Another double posting today. Making up for skipping a couple of days this week already so I don't want to get too far behind...
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So, I was leveling Brogan slowly and occasionally went over to another character if I wanted some time alone. I was the third highest character in the guild at the time. The highest was Jokedubya, our NE warrior and he was followed by BiL our NE priest. When Joke hit 60 he started doing battlegrounds a lot and then decided to create a horde character and give that a go. Well, that was a shock because we didn't play the enemy. Not then. Then BiL hit 60 and decided he wanted to do end game. That meant joining a raiding guild and so he left and started the arduous journey to getting better and better gear and seeing the same instance over and over and over. At least, I believe thats what happened then. I never saw that side of WoW. On leaving, he handed the reigns of leadership over to me.
There was Brogan, leader of the Tremors and still crawling to 60. It was another new experience and so I jumped at it with relish. I had big plans and tried to get more done in the guild. My plans were that we would help each other out. We would assist each other in getting professions up. We would be able to get specific items made by other people or provide items they needed that someone had in stock. Beyond that I really didn't have much of an idea. Others would occasionally run instances they were the level for but little Brogan was still climbing the levels, working his way towards 60.
Then, one day someone mentioned that another player wanted to join and wanted a particular rank. I said that they could be invited and I would talk to them. The person wanted to be promoted to a PVP rank which I explained wasn't possible. This was again in an era when to gain ranks in pvp you had to do a lot of battlegrounds. the Old Days. So then they asked for a higher guild rank. I explained that they would need to help the guild out. He beleived that coming up with a couple of ideas and inviting every he could with guild invite requests was sufficient to be promoted to officer, at least in his eyes. I had to explain that he needed to be more courteous with his invites and that he should also visit the website. At this point, we started coming up with the idea we might need a guild charter to cover acceptable behaviour. Running the guild was starting to be a lot of hard work. The problem player soon left the guild and created his own but he wasn't particularly successful with it. I have to admit I had a level one character in the city and he invited him. I joined the guild sort of as a spy but I saw that nothing really happened. I think he referenced the Tremors in the guild message saying that his guild was going to be better than them which I found amusing.
I eventually hit 60. It took a lot of hard work and a long time but I was finally there. Now came the next big task, earning the 1000g needed for the epic mount and riding. I don't remember much of this except that I got to around 500g or there about. But it was long, slow and boring. I played the other characters occasionally but it wasn't much and again was slow. Other players got to 60 but with so few there they eventually left for other guilds or other servers or started playing alts themselves. The guild was falling apart. I didn't know what to do about it and I think most didn't care.
And with that I stopped playing. The game didn't interest me as much as it had. At some point, free character transfers came up offering transfer from Nordrassil (where I was) to other new servers. Nordrassil wasn't a particularly stable server and so I transfered the entire lot off to Bronze Dragonflight. All characters were able to keep their names except for Brogan. He had to change his to something else but deep down he was still Brogan. Always will be. The guild eventually disbanded. I didn't play on the new server, just occasionally logged on to check the characters as I still kept up with the subscription but just didn't play.
It looked like the end of WoW for me...
Showing posts with label History of Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History of Me. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
The History of... err... me! Part Three - The Rise of the Alts
Before I go more into my history in game I have a couple of things to mention about my activities this week. First, the netherweave bag market is an interesting one. No cloth on the AH at the end of the week with low bag stocks meant very high prices. Then cloth started appearing and the price of that and the bags dropped. I had bags on at 4-5 different prices over the weekend. Now, the market is fluctuating between 11-15g a bag with it looks like only 2 of us concentrating on it. I have been buying up all cheap cloth (under 7g a stack) and I now have a huge number of bags in storage. So, lets see how that plays out.
Secondly, on Monday someone put a bunch of herbs on cheap. And I mean cheap. Adder's Tongue at 14g a stack when I normally never buy above 20g and a number of others below market vlaue. I bought the entire lot of Adder's Tongue and the only other item was Goldclover at around 16-17g when it is normally at 19 or higher. We rarely see the low end herbs drop below 19g and high end are normally at 21+. So I spent around 1900g and ended up with 1900 Adder's Tongue and 700 Goldclover. I ignored the rest of his postings even though they were below market. Net result, a long time converting to inks and something to talk about on Friday.
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I don't remember much of my early attempts at alts. Oh, I eventually had all character slots for the server I was on full but that took time. but I was never really an altoholic. Not then. Now? well, I have 3 80's and am working on 4, 5 and 6 with 7 and 8 on hold. One day I will cover them but today I will tell you about when I first started on other characters. Comfortable? Lets begin...
I was leveling Brogan. And it was slow. Those who remember vanilla wow will remember how slow. Nothing like today. It was really slow. My Brother-in-Law invited me to his guild. He had been playing for a while longer and he had been asked by a bunch of night elves to help create a guild. He was playing a night elf priest at the time. So, they created this guild and called it Tremors. Don't ask me why. But one day, BiL asked if I wanted to join the guild. Another new experience, I thought, sure why not. So, this plucky little dwarf was invited to the guild. Now, I don't know if he was guild leader then or if that occured later. The officers eventually moved to other guilds and BiL was given leadership as he was the only officer left. I suspect it was done a while after I joined.
So I was in a guild. Wow, new people to meet and at times play with. We were a fairly casual guild and would help out each other in whatever way we could when we could. I remember being involved in a couple of guild instance runs. I never really instanced much back then and still don't now. But I remember that it could be fun but then also quite annoying. There was the infamous Uldaman run. All guildies, my BiL the priest, our warrior, and three hunters. All the others were night elves and I was the only dwarf. I still have a screenshot of us ready to go in. But what I remember most was that the other 2 hunters were of the right level and the rest of us higher. So we left loot for the other two. And one hunter always rolled need.Yeah, right. Every loot is hunter loot. It turned out that the hunter pressed the dice button because that is the one to roll. We had to explain to him the difference between need and greed.
Soon, I had real life friends start playing and they came onto my server too. a couple had been long time players and played on Argent Dawn, a heavy RP server in the EU at the time. So, I had people I knew in real life in the guild I was in. I was an officer by now and started putting more into the guild. I created a website and forum for their use, started getting people to help each other with professions and all. It was a fun job, well most of the time. But sometimes I wanted to be alone, not be bothered by anyone. And so I made some other characters where I wouldn't be disturbed. Plus, I could have them learn different professions to Brogan and make these available to myself and eventually the guild. I also was running into space issues as I found my bank filling up with the stuff I was keeping and so had quickly learnt the advantage of bank characters too.
These alts didn't get very far. The highest got to around 23 or 24 but most never got higher than 20. Like I said, it was slow leveling back then. But I did work on professions. I had a blacksmith being supplied ore by Brogan. I had a tailor and enchanter who got materials, again, from Brogan. My leatherworker/skinner had to go out and do the work himself. But I was learning about how I could support other professions through interacting with characters and through using the stuff I would stockpile. And I kept a lot. Not as much as today but even then in pre-guild bank days, it was impressive. One day, I will go back and have a look at what I have stored. Its been while and not sure whats left after The Transfer. More about that later.
And then a new holiday was added in WoW. It was February and Valentines had come to Azeroth. I remember the holiday well. Back then you were required to apply perfume or cologne, talk to NPCs with hearts over their heads and give them a token. You would then get an item back, these would be combined and combined again and then given to little goblins next to the faction leaders. It meant running around the cities gathering. But there were problems. Oh, I remember in Stormwind there was only one guard you could talk to and he was camped constantly by all of us. And then he got drawn into the fight with a Servant from the Blasted Lands who had been kited there. But there was a different issue in other cities. I found that certain people would only respond to perfume. For that I created some level one female alts and had them run to the cities to gather the bits Brogan needed. I hadn't even considered using perfume on Brogan. And so I ended up with even more bank alts. And these new characters were used to store even more.
My empire was growing, but for how long...
Secondly, on Monday someone put a bunch of herbs on cheap. And I mean cheap. Adder's Tongue at 14g a stack when I normally never buy above 20g and a number of others below market vlaue. I bought the entire lot of Adder's Tongue and the only other item was Goldclover at around 16-17g when it is normally at 19 or higher. We rarely see the low end herbs drop below 19g and high end are normally at 21+. So I spent around 1900g and ended up with 1900 Adder's Tongue and 700 Goldclover. I ignored the rest of his postings even though they were below market. Net result, a long time converting to inks and something to talk about on Friday.
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I don't remember much of my early attempts at alts. Oh, I eventually had all character slots for the server I was on full but that took time. but I was never really an altoholic. Not then. Now? well, I have 3 80's and am working on 4, 5 and 6 with 7 and 8 on hold. One day I will cover them but today I will tell you about when I first started on other characters. Comfortable? Lets begin...
I was leveling Brogan. And it was slow. Those who remember vanilla wow will remember how slow. Nothing like today. It was really slow. My Brother-in-Law invited me to his guild. He had been playing for a while longer and he had been asked by a bunch of night elves to help create a guild. He was playing a night elf priest at the time. So, they created this guild and called it Tremors. Don't ask me why. But one day, BiL asked if I wanted to join the guild. Another new experience, I thought, sure why not. So, this plucky little dwarf was invited to the guild. Now, I don't know if he was guild leader then or if that occured later. The officers eventually moved to other guilds and BiL was given leadership as he was the only officer left. I suspect it was done a while after I joined.
So I was in a guild. Wow, new people to meet and at times play with. We were a fairly casual guild and would help out each other in whatever way we could when we could. I remember being involved in a couple of guild instance runs. I never really instanced much back then and still don't now. But I remember that it could be fun but then also quite annoying. There was the infamous Uldaman run. All guildies, my BiL the priest, our warrior, and three hunters. All the others were night elves and I was the only dwarf. I still have a screenshot of us ready to go in. But what I remember most was that the other 2 hunters were of the right level and the rest of us higher. So we left loot for the other two. And one hunter always rolled need.Yeah, right. Every loot is hunter loot. It turned out that the hunter pressed the dice button because that is the one to roll. We had to explain to him the difference between need and greed.
Soon, I had real life friends start playing and they came onto my server too. a couple had been long time players and played on Argent Dawn, a heavy RP server in the EU at the time. So, I had people I knew in real life in the guild I was in. I was an officer by now and started putting more into the guild. I created a website and forum for their use, started getting people to help each other with professions and all. It was a fun job, well most of the time. But sometimes I wanted to be alone, not be bothered by anyone. And so I made some other characters where I wouldn't be disturbed. Plus, I could have them learn different professions to Brogan and make these available to myself and eventually the guild. I also was running into space issues as I found my bank filling up with the stuff I was keeping and so had quickly learnt the advantage of bank characters too.
These alts didn't get very far. The highest got to around 23 or 24 but most never got higher than 20. Like I said, it was slow leveling back then. But I did work on professions. I had a blacksmith being supplied ore by Brogan. I had a tailor and enchanter who got materials, again, from Brogan. My leatherworker/skinner had to go out and do the work himself. But I was learning about how I could support other professions through interacting with characters and through using the stuff I would stockpile. And I kept a lot. Not as much as today but even then in pre-guild bank days, it was impressive. One day, I will go back and have a look at what I have stored. Its been while and not sure whats left after The Transfer. More about that later.
And then a new holiday was added in WoW. It was February and Valentines had come to Azeroth. I remember the holiday well. Back then you were required to apply perfume or cologne, talk to NPCs with hearts over their heads and give them a token. You would then get an item back, these would be combined and combined again and then given to little goblins next to the faction leaders. It meant running around the cities gathering. But there were problems. Oh, I remember in Stormwind there was only one guard you could talk to and he was camped constantly by all of us. And then he got drawn into the fight with a Servant from the Blasted Lands who had been kited there. But there was a different issue in other cities. I found that certain people would only respond to perfume. For that I created some level one female alts and had them run to the cities to gather the bits Brogan needed. I hadn't even considered using perfume on Brogan. And so I ended up with even more bank alts. And these new characters were used to store even more.
My empire was growing, but for how long...
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
The History of... err... me! Part Two - Farming
So, on with the story telling. Are we all sitting comfortably? Good. Now where was I. Ah yes...
So there I am playing Brogan, the dwarven hunter. I think looking back on it I definately wasn't a good hunter. I remember I had taken primarily Beast Mastery but I have no idea what my spec was. I remember that I had specced for Aimed shot and this was often what I opened with, after I had sent my pet in. I primarily used that, arcane shot and serpent sting and was annoyed that aimed shot and arcane shot used the same cooldown. I didn't use much else. Didn't blow any other cooldowns. I used the same approach to hoarding things as I used to abilities. I never knew when I would need them and so never used them. Looking back now, I shudder at how bad a hunter I was. Yep, I was a huntard.
Profession wise, well I started with leatherworking and skinning but soon very quickly switched to engineering and mining. I thought it would be a better approach because I could make my own guns and ammo. And of course engineering had such fun gadgets too. But I soon realised I could make money with mining. Oh, and when I found out I was just so pleased. I would gather ore from every node I came across. I would often end up with a surplas of ore. Well, this could be sold to a vendor but I discovered that if I smelted it first, well the vendors paid more for that. I was so pleased. I would go out, mine, smelt, vend, rince and repeat. I must have looked so proud when I told my friends about the two gold I had made vending copper bars. I dread to think what their thoughts were. They then explained to me, carefully I reckon, all abou the auction house. Auction house? Somewhere where players can buy from others? Where copper bars go for over a gold a stack???
So when I next logged on I ran to this mysterious place that was situated opposite the bank in Ironforge. This was when there was only one auction house per faction. I looked up the price of copper and saw what people had put it up for. I was new to this game and I proceeded to ensure that my bars were always the cheapest. I would almost always sell them for 60-80s a stack. Sure there were higher prices but I wanted mine to sell. Always. I had no knowledge about market trends, about when was best to post, that sometimes it is best to keep at a set value because they would nearly always sell. And for a while I made a small amount of money supplying copper to others.
And that was about as far as I would go. I remember I used to farm in Loch Moden along the eastern edge because mining was good there. I would also get tin and would try my hand at selling bronze. But it was a lot of work for small payouts. But I had got a taste of farming and I was good at it.
How else was I as a player. Well, I loved my engineering. I remember when I got the schematic for the Parachute Cloak. Don't remember how but I do remember that I was really pleased when I finally made one. At last, no more damage from falling. I put on my nice new cloak and went riding out of Ironforge. I just had to put this to the test. And I rode off the cliff and went falling down to impact at the bottom. I survived, just, so I rode back up to the top, ate and considered the problem. Maybe it didn't work if I was mounted. Ok, try again. Once I was at full health, I ran off the cliff and went splat again. What was wrong? I mounted up, went back up to the top, ate, and examined the cloak carefully. It was then I realised that I needed to actually use it. Ah hah! Right, I ran off the cliff, activated the cloak, floated down to a ledge, kept running and fell the rest of the way because the cloak had stopped working. Well, at least I knew how to use it. It wasn't until many years later I learnt to map the cloak to a key for a panic button for emergencies. That was on another character by then. But I wore that cloak all the way to level 60 and beyond. I never replaced it. You never knew when Brogan was going to fall.
So, I was a bad player but I learnt things. Admittedly a little slowly. But I had also learnt that I could farm. And, as time went on, I found I was really really good at it...
So there I am playing Brogan, the dwarven hunter. I think looking back on it I definately wasn't a good hunter. I remember I had taken primarily Beast Mastery but I have no idea what my spec was. I remember that I had specced for Aimed shot and this was often what I opened with, after I had sent my pet in. I primarily used that, arcane shot and serpent sting and was annoyed that aimed shot and arcane shot used the same cooldown. I didn't use much else. Didn't blow any other cooldowns. I used the same approach to hoarding things as I used to abilities. I never knew when I would need them and so never used them. Looking back now, I shudder at how bad a hunter I was. Yep, I was a huntard.
Profession wise, well I started with leatherworking and skinning but soon very quickly switched to engineering and mining. I thought it would be a better approach because I could make my own guns and ammo. And of course engineering had such fun gadgets too. But I soon realised I could make money with mining. Oh, and when I found out I was just so pleased. I would gather ore from every node I came across. I would often end up with a surplas of ore. Well, this could be sold to a vendor but I discovered that if I smelted it first, well the vendors paid more for that. I was so pleased. I would go out, mine, smelt, vend, rince and repeat. I must have looked so proud when I told my friends about the two gold I had made vending copper bars. I dread to think what their thoughts were. They then explained to me, carefully I reckon, all abou the auction house. Auction house? Somewhere where players can buy from others? Where copper bars go for over a gold a stack???
So when I next logged on I ran to this mysterious place that was situated opposite the bank in Ironforge. This was when there was only one auction house per faction. I looked up the price of copper and saw what people had put it up for. I was new to this game and I proceeded to ensure that my bars were always the cheapest. I would almost always sell them for 60-80s a stack. Sure there were higher prices but I wanted mine to sell. Always. I had no knowledge about market trends, about when was best to post, that sometimes it is best to keep at a set value because they would nearly always sell. And for a while I made a small amount of money supplying copper to others.
And that was about as far as I would go. I remember I used to farm in Loch Moden along the eastern edge because mining was good there. I would also get tin and would try my hand at selling bronze. But it was a lot of work for small payouts. But I had got a taste of farming and I was good at it.
How else was I as a player. Well, I loved my engineering. I remember when I got the schematic for the Parachute Cloak. Don't remember how but I do remember that I was really pleased when I finally made one. At last, no more damage from falling. I put on my nice new cloak and went riding out of Ironforge. I just had to put this to the test. And I rode off the cliff and went falling down to impact at the bottom. I survived, just, so I rode back up to the top, ate and considered the problem. Maybe it didn't work if I was mounted. Ok, try again. Once I was at full health, I ran off the cliff and went splat again. What was wrong? I mounted up, went back up to the top, ate, and examined the cloak carefully. It was then I realised that I needed to actually use it. Ah hah! Right, I ran off the cliff, activated the cloak, floated down to a ledge, kept running and fell the rest of the way because the cloak had stopped working. Well, at least I knew how to use it. It wasn't until many years later I learnt to map the cloak to a key for a panic button for emergencies. That was on another character by then. But I wore that cloak all the way to level 60 and beyond. I never replaced it. You never knew when Brogan was going to fall.
So, I was a bad player but I learnt things. Admittedly a little slowly. But I had also learnt that I could farm. And, as time went on, I found I was really really good at it...
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
The History of... err... me! Part One
Exciting I know. History of an insignificant player in the wide scheme of things but I wish to explain how I have played in the past and how things have changed. How I have become (I hope) a better player and continue to do so. I also thought it would be apt to make Wednesday the day I would go into the history. Apt because over here in the UK Wednesday is patch day. Now it is true that when I get home the servers are all back up but that wasn't always the case in the past.
It all started back in 2005. My brother-in-law had been talking about this new game he was playing online called World of Warcraft. I had heard about it. I had some friends play it too, quite avidly but I had managed to avoid it. I had generally avoided online games, partly because until about a year before I only had dial-up Internet access (I know!!!) and because I had generally resisted them. However, he asked if I would be interested in getting a copy for my birthday and Christmas and possibly even getting it as an early present so he had someone he knew from real life to play with.
Well, I was quite happy with that. And so I waited until November 15th 2005. A Tuesday. I had my copy of the game. My account was created. It was installed and patched and I was ready to go. I started the game and that wonderful animation started and...
A quick diversion here. I play role playing games. Have done since my early teens. And at the time I was heavily enjoying 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons. I had a number of different characters I enjoyed playing but I was particularly fond of my first one. He was a dwarf but a rather unusual one. He was a warrior and went by the name Brogan Ironhammer. Now this will immediately reveal who I am to those out there who know me but then kudos to them for reading this.
So, anyway, the animation started and I was just blown away. There was this dwarf. And he had a gun. And a bear. And wow. So I quickly logged in, selected the realm my BiL played on and set about creating a Dwarven Hunter called Brogan.
Was I a good hunter? Well lets just put it this way. My BiL was very very lucky. He happened to have the Fiery War Axe drop for him in STV. You have know idea how much I begged, pleaded and offered to get that axe off him. I offered to support his professions for I don't how long. I just wanted that axe. I mean, I was a dwarf and I could use axes. It would be perfect for me. At least I thought so then. Now. Well, I believe the expression is /facepalm. If you are unaware what I am talking about, go on Wowhead and look it up. If you still don't understand, then I direct you to the above expression.
Fortunately for him, he did the right thing and sold it on the auction house. It payed for his mount training at level 40 (for you young uns out there, that was when you initially learnt the riding skill and it cost 100g. And don't get us started on epic riding.)
Have I got better since then? I like to think so. Do you think I have got better? Well, you can judge for yourself over future historical updates.
It all started back in 2005. My brother-in-law had been talking about this new game he was playing online called World of Warcraft. I had heard about it. I had some friends play it too, quite avidly but I had managed to avoid it. I had generally avoided online games, partly because until about a year before I only had dial-up Internet access (I know!!!) and because I had generally resisted them. However, he asked if I would be interested in getting a copy for my birthday and Christmas and possibly even getting it as an early present so he had someone he knew from real life to play with.
Well, I was quite happy with that. And so I waited until November 15th 2005. A Tuesday. I had my copy of the game. My account was created. It was installed and patched and I was ready to go. I started the game and that wonderful animation started and...
A quick diversion here. I play role playing games. Have done since my early teens. And at the time I was heavily enjoying 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons. I had a number of different characters I enjoyed playing but I was particularly fond of my first one. He was a dwarf but a rather unusual one. He was a warrior and went by the name Brogan Ironhammer. Now this will immediately reveal who I am to those out there who know me but then kudos to them for reading this.
So, anyway, the animation started and I was just blown away. There was this dwarf. And he had a gun. And a bear. And wow. So I quickly logged in, selected the realm my BiL played on and set about creating a Dwarven Hunter called Brogan.
Was I a good hunter? Well lets just put it this way. My BiL was very very lucky. He happened to have the Fiery War Axe drop for him in STV. You have know idea how much I begged, pleaded and offered to get that axe off him. I offered to support his professions for I don't how long. I just wanted that axe. I mean, I was a dwarf and I could use axes. It would be perfect for me. At least I thought so then. Now. Well, I believe the expression is /facepalm. If you are unaware what I am talking about, go on Wowhead and look it up. If you still don't understand, then I direct you to the above expression.
Fortunately for him, he did the right thing and sold it on the auction house. It payed for his mount training at level 40 (for you young uns out there, that was when you initially learnt the riding skill and it cost 100g. And don't get us started on epic riding.)
Have I got better since then? I like to think so. Do you think I have got better? Well, you can judge for yourself over future historical updates.
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