MinNiKuhn fishing at sunset with Orange Tabby

Friends IRL & in WoW

My friend DanBoe read my blog today. He says he missed the yellow "!" over my head, and he wanted to know how to get mentioned here. I laughed, and obviously decided to blog about it. Here you go, Dan!

I could start a list of people I know in real life who play WoW. Technically, there's already one for where I work, but not everyone updates that page...

This game creates interesting hallway conversations. One of my coworkers claims he doesn't play... But then why did I see someone named "Vaevictus" in the Illuminati guild I joined tonight with Mehl? Coincidence? I think not.

Another Character

A friend of my husband suggested trying a character on a PvP server, that it's a different playing experience. So I started TyrAsKuhn on Daggerspine where some of my friends have them. So far, it's not much different. I chose a Night Elf Druid because I love playing RaSiKuhn so much. Also, if I'm going to be challenged by other characters at the drop of a hat, I need to know how to handle my character well.

It took about 1 hour to get to level 6, 1.5 hours to get to level 7, just over 2 to get to level 8 and about 3 to get to level 9 Sunday evening.

"Girl" Toonz Guild

This past weekend, Minnikuhn was invited to join a guild. Since the person actually spoke to me before simply inviting me (usually an invite just pops up on my screen), I thought I'd try it. The guild is called "The Pink Panthers". They are a guild restricted to all female characters, but I guess it's not uncommon to have men playing women & vice versa.

Anyway, I won't remain with the guild. They seemed to be on some sort of recruiting spree, the only qualification is "girl toon". It's not like my other guild, where we're friends and enjoy questing together when we're able.

Also, one of the main people is somewhat crude, I think "she" is actually a he. I asked about the tabards, what they look like, and all that person could say was they look "sexy". I'm not in this game for things like that. Sure, I want to look cool and stylish, but I get tired of the naked dancing people trying to be distracting.

Anyway, I found someone wearing the tabard. They are hot pink with a white cartoon kitty face design. I just can't do that.

Putting Trolls in their place

A troll came into Darkshore yesterday. I (MinNiKuhn) was out skinning beasts for leather and I saw him kill a level 17 (I was a 20). I couldn't see what his level was, but I announced his presence on the main channel and told people where he was.

As he was taunting me to see if I'd go PvP, Fedahis, from Alliance of the Stars, rode up on his cat and took the troll out. Fedahis is a level 47 from RaSiKuhn's guild. It was GREAT to watch! Minnikuhn was cheering him on the whole time. Apparently, Fedahis was in the area mining, and had just been waiting for one to show up.

What's the appeal of WoW? part 2

12. Nonstop exercise made fun
My characters run everywhere, fight a lot and look very buff. If I did all the things the character did, wow, I'd be in great shape!

13. You can be one of the beautiful people
Unless you choose an ugly character.

14. Short term diseases only
Diseases rarely last more than 5-10 minutes.

What I wish was different in WoW

This is a much shorter list. In fact, I only think of one at the moment.

1. Social justice

I wish there was a way to report and record bad behavior, so anyone could see your "rap" sheet - like the guy who came and stole the herb I had been trying to pick, but was attacked by two separate spiders before I could finish. There should also be a way to clear your name, however, by making amends, by getting others to "forgive" or "pardon" you of those crimes.

I wish there was jail sentence. Some rogue stole a chest from a guy who entrusted it to him for opening. The guards should have put that theif in jail for stealing, and we could have had a trial by jury. This kind of example would keep that type of crime down significantly.

What's the appeal of WoW?

I've been spending a bit of time thinking about this. Why is this game so addictive? What is it that makes me YEARN to play? Here are some of the reasons in no particular order:

1. Death is not the end - aka immortality
When you die, it's just a little hiccough in your life, it's not horribly monumental. Just go find your body and try not to do it again for a while.

2. Satisfaction of a job well done - Completion
Everytime I get a task and complete it, the person thanks me for it and rewards me somehow, even if it's just XP.

3. Clear objectives and list of things to do
It's obvious if you have succeeded or failed. There is a counter which keeps track and keeps you on task. Also, if you don't know how to find something, just ask on the main channel, or look it up on one of the many websites with helpful tips and cheats.

4. No one remembers your failures
If you fail a quest, you can simply abandon it. Then, when you're ready, go back to the person and pick it up again. They don't judge you for failing, in fact, they don't even remember that they already gave that to you once before.

5. Procrastination rarely penalized
If I don't clean the kitchen, something may walk out of my refrigerator when company stops by. But if I take a few weeks to go kill something in the game, the only penalty is fewer XP points.

6. Be your own boss
Since we are basically self employed, and can choose which jobs to take and when to do them. You can also choose not to do something you simply don't like to do.

7. Unlimited World Travel
Nothing stops you from travelling the world. It is free to stay at an inn, they always have room, flights are pretty cheap ad sometimes even free, boats are free

8. Satisfaction of learning and growing
You get to learn and grow all the time. Once you're trained in a profession, you just keep practicing and you never mess up. Everyone can be a great cook, fisherman or physician. And the primary professions can be quite lucrative.

9. Commerce and economic education
I have learned more about commerce since I started playing this game. I like being the middle man, I get lots of money that way.

10. Pets without allergies
They follow you around and look cute. They don't get lost, and when you think they've run away, just check the crate... they are there! No sneezing or itching or complaining.

11. No fear of being maimed
I can be less than a millimeter from death, or even die, and all I have to do is eat something, take a potion, apply a bandage, or magically be healed. No broken bones, no road rash, no gaping wounds, no loss of limb.

12.... I think I'll just have to keep adding to this list over time...

Min Ni Kuhn and Orange Tabby

Min Ni Kuhn is a Gnome Rogue currently at level 17

RaSiKuhn and Silver Tabby

Posing for a shot - This druid is currently a level 43.

That's a mess of cats

But as soon as others saw what we were doing, utter chaos ensued and it was the attack of the cats photo op.

Gotta be starting something

One of our guild mates finally got his mount, so we celebrated with a "family" photo.



It started out as a simple "family" portrait with some of our guild.

Reality intrusions

At work today, I was typing up meeting notes from the previous day, and when I went to write down a note about working with a specific coworker on a project, the only name I could think of was Fedahis. The coworker's name begins with an F, and I haven't met him in real life yet, but Fedahis is a friend from my guild - Alliance of the Stars. I'll have to remember to tell him that.

Someday it would be fun to get the members of our guild together IRL. Giliath & Mestorius, Fedahis, Jinsong, Evan, Bloodbringer, Gardar, myself & Zinoviev and the others.

Enjoying Min Ni Kuhn

My husband, Zinoviev, has been building out a new machine for me to play with. His laptop (Dell XPS) does well with the game, but the other computers in the house don't handle the load as nicely. It's so nice of him to do this for me, I would never try to put a computer together. He also has school work to do, so he wasn't playing much this weekend.

Since Ra Si Kuhn is already level 43, and Zinoviev is still near the beginning of level 42, I stopped playing her this weekend and worked a bit on Min Ni Kuhn. She is a gnome rogue, with skinning and leatherworking. I'm having a lot of fun with her! Starting at level 11 on Friday or Saturday, she's now level 17.

Iron Forge Lag

I've noticed lag before when I enter Iron forge, or even just the auction house, but periodically, my computer completely stops responding when I am looking at the staves that are available and I have to kill the program. :(

Gadgetzan

I have discovered a new auction house. It makes me happy.

Now, if something doesn't sell at Iron Forge, I can try again at Gadgetzan. My item may be rare among the Horde.

And I love feeling like I'm on Tattoine. Blizzard continues to impress me with their fun look at this game.

Resting

Periodically, I get irritated with a character, such as my priest who does nothing but die, it seems, and I leave them alone for a while. I like that when I go back, they are well rested and I get double points! Nice feature. Only works if I stay in an Inn, though.

Previous post summary

January 04 - 7:08 PM
WoW or Sleep, one of them has to go

I confess, I'm addicted. Like nothing ever before, I LOVE THIS GAME!
I enjoyed Zelda immensely. I liked KOTOR as well. Fable was nice. WoW is FLAT ADDICTIVE!
A coworker asked what I liked to do before, and I told him I like people, I enjoy spending time with friends and family. He gave me a great quote: People are cool, but that was before WoW.

December 22 - 4:23 PM
Server Maintenance
Note to self: don't bother coming home early from work to play WOW, they do server maintenance then! DOH!

December 14 - 5:44 PM
Success
Finally, success! Now, should I be the human, dark elf, or create a new character?

5:43 PM
Teasing
Hurray! I connected! But I was immediately disconnected. :(

5:35 PM
Waiting
Oh no! They just posted an update that the servers are coming down (or have come down) but may not be back up for an hour! I could have stayed late at work and done something productive!
Tragic, just simply tragic. I have to meet a friend at 7PM, but I was hoping to go do something useful during that time... Oh, what? It's just a game? I could spend the time studying or cleaning or doing something useful? Pishah. Get a life.

5:32 PM
Misery loves company
I wonder how many other people are as sad as I am? I just tried again, which I'm sure is not helping their situation over at WOW. Too bad there's not a pre-login forum for us to commiserate and whine about how much we miss our characters, how eager we are to go kill that evil baddie beast, and in all ways put as much pressure as we can on the poor saps who have to fix the brokenness. I just hope it's not a scale issue. That would be incredibly bad planning on their part if it is.

5:29 PM
Technical difficulties
I came home, all excited to go play some WOW, but they are having login server issues. How sad. I'm very sad.
Still, no luck. Those poor OPS guys must be freaking out at WOW online. At least, I hope they are freaking out. I'm just so sad.

December 13 - 12:03 AM
New character
I got to play with some other friends on Saturday. Zinoviev & I created new human characters and played until 4AM. Yikes!
The new character is a human priest. She's much better as a support person than a melee person, it's better if I just heal people and cast a spell or two instead of rushing in to get slaughtered.
I chose a name I used with KOTOR 1, which is also where this name comes from. Although, it was Rah Si Kun with strange characters, but my husband pointed out that the h should be in the last name. I think next time, I will just have two h's for kicks.
But I'm surprised how many human female characters have names starting with Me.
Meh le Kun was the KOTOR 1 character, so MeLeKuhn is the WOW character. My friend Mehlena is a human paladin and my other friend Lewstring is a human mage. It's his first time with an MMLRPG so he's having fun learning and dying. I hope he keeps at it, it can take a while to get the hang of things.

December 08 - 12:25 AM
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is an amazing game. I even enjoy the occasional bug I come across.
My character is a Dark Elf Druid. My husband Zinoviev bought WOW for me last week and I'm already level 16. I'm also quite tired. ;)
I have learned the professions of herbalism and alchemy, and secondary cooking and fishing. I wish real life was as easy at this!