Illidan...Dead.

Congrats to Annarchy's Raid: Nascent on their very first Illidan kill!!



This was a major accomplishment for the guild, and I'm so proud of all our raiders!

This kill was dedicated to our very own Eshana, who logged in for his last raid on the night of the kill. Good luck in real life man, we'll miss you!

Screenshot Sunday - The Beast

Into Karazhan

Last night was my Pally's second Kara raid, and the first full clear! Being back in the tanking role again is proving to be really great. Winter and I have joined a few of our guild mates in what we've dubbed "Couples Kara." The group is made up of couples within the guild, intended to get some of our significant others some experience with raiding, and gear. Each couple has someone who is playing a well geared (or "experienced") character, and someone either new to raiding entirely, or playing a new level 70 alt that needs gear. So far it's been a great experience, we're playing together, moving through the instance at a really good pace and getting loot and badges all around.

Winter and I aren't exactly "new" to the raiding scene, however this has been a great way to gear up my pally without feeling like I'm just dragging her through an instance with a group that's done with the zone.

As with any raid group, there's some variation from week to week on raid makeup. We're open to anyone who wants to signup, it was actually by chance when we first set out that mostly couples signed up. The concept just tickled us. Whenever we do bring someone who isn't an SO of anyone else in the raid, we teasingly pair up the unattached and they are each other's date for the evening. This of course has led to some pretty hilarious teasing and commenting over Vent.

This week a new couple joined us, and the mage was raiding for the first time ever. She made out like a bandit getting 5 pieces of loot, including the [Nathrezim Mindblade]!

I did quite well for myself as well, picking up both the t4 glove token from Curator, which I turned in for [Justicar Handguards], and the [Shield of Impenetrable Darkness]. I really feel like a tank now!

Diablo 3

Well there we have it, the new Blizzard game will be Diablo 3.

It would appear that all the ice, blue eyes and stars were just an evil misdirect to keep us all guessing.

The site is up and there is a lot to see. While the view is still a top-down type perspective, the graphics are quite clearly 3d and much improved. This game looks awesome. Fortunately for WoW, Diablo 3 is at least a couple years out at best still.

Now what was up with that penguin and the LOST numbers?

Sources: Blizzard, Diablo 3

Tease! (Part 2)

We find out tonight! Or, really...in the morning for most people. I'm really tempted to get online and check when the announcement is made around 2:30am my time. I know, that makes me pretty nerdy sounding, but I hate waiting! The suspense is driving me nuts, just as I'm sure Blizzard hopes it will.

So what do we have now? Ice, Stars, Runes (from every game so far), and Eyes. Clearly defined eyes and a prominent brow now, as opposed to just hints of eyes yesterday.

I'm just not getting Diablo from this picture. I know a lot of people want it to be Diablo...but I really think it's something to do with Starcraft (world of...pretty please!) or WotLK at this point. The crazy rumor that it might be an early release of the DK sounds great, but seems doubtful. The Death Knight is a pretty major component of the WotLK expansion...the only reason I could see to release it early, is to allow them to level up and experience the content from 70-80 with everyone else. But it doesn't seem likely to me.

And those secret numbers and the picture? Ha. A penguin..which looks like an artistic recreation of the new ones we'll have in WotLK to me...and the numbers from LOST? Yeah...Blizzard is toying with is.

Only a few more hours and it will all be made clear. I hope...

Security Measures

The realm of Bloggerdom is a-buzz with Blizzard's announcement of it's new (optional) security feature. The Blizzard Authenticator will add an extra layer to WoW account security by providing a device, sync'd with your wow account, that generates a 6-digit key that must be entered with your username and password on login.

I'm actually excited about this, because as a guild leader, having my account hacked is a constant worry for me. I know it's a nightmare for anyone, but someone with access to my account would have access to all the guild controls. Now, I don't have much by way of exciting items or that much gold, so my account isn't a high risk target, however if hackers are willing to delete characters for no apparent reason, what would stop them from disbanding my guild?

I found it interesting that this device can be linked with several accounts. I can't even begin to figure out how that works, but this means people with multiple accounts in the household could just buy one device, saving a bit of cash, but securing all accounts.

At this point, I'm leaning heavily towards buying this device, even with the added annoyance of yet another thing I have to enter at login. A little peace of mind is worth typing 6 extra digits every day.

Sources: Blizzard, Official Announcement

Tease!

What does Blizzard mean by this teaser?

My guess is that it's the announcement of the WotLK release date, and beta. I know that the argument is that they've never teased a release date, but there's a first time for everything. I don't think it's starcraft, only because it's just a picture of ice.

I guess all we can do is watch and see!

Annewbie Anntics Event

Yesterday my guild had a just for fun (or "Anntics") event. Our event crew rounded up as many guildies as we could find, and went on a field trip to the horde side.

We visited each horde newbie zone, rolling a new character for each one. Various games and activities were setup ahead of time, and even if they didn't all go according to plan, they were still tons of fun.

Bloodelf:

In the bloodelf zone, we were all emo, so we went and jumped off the tower, trying to see who could get closest to the center of a round platform, far below.
Next we had a race to see which team of 5 could collect the most [Smashed Petal] in five minutes. The winning team came up with 12. Pretty impressive for level one BElfs! After that, still in teams, we kited mana fishies "back home" to the lake. Tricky! And to top it off, we had a footrace down the scar, followed by packs of skellies and ghosts.

Tauren:

In the tauren zone, we all were told to pick names with "moo" in them, and then voted on the best name. "Barackobamoo" was our winner. That was followed by a quick game of hide and seek, with our Moo winner hiding, and everyone else seeking. Next up we ran over to Bloodhoof Village to the warrior's circle for a duel tournament. The winner of that event was "Mahmooshake." To finish off the zone, we all ran over to Thunderbluff and jumped off the Elder Rise.

Undead:

In the undead zone we had some crypt dancing, a race to see who could die the fastest, a corpse eating contest (first one to cannibalize wins!) and a team contest to collect a full set of armor. We then attacked the pumpkin patch in a massive undead assault, resulting in a pile of bodies scattered around the scarecrow.

Troll/Orc:

In the troll/orc zone we played piggy ball! Orcs vs. Trolls in a fun game of football, using the pigs as the "ball." We had to move that event out of the newbie zone though, since the level one pigs don't last very long with 25 newbies fighting over them. Level 7 piggies were the key...along with the removing of all weapons and armor. The winners, after a very close 5 point game were the Orcs.

To top off the night, we ran our trolls and orcs over to the island and zerged Zalazane.

Altogether the night was a huge success and I'm looking forward to whatever our crew can cook up for us next month!

Screenshot Sunday - Vargoths

Stop Thief!

This last week, one of my officers had their account hacked. Twice.

He lost everything, and the guild bank was drained of epic patterns, potions...and fish scales. Not only were most of his characters deleted, the best geared one was transfered off server (note: Not account transfered, as if sold, but server transfered).

My other officers reacted quickly and called both me, to lock down the bank, and the officer, to lock down his account. I removed all access, except deposits, from all ranks. I changed the gmotd to let people know what had happened, and submitted a ticket.

A GM contacted me within about 10 minutes, and I told him what I knew. At the same time, my officer was submitting a ticket of his own. The GM told me that he would start a report, but they wouldn't be able to do anything until they got the ticket from my officer. I asked if I needed to provide them with a list of items or anything, considering my guild would like it's stuff back. He told me no, that the officer hacked could just mention the guild bank in his ticket, and everything would be restored, including the guild bank stuff.

So, I made sure the officer knew what I'd been told, he submitted his ticket, changed his password, and we thought we were shifting into "cleanup" mode.

The deleted characters were restored, and with them a few of the lower level bank items, and all the fish scales. (whew, I wasn't sure how we'd live without those!) No progress with the server transfered character, but at least now he had some of his stuff back, some of his gold, and a character to raid with in the meantime. All the while he's watching his email for word from Blizzard, and scanning his computer for the entry point. An email comes through, where the thief attempted to change the password...to regain access to the account. This is reported.

The next day...the account is hacked again. The second highest character is server transfered. The rest of the characters are once again cleaned out and deleted.

Now, I don't mean to tell Blizzard how to do their job...but if an account has been reported as hacked, and you're in the middle of addressing that issue, wouldn't it be wise to flag the account preventing all server transfers, password changes, and maybe even character deletion? Just my two copper...

So, now we're still waiting. My officer is stuck without two of his characters, feeling pretty low, seeing as how this is something he's invested a lot of time and effort into. He's reformatted to hopefully rid himself of whatever hole the hacker crawled in, but they still got away...and a week later, the characters are still sitting on another server.

Word to the wise: Scan your computer. Still have the same password you picked out on launch day, nearly 4 years ago? Perhaps now is a good time to think of a new, safer one.

Guild leaders, preventing an account hack is not something you can really control, but there are still ways to keep your banks a little safer. Put withdrawal limits on every tab. Don't invite member alts without first making them request the invite from their main character (this prevents the pretenders from breaking in) and setup a trail membership period, with very limited (if any) access to the bank, for a reasonable period, so new members can't make off with your stuff.

Shaman Powers, Activate!

No I'm not playing my shaman...poor thing is still stuck at level 14.

As some of you are aware, we are a wow playing family. My husband and I have been playing the game since launch, and our now 5 1/2-year-old loves the game. He has his own computer and his favorite privilege is his wow time. He's had a bunch of random characters over the last year or so, with various amounts of assistance playing them. Now, he has a shaman and normally, when not playing with mom and dad, he is allowed to cruise the newbie zones (1-20 areas - it's a pvp server...) with chat panes hidden, a guild of his own to avoid random invites, and automatic group/duel refusal. With a little help, he's been able to level his brand new shaman to level 21. He's king of the hill in the newbie zones and spends most of his time running around in ghost wolf form.

Today I had a proud wow mamma moment. My son is playing wow, a few feet away at his computer and, drawn by his yell, I manage to catch the following scene:

A level 8 draenei is being attacked by 3-4 murlocs. My son rushes to his aid, pops out of ghost wolf form, heals the lowbie, and commences shocking murlocs right and left. All the while exclaiming to his monitor:

"Don't worry little friend! I will save you!"

"Shaman Powers Activate!"

I am so proud.

2.4.3 Patch Notes

The 2.4.3 Patch is now live on the test realms, and the complete patch notes can be found at MMO Champion.

What at first seems to be a minor patch, arriving with minimal fanfare...is in fact causing a major stir in the community. Why?

Apprentice riding training will now be available at level 30.

This is really huge for all of us altaholics...the biggest complaint I always have with starting a brand new alt is how long it takes to get to level 40 and that first mount. This really makes a lot more sense to me anyway, 30 levels of walking, 30 of regular mount (to 60), and then 10 levels to flight.

As for the rest of the patch notes, here are a few things that I found interesting:

Druid - The cost of Barkskin is going to be reduced by tree of life form? This is great news, I use this in emergency situations with my druid, but often hesitate if I'm going to run low on mana. This should help, I can use it more often.

Paladin/Warlock - Their free mounts will also now be available at level 30. This is good. While it wouldn't be the end of the world for them to use a regular mount for 10 levels, this really fits more with the lore/game flow and is all around a good choice.

Rogue - Cheat death is getting an overhaul...while it won't be as awesome of a passive ability, it is still pretty powerful. I like the fact that resilience is going to play a part in how much damage is actually reduced, that makes more sense.

This is shaping up to be a good patch all around I think. I hope they implement it soon!

Source: MMO Champion

A Guide to Uncrushable

The maintankadin forums have been an excellent source of information as I learn the ins and outs of pally tanking. Now that my pally is 70, I'd like to start taking her to Kara and be able to MT. This requires her to be "Uncrushable." Easier said than done...considering the mind boggling variety of gear/drops/etc. that are technically "tank gear" and wearable by a paladin.

And then I came across this list: Eanin's Failsafe Uncrushability Guide

Now I know exactly what I need to collect, and I'll actually be viable in Kara a lot sooner than I thought.

I also picked up the "Pally Power" mod, which everyone says is a must have, can't wait to test it out!

A Rogue Without Macros

...is a dead rogue!

I answered the call for help (affectionately called "Code Pink" by Annarchy) the other night, soon after my UI overhaul, with my rogue. She's small, sneaky and when played properly deadly and hard to kill. That is, when I have my macros setup and hitting 11111111 actually DOES something. *sigh* So there I am, sneaking around (after the first death) trying to both watch my guildmate's back, and figure out which keys were supposed to be bound to what. I managed to kill a couple of the ganking horde, but death because your vanish button does nothing is not pleasant. I...well, I have to admit, a couple of them got away. Shameful. To my guildmate: I'm sorry I nubbed it up! To the horde scum that got away with murder? I will find you. And you will face the wrath of the pink haired gnome. With macros. /vanish

UI Update & Addon List

UI layout is something I'm constantly tweaking...here's the one I've spent the last couple days on.

And my list of Addons:

Ace2
Aperture
ArcHUD2
Auctioneer Advanced (and extras)
Bongos3
Buffalo2
Cartographer (Mining, Herb)
Chatter
Chronometer
CowTip
Deadly Boss Mods
Decursive
AltClicktoAddItem
Free Refills
Fubar (Bag, clock, Durability, FuXp, Location, Loottype, Mail, Money, Quests, Poison)
Healbot (druid only)
Itemprice Tooltip
MikScrollingBattleText
Omen
oRA2
Pitbull
Postal
Proximo
RatingBuster
SimpleMinimap
TekKompare
Totem Timers (Shaman only)
Tradeskill info
Tradeskill info UI
Ark Inventory

70 at Last!

Well that's one thing off my to do list! My pally dinged 70 tonight after a super fast Shadow Labs run. Murmur dropped a [Greatsword of Horrid Dreams] which is a great tanking upgrade for me, and I got my key fragment too...what a busy night! After the run I rode over to Shadowmoon (no fp yet...still working on Blade's Edge!) and grabbed my [Golden Gryphon] I don't normally pick the plain one, but it just seemed like the only choice for a pally. It feels so very sloooooow though, even with the aura! Guess I know what my next project is going to be. :P

Going on the to do list is the rest of my Kara keying quests (I know I can get it, but I like having a key) and my Alchemist's Elixir quest, which requires a black morass run.

Ding 69 and Rested!

My pally is level 69, and I'm fully rested to 70...time to make that final push. It seems to get easier with each alt, or perhaps I just know the quests and zones so well now that I've avoided most of the running around looking for the next thing to do.

This pally has been a blast to play, and for the last five or so levels she's been running duo with winter's little frost mage. Oh my...the AoE...it's crazy! I really like the combination, and all the control it offers.

Tonight we hit Blade's Edge, and 70 is the goal. Yes, I did just say Blade's Edge.

Here are my tricks:

1. Play rested, always. If you aren't rested, find something else to do.
2. Instance. Run every instance you are able to run, as soon as you are able to pick up the quests. This is a HUGE xp and rep boost and cuts back on the quests you need to do. It also gives you gear, that helps make questing easier.
3. Save group quests, and do a whole bunch of them at once, with a group, instead of trying to struggle through them.
4. When possible, have a leveling buddy. Everything is easier with a friend.

This has worked so well for me, with all of my alts since tBC. And in case you're wondering...I head to outland the *second* I ding 58. No waiting. The instance part is vital if you do that though, you need the instance xp to keep you from running out of quests.

Why not finish all the zones instead of instancing? Money. Plain and simply, quests give a lot more money after you hit 70, and they are easier to do if you can fly. Finishing off Blade's Edge, Netherstorm and Shadowmoon is going to be a LOT of $$$.

So, I've nearly reached my goal of hitting 70 with my pally, next up? Doing my elixir mastery quest in Black Morass, and gearing for Kara.

On Tanking, Class Matters

I know it must seem crazy that I've got a prot pally coming up (68 and counting!) with a prot warrior already leveled and geared up...but what can I say, I'm spec'd for tanking ;)

Last night, Winter and I hopped in a group with some guildmates on their own "almost 70" alts and we hit Old Hillsbrad and Sethekk Halls. Winter brought his pally for uber heals so our party was: Pally(healz), Pally(tank - me!), Warrior(OT), Mage, Rogue. The warr was spec'd prot but was a couple levels lower than my pally, so he decided to OT and see if he could pull aggro off of me all night, a fun game. I worked hard to keep it (and stealthily salv'd him at one point, just to see if he'd notice - he didn't! :P ) and he worked hard to steal it. We had a lot of fun, and unlike similar runs with our geared characters, we actually managed to pick up some useful items along the way.

The run, as fun as it was, reminded me of my frustrations with warrior tanking. I've always maintained that warriors should be *the* tanking class, they can't do anything else better than other classes, so they should be able to do that. Prior to tBC, I tanked with my warrior, and LOVED it. Sadly with tBC, the three tanking classes sort of leveled out on the main tanking ability, with pallies and druids getting the benefit of utility, and better multi-pull control.

Having come from a warrior perspective, tanking all these same instances in 5-man groups, tanking with my paladin seems like cheating! It's too easy. I can handle a lot of mobs without much effort, in fact it's always feels silly to be fighting just one thing, when I can be wearing down two or three others at the same time, making less pulls later on. As a warrior, I had to struggle, especially with the multi-pulls. Thunderclap just doesn't hold a candle to Consecration, and now that pallies have a taunt AND a range pull (be careful with that!) there's really no reason that I can see not to take a pally in place of a warrior. Buffs, rez, better multi-pull tank...crazy.

Tanking is what I love to do, but I have to be able to do it well, the struggle with my warrior was just so frustrating, she went from uber tank, to second class OT so fast it left my head spinning. I'm ready this time though, my warrior is waiting at 70, ready for the rush to 80 when WotLK hits, but I also have my druid (currently resto) and now my pally ready and waiting. A DK is on my to-do list too, as soon as I get to 80 with my warr. I want to tank, but I want to bring the best class for the job to the table...I don't want a raid settling for me as a tank, because a different class wasn't available. It's a big project I know, but I'm an altaholic, it's what I live for.

Time for that last push to 70 with my pally...If she's this much fun now...I want to see what she really can do, at cap.

Screenshot Sunday - Hunter Hax

A Better Community

Bell's post today over at 4 Haelz got me thinking about who I'm playing with. Over the past three years in Annarchy, I've met and become friends with some really great people, both men and women in a pretty wide age range. It's pretty cool when I think about it, these aren't necessarily people that I would have even come into contact with in a real life setting, simply because of that age/gender gap (never mind the actual physical space, since we're scattered all over the world).

It still doesn't just happen naturally though. Given the anonymous nature of the internet and WoW itself, it's still widely accepted that if you reveal to anyone that you are a woman, you can expect to be targeted with immature, and often rude behavior. This can range from the only mildly irritating, "girlz don't play video games!" (yes genius, we've heard it before, you didn't think it up) to the outright offensive "show me your..." The best way to fight this, I think, is if we (I mean everyone, men and women alike) simply stop allowing it. Just don't put up with it.

I chose not to, I created Annarchy with the purpose of being a safe place to play, where that sort of behavior just isn't acceptable. Our rules state that derogatory comments aimed at age/gender/race and religion are just not going to be tolerated. Everyone who joins knows it, and they are expected to conduct themselves in a mature fashion.

As far as age is concerned, it's an issue I deal with as a guild leader, but mostly in terms of trying to make sure that our younger members aren't exposed to language or discussions that they shouldn't be. We're a family friendly guild, and we're serious about keeping it that way. I think a lot of the reason that age (in the way Bell discusses it) isn't an issue with us, is because of the maturity expectation. It truly doesn't matter to me what the age difference is between me and another member, we can connect and play together without it being weird, because we all expect to be treated respectfully, and try to be respectful in return.

I've heard the "It's only a game, I don't let it bother me" argument, rest assured. But I don't buy it. It may not bother you to have someone be rude to you, or someone else, but if you don't speak up...aren't you condoning it? How about the person who wants to play and be accepted as a person, not treated like she's just a great target for jokes and immature comments? Wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to "let it go" and just not be exposed to the behavior at all? It sure makes my gaming experience better.

Feathery

I've mentioned that I'm an altaholic right? I was thinking the other day that it might be fun to have a character to start from scratch and post about here. Hunter guides and newbie guides have been done, many times over...so that's not really my goal necessarily, but maybe a journal type following of this little alt. We'll see what happens. Why dwarf? Well, I currently have a Draenei hunter at leavel 70, and my first hunters were all Night Elves, so it makes sense to me to have a dwarf, besides, since my only other dwarf character is a pally, I've never had the whole "ram" riding experience, except for Brew Fest. Might be fun.

Gone Fishin'

As long as your character is 70, you can pick up the baby crocolisk quest at any fishing skill. I had been doing it whenever it was the daily on my warrior and hunter, but today I added in the gnome. She went from 1 to 32 fishing skill before she caught the quest item. No baby croc yet, but with three characters doing the quest, it's bound to happen sooner or later. [Toothy's Bucket] (or any of the others) will be mine! If I could pick which character to get it with I think the gnome would be the most fun.

Adding to wishlist: [Toothy's Bucket], [Muchbreath's Bucket], [Chuck's Bucket] and [Snarly's Bucket]

Public Guild Notes

What's that saying about anonymity and the internet? *sigh*

Another Blizzard "feature" that's currently driving me crazy is the public guild notes. There's a guild control setting that allows you to turn it on and off for each rank, however that means anyone can edit anyone else's note with no log of who is doing the changing. This can be a fun game, or a source of hurt feelings and misunderstanding. Usually for us it's the former, every once in a while, someone tries to be clever and it winds up being the later.

Ideally? The settings would include an option for members to edit only their personal note. Or even their personal note and those of people of lower rank (similar to promote/demote/kick settings).

I can't complain too loudly, given the size of our guild we do remarkably well with avoiding the drama, and overall the membership is pretty mature...it's just that 1% of the time that sends me down that "What was Blizzard thinking?" road.

The solution? Well for now I'll see if a little reminder that "this sort of thing isn't cool with me" does the trick, and if it doesn't I'll turn off the option for a while.

Death Knight Changes Paving the Way?

Are the recent changes to the Death Knight info page a sign that change is on the way for all the tanking classes? Blizzard has removed the wording in the tree descriptions which specifies what tree is for tanking and which is for dps. It's quite possible that they may be doing this as a first step in making all tanks more viable with different specs. Will we see warriors (which should be THE tank class, imo) able to both tank and DPS with any spec? How will that change the pally and druid, will they be able to heal with one tree and tank/dps with the other two? Amazing how many questions come to mind with just a small change of a web page.

I really hope it's true though. Not only for the Death Knight, which would be awesome, imagine tanking with whatever combination of Blood, Frost or Unholy you wanted, but also for the other tank classes. Warriors might be more viable as off tanks now, not so easily replaced by the utility of a feral druid. Of course, I think they'd also need TC and their shouts to be buffed as well, but I'll take what I can get.

Back to Death Knights, when I first read about the change I was worried that perhaps Blizzard wasn't so sure they wanted DKs to tank after all, but a quick check of their page shows that their primary roles haven't been changed:

* Tank: The plate-wearing death knight is a capable tank for small groups as well as raids. His or her damage output while tanking will be respectable.
* DPS: The death knight can also spec and gear for a melee DPS role, which draw upon many debilitating disease effects as well as direct damage and instant attacks.

Instead, their talents tree descriptions have just been changed to remove the reference to tanking and dps from any one specific tree, making it sound like all trees just might be viable for either of the primary roles, with talents just allowing you to specialize in one of the three spell types.

* Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes.
* Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos.
* Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases.

Combined with the use of runes of each type...the possibilities seem endless, I'm actually started to get excited about this class. And if it means changes for my much loved, but sadly retired warrior? All the better.

I guess now all we can do is wait and see...don't break my heart Blizzard!

Source: WoW Insider

The How and Why of Annarchy

What follows is a post I wrote nearly a year ago on why I started my guild and the special connection it has to the greater community on my server. I'm reposting it here to give a little background to my readers who may not know the story yet.

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It has been a little over two years since I started the guild "Annarchy" on the Dark Iron server in World of Warcraft. Back then, I had no idea it would last this long, or grow as much as it has. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this much fun, or work. My reasons for starting the guild are probably similar to most people's, I wanted a place that was a little different than what was currently being offered, and rather than wait, I decided to create it myself. I could only hope that others would want the same thing, and would join me.

The difference in the starting of Annarchy, vs most new guilds is in the events leading up to it's creation, and in the connection to the larger community on the server that it still maintains.

It all began with a news post from Gabe of Penny Arcade announcing that he was going to start a guild on the Dark Iron server in World of Warcraft. Now, I had already been playing the game since beta, about a year. I'd tried different servers, and was in a guild at the time. The class I was playing wasn't very popular in groups (Old school hunter) so I wasn't having a lot of luck getting into the post 60 scene. I figured this was a chance for a fresh start, I'd roll on the new server, pick a class that was actually needed in end-game, and level up with the rest of the guild and community (since the server itself was also new) and have a chance to see content I hadn't been able to get into before. I also was a fan of the comic, so getting a chance to play with the guys themselves was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up.

Fast forward through the 300 person queue that was my first login to Dark Iron...

I got an invite into Knights of Arcadia, with Feathermyst, my druid. Guild chat was a zoo. The invites were still coming in, the hastily appointed officers were trying to maintain some sort of order, and the requests for membership were showing no signs of letting up.

I quickly realized I was probably going to get lost in a sea of new names. I was pretty shy, and there were literally hundreds of people, some already knew each other from forums and other servers, so how was a level 1 druid going to make friends and get to know people? I also knew I had a lot of time on my hands. We had just moved to a new state, and I was at home with a small child all day. They were looking for more officers, maybe that would be something I could do.

Within a few hours of my joining KoA, Fancy Lads was formed. Now, we weren't just one guild, there were two. How was that going to work? The second guild was quickly filling, and we were pushing the limits with over a thousand people...and still the invite requests came. Gabe and Tycho announced that the two guilds would be considered one, it would be an alliance, we would function as one big community.

Ok, this was interesting. There were still many people looking for invites, this whole alliance thing had been introduced, and I was still looking for a way to be useful, and get to know people. Add all that to the fact that the cursing, crude jokes and general behavior that one should expect in a community that is based around fans of a comic like penny arcade...were starting to wear on me. I mean, the comic is funny, and in a small enough dose not to be overpowering...but the dozens of people in guild chat were not nearly as "funny" as they imagined themselves to be. I didn't dare tell anyone that I was a girl...we'd already seen what happened in guild chat when someone revealed that information.

So, an idea was born. If we had enough people for two guilds, with more joining daily, why not three? Why not one for those like me who liked the comic, but didn't necessarily want to be bombarded with crude humor all day long? What if there was a place where it was not acceptable to torment the female players? How about a guild with rules.

In reference to the comic, I picked the name Annarchy, after a female character that I felt was a pretty awesome example of a girl gamer. She was tough, and she wanted to play! I also hoped that it would deter the most obnoxious and perhaps also serve as a "come here, it's safe" sign to other girls.

Still in KoA, I worked up the nerve, and went and talked to Gabe. I told him that I wanted to start a guild named after his comic character, that I wanted it to have rules and be girl friendly, and that I wanted it to be a part of his alliance. I told him we would adhere to his rules, and that I wasn't asking him to do any more work, simply for permission so I could do the work myself. I tried to make my case, so he'd see I appreciated what he was doing and offering, while at the same time showing that I was trying to bring something unique and - I felt - needed to the mix. He said yes.

Perhaps as a symbol of the courage and strength I felt I needed to embark on this project, I rolled as warrior, Featherwisp, and created the guild. I advertised in the public alliance channel, begged Winter to sign the charter (he wasn't sure he wanted to be in a girl guild) and soon had enough signatures - Annarchy was born.

Hitting the Limit

500 is the magic number it seems. 500 members that is. It's not a hard limit, but Blizzard's UI code has a soft cap for guild membership at 500, after that the UI starts breaking and for me as a guild leader, problems start popping up.

1. I start losing people from the roster. They are still in the guild, and may even be online, but you won't find them on the guild tab (doesn't matter if you have "show offline" selected or not, or how many people are actually online).

2. Those people you can't see? You can't use the guild tab's controls for them now, since they don't show up. You have to type in the command you want to use (such as /gremove).

This might not be a problem for very many guilds, most haven't reached the 500 cap, but our guild, a community focused guild with a LOT of active "altaholics" like myself reaches it easily. And as guild leader, I look at my guild tab all the time. I check to see which of my officers is online, how many people are playing, who's alt that character typing in /g is, etc.

Blizzard is aware of the issue (working as intented) and at one point we thought it was going to be fixed, but so such luck so far. I've tried posting it as a bug, submitting a ticket and talking to a GM about it, but nothing has come of it.

What I'm wondering is, can we make a UI mod that will replace that guild tab with one with a higher member limit? That's asking a lot...since to be useful to a GL it'd have to have all the functionality, but even if I'm the only one that has to have the mod so I can see everyone, I'd be ok with that. Maybe there is an easier way. We've tried having an alt guild, but then the problem we have is people playing alts can't see /g and a new chat channel just doesn't seem to cut it. Maybe what we really need is an Alliance option, so we can share /g across more than one guild.

I need some sort of solution, I'm tired of turning alts away, it really impacts the community atmosphere my guild works so hard to promote.

Single Player to Rule the World?

The debate of Single Player vs. MMO seems sort of silly to me. I play MMOs for the social aspect AND content, and single player games purely for content...maybe that's the answer right there.

The people over at www.aoedipus.net have decided to show us what WoW would be like, as a single player platformer, at least graphically ;) They've taken some creative (and crude) liberties with their lore in a game they've (aptly?) named "WTF?!" There are two player choices, a blood elf priest and a gnome rogue. I personally enjoyed the use of super mario "jump" sounds. Currently the level cap is at 10, it will be interesting to see if they develop it further.

Sources: Massively & Broken Toys

Being Feather

It's pretty obvious that all my characters, at least the active ones, have "feather" in their name. It started out innocent enough, I rolled a night elf hunter as my very first character, and the combination of feather (for the tribal feel) and wisp (wisp instead of ghost) just really worked for me. As I drifted from beta, to open beta to live I kept the name, but allowed my alts to have whatever name suited them, there was no pattern to speak of.

Along came guild leadership, and the need to be easily identifiable by my guild members. I was still Featherwisp (newly created warrior, just for the GL job) and had collected Feathermyst along the way, but still a few of my alts continued to be independent in their choice of names. I tried the "this is my alt, remember the name, know it's me" approach, but I found myself having to remind people who I was on those alts. Or people would say they couldn't find me. After a while, a second problem emerged. I got used to being called Feather. Yes, I remember what my own name is, but in game, I'd be on a non-feather character in a group, and someone would refer to me by that name. That just seemed odd, I'd have those "oh! he's talking to me" moments, which can be problematic when I'm supposed to be sheeping or something. Now, add in my little alt uh..."habit" and imagine the chaos.

So, I gave in. I've resigned myself to the fact that I must be feather, both for my own sanity, and the sanity of others. I certainly wouldn't want to have to keep track of nine different alt names just because my guild leader is an altaholic!

Good thing I picked something nice sounding like Feather...

Why /gkick?

As my guild approaches it's three year anniversary, and my time as a wow altaholic nears it's fourth...I decided it's time to write about what I know.

What's behind the title? Well, it's funny. /gkick is something that's rarely used, but often joked about in my guild. On the other hand, as any GL will tell you, /gkick is the first "power" you have to learn how to handle as the leader of a guild. Sometimes it's a threat, sometimes it's a solution, and sometimes it's not an option.

My goal here is not to have the mother of all blogs, but rather a place to bring all of my wow related thoughts, adventures and random notes. You've been warned. :)