Michelle Slee's Blog, page 8

Out of Time

I’m always out of step with everyone else. Consider these recent blogs. I’m lost in Darkshore and Ashenvale levelling my hunter through her 20s and 30s while everyone is busy getting ready for Legion. Part of me wishes Legion wasn’t due for another month or so yet (I know – sacrilege!). I’m back into WoW and enjoying these early levels but come Legion I’ll have to leave Beanie and pick up one of my 100s and play through the Legion stuff. Another month or so and Beanie could (could) be 100 and I could be doing the Legion stuff with her, and ready to do it, having naturally got to that point with her.

I’m going to miss Beanie when Legion lands and I have to switch to a 100. I can’t boost Beanie. I used my pre-purchase Legion boost on a priest healer and she’ll be the one I’m levelling in Legion.

Basically then I’m out of step with everyone. For so many Legion is long long overdue and they have been bored senseless waiting for it. But for me there’s been no wait, no delay. I’ve not been that interested in WoW and now that I am interested I’m interested in the old stuff. And I’m now attached to the wrong character!

Of course I could just ignore Legion. I could continue to play through the old quests and let all the new shiny new stuff pass me by (if that will indeed be possible – I’m not even sure if the old world is going to  change in some way meaning all levels are affected?). But I know when the time comes I won’t want to do that either. Once it launches I will want to be there to see what it’s all about and experience the story. But I’m worried part of me will also want to get it out of the way. Gain all my new levels and reach that point where I would really need to raid to progress any further. And then put my level maxed character back on the  shelf and go back to Ashenvale or whatever zone I abandoned Beanie in on August 30th.

That said I listened to The Instance yesterday and heard some stuff about World Quests that got me excited. It suggested interesting things to do beyond the levelling and not just involving raiding. We’ll see. I’m also surprisingly sad about missing the pre-launch event on the 9th August when I’m back in work.  Why do I care if I just want to stay in Kalimdor levelling Beanie? My head confuses me sometimes.

Blankety Blank

Just completed The Offering to Azshara Quest. Basically had to stop the Darkscale priestesses from offering the Horn of the Ancients to Azshara. It was all a bit glitchy and I don’t know if this is down to the last patch or not. Every time Azshara was meant to speak the dialogue box had “Queen Azshara says …” but no actual dialogue. Fill in the blanks yourself (actually this could be a good game – you draw a card with quest text and dialogue but with key words missing and you have to fill in the words. Sort of like old 70s favourite Blankety Blank but for WoW.)

Anyway I’ve checked out the quest on Wowhead (this would be cheating in WoW Blankety Blank of course) and she’s meant to threaten death to whoever stopped the ritual (little ‘ol me). When Malfurion runs up to save the day she says “Ah Malfurion I was hoping to distract you while my allies attack Hyjal.” This causes Malfurion to go all Buffy in Becoming, Part One (Season Two) when she realises Angel has tricked her and the other vampires are attacking her friends back in the library (bye bye Kendra). He basically gives me the shortest time ever to accept a quest (honestly- I was distracted for a second and he’d gone which meant I had to do the whole thing again) and runs off, leaving me to prevent Soggy Soggoth’s (official title) return all alone. Thanks Malfurion.

The Twilight Hammer clan are attempting to bring Soggoth – minion of the Old Gods – back to life. I stop them (easily- I’ve already outlevelled this area but I’m a completionist once I get going and I’m now thinking levelling Beanie is a good opportunity to get the bulk of Loremaster done (I am of course totally embarrassed that I’ve not already done this after all these years on WoW)). Soggoth is now a card in Hearthstone by the way (courtesy of Whispers of the Old Gods). 9 mana minion, taunt, 5 attack and 9 health. Can’t be targeted by spells or hero powers. I think it’s weak given the high mana cost & low attack but a 9 health taunt can save the day in a pinch. Anyway he’s not one I own so this is all pretty irrelevant but I’ve discovered I enjoy meeting Hearthstone cards in WoW. It’s like finally meeting a celebrity (I remember when I saw Christopher Biggins on the train – I talked about it for months). Things are coming full circle – WoW spawned Hearthstone but Hearthstone could create (recreate) an interest in WoW? Maybe. Perhaps people will end up logging into WoW just to go and hang out with their favourite cards. Or is that weird? I think I’m going off on another tangent when I really need to focus. I have WoW Blankety Blank to create.

 

Let’s Be Friends

Yesterday completed the New Home quest for the murlocs in Darkshore. I’m a soft hearted soul and really loved the idea of creating a new little home for them.  I know it was just to get them out of the way of the dig site but I felt like I was reaching out a hand of friendship to these enemies of old.  And for a brief time it worked. When the new seaside condo was built they turned friendly to me and celebrated their new habitat (the cute little dancing top hatted baby murloc who briefly appeared was adorable). Then they faded away which I took to mean end of story – they all lived happily ever after. But then of course I turned around and looked at the digsite and saw that everything had reset. The digsite was once again full of red angry murlocs ready to kill me on site and our brief friendship was over.

Why must it be so?

 

 

 

Working For It

Daughter had a bit of a  meltdown the other day because husband had managed to earn enough gold to get himself the Chauffered Chopper mount. She has wanted this for a long time. As you all know to get it you need to have bought 35 heirlooms. Now this is something I’ve not yet done. I don’t play enough these days to earn the money to get the heirlooms (although I know it wouldn’t take me that long if I put my mind to it). I’ve never been much of a gold earner. I trash when I should vendor, vendor when I should auction house, underprice when I should play the market. Basically it’s another area where I’m pretty clueless.

Husband is far more disciplined about gold making. He sorts out his garrison every day and sells his ores and herbs for good prices on the AH. I think he is also making money from the salvage yard. He is of course concerned about what happens to garrisons with the launch of Legion. He fishes to earn money. He levels pets to 25 & then sells them on the AH to earn money. He is good at earning money. And generous with it too it has to be said.

But the point is he had earned the money to buy the heirlooms to get the mount and daughter did not appreciate that. “You’re so lucky,” she cried. “Luck has nothing to do with it,” he responded, “I worked for it.” “I don’t know how to earn money,” she said. “I’ve told you lots of times what to do,” he replied. “And I’ve said I’ll help you. I’ve even been giving you 300 gold a week as WoW pocket money.”

“But I spend that in the auction house,” she replied.

“Well you should save it.”

“I don’t want to save it.”

“Well earn more gold yourself then.”

“I don’t want to do any of the things that earn gold,” she replied, “I don’t like questing, fishing, levelling pets, mining or herbing.”

At this point I interceded. “That’s pretty much the game. Maybe it’s just not the game for you. Play your other games and just have a starter account for when you want to visit Azeroth.”

“It’s not the same,” she said. “I love the game, I want play, but I don’t want to have to earn gold. It’s unfair.”

In her defence she is not yet nine, only plays WoW with us (highly supervised!), basically just enjoys starting new characters and getting them up to about 10, flying around Stormwind and doing the odd pet battle. She was also particularly tired and grumpy that day. But she does love mounts. That is her WoW thing. And in the starter zones you see a lot of Chauffered Choppers. So this was the last straw.

Husband could of course just give her the gold to buy the heirlooms to get the mount (that ate the spider that swallowed the fly that wriggled inside her etc.) but he’s done that already for so many other things (many many pets) and she does need to learn that sometimes you have to work for what you want. So we tried to use the moment to teach an important life lesson.

“In life you have to work for the things you really want. Nothing is handed to you on a plate. But when you work for something and get it then wow, what a feeling, you really feel like you’ve achieved something, and it means so much more to you than if someone had just given it to you.” We (probably nauseatingly) said this in union, cheerleader parents trying to instil a work ethic that would have made John Calvin proud.

There was silence. Maybe she was absorbing this important life lesson. Or maybe she was just seething in silent anger and jealousy. It was hard to tell. However, yesterday morning she made her bed and helped me do some baking and then suggested this meant she should be given extra pocket money (she already has £3.00 a week for …well …hmm hard to say) . I think she has figured some thing out.

 

One Shot One Kill

I’ve just signed up for Blaugust2016 and have committed to write a blog post everyday. I think this will be a good way to get my blogging mojo back  (but apologies up front for the Austin Powers  reference – won’t happen again).

Anyway still levelling hunter Beanie. Now 23. And still in Darkshore healing the shattered land.

The title of this post comes from the quest I just completed. I first became aware of the phrase “One Shot One Kill” in Hearthstone. In the early days of the game I used Elven Archer a lot and she says it every time you summon her. Yes every time. Gets a bit irritating after awhile it must be said. Particularly when she’s promptly picked off by a mortal coil. I now hear Widowmaker say it a lot in Overwatch.  But today I came across the One Shot One Kill quest. Finally it all makes sense. Finally my life is complete.

I must have done this quest before though as it’s a pre-Cataclysm quest that remains unaltered by the passage of time. Sentinel Aynasha says she was on her way to Auberdine (oh no) when the furbolgs attacked and poisoned her and she now needs to be defended while she applies an antidote (another magic Azeroth antidote of course).  I defend her but it takes forever with really long delays between the waves of attackers. Halfway through she runs out of arrows even though there was plenty of time to collect the used arrows from the furbolg bodies (she clearly can’t be bothered). So I deal with the rest myself and by the time we are finished her legs are incredibly much better (faker much) and she says she will go and report to her superiors what happened. Her superiors in Auberdine that is. Hmm. Awkward. Unfortunately there was no “Break it to her gently” option so I let her run off on her wonky legs to discover the horrible truth for herself while I returned to Onaeya at Maestra’s Post to dutifully report my good deed and get my reward. I leave the Auberdine bit out of my report.  I think Beanie has a darker side to her character that’s going to be interesting to explore over Blaugust. Groovy baby (sorry).

 

Clueless

I’m off from work on holiday right now so have finally had a chance to log onto WoW. It’s been awhile. Interestingly I found I didn’t want to go on and play any of my 100s or even any of my almost 100s. The character I was itching to play was my little level 14 hunter Beanie 2.0. I’ve never done much with hunters. Started a few (Beanie 1.0 being one of them) but never got too far. I have always been too scared to play them in case I wanted to go into a dungeon and accidentally failed to control my pet (I know me – in a panic I would never be able to turn off Growl). So instead I’ve been a safe little Pally, then a brave Shaman, then an almost awesome Mage (of course my tendency to over blink led to some fairly epic fails), then a solid Druid and latterly a would-be Healer Priest. The Hunter, like Warrior, Rogue, Death Knight & Monk (have I forgotten any? .. oh yes Warlocks) was a class I had no urge to play in any serious way.

But for some reason I’m now levelling a hunter.  She’s a Beast Master – although just received a Polearm in the mail telling me I will need it if I’m ever Survival. I don’t think I want to be Survival though. I want to be as one with the beasts. That said now that I have my companion Top Cat I have no urge to tame any other animal. I’m already too attached (sigh).

Obviously there’s been a patch since I was last playing (probably several but one big one that I’m aware of). Since logging on I’ve noticed I can’t hide her cloak. This bothers me more than it should. A quick search on the internet reveals I have to go to a transmogrifier to hide it. Hmm ok.  I also notice I don’t have much in my wardrobe. I’m assuming this is because she’s my first proper hunter and only 14? I will need to log onto one of my other more established characters to see if they have more outfit options. I also think I’m missing a spell since there’s a gap on my action bar. Survival Shot was it? I now have Dire Beast and Cobra Shot (although I think I may have always had the latter but it wasn’t on my action bar  – oh it’s all so confusing).

Are you  picking up a theme here? Yes I’m pretty clueless. Clueless about my hunter and clueless about all the changes. I cannot pretend to have read a patch note (well I could pretend but not sure why I’d want to venture down that dark path).  I’m not really one for staying up to date on WoW news these days. If I can squeeze any WoW time in I just want to play. I want to pick up a quest, skim read it, go & do said quest, turn it in, see my little bar fill up & then once in a blessed while see the screen go all bright and level up. Whoohoo. That’s all I want. In fact I think that’s all I’ve ever wanted from WoW. Oh and also immersion. Total and utter immersion. I want to lose myself utterly in this world while the real one around me seems to be slowly transforming into something from The Walking Dead. I am too scared these days to have the day time news on while daughter is in the room –  I don’t want to have to explain why people are getting stabbed, why drivers are plowing into people deliberately and why there are mass shootings. But I have to explain because this is the world she lives in. It’s a scary world. But when I really think about it I know it always has been.

So I lose myself in WoW while still feeling feel like the eternal Wow noob. In regard to Legion I know it’s coming and I’ve pre-purchased it but that’s about it – I haven’t even tried the beta and I’ve not read any spoilers. I have been in a WoW vacuum for many months. And so it was genuinely nice today to log on and do some questing while discovering some of the smaller things that have already changed  (like mail – yes my baby hunter is already in mail. Shiny but cold I imagine.)

So what did I do in my magic hour? Well I’m a human hunter helping out the night elves so I went and rescued Grimclaw.  I had to sneak up on some bears while they were busy eating fish to pluck out their hair (or is it fur? – you know, the stuff that keeps them warm, unlike my hunter’s mail).  I was then sent out to kill 50 murlocs by detonating myself – that was dark. I’ve now gone up to some ruins to …not sure …collect sparkly ornaments and kill horde? I’m skim reading remember. I’m still enjoying the hunter- the satisfying twang of my bow followed by Top Cat’s ferocious “Yes Ma’am” to my Kill Command. I’ve decided Beanie is a not going to be a dungeon girl. No – she’s going to mosey her way up to 100 and beyond by running errands and generally being helpful to all and sundry. Along the way something called Legion will descend and I suspect Azeroth will change. But I’m spoiler free so have no idea in what way nor whether I will like it.  I’m playing this game like I’m living my life –  scared about the wider world, trying to make my piece of it as nice as possible and on the whole pretty clueless most of the time.

More World Less Tusks

Despite Warcraft opening in the UK over a week ago, yesterday was my first chance to see the film. I had read some reviews but I still went with an open mind – in fact with a fair  degree of excitement. I really wanted to see Azeroth on the big screen.

And…

Well I liked it a great deal but some of that was out of loyalty to/love for the world, and I do understand where some of the reviews were coming from. I’m not sure what I would have thought if I hadn’t been a WoW player.

Observations:-

It doesn’t over explain anything – it assumes the viewer either knows this world or can catch on quick. Everything romps along at a pelt and it all ends rather abruptly.  I quite liked the fact it doesn’t pander – nothing annoys me more than overdone exposition. But I can see how it could have confused someone with no Warcraft/WoW experience.
There was a lot to cover (& I know there could have been a lot more given the richness of the story and lore). However, I think things could have been slowed down a notch. There was a lot I would have liked more time to enjoy. This includes the world itself. I wanted to see Azeroth on screen – slowly, with nice lingering shots. But no shot lingered and everything moved along at a clip. Apart from tusk shots that is  – clearly they were the money shot. I saw so many I started channelling my inner dentist and fantasising about giving them a good ol’  scrape and polish, fixing the broken one with a nice gold cap and extracting Garona’s (well they clearly served no purpose).
What I did see of the world looked amazing though. And character-wise I really liked Garona, warmed to Khadgar as the film progressed & liked the chemistry between him & Lothar. I did not like the performance of the actor playing the King though – he seemed pretty weak and clueless to me.
I definitely don’t agree that there was no emotion in the film nor that it took itself too seriously (whatever that means). I was tearful several times while watching it (admittedly I am a tad emotional these days). I also laughed a few times too (and not just at the tusks).

On the whole  then I was very happy seeing at least some of the world I love brought to life. It’s made me want to find out a bit more about each of the characters and it’s also made me log on & play WoW yesterday afternoon and today – which is more than I’ve done in months. So for me anyway I’d say it was a qualified success  but it just didn’t show enough of the world. Thankfully though we have the game for that.

 

2016 Creative Blogger post

Only just saw on Lair of the Wolf Dragon that I have been nominated by Faeldray for a 2016 Creative Blogger Award post.

Thank you Faeldray for the nomination – these days I don’t blog as much as I should so it’s nice to see my name pop up somewhere:)

I have to:

1. Thank the person that nominated you and share a link back to their blog – Complete[image error]

2.  Post 5 facts about yourself – See below

3. Nominate 15-20 people for this award

Hmm – I don’t think I know 15-20 people who would do it, have a blog & haven’t already been nominated so I nominate anyone who (a)reads this post (b)has a blog (c)wants to do it (d)leaves a link to their post in the comments below.

4. Let the people you nominated know that you have nominated them – As above

5. Post the rules so everyone will understand what to do – Complete

Ok so the 5 facts-

Fact 1:-

This past year has been life changing for me and my husband. Last year we adopted – we have a beautiful wonderful daughter. She is absolutely amazing & the funniest person I know. I can’t write anything more because it is just so huge that I would never stop writing if I started. We are blessed.

Fact 2:-

I write a lot of poetry on my Sullencraft and Sea Town blog. During the past year it’s definitely been an outlet for me when I’ve not played enough WoW to have anything to blog about but still needed to write.

Fact 3:-

I suffer with absolutely terrible Restless Legs Syndrome – every night without fail. I cannot sleep at all once it starts. So I’m now on strong tablets but also on a constant search for a more natural solution. Tried everything under the sun including Magnesium, Iron, Vit D, Tonic Water, Bananas, heavy blankets, even sleeping with a bar of Imperial Leather soap tucked into my sock (awkward). Currently going milk free as there is some research to suggest it could be linked to lactose intolerance. Managed to sleep on just 1 tablet last night – legs didn’t start until 4am. Maybe there is hope.

Fact 4:-

I regret not doing Computer Science in school and as a degree (I did Theology which I loved so it’s not that I want to undo that but I do wish I could have had two lives in parallel!) I love learning programming & thought I wanted to make games but over the last few months I’ve come to realise that what I love is software and web application development (with some data analytics too) so I’m now doing a lot of Coursera courses & toying with the idea of doing an OU Computer Science degree. But time is an issue. I am a parent now (see Fact 1). I work full time. I have a tendency to take on too much etc. So I’m in two minds about it all.

Fact 5:-

I used to run a bit – longest distance just a half marathon but it was a big achievement for me. I then switched to rowing & rowed a marathon on a stationary rower. Since then – nothing much in the way of exercise apart from swimming with daughter which is not really swimming & more anxiously bobbing around & making sure she’s ok. I need to do more but I just don’t know where the time will come from. I do sort of miss the days of the gym, plugging in my iPod & losing myself for an hour to a world of podcasts and music & feeling physically stronger as a result. I need to find a way to get that back into my life.

 

That’s it. 5 facts. Thanks again Faeldray for the nomination. It was a good prompt to get back on here and do some writing[image error]

Bravesmith?

Despite in the last post bemoaning my lack of free time I am now spending around 30 minutes a day learning to play guitar using Rocksmith! Who needs sleep, food and trips to the toilet (…who am I kidding – I’ll always make time for food).

Today is day 5. I am a complete beginner – although I’ve had an electric guitar for ages (it’s been enjoying some quiet time in the attic). After starting everything up I spent some time tuning the guitar (Rocksmith senses whether the strings need tightening or loosening) then threw myself right into the thick of it by trying to learn a song. It took me until day 3 to think about sorting the songs in order of  difficulty (I am so not ready for The Who’s My Generation) and day 4 to even consider looking at one of the lessons. The latter cover all the basics  & it turned out I very much needed this (who knew I was holding the pick all wrong – it should not have been clenched in my teeth).

However, to a certain extent my reckless “have a go hero” approach has worked. I can now confidently pluck the the 1st and 2nd strings, pressing down in turn on frets 2, 3 and 5 (and then back again to 2 – although had to practice that several times using the Riff Repeater). However, once Rocksmith throws fret 9 into the mix I completely go to pieces, drop my guitar and miss a ton of notes as I fumble my way back to the safety of fret 5. The songs get harder every time I make a bit of progress (one crazy play through tried to take me down to fret 14 – my fingers resolutely refused to move), then the difficulty slips back a notch once Rocksmith realises I wasn’t kidding when I said I was a beginner.

It’s great fun. I’ve always loved Guitar Hero and Rockband but doing it for real on a real guitar is even better. Is it possible one day I’ll be able to play? Of course it’s still early days but I’m going to keep practising and see how I get on. Rocksmith has a 60 day challenge which I’m trying to stick to. This means at around the start of July I should be able to play at least a few songs. Right now that seems an incredible thought but I’ll keep going. Who knows – maybe there’s a ton of songs out there that only require expertise in the top two strings and first five frets.

Where is the time?

I’ve resubbed to WoW after a few months off. As usual coming back to Azeroth feels like meeting up again with a very long lost but beloved friend. Walking/flying around the old familiar places & trying out my various characters is strangely comforting. Dealing with out of date addons somewhat less so.

But while I’m back I’m hardly playing. Unlike previously when I had the time but not the inclination, now it’s the former that’s running short. What with work, family & ongoing study (I’m still trying to learn programming & game development) I find there’s little time left for WoW. As it is I get up at crazy o’clock to try to fit in the studying before I go off to work. The knock on to this is that by the time daughter is in bed I’m pretty much exhausted and ready to go to sleep too. I hardly watch TV and I can’t remember the last time I read a fiction book. I’ve had to stop pretty much everything I was doing for Geeks & Geeklets, I’m not playing Hearthstone any more and this blog …well you can see how often this is being updated.

Despite how this reads I’m not complaining. It’s my choice to want to learn programming & game development and I could stop at any time. But surely learning how to make games involves playing some games (or at least one very specific game …yes I’m trying to justify giving at least some weekend time to WoW!) All I know is that now I finally have the urge to play WoW and write about it again I want to find the time to do it. Life seems a little empty without it.