Gaming kills your education? Bullshit.

If games negatively affected school performance that drastically, I’d still be in Primary School.

An FCC Commissioner made a silly comment about games and drop-outs, and WoW Commoner has a nice write-up. Go read, bookmark the blog, then lets continue.

You might find it alarming that one of the top reasons for college drop-outs in the U.S. is online gaming addiction – such as World of Warcraft – which is played by 11 million individuals worldwide.

Arrrg, c’mon folks:
(a) most drop-outs have nothing to do with a person’s hobby. Get some stats on how good the course is, or money, family, drugs, relationships as causes; then tell me where mmo or other games are on the list.
(b) get some stats period! Not just a general feeling, then step to the podium.

Blaming a computer game is like shooting fish in a barrel, as nobody who isn’t involved really understands or cares. Blame the ones who nobody understands is a great political tool used since cavemen started having elections.

The first steps at 80

There seems to be a few forum posts out there about what to do at 80. Now if that question is about the long term view, then nobody can tell you what you’ll enjoy. However if its about what you must do first, then there are some obvious things. My first steps upon reaching 80 were:

1. get the tabards for eac of the reps that is important. Wowwiki.com and wowhead/wowdb are handy for looking up the reps.
2. get level 80 skills trained
3. consider a respec, I needed one
4. check the AH for bargain upgrades for key items
5. get your last  Glyph slot filled
6. go to the final zones and complete all the quest chains to unlock the quest hubs. Ebon Hold for example does not exists as a hub until you complete a few quests.
7. get all the flight points
8. get your epic flier, so you don’t have to pay the highly expensive flight point costs
9. max out your professions

Points 6-9 I am still working on, and they’re as fun as the leveling process. The gold rewards at top level make it still really worth doing the quests too.

PokeTamaCraft

We were having one of those silly discussion in the kitchen at work, when the something totally broken was dreamed up: PokéTamaCraft. Thats right, the ultimate in kids toy which combines the Pet management of a Tamagotchi, the pvp of a Pokemon and all in the flavour of the World of Warcraft.

PokeTamaCraft = Warcraft +Tamagochi + Pokemon = Win

Features

• pvp with your friends, folks on the bus,
• spec your pets, just like the new patch
• have  stable of pets, both Hunter and Warlock and perhaps even mage, Death Knight and Shaman pets
• build it on iPhone so that the iStore will handle distribution, with a base fee and a low on-going payment model for updates and new pets and powers.

“Doomguard, I choose you”

“Oh no, he has the v3.0.8 builds already”

BBB speaks to new DKs

Go have a read of Big Bear Butt’s post on death knoobs (name gave me a chuckle). Totally agree with him, and all DKs should take heart and think. However my comment to his post stands:

Last night we did Halls of Lightning with a DK Tank, a DK-Unholy (me), a Hunter, Rogue (or something), and Resto Druid. At least 3 separate occasions the Hunter pulled aggro on the off-target before either Skull or X was dead. At the end of the last boss only the two DKs were standing. Hunter died really early in, and the Rogue contributed almost nothing on DPS – to the point that I’m not sure he wasn’t an NPC in disguise.

DKs may be new and bad, but the Huntard name stands proud. They’re all still out there, and after years of playing they still suck harder than anything else.

It’s like they have a hidden bag of fail that cannot be emptied.

80 DK at last

Perhaps the last of the casuals to do so (grin), I have finally ding’ed 80 on Mortigen. Now begins rep grinds, re-spec, heroics, and trying to get as much face smashing gear as I can.

After going 55-80 I still love the Death Knight and this game.

AH is the new DeepRun Tram

Apparently the place to hit on women in WoW has moved from the mailbox near the Stormwind fountain, to a few buildings away in the Stormwind AH.

Solo dungeons more plausible

Blizzard blue has announced that it will soon be possible to solo some of the old world instances, where before a team was needed. Basically another change to help the old world content, and while the responders on the forums will say its to cater to the casuals, this actually caters to everyone. Nice change.

Metamorph Quests

Two great quests in Northrend – one lets you appear as an Iron Dwarf, the other as a Golem. The affects on your toon, weapon, etc all remain – but you become a runed sociopath. Can this be permanent?

This is what Dwarf Death Knights should look like - totally bad arse

And then you take on the form of a Golem, to beat the smeg out of a particular mob. I initially killed the NPC the hard way, and it was tough, with the Golem form it was cake.

I am Iron Man! {queue music}

If the Lich King gave me these powers I’d kill the good guys all day; no complaints.

And then yesterday I rode on a Golem.

Unholy love for PTR 3.0.8 Notes

Overall I like this patch. Lots of changes, with the highlights that I like the most:

• Death Knights on any Realm – does this mean you have a 55 on one realm, and then you create a 55 on another? If so that’s strange but good for allowing re-balance. Not that I need anothert DK, but its good regardless.
• More graveyards is a good thing, and hopefully we get a few more places to run from in Northrend and Outland too.
• Run speed while dead has been increased, yay.
• Most of the DK changes are great, but a touch of love for the Frosty tanks might have been good. I can see the Unholy changes really helping, and I love the fact that Horn is now no cost and gives RunePower. I can’t see Gargoyle as a real option still, the RP cost is too high compared to chat the Ghoul can do.
• Swipe for Feral cats at 71 is wonderful.
• Tapping a target makes it yours, and any action that Aggros is a tap. Woot.

All the notes after the fold, and yes, I see the improvements while being dead as very worth while. Its part of how I manage Aggro.

I’d Tap that!

From the PTR notes:

Tapping: all player spells which cause a creature to become aggressive to you will now also immediately cause the creature to be tapped.

What this means is that anytime you aggro, the kill is yours. Huzzah, finally! Its like the Devs finally got frustrated and fixed something that was a major pain in the arse.

All my best Christmas wishes go to Blizzard this year for this, and for the DK changes coming.

Found via Misery blog, thank you.