WoW Honor system

PvP in WoW has always been rather pointless. I mean sure it's fun to run around killing other players every once in a while but the only thing you ever got out of it was NOT being the one doing a corpse run. Of course, depending on the location, you can be back up and fighting in like 2 minutes even if you do die. You can't loot the dead guy, you get no XP, there is no point to it. I've been in a couple of big battles and they always go the same way. Everyone runs around, lagging like crazy, killing each other for 15 or 20 minutes then everyone gets bored and wanders off.

So, to make PvP have some meaning and to hopefully keep the level 60s from ganking the level 20s, they put in the Honor system. Bottom line is that you get 1 honorable kill point for killing anyone who cons green (or better) to you. For a level 60, that means that anyone over about level 50 is fair game. Not only is it fair game, you get points for killing them. These points get you cool titles based on your ranking and can also be used for cool swag. You're supposed to get dishonor points for killing something too low but I'm not sure that works yet.

I play lots of different characters and most of them can pretty easily take a mob 2 levels higher. Some can take 3. If my mage tries to blast something more than three level higher than her, they resist every spell which basically means she gets her ass ripped off. Taking on something even 5 levels higher is just unheard of.

Now, I play on a PvE server which means I don't have to PvP if I don't want to. Ever. If I don't attack a Player or NPC of the opposing faction, they can't attack me. There are certain places, as is the way with these games, where everyone congregates for the PvP action. Since the honor system went in, these places are extreme lag fests as the PvPers fight back and forth. There are also places where NPCs regularly disappear but all in all, the honor system has had little affect on me and my game play. Things do seem a bit laggier in places but it shall pass I'm sure.

Where this has had a big impact is on the PvP servers. On a PvP server, you can be attacked at any time in any contested or opposing faction controlled zone. Seems that the honor system has made what used to be just griefing for fun become killing for points. What hardcore PvPer could resist using every trick in the book to be the first one on his server to have all the cool new armor. Supposedly, you can't move into a contested zone any more within being blasted into oblivion. What really tickles the shit out of me is how surprised everyone is about this. Anyone who was surprised by this obviously never played UO before the split. Anytime you reward someone for killing another player, whether that be with allowing them to loot or giving them points of some kind, they are going to figure out the quickest, easiest and more effective way of committing mass murder. It's amazing that people choose to play on a PvP server then scream and whine when someone engages them in PvP.

Lag is a big problem, I will admit that. When you arrive in a new zone with lots of people, you just freeze for a length of time directly proportionate to the numbr of characters in that zone. Well, if it's a PvP zone and you're flagged, you're probably dead before your screen frees up. Blizzard really screwed the pooch on this design and I don't understand why. This particular scenario has been a problem in lots of games, AC2, SWG, UO, and DaoC. Why is Blizzard making the same mistakes these poeple made?

Anyway, it's kind of fun to watch all the wailing and gnashing of teeth on the forums.

You're typical WoW player

Here is a picture from Blizzard of their typical WoW player:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/images/reallifeevents/dragonhunt/ss04.jpg

Now, if you believe that, I have some ocean front property in Arizona for sale real cheap.

Sexual orientation and the State of Texas

I've been a Texan all my life even though I was born in Pennsylvania. I got to Texas before I was 5 so close enough. I find taking pride in something you had no choice in (like the color of your skin or the size of your feet) kind of lame but being from Texas holds a pretty special place in the whole "I'm from " race.

That being said, there are some things about Texas, well more precisely, Texans that really piss me off. Tom DeLay is a good example of a lot of them but two bills before the Texas Legislature illustrate a few more.

The first one was this: Child Protective Servces

This was all about improving child protective services andassessing stiffer penalties for child abuse but, as they will do, this guy, Rep Robert Talton, snuck in a little amendment. It's really hard to find but if you click on the amendments and scroll all the way down till you find amendment 60 and click on the text, you get this little goodie:


Amend CSSB 6, in Article 1 of the bill, by adding the
following appropriately numbered SECTION to that article and
renumbering the subsequent SECTIONS of that article as appropriate:
SECTIONA___.
Subchapter B, Chapter 264, Family Code, is
amended by adding Section 264.1064 to read as follows:
Sec.A264.1064.
FOSTER PARENT DISQUALIFICATION. (a) The
department shall require an applicant who is applying to serve as a
foster parent or a foster parent whose performance is being
evaluated by the department to state whether the applicant or
foster parent is homosexual or bisexual.
(b)If the applicant or foster parent states that the
applicant or foster parent is homosexual or bisexual, the
department may not:
(1)allow the applicant to serve as a foster parent;
(2)place a child with the foster parent; or
(3)allow a child to remain in foster care with the
foster parent.
(c)Notwithstanding an applicant’s or foster parent’s
statement that the applicant or foster parent is not homosexual or
bisexual, if the department determines after a reasonable
investigation that an applicant or a foster parent is homosexual or
bisexual, the department may not:
(1)allow the applicant to serve as a foster parent;
(2)place a child with the foster parent; or
(3)allow a child to remain in foster care with the
foster parent.

So, it seems we have so many qualified foster parents that we can afford to not only deny people who apply to be foster parents based on their sexual orientation but take kids away from anyone who is not totally and 100% committed hetereosexual. This Tarlton guy was quoted as saying that since homosexuality was a learned behavior, kids should not be exposed to it but instead, be free to choose how they want it when they turn 18. More on this after the next piece of legislation.

This one is a little more direct: Same Sex marriage

This one has a lot of steam. Same sex marriage is already illegal in Texas but I guess they felt like one of dem der liberal reactionist judges might find a loophole so they wanted to make sure and be specific about it.

OK, anyone who knows me knows how I feel about this issue but this is a blog and blogs are all about just blathering on so here goes.

First, for most people, sexual orientation is not a choice and which way you swing is not a learned behavior. I don't need a degree in psychology to tell you this, all I have to do is walk down the street. Try it, open your mind (that's the hard part), walk down the street and see who flicks your bic. Next, analyze where your reaction to certain people come from. Did you learn to drool at the hot chica with the big boobs or the buff dude in the tank top or was that reaction instinctual? It doesn't take much to see what I'm talking about.

So, let's say for the sake of argument that it is learned behavior. I'm from Vernon, Texas where the words nigger, faggot, asshole and traitor all bear equal weight. However, I know gay people from Vernon who were gay before they ever left the city limits. Who taught them to be gay? I don't remember any gay classes at school or church, we didn't play gay games on the playground, so how did these people learn to be gay? Of course, people like Senor Tarlton never think these kind of things through.

The problem is that every time he thinks about seeing two people of the same sex walking down the street holding hands it either a) turns him on or b) makes him sick. Either one gets that little crimp in his lip and so, since he happens to be in a position of power, he's gonna make sure he never has to encounter anything like that.

What really chaps my hide is this whole defense of marriage bullshit. No one has ever explained to me how any two people getting married affects any other two married people. Am I suddenly gonna dump my wife of 30 years and go find me a Bruce just because some gay couple gets a marriage license? The whole argument makes about as much sense as marijauna being illegal while 1000s of other intoxicating substances are not.

Anyway, that's my state.

Those nutty Germans

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050422/ap_on_re_eu/germany_cannibal_trial

Wonder if he knows the new pope?

Be afraid...

Microsoft is in trouble again. Not for making the crappiest but best selling products but for dropping support of a gay rights bill. Here's the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/national/22gay.html?th&emc=th

Seems some Christian right folks got to him. One of them is quoted as saying:

Dr. Hutcherson, pastor of the Antioch Bible Church, who has organized several rallies opposing same-sex marriage here and in Washington, D.C., said he threatened in those meetings to organize a national boycott of Microsoft products.
After that, "they backed off," the pastor said Thursday in a telephone interview. "I told them I was going to give them something to be afraid of Christians about," he said

Is it just me or does being "afraid of Christians" kind of go against the whole love and brotherhood thing. Granted, I'm no bible scholar but I was raised in the Baptist church and I just don't remember too awful many instances of Jesus kicking someone's ass. It seems to me like there are way too many people running around calling themselves Christian who would probably really like to go back to stoning people in the village square.

New pope

http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&cat=Papacy_and_the_Vatican

Never talk about religion or politics, right. Seems like that's what I talk about the most.

114 guys get together in a secret locked room and decide who will be one of the most powerful men in the world. Somehow, that seems rather cockeyed to me.

Truthfully, it's not much different from how our President is elected when it comes right down to it. Yeah, we get to vote but only on the people that the PTB pick.

Oh well, good luck to the new guy.

Fake boobs

OK, this one isn't about fake boobs per se. I just couldn't come up with a better subject.

We've all seen this one on the news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/health/14implant.html?th&emc=th

So after making lots and lots of women seriously ill, silicon implants were banned but now, because they might not leak, they are being approved again and only the ones manufactured by one particular company. Am I the only one who smells a rat?

While we're on the subject, I gotta talk about this countries obscession with elective surgery. Let me make it clear that I'm not talking about the lady who had a mastectomy or some kid with a cleft palate, I'm talking about normal, healthy people who go get cut, stuffed and rearranged. I admit that I was born with good genes. While I'll never win a beauty contest, I'm no Quasimodo either. I always thought my arms looked too skinny so I started lifting weights, I didn't go have someone stuff big chunks of plastic in me. It took a while and it hurt like hell sometimes but my body feels hard and powerful now, no amount of surgery can give me what lifing weights three times a week did.

What is wrong with our culture that it seems everyone wants to change themselves in some radical way and they don't want to put any work into it? Is it a symptom of our capitalistic society that advertises drugs and makes people believe they are sick just so they can sell the drugs?

I don't know but I think it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better.

Grandpa...

I'm unofficially already a grandpa. My oldest, Jimmy, has been living with a girl for a long time and her daughter Janie (from a previous marriage) is somewhat of an unofficial grand-daughter.

My youngest also might have one in South Carolina somewhere. There are lots of stories about that one and chances are pretty good we'll never even set eyes on her/him.

However, Jimmy and his girlfriend (someday wife we think) Stephanie have made it official. She is due at the end of June.

I'm really excited. I love babies and I love kids (most of the time). Babies and kids are really cool and I get to be the guy who gives them big grandpa hugs and sneaks them candy instead of the guy who has to yell at them and make them stand in the corner. I'm all about new experiences and this will be a really good one. I can't wait.

Naturally, more on this as events progress.

Me, the ol' lady and Hawaii

The love of my life and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversay on March 7 so we decided to take a trip to Hawaii. The Department of Defense runs a pretty cool place called the Hale Koa Hotel on Waikiki beach http://www.halekoa.com and being retired Army, I get to stay there.

The trip was fabulous. Even though I've been around the world a few times, I'm still not so jaded that I didn't think this place was fabulous. Just walking around seeing coconuts hanging off of palms trees (I'm from Texas) was a blast.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our trip.

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANWjRiycs3DiA

I put captions on most of them.

Names in games

Names are important. I quit my last UO guild because of a guy they let in. The guild master claimed he applied for membership thru the web site so they didn't know his game name in advance but he was granted access to the private forums using his game name.

So, what was his game name that caused me so much consternation?

His name was Stiffrichard.

Now, what does that say about this particular guy? First, I think we can assume that Stiffrichard didn't come out of the random name generator but if it did, what does that say about his intelligence? Before you ask, his native language is American English.

So, we can say that Dick came up with this particular moniker all on his own. I think we can also assume that Richie thinks it's either funny or provocative.

To me, it shows a few things about the person behind the keyboard, all of them indicators of the kind of person I generally put on ignore the second they make their first comment in chat. He's so proud of his little joke that he makes it a permanent part of his online persona, not just ingame but on the guild boards as well. Anyone who encounters him or his leavings, male or female, old or young, gets slapped in the face with his little joke. Personally, I could give a shit. I think I was offended once but I'm can't really remember. It's not about ME being offended it's about him either not caring about offending others or being too stupid to realize it might be offensive. Don't get me wrong, I can be terribly offensive when it's called for but the way I do it is akin to a sniper with a well defined target compared to Dickie and his atomic bomb. So much for Stiffrichard and his ilk.

Now let's talk about a guy I ran into one Saturday morning while running around The Wetlands. There was some pretty lively talk about that football player who died a few months when Merovingian chimes in. My idiot bells start ringing and he eventually makes some stupid comments and I hack him about his name. I'm way too old to pick on these numbwits but I have a fatal character flaw that just doesn't let me stop from slapping these fools sometimes. Besides, it's so damm funny. Anyway, he comes back with a few choice words and eventually says, "Read your history boy!!" I simply responded, "Oh yeah, I'm sure that's why you named yourself that." and he shut up. So what's wrong with naming yourself after a Matrix character? Maybe the first thing would be that we're not playing The Matrix but even if we were, couldn't you come up with something better? If you don't have your hand on Monica Belluci's leg, you can't call yourself Merovingian, it's just that simple. Hell, hit the freaking random name button till you find something, at least you can claim you made it up and showed a little imagination. At least name yourself after some obscure character that it takes some thought to figure out and doesn't make people clench their teeth every time they see your name.

Does we even have to talk about dOoD names.

Anonymous comments

I just turned off anonymous comments so you'll have to register and log in to comment.

I don't care who comments and I don't particularly care what they say, I just want a name attached to it. Names are important, they tell a lot about people.

Hmmm, sounds like a good topic for a post.

Gas prices!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/politics/08bush.html?th&emc=th

Gas was $1.99 last week. It was $1.91 the week before. It's $2.14 a freakin' gallon this week and they say it's going higher?

Time to bust out the ol' Cannondale, I guess.

Cardinal Law and The Pope

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/08/international/worldspecial2/08cardinals.html?th&emc=th

Note: If you're gonna read what I write, you better sign up for the NY Times site. It's well worth it just for the daily news that drops in your mailbox and I refer to them a lot.

First off, a disclaimer: I'm not Catholic and I generally distrust organized religion. The whole religion thing is the subject of another topic so let's move on.

Here is a pertinent quote:

By permitting Cardinal Law to take the limelight in Rome just when the
church is mourning the death of John Paul, the cardinals have reminded American
Catholics that their most painful recent chapter barely registered in the
Vatican.

I've heard a lot in the last few days about how great a man Pope John Paul II was but personally, I can't get past the fact that his organization, during his tenure as it's head, systematically protected and even empowered child molesters. How do you remain quiet about such a thing and be considered a great man? What did he do that ourweighs shirking such a responsibility?

Any chance the next guy will do any better?

Finger food

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=13&u=/ap/20050408/ap_on_re_us/wendy_s_finger

Seems some lady found a finger in her Wendy's chili.

This is interesting because this highlights one of my main problems with the media. If you look at this story, this woman was on Good Morning America. How long before she has a book and a movie of the week? Munching down on a finger is gross and mildly entertaining to the rest of us, I'll grant you that but is it national news?

Blogging

Why blog? Simple, Sun's boards got hacked and have been offline for a few weeks. I've got no place to talk about Sin City, WoW, dead Popes, Terri Shaivo or Michael Jackson.

So I figured I would blog.

If it's good enough for Dundee and Old Bal Angus, it's good enough for me.