New site is live!

My new site is now finally live and the transfer of all the posts, comments, etc went fairly smooth. You may now find me on MisGuilded . For those of you that have linked to me, please change linkage to the new site?
I’ll double-post for a while until I notice the traffic from the old site dying off.
Thanks for the support over the last 6 months!

Guess who's back!

Ok so I’ve been quiet on the blogging front. Why? Because I’ve reactivated my account, taken over leadership of my guild and started raiding again. No matter how much I’ve tried to deny it, WoW just has that magnetic pull.
It’s not even the game as such, but more the people. Even during my 2 months of inactivity I’ve had constant contact with my guildmates, through IM and the forums. I’ve pretty much ran the guild via out-of-game contact with the GM I left in charge. Through him I learnt of the depression that sank over the guild, the planned coup of one of the high officers and the begging for my return.
And I miss the guys and girls. Thats what makes WoW such an astonishingly addictive game – the people in it. I’ve met people from Switzerland, Finland, Lebanon, Vietnam, Australia. I’ve met kids and parents, even a family of three generations playing together: grandparent, parent and child. As much as the game frustrates me, the people and the politics don’t.
So I’m back and ready to write content that actually involves current issues and my playtime. Oh, and my new domain is registered, should be transfering this weekend. Watch this space for the new site soon!

Old Heroes are best forgotten.

Wall of text alert!
I’ve been a gamer since the late 80’s. You name it, I’ve probably played it. I started with games like The Caverns of Zoarre (an extreme Rogue-like), Monty, Deathtrack, moved on to the Ultima series, the Diablos, etc. I’ve had Spectrums, MSX’s, basically everything but an Atari (They didn’t really take off in South Africa). Many a time I fondly look back at the games I haven’t touched in over 10 years and think of the joy I had playing them, the countless hours bent over that green screen trying to get to the next level, the next upgrade. I sometimes wish that the games of today had the same intense storylines as those text-based adventures, the same action as those Commander Keen games, the same immersion that makes you believe that you’re there, not behind a grimy keyboard.

And then I go do something stupid like downloading and playing my old heroes. Then I find Zoarre to be so much more infuriating than I remember. X-Com to be unforgiving to the pick-up-and-play generation. Ultima (the 3 -7 range) to be impossible to play without resorting to mountains of notes or googling a map and a spellbook walkthrough. Gran Turismo, the game that stunned us with its awesome graphics, realistic driving and stunning tracks, to be no better looking than what the average indie producer does as a side-job. I have a hundred other heroes that have disappointed me but I won’t go through the lot.

The problem is that my memory isn’t what it used to be, and I idolize the old games a bit too much. I look at todays games with the flashy graphics and expect them to have no depth, no proper story, no fun once you look past the pretty lights. A lot of the time I don’t give them enough credit. Another problem is that when I was younger, the choices we had wasn’t too great. We HAD to play whatever we had so we made it enjoyable, we lived into the games. But take Bioshock as an example: not many games of old had that much story behind it, that much choice, action, adventure.

Ok, some games do live up to the test of time – Arcanum is still one of the best RPGs I’ve played, and I still play it from time to time. Those old side-scrollers are still good for a pick up every now and then. Diablo will still be on my shelf to be dusted off every now and again for years to come. Syndicate Wars is still as captivating as ever.

I guess what I’m saying is that I for one shouldn’t live in the past and put today’s games against yesterday’s games. They hold their own memories, memories that should stay just that. Let them be, play today’s games, and if I do decide to relive the past, do so as a 15 year old boy again, not as a gamer with 20 years experience. Don’t expect too much of the old heroes, they’ve been in the retirement home for a long time.

Do you have any retro gems or relived disappointments from your gaming history? Let me know.

Incoming Changes

From next month, Misguided will have it’s own .com domain. I’ve hit a bit of a wall with what I want and can do with wordpress’s free service and will be moving to hosting my own wordpress-themed blog.
There’ll be a slight change to the blog name, but it turns out that’s a good thing because the name I wanted was taken on wordpress.com but is available as a .com domain 🙂
I’ve sent the details through to my ISP and will tweet out the new address as soon as it’s finalised. Here’s hoping the transfer works out well and that the whole thing doesn’t come crashing down on me. Afterwards I’ll be needing some help with css editing, etc.

Keeping myself busy during the pre-launch slump.

I’ve gone as far as deactivating my account. The new dungeon holds no interest for me so I don’t see the need for paying a subscription for a game that I’ll only play again in a few months. This means I’ve had to find alternative distractions since even alting is off-limits to me now.

So what can one do once the shakes from withdrawal settles down? Well I’ve been splitting my time between PC games and my XBox, with the XBox getting a bit more attention than normal.

My XBox lineup:

• #1: Forza 3: I’ve gone back to this game to get my driver level 50 and R1 WorldChampionship complete. Currently lvl 49 and 3 races into the last championship.
• #2: Red Dead Redemption: Probably the best non-MMO I’ve played in years. I’m taking my sweet time with it and won’t be rushed to the end before I have all the sub-quests completed.
• #3: Final Fantasy XIII: Not as fun as the old VI and VII Playstation versions, but still good enough to give a play through. Could have done with less cutscene and more customisation.

My PC lineup: (in no particular order)

• Runescape: Started this last night. It’s a bit laggy on my slow dsl line, but playable and seems to have a lot of character growth available. I’ll be giving this a fair chance over the next few weeks.
• Hydorah: Awesome side-scrolling spaceship game done in true 8-bit style with tons of powerups and shields. Great fun. Also have a look at the developer’s other 8-bit adventures. (Edit: site seems to be down at the moment)
• Flash games: There’s tons of them all over the web but the one that got my attention the most in the last week was Wallace and Gromit’s Sprocket Rocket. Give it a try, it’s worth it. Another is a racing management sim called Formulawan. Originally a french game, they’ve been working hard to convert it and improve on some areas.
• Torn City: It’s a text-based online RPG where the aim is to commit crimes, mug, steal, etc to get ahead. I’ve been playing this one for almost a year and it’s proven to be addictive and fun, but not a timesink.

There’s a few other distractions, but these are the top ones at the moment. Oh, and a few web-comics that I’ll go over some other time. A special mention should probably go out to Plants vs. Zombies though, always a good fall-back game.

What games do you play when you’re bored with WoW? Comments appreciated.

LOTRO to go free.

Ok so I didn’t enjoy LOTRO when I played it when it came out the first time but I heard it got better with the patches. But since I’ve gone extreme-casual on WoW I might give it another spin. Here’s the lowdown from Massively

There’s been a lot of speculation that was largely wishful thinking, but it’s been confirmed this morning: Lord of the Rings Online is going free-to-play.

Yes, you heard that right. “LOTRO will introduce Turbine’s innovative new pricing model that allows players to download the game and play for free, purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new LOTRO Store, or join the VIP program to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content for one low price.”

The news gets even better, as the offer is not restricted to Turbine players. The update will launch this fall across North America and Europe — Codemasters will also be adopting the pricing structure.

The beta program for the new free-to-play model will launch June 16th, and anyone interested in participating can sign up on the LotRO site.

Link to source

Good news to the Free-To-Play community but I doubt even this move will dent the WoWmachine’s power.

Hit me baby one more time (or Why be a tank?)

Tanks. They’re funny creatures, except of course for druids, who are funny creatures no matter the spec. In my experience most leadership positions were held by a tanking class, followed by a healer, followed by everything else… then a hunter. At the top of this pyramid through the classic ages (And occasionally when Blizzard feels kind enough not to nerf us or buff the bloody palas/DKs/druids/warlock pets) was the warrior.

To be honest, when I started playing WoW I had no idea what the role of the warrior was. I expected to go through life wielding huge axes and hitting stuff till they surrendered or bled to death. Imagine my surprise when I entered RFC for the first time and everyone huddled behind me, prodding me to go forward and keep everything busy while they cowered behind that boulder. In that moment, a new tank was born. I discarded my big 2handed axe, picked up a grey shield and a green sword and never looked back.

So what is it that makes a tank? I’ve seen many players try to tank after playing another class/role for a long time. Some succeed, some gain a level of mediocrity but most just fail. By fail I don’t mean running heroics or tanking a world spawn, I mean raid tanking.

Well, to me a tank has to have a few qualities.:

• Confidence – A scared tank is a dead tank. A hesitant tank is a dead dps or healer. A tank must have an ego as big as his HP pool but the skills to back them up. No-one likes a cocky tank that can’t keep agro off the healer. This is also probably the reason why good tanks gravitate towards leadership positions in guilds.
• Maths – Tanking theorycrafting is second only to mage theorycrafting imo. Firstly you have this magic number to attain before you can even start raiding (Defence Cap, soon to be gone but it’s still here so I mention it) and then you have to balance out stamina, armor, damage reduction, dodge rating, block rating, block value, parry, mitigation vs threat, etc etc etc. The permutations are limitless and every tank has his own way of doing things.
• A Thick Skin – No I don’t mean Barkskin. When you start out you’re going to take flak. Think the healer gets blamed for everything? Wait till you mispull your first pack and cause a wipe.  Just persevere, preferably with a group of friends and a few beers, and hone the skills that will make raidleaders beg for your presence.  Oh, and you must enjoy being hit.. all the time… coz thats like… your job…
• Gold – Getting the gear you need crafted, gemmed and enchanted, not to mention repaired, is gonna cost you a few small fortunes. Be prepared to having a money-making profession (that also benefits you) or rich guildies to help you out. And because every tiny stat helps so much when you’re a tank, you can’t afford to not get that +30 stam gem.
• Gear – I hate it but it’s true. Tanks, especially warrior tanks, are gear dependent. You can fake your way into a VoA with some PvP gear and a bunch of blues hiding away as a DPS class, but as a tank it’s not your raidmates that judge your gear, but that big boss you’re trying to impress enough so he’ll keep hitting on you. Bosses care enough about things like whether you’re crit immune or if you have more hp than what he hits for or if you do enough threat to keep the hunter who doesn’t know how to FD alive. Of course Gear needs to be coupled with…
• Skill – Tanking is like a dance. A complex dance, not a linedance. You can’t just bash two buttons every 3 seconds and expect to come out a winner like some DPS classes in the past. You have to be situationally aware, not just about your own position, but the boss and the spawning creep and your teammates. You have an ability for every situation and you need to know which one works the most effectively in what situation.

Ok, so why this post after my post just two days ago about quitting? Well as a social person, I have many of my WoW contacts on MSN and Facebook and somehow I got conned into tanking ICC again by a guildmate, which got me to thinking about some of the partners I’ve tanked with in the past, good and bad. Anyway, random post that’s stretched on way longer than usual. I’ll add some pretty pics soon. Oh and since I’ve only covered the basics and still have to get to the why, see part 2 soon.

Phoenix down

It’s finally happened. After 4 and a half years of being guildmaster I’ve relinquished my lead to one of my officers. I’m now marked as an inactive officer. I’ve tried playing a few times in the last few weeks and every time I just end up moping around on my main and then logging to my rogue for 1-2 dungeons. I do still immensely enjoy the game, the alting and the rogue’s totally overpowered playstyle. I don’t enjoy being guildmaster at the moment. I don’t want the responsibility of looking after 100 guildies. I’m not capable of leading or even attending a raid at this time.

Have I given up on WoW?

No, not by a long shot. I’m excited about Cataclysm and will be standing in that line to get my copy at midnight like I’ve done every expansion. I’m also enjoying my alts but I won’t be speedleveling him to get some raiding done before cata hits. Instead I’ll be taking my time and enjoying the scenery. I’ll divert my blogging attention back to the RP style I experimented with a few weeks ago and that was inspired by Piket.

So to my readers, I apologise for the absolutely crap content of the last few weeks and I’ll try to make up for it soon. I’ll also be opening a new section for my other writing (hint: loosely based on Azeroth’s past) that will hopefully end up in a book one day.

And now for something completely different.

Ok so my blog’s usually about WoW and other MMO’s, but I can’t ignore the industry I work in. I’m a junior sysadmin and my work mainly consists of making sure the network, servers and PC’s are healthy. This means I have to check for rogue software installs, PC’s that stay offline too long, servers that are unreachable and so forth.

Everyone likes free stuff. IT guys like free software. When I got a project to inventory our software a year and a half ago, I searched desperately for a software solution. Most of the supposed solutions were horribly expensive and even then their demos turned out to be rubbish. Then I found Spiceworks and I’ve never looked back.

Lets have a look at some of the features:

Spiceworks Lets You…

• Inventory Your Network & PCs
• Monitor & Manage Your Network
• Manage Your IT Assets
• Manage Changes & Configurations
• Map Your Network
• Audit Your Software
• Troubleshoot Your Network
• Run an IT Help Desk
• Manage Power Consumption
• Monitor SQL Server
• Virtual Server Discovery Tool
• Be an MSP
• Talk to IT Pros Like You

The last point is the most valuable of all. With almost a million IT pros from all around the world any questions you might have, any IT related problems whatsoever,  gets attention from people in the community who have similar positions and experiences.

Anyway, don’t believe me, check it out for yourself. Click the link below to download this great piece of FREE software.

And to the WoW folks, regular viewing will resume after the commercial 😀

BA topic: Helping newbies.

I actually commented op someone else’s blogpost on how he hates newbies in lower dungeons last night and when I saw the BA topic my reply was startlingly on the mark.

I’m leveling a rogue, mostly through questing because I love the lore and want to capture Azeroth in my memory one last time before Cataclysm rips it all up. I do do about 2-3 random dungeons a level too, just to keep my gear and dps competitive. And during these dungeons it amazes me that some people manage to even get to level 30, never mind 80. I’ve had warriors “tanking” with their fists, warlocks meleeing, a mage that I had to shout “Fireball!” at every time I wanted him to cast something, healers in bear form and Sylvanas knows what else. Eventually I get so frustrated I end up soloing the rest of the instance (thank goodness for hardcore rogues at low levels and lots of twinking).

Then every now and again you get a gem. A guy that, through all the absolute ignorance, mispulling and general mayhem, asks an intelligent question. I had a hunter in a SM:Graveyard run the other night. His pet was doing more damage than him by miles and because the pet was mostly on passive the priest healer was outdamaging his pet. I mentioned to the priest that I liked his damage and so the hunter wanted to know how I could see what others were putting out. I explained Recount to him and we started chatting in /w, where he mentioned that it was his first character.

Now I have 2 hunters, one at lvl 80 and the other at 73, and I love BM. I noticed his spec was BM too, which for soloing is usually the easier choice for beginners. His points were spent wrong though so I gave him a few tips on respeccing for faster solo grinding as well as some tips on endgame specs (Which will probably be obsolete by the time he gets to 80). We chatted about the way he engages mobs and getting more out of the time he had on the mobs. By the end of the run he was matching my dps.

A week later I got into a group with him again by pure luck. He greeted and thanked me for my help. His spec was tweaked, his pet had been replaced and he was ripping me to shreds on Recount. He might still be a noob to the game in general, but to his little hunter world he’s a noob no more.

Makes me all warm inside really 🙂