Have you ever…?

Lately, we’ve been reading Dr. Seuss to the baby goblin, before bed time.  It’s working like a charm, except for the silly rhymes and names of characters are stuck in my head!  Before I go to bed, I think “Sleep with my pet Zeep” …. and now, I’m thinking “Have you ever walked with ten cats on your head?”

So, have you ever been sitting around, chatting with a friend and thought “eh he he eh, we’re like the Beevis and Buthead of WoW! eh he he eh!” ?  I have.  Today, in fact!  I have difficulty finding the time to talk about everything I would like to, here, but in-game, funny stories and odd musings just flow like water off a glacier in the desert!

Today’s “Kim and Friend” musings takes us to the pandas and all the complaining surrounding them.  We just don’t get it!  We hear everything from “They just made this up 2 months ago!” to “It’s ripped off KunFu Panda!”.  Well, obviously both these, and probably 9o% of what’s out there, is just incorrect, but it got us talking!  Sure, we know, Pandas.

How can they have ripped off the panda’s? All panda’s are Asian (can’t find them any other place in the world folks) so most story-time pandas are tinged with an Asian flavor….but let’s look at some other things.  WoW has Elves!  OMG and Orcs!  That sounds like LotR to me!  (well that and the fact that half the blood elves I saw for the first year was Legolsomething)  But it doesn’t stop there!  My grandmother used to make some Delicious Chocolate Cakes…How did Blizzard KNOW!?  Some people fish in real life too….coincidence?  Where does the madness end!?!

Right here.

Seriously.  People will complain, moan, point out tid bits of conflicting data (even the golden fun texts in tool tips aren’t safe from scrutiny).  What I would like to see instead, is more creative power!  Let’s see some brainstorming going on about what would be cool!  I remember a post years and years ago about the Furbogs as an Aliance race and Ogres as Horde, backed up with some decent lore complete with racial abilities.  It wasn’t implemented nor ever will be but I miss those kinds of posts.  Pure creative talent!

I’ll start:
After a giggly talk with my other half, I blurted out “DK’s should have a glyph to make an Army of Gnomes!”  Discussing it with a few others, it’s turned out to be a wildly popular idea!  Now, it could be the DK gets an army of the same faction (Gnomes = Aliance; Goblins = Horde)  or opposing!  Might be fun to watch the opposing faction’s pint sized races hold agro and die en mass!  The idea still makes me giggle!

What are some of the crazier ideas you’d like to see implemented into WoW?

Blizzcon 2011!

Well, they did it!  It was said Blizzard was going to need to blow our socks off, raise the roof, set the whole world on fire and I must say, I think they have!  Not for the Diablo III or SC changes, not for the new WoW Expansion: Mists of Pandara (which made it even to our local paper!!)  No, those things are cool!  But I was excited in the first 10 mins of the opening ceremonies.

Blizzard needed to find a way to keep customers loyal and paying even in the first months after the release of some pretty interesting games.  SWOR had my interest until I saw the prices!  Since I’m in a single income family of three, I quickly decided against it.  The trend is moving away from pay to play monthly subscriptions anyways.  GW2 , however…..I was very keen to check out this Free-to-Play, highly developed beautifu artwork of a game.  Still am!  But I won’t be cutting off my WoW subscription to check it out and I don’t feel cheated!  Genius!

It was announced:

• We didn’t want you to have to decide between WoW and Diablo III sooooooo, we’re giving it to you for free! (with one year subscription agreement)  My ears perked up!  Diablo III was on my list but I didn’t know how we were going to swing another €60 x 2 for a game.
• Oh, and we would like to give you guaranteed access to the Beta for the next WoW expansion! Say what?!  I cheered!  Ok, maybe for most of you, you have done beta testing with WoW before.   I’ve never been lucky enough to get a key!  I do haunt the PTR’s, checking out some changes but mostly looking for bugs and reporting them very politely (I love testing!), but never a Beta Key for WoW…..this is my candy!  Beta Tested Rift and a few other games, but never one I actually play…yes, I’m a Happy Panda!
• Aaaand, We would like to give you a new uber awsome imba mount!  It was Demon’s turn to cheer then.  He loves mounts, the shinier the better!  Win win win!  We were both happy!

BETA BABY!!!

What do I think about the other changes up and coming? That’s a topic for another post entirely!  Bottom line though, I have faith in Blizzard that they will make a playable, addictive, enjoyable game.  Wouldn’t matter if we were all blobs of purple jelly, the game would be fun.  Pandas.  Yes, I can see how they fit. I did think the “Bounce” racial attribute was a joke and I desperately hope they don’t make light of every aspect of the race.  I will be making one and she/he will be my zen master!

Vacation!!!

DECLINED, BABY!
Sooooo!  Finally, after months and months of recruiting (done by my darling other half), we have a guild with enough Tanks, more than enough DPS and the right blend of Healers with two Permanent PUG’s to spare.  What did I do to celebrate?  I declined the next two raids, of course!  Sure, we’re about to kill the weakened Raggy for the first time, but some things are just more important!

It’s all about BALANCE!
We talk a lot about balance in WoW.  Balance of classes, PvP vs. PvE, balance of our gamer’s hobbies and the rest of the world.  In the Zowy house we are all about balance.  I’m calm and patient, Mr. Zowy is energetic and randomly spontaneous. Our Baby Goblin (now 13 months) is a perfect blend of us both!

We strive to balance WoW and our Family Life with mixed amounts of success.  The deal Mr. Zowy and I made was:  One of us raids Saturday, the other Sunday dependent on raid requirements and sign-ups.  Looks good on paper but we can’t always factor in all the variables of life.  Will Baby Goblin want Mama or Papa this evening?  Are there any last second changes to the raid roster?  Will Baby Goblin want Mama or Papa….that one is worth mentioning twice!

Where did all the healers go?
Our guild has been healer-starved for as far back as I can remember.  As a result, I (a healer) end up reluctantly raiding both raid nights, while Mr. Zowy is sitting over my shoulder giving suggestions and chasing a very active smaller version of himself through the house.  This leaves me feeling a bit begrudged because it isn’t my night to raid and Mr. Zowy more than a little miffed because he hasn’t seen the first 5 bosses in Firelands since our third run through.  (Just when he got the tornado dance down too!)

Once Baby Gobs goes to sleep, Mr. Zowy is then able to join us but half the raid is over and it means a very kind and understanding DPS has to step out to make room for him.  It’s not been easy, nor without discussions, but we’re making it work and when in doubt, I always choose to say good night and turn off the PC.

I don’t want to attend every single raid!
One part of me is happy raids have been happening and our progression has been steady for a while.  A huge part of me wants to spend the evening with my Little Goblin (even though I get the other 5 in the week as well) and watch Mr. Z. enjoy himself raiding a full raid again.

House of Nerds
My father was one of the original nerds!  Being an electronic engineer before laptops were invented, we had an Atari 2000 when I was very young and I remember spending hours with him playing PacMan, Salmon Run and Breakout.  It was relevant to his work, was his argument, much to my mother’s frustration. He also taught me to program some basic Basic on that thing.  It was inevitable I should meet and fall in love with a gamer, written in the binary code of my life!

Because we are both gamers, in the same small casual guild, sometimes shit happens.  On rare, occasions, we’ve raided together, juggling Baby Gobs between us, until his bedtime.  One sits out on trash to give him the attention he needs then hurries back to the raid to kill a boss while our pride and joy cheers us on from his play box.  15-20 min break is called after a couple boss kills to put babies to bed, get a drink, stretch legs, call distant relatives, or anything else you’ve been meaning to do for a while.  Sometimes, it’s good to be the Raid Leader!

Lucky for us, our guild mates are of the most understanding sort.  We aren’t the only parents in the guild but we are the only parenting couple.  They don’t seem to mind us taking our time as long as we offer our excuses and lots of chocolate brownies. (guys love chocolate brownies, girls!)  Thanks to them, my guilt is minimized!

Plan for this weekend
Due to low sign-ups and an utter lack of a third (fourth?) healer, we managed only 6/7 pre-nerf with one-half of one evening trying to kill Raggy.  This weekend we have the sign-ups, the proper classes and the determination to make it all happen!  This weekend, I expect Raggy to be down 3 hours into the raid after clearing the instance first!  I jokingly told the guys I’d give them 2.  Instead of laughing, they roared and shouted it shall be done!  haha!

There will be a small twinge at not being in that all important First Kill Photo, but I expect I’ll be cheering too loudly to care too much about it.

Yaaar!

Pirates Day!

Ok, so it’s come and gone….a few short hours of piratey fun!  I talked with the woman and got my *bling!*  10 Nerd Points!  and as a bonus, got to run around as a pirate for an hour

I don’t know much about Pirates Day but we did have fun!

Pirate Kim comes home to BB!

Demon joins Kim! She never knew he was a closet pirate!

Wait, where did your bird go? What's going on, Demon?

 

She knew it!!! He shall always be a shaman at heart! *cry*

Ok, that’s it for my goofyness today!  We did have good mini fun.

Now, on to BREWFEST BABY!

Letting Go: Updated

Scratch everything written below!

Why??
Sure the guild is doing great, I’m proud of them and 99% of everyone is pleased.  Unfortunately, one officer is not.  Now, for what ever reason, he’s felt it’s his responsibility to be the wet blanket in our happy picnic of a guild.

Small Venitlation Process:  that’s what these things are for, right?
Last Saturday, I skipped a raid.  Since I’m also raid leader, and have lots of little conversations the whole week long regarding the raid, I thought it would be handy to make a message on the officer’s forums to communicate all the information I had; then wished the, then one and only, officer luck in getting things started.

When I logged in around 22:00, I was bombarded with whispers and rather abusive language in officer’s chat.  He was offended that I should have the audacity to think he wanted to know what was going on to make it easier for both himself and the rest of the guild!  How dare I ask him to take a member who’d not seen the beginning FL content because he’s been busy every Sat. for the past three months?!  In sharing my communications and ideas for the raid I was taking “This Queen Bee Thing” to far and if I “didn’t realize the GL title was purely cosmetic with no meaning to it what so ever” he would ask for demotion!  (this isn’t the first or second or third time he’s threatened me to step down from being an officer)

How did I handle this?  Two sides to every story, right?  Well, I forced myself to stay calm. Asked the raid what had happened with the officer.  They gave me their side.  He didn’t want to work out a rotation so he begrudgingly stepped out of the raid and suffered till I came online at which point he vented.  I told him we would talk tomorrow, that I think I must have written something wrong and unintentional in my post to him.  I would re-read it and was sorry for the miss communication.

The Next Day it all became clear!
He was still furious.  Refusing to speak rationally or even without swearing.  It all came down to one line I’d written in the post.  After reading that one line, he saw red and didn’t even bother reading the rest.  I had assigned two other moderators as this officer has a tendency to show up 5 mins before raid invites.  I was pretty sure he wouldn’t have time to organize who was going and do invites on time.  One moderator was to look for PuG’s if needed, the other was to do invites and give assistance to those who needed it and do healing assignments.  The officer was to raid lead, be loot master and (here comes the horrible thing I said) “be the voice of reason ” .  I thought the wink made it obvious that it was a tongue in cheek joke but he went mental, completely missing the point.  *sigh*

“Be the voice of reason” is apparently one of the most offensive things you can say to this particular person.  Odd, since we joke about how that’s all I am around here and the key to keeping things running smoothly.  Maybe he thinks I’ve done nothing while he logs in twice a week and doesn’t even greet people.  I guess the guild started raiding and having fun all by it’s self.

Since Saturday, we’ve appointed another officer to the ranks and I have made it perfectly clear that I have taken enough whispered abuse from this particular hot head and shall suffer no more.  One final chance till he blows up again (which I’m sure he will), at which point, I’ll be hunting for an officer again *sigh*.  Some may ask why I don’t demote or kick him now?  Well, I believe in trying all avenues before giving up.  If I didn’t, this guild would have fallen apart ages ago  *raises glass*  Here’s to hoping he’ll surprise me!

Why am I writing this all here???  Who cares about guild behind-the-scenes drama?
Why?  When we agreed to take on a new officer and with this decision, the first officer deleted all our posts in which we had conflicts in.

Why am I letting you all read this?  Saga forced me!

Letting Go

I became a Guild Leader by inheritance, not because I created the guild.  Our guild was created by a good friend of mine who I’ve known for some time outside of WoW.  Because of some personal complications, she asked me to hold onto the guild until she returned.  She knew I would uphold the original values she laid out: Maturity, Respect, Real Life > Any Game!  I asked her about how long she thought it would take.  ”1 month +/-” was her reassuring reply.  6 months later, I was still the GL and she still wasn’t close to being ready to return.

We were lucky as a guild.  When she first left, raiding pretty much ceased.  In all those months, only one newer member decided to leave and was really sorry to do so.  We didn’t blame him, but it says a lot for the community we created.  People preferred to stay with us, not raiding, than take their chances on some other guild who was.  After 6 months, I had an argument with my officers (they were becoming pessimistic) and something awoke inside me.  I had to turn this guild around, get raids going again, the guys deserved a strong leader.  Looking around for one, I realized, with horror, it would have to be me!

Now, I’d have difficulty leading a horse to water, and I can barely manage my shopping list much less a raiding guild, but I had to do something.  So I stopped talking things over with the officers, who had become distant and almost bitter for various reasons, and took action. I called in favors from non-officer guildies and other guilds, met people in BH runs and made a point to remember the nice ones.  I made decisions and posted events in the calendar.  Didn’t have enough sign-ups?  We PUG’ed the spots to the best of our ability.  The raids would go on!  Once we had 7 PUG’s!  Hardly a guild run but it still felt great.

Slowly, but surely, things picked up!  More of our afk members began returning.  People were signing up for raids.  We were getting applications from some of those guys we met in BH!  There was a pivotal point when we could have relaxed our standards for the sake of raiding, but we didn’t.  We stuck it out and have raided every week since 2 weeks into 4.2.  I look around me now with a sense of pride in my guild mates for all their hard work and loyalty to the guild.

So, what’s the problem?  Surely there must be a hook here.  Well, tonight, I won’t be in the raid.  We’re busy and taking the night off to visit family.  By taking so much upon myself and being involved in every aspect, from Guild Leading, Raid Leading to Voice of Reason, I just realized a small part of me is afraid things won’t run as smoothly without me there.  I soften the sharp edges of some members and explain in more detail parts of a fight to others.  There are 100 little things I do each raid to ensure our guys have a good time.  For someone who didn’t want the roll to begin with (and someone who’s been saying she doesn’t want to raid every single raid anymore), I’m surprised to have this twinge of sadness.  My guild has grown up.  It doesn’t need me anymore!

Still, I couldn’t be more proud of my guys and gals!

Post no. 2

The most important thing to getting a good blog off the ground (for me that is), is liking the look of it.  Themes, backgrounds, layouts.  I feel this is going to take some time before I’m truly happy.

Last night I had a bit of time after the Baby Goblin went to sleep to log in and play a bit.  Lately, I’ve been having difficulty deciding what to do so I gathered up a couple guildies and jumped into Random Battle Grounds!!!!  With my uber 1300 resiliance, I was a force to be reckoned with! (Or maybe just a squishy decoy while my properly geared mates picked them off one by one)

When I first started PvP, I insisted Holy was in fact better than disco for BG’s!  Why?  Because I knew how to play it.  Because I’ve recently learned how to play Disco for a couple fights in Firelands, I’ve decided to try my hand at it in BG’s as well.  I still stand behind my statement.  Holy is better if you know how to play it properly, and I love the daze/disarm ability, but I’m starting to see the strength of Disco.  Bubbles are nice, Penance is loverly, and my survivability is much stronger….but I really do miss some other form of CC or interrupt!  More and proper testing is required!

Builders are still in my house.  Today, they are doing the tiled floor!  Soon, we’ll have our bathroom back and everything will return to normal!  *dreams of LONG hot shower*