Trick or Treat!

As the nights draw in and all Hallows Eve slides through the shadows, getting closer and closer, Ambermist of Battlechicken challenged us to describe how our characters would dress up for a spot of candy acquiring.

If your character were going Trick or Treating in Azeroth, Tyria, or wherever they call home, what would their costume be? Tell me all about the what and the why and if you can find a picture of it or something similar, please post that with it–I’d love to see!

We tend to dress up as what scares us the most and for Sprout, the bogeyman under the bed and the monster lurking beneath the bridge has always been a Troll. Thus this Hallows End, she will be found cavorting around demanding sweeties whilst dressed as an evil little Troll creature, complete with pet snake to hiss on demand if people aren’t generous enough in their candy sharing.

Give me sugary snacks or I’ll let my snake hug you!

The Angel of the North

Just  come back from a long weekend trip down south to see family and take them their Christmas presents. Now because sitting in car for 6 hours is nothing but boring we stopped a couple of times. First in Edinburgh for a late breakfast, then in Alnwick for a quick run around the Castle gardens and finally in Newcastle for a closer look at the Angel himself.

Ignoring the fact that the sun setting at 4pm is horrible, I love the fact that this photograph completely manages to hide the fact that a freezing icy wind was blowing straight across the hillside. I have mixed feelings about the statue itself, I can’t help but feel the wings should be more rounded and softer but on the whole, seeing up close with the sun behind it, it was almost beautiful.

Back on WoW, I logged on to find a cute little whelping from Blizzard. The deep breath animation is adorable if somewhat pathetic. Would have been so much more fun if you could incinerate lowbies with it.

Then there is the new Pilgrim’s Bounty festival. Food, a reason to visit old familiar places and more clothes to fill up my bags. The perfect remedy for a spot of WoW grumpiness. Plus, shooting rogues…. how awesome is that.

Bringing the harvest home

Today the Harvest festival ends and I have to admit its a bit of a non event. On my server, one of the largest in the EU hardly anyone bothered to pay a visit to the tomb of Uther the Lightbringer.

So what could they do to improve the proceedings?

The obvious achievements would be take the existing bits and pieces and convert them as a starting point.

• Alliance – “Honour the Lightbringer”: Carry a candle to the tomb of Uther the Lightbringer and sit for a moment to contemplate his life and death.
• Horde – “Honour Hellscream”: Carry an offering to the grave of Grom Hellscream and sit for a moment to contemplate his life and death.
• Both – “Break the Harvest bread”: Sit at the Harvest table and sample all the produce available.

However all proper festivals should present a reason to run around half of Azeroth visiting random locations and the Harvest Festival should be no exception.

Visiting the graves of Hellscream/Uther are fine and well but there are lots of dead heroes whose corpses lie six foot beneath the soil, sand and stone of Azeroth and Outlands. So I would add an achievement to visit around 10-15 different burial grounds candle in hand to hear the stories of the brave but restless dead. Examples would include:

• The beachside Nightelf style graveyard in Azshara.
• The island graveyard outside Menethil Harbour
• One of the Oracle graveyards in Sholazar Basin
• Raven Hill

The Dwarf outside Ironforge, the only living alliance  celebrant of the festival tells us the Harvest Festival is about honoring the fallen and feasting. In order to do the latter there must be food so another achievement would require our heroes to complete a treasure hunt collecting foodstuffs from different areas, examples would include:

• Pumpkins from the Tirisfal Glades
• Apples from Elwynn Forest
• Freshly baked harvest bread from either Mulgore/Westfall depending on your faction.
• Carrot cupcakes from Dalaran

After all, keeping the tables well stocked is the least we can do.

Once the table is groaning under the weight of all this fresh produce, we need to find something to do with it. Take a Harvest Bounty package to parents/widows/widowers/orphans of the fallen in each of your faction capitals. This would allow some of these random NPCs who aren’t interactable with  to finally have a voice, a purpose and a back story.

Rewards/items.

The theme of the festival is food so the rewards should reflect this.

• A picnic hamper similar to the romantic one handed out when “Love is in the Air”. However more muted autumnal colours possibly with pumpkins or falling leaves on the umbrella. Unlike the romantic version this would seat five (handy for doing 5 mans) and would provide food for the party. It would also be usable indoors (unlike the valentine’s day one…. wonder if using an umbrella indoors brings badluck in game) so parties could utilise them properly especially when there are no mages around.
• Cooking recipes. A variety of recipes for all levels of cooking and all levels of players. This would include a new feast recipe which would give the same stats as the fish feast but uses different materials, mainly meat (yes, my priest is tired of eating fish with oranges 20 times a time a night).
• An updated version of the Bounty of the Harvest which proves more than 4 loaves of bread and also restores mana as well as health.
• A harvest reaper mini pet, similar to the compact harvest reaper kit made by engineers only it doesnt fight for you. Visually I would like something which looks like a smaller version of the Foe Reaper 4000.

There would also be corn dollies that can be picked up from the Harvest Tables and kept for the winter. In the spring, possibly during the “Love is the in Air” festival you would take them to farming land, Mulgore for the Horde and Westfall for the Alliance and return them to the soil to bless the crops for the forthcoming season.

The biggest problem the Harvest Festival suffers from is the sheer number of festivals currently filling up our calendar. The addition of “The Day of the Dead” and the “Pilgrim’s Bounty” just adds to the issue.

The Harvest is about food, but by the sound of it, so is the Pilgrim’s Bounty” according to the new achievements. Its also about honoring the dead.. which is precisely what the “Day of the Dead” is about. So rather than fixing the existing Harvest Festival, it seems that Blizzard are just adding two new festivals which stand on its toes.

As a festival this year it offers nothing unique, nothing exciting and that I feel is a terrible shame. Thats before we even get into the lack of advertising. You can’t move at the moment without falling over a brewfest sign with its pretzels, beer and bubbles yet there is nothing pushing the Harvest Festival. I would be surprised if everyone even knew it was taking place right now.

In terms of cultural importance surely honoring the dead and bringing home the harvest is far more important than getting drunk and racing rams. Its also more believable from a lore standpoint. There are farms the length and breadth of Azeroth, the Tirisfal Glades, Silverpine, Hillbrad, Ellwyn, Westfall, Darkshire, Mulgore and Durotar all spring to mind as farming country and there have been enough wars to provide fallen heroes to honor. It makes sense as a in-game festival that all the races would choose to celebrate at least one aspect of it if not both.

I just wish Blizzard would concentrate on the festivals which fit in with the game world rather than trying to shoehorn real world celebrations into Azeroth.

Summer Holiday

Where would you holiday in WoW and why? For some reason last night I started thinking about this (my mind wanders when Im tired). So thanks to the Azerothian Travel Company I would like to offer some destinations for your consideration.

You want a beach holiday? Well have you thought about Stranglethorn Vale. We are currently offering two week breaks to this paradise on Azeroth. You will be staying in Booty Bay, a town well known for its fine cuisine and even finer Junglevine Wine and Rum. Your base will be the Salty Sailor Tavern, which is located right in the centre of town. The sea, shops and other amenitities are all within walking distance.

We offer a wide range of activities once you arrive in Stranglethorn.

1. The coast around STV teems with sealife and as such fishing is a very popular activity, both with locals and guests. Who knows you might even manage to net a giant shark. Any fish you do catch can be cooked for you back at the Tavern.
2. For the more adventurous we have diving or snorkling trips to the Vile Reef where you can explore sunken ships and the drowned Troll city. As a souvenir of this you can even collect your own blue pearl to prove to your friends that you dived those crystal clear waters.
3. We also offer many trips to the variety of ruins that litter the landscape. Ask an Azerothian Travel Company Goblin for more details.
4. Our safaris are also very popular, we take you out to see all the wonderful animal species that bless our landscape from tigers, panthers to gorillas and basiliks. If you want, for slightly more gold you can hunt any or all of them.
5. Another daytrip which has proved popular in the past is the chance to visit a reallife, active Pirate ship. As part of this deal, you get snuff, rum and the opportunity to ask the pirates any questions you might have about their lifestyle. Its a must really.
6. For those of you interested in animal life, a trip to Jaguero Isle is an experience like no other. You get to see the largest Gorilla in existance (at least on Azeroth). Marvel at his size as you watch him from our cunningly concealed hides.
7. We can also offer daytrips to Ratchet for duty free booze.

This is only a small selection of what is available. If you have gold, we can arrange pretty much anything you might want to do or try, dancing girls included.

Caveat: Like any paradise STV has its hidden dangers, but we havent lost a tourist since, well, last week.

The dangers of the Real World

Just come back from a weekend away. In 3 days absence from my computer i have managed to burn my chest and arms, (my peely wally skin didnt take to well to the sunshine) and got a hole in my foot (a long story, but has something to do with the Gnome and a kitchen knife, once a rogue, always a rogue).

For my own safety the next time the Gnomeling thinks we need a break, im going to suggest we go to Winterspring.

Which got me thinking. Where in WoW would you choose to go on holiday and why?