How to comment, public service announcement

I get the odd blog comment that is nigh on inane, and mostly they get deleted without being posted. What on earth a screen-breather is thinking that the post would be put up, especially unqualified?

Good comments add or argue about the post in a way that is constructive.

Bad comments just criticise without offering any detail, or a better option.

I post this as a long time ago I grabbed several specs for the different classes I play, mucked around with them a bit to suit my choices, and then posted them. They are still the best source of hits, and best source of idiot comments I have. Recently I updated the out of date ones, and have even warned as a post edit that the spec are now out of date, and the viewer should look elsewhere.

Then you get junk like this:

Nosferatu: dude u’re a total retard that talent build for cat is a joke,try playing something that does’t require thinking so much

Now thats not clever, insightful, or offer an alternative. In fact it says that this player is looking for a really easy game, with little complexity, and I’d hazard a guess that English is his first language, but he’s yet to master it.

So don’t be like little Nosferatu here, post something useful.

Quick haiku and random thoughts

Some random creative lines that are running through my head. Some if this is warcraft-ish, some just observational. The further you read the less responsibility I take for your sanity and my writing. [rant inc]

Conan
Barbarian slave,
sunders a raging horde,
never to find peace.

unrelated to…

Proudly she walks on,
while adversity abounds.
I stand still amazed.

And lastly something that makes even my sense of sarcasm twinge with political incorrectness: I was chatting in guild a few days ago about the definition of wife. Its one of those guild chat conversations that stays borderline polite, but we’re taking the piss out of each other. When one guys says something like obviously you don’t know the definition of w.i.f.e.

I didn’t know what he was talking about so used the google:define tool to look it up. The 8th result was:

define: wife = A lady who said “I will” and has done so ever since.

…I did warn you. That is just mean. I bet she would say far worse things about her husband. Or perhaps her ex-husband. Reminds me of the Devils Dictionary, as that is pretty subtle.

The Erosion is getting worse

My toon called Erosion was an Undead Rogue. He was bad and I loved the fact he was built for the purpose of killing Topper McNabb. But that is history and we all know that (a) Erosion gets worse of over time, and (b) I love a good experiment.

So to make Erosion worse I’ve re-rolled the character name as a Dwarf Hunter.

Erosion - Wearing shirts is for pansies

I’ve always bitched about hunters. A lot. Its not that I didn’t like them per-say, but I always found that 40% of the bad players were Hunters (I know that they now all re-rolled Death Knight, but hey).

But I have a confession…I rolled one. [ insert dramatic music ] Well I’ve rolled them before, but this one is potentially different. Usually this means getting 3 levels of Huntery goodness and deciding that I hate it and stopping. Sometimes I get near level 8 and think it might be ok, and once I got to level 10 and then couldn’t be farked.

This time though I’ve reached over level 10 and tamed a pet. By god that makes a difference.

Anyone who thought the Death Knight was easy had better re-roll Hunter and see what a click-to-kill experience farming is like. A typical combat goes like this:

1. Target mob with left click
2. press 1 to start macro for Hunter’s Mark and PetAttack
3. press 2 for Concussive shot
4. press 3 for Arcane shot
5. let the autoshots flood by
6. loot

It could not be easier than that! If I fart around with a cast sequence macro, and use tab targeting I’m sure I can get this down to something that a Drinking Water Duck can do.

The worst part fo all this: its fun.

Authenticate iPhone or Keyring, not both.

There is much rejoicing about the iPhone based authentication recently released, and why not? Its a free version of the keychain. I said previously:

This little app has the potential to help every one of the millions of Blizzard clients, and if done well will help change our expectation of online services.

But they’ve got it 90% right. I tested the sign-up process and have found two things that I don’t like.

DK LF Guild as DPS; and Recruitment needs

Yesterday I read about a guild recruitment website called WoW Headhunter and for me its announcement in the community is topical. I’m thinking about a new guild. This is one of those brain dump posts where I’m thinking while typing…

The need for a good Guild Recruitment method is almost as needed as a good LFG tool, but it is basically how we find like minded folks. You might think this is a little skewed (and personal), but now that I’m looking for a new guild, I’m finding that there are no measures or consistencies in the way we’re talking about Guilds.

So WoW Headhunter has something to offer. A quick review:

• Searching is by Server and Faction. Good.
• You can browse really quickly, and the information is succinct.
• Application to a Guild is simple, but its odd that you can’t quickly create a login without doing an application.
• The classes, levels, needed for, number of folks, guild website and short paragraph are stuff you’ve expect.
• Needs a time stamp or an obvious way for the browser to see how long an opportunity has been present.
• The key feature is the type of player is sorted using a very interesting series of metrics.
  • Reckless vs Deliberate
  • Sociable vs Competitive
  • Fun vs Serious
  • Learner vs Veteran.

I love this idea. Its like the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, but in a WoW sense. This is a step in the right direction, and if the community started to use a scheme like this we might better understand other people’s wants. eg. when a R.C.S.V. says they like chatting, we’ve got an idea that they’re chatting about serious tactics, not about the silly wow movie; or the very least the things they’re chatting about will not be entry level content.

It could be argued that these ratings are still totally subjective to the individual, but at least some measures are there, and there are not any tools I can think of where a user’s objectivity can be neutralised. Maybe someone with a sociological background might tweak the classifications, or add some more? I think the creators deserve some kudos for putting the system together. It is worth checking out.

Like all these 3rd party services to WoW it will only be successful once the usage base reaches a critical mass. That is a hard thing to achieve given the Realm and Recruitment forums exist, but the forums are not a patch on this – and adoption already seems to be in progress. All three servers I chose had a few Alliance and Horde guilds looking for various classes.

I also like it because it helps address the bad, frustrating, and too narrow aspects of finding a guild:

• Casual vs Hardcore as terms are way too binary, so over used, and to easy to misunderstand.
• A measure of how experienced the applicant might be, without it degenerating into a full leet-sauce resume.
• What attitude they might bring to a team or raid.

Epic Flying Priest

I could not help myself, or stand to crawl through the air when I knew that a faster option was available. Yeira the (soon to be Shadow) Priest has her epic flying skill, and a new Blue Gryphon.
Anyone got any change?

Flying Priest

Once more my Priest can fly very very slowly while leveling. Hindsight tells me that I should not have blown all that gold on the epic flying skill for my Druid, Paladin, and Warlock. The need for gold will keep me doing my daily quests in a quasi-regular manner.

But then I treat hindsight like I treat my sense of right and wrong; like a red headed child whining at my hip for attention. /slap and move on. Fun to be had, and nobody like a know it all.

If/when I get the epic flying skill, I think Yeira won’t be treated to some silly strange or expensive mount. It’ll be something functional and inexpensive. Mortigen the Death Knight is the glamour whore who gets the good stuff.

WoW Addiction taken seriously?

I came across the WoW Detox website while googling for odd stuff. There you’ll find comments by all range of people who are advocating leaving wow and reclaiming their lives. On first look it seems ok and normal. But on closer inspection I think the website may be a really odd subtle hoax.

In the middle of the homepage now is a White-on-black text based powerpoint fade, which my itself might be just a bad video. But the content is saying that getting outside and not playing wow will help resolve MOST the world’s woes.

Um, lolwut?

The GFC, World Hunger, Poverty, Endless Wars, Global Warming can be resolved by wow players quitting and running around IRL.

Its a challenge to yourself…

Meme Wanted, VW.

Another blog meme, which all the cool (and uncool) kid are doing.

I saw this first on FearDotWin, but then it comes from many a folks. /wave

(its meant to be masters, but I hate editing images, I have no image-fu)

Software authenticator announced

A software based authenticator for mobile devices has been announced. Good god, that is an interesting idea!

I think the employee who thought this up, or even the team who wanted it should be taken out to lunch. Somewhere nice too, with white tablecloth. This little app has the potential to help every one of the millions of Blizzard clients, and if done well will help change our expectation of online services.

• Can you reverse engineer a iPhone/mobile/whatever app? Probably, but how hard. Does the delivery to so many platforms make it easier to get security flaws, as there are so many difefrent platforms?
• Connection only needed the first time it runs, to setup the account link. Obvious, but important.
• I wonder if I can put in the serial of my physical keychain, and then use my iPhone for authentication. This way I have two devices linking to my account. Why? So that if my iPhone crashes, or I drop my keychain into the toilet by accident I can still play wow.
• It won’t be free (nothing good is) but hopefully its no more expensive that the keychain model.

This is also a great sign of what online games, apps, links, and services all over the place should be doing if the proport to have “high security”. 10/10, but it remians to be seen if its safe. The early adopters will be taking a few risks, so I’ll stay with the keychain till after the first few rounds of release.

ps. I wonder if the Apple App Store will give the Devs grief to get the app approved. Afterall you can talk about rude things while playing the game….

Upgrades and a question

Upgrades

• Mortigen has a few upgrades that make the gear better, but what I really need to do is fix my spec. The current range of Death Knight specs are way different to mine, and while I can keep up using my current build, with my gear the performance should be far better. I’m a little ashamed.
• I think I’ll go back to Unholy 2H build. It was how I started and how I leveled. I don’t tank much, and I get the impression from the PTR that Blood and Unholy will be the two dps talent trees of choice.
• A good friend also plays a Frosty DK Tank, and I think he’s looking good in the 3.1 update. Maybe a Frost tank spec might be a good “off-spec” or dare I say dual spec choice. But if Blood tanking allows solid solo grinding of lowbie instances I’ll do that instead. I do a lot of helper runs with mates, and being able to solo Tank without too much ache will be my goal.
• I still want some good Bracers, a 25 man Maly kill, and the Betrayer of Humanity. Then I’m ready for 3.1.

Q&A Time

Q. Why the hell would Arthas allow a tournament in Icecrown? (ala the Tournament coming with 3.1)

A. He bloody wouldn’t.

If the new tournament is not one of the most heavily guarded and fortified areas in the zone, then this is a corrosive stain on the shining lore of Icecrown.

Then again the Ebon Blade have managed to camp one of his outposts for ages, so maybe Arthas is distracted by something else enough to allow all these pesky Alliance and Horde types to live on his block. If I was him I’d be saying get off my lawn, and bringing about 50 of those 80e mobs to send the message clearly.

O.o (non-wow)

Being a PM for a website development company, we get all sorts of requests. This is closer to madness that I am used to.

I had a maintenance email from a client who wants us to update a page in their website. Part of the task is to update a link to a new Pdf, which she said was attached to her email.

I open the email and she has attached a Word doc with an embedded image of the pdf, which is open on her desktop. Yep, she viewed the pdf, took a screenshot, pasted it into Word, saved, and sent it to me.

O.o

Screenshot it, or it didn’t happen…

Not sure if I should change the link from the old Pdf to the new screenshot. I’m not even sure how I wrote the “you forgot the pdf” email back to them without snarkyness. One challenge at a time.

WoW Server Twitter

We (the community) could setup server based, or even guild based Twitter lists to help with LFG and other tomfoolery. I twittered this earlier, which is a good example of what you could do.

WoW+Twitter=Server based LFG tool. Think about it. You’d follow your svr-us, then type: “LFM H VoA, 2 dps”. And anyone keen twitters back.

• You could get LFGs and such while offline, to see if you’re keen.
• Guild based lists could allow quick grouping
• It would be a huge pugger spam, as the screen-breathers ping you for SM and DM over, and over, and over, and over…

OK, bad idea. Sorry.

Edit: What I mean here is that whiel I like the Twiter idea, its getting so much popular attention in the technoology junkie circles, that I think its being used to solve false problems. Kind of like the saying “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.

What if Arthas was a Windows update?

Silly thought for the day: What if Arthas was like a Windows update?

Maybe the Lich King would consider the Arthas upgrade like an unwanted Windows update?

“ohhh shiny”

“wait a sec, I know I lost the fight but these new features are odd and clunky…”

“what happened to the old powers (files) I had?”

“where did the cast bar go?”

Or is Old Lich King vs. Arthas the Lich King like a strange Mac vs PC thing…(if I had video talent you’d be seeing a spoof video)

WoW Stalker

The community needs a way to share success and failure, and WoW Stalker would meet that need.

Send sms when they level, ping and email when they hit 375 engineering, or even send a nasty note if they leave your guild. WoW Stalker could do it all.

It started as a joke after I sent a grats sms to a few guys in WoW, and then I got to thinking that a stalker service for wow would be handy. I love what you can do with Weebly.

Stretch campaign for Mind Flay

Misery has created a campaign to have Mind Flay adjusted to be more in line with most range caster dps spells. Stretch is a great name for it.

I support this.

The tone of the Stretch campaign is constructive and professional.

Some RP Questions for Mortigen

Credit to the blog guys who push the RP envelope in WoW. I’m unashamedly stealing the idea of the post from them. I have often had a laugh at the expense of folks who don’t “get” roleplaying (watch for the lolwat when you make an RP response to their request for gold), but then don’t often participate in RP activity myself. So yeah, I have a double standard or two.

What is your name and where did it come from?

Mortigen is an assumed name. My old family name and indeed my family is now dead to me. I know they would never accept what I have become, especially as I do not see my transition as a fall from grace. The Draenei value the protection and preservation of life, but even before my first death I did not understand the compromises our race made for this philosophy. The undeath that the Lich King offers is a wonderful freedom, and I wish to never be turned or cured.

Strange name lists

Damn me I’ve had some trippy toon names; and so so many damn alts distracting me. The only positive I see is that next time I have to make up a name for a pen and paper roleplaying character I’ll have a nice list to choose form.

Try this list:

• Taranthraxus – death knight on the PTR
• Deadwrong x2 – both undead rogues
• Xaurantis – pally blood elf, made to be hard to spell
• Swearigin – warlock blood elf, as a tribute to teh TV show Deadwood
• Augurer – undead mage
• Darri x2 – undead bank toon
• Renyr – no idea
• Sorrowblade – paladin blood elf, emo name.
• Arakai – human priest, should have been a night elf. Way too cool a name for a human.
• Aurac x2 – both mages
• Casserole – tauren druid
• Darru – another bank mule
• Diamon – Human Paladin
• Endeavour – night elf druid, because the guild name was teh same, and he could have a name the same as the guild.
• Erar – night elf rogue
• Ignis – gnome mage, fire mage too.
• Kurra – no idea
• Rill – human warrior
• Syru – blood elf death knight, because 4 letter names are hard to get.
• Varc – draenei shaman, and a druid too
• Arkham – human warlock, the Batman and/or HP Lovecraft reference.
• Erosion – undead rogue, because he kills slowly at level 3.
• Moonbringer – deleted, but a good RP name.
• Mortigen – draenei DK
• Nagarj – shaman
• Quendalon – nelf druid
• Roa – bank mule, bad because it gets ping’ed by my chat mod every time somebody talks about a Road.
• Tsr – bank mule (bad name unless you’re an old school gamer)
• Varganshi – unknown, but dont it just roll off the toungue.
• Wilhelan – I hated this name the moment I made it
• Yeira – draenei prest
• Zugamoty – was a warlock, and a ref for the DnD players
• Zym – love the 3 letter names
• Mannaburn – shameful name
• Silvertooth
• Trickster
• Unlock – more shameful than Mannaburn
• Embersil
• Lightdancer
• Lighthammer
• Sixthsense – undead rogue. Get it?
• Raze – a personal favourite
• Niveus – sounds like a hand cream

PTR Setup process successful

I’ve worked out what to do to get the PTR running. Obvious to some, or a no-brainer if you’re lucky, but it took two goes for me. My first attempt appeared ok, but would crash every time when entering the world.

• Firstly do not have more than one copy of the game installed. I used to run two side by side sessions of wow for multiboxing, and the PTR install auto-detects your wow location. For me that location was TBC but not Wrath enabled, so it piked when I tried to login.
• Save the auto-downloader and the directory it creates in the same parent folder as your WoW folder.
• When you run the PTR installed, run it from the Parent folder.
• The updater will download a 750mb-ish patch, and then config it. Seemed to be a good sign that it found and would run the updater.
• Don’t expect much help from the official forums. The advice from there is basically (a) run as Administrator, or if on Mac expect silence. You might need system / root access to install the PTR app, but that should not be any surprise.
• I got pedantic about the process and clicked all the Finish buttons on each of the downoaders and updaters.
• Don’t expect the loading page to have the PTR button enabled. Mine was not available, but I could run the PTR app from inside the folder. Look for a green icon.

Next step is some basic mods, and UI setup. Then some DK testing.

Press Pause to Exist

I love translation mistakes, especially when they are obviously counter intuitive. Pause to Exist – must be a Zen thing.

Press pause to Exist was the message that my new dvd recorder gave me when setting the region control.

• If the Pause button could really initiate life, then where am I now?
• What happens when I un-pause? Does the universe stop? Wouldn’t that be play?

update: And if you’re wondering why the stramge post – its Monday here and I’ve already had 5 stupid or inane requests from clients, so this is my way of pushing back on the stupidity. Today’s fav so far for some design feedback:

It looks a bit funny..

Brilliant, I know just what to do. Hey deisgner guys, please make that look either a bit more, or a bit less funny…