It’s definitely that time of year for everyone to make their New Year’s resolutions and make the “attempt” to keep them. I read somewhere that you need to do something for five weeks in order to make it habit. So, regardless of what you’re trying to do, stick with it for at least that long if you plan to make it a part of your routine!

Wanna know mine? Click for more!

As for me? I’ve got the typical personal list:

• Lose 25-30 pounds.
• Get into better physical shape.
• Run a 10k.
• Eat out less.
• Eat healthier.
• Be more organized.
• Get straight A’s in grad school.

And so on, and so on. I think out of those, my main resolution is a healthier lifestyle. I can do it, and I have done it. I just get lazy. I used to be a full-time musical theatre actor. Doing shows that involve dancing 6-8 shows each week, I was in pretty good shape, and I ate well, too. I’ve moved on from full-time acting, but I need to keep that healthy mindset. It’ll get there.

I know what you’re saying, “Thes, shut up about your personal life already! We wanna know how your resolutions are going to help us and the community!!”

Alright, alright…I’ll get to the good stuff.

Community Presence

I plan on being a more active part of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community than I was in the WoW community. I was active enough in WoW, but I could’ve gone farther. I could’ve blogged more. I could’ve been more active on my friends’ blogs. Stuff like that.

Thus, here are some things you’re likely to see from me this coming year:

1. A more active blog – Even if I can’t release substantial posts all the time, I hope to get something up between once and twice a week. New posts will range between small thoughts and opinions to my notoriously over-edited soapbox novels. Anything you’d like to see? You can always email me or comment on what you’d like.
2. More active on other blogs – I absolutely love getting feedback and comments on my blog. However, I’ve been really bad at returning the favor. That’s going to change. I’m going to be increasing and adding to my blogroll (a post on that later in the week). I’ll have a section for the big sites like DarthHater and Ask A Jedi, but I’m going to be focused more on the smaller independent blogs. My plan is to be more active on friend blogs, helping to build that community.

So, that’s it. I also hope to be a bit more accurate with theory-crafting and mechanic analysis. I’m not a big numbers guy, but I’m hoping to have some more informative posts for you in regards to mechanics. I’m not intending to the be “go-to” place for theory-crafting, but I’m aiming to have some numbers to back up my posts, where applicable.

As my co-worker likes to say: “Ta ta toodles!” What are your New Years Resolutions? Please feel free to share in the comments!

One simple answer: No.

Through my WoW experience, I’ve enjoyed Brigwyn’s place in the community. He’s had some pretty interesting things to say, and I respect the hell out of him. However, this caught my eye via Twitter:

A very interesting thread on the official #SWTOR forums. Seems I’m not alone in feeling Single Player RPG w/ Coop play

**Sorry, Brig. I’m not picking on you. You brought light to a community issue that I felt compelled to comment on.**

The essence of the thread is this: There is a minority of people that believe that the game is “too linear”, “too small”, and “too instanced”. Most are players that come from Star Wars Galaxies or World of Warcraft, as would be expected.

Too Linear

World of Warcraft – How is this game NOT linear? The key to most games is progression, meaning it progresses along some kind of path. That’s simply how stories work. You start with some kind of exposition, an inciting event, then the rising action. You peak at the climax, then the resolving action to the conclusion (until the next inciting incident). You can branch off into little side sagas (look at the Star Wars Expanded Universe), but that’s how storytelling goes. Yes, SWTOR is linear because it’s telling a story. Your story. World of Warcraft is no different in it’s current form.

Star Wars Galaxies – The was a true open world or “sandbox” game. You made of it whatever you wanted. SOE put essentially zero story into it, which is why it really didn’t feel linear. The progress of your character involved getting missions, going out and killing a nest of monsters, then back to the terminals. Once you maxed your professions, you “rerolled” and did it all again until you got your Force Sensitive slot unlocked.

Too Small

World of Warcraft – I’m only on Balmorra, but I already feel like SWTOR has more surface area than World of Warcraft, especially give what I’ve heard about Tatooine and Hoth (with more planets to eventually). Each planet is supposed to serve as the level-equivalent zone you’re supposed to be in. In comparison, Balmorra already is bigger than Stranglethorn. In terms of starting areas, Dromund Kaas and Korriban are certainly bigger than Elwynn Forest. If it feels smaller because you have to get into a ship to go between planets, that’s valid. However, I don’t buy the argument that it actually is smaller.

Star Wars Galaxies – SWG was on the other side of the spectrum. At the end-level planets like Dantooine, to travel from one place to another, you’d be on your speeder long enough to go to the bathroom and grab a drink before you got there. Most likely, you wouldn’t see anyone on your trip. Yes, the worlds were expansive, but they were a little too much so, if you ask me. You’d stumble on a harvester field or a “Player City” (read: Ghost Town), but that’s it.

Frankly, there’s a happy medium between “small” and “too large”. I think Bioware is trying to strike that chord between the two. They’re on the right track. Worlds feel expansive enough for me, but not so expansive that it seems like a chore to get somewhere. I find that the time I spend traveling is best spent chatting with my guild and forging those bonds.

Too Instanced

World of Warcraft – One of my least favorite days in WoW is when new quest content is released. I’m usually running around like crazy trying to tag a mob to count for the quest that I need. Quest-givers are covered in players so I have to write a special macro just to interact with the NPC. It does feel good to know that there are people around, but there’s a threshold where it hinders my gameplay experience. I’m grateful for instancing. I can focus on the context of the mission I’m on, instead of trying to compete with a fellow Imperial (thus potentially souring server community).

Star Wars Galaxies – As stated above, the worlds were so expansive that it wasn’t usually a problem for those out in the wild. However, I can’t count how many hours I spent at the Mission Terminal, refreshing the page ad nauseum until the Rancor mission showed up. There was almost no need to group with anyone. Instancing wasn’t really an issue, but it also wasn’t needed because there were few chances for grouping except to give yourself better missions.

Again, this is another occasion where Bioware is trying to strike the chord between “Multiplayer” and “Overcrowded”. If instancing means I don’t have to fight other Imperial players for objectives, that’s fine with me.

Beyond that:

• If you’re already level 50, then yes, it’s going to feel a bit empty. You got a jump start on a majority of the other players. You also leveled faster than most. It’s going to take a while for everyone else to catch up.
• It’s going to have that “Single Player Feel” because one of Bioware’s goals is to advance your individual story and get you invested in it. If all you did was “space bar” through the dialogue, then you’re missing a main part of the meal. It’s like ordering a steak dinner and just eating the potato and the vegetable. I know the decisions that my Sith Sorcerer has made and why I made them. All I can tell you about my Resto Shaman is his i-level and spec.
• There are ample opportunities to interact with other players: Heroic missions are repeatable, Flashpoints are easy to access, doing missions as a group award Social points, you can level in PvP. If you’re not taking these opportunities to interact and expecting it to “just happen”, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
• Don’t declare a game “free to play” before it’s even had a chance to grow and mature. If WoW hadn’t started changing its design with Burning Crusade, they could’ve gone free-to-play as well. I’ll grant you that games tend to be going that way, but there are always exceptions.
• Finally, just because you don’t seem to care for the game doesn’t make it a bad game. As I’ve written before, “to each his or her own”. Everyone’s going to have a game that grabs them and reels them in. WoW is still a great game. SWG had its fanbase to the end. EVE has a huge following. People still play Everquest. It is entirely okay for a game to not draw the attention and wallet of every gamer in the world.

If, after you’ve listened (not just heard) to everything I’ve pointed out above, you feel that SWTOR isn’t for you, that’s okay. You gave it a shot. You found out it wasn’t your cup of tea. Go find whatever it is that you want in a game. I really do sincerely hope you find it. All we ask is you not shit on the doorstep on your way out. I’m still enjoying SWTOR, and I’m happy to pay $15/month to support them.

If you still need some words from those of us that are enjoying the game, here’s a snippet from my friend Jonathon at The Best Damn Nerd Show:

To me, the idea that SW:TOR feels less ‘massively multiplayer’ is completely absurd. Skeptics, it seems, are looking for any reason to nitpick and complain about various aspects of the game, which is obviously not perfect. But, when these skeptics find even the slightest thing wrong, they’re willing to lampoon the game despite the fact that all of its competitors share the same exact flaw.

You can read the entire post from Jonathon right here.

Wouldn’t it be apropos for me to make this post into something about the Galactic Empire annihilating Azeroth. The Death Star killed Deathwing! (See what I did there?) I’ve seen so many people looking to call each new MMO on the market the “WoW killer”. I think maybe at some point I shared that mindset, but then I stepped back and looked at what was going on. Everyone is going to have their “niche”. Every MMO out there has it’s own fanbase…even Star Wars Galaxies did until the end. Sure, some have a more cult following than the mainstream ones, but the point remains the same: to each his/her own.

Tastes often change. That’s okay. I used to be a fanatical SWG fan. I loved the “force-sensitive camp” and having to train as a Jedi while avoiding the “BH terms”. It made it feel like the world after Episode IV; Jedi had to train in secret, and there were few of them. The game then changed, and it wasn’t the world for me. That’s fine. I then joined my brother and some friends in WoW.

“Now here’s a little story, all about WoW….”

Through late “Vanilla” and all the way through Cataclysm, I cut my teeth as an MMO player. I never thought that I would be the type of person to schedule my game time. I never thought I would ever be a regular forum user. I never thought I would blog about gaming. I never thought I would podcast! Needless to say, I developed a passion for MMO and online gaming. It’s simply time to shift into a different arena.

Since late Wrath of the Lich King, I had the pleasure to lead a group of my friends in a 10man raid team. I got the “raiding bug” back with Naxxramas 2.0. I knew my character, and I could strive to get better. Ulduar came, and my guild at the time was raiding sporadically…too sporadically, for me. I ended up linking up with Lodur (WoW Insider, For the Lore, Raid Warning, Way of the Totem) and his guild through Icecrown Citadel. It was a great ride, but my Team Sport crew was starting to get the raiding itch, and I had to scratch it for them.

Survey Says!

It ultimately went decently, but was a rough climb. There was a phase where I was the only “leader”–the only one doing strategy and planning. This newer style of raiding went against what we’ve always done, so I got a lot of flak from  the more “casual & veteran” members for it. But, there was a group of my friends that wanted to do this, and I wanted to do it with them. I wanted to be a force to be noticed on our server. We didn’t need to be server first, but I at least wanted to be somewhere among the pack. We wanted to complete normal content while it was current, and dabble in hardmodes.

It was a great ride, and we had some awesome stretches, but it’s time to move on. We’re reaching the end of this tier, and we’ve started losing people to real life. Some are looking for a more competitive environment than I could provide through Team Sport–I can’t blame them, I wanted more competition, too. Others are switching games entirely. We hit 4/8 in Dragon Soul in our first week (pretty standard), but just couldn’t pull it together past there. With everyone starting to look to their futures without “Team Sport” under their names, it makes little sense to try to fill the ranks for only four more bosses. I’m even among those that encountered real life, minimal post-Deathwing passion, and a new gaming pasture to graze on.

Say It Ain’t So

I may still dabble in the game, but overall, I’m making the shift. It’s funny. I never really considered how it would feel to cancel the subscription that I’ve held for over five years. Until that happens, I’m a mercenary healer. A healer for hire. If any of my 5 followers (just kidding… I know there are 6 of you) needs an Earth Shield on Ner’zhul, let me know!

I can’t help but be a little sad at throwing in the towel. We got as far as we could with what we had to work with. We didn’t get as far as I’d hoped, but it was still a fun trip. I learned a lot about myself as a player and a leader, and I met some great people. Those experiences shall travel with me into my new home: Respected and Despised. The mindset that I couldn’t fully realize in WoW will be set to thrive in SW:TOR, and I feel that I’ve found the perfect team to do that. I’m excited about what the future brings.

So without further ado… a farewell to Elder Thespeus, the Resto Shaman, and all hail Lord Thespius, Dark Lord of the Sith….

The Leetsauced Podcast is run by a couple friend of mine, Vik and Logan. I met them on the Ner’zhul server while working with their guild, Conquest. A couple really funny guys. If you like off-topic humor in your gaming, then this is definitely the podcast for you! Rayfyst (Dark Corner of Rayfyst & The Sundering Podcast) also joins me in guest-ing. =) I don’t remember much from that night, but I remember having stories for my girlfriend the next morning about what was being said. All she did was roll her eyes which means it definitely was a funny night! =D Check it out.

HERE IS THE LINK!

Also, follow them all on Twitter: @Leetsauced, @RyanGPHX, @loganowitz, @rayfyst

My next post won’t be until the 26th. So, if you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a great one! Be good, and stuff! =)

You gotta give credit where credit is due, right? Pozo, the co-GM of my guild Respected and Despised, put together a little primer for all of us. It’s things for MMO veterans, as well as rookies. I’ve tweaked it a little bit, but it’s a great starting point! Without further ado…hit the jump for more!

Pozo’s Primer

1. Take your time. Most people would say “Duh” to this but it is hard to shake the mentality picked up from wow and other MMOs that make you want to level to max asap. The time it takes to get max level is gonna be longer than most are used to so you might as well enjoy it.

2. Be sure to grab every quest you see. Your log has 25 slots for quests so be sure to take advantage of it even if you don’t plan on doing the quest at all. You never know what quest will lead to a new area or good loot.

3. You get your Crew Skills (professions) at the Imperial Fleet after you get off your starter world. But don’t worry too much about them because they can be a big credit sink if you try to do a lot of missions all the time. Your companions don’t have to be busy 24/7. And early on that money is needed for training skills.

4. You can pick your Advanced Class (AC) at level 10. It is not based on story. Once you hit level 10 a quest will become available that will let you chose between them. The quest giver is right in front of the elevator from the starter worlds on the imperial fleet.

5. You get your ship from doing the story quests, not from level. I won’t spoil the story by telling you when, but you don’t need to worry about buying it.

6. Class Missions are the most important. Although important, it does not take you everywhere; you can miss out on a ton of world missions if you leave the planet when your class quest says to. There will be a mission-giver in the starport after you finish those big missions that will send you back into the world. Utilizing the little missions, regardless of level, will likely get you to the next level before the new planet.

7. Commendations are things you get from doing missions and killing mobs on that specific planet. Since they are both drops and mission rewards I suggest not picking them as a mission reward when given the option. You are usually better off selling the green item unless there are several pieces of gear you want from the commendation vendor. You can’t upgrade them anymore so be sure to spend them before you leave for a new planet.

8. “Bonus Objectives” are the “kill X number of rats” type missions which are tied to bigger ones. Unlike real missions, these have no story and can’t be picked up until you kill a mob that is a part of the it. Also, if you complete the real quest, the bonus objective goes away. Most non-stealth classes shouldn’t have trouble finishing the bonus before the real mission but stealthers tend to skip stuff. Just be sure not to finish the real mission before the bonus because the bonus is a nice, well, bonus of xp.

9. Companion gear is not something you should stress over. Some missions give companion specific gear, and you can always give them the usual mission greens. However, it is not something you should spend credits or commendations on (or roll need on in flashpoints!).

10. You absolutely want to buy your speeder as soon as you can! Credits start coming fast in the late teens/ early. Unless you are blowing your credits on Crew Skills or items, this shouldn’t be a problem. You will NOT want to be on Tatooine without your speeder.

11. Modifications can be confusing (I’ll try to post a primer on these, too). You get them from missions and they are all over the vendors. They are not really needed unless you want to learn how to use them. Just sell them if you don’t know what to do with it. It’ll matter more at the higher levels with Flashpoints and Operations.

12. Companions have special modifiers for Crew Skills. Efficiency lowers the time to make an item or to be out on a crew mission. Crit raises chance to make an exceptional gear piece, or get better rewards for crew missions.

13. At this point, there isn’t a cooldown on running Flashpoints. You can run them over and over agin for social, companion, and Light Side/ Dark Side points. If you are level 40 and running Black Talon over and over again (a run takes about fifteen minutes that way), you can only gain affection points with the first companion you recieved. Companions you gained after your first will not have the ability to gain points.

14. The command to reload the interface is Ctrl+U. This is great for when a vendor or Crew Skills window bugs out. To hide the interface is Alt+Z.

15. Be sure to loot commendations from bosses you kill. This isn’t WoW where you never have to bend over .

So… a pretty good start! What else do you think would help the newer players? List them in the comments!

Yup, it’s a pain.

The dreaded queue time! 30 minutes, 50 minutes, an hour, two hours, four hours, 6+ hours!!!! Oh my god the agony! The world’s going to end!!!

Actually, it’s not. Everyone just take a step back and breathe. Put down your drink (or have a drink, either way). I, like you, was a bit alarmed at the large queues before we’ve even hit official launch. I was in an hour-long wait, got DC’d after a Warzone, then got put into another 1.5 hour queue. It sucks. Not negating that.

BUT!

It’s not going to always be that way. Trust me. Trust history. Trust Bioware. They’re not going to let servers sit this high. It’s bad business. I highly doubt Bioware and EA’s reputable histories are going to suddenly be lies. They’ve been good businesses up to this point. It ain’t stopping now. It’ll iron itself out. This is…shall we say… crunch time!

Server Theory

Servers are supposedly “capped”. Bioware (@swtor) and Stephen Reid (@Rockjaw) have said through Twitter that they’ve already bumped up the server caps for some servers. Expect this to happen a lot once the game gets rolling at full speed. They want servers to have full and thriving populations, not a myriad of half-pop servers that end up dying out as people look for bigger communities.

Those of us that are “tied” to servers through Guild Deployment and server placement, hold your ground. If you absolutely need to move, go for it. No one is stopping you. The servers are going to be “full” so that they’ll start opening servers that the newer people will head to. No one will want to join a server that’s “reporting” an hour or more queue. Once those servers are “capped” and “showing queues”, they’ll open up new ones, and bump up the caps slightly on the “full” ones. Once everyone’s supposedly in the game and they’ve opened up as many servers as they deem necessary, they’ll lift the caps to where they’re supposed to be, and everyone’s happy!

Not to say it’s not going to be a bit tight right now. That’s for sure. I’m on Swiftsure, the unofficial Oceanic server, so I’m in the trenches with you. Just hang in there. It WILL get better. Bioware has been great at listening to us thus far. They’re listening now.

A Message to the Ragers

Go ahead. Go for it. I see plenty of you declaring war on Bioware. It’s actually amusing to watch.

“I’ve been playing a ton of MMOs and I’ve never seen server queues…”

Wrong, sir/madam. WoW had large queues and hugely unstable servers. Rift had queues upwards of 3,000 people and 3+ hours. Star Wars Galaxies had the same issue, and sold just as many starting copies as WoW did. It’s part of the game. As launches go, this is one of the smoothest that I’ve ever seen.

“I’m not paying to wait!”

You’re right. You’re not. You’re in Early Access, which is a thank you from Bioware for pre-ordering. They originally said we were going to be in up to 5 days early. They expanded that by two days. It’s December 17th, and everyone is in Early Access that pre-ordered. Even if you pre-order today, you can get in before the game officially launches. We got a 2-day grace period. So, you’ve still got another 5 days until you’re a paying customer.

“If this isn’t fixed, I’m walking…”

It’ll get fixed. Bioware has acknowledged that. It’s a process. Nothing is instantaneous. If something breaks, doesn’t it take time for you to fix it? If you have to go somewhere, doesn’t it take time to get there? This is no different. Just like any other MMO, there are going to be downtimes, rolling restarts, maintenance periods, etc. I don’t see anyone complaining about those times. Consider this “population maintenance” while everything gets set up.

“But….but…”

If you’re going to continue to tout your entitlement and thrust your wallet in the air, then I ask you to go. If you don’t have an ounce of patience in your body to understand that this is all part of Bioware’s intention to have bustling server populations instead of dead realms (cough…Nazjatar), then I really don’t want you in this community. I’ll even pack your bags for you! We’re working really hard to build a cohesive and harmonious community, and the constant bickering and spitting from the peanut gallery isn’t wanted. Have a good day.

I’m a stickler for communication. I like to know what’s going on. I hate making assumptions. I can be creative, by all means. However, when it comes to group activities (work, school, social, etc.), I like to know what to expect. In real life, this means knowing what’s expected of me. Why? I can make sure all my tasks are covered; it’s also so I know where the benchmark is so I can go past it! In gaming, that’s pretty much the same thing.

As a raider, I love knowing what we’re going to be up against on any given night. It also means that I get to know who I’m raiding with. I know what jobs need to be taken care of. I’ve learned over the past year or so that I’ve been a Raid Leader that the level of communication is positively correlated to the level of success of the raid. The more people are able to communicate what’s going on with them both in and out of raid, the better everyone is.

This conversation spawned all from a forum post from my SWTOR guild, Respected and Despised. Well, it’s not MY guild, but I’m in it. The issue came up because it clearly states in the mission statement of the guild:

The forums are our bread and butter. They need to be used not only to keep each other informed and up to date, but also to keep the cohesiveness of the guild intact and strong. I can’t stress this enough. Using the forums will enhance your gaming experience a hundred fold.

Look at the second line: “They need to be used…,” then he goes on to explain why. This isn’t necessarily an opinion about the forums, but this is one of the ways the guild continues to operate. I’m not sure about you, but I think two things when I read that portion of the mission statement.

1. Thank God! I love an active forum community. It’s just boring for me to only know about the people I play with because I happen to log in at the same time as them.
2. This seems pretty clear to me. This doesn’t seem to come across as an option. They expect us to use the forums to remain in touch both informational and social reasons.

Personally, I think that’s awesome. I’m not a fan of the “guild member” that signs on, does their dailies, raids without communicating or mingling with other members, and then logs off when they’re done. Not everyone is a socialite, and I get that. I just like to have some dialogue with the people I’m playing with. Perfect example is one of our druids and our other shaman. In the beginning, they were both pretty quiet, but they interacted with us for the time they were on. Over time, they’ve continued to open up and contribute on a social level. It’s awesome. They really feel like members of our team, not just people that fill raid slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I’m getting away from the point, though. In our forum discussion, it came out that some people just hate checking the forums. Understandable. However, I also hate going to work. I also hate warming up for a run, bike ride or anything physical. My point is that it’s been set out that information (and even raid sign-ups) are posted on our forums. We’ve been told that they’re not an option. Even though our roster boasts over 150 players, roughly half of them haven’t signed on since their initial acceptance into the guild. That’s sad to me. Even Trollsbane, our GM, wrote about it:

While we are a ways off from the game, and some people just don’t like typing in forums, I need to make sure you all understand that forums are not an option. They are mandatory. I write things in these forums that I need you to know. If ever it comes a time in-game that you tell me, “No, I didn’t see that in the forum”, you and I are going to have a little chat.

For right now, we’re a ways from launch. It’s not that big of a deal. But later on, that is different. You only get in raids by signing up on these forums. You only get guild info by reading these forums. We will make it easy for you to know what posts you need to read when the time comes though. So if you have no desire to wade through 100 posts, you won’t have to.

As a raid leader, I couldn’t put it better myself. Personally, I don’t think this is too much to ask of a guild. Yet there are some that come across as though checking the forums for important information would be the end of the world. I don’t get it. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you have to deliver information to a group of people, isn’t it easier to put it in one easily-accessible place and have everyone go there? If I institute some new rules in my classroom, I have my students just go to where they’re posted. Same thing is done at companies with bulletin boards. What’s any different?

There were some thoughtful responses to this communication issue, but the end point was still the same. If you want to remain active in the guild and be “in the know”, then utilize the resources that are there for you. I think you’ll be a better person for it!

Finally! After a while of hammering out as many 6/7 clears as we could, we finally downed the elemental beast! It was a long few days of attempts (every Thursday was “Rag night”…not to be confused with a female ailment), but Ragnaros died on a warm Thursday night. We ended up two-healing it with Rykga, our Holy Paladin, and me, a Resto Shaman. It basically came down to a fight of keeping yourself alive. I kept reminding everyone that because it was being two-healed, there was little to no room for mistake. Our DPS isn’t by any means through the roof, but it’s solid enough that we needed to have everyone alive to get the job done. Rykga and I were definitely pushed to our max limits, but aside from our other main healer (Discotheque, a Resto Druid), I couldn’t imagine any one else in there healing.

We’re still working on one of our raiders and getting him up to the level of the rest of the raiders. This person has done a great job in terms of enthusiasm and interest, but he’s lacking throughput right now. He really is a great team player, but we just have to work on his output in the roles that he’s fulfilling. Now, don’t get me wrong: if he was an asshat, he’d be out the door. I don’t ever overlook a player’s personality. They have to bring a positive attitude to the table, in addition to everything else. It’s just the “everything else” that we’re working on. I have no problem teaching, but it’s just taking longer than I originally anticipated. More on that to come. You can also check out Rykga’s blog, where she talked about Holy Paladin throughput.

Coming up, I’ll be on the Double O Podcast with Rykga (Ophelie) and Oestrus. I’m definitely excited to talk casual raiding with them on Wednesday the 19th. Check it out!

I decided to start my own blogging adventure, but on my terms. I wanted a venue where I could write what I felt like, when I felt like it. I may go through phases of multiple posts for you to devour. Othertimes, I’ll go through a bit of a writer’s drought. It happens. What does that mean? It means that if you see a new post from me pop up in your reader or email, you know that it’s because I felt inspired to write, and not because I had to write.

Where I Came From

I’m not going to go through and write every single game I’ve ever played, why I played it, or what it meant to me. These are things that I hope you’ll come to know over time. In regard to blogging or being a part of the “online community”, I’ve blogged, podcasted, and even been a “reporter” for a fansite.

For some odd reason, Matticus over at World of Matticus decided he wanted to let me be a part of his blogging team for a while. I loved it. To a certain degree, I miss it. I liked having that access to a community of people who wanted to read what I had to write about. It opened up some great conversations, and also subjected me to some behavior about myself that I’m not really proud of. I decided to step down because I need a venue where I can write on my own schedule. A sincere thanks to Matt and Lodur for the time I got to spend with them.

I also co-host the Raid Warning Podcast. I get to spend a couple hours a week with some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. Seven, Lodur, and Nads. We can kick back a few beers, laugh a bit about dick and fart jokes, and talk about WoW (and the WoW TCG–a game that I sadly don’t think I’ll have the schedule to be able to play regularly…sad panda). We’re definitely an ill-humored podcast that sometimes has some meaningful things to say. Please check it out. We don’t bite. I also had a small stint helping get Guild Wars Insider on its feet, circa PAX East 2011.

Where We Go From Here

I plan on writing what I feel about the MMO world (specifically pertaining to WoW and SWTOR), as well as the life I have that goes with it. Am I WoW-specific? No. Will I be TOR-specific? No. Will there be some posts that may not pertain to your interests? Perhaps. I plan to have a very organic blogging experience, peppered with some good information for those that share the same interests as me.

I started writing a “guide” for World of Matticus that was called “Raid Leading 101″, chronicling my attempt to form and maintain a 10man raiding team in WoW. Look for that experience, struggle, and triumph to make its way into my blog. I’m not perfect, but who really is? I hope anyone looking to start or run a raid team can use some of the experience that I have; I also hope to gain insight to some my own struggles through the dialogue that we will have.

I’ve also initially joined up with a really promising SWTOR Imperial guild that I hope goes places. I’m not “hardcore”, but I do put my all behind my endgame playing. “RaD” echoes a lot of the values and qualities that “Team Sport” has in WoW. I’m excited to see what happens. I’ve got a few of my friends, as well as my brother, with me.

I’ll also just put my two cents in here and there about things that are going on in my life and how that ties into my gaming life. You’ll learn about my quest for my Master’s degree, my personal life, etc. I won’t bore you with every little detail; however, I do feel that for you to understand where I’m coming from with respect to gaming, you’ll have to see where I come from in real life. I welcome your personal experiences as well.

I also welcome your input with regard to what you want to see. I don’t ever want this site to be me on a soapbox (although it may be that from time to time), so please let me know what you want to talk about. Something you’re struggling with or a thought you’ve had.

Let the Fun Begin!

Bear with me as I get settled in. You’ll see the theme of this blog change here and there while I find out what I want HBN to look like. It’ll get there, don’t worry. I’ll also be adding people to my blogroll, so you can also see my friends and who I’m reading regularly.

So, welcome to Healer by Nature. Grab a seat, and simply enjoy.