As we come to the end of the year

So 2011 is nearly upon us, the Cataclsym has hit, I have a level 85 and at long last I have got a Choppa (still the coolest mount in the game). If I can't have a real motorbike at the moment a virtual one will suffice.

The pixies are doing OK, we have got some new members and are getting ready for the cataclysm HCs, then hopefully the raids. Although the xp from 80 to 85 is massive it didn't seem too ardous (the first time at least), I suppose that blizz, and most players, want to get to the end game content ASAP.

Have fun out there.

I totally missed November and WoW crashes again

Well, it is December, 2 days until Cata and I have finally got round to posting. It was a hectic month of work, trips to the vet, snow, birthdays, reading and levelling. I now have 2 80s and 1 78 character so I'm quite happy with that. Not got masses of gold or purples on them but hey greens will be good again next week.

WoW has crashed again on my wife's PC, which is annoying to say the least, I reckon its gone be a re-install, which sucks big time. I've tried what the sages of the net suggest but I am at a loss, totally. Unsure of what to do with out completely screwing the system I curse Blizzard, I reckon they did it.

PUG tanks can be great but occasionally they really irk me. Some of them have such a superior air about them. We all know they are in demand but rudeness is unnecessary and frankly not called for. If they spot a player who is could be doing better or is in the wrong gear, tell them constructively, don't talk about them in the group as if they are not there or insult them. It shows, sadly, the immaturity (not necessarily in age) of a great number of this game's players.

Vote to kick arseholes, stand there and leech XP, tell them to go do their homework. Don't let them get you down, its only a game.

Come Cataclysm I'm going to....

• Get my 3 mains to 85
• Get a Worgen
• Try and eventually get enough gold to make a choppa
• Actually try and raid seriously
• Level fishing, cooking and first aid (I'm very lazy at this)
• Level archeaology (this does sound fun)

But some of my guildies are getting a bit disillusioned with the might Blizzard mega-game. I'm not sure how I feel cause there is so much I want to do in game, so much I haven't done that sounds and looks cool. But there is so much more outside of the game world. I guess it is easy, as I have read in the media, to replace real life goals with virtual ones.

I never take a walk, though I live 5 minutes from a beach, half an hour from a national park. I never pick up my guitar any more, there are jobs around the house that need to be done. I suppose I'm saying that it is easy to lose vast chunks if time to playing WOW, but that is not all bad. My wife plays so we have a hobby we do together, so does her sister, her sister's boyfriend (WOW is how they met), her other sister plays too. We have made friends too on WOW, and actually met real people that were lovely. It is a balancing act and I think that the balance sometimes sways too far to gaming.

There is much more to life than WOW and we shouldn't let it restrict personal, spiritual and intellectual development, it should enhance life not take it over. We are more than pixellated avatars and we shouldn't forget it.

So patch 4 then...

Well, I seem to be one of the few who have embraced the new World of Warcraft patch. I suppose it could be that I am still levelling and learning my Boomkin but I think it's great. The talents are simpler in my opinion and the changes to professions are cool, I mean I now get XP for picking flowers - ace. I can see how resto droods are bummed by the changes to tree form but I'm loving the crit-chicken even more now. The eclipse bar is very useful with helping with my rotation.

I've not tried my Paladin since the patch hit so I may taste the bitter tang of disappointment there and resent the change but I still have 10 levels to go on Tiger so it'll be a while before I hit the Pally for prolonged periods. But I guess it will be like learning him anew, kind of like starting over to a degree. That is probably what has got me most excited, the fact that there are stark changes, embrace them that's my motto. The only constant is change in this world and Azeroth has changed with it and for those of us who have played a while, a year or more, this has given us the chance to have a new game again. Personally I can't wait for Cataclysm. Yes I got kicked from a dungeon today for DC'ing but these things will iron themselves out, they always seem to.

I hope everyone can come to love the change and love this amazing, fun, social and inclusive game again. Escape the humdrum and slay a dragon or two - nourishment for the imaginative mind.

Have fun out there.

If there's a bandwagon in town, I'll jump on it...

There have been a few posts recently on various blogs about how people come up with names for their toons. Far be it from me not to join in on this rich seam of discourse so I will share with you, the world, how I have named my three main characters. Sadly there is no deep meaning behind them or any nods too mythology or ancient history but one at least is mildly amusing. So here we go...


RENDBRE - my nickname in real life is Bender (after the Futurama robot, can't imagine why as I'm nothing like him) and when I first went to World of Warcraft I tried to use that name, it was taken. So I tried some anagrams and ended up putting an extra R in there for some reason. This has worked to my advantage as he is a Paladin, which, I believe, have some connection to medieval France. The 'bre' bit on the end looks, when you squint, a little bit French. C'mon, work with me here.

MENION - very simple, named after a character in a Terry Brooks novel.

TIGERLEE - This is the mildly amusing one. For those of us of a certain vintage there was a Ce Ce Peniston song back in the 90s called 'Finally'. Apparently my mother-in-law, who I only met a couple of years agoheard this a 'Tigerlee'. I found this funny and named the Druid in her honour. Also it started of as feral, so the tiger bit sort of worked there too, then I hit 40 and got Moonkin and the feral went out of the window.

I have a few other lowbies with variations on the Bender theme, i.e. '-zor', '-ama' and '-man'. I also have a Dwarf called Milkbeard, because one of the cats had a drink and ended up with a... you guessed it!

So nothing profound or deeply psychological there but there's nothing offensive and they all mean something to me, and I guess to those who know me. I suppose that's what it's all about though.

Getting very excited about Cataclysm

I'm on a bit of a break from World Of Warcraft at the moment, but the internet has allowed me to do some research into how the world will change on December 7th. Cataclysm looks amazing, frankly amazing. I have been watching videos on wowiki and You Tube. Stormwind from the air looks great and we'll be able to fly  over it, not just ride around it. The changes to the bank and AH look good too and part of it has fallen into the sea! The grass seems greener, more lush and the graphics just look better, of course the proof of the pudding will be when the entire world loads up their shiny new discs and we see how the servers cope with it. On the face of it it looks brilliant.

I was a tad skeptical about the changes when I first read them, especially the changes to the talents (much slimmed down) and the removal of some stats. But now I've moved on and am much more open to the changes, in fact looking forward to them. Guild achievements and talents look good too, extra riding speed seems useful and so do guild wide heirlooms.

Embrace the change is what I say and let's get a bit of that 'this is all new and exciting' feeling back into the game.

A lighted hearted bounce through the world (of warcraft)

Well, here is my first ever blog post. This is nominally about my experiences on WOW but please don't expect in-depth analysis of stats and rotations etc, this is more about the fun and social side of the game. I am in a guild called Magic Pixies with my wife (we are officers) and my sister in law and her boyfriend (they set it up) and some new and old friends we have picked up on the way. The Pixies are a fun, social and raiding guild, doing weeklies and ICC etc (though I'm not, having chosen to level a new character to 80 rather than gear my first 80).

I have 3 main characters:

Rendbre - 80 Retribution Paladin
Tigerlee - 64 Balance Druid
Menion - 75 Blood/Unholy Death Knight

The reason for the name 'Spotted Frostsaber' comes from the druid (and there is a mildly amsuing story behind the name Tigerlee). I started randomly singing a song about the joys of a spotted frostsaber and it made my wife and sis in law giggle, this then become a macro in guild chat.

We are on Teranas if you are seeing this and want to be a Pixie find us here.

Remember kids, it's just a game - be nice to each other...