Weekend (7 Oct) - Baseball, Football, and Fish

Weekend (7 Oct) - Baseball, Football, and Fish

Fist wrapped up her time in the Arathi Highlands still a little short of level 34. The sprawling zone seemed somehow smaller these days, the trolls less dangerous and the riot of highlands predators and prey, from raptors to buzzards to spiders to elementals, less plentiful.

For some reason, Fist's journey so far is wrapped in a wreath of nostalgia. Sure, it's been a very long time since anyone has begun a new life. Wild's many family members have gained stature and level in many different spurts of effort, but their earliest days are long, long past. Hapless, one of the more recent, has spent all of her young life in and around Durotar, and then settled down at level 16. Jocey is old for a level 27, and she is still not that far removed from life in the Ghostlands. Jocey is the family's only horde paladin, and still has a future, but even she wonders when/if she will ever get the chance. Fist has already eclipsed her.

The nostalgia must come from Wild. Fist is traveling through much the same zones as he did, far, far, far (careful, Wild admonished) back in time. Wild earned his first ground mount at level 40 in the Arathi Highlands (actually, he had to wait until level 43 to afford it). All those quests that Fist has done by getting around on her mount since level 20, Wild was doing on foot. Perhaps that is one reason the zone seems smaller - on foot, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere, even in travel form.

Wild had to smile, though, when Fist was caught dozing on her mount after a long night, on the way to Hammerfall. The various predators attempted to catch her, to no avail. But Fist was just plain lucky to survive when she very nearly rode directly into Refuge Point, the alliance base. It was no coincidence that Refuge Point lay directly in the path horde adventurers would automatically take when returning to turn in quest completions. Wild loves those little touches.

Who remembers The Traitor Orc, Marez Cowl? The orc was hiding in Stromgarde Keep, and frustrated many, many adventurers who couldn't for their life find him. Wild went through that frustration himself back when he was in constant fear of his life inside that keep. Fist tried to channel Wild when she took on that quest, but Wild was no better at remembering where to find Cowl now than then. Cowl was even tagged on the map (which Wild never had in HIS day), and Fist still took a long time to finally locate the right building, go down the right fork, where a narrow opening could be found between the corner of that building and the inside wall of the keep. Slip around the back, and there he was. Easy to kill, it was finding him that made the quest memorable.

Saturday - Fist got in some game time, but had to check out early because we went to a ballpark party for season ticket holders. The baseball season is over for the Padres, so we could go down on the field and play catch, and then watch a movie in the grass, "The Rookie," on the stadium screen. We had fun.

At level 35, Fist made her next stop the Hinterlands. Nostalgia abounds in this interesting zone featuring the trolls of the multi-level parapets of Jintha'Alor. Fist was sent into that fortress five separate times on various quests that took her ever deeper and higher. Wild won't reveal how many times he died, or how long it took for him to get those quests completed, but it was a serious trial. Fist thought it was great fun, and loved it because she could round up three or four mobs and then use her Fists of Fury to bring them all down at the same time. I just love the visual of that spell - picture a martial arts movie when the hero has a small army in front of him and starts pummeling them with both fists in a ferocious piston movement. Stunned and helpless, they all die.

If Fist had been a hunter, she'd have made the turtle Gammerita her personal pet out of pity. The great turtle that cycles around outside the gate of the horde base in the Hinterlands was a challenge for players who wanted to win one of the best fishing poles available. Gammerita was a level 50 in a zone that low 40-somethings started in and he was tough to kill. He also blended in with all the other turtles in the area that were killed for a quest, and the great turtle had this way of sneaking up on you. Gammerita has been given a new look, larger and more dangerous looking, but poor Gammerita is only a level 31 now, and easy prey.

Fist finished her Friday evening at level 37.

Sunday - Fist was again competing with baseball. My Detroit Tigers team has made the playoffs. They won yesterday, and are playing right now as I write this. Fist is in game, too, working on her fishing and cooking skills. Well, at the moment she is waiting on yet another cross realm restart. Seems like they are doing a restart every day now that is supposed to last no more than fifteen minutes, but typically lasts thirty plus minutes (about the length of two innings of play in baseball).

Tic tock. Ok, now I'm working on inning four and still no access to WoW. The screen hangs at "Connecting." Come on, those fish are waiting!

Tic tock. Six innings completed, Tigers tied with the Athletics at 1-1, and I still can't login more than an hour since the restart.

Tic tock. Eight innings gone. A check on wowhead and WoW websites reveal that there are lots and lots of servers down. Apparently they can't even get an update on the login screen, and the WoW website is silent. The Sunday IT team is not going to be getting any bonuses - three day weekend, and paying customers losing their Sunday game time.

Tic Tock. "We are continuing to work to resolve the connection issues that many players are experiencing while attempting to log in to the game. We do not have an ETA ... " Tigers win, 5-4, in the bottom of the ninth inning.

And then, well, there was this San Diego Chargers football game ... but that was painful and I don't want to talk about it.

Fist is still level 37.