Coming up to the end of the year

This is actually flagged as a Shared Topic for December 21, but pretty much everyone is answering it already. I’ve been thinking about my answers to the questions a lot (because it’s way more interesting than cramming for finals) and I can’t wait 2 weeks.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Oh my! 2009 was such a busy WoW year! At the beginning of the summer, I took the game to the next level and worked on my 10 man leading skills for a few months. Which is a funny story for another question. I also started a WoW blog! And, if anyone reading this has followed my adventures over the past month they’ll be very surprised to hear that, I switched guilds in early November, which, for me, IS A HUGE DEAL.

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

The beer garden in Dalaran. I mean it. My first reaction upon stumbling upon it was: OMG WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THERES A BEER GARDEN IN DALARAN??? (Because, clearly, if I’m not aware of something, it’s someone else’s fault for not informing me.) Since that fateful moment, it’s been my logging out zone for most of my characters. I take all my gimmicky screenshots there. I go there when I’m waiting on something. If a /whois Rykga query shows me in Dalaran, I’m most likely hopping on tables in the beer garden.

Sure, Ulduar was lovely. Sure, the penguins near the Argent Tournement area make good buddies. But the beer garden is my quiet little corner of WoW and I almost always have it all to myself. Which is good because I hate sharing.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

I don’t know! 2009 was such a good WoW year that it’ll be hard to beat. I kinda wish Dragons would be a playable race though. I want to be a Dragon!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Eh… I could be a bitch and say “Well, it would be Loremaster but I’m so obsessive when I level that finishing up those last 50 quests I missed really wasn’t a big deal, teehee.” Oh wait, I just said it. Oops.

Awkwardly, I have to say this blog was my biggest WoW achievement. I started blogging because writing stuff was my weakness. Not that I was a horrible writer, but I hated writing. As much as I love narrating stories to myself, words don’t come easily to me. In school, any class that included papers was doomed to be a nightmare. I can’t tell you how many papers have triggered epic sobbing fits. So I thought to myself, hey you like to talk about WoW, how about you practice writing about it?

Well, this semester I had a class with a paper to write: in 2000 words, criticize the accessibility and readability of a drug information patient handout of your choice. I’m proud to say that after barely an hour, I had a draft submitted to my shocked teammate. I had so many ideas and the words were flowing. The feedback we got on that paper was glowing. Even though it has very little to do with page layout and wording of Reactine information leaflets, I totally blame WoW blogging for my success in that course.

Another ah-ha moment was when I wrote my Insecure Nervewreck post. I was really worried about publishing it. Super personal posts are hard to pull off. Too much goofing around distracts from your message, but seriousness gives an impression of woe is me. Would people “get it”? I buried the post with a theory-oriented paladin post as fast I could to bring attention elsewhere. Oh, but they got it. The feedback I received was incredible, both from people who could relate as well as from people saying “I can’t relate but I understand”. I can’t think of anything more flattering.

What was your biggest failure?

Someone once told me that the difference between people who get far in life and those who don’t isn’t necessarily how many successes they’ve had, but how they view failure. I don’t know if that has anything to do with video games, but I don’t take chances. I’ve trained myself to erase the notion of “failure” from my mind, regardless of context. I wanna get far in life dammit!

I replaced “failure” with “things I can learn to do better”. Since I enjoy learning, I figured it was a more productive outlook. And the WoW thing I can definitely learn to do better is raid leading (SEE! this is the question that story was for). I had no problems with the logistical nightmare it was to organize two nights of 10 man raids in a guild of people with extremely limited schedules, but I’m way too nonchalant to have any authority once we’re inside an instance. “Um, kill stuff, don’t stand in crap or we’ll laugh at you. Um. Um. Pay attention to DBM.” I answered questions with “use your common sense”. Yeah. It was still fun, but thankfully I don’t think I’ll be needing to raid lead any time in the near future.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Um. Cheezy to say, but the guildie meetups I had this year were amazing. (As those I’ve had in past years have been as well.) I know I’m weird, but I love meeting people off the internet. I get crazy excited whenever I’m traveling near the hometown of an online friend. I think there were only two this year, one in San Francisco and one in Toronto, but both were exceptional. Yes, I know I’m supposed to get excited about game stuff, but what make the game so much fun are the people you play with. (Awwwww :))

What do you wish you’d done less of?

I don’t know! I don’t think I overindulged on anything in game this year. I’m a very disciplined person, I am, I am.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I don’t like “or”, I’m going to say “and”.

I read so many WoW blogs for so many different reasons. Since I discovered the WoW blogosphere, I’m continuously amazed by the quality of writing that is out there. I hate to play favorites (which you can tell by the outdated blogroll) and rarely give link love or participate in circle jerks because I feel bad for the 4953489723 other blogs that I adore.

I do have to say Snottydin has a dear place in my heart because I can, like, totally relate. I’m, like, totally a grl irl lol n i can, like totally solo heal wow lol w/ my like holy pala lol rofl. I believe Tamarind is the initial mastermind behind Snottydin, but it seems that every post is contributed by a different person. I hope to see much, much more of Snotty!

If I was to name a non-parady blog that gets me giddy whenever there’s updates, it would be Forbearance. And not just because they were one of the first blogs to send me traffic (I’ll admit I squealed like a little kid the first time I noticed incoming traffic from dpspaladin). Jong and Megan have given me writer envy since the very first day I discovered their respective blogs. Them working together is just OMG. They’re both brilliant in their own way and the chemistry they have when they share the scene is second to none. They have this clever knack for covering up wisdom with hilarity and I know I’m in for some thought provoking laughs whenever I notice they have a new post up. While they don’t really cover paladin information per say, they capture “the essence of paladinning” so well (in my opinion of course) that Forbearance should be required reading for any new paladin.

Podcast, Twisted Nether Blogcast, hands down. I don’t think I would have caught the blogging bug if not for TNB. I try to make it to the live shows, but they usually record in the middle of the friggin night, which makes it hard to be in the chatroom. While the large scale podcasts are great too (and I’m a podcast junkie, I listen to all the ones I can find), I love hearing the voices of people I read every day. I’m also way more interested in the people behind the blogs I read than the actual subject matter of said blogs (yeah, I’m creepy that way). To me, a good blog post is like a letter from a dear friend and listening to TNB is like listening to dear friends telling you a story.

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

It’s not exactly a WoW lesson, but I learned it while playing WoW. When it’s time to leave, it’s time to leave. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’ll stick around somewhere they don’t belong because of the familiarity. Being stressed out, whiny and miserable feels like a small price to pay to avoid a change in scenery.

I’m not going to lie, it was hell for about a week. I don’t do well with goodbyes, with new people, with new situations. But I’m my own worst enemy. When the whirlwind died down, there was only relief. Had I known I would have felt this great afterwards, I wouldn’t have thought twice before jumping.

AND ON THAT NOTE

I’m not going to tag anyone by name because I’ve played enough favorites for tonight. If you read all my answers to all these questions, then clearly you are awesome and so I tag YOU!

Explore posts in the same categories: General WoW

Tags: 2009, Blogging, memes, Paladin, writing

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