Ding of Dings

Ding is a common exclamation used by players to announce to their friends and guild members when they reach a new level. Because of this, ding has taken on several auxiliary meanings, such as the act of leveling up, the graphic associated with leveling up, etc. Originally, the sound effect when a character leveled in Everquest was a ding. – http://www.wowwiki.com/Ding

All these months of playing World of Warcraft paid off just a couple of weeks ago, on January 24^th to be exact, Rumplewort achieved the current pinnacle of WoW – Level 80. I call this the “Ding of Dings.” So now, you may ask, what's next? If you've reached the max level, why keep playing? Where's the challenge? Oh, but there's more gentle reader, much more. At level 80 I've taken to doing “dailies” which are quests that repeat on a daily basis and pay fairly good rewards in the form of gold or reputation. My buddy and I have also recently taken to entering battle grounds lately where we join other players of our faction to compete against players of the opposing faction. I also have a guild to support and several Alts (Alternate Characters) that I can begin leveling. The challenge of the game now is to make my main character (aka “toon”) as rich as possible so he can funnel gold to my Alts and also help support his guild. Of course, as those Alts reach epic levels, new ones will be created. There are two major factions in WoW (Alliance and Horde) with five races in each faction. There are also nine different classes (e.g., Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Hunter, etc.) and one “hero class” (Death Knight) in the game. When you take that into account, then it's pretty easy to see how one can keep the game fresh and fun – simply try playing a class or race you haven't played yet, or a class/race combination that's different than what you've played before. I've only been playing since August 2008, so the only toon I have any real experience playing is a Dwarf Warrior. I also have a Draenei Hunter, Human Death Knight and Tauren Hunter on the “Shadowsong” server, and just recently created an Orc Rogue and and Orc Death Knight on the “Blood Furnace” PvP server.

That brings me to another topic about WoW – PvP, which stands for Player vs Player. The aforementioned battle ground scenarios obviously would be a PvP situation, however there are other areas anc concepts that involve PvP. I've mentioned “servers” so I'll explain what that means. Or even better, I'll quote the definition from WoWWiki.com.

A realm is an instance of the World of Warcraft (WoW) game world. Realms are hosted on physical devices called servers (for this reason, the terms "realm" and "server" are often used interchangeably).

So, a server or “realm” is what a player logs onto to play the game. There are several dozen realms in the US with an identically named European realm as well. Think about it – if, at last known report, there are over 11.5 million subscribers to the game worldwide, there's no way in hell they can all log onto the same server at once – it would overload and crash in a matter of seconds, or it would run so slow that the game would be unplayable. Now, not only are there several dozen servers, but there are different types or styles of play depending on what type of server you log onto.

PvE (Player vs Environment) – also known as a “normal” server. Basically, you just do the quests, interact with other players and fight creatures and non-player characters as needed to gain experience points and rewards. PvP is voluntary on these types of realms so you can't be attacked (or “ganked”) by an enemy player without expressly putting yourself in that position on purpose.

PvP (Player vs Player) – as I mentioned above, there are battlegrounds and certain zones that are PvP even on the PvE realms, but on a PvP realm, anytime you enter territory controlled by the opposite faction or territory that is contested, you are automatically put in PvP mode. Your warning is the fact that you're on that type of server, so you've essentially volunteered for it by signing onto that server.

RP (Role Playing) – since WoW is supposed to be an RPG (Role Playing Game) these realms require that players speak in the chat channels as though they were their character and be descriptive when discussion their actions using speech similar to what you find in novels and the like. There are also tighter restrictions on character naming. Personally, if I'm going to role play, I'd better have dice, paper and pencils in front of me while sitting at a kitchen table with friends. But that's just my opinion. These servers are also a type of PvE realm as PvP is not forced in opposing or contested zones.

RP-PvP – If you've paid attention to the above descriptions, then you should be able to figure this one out I think :-P

So, even though I've achieved the “ding of dings” with my first, and main, character, there's still lots of war to craft ;-)

~ Carlisle

Triumphant Return (maybe)

The writing bug has bitten me again... well, at least for today. We'll see what 2009 holds for Carlisle's Chaotic Commentary, but for today I'll bring everyone up to speed.

WoW, This is Addictive
As my regular readers (assuming I still have any) know, I began playing World of Warcraft® back in August. I'll admit to a certain level of gaming addiction and that WoW has contributed to my not writing my blog every Sunday as I had been doing. I started playing the game at the long behest of a buddy of mine and even joined the guild he was a member of (“Sons of Gotrek”). No WoW guild is immune to drama and upheaval, and ours was no different. Back in November, Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King, the 2^nd expansion pack to World of Warcraft. It seemed most of us were on board to level to 80 (the previous cap being 70) and creating the new and long awaited Death Knight (WoW's first hero class).

Well, the unexpected happened. Our Guild Master quit. I don't mean he quit the guild, I mean he completely quit the game a mere week or two after the expansion pack was released. One of my buddy's characters (also known as a “toon” as in cartoon) was promoted to Guild Master by the previous GM before he quit, so we thought everything would work itself out. Well, it didn't. Within the last two weeks we had a couple of other members move their main toons to a different guild saying they wanted a “more active guild.” I can respect that, but how about helping recruit people and make the one you're in more active? Oh, and I'm sorry that I have a life outside of WoW and don't play 24/7 like you guys are able to.

The icing on the cake was when my buddy, unannounced and without any fanfare or explanation, also dropped his main toon from the guild, leaving the alternate (Alt) toon that had been made guild master in place. At that point, I was done as was my other buddy who I regularly quested with. In fact, we had been pretty much a subset within the guild for months as we always seemed to be questing together separate from the rest of the guild. So, I am now a Guild Master. There was no coup or anything. Jere and I simply left “Sons of Gotrek” and collectively have spent almost 400 Gold of our toons' hard earned loot to create “Myth Inc” (the name is inspired by the Myth Adventures series of novels by Robert Asprin). I have to tell you, being a Guild Master is some work. First I had to buy a guild charter, then get nine other toons to sign it (that cost me about 40 gold in bribes at 5G a pop, with Jere's main being the first to sign leaving eight more to get). Then we had to establish a Guild Vault, which cost another 100 gold. Last night we spent another 250 gold to add more storage to the Guild Vault. And all this while trying to save enough gold to pay for training and new skills as we get closer to the goal of Level 80. Naturally, about half of the toons we bribed to sign our charter left the newly formed guild within about 24 hours (which was expected) and there's a couple that we may have to quietly remove since they don't really seem interested in actually participating. We did manage to luck up and get one guy who's pretty excited about being in a guild and has even already started helping to recruit others. He and his friends are still pretty new to the game, but I kind of dig the idea of helping to teach the “newbs.” I wouldn't have made it to Level 76 (the level my main is at at the time of this posting) with help from others (both friends and strangers), so I'm happy to pay back – plus, it's just good karma.

I wish I could Retire Early
So, everyone out there is aware of the current “economic crisis” here in the U.S. I assume. If not, pick up a fucking newspaper, turn on a TV to a news channel or generally take your head out of you ass and pay attention to what people are saying.

That being said, my work place is certainly not immune, especially being a retail chain in a town who's work force is probably 90% retail clerks or food service workers. You'd think, with the Christmas and Holiday gift giving season having just ended that we'd have been ok right? NOT! The week before Christmas I was cut down to about 28 hours. I got my normal 37ish hours in the week of Christmas, but then the two weeks after, I only worked around 24 each, and this coming week, I'm only scheduled for 20! WTF?! I am, as far as I know, still listed as full time status. The other thing is, our schedule is supposedly based on sales performance. Well, even with sales down across the board, I still had more sales than most of my co-workers. Oh, but that's right, RadioShack only cares about cellphone sales. Forget all the other shit I sold, I didn't sell as many phones as everyone else. So, I get fucked up the ass with a chainsaw without the courtesy of any lube. Loyalty (I've been there 3 years come March) means nothing anymore, not does the other work I do such as price tags, freight, planograms, etc. to help keep the store operational. Just sales.... sales, sales, sales. Oh, great you sold $1million of stuff.. sell some more, you can do better than that... blah blah blah.

I'm 37 years old. The prospect of trying to re-enter the job market isn't a very happy thought, and since the job market basically sucks right now, it's an even less happy thought than usual. Truth be told, I'm so sick of stupid people and assholes that I'd rather just retire. Of course, for that to happen I'd have to win the lottery or have some excruciatingly rich relative I don't know about suddenly die and leave me their estate. Not bloody likely I'd say.

That's My Girl!
While my hours at work dwindle, Roxanne, my fiancée, continues her work as the Operations Manager for the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra. It's not a high paying job, but at least it builds her resume toward working in marketing and public relations. In fact, she just began the MBA program at Methodist University, which will make her future job prospects even greater. I'm very proud of her and will be supporting her anyway I can over the next year and a half (I even did the laundry today while she was at school).

Future Chaos
Sorry for this being such a long winded blog. I guess that's what happens when you take three months off from blogging – you end up with a lot to say at one time. I'm not promising that I'm going to go back to the weekly format. Perhaps I'll try monthly posts starting out to get back into a rhythm. Thanks for reading.

Until next time,
~ Carlisle

PS. Yes, I know my last post back in September said I wasn't going to continue posting the blog on both Blogger and MySPace, but since it's been three months since I've posted anything at all, I've kind of changed my mind about that.

State of the Chaos - WoW, Pink Slips, Pirates and the Future of the Blog

Greetings and salutations! Yes, I still live, and my apologies for my lack of bloggage over the past several weeks. As predicted in my previous post from August 17, I have become thoroughly addicted to I. That coupled with a lack of what I consider viable ideas for blog topics lead to a lapse in updates to my Chaotic Commentary. So, here's a hodge podge blog of things that have gone on or been observed from the past month.

WoW I Really Like It!

World of Warcraft rocks! You may remember from my post “WoW! I Kinda Like It” (August 10, 2008) that I admitted to being hooked a mere 15 minutes into what was supposed to be a 10-day trial. Now not only am I full on WoW Gamer, but I've even installed plug ins to enhance my gaming experience and I've joined a guild. In fact, last night I was promoted to officer status with that guild. I've gotten two characters (referred to as “toons”) to double digits – a Dwarf Warrior (Rumplewort) who made level 38 last night, and a Draenei Hunter (Xaandria) who is level 22. I've spent nights that I didn't go to bed until the following morning (like last night for example when I think I logged off somewhere between 4:00-4:30 AM). I am now eagerly awaiting the next expansion pack for the game, Wrath of the Lich King, which is scheduled to release on November 13 (that happens to be my birthday, nudge-nudge-wink-wink). My Dwarf is also now an officer in his guild (Sons of Gotrek).

I Got the Pink Slip, Daddy

On September 26 the final payment was auto-drafted from my bank account for my 2004 Saturn Ion. The bitch is paid for! FINALLY! After 5 years of shelling out $330.64 every month (essentially the majority of one paycheck) it's finally done. I would've had a completely paid for 2001 Saturn SL about 2-3 years ago if some stupid bitch hadn't run a stop sign and totaled it. So, at the half-way point of paying for that car, I had to start completely over. But now, it's done. And unless it gets hit, or the wheels fall off, I'm not going back into debt for a car any time in the near future. Period!

Pirates

Avast ye scurvy dog! Last weekend were a little known, yet annual event. September 19 were International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I realize it's too late now to do anything about it, but at least know ye now and can mark yer calendar for next year, ye scallywag!

The Future of the Blog

Though it's been more than a month since my last post, the blog is not dead nor was it intentional that I neglected it for so long. Yes, it's true that playing Wolrd of Warcraft was a big culprit in my lack of bloggage, but more importantly was the fact that I put pressure on myself to try to do a weekly blog. This was never about me trying to be a writer with a weekly readership. The purpose, for me anyway, of blogging was to have a place to vent or share a silly idea or thought. Now, I'm not saying this is the final blog. I'll keep writing as long as I think people are reading or until I just stop thinking of ideas and topics. But, rather than trying to crank one out every Sunday, from now on I'll write when I have a good idea or something that's really inspired me instead of trying to force it.

Also, a note to my MySpace peeps. This is the last time I'll post the blog on MySpace. It's to much work to try to post this in two different places, and the Blogger spot was always my intended blog space anyway. So, set your bookmarks/favorites to http://jecarlisle.blogspot.com and keep checking there for blog updates.

Until I again get the writing bug,
~ Carlisle

Next Topic (when I get around to it) – Vacation 2008

A Week Off

Sorry to disappoint all (two) of my regular readers (that'd be my buddy, Jimmy and my fiancée, Roxanne), but I'm just not feelin' it this morning. I had a topic in mind, but frankly I spent too many hours playing World of Warcraft this week to focus the idea into a blog. So, rather than rush one out on the fly and have it potentially suck major ass, I figured I'd let the blog rest for a week. I've miraculously been given three days off this coming pay-week (Monday, Tuesday, and Friday), so with all the spare spare time I'll be able to write a blog hopefully worthy of your reading enjoyment. So, until next week boys and girls.

Live Long and Prosper,
~ Carlisle

Next week (unless I get lazy or just caught up playing WoW again): “A Dogmatic ViewAskew”