Dumbing Down, or "Is Warcraft Sliding Into Easymode?"

According to WoW Insider, there's a new feature coming to mark quest goals on your map and people are complaining about dumbing down the game.

I have a different perspective. Yes, it's making questing easier, but...

It's not really changing anything.

This will function exactly the same as looking up coordinates or using QuestHelper. If you do either regularly, nothing will change except the time taken to find your goal (and perhaps a gig of free space when you delete QuestHelper?).

Aside from that, those who don't use those resources and try to stay pure to the game are almost all at endgame anyway and won't be using this feature except maybe when new dailies come out, leveling an alt, or the next expansion--and do NOT tell me those whiners won't use this new feature like cheap little hypocrites in their race to 90 for the precious server firsts.

But for the most part, the hardcore purists don't need this feature because they're busy trying to down uber hardmode raid bosses. It is not making their part of the game any easier, so I don't see why they should care, unless they have the stupid idea that everyone should have leveling as hard as they did. (Times have changed, guys. Get over it.)

Me, I'm ecstatic, and not just because I can delete QuestHelper now.

I'm happy because I can FINALLY stop looking up directions for lazy people. Yes, some people seriously won't tab out to Wowhead. /exasperated

This change doesn't make the entire game easier. It makes leveling quicker. And since the majority of players have at least one 80, faster and easier leveling is a good thing.

Altoholics rejoice.

3.2 Mounts and Pets Listing, or "OMG the Raptor Pets are SO CUTE!"

Mounts

• All ground mounts had their cast time changed from 3 sec to 1.5 sec.
• Argent Charger has been added to the game.
• Argent Warhorse has been added to the game.
• Silver Convenant Hippogryph has been added to the game.
• Sunreaver Dragonhawk has been added to the game.
• Sunreaver Hawkstrider has been added to the game.
• Quel'dorei Steed has been added to the game.
• Ochre Skeletal Warhorse has been added to the game.
• Striped Danwsaber has been added to the game.
• Argent Warhorse has been added to the game.

Non-Combat Pets

• Summon Baby Pink Elekk has been renamed to Pint-Sized Pink Elekk
• Jade Panda Cub has been renamed to Jade Tiger.
• Calico Cat has been added to the game.
• Curious Oracle Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Curious Wolvar Pup has been added to the game.
• Shimmering Wyrmling has been added to the game.
• Macabre Marionette has been added to the game.
• Gundrak Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Ravasaur Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Leaping Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Obsidian Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Darting Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Razzashi Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Deviate Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Razormaw Hatchling has been added to the game.
• Onyx Panther has been added to the game.

- from mmo-champion.

Again, some of the pets may be Chinese-only, such as the Jade Panda or Onyx Panther. (More images here.) The Onyx Panther looks remarkably like the panther form you get doing the Oracle dailies, so it might be a children's week reward. If so, it's awesome.

We also have the Northrend Children's Week on the PTR and WoW Insider has the quest panels. I'll have my own quick run-down as soon as it hits live, of course.

For those of you who enjoy FigurePrints, they now have FigurePets. I'm still waiting to be able to get my character, mount, and pet of choice in one statue. They also have a sort of sandy look on the finished product, causing a muting effect like those My Little Ponies with the fur (aka, flocking). I prefer smooth and glossy statues, myself, so I'm not sure if I'll order one unless they find a way to get a smooth finish. :/

Warcraftpets reports:

There is also a Plump Turkey [pet] that will be added for those who complete certain achievements for the new Pilgrim's Bounty world event. We remind you that none of these additions are final, but we'll keep you posted as we receive additional information.

I am particularly excited about a new pilgrim world event because I always wanted a pilgrim's dress for Dusty and I can't help crossing my fingers for new clothes.

All-around kudos to Blizzard for giving us such great new pets. They didn't take the lazy recoloring option but made fresh, new, awesome designs. These are the kinds of new things we cuteness-collectors love.

/applaud Blizz

Politically Incorrect, or "Cranky at WoW Insider"

Is it just me, or does anyone else consider tea-bagging a rape reference? Maybe a lot of these guys don't actually know anyone who's been raped, so maybe they think tossing it around where no one "actually" gets hurt is amusing.

It's not.

So I got pissed at the intro example on the recent guildwatch and related my pissed-offed-ness through the contact form.

I don't care that Mike Schramm and his friends tea-bag each others' dead bodies. I don't want to know about it, but I don't care what they do on their own time, in private. But making fun of a guy who kicks someone from a raid for it?!

/disgusted

I want to reiterate what I've said before: rape is one of my hot buttons. I am not usually super-feminist about stuff (I didn't care about the bunny stuff during Noblegarden), but some things get under my skin and rape is one of them.

Sir Fails A Lot, or "How to Tell If You're Full of Fail"

If you don't have an Arena title and you try to tell a Gladiator how to play his class...

If you randomly insult a member of the guild you do 25-mans with...

If you put down the guild leader's class in your application...

If you ask a guy you just ninja'd from if you can join his guild...

If you go back to taunt the person who reported you since you just got a measly 3 hour account suspension...

...You Fail

Midsummer 2009, or "Try to Work Around the Bugs"

Feel free to read about Midsummer 2008 and I'll update this post as I find out what's changed.

Achievements

Flames of [Insert Place]: Use the maps on Wowwiki. I have a few details in last year's post. Honor and Desecrate everything. Even if you don't want the holiday stuff, you can still get xp perks. I'm 78 and get 22,600 experience from desecrating and 10,800 experience from honoring. I think the xp scales based on your level, but if you're behind on your levels and want to pwn your current area, this is a cheap and easy way to get ahead.

City Flames: Get to the opposing city flame, wait for mobs and other players to get busy with someone else (busy server) or out of the way (slow server) and click the flame. It'll give you a [Flame of City] that starts a quest to turn it in. Move on to the next.

Kill Ahune: The quest leading up to killing him gives you a nice tabard and 20 blossoms, so consider that. He also occasionally drops a pet.

Pole Dance: Get all the clothes (shoes, dress, shoulders) and dance at the pole for 60 seconds.

Torch Juggler:

I hate Torch Catching. Buff catch zone, imo. (It's really hard to judge distance that accurately.) Took me about 30 minutes of nonstop trying and camera angling to get the quest done that gives you 5 juggling torches and opens up the juggling torches on the vendor. Once you get this, the rest is downhill.

The nature of juggling torches is this: they disappear from your bags when you throw them but they return when you catch them. So you don't lose them, but you do need a reasonable number to make the 15 second mark. With just 5, you have to wait for them to get back to you to throw them again. I tried 10 torches, hotkeyed, and got it. So just spend 5 flowers on another stack from the vendor and you're gold.

Go to Dalaran. Find a quiet spot. Hit the hotkey and click the spot under your character's feet. Do this rapidly until you get the achievement.

Mr. Pinchy, or "Double Pet Trouble"

I wouldn't post this to distract from the holiday, but I think it's funny. I got a Mr. Pinchy the other day while fishing at my mom's, and now I'm home and used the second charge (3 charges with 5 random possible results, one of which is a pet).

As I went to try my hand at juggling for Fire Festival, I used my next charge and got the Magical Crawdad Box! The following is the transcript:


I edited out the part after "win" where husband said "Where's the 'eeeeee!'?" and I said "food in my mouth." That's why he LOL's.

Argent Changes, or "Freaking Out About Prices Much?"

Blizzard: You get a new pet -- an upgraded Argent Squire available for 150 seals! He'll give you bank or mailbox or vendor access every 8 hours, depending on what you choose.
Dumb People: WTF?! That's awesome, but at 5 seals a day, it'll take forever!
Blizzard: Um . . . didn't you see the line above that about "new dailies"?
Dumb People: Grinding this will be an impossible task!
Blizzard: No, it's cool. You'll totally get more dailies and thus more seals. You can afford stuff now.
Dumb People: WAIL! WHINE! Blizzard is so mean only giving us 5 seals a day!
Blizzard: Really, guys. We got your back. Don't stress about it. Just go read the rest of the patch notes and you'll see.
Dumb People: *plugs ears* I can't hear you! LALALALALA! You're a meanie face and that's all you'll ever be!
Blizzard: *sigh* Fine. Whatever.

Goodies

• Argent Squire 2.0 - (8 hr cooldown) Choose to use this mounted cutie as a bank, mailbox, or vendor. He only works for you. I'm hoping they'll make this one a different race than the original two. :)
• Portal Tabard - Argent Crusade tabard ports you to the tournament grounds. Woot.
• Faction Tabards - Alliance Silver Covenant and Horde Sunreavers.
• Argent Crusade Banner - Poke a banner in the ground, watch it stand and wave around.
• Mounts - Paladin charger, alliance horse & hippogryph, horde hawkstrider & dragonhawk.
• Pet - Wyrmling. I think it's a recolor of this. That's my least favorite pet, aside from the one that doesn't exist to me, so meh.
  

I'm excited about the new squire and the tabard that ports you, cuz it's SUCH a long flight out there. Birdy even has her hearth set at the tourney to avoid the commute.

I might be excited about the dragonhawk, depending on what it looks like. Dragonhawks tend to be hot. I feel bad, though, that the hippogryph and dragonhawk aren't available for everyone. I like that the two factions have their own individual mounts, but I know a few hordies who liked the white hippogryph skin. :/ Oh well.

No photos yet. I'll edit them in when they become available.

In RL news, my mom has recovered in leaps and bounds and has plenty of energy to complain about all the things she still can't eat. I'll be flying home tomorrow, back to the computer that doesn't randomly decide to disconnect every 2 minutes. :) Still, I'm not sure if I'll miss my parents or their laundry setup more. I think laundry wins, because you can't call laundry when you miss it.

Pet & Mount News, or "Patch # Who the Hell's Counting Anymore?"

Since Birdfall is in Dalaran on a high pop server during WoW rush hour, and logging into her makes my mother's laptop bluescreen in protest, I skimmed the new patch notes. Lots of interesting things, lots of stat junk which might as well be ancient Hebrew for all they make my eyes cross, but one thing that stood out was the new Northrend Children's Week. It says in the patch notes that it "has arrived!"

Northrend Children's Week has arrived in Dalaran! Players can find out more by visiting the Eventide District.

So I'm thinking that as soon as the patch hits, one of two things will happen:

1. We'll have a Northrend Children's Week immediately and then it'll get moved back with regular CW for next year.
2. Northrend will be added for CW next year and we won't see it until then.

Considering the present tense of the patch note, I'm thinking #1 is more likely.

We're also getting 8 new pets (not including Argent Tourney stuff, like the NEW 150 SEAL ARGENT SQUIRE who can be assigned as a bank, mailbox, or vendor; yes I said BANK!). 2 confirmed raptor pets and 1 data-mined panda pet (which, according to warcraftpets, MAY be Chinese-only).

As for the rest, you know how lazy I can be. I may post about them, but if I find them less than thrilling, I won't. You always have warcraftpets news to keep your pet love fulfilled.

Lastly, that raptor grind in Un'goro that the horde wanted last patch, the one that mirrors the alliance Winterspring grind, will be implemented this patch:

The ravasaur trainer Mor'vek has returned to Un'Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount... if they can survive the creature's deadly poison.

Mean in RolePlay, or "Jerk or Dedicated?"

My husband's been leveling a druid to be BFF and de facto sidekick (primary reason for creation: Anzu summoner) to my Birdfall. Our (non-PVP!) server is for roleplaying, where people play as their characters. Submersive roleplay on Moon Guard is high, but there are still people who don't RP.

Aside from the occasional "can i haz guild invite?" yelled across Stormwind, when is it possible to know (without a RP flag addon) when someone is playing as a jerk rather than just being a jerk?

The hardcore roleplayers are easy to see -- they speak in uncluttered prose and signal roleplaying status through emotes and dialogue. But what about people who can't speak? Like . . . the other faction.

A hordie watched my husband's druid die yesterday and offered a /spit instead of help. My husband, used to PVP realms, chalked it up to another rude person behind the character.

But I always have niggling doubt -- is it the person? Or is it the character? Many alliance and horde on RP servers hate the other faction. If some people won't even train spells if they don't go with the character, wouldn't the opposition realistically stand and spit on your dying body?

I have the same question with fellow alliance, especially the nice, helpful ones. If their grammar is fine but they don't present the most obvious signs of being in character . . . are they? And you don't want to ask . . . if they are in character, helping you, it seems counterproductive (and random) to ask through whispers.

On Moon Guard, I assume everyone is in character unless they obviously aren't. But here are a few tips for how to show that you are in character:

• Use a greeting that only your race uses, rather than "hello."
• Emote something creative. "/e glances around for danger."
• Speak in dialect. (Harder.) "Er ya go, lass."

You can also have a roleplaying addon and turn your flag to "in character," but unless the other person also has the addon, your best bet is to give them reasonable clues.

When WoW Ends, or "Way To Make My Progress Seem Meaningless"

WoW Insider's Robin Torres had a breakfast topic asking how you want the game to end, with a bang or a whimper?

Her post had the unintended effect of making me whimper.

"WoW is going to be around for a long time . . . but someday it will end . . ."

I just spent days farming a turtle. I'm considering purchasing a $200 eBay mount for my own private amusement (and my birthday). I've sunk massive amounts of real monthly money into this game. So when my non-gamer friends imply that it's all a waste, if I think about the game shutting down some day, I agree.

I mean, yeah I stay in touch with folks through the game. But there are cheaper ways to do that, like buying a helicopter. And I could say I do it because I like it and it fulfills me, but how fulfilled will I be when my $200 mount and $40 pet and the years of life ground into my characters disappears, or when my family ceases to play and leaves me alone with my toys?

I don't mean to be an alarmist or a pessimist. I'm just saying -- I was having fun. Robin's article killed my WoW buzz. And though it might just be the hormones coursing erratically through my system, knowing that doesn't change my heavier heart. (It's not that I mind the game will end, but I don't want to think about it.)

Meh. My mom's making me a bacon and tomato sandwich. I'm going to nom it and steal the remote so she'll stop watching the cooking network.

I wonder if Hannah Montana is on?

Overflowing With Fish, or "Vacations Are Great For Farming"

While I'm at my parent's house and able to get on without the pressure of being social (I'm still letting my guild think I don't have access so I can catch up on Birdy goals, though now all 3 of them who read this know that), I decided to pursue my fishing grind. I've never bothered to sit and take care of grinding the fishing pets or anything, in part because only Dusty had the skill to try and she always got distracted by someone needing something.

I don't now how much I farmed Northrend pools. I watched a lot of TV and took a lot of breaks. I got hundreds of fish. (I will never run out of agility food.) And, finally, HE dropped. Honestly, I heard of him taking close to 3,000 casts and expected to keep going for several more days.

In the photo above, you can see the pool in Grizzly Hills I fished my turtle out of. I got this tight pang in my stomach when I saw him, sucked in my breath, and told my mom to hand me the phone.

I called my husband and said "Hold the phone away from your head."

Then I screamed.

He put the phone back to his ear and said "What did you get?"

He was happy, I was happy, even mom was happy (though confused). I'm so thrilled! Even that death-defying beetle that I had to flee from at 2 a.m. (it FLEW) was worth it. (I ran to get dad and he killed it.) :D

WIN.

Change Coming to PVP?

Arenas and grinding for rewards
I think some players like Arenas because they are quick, easy to organize (relative to a BG), often have fast queues, and / or they just enjoy the “purity” (for want of a better word) of just trying to kill the other team without having to worry about flags, reinforcements, bad players not contributing to the war effort, etc. However, a lot of players who may not really like Arenas get drawn into them in order to procure the best PvP gear. This second issue is something we’d like to fix, but we need to develop a way to reward good gear through BGs that isn’t based on endless grinding. (Source)

I stopped playing arenas on my PVP character, Plum. It's not that I hate them, it's that I get bored in the queues. Battlegrounds are actually more fun for me, because healing large groups tends to give more bang for your PVP buck. It's easier to get away with and it consistently makes a major difference in whether you win or lose.

And healing bg's is freaking fun.

So the idea that battlegrounds are under examination for these changes thrills me. As I've said before, I like battlegrounds, and I'd like for them to become popular again.

Unauthorized Character Deletion, or "What To Do If Your Characters Get Smushed By IRL Baddies"

This hasn't happened to me, thank God, but it can happen to people who don't take proper security measures. I decided to look up what to do if it does happen to you and how "restored" restoration usually is.

Official Problem Notification

For us to be able to investigate your loss, please submit an in-game petition or send an email to WoWCharHelp@Blizzard.com with the following information:

• Account name
• Character names
• Realms the characters are on
• Level, class, and race of the characters
• Exact name of the items that were lost (if any)
• The time and date of the loss (as precisely as possible)
• How the items or characters were lost (if you know)

Warcraft Away From Home, or "How to Get Your Fix When You Don't Have Your Game"

So my mom's going to be busy taking pain meds for the next week and won't need her laptop (I hope). She did, however, want to see both WoW and Sims 3, and I'd like to show them to her. So I installed Sims 3 on her laptop and it worked okay, and WoW takes about the same resources. I'll be interested to see if it works better or worse than the Sims, if both are on a low graphics setting.

Anyway, I'll let you know how my mom likes it, but for now I'll give you a brief tutorial on how to get the game on a computer if you didn't bring your disks and don't have your code or anything.

1. Go to the official website.
2. Head to Account Management (requires login).
3. Find Account Information, scroll down to "Account Type."
4. Click "Download."
5. Choose Universal (not Trial) and pick PC or Mac.
6. Click through the "I Agree" stuff.
   
7. Do something else for a few hours while it downloads/installs.
8. Wait through patches.
9. Play!
   

By downloading through your account management, you don't need to put in your game code because it's stored in your account settings. All you need is your login information (and authenticator if you have one, or you can call support and disable it). The only downside is how long the download takes. But it's a small price to pay for SUPERAWESOMEFUN away from home.

<3

Mounts for Lowbies, or "Do Outlands on a Faster... Flyer?!"

Today, blue poster Zarhym announced a series of changes. The important thing to grasp here is that you will get mounts sooner and cheaper, including your first flying mount.

Prices will include training + mount cost but not reputation discounts.

First Ground Mount

Once upon a time, you got your first mount at level 40 for 100g. They moved that back to level 30 and 45g not too long ago. Then, today, they moved it again: level 20 and 5g. Movement speed still increased by 60%.

Second (Epic) Ground Mount

Once upon a time, the first epic ground mount cost 700g at level 60 and have remained thus through all permutations. They increase speed by 100%. Today, they moved that back to level 40 and 60g.

First Flying Mount

The normal flying mounts have stayed static at 900g at level 70. This increases your speed by 60% on ground or in air and the changes to this one are more impressive than for the others: 650g at level 60 and a speed increase to 150% while flying. So not only are you flying sooner, you're flying faster.

Second (Epic) Flying Mount

5,200g at level 70 for 280% air speed. No big changes here, except the mounts themselves are reduced by 100g, making the total cost 5,100g.

Cold Weather Flying

Unchanged.



All in all, I love it. I want my piles of gold and several months of my life back, but I love it. It makes leveling easier, which is the point. And as for the whole "Noobs need the game on hardmode like we had it" -- the game is ALWAYS hardmode for noobs. They don't know how to play, so it's reasonable to expect that they find it hard.

When someone is a new player, unless they have a friend to help them out with stuff like this, they don't even know mounts exist until they go to a big city and ask "Where u get that?" And usually the answer is "Somewhere you can't go yet, like Stratholme." Which doesn't help in the slightest.

So you hardcore purists just chillax. The really dumb ones will fail no matter what Blizzard does to help them. And the smart, responsible ones really don't need you putting them down.

Battle-Bots Are Ready, or "Get Them Before August 20th"

Battle-Bots are now available from the Mountain Dew thing. You must get it before August 20th or lose it forever. All of your characters get one in the mail.

US Only may be strictly enforced. EU players could get the bots for a limited time through a technical bug, but Blizzard says those that did will have them removed. Canadians can get them but theirs may also be removed. I read that a player in Mexico also managed to get one. We'll see how strict Blizzard wants to be on this.

YOU MUST register for a Battle.net account. Clicking the proper "Claim Your Pet" banner will redirect you to Battle.net. Blizzard has really been pushing Battle.net and I think they'll get most eligible players this way.

What is Battle.net?

Blizzard implemented Battle.net a while back for gamers to access and manage ALL of their Blizzard games through one account, without having to maintain several separate accounts.

This is very helpful for the players who play multiple Blizzard games but seemed like a hassle to me since I have just one account. I resisted signing up mainly because of Mac login issues, connection issues, and malfunctioning login servers right after it came out. Those things made me trust the system less, though I imagine by now that they have most (if not all) the kinks worked out.

Just fill out the information they require, confirm your email, and choose to "merge" your WoW account with Battle.net. From here on out, you use your email as your login name and whatever password you gave Battle.net.

This actually seems like a great option if you want to change your security question on your account -- they ask you for a new one. So if you bought your account used and don't know how to change your Question & Answer, just switch to Battle.net. It should remove a huge security issue.

Thirsty

Is it horrible that I really want Mountain Dew Game Fuel right now? I'm kinda thirsty... just spent all night at the hospital with my mom... and I could seriously go for some citrusy horde or blue-y alliance.

Too bad for the company, I never got my driver's license.

Naptime! :D

Swift Flight Form, or "Yes, You CAN Train It and Do the Quest Later"

A while back, I told my husband "No, you can't train swift flight form. You must do the quest at 70. Your alliance druid exists so I can have the Raven Lord on Birdfall and I'm not going to let a little training incident waste all that time!"

This last Sunday, my husband helped his best friend finish the druid swift flight form quest, the quest you must perform to summon the boss (Anzu) who drops the mount.

This is pertinent because he'd already trained swift flight form at a trainer.

Therefore, this has been confirmed by someone I know and trust. You can do the swift flight form quest for the summoning capability even if you train.

Also note that the moonstone goes on your keyring and just stays. It no longer gets used up.

Scammies in Ur Jammies, or "If You Fall For It, You Deserve It?"

Scammer philosophy is interesting: "People are stupid. Whoever falls for stupid ideas, tricks, etc. should be punished." (In the comments here.)

In the Cinderella book Ella Enchanted, Ella talks to her father and an elderly suitor about punishments for robbery. Ella's father believes in harsh punishment, while the suitor believes in mercy.

Ella knows her father is an unscrupulous merchant so she asks him if it's still theft when someone is tricked out of their money or possessions. He replies no, it's not the same. If people aren't smart enough to hold onto their possessions, they don't deserve them.

Ella suggests that if a man doesn't have enough security to protect his home, he could also be accused of not being able to hold onto his possessions, and therefore doesn't deserve them.

Her father concedes the point.

Aggressive Money-Making, or "After You Max Out Quests, Try This"

Once you hit the level cap, doing old quests and dailies are great ways to make money but old quests do run out and dailies are limited.

I've already told you how I make money and how penniless lowbies can make money, so now I'll let you know how my friend MK got 40,000g on his old server with super-aggressive AH techniques. These are hardcore and require both time and attention, but the rewards are hefty.

Fact: AH prices vary widely between both server and faction.

What does that mean? MK explained how he examined different AH price trends and concluded that there is no correlation between prices anywhere. Each faction on each server has its own unique economy and it does not match anyone else's -- even between Alliance and Horde on the same server.

What MK learned is that if you can get an alliance and horde bank with a reasonable amount of base gold, you can make massive profit buying items that go cheap on one side, transfer them through the AH, and resell them on the other.

1. Spend a few weeks trolling both alliance and horde auction houses to find out what items have the biggest price discrepancy.
2. Figure out if they'll sell, and how quickly. (Listed for a lot of gold does not mean it sells for that much.)

You want to find an item that one side has in large supply for cheap that the other has in short supply and will pay through the nose to get.

Then you need to buy it low and sell it high.

Fact: Most people list items between 10AM and 5PM.

Another super-aggressive technique of MK's is to list his items before 10AM and go back after 5PM to remove and relist anything that got undercut. Most people, he says, list something at a normal time of day and leave it alone until it times out. This is a time-intensive method, but you don't argue with a man in possession of 40,000g.

Fact: Making money, like everything else in this game, is a matter of time spent immersing yourself. The more you work at making money, the more money you'll make.

New Druid Forms, or "My Dad Makes Fun of Me When I Shriek With Joy"

Internet access at my parent's house. XD Yay. (Like I told my mom at dinner tonight: I'm a writer. I can procrastinate equally well anywhere.)





I'm sure most of you have seen these already, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't post the pretty pictures.

My cute Plum will still have a beard when she morphs, and I may have to change her (perfect) skin to get the purply cat eyes, but I can't bring myself to care. These skins are getting people back into druids -- even my sister-in-law is considering rolling a Night Elf to get the pink and white kitty, which means Birdfall might have more company soon. :D And that's priceless.

If I had access to my desktop, I'd give you images of what skin turns into what beastie, but as it is, I can only quote blue poster Zarhym for what goes where (and he says these aren't set in stone):

Tauren Male

Black / Black with White Belly / Black Spots

• Black Bear (top middle), Black Cat (top right)

Dark Grey / Dark Grey with White Belly / Dark Grey Spots

• Grey Bear (bottom left), Black Cat (top right)

Red-Brown / Red-Brown with White Belly / Red-Brown Spots

• Brown Bear (top right), Red Cat (top left)

Yellow-Brown / Yellow-Brown with White Belly / Yellow-Brown Spots

• Yellow Bear (top left), Yellow Cat (top middle)

Steel Grey / Steel Grey with White Belly / Steel Grey Spots

• Grey Bear (bottom left), White Cat (bottom right)

Light Brown-Grey / Light Brown-Grey with White Belly / Light Brown-Grey Spots

• Yellow Bear (top left), Brown Cat (bottom left)

White

• White Bear (bottom right), White Cat (bottom right)

Tauren Female

Black / Black Spots

• Black Bear (top middle), Black Cat (top right)

Dark Grey / Dark Grey Spots

• Grey Bear (bottom left), Black Cat (top right)

Red-Brown / Red-Brown Spots

• Brown Bear (top right), Red Cat (top left)

Light Brown / Light Brown Spots

• Yellow Bear (top left), Yellow Cat (top middle)

Light Brown-Grey / Light Brown-Grey Spots

• Yellow Bear (top left), Brown Cat (bottom left)

White

• White Bear (bottom right), White Cat (bottom right)

Night Elves (Male and Female)

Greens: Yellow-Green / Green / Dark Green

• Violet Bear with Green Mane (bottom left), Blue Cat with Dark Mane (top right)

Light Blues: Teal / Light Blue

• Blue Bear with Dark Mane (top left), Indigo Cat with Light Mane (far left)

White

• White Bear (top middle), White Cat (top left)

Dark Blue

• Black Bear (bottom right), Black Cat (bottom)

Purple

• Red bear with Blue Mane (top right), Purple Cat (middle)

Emergency Sims System, or "This Is Not a Test"

Sims 3 comes out today and I'm not sure how much I'll be posting here until I get all the squees out of my system.

Added onto Sims 3, and possibly a more palatable excuse for dereliction, my mom is having surgery on the 8th and I'm flying down Thursday to take care of her for two and a half weeks. I won't have WoW there (or husband *sad*), but I have talked my dad into letting me use his computer for my new Sims and my BFF (and guildmate!) is going to drop by for a sleepover.

As most of you can probably guess, my favorite parts of Warcraft are the parts that The Sims do best: clothing, story arcs, hair, accessories, scenery... The thing is, though, that playing the Sims never really went anywhere and I always had to come back to WoW to feel like I could accomplish something.

So even though Sims is my vacation house, WoW is where I live. I'll be back before long.