Humor in Azeroth

Breathing the Air of the Free

In an unusual turn of events, I forsook my scheduled World of Warcrack guild run to the Molten Core (MC) over the weekend. What was the occasion? Arenanet, the developer of Guild Wars, held a head start event in celebration of the April 28 release of Guild Wars Factions, their new "Campaign"-a stand-alone game that adds a new continent and two new professions-in the Guild Wars mythos. It felt strange, being uncoupled from the construct that is Azeroth which, since August of last year, has had a stranglehold on my gaming life.

I originally planned on coming to the MC raid after participating in the headstart event, but I decided to use the weekend to work on some design projects early, instead of waiting until the day before they were due. I guess I'm currently on the second trough of my interest in the game, having taken a similar break from World of Warcraft a couple of months ago. Before this slump I was actively engaged in climbing the Player versus Player charts on Bronzebeard-my World of Warcraft realm, aiming to achieve rank 10, Commander, so that I could purchase the epic mount reserved for players who reached this milestone (the current ladder maxes out at rank 14, Grand Marshal for the Alliance and High Warlord for the Horde).

I also logged less hours into World of Warcraft a few days leading up to this break because my copy of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion arrived in the mail. As far as I've gotten into the quests, I think it's a great game, although not as great as it's been hyped. It's world is beautifully realized, especially if your computer has the chops to run many of the visual sliders maxed. Oblivion on the PC seems to have what it takes to be another long-lived game, as graphics hardware advance in capability it will only look better, and with the mod community and Bethesda Softworks set to produce more content for the game it ought to engage people well into the future-until the next installment in the Elder Scrolls franchise comes around that is.

A Voice in the Desert

I originally wrote this post in my 1up.com blog on November 14, 2005 after a long blogging hiatus.

Surprise, surprise! After months of not blogging, a brief entry from me. What kept me away? Three words: World of Warcrack. And no that is not a typo, I do mean it to say crack instead of craft. World of Warcraft has sucked me in unlike any other game apart from the final fantasy series, which is even more problematic because I am usually a completist by heart when it comes to RPGs.

My fixation on the fun that is WoW means I haven't had much time for any other game, even the ones that I've been looking forward to for sometime. Games like F.E.A.R., Civilization IV, and The Movies, while appealing, I just can't bring myself to get because i know that time spent away from WoW is time that I could use to level up my alts or get my last Dreadmist Raiment piece. Sigh. How do I even start to extricate myself from this mess? Or more importantly, do I want to?

Best Friend

Jazz

Wish You Were Here

Last February 7, I wrote a blog entry "That Sinking Feeling" in which I shared my feelings as I tackled an Illustration project asssigned to my class. I've been meaning to upload the finished illustration for quite some time now, and while I originally intended to post it this september, I decided not to wait any longer because it has been awhile since my last post.

I hope you derive meaning from my illlustration, and look past the amateurish technique to contemplate what September 11th meant and still means to you.

Croc Shoe

This is a scan of a small acrylic painting I did for my advanced illustration class. My instructor assigned an anthropomorphic shoe project, that is, we were supposed to illustrate a shoe made to appear human-like, or have human qualities. I drew several concepts before I settled on creating a croc skin shoe anthropomorphized to resemble an upright, walking crocodile.