Anyway, some low level draenei priest sees me do this and calls me fail. He is persistent about it and we have some exchange of words. I can tell he is a dumbass by his grammar (HOORAY 12 year olds!) and the fact that it is 3 in the morning (sue me I couldn’t sleep). Anyway, it got to the point where I followed him while he was killing quest mobs. I promptly killed everything in the area and did so for awhile. He got angry, so I did it some more. After awhile I realized, why bother, the fact is it was probably his first toon and as such didn’t realize that some of that crap you go through becomes mind numbing after the fact of doing it three or four times on different characters.

Life goes on. I hope to get my warlock to 40 this weekend, it being a long one and all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

Look, I understand that World of Warcraft is a game run by a company out to make money but I just cannot wrap my head around paid faction changes. To me, this just goes against what Warcraft meant to me. Perhaps it’s just the way I see it, and more than likely I am in the minority about this, but paid faction changes are just really grinding against what the game meant to be in the first place. Before I created a character in September 2005, believe it or not, I read up on the lore on Warcraft to at least make an informed choice. Hell, it was the actual story behind the game which really got me going starting in the world of Azeroth. Though there was a huge culture shock from my previous game of FFXI (I was promptly cursed at while questing as a level 14 in Darkshore on my night elf warrior for no apparent reason) I soon became accustomed to the mechanics of the game. I really loved the expansiveness of the game and how it was particularly rewarding to do something on my own (FFXI required grouping for practically anything of meaning to get done).

Nearly 4 years and many changes later, I am still in the game, still on the same server, still playing my night elf warrior, now level 80. I took a lot of the recent changes to the raiding scene with some complaints, but overall, I seem to have adjusted accordingly. In all that time, there was a distinction between Horde and Alliance that I found quite enjoyable and now that aspect of the game is pretty much obliterated. To me it is sad, I am sure to everyone else it’s great.

The game is serious business after all.

Anyway, when you fail an encounter, it is always important to know why you failed and then adjust accordingly to not fail again due to the situation encountered. This used to be a big part of tanking, especially early on in the game, when the majority of the focus of raid in Vanilla WoW depended on the raid tank doing his job correctly. However, the shift now has been off the tanks mostly with heavy involvement of raid as a whole. This point is driven home more so than most in the General Vezax encounter. This is a fight where cooldowns are very important in order for tank survival. Cooldowns from Paladins, Warriors, and Discipline Priests placed on the tank of the fight. In addition, a dance of standing in the green crap when necessary to regain mana is necessary as the normal mana regen is disabled for this fight. But watch out, stand in it for too long and you die, as it ticks away your health while you regain mana.

Anyway, the focus here is spread out among the tank, healers, those with the cooldowns along with those tasked to kill the floating green fart clouds that drop down the green mana regening crap.

So yeah, Blizzard has made the encounters a bit more complicated now than they used to be. Personally, I think this is a good thing. The tank and spank mechanic is just a massive amount of repetitive boredom.

To put it simply:

1. Read the friggin’ available strats.

This takes about 15 to 20 minutes at most. Even going in cold to a new encounter, you have some insight to what is going on.

2. Always have consumables ready.

Pots, flasks, food and bandages. Always, always have a supply of this in your bank or on you at raid time. There shouldn’t really be any excuse.

3. Eat your dinner before raid time.

A full stomach will tend to make you concentrate better. Being hungry during a raid sucks. You are thinking about food instead of focusing your energy on the raid.

4. Be at the damn instance 15 minutes before the raid officially starts.

This is to make sure that you maximize the amount of time you commit to the raid. The earlier you start, the more likely you end up killing bosses.

Of course, doing all this really belies the fact the time involved with getting to the point of preparedness. Farming for raid mats alone is a real pain to say the least. Not to mention when you are farming for gold to purchase the Runed Orbs in order to craft the current best in slot items. But in the end it really helps as once you have your shit together, you don’t really need to scramble minutes before the raid starts to get this all done.

Anyway, I am not going into the descrepancies and the sometimes retconning of the lore that Blizzard has done, rather I am pointing out how people seem to just forsake the lore, and by extension, the history of the game as a whole. I am so disappointed in the playerbase when things as elementary as Molten Core, and the subsequent content related to that part of the game, is just not known by about 70% of the population. I am disheartened when I whip out my Thunderfury and invariably get the whisper “Where did that drop?”, but when it was cool to have one (back in vanilla WoW) almost everyone knew where to get it and how it was obtained. I really don’t want to got into detail because it is an involved chain of quests better explained by sites devoted to this kind of thing, however I invariably fall into the trap of just giving them the simple answer of “Molten Core”.

The conversation goes something like this:

Noob #1: Oh wow! where did that drop?

Me: I got it from Molten Core.

Noob #1: Where is that?

Me: In Blackrock Mountain.

Noob #1: Where is Blackrock Mountain?

Me: In Searing Gorge or Burning Steppes.

Noob #1: Where is that?

Me: Between Iron Forge and Stormwind.

Noob #1: Can you run me thru Molten Core for me to get that?

This is where I go absolutely bonkers. Granted, we are talking about content which is some four years old, but still, you would think they would know some sort of background to the game no? I am not asking for much here, just an understanding of where things fit in the Warcraft universe.

Oh, that is not to say I don’t have my fun with the people who ask where I got the legendary from. Just recently (screenshots soon to follow) I tricked two people into believing I had killed 100,000 kobolds outside of Stormwind for it. Yeah those guys who say “You no take candle!”. Yeah I am a douchebag.

I have an interesting job, most of the time. I could tell you many things about my workplace, however, the one thing about my time there that I am most proud of is the time I trolled my co-worker.

Anyway, a bit of background on him. He is a hypochondriac. Almost any little ache, pain, funny feeling, ailment, twitch, sneeze, cough, itch or premonition warrants a trip to the doctor. During one particular time period, he has gone through acupuncturists, massage therapists, doctors, alternative medicine practicioners even the Dahli Llama himself in order to find out what is wrong with him. He goes through these phases where he goes and tries these diets and foods of an esoteric and expensive nature almost from one week to the next. His diet excludes gluten, wheat, anything with milk, certain juices and other things you and I would not think twice about.

Anyway, some time ago he was worrying about his urine (yeah I know we are like that) and what it meant if it was dark or brown. On a lark I decided to Google that symptom du jour and came up with that is could be an indication of Hepatitis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis

Anyway, all day I chanted “Hepatitis, hepatitis, hepatitis” under my breath which was followed soon after by some object hurled towards my direction. This went on all day.

Let me get to the good part.

Anyway, as I was doing my end of day things, getting ready to go home, I stepped away from my desk. I came back soon after and on my desk I saw a cup. In it was his urine..

“Bitch!”, he said, “That is not dark brown or dark!”.

Immediately I rolled on the floor laughing my ass off, literally. One of my other co-workers the following day asked my to keep it down as it could be heard from across the hall.

The lesson here folks is to never mess with a douchebag, especially when you are a hypochondriac.

http://jonnzdurotan.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/sun-tzu-and-the-art-of-warcraft/

Guess what kiddies? It seems that Blizzard has modified their way of doing things now. Instead of outright deletion of a benign post, they are now locking forum threads, at least from what I see of the following:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17367978723&sid=1

First off, whoever report the thread is an ass. Seriously, reporting that post thanking veterans? What are you, heartless and an asshole? Anyway, they may have softened their approach on how things are being handled. I hope it turns out for the best. Make the asshole moderators earn their pay instead of just hitting the delete button.

Seriously, I wish I had that job. Press delete, earned my pay for the day.

Anyway, the whole insufferable nonsesne that is the cover up the child abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church in Ireland is still bothering me. Perhaps it is because there is still no justice for the victims, some over 30,000 by some accounts, or perhaps because of the fact that we will never see any justice done to those who committed the vile acts of abuse. Sure, there is monetary compensation, sure at least there is acknowledgement that there was abuse done, but what really irritates me beyond measure is the fact that the Irish Catholic Church delayed the final report, some five thick volumes of material mind you, for a whole year in order to gaurantee the safety of the abusers. They sought to protect the abusers, and by extension, the Catholic Church. Their claims that the abusers cannot defend themselves as many are dead or are sick and infirm.

Screw that. Fuck you. Go to Hell.

Who cares if they are dead? Who cares if they are sick? Should this be an excuse to escape the justice of this world? I think not. This ploy to protect the abusers in the name of mercy for the undefendable is laughable at best. Where was the Catholic Church when the poor innocent children were being abused? Where was the Church when these children yelled out in misery at the hands of it’s own? Where was the Church when these children complained and were severely punished for doing so?

The Catholic Church is run by uncaring hypocrites. Concerned with their own image and financial stability to even care for the innocent. For those they claim they care about. For those they have taken vows to serve and protect in thae name of God and all that is holy. There are many reports from many reputable news sources that claim that the Irish Catholic Church now has limitied financial liability, capping total damages in the region of 127 million euros. Guess who else is footing the bill? The Irish taxpayer. I pity them. The government there is so in bed with the Catholic Church that they cow tow to any demand they request.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en-US&ncl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhostednews%2Fap%2Farticle%2FALeqM5hG7UpOwvc_tTJz3KkFUHO9AUBnBAD989QHEG0

I am just mortified that the Church still does not recognize the difference between what is a sin and what is a crime. While these terms may be related, they should be held mutually exclusive as sins are forgiven through the power of God and the many Chatholic rituals behind them, however crimes should only be “absolved” through the particular justice system of the state that they are committed in. Just because a crime is committed by a priest, nun or brother does not automatically excommunicate them from the earthly laws that have been established by man. Shame on you Chatholic Church, shame on you for thinking that you are better than us “mortals”.

I will be e-mailing the Holy See (the pope to you non-Catholic type folks) and will post the body of my e-mail to him in a future post. If you want to e-mail the pope, you can do so at benedictxvi@vatican.va.

Anyway, it is pleasant to at least meet someone outside the game unexpectedly. This sort of thing happened on Thursday while I was at work. One of our outside phone vendors had one of their techs in the building. Myself and my associate at work are on a first name basis with the guy as he tends to visit often fixing something or other on our crappy phone system. As it turns out, the months he has been coming here he strikes up a conversation by saying if I played Warcraft. I said yeah and asked him how he knew. He noticed that I had a Warcraft desk calendar a few months back and decided to ask me. Well, I talked alot about who I was, the game, how long I played, showed him a few old screen shots and at that point I realized to myself that I was no better than the people waiting in line for the Lich King release. Of course we talked about other games, systems, consoles and whatnot and during this time he had mentioned that he has been playing Warcraft a little over a year, off and on. The poor guy hasn’t reached 80 yet. You know what is surprising? He really doesn’t look like a guy you would consider your typical gamer. I guess it really hit home to me that the old stereotype pretty much can be thrown out the window.

I am curious as to whether other people had similar experiences.

It’s easy to pick on Muslims and the religion of Islam. In my opinion, it is a great religion. People who tend to follow it are peace loving, law abiding and most compassionate people you have ever met. However, it’s those that tend to use Islam to further their own political and economic gains tend to give Islam a horrible name.

But I am not here to critique the Muslims or Islam. I am here to criticize the Catholic religion. Mind you I am not saying those that follow Catholicism are bad, there is a distinct difference here, rather those that are the de facto people who hold power or are the established leaders of the Catholic religion, and by extension the origanization of the Catholic religion, is what is horrible here. Of course there are those who devote their lives to the established Catholic religion mean well and live pious lives, however a religion, or the establishment thereof, should be held accountable to those under their care, even more so because they are representative of a benign, caring higher power in the universe. Look, I am not saying that the establishment behind the Catholic religion is inherently evil or that it doesn’t do good, but when and if you are found wanting, when the charges under your care are abused, tortured and otherwise neglected, then you must be held accountable. Indeed, if you actually practiced what you preach, you would accept that evil was done under your name, and then go out of your way to make amends and not be so damned secretive and evasive when the evil perpetrated done in the name of Catholicism is pointed out to you. Have the friggin’ balls to admit you did wrong. Be open who is at fault. Be honest and humble before those that have been wronged upon. Stop the cover up.

I point to these articles. Go on I will be here when you get back:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hG7UpOwvc_tTJz3KkFUHO9AUBnBAD989QHEG0

This sort of abuse in Ireland has been goning on for decades…decades. And yet, the Catholic Church still does not name names, it has given a paltry amont of money by way of restitution to those affected and things of this nature will still continue to go on in Ireland for a long time coming. Ireland, like much of the world, is experiencing a hard hitting recession and they just don’t have the resources to make things right. And you know what is scary and just insidious about this whole thing? For the longest, those who were victims of this abuse as children were not believed by the Irish government or the Irish people. Indeed, even the Catholic church thought those claiming abuse were only it in for the money. Really? Really? So the thousands claiming abuse were all part of some master plan to squeeze as much money out of the Church? You stupid, reatrded, evil bastards. What goes through your minds when you forget the basic tennents of your religion and abuse children so? If Jesus were alive today, he would weep in shame and then proceed to destroy Vatican city much like when he went berserk at the temple when the vendors sold their wares on its grounds. Catholic leaders have lost touch with their flock. They are too damned concerned about supposed evils of homosexuality, same sex marriages, sex before marriage and a whole host of otherwordly retarded concerns to just address what is really needed. What we really need from them is just simple kindness, concern and tolerance, something that the Church has become too big to address properly. The Church should go back to its roots. They should just shrug off all the pomp and circumstance, get rid of the opulence, wealth and the trappings of what seperates the leadership from the flock. Jesus lived simply and followed a philosophy that was even simpler. He said “Love thy neighbor” and “Treat others as you would like to be treated” and yet, meanwhile we have rituals for marriage, rituals to elect a papal leader, rituals to baptise children, rituals that are rights of passage into adulthood, rituals to sit down and eat, rituals to govern the way we pray and worship. I doubt Jesus didn’t want all this sort of complication and difficulty when he set out preaching His message.

And this is probably why people smarter than me saw the wisdom in the sepration of church and state. This abuse of children became so rampant for the fact that it was sanctioned by the Irish government. Actual taxpayer monies were given to the Church for the care and feeding of these poor unforutnate souls. The culture was so intertwined with the idea that the Church could do no wrong, that no one associated with the Church could do evil, that barely any oversight was ever done in order to ensure that children were not being mistreated.

Faith is great in my opinion, have all the faith in whatever higher being you want to believe in, but religion, the invention of an imperfect human being, can be easily twisted and manipulated to one’s evil ends, especially when the organization behind the faith is so complicated that you can hide whatever evil is done in its name.

Amen.