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So I may run a guild (and frequently do!), but that doesn’t mean that I’m actually inured to WoW burnout and boredom. Part of my job is encouraging events and participation, and that means being cheerful. “BOY,” I say loudly to everyone around me, “I hope Cataclysm really doesn’t come out until November so we can have another four months of ICC!” Then I beat myself into submission with my own mouse.

The point being that between the usual malaise and the RealID fiasco, I think a number of the Cats are feeling a little burned out on the WoWs. (This is my interesting guild leadery question for this week: in what ways can you turn a WoW guild into a more general gaming community? I can see the time coming fairly soon when The Cats as an entity will have to unhitch our wagon from WoW if we’re to survive.)

Anyway, this was the first non-busy weekend I’ve had in a long while so I resolved to make it a Gamey McGamerson weekend. I am pleased to say that my mission was indeed accomplished! /banner

I got Gwener the Loremaster human from 17 to 20 in LotRO, which means now she can ride a horse. Yay! I’m of the correct level to do the first instance, but I am a little scared of messing up and everyone yelling at me. Also, I am still not entirely sure what a Loremaster DOES. I have a crow, who pecks things, and a lot of stuns. Beyond that.. hmm. Lotro is still really pretty and fun, and it was nice to hang with Cats this weekend in Middle Earth.

Oddly enough, though, I’m kind of bummed that the devs are so strict about following Tolkien canon because it limits future possibilities. Like, I’m never not going to have a horse for a mount, because that is just the way it works. And while I can appreciate keeping within the existing lore, to a certain extent it feels like being given brussels sprouts for dessert. Sure they’re good for me and full of vitamins, but I’d rather have ice cream and ride a GIANT ANGRY BEAR.

I finally finished Adventure Mode for the recent Zuma sequel. This game was a lot easier than the first one — I cleared through all the adventure modes without blowing all my lives, whereas once.. once!.. I finished Zuma classic. It’s still fun, though, and I hear the sounds of matching balls exploding in my head at night. Speaking of casual games, I also booted up Audiosurf for the first time in months with the intention of taking back my song title championships, but my Surfing skills have dramatically atrophied and will need work before I reclaim my rightful throne. (Attention rinavenue — I am coming for you.)

Allods Online: it’s free-to-play, it’s a small download, and it’s all “translated” (sort of) from the original Russian which means NPCs have Russian names and the like, which is neat. Plus, look at my freaking character. Well, okay, that’s what my character would look like at max level – which they show you at the character creation screen – but she’s an UNDEAD ROBOT CHICK WITH A TAIL. I mean seriously, how cool is that? I’m playing the evil side, obviously, while the good side has adorable wide-eyed furry creatures and hot emo elves in lingerie and butterfly wings. Suckers.

I have no idea if the gameplay is very fun or not. I got to level five, which is about two hours out of the tutorial, and it seemed straightforward enough and very WoW-cloney. Kill 10 of these, bring me the head of so-and-so. My mage spells have a slightly unique mechanic, but more to the point every time I use one I get awesome frost, fire, or electric-themed sparkles around my character for about 15 seconds, which pleases me to no end.

Allods is free-to-play, which means a cash store, and that makes me a little nervous. At this point, really, I can recommend this game if you want to just look awesome. If you want to actually DO something with your character, though, then your guess is still as good as mine.

Finally, yesterday I went back to Mass Effect 2 after a few months off. Picked up the commands again quickly, immersed in the storyline within minutes. Hooked again, Bioware, you evil geniuses. Garrus needs to quit his freaking calibrations and come love me — um, I mean January Shepard, girl adventurer — like the sniper stud I know he is.

And thus ends This Weekend in Gaming, with Liore. Now back to our regularly scheduled ICC.

Uncategorized

Aww, you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist talking about this one, right?

“This message is being sent to confirm that all credit card information has been removed from the World of Warcraft account <MY NAME>, effectively canceling its recurring subscription as of July 7, 2010 5:21 PM UTC.”

I have spent some time in the last few months trying to cope with this weird feeling that Blizzard doesn’t care about us anymore. The RealID friends thing seemed poorly handled. They dropped the Path of the Titans, upped the ticket price for Blizzcon, and told us all that we had to pick 10 OR 25 raiding in Cataclysm. Okay, fine. Whatever. Maybe I’m just a stick in the mud that hates change.

But this RealID on the forums thing is just so… it’s evil. And dumb. It’s evil and dumb, and usually when corporations start to get that way I take my account out behind the woodshed and shoot it in the head like Ol’ Yeller.

1. This is a decision for young, straight, white boys.

Who is going to be alienated by having their full name on ever post? Women. Gay and trans folks. People with some obviously ethnic name. Professionals and older people who don’t want their hardcore belf pally turning up every time some new employer does a Google search.

This means that the new forums will be populated pretty entirely by privileged, young, straight, white boys. One of the greatest things about WoW was the diversity of the player base, and Blizzard has acted decisively against that.

2. This is a decision against guild leadership.

Where do we get most of our fresh recruits from? The official Alliance recruitment forum. On those forums, people are free to post under alts so they can look for a new guild while not upsetting their old one. This practice, of course, will not exist after RealID. And what of recruiting itself? Soon my asking officers for help with recruitment will not just be a matter of posting, it will be a matter of asking people to expose their real life to the vagaries of the WoW Forums. I am not comfortable doing that, by any stretch of the imagination.

I suppose I’m still assuming that anyone will be READING the official forums. (See Point #1.) Instead it’s just as likely that people will flock to a variety of unofficial forums, adding that much more to my recruitment workload.

3. Our trust is gone.

People were fanatic about Blizzard and their games, and now I see those same people saying that they will never have anything to do with the company again. It’s not even so much specifically about names appearing on the forums, although there is certainly enough concern over that. For me, anyway, it’s more that I feel my faith and trust has been abused, and I no longer believe that it will not be further abused down the line.

At no point during the account signup process five years ago was there any indication given that my name would be used for anything more than the billing system. There was no sign that it would be made public. Blizzard is planning on using my personal information against my will. Seriously, forget the whole debate about whether someone can find you from an name on the internet, or whether a support forum should be optional or not, and just think about that. My name — my personal information — is being held hostage by a company.

It’s ludicrous. I quit Facebook for lesser issues, honestly. I still have two months on my account, but today I canceled my ongoing subscription. I run a guild full of adults and professionals, and I am hardly the first person to have canceled their account over this.

Where will it stop? Real names on the Armory? You know they want to do it. You can almost feel those greedheads thinking it. Well screw you, Blizzard and Activision. My guild, my people.. we will find new games. THAT is my kind of gaming social network — gaming with, you know, friends — and one that you cannot monetize.

Uncategorized

So let’s preface this by saying that I am not one of those crazy theorycrafting math priests, with the charts and the knowhow. I mean, good on those guys, because I rely on them to help me figure out what I’m doing. However, what I am is someone who has played a holy priest for five years. I like to think over that time I’ve developed a pretty good gut feel for holy spec and the class in general.

Anyway, Cataclysm notes! Let’s begin.

Introduced at a low level, the “new” Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use.

Amusingly enough, I was discussing potential class notes earlier this week with my friend Thae the Cranky Resto Shaman and he joked that they would just give us a whole bunch of “medium” spells. “Priests clearly need more spells to choose from at any given moment! If you roll a priest, Blizz will send you a keyboard attachment to hold your extra bindings!” From his mouth to Blizzard’s ears, apparently.

I actually really like the fact that priests have a ton of options. I have six different healing spells alone that are important enough to be bound on my N52 keypad, and I certainly would prefer to have a ton of options than, say, play a paladin. (Oh, burn. Yeah, you heard me, Sema.) However, with THREE different levels of straight up heals.. something is going to fall by the wayside. My prediction is that Greater Heal will become even less used than it is now.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can’t have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

Increased movement speed… and reduced cost of instants. I see. I am reminded of a recent trip to Mexico, when I ordered onion rings and they were served with a side dish of mayo. Sometimes things just aren’t meant to go together.

I am currently specced into Body and Soul, so I can appreciate a judicious application of run speed, but in a self-buff? Coupled with cheap instant spells? Is this a PVP thing?

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or “Life Grip”) is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can’t seem to get out of the fire in time.

Life. Grip. As god is my witness, I have no idea what to think about this. Well, okay, what I think is that I’ll be able to annoy the hell out of my guild. Oh, friends, the griefing possibilities. My eyes well up in joy just contemplating the chaos. That line about moving slow DPS around makes me nervous, though. I can hear the puggies now: “omg healer let me stand in goo until i slowly died!!!!!”

There are so many details I need to hear before I can decide on this. Will being gripped interrupt the party member’s cast? Does it reduce or remove aggro? Can it be used in Shadow Form? It would have to be a pretty unique circumstance during a raid boss for me to want to revoke a teammates control over their character for a couple of seconds.

I just don’t know. It sounds shiny. It will probably be useless.

All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).

This is the best part of the whole preview, for me.

Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.

I think this is the Disc version of the HoTs update. This seems like a Big Deal. (And also the second priest version of a death knight ability in these notes.)

We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.

Oh, I like this one too! Mea Culpa to Ghostcrawler — Serendipity turned out to be a really fun and useful mechanic, and these sound similar in nature. I’m also intrigued by the flexibility of the buff, which would potentially suit an array of Holy Priest styles. Just give the “empowered state” a fancy graphic, and we’ve got something like the much vaunted Holy Form that healy priests have been making puppy dog eyes about for years.

We’re also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don’t feel as penalized when those buffs aren’t available.

I just included this line because I was vastly amused by the phrasing. Blizzard is going to take away our own mana regen buff as FAVOR to us so we don’t get all overwhelmed. I am actually kind of looking forward to seeing what they do with mana management, but this bit still made me chuckle.

I try not to count my patchnote chickens before they hatch, but I’m pretty satisfied with this preview. Let’s see what actually makes retail!

Cataclysm, Healing patch, priest

So, I’m addicted to Project Runway. I love that show to pieces, to the point where when I was sick this weekend I sat under a blanket on the couch and watched the entire eleven hours of Season Two of Project Runway Australia. (I also will watch Project Runway Canada, and Project Catwalk (UK). I am not limited by nationality!) I could go on at length about why I enjoy the show so much, but the short version is that I am utterly mystified by a contestant’s ability to take a seemingly impossible task and create fashion art in a few hours. I don’t understand how their creative processes work, and nothing entrances me quite like a process I don’t understand.

While watching hours of fashion-based TV has not made me any more chic, it has actually taught me a few things about life. It is with that in mind that I give to you:

Raid Leading, Project Runway Style

Make it work!
Okay, okay, you probably saw that one coming a mile away, but it’s true. Sometimes despite everyone’s best intentions you end up with 24 people online, one raid tank, and 9 healers. Or maybe you’re just having one of those nights where everyone has a case of The Dumb. What do you do? Pull up your bootstraps, and just make it work. Kill what you can and try to not get too bogged down in negative vibes. Do the weekly raid quest, or Sarth-3D for mounts, or break into 10s groups. Take a 5m break and give people an opportunity to shake out the sillies. Just.. make it work!

Use your mentors
The contestants on Project Runway are usually very focused designers who are confident in their vision. However, the best of them will still stand back and really consider the feedback from their Mentor. Accepting the wisdom and experience of someone else doesn’t lessen their strong approach or skills. When you feel your raid strategy is getting stuck in a rut, solicit feedback from your “mentors” in the guild. Ask your fellow officers, ask any class/role leads, ask your tanks.. sometimes when I am just not sure what is blocking us I’ll ask the whole raid on Vent for their feedback. A fresh perspective often helps, and asking for feedback doesn’t diminish your confidence as raid leader.

Don’t be afraid to be unique
If there is one single piece of advice that I think the Mentors give more than anything else, it’s that a design is too safe. Contestants are encouraged to be unique, be creative, and be true to themselves. The same can be said for your raid team! Don’t get hung up on what The Joneses are doing. Unless you are in a guild with a mandate of being Top 100 or whatever (in which case good on ya!), your world ranking doesn’t really matter. Let your raid be true to itself — how is it doing in comparison to how it did last week? Or last month? Or last expansion? It’s okay — actually, no, it’s GREAT — to expect improvement and progression, but it should be within the scope of your guild and its stregnths and weaknesses, not what Premonition is doing this week. I have a tough time with this one myself, for what it’s worth.

Look at your strategy with an editing eye
The second most frequent critique I hear on Project Runway is that an outfit is too overworked. It has sequins and flowers and lace and cutouts and shoulder pads and a giant bustle and and and and… resulting in a big ol’ mess. The same can be said for picking a raid strategy. I admit this one could be chalked up to personal preference, but I am huge on simplifying boss strategies as much as possible. Don’t assign everyone their own unique spot to run to after BQL fears — just emphasize spatial awareness and spreading out. A more simple strategy will be easier to translate to different raid groups and different raiders. Of course, adopting strategies like this one require more practice, which is the other half of this concept. Don’t be fussy and change things on every pull. Sometimes you just have to decide on a strategy and give it a good number of tries for people to master the bare bones.

Use the accessories wall thoughtfully and strategically
No, wait — scratch this one.

In short, Tim Gunn can lead my raid anyday. Call me!

Guild Management, Raiding Ruminations guildleading, raiding

So the ICC raid buff was released in today’s patch. Ugh. Too fast, too fast, too fast.

I HATE the new raid paradigm of making raids easier and pushing them out faster. It lessens the sense of accomplishment when you kill a new boss. I have written rants on this before, but WotLK has been all about messin’ with the middle-of-the-road guilds like mine. I can’t enjoy killing normal mode bosses, because it’s not “real”. And I can’t enjoy killing hard mode bosses, because we’ve already done 70% of the fight on normal mode, so it’s not “real” either. I bolded that because it really deserves emphasis. What exactly motivates me to keep raiding?

This system is just stressing out dedicated raiders, and most guild leaders I know are tearing out their hair. I feel under pressure to make us progress faster than ever before so we can “keep up”, and yet people are burning out and quitting faster than ever before because farming four versions of Jaraxxus each week (back when ToC was the top raid) is boring as hell.

Not to mention Blizz has completely screwed over guilds in so many ways in LK. I see so many posts that say, “Why should I bother getting a guild? I can pug raids and groups.” Even more so with this buff and the subsequent versions! (True, we can turn this buff off, but will most guildies approve? A quick straw poll this morning showed that most of my officers want to keep it, seeing as we’re “behind” and there’s no tangible benefit to removing the buff aside from some pride. Argh.)

Sorry, I know I’m ranting, but MAN this expansion has just made me really angry at WoW. Guilds are, I would argue, the number one source of player retention. How many people keep logging on for the people they play with, instead of logging on for the sheer joy of the game? I see folks say all the time that they would quit except for their friends online. And yet Blizzard seems pretty insistent on making running a moderate raiding guild as difficult and unpleasant as possible.

Stop rushing us, stop nerfing our team’s sense of accomplishment. Take your pity buff, Blizzard, and shove it up your collective bottoms.

Guild Management, Raiding Ruminations, WotLK guildleading, raiding, rants