Into the night

There are usually five or six emails in my inbox at work that I am actively ignoring at any one time. The worst of the present bunch dates back to April. It isn't even a particularly horrible email. It's from an old colleague who'd like to meet up for a drink. I like this old colleague, the prospect of drinks with her is not unpleasant, but I cannot bring myself to reply.
I'm not one to keep to-do lists, but if I were, you can bet it would follow this same pattern, with my blog somewhere up there in the bunch of top (or bottom) tasks ripe for ignoring.

There's clearly something wrong with me.

Psychologists call it procrastination, defined as a "counterproductive" deferment of actions to a later time. It's supposed to be "a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision", which is ironic considering the effects of procrastinating can include "stress, a sense of guilt and crisis, severe loss of personal productivity" and "social disapproval".

Ironically, by turning to Wikipedia for a diagnosis of my condition, I managed to put off writing this blog for a whole other day.

What happened is I got sucked into World of Warcraft, the cyber equivalent of a crack den, and have spent the last three years of my life spiralling into sleep-deprived oblivion. I have managed to keep my head above water at work, and have done enough to keep my relationship together, but that's about it. My friends, my career, even my self-esteem, have suffered.

My work is so pressured right now that I'm not even getting home in time to raid. And I clearly haven't been finding the time to stay on top of this blog. So it keeps getting pushed to the bottom of my virtual list, where it lurks and seethes and gangs up with emails from long-suffering ex-colleagues to make me feel guilty and ashamed.

It's cathartic just to even put that down in writing. My neglected blog has been bullying me.

I'd love to say right now, having reached my epiphany, that I will no longer procrastinate. I will complete all tasks that come to me in a timely and professional manner. But it's not going to happen. I am both incredibly busy and incredibly lazy. Something has got to give.

So for now, it's got to be this blog.

I think it's safe to say that if I am not blogging about the most monumental patch to ever hit this game a week before it's due to land, I'm never going to. And that's a huge shame because this is exactly the kind of thing I set out to write about, and the kind of thing I love doing, time willing.

I had a good run, I think. This blog, and all of you who read and contributed to it, made me a better player. And I think I got a lot more out of my subscription by investing time here, in the WoW community, with you. Thank you very much for sticking with me this long.

I'll not be quitting WoW any time soon, and I'm not going to rule out another blog at some point in the future, but until I can sort out my priorities and learn to balance my time a little better, it's time to let the shadow fall on Misery. Happy face melting :)

300 miserable posts

988 days ago I had a genius idea to start a blog. I had just finished levelling a shadow priest through Outland and had no idea what to do next; it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I called the blog Misery after a key talent in the shadow tree, but also because I’m a glass half-empty kind of guy. If you’ve had reason to pop by on occasion you probably know that.

300 posts later, and I’m still… well, you could hardly call it going strong, more limping along.

That amounts to an average of one post every three or four days, which is not exactly prolific — though I do still remember the dizzy feeling of posting twice in one day. Good times.

I average about 300 hits a day, which even in the rather specialised realm of gaming fanblogs I recognise as a modest splash in the pond. And I can’t even promise that all of those visitors find what they need; I am inherently lazy and don’t do nearly as much housekeeping as I should.

But every now and then, I catch a glimpse of the big time, thanks to the generosity of those rock-star bloggers at wow.com. The most hits I’ve ever received in one day was 2770 on 13 January 2010 for a post about shadow priest glyphs which Alex Ziebart very kindly promoted.

My most read post of all time is also about glyphs, which is a bit of a common theme on Misery. This time it’s the one about glyphs for levelling (hideously out of date). I’m sure anyone who ever hits that page bounces right back to Google in disgust. I promise to update it for Cataclysm, ok?

My top referrer is clearly Google, but I owe a good chunk of my visits to referrals from other blogs — top of the list are Blessing of Kings, wow.com, the (sadly retired) Egotistical Priest, and Penance Priest. Thank you very much guys, and thank you to all the bloggers who link to me that I have shamefully omitted here. Drop me a line if I don’t return the favour, I need a kick to update my blog roll as it is.

The most comments I’ve ever received on one post is a modest 19 for my musings about going holy. I clearly need to do more if I want the buzzing discussions of the big hitters like Matticus and BBB. Share your ideas in the comments please :)

Wrath of the Lick King has been a mixed bag for Merlot. He has seen shadow priests go from a hopelessly broken marginal support class to a dps contender, but he has had to sit out much of the end game while an upstart Tauren shaman monopolised my time. For casual players like me, this has been an incredible expansion, but it has come at a cost. I think most hybrid classes will recognise the pressure to offspec for healing or tanking, and many will understand the pitfalls of succumbing to that pressure for convenience. Once you accept that it’s easier to heal or tank than fight for a dps spot, you are lost.

So I have done more raiding this expansion than ever before, but I wasn’t melting faces. And now it’s too late to catch up. The advent of achievements and gear score have pretty much seen to that — but that’s another post.

With Cataclysm already in beta, I’ll be able to get my teeth into priestly class developments again, which is something I love. And I will soon have to make a decision about my Cataclysm strategy. Do I take the easy route and stay healing, or do I go back to shadow and bench the facehealer?

Either way, you don’t get rid of me that easily. I’ll still keep banging on about how priests need moar luv and how glyphs are broken and how I am totally going to redesign this blog like tomorrow. Yea, mañana baby.

/cast Misdirect

A post that somehow manages to induce coffee-spluttering guffaws while revealing absolutely nothing about its subject? It can only mean BRK is back!





Why are you still reading? You were supposed to follow the link. BRK haz new content. CLICK ON THE LINK.





>>Your misdirect was resisted.>>

Damn. I haz nothing.

Spring clean in progress

Just wanted to give the six of you that actually visit my blog warning that the design may go a bit awol for a few days weeks. Blogger in draft has recently introduced some sparkly new features that I'm itching to play with. If I break the blog, I'm very sorry.

The Zalazane ret con

Apparently I missed official blog rant day, but I've never let lack of official endorsement stop me before. Cataclysm spoilers ahead. Reader beware...

We learned today that the Darkspear Trolls chief Vol'jin is about to launch a final offensive on the Echo Isles, in an effort to retake his people's lost refuge from the traitor Zalazane. Which is odd, because I explicitly remember killing him. Repeatedly. Get this:

Over the years, members of the Horde looking to test their worth have braved the Echo Isles to confront Zalazane, and many of them have even returned victorious with his severed head. These victories, however, proved to be nothing more than an illusion created by the twisted witch doctor's dark magic. Days after these trophies were taken to Sen'jin Village, they reverted to their true forms: painted rocks and coconuts adorned with wooden tusks, or even the heads of Zalazane's enslaved trolls.

ORLY? Do you know how many times I died killing that piece of shit? Have you any concept of the time I lost on that agonising corpse run? Many before we got that ghost speed boost. That is one miserable corpse run. Those bastard trolls heal, and they run away at the slightest scratch, like a SPLINTER. Gadrin told me he was dead. He did not say I might have killed a coconut by mistake. Not once, not even after four years of failed adventurers bringing him creepy painted stones did he think to warn me the guys was a bit tricky. Thanks a BUNCH Blizzard.

No wonder those idiot trolls lost their island. It's not even a very big island.

Don't even get me started on Thermaplugg, the big dumb FAKE boss.

Call me Mr Darksun

I have a new weapon in the battle with my company to me skive productively while at work: Google Buzz.

Most forms of social networking are now blocked at work, including my own blog. Google Reader and Google Mail have, up till now, been my last links to WoW content during office hours. I've been able to read other blogs (although posts with breaks are deeply irritating) and post new content on my own, but commenting has been impossible. Until now.

With Gmail now providing access to Buzz profiles, I can follow and comment on Blogspot blogs again. There's also some kind of tweeting functionality.

I had to make up a surname before I could push my profile live, so I am now known as Merlot Darksun. It's a bit obvious, I know, but I was utterly without inspiration.

Anyway, there's a chance I'll make a bit more use of Buzz than I did Twitter, as long as it remains open at work. So if you're a Google user please feel free to pop on by and follow me.

And if you happen to run a Blogspot blog of your own, make sure you've got a profile set up and drop me a line so I can follow you too.

Edit: here's a link to my Google Buzz profile, which is a bit easier than having to search for me (although this page might be blocked by social media filters). I've listed Silvermoon as my home and love the fact that Google has tried to find it on a map :)

Writer's block

Even as my personal progress through Icecrown moves slowly, I sense a general winding down of the expansion already. We know there will be probably only one more content patch before the real work on Cataclysm begins, and the shadow of the summer exodus looms. I already feel the tension mounting for many guilds on my realm between ambition and apathy. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm presently erring on the side of apathy. I need a kick up the ass.

So apologies for the dearth of content lately (the doughnut post was a stretch, I know). I do have some ideas (see below) and just need to find the time and motivation to put these plans into action. You can help speed up the process by indicating if there's anything in this list that you particularly crave (or don't, for that matter):

• Why it's time to remove regional restrictions on forums (rant)
• Part 2 of the levelling guide (long overdue)
• Updated raiding spec (but honestly, not sure if this is needed)
• Whether to drop mind blast with the tier 10 4-piece bonus (don't know, should look into it)
• Cataclysm wish list (too early?)
• More addon and UI investigations
• And lots of admin - updated links, blogroll, new header, and if I can find one I like, maybe even a new template

Great minds think alike

Who was it said there are no original thoughts left? Whoever it was, he probably wasn't the first.

Apparently my last post, which I've been chewing over for weeks, skirts rather close to a post on World of Warcraft Philosophized from last week. I wouldn't even have noticed if wow.com hadn't picked it up.

So clearly I'm not the only one with reservations about the emblem system.

I suppose my next post's already been written too. I have an idea for an instance, where you're trying to escape from the Lich King but he's walking really slowly...

The big time

You know you've hit the big time when your company's firewall blocks your blog. I feel like a pornographer.

Thankfully Blogger is still fair game (for now at least) so I can keep the site ticking over.

Mmo champion is predicting that 3.3 will drop next week, which if true, is the worst piece of news I've had since I last tried to get in my favourite jeans. But I'll do my best to throw a snappy survival guide together before the blasted thing hits live. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see in there and I'll make sure to include a link to shadowpriest.com the relevant information.

Misery in mourning

I'm too emotional to write a proper post this morning. Yesterday the world lost a very great musician — and I had to learn about it in trade. In trade. There's no way to take that back. His passing will now forever be associated in my head with paedo jokes and bad spelling. I'm going to need a lot of therapy before I can ever listen to Ben again.

In the meantime, if you're joining us for the first time from wow.com (thank you Mike Schramm!) I can only apologise for the hiatus and appeal for your help. Let me know what you'd like to see here in future and I'll get right on that just as soon as I'm over the shock.

PS. OMG, Farrah too! Somebody pass me a valium!

This blog will get you laid...

On a whim, I signed up to ProBlogger's 31 days to build a better blog on a tip from Matticus.

Every day for the next month, we'll learn a little bit of blogging theory and be challenged to create something for our blogs.

If nothing else, it may inspire me to fill in the rather pregnant pauses between usual posts, and with any luck Misery should emerge the other side a better blog. That is assuming the extra pressure doesn't cause me to crumple into a whimpering ball and get dragged away by psychiatrists. (One post every day!?) But then I'd get free drugs and time off work; it's all win.

Challenge one is to write an elevator pitch. If, like me, you're left cold at the sound of business slang, I refer you to the wikipedia entry. You can skip over the first two sections... venture capitalist blah blah... wait, what's that? It's like that scene in Working Girl? Why didn't you say so in the first place!

I may not speak business strategy but I am fluent in 80s rom com.

It's like you've got fifteen seconds to convince the high school quarterback to read your blog thereby securing his invitation to the prom. (Yes, that's how it works in American high schools.) What do you tell him?

Misery is a blog about football that will help you get laid.

I think I've just coined the definitive elevator pitch for teenage boys, but I'm not sure it quite fits the bill for Misery.

How about:

Reading Misery will make you rich and cause people to fall in love with you.

Closer? No?

Well that's all my 80s plotlines exhausted. I'll just have to resort to the honest but dull truth. Now that I think about it, being true to yourself (and thereby getting rich and laid) is a very 80s message:

Misery delivers news and comment about World of Warcraft for shadow priests and their admirers.

And I'm not even sure it does that, all of the time. There should really be an "attempts" or "aims to" in there somewhere, but I think confidence sells. My gym says it will make me look ten years' younger, not attempt to... No quips about false advertising thank you very much.

Challenge one accomplished! What do you think? It's a good job I have another 30 days to get good...

I fully expect tomorrow's challenge to be devising suggestive headlines that entice readers in while having nothing to do with the subject matter. I've got the jump on that one...

Cait's Ultimate Blogroll

My Google reader is getting out of control. Every day I discover a new game-related blog to add to the list, but I'm just not organised enough to put them in nice neat folders and keep up with the housekeeping.

I'd guess that Caitlin, over at One Among Many, had a similar problem, because she's collecting as many WoW blogs as she can in her Ultimate Blogroll, a very worthwhile project that deserves a plug, not least in thanks for all the traffic she's sending my way.

She's got the blog links categorised by subject, and even notes blogs that have fallen out of date. My Google reader's great, but if I want something specific and don't know who's blogging about it, this is where I go first.

Go, browse, and if you see a gap, please let Cait know.

Merlot stands up, waves, sits down again

In the immortal words of Halle Berry, this moment is so much bigger than me...

Thanks to that super generous soul feardotwin, I've been tagged with this award meme thing — which, after a little googling, I realised wasn't a new and terrifying computer virus at all but a postulated unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices, transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. So that clears that up.

Seriously, how does one get from an evolutionary theory by Richard Dawkins to all your base are belong to us?

Hack through the postulated phenomena and you discover some much deserved applause for my long and industrious attempts to convince the WoW community I know what I'm talking about. Thank you fear, it's a badge I shall wear with pride.

There's a catch. I've got to do a bunch of stuff.* I never was much of a joiner. You know that guy that sits with a face like a smacked arse and rolls his eyes whenever a Mexican wave comes round? That's me (that time at the Cher concert was a one-off). And I'm apparently the last blog in the known universe to be tagged (much like with football at school). But I'm gonna list seven of my favourite reads anyway, on the principle that if Tom Hanks could win a second shameless Oscar, these guys certainly can. Go go, take a bow!

• Blessing of Kings
• Critical QQ
• Egotistical Priest
• Gray Matter
• I'd Rather Be WoWing
• Melted Faces
• Pugnacious Priest
• Suicidal Zebra

I'm also supposed to list ten honest things about myself. Ten! Seriously, I'm not even that honest with myself. I shall admit only to a Cher fetish, a champagne chin and an absolute mania for the books of GW Dahlquist. Truly, they are amazing.

*Rules

• When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
• Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
• List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

The net widens

They block all gaming sites and forums, they block every blog with its own domain, they block proxy servers, they have now even started blocking Google's cached content (my previous 'back door' to wowwiki and the like). It's like they own me. How am I supposed to keep a blog at work now?

Just about the only thing I have left is Google itself — my email, reader, and (inexplicably) Blogger. So I can keep writing about... nothing in particular. God even knows when that axe will fall. It will be a sad day for slackers independent journalists when they start blocking email :(

Clearly I'm not going to start blogging at home. That's playing time, that is.

Anybody got any ideas? I'm considering a netbook so I can blog on my (considerable) commute, I'm just not sure whether:

a) netbooks are a con and I should spend the very reasonable extra it would take to get a full spec laptop (from what I can see, laptops start at only £100 or so more than netbooks)

b) the hefty mobile broadband contracts are worth it - I'm looking at a monthly fee of £30 for 3 Gb and have no idea how much surfing I can do on that or even if the speed is acceptable

If you have any experience to share or advice to offer, please let me know.

Two columns good, three columns better

Now that I've got my shiny new column I feel liberated. It's a bit like wearing a kilt in a stiff breeze (I'll try anything once).

 

I've been able to expand my blog roll using Blogger's wonderful new blog list widget (not so new to Blogger but brand spanking new to me). I've set it to show blog name and post title, and order it by date and time of post (the most recent posts at the top). It's set to 25 blogs but you can click to see the full list at the bottom.

 

I'm worried it might be a little too long but it was either 25 or 10. Let me know if you feel strongly either way. And if you'd like to see your blog in the list please drop me a line.

 

But that's not all! (I'm on a roll here.) While researching the blog roll widget, I came across Blogger reactions, which enables you to set some simple rating buttons at the bottom of your posts. Unless I've completely screwed up, you should see mine below. I'm hoping it might spur the comment-shy among my readers into giving me some feedback. It's one thing to think you're shit but so much better to know it.

Do not adjust your sets

If you're reading this on my site (as opposed to in a reader) you'll notice the banner is all screwed up now. But look! I has a third column!

I needed a new banner anyway, so this is a perfect spur to kick me into action. I'm thinking snow and mountains...

Thanks to the Blogger Guide for the great tutorial.

An appeal for help

I'm slightly panicy that a few people have recently started following me on twitter. I haven't logged in for months. The truth is, I don't really know how to use it. Not technically, but functionally. It's like sitting in front of piano and not knowing what to play. I signed up just to see what all the fuss was about but all I really did was broadcast my new blog posts. Surely there's more to it than that? If anyone has any tips or suggestions on how to make the most of it, please let me know. And if you're one of the poor wretches that decided to follow me, don't give up on me just yet :)

This space for sale to highest bidder

Poor Tobold. He writes a wonderful blog about all things MMORPG. It deservedly has a rather large readership and subscription base. He caught the eye of Warhammer's Mythic PR team, who offered him a complementary subscription and took a bit of flack from readers because of it.

Tobold's integrity and even-handed journalism are two of the reasons his blog is so great. I don't believe Tobold's reporting of the game will change one bit.

Mine, however, could.

That's right, I'm completely open to gifts, bribes, flattery and donations of all descriptions.

I have no scruples about lying for my generous benefactors — and that could mean you!

In return for your large sums of unmarked bills, pro-gaming PCs, high def plasma screens, lifetime subscriptions and all-inclusive paid trips to tropical conventions, I will write nice things about you. I won't make the mistake of declaring our relationship first, of course. I am the paradigm of discretion. And as long as you keep me sweet, I won't say anything bad about your product or my experience of it.

Just so we're clear, I am not 100% sold on this whole Misery shadow priest WoW thing — although a beta key could go a long way to changing my mind.

Do you work for Mythic? Alienware? A tobacco company? An arms dealer? You'll find me a versatile, broad-minded ally in your PR battle.

So don't delay, drop me that line now, and you could be the proud, silent owner of an influential blog!

Fame won’t change me vows blogger priest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WORLD’S END TAVERN, SHATTRATH The latest WoW blogger to be outed by WoW Insider has declared: “I’m still the same old face-melter”.

Speaking from one of Shattrath’s more salubrious watering holes, the self-styled ‘Misery’ — or Merlot to his friends — recalled how he came to join the ranks of struggling WoW bloggers.

“I was just another honest, hard working shadow priest looking for a gig at 70. I knew I was ready to take on Illidan but the guild masters around these parts had other ideas. They wanted ‘experience’; they wanted ‘better gear’. I mean, wtf, everything I wear looks the same man.”

So he started a blog as a way to let off steam and set himself apart from the ranks of other adventurers drawn to Outland by the promise of gold and glory. This sometimes witty, sometimes tragic, always heartfelt account of his true-to-life experiences is what first captured the attention of blogging titans WoW Insider.

Close friends tell of the two distinct sides to his personality; the ruthless ambition that drove him to the dark side, and the frivolous, playfulness that leads him now to drop shadowform and let us see him in all his colourful glory, if only for a moment.

“It isn’t always like this,” he said, gesturing to the bar wenches hanging off each arm. “I can be serious too, you know? I have ideas. And I’m not done with Illidan yet, either.

“But at heart, I’m still the same, honest, grafting mana battery my loyal fans have come to know and love. I won’t let this one link change me. I’ll still move in flame wreath, I’ll still dot up the sheep, and I’ll still do my best to top the death meters.”

What next for this plucky purple priesty now that fame has come knocking?

“Uh, I dunno man. I’ve been a little short on the spondoolicks, you know? I need to get back to Quel’Danas and grind some gold for one of those sweet epic flyers. And I hear there are a couple of grons in Blade’s Edge Mountain that need putting in their place. I might head there when I’ve finished here.”

He ostentatiously orders another round for the entire taven, putting it on his tab. The bar manager looks confused but starts pouring.

Suddenly, he jumps to his feet, summons the shadows, and bursts into dance. As he swings his arms and gyrates his hips, the wenches giggle and clap and dance along. One or two gruff warrior types roll their eyes and look away, disgusted.

He winks at me. “You should check out my blog man, it’s imba.”

I leave the tavern wondering just how much danger those ogres are really in.

Bore bored bored

What do you do when the server closes early for maintenance? Well in my case, you play around with a new banner then you go do the washing up. I'm not sure it turned out quite how it looks in my head. What do you think?

I don't know how to do half the things I want to in this blogger template. The rounded corners give me a headache and the colour scheme is a mess. I'm not sure how to change the background colour, and even if I did I couldn't because the rounded corners are made by tiny images in the same colour. And why did nobody tell me the tag cloud is MASSIVE in Firefox!?

I'm going to have to do some serious research. In the meantime, if you have any tips for customising a blogging template please let me know.