Planet of the Hats
Socio-theological babble
Tier 11: An Introspective Retrospective
I’ve wanted to do a retrospective on tier 11 before Firelands comes out, but the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realised that actually, for me, tier 11 hasn’t been defined so much by Blizzard as by the folks I’ve raided with, and by how we’ve chosen to conduct ourselves through the content. … Continue reading
Fantastic and terrible
Lately I’ve been thrashing out posts with my brain distinctly in the back seat, hoping that what results will at least be a little entertaining, but mostly benefiting from some much-needed mindlessness after a busy end to this calendar year. Cataclysm’s release has afforded a new opportunity for some low brainpower enjoyment, but now that’s … Continue reading
Ambling through the Shattering
It’s no secret that I’ve been somewhat ambivalent about the launch of Cataclysm, despite being of the opinion that it’s a fantastic blend of lovingly-crafted new content, intelligently balanced game mechanic changes and retro-chic cool. I was there, though, at 11pm GMT on Monday evening, ready to welcome in release with some guildies and friends, … Continue reading
Disconnection
Change can be weird. Sometimes you plan for it, prepare for it, see it coming a mile down the road – and other times it blindsides you like an ice cube wedgie at 3 in the morning. But some residual chilliness aside, most of the time the changes we deal with are not nearly so … Continue reading
Late to the party: Earthsea, Le Guin, Gender (2)
Last time on Planet of the Hats I plunged languidly into the children’s fantasy world of Narnia, and encountered there what seemed to me a diverse range of plausible, well-developed and sympathetic characters male and female. I noted how the world of Narnia itself was, like the world of wartime Britain and the medieval culture … Continue reading
Late to the party: Narnia, Lewis, Gender (1)
A little while back the WoW blogosphere exploded into a sort of mushroom cloud of discussions around questions of gender, the real world and the Warcraft world, a discussion bookended by pewter’s original post and Tamarind’s oh no, not again. Like a Tellar-Ulam hydrogen bomb, the big initial blast served as ignition for a monstrous … Continue reading
What’s better than math?
It’s Thursday and I feel a hankerin’ to a ranterin’. There’s a weird thing that happens in a lot of threads on the MMO-Champion and Wowhead forums (I don’t read the official forums much) where the argument goes like this: OP: What’s best, A or B? Poster 1: A is best. Here is some evidence, … Continue reading
My perspective on RealID
On a lighter note before I start the inevitable tale of doom and woe, words I wrote have been inspiring to someone. Specifically in the sense of inspiring a comic. I’ll quote Acariel to explain: I do a little comic for my guild recounting our (mis)adventures raiding. I took a little break though, and wanted … Continue reading
A change in paradigm
Do you play World of Warcraft? If so, why? This is a post which eventually will be about the changes recently announced regarding raiding in Cataclysm. I want to leave that question hanging over what follows, as I take a sort of lengthy dawdle along the path of why we do what we do in … Continue reading
Cathedral Street
I have a love/hate relationship with Cathedral Street. Cathedral Street begins just up the road from Queen Street station and then runs through the city centre’s University district, along towards – no, seriously – Glasgow Cathedral. (This is presumably why it is called “Cathedral Street”. I’m just sayin’.) The street is lined almost exclusively with … Continue reading
clavicus
Sihmm
Razz
Rebella
Fredrik R.
Planet of the Hats 