I have a hunter and I beat Keri in a slap fight.

At which I am craptacular.

Though, it does make me understand the allure of twinking.  Every time I'm at the AH I check for better gear than the gear I have and then like a stupid celebrity or rich person I spend way too much money on something that'll be outgrown within the week.

Brilliance.

Though, it than makes leveling way more difficult.  Why?  Because all I want to do is get to the level where I can use my fancy shamncy bow.  Yeah, I got one.  Also?  Trying to do anything without a mount is awful.

Oh!  Today me and Keri's player had a real life slapfight.  Sadly?  No one videoed it.  So unless someone can prove otherwise?  I won.  For reals.  

I'm out of anything interesting or useful.  But I will say that Sveren or however it's spelt(Cpt. Smash), is the only person who is more flightly than I am while playing WoW.

More when my brain works more, I shall give you more insight.

Keridwen is awesome.

Just how awesome?  

He has the same amount of 70s as Sarah Palin does children.  

He still has blind powder.  

He has full Dragonstalker, all 8 of 7 pieces.  

His rogue will mutilate your ass.  Yes, I said mutilate.  Yes, I meant it.

Yes, he heals better than you.  Yes, he's discipline.

All his toons are chicks.  What?  You like staring at men's asses?  Tsk.

If you need more proof, then feel free to contact me.

The Guild

Two posts so close together?  Well, I know it's such a shock, but I had something to say that I just thought of.

A treatise on the Guild.

Now this may be a little funny, it may not be funny at all, but in all honesty, I think it is necessary.  

What is the guild?  I have to admit that I wasn't really sure about this until recently.  I thought it was just a place where people organized raiding and 10 mans, where people got together to help level alts and just have somewhere to bullshit while they were messing around on WoW.  

I was really wrong.

I found myself a bit bored at night.  I had finally gotten down the mechanics of raiding and now my guild wasn't raiding anymore.  That mixed with a few other things, like the fact I never apped at my guild, but was invited in because I knew people there, made me think it was time to have my first guild hunting experience.  I went to ranking websites, and researched what guilds were doing what raids.  I looked around to see who was as geared as I was, and who was much more geared.  I looked to see what enchants people had and which I needed.  I started farming mats for things, and farming rep so I could get my best shoulder and helm enchants.  I read applications that were accepted and those that were denied before I even thought of applying for a guild.

What did I learn?

1) Applying for a guild is like applying for a job.  Sure, the research I needed to do took me a couple of hours on the internet, and a job hunt takes months and months, but the basics are the same.  I really had to know my stuff to make sure I was going to get in.

2) Getting into a guild is an exciting and new experience.  People want to know who you are, they are all suspicious of your skill and pleasantly surprised when you suck less than they expect.  Most want to help because you could be a new friend, also they like that you are showing up to raids while the person you are most likely replacing isn't around.  And if you're a girl, you're almost always a pleasent surprise on ventrillo, the talking program.

What else did I learn?

Leaving my guild was more like leaving a family than it was getting a new job.  Not only did i miss the people I left, I missed the sense of belonging I had.  Raiding was fun, but these were other people, not my people.  I didn't have anyone to share my excitement with, or my disappointment.  There was no one to complain to if I had to, and no one to commiserate if I lost a roll or died early in a fight.  The new fights were fun, but it was like leaving for college times a million.

I guess what I really learned was that my guild was like my family.  I really loved the people there, and their banter, and how well we all knew each other.  It wasn't just that they helped me to make me be an asset to the raid, but they helped me because they liked me.  And I found that I didn't just like them, I relied on their being there.

Not having guild chat was a sad shock.  not having vent was also less fun.  Even without raiding, being in my old guild was more rewarding and enjoyable than this new exciting guild full of wonderful people that just weren't my people.

And while I may have hurt feelings, and will always be a little suspect to the people in my guild, I came back.  It was as much like the prodigal son as I could think anything.  There were people there that held my hand and led me to the place I was out, and honestly, I would still be squeeling at boars if not for them.

I think I miss it more than I wanted to leave.  The more people that leave to raid, the more I miss the togetherness of it.  And I think that's what distinguishes WoW from any other game.  You're in it with someone else.  A lot of someone else's.  You have to look out for them the way they look out for you.  And sometimes you're good at that, and sometimes you're not.

Of course there is bickering, there is always bickering, but people seem to come together at the end.  And I will always belong to that group of people, even if they scatter to the wind.  Change is a hard thing to grasp, and some of you may be saying that by going back to what was comfortable, what I loved, I fought a change that could have helped me throughout the expansion and forever.  But when I really think about why I play the game, it isn't to be the best at it.  I never will be.  It's to be with people I like and work together and have fun.

I hope I am still doing that.  I think I am.

So thank you, Predatory Instinct, for being there, and taking me back.  And thank you(you know who you are), people who carried me through 70 levels and a whole lot more.  I'm sorry that this is more serious than the rest of our posts, and I promise to go back to my usual silly self.

Tomorrow.

The Strike is Over, and it's a Birthday!

So, I don't have much fun and exciting news to report as now that we're coming up on the expansion slowly but surely the servers are thinning out. There is an idea that anything you do now will be obsolete in a few months, and so the population is scarce. However! This is the ideal time to... level alts!

Now I am not an altaholic like our lovely birthday girl(more on that later), but I do have a small army of very low level alts as I try to find the fit for my soul. I think I found something that can at least be a close second in my heart to my happy rogue. I'm playing a hunter. It's easy, which is a good incentive. Also, I don't die. Now that is rare for me, so oo and aah. And? I get a nifty pet. A fun and nifty pet. I am pleased.

So, as I restart my slow unhappy grind to 70, just so I can grind back to 80, I get to rediscover all the joys of leveling I forgot the first time. Hurrah. Really, it's exactly like the first time. With a few differences, like I know how little I know.

One thing I meant to blog about before and did not was my experiences playing WoW at the hospital. I was in for a simple gallbladder booboo and had internet. It was long and boring days, 6 o them to be exact, so I thought I would play me some WoW. At first I just did it when I was sure no one would notice, but by day 3, the nurses saw that I was playing a video game.

It was amazing.

THere were multiple nurses that played! And one in particular was talking to me all about how she played a rogue too, and what server she was on and the gear she was going for. Of course, I was secretly very pleased that she had not yet been in a clear Kara, and I had been to Hyjal, but I didn't express this secret joy. I was really only happy because for once in my life i could talk about a video game with another girl and we weren't just talkng about how cute Kirby was. Well, other than Sinead's lovely player. But she never ceases to surprise me. Or be smarter than me. In everything.

Speaking of her, did you hear it was her birthday? It is. Today is the day she becomes as ancient as I. And for a few months we can share our woe at the same age. Then I get older. So there is much happiness and love to be said to her. I hope she has a good one!

That's all for now, but there's a better post coming.

I haven't really been posting. For many reasons. One: I finished graduate school. Two: All my free time went to actually playing wow. Yes. Yes. It did in fact, eat my soul. Now, I'm sure you're asking how I went from freaking out while trying to kill boars to complete disappearance...

Well, let me tell you...

The game draws you in kind of like a good fisherman. If it pulled too hard too fast, you'd notice you were being reeled, and you'd flail like crazy until you got free. Too slow, and you'd be bored and swim away, trailing the line until it got free or didn't matter anymore. WoW? Oh, it starts slow.. a few hours here and there killing a boar or two, but then the "I wants" start.

The "I want"s come before the "I need"s. They are the stage of the game where you start to realize that there is more to life than your white or maybe if you're lucky green gear. The "I want"s are when you begin to realize that a little more time and practice means that you may actually... and get this... be good at this game sometime. Once you make that realization, you're hooked.

For me it started at about level 30. I was ambling along, and then it dawned on me: if I went a little faster, pushed a little harder, I'd get a mount! A mount is a little animal your toon rides on that makes you faster. And, well, once you're faster the endless running around the stupid map? WAY less tedious.

The mount became a shining star in my horizon. A beacon of a dream. "If only I had a mount" was the sentence I began to utter over and over again. And then it became my first solid painful goal. That's when the I needs started.

The I needs are when you're done. Toast. It's when you begin to plan time for WoW into your day. It's when your goals become part of your to do list. Let me illustrate. My day would look like this...

To Do:
1) Class
2) Homework
3) Eat
4) Get to the next WoW level so I am closer to my mount

And this was how it went. If I didn't make a level that day? I felt horrible. I'd stay up as long as I could, I'd fall asleep while playing, I'd push and run instance after instance. I needed a mount. I had to have a mount. Once I got a mount getting to 70 would be easy. And that's all I wanted, right? I just wanted to get to 70. Then things would calm down. I could play less once I got to 70. Just needed a mount.

But, my friends, let me warn you. The "I need"s never actually go away. They just layer and layer. Once I got the mount, it became an epic mount, and then 70 itself. Once you get to 70? The "I need"s reach their pinicle!

And this is where I am now.

You see, the "I want"s come back, of course. But now you need to want. If I want Mojo, the cute frog pet that hits on you when you kiss him, I *need* epic gear. And if I *need* epic gear, I *have* to run heroics. It goes around and around and around. I want, I need, I must, I have. And it keeps up until the game is no longer just a game.

You have work before you can have fun. The game becomes life.

So that, my dear readers, is where I've been. But don't worry, I have plenty to say now. Oh, plenty to say. And if you pay attention, I may just say it to you.

Also? Coming soon are some guest bloggers. Melissakins from her infamous knitting blog will be blogging here as well. Be excited. Be very very excited.

You Have Discovered the Ghostlands.

So, my friends, it has been a long long time. For awhile I was unsure just what to say to you all. I wasn't playing WoW for awhile because of finals. So, apparently I still had my soul... though now?? Now I am full in the World of the Warcraft. I have started my exploration of classes and servers, we well as

I have recruited the masses. The masses you say? Well, it all started when i talked my friend Melissa into getting Warcraft one fated weekend while I was sitting on her couch. Then she talked Jon into it. Then, our fun and love was transplanted to Tamar. In the end, we ended up a five person strong group of n00bs. Look out, Mok'Nathal.

Well, I have been playing in little spurts. Honestly, it makes me jealous when people can level super fast, and it takes me a million years just to get one stupid level. Part of me has given up in my heart. I will never make 70. 70 is so far away! And yet, I keep at my hacking and slashing and questing. It's very curious, how hopelessness and addiction mix. I don't know if I'm having that much fun, but the promise of fun keeps me going.

Okay, I'm lying, I'm having a blast.

One thing that is completely annoying to me though? The drop rate. Why, do you say? I think Melissa, otherwise known as Wholahay, said it best. "I just killed a bear. A big fucking bear! And there's no meat?! How is there no meat in this bear? I mean look at it!" And once more she relayed, "Okay, so I'm killing these things with hooves... and they are kicking me with their hooves. And yet, when i loot them, they don't have hooves! What are they swallowing them with their last dying breath?!" And she's right! How are some spiders without legs and some large animals without meat? It's unfair and cruel. I understand if not every animal is carrying collars or whatever. But come on people, meat?!

Anyway, other than that, i would say that my experiences have been somewhat pleasant. I started a character over on this horde server, actually. She's a blood elf paladin, and well, hot. I love her, and her cool haircut, and the fact that she can bring judgment down on your ass. However, I've just left the first starting area and wandered into the Ghostlands. Now, the Ghostlands are supposed to be super evil and scary and have lots of evil bad beasts. Most of them are just kinda creepy, but this one thing? Oooooh, this one thing...

I have an irrational and overpowering fear of praying mantises. There is no story or explanation, and all you really need to know is that I've been scared of the things since I was at least nine, and they make me, well, freak out. So, my little girl Rekah is kinda wandering around and she has to kill some spider people. When I get to the area with the spider people? They look like praying mantises! In my absolute utter fear and panic-- I die. Okay, so, now I know what they look like, how hard can this be? I try again. I die. This goes on and on for about an hour before I kill all ten of them. It was quite problematic...

Though, not all beasts are evil. Melissa, she's fighting on some Island in the North, they look like the giant pansies from Alice in Wonderland. I kid you not! They look like they're all trying to hug you! It's great.

Speaking of quests... I've developed an addiction to thottbot. What is thottbot, you say?? Well, it's this website that basically helps you with quests and items. It has these lovely maps that bring you directly to where you are going. Melissa and Jon think that this is cheating. They call it my addiction. Any time one of them seems me opening up thottbot(which is all the time, I'll get to that in a minute), they yell "Don't use, Dani! You can do it! Say no to dope!" And I use it anyway. It's not that I'm not smart enough to figure out where things are, it's just that I don't see the point of wandering aimlessly around looking for things, when I can just find out where it is. Maybe this is part of my problem. I keep seeing everything up till level 70 as the preview to the show. I'm like a small child with it. "Are we THERE yet?" So, sure, I'll use a few maps. It pisses me off you can only see parts of the map at a time anyway!

Okay, well, this isn't really that funny. But to be honest? I haven't been keeping notes. I think that for me, it's just completely frustrating and absorbing that I have to wander aimlessly back and forth across areas in a way that's just counter intuitive in order to reach a level. Though, less than 20 levels to go and I'll get a mount. And another 30 after that, and I'll be good enough to PvP. And, let's not forget that I now have my motley crew. So, stay tuned!

Day One: You Do Not Yet Have That Ability

I started. After the longest download and patch sequence ever, I actually suceeded in opening and starting WoW. Glorious day. Now, after all of the technical problems I was having, it was 3am before I actually made it into ShadowGlen or whatever the hell that place was... Okay. Game starting.

I picked a night elf. I like elves, but I always play humans. Considering I don't actually need to speak elf, make my elf have personality or involve any backstory, I thought this was an okay decision. She's hot. I made her a rogue because I like hiding in the shadows and throwing knives. Way fun. Annnnnyway, so, I get into the game, and my friend(we'll call him Darren) is on his way and I decide I'm going to kill some baby boar things.

First thing you need to know about me? I'm a button smasher. I hit buttons hard and fast and hope things die. In fact, I even bounce up and down in my seat and go "Oh! Oh! Oh!" as i do this. If I start to die? I start to panic. And then it's more "OhmyGod, ohmyGod, ohmyGod..." as I'm slamming on buttons. This was no different.

I walk on up to one of these boar things and kinda look at it for a second. Shrug. I guess I can kill it. And so I click on it. There, targeted! Now, there's a little bar at the bottom of the screen there, and I'm all peering at it. There's little pictures down there, and one of them is a knife. Now, if I were going to kill a boar? I'd knife the fucker(that's a lie, I'd actually use a crossbow, but anyway..). So I start slamming on the number one. Now, I know from the half hour I played FF8 that when numbers are popping up on the screen, shit's happening. And that started again. Only... no matter how many times I hit the 1, I couldn't just stab the thing to death. Glancing at the rest of the buttons, I decided to try button two. That worked! Boar dead! Okay!

They want you to look the corpses. OKay, gross, but believable... but tell me this? What do I need tattered pelts and broken teeth for? Nothing, I'd imagine. But, I take it all because what the heck do I know? Also.. why are these boards holding pants and belts and cloaks? Who is capturing boar hiding their crap in them?

My first death: There are these weird ass long armed goblin things. I decided I was goigng to fight one of them while I was waiting for Darren to get all the way over to where I was from humanland. He thought I was going to be a human or something. Whatever. Anyway, so I'm doing my stabby stabby jump up and down thing with this gobblin thing, and it kills me! Its long arms are no match for my level one. Also, all I can do is hit the stab button over and over. No strategy there.

When you die, you end up in a graveyard. And in that graveyard you need to take your spirit back to your body. Okay, not so hard... cept I'm clearly an idiot. All of these games have this little maps up at the top of the screen. There's a little arrow there and you want to make the arrow point to the dot that is your dead body and walk that way. Only, I can't use those things. So, I'm walking in this circle and the little arrow is spinning and the dot is all dissapearing and I'm getting more and more frustrated. Finally, FINALLY, I manage to figure out that if I just line the arrow up to the dot and walk, I'll be okay. As long as there's no trees.

Okay, one more thing... there are giant fucking scary spiders that chase your sorry butt around the forest. I'll have more to say on that later, I think. Cause they were gross. And one of the things you could loot from them? THEIR EYES! What could I EVER need that for? Just some food for thought.

Update on my soul: It really could have used more sleep. And all it wants is to play more WoW. Though, I'm not yet at the point where I'll play it in class.

"It will Eat your Soul!!!"

My sister is only person I know that is perhaps dorkier than I am. Now, you may think this is an exageration, but while I read comic books, play text based online role playing games and watch a sickening amount of the HIstory Channel, my sister Cosplays.

When I went to college, my sister had moved from Zelda games on to Final Fantasy. By the time I had all my bedding packed up in my dad's suburban, she was hooked on the new MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. It was her one true love. At first it was cute, then it was scary, and then it was downright annoying. When I would come home from breaks I would be woken up at all hours of the night to the noise of her summoner kicking some strange monster's ass. She was fulfilled, I was irritated.

Fast forward 5 years, and her new thing is this World of Warcraft nonsense. Now, I've played Counterstrike when I was in highschool... I even had fun, even though it was mostly to get my boyfriend to have more sex with me. It worked. I was a pretty hot chick. Anyway, so I had never even thought of playing one of these MMORPGs, mainly because I am the most addicted person ever. EVER. And it was very very clear to me that I would not graduate from college. And now gradschool...

My life went on like this until one day I downloaded WoW. I opened it up, realized I had no idea what on Earth I was going to do, and promptly uninstalled the whole disaster. Fast forward about a year and add in my new FFRPG addiction... I used to role play on AOL back in the late ninties. It was something I found when I got my brand new shiny happy AOL account. After a few years of going ::walkz into room. sings.::, I realized how to do the whole game thing. Then I discovered boys.

After a few years of dating, most of which was more complicated than RPing, I gave up on any online gaming at all, and moved on to bigger and better things, such as Direct Connect. Until that fateful day in September of 2006. That's when I found Dragon's Mark. Now for those of you that thing RPers suck, I tell you this, they do. But they also a moody, friendly, crazy bunch of awesome writers. And remember, I have an addictive personality. You can imagine what happened next, right?

Right.

So, one of these new fun awesome friends was all WoW obsessed. And I was done with my gateway drug and looking for a move to the hard stuff... that's what led to the download of WoW. And then the purchasing of WoW. And now the playing of WoW. This said individual(he knows who he is) should probably be the ones to appologize to my parents.

So, this blog? This is going to be my very insightful and enduring account of leaning a MMORPG. It probably will also include rants about FFRPG, my family, my life and the fact that I like cheese. But bear with me.

When I bought the CD key for WoW I texted my friend Brandon. It was an accident, of course, I meant to text the person above him in my phone... but that's besides the point. It went like this.

Me: "I bought WoW!"
Brandon: "NO! It will eat your soul!"

So, ladies and gentlemen-- you are here to witness the eating of my soul. Grab some popcorn.