Elkagorasa the Casual

Every once in awhile, I like to share the current audio book that I am listening to. For me to reference it here, the story has to be 'Warcraft'-ish in theme. This book, is titled "NPC" and has a 4.4 out of 5 star rating on Amazon. The cover text from Amazon says" What happens when the haggling is done and the shops are closed? When the quest has been given, the steeds saddled, and the adventurers are off to their next encounter? They keep the world running, the food cooked, and the horses shoed, yet what adventurer has ever spared a thought or concern for the Non-Player Characters? In the town of Maplebark, four such NPCs settle in for a night of actively ignoring the adventurers drinking in the tavern when things go quickly and fatally awry. Once the dust settles, these four find themselves faced with an impossible choice: pretend to be adventurers undertaking a task of near-certain death or see their town and loved ones destroyed. Armed only with salvaged e...

I have just recently completed listening to the War Crimes audio edition. This book, as if you don't already know, takes place soon after the events that happened in Siege of Orgrimmar. King Wrynn has saved Garrosh's life and he now stands trial for his crimes against Azeroth. To make this work you have to make two concessions: Horde and Alliance can openly talk. Blizzard has already established this part of the lore via the SoO ending cut scene, but I guess we've had this in all forms for awhile. We can both talk to the Pandarian ,  Kirin Tor , and the Goblins . It's just player-to-player communication that doesn't work in-game. (We're just not worthy!) Just by being a leader of a race, you are now a pretty good litigator. Sure, you've had to deal with political in-fighting, this must  qualify you to defend or accuse in a court of law, er, celestial training facility.  The story provides a lot of wonderful backstory to events leading up to and ...

I am a fairly avid reader; with my Kindle setup, I try to read about a chapter each morning with coffee and breakfast. My tastes in books range from crime drama (Alex Cross series), to Sci-Fi (Old Man's War) to fantasy. With all my research into the Darkmoon Faire, it is reminding me of a book I read a few years ago, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Per the dust cover: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. Reminds me a lot about the visuals of the Darkmoon Faire, constantly in dusk and always the strange and impossible things going on. In fact, some of the wondrous things in the book would make for great additions to the DMF. Imagine a phased scenario tents that have variety of 'fun' no fighting type events.

Just been busy. See, June starts with my wife's birthday, followed closely by the kids getting out of school for  their summer break, our first vacation of the summer; ending around the 4th of July with a neighborhood garage sale and catastrophic hard drive failure. Yeah, nothing like doing a little research on some doll to have the auction site pass you a copy of a virus and wipe out (what appears) to be all of the files on my PC. It still boots, I can logon, I see the drives still full, but no content. Rumor has it there's a popup ad around that advertises a drive-fixing tool. This ad pushes down the problem, that you 'can only fix' using the tool?? Don't click the [X] to close the window, as it is rigged to fire off the code. I only learned of this virus yesterday at lunch and haven't tested the tool.  Why? Borderlands . Three of us from the guild have been playing this multi-player FPS off and on for about a month. Borderlands is about a near future...

If you've been a regular reader of my site, you'll know that I am an avid listener to audio-books during my commute to and from work. My latest story, " A Hole to China " by Catherine M Valente is available on Lightspeed magazine's website. This story is about an "exceptional" girl, who wants to be more like the popular crowd. She believes that she can do this by mimicing what they do. If a child carries a shovel, for example, adults will laugh among themselves and say that the little one is digging a hole to China. This is what exceptional children do. So, she picks up her dad's shovel one night and starts digging in the middle of the family garden. It's once she digs down deep enough that the story takes an interesting turn of events and the lore tie-ins start to get interesting. I recognize some of the lore bits from other stories I've listened to but cannot place the origins. This is one of the side quests that I think Bli...

Sitting here today, looking at all the news releases coming out on Mists of Panderan, I start to wonder if Blizzard really could have picked a different race to come out in the next expansion. OK, sure, it has Panderan in the title, so really, would there be any other option?? Aside from that, as I skim down the story line in the game so far, is there a distinct class/race combination that screams out to be played? The Azeroth lore is fairly rich with strong classes, but most are already played, or simply variants of what is already there. This got me thinking... what about the centaurs ? I mean, there's a whole quest chain in Desolace where we befriend one of two local tribes. We work on getting their trust so that we can move on to the next area. If I remember correctly, all horde picked the tribe closest to the stronghold there so they didn't get attacked running to/from the base. BUT, that's besides the point. Think about the benefits. Melee friendly clas...

Background : I started this post back in June (2011) to fill a lull while I was on a vacation. I had the bright idea of going to various areas and posting short videos of load screens to capture the music. Fraps was a flop. I didn't have time to get the video settings correct to work, so it all had a green tint. Now Blizzard has announced they are posting all the music on iTunes.. Blizzard Audio is happy to present  Taverns of Azeroth .  Is your Brewfest party plans coming up short? Are you lacking in the entertainment portion of your festivities and just don't know what to do? Blizzard Audio is happy to present you with 50 wonderful minutes of pub crawling music. Ramp up your party with band from the Bad Juju Bar and Grill , then swing on over to the Pig and Whistle . But that's not all. For the one low price, you can also bring in the Bloodsail pirates, the Taurens from Thunderbrew and the Salty Sailor . Order now! Operators are standing by. And for those of...

I want to share with you an audio-book that I am currently about half way listening to. This is a really fun and entertaining story that combines both magic and steam-punk.  Top it off, the voice acting is excellent. (The author, Alex, does all the male voices and his wife, Renee', does all the female voices.). Reading through the News page, and following links to JC Hutchins site, I learned that Alex also composed and performed all the musical score for the story. (Now, even more impressed.) From the About page: Jonathan Andrews, Initiate in the Seekers of the Arcane Unknown, joined the society two years ago with the hopes of protecting the secrets of magic from the greedy world beyond. However, a ravening shadow appears with a hunger for Seekers and Jonathan finds himself out of his depth. When Jonathan’s friend is attacked and the young initiate is assailed with apocalyptic visions of the future, he must find a way to uncover the past and stop the beast before ...

I just finished listening to a fun little audio book drama. The story which, isn't safe for the mini-van, has a strong female character, a good dose of humor and is wonderfully put together with numerous voice actors. At the end of the book, the main character states that ( I shall garble it up... ), if don't break the rules, those who make the rules are in control, so break the rules and be yourself . This got me thinking... < scroll idle thoughts logo >.. (pressing a little harder on accelerator ).. I like to think of myself as an individual. I play a warlock, the loner class of WoW. What are a few rules that we can break? Spend talent points on things seldom used by a build. I play a destro lock, with points into the Jinx talent ( 9/1/31 ). Why? Cuz, I want my CoE to spread around. Mana conservation on this highly mana intensive build. Of course, when I play Destro, I am usually lower on the DPS/Damage counters than when I play demo. ?? Maybe that's a bad...

This is not about WoW. This is about WoW intersecting my commute to work. See, I don't listen to broadcast radio on my short 10 mile commute to work, I listen to audio books. (Commercials??) More to the point, I listed to podcast-books, free books often read by the author, or another party who enjoys that genre. Over the last month, I listened to two different podiobooks that made me think, hmm, that sounds like Warcraft. The Warlock and the Good Man (by MK Hobson) - Think Red Dead Redemption meets WoW. Cowboys and goblins living together in a small town at the bottom of a mountain inhabited by an other-worldly goblin king. The visual of a priest/sheriff working together with a warlock was interesting. I liked the back story about how the warlock got his start, similar to the WoW lore (IMHO). This story was read back in September 2010, but is still on the site. (Yeah, I am a little behind these stories.) They've rated it "R" for content, gore and language. (snipp...

Book 1 - Click image to dl. During my daily commute, I am listening to audio books. Not one to invest actual cash into the endeavor, I have found free sources for excellent stories. One of my current books is a fantasy story, with lots of magic, intrigue and of course, sword fighting. In book 2 of the series, you are introduced to a race of creatures called the Pooka. These beings are humanoid, close to nature, and can at a whim, transform into a beast. Bear pooka, hawk pooka, fish pooka, etc. During a conversation between the main character and a pooka, it comes up that they actually eat animals, animals that some of their race turn into. Odd. Got me thinking, druids do the same thing. Turn into beasts, eat beasts . Roasted , toasted and smoked . Anyway you have it, their eating the animals, that (IIRC) they are trying to protect. Going a step further, there's no buff, vegetarian food. Sure, lots of vegetarian treats (cookie, cupcake, cake), occasional holiday items (i.e....