Dead Body Ads in Org

Came across a few dead-body ads in Org the other day. Clever. Perhaps annoying. I'm wondering how long this use of body art will be tollerated.

Feifer Hits 80

In a grind atop a parapet in Icecrown, Feifer hit 80. The final ding, the disappearance of the health bar, and it was done.

Here's a pic of Skrah and Feifer a while back.



And here's what we look like now:

Onyxia Raid

We've started raiding as a guild, and it's a lot of fun. Last night we did Onyxia successfully, which was a big boost. Here's a tad of video taken after we killed the boss. Next time, I'll try to record the boss fights in full.

Class-itis

I've been suffering from class-itis lately: the syndrome in which one can't quite decide which class to be. I want to be a healer, but which healer? The pally is a bit too much like my warrior, the druid's heals don't seem that powerful, the shaman's totems are kind of annoying since they all stay in one place, and the priest is, well, just a priest.

So, to respond to this, I've been trying the shaman. And really, the only reason I don't like my priest is that she's a troll. Troll females simply scare me.

And here's a random picture of Skrah sitting next to some dude. They're getting all friendly in the image; giggle.

Let Bylaws be Bylaws

a month or so ago, Skrah and I redid the website and added a bunch of "Guild Guidelines" for chat, bank, promotions, etc. It's part FAQ and part ounce of prevention. Our idea was to make expectations clear so that we wouldn't have people on chat being rude, homophobic, racist, etc. In short: keep it clean people!

We were worried that this would seem like policing, and maybe make folks think we take this game too seriously. But so far, it's proven to have the opposite effect. Guildies are happy to maintain the chat and the bank and the guild ranks, and these guidelines give them a way to do it. Plus, we can tell new members to just go read the site. It's quick, easy, and painless (well relatively).

I must say, though, once again that our guild culture is so nice because the guildies want it to be that way: they maintain it by their generosity and sense of humor. So thanks guys for taking such good care of the guild :)

Life in the Queue

Just as our guild has reached 250 members, just as we're both almost 80s (or close to it), and just as we're starting to figure our raid dynamics ... our server has become a clogged metropolis called Queue Land.

Where once upon a time we could log on quickly and at any time, now we have to plan ahead, queue up, and wait in line. 500, 800, over 1,000 people ahead of us we wait to play a game that approximates work and "real life" in so many ways. Checking auctions. Dealing with guild business. Leveling up.

And yet we wait, unwilling to transfer off our home planet for fear of some difference Off World. Of course, our friends wouldn't be out there on some new colony ... but the world would be the same, right? We don't know, so we queue. Queue time is a reminder of simpler games, cards, puzzles, the Unplugables.

Oh wait, I'm third in line. Time to plug back into the business that is this game.

Guild Banker

Does your guild have a guild banker? While I used to use my regular bank/auction alt to maintain the guild bank, with the growth of our guild, I recently split up those duties and created a dedicated Guild Bank Alt. This is awesome. Whereas I used to have to keep track of what auctions I was selling and what auctions were for the guild, as well as which stacks of materials went where, now the Guild Bank Alt's action is entirely dedicated to the guild.

And man do we need it. With a growing guild and five tabs, the Guild Bank Alt is constantly pulling items for the bank, disenchanting, and restocking. Extra gold gets rolled into the guild ... as we look ahead to a 6th tab!