Last night, Innuendo had the weekly "farm status" raid. Many brought their alts, and we decided to run Naxxramas for various reasons. As was to be expected, with a few new to the instance players, and badly geared alts, we wiped a couple of times. This was mostly related to the new players and not the gear so much, which brings me to my point. Patience is truly a virtue in a rewarding online game experience. We were all there once. Yes, I'm looking at you Joe Elitist who ever wiped EVAR and soloed Kael'Thas the day after The Eye opened. You were there once. All of us have had a period where we were unsure of how the game mechanics worked, or what "positive side left, negative side right" meant. We recently had a very good player join our guild. He's really a fantastic guy too, which works out very well... positive, good sense of humor, and generally very patient. After 2 wipes on Thaddius, he whispered me with the statement "I f*cking give up." This surprised me given how I'd repeatedly told him our progression status, and how we generally rolled regarding raids. Later, the new guildie apologized and we talked shop for a while. I have to admit at times that when it seems people just don't listen I become very frustrated with the game. After a while though, I remember my early days of raiding Molten Core and Zul'Gurub, how while I studied boss strategies I didn't really "get the big picture." We all have more fun when we help others to be better at their craft. Patience is a virtue. A temporary, reflexive flash of anger is understandable in such an environment. In the long run, however, those that are constantly insulting others because of the way they move their pixels without providing any positive input as to how they can improve have simply become too involved. Too obsessed with something that will be obsolete in a few years. You're paying good money to play a game. Have fun. Don't ruin the fun of others. That's really our guild's policy in the end, and the policy I base my playstyle around.

Really great chart from Healing Way. Blizzard has decided that we aren't allowed to use all of the tools they have given us (stacking buffs, etc etc) to win, so this is extremely helpful. Totems wiping already applied other buffs is just... well... stupid and lazy.

A great article sent to me by my friend Tyler. As I was reading it, in my mind I was mocking him for playing a Bard and reading this in another tab. That's when I started thinking uh oh...

Wow. That's all I have to say about my spec change for Giblet. Brand new to the spec, my first run through Heroic Mechanar and my dps went from ~600 on a good day in mostly affliction/raid boss debuffing to over 1000 for the whole Mech run. The numbers showing up on my screen were nearly unbelievable, I think I had 3 6k+ crits in a row at one point. Anyway, that's all I have for now. It's definitely reinvigorated my love for playing the Warlock class.

It's funny how the different classes in the game can lead to different attitudes, unexpected leadership, and great comradery. Those that play know that I am first and foremost, a tank... and a warrior tank. For the interested, here is a great article on what it means to tank in Warcraft. When I first started playing, I chose a Warlock... and it is still a very fun class for me to play. Perhaps my favorite outside of Warrior at the moment. I chose to level a warrior because there was such a dramatic shortage of meat shields on our server. I never thought I would become the main tank for a large guild, much less be in a role leading several individuals during battle. One of the fundamental things you learn as you gain higher levels is a warrior is people expect you to lead, and know more about what everybody is doing than anyone else. It's a lot of pressure, and at times, a lot of stress. Some would say it is thankless, but the reward comes from the joyous cries over the voice channel when you finally down that boss you've been working on for a week. I've healed, dps'd (ranged and melee), and tanked, but nothing compares to keeping your friends alive, and getting through some of the hardest content under your leadership.

In short: yes. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMO, or MMORPG for short) involve the coming together of several thousand individuals at a time at any particular moment. The individuals that participate are typically from a vast variety of backgrounds... financial, religious, ideological, and even national and continental. Personally, in the guild I am a part of, we have people from across the entire United States (we even let in a few sneaky Canadians), and I believe every time zone is covered. We chat via typing, and in raids we open up voice chat and get to know one another a little better. Some have formed very close ties within the guild, and it's interesting to watch factions form that specialize in enjoying different tasks within the game. One thing that causes me a sort of fascination regarding this phenomenon are people online that will sign up for sites that support the game, only to berate the individuals that play it. Some seem desperate, trying to quell the tide of MMOs that are apparently, destroying society at large. Others are very angry with the MMO community, calling it a group of losers and individuals with no lives... which is sort of odd that they would go to the trouble of signing up for such a site, and taking the time to post that on it... but I digress. There are very real communities of friends with common interests within the walls of the respective games, sometimes resulting in even closer relationships (I am currently in a relationship with someone I met while playing WoW, and in fact owe the inspiration for this post to her as she has written an article along the same lines). Regardless, these games have generated much controversy... some people calling them "addictive," and some actually playing much, much more than they should. Even with these stories, the issue is with the individuals... clearly people that should have not involved themselves in relationships or had children in the first place, let alone been so weak as to rely on a game to replace their very existence. It's the equivalent to blaming a gun for killing a person... as far as I know, guns don't pull their own triggers. That is, unless you're talking about the new super secret bio-engineered guns that also have legs and are currently coming for YOU! So has the rise of this type of media led to a decline in general socialization within society, or a boost? What do you think?

Several months ago, actually probably nearing a year ago, I formed a guild named Innuendo on the Horde side of the Runetotem server. We were a small guild, made up of local friends and people we'd played with from the game for some time. Well, time passed and Innuendo is, for all intents and purposes, dead. The point in my telling you this is that during that time, I took it upon myself to lead some raids. Personally, I don't think that my raid leadership was very good. Some positives were I really enjoyed researching mobs and bosses. Negatives were when you're tanking, it's tough to even take a second to hit the talk key on Vent and call out orders. Given the makeup of our group, we were fairly successful. Fast forward to today. The guild in which I currently have my main alliance toon is a good one... they're progressing very well through the 25 man content, given that they are mostly a casual guild. I've experienced some really truly great leaders, and feel that I may be able to step up to the plate when I go into an instance as DPS. A bit of advice to prospective raid leaders: constantly communicate. Always let people know what is happening, what to expect prior to a fight (including trash mobs), and what to bring into the raid. Above all else, if you are not going to show up, let the 9-24 additional raiders that depend on you to be there about your absence at least 24 hours in advance. It's a game, you're supposed to have fun, but having your time wasted is not fun.

A little over a month ago, several addon sites for the World of Warcraft game produced by Blizzard Entertainment were found to have keyloggers as a part of their addons. This, of course, produced a high level of insecurity in several thousand user accounts related to the game. One of those accounts belonged to a friend of mine. He had spent months leveling his character all the way up to ~57 when a keylogger stole his information. The malicious individual wound up selling everything he had, and transferring his 300 gold to another account. Having faith in Blizzard's integrity system, he submitted a ticket. 8,000,000 people give Blizzard $15 a month to play this game. It took over a month for my buddy to receive ANY contact from Blizzard, despite several attempts to reach them. 1 full month of receiving $15 from 8 million individuals. When they did finally grace him with a response, this is the form letter he received: Greetings ******, Thank you for contacting the World of Warcraft Game Master Department. Account Name: ******** Realm: ******* Character Names: ******, ******, ******* Unfortunately, we were unable to verify the loss of the reported character assets. In order to assist you in continuing with normal play, a basic set of Bind on Equip items have been provided for the above listed characters. These items are not bound. They are for you to use, sell or equip as you deem necessary. The upcoming Burning Crusades will afford you and your character new content that will improve your overall gaming experience. We sincerely apologize for any frustration you may have experienced as a result of this situation, and hope that this will assist you to return to enjoying the game as quickly as possible. Please remember that restoration is not always guaranteed. While we make every effort to verify your loss there are times where restoration is not possible. For further information please check our Restoration Policy located at *********************. Thank you again for contacting us. We hope you continue to enjoy your experience in World of Warcraft! *** Please do not respond to this email as all conversations on this matter would be best handled online. *** Regards, ******** Specialist Blizzard Entertainment http://www.worldofwarcraft.com Customer satisfaction is a top priority here at Blizzard Entertainment, and we would like your feedback on the level of service you have received. Please feel free to provide such feedback at the following web address: *********** Blizzard, you may never see this, but if you do I hope you understand that as a gaming software company you have now jumped the shark. It's a "minor" incident like this that begins the tarnishing of a once stellar reputation. I know of at least 10 individuals who would consider cancelling their accounts as a result of this flippant response to a sincere concern. To those not paying attention, the letter clearly states that Blizzard Entertainment, despite having full control over every transaction in the game and logging most of them to control cheating, could not find the time or energy to research this issue and wound up costing an individual several months of play time due to their own apathy toward their customers. $120,000,000 a month goes to Blizzard Entertainment from individuals such as my friend and myself. Update (01/22/07): Thanks to Tom for the heads-up, put too many zeroes on the post above. Fixed. Update (01/25/07): Bizzyblog's great post on this. Also, WD's great post on personal decisions and choices. An article from Curse Gaming, originally thought to be the source of many keylogger addons. Another great article with screenshots of what happens when you decide to "press the issue."

So.. I think I have the warlock strategy down pretty much, having run many high level instances many times with many different groups... getting a good feel for the strengths of each class, and what would be required for a successful run. Also made the pickup on my Dreadsteed the other day, thanks to my guildies (and an unfortunately failed run at Molten Core). I am not, however, confident in my ability to play my shaman in a group setting. I can solo pretty well, but not having grouped very often, it's kind of hard to tell what you need to do as a tanking/healing/magey type class. If anyone has extensive experience in this regard, I'd love to hear about it. The general consensus is that restorative shaman are best for end game material. To that end, what are the best talent specs/spell strategies, etc? Also, in my newly formed guild of mostly local friends, my shaman will likely be the most heavily armored and strongest member. I'm thinking I should level my very low level warrior for primary tanking duties rather than rely on the shammy. Ah well, random thoughts from WoW. I appreciate any shammy advice people may contribute.

Article See?? Games are good for you! Yeah! Now I have an excuse AND justification! Anyway, good article, and it is true about the final raids. Tonight I'll experience one firsthand, Molten Core, and the amount of preparation and coordination that go into a successful expedition are incredible. This is why we will probably not get past the first boss, but it will be good experience for future raids. Should anyone locally wish to join in on the fun on my server, go to Runetotem and shoot me (Giblet) an in-game email.