Getting set up for Episode 9

Man I can't believe that episode 9 is right around the corner. The notes are almost done and my segways have never been so silly. Take a second from running the new troll instances and send an email with your thoughts of the changes to powwow@nerdfireproductions.com or post below. Would love to hear how the new content is treating you.

Phatch 4.1

With the drop of patch 4.1 we have a new episode going over new changes and why we suck. Check it out at nerdfrieproductions.com or itunes!

Also for you archaeologists out there there has been a change where you will get less dig sites from the types that you already have the epics for, increasing the chances of getting the other epics that you are missing. Happy digging!

Preping for Episode 8

With Easter on Sunday we are going to be recording the episode on Monday night at about 7:30, be sure to check out our twitter for live show updates and you have until about 5 on Monday for any Suck moments or guild adverts that you would like read on the show! Either post here or email us :)

I don't know about you all, but I.... (Happy Friday from Jay)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlIhraqL7o

Episode 7

We are about to drop episode number 7 and we have included several easter eggs for your delight. And see if you can catch my horrible spelling error if it is not the title of the show!!!!! Please post any comments, questions or ideas about the show here!

Episode 6: The Power that Moves You

Episode is up and running check it out and let us know what you think!

It is coming.....YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!!

Ok I might be over hyping this next episode a bit but trust me when I gets here it will freak your minds (Chris Angel style). The one issue with producing something each week that relies so heavily (entirely) on technology is that you have to rely on technology to do it. Yes completely unforeseen complications come up, server crashes, file deletions, buggy recordings, and blackouts have plagued our production company for the last week and a half. Do we have great episodes about PVP, player housing, hero classes, social and political implications of warcraft and a fantastic full episode recorded and begging to be heard by our listeners and ourselves....YES!!!!! Technology is putting up some road blocks that we have had to clear and work around. With the greatest of hopes we are very close to being done and uploaded so stay tuned and we will get back on our rockin schedule. Hope that you guys enjoy Episode 6! I am working on 7 right now and i have to say i am very happy with the rough draft. Post any comments about previous shows or Episode 6 when it drops here and enjoy!

On the Road

OK so while I have been surrounding myself with the great history of our country and the walking through the homes of some of the greatest thinkers our nation has seen, I still have warcraft on the brain. While strolling across the lawn at Monticello you can't help but wonder, What would Thrall do? How would our constitution be written if the Horde were in charge?

I am just joking of course :) So far it has been a wonderful trip and my history nerdfire has been blazing since my plane touched down in South Carolina. I have been having a great trip so far and was very pleased that I have had time to read the book Arthas and get my Warcraft history on while I am also studying the history of my nation. We have also received some great emails for our podcast and coming up we have some great supplemental episodes for all of you to enjoy.

Well I am off to head to Charleston or as I like to say Chuck city. I will be posting some of the pictures that I take both here on the blog once I am back on the west coast. Keep tuning in to the podcast and blog for more great information!

Contributing from Afar

For those of you who listen to our podcast POW W.O.W. we just finished recording our 5th episode so make sure that as soon as it is up on itunes download it and leave comments and reviews. Spoiler Alert from the podcast......I am going to be on vacation for about a week and a half. While this is great for me :) the podcast is going to be slightly different with 2 supplemental podcasts over the next week and a half. There will be one podcast about PVP and all the fun that intales and one about the game wow should or could be! Both of these shorter episodes will feature guest hosts and will be definitely worth tuning in to! I will also be contributing while I am away here in the blog and I will add here any and all random thoughts that I might have while I am out and about, and find my way to a computer to type them down. In the meantime keep up rocking the game and listening in to the podcast!

NOW THESE ARE PATCH NOTES!

4th Episode is a Go!!!

For all those faithfull fans out there of the POW W.O.W podcast the 4th episode has landed!!! Check it out at Nerdfireproductions.com leave feedback here or send us your questions and comments to powwow@nerdfireproductions.com

Listen and Enjoy!

Coming up on POW W.O.W

This weekend we are going to be recording the 4th episode of the POW W.O.W podcast and hopefully if the tech gods are smiling upon us promoing a new intro and outro to the show written and recorded by our great friend Banehoof!!!!!!! If we get good listener feedback we might feature more audio/song from Banehoof on the show.

This week we will be discussing Failing at dailies and gearing up your toon to raid and Walsh's debut 120 unleashed which you will have to tune in to hear how a guy who has never played WoW can rant about it :). If I might give you some advice.....Tune in, it is going to be great!

The complete and polished episode should be on itunes by either Sunday night or Monday morning and I hope you hear your thoughts and critics about the episode here or on our email powwow@nerdfireproductions.com

POW W.O.W Podcast #3

Episode 3 was recorded last night and is posted on our website at nerdfireproductions.com very shortly!!!!!!! Be sure to download the episode and leave reviews and rating for our itunes users.

For The Horde?

I have been a horde player since I started the game 5 years ago. Began as horde and even though I have rolled about 15-20 alliance characters on 5 different servers I have never gotten them higher then level 20. On the other hand I have 5 horde toons over the level of m 80 and 2 85 that are raid geared. And yet with all this time that I have spent with the Horde I have never gotten the "For the Horde" achievement on any of my toons. Why is it so bloody hard? I am on a server that has almost a 10:1 H/A server, it is an odd day when I even see an alliance character and yet whenever I join a group to go kill some Alliance leaders it all falls apart!!!! We will get one capitol city down and either in transit or before we can even leave the city 20 people drop group. On top of that you have the "Leet" players that don't wait for the group to enter the city together....NO!!!!! I AM LEET AND CAN SOLO ALL GAURDS AND KINGS WHILE TALKING CRAP ABOUT YOUR MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER, BOYFRIEND AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU MIGHT TAKE OFFENSE TO!!!!!!!!! This behavior of course causes 5 more people to leave because who wants to deal with an asshat like that, and the whole alliance city is tipped off that we are coming, the guards are all out of place so they aggro onto the wrong raid members and we wipe in a steaming pile of fail, which promptly inspires another 15 people to leave and that is the end of that raid. I have had the achievement on my to do list, ever since they invented the achievement and yet............

Any advice on how to get this thing done or similar experiences or is everyone on my server.........

New Posts, Toon drama and podcasts

We just finished recording our second podcast for "POW W.O.W". If you haven't listened to the first episode stop what you are doing and go listen now!!!!!!

So a fun thing happened to my toon last night. While I have had my shaman at 85 since about a week after launch, I finally got my druid up to level. This process took a huge amount of time and I almost deleted the character all together along the way and let me reflect on why.

I love the idea of the druid. I love the shape shifting, the ability to play any role in a raid, the buffs that they bring and their mobility in the world..........I hate leveling one. I die...... a lot. In Twilight Highlands alone I died 20 times just getting from level 84 to 85. There must be a mental block when it comes to kitty DPS and survivability because I just don't get it. One on One, you are going down. 2 mob pull and it's a run back from the graveyard. End game I love the Druid, leveling however is the most frustrating experience I have had in Warcraft other then Shade of Aran in Kara.

Nerdfire Productions goes PODCAST!

Divine and I are even more informative and cover a variety of topics in our new Warcraft podcast.  Check it out and rate us if you like it!!!!


http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pow-w-o-w/id423473747 

Guild Rep has spawned little Stalins and Hitlers in WoW....

I have a theory and let me know if you think this is accurate or not!  I firmly believe that Guild Reputation is a very negative force in WoW.  Never before have people been so dependent on Guilds for support than now, which could have been a good thing, but the way Blizzard went with the notion ended up being a strong negative element. 

Let me start by saying that we all know there is no qualifying factor in becoming a Guild Master.  You can be 12 years old or the CEO of major corporation, you may never had a job in your life or a second of experience managing other people or a system as intricate as Guild politics and still become a GM.  That being said, the WoW community did a very good job of regulating Guilds.  Guilds that had unstable leadership almost always fell apart, and if you had a misunderstanding or got a better offer from another Guild you could leave with no qualms. 

As a GM under the old system of controls, I constantly was checking myself again the happiness and satisfaction my guild members.  Being a trained leader in the private sector, I still found it difficult to please everyone, and many people left for things could have been resolved.  This aspect was frustrating, when the news was released that they would be making changes to game so that Guilds represented more value than just a place to hang out and make friends, I was very excited.  It had the promise of making it a choice and a choice that represents value.  I envisioned the system being such that if you had a beef you would try to voice that opinion instead of leaving in order to work things out and preserve your status in the guild.

The current system works that way, however, Blizzard went so overboard with this concept that many Guild Masters including my own have turned into mini Stalins.  Stalin (really all bloody dictators) was notorious for making dissidence and protestors disappear, when the news got out someone had disappeared in the community the shock wave of fear silenced everyone into compliance.  My  hypothesis is that a lot of GMs, including my own, have become little autocratic dictators...why?  Simply because they can. 

Blizzard has made it extremely difficult to gain Guild reputation, to the extent where you are looking at between 2 and 4 months to earn the higher levels of reputation.  The choice of leaving a guild right now isn't a choice at all.  You leave you lose months of work.  You leave, you lose all perks that the guild had "earned", you leave you are setback almost irrevocably.  If you dissent you are removed, and the rest of us are silenced...it could happen to me next.

Guild Masters have become wise to this fact and, I believe, many have given into the temptation of absolute power.  No longer do you have to be flexible and adjust your leadership style based on the morale or guild performance.  You no longer have to worry about negative feedback or dissidence.  The false choice of leaving a guild forces members who aren't willing to lose a monumental amount of work into compliance.  I have also noticed in my personal experience is that these leaders who turn a deaf ear to their members and become autocrats begin to believe they are doing well as leaders because of the membership stability of the rank and file.  These members, however unhappy, continue to do the dailies and build other forms of reputation which go to bolster the guild, regardless of the members willingness to do this.  The guild continues to earn achievements and greater perks, even though the majority of the members would just as soon break their GMs computer as give them credit for the Guild's success.

So what we have in Warcraft now are massive amounts of people under the thumbs of dictatorial Guild Masters who are unresponsive to their needs and absolutely nothing they can do about it.  Well today, I did something about it,  I left my guild and lost 2 months of work (11000 reputation points).  I will post later on with what I find as far as how difficult it is to earn that reputation back with a guild deserving of my support. 

Alt-Tastic

One of the major changes that has happened to Warcraft over the last 5 years of playing is the inclusion and encouragement that a player receives for rolling alts. When I first started playing MMOs it all began with Guildwars. So many great things happened with that game and I played it for a year and a half. When I started I was a Necromancer, but then got frustrated that I would have to wait and wait for a Monk (the only healing class). So I started a monk. With the level cap for each toon at 20 I was able to bring my monk to max level within a couple days of casual play. When I made the jump to Warcraft I discovered a world quite different. During the early days of Warcraft I would spend days at one level and sometimes weeks within a level bracket. To get a ton to level 60 was not just a means to then start raiding but a ridiculous accomplishment, and if you were a player that had multiple toons at 60 then......damn you know what you are doing!

Fast forward to the Shattering. I start my 5th toon that I intend to bring to max level (already have 4). Shadowlocks and SPriest in full heirloom gear, who being played in increments received 120% experience from killing/questing, now with guildperks and cape 135% and soon to be adding the helm. Include upon this the experience needed to level as been decreased by 30% since Vanilla for any content up to level 80. From level 1 to 80 a player can level a toon 170% faster then a person who began leveling in Vanilla. That is a heap of encouragement to start a new toon or race.

Playing to your liking.

So I found myself at the top of a mountain this weekend, covered in snow and freezing my ass off.  Most people who found themselves under-geared and underprepared for a snow storm would be put off by this, not me.  I had to be essentially dragged down the mountain and convinced not to camp in 20 degree weather.  I simply love hiking and camping, whether its 100 degrees or 2, I just want to be out there. And with any RL event, there has to be a WoW parable in there and I believe I found it. I was working on gearing my Mage this week that it really is important to play what makes you feel good.  I was looking at the webstats for DPS since 4.0.6 and I've been noticing that Blizzard is moving so much crap around in an effort to balance things out that it really doesn't matter what toon or spec you play.  I really enjoy being a frost mage, forget that the other specs might have more damage output or what have you.  It's important only that I love hurling ice chunks at your face and making it so that you can't do a damn thing about it.  Not much more to say on the topic except that it isn't always about being the best, doing the most, or how fast you kill things, if you love doing something a certain way in this game....do it!  Happy Saturday :D

"Need a light?"

Some of you may have noticed that the weblink to this Blog is called Nerdfire. This is a phrase that was coined by Jaybles and one that I am sure that most of us can identify with. It is that burning passion that we all hold close to our hearts for something that might be deemed of the "nerd" or "geek" genre. My nerdfire is fueled by Warcraft and table strategy games i.e Risk, Settlers of Catan, (recently introduced to) Arkham Horror. For the longest time my nerd fire was all about Magic the Gathering. Even now just thinking about how I used to play MtG makes me want to pull out my old decks, grab a double big gulp of Dr. Pepper and play until 3 am. The picture above reminded my of one of my favorite Magic card's flavor text, and you may know the card well, it read "And the ignorant shall fall to the Squirrels." I would often think how right that might actually be. I don't foresee a Squirrel apocalypse, where we are overrun Egyptian plague style, but the end of society might just be something small that you would be ignorant of until.....

What lights your Nerdfire and what was the first thing to turn it into a blazing inferno?

The "Extra Time" Dilemma

The first topic that I would like to approach is the issue that I have to deal with every time I log on or pick up a game. My time is limited. When I turn on a game I have to make very specific choices as to what I want to accomplish during that time. Before WoW that basically consisted of "make it at least to the next check point". Now that I am playing a game that does not have "checkpoints" that question becomes much more mind boggling. There are now expansion goals "Kill the biggest of the bad!", monthly goals "Get X,Y,Z Meta achievement", weekly goal "Run first boss in Karazhan in hopes of Midnight dropping", and daily goals "DO THE DAILIES!!!!". Anything that you do in game outside of these primary goals I am going to call "extra time" i.e. "I have completed the weekly goals, and daily goals.....now what." I have a level 85 Troll Elemental Shaman who is the "main" time sink. He has the mounts, achievements, pets, title, etc. But once I have him 346 geared, have reached the daily and weekly goals then I face "extra time"

Recently I have had to remove one aspect of Warcraft that was taking too much of my time and energy. I am not talking about fishing achievements. No raiding had to go away. Raiding made the game into any other video game where my game time was completely consumed by it. I was either getting ready to raid or raiding. When I logged on my purpose was set, get ready to raid, then raid. After 2 kids and multiple "your playing too much" talks with my wife I am freed to look into other parts of the game long ignored. At first I thought "What am I going to do if I am not raiding 3 nights of the week and preping to raid 4 nights of the week?" Turns out there is more than I can handle especially with the Cata expansion.

I spend about 2/3 of my game time with the Goals and then working on the "extra time" projects. Sometimes I am not sure what I want to do with this time since it is such a precious commodity. Do I work on something that will bring great reward now, or slowing work on bringing alts to level so that I can get their benefit in the near future. Some times I will sit at my character screen mousing over each of my 8 toons (spanning levels 12-85) and thinking about the possibilities of each and trying to figure out what is the best use of the "extra time".

What do you fill this "extra time" with? How do you get the most out of your subscription? What is fun for you, after the "chores" are done?

Divinerath

Why WoW makes for such a great Hobby game

Sticking with the conversation from my earlier post about the different types of game players, I wanted to speak specifically to why it's so easy to be a gamer hobbyist in WoW.  The first and foremost factor is the challenge of the game.  It's really hard to play games as a hobby when the game is easily beaten and I'm thinking specifically of console games like Call of Duty and the like.  You can only run a map and PvP for so long before all luster is lost.  The Warcraft world, specifically the actual size of the world is large enough to occupy your attention for months on end.  For instance, if you wanted to simply explore the planet of Azeroth, it isn't something you can do in a matter of hours, days or even weeks.  If you are going to explore Azeroth, you are looking at a commitment greater than just entertaining yourself, you want this for other reasons.  However, the reason we do things as a hobbyist vary widely however the one similarity that all hobbyist share is that they are willing to commit.

I keep falling back on the example of  hobbyists who build wildly complex and surprisingly accurate ship models inside bottles.  I'm sure this particular hobby has fallen out of style, many who are under 20 probably don't know what I'm talking about (google it, it's mind blowing what people make) but take a second to itemize what kind of skills and patience you would need to make such a thing.  It's probably not overly difficult, but people who are passionate about it, are willing to spend the time.  This is the case with WoW, it's a game designed for all ages, including the very young, but it doesn't patronize it's older players with content that isn't stimulating.  The game requires that you do certain things to progress in the game experience, but it offers so many options to what you do, and how you do it, that it seems to me that the possibilities are endless.  Endless enough that one could play for years and not be able to claim to have done everything the game has to offer.  This simple reason is why the MMO and WoW specifically are so conducive to hobbyist play. 

What are some of your reasons for playing games?  If you are a hobbyist, what are some of your reasons for being a gamer hobbyist?

Gaming as a hobby

The first thing to be said about gaming is that it is as diverse as any other media. Especially in regards to the people who patronize video games.  Gone are the days when you could easily say that a "gamer" is either a 350 pound, 40-something, recluse, with coke-bottle glasses or a 12 year old boy who is just showing signs of puberty as he flames you over the voice communicator.  Don't get me wrong, those two subsets definitely exist, but they have become marginally fewer when compared to other populations.  I've seen and gamed with every type of person from young kids to 70 something grandparents, the blue collar dad, to the mother looking to socialize with other adults while the kids are napping.

Beyond the demographics of gamers, there are some pretty big divides, which leads me to my main point, gaming as a hobby.  I firmly believe that the dynamics of gaming are most lively and dramatic when 3 major types of gamers mix.  

First, the "hardcore" gamer, you know them well.  The ones who treat gaming as work, they are deadly serious about it.  They usually are REALLY good at the games they choose to play and expect everyone else to be as good as them or get out of their way.  They dedicate some pretty obscene number of hours to playing the game.  They are usually the first ones that get on your case when others mess up, and they will be the first to see the end to any game. These types of people are a form of hobby gamer, but in other very important respects they are not.  Most don't get paid to be the douche bags they usually are, and they usually have a deficiency in other aspects of their lives that lead them to focus so intently on playing a game until their computers break.  I know two hardcore gamers and both have neurologic syndroms like Asberger Syndrome and Autism.
It's my opinion that these folks tend to live unhealthy and unbalanced lives, but we will save this subject for a more in-depth post.
Then you have the subject of this blog's interest, the gamer hobbyist. A hobby as defined by the dictionary is: an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.  If asked, most people who game on a regular basis probably would define themselves as a gamer hobbyist.  I, however, disagree.  Gamer hobbyist fit into a very particular set of parameters.  A gamer hobbyist needs to do something else with the majority of their time besides gaming. Simply put, add up the amount of hours you spend doing different things in a week, gaming can't fall into the top 2 to be a hobbyist.  A gamer hobbyist strives to be good at the game, they study, they are patient and they are in it for the long haul.  If you haven't spent more than six months (not continuous time) playing a game, then you aren't a hobbyist.  A hobbyist spends time on the details, like getting the Loremaster title in WoW, it doesn't help you in any way achieve the main purposes of the game, but it certainly enriching to the lore, understanding and experience in the game.  That is a hobbyist.

Lastly, you have the casual gamer.  These folks do NOT spend much time gaming or playing any one game for long, and don't particularly care to study the ins and outs of a game.  They play simply for the enjoyment of the game and the social aspects that exist and they stop when they are bored.  These folks are the most likely to piss off the hardcore guys, and it's my suspicion that these folks represent the vast majority of folks who game.

The fun part of gaming for all these groups is the dynamics, for me how these 3 groups interact is endlessly interesting and we will explore that in it's entirety over time. 

I'll stop here and continue my thoughts later.  Now it's time to hear from you.  What do you think about my definitions?  What would you add or subtract to these definitions?

Jaybles

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to the Looking for Group blog! I wanted to describe the basics of what this blog will be about before we began blogging. First off, the main body of work will be done by two gaming enthusiasts, specifically Warcraft enthusiasts, myself and my best friend Divinerath. The whole reason for making this blog is to fill a niche that we feel is under represented, those of us that see gaming as something worth investing time in as more than just an entertaining way to pass the time. Both Divinerath and myself are grown men who grew up as gamers and see gaming as a hobby, along the same lines as someone who collects stamps, or builds those really cool ships inside bottles. I would argue that investing time in games, though it produces nothing "real" can be just as rewarding as building a ship in a bottle.

Simply put, if you play games as a hobby, something that you invest time in because you are enthusiastic about it, and strive to know it inside and out and be ultimately be as good as you can doing it, this blog is for you.

We will discuss everything under the sun related to gaming, Warcraft, the MMO phenomena and everything under the sun therein.

Lastly, we love feedback. Please participate in the discussions we have and help us improve this thing. We really look forward to discussing gaming, Warcraft and all that jazz :)