Over the past 48 or so hours, there has been much trash-talking about the Ensidia world-first kill of Arthas (and subsequent fallout).  People are weighing in on both sides.

One prevailing viewpoint of the pro-Ensidia crowd is that Blizzard failed to test the software “properly” and thus, somehow and ergo, Ensidia is blameless in this situation.

What utter, profound crap.

Let me essplain.  No – it is too much. Let me summarize.

There is a rule of thumb in the software testing world, which boils down to this:  “to attack the software properly, you have to think like a criminal” – such as , for example, when dealing with things like credit card processing – the storage of account numbers and so forth, especially. The designer will tell you how it’s supposed to work under normal conditions. You get to figure out what he didn’t think of, the cracks in the shell that you can exploit.

So; this rule of thumb helps one find good testers, but it begs the question as to how to “catch a thief”! Until you’ve sat in the seat of an interviewer, you really don’t know how difficult it is to find a mediocre tester, much less a world-class game buster.  To “catch a thief” to work on your team, you kinda have to think like one, too.

So that’s one issue.

Another issue is what I like to summarize as “the view is really good from the cheap seats”. Really, until you’ve actually been put in the place of finding bugs as your bread and butter, you really have no idea what you’re talking about when you criticize the work done by the testers in this situation. You really, really, don’t. You have no idea what kind of guidelines they were given. You have no idea what level of knowledge they were given about how the encounter was supposed to progress, nor how complete the testing environment was. You have no idea, at all, how this was tested, or even if it was testable.

So sure, go ahead and talk trash all you want, but those of us that work in the industry know exactly how hollow and foolish your critiques are.

Walk a mile in my shoes, and we have common ground to talk.  You can make real critiques at that point, not a bunch of generalities that mean absolutely nothing.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Regarding Ensidia; Grimm said this elsewhere, but I will reiterate now.  You don’t play this game for five years, earn a seat in one of the premier raiding guilds in the world, and somehow not know that this was an exploit. Saronite bombs are to be thrown at the enemy, not collapsed portions of a platform, and the enemy was not standing on collapsed parts of the platform. No, this was deliberate. And anyone that’s been playing that long would know it.

To whine that they’re victims of faulty QA is disingenuous at best. That QA team didn’t make them toss bombs off where they would (theoretically) do no good.  That QA team didn’t force them to take the achievement. That QA team didn’t keep them from reporting the issue.The QA team didn’t make them crow at their achievement.

-=-=-=-=-=-

An analogy, and then I will shut up on this topic.

You are walking through a mall. Ahead of you, a woman’s purse has a broken strap, and the wallet has fallen out. When it hits the ground, a bunch of $50 bills spill out on the ground. She continues on, unaware of the incident.

If you take the money and toss her wallet, who’s in the wrong?  Sure, she should have fixed the purse, secured the wallet. But does that in any way excuse theft? I don’t think so.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Ensidia, I’m sorry that you didn’t get a nice set of steak knives, but maybe next time you will use your heads and not risk your reputation on something so obvious. Or if you do (and I suspect you will), I hope you can at least own up to your stupidity next time.

Oh, and gratz to Paragon, that did it without exploits.

Can you feel it? It is calling in the air.

I’m not naming names. I’m not even promising to be true to the gender involved. I’m not trying to start a fight. I am making an observation. Kapitch?

What happened to me this morning is that I was reading what is considered by all to be a well-informed, rounded blog specific to one specific class.  I have been reading that blog for some time. But, today, for whatever reason, I while I was reading it, I realized, of a sudden, that I had no idea – none at all – if the author was actually enjoying the activities described therein, or if it was just another notch, just another boss, just another data point.

And that got me thinking.

What’s your first-best love?

Do you play the class you love the most, or do you play a class or spec that is needed, for whatever reason, more than your favorite?

If you blog about this silly game, do you blog about what you do, or what you want to do?

I’m reminded of the blogger that most influenced me at first, the guy that taught me that it was good to be enthusiastic and happy and, well, maybe even gush a little about how much fun he was happening.  BRK may be gone, but he is not forgotten, and the post that most reminds me of the outright fun he brought to the game would be the time he had Hobbes tanking the adds in the Moroes encounter.

He was analytical. He was helpful. But, most of all, he was having a hella good time.

He not only helped me enjoy the game … he got me to start playing the game again. I had quit. Deleted all my toons. I was just reading because WoW was, still, interesting in some way¹.  But this guy’s enthusiasm and joy in what he was doing drove home an important lesson to me – It’s a game! Have some fun, FFS!

When I tanked one of the Four Horsemen in Naxx, I had that in mind. This is how we huntard, babee! Bringing you Pewpew and RAWR in one handsome package! If I had Megan’s soul², I’d even do a song about it! Alas, the best you get from me is fish puns, and links to people with actual talent.

Contemplate, for a moment, this post’s titular question.

Frustration and sadness arise when you are kept from what you love. You may have a sense of duty, or loyalty, or something else, that drives you to do that which you do not enjoy as much.  Sometimes, we all have to be “grownups” and do what needs to be done, indeed! But if you don’t recognize that which makes you tick, and embrace it, and nurture it … what kind of experience do you believe you will get from this game?

I firmly believe that if you aren’t having fun, it’s not a game. It’s a job, and probably one with no pay.

Now that this love has overcome me …
Now that this fire is burning bright …
All of these words seem just beyond my reasoning.
Be still my soul …

1. I actually found him via wow.com, so let it never be said that they don’t have their moments.
2. No, not the ones in her shard bag!

I’m running through Un’goro trying to finish off the “To all the critters I’ve loved before” achievement, looking desperately for a parrot, and bombing out.  Suddenly, my sweetie, who was watching over my shoulder, yelled “THERE’S ONE!”

Parrot, Pterrordorax … both have wings, right?

“And,” I added, “they both begin with the same letter!”

This was not taken in the spirit offered.

-=-=-=-=-=-

Incidentally, the comments on WoWHead indicate that if you kill snakes, parrots will spawn in their place. So much for my “egg” theory.  But, I dutifully killed off every snake I saw, and when I returned to my starting point, a parrot was flapping around in the same location … so there might be something to it.

It’s been an eventful year for us all, with a few surprises here and there, but through it all we’ve kept each other in our hearts and minds whenever possible. If you have family, remember that not everyone does – but if we’re very lucky, we’ll find one anyway. My family, as diverse as it is, is still my family, and I’m glad for every one of them.

To celebrate, we gather together and feast and enjoy each others’ company. We all decided to get gussied up for the Feast of Winter’s Veil, although Kutath lost his fancy duds when The Exodar crashed, and he hadn’t gotten around to getting replacements (and believe me, it’s not easy finding fancy duds to fit a fully grown male Draenai!).  He took it in good humor, though. Well, here’s looking forward to next year’s gathering.

Here’s a little something from us to you to commemorate the occasion. Thanks for coming by, and we hope to see you again! Best wishes for the new year from Grimmtooth, Jasra, Floramel, Illume, Faiella, Slithmere, Kutath, Orlee, Amusmoses, and Yarley!

Here’s a little trick to help keep track: use the “note” feature to record the original name you friended them under.  There will still be plenty of room for other stuff, as needed. It’s no guarantee you’ll remember the person, but at least you’ll have a better chance.

We followed this up with a not very successful attempt on Marrowgar-10; I think our Boomkin ditched us out of disgust.  Or maybe I’m reading too much into the sudden without warning drop.  /shrug – know what, I don’t care. He can go do that, and as soon as a replacement is available for me, he can go do that without bothering me about it.

Marrowgar is a confusing fight; even with him scaled back to 10-man strength, the whirlwind is devestating.  We need a lot more practice.  Disc healing isn’t exactly useful at that point, either.

The one good thing I saw was that my T9 2-piece bonus really makes the Frisbee stand tall.

The scary thing for me with regard to T9 and T10 is that Blizz is pushing Crit down so hard for the healing sets. Crit is a Big Deal™ for Disc healers. We get some from primary stats, which do get stacked, but the loss of Crit is going to hurt. The mace that dropped off of Maly was biased in the same way. This brings up some really interesting gear decisions.

However, Admiral Akbarr says it’s a trap! And it is, to an extent, because it forces you to get a WoWHead account to install and run the WoWHead client, so they get all that nommy in-game data, and that makes WoWHead even MORE accurate! The bastards!

So, you make the call.  I’ve been running the client for quite some time now. It’s unobtrusive, and it’s nice to contribute to a database which I use so extensively.

Our GM spent weeks brute-forcing the achievement, and got it mere days ago.  I’m staying low for a while.

So, burnout.

Actually, it’s escalated from healer burnout to raiding burnout. I’m of a mind not to raid.

There. I said it.

I’m not talking about healing. I’m talking about raids, in general.

I’ve asked the GM to find a replacement. We have several DPS peeps dual specced to heal, and we can fill in DPS more easily than healz, any day. Do the math.

This is not an effort to get Grimm or Flora into raids. Quite the contrary. I desire to be done with the entire framework of raiding. More precisely, being an officer in the guild during raids … taxes me. It taxes the GM, too, but she made her own life choices. This is mine.

We might even PvP to prove the point.

Note: I will not abandon my friends. Until a recplacement is available, for now, I will fulfill my implicit obligations. For now.

OK, that’s it for that. As big an element it is, I still don’t want to dwell on it.

Moving on.

-=-=-=-=-

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about what’s happening in-game. For, beyond my traitorous desires to just play the game and have fun, I do have loyalty to what we do as a guild.

1. Ulduar progression is coming along. We were dead-ended for a while because we couldn’t go more than a certain amount of time, and that got us as far as Auri. This week we got that far on the first night, and the second night we got a substitute tank to come in (our Warr tank had GF aggro) and she walked us not only through Hodir but Thorim as well. More on these in a moment.
2. The ICC five-mans have been thoroughly roflstomped by our core raiders in standard mode, and we got the first instance done in Heroic by accident with no sweat.
3. Ony can still stomp us hard if we don’t do it right. For whatever reason, the last attempt failed in Phase 2 every time. Part of it appears to be that some people were not following instructions and focus firing on the same target as everyone else. There were points where I just said “fine, you’re going down, I’ll heal the ones that are where they are supposed to be.” And naturally, I ran into deep breaths myself, too. Overall, bad deal.
4. ICC 10 was attempted on the 2nd night – with Marrowgar at 25-man strength. As you can guess, we wiped as many people did. If I must raid, I’m interested in seeing how we fare now that they’ve adjusted him.

-=-=-=-=-

Back to Hodir / Thorim. Both of these fights require a ferocious amount of group healing. The MT is hardly taking any damage, usually, so the hardest part is keeping everyone else up and alive, and our Shammi is hard pressed to do so. We actually had our boomkin druid swap to tree as well.

I finally found a good use for my talents though. I focused on two tanks and two healers as my priorities, and they focused on everyone else. Seemed to work. Maybe in the future I’ll just swap to shadow for those fights, and let the tree and shammi keep us alive.

-=-=-=-=-

Two new members of the clan on other servers.

First, Grimmtooth the Third – who was rolled on Kael’Thas for the Raid for the Cure charity drive – has renamed to Dvorkin¹. If you are on K’T and care for such things, there ya go. Also, LFG. My sweetie is there as well so I am looking for a very casual guild here.  In the time since RftC I have advanced to level 33 without trying too hard, and given sufficient impetus, could be 80 in a very short time. I’ve done it before.

Second, Yardiff Bey – or more properly, Yardifbey – on Bronzebeard is my Belf flower-picking Warlock toon, recently hitting level 11. I rolled him to hang with my sweetie who is in DotH on that server. Also LFG as my sweetie’s guild will not admit non-female members. So I’m on mah own.

-=-=-=-=-

Okie. For good or for ill, silence is broken. We all apologize for this, regardless of who “we” is at the time.

Ooooooh. And it’s published. I’m committed.

1. ”Dworkin” was taken, but if you follow my pet naming convention, this makes perfect sense. If not, I recommend to you the collected works of Roger Zelazny as an example of some of the finest fantasy and SF you are likely to encounter for quite some time.

“Don’t waste pleasantries on me, Milo. I got word all the way in Dalaran that you were looking for me. So I’m here. Talk. I have things to do.”

Kicking back in his chair a bit, he grinned up at her. “Oh, you’ll love this. You know that bit of work you did for the Argent Crusade at Crusader’s Pinnacle?  Well, Fordring himself has been asking for you personally. I guess you made an impression, girl.”

The Warlock frowned; her felguard growled. Milo could get so … fresh … sometimes.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

If there was one thing that Paladins hated, it was Warlocks. Keepers of demons and trafficking in fel magicks, it was only natural that they did. But there was one thing they hated even more, and that was the Scourge. Good fortune for both, then, that Warlocks would do what Paladins would not in battle against a common enemy.

But, Fordring … the Grand Poobah of the whole crowd of “holy” warriors? Asking after a Warlock? There must be foulness afoot, indeed, if he was going to shake hands with the likes of them.

“Ah, there you are.”, he smiled at her – although the smile seemed a bit … off. He explained that a Hero of the Crusade had gone missing, and he needed help to find him. Why the Warlock? That was never discussed, but as she had some reputation of getting things done, maybe that was all there was to that. “He was spotted heading to the far northeast, towards the Silent Vigil. Bring him back to me that I might honor him for his valor.”

At least he didn’t call her “girl.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Finding the Hero was not easy, but find him she did. He lay, broken, falling to the Scourge Plague that would turn him into something terrible, a new toy for Arthas, a powerful new enemy for the Lich King. Just over the rise, was the new Tournemant grounds, with many who might help. And yet he refused for fear of infecting others. “Leave me… and see to it that no one else comes looking. You would do me a great disservice if you were to expose anyone to the plague that I carry.”  GAH! Paladins! She fumed as she mounted up and prepared for the long flight back to Fordring. Not only was the mission failing, but the odds of getting paid were withering away.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Emerald Nightmare … was nightmarish. Even the Felguard was uncomfortable. There were those that theorized that The Emerald Nightmare came from Fel magick, but every fiber of her being screamed in a most unnatural way. If this is Fel magic, I’ll eat a Soul Shard, she thought, as she fumbled around in search of her prize. Finally, something out of the corner of her eye … Ah, acorns! Squirrels might be better at finding them, but who’s gonna bring them back? That’s right, send a Warlock!

Suddenly, the gloom deepened. Looking around, she realized that the tree to the left hadn’t been there before … and it appeared to be very angry!  What was it that Remulos said?

Seriously! Remulos! Talking to a Warlock!

Oh, yes. Pinch myself.

Pouf

The Keeper grinned back at her. “I told you to be careful. I am glad you are back, Floramel. Not everyone is so fortunate. Here, let me see what you have, there.”

She suspects she’s been pranked – just a little bit – by a demigod.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“You must understand, that cleansing the body in favor of life anew is something well within my grasp … removing the plague of undeath without affecting the body, however, is beyond the scope of the powers that I control.

“If this Bridenbrad is the beacon of light that you profess him to be, perhaps he will endure such a cleansing and thrive, but I cannot state with confidence that this is the salvation that you seek. Take it and go with all of my blessings.”

“That sound painful, Life-binder. Is there no other way?” She surprised herself at the audacity of questioning Alextraza’s word.

The Dragon Queen smiled ruefully. “Oh, it is painful, and dangerous, too. But like with the flowers, the Scourge must be burned out in order to allow Life itself to flourish. He will either survive it, or he will pass. We can do no more. There is no other way.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Fordring looked haunted, angry, and a number of other emotions that could not be clearly described. Desperate. There, that was close to it. As close as a Highlord might look to Desperate, at any rate.

“This won’t do!”, he spat. “I will not give up on him!”

“Floramel, go now to Shattrath…”

After a moment, she demurred. “Highlord … I am a Scryer. Is this wise?”

He smiled a little smile. “The Naaru are beyond petty faction squabbles, Floramel. I’m sure he’ll hear you.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

“Fear not, young one, for this crusader shall not taste death.”

As Bridenbrad’s spirit went aloft, he smiled down at her – with gratitude? Possibly. It was hard to tell, her vision was swimming.

“Young one, why do you weep?”

“I’m not crying!”, she spat. “I just have something in both of my eyes.”

The sound of bells – was the Naaru … laughing? “Forgive me, young Floramel. We Naaru are, of course, unfamiliar with human emotions, and often make mistakes.

“’sokay,” she mumbled.

Hmm … wonder if Fordring might want this tabard back?  “Hey, Naaru, is it OK if I take this back to the Highlord?”

Looking around, she realized she was alone.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Standing this high up in Dalaran, you can almost see where he laid down to die alone. Almost. Rarely had she been touched by the actions of others, and this week she had been touched by the actions of many, so many, giving what they could to honor this “beacon of the Light.”

The Warlock contemplated the week’s events, and held on to the warmth she had when speaking with A’dal. Was it wrong for a Warlock to want to feel that way again?  The Naaru were … very hard to pin down.

Illume walked out from her study to find her “sister” lost in thought.

“Hello, Flora. It’s good to see you again. How are things going?”

Smiling faintly … “Not bad, sis. Not bad, at all.”  She turned from the balcony. “Buy you a drink? I could use some company right now.”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Meta: this story is set – loosely – in the questline starting with A Tale of Valor.

If you didn’t read about it on BBB’s Blog, today we had a joint Horde and Alliance run in support of a guildie of his in the Sidhe Devils that was diagnosed with breast cancer. Well, in support of all who have it or are at risk, really, but that guildie was the person that inspired them.

In preparation I rolled a doppelganger up on the appropriate server and proceeded to level up. I had to have me a white bear, see, so that meant I needed to be level 12 by then. And once I got there, I thought I should make level 20 for my mount, too. The latter didn’t happen.  Just short of 18. Bother.

My sweetie was there, too, on her female Dwarf Hunter – isn’t that sweet? She DID manage to out-level me, and I have to tell you it’s weird being the one being offered help through tougher quests.  Total role reversal from our main server.

So this is what I took into the run. Don’t laugh. Or at least be polite and avert your face while doing so.

The knickers are charming, aren’t they?

So we gather, and I see all sorts of names pop on. Hydra, Fuubaar and Fulguralis, Squidly and Miss Medicina come immediately to mind. I had a little bit of a fanboy moment.  I apologize for not mentioning any that I did see, it was chaotic and so is my mind afterward.

Finally, BBBBBB called it, and we were off!

Out of the starting area, over the rise, and down into the valley we went!

And tearing through Teldrassil we go…

I wonder what they thought of us as we passed through Darnassus.

We waited on the dock for the boat to come; that’s a lot of pink shirts!

Hydra must have been running behind, as she met us on the dock in Auberdine. After a brief /cheer we were back on the road, pouring through Auberdine like a stream.

With several Sidhe Devils flanking us all the way, we streamed through Darkshore. At one point we caught up with some confused fellow that was running the Sleeper escort. I don’t think he had a problem getting that one done, nothing stood upright for ten yards each way. But it had to be unnerving.

At the double time, you can really see the difference between Auberdine and Ashenvale.

A brief rest in Astranaar (I didn’t get any good pics since everyone kinda spread out), and then off we went for The Barrens.

Remember, you have to SNEAK around the guards, no matter how many of you there are, or the number of you wearing bright pink shirts. SNEAK.

And we were OFF THE CHAIN in the Barrens!

“Everyone – VEER LEFT! DO NOT ANGER THE GUARDS!” I’m guessing there was a treaty in effect for this event, so we had to watch our P’s and Q’s.

We hooked up with our counterparts outside of The Barrens. A mighty sight it was. I looked for Jong, and didn’t see him. /me sad, since I knew he had planned to attend.

Finally, our mighty army of pink shirts was unleased, and we headed for Rachet!

As we waited on the dock, I noticed Hydra getting excited. Why? JONG! I gave the customary fanboy /cheer.  Here’s a picture of us together.

Finally, the boat arrived and we piled on. This is the best shot I could get out of four, but none of them do justice to the tide of bodies.  The amazing thing was – no real lag, to speak of.

Once we arrived in Booty Bay, everyone piled off to the inn. If you look closely you can see people leveling up all over the place.

At long last, we arrived at the in, ran through it, and commenced to party atop the bank while someone ground faction against Booty Bay.

This was a wonderful event and a great opportunity to rub elbows with some people I seriously admire.  Just standing on the dock with Jong was pretty uber. But of course the big thing was to show in some small way a measure of support for someone going through a hard bit of life right now. I hope things turn out well for Julie, and I hope that someday we find a cure for this and other forms of cancer.

My thanks to BigBearButt and his guild the Sidhe Devils for getting this all together. It was awesome.