My Vacation In A Perfect World.

This summer's vacation spot seems to be Perfect World, a free to play game with a pretty extensive cash shop. I tried to tell myself that I wouldn't give in, that I wouldn't buy anything, but the fashion outfits that are available are soo cute! I couldn't see myself running around killing mobs in a ball gown, though, so I bought as close to sporty as I could without breaking my bank. Then, I went ahead and bought an inventory stone, because 32 inventory slots were just not cutting it, what with everyone having the ability to gather everything they see in the world, and items needed for dragon quests and crafting.  So, out of a 20 dollar outlay for gold (which exchanges at 1 to 1 ratio), I have spent 6 bucks on an outfit and 9 bucks on extra inventory, leaving me 5 gold for either a pair of bat wings (icky) or a polar bear mount that I cannot use yet anyway.  I may just spend that 5 gold on a couple more clothing items, like an itsy bitsy skirt for 1 gold and a butterfly top for 4 gold, or a 3 gold top and a 2 gold pair of shoes. Or maybe I'll splurge and spend 4 gold on those hot leather pants, but then I would need a top to go with them, and the only blouse for 1 gold is hideous. Looks like this may not actually be the last time I spend real money on pixels.If you are interested in seeing how many different clothing items there are in game, check out this, "Rate my Character!" thread on the forums.  Lots of pictures of all sorts of styles of clothing, and worn in so many ways!

This game is so beautiful.  I haven't figured out how to turn off the UI so that only the image shows yet, so bear with me as I post the ugly UI with the pretty game world. The picture below is of the center of Archosaur, one of the main cities in the game, which is in the center of the game map.

If only I knew how to get rid of the ugly UI...

See the water with the lilies floating in it? The detail on the dragon statues holding up the center platform?  Almost every city I have visited in this game has this large feel. Most of the cities are pretty empty, with a player here and a cat shop there.  Archosaur, however, doesn't have any problem filling up the vast space it occupies.  There are numerous quests (I don't think I have scraped the surface of them yet), and every small businessman with anything to sell seems to have their shop set up here. Below is a picture of an area not crowded with cat shops.

 An empty part of Archosaur?

I don't have any more pictures, mostly because I was under a deadline.  The guild master was cleaning house and anyone under the age of thirty was to be kicked.  Now, if I had dug in and stuck it out with Delgada, I would never have made the deadline.  I rerolled (notice the picture taker's name in the top left corner) and following a guide on how to level a cleric, I seem to have stopped beating my poor cleric's head up against a wall.  As of the second they shut down the servers for maintenance, Eromee was a healthy 32, with 65% of the experience needed toward the next level.

As for the faction purge of low level characters, I think I understand the reasoning behind this.  A faction can only have 200 members, and of those 200 members, members of thirty and above gain reputation and ranks, which transfer over to the faction somehow.  Anyone under 30 is just wasting valuable space that could be filled with a higher level, contributing character.  I am guessing that I will soon figure out just how I can contribute to the guild.  I realize this is a very elementary understanding of how things work. As soon as I have this figured out, I am sure I will post about it.

Speaking of quests, there are several types.  Solo killing quests give you a kill number and mob name.  Spiritual cultivation quests are a must do in order to train certain spells. Dragon quests are an easy way out of the daily grind of regular quests, of which there seem to be plenty (go find my needle in this field full of hay stack men), in that the items that fell of the mobs you killed before you do these quests become turn ins. Be ready to travel to strange new places and meet lots of new people, as your quest could take you south to the City of the Plume, then could take you as far north as a guy standing on a bluff overlooking a huge ravine, miles from any teleportation points. Then, that wonderful guy could be nice and have you turn in something to the nearest city, or he could decide to make you kill 40 of something (or choose to pay a fee) to someone on the other side of the world.  I would recommend doing them for a change, but not exclusively.  I am working them in because I understand the tokens they give at the end of the ten part chain can be turned in for mounts and other items.  If I can manage to collect the right amount of each color token (copper and silver) I can bypass the need for buying a cash shop mount. Of course, this will take an enormous amount of time and some luck.  Time will be the teller of whether I decide to splurge on more gold for these items.

There is a way for non gold buyers to get their hands on gold, through an in game gold trading system.  If I ever get to making enough money to purchase any that way, that may be the way to go. Then, I might be able to splurge on something really fancy, like a snake mount...

That will be 50 gol...err, I mean dollars, please!

The Ultimate Computer Desk Ensemble.

My sister is probably on her way back from watching Red Green live right now.  I followed her link to You-tube and watched some little snippets of the show.  For anyone who hasn't been lucky enough to watch this, here is a clip of what I think my husband's next project will be.  As Red says, "If your wife can't find you handsome, she should at least find you handy."

Thanks For The Beta Invite, Spammer.

In the interest of adding useful posts to my blog occasionally, I thought I would share some of the great mail messages Gmail has filtered into the spam folder for me.  Before I do that, however, I will show you what a real Blizzard mail message looks like.

Click to see it, but I'm sure you already got one of your own!

 That is one example of a real message from Blizzard.  Another example is of the recent message sent to those of us who manage parental controls for another account.

Bonafide mail from Blizzard, with personal info smudged.(Gmail was afraid, but I know this is the real thing. Someone else in my feed reader received one as well.)

Now, if you click on that image, you will notice that sentences make sense, there are capital letters in all the right spots, and if you have received this email, you will notice that the links go to where they should (best way to check without actually clicking is to mouse over the address that is hyper-linked. It should show where it is pointing to at the bottom left of your browser). 

For your entertainment, I will now post several images of email trying to make me believe they are from Blizzard. These range from fairly convincing to "OMG! Did you really think I would fall for that?".

Ignoring the red bar on each of these ( I daren't move them from my spam folder, they might bite!), you can see that each of these have problems with sentence structure, capitalization, and just failing at any order in their wording to resemble a native American English speaker. If you believed any of these for a second, you're normal, a second is all some people need to click a link. Be smart and take more than a second, calm down, and click responsibly. Know what to look for!  Blizzard will NEVER ask for account information through an email. 

This ends Spam Email Avoidance 101.  For your enjoyment, I have posted below some spam for an Aion account I have never had.  Long live my Gmail spam blocker!

Real ID - Be My Friend!

 Come hang out with me!

I'm not worried in the slightest about anyone hacking my account.  I love this new change.  For those that have to put up with me a guild mistress, it makes me more accessible.  For those who wander off regularly to greener pastures, it makes them closer to me.  I love it.

My email address is jeni at pamedia dot com.  Of course, you will need to replace the words for the symbols they spell out.  I know I have a different contact address for my blog, and that was originally to safeguard by account from thieves.  Really, who wants my broken down account full of low level alts? I look forward to accepting all your friend requests!

Titles, Achievements, and Sight Seeing.

This past week has been a fun one.  I have been putzing around with Maura, putting my husband in fear of beating out Hacksoor to 80.  She is a lot of fun, stabbing people and picking their pockets.  I don't know why I never thought to stick with a rogue before this.  I love pick pocketing things.  I got a very pretty rock yesterday, but I forgot to turn off my grey seller.  Out of all the other things I have lifted silently out of pockets and purses, you'd think that I'd have a more valuable favorite.  Other fun things I have been finding are Exotic Cookbooks and Steamy Romance Novels. I must remember to stash away at least one copy of each book I find before the expansion. I can't wait to see what new books are coming!

I want this outfit!

Aside from pick pocketing as many Dark Iron dwarves and Twilight cultists as possible, I have been working on factions with Delgada. Noticing she had about 4,000 reputation until she was exalted with the Maghar, I took her out to kill ogres in Nagrand one session.In holy specialty, I'd run around casting Shadow Word: Pain, then when I had a sizable mob, I'd Holy Nova them down.  I don't think it took me all that long to finish. I didn't manage to capture the moment, but I managed to capture a happy extra achievement reward...

Who needs a sparkle pony, anyhow?

...an albino drake. If you too are interested in Leading the Cavalry, you'll need to gather 50 mounts.  Maghar, or Kurenai for Alliance, is a great reputation to grind for this, as they sell all the talbuk mounts (except the dark ones, which are sold by the vendor in Halaa), a nice chunk of the amount needed to complete the achievement.

The other reputation I found I was close to completing was Cenarion Expedition out in Zangarmarsh.  I needed a little more than 4,000 reputation points,so I decided I would try to solo the Steamvault.  Switching to shadow for a bit more protection, Delgada gulped down a Flask of the Frost Wyrm and stepped through the portal.  For all taht I have been fearful of taking Delgada into level 70 instance alone, she mowed that place down!  It took one full run and a couple short runs (Delgada was kind enough to help someone get the achievement The Lurker Above while she was farming) to hit exalted. This got her yet another achievement...

Seems almost wrong...

...Delgada, Guardian of Cenarius. This is probably one of those titles that just shouldn't be on an undead.  I only wanted the reputation so I could have the privelege to shell out 2000 gold to the Expedition quartermaster for the Cenarion War Hippogryph.  That, too, is an achievement, but I'd do it even if it wasn't.  Since I don't have one yet, I'm borrowing an image from WoWhead.   Why would anyone not want this mount?

 submitted by WoWhead user wolfmusic, this is the special mount action.

Delgada hasn't made any more progress with Loremaster of Kalimdor, which is sad, with all this news of Cataclysm, you'd think I would be in a hurry to finish that.  Instead, Maura is at level 76, doing her own exploring.  Here are some things I never noticed the first time or even the twentieth time I went through Shattered Halls.

Orc statues are everywhere in this instance!

Grand Warlock Nethecurse's room, too.

That's all I have been doing in WoW this week. In Wizard 101, Rowan managed to get a myth pixie and an ice serpent pet, and I brought out Esmee Wyrmblossom to fiddle with a fire wizard for a bit after I got the code for a Galvanic Hammer out of Beckett's Massive Online Gamer magazine.  It is so much easier to level with one of these items, as the 75 damage zero pip spell takes out low level mob sin one or two hits. This is especially handy with a fire wizard, where her first damage spell fizzles 25% of the time.  If you haven't picked up the magazine, it is well worth reading.  The interview with Steve and Leesha from Ravenwood Radio was good, and there are some interesting articles on some upcoming mmos and a sneak peak of the 3rd installment in the World of Warcraft graphic novel series. It would seem that they are in the market for handing out free codes, too, so if you are into AdventureQuest: Worlds, Dragons VS. Robots, or Wonderking, grab yourself a copy for some fun in game items!

Esmee Wyrmblosson, with her 1 day black stallion. Lucky!

Lastly, I bring up Perfect World.  I have been trying, Oh, have I been trying, but I cannot break out of level 21!  The price of death is a loss of a chunk of experience, and it seems right when I am making progress with Delgada the Cleric, I die and lose a good bit of it.  I'm thinking that I may start grinding on low level mobs to possibly get out of this hole I seem to be digging.  Other than that, Delgada has been picking up every low level material she can find and selling them.  We first tried the cat store, which is fine if you don't mind staying logged in to do it.  I find I am still a big fan of the auction house, and I am making money slowly.  Hopefully I will have enough to start doing some gold trading soon.  When that happens, I will be able to play the market, get some gold, and buy some clothing without having to use real money to do it! It is great that this system was instituted for players who have more time than cash.  Once I get started, I may do some research and post on how to work the gold market.

21 forever might be good in real life...

That's all I have for now.  I am looking around for another title to start toward the end of this month.  Sure, I don't have tonnes of time, but I need various forms of escape, and I aim to find a fun vacation home for my summer break!  If you know of any free to play games that I should poke my nose into, comment below!

Maura

Someone call an exterminator?

So cute when they are sleeping, aren't they?

Let's pretend we are amazed at her non-existent muscles.

Random picture completely unrelated to Maura, except their both being absolute wrecks.

Heavy Junkboxes? We Have Them!

Roughly a month ago my husband was given a down payment on another persons bid for insanity.  I don't know what the final payment will be, but I do know this has given me some blog fodder.  That, in itself, is payment enough, since I have been in a dry place lately game wise.  So, without further ado, I present to you my guide for grabbing as many heavy junk boxes as you can in a small amount of space and time.

Some of you might be asking yourselves, "Why do I need heavy junk boxes?"  The only reason I can think of that anyone would need these is to gain positive reputation with the Ravenholdt faction, by doing the repeatable quest Junkboxes Needed. Ideally, you should kill as many Syndicate as possible before starting this quest.  If you aren't a rogue already, you either will have to beg a friend or use an alt, because you can only pickpocket these boxes.

For starters, you will need a rogue.  These come in many different flavors.  My favorite is undead.  Your rogue will want to be at least level 60, and the higher above that the better, as it decreases the chance your rogue will be caught with his/her hand in a pocket. Make sure your rogue has the barest minimum of items in his/her bag.  I recommend a stack of bandages, some food, and your thieves tools.  If your rogue is an engineer, bring Jeeves along as well to sell of the garbage. Maura is not, so we will just be littering.  Drop your rogue off in Kargath, or Thorium Point if you have the flight point, and head on over to Blackrock Depths.

 Once inside, hang a left, and pick lock that gate. Don't bother with the mobs that are directly in front of you as you enter.  They only drop Sturdy Lockboxes, which look just like the heavy ones, but don't work for the quest turn in. Once you have passed the gate, stealth past the flame mobs and get out on the highway.

You could stay here, pickpocketing up and down the highway with great success, but I hate those dogs! They see through stealth, and though Maura is a healthy level 71, she still gets a tad too close once in while. After that happens, she usually ends up killing precious humanoid mobs, and we cannot have that. Since pocket loot will respawn after several minutes, you want to keep as many mobs alive on your route as possible.


Got auto loot on? You should have several boxes by now.  I didn't mean for you to think that I don't pick these guys pockets at all.  I do pick them on the way to my preferred farming area. Through the monstrous gate...

across the bridge...

through the covered walkway and past Lord Incendius.

Through the Hall of Crafting and past the contstructs.

Pick the craftsmen's pockets, you might get something! Even Fineous Darkvire sometimes has a little something in his pockets.

In Shadowforge City, on this ledge, go out the door and turn left, and go into the last door on the ledge. Pickpocket all these guys, too.

 In the Domicile, pick pocket as many as you dare. Up the ramp, through the first room and into the second, go past that fireguard on the right.

Another bridge...

Pickpocket this whole hall, including Pyromance Loregrain at the end.

You  have entered the farming zone! Halfway down the hall is our entrance to the Ring of Law, in the audience section.

Pick all their pockets, starting from the left or right, and ending when you have made a full circuit.  I usually then go to the opposite entrance...

and pick pocket over there...

...then come back and do the ring, then pickpocket the original hallway again.  You can keep this up indefinitely.

I hope this was helpful. Below I have made a nice red line on the map approximately where my path takes me.  Personally, I use landmarks much better, so that is why there are so many pictures! Any suggestions you all have would be welcome, because I am sure going INSANE picking all these pockets! :)