Raiding with Meyr: Pugging

Since on Sundays I raid on WoW and I want to talk about some aspects and highlights of raiding, I figure what better day to do this than on Sunday.

Pugging. What is "pugging" or "a pug?"

Not this.

A "PUG" stands for "Pick Up Group," meaning that the group is not prearranged of people you know. It's random people, that share a similar goal for raiding or grouping together. Pugs, however, are notorious for being all sorts of bad and awful. Because you don't know the people beforehand they have the potential to majorly suck. With a prearrgaed group you know the strengths and weakness of the people you play with, you can assume a certain level of competence, and you know if they have connection issue and the like. Also, with a set group you start to get to know people and conversion blossoms.

So, why am I talking about this? Lately our Sunday raid attendance has been abysmal lead us to pug more and more people to fill in raid spots. The content were working on has 10 man groups. Lately we've been pugging between 3 and 5 of those spots. Tonight my brother and I joined a raid that was essentially a complete pug. It was interesting to say the least. Our raid leader had a brother who was undergeared for the instance. We wiped (everyone died, forcing us to retry the fight) on the easiest fight in the game currently Gunship Battle, which to show its ease had been dubbed "Lootship" (which "loot" refers to gear, much like pirate loot). The reason we wiped was because we tried to do the encounted on a harder difficultly, but it took fours tries before the leader decided "Hey, maybe we can't do this on the harder setting. Especially since we're carrying the weight of my brother." Although come to think of it I don't think she used those words per se. In the Lady Deathwhisper encounter the tank didn't trust my kiting and almost got himself killer. But still most of the fights did go smoothly, which makes me appreciate even more raiding with people I know.

Blizzcon, Baby!

I'm going to Blizzcon this year! I got my tickets this morning. Although I will admit that I was worried that we wouldn't get tickets after seeing how busy the queue was earlier this week. Yikes! However, due to some mad clicking skills from a handful of us we now have enough tickets for everyone.

Is is October yet?

Raiding

It's just weird not having to blog everyday. Like yesterday, I didn't blog (or Saturday technically) but, it was because I told myself not too. Because while I like the idea of blogging more often, I don't want it to be something that I'll get tried of. I blog because I enjoy blogging,  if I don't like it then there wouldn't be a point in doing it. 

Also, as a background, I raid with my WoW guild on Sundays (and some Fridays) and I'm very happy since these last couple of weeks we've been making progress in ICC. Although I would still really like to finish Ulduar or do some accheivemets like Undying, but I'm worried that it'll be hard to get people to go back. Also, it's nice to be getting more gear. Like my Battered Hilt (thank you Xen!!) which along with Children's Week I have to find time to do. 

More Video Rambling

Another Sunday; another Vlog. Thanks for all the response from the first video!

Mental Digression: Sports and Video Games

Having just showered and gotten back to my room I stood in front of the mirror on my closet to brush out my hair. I hear noise outside of my dorm coming from the hallway but it takes several minutes before I start to process what I’m actually listening to. I start to listen to the words-- it sounds like a TV-- a sports broadcast or commentary of some kind. Not being the sports type my mind wanders from there.

I think about why I don’t have any sort of interest in sports. Maybe its because I’m not very coordinated or athletic. Maybe I didn’t’ have sports really in my childhood—sure I played soccer but I never loved it or even enjoyed it that much as I got older. None of my family ever would sit down and watch “the game” or any game for that matter.

My mind  then wanders to why other people like sports. I have many friends that enjoy sports (most—actually, all of whom I know through WoW). Is it because they used to play this sport or watch it with family? Is it an admiration of the athleticism? Then I think about my high school, FIRST robotics team (short version: these competitions are more like competitive games or sports than battling robots)—I was passionate about that and I loved to see our robot compete and even more than that I loved to see our robot do well.

Maybe that’s what it’s like for people who enjoy watching their favorite sports.

So, in my mind these types of robotics competitions are like a sport in many aspects. Which leads me into a sudden flashback I had.

Over a year ago, now, as I finished my summer internship at NASA I found myself with a lot more free time. Even though school had started back up I had enough time to be able to start playing WoW again. Over the summer my Guild had found a group or alliance that they started raiding weekly with. As soon as possible I too started raiding with this group. I already knew about half the people in real life so the rest of the group soon knew that I actually am a female WoW player. I started to come week to week and would listen to the conversations on Vent (voice chat program) there was generally quite a bit of sports talk, as many members would watch the games as we raided on Sunday evenings.

On my first or second week as a part of this group, we were clearing our way to the Maiden of Virtue and the bulk of the group was talking about sports to which I replied at some point:

“Robotics is a sport, yes?”

Then, Tyr (who had almost no idea who I was at that point) responded something to the effect of, “Yanow, I think I’m liking you more and more.”

Now, a year later that makeshift raiding alliance has become a single, formal Guild. And some of those same people I met then I now consider close friends, even if we’ve never met in person.