Hello world!
Welcome all, to my new little corner of the Web!
I’m sure you’re wondering why “Hello World”. Well, it’s actually an old computer programming thing. Basically the first program a person would learn how to write is called a “Hello World” program – it’s just a few lines of code in its entirety, and the only thing it did is “print” (or output) the line “Hello World” on the screen. Basically, a way to say, “Hey, I exist! Woohoo!”
So, in keeping with the fine tradition of computer programmers everywhere, this post will contain no actual content. Instead, it will merely serve as a way of breaking ground on my first blog post, ever. That’s right – not only is this the first post on a new WoW-themed blog, it’s also the first blog ever hosted by Yours Truly.
I can see the internet crowd collectively staring at the screens at this point. “So, it’s a blog. Whoopdee doo. You haven’t yet told us what it’s going to be about! Come on, give us topics, give us a perspective! Give us an idea of what you’ll be rambling about here.” Fair enough. This blog will primarily be about anything and everything that pops into my head while playing World of Warcraft. Talk about a broad generalization, right?
Probably the best idea of telling you what you can expect, is to understand where I’m coming from. Therefore, a quick overview of who I am is in order. As a person: I am a college student, pursuing a degree in Music Performance. I enjoy web design, football, and lounging on the beach. I live in the Florida panhandle; the upsides are the killer beaches and perpetually warm weather, with the downsides being the humidity and hurricanes. (The beaches are totally worth it!)
As a gamer: I started playing in January of ‘08, just about a full year ago now. I am interested in a few other current and near-future MMOs, notably EVE Online, and the upcoming Old Republic / Aion. However, the only game I’m really into at the moment is WoW. My primary character is a DPS Warrior, who got this ridiculous notion in her head that she can tank, as well. I enjoy raiding, working the Auction House, discussing class mechanics and optimizing my performance (meta-gaming, you could call it), playing with addons, and I’ve recently been starting in on some PvP action. Really, the only thing I haven’t done yet is heal, and I am (slowly) working on getting a healer leveled to remedy that very situation.
Fittingly, my posts can and will encompass all of these aspects at some point. Just, you know, hopefully not all at once. I will most likely also delve into the realm of leadership, membership, psychology, social interaction, and probably even smoothies, eventually.
Yes, that’s right: smoothies.
I keep up with the current WoW community as a whole – MMOChampion, ElitistJerks, and I (every so often) browse the Blue Tracker in my free time. I frequent the Class Mechanics threads, I play in the Rawr and Excel spreadsheet playgrounds, and test on target dummies and raids, both on the live servers and on the test realms. Yes, I do get a kick out of browsing WWS reports, but I certainly don’t live by them.
Two questions really drive me: Why, and how? So, fittingly, that is the way that I view many aspects of life, including gaming. Expect both commentary and analysis on a wide range of topics that are either very WoW-intensive, or occasionally only tangentially related to Warcraft topics.
However, don’t think that I’m in any way elitist, holier-than-thou, or a boring guy who just goes ON and ON about raid THIS and raiding THAT. I like to have fun in Warcraft, otherwise, I wouldn’t play! I enjoy maximizing my characters’ performance, I enjoy discussing upcoming patch changes. Some might not, and that’s perfectly alright. There’s really only one way to tell if a person is playing the game “right” – and that is, if they are having fun. I can’t emphasize this enough!
Keeping this in mind, I may occasionally call out an incorrect method, a less than optimal method of operation, or a flat-out bad approach to something. Understand the audience that I am targeting with these comments – while everything is intended to be accessible, a casual player may (just as an example) get all the gold they need with nothing more than listing the ore they run across on the AH. If I am discussing more intensive auction practices I may end up calling a certain approach “wrong”. Temper these critiques with your own common sense, apply at your own discretion, and always remember that I am never attacking a person – my comments are almost always about actions.
Before we even set out, some quick ground rules. This is not the place for “First” posts. It’s childish, it’s content-less, it’s a waste of your time and mine, and will be deleted immediately. This is also not the place for “Grammar Gestapo” posts. I can’t stand grammatical errors either, and I can be my own police when it comes to typos, literary gaffes, and flat-out misspellings (the latter being pretty rare, to be honest). And trust me – if I miss something when skim-proofing, my guildmates will be sure to mock me about it. I’m not saying that I’m rejecting a “type” of person outright, I’d just prefer a more mature approach to comments here, and would like the content to be the primary focus. Much appreciated, and I look forward to plenty of stimulating discussion.
Well, that about does it for my break into blogging! I’m going to spend the next day or two working on finalizing the back-end of the site, screwing with databases, messing with plugins and gidgets and gadgets of all sorts. Oh, how I love new toys! Expect the first content post in a few days’ time.
PS. For for those of you coming from aerowow.wordpress.com, the sort-of / not-really predecessor to this blog, welcome! I know you’re coming in droves, so get a feel for the new home. (By the way, that was heavily sarcastic… I’m going to have a grand old time learning a new “voice” by writing in this medium.)