Keeping Informed on the Field

Lately, in an effort to maintain (and possibly increase) my proficiency in my field of choice, I have been listening to philosophical podcasts while I work. I usually listen to Philosopher's Zone out of Australia and Phil 7: Lectures on Existentialism in Film and Literature out of Berkeley, thus keeping up with both the analytic and continental schools. They are free on iTunes. Does anyone know of other podcasts? Feel free to share!

Azeroth from an Outsider's Perspective, Part 3

Day 5: Level 16
Last night we ran Van Cleefe (the Dead Mines in Westfall). It went pretty good, with the exception of one party wipe. Some goblins were attacking our priest, so I decided to send my trusty Voidwalker down to pull some of their aggro off him so he could heal. Unfortunately, I targeted the wrong set of goblins, and ended up pulling the entire room full of them, resulting in the annihilation of our party. From that point on, I learned my lesson and dismissed my pet and stayed in back, wreaking havoc with shadow bolts and DOT's. The only real downside was that we were suffering some difficulties with the server, resulting in several inconveniently-timed disconnects. Moral of the story: the lower your comparative level, the wider your aggro radius, so it doesn't hurt to hold back.

Azeroth from an Outsider's Perspective, Part 2

Day 4: Levels 13-15
Basically just grinding through Westfall, killing Defias and Gnolls. I've learned that making clever jokes in chat is just not worth it, as most people plain and simple don't get my high-brow references. Example: After being killed by a pack of Gnolls, I say "Goddamned grassy gnolls. I should have learned from Kennedy that they'll kill you every time." My companion looked at me askance (online), prompting me for an explanation. "You know, the Kennedy assassination, lone gunman on a grassy knoll?" Oooooh. From that point on, I decided to stick to cartoon references and that sort of thing, and keep my jokes private between me and the people in the room with me. Tonight, we're going to run the Dead Mines (Van Cleefe), my first instance. If you're on Daggerspine, look for a level 16 human warlock named Teppesh. That'll be me.

And the Greeks are going mad!

Azeroth from an Outsider's Perspective, Part 1

Over the long weekend, I began playing the game known as World of Warcraft. The following are my experiences.

Day 1: Levels 1-10
I decided that, given our crew and my play-style, I would be best suited to playing a human Warlock. So, I made one and entered the world. The first few levels were something of a breeze, and I soon reached level 4. At this point, I met up with a level 2 Warlock who challenged me to a duel. Big mistake. I'm no veteran, but I have more powers, and I've figured out how to use them to their greatest effect. I easily best the poor fool, who hasn't even mastered the two powers that he has. Taking pity, I offer to help him on the quest that he is on (to get a tome to trade for an imp companion, one which I myself was just wrapping up). However, as we were taking out the guardians of said tome, a rogue ran up and ninja'd the tome right out from under my companion. How do I know this? I was looking at the general chat as a rogue boasted about ninjaing a tome meant for some warlocks while the two of them battled the guardians. This struck me as a very ass-holish thing to do. I was about to feel sorry for my companion when he asked me if I had the tome, and if I did, could I give it to him. I told him, "No, I don't have the tome. When I did the quest, I had to trade it to the trainer to get the imp." Apparently, this guy was not paying attention to anything. He then begged me to give him some stuff. Mistakenly thinking, hey, share and share alike, I gave him some stuff. He then asked for more stuff. After a while, I grew tired of his foolishness, so when the tome finally respawned and he had grabbed it, I kicked him from the party and moved on to bigger and better things. Moral of the story: The beautiful thing about MMO's is that you can play with other people. The ugly thing about MMO's is that you HAVE to play with other people.
Day 2: Levels 10-12
Tom decided to help me out by grouping up with me using his low-level shadow priest. The priest/Warlock combo is quite effective against most foes, so it works fairly well. As we were completing some quests in Loch Modan, we were approached by a 7th level Paladin who wished to join with us. As a tank is always appreciated, especially one who can heal himself, we assented. However, we apparently ended up with the most bass-ackwards brain-damaged Paladin ever, as this guy spent more time hiding his chainmail-clad ass behind the two cloth-wearing casters. He didn't even help out by providing us with the buffs normally associated with the Paladin class. In short, either he was incompetent, or an asshole. Eventually, we decided that we would attempt to convince him to leave the group by trying to chain so much aggro from so many mobs and then train it off on him that he would just get fed up and die. No such luck. The guy was a prick. Moral of the story: Even when you're Alliance on a PvP server, it's not the Horde that will fuck you over. It's the Alliance, so never join pick-up groups with strangers.
Day 3: Levels 12-14
Slower day. After my bad experiences, I spent most of the time running around solo. Having mastered the use of my available powers, I was feeling fairly competent, and enjoying myself. Part of that may have been the fact that I had learned my lessons and now never give goods to strangers in MMO's (they'll only want more), and I don't let random people join my party (there is probably a reason why they don't have friends in real life to play with them). Someone even tried to get an invite into the guild of which I am a member. My response: "Not my call." He asked in return: "Who invited you, then?" My response: "We're kind of like the Masons, in that I can't tell you that." In short, so long as the only people I have to deal with are my real-life friends, it is quite enjoyable. More to come later.

In other news, we went to see X-Men 3 on Saturday. It was...meh. There were too many throw-away characters to really get a sense for any one character in particular. Even established characters were left with little to do. Fortunately, I had set my sights low enough that I was not sorely disappointed, and could enjoy the "Juggernaut, bitch!" reference, and watch the new Snakes on a Plane trailor.
In additional news, Jeff brought over his Arkham Horror board game on Sunday night, so Justin and I played it with him. For those of you not in the know, this is a game based off of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, in which players take on the roles of various investigators in Arkham, MA who are attempting to prevent the arrival of one of the Ancient Ones.
Our first attempt was against Yig, a snake-god, and we were seriously creamed. Today, Jeff and I tried again, this time with Aaron B. This time we squared off against Ithaqua, with only moderate success, narrowly defeating him/it at the last second, thanks to the timely healing of my physician. However, even though we technically won, as Aaron and I were walking out, we could not shake the sensation that we had only delayed the inevitable. In short, just like a Lovecraft story. This is a game, after all, where the makers advise that if players are finding it too easy (i.e., they win fifty percent of the time), add some new rules to make it harder. At this point, I was thinking, "you mean some people can actually win at this game?"