For the second time during our tenure of World of Warcraft, my friend Thom and I have recently started a brand new guild. We transferred off the under populated Vashj, to be greeted with the hustle and bustle of Korgath, a server created to house the spill-over from the over populated Kil’Jaden server. It is interesting to note that Kil’Jaden was where we started our first, and only, successful guild: Freedom Fighters. We named our new guild Deep Thought, after the mighty computer from Douglas Adam’s classic novel series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
As of right now, the guild is being run by Thom on Onions the hunter; me on my priest, Satoira; and along with Thom’s girlfriend and few of his work buddies, we have managed to gather a small smattering of other random people into our ranks. The challenge now is to engage the people in those ranks in the hopes that they will stay, and become important members of the guild. We will also continue to recruit as many people as we can; the idea is to weed out the bad eggs later on, once personalities start to surface out of the current silence. I am also thinking that we should try and brand our guild as a place for the young and urban adults who play WoW. We should make it a place where it is assumed that WoW is not the end all and be all of life, because we all have other things going on in our lives, and this game is just a great way to unwind.
So after all was said and done, I have decided that I am going to chronicle this attempt of ours to start this guild from the ground up. I hope we will be raiding the first tier of content in WoW’s forthcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria by the time I am done with this, and I hope we get to come across a bunch of interesting people as we continue with this social experiment called the MMO guild. It is always neat to meet the variety of people who play this game.
Showing posts with label WoW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WoW. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Consistency of Change.
Why am I playing World of Warcraft again? After months of trying to convince myself that I had no love for the game, I am back with a vengeance. But why now and why does it matter that I am going back?
Mist of Pandaria is a large reason why I am going back to WoW after my short absence. The inclusion of a new race, new class, payload style PvP battles (a game mode I absolutely love in Team Fortress 2), and Pokémon style pet battles tickles my WoW brain in a way I love. A new class to level, new dungeons and raids to conquer, a brand new landmass to explore, and new ways to interact within the World of Warcraft was the perfect catalyst to get me playing again in the short term. But instead of going back to the guild I was raiding with, my good friend and I are starting fresh on a new server (Korgath) and starting a new guild akin to what we did before the release of The Burning Crusade years ago. But why am I really going back to this game, and is there a deeper reason other than the new loot that is to be had?
I am going back because WoW is a symbol of consistency for me. Despite the fact that the game is always growing, always expanding, and always evolving, that process itself is consistent. My post-secondary career is soon coming to an end, and with real life is racing towards me at breakneck speeds World of Warcraft is something I can hold onto. The guild is going to be a way of staying in touch with my friends when we all move away into life. If we’re raiding or doing rated battlegrounds, we now have a weekly time when we will get to catch up and still be a part of each other’s lives. It is this consistency that the game provides for the player that is bringing me and my friends back to the world of Azeroth. It is the socialization that is paramount to the game that is bringing me back. It is time with friends that is really bringing me back.
Will WoW really help to keep us together, or is this another way that I am trying to stay static in a world that is constantly changing? Only time, in its never ending march forward, will tell.
Mist of Pandaria is a large reason why I am going back to WoW after my short absence. The inclusion of a new race, new class, payload style PvP battles (a game mode I absolutely love in Team Fortress 2), and Pokémon style pet battles tickles my WoW brain in a way I love. A new class to level, new dungeons and raids to conquer, a brand new landmass to explore, and new ways to interact within the World of Warcraft was the perfect catalyst to get me playing again in the short term. But instead of going back to the guild I was raiding with, my good friend and I are starting fresh on a new server (Korgath) and starting a new guild akin to what we did before the release of The Burning Crusade years ago. But why am I really going back to this game, and is there a deeper reason other than the new loot that is to be had?
I am going back because WoW is a symbol of consistency for me. Despite the fact that the game is always growing, always expanding, and always evolving, that process itself is consistent. My post-secondary career is soon coming to an end, and with real life is racing towards me at breakneck speeds World of Warcraft is something I can hold onto. The guild is going to be a way of staying in touch with my friends when we all move away into life. If we’re raiding or doing rated battlegrounds, we now have a weekly time when we will get to catch up and still be a part of each other’s lives. It is this consistency that the game provides for the player that is bringing me and my friends back to the world of Azeroth. It is the socialization that is paramount to the game that is bringing me back. It is time with friends that is really bringing me back.
Will WoW really help to keep us together, or is this another way that I am trying to stay static in a world that is constantly changing? Only time, in its never ending march forward, will tell.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Anzu, The Raven Lord
After I don’t know how long, I finally got my hands on the Raven Lord mount! This mount has been the one thing I have lusted after in the World of Warcraft ever since the Burning Crusade marched across Outlands. Now with it firmly in my mount collection, I need to find something else to go after, something else to farm day in and day out; it is either going to be the Huntsman mount from Kara, or the blue proto-drake from Up. Both of those mounts are rarely seen (especially the blue drake), and collecting mounts is what I do.
Not a huge post, I know, but this is something I have been trying for for so long. So let me have this moment to bask in the glory of finally getting this damn mount. I now ride a god into battle, and show off a new mount in the streets of Orgrimmar.
Not a huge post, I know, but this is something I have been trying for for so long. So let me have this moment to bask in the glory of finally getting this damn mount. I now ride a god into battle, and show off a new mount in the streets of Orgrimmar.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
From the Journal of Halia Woodrow, Woman at arms of the Kingdom of Gilneas.
We were to be evacuated from the city, but the damn monsters attacked again; this time worse than before. I do not know what is better at this point: the undead who amass behind the wall, or these beasts that haunt everything from our dreams to our fears.
The Prince has ordered any able bodied man or woman to help fight back the beasts, and to help evacuate the city. I have waited a long time to bring my sword to the flesh of these vile monsters, and these orders have filled me with a harsh glee. I will kill them for what they have done not my country, and to my sister. Yet despite our efforts, the Merchant Square is lost to the worgen. I, along with the civilians, move onward.
...
The king has come to meet us, the few survivors to escape the merchant district. He charges me and my other men at arms to rescue the traitor, Crowley, from his cell. Why the king wants a man who fought against him, I do not know; it is not my place to ask questions of my king.
We find Crowley on the top of the jail, he warns us of their coming. He warns us how dangerous these beasts are; they care not for our politics, nor our ways, they are simply beasts.
By the Light, they run across the roof tops as you and I would run across a street. Crowley is right, they care not of our politics, and now is the time that we should put away ours. The beasts will over run us before the undead even breach the gates if we do not.
...
Damn, damn, damn. One of them bit me. Yet this one was a man at first glance. As I approached him, he screamed at me to get away, to leave him in peace. I tried to reason with the man, slowly making my way to him when he snarled at me like a dog. His body then lurched and moved wildly, and the sound of ripping fabric filled the room. He was turning into the beast, and I was witness to this unholy act. In my shock I let my guard down, and the beast who was once man rushed at me and sunk its teeth into my leg. He would have killed me for sure if the gun shot had not broken my cries of terror, and his cries of madness. Lorna Crowley had shot the beast, a look of revulsion on her face.
“How are we to fight an enemy who can hide among us?” She asked aloud, as she helped me to my shaking feet. Two large mastiffs flanked her; both trained to smell out the worgen. Both of them growl a deep, low growl as I move past them up the stairs.
...
The arms Crowley was hiding for his revolution have now be loosed on the worgen! Yet the streets are still full of them, but these ones are different. They are not naked like the beasts that attacked us before, no, they are dressed in the tattered remains of what must have been normal clothing. Now our own people turn against us in this city, and I feel as if this night will be my last. The wound in my leg is still dripping blood, and I am sure that is what is drawing them to me where ever I go, and down whatever street I turn.
...
I have chosen to stay behind and help draw the worgen to the cathedral. The civilians need time to escape to the mountains, and we need to give them as much time as we can. The cannons set on the steps of the cathedral rip through the worgen, man, woman, and child; we cannot spare any of them, they must all die!
...
They have taken the city...all is now lost.
The Prince has ordered any able bodied man or woman to help fight back the beasts, and to help evacuate the city. I have waited a long time to bring my sword to the flesh of these vile monsters, and these orders have filled me with a harsh glee. I will kill them for what they have done not my country, and to my sister. Yet despite our efforts, the Merchant Square is lost to the worgen. I, along with the civilians, move onward.
The king has come to meet us, the few survivors to escape the merchant district. He charges me and my other men at arms to rescue the traitor, Crowley, from his cell. Why the king wants a man who fought against him, I do not know; it is not my place to ask questions of my king.
We find Crowley on the top of the jail, he warns us of their coming. He warns us how dangerous these beasts are; they care not for our politics, nor our ways, they are simply beasts.
By the Light, they run across the roof tops as you and I would run across a street. Crowley is right, they care not of our politics, and now is the time that we should put away ours. The beasts will over run us before the undead even breach the gates if we do not.
Damn, damn, damn. One of them bit me. Yet this one was a man at first glance. As I approached him, he screamed at me to get away, to leave him in peace. I tried to reason with the man, slowly making my way to him when he snarled at me like a dog. His body then lurched and moved wildly, and the sound of ripping fabric filled the room. He was turning into the beast, and I was witness to this unholy act. In my shock I let my guard down, and the beast who was once man rushed at me and sunk its teeth into my leg. He would have killed me for sure if the gun shot had not broken my cries of terror, and his cries of madness. Lorna Crowley had shot the beast, a look of revulsion on her face.
“How are we to fight an enemy who can hide among us?” She asked aloud, as she helped me to my shaking feet. Two large mastiffs flanked her; both trained to smell out the worgen. Both of them growl a deep, low growl as I move past them up the stairs.
The arms Crowley was hiding for his revolution have now be loosed on the worgen! Yet the streets are still full of them, but these ones are different. They are not naked like the beasts that attacked us before, no, they are dressed in the tattered remains of what must have been normal clothing. Now our own people turn against us in this city, and I feel as if this night will be my last. The wound in my leg is still dripping blood, and I am sure that is what is drawing them to me where ever I go, and down whatever street I turn.
I have chosen to stay behind and help draw the worgen to the cathedral. The civilians need time to escape to the mountains, and we need to give them as much time as we can. The cannons set on the steps of the cathedral rip through the worgen, man, woman, and child; we cannot spare any of them, they must all die!
They have taken the city...all is now lost.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Turn A Blind Eye
I never thought I would ever have a problem with killing one of the massive raid bosses in The World of Warcraft. It was no problem storming Arthas and his undead minions in Ice Crown Citadel, and the bosses that inhabit the halls of the various five man instances all usually deserve to die for some reason or another. I thought that this would be the same song and dance when Adult Content descended into the halls of Blackwing Descent on a mission to stop Nefarian and his followers: Magma, a failed experimental monstrosity who spews deadly parasitic worms fell to us; the artificial construct, The Omnotron Defence System, build to guard the lower halls was destroyed; Maloriak, the mad scientist who created the monsters that roam the halls of Blackwing was laid to rest; and Chimaeron, the horrid Frankenstein-esque monster was killed for the good of all. Then there is the blind dragon, Experiment 25463-D, Atramedes.
After you deal with the trash in his room, the raid is treated to a little bit of back story on the upcoming boss. It seems that Maloriak was trying to grant a black whelp “sight beyond sight” but blinded the young dragon in the process. Nefarian, being the creature that he is, tells his scientist to dispose of the young dragon. Despite the order, Maloriak keeps the young dragon, and you eventually have to defeat the full grown Experiment 25463-D. I find it to be a sad story, and if I did not want a pair of bracers from him, I would feel kind of bad for killing him week after week.
The battle against Atramedes is centred on the idea of sound, and how the raid has to manage its sound levels to avoid being destroyed by the raging blind dragon. You have to smash gongs, and avoid sound pulses in an attempt to bring him down, and get the much wanted loot. It`s funny how any feelings of remorse I might have had, or any feelings of pity Blizzard may have been trying to cultivate in the player is thrown out the window when the promise of new gear is given. I hope they try more stuff like this in coming content patches.
After you deal with the trash in his room, the raid is treated to a little bit of back story on the upcoming boss. It seems that Maloriak was trying to grant a black whelp “sight beyond sight” but blinded the young dragon in the process. Nefarian, being the creature that he is, tells his scientist to dispose of the young dragon. Despite the order, Maloriak keeps the young dragon, and you eventually have to defeat the full grown Experiment 25463-D. I find it to be a sad story, and if I did not want a pair of bracers from him, I would feel kind of bad for killing him week after week.
The battle against Atramedes is centred on the idea of sound, and how the raid has to manage its sound levels to avoid being destroyed by the raging blind dragon. You have to smash gongs, and avoid sound pulses in an attempt to bring him down, and get the much wanted loot. It`s funny how any feelings of remorse I might have had, or any feelings of pity Blizzard may have been trying to cultivate in the player is thrown out the window when the promise of new gear is given. I hope they try more stuff like this in coming content patches.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)