Liebster Love part 4

Here are the answers to my next 22 questions.

Mon of Mon Plays WoW:

• Why do you play WoW? This is actually a question I’ve been putting a lot of thought into recently. I’m not even sure I’d call my current WoWing “playing” as it mostly consists of tiny snapshots these days. I log and talk to my cooking apprentice on Dulca. I might do the odd spot of PvP on Snowflower. Sprout might get an outing to make cloth for another bag. Random alt number 17 might gain a level or two but I have no real purpose. I don’t raid (too anxious and if I’m being honest, I feel raiding without being willing to get gear from other sources plus cloak is lazy and unfair to the rest of the team), random battlegrounds show you the worst of humanity more often that not and there are only so many pet battles I can stomach. Mr Harpy thinks I’m an optimist desperate to the see the best in things and personally I suspect it’s stubbornness. In my head I’m not ready to quit, I want to play through Warlords.
• If you had to play one class, and one only, what would you pick? Priest. I’ve deviated away from this on many occasions only to find myself running back to the comfort of the one class I’ve always been happy playing.
• How long have you played WoW for? February 2005… although there have been breaks along the way.
• What is your favourite meal or delicacy? (Gaming related or not) What I’m cooking right now, whole chicken roasting slowly in the oven. It’s buttered skin sprinkled with paprika, oregano and with slices of fresh lemon tucked up beside it. I’ll be serving it with flat breads, red wine and a spicy tomato salad. 
• What got you in to gaming? I got my first computer when I was quite small but then as a teenager I decided it wasn’t cool and abandoned gaming completely. It was only when I met Mr Harpy that I got sucked back in, primarily playing first person shooters over a lan with him and his friends. Turns out I had a shed load of aggression and loved shooting his mates repeatedly in the head. From there I graduated to Age of Empires and Dungeon Keeper I and II and haven’t really looked back since.
• Why do you blog? I’ve always loved to write. I won my first ever short story competition as a rather precocious six or seven year old (for the record it was terrible) and was always encouraged to write by my mother. She with a tiny bit of imput from me created scrapbooks for me starting when I was two or three, which I still have and blogging is a continuation of that.
• What is a strange habit you have when playing WoW? To completely lose track of time.
• What is your ideal next expansion? One with strong characters, both male and female, compelling and interesting quest lines and stunning scenery. 
• If you could create a mount, what would it be? A giant bug a la Princess Huhuran. 
• What is your favourite raid or instance? Hmm a toss up between Karazhan or Ulduar.
• What could you never live without? Books, bacon and and long hot baths. (I’ve love to say Mr Harpy but I know life is not like that).

Chatmay of the WoW Debutante:

1. How long have you been blogging?  Why did you decide to start a WOW blog? Scarily enough, I’ve been blogging since the end of May/start of June 2008 which surprisingly enough means this year is my 6th anniversary.  I must admit when I started, I never thought I’d last this long. It took me another year to force myself onto Blog Azeroth and another year and a half before I managed to make a twitter account.
2. What has been the highlight of your blogging career? Discovering that people do actually choose to read my ramblings.
3. What games do you play besides WOW? At the moment I’m playing Dragon Age: Origins and trying not to fall for Alistair, Candy Crush because I have a disturbing need to get three stars on every level and Harmony Isle just because…I’m also fond of Transport Tycoon. 
4. What hobby do you spend the most time on besides gaming? Reading, crafting, sewing, gardening and cooking all divide my time fairly equally at the moment.
5. What kinds of foods do you like and when do you snack the most? I prefer savoury over sweet although I found a fascinating sounding recipe in an old cook book the other day for a mashed potato chocolate cake and I’m definitely going to try that.
6. What period of time/expansion have you enjoyed the most in WOW and why? Probably Wrath. I loved the bad guy, the zones and the quest chains leading up the Icecrown Citadel. Also it played host to some of my favourite five man dungeons in Halls of Reflection and the Culling of Stratholme.
7.  What is your favorite profession in WOW?  What is the rarest pattern you have made in a profession? Herbalism so no rare patterns just that peace of mind which comes from wandering around picking flowers and taking screenshots.
8.  How often do you twitter about WOW?  In one day? I’m not the most prolific tweeter out there, in fact I probably on average tweet less than once a day.
9.  Do you attend any conventions for comics, anime, WOW, gaming, etc.? No. If Blizzcon was closer, I might be tempted but in reality I’m awfully shy.
10. Tell about a close friend you have had in WOW and whether you are still in touch. Because of the above, I wouldn’t say I’ve ever had that many close friends in WoW. None of my real life friends play or at least they’ve never admitted it to me and whilst I’ve always got on with most of my guildmates, I wouldn’t say we were particularly close. 
11. Random WOW fact or adventure you have been on. I couldn’t think of a WoW adventure I’ve been on that I haven’t already described at some point or another so instead I thought I’d show you some photos of a real life adventure I went on.

The view from the roof of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City (and yes, I was up there legally).

A Mayan Ruin

The only surviving monument to a town laid to waste by a volcano

Liebster Love Part 3

Here are the answers to the next 22 questions I was asked as part of the Liebster Lovage.

Amerence’s Questions

• When did you start blogging , What it’s all about and why? My very first post was in June 2008, which looking back is a surprisingly long time ago. I’ve blogged about various things including food, books and computer games but writing about Warcraft has definitely taken up the bulk of my efforts.
• Post your most favorite Screenshot of all time!

• Favorite city in WoW you hang out to and why? I spent most of my time hanging out in Stormwind, it’s got easy access to all the amenities plus the different districts mean that regardless of your mood, there is somewhere to sit. 
• Do you play other games besides WoW? Any console you using besides your PC? At the moment I play WoW, Hearthstone, Transport Tycoon Deluxe (nothing beats building a transport network when it comes to chilling out), Dragon Age Origins and a couple of app games regularly. 
• What’s your favorite Trasmog gear? My Benediction teamed up with the Virtuous set.
• How many WoW characters in game do you have? Do you equally play them a lot? I have a lot, around 45 I think but I tend to only play a few at any one time. 
• What’s your current achievement score? Whats the most favorite one and why? 14100. Choosing a favourite is tricky because all of them conjure up memories, some positive and some negative.
• What was the most memorable experience since you started playing WoW? The two most positive experiences which stand out are getting my Benediction and killing C’thun for the first time. On the memorable for all the wrong reasons side it would be have the various guild dramas I experienced, especially during the original incarnation of the game and then in The Burning Crusade. GM’s “hacking” guild forums to read your personal messages to other guild members being just one example of “interesting” behaviours.
• How many total deaths of critters do you currently have? What are your thoughts about these creatures since they can battle now with your own Pet collections too. On my mostly main, 7605. I suspect most are casualties of Holy Nova and Mind Sear.
• First word comes in mind when you think about WoW and why? Time sink. Yes I know it’s not technically one word but hey… 
• Warlords of Draenor is coming up soon, its the new expansion everyone is talking about, What are your expectations and why? I’m hoping it will grab my imagination all over again. At the moment I’m struggling to find a reason to log for longer than half an hour at a time. I don’t enjoy PvP much at the moment, random battlegrounds are really hit or miss with far too many premades going up against pugs. I can’t raid due to my self loathing although how I’m expecting the expansion to fix that, I’ve no idea and there is a limit to how many characters one wishes to level. Plus the few character slots I have left on my server are already earmarked so I’m a bit hampered there.  

Sofia at Altoholic Anonymous

1. What other games do you play? Dragon Age, Dragon Age II, Transport Tycoon, Diablo III, Harmony Isle and various other app games which catch my interest.
2. What else do you like doing apart from gaming? Reading, sewing, sketching, cooking, gardening. Our garden was a big factor in selling the house to us and it’s fast becoming an obsession. I’m actually excited that my father-in-law is going to give me some tomato plants. I already have strawberry plants sitting in the green house waiting warmer weather and I can’t stop adding to my herb collection.  My latest plant related interest is trying to create little gardens in tubs and plant pots and I’m working on a Gnome garden at the minute. I’m planning on painting a stone to resemble a cottage, adding a bit of height at the back and possibly some blue/green glass to suggest a pond. Then it just needs a little path and my Gnome’s home from home will be done.
3. What is your best WoW (or other game) memory? Comprehensively owning my brother in law at Age of Empires not just once but twice. He’s never asked for another go… I can’t imagine why.
4. What is your favourite colour? Azure blue, the colour of tropical seas.
5. Read all the lore or speed level? Read it all. I’m usually the person running into walls reading the quest text whilst the rest of the group are off slaughtering things.
6. Are you a one character kind of person or an altoholic? I’m trying to become a one character person at least until I’ve achieved everything I want to but I’m not convinced that it’s possible.
7. If you could design one aspect of WoW, what would it be? Quests. Long complex quest chains of the sort that Blizzard probably never wish to see again.
8. Horde or Alliance? Alliance for real (as opposed to undead) horses, Gnomes and the Deep run Tram.
9. Do you have any pets in RL? Not any more but I grew up with a slightly mad spaniel.
10. What inspired you to start blogging? Reading other people’s, realising that I had enough screenshots to paper the house and knowing that I desperately wanted a reason to write regularly but that I lack the discipline to do that without a proper purpose.
11. What is the first video game you ever played? Harrier Attack. I can’t remember how old I was but I know it was Christmas time and despite everyone telling me that girls couldn’t play computer games I demanded a go because it had Harriers in it.

 

Liebster Love: Part 1

I got home from what could be best described as a bad day at work to discover I’ve been put forward for the Liebster Award by not one person but six. Much celebrating later it dawned on me that I needed to answer 66 questions and I eeked slightly.

So rather than post a massive wall of text, I’ve decided to break this down into bite sized chunks. I’m doing to do this in a slightly different order to the list above in that I’m going to leap from 1# to 3#, leaving the answering of all my questions to part 2.

Without further ado I’d like to say a massive thank you to Velgana, Cymre, Amerence, Sofia, Mon and Chatmay who all nominated me. The answers to all 66 questions are coming I promise.

11 random facts about me

1. The humble tomato is one of my favourite things. I love them raw, cooked, roasted, puree’d, dehydrated, fried and in toasties.

 

2. I like debating (many other people call this “arguing for the sake of arguing” ).

3. When I was a little girl my favourite My Little Pony was Applejack.

4. I have unruly hair. These days I keep it long so I can tie it back and pretend it’s not there. I also still look like I’m up to no good most of the time, unfortunately I wasn’t “blessed” with a poker face.

5. I collect cookery books.

6. Frozen has managed to over take The Hunchback of Notre Dame as my favourite Disney Movie.

7. I can’t walk in high heels.

8. I love scary movies even if I have to watch them from behind the sofa.

9. I’d like to get a tattoo but can’t quite get past the idea of surrendering my skin to someone else’s control, especially with something which is so permanent. Although if I do manage to over come  that, I’d love a Firebird on my back, a feather trailing loose.

10. I give up chocolate for Lent every year. This is entirely due to my “fear” of my Mother as opposed to any religious reason.

11.  I have two large cardboard vampires folded up in a cupboard.

My Nominations are as follows:

• Barla of Barla’s Corner
• Pj of Comic Mischief
• Soco of Vault of Light
• Fussypants and Yotaan of Growing up in Azeroth
• Paws across Azeroth
• Saga of Spellbound
• Sportsbard
• Mushan of Mushan, Etc

(Yes I realise that’s not 11).

Questions

1. What’s your favourite line from a boss fight? Can be from any game with vocal boss mobs.

2. What’s your comfort food? The one dish which always makes you feel happy and safe when you sit down with it.

3. If you could only have one book, what would it be?

4. Create a battle pet/non-combat pet for the game of your choice. What would it be and does it already exist in your chosen game world in one form or another?

5. Dinosaurs or Sharks?

6. Favourite NPC in the game of your choice and why are they your favourite, what makes them special?

7. From a Lore perspective, what’s your favourite WoW race?

8. Do you play in silence or must you have music on? If the latter what sort of music makes up the soundtrack for your gaming?

9. PvP or PvE?

10. Best and worst quest in-game?

11. Ignoring WoW, what’s your favourite computer game?

I’ve tried to limit the WoW questions purely because I feel that they’ve already been asked by lots of people over the last few days and also because I’m totally nosy. Feel free to rebel and not bother answering, I promise I won’t get all sulky.

The answers to my own questions will be coming up soon.