A pint with Larísa somewhere else

The people at MMO Melting Pot were kind enough to invite me over to their place to have a chat over a pint. And how they made me talk! There wasn’t any end to it.

If you’d like to hear my take on topics such as raid sizes, in-game special rewards, the pros and cons of link-love and the possible responsibility we might have to the blogosphere – please head over to MMO Melting Pot and read the interview. Be warned though – each reply to the seven questions is more or less like a blogpost in itself.

Ask Larísa: How do I get my wife into an MMO?

I got another reader question the other week. Like the previous one it’s related to gaming and relationships. I suppose innkeepers are expected to be good at those things. You know. Life issues. The kind of stuff you talk about at the barside.

However, I felt something was missing in my answer. So I thought I’d publish it in the hope that some PPI readers with more experience from different MMOs could help out.

Tigerus asked:

My wife is a player of pop cap games and the sims. I'd like to play an MMO with her, but she is very anti-wow and not much of a gamer. Any suggestions for a way to get her into an MMO that I would also enjoy?

Larísa’s answer:

This is a tough question and I’m not sure I'm the best one to answer it since my husband doesn’t play WoW or any other game and I definitely have no plans on trying to change that either.

Regardless of what you think, I’d dare say that your wife IS a gamer; it’s just that she prefers other games than you do.

It sounds as if you'd like to share the magical world of MMO-playing with her, not necessarily in WoW, but in any kind of MMO. If she really has a problem with WoW, maybe you should leave that for a while and try introducing her to something else?

I come to think of LOTRO going free-to-play this autumn. Maybe that could give you an opportunity to play together. There's no big harm in trying something for free, is there? And this game has - from what I've seen from my brief trial period - a lot more of possibilities and choices to dress up and customize your character. There are way more choices of different looks and you can even dye your clothes in game if you want to stick out. And there are player houses too. I suppose that would fit a Sim player. It appears to me that LOTRO also offers raiding, PvP and that kind of gameplay as well and not just "fluff". So maybe it could suit you both?

I wish I could give you more and better advice on this, but to be honest I don't have any experiences with other MMOs, so I can’t come up with anything further. For now my recommendation would be to try to find some free-trial offer from an MMO that not necessarily is WoW and check it out together.

Cheers and good luck!

More questions
And finally just a small bumper:

Pitrelli @ Kill that Cheerleader is running a series of interviews with various MMO bloggers. The presentation of PPI is up today and you can read my answers here.

Ask Larísa: How do I help my better half to become a better player?

The other day I got a letter. It came from a fellow blogger, Zekta, from P3P.net, who wanted a piece of advice. From me of all people! I can assure you I grew several inches. He seemed to think that I was some sort of Guinan figure, standing in her bar, listening to the customers, cracking sound advice with a touch of eerie mystery. Of course I'm not anywhere close to be anything like her. But it's nice to pretend!

I thought the best way to deal with this letter was to post it here, giving the other bar guests the chance to add their two cents to help out Zekta. And with this introduction I'll give the word to Zekta:

Question:

Dear Larísa,

This is Zekta from P3P.net I would like some advice. I guess many people had asked the same question before, but this really puzzle me, and I don't know where to look for the answer. So here I am, in the bar talking to you. Being one of the most intelligent Gnome I know on Azeroth, may be you can shed some light on the mist.

Last year, my better half decided to join me in Azeorth (with her hunter and after I asked too many time), so that we can "stay" together in our gaming time as well. Everything goes well, I had to teach her most of the thing and protect her on some dreadful situation. We enjoy every bit of that, and We dash thru Azeorth, Outland and finally Northern.

Finally her toon is now 80 level, and as we all know, there aren't much thing left to do. I am sure PVP is not her type, cause she value more cooperative gameplay, But I am hesitate to bring her to the PuG as well. Most people in PuG is in a rush and unforgiving, I wonder how she would learn the skill of a decent player. While we are so get used to it, avoiding danger (The classic don't stand in the fire), OT and DPSing may not be as simple as it looks. I expect much from other PuGer myself as well, so I am not sure where to take her to, while I can guide her thru the moves.

I had tried couples of dungeon (including Lord Ahune) run while I run with my Restro Shaman (While I can reduce the chance of wipe), I hardly had time to provide advice while I am busying filling health bars. I don't have much RL friend in game that are still playing, so there aren't any "training session" I can organise. (Unless it's 70-level).

What should I do? Queue up PuG with a DPS with her? Pug on normal? Solo run 70- instance? Or do you happens to know where I can look up information for a new player.

I personally had a Hunter as well, so I know the class In and Out. But the basic instance run info, It's hard to explain for me. (Since we are too used to it)

I really want her to enjoy the game... But I gotta have place to let her know about the basics, so that if any player complains at her, she'll know if their point is valid. (And we know that how many clueless Pug finger pointer is out here)

I think there are many other people had the same problem too. The instance difficulties now is too easy for old player(Us), but still kinda harsh for new player...

Regards,

Zekta Chan

Larísa's answer:

Dear Zekta,

I don't know you and you the lady of your heart in real life, so please forgive me if I'm jumping into the wrong conclusions after reading your letter. But to me it appears as if you're very protective towards her. You seem to be anxious to make sure that she's having a good time in Azeroth and that she won't stumble into some jerk, calling her names, making her feel uncomfortable. You're also very keen to shield her against potential failures, going as far as to play a healing shaman to compensate for her possible mistakes.

The question is: has she really asked you for all this help? Are you sure that she wants it? Could it be so that she might need a little space, so she could get the chance and the pleasure to figure out a few things on her own?

You see: the barkskin of a player doesn't grow overnight from nowhere. It's like learning to ride a bicycle. You need to fall a couple of times before you get it. Doesn't she deserve to enjoy the learning process like you did once upon a time, without feeling the pressure that she should catch up with you so you can play harder content together?

I've never played together with my better half. But I've read quite a few blog posts on the topic. Some bloggers obviously have a fantastic experience playing together as a couple. They enjoy having an interest in common and whenever they're online they're in a team. My impression though is that many of those happy gaming lovers actually don't live together. They use Azeroth as a way to see each other online between their real life meetings.

On the other hand - I've read more than once about couples where both play WoW, but on different servers and even on different factions. Sometimes it's because they enjoy different parts of the game, but there's also an element of getting personal space for themselves. As Spinksville noted in a blog post, where she described how she and her boyfriend were living in a small one-bedroom flat, where there wasn't much "solo room" for anyone. "And sometimes, being logged into the computer and playing a single player game almost felt as though it genuinely did add some virtual space to the house."

This quote is taken a bit out of context, but I still think you should really think about it carefully. Helping your girl friend is absolutely a good thing to do, but you might want to do things on your own, just for your own pleasure from time to time. And the same goes for her.

Ways to coach
With this out of the way: let's move on to your question. If you both agree on that you want to play together, if she really wants your help and if you enjoy being her teacher, where should you start to help her climb in the learning curve?

Well, to me it sounds as if you think that she might still lack a few basic skills that an all-round hunter should master. Maybe she needs to work out and practice on things as rotations, misdirecting, kiting and putting up traps. You can do this in several ways and I think you should try to vary it as much as possible.

Above all: don't worry at this stage about character advancement, loot drops or achievements. It's not important. What you want to do is to give her the chance to practice and improve in a non-hostile environment, where she'll get experience and hopefully also a little boost to her self confidence, which many new players need.

Seek out challenges that you can do as a duo to begin with. Do whatever group quests you can find in Northrend, just the two of you. At least the five-man quests should give you some resistance. Training sessions in a low-level instance is also a great idea.

Also remember: you don't have to be in the same group as her when you want to coach her. Try to vary the coaching a bit. You could for instance let her pug normal level 80 instances on her own. Instead of playing on your toon you could sit beside her, seeing exactly what maneuvers she does with her mouse and keystrokes, what spells she takes, how she reacts in certain situations. You can even ask her to comment on what she's doing aloud, letting her explain why she does what she does. With the knowledge of her actions and her reasoning, you'll be able to give way better feedback to her.

Another variant of this could be to switch roles. You said you know how to play a hunter. Well do that! Borrow her toon or pick out your own hunter if it's still around. Show her how you play it, tell her exactly what you're doing and what's going on in your mind.

Yet another idea is to find a few good instance videos that you could show her, preferably with hunters around. Watch them together and guide her through them, pointing out essentials that you think she could learn from.

Talking about online-resources: provided that she doesn't mind reading - why don't you send her to the blogopshere? I know The Hunter's Mark and Aspect of the Hare both have guides on different aspects, but there are surely many others as well. For some reason hunter's seem to blog and podcast more than other classes. They're there to be read and used!

Not overdoing it

Last but not least: there's nothing wrong with putting up a boot camp to get her going, helping her to grasp the basics of the game. Just be careful not to overdo it, not to be too pushy and enthusiastic about it. And know when it's time step back and let her try her wings in a PUG without you hanging around in the party trying to save her.

Zekta: you should put some trust in your girl friend! She can probably do much better without you than you imagine already. Eventually you have to give her the chance to grow on her own. She deserves it like every player does.

Cheers,

Larísa

So this was the answer that your innkeeper could come up with. But if there are any bar guests who have more suggestions to Zekta, please speak up!

Some things you didn’t know about me

Every blogger is a bit of an exhibitionist. Don't deny it.

It’s nothing to be ashamed of though. Show me an artist, writer or actor who isn't! It’s a part of the deal for people who have this unexplainable urge to share their thoughts, emotions and imagination with the world.

So it’s no wonder that I happily accpepted when Chris at Game by Night recently asked me for an interview for his series of portrays of the community. You can read the result here, and maybe you’ll learn a few things you didn’t know.

Chris asked me a bunch of tricky questions, ranging from how I integrate playing and blogging with everything else in my life to my predictions for how WoW will look in five years time. Be prepared for a rather long and chatty interview, more like a bunch of smaller blogposts than a normal discussion. I can’t judge if I’m saying anything even remotely interesting, but it was fun to participate, so thanks to Chris for this opportunity!

Ask Larísa anything
And as an extra bonus by the way: if you have any questions you would have liked to see in the interview, you have the chance to ask them yourself now.

As an experiment I’ve discretely added a feature to my blog, which you find to the right if you click on “Ask Larísa anything”. The link leads to a little service called “Formspring”, a tool for simple managing of Q&A.

Until now only three questions have been asked, of which one was a bit odd and makes me wonder if it really was intended for me. However I couldn’t resist answering.

I haven’t made up my mind about if I'll keep it or not. But for the time being - feel free to use it if you're curious about something.

Ask Larísa: How do I make my blog noticed?

A regular reader and commenter of The Pink Pigtail Inn, Ghostboci, has sent me a question:

Like many blog-reader, the fate has reached me and started my own blog. http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/

I just want to ask one question from the experienced bloggers here: how can I let other people know that it exists?

Larísa’s answer:

First of all: congratulations to starting your own blog! Since you’ve been posting comments for such a long time I’ve just been waiting for you to take the next step. I really hope you’ll enjoy it!

Advice # 1
Now to your question. Making your blog known will take some time. Matticus didn’t get over 700 subscribers overnight. He worked hard and systematically to reach it as he writes in his summary when he recently celebrated his one-year anniversary.

And it’s been the same with me. Even though I’ve got far from the reputation that he has, this inn has slowly become more and more crowded without any big efforts of advertising. After a few months of blogging you’ll probably get a better ranking at search engines like Google (don’t ask me how it works, but it does), and more and more people will find you.

If you keep writing it’s bound to happen. It’s the nature of blogs.

So my advice number one is: Be patient.

Advice # 2
Of course you should announce your entrance on the blogging scene! Actually you’ve just done it, whether you thought about it or not.

You see: Commenting on other blogs is a great way to get noticed – provided that you’re doing relevant and interesting comments (which I know you’re capable of doing, after your long commenting on this blog) and not just promoting your own blog. There are unwritten ethic rules about how to comment on a blog. Stick to them.

Commenting other blogs in your own blogposts is also a good idea. Most bloggers – new as established ones – just love when their own posts are discussed in other blogs. I assure you: if you write something intelligent, a follow-up on something you saw on another blog and you give proper credit with link to the original source, you can be pretty sure that the original poster will pay you a visit out of curiosity.

So advice number two is: comment a lot. To comment – in your own blog and on others – is in my opinion the soul, the core of what blogging is about. This is a social media, it’s like a never-ending party. Join it!

Advice # 3
Your blog is still brand new. I’d recommend you to wait a couple of weeks until you’ve produced a few more posts and have a little more clear idea about what direction the blog will take. Then it’s time to make an Offical announcement of your existence at Blog Azeroth! Just register and make an introduction.

Another spot where you should register is The Twisted Nether Wiki, which is growing day by day and currently comprises hundreds of WoW blogs.

I suggest that you join Warcraftbloggers. It’s like a huge blog reader where you get the first paragraphs whenever a registred blog publishes something. You could also try go get your blog on the new WoW-blog list at Alltop.

My advice number three is: inform about your blog in the established community forums

Some further reading
During the summer Wowinsider published a series to inspire new bloggers and one of the articles were about how to establish yourself in the WoW Blogosphere. You’ll find a few more ideas there and I suggest you check it out.

You should also listen to and read the website of the Twisted Nether Blogcast. Anna and Matticus publish posts there every week to educate and inspire bloggers. I don’t think they’ve covered the marketing and publicity area yet, but I recommend you to read the posts anyway; there are lots of great advice there for a fresh blogger. Anna also gives advice for bloggers in the shows, another good reason for you to listen to them if you’re not already doing it.

Final words
Finally I return to Matticus once again. I like the way he always remind the wanna-be-bloggers to stick to the basics. And that is simply: to write.

I just have to quote him, because it’s so true:

I’ve been there. And I’m urging you not to give up. You can get readers and fans. There are people that will genuinely be interested in what you have to say and what your thoughts are. It doesn’t matter whether your interest is in PvP, or raiding, or RPing. What matters is that you keep writing. You can use whatever blogging techniques you want with SEO optimization, and other blogger mumbo jumbo. But at the end of the day, readers will reward your perseverance. It may not be now, it may not be later but it will happen. You have to stick with it. When you’re blogging, you’re grinding reputation with all of the Internet.

If I look at blogs from the reader's point of view, I want blogs which feels alive, where the content keeps flowing. You may have the most fancy kind of layout and features, but in the end, it’s what’s inside that counts. You don’t have to publish every day. But, at least when you start, you should try to publish pretty often. Because it’s when we read your posts that we get to know you. That’s how you naturally grow into the Blogsphere.

Be confident. Trust your own voice. You will be noticed, sooner or later.

Ask Larísa: Where do I find info about gear progress?

This is a historical day.

A while ago I gave a game friend of mine some advice about how to organize a guild he was about to start. I then got the idea to do publish it on the blog, and gave it the label “Ask Larísa", not really expecting anyone to actually do it. I'm really not an authority. But now I’ve received my first letter from an unknown reader, asking me for advice!

Entropy wrote this letter to me:

I have a toon that just hit 69. To be honest I kind of have that feeling of "what is next". I have been working on an Alt that is a healer and to be honest that should have been my main. I love to heal instances and groups. I like my Hunter and all but I just get tired of playing it from time to time. My gear on my main is mainly in Greens.

The question I have for you is...Do you know of a good site that shows how to progress on gear? I do not see myself raiding because of family time restraints. So that pretty much leaves Instances, Battle Grounds and some questing that I have not done yet. Am I missing anything? Do you know of a site that would be able to outline this?

I know that I can go to the Armory and click on my gear to see what is better...It would just be nice if there was a site that has already shown the gear progression for a non raider. Yes, I know this kind of sounds lazy but I would rather play than research in my free time.

And here's Larísa's answer:

First of all: thank you for writing. I’m so honoured that you’re turning to me, especially since I’m not a healer, so I don’t know what to say. Luckily enough I know there are some healers who read this blog, so hopefully they can assist and give some more information in comments if I’ve missing something essential.

In your letter you don’t say what kind of healer you’re playing, and you don’t say anything about your professions. Maybe you should consider switching to a crafting profession in order to improve your gear. For instance if your healer is a priest, there’s currently some great healing gear, the Primal Mooncloth set and the Whitemend set. Possibly it’s a bit late to grind for those sets with the upcoming expansion, where gear will be outdated as you continue levelling, but I’m sure there will be craftable healing gear in Northrend as well which you can head for.

If you’ve got family constraints which make it impossible for you to play for long hours, gearing up by crafting really isn’t a bad alternative; you can do the grinding in small portions. But of course it also depends on what you enjoy in the game. If you find grinding mats a pain, but can find time to at least do instance runs – first normal and later heroics, well then that’s the way to go.

You ask about where to find progression plans for healers and I wish I had complete gearing plans ready for you right away, like the one that I have for the rogue class. Unfortunately I haven’t. But there’s a great source of information nowadays, where you can ask this kind of questions and get good answers without people raising their eyebrows, looking down on you. This new forum is called PlusHeal, and it’s live and kicking and if you won’t find what you’re looking for I’m sure you’ll get help if you just ask for it! (To be honest, the mage community is a bit envious about this awesome place.)

I had a look at this forum to see if I quickly could find the kind of thing you were looking for, and as a matter of fact I did! At least if you’re playing a paladin or shaman. There were links provided by a guy who has created great progression charts with gear comparison, for people just like you. Here’s the paladin chart, and here’s the shaman chart. Just enjoy if you’re playing one of those classes!

If you're playing a druid there's a great information spot for you, The Druid Wiki. Follow the link to Gear and you'll find several gearguides for you.

You should also have a look at some of the major healing blogs (I link to several of them in my blogroll). They may provide guides for your class. For instance Parttime Druid has a post, Fresh 70 Resto Druid: Gear Cheat Sheet, which should be useful, provided your healer is a druid.

Finally there’s a program called Rawr, which I think you should have a look at. You can download it for free from here. Shortly it helps you to compare gear that you already have or are thinking about to get. You can also get a good idea for instance about what gems would be most beneficial for you. This said, it may take a little time for you to do all the settings, even though you import your char from armory to begin with. So if you really don’t want to spend time on doing research and doing theorycrafting on your own I think asking PlusHeal is probably an easier way to go if you feel “lazy”.

Now I just want to wish you good luck with your progression! On behalf of all mages I thank you for healing us through instances with a smile on your face. We really depend on people like you.

A piece of advice to the creator of a new old fashioned raiding guild

For the first time I’ve got a letter from a reader asking me for advice! Wohoo! Ask Larísa, isn’t that just a wonderful label to put on a post? Who knows, maybe there will be more to come in the future.

To tell truth it’s not a total stranger who’s heard about my arcane superior intellectual abilities and now come to consult me. It’s a game friend, Woulfie, a from my former server Kul Tiras, who once upon a time gave me some great advice and decent enchants when I was new to the game and very confused.

Now he in his turn asked me for a piece of advice. Why he turned to me I can’t really tell, but I guess I’ve been a little more into raiding and a bit of guild management during the last year, so maybe he thought I could help him.Or he just needed a second opinion to help to sort out his own thoughts. Anyway it’s very flattering and I’ll give it a shot, most of all in the hope that some of my readers will assist me and fill in what I’ve missed.

The issue
So what’s it all about? Well it turned out that he and his son has formed a new guild, “Old School Sixties”, with a very special purpose:

We are going to start advertising for new members this week. The idea is that from 1st September we will start raiding the old level 60 instances. No boosts and preferably no imba outlands gear. Level sixty only starting off. It would be better if the drops meant something to the players getting them.

The danger is that we will outlevel the instances rapidly, but lets see.

We will have to do some research, but it should be a good time to do it, with many players waiting about for the expansion.

Our mage Kinch is poised at level 60 ready to go, and we are levelling up our priest Molly Bloom in preparation. She will most likely respec holy for the instances.

I am looking forward to trying this out. It is the first time I have attempted leading anything in the game. In fact I could never figure out why guildleaders gave themselves the hardship of taking a position of authority. If you have any advice for me I would be glad to receive it.

Larísa’s answer:

I think it sounds like a great idea and I’m sure there are people who would think that was a fun thing to do - a last serious shot at the old raid instances before the expansion comes.

However, since you want to do this without boosting and über gear, it will be a challenge, it’s almost like starting any other raiding guild, except for that you will level and gear up faster, even if you’re not striving for it, thus making progress a bit easier.

So here are a few points that I come to think of:

Work out your guild concept

You seem to have a fair idea about the purpose of your guild. But it wouldn’t hurt to give it a deeper thought. Is this guild temporary? Will it cease to exist when you agree that you’re done with the old-fashioned raiding or when the expansion hits? Or could it be possible that you went on and raided also the level 70 raid instances in the same way after WotLK has arrived – non-overpowered, just a bit later than others?

What kind of guild do you see in front of you? To generalize terribly there are different kinds of guilds – social oriented or progression oriented. Where on that scale will you be? How does your landscape look? Have a look at this awesome post from Breana and you’ll see what I mean.

Choose your level of raiding
Raiding at level 60 can be a lot of different things. I’m a TBC player and I’ve only seen UBRS, Onyxia, Zul Gurub, AQ20, and AQ40 from that point of view, entering in a full epic level 70 gear party. That’s just a big laugh. You don’t have to care about tactics much, you’re so overpowered that you just nuke it out. But you’re doing this in a serious way and then you have to figure out your goals and the dimension of the raiding you’re about to do.

What are you aiming at really? Are you planning to run UBRS? AQ20 or even AQ40? Onyxia? Naxx?

Set up a goal from the beginning, which is interesting enough to be a challenge, but still is within the frame of what’s realistic and doable. It will direct you how much effort you should put into recruiting and how you’re going to present this idea to the world.

You also have to make sure that people share your vision to raid with the “right” gear level, whatever that is. I figure it will be a constant balance. On one hand you don’t want people to be over geared. On the other hand – raiding the old instances took a lot of job and dedication – where you were supposed to improve your gear out of the raids as well, by enchanting, getting blues from five man instances and so on. You have to be pretty serious about this if you’ll stick to the idea to stay away from Outland gear.

Organize yourself
Every guild needs some kind of infrastructure. Even if I guess you and you’re son will pull a heavy load you’ll need help with other officers. You need people who’re willing to lead the raids – I suggest you try find at least two who’re wiling to do it, so there’s a cover up available.

You need to sort out roles and you need to work out a scheme for your raids. I suggest at least two raids a week, else it will be hard for you to learn the encounters and make any progress..
To have fixed days for raiding is pretty necessary, since there are so many people involved in raiding. Coordination will be hopeless else. Bigger raiding guilds use out-of game systems for signups, for you I think a simple addon like GEM or Group Calendar will do.

You also need to set up some simple policies for how the guild should work, such as loot distribution (here’s an overview of the different systems), required addons and behaviour in the raid.

Sort out your communications
I can’t emphasise this enough. I think the single point that kills most guilds is bad communications. I could go on very long about this subject – I may be back on a special post about this one day. I’ll just mention a few important things:

• A channel for out of game communications within the guild. Probably a guild website will do it (you could use other means like an e-mail list, but in a larger scale I’d prefer a website). You don’t have to overdo it, you can keep it as simple as a forum or even a blog if you want it, but there must be some means to reach out to the guild members with information about upcoming raids and some way they can give feedback and communicate to other guild members. It’s better to start out simple but do frequent updates than to build a mega-good-looking website with huge ambitions that inevitably fail. The hunters mark had a really good post about how to make a good guild website a little while ago
• PR/marketing. Use the traditional recruiting channels – the official realm forum – and the inoffical one, I know there used to be one for Kul Tiras/EU. Inform in the guild recruitment channel in game. Spread the word. Make yourself noticed.
  This isn’t something you just do when you’re starting. You’ll have to do it continuously since you’ll always face a small leakage of players.
• Voice communication. Raiding is very much facilitated if you can talk to each other, using TeamSpeak or Ventrilo. I’m not sure if the in game voice chat is a possible alternative; I haven’t tried it out myself. You wouldn’t need it if you raided with over geared lvl 70s, but since you’re doing it for real I figure you would benefit a lot from this.

A few last words
Finally: good luck on this project! Write me a letter and tell us all how it went. Was it a success or an epic failure? I’m sure the readers of The Pink Pigtail Inn would like to hear the end of the story.

And to the readers - feel free to send in new questions and I'll make this "Ask Larísa" a habit. You can ask about anything that comes into your mind.

How many toes has Larísa, now that we know that she's only got four fingers? What dishes do we really serve at the inn (peanut butter and jelly out of the question)? What's the meaning of raiding?

It isn't necessary to ask the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. We all know the answer to that one. But except for that anything goes!