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.
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
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:
Sunday, 25 May 2008
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.
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.
Friday, 23 May 2008
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
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.
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.
