My recent find of Living Sims (LS), an actual interior design magazine for The Sims, got me thinking about what makes the role-playing in a game come alive for me. Clearly, this group of artists and TS fans takes that game very seriously. I personally haven’t felt like that about a game in several years. Perhaps I won’t ever feel like that about a game again. That’s a sad thought.
Back in my days of playing Asheron’s Call 2, I felt that way – inspired by the character I played to do something that reached beyond the confines of AC2’s virtual space. I wrote many role-playing short stories, wrote a monthly column on Warcry and built picture journals that I shared online with other gaming enthusiasts. Even though I haven’t been inspired at an RP level since AC2, my excitement about gaming and whatever fun I’m having, turns into lots of blog posts and photo albums.
Encouraged by the helpfulness of LS – yes, I took away some design tips for when I start playing The Sims 3, I decided to check out Azeroth Advisor for World of Warcraft. If you’re not familiar with Azeroth Advisor, it’s an add-on developed by Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios that sends you a regularly scheduled and personalized newsletter for your WOW character.
Inside your personalized Azeroth Advisor newsletter:
- Zones & instances for your experience level
- Harvesting zones for your profession level
- New spells, abilities and talents
- Tips for using class defining abilities
- Unique gear upgrades you should consider
- Bits of lore and fluff about your class
- Notable lore characters of the same class
- Grouping etiquette and tips
- Comparison of your base stats vs. other players
For the WOW content up until Wrath, I certainly don’t need a guide. I’ve trolled the content more times than I should have over the years. Still, I’m finding the newsletter more enjoyable and cute, than merely having wowwiki.com bookmarks for zones and instances handy. Azeroth Advisor adds that personal touch that boosts the old RP meter up a bit.
I loved the EQ2Players site Sony has for Everquest II. It’s like your character’s blog, achievements, photo bucket and gear all in one. It’s similar to what Blizzard eventually added with the Armory and Achievements. EXCEPT that EQ2 players didn’t use it as a way of being rude on the forums (looked at your armory L2P remarks) or as a requirement to join a PUG. Seriously, telling people to link their Armory was bad enough, now they want Achievements too. What is it about WOW that makes some players act like asshats?!? Reason 11,999,999 why I solo.
Warhammer Online had a unique opportunity to up the RP meter with the Tome of Knowledge. It contains lore and a journal of your achievements. The problem I found with the Tome is that I could only read it in game. Uh, sorry fellas, when I’m in the game, I want to p-l-a-y the game. I rarely saw anyone blog about what they’d unlocked in the Tome. I would have spent more time reading through the Tome and caring, if I’d be able to view MY Tome offline (out of game).
If you’re not jaded beyond repair and still playing WOW, you should give Azeroth Advisor a try. New players would benefit the most from using it. Unfortunately, really new gamers don’t know much about mods and probably aren’t aware of this one in particular, which is unfortunate.
Alas, Azeroth Advisor supports US servers only.
> "now they want Achievements too."
Sometimes it's even worse, people will ask for a heroic Naxx achivement when asking people for a normal Naxx run. If I have the heroic achievement why would I even want to PuG normal Naxx??
But I disagree - it's not a reason to go solo, it's a reason to find a nice guild, IMHO :)
Posted by: Solidstate | July 23, 2009 at 08:50 AM
@Solid - Oh didn't know that restriction.
Guild drama aside, being in a good guild does help but it doesn't insulate you from the crazy player-base at large. When games have been out as long as WOW and EQ2, there's a huge spread of character levels in a guild.
My trio is in a nice guild - nice enough from what I've seen. New players with lowbie characters are constantly asking to be powered through the low level instances. Why? They either can't field enough players the appropriate level to go or they're having PUG drama trying to complete the content.
I've taken a groups through SM and Ulda, not using my trio, because they needed someone to tank them through it. I draw the line at Gadget - gawd how I hate that instance. *Smile* But no sooner than you take one group thru something, someone else needs/wants to go thru something else. I volunteer here and there but older players with high level toons don't want to spend their game time running lowbie content. So while being in a good guild is a plus, it doesn't protect you from some of the insane behavior that takes place trying to PUG in WOW.
I stopped PUG'g WOW on my Priest which was my 2nd max level character which was LONG before the existence of Armory and Achievements. My rage at dealing with PUGs hit an all time high and spawned one of my favorite rants on the subject: http://notadiary.typepad.com/mysticworlds/2006/07/top_10_lies_abo.html
Sure, good guild is fine. I'll stick to soloing mostly. :-)
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | July 23, 2009 at 09:59 AM
I never knew about that particular addon. However, Titan Panel has something similar that shows you the level range/zones you should be in (including instances).
And yeah, PUG's suck. Perhaps one out of every ten I have been a part of actually worked out. The other nine were full of asshat's.
Posted by: RomaGoth | July 23, 2009 at 02:42 PM
I'm going to try out Azeroth Advisor. Thanks for the tip. And this made me laugh: Guild drama aside, being in a good guild does help but it doesn't insulate you from the crazy player-base at large. Ain't the truth. You never know what might happen - which is sometimes part of the fun. :)
Posted by: WoW fanatic | September 09, 2009 at 02:17 PM
Being a member of a guild helps you to develop leading skills. Every body has a job to do and it has to be executed at the poper time.
Posted by: Wayne A | October 04, 2009 at 06:44 PM
sorry for offtopic, but could you please suggest me a guild that is easy join? :) I recenly had a quarrel with my old one, and now I want to join some other :)
Posted by: Tim | April 21, 2010 at 06:27 PM