Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I'm Addicted!!

I have a new addiction and it's calling my name. I feel that I should be attending to it right now but feel I should resist while I update my first online love of blogging. So what is this new intense distraction you ask? Why nothing other then WoW! WoW stands for World of Warcraft. WoW is a major online game that at first I thought was just a game.

I didn't get involved with it when I first learned of it, as a dedicated player had advised me that I wouldn't enjoy it without a high speed connection. We have a S-l-o-w ping meaning the time the signal leaves our computer, travels to the satellite, then returns, takes too long for PvP play. (PvP = Player verse Player) That slow ping has made Halo3 a simple in home game or take the Xbox to a friend's house game as live play isn't fun unless we relocate.

But World of Warcraft is just Too AwEsOmE to let the ping problem get in the way! I have found that using an aircard works wonders for PvP & RPPvP therefore avoiding the whole s-l-o-w ping issue! So here I am, learning my way around my second gaming experience. (My first was Runescape.)

I first started learning to game so I could keep my son company while he played. He is an expert and even though he is young still, he really knows his way around video games. Some of this is due to how much he plays and some of it is due to how much he reads! He's the only person I know who studies the manuals and I'm not talking about little twenty page manuals, either. No, the manuals and books for these games can be upward of a thousand or more pages. Some even have corresponding novels to further the story line and he has read them all!

A few months back, we joined the WoW world and started building our first characters. I chose a Night Elf Hunter. I love my Hunter. So much so that I have now learned about 'twinkin' and have started another Night Elf Hunter to make into a twink. A twink is a low level character that has high stats because of specialized equipment that make it near indestructible. I'm just learning how to do this and have just ran my first real raids with my Guild.

I find that I need to learn a whole new vocabulary: Guild, Aggro, Tank, grind, Twink, to name just a few new terms. I am also learning the ins and outs of auctioning, crafting, leveling, and socialization in the gaming world.

While shopping for Christmas presents at Best Buy, the salegirl and I got talking and she told me about addons. She gave me some really cool sites to look into. Now I'm 'twinkin' our computers to increase our game play experience!

Yes, I'm addicted and have much more to share on this interesting journey. I was under the impression that the players were mainly young teenagers to young adults. I've since learned that WoW gamers come in all ages and expertise. Yesterday, I read an article at WOWInsider about an Anthropologist who plays. He tells of how he is researching "American cultures of self-control, efficiency, masculinity and success amongst players of WoW." You can read about his experience here.

I have much more to share on this interesting topic but feel the need to go check the auction house. ;-) I'll tell more later. Have an AwEsOmE day everyone!

6 comments:

Amelia Antwiler said...

Oh, funny.
We used to play EverQuest. My mom got into it -- we had my brother, Dad, hubby, me, other brother for a while, mom. My mom, Dad and Brother all have multiple characters. I was a twink. because I knew how to play the game, and their characters were so high - I'd get gear they didn't need.

I couldn't keep up with it - and we play at weird times so needing a group was difficult - but my family has their own guild. *L* with my brother playing 2 characters. and my mom often plays my dad's "toon" when he's asleep.

It's quite the family affair. So Good luck with leveling up!! Happy Gaming!

? said...

We are a homeschool family that also plays Runescape. We would love to try WOW but have dial up. We are thinking about using the satellite internet service if we can play WOW with it. What satellite service do you have?
Christine

Vicki said...

Hi Christine,
We use Wildblue. WoW works fine with it except during high volume times doing PvP but PvNPC has never been an issue.

Paula Vince said...

My guys are interested in Wow too. We're on 200kilobits/second here (not kilobites) so our Wow speed would be very slow.
BTW, when I read Christine's comment above to my family, my 13yo son remarked that Runescape is the "Poor man's Wow."
Have fun but please check into your blog sometimes.

Anonymous said...

The game is still lots of fun with a slower connection, you just have to avoid PvP (player vs player) when the latency speed is down. they make it easy to see on our screen. When we know we are going to be running raids and such, we just relocate to our friend's house who has high speed wireless. The speed only matters when you play against other players but not against NPC's.

jugglingpaynes said...

I think I'll keep this info a secret for now. We have a cable modem, but right now the kids are into Spore and that's eating up most of the day!

The anthropologist is doing "research." Riiiiight. :o)

Peace and Laughter!