So after deciding that WoW was a waste of time, of course I’ve returned to the game :P

I’ve repeated this quit/restart cycle a few times and might be concerned I have a tiny little problem if it weren’t for the very specific reason for playing again, namely, PvPing it up with my buddy, Rob.

Rob’s a bit of a PvP god, and we thought it would be cool to do some Arenas together. So I rerolled a Blood Elf (am usually Alliance) on a PvP server (usually PvE), and have been leveling her up nice and fast. Two weeks after starting, she’s just hit 60 and is zipping around Outland on the epic skeletal horse I picked up in a somewhat insane Undercity rep grind last night. (The regular Blood Elf chicken mount is okay, but the epic looks ridiculous when it’s running!)

As usual, her name is Kedera. She’s a shadow priest, which is new to me. Rob said the class would be a good match for his boomkin druid (and likely his bro’s warlock in a 3v3), and I’ve been having a fun time with her. DoTs rock, and so does blowing up night elves :P

I spent about an hour creating her initially (deleting three or four versions I wasn’t happy with after watching them run around a bit – wrong hair!), and IMO she’s pretty much the most physically attractive Hordie you can make. (She actually started off as Undead, but by level 20 I’d had enough of that race’s annoying swaying animations and general bleurghness. Delete!)

Thoughts on the past couple of weeks:

1. Bloof Elf starting area is the best in the game. The Draenei one, also introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion, isn’t bad, but the belf one kicks its butt. Nice quests, very fast leveling. Shame about Silvermoon, though – that place is a ghost town!
2. PvP servers are fun! I haven’t been ganked that much (and have only been the ganker a couple of times), and random world PvP encounters against similar level characters are exciting. Nothing gets the heart pumping like spotting a red tag running along just asking to be blown up!
3. WoW is more fun with RL friends. I’ve tended to do the solo thing in WoW, sometimes joining guilds, then promptly leaving them. I got a bit more involved with the guild on my last character and enjoyed the interactions, but it’s so much better when you play with people from your offline world. Rob and I have had a real hoot running some stuff together, then discussing it at the office the next day.
4. I need to watch the obsession. WoW uses up time. It can quite easily use up a lot of time, which is time I’m not spending on other things, like creating stuff, or developing my freelance business. For me at least, I think it’s important to set rules about play time. No daytime action on weekdays, for example.
5. I won’t spend too much time on grinding. I’m prepared to grind out certain things, like that horse, and some intro PvP gear when I hit 70 so I don’t embarrass myself in the early Arenas. But I don’t want to grind like crazy, especially when the grind is mindless. I’m here to have fun, which, strangely enough, means enjoying myself while playing :)

Tags: wow

I have beaten you to the kitchen,
Therefore you have given me your look.
One wonders what would happen if you were forced to go a day without food, or other routines were disturbed in some manner.

After getting all excited after hitting 70 in WoW, I’ve just sent 3,500g to a couple of guildies, deleted my character and cancelled my sub.

You realise there are better things to be doing with your time ;)

After a marathon Friday night session, my Draenei hunter “dinged” 70 in World of Warcraft. I promptly zipped off to buy my flying mount, flapped around a bit, then passed out.

Much of the rest of the weekend was spent acclimatising to a quite different game from the one I’d known levelling up. No more XP to gain, but so much other stuff to do. Daily quests (gold is soo easy – epic flyer here I come!), farming rep for gear, battlegrounds for honour and more gear, finishing quests in incomplete zones for yet more gold…

Oh, and I joined a guild after going solo just about all the way to 70. I haven’t really done anything with my “guildies” yet, but just sitting in a chat room while playing is good fun.

The flying part is great. The expansiveness and freedom are so cool, and dropping in to complete missions rather than having to run in is a real hoot!

WoW guru Robatron is currently slaving away to put together a nice gear upgrade path for me. Should keep me busy for a while :)

Tags: wow

Making some changes at Tech Sticks, and elsewhere.

What before was a webcomic / podcast / blog, is now just a comic.

The comic will likely do away with recurring characters and strict panel layouts, becoming more freeform and spontaneous, which is my preferred way to create.

Other sites I’m working on will also become more focused, and will focus on me as the sole creator.

Just launched FAQ Monsieur, your daily (or thereabouts) dose of Frequently Asked Questions as ham, then cheese.

Tags: faq monsieur

Wasn’t feeling the “fake tech news” thing at Odelbee, and am experimenting with the “crew on a spaceship” thing again. Currently, the crew is Derek, the charming green robot with red flappy ears.

The problem with the news thing is that it reacts, in this case to genuine news items. The reacting bothers me, I don’t feel in control; I feel too bound by other people’s contexts. I could make the whole thing up, I suppose, but even then the news story writing gets tiresome after a while.

Tags: odelbee

Nearthwort Obtain, the multidimensional adventurer’s handbook, has been reborn as the experiential narrative of Dreedan Holt, a Fourth Level Ascended Master. The site is both personal journal and handbook proper.

Podcasts from Nearthwort’s first incarnation can be found here.

Tags: nearthwort obtain

Odelbee began life as a fake tech news site delivered from a spaceship, then morphed into the wholly fictional adventures of the spaceship’s crew. I then lost interest and the site blew up.

I’ve kept it around, thinking I’d like to do something with it again. Today, I can reveal that “something” has arrived, and it is… fake tech news! Or at least, that’s what I’m trying for now. The first story is up, a WoW-related Swedish meatball thing. Always a good place to start.

There were some problems with Odelbee the first time around. For some reason, people didn’t quite understand that everything was made up. I’ve tried to clarify matters with a prominent “disclaimer”.

Tags: odelbee

This past Saturday was voiceover day, as I headed to Uptown Studios in Central London to make a professional recording of my voice, the first step in my (possible) voiceover career. The session was organised through Gary Terzza’s Voice-Over Masterclass. Gary was there, serving as director, and there was also an audio producer doing his best to make me sound halfway decent :)

It was a very interesting experience. I stood in an audio booth most of the time, reading various scripts in different styles. (You can listen to my efforts at Voice123.) Gary would deliver the lines first and provide some guidance, and then off I went. Recordings took 2-3 takes each, with Gary offering lots of helpful support. There were times I wouldn’t have minded another couple of tries at a script, but we only had three hours and there was quite a lot to do.

Gary’s comments were usually along the lines of “faster, and more pep”. I sometimes felt I was being absurdly peppy, and then I would listen to the recording and realise I could have been even peppier! It’s important to remember that this isn’t normal speech: you’re delivering lines, rather than speaking them.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my performance. I think I did best with the more corporate/narrative scripts, though my mobile phone ad isn’t quite as awful as it seemed at the time! :P

I also thought Gary was excellent, providing just the right advice to noticeably improve my delivery from one take to the next. Definitely check him out if you’re in the London area and thinking of exploring voiceover work yourself.

So I’ve got the recording, now to find some work! Voice123 seems like a good resource, and Gary has suggested lots of other ways to pick up jobs. I’ll report back if anything comes of it :)

Tags: voiceover