Captioning A Few Screenshots

Out of boredom I captioned a few screenshots still on my computer:
(Be warned - the jokes barely qualify as groaners.)

Leather and Goblins and Spikes, Oh My

Seriously, anybody else getting the "little-too-much-leather-and-spikes" vibe here?



No?

How 'bout now:

Stupid Murlocs

Apology Accepted

Ready to be shocked again?

Yesterday I mentioned that I found someone copying a few of my posts word for word. My response was to nicely ask (via one or two comments on the copied posts) that they not repost my blog but simply provide a link.

I hoped for, but frankly did not expect, a positive result. But I got it. The (previously) offending blog has:

• deleted the posts (and others that I saw were copied) and
• apologized in the comments to my post yesterday.

Well, I couldn't really ask for more. Thanks for the apology and thanks for fixing the posts. I really appreciate it.

I'm Worthy of being Copied?

Well, much to my ongoing shock someone has deemed my posts worthy of stealing. This picture shows a side by side of one example:

Same wording. Same pictures. Same dorky sayings. /boggle. They even used, in the example pictured above, a post at my most utterly and categorically pathetic. I mean seriously, you used a picture of me in my all green gear (oh yeah, and the Blue Demonslayer) talking about how I had such a hard time getting to this trainer and then found out she could only train me in a few more things. (Original Post from the example.)

Oh well. I see they took from other (frankly worthier) people as well. They reposted this post from wow.qj.net (I don't know anything about them), this post from Engadget, and this post from wowinsider - although I noticed they replaced the picture. There's probably many many more.

They didn't take all my posts, just a select few (8 so far), but more keep getting copied each day. It appears to be the blog of a European Guild, that frankly has a really cool WoW-Photoshopped picture or two on its home page. But of course given the pattern of reposting other people's content, I begin to doubt they did those pictures.

So for now, I'm just nicely posting in their comments the request not to copy my content but to link to my posts instead. Eventually I may have to pull a Gitr but before I do, I'm hoping they'll realize that in blogging if you like a post, you link to it rather than copy it word for word and picture for picture. Or even quote part of it and provide a link to the rest.

Rares: Trounce or Announce?

When I came across that rare creature with the silver dragon, I used to kill it, thinking I might get a really great drop. Well, I gave that up quick. (e.g. Sewer Beast Drop list via Thottbot)

Instead, I send out the creature and the location into general so that any hunters who want to tame it can do so because those rare creatures, like the Sewer Beast or the Ghost Saber, were intended to be one-of-a-kind pets for hunters (particularly given the long respawn time of the Sewer Beast).

I'd like to quote Drysc who said:

Every time you kill the sewer beast a hunter dies a little inside.

(Quote via this thottbot poster; thanks.)

However, now that we're well into the game, part of the point of taming these rare creatures has been lost.

First, all creatures normalize in size:

Pets scale to appropriate sizes. If you tame a pet, it will likely be smaller than the "monster" version. This was done because certain pets were very messy to play/group with at their default sizes.
(Source: Blizzard's Hunter Pets Page)

... their speed is all the same:

Base pet speed is standardized for all pets, including legacy pets.
(Source: Blizzard's Hunter Pets Page)

... and they lose all their elite skills:

Finally, remember that once you tame it a “rare” or “elite” pet has no special abilities that will set it apart from its common cousins (i.e. Snarler, once tamed, is just like any other level 42 wolf whether tamed at 42 or tamed at 8 and leveled up to 42).
(Source: Sticky on the WoW Hunter Forums which also lists an exception or 2.)

The question becomes - is it worth it to walk away from the rare kill and instead let some hunter out their tame it? Or don't they care either? Every time I sent a location into General no one ever seemed to rush over to tame it. I think there are just better pets out there.

And I'd like to make sure I link to this valuable resource for Pet Info: Petopia and the associated blog: Mania's Arcania.

Link Update (7/31/07): Gitr tells the story of a rare he tried to tame.

The Crystals and Pylons of Un'goro Crater

There's something else you can do with all those collectible crystals in Un'goro crater. You can exchange them for new crystals with a variety of abilities, such as a heal over time, shield, AoE fire damage, buffs, etc..

Background:
You may remember the following quests in Un'goro which introduce you to all the crystals and pylons:

Crystals of Power in which you bring 7 of each color crystal to J.D. Collie, the gnome in the cave.

Visit the Eastern Pylon

Visit the Northern Pylon

Visit the Western Pylon

and finally:

Making Sense of it in which you receive the Crystal Pylons User's Manual

What Next:
The User's Manual tells you which crystals to take to which pylon, and what you can exchange them for.

Each pylon has two unique crystals it can give you back.

Each exchange will require 10 each of two different color crystals

Here's a picture at the Eastern Pylon:


And these tables show the exchanges available at each Pylon:

Northern Pylon

Turn in:	Receive:
Red	Crystal Charge Inflicts 383 to 517 fire damage to targets in a 3 yard radius	-
Yellow		Crystal Restore Heals the target of 670 damage over 15 sec.
Green	-

Eastern Pylon

Turn in:	Receive:
Green	Crystal Force Increases the target's Spirit by 30 for 30 min.	-
Blue		Crystal Spire Use: A crystal shield surrounds the friendly target, doing 12 damage to anyone who hits her. Lasts 10 min.
Yellow	-

Western Pylon

Turn in:	Receive:
Blue	Crystal Yield Decreases an enemy target's Armor by 200 for 2 min.	-
Red		Crystal Ward Use: Increases the target's Armor by 200 for 30 min.
Green	-

In what was less an experiment and more necessity than I'd like to admit, I would often load up for bear (dinosaur?) with all of my newly exchanged crystals and do some elite mob hunting. Although I should note that the new crystals and buffs that you get can be used anywhere and are not limited to use in Un'goro Crater.

Happy Crystal Hunting!

William and Donna

I don't know why this struck me as so funny. Probably because it was just so random.

Cue Stormwind on a quiet day with not much chat - then this in General by someone (whose name I wish I remembered) after William and Donna run by:

"One of these days that girl is gonna catch him and I hope she beats the ever-living @#!& out of him."

Link Update (7/31/07): William and Donna Comic from Dark Legacy Comics.

Do You Want to Play a Game?

Well it looks like my appetite for an MMO may be about 2.3 years (the last .3 of which pretty much drags). I say this because this is also about how long I lasted on Star Wars Galaxies.

So after 2 enjoyable years, I've decided to make my way out of the WoW Universe, solidified this time by my actually cancelling my account.

Account:
One of the things I learned through the cancellation process is that Blizzard's current policy is to retain characters of cancelled accounts on the servers. So if I ever want to start playing again I can. Here's what they said:

Keep in mind that your account and characters are retained indefinitely in case you decide to return.

The same information can be seen on the wowbilling FAQ regarding accounts with no payment plans in place.

Blog:
I still have a few more posts up my sleeve of +1 to blogging which I hope you'll stick around to see.

p.s. The post title, "So long and thanks for all the fish" was already used by too many people wittier than me so I decided to go with the above Wargames quote ~~ slightly less used in the online world but wholely overused in my RL world by a sibling I suspect is making fun of my gaming time. Doesn't matter though, because I finished Command and Conquer 3 before him so take that!