We were prepared, but it didn’t matter November 24, 2008

So … I should just come out and say that my dad died on November 8th, the weekend before the WotLK release. It sucked (it still sucks), but my family is dealing with it. I actually think we’re dealing with it pretty well.

I am back at work today, but not really working. I thought I’d update here, in case anyone’s still reading.

I did go out and buy WotLK and install it the day it came out. I had been making funeral arrangements and doing funeral prep for days, and I wanted to do something by myself. I didn’t have much time to play for the first three or four days. Then, last week, I took some more time off (at my boss’ suggestion) and finally ground out quests until I hit 80.

Along the way, I found out that there’s There’s Nothing Boring About Borean, I Toured the Fjord, and I was awed by the Might of the Dragonblight … I could go on, but you get the picture. I went from zone to zone, starting with both starting zones, and picked up all of the zone quest achievements. I’m still working on Storm Peaks and Icecrown for gold and enchanting mats. When I got really bored last night, I punched and bludgeoned mobs until I got to 400 unarmed skill and 400 1H mace skill. Don’t believe me? Check my Armory profile. Staves and daggers are next.

Thanks to the awesome bear pet and the Darkmoon Faire pets (Jubling finally hatched yesterday morning), I’m sitting at 49/50 companion pets right now. I am out of pets. I even bought the super expensive Nether Ray Fry, Mana Wyrm, and Skull. The only ones I can get now are drops (most of them extremely rare), world events, or WotLK rep. The only drops that aren’t super rare drops (but are still drops) are the Black Tabby (any horde on Bonechewer wanna throw a druid a bone here?) and the Green Macaw from Deadmines.

I drove myself to flat brokedom last night by finally buying the Cenarion Expedition hippogryph mount. I have wanted one for so long. Unfortunately, from a budget point of view, it was a dumb thing to do. But I was really out of Outland mounts to buy anyway, since I’m not exalted with Netherwing. I already had every talbuk, every gryphon, and every nether ray. I’m at 47/50 mounts now. I’ve read that AQ40 mounts now count towards this achievement (although they can still only be used within AQ40), so I may try to convince someone to come farm Sekram trash with me for those last few mounts.

Man, are my professions a mess. I haven’t had any motivation to level up Fuhlamer, my herb alt, so that I can get herbs for Pookies’ alchemy. Enchanting is at a pathetic 394 because I opted to sell my weapon rewards for gold instead of disenchanting them for the much-needed Cosmic Essence. Little did I know that 1 Greater Cosmic Essence is currently going for about 30 g on my realm.

The profession I’ve gotten the most enjoyment out of is definitely Cooking. A couple of days after release I finally got the fourth emotion food recipe to drop for me (stupid Haunted Herring), and got that achievement. I’ve been doing the daily in Dalaran since I was high enough level to do so (level 74). I’ve already purchased the Critter Bite recipe and done the critter achievement in Deeprun Tram. I also finally got into an EotS BG last night and finished the feast achievement. I’m slowly working my way through the Northrend Gourmet series of achievements. After a certain point you can only cook one additional type of food every three days, so it’s going to be a while to get to 45 types of food cooked.

Other than that, I’m waiting for my guild to ding 80 so we can start running some more content. I’ve pugged a couple of dungeons and heroics (even got that snake boss achievement in heroic Gundrak thanks to a bit of an exploit, *cough*), but it just isn’t the same as running with my friends.

That’s all for now. I hope you’re all having fun with WotLK so far (I know that some of my old friends from other realms are already finishing up with all of the PVE content available in this patch)!

Wrath of the Achievement King October 31, 2008

Wow … it’s been a while. I guess I’ve been suffering from a bit of real life mixed in with having nothing worth saying.

On the real life side of things, my parents have moved back to Canada in time for my dad to be hospitalized. The tumours spread to his spine, and the impact on his nerves is cutting off sensation to (currently) the lower half of his body. As a result, he can’t control any part of his body below his waist. I know what you’re thinking, and, no, he can’t control that either.

I spend about half of my time at the hospital nowadays.

The rest of my time I spend either at work, or working on achievements.

What achievements, you ask? Well …:

• I managed to do all of the Hallow’s End achievements except for The Masquerade. One night, I couldn’t be at my own computer so I asked a guildmate of mine to log on to Pookies and help me do a daily quest. He went on to help me get almost every costume I was missing! I’m all set to get the title as soon as 3.0.3 goes live!
• I explored the whole map. Yes, even painful, painful Azshara.
• I hit exalted with Cenarion Circle for the Guardian of Cenarius achievement and title.
• I hit exalted with all of the alliance factions for the Ambassador of the Alliance achievement and the “Ambassador” title (FUCK YOU Gnomeregan Exiles, you’ll never get another piece of Runecloth from me … EVER!).
• I’m currently sitting at 42 (/50) pets. I was at 41 this morning, but then before work I chanced upon Lil’ Timmy and he still had a Cat Carrier (White Kitten) for sale! BONUS! Right now I’m depending partially on rare drops for the remaining pets I need, unfortunately.
• I’m almost done buying all of the alliance mounts. After I pick up the elekks I should be sitting at 28 (/50). And then I’ll be flat broke. Time to get my dailies farm on.
• I managed to grind through revered with Sporeggar and get exalted a couple of days ago. I’m still need more than 20k Kurenai rep and more than 30k Timbermaw rep to achieve The Diplomat. Sigh … is it even worth trying?

I’m sad that it’s going to be a whole month and a half before the next world event. But I think that, in a way, Blizzard may have planned it this way. People now have time to level up before the festival hits.

Speaking of the expansion, I got lazy and didn’t preorder. But I’m planning to take a couple of days off and hit every gaming store within a couple of blocks to pick a copy up.

Let’s see … I live at Yonge and Wellesley in Toronto. At Yonge and Dundas, just two blocks away, we have a Future Shop, a Best Buy, an EB, and Game Shack (a smaller gaming store). I should be okay.

Yo, that’s gay May 1, 2008

Matticus has made a post about Player A, who had Player B temporarily banned for calling Player A a “fag”.

This brings up a very interesting issue that I wrestle with everyday playing this game. You see, I’m gay. And I’m not really shy about it. As a result, all of my friends on Bonechewer and some of my guildmates do know about me.

In an environment such as an MMO where you have an unfathomable number of people assembled in one place, words are sure to be thrown around. The words “gay” and “fag” are staples.

I’ve had my friends ask me, “Geoff, doesn’t it bother you when people call things gay or call someone a fag? When are you going to stop putting up with it?”

Well, to be completely honest, it does bother me when people throw the words gay and fag around. But what’s a guy to do? I certainly don’t have the energy to blow every single offense out of proportion—I’d never have any downtime.

What I usually do is turn the situation into a joke. I see the trivialization of whatever concern prompted the use of the word “gay” or “fag” in the first place to be satisfying enough. Observe:

Guildie: Such and such a thing is SO GAY.
Pookies: I doubt it.
Pookies: My boss and I fawning over that new guy in accounting, now THAT’S gay.

(True story, BTW.)

… or …

Guildie: Man, Player C is such a fag.
Pookies: In those boots? Bitch, please.

These kinds of responses usually prompt laughter from the rest of the guild and shut the original speaker down. Hey, sometimes he/she even laughs along. And while what was originally said still isn’t right and that issue will never be truly addressed, the situation doesn’t get any worse. Ideal? Hardly. Realistic? Yes.

The bottom line here is that people have a right to get upset. Player A had every God-damned right to call a GM. In fact, I think it’s hilarious that he did and I hope it put Player B in his place. But I hope Player A also realizes that, no matter how offended we get by the things other people say and do, we really have to choose what battles we fight and how we fight them, because our reactions also bear consequences of their own. If Player A felt strongly about this one, then more power to him. I really hope it was worth it.

Hello, world! January 28, 2008

Welcome to Pookies Is Not A Bear, a blog which documents the adventures of a restoration druid on the realm Bonechewer.

Pookies’ humble beginnings go back to the winter of 2007.  I had grown tired of my Blood Elf hunter on Staghelm (Blood Elf hunter?  What was I thinking?), so I rolled on Bonechewer to be on the same server as an IRL friend.  While leveling, I found a great trio of long-time WoW players who had also just rerolled on Bonechewer.  We hit it off immediately and began plowing our way through all of Azeroth’s dungeons, four-man style.

Back then, Pookies was a healer.  Ah, Azeroth healing, how I miss thee.  A Rejuvenation here, a Rejuvenation there.  With all of our gear sets comprised mostly of dungeon blues, getting to Outland was a breeze.

Upon our arrival in Outland, however, a change in roles occured immediately.  Our tank was sick of tanking.  Our mage wanted to play her (transferred) priest.  That meant Pookies had to go feral.

At first, Pookies was very shaky on his bear legs.  By level 70, I realized that tanking as a feral druid is the easiest role to fill in the game.  And with our solid team (holy priest, shadow priest, affliction lock, and a pick-up), most heroics were a walk in the park.  It wasn’t long before Pookies & Co. were running Karazhan with a solid group and Pookies was 2/5 T4.

Then it all fell apart.

With the dissolution of the Karazhan group, a couple of the core members of our group decided to become far less active.  I app’ed to a friend’s raiding guild that needed healers and respecced resto.  My frustration grew with poor raid attendance, however, and eventually I stopped logging on, leaving the WoW world (and my WoW friends) behind me.

Fast forward two or three months.  My curiousity gets the best of me and I log on to see how my old friends are doing.  Everyone is playing (and actively raiding) again.  Even the bosses we had trouble with before in Karazhan are now on farm status in their Karazhan group.

I decide to apply to the guild, which doesn’t have a single restoration druid on the roster.  And the rest is history.