Mend Pet

Along with a new guild comes a whole slew of new faces.  It’s an exciting time to get to make new friends and build new connections.  So far, things in my new guild, “Razorblade Arcade”, have been going swimingly.  While we only have about 13 people in the guild, it’s more active than Unemployed was when I decided to move on, and I’ve been able to play with both old and new friends.  10 mans are fun and more intimate, and that’s really what I want and have the patience for right now.  But you know no matter how big or small a group is, there’s always… “THAT GUY”.

[RW][ThatGuy] BREZ ME
[RW][ThatGuy] BREZ ME
[RW][ThatGuy] BREZ ME!!!!!!

And it might not even be the same guy (or girl) for everyone.  Your “that guy” could be everyone else’s favourite player!  But you know that there’s nothing that’s going to change it – he’ll always be “that guy” who makes you pout when you see him join a raid, who makes you cringe when he speaks on vent, who makes you facepalm when he types something.

[R][ThatGuy] we cant whipe cause i have 1 reagent
[R][Raider] god damnit ThatGuy
[R][Brajana] ><
[R][ThatGuy] what
[R][ThatGuy] rofl
[R][Brajana] you should come to raids prepared!
[R][ThatGuy] ya……i kinda forgot
[R][ThatGuy] rofl
[R][ThatGuy] i had an issue witha rl friend today so, i didnt really think about
[R][ThatGuy] LOL
[R][ThatGuy] LOLOLOL
[R][ThatGuy] ahahahaha

[R][80:Vageata:1] wtb summons

[R][80:Xacklir:1] wtb fly here like everyone else

[R][80:Ladryn:2] ageeeeed lol

[R][80:Vageata:1] sorry i was looking at badge vendor

[R][80:Vageata:1] but ok

So, I’ve got a new guy.  When he first PUG’d with us, I was pretty happy with him.  But it wasn’t long before he got comfortable with the group and his 15-year old teenage boy-ness got the best of him.

[R][ThatGuy] wtb summons
[R][Raider] wtb fly here like everyone else
[R][OtherRaider] ageeeeed lol
[R][ThatGuy] sorry i was looking at badge vendor
[R][ThatGuy] but ok

I’m a pretty understanding person.  I don’t dislike a lot of people.  I try my best to let that guy do his thing and move on, but sometimes… there just isn’t enough patience in the world.

[R][ThatGuy] sorry i just have to do this
ThatGuy (a healer) links the healing meters.
[R][Brajana] And why did you HAVE to do it?
[R][ThatGuy] cause it was pro rofl
[R][Raider] Did we kill the boss?
[R][ThatGuy] rofl no
[R][Raider] Because that would have been pro.

Like I said, facepalm.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve learned a few things.

I’ve learned that the longer I go without blogging, the more afraid I am to write. Afraid? Yup. Afraid that when I finally manage to plop some words onto a page, it won’t be good enough, it won’t be interesting enough, and people just won’t care to read.

I’ve learned how important immersing myself in the community is to my creativity. I feed off of others, I admit it! And in the hermit state in which I’ve been living lately, I’ve hit a bit of a dry spell.

You see, while I’m in school, the spare time I used to spend reading blog posts is now spent reading textbooks. And the hours I used to follow Twitter from my office desk are now spent in classrooms and labs. The time I devoted to listening to podcasts has been taken up with listening to the Twilight Saga audiobooks. (Hm, I guess I can’t blame that on school…) But most importantly, the creativity that I used to use to come up with new things to research and write about has been refocused on trying to develop new project proposals and plans.

Unlike so many people out there, I’ve been focusing less on WoW and the things involved with it not because it’s lost my interest, but because there just isn’t the time or brain space available when I need it.  I’m still playing the game on a regular basis, but I’ve learned that playing the game isn’t enough for me.  It’s about more than just the actually game for me now.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the game has once again returned to a bit of a lull, nothing new and exciting to talk about. Yes, 3.3 is around the corner. But for me, today, like yesterday, it’s just ToC. Then Heroic ToC. Maybe an Onyxia PUG here and there. I’m still enjoying it, but it makes for less than stellar conversation, to be honest.

So what do I do? Should I push myself to write, even if it’s just “this is what I did in the game this week”? Or should I continue to avoid WordPress until inspiration takes me over?

So if you haven’t heard the news, Blizzard has added two extremely adorable non-combat pets to the Blizzard Store.  This was instantly controversial, with people calling Blizzard out for adding ‘microtransactions’ to the game, and being profiteers or some such.

They announced it yesterday.  I’m sure half the blogging world has a post on it by now, that’s what we bloggers do, you see.  We hear juicy topics of debate and our mouths start watering until we get to our keyboard.

Well, I had a whole post typed up about this and why I think this is nothing new.  That it’s no different from buying loot cards and is in fact better because there is no middle man.

But when I told the news to Gadgets, his reaction was that it was cheating.  After a lengthy conversation about why he thinks it’s cheating and how it’s different from buying loot cards, I was enlightened and found there are other ways to look at this than I initially did.

So instead, I’m going to outline our different outlooks, and how in the end, they seem to converge.

You see, Gadgets LOVES his achievements.  He’s about halfway through his last reputation to get The Insane.  Seriously, him and achievements should like… get married.  Or something.

If you don’t already know my take on achievements, I’m a fan of them.  But I rarely go out of my way for them unless it’s something I am passionate about or particularly interested in (see my Brewmaster, Chef and of Sen’jin titles).

Him and I have both been casually working towards the [Lil' Game Hunter] achievement (he’s at 73, I’m at 72).  But we’re working at them for different reasons.  Like I said, his epeen is measured in achievement points, and that’s fine.  Me?  I love cuddly little pets.  Why do you think I rolled a hunter in the first place?!  I had quite a collection of non-combat pets before the achievement system was even mentioned.  If you ever see me in-game without a non-combat pet trailing behind me, assume my account has been hacked and notify the authorities!

Anyway, here’s how we each looked at the situation:

Brajana: When I saw these new pets, I equated them to buying a t-shirt or the murloc plushie from the Blizzard store.  No one really needs them, but people want to buy them because they are cute, or because they want to show how much they like the game/their class/murlocs/cuddly things.  $10 for an in-game plushie-type thing?  Nothing wrong with that.  Have you seen Lil’ K.T.?  He’s adorable!  And what’s different from the card game?  Nothing. Except this is cheaper. And directly from Blizzard.

Gadgets: Of course, the first thing in his mind was the fact that $20 could get him from 73 to 75 for that tasty, tasty achievement.  But he wouldn’t do it, because it wasn’t a reward for something and it wasn’t something he earned in-game.  It’s like buying achievement points.  Spend $20 and you’ll have this achievement is what he saw.  Because he doesn’t run around town with a different pet each day.  He doesn’t bring out holiday-specific pets when it’s appropriate, he doesn’t raid with a non-combat pet by his side. As for the card game, Gadgets thought of the loot cards as a reward for being a player of the TCG.  Even if you sell it, you’re making money as a reward for playing.

And so we found our point of convergence on the topic:

Buying non-combat pets from Blizzard for the non-combat pet:  Dandy.

Buying non-combat pets from Blizzard for achievement points: Stupid.

It’s a very small distinction.

Let me go back to my “Blizzard Merchandise” theory.  If I bought the Murloc plushie because it’s amazingly cute and cuddly and I’d love to have it sitting on my desk greeting me every morning, fine!

But if I was buying the Murloc plushie because I have a plushie fetish and I’d just shove him in my box labeled “Plushies”, that’s just dumb.

But of course… this is purely an opinion.

The fact is that Blizzard is doing nothing wrong here.  And I will continue to believe that until the day they start selling things that have a major effect on the game (i.e. gold, emblems or gear).

So what do you think?

If you’ve even got your little toe stuck in the ocean that is the World of Warcraft community, you’ve probably already heard about it.  But if you haven’t, I’m here to tell you what you need to know!

Azeroth United, a recently established home base for WoWers who dabble in blogging, podcasting, comic-ing, and all other forms of expression.  And with their great power of community, they’ve decided to lend a hand (and heart, and voice) to Child’s Play charity!

You can read all about it at their site, and follow AU on Twitter to keep up to date on new developments. And of course, you can find out more about Child’s Play if you haven’t heard about their worthy cause.

As you can see, I’ve added a shiny “Featured Content” link to the campaign on the sidebar, and I really do encourage you to check it out and see all the good going on, and help to contribute whatever you can.