Soft Open

Hello - just cleaning out the cobwebs.

I've changed the look of the blog but not married to it. It shall likely change again.

I've left Jim Surge, Melissa Muromets, and Pete Peters as authors here at UWoW, but I feel as their courseload at university and other real-life responsibilities increase that we shall see very little of them in the coming weeks and months. They'll officially be considered "contributors at-large" for our purposes. I have known Jim for a while, both online and 3D, and would like to thank him for his thoughtful work here and I hope I can continue on with something close to the brand of honest critique that has been a hallmark of UWoW since the start.

I'm not sold on the idea of solely reviewing WoW podcasts - there are some great casts for other games as well. Jim made a halfhearted attempt at starting to listen to other shows on a regular basis like STO and Aion, but his interest didn't last long. I'll always be on the lookout for something good despite the game, and maybe even despite the genre.

For WoW, I'd like to at least be giving regular shouts to the shows that go above and beyond the typical here's what I did last week format, and of course mark significant anniversaries and the like.

But my vision for the blog is more to mine the content of some of these casts and drill down a little deeper and in more depth about the current issues of the day. The flexibility of a blog lends itself to such deeper considerations and I do hope readers will help contribute and help set the agenda.

I'm not a WoW-robot, as wasting half of 2010 on a bunch of alts I deleted before hitting lvl 30 should back up. I'm a fairly large baseball (Boston Red Sox) and proper football fan (Arsenal). I am also a huge fan of the Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic, I go to games and concerts, and these sorts of things are going to creep into the blog from time to time. Sorry, it's just me!

In terms of World of Warcraft, I am a complete endgame noob. I'm on Twisting Nether-US which is RPPVP, and I've leveled a blood elf priest to 80 last fall/winter, going shadow, and then for most of 2010 I've just been messing with alts of both factions until I started seriously working on a feral druid, now level 41, loving cat form.

Priest: Weledis (Herbalism 450 Tailoring 300)

Druid: Chuon (leveling with Herbalism / Skinning)

Poor Wel hasn't been dusted off since I got him a Brewfest stein back in July! I do also have one other "regular" toon, a level one bank alt blood elf huntress who operates out of Silvermoon, that I started when I started leveling Chuon.

I have a lot of rep grinding ahead for both of these characters. I still also have never run any level 80 dungeons or heroics, and am worried about ever getting there since I don't expect to have Chuon to 80 until sometime this fall, probably close to Cataclysm's release. We shall see. If anyone's on Twisting Nether and wants to help out, I'm all for it!

All for now, just wanted to say hey. So, hey.

And So On...

I've got brew a'brewin'. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Odd Thought

So this article about the New York Yankees in the New York Daily News sparked an odd thought.

A comment from a reader called "eli grossman" puts forward a theory that the manager of the New York Yankees might have a hard time lying to the media because he is a good Christian. I assume from the context of the previous comments and from the article itself that Mr. grossman is offering an explanation as to why the Yankees' manager sometimes seems tongue-tied, as if he's trying to figure out how to speak gibberish without technically lying.

I'm sure football fans understand what I'm getting at from having watched countless managers "engage" in vacant conversation in the post-match interview.

Another Snow

Snow on the way again.

I have some travel coming up next week to the great state of Alabama. Just a one-nighter.

Did a realm transfer of my lvl 70 paladin from Anvilmar-US (PVE) to Twisting Nether-US (RPPVP) to bring a couple thousand gold over to my little hunter/rogue dual box team. But the funny thing is I actually dusted the guy off and did a level in Northrend and now might just run him through to 80 first before going back to the lowbies.

More and more have been listening to non-WoW MMO-related podcasts.

Haven't been on STO all week. Not missing it greatly. Still want to do the Lieutenant Commander levels this weekend though.

Snowdate: This Is Getting Old

Yet more snow last night and today here in New Jersey.

Not nearly as exciting as Snowpocalypse 2010 which downed power lines and closed schools for several days, but it'll do nicely to turn otherwise rational people into raving lunatic idiots on the roadways.

Or maybe raving lunatic isn't correct. But the sort of mentally ill person that sees a snowflake in the air and assumes that the ground is a)snow covered b)ice covered or c)generally unsafe and therefore drives their vehicle at absurdly slow speeds, mashing down on the breaks at irregular intervals for no reason at all.

If these maggots did something crazy called "using their eyes" they would see that there is absolutely no need for the extra caution because a)there's no snow covering the roads b)there's no ice sneaking around there either, especially after the warm temps this weekend, and c)it only becomes unsafe when you're going super slow and stomping on your breaks for no reason causing people to crash into you from behind.

There's no need for it! So stop.

Anyway, have hardly played WoW in about two weeks. I was all set to do the love is in the air events on my main toon and even read a little about the changes this year, but I just couldn't go back for more than one day of that garbage. My latest plan is to go back and get my priest who is now 80 through the quest chain to pick either Oracles or Frenzyheart. He's still working on Sons of Hodir too so that will be a nice little moneymaker for the time being.

Still have a pally sitting at 70 (and he's so old his main weapon is still the Hammer of Destiny).

Been doing a little dual-boxing on Twisting Nether-US but are only at level 15 on a hunter/rogue combo.

Mainly playing STO (got James Herbert Surge up to Lieutenant Commander and tried a Klingon for PvP - love the starting ship) and NHL10 on PS3 these days, with a dose of my Out of the Park Baseball online league and Total Extreme Wrestling 2010 thrown in for good measure.

TONS of podcasts were in the chamber today, so much so I couldn't sync before my frustrating car ride to campus.

Snowpocalypse 2010!

Just a quick note - the NJ area has been bashed with snow for the last few days, and the ancient power lines in Princeton just aren't what they used to be. Power has finally come back on, so expect updates to resume.

Cheers.

Stardate: You're Corny

I've been playing STO quite a bit over the last week. After being in the closed beta, the open beta, and the headstart you'd think I'd have had enough already. But I haven't. I sort of like it. It's providing a great change of pace for me from my WoW playing.

I've not been very adventerous thus far in terms of my toon. My first character is a human Starfleet officer called James Herbert Surge and he is the commanding officer of the New Jersey. I just got him promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander this weekend during the "Winter Powerhouse" that "paralyzed the east coast" on Friday and Saturday. This week, after playing around a bit with Surge's new cruiser, I'll finally roll up a Klingon and some other kind of Starfleet alien race.

It's not mindblowing. But it's pretty solid. A comment in Zone chat yesterday pretty much summed up my attitude: "it'll do until TOR is ready."

A couple of typical random WoW-related posts that are always popping up at the launch of MMOs these days made me chuckle for some reason:

"NEED A RUN THROUGH STOCKS - PAYING 5G!"

"Need heals and 3 dps for ICC25 then gtg"

Ho-hum. Certainly not as chuckle-inducing in print as they were "in the moment."

Been listening to a bunch of new and non-WoW related podcasts, but some of the classics as well. Should be posting our updated list later today.