Warcraft

I'm back playing Warcraft, but I don't think I'm staying for long.

The reason for returning are pretty much the standard reasons I end up getting caught up with the game - a bunch of friends (in this case co-workers) all start playing again on a new server, in the case Cenerion Circle, Horde side. A lot of folk say they're building new characters, and we'll all advance together, so I go along with it and reactivate the account.

And pretty much the standard things have happened. You miss a day and suddenly you're three levels behind. Miss another and you're five levels. Miss a third and you friends aren't even on the same continent with you. And then they build alts, and THOSE pass you.

I've tried this time to dedicate a part of the day to keeping up, but it just doesn't work out to my advantage. And some of the players are bringing over characters from other servers, so I'm looking at being the low person in the guild. And this will go until we get a new shiny objects and they move onto it.

Now mind you, I'm enjoying myself. The 1-20 early game experience is pretty nice and diverse, and I'm running a Shaman for the first time, and the specials for that class come together in a nice story line. And I've run a few instances (they have made changes which have made the instances a little more accessible). And playing with a group of game designers has its own amusements in chat (my favorite quote to date is "This EA was spawned by drunken monkey robots!").

And the economy is not broken, but is severely sprained, with a huge drive for ore for the new crafting operations. I thought this would go away after everyone had adapted to Burning Crusade, but there is a lot of money to made in the auction house just from getting your alt to go mining (and mine hangs out in southern Durotaur, which is pretty empty these days).

And I'm not that shabby a player - my exposure to my co-workers is rubbing off a little more. I'm better with my timing and knowing when to pull and when to just run. So that's different than last time, when I always felt struggling with the options available.

So its not that bad, but I'm keeping an eye out for the inevitable topping out, of people drifting off, losing interest, and finding new toys. And then I'll close this one out again. Because the big reason for playing the game is the people you hang out with, and its a pretty good gang.

More later,

A World Without Warcraft

So I made a peon cry the other day.

OK, it was an orcish peon, and a virtual orcish peon at that, so I shouldn't feel too badly. You see, I canceled my World of Warcraft account. My reasons were three-fold - I didn't have any time, what time I did have I wanted to use to explore new games, and while I was in a half-dozen worlds with various friends, I never got to play at the same time, and they eventually all leveled past me, created new characters, and those new characters leveled past me.

And all for fifteen bucks a month. I hadn't been able to really get going with anything for three months, so I figured it was time.

But when you cancel your WoW account, they first recommend you call their toll-free number so a human being can try to convince you otherwise. I passed on that option, downloaded the latest patch (yeah, I PATCHED in order to drop the game), and went to the site to cancel. And met the weeping orcish peon there.

The peon was despondent, and would not let me leave without a reason why. It had a pull-down menu, and experimenting with a few of them, found that when you chose one, the weeping orc would pop up with another box, arguing with me about why I was wrong.

And interesting approach. Of the three reasons I just mentioned, I couldn't find one for "no time" or "friends much better than I am", so I finally settled on "leaving for another game". And the weeping orc, a spurned, jealous lover, wanted to know "what game?" and I put down Guild Wars (though LOTRO and the beta of a Korean game I keep calling Grando Espresso were also there). And it informed me that other games may have their "shiny baubles" but only WoW strive to presenting the best and most varied game experience.

Uh-HUH. You know, these guys charge 45 bucks every three months whether I play or not. Their dedication to my participation would be more sincere if it showed up before I decided to turn off the cash flow. So a couple button punches later, along the lines "but are you SURE?", this shows up:

"If you choose to deactivate your subscription‚ you will still be able to play until your currently paid for time expires on June XX, 2007 X:XX AM PDT. The peon is full-on weeping now. We hope you're happy. Are you positive you want to deactivate your subscription?"

Am I happy? Absolutely. I made virtual orc marketing peon cry. More people should take advantage of that opportunity.

More later,

The Script in Your Head

So you know how you sometimes get a song in your head, that won’t go away? They’re calling that an Earworm, a name which pretty much conjures up the irritating feeling it gives you.

Do I get earworms? Sure, my head is a recording studio for every catchy tune in history. I’ve learned to live with it.

But worse, I get Ear-scripts!

Here’s what happened. I was talking with agent the other day, on getting some books sent up to me (Author copies of a compilation work on including The Last Guardian, my Warcraft novel). And over the course of the conversation, he mentions a recent news story:

A woman comes home and finds a strange man sitting on her bed. The man says, “I’m sorry, I have to tell you, your husband paid me five thousand dollars to kill you. I think we should call the cops and both be here when they arrive.”

And I responded, “No, no, no. If this was a movie, then SHE would say. OK, I’ll pay you five grand to whack HIM, at which point it becomes a film about betrayals.” And he laughed and the conversation moved on to other things.

The thing of it is, thought, that now I can’t get that idea out of my mind. I thought about more, and I realized that whacking the husband doesn’t happen yet. First the wife wants to know WHY her husband wants her whacked. And the hit man doesn’t know, so that starts us out. And it is about who is in charge of a relationship?

And then I got to thinking about how one would go about hiring a hit man in the first place. Particularly if one didn’t run in those circles in normal situations. Like if you were a white-collar husband - how would you pull off this crime if your were an engineer. And of course, why would you want to bump off your wife, as opposed to just divorcing her?

And so it has been for the past day or so. I have been writing a movie in my head. One of those thrillers where everything makes sense, and which has a gimmick to it (Flashbacks!), and where one member of the triangle has to survive, and you know who it is, but you have to get to the point that it makes sense who that person is, even though it is surprise. And I have a tag line ("Violence Never Solves Anything. Except Problems.") and know what classic song is playing over the end credits (Talking Heads Once In A Lifetime).

I know what this is. This is my brain in rebellion. I have no real desire to write a movie, and though I have come over the years to respect those that due (even really crappy movies). This is about the fact that I have four major things I have to write right now (one of which is being revealed in this month’s issue of PC Gamer, mailed out today – I’m the one in the rust-colored shirt in the pictures), and this is my brain saying “No, I don’t want to write all of this stuff you've agreed to – I want to go out and play. And THIS looks like shiny plaything.”

And when I get done with all this stuff, I will look at this movie idea and say, Yuck! What was I thinking to want to write about THAT!

But bear with me in the meantime, and be glad that you just have to worry about getting David Byrne caught in your brain.

And you may find yourself in a beautiful house,
With a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
Well...How did I get here?

More later,

Warcraft: Full and Empty

So I was snowed in yesterday, so I didn't get a copy of the Burning Crusade expansion (as opposed to friends who stayed up until midnight Tuesday in order to get on as soon as possible). So I picked up a copy on the way to work, and the guy checking the receipts at the front door said "You're already behind".

I have friends and co-workers who were doing beta - I could have been the first official player and STILL have been behind.

But I WAS on WoW last night, playing my Tauren Hunter, Thunderchild, and finishing up some quests. There was a half-hour wait to get on, but after I got into the game, the zones I was running in were EMPTY. It was because all the high-levels were already in the new high-level territory, and all the low-level new races (Blood Elves and Blue Devils) were in the low-level racial home areas. As a result, I had most of Dustwallow Marsh to myself. It was strange, sort of like having Disneyland all to your lonesome, but I got a lot done.

And now I have joined up with the new hotness, like the rest of the cool kids.

More later,