Jacqueline Gets Her Geek On

Heh

Hubby is sitting next to me drinking beer and playing World of Warcraft while I study.

He just caught a boat out from the Forgotten Coast, and was tipsily singing to himself, "Riding on a boat... riding on a boat... don't know where I'm going... riding on a boat..."  Then, alarmed, "Isle of Dread?!  This doesn't sound like a three-hour tour."

Hubby started a leathers price war

Apparently his attempt to control the leathers market in World of Warcraft this weekend inspired a bunch of skinning grinders to go out and undercut him, then each other, eventually driving the price down to half the normal price. 

Oops. 

So, Hubby's taking a bath in his first shot at becoming a World of Warcraft auction house mogul. :(

My husband the Warcraft monopolist

He seems to have lost interest in quests and is instead camping in the auction house manipulating the prices of various trade goods -- he's taken over a few markets by coordinating his alts so that some of them list stuff for sale at way over normal market value and others sell for only a bit over normal market value, the latter prices looking so much more reasonable now because of the former.  If anyone tries to undercut him, he just buys up their stuff and resells it at a higher price.  Then he cackles with glee.

Dance party on the roof of the bank in Orgrimmar!

How to create a Blood Elf or Draeni character in World of Warcraft

Several people have Googled their way to my blog looking for this information -- and I was initially confused myself -- so for future Googlers, here are the answers you seek!

The Blood Elves and Draeni are the two new World of Warcraft character races included in the Burning Crusade expansion pack.  They initially appear grayed out on the character creation screen and you must upgrade your account before you can select them.  Here are the steps to do that:

1. Install the Burning Crusade expansion pack.  You can download the expansion from Blizzard's site.

Note: If you don't have a World of Warcraft account yet, you need to install the original World of Warcraft game and create an account before installing the Burning Crusade expansion.  (If you are brand new to World of Warcraft, the World of Warcraft Battlechest is a good deal: it includes both games, two strategy guides, and one month of play time.)  You can also download the game from the World of Warcraft website, but the 10 day free trial does not include the expansion or new races.

2. Find your Burning Crusade Authentication Key.  Mine was on the cardboard sleeve the Burning Crusade CD came in.

Note: The Burning Crusade Authentication Key is one per ACCOUNT not one per computer.  Your key has to have never been used to work for your account.  So, if your friend has Burning Crusade, you *can't* just play it on his computer without first upgrading your own account too.  But, you *can* install and play the game on multiple computers without having to purchase multiple copies of the game.

3. Go to https://upgrade.worldofwarcraft.com/expansion/, read or scroll past the Terms of Agreement, and click "I Agree".

4. Enter your existing World of Warcraft account name and password and your Burning Crusade Authentication Key, then click Upgrade My Account.

5. Open the World of Warcraft game, log in, and create a new character.  The Blood Elf and Draeni races should now be available.

On a related note, I found Almost Gaming's Blood Elf Leveling Guide to be very helpful for finding my way around the Blood Elf beginning area with my first character (before my husband installed Quest Helper on my computer).  They also have a Draeni Leveling Guide.

World of WarCRACK

Hubby had to perform an intervention yesterday after I played for 27 of the 36 hours immediately after I installed the game.  I sat in bed playing on my laptop and didn't do anything else (including shower!) for two days, and I only slept because he made me.  I'd even worked out a super efficient routine for eating and using the bathroom -- get up, start a burrito in the microwave (yes, I ate nothing but frozen burritos for two days), use the bathroom, wash my hands, refill my water glass, grab my burrito, and go back to bed -- so that I never had to be away from the game for more than 2 minutes.  I understand now where the stereotype comes from.

In my defense, I had really bad cramps, so I would have stayed in bed all weekend anyway.  I'm also trying to catch up with Hubby so we can play together as "quality time".  During my binge I managed to go from a total Warcraft newbie to a level 15 character with decent profession skill levels for a beginner (88 alchemy, 95 herbalism, 85 cooking, 79 first aid, 150 fishing), so I did get something "accomplished". :)

Hubby and I have now agreed, since I have so much unstructured time right now yet I also need to do a lot of work for school, that I should make a list of real world tasks that I must accomplish each day BEFORE I fire up the game.  Here's my tentative daily list of daily tasks:

1. Work on whatever is due next for my UNLV classes. If nothing is due and unfinished for my UNLV classes, finish at least one lesson or exam for my distance learning classes.
2. Prepare meals
3. Tidy up the house and clean the kitchen
4. Complete a weekly household chore (laundry, dusting, floors, bathrooms, errands, grocery shopping, bookkeeping, etc.)
5. Exercise
6. Spend some real-world time with Hubby and the dogs
7. Write a blog post (I do not want to fulfill Phil's prophesy!)

Ironically, I'm actually feeling MORE motivated to do my real-world tasks now that I have the game, which is good because I'd been feeling really blah about my classes lately.  It helps to have something FUN to look forward to after I'm finished with studying and chores, instead of only having mildly diverting aimless web surfing as a reward. 

Today I estimate I've put in about 6-8 hours of work on school stuff (real work, NOT counting breaks), and during my study breaks I also cooked a couple of meals, cleaned most of the house, washed and put away 6 loads of laundry, ran errands and went grocery shopping, and wrote a blog post (it may be a reposting of comments I wrote on another blog, but it's still new self-written content, so I'm counting it).  I didn't spend very much time with Hubby today, but that's more his fault than mine (he was busy working and Warcrafting).  The dogs spent several hours in the office with us, and one of them sat on my lap and tried to help me study.  So, all I have left to do from my list is get on the elliptical for a bit, and then it's World of Warcraft until bedtime!!!  Whee!!!

Geek links (COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA)

Here are a couple of links for y'all to read and discuss for the next day or two while I'm busy studying for an exam and working on class projects:

IGE Sued By World Of Warcraft Player (via Wayne): currency devaluation, oh noes!

Battlestar Galactica: Last Supper (via Scorpius): Sci-Fi channel posted a picture on the Battlestar Galactica site that is very reminiscent of Leonardo DiVinci's Last Supper painting.  The link Scorpius sent me analyzes the meaning of the photo, and some of it is spoilery for what the writers are planning for the final season (including who ISN'T the last Cylon).

Note to self

After fishing, remember to switch sword for fishing pole.

...I was wondering why the monsters were suddenly so hard to kill.

Jacqueli the Blood Elf Paladin of Zul'jin

Hello!!!!

Do I ever get to actually *play* this game?

I've been downloading and installing patches for hours, just trying to get World of Warcraft fully installed on my computer. :(

Edit: And now that I have it installed (and the expansion pack), I can't create a Blood Elf character.  The option is grayed out.  WTF?!

Edit: Oh, figured it out, I had to enter the expansion pack code somewhere.

Update: Please see my post "How to create a Blood Elf or Draeni character in World of Warcraft" for a step-by-step explanation on how to solve this problem.

Edit: Now every name I want is unavailable. :(  This game is a pain in the ass to get started in.

Help me make a World of Warcraft character!

My husband has started playing World of Warcraft and I think I'm going to have to join him if I want to spend more quality time with him. :)  However, I don't want to spend a bunch of time researching all the different character creation options, so I'm hoping those of you who are experienced Warcrafters can please give me some advice.

Hubby says that I have to be a member of the "Horde" to play with his group and I want to play a pretty character so by process of elimination it seems that my race has to be Blood Elf. 

For character class, Hubby is pushing me to be some sort of magic user because Blood Elves are good at that, but in my experience, spellcasting in RPGs tends to be pretty complicated and I really don't want to learn a bunch of extra magic crap.  I'm more inclined towards a simple fighter-type character, like a Hunter.  However, Hubby thinks I'd be giving up a huge advantage in magic using ability if I did that. What do y'all think?

I'd also appreciate any advice on which profession to choose.

In general, I want a character that is really easy to play and doesn't require learning how to use a bunch of complicated abilities or commands, and that won't get killed easily if it's just Hubby and me running around together on our own.  I don't plan to invest a lot of time in this game, I just want to be able to go on the occasional boar-killing date with my sweetie.

Thanks!

Edited to add: Hubby is a 36th-level Orcish Hunter with leatherworking, skinning, fishing, and first aid professions, if that makes a difference in what I should be.