WoW Wednesday- I'm Still Talking About Warcraft

So I went to Warcraft for the second time on Saturday, just like I said I would. It was still amazing. We saw it regular this time, no fancy 3D IMAX. It was weird, some of the images that looked cheesy in the IMAX (the gryphons flying), looked okay in the regular viewing. Watching the movie didn't change my opinion of it at all, and this time the people in the theater seemed to appreciate the humor in the movie more than the ones in the first viewing did (although, if you ask critics, there was no humor whatsoever in the movie). What I wanted to talk about today is the promotion that Blizzard and Regal Entertainment are running together, and see if any of you had the same experience that my husband and I did.

So one of the things that had some people really excited for this movie were the promotions that Blizzard has going with various theater companies (you can check those out here, and sorry Canada- you aren't included for some reason), and the fact that if you log in within the two months of its release, you get some cute transmog items from the movie (two items from each faction, plus an achievement). The deal with Regal states that anyone who buys a ticket will get the a code for a digital download of the game, plus if you pay with your Regal Crown Club card, you get a chance to win two tickets to BlizzCon. Great, right? Except, we bought four tickets and got one code. The guy at the box office said he was only allowed to hand out one code, but the way Blizzard words it, it sounds like every ticket is supposed to get a code. Now if you check Regal's website, they word it a bit differently, and its vague enough that it fits with the one code only policy. We have a lot of WoW accounts anyway, but we were going to give the downloads to our kids, so it was a bit of a bummer to have to pick which child was going to receive it. Have any of you run into this problem with the promotion? I was just curious if our theater was just trying to regulate their supply (because the codes are only handed out "while supplies last", and since they're the only Regal in town, I imagine they need the gimmick to take sales away from the other theaters we have here), or if that is in fact the promotion, and Blizzard was misleading.

And if you still haven't seen the movie yet, you really should. Ignore all the critics horrible reviews and just go see it. Its not a wannabe Lord of the Rings, its not a disaster of epic proportions. Its visually stunning, and if you have any sort of WoW knowledge, things will click for you and you will understand the movie. And more than likely, you will want to play once you're done watching it, even if you haven't played in years (and I think that's exactly what Blizzard wanted lol). 

Poppin' Off- Warcraft

So I know what you're thinking, this is about a WoW related thing, shouldn't this be a WoW Wednesday post? Yes, it probably should, but I don't want to wait until Wednesday to talk about this awesome movie, and movies do technically fall under the Poppin' Off umbrella, so here we go!!

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This movie has been ten or so years in the making, and let me just say, it was well worth the wait. I loved it. I'm pretty sure I can do this spoiler free, but just in case, if you haven't seen the movie and don't want any inkling of anything that happens, please come back to read this after you've seen the movie. 

My husband and I saw it Thursday night in IMAX 3D, and the visuals were stunning. There were lots of familiar cities and landmarks in it (Dalaran, Stormwind, Ironforge, Goldshire, Karazahn, The Dark Portal....there are some I'm forgetting I know), and it was so cool to see them on a big screen. It was like being able to take what you see in the game and just become one step closer to fully being in it, if that makes sense. 

The movie is based off of Blizzard's game Warcraft, not World of Warcraft, so this has caused some problems for people that do play WoW. They're basically saying that the movie doesn't stay true to the lore, but I guess that it does stay true to a lot of the original game's lore, not the current lore we all know now. Also, when any book or game gets turned into a movie, usually studios will streamline some content to either make the film flow more fluently, or to explain or simplify things for people that might not have read the book/played the game, and are just coming to see the movie. Does that mean that everyone likes it? No, but as long as you understand it, you can accept it, move on, and appreciate what the movie has to offer. And this movie offers a lot, an engaging story line, top notch graphics (although there was a few times I wondered if they just threw a toy gryphon across the screen lol), and pretty good acting. The characters were well cast, although I wanted to punch the Queen of Stormwind in the face. Shes played by the girl that plays Tulip in Preacher, and just after seeing her in that panel at WonderCon just made not like her as a person, so it ruined the character for me a little bit. However, King Llane is played by the guy that plays Preacher, and he just does a great job. Hopefully with them working together on so many things, his charming personality will rub off on her. Overall though, all of the characters were really well acted- it was nice to see. 

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My favorite character was Lothar- he was everything you'd expect an Alliance solider to be. He had some dry humor and wasn't hard on the eyes, so that was a plus. I have to give it up to Khadgar too, he definitely showed that mages are more than just vending machines! Also, there are some very strong female characters for those of you that complain that WoW never includes them- Draka, wife of Durotan and mother of Thrall, is a fighter until the very end, and of course there is Garona, the half breed who basically has an Alliance heart but a Hordie face who is fierce in every way she can be. There are two little CGI's that are just adorable too- a Murloc has a cameo and baby Thrall. 

Critics have panned this movie- they all hate it. I think they hate it because they've never played a Warcraft game and don't understand what the movie is supposed to be. I think fans of the game will love it. And the movie ends open ended enough that there can easily be a sequel (or five.....). It does end on a very cheesy note (ever wonder what a baby Thrall growling at you would sound like? you'll find out), but I don't really know how else they would have ended it. There was so much story that you see during it (and really, that you play through game-wise), that there isn't a good place to just stop. But like I said, I loved the movie, and we're actually going to see it again on Saturday, and take our kids this time. If you love Azeroth and everything surrounding it, and you want to see more of these movies made- let the movie studios know! Go out and see Warcraft this weekend!

BlizzCon 2015 Cosplay Panel

Here is my recap of the cosplay panel from BlizzCon with a few relevant YouTube videos thrown in. I needed a break from all the Legion talk, so this was the only time my husband and I split up for panels. I thought the panel was pretty cool, although I was disappointed at how the main objective seemed to be to promote the Blizzard Cosplay Reference Kits (three of the five panelists were Blizzard employees). I don't cosplay (but have a definite interest in doing so), but I thought these were good tips for beginning cosplayers. More experienced cosplayers, is this true?

Sneaky Zebra- BlizzCon Cosplay Video

The Panel:

*Keikei Day- Moderator (Blizzard employee)

*Rachel Day (Blizzard employee)

*Lorraine Torres (Blizzard employee)

*Allison Trinh

*Jordan Duncan

Rachel showed us pictures of cosplays from past BlizzCons. She talked about how the cosplays have progressed over the years. Blizzard employees have their own cosplay group.

Lorraine - Cosplay Basics

Where to start?

-Pick your project

-Do your research (She really pitched the Blizzard Cosplay Kits here)

What to Use:

-Safety equipment while crafting

-Your time wisely- manage that shit!

-Google!- techniques, pattern making, etc

-Use everything to create costumes (craft supplies, thrift store buys, etc)

-Premades/commissions (commission pieces if short on time/skill)

Jordan- Prop Building

Design, Plan, Build

-think about LEDs, wiring, batteries

-plan your molding/casting process with those listed above in mind

-use Adobe Illustrator for patterns (ability to make patterns in layers for adjustments, etc)

Assembly

-shaping and scultping of pieces

-filler, primer and sanding

   -then molding:

•      prep the mold
•      make a mother mold
•      cast the mold (hollow cast for weight)
•      clean the prop
•      paint!

Allison- Large Cosplays (she was Winston in the BlizzCon Cosplay contest on Friday night)

Pre-planning

-shipping/trasnportation of cosplay

-personal safety in costume (fans, water, handler)

-fitting into a larger costume/form (braces/pads)

Hoop Based Costumes

-easily scaled/add or remove hoops as needed

-lightweight and collapsible

-hollow for air circulation

Heads

-plastic canvas (lightweight and not durable)

-balaclava (tight fitting and easy articulation)

-resin/fiberglass (heavy and durable)

Jessica Nigri- Deathwing Costume Creation

BlizzCon 2015 Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm Panels

Here are my recaps of the Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm panels I went to during BlizzCon. BlizzCon was like information overload, so I know that I'm forgetting a lot of stuff!! I bought a notebook on Friday night so I could start writing down what I'd heard that day, and so I could take it to panels with me on Saturday lol. The smart blogger would've come with a notebook though...oh well, maybe next year (if I get so lucky!).

Hearthstone Panel

-the new adventure is The League of Explorers (Egyptian type feel)
-discussed all forty-five (!) new cards
-will earn all four new heroes at the completion of each wing/the adventure
-Reno Jackson, Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker, and Sir Finley Mrrgleton are the new heroes
-Discover! (class specific or neutral depending on your deck. its on a lot of the new cards)
-first wing of the adventure opens on Thursday, November 12th, 2015

Heroes of the Storm Panel

Character Development
-Eighteen weeks to test a character.
-Two hundred Blizzard characters on a list of potential HotS heroes.
-Things considered while choosing a character to add: how many of that type currently exist in the game and the character's silhouette.

New Characters
*Cho'gall

• Two players controlling one hero. Cho is melee, Gall is ranged. Each part has his own talents, but they have attacks that work together. 
• Cho'gall can't be purchased. He will be given to every BlizzCon attendee and virtual ticket holder. Those players can then pair up with other players and so some battles together as part of a quest for the player to get Cho'gall. The original Cho'gall holder can earn gold once they give four people Cho'gall.

*Greymane

• Shapeshifter since he's a Worgen.
• Fight from afar and finish up close.

*Lunara

• Permanent speed increase.
• She doesn't walk, she prances.

Other News
-Gul'dan is coming.
-Pre-order Overwatch Origins and get Tracer as a Hero.


Are you guys excited for any of the new changes to Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm?

Looking for Group and Raid Dynamics IRL

Its time for another WoW Wednesday! Today's post will touch on two things- the Looking for Group documentary that was premiered at last year's Blizzcon and a recent Anomaly podcast that discusses the dynamics of raid groups.

First up is Looking for Group. I watched it on Hulu a few weeks back, but you can watch the whole thing on YouTube if you don't subscribe to Hulu. It shows how WoW came to be, showcased some of WoW's more familiar players (Felicia Day, Brandon Routh, King of the Nerds Season 2 contestant Zachary Storch, etc) and I swear to Jeebus, you will see the lady the modeled the dwarves after. It was neat to see where some of the characters in-game get their names from, because even though I've played the game for a long time, I'm not super knowledgeable in the names of the creators. I recommend this documentary for anyone that's interested in how World of Warcraft came to be.

Now, onto the podcast (Listen to it here). I found this podcast through the Female Geek Bloggers group (that group just helps you find everything great on the Internet!). I was immediately drawn in by the topic, even though I don't raid. I mean, I do groups, which are just tiny, faster raids if you really think about it. I've never considered that the role I play in WoW could possibly translate to how I am outside of the game though.

But it makes a lot of sense. In WoW, I play caster classes. They are pretty much distance damage classes, but this also applies to healers. In real life, I tend to hang back from crowds, because I feel awkward just throwing myself out there. I'm pretty quiet, unless I know you, then its different. And my profession by license, though I'm currently unemployed, is pharmacy technician. So that heals, right?  And again, its a distance class. I'm not the doctor, right in the middle of it all, making those life changing diagnosis, I just dispense your meds and help you along. I'm a supporter. Even in my household. I do for everyone, not much for myself, just always keeping everything going. Thats like a dps, they are always keeping the damage coming, constantly keeping the group moving by supporting the tank and protecting the healer. My husband would fit the tank profile pretty well, and thats what he plays mainly in the game (his other toons are mostly rogues and hunters). Hes the life of the party, hes not shy at all. And his job in real life requires him to have a ton of people and problem solving skills, but he also has to be prepared to protect himself and others at a moments notice.

What do you think about this? If you play games like WoW, or LARP, do the characters you're drawn to represent your nature in real life, or do you go completely the opposite direction? Let me know in the comments!

Random WoW News

Just a few things to touch on briefly today. They're kinda old news now, but I haven't had a chance to write about them yet because I've been deep in the land of PTA moms and fundraisers the past few weeks lol.

On January 14th, a couple of articles started popping up on my Yahoo front page about World of Warcraft becoming free to play for Veterans of the game (here's an article on cnet that explains it pretty well). The gist of it was that it was similar to the Starter edition of the game; the one where you can play for free up until a certain level, but you can't join a guild or trade items, stuff like that. The Veteran edition had caps on gold and chatting, but the leveling caps and a few other things weren't clear. Well, Blizzard very quickly cleared that up. On January 16th, this article came out and explained that the Veteran edition is real, except its taking lapsed accounts, and essentially reverting them to Starter editions. The difference is, if the Veteran has a toon in a guild, and is trying to get his below twenty toon into that guild, he can. So it wasn't quite the crisis situation everyone was making it out to be, and it really doesn't change anything gameplay-wise. If you want to come back to WoW, try it out. And if you want to go past level twenty, time to pay up :)

And this is fun for anyone that's been playing WoW for the entire ten years its been out. Blizzard is sending out statues to players that have been subscribed to the game for the full ten years that WoW has been WoW. That means no breaks in your subscriptions at all. Some people that have been playing since the game came out but took a couple of breaks were complaining that they didn't get statues, but that's life. The statue is a reward for supporting World of Warcraft for a whole freaking decade! I am not one of those people, but its still pretty neat. Read about it here.

And in my last bit of WoW news for today, did you guys hear about the player that has one hundred level 100 toons? His name is Watola and that is just crazy! Leveling, even with refer-a-friend (which is what he used to complete this), gets on my nerves after a while. So I can't even imagine trying to do it for that many toons. Here's the link to the article and here is the link to his Battle.net forum post, which is pretty detailed and is a helpful read for anyone trying to level 80 toons and above right now.

In my own personal WoW news....I haven't been doing too much, mostly just garrison stuff on my level 100 Horde mage. It looks like I've missed some quests somewhere, because I don't have the plans for my tailoring building. I've looked in the area that was supposed to have that quest line to obtain the blueprints, and I've completed all the quests. So maybe its a glitch, I'm not sure. And I've noticed that I'm dying a lot while trying to quest, so I'm thinking I missed an area somewhere, and my gear isn't good enough for my toon anymore. I need to jump back on my Alliance toon, to get her to 100, but thats the one I play with my husband, so I'm trying not to get ahead of him.

Is WoW Hating on Ladies?

A special  note about this post: I was going to post this on January 7th, 2015. I didn't though, because I felt like I was ranty and bitchy, and I really didn't want to come off that way. I really appreciated the view that Lindsay Ann gave about her experience with Warlords of Draenor. I was so polite in my comments on her post that I thought maybe I should just copy them here, but you guys deserve something better than that. So here is my post. And yes, its still a little ranty and bitchy. But I'm not a girl gamer hater- I am a girl gamer! I just think that people nit pick so many things nowadays, and I don't think that Warlords deserves to be one of them.

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World of Warcraft is a lot of things to me. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I love it. For a while, it was a place where I could go and always know that a friend would be there, so I would be there almost all day long. WoW is also a pit of internet trolls. Trade chat can be an entertaining scroll, or an offensive diatribe. If you want to know anything about Chuck Norris, anal [insert class talent here], what your mom just did, or if somebody said Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, you'll find it there. One thing that WoW has never been to me is sexist. Sure, there are the immature boys that will announce in trade that they just told their girlfriend to get in the kitchen and make them a sandwich. But in reality, if he's sitting there typing that to trade, his girlfriend and that sandwich probably aren't around. So I was really interested in this blog post that was shared to the Female Geek Bloggers group the other day. Its found on the HerStoryArc blog, and it basically states that with the Warlords of Draenor expansion, Blizzard missed an opportunity to make female gamers feel more welcomed by not including any lead females into the storyline. If you check out the post, you will see my rather lengthy responses, but I still felt compelled to write this, because I don't think Blizzard is in the wrong, and I certainly don't need a female Warlord to feel welcomed into a game that I have been playing since 2006.

Lady Sylvanas Windrunner

In the past versions of the game, female characters have been present and had some roles in the expansions. The two most prominent are Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) and Lady Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde), and from these two, I think that Sylvanas has had the better storyline (especially in Wrath of the Lich King). But even if they weren't the main focus of anything, they've always been around in the game (and they still are, if you go into any of the older content). The complaint from HerStoryArc was that the Warlords of Draenor expansion lacks female leads, and for that, Blizzard let their female demographic down. While its true that the main focus of this expansion are male, I don't feel that they've let their female demographic down at all. I play WoW because its fun, not because of the lady leads. And in this expansion's storyline, the characters were all male. Even I, who lacks in the greater depths of knowing WoW lore, knows that. The author of the post feels that by incorporating more female friendly leads and quests into the game, thats going to change the dynamics of how gamer boys feel about gamer girls. That sounds nice, but I don't think so. Players who are set on completing the objectives of a quest will do it. It doesn't matter if the quest is for a male or female NPC. What needs to change is the behaviors of the players. Which brings me to the other issue that was brought up: language in the game.

Lady Jaina Proudmoore

The post suggested that Blizzard place stricter guidelines for in-game language, harsher punishment for those that break the rules- again, all so that female gamers (which later in the sentence turns into all players) can feel safe while playing. I take issue with this because the post made it sound like Blizzard has nothing in place for these types of behaviors when in actuality, they have several. First, you can turn on a mature language filter in your settings. It won't catch everything, but if you don't like cuss words and things, it will do this @#$%#%^# number to them. If you think that someone is saying inappropriate things, i.e. rape jokes or racist comments, you can click on their name and report them for abuse. There will be a few things you have to answer to report them, but its really that simple. And bonus, once you report them, they also get blocked, so you don't have to see their idiotic comments anymore. There is also the option to just flat out block them, if you don't want to bother with reporting them, And yes, you can still open a ticket to talk to a GM if things get out of hand. Just be prepared to have specific times, dates and places if you want to go that route. Speaking with a GM is the best way to get someone temporarily banned/have their account suspended. I know all of this because I have had instances where players have been really unkind, but I've also been fortunate enough that those instances have been few and far inbetween. 

My last issue with the post is with its tone as a whole, and this is probably where I am going to get the most backlash. There are girls in the game that use being female to their advantage. They will use the horniess of these poor dorky guys to get gold and gear and sometimes real life items like keyboards and cash. I hate girls like that. They make the rest of us that are there to just play the game look really bad. They're one of the reasons guys don't take female gamers seriously. But in that same vein, I feel that girls who constantly complain that games aren't girl-friendly are just as bad as those girls who are banking off of their sex, and that's where that blog post fell for me. Hearing that the gaming isn't doing enough for girls calls to mind that episode of The Guild where the Knights of Good want to buy the guild hall, and the guys want the metal gray one with all the spikes, and the girls want the candy colored, hot pink hall. The Guild wasn't complaining about lack of female anything (I mean, Felicia Day practically made WoW every geek girl's game at one point), but it highlights the difference in the way most guys and girls play. Always saying that girls need something for them makes me think that they want the pink frills, they want something decidedly girly (which is funny, because in the post, the author states that's exactly what she's not asking for). WoW doesn't perpetuate hate towards females. It doesn't portray them as helpless princesses (Sylvanas was murdered, then came back, got revenge and managed to snag a position of power. Um, that's pretty awesome.). It would be different if they were having quests where you only kill women, or there was somewhere in the game that shows graphic violence towards them, but there isn't. So why does it matter if there are a few more male leaders than female? It doesn't. Or it shouldn't.

Like with anything else in life, WoW is an experience that you create for yourself. You control your toon, you control your actions in the game. If some troll has something to say, you can be the bigger person and ignore it, or you can feed them and engage in a word war. Just know, that report button works both ways. I try to be positive while playing, and just yell at the screen when people annoy me :) That way, I'm not adding any negativity to the game. We all pay $15 a month to play, why not make the best of it?

What are your thoughts? Do you think having more lady leads in WoW would change male opinions of female gamers? Do you think the game needs more lady leads in general? Would trolls stop you from playing a game you love, but would stronger consequences against them bring you back? Let me know in the comments!

Helpful links:
*The Guild Season Four (its the season I was discussing above)
*Wowhead (basically an encyclopedia of WoW, you can snoop around and see who/what's in the game)
*WoW: New Models, New Theme and New Potential (the article on HerStoryArc that inspired this post)

My Thoughts On Warlords of Draenor So Far

Warlords of Draenor has been out for a few weeks now, and I haven't said too much about it. When the expansion was first announced, I wasn't too eager to see it really. The only thing that sounded interesting to me were the garrisons. As the expansion neared, Blizzard started releasing these mini movies that gave some background into the upcoming expansion. Those were actually pretty cool, and they got me interested in seeing what the expansion had to offer. I have to say though, that excitement was short lived once patch 6.0.2 went live. You can read about all the changes here, but basically Blizzard wanted to take WoW back to its roots. So we all got hit with the nerf bat and everything sucked. Especially when the dungeons in Panda Land hadn't been fixed yet. That was miserable. And the race remodels. I really didn't like them. My humans looked like taller dwarves, and my undeads just looked....weird. But like with anything in WoW, you complain about it for a while, and then you get over it and get used to it.

So the expansion finally released, and I waited a few days to try and log in. I didn't care about being any kind of server first (besides, most of those went to people that a-beta tested and knew the general gist of how things worked already or b-work for wowhead), and I knew with the amount of people trying to log in, it would be a nightmare. I waited four days after launch to log in, and it still took me hours to finally get onto my server. It was worth it though. I started out with a Horde toon of mine, and shes actually my highest toon right now (94). The quests were pretty easy to do, although I found myself taking a lot of damage from mobs at times, and I'm not used to that lol. But I guess thats part of Blizzard's "taking it back" thing. I remember when I first started playing, mobs were hard to kill. Once you get out of the starting area (and thats not an immediate thing), you go onto Frostfire Ridge (Blade's Edge Mountains). When I started the quest line on my Alliance character, I was expecting to go to the same place. So it was really nice to see that after getting out of that starting area (because you do start the same way, no matter your faction), you do go to a different area to start building your garrisons. The Alliance start in Shadowmoon Valley. I haven't gotten too far into the quest lines with my Ally toon to see how different they are, but at least you have the change of scenery.

I really like the garrisons and all the quests you can have your followers do for it. Yes, followers! You earn them from quests, and they help you complete tasks. The achievement whore in me just loves it because there are so  many achievements related to the garrison and your followers. You can also kill beasts out and about and they give you garrison supplies, plus you can just find them while questing. Also while you're questing, bonus objectives can pop up on your map, and if you complete them, you get gold and xp, which is good. The addition of the reagent bank is super awesome, but I've already filled mine up on my 94, so thats a bummer. That reagent bank saves you a ton of bag space though! It really comes in handy, well worth the 100 gold to get it.

Some things I don't like about the new expansion is that the characters light up when you hover over them. Thats just distracting to me, and it reminds me of EverQuest. Actually, most of this expansion reminds me of EverQuest, which is pretty crappy. Its like Blizzard couldn't think of anything new on their own, so they went to rip off another game instead. I also don't like how squishy I've become. I get hit so hard by mobs, its really difficult to quest alone. I'm not horrible at my class either- the mobs just hit harder. And like I mentioned above, I don't like how any of my toons look remodeled. I like how they looked before.

Overall though, I am enjoying this expansion a lot more than I thought I would. I feel like there is a lot to do in this one so you can't get bored with it super easily (like with Pandaria, even though I didn't even finish most of what was out there).I still haven't tried to do any of the new dungeons though, so that should be interesting. And leveling of professions is different a little now too. There are some items I can use from Draenor that have a really high level with no problem, but items from the old world, that have lower levels, require a certain level in a profession to use them. Its a little wacky how thats done, but I think it has something to do with the garrisons and work orders.

Have you tried Warlords of Draenor? What do you think of it so far? Let me know in the comments!


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SDCC- Sunday and Post-SDCC Monday

Sunday was a pretty good day. I actually felt well, it was our two year wedding anniversary (we've been together much longer though), I wore shorts so I didn't melt. Good day.

We started our day off at Nerd HQ. We had an early morning panel with Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. I was so excited when I got tickets for this panel. Not to mention the fact that we managed to get pretty good seats for it too (third row, right in the middle!). Wil Wheaton was one of my earliest crushes in life, because I was a huge Star Trek TNG fan and I loved me some Wesley Crusher. And Felicia Day is a really good role model for girls I think, and I love The Guild, so I was glad to see her too (my husband was equally as glad, he thinks shes hot). They are the ultimate nerd couple to me. What is it that everyone says? I'd ship them so hard? Yeah. Anyway, the panel was amazing. Aisha Tyler moderated it because Zach had stuff to handle, and she is freaking hilarious. After the panel, we rushed to the photo booth area because we were told that they were doing a Smiles for Smiles photo op. Almost immediately, they said that Felicia Day wasn't going to, but Wil Wheaton would. This bummed my husband out, but the six year old in me was excited to be next to Wesley Crusher. So we stand in line some more and my Nerd HQ app goes off. It announces a photo op with Zachary Levi at the photo booth we are currently in line for. So everyone is like, WTF and the volunteers are like, yeah....Wil isn't going to do it after all. So that bummed me out, but we ended up taking a picture with Zach and he was just so nice. A lot of people started getting out of line after Zach was announced and waited for Nathan Fillion (who had a panel right after Wil and Felicia's), but there was never a Smiles for Smiles announced for him on Sunday, so I am curious if he came out and did one or not.

After the photo op, we ate at the taco stand they had in Nerd HQ. My husband had the nachos and he loved them, I had the Carne Asada tacos and they were alright. The meat was off, not true Carne Asada, and a little greasier than what I'm used to. It rained for a few minutes while we were there, then it cleared up like nothing had happened. When we finished eating, we went to the convention center and got in line for another panel in 6A. This time it was for Sanjay and Craig, the Nickelodeon cartoon.

We made it to the line pretty early, so we got good seats. The lady next to us was there to see an actor that was in Arrested Development, I had no idea he was a voice in the cartoon. We were there because Chris Hardwick voices Craig, the snake. We also found out that Matt Jones (Badger in Breaking Bad) is another voice actor in the cartoon. My kids love to watch Sanjay and Craig, so it was a neat panel. We got to see them table read two episodes, and they performed a version of the theme song made just for SDCC. Plus, they showed us an upcoming episode of the cartoon. I sat next to a girl who's boyfriend works on the show, he'd put together all the stuff they were showing on the screen. I let her know how much I liked it, and how much my kids enjoy the show. I imagine working on something like that must be stressful, so it might be nice for her boyfriend to know that people do appreciate it. At the end of the panel, they mentioned that they were doing a signing at the Nickelodeon booth, so a lot of us went over there. We didn't know that it was a ticketed signing, but because they'd mentioned it in the panel and so many of us showed up, Nickelodeon let us go through the line, which I thought was really nice of them.

I was pretty bummed to find out that the Sons of Anarchy panel in Hall H that was going on the same time as the Sanjay and Craig panel had been begging people to fill its seats though. We wanted to go to that because we love SOA, but we figured that because it was a Hall H event and we hadn't camped for it, there wasn't a snowball's chance that we'd get in. Later on in the day I was checking my Facebook, and a girl I'd gone to school with who was also at SDCC with her finance' had posted that they attended the panel- only because they were approached by SDCC staff. She said that they were begging people to fill the room! What?! Maybe it has something to do with that new wristband thing they were doing, I'm not sure. But if its like that next year, maybe I will attempt a Hall H panel. I would love to see what a big panel is like, even though I am still very happy with the two panels we did get into in 6A.

After that, I think we went back to the Blizzard booth. My husband wanted to get some more of those pins, and that's when we found out that they were trading them. They had a board set up where you could trade, or you could trade with other people that were standing around. I traded my gold Nobu (I think thats how you spell it) for a gold Sylvanas, and I was good. But my husband got all into it, and he was a trading machine. There was this guy there that I hung around with (and I'm horrible socially, I didn't even get his name), and he was explaining to me how things were working, how the people were operating, things like that. He was there observing. He'd gotten all the pins he wanted on Saturday, and was there on Sunday I think to see what kind of deals he could make with his extras, something that could be profitable (if you check eBay, those pins are very profitable right now). He did direct a guy to my husband that had a really rare gold pin (they were sold in blind bags, and then there were regular pins, and then their rarer golden counterparts), which I thought was cool. There was a lady that was frantic trying to get that pin, but she had tried to do a dirty deal with me earlier, and that guy didn't think that was right. I managed to get a rare gold pin from their toy dispenser though, which was awesome. If you bought tokens (they look like Hearthstone coins) and put them in this machine (they look like those machines you put quarters in for bouncy balls or stale candy at the store), you had a chance of getting these little dolls or the gold pin that also came with loot codes. I ended up with a lot of those little dolls, but it was almost closing time on Sunday and I tried the machine again and got my gold pin.

***All photos are from eBay. Search Blizzard Pins SDCC and the listings should come up.*** 

We stayed at the Blizzard booth until it was time to shut SDCC down. That was a strange experience, I've never been there as it was closing. It was a mad house really, and vendors were still selling stuff even after they were told to stop. Aside from being sick, SDCC was good. We stayed an extra night since it was our anniversary (and we didn't want to deal with post-con traffic). We ate at this place called Bootlegger for dinner. It was very good, but the sickness kicked in after I ate, and kinda ruined the rest of the night :(  We had the Crispy Deviled Eggs as an appetizer, then my husband had a BYOBurger and I had the Chicken and Waffles (I'm a sucker for chicken and waffles). 

On Monday, we didn't really do anything in SD. We left the hotel right at checkout time (12pm), then headed to Los Angeles. We stopped at Universal CityWalk to catch a movie and to eat (I was feeling eh that day, and wanted to be close to home before I ate anything). We saw Lucy- I'll review it soon, but eh. After that, he ate at Tommy's (tons of chili on everything) and I ate at the Flame Broiler (something safe for my tummy).  The rest of the trip home was smooth sailing, and I felt relieved to be back in our smoggy, hot mess of a town. The weekend had been exhausting and I missed my children, and our cat. 

Did any of you attend SDCC?  What were your thoughts on the convention this year?

SDCC- Saturday (Our Longest Day)

Saturday, July 26th was my first official day at SDCC and let me just say- holy humidity San Diego! It was nasty. I woke up that morning feeling really, really sick. Maybe it was the lack of sleep (we didn't get back from the Hollywood Babble-On taping  until 2:30am), maybe it was undiagnosed issues, but I was feeling so terrible. I loaded up on all  my meds in the car, but the twenty minute drive to the Campus parking lot hadn't done me any favors, I was still feeling horrible. Stepping out into that humidity was a shock. I'd been hearing from other people how nice the weather in SD was, and that there was even a storm expected for the weekend. So smart girl that I am, I wore jeans. Double ugh. By the time my husband and I had made it off the Skywalk I felt like I was dying, and I don't use that term loosely. Once we made it upstairs in the convention center, I thought I was going to pass out. I was so shaky and could barely walk. Not the way I wanted to start off my convention experience.

My husband and I rushed to the Blizzard Entertainment booth because there were some exclusives and premieres that we wanted. Come to find out, the line had been capped, with no say in when it would be reopened. And we were pressed for time, because we were attending a panel at Nerd HQ not too long after we got the convention center. The Blizzard employee told us that the convention had put a bunch of new rules in place about vendor lines, that they couldn't obstruct the walkways, they couldn't have people lingering around. I will touch on this more in my final recap, but I think that while those rules were meant to be helpful, they also caused a lot of problems. So needless to say, we didn't get our loot before we had to haul buns to Petco Park and Nerd HQ.

By this time, I was still feeling pretty bad, but also feeling a little better. That quickly changed once we got seated for our Conversations for a Cause panel. It was hot in that little area, and heat does nothing for me. I think I spent the first ten or so minutes planning an escape route in case I had to vomit (yeah, it was that bad). Eventually that wore off and I got to enjoy our panel, which was Alan Tudyk with Zachary Levi moderating. It was very funny and it was definitely worth the stress of the ticket sales. I'll talk about Nerd HQ more in my final recap as well, but I was very impressed with what I saw.



I liked that Alan wasn't put out about talking about Firefly. I know some actors don't like to be remembered for just one role and sometimes hate talking about that said role, but he was so enthusiastic about it. And I loved that he answered a question in his King Candy voice. Wreck It Ralph is a favorite here in my house, so that was pretty great. After the panel, he did a Smiles for Smiles photo op, and my husband and I did that. If my scanner wasn't broken, I would share it with all of you :) They even let me hold a sign I made (very last minute, like while standing in line for the photo) that said "Hi Dad", because my dad is a huge Firefly fan.

After Nerd HQ, we went back to the convention center. We went back to the Blizzard booth, and this time we were able to get in line and get the stuff we wanted. I bought the Nether Faerie Dragon and my husband got the Heroes and Villains lanyard. We also got a Tyrael nightlight for our kids and the World of Warcraft Trivial Pursuit. We also bought these really cool pins that people were trading, it was crazy. Our adventures with that happened on Sunday though lol, so thats for another post.

We walked around, looked at a few more booths, then I remembered that there was a panel in 6A that we'd talked about going to see. It was a Skybound panel, with Robert Kirkman and some other guys. But the person we were most interested in seeing was Norman Reedus. Having no previous experience with panels at SDCC, I thought this was a smaller room and that it wouldn't be that hard to get into. So with thirty minutes until the panel started, my husband and I rushed over there to try to get a place in line. We managed to get a spot, but it was like, buildings away from 6A. We almost left the line, we didn't think we had a chance. But we stuck it out, and it paid off. We managed to get seats in the panel, and it was pretty awesome. They talked about some stuff they had going on with The Walking Dead, not the teevee show, but some of its other ventures, and they showed the trailer for their movie Air, which Norman Reedus and Djimon Hounsou star in. It looks pretty neat.



Once that panel was over, we headed to the Heroes Brewfest. I don't drink, especially beer (it doesn't even smell good), but my husband does, so this was more for him than me. He had a lot of fun tasting all the different beers (there were a ton). I sat under a tree and tried to feel better. It didn't help that a girl at the table near me had like, a mass exodus of everything she'd ingested that day. I can't deal with vomit, especially other people's. She did actually pass out though, which was sad. The EMT that was at the event took his sweet time getting to her, I'm sure just dismissing her as another girl who can't hold her liquor. The event staff didn't bother to clean up her mess (even though a maintenance man had volunteered to, the security guy told him not to), so plenty of people screamed when they saw it (and eventually the sea gulls came.....ugh....).

We stayed at the brewfest until it ended, then took one of those bikes that blasts rap music back to Petco Park so we could get ready to run The Walking Dead Escape. Now, I was still feeling like crap and I really didn't want to do it. But my husband got a little put out with me because he wanted us to do it together (and he also thinks I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, so I don't even think he really thought I was feeling shitty), so I decided to try it. Big mistake. I was still in my jeans, and just wearing Vans, and it was still super humid. So we start, and it doesn't take long before I almost crash into a wall because I feel like passing out and one of the workers called EMTs to wheel me off the course. That was embarrassing. Seeing all those zombie faces pity me was sad. The EMT that treated me was super nice though, and I appreciate that. He didn't make me feel stupid for being an out of shape heatstroke victim, even though thats probably all it was. I wouldn't mind doing the course again next year though, as a walker. That seemed like a lot of fun, and you don't have to run :)

After all that is over, our night still isn't complete! We then have to haul ass to Balboa Theater to see The Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick and crew. His special guest was CM Punk, and it was a really good podcast. I feel like I should mention that I've never listened to the Nerdist podcast before, but my husband and I are huge Chris Hardwick fans, and thats why we went. It was not disappointing. There was even a marriage proposal in the audience, it was the weekend of geeky love on podcasts I suppose. Click the link here to listen to the Nerdist podcast from July 26th.

And that concludes my Saturday at SDCC. Come back tomorrow for the Sunday run down!!

WoW Wednesday

I have started playing WoW again! Yay! I started playing right at the tail end of Children's Week, and managed to do the Darkmoon Faire (totally missed Noblegarden though, which was a bummer). I have been playing my level 90 shadow priest on the Alliance, running around Panda land and doing the copious amounts of dailies that are out there now that I can fly. I've always been big on dailies (remember all those dailies you could get in Shattrath? Anyone? Bueller?), so this is super exciting for me. I just wish it was on my mage, but they're all hovering around around level 86-88 and are severely under geared. 

Last week was also the time to buy BlizzCon tickets. I was super pissed because I didn't see anything announcing it, so  I completely missed the May 7th opportunity. They usually send emails announcing it, plus they advertise it on the opening Battlenet screens, but again, I saw nothing. It wasn't until I saw people's screenshots on Instagram later that night that I learned about it, and the second opportunity on May 10th. My husband and I tried on May 10th, but of course, we didn't get tickets. The system they used sucked, and we got kicked out of the waiting room a few times. Tickets were showing as available, then we'd try to purchase them and either we'd get kicked off of the screen, or the screen would say that the tickets were no longer available. It was very frustrating and I feel that Blizzard didn't handle the ticket sales well at all. They usually don't, but this was probably one of the worst years. We've been trying to get tickets since 2006, so its been very frustrating. It only took four years for us to get SDCC badges lol, and its supposed to be super difficult to get SDCC badges.

Did any of you get lucky enough to score BlizzCon tickets? Any thoughts on this year's ticketing system?

WoW Wednesday

WoW Wednesday has been notably absent from the blog lately. I haven't played WoW in at least a month, which is a large part of it. The other part is, I'm not sure there is much interest in it from you, the reader. I mean, if you don't play, I imagine it doesn't appeal to you. So I am in the process of rethinking it, deciding whether or not I want to continue with the column and if I do, where to go from here.

I did want to share the link to this article with you though. Its from the A.V. Club and it talks about abandoned cities in the game. If you've been playing the game long, the article will make a lot of sense. I've been around long enough to see a lot of these cities rise and fall. I have an appreciation for abandoned things in real life, buildings mostly. There's just something about them that I find fascinating. But it never occurred to me that things in a video game could become abandoned too.

Before they merged a bunch of servers together, I played on a few dead servers. Well, dead on the Alliance side, which is what I was playing at the time. It was beneficial during holidays- it made getting the holiday quests for achievements done so much faster. But there weren't many players to help you out when the Horde came to play "Destroy the Alliance", and the long trade chat and even guild chat silences could sometimes get boring. The cross realm things they did changed some of that, but you can still find major cities that are pretty much abandoned. Ironforge, the Exodar, Dalaran, Shattrath, and Silvermoon City are the ones that come to my mind immediately. It makes questing nice and easy if you're looking to power level, but again, the silences and absence of other players can get boring. With every expansion, more and more cities and areas get left to be abandoned in favor of the new content. I guess that's true of life too. The new and exciting is often chosen over the old and known. But WoW developers don't do much to help the old cities either. The new content doesn't require the old much anymore past mid-level 50's it seems. You only spend a marginal time in the Outlands before you can go to Northrend, where you can get the higher item levels needed to continue with the game. And from there its a straight shot to Cataclysm and Pandaria content.

With Warlords of Draenor on the horizon, there will be more empty cities. The empty cities aren't completely horrible though. If you role play or like to take screenshots of the scenery, the emptiness can be an advantage. You can also get to the auction house or trainers without a million people blocking your way or causing lag. And sometimes, when you don't want to see the Chuck Norris jokes, conspiracy theories and "make me a sandwich, bitch" comments, having a silent trade chat isn't such a bad thing. The article is right, there is beauty in WoW's abandoned cities.

Liebster Award

Super excited to say that Amanda from Geekphoria has nominated me for a Liebster Award! I know that part of this is to nominate five or eleven other blogs, but most all the other blogs I read have already been nominated, so I am not nominating anyone at this time. 

And what is a Liebster?

“Well, it is only an AWESOME award given to up and coming bloggers. Given by other up and coming bloggers. It’s a cool way to find other blogs and feel like you are getting into the blogging stratosphere. It is simple, you get nominated by someone else, mention their page and a link to their blog in your Liebster Award Post, answer the 11 questions they give you, then tag 11 other nominees and give them a new set of 11 questions to answer.”

So here are the questions that Amanda gave me to answer:

If you were trapped inside a video game for the rest of your life, which game would you want it to be?

That's a tough one, but I think I would choose World of Warcraft. The areas are pretty, there are professions to support yourself and with the upcoming expansion, we'll finally have houses lol. 

Which spaceship would you like to explore the universe in?

Captain Picard's Enterprise. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started your blog?

I wish I knew how time consuming it would be lol. No, I wish I had started my blog with more knowledge of HTML/code and things like that. I still don't know how to do that stuff. I think it would make my blog look a thousand percent better if I could do those things.

If you could have any mythical animal as a friend/pet/companion, what would it be and why?

I always wanted him when I was younger. I loved The Neverending Story.

What fictional world is your home away from home?

Forks! Lol, that's a joke....kind of. I love watching the Twilight movies as a way to kill some time. My second is Azeroth. What can I say, WoW rules my life sometimes!

If you could be any fictional character for a day, who would it be?

I think I would want to be Katniss or Tris for a day. To be that badass...that'd be awesome.

What daily (or semi-daily) activity/chore do you wish you could get by without doing?

Clutter cleaning. I have kids, they leave things everywhere! 

What is your number one pet peeve?

Having to repeat myself more than once. I despise when I'm talking to someone and they just keep saying "what?! what?!" over and over. How about you hush up and listen to me the first time!

If you had to pick an apocalypse, which one would you pick?

Hmm....zombie maybe. Seems like there'd be less rioting, looters, and general bad people, even though there seems to be a steady supply of them on The Walking Dead.

What job did you want as a kid? What job would you want if you didn’t have to worry about making a living?

It changed year to year. Being decisive has never been my strong suit. In kindergarten, I wanted to be a cheerleader. In first grade, a Disney animator. Second grade, teacher. Third grade, military police(wo)man. Fourth grade until the end of high school, lawyer. If I didn't have to worry about making a living, I'd want to be able to just art journal for a living. Maybe own a scrapbook/Smashbook supply store. That would be awesome.

What is your favorite color, and what is your favorite nerdy thing corresponding to that color?

Blue and purple are my favorite colors, and my favorite nerdy things are my blue Alliance hoodie (I'm wearing it in this post ) and my Epic Purple Lanyard from Blizzard's booth at SDCC last year.

WoW Wednesday...Its Actually More About Hearthstone...

I think I need to make a new section just for Hearthstone, I have been playing it more than WoW lately. If you're interested in Blizzard's World of Warcraft themed card game, it is now out of beta and very live! You can download it for free at playhearthstone.com. Also, if you are a WoW player trying out Hearthstone, you might be interested in the mount that they're giving away if you get three wins in Play or Arena mode. The mount also gives you an achievement called Hearthstoned.

I took a picture of my mount as soon as I won it yesterday. It took forever to get it once I logged into WoW though. It was supposed to be there as soon as you logged in, but I guess their system was overloaded by everyone trying to get it. The mount is very impressive and I've heard rumors that there is a red version of this horse, although I have only seen people getting blue ones.

Now for some WoW news. The time has come to pre-purchase Warlords of Draenor. If you pre-order the standard ($49.99) or deluxe ($69.99) digital version of the expansion, you get a free level 90 boost. You will then also have the option of purchasing addition level 90 boosts for $60 a boost. There was a lot of trash talking in Trade last night about the level boosts, but I bet most of those guys pre-ordered as well! They were talking equal amounts of trash about the Hearthsteed too, but that's just Trade, full of hating trolls. Anyway, the digital deluxe also comes with some in-game goodies; like a Dread Raven Mount and Dread hatchling pet for WoW, Battle.net portraits for Starcraft II and a Warsong Pennant for Diablo III. The mount and pet sound most appealing to me. I haven't played Diablo in forever and I have never played Starcraft. Are any of you going to pre-purchase the game for the level 90 boosts or the in-game goodies?

WoW Wednesday

Here is a video from Trade Chat giving an overview of a lot of new things in WoW, Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone. Hopefully I will have something WoW related to say next week :)

PS The level 90 boosts for sale that she mentions are no longer appearing on live servers. It was first reported that someone saw the boost price on their account after the most recent maintenance. The claims have since been dispelled by Blizzard.

WoW Wednesday- Love Is In The Air.....

Happy Wednesday everyone! The Darkmoon Faire has just ended, but that doesn't mean that the merriment has to stop in Azeroth. Its now time to bust out your heartfelt goodies and enjoy Love Is In The Air (February 10th- 24th)! This is my favorite holiday in the game (next to Winter Veil), so I am super excited. There are plenty of quests and achievements to do. Plus some pets and mounts to get as well (that Big Love Rocket is one I've always wanted).

Peddlefeet, WoW's resident Cupid.

And since Peddlefeet is in town, that means that its awfully close to Valentine's Day in real life. The newly re-opened Blizzard store has put together a cute little gift guide for the Blizzard fan in your life, with a little help from Peddlefeet himself. My favorites from the guide are:

Funko Pop! Vinyl Arthas.

Gryphon Hatchling Plushie with In-Game Pet.

World Of Warcraft cookie cutters.

Funko Pop! Vinyl Illidan. Because I am still a little unhappy that I 

didn't get the Shadow Illidan that Blizzard had at SDCC last year.

So that's about it for this WoW Wednesday. How do you do plan on spending Valentine's Day? Keeping it geeky or making it romantic? Or not doing anything because its just another day?

(In case you need some Valentine's. I found these on someecards.com)

WoW Wednesday- So You Wanna Be On Catfish? And Other Things.

Happy Wednesday everyone! I am feeling a bit under the weather, which isn't horribly abnormal for me, except I am experiencing some flu-like symptoms which is gross.

Now that Lunar Festival is over, the Darkmoon Faire is in high gear! As always, its a great opportunity to earn achievements, do dailies for some xp and gold, and a chance to earn Darkmoon Faire tickets that you can use to purchase pets, mounts, and gear. Wowhead has a nice little guide here, telling you all about it. I'm saving up for the Darkmoon Dancing Bear because I think it'd be cool to have a bear mount that dances.

Darkmoon Island.

Super fun news if you watch Catfish or just want to be on teevee. They want WoW players for upcoming shows! I think the idea is great. I know I met someone who became a pretty important part of my life through WoW. But that teevee show is focused on love relationships, so I don't know how they're going to do friendships. Plus, even looking at the application, its like they want to find some romantic or secret between you, and I personally wouldn't put myself in that spot (though I would like to meet my WoW friend one of these days). I will definitely watch whatever episode they make from this though, I think it will be interesting to see some WoW players out from behind their screens :) Visit Wowhead for all the details and a cool giveaway for some Iron Skyweavers and Alterac Brew Pups.

What else is new? Oh, you can now purchase non digital items through the Blizzard store again. Yay! I've been wanting to buy an authenticator forever (because I constantly break my phones, and always having to remove authenticators from my account is a pain), but the option hasn't been their since they've put their store in beta. So go check out the store for all your digital and non digital Blizzard needs- its all there now.

Buy it here.