The first one was the Infinite Timereaver that drops from bosses in timewalking dungeons. I’ve always wanted it because it looks awesome and I like dragon mounts, but I’ve never really liked timewalking dungeons so I refused to farm for it.
Fickle and savage, these drakes slip in and out of time until they find a worthy rider
The second mount I got was the Primal Flamesaber. It’s part of the “For Azeroth!” event in Heroes of the Storm and requires you to play 15 games as a Warcraft hero while in a group with a battle.net friend. You can play versus A.I. so it’s very easy. The event was supposed to end last week but it has now been extended, so you still have untill March 26 to get your mount! More info here.
Can you believe that World of Warcraft turned 10 years on November 23rd? It’s impressive that so many people around the world still play this game after so many years. I started to play in 2007 so it has only been 7 years for me, but it’s still a long time and it doesn’t feel like it has been this long. It has been some amazing years, I’ve enjoyed the game and all the expansions so much. I want to thank everyone at Blizzard Entertainment for making such an awesome game and I hope they’ll keep it up a few more years!
BlizzCon is over for now. It was two days filled with exciting news, tournaments, amazing cosplay and the greatest closing ceremony I’ve seen so far thanks to Metallica! Of course I wish I were there in person but it wasn’t possible so I had to go with the second best option which was the virtual ticket and the live stream. It has become a tradition to watch the BlizzCon live stream now, so my boyfriend and I watched it together. We managed to stay awake during the whole night both nights so we didn’t go to bed until early morning.
This year’s BlizzCon was special because of the 10 year anniversary of World of Warcraft. They showed this special documentary called Looking For Group to celebrate the 10 year anniversary. We learned everything from how they came up with the idea of the game and what they thought players would think of it to learning that they never thought it would get this big and that they once were just a bunch of regular people who loved games like so many of us are. The interviews with all the different developers and employees at Blizzard and the players who play World of Warcraft were so fun to watch because we got to hear so many different stories about their experiences in the game and what it has meant for them through all these years.
World of Warcraft has meant a lot to me because it helped me get through a difficult time, I got new friends, learned a lot, had so much fun and most importantly I met my boyfriend there. You should definitely watch the documentary if you haven’t done so yet, you can find it on here.
I was super excited to see what news Blizzard had for us because I noticed the hole in the schedule and wondered what it might be. Of course I hoped it had something to do with World of Warcraft, like the next expansion or a big patch, but then I thought it would be too early for news like that with Warlords of Draenor not even released yet. Then I thought it might be Warcraft 4, a new StarCraft expansion or that they never really cancelled the project called Titan after all and they were going to finally announce it. So I guess I wasn’t entirely wrong, because they did announce a new StarCraft expansion, Legacy of the Void.
But I was surprised when they announced the new game Overwatch and said that it wasn’t the Titan project, because it was exactly what I thought Titan might be like, a cartoonish shooter set in the future. Though I didn’t really expect them to have come that far with it already. Beta in 2015. The announcement trailer for Overwatch was so good that I would love to see more of them. I like that there are many different characters with different roles, like offence, defence, tank and support, and the characters have so many unique abilities to use. I can’t wait to try the game so I’ve already signed up for the beta and I hope I’ll be one of the lucky ones. Also looking forward to hear the music from the game which Neal Acree, Derek Duke and Sam Cardon among others are working on. You can learn more about Overwatch on the official website.
Another thing I was excited to hear more about was the Warcraft movie. When I read “Warcraft Movie Presentation” on the schedule, I was pretty sure it meant a trailer or at least a teaser from the movie, but the only ones who got to see a teaser were the people who actually were there at BlizzCon in person. Super sad and disappointed face. We got to see some of the actors, Orgrim with the Doomhammer and what an orc would look like which was interesting, but I still wish we could have seen something more. It’s a bit annoying because everyone who were there and saw the teaser keep talking about how amazing it was and how excited they are for the movie. So hopefully we’ll get to see one soon.
I don’t doubt that the movie will be good, but Duncan Jones himself said it would be like Avatar and Lord of the Rings, which I’m not sure I’ll believe until I see it because those movies are some of my all time favorite movies and Avatar pretty much blew my mind and I wanted to jump right into the movie the first time I saw it. I do hope the Warcraft movie will be a movie that anyone can watch and enjoy, that they don’t have to be WoW or Warcraft players to understand it. You can get more info about the Warcraft movie by choosing to fight either for the Horde or for the Alliance.
The contests were of course something I looked forward to. It’s always fun to see the amazing costumes, movies, art and music people have made. There were so many great costumes this year so I can’t possibly pick a favorite. But I thought the winners were amazing. I can’t even imagine how much work they must have put into those costumes. I could never make anything like that. I would have liked to dress up as something if I were to attend BlizzCon, for fun, not to win the contest, so I’m not sure I would even enter the contest. I would be happy just walking around and being funny. You can check out the contest winners here.
Chris Hardwick was the perfect host. I knew he would do good as I watch him every week on Talking Dead which he’s hosting. So I hope to see him again next BlizzCon!
I watched the WoW Q&A and kept hoping someone would ask about Moonkin Form and whether or not we will see an update to it in the near future. One year after I asked Tom Chilton the very same question through Twitter at BlizzCon 2013. His answer then was that they have given a lot of love to druids over time with their different forms, so the moonkin will have to wait a little bit longer (read more here). Most people asked very silly questions at this year’s Q&A and none asked about the Moonkin Form. So I asked on Twitter if anyone could ask about it, and Restokin said she would ask someone about it if she found someone to ask and she did. The answer she got was that they might do it after they do the blood elves, but it’s not high on the priority list. So I doubt we’ll see any update in Warlords of Draenor, but I guess it depends on what else they got on their list, maybe we’ll be surprised.
Heroes of the Storm looks great but I’ve never been a big fan of games like that, mostly because my experiences haven’t been very good. The few times I tried similar games I didn’t really know what to do and everything seemed so complicated. I tried my best to learn it but everyone else on my team and our opponents were so much better and I felt so useless and I don’t think the rest of my team enjoyed playing with me. But I think I’ll like it if I play with friends. I haven’t tried Heroes of the Storm yet but I would like to mostly because it has to be more fun when you know the characters and recognize their abilities and I hope they won’t make it as complicated as other similar games.
I had to watch the panel Heroes of the Storm – Sound of the Nexus because I love to learn about how they make the music for the games. It was interesting to hear how they come up with the different sound effects and hear them play the Heroes of the Storm theme which was amazing! You can listen to Heroes of the Storm music here.
The closing ceremony was the best I’ve seen so far! Metallica blew the roof of Anaheim Convention Center and I was headbanging, playing air guitar, air drums and whispering the lyrics in my living room. Whispering because I recently lost my voice after a week of the flu. I was incredible tired when Metallica finally went on stage, but I couldn’t miss it. They played all my favorite songs so I was happy when the show was over and I could go to bed.
I haven’t had time to go back and watch everything I wanted to see from BlizzCon yet, but I will do it now the next days. It was also very fun to read tweets and see pictures from the people who were at BlizzCon and tweets from people who like me watched the stream at home.
Thank you, Blizzard for yet another amazing BlizzCon and happy 10 year WoW anniversary!
Did you watch the BlizzCon live stream or were you there in person? What were you most excited about?
I know we’re supposed to post this on a Friday and everyone else posted this first post last Friday, but I read about it a few days ago and it took me a while to finish this post, so my post is a bit late. I will try to post the next topics on the Fridays as supposed.
Harry Potter
I might have been 10 or 11 years old the first time I heard about Harry Potter. It was at a sleepover at my cousin’s that his mom read a chapter of a book she had read for him every evening. I remember laying in bed and listening to her read about the three-headed dog, Fluffy, and how Harry, Ron and Hermione had to get past it to get to the philosopher’s stone. It got me so interested and I had to know the whole story, so I got my hands on the book and read it. After that I was so hooked on Harry Potter that I wanted to buy everything Harry Potter themed that I saw in the stores. I had a Harry Potter pencil-case with Harry Potter content like pencils, ruler and eraser and Harry Potter posters on my walls. They sold Harry Potter cookies, chocolate frogs with cards, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, candy wands and much more which I just had to buy. I went to watch the first movie in the cinema and bought it on VHS so I could watch it over again.
I read all the books as soon as they were released and watched all the movies in the cinema. I got the books as audio books a few years ago because I traveled a lot and wanted something to listen to besides music. I still got the audio books on my iPhone and I listen to them whenever I’m bored, when walking home, on the bus, train or if I have trouble falling asleep. Listening to the Harry Potter books always make me entertained and relaxed and I can’t imagine that I’ll ever stop listening to them. It’s also a tradition for me to watch the Harry Potter movies every Christmas.
World of Warcraft
I started playing WoW in 2007 because some friends played it and they kept talking about it all the time so I wanted to see what it was all about. So I bought the first game and created my first character, a male tauren warrior called Syrcorax. I loved how I could run around in a big world and explore every corner of the map. There was so much to see and so much to do. Everything was new and I was a total noob, but I had so much fun. I joined a raiding guild at level 70 and started raiding Karazhan. Since then raiding was my passion and I didn’t stop until 2013.
I’m still playing but not as much as before, just very casual, and I will continue to play as long as I enjoy it. I want to learn more about the lore, follow the story and see how it progresses through future patches and expansions. Explore new worlds and see new content until it all ends. If it hadn’t been for WoW I would never have started this blog and I would never have met my boyfriend. So I can’t even imagine how my life would have been now if I never started playing.
Narnia
I don’t even remember the first time I heard about Narnia, but I might have been between 5 and 8 years old when someone read the books for me. Around the same time the Norwegian TV channel NRK had a kids TV show called Julemorgen every morning during the Christmas holidays. They sent one episode of the BBC-produced TV series The Chronicles of Narnia every day during Christmas, and every Christmas for several years. I remember watching it every day and every year. It was such a magical story, the greatest adventure I knew of and I loved it so much.
I was ever so happy when I read that they were making new Narnia movies though I at first was afraid they would ruin the great legacy C.S. Lewis left us, but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movies in the cinema because they were so amazing and perfectly made! I still watch them every Christmas.
His Dark Materials
His Dark Materials is a fantasy trilogy by Philip Pullman. The books are called Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I don’t remember how I first heard about these books but I think I borrowed them at the local library. The main characters in the books are Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry. Lyra is from a world where people have daemons which is a physical manifestation of a person’s soul, in an animal form that reflects the person’s character. Will is from a world like the one we live in, without daemons, but otherwise very similar to Lyra’s world. We follow Lyra and Will as they travel through a series of parallel universes where they meet witches, armored polar bears, ghosts and angels.
These books are some of my all time favorite books because the story is so deep and the characters are so real that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the story and the different topics in the books even after I finished reading. I love how the books lead you through some of the biggest questions in life, in science, philosophy, religion and history. It makes you look at the world around you and think that maybe things are different from what they seem. I think I’ve read the books three times and I might read them again soon.
The movie The Golden Compass is based on the first book. It’s a pretty good movie, but of course the book is so much better! Also the movie is more like a family or children’s movie, while the book is more suitable for young adults or older adults. I would love to see the two other books as movies but I doubt it will happen anytime soon. Maybe someone will pick it up again some day and make three amazing movies as they should be.
Nintendo 64, Zelda and Banjo-Kazooie
I think I was 9 years old when I got my Nintendo 64. I had been looking at it in the local toy store and told my mom I wanted it for my birthday. Then one day when I was at a friend’s house across the street my mom came over and told me she was just going to the store to buy something and she would be back soon. A little while later she came over again and told me I had to come home because she had something for me. We went home and this big wrapped package lay on the coffee table. I had no idea what it could be but I unwrapped it and there it was: A Nintendo 64 with Banjo-Kazooie. It wasn’t even my birthday. I was so happy!
My mom and I played a lot together. First Banjo-Kazooie, later The Legend of Zelda, Mario Party and plenty of other games. She helped me understand the games because they were all in English, and she even helped me through the scary parts in Zelda, like the well, the Shadow Temple and the Forest Temple where there were enemies like the Redead, Wallmasters and the miniboss Dead Hand. These games mean a lot to me because they were my first games and they got me interested in adventure games. I’ve bought all the Nintendo consoles and all the Zelda games since, sadly I haven’t got the Wii U yet but I will buy it as soon as the Zelda game is released.
What are your fandoms that made you who you are today?
WoW’s 10th anniversary is coming up and Alternative Chat has started a podcast documentary project called 10 Years 10 Questions. But she needs our help. She wants as many players as possible to answer these ten questions about their time in World of Warcraft. You will find all the info you need here.
1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I had friends and classmates who always talked about it and it sounded like a fun game because it was so different from anything I’d played before. So I bought the first expansion and started playing with my friends.
2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
A male tauren warrior called Syrcorax which was my main from I started mid TBC to start of WotLK when I rerolled druid. I still got the warrior on my account but I haven’t played it in a while now.
3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
I wanted to be the same faction as my friends and they were Horde. But I thought Horde seemed like a much cooler faction than the Alliance because they were more fierce and wild.
4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
It’s impossible to just pick one because there are so many great ones. I’ve been part of so many exciting boss kills over the years but my favorites were our first Illidan kill and our first Arthas heroic kill. But I have so many great memories from my time in the Scandinavian guild Ash and with all the awesome people I got to know there. We even had guild meetings where we all got together for a weekend.
5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
I’ve always seen myself as an explorer and adventurer. I have to explore every corner of the map, see everything there is to see, it’s so fun to be able to go exactly where you want, why just follow the road when there is so much more just waiting to be explored?
6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
Orgrimmar because I got everything I need there.
7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
I started playing in October 2007 and I played a lot the first year, and even more some of the following years because of raids. I haven’t had any real breaks except for maybe a few weeks holiday here and there.
8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
I like to read them the first time so I know why I should do what they want me to do. It’s more fun when you can follow the story.
9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
Yes, I’m sure there are some, but nothing specific comes to mind. If I have to pick something, maybe I regret that I switched from Horde to Alliance early in WotLK. I should have stayed Horde and joined the guild Ash then instead of in the end of WotLK.
10.What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
WoW has taught me a lot. I’ve become much better at writing and reading English which is my second language. I met my boyfriend through WoW. We were in Ash together and first met at a guild meeting in 2010. Now we’ve been a couple for almost 3 years.
Syrco Owl 