Bilgewater Trade Cartel

Why is it… that a bed that is uncomfortable at 10 pm… can become the most comfortable thing in the universe at 6 am?  Feeling very creaky as the hotel bed seems to not agree with my back, but that is nothing a few Tylenol will not cure.  It feels like the time shift thing is catching up with me… last night I could not for the life of me get to sleep and this morning I simply do not want to wake up.  Luckily however just one more morning of this before I am back home.  I miss my comfy spot on the couch a lot when I try to game here in the relatively uncomfortable office chair on a table that is just a tiny bit too high.

Bilgewater Trade Cartel

Trade-Prince-Gallywix Yesterday it was confirmed by Bashiok that in 5.4 they would be adding in a cash shop for the World of Warcraft.  Apparently to some in the WoW community this is shocking and disturbing news, and Rowan wrote up a nice piece covering his thoughts on the matter.  Much the same as him… I am an outsider watching this situation evolve as I have no real vested interest in the game any longer.  I still have a good number of friends playing it, in and theory I am still leading House Stalwart over there by proxy.  I gave up the guild leader crown, but the person I handed it off to consults me on most major decisions…  not that I really expected that… but that has been what happened in practice.

What I don’t understand is why this is such a shock to the installed player base?  I am honestly surprised this has not happened before now.  The fact that you could go to battle.net and hit the store and purchase lots of in game items right away… means that essentially for years World of Warcraft has had a cash shop.  Placing this in game just streamlines the process, and makes it more of an impulse buy.  Additionally it allows them to expand their product offering to include different sorts of items.  Again…  I am shocked this has not happened before now…  as they already have a large catalog of items and services available for a fee.

I’ve said this before… and I will say it again…  I feel all of this is leading to Blizzard announcing a free to play conversion.  Right now it is just them, Eve Online, and Final Fantasy XIV that have subscriptions…  the last not even fully re-released yet…  so that could change.  Everything I have heard is that Blizzard has lost favor in China, and that World of Warcraft is no longer the cool thing it once was there.  As a result they have taken serious losses in player base there, if not completely losing that market.  This has been the thing that seriously overinflated their subscriber numbers, especially since WoW Asia already had a vastly different payment model than the United States monthly subscribers.

I feel like since it does not seem like they have much else in the pipeline… they will be making the big announcement at Blizzcon this year.  I feel like this is a decision they are going to have to make with the changes in the market, the constant trickle of player losses, and the fact that there is nothing on the horizon for at least another year.  This is pending an expansion announcement, which would at least be a year out.  If not another expansion… then the next big thing on the horizon is Titan in 2016.  There is just nothing there to ignite the player base and make them care about the game, so if nothing else I feel like a free to play decision might bring back existing players and get them to spend some money on the game.

I feel like Star Wars the Old Republic and Rift have both made the Free to Play conversion a much more palatable one for Blizzard.  In both cases they proved that they could make the switch and become more profitable in the process.  For a company with a deeply aging game, aging infrastructure and no clear content ark for storyline progression…  it has to be something that looks mighty tantalizing right now.  The only possible reason why Blizzard would not make this call is big stubborn pride.  But as they start to lose more money…  the pride thing eventually goes out the window.  Whatever is good for the bottom line of the company… and keeps the doors open… is ultimately good for the most dedicated player base.

Old Friends Renewed

rift 2013-07-10 07-14-34-08 Elowynn, Falconwing and Egan are folks I have known for roughly eight years of playing online games.  Back in vanilla wow, my guild House Stalwart and their guild Silent Strike were close allies and did a ton of content together.  There were many joint Zul’Gurub runs that I can remember fondly.  As Stalwart moved through Burning Crusade we got more and more “serious” about the content, our guilds started to drift apart as our focus was just in a difference place.  But during this time, there was not a period where I was not in communication with these folks… and if we needed subs for a raid I always threw a query out to them.

All these years later, I am finding out that they have a very active guild presence over on Faeblight.  Since I am on crappy hotel internet… I decided to roll a low level character to go visit with them.  I have to say it is in many ways like coming home.  While a lot of the people are different, the core of Elo, Falcon and Egan make the Silent Strike guild over on Faeblight feel all warm and fuzzy.  I am really wishing I had known about it when I came back to the game some time ago.  I love my friends that are in Outcast Misfits… but I have to admit I have a pull towards trying to transfer over to Faeblight.

Ultimately when it was just me… it was no big deal.  But over the course of the last several weeks I have gotten a large number of the Stalwarts and various other friends playing Rift again.  We’ve used the Stalwart channel to organize things… but it would be awesome if we could end up all in the same place.  The Misfits are nice folks, but I am just used to a role-playing environment… namely because of the naming rules.  The Misfits have some members I have literally reported for offensive naming violations… and that is just not something I am used to having to stomach within the guild I am in.  They have provided an extremely friendly place to hang out, but I keep wondering if our folks would be better served with Silent Strike on Faeblight.

Ultimately I have stayed with the Misfits, because it opened a lot of doors for my people.  If any of them decided they wanted to raid… then they would have those options.  But honestly I find myself mostly sticking to the people I know… and the server channel we created.  Silent Strike at least are extremely similar to the type of environment we had with House Stalwart.  I guess ultimately I have been looking for that type of environment all along.  Catari Honor Guard was it… until the membership stopped playing…  but since then I just haven’t found anyplace I feel comfortable calling a home.  I would be nice to feel like inviting someone to a guild… without having to give them a bunch of disclaimers about how the members are a little “rough around the edges”.

Breakfast Hard Roll

20130710_074443 For the last few mornings… I have ended up going into Stewart’s a Upstate New York convenience store to get a pop in the morning.  Near the checkout they have had these bins with a sign above it that says “Hard Rolls”.  They are divided into neat little bins… one for Butter, one for Peanut Butter, and one for Peanut Butter and Jelly.  As I waited in line… I would watch people grab 2 or 3 at a time… and it all seemed amazingly odd.  So that after experiencing this enigma for a few days… I decided I had to try one this morning.

It is apparently truth in advertising…  a Kaiser roll or Hard roll as people here apparently call them… sliced down the middle and covered in butter.  After doing some figuration… it is roughly 300 calories… and is the dirt cheap price of $0.85.  I guess this is a relatively cheap way to get fast and easy sustenance.  Quite honestly… the roll itself was rather tasty… nice and soft on the inside and nice and buttery and crusty on the outside.  The butter inside as well was of a seemingly good quality… or at least it did not taste like fake butter.

I still do not fully get why people seem to be buying multiples of these at a time… other than the fact that maybe since I am I  staying in the ghetto… it is a cheap way to get some calories in you.  Maybe they are going to have them for lunch?  It was tasty enough for me to eat it again, because I have always had a weakness for bread and butter.  I just find the concept of that being normal convenience store fair a little odd.  In Oklahoma you expect to have Hot Dogs, Nachos, Taquitos, little Breakfast Sandwiches… maybe donuts…  but not fresh rolls.

Wrapping Up

I have zero idea what I am going to do with myself today.  I know at some point I should probably leave the room so that the maids can work freely without trying to move around me.  I guessed the time at which they would clean the room wrong yesterday… and ended up back here before they had done so.  I had a nice conversation with the maid however, and she apparently does not really like Schenectady either.  She misses working in Florida… and I suppose I would too.  I also get the impression she was extremely happy to have someone willing to talk to her.  Anyways I hope you all have great days… and I will endevour to figure out how to kill another day.

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