My New 90 - The Dice Roll

Hey everyone, back again with my first idea on how you can choose your new level 90 for the Warlords of Draenor expansion. This idea is The Dice Roll.

It's an eerie coincidence that rolling 2 six sided dice will net you 11 possible outcomes. Those being 2 (1+1 or "snake eyes") all the way up to 12 (6+6 or "box cars"). The coincidence being that currently there are 11 classes to choose from in World of Warcraft. It's almost as if the designers know a thing or two about rolling dice, no? Ok, so it really is a coincidence.

So then, let's use our 2 dice to decide which class we want to boost to 90 for the expansion. Well, I guess we'd have to assign each number to a particular class. I guess we could say out loud a class "Mage" and roll the dice, "Eight." Ok, Mage is eight. Next: "Warlock. Seven." Ok, Warlock is seven (Veteran Craps players are screaming at me by now). Next: "Warrior. Uhh, eight again. Ok, roll again. Uhh, seven again. Ok, roll again, eight.... AAAHAHHHHH!!!"

As you can see, this process can be time consuming and aggravating. There's a simple solution that both the aforementioned Veteran Craps players and skilled mathematicians know all too much about. The idea of Probability. See, when throwing 2 six sided dice, there are not simply 11 possibilities, even though there are 11 possible outcomes. In reality, there are 36 possibilities. An example would be the outcome of 5. Die 1 could roll out to be a Four, and Die 2, a One (4+1). But also, Die 1 could be a One, and Die 2, a Four (1+4). Other possibilities for 5 are (2+3) and (3+2). These four examples are all very different possibilities for the outcome of 5 and therefore have better odds than say, rolling an 11: (5+6) or (6+5) or only 2 possibilities.

Here is an image visualizing all the probabilities for all possible outcomes followed by approximate percentages:

2: 1/36 = 2.78%
3: 2/36 = 5.56%
4: 3/36 = 8.33%
5: 4/36 = 11.1%
6: 5/36 = 13.89%
7: 6/36 = 16.67%
8: 5/36 = 13.89%
9: 4/36 = 11.1%
10: 3/36 = 8.33%
11: 2/36 = 5.56%
12: 1/36 = 2.78%

As you can see from the image, the closer you get to 7, the greater the possibility, then as you move past 7, the possibility decreases. Let's use this knowledge to our advantage and let's CHOOSE MY NEW 90!!

Let's assign which class we REALLY want to play at 7. For me, that's Warlock. Perhaps, like myself, it's a class you've never really played or never had a chance to get out of a starting zone. Or maybe it's simply a class you absolutely adore and would love the opportunity to have another one to level in the new content. Now, let's do the outside of the spectrum, assigning 2 and 12. For me, it will definitely be the class I already have maxed out (Paladin) and a class that already has a great head start (Death Knight). Perhaps for your least wanted class, you just can't stomach a Hunter or Mage anymore (who can really?). Put those on the ends or, for that matter, don't put them on at all.

Just because the 11 dice outcomes match perfectly with the 11 classes, this is YOUR NEW 90. Omit some, double some up. do what you want. If you really love Paladins and want another one, make all possibilities Paladin. Wait, then why are you reading this? Oh, because I'm awesome... and humble.

Don't forget to hashtag on Twitter #mynew90 with how or which class you're going to choose and I'll try to get them up on the blog.

My New 90 - Intro

One of the new features coming in Warlords of Draenor is the opportunity to instantly boost any character to level 90. I will admit I have no idea which faction/class/race I will choose. I'm leaning toward a Warlock on the Alliance side because I've never played that class. Yet, a Monk would be fun considering I haven't left any starting zone I've started with one. The fact that I have no idea how to choose lead me to an idea on how exactly to choose.

I really wish I had more skills in audio production. I have this idea for a 90 second audio segment that could possibly be added to the end of some of my favorite podcasts: The Instance, Convert to Raid. It would be humorous in ways, yet informational in others.

The first idea I had was simply to introduce the segment via a comedic scripted interaction with an imaginary roommate named Carl. The stage would be set with me at my computer looking over Warlords information from Blizzcon:
Intro Music

Me:  Ooo, looks like Warlords of Draenor was announced at Blizzcon. Let's see what's new. Max level to 100, cool. Garrisons? New 3rd grade teacher class? Ok, um, new models. Well, I hope they're model airplanes, that'd be cool. What's this? Boost a character to 90? Hey Carl, you see this? Boost a character to 90!!

Carl: Of course noob, it's awesome, more noobs to troll in LFR. Hehe, noob.

Me: Well, that was informative. So, I guess with this new feature, I'm going to have to figure out exactly which toon I'm going to boost to level 90. Maybe a Mage, HAHA, just kidding, mage, be serious. To be honest, I have no idea. Perhaps in the coming weeks, I may have some better thoughts on HOW exactly to choose which character to boost. Although, if you have some thoughts, hashtag it in a tweet with #mynew90 and/or mention me @mousedivided. I'll collect them all and post them on my blog and we'll get to see some of your ideas oh how to choose which toon to boost. Oh, hey, look I got one already. It's from @DBcarLOL, huh, interesting name. It says, "LOL NOOB, L2Blog NOOB..." AAAHHH, CARL. Well, listen for REAL ideas next week and follow me on Twitter @mousedivided or go to my blog at mousedivided.blogspot.com.

End

Perhaps everything is funny to me, but in my brain, that right there is HILARIOUS!!

Garrosh's Time-Traveling Buddy

Blizzcon has come and gone and the shear amount of information bombarded into my brain has been overwhelming. A level of excitement could be felt during the opening ceremony of the convention. Even over the streaming information I was receiving through my internet device of choice, the anxiety was palpable. I said it could be felt. Scratch that. I could taste it. The expansion for World of Warcraft was soon to be announced and then that moment happened. We all saw the Man, Myth, the Legend himself, Chris Metzen, stroll out onto the stage, and chin beards everywhere were soaked with the drool of Blizzard fanboys. Warlords of Draenor was showcased and my heart was racing out of my chest. The idea of going back to the days of the original Horde and meeting, battling, and defeating the baddest SoB's this rich story has to offer had me reaching for my wallet already. Count. Me. In.

Warlords of Draenor Lore Overview

It was later revealed exactly how and why we, as adventurers, are traveling to the harsh (dare I say "savage") planet known as Draenor. It seems the compassion and chivalry we- or should I say Varian-showed toward the psychopath Garrosh has come back to bite us in the Legendary Cloak. Imprisoned and awaiting trial in Pandaria, Garrosh is able to escape with the help of a yet unrevealed companion. It turns out this companion bears the convenient power to bend time and space.

Whether it is Garrosh or this mysterious sidekick's idea, the plan is set in motion and The Dark Portal is manipulated to send Garrosh (along with his BFF, perhaps) back to stop the Orcs of Draenor from drinking the Demon Blood of Manaroth. This is in hope that the Orcs never succumb to Demonic Slavery and never waste a perfectly good army on a rage filled and tact-less assault on Azeroth. Garrosh being an impressive tactician, decides to build the Horde differently. This time, like a machine, this new Horde, this Iron Horde will lay siege to Azeroth with strategy, technical firepower, and leadership: three things that were absent during the First War and may have led to the weak image of an Orc that Garrosh sees today.

Who could it be?

So here's where it gets interesting. We see what Garrosh can benefit from with this plan: true Horde dominance, retribution on those who dishonored him, and the completion of what he foresaw in Thrall's Horde. My question is: What's in it for his companion? Thinking of this question brought me to a conclusion of who exactly this veiled character ends up being.

My initial reaction to this stranger helping Garrosh who happened to be able to bend time and space led me straight to Kairoz. For those who don't remember, Kairoz is a member of the Bronze Dragonflight who is currently recruiting adventurers on the Timeless Isle. In the process of doing his quests, visions of the future are displayed for the player. One of these visions shows the fall of Garrosh in the newly created throne room. The camera rolls past all the faction leaders and quickly zooms out to reveal Kairoz himself spectating the scene. Because of this, he was my instant choice for the yet unnamed associate to Garrosh's plan. Going back to my original question, though: What's in it for Kairoz? The only possibility is the idea that the Timewalkers are in cahoots with the mutated visage of Nozdormu known as Murozond. Given Murozond's main objective of completely disrupting the timelines, this seems to be logical; to be honest, it probably is the right answer all along. Where's the fun in that? 

My Hypothesis 

The truth is, there is one other person who has motive to be on Garrosh's side and also may posses the power to alter time. This person lost family members early on to Horde forces. Also, without the mental breakdown of one such Orc, this person's first love may never have been tortured by the whispers of a king. Because the Orcs came through the Portal, this person eventually lost their home to Garrosh's deranged war crimes. I'm talking of, none other than, Lady Jaina Proudmore.

 Gasp!! you say? Gasp! indeed. The signs are there. Let's look at what's in it for her. The idea of going back in time to stop the Orcs from drinking the Demon Blood and never coming through the portal might change all the things listed above. The Orcs would never start the Second War, which sent Gul'dan sailing for the Tomb of Sargeras and causing the death of Jaina's brother. There would never be a Third War, and therefore no migration to Kalimdor, hence never forcing Jaina's father, the Admiral of the Stormwind Fleet to pursue them and die in the process. If the Orcs never created a Dark Portal to Azeroth, Ner'zhul may have never gone crazy, opening up countless portals on Draenor only to be torn apart and placed in the Helm of the Lich King. The fall of both Arthas and his father Terenas could be avoided and any hope Jaina had for her first love could be re-kindled. The reasons for why she would do this are shown throughout her history, but how could she, that's something else entirely.

 

"Ugh... look at them. Already they plot against us. Seize this moment, Varian. Dismantle the Horde."  

Taken directly from the final cinematic after defeating Garrosh in the Seige of Orgrimmar raid while playing Alliance. Jaina's outspoken hatred of the Horde sees no end. This new Horde, under Vol'jin, looks exactly the same to her and when Varian shows them mercy, she sees it only as weakness. She wants to stop the Horde no matter who's mouth may be speaking for it, and if Varian won't do anything about it, maybe someone else will. Garrosh may have completely obliterated her home, but as the saying goes: if you can't beat them, join them. Jaina sees an opportunity to use Garrosh to manipulate the first Horde. Her vision is to go back in time to do this. We find later in discussions with various Blizzard employees at Blizzcon that the expansion isn't "going back in time," but rather "pulling the old Draenor to the here and now." This seems to be an accidental side effect to Jaina's misuse of time travel. Her intentions were headed in one direction, but the outcome ended up elsewhere. No matter, because she believes an alternate timeline will be established once those powerful adventurers return and stop the original Horde from destroying Azeroth. Even with the little hiccup, as it were, in the end, returning to a peaceful Azeroth were her family and her first love are alive and well is her main objective. Of course, there could be speculation that the return to an Orc-free Azeroth could mean an Alliance-free Azeroth, and therefore a completely defenseless Azeroth. I'll leave that speculation for another time, this post has gone long enough.

 

 

Fortune Teller - New WoW Profession Idea

It's Tuesday Morning Boring Maintenance day and the realms are down until 1pm Pacific!! Seriously? I can't even imagine what those East Coasters are doing having to wait until 4pm to jump onto WoW. I, literally, can't find anything else to do so I might as well get my second post up. I know, it's been too long, but I don't think I have any subscribers yet anyway, so this is just a post from the past, it seems.

For this post, I wanted to introduce my idea for the next profession in WoW. As a pre-cursor, this idea will be directly tied to both Skinning and Transmogrification, so a small overhaul would be needed to these two aspects for my idea to come to fruition.

1) Skinning - There are many types of scales that drop while out skinning according to Wowpedia.org (http://wowpedia.org/Scale). In vanilla, I played a skinner/leatherworker and enjoyed the process of gathering a certain type of dragon scale. The gathering of scales at lower levels would need to be more uniform. Some examples might be skinning a level 7-12 raptor would yield you the lowest level Scale. Then at higher levels, skinning a crockalisk would grant the next higher level of Scale. This would mimic the different leather types.

2) Transmog - An update to Transmog would also be needed to accommodate the use of Outfits. Essentially, once a player completes their Transmogging, they would have an option of saving the changes as an outfit that could be either created as an item (Boooo less bag space), or saved in a separate menu; a la pets, mounts, etc.

Now, with those changes in place, here's my crazy, half-brained idea:

New Profession: The Replicant

Using the skill of Skinning, the Replicant will create vanity items to sell and trade. Cloth drops will help to create Cloth items, Leather for Leather, and Scales for Mail and eventually Plate. (I know scales don't make Plate armor, but it's for looks, remember?). Color palates could also be changed using Dyes sold by vendors in all major Horde and Alliance outposts.

After creating all armor pieces that fall into each player's slots, an outfit can be created and sold as a collection. An example could be the famous Green Mail Armor set. A Replicant could create all the pieces for this set (Helm, Shoulders, Chest, Gloves, Boots, etc.) and using the profession interface, create the Green Mail Outfit - a click-to-learn item that can be sold or traded.

The Green Mail Armor is a great example, but let's take it a step further. A lot like the patterns and plans that drop in dungeons for particular professions, the Replicant could also delve deep into the dungeons of Azeroth to learn new ways of creating cosmetic armor. Imagine farming Blackwing Lair for the pattern to create a Cosmetic Judgement set (Paladin Tier 2). Veteran players could be upset that they spent so much time farming the set the old fashioned way, but never fear Hardcores, casual, this process is not. Not only would the pattern need to drop, but the materials required could be placed inside the raid itself as well. So, Mr. Hardcore, it took you 4 months of weekly runs to farm the whole set? The Replicant may have gone those 4 months and still never received the pattern, or maybe got it on their first run; which will ALWAYS be the case. Damn casuals....

I joke, I'm a casual player myself. I barely have enough time to play during the week as it is. I just like to laugh at people who get upset because it's "not how it used to be." HA!! I laugh at how it used to be.  But, that is another blog. Thanks for reading.

Mouse Divided - Take 1

Everyone knows of those silly bumper stickers portraying two rival college teams plastered on the backs of cars while driving through cities. Some might show Ohio State and Michigan. College Basketball fans might think of the biggest rivalry: North Carolina and Duke. In the Northwest, where I live, if it's not Washington and Washington State, it's the Ducks and Beavers (Oregon and OSU, respectively). We all know what it reads:

::Insert Movie Trailer Voice:: "House Divided"

Owners of these stickers feel it's a clever way to promote either their household containing one spouse from each school, or their children deciding to attend two rival schools. Commuting to work along the southern Washington I-5 corridor for over a year, I saw my fair share of them. Witnessing them so often got me thinking.

I'm laying it out there: I play World of Warcraft. I'm sure 95% of the entries to this blog will be concerning WoW. I'm sorry if you don't like it, but I need to get my brain into words and because I play, I have a lot to talk about. At the time of this long commute I was playing both factions (2 sides of the war in Warcraft) of the game. I was in flux of whether I enjoyed playing Horde or Alliance. I had played Horde for almost 3 years straight, but met some new friends in real life (that's a term for the game outside of the computer) that played alliance, so I changed faction. I didn't know what side I liked better. I felt like... my mouse was divided. It was the beginning of the end for my brain. I couldn't get that saying out of my brain. "Mouse Divided" this. "Mouse Divided" that. For so long I had it ingrained and had no idea what to do with it. I've finally broken down and started here.

That was the beginning of Mouse Divided. I'm hoping to be consistent with my posts, but real life and laziness have halted me since I created the blog. My ideas are to introduce readers to World of Warcraft through the rich storytelling the game offers. Possibly rant about in-game experiences (who would've thought, right?). Lastly, I might throw in some Crystal Ball predictions/hopes for the future of WoW. Essentially, I really just need an outlet and I've finally created it. The "Mouse Divided" Blog. I like it. Hope others do to.