Random Thoughts From A Stuffy Nose

*blows nose for the tenth time into a kleenex*

So... you know how the other day I was musing comically about "skipping" my first day of class for this semester to hit Warhammer Online's head start date? I wasn't really serious, of course, but irony likes to take a chunk out of my butt now and then even so. I called the seminary today to find out where my booklist was -- full of enormous chunks of paper that could most definitely kill a man if they were flung with any serious force -- and the registar lets it slip (wait for it) that classes start next Tuesday.

*blink* As in, September 2nd. This was, I told her, good information to know, as I would've probably skipped my first two weeks of classes and not even known about it. You know how you have those dreams about high school or college classes that you somehow skipped and it's finals day and you don't remember ever going to that class? I think I almost had the real life version, today.

Anyway...

Mark Jacobs came back with even more words, including feisty adjectives, detailing some of the problems and glitches of the preview weekend. I kind of admire him for this, in that he didn't spend much time tooting Mythic's horn (which, of course, makes a "waaagh!" sound), even though in my opinion they did far more right than wrong for this event. He just launches into the identified problems and how they're looking at fixing them. One BIG little note that he made looks to correct one of my concerns of the game: they're looking to implement a 0.3 second queue timer so that after you hit a first skill, you can queue up a second skill shortly thereafter. It should make combos and skill chains easier to pull off, and I appreciate that. I always liked how City of Heroes would let you queue up a second skill while your first one was going off.

There's just a crapton of new info out there, and even though we're weeks yet from release, you could probably dive into the new databases and wikis and forums and theorycrafters to min/max your WAR experience before you ever touch foot in the game. You can spoil huge chunks of the Tome of Knowledge unlocks, experience other people's gameplay vicariously through videos, and come up with a streamlined power leveling path to 40. I'm sure there are people out there doing all that, and more.

Me? I'm okay with a short WAR break here. Ever since getting into beta, I've put up a shield around my gameplay experience that's limited me to enjoying A B and C, but not D-Z. I don't care whether or not my first week is perfectly planned so that I get the jump on everyone else and dominate scenarios, I just want to be able to slowly enjoy the game, squeeze out all of the enjoyment in each zone, and go at my own pace. I also realized that over the past couple months, I've really weaned myself from my daily necessity (addiction?) to logging into a MMO for my gameplay downtime (fix?). It's pretty nice to not feel pressured to play every night, but to enjoy a wider assortment of activities for my evening hours. And it's going to help over the next couple weeks when I really won't be able to play, even if I had the time.

Finally, I have a small request to make -- a couple friends and I are still feeling out options for a good Order (Core ruleset) server. We've found a couple promising guilds, but we're not quite sure about the fit yet. I'm insanely pickly when it comes to guilds, because I know from experience that if I don't fall in with the right sort of people and structure, it just kills the gameplay for me. I need a guild that has a great sense of humor, that isn't uptight, yet is structured and led and motivated. Mature personalities/older gamers always a plus, and somewhere between a level of "just six guys" and "five MILLION guildies!" would be great. If you're in such a guild or know of one, please point me in that direction. It'd be great to check out some more guilds while we're waiting for launch!