their Blogiversary and have concocted an awesome scavenger hunt… now I know Samodean has probably taken 1st prize already, but I’m sure 90% of the fun is in the hunt! (Ohh doesn’t matter how quick you are.. you still have a few days to put Samo back in his box)

My small contribution to the festivities was: The Smell of Smoking Leather

Righteous Orbs

No, not my Righteous Orbs, Tamarind’s… assuming she he has them off course…

Tamarind’s a girl right?

I had one of those delirious moments… OK I have them all the time… and I needed to capture what goes through my head every time I see a post or  comment from Tamarind.

Yes, yes, I know it’s insane, both that I could think such a thing and that I have a Gnome and a Squid in my head arguing about these things… probably explains while I am confuzzled at times.

Of course, if she he thinks all Gnomes are girls….

Kestrel’s Aerie

Guest Post: Gnew at the Gaerie

Kestrel nicked off to A-Why-Heee for 10 days, so I snuck in before the doors were even closed and broke his feedburner… Well he was feeding Gnomes to his flock (well so I say…), and I burn things, so it’s only appropriate.

He was even kind enough to fix my attrocious grammar… you means the plural of Octopuses is Octopi?

Thanks Kes!

Miss Saresa’s Secret Santa

I started the ball rolling with a concept, but Miss Saresa took that concept between her teeth and ran with it…  There will be a lot of Secret Santa posts popping up over the next few days, but mine is already up.  it was the 2nd thing I did after getting my interwebz back…

I was fortunate to be given the blog of a great bloke (who incidentally now only lives a few kilometres away – small world hunh!). I somehow managed to read his mind and pick a topic close to his heart… impatience.

Go check out … the Impatient and keep your eyes out for the other Secret Santa posts that will be popping up… there should be one coming here any day…

The List will Grow!

Edit: You can monitor the explosion in Secret Santa Posts on the Twisted Nether Blog:

Miss Saresa’s Secret Santa (aka Blog Azeroth Kris Kringle)

Why you don’t get heals

Completely off topic…

If you ever do find yourself lucky enough to be in a party with Squidly, but aren’t getting any heals… this is the reason…

The kitten, not the Blog!

She likes to chase the cursor and the healing frames…. best thing you can do is not lose any health, otherwise she will be pointing at your health box… but I wont be able to target it!

Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to unpack I go!

Ohh yeah, that was Dwarves wasn’t it… whatever… I am in my new place and I can almost reach the kettle for coffee if I climb the mountain of boxes.  So I am going to leave you know, climb back over the boxes away from the PC and start counting the 14 hours before Santa sides off my roof.

As I may, or may not post tomorrow… Merry Christmas!

Here’s a little something to print out and stick to your Christmas Tree…

Gnomer and Out, Squidly and Stout!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

http://gnomeaggedon.net/2009/12/24/the-jokes-on-me

As announced on Twisted Nether the BA topic of the Week is to come up with a Quiz about why you rolled you class… I’ve done the class… so let’s look at the race…

Note, only Gnomes (or want to be Gnomes) need apply.

As announced on Twisted Nether the BA topic of the Week is to come up with a Quiz about why you rolled you class… so here goes folks…

Note, only Fire Mages (or want to be Fire Mages)  need apply.

From Twisted Nether comes this weeks topic of the week, all about your first few days in WoLK:

Many folks (including myself) already have an idea in our heads about what we will be doing in the first day or three after Wrath hits. I thought it might be interesting to have folks put it down “on paper” as it were. That way we could reference back to it when writing the inevitable “my first day/ weekend/ week” in Northrend posts.

Might be interesting to see how close or far off we really ended up being. Kind of like a time capsule of expectations we could go back and poke through later. Not to mention it will end up covering ideas for 3 or more posts: what I think now, what really happened, and comparing the two.

I have a quicky.

If the release is after November 13th:

If it’s before 13th November.

I will be sulking!

Why? Because I am not going to buy the expansion then get on a plane and leave my PC for 2 months.

Gnomer and Out!

Why?

Well, not so much the words, although “Your my only friend, and you don’t even like me” is probably quite pertinent to most WoW friendships.

No, it’s more about the feeling that the music invokes in me.

The initial strumming/picking of the guitar, feels like the tank pulling and starting to build threat, while I squirm with impatience, then throw the first few scorches out building up for the drums…

You know you are going to pull aggro any seconds now, but you just can’t stop

Then it’s all out chaos, fireballs flying, fireballs-to-the-wall action.

The music just sends that “you know you are going to pull aggro any seconds now, but you just can’t stop” shiver up and down my spine.

I guess I have lived with this song in my head for a long time. I first saw this band a long time ago, in a now non-existent venue. They were around 16 years old, playing to maybe a dozen people in a large room (they were support to the support act). The thing that caught my attention was, they might as well have been playing to an area filled with a 100,000 people. They gave it their all.

I like to think I do the same thing, even if I am only in Kara. When I play, I like to play like it matters.

The band name was God.

They were called God, and at their last ever gig, which I was lucky enough to squeeze into, they said they were the greatest rock and roll band ever… and while many would disagree, there was something about them that would make you scream “Hell yeah!”

I like to think Gnomeaggedon is the God of DPS in our raid group.

They, like a Fire Mage, lived hard and died young.

Although the members of the band went on to build a huge reputation in the Australian music industry, many, if not most of them are long gone from this world. They lived hard, died young, they messed with the elements and paid the ultimate price

Courtesy of BA Topic of the week.

Gnomer and Out!

Recently, in BA chat, I spoke about my guild progress and how we killed Mags the week before. Then the conversation turned to getting the “Champion of the Naruu” title. Which got me thinking, I actually can do that quest and get that title! Something I thought I would never see, let alone attain, was now an achievable goal.

What about you? Think back.

What content or goals did you think you would never see, and what have you done? What has surprised you the most? Where do you see yourself in 6 months, after the launch of Lich?

Well I never thought I was going to play WoW, but I will get to that.

In order of most recent/never ever’s…

• Enter SSC, let alone kill a boss. I got called in by a guildy to another guild’s Lurker kill. I was so sure I was never going, that I didn’t even know where SSC was (let alone read strats). But we got Lurker and I was 1st or 2nd on the damage (can’t remember now)… Yay!
• Gruul’s Lair. Once again, random invite from same guildy. Didn’t know where it was, or what to do. 1st introduction to Gruul’s Lair was aGruul kill. I have been back a few times since – usually complete waste of time (afk’s etc). But I have taken HKM and Gruuls multiple times now.
• Kara. There were originally only 5 of us – so never though we would see the mythical Kara. LUckily a few friends have joined us (power leveled specifically) and we just pug the rest.
• Honor Hold Reputation. Took forever and I had to pug most of it. If only I knew about efficient reputation grinding strategies before I finished with Zangamarsh.
• 1,000+ Spell damage. It was never going to happen… ohh it happened.. ohh so long ago now.
• Create Spellfire/Spellstrike setc. What a grind! Lots of secret playing while my wife slept… ssssshhhhh!
• The 60′s instances. Need a level 60 for them. Big gap between this and the previous ones huh!
• Getting to 60. I always expected to get to 70 when TBC came out. But before that I had 2 toons in their mid 50′s. 1st still sitting on Dalaran from when we moved to an Oceanic Server and started again somewhere we might find people in our own timezone. Then moved from Khaz’Goroth to Aman’Thul for a fresh start after guild implosion.
• Play WoW at all. I know I have previously mentioned my “argument” to be allowed to play WoW – but that was the end of the saga.

For quite a while my mates had been playing Neverwinter Nights online on a Friday. I finally convnced my wife to let me play, went out and bough the game and the expansions to join in and… WoW was released – Have game, but no mates!

Money was tight,s o I wasn’t going out and buying WoW – I mean my mates were going to stop playing WoW right? I mean how good could it be? Wrong!

Caught up with my friends at a LAN one weekend and tried WoW. Liked it, but I didn’t have the cash to buy it. One of my mates asked if I was enjoying it, and when he realised I was (yeah even the stupid Orc warrior I was playing), pulled a copy out of his bag for me. The guys had bought me one! Yay!

I still had to sell the idea of the monthly subscription etc.. but 80% of the battle was won.

So “Well I never..” thought I would play WoW!

Everything else (including what will come in Rash of the Itch King, is a bonus.

Gnomer and Out!

Crowd Control.

As a fire mage I only have a few tricks up my overly generous sleeves.

Frost Nova - I can trap quite a few mobs for 8 seconds.

Blasts enemies near the caster for 99 to 111 Frost damage and freezes them in place for up to 8 sec. Damage caused may interrupt the effect.

• 1st thing to note, 8 seconds isn’t a hell of a long time, and I have probably pissed a few of them off as well.
• 2nd thing, it is likely to break, releasing all the mobs if you get a lucky crit.
• If I frost nova in the vicinity of shackles etc, I will break them… sorry we are working towards the same end, I am just trying to keep the healers alive for another 8 seconds… please reshackle, sheep etc.
• Generally I am only dropping this to protect someone, probably the healers so:

1. Healers, move away from the mobs melee attacks if they are still hitting you, they wont follow.. well immediately anyway.
2. Everyone else, either focus on the original target, or give the tank, shacklers etc a chance to get their mob(s) back under control

Dragon’s breath – If you see flames spewing from my face… I have cast Dragon’s breath

Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 680 to 790 Fire damage and are Disoriented for 3 sec. Any direct damaging attack will revive targets. Turns off your attack when used.

• It’s a cool effect I know, and it is an AoE, so I can grab more than one mob in it. I am normally using it as a last ditch effort to stop the mob reaching me or a healer, so remember.
• It is only a 2 second disorient, but it is a 2 second disorient that will break on any damage. So feel free to hit it, but make sure you are taking it off me, the healer or finishing it off, cause I might need that 2 seconds to Iceblock or something.

Polymorph – Don’t really need to explain this I know, but.. Turns mob into cute pet (Sheep, Pig, Turtle) for 50 seconds. My choice being a pig:

Transforms the enemy into a pig, forcing it to wander around for up to 50 sec. While wandering, the pig cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be polymorphed at a time. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters.

• You all know it breaks on damage, so why do you hit it?
• I have a focus macro, and a mod to tell me when the pig tries to get away, so don’t worry about it.
• It does take me 1.5 seconds to cast, so tanks (particularly Tankadins), just make sure I am ready before you go charging off, wondering why the pig isn’t there. I will try to time it with your bow/gun shot, but if I am in the previous room regaining mana, then you can fight that mob on your own.
• If I die, I will try to tell you when the sheep is going to pop, so don’t panic, I will give you 5 seconds warning.
• There are some (chaotic) fights where it is better for the mage that is going to poly to have marking privileges. If they do, and their poly macro includes the auto marking, then the whole party will know which mob not to hit.
• Hunter’s can’t tame my pet pig! Although they could put it on ice.

Cone of Cold – I spray Ice, lots of mobs get angry with me, but they only take a little longer to get to me.

Targets in a cone in front of the caster take 410 to 448 Frost damage and are slowed by 50% for 8 sec.

• I don’t use this much… I always tend to die (see next point) my preference is Dragons Breath.
• This tends to draw silly amounts of aggro.
• It shares a cooldown with Dragon’s breath, so I wont be doing both in a short period.

Kiting – I can’t. I know, I know, I am a mage and I should be able to. Isn’t it magecraft 101?

• Well see I am a Fire Mage, and generally the mob is dead before I need to kite, so I haven’t learnt how. Apparently it takes practice and I don’t have the spare time to ghostrun back to try again.
• Now, I might try.. if things are really bad, but in reality I have less seconds of life that you have fingers on one hand.
• I’m sure Zupa is rubbing his hand with glee right now.. I’m going to respec Gnome and teach him how to kite.

Aggro/Threat - yeah whatever. If there is one thing I know how to do, it’s generate threat.

Luckily I also know how to install and watch a threat meter, and I can shed the aggro permanently given a few seconds – 3 nice, 5 best. I can also dump aggro onto healers ala late Hunter Feign death via Iceblock – don’t worry I will get it back when the Iceblock ends. So some tips.

Tank Aggro.

• I need my tank of choice to have aggro, and he needs to be building the threat at a steady rate. The only problem is when people open up too early, or pets have growl on etc, that the tank isn’t building threat. If you stun the mob, the tank isn’t generating threat. So don’t! Let the tank get hit, generate threat and we can all climb the threat wave together.
• If you get the aggro from the tank, or stop him generating it, my mid-air fireball is going to trump your aggro and I am going to take the healers down with me. Yes I do spikey damage, but I account for that, what I don’t account for is the tank being prevented from generating threat.

I’m watching the Aggro…

But that doesn’t mean you can’t point out that I am about to go over the tank, or as in some cases go over the 2nd highest threat.

• Sometimes I get distracted… fire is pretty you know. Sometimes aggro changes suddenly – deaths, vanishes, stuns etc.
• I love it when I hear my mates yell, watch out Gnome, your getting high, or your in 2nd position (which generally is OK), cause that gives me a chance to reassess where I am at, maybe slow down, maybe go invisible, maybe survive.

On a side note:

Invisibility does not equal death!

I lol when I pop invis and the Omen watchers panic cause I am not on the list anymore. Yes death is a quick way to drop aggro, but invisibilty is preferable, even to me. The number of times when a fight is tight and I hear people screaming because we are down to 1 good dps (+the rest of them), and it all looks doomed… But I am excited, I’m popping trinkets etc cause the mob is in it’s last 20% and that means blasting time.. so I need to shed the aggro to give me a window.

Off Mage Class, but relevant – Hunter Feign death.

Use it, use it as much as you want, just don’t wait to use it. Cause when that mob peels off the tank to hit you, and you go tricky nighty night, the mob looks around, licks it’s lips and says “Gnome I’m coming for you now”

AoE Spam – Yeah, I know I am going to die….

Mages wield the elements of fire, frost, and the arcane to destroy or neutralize their enemies. They are a robed class that excels at dealing massive damage from afar, casting elemental bolts at a single target, or raining destruction down upon their enemies in a wide area of effect.

Yeah, I know I am going to die…. (didn’t I just say that… well worth repeating), but here’s an idea. If a tank is the tank for single target damage, let me be the tank for AoE damage (pre-arranged of course).

Q. Why?
A. Cause I want the bubbles, shields and heals all to myself! (Actually I always want that, but during AoE, I love it).

You see if all the “bubbles” and heals are on me, and I am doing the majority of the damage, then no one else needs a heal or a bubble. I will have the undivided attention of the mobs. I wont need to cast the mana sucking Mana Shield (once described somewhere as the best debuff you can get – if only you could cast it on an opponent)

Next point is… You let the tank get aggro right? Well then let me get in a hit to two 1st.

I like to start with a Flamestrike. If the mobs stay in the one place (usually a pally tanking, or I have frost nova’d them etc.), then they get the benefit of the DoT associated with Flamestrike – assuming they stay put. The other thing is it is going to take me 3 seconds to cast that. So if you come in with your instant or shorter cast spell too, guess where the mobs are going… you! Guess who’s got the bubble… me! Guess who’s going to die… yep you, and probably a few of the healers too.

So either wait until you see the big explosion, or time your cast to drop just after mine.

When we do damage.

All the time of course, but the last 20% is special for us.

Increases damage of all spells against targets with less than 20% health by 20%.

OK, so assuming we have been good and maintained the scorch debuff, have our trinkets and combustion ready, now is the time that we make the previous damage in the fight look weak.

• Often if a Fire Mage appears to be under performing, it’s because they died before this point.
• Of course we need to make sure we have a nice threat ceiling, have mana etc – but assuming we are ready this is where we really shine – or explode.
• Now if this moment in time can be combined with a Curator’s evocate (a stretch I know) or other damaging increasing moments that some mobs have… well…

I love the smell of napalm in the morning, night and noon!

OK, final point…

Invisiblity – It’s great 100% aggro drop – if I don’t do anything for 5 seconds (running like the chicken pet I have is OK), don’t get AoE’d, don’t get healed don’t get anything… leave me a lone for 5 seconds OK?

Fades the caster to invisibility over 5 sec, reducing threat each second. The effect is cancelled if you perform or receive any actions. While invisible, you can only see other invisible targets and those whom can see invisible.

• From memory I am out of combat at that point too, so I could theoretically sit down and have a BBQ.. not that there is ever time for it… but I could.
• So don’t panic if I disappear of your threat meter, but feel free to suggest 3 seconds before it’s too late that I should dump a bit of threat, and try and keep the mobs away from me for 3-5 seconds.
• Ohh and I can’t see the mobs while I am invisible (apart from those also invisible), but I can see you – so if you need me to move somewhere, don’t say behind x mob, say come to freddy.

OK, and one last joke that Mages like to pull on the unsuspecting….

You know, we just had a tough pull, party wiped, we are all eating, drinking, buffing when you see the Mage leap to his feet scream “Leeerrroooyyyy” and run into the room full of mobs.

1. Never chase and idiot into a room full of mobs,
2. The mage is probably invisible and just having a lend of you.. notice the mobs aren’t hitting the mage for a change… I guess they can’t see him!

Gnomer and Out!

Why I play at all…

Back when I was young, it was practically socially acceptable (here in Oz anyway) to (binge) drink and drive – even if not legally acceptable.

Times have changed and “all my friends are getting married, yeah they’re all growing old. They all staying home on the weekends, they’re all doing what their told….“ (Skyhooks reference for the Aussies). Not only that but we all seem to have picked a compass point of Melbourne (or Australia in general) and moved – each move seems to put greater physical distance than the last.

So online games, particularly WoW, have enabled a continued social life with progressively more distant friends, without the risk of a run in with the pigs (not talking polymorph spell here).

Real Life commitments also effect the ability for regular catchups at “the local”. Nearly all my friends are “married with children”, two of them getting the first of their litter in the last month. Thus virtual encounters are much more likely.

My sales pitch to my wife…

I had to sell the concept of me playing WoW to my wife… she knew I was gaining a mistress in the form of the game, so I had to sell it… here’s my sales pitch.

I could…

• Go to the pub with my mates every Friday for 6 hours.
• Spend $100 each night
• Get blind drunk and incapacitated for 2 days.
• Risk loosing my license
• Pick up chicks at the bar (or at least ogle them through my beer goggles)

or….

• Stay at home on a Friday night with my family – while catching up with my mates online.
• Spend $20 a month on a subscription and $10 a week on a six-pack.
• Wake up a little tired on Saturday morning, but otherwise be ready for action.
• Only risk the computer chair.
• Pick up virtual chicks… who most likely will be my mates playing female toons.

That’s the sales pitch that allowed me to play WoW.. but I think I had her at “Hoooonnnneeey….”

There are other diversions of course – TV etc… but I like the interactive, semi-scripted, progressive-yet never ending concept of WoW. I can achieve something while communicating with humans and interacting with bits & bytes.

I’m a one-game-man and that game is WoW. I don’t have any slack in my RL schedule or finances to pick up additional side activities – the rest of my life is devoted to my family, or supporting them. So that’s why I WoW vs the multitude of other options.

Looking a little deeper…

Why PvE and not PvP?

Pretty simple really. I know I suck at 1st person shooters and my BG escapades are a nice sideline – but I wouldn’t want them to be the norm. This is a leisure activity and can be frustrating enough – why make it harder? Ohh and I guess my mates had not interest in PvP server… and I cam catching up with my mates remember…

Deeper Still…

Why I play the various content.

Grinding…

Arrgggh, well I don’t if I can help it. Well maybe for the occasional recipe or Basilisk meat, but even that now I prefer to source off the AH. I hate rep & xp grinds but cope with them as an evil necessity.

Quests…

Generally I enjoy quests. I think I miss most of the story line (err sorry, Lore) just because I tend to be cramming as much as possible. But I find they are a great device for exploring the world – well with the exception of those designed to make you explore the world – you know the ones – “take x item to y npc in z zone” – Yeah whatever, already been there…

Instances…

I love, or at least used to love, 5 mans. The used to is because our group of 5 mates is now a group of 7.. so who sits out? My primary objective is to play with mates, so some of the shine has gone from instances. Still, I like the limitation of making do with the classes you have. You can just feel some instances are made for a different mix – but you just have to do it.

Raids…

I love the Chaos – particularly in 25 mans. So much going on. Not knowing which way to duck or dive. Of course, there is also that feeling when the boss finally goes down.

Loot…

I would like to say that loot is just another enabler and I am not a loot-whore, but I do love researching the best and hunting it down. I love the feeling of winning a piece with a roll of “7″. I love looking at it offline, feeling proud that I got it and my spell damage has gone from 0 to 1,000.. and still counting. Of course I love imaging how I will one-shot Nightbane solo now that I have an extra +5 spell damage… never seems to happen though.

PvP…

I love PvP, but I love having the choice of when to PvP and pick the location and form. Thus my preference for PvE servers and BGs. I like the BGs and their 1st person capture the x feel. There is a definite objective and it can be achieved. I don’t mind i it lasts 10 minutes or 2 hours, it’s all fun and afterwards I can go back to my carebear lifestyle.

So why I WoW…

• To be with my mates while staying legal and yet close to my family.
• To experience the whole gamut of the game – maybe not the deep (top) end, but definitely the breadth it has to offer.

So when I get itchy about not achieving x, y, z I remember why I WoW, and realize I have already and continue daily to experience my “end game” wishes.

Gnomer and Out!