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Shared Topic – Flavours of WoW
So much delicious World of Warcraft content.
It had been far too long since I took part in a Shared Topic over at Blog Azeroth, so I decided that I would write something on whatever the most recent topic was.
It would not be uncommon to hear about the initial release of World of Warcraft as Vanilla or Classic. In terms of ice cream or gelato (which is my preference), Vanilla was once considered the most popular flavour of it’s time. So if Vanilla represents Classic WoW, what flavours could represent the following expansions?
Ice cream. The gauntlet had been thrown down. Mostly because I don’t really eat ice cream anymore, and therefore have very few points of reference to draw on. But since when have I let my lack of knowledge of a subject prevent me from posting about it?
To the INTERNET!
Specifically to The Food Channel to find out some popular ice cream flavors and educate myself so I didn’t sound like a complete idiot. (Editor’s Note — You failed as soon as you started typing this post.)
Next, I re-read the suggested topic. I agree that the O.G. World of Warcraft is considered vanilla, but more along the lines of the Urban Dictionary’s definition of it – Unexciting, normal, conventional, boring. It was a building block that, while delicious, could be made to taste better if you added some chocolate syrup or sprinkles to it. So let’s look at those sprinkles, shall we?
The expansion that brought us Squid Chins and the Metrosexual Elves
The Burning Crusade was the first expansion to come out for World of Warcraft. According to many raiders, this was THE expansion. The content was difficult, it kicked much ass, and succeeding with these raids gave people bragging rights to impress the handful of people who were impressed by that sort of thing.
It also introduced two more races, more content in the form of an entirely new planet, and many more levels. BC was a solid building block, adding much flavour to the vanilla game. Not so much different, just more solid yummy goodness.
Therefore the flavour of the Burning Crusade is Chocolate.
It’s basically delicious!
I think I’m getting the hang of this.
What death-flavored ice cream would look like.
Wrath of the Lich King brought the thunder in a big way, breaking all sorts of purchasing records right out of the gate. It introduced the continent of Northrend, the Heroic Class of Death Knights, and the Lich King himself kept popping up throughout your questing experience. It was a tasty expansion. Too tasty. People suffered burnout and unsubscribed from too much Wrath and not enough of anything else. They became sick of the content, and bored after doing the same things over and over again. Many players actually grew to resent Wrath for being too good, then too bad.
So what ice cream offers so much to many people, is very yummy, but will just make you sick if you eat too much of it? I didn’t need the Internet for this answer. I just drew on personal experience.
Therefore Wrath of the Lich King is a Banana Split. (Editor’s Note — I think you’re doing this wrong.)
Wrath of the Banana King?
Strange. I find myself getting hungry writing this article. Moving on.
Deathwing will wreck yo’ shit.
Cataclysm was the third expansion to come out, but it didn’t bring as much to the table as the previous two expansions did. It took Vanilla content and stomped a mudhole in it, changing a great deal of the 1 – 60 leveling experience. Outland and Northrend were untouched, and five new zones were added for 80 -85 questing. Goblins and Worgen were introduced as well. Critics loved the game, and subscribers swelled to the twelve million mark. But those numbers started declining, and haven’t really stopped decreasing since 2011. Cata was good, but people were getting sick of ice cream by this point. They politely ate as much as they could, then pushed their bowl away and left the table. For many people, it was just too much.
For me, Cataclysm is a Chocolate Ice Cream Cake Roll – described as a thin, rich chocolate sponge cake spread with your favorite ice cream rolled up and frozen, then before serving it’s covered in a luscious chocolate ganache. (Editor’s Note — Ganache? Seriously? I give up.)
Cataclysmic to your waistline.
Well that’s my shared topic. If anyone needs me, I’ll be at Dairy Queen for the next week.
Shared Topic – Herculano The Love Fool
Let’s do this.
World Event – Love is in the Air
I think it was Brewfest of last year that got me on the road to What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been. I’d been sitting on the Brewfest achievement for almost a year. All I had to do with drink the final Brewfest brew and the achievement was mine. Once that was done, I noticed the next World Event was almost completed as well. I’d done bits and pieces of various Events, but never bothered to put it all together. Eventually it became my mission to complete them for the Meta Achievement.
We are now getting into Crunch Time.
I had only three events left to complete: Love is in the Air, Noble Gardner, and For the Children. Piece of cake, until I realized that I was going to be on a week long vacation during Love is in the Air. I finished off as much as I could, and before I left on my vacation I only had to Pity three Fools and find some Flowers. However, I’d only have maybe a day to do it, and if Murphy’s Law had his way it wouldn’t be easy.
My vacation was exhausting – from Canada to Las Vegas, then Arizona, then California, then back to Vegas before flying home. It was a family affair with my parents, and if you follow me on Twitter you know why having my Mom there was such a big deal. But once the holiday wrapped, it was time to get some business taken care of.
First: Run the dailies, use the tokens to buy the three remaining Love Fools that I needed for the achievement.
Second: Coffee. Okay, this was actually first. I am only mostly a machine; I still have human frailties like sleepy and sore from days of walking more than I drove (and I drove over three States – you do the math).
Third: Start Pitying some Fools. I thought the Gurubashi Arena was going to be tough since the odd time or two I’d been there before, I’d been jumped by an Alliance Rogue who had no business being out there other than to be some special flavor of dick. Luckily there were no such hiccups this time. Culling of Stratholme was cake, leaving only Naxxramas for the win. Despite being part of the largest guild in North America, I felt like I should be able to get into the raid instance without asking for help. This is called being anti-social, kids. Don’t be this. It’s something I’m working on.
Protip: Until you get over being socially inept, create a FREE starter account and level a character up to 10. This is the minimum level that a character can be to get into a raid instance. Once you have your raid toonie, have you main invite him and form a raid. You can then get into the raid zone.
I asked for help and actually got a couple of offers. Who knew that interacting with people could be so beneficial! I zoned into Naxx, dropped my Fool, /pitied the bastard and got the achievement.
Fourth: More coffee because.
Fifth: For the Bouquet of Red Roses, I hit regular Blackrock Caverns. The second boss dropped the flowers, so if I didn’t win them I could quickly drop the group and re-queue. Nothing like running through a zone that you over-gear and over-level. That suited me fine since I hadn’t run a 5-man in months, and had never run Blackrock Caverns. So we burned through the instance, killed the boss, and I rolled /need on the flowers.
Bam. Herculano the Love Fool. One step closer to my purple proto-drake.
Shared Topic – Love is in the Air
At Blog Azeroth, Effraeti posed the following as a Shared Topic:
With the in-game World Event “Love is in the Air” and its correlation with IRL Valentine’s Day next week, I have been thinking about character love interests (and also because I am a hopeless romantic).
Who is your main character’s love interest? Are they involved with someone, do they pine for someone?
Many bloggers lately have been discussing playing with IRL couples who raid together. How would this transfer to the characters they play? Why would their characters slay dragons together?
I am curious on everyone else’s thoughts! I will post a response to this over the weekend, in time for Valentine’s Day, and link it when it is live.
Love interest? Well, maybe once upon a time…
The ground had disappeared far below him, hidden by clouds and distance, and still Herculano urged his Netherdrake even higher into the sky. The air was thin, cold. Every breath was like struggling to inhale molten steel, scorching every inch of his throat and lungs. But that was merely physical pain, and physical pain he could deal with. It was the deeper pain that pushed him beyond his limits, time and again, much to the dismay of anyone around him. Today, that included a mighty Netherdrake. The beast could finally take no more, and the Orc felt the muscles in his mount’s back tighten and twitch. They were as high above everything as they could be, but for Herculano it wasn’t high enough.
It wasn’t high enough to reach beyond. Reach where She was.
Staring across the vast blue emptiness, he couldn’t remember exactly when he’d lost her. Perhaps a part of him didn’t want to remember it. He was a mighty warrior, slayer of Gods and Dragons, yet there were still some doors he could not bring himself to re-open. On rare occasions he would allow himself to think back to a time when She was with him. They had grand adventures and faced down many a foe. At night they would lay together in the cold and their love, their fire, would keep them warm.
And just like that, in that brief moment of happiness, he would remember that She was gone.
And just like that, he would destroy whatever was in front of him. With blade. With fist. With teeth.
Demons feared his rage.
Dragons feared his destruction.
All because She was gone.
Herculano watched the sun slowly sink into the clouds, and embraced the pain of the icy chill stabbing into his flesh. The light was giving way to darkness, just as his mount’s strength was beginning to give way to fatigue. Grudgingly he jabbed his heels into the Netherdrake’s hide, signalling for it to begin its descent. As he watched the clouds gently rise to greet him, he knew there would be no love to keep him warm on this or any night. It was that knowledge which fuelled his ever-burning rage, an inferno that would never be extinguished.
Until She was with him again.
Rokk Talk 