Dirty Santa Playtest

Presentation Given

Yesterday the tension was all built up over a presentation I had to do at work, and now that it is over I feel like I am officially checked out mentally.  Friday is my last day before I go on an extended holiday break that lasts until January.  At this point I am just so ready to be not at work, and fortunately it seems like everyone else around me is in the same condition.  Unfortunately there are still a few things that need to be wrapped up before I can in good faith leave for break.  As far as the presentation went, by all accounts I nailed it.  In fact one person commented that I should have dropped the mic as I walked away.  Unfortunately we did not win the contest, but that is partially because even I did not think we had the best idea.  We had a strong showing, but our application is mostly for internal use… whereas the person who won, and that I actually voted for myself…  would be used by the public and be really cool for them.

There was a small cash prize riding on the line for the contest, and while it was cool it wasn’t really a motivating factor.  I wanted to give a strong showing for out team, just to do it.  What was kind of amazing is just how fundamentally humble the winners were.  Early in the projects life I had helped do some high level system design, and at various points along the way we added some help here and there.  The web group is a really cohesive entity, and we are constantly helping each other out.  Well when the team got their cash prize, they immediately tried to stuff some of it in the hands of me and another co-worker that had helped them along the way.  So much so that they would not take no for an answer.  The entire process gave me far more warm fuzzies with the way things turned out, than had I actually won.

Dirty Santa Playtest

Before the presentations were given we had a big group outing where we went to an Irish pub and commandeered the back room for a Christmas party.  I mentioned the concept of “Dirty Santa” online yesterday but a few people had never heard of it, so figured I would give a quick explanation.  It is known by a lot of different names but around here it is mostly referred to as “Dirty Santa”, because it involves stealing presents from other players.  You somehow pick numbers for the people in your group, for us we went on number of years employed at the company, with the “newest” person going first.  When it comes your time you have two choices… pick a gift from the pile of gifts not yet picked, or steal from anyone in the group that has a present that you want.  Then that person has to go pick a gift as well.  To keep it from cascading forever we have a rule that any given gift can only be stolen twice… meaning the third person with it has it for life.  This often adds a strategic element to the game, especially if there is something everyone wants.

What is awesome about our group is that we pretty much bring gifts in one of two categories.  The vast majority are somewhat geeky, or at least are something a geek would care about.  The second category is alcohol which is always a fun gift.  Often times the gifts play on he vices of the group as a whole, so Legos make a frequent appearance.  I personally brought a Walking Dead starter kit with the first season and a couple of those funko random boxes.  My goal was for someone to end up with it who was not already hooked on the show…  since several of us watch it pretty much religiously.  I ended up walking away with the card game above, that I had actually seen before and wanted to play.  Right now I am leaving it at work and some lunch we are going to grab a conference room and play it.  It is really awesome to have a work family that you actually like, and its moments like this that reinforce my decision to stick around.

Roflstompy Good Time

Last night we once again queued for LFR as a guild, and I have to say I am digging doing this.  In part because it assures that we will have enough people to remove any abusive troublemakers from our group, and two it lets us get our strategies down smoother in a completely zero pressure environment.  For the most part we just take over any group we are put into, and control the pulls and progress of the raid… and as such clear the content in what feels like record times.  I think last night we did both raids in less than 30 minutes.  I had a decent night overall picking up boots and bracers that were technically upgrades… but pretty horrible stats.  Then I picked up a really nice cloak that actually had semi-ideal stats for what I do.  I am at a weird place with gladiator dps in that I can feel myself starting to fall behind the other dps classes…  but I bring quite a bit of utility especially since we do not have a warrior tank.  The two biggest being that I am essentially constantly debuffing the targets armor… and at the same time stripping off positive buffs with my shield slam.  I am starting to feel like the Hemo rogues did back in Vanilla… I make the raid work more smoothly… even if I am not topping the meters myself.

Another thing I managed to do last night was finally get Gold on an invasion.  Sadly I got nothing of use from my epic invasion reward bag, well unless you count garrison resources, gold and apexis crystals as useful.  In truth I really do need all of the resources I can get right now because I am in the process of renovating my garrison significantly.  Last night I destroyed my enchanting hut, because as an enchant I found it of limited use other than for getting epic shards…  which we will ultimately be rolling in later.  In its place I erected a salvage yard… which is pretty much the best thing ever.  I love the completely random nature of salvage, and supposedly you can end up getting just about anything in the game including the Tier 3 armor sets.  Additionally I managed to get Phylarch the Green for my Garrison, which means more than likely once I have built up a stockpile of resources… I am going to wreck my Lumber Mill and replace it with a Trading Post.  More or less I am still enthralled with Warlords of Draenor, and am really into the raid side of things.  I am hoping we can make some good progress on the next boss tonight in normal after having seen it last night in LFR.