Setting the Mood

I’ve heard from several people in the beta that the music of this expansion is the best yet.  I’d had high hopes for it (the music in the game has always done a good job of setting the mood) and I think that this one is no exception.

Now, admittedly, I have yet to see the whole expansion yet (haven’t seen the new high level Cataclysm zones) but I have heard some of the new music in the old world zones.  The first that I heard that definitely caught my attention was the music that’s in the new Gnome starting area, New Tinker Town.  When I first heard the music, my face went :D because it was so upbeat, so tinkery and so right for Gnomes.  Just listening to the video while I get the link is making me smile.  Hee.

However, my favorite song from the soundtrack must be Thaurissan’s Reach – this is the new Ironforge song also, and it feels very Dwarven.  I love the somber, heaving marching sound to it.  It’s strong.  It fits.  And I could probably listen to that on repeat until Lus gets sick.  There are several other tracks that I love on the soundtrack, like Uldum, that I like listening to now and I wonder if I’ll like it better once I can match place to music or if it might change my mind.

The downside for having such great music that can really put you in the mood is that it can be distracting.  *cough*  Further examples: Call of the Elements and Nightsong.  Tauren and Night Elven respectively, they’re very evocative of the race and areas they’re portraying.  I had to talk myself out of both of those potential alts that I’d made in my mind, inspired by the music (though the Tauren was particularly hard to get go of – I love me some Tauren!)

Which areas/music are you loving in Cataclysm so far?

The times, they are a-changin’

So, I’m about a week late, but hey! Cataclysm, huh?

The ironies for this expansion were two-fold for me. One, that I wasn’t getting the Collector’s Edition.  Two, that I was going to a midnight release rather than waiting for it to come in the mail.

I wasn’t as excited for Cataclysm as I had been for BC and Wrath.  I was ecstatic for BC and definitely excited for Wrath.  I was unable to go to any midnight release for BC (a friend managed to procure me the CE at a midnight release where he lived) but for Wrath, Lus was on a job with crazy long hours and so he wouldn’t have been able to function the next day if I had dragged him to a midnight release.  Despite my seeming apathy for Cataclysm, two of my managers were going to the midnight release at a game store and invited me along.  So… I figured why not.  Not like I had anything better to do with my Monday night!

Admittedly, I felt pretty silly going to a midnight release (after which, you are supposed to rush home, frantically install then fight server queues in order to play your main and race to level cap!1!!one!)  And… I had no main to play!  As I addressed before, I’m no longer playing Anea and for about a year, I’ve been playing alt after alt, only a few of which had made it to 70.  So… I would pretty much be rushing home, frantically installing then fighting no server queues (I got lucky) to log in and… debate about which alt to play.  As per usual.  Not really “special”, eh?

Be that as it may – the changes are still there.  Massive changes.  I had heard about the changes to Ashenvale (one of my favorite places in the game) but hadn’t seen them, since I never opt into Betas.  My first instinct after logging in was to go see the damage and changes to the world – that actually seemed to make most sense, more-so than rolling a Worgen or Goblin.  I logged into Anea and went to check out Auberdine, since it seemed like that wouldn’t affect me as much as Ashenvale would… wrong.  Totally wrong.  Auberdine is no more and now, there’s some new place called Lor’Danel.  And even that is still a mess, compared to what the area used to look like.  The zone is absolutely changed, people are dead – you can’t even travel down the zone safely.  Honeystout fell several times into crevices and the river because the road was ruptured and washed away in a flood.

Right before writing this post, I happened to see a commercial on TV for Cataclysm.  It said, “Everything you know about World of Warcraft… HAS CHANGED!”

That’s occurred to me at one time or another, and it’s definitely true.  I’ve noticed while I was questing that I can’t put my questing pants on and sail through a zone like I’m used to.  There’s a change in the flow of quests (most people think it’s for the better) and I can’t say that I like it so far.  At least for zones that I know knew like the back of my hand.  My groove is all off.  It’s not that I mind reading the new quests – I definitely don’t.  It’s that I feel like trying to run off and kill tons of mobs, get a tons of quests done then hand them all in at once.  Free rein.  Now though?  I’m tethered to little spots, doing a few quests, turning those in, then moving on to another spot.  As several people had said, it’s very linear.  But… I liked my circular routes of knocking stuff out at my leisure and in the best way possible that I’ve found over years of questing on alt after alt.

So, that knowledge that we’ve gained about the world?  Which zones are appropriate for which level, where is best to farm certain ores/herbs, where is best for which fish, what zone to go to next for ease of questing?  Gone.  The quests and their requisite mobs/NPCs?  Who knows.  Not everything has changed, no.  But enough has changed that I feel I need to constantly check to make sure I know where I’m going or that advice that I’m giving is right.

But they’re right – everything I knew about the game has changed.  Years worth of knowledge is lost and changed.  While I’m trying to embrace all the newness (that’s the whole point of this expansion, right?) I’m trying not to feel like I’m back at square one.

The Prodigal Blogger Returneth

… or somesuch.

So, I’m back.  After much hemming and hawing about the whole blog thing (which the majority of you weren’t subjected to – and for those that were, I’m sorry) here is a blog.  That I am writing.  It’s been months since I said I was taking a small break and a small break turned into this not-small thing that involved me writing down a ton of ideas but not blogging them and also ignoring my RSS reader (it wasn’t you, it was me).

However, I’m writing the words.  They have a place to be read.  Things ought to sort themselves out from here, right?

You may have noticed that there’s a Dwarf in the header.  You may have noticed that Anea’s not in it.  After much internal debate, I will not be blogging as Anea anymore.  She’s been my online WoW-alias for over two years but she hasn’t been played in a very long time and she won’t be played again until and unless Lus decides to start playing again.  (Which won’t happen.)  So… I shall be taking up a new alias, of the new priest that I have been playing: Honeystout.  Her lovely countenance is the one you see in the header.  You’ll love her, she bakes.

(Speaking of which, I apologize for the extremely uninteresting header image, but that’s the best I could do.  I’m using a screenshot that I took on my phone using the Armory app, since my iPhone takes better screenshots than my computer does, by a long shot.  Shameful.  However, I may be getting a new computer after the new year, so the sad state of my screenshot quality may be remedied!)

While I may have gotten the guts to get the blog actually up and a post uh, posted – there is still lots to do.  Blogroll to reinstate, links to be made, About pages to attempt to write… so things will be under construction for a bit while I try to get back into the blogging swing of things.

The usual inane rambling you’re used to from me will still be here, plus perhaps some RP stuff I may try to write (since I am now playing on an RP server with certain other Dwarves!)  Those of you who knew me back in my Holy Discipline days may recognize this template!  See, not everything changes!