Warcraft in your world

We had a new developer start at work yesterday, as a project manager I was very happy to have a new coder starting as we have a metric sh1t load of work on, however what really made my day? I hadn't had a real conversation with the new person yet beyond 'hello' until we both found ourselves in the kitchen. Her first words to me? "We downed Lady Vashj this weekend."

Squeeee!

Yes that's right. I'm now working with another girl who plays Warcraft! That is all win right there and I look forward to her joining the rest of us in our regular kitchen WoW rantings. She's also officially the most progressed out of those of us at work who play having downed Vashj and the first three bosses in Mt. Hyjal with her raid. You can be sure I'll be quizzing her on how her raid handles those d@mn striders *grin*.

I'm quitting WoW, srsly

Yep you read that right. I'm quitting WoW because finally after so long a wait Hello Kitty Online is a reality! Fingers crossed I get into the closed beta which I've just signed up for.

Hehe ok I'm joking. Well about the quitting part, not so much about the signing up for the beta part.

Why do I find this so humourous? After years of participating in online gaming forums where the common response to a request for something perceived as extraneous or 'carebear like' was often 'What you're looking for are Hello Kitty Adventure Islands' (that's the Puzzle Pirate flavour). Now you really can link to the actual MMOG when making those kinds of responses!

My thanks to Typhoon Andrew for notifying me of this extremely important piece of breaking news ;)

WoW Life Balance

In the corporate landscape an oft thrown about phrase is 'Work Life Balance' which is a buzz phrase (rather than word I guess) for talking about providing a working culture that values and supports the achievement of balancing work responsibilities with other responsibilities in life. In my somewhat cynical experience this most often refers to flexibility for people with children since this seems to be the most quantifiable and valued alternative responsibility from work. I guess I am being a bit cyncial since carers leave, annual leave and sick leave are also part of the work life balance equasion, as well as, in some industries, rostered days off. Note: I'm talking from an Australian perspective here, I have no idea how this breaks down in other countries.

Regardless, what I want to talk about in today's post is WoW Life Balance. There's definitely a need for it and in my opinion by balancing your WoW life with other activities in 'RL' you will derive more enjoyment from the game itself. I remember being a kid and getting denied the constant diet of lollies and chocolate that I craved and thinking that when I grew up I'd eat them all the time. The thing is though, if you have something you love all the time it begins to pall. Maybe not straight away but eventually you'll never want to see it again. Case in point: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I used to work in a biscuit factory baking and packing biscuits. Really yummy ones. At least until I ate so many of them that I got to the point of never wanting one to pass my lips again. I still see them for sale in cafe's today and shudder.

I think MMOs are just like those yummy biscuits. You play all the time and the fun aspect is slowly leeched away resulting in burn out. Having said that, by other peoples standards I probably play WoW a lot. Definitely my non-gaming friends think my amount of game time is weird. I would argue however that they may very possibly spend the same amount of time slouched in front of the TV. It's a value thing, it's a subjective thing. Gaming a lot is seen in quite a negative light by general society I guess whereas the amount of TV people watch is not seen in the same way. The thing to consider is that 50 or whatever years ago when TV first hit the scene I'm sure spending a lot of time watching it was viewed unfavourably as compared to... to... whatever people did before then... um... sing-alongs round the piano maybe? I personally would much rather actively choose what I do rather than put up with whatever trash is on TV. In my view, TV is a passive activity, gaming is not. It's also not really a social activity whereas I'd argue MMO gaming definitely is.

So how much WoW is too much? I don't think I'm qualified to really answer that question. I play almost every week night and every weekend. I raid 3 instances a week plus Arena, BGs and farming. I think it comes down to the question: what are you forgoing to play WoW.

Last night I didn't play though, I caught up with a friend I haven't seen in a little while and spent the evening hanging out with her. Subsequently I'm really looking forward to the Kara run tonight.

My Dad always said it and it's true - moderation in everything.

Viva Le Ratsburgh

As a periodic Sims City player I couldn't resist providing a little help to the mayor of Ratsburgh.

Go here and help them get a tram or something!

The art of Warcraft: my zen gaming philosophy

I apply the same philosophy to playing WoW that I did to playing Pirates . Yes there will doubtless be many comparisons and references to that game in my blog.

The way I play WoW has changed over time, mostly due to the way my interest in pirates decreased as my interest in WoW increased. The increase in interest was motivated by by further delving into the deeper aspects of game play in WoW. Initially as should be obvious from my previous post I was playing in a fairly casual manner.

I'm a reasonably competitive player, I like to try and play my class well and to that extent I will spend time researching how I can improve. However I'll only do that to the point that I am still having fun. Spending hours poring over spreadsheets so that I can squeeze a little more DPS out of my spec+gear is not really my idea of fun. I will take the information I glean from various places on the interwebs and in game and use that sure and that's why I really appreciate all the theory-crafters out there who really get off on analysis. A big thanks to all of you out there!

So I like to believe my play-style is pretty zen - for the most part. Fun should always > theory. But an important part of that statement is that theory = a portion of fun. There is also a high percentage chance that I am talking absolute crap, but if you've read a few of my posts now you should know that I'm ramblomatic ;)

20 Minutes. Out the front. Pufferfish.

Warning non PG/work safe content *gasp*

Words cannot fully capture how much I love Zero Punctuation

Yahtzee is my tiny god. Sadly I don't think he's done a Warcraft rant for me to giggle like a loon at.