Tuesday 25 September 2012

Panda Land Diary - Day 1

What a truly magnificent experience this mornings launch of Mists of Pandaria was for me.

When I read about the no log out insta-launch Blizzard had planned I have to admit to being sceptical. This was further fuelled when problems with the launch (9 hours earlier) were reported from the EU.

I can tell you, however, my experience was as smooth as ice.

MoP 'switched' a few minutes earlier than expected (about 5) and this appeared to throw a good chunk of the masses who for some reason were glued to the command board in Orgrimmar (the initial quest automagically appeared in the quest log).

Having decided to take my hunter / gatherer team to 90 first I was hanging out at the skinning trainer on one and the mining trainer on the other. Clickty click quick flight to herbalist trainer and the engineering dude and I was ready to go.

The rest of my brief time in the city is a bit of a blur. I remember a cut scene several thousand heaving virtual bodies reaching out for a big yellow ? ..... then the team are on a zeppelin heading for Pandaria.

At this stage the awesome ratcheted up several levels. I actually tried to record some audio but soon realised it would be several minutes of me yelling in strangled breathy tones 'OMG OMG WHEEEEEE!!'

I had made a point of staying away from the beta for MoP and watching very few videos (all of which were of the panda race starting zones) I am so glad I did. The sheer epicness of it all is something I have rarely experienced in a video game. The hundreds of fellow players made it even more so. For me at least there was also pretty much zero lag which I found simply stunning.

I played for just over 4 hours and apart from a couple of choke points and insane respawn rates all continued to be over and above my already high expectations. I logged out about half way through level 85 a happy man.

So far so fantastic.


A New Beginning

So this morning at 8am UK time a new expansion for World of Warcraft launched on the North American servers.

You may have been aware of the event :)

Poised over my keyboard and mouse my characters loitering near their profession trainers I certainly was.

Finally after what seemed forever Mists of Pandaria was here! And it was good!

I am going to take what seems the perfect opportunity to reboot this blog and use it to record the coming weeks and months in my favourite game. I am sticking with the title as although I no longer have my All Female Gnome Dancing Squad 'Ten Pandas' sounds stupid.

I also want to do a sort of audio diary rough podcasty thing so if you are more about the listening than the reading watch this space or better still follow me on twitter @eljeppy

Wednesday 7 March 2012

So good it seems wrong!

About 20 minutes ago this poor warlock was in whites and greens on a long forgotten account dreaming of what could have been. Scroll of Resurrection saved her!

With a few clicks of the mouse she transformed into a level 80 geared with good cataclysm starting gear 4 x frostweave bags 75 extra gold and a smile on her face. Even more exhilarating was the discovery that she now had 280 flying (including cold weather and Old World) as well as the mount to use it. Her specification had been filled in (you choose which one - I went for demonology) and all spells up to 80 are bought and paid for. 

And there's more...

If she had been languishing on another realm or even slumming it with another faction another click would have transferred her lickty spit  to the home of the resurrectionist. Not to mention if the account she was on had not been a cataclysm account that would have been sorted as well (even all the way from battle chest)

The cost of this wonder?

ZERO! Yes you heard me. No money down nothing to pay!

Oh yes she even got 7 days to bask in this new found glory.

Of course the idea is the newly resurrected account will want to live beyond the 7 days and a new subscription will be applied. To make that decision an easy one a natty new mount is awarded to the sender of the scroll as a thank you for those 7 or 8 clicks :)


If you yourself have dormant accounts you would be CRAZY not to do this and if you have friends in a similar situation they would be CRAZY not to accept your scroll.