Trying to Understand the Function of Guilds

Credit goes to Dr. Jenny Fremlin

If you've stuck around with me long enough, you know that I have questions surrounding guilds. If you don't raid, what purpose do they serve? I was in a guild for a pretty long time that was a 100% social guild. We occasionally ran raids as level 85s but it was strictly old content because hardly any of us were experienced raiders and hardly any of us were geared to run Cataclysm (at the time, this was the most current expansion) raids. There were times where we couldn't even manage to get through Cata heroic dungeons as a guild without wiping repeatedly. It was sad. From what I could tell, the most active members were primarily interested in PvP and were geared and experienced as such. The husband and I were looking for more than that. While we occasionally enjoy PvP, our primary focus was social and leveling but we were very interested in learning how to raid. This was something that our guild and more importantly, our guild manager, was totally uninterested in. Rather than try and bend the guild to fit us, we left. It was so far from being personal. I really miss those people. But being in a guild that didn't fit us, that we had outgrown, led to dissatisfaction with WoW in general.

After Pandaria came out, we left the guild and paid for a realm transfer. We decided to found our own guild. Our entire purpose was to have a place for our alts and a bank that we could do with what we wanted. After leveling the guild to 25 and more than just two members to level 90, we plan on recruiting. What we're looking for in members is as follows:

• Fun people that enjoy playing a game and not analyzing it to death.
• Respectful people that understand that when you're running a level 85 dungeon on normal with bad gear, it's because you're trying to get better gear for cripes sake. 
• Respectful people that understand when you're in a level 85 dungeon with bad gear, that you probably don't know all the fights because IT'S A LOW LEVEL DUNGEON THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO LEARN AND GET BETTER GEAR.
• Fun people that are interested in being respectful, social, adults who are interested in playing a game.
• Fun people that are looking to learn together.

I know. I'm idealist and probably unrealistic but my husband and I can't possibly be the only gamers out there that are like us. I remain hopeful.

The other day, @Matticus posted this on Twitter:

Everytime I leave my guild alone for more than a few days, I dread to see what trouble they get into upon my return.
— Matticus(@matticus) May 15, 2013

 It led me to wonder, what are other guilds like? Guilds that have actual leadership and direction? I really think this is an aspect of MMOs, and not just WoW, that I have yet to experience.

I found this paper that was written in 1996 about MUDs which was entirely too interesting especially when comparing it to the current gaming experience of MMOs. Essentially, nothing much has changed in what the gamer is looking for in the 17 years since this was written. You should read it.

I would love to hear about other people's guild experiences.

Top Ten Favorite Battle Pets: Part Two

Maruka's back to introduce you to the rest of my favorite battle pets. Two posts in one week. I'm on a roll. ;)

I have all of these spiders in their different colored skins, but the purple is my favorite. The Amethyst Shale Hatchling wasn't hard to find, at all. These spiders are all over Deepholm. Lots and lots.

The Pandaren Monk. This is one of the few pets I've spent actual money on. I think I've only bought this one and one other. I really love his animations though. He is so funny.

The Emerald Whelpling. This is one of the few pets I've gotten as a drop. As I rarely run dungeons anymore and I never run raids, I don't have the opportunity to get battle pets as drops very often. I fight with this pet in almost every battle nowadays. He's a level 25 so I use him to battle pets in Pandaria. His heals and Moonfire are very helpful to my main group.

This is one of my first rare level Pandaren pets, the Bandicoon Kit. I like this one for no other reason than that it's cute.

This is the pet that I mentioned in part one that isn't a rare level. I could only find the Harpy Youngling as poor, common, or uncommon qualities. She doesn't spawn that often and is pretty hard to find. It took me several hours just to find an uncommon quality pet so I took her and I might use a stone to upgrade her to rare. I really like this skin and I worked hard to find her. I think she looks fantastic.








There you have it, my ten favorite battle pets. Well, as of today anyway. I collect new pets every day that I play so I'll need to update this post sometime in the future. I wanted to include a link to my profile on Warcraftpets.com for anyone interested in viewing my (mostly) complete collection. I need to update there as well, lol. Anyway, Maruka's Menagerie on Warcraft Pets.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my favorites. I hope you'll share your battle pet posts in the comments and/or a link to your menagerie on Warcraft Pets.

Top Ten Favorite Battle Pets: Part One

I get easily distracted by doing pet battles. It takes me way longer than it should to complete one quest just because I can't resist stopping to battle a pet that I don't already have or one that I have but isn't rare. This is one of my most favorite new features of the Mists of Pandaria expansion. I think Blizzard was brilliant when they introduced this into the game.

I thought I'd compile a list of my top ten favorite battle pets that I already have. I limited myself to only rares (with one exception) because I had such a hard time picking favorites. They are not listed in any order because I just couldn't do that. I might hurt feelings. ;)

Modeling with my battle pets is Maruka, my level 90 Orc Hunter.

Say hello to the Giraffe Calf. Ok. I know I said that I couldn't pick favorites, but the Giraffe Calf is probably my favorite and for two reasons. One being that I have collected giraffes since I was ten years old. I think they are one of the most majestic and unique animals in nature. Secondly, it took me freaking forever to find one and catch it. Days. I trekked around the Barrens for days.

 Next up is the Sporeling Sprout. He wasn't all that hard to find, but I love this skin. He's fun and one of the three pets I fight with the most.

This is the Darkshore Cub. I like him simply because he's cute.

The Tiny Harvester. I love this skin. I think this is a very fun pet. He was super easy to get. There are Tiny Harvesters all over the farms in Westfall.

So, how fun is it to fight with a book, lol?? I love this pet. It is pretty unique. Also, I'm an avid reader, so I had to have a Lofty Libram. This was kind of hard to get as a rare. I had to camp around Dalaran Crater and compete with several other players just to get a battle. Then I had to repeat the process until I could get a rare. It wasn't as hard as the Giraffe Calf, but a challenge nonetheless.








And this concludes part one. I didn't want to overload with too many screenshots. As always, you can click on the pictures to view a larger version with more detail. If you've written a post with your favorite pets, please leave a comment so that I can go and read it. I really enjoy seeing other player's favorites.

The Sims 3: Crash on Save

First of all, you should know that I'm running The Sims 3 on a PC with no mods of any kind. I have the following expansions, worlds, and stuff packs installed:

• Seasons
• Pets
• Generations
• World Adventures
• High End Loft Stuff
• Outdoor Living Stuff
• Master Suite Stuff
• Riverview
• Hidden Springs
• Monte Vista

Now onto the point of my post.

After installing Seasons, I tried altering and adding onto a house that was previously on a lot. I added an entire second floor and repurposed several rooms on the first floor to accommodate my growing family. After making the structural changes, I began decorating and adding furniture. After about an hour's worth of work, I clicked back to live and promptly hit "save". Then my game froze. My only error message was that "The Sims 3 has stopped responding". All my work was lost. Frustrating but The Sims is notorious for its crashing clear back to the original game, so I go with the flow and relaunch the game and get right back into building. Again, I make all my changes, go back to live, click "save" and the game crashes AGAIN! Now I'm beyond frustrated and I want to hit something.

At this point, I decide to do a Google search and I get lots of results. Turns out that the problem is directly related to the Seasons expansion and has to do with adding walls when there is snow on the ground. This was the fix that worked for me:

Go into Game Options and turn off the weather effects. Just uncheck the boxes for rain, snow, hail, etc. Wait for the snow to disappear off the ground (or use the in game cheat to manually remove it and I regretfully forget the cheat code to do that). Then build as usual.

Now, I never attempt to build when there is snow on the ground and I haven't had any crashing issues since. Before, it was every single time I tried to save.

I perused many different forums and people have theories that this crash is due to adding walls on a second story. I can't say for sure if that's true. Another solution that I read about was copying the trouble lot to clipboard, bulldozing the lot, delete the empty lot and then placing your saved lot onto another size-appropriate lot. I didn't try this solution because the first one worked just fine for me.

What I find ultimately irritating about this whole situation is that people have been posting about this specific issue for MONTHS now. Why hasn't EA updated with a patch? They seem to have more than enough time and resources to host announcement parties, live online broadcasts, etc. etc. Why not devote some of that energy into fixing what's already out there?? Hmm EA?? AMIRIGHT??

Branching Out and Moving On

Things have been quiet here because I have felt directionless where my gaming is concerned. After being a dedicated WoW player for a considerable amount of time, I let my subscription expire a couple months ago. I had stopped playing about two or three weeks before that. I went through the same thing when I level capped to 85. So, what, exactly is my problem?

This is going to sound judge-y and like I'm pointing fingers but I don't have anyone specific in mind, just so ya know. But the problem is the other players that have taken the fun out of the game and have turned it into a chore. I read all these different WoW blogs and I listen to in-game chat and core players (and I think the term "player" doesn't fit but I don't know what else to call them) have elevated (or maybe lessened is a better word) what is supposed to be a game to this whole other...thing. When you break down the timing of a shot or spell to tenths of a second and then verbally attack the player who didn't get that shot or spell off "on time" you're not playing a game anymore. You have analyzed and nit picked at the tiniest detail to the point where you've sucked all the fun right out of playing. At least for me. I can see how some people get their rocks off by displaying their massive grasp of statistical math by dissecting the game of World of Warcraft.
Something that I don't get, never have and probably never will, is...if you've successfully run an instance or raid, you've downed the last boss and you've gotten that coveted piece of gear or mount, why do the numbers matter? Shouldn't the final question be, "Did you have fun??"

I'm neurotic, right? So when I log in to play a game, and I really mean play a game, and all I feel is pressure to perform perfectly, to study, analyze, and memorize game mechanics, all I feel is anxious and nervous and my hands sweat and by the end of the encounter I have to take deep breaths and Aleve for my massive headaches, it just isn't fun anymore. 

I realize that a lot of this dissatisfaction stems from my own hangups but it's really 50/50 in that a lot of WoW players (again, that term just doesn't feel right here), have lost sight that it's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Gaming, especially role playing-type games, is supposed to be a way in which you can immerse yourself in another world and just relax away from real life pressures. Most importantly, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!! Worrying about tenths of a second has no place in a game. No place.


As a result of my neuroses, I've branched out into playing Guild Wars 2 and I'm back into Diablo 3 and the Sims 3 as well. I feel no pressure in any of the three of these games and in fact, will be back to blog a little about them all in other posts. One thing though, the players in Guild Wars 2 are so friendly that the contrast between the in game chat there and trade chat in WoW is like black and white. Anyway, more on that at another time.

In the end, even knowing how I currently feel and having said all that I've said, I know I'll re-up my subscription to WoW at some point in the future. Probably even within the next six months. I just need a step back and gain a little perspective. Honestly, I miss the familiarity of WoW. I do. So, I'll be back to it sometime.

More From Northrend

Continuing on what seems to be a never ending odyssey of mining ore, I was once again flying around Northrend yesterday. This time, I was in Sholozar Basin enjoying the sites and mining the hell out of some saronite.

The Sundered Shard

Hardknuckle Clearing

River's Heart

Seabreach Flow

As Seen in Remote Parts of Northrend

Ok. I'm not really sure how remote these places are, but they are pretty awesome-looking nonetheless.

I took some screenshots yesterday while I was trying to mine some ore around Northrend. My goal was 120 but I ended up with 64 because I got distracted with flying around and clearing the map. I got two exploration cheeves yesterday. I might get some more today seeing as how I still need more ore. ::sigh::  Anyway...

The Horror Gate

Cathedral of Darkness

Narvir's Cradle

Terrace of the Makers