Mists of Pandaria: First Impressions

I have very few negative things to say about the latest WoW expansion. I'm not one of those "race to 90" type of player, but I have been playing since the day of the release and I've been having a fantastic time.

I know that I'm in the minority when I say that questing is my favorite part of the game. I enjoy exploring the world, picking up quests, getting new gear, and just generally immersing myself in the game's world. I seriously cannot relate to the player who complains that it's taking too long to get to 90. I was, however, immensely pleased when I dinged 86 just last night. ;) That should give you some idea where I'm at in Pandaria. Okay, okay. I will admit that I'm chomping at the bit to get the new cloud serpent mount. All good things...

Pet Battles

Prior to the release, I was really looking forward to this new aspect of the game. It gives the player an alternate course of action instead of the constant raiding, PuGs, and leveling. The reality of this feature totally lived up to my expectations. The cheesy Final Fantasy-esque music. The silly turn-based attacks. The cutesy pets whose sole purpose in life is to kick ass. I love it. It's fun. It's distracting. It's addicting. I feel bad choosing to level certain companions over others. This has led to me trying to level several at one time which means that my highest level pet is only 11, lol. Questing in Pandaria and seeing the potential, capture-able pets makes me drool. I can't wait until I get a pet high enough so that I can start acquiring the new pets.

The Scenery

Come on. How can you not appreciate this??

If you don't like the scenery in Pandaria, I can only assume that you're color blind. It's visually striking and totally pleasing to the eye. If I hear one more person gripe about the graphics in WoW, I may have to turn stalker and pound on that person a bit. Maybe the graphics are not top shelf, but I still don't see what the complaining is all about.

Pandas. Squishy, Loveable, Ninja, Pandas!

This is another popular topic about which people like to complain. Do people know much about real, in the wild, pandas? Sure, they look cute, but I would like to see you come between a cub and it's mother. Polar bears, black bears, and grizzlies are cute too. Did you hear about that hiker that was taking video of a grizzly? All they found of him was the video. Anyway, my panda monk is only a level 14 so I can't speak on an "expert" level, but I'm having great fun playing her. She's pretty and she's pretty vicious.

My One Complaint

I think having cross-realm areas is a fantastic idea. I really like seeing other players when I'm out and about questing. However...It would have been nice if that had been turned off for the first few weeks after the expansion release. Over population is now the issue instead of dead areas. I was questing with my lowbie panda in the Northern Barrens and there weren't enough quilboars and sacks of rice to be found for all the dozens of pandas trying to do the same quests. It was just a bit frustrating. After a while, I gave up and went for some pet battles instead.

To Conclude

I've run into a few glitches here and there. I've run across totally asshole-y players stealing all the quest kills and gathers. What's new? After playing beta, I can see a big difference in the number of things that needed to be fixed versus the more polished final release. I am a realist. I expected hangups. So what? I think MoP is a complete breath of fresh air when compared to the somewhat more intense expansions of WotLK and Cataclysm. I still have no regrets signing up for the annual pass. I'll more than likely renew or, at the very least, keep my subscription current. I'm still having fun with the game, reading other's blog posts and tweets, and being part of the community that is WoW. I'm definitely not ready to throw in the towel.

And So There Was Diablo 3

 I wanted to write this post three days ago. Unfortunately, my PC wasn't cooperating with me. After trying to troubleshoot it (I can't even get it to restart at this point, lmao) I decided to download the D3 client on my Macbook. And it works!!

I played nonstop yesterday. Well, mostly nonstop. I had to eat and pick the kids up from school. That sort of nonessential nonsense that interrupts game play during the day. Ya know.

I have no complaints about D3. Getting back into the Diablo world was like...putting on a comfortable pair of shoes that had been lost at the back of the closet for years, but only a thousand times better.

I noticed a few differences from the beta but overall, I can't think of anything worth mentioning.

So far I've rolled a wizard, monk, and witch doctor. Fun times all around. I'm playing the monk solo, but the wizard and witch doctor I'm playing with Zorish, the husband. I don't have a favorite as yet. I do like the look of the witch doctor's gear the best though. So far.

What I like about Diablo III:

• Point and click walking. After getting my fingers off of the A, S, & D keys, I have found that I prefer this method of moving. Why? When I try to play WoW on my MacBook, my biggest frustration is moving my toon through the world. I have a magic mouse and it can make flying and swimming and being able to see where I'm going hard at times. I love being able to point and click and hold down the mouse button to walk. So much simpler.
• Interacting with the world. I love being able to search for barrels, buckets of decapitated heads, dead bodies, and loose stones to find gold. I also really like being able to release chandeliers on mobs and watching bodies fly through the air. Holy cow is that fun. It's also fun releasing braziers of fire and walls of stone on unsuspecting demons. Eat that!!
• I like that when you die, you don't lose all your gear where your body bought it. That was such a pain in the old Diablo. You used to have to keep an extra set of stuff in your chest back in town for those occasions when you rezzed mostly nekkid and had to make your way back to your body to get your crap. 
• I totally enjoy the simplified fighting mechanics. You actually have to think and decide what skills you want to have in your action bar. It's simplified in that you just have a few skills in your action bar at your disposal which makes the mechanics of a fight simpler. The thinking and strategy comes in when you're deciding which skills you want to pick out. 
• Not needing scrolls. You used to need scrolls to teleport to town and to identify gear. It wasn't that big a deal except for having to buy them and then having to keep them in your pack. They took up room.
• Diablo III still creeps me out. I wish I could remember her name, but in the old Diablo, there used to be this witch or demon or something. She used to give me chills every time I had to fight her. D3 still has that effect but a bit different. I play waiting for that surprise demon to pop out or an evil voice to give me shivers. It keeps me tense all the time, lol, and then I scare myself. I still have a bit of a hard time with the magic mouse and sometimes I right click when I'm trying to talk to a merchant in town or whatever. This drops whatever skill is bound to the right click. For instance, on my monk, it's the bell thing. I scare the living daylights out of myself when I drop that when all I'm trying to do is sell some trash to a merchant, hehehehe.
• The Diablo III world itself. It's a nice change of pace from the fantasy land of the MMOs that I play. 

I should probably pick out something I don't like about the game, right? Alright. One thing: I don't like that you have to have an Internet connection to play no matter what. If you don't want to play cooperative, you shouldn't have to be online to launch the game. It's essentially a single player game. Blizzard should make it optional.

I've been lucky so far. I haven't had any problems running the game (aside from my PC issues which have nothing to do with D3 specifically), no error messages, no random disconnects. ::knock on wood:: I've seen lots of Twitterings about technical problems with the game. So sorry for you. ;)

I'm off to play (Shhhh! I'll clean the house in a minute.). This took way too long to type up.

Screenshot Wednesday

Even the skeptics have to admit that the scenery in MoP is fabulous.

Speculations with Mists of Pandaria

I'm assuming the achievements highlighted in blue are the account wide ones?

There has been a freakton of talk about the account wide mounts and achievements. I'm a bit behind the others, but I do have some thoughts on the subject that I thought I'd share. As a confessed altoholic, there are definitely aspects of this that are intriguing to me.

Note:  All text in italics are from the official World of Warcraft blog article.

Most achievements are account-wide
This means you only earn the points once. If you have earned an achievement on one character, you can see it on all your characters. However, and this is important, you will still see the achievement toast (the pop-up notification) if a second or subsequent character completes the achievement. We think it’s still important to recognize milestones like reaching level 80, maxing out a profession, or killing a raid boss for the first time. It's fun to have everyone congratulate you when you get the toast. Nonetheless, this will just be a new character of yours completing the achievement that you’ve already earned on your account. You won’t double up on points.

I get that they don't want you to earn the points twice and I like that you'll still get the acknowledgement for completing achievements on all characters. However, it seems redundant to be earning the same achievements on all characters when they've already been done on your account. Personally for me, I'll feel a lot less inclined to try and earn achievements on more than one toon when I know that it really doesn't count. And I mean the achievements like "To All the Squirrels I've Loved" and "Pest Control" (two of my favorites). Meh.


Most criteria are not account-wide
If you start an achievement on one character, you can't then finish the achievement on another (there are exceptions, so please keep reading). We didn't think it made sense for one character to get level 60 and another to get level 20 and then see the "level 80" achievement toast. If you start to explore Thousand Needles on one character, you’ll probably want to finish that achievement on the same character.

This actually makes total sense.

Some achievements are "meta achievements."
These are achievements that require you to get other specific achievements. An infamous example is "What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been." These achievements generally ARE account-wide. If one character earned Noble Gardener and another character earned The Flame Warden, then your account would get Long Strange Trip. (Otherwise it would be weird: it would look as if you had the sub-achievements, but you wouldn't have the meta-achievement). Even though you need Explore Thousand Needles on one character, all of your characters can contribute to Explore Kalimdor.

Ok. This one is logical too. It would make getting the exploring achievements, for one, way easier.

A few achievements are account-only.
There are two categories of account-only achievements. One is achievements that are not possible to earn on one character. If we made an achievement to level every class to level 90, it would be account-only. (I'm not sure we will, but it's a good example.) The other category are achievements that are just brutal to complete on one character (and you’d never want to do for multiples), such as 2500 daily quests or 250K honorable kills. In these cases, the cumulative work of all your characters on those criteria will count.

It took me a second to get this one. I like the idea of account-only achievements, especially the one they give as an example. It's nice incentive. "Cumulative" work is also nice but it makes getting those types of achievements easy.

We hope that rewards granted from achievements (pets, mounts, titles, and tabards) will be shared at the account level.
 I'm not going to promise this yet, because a lot of magic has to happen for that to work, but it's our intent. We have discussed having a character level requirement for some rewards, so that your level-2 gnome couldn’t walk around with the “Defender of a Shattered World” title just because your level-90 shaman earned it. If the gnome made it to level 80, though, you could proudly show off your title. You also won’t be able to use a faction-specific pet, mount, or title on the wrong faction. The achievement wouldn’t go away -- you just wouldn’t be able to show it off on that character. There are probably additional exceptions and details we’ll find as we dig deeper into the system.

This is where they start to lose me. Earning these types of rewards should be earning these types of rewards. Making certain achievements have level requirements would be an absolute must in order for me to not completely hate this idea.

What gets me about account wide achievements and mounts is that this is just yet another way that Blizzard is "dumbing down" WoW. They make everything so easy to get nowadays, that the feeling of having worked at something and completing it isn't there so much for me anymore. I also think that players should have to "pay their dues" for certain things. If they keep lowering the level for when we can get our flying training, they may as well just increase walk speed. You know what I'm saying?

Making achievements, training, leveling, dungeons, and raids too easy takes away that sense of accomplishment. I don't want to play a game that a two year old or someone's pet monkey could master.

Survey Time!

I found this blog surfing the other day. I wasn't tagged to do it, but I don't let that stop me. Props go to Zanbon.

1. If you could be any height, what would it be?

I'm 5'4 1/2" so I would go another 1 1/2 inches. I've always thought that 5'6" is the ideal female height.

2. Would you rather be able to talk to all birds, or all fish?

I've never seen this question before. Probably birds so that I could ask them what it's like to be able to fly. And to be able to tell them to stfu when they squawk too much. Cuz dang, birds are loud.

3. What historical figure would you most want to visit?

There are absolutely TONS but if I could pick just one I'd say Marie Antoinette. I'd like to tell her to take her family and freaking leave France while they still had the chance.

4. What is something you’ve always wanted to do with your hair but never have? (and if you have done it, post pictures)

You know the show Amsale Girls? First of all, I don't admit to watching this show. It's on the WE channel following Frasier some days which I do watch and maybe sometimes I just don't change the channel. Anyway, I LOVE Emily's hair. I wish I had the guts to try cutting my hair like that.

5. Favorite book you ever read?

I couldn't possibly answer this question. I've read and loved so many books over the years. I will just say that every book I have on my shelves and on my Nook are my favorites.

6. What was the last movie you cried during and why?

I don't remember. The last movie I watched was Friends with Benefits and that movie was just freaking hilarious. I don't watch movies too often.

7. Cake or pie?

Pie. Apple if you have it.

8. If you were a starter pokemon, would you be grass, water, or fire type and why?

I've never played Pokemon for the first time in my life. Have no idea how to answer this one. Fire? Because Fire! Fire!

9. Do you believe in alien life?

I believe in the definite possibility of alien life. The universe is too vast of a place to assume life only exists on Earth. It's really a naive and presumptuous assumption.

10. What sport/activity did you enjoy as a child?

I didn't play sports in school. As a kid, I enjoyed swimming, playing tag and hide and go seek, make believe, riding my bike, and reading. I grew up in the days where we played outside until the street lights came on and we used this thing called an imagination to entertain ourselves.

11. What is your perfect date?
June 20th or whatever day the summer solstice is on.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. ;) Hey. It's easy content for us NBIers.

Winding Up the Week

I have compiled a summary of blog articles, tweets, and other random stuff I found interesting this week. I have high hopes to make this a weekly feature on my blog. Don't be too harsh if this is the only post of its kind that you see here. ;)

Newbie Blogger Initiative

This first section is featuring blogs from the NBI. Please check them out and give them some comment love.

Susi from Gaming Abroad. She wrote about TERA this week which helped to whittle away at my reserve. She also wrote about the WoW Iron Man Challenge. Lots of variety.

Diane at tl-dr ruminated about ERP and bad groups. Wowsa. 

Nomieke at /con mmob is blogging from Tumblr. One of the few NBIers I've seen on Tumblr.

Ravious at Kill Ten Rats wrote a fantastic article about the evolution of bloggers. Ravious isn't a newbie blogger but this article was written for the NBI.

Jacob talks about protecting your blog at tl-dr. It's an excellent post for both newbies and veteran bloggers.

I LOVE the title of this blog:  My Staff is Bigger than Yours. 

Twitter

As Seen On Twitter (these were all copied and pasted directly from Twitter. I didn't change a thing.

@WTSHeals said, "BARES IS CAN DUNCE! DUN DUN DUN! LOL! DUNCING BARES IS CAN MAKE HAPPY TIMES FOR UDDER FRENDS!"

@druidheals said, "Why would Blizzard delete a thread entitled, "Nozdormu's Nipples"?? This is serious stuff, man!"

@Vixsin_LiGS said, "I love how my mind works. Endless raid farming for useless upgrades? YES PLS! Endless transmog runs for useless aesthetics? OH F- THAT."

Other Blog News 

Rashtag gave a touching tribute to Maurice Sendak at Need More Rage.

Brunpal ruminates about the state of the Diablo 3 auction house at Jaded Alt.

Lonomonkey posted about Grammar Nazis at Screaming Monkeys. I'm all for figuring out when to use you, your, you're, its, it's, their, there, and they're, but I certainly don't go around criticizing people when they make mistakes. Cripes people. Boundaries!! 

FYI

For those of you with the MoP Beta, the newest update crashes when trying to load the 64-bit launcher. To solve this problem, use the regular .exe launcher. Looks just like the 64-bit one, but doesn't say "World of Warcraft-64".

World of Warcraft - Ironman Challenge

Through the NBI, I've seen quite a few blogs and posts on blogs about the Ironman Challenge. Monday night, as a way to shake things up a bit, I decided to give it a go. My husband, by the way, thinks it's ultimate nerdom and that I was dumb for trying it. Harumph at him!

I rolled a dwarf paladin named Ridie. I actually felt like I was cheating a bit by rolling this toon because they come with the stoneform racial buff and they start out wearing mail. Turns out I was dumb about that assumption.

Things started off well enough. She got through the first five levels with barely a scratch. Strolling through Coldridge Valley like she owned the place. Then it was time to move on to Kharanos which seemed easy enough too. I think she got four or five quests done before she met her doom.

Her doom dealers were the Frostmane Trolls up on Shimmer Ridge. She was going along fine, sniping trolls, collecting shimmer weed when she noticed a group of trolls standing around a fire. She thought, "Hey. These guys will be easy pickins and I can finish up this quest really fast." Wrong. She aggro'd two caster trolls at one time, took down one, and was killed by the other. So sad. And a little pathetic. As you can see in the screenshot, she was only a level six.


Next, I rolled a gnome rogue. I'll save the long, drawn out saga and just say she bit it at level four. I will say that I was beginning to get embarrassed at this point. I'm really a much better player than this but it seemed like the sheer idea of having to keep my characters alive no matter what was messing with my mind or something.

So anyway, I rolled a human rogue for my next attempt. I got her all the way to level six. I was inside someone's house turning in a quest out in the middle of the forest. I alt tabbed for reasons that I don't remember now. I thought that I would be reasonably safe inside the house. Ummm. Nope. I bring the game back up and I'm lying on the floor dead as a doornail. W....T....F?!?! Screw embarrassed, I'm just pissed at this point and have to call it a night.

I'm not giving up by any means. This is my Everest. I will make it past level 6 without dying. I've done it many times before for pete's sake.