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Posts with tag altaholic

Why do we WoW before WotLK

The Part Time Druid posted a bit of an existential question -- "Why do we WoW?" It was followed up over on the Altoholic. And while their musings on the motivations for gaming are notable, I'm happy they avoided questions around that horrible WoW-addiction issue. I'm not much of the navel-gazing type, so I wasn't concerned about why I play WoW, in and of itself. (Presumably, I get something out of it, so fair enough.)

But, with pre-expansion blues (and excitement) crashing down on our heads -- why are we playing right now? Our gear's about to go obsolete (and we're about to put on our green-quality clown-suits), our level cap's about to go up 10 levels, and the whole world as we know it is going to be radically different! Oh, yeah, and those guys are going to be around, stealing our tanking spots and doing Elune knows what else! (Anyone else notice they're the first class to have two words as part of their name?)

For me? Nothing special about the pre-expansion time period. I play the same reason I always do. I play with my girlfriend, I play with my friends. I play in the Arena. In a year, what I've done now might not matter to what I'm doing then. But what I'm doing now matters now -- and for now, I'm having fun.

Sunday Morning Funnies: You are not an ostrich

From the training of a rat to a meeting of the altaholics, to a little bit of man lovin', this week's comics progress storylines, provide gaming commentary, and bring out the laughs.
  1. This week, The Scout Report teaches us a bit more about Ogre culture.
  2. On Teh Gladiators, Trevor tries to train his hunter pet, the valiant rat.
  3. Monkey Punchers goes all-out for the Man Love this week!
  4. This week's LFG was definitely hilarious. I won't even comment, so as not to spoil it.
  5. Shakes and Fidget are out for Rock 'n' Roll this week.
  6. Dark Legacy's NPCs are getting Stinking Rich.
  7. Okay so WoW isn't as customizable as the generic MMO featured in this week's NoObz, but I think we can all relate. Besides, Wrath is bringing us new hair!
  8. Ding! talks about altoholics.
  9. Quite probably my personal favorite this week, The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf, Episode 14: Orphan Saga, Part 1.
Click through to cast your vote for the best comic from this week's selection.

Continue reading Sunday Morning Funnies: You are not an ostrich

Addon Spotlight: Altaholic

Altaholism is something we've all heard of, talked about and possibly suffered from. I have struggled with this as long as I've played World of Warcraft. I use a variety of addons, as you can well imagine, to enhance my game play. Some of these addons provide information about my alts, although not across servers and factions. The information I am typically concerned with is rest bonus, gold and recipes. I usually use the Armory to check my alt's gear and reputation, or God forbid I relog to the character in question to check something.

Enter Altaholic, an addon I have recently started using to keep track of just about every detail about my alts. Developer Thaoky tipped us off to his addon, and I thought I'd give it a test drive. I'm not going to lie, I was a little doubtful about the usefulness of this one, but I have changed my mind. Altaholic looks akin to Auctioneer (and therefore the default AH interface) to allow the player to navigate different information regarding alts. Some of my addons duplicate features of this addon, but this package brings much more to the table. It's an Ace addon, and the developer seems to be very proactive about the future of this one. One warning, however, this addon will total up your /played time, which may cause you to ask serious questions about the direction fo your life.

Come back after the break for a look at Altaholic.

Continue reading Addon Spotlight: Altaholic

You'll always remember your first

Togus is right-- there's something about your first character. Many of us, as I said yesterday, have tons of alts floating around, but your first character (while probably not your best-- I didn't understand First Aid when I started playing the game, so I just didn't train it at all) was a big deal. Finishing that starting area and realizing there was a whole World out there, grouping up for the first time, and learning just how all the spells worked and what everything looked like-- your first character may not be your main now, but odds are it's still sitting there on the server, like an old friend from years ago.

This idea of a "first character" is actually especially interesting to me, as just yesterday my very first character dinged level 60. As I said on the podcast the other day, I'm going back to play the Night Elf Hunter (yeah, yeah-- I was young and impetuous, and I heard Hunter was a good solo class) I started playing the game with, and take it all the way to level 70, and then 80 when Wrath comes out. In some way, I see it as finishing what I started way back when. And after all this time playing something different in game (Horde, obviously, and classes besides Hunter-- Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, Priest), it's been extremely interesting to go back to the beginning. And seeing Outland (and eventually Northrend) through the eyes of the first character I've ever played promises to be a trip. I feel like I'm rediscovering this game I've played so much of already yet again.

What happened to the first character you ever started? You didn't delete them, did you? Were you able to get them all the way to 70? And when the next expansion comes out, will you take them further?

Sticking with just one character

We've done a lot of talking about alts here at WoW Insider, and if I had to guess, I'd suspect that most of our readers tend to be what most of us writers are: alt-a-holics, with many, many classes and levels of alts, sometimes even spanning across servers. But not everybody is like us-- some people, like the Nameless One over on LJ, have only one character. And to tell the truth, I kind of envy her a bit.

I've known a few people who have only played one character in the game ever, and in my experience, they've done great-- all the money they make goes directly to them, they never have to redo rep runs, all the keys they collect never have to be collected again. If you are an altaholic, think about all the gear you've gotten across the board and all the time you've sunk into other characters-- people with just one toon get to put all that time and effort into just one character, and get to reap the rewards.

There is a lesson here, however, even for us altaholics. I've often found that if I really want to level up one of my alts, the switching just can't happen-- I have to choose one character and stick to it. All the money I earn stays with that character, and my only goals while online are for that character alone. And when I focus, and put effort into just one, that's when things actually get done. I, like many players, get bored easily-- if I had only one class ever, I would have had to give up on this game a while ago. But when it comes to earning gear and leveling fast, the best strategy I've found is to sit down, focus in, and play like you have only one character.


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