I realised something this weekend, that has really caused me to cast some of the decisions I have made in this little experiment in a different light. See, I was under the impression that my increasing despair with the state of some of my hobbies was to do with disenchantment, time management and clashes of priority. The one thing I missed was the madness that is 'other people'
I've been away playing Raw Deal this weekend in Glasgow. OK, the RD is really just an excuse to see some friends, have a drink and get out of the house when Mrs Gow and the kids are away with the in-laws. It was awesome to see the guys (and gals) again and even though I didn't perform too well in the tournament, I had a good laugh. However, in the background, a drama was unfolding...
The UK Nationals are approaching and the venue for the nationals is always controversial. Generally, it should be central and big. This year, Reading was earmarked. Not really central but the player base of the game is skewed somewhat to the south so it's not insane to do so - and the southern players deserve a PPV. Now the manager from that area has known this for months, but like anyone else, he left the organisation of the venue to the last minute and then found out that it wasn't suitable. Now, there are a lot of people who are wanting to know when the event is happening - holidays need booking etc. and a new card set is imminent, which causes complications as well. Also, it cannot be too late as it causes a 'log jam' of PPV dates which can cause chaos. So, my successor as Commissioner, after chatting to me, approached a different venue in Shrewsbury who organised themselves in under one day. Good yeah?
Nope. The Reading Manager tendered his resignation (which was refused, because he really was being a drama queen) because he had let down the Raw Deal community. And then the manager from Southampton resigned because he saw the emergency change as a slur upon the southern players. Why wasn't anyone consulted? Why wasn't it put in Southampton? The fact that the Teams event later in the year has been rescheduled to Reading/Southampton (hardly twinned cities..) and another one is in Cardiff (a similarly deemed 'southern' venue) is apparently null and void.
Whether he is right or not, the entire thing has embroiled a number of people in long and heated conversations. Entire plans and counter plans have been talked about. Conspiracy theories, claims, rebuttals - oh for fucks sake guys, it's just a bloody card game! Stop being so bloody damned melodramatic. Nobody actually gives a flying fuck whether you resign or not, where the venue for a tournament is, or whether a group of self-appointed organisers are, or are not, consulted.
And this is the sort of small minded shennanagins that I have been living with for the last four years. Everyone double guessing everyone else about their ways of doing things, what the real meaning is behind what they are saying - it's really quite pathetic. Hell, the new Commissioner was asking me what sort of things he should and should not say to the creator of the game in order to curry favour with him because said creator is notoriously ... difficult! Duplicity, double talk and drama. Hell, Vince McMahon should really just hire these guys to write Smackdown! and it would be better.
Now, this is rather similar to the situation I had with the Dungeoneers. A lot of people getting very hot under the collar about the stupidest of minor things in a computer game. The mind boggles, I know...but the atmosphere was such that I really just found it easier not to be there. So I posted up a note on our site saying that I would relieve myself of the bankers duties in the guild.
So what do I get? A mail from the guildmaster - a guy I have known for years - 'hoping that we can still be friends..'. I mean, what in the blue fucking hell of shite made him think that because I didn't want to be an active part of his guild, it meant that we wouldn't be able to be friends! The week beforehand he was suggesting that his son and my daughters should spend some time together during the holidays. It's madness - utter utter madness.
To be honest, I'm glad I'm out of it. It's hard - I still have a lot of attachment to these things - especially the Raw Deal 'scene' - and when things are nasty, they hurt. These people are my friends. However, there are so many more important things in life. Whether it is the care and upbringing of family and children, participating in other socially valuable activities or simply appreciating that there are people in this world that don't know if they will be alive tomorrow - and we argue about what voice comms server we use?
My shining light through this is my roleplaying group. We missed one player last week, so we sat around and chatted about...stuff. And the conversation became, at times, 'heated' - but in the way that people who are totally assured of their actions in the presence of their friends can be. No-one taking umbrage at disagreements, no-one leaving the gaming group because of a difference of opinion. All people, I believe, who have some degree of grasp on their life's priorities. Sanity, amidst the madness.
I think I shall steer towards the sanity
Neil
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
Can You Serve Two Masters?
My Scarshield Legion oddessy continues and has taken a new and very welcome step. Branan has reached 31st level and I seem to have finally 'got' the way the server works.
First off, the PVP side of things is very ... different. There are two aspects of it. In the low level areas, you occassionally get some high level types coming down to harvest the younglings. Essentially, there are two options - stand and fight or run like hell. Generally, I choose to run like hell but on one or two occassions, stand and fight is a decent option. Thats quite fun. However, the absolute slap-in-the-face of PVP reality is when YOU are that higher level invader! At 30th level fighters get a quest that takes them to Fray Island, off Ratchet. There is no easy way to do it - boat to Theramore and then either a trip through the Barrens or overland through Dustwallow Marsh. Either way, you see more Horde in that trip than all of the previous 30 levels in the dwarf lands combined. It is .... tense. A wholly different set of rules and social interactions compared to the 'care bear' invisibility of a PvE realm.
Second, the RP side of things has some interesting implications. Items that are totally worthless in PvE suddenly take on a new light. Take a 'Disciples Stein' - a random Level 7 item of almost no use whatsoever. Valuable? Oh yes. Why? Because it's a big beer mug in your off-hand and that means that if you are RPing in a tavern, you have the item that fits the situation. Similarly a non-magical diamond ring goes for 25g+ because of it's use in in-game marriages...art imitating life, I suspect. So Branan has his fighting gear and his off-duty gear. Now, this isn't roleplaying - but it is an aspect of the immersion that can occur. Certainly, the level of in-game RP I have seen is minimal. People refrain from using l337 speak in the game and do talk to each other using /say but generally, theres not much to put between RP and PvE....
Until you join an RP guild. Now, I have refused a number of guild invites over these 30 levels because I didn't want to dive into something unsuitable. I wanted an RP guild, preferably a dwarf-only guild and I wanted it to be quite casual. No raiding...been there, done that. So, this morning, I spotted an annoucement in Ironforge /general about a guild called Gryphon Hammers. RP guild (Check!), Dwarf only (Check!), no 60s and no raiding (Check!). I was directed to their website and it was all about their story, their ongoing plotlines, their clan meetings and ... well, wow! I was SO in! They signed me up there and then, and I put in an application anyway. So here it is:
-- Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't destined to wield the greatest axe in the world and slice off the head of Cthon. Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't the final child of a murdered clan seeking revenge on a race of dragonkin. Sometimes .... sometimes a dwarf comes along who has just been trouble since he was born. Say hello to Branan Badrock.
Branan was born and raised in Ironforge by his uncle, the owner of one of the cities smaller importers of 'exotic culinary frippery' - the salesmans patter for piles of smelly tangy clam meat and gooey spiders legs shipped in fresh from the Wetlands. Branans formative years were spent cleaning various animal parts for his uncle. He longed to join his father in the mines in far off Baer Modan but no, he had to stay at home.
Of course, Branan got bored and discovered the wonders of beer, brawling and no-beards. On more than one occassion he fell foul of the Ironforge city watch, either drunk hanging above the lava trenches in the Great Forge, bruised after some shennanagins in Tinker Town or brokenhearted after a liaison with a comely no-beard ended in a swift mace smack around the head.
Eventually, his bad behaviour got the better of him and despite his budding aptitude with the hammer and anvil he got into one brawl too many and was sentenced by the Ironforge Magistrates to be sent away and have his troublemaking tendencies put to better use - in the battle with the Horde. Banished to Coldridge to learn his trade as a warrior, Branan was also given the temporary name Badrock - a monicker he will keep until he manages to reconcile his differences with Ironforge.
Since that shameful day, Branan has found himself in a number of adventures - beating on Troggs and Orges in Loch Modan, aiding the humans in their battles with the Defias bandits - even gaining a token of gratitude from their boy-king and now he stands ready to breach the Thandol Span...
...which leads him to the borders of Aerie Peak and his true destiny, to drink alongside the Gryphon Hammers in the Hinterlands!
---
After I joined and was given a cacophony of IC greetings from my 'clannies' I suddenly got a pang of guilt. Yes, real proper guilt. About yes, the Dungeoneers. Lets get one thing clear - in no way, shape or form am I going to get anywhere near as involved with the Gryphon Hammers as I was with the Dungs. Not going to be an officer, not going to have any say it how they are run. Just another member. But it does mean that I have some ongoing responsibilities with their guild events. What if it clashes with the Dungs event?
What if it does? Which do I choose? Who takes precedence? At the moment, probably the Gryphon Hammers because the Dungs have really moved to a raiding guild status. In a really Dungs way. So they now raid an unspecified target four days a week. You turn up and depending on how many people turn up, thats what gets raided. Somehow, that just doesn't seem appealing to me anymore.
But the happiness that I feel at finding a suitable guild is a bittersweet feeling. I love the Dungs and I miss a lot of the people in it. Not the people I see every week but those like Havock, Volta, Gumbert etc. who are WoW-only acquaintences.
I'm not sure whether that is a sad thing (in the boo-hoo way) or a sad thing (in the geek way) but it has certainly been the unexpected upshot of having two masters...
Neil
First off, the PVP side of things is very ... different. There are two aspects of it. In the low level areas, you occassionally get some high level types coming down to harvest the younglings. Essentially, there are two options - stand and fight or run like hell. Generally, I choose to run like hell but on one or two occassions, stand and fight is a decent option. Thats quite fun. However, the absolute slap-in-the-face of PVP reality is when YOU are that higher level invader! At 30th level fighters get a quest that takes them to Fray Island, off Ratchet. There is no easy way to do it - boat to Theramore and then either a trip through the Barrens or overland through Dustwallow Marsh. Either way, you see more Horde in that trip than all of the previous 30 levels in the dwarf lands combined. It is .... tense. A wholly different set of rules and social interactions compared to the 'care bear' invisibility of a PvE realm.
Second, the RP side of things has some interesting implications. Items that are totally worthless in PvE suddenly take on a new light. Take a 'Disciples Stein' - a random Level 7 item of almost no use whatsoever. Valuable? Oh yes. Why? Because it's a big beer mug in your off-hand and that means that if you are RPing in a tavern, you have the item that fits the situation. Similarly a non-magical diamond ring goes for 25g+ because of it's use in in-game marriages...art imitating life, I suspect. So Branan has his fighting gear and his off-duty gear. Now, this isn't roleplaying - but it is an aspect of the immersion that can occur. Certainly, the level of in-game RP I have seen is minimal. People refrain from using l337 speak in the game and do talk to each other using /say but generally, theres not much to put between RP and PvE....
Until you join an RP guild. Now, I have refused a number of guild invites over these 30 levels because I didn't want to dive into something unsuitable. I wanted an RP guild, preferably a dwarf-only guild and I wanted it to be quite casual. No raiding...been there, done that. So, this morning, I spotted an annoucement in Ironforge /general about a guild called Gryphon Hammers. RP guild (Check!), Dwarf only (Check!), no 60s and no raiding (Check!). I was directed to their website and it was all about their story, their ongoing plotlines, their clan meetings and ... well, wow! I was SO in! They signed me up there and then, and I put in an application anyway. So here it is:
-- Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't destined to wield the greatest axe in the world and slice off the head of Cthon. Sometimes, a dwarf comes along who isn't the final child of a murdered clan seeking revenge on a race of dragonkin. Sometimes .... sometimes a dwarf comes along who has just been trouble since he was born. Say hello to Branan Badrock.
Branan was born and raised in Ironforge by his uncle, the owner of one of the cities smaller importers of 'exotic culinary frippery' - the salesmans patter for piles of smelly tangy clam meat and gooey spiders legs shipped in fresh from the Wetlands. Branans formative years were spent cleaning various animal parts for his uncle. He longed to join his father in the mines in far off Baer Modan but no, he had to stay at home.
Of course, Branan got bored and discovered the wonders of beer, brawling and no-beards. On more than one occassion he fell foul of the Ironforge city watch, either drunk hanging above the lava trenches in the Great Forge, bruised after some shennanagins in Tinker Town or brokenhearted after a liaison with a comely no-beard ended in a swift mace smack around the head.
Eventually, his bad behaviour got the better of him and despite his budding aptitude with the hammer and anvil he got into one brawl too many and was sentenced by the Ironforge Magistrates to be sent away and have his troublemaking tendencies put to better use - in the battle with the Horde. Banished to Coldridge to learn his trade as a warrior, Branan was also given the temporary name Badrock - a monicker he will keep until he manages to reconcile his differences with Ironforge.
Since that shameful day, Branan has found himself in a number of adventures - beating on Troggs and Orges in Loch Modan, aiding the humans in their battles with the Defias bandits - even gaining a token of gratitude from their boy-king and now he stands ready to breach the Thandol Span...
...which leads him to the borders of Aerie Peak and his true destiny, to drink alongside the Gryphon Hammers in the Hinterlands!
---
After I joined and was given a cacophony of IC greetings from my 'clannies' I suddenly got a pang of guilt. Yes, real proper guilt. About yes, the Dungeoneers. Lets get one thing clear - in no way, shape or form am I going to get anywhere near as involved with the Gryphon Hammers as I was with the Dungs. Not going to be an officer, not going to have any say it how they are run. Just another member. But it does mean that I have some ongoing responsibilities with their guild events. What if it clashes with the Dungs event?
What if it does? Which do I choose? Who takes precedence? At the moment, probably the Gryphon Hammers because the Dungs have really moved to a raiding guild status. In a really Dungs way. So they now raid an unspecified target four days a week. You turn up and depending on how many people turn up, thats what gets raided. Somehow, that just doesn't seem appealing to me anymore.
But the happiness that I feel at finding a suitable guild is a bittersweet feeling. I love the Dungs and I miss a lot of the people in it. Not the people I see every week but those like Havock, Volta, Gumbert etc. who are WoW-only acquaintences.
I'm not sure whether that is a sad thing (in the boo-hoo way) or a sad thing (in the geek way) but it has certainly been the unexpected upshot of having two masters...
Neil
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Rarer than Rocking Horse Crap...
...a decent Alliance PUG?
Having a little sabbatical from the trials and travails of the Dungeoneers for a while, I have been concentrating on Branan, my dwarf warrior on Scarshield Legion, an RPPVP realm. It's been an experience, for sure. Not a lot of PvP and to be honest, not a whole lot of RP either, although it is 'in the air'. I've never seen Stormwind so bloody active!
I've reached level 22 through mostly soloing and a few 'knowing nods' impromptu groupings without actually forming a party. However, last night I reached the point where I knew I was headed to the Deadmines and that would need me to join a group *shudder*. Now my previous alliance character had some absolute NIGHTMARES in alliance PUGs and I have to say my expecations were pretty low.
At around 7pm, the LFG channel in Westfall was buzzing with DM PUGs, but after tea at 8pm is was silent. I trotted down to the entrance to DMs and sat there and started chatting to a 22 NE Warrior who was there as well. He was looking for a PUG too. Aha! Theres our frontline sorted. So, I decided to do a comedy LFG about wanting to 'Spank Van Cleefs arse!'. Comedy always gets a response and soon we had a Rogue and a Warlock. And then something amazing happened.
Obviously, we were in need of a healer. So I LFM'd for one healer and got back tumbleweed. Comedy LFM followed - still nothing. And then a /w from someone random saying they knew a healer that wanted to come? Bizarre...but 20s later I get a /w from a priest wanting to come and yes, it was the first guys mate! I was taken aback.
So the five of us trundled into Deadmines and well, to be blunt, crushed it like a bug. The entire run took under an hour and a half to complete and we trashed all of the bosses and even some rare spawn boss that dropped a nice shield for me. The NE warrior, Bolt, got the sword he wanted, the warlock got the Emberseer Staff and the priest got Cookies wand. Everything was done 'right', we had no poor pulls, the healing was exemplary, the tactics great, the banter amusing - all in all, an extremely entertaining nights ... entertainment.
And I will be honest, playing a warrior does seem to be a little more entertaining than a druid. It's just a little more gung-ho than the healing role, more relaxing. And it has a lot of button pressing and a lot of very quick value judgements on what to use rage on, and thats quite cool.
All I need now is to find a good RP guild and I am sorted!
Neil
Having a little sabbatical from the trials and travails of the Dungeoneers for a while, I have been concentrating on Branan, my dwarf warrior on Scarshield Legion, an RPPVP realm. It's been an experience, for sure. Not a lot of PvP and to be honest, not a whole lot of RP either, although it is 'in the air'. I've never seen Stormwind so bloody active!
I've reached level 22 through mostly soloing and a few 'knowing nods' impromptu groupings without actually forming a party. However, last night I reached the point where I knew I was headed to the Deadmines and that would need me to join a group *shudder*. Now my previous alliance character had some absolute NIGHTMARES in alliance PUGs and I have to say my expecations were pretty low.
At around 7pm, the LFG channel in Westfall was buzzing with DM PUGs, but after tea at 8pm is was silent. I trotted down to the entrance to DMs and sat there and started chatting to a 22 NE Warrior who was there as well. He was looking for a PUG too. Aha! Theres our frontline sorted. So, I decided to do a comedy LFG about wanting to 'Spank Van Cleefs arse!'. Comedy always gets a response and soon we had a Rogue and a Warlock. And then something amazing happened.
Obviously, we were in need of a healer. So I LFM'd for one healer and got back tumbleweed. Comedy LFM followed - still nothing. And then a /w from someone random saying they knew a healer that wanted to come? Bizarre...but 20s later I get a /w from a priest wanting to come and yes, it was the first guys mate! I was taken aback.
So the five of us trundled into Deadmines and well, to be blunt, crushed it like a bug. The entire run took under an hour and a half to complete and we trashed all of the bosses and even some rare spawn boss that dropped a nice shield for me. The NE warrior, Bolt, got the sword he wanted, the warlock got the Emberseer Staff and the priest got Cookies wand. Everything was done 'right', we had no poor pulls, the healing was exemplary, the tactics great, the banter amusing - all in all, an extremely entertaining nights ... entertainment.
And I will be honest, playing a warrior does seem to be a little more entertaining than a druid. It's just a little more gung-ho than the healing role, more relaxing. And it has a lot of button pressing and a lot of very quick value judgements on what to use rage on, and thats quite cool.
All I need now is to find a good RP guild and I am sorted!
Neil
Sunday, April 09, 2006
What a Strange Day?
Not often I use the blog as a diary, but today has sort of been a gaming mish mash of nonsense.
Started playing WoW on Scarshield Legion and lead the hardy dwarf Branan through to 20th level. He's a monster (not!) but he has a funny little run!
Then went to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown....*yawn*....I have serious over-exposure issues with animated films at the moment. Same old same old sadly - and trailers for three or four more inevitable child-sponsored sorties over the summer to the exact same story again and again and again.
Checked into PC World and indeed, I can conclude that there are no other PC games I am even halfway interested in. Bugger. D&D Online just has too many people saying baaaaaad things for me to even show a spot of interest. Oh, and there are no books I want to read in Borders. Damnation!
Then returned home and *wham* - WoW exploded around me. Essentially two friends having a rather heated spat-ette (one of those 'full and frank' discussions that can only be had when one has lost all real attachment) and another making a suggestion that was ... less than sensitive.
Upshot? Well, the first two have left the guild, seperately, for their own reasons. I had a big long phone call with the other guy, we sorted stuff out and well, I came to a rather wonderful epihany.
Essentially, as I am not raiding, why ON EARTH should I care about how we raid? And if the main activity of the guild is going to be raiding, and I'm not going to be doing it, it makes no sense in me getting worked up about it. I've already reconciled myself to not being an officer - time to cut loose, ala Raw Deal and go wheres happiest.
So, despite the upshot being the result of a rather silly unnecessary (on all counts) snarl-fest, the upshot itself is rather pleasant. No worries for me, just plain sailing. And in fact I'm happier now than I have been in weeks. And thats a good thing.
So then, Dave comes over and we play some hands of Raw Deal. And we played some more and before you knew it, we had played for three hours and we enjoyed it. OK, he enjoyed it a little more than me because he was whipping my ass, but you get the idea. It was a good thing too. So it looks like I have my tournament buddy back and I can, casually - and I mean CASUALLY - begin to get back into the swing of the RD-thing as a civilian.
Raw Deal as a civilian
WoW as a civilian
Noticing a pattern here? I am....
And finally, The Idea Factory managed to find a wonderful little RP quiz which he linked to in his blog. It's one of those really ropey yet horrendously accurate psych quizes that identifies what 'type' of roleplayer you are - so lets see shall we?
You are a STORYTELLER
Started playing WoW on Scarshield Legion and lead the hardy dwarf Branan through to 20th level. He's a monster (not!) but he has a funny little run!
Then went to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown....*yawn*....I have serious over-exposure issues with animated films at the moment. Same old same old sadly - and trailers for three or four more inevitable child-sponsored sorties over the summer to the exact same story again and again and again.
Checked into PC World and indeed, I can conclude that there are no other PC games I am even halfway interested in. Bugger. D&D Online just has too many people saying baaaaaad things for me to even show a spot of interest. Oh, and there are no books I want to read in Borders. Damnation!
Then returned home and *wham* - WoW exploded around me. Essentially two friends having a rather heated spat-ette (one of those 'full and frank' discussions that can only be had when one has lost all real attachment) and another making a suggestion that was ... less than sensitive.
Upshot? Well, the first two have left the guild, seperately, for their own reasons. I had a big long phone call with the other guy, we sorted stuff out and well, I came to a rather wonderful epihany.
Essentially, as I am not raiding, why ON EARTH should I care about how we raid? And if the main activity of the guild is going to be raiding, and I'm not going to be doing it, it makes no sense in me getting worked up about it. I've already reconciled myself to not being an officer - time to cut loose, ala Raw Deal and go wheres happiest.
So, despite the upshot being the result of a rather silly unnecessary (on all counts) snarl-fest, the upshot itself is rather pleasant. No worries for me, just plain sailing. And in fact I'm happier now than I have been in weeks. And thats a good thing.
So then, Dave comes over and we play some hands of Raw Deal. And we played some more and before you knew it, we had played for three hours and we enjoyed it. OK, he enjoyed it a little more than me because he was whipping my ass, but you get the idea. It was a good thing too. So it looks like I have my tournament buddy back and I can, casually - and I mean CASUALLY - begin to get back into the swing of the RD-thing as a civilian.
Raw Deal as a civilian
WoW as a civilian
Noticing a pattern here? I am....
And finally, The Idea Factory managed to find a wonderful little RP quiz which he linked to in his blog. It's one of those really ropey yet horrendously accurate psych quizes that identifies what 'type' of roleplayer you are - so lets see shall we?
You are a STORYTELLER
Storyteller 100%
Method Actor 83%
Specialist 42%
Tactician 42%
Power Gamer 25%
Butt Kicker 17%
Casual Gamer 17%
Hmm, lets see? 100% Storyteller - hey, who'da thunk it? Mr 'Iron DM' gets the max points out of the storytelling stuff. Sarcasm aside, I think it underlines how my attitude to GMing has changed over the years, totally embracing the collective storytelling methodology (although I still struggle with the game vs storytelling medium aspect). Then Method Actor? Well, OK, I'll take your word for it but as I rarely play, I'm working from guesses and memories here. That said, I do like to 'play' the character rather than being a cardboard cutout of the same old stereotype, so maybe yes.
Next tactician and specialist tied? I'm not really sure what a 'specialist' is in this context, but I'm stunned at the tactician thing as I abhore tactical games and whatnot. Give me the sparkle of the unknown and the rampant disregard for logic that is swash and buckle any day of the week. Then we get into Powergamer and Butt Kicker. The last one is no shocker as I hate RPG combat and get absolutely zero real pleasure out of senseless encounters of that nature. Powergamer is another matter - when I need to, I can be a right little minimaxing swine. Rather than doing it to bend to rules to rule the game, I usually end up doing it to squeeze every last iota of gaming utility out of my characters concept. The meaning of the powergaming may be different but the upshot is the same: a character that is sometimes far more capable than he should be, simply due to a few bits of numeric jiggery pockery.
And I am not a casual gamer - well duh! Hence the gaming blog, one would think?
And so, to bed. But lets see what we have learned from today.
1. A change can be as good as a rest with WoW.
2. The animated animal film genre is stuck in Groundhog Day.
3. Whilst there are many other MMORPGs out there, I'm not sure any are for me.
4. Sometimes a moment of madness can bring about amazing clarity of thought.
5. Friend ALWAYS > Silly Computer Games
6. Sometimes it's nice to be an indian rather than a chief
7. Dave is still better than me at Raw Deal
8. Those quizzes are horrendously accurate
And I bid you all a goodnight, for tomorrow is a new day... one in which I fully intend to take my 100% Storytelling score and start using it on P&P!
Neil
Friday, April 07, 2006
Bored : Angry : Excited : Musing
(Special thanks to Gwen Stefani for the title inspiration...amongst other things..)
Bored: Oh God, am I bored with World of Warcraft. It's a bit more than that, but essentially I am bored to tears with the game and the gameplay. I'm not going to preach like I have had some road to Damascus style epihpany and try to persuade everyone else to be equally bored with it, but I am going to have a little rant. Before my latest sojourn to the USA, I started playing EVE-Online with the 14 day trial. It was good. But not good enough apparently. I got to the part where you really do have to team up with someone else and well...I just couldn't be bothered to even start thinking about it. The game sat on my laptop for a while, whilst I was away. I had plans of playing it for fun when in the states but never got around to it and then when I returned my 14 days had ran out and I had the choice - renew for cash or not. I chose not. Why? Because I realised that rather than being a great new game it was an average new game which was acting as an attention placebo in the run-up to Wrestlemania. So what to do? I know, I will download the WoW patch and see what I can do there? Patch downloaded and one scant session later I was resplendent in the three pieces of Feralheart armour I could get relatively easily and ... well, that was it. From thereonin it would be more runs at previous dungeons (not wholly unacceptable) and raiding (yawn) - if my feral druid can surpass the newly arisen Class Spec Nazi Syndrome. Essentially....not a lot to do, really. Bored. Of course, I could do stuff with my guildies ... which leads me nicely onto
Angry : Oh lets not beat around the bush here - fucking furious. As I have illustrated in these messages for the last few months, our guild, the Dungeoneers, has been growing at a considerable rate. The problem is that where once is was a slow and steady growth, we recently underwent a merger and to all intents and purposes I really feel it has been a failure - and that was hammered home yesterday when the guildmaster of the guild that we merged with said this:
"When we moved to Dung we moved with the sole purpose of being able to do bigger and better things ie ZG and MC etc(we also believed that was what Dung wanted to do). "
Nothing about sharing our ethos on the game then? Nothing about being laid back gamers? Apparently not because ever since Day One of the merger we (being the old Dungs) have been put under intense pressure by these newcomers to change almost every single aspect of the way that we play. DKP systems, raid management systems, class quotas, mandatory voice comms and an absolute emphasis on raiding over having fun. Indeed, one of the more vocal ex-members said this...
"anyway as soon i can relog ill left the guild... today i've killed: Hakkar, Razorgore, Vaelastrasz and Onyxia...but yea..you can call me moaner, whiner or whatever you want but still at least im doing something else than sunken temple..."
And this really hit home - the guy is measuring some sort of success by hitting the correct buttons in the correct order to get the correct response from a series of pixels on a computer screen. Somehow there is a degree of increased self-worth in this? Somehow you become a better person by having different coloured markings on the 'equipment' your 'character' has on a screen? That's fun? I remember when fun was jumping into lava pools, making last stands against what felt like dozens of gorillas, hunting down elite giants when we really shouldn't have been able to and fighting a dragon for the first time - and then laughing about it all down the pub.
And then it hit home to me - the difference between now and then is that when I started playing it was great because I could chat to my mates and play with them in a non-roleplaying, non-pub situation. Now, I barely know who I am talking to, which country they come from or even their real names. Sure, there are some of the guys that are friends, but many of them are just ciphers on a screen. The intimacy has been lost and thus, much of the charm of the game has passed. And that annoys me because of the niaivete of us all in thinking that we could grow like that and continue, that we could buck the system for too long. Ah bollocks.
Excited : Of course, with every cloud comes a silver lining. I have been released from the shackles of the Raw Deal World (by and large) and it feels great. The World Championships were a personal highlight for me and I had an amazing time. I also regained a lot of my love for Raw Deal. So, I hear you ask, what? Well, this has coincided with my friends showing interest in the game again and a local guy becoming a manager in Middlesborough. Thats all very very cool indeed. It means that I can play casually with my mates and still have a possible competitive outlet if needed. Hell, even my interactions with the online playing community have been better mannered as well. Its good - it's reminded me about my love for the CCG 'scene' and how it is about meeting friends and having fun. c.f. my comments regarding WoW....
Musing : P&P has hit the terrible wall of cancellations. Happens every so often with our games - a prolonged period of missed games due to any number of obscure reasons. It better survive, as I have many many plans that I jotted down on the train to London. An entire rebellion backstory to unleash and the secret behind the Confed gene harvesting as well. Damned players and their damned lives...
One other thing that has happened is that I have had a serious yearning to write again. Oh strange and bizarre muses, how you fuck with my head!
Neil
Bored: Oh God, am I bored with World of Warcraft. It's a bit more than that, but essentially I am bored to tears with the game and the gameplay. I'm not going to preach like I have had some road to Damascus style epihpany and try to persuade everyone else to be equally bored with it, but I am going to have a little rant. Before my latest sojourn to the USA, I started playing EVE-Online with the 14 day trial. It was good. But not good enough apparently. I got to the part where you really do have to team up with someone else and well...I just couldn't be bothered to even start thinking about it. The game sat on my laptop for a while, whilst I was away. I had plans of playing it for fun when in the states but never got around to it and then when I returned my 14 days had ran out and I had the choice - renew for cash or not. I chose not. Why? Because I realised that rather than being a great new game it was an average new game which was acting as an attention placebo in the run-up to Wrestlemania. So what to do? I know, I will download the WoW patch and see what I can do there? Patch downloaded and one scant session later I was resplendent in the three pieces of Feralheart armour I could get relatively easily and ... well, that was it. From thereonin it would be more runs at previous dungeons (not wholly unacceptable) and raiding (yawn) - if my feral druid can surpass the newly arisen Class Spec Nazi Syndrome. Essentially....not a lot to do, really. Bored. Of course, I could do stuff with my guildies ... which leads me nicely onto
Angry : Oh lets not beat around the bush here - fucking furious. As I have illustrated in these messages for the last few months, our guild, the Dungeoneers, has been growing at a considerable rate. The problem is that where once is was a slow and steady growth, we recently underwent a merger and to all intents and purposes I really feel it has been a failure - and that was hammered home yesterday when the guildmaster of the guild that we merged with said this:
"When we moved to Dung we moved with the sole purpose of being able to do bigger and better things ie ZG and MC etc(we also believed that was what Dung wanted to do). "
Nothing about sharing our ethos on the game then? Nothing about being laid back gamers? Apparently not because ever since Day One of the merger we (being the old Dungs) have been put under intense pressure by these newcomers to change almost every single aspect of the way that we play. DKP systems, raid management systems, class quotas, mandatory voice comms and an absolute emphasis on raiding over having fun. Indeed, one of the more vocal ex-members said this...
"anyway as soon i can relog ill left the guild... today i've killed: Hakkar, Razorgore, Vaelastrasz and Onyxia...but yea..you can call me moaner, whiner or whatever you want but still at least im doing something else than sunken temple..."
And this really hit home - the guy is measuring some sort of success by hitting the correct buttons in the correct order to get the correct response from a series of pixels on a computer screen. Somehow there is a degree of increased self-worth in this? Somehow you become a better person by having different coloured markings on the 'equipment' your 'character' has on a screen? That's fun? I remember when fun was jumping into lava pools, making last stands against what felt like dozens of gorillas, hunting down elite giants when we really shouldn't have been able to and fighting a dragon for the first time - and then laughing about it all down the pub.
And then it hit home to me - the difference between now and then is that when I started playing it was great because I could chat to my mates and play with them in a non-roleplaying, non-pub situation. Now, I barely know who I am talking to, which country they come from or even their real names. Sure, there are some of the guys that are friends, but many of them are just ciphers on a screen. The intimacy has been lost and thus, much of the charm of the game has passed. And that annoys me because of the niaivete of us all in thinking that we could grow like that and continue, that we could buck the system for too long. Ah bollocks.
Excited : Of course, with every cloud comes a silver lining. I have been released from the shackles of the Raw Deal World (by and large) and it feels great. The World Championships were a personal highlight for me and I had an amazing time. I also regained a lot of my love for Raw Deal. So, I hear you ask, what? Well, this has coincided with my friends showing interest in the game again and a local guy becoming a manager in Middlesborough. Thats all very very cool indeed. It means that I can play casually with my mates and still have a possible competitive outlet if needed. Hell, even my interactions with the online playing community have been better mannered as well. Its good - it's reminded me about my love for the CCG 'scene' and how it is about meeting friends and having fun. c.f. my comments regarding WoW....
Musing : P&P has hit the terrible wall of cancellations. Happens every so often with our games - a prolonged period of missed games due to any number of obscure reasons. It better survive, as I have many many plans that I jotted down on the train to London. An entire rebellion backstory to unleash and the secret behind the Confed gene harvesting as well. Damned players and their damned lives...
One other thing that has happened is that I have had a serious yearning to write again. Oh strange and bizarre muses, how you fuck with my head!
Neil
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