The Friendly Necromancer

Project Gorgon surprised its fans yesterday with an update that was a mixed bag of fun and not-so-fun.

The not-so-fun news is that using skills like Animal Handling to boost your level in other combat skill got a little harder to do. There was a bit of a complicated explanation in the patch notes, but basically you'll be earning 25% less of the "bonus" exp when power leveling a skill. I mean, you can still use an OP pet to farm exp, but not quite as fast as you used to.

Didja gloss over while reading that?

My suggestion? Definitely go to the poetry jams on Saturdays to get the bonus exp buffs and drop some money on a memory enhancer potion. It'll help with the grind.

The FUN news; however, is that a new animal class was added to the game. In case you didn't know, you can be a pig or a cow or a deer or a spider or a bat or a whatever the other ones are that I can't think of right now, and fall under a completely different set of rules in game. At the end of the day though, it's basically a combat skill with a cool skin.

Ahhh, speaking of cool, how about a nice cool bath?

I've been avoiding playing as an animal class in Project Gorgon for a long time. I "should' have played as a spider, just like I "should" have played as a necromancer. I mean. Those types of spooky classes are my jam typically. I'm edge-y like that when it comes to the game world, but not here.

So, because it's new and I have no other reason not to, I'M A FOX!!

The process of becoming a fox is interesting.

1- First, you need to find a Spirit Stone. I'm like . . . a what? The wiki entry for a Spirit Stone basically says you can find one in the "dawn" time while in Eltibule, and it will be inside a wooden crate in a location where fireflies were seen during the previous night. Ok. I've never even seen this happen and I've run around Elitbule a metric ton. That said, I gave it a shot because why not? So I looked, and I looked, and I looked. Finally I'm like, are they talking about this wisp of magic you can find outside the Goblin Keep?

So I waited, and I waited, and I waited. The answer was . . . no.

So I figured that by the time I actually found one of these firefly spawns at the right time of day and waited until morning to loot this magic chest, I could easily farm up the ~25k that a player was asking for in the player bazaar, and justified buying one.

It's a good time to up-charge those spirit stones.

2- Second, you have to travel to the Wolf Caves in Kur with your spirit stone. At first I went to Kur Tower, like an idiot, thinking that the Fox NPC was in there somewhere. I killed the boss in there with a couple people and ran around a bit until I caved and asked in Global Chat. I like never do that. Global Chat is scary.

Luckily an acquaintance of mine named Lagitha was there to lemme know, it's in the Wolf Caves and you follow the main dungeon path and drop down twice until you get to a back cave full of imaginary wolves. Thank you, Lagitha! You're the best.

3- Lastly, you gotta make it past all those freaking static-blurry wolves! They only have like 300-400 health, but it's a metric ton of them. I loaded up on thorn shield buffs and died a couple times getting back to the back room solo.

Blurry fox is blurry!

Once you get there, there a fox NPC you can talk to and he tells you a very sad story about how he's stuck without a spirit as a fox. You give him the stone, and he "trades" with you by turning you into a spirit fox and a whole set of guidelines about being a fox. (which don't really make a lot of sense to me just yet)

Confusing instructions are confusing!

It sounds like I need someone to give me another spirit stone to un-fox myself. So I'm stuck like this for a while. It's cool though. I'm up to the challenge and I really needed something to mix it up.

So far the class seems interesting. At the time of this writing I'm only level 20 in the spirit fox skill line, but I can see that they have a pretty amazing buff that makes them very hard to hit for a while and can cast an energy rune on the ground that will restore your energy if you click on it. So, it's like making a little emergency store of energy on the ground before you engage an enemy. The rest of the skills so far seem to be pretty run of the mill damage, but I did notice most of the skills deal "Dark" type damage.

I'll have to do some research to see what coincides with that damage type, but immediately my mind goes to . . . dun dun dun . . . necromancy. I'll have to play with it a bit more to see if there's something cool that synergizes.

So far the equipment I've found doesn't have impressive stats just yet, but it all remains to be seen what can be done here.

Hmm, stun resistance, sprint speed, and extra damage . . . now to just get fox to 60th level.

In the meantime, I have no opposable thumbs in game! That means, I can't use tools and weapons and stuff like that. Humans won't really talk to me in the early zones. So, game on! I'm a fox now!

Happy Dueling!

You better believe I was high steppin' it like Sally O'Mally when I dinged 50 Spirit Fox today.

My time grinding to 50 was mostly spent in . . .you guessed it . . . the Fae Realm, but listen, in all that time I learned a thing or seven!

me, my fire rat, and I

Thing 1 -- As a Spirit Fox you can cast a mini-pet that's more like an illusion with a taunt. It'll take a hit or two for you and then die. Then you just re-summon up another illusion.

To get this super cool illusion pet, you have to make ANOTHER run down into the depths of the Wolf Caves where the Spirit Fox that turned you into a spirit fox will teach you his illusion trick . . . but only in exchange for Lapis Lazuli gems.

I made the mistake of running back there to him to be trained only to find out that I didn't have any gems on me. Then my guild leader was kind enough to take pity on me and run me down a few gems. Please don't be like me and also make that mistake.

What did the Trick Fox say?

Thing 2 -- You'll be talking to a fox in Kur named Mittens to learn all your cool "alternate" spells that aren't naturally granted to you (aside from the Trick Foxes spell mentioned above). Mittens will also be advancing you from levels 50- 60.

Tada! Time to go grind more levels . . . yay.

Thing 3 -- Mittens taught me some cool stuff! Spirit Foxes can get a really cool buff ability called Paradox Trot. This spell allows you to completely ignore the effects of cold or hot weather. That's right, no more frostbite or dehydration . . . as long as you're not seen. That's the catch. The moment you grab any kind of aggro, the spell drops and you're back to freezing or being thirsty.

It has its uses for those long runs between Kur and Gaz, but half of the places I want to go in those zones are typically right through a group of vicious enemies. But if you're sneaky, it's a really super cool buff.

Thing 4 -- In group play it appears the Fox is the "mana battery" of the group. You get a group energy heal spell and you can drop down an energy restoring rune every 20 seconds.

The runes also make for a dramatic effect to let other people know this camp is claimed.

Thing 5 -- Foxes are fast! I'm finding myself outpacing my group mates. I wish I knew exactly how much innate sprint speed I have as a fox.

Thing 6 -- I went to the Animal Town for the first time ever, and there was nothing there for me to do except a few quests.

Animal Town you say? Yeah! Out in Sun Vale there's a town full of nothing but animals (and one human named Spot). They have terrifying giant scorpions patrolling the area, so it's really only for animal classes.

I went here thinking maybe there would be a new fox NPC in the town, but . . . nope . . . nothing. As it turns out, I will be training my level 60+ spells from a Fae-Green Panther named Raina in the Fae Realm.

Thing 7 -- You can cast a human illusion! If you're lucky enough to track down the Spirit Fox illusion book to train it, you too can look like a static-y human and trick the local dummies into selling and trading items to you. It appears the upgrade path to this line reduces the cool down and perhaps the length that the illusion lasts for.

Human you say? Looks legit to me!

And that's it!

I'm not having any issues grinding levels with Spirit Fox and Animal Handling, so I'll probably continue taking this skill up at least until 60 or 70 . . . at that point I'm going to need to make some big decisions on what I actually want to do with this class.

Do I pay the enormous arm-and-a-leg cost to get the skill to 80? Do I try to pair it with necromancy or fire magic? I'm honestly not sure, but for the time being, it's still fun running around as a fox.

Happy Dueling!

Ding level 60 Spirit Fox!

So it took me about a week to get from 50-60 with my current playtime schedule, and from my previous post, not much of my play style has changed. I'm still grinding up levels and trying to be the best little fox I can be.

The big thing for me personally is I'm starting to make the mental leap into "how could I make Fox work as a solo DPS?" So, lemme break down my mental processes here for you.

1- Not necromancer. I looked at the necromancer mods and spells and I have to say, it doesn't really seem like a good fit for Fox at second glance. Necromancers really only have one line of "dark damage" spells and the gear mods don't really seem to emphasize that damage type. From the outside looking in (admittedly I've never leveled necromancer), it seems to be all about building an undead army, NOT dark damage.

2- Possibly Fire Magic. There are a few things that seem to blend well with Fire magic and Foxes. With a few gear mods you can change the damage type of a couple of your spirit fox spells to Fire based damage, but I'm going to consider this a back up plan.

3- The Necro Rat. I've never really spent a lot of time looking into the Rahu Sewers dungeon. Previously I only took a few footsteps in to the sewers before seeing the poison spitting vipers and going . . . NOPE! I hate those things. Dying to poison damage DOT from a snake is the worst, but I finally found something that made me get over my fear: The Necro Rat.

To be honest I didn't even know this thing existed. It's an Animal Handling tamable white rat pet that has a "special trick" called "Rat Darkness" that boosts the owner's Dark and Electricity Attacks by 25%. BINGO!

So I went down into the sewers last night and wandered around until I gave up, and then I logged in in the morning and finally found where the necro rats were hiding.

It's a horrible maze of Rat People, Vipers, and Slimes. The perfect necro rat hiding place.

Soon I had a Friendly Ratsomancer pet of my own.

Who's a cute white rat of death? Hmm!?!?! YOU ARE FRIENDLY RATSOMANCER!

It came in as a level 60 pet. Sigh.

He'll be better after . . . oh 30-40 hours of playtime.

Imma side rant here for a second. I really hope that with the introduction of Animal Husbandry that they find us an alternate way to level pets to 80. If I could be so bold, giving your pet its favorite item to play with seems perfect. If I have a rat, I give him cheese. If I have a cat, I give her string. If I have a bear, I give it a fish. etc.

I currently have two pets leveled to 80 and the ONLY way to level them is to fight with them out in combat. That's it. I don't even want to think about what it would take to get my level 37 freeze wasp up to level 80. I'd have to grind the game all over again from mid game to top level. It's just not a very fun way to handle leveling pets. I need something that negates it with the ol' time vs. money equation. Giving my rat expensive cheese to level him seems reasonable. (end of side rant)

4- Animal Class basics. When you become an animal in Project Gorgon you get access to a spell called "Toxic Flesh" This makes it so when someone attacks you, they take thorns damage. Also when you become an animal, you get access to animal drugs . . . aka Bounceweed. Bounceweed is great. It increases the amount of damage your animal attacks do and for a fox, it also makes you run faster. Sure there's the downfall of losing damage for a while when you aren't using Bounceweed, but the answer is simply, never stop using Bounceweed!

After-effects Shmafter-effects . . . gimme that Bounceweed!

5- The Ratkin Shaman's Belt -- this was a fun discovery while running around in the Rahu Sewers. This belt item increases direct Darkness damage by 6%. YOINK.

The additional two inventory slots is just a bonus.

6- Spirit Fox gear mods -- Specifically I'm interested in the following mods:

Head

Spirit Fox Damage +40%
Soul Bite Damage +50%

Chest

Soul Bite Damage +50%
Dimensional Snare Damage +90%
Spirit Bolt deals +96 damage and there's a 50% chance it deals +55% damage
Spirit Pounce Damage +35% and there's a 50% chance target is Stunned

Legs

While Blur Step is active, Soul Bite has a 33% chance to deal +7 damage and hit all targets within 7 meters
Dimensional Snare causes target to take +14% damage from Crushing for 15 seconds (for the animal handling pet damage increase)

Hands

Spirit Pounce Damage +48 and ability hits all enemies within 6 meters
Dimensional Snare causes target to take +9.5% damage from Darkness for 15 seconds
Spirit Bolt Damage +94 and range is +5 meters

Feet

Nip boosts the damage of Basic, Core, and Nice attacks +80 for 6 seconds. (This buff does not stack with itself.)
Spirit Pounce Damage +70 and target is Knocked Back

Main Hand

Spirit Pounce Damage +50%
Dimensional Snare Damage +90%
Spirit Bolt deals +96 damage and there's a 50% chance it deals +55% damage

Off Hand

Direct Darkness Damage +96 when Spirit Fox is active
Soul Bite deals +48 damage and boosts the damage of Nice attacks by +16% for 6 seconds

Necklace

Spirit Fox Damage +40%
Direct Darkness Damage +96 when Spirit Fox is active
Spirit Bolt Damage +55%

Ring

Spirit Pounce Damage +50%
Spirit Bolt Damage +55%

7- Last (and probably least), additional Direct Darkness damage buffs from leveling the Lore skill. If I can get my Lore up to level 43, my character will have a permanent +6% direct darkness buff. That's a lot of nonsense though. Apparently if I had played the game back in 2016 I could have leveled up the skill by just making Words of Power; now it requires a lot of running around the world and clicking on signs and offering sacrifices to alters, etc. Shouldn't be too tough though.

So . . . that's what I've been thinking about as I've been grinding up those Fox levels. It's going to be a tough road getting past 70. The cost is SO steep.

Happy Dueling!

Welcome to Day one of Promptapalooza, a really cool idea from Belghast at Tales of the Aggronaut. It's kind of like a parade of blogs through the month of August while also providing a month of writing prompts.

Belghast makes some very good points about toxicity and the exclusionary nature of some game communities. As he states:

" . . . I see an awful lot is what can be collectively termed as “Git Gud” culture. There is a constant thread of trying to push “scrubs” out of the community and force them to play better. I think in some ways this starts off as a somewhat toxic altruism… like that players are being “bad” because they don’t know any better so folks will take it upon themselves to “educate the bads”. I mean there is an awful lot of hyper cringe content in the early years of this blog that would fall into this category. The problem however is that this does not take into account that folks often times come to a game for different reasons. There is the false assumption that every player is playing a game for the exact same reasons you are."

Yes! Preach on, Brother! I've seen that plenty in every game community. He makes great points and you should definitely check out his post.

Now in this post, I think I'll take a similar view at the games I'm currently playing with also a slightly different angle. I feel that ultimately the greatness of a community can be judged by its creative content.

Project Gorgon

The only thing wrong with Project Gorgon's fandom is its size and lack of complexity. It's vocal minority is tiny and tends to stick to itself. This is undoubtedly a result of the game population being small and older. Unlike other communities, I don't see fan art or a ton of creative endeavors happening in the game. It might be happening somewhere on a small scale, but I just don't see it. I did find one person who drew their character. That's it.

So . . . I'm doing my part as well . . . I made a remix of the Serbule Dawn theme song the other day and have plans to make a video for it eventually.

Tom Purdue· Serbule Dawn In The Quiet Countryside (Ursula Curse Mix)

Small communities need your creative love too! Even if your art and words won't get a lot of likes.

Overwatch

Oh man, I'm not a part of this fandom, and I don't think I ever could be because of the "get gud" mentality that Belghast mentioned. I'm more on the edge looking in . . . that said . . . I have in the past done things like join the Houston Outlaw's Discord server. Being on a server for a professional esports team inside of a game you play was interesting. Did you know that in Overwatch, people make fanart of the professional players as well as the characters in the game? It's amazing.

It's completely different from a game like Project Gorgon: this game's fandom is enormous, thriving, and diverse. Its YouTubers do everything from talking about metas and upcoming patches to fun and cute videos based around the characters. Dillongoo is amazing. He re-imagined all the characters in Overwatch as cats! Again! Just amazing creativity.

The fanart here is so plentiful that a search on a hero's name and "fanart" will get you a lot of hits . . . and . . . some stuff you'll wish you could erase from your mind. I guess that's what I'd change. Less fanservice from the fringe and less toxicity from the haters. Butwatchagonnado? That's just a result of a huge community based around an FPS hybrid like Overwatch.

Wizard101

Guys . . . you don't know how cool the Wizard101 community is. Full warning, I'm incredibly biased here. Being this game's community manager for a few years, I've seen it all. The highs and the lows. From crippling 2017 DDOS attacks on our game's anniversary to Make a Wish visits from fans who become a virtual part of the game. What I've learned is that every community has its saints and devils. All you can hope for is that the good outshines the bad, and that's definitely the case in Wizard101.

(**UPDATED SIDE NOTE: After thinking about this a bit . . . I just want to be sure to mention here that, yeah, you still try to eliminate the bad. You ban, you discourage the bad, you encourage the good, but for all those efforts, it always seems like when you squash one cockroach another 10 appear. That said, you never STOP trying to improve. Felt like that needed to be said.)

The majority here is kind and caring. It has great artists that love what they do and love the characters in the game they play. It has everything from what I'd call "glorious grandmas" to small kids and big kids alike. On its average days it's super lighthearted, happy, and welcoming.

The artists that love this game are super quality. In fact the background picture for this blog features my wizard101 character as drawn by Dearly Doodles.

I love it so much.

I wouldn't change a thing . . . other than I wish I was a little more involved than I am currently.

There's probably more I could discuss here. If you have any additional thoughts about what you'd change in a fandom, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Thanks Belghast for running promptapalooza! I'll be posting on and off throughout August, but probably not about every prompt. My day is August 6th, so I'll for sure see you back here again when that happens.

Happy Dueling!

Today's prompt for Promptapalooza comes from Dragonray at Azerothian Life.

What is some popular piece of content/media that seems to be universally loved that you have never been able to understand?

Dragonray goes with Game of Thrones. All I have to say to that is Amen.

I honestly only watched the first episode and immediately nope'd out after the first midget sex scene. I'm actually happy to hear from him that it only got worse from there.

I'm also happy that the popularity of the show spawned a few other series trying to capture that Game of Thrones fantasy vibe. I enjoyed watching The Shannara Chronicles even though I hear it lacked the budget of the almighty GoT. (Season two wasn't as good as season one though . . . let's be honest)

Looks uncomfortable to sit on anyway

~~

Now, I'm hoping that someone comes along and tells me that the Witcher, Witcher 2, and Witcher 3 are all bad games (and TV series) because I've missed the boat here. It's one of those games that everyone says is a must play, but I've just never gotten around to playing it.

It just looks so cool . . .

When the TV Series cropped up, my wife and her friend watched it, and I missed out, but they said it was really good despite neither of them playing the games.

Doing a quick search on it now though on the IMDb parents guide . . . yup . . . apparently there's lots of sex, and I think that really gets to the heart of the matter for me.

The series is rated M and I have three kids at home. I'll be honest, I've missed out on a ton of video games during the past 18 years because of this. I decided out of the gate that I wouldn't try to hide it and only play the M-rated games late at night when the kids were in bed.

If I hadn't decided this, I'd probably own every Mortal Kombat game there is. I guess that's my broken rule . . . I do own a copy of Mortal Kombat for the PS3. It's hidden in a back corner of the entertainment center. Shhhh.

So, there you go. While the video game world was playing The Witcher, I was playing Wizard101 and Pirate101. Personally, I think it's a fair trade.

Happy Dueling!

Today's post comes from Mailvaltar and it's all about Media that's shaped his worldview. It's a fantastic post, and what I came to learn is that he and I share a lot of similarities being children of the 70's. (I've got 5 years on him, but still . . . radio playing in the house, getting a tape deck all your own, the influence of Star Wars, comic books, etc.)

I started thinking back to when I was a kid and immediately the movie that came to my mind was a story of an 8-year-old lost in the desert called Dirkie. I'll always remember watching that free matinee with my friends. It was a different time and we were all too young to be there by ourselves, but there we were . . . I couldn't have been much older than 8 myself. It's kind of amazing that parents used to just dump their kids off at the movies like that with little to no supervision.

This movie was devastating to me and played on all the right fears. In essence, it's a plane crash resulting in a dangerous solitude in the Kalahari Desert with no one to help you but yourself . . . and the only companionship you have is a small dog who's even more needy than you are.

If you're up for a 1969 flick . . . here you go! LOL

Mailvaltar's post also reminded me of when I went to see Star Wars with my mom. We came late to the first viewing and just stayed in our seats for the second viewing . . . both of us were completely blown away. Over the next few releases, it kinda became our "thing" to go see these movies together.

There's another movie out there somewhere that will always be a mystery to me. Following our bonding moment after Star Wars, my mom tried to take me to another "futuristic" movie that ended up being a little too violent for my mom's tastes, and we left the theater after just a few minutes into it.

I brought this story up to my mom later when I was in my 20's and video rentals were all the rage. Neither of us could remember the name of the movie, and for a while it turned into a crusade to see if we could find it . . . to no avail, but because of this I've seen a lot of weird post-apocalyptic 80's flicks that feature guys on motorbikes. (This hidden mystery film may or may not be Warriors of the Wastelands aka The New Barbarians . . . but mom and I remember things a bit differently.)

Maybe someday I'll find it, and HEY . . . if you happen to know of any movies that fit the bill for the above description, leave it in the comments below!

Happy Dueling!

Today's promptapalooza "master prompt" comes from Contains Moderate Peril, and the topic at hand is "What type of content do you feel is severely underrated?"

Roger talks about three types of blog posts that have helped further along the post count and kept his and others readers entertained: recurring posts, personal posts, and multimedia posts. It has some really well thought out points! You should check it out. A particular line that struck me was this:

“you are your own brand” whether you like it or not, this becomes one of the reasons your readers relate to you. Therefore I think the occasional, well considered personal post can be invaluable in connecting with your audience.

I haven't ever really used my blog for posts that I've felt were probably more appropriate for Facebook or Twitter, but you know what . . . I probably should have.

For example, when we moved to Texas, I started a series of picture posts on Facebook surrounding the amazing amount of donut shops that the Greater Austin area has to offer. My children and I would happily sing "SATURDAY MORNING DONUT ADVENTUREEEEEEEEEE!!!" in the car and rush off to some random donut shop.

Later that day I'd hop on Facebook and post a few pictures from the adventure and give a little mini-review. To a few of my Facebook friends' wives I became known as "The donut guy" because of this. (I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not.)

Wow . . . these kids have really grown up since this picture was taken

We haven't been on a Saturday Donut Adventure in a couple years . . . now we have our favorites that we tend to gravitate to and don't venture out as much (especially since Covid hit). Why go anywhere else besides the infamous Round Rock Donuts as featured on Man v Food?

Perhaps I have been missing a bit of that personal flair on my blog. You've come for the video game nonsense, but maybe you'll stay because I'm a big goof and a little sugary like a donut.

Happy Dueling!

Yes. This happened over the weekend. I hit the magical number of 70 Spirit Fox in Project Gorgon and stared down at the price tag of unlocking levels 70-80.

This is now the fourth time I've hit 70 in a combat skill in Project Gorgon. It's really a do or die time for a combat skill. Do I love it enough to keep going, or am I jumping ship for something else? The price tag shock never gets any easier for me. Three Hundred and . . . Forty-Eight . . . THOUSAND councils?

YOINK!

It's a true moment of panic where you look at what you got and then make the decision to:

Hold a clearance sale of all the junk you've been holding on to for a rainy day.
Complete all the Fae Realm elite quests you possibly can
Complete every daily there is
Max out all the vendors in every zone
Resist the urge to spend your money on any other skill, potion, or nice to have item.

With a small yet noticeable bead of sweat coming down my face on late Saturday night, I paid the bill to the big green fae panther NPC in the Fae Realm and unlocked levels 71-80. whew.

The gathering of money was probably the most notable thing that happened while leveling 60-70. Other than that, it was leveling as usual. I was leveling in the Wolf Caves, in the Fae Realm, and in Gazluk and Illmari per standard.

Oh! I was also simultaneously leveling that new necro rat pet of mine. We were both a little gimpy at this point to be honest (and believe me, it was tempting not to break out my max-bonded and max-leveled fire rat pet), but we made it work . . . together.

He's now right there with me at level 70 and ready to make the ride to 80 as well.

Love you little necro rat buddy! Now hi ho Necro Rat, AWAY!

Now if I could only teach him tricks!

This time while leveling up to 80, I'll also be collecting all the ingredients I need to craft the perfect set of leather gear. With any luck, my Guild Master will soon have a perfect set of uber armor for me, and I can really see if the necro rat AH / Spirt Fox dark damage build is as fun as I'm hoping it will be.

I'll see you at level 80 and hopefully have a full report on all the ins and outs. Wish me luck, I'll need it for that max enchanted leather gear.

Happy Dueling!

Today's Promptapalooza was sponsored by the letter E, also Everwake from Everwake's Internet Adventures. Today's specific prompt is "Everyone has specific rituals that they follow, tell us about one of yours"

I'm really loving reading Everwake's posts that have been happening for Promptapalooza. They've all been high quality, honest, and hilarious. Case in point:

My favorite ritual is staying up late on an autumnal night, collecting bits of salt, spice, and incense in a purpose-made basket, and walking a lush, green, forested path to an ancient monument that overlooks the neighboring valley. From there, I sacrifice a virgin and say a few words to satiate the RNG Gods so that we might have yet another bountiful raid for our tanks, who are squishier than a bag of bread.

Everwake goes on to make comparisons between Rituals and Routines and their influence on not only gaming, but life in general. It's a great read, you best go check it out for yourself.

As for me, it's actually my birthday today, which kind of plays into this topic quite well.

For the past 20 years or so, every birthday we all go see an IMAX film and then go out to eat Italian. It used to be that it wasn't just any Italian . . . it was always The Old Spaghetti Factory.

Unfortunately, ever since moving to Texas we've discovered that the closest Old Spaghetti Factory is in Kansas, so we had to make the ritual a bit more generic, and that sucks to be honest because that Mizithra cheese pasta at the Old Spaghetti Factory is the best ever comfort food for me.

That is a beautiful bowl of heaven right there...

We've tried other Italian restaurants here . . . everything from Bucci de Beppos to Macaroni Grill and back again. It's like I've been on a gondola ride of failure and nothing quite captures the ritual as well as ye' ol' Spaghetti Factory.

This year was even more generic thanks to the pandemic going on. We watched a National Geographic Documentary on King Cobras in place of seeing an IMAX film and had Olive Garden to go. It's fine though . . . better safe than sorry.

HA! I really hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining. It was a perfectly fine birthday, and I even got Dreams for the PS4 from the family as a gift. Oh man . . . it looks SO COOL! I can't wait to explore it's creativity.

I guess what I'm getting at more is "the ritual" since that's the topic at hand. Ever since moving here that essential piece of the ritual has been missing and every year that Italian dinner feels a bit disappointing in retrospect. I don't even know why this became such a "thing" for me to do on my birthday, but it is. It's not like I believe that I will have a magically perfect year once the ritual is complete or anything. It's just become my thing, which is weird.

Next year will be my 50th birthday. Yes, I'm that old. Perhaps that year is the perfect year to start a new ritual, something entirely Austin, Texas and Gamer dad at the same time. BBQ and Dungeons and Dragons? Chi'lantro and Gloomhaven?

Those Kimchi Fries are pretty much the most amazing thing ever to be honest . . .

I've got a year to figure it out and really should have changed the ritual a long time ago.

Happy Dueling!

Hello dear readers!

1- I'm so grateful to Wilhelm Arcturus from The Ancient Gaming Noob blog for his post yesterday and link to my blog.
2- If you aren't familiar with the Promptapalooza going on this month, please head over to Belghast's blog The Aggronaut and catch up on the latest.

Today's topic is all about "What skill do you want to improve on the most?" Hoooo boy! I have a lot of things I want (and even need to improve on).

As an MMO and video game player, I literally have actual "skills" that I want to improve on, like the Spirit Fox skill in Project Gorgon. Also, you'd think that as a kid who pretty much started out with a pong game unit as a babysitter that my hand eye coordination would be more impressive than what it is, but since playing Overwatch every Tuesday and Wednesday for the past few years . . . I've been severely humbled.

There's a reason why I don't play hitscan heroes

As far as real world skills, two years ago I made the transition from Video Game Marketing to Video Game Design at KingsIsle. Since that time I've learned a lot about working in Unity. It's our bread and butter in the KingsIsle mobile development section, but I still feel like I've only scratched the surface of what I can learn and more importantly what I can create.

But since this is a blog, and we are in the throws of Promptapalooza, I have to say that what I really need to improve on is being a better host. My blogroll used to be a hub of its own during the highlight of 2010 blogging. There were at one time about 50 or so blogs about Wizard101, and I hosted them all right here under the umbrella of The Friendly Necromancer.

Check out that header find from the wayback machine!

That list has dwindled down to about seven Wizard101 blogs, and to be honest, that's probably because of a few reasons. 1- Blogging isn't "it" anymore: Now it's more about YouTube channels and Twitch streams. 2- My blog has changed. I'm no longer as laser focused on Wizard101 and Pirate101. 3- Let's be honest, I kind of disappeared for a while.

It's not that I've lost interest in Wizard101 or Pirate101 . . . Part of that lack of focus is that I work at the company that makes those games now. I know what's coming up. I know why things happen at the pace they happen. In essence, I know too much! You can't theory craft when the writers are just down the hall to the right.

Long story short, to be a better host with my new blog focus, I'm updating the list of blogs that I link to in my blogroll. In fact, I've gone ahead and added every blog that's participating in this Promptapalooza, with an apology. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to do this. Being a better host and a better part of the MMO blogosphere is definitely a skill I need to improve on.

If for some reason I've left your blog off the list, let me know in the comments, and I'll get you on there. Here's to a new day at The Friendly Necromancer! Also, if you also happen to blog on this topic today or on another day of Promptapalooza, please feel free to include a link to your blog post in the comments below.

Tomorrow's prompt will be handled by The Rambling Redshirt over on his blog Beyond Tannhauser Gate.

Happy Dueling!

Things are rolling along quite nicely for Promptapalooza. I'm going to skip back a couple of days and talk about a prompt that The Ancient Gaming Noob handled for the group.

"What is a favorite Quote/s, and tell us why"

Lately I have Twitter set to open, not on the home screen, but on one particular message that went a bit viral back in 2019 and continues to circulate and resurface.

Up until this point I didn't know who Al Snow was. You may not know either. Basically he's a professional wrestler that had a lot of 90's and early 2000's WWF fame and creator of the "snow plow" wrestling move.

Gotta respect a guy who can toss someone on their head and not severely injure them. Then again, he's also the guy that wrestled a mannequin head.

At the end of the day . . . Al Snow is a professional entertainer. He's had a lot of air time on TV and understands "fandoms" probably more than most.

This particular quote from Al Snow explains toxic fandoms perfectly.

This is the clearest explanation of #ToxicFandom I’ve ever heard. Every industry professional should give this a listen.

Professional Wrestler @TheRealAlSnow on Toxic Fans ... pic.twitter.com/L5kYX9FBWA
— PITARRA (@NickPitarra) September 28, 2019

". . . you have a bunch of people, fans, that now have access and are privy to information but have no actual experience. And since they have the information, they think they now have knowledge and an understanding of a business that they've never been in . . . what's the problem with that? It leads to assumptions, and it leads to conjecture, and it also leads to contempt . . ."

Al's pretty wise for a guy who's wrestled a mannequin head.

I can't tell you how much assumption, conjecture, and contempt I've seen thrown at entertainment companies. It's unfortunate, because those doing it are "fans" -- albeit loud and falsely opinionated fans. It's also unfortunate when those in the "entertainment company bubble" cater to a contemptuous vocal minority at the cost of the majority, who just want to be entertained.

Happy Dueling!

Let me start by just saying I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing Project Gorgon yesterday. When I first started the level grind from 70 to 80, I was thinking I wouldn't get done until sometime later this week, but . . . you know how it is when you get a video game goal in your mind and then you just keep going for it and kind of go crazy? No? Good for you.

I managed to hit 80 Spirit Fox around 2 pm or so in the afternoon and then summoned my guild leader to come craft some max enchanted evasion leather for me. (Side note: I also managed to level The Friendly Ratsomancer, my necro rat, up to 80 shortly after hitting the 80 mark myself. Woot! 3rd pet up to 80!)

Still needs a few more bond levels . . . but level 80 rat hype is real!

So I handed good ol' Prolak (he's my guild leader) stacks and stacks of astounding, amazing, and great leather, a good amount of vervadium, hours of harvested glowy yellow gems from Gaz, some spiderweb, some leather strips, a stack of Spirit Fox inscribed lapis gems, and finally a stack of fluorite for the Animal Handling secondary. It was everything I needed to have him craft me the uber gears. Well, minus cheesecloth . . . that was an oversight on my part, but Prolak is a pro and had some for me.

Slowly but surely he made a purple quality of each helm, chest, legs, gloves, and boots. We also had enough materials left over to shoot for a yellow quality chest, so we went for it, but to no avail. But the thing about max-enchanted quality purples is that they are pretty much equal to a yellow-quality regular items, so I wasn't disappointed. Max-enchanted yellow-quality gear will come in time.

I quickly ran out of dust trying to switch mods around, but managed to make a few adjustments to get closer to the gear that I'm hunting for.

Just need to switch around maybe one skill here, and this'll be perfect.

I had the beginnings of my gear, I had my levels, and it was time to put that new damage output to the test.

WHAT DID THE FOX SAY! TCHOFF-TCHOFF-TCHOFFO-TCHOFFO-TCHOFF! ahem, excuse me. Sorry about that.

I ran back to the Fae Realm and attacked the same panthers that I had been farming all day, and it felt really good. I was melting them and steadily hitting in the 1-2k mark with each spirit fox darkness spell and crit-ing in the 3-4k mark.

Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringding!

Next I went over to Gazluk Keep and tried soloing the entrance mobs, which I did, but only when I could pull them one at a time. That also felt really good. Unfortunately I couldn't mess around much because I was down two pets with no first aid kits to bring them back to life.

Orcs must die! Hatee-Hatee-Hatee-Ho!

If you're wondering "is Fox any good?", here's my thoughts . . . So, playing Spirit Fox at max level with good gear didn't feel overpowered (like I wasn't hitting for 10-12k or anything crazy like some of these builds I've heard about), but it did feel "good." You know? Is it good enough that you'd give up the use of your hands (I can't even milk cows in game for crying out loud)? I guess that's up to you to decide. As for me, I'll be staying Fox for a little while longer. Stay tuned. More thoughts to come!

So, there you have it. I still have some modifications to make to my gear, but all in all, I'm happy with the damage I'm putting out! Even better, it's sounding like it's just in time for a new level 80 dungeon!

'atta boy Project Gorgon!

Happy Dueling!

I'm a bit behind on topics for Promptapalooza, but a great one happened the other day on Beyond Tannhauser Gate. "If you had a mascot to represent you, what would it be?"

This topic is perfect, especially since my daughter has been playing a game with the family of "guess that product" based on the Japanese mascot.

Ready to play? Ok!

After guessing what the picture is below, highlight the block of text underneath the picture to see how close you were. All of the following pictures were originally posted on the Mondo Mascots Twitter Account.

If you can read this, then you're doing it right.

1- Guess this!

Answer: Unofficial mascot of the Fukuoka Prefecture. It's a giant fish egg ghost.

2- Guess this!

Answer: Mascot for the historical theme park nikko edo wonderland. It's a Nyan-mage with a samurai top knot.

3- Guess this!

Answer: This is the mascot for the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge. It's a bridge with a car driving on top of it.

How'd you do? Three out of three? You at least got the last one, right?

As for me . . . I guess my mascot right now would be a blue-haired fox dressed up as a Wizard101 necromancer with two pets. One pet would be Lady Dexter the ninja-pig and the other would be a Necro rat pet! ;) And Lady Dexter would be holding a toy Reinhardt action figure in one of his hands. hehe.

If I could draw that for you, I would. (Kind of impressive how many "fox necromancer" or "kitsune necromancer" pictures you can find on a google search, btw.) You'll have to use your imagination.

Happy Dueling!

So here we are! I'm max level in Spirit Fox and Animal Handling, and I'm as happy as can be! But . . . um . . . what do I do next? And what could I possibly write about that you could possibly find interesting? I don't know, and that's kind of a problem.

Lemme just ramble a bit . . .

I can't do it again. Not yet.

I don't really have the drive to level another battle skill to 80 . . . at least not yet. ProfessorCat (one of the best Project Gorgon players out there) doesn't have a problem with this like I do. I respect the guy a ton. He loves to level all the combat skills and it's helped him become extremely knowledgeable about the game. I saw on the forums that he had a pretty sexy combination for Necromancy and Animal Handling, and it made me kind of want to try and level necromancy a bit.

I tried. Honestly. I equipped the skill and started grinding the same mobs I'd been grinding to get spirit fox to 80, and . . . I just started to fall asleep at the wheel!

I guess just fresh off of a grind to 80 I found the whole experience to be a little boring. It's gong to take a while for me to forget the pains so I can attempt this again.

I'm afraid things are going to change? Maybe that's good?

The Spirit Fox is in its "alpha" phase so-to-speak. The developers said that things will be changing on the class in the near future, and there are some oversights: there's currently no "beast speech" for the class, there's no alchemy damage boost potion, there's no synergy levels, higher qualities of Bounceweed don't have movement benefits, some of the skills behave a little strangely . . . I'm sure things will change.

The question is, will they change for the worse and make me want to level a different skill? Idk. There's nothing like a good round of nerfs to make you want to jump ship to something else.

NAH . . . I love my float-y spirit fox too much.

I have secretly commissioned an artist for some project gorgon inspired fan art that I can't wait to show everyone in the near future. *squeals with joy*

What to do . . . What to do . . .

Unfortunately I have to keep a very good beat of Ice Fishing going thanks to my Bounceweed addiction. I never thought I'd need this many fishscales, dirt, and grass. I've been farming it like crazy trying to stay ahead of the Bounceweed addiction curve. only the lowest level of Bounceweed is currently giving the correct movement speed benefits (I mean, it may be this way for all animal classes, but this is my first I've actually leveled), so it's the one I have to concentrate on, that means farming lower level undead for dirt, ice fishing twice a day for fish scales, and grabbing haystacks or killing rhinos in FR for grass. Bounceweed . . . I can't live without it.

What is this crazy design on the Ice fishing traps anyway? Looks bounceweed inspired . . .

I've taken to doing the Lakrea quests as a side activity. Lakrea is an NPC in Rahu that gives some seriously crazy quests like . . . go stand in a sandstorm, make some yarn balls, bury canines, drink 20 bottles of water, etc, but those quests give these really great potions that give you exp in random skills. You can only take one of her "holistic wellness" quests once every hour, so . . . log on, quest, log off.

Whether to drink or to sell . . . that is the question!

Also, once every 24 hours, I can also farm those stupid glowy crystals I talked about before and then every few days, turn all my semi-real Hassium into superb ore. It brings in a nice flow of cash. Farming . . . it's the lifeblood of the MMO player.

Then there's just regular, old NPC favor quests. I've got a ton in my backlog. last weekend I cleared out a whole set of old quests in Kur . . . only to discover more quests waiting for me. It's something to do! not a bad thing at all.

Cavefish in trade for flowers? I'll take it!

Unfortunately this is all kind of headed to the way of running a schedule in game, which I fear may lead to more . . . dun dun dun . . . boredom.

Hit the dungeons!

Weekends are a great time to hit the dungeons in P:G. Lots of people are on in the guild, lots of random people are running things like GK for money. You load up on gear, sell it to all the random vendors, and start all over again.

7,615 + 474 + 7082 + 467 = 15,638 damage in my pocket gear . . . I CAN DO BETTER!

I did find that I can solo the entrance to the Labyrinth quite well . . . so there is that, but even Lab entrance tends to get busy.

Hopefully by the end of the month we'll have a brand new level 80 dungeon to explore! Then things will REALLY get crowded and interesting.

Drop the fox, hit the crafts?

I really don't want to drop my fox curse. I wouldn't mind being a fox forever in Project Gorgon! The only bad thing? No hands = no crafting. I mean, I can mine and garden and cook, but I can't harvest wood or make chairs or even sit in them.

I did really enjoyed giving one of our new guildies some pancakes the other day. How often is it that a fox makes you pancakes?

Thanks for that image, nutella!

In summary?

I really am feeling a bit directionless currently. I'm still playing, and I'm still happy with the game . . . just feeling a little bit like a leaf in the wind? Hopefully I can get my footing back soon. Any suggestions? Leave 'em in the comments.

Happy Dueling!

I made this calendar for events in Project Gorgon. Enjoy!

Hear me out . . . I really want to have a Burning Man event in Project Gorgon out in the desert of Ilmari.

Recently I've been making these kind of temporary "art installations" out of in-game "art." It's very meta, but there's not a lot you can be creative with in Project Gorgon outside of laying down items in patterns. The best of these items are by far the over-sized paintings you find adorning the walls of the Serbule Crypts and the Eltibule Goblin Dungeon.

Most people are so starved of money that doing stupid stuff like this is . . . well . . . stupid. But for me, it's my current "fun" in game. :)

Ribbons of pictures laid out in the desert

That's about 70+ pictures worth a few thousand councils. Once you peel a portrait off the walls of the dungeon, you then identify it to level your Art History. By doing so, you gain synergy levels in Artistry and Lore.

I'm not just confined to the desert, either mind you.

A swooping arch of art in a cold empty trail of Kur Mountains

That swath of pictures happens right along a well-traveled path between Eltibule and Ilmari -- sure to catch the eye of a few level 50 players. ;)

So there you have it! The canvas is the brush and the landscape is the canvas in Project Gorgon. Of course, you're limited by your inventory, and I found out last night that as you lay new pictures down in an area where you previously had put pictures down, it starts to find the oldest ground spawn of the same type and removes it. So it's really best to do something like this in one shot. Just gather all the paintings your backpacks can hold and make your brush strokes by pointing your body and dropping the picture -- strafe a bit, then repeat!

Ground spawns seem to last a couple hours if left undisturbed, and seeing something strange in a path well traveled will definitely stop someone in their tracks for a moment.

What does this all have to do with a Burning Man event in Project Gorgon? IDK other than I think it could be really cool if a few people came out to the desert and started painting with their paintings while people played music and danced, and a couple Kegs were placed out for people to enjoy. Lighting off fireworks and chilling would be a must. . . even better if it could catch the eye of an admin and they spawn a couple bosses for players to fight.

Maybe some day . . .

In the meantime, I'll be leveling up my Art History and making a few more surprise brush strokes across the landscape of Project Gorgon.

. . . Now if only the fine people at Project Gorgon would make some kind of snappable building blocks with placement nodes on all sides for us to play with . . .

Happy Dueling!

Yesterday I met up with a guildmate of mine named Darklorde, and we determined that, no matter if we endlessly died over and over, we were going to visit the new Level 80 dungeon in the Fae Realm. (And endlessly die we did, but let's not talk about that . . .)

Overlooking the new Portal to Wintertide

Of course, the first hurdle to getting inside the dungeon is knowing how because I ran on up to the portal, clicked on it, and got a straight-up talk-to-the-hand message that it's not going to be that easy. So I asked in general chat how to get into the new dungeon and SassySusie (If you play Gorgon for any length of time, you should know that name, she's leet) gave me a tell that all I needed to do was get a key off of the trolls near the entrance.

I hope this doesn't damage me when it self-destructs. I guess we'll see!

They're pretty much similar to a Winter War-Troll Elite mob in difficulty, but Dark and I had no trouble downing a few, and before you knew it we had our key and waltzed in to the dungeon.

Holy crap, this place is freaking epic looking! I honestly felt like I was in DCUO instead of Project Gorgon.

Hello? Is this the space refridgerator? I'm looking for my leftovers?

The excitement from Dark and I linking to loot we were finding inside the dungeon was enough to draw in our guild leader, Prolak, and the guild's longtime honorary member Hot Felicity. After about four hours of grinding the first and second floor, I had to call it quits, but I hear tell that they were able to eventually gather a full group and a half and make it through the entire dungeon . . . save for a boss named something like the Dalvos Astral Spirit? He left the group cursed with -20% to darkness and psychic damage debuff (that also buffs your own darkness damage by 8% . . . I may actually want that curse permanently).

So, yes, the Winter Fae have themselves an honest to goodness space craft as a part of their world domination plans, and we get to journey through it. Mind you, the entire time you're inside this dungeon it's doing cold damage to you. You're in the void of space. You won't take falling damage, but you will get frost bite if you're not prepared. enjoy it.

Floor 1: here our spaceship features . . . trolls . . . lots of them. They're all about the same difficulty as the trolls that you got the keys from, so unless you pull 3 or 4 of them at a time, there really shouldn't be much of a problem.

Also on floor one, the disco room.

I'm ready to dance! LET ME DANCE!!

These D12's full of light dance around and literally provide the best place to dance in all of gorgon. I'm telling you, there needs to be a fairy here that teaches you a new dance move just for this awesome room. In the Disco room you can find a door button that will hold open a door near the beginning of the dungeon. Inside that door is a cowardly fairy with a full complete quest line that guides you through the dungeon and even provides you with some unique skills that . . . probably help you get through the rest of the dungeon? (I didn't make it that far yesterday)

Another feature of floor one is the anti-gravity shaft that leads to Floor 2. It's awesome. You jump up it and it raises you right up to the top floor. Be sure to get a running jump, because you won't be able to just move left or right if you only press space bar to jump up. You gotta get a running jump at it and then scrape your face along the wall as you float up.

Anti-gravity shaft going up!

Floor 2: Here our spaceship features lots of evil dark Ensign fairies, elementals, hippogriffs, and space chickens. We cut paths through several of the hallways here, but while I was in the group, we never made it to one of the bosses.

A glimpse of Floor Two

I'm glad my guildmates went on to discover more of its furthest reaches, because that means they'll know more about which way to go for the next time through. ;) TAKE ME TO THE LOOTS!

Speaking of loots. I filled my bag with level 80 gear and even picked up a nice weapon and shield upgrade in the process. Also, I got an interesting pair of gloves.

What the heck is direct demonic damage???

I really like the darkness damage here, but I really hate the lack of class-specific mods that go along with that for being a purple drop.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll post more about Wintertide when I finally get to explore its heights to the fullest and not just peek through geometry to get a look at what's to come.

Looking through the ceiling in floor two showed a red area of the dungeon!

Happy Dueling!

Here it is! I'm so happy to show you my commissioned piece of fan art for my Project Gorgon Spirit Fox character and his Necro Rat sidekick!

The Friendly Ratsomancer, Stingite, and his illusion

I commissioned the ever-amazing and talented Mia Smith to create this piece of art to commemorate my time in Project Gorgon as a Spirit Fox, and I absolutely love it! It even has me mid-ghost mode and with a Spirit Fox illusion in the background.

It all started back in July when the new Spirit Fox animal class was introduced to the world by P:G. Since I donned the skin, I haven't removed it once. By the end of July, I had hit level 60 in the skill and found my new Necro Rat sidekick. Finally, by the end of August, I had max-leveled my fox and did a fair amount of leveling for The Friendly Ratsomancer as well.

It's been a really fun class to play, and I hope to see it continue to grow and develop as a class as time goes on.

What's been happening now a month later? Honestly, I've just been making a lot of money in game by selling mostly Superb Metal bars to players trying to level their Jewelry Crafting and also farming ingredients for my lifeblood drug of choice since becoming a spirit fox: Bounceweed.

Dirt, Fish Scales, and Grass . . . this is the way!

. . . and I quote, "You've completed this recipe 600 times"

At some point in the future I may switch back to my old Raksasha self, but for now I couldn't be happier running around Alharth as a Spirit Fox with a Necro Rat side kick.

Happy Dueling!

This past weekend was pretty good at the Friendly Necromancer household! I mean . . . "quarantine good," but still it was a good weekend! I mean, it wasn't like we went to Six Flags and had an epic day of swimming at the beach. But a day spent binge watching great anime and playing MMOs is what it's all about!

Let's jam about it!

1- My son and I started watching The Dragon Prince last week. It's surprisingly good! If you liked Avatar the last Airbender's style of storytelling, you'll probably like this adventure as well. It's meant for kids, but totally enjoyable for adults as well.

On Saturday we had an epic watching party for the two of us, complete with jelly-filled powdered sugar cookies and golden kiwis, which I highly recommend. Have you guys tasted a gold kiwi? It's like a kiwi and a pear had a delicious fruit baby.

You gotta get your hands on one of these. So good!

I can't wait to see Season 4 of The Dragon Prince now, which is supposed to be hitting Netflix sometime late 2020.

2- Project Gorgon held their epic Crafting Caravan event that only happens once or twice a year, and let me tell you, there is nothing more amazing than gaining 5 levels of Cooking experience at the back end of the game. I was kind of blown away that I could move the needle from level 52-ish to level 58-ish over the weekend.

Like, you guys know I hate cooking, right? I despise it because of all the inventory problems it naturally creates because . . . it's not simple. Yes, yes, I know nothing is simple about Project Gorgon, but having 50 to, I don't know, 100-some-odd ingredients for making food gets super messy in your inventory. I've got milk bottles and fish fillets tucked away in every refrigerated and non-refrigerated corner of that game.

The "surprise" moment of the event happened for me when I was talking to the cooking NPC at the very start. Get this. Kinira told a grand tale of being trapped in a Gazluk snow storm with her band of crafters and drawing straws to see which member of the crafting caravan would be cannibalized. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), one of the apprentices named Etana got the axe and Kinira admitted to really liking the . . . uh . . . meat. I think the words she used was, "Etana was freaking delicious!" AND THEN, she hands me a bowl of "apprentice surprise." Sure, why not?! I appreciated the free gourmand experience I got from eating a bit of one of the caravan members.

Um, Yum?

But again, the real surprise was the experience. HOLY APPRENTICE SURPRISE, BAT FOX!

I agree Pandakiller . . . <3 crafting caravan experience indeed!

3- You ain't gonna believe this, but, I actually played World of Warcraft, y'all.

I've missed so much in this game, and I never really gave it a good play past Vanilla WoW as some of you know. I've talked at length a few times before about my WoW days, or as I used to call WoW: "The game which shall not be named."

As a reminder to those that don't know, you get to play the first 20 levels of any new character for absolutely free in WoW, so I thought I'd re-experience the game with new aged eyes and try the Worgen race since I hadn't done that before.

After spending a while with the character creator, my new level 1 Worgen Hunter was ready to go. I was quite surprised when I logged in to my character the first time and he looked like a super normal human. WHAT?

Normalizing being the most normal normal human ever.

I couldn't even imagine how many service tickets those poor Blizzard customer support people must have fielded. I can see the responses now, "Yes. Yes. Not to worry, keep playing and you'll soon see the real Worgen inside you." It did take about 10 missions or so before I was finally bitten and awoke a couple quests later, firmly in the stocks.

Here's to hoping they never find a cure for the werewolf virus!

Gotta say with the new Shadowlands release for World of Warcraft being only 28-days-and-some-change away from launch, buying it and getting a level 110 character boost is kind of attractive. How hard can it be? Just follow a guide or two on building up your character and then just click the buttons, right?

JUST CLICK THE BUTTONS, DUDE!

Anyway, to cut a story of long quest lines short, I had a lot of fun, and especially a lot of fun with my cute Overwatch baby Winston pet that I have no idea how I earned. What an awesome surprise!

And I even got to catapult myself on to a spooky pirate ship! Winning!

So that was me this weekend . . . hope you had a fun gamer'y weekend as well!

Happy Dueling!

I, and several others, were tagged for the illustrious . . .

MYSTERY!

When this happens, several things are required.

1- Thank the blogger and link to them:

Thank you Magi at Indicator!!

2- Display the award logo on your blog

Done!

3- Mention the creator of the award + link

Check out the award details at Okoto's Enigma's Blog for all the deets.

4- List the rules

Doin' that as I type.

5- Tell your readers three things about yourself

I am a Game Designer at KingsIsle Entertainment. I have 3 kids, a cat, and a beautiful uber wife. I started this blog because of Wizard101, but really I had been blogging for a long time before that on a blog that's now been shut down.

6- Answer five questions from the nominator

- You have to ban one game for eternity. This game shall never be played or watched again and nobody is allowed to talk about it. Which game do you pick?

You know, countless games fall under the axe everyday that you don't even know about. Games that no one outside of a test market will ever play. This is incredibly evident to me now that I've been working in the games industry. It's such an oversaturated sea of games out there and each one was built by someone with dreams, hopes, and families to feed. Cutting one is harsh, but let's kill World of Warcraft.

Wow . . . saying that was surprisingly easy. I agree with everything Tipa said on the subject.

. . . and then after we kill WoW, let's take out Monopoly, because why not?

- How was your day? What have you been up to? Hope you’re well. 🙂

Thanks, yo! My day is pretty good so far. It's only 8:00am, and I've done my morning exercises, collected all my fishing traps and set new ones in Project Gorgon, read some Twitter, took a shower, ate avacado-filled breakfast tacos, and started typing this blog post. Gotta get to work now!

- If you could take any vehicle/plane/etc. from any game/show/book/whatever to use in our world, what would you pick and where would you go?

I miss you, sweet unicorn ride.

I would take my Free Realms unicorn mount with it's undulating rainbow mane, sparkling hooves, and glowing unicorn horn into every MMO ever and say "behold my greatness" as I rode past every player, and they would say, who was that motorcycle helmeted fairy on the most amazing unicorn ever? And I would become the myth of Thomas Lionbolt, unicorn rider!

- This one’s weird! It’s not a question… it’s an answer! “No, but the raisings certainly belong to this office.” – Find the question that this answer answers!

lul whut?

- What’s your favourite Indie title that you personally love that nobody seems to know?

I mean, I'm over here trying to do my best to raise awareness of Project Gorgon. I do what I can. Outside of that though, let's say Gems of War.

7- Ask your nominees any five questions of your choice, including one weird or funny question

Oh, I'm not gonna do all the nominee stuff . . . but anyone that responds to this blog in the comments can answer these questions:

Combine one super hero with one pop culture icon and one insect . . . describe why what you have created is the most amazing thing ever.
Choose one of these: spiked club with force powers, flame thrower with infinite fuel, or blowgun with self-loading heat-seeking darts. Explain why it's so important to your character.
Have you ever played D&D and if you have, what was your favorite moment in any adventure.
Favorite band/artist and why.
If you could only eat one type of cereal for the rest of your life, but it was absolutely free to do so, what would it be?

8- Nominate 10 to 20 bloggers

. . .man that's a lot of bloggers.

9- Notify the bloggers by leaving a comment on their blog (though, I’d just message them where possible)

N/A, but I love you all!

10- Share the link to your best post

Well, apparently my most popular post is this one about where to find the Grizzleheim books in Wizard101. I still get hits on it all the time.

. . . any my most popular YouTube video, coming in at 139,000 views is my Day Without 101 parody song. Enjoy!

Thanks again for the nomination, Magi! It certainly has been nice getting to know you through the Blaughust Blogger crew.

Happy Dueling!

Lookin' Foxy in Project Gorgon

I'm 50! 50 fox years old!

Level 60: Defending the Darkest Foxholes

Proptapalooza: Fandom Change'mups with a Fan Art Twist

Promptapalooza: Popular Media You Never Understood

Promptapalooza: A Multitude of Mixed Media Memories

Promptapalooza: The Underrated Donut Adventure

Ding 70 Spirit Fox: This is not a fake fur emergency!

Promptapalooza: Out with the Mizithra

Promptapalooza: What skill do you want to improve the most?

Promptapalooza: Toxic Fandoms -- A Snow Plow of a Quote

Max Fox -- Man, It Rocks!

Promptapalooza: A Blue-Haired Fox Necromancer Mascot? Yes please!

Project Gorgon: Feeling Directionless and Finding Direction

Project Gorgon Daily Calendar

The Canvas is the Brush -- The Landscape is the Canvas

Entering The Wintertide

A Tale of Two Tails: Stingite and the Friendly Ratsomancer

Weekend Update . . . and then the Worgen Struck!

Mystery Blogger Award!