Thursday (11 Jul) - A Trip Down Memory Lane

Thursday (11 Jul) - A Trip Down Memory Lane

The time is coming to close the book on the Wild Family. As of 31 Jul, 2013, Happy and the rest of the gang on Happy's account will depart. Wild, Philly, JB, and a few others will still be around until August 8th, when the second account expires, and then that will be the end.

Wild has let what is left of his cabal know that I am leaving. That really came down to just Bd (Bloodknuckle) and Lady Hunter (Talatiana). By a seemingly appropriate twist of fate, Wild was unable to log into the guild website to say  my farewells to what few other players still remembered Wild. Just as well.

It may be just a game, but it was a passion and an obsession that consumed countless hours of fun stretching over almost nine years.

I intend to keep in touch, and continue the blog in one fashion or another. It's funny that endings often precede new beginnings. A friend of mine who I have not talked to in more than five years got in touch with me recently. He is getting married, and wanted to invite me to the wedding.

In all honesty, it will be hard to let go of the game. Funny, though, that it isn't the game itself that I will miss. More than anything, I will miss writing about it and sharing my thoughts and adventures with my friends. As much as I loved raiding, it was the retelling of those raiding adventures that I most looked forward to writing about. As much as I loved the Wild family characters, it was writing storylines for them that went beyond the game that I worked on the hardest. Those things are what I will miss the most.

Finally, I can't walk away without one more look back. I want to mention as many friends as I can recall, particularly those who made a significant impact over the course of this journey. I also want to list the things that I best remember about the game and the grander accomplishments.

The chronicling of Wild's adventures began on 22 February, 2005, with a post on the Sporting News forum site. "Any fans out there or am I the only baseball bat wielding Tauron Druid out there? Just started playing this online fantasy role playing game recently and am totally hooked." When this was posted Wild had achieved the lofty status of Level 8 and was still learning the game. Yes, I misspelled "tauron" which should have been spelled "tauren." Wild's family tales will end on 8 August, 2013, covering a period of eight years, five months, and a few days.

In between those dates, I had a hell of a lot of fun. I also encountered many, many folks who had a hand in Wild's success and enjoyment. It was Pete who first responded to my post. Just two days later, Pete had bought the game and created an Alliance gnome. Within a couple more days the World of Warcraft "addicts" started chiming in. There was Ed, with a level 59 Dwarf paladin on the Hyjal realm. He had started playing the game while it was still in beta testing. Bbrool confessed his obsession with a level 48 Dwarf priest on the Khadgar server. There would be many more.

Wild learned to "fly" at level 11. Not true flying, since that ability would not be added to the game for many years. "Flying" in vanilla WoW meant being able to buy passage on flying beasts that traveled between static points. It was the first time I saw the world from the sky, and it was awesome!

Wild didn't have any money back then. As the first character in a new game there was no Happy to give me gold, no guild to help me along, and I had no idea an Auction House existed. Wild's first great "tragedy" came at level 15 when Wild spent his entire stake of thirty silver to buy a staff from a local vendor, and then accidentally sold it back to the vendor for six silver. There was no "buy back" option then. I was destitute and had lost not only my money, but the staff I'd lusted after.

Other players started adding their own stories. A few, like Qsilver and Munich_man, called me "evil" for enticing them to try out the game. Remember, the forum I was posting to was the Sporting News Forum, and the purpose was to talk baseball, not WoW. I had begun to collect a following, though. NaturalDoc joined the conversation, lamenting that he was going to have to upgrade his computer to play the game.

I was surprised to rediscover that Wild joined his first guild on March 3rd at level 16. Wild also took part in the "wild west" pvp action in The Crossroads, back when it was common for Alliance players to take a ship to the neutral town of Ratchet and then ride to The Crossroads to harass and kill the horde defenders and any horde players that showed up to defend their town. Blizz has spent a lot of time and effort to improve pvp play over the years, but none of it compared to those days of combat at the Crossroads.

Wild's first bit of guild drama came on 12 March, just nine days after Wild joined. There was a falling out of some kind and half the guild left. I guess this was Wild's early warning that guild drama would be an ongoing thing. Funny,  I don't remember the name of the guild and never recorded it. For some weird reason I was reluctant to make direct reference to people's names, character names, guild names, etc, out of concern that something I wrote might upset someone. A lot of people I played with over the years will forever be called by their initials or a nickname instead of their real character name.

On 29 March Wild's guild was self-destructing, but Wild could not figure out how to leave it. I asked the guild leader to kick me from the guild and was instead made an officer. I later figured out how to quit the guild.

On April 1st Wild entered his first dungeon group. He was a level 24 and the healer of the group. The dungeon was Wailing Caverns, and it took us over four hours to complete. They don't make dungeons like this anymore.

Did you know that killing non player characters (npcs) was not part of the original game? On 19 April a patch opened the Honor system, allowing npcs to be attacked ala pvp style. For awhile no town was ever safe from marauding players attacking npcs, and of course, each other.

Wild joined his second guild on 9 May. He tanked his first dungeon (Wild, tanking!?). Wild also got his first Honor Kill (hk). Wild added his first new character (JB). On June 14th Judi began playing her own druid, AechTee. So many firsts in those heady days.

Happyface joined Wild's family as his "investment banker" (yes, I actually used that term in the post) on 7 July. Happy began his role mining the Auction House with the grand stake of three gold. It was all that Wild could afford. Wild had one goal for Happy. Make enough money for Wild to be able to buy his mount. Back then Happy actually bought gear and did the disenchanting into mats himself. On July 18th Happy proudly handed Wild the ninety gold he needed for his mount, a kodo mount that only taurens could ride. It took Happy only eleven days to go from 3g to 90g.

Does anyone remember Thotbott? That is where one went to get all manner of information about the game. It's successor is Wowhead. Remember Carrot-on-a-Stick? The diabolical, difficult quest rewarded Wild with a 5% increase in mount speed, well worth the tremendous group effort to get it with his guild.

Speaking of guilds, Wild switched guilds again on 31 July, making it his third guild. There was plenty of guild drama, although Wild had little involvement. He reached level 47.

One for the Books: On September 11th, 2005, Wild's server, Silvermoon, got it's first Horde Ragnaros kill, the final boss in the FORTY man raid called the Molten Core. The party went on well into the night and early morning all across the server.

Another one for the books: The Sporting News closed it's old forum board and I had to transition all of my prior posts to the new board as of 15 September, 2005.

That wraps up Part One of my walk through the past.

Tuesday (1 Jul) - So Much for Bragging Rights

Tuesday (1 Jul)  - So Much for Bragging Rights (sorry, it’s all baseball today)

The Padres played extremely well on their most recent home stand, and then went on an extended road trip. After crushing the Miami Marlins 9-2 in the first game of a four game set, the team proceeded to disintegrate, losing the other three by lopsided scores. The Marlins (30-51) have the worst record in the National League, even after winning three straight from the Padres. Beginning on 2 Jul, the team faces the first place Boston Red Sox and the dangerous Washington Nationals before returning to seven more games at home. All without a break (ie, 17 straight games). The only silver lining to all this is that most of the teams division rivals have played as badly or worse than the Padres.

Division leader Arizona (42-40) has lost four straight games. Colorado (41-42) just hangs around, unable to gain any traction. The Padres (40-43) are in third place. Fourth place San Francisco (World Champions in 2012) has lost 8 of their last 10 games. Then there is the last place Los Angeles Dodgers. Two weeks ago they were nine games behind and nearly out of contention. In any league but the NL Western Division, they would have been out of the contention. However - the Dodgers have won 8 of their last 10 games and are only 3.5 games behind the leader, Arizona.

Despite the Padres 40-43 record, it's hard to complain when the team is just 2.5 games short of leading the division. Still, the Padres offense has been brutally bad of late. The return of Evereth Cabrera, Jedd Gyroko, and Yonder Alonso from injuries could do wonders to fix that. All are expected to be playing again in the next week or two. The mystifying collapse of Chase Headley (still hitting just .227) continues. 

Here's the prior status as of 13 Jun.

> 

Comparison	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	32 34 5.0	.251	279	4.30
Reality Results	34 32 4.0	.239	272	3.85
Promise Results	33 33 8.0	.243	285	3.61

> 

Here is the current status as of 1 July.

Comparison	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	40 43 2.5	.247	338	4.07
Reality Results	42 41 3.0	.234	328	3.54
Promise Results	40 43 10.5	.243	346	3.60

> 

Sunday (23 Jun) - Guessing The Future

Sunday (23 Jun) - Guessing The Future

Blizzard Entertainment's Blizzcon 2013 officially kicks off on 8-9 November. Tickets for the event sold out thirty minutes after they went on sale in April. The interesting thing is that there doesn't seem to be any concrete news about what announcements will be made. In fact, there doesn't seem to be anything exciting at all on the near horizon.

In the World of Warcraft there is talk of another expansion coming out on an 18 month cycle instead of the usual 24 month cycle. I have to point out, though, that Blizz has scheduled 18 month cycles before, and it always ends up around 24 months anyway. Despite that, hopes are high that the next expansion will hit the streets in the Apr/May 2014 timeframe, which I take to mean that it will "really" be released in it's usual Sep/Oct/Nov timeframe. All of that is pretty normal. So, what is the focus of the new expansion? Blizz is not saying. However, the rumor mill is that Mists of Pandaria is played out and they won't be expanding along that line. Instead, the "new" danger to Azeroth will be ... drum roll please ... a return of the Burning Legion. Again. Yawn.

My subscription to WoW runs out in August this year. I am not going to re-subscribe. I was not really considering NEVER coming back to WoW, but frankly, if it is going to be a year plus before I see a new expansion, and that new expansion is a rehash of the Burning Legion (which we already did in the Burning Crusade expansion), then I have nothing to look forward to, WoW-wise.

In the interim there are plans to release an expansion pack for Diablo. I'll probably play that. If it is on a similar scale to Diablo 3, I'll be done with that in a month. What else is on the horizon? There is the super secret Blizzard project called "Titan." It is supposed to be a brand new MMO they've been working on since 2007. There is even some information that says that developers have had a "playable" version since 2011. There is no information about the content at all, although we are told that the game will co-exist with WoW, not supplant it, because Titan will be very different from WoW. Last month Blizzard announced that the Titan project had been "rebooted." The release date is a moving target, now penciled in as 2016.

So. I installed a couple of my older single player games. I still have a computer that can play them. I remembered how much I loved those games. The bottom line is that while I still got some fun out of them, the graphics have so far surpassed those old games that they no longer felt real. Still, I like single player games. I may go that route for awhile. Maybe Blizz will surprise us with the next expansion. Maybe not. It's hard to tell if I will even care by that point.

Of course, as of now Happy is still working the Auction House and Fist is still farming. The Wild family won't forget our cousins, either. Happy is working on building a little nest egg to pass along to Sis and Sin when the time comes to turn in Happy's Auction House pass and close the doors. Maybe forever.

Wednesday (12 Jun) - Bragging Rights

Wednesday (12 Jun) - Bragging Rights

Bragging often leads to a karma boomerang, but I can't help myself. The San Diego Padres swept the National League East leading Atlanta Braves this week, winning all three games in thrilling fashion. The Padres record is now 32-34, only three wins away from a winning record. The National League West division leaders, the Diamondbacks, come to town this weekend, and I hope we kick some butt.

Here's the prior status as of 30 May.

>

Comparison	W L GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W L GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	24 29 6.0	.246	212	4.30
Reality Results	28 25 3.5	.237	217	3.75
Promise Results	28 25 7.5	.240	227	3.46

>

Here's the latest status as of 13 June.

The team went 8-5 during this period.

>

Comparison	W L GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W L GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	32 34 5.0	.251	279	4.30
Reality Results	34 32 4.0	.239	272	3.85
Promise Results	33 33 8.0	.243	285	3.61

>

Our best player, Chase Headley, has continued to struggle. His struggles are mirrored in the Promise league (see below).

Chase Actual: .227 BA, .332 OBP, 6 HRs, 20 RBIs

Chase Promise: .227 BA, .310 OBP, 8 HRs, 23 RBIs

Chase Reality: .298 BA, .389 OBP, 8 HRs, 34 RBIs

I wish Chase really was hitting .298 as he is in the Reality league. The Padres would likely have a winning record.

Tuesday (11 Jun) - The Enchanter's War

Tuesday (11 Jun) - The Enchanter's War

In Happy's long years as a purveyor of fine enchanting materials, pretenders to his throne have tried and failed to unseat him time and time again. There has been new blood stalking the Auction House for a few weeks now, and the battle for prominence (and it's reward in gold) has become pretty intense. Most, if not all, of Happy's opponents have the advantage of doing their own farming of materials. These false market prophets/farmers rarely consider the value of the time it takes to collect materials for sale, and so they under price their goods.

In a thriving market, Happy encourages low pricing and buys up those goods for sale at higher prices later, after the farmer wearies of the chore of collecting all that material himself and the cheap source of goods dries up. Some farmers go after a wide range of goods, while others specialize in certain markets. Happy's forte is enchanting materials, of course, but he also does some limited secondary business in cloth, gems, herbs, and bags.

The market has not been thriving. It is in a boom and bust phase, where prices can fluctuate wildly, nervous buyers and sellers tend to drive down the prices, but where temporary shortages can yield great profit if tapped at the right moment. Happy reluctantly gives ground on pricing, using a number of tricks to prop up the market. However, there comes a time when the price of an item reaches a point so low it can't be maintained, and that means the price will tank completely. Happy then mercilessly enters the bidding war and sells what he can. When the item tanks, he then buys up the dregs at desperately low prices. Eventually the item will return at a more reasonable price, Happy's sales will resume, and the process starts anew.

Happy's primary competitor in the enchanting mat market is Griffpriest. He has a wide range of goods in significant quantities. He and Happy are in the bidding war phase on several items that Happy has been propping up for some time. Happy is maxed out on storing a lot of this stuff, so he is getting what he can get now. Ryujin is another heavy seller in the war who is even more aggressive in undercutting the competition. Mats such as large brilliant shards, arcane dust, and large prismatic shards are close to becoming un-sellable at any price.

A more dangerous prospect is that the demand for what has held up Happy's profits lately has appeared to evaporate. Heavenly shards and Greater Celestial Essences sold endlessly at 10g apiece. Now, the the price is down to under 6g each, but still few are buying. What is also ominous is that the mat that makes heavenly shards, Maelstrom Crystals, has dropped under 3g each. An enchanter can make two heavenly shards from one maelstrom crystal. Do the math. Heavenly shard prices are going to tank.

To make Happy's day completely bleak, even the newest materials, those mats needed for current gear, has suffered severely. There just do not seem to be enough buyers. Over the last weekend, for example, the price of the hard to get but essential Sha Crystals saw a price drop that began at over 400g each, and ended down to under 200g each. Some of that was panic underbidding by amateur sellers, although Griffpriest had a hand in that. Happy wisely sucked up many of those cheap sha crystals, knowing that the market had to come back up at least enough for Happy to make some profit. They are selling at around 250g now. Happy is betting they'll reach 275g, which is where Happy will start selling them. PS - a day after I wrote this, sha crystal prices fell to 175g. I'm beginning to wonder if Mists of Pandaria is an already dead expansion.

The gem market is still pretty new to Happy. He doesn't know the competitors, yet (although Jetstream seems to be a heavy player), and he's still working on the fringes. He still managed to sell almost a 1,000g in gems over the weekend, though. He's learning. Even in his short time in the gem market, Happy already sees prices sliding. Gems solidly selling in the 100g range dipped to as low as 70-80g. Happy can still make the gems (or, well, JB can) at a lower price, but it's an indicator of where the market might go.

Oddly enough, the one market that has done the most to sustain Happy is the volatiles market. Blizz did away with elemental materials in Panda land, known as volatiles, eternals, and primals in earlier expansions. So, the Wrath version, volatiles, still have quite a bit if value. Happy bought a ton of those when Pandaria grew close, and he is still making a profit on the sales. Happy's efforts have worked almost too well, though. Prices are high but Happy's stock is now dwindling. Happy is in a dangerous spiral, buying up ever higher priced volatiles and then raising his selling price again and again to compensate. There will come a time when the buyers will say, no more.

Fist actually did some questing for a few hours, a rarity for the Wild family these days. JB was acting as the central distribution point for all of the materials required to make things that Happy sold, and she was getting tired of clogged bags and an overloaded mailbox. Happy, not wanting JB to show up on his doorstep with wheelbarrows full stuff she no longer wanted to hold, Happy promised to fix things. EZ, Jocey, Shevils, and Mew were pressed into service handling the mess. Fist was asked to make the Trapper's bag, a 28 slot leatherworking bag. She had the mats, but needed to gain Revered status with the Kalu'ak faction in Northrend in order to buy the recipe. Off and on through the course of a day, Fist worked on the quests, and got her recipe. JB was happy, Fist was Happy, and Happy was Happy. EZ, Jocey, Shevils, and Mew weren't exactly thrilled at having to go to work, though.