Mar 6 - Gaming is Good for You

You know, I started this blog because I had read "Reality is Broken", a book about bringing the benefits of online gaming into the "real" world. Now the Wall Street Journal has published an article about research that show gaming is good for your brain. (see it here).

Some of the stats they published are very interesting ... some expected. For example, the fact that the average gamer is 34 and has been playing for 12 years isn't very surprising. However, the fact that 29% of all gamers are over 50 surprised me quite a bit. Makes my guild of over-60 players not so unique!

It seems fairly intuitive that something a person does for many, many hours would change their brain structure. What does take me aback, though, is the underlying fact that brain structure is malleable! I don't know if that's new research, or if I missed it somewhere along the line.

Other items of interest ... violent games seem to engage us more and educational games just don't reach the level of engagement (or perhaps violence) necessary to bring on the brain-changes that are beneficial from gaming.

This is a very interesting article and should be taken seriously by educators, parents, and of course ... gamers!

Mar 1 - Miniala the Miner/Jeweler

Miniala is spending her time at lvl 85 filling in the blanks of accomplishments she missed while leveling. Although still not interested in running dungeons or raids, she has become obsessed with mining and jewelcrafting. She has expanded her bank storage in anticipation of having one of every kind of gem ... both mined and crafted. Guess that puts me at the extreme of the explorer/gatherer type of player.

Marbaran is still leveling. Now at lvl 64 and questing in Outland. I love Zangarmarsh, with all the mushrooms. What a vivid imagination to create these worlds. She is benefiting from Mini's love of mining, by using supplies of all the smelted ores she needs for her blacksmithing. The enchanting supplies are sometimes a little harder to come by, but she is leveling there as well.

Leveling achievements takes a little longer. Of course there are dungeon and raid-based achievements that neither of them will manage without a big personality transplant. But the other achievements are do-able and they are working away at them.

Once Marbaran has reached lvl 85, then I will take up leveling Meleane. She is a priest and I am thinking of running some dungeons with her as a healer. Won't have to be as fast in combat and should have a tank looking after her ass. More about that as it develops.

I am NOT addicted

Thanks to one of my guildmates for posting this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GpkQSB_h5lY

Blogging and Logging and Hoarding

Interesting experience while I was playing my lvl 40 Warlock last night (Marbaran). I had the great desire to document EVERYTHING. I have stores of raw food from kills that I am just waiting for the right cooking level and recipes to prepare. My lvl 85 Palladin (Miniala) has stores of gems from mining expeditions. I thought about creating a spreadsheet that would show the item, the skill(s) required to use it, the level of that skill needed and, where to get the recipe/pattern/formula.

I know there is someone out there who has set herself the goal to collect every unique piece of vendor trash in existence. There are add-ons for optimizing selling of vendor trash. So now, I join the ranks of the hoarders (not to be confused with the Horde-ers) with trying to organize what I have in a spreadsheet.

I also thought about capturing my experiences  in various zones. I can't currently tell you what zones any of my characters have explored, and I would like to know. So I'll start here.

Marbaran is currently in the Eastern Plaguelands. It's a lvl 40-45 zone and she just hit lvl 42 last night. So, she will be there for a while. I find the story line of the caravan simply wonderful. Go to a place, take on the quests there, then hop back on the caravan to go to the next "hot spot". So far, it's been fun.

I also thought I'd start trying to run lower level dungeons solo. I know ... I know ... I hear you muttering that there's no challenge in that. But I am SLOW. Remember? SLOW! I like to take my time and explore ... see the earlier posts about the types of players ... I'm an explorer. So. I'll start with the Deadmines and see how the experience goes.

SLOW ... I am reminded of a joke ... Young bull and old bull are standing at the top of a hill, looking down at a pasture full of heifers. Young bull says "Let's run down the hill and fuck a heifer" ... Old bull says "Let's walk down the hill and fuck 'em all!"

I will leave you to ponder that.

Just having fun

I've been playing my human Warlock recently. I use the lvl 85 Palladin I have to stay in Stormwind and go to the auction house for mats my Warlock needs or go out and mine for her. The Warlock is having fun, especially with her Felguard minion! I love sending something else into melee range while I stand back and cast spells.

Still not a huge dungeon fan, although the runs I have taken with my guild-mates have been somewhat fun. But, I am an incorrigible loner, I guess. I have taken to turning on the DND status in my TRP2 profile. It may seem a little asocial, but that's how we introverts are.

I did post in the guild forum that I'd mine ore and gems for anyone who needs them. I can stock up the guild bank. That way I feel like I'm at least contributing something. ...

Also going to do some solo dungeon runs in lower level dungeons to see how I can do. Work my way up.

I realized, after a guild member commented to me, that one of the reasons folks run through these dungeons so much faster than I do is because they have been through them countless times, both solo and with groups. I just haven't been playing that long!

Heigh- ho ... heigh-ho

I am a miner, although not a dwarf. I have discovered I LOVE flying around, dropping down on mineral nodes, mining, and then prospecting for gems. While I am at it, I uncover different areas of the map and am getting some of the "exploring" achievements. Kind of nice to do when I don't have the mental bandwidth to be in a dungeon or enter into real battles.

Nice alternative

SOPA/PIPA

We now take a moment for a political viewpoint. Please contact your congressional delegation and encourage them to vote AGAINST the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation. See this link http://www.ted.com/talks/defend_our_freedom_to_share_or_why_sopa_is_a_bad_idea.html
for an excellent TED talk by Clay Shirkey on the opposition to this legislation, presented in clear layman's terms.

More Self-Discovery and TOR

Have now been on several dungeon runs and one raid, both with strangers and guildies. Got the Ventrillo client up and running, so I can talk with other guild members. And I have learned a few more things.

1. I am hindered a little in these runs by my slowness at the keyboard. I use as many of the shortcuts as possible, but I don't know my battle rotations well enough to be able to watch the screen and react in a short enough period of time. Perhaps macros are the answer?

2. When I run my Paladin as a DPS, I can never seem to get close enough to the target quickly enough to do damage. This is a character currently tuned for melee, which is fine for the solo encounter and pretty good for bosses, where the encounter is long enough for me to get into position. But when we are taking on groups of mobs, I can't seem to target quickly enough to be effective. One solution I see to this is to use my AoE spells in these group encounters, and save the direct melee for singles.

3. It all happens so fast! We finish a group of mobs and move on to the next, at a run. When do people have tine to loot? It's all I can do to keep up with the "need vs greed" loot windows, without even considering looting individuals. Others seem to be able to handle this in a speedy fashion.

Do you see the common thread here? I am too slow. Perhaps that's why I like solo'ing. It gives me a chance to think, act, loot, then plan the next encounter. Again, macros may solve some of the problem. Configuring my action bars differently for type of encounter (solo vs dungeon/raid) might help. And, of course, just getting more practice (aw shucks!)

On another topic ... my godson works for BioWare (a division of EA), which released Star Wars: The Old Republic right before Christmas. I haven't played it yet, but it continues to get good reviews. Entertainment Weekly just said "it more than lives up to the hype as a sci-fi alternative to World of Warcraft". Have you played it yet? The current issue's "MustList" where this comment appeared, isn't online yet, so no link ... sorry!

Who we are and why we play

Thanks to Protonk for such interesting comments! I have spent some time at Richard Bartle's web site and find his stuff well-organized and food for thought. I especially like his paper on the personality types who play MUD's See it here: http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/VWWPP.pdf

I started playing WoW to see what all the fuss was about. An interesting change has taken place across the last few months. I find myself becoming more interested in the world, itself, rather than just killing and levelling (grinding). There are subtleties to each of the professions, ways in which one of my characters can help another. I have started going on a few random dungeon runs and seeing how others play. My guild is trying to become more active and I expect to converse lots more with them. In general, I'm becoming a more social player ... looking forward to seeing who from my guild is on line when I log on. As a famous Vulcan might say "fascinating".

Don't do this

Don't play a dungeon run on a small screen, like my laptop. The screen was so crowded that I couldn't see around my Felguard minion. I couldn't tell where the bad guys were. Just too much going on ... and I decided to bail. Apologized to the party, but I was less than useless. They seemed to be doing OK by themselves, so, even though I broke WoW etiquette, I felt better bailing than weighing them down.

Did I do right?

WoW played SIM-like

I have just noticed that I am playing WoW a little differently these days. Now that my Pally has reached lvl 85, she started looking at achievements and ways to help my other toons. She mines and sends copper bars and linen to my blacksmith. She just started cooking and has lots of levelling to do there. And she is big on exploration right now, and is trying to get all the exploration accomplishments. In the process, when she runs across mob's, she's typically the baddest kid on the block so no worries.

So, where's the challenge, you say? Where's the killing and getting loot? Where's the FUN? I'll let you in on something ... I really, really like The Sims. Looks like I'm playing WoW kind of like a feudal version of The Sims, doesn't it? Weird, but fun. Anybody else out there do the same or something sim-ilar (pun intended!)

Otherwise, I have both a Human Warlock and a Night Elf Priest I need to level up. So there will still be plenty of killing and looting available when I am in the mood.

What do you think of this method of play? Anybody else play in a "non-traditional" fashion?