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.

Jinxed

As everyone on this blog should be aware, I'm a geek and a nerd. I also love wearing T-shirts. So, my love of Jinx clothing is obvious. Linked on my sidebar, their website features shirts to please every sort of geek and gamer. My favorites tend to be the shirts they design for Blizzard games. I placed an order earlier this week when they released the new Starcraft designs and it came in today.

Apparently I have a thing for purple.

Crafting Stars

I've talked about Starcraft 2 before, and this is probably not the last time I'll talk about it. However, since the release last week I don't feel that I've really done it justice. I think that's because I was spending most of my time actually playing the game. So here I go...

Starcraft 2 features both a compelling single player story campaign and dynamic multiplayer insanity. I personally love the single player part, for two main reasons 1) I'm a sucker for a well crafted story (and Blizzard delivers) and 2) I'm not very good at the multiplayer/I don't like playing against other people (I don't really like any sort of PvP (Player v. Player) games).

On a similar note using the Map Editor people are starting to create and release custom maps. Meaning... new Tower Defense games!!!

Starcraft 2sday

Today Tuesday July 27th, Starcraft 2 was released. Which I spoke about before when the Beta was out. Now the full game is available including the campaign which was not tested in the Beta release (ei.. the part I'm most excited about. Well, that and the Tower Defense maps)So, if I hole myself up in my room; it's okay, I'll be back-- eventually.

Geeky Design

Second in this little series I'm doing. Is a picture story the Admiral linked t me a while back. Its a sotry based on the game Dwarf fortress, however the art speaks for itself:

The rest of the images can be viewed here.

Holiday Cheer

In World of Warcraft at different times during the year Blizard honors real life holidays by creating corisponding in game events, such as Chirstmas and Halloween. As an incentive to complete the accheivements for all the holidays over the year, there is a nifty mount as a reward-- the Violet Proto Drake (a purple dinosaury dragon).

For me, I've been working on actually get this mount this last year and finally with Children's Week completed. And one of the achievements in particular required some player vs. player (PvP) components. And I happen to hate PvP. Although with the help of my brother and the fact that like 60% of people were also trying to get the achievement done, it was mostly painless. 

Who is Stevie Wonder?

I mentioned a month or so ago I had played the Starcraft 2 Beta at a friends house. Well, fast forward a month later and Blizzard is distributing Beta keys like crazy (and have a mac client available). So, thanks to my friend Nick (Hi, Nick!!) I now have a Beta key. So, I've been playing as often as I've had time today. And let me tell you, I still absolutely suck. I'm better at Gears of War 2-- a shooting game. Imagine that! I'm working on it-- although it would be nice to actually see some improvement in my game, but I'll give it time before I make any rash decisions. Anyone who wants to play (read: have a good laugh) I'm Meyr.lancer.

[Oh, the title? Inside joke.]

Story Extravaganza: Wrap Up

Now that I've finished my story. I'm kinda sad that its over. It was a whole lot of fun. And I'm very, very pleased with all the stories (especially mine (I never said I wasn't biased)). I think everyday I wrote one of the stories  started the writing with no clue where the story would take me. And some days, like my conclusion, were tough. But I definitely enjoyed this and I hope that it also improved my writing abilities. Check out the other blogs if you haven't already. And, internet, I hope you enjoyed this little adventure from normal blogging.

Also on a different note, today marks my four-year anniversary of playing WoW. Which means Meyr turned 4, which in video game years is like 80 years old. Tell me I'm not a nerd?

Gears

While I am a huge geek, I've never been a big gamer (yes, there is a difference).  The most gaming I do regularly is playing World of Warcraft, a lot... and for about 4 years now, (exactly, on the 14th). But I don't really play other games. Largely (I've been liking that word lately, I don't know why. It's not like it fun to say or anything. I digress.)  I don't play other games because I don't have access to them, as opposed to a disinterest.

So...
Last week I was visiting Rob (Elaron, my DM, and David's brother for those who don't know him) with my brother and ended up playing Xbox.  More specifically Gears of War 2. And let me tell you-- I absolutely suck at FPS games. Like hardcore, noobtastic suck like sparkly vampires. It was amusing to say he least. After a couple hours I was starting to get "not awful" though.

Continuum

 Generally I find that web-based flash games are boring. Or in the case of Facebook games, they're pointless and/or soul-stealing wastes of time.

However, I was just introduced to a flash game that I do enjoy.

Continuity

Basically, its a mixture of a platform and a puzzle game, also it pretty addictive. Anyone who's interested can play the game at their website.

In with yesterday's reviewing:
6 Meyrlings out of 6.

Crafty

Starcraft 2 is pretty AHsome.

Freelancing

And now for the text-heavy blogging you've come to expect from me.

Valentine's Day is tradationally a day for boyfriends-- for girlfriends-- for spouses-- for couples -- for love. And while I am more-or-less happily single, I love Freelancer*.  I love D&D style, pen-and-paper RPGs. I love the interaction and play of half a dozen people coordinating and thinking through danger. And I love being nerdy and having other nerds to be with.

So, yesterday despite sharing the date with Valentine's Day, we were supposed to play Freelancer. And as I implyed above this involves getting half a dozen people together for several hours. This, however, didn't happen. When playing we can't always get all the players, generally we will play with anywhere from 3-8 players (and 1 GM). The holiday prevented us from being able get the game started with a significant lack of people and getting stuck spending a good deal of time trying to name our ship. Completely changing gears we went out for tacos, and instead switched to video games. And spent the rest of the evening happily engaged by Starcraft.

Not the ideal, nor traditional Valentine's... but you could do a lot worse. And in the sum of the whole weekend I was able to see a lot of friends, debut a Freelancer character sheet, and roam the galaxy a little.


*Freelancer: A pen-and-paper role playing game (RPG) or tabletop RPG set in a dystopian, Sci Fi universe. The gameplay is similar to D&D and has the participants describe their character's actions through speech and outwit situations presented. The ingame results of the player actions are decided by a system of rules and, to create a sense of randomness and realism, dice rolls. The narration of the story is supplies by the Galaxy Master (GM) who creates the setting, drama, and conflict for the characters and voices the enemies and non-playered characters (NPC). Leading to virtually unlimited outcomes and scenarios.

Pet Project Teaser

A couple of posts back I vented my frustration of needing to do something creative and having no clue where to even start. But, earlier this week (Thursday-ish I believe) I had an idea.  I was looking at the WoW Fan Art Section and an artist on Deviantart known as Pepperwolf (his work basically speaks for itself, but also in his gallery he broke down one of his pieces and described how he did each part) and I knew I could something similar... maybe not as spectacular, but I wanted to try. How did I end up with this particular subject? I'm not really sure; I just knew I didn't want to draw paint (painting is really closer to what I'm actually doing) something humanoid, so this was a perfect fit for what I was looking for.

But before I posted anything I wanted to have something to show and more importantly I wanted to make sure that I was going to follow through and actually start this and get somewhere. And I did, I think it coming along quite nicely. There's still a lot left to go though.

For those not familiar with WoW just note that it's basically a Tree-Person. Those familiar with WoW will recognize this a Resto Druid.

Cinderella

With my Guild on WoW I "raid" (read: get together and cooperatively play video games with friends) on Sunday evenings. So this particular evening I walked to get food before we started. And to do this I walk up two set of statirs in order to get to the Dinning Commons, this is ignoring the stairs I go down just to get out of  my dorm building. The first set of stairs is a longer set while the second is only a few steps.  But this story is not about my journey to get to the Commons.

This is a story about leaving the Commons. I walk out the door and reach that second set of stairs. As I step down the first step I don't manage to simply "lose" my shoe on the step all Cinderella style-- I literally kick my shoe down the remaining steps. Very graceful. 

And to clarify if you're wondering how the shoe came off in the first place this is what it looks like:

And yes, I do wear socks with my flats. Deal with it.

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. 

Part Three: The Conclusion

Yesterday I continued the  "Multipart Posting Spectacular. So today I bring you the conclusion to the series. 


I suppose I got a little ahead of myself yesterday (Don't worry, the cake is not lie... I just have some backtracking to do first). Before I was able to frost and decorate the cakes I still had to remove them from the pans and stack  them together. The first cake came out cleaning while the second (shown here on top) had a portion of the bottom stuck in the pan. In order to make a  single cake out of the two  I had to do two things. First I had to carve a flat surface to join the two  and join them together with a layer of frosting. And second I carved around the edges to make a smoother more continuos surface to frost. It was fairly simple I grabbed a serrated knife (in this case its actually a steak knife but it worked wonderfully) and set about cutting and sawing. I worked on a plate so that I could easily lift and flip the cake onto the serving plate. This also gave me an opportunity to taste the cake from the scraps. 

So now that we're all caught up-- the finished cake. 

And thus concludes the  "Multipart Posting Spectacular.  I hope you all enjoyed it.

Part Two: Baking and Frosting

In yesterday's post I began a special series I dubbed the "Multipart Posting Spectacular." So here is today's continuation. 


For David's cake I decided to bake a "yellow cake" mix-- partially because he likes vanilla flavored cakes and partially because it was the only type of cake mix I had. At some point I'd like to try making my own cake's from scratch, but for now the boxed mixes are convenient and rather tasty. So I gathered my supplies started to work while the oven preheated.

I whipped up the cake and poured the batter into the pans.

Then they hit the oven. I set a timer and approximately 30 minutes later I pulled the cakes out.

 

While I did not make a cake from scratch in favor a boxed mix, I did make my own frosting. And I must say that I learned quite a bit in the process.

I used a recipe that called for:

     1 cup shortening

     2 teaspoons vanilla
     4 cups powdered sugar
     4 tablespoons milk

From that I upped everything but the shortening, for taste and texture. 

As I began to color the frosting I realized two things: 

1.) I didn't have enough food color to make red frosting (so it turned out pink and actually a little darker than the first picture).

2.) food coloring is water-based and doesn't mix well with the oil based shortening (as a solution this recipe would need some sort of emulsifier (eggs for example) so that the two would combine better).

After mixing the frosting a lovely shade of pink I spread it over the entire cake and mixed the remainder into a darker color that was trying to black but ended up a grayish-purple and put that into a piping bag. I piped the words and a border on to the cake and "attached the characters."

Thank you for reading Part Two. Tomorrow in the conclusion, I'll reveal the finished cake. Stay tuned. 

Part One: Cake Design

Sorry for the delay in in posts and the somewhat secrecy (I couldn't have my surprise cake design ruined). Without further ado, I present you a multipart posting spectacular-- featuring drama, intrigue, and frosting.  

This past weekend a good friend of mine, David, celebrated his 20th birthday. And for some reason I decided to bake a cake him (it might have so something to do with my fondness for decorating cupcakes).

Thus began my dissent into frosting.

To start I decided to stack two round 8 inch cakes to create the shape of the cake. This gave me a canvas but I still had to come up with a design. And, of course, when I offered to decorate a cake I had no idea what I wanted it to look like. Eventually I decided to feature and image of David's character from WoW, Maynar, and my character's pet cat, Cindy. Here are some of the sketches I came up with.

At first I wanted to use this cake as an experiment with fondant,  but I just didn't have time to learn a new medium. So I instead decided to make the figures on paper and attach them to the cake.

I also planned to pipe a simple message that read something to the effect of "Happy Birthday, David!" However, all this was subject to change...

Check back tomorrow for Part Two.