Monday, August 29, 2016

WoW Weekly: Luke 8 Verse 30



WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing inside the game and out. From mount farming and raiding, to music, movies, books and other games.

Oooooooooohhh-weeeeee the excitement is palpable, is it not? The fact that we're a half a day away from having our login attempts throttled by DDOS attacks is something that always ushers in the warm fuzzies. At 12:01a Pacific time, I will be sleeping. No time off of work to level this week; what remains of my vacation days is going towards Blizzcon. I entertained waking in the wee hours Tuesday morning to get some time in before work, but again, I'm anticipating the servers will be dealing with a lot of extra crap at first. It's likely that I won't sit down with Legion until the lunch hour on Tuesday---servers allowing.

It's going to be a busy week. There's band practice, a wedding, other obligations, and a gal out there who likes to see me from time to time. So in preparation I'm hashing out a bit of a schedule and setting some goals for the week.

Monday
That's today. Today I'm just trying to concentrate on work but this post here is Exhibit A in a slew of evidence pointing toward the fact that I'm failing at the concentrating thing. In a perfect world I would've taken a week off but this is America and vacation days are a hot commodity around here. Those lucky enough to have paid vacation tend not to have a lot of it. I'll shut up now.

I do envy those who were able to bank off some time; to me, it's not about being answerable to the Dev's release schedule. It's about the shared, collective experience we have at an expansion's launch: for a couple of brief weeks, the vast majority of players are engaged in a single activity---leveling up their toons. I saw someone refer to today as this year's first Christmas Eve. Very apt. It's also about putting myself into good status when it comes to raid-readiness. I'd also like to explore the possibility of leveling up an alt concurrently with my main, instead of waiting for a lull.

In the mean time, I'm checking out what others are saying here in the 11th hour totally concentrating on work real good. Qelric has an excellent piece over at MMO Games on her impressions of the Legion leveling experience. I didn't think I could get any more excited for Tuesday, but her post brought it up another level.

Tuesday
The holy day. Or demonic, perhaps. After writing that last section and working through my feelings of jealousy, a 5- or 6am alarm clock doesn't seem so crazy. Only trouble is Tuesday is my long day---I work the day job from eight to five and then host an open mic event from six til around midnight. Shaving off a couple of hours of sleep might come back to bite me.

So the AM playtime call will be made in the moment; I'll for sure get to see something over the lunch hour on Tuesday, and perhaps briefly after work. If the servers are stable, I'm hoping to at least find my artifact weapon and knock out a few quests.

Wednesday
Technically I don't have to be at the day job until noon, but I generally come in between nine and ten. I might milk that this week and get a couple of hours in before work. Following work is band practice, but that should wrap up by 8p, leaving a solid three or four hours open before sleep. I'm hoping to be in the 102-104 range by Wednesday's end.

Thursday
There may be noon-hour shenanigans. If not, I'll still be left with a generous amount of time: Thursday night is traditionally the guild's raid night, so I already have that time blocked off for Warcraft! Then again, I may not play the whole night, as a few weeks into September my Thursday nights will be reclaimed by progression raids. I'm hoping to be somewhere around 105-107 by the end of the night.

Friday
This will be the night where I'm truly prepped. Beer and lazy food items will be on the menu. Probably pizza. Yeah, pizza sounds good. Gonna opt for delivery methinks, a real treat. Taco pizza. Mmmmmm. Probably some nachos as a late-night snack. I hope to be near max level by the night's end---which could stretch into the wee hours of the morning provided I don't have much for plans on Saturday.

Saturday
Planning on a hearty breakfast of sausages, eggs and OJ whenever I roll out of bed, though it'll probably be sometime in the 10 o'clock hour since I start to feel guilty if I sleep later than that. I should probably let my local friends know I'm alive; perhaps I'll head over to @kennylogouts' house for a LAN party. :D

I'm hoping to reach max-level at which point I'll concentrate on any remaining profession leveling.

Sunday
My baby sister gets married. Please don't kill the Legion without me.

Monday
Free day, as it's a holiday here. I may be burned out on long play sessions by this point and/or possibly hungover from the night before, so I haven't quite planned this day out. Regardless, I mean to head into next week at max level, so if need be I'll finish that off. But probably not much else.

How about you? What's your first week of Legion going to look like?


2 comments:

  1. first week - camp the mad vendor spawn in the new Dalaran, spend 3 mill on a pet and a mount. Parade mount in public areas - spend an hour explaining to someone how i could make that my much gold, and send them to Phat Lewts' site for advice (after checking they are not on my server). Its been amaaazing so far. Aside from all of the game, which is mind blowing, i've been grouping up with strangers, talking to people - nice people, and having a good social time outside of the guild. Could blizz be repairing the community as well as the game?

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    Replies
    1. "Could blizz be repairing the community as well as the game?"

      I don't know. Something sure feels different. I think the feeling of "isolation" that was so prevalent in WoD (for me at least) is a consequence of some design choices in the past, for better or worse (LFG, LFR, Group Finder---all wise additions IMO). Many of those came prior to WoD, of course.

      I think that as the average age of a player grows (my assumption), there's going to be less and less time to play, so features that "streamline" certain aspects in the game that were once only possible through social interaction are necessary. However, you can't gut what is the true essence of what made this game and drew players to it: the "MM" in the MMO.

      After the solitude many people felt in WoD, I think Legion is offering a much longed-for change in getting us back out into the world. The new mob tagging mechanic is doing wonders, albeit subtly.

      Whatever they've done, however they've done it, a vibrant community is vital to the game's longevity. I hope they keep going in this direction.

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