Grouping away (yawp)

I was sitting on 187.208 gold on my four alliance characters in WoW this morning. That's just a bit over 25k profit over the week, which is not shabby by any means, considering how little I pay attention to the detail and profit in general. I may well craft a dozen glyphs to sell at 30g, but end up selling them at 8g, below costs. Mostly out of spite, because no-one else will sell at that time, either.

What has brought this up is simply the obsidium shuffle and the way the cut rares have started to roll out. The Shadowspirit diamonds (the meta gems) are going steadily, but the price range for them is fluctuating quite a lot. The prices may easily go from 168g on one day to 327g on another, and so far I haven't been able to pinpoint the pattern. Perhaps it is connected to the raid days, but I'm not totally sure.

Gnomore got some love over the weekend, a couple of levels up and a very, very interesting encounter with the Archeological dig sites: He ran from one end of an area to another between two sites which kept popping up in sequence. This has changed the way I play Gnomore considerably, hunting for the dig sites rather than gathering nodes. But in the end, this results less deaths, which is nice.

Rift. I've spent some very interesting time in Rift, not only because it is a new game, or because it's beautiful. Mainly because of the guild I got into and the people in there. Also the people within the game - if you shut the general chat off - are very nice and co-operative, something you do not find in WoW in the levelling areas anymore.

The most interesting aspect I encountered was the ease of grouping meaningfully. I was just doing quests and gathering (this follows me from Gnomore for sure...) and I came to the quests leading to the Iron Fort, a big fortress from which the big bad evil warlord was originally from. The quests are quite doable as solo, and there is no need for grouping, but the kill 10 of these, 12 of those and 8 of them quests mount up to some serious killing. So... I grouped with one cleric on the same quests. Soon another player character joined and before I noticed, there were eight of us doing the same quests, running from one tower to another, from tower to altars around the fort and so on.

And it was bleeding fun. Everyone was working towards their own, but at the same time common, aims and ends, chatting about the progress of the quest and having slight RP on the side.

In the end, everyone thanked for the group before splitting and about an hour had passed: it was like an open mini-instance in WoW.

The additional reward for doing the quests in group? Nothing, except getting them done faster than alone, and with style.

I think this one instance shows how a small thought on the social availability of grouping can change the experience quite considerably, and as the players realize more the possibilities of this open grouping, Rift play experience may well change to something we've never seen before. Social design at work, really.

All in all, a fun weekend with the games. With a lot to write about over the week, too.
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Gnomore: From Dawn till Dusk(wood)

Gnomore pictorial 17-19.

So, last time we left Gnomore to Redridge, sitting in the Inn. My great big intention was to let him rest over the week and then go out and about and get that Lunar Festival suit on him. However, over the week I suddenly got this feeling that I might not be able to visit Moonglade in time to do that, so I made a quick run over and...

Got the suit! And found out the flight point, set out there nearby the entrance to Timbermaw Hold, tunnel leading to Winterspring and Felwood.

After which Gnomore did some sailing and arrived to Stormwind in one piece, in one nice piece of clothing.

Even though I've stated that I won't be using the dailies to level up too much, I still had to see how the cooking and fishing dailies work for the lowbie character. To my - positive - surprise, they work exceptionally well, as you can see from these two pictures.

Got the dailies done, got the rewards and got a level. Not shabby for a half an hour extra. After which I checked the mailbox, only to find out that Gnomore had gotten some 120g richer than before: even stronger evidence on the fact that money is abundantly available in the game to everyone taking the first step to sell stuff in AH.

Fast forward back to Redridge. As you may have already noticed, Gnomore has been more or less running around, like a heated bunny on a cool summer day. This mounted - and dawned to me - as soon as Gnomore started to plunge deeper into the Redridge area.

Oh, crud! Herbalism at cap, I had forgotten to check that while in town to train it. Needless to say, it was time to hearth back to civilization to get this done.

Double crud!!! In the running around I had also forgotten to set my hearthstone to Stormwind instead of Darnassus! Oh, what a loooooong day this was about to be. To cut the pictorial story shorter, I trained, sailed, ran and sung sad songs found some nice recipes to sell in the AH before embarking to Redridge. The pictorial part shows you that I'm adamantly convinced that the game deliberately tries to hinder my travels by putting both herbal and ore nodes to such places that there is a bodyguard right next to them: be it bear, wolf or an eel underwater, there is always a bug to bug Gnomore there.

The bright side was - though - to be of help to a little girl who had lost her necklace.

Helped her with a ding.

As Gnomore started to work around Redridge, I got a bit sidetracked... and found myself in the Blackrock Pass, staring out into the higher level area. Of course I had to get Gnomore there, in little pieces if nothing else worked. It turned out that that was the only way in the end...

But finally Gnomore was there!

At this point I remembered where Gnomore was supposed to be, so I flew him back to Redridge and continued from where I had initially found out that I had not trained his gathering skills properly. There are extremely interesting - and daunting - orc settlements in the area, with Black Dragon Riders and all, but I didn't that put Gnomore off. After some careful planning, several avoidance maximizing side steps and - surprisingly - no running back, this was a sight for sore eyes.

Friendly faces and kinred spirits hiding at the end of the known world to rescue! After gaining yet another (third) flight point in the area, Gnomore set off and... I'm convinced that the game is really being nasty on me, making my finger twitch for the Smite, Holy Fire and all things that kill, maim and cause discomfort.

Well, off Gnomore went anyhow. After circling around the area, I found a very, very disturbing sight.

I don't know about you, but to me this was a very hard blow in the face, gut and all. You see, this is the first time I - at least consciously - encounter extreme brutality from a player faction, rather than from the NPC faction. I can generally understand that the demons and fell creatures do brutal things (like burn people to crisps just for fun, or leech the lifeforce out of them to power their engines or pay the player characters to do their torture... no, forget the last one!), but to make the player to believe that it's ok to treat the other player faction this way... not cool. Maybe the mentality I'm having while playing on Gnomore is starting to rub on me, but I don't find this proper in the game anymore.

Granted the game is rater 12 and above, but still. As I haven't played much on the horde side, I don't know whether there are similar brutalities in the game, at least I don't remember seeing such as I was playing on my undead hunter alt way back after Shattering struck. I feel it was cleaner and in "a not enjoying this but we have to revenge" way tolerable.

The discussion aside, Gnomore finally made the exploration and I guided him to Duskwood, where he's resting from the hard days work, just few thousand short of next level. Which will be 20, mount and Archeology!

I wish you take the time to go through the pictorial, for this was just a condenced version of the whole and there are some pretty nifty pictures not shown in here.

Not at all!

I admit, the lasts few posts have been the same old me again: complaints and critiques of the game as it appears to me. This post is supposed to be something completely different. Not at all like the previous ones.

First of all, my first contact with the Shattering was in fact a new alt, an Undead Hunter with whom I blasted to level 18 I think. What a joyous ride that was! The quests flow from the beginning in such a way that you are really 'living up' a story of an up and coming hero rather than one of the guys at the cemetery, like it earlier seemed to be. The phasing provides a pull which is otherwise impossible to achieve and you really see the world change from a scene to scene.

After playing the worgen and goblin starter areas and seeing the gnome starter, I can say that the beginning player's starting experience has been streamlined and polished to the extreme. The only pitfall in this is the possibility that the starter areas are lacking the challenge one would expect to see in a world torn by constant war and strife.

But the biggest fun came later on with the Undead: there is this particular quest at the border of Silverpine Forrest and Hillsbrad area, where you get to be the questgiver. And you get to had three quests to three different kinds of characters. No more spoilers, but this quest was the first time in the game where I laughed with tears in my eyes to a scripted event. And the follow ups with the questees later on were a cracker, too, but not the way the original quest would have suggested...

At the high end levelling areas one cannot be but amazed of the quality, continuity and flow of the story itself, and contrary to what Blizzard said about quest hubs (something like "players want to see their minimap blinking with yellow exclamation marks"), they condensed the hubs instead: only few quests usually doable in the same area and at the same time, continuing the story or two simultaneously only to be finalized in a sort of climatic encounter before leaving for the next area. Well, the same worked in the new revamped 1-60 quests, too, but in the end levels it's even more profound.

What really warmed up my cold heart was the fact that the crafted gear is again worth a thought: even the first BoE gear which is craftable by a blacksmith are worth the while. I replaced WotLK purples with the first three pieces I could do and without a single doubt! I haven't checked the other crafts yet, but I bet that the tailors have the same situation at their hands as soon as they get enough cloth in their hands. I can only hope that this continues to the cap, because it would seem a waste to be subjected to the instance and point gear only.

In saying that Blizzard provided more of the same you would be making an underestimation: they provided even more of the same, but with some very innovative approaches. However, in railroading the play experience the game has taken quite a few steps towards the massive multiplayer solo game, and by doing that the group content will suffer the most in the end: people just do not know how to cope with the group content, blasting away with the ways they have learned while soloing. Then again, one of the nifty little things Blizzard provided the players with are the progressing quest chains: you get both experience and the next quest of the chain on the fly, and these combined with the instance create a very, very interesting concept. The same system has been used in the wilds where you may find a quest while doing another (triggered by random kill or an area like a cavern) which liven up the questing itself, giving you the illusion of free form or sandbox quests.

If we think of Cataclysm from the newcomers point of view, then the overall experience has improved to cater the complete noob in a fantasy game: it provides interaction, specified and achievable quest targets and guides and ushers you onwards with the story and out into the world. The ongoing storylines really push you beyond the earlier level 10 barrier Blizzard reported, as they continue way beyond that limit.

So from the newcomers point of view, Cataclysm made WoW even better.

For the veteran quester who has seen the content up to WotLK the new levelling experience is a refreshing change to the old one, providing new insight into some quest types and using phasing as a real tool in advancing the story. Also the fact that you have to find the instances in real before you can queue to them via the Dungeon Finder is a refreshing thing, and urges people either to go through the quest lines in the area to reach the conclusion in the instance or to explore the area to find the entrance. As I haven't reached the cap yet (only lv83) I cannot say what changes in there, but I expect it will be even more of the same as it was in WotLK, causing me to turn my face on working with my alts.

All in all, Cataclysm turned WoW into a roller coaster which urges you to go by the numbers. It's not a bad thing considering the changing customer base, but it's not exactly what the genre requires to improve as whole. I for one am having the feeling that by streamlining the system Blizzard has gotten rid of the danger and challenge in questing, and for me it is not enough to have that sense of challenge in the heroic instances alone.

So for the next time I would love to see some sense of challenge, possibility to fail even if you do your best and more emphasis on group content. By this I'm not saying that the instance content is bad, quite the opposite: the instances I've been so far are top notch and entertaining, the bosses are different and have various mechanics and all. But the change from WotLK facerolling with AoE damage to the crowd control required style seems to be too abrupt for the majority of the players and the questing and levelling content doesn't help the players to understand this change.

Was that pep enough for a change?

C out
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Three rode to Mt. Hyjal and found themselves in Blackrock Mountain

Oh, well. Back to business. The three stooges nights are the highlights of my WoW playing, definitely, even though last week started to look like something that was not too appealing. Questing among thousand others, trying to steal kills and bosses and just trying to be the fastest in a mini-instance - or elemental realm or whatever they are - to get the quests done.

Last night started as one such thing. Questing among not-so-friendly competitors. The darn hurry rubs on very fast, especially after you try to kill ten foozles and notice that someone picks them up with a dot just before you charge into them.

I was ready to kill after two such quests. Add to that the fact that at least three Obsidian nodes were stolen from me as I was fighting the mob guarding it.

Then we got to the same mini-instance and the recognition was immediate. The instance was a tribute to ancient game called Joust, with wing flapping and awkward 3d movement with a bird that really couldn't decide whether it was a brick or a sparrow.

It took a while to get the hang of the controls, but in the end it was pretty fun, actually. Though I still think that Joust was much better in it's 2d design than this 3d version of it. Still it was a nice tribute to one of the old arcade games.

At which point Förgelös, our resident rogue, started pestering us with the quest to enter the Blackrock Spire. Heedless to that we plunged into the questlines involving the Inferno area, and soon noticed that all three of us were cursing the quests to kill, collect and escort small furry things from the blazing Inferno to safety. Grumbling and mumbling filled our Vent channel as we worked to finish the hippie themed quests of the area: the only one which was fun was the last one, in which you saved bear cubbies by tossing them down from trees to a trampoline... go figure!

And off we went to the Blackrock. After some misplaced hearths and travelling, we found the new instance. Without much thinking we plunged in, head first as usual, not noticing that it really WAS an instance.

Few seconds later all toons were dead and three of us laughing the earlier frustration off.

After almost completing the instance we came to the conclusion that this was what we needed: to be against unbearable odds, chain-dying in places where everyone went dancing through. Not the over-dumbed down quest chains which were way too easy and simple even compared to the ones presented in the beginning of Northrend area.

Short note on the warrior side: you can say anything about levelling as protection, but the fact is that it hasn't gotten any better. I switched to the arms spec I had without changing any gear and I killed mobs in half the time. The only difference was that in protection I didn't get any damage from normal equal level mobs, but then again, who would bother? With arms I was running from a mob to another, combat healing on the run.

And the gear is clearly aimed for the dps side of the specs. Already replaced my chest and shield with way better greens than what I had in IC purple. Gearwise Förgelös was the lucky-duck in the group: everything changed from the earlier and he is now the one with the highest gear score of the group.

With new daggers and all.

The night was a success. The Three Stooges are riding again.

C out

Startling discoveries (YAWP)

This weekend was a bit of a disappointment, not only because my objective with the Loremaster of Eastern Kingdom proves to be more time consuming than I thought, but also due to real life coming into the way of reaching it. Still lacking some 27 quests from the achievement, and then it's about 300 quest in Kalimdor. Kalimdor should be easier due to the fact that there are big quest areas which I haven't even tapped yet (like Sillithus and Tanaris) and the questing should be more condensed. Then again, kill ten rats kind of quests take their time anyhow, like in Eastern Kingdoms.

What has been an eye opener on the Old World questing (startling discovery #1) is that the most interesting quests and quest chains begin either from a random drop or from a quest giver who either appears randomly or requires certain attributes or circumstances to give the quest to you. One such questline is in Stranglethorn Valley on Alliance side. There is this soldier who will go on patrol and if you save him from being killed by the warriors from the Kurtz army, he'll give you the quest starting a chain of 5 quests (six quests for the achievement, actually). But only if you happen to be around when he gets attacked!

I waited for the bugger to start walking for 42 minutes, and the quest chain was done in 10. Wasted time when you compare to the normal quest in which you have to kill, say 30 Ogres in the Searing Gorge: that killing quest takes about 15 minutes and you get to do another quest on the side.

Of course, the low level questing is pretty boring if you really aren't for it, and for me all the waiting and flying took it's toll also. So I ran the Headless Horseman and a heroic with all my 80's toons. With my spriest I met the most incredible fury warrior I've seen so far (startling discovery #2). This warrior banged constant damage of five figures in Drak'Tharon Keep and boasted for having done over 16k crits on Lady Deathwhisper couple of nights earlier. My recount had 9880 for his dps over the whole instance, with crits over 12k.

At the other end of the scale, as I was running Culling of Stratholme with my baby DK in his Unholy, I could come up with 3.2k. The startling discovery #3 was as follows. I got in there just before the gauntlet after the inn. The tank ran on as I came in, and we cleared the gauntlet. At the same time as I came in, came a mage and we took care of the dps part of the run. So we cleared the gauntlet, came to the end of it and started to wait for Arthas to join us. We waited. And waited. And... this mage asked if anyone had talked to Arthas before we started. "Oh, I didn't know, I'm here for the first time", responded the tank.

Sure as can be, his gear were quest blues and greens and he was tanking in heroic Culling of Stratholme. No wonder the dps had left after the inn, fearing they would fail in the gauntlet.

The funny part of this? We had to clear the gauntlet three times. First to get through it, second to get back and third to get through it with Arthas. And for the majority of the run, I was tanking more than this 'tank to be' who really knew the basics but sure as hell couldn't handle the aggro. The healer paladin was a professional, though, and he switched to healing mainly my DK instead of the tank. 

Malganis was our puppy and I scored some 6k crits in there. (Startling discovery #4)

To cap this all, I got finally switched my banker druid's profession from skinning to herbalism. As I started to pick it up with the herb collecting, I made the final startling discovery: I got experience from using the skill?!

Come Cataclysm, I think I could make a Worgen priest or a druid and make the pacifist levelling thing, only healing in random dungeons LFD style and picking flowers!!

As the final note: I think I have to take a bit more serious approach into the blog, as Kadomi from Tank Like A Girl (one of my big influences) has put this blog into her list of warrior blogs. I'll take the protection and arms route, but more of that later. I have ideas already, but do not expect any real number crunching. Most probably more on the routes on how I find things and how they work for me.

Cheers!

C out

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Whose quests are they really?

I tweeted today that I have made a terrible find, which isn't a surprise at all. All who have read this blog any longer than last few months know that I love stories and quests and have been very much disappointed with the heroic/raid kind of playing. Now I took my warrior, switched to Arms dps and started doing the Loremaster achievement in earnest.

And I'm loving the quests which I'm unfolding. Which I have not completed. Which I have neglected back then, or abandoned because I over-levelled them outrageously.

Granted, my main interest is to do the Old World quests before Cataclysm. I know, it's a bit time intensive goal, especially as I know already I'll be travelling due to work things for two weeks during the time. On the helpful side, I have already almost two thirds done of them, in Eastern Kingdom I just crossed 577/700 quests done as I was checking Wetlands for unfinished quests.

Before that I finished the Grizzly Hills achievement and found some nice quest chains which can easily go neglected if you are just levelling up. The Drakuru-chain is obvious, as it has an achievement in itself, but how many really stumbled upon - and completed - the Arugal chain? I do not have to finish it, but I want to, really.

While I was doing the Grizzly Hills quests I noticed something I don't think I have noticed before. The odd quests and small chains in the Old World emphasized this notion even more.

Whose quests is the player character actually doing?

As far as I can see, the quests are always important to the questgiver, and are of utmost important to them. I can't remember right from the top of my hat any quests or questlines where the player character was impelled to do the quests for personal involvement or which would have revolved around the player character in any real way.

The personal involvement of the player through her/his character's personal involvement is seriously missing in the quests, as far as I can tell.

Like in the business world, the reward of money or gear isn't enough a drive to make the quests enjoyable or rewarding to the player. (In some recent studies on salary being a reward in a job they found that after certain salary level the salary ceases to be the reward or reason to work for more.) If there is no personal involvement or enticement, the player is pretty much alienated from the questing and thus the quest-reward cycle feels like a grind, something you must do to get on with the game, to level up.

I'm a strong advocate for choice in quests and equal reward for making a choice that affects the position and demeanour of the character in the world around him. You make the choice and you face the consequences rather than you do the deed and the NPC enjoys the outcome.

What would be your solution to this lack of personal involvement in WoW quests?

Immersion and quests, again

In last post I touched the topic of MMO quests being impersonal and not involving. I stated that the quest system and level of involvement are not working in MMO's. In single player games you are immersed to the game's overall plot and quests by involving you -the player- through the direct contact with your character, and the quests in a way come to you unnoticed and tie you as a player in personal level to them. In MMO's the quests hubs have NPC's with exclamation marks just waiting for you to collect the quests and there is nothing that would involve you to do those quests except the rewards. MMO quests are impersonal.

Several bloggers have written numerous postings about how absurd and stupid the quest giver mark is, and how it simplifies the questing process immensely. At the same time in single player games you get into conversations with the NPC's who may -or may not- invite you to do a chore for them. And more often this simple task leads on to another en route, so you really do not even have to come back to the same NPC before you have unlocked the whole chain, which is in fact a story within the game. In WoW there are few excellent quest chains, like the Missing Diplomat, in which you are being led from one quest giver to another and piece by piece you unravel the mystery of the missing king... Who has returned now, but still, the questline is a longer story, spanning across the two continents.

Why and how the quests have become so stupid in WoW? And why do we want to see those incredible absurd exclamation marks and question marks in our game?

I was a very happy camper while playing Oblivion, without the marks denoting the quest givers. And without having any kind of quest help besides the discussions with the NPC's in the game. The real question is, how viable such a questing system is within a MMO.

The other thing completely involving the immersion part is the fact that when you come to a quest hub in WoW (or any other MMO after WoW's launch), you go on and collect them all and start working through the list of quests. The rewards do not matter, nor the stories in them, just as long as you get the experience. But how different would the game experience be if the quest system was such that by choosing this quest over that other, the other quest would become inaccessible to you? So that every choice you made in selecting the quests would close some doors and open others? The choice of quests would become more a multiple choice thing rather than quests being the mandatory advancement route in the game.

I'd even like to see this go one bit further: the reputation you have within the faction would also open or close quests. The faction could be as small as the village (or quest hub if you like), making the re playability of an MMO even bigger due to the fact that each alt would have completely different set of possibilities at hand. Sure, this would mean that there would be a huge amount of content which would be used more than the rest, but then again the tweaking of such content would be pretty easy by balancing the returns (rewards) of the quest chains over time, making them all more or less equal.

What would this mean in grouping? Of course, the grouping would be an issue, if the quests wouldn't have common ends in the group content. The objectives wouldn't have to be the same: one chain could require collecting something from an instance, the other killing some mobs in there and the boss would still have the loot table to satisfy the participants.

The current quest system in WoW is more or less the lazy interpretation of the whole questing system. It works but it's dull and outlived by the possibilities presented in the single player games. Wouldn't it be fair towards us players, that the quest system was as interesting and intriguing as the graphical content of the game?

Especially now as the tools like phasing are making the unique player experience possible?

Alt or not?

Alt, or alternative character, in MMO is something that most of the players will create at one point or another. Be it a bank mule or a seriously played toon of another class or race, it's all the same: it's not the main character the player is playing, or planning to play, for the imminent future. Some stick to one character, some get a case of altitis, requiring them to create several alts to accommodate their moods for

Jason from Channel Massive blurted out in episode #109, that he had a hiatus from MMO's during which he played only single player games. Now that he's returned to his favourite addiction, MMO's (Champions Online to be precise), he has found out that he is concentrating on one character instead of his earlier (severe case of) altitis. He also states that this has somehow slowed down the urge to clear all content from all angles in the game. And that he's enjoying the game.

This commentary in the podcast got me thinking the issue with alts and the possibility to play several toons in a game. It's quite clear that in strongly PvP based games it would be kind of cheating to have a toon on both sides of the PvP factions, and the new and coming sandbox sci-fi game Earthrise has already asked the members of their forum about the possibility to have more than one toon on a server, clearly concerned about ruining one element of the game (in game spying of another faction) by allowing toons on both sides.

I also connected this with my recent spree of Oblivion: somehow it didn't even cross my mind to start a new toon in the game. I guess it's the same in Fallout3 and other Bethesda games, and hopefully in the forthcoming Star Wars: Old Republic MMO, in which the questing is supposed to be reminiscent to the one in the Fallout/Elder Scrolls games.

I myself am playing three toons at the moment: warrior Laiskajaakko, priest Pupunen and banker. The time spent on Laiskajaakko is easily three or four times the time spent on the others, so I can easily say that I have only one toon in the game. Then again I have several toons of my own on other servers, too, and three on Horde side on the same server as these three.

The question is, is it necessary to have more than one toon in a game? And how much does a crew of alts affect the overall immersion in the game?

My answer to the first question is that no, it's not. Really, in the 'old days' of the computer gaming you plunged through the games with one toon till they died. You still play single player games with only one character, even the games where you create the character yourself, and you are completely happy with it! So why would an MMO be any different from those games?

Like I stated, I have several toons, but I enjoy the game most when I can jump into the shoes of one character only and follow his advancement through the game. I've already seen how hard it's to take on the lower levelled priest and remember the quests which my warrior has done... only to notice that the priest has completely different quests on the area. The immersion is broken in a way for the second toon, and I cannot imagine how little of the RPG part you really can put into the nth alt you're levelling.

And there I gave my answer to the second question. I don't think that running around with several alts can be immersive: it's bound to be more a game of finding out how this or that class works and functions, not like writing the story for the character at all.

Big part of this problem comes from the fact that the quest system and the level of involvement in the game are not working. (But that's another story.) In single player games you are immersed to the game's overall plot and quests by involving you -the player- through the direct contact with your character, and the quests in a way come to you unnoticed and tie you as a player in personal level to them. In MMO's the quests hubs have NPC's with exclamation marks just waiting for you to collect the quests and there is nothing that would involve you to do those quests except the rewards. MMO quests are impersonal.

Anyhow, what do you think? Do you really need the option to create several alts from the beginning or should this possibility be 'unlocked' by playing your 'main' to certain level first?

In Heaven again

Before the so called hiatus from WoW, when I really burned my interest out by trying to power level to the level cap for the second time, the last things I really concentrated on was to make gold. Lots of gold in AH. I really spent time in flipping items: buying for cheap, selling for decent price. I never ripped anyone off... well, except that poor sod who sold a blue BC item for 5g and I sold it for 75g... But hey, he posted it!

Then came the half a year off from the game, a couple of patches and Auctioneer went bonkers. Really sad, because I hate record keeping on my own. I'm not that organised. You should see my work table or my computer table at home...

After WotLK kicked in I've been playing with my UI so much that I have neglected my Auctioneer. I've only sold the loot from all my toons I've been playing and gotten on with the show. However, on Monday I took a while to see what the 'new' Auctioneer holds in itself.

The Bliss.

I was so disappointed when I learned that the BottomScanner didn't work and it wasn't supported anymore. The main tool for flipping was gone, and I was too lazy to scan the AH item by item to see the price percentages for profit. But now as I started to dig into the functions of the Auctioneer Advanced, I found that the same functionality is in there, as the Real Time Scanner!

I started playing with it immediately. I found deals in there with price only beliw 10% of the 'market value' of the products. I grabbed a few of them and even put something on a higher priced end of things, too. I spent around 230g in a few minutes and regretted that while I put the stuff for sale. It would take some serious grinding if Auctioneer's database was crooked (as it most probably is because of WotLK) and my gut feeling was wrong.

I checked my mail yesterday. Scared of the outcome I skipped the expired deals and only opened the succeeded ones. You know, the scrolls with money in them. I closed my eyes as I cleared the expired deals to my bags for a rerun and closed the mailbox.

138 g, combined from deals and outbids. I made over half of the money back with only petty things! It worked and I hadn't lost my market sense!

Okies. I took it more carefully this time and spent only some 50g on new purchases and re-entered the ones that had been expired. I'm well on my way to the new thousand before Outlands with Pupunen and Laiskajaakko. It's good to be rich.

After this Pupunen took a flight to Ashenvale to run some petty quests. To my surprise Rayne's Cleansing is a long chain, with a really nice story, too. Too bad the phasing isn't in use in here, because it would make sense that the Furbolgs -the cleansed ones- would become friendly towards the Night Elves after this quest chain. It's a real shame that you have to hand the shapeshifting rod back at the end of the chaing, but then again, I'm not going to steal from the trusting questgiver. It's like stealing from a dead man, which you have to do in Bloodmyst Island... which is gross.

These are the simple things that really would benefit from somekind of 'morality' effect in the game. Let alone the much controversial torturing quests in Northrend. How come this kind of possibility to induce the RolePlaying elements into the game had been neglected from the beginning?

Ah. Nevermind. It's money that talks, and I can't wait to check Pupunen's mailbox in the evening!

WAR again... or then not.

I just spent precious worktime reading through a selection of blogs. All more or less related or connected to WAR.

What really keeps amazing me about the blog entries is well pictured in my former post about the content and it's value to the generic player. The WAR blogs mainly tell about the game mechanics, how PQ's and RvR works and maybe, just maybe, about how the blogger's character survived through the evening.

But where are the detailed descriptions about the lore and background, which is so living, depressing and haunting in the original Warhammer IP? The WHFRP, though based on the miniature game's rules, contained a wealth of background and material from which to create content, and the initial opposition of the humanoids and Chaos Gods was so promising. And the additional material in the form of Tomes and manuals just made the creeping Chaos even more tangible to the player (and GM alike).

Nobody writes about the content. Only the mechanics.

I'm feeling like a complete idiot over here.

Like I earlier stated, in WoW I'm a horde player to the bone. Even to the point that I had really hard time accepting that my son wanted to have an Ally toon. Well, I gave up, but so did he after a while and switched to Horde. But that's another story. However, now that I have been forced to play on the Ally side, I've come across long and wonderfull quest lines that I feel are lacking on the Horde side, and I've found the 'other side' of the Azerothian lore. Or I'm unravelling it to me currently. As I don't have a background on the Warcraft-series, I don't have any previous understanding of the background of the world. I just have to rely on the information I get from the game to make a coherrent picture of the lore.

Sadly, World of Warcraft has done what the WAR bloggers are doing: cast the content aside and put the emphasis on playing the game. Instead of playing the game, by which I mean that this wonderfull role-playing environment is being used not as a place to adventure and grow the character, but to find a way to win the game, which -because of being a fantasy role-playing game- cannot be won.

I doubt that all the Bartle-test Explorers really are explorers. Based on the enormous emphasis of winning the game I'm pretty certain that most of them are achievers and/or the term explorer is somehow misused in the test results. It's not exploring for finding out new things, places and monsters in the game, but to explore the limits of the mechanics and finding a new way to win the game.

I am an explorer first. But I'm digging in the lore and places, finding more delight in new places and acquaintances than in beating the opposition to pulp. But I have to admit that I'm affected by the other players and their ways in the game.

And other bloggers.

I'm off to read a scroll.

Questing for... what?

Next entry I will write beforehand and only paste here.

Ok. Everyone is so pepped up with the WAR launch, that it's almost sickening. Blogosphere is full of posts about WAR, about not to write on WAR and about how the launch is feeling somehow anti-climatic. Blame it on the long beta or whatever. I'm not in it, but I'm never the less fed up with the whole ruckus. Admitted, I'm a bit jealous, too.

Instead I played WoW again during the weekend. Soloing again to catch up my brothers, whose toons are around lv40 at the moment. My arms/prot warrior is 'only' at lv 36 at the moment, plunging through the warrior quest Cyclonian for The Axe. And doing a lot of quest along the main Cyclonian-requisite route. I'm quite well versed with Stranglethorn now, almost passed all Nesingwary's questlines in my search of the Troll Tusks for the Cyclonian. Thankfully that is almost filled up and it's time to head to the Arathi Highlands.

Where I'll do the same: hoard the quests from all around and do them alongside the elemental slaughter.

What I noticed, however, is the fact that the questlines seem to be a) longer and b) more rewarding and c) advancing the toon faster in the level range 26-33. The questlines in Duskwood are fabulously rewarding - XP-wise - compared to the ones in Stranglethorn at 32-36. The Duskwallow Marsh seems to continue the long lines and high rewards style better, but the warrior quests do not even touch that area, making it something to worry after the lv40 questline for the warrior.

Which obviously leaves me in a bad levelling position, as I'm closing the Duskwallow level cap. Need to find another place to advance, though the quests will be easier and possibly faster to go through.

Now that I have written that down and read it again, I'm amazed and appalled. Why? Because I, former next-to-fanatic tabletop roleplayer, lover of immersion and stories and adventuring exitement, am talking in terms of power levelling and faster advancement. With this particular toon I have made it my aim to read the quest descriptions as well as possible and I have loved the winding stories contained within the quest structure. However, in Stranglethorn I noticed that I just skipped everything. First time ever I noticed that the 'been there, done that' mentality is setting in. After all, I have done those quests twice with my horde toons in the past two years I have been playing the game. And honestly speaking, Stranglethorn is quite stale as whole.

I can say honestly, that I have read the quest descriptions almost every time, always. I find it insulting to the game developers, writers and creative people to whom I pay my 12€/month that I would abuse the content by just rushing it through. However I understand fully the players who have played from the beginning, that the content gets stale after the third levelling to the cap. For me the question however is, what is the game about?

Is it to rush to the cap and grind the end game instances? Or is it the story of the character growing from zero to hero? Or is it something else?

WoW doesn't have a kind of continuity for a character: the quests are repetitive and they are the same to every toon in the game. What I would like to see in a future game would be the influence of your playing to the quests and affiliations. More role to the playing. EQ2 has something like this, but it's still in it's infancy. WoW has the reputation system, but it's not really worked to the max.

Make me a Call of Cthulhu rpg in which your actions will decide whether you end your days in an asylum or die in a horrible ritual for the Old Ones or are the one to conduct such a ritual. Make a game in which our decisions make the progress of the game different.

That'd be something to quest for.