Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Bit of History

My journey through the World of Warcraft started in 2007.  At the time I lived in a home with two good friends who just happened to have very similar gaming tastes.  WoW came into the house through a fairly unlikely means.  Oddly enough, the catalyst that got us playing was the Warcraft episode of Southpark.  On that fateful day I rolled a hunter named Lighthawk, which was my gamertag of choice back then.

In the following four years I've enjoyed my time playing quite a bit.  The two friends I started with hung around, sometimes in the same guild as me, sometimes not.  Among all the reasons I've ever cited for "why I play World of Warcraft," the friendships I've forged with other players is always the first.

Over the course of the last four years, I've played a lot of Warcraft.  Raiding is absolutely the end objective of all my efforts.  Out of all 12 (soon to be 13) tiers of content, the only ones I've actually successfully cleared are 4, 7(25 man), 9(25 man), 10(10 man), and 11(10 man.)  Of the four guilds I've belonged to, none of them could be categorized as progression guilds.  For me, that's okay.  The kind of player I'd like to be is generally at odds with the kind of social life I'd like to have.  Again, I'm okay with that.  Mostly.

Out of those five tiers of content, I've raided as a marksman hunter, a resto shaman, an elemental shaman, an assassination Rogue, a holy paladin, and a ret paladin..  As the banner on this blog suggests, my current main is a holy paladin.  I named him Jacklalane after the late and quite famous "Juice Man."  Lalane was a fitness/health buff, so I find it a fitting tribute (if I can call it that) to play a healer with his name.  Most people don't realize the reference, but that's cool.  It's nice and easy for people to say "Jack" on vent, so that works for me.  My first real raiding main was a hunter named Kiadimundi and NOBODY could say that name on vent.  I ended up with the nickname "Kia" as a result.

At present I'm an active member of an (Alliance) ten man raiding guild On Kael'Thas called Cereal Killers.  The guild was created by a guy I've known in game for almost the entirety of my experience.  We're a patchwork of players who are generally pretty profane and always fun-loving.  CK is another guild that I wouldn't call "bleeding edge," but we're doing all right in Firelands.  Some may laugh at our 6/7 normal-mode progress (especially after nerfs,) but all things considered I think we are proud of our success.  Membership is low and most weeks it's a crap shoot as to who will be participating in raids.  I myself am only currently raiding one out of three days a week.  We're making progress on Rag, but it's difficult because we generally don't have a lot of stuns and knockbacks.  If not for the add phases, I'd say we would have the firelord on farm by now.

Despite the fact that we're not running hardmodes, I always enjoy my raid time with CK.  Healing as a holy paladin suits me so well.  Post Firelands nerf I've started contributing more as a DPS in raid, which I also love.  For me raiding is somewhat of a competition against others in the group who have similar roles.  That might be why I've never really gravitated toward tanking.  Contributing toward kills while excelling (read: topping meters) vs other players is a big part of the fun I have raiding.

The purpose of this blog is going to be simple and straight forward.  I'm just here to share my thoughts.  I don't really theorycraft or get into lore.  That said, Warcraft has been a big part of my life for the last few years and I do enjoy the blogging community that has grown from the game.  I'd very much like to be a part of it.  Although I'm not a member of a wildly successful guild, I hope I can contribute something to the WoW bloggersphere.  Please always feel free to comment, but if you're here to troll, put people down, or contribute negatively, don't expect anything other than removed comments.  This is about fun, sharing, and collaborating.  I hope to see at least some traffic, and maybe some comments.  If you've come this far, thank you.  I hope this space embodies something interesting for those players who are like me. 


2 comments:

  1. Why do Trolls get such a bad rep?

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  2. From Wikipedia:
    Etymology-
    The verb troll originates from Old French troller, a hunting term. The noun troll comes from the Old Norse word for a mythological monster.[7]
    In modern English usage, the verb troll is a fishing technique of slowly dragging a lure or baited hook from a moving boat.[8] The word evokes the trolls of Scandinavian folklore and children's tales, where they are often creatures bent on mischief and wickedness.
    The contemporary use of the term is alleged to have appeared on the Internet in the late 1980s,[9] but the earliest known example is from 1992.[10] Early non-internet related use of trolling for actions deliberately performed to provoke a reaction can be found in the military; by 1972 the term trolling for MiGs was documented in use by US Navy pilots in Vietnam.[11]

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