One year of WoW

My main character, Arinae (shown here with her trusty tiger, Sylven), is one level away from 80. She's my first character to get this far in my one year (give or take a few months) of playing World of Warcraft.

It’s been a year and five days since I first created my World of Warcraft account. I was inactive for a few of those twelve months because I was in my senior year of college then and thesis got in the way, but still; one year of World of Warcraft.

I think this calls for a recap.

Starting out

Shiro (my boyfriend and MMO partner-in-crime) and I decided to try out WoW using trial accounts. After having some fun with a Night Elf Hunter and Druid on the Echo Isles server, we decided to pay for the game and start playing for real.

I eventually decided to create a Forsaken Rogue. I never really select melee classes from the get-go in online games (I always go for ranged attackers – or in rare cases, magic users – when I start playing an MMO), but I wanted try something different. Shiro, who usually goes for melee DPS classes, rolled a Forsaken Warlock. I guess we just wanted to see how we’d work if we switched roles in our usual MMO partnership.

BRB

I went on a bit of a hiatus because of school, and because I realized that Rogues and I just didn’t get along. My computer had to be taken to a shop for repairs too, so I was inactive for a few months.

Return to Azeroth

I eventually went back to playing WoW (and I blogged about it too), and Shiro and I upgraded to Burning Crusade. We finally gave in to our preference for pretty characters by rolling Blood Elves. After seeing how the aforementioned role-switch (him as magic user, me as melee attacker) was an epic failure (I remember a Forsaken Priest getting very annoyed with how no0b-y we were in a dungeon run), we decided to go for our usual combination: me as a ranged attacker (Hunter), and him as a melee DPS character (Retadin).

Switching servers

After wrestling with my misgivings about moving to a PvP server (note: I’m not particularly fond of PvP), we eventually switched over to the Executus server, where one of our friends had an active guild and everything else that would give us a good jump start.

(To Skullpion, Ceserae, Save, and the rest of <Months Behind>: Thank you for all the help and laughs; I’m looking forward to raiding with you when I hit 80!)

The Northrend invasion commences

After giving the Wrath of the Lich King trial a go as Blood Elf Death Knights, Shiro had both our accounts upgraded to WotLK as an early birthday present for me in July. We then proceeded to invade Northrend, and we’ll keep at it until we both hit 80.

If you can’t beat them, join them

After several bad experiences with PvP (e.g. getting ganked while getting mobbed, being /spit on and killed by a level 80 Night Elf Rogue multiple times while I was still level 60-something, etc.) throughout the months I spent playing, I decided to try to optimize my character’s spec for PvP despite my lack of fondness for PvP. My Hunter was originally a Beast Master, a spec recommended  by Skullpion since he knew that I like solo-ing (when I’m not in a party with Shiro) and that I dislike PvP.

Being in a PvP server, however, means that you really can’t stay away from PvP. I learned that the hard way. While I love the Beast Mastery spec, just defending myself against Alliance players proved to be a challenge.

After researching about recommended PvP specs through the official forums and websites like The Hunter’s Mark, I decided to Dual Spec my Hunter and try out a Survival spec. I might respec from Beast Mastery to Marksmanship too, but I’m feeling like a bit sentimental right now and don’t want to completely give up on BM just yet. I have yet to test my Survival spec in combat, but I’m kind of hoping I’ll do a little better than usual.

…I say kind of because, well, having a PvP spec doesn’t really omit the fact that I get too panicky when I get attacked and forget what shortcut keys to press.

Maybe I should try attacking some Alliance players myself just to see how I fare.

—

This year of Warcraft has certainly had its ups and downs; it’s just too bad that I didn’t get to record most of it as I went along. I think I’m going to try posting about WoW more often from now on.

New players in HBO’s A Game of Thrones finally announced

Oh wow, I’m busy for a few days and I look what I’ve missed:

“In the adaptation of the George R.R. Martin fantasy-book series, [Nikolaj] Coster-Waldau will play Jaime Lannister, one of the king’s guards and a ruthless usurper of the previous king. The actor, most recently seen in Ron Moore’s Fox pilot ‘Virtuality,’ is repped by WME, Impression and Independent Talent Group.

Another addition is Tamzin Merchant (Showtime’s ‘The Tudors’), who’ll play Daenerys, an exiled teenage princess.

Also new to the cast: Richard Madden (‘Hope Springs’) as Stark’s eldest son, Robb; Iain Glen (‘Into the Storm’) as Ser Jorah Mormont, a disgraced knight; Alfie Allen (‘The Other Boleyn Girl’) as Theon, Stark’s young ward; Sophie Turner (‘Doctor Who’), as Stark’s eldest daughter, Sansa; Maisie Williams as Stark’s young tomboy daughter, Arya.” – The Hollywood Reporter

I always knew at least one actor/actress would spill over from The Tudors into A Game of Thrones; looks like I was right since Tamzin Merchant made it into the AGoT cast. She certainly looks the part, in my opinion. I never imagined Dany to be your stereotypical beautiful princess; I always imagined her to look beautiful in a weird, otherworld-y sort of way, and Merchant fits that description.

Looks-wise, I’m not so happy with the actor starring as Theon. I always imagined Theon as a younger Jonathan Rhys Myers, and Alfie Allen certainly doesn’t look like that. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how he acts and how he looks with make-up and costume on, as GRRM seems pleased with the casting (check out his multiple entries with comments on the actors on his LJ).

Here’s a list of all the currently confirmed cast members with links to web pages with pictures and/or info on them (mind you, a lot of these actors don’t have a lot of pictures on the internet and I just worked around what I could find):

• Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark
• Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
• Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon I
• Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon
• Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
• Kit Harington as Jon Snow
• Richard Madden as Robb Stark
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
• Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys “Dany” Targaryen
• Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont
• Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
• Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
• Maisie Williams as Arya Stark

Sylvanas Windrunner’s new voice in World of Warcraft

I’m not sure if this came with Patch 3.2 since I haven’t gone to Undercity in a while, but Lady Sylvanas Windrunner, the leader of the Forsaken faction of the Horde, appears to have some new voice files. Her “greeting” lines remain the same (“What joy is there in this curse?”, “What are we if not slaves to this torment?” and so on), but now she sounds an awful lot like a robotic, synthesized version of Tyrande. Sorry, but that’s really what it sounds like to me.

I’m starting to wonder why Blizzard replaced her voice. I personally preferred her old voice; she sounded sexier and more authoritative before, and I didn’t mind that the voice files appeared to be directly lifted from Warcraft III. Now she just sounds…worn out and mechanical. And I’m not just basing this on her “greeting” dialogue; I went through the Battle for Undercity quest multiple times today because my crappy internet kept on disconnecting and I had to restart the quest a few times, and I just couldn’t seem to appreciate her new voice even after listening to it over and over.

Maybe I should to give it a week or so to grow on me. If it doesn’t…oh well. I guess I’ll just go play Warcraft III when I feel like hearing her old voice again.

[EDIT: Well, it's been a more than week, and I still hate her voice. Agh. Blizzard, please bring Piera Coppola back, or at least find someone who sounds like her! ...oh, and look, some people over at the official WoW forums actually complained about her new voice. I'm not the only one who thinks it's horrible!]

George R. R. Martin drops hints about unrevealed cast roles

While George R. R. Martin, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss cannot reveal the five newly-cast roles in HBO’s A Game of Thrones pilot, Martin mentioned (at the Montreal Worldcon) that the roles of Theon Greyjoy and Jaime Lannister have already been filled, and even dropped a few hints about the three other filled roles in his LJ:

“The five roles… well, we have cast Jaime Lannister and Theon Greyjoy, I let that slip in Montreal… the three new ones are all females. A couple small roles, but very important ones. One player has something in common with Ned. One has something in common with Harry Potter. One is not a boney pop singer. Shows can get cancelled and so can characters, but two of them have been seen on American tv recently.”

Huzzah for more female characters! So far the only female character that’s been cast is Catelyn Stark, so I’m excited about this news. I can’t seem to put my finger on who these characters might be though; I guess I’ll just have to wait for the official announcements.

UPDATE: Martin just posted on his LJ that one more role has been cast, but that he can’t talk about it either.

2009 Hugo Award Winners

The list of 2009 Hugo Award winners has been posted in a press release on the official website for the Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon! Here’s the list of winners for quick reference:

Best Novel
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)

Best Novella
“The Erdmann Nexus” by Nancy Kress (Asimov’s Oct/Nov 2008)

Best Novelette
“Shoggoths in Bloom” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s Mar 2008)

Best Short Story
“Exhalation” by Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)

Best Related Book
Your Hate Mail Will be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998–2008 by John Scalzi (Subterranean Press)

Best Graphic Story
Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones Written by Kaja & Phil Foglio, art by Phil Foglio, colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
WALL-E Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter, story; Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, screenplay; Andrew Stanton, director (Pixar/Walt Disney)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Joss Whedon, & Zack Whedon, & Jed Whedon & Maurissa Tancharoen , writers; Joss Whedon, director (Mutant Enemy)

Best Editor, Short Form
Ellen Datlow

Best Editor, Long Form
David G. Hartwell

Best Professional Artist
Donato Giancola

Best Semiprozine
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fanzine
Electric Velocipede edited by John Klima

Best Fan Writer
Cheryl Morgan

Best Fan Artist
Frank Wu

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
David Anthony Durham