Grey Friday in Stormwind

Looking at the sky over here makes me depressed. And anyone who knows me, knows I’m not exactly the happiest person alive even without it. The sky is completely grey. It’s way too cold for my tastes. And the level of light is stuck in this awful half-darkness that irritates both day and night people. It’s not exactly a paradise over here, if you know what I’m saying. So I’m just sitting in this room, straining my eyes to see what I’m writing, and trying to figure out what is happening to Draenor.

RP post style inquiry

In my recently added RP post, I included quite a few meta-references, like calling the pirates “underleveled” or recalling STV ganking. To me personally, it came without a second thought because it was the way I roleplayed on Twitter for a while, and it was generally my recognized style. However, I started having some doubts now. Perhaps a longer storyline like this should be more immersive and avoid these references to gameplay systems, unless it’s absolutely necessary to spoof it for humor value. I thought, hey, why don’t I ask you what do you prefer?

This poll is actually more important for me than random opinions as before, so please give me your feedback.

Hellfire has nothing on Westfall

I mean, Westfall is as dry as a bone. No, it’s drier than that. If I spit, it would probably dry out before it reached the ground. Even opening your eyes is unpleasant in this place. Who lead this place into this disastrous state? I heard this was once “the breadbasket of Stormwind”. Well, let me tell you, there’s no bread or baskets here now. Just dust, cold, dry air and dead grass. When you take a dictionary and check the definition of “agricultural or economic mismanagement”, there should be a picture of Westfall printed there. Even Hellfire, place in a scorching heat where ground itself is cracked and stripped to bedrock, didn’t feel as dry as this.

We have crossed the Dark Portal

I haven’t been updating much lately. I was busy trekking across the landscape with my flightless brother Tarakan and towards the Dark Portal. Why? It’s a long story. Let’s just say we both have felt some weird omens. For example, we started forgetting some members of our old veil for a short time. Or started remembering people that never should have existed. Or places that have no right to exist. Or for a moment, Tarakan was convinced Zangarmarsh hasn’t formed until about 20 years ago (which is plain nonsense). Something bad is happening.

Warlords of Draenor Announcement Review

I know it’s been a while since I promised this, but like I said, I wanted to make sure I am as objective as I can be while looking at all the available information. Some others, including people who stumble upon my blog while searching for “meta gems warlords of draenor” or just by looking through Warcraft tag on WordPress, might think quite the opposite – that I’m jumping the gun, that I don’t know enough about the expansion to honestly review it. And they may be right, but that’s why I make it clear I’m reviewing the information as announced on BlizzCon (plus certain additional information revealed around the same time).

I first wanted to do this review because on the first day of BlizzCon I was livid. The expansion announcement was such a big disappointment to me, for one evening I descended into raging more akin to my internet friend Quirnheim (hi, if you’re reading this) than the more elaborate criticism I try to be known for. There were many reasons I was disappointed, including no playable Arakkoa despite the perfect chance to do it, but there were reasons that made me just plain angry at how incompetent they seem to be, releasing an expansion with next to nothing new to play. I may have calmed down and will no longer proclaim “This will be a disaster! This will be worse than Cataclysm!” but I still think the prospects are looking pretty bad. Want to know why? Then read on.

Disclaimer: If you can’t handle criticism of your “favourite game” and “this amazing expansion”, do not read on. I do not want people in my comment section just calling me whiny or childish or other personal attacks because I dared criticize your game. If you have feedback, do it constructively, or I will delete the comment and (depending on severity of your aggressiveness) may then ban you. You have been warned.

Beyond Warlords of Draenor

I would like to preface this, for my Twitter followers, I will do the promised criticism/review piece for Warlords of Draenor later on. I want to take a good look at what we know and make sure I’m being objective with my assessments, so it will take some time. Meanwhile, I thought I would make a piece about speculation of what might come next.

“But we know nothing! This expansion just got announced, isn’t this too early?” Usually, I would agree with this, but not this time. We have been given one crucial quote on BlizzCon – next expansion will flow straight out of this one. That might mean several things. One answer is of course this doesn’t mean much, and the next expansion will be completely unrelated in theme to Warlords, but but hey – that answer is no fun. Let’s look at two options that I see can potentially flow out of this.

Mammals smell

Mammals smell badly. It’s a well known fact. It’s because of that thing you call “sweat”. Birds don’t sweat. The whole idea of covering yourself with a smelly liquid to cool down is completely alien. And stinky, did I mention that? And try to explain sweat to someone who doesn’t speak Common or any mammal language.

Let’s have some fun with more polls

Because I don’t have ideas for any meaningful posts right now, and the larger ones will have to wait till after BlizzCon to avoid getting officially contradicted in two days, I decided to make another simple poll.

It’s a multiple choice poll, so if you don’t choose Arakkoa as one of your options, you’re officially disinherited. It also should have a field for entering your own choice, in case I forgot of any prominent Draenor-related races.

Warlords of Draenor

Mostly, I’m testing some new things this blog engine can do. But I also want to see what people think.

Moving house

Not actual house. Moving main blog activity to here, from Tumblr. I’ve been disappointed with Tumblr’s performance for a while now. It’s been eating posts, publishing wrong things, and now I’ve discovered a crippling hardcoded weakness of their system. For people who already follow the Tumblr blog, I linked it to this one, so you’ll get the updates back there, but from now on, they’ll link you to this blog. If you have a WordPress acount as well, re-follow me here.

That’s really all I wanted to say now. Good winds, travellers.