Never Gonna Come Back Down

So I have to update my OS because Blizzard isn't supporting 10.6 for much longer.


...And yet...where are the updated models gfdi? If I have to faff around with OSX Varian's Up In Redridge (read: mountain lion :B) then you better at l;east give me some high-polygon lovin'.


As for the writing: ahahahahahAHAHAhaaha XD I continue to ignore the shit out of the story (some aspects of it have jumped from 'merely annoying' to 'this is hitting shitty buttons', especially with regard to characterization and the portrayal of relationships, but I can't really get into that otherwise I'll start ranting...) and just make up my own plot in my head. I do love Lor'themar's voice though (He's BALTHIER :D :D :D), and while I dislike the fucking "plot" such as it is, I like that he's getting some love.

Now if only the Draenei got some love too. :x christ, CDev.

I haven't done any of the Isle of the Thunderdrome stuff beyond talking to Lor yet, because Proudmoore is a high-pop server and thus the place is jammed. Thus, I am farming!

Speaking of: I love how that resolved. I was TERRIFIED that being able to own that farm would turn into colonialism r us, but it doesn't and I'm so happy.

Scholomance has changed since Mists went live and Blizzard ever-so-geniusly forgot about the books in it, but I managed to find a list of which books used to be in there!

And.

Well.

*Exile of the High Elves - Only found within Scholomance
*Icecrown and the Frozen Throne - 43.65 Elwynn Forest, Goldshire Inn, Scarlet Monastery, Scholomance and Stratholme
*Kil'jaeden and the Shadow Pact - Within Scholomance and Stratholme
*Old Hatreds - The Colonization of Kalimdor - 51.29 Tanaris and within Scholomance
*Rise of the Blood Elves - Only found within Scholomance
*The Birth of the Lich King - Only found within Scholomance and Stratholme
*The Founding of Quel'Thalas - Only found withing Scholomance
*The Invasion of Draenor - Only found within Scholomance
*The Lich King Triumphant - Only found within Scholomance and Stratholme
*The Old Gods and the Ordering of Azeroth - Only found within Black Rock Depths and Scholomance
*The Scourge of Lordaeron - 34.49 Ashenvale, 27.77 Stranglethorn Vale, also within Scarlet Monastery, Scholomance, and Stratholme
*The Seven Kingdoms - Only found within Scholomance and Stratholme
*War of the Spider - Only found in Scarlet Monastery, Scholomance and Stratholme

I...

WHAT THE HELL ARTHAS XD;;

And yeah I know hypothetically Ner'zhul or KT could have put those there but--when you consider these books and then the San'layn and the Crimson Halls...

Arthas has an elf fixation.

So I love the Tillers.

And the Klaxxi and the Order of the Cloud Serpent but right now I'm going to be all smug about my giant digital pumpkins (wow that sounds like a surreal innuendo). And kvetch about grindiness, because it IS grindy, even though it's mostly fun.

Mostly!

I find myself caring a lot more about the Tillers and the other people around Halfhill than I do about the overarching "important" plot. (Ditto the Klaxxi. I couldn't give one-sixth of a fart about Garrosh and Varian being colonialist dickweeds (which they won't be in the AU when I start writing...my versions of those two are decidedly different from canon because canon's boring and trite and I'd rather challenge myself) and no Blizzard "benevolent/non-aggressive" colonialism is not better but that's a rant for another time...I must say, though, the WC2 nostalgia trip in Krasarang has some rather pointed edges! Colour me mildly impressed.) Why? Well--because I've gotten to know them.

This is what I don't get. They're completely Ozzie's-boxers-on-my-head senselessly dense about legacy characters, they slack off on characterization or turn on dimes when it comes to newer ones, and...then there's this bunch of farmers. Who I love.

No, their characterization isn't especially überdeep, but they feel like people, and you do discover more little bits and pieces about everyone as you go along. Gina's comments when you ask where everyone lives, for example--she doesn't get along with her dad, she's compassionate (worrying about Ella being lonely, feeling bad for Chee-Chee because he's having bad luck getting started out, and so on), and she's a damn badass businesswoman. As you get closer to these people they open up to you more. You learn about their aspirations, you sympathise with them and you--well--still don't like the grind but for me it feels more like a favour for a friend than arbitrary questing even though it's the latter lol.

Ffff basically I just want to hang around on the farm all the time. XD Ishandarr's pretty domestic anyway and he has a very green thumb for a Death Knight. (Though, my gods, the number of times he's had to wrassle with the fronds of wild veggies...)

Of course, I can't just hang out on the farm all the time because the stupid Mogu will want to come step on it if I don't punch them in the asses and discourage them from stepping on it...and speaking of them.

Blizzard?

You cannot set up a severely-xenophobic bunch of might-makes-right domineering fascist bullyboy douches with a superiority complex the size of Kij'jaeden's fiery ass--a bunch of literally stone-faced wankers who see the world as them on top and everybody else as scrubs underfoot--and then expect me to believe they'd ally with anyone that isn't them. ESPECIALLY in the case of the ones you've decided were their allies in the past. I'm not even going to touch the bullshit face-heel turn you pulled with regard to the quote-unquote allies either. Suffice it to say that bullshit's not going in the AU, because it also makes no sense.

AAAANYWAAAAY!

I really love the Tillers, and I love my little garden. I love the completely-hammered SI:7 ops who sometimes show up in Halfhill, one of whom challenges me to a dance-off in the name of justice. I love the troll who wonders where the huge meat to go with the huge veggies is, and the jinyu Aqualytes. Halfhill is one of my favourite places. It feels like a home, honestly, and that's more and more the case as time goes on. (Hilariously, it's very similar to Ishandarr's childhood hangouts near his grandfather's house, back when Goldenmist Village was intact...Acamarr was an epic green thumb too...)

I'm enjoying other things too--the Klaxxi and their lore (and their nice gender ambiguity...I'm choosing to read the bigger ones as female because that's how mantid insects work IRL), the Order of the Cloud Serpent, the fact that one of the Golden Lotus ops is mute (and possibly deaf?) and nobody looks down on him at all--he kicks just as much ass as the rest of them and they respect him. That made me really happy, considering Blizzard's prior cack-handedness with issues related to disability (i.e. the Forsaken and the Blood Elves). I suspect they'll continue to be cack-handed sometimes depending on who handles what. Such is life when it comes to a game with a fucktillion writers XD

I have but one kvetch about the Tillers stuff aside the grindiness of it all: it makes me really damn hungry. XD