Odds and Ends

A number of short topics in this one. First, I just spared you a lot of torture. I was writing a LONG illustration of how closely life in Azeroth mirrors my own real life, but it ended up sounding like me just going on and on and on about regular life. So I deleted it. (Yes, sending me a thank-you card would be appropriate.) It did have one amusing-to-me rant about American football, and how the winners of the NFL Superbowl have the gall to call themselves "World Champions" despite no one else in the world actually playing - or even giving a crap - about American football. "World Champions? Really? So you guys played the Germans? No? Ummm... surely you played England then, right? No? Who exactly then did you play? Oh, you played San Fransisco, eh? Hang on while I check my globe - but while I'm away, why not go ahead and call yourselves Champions of the UNIVERSE? I have a feeling that all the other planets are going to forfeit their games..."

How does that have anything to do with Warcraft? Well, it was part of me telling about how my own failure in High School football runs parallel to my failure in PVP... right down to eating a lot of grass and dirt and getting my face stepped on. Some people (like me) should stick to band - and the hell away from PVP.

I pretty much PUG everything in my real life, too. I don't have a clue who these co-workers are, and I'm certainly NOT going to Happy Hour with them to find out. I'm just not into Trade chat, sorry. I never hang out with friends - because I don't have any. Not the real kind, anyway. Not the ones who will show up on moving day to help you load your furniture in the van. Or hold your hair back while you vomit last night's tequila into the toilet. Or help you get rid of a body. If you've got friends like that, AWESOME. Me? I gotta PUG it.

And I never have any friggin gold in real life, either. Gotta pay for the damn Porsche Mrs. Mortigan made me buy. At least in Azeroth there is no financing. We DON'T need that nightmare.

There. Done with my illustration of life in Azeroth mirroring my own. Saved you a lot of painfully boring text, but keeping all the major points. If my stuff ever even has points, which leads me to the following...

I made a BIG LONG POST about Chinese Gold last Thursday, which I think was missed by a lot of people - either that or a huge pile of people have abandoned this sinking ship I call a blog. But even if you don't read MY post, check out Minstrel's comment which very nicely summed up all the points I wanted to make, but never actually got around to stating:

Minstrel said...
...The problems here are not "gold farming"...it's governmental abuse, perhaps prisoner abuse, debateably exploitative economic conditions (if people are essentially "forced" into high work/low pay jobs due to no other options, akin to sweatshops, if those bother you).

Gold farming simply happens to be profitable, it has no intrinsic evil to it (just the unethical aspect of being against the rules of the game). If hold farming weren't profitable, it wouldn't mean the Chinese would abandon authoritarianism, prisoner abuse or exploitative economic conditions. They'd just move on to the next most profitable venture.

Thank you. Exactly what I wanted to say, but didn't.  Ultimately, I believe that if you somehow could eliminate Chinese Gold Farming altogether, you wouldn't be helping the poor Chinese laborers (or prisoners) - you'd just be sticking them with some other job... one that's probably a lot crappier than farming WoW gold.

I also made my first Alt. A Space Goat Hunter named Mortigal. But rather than actually reading up about Hunters or LEARNING anything about hunters, my goal is simply to BLATANTLY COPY a uber-ass-kicking Hunter I grouped with in ZG, who was rocking 29K DPS! I looked him up on wow-heroes, copied down all of his gear, his spec, his pets, etc. I figure if I follow in his footsteps, I CAN'T POSSIBLY GO WRONG. Except I lost my first duel already. I should take my own advice, and stay the HELL AWAY FROM PVP. But somehow, I just can't resist a beat-down every now and then. Keeps my self-esteem in check, I guess.

And one last thing. Elkagorasa, a long-time reader and commenter here, has some extremely important news about Valor and Justice Points related to Patch 4.2. Unfortunately, I can't read his blog here at work, but maybe you can.  Check him out at http://www.elkagorasa.info

There. I think that's everything. For now. Oh wait. One reader wanted a refund of his $19.99 for the PDF version of my Sleazy Guide to Free Justice Points. I am of course more than happy to issue refunds for a low processing fee of $39.98. So if you'd like a refund of $19.99 (even if you didn't make a purchase here), just send me $39.98 to ensure speedy processing, and you'll have your $19.99 refund paypaled back to you in no time!  Customer service is SO important - and I strive to be the best!

Mortigan of the Random Stuff