The Liebster Award (continued)

First I wanted to mention that the Newbie Blogger Initiative for 2014 is scheduled to begin on May 1st, but you can already get started either helping out or preparing for writing a new blog!

In my last post I recognized Yanet and Neri for kindly recognizing me with a Liebster award.  Now for your questions, finally (the first question is pretty much the same, so I only answered it once):

Neri's questions:

1. What inspired you to start blogging? / What made you decide to start blogging?
• Eloise (aka Ysharra) was a member of the only guild I have ever been in and at some point she posted on the guild forums about her no longer active blog.  I very much enjoyed reading it and it lead me to Syp's blog (this was about the time the Warhammer went live) and that led me to many other blogs.  At some point later, I decided I still wanted to play MMOs but didn't know how best to balance it with my family time and I thought writing a blog would help me do that and that there were probably others in a similar situation.  At the time I was thinking this, Syp announced the "Newbie Blogger Initiative" and I went ahead and made the commitment to write knowing it would only be about once a week.
2. If you won a free ticket to Blizzcon, what panels would you be most excited about seeing?
• I would be more interested in meeting some of the people who's blogs I read in person, but the 'What's next' panel would be exciting (though I guess there won't be one this year).
3. How do you balance time in-game with your ‘RL’ commitments?
• As mentioned above, the first way I do it is to write this blog!  More generally, I don't over-commit to participate in raids and I generally at most plan to have "One Night a Week" where I spend a significant amount playing.  I also bought a gaming laptop when my previous desktop stopped working and that has made it a lot easier to play while still being able to pay attention to my three daughters.
4. If World of Warcraft shut down its servers tomorrow (Or you aren’t currently playing), what would you be playing instead?
• I would probably wait for Wildstar to come out and then give that a try.
5. Are there any bloggers out there who you aspire to be like? What is it about them that you love?
• Ocho and Stubborn are probably the two I admire closest to my style, and I always find them thought provoking.  Syp and Godmother are both so conversational and entertaining in their posts that I am always glad when they come up on my feed.  Finally, I also look forward to Belghast's daily posts and admire his ability to write something I want to read every day.
6. Are you brave enough to show us your gaming set up?
• I technically have a set up in my 'computer room' but I haven't played in their in months.  Here is my current setup (I tried to take a picture, but since it is only a laptop, I thought I'd just use a commercial picture).
• 
7. At what age would you let your children (Real or hypothetical) start playing video games?
• I have three children and I've let them play on tablets when they showed an interest.  I think you need to be careful about what children play and how much time they spend playing on electronics, but I don't think there is a starting age.
8. You have a weekend of interruption free gaming ahead of you. What essential supplies do you stock up on to get you through it?
• That is beyond my imagination right now!  I have starting using Clif and Kind bars as less sugary not messy snacks for work, so I'd like them for a gaming weekend as well.  By power of suggestion, I'm going to have one now!
9. If you could pick any job in the gaming industry, what would it be?
• I have been a programmer and designer of business software as my job, so I have periodically imagined myself doing that.  I am glad my current position is much less stressful that it is to be a game programmer or designer.
10. Have you ever done any gaming cosplay?
• No and I can't imagine myself doing it!  However, I do have a great amount of respect for the amazing cosplays I have seen.
11. What is the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen done in an MMO or multi-player game?
• Our guild had a level 1 gnome rogue raid on Orgrimmar where we all danced on the bank roof until we were killed and then resurrected ourselves a few times.  It was a lot of fun.

Yanet's questions:

2. What advice do you have for those wanting to start a WoW/gaming blog?

• Read other blogs, they are the best inspiration for writing.  Then write what interests you, not what you think others want to read.

3. What's the biggest noob mistake you recall making when you first started playing WoW?

• I started playing in the beta almost 10 years ago so it's difficult to remember though I'm sure I made many.  I mostly played solo and I know when I tried to participate in dungeons with my guildmates at first I couldn't control my pet.

4. Besides WoW, what do you enjoy doing on your spare time?

• I enjoy walking my dogs and spending time enjoying books and other things with my three daughters.  When we get a chance, an evening dinner alone with my wife is a great treat these days.

5. What's your biggest pet peeve in and out of game?

• People who think they know better and can tell others how to play/live.

6. How many years have you been playing MMOs and have you ever quit and why?

• It is almost 10 years now with the WoW beta.  I have taken three breaks when either I thought I was spending too much time playing and/or that I wasn't playing enough to be worth the cost.

7. If you could meet any fictional game character who would it be and why?

• Chromie has such a great personality that I think she'd be a lot of fun.

8. How do you go about picking your character's names?

• Before I started playing MMOs, I came up with the idea of taking the unique consonants from my first and last name (KNTHR) and then adding vowels to form a character name.  I dropped the H because I thought the names were better without it and I've stuck with the games I have played since.

9. Of all your characters, who's your favorite and why?

• My first WoW character, 'Kanter', a dwarf hunter, I imagined during the beta and came up with the professions based on what I thought his personality would be like.  I wanted to be able to have animals who would fight with me and once I adopted my bear whom I named 'Iorek' (bonus points for those who get the reference), I was even more sold on his character.

10. If you could pick one thing for Blizzard to bring back to the game, what would it be and why?

• Nothing is jumping out at me, but I do miss the non-raiding events we used to do as a guild.  I'm not sure how Blizzard could encourage it, but I wish they would.

11. What's the one thing you wish Blizzard would implement in the game that isn't available yet and why?

• World of Warcraft really needs housing.  I'm not sure if Garrisons will fill that nitch completely, but I am really looking forward to seeing how they are implemented.