Pyromantic, am I?

I like fire. The colors of the fire I throw are vibrant. The flame has life, and feels good when I cast it. It crackles and pops while I prepare the spell, almost escaping sometimes. I like to watch my targets leap into flame when a fireball or scorch spell lands just right. I imagine the fire makes my palms tingle as I conjure it, warming my fingertips as I send it off.

Does that make me a Pyromaniac? I'd rather call myself Pyromantic. Is this a word? My spell checker placed a lovely red line under the word. I'm leaving it. Take that, Webster!

I imagine my arcane spells tickle when I cast them. I always grin a little when I Blink. Arcane explosions have a cheerful little sound to them. Arcane bolts, well, they just feel funny. I hate being tickled, so I think I'll pass on those.

When I use frost spells, I don't feel the chill like I was in some sort of deep freeze. It feels something like death. I don't use frost bolt, cone of cold, or blizzard. I infrequently use frost nova when I'm about to die. Since frost feels deathlike to me, I don't use it. Guess I won't be doing many arenas on Esoterique.

An explanation...

The next three posts are some I had to move from my previous site, as my husband prepares to shut it down. The idea of having a blog site is neat, but the actual writing to it is daunting for him, and I wasn't going to be the sole author on his site.

A little bit about me, and my gaming experiences

When my husband told me he wanted to start a blog site, and said I would be posting to it, I had this crazy idea that I would try out a new "free" massive multi-player online game a week, and give my thoughts on it. Before I give you my first review, a little background on my playing seems to be in order.

I have been interested in games of some sort most of my life. Aren't we all? When I was growing up, we played a lot of Monopoly, Scrabble, Sorry, Life, and many other board games. At school, we brought our jacks, marbles, and Chinese jump ropes. As my brother got old enough, Atari was introduced to the house. I loved it, but was soon banned from playing as I was too heavy handed with the controller. Devastated, I retreated into a book whenever my sister and brother were allowed to play the Atari. My brother got older, and the first Nintendo system came into the house. It belonged to him alone, and sometimes he deigned to allow me to play a few levels of Super Mario Brothers. I stunk at it. I guess video games were not meant for me. After enduring less than half an hour of playing under the watchful eye of my brother, I usually gave up and went back to my book.

Not too long after the Nintendo system crossed our doorstep, my parents bought their first computer. I don't remember much about it, except that it had an amber monitor, and a few text games on it. I tried playing Hammurabi, couldn't figure it out, so it sat in my parents room, probably figuring out the bills. That christmas, my dad brought home a Radio Shack computer, complete with a Windows type operating system. The old computer became mine. At first I used it to type up my homework. Having a computer was no real treat. Then, one day, a friend from church told me about how she called other computers with her computer and talked with friends and played games, and I just had to try it out. I had a 300 baud modem, and she gave me a copy of Telix with the number to her favorite Bulletin Board System. I called, connected and was immediately transfixed. THIS was my kind of fun!

I was quickly pulled into a huge new world, with people I never would have found myself hanging out with in school, meeting in shabby pizza parlors because all the good ones had already banned their meetings. I was, most often, the best looking girl there, but not the best known. Between user group meetings, I'd hang out in the text games. First there was Kyrandia, which I never would have figured out on my own, then there was Trade Wars. When I wasn't in a game, I was in the chat room, discovering new action commands and chatting with friends.

I did have more than that to my high school days. I went to dances, had a job at a fast food place, was active in my church youth group and another youth group. The computer, as yet, had not consumed my days. I met my first husband at one of those user group meets, and life moved forward. I had a baby, moved to western New York, and looked for a BBS out there. By then, BBS systems were going away, being replaced by services like America Online and Compuserve. To me, the internet was a scary place, and my few bulletin boards were just fine. But, my first husband, much like my current one in only this respect, had to have bigger and better. So we subscribed to AOL. I logged into a chat room, but it wasn't the same. How could you get used to a chat room when the people were never the same? I tried a few of their puzzle games, and found them entertaining, but for then, I had better things to do with my time. I was a restaurant manager, home only 2 days a week, and the days I did work were long. Who had time for the computer?

Eventually, I found out I could "surf" the internet and look at web pages. I signed up for Yahoo mail, and downloaded the messenger. All of a sudden, friends I hadn't heard from in years were on my messenger. I found Pogo, a site full of puzzle, word, and online casino games, and spent a few fun nights just chatting on the messenger and popping balloons. It was a nice escape from the ever messier house and piles of bills. Still, it was a short escape, and I went back to the real world and took care of business. In time this led to a divorce, which was in the best interest of everyone concerned, and I and my girls moved in with my mom for a short time. The computer was available there, but there was no time. I had to work, I had to take care of my girls, and I had to contribute to the household. We moved out into a rental, and I got some bit of freedom back. A bit, because I only had it when the girls were asleep. So I had my date on the computer. Television on in the background for noise, I'd play games, and eventually look for people to talk to on my messenger. There I met Tom, and he introduced me to his friends, about 100 of them, in Star Wars Galaxies. It felt familiar, almost like my old BBS, but I had a body, and I didn't have to guess how to word my next move. I played, we dated, we split up, we got back together, we married, then we started playing World of Warcraft. I had the opportunity to try some games in beta(Seed,Pirates of the Burning Sea) and some by loan through friends(Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Anarchy Online, Battlefield). Currently, I am playing a level 40 paladin on the alliance side of a player-vs-environment server and have a mess of characters from level 10-70 on the horde side of a player-vs-player server, in a guild full of people from my Star Wars Galaxies experience.

Gaming in a Full House

It's 3 in the afternoon, my oldest daughter is walking to pick up her sisters from school. My husband is off picking up his half of our 7 kids. I'm sitting at my desk, riffling through the junk mail, keeping the baby from tearing the living room apart, and loading up Ventrilo and World of Warcraft. It's the quietest bit of time I'll have, and I have a game plan. Delgada needs a flying mount, and she's been waiting patiently in Netherstorm while her counterpart, Rowena, has been putting all the spoils up for auction in Orgrimmar. I figure I have about 15 minutes available to do 2 quests before the girls show up, then another 45 minutes of playtime punctuated with checking on chore progress before the rest of our happy horde come tumbling in the door. Delgada awakens in the Area 52 inn, checks for water and food, and runs for her first quest.

Cut away from Delgada flaying a Mana Wraith to me turning in my chair as the door opens and my three older girls enter the house. I send one into the kitchen and the rest in to the living room, and turn back to the task. Two quests done, about 500 gold left to go. I steer Delgada to her next quest, one that I can turn away from easily, as I am bombing a goblin from a stack of barrels. I toss happy little bombs , taking a second or two in between to yell out tasks to the girls, check out their work, and pull the baby out of the bathroom before she uses someone's toothbrush in the toilet again. This is close to how my next few quests go, picking up debris from a trash heap, killing demons for vengeance and profit, collecting insignias from strange ethereals, all the while barking orders and chasing a toddler.

The girls have somewhat finished their tasks, and are busy keeping their little sister from using the dvd player as an easy bake oven . Delgada has managed, miraculously, to amass another 200 gold, leaving her short just 300 gold to purchase her mount. The scraping sound of the station wagon pulling into the driveway is my signal to use Delgada's hearthstone. As my other three children walk in the door, Delgada turns in her last quests and sends all her saleable items to Rowena for some extra money making while she sets up in the inn for the night.

How does your life punctuate your game play? I welcome your comments!

WTT Epix for nap...

It has been a busy week in our small house. Laundry is at the half done mark as it usually is, the kitchen sink is full of dishes, the living room is strewn with toddler toys and Rock Band accessories, and I won’t even poke my head into the doorway of the kids rooms for fear of losing what little sanity I have left. I am tired! It’s been a busy week at work, too, what with special promotions and staff meetings. All I want is a nap! But, no, it’s Saturday, 4:30 server time (1:30 my time), and we’re going to go kill a king's court of tall fat men, then attempt to do damage to a large drooling one eyed loin cloth wearing ….ogre? I log out of my bank toon/twink (who was happily looking at the shiny things for sale and snapping up bargains), and log in my shadow priestess. She buys herself a few unstable elixirs and some mana potions, then takes some enhancing food out of her bank (how fish stays fresh in a bank vault boggles the mind, but it hasn’t killed her yet. Maybe because she is undead?). Someone sends out a summons and whisks her to the Blades Edge Mountains, and Gruul's Lair. Five minutes later, someone whispers in her ear. ”You know, we could really use Shawndra instead. Would you mind?” Of course she minds, but when you can’t find a tank, and you’re an officer, it doesn’t make much difference. I reluctantly sit her outside the instance and log her out. Shawndra logs in, scrounges for food and money to buy a couple of unstable flasks and health potions and accepts a summons to the Lair.

King Maulgar and his court are fractious today, and they are not put in their place until the 3rd try. By this time I am tired of people trying to tell me how to tank a mob that won’t let Shawndra stand still long enough to cast more than a taunting yowl in his general direction. I am cranky,and the next person with "helpful" advice gets critically hit with a wall of text gibberish. With Delgada, if I nod for a second in between mind flay and mind blast, it makes no large difference. It might even help, as she seems to be climbing quickly up the aggro charts these days. But having to pay attention for the whole fight….. I yawn as I hit the taunt button again, attempt to throw out a devastating armor sundering blow with her sword, only to find Shawndra running away in fear, right into Krosh Firebrand’s blast wave. She comes back to her senses, intervenes to take a blow from the warlock, and taunts him again before he casts death coil on her, sending her off again to the other side of the room in fear. I take a swig of my diet soda (caffeinated, to keep me from napping), recover, and hit the intervene button again.

King Maulgar and his court, having been soundly spanked by our raid group, give up one measly epic pair of hunter shoulders. I keep hoping for tanking shoulders, as it is the only non-epic piece of tanking gear Shawndra still uses, but at least this time she didn’t lose a roll to a tree. We move on, kill a few of Gruul’s minions, and sit down to refresh our flagging energies (and to allow our puppeteers to make use of the facilities and get refills on their snacks). Our fearless leader (well, maybe not completely fearless, he is in stealth) checks to see that we are ready, and sends the tanks in. Shawndra is not main tank, thankfully, even though I dare say she could have managed the fight nicely. She’s off tanking, trying to be second on the aggro table. This is very hard when Gruul is not hitting her and making her angry. Rage is in short supply. She yells an encouraging and health enhancing yell, and stands under the cave in. That should make her good and mad! She pops a nightmare seed, and hacks at Gruul’s ankle.

Well, Gruul mashed us soundly into the ground the first time. The second time, I was determined it would be the last. It wasn’t. I found myself running back again, looking at Shawndra’s dangerously low armor rating. One more was all she had left in her. I imagine her armor would have been severely dented, blood spattered, the ornamentation broken off, jagged cuts in spots like those a cheap can opener makes. By this time, my yawning was causing my eyes to water. She sat down in the doorway, ate a bit of crawfish, drank a kool-aid colored flask, and danced as she waited for the priests and paladins to bless her with their enhancing spells. “Everyone ready? Good. Tanks, go.” Shawndra walked out to the center, slammed her shield into Gruul’s kneecap, and started hacking at his ankle again. She switched ankles, slammed her shield into his other knee, yelled out how ugly and weak he was, and continued hacking at his ankle. She then went berserk, hacking more quickly at his calf, yelling encouragement to her teammates. The fight was almost over. The main tank went down, and Shawndra slammed her shield into his knee again, challenging him to put her down. The roof started caving in again, and Shawndra moved out of it, now fully angered and needing every bit of health she had left in her. She blocked, she parried, she yelled, she sundered, she struck at him fiercely. Then, a silly mage zapped him with an ice bolt, and the fight was over. Gruul was dead, and the raid rejoiced. He had been holding onto two pairs of pants and a headpiece. Shawndra somehow won the roll on the pants, only to find herself sitting in front of the equipment vendor later, feeling guilty. Her tanking pants were better than the tier 4 she was looking at, and her fury pants, well, she didn’t like losing all that hit rating. So I logged her out there to think about it.

I turned in my chair, and beheld my little house, overflowing with children. During the raid my niece had arrived, and my kids were having a jam session in the living room. The toddler was in bed “napping”. My husband had grabbed his latest magazine and locked himself in the bathroom. Through the screen door I saw a couple of kids running around the front yard. The hallway was clean, the kitchen had been tidied, and I could hear a load of laundry rinsing while the dryer tumbled. All seemed well with the world, so I got up, aimed for my chair, and looked at the clock. It was 4:30. I sighed, stifled another yawn, and went into the kitchen to whip up dinner instead.

Poor Delgada, I left her sitting in front of Gruul’s lair, under the hostile glare of very large and powerful ogres. Oh well, she will have to fend for herself. I NEED A NAP!