The 2009 Meme

D was very kind listing me as one of her favorites and tagged me for this interesting meme. I’d like to return the favor and point out she is one of my favorites as well. 🙂

My Warcraft Year in Review Meme

Please leave a link to your meme post in the comments here. Please tag 5 other folks to complete the meme and copy these instructions and the questions into your blog with your answers.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?
What was your favorite new place that you visited?
What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
What was your biggest failure?
What did you get really, really, really excited about?
What do you wish you’d done less of?
What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?
Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Server transferred. The whole idea was weird at first. First, you make me pay money to buy a game. Then you make me pay money to play the game every month. Now I pay money to take a toon I’ve played for two years and transfer them to another server? Actually it ended up being three transfers…

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

Grizzly Hills. I love that zone! I love the feel and atmosphere. It’s a well designed zone with excellent quests. Actually most of the zones and quests are well-done in Northrend and I have no complaints with any of them. I’ve already leveled 5 toons through it and can’t wait to get the next 5 there!

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

24 competent players more in tune with my progression attitude. And while I’m fantasizing, I want this all in my current guild.

For the most part, our guild has competent players. Competent enough that I’m satisfied anyway. 🙂 Not competent enough for hardcore elitist guilds. Unfortunately, I don’t have 24 additional competent players to consistently run a 25-man raid without going to pugs. And as we all know pugs can be a crap shoot. But even with good pugs I still want to run it with guildies. For me it’s about teamwork, not the loot and even though pugs can be part of the team it just isn’t the same.

As for attitude, I’ve been very vocal about experiencing challenging content more than seeing the latest content. Even with the end of Icecrown on the horizon I could care less if I see it now or 4 months from now. I just want to experience it in the order it was meant to be experienced in.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Not quitting.

What was your biggest failure?

Not quitting. 😛

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Happy excited? Having four healing toons! Bringing in over 200k on the AH over the summer (granted 150k was spent on mats and epics)! Starting to level the last 5 classes to 80!

Angry excited? Gear pollution. I want accessibility, but who says that Icecrown needs to be accessible to every single raider on day one? There’s a reason for stages.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Playing. Yes, I spend too much time playing WoW, but I also spend too much time doing other things if I don’t. Almost all of those things are time wasters, but I miss some of those other time wasters.

Worrying about others. The whole reason I quit a guild, left a server, and left good friends behind was because I got caught up in the worry of others. I worried constantly about keeping others happy, keeping them raiding, keeping them progressing, and keeping it fair that ultimately I wasn’t fair to myself. If I had been just a little more selfish I’d probably still be hanging out with those good friends. I’d probably enjoy the game a lot more because I’d be doing things I want to do and not what others expect of me. I’m not saying that being totally selfish is the way to go, but I wish I had found the balance.

Bitching. Negativity is contagious. Start bitching about something and you’ll find something else. You’ll also feed someone else’s negative attitude which will then feed your own in a neverending cycle.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

I don’t listen to podcasts. I have listened to a few minutes of Twisted Nether at times, but I really can’t find the time to devote to listening to an entire podcast so I don’t. It’s unfortunate, because what I have heard over at Twister Nether is good.

As for blogs/sites, there’s too many to choose from. I did a quick count of my Google Reader and I have 146 blogs/sites I’m currently following. Unfortunately several haven’t updated in months and a few have even quit posting altogether, but they remain there just in case. 🙂 And if you’ve commented on my blog somewhere, you’ve been added to my reader and I’m following, even if I haven’t commented. 🙂

But for the purposes of tagging others, I’ll just go ahead and list my guildies: Amber, Mikata, Cel, Rivs, Myssidia, and Eviscerate. Hopefully I haven’t left anyone out because we keep finding bloggers!

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009.

There are good people online. I cannot judge the majority by the few asshats I run into all the time. The reason I run into asshats is because they are asshats. They can’t help but put themselves out there either for attention, e-peening, or because they get some thrill out of being a jerk. The good people are polite enough not to force themselves on others.