Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Still enough people to raid sorta-baredly. We hit up Obsidian Sanctum (sort of out of the blue to me) and went for Sartharion with all three drakes up. I bet we could have done it better with strategy, but after a couple failed attempts, we were able to brute force our way through the fight. Then we finished out our Black Temple run - the Illidari Council was a pain in the tail and became an endurance battle, then Illidan Stormrage. The "main" baddie of Burning Crusade, once the most difficult of fights, done in three and a half minutes. Whoo! We also started in on Sunwell, the tacked-on raid of BC (which is still more satisfying than Ruby Sanctum) before calling it a night. I wonder if a 10-man guild will be able to get the achievements for old 25-man raids? Ah well. I'd rather be doing Wrath raids, but I don't mind older stuff too much. Elly, you sell your aggro-generation short. ;) Everyone has some issues with groups these days, but I've seen no evidence

... that people were talking about going to paperless offices in the mid-eighties and we still print sooo much stuff over the course of a day? ... I can post MUCK thoughts here and log in later to find long posts of proposed changes based on my LJ post instead of getting anyone to discuss such topics with me (either here or there)? I'll be asked what I think of the proposal when I may not even be sure what I think of what I said in the first place.

Who knew Laurell K. Hamilton wrote a fantasy novel before the Anita Blake series? I sure didn't. I'll have to admit I actually got into the Anita Blake series. I wasn't even so put off by the increase in sexual plots, per se. But after several books, I found myself growing disenchanted with it all. The main character evolved in a way I didn't really like and the stories seems to boil down to "How do we give Anita more powers and add to her harem of lovers?" Anita was so much more interesting as a low-power "reanimator" resisting the allure of vampires and such. So how does Hamilton's debut novel compare? Not... favorably. I was immediately stricken by the change in perspective (more typical fantasy third-person rather than first). And then by the sheer density of scenes and elements. Everything flowed from one point to the next with no pause between. That sounds like it could be good, but I found the pace oppressive between the introduction of

I finished another of the "I've never heard of this before" books I picked up on my trip. It appears to be meant to be the first in a series. 'tis all about the rigors of war! Well, okay, not directly. Actually, it's about England in an age of taking on all comers. The Spanish are rivals over shipping conflicts. Most of Europe hates England over breaking with the Church. And the Unseelie Court wants to stomp England for actually standing up to them. Ah! There's the supernatural element. Yes, the main protagonist is "England's Greatest Spy," but that's mostly a public show. He, and those he's connected with, are far more concerned with the Enemy (said fae folk) than any foreign powers, though the conflicts are interwoven. All the campfire stories are real, the fair folk have been preying on humans for ages, but they're just subtle enough that all those incidents can usually be brushed off as superstition. What drives the fae is uncl

The excitement/uproar over changing settings on Furryfaire seems to have dulled somewhat, and it doesn't feel like it's any closer to being done. That's... not unusual, I'm sorry to say, and it's one thing that makes it harder for me to get involved in the MUCK's "present/true" story. I'm left feeling there's going to be a big change that will render choices I make now pointless, only it doesn't happen for months (if at all). One thing I don't remember seeing in the system poll was the option to go fully freeform. And right about now, I'm wondering if that might not be the way to go. Granted, I've often felt it wasn't right simply because I didn't true players to play nice. And yet, I remember very, very few scenes that were meaningful in some way where the system was in play. And as I see more and more "tabletop-style" games done online peter out or otherwise crumble, I'm left wondering if the trade-off

So let's see... a quick game roundup... In Guild Wars, things have slowed down in some senses. With the campaigns finished for most of us, we're spending time on other things. Getting the black moa chick minipet (worth a point or two in the HoM) is a primary goal now, it seems. Sunday we also helped a guildie slog through some of the drabness that is Kaineng City. I hunted up the last bog skale fins I need this morning. What's left? Skree wings and getting to Sorrow's Furnace, I think. The latter will be the longest for me, I suspect, given my current "main" wasn't the character I used for the Prophecies campaign, so I need to cover somewhere around a third of the storyline's worth of territory. WoW was a little light this weekend, too, actually. Short a few people, we downed Razuvious for the weekly quest, then went to the Black Temple - base of Illidan and the last big raid of the Burning Crusade primary storyline (Sunwell came later, but it feel

Though it's specifically about Champion's Online, there might be some value in reading http://www.massively.com/2010/10/21/behind-the-mask-cliques-are-the-bane-of-roleplaying/#continued 'tis advice mostly from the perspective of a roleplayer trying to get involved with others who seem to be fairly set in their groups. Of course, a little bit of empathy makes it useful to those who usually play in groups, too. And while it's written for a graphical MMO, my mind is taking it more in terms of a MUCK. I'm thinking of linking it in a post on Faire's boards, though I know those aren't always read. Some highlights: - Have a background written and proofread. - Spelling and grammar matter. - Make your character likable. Seriously. Hero or villain, if you make a character people wouldn't want to be around, people *gasp* won't want to be around him/her. This is another reason why making a blatantly EVIL character in these games can be shooting yourself i

Well, my mini-vacation has reminded me how nice it is to get away from things, though it wasn't long enough to make the most of it. It'll probably be a while before I get a chance to go somewhere-other-than-here for a week or more. Finances are a seriously limiting factor in that. And on the topic of finances, I'm considering a bundled internet/phone/TV service. One of the local cable company's people was by recently with their pitch. At a glance, it does seem an improvement, but I'm always wary of additional stuff. Taxes. Increases after the introductory period. "Equipment" costs. It's hard to know for sure how good a deal it may or may not be. And while he pointed out I could keep my phone number, I actually find I'm far, far more attached to my email address. If I chance my phone number, there are perhaps half a dozen people to tell. Change my email and it impacts several bank/billing sites, some game accounts, several forum registrations, a f

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eF5c__8DFA Yeah, it's like that. ;)

... a day back at work to make you appreciate days off. Ugh. Hard drive issues with one computer tormented me for half the day before I "fixed" it by rewriting the master boot record and boot sector - with no real idea what happened to it in the first place. Ongoing printer problems, compaints about crashes with the "new" software, setup for connection to a new accounting server that I was only peripherally aware of, and other assorted things throughout the day. @.@

So I had a fantasy book catch my eye on the shelves of Page One. It's frustratingly hard sometimes, but it happens once in a while. Magical eyes of stone. Oracles. a plight of a people. That sort of thing. The stone eyes took me a bit to place, but as I was reading, I remembered where I'd seen that before - Urza. Overall, it was a decent read, if a little dense at times. The prose can get mired in its colorful terms for people, nations, places, magics, and so on, while the reader is left wondering what it all really means. It's also a follow-up to another novel, taking place in the same world and referencing some of the earlier events, though mostly the story and characters are independent as near as I can tell. I might search out the other book, Talyn, and give it a read at some point.

So the week's been a lot of experimenting. Had trouble in 5-man dungeons holding aggro in groups. Revamped a couple talents and glyphs, and did a litlte reforging. And Blizzard made some changes to numbers - mostly for Retribution, but it affected Protection abilities, too. So when I stepped foot in ICC tonight, I pulled around 11k DPS on the first bunch of trash pulls. That's just... wow. Ridiculously high, actually. Lots of AOE damage and the benefit of tankly Vengeance (attack power boost that goes up with damage taken). Now, my DPS output leveled off as we progressed - the situation of those pulls heavily favored me, but it sure looked pretty while it lasted. Overall, my fears were largely unfounded. There still can be aggro issues, but it's not a given. Marrowgar went down pretty quickly. Lady Deathwhisper in what might have been record time - shield down before the third wave, fight over in something like 3 minutes. We tried the gunship battle on heroic mode and (l

So, in my brief trip away from things (all too brief, perhaps), I did come up with the framework for a Threshold character. It's not fully fleshed out, but it's enough to start with for me. But I'm left wondering if it's enough... I can picture this character in my mind in certain scenes. A coyote infernalist/summoner who deals with and calls upon demonic powers in his magic. Cautious, but "morally questionable" in the sense that he's ultimately out for himself first. Not "evil" in the usual fantasy sense as he doesn't really have any reason to be a psychopathic killer, though I see a touch of nihilism in his beliefs - a sense of "life and the world will all end eventually, don't get too attached to it." He may pay lip service to some deities, depending on the situation, but his only reverence in the sense of religion is for Mika the Demon Lord (as opposed to Mika the Goddess). I suppose that would make him something of a &

So... Healing has more complexity to it, but doesn't strike me as harder at this point. Optimizing might take some doing, but I didn't see any real problems from that end. Tanking rotation is still tricky for me, but getting there. Aggro is the hard part right now. Tank's can't hold everything like they have been. Single target? No problem. 2-3 targets? Not bad unless DPS is laying into something other than the tank's primary target - in which case, they'll probably overtake in threat and die. 4+ targets? Here you're seriously risking even a healer getting charged. That seems to be by design for Cataclysm. So unless the developers change their minds and give tanks better AOE threat capability, people will simply have to adapt to this. Maybe I'm biased, but I feel the bulk of that adaption rests on DPS players to know what they can and can't get away with.

Ruined Word of the Day: Temporal Ask most people, and they'll probably tell you something like "relating to time." That's not incorrect, per se, but that's hardly the only meaning either. It's also a neat little term for thinks worldly, passing, or civil - as in opposition to the spiritual or eternal. Mostly, I blame Star Trek for overusing a specific application of it, which is even more sad because its other definitions have such use for those who think in terms of sci-fi and fantasy.

With all the upheaval, server reboots, connection problems, and class changes that go along with a major revamp of systems for a game so extensive as WoW. Whee! I don't want to get too whiny. Light knows I hear enough complaining online about the changes. The simple fact is: a lot of things changed, and we're going to have to get used to it. Some general thoughts: - I don't make use of heavy interface mods, which is a benefit at times like this. Yay. - Librams (and all relic-slot items) now have base stats and gem slots. That's strange. - Grid-like raid frames are now available without an addon. We'll see how well they actually work, though, when I get into healing at some point. - 310% flight speed is now purchasable for those who didn't have it. 5k gold for that last 30% speed buff. Whee, gold-sinks. - My armor trinket... lost all its armor, making it an on-use-only dodge trinket. Well, that's pointless. - I've been experimenting with Mastery

Nice day. Nice drive. Nice room - more spacious than I'm accustomed to, and certainly laid out differently. Page One is as daunting as ever. To be surrounded by so many new and used book, and yet unable to find more than a couple that catch my eye. That's a little sad. Only found one book I was actually looking for and picked up two more on whim. I bought just as many from Borders and they had more of what I was actually looking for. Go figure. Active Imagination is still a nice game store, though I miss the old days when they were more common. They've got gaming space, but that means less shelf space, so less games that aren't "mainstream" enough. Nothing looked like simple and sweet enough to try to import to Furryfaire. Ah well. ;) I see D&D Essentials selling in a box made to look like the old D&D Basic red box. Nostalgia! The hotel is situated nearer the Coronado mall than usual - I was able to walk over. The mall there seems to be doing pr

Certainly, getting that finishing blow against the Lich King was a glorious moment, though after things wound down for the night, a post went up on the guild board announcing two members would be switching to another guild. We've already "lost" one of our ongoing raid team pool to it and one or more alts. I understand that guild is larger (they must be if they regularly run 25-man raids), so there's probably more diversity and support for other things like PVP. It's not much of a surprise as the recent two had been spending more time doing things with the other guild I don't hold any grudges, and wish them all well, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't saddened and perhaps a touch disppointedd by it. So as Wrath of the Lich King winds down, we've accomplished a whole lot. It's been a good expansion. But in these twilight days before the next, we're also down to about eight regular raiders. That means we'll probably have to do some de

I... really don't know if I can convey my elation. Couple rough attempts, but on our sixth try for the night, we drove through the Lich King fight well. We lost one or two people early in the last phase and got at least one rezzed, I think. So when we got to about 18% health on the Lich King with nine people still standing, I think that was the moment I said to myself "this is really going to happen." And thus the Lich King has fallen before the Knights Penumbra. This shortly before the 4.0.1 mechanics-altering patch (which will probably make it easier) and before Cataclysm itself (which will definitely make it easier at higher levels). Tanked by Elly and Sashayla. Healed by Shujin, Tiikala, and Arztine. DPS'd by Khaymon, Sangue, Yeen, Mystiqe and, naturally, Kyndranigar. Ten more figures in the World of Warcraft that get to wear the Kingslayer title. The Ruby Sanctum came later, but as far as I'm concerned, this counts as a "win" for the expansion

There's been a lot of chatter in GW lately about the sequel and the Hall of Monuments and such. My general reply has been "Well, I really don't know how much I should care. I don't know what any of these titles or anything that might transfer or correspond to something in 2 are or what difference they will make." Well... it looks like there's an answer to my question. In a very literal sense. http://hom.guildwars2.com/index.html#page=welcome You can look up your current characters and see what their accomplishments will give you in 2. Yay. But... it still doesn't tell me how much any of these rewards actually matter. It shows me what armor items might be unlocked, but it doesn't tell me how it compares to the armor I'll pick up just playing GW2. If the stats are the same, or the look isn't much more appealing to me, I still see no reason to bust my tail pursuing accomplishments in GW. So... basically, you can see what you get, but it me

So... I've "officially" marked off next week on the calendar at work. I have plans to head down to Albuquerque Monday, stay the night, and return sometime Tuesday. It'll give me a chance to hit my main points of interest (Page One and Active Imagination at the top of the list), maybe catch a movie, and generally be away for somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty hours. I hope this will help to recharge me in some fashion. I haven't planned anything for the rest of the week. I sort of hope to get in some time outdoors, perhaps hiking some local trails that I don't typically see, but if I feel most like sleeping in and hanging out at home at the time, that may be the outcome instead. I may log a little more time on WoW during the week, too. If 4.0.1 does go live Tuesday, I'll want to get in some dungeon time to relearn how to play a paladin. I have some real hope we could down the Lich King tomorrow night, which I wouldn't have had if you'd ask

Cracked is occasionally an amusing read. Today's list doesn't really contain any surprises for me, but the bit about standard time zones phasing in within about fifty years on either side of 1880 strikes a chord. Just a few days ago, my thoughts we wandering over how radically the evolution of transport and communication has changed life and how that really kicked in with the railroads. Before that, a lot of things simply didn't matter because they were days or months distant, rather than hours or days. Pondering that also calls up previous thoughts of how any world with common or powerful magic would radically change. So many settings take this for granted. The "dark ages" were dark partly because communication and travel were difficult, dangerous, and time consuming. Simple sending spells and some airships or teleportation magic could easily cause an explosion of civilization development along the lines of telegraphs and trains in real history. Unless you ar

I'm seriously considering taking a week off from work - possibly even next week - and spending a night or two down in Albuquerue. Things are relatively calm enough at work that I think we can afford to take some time off during our night weeks, and that would be the first thing beyond a long weekend since last year. There isn't a whole lot that I'd specifically want to do with the time. The drive wouldn't be bad. There are a couple book/game stores I'd like to hit up, especially with my increased consumption of novels. One night down there feels like it might be rushed. Two nights feels like it might be excessive, which wouldn't be a concern save for the financial side of things (costing roughly twice as much, after all). Hmm... must consider further.

HOA board meeting tonight. @whee. I have this horrible suspicion our property manager will spring something new on us like she did previously with a letter from one owner. We've eased up some on our oversight since getting new contractors to finish up exterior repairs and I get the feeling she's growing lax again as well. ... Hopefully, I'm worried over nothing, right? Probably gaming Thursday night. Might be getting back to Dresden Files, for better or worse. I've lost some interest after it being so long, and I already seemed to be having more trouble getting into the game than most - more because of inexperienced GMing than system or setting. I'm really thinking I need to take a little time off work, but I can't really afford to do much with it. Get out of town for a day or two, maybe, but that's about it. And even a couple days in Albuquerque doesn't sound as intersting as it once did. The year's still moving fast, it feels. It just dawned

Decent book, but lacking... something. I'm not even sure what. Steampunk Seattle with a walled-off section of the city infested with zombies, a boy in search of his family's past, and a mother in search of her boy. It was likable enough overall, and an interesting blend of genres. It follows two viewpoints, which is okay. I think I liked Briar's side of things over Zeke's. The way both ended up sharing basically the same secondary cast felt a bit contrived, but my biggest complaint is simply that it felt lacking in some quality I couldn't pin down.

Last night's raid was nifty. We didn't down the Lich King, but we got him down to about 28% health (and really you only need to get him to 10%, if I recall). After weeks/months of getting to about the same point, it was awesome to see us get past that. It's still brutal and unforgiving, and we didn't always perform well, but it was improvement that I wasn't expecting. I was psyched. There seems to be a general feeling we can do it next Saturday. With all the rumor that patch 4.0.1 is due Tuesday, though, I'm left wondering if it will be easy or hard. It's got all the big mechanic changes for Cataclysm, including the revamped talent trees and abilities. Some of us will have to do a lot of re-learning of our class functions. As a Protection paladin, my entire rotation is getting tossed out the window. I'll be using Crusader Strike (previous a Retribution-only ability) on single targets. Holy Shield will be a secondary effect off some abilities rather th

Good movie. Suitably evocative. I can't compare it to the original foreign film, having not seen that one. I've read that it's pretty close and the changes make sense. No major spoilers, really, if you know anything about the movie going in... In contrast to a lot of more recent vampire movies, there's an appropriate level of horror to such an undead creature here both in being one and being around one. And yet for all that, I personally found the scenes of in-school bullying and abuse harder to watch than scenes of vampiness. It makes me thankful that while I was a quiet kid with few friends in school, I was never seriously picked on. The movie is a bit slow, and quiet (save for bursts of violence). Part of me think it should have been editted tighter. But I think the pacing is actually appropriate for the subject matter and contributes to the atmosphere.

Some thoughts on roleplaying during what looks to be (and I hope will remain) a quiet evening. Thankfully, I "get" to leave a little early tonight to avoid overtime, though Fridays are often low-energy nights online. I caught one conversation a day or two ago on Furryfaire where one player stated they wouldn't RP if they couldn't play their chosen kind of character. Prompted further, they admitted this was generally true in other games as well. No pixie/foxlike race, no play. As was pointed out at the time, that misses out on so many aspects and rewards of roleplaying that could come from playing something different. Empathy and wider understanding from putting yourself in different shoes and such. But they were fairly adamant - playing other sorts of characters resulted in rapid loss of interest. And... well... I can understand that. People seek out different things from their roleplaying. For some, it's playing an ideal version of themselves when, for whate