Millions of Forum Links Suddenly Cried Out

Last week, World of Warcraft’s six million monkeys typing, aka The Forums, were migrated to new software, perpetrating one of the largest linkocides in gaming history. Old links referenced on AFK Gamer are, for the most part, archived on Furl or on Hanzo. Generally, I’ve already posted the archive link in each post. I’m all about future-proofing. Live threads on the old Warcraft forum software can be accessed, temporarily at least, through http://12.129.217.203/ — that is, an old link like this (mouseover to examine, left-click is dead) becomes this (mouseover to examine, left-click to read). That’s a good thread, by the way — solid discussion on rogue PVP builds and tactics.

Dying Alone Together

Zul'jin Server Crash on Patch DayIn the World of Warcraft for the past several days, this was not uncommon sight: a landfill-sized stack of corpses buried deep under the Alterac Mountains. (As shot by Solymr of the Zul’jin realm, click for original size) Poor, poor dead priest with Spirit of Redemption, aka the Angel of Shame. Couldn’t you have found another talent to spend that point on?

Some post-patch observations: Who do I have to blow around here to get my Alterac mini PVP-map to remain open? Damn thing closes every few seconds so that by the time I race down to the Frostwolf graveyard, I’m alone, and, as I will discover after running headlong into a pack of Horde warlocks and shaman, the Alliance hasn’t captured a single graveyard. W. T. F. If the map would stay put, I’d know I was on a team of no-graveyard-capping knuckleheads and plan accordingly (i.e. never leave stealth).

Now that Warcraft has cross-server battlegrounds, I was (not) shocked to discover that other servers have dicks, too. I’m talking Alliance here; my x-server battlegrounds have been refreshingly free of the Horde /kiss’ers and /spit’ters. Not so of the ALL-CAPS-CALLING-US-F’ING-TARDS Alliance leader-wannabes. How can they have experienced so little of life that they think screaming in ALL CAPS repeatedly is a valid technique to encourage troop obedience … with a voluntary army, no less. My solution, since I haven’t found a way to /ignore players from other servers … offer the screaming dude gold to get out of the battleground. Also, mocking them in public chat has been effective.

I pulled a few oddball Alterac Valley (the 40-man PVP battleground) teams. The one, we got all the way down to the Horde’s encampment, captured the Relief Hut (the graveyard), our Hunter begins the pulls of the warmasters (the Boss’ guards) and OOPS: We have no warrior. BIIIIG problem. I suppose we all could have teleported back to our own encampment and turtled for hours (playing pure defense mostly to annoy the opponent), but who has the energy anymore? We took our loss and moved on.

While I’m enjoying the action of x-server PVP immensely, I will miss the board flaming and trash talking that used to go on. Seems to me that a community NEEDS that kind of, ahem, distraction, lest the public conversation descend into bitching about ancient server history when Suchandsuch Guild wiped for weeks on Ragnaros and absolutely everyone else passed them by on raid progression. It was more entertaining to read how Jimmydawarrior was played by three real-life friends 24/7 to get the top PVP rank and Stabbydarogue was speed hacking for flag captures.

Fucking Stabby. I KNEW he was hacking, but it’s always nice to have the suspicion confirmed by 5 players I don’t know and will never hear from again.

No, The Damn Servers Aren’t Up Yet, Sheesh

Steaks on a Plain Ajido (Samuell) is claiming the title “freakin evil genius” for his Warcraft guild name. (Future generations: this is a spoof on the recently released movie, Snakes on a Plane, starring Samuel L. Jackson. I have to say that or else I’ll see this a year later and wonder why I ever thought this was hilarious.)

In another thread, Camule, of an unknown realm (because the forum logins are messed right now for maintenance), asked players to recount their World of Warcraft sins and transgressions in “What’s the worse thing you’ve ever done in game?”, amply proving that human beings are not of divine origin. Thank you for that, because I still had some hope.

Looking at the battlegroups for the cross-server battlegrounds, I see that my server will be grouped with my former SWG guild’s server. (Later, I’ll go trash talk on their boards to start building a little rivalry.) I expect that initially, my current guild will get our asses handed to us by the PVP-realm crowd, but I’m confident that with some minimal practice, superior gear will win the day. Of course, I will claim this is SKILL because I do have an ego.

Lastly, desperate for a Patch 1.12 mirror? Seek and ye shall find at WoWWiki. (WoW Raiders: Update your CT-RaidAssist also. Don’t annoy your guild, like my guildmates will, by waiting until five minutes before the scheduled raid start time to do this.)

Official Patch 1.12 notes after jump:

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