WoW

The Result Of Squirt Day

stargrace October 21, 2017 0Comment

I have been neglecting my pet collection this expansion pretty severely, I haven’t even collected all of the overworld ones yet let alone any of the special ones. That being said, I did want to take advantage of “squirt day” because it fell on pet battle week. Squirt is an NPC you can find in your garrison, and leveling against her is really easy once you have a set team. I used the Enchanted Broom and a second pet, along with a carry pet. I managed to get about 25 pets from level 1 to 25 with just the handful of games I played. I would have done more, but, well, life interrupted (as it always does). Still, I’m happy with the progress. My collection isn’t that great, but I do have three pets that comes from the WoW card game, and I know if I just keep chipping away at leveling and collecting I’ll do even better.

Did you level up any pets during pet battle week? How’s your own collection doing? Let me know in comments!

Where Do You Call Home?

stargrace October 17, 2017 0Comment

It’s 2017 and we’ve seen a lot of changes in video games over the years – one of the biggest video game annoyances I have always had is the idea of servers. The traditional idea, where you’re locked to it, playing happily with all your friends until a year passes and suddenly no one is playing with you and the grass is greener on the other side. You know the servers I’m talking about.

What have games done to combat the idea that people tend to play everywhere and they want to play with their friends (along with a large population)? Well, there have been server transfers, allowing players to pay a fee (or sometimes no cost) to swap to a server of their choice. There have been server merges, where two (typically) underpopulated servers would get merged together to create one large server, there have been megaservers, where ALL smaller servers were combined into one gigantic server (a-la WildStar), there have been shards, where people can join up across servers to play in instances with their friends and even raid. There have been server teams, where you’re on a team with a bunch of other servers and you share some of the same zones but you’re not technically on the same server together.

Like I said, many different ways of attempting to solve the technical issue of having a ‘server’ and the players desires to be where all the action is – with their friends. Or with that new raid guild they’ve been eyeballing. Or whatever XYZ reason a player has to want to play some place new with their old character.

Then there are the games that don’t have servers. EVE Online is a great one that comes to mind. Because each area is its own zone there’s no real need to have people playing on different servers. Of course it could also be due to a population thing, while there are usually anywhere from 17-28,000 people online when I am, it’s not hundreds of thousands or even millions of people all gathered together.

The reason this comes up is because I have a lot of different World of Warcraft servers that I consider “home” – and that list has only grown and changed over the past 10 years as friends have come and gone and new friends have joined up. There’s Argent Dawn which is where I have both a horde and an alliance guild that I run. My husband and I have our established characters there. Then he stopped playing. It’s not much fun playing alone.

So I moved to Area 52 with a few characters. Set up a guild there. Had a few friends who played. The server population is enormous. Then those friends stopped playing, and I was playing alone again.

I moved a hunter over to Dalaran with a few members from Combat Wombat where we had an ultra casual guild that completely fell apart.

So I moved to Lightbringer with Stargrace, my priest where I joined Crimson Cross, and I have a tiny little warrior that I just started. An established guild that isn’t going anywhere, and while I may only “know” one or two members, at least it’s a place I can call ‘home’ and they haven’t kicked me out yet no matter how inactive I become.

All of these servers are still “home” for one reason or another. They all have characters that I’ve played, that I enjoy playing, and that I would love to play again – and I wish it were easier to move them around, or at least a little less expensive. I wish I could keep all of my characters together, but WoW is not a game that lets you do this very easily. At least not without shelling out a fair bit of cash. I wish I had all of my crafters on the same server. I miss them. Playing with friends or at least having them around in chat is a nice aspect to my gaming, and while we CAN group up and even raid cross server, I find it’s just not enough.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

The Couple That Games Together

stargrace October 12, 2017 2Comments

My husband and I used to game together, but over the years he decided that he didn’t want to play MMOs because they used up an enormous amount of his free time, and he focused on his steam library (over 500 games) while I continued to play. We’ve played most MMOs together in one form or another, briefly. It made me sad when our duo was suddenly a solo but of course I supported his decision.

I started talking about WoW a few days ago with him, trying to decide what I wanted to do in game, what character I wanted to play, and he said out of no where that he missed playing MMOs with me and that when he gets back from depot in 3 months he would like it if we played WoW together.

I was stunned! He was incredibly excited about it and started talking about his old character and how he’d like to faction transfer from Alliance back to Horde. It was such a great discussion, one I have really missed. Even though actually playing together is some time off, we’re both looking forward to a few hours here and there in Azeroth together.

For most people this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but gaming is how we met each other. We don’t always share the same tastes, but thanks to him I’ve tried branching out and playing games I wouldn’t normally find interesting, and vice versa. I love that I have a partner who games, and I think it would be very difficult to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t share that passion of mine. Some things I know we don’t need to share, my husband is no knitter and doesn’t share my love of fiber, just like I am not a huge fan of some of his passions – but we support each other and we inspire and motivate each other. Having him express that he missed us gaming together and that he wanted to pick it up again when he comes home was like a big warm hug wrapping itself around me.

I’m so excited!

Decisions Decisions!

stargrace October 11, 2017 0Comment

At a year old, my kid still doesn’t sleep through the night very well if he’s left on his own. He wakes up frequently and cries. Dealing with a cranky kid is no fun, especially when you’re parenting solo, and so I’ve taken to hanging out in the room with him (his crib is in my room anyway) while he’s sleeping. That means for 2 hours a night (before I go to bed, basically) I have “free time” – but limited time because I don’t want to wake him up.

Thankfully I came up with a temporary solution that seems to work. I have a rocking chair, his change table (a wooden table basically with shelves) and my laptop set up. A lamp nearby with a light blocker so that the light shines for me but doesn’t interrupt him. I’ve tried many other things to get him to sleep better, less blankets, more blankets, white noise, a routine, the only thing I haven’t tried is letting him cry it out, and I’m not comfortable with that. Anyway. That’s not the point of this post. The point is that I finally have a little niche for me, so I can spend two hours a night feeling a little more like a human being, and a little less like a walking milk bag (remember, milk comes in bags here).

With that extra time (that’s not extra, but lets just dream here) I’ve picked up WoW, knitting, blog posts, some anime, and doing my Inktober entries. It is absolutely amazing how good I feel after a little bit of a baby break. I love my son with all of my heart, but you start to wonder whether or not you’re actually a person after spending 24/7 attached to them for so long. Once our family is settled again (three months down three to go) I like to imagine that we’ll move on to the next round of challenges but at least I won’t be solo parenting them all.

With my decision to return to WoW came the decision on what the heck I should do in game. I’ve returned and I have no clue what’s going on. I did pick up the new quest I was presented with but the zone it sent me to seems woefully overpowered for my character. I’m sitting at a lowly 871 ilevel, and mobs are just busting me into the ground. With glee.

I created that warrior I wanted to, a happy gnome named Petites. She’s sitting at level 3. Do I continue with the gnome? I have two level 110 characters, both on different servers. I have a handful of other level 100 characters that I’ve never gotten to 110, do I work on that? Perhaps some old achievements? Pet battles? Collecting mounts? Titles? Farm coin? Work on crafting?

You see the issue? Returning to the game is all fine and dandy, but feeling like I have no idea what’s going on (because I don’t, even though I’ve only been gone for three months) is annoying. So if you have a good resource for me to read on what I’ve missed and what’s going on with the story (and have it match up with what the heck my character is doing) I would greatly appreciate it!

Hmm. Just realized I also have a 100 druid I’ve always wanted to get to 110.. and a shaman.. and a pa– OK OK there’s never a lack of things for me to do in game, but I am so indecisive.  Someone help me out here.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

It’s That time of Year

stargrace October 10, 2017 0Comment

It never fails. Right around the beginning of fall, nostalgia rears its ugly head. BlizzCon is just around the corner, hype is starting to build up from those of my friends who are attending, and those who are not attending. The virtual ticket goes on sale and everyone is talking about their awesome goodies and inside I’m thinking I really want to be a part of all of that too.

There’s nothing wrong with that. I think the hype and excitement is good. The only ‘wrong’ part is that of course I found myself debating whether or not I should also subscribe to World of Warcraft, whether or not I could justify the cost, if I could find the time to play.

Does any of that really matter if deep down inside I WANT to play? Not really because I’ll make any line of reasoning work. For example, I have 2 hours every night of freedom between when my kid goes to sleep and I go to sleep. Sometimes that’s even 3 hours depending on how tired I am. Two hours should be enough to get a few things done IF I were going to subscribe.

Then there’s that gnome warrior I’ve always wanted to make but (so far) have not. Low level tanking could be pretty fun and the levels might not be too painful. I could learn to play a class I’ve never played before and learn to let the comments from other people roll off my shoulders (hey, this is my fantasy, let me live it).

The hype, friends playing, a class I’d like to try (even though it’s one of the original classes – oh and have I mentioned I’ve never even created a demon hunter before?) and not currently being subscribed to a game all weighed on my soul as I stared at the ‘renew subscription’ button.

Of course I subscribed.

I want some of that happy feel good energy. My husband is still gone, my days are long, and I grasp for those moments, they are what keep me going. So if it costs $20 a month (approx, remember I’m Canadian) for a little bit of that joy, why not. I see so many people beating themselves up for enjoying the small things. If you’re a hard worker, have a roof over your head, food on the table, take care of yourself and your family, why shouldn’t you be allowed to have a few small pleasures? It’s really time we stop making ourselves feel guilty every time we want to buy a new game or spend a little time in front of the TV. Of course all this is based on us being logical and working on moderation, but seriously, it’s OK to get excited.

Bring on BlizzCon… (I still don’t own a virtual ticket, but this is a start)