So I was all excited on Monday to order my Blizzard Authenticator (which are now sold out).  I don’t know why I want one so bad, but an extra level of security is a good thing.  If my account were ever hacked and stripped, I know I wouldn’t keep playing.  I’ve spent too much time to lose it all.  So, I placed an order for two authenticators (one for me and my boyfriend) on Monday, and got next-day shipping.

I realized immediately after placing my order that it picked my billing address as my shipping address, and since I live in a condo and wouldn’t be home - I really wanted the package delivered to the office.  I called the Blizzard store CS immediately after placing the order and was slightly amused by the fact that the Blizzard store order support is the SAME PHONE LINE as the account services and billing for all Blizzard services.  So you know, people reporting their accounts hacked, people calling to cancel/subscribe, people calling to complain about being suspended, etc.  So it was a 45 minute phone wait to talk to a live human being to change my order.  Not sure why order support isn’t a different line altogether…

Once I got done with listening to 45 minutes of epic hold music (I must say, best hold music ever - it’s soundtrack music from WoW and Diablo) I finally got to talk to a person.  I told him I wanted to change the shipping address on my order and he said “Okay, the Blizzard store is new to us so we’re still learning how it works - I’ll try to change it.”  He put me on hold for another 15-20 minutes, and then came back and told me the address was changed and everything is good to go.  Yippie!

Well, I checked the shipping today and it’s going to my condo today, not to the office here like I asked.  Hopefully they’re able to put it somewhere and I can get it.  I want to open the WoW TCG cards.  I love opening trading cards, it feels like Christmas.  =)

Anywho, I hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend. 

I made a cute desktop using WoW Model Viewer and lots of Photoshopping. Basically, this is depicting me (in Tauren form) blaming me (in Tree of Life form) for killing Tertiary (my warrior boyfriend on the floor) in Karazhan. Tertiary dies a lot.

Click to enlarge!

We’re all used to getting spam tells in our games offering to sell us gold.  We’re used to seeing gold farmers in games, seeing ads on the internet for gold.  Yesterday - I had a new situation occur.  A gold farmer actually got my MSN screenname and tried to have a conversation with me.  A quick Google search for “ipssuppliers” ended up with many results from people who’d been IMed by similar screennames with the same offer.  I led “her” on a bit to try to get more information but I thought this was hilarious.

—-

(16:47:48) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com hi! how are u?

(16:47:59) Cuppycake hi there, good thanks - who is this?

(16:48:42) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com i am anne from the IPS company

(16:48:48) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com nice to meet u

(16:49:00) Cuppycake Nice to meet you - what exactly is the IPS company?

(16:51:34) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com IPS company do the service for wow players,we offer free lvling service from lvl 60 to 70 chars.we will pay payment for ur lvl 70 chars per week .

(16:51:44) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com we added u in the wow realm forum , so we guess u are a wow player.

(16:51:52) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com ok?:P

(16:52:28) Cuppycake Not interested

(16:52:39) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com oh

(16:53:15) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com u don’t like to play WOW game in ur free time?

(16:53:40) Cuppycake I love to play the WoW game in my free time, but I don’t need a powerleveler. =) I level my own characters.

(16:54:19) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com ok! i understand u

(16:54:27) Cuppycake How much is it?

(16:54:39) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com the deal is free.don’t worry

(16:54:52) Cuppycake Free?

(16:55:00) Cuppycake You’ll level my character from 60-70 without me paying anything?

(16:55:16) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com if u rent ur lvl 70 char to us ,u may get 1000g or 20$ per week.

(16:55:43) Cuppycake I don’t get it.

(16:56:58) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com no. u can get it back.

(16:57:13) Cuppycake Ah, what do you use my character for?

(16:57:51) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com we rent our clients’wow acc one week or so.after one week u get it back again.

(16:58:03) Cuppycake Yes, but what do you use it for?

(16:58:53) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com we use it to hit monsters and get the golds ,then pay payment or offer lvling service.ok?

(16:59:23) Cuppycake Isn’t that against Blizzard’s EULA?

(17:00:07) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com no!our service don’t break the law.

(17:00:36) Cuppycake So my character wouldn’t get banned?

(17:02:27) ipssuppliers8@hotmail.com yes.it doesn’t get banned.we have IP proxy

—-

So there you have it.  This company will rent your character for free for a week or two and farm gold with it.  Of course they promise it won’t be banned.  Hilarious when you consider the whole reason they ‘rent’ characters instead of leveling their own is so their accounts aren’t banned and ours are.  Nice.  But hey, I might get $20/week =P

(There was more to this, which was me trying to offer this person $20 to talk with me more candidly about their job.  It ended with ‘her’ stating that she couldn’t talk about personal stuff at work and winking at me.  I hope to get a message in the next couple of days…)

There is sort of a public outrage about Bartle’s latest interview with Michael Zenke of Massively (I posted about this in my last blog post).  I’ve never heard so many idiotic sounding replies about this article in my life.  One blog post in particular that I need to highlight is Tobold’s.  Now normally, I’m a fan of Tobold and enjoy reading his blog - but this blog post had some things that just NEEDED to be commented on.

WAR is no more identical to WoW than WoW is to Everquest.

Bartle could have said Everquest.  He said WoW because it was a better comparison in today’s current market.  These games are all the same.  I don’t care what everyone says is so different about WAR, it’s still fundamentally the same.  Once you’ve done the grind, leveled up to max level and done the end game thing in one of these games - you’ve done it all.  If you had fun with it and want to do it again in a different setting with different people, that’s where buying and playing another MMO comes in.  It’s not because you’re looking for a radically different and unique play experience (if you are, then you’re sort of foolish IMHO) it’s because you’re bored with one game, have done what you can do in it, and need to move on.  The better way to phrase that sentence could have been “WAR will be exactly as overwhelmingly identical to WoW as WoW was to Everquest.” 

In the genre of MMORPGs the games of today already appear to be much different from Everquest.

Wait, what?  They do?  They’re the same game with different hardware requirements, art, and a bit of added usability.  Is that a problem?  Not for me, because I liked Everquest.  I’d still play it today if my friends were still playing it.  If my friends moved onto WAR, I’d be there too.  If my friends went back to EQ2, I’d play there.  It doesn’t matter what game it is…it’s the same leveling, it’s the same pvp, its the same questing, grinding, raiding, etc.  Really it just depends on A) where your friends are, and B) what setting/art style you enjoy.  

All this outrage about his comparison about a game that hasn’t even been released yet.  Even those of you in beta, you are wasting breath supporting a game that isn’t out yet against the comments of one of the most intelligent people in the industry.  Bartle was giving his opinion on WoW in that article, that’s it.  His opinion based on having played three level 70’s (which is two more than me, btw).  Part of being a good blogger is taking a step back and being objective, even when the topic is on a game you’re anticipating and salivating for.

That is why Richard Bartle’s statement of WAR being the same as WoW only makes him look foolish. 

I don’t see that at all.  I see it as an intelligent man making an opinionated comment (probably with a grin on his face) from a designer’s standpoint that players/bloggers just can’t comprehend.  I think the fools are all the people who’ve responded with comments like “Sure, he made MUDs 10 years ago, but what now?”.  Players/bloggers who’ve never made a game calling a man foolish who is the grandfather of MMOs, who is an advisor for many of the game companies you’re following, who lives and breaths this industry…who is the fool?

Richard Bartle is the co-author of MUD, one of the ancestors of modern MMORPGs. But as he failed to patent any of the inventions he did while creating it, all he got was a Wikipedia entry.

I don’t really have anything to say about that comment except, wow.  If I were to come up with a comment it would probably include the words “fuck” and “asshat” but I’m too professional for that. =)

One of the most entertaining interviews I’ve read in a long time was posted on Massively today.  A friend of mine, Michael Zenke, interviewed Richard Bartle at the IMGDC that I attended in March.  The link contains the full transcript of the conversation.

I just love when this man talks.  He cracks me up every time I read one of his interviews or his talk slides.  One of the best lines is this one:

I’ve already played Warhammer. It was called World of Warcraft.

I imagine he’s going to get some harsh comments on that one, like this one from someone who posted at Massively:

Is it just me or does this guy sound like a complete moron? I know for sure if I saw him out in public somewhere I would try to avoid him.

I wonder if this gentleman knows who Richard Bartle even is.  The father of the genre that the poster clearly has some sort of passion towards.  When I saw Bartle in public, I was as close to awestruck as I have ever been.  The man is a genius, the creator of the very first MUD that practically gave birth to the genre of multiplayer gaming known as MMOs.

Anyway, the article cracks me up.  Bartle has 3 level 70’s in WoW, and that’s funny.

Okay, so I’ve tried these sites before and normally they never work out well.  This site has Flex tools that allow you to customize your look however you want, with hair, makeup (lipstick, eyeliner, blush, concealer, eyelashes) and changing your eyebrows.  I didn’t do anything except change the hair and eyeliner in mine, but it’s really fun.    Try it out.

Original:

Iterations after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

There is an interesting article on RollingStone.com about the battle for Facebook, basically talking about how 4 previous Harvard students who went to school with Mark Zuckerberg (head of Facebook) claim that he stole the idea from them.  

Whatever the outcome of the legal wrangling, the battle over the origins of Facebook prompts a fundamental question: Is Mark Zuckerberg’s social-networking empire, like so many other great fortunes in history, founded on a crime?

Check it out for a decent read.

A big, heavy Dell box with my name on it just arrived here at the office.  It’s taking all the patience I can muster to let it sit there, looking at me, whimpering for attention.  Tonight I start the exciting process of XPifying Vista in order to hopefully make it not suck quite as much, and uninstalling all the crap software that Dell loads on new machines.  Does anyone have any tips/links on optimizing Vista for gaming? (Keen and Graev, I’m looking at you!) 

Last night, a monumental event happened.  Luke and I actually won 5 arenas!  (we lost 7 or so, but we’ve never won before).  It’s really nice when you lose so much rating (we were at 1394) so that you’re in a bracket with people who are similar geared or skilled as you.  It’s fun to actually have a chance in every fight, and be able to start coming up with strategies on different teams.  We had so much fun.  Toxic Shockers ftw!

In other news, we ran through Caverns of Time last night.  I absolutely love these instances because of the lore.  Lots of you know that I’m a big WoW lore junkie, so it’s really awesome to be able to actually see Thrall escaping from Durnholde and Medivh opening the portal.  Lore in a game is generally something that you know of as the game’s history, but you don’t often get to play it out.  You hear stories about what has happened in the past, and why things are the way they are — but visually experiencing the old stories make people more aware of them.  I’d love if the Caverns of Time continued to be added on to, with new lore stories every so often.  Something like Grom Hellscream and Cenarion’s death, or Krasus/Koriastrasz going back in time, or young Illidan and Malfurion and Tyrande.  The whole Nozdormu and time-preserving aspect of the game means you can theoretically add in any of the old stories and have them play out nicely.  I’d love to see more of this in WoW, since it’s the only MMO in which I pay attention to every bit of story I can get my hands on.

Since the last time I posted I’ve ran a lot more dungeons, including another Karazhan (I’m up to like 35 badges now), and a heroic Underbog.  I love having so many options when I log in.  I still haven’t settled into a routine of doing dailies, but I really should do that at some point.  I need to start saving up for things like gemming, enchants, and my epic flight form!

Anyway, I hope all the daddies had a great Father’s Day =)

I’m super excited because I bought a new computer from Dell a few days ago, and I can’t wait to use it.  I’ve been using a laptop right now that is pretty decent but a couple years old now (It’s a dual core, ATI x1400, only 1GB RAM and 5400 RPM hd).  It ran WoW okay, but lately I’ve been having issues with it and I am sick of gaming on a laptop.  I wanted a pretty powerful desktop again so that I can pump all the settings back up (having the draw distance down low in WoW is annoying).  So here it is:

Dell XPS 420

Intel Core2 processorQ6600 (2.40Ghz,1066FSB) w/QuadCore Technology and 8MB cache

4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz

512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT

320GB NCQ Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) w/ 16MB DataBurst Cache

Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium Edition, English

I’m not too excited about the Vista, but I didn’t want to pay MORE to put XP in the machine.  So, now I just have to wait until June 23 when this bad boy should arrive.  It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s a big upgrade from my old AGP system. 

Yippie!

*Drum Roll*…..Pawtopsy is level 70! In what feels like forever (and has really only been a couple months) I’ve finally reached the top in the Burning Crusade. At first, we were a bit overwhelmed and not sure what to do with ourselves…but then we realized we’d been planning for this for a long time. There is SO MUCH to do at 70 now. I remember back in the day being 60 on my priest, and you could pretty much just raid. The alternative was battlegrounds that required a horrific grind in ranks in order to obtain anything moderately decent. Now there is so much we can do!

• 5 man regular instances for blue gear upgrades
• Rep grinds for gear
• Daily quests for faction and cash
• Save up for our epic flying mounts
• Arena battles
• Honor points for PvP gear
• Collect badges for awesome badge gear
• Karazhan!
• Raiding (eventually when we get gear)
• More fishing!

We’re excited =) On Saturday we had fun trying out a few of the daily quests and earning some cash before heading to our first Karazhan run. I was so excited to do Kara and get to see Moroes and all the notable figures and sights in lore. The opera house is such a cool idea that I’ve wanted to see in the flesh for months now, and we got to do Big Bad Wolf. It reminded me a bit of the puppets behind the curtain in the Plane of Mischief in EQLive. I ended up getting three purple upgrades that boosted my +heal to up over 900.

Luke and I formed our arena team, Toxic Shockers, and ended up losing 9/10 battles, with our one win being against 0 opponents. Our gear is pretty atrocious, and Luke is using a pretty crappy 2H mace for now and his skill wasn’t high enough in maces. So…we weren’t able to kill anything. We had a skirmish against 2 resto druids that lasted over a half hour because no one could kill anyone. It was hilarious, but frustrating. We definitely need more gear…so we did a few hours of AV for honor. I’m sitting at about 6000 honor right now, which is disappointing because I need 25,200 honor to get this. I’m not really sure what pieces I should go for first. Oh well, at least I have lots to do =)

In other news, courtesy of Michael, I have learned that an alpha tester has either leaked or fabricated news that Wrath of the Lich King is going to introduce an achievement system. Damnit Blizzard, why do you have to keep putting in things that keep me addicted? Badges are something that are exciting and fun to me (and coincidently, something I’m working on here at work too) and I really hope this is true.