Tuesday Maintenance Report
I’ve seen statistics about how many people are playing each class in Season of Discovery, but no one tracking what I’m really curious about: is this is largest percentage of characters with gray hair… ever? I’m seeing a lot of old humans in the Eastern Kingdoms. It’s a vibe that fits returning players, I guess.…
Keep readingTuesday Maintenance Report
Eglantine the human priest is venturing into dangerous places to bury the dead. I won’t have as much time to play now that we are past the holidays, but I am looking forward to instances and battlegrounds. I didn’t notice it as much when playing a gnome, but many objects in Azeroth are simply enormous…
Keep readingBelieve Children
In 1937, a small boy on Matsungan Island saw a plane crash into the ocean. He told adults, but no one believed him. In 1995, a diver found a wrecked plane… exactly where the boy said he’d seen one go down. I heard this story listening to an interview with Bill Snavely, who believes that…
Keep readingTuesday Maintenance Report
Our Christmas Carol begins “Hardcore was dead, to begin with.” Skull Rock was very quiet and I kept hearing chatter that all the players left for the Season of Discovery servers. And I missed battlegrounds. I recognize that concentrated PvP with permadeath would be inherently ridiculous but I’d do it. It would be fascinating to…
Keep readingTuesday Maintenance Report
We’ve been playing on the Hardcore Classic server Skull Rock for a bit over two weeks now. Padmina 18 144 Herbalism 137 Alchemy 150 Cooking 138 Fishing 68 First Aid Evania 12 75 Herbalism 85 Tailoring 39 Cooking 57 Fishing 2 First Aid Elnora 12 75 Herbalism 27 Enchanting 63 Cooking 88 Fishing 18 First…
Keep readingMemento Mori
Computer games and the society around them have changed profoundly in the last twenty years. World of Warcraft was the first always-online game that I played and a personal landmark in slowly recognizing the dark consequences of the dawning always-online world. (It’s crazy to realize that children born after this game released are legal adults…
Keep readingReturning to Blogging
So, the past three years have been absolute whoppers. I intended to spend them on what I was playfully calling my “self-study MBA” in writing fiction. Instead, I think it’s fair to award myself a Master’s in familial and societal trauma. The pandemic and its losses… being audited by the IRS twice… being told in…
Keep readingAuthor’s Notes: Bearing the Flame
What fantasy stories might you find inside a photocopied ‘zine handed to you on the streets of Constantinople by a like-minded time traveler? (Don’t forget to give him credit for making an additional trip to type it up on an electric typewriter, draw the cover with a Sharpie, and have it photocopied in the late…
Keep readingAre short stories good preparation for writing a novel?
I see this question asked frequently on writing boards, and I’m at a place in my own writing to answer Yes. I focused on short stories for a few years because I was trying to create my own self-paced MFA in fiction writing. The creative writing course that I tried in college did not move…
Keep readingAuthor’s Notes: The Healer of Branford
The events of this story began with thoughts about how the process of rejoining a community can be painful, since even the smallest community involves some work on yourself, treating festering flaws. Cats came into the story because I believe they are the best domestic animals to be medicine for the soul. Other pets may…
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Enchanted Horse 