Free to be you and me, 5.3....Or: Thing 2 Must Die

Patch 5.3 is on its way, and for those of us who are deep into altaholicism, we want to thank Blizzard for enabling our addiction! But there's a catch.

There always is.

A couple of things I need to clean up:

Godmother (oh this is so cool) just wrote a post about getting her bow with a CRZ raid.  I need to know if this really works in current content, because I heard that it doesn't. I need some clarification on this one. However, I wasn't perusing her blog for tidbits about battletag and bows* (the poing-poing kind, not the tie-in-hair kind), I was looking for a previous post about 5.3 changes, and I found it. (By the way--her blog--I humbly bow (bah-owe not boe) to her--dang, if only I wasn't so busy writing about bad massages and cheating otters, maybe I could make something of myself...) Anywho....found it: Hound Dog. She mentioned the possibility of all three of our specializations being open and available.

*Tears of joy.....*

But alas, on the latest patch notes, I didn't see anything about that.  But what I did see will help, I suppose, and that is, before a boss fight in LFR, you can choose which specialization you want the chance for loot: Adds Off-Spec Loot. You all know I don't have a "main" really. Sure, I have first loves, but to choose one character to solely focus on is not my ADD style.

*Tears of sorrow......*

Come on, drop that damn weapon!

But like the fishwife that I am, I am never satisfied; however, I try not to be too demanding, just fair. I think something truly broke in my player's heart when I didn't get that sha-touched weapon for months, bonus rolls, etc. Truly and deeply. I tried to be funny and light-hearted in that post, but am not sure I succeeded in fooling anyone but myself.

Since we're not getting the use of all three of our character's specializations, which in the cases of Druids, Shamans, Priests, Paladins, and oh, gee, just about everyone, would really enhance the game experience, I propose this: when we get weapons or gear, please--make it account bound. Please.

please.

please.

With this caveat: since no one would ever, EVER go into an LFR willingly on different characters (see Grumpy Elf's great posts on ROI (which I was just thinking about yesterday, Return on Investment) and LFR) unless they wanted to see how they'd fare with varying skills and the chance to get looty-loot. But you all know my heartache with the shaman, and then my experiment with the mage was a bust, and I am afraid to level up Luperci the Cataclysmic Tank of Awesomesauce for fear of making a mistake and being kicked repeatedly, and the hunter wears basically the same gear as the enhancement shaman, etc. But my hunter is different from my shaman, and my tank is still shiny, and and and...well, scroll down to why Thing Two Must Die.

Think about this: what if, like other pricey items in the game, we got to choose some choice items that we spent blood, sweat, and tears for, and have the ability to pass them along to our other characters? Think about it. I won the LFR healing staff on my shaman, but my priest and druid could really use it, not the shaman. I would be willing to spend 5000 gold on making it account bound, so I could go into LFR, have fun on other characters, and enjoy the game...crazy idea, huh?

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Darnassus

Let me share this (yes, I over-share, deal)

This past week I was on break. Not a vacation, but a break. A vacation implies doing something that is out of the ordinary. Through life circumstances, "out of the ordinary" was not in the cards. And I had a major epiphany about myself, or rather, a rediscovery of some painful self-awareness: I suck at "free time." Absolutely suck. In fact, because of some big things that happened this week, some big life events that I knew were coming at me like a freight train but could not celebrate or participate in, I had an episodic meltdown. The kind of meltdown that means crying at the doctor's office, reading e-mail spam and having big, hot tears roll down my face, and in general, the opposite of "getting a grip." It was losing the grip. And now it's Sunday, my break is over, and I'm trying to rally the procrastinated projects into some sort of militaristic order. Dammit, you bills! Stand up! Drop and give me twenty, maggots! Salute when I walk in a room, dirty laundry! NOW! But before I despair too much, or wallow in self-loathing, I am going to take stock of what I did get done:

1. Had some fun in Azeroth
2. Enjoyed my friends' company -- Best GM Ever: thanks for the trips to Ulduar, and always a pleasure to see you, too, Señor -
3. Heartichoke made herself a turbo-charged flying machine and added to the mount collection*
4. Wrote another story for my and Navi's fable collection and have the next two lined up...
5. Had the usual nice folks and asshats mix in LFRs, etc. /shrug
6. And the big news: I pared down to one account.

What?! What was that you said, Matty? One account? And you call yourself an altaholic!

Yup.

You know it's tax day in the States tomorrow, April 15. I got my taxes done weeks ago, and now I just need to write the check and get it in the post tomorrow. Did I confess to you all that when the kind lady at H&R Block asked about dependents, I smirked to myself about 22 something alts who all need gear and RNG luck? Don't think Uncle Sam would understand about a shaman in Tanaris who is supporting 13 goblin priests on varying servers. Nope. Can't write that one off.

Thing Two Must Die

One account is a signal to myself, cross-dressing rogue, and my real dependents that I am curbing game time. One promise I have made to myself is to get out of Azeroth more, and when I'm there, enjoy it more. It was becoming like a bus man's holiday for me. What that means is my real-life job deals with its share of asshats, thieves, ninjas, foul-mouthed brats (all over the age of 18), lack of parental controls, back-stabbing co-workers, kindly guildmates, supportive and nurturing whispers, and a lot of professional training. Huh. So escaping to Azeroth was becoming more of the same. One of the worst moments this past week was when the good denizens of the Matty-shack damn near had an intervention for me. No joke. The language they used was that of the lexicon of family members I've listened to over the years talk to each other about addictions and cures. I could analyze all the reasons and methods Azeroth is an addictive pastime, but you all know them. It's like living in a casino. There are lots of little gold and silver coins that periodically bounce in your cup, and lots of shiny things, and oh yes....free drinks. (There are no such thing as free drinks--we all know this.)

So yes, I did spend some real-life gold on moving the characters I love from Account Two to Account One. I deleted many characters I've enjoyed but showed no mercy. Big-eyed, level-40 Draenei monk? Whack! Cute, demur goblin warlock? Thud! I have every class represented but warrior now, and I may change that. Not sure. I have Account Two paid for until April 30, so there may be a bit more shuffling, but for the most part, it's done. Zeptepi is once again the GM for The Wildings, aka Jefa. I kept Rökkr the Rogue out of sentimentality, since she is level 70, and my second character, but she may get a pink-slip, too. I still enjoy my server, Whisperwind, an older server with just enough population to make me know that if I want to start something, I can, but if want to be left alone, that can happen, too.

The funny thing was when I closed the second account, Blizzard asked me some simplistic survey questions, and I just wanted to scream, D. None of the above, because in those questions, it was like they didn't get it at all. "Not enough content" -- are you kidding? There is enough content to last a thousand player lives. But the content I want is to have one account, eleven characters, all classes, and enjoy them all in turn. They didn't ask me anything about character choices.

The upshot is I can't enjoy a game/hobby/addiction/passion/pastime that makes me cry, or anyone else angry with me. I thought about my own mom and how she relaxed on her days off, and it was reading the paper in jammies. I know that's what I've been doing to relieve some of the stresses of my job, life, etc., but it stopped feeling like "jammie time" and more like "cram it in your cram hole"time.

This doesn't mean though that I don't want to go to Blizzcon. 

Or be on Twisted Nether someday.

But mostly I just want to write stories, hang out in the Jade Forest, and slap around a few monsters with friends. Is that so much to ask? Nah.


If you're not feeling like this:

Theme Song: A Soldier's Joy

Or this:

http://mashable.com/2013/04/14/world-of-warcraft-remix/


Stop playing.


Postscript: Maybe not stop, but organzie MOAR:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/03/18/the-video-gamers-guide-to-time-management/