Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Larísa's annual report of 2009

2009 is about to end and it’s time to make a personal annual report. What characterized this year? Was it any good?

One year ago I did the same thing. This time around I’ve also been tagged by Tessy and Typhoonandrew to participate in a meme originating from Bible of Dreams, with some questions about the past year. I've decided not to strictly follow the given questionnaire, but you'll recognize parts of it.

A year of steady progress
I will remember 2009 as a year of steady progress, as opposed to 2008. The previous year was much messier and contained some drama, including a guild split, server transfer and two guild switches. I progressed all the way from making my first stumbling steps in a 25 man raid at Gruul to eventually clearing Black Temple in one of the top-10 guilds on my server. Indeed some journey!

2009 on the other hand has been a year of stability and constant progression. The home I found in Adrenaline has become permanent. Looking at the guild roster the other day I realized that I belong to the half of the guild or even third of the guild that has been around longest.

Surely, we’ve had our ups and downs over the year, a couple of incidents, but really not anything that I would call any major guild drama. Sometimes we’ve been a bit short on people, but on the whole, we’re as reliable as a Swiss watch, keeping our schedule at three nights a week, steadily progressing through the content as it’s launched. We haven’t downed Algalon or cleared all of ToCGC 25 man, but on the whole we’re doing fine. Looking at the turnover of guilds at my server, I think a guild such as mine is a rare spawn. I consider myself very, very lucky.

Achievements and failures
Candy asks us about our biggest achievement of the year. To me it’s without any doubt Sartharion +3d, which we did before we were totally overgeared for it. It was one of those classic efforts, where we endured several wipe nights before we finally got it right. I don’t normally display my Twilight Vanquisher title, but I’m definitely proud to have gotten it the original way and not in a zerg mode. Staying alive in the end at the first kill definitely added to the enjoyment of it.

What about failures then? Well, I've got a couple of candidates there. For instance I failed quite a bit on Hodir. I STILL do most of the times. There’s something about that fight that just doesn’t click for me. Malygos is another personal failure, so long back in time that I've almost forgotten it. That third phase. How many times didn't I try to get a glimpse of it from a far distance in space, since I had died and fallen an hundred thousand light years down? I did survive few times, but I've definitely died more often than I've survived. Me and vehicles just don't seem to match very well. After all the practice I've had at dragon flying in Occulus lately (is it only for me that it comes up as the first random dungeon every single day?), I probably would do it better now, but that's something I'll never know. I doubt there's anyone still visiting EoE, unless they'll make it into a weekly raiding quest.

I also failed to keep some of the promises I made last year. I kept two of them: I finally learned the Heigan dance and couldn't understand what was so hard about it in the first place. And I also managed to keep having fun in the game, never turning it into the job. But I failed to charge strangers for portals, I failed to keep my banks and bags in better order and I failed to quit my habit of playing after midnight. Shame on me.

What made me excited
Back to the meme. They're asking what made me really, really excited. Well, that would be my new computer. Playing with a decent fps, seeing is as a movie rather than a slide show, being able to turn up some of the graphic settings, has almost given me a new game. I feel sorry for all of you who are struggling with bad lag. I know how you suffer. Looking at it in retrospective I find it strange how I could endure it for so long.

2009 has also been a good year for blogging. The Pink Pigtail Inn has flourished, not the least thanks to the addition of our bartender Elnia. The place wouldn't be the same without her, so thank you for joining! Apart from that, one of the most exciting moments was when I was interviewed by the Twisted Nether Podcast in february. In game I’m not the most talkative person on vent, but in the show there was no way the poor hostess Bre could stop my rambling. I really had a blast!

What to expect of 2010
Time to look ahead. What do I expect of the upcoming year? Do I have any new resolutions?

Well, I know one thing: I'm so going to defeat Arthas!

Something that makes me even more excited about seeing Icecrown getting unfolded patch by patch is how my guild has decided to approach it. We cleared the first wing without using any third party strategies or boss mods. We raided blindly and figured out things for ourselves and it was so awesome that we will keep this approach as the rest of the bosses in Icecrown are released.

This also answers another meme question: what valuable WoW lessons we learned in 2009. I definitely learned that we're capable of much more than we think on our own, that we don't need as many safety belts in the form of premade strategies and helping tools as we imagine. Trust yourself! That's an attitude I'll try to bring with me into 2010, the glorious year of the Cataclysm.

And this is the end of Larísa's very personal outlook on the past year. But we're not quite done with the year in review yet. In the next few days I will reveal the winners of The Pink Pigtail Inn year list of 2009.

I've had so many good suggestions from the community that I think I have to turn it into a series of posts. Stay tuned.

10 comments:

RatherNotSay said...

Very enlightning and best of luck in the year ahead. You amaze me how you always manage to stay so darn positive.

Angelya said...

You have a guild rooster?

Seriously though, thanks for your blog this year, great reading as always :) Happy New Year 'n that :)

Gevlon said...

Great job! And while you did not mention it, I know that your subscriber and visitor number increased significantly. I see that you drive more and more to my site.

cmill said...

You're exactly right that this has been a year of steady progress. Although I can't help but think if the easy mode/hard mode aspect has made it easier for guilds to avoid drama and stick together?

Great post btw.

Anonymous said...

Having the guild work out how to get to, and then down, Arthas with no recourse to posted strategies makes me green with envy. The joy to belong to such a guild would make me immediately resubscribe! Enjoy it.

Carra said...

I should stop making promises for the next year as I always make the same one and I never get it done.

For me it this year added another fun expansion to WoW. But I already knew when starting it that I probably would stop playing after a few months. Eventually it ended up being half a year in which I had quite a bit of fun in Naxxramas and the other starter instances. And of course playing the great new DK class.

I'm sure you'll get Arthas down this year. Sounds like a simple enough promise :)

Joar said...

Something Adrenaline might want to consider - my guild has been doing regular EoE runs just to help get some of our folks that are new to raiding the Champion of the Frozen Wastes title. We've been trying to do it at least once a week on off nights.

Larísa said...

@RatherNotSay: thank you!

@Angelya: awww... Silly mistake. Corrected, thank you!

@Gevlon: yeah, it has... I guess I'll save that for the upcoming 2 year anniversary in February.

@Cmill: yeah, it's possible that more players are able to make stable progress nowadays thanks to the flexibility, with normal and heroic modes available. I think you might be right. And thanks!

@Anonymous: I definitely enjoy it, I hope that's obvious :).

@Carra: and what is that promise if I may ask? Hm. I'll try to make you talk in game! And then I'll be your promise guardian! :)

@Joar: we're running 10 mans at offnights and not having that much time at hands. But yeah, it seems as if we'll at least do some retro raiding during the holidays on days when we're not able to fill the ordinary raid due to signoffs.

Kromus said...

Oh a series, interesting!

Also,

this place is my favorite blog hands down. Its so interesting and well-written.

I mean, when we play togeather in-game I often think "wow, the same person who is the innkeeper at Pink Pigtail Inn is in my guild, woo!".

That can only be a good thing :D

Larísa said...

@Kromus: awww. You're the sweetest! Thank you! <3<3<3

And if we don't run into each other in the game the next couple of days: Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday! May all your wishes (at least the wise ones) come true!