How Syylia spent her Summer Vacation, 2013

I accused Navimie of being subtle. She disagreed. This just proved my sarcasm failed me.

Earlier this summer, my daughter and younger son devoted newly freed spare time to WoW. The pair found plenty to do, earning a variety of achievements. They also found ways to spend Aldonza's carefully earned gold! Who knew 200,000 gold could disappear so quickly?

When I explained to Syylia how 5.4 would make some achievements Feats of Strength, she quickly built her Golden Lotus reputation and accomplished Eternally in the Vale before it became unavailable. She got into a rhythm of working dailies and finished Tillers, Anglers, Cloud Serpent and even Friends on the Farm! This inspired her to return to Northrend and Outland and soon hit 40 Exalted Reputations!

All these reputations meant she also earned herself a Mountain o' Mounts, which pleased her to no end. These are the sorts of things Syylia enjoys in WoW. I'll help her, but it isn't as important to me. In fact, seeing all that she was accomplishing wasn't drawing me back.

What did bring me back? Oops! Not there yet.

One thing I knew about Aldonza and Kallixta was that they were poorer and I resented the pressure to return just so my kids could spend more gold. It wasn't the earning of that gold that I enjoyed. Instead it was a sign that I was good at something in Wow. I might not know my class, but I knew the Auction House! I knew how to relieve others of gold that they wanted to spend. Is that all I do in Azeroth?

Of course not!

I also had a better Transmog than Syylia!

Oh dear. What competence are you proud of in Azeroth?

The factions that put Syylia over 40, earned on the same day

There are edits in this graphic

Syylia wasn't only working on Reputations

How I spent my Summer Vacation, 2013

August was not a calm month in the Kallixta household.

My older son returned from Korea for a break in his year of teaching English.  The family took our third trip from Detroit to Fargo this summer and we did it without stopping overnight since theoretically we had four drivers. Practically, I drove more than half of the sixteen hours or so. Funny how that works.

We also packed into the month a trip to Gencon in Indianapolis, squeezing two more friends in the car and the motel room. Having done this once before, we made better management of our time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Among the lessons learned, however, are that we'll split the seven of us into two rooms and two vehicles next year. Syylia had made costumes for herself and her boyfriend. Wil Wheaton spotted them, took their photo and posted it on twitter!



It rocked her Little Big Planet.


One Monkey flew back to Korea and things got much quieter. I had the chance to return to the World of Warcraft, but I was surprisingly ambivalent. It wasn't a habit anymore. The kids still played, but I had plenty to keep me busy. Maybe it was time to stay off?

The short answer is "No". I'll detail just what's happened next time, but just posting this much should break the logjam!

Unearned Credits

My time spent with Aldonza and Kallixta is to explore. The plan had been that Martuska, being on my daughter's account, would continue to pursue Achievements, but the second account wouldn't drive for them in any special manner. I've been pretty good about ignoring the pursuit of Achievements just for a higher Achievement score.


The closest thing to an exception has been that Kallixta worked hard on the Molten Front, earning the Hippogryph, while Syylia didn't. She is still spending time catching up on a bunch of Cataclysm stuff.


With summer, my son has been spending much time using the account, playing with his sister. They're having a good time, but it does mean that many of Ellyiia's achievements show up on Aldonza or Kallixta's Activity log.



Luckily Equipment rewards don't show up. That would be even more confusing.


About my only activity in the past couple weeks has been Aldonza doing Tiller and Angler dailies. Just so you know what I was really doing Last Night:

Preparing for Navispam

Navimie likes to surprise folks, so I can only guess why she might have mentioned me as a target for Navispam. She's undoubtedly already tried and failed to find me online. Since Summer and until the Autumn schedule settled down, there has been only a short window of opportunity to catch me each day.

I'm a non-elite rare spawn!

And it's actually gotten worse recently. I spent 12 hours at work yesterday! I'm feeling guilty and need to arrange something with her.

However, where once I was hoping to be considered for Navispam, it's different knowing she's coming.

I don't know what to WEAR!

(Kallixta's spouse starts laughing at this point.)

It's like cleaning up the house before your mother-in-law visits, except I like my mother-in-law. And I like Navimie. I just want to look good for her.

The state of my Transmogs is mixed. I need to ensure I have my clean underwear, I mean what I wear underneath my tabard. See with 5.0.4, I dropped my Ret spec and brushed off my Holy, which hadn't been mogged. And my Prot spec was in an intermediate state. A quick trip to the Void Storage can fix that. Okay. It wouldn't win a contest, but it'll mean I won't be embarassed.

My next problem concerns mounts and pets.

See Martuska was my old main, not Kallixta. When my daughter Syylia started playing more frequently, I moved to a new account, leaving Martuska behind. However I wasn't interested in repeating a bunch of grinds. So Kallixta hasn't been achievement hungry. Mentally I was doing "Shared Achievements", but when that kicked in with the recent patch, I discovered that Syylia was the heir to Martuska's work, not Kallixta! Besides Syylia loves collecting mounts and pets. So it'll be important that Syylia be with me when Navimie comes calling. (Not that she'd be able to sleep with the squealing I'll be doing.) Syylia has the rocket mount in case Navimie has a low-level alt when visiting.

Uh oh. Where to go?

When you browse the gallery of Navispam pictures you can see the variety of locations. I knew where I'd love to take her, but reviewing other visits, I'm sad to see the farm near Stormwind with the exploding sheep was already visited. It's a fun surprise for folks that don't spend much time as Alliance.

Probably my next favorite place is Booty Bay. It isn't quite as nice since the Shattering and needs a good scrubbing. They still haven't picked up those downed branches.

Oh. I'll have to make sure the microphone doesn't go wandering again. It's tricky using Vent without a microphone. My youngest steals the headphones/microphone for his Vita. I think Syylia's laptop is rigged alright.

I can clearly see the advantage of surprising folks for Navispam. There's a surprising amount of worry!

(Kallixta's spouse is still laughing!)

20 Days, Day 9 - My first blog post

This is my Day 9 post in Spellbound's  20 Days of WoW Blogging Challenge.

My very first public post was written four days after creating Kallixta. It was more a justification on why I started on the Wyrmrest Accord server than anything else. Because I already knew I was going to use a diary format focussing on Kallixta and I needed to write four entries already, I merely plunked down some explanation about who was on the server that drew me to start my new character.

I think it is significant that I spent most of my time talking about my bank alt and my daughter's character. Five sentances were scribbled down before I pushed that big POST button. I then wrote three entries about Days One, Two and Three. These all conformed to the format I expected to write in, but they don't have any graphics or links to wowhead or the like. It was much later before I attempted an IC entry.

I just noticed that I've posted 100 entries since, this being my 101st post. It's also about one month now until the anniversary of that posting. Cool!

20 Days, Day 6 - My Workplace

This is my Day 6 post in Spellbound's  20 Days of WoW Blogging Challenge.

Over the past few years, my WoW Workplace has changed several times. Originally the family had the "nice computer", the newest most powerful desktop, in the front Living Room. It was set up on a nice desk and looked kinda like the nice version I've seen on other blogs for this challenge. You know: Desk, Comfy Chair, room for knick-knacks but few distractions. It was isolated from the family, which also was a bit of a problem because our family likes to do things together. Still, it was the nicest setup we've had.

Eventually we rearranged things such that the computer moved to the Family Room. It was in a corner and meant I could play WoW at the same time as the family watched TV. It was a move that was appreciated from a family inclusion perspective, but it made the computer much more appealing to other family members. I had to share it much more often. In addition, the desk top was much smaller and there was far more clutter in the corner.

We had another room rearrangment and the WoW computer moved to a different desk. It was no longer in the corner. Instead walking into the Family Room meant sliding between the computer chair and a recliner. The computer started showing its age and as it was used for more then just Wow, it had less disk space than before. Yet at this time it wasn't the only WoW computer. Both older kids had laptops that ran WoW. This was a time when my younger boy and I would adventure together, each on a different machine.

Then Cataclysm was released. Everything changed. The computer that was once on the cutting edge would no longer run WoW. Its video card was too old and there wasn't much space on the hard drive. The hinge on Syylia's laptop broke, but it was the only thing I had. Syylia got a new laptop in preparation for going to Korea, but I rarely got time on it. Instead I could play WoW on the broken-hinged thing at the kitchen table. I still managed to level to 85 on it, but it wasn't as much fun.

We bought a new machine. It was more than just a new computer as the family has shifted from watching a TV to watching shows on Hulu or otherwise off the net. The new computer is perfect for this. It's also wonderful for using Skype to talk to Korea. Here's a picture which happened to be taken at maximum clutter with Syylia on the screen on Skype and Suitata in the chair. The desk cleans up more than seen at this time, but it's still not optimized for a dedicated night of raiding.

BA Shared Topic: Archaeology

Ringo Flinthammer asked about Archaeology:

What do you think of it? Did Blizzard release it half-baked? Are you happy with its current implementation? What else do you hope to have added to it in future patches?

At first, I was very happy. It reminded me of fishing and I'd enjoyed fishing. I didn't enjoy fishing as much as somethings, but there were plenty of times that was the pace of what I wanted to do. I'd find a pool and watch TV while listening for the sound indicating a fish had bitten.

Good enough. I'll pursue it more after leveling to 85 and poking around in dungeons. It's fine to have as a lower priority and I knew the pet and mount collector in me would return.

Syylia, my daughter, followed it much more doggedly. She once was an archaeology major, so maybe that was the appeal, but even she eventually tired enough to drop it to the back burner.

Only in the last week or so have I really returned to Archaeology and thank the little green apples the toon that is trying is a Mage! I pity those needing to fly long distances. There's far more idle time in moving to the next dig site than anticipated. The travel time is a required part that can't easily be ameliorated.

I suppose I'm looking at it wrong. I'm already level 85. What would it be like to level Archaeology as you level your toon? Well, that's funny because I have been leveling a toon, but without surveying et al. Why not?

Kallixta has been on a Vanilla WOW account. I only upgraded to Burning Crusade in the last few weeks as she approached 60 and Blizzard happened to drop the prices. She isn't crippled without Wotlk or Cata. Her purpose is to explore things I missed with Martuska and that included a lot of Vanilla. She couldn't explore Jewelcrafting yet? Horrors! I'd run a Draenei up through a few zones already. So you see what I've been missing? Yeah, Archaeology is about the only thing.

So I'm only seeing it like most old-timers, from the vantage of end-game. I think it'd be less boring to do it while leveling an alt. "I'm going to Redridge Mountains? Oh look..."

Unfortunately, I restarted Archaeology after news of the increase in common artifacts was out, but before the patch with its release. As a consequence, my bank now has a bunch of gray items waiting for 4.0.6. Of course, that's what a bank alt is for!

Overall, it does seem to be missing some depth. It isn't hard to believe it was part of something else that got dropped and they wanted to salvage something out of it. I have hopes that future patches can tweak some improvements into it.

• For example, I could see tradeskill recipes as future drops. Why couldn't we rediscover an ancient dwarven beer recipe or nightelf tailoring or whatever?
• I wasn't the only one disappointed that the reconstructed dress artifact wasn't something that could be worn. Why not? Couldn't these artifacts be something RPers would fight for?
• I haven't forgotten how there used to be quests where a tradeskill was required or helpful, like Incendicite Ore. Seems like it wouldn't be difficult to have some quest that as a reward gave a keystone. Or yielded something extra with those fragments.
• Another way Archaeology could have been integrated into other aspects in reputation. Why couldn't there be a Dwarf/Troll artifact that asked to be turned in to a quest/vendor that rewarded reputation? Blathers gasps at the site of your widget. "Of course! It's fragments of the legendary Holy Hand Granade of Antioch that Brother Maynard once carried." Wouldn't that give a nice tingle?

Anyway, these are some of the things that show how it was released "half-baked", but none of them are irreversable. I hope Blizzard can find the opportunity to squeeze a little something extra into the profession.

Communal Laptops

I'm part of a large household of computer game players. We have a total of 3 working laptops, 2 working desktops and a few more computers that for one reason or another aren't working, but could. We have a total of 5 family members and a few close friends, any of which might be on one of these computers.

There isn't one computer dedicated to my WOW play.

The best computer right now is Syylia's new laptop. I love playing WOW on it, but it'll disappear in another month when she goes off to teach in Korea for a spell. And she'll be taking the laptop with her and play WOW there. And Skype home and all that other stuff. This means I must not let myself become dependent on her machine. I recently installed Ventrilo and now realize I must take it off. She doesn't use it or like it.

My older boy is the one that got us into WOW, but his interests have moved on. WOW is on his laptop, but the machine is up in his room, as is one of the desktops. Those two machines aren't easily available to me.

The old desktop ran WOW until 4.0.1 came out. Now it no longer meets requirements. The old graphics card is at fault, I think. It shouldn't take much to upgrade, but I can't easily justify elevating that in all the priorities.

That leaves "the old laptop". It was a leading edge machine a few years ago, but y'all know what that means. It now overheats easily; the power cord is fraying; the battery won't hold a charge; and the hinge is dying. So it isn't so much a laptop as a small desktop with a flat-screen monitor that can flop down. This was Syylia's old laptop and sometimes we'll refer to it as my younger son's, but it's like an embarassing hand-me-down shirt that's out of style. He really deserves a better machine. That's one of those budget items with higher priority than the desktop graphics card upgrade.

Kayyos plays WOW. He's a 13 year old boy that loves playing his Death Knight with friends. He may reach 85 soon, but he won't be ready for Heroics, never mind raiding. We compete over computer time, although we'd like to play a pair of characters together. He's going to miss Syylia's laptop even more than me.

One of the non-working machines is my wife's laptop. Her machine technically runs, but the hinge broke and the frame around the screen has fallen apart. It can't be used or repaired. A replacement for it has even higher priority in the budget.

So for now, I'll be using "the old laptop", despite the loud noise from it's hard drive. I can put any add-on I like on it. If I want to re-map the keyboard, I could, although then Kayyos will complain, but in theory I could do that and might yet.

I've noticed other folks talking about the problems with their machine and upgrades, but you don't read too many blogs talking about fights over machines. I'm guessing most folks have clearer ownership of machines. In our house, they're a bit more community property. The gaming systems here have a similar status. The PS3 and Wii are officially my older boy's, but they're set up in the family room and everybody wants game time. The XBox is Syylia's, but of similar status. My wife's games tend to run on the Wii. Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon are her favorites. The older systems, like the GameCubes, have drifted to individual's bedrooms. Since Christmas, the most popular game has been "Plants vs. Zombies", more even than Epic Mickey, and they've left the laptops much freer in schedule, but that won't last.

Well, enough rambling.

Day Two - 11 July 2010

Day Two started with the purchase of some greens from the Auction House, but nothing elaborate.

While visiting Ironforge for the first time, I finally bought Skinning.

I visited Stormwind to level my Cooking and Fishing. I went to the Weapons Master to add swords, enabling 1H-Sword and Shield fighting if I want to Tank.

While fishing at the lake in Goldshire, Syylia showed up. She escorted me through a few the Elwynn Forest quests as I leveled my Mining and Skinning. She'd also point out critters to love. I didn't get much for XP with her there, but it wasn't long before we were doing Westfall quests. I was still level 11 and the mobs were red when we split. I needed more monster XP.

I finished earning Journeyman in Cooking, Fishing and First Aid and leveled to 13 by the time I stopped.

Before the Beginning

Syylia and Elyyia were already on Wyrmrest Accord, although they became a bit quiet around January. Then around March, Suitata was started and quickly reached 80. He's been helping Syylia ever since.

Aldonza had been around a bit, but I brushed her off to practice my Auction House skills to better support Syylia's gold. As she breezed through Outland and started to dual-spec, the lure of a new alt on WA got stronger.