WoD Launch Day - Revel in the Chaos!

World of Warcraft's next expansion, Warlords of Draenor, launches in four days. It's a fantastic time to be playing the game right now, and it's clear the developers have doubled down on this expansion, and are working as hard if not harder than ever to bring new life to this venerable franchise. Launch day can be an extraordinarily chaotic time in any game - whether it be for the initial launch of the game, or for a much anticipated expansion. And many players will absolutely bemoan the chaos that ensues. Spawn areas will be camped and crowded, servers will be up and down, there may even be queues to log in. Quests will break, players will lag, and instances will lock that shouldn't be locking. Yes, for many people, it will be for them the worst experience ever, and if you read the forums during this time, nothing less than the sky has split open and the ground has trembled and hell in Azeroth has descended upon them.  But for me - well for me, I absolutely love this time. I find the chaos magnificent, and there no better time for an MMO.

Gearing up your freshly boosted 90 - Patch 6.0x

So it's not often I write blogs that are so time sensitive, but this one definitely is. But it occurred to me that I've actually done pretty well (with just a little bit of luck) at getting my freshly boosted mage to a decent gear level in just a very short amount of time, so I thought I'd share. But all of this information is relevant really only until Warlords of Draenor drops in a little less than two weeks, so I apologize if you're reading this in like 2015.

A Letter to My Son

Hey Bud.

So it's been almost five weeks now, and while you're settling in quite comfortably in your new domain, I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that when I come home and say "Hey Family!" only three of the four of us are there. It's a time of transition for all of us, and so I thought I'd take a moment, at you set about to embark upon the great adventures that await you, to reflect a moment upon the virtual adventures we've shared.

Dear Past Me - Spot On

In November of 2010, almost four years ago, I wrote a post describing what I thought at the time was the inevitable future of MMO's.  The original post was taken down when I changed blogging sites, but digging through my writing archives, I managed to find it. It was written back in a time where I actually wrote all of my stuff offline, and then published it online - crazy, right? This week, we learned that Blizzard has canceled their most ambitious MMO project to date - Titan. There's been quite a bit of press this week speculating that this move marks the end of the MMO as we know it. I don't necessarily disagree.  I won't say the MMO is dead, by any means - but the nature of it, is changing. You need look no further than Destiny to see where the genre is headed.

And looking back at the post I wrote four years ago, I think I got pretty close.  What do you think? Here's the original post, unedited.

Destiny - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

So it was just a few weeks ago that I was promising I'd blog a bit more often, and here I am already slacking off. Let's remedy that this morning by talking a bit about what I've spent most of my recent time playing - Destiny. There's already been plenty said and written about the game, so my summation will quite likely reiterate some of those other opinions, but I've put enough time in on my own to feel I can at least talk about the parts of the game that I've played.

Balance of Power

One of the most frequent, and yet toughest decisions any developer has to make throughout the course of a project is the evaluation of new tools and tech for some particular aspect of your project. This is especially true for the indie developer, where your resources for building the tech yourself may be quite limited (ie., you), and yet the funds for licensing the tech may also be rather limited. I got to thinking about this the other day as I was going over the list of licensed tech we're using in our current project at Robot, and it occurred to me, as I've been making these kinds of decision for both small and large projects over the past ten years, maybe I could put together a list of some of the criteria I've accumulated over the years.

The New Shiny
It used to be that licensing middleware for your game was an extremely expensive process, so for many small shop developers, the costs of licensing alone made the decision an easy one. If you wanted a pathing solution, then you studied up on the latest algorithms, and you went and implemented it. If you needed blended animation trees, you took whatever bare bones your engine gave you, and you built your API on top of that. And if your artists had to live with editing XML files to set up the blends, well so be it.  But these days the process has been hugely democratized, and it's not uncommon for the aspiring developer to feel like a kid in a candy shop when looking through the Unity Asset Store.  So many tools! So many packages ready to go promising everything you need to get your game up and running! And they're all so affordable! I'd like one of each please!

Well hold on one second there Tex. Before you plunk down another $65 for another set of editor extensions, lets spend a few minutes thinking about your project's real needs. And furthermore, the ramifications to your project once this system is integrated in.

How far along are we?
Make no mistake - the best time to integrate third party solutions to your project is right at the beginning of the project. And the further along you are in the project, the less useful - and doable - this becomes. This is because each system you integrate into your project is going to set up chains of dependencies. Not only are you going to build code that is dependent upon this system, but other systems that may already be implemented might have to be modified to account for the new system. This is especially true in all-in-one kinds of packages.  Things like "The complete MMO toolkit" or "Everything you need to make an RTS".  These things are called starter kits for a reason. They define core game systems, and the expectation of those systems is that you're developing your project around that core game system. So if you're already rolling with a game that has functionality in place, integrating a core system like that can create far more problems than it solves - especially if you're integrating a system only because you want some key piece of functionality from it.

For example - say you have this fantastic idea for a game where you run around and shoot other players, you take their stuff, you go back to town and trade their stuff in for better stuff, and you go out and do that some more. And you can level up.  You find an excellent FPS starter kit that not only has a fully scripted character controller ready to go, but also includes an inventory system. Sweet! Then you see an Action/RPG system with experience points, and abilities, and level up mechanics that you also want. So you pull that down to get those systems. Then you realize that you need to save and retrieve store inventories in a central database, so you pull down and integrate a database retrieval system.  Well now guess what you have. Both the RPG/Action system and the FPS starter kit provide fully animation character controllers, but neither of them know about, or work with each other. But only one of them works with your inventory system, and the other only works with your level up system. And neither of them know about database system you've integrated. And furthermore, the database system has its own inventory managment system, that would be nice, but neither of your character controllers are set up to use it.  In other words, you've got a real maintenance nightmare on your hands.

For those reasons, it's best to make some of these decisions as early in the process as you can, especially the more core the system is.

Use but don't integrate
In the above scenario, I would start with the database serialization system, as this is a core part of your game, and just about every other piece in the game is going to depend upon it and use it. I then would perhaps purchase the FPS starter kit, and set it up in it's own separate, clean project. I would examine how they set up their character controller, and how their using their inventory. But in my original game project, I'd implement my own character controller using the methods I learned from the starter kit. I'd then build my own inventory system built on top of the database serialization system already integrated, using the techniques I learned from the FPS starter kit. I'd then repeat the process for the Action/RPG system. I wouldn't use their character controller at all (I've already gone one you see..) but I'd install their system and learn enough about it to see how they implemented their level up mechanics, and then build my own systems in my game using my technologies, but their methods.

The thing is, this kind of implementation is going to take much longer. You are essentially using the 3rd Party tools to learn from, and then building your own systems. But in the end, what you have are game systems that you are fully aware of exactly how they work (because you built them), and a game project as a whole that has fewer competing dependencies. In the long run, your project is going to be much better off for it.

How key is the component to your gameplay?
So obviously our game would be the absolute best game if we built every single piece of it - because then we know every single piece, and can fix, change, or modify all the pieces. But for an indie developer, time is money, so the truth is you may need some of those systems, and there simply isn't sufficient time to learn and re-implement. This game needs to ship! So another key question I ask myself is whether or not I can consider this component a commodity in my game, or is it a key foundation in my game. For instance, let's return to the example I started above. In this game, there are animals roaming the wilderness, and their sole purpose is to serve as targets for players to kill, and get experience. These animals have to roam around, attack players, and die. For those needs, I would absolutely license a pathing (and AI) solution, implement it as soon as possible, and never look back. My game isn't about animals pathing, or making incredibly smart decisions. It's about the fun players have in shooting them and looting them and getting bigger guns to shoot bigger versions of them.

But say my game is about the animals themselves - they are cunning foes that sneak up on players, have their own survival agendas, and roam about searching for and finding food, and the players can serve as that food if need be. Now the game is much more about the animal's behavior itself. In this case, I would build my own AI systems. I might use a low level mesh pather, but everything on top of that I would build.  

In other words, it's important to identify clearly what your game is about. And if your game isn't about some core piece of functionality, and out there is a company that makes its entire business building that functionality, then if you can afford it use it. Prime candidates for this are systems like sound and music, pathing, UI, and database management. For these kinds of systems, it's quite likely your engine already has built in solutions for those, and if so, and they fit your needs, by all means use them. But even if your engine doesn't, these kinds of things are considered the wheels of game development - and you know what they say about wheels and re-inventing them.

Don't start over!
From time to time, you will come across solutions or third party systems that are so enticing you will be tempted to completely throw out everything you've done so far just to make use of that system. No seriously. It's a huge temptation. Your own project is looking messy, with many cross dependencies, many overlapping technologies, and tools from three different kits, along with your own hodgepodge of scripts and half-implemented (but functional) pieces. And along comes this kit in the asset store that does everything you need!  It has data serialization, and a character controller and an inventory system and a level up mechanic and it's all super clean and neatly integrated and each piece talks perfectly to the other and you think to yourself that is the answer! To heck with this, I'm buying that and starting over using that and this time my game will be a paragon of efficiency and robustness and still fun to play!

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that in almost every single situation, this is the wrong decision to make. The number one killer of games getting finished is the temptation to throw it out and start over cleanly. Here is the truth of it. Game development is messy. It always starts off clean, and with the best intentions, but in in twenty years of shipping games, I've never shipped a single one, large or small, that didn't ship as a giant jumbled collection of the hacks and bailing wire and tissue paper systems that make the game shippable. It's just the nature of the beast. If you've made progress on your game and it's doing things and you're liking what it does - even if it's not the prettiest code in the world and would make your 2nd year CS instructor cringe, keep going!

No easy choices
The truth is, the decision to integrate a licensed piece of 3rd party tech into your project, versus creating your own solution, is never an easy one. Each case is unique, and has to be evaluated on its own. But hopefully this gives you at least some general guidelines to use to help you make that decision. How far along are you in your project? How many dependencies will this create for other systems? Will integration of this system create overlaps of technology from solutions already implemented? How core is this technology to the foundation of your game?  These are at least some of the questions you should be asking yourself before you plunk down another $100.00 for the best skeletal animation system ever.  And hopefully, with some of those questions answered, you can make better choices about which systems to use, and which ones to build.  In either case, good luck with your projects!

Lightning Strikes! Again!

Yesterday kicked off the next event in Final Fantasy XIV's one year anniversary round up - which sees one of Final Fantasy's most cherished characters - Lightning, visit the world of Eorzia.  Similar to the other anniversary events, this is a repeat event as well - it first came around in November of 2013, so technically I suppose it should be called Lightning Re-strikes.. or maybe Lightning Strikes Returns Again.. or.. something. Now as I've mentioned before I'm not terribly well versed in Eorzia lore, but I am a fan of the Final Fantasy series, and was quite familiar with the lore of this character. I wasn't playing FFXIV at the time this event came around the first time, so I was really looking forward to participating in it this time. And let me just say, if you're a fan of franchise crossovers and of seeing your character participate in events side by side with a signature series character - the event does not disappoint!

A Night of Celebration!

So right now Final Fantasy XIV:ARR has a variety of in game events going on to celebrate their one year anniversary.  When it comes to seasonal events in MMO's, I'm very hit or miss. Occasionally I'll endeavor to do them just to see what they're all about, but quite often I'm just as happy to skip them altogether. Especially when the activities they would have you participate in trend towards monotonous. But as I'm still relatively new to FFXIV, and as these were the first seasonal events that have occurred since my return to the game, I decided to give them a go. And I'm glad I did. Seasonal events in FFXIV for me hit just exactly the right mix of fun, polish, and length!

Getting back into the Swing

Make no mistake, I haven't written much lately.  At all. When you've been blogging as long as I have, you know that there are times - weeks, months, somethings entire years, where it just doesn't strike ya, and you can't put pen to paper - figuratively speaking. Now typically, most bloggers will cap those periods off with renewed promises of increased activity.  It's like when you fall off your exercise program.  After some period of time has passed you begin anew with promises of This time - this time I'll make it stick! I personally try to avoid such promises. Namely because a huge pet peeve of my own is making promises and then breaking them.  I've always felt that no one really wants to read a post about how you're going to turn things around and start writing every day etc etc.  If you want to turn things around, then just do it. Start writing. But I've decided this time I'll allow myself my own exception, and make this post about posting. So here ya go. Breaking my own rules, and talking about things I would like to talk about. 

Mobs you Respect

So I've been playing some Final Fantasy XIV a bit lately, and overall having a great time.  One of the things I enjoy is a return to zones that have some genuinely rough monsters, mixed in with the fodder.  And it got me to thinking, over the course of all the MMO's I've played - what are some of the mobs that have really earned my respect!  And it seemed like a fun topic for a blog, so there you are.

Back in Defiance - for now

Not sure exactly what prompted the current itch to run around and shoot things, but there it was.  Part of the reason I think was that I've been seeing the advertisements for the next season on SyFy.  Part of it was just that it had been close to a year since I played last, and I wanted to see if they'd finally polished up the game to the point it should have been when it launched.  But regardless, during a lull between playing my protection warrior in WoW and leveling my rogue deck in Hearthstone, I found myself patching up Defiance.  And let me tell you, it was quite the patch too!

I'm like a goldfish
Part of the joy of getting older is you become a bit more forgetful.  So it was I found myself reading my own beginner's guides that I wrote about the game a year ago, to help me remember how things worked and what was what.  But like riding a bicycle it comes back pretty quick, and before long I was blasting hellbugs at arkfalls, and helping Van Bach find his missing piece of ark tech.  I'm taking a very story driven approach to the game this time, pretty much ignoring all of the side missions, and just advancing along the main story arc, and doing the episode missions.  I have no misgivings about a long term committment to the game, so while I'm here I want to get the most out of it, and not get bogged down in grindy kinds of content.

The Good Stuff
Most of the rough edges really have been polished up, and Defiance is surprisingly good at delivering what it promises.  It really is the shooter for MMO players - which is just about perfect for me.  There's most assuredly plenty of PvP content, but you can ignore that stuff if it's not for you, and progress through the game upgrading your guns, killing mutants, bugs, and bad guys, and you get lots of talky bits, occasional cut scenes, and great use of voice over.  And of course there's the fun of zooming over the landscape in your ATV.  Trion's excellent cooperative gameplay elements are made good use of here, so you often get help in missions, and there's always a pretty good collection of people at the arkfalls.  In fact, if the one thing I've actually found myself most pleasantly surprised about are the number of people I have found still actively playing the game.  It's nothing like opening month, but there's always a few people at the minor outposts, usually a dozen or so at the major outposts, and a few dozen running around the major arkfalls.  And I suspect there's higher numbers over in the Bay Area across the bridge - but I'm not that far yet.

The Meh Stuff
Defiance still suffers from the same things it always has.  Mostly a lack of discoverability of their game mechanics, an obtuse weapon mod system, and an unnecessarily convoluted progression system.  I will say though all of those things are better than they were at launch, at least, because the UI is significantly improved.  They've made it much easier to do the main thing you have to do in a game like this - compare one weapon to another.  It's still though not always clear which weapon is better than another weapon, but at least it's easier to compare them.  Oh and chat works.  Finally.

Play the Game - Watch the Series
I also must admit, part of the reason I'm back in the game is I really like what they're doing in tying the game and the tv series together now.  The television series has been renewed, and season 2 is coming out in June. In anticipation of that, they're released "Season 1 Rewind", and you can now play all of the game episodes that coincide to particular tv episodes, and watch the tv episodes over at SyFy Now at the same time.  It's pretty slick, and has me watching the episodes on my iPad and then playing the game immediately afterwards.  You can read more about how that works here.

Needs more MMO
Honestly, about the only reason I think Defiance still doesn't have real stickiness for me is the lack of a feeling of world, for lack of a better term.  It feels like a series of quests tied together by vendor and npc hubs, and not much more.  And instanced cooperative missions. The quests are fun, and the equipment is good, but it seem like they could do more with towns, and social centers, and non-combat related activities.  But for now I am having fun, and it's a nice diversion from WoW, and who knows, maybe I'll pick up some of the DLC's so I can play a castithan!

An Embarrassment of Riches

It's been a busy and fun last couple of weeks for anyone that plays Blizzard games!  And all of this has contributed to make it a fine time to return to World of Warcraft - which is course is exactly what they intend.  So I thought I'd share some of the cool things that have recently become available.

Reaper of Souls
Things got kicked off in a big way earlier this month when the Loot 2.0 Patch dropped for Diablo III.  This brought a complete revamping of their loot and difficulty systems, and as of yesterday I believe, the shutting down of the auction houses.  Pretty much everyone I've talked to has agreed that this is absolutely the best thing to happen to the game so far.  It's suddenly returned the fun to finding cool stuff, makes finding cool stuff more likely, and that in turn brings the fun back to the game.  But even better, was that if you pre-ordered, you got an awesome treasure goblin pet in World of Warcraft! This little fella is both creepy and awesome at the same time, and is arguably the noisiest pet in my collection.  Within 30 minutes of him following you around you are either going to love him or absolutely hate him!

Hearthsteed!
Another big event that happened this past week was that after months of alphas and betas, Hearthstone has officially gone live.  I've been playing Hearthstone since the closed alpha, and absolutely love the game.  My secret mage deck is probably still my fave, but I've had good fun and decent luck with many of the heroes.  And to celebrate, once again Blizz is there with the WoW tie in.  Get three wins in either Play mode or Arena mode, and you get another awesome mount - the Hearthsteed.  This mount is as cool as its name is lame, lol.  It's best described as kind of a stone.. arcane.. flying.. horse thing.  I know right? How can you not want that.

Boost to 90!
But the big happening this week was the release of preorders for the Warlords of Draenor expansion.  If you preordered the digital deluxe edition (which I did, natch!) you got this crazy cool mount - the Dread Raven. And you got a matching pet - the Raven Hatchling.  And of course, you got a boost to 90 - one of your existing characters (or even a brand new one) boosted to the current max level in the game.  I absolutely love the new mount and pet.  And with Shimmerblade's tier 2 recolor transmog set, the entire ensemble fits together really nicely.

But the big question that's on everyone's mind that's playing the game right now is of course:

What class do I boost to 90!!?!!

What if I pick a class I don't like?  But if I boost a class that's close to 90, I feel like I wasted my boost!  I've never played mage - maybe that's what I want!  Heheh.. I heard this conversation and variations of it from many folks over the past few days.  I have to admit, I was having the same dilemma myself, until I learned the finer details of the boost program.  See, if you boost a class that is level 60 or above, not only do you get boosted to level 90, but that classes primary crafting professions are also maxed out to 600.  Until I learned that, I was seriously considering boosting a class I'd never played before - maybe shaman, or priest.  But I've had a hunter sitting at level 62 since Wrath was released.  And I know I love that hunter.  I just never got back around to leveling her.  And honestly, I enjoy the early game quite a bit in WoW, so I knew I'd have no problems getting through 1 to 60.  But from about level 70 on, it's more of a slog for me.  So suddenly this was a no brainer. Boost my level 72 hunter to 90, get leatherworking maxed to 600. Now I can make cool gear for my hunter and my rogue, and I have another class at max level that I'm running around having an absolute blast with.

However you decide to choose, there's never been a better time to get back into the game, on a variety of fronts.  And if you do decide to come back to the game, and you got your freshly minted level 90 warlock, but arent' sure what do to with her - there are two resources you absolutely should bookmark now.  The first is this fantastic Level 90 Guide from WoWhead.  It's got everything you need to know about where to go and what to do to start outfitting your toon in something a little better than those gifted greens.  And if you're looking for help on picking those talents, and putting those abilities on your bar and how to work for them, be sure and check out the class guides at Icy Veins.  Each one gives incredibly good information on talent choices and rotations, as well as glyphs, gear, and everything else you want to know to get started with your class.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm swinging off to plunder some pirate booty with my new level 90 Draenei Hunter!

Why are there no tanks?

So this line of thought got kicked off actually a few weeks ago, when I saw this blurb, from the letter from the producer for Final Fantasy XIV - ARR, in response to the question What can they do about the continued lack of tanks in the game?

We review player data every day, and recently there are actually a significant number of players leveling tank classes. When participating in the low level duty roulette, for example, you'll encounter players leveling their tanks and even players that just started a tank class. The number of tanks around level 40 is growing as well, and I believe this number will continue to increase. However, as you all know, there are also a number of players who are simply leveling a tank class because it's easier to queue in the duty finder, so whether or not these players will continue to play as tanks in the long term is still an issue. As things stand now, however, the number of tanks is growing, and I'm sure there are many players who will find tanking to be fun and continue leveling them up, so we're going to keep an eye on how many decide to use their tanks as their main class. If tanks are still in short supply, we would like to consider adding various bonuses such as a specialized mount.

And quite honestly this just flumoxed me.  The need for tanks is so great in Final Fantasy that the producers of the game are considering bribing people to roll up tanks with specialized mounts.  And Final Fantasy XIV certainly isn't alone in this.  WoW has stuck with a strong role combat model (that is, a model that incorporates the oft referred to trinity of tank, dps, and heals) for over a decade, and it still struggles with a lack of tanks in random group play.  And if it's not tanks, then it's healers. And it struck me - we've been doing this for over 20 years.  Why isn't this a solved problem yet?

Exercise & Diet - Terrible Twins

So, by now I'm sure you guys are tired of me posting up exercise posts like I'm some sort of fitness freak.  But the truth is, I'm actually exactly the opposite of a fitness freak.  In fact, I struggle each and every time I have to decide whether or not I'm going to get in a workout for the day or not.  I wish I wasn't that person.  I actually do wish I was the kind of person that just did their daily or tri-weekly workout without a moment's thought - that it was as natural as eating.  I wish I was that person that, while even on vacation or on a business trip they sought out the hotel's weight room and was up at 5:30 am getting in their daily workout.  But no - I'm the person that while on vacation exercise is the furthest thought from my mind.  I'm all.. "Exercise!  Fuck that, I'm on vacation bitches!"  and that's the last thought of exercise that runs through my mind.  Which is why, I suppose, it actually makes it somewhat interesting to write about.

I have though, discovered something.  It's something that most everyone already knows, actually.  But as the great philosopher Morpheus once said.. "There is a difference, Neo, between knowing the path.. and walking the path".  As you probably already know, if you want to get back into some kind of sane human shape, you can't do it with just eating better, or just exercising, alone.  You have to do both.  Believe me I've tried - but exercise all you want, if you ignore your diet, you won't lose any weight.  At least I don't.  And vice versa, even if you successfully clean up your diet, without exercise, you still won't get the heart action you really need.  But the thing that I've discovered, is that one actually directly contributes to your ability to succeed in the other.

Here's what I mean.  I didn't exercise Friday.  Yap - blew it off.  Had a fine morning of leveling my protection warrior in WoW.  But as a result, I additionally felt almost no real motivation to watch my diet throughout the weekend.  So I threw down the beers, had 10,000 calorie pasta dishes on Friday night and Saturday night, and followed up with homemade pizza on Sunday.  Mmmmm.  The thing is, I probably had two weeks worth of normal person calories in three days.  It's a sure fire way back to 230 lbs, to be sure. This morning, despite a huge struggle, I actually somehow found the motivation to get back into the exercise room in front of the kinect and give it a 30 minute workout.  Not much, but it was something.  And the thing is, as I'm lumbering this 210 lb frame through butt-kicks and burpies, I'm thinking.. gawddamn.. this would be a helluva  lot easier if I didn't friggen weigh so much!  See?  One leads to the other.  If you actually can get a little exercise in, suddenly you're a bit more motivated to maybe skip that double package of Dolly Madison Swiss Roles at midnight.

Anyway, I'm writing this this morning to remind me of that motivation later, when I need it.  I dunno if I'll stay on my tri-weekly routine or not, but I need to.  I can't pretend to be even really very good at this, but I keep tellin' myself as long as I continue to try, then it has to be worth something.

Anyhoo.. hope your week shapes up to be a good one.  Peas Out!

Purchasing a Level 90 Boost - Long Overdue

So with this morning's patch, for a brief time, in the in-game store there was a services tab, and on that tab was the option to purchase a level 90 boost for $60.00.  Plenty of people are firing off with opinions on both sides of this, so I figured what the hell, might as well chime in on one side or the other.  So here we go.

Ask and ye shall receive

So apparently the right thing to was to blog about it.  Because just one day after complaining about it yesterday, the 6th and final piece of my transmog set dropped.  And as you probably already guessed, it was the blue rogue tier-2 recolor set from the Burning Crusade dungeons.

I didn't want to set up any of the set until I had all of it, because it clearly is a matched set, and just wouldn't look right without it being complete. And of course, the helm, the Cowl of the Guiltless, was the piece that I didn't have, and I think the cowl makes the set.

Though to be honest, the shots with her without the cowl aren't too shabby either.  The truly observant will notice that I also visited the barber to make her hair match the gear.  Yeah.. I'm that obsessive.

I love the Starlight daggers.  However, I spend much of my time in combat spec, when I'm soloing, and I don't yet have a decent sword.  Next on my list is to find a nice blue glowy sword - so if you have recommendations, I'm happy to hear them.

At least now though, I can stop visiting Black Morass every day, and for that, I am extremely pleased!

Transmog Where Art Thou

One of the "fun"* things I've been doing is trying to gather up a nice set of transmog gear for my rogue.  The gear pieces I want all drop from level 70 dungeons.  Unfortunately, they all mostly only drop from heroic versions of those dungeons, which means you get to make one attempt per day.

I've been working on this for about two weeks now - which I suppose in the grand scheme of things, isn't two bad.  And a few days I got really quite lucky, and got several drops in one day.  So I'm now at the point where I lack exactly one piece - the head piece.  And of course, the boss that drops the head piece is the last boss of Black Morass - which as you may or may not know, is one of the few metered dungeons where you absolutely have to do everything to actually even get to the last boss.  So a minimum of 12 to 15 minutes per run.

After over 15 days of killing this boss, and seeing every other single piece of gear in his loot table drop multiple times, I began to worry that perhaps the table had been changed and he didn't drop it anymore.  So I went over to wowhead to check out the info, and was greeted with hysterical commiseration comments like this:

To all level 90 rogues hoping to get the bloodfang recolor:
This will be the most painful 12-15minutes of your life x how ever many times you have to run it till it drops.
Currently i've invested 18 runs and about 190+ minutes into this dungeon and still have been unfortunate enough not to get it.
Good Luck!
Confirmed drop after 37 runs...... ffs fix the drop rate.

And this:

how is it all the drops have the same % rate but the one item (this one) seems to never drop ... i'm on my 20th run and still this hasn't dropped. i can get those handgrips of assassination just about every time though. 

Ah well. It's good to know it's not just me.  I will of course inundate you with screenshots once I get the full set.  The cowl really does make the set, so I'm not putting any of the other pieces on until it drops.

So.. drop.. already.. >.<

* Fun is in quotes because while I do actually enjoy going out and finding cool looking gear, running this one instance is getting on my last nerve! 

Motivation

I remember now what it was that actually got me going on the last exercise program that lasted for more than 6 weeks.  I was watching this Iron Man competition.  And there were.. these 75 year old guys out there.. doing the friggen IronMan.  And they weren't doing like.. the senior citizens version of the Ironman, they were just doing the straight up normal competition.  And I got off my ass and I started working out, and I stayed with it through the better part of six months.

I fell off that program back in October.  And though I have pretty much every weekend since January told myself "Okay.. let's get back on this" I have so far failed to do so.  This morning I'm saying it again.  And I gotta admit, it's the Olympics that are my motivation.  I mean.. make no mistake, it's not like I have any delusions about Olympic grandeur, but every one of those kids out there is out there because they worked their asses off.  And not just for months -- but for years.  And they're kids.  And you just.. you have to appreciate where they are now. 

So this morning I'm motivated to get back on track with a couple of things.  I'm going to game less.  Not much less, but I'm going to make more room in my day for other things too.  I'm going to blog more.  I'm starting this morning, and my promise is to start putting out more, 15 minute blogs.  Because one of the reason I don't blog as much as I should is that any time I sit down it turns into a 2 hour endeavor, and who has time for that?  So I'm going to write a bit more, excersize a bit more, and try to round out the lifestyle a bit.  And if you're all nodding and smiling in empathy and commiseration and thinking "Yeah.. so we all say.." well I don't blame you one bit, and I'm doing a bit of that myself.  But hey, they way I see it, no matter how many times we quit, we only lose if we stop trying to start. 

Have a great monday!