Ctrl Alt WoW - Virtual Reality & Gaming Podcast

Mini Goals

Disparity between alts and how to deal with it.

Email

Thanks Kurt, you brought up some nice subjects to discuss.

I rambled on more than usual. I hope it's a good 'cast.

What's been going on:

Contest and emails

over 40 minutes have past

this is the end of this pod-cast

i love making alts, what can i say

so to all of you, i bid you GOOD DAY.

Friends

Someone brought Taverncast After Hours #3 to my attention. http://www.taverncast.com/ The guy running the show did a trial

I want to counter his view point. He made several assumption that:

Someone being on were being irresponsible, just because he was.

No one said anything about being total divorced from the real world

Not everyone is rushing to 60

His experiment was not a reflection of real gameplay

They took a valid and interaction and focused on the worse parts

 

I think the hardest thing for the non WoW players to understand is the complexity of the game. The viewpoint is that it is merely a shootem up game and we as players are spending hours firing weapons and killing things. While there is a large amount of this going on, a lot of time is spent doing so many other things.

Grinding Rep and Helping alts and silly transfers. Closing tag contest extended 1 more week.

Silly things I did this week

Great things I did this week

It's Alt Relative - I wanted to go over the relationships between my alts

Anyone At All?

Children’s Week

WoW as a social place

Groups – Run throughs vs even groups

New Conbination – Warrior/Priest for Dual Boxing

DuckieBank

Shattrath City – Enchanter and JC trainer

Email from:

Hi my characters name is Lilthis i am a 66 warrior on the Lothar server. I want to say how much I love your podcast, I currently have 4 different alts I play as more than banks, and I too am running around on all of them gathering for their professions. I just wanted to say thanks for the dragonhawk hatchling tip, even now I am still using it to sell them for around 4g each thanks again and good luck with your alts.

New Skype Number - ctrlaltwow – Answering machine set up, give us a call.

Intro

I was out sick. UAE operation. http://www.ask4ufe.com/

Transfers

• Aprillian on Baelgan transferred to ER

o Want to work on getting one alt to 70, loving ER and AIE

• Money to Lethon

o had to level one alt up to 10 first

o There’s a limit on how much you can transfer

o Got ganked a few times heading to the Neutral AH in Booty Bay

Other news:

• My husband got me a Burning Crusade Collector’s Edition

o So I upgraded one of my accounts and received a new Burning Crusade upgrade key

• I opened a pack of TCG cards and got a Lando Loot card (http://ude.com/loot)

Contest!

• Prizes:

o BC Upgrade Key

o Aforementioned Loot Card

• Create a closing line, either some kind of sound bit or something I can read.

New Skype Number - ctrlaltwow – Answering machine set up, give us a call.

What’s Going On

Went to ZF with both Treshel and Auntrillia

• Had too much fun, it was a challenge

• Treshel got [Jang'thraze the Protector][Gahz'rilla Fang]

Afterwards Treshel took her new dagger and sword

Auntrillia and Morrowgrain quest

Closing Thoughts:

It’s good to be back

Love to hear from you.

What’s Going On Made a couple of changes in my gameplay • Did some AB o Went on Vent it was fantastic to use the Vent servers while playing AB.

Typical Day for me • Get up and get my husband’s coffee. • (more to be added later)

Emails

Email #1 I am known as Groffsnog of the Frostwolf clan. First off I love your podcast it is fun to hear about the many members of your war party (alts).

Email #2 Hello again.

I emailed you about younger player and I wanted to say thankyou for telling me your opinion. Snip...

Also, I have started my first blood elf alt, she is a hunter and I was wondering if you had seen any cool-looking beasts in the blood elf areas that would make an ace pet? I am kind of obsessed with pets.

still loving your podcasts,

http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/

Closing Thoughts:

I hope you enjoyed my day in WoW. I would love to hear about yours.

Alt tip, you can shift click on a person’s name to find out information about that person.

Children’s Day is coming, keep a look out.

http://warcraftpets.com/

What’s Going On • Before we head into the meat of the podcast, I’d like to address some comments about last week’s Special Video Presentation o Sorry about the sound quality, didn’t realize the battle sounds were so loud o I use an Iogear KVM switch that allows me to move back and forth between the two computers using ctrl ctrl o Combinations best suited for dual boxing • In the video Warlock and Hunter, the Warlock places DOT’s (I kept calling them buffs in the video) and the hunter can autoshoot. • Any suggestions for other combinations?  

Alt Tips Retuning Alts

I spent the weekend retuning my alts. • You shouldn’t feel locked into a profession for life, especially with alts. Once an alt is in the upper 30’s or 40’s, the skills they have might not be as useful, or you might have another alt who can do the job just as well if not better. o Treshel was a miner, but I had transferred in Iwari and she was around the same level in mining. I was hardly using Treshel to mine. I wanted to use Treshel to farm the Scalding Whelplings in the badlands. They drop a lot of loot that’s sellable and they sometimes drop a rare pet Dark Whelpling. o

Emails

Email #1

Hello! I love your podcasts and hearing about your alts. I was wondering how you felt about younger players. I am only 12 but I love the game and I'm completely addicted. I was getting annoyed on the non-roleplay realms because if I told anyone my age I would never hear from them again, this caused alot of problems while looking for a guild. I would really like to know your opinions on this subject. I am a bit sad right now because WoW keeps glitching badly and shuting down my pc, but your podcast cheers me up :)

Email #2 Aprillian,

I wish I could say that I'm an alt-aholic, but I'm not. I'm a WoW podcast-aholic and have checked out pretty much every WoW podcast on iTunes. What I can say is that I really enjoy listening to your adventures with your alts. From dual-boxing to collecting 1g, it's fun to listen to your excitement while playing WoW. Your memory is much better than mine, because not only are you remembering what happened to your alts, but you're remembering the NPC and location names with great accuracy.

I know you recognize and listen to the other podcasts out there. Yours fills a niche that not many cover, since there's nothing like listening to personal WoW experiences. Spending the extra time to index your podcast and write up show notes makes it all the better.

Keep on having fun - with WoW, playing all of your alts, and creating a great podcast too.

Thanks, Blazer, 70 Gnome Mage, Wildhammer (server), unstoppable (guild)

PvP on a PvE Server

Duel Club

Went to AB and WG

I’m hooked, I really love it.

Please try it

Closing Thoughts:

You don’t have to stay in the professions you are in, be flexible to change.

Try PvP, you’ll like it.

Posted by Aprillian at 4:46 AM 0 comments

 

 

Monday, April 16, 2007

Ctrl Alt WoW Video Presentation No. 2 - Dual Boxing

Dual Boxing and RPG Outfitter  

One of my guildmates on Earthern Ring made a comment on the Guild forums about people with multiple alts in the guild. The post included the statement "You can only play one at a time" to which I had to reply, "actually I dual box".

http://www.rpgoutfitter.com

I just checked out the podcasts and I apologize for the sound of my voice is drowned out by the battle sounds. But hey the beauty of the video is the video.

What’s Going On

I’ve decided to restructure Ctrl Alt WoW. There will now be just four sections:

What’s going on

Tips for playing with Alts

Email

Closing Thoughts

I think Alt Round up will be mentioned in each section. I am doing this because I find myself holding back on something an alt did in the ohther sections and then skipping over it in Alt Round Up as I go down the long list.

Created 2 characters on Lethon, a PvP server.

· I’ve joined Randy Deluxe’s Guild –“Phat Loot Fishers”

Also tried my hand at PvP

PvE makes me feel powerful and strong

PvP makes me feel stupid

What I did this week

Visited Shattrah – Found out in guild chat that you can get a port there with a mage. I logged on to Rilfire on the Baelgun server and did a /who 70 mage search and whispered a few mages. At first I was whispering mages in Shattrath. Then I realized I needed to find a mage near me. I found one in Undercity who was willing to port me for 1 g. Then I logged on with Aprillian on the Baelgun and had the same mage port me to Shattrath. I was in awe.

Then I logged on to ER and did the same thing with Aprillian my level 20 blood elf. I had gotten Shattrath fever. When I showed up in Shattrath, I ran right into a couple of guild mates, Ashoyo and Kalisynth, two awesome warlocks. We set about finding the inn so I could set my hearthstone to Shattrath. Once we got there, they asked in guild chat if anyone wanted to be ported. So we started pulling people to Shattrath inn and it was awesome.

The neatest thing is that there are portals in Shattrath that will take you to the 8 major cities, four for each faction and you can only go to your faction city. This is great!

Decided hunters were more my thing.

Someone in IF asked where I got my hatchlings

Newbie area tip, you can hearth

http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/

You can see what materials are available among your alts.

Let’s take a look at it.

Aprillian on Earthen Ring

· Wanted to make Spidersilk boots Gave some away

· Level 14 asked for help on killing Razormanes near Camp T

o I think that’s called Power Levelling

Veyle is holding ore

Iwari - Mining in Alterac Valley, loading up on ore.

Ardrion

Treshel on Lethon Server

· Is up to level 13 and has 3 gold

o Sold some ore and jewelry on AH

o Got her invite into Phat Loot Fishers

Email

From: stlgamergirl

I know how you feel about trying to explain WoW to non-gamers. I myself have a similar situation. I don't have a lot of friends and I spend a lot of time at work. I'm also a huge fan of anime so imagine the surprised looks I get from people when they see me reading manga or watching something on my iPod. When I tell them about WoW, they have never heard of it and give me all these funny looks. I got so sick of not knowing anyone who shares my hobby, I went to craigslist and put an ad up in the looking for friends section. Three women have responded so far and they all know about gaming and/or anime.

I love hearing from someone else that I'm not alone in this. Thanks for writing.

Closing Thoughts:

I submitted the following to The Instance. I’m hoping they will play it on their podcast. If anyone

Greetings Instance Listeners, You’ve caught me killing Ogres in Alterac Valley – I’m Aprillian, a confessed alt-aholic. And I wanted to tell you about a podcast I’ve put together To help me and other satisfy our urge to have and to help organize our many alts. It’s called Ctrl Alt WoW. There’s no end game content, because most of us alt-aholics never get that far, but there are useful tips on how to make the best of all those alts you can’t help yourself from creating. You can find us on iTunes or visit our website at Ctrlaltwow.com. Thanks Andrew, Scott and Randy for keeping the bar of WoW podcast raised high.

What’s Going On

My husband and I had dinner with another couple on Friday Night. I had spent all day Friday on WoW and I was rather excited about the fun things I had done. I mentioned something that happened in the game. To my surprise, the woman of the couple had never heard of WoW and after trying to explain it, she called Online games a “complete waste of time”.

What I did this week

Embracing RP

WoW News

Tinfoil Hats – possible April’s fool joke

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/tinfoilhat.xml

Cloth

Schematic: Tinfoil Hat

Binds when picked up

Requires Engineering (375)

Use: Teaches you how to make a Tinfoil Hat

Tinfoil Hat

Binds when equipped

Head

10 Armor

-10 Intellect

+10 Spirit

Durability: 5/5

Requires Level 10

Equip: Hides the wearer's profile from the

Armory.

Equip: Allows the wearer to see "the truth." May

lead to an incontrollable urge to share "the truth"

with others.

Use: Grants the wearer immunity to all forms of

mind control for the next 10 sec...or does it?

"On behalf of the International Gnomish

Conspiracy, I've got to inform you that we're

almost out of tinfoil."

Requires Tin Bar (99), Fused Wiring (4), Troll

Tears (8), Heavy Leather (4), Star Ruby

Aprillian spidersilk boots

Server Selection & Email

Abkani

to me

show details

Mar 29 (4 days ago)

On Azuremyst:

Bronze bar x20 = 1.5 - 2 g

Tin Ore x20 = 1.5 - 2 g

Second Email

HEY! great show and there is something you need!

I just wanted to start by saying that I love listening to your show. It is great that it comes out more frequently than most other WoW podcasts and with a "little bit of regularity" which is great for me because I listen to a lot of podacsts and I'm always looking for more stuff on WoW. I heard you mention on a recent show that you used only a few add-ons and that most of them were purely cosmetic. I found it amazing that you didn't have one of my favorite add-ons that is almost necessary for alt-freaks like yourself. It's called "Recipe Radar"

and it allows you to see all the recipes that are available for all the professions in the zone you are currently in. Better than that, once you have loaded this program and logged on to each of your toons, it will remember which recipes each toon already has and what level their profession currently is. Recipe Radar will even show you on a mini map the general location of where the NPC that can train you (or sell you) is and if you use Cartographer with it, it will place a marker on your big map as well.

There are even more features that you will find useful in this add-on too and you may wonder how you have been playing for so long without it.

Sincerely,

-Amaging (68 Gnome mage) of the guild Seven Ate Nine on the Khaz Modan server.

Closing Thoughts:

I’m enjoying the game. It’s something I like doing. I am learning new things and it’s not a waste of time.

What’s Going On

Talk about Guilds

First Guild – Everyone rushing to 60 soon fell behind – first taste of drama

Second Guild – One day logged on and it didn’t exist – felt homeless and confused

• Regrouped, got stronger, felt good

• One day we got a message everyone was joining another guild

o Felt betrayed

o

Decided to make a guild of one – Enjoyed it, especially with dual boxing

Then came The Instance Podcast Invitation, decided to try it out. Found out what it’s like to be in a really good guild

Immersed completely in alea iacta est

Did what a good guild member should do, followed the instructions for the guild. This involves downloading and installing specific Add ons. These included:

• http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/GuildProfiler/

• http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/CharacterProfiler/

• GEM – Guild Event Manager

Being a Good Guild Member takes work and dedication. The transition from being a Guild of one to one of 1000 is amazaing.

Read the forums for both what’s coming up and what’s going on. It’s also a good way to get to know people.

Speak up in chat, even if you don’t have a lot to say. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and to offer it.

• Aprillian is an enchanter on Earthern Ring and I love running up to people with the Guild tag, inspecting them and then offer them the enchants I can do. Ctrlaltwow is a Jewelcrafter and gives his stuff to Aprillian to give away in similar fashion.

What I did this week

Ran Instances for the first time in a long time –

RFC – Ragefire Chasm – 2 times with some great people from the guild

• I love this Instance

Wailing Cavern – another great run. Got some good loot – finished a quest

Went on a raid to Stormwood. It was so much fun. I put pix up at:

• http://web.mac.com/ctrlaltwow/

It was exhilarating. There were many of us and as we ran up through STV and through Duskwood and then getting clobbered in the first little town there I think it was Raven Hill

Alt Round up

Didn’t do much on my “Main Alts”. Spent most of the time on Earthen Ring

I’ve been playing mostly on Earthern Ring

I transferred two alts to Earthern Ring, mostly helper Alts.

• Prilfire, now known as Iwari, from Lightenhoof. She was sitting there all alone and I never use her. I had gotten her as high as level 37, she’s a Warlock and has Engineering 247 and mining 238.

• Rillia, now known as Veyle, from Baelgun, she’s a level 36 Rogue with Blacksmithing 269 and enchanting 246.

I won’t be playing them much but their skills will come in handy. It was fun to transfer them over. And yes I paid the $25 fee twice, but it was worth it.

So my new main alts are now:

Pair

• Aprillian Level 19 Warlock Enchanter and Miner

• Ctrlaltwow Level 16 Blood Elf Hunter

o Because it’s a Role playing server, these two have a story. They are brother and sister sent out into the world and they have a character blog, something that was suggested on the AIE forum to help people roleplay better, and it’s a series of letters home. You can find it at http://aprillianer.blogspot.com/

Singles mentioned above and Jajal, replacement for Ctrlaltwow because of his name. Right now I am trying to level him up to 20, so he can do JC to 225.

Banker Alts

• Trexrar, Gruzilla, Wateva

• Wateva is a Blood Elf and I got her to Dustwallow Marsh from Menethi Harbour. From there she swam to Ratchet. She died a couple of times from these things in the water, but each time she ran back to her body, she’d get a little further out and then was almost at Northwatch and she died again, and ended up at Ratchet graveyard and since she was only a level 5, I let the Angel bring her back to life and got on the boat and went to Booty Bay. So I have my dragon hatchling connection going again. Not as lucrative, I think others are catching on but still making money. I’ll have to find a new money maker.

Favorite Places in WoW

After finishing the Lady Sylvanas quest, I was sent to Sepulcher and Tarren Mills and walking along the road through Silverpine, I forgot how beautiful that area is. I will have to back there and kill stuff.

Server Comparisons

Jewel Crafting supplies

Bronze bars & Tin ore

No new email

Did get a nice comment on iTunes, thanks Priesteffer. Run over there and add your own.

Closing Thoughts:

Find a guild that fits, keep looking until you do. Don’t be afraid to /gquit and don’t hesitate to join one because you can always /gquit. If you do join one, jump in feet first.

I lost a good friend Steve Soltys, I just wanted to shout out to him the he will always look good to me and that I miss him more than words can say.

I put up a special presentation yesterday of the Lady Sylvanas’ performance. I’m going to close the show with the full uncommented version of her lovely song.

No. 1. What’s Going On

No. 2. What I did

No. 3. Alt Round Up

No. 4. Server Comparison

No. 5. Favorite Places in WoW

No. 6. Closing thoughts about the show