BlizzCon 2010

Ok, so it's no secret to anybody who plays Blizzard's games that BlizzCon 2010 started today at about 1pm (Central).  Generally there is some huge announcement or cool bit of information released in the first 30 minutes of it.  Last year it was Cataclysm (even though MMO-Champion released virtually all of the information days ahead of the convention), and the year before it was StarCraft 2.  So, when this years festivities got under way people seemed to have such high hopes for something really cool (new MMO maybe?).  Guess what?  Nothing cool and interesting was announced this year; exactly as I had predicted.  I have been saying it for weeks, and with the reveal of the Cataclysm cinematic during the Vikings - Cowboys game last weekend there really wasn't anything really 'cool' left to show.

DOTA for StarCraft 2?  Big freakin' deal.  Nobody really cares, and in my opinion DOTA as a custom maps is not worth the time with games like League of Legends and now with Valve working on their own game, DOTA 2, I really do not think people give two hoots about a new DOTA map for SC2.  I'll concede that there is probably some sort of nostalgic value to the game, but I think people expect a bit more out of it now other than the restrictions of a custom campaign file for the game.  Now, I'm sure there are still more details to come, and people will get all ooey-gooey over it since it's a Blizzard game and it's on SC2, but I'm just not that excited for it.  It looks to me like they are just trying to get some of the people who only play WC3 for DOTA to buy SC2...yay milking the masses?

Hopefully there is some cool stuff released about 4.1 during the Dungeons and Raids panel later today...

WoW - A History (Part I)

An Introduction

Well, it's no secret that much of my life for the last 6 years or so has consisted of playing World of Warcraft, so I figured it was only appropriate to give an introduction to who I am in-game, and my progression through it over these last 6 years.  BE WARNED -- this will be a lengthy wall of text.  There, you have been warned, so if you do not feel like reading my long and boring post then just close the window now, or click the back button at your earliest convenience.


The Beginning
I was unsure how I wanted to structure this write-up, so I figured it would be best to just start from day 1 (-ish?).  For the longest time after WoW first launched, I could be quoted on several occasions saying "I will never pay to play a game -- not ever!"  It only took about a year and one boring week during winter break during my freshman year of college, and I was hooked.

I joined up with a bunch of guys that I had originally met playing Natural Selection.  Gauis and Sil3nt (I have no idea if they even play WoW anymore) ran the guild called Aeternum Extorre.  It is here while leveling from 1-60 that I had the privilege of meeting some people that I'd come to know for quite some time.  Granted, I don't speak with any of the people who were here with me any longer (minus Tim); however, being able to establish those relationships in-game really helped make spending all that time in front of my computer less depressing.

From <AE> I moved on to <The Reckoning>, which at this point I believe was in its second iteration.  I joined them roughly 8 months after I started the game when I was level 60, so that I could experience this "raid" thing everyone was always talking about.  For anyone who knows anything about vanilla raiding, you'll know that T2 raiding was a blast.  BWL (Black Wing Lair for those not in the know) was an amazing raid instance, and was quite difficult, at least from my POV.  About the time that The Burning Crusade hit, TR had melted away and been reformed once.  By this time I somehow made it into a leadership position in the guild.  For those of you who actually enjoy doing this, I commend you, because I hated every damn second of it.  All the drama-llama people who were also in officer chat alongside me made it quite stressful.  Believe me when I say that the day I no longer had to log in and get spammed with QQ was a good one.  TR went on in that fashion for a while, but then had to be rebuilt a few more times early on in BC.  I stuck with it until TR 4.0 (or so?) and then finally called it quits.  It was at this point I applied to and joined one of the most fun guilds I have even been in, and even today, over 2 years after leaving bits of it are still with me -- <Cross of Vengeance>.

Well, I had originally planned to drone on about my journey through WoW all in one post, but I have quickly come to realize that it'd be one extremely long post, so instead of completely boring you with that I'm going to break it up into several parts.  Don't ask me why I am actually taking the time to do this, but for some reason it just feels better to actually write about what I have been through in this game as it makes all of the time I've spent seem less wasted if I can pull something from it or share it with someone else.  Anyway, parts II and III are still in the works.  For now, that is all -- I need to go to sleep I think.

Some HGS from South Dakota

 

<3 Dan and Sam for the pic.  I got a good chuckle out of it...even though there are only a select few who actually get the picture.  I was touched :o)

Side note, this picture reminded me of another item to add to the "Epic List of Epic Things to do..."