Irritation and upset

My apartmnt complex recently threatened to kick my family out simply because of appliances. Specifically an apartment sized washer and dryer. 

It's no secret that my family doesn't like living here, it's not safe, they have cut survices and the maintainance here is a joke. In fact it's the latter that is causing the most problems for us over the last few years. 

We have had shorts with the electricity, (2 now!) and they have opened up the walls to 'fix' bad pipes numerous times. It is the latter that finally made the apartments freak out at us and threaten us with eviction. 

Our downstairs neighbor has been having problems with water drainage for the last three years. Twice now they have opened up the walls, taped something up then called it good. I remember the previous incident they had no choice but to call 'real plumbers' who were in awe of the shoddy work and really laid into the maintance crew right outside my window. You don't forget something like that quick.

Well it turns out they didn't dig enough becuse the neighbor is still having problems. I feel for her, I do. We have all suffered at the hands of this crew. The one time my husband didn't put away our clothes washing machines, a maintance man commented on it. 

Our next lease signing two months later changed to forbid such appliances. Sure enough two weeks after signing we are threatened with eviction.

Now to give Thraxx credit he went down there and tried to be resionable, citing the many assults that have happened in our laundry faclilites (one young woman was sexually assaulted!), stolen clothing, and the honest fact that I can't carry the laundry up and down stairs. Our machines use less then five gallons a load, and we did two loads a day. But apparantly the pipes can't handle the extra 10 gallons. They made it clear, if we don't get rid of them we are out on the streets. 

If we had anywhere else to be, we'd already be there. So they had to go. 

This has been very stressful for everyone. Thraxx is enraged about it, I am dispondant and the minions are reacting to us because they are just kids and can't help. It's just a washer and dryer right? Why be so upset? Well it's kind of more then that. See these were tools that not only gave us some freedom, but more control over things. We didn't have to worry about what I could carry, we didn't have to pay $5 to do a single load of laundry, and basically it made our lives a bit easier and better. Heck, it was the one thing I felt I could do to contribute to housework on a regular basis. I can't do much but the laundry? I could do that. 

Did I mention I am still playing for these things? Because I totally am. 

These are just things, we know that and we do feel kind of silly for being this upset, but it's not really about them. It's more about the freedoms we had and the peice of mind. Losing that? yeah I think we are a bit justified for being upset. 

Hobbies and illnesses

Been working really hard on my streaming, just to have everything derailed by a bout of illness. I am doing much better though, and I seem to have missed out on the worst of the plague. (knock on wood! ALL THE WOODS!)

So I haven't done that in a week which is irritating. Everyones been sick and coughing though, but it's hard enough getting something like this to be a habbit.

Going to gripe here that my sleep schedule is off AGAIN and I am typing this at insane o clock in the morning. :P Stupid sickness.

Okay ranty bits over.

I got a second monitor for love holiday which is awesome!! no more tabbing out to look at various streams. I am such a happy happy mage. :) (I bought Thraxx star wars battle front. It HAD to be done.) Also got to see deadpool, a movie I highly reccomend.

But the bigges tchange lately is that I have been writing a ton ton ton. Much more then simply the nano, (that I didn't finish on time.) I'll admit without the deadline I am not picking at it as much, and that's okay too. I have restarted though and gotten quite a few more pages out of it, which is fun and interesting and wow do my hands cramp up from all the typing. But it's a good thing.

Current games played: Bon Bon Bakery, World of warcraft (got an ally hunter I am leveling!)

Streaming and furniture shopping.

I have decided to jump into the world of streaming. With some urging from Thraxxis, last night I set up a test stream and a friend tuned in to watch the corner of my game. 

Because literally, that's all he could see for a few minutes there. A corner. I'm so great!

After that worked out, everything seemed to go great though! The game worked, the streaming worked, I am a master of all things (or rather the three windows) I had going on, and am pretty thrilled with the prospect that I will finally, yes finally be getting this project off the ground. Streaming has been a project of mine on the backburner for the last three years, just before the spasms hit full time. So for me, this is a really big deal. 

I am going to need a second monitor though, it's been on the wishlist for a while. I had one, breifly, but Thraxx's monitor died so he got my second one. I have missed it since then, but I have a more pressing matter at hand. 

My desk is falling apart. 

I don't say that to be facetious or dramatic, the thing is literally 30% duct tape (Go math!) and I can hear it shifting and clicking in podcasts which annoys me to no end. Add to this the fact that it is tiiiny and has no room for the much coveted monitor, and you can all see the issues. 

Keeping in mind I live in a tiny apartment filled with the clumziest (but most wonderful) males in existance, my options for replacing my desk are crazy limited. Since when did it become a fad to have desks with so much glass on them? Tops, doors, shelves, you name it, they are glass. And if they aren't, they are thin and made of cheap metals instead of wood. 

Oh look the 'best' of both worlds, flimsy and glass!
(Pic shamelessly stolen from amazon.) 

The above pictured desk would take longer to assemble then it would stay in one peace at my house. And it doesn't offer that much more space then my current desk. It's quite nice and all I am sure, but it just doesn't suit.

All this for wanting a second monitor? Ugh.

So I decided, while I was in fantasy land where I could fit a massive L shaped desk made of real solid wood into my apartment, to just for fun look into also picking up a new chair. My current chair has me stuffing pillows on it just to fit semi comfortably. Not the best situation at all. But it turns out that chairs make desks look like bargins! Something designed to help my back actually costs around a thousand dollars! (Making $300 for a desk look like a bargain!) 

The whole thing has me somewhat sad and dispondant, I didn't ask for these back problems but they seem to come with their own specific lifestyle. One I need a kick starter just to keep comfortable in! 

Back pains and plans

Back problems are still a huge thing in my world, and though I wish I could say otherwise, it's pretty much the focus of each day.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that I know the underlying reason and am working on it, and though I don't have the funds to actually fix this thing up good and proper, I can (Much more slowly) work on it. It's not impossible (I don't beleive anything is!) But it's very hard and very slow thanks to money. :P

Stoopid money.

I know I say this often, but a major goal of mine is that I am going to redo alludra's pets. Maybe even mannerly mage. I want to put myself out there more, do things and create things for the games we so love! I just adore giving back to this amazing community that has helped me so much!

Handhelds

My 2DS is the greatest! Lately I have been having problems with the whole sitting up thing, so I have been spending a lot of time in bed (yay...) but thankfully last year I got a 2ds! It's been awesome!

Story of seasons is the game du jour, For those who don't know me, I am crazy about harvest moon! This game has me hooked in so many ways though!

First I could choose my difficulty. Whaaaa? So I can just have an easy time at it or play normally? Awesome! The game also lets you choose your gender, your appearance, and throughout the game you can change all that as the mood takes you! So much fun! You also make crazy cute outfits, so you can dress up. (There's a bear costume! I don't know, it just makes me laugh!)

To be honest there's a lot of elements in this game that aren't so different from other ones in the series. In fact, the studio seems to just build off the successes of the previous titles. I am surprised on how my momentum is going through this iteration though, usually I get a bit bored and break up game play a bit, but not so far.

There's also a free Pokemon game that I have been messing with from the Nintendo store. I am crazy irritated though, as it sort of plays like a Facebook game. You have a set amount of lives and when they are gone there's a timer. Oh wow. So fun. I am honestly thinking about uninstalling that one. I mean, what the heck man?? And since it's basically a Pokemon skinned bejeweled clone, it's not like it's got ground breaking game play I am missing out on if I let it go.

And then, on my tablet I have found myself totally addicted to the Simpsons tapped out. no idea why this game is such a big deal to me, but I log in at least three times a day just to poke my Springfield and have spent a lot of time designing the town. Maybe I just miss the Sims? lol who knows!

I kind of wish I had a laptop though, access to my steam library during the worst of all this would be awesome! I'd like to play more hex, and work on my Diablo seasonal characters, but that's not happening from bed!

Digging in the dirt

I don't know what it is lately, but I have spent a ton of time in my various games digging in dirt. To be honest, there's something crazy hilarious about going on your computer in your nice clean house to simulate getting down and dirty with nature but it seems to be a common theme with me lately.

What surprises me is just how much this comes up in game play. Most times it's naturally part of the game, other times it's part of a side quest or a later addition to the game.

• Minecraft -  come on, if I have to explain this one, you are doing it wrong.
• Harvest moon - you are a farmer, you can't get away with not dirt digging. Also, I am currently playing two different versions.
• Rune factory - Same as harvest moon, but with dungeons! (less farming emphasis, but it's still an important part of the game).
• World of Warcraft - Archaeology, a later addition to the game, and some would argue, not the best idea ever. 
• Terraria - like Minecraft, you must dig to pretty much get anywhere in this game. 
• Disney's Magical World - You need to garden to get ingredients for your cafe and clothing. Kind of odd but hey, I get to hang out with Eeyore. 
• Final Fantasy XIV ARR - I am gardening manager of my guild. They heard about my digging in the dirt qualifications in other games and jumped on board. The farm plots in this game are being used to benefit the entire guild, so no personal stuff for yours truly! 
• Civ - well I order people to work in dirt and quarries, pretty much the same thing right?
• Banished - more god mode quarry ordering, but this has more micromanaging then Civ does. 

I didn't realize it until I mentioned it on the AIE podcast, but apparently I enjoy virtual digging in the dirt. It makes me wonder what other themes in gaming constantly show up that I overlook. Even if you don't count the last two bullets, this is seriously a lot of virtual earth I am responsible for moving. 

Hearthstone, hearthstoned, and hearthsteed

Tonight is one of those miserable nights that the back pain just won't let up. Can't sit, can't lay down, no position is comfy. Since I have to suffer anyway, I might as well game.

As some of you may know, Blizzard's card game Hearthstone just went 'live'. Apparently the beta is over and we can all finally enjoy the game. (Lol!) Part of the 'live event' (or maybe the whole of it) is players who log in and win three rounds of the game will receive a World of Warcraft mount and an achievement (Hearthstoned).

I will admit, I am crazy rusty in hearthstone, I haven't even touched it since the great beta wipe of '13, but after Ben's urging on tonight's recording, I figured what the hey.

Of course everyone and their grandmother is playing hearthstone right now for the pretty pony, which I did expect, but I didn't expect three wins to be such a challenge! My son had already cleared the intro 'story-line' (before he got his beta key) and so I was able to plunk right in.

It took me a bit over 90 minutes to get my pony, I found it was easier to play in ranked mode, rather then casual as I was much more likely to get players at my level, in spite of how intimidating 'ranked' sounds! You also can't game the system and get the Hearthsteed by playing against friends. Sorry! No win trading. I heard it was possible to get him with arena mode wins as well, but I don't like using my hard earned coins that way. (Yes, it costs to play in arena.)

I won with the Rogue, Shaman, and then Mage decks respectively, all at a crazy low level and the wins were not easy. But in the end I felt it was more rewarding to win my pony that way.

What? Am I supposed to be impressed by random wings? Please buddy!

You can see the amount of work and detail that went into hearthstone sparkle (as I have named him) over the other mounts. First off, I really like his face:

Hey good lookin!

It has a log of character, and a dragon like quality to it! He also has the best horse tail in the game, seriously, compare it to an older model:

Hearthsteed

Horseman's mount

Considering everything, I am calling this guy well worth the time, frustration and effort of playing a free game for 12+hands until I won 3 rounds! Now if only the horde red version was out...or a pet.

I'm a pretty princess!! (Finally!)

Ran into some problems this week with Final Fantasy XIV. Namely that my account information was changed by someone other then myself! Trying to log in and seeing that your email address is not found in the system can create the worst feeling that you can imagine.

Eventually I got my account restored thanks to the help of a friend (who pointed out that I was going to all the wrong places) a patient person in Square's help desk, and a quick email of my ID. I truly lucked out, about half my Gil was missing, and I was in an odd place, but none of my characters were deleted, they didn't change too much of my personal information, and I wasn't banned! Thank goodness!

As account hijacking goes, mine was actually pretty polite. 

Anyway I finally got in to take part in the Little Ladies day event! Billed as being a 'Princess for a day' event, you sadly don't get any cool or pretty dresses for your character to feel like a princess. You get some flowers, food, and eventually a companion pet, but not much else really.

The quest line is pretty simple as well, you simply go to the major towns and bribe, ahem I mean show off your pretty doll to get votes. The quests are well written lore wise and fun. I was squee-ing the entire time I was wondering around with my pretty doll.

I will admit some disappointment in the lack of any princess like gear or outfits. So far most holidays leave you with considerably less bag space with the odd vanity gear they leave behind (horse helms anyone?). The one time I want the gear, they don't offer it! I would expect a holiday that is billed around you being a princess (or in the case of the men a chance to 'dote on their princess and become a true gentleman, whatever that means) to give us some sort of fancy, dressy, royal garb. But sadly there was none to be found.

I also would have expected a doll competition to have...well an actual competition when it came to the dolls! There were none besides the players dolls to be seen. Having an NPC or two show off their 'entries' or seeing children react to the fancy toys would have been a nice touch. 

All in all this was an enjoyable (if short) event that made me feel like there was a lot of potential that went unused. Still I have a new favorite companion pet to explore the world with, and I guess that will just have to be enough. 

MMO world hopping frenzy

Tonight was a veritable tour of the MMO world!

First stop was World of Warcraft for a good long bout of raiding. Whomever thinks progression raiding is fun is the wrong sort of crazy. Tonight was one of those 'bash your head against the wall and see what happens' kind of raiding nights. Totally heartbreaking, but necessary in the long run of things. Oh well, I have my cloak, the world is shiny. 

Our next stop on the amazing tour was the great Final Fantasy XIV, or as I like to think of it 'catch the maintenance team napping!'

Seriously! This game always goes down during my prime time. (I am a recovering insomniac night owl and darned proud of it!) Extra heart break as I was working on a dungeon story mode quest when the healer bailed and we were stuck hoping to get a new one before the game went down. (shocking secret of the night: We didn't!) 

I decided to round out my night in Hex, and ended up staying up waaay too late as a result! (I think you guys are on to something!!) 

Hex, as I have mentioned, is still in Alpha, which means pre-beta testing. (Beta is where you find a ton of bugs! Alpha is more like 'watch us build a game! See changes happen! It's fuuuun! *entice entice*) Don't get me wrong, about 1/2 the games I played ended as concessions as the game would freeze, fuzz or become unplayable in some way, but the rest of the time was pure joy!

I played with 3/4 of the premade decks (the last one wasn't allowing the game to play normally) against the AI and other players. The AI is still making...questionable moves (he killed himself, used stupid cards that made no sense, that sort of thing) and made me feel utterly ridiculous when it won (I lost?? To the guy who tapped my tapped cards??) it could use some polish, but this early on I am not worried about it. 

The PVP mode is great! I actually have a friend also in the alpha and we spent the night discussing cards, strategies and general things about the game, comparing it to other card games (magic the gathering, hearthstone) that we have been playing lately. He's been in the game much longer so has a few personalized decks, but I still managed to hold my own (and win!) with the premades. 

So far I really like the originality of the cards, and the gameplay (no one deck seemed totally OP compared to the others) but I am really looking forward to the PVE content touted on the kickstarter! Raiding and dungeons with my friends and card games? Oh man I just can't wait to see this happen! (Or better yet, to be in the middle of it!) 

Being in the game so early means I can watch it form and maybe give important feedback, a duty I plan on taking seriously.

Well as seriously as I can as I dominate the world with fuzzy bunny troops!

What, I'm Alludra, did you really expect anything different?? 

Hex!!

One project I have been looking forward to since the kickstarter was announced is Hex, the upcoming MMOTCG!

True confession: TCG's were my first nerddom with magic the gathering. It was the first thing I was allowed to geek out over in my super strict upbringing where girls didn't do boy things. And Cryptozoic found a way to merge them with MMO's? Oh my goodness! That's it, I'm going to miss my family for a while. (or rather they are going to miss me as I plan to dive head first into this thing!)

The game is still in early alpha with kickstarter participants (and very likely friends and family) being among those lucky few who can play. And I just got my invite!

I haven't had a chance to play much unfortunately as a huge wave of invites sent out at once, part of the alpha testing is to slam their servers it seems, but I am in there and I am playing! So far I am totally in love with the fuzzy bunny deck, critters abound and new cards, but I am also still getting to know the cards and working out mechanics between the premades.

After a series of restarts today and maintainance, I can't wait to see if I can play tonight! But wait! I have raid!



Okay after raid, but then it's totally on!

Alludra's World of Warcraft Pet Battle class rationalizations!

It occurred to me yesterday that I haven't ever had my 'pet class rationalizations' put all in one place. (You may remember these from the early days of Pet Battles!) Lots of people commented on them, but I was content to leave them in the old shows until yesterday. I realized no one wants to sift through old beta news for all this fun stuff!

So without further ado: Alludra's World of Warcraft Pet Battle class rationalizations!

Aquatic - Take more damage from flying abilities, but undead hardly phase them.

Most birds eat small fish and the like, so it's a predator/prey thing. Undead beasts historically avoid water for its cleansing properties and thus the fish are strong against them.

Beasts - Take more damage from  Mechanicals, but Huminoids have a hard time with them.

Beasts are predators from the natural world, while Mechanicals are man-made constructs like guns and lasers. Claws are no match for that! Meanwhile the predators of Azeroth have found ways to kill and eat Humans (which is why they invented guns in the first place!)

Critters - Get eaten alive by Beasts, but take less damage from Elementals.

Critters are the prey, like rabbits and mice. Of course the predators (Beasts) are going to kill them more easily. But these critters live underground and in trees and thus know how to deal with the elements.

Dragonkin - Take more damage from Humanoids, but take less damage from flying.

Knights kill dragons! But the much smaller birds are at a sky disadvantage, Dragon armor protects from tiny beaks.

Elemental - Take more damage from aquatic, and less damage from mechanicals.

Keep in mind electricity for this one. Water amplifies it to craaazy levels, while Mechanicals use it for power.

Flying - Take more damage from magic, and less damage from beasts.

Magic zipps through the air, sometimes unseen. Sorry birds. But these same birds can just fly away from beasts. Yup, just like that! The larger birds of prey even sometimes eat some predators (Beasts) like snakes.

Humanoids - Take more damage from undead, while taking less damage from critters.

Basically, zombies eat humans, but the humans have found ways to get rid of small pests.

Magic  - Dragonkin hurt them more, Aquatic hurts it less.

Dragons are very magical beings, so it makes sense they would absorb the magic. But Water is a strong part of magic (as seen with the Undead aversion) and thus can absorb some of the magical harm thrown at them.

Mechanical - Takes more damage from elemental, and less from Magic.

Remember that super dangerous electricity? Well it fried the mechs. Sorry guys! But magic is the opposite of a mechanical (science) pet, and so their blows are ineffective past each other.

Undead - take more damage from critters, and less damage from dragons.

Critters cause plagues, thus giving the undead their abilities, but at a terrible cost. Meanwhile, a dragon doesn't want to eat rotten meat. 

And there you have it! Trust me it took everything in me to not ramble on the topics even more! Hopefully all this will help you remember these class differences as much as it helps me! 

Can't sleep, don't starve!

So I can't sleep, so I decided to play a round of don't starve. Nights in game are kinda long so why not blog about it?

Day one: New game, playing wolfgang because he's the coolest. Adventure time! Tons of flint and got an axe right away. Huzzah! Found a wormhole, but avoided it. Found another a few yards away. Oh, I guess they connect? Lame. Gathered tons of stuff that will be helpful if I find some rocks. Oooh a Ring thing.

Day two: Went wondering around the edges of the forest, and made a fluffy flower hat. Decided to see if wormhole 1 ended up being as anticlimactic as I assumed. Nope! In a bog! I hate bogs, ported back immediately. Night falls and it's raining. Great.

Day three: After using up most of my pine cones during last night's tsunami, I came across a rock farm! It even had a foggy area with tomb stones. A friendly skeleton  in residence gave me a pickaxe! Thank you friendly dead dude! Also found another ax by a lonely pig shack. I have decided to name lonely pig Joe. He didn't mind me taking his ax. He also had a crank thing.

Day four: Joe the pig has become the guardian of my first science machine. he seems unimpressed as I try to press on him the importance of his new duty. Unfazed I explore on, finding another friendly skeleton, this time with lots of beard hair, a badly scuffed up grass suit and a never used fire wand. I am starting to wonder why the skeletons around these parts are so friendly.

Day five: What are these shadows?? I have wondered far and away from Joe and I am realizing, he's not so bad. Oh sure, not the best protector of science, or the best smelling guy, but all in all I could do worse, especially with shadow things chasing me! I kind of miss him but I have put several biomes between us, it is too late to go back and apologize. I doubt he is following me to do the same.

Day six: As I am lamenting finding anything worthwhile and wondering if Joe the pig is the best chance I have for I come across it! Pigtropolous! about 15 pig huts within the same localized area! forget you Joe! These pigmen look upon my new science machine in awe, and have a king nearby whom I can bribe! I may just settle in here and build a base.

Day eight: My fluffy flower hat, the manliest of hats fell off my head today as I was chopping down trees! I can hardly believe it, and neither can the good denizens of Pigtropolous! they Run in fear at the sight of me, no doubt unable to recognize me! Sadly the area around pigtropolous is populated only by trees and spiders! I must quest to get my headgear back!

Day ten: went grave digging today. If the skeletons can be helpful, why can't the graves I figure. Bad idea. ghosts spawned at almost every grave I dug. I got some gems out of it though so I made my way back to pigtropolous. Sadly in spite of my dwindling sanity and awesome replacement head gear, the pig king wanted none of my gems! defeated I made my way back to town, wondering about his new eye foliage around his throne. I know they weren't there a moment ago. Now I sit by my fire, dejected in a way that my fluffy flower hat cannot console, as the eyes in the night mock me.

Day eleven: I am seeing the pitfalls of Pigtropolous, but the surrounding biome is a peninsula, with the pig men deep enough inside that anything else is half a day's walk away. But so far I have not seen a single beefalo and my food supplies are dwindling. In desperation I ate a green mushroom. Raw. Biggest single mistake of all gameplay! My sanity is at an all time low, new shadows are after me, all because I didn't take the time out too cook my mushroomy friends.

Day thirteen: In a bid for more food and different types of construction materials, I decided to burn down part of spooky spider forest. The pigmen were unfazed, but unfortunately I was caught in the middle of the back-draft. Sadly, I did not make it. My friendly skeleton will be surrounded by amazing things to give to the next unwary traveler.

You get what you pay for! The dramas of free hosting and feed services

If anyone has been following me on twitter, you have been following my month long mini rants against my hosting and feeds. If not let me fill you in!

For the entire month of March (and perhaps as far back as into February) none of my podcasts have been posting properly. I wasn't aware of the problem as from my end, everything looked like it was going up fine. It was only when a listener asked where the shows were that I discovered that neither iTunes nor Sticher had been getting the shows from the feeds properly. Three shows total were impacted and looked like they didn't exist. (Battle Pets with Alludra and Kephas episodes 17-19)

This is, to say the least, problematic. You see, I work hard to make sure these shows are out regularly, and to find that some were a month behind on updating, well that's just embarrassing! All my hard work to edit and post the shows on a regular time table has been disrupted due to a problem with either my feeds or my hosting.

The providers in question are Feedburner and Archive.org. First Feedburner wasn't posting any posts, and I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and working on it, figuring it to be the worst culprit as the future of Feedburner seems uncertain. I straightened all that out and went along my happy way, seeing the feeds post properly to my Twitter once more.

But it turns out Archive.org is the true culprit in this case. For some reason the hosting I did from there was no longer allowing iTunes or Stitcher to pull the show off the feeds. While Alludra's pets may be properly hosted (with a lot of work and fixing!), for some reason Battle Pets would never show up. After weeks of working with it, (and seeing the shows finally show up weeks later, in one case I show I hadn't yet tried to edit to make more compliant) I decided to move battle pets to a new home. This of course is a big challenge as I am still unemployed in spite of my best efforts.

Lesson learned! Updates will now be going up normally and on time, and a lot of the month-long stress this has caused me is dealt with!

Since Alludra's pets posts more regularly from Archive.org, I have decided to leave that podcast where it is, at least until I can find employment. I have just discovered that nothing has posted from episode 66-current, so I know what I am doing this weekend.

If this has caused problems, you have my apologies. This is a learning experience for me as well.

Mannerly Mage

I have made the rough decision to end Mannerly Mage. As I mentioned on Twitter and other forums, it was the wrong sort of challenge, and I always looked upon this segment as a bit more of a 'chore' thenit should have been. Looking for the negativity in the wow community, if only to poke fun at it, wasn't something I liked to focus on. I should have noticed it from the start, but I thought that it was a good thing to be so challenged by the writing. Thinking outside my comfort zone and getting a new segment to a new audience.

I have learned a lot about writing and production from Mannerly Mage. Lessons that I wouldn't have learned otherwise working on Alludra's pets or Battlepets. One lesson that was the hardest for me to learn was letting the segment go. Admitting that finding new funny topics was difficult, especially when so many others do it better!

If you were a fan of the show, I just want to thank you. Your comments, emails, and in game whispers totally made it worthwhile. The sarcasm and eyebrow raising was fun while it lasted, but thanks to a full podcasting plate, I won't be going anywhere soon. :)

Microsoft and the used game market

Earlier today I tweeted that in light of the new Microsoft 'news' making the rounds, I will not be buying a console. Rather, steam will be getting the bulk of the (not negligible) amount of money I spend on consoles. This led to an uproar I didn't quite expect!

"How is Microsoft different now from Steam?" seems to be the rallying cry. How is their new changes on the console any different from what I am going to do with my PC gaming.  Needless to say I can't tweet an adequate response to everyone individually so I am taking it to my oft ignored blog.

I think this boils down to the concept of ownership. What is mine and what is not? This concept has been changing for years, but there is a striking difference between PC and console games. In the PC market I can't remember the last time I paid full price for a game, thanks in no small part to Steam. And while I have ended up with a few bad games, the fact that these games were less than $5 each made the bitter pill easier to swallow.

Physical games are a different commodity, rather than go down in value or retain value over time they become 'collectibles' or vanish entirely. Realistically we can't expect major retailers to hold onto games and stock for a console's lifetime and duration, or even a year out. Eventually a few years down the line we can hope for the games to get 'greatest hits' status and drop to half price and resurface in our local stores.

How many times have you picked up a used game loved it, then bought the sequel at full price? Or only had a few dollars and picked up that 5 year old game that you haven't thought about in years?

Let's face it, not everyone is thrilled with the way PC games are handled. Steam itself is under fire from more consumer friendly countries about their no reselling policies. They are only able to sue over it because it's illegal for terms of service in other countries to  block the right to take Steam and Valve to court. Think about that for a moment. 

To be honest, if I could check a box and resell some games *back* to steam they'd have my loyalty for life. I would seriously never shop at another retailer again, so I am closely following the news of this lawsuit in the hopes that PC game reselling will become our future.

For now, I am quite aware that these new console specs are in fact rumored and not concrete. But I am also not going to wait and see, I'd rather let Microsoft know that this is a path I do not support. We have madechanges in the past, and it's only by letting companies know how you will vote with your wallet that you can hope to get some change.

Pet Leveling from 1-25

I power level my battle pets. No secret! Once I got that first team up to level 25 and 5.1 dropped I have been taking advantage of the fact that the high level pets no longer have XP soaking issues and been leveling a pet a night that I log on! It's been awesome!

But how do you get that first team up there? Well, that's the hard part. Much like your first level capped character, your first level capped team is a lot of hard work.

What I did was stuck with one 'main' pet. I only leveled one pet in my first team from 1-25. I found it was a lot easier to take on higher level pets with my current team and capture them and then switch out one of my two other slots for the freshly caught pet.

This way I was able to concentrate on a zone only long enough to level the one pet (the others were already at level!) and then move on. By the time I got to Outlands the pets (level 25) weren't staying capped so it was just a minor grind to get them all their last few levels and boom! I had a capped team!

I also found this helped me get my safari achievements and find quite a few rares! 

Other things that helped:

• Open up dailies as quickly as you can. The XP gains from the dailies and defeating the tamers are enormous and a huge help. 
• Horde dailies are in Kalimdor. 
• Alliance dailies are in Eastern Kingdoms. 
• Check out the tamers before you jump into battle! They will have their pets running around them. Clicking on the pets will give you their levels and types. 
• If your team can't beat a tamer wait a few levels and come back. This is much quicker then leveling a new pet that has the type advantage.
• Have fun! 

Sick!

Sorry for the unintended hiatus, I have been MIA for the last two weeks because I got horribly awfully sick and lost my voice as part of it.

Alludra's pets and Mannerly Mage are back on track!

In the meantime, check out the AIE podcast (episode 125) if you want to see what I did for the few hours I actually had vocal cords!

I was totally wrong!!

Nevermind! Looks like I was totally wrong about pet squish! Guys!! Go sell your pets!! make the gold and get rich!!

Pet consolidation?

In the latest show of battlepets I had to cut out about 10 minutes of discussion. This wasn't fun or easy but the tone of the segment didn't match the rest and the show was running overlong.

The topic was the upcoming pet squish. Or if there was a pet squish and how we'd like to see it happen.

Kaivax on the forums mentioned something that has had me wondering about this topic since the post went up :
4. All standard pets will be merged. There will be a limit of three per type for players, but the migration can exceed this limit. Examples of standard pets: Orange Tabby Cat, Brown Prairie Dog, Crimson Whelpling. (source)

It's the language here that has me thinking. It doesn't say we get to cage and sell our pets, in fact the first sentence implies that consolidation may be something out of our control. Now I read the rest of the 26 page thread, and most people seemed concerned with the migration part. That's cool and all, but the migration is over, successful, and hopefully went as smoothly for everyone as it did for me. Now it's time to wonder a bit about this merger.

I know many people are counting on the fact that they will be able to crate up their excess pets once Pandaria launches and hit the AH for profit, but there is nothing in this language that states that this will be the case.

Personally, I am not counting on it. Why? Because a flood of pets in the AH on these scales would drive down the prices of pets down to the ground. As Kephas pointed out, Blizzard is very protective of their in game economies, and them allowing us to sell hundreds of pets at once will not be good for it at all.

While I am of mixed minds about what I would like to see happen, Keph believes that having our excess pets go 'poof' will probably be the best thing for us all. It will protect the market, and it will allow us to make profit off our pets in the future. This is a fair point and one I understand, but I also put a lot of work into these pets, and while most of my collection is single pets I do have a few 'valuable' pets (even if putting them on the market will decrease their value). Moreover, I have a very strong desire to pick up pets on the cheap!

So what am I doing? Well right now I am actually releasing pets. Not all my excess, just a few of the less valuable ones, and multiples of that I know I can't sell (I have 15 pets that fit this bill just between the Miniwing and the jousting pets! ). Then I am trying to save pets I like the stats of or are more valuable by naming three of them. Hopefully those with the names might get avoided by the delete-o-squish!

Hopefully this is one of those cases where I am over thinking the situation and everything will be awesome and work out for the best! But we all know that there is no way to make everyone happy.

Trying to play the Beta

Tonight I tried to play the beta. I heard the harvest moon was implemented and I wanted to see for myself.

NO, I did not misspell farmville.

Anyway, I got a series of disconnects. Of course it's a beta, but I was still bummed. My first three went without comment. Why bother, but then I decided to have fun with the 'what were you doing?' message.

11:30 (Paraphrased)
Well I was eating some magey cake after a battle with some thuggish rodents who are terrorizing a farm village. I think the game is telling me to diet.

11:32
So I was running from my interrupted mage picnic mentioned in my last DC, and boom another DC. So first, don't eat the cake, now it's don't go jogging. Too soon after eating? (Mixed messages here Blizzard!)

11:37 (after taking the time out to start the post)
Was walking off my cramp from too much mage cake, game crashed. yes that's right walking! Hit the / button and everything. No idea where to go from here, can't exactly float away. (Chubby pandas need diets remember?)

11:41
Went to mount, got another crash instantly. Going to try floating again. See if that can help. Sadly I am not a priest. Is this a hint?

11:44
While pondering my non priest like powers it occurred to me to blink out of what is clearly a crash zone. Happily I was able to avoid crashing for a full two minutes! Got to run past a herd of thuggish rodents who were the reason for my initial cake indulgence in the first place. I turned to look to try and tag one of them quickly before they got out of range and this proved to be my downfall! The game had a fatal error. Crashed to desktop for what will be the final time of the night. For now I am logging into Rift.