A Slice of Guild Chat from the Release of Warlords of Draenor

Darkfall guild chat this evening:

Warlords of Draenor is live!

<Me finishes off a Pandaria Master Pet Tamer.>

Rogue: I'm gonna level so fast!
<Rogue gets achieve for turning in Shado-Pan quests>

Warlock: I've never seen a new expansion on release day. I'm gonna go see it!
Me: I plan to avoid spawn camping ridiculousness, and just hang out here in Pandaria pet battling for a bit.

<Me finishes off Thundering Pandaren Spirit Pet Tamer.>

Rogue: The first quest giver is bugged.
Rogue: Blizz has had 3 months to beta test this. I can't believe it is so broken.
Warlock: I can't move.
Me: LOL
Warlock: I can't even hearth.
Me: Welcome to the new Expansion, same as the old expansion. Shit be broken.

<Me finishes off another Pandaria Master Pet Tamer.>

<Warlock logs off and logs on an alt in Org.>

Rogue: Whoa, this place is so crowded.
<Rogue goes offline.>
Warlock-alt: I think the EK server went down. The Blasted Lands was super lagged.

World Server is Down.

Ruins

I look at my draft posts, and all I can think of is the Indiana Jones movies. My draft folder is some sort of jungle ruins situation. Half written posts that are overgrown with twice re-written posts. Watch out for those old posts about tanking or Timeless Isle, those poison darts are still potent. Is that a giant image post of the legendary cloak questline, but with only half of the captions done, rolling towards me like a giant boulder of doom?

Perhaps my analogy falters.

Regardless, I keep thinking that if I can just rescue a few of them, and start posting some WoW stuff again maybe I'll have any sort of motivation to play again. I suspect my cause and effect is reversed though.

I do know that if I look at all those half written drafts I can see when and why I stopped caring about WoW. It mostly boils down to the stress of trying to lead a guild and a raid, the tension between flex and having to cut down to a normal raid, Timeless Isle, the horrible thought of trying to get on the gear treadmill with my alts (let alone the new boosted 90, which *still* doesn't feel like a real character), and just not feeling like Blizz actually wanted me as a customer.

I know the new expansion is coming up soon. I know the next major patch is really soon. But I'm only feeling an obligation to log on, no actual desire.


Maybe it'd be better to leave those ruins buried under the jungle.

Rob Pardo: More of a Sexist Asshole than I Thought.

The more I think about Rob Pardo's words the angrier I am. I tried to wait a week before I posted my thoughts to see if I cooled down, but I've actually only gotten more angry.

I really can not emphasize how FURIOUSLY ANGRY I am about Rob Pardo's attitude on workplace hiring: Yet in discussing this workplace gender imbalance, he notes "It's not because we don't want more women developers, it's just what the industry is," but then follows this up by arguing that when it comes to hiring women game designers, "I just don't get the applications."

I want to give a big FUCK YOU to Rob Pardo. As a woman who has been in software development for 11 years, this attitude almost seems designed to enrage me. Yes, there are fewer women than men in game development. There are fewer women in general in software development, and where the fuck does he thing they are going to come from if he spouts of sexist shit like that?!?

I am so amazingly angry I am almost in tears. There are very few things that make me angrier than someone telling me I DON'T EXIST. I'm not in the gaming industry, but I still write code for a goddamn living. I look at the Blizzard software job descriptions and there are a bunch in SF that I could qualify for. I wouldn't apply because it's absolutely clear to me that they have a toxic work environment if their Chief Creatice Officer is such a sexist asshole.

"However... today's gaming industry is not very diverse. I see hope with all the students in game programs" -- @Rob_Pardo

Fuck you asshole. How about you try to recognize the existing talent and make some effort to attract them? You know, instead of making the vast majority of women (and men who enjoy diversity) not want to touch your company with a ten ft pole.

Rob Pardo is a sexist asshole

It's not a secret that I'm more than a little burned out on WoW. I haven't really raided since mid-March. Being a woman, I'm only vaguely looking forward to the boy's trip (look at Fan #16) of the next expansion.

However there is a big disturbance going on in the internet. Rob Pardo made a presentation at MIT Media Lab. In this talk, Pardo noted that Blizzard games aren't a place for "real world issues", and because they are all boys who grew up reading comic books their representations of women are "offensive to, I think, some women".

He thinks it is offensive for some women!

Just think of Noblegarden and it's terrible Shake Your Bunny-Maker achievement. Think of all the armor that is actual armor on males and bra and panty sets on females. Think of how even though Tyrande is allegedly the leader of the Night Elves Malfurion seems to entirely sideline and ignore her whenever he is present. Think of the quest in Valley of Four Winds where a Pandaren woman is forced to dance for the virmen ogler. I could go on and on and on.

A number of people have pointed out how Pardo's words are sexist and homophobic. Kurn is displeased. Cynwise is quitting. Rades is unhappy. Matthew Rossi at joystiq has an extremely eloquent write up that points out that including diversity doesn't mean you have to make it a focus and doesn't mean you can't keep the story fun. His point that including more people in a MULTIPLAYER game just increases the fun for everyone really resonated with me.

I would like to make the point that Pardo's insistence that "We're not trying to bring in serious stuff, or socially relevant stuff, or actively trying to preach for diversity or do things like that" is perhaps something that Blizzard needs to reconsider.

Something they need to strongly reconsider.

More than a week ago Friday some asshole, who hadn't gotten laid, murdered a bunch of people in Southern California. He played WoW. The juxtaposition of Pardo's remarks about Blizzard's disregard for women and lack of care for "real world" issues with this shooting looks really bad for Blizzard. The shooter this Friday was a racist and sexist and homophobic asshole. However, I have to wonder: if his primary leisure activity (marathon sessions playing....World of Warcraft, "The only thing I have left to live for") hadn't been as sexist in it's representation of women, would he have been quite so likely to go on a murderous rampage?

And this isn't the only mass-murderer to be called out for playing WoW. The Newtown school shooter played WoW. And Anders Breivik, the racist who went on a murderous rampage in Norway, played a lot of WoW as well. I don't think that WoW turned these men into murderers, but I do think it could have helped them not be murderers.

I'm sure that people will jump up to say that there are 7 million people currently playing WoW, so of course there are some people who go on to do bad things among them. To that I'd like to point out that A) there used to be 12 million people playing WoW and B) a lot of the quests that included and empowered women were removed with the revamp of the world during Cata and replaced with ones that didn't include women. Coincidentally Cata was the expansion where Blizzard's subscriber numbers really started to trend downwards.

So perhaps Pardo and the other sexist leadership at Blizzard could get their heads out of their asses and treat women and other minorities like people.

I am seriously considering canceling my own WoW subscription. I engage in a story when I can identify or at least like the characters in it. I'm no longer confident that that characters and story of Warcraft is something that I want to interact with.

Thoughts on my Boosted 90

 

I pre-ordered the Warlords of Draenor. I even got the collectors edition so I could get the upgraded Dread Raven Lord mount and Dread Raven Hatchling battle pet. The pre-order also included a free boost to level 90.

I decided to use the boost on Sucan, my brewmaster monk.  I'd been haphazardly leveling him up with the dungeon finder since Mists came out. So he had reached level 58 already.  I ran him through a last few 5mans so he would be 60 when I put the boost on him.

By waiting until Sucan was 60 to boost him I got the added bonus of boosting his professions. So for just another run or two through LBRS I was able to immediately have both Engineering and Blacksmithing at 600 skill.  Of course I'd learned none of the recipes, but I didn't have to go through the pain of getting all the intermediate materials and skilling him up.

As a level 90, my Brewmaster started out with a full set of 489 greens. I pretty quickly upgraded his gear with a bunch of stuff from Timeless Isle.  It's not the best gear, but 496 purples are much better than 489 greens. And I've got so much leather crap from Timeless Isle that I've saved almost a full set of gear in case I get a Burden to upgrade it. 

I also ran through a few scenarios and 5-mans with Sucan tanking and Faebane as damage.  It wasn't hard, because even with 489 greens we massively out-level the heroics, but it was challenging to hold aggro against the raid geared mains who were in the 5mans. It was also very odd to compare the quite different monk tanking to my usual DK tanking. I do have to remember that not only am I less geared with Sucan than Morn is but I do not know the button sequence or cooldowns nearly as well.  So I doubly need to be careful and not over-pull.  Not that it is a serious concern in a 5man, but still it's something to keep in mind.  

I've also had to embark upon a couple of personal quests with Sucan. His Blacksmithing and Engineering skills were boosted to 600, but as I already noted that came without any recipes. So I've taken some time and gone back to get Jeeves and make what I can for the Engineering mounts.   I should have Sucan run through MC and BWL and SSC and TK to get the recipes from there.  Perhaps there are even some nice transmog items.  

Ordos

 

After Kuan and Morn got their fabulous cloaks we were wandering around exploring the bits of the Timeless Isle we'd been unable to reach.  Specifically we were exploring the Ordon Sanctuary. 

We cloaked over there and slaughtered angry fiery Yaungol.  We looted altars and ate fire flowers. We looted that last Blazing Chest. We were just about bored of killing Yaungol when someone asked for more for Ordos. I asked and they claimed that their group would be full soon.  This was a lie, but eventually we had a full raid and were ready to kill Ordos, Fire God of the Yaungol. 

While we were waiting for the raid to fill I perused the Dungeon Journal for Ordos.  Turns out that the Fire God of the Yaungol has a lot of fire attacks! He sets people on fire. He puts pools of fire on the ground. He puts fire trees down that attack the closest people. Oh and there is a pretty limited space to fight him, so be careful with his placement so you don't run out of room before he runs out of health.

Anyway I was hoping that the other tank had some sort of clue, since I'd not pulled him before.  I'd just gotten my cloak a couple of hours before! But no, the other tank was someone's alt. He or she wasn't all that sure about how to tank, let alone how to tank Ordos.

Okay then. Time for some basic crap-on-the-ground tanking.  We'll start him in one corner and work around the outside edge of the room. Hopefully that gives enough space to work in. 

Pull and death by BBQ.

It turns out that when Ordos sets people on fire, they also burn the people around them. So if they don't run away the rest of the raid gets toasted in a fairly fatal fashion, because he sets three or four people on fire at the same time. At least, despite my not having any clue about how much he needed to move, the wipe wasn't Morn's fault.  And since DraNgNon is fully capable of listening when DBM is all "RUN THE FUCK AWAY" it wasn't Kuan's fault either.

Anyway we rezzed and ran back. Feasts were dropped and harsh words were said about "RUN THE FUCK AWAY" or we all die. We lined back up and I pulled Ordos again.  This time I had a better idea of how and where to pull him, so the movement and placement was a bit more smooth. People ran away when then needed to and we slaughtered Ordos with glee and only a few burns. 

Morn even got a fabulous new belt out of it: Greatbelt of the Crendor Who, incidentally makes some amusing WoW videos.

Battle Pet Obsession

I really don't think I'd have done nearly as many pet battles if I didn't have the addon PetBattle Teams. Being able to make teams for every occasion is super handy. I currently have 50 teams. I've got carry teams set up for every Pandaria tamer. I've got teams to quickly kill the various Beasts of Fable. I have teams for each of the battles in the Celestial Tournament. I usually have six or seven PvP teams set up, but those evolve over time. I have a bunch of leveling teams set up as well, both for carrying a pet in Pandaria, and for lowbie leveling in cities and the rest of the world. In short I have far too many teams set up, but I do use all of them pretty regularly.

However, the most important teams are the Pandaria Master Tamers. Each of the teams for the Pandaria tamers and Spirit tamers consists of two level 25s and an empty slot for a lowbie that is getting XP. I'll use a Lesser Pet Treat and then follow a route from the Pandaren Earth Spirit west to Courageous Yon, then South through Townlong and Dread Wastes. The East and North through Krasarang and Jade Forest before heading West again to go to Grand Master Aki and then South to finish up at Farmer Nishi. From there I'll also do a quick blast through Beasts of Fable 2: Lucky Yi, Greyhoof, and Skitter Xi. That route will get the equivalent XP of 2 pets from 1 to 25. And doing Beasts of Fable 2 will get a Lesser Pet Treat to use for the next day.

I'm not actually sure how many unique pets I own at the moment. I think I've got 537, but Hyjal armory has been messed up since the server merge. Last I was able to upload to WarcraftPets I also only had 30 pets left that weren't blue. All of the non-blue pets are also only available through pet battles. So I'm trying to speed up my pet blue-ing by doing a bit of wild capturing as well. Of course the non-blue pets I have left are the ones that are only available in one zone, and often in one sub-area of that zone.

My goal is to have all my pets blue and level 25 by the time that Warlords of Draenor comes out. I've heard that the pet max level will still be 25 in the new expansion. I'm not sure if I trust that, but I'll be ready either way. I'm hoping that they don't bump the max pet level. I'd really like to be able to have all my pets leveled up and only need to level up new pets that I get or capture in Draenor. I'd also like to buildup a stockpile of flawless battle stones, so that I have extras when I capture new pets or when I get a pet that isn't from battles that only starts out as green rarity.

Once I have all my pets to 25 and blue, I might go even more obsessive. I'm currently trying very hard not to obsess on the "best" breed for each pet. Mostly because with 18 different moths with the same set of abilities I don't need them all to be the 'best' breed, if I have one of each breed and can choose the breed for the occasion. I do admit that when I started getting extra dragonkin battlestones I couldn't resist and went to get myself a destruction emerald protodrake whelp.

Even if I manage to restrain myself from going full on OCD with pet breeds I'm not going to try to stop myself from trying to acquire all the different pets. I've been working steadily on the various pets that I'm missing. In fact most of my gold this expansion has gone straight into buying pets that I don't have. Sadly I'm still missing a lot of pets, but most of them are from the later parts of this expansion. I'm missing most of the pets that drop from Throne of Thunder and Siege of Orgrimmar. I am also missing several pets from Timeless Isle. There are also various pets that I need from archaeology, and a few older scattered achieves here and there.

I am really wondering how the pet stable in the garrison will work. I think the current plan is that you're able to breed two pets of the same family to be able to pick the breed and get a chance at an epic pet. Who knows if that will be the plan by the time the expansion is released. However, given that is a possibility I am sticking with my plan to make sure I've got all my pets blue and leveled up.