When Cataclysm hit the store shelves, I found myself picking the game up on day one, once again. I was pretty engaged with Nerv (which has now transferred to Blackrock) on Ainx, but remained in Still Life on my Paladin and raided with the small, more casual 10-man crew on Kilrogg. Although Cataclysm was initially pretty fun and Nerv did reasonably well at progressing through content, it didn't have the same feel as prior expansions. On February 8th 2011 I had to make a week-long trip out of the country and when I came back, Still Life 10-man fell apart due to lack of interest. Almost everyone cancelled their subscription and went to play other games. Nerv was still together, but only for another week - just enough time to get me a Nefarian kill. I lost interest in WoW as well and sure enough my subscription followed.
Over the next few months I played some more Rift, delved into Star Wars: The Old Republic for a month, played some non-MMOs like Starcraft 2, Deus Ex and more recently Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2 an Torchlight 2. Most of all, 2010-2012 were two years which I dedicated to getting all my university coursework finished and finally graduating which happened just this summer.
I am now also, once again, LFG and ready to raid.
The End
Friday, October 5, 2012
Ainx, Part 8
Chalae messaged me inquiring whether I would be interested in participating in a hardcore 10-man aiming to progress quickly through Icecrown Citadel. I'm pretty sure she knew that was a rhetorical question. The catch was that we would only be raiding two nights a week, 4 hours a night - Friday and Saturday. I could do that! I quickly dropped everything else I was doing (except raiding with Nerv) and finished gearing my Paladin up the best I could before Icecrown Citadel (ICC) opened on December 8th.
With this raid dungeon's release, Blizzard thought it was a smart idea to artificially block progress by locking the four different wings of the dungeon up and opening them one per week. This, of course, enraged a lot of raiders, but it gave my hardcore 10-man group to pick up extra gear from Heroic Trial of the Crusader to fill out any gaps we might have had since half the raid was alts. We cleared one wing a week until finally killing the Lich King on February 14th. Yes, Valentines day, who cares... We cleared the Heroic modes of ICC (except Lich King) on March 26th. Although competition on Kilrogg was scarce at the time, Temporary Insanity was running their own 10-man which was much more progressed than their 25-man. TI actually ended up getting the Meta achievement for ICC done the same evening as us! Surprisingly, nobody else came even close. Without Conquest to compete, Kilrogg felt deflated.
ICC was a great feeling. The fact we raided merely two nights a week and managed to achieve so much made me feel alive again, not to mention stuck a needle in my heart and pumped adrenaline all throughout the race to the finish. And what a glorious race that was...
Meanwhile, I finished Heroic ICC10 and Regular ICC25 with Nerv on Vek'Nilash slightly after my Still Life group did the same on Kilrogg. In fact, Nerv managed to get deep into Heroic ICC 25 and clear all the way up to Heroic Lich King, but never did kill him as far as I can remember. I don't think I've killed him to this day on Heroic mode.
End, Part 8
With this raid dungeon's release, Blizzard thought it was a smart idea to artificially block progress by locking the four different wings of the dungeon up and opening them one per week. This, of course, enraged a lot of raiders, but it gave my hardcore 10-man group to pick up extra gear from Heroic Trial of the Crusader to fill out any gaps we might have had since half the raid was alts. We cleared one wing a week until finally killing the Lich King on February 14th. Yes, Valentines day, who cares... We cleared the Heroic modes of ICC (except Lich King) on March 26th. Although competition on Kilrogg was scarce at the time, Temporary Insanity was running their own 10-man which was much more progressed than their 25-man. TI actually ended up getting the Meta achievement for ICC done the same evening as us! Surprisingly, nobody else came even close. Without Conquest to compete, Kilrogg felt deflated.
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| This awful, awful achievement... | Still Life and TI on Frostwyrms |
Meanwhile, I finished Heroic ICC10 and Regular ICC25 with Nerv on Vek'Nilash slightly after my Still Life group did the same on Kilrogg. In fact, Nerv managed to get deep into Heroic ICC 25 and clear all the way up to Heroic Lich King, but never did kill him as far as I can remember. I don't think I've killed him to this day on Heroic mode.
End, Part 8
Ainx, Part 7
With Mun having now stepped down as leader (sometime through Naxxramas), I was charged with leading Still Life. So... I led. Outside of Glory of the Raider, we ventured into Ulduar and within two weeks cleared the entire instance, setting ourselves in third place on the server right behind Conquest and another Horde guild (not TI). It's worth noting that Wrath of the Lich King saw our raid time diminished from 5x4hr to 4x4hr, while the two guilds ahead of us continued with relentless progression. I really don't feel bad about coming in third given the amount of effort we put in at the time. Although I don't remember when exactly (oh wait, I do) we killed Yogg'saron, I do remember that his defeat was also essentially the beginning of the end of Still Life as a World of Warcraft raiding guild.
The reason was simple. Blizzard instituted a new mode for 25-man dungeons called "Heroic" which was essentially a rehash of the same boss encounter, just more difficult. Bosses had new gimmicks which needed to be conquered in order to be able to say you conquered the "Heroic" version of the boss. This did not sit well with a bunch of people, including me. Shortly after our third or 4th Yogg'saron kill and several hours spent on working on a few Ulduar achievements (screw you, Lumberjacked), Still Life stopped raiding. Many of the members went on to join other guilds, some stopped raiding and played casually and others quit WoW entirely. I belonged in the latter group.
Through the second half of 2009 I opted to play Rift instead and leveled a Rogue to level 50. I also hit up FFXI one last time before putting it down forever. Although Blizzard released another raid - Trial of the Crusader - in August '09, it did not initially pull me in. Towards '09 I learned that Conquest stopped raiding and TI was a shadow of its former glory. What was Kilrogg without CQ and TI?
I came back to World of Warcraft to play in a guild called Nerv run by an ex-Still Life member. This guild was on the server Vek'nilash. I came back in November of '09 and aside from raiding with Nerv I decided to level a Paladin on Kilrogg as well. Just so happened that as I hit level 80 an old friend of mine, Chalae, sent me a very exciting in-game mail. No, not nudes.
End, Part 7
The reason was simple. Blizzard instituted a new mode for 25-man dungeons called "Heroic" which was essentially a rehash of the same boss encounter, just more difficult. Bosses had new gimmicks which needed to be conquered in order to be able to say you conquered the "Heroic" version of the boss. This did not sit well with a bunch of people, including me. Shortly after our third or 4th Yogg'saron kill and several hours spent on working on a few Ulduar achievements (screw you, Lumberjacked), Still Life stopped raiding. Many of the members went on to join other guilds, some stopped raiding and played casually and others quit WoW entirely. I belonged in the latter group.
Through the second half of 2009 I opted to play Rift instead and leveled a Rogue to level 50. I also hit up FFXI one last time before putting it down forever. Although Blizzard released another raid - Trial of the Crusader - in August '09, it did not initially pull me in. Towards '09 I learned that Conquest stopped raiding and TI was a shadow of its former glory. What was Kilrogg without CQ and TI?
I came back to World of Warcraft to play in a guild called Nerv run by an ex-Still Life member. This guild was on the server Vek'nilash. I came back in November of '09 and aside from raiding with Nerv I decided to level a Paladin on Kilrogg as well. Just so happened that as I hit level 80 an old friend of mine, Chalae, sent me a very exciting in-game mail. No, not nudes.
End, Part 7
Ainx, Part 6
Still Life killed Illidan sometime in November of 2007. After farming the instance for 5 months straight a lot of the members became disillusioned with the game. Through this huge pause in content some famous guilds quit playing altogether (Death and Taxes, Deus Vox). Still Life managed to persevere until Sunwell, but despite our best efforts to continue playing, we simply could not. In the prior months our roster dwindled and we replaced a lot of core members with newcomers. We raided on the PTR but only twice and did not get much practice in on Kalecgos before Sunwell went live. The week that Sunwell went live, two of our priests and a healing shaman dropped off the face of the planet. At this point Mun, rightfully so, simply called it. Still Life's amazing run had come to a halt in the Burning Crusade.
Ainx and Itada were put away - stored in a safe place for future endeavors. We promised to come back stronger than ever for Wrath of the Lich King. In the meantime, a lot of us tried out Age of Conan, hopped back into Final Fantasy XI (as I found out a few people had actually played it before WoW as well!) and played other non-MMOs. Overall nothing notable happened here.
In late 2008 Wrath of the Lich King beta was just about to wrap up. I was playing my shaman, Pneu, on the beta servers at the time. One evening Kody (of Conquest) messaged me asking if I were interested in healing a Naxxramas 10 run (Naxx was repurposed from a 40-man to a 10 and 25man in Wotlk). Naturally I agreed, hungry for content to destroy. We cleared a bunch of bosses which gave me a pretty good base of strategy for SL's planned resurgence (though the new Naxx felt so easy that strategy was hardly necessary). Towards the end of 2008, Wrath of the Lich King dropped on the store shelves and like a fat kid in a candy store I jumped on it and leveled to 80 as fast as I could.
Through the next couple months we went through Naxxramas in an effort to gear up. At this point, Mun was still playing, and I was playing my warrior now. We recruited a large amount of people to fill the gaps left by between-expansion attrition. Some key additions to our roster were ex-members of Vengeance/Abandon - Horo, Chalae, Tabooman - as well as some other excellent players such as Ayume, Shalanna, Peemp, Rousse, Kaija, Drakkoniz and Tarlinras. With this extremely solid crew, after a less-than-hilarious Immortal mishap on the spider boss Maexxna, we managed to complete the Glory of the Raider meta achievement and gain the Immortal title in the process. Only about 120 people got the Black Drake on Kilrogg (Conquest, TI, Still Life, Clout Mace?, Last Call and another flash-in-the-pan Horde guild), a reward for completing the GotR meta achievement.
With Naxxramas out of the way, our next target was Ulduar, though not without destroying Sartharion 10+3 first...
We also slew Malygos really fast. I think that was an achievement too - required for the meta? I don't remember now.
We also slew Malygos really fast. I think that was an achievement too - required for the meta? I don't remember now.
End, Part 6
Ainx, Part 5
In April of 2007 I joined a guild called Still Life. They were a new crew of up-and-comers, mostly composed of members of a casual raiding guild called Adrenaline who split off and several transfers from other servers. The guild was led by Mun and there were no officers, class leaders or any of that nonsense that most guilds model themselves after. Mun took care of everything, but he also relied on people to come prepared and knowledgeable about encounters. There was no DKP, EPGP or any other means of measuring player attendance, but there was no reason to have it. Each and every player in Still Life was there to kill bosses. While the roster was only around 30 people, you could expect all 30 to be online and in front of the entrance to the raid zone before the raid started, each with their own flasks, food and potions.
When I joined SL, they were still working on Gruul and had just gotten keyed for Magtheridon. I was already keyed to these thanks to running many dungeon instances with a crew in Abandon, my previous guild. I do recall dominating Maulgar and Gruul DPS meters again, resulting in my acquiring a permanent raider spot pretty fast. Still Life's raiding schedule was 5 nights a week (tue, wed, thu, sun, mon), 4 hours a night. At 20 hours a week we were able to not only learn and beat encounters quickly, but also catch up to and ultimately beat Conquest who at the time was the leading king of progression on the Kilrogg server.
Throughout the Burning Crusade up until Sunwell there were three guilds on Kilrogg which battled for dominance of the top crop. Itzlegend's Conquest, the de-facto leader in PVE content was one. The other was Temporary Insanity, which was a Horde guild led by Gilora. The newcomer was Still Life. We devoured content quickly enough to catch up to CQ and TI, eventually overtake TI and go toe to toe with CQ for the claim to server-first kills in Hyjal and Black Temple. Though the exact dates escape me, at one point both Mun and Itzlegend had to make a choice. Conquest had cleared 4/5 Hyjal through Azgalor and took down the Illidari Council in Black Temple putting them at 8/9. Still Life also cleared 4/5 in Hyjal, but we were stuck on Mother Shahraz in BT due to lack of a complete set of shadow resist gear required to beat her. Both Itz and Mun had to make a call on which content to tackle. Fortunately, that same week, Blizzard nerfed the amount of shadow damage dealt out by Mother Shahraz which gave us a free hand at continuing through Black Temple.
Hypotheticals aside, Itzlegend took Conquest through Black Temple and decided to work on Illidan while leaving Archimonde in Hyjal alone. Mun, then, opted to go for Archimonde. The end result was Still Life's first server-first kill - Archimonde. Conquest got the first Illidan kill, but not until Still Life, for a brief moment, dominated the Wowjutsu rankings (old school wowprogress) for Kilrogg. Unfortunately, Illidan proved to be Still Life's weak point due to a faulty tank unable to kite Flames of Azzinoth on the encounter. We were effectively set back an entire week and ended up killing Illidan two weeks after Conquest with two druid tanks in full fire resist gear (Fredi and Yumari iirc). As if the earlier setback wasn't enough, Fredi had a real-life issue come up which prevented him from continuing playing. This left us with the faulty tank of the past to try and kill Illidan with. But wait... there was an alternative!
At this point, my alternate character named Ainx had already been raiding. Given Still Life's superb progression, its members gained prestige on the server and that included me. Having had the benefit of Conquest experience and a long history on the server, I was able to put together pickup raids which went into Gruul's Lair, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Since I couldn't do those with Itada, I opted to level Ainx as my alt which I then took to those raids. Ainx got geared up pretty quickly and eventually proceeded to...
When I joined SL, they were still working on Gruul and had just gotten keyed for Magtheridon. I was already keyed to these thanks to running many dungeon instances with a crew in Abandon, my previous guild. I do recall dominating Maulgar and Gruul DPS meters again, resulting in my acquiring a permanent raider spot pretty fast. Still Life's raiding schedule was 5 nights a week (tue, wed, thu, sun, mon), 4 hours a night. At 20 hours a week we were able to not only learn and beat encounters quickly, but also catch up to and ultimately beat Conquest who at the time was the leading king of progression on the Kilrogg server.
Throughout the Burning Crusade up until Sunwell there were three guilds on Kilrogg which battled for dominance of the top crop. Itzlegend's Conquest, the de-facto leader in PVE content was one. The other was Temporary Insanity, which was a Horde guild led by Gilora. The newcomer was Still Life. We devoured content quickly enough to catch up to CQ and TI, eventually overtake TI and go toe to toe with CQ for the claim to server-first kills in Hyjal and Black Temple. Though the exact dates escape me, at one point both Mun and Itzlegend had to make a choice. Conquest had cleared 4/5 Hyjal through Azgalor and took down the Illidari Council in Black Temple putting them at 8/9. Still Life also cleared 4/5 in Hyjal, but we were stuck on Mother Shahraz in BT due to lack of a complete set of shadow resist gear required to beat her. Both Itz and Mun had to make a call on which content to tackle. Fortunately, that same week, Blizzard nerfed the amount of shadow damage dealt out by Mother Shahraz which gave us a free hand at continuing through Black Temple.
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| Kael'Thas dead. Huge landmark kill. | On our way to Illidan. |
Hypotheticals aside, Itzlegend took Conquest through Black Temple and decided to work on Illidan while leaving Archimonde in Hyjal alone. Mun, then, opted to go for Archimonde. The end result was Still Life's first server-first kill - Archimonde. Conquest got the first Illidan kill, but not until Still Life, for a brief moment, dominated the Wowjutsu rankings (old school wowprogress) for Kilrogg. Unfortunately, Illidan proved to be Still Life's weak point due to a faulty tank unable to kite Flames of Azzinoth on the encounter. We were effectively set back an entire week and ended up killing Illidan two weeks after Conquest with two druid tanks in full fire resist gear (Fredi and Yumari iirc). As if the earlier setback wasn't enough, Fredi had a real-life issue come up which prevented him from continuing playing. This left us with the faulty tank of the past to try and kill Illidan with. But wait... there was an alternative!
At this point, my alternate character named Ainx had already been raiding. Given Still Life's superb progression, its members gained prestige on the server and that included me. Having had the benefit of Conquest experience and a long history on the server, I was able to put together pickup raids which went into Gruul's Lair, Tempest Keep and Serpentshrine Cavern. Since I couldn't do those with Itada, I opted to level Ainx as my alt which I then took to those raids. Ainx got geared up pretty quickly and eventually proceeded to...
This is approximately the time where Itada the Priest got phased out and Ainx the Warrior took the wheel.
End, Part 5
End, Part 5
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Ainx, Part 4
Being in Conquest had its benefits. Since the guild was world ranked, they were invited to the Burning Crusade beta. I got a beta key and went on to level to 70 over a couple months. Since betas are excellent scouting tools, we were able to check out Karazhan all the way up to Shade of Aran and achieve a world first (beta) Maulgar kill in conjunction with several other top-ranked guilds also playing. Although we tried Gruul, he was simply too strong for our beta crew to defeat.
Once The Burning Crusade hit the shelves, I quickly leveled to 70 and started on the dungeon gearing process. A week before we were meant to go into Karazhan for the first time, groups were posted on the guild forums and I noticed that I wasn't in any. I posted on the pertinent thread that my name was omitted from the list, but before Zav (or Thep) had a chance to fix it, a couple of the guild assholes (namely Windir and Svif) jumped on my case that I'm a whiny bitch. Since I don't take shit from lowlifes, I told them to fuck right off. The issue escalated within hours and ultimately resulted with my telling Itzlegend that I'm done with Conquest and him telling me that it's probably better that I leave. By the time I got home from work, I was already de-guilded. In retrospect, this turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.
Literally the same day, I joined a guild called Abandon led by some of the ex-Vengeance fellows Chalae and Coeus. It's worth noting that at the time I was still playing Itada, but this time no longer as a healer but as shadow DPS. Likely due to my status as ex-Conquest, I got a spot in their first ever Gruul's Lair spot. Right off the bat, Rizzen proceeded to talk shit to me, because I was just a recruit and they had sat some of their raider-status players in favor of me. Rizzen gave me a huge amount of attitude whilst I was in Abandon for no apparent reason other than just to be an asshole. Admittedly, he might've had a reason to be angry since I absolutely obliterated him (and the rest of the raid) in DPS on Maulgar and eventually also Gruul. Not to diminish my skillz, but I should also mention that shadow priests were extremely strong early on in TBC, because the base values of their spells were higher than the rest of the classes. This did not translate well into late TBC due to lack of scaling, but that's a different matter. Tack on the fact I already had experience in both of the fights from beta and it's no wonder that I did so well and Rizzen didn't like it!
Unfortunately, Abandon did not last beyond the first two months of its existence. Like many other guilds to this day, Abandon simply suffered from "friends" and thus the overall skill level was lower than required to conquer raid encounters in early TBC. When Chalae officially declared Abandon abandoned, I had once again set out on a journey to find a new home. This time, however, my new home would become one which to this day I champion in every MMO I play.
End, Part 4
Once The Burning Crusade hit the shelves, I quickly leveled to 70 and started on the dungeon gearing process. A week before we were meant to go into Karazhan for the first time, groups were posted on the guild forums and I noticed that I wasn't in any. I posted on the pertinent thread that my name was omitted from the list, but before Zav (or Thep) had a chance to fix it, a couple of the guild assholes (namely Windir and Svif) jumped on my case that I'm a whiny bitch. Since I don't take shit from lowlifes, I told them to fuck right off. The issue escalated within hours and ultimately resulted with my telling Itzlegend that I'm done with Conquest and him telling me that it's probably better that I leave. By the time I got home from work, I was already de-guilded. In retrospect, this turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.
Literally the same day, I joined a guild called Abandon led by some of the ex-Vengeance fellows Chalae and Coeus. It's worth noting that at the time I was still playing Itada, but this time no longer as a healer but as shadow DPS. Likely due to my status as ex-Conquest, I got a spot in their first ever Gruul's Lair spot. Right off the bat, Rizzen proceeded to talk shit to me, because I was just a recruit and they had sat some of their raider-status players in favor of me. Rizzen gave me a huge amount of attitude whilst I was in Abandon for no apparent reason other than just to be an asshole. Admittedly, he might've had a reason to be angry since I absolutely obliterated him (and the rest of the raid) in DPS on Maulgar and eventually also Gruul. Not to diminish my skillz, but I should also mention that shadow priests were extremely strong early on in TBC, because the base values of their spells were higher than the rest of the classes. This did not translate well into late TBC due to lack of scaling, but that's a different matter. Tack on the fact I already had experience in both of the fights from beta and it's no wonder that I did so well and Rizzen didn't like it!
Unfortunately, Abandon did not last beyond the first two months of its existence. Like many other guilds to this day, Abandon simply suffered from "friends" and thus the overall skill level was lower than required to conquer raid encounters in early TBC. When Chalae officially declared Abandon abandoned, I had once again set out on a journey to find a new home. This time, however, my new home would become one which to this day I champion in every MMO I play.
End, Part 4
Ainx, Part 3
In late 2005 and early 2006 I started PvPing a lot more. Being a healer gave me the advantage of being wanted in premade groups running on Kilrogg. Specifically in early 2006 I became acquainted with a large group of players from Domus Fulminata, Ascension and Conquest. Lots of these guys PvPed together in Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin and they would toss me an invite whenever they needed a healer. In time, I would also be able to bring my rogue to these premades as I made a name for myself as a competent and sought-after player. Some of the best games I had were between Conquest's and TI's premades in Warsong Gulch. As it happened, eventually I got on so well with these guys that Nimloth recruited me and in April of 2006 I joined Conquest.
At this point, CQ had already beaten Ahn'Qiraj and I believe I left Tempest just after killing Princess Huhuran, so theoretically I skipped three fights ahead. Despite that, I was one of the better geared people in CQ mostly due to the fact that a bunch of them had just come back from a hiatus. Conquest was a famous guild in Everquest - one of the top in the world - and the pioneers of raiding in Molten Core. Many guilds used Conquest's MC guide to defeat the encounters for the first time. Helped that CQ folks were friends with Blizzard employees, too. In any case, having joined Conquest, and in anticipation of the next raid dungeon - Naxxramas - I spent many nights farming ingredients for potions, flasks and food.
When Naxxramas came out, we hit it hardcore. Raids started at 4pm and ended at 9pm. This was on weekdays, and then on Saturdays we raided for 8 hours straight with a 30 minute dinner break. Sundays were a day off, but we went to Ahn'Qiraj to keep finding upgrades for people who were still in blues. Essentially our raid schedule approached 40 hours every week which essentially meant that raiding had become another job. This was not without an impressive result though, as Conquest ended up ranking in the world top 10 on many of the encounters in Naxx, sweeping up a couple world firsts (most famously Heigan the Unclean which was hotly contended by Death and Taxes who claimed we exploited the encounter by standing in a "safe spot" behind Heigan's platform). During Conquest's reign in Naxxramas, its useful mod called RDX got leaked by the brother of one of its members. Suddenly, RDX and all its boss mods enabled guilds to catch up to Conquest, but hilariously only to the encounters for which the leaked copy had the developed boss timers. As Conquest's scripter continued developing boss mods for Thaddius, Loatheb, Four Horsemen and beyond, guilds without the updated RDX addon again fell behind.
Ultimately, Conquest ended up clearing the entirety of Naxxramas. They were the only guild on Kilrogg to do so. Although I was able to complete entire Tier 3 armor set on Itada, the experience I gained raiding Naxx with CQ would make me question my dedication to the guild and the game when the first WoW expansion pack hit the shelves.
End, Part 3
At this point, CQ had already beaten Ahn'Qiraj and I believe I left Tempest just after killing Princess Huhuran, so theoretically I skipped three fights ahead. Despite that, I was one of the better geared people in CQ mostly due to the fact that a bunch of them had just come back from a hiatus. Conquest was a famous guild in Everquest - one of the top in the world - and the pioneers of raiding in Molten Core. Many guilds used Conquest's MC guide to defeat the encounters for the first time. Helped that CQ folks were friends with Blizzard employees, too. In any case, having joined Conquest, and in anticipation of the next raid dungeon - Naxxramas - I spent many nights farming ingredients for potions, flasks and food.
When Naxxramas came out, we hit it hardcore. Raids started at 4pm and ended at 9pm. This was on weekdays, and then on Saturdays we raided for 8 hours straight with a 30 minute dinner break. Sundays were a day off, but we went to Ahn'Qiraj to keep finding upgrades for people who were still in blues. Essentially our raid schedule approached 40 hours every week which essentially meant that raiding had become another job. This was not without an impressive result though, as Conquest ended up ranking in the world top 10 on many of the encounters in Naxx, sweeping up a couple world firsts (most famously Heigan the Unclean which was hotly contended by Death and Taxes who claimed we exploited the encounter by standing in a "safe spot" behind Heigan's platform). During Conquest's reign in Naxxramas, its useful mod called RDX got leaked by the brother of one of its members. Suddenly, RDX and all its boss mods enabled guilds to catch up to Conquest, but hilariously only to the encounters for which the leaked copy had the developed boss timers. As Conquest's scripter continued developing boss mods for Thaddius, Loatheb, Four Horsemen and beyond, guilds without the updated RDX addon again fell behind.
Ultimately, Conquest ended up clearing the entirety of Naxxramas. They were the only guild on Kilrogg to do so. Although I was able to complete entire Tier 3 armor set on Itada, the experience I gained raiding Naxx with CQ would make me question my dedication to the guild and the game when the first WoW expansion pack hit the shelves.
End, Part 3
Ainx, Part 2
During my escapades in Blackrock Spire, I became acquainted with several fellows whom I deemed to be "on the level." Since my friends from FFXI almost all started flaking, I went ahead and joined a new guild called... Silvermoon Crusaders. In its early stages, SMC was pretty cool. I have fond memories of Lexia and Innovindil, though I hazily remember some drama happening between us after I had parted ways. I didn't stay in SMC too long, because they were not interested in raiding which was the next big thing on my radar. My priest hit level 60, which at the time was max level, and I geared up in UBRS and Dire Maul - a new dungeon released just about the time raiding was getting popular. Shortly after becoming somewhat raid-ready, I left SMC and joined IMB which stood for I'M Bored.
IMB was led by a fellow named Latent. While I don't exactly remember how the guild was structured, this was the first guild that I stepped into Molten core with. Through the next few months we cleared Molten Core all through to Ragnaros, the final boss. We spent a month on Ragnaros, but just as we were ready to down him, Latent straight up quit. He took the guild website down, took the forums down and disbanded the guild in the game. Itada was now guildless, though, for just a day. From the ashes of IMB rose Tempest of which I was one of the founding members (as in, I signed the charter)! Other charter members were Luwingo, Maw, Devoid, Naakt, Oni and some others I no longer remember. To inaugurate Tempest's creation, we went into Molten Core and 1-shot Ragnaros. The joy of killing him was quite possibly the biggest and most exhilarating experience I have ever had in World of Warcraft. With Tempest, I cleared Zul'Gurub, went on to clear Blackwing Lair and finally break into Ahn'Qiraj. Not much to say there other than we had an excellent run. I learned a lot about raiding, about being a priest in a raid and about how awful melee classes were in raids. From time to time I would bring Medea in to raid if there were too many healers online and not enough DPS, but only if I absolutely had to!
Throughout my journey with Itada, I made friends on Horde side with some of the folks in Temporary Insanity, the leading Horde guild on Kilrogg. I leveled up a mage named Lem and played with TI's alt crew in Zul'Gurub.
End, Part 2
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| Molten Core with IMB | Onyxia with IMB |
IMB was led by a fellow named Latent. While I don't exactly remember how the guild was structured, this was the first guild that I stepped into Molten core with. Through the next few months we cleared Molten Core all through to Ragnaros, the final boss. We spent a month on Ragnaros, but just as we were ready to down him, Latent straight up quit. He took the guild website down, took the forums down and disbanded the guild in the game. Itada was now guildless, though, for just a day. From the ashes of IMB rose Tempest of which I was one of the founding members (as in, I signed the charter)! Other charter members were Luwingo, Maw, Devoid, Naakt, Oni and some others I no longer remember. To inaugurate Tempest's creation, we went into Molten Core and 1-shot Ragnaros. The joy of killing him was quite possibly the biggest and most exhilarating experience I have ever had in World of Warcraft. With Tempest, I cleared Zul'Gurub, went on to clear Blackwing Lair and finally break into Ahn'Qiraj. Not much to say there other than we had an excellent run. I learned a lot about raiding, about being a priest in a raid and about how awful melee classes were in raids. From time to time I would bring Medea in to raid if there were too many healers online and not enough DPS, but only if I absolutely had to!
 |
 |
| Ragnaros down! Tempest. | Nefarian down! Tempest. |
Throughout my journey with Itada, I made friends on Horde side with some of the folks in Temporary Insanity, the leading Horde guild on Kilrogg. I leveled up a mage named Lem and played with TI's alt crew in Zul'Gurub.
End, Part 2
Ainx, Part 1
Though Ainx the Warrior's journey began in late 2005, my history with MMOs goes a couple years back. I initially started with MMOs in late 2003 when Final Fantasy XI came out. As it was my first MMO, I had no clue what to expect and there was no standard to relate to. I played FFXI for about a year. There was a lot to do in that game. I vividly remember my first run to Jeuno on my Thief with no subjob. I remember having to zone Goblin Leechers in Selbina, some idiot calling /help on Kirin and completing my Zilart missions. Though I started with a Thief, I actually played a Ranger and later a Ninja - both funded by my level 65 Thf/Whm camping Castle Oztroja's Astral Ring coffers. I remember doing Dynamis and forming a raid group for Sky with a very rudimentary DKP system. This awakening experience came to a close shortly after Chains of Promathia came out. During CoP, I was already playing World of Warcraft closed beta and spending time learning the ropes of that game. CoP wasn't really even finished, as we beat all the missions up to a point where the plot just dropped off a cliff only to be added in later (after I had already quit).
On November 23, 2004 I stood outside Gamestop awaiting the midnight release of what was to become the next several years of my life. Box in hand, I rushed back home to install and start playing. Having already had a small amount of experience from the beta, I wanted to jump in and experience the whole game. My first character was Medea, a human rogue. I chose the name, because, well, I like how it sounds, and I thought a tragic Greek character would fit a rogue well (especially since there was poison involved). Several of my friends from FFXI also swapped to WoW and we decided to roll on the server Kilrogg. Later I found out that some of my real life friends were also playing on Kilrogg and we created a guild called Zenmetsu (jp: annihilation). Upon reaching level 60 and completing a few of the instances, I found out there was an even bigger dungeon called Blackrock Spire which allowed up to 40 people inside! Blackrock Spire was divided into Upper and Lower sections, with Upper being locked unless one of the group members had a special ring obtained through a quest which would open the gate. I found my way into a few of these LBRS and UBRS runs on my rogue, but quickly realized that playing a melee class such as a rogue would be detrimental to my enjoyment of WoW. For those uninitiated, melee-range classes in vanilla WoW were basically shafted on a lot of encounters due to stupid amounts of incoming damage (this trend continued into expansion packs unfortunately). I also learned that healers were in great demand and almost always guaranteed spots in raids. I promptly logged out to the character creation screen and shortly after Itada the Priest was born.
End, Part 1
 |
 |
| Pneumatic THF/WHM, Oztroja coffer hunting | Pneumatic RNG/NIN, slaying Kirin |
On November 23, 2004 I stood outside Gamestop awaiting the midnight release of what was to become the next several years of my life. Box in hand, I rushed back home to install and start playing. Having already had a small amount of experience from the beta, I wanted to jump in and experience the whole game. My first character was Medea, a human rogue. I chose the name, because, well, I like how it sounds, and I thought a tragic Greek character would fit a rogue well (especially since there was poison involved). Several of my friends from FFXI also swapped to WoW and we decided to roll on the server Kilrogg. Later I found out that some of my real life friends were also playing on Kilrogg and we created a guild called Zenmetsu (jp: annihilation). Upon reaching level 60 and completing a few of the instances, I found out there was an even bigger dungeon called Blackrock Spire which allowed up to 40 people inside! Blackrock Spire was divided into Upper and Lower sections, with Upper being locked unless one of the group members had a special ring obtained through a quest which would open the gate. I found my way into a few of these LBRS and UBRS runs on my rogue, but quickly realized that playing a melee class such as a rogue would be detrimental to my enjoyment of WoW. For those uninitiated, melee-range classes in vanilla WoW were basically shafted on a lot of encounters due to stupid amounts of incoming damage (this trend continued into expansion packs unfortunately). I also learned that healers were in great demand and almost always guaranteed spots in raids. I promptly logged out to the character creation screen and shortly after Itada the Priest was born.
 |
 |
| Pneumatic the Paladin, WoW Beta | Medea the Rogue, my first character |
End, Part 1
Saturday, March 3, 2012
MMO Rant
Ever since quitting World of Warcraft over a year ago, I always ask myself this; Will I ever be able to play MMOs again? I had a fantastic time leveling, raiding and even the little bit of PvP I did was pretty fun. In retrospect, WoW was a time well spent. But now...
I've been playing Rift over the past few weeks. To those uninitiated, Rift is an MMO much like WoW - in fact basically the same thing, just different world and prettier graphics. I leveled to 50 on a warrior, I ran some dungeons, closed a few rifts, got some achievements... and today I raided for the first time. Few of you that know about my WoW raiding history likely also know that I have a very short temper. The raid I participated in was absolutely awful. We killed what we set out to kill but it took us 5x as long as it would take my old guild, Still Life.
Unfortunately, raiding is the end game of every game. To get to the pinnacle of awesomeness, you gotta raid, because that's where all the best gear is. This is true for every MMO, not just Rift or WoW. You raid, you are the best. But this past week I actually came to a realization that hardcore MMO players actually have no life no matter how much they claim they do. When I raided with Conquest and Still Life and we did 20 hours a week every week or more during progression, I literally had no life. After content was put on farm (meaning we got so good at it, we would ace it every week), we'd raid two maybe three days tops, but then we would be logging on anyway to do other stuff like run daily dungeons, do daily quests, play the AH, PvP, etc... you don't just log off and do other stuff with your life, because you would fall behind in the game. Hell, when I raided with CQ, I was basically sleeping, raiding and working with food done on the fly. Fortunately I had a job where I got to move around a bit so I didn't become a lardass like the stereotypical MMOer.
In retrospect, those were good days. Not a care in the world, just raid. But as I grew up and got older, I suddenly found that I had a lot of other things to do. I found and befriended the mythical creatures known as women, I went back to school and suddenly was drowning in pointless homework, and I started being proactive about my career and my future. This leaves little time for MMOs. Even now, as I have some time to burn, I keep thinking that my time would be better spent elsewhere.
All in all, I think I'm done here. I can't raid, because I'm intolerant of idiots, and without raiding, I can't be the best, so I should just stop playing MMOs altogether. Diablo III, where art thou...
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
How I Facebook
I've had this discussion with several people before. The result of every discussion is that there are different ways to use the same service. Neither are inherently bad, but some can be worse than others. More on that as I share with you how I use Facebook, and why.
1. Profile
I fill out my profile with relevant information. Facebook's publishing settings are actually not terrible. Now, you can choose each part of your profile to be visible to various levels of friends, to lists, to the public, or to nobody at all. For example, if you're single, but you are building an interest in someone and wish to not display your relationship status, you can make just that part of your profile invisible. Alternatively, if you are in a relationship and want the world to know, you can make it public.
I'm of the opinion that if you add someone to your friends list, you genuinely care about them enough to let them know details about your life. So, if I add someone to my friends list, I'm alright with them knowing everything that's in my profile. Also, people only know as much as you tell them. If you don't fill out your work history, then they won't know where you worked before. Really, you're in control of your information.
Fields like Religion, Political Affiliation, Education and favorite sports, music and movies are all voluntary. I think that sometimes it may be a good idea to leave those blank. After all, when you meet someone new, it gives you something to talk about. This can be a double-edged sword though. More on that below, in the Friends section.
2. Friends
At the time of this writing, I have 78 friends. I've been a member since before Facebook went public in September of 2006. If you recall, Facebook was open to various universities first, before it went public. I've never had more than 100 friends... I don't even think I've had more than 80. I had a MySpace account before Facebook and most of my friends from MySpace moved over, so I added them. However, over time, I stopped talking to some of those friends and we drifted apart. I removed them from Facebook.
I remove people from my Friends list when I don't talk to them, or when they don't talk to me. If we have nothing in common, when we don't talk, then we're not friends. When you have 500 friends but realistically chat with only 10 of them and see 5 or 6 of those 10 in real life several times a month, what does that say about you? Why do you have 500 "friends"? Do you know that's a security risk?
How is it a security risk, you ask. If you fill out your profile with information you only want to share with your friends, and then one of those 500 friends gets hacked (and people do get hacked, all the time), they have access to your information. Then, your pictures appear in local ads in Ching Chang province in China, or on anti-American posters in Pyongyang, NK. Or your data is sold to telemarketers. If you have your cellphone posted in your profile and have your various emails visible to your friends, you are risking all that to telemarketers. But... hiding it from everyone? What's the point of putting it there then? What about your network e-mails? You can't remove those or you lose network affiliation.
Facebook profiles get compromised all the time. Unless you have all your 500 friends separated into lists and each list has its specific permissions set for various areas of your profile, you are at risk of being exposed. Sorry, that's just how it is.
Besides, what's the point in having so many friends? I never understood it. You meet someone at a bar, and immediately share your FB information. Say you're a guy and you met a girl, and now instead of exchanging numbers, you both whip out your smartphones and add each other to Facebook in hopes of getting laid. Is that it? Have we fallen this far?
3. Status Updates
Harsh language warning. Honestly, I know you love music, but fucking stop with the youtube links. Sometimes people will sign on Facebook and post every single youtube song they listen to over the past hour on their profile. Then, my Newsfeed is flooded with their music. The worst is when it's several people doing it at once, because they just happen to be in the mood to spam Facebook with Offspring or Pink Floyd. Seriously, I love both Offspring and Pink Floyd, but please, if I wanted to know what kind of music you listen to, I'd look at your profile. Or even better, get Spotify. Stop fucking spamming my Newsfeed with youtube. The worst part of this is that I don't want to block you, because you're my friend (because I friended you) and I care about what you have to say. If you spam my feed with youtube links though, I will block you entirely.
I care about how you feel, but please expand a little bit more on the circumstances of your mood instead of just posting "today sucks". Try this: Today sucks, because I woke up with a hang over and drove my car into the ditch outside of the adult store I was heading to to purchase a whip for tonight's festivities. This tells us a lot more about your circumstances and I'm sure some of us can identify with some or all aspects of your situation. That said, I'm guilty of being vague sometimes too. I'm working on it.
4. Photos
Your baby/cat/puppy/hamster is cute. I actually do care to see them, but not every single fucking day. Really. Stop that.
Instead, post pictures from trips (and label them). Post pictures from events. Post pictures of you... and your significant other. Or just pictures of you. Post pictures of interesting things you see around the city. Post videos that you record of cool stuff! Seriously, people don't post enough videos (not youtube, jerks).
Don't re-post shit from other sites on Facebook. If you really have to share something, post a link to it. That's what internet is all about. Perhaps if you post a link to a Reddit article, someone will go there, read it, and then peruse the site and discover a wealth of information they have never even imagined existed.
5. Conclusion
Don't be an attention whore. Share responsibly. Be aware of privacy issues. Don't spam my Newsfeed. Thank you.
1. Profile
I fill out my profile with relevant information. Facebook's publishing settings are actually not terrible. Now, you can choose each part of your profile to be visible to various levels of friends, to lists, to the public, or to nobody at all. For example, if you're single, but you are building an interest in someone and wish to not display your relationship status, you can make just that part of your profile invisible. Alternatively, if you are in a relationship and want the world to know, you can make it public.
I'm of the opinion that if you add someone to your friends list, you genuinely care about them enough to let them know details about your life. So, if I add someone to my friends list, I'm alright with them knowing everything that's in my profile. Also, people only know as much as you tell them. If you don't fill out your work history, then they won't know where you worked before. Really, you're in control of your information.
Fields like Religion, Political Affiliation, Education and favorite sports, music and movies are all voluntary. I think that sometimes it may be a good idea to leave those blank. After all, when you meet someone new, it gives you something to talk about. This can be a double-edged sword though. More on that below, in the Friends section.
2. Friends
At the time of this writing, I have 78 friends. I've been a member since before Facebook went public in September of 2006. If you recall, Facebook was open to various universities first, before it went public. I've never had more than 100 friends... I don't even think I've had more than 80. I had a MySpace account before Facebook and most of my friends from MySpace moved over, so I added them. However, over time, I stopped talking to some of those friends and we drifted apart. I removed them from Facebook.
I remove people from my Friends list when I don't talk to them, or when they don't talk to me. If we have nothing in common, when we don't talk, then we're not friends. When you have 500 friends but realistically chat with only 10 of them and see 5 or 6 of those 10 in real life several times a month, what does that say about you? Why do you have 500 "friends"? Do you know that's a security risk?
How is it a security risk, you ask. If you fill out your profile with information you only want to share with your friends, and then one of those 500 friends gets hacked (and people do get hacked, all the time), they have access to your information. Then, your pictures appear in local ads in Ching Chang province in China, or on anti-American posters in Pyongyang, NK. Or your data is sold to telemarketers. If you have your cellphone posted in your profile and have your various emails visible to your friends, you are risking all that to telemarketers. But... hiding it from everyone? What's the point of putting it there then? What about your network e-mails? You can't remove those or you lose network affiliation.
Facebook profiles get compromised all the time. Unless you have all your 500 friends separated into lists and each list has its specific permissions set for various areas of your profile, you are at risk of being exposed. Sorry, that's just how it is.
Besides, what's the point in having so many friends? I never understood it. You meet someone at a bar, and immediately share your FB information. Say you're a guy and you met a girl, and now instead of exchanging numbers, you both whip out your smartphones and add each other to Facebook in hopes of getting laid. Is that it? Have we fallen this far?
3. Status Updates
Harsh language warning. Honestly, I know you love music, but fucking stop with the youtube links. Sometimes people will sign on Facebook and post every single youtube song they listen to over the past hour on their profile. Then, my Newsfeed is flooded with their music. The worst is when it's several people doing it at once, because they just happen to be in the mood to spam Facebook with Offspring or Pink Floyd. Seriously, I love both Offspring and Pink Floyd, but please, if I wanted to know what kind of music you listen to, I'd look at your profile. Or even better, get Spotify. Stop fucking spamming my Newsfeed with youtube. The worst part of this is that I don't want to block you, because you're my friend (because I friended you) and I care about what you have to say. If you spam my feed with youtube links though, I will block you entirely.
I care about how you feel, but please expand a little bit more on the circumstances of your mood instead of just posting "today sucks". Try this: Today sucks, because I woke up with a hang over and drove my car into the ditch outside of the adult store I was heading to to purchase a whip for tonight's festivities. This tells us a lot more about your circumstances and I'm sure some of us can identify with some or all aspects of your situation. That said, I'm guilty of being vague sometimes too. I'm working on it.
4. Photos
Your baby/cat/puppy/hamster is cute. I actually do care to see them, but not every single fucking day. Really. Stop that.
Instead, post pictures from trips (and label them). Post pictures from events. Post pictures of you... and your significant other. Or just pictures of you. Post pictures of interesting things you see around the city. Post videos that you record of cool stuff! Seriously, people don't post enough videos (not youtube, jerks).
Don't re-post shit from other sites on Facebook. If you really have to share something, post a link to it. That's what internet is all about. Perhaps if you post a link to a Reddit article, someone will go there, read it, and then peruse the site and discover a wealth of information they have never even imagined existed.
5. Conclusion
Don't be an attention whore. Share responsibly. Be aware of privacy issues. Don't spam my Newsfeed. Thank you.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Livability Ratings Are Rubbish!
For this blog post, I consulted three people in three different countries about their standard of living; expenses, income and overall livability in their cities. The cities which I'm going to compare are Seattle, Vancouver and Warsaw.
You can pour over livability studies all you want, but the reality of the situation is that every person is in a different life situation and opinions are often skewed depending on what part of the city people may live in. The Economist's 2011 Livability rankings puts Vancouver, BC on top of the pile of cities all over the world. No single US city even made the top 25. The Economist says "Vancouver (Canada) sits at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Ranking, a position that can only have been cemented by the successful hosting of the 2010 winter Olympics and Paralympics, which provided a boost to the infrastructure, and culture and environment categories." This is pretty funny to me, because I only know one person who was truly proud of the Olympics hosted there in 2010 and not a single person who thought the cost was worth it.
The Economist's Livability Rating is based on 30 unique factors divided into a few categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure. Vancouver scored better than every other city on the list. How? Granted, this rating was calculated before the riots earlier this year and the impending teacher strikes, so stability might have escaped relatively unscathed. I'm not sure how healthcare in Vancouver compares to healthcare in Seattle for instance (but I hope to find out soon through conversation with a health professional there). I've never had any healthcare issues here in America, even though people bitch about this system non-stop. This is probably, because I'm young still! Vancouver's culture is definitely varied, but I don't know if that's good or bad. I can see both sides of the coin. Environment? Well, there's pollution everywhere. Vancouver is a fairly heavy industrial port city. Education, sure, Vancouver's got that covered for the most part. As far as infrastructure, though, I think that's Vancouver's bigger flaw. There is only one freeway which is constantly under construction. Traffic can be pretty atrocious during rush hour and the Skytrain doesn't transfer enough volume to be considered efficient. Biking? Forget about it, unless you have a death wish.
Additionally, when the Economist looked at Vancouver, they must have looked at Vancouver proper and not the surrounding suburbs. Sure, maybe if you can afford living downtown Vancouver, it's a pretty awesome experience - especially if you work there. But what if you live in Surrey, Delta or Richmond? Not exactly the epitome of fine living, is it? If the rating were to include the city and its suburbs, would Vancouver still fare as well as it does on the charts?
Let's leave Vancouver alone, and examine its Northwest cousin, Seattle. Here, I believe the story is reversed. Seattle proper is a dump, no argument. Sure, it's nice to visit every now and then - maybe hit a pub or enjoy the nightlife, but to live there? Hell no. Seattle is dirty, dangerous, roads suck and transportation is awful. However... once you exit Seattle and make your way across Lake Washington either by I-90 or I-520, you will find rich neighborhoods left and right with clean, maintained streets, parks, manicured lawns and modern buildings. Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish and Woodinville are a complete inverse of Seattle (which is also reflected by price of property). A lot of the "niceness" on this side of the lake is thanks to giant contributions from Microsoft and Boeing. Redmond is basically owned by Microsoft.
So we have Vancouver, where Vancouver proper (and North) is great to live in, but the suburbs not so much. Then, we have Seattle proper which is terrible, and the Eastside which is terrific. Now, let's take a look at Warsaw.
Warsaw is a bustling city with mostly post-war and few modern buildings. There are no "suburbs" like we have in America and Canada. You either live in Warsaw, or you live in the boonies outside of Warsaw and it takes you an hour to get downtown, because the traffic is always awful. Granted, Warsaw's public transportation is amazing compared to both Vancouver and Seattle. However, apartments in Warsaw are for the most part tiny, parking spots are basically nonexistent and roads are absolutely terrible. There are no freeways, but there are several highway stretches downtown without lights. Real quick on the size of apartments... an average apartment in Warsaw is somewhere between 36-42 meters squared for a studio (that is a living room, kitchen and bathroom). 36 meters squared is 324 square feet, roughly. That's less than half of what I live in, and even twice 324 sq ft would be too little to fit all my stuff. Can you imagine living in 324 square feet? With your significant other? I can't (although I've seen it and it can work). We are so spoiled in North America, it's ridiculous. Oh, I should just throw this out there too while I'm at it; in Kentucky you can get a 3 bedroom apartment, 1300sq ft, for approximately what I pay for my 769sq ft apartment here. And that's still America!
But if you don't need to go downtown Warsaw and can, say, work from home... you can live in one of the rich neighborhoods outside the city where houses are so big (and much sturdier) that they make American architecture look like child's play. Standard of living there goes up dramatically. Once you no longer have to deal with Warsaw proper and can afford to live outside the city, you are living like a boss.
The moral of the story is: ratings don't mean shit. Vancouver may be #1, but if you live in Whalley, you're definitely not part of said rating. Seattle may not even be on the list, but I bet Redmond and Kirkland (and maybe Bellevue) would definitely find a spot near the top. I don't even know if Warsaw was on the plus list (doubt it), but again, suburbs have you living like a king if you can afford it.
I will always be looking to live in the best place possible. For me, that's where jobs are. I am fortunate enough to work at a company which is also located in one of the richest cities in the state (maybe even country? $66,300 median income in this county). Not sure where I could go to up my standard of living. Where do you want to go?
You can pour over livability studies all you want, but the reality of the situation is that every person is in a different life situation and opinions are often skewed depending on what part of the city people may live in. The Economist's 2011 Livability rankings puts Vancouver, BC on top of the pile of cities all over the world. No single US city even made the top 25. The Economist says "Vancouver (Canada) sits at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Ranking, a position that can only have been cemented by the successful hosting of the 2010 winter Olympics and Paralympics, which provided a boost to the infrastructure, and culture and environment categories." This is pretty funny to me, because I only know one person who was truly proud of the Olympics hosted there in 2010 and not a single person who thought the cost was worth it.
The Economist's Livability Rating is based on 30 unique factors divided into a few categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure. Vancouver scored better than every other city on the list. How? Granted, this rating was calculated before the riots earlier this year and the impending teacher strikes, so stability might have escaped relatively unscathed. I'm not sure how healthcare in Vancouver compares to healthcare in Seattle for instance (but I hope to find out soon through conversation with a health professional there). I've never had any healthcare issues here in America, even though people bitch about this system non-stop. This is probably, because I'm young still! Vancouver's culture is definitely varied, but I don't know if that's good or bad. I can see both sides of the coin. Environment? Well, there's pollution everywhere. Vancouver is a fairly heavy industrial port city. Education, sure, Vancouver's got that covered for the most part. As far as infrastructure, though, I think that's Vancouver's bigger flaw. There is only one freeway which is constantly under construction. Traffic can be pretty atrocious during rush hour and the Skytrain doesn't transfer enough volume to be considered efficient. Biking? Forget about it, unless you have a death wish.
Additionally, when the Economist looked at Vancouver, they must have looked at Vancouver proper and not the surrounding suburbs. Sure, maybe if you can afford living downtown Vancouver, it's a pretty awesome experience - especially if you work there. But what if you live in Surrey, Delta or Richmond? Not exactly the epitome of fine living, is it? If the rating were to include the city and its suburbs, would Vancouver still fare as well as it does on the charts?
Let's leave Vancouver alone, and examine its Northwest cousin, Seattle. Here, I believe the story is reversed. Seattle proper is a dump, no argument. Sure, it's nice to visit every now and then - maybe hit a pub or enjoy the nightlife, but to live there? Hell no. Seattle is dirty, dangerous, roads suck and transportation is awful. However... once you exit Seattle and make your way across Lake Washington either by I-90 or I-520, you will find rich neighborhoods left and right with clean, maintained streets, parks, manicured lawns and modern buildings. Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish and Woodinville are a complete inverse of Seattle (which is also reflected by price of property). A lot of the "niceness" on this side of the lake is thanks to giant contributions from Microsoft and Boeing. Redmond is basically owned by Microsoft.
So we have Vancouver, where Vancouver proper (and North) is great to live in, but the suburbs not so much. Then, we have Seattle proper which is terrible, and the Eastside which is terrific. Now, let's take a look at Warsaw.
Warsaw is a bustling city with mostly post-war and few modern buildings. There are no "suburbs" like we have in America and Canada. You either live in Warsaw, or you live in the boonies outside of Warsaw and it takes you an hour to get downtown, because the traffic is always awful. Granted, Warsaw's public transportation is amazing compared to both Vancouver and Seattle. However, apartments in Warsaw are for the most part tiny, parking spots are basically nonexistent and roads are absolutely terrible. There are no freeways, but there are several highway stretches downtown without lights. Real quick on the size of apartments... an average apartment in Warsaw is somewhere between 36-42 meters squared for a studio (that is a living room, kitchen and bathroom). 36 meters squared is 324 square feet, roughly. That's less than half of what I live in, and even twice 324 sq ft would be too little to fit all my stuff. Can you imagine living in 324 square feet? With your significant other? I can't (although I've seen it and it can work). We are so spoiled in North America, it's ridiculous. Oh, I should just throw this out there too while I'm at it; in Kentucky you can get a 3 bedroom apartment, 1300sq ft, for approximately what I pay for my 769sq ft apartment here. And that's still America!
But if you don't need to go downtown Warsaw and can, say, work from home... you can live in one of the rich neighborhoods outside the city where houses are so big (and much sturdier) that they make American architecture look like child's play. Standard of living there goes up dramatically. Once you no longer have to deal with Warsaw proper and can afford to live outside the city, you are living like a boss.
The moral of the story is: ratings don't mean shit. Vancouver may be #1, but if you live in Whalley, you're definitely not part of said rating. Seattle may not even be on the list, but I bet Redmond and Kirkland (and maybe Bellevue) would definitely find a spot near the top. I don't even know if Warsaw was on the plus list (doubt it), but again, suburbs have you living like a king if you can afford it.
I will always be looking to live in the best place possible. For me, that's where jobs are. I am fortunate enough to work at a company which is also located in one of the richest cities in the state (maybe even country? $66,300 median income in this county). Not sure where I could go to up my standard of living. Where do you want to go?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Mobile Ecosystems
Ecosystem, noun – a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment. In the case of this entry, though, let’s ditch the ecological definition, and focus on its application in the world of cloud computing. A cloud ecosystem is simply the aggregate of all services offered by one provider, such as Apple and used by a community of organisms – in this case Apple fans.
Some examples of what cloud services entail:
- Calendar – you update your calendar on your laptop, and then can check it on your phone. Perhaps you set it to ring a reminder tone at a certain time, because you know you will have your phone with you.
- Mail – your mail is stored on the cloud, so even if you check it on your laptop, it will be available on your phone as well.
- Maps – you create a map of a trip on your home computer, but then use your phone along with a maps application to act as a GPS when you go on the road
In the case of Apple, its ecosystem is somewhat lacking comparatively to its competitors, though apparently not for long. Apple’s iCloud service is arriving soon along with the new iOS5 devices. Although a tad late to the cloud party, Apple’s strong host of hardware devices out on the market and its rabid fanbase spells competition to Google and Microsoft. A quick look at what Apple currently offers reveals the standard Calendar, Address Book, Mail and some other stuff. The iCloud is supposed to offer access to music you purchase from iTunes and give you the ability to store documents (probably from Pages etc.) The problem here is, obviously, that you have to use iTunes to buy the music in order to be able to store it on their cloud. Now, that’s alright if you use iTunes to purchase music exclusively – but what if you just went to a Broadway show, bought the OST CD and want to listen to it on your phone? Sure, you can rip it to MP3 and put it on your phone’s internal storage, but then you have less space on your phone for other stuff! Apple’s handling of its ecosystem is somewhat draconian, and I’m afraid (read: hopeful) it eventually will be their downfall.
Microsoft also has a cloud service, Windows Live. Hilariously enough, I don’t know much about it. I used it a while ago to store documents for school, but I don’t use it anymore. I know that it is possible to sync stuff you write in Word on your PC to online storage, and then open it from the web as well and edit it there. I know that Hotmail syncs with Windows Phones, as does their Xbox service. Microsoft is pretty smart though, I don’t doubt that if they are a bit behind Google, they are on their way to catching up.
Alright, so now that you hopefully know what an ecosystem is, I want to throw an opinion at you.
In this article by Miguel Helft of New York Times, we learn a bit about Apple’s culture. Disregard the fact that this article is roughly a year old and that Android has already annihilated what lead iPhone had in America over the past year (and overtook it, too). For those of you who are lazy, here are the key points the article makes:
- Android OS is available on (now) over a hundred devices from a dozen of different manufacturers.
- iOS is available on… the iPhone.
- People all over the world (article says Americans, but that’s a year old statistic) are buying up Androids like hotcakes, resulting in the platform literally surging forward ahead of competition.
- Apple has faced near extinction before due to their closed business practices before in early 1980s when Microsoft Windows did to Macs essentially what Google Android is doing to iOS.
- The mobile market is not just a clash of titans as Apple vs Microsoft was. There are other platforms on the market taking chunks out iPhone (and Android).
If you keep reading through the article, a fellow named Mitchell Kapor says: “Having a tightly controlled ecosystem, which is what Apple has, is a large short-term advantage and a large long-term disadvantage.” What he means by this is that by controlling the content within its ecosystem, such as custom apps, it creates an amazing user experience. Apple’s ecosystem is huge and clean. Let’s draw a few metaphors!
Imagine Apple’s ecosystem is a lake. This lake is somewhere up in the mountains, so the water is relatively clean. There are lots of fish in the lake and the scenery around it is beautiful. There is only one inlet into the lake and it is controlled by the state government so as to keep the lake clean and pretty. Before you can take your family to the lake, you need to pay a $15 entry fee, but the experience is guaranteed to be first-class.
Now, Google’s ecosystem is also a lake. It’s a huge lake with several islands, a near infinite amount of species of wildlife and fish, but its inlets are not controlled. The scenery is still beautiful and the lake is high up in the mountains, but there is a possibility of pollution. It charges no fee per entry, but your experience is not guaranteed to be first-class, and you may sometimes find it tough to find a picnic spot.
For comparison’s sake, Microsoft’s ecosystem is a pond. It is similar to Apple in that it is controlled, but the entry fee is only about $3. It’s also similar to Google in that its wildlife is diverse, but not as plentiful. It is however very healthy and high quality. You can catch some of the best fish in the world in that pond.
Which of these ecosystems would you most likely make your regular visit?
Lastly, in the vein of opinion, I want to link to a couple more articles and briefly talk about them. This one is a blog entry by an Adobe developer (creators of Photoshop, Premiere, etc…) in which we learn that Apple’s App Store discriminates against applications which feature technology which Apple delivers in their own products. When you think about it first, it makes sense, ya? John Nack, the author of the post, says this: “Apple refuses to carry Lightroom (Adobe) in Apple retail stores. That’s okay; Lightroom is doing just fine against Aperture (Apple). But what if the Apple store were the only store? How would Apple customers get the benefits of the competition?” Nack basically says what we already knew; Apple’s stranglehold on the App Store prevents competition from innovating on its own platform, resulting in more and more developers hopping to Apple’s competitors’ open platforms to sell their wares.
Another great article featured on Wired.com talks about Android’s beginnings and its ascent and eventual domination over the iPhone. It is a lengthy article but well worth the read if you’re interested in the shifting world of mobile devices. If anything, the last paragraph of that article is worth reading. Choose a wagon and jump on it, because eventually only one of them will make it through the Oregon Trail.
Last article I want to point your attention to, is this one. Although Apple and Google are the two behemoths in the mobile fight right now, Microsoft is not one to be underestimated. Windows 8 is coming and with it is Microsoft’s vision of the cloud. From what I’ve seen (and trust me, I’ve seen a bit more than you) it’s going to make Apple’s iCloud offering look like riding a Honda compared to a Microsoft’s Windows 8 Lexus. And then there is still Google with a Hummer.
In conclusion, regardless of what ecosystem you choose to go with, if you plan to stay in touch with the rest of the world, increase your productivity and yes, even feel better about yourself, you are in good hands whether you go with Apple, Google or Microsoft. You may not get as many features with Apple or Microsoft as you do with Google, and your experience may end up being more limited too, but if you don’t need those extra features, then both Apple and Microsoft are very strong platforms to bet on. Apple’s dirty business practices, lack of investor love and draconian App Store/Manufacturer handling will eventually end up hurting the company. Microsoft’s small, but growing market share limits the amount of apps and features its users have access to. Google’s open system, while a blessing to both investors, developers and manufacturers, has other ramifications, such as malware apps and OS instability (although Android 2.3 has been super-stable IME).
I use Android. Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Six Months of Staying Clean
It has been just over six months since my divorce with World of Warcraft. Although I briefly rebounded on Rift for a couple weeks, it never got serious. Staying away from MMOs has been easier than ever. Let me put this in perspective for you.
When I played, my days all looked the same. I would wake up, go to work, and try to leave early to log on to WoW, then sit there and play until it got late. I logged on and did daily quests, then raided for 4 hours, then maybe crafted and played the auction house. This would go on for 5 days a week from Sunday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday were supposed to be days off, where people can go and do stuff outside, but… yeah right! I had stuff to do in the game, still. I would raid more on a different character, gear up, gain experience, you name it. I was consumed by this game.
That is not to say, that WoW ran my life. I did, however, plan my life around it. To be the best at what I did, I had to put in a considerable amount of time. Towards the second half of my WoW “career”, I contributed to the leadership of my guild, which resulted in even less free time than before. Since I put in so much time, and the amount of time put in translated proportionately into success, I was really very successful… at slaying Dragons. I had a great time, I met amazing people and I do not regret it one bit. WoW kept me out of trouble. I played from the age of 20 to 26 – years during which a lot can go wrong – and given my proclivity for trouble when I was younger, I am thankful for my MMO addiction.
I could say that I turned out better this way, than I would have otherwise. Obviously that’s an enormous assumption based on not a single fact, but I genuinely feel like I would’ve either been a baby’s daddy or struggling in community college if it wasn’t for World of Warcraft. Now that I’ve been “sober” for a whopping 6 months, in retrospect, I can really appreciate it.
Since quitting mid-February, I’ve accomplished a great deal. I have redoubled my efforts at my university, actually taking it a bit more seriously than before when I was busy slaying dragons. I’ve become more politically acute thanks to reading more and watching the news regularly. I made a very special friend with whom I’ve reconnected after over 10 years of silence, and yet another couple friends with whom I haven’t spoken in ages as well. I am more willing to go out and do stuff outside of my house – though that usually saps at my finances, so such excursions are still limited. My drive to travel has been rekindled, partly thanks to the aforementioned special friend, and partly because I have a lot more free time to do it. For example, since quitting, I’ve been to Portland and the Oregon Coast, to Salt Lake City, Utah and I am very soon going to Europe, to see my family and also to tour Classical Italy.
Life has been good – as someone put it; “You’re on cloud 9 lately.” It has been great, actually, and with an amazing, newly-found friendship, a light at the end of the University tunnel, and a promising career, I am absolutely ready to tackle almost anything life throws at me. Bring it on, bitches.
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