A Laptop for a Casual Gamer

Mushrooms and Moons in Outland

I don't usually talk about why I am a casual MMO player, but I will today.  As mentioned before, I have been playing World of Warcraft off and on since it started and was casually raiding during the original game and the Burning Crusade expansion.  My first daughter was born approximately two years before the WoW was released and she was diagnosed with PDD/NOS when she was three and that diagnosis progressed to Autism.

Different children with autism have different needs, but mine requires pretty constant supervision.   She often doesn't look like she is paying attention, but she immediately notices if she isn't being watched and will usually get into something she shouldn't if she isn't supervised.  It isn't malicious, she is just compelled to get into things and, though she generally wants to obey us, without immediate supervision, she does what she wants and that usually leads to getting into food she shouldn't (such as candy or sodas) or destroying something even though we think they are well away from where she can reach.

I won't go into details, but there were times when my playing WoW meant that I wasn't there when she needed supervision.  She didn't hurt herself or anyone else but it put me on notice that I can't be involved in anything that I can't leave when I am at home.  Ever.  At one time I thought there would be times when someone else could supervise her and I could focus on playing, but I have found that if I'm home, I need to be available in case something happens, no matter who else is there.  More than anything else, this led me to the times I wasn't playing WoW but also to the desire to find a way to play so I could leave whenever I needed to.

This wasn't a simple conclusion.  I denied it for a long time and I probably still deny it some days now, but I have found that if I deny it, I will regret it, so those times are few and far between now.  The biggest change has been in my attitude to playing.  However, there is one simple change I have made that makes a huge difference in being able to play:  a gaming laptop.  

For years I have said that I needed a desktop PC so I could have an up-gradable graphics card.  However, in the last 10 years, I have upgraded my PC twice and only upgraded the graphics card once outside of those PC upgrades.  Finally earlier this year, my PC stopped working, my graphics card already needed upgrading and I decided to look at laptops.  We don't have a lot of extra money, so I was looking to spend under $1000 if possible.

I ended up with a Asus G46VW laptop and I'm very happy with it.  They have taken the spot where the DVD drive typically is and have replaced it with a GeForce 660M graphics card.  I bought an external DVD drive for about $20 and I don't miss it.  The biggest downside based on reviews seems to be the screen, but it is fine for playing casually while doing other things.  If I ever get the time, I can hook it up to my 23 inch monitor, and the games do look much nicer there, but that hasn't happened recently.  

I now have a way that I can play plugged in wherever my children are, watch them.  If needed I can unplug it and take it with me, though for the most part, I just play with it plugged in.  It also is allowing me to write this blog post while moving between the den and kitchen to watch my daughter.  I try to be careful with it, but it also seems pretty sturdy, but still portable at 2.5 pounds.

It won't satisfy the person who needs a large screen at all times or the faster processor, but as the main machine for a casual gamer, or a second machine for a more serious gamer, I would highly recommend it.

A Casual Alternative to MMO End Game

Hanging with Jeeves and a new Engineering pet outside the Auction House

It is that time of year when people are looking back at the last year and forward to the year ahead.  Ocho wrote two posts, one listing the 5 games he is looking forward to and another about the 5 Games that don't interest him.  Number 1 on the list of games that don't interest him was World of Warcraft.  I find it interesting because I feel like we have some of the same interests and I can completely understand why he doesn't want to play World of Warcraft, but at the same time it is the only game I am looking forward to next year.

I used to raid on a weekly basis in both vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade.  I took a break at the beginning of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and never really raided after that.  I was never comfortable with my play style in either Wrath or Cataclysm and went searching for another game that fit my play style better.  While Ocho points to discontent with the WoW end game for his reason not to play the game, I have finally decided that my discontent with the WoW end game will cause me to play the game differently.

Godmother just today (you don't know how shocking for me that is to be able to respond to a post the same day it was released) posted about how her achievement of the 'Mount Parade' was so significant for her.  I had a similar reaction to my creation of Jeeves.  While questing in Icecrown, Kantrina found the Jeeves recipe, and though I highly doubt it will be worth the cost in components, I love having it.  For those that don't know, you can call on Jeeves to appear and he will allow anyone in your group or raid to sell things, repair or buy certain common items.

So I declare myself a proud member of Team Faff (Godmother's word for spending time doing things in game that don't serve the normal end game goals).  For me, it isn't about gear, or achievements as the game defines it, it is about setting my own goals and working towards them.  Right now since Jeeves is done, I've started working on getting my Miner, Kantro, to a high enough level so I can send bars to Kanter to transmute.  Will I ever use those bars?  Probably not many of them, but I want to be able to do it.  After that, I will either level my Mage, Kantrina, so I can work on higher level Enchanting and Engineering, or go back to leveling Archeology on Kanter so I can get the Vial of the Sands.

Because of the need to be able to drop what I am doing any time, I need goals where other people are not depending on me.  However, I love being able to help people and I've found a way I can have fun and still be able to do that.  Other people have other constraints and play the game very differently.

Godmother made the provocative statement "I reckon what Warlords should be doing, as a first priority, is actively discouraging as much solo play as it can."  I disagree with that.  I believe one of the lessons that Blizzard learned in Mists is that more options is a good thing.  If you want to raid or want to have the best gear, yes, you'll need to play nice with others.  However people can be happy working on their farm or Garrison, or battling pets, or using their professions, or competing in the Brawler's guild and pretty much do these things solo.  It benefits the players if they have multiple ways to keep busy that match different interests and time availability.  And, if it keeps people playing, Blizzard has the incentive they need to keep offering multiple ways to play their game.

A Week in an MMO Life: Revisiting the Cataclysm

Visiting Thrall at the Maelstrom

I don't have a lot to say this week, so I'll just give you a brief description of what I am up to.  I'm still enjoying leveling my Warrior and have now arrived and nearly leveled out of the Cataclysm expansion.  I had not seen much of Vashj'ir so I decided to focus on that this time through.  I enjoyed the storyline, but all the plot lines seemed to have depressing endings.  Maybe it was just me.  I performed the first parts of the Deepholm, Uldum, and Twilight Highland questlines and just plan to keep going until I get to 85 and move on to Pandaria.  I also gathered enough Embersilk that I was finally able to level my First Aid on Kanter.

I guess I will level him all the way to 90 (or at least 600 mining skill) so I can start making Living Steel without getting help from others.  Then I will probably go back to Kanter and return to leveling Archeology which I deserted some place in the 200s.  As mentioned previously, Vial of the Sands is my long term goal now.  I will need to start selling things rather than just emailing back and forth between my characters, but with max level herbalist, alchemist, miner, blacksmith, tailor and jewelcrafter, I don't think it should be a problem.  I also have my mage, Kantrina, that I left at level 75 and though I have leveled her enchanting (for disenchanting), I would like to level Engineering as well.  I found the Jeeves recipe and I'd like to make it along with some of the other toys.

One fun side task happened when I was visiting Uldum for the first time via Tanaris.  I got a whisper from someone who had been portalled there and was trying to get to Rachet.  I recommended going to Theramore, then Menethil then Booty Bay and finally take the boat to Rachet, but he didn't know how to get to Theramore.  I led him through the flooded Thousand Needles, but, because he couldn't fly, that took a little while.  It was my first chance to see how drastically it had changed.  We then travelled through Dustwallow Marsh and I left him on the boat to Menethil.  He was genuinely grateful and I was glad to be able to help someone out.  One advantage of casual gaming is that if plans change, it is never a big deal.

A Week in an MMO Life: Back to Icecrown

Kantro visiting Zul'Drak

It is odd how things hold me back.  I was reading Syl's and Liore's posts about Achievements and even though I am a strong explorer and lean towards Syl's sentiment that it is mainly about the journey, I know that a strong part of me still wants to achieve.  (If you aren't familiar with the Bartle Test, you can read about it on Wikipedia and take the test on GamerDNA.)  I really didn't want to start running through LFRs over and over again (the explorer in me), but I needed some goals anyway (the achiever in me).  

I finally made enough Celestial Cloth to be able to make the White Cloud Belt and that meant I was very close to iLvl 480 on my priest where I could do all the LFRs except for Seige of Orgrimmar.  I spent a little bit of valor to put me over the number and received help from my guildmates getting the enchants I needed so it at least looked like I was trying.  Now, it is not that I actually ran any LFRs, part of me needed to 'achieve' that spot so I could run them if I wanted to.  I even started Pandaria's Legendary Questline and killed some bugs but I haven't done any LFRs, I just needed to know I could (sigh).

So that freed me so I could turn my attention to some new goals.  I am often frustrated because I can't farm ore on my primary two toons.  I went through the process of leveling a warrior before Burning Crusade so I could reforge the Broken Blade of Heroes, which dropped from a chest.  During Burning Crusade, I switched Kantra to Jewelcrafting and I also leveled my warrior so I wouldn't have to buy all the ore.  I hadn't really used him much since then (he was sitting at 71, mainly from mining in Icecrown for Kantra).  Now I had the freedom to level him again in order to be able to mine ore and finally be able to have the Embersilk to level First Aid.  As I bonus, I discovered that the two main thing I needed in order to be able to get Vial of Sands would be items from mining and to level Archeology.

I had a purpose where I could accomplish three things at once.  Efficiency is a big motivator for me.  Yes, I'm sure it would be faster to farm gold and buy what I needed, but this is where the Explorer in me comes out.  I want to be able to do it myself.  Complicated crafting tasks like Vial of Sands or the Broken Blade of Heroes seem like fun, unlike the steps in the Legendary Questline which look extremely repetitive.

So I dusted off my warrior with his Blacksmith made gear and started questing in Northrend.  I went from level 71 to 72 in Howling Fjord, but it seemed slow.  I then remembered that there were three Heirlooms that I bought for my mage and decided to do the same for my warrior.  The levels from 72 to 75 went much quicker and I was able to finish the I've Toured the Fyord achievement at the same time.  Nothing like being a slacker in other expansions to give you plenty of things to do.  I already had the Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills Achievements, so I figured I'd focus on Zul'Drak.

Now I was used to the relatively easy fighting and leveling with my heirlooms when I ran into the Gymer, King of the Storm Giants series of quests.  When you are riding on the back of a giant, your heirlooms don't help and when you can easily get caught in the middle of a tree (happened to me three times) it is even worse.  I kept having Gymer just barely die and eventually on the last quest I found the hint to right click on who he is fighting so he is using his auto-attack in addition to the special attacks. I don't mind dying too much, but when only playing once a week and I'm dying because of the mechanics of a giant I have to ride, I did get frustrated.

Fortunately, once that was done everything went smoothly, I was able to complete the Empire of Zul'Drak achievement (with some help from some level 90s at the Ampitheater of Anguish, thanks!), reach level 80 and level my Blacksmithing to 425 at almost the same time.  Now on to the Cataclysm quests and finally having the cloth for First Aid.  Not that I really need the bandages with all the food I've accumulated, but I feel like I should have it (sigh).

A Casual Gamers View on Warlords of Draenor

World Warcraft Warlords of Draenor

I thought I'd include my reaction to all the big announcements about Warlords of Draenor from Blizzcon.  For the last three expansions, I either started late (Wrath and Mists) or stopped within a couple months of when the expansion started (Cataclysm).  This time I feel two things have changed:  the game has better accommodated the casual player and I have learned how to accept my limited play time.  This, along with the news from Blizzcon has me excited to start with everyone again like I did with the original game and Burning Crusade.  I'll list my reactions from what I like the most to what matters the least.

1.  Garrisons
The farm in Pandaria has been a great addition for my style of play.  I can play a few minutes in the morning before work and work on reputation and/or crafting ingredients.  Just as this is the first time I've received the quest achievement, this is also the first time I've been able to get exalted with most of the factions.  I can see the argument that it isn't really a game in that there is no skill involved, but anything that keeps people seeing progress, keeps people playing so I have to believe this is a big win for both casual players and Blizzard.  My concern about the Garrison is that it might expand the time required too much and instead of becoming a small time sink that helps me see progress, it becomes frustrating.  This is more of a risk because I will probably have 4 characters at max level for the first time (thanks to the Character Upgrade listed below).

2.  Flex Raiding
My guild is now alternating a Flex raid once a week with no ilvl requirement along with a normal raid.  I haven't taken advantage of it, partially due to time constraints and partially due to being so far behind the curve since I started Mists late.  I know I will still be late to the game with Warlords, but I won't be SO far behind because I plan to be there from the beginning.  So much of my gaming is solo due to my limited time, that I'm happy to have this outlet where I can play with my guild, even if I can't make it every week without much risk that they won't be able to play if I can't make it.

3.  Character Upgrade
At first I felt ambivalent about this since I like doing quests and I'm not a fan of skipping content.  However, once I started thinking about how I'd use it, I started to get excited about it.  I have a Druid that I leveled to the 20s back during Burning Crusade because I always liked the idea of playing a cat or bear and I wanted to see both the quests and how it played.  I enjoyed it, but he has sat in the 20s ever since then because I feel compelled to work on my Hunter (for questing), my Priest (for healing), my Mage (for Disenchanting), and my Warrior (for mining) first.  Now I'll both have a Druid that I can play with in high level content and I'll have a Skinner and Leatherworker that I can use for gear and bags.  Once I thought about what I could do, I went from ambivalent to excited about it.  Also, I'd suggest this is similar to what they did with the Death Knight class starting at level 55, only it isn't only limited to one class (that doesn't really appeal to me).

4.  10 new levels of quests
I liked the speed of leveling in Mists, but I was amazed that I so easily finished all the quests with just two characters and there was still quite a bit of overlap.  Because my time varies from week to week and I don't care to do PUGs, I am looking forward to more questing even though I do know that means I'll be even further behind others.

5.  New Character Models
The WoW character models have never bothered me.  I have always thought the more realistics models in MMOs look worse because they get too close without being able to get there.  Keeping with a more cartoon-like style is fine for a game and isn't as jarring for me.  However, that doesn't mean I don't like pretty pictures and with the Panda models in place now, I think we know they can do this without significantly impacting performance, another advantage WoW has against games with more realistic graphics.

7. UI Improvements
I'm a hoarder (even if I only play alliance, another playtime compromise I've learned to live with) and more space is a good thing.  That said, I have been able to spread my loot among a bunch of characters and I'm not really suffering for space so this isn't a bid deal for me.

6.  Dungeons
Since I don't play at normal times, play infrequently, and don't like PUGs, I've pretty much given up on dungeons.  I like to see them for lore reasons (another reason not to do them in a PUG), but this is one of the compromises I've made and I'm fine with that.

7.  Mythic Raids
I am glad there is something for the end game players since the game wouldn't be the same without them, but I will never see this and, again, I am fine with that.

8.  Draenor Boys Club
I give Apple Cider Mage a lot of credit for bringing feminist discussion into WoW and MMO gaming.  Just because most of the players are men and it is a fantasy game doesn't excuse subtle or not so subtle sexism.  As many people have stated, the presentation of the expansion so far is extremely male dominated.  That doesn't mean the game is sexist, but Blizzard will have to work at it NOT beginning sexist at this point.  I will be very interested to see how they react to this impression and for their female players.  Even though WoW is male-dominated, the game is much better, for me, because there are a lot of female players who enjoy the game.  I will be very interested to see how and if Blizzard works against the patriarchy that will be at the expansions foundation.

I am very excited about this expansion, the most I have been since Burning Crusade.  A lot of that has to do with my ability to accept how I can and can't play the game.  However Blizzard is also doing an awful lot to make this a better game for the casual player and I'm excited to see how it actually plays.

World of Warcraft Apologists

Kanter, Cloud Serpent Rider

I feel like a spend a significant amount of time ready my blogroll.  For those of you actually reading my site from Blogger rather than using a RSS feed like Feedly (which I use), I try to read every blog you see to the right.  Part of the reason I blog is because I enjoy reading and reacting to what others post.  However, some weeks I'm more successful than others, so at this point I am almost 2 weeks behind.  So just the other day I was reading the post "I Play WoW and I'm not Sorry" on Liore's blog Herding Cats and I felt a need to respond.

As I have said a few times before, I starting blogging at a time when I was looking to come back to playing an MMO.  I knew I couldn't play often and I had been away for a while and I thought rather than going back to WoW, there had to be a better game for me to play.  

However, what I found was that WoW was the best game for me to play.  I have limited time and World of Warcraft is easy to play in short periods of time.  I don't have to learn a new system or new lore when I play WoW.  I have friends who know me and are happy to help me.   I can play with my daughter and as long as I limit interaction with others in the game (which I can pretty easily do) I feel safe that there won't be anything too offensive.  I know that while the game won't be the prettiest, it will shine through Blizzard's thorough polish. 

I have a huge number of things I can do with my short play times and I can do most of them by myself if I want to.  I can see new places and learn new lore.  I can build my reputation with others and gather more toys.  I can control a set of crafters who can provide tools to and help each other in ways that makes the game more enjoyable to me.

World of Warcraft is best game for me both because of who I am and because of what is in the game.

I respect people like the Godmother who is an unabashed World of Warcraft enthusiast.  I also respect Wolfshead who thinks World of Warcraft has lead MMOs in the wrong direction.  However, I join Liore as a Wow Apologist:  "I, too, play World of Warcraft and I'm not Sorry!"

A Week in an MMO Life: Old school raiding of Ulduar

So many achievements, Raptor is confused

I have started working on this post several times and have never gotten very far.  I believe it is because I have conflicting feelings over my limited gaming experience the last few weeks and I'm not sure how to express it.

I have been a member of one guild since the World of Warcraft started almost 9 years ago.  The guild has changed a lot over those years, but they have always allowed for my casual game style.  One great experience they offer is periodically (annually?) a tour of the old raids with anyone who wants to come along.  Since the guild has been around that whole time they share their original experiences with the content.

Recently they offered a tour of Ulduar and some of other WotLK raids.  I always heard good things about Ulduar but had never been able to visit and was able to arrange to have some time on a Saturday to go with them.

I had a great time.  People were informative and friendly and even though it went long past the scheduled time, they persisted until we finished Ulduar and they avalanche of achievements I and some other first time visitors acquired.

Now that it is done, however, I am feeling at a loss as to what I want to do.  I had planned to get my gear up to a level where I could eventually do Flex Raiding with them, but I know I just don't have the time to really commit to it and I am not sure I want to.  I participated in one LFR at this point, there were several wipes and some rudeness but nothing awful.  However I am very reluctant to do it again.

On the Bartle Test I am a pretty strong Explorer (by the way, I strongly recommend his blog, QBlog) and I like the idea of seeing what the game has to offer.  However, I know my limitations, I don't have the time to keep up with end game content.  Timeless Isle could provide a way of catching up, I just don't know if that is what I want to do.  The two most satisfying times I have had in the game recently were this visit to Ulduar and finally winning the Fishing Trinket (I'm a fish!) at the tournament.  Part of me wants to just go see some of the old content I missed, part of me wants to level my warrior for crafting, part of me wants to level my druid, part of me wants to try out a monk, and there are still several parts of me left.

At this point, I'm almost paralyzed by indecision and am just farming, getting my daily cloths, and working on different reputations.

On another note, The Newbie Blogger Initiative 2 has started.  As a survivor of the first initiative, if an infrequent one, I look forward to meeting some new compatriots and learning from them.  Please visit some of the new bloggers!