Project Lore

A while back I told you all about the jump into multi-boxing which I've been observing second-hand through my husband's toons. He's been leveling up two hunters through recruit-a-friend: one on his usual account and another on the new account. I helped out a bit in the beginning, then we both cut back on the adventure for a bit. Now that the end of the three-month window of triple xp is coming up, he started the push again and got both hunters both up to level 60. In the process, he racked up 30 levels to grant to another character on his main account. Here's where the fun begins. We decided to team up to act out a bit of the spectacle that can be garnered from level-granting. So I logged on to his level 30 paladin, Horadric, on his main account. And he logged on to the newly level 60 hunter, Officetemp. We met up in Orgrimmar, just in front of the bank and mailbox where there's usually a pretty decent crowd. It started off innocently enough. Officetemp /waved. Horadric /bowed. He said, "Let's see how this works." And so it began. DING! Flash of light, woosh of sound. Officetemp: "Grats!" Horadric: "Thanks!" Not many paid much attention. On with the show. DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! [Horadric] has earned the achievement [Level 40]! Now, a crowd was starting to gather. Chatter began. Some questioned WTH was going on. Some laughed. Some congratulated. Some cheered. Others asked how many levels more would be granted. Oh, the attention. Officetemp: "Hang on, I think I still have some more." DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! [Horadric] has earned the achievement [Level 50]! Now, spectators started speculating about how many more levels would be granted. Would he go all the way to 60 - the cap for level granting? DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! Horadric: "Getting close!" DING! Level 56. DING! Level 57. DING! Level 58. DING! Level 59. ..... Horadric: /bow. Officetemp: ...(silence) The crowd didn't like the suspense. Speech bubbles started popping up as some predicted that Horadric wouldn't get all the way to 60. Some seemed disappointed. Some even complained on Horadric's behalf at the cruelty to leave him hanging at level 59. Officetemp, an orc, finally speaks. And it's not pretty: "You have to work for this one. Dance, you filthy blood elf, DANCE!" Horadric, not one to be discouraged: /dance. The Napolean Dynamite-inspired number ensues. Some of the crowd seems to think this isn't good enough. "Get naked!" someone yells. A couple of spectators derobe and start getting jiggy with Horadric as he strips down, one piece of armor at a time. Toons hollar and whistle at the scene, and Horadric continues with the spectacle. Finally, Officetemp is satisfied. DING! [Horadric] has earned the achievement [Level 60]! The crowd cheers, jumps around, continues to dance, offers congratulations -- and those who guessed that Horadric would go all the way to 60 gloat in their victory. Horadric: /kisses Officetemp. The spectacle has ended, but a full-on party has started in the process. And nearly-naked toons continue to dance the night away. Officetemp logged off, and I handed the reigns to Horadric back over. It was a fun experiment in attention whoring. I was utterly satisfied that some simple role-playing combined with the awesomeness of level granting had made for a fun experience for all. The social aspect and interacting with a group of toons also was a great time. I thirst for more! Now I'm curious about what similar experiences everyone else has had? Have you had an opportunity to create a spectacle in front of a group? If so, what are some of your favorite ways to gather a crowd? Do you like joining in on group parties, or would you rather do your own thing and leave the attention-seekers to themselves?

Click to read more ...

It's been a solid eight months since Blizzard introduced its Recruit-a-Friend system and this week, I know of at least two more accounts they've roped in. One is legitimately one of my RL friends from college who finally caved to playing WoW for the first time out of general boredom. I'm hoping it keeps him entertained enough to get a paid account. And the other is my husband, determined to take advantage of the triple XP to get at least two new level 60 characters - a druid on his new account (which he then plans to transfer), and a shaman on his main account. Now how am I affected by that? Well, it's my DK who is running his new shenanigans through dungeon after dungeon. So he rolled his two Taurens and had one /follow as they leveled to 10 within an hour - triple xp for both the new account and the one its linked to (only up to level 60) is grand. Meanwhile, I quickly leveled my DK (who I had not really touched since completing my initial quests in The Ebon Hold and getting in good graces again with Thrall) to 60, so I could get Death and Decay and some AoE power. Now, I'm certain there are more efficient methods to achieving the quickest-as-possible leveling results. But I'm going to share how we've been going about it. We started off with running the Wailing Caverns to level 20, then Scarlet Monastery to level 40. Pull a group of mobs, bring them back within xp range of the alts, Death and Decay and spam a few spells - mainly Icy Touch, Plague Strike, Blood Strike, Corpse Explosion, and Unholy Blight. I'm not a DK expert, but it gets the job done. And despite the difference between the DK and the alts' levels, the triple xp (which unfortunately doesn't seem to stack with rested xp) more than makes up for it. He's actually been doing the bulk of the work - we're on different work schedules, so when I'm not around, he's multi-boxing with his two accounts and my one. It's quite a site. Four days in, and he's got both alts to level 40. Once they're to the level 60 cap for the xp, perhaps we'll start a new pair. The levels come so fast that it seems a waste not to! Now, there is a cost. In order for the characters to be transferable, you have to buy the game and upgrade to a paid account (however, your main account gets a free month for this, so the account costs basically cancel each other out). Then there's the transfer fee. But even if you decide not to transfer, the characters you level up on your main account still get to keep their levels. I guess it could be a game killer for some, but for people who cringe at the leveling process and just want to get to end-game, I say it's a fun and productive way to pass the time in those long hours when we were waiting for 3.1. And although I'm not much of a mount collector, I really want that damn Zhevra! I know a bunch of us here at Project Lore already have taken advantage of the Recruit-a-Friend bonuses - who else has? And how do you view the system - as a game promoter or destroyer?

Click to read more ...

So I, like everyone else it seems, have been victim of Blizzard’s recruit-a-friend program. With TBC wrapping up, it seems like the perfect time to level some alts with a big bonus. So like many others I have made friends with myself and started dual-boxing. But I don’t want to talk about that today. What I want to talk about is my experience leveling again. Like my good friend Juggynaut, I too (against my better judgment) recently decided to bring my new toons into Stranglethorn Vale. Being that I rolled on a PvP server I knew the risks… but I also knew there were plenty of kill quests that were ripe for dual-boxing, so I went anyway. As I expected I got ganked, and ganked a lot. So much in fact that after about half a day of leveling there I ended up throwing my headset across the room, yelling some choice profanities, and swearing I would never go back. I’ll reiterate, I fully expected the PvP central that STV is famous for. The reason for my frustration was not one, but several 70s that thought it was great fun to come kill my poor level 35 characters over and over and over again. Not only that, but after they killed me they had no issues camping my body and waiting for me to res to kill me again. Now as I’m sitting there with my ghost hovering over my corpse waiting for them to let their guard down for just a moment, it occurred to me… how are these people having fun right now? I really don’t understand it. I enjoy PvP as much as the next guy, and understand what comes with rolling on a PvP server. But seriously, who enjoys camping characters 30 levels below them for hours on end? It just seems sick to me. Are they really that hard up to feel "leet"? There is no challenge for them, there is nothing to be gained, pretty much the only reason to do it is to be a huge jerk. Seems crazy to me, but its clear LOTS of people do it. So I ask, why? Do you participate in the STV scene, or at least have insights as to why this is fun for people? When I’m on my 70s, my priorities are elsewhere, just saying.

Click to read more ...

Sometimes, you log in and nobody is around to group with you for heroics. Sometimes, your arena team is busy. Sometimes, your guild is busy wiping on a new boss for two hours. Sometimes, you just want some mindless fun. Recently, when I find myself in those situations, I've been leveling up some new alts. I've been playing a druid, and I've been playing a priest. At the same time. Kind of. I signed up for the Recruit a Friend program to test out that juicy triple XP. I entered my own name as the name of my friend, which I suppose is true enough. I tend to consider me a friend. So, I made a second account and, on it, created a dwarf priest. I'm not dual-boxing to pwn in arena or to solo Kara. I just have the priest auto follow the druid while I rip stuff up in cat form. If I need some help, I'll just have the priest bubble, renew, or heal the druid. It's fun, it's a new type of challenge, and it's a good way to get a lot of levels. And I mean a LOT of levels. The rate at which these two characters are leveling is pretty unbelievable. A guildy ran us through stocks a few times, where I got two levels from the mobs and one from completing the quests. Each character got almost 10,000 xp for each of the Stockade quests. That is pretty ridiculous in the mid 20s. Now, they both have their mounts and are level 31 and 32. Soon we will be roaming Outland, killing Overlord. Maybe. Now, I'm not really into the exclusive mount thing, so I probably won't keep the account for the full time needed to unlock that Zhevra. I just figured that it's a good way to get a couple of alts up to at least 60 before the expansion hits. Once the priest hits 59, I'll have him give 29 levels to my level 28 warrior or my 29 mage. That will be three characters to 60 in less time than it normally takes one. And then perhaps my dual-boxing days will be behind me. Although, maybe I will start the whole process over again with a combination of a hunter, a rogue, or a pally. I'm thinking rogue/pally would be easiest. Hunters are OP while soloing anyway. Once that's done, I might have a chance to finally get that second shaman I've always dreamed of. If you couldn't tell, I love shaman. And I love alts. After WotLK comes out, I can take advantage of the over-abundance of death knights that will be roaming Outland looking for groups and have nine 70s (or 80s?) Although, I have heard of 5 DKs completing appropriate level instances in the beta. NERF DKs.

Click to read more ...

Isn't that the story of my life? This time, though, they want my friends to play a game with me. From the official World of Warcraft site:

With the new Recruit-A-Friend program you can earn an exclusive Zhevra mount, receive a FREE month of game time, and gain access to other exciting in-game benefits. From the moment your friend creates a character and starts playing you’ll both earn triple the experience when grouped together and have the ability to summon one another from anywhere in the world. Also, for every two levels of experience your friend earns, they can grant one level of experience to one of your lower-level characters.

The Recruit-A-Friend program is really stepping it up. A free month of playtime was nice, but an in-game mount? Free levels? TRIPLE XP? Sounds like they are aiming for the 20 million subscriber mark. Of course, the triple XP and free levels only work up to level 60, according to the FAQ, but this sounds like a great way to bring a friend, roommate, or SO (significant other) into the game. These bonuses should get all of your friends to the Burning Crusade content quickly. Then you can help them burn through it and get them ready for WotLK. I'm sure Blizzard is counting on you to convince your friends to pick up BC as well as WotLK, whenever that comes out.

Click to read more ...