Intro: Rhese, the Toon

Because all good things come in threes, here is the third and final character introduction. Meet my other significant other*: Rhese!

./who Rhese of Proudmoore

(c) Blizzard Entertainment, 2007

Allegiance: Alliance
Race: Nightelf
Class: Druid, Feral
0 / 44 / 17
Played: 15 days
(over 2 years)
Level: 70
Tradeskills: Skinning (375)
Leatherworking (362)
Raid Experience: Karazhan

Overview: Some people will probably chuckle when they hear about the origins of the dashing, daring and devilishly handsome Rhese. The non-roleplayers will snicker that little, self-conscious "oh, you're one of those" snicker that carries with it a hint of acknowledgment that gamers in glass houses shouldn't throw sharpening stones.** But I'm at ease with my origins, my baser instincts, if you wish, so I can admit that Rhese was born out of a story.

Yep. The toon was created because I had a tale wrapped around Rhoelyn's lithe form, and it demanded something that didn't yet exist: her brother. He needed to be a druid, to look like our lovely little heroine, have a young face and a wickedly wonderful grin, and generally... well, he needed to have his name reserved on the server. So back in the day, looooooong before he ever got any play time, a meaty nightelf with white hair and bright eyes plunked his pale-purple butt down on the character selection screen beside Rhoelyn.

.... and there he sat, chilling at level 0.

After a long-bass time in game, though, the ennui started to set in. I got more than a little tired of the same key sequences***, even despite having two different sets! (Rhoelyn and Livaeya ring any bells?). Not yet ready to retire my login screen, but sick to death of the same-old-shusplodey-face-melty, I turned to the dusty little boy waiting on my login screen.

Of course, he was never much of a newb. By the time dear Rhese met our old friend, Conservator Ilthalaine, I like to think that the person driving him was far enough beyond that particular moniker that even a level 1 toon was immune to newbishness. (Though, to be fair, he did spend a decent amount of time jumping his funky nightelven jump and dancing his funky nightelven male dance in those first few levels. Hey, it is pretty different, you know...) In fact, through Teldrassil and Darkshore, Wetlands and Duskwood, we pretty much encountered nothing amazing or new except how very much I loved my little baby druid.

Attack Power! Agility! Strength! Leather armor! Prowl! Panthers and Cheetahs and Bears, oh my!

Playing Rhese was a thing of beauty, my solace from the pains of raiding, guild responsibilities, grinding, farming, and otherwise being a priest and mage with connections. If I wanted to hide, I went to play my lowbie druid, who was just too darn weak to be called upon for anything more than the occasional Heavy Quiver for someone's hunter alt. It may sound irresponsible, but the game has to stay fun if you want to keep playing it. There are times when raiding mains and fighting eDrama llamas make World of Warcraft more like work than play.

Thus, Rhese crawled his way from 1-70 in fits and starts. He began his climb in the days before the Burning Crusade, but he hadn't even made 60 when the Portal was opened. Now, he is the proud owner of the Master's Key. He is getting ready to enter Medihv's stronghold and let some ghosts try to beat him through his shiny, Clefthoof-strong armor.

The Gyst: Rhese of Proudmoore is the third World of Warcraft toon in this blog whose experiences and abilities translate directly to game play. He's got a unique role when compared to the others, as he is both a) not a squishy little cloth-wearer and b) not a caster. He is also going to offer a lot of learning and growing lessons, being relatively 'young' and inexperienced in the game. Rhese is the third and final 70th-level toon you'll be hearing from in PoC, so look for him to share observations on the path to becoming a tank, mauling for fun and profit, PvP and the joys of shape-shifting, and much more.

* The one wearing the ring WITHOUT stats is my #1. Or maybe that ring is +1337 to Happiness for life? Awww... Heart!

** Geeks calling geeks geeky = pot and kettle, my friends. That's why we learn to laugh at ourselves as well as others. ;)

*** 1, 1, Q, F, turn, 1, 3, Z. Does anyone else feel like there are a lot of times when their WoW experience boils down to a single sequence of keys, repeated ad infinitum? Guh.

Intro: Livaeya the Toon

This isn't a simple blog with a simple focus, and I'm not a simple player with a simple outlook on World of Warcraft. It's not enough to play one class and do it well. For me, the true game is in the understanding and the experience of each mode of play - each class and role and capability. It's a tough goal to meet in a game that's as time-intensive as WoW is. Don't worry, though, I'm not about to subject you to the full brunt of my alt army.

However, there are still two 'voices' to whom I do want to introduce you. Today is a glance at one of them, the mage whose conversations will usually revolve around exploding something or populating the world with a few more muton. Meet Livaeya.

./who Livaeya of Proudmoore

(c) Blizzard Entertainment, 2007

Allegiance: Alliance
Race: Human
Class: Mage, Fire
10 / 48 / 3
Played: 49 days
(over 4 years)
Level: 70
Tradeskills: Mining (375)
Jewelcrafting (356)
Raid Experience: Molten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj, Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and more

Overview:

Imagine yourself in the early days of the World of Warcraft Closed Beta Test. The Dwarf Beta* has just recently ended, and your character creation screen has blossomed into a veritable smorgasbord of options. Suddenly, your toon is allowed to be over 3ft tall and doesn't have to have mounds of facial hair. S/he can be blue, green, yellow or purple, and where there was one faction, now there are two. What would you do?

Well, you might just pick the most visually appealing model (in your humble opinion, of course) and roll yourself a pretty, svelt human female whose pert behind is going to wash away the blocky dwarven butt that's burned into your retinas. You might name her Livaeya and cry with joy every day for a week while she sashays around the world, blowing things up in a most un-dwarf-like manner.

Thus began our favorite girly-mage, who has survived unchanged since those earliest days. Her intelligent eyes and messy brown updo made such a lasting impression that she, like Rhoelyn, transitioned the beta-test wipe to the live realms to blast her way to 60 and then to 70.

In fact, she and Rhoelyn have been partners in crime for a very long time thanks to the glory of separate accounts. Their in-game experiences are similar, and you may as well hop back to the previous post if you want to know Livaeya's resume of raid experience. She's been everywhere that Rhoelyn has, and there have even been a few times when they were raiding together**. They make quite a dynamite pair, though Liv feels a little short next to her tall, purple friend. :P

Within the pervue of the mage, Livaeya has very broad experience with specs and modus operandi. In her day, she has spent time in each tree of her talents, so she knows the blast power of Fire, the mob control and massive crits of Ice, and the mental stamina of Arcane. She used to love tossing Slows around like candy and POM-Polymorphing Tauren in Arathi Basin. Now, she's enjoying the simple mechanic of building up Improved Scorch debuffs and then whaling away with Fireballs. Soon, I'm sure she'll just have to try out the builds based on Patch 2.3's Icy Veins, but for now she's pretty content where she is: burning ghosts to a cinder in Karazhan and vaporizing Gronn drool as a public service in Gruul's lair.

The Gyst: Livaeya of Proudmoore is another World of Warcraft toon whose experiences and abilities translate directly to game play. She'll be sharing the soothing grey theme with Rhoelyn, bringing the mage's perspective and experiences into discussions of game mechanics, strategies, play styles, PvP and all kinds of WoW experiences. There's one more voice to add to the mix, however.

To be continued, again ...

* The internet seems to have lost a record of this event, but basically, the very earliest closed beta-test was called the Dwarf Beta. The only playable race was ... well, c'mon. You don't even need me to say it.

** 40-man raids were so much more forgiving.

Intro: Rhoelyn, the Toon

Because everyone likes to know what the bejoolies is going on, let's continue getting to know the different themes and types of posts you'll find here. Meet the charcoal grey theme:

./who Rhoelyn of Proudmoore

(c) Blizzard Entertainment, 2007

Allegiance: Alliance
Race: Nightelf
Class: Priest, Shadow
14 / 0 / 47
Played: 58 days
(over 3 years)
Level: 70
Tradeskills: Herbalism (375)
Alchemy (375)
Raid Experience: Molten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair, Zul'Gurub, Ahn'Qiraj, Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and more

Overview:

The scene is Teldrassil, sometime roughly in the middle of the World of Warcraft Closed Beta Test. One moment, Conservator Ilthalaine was standing alone on a grassy hillside. The next, he was staring at the game's latest newb, a silver-haired young priest wearing a shiny, green 'Rhoelyn' tag over her head.

Five minutes later, after she'd floundered around, learning the basics of moving and clicking and controlling the camera, he gave her the first quest on what would become a long and illustrious career in Azeroth... and beyond.

Baby Rhoelyn (or Rhoelyn I, as I like to call her) loved all the typical newb things. She danced her funky nightelven dance. She jumped her funky nightelven jump. She Smited some boars and imps and panthers, and over time, she managed to be less newb and more kena. (I'd say 'face melty', but keep in mind that face melting came along much later.) She figured out what Shield was for. She practiced her Heals and made funky resurrection macros. She made it all the way from level 1 to level 52... and then Beta was over, and she was wiped from the servers like so much errant data. But somewhere, on the other side of the computer screen, the knowledge she had earned of how to NOT be a newb priest endured!

Thus, when the live game began and people were scrambling to be the first to login, Ilthalaine found himself once more staring at a purple-skinned toon wearing a shiny 'Rhoelyn' tag. Only this time, he knew better than to underestimate his newest student. Armed with 52 levels of unproveable experience, Big Rhoelyn (Rhoelyn II) blasted her way through Shadowglen, then Teldrassil, and then an Azeroth that she had already defeated, stopping only to read every single in-game book she found. :P

As a result, Rhoelyn was hardly the first toon to 60... more like toon #198,204 to make the level cap. Approximately. She trailed her friends, but they were all kind and amused by her witty /g chatter. When she was level-appropriate, they helped her through all kinds of group activities, and she learned all about both solo and party play. She turned out to be passingly good at whatever needed doing, fun to play with, dedicated to her guild and her friends, and just generally a nice toon to have around. (Only a few people she's come across would disagree, and that's really because they wore their loincloths too tightly.)

Before the Burning Crusade came, Rhoelyn had the opportunity to get a lot of raid play time in with her guild(s). She had leveled with the Shadow talents, melting faces (once face-melting was invented) with evil joy, but she quickly switched to Holy in order to save her errant friends' lives in Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, Onyxia and more. Those experiences taught her a lot, not just about being a great priest, but also about people and devotion and the life cycle of guilds. She carried all of this into the next level grind when Azeroth gave way to Outlands in the advent of the Burning Crusade.

Now, having fought her way up to level 70, she resides primarily in Shattrath City where she devotes herself to her current guild, . She has returned to a Shadow talent spec, and lends her face-melting power to the guild's second Karazhan group, which she helps her good friend, Ultarn, to lead. Outside of raid time, she can usually be found pursuing some futile attempt to earn enough gold for her epic flying mount, gleefully mixing Alchemy potions, or farming for herbs so that she can resume gleefully mixing Alchemy potions. She takes great joy in learning about her fellow adventurers, including tips, tricks and abilities for classes not her own.

The Gyst: Rhoelyn of Proudmoore is the World of Warcraft toon whose experiences and abilities translate directly to game play. Journal entries in soothing grey will be discussions of game mechanics, strategies, play styles, PvP and all kinds of practical advice for the people who sit in front of a priest of their own. Here is where you will find class-related ways to improve your play, but if you think the only 'voice' you'll hear from is Rhoelyn's, then you might be in for a surprise.

To be continued ...

Intro: The Author

We writers are masters of disguise. I'll just bet you didn't know that. It's a well-kept secret in our world, but it's so critical to what we are, what we do. We put on faces like hats, taking on many different identities in order to express ourselves and our purposes through these little pixels that you read as words. Language. Our nifty little brains twist and turn until we are what we're writing, and we imbue every ounce of identity that we can create on all kinds of wild and wacky persons, places, and things. On bad days (or are they extra-good days?), we can get very, very confused by it all. :)

Because of that, I can't tell you who I am in just a few stats and sentences. No, especially for this eclectic and rather schizophrenic journal, I need to tell you who I am in pieces, give you the parts of my identity that you're going to hear from in the various entries. And because I am a being who loves efficiency, I am also going to use this as an excuse to introduce you to my organizational tool - color coding.* I want to let you know at a glance whether the entry you are looking at is fiction, philosophy, or fact. No guesswork involved for my audience, nosirree!

So meet Rhoelyn in all her incarnations and appearances. She and I** are looking forward to sharing our thoughts, our lives, and our adventures with you, and I hope we'll inspire you to share the same with us. :)

./who AC Bamblett

Age: 25 years
Gender: Female
Day Job: Designing Casino Game Cabinets
Creed: What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.
Likes: Creative expression, philosophizing on the mundane, eating chocolate, not LOOKING like you eat chocolate, and cuddly cats.
Dislikes: Math, closed minds, impolite people, chaos, and tentacled overlords of evil that are bent on the destruction of all life.
Phobias: None, but arachnids are gross, icky, and horrible.

Overview:

I fought hard to not play World of Warcraft.

Surprising, isn't it? I knew that the game was going to be an impressive synergy of fun play, an intriguing world, and measurable goals. I knew I'd love it. I knew I'd want to explore it fully and thoroughly and (in all likelihood) repeatedly... which is precisely why I didn't want to play it. I knew it would be a huge time sink and a good time that I simply wouldn't want to resist. My only chance was to never even set foot in that huge, immersive world.

Needless to say, I failed in my attempt to avoid it. My husband turned those lovely, blue eyes of his on me, asked politely (and repeatedly for about 2 months), and I caved. I crafted a toon, dreamed up a name, logged in and was lost. I'm still lost, and to add irony to injury, my husband stopped playing about 6 months ago. So here I am, 3 years and 8 alts later, still rushing home after work to make raid, still geeking out on a daily basis about spell damage, talent trees, and guild e-drama, and still researching Lore on my lunch break. He just laughs at me, an evil kind of 'look how I've corrupted you' laugh.***

Involved as I am, though, I still fight the pull of the game long enough to find occasional time for my other activities. Goodness knows, it's not enough, but then my list of interests is about five miles long and three feet deep. Two lifetimes and an extra century could quite possibly still not be enough. I do what I can, treading carefully to try to find time for writing; art; fantasy, sci-fi, and romance novels; arts and crafts; home improvement projects; friends; pets; web design; decorating; and sports around the immense time sink that is this wonderful, fascinating game. I share information about these hobbies and the more personal side of myself as vayenne on Livejournal, but part of this blog will be sharing WoW-related art, fiction, news, and crafts from other artists as well as myself. It's part of making the game a larger experience, and I just love to see how it inspires and motivates all of us outside of Azeroth.

That's why I know that I'm going to have fun with this journal. By spending time here, I will get to geek out about WoW as well as polish my writing, explore my love of creating and appreciating art, nail down all those philosophical ponderings that the intricate social situation of an MMO spawns, and also pass along the knowledge and interesting information that I have gained, both in real life and in the game. It is my most fervent intention to do this in a way that will be educational, amusing, and interesting to all of you, but I hope that you will feel free to tell me whether I am succeeding or failing. I am always open to questions, suggestions, critiques or even guest content. Feel free to leave me comments or notes at any time!

The Gyst: Author-posts are from me, the person behind the words - that real, live being whose fingers are tappity-tapping away at the keyboard right this minute. Journal entries in 'Default Teal' will be about the real-life influences and consequences of World of Warcraft, helpful hints for treating your body with the same care you give to your toon, and the philosophy of the virtual world's reflections in the real world. Here is where you will find social commentary, mental and physical health and wellness advice, guild information, and real-world news related to Warcraft and other gaming.
______
* Ah, who doesn't love a good bit of color?! (Apologies to the color-blind, but I'm 1/2 artist. I couldn't do without my chartreuse and cornflower blue.)

** See? Told you it gets confusing for me, at times. :P

*** Lesson to learn, here? Men are evil. The truth is out...

That First Step

It's always funny how that first step is naturally the hardest. It's almost as if the human psyche is as susceptible to Newton's First Law as the body is. You need to exert a large force just to get things rolling. A bit of pow and bif just to get the brain off its dimpled rump and into motion.

Well, I've got the pow in my purpose, here, and the can of Diet Coke on my elbow is bringing in the mad bif, so let's get this show on the road and see just where we roll!

Welcome to Points of Convergence, a tale and a blog and an intellectual challenge all at once. Quite literally.

Posts here will be mixed between philosophy, theory, fantasy and fact about the influences of the World of Warcraft on our real and imaginary selves. We'll talk about taking care of yourself as well as your toon. We'll talk about phat porples and strategies to get them. We'll talk about classes and advantages and abilities and macros and all those theorycrafting elements that the best WoW players dream about at night. We'll balance all the practical with a bit of fancy, and maybe a bit of artistry. We'll explore Lore: characters, histories, race and creeds. We'll wander Azeroth from the perspective of its denizens by way of fiction. We'll wander Azeroth from the perspective of its participants by way of fact. We'll enjoy stories, information and even art to help give greater depth to this digital interest that we all share.

Get your Riding Crops and Mithril Spurs ready, ladies and gentlemen. We're about to start a journey of exploration in the biggest digital world the Earth has ever known. :)