Like I’ve probably mentioned at least once, I started playing World of Warcraft, (WoW) despite my better judgment. I’m still not exactly thrilled with the game, but on some level, I am into it, and seem to be spending more time than I really should playing it, trying to get to some sort of level where I can play with the better part [...]]]> Not only is this week’s blog posting from me a day late, but it’s not even about webcomics.

Like I’ve probably mentioned at least once, I started playing World of Warcraft, (WoW) despite my better judgment. I’m still not exactly thrilled with the game, but on some level, I am into it, and seem to be spending more time than I really should playing it, trying to get to some sort of level where I can play with the better part of my friends who are currently Level Far-Too-High.

As you may or may not have figured out at some point in our blogger/blogee relationship, I am something of a nerd. I will cheerfully sit around, eat junk food, and throw around oddly-shaped dice while pretending to be a half-elven cleric for hours on end, and that’s only as of late. Back in the day, we used to play far more tabletop games, pretty much anything we could get our grubby paws on that involved a d20, or even a handful of d6s.

I’ve played my fair share of computer and console games as well, but had never done more than dabble in the world of the MMORPG. Even after getting WoW as an unexpected Christmas present, (from someone who had long denounced the concept of paying to play a game, no less) and trying the demo, I was still largely unimpressed. I’d also tried my hand at City of Heroes, and found it to be even less exciting, as well as lacking in visuals. I know that I won’t play Dungeons and Dragons Online without some major incentive, as I’ve just gotten too used to being able to, you know, roleplay while playing D&D.

Talking to the monsters can be more fun than just randomly fighting them, and there’s something to be said for building a character’s personality and traits through social experiences. This, as opposed to strictly min-maxing your way through equipment and running through the same pre-generated encounters over and over in the search for particular item drops.

Anyhoo, somehow, a large contingent of my friends started playing WoW, and this occasion totally slipped under my radar. The next thing I know, it’s all that they can talk about, and I’m facing peer pressure to play, like I’m in an after-school special or something.

My largest complaint (aside from the fees) was that we wouldn’t play together, as I would be a newbie, and they would be ubr-133t ninj0rz r0xoring boxes from Ironforge to the Undercity.

After much reassurance to the contrary, I caved (yes, I know, and I’m ashamed) and I re-upped for 3 months (to give it a decent amount of time, as I knew that I would not be putting in the 8-hour days that some of my friends do- I have comics to draw and dice to chuck, if nothing else). It’s been about a month, and I’m still only level 19.

I’ve gotten a good amount of items and money from some of my 7+ real-life friends in-game, but I’ve only played (that is, adventured with, and by that I mean not watching while they killed all the monsters, and I got no experience for it, thus wasting both of our time) with 2. (I did get invited to an instance a night or two ago, but I had to get offline and do comics.)

Naturally, the gap will shorten, as the others reach 60, then cap, and I start crawling up to meet them, but I started playing this game again to play with them, not whomever happens to be online at the same time. The worst part is that I’ve tried explaining it to them, and most of them just don’t get it, for reasons that I don’t understand.

So in the spirit of ‘Well, I’ve already paid for it, might as well use it’ (I am the type of person who eats decorative lettuce) I have been plugging away in short sessions, trying to bridge the gap as best I can. But, since I don’t play as much and am already facing a catastrophic defeicit in levels, it seems a bit silly to even make the attempt.

But, my Herbalism’s already in the 100′s, (which probably isn’t as high as I think) and my Alchemy is not far behind. Since a priest is just a wizard that casts healing spells, that’s all that I really want to do at this point, anyway.

So yeah, that’s my World of Warcraft rant for this week, I will make a concerted effort to do enough comic research and prepare an appropriately-themed blog posting for you next week, even if it means that, you know, I don’t get to run DM or VC because I’m doing something that actually matters’

Like pretending to be an elf.

I blame foolishly rejoining World of Warcraft (I’m on Shadow Council, my characters are “jhonka” and “Phillthy’) despite my better judgment, as I mentioned in the CottonFluff LiveJournal.

Anyhow, that won’t happen again, especially as WoW isn’t as much fun as my friends make it out to be. But then again, they’re all rampaging around together, at levels 40+ while I’m whacking bears with a Worn Mace, by myself at [...]]]> Gee, only two posts, and I’m already late. Way to go, me.

I blame foolishly rejoining World of Warcraft (I’m on Shadow Council, my characters are “jhonka” and “Phillthy’) despite my better judgment, as I mentioned in the CottonFluff LiveJournal.

Anyhow, that won’t happen again, especially as WoW isn’t as much fun as my friends make it out to be. But then again, they’re all rampaging around together, at levels 40+ while I’m whacking bears with a Worn Mace, by myself at less than level 10.

With friends like mine, who needs enemies? Better yet, who needs to pay a monthly fee to play a game by myself that I’ve already bought…

::deep, cleansing breath, release::

Moving on, at least for now. I will more than likely write up something on my WoW experience as time progresses.

I found this week’s comic at The Blambot Nexus, the official forum for that Mecca of digital comic lettering, Blambot.com. All the dialogue text in the Sapo Entertainment webcomics up until now uses the “DigitalStrip” font found at that site, without it, CottonFluff Hollow and MegMan wouldn’t look nearly as nice as they are now.

Thank you, Nate Piekos, for making (and giving away!) far, far more fonts than any one person should ever need. In addition to making lots of fonts, Nate also does a comic, The Realm of Atland, among other things.

A lot of non-comickers and wannabes frequent the forum, which is very interesting to me, the difference in the levels of experience and know-how makes for some good conversation, and a good amount of “Hey, I just started doing this here comic”- type posting, which is fine. You may as well preach to the choir for awhile, until your voice is loud enough to hear down the block.

Home Ec., by Jon Kristjan Kristinsson, is one of these. There are currently less than 20 comics, and they are “gag-a-day” strips, but they have no text. The humor is all visual.

And, it is incredibly charming.

The simplicity of the artwork (it’s all line drawings, with no real shadows, some light crosshatching and fields of black and gray) combined with the incongruity of the characters- who incidentally, are all objects of various types, light bulbs are pretty prevalent, makes what is happening immediately recognizable, and text, possibly even color would probably ruin it.

Home Ec. doesn’t rely on witty banter or sarcasm (not that there’s anything wrong with either of those, mind you). Instead, like many non-English speaking comics that might be reproduced in neighboring countries that don’t share a common language (and for those of you who haven’t clicked the link yet, the site is a “.dk,” so that could explain that), it just works off of the inherent silliness evoked by the nature of the characters doing more or less normal things.

I’ll admit that one or two of them made me look twice to figure out just what was going on, but nothing’s completely universal. And after understanding what was going on in the strip, I even felt a little better for having “decoded” it.

So, I’ll be waiting for Sunday’s comic (Jon even posted in his blog that it’s ready ahead of time), and maybe you’ll do the same.

See you next week, unless I’m on a raid.