Procrastination bad

Every time I catch up on some skill points, I vow never to let it fall behind again. But then I start questing and all the skill grinding tend to be quickly put off for another time. This is how I end up in the situation where my lock picking skill is 25 points behind. The last time I feel behind by a hundred and so I am somewhat cheered by this sign of improvement on my part, but it's still a pain to catch up in one go. It's like spring cleaning or catching up on a back-log of paperwork or laundry. It's a tedious and repetitious chore that I then put off even more and the back-log grows.

I decided to get my lock picking up to scratch today. From 285 - 310 before I hit level 63 and it's 315. I made the effort of travelling from Outland to the Eastern Plaguelands to go and pick some locked boxes (it caught me up a while ago when I did the same in the Wetlands), but the boxes are surrounded by two or four elites and few and far between. I managed two before boredom took over. I regret not pickpocketing as often as I can. Soloing most of the time invariably results in me being too busy surviving to worry about pickpocketing and again, I vow to no longer take the easy road. I decided that it may be easier to pickpocket for heavy junkboxes instead. Off I went to Hellfire Peninsula in search of an easy mob and I sort of found one.

The tunnels just outside the gates have a pickpocket rate for heavy junkboxes of about ten percent and four trips through the tiny mine yielded a total of eight boxes en around 20 000 or so xp. I'm now at lock picking 298 and counting. One or two more trips and I'm at 300 and off to Zangermarsh where prettier baskets await to level me to 315. In the process of levelling up my lock picking, I've also levelled up another level.

The Mundane

It's the mundane experience of real life assimilated into the Warcraft world that gets me every time. The travelling and the amount of time it eats up; the cooking and general love for exotic foods (not for their tastes, but for the buffs) and then there's waiting for a lift. Not any lift though, it's mundane meet fantastical and it's plenty obvious when the lifts look like this:

Favourite Places in Azeroth

Special requirements

I dislike requiring, receiving and not receiving all the things that I need to try and function in the normal world as someone who technically have a disability. I dislike that concept too and particularly loathe the way that it is used to define a person, i.e. me. It's a little doomed if I do and doomed if I don't. If I don't acknowledge that I have special needs I am not entitled to any of the exceptions that I may require. If I do acknowledge that I have special needs, I am not entitled to the same things someone in good health is and the focus shifts entirely onto my condition and away from everything else. It's an annoying and frustrating flaw buried so deep in societal norms that there's no getting around it.

A virtual world provides the option of more invisibility. Those suffering from invisible chronic illnesses often complain that since their symptoms are not visible they tend to be ignored by others. I sympathize. I have plenty of symptoms that aren't visible and plenty more that are only occasionally visible and it is difficult to try and explain how something that other people can't see is preventing you from doing a great many things. It doesn't get any easier in a virtual community. In fact, in some ways, it gets harder.

I don't socialize much. People have very little patience with the restrictions my condition place on me, and when they associate with me, on them. They feel frustrated, confined and a little angry that their life has just become more difficult because I have certain limitations. I don't group up much in game for the same reasons. Am I too cynical? Do I presume too much? Maybe. But people create complications that are difficult to overcome.

I dislocated both thumbs and a shoulder yesterday and subluxed right elbow and wrist. This means that today I can use my computer for maybe 2 - 3 hours in total and no more than 20 - 30 minutes at a time. If I use my game console and mouse. Keyboard use would at least half those estimates. Thank goodness for Dragon.

As a result of migraine headaches easily triggered by certain visual stimuli, part of the warcraft world is inaccessible to me. The problem is that I don't know which parts until I see them. It's therefore a bad idea to group up for an instance I haven't run with people I haven't informed of the possibility that I may have to log out about sixty seconds after any visual trigger due to a migraine aura starting. And I don't feel comfortable providing that much personal information to other gamers and they would not feel comfortable receiving that much personal information from someone they approached on a whim.


On days where I can't walk (I also dislocated my knee yesterday), can't type and can barely move, there is no social setting where I'd be very welcome or comfortable. The NPC's don't mind though and it's a relief to have something to do and somewhere to go that is outside of my life and distracts from the joint pain. I may not be able to play much today, but I can open up an AH panel, read the general chat and go on a virtual shopping spree. My main needs some new shoes and my main alt needs better jewelry. I made 500g on the AH yesterday, might be time to spend a little today.

Auction House Tip on Pricing

Know your product and what it does on the AH. I find that I can make a consistent profit from certain things, such as Heart of Fire. I buy them when they are on sale for less than market value and resell. I always place two to three stacks at different prices at a time. The first is at market price and usually sells almost instantly. The second is above market price, but reasonably priced and sells within 24 hours at points where anything at MV or below has been sold out. The last is ridiculously overpriced and only sells when it's the only one available.

This strategy works well for me. I make a humble profit from the first, a satisfactory profit from the second and a windfall from the third. On Heart of Fire, the increase in profit from different prices is about 50%. Definitely worth the hassle.

Saying no

It's the social component of Warcraft that I find most difficult. Assertiveness is not taught in schools and although I have picked up quite a few assertive skills over the years, saying no is not quite one of them. I have no problem saying no to people, I am simply not in the habit of doing so. Years of feeling that magnanimity should come first has left me with a compulsion to make excuses. I feel as if I should explain myself when I decline a duel or an offer to group up, and I really don't need to.

I enjoy helping out other people, particularly when I have a little time to kill, but I'm not in the business of playing fairy godmother. I will group up occasionally at random and I will except the odd duel, but neither is my thing. I prefer to solo or duo with Chris and anything else is just additional stress. I keep forgetting that that's okay. I don't have to help everybody that asks and I certainly don't have to provide them with the reasoning behind my decision. No would suffice.

We live in an era of too much information and I keep forgetting that I am allowed to simply say, "Thanks for the invite, but no, I'm not interested." I think I'm even allowed to just say no.

Fools rush in

Alexander Pope had a point, but of course he did. I didn't have much enthusiasm for Pope whilst studying his work at university, but my lecturer sure did and his enthusiasm stayed with me. Pope required a more mature audience than the student that I was, but I have matured over the years and now I again read Pope over my morning coffee, whilst the auctioneer software updates in the background.

The biggest mistakes I have made in the game so far has been to rush in with not enough prior knowledge or detailed investigation. I set my heart on the phantom blade and threw money into blacksmithing to level up the few points I was short to hit the appropriate skill at the same time as hitting level 44. Paying 75 gold for a blade seemed like too much money, so I vowed to make one myself. It was not until after I had spent serious gold on the levelling and obtained the recipe that I realized just how expensive the mats were. If I had simply bought it on the Auction House, I would have been able to afford it. Now I was short of gold and in need of purchasing quite a few very expensive mats which I was not high enough level to farm myself. I could not afford to make the blade until my main had hit level 50.

I did the same thing again yesterday. I thought the Smoking Heart of the Mountain trinket looked cool. I spent 30 gold on the pattern, 7 gold on the blood of the mountain, 30 gold on the shards (I had learned part of the lesson and bought at a large discount) and only when Chris logged in his enchanting character and couldn't craft it did I notice that the black forge was required. Again, around 70 gold spent on something that will now lie in the bank for a while, if not eternity, because it's time-consuming and we don't have that much play time. Besides, I think the Ward of the Elements trinket is as easy/difficult to obtain and it is superior.

I think I am learning the lesson. Don't rush in. Also, "A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing". I'm starting to get it now, Mr Pope.

Obsession, capitalism and the meaning of life

It's easy to be consumed by just about anything. The human brain is always in search of patterns and once it has the scent of a specific pattern puzzle, it wants to follow the trail through to the prize at the end. Unfortunately, there often is no prize. Very few things in life end. We may envision an end or a final outcome, but we rarely, if ever, get there and if or when we do, it's almost always not the end, but simply seemed like the end from far away. Life is a succession of events and the conclusion of one is also the beginning of another.

The gaming industry is often accused of designing games to get people hooked in order to make money. I doubt that there is a mastermind behind each game sitting at a big oak desk in a large corner office of an imposing building with steepled fingers and a maniacal laugh revelling in all the gamers that's keeping him rich. In a capitalist driven culture, money is of importance to everybody. Money makes the world go round, without it, companies go out of business and no more game. The more money made, the larger the safety buffer between the company and bankruptcy and the safer everyone feels. I'm sure drowning in money is fun too, but I don't think greed is the driving force behind capitalism. If there has to be a driving force, it's more likely to be ambition and money is simply the symbol of success at the end. Invariably, money is only crucially important to those who do not have plenty of it. I do think gaming is an easy addiction, but it's not designed that way because of anybody wishing to make money. It's designed that way because that's how the human brain works. Everything is an easy addiction. A quick glance at all the .... anonymous groups should make that clear.

I find that the more I play, the more I want to play and the less I play, the less important the game seems. It's always about just obtaining that next goal, just like it's always about just obtaining that next promotion at work, just obtaining that next mile on the treadmill, just obtaining that one more zero on a bank account and just obtaining that next house that's slightly larger than the last. It's always about finishing what we started which becomes deathly problematic when nothing actually finishes.

I don't eat all the food on my plate. When I'm full, I stop. I don't run when walking will do and I rarely chase the high of the next success. Chronic illness will do that to your outlook. It's the life lesson that hits back hard when you struggle against it. I spend a couple of hours playing on Saturday night to reach level 60 and get my first epic mount with a different faction than my own and I spent Sunday and probably the best part of today, recuperating. It seemed like a good idea at the time and a very bad one in retrospect as I partially dislocated multiple joints on Sunday as payment for my indulgence.

It's easy to be consumed by anything. The whole world is just a vast pattern and the trend setters are those who spot the relevant threads first. Success is standing on the edge of a precipice and obsession is taking one step forwards and toppling over. It's difficult to stop when everything seem to be within grasp, but alas, tomorrow is another day. I could have waited until Sunday to get my mount. It would not have been any less exciting. Or truthfully, it may have been a little less exciting but it also would have been a lot less painful. Life is a balancing act. Every act requires a certain regularity for it to be successful. Life is about slowly chipping away at multiple points. It's not about tunnelling through one spot. Or maybe it is. Maybe success does require a certain single mindedness, but I can't see what level of achievement would be worth the price of spending everyday hammering away at the same problem.

For me, life is about variety and balance. Working a little, relaxing a little, having a hobby, spending time with loved ones and having time to do things in a timely manner, without haste. It's also about the occasional moment of obsession, but I am still not convinced that giving in to those are a good idea. I think I would have been better off if the big events were a little smaller, but that begs the question - wouldn't life become extremely tedious?

If there is no giving it your all for the final stretch of the race, then there is no sense of achievement as you cross the finish line, no much deserved rest afterwards and no fun in the preparation for preparing the next. Should we always hold back? I am not for pushing ahead 24/7, but isn't the parts of life that's worthwhile the parts immediately after the achievement of a goal?

I think different temperaments require different strategies and I, I'm the less temperamental type. My life has plenty of unexpected upturns and downturns for me to want to add any more. The game, is just a game. I'd like to keep it that way.

Bag Space as a psych eval

Getting to know someone is as much about making logical deductions as it is about observation and interaction. The longer we know someone, the more we interact with them, the more data we are able to assemble and the more accurate our predictions about them become. It's usually in the remit of psychologists to be able to know someone within an extremely short time span. Various tools are available to aid the process. One of these are questionnaires. These types of personality questionnaires have exploded in pop culture and everybody, whether they admit to it or not, as at least tried to use one of these to try and understand themselves better. Getting to know someone is easier than getting to know yourself. Self observation and interaction is biased and when logical deductions are made by you of you they quickly become rather illogical leaps and grasps.

I always find my obsessive compulsive side pouncing on such questionnaires, particularly the ones published in popular books and magazines. They're usually riddled with logical flaws and various errors that make them at best, hazardously unreliable. You cannot tell from questions such as "do you prefer to spend time alone or with friends" how social anybody is, nevermind trying to decern whether they have an issues with social situations. And yet, that's what most of these types of questionnaires claim to do. I prefer getting a sense of people and myself through wild speculation instead.

I have my bags arranges and organized, but there are always bits and pieces present. A few feathers left from rep grinding kept since I am still in the process of rep grinding, even if I am not doing that today, a few quest items from quests covering six to seven level appropriate areas - some are green, some yellow, some orange, but none grey, a few useful looted items - mana regens if I'm playing a bana-based character, health regens if not, both if I'm not a healer and bandages even if I am. My bagpack is neatly packed with essentials - health / mana potions, a fishing rod, a few lures, a skinning knife or mining pick, one non-combat pet, one stack of battle elixir and one of a guardian variety and that's about it.

What does my bag space say about me? It says that I am not obsessive. If I was, my potion stacks would always be either full or at a certain number and I would have a ritual for use and replenishment.

It says that I am a punctual personal that leans slightly toward perfectionism. I have no junk, its all cleared out after every trip. I have no outdated quest items, it's all things I am currently working on. I have allocated bags for certain items, but not allocated bag slots unless it's relevent for a macro. That makes me less obsessive and less of a perfectionist than at first glance.

It says that I like to think of myself as efficient and prefer my life organized, but not extremely so. I like to know the facts, but are happy to make plenty up as I go along. I do not spend much time looking at my bag space, I have a general system and that I mostly adhere to. Not always, but most of the time.

It also says that indulgence is important to me. I almost always carry a non-combat pet. I don't have a collection, each character has a few, but I like them nonetheless. Enough so, that I would sacrifice a few bank slots and one bag slot for my pets. I like them because they're fun and entirely unnecessary. Everything should have something that serves no other purpose than to entertain.

My bag slots do reflect my personality. What does your bag slots say about you?

A little like Alice in Wonderland

I'm a virgin gamer. I have dabbled on occasion with the usual suspects: Simcity, The Sims, Civilization II and III, The Sims II and that's about it. I grew up on boardgames and Barbie dolls. I rock at Monopoly. Although there were plenty of times to get into gaming, I never saw the appeal. It seemed like such a large investment of time and effort into something fantastical. What would be the point? Also, gaming made me throw up. I have motion sickness that is as easily induced on-screen as in a moving vehicle and I could never stomach all the in-game action. Hence my choice of games without movement as mentioned above. Unfortunately, I found those less than compelling. After an initial exploration, I always returned to my other hobbies - music, writing, reading.

Warcraft is my first dab at on-line gaming and it's the first game I have played for more than a few days or weeks. It's also the first game that I have played on both a mental and emotional level. I never cared much for my civilizations, sims or their cities. I do care about my Warcraft characters. They seem more real, definitely three dimensional. I think of my warcraft characters in the same way I think of my favourite fictional characters - Anita Blake, Ender, Elaine Risley, Pug. I almost think of the bad guys in the game they way I do of my favourite bad guys - the Posleen, the Fithp, but not quite. They're not quite as real, at least not yet.

I still prefer reading over gaming, but it was a magnificent find to discover a game that's almost as good as a book. Only this time, I am co-author as well as reader. I help shape the destiny of my characters. I decide where they go in the world and to some extent, what they do. As gaming options go, I am struck by the size of the Warcraft universe everyday. I am on the verge of leaving Azeroth for Outland and I realise that there are still whole regions I haven't explored. I have only seen snatches of The Badlands, Azshara, the Burning Steppes and Winterspring and nothing at all of Silithus. I have rarely visited any of the Horde dominated areas and that's at least 30% of the world left unexplored. I also have not done many instance and that's almost a world on its own. There is still so much to do and then there is still all of Outland. It seems neverendingly large.

I feel a little like Alice in Wonderland and I wonder: How deep does this rabbit hole go?

Know when to shop

Sunday afternoons are the Strangtlethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza. Everybody that's anybody attends. Sunday afternoons are also the best time to camp the auction house for the fresh catch of the day. Most of the anglers fish up at least a few stray unwanted fish unrelated to the prizes and dump them for cheap on the AH afterwards. It's one of the best time to shop for firefin snappers, oily blackmouths and stonescale eels.

There's no need to ever pay full-price for anything and fish can be particularly expensive. There is also no need to farm everything yourself and spend all your precious warcraft time farming. Slip into the AH regularly, know what you need and make a quick scan for bargains. Know when AH patterns - when the mats you want to buy are cheap and the items you have made or looted will sell for serious dough.

I can make over a hundred cold a day in less than an hour by scanning the AH at the right times for the right goodies. There's nothing else a level one, aka my auction toon, can do to make that high an hourly rate. The AH is your best friend, particularly if you play casually and tend to solo. It opens doors to loot that otherwise would have been locked and opens a window to novices who sell for cheap and provides access to the rich who buy for plenty. I'll say it again, the auction house is a casual gamers best friend.

Traveling Tip

If you accidentally get on the wrong griffon, don't despair, there is no need to travel all the way from Darnassus to Gadgetzan only to catch the next flight back. If you log out mid-flight, you will be deposited at the nearest flightpath point.

Children's Week

I love the in-game holidays with the usual accompaniment of special quests ending with special rewards. This week is childrens week and after taking my human orphan to Westfall, Loch Modan, Darnassus, Theramore Isle and back to Stormwind for some strawberry ice-cream I get a special pet. The decision was a difficult one - a turtle, white rat or a piglet. Chris chose the rat, I took the piglet and went back a day later with my druid to also get the turtle. Between us, we have all three children's week special pets.

Corporate social responsibility

As I was placing my usual items on the auction house this morning, I thought about the news clip on the massive profits oil companies are seen to be making whilst the average customer is struggling to afford fuel. I am not a virtual corporation by any means, I think the large guilds would be a closer to that, I am more of a small time entrepreneur. However, my actions do affect other players.

The auction house is a small closed market and one person can quickly reduce the market value of any item by simply supplying in bulk. Conversely, one person can quickly inflate prices by buying out all or at least all of the reasonably priced sales of any particular item. It is in my best interest to sell few items for the highest price possible. It frees up my time to play more rather than sitting in the auction house, crafting away in a capital or engaging in mindless gold farming.

However, my high prices make quite a few things unaffordable for any new players starting up. In turn, it detracts from their gaming experience since they now have to either put up with crappy gear and the accompanying crappy game play, or spend an inordinate amount of time camping the auction house or gold farming. Do I have a moral responsibility to other players?

On a server where the majority of players are 20-odd levels beyond me, I have to say probably not. Competition is fierce for profit and I myself are struggling to make enough money for slightly better than crappy gear, a mount, an epic mount and a flying mount. I have spells that I couldn't afford to learn from my trainer and some of my gear are 20 levels below me. I can't afford to be nicer.

In real life, people give to charities. In virtual life, people give to their guild. It's a way of feeling sociable responsible, of gaining the satisfaction from knowing that you have helped someone else to no benefit to yourself. Or rather, no immediate benefit to yourself. Belonging to guild is an social imperative in Warcraft. Just about everybody belongs to a guild.

The place for both social and corporate social responsibility is not in the auction house, but inside the smaller communities people choose to belong to. Or is it?