Friday, October 3, 2008

WTB WoW cleaning service!

People are trying to make real life money on WoW in a few ways (all of them illegal). They sell gold for real money. They sell powerlevelling. And they sell accounts with toons they’ve lost their love for. Nothing of this attracts me the slightest, and I think those service providers seriously lack imagination and understanding of the customers.

They haven’t any idea about the real needs of the dedicated but disorganized WoW player. I can level the toons for myself and I can gather the gold I need. That’s part of what’s fun in the game. What a really hate though is cleaning up. That’s just a huge and boring grind to me. Give me a hand, please!

Reflects real life
The lack of order in my bags and bank is no coincidence. It reflects my real life perfectly; you just have to throw a glance at my desk or into my hand bag to get it confirmed. I hate sorting things, no matter if it concerns documents, computer files or newly washed clothes. So it’s no wonder I’ve brought this attitude into the game.

Of course I know cleaning up would make my playing a lot easier – but pure knowledge doesn’t help. I procrastinate it to the next day – and then to the next and the next, endlessly. Time passes and nothing happens. And the worst thing is that while the mess is growing I remember less and less about the items, which will make it harder to do anything about it. I don’t know anymore what’s junk that should be vendored and what things that could come handy one day. I would need to do some research to make sure I won’t throw away the wrong things.

Misusing ArkInventory
I’m a bit embarrassed about this evident flaw in my character. It gave me some comfort though to see that I’m not the only one to have problems with bank order. Pike of Aspect of the hare brought up the subject, urging us to post our banks a while ago, and Gnomeaggeddon followed.

So here I go myself, sharing my bank with you, following the Pink Pigtail Philosophy to never pretend to be any better than you are. We're here to be honest and relaxed, OK?



As you can see at my screenshot, I have done a small effort to sort things out by using the addon ArkInventory. I guess it would look a bit better if I had used it more properly, doing all of the necessary settings. Now I think it only makes it worse than if I had individual bags, assigned to different sorts of items. ArkInventory can help you sort things out, but it won’t take the decisions about vendoring or selling at AH. Those decisions you have to make for yourself.

My dream
I have a dream. One day when I logged into the game all the junk would be gone. Everything would be logically organized and I’d have some bank alts to help me out, all specialized in storing materials for different kind of tradeskills. I would have plenty of space not only in the bank, but in my bags. I wouldn’t have to refrain from taking four stocks of manna biscuits before the raid out of lack of space.

If I once for all could get it sorted out, I can’t help imagining I’d be so inspired that I’d keep that order for ever. Just give me a solid first-time-clean up, and then I’d continue doing it on my own. (At least that’s what I’m telling myself , I don’t deny there’s a risk I’m lying.)

I don’t know if this is legal to hire a cleaner or not. Probably it isn’t. But what if that person came to my home and sat by my side doing the organizing, while I still was the one logging into the game?

And while he was still at the organizing, he could help me sorting the mess on my action bars as well, making the UI a bit cleaner and more logical. It surely would need some polishing, as much as my bank does.

The other day my younger brother revealed to me that he paid a cleaning service company to keep his house tidy. It’s not a common thing to do in Sweden, and he almost seemed a bit ashamed about it. I didn’t say anything, but I thought: I wonder if you could ask them to clean your WoW bags, as well as the floor?

WTB WoW cleaning service.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look towards your guild. Every guild that I've ever been in has at least one person (usually more) who spends the vast majority of his or her day organizing the contents of the guild bank. Usually they get rid of everything not worth having, put things up on the Auction House and return the profits, and put some semblance of order into what was originally a horrific mess.

They're also the ones that typically complain about the contents of the guild bank and not possessing access to every slot because, "It's so messy!"

Green Armadillo said...

Be afraid of the expansion. Very afraid. Poor Cheerydeth the Death Knight has literally an entire bank full of sidegrade gear. This is with no sentimental stuff, no cosmetic stuff, no consumables, nothing, because she isn't a character I'm going to get to keep. Just seven pristine 16-slot bags completely full of gear.

Part of the problem is that I don't know the mathcraft well enough for a melee character to know how to compare armor penetration rating to hit rating to crit rating to haste rating to attack power. That said, Wrath will shower you with a dozen sidegrades for every stat you can imagine, and, in most cases, it will be a lot of work (e.g. running 5-man dungeons in PUG's) to reacquire comparable gear later if you decide to shard/vendor it.

Spell haste set? Maybe you need one. Crit rating? Perhaps if you decide to go Fire. Hit rating? Well, you'll need a fair chunk of it if you're planning to raid. Some of this may improve once they're done itemizing factions (at least that gear you can re-purchase later), but the sheer number and variety of quest rewards in Wrath is staggering.

Gevlon said...

Well, you recognized and acknowledged the problem, so you made the first step...

according to Anonym Alcoholists :-)

So it's time to make the second: fixing the problem in small, archivable steps. For example: fix the herbs first. Just one bag for everyday herb usage, send the rest to a bankalt. Whoo, there goes 30 slots!

Next day, next item category.

This way your bag will be cleaner day by day!

Dragon's Den said...

Don't talk to me about crammed bags and banks.

I even created a char and started a guild so I could buy a bank vault to store my stuff.

I know, sad or what.

Anonymous said...

This is a REAL problem, even with the (God Bless Blizzard) new space for mounts and pets the bank is sooo constraining for people who loves retain dozens of soulinked old gear sets and quest rewards like me...

Last measure I impose myself was creating my warlock-slave, she lives next to the mailbox binded with a chain long enough to reach for her own bank. I mail her every non soulbinded item I would not use in the next day.

Anonymous said...

@Cynra: That's an idea... maybe I could bribe them somehow...

@Green Armadillo: oh dear, I hadn't thought about that. It sounds awful. Maybe the fact that pets won't take slots anymore will help a little bit though.

@Gevlon: I bet you've got the discipline. Since I'm convinced I'd easier earn money if I had my stuff in order. I'd better try to adapt a bit of goblin philosophy.

@Dragon's Den: I'm glad I'm not alone... Hi, I'm Larísa and I'm a bankmessaholic...

@Eishen: yeah... I mail things to some alts but don't remember what I sent to who... I really need to sort those things out.

Anonymous said...

Being careful what you wish for... touching wood this wont happen...

Just find a keylogged site... login to WoW, logout, go to bed.

Next morning... cleaned bags, bank, alts, epics (and everything else)

Ahh god bless keyloggers....

Pike said...

Thank you for sharing your own bank! Glad to know I am not the only one that could use a WoW cleaning service.