World of Seriouscraft

I've spent a lot of time in the World of Warcraft recently, mostly because it's still a pretty good time, but also because I have a dicky knee and it's become too cold to be sitting by the beach in the evenings. WoW isn't quite kicking it like it used to though, so I might be taking up full-contact macrame to occupy my evenings at some stage. It's the age old problem of being reliant on Other People at the game's high levels, and the average Other Person being a complete screaming dickhead. I'd like to treat WoW like a sport that I play fairly seriously once or twice a week with a team of friends, but when your teammates often don't turn up, or turn up and then immediately leave to play something else, or constantly yell about how shit everyone else in the team is, or let loose an ear-splitting howl of static every time they try and speak, you start to wonder why the hell you play.

I've become a lot more serious about playing my character well, so I can do the higher-level instances and quests without crumpling like a rusty tin can. I've started reading Hunter blogs like BigRedKitty and The Hunter's Mark and I now know the WoWWiki hunter attribute conversion table like the back of my hand. I've respecced (41/20 after much gnashing of teeth), upgraded a bunch of my items with help from Kaliban's Class Loot Lists, and slogged my Dragonscale Leatherworking up to 375 so I can make myself a super-swank Netherscale Armor set. I know I need to hit Revered with Thrallmar so I can grab myself a Blackened Spear, and I know what materials I'll need to get a Savagery enchant on it when I do. I joined a guild, I got attuned for Karazhan and I installed addons like KLHThreatMeter and SW Stats to track the damage I'm dishing out. Breaking down how the game works and how to play it has been a fun challenge, and it's definitely working - I hit harder, kill faster and know my abilities better now, which means I'm more valuable to any group that I join.

Getting a bit more serious about Wow hasn't meant that I've quit my job, broken up with my girlfriend and now wear adult diapers on a permanent basis. I'd hardened up a bit, but I'm a long way from the Netherdrake-riding, Black Temple-raiding, six-nights-a-week-all-day-weekends hardcore crowd. Wednesdays is still "cards night" although I'm really beginning to lose patience with time-wasting fools and shrill-voiced little kids, particularly as I usually have a solid idea what the hell I want to be doing each evening. Hopefully exile can get himself a new computer soon and stop having to visit net cafes to get his WoW on, and provide me with a stalwart companion. He even hit level 70 recently while playing in a cafe - now that's dedication!