As you (all one of you reading the feed still..) may have noticed, this site has gone dormant. Mainly, I don’t play WoW any more. Every time I have gotten “serious” about playing and making this blog be something, a close family member has passed away. While it’s not a “sign” telling me to stop playing WoW, it has spoiled the enjoyment of the game for me.

Therefore, this blog is done, and the site will gradually shut down and collapse to forgotten bits.

Thanks for reading.

I have been peering at the screenshots of the various zones in Cataclysm
over at www.mmo-champion.com and in addition to the strains on the vanilla
world we know and mostly love, I see some strains in the relationships of
the various groups, who up until recently, were pretty darn tight.

SPOILERS BELOW- NO FOLD

I see this mostly in the Horde, as we see that the Tauren have now gated
off the little path that leads to Mulgore. In some ways this could be
because of the increased presence of Alliance troops in the Barrens, but
also because Garrosh Hellscream is now running the show over in Orgrimmar.
I think that the Tauren expansion throughout Kalimdor is a good thing,
but it seems like there may be some tension with the more war-minded
Garrosh at the helm. The bit I read about Sylvanas using the Vrykul to
raise new Forsaken has got to be sitting poorly with the other groups
within the Horde, as creating new undead is not really a comfortable
thought for the living. The Blood Elves appear to have redeemed
themselves at the end of the Burning Crusade and are more in line with the
Tauren and Trolls (which could explain the Troll Druids and the Tauren
Paladins.)

I find it hard to believe that the current political structures are going
to remain static for many more expansions, but I am not sure how to
implement a change. I would prefer to see the Tauren, Trolls and Blood
Elves move into their own arrangements, possibly picking up the Draenai as
an unlikely ally, as it seems these groups are all headed in some similar
direction.

Having the Orcs, goblins, forsaken, and perhaps a new race group (Ogres?
Living Vrykul? BOTH??) form an warhorde would make sense as well, though
the reasons for such might have to be looked at closely.

The Alliance would be fine with the current structure (Gnomes, Night
Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Worgen.)

I don’t know that the balance would work out for things like Wintergrasp,
but I think that it would be an interesting change for the game in the
long run. Blizzard has shown that they are willing to kill a few sacred
cows to make things interesting, so I wouldn’t put anything off the table.

Taking a break from my frantic schedule of trying to get the Loremaster before the world blows up, I noticed that the fine folks over at Blog Azeroth had dropped a new topic for this week and since my office is watching the Earthly World Cup I would play along with my own version. (Besides I have found a few interesting things but only finished Durotar, Ashenvale, Mulgore and The Barrens so far.)

The folks at Blog Azeroth asked:

Now imagine: What if, instead of laying waste to two continents, Deathwing actually came up and said “Let’s determine which race of Azeroth is best once and for all – by having the World Cup of Warcraft!”

I think the bracket would go something like this (assuming a bracket)

Kalimdor Division:
Tauren
Night Elves
Orcs
Draenei
Darkspear Trolls
Goblins
Southsea Pirates
Theramore Humans

Eastern Kingdoms Division:
Forsaken
Blood Elves
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Dwarves
Gnomes
Stormwind Humans
Worgen of Gilneas
Scarlet Crusade

Outlands/Northrend Division:
Fel Orcs
Lost Ones
Burning Legion
Nexus Stalkers
Taunka
Vargul
Scourge (Ice Crown)
Kalu’ak

Now, this being my warped little tournament I am not going for football / soccer. Oh no. We are going to go with Ullamaliztli with the losing teams being eaten by Deathwing.

The First Round:

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Night Elves 1
The Night Elves initially have a leg up with an early goal, but their stamina fades after the halfway mark and they are literally stunned by Tauren thunderstomps, which eliminates the advantages of a shadowmelded defense.

Orcs 3
Draenei 4
A fairly even match, both teams played hard but they were evenly matched and the game went into sudden death. (literally) The Draenei manage to distract the Orc team in a desperate Wiggling bellydance offense.

Darkspear Trolls 5
Goblins 1
The Goblins were clearly outmatched, even with their shredders on the field. The lack of turning radius on rockets took out half of the Goblin team within seconds.

Southsea Pirates 0
Theramore Humans 10
Taking the field full of grog is a poor strategy. Deathwing commented on the fact that the pirates came pre-pickled.

Eastern Kingdoms

Forsaken 3
Blood Elves 5
The Blood Elf Arcane Torrent made it very difficult for the Forsaken to change strategy on the fly in this matchup.

Ebon Blade 7
Dwarves 2
Stumpy legs. Nuff said.

Gnomes 6
Stormwind Humans 2
A surprise upset occurred when the humans assumed they were playing children. Then the Ice Magery began.

Worgen 3
Scarlet Crusade 0
Librarians can’t run. Dogs Can. Fetch!

Outlands/Northrend

Fel Orcs 0
Lost Ones Forfeit
The Lost Ones’ did nt have the spirit to take the field. Deathwing sped things up.

Burning Legion 12
Nexus Stalkers 2
This game initially started with two very fast Nexus Stalker goals. The Dreadlords then brought the pain. And the infernals.

Taunka 3
Vargul 2
The game was tied right up until the end, when the Vargul tried to hit the Taunka between the eyes with a 2 x 4. The fact that their face is already smashed should have been a clue about how thick their skulls really are.

Scourge 7
Kalu’ak 4
Things went well initially, until the fans threw a squid on the court and the Kalu’ak all dove for the snack, ignoring the ballgame entirely.

Second Round: (Division Semi Finals)

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Draenei 1
It was a very defensive game until the Draenei offended the Tauren who trampled the “Bellydance Offense” to score the winning goal.

Darkspear Trolls 3
Theramore Humans 1
The humans learned their lesson about dismissing the Trolls as “Primitive Screwheads” when they realized that the Trolls were not impressed by the “Boomstick”.

Eastern Kingdoms

Blood Elves 3
Ebon Blade DQ
The Death Knights were disqualified for too many players on the field after someone mistakenly cast Army of the Dead

Gnomes 3
Worgen 2
Realizing their opportunity, the Gnomes brought a Stick which totally was better to fetch than some old boring ball.

Outlands/Northrend

Fel Orcs 1
Burning Legion 121
The Fel Reaver came off the bench for this game.

Taunka 6
Scourge 0
The star player of the Taunka had an unfortunate heart attack from a life time of over consumption of red meat. The Scourge wished to follow his example by starting with him.

Round 3: (Division Finals)

Kalimdor

Tauren 2
Trolls 4
Halfway through the game, the Troll Spear throwers learn to make Beef Kabob.

Eastern Kingdoms

Blood Elves 4
Gnomes 1
The gnomes finally meet their match in the Blood Elves who are not fooled one bit. Nor are they amused.

Outlands/Northrend

Burning Legion Forfeit
Taunka Dead
Adding a second Fel Reaver broke the Court, Killing the Taunka team.

Round 4: (Finals!) (GRUDGE MATCH!)

Darkspear Trolls 5
Blood Elves 2
The Darkspear trolls managed to get half of the Blood Elves arguing over the borders of the Amani Empire, while the rest happily followed a particularly tasty magic wand over the edge of a cliff.

The WINNER: Darkspear Trolls.

It’s that time of the year again.  Yup, time to talk #%$ about how we need to make sure we are keeping our accounts safe and secure.

Blizz only has so much responsibility toward keeping your account safe, the vast majority of it is up to the customer, as the customer is responsible for the up keep and maintenance of their equipment.  To use a sports analogy, it is your responsibility to make sure you are wearing your cleats and that they fit and keep your feet safely inside.

There are four main aspects of keeping your gear in good working order:  Anti-virus, Anti-malware, System Security and Account Security.

System Security:
This is the core of keeping your system safe.  Whether it’s Windows, Mac, or Linux, you need to stay on top of security patches.  Not just for your operating system, though.  Every application you have should be patched up to current.  A significant number of exploits use software as an access point for getting control of your computer.  Just because you don’t use Internet Explorer does not mean that you shouldn’t patch it.  Even something as innocuous as Acrobat Reader can let your system be taken over.

Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware:
If you aren’t running an anti-virus program, you quite frankly, are an Idiot.  The concept of running any computer connected to the internet without basic protection is as crazy as having unprotected anonymous sex.  It doesn’t matter what your operating system is, when it becomes an easy enough target to hit, it will have virus issues.  Most viruses today are not interested in deleting or damaging contents, but would rather steal information or use your resources to infect other computers.  A number of the newer virii have been geared toward actually stealing the passwords and account information such as WoW.  Once you have a bug,
If you do not want to pay for solutions such as McAffee or Symantec you can check out these offerings:

Avast! I have used this for quite a while and it seems to be one of the more reliable and less naggy products out there.  However I have had problems making it work well on Windows 7.

AVG I have used this product on and off though the years and it was generally decent.  It has gotten bloated a little over the years, but is still a good choice.

Microsoft Security Essentials This is a new favorite.. MS learned a lot from their earlier efforts and have put together a great product for free.  This product does some anti-malware stuff, so it is a good product to pick up.

If something slips through (and it will, with the daily changing of virus code,) you will need anti-malware software to help clean it out.  Some of these following apps will also help prevent the malware from getting established.  You will want more than one of these for excellent protection.

Malwarebytes I love these guys.  They have made their product available for free for folks who are in trouble or just want reactive protection.  It is pretty beefy and gets some of the harder to extract programs out of the system.

Ad Aware  A fading star in malware prevention, but they are still effective with other products covering the gaps.

Spybot Search and Destroy  I have this program running with it’s Tea Timer component active at all times.  Yes, it nags a bit but it nags about the things I want to know about. Like the flash ad on that website that would like to make a registry change.  Uhm. NO.

Authenticator:
Based on the RSA SecurID technology that many corporations use for a second step real time authentication, it allows me to keep my account from being hacked by essentially removing half of the password from the equation.  I may have a lame password like “pickles” (ok not really,) but by adding a random six digits to the end of that password every time it is used, it makes it a very hard thing to hack.  The time and resources required to hack it would be prohibitive for the folks who are just out to make a quick buck.  This is the number one way to keep your WoW account safe.  The only drawback is it is not an actual 10 digit (4 number PIN plus 6 digit Fob) SecurID style code.  This may mean that with enough recorded inputs, the algorithm might be decipherable.  We haven’t seen an identified case of an authenticator enabled account being hacked, but Blizzard might not want to publicly discuss  such matters lest people just forgo the authenticator completely.

By using some common sense and maintaining your equipment, you can keep your toons happy and at home on your account, and enjoy the game for many years to come.

Enter a World of Warcraft player.  He is carrying a laptop and appears to be looking for something.

WoW player: Well, I have a little time to play this evening on my lunch break and there is a wireless connection here.

He begins playing and we cut to the laptop screen.

He logs in, authenticates and selects his character.

WoW player: Let’s see… I think I will queue for a Random Heroic Dungeon.  Since I am tank spec, I will have no problems whatsoever getting a spot.

SFX: Dungeon finder sound
Dungeon Finder pop up launches and everyone enters.

WoW player: Ooh!  Halls of Lightning!

The first trash pull commences, the player clicks several buttons.  Nothing is happening on the screen.

In a few seconds all the buttons go off simultaneously and the other four toons die in an instant.  There is much pissing and moaning.

Healer:  noooooooooooooo….. They ate my face!
DPS1-3: OW! OW! OH MY SPLEEN!

The tank dies horribly without the kiss of good healing.

The splash page comes up with “You have been disconnected from the server..” as the message.

Yeah.  That pretty well sums it all up.  Too much latency also mixed in with calls makes it impossible to actively play the game.  However I get some good play time on when I am at home on the weekends.