How I Feel About World of Warcraft Right Now

DC Universe Online Character

I started playing World of Warcraft in the middle of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and played constantly until the middle of Mists of Pandaria. Somewhere along the way, I lost the first guild full of people I thought were friends but we rebuilt and I made a whole new bunch of friends. It wasn't the same though, the new bunch were lovely people but we didn't have an obvious leader so we just poodled along, doing various bits in game together in a very haphazard way.

Eventually I found myself so wrapped up in gold making and blogging about the Auction House, that I began to feel my guild obligations were intruding and I found more and more excuses not to do group content. I let my subscription lapse early last summer but I resubbed for a month just before Warlords of Draenor was released. I got my Paladin main to level 94 and my warrior to 92 before my month ran out and I've been meaning to resub ever since.

WoW just doesn't have the pull it used to have for me now though. I haven't played since before Christmas - not through any conscious decision but more because I am distracted by trying to build an online income for my future and if I'm not working or reading about that, then I'm vegging out in front of Netflix, crocheting like a crazy old lady!

My Baby Bank Alt

I thought I'd resub when the WoW tokens became available but I haven't yet. I begrudge paying almost 40,000 gold for a token when I can get one for 20,000 gold on my US account! Unfortunately, I don't have Warlords of Draenor on my US account and I really don't want to pay out for that until I know I am going to play! It's a catch 22 situation - pay for WoD on US account & use cheap tokens or pay out in gold instead to play on my EU account.

The other thing that's suffered by me not playing is my podcast with Marcus Ty (the Journal of Marcus Ty) - I just don't feel right being on a show about gold making in World of Warcraft when I haven't played for almost 6 months! I think I am going to bite the bullet and go with my EU account though - I love podcasting with Marcus and once I have the current crochet project finished, I'm going to have to give it a break. Anything can become an addiction for me it seems so I have to pull back when I start accumulating a stash of materials that I'll probably never get through!

Will I start writing again on my AH Addict blog? I honestly don't know. I haven't kept in touch with the current gold making situation but from the few tweets I see in my Twitter feed, it looks like a tough proposition these days. If I find that I am making gold fairly easily then I will probably write about it but I doubt I'll ever write as frequently as I used to. That's a shame though because I am proud of what that blog became for a while and it's sad to see it just sitting there, unloved by me these days.

I haven't stopped gaming completely though - I've been playing Heroes of the Storm with Cold on his days off and some of the free games I review for One Minute Gaming have caught me too. Whoever it was who suggested Cooking Fever has a lot to answer for! I just opened my 5th restaurant in that mini ipad game and I can't see me stopping anytime soon!

Cold and I have also dipped back into Titanfall and Path of Exile recently. Titanfall was fun again after 5 months of not playing - I cannot believe how quickly you lose the skills so I was absolutely awful at it! We've just downloaded DC Universe Online to give that a try later today. My superhero is gorgeous even if I do say so myself and I love the character build options. The fighting and movement stuff is going to give me problems though I think!

I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow probably!

(500 Words a Day challenge, Day 3 Word Count - 711)

****************

Check out my other projects
Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

and my photography site
HVS PHotography

****************

P is for Podcasts & Podcasting

I've been listening to World of Warcraft podcasts since about 2010 when I first got interested in gold making and started widening my horizons by joining Twitter. I'd never even heard of podcasts until then but there they were, enticing links plopped down into my Twitter feed which I just had to go and check out! I have a small list of my favorites on the left hand side of this blog but there are loads of others to check out.

My consumption of podcasts is sporadic and my tastes have definitely changed over the years. Initially I listened to general WoW ones like Twisted Nether and All Things Azeroth which were already established at that time but I stumbled over Girls Gone Wow, Auction House Junkies and Rep Grind Radio fairly early too. They were very different in style with explicit tags and I soon found that their irreverent comments and humour suited me better. Sadly Rep Grind Radio and Auction House Junkies are no longer produced but Rez (RGR) teamed up with Cold (AHJ) and later Nonmail to become EGP.

I love guesting on shows and have been lucky enough to be invited to quite a few shows now too - most recently, EGP, Girls Gone WoW, Behind The Avatar, The Chaos Portal and the Journal of Marcus Ty. In fact, Marcus and I hit it off so well, I kind of invited myself to be a co-host!

Working with Marcus is always fun and when I started writing this, I had to go back & check - I started on Episode 8 and we are up to episode 26 already! We're a fortnightly gold making show which is just as well because Real Life is kicking our butts timewise at the moment. I'm not sure we'd manage a weekly show.

We cover any news that relates to gold making and try to find gold making angles to other news as well. Then we go back and chat about various established gold making ideas and methods - we both feel strongly about helping or teaching newer gold makers rather than being cutting edge experimental types!

I even had an idea for my own show but the timing wasn't right for me and like all good ideas, someone else came up with it too and actually got it going. I'm still kicking myself over that but I felt I wouldn't have been able to maintain it properly and with hindsight, it turns out my gut instinct at that time was correct.

Medical and financial constraints hit hard just after I had my idea - I didn't have a decent headset for starters and my PC was too old to handle audio file editing. I know I would have wanted a proper recording set-up, including a suitable microphone like the Blue Snowball everyone seems to use. I still only have a headset but I've upgraded it from the grocery store one I had before! I bought the Creative Fata1ity headset as it had good reviews and was much more in my price range. I like it and can wear it for 5 hours at a time without getting uncomfortable.

I'm still toying with the idea of doing my own show (Podcasting for Dummies anyone?) but I need a good idea first! In the meantime, I've been asked to do a couple of bumpers - it seems my American friends love my British accent! I'm also thinking about joining Fiverr and doing some voice work! I might as well try & earn a few dollars whilst I'm learning, right? I'm definitely continuing my One Minute Gaming segment and learning more about editing and producing decent audio too. Will I ever do my own show? I really don't know but I think I'd like to, maybe, one day!

****************