Project Lore

There are a number of Aussies who play World of Warcraft. I was talking to one on vent just last night. However, it seems that at this time, that number is not going to grow. Australian law dictates that no game can be traded or sold that is not classified by the Australian Classification Board as appropriate for a 15-year-old. WoW, along with many other MMORPGs, did not apply for classification in Australia due to its lack of a single player component, and thus fits into that category. As I was talking with (and playing WoW with) a player in Australia just a few hours ago, it doesn't look like accounts are being canceled or banned if they are from Down Under. With the law, though, the sale of new copies of World of Warcraft is likely going to stop in Australia for the time being. According to an article covering the controversy on IGN, penalties for selling unclassified games "range from $1100 to $11,000 for individuals and/or 12 months' imprisonment, and approximately double those figures for corporations." Blizzard will probably apply for classification as soon as possible to avoid losing any sales in Australia, though I feel bad for anyone who can't get their fix of Warcraft due to pesky laws. Any Aussies able to chime in?

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Tyr's Hand.  I am sure many of you old school players are very fond of this area of the Eastern Plaguelands.  The area is likely named for the Nordic god of justice, Týr, who had his hand bitten off by Fenrir.  Thus Tyr's Hand.  But a lesson in background lore is not why we are here today.  In my first installment of what I hope will become a semi-regular column, I look back on Tyr's Hand and the many hours I spent in the untouched area of the Plaguelands. As soon as I hit 60 I knew that I was going to have some serious farming ahead of me so I followed my rogue officer into Tyr's Hand, an area that I had never been.  We would farm the land before the night's Onyxia or Molten Core runs until our actions became second nature.  As a pair of rogues we would drop entire squads of Scarlet Crusaders without stopping.  Our names became a staple in the area between 4PM and 7:30PM EST.  Basically, we became a more active pair of NPCs.  Only, we focused our attention on destroying the last bastion of humanity in EPL for personal gain.  We were there so often, that numerous people thought we were china farmers. In fact, the china farmers thought we were china farmers!  From our time spent in Tyr's, we managed to pick up basic strings of Chinese to be able to talk with them.  We would trade stacks of Conjured Sweet Rolls for their Runecloth, help them when they seemed to be in trouble or chase off the horde together.  It was a grand old time.  Unfortunately, “ni hao” is all that I remember since my macro has long since been deleted. Although I was simply a very advanced bot when I was in Tyr's Hand, I rather miss it.  Pushing my limits of DPS and seeing how far I could go without eating food became a game to me.  Could I take four guys myself?  Will this guy drop my 6th green in a row?  Will I be able to fill up my bags before the raid begins?  Do the mobs in the eastern castle (up the hill) really have better droprates?  Will I ever have enough money to get my epic mount? Forget dailies, I would rather stand in one area and farm it dry than run all over creation farming.  Too bad running all over creation pays better.

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As I said earlier, I recently got my warlock his last ding until WotLK comes out. I have had a chance to bring him into a few instances, and I really enjoy it as a change of pace compared to my shaman. I'm definitely on the bottom of the DPS charts, but I can bring a few different things to a group as a warlock instead of a shaman. Don't get me wrong, I love my totems, heroism, and general ass kicking ability, but sometimes it's just fun to throw dots. I've still got a lot to learn in order to become more effective, but that's all part of the game. I'll get there eventually, but for now I'm ok with the fact that I am the weak link whenever I'm on my warlock. I must have run into a horde version of Xeno the other night while farming some Primal Life for a healing enchant. Of course, we all know that the horde consists of jerks and that warlocks are arrogant, so he decided to attack me. I, being a badass enhancement shaman, tore through his cloth wearing, emaciated blood elf face in a couple seconds. I then /apologized to him as I saw that he hadn't released, and then I engaged another level 62 bog lord nearby. As expected, the warlock used his soulstone and began attacking me again. Having been killed once again, I figured he had learned his lesson. However, just a few minutes later, I was forced to kill him once again. I can't help but wonder what made him keep trying. If it was me, I would have given up and run away with my freshly rezzed tail between my legs, as I have so many times (remember, I'm an enhancement shaman). Of course, with the mishmash of greens and blues on my warlock, I probably would have avoided screwing with a melee class that has beautiful badge weapons both enchanted with mongoose. Don't ever tell me horde are smart.

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Well, it's officially official. Activision Blizzard is now the world's largest publisher of video games. While Blizzard's FAQ states that the merger will have no effect on anything of much importance at Blizzard, the company has already started selling (and has already sold out of) plastic accessories designed to enhance the World of Warcraft experience. Remind you of any other games published by one of these companies? The problem is that this piece of plastic is just for security purposes, and all you do is punch in numbers from one screen onto another. What is this game, a giant spreadsheet? Far from a new game enhancment. Blizzard should grab a couple of developers from Activision to make a guitar that requires a kick ass solo before you can log in to WoW. Everyone knows that Vivendi could learn a thing or two from Blizzard, but Blizzard still has a ways to go with accessory based gaming experiences.

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Oh how I hate puggin'. Pick-up Groups (PUGs) in World of Warcraft are so freakin' random. I have had PUG groups that destroyed Heroic Shattered Halls in 41 min and I've have the unfortunate experience of PUGs wiping multiple times on the first Boss in normal Ramparts. Normal Ramparts! And most of them were level 65+. AHHHHHHH!!!! What to do... what to do... Join a guild is a good option... but sometimes that falls apart. People may not be on at the same time. Or people may not want to do that quest your on. Or what-the-freak-ever reason they have for not helpin' a guildie. And the other thing is that when they do decide to help out, sometimes the people are good and other times they just say that they are good. Mostly the second. Unless it's a group that's developed together over time. Then at least everyone sucks at the same level. I was very fortunate to be in a great cohesive guild for quite some time (Midnight Run, Frostmane thank you very much ) but that fell apart in the space of a weekend 'cuz a few jackasses screwed it up for everyone (that and some other stuff but that's a different blog...). But with that group now fractured beyond recognition, I'm looking for another guild that raids late server time, that knows what they are doing and likes to kill bosses instead of bitch about who got what purple three weeks ago. But back to my point. PUGs generally suck. Seriously. But what do we do about it? I know I know my class and it's responsibilities in a raid or an instance. I know I have the gear and experience in doing serious DPS and CC (Damage Per Second and Crowd Control). I also know what other classes are supposed to do and what spec they should be to do it. So I know what I'm looking for when I try and find a PUG. What I don't know is if some moron is going to go all emo (emotional) when someone else doesn't do their job or if someone who says they know how to hold threat couldn't hold a bucket of water without a forklift and two friends helping. I know we all need to get experience and learn boss strats (one of the reasons I'm helping produce Project Lore), but for heaven's sake - please be conservative in telling people how good you are when looking for a PUG. Be honest just don't tell me your the best lock in the game when you don't know when to use seed of corruption or when to enslave (Kara PUGs come to mind...). BOTTOM LINE: If you are looking to be in a PUG, be kind, be honest and don't be a freakin' moron that goes all emo at losing a greed roll on a stupid mail chest piece you'll never, ever freakin' wear. And if you do go all emo, I will forever ignore you.

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As we all know, Season 4 is almost upon us. What does that mean for me? It means Season 2 equipment will be available for Honor. Ideally, I would be grinding out Honor and tokens with the rest of the noobs who don't have Merciless or Vengeful gear yet. I'd love to buy a whole set of Epics, since both my Enhancment and Restoration sets have ugly blue holes in them. Unfortunately, I decided long ago that battlegrounds alone are much worse than battlegrounds with friends. Now, for me, this is pretty much the case with anything in WoW. But most of my time is spent dealing with guild organization (I had no idea what I was getting myself into), raids (same), or financing my habits, both in game and IRL. This leaves precious little time for battlegrounds and even less when friends are available. Alas, Season 2 gear, it seems we are not meant to be. I guess I will have to try and make those ZA runs in the future.

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I just finished uploading the first revision of the Project Lore Glossary! I think we have a pretty good start, but I'm sure you guys can think of some abbreviations or terms we are missing. Or maybe you've heard some phrase in game that you just don't understand. If so, just fire off an email to editor@projectlore.com and let me know what you think we should add.

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Welcome one and all to my Project Lore blog... What's there more to say than that, right? Actually a lot freakin' more. So hold on to your hats my fine little cyber friends. This is were I get to bitch about the stuff I can't type fast enough in guild chat while some affliction lock has got me dotted up to the teeth and some f'n rogue has crippled me once again in arena. I'll try to keep it clean here... no promises though... I mean I got the First Amendment on my side right? Well I'll let you know if I get a cease and desist order. In fact, I'll send you a copy to frame on your wall. Where was I? Oh yeah... bitchin' about stuff. Isn't that what a blog's for? Really? At least this one will be. And the topic: crap that annoys me while I'm playing World of Warcraft. Now it could be anything: the glare on the screen, my drink being half empty, or, my favorite, why can't the freakin' Alliance win a f'n battlegroud without the Horde being AF-freakin'-K! AHHHH!H!H!HH!!!! You try to get 28K honor points and 40 EotS Marks on a server who's chief comment in battlegrounds by the by the people who think that know what they are doing is "quit being stupid!" Those idiots. Tactic will be covered later. BTW - If I ever see someone in battleground with some stupid, jack@$$ comment like that, I will always report them being AFK or for spamming. Try to shake that one idiot. Well I don't want to lose all my venom here. I might have a nice comment or two in blogs to come. We'll see... Either way, thanks for showin' up and have fun playing. SaintGermain

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