You're Doing It.

The game does not matter. So long as you play any game that is part of the massively multi-player online role play genre, you're doing it. Sure, you can make your characters on a Player versus Player server, or even a Player versus Environment server, and think that you are not doing it. But you are. You are role playing. You don't have to make your characters on a server that is designated for role play. You don't have to have an elaborate back story, or even an idea of a back story. Your character's name doesn't even have to be a real name (yes, lolbbqurmom, I'm talking to you). Just the fact that you twiddled with what class to play, what race it would be, what color hair it had, and how many piercings it had made you a role player. Yeah, and you guys out there, playing bouncy little female toons because you'd rather watch a girl's rear while you quest, give me a break. The minute you pretend to be a real girl to gain an advantage in loot drops, or any other matter, you role played.

That was just the beginning for you. Character creation can seem harmless enough, but you had to go out and interact with the non player characters with your new avatar. Now, everything that avatar does is related to it, good or bad, right or wrong, purple or green. You have begun to build a history for it. Did you know that once you got tired of killing boars, so did your avatar? That quest reward that you never got rid of because it matched your avatars eyes? That is history sitting in your bank, or you can call it what it is, role play gear. Did you sit your avatar down in an inn while you went away from your keyboard for a nature call? Your character enjoyed a nice frosty brew while you were gone, and flirted with a barmaid. Or how about all those quests you did to gain favorable reputation with the Skyguard? Your character could be called a flyboy, or a genocidal maniac only interested in wiping arrakoa from the face of Azeroth.

Did you know that denying group invitations pegged your character as a loner? Those snide comments you put up in general chat while you were dutifully having your character pick up quest items made your character add to it's personality, making it a sarcastic, handle with care kind of being. That nasty chat session you had when you got home from school, in trade chat for every bank alt and poor unsuspecting player to see pegged your character as cool in the eyes of every other foul mouthed yutz, and added your character to the ignore lists of more mature players. No player associates these things to you, the person sitting behind the screen, unless they know you in the real world. These things are attributed to a name in the chat channel, a bunch of pixels you threw together, thinking it was just a video game. Boy, were you wrong. You bought a part in the play called World of Warcraft, on the server you made the character on, and now you are stuck with it.

Of course, you could delete your character if, for some reason, it has given you a bad reputation. You could server transfer, or even faction transfer. Name, sex and faction changes leave that character on ignore lists, so if you were looking to wipe the slate clean, it just rearranges things a bit. Whatever you choose, you have learned one valuable lesson. Role play is a very basic part of this game, and you're doing it. Keep your nose clean, and your chat, and for goodness sake, have some fun with it!

Riverside/San Bernardino Meet Up?

I hear they have this great meet up for the Los Angeles area World of Warcraft players, and I thought, gee, that isn't so far away. Then I looked a my husband, opened my mouth to say something about it, and promptly shut it. It really is far away. I live on the edge of a bit of desert that separates a historic stagecoach stop from Palm Springs. My closest famous neighbor is a dinosaur best remembered from a Pee Wee Herman movie. I guess what I am trying to say is, I feel like I live in the back of beyond. So, I need something closer than Los Angeles.

I know there are people in this area that enjoy World of Warcraft as much as I do. I know there are even some on the Smolderthorn server, even though it is an eastern time zone server. I know there is at least one commenter that isn't too far away too consider a Riverside area meet up a stretch, once in a while.

So, comment away. Is there a group already going? Do we desperately need to make one? I sure would love to gather with people who enjoy the same stuff as I do in real life instead of always behind this keyboard. I know you do, too. That's right, I am pointing right at you. Go on and start a discussion below.

My Ultimate Candy Grabbing Route!

I looked, mostly in vain, last night to find a guide to the best way to get everywhere there is a bucket of candy. I found a few routes on Thottbot, but nothing else. I know they are out there, somewhere, but I just cannot find them. So, I promised someone I would have a good route to follow on my site today. I am researching as I am writing, so it may be really late today (the 19th of October), but it will be today!

Now, the disclaimer. This guide assumes you are of the legal flight age, and can get to Dalaran, and have your hearth set there. I may work out a flightless version for those that are using this opportunity to level a character later, which might be difficult without flight, but not impossible.

Warcraft Overachiever has a great map of Horde and Alliance candy buckets for Azeroth and Outland. Links to these can be found here. They are numbered just so you can see them on the map, but this is not by any means a recommended path. If you don't like mine, use their maps to plot your own!

Now, my attempt at making things easier for myself will manifest itself in list form. Remember to fit in Trick or Treating when your debuff fades, and have fun! Stop and smell the roses, kill the flagged players, throw stinkbombs, and smear ash on your face. It is, after all, a holiday!

Dalaran, Crystalsong Forest
Portal to Orgrimmar, Durotar (Trick or Treat)
Ride to Razor Hill, Durotar (put out fires if you have time)
Ride back to Orgrimmar, Durotar
Taxi to Everlook, Winterspring
Taxi to Splintertree Outpost, Ashenvale
Taxi to Sun Rock Retreat, Stonetalon Mountains
Taxi to Shadowprey Village, Desolace
Taxi to Camp Mojache, Feralas
Taxi to Cenarion Refuge, Silithus
Taxi to Gadgetzan, Tanaris
Taxi to Freewind Post, Thousand Needles
Taxi to Mudsprocket, Dustwallow Marsh
Taxi to Brackenwall Village, Dustwallow Marsh
Taxi to Thunder Bluff, Mulgore
Ride to Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore
Ride to Camp Taurajo, the Barrens
Taxi to Crossroads, the Barrens
Taxi to Ratchet, the Barrens

-Achievement!-

Boat to Booty Bay, Stranglethorn Vale
Taxi to Grom'Gol, Stranglethorn Vale
Taxi to Stonard, Swamp of Sorrows
Taxi to Kargath, the Badlands
Taxi to Hamerfall, Arathi Highlands
Taxi to Revantusk Village, the Hinterlands
Taxi to Tarren Mill, Hillsbrad Foothills (if you have the quest, take care of the ale in Southshore while you are there)
Taxi to the Sepulcher, Silverpine Forest
Taxi to Undercity, Tirisfal Glades (Go out to the Wickerman and get your rep buff, and take the quests!)
Ride to Brill, Tirisfal Glades (take a break to help with fires and kill the Headless Horseman while you are here)
Ride back to Undercity, Tirisfal Glades
Taxi to Light's Hope Chapel. Eastern Plaguelands
Taxi to Silvermoon City, Eversong Woods (visit the Royal Exchange and the Bazaar)
Ride to Falconwing Square,Eversong Woods (put out fires if you have time)
Ride to Fairbreeze Village, Eversong Woods
Ride to Tranquillien, Ghostlands

-Achievement!-

Hearth to Dalaran, Crystalsong Forest
Portal to Shattrath, Terokkar Forest
Taxi to Shadowmoon Village, Shadowmoon Valley
Taxi to Sanctum of the Stars or Altar of the Sha'tar, Shadowmoon Valley
Taxi to Stonebreaker Hold, Terokkar Forest
Taxi to Garadar, Nagrand
Taxi to Swamprat Post, Zangarmarsh (no bucket)
Ride to Cenarion Refuge, Zangarmarsh
Ride back to Swamprat Post, Zangarmarsh
Taxi to Falcon Watch, Hellfire Peninsula
Taxi to Thrallmar, Hellfire Peninsula
Taxi to Zabra'jin, Zangarmarsh
Taxi to Thunderlord Stronghold, Blades Edge Mountains
Taxi to Evergrove, Blades Edge Mountains
Taxi to Mok'Nathal Village, Blades Edge Mountains
Taxi to Area 52, Netherstorm
Taxi to the Stormspire, Netherstorm

-Achievement!-

-Achievement!-

Since the buckets in Northrend are not part of any achievement (other than the gold and candy they dispense) I will only go so far as to link a post in the World of Warcraft forums. In this post, people are adding to a list of known locations for both Alliance and Horde. Hopefully by the time this post is up, they will have fixed the problem with Northrend candy buckets, but if they haven't, please, please do all your candy buckets in the achievement areas first. There is a known bug that when Northrend buckets are done first (not all of them but a few) some buckets in the achievement areas are not available.

I hope you all have a great time this Hallow's End. I'd love to hear of the fun you had, so leave your comments below!

Pets!

Yesterday, Leafy got Stinker. Today, Nibuca got her fawn. Then, later today, Delgada got her fawn! It was totally unexpected, as Delgada has been neglected in favor of my alliance characters. My husband, right as he sometimes is, reminded me that Delgada was a guild leader of a guild that deperately needs to have one on, so I made a blood elf paladin (named her Anselma after my current flavor of the moment), and got her out of the starter island and into KNR. I then realized that a) she needed bags, and 2) I didn't want to buy them. So, I logged in Delgada to make netherweave bags from the stacks of cloth in the guild bank. Bags made, she walked over to the mailbox and, what, mail? It was cute little Chilly. I opened the note, and had Delgada learn the spell. My screen went crazy with all sorts of fun lights and sounds came into my headphones...and the achievement popped up. WOW! I had forgotten how close Delgada was to the achievement. She pulled out her little fawn from the mailbox, and danced around to the enchanter shop to get her new abyssal shatter recipe, then let the new Anselma log back in.

I shrieked when it happened, and I was on Ventrilo with the hubby and a friend. Of course, the husband and our friend and guildmate Baz will never understand the joy of getting one more pet. Baz seemed a little surprised at the number of pets I had collected, but it didn't last long, as I heard them join another battlefield in Battlefield Heroes, and they started plotting their next target's murder.

I hear you can make girl characters in that game now. Maybe I should go kill them a few times. Just for kicks...

While I am remembering, KNR (Smolderthorn-Horde) is recruiting! Level, class, race are no roadblock to getting in, but you must be at least old enough to drink. We're just looking for some fun people to hang out with! If you are interested, feel free to drop a line at knrguild.com, or contact any member in game.

Anselma

It's been a while since I brought up my human paladin, Anselma. She had been sitting on my husband's account, an unfortunate pawn waiting out her time until she could be moved back to my account. She was originally moved because she was the only free alliance character above level 55 I had available to move so that my hubby could make a death knight on one of the servers I was enjoying at the time. The death knight is just a name on an unplayed character list now. Anselma, on the other hand, is enjoying some playtime as the time I had to raid is just a happy memory.

Anselma was 55 when I moved her back to my account and to my Alliance home, Shadowsong. Today, she is sitting pretty at 66. Protection AoE leveling is fun! Nesingwary thinks I need practice hunting? HAH! I took on 4 of those clefthoof beasties and emerged triumphant, skins slung over my shoulder and meat packed for shipping. Rock elementals gone wild? Selma's your gal. She'll even break their rocky remains into dust and crystalline debris, just so you don't have to send clean up crews later. And those muck spawns below Halaa? Silenced, rounded up, and reduced back to the water they came from. Take that, Nagrand!

Halfway through with the Throne of Elements quests and Nesingwary's Nagrand Safari, Anselma headed over to Telaar. There, she hooked up with a minor celebrity...


Where is he famous from? Running up a little girl's cell phone bill, is where. Banned to Nagrand for his trespasses, he hands out quests and wears a color he is not quite fond of as punishment. It's ok, Jill, the robe does match your eyes.




So there you go. This is my shame, at not having posted for so long because I was wrapped around Anselma's little finger. She was my very first non Horde character, and I am remembering why I loved her before.

Because she is a cockroach. You can't kill her. Her health dips to critical levels and she bubbles. No mana? No problem. She bandages while they beat on her. Oh, pulled a few too many? No she didn't. One more joins the party? Hot sauce, this is fun! Oops, health is dropping and mana is dry....Lay on Hands! then, Seal of Wisdom and Judgement of Wisdom...back to health and mana is filling as they beat on her some more.

Alright, apologies done and a post made, I'm going back to playing with Anselma. Northrend by Monday!