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Breakfast Topic: Mine, all mine
Today we're going to talk ... addons. Or rather, one specific addon, followed by a question. There's this nifty little addon out there that I've used a little bit called Gryphonheart Items. GHI allows you to actually make items in game that you can then trade with other players that have the GHI addon, and by "item" I mean anything from a book to a ring or trinket to a statue or an engineering trinket. If you can loot it in game and carry it in your bags, you can make it in GHI. The exceptions of course are items of clothing -- you can't design a shirt to wear or something along those lines. The best example I saw of GHI in use was a friend of mine who made a present for a roleplayer's "baby shower" event. Instead of getting something tangible with gold or crafting something with their chosen profession, my friend decided to use GHI to make something completely unique. The item was labeled as a gnomish baby-rocker, with a description that indicated it was a self-rocking cradle that played a lullaby for the baby as it rocked. The best part was that when the player clicked the item, it would play the sound file for Lament of the Highborne, making it a fully interactive little trinket for the "pregnant" player. As far as unique items go, the only thing in my regular bags that by all rights shouldn't be there is Taretha's Necklace -- the one mentioned in Lord of the Clans that is retrievable via a horde quest. The last leg of the quest has you obtain the necklace because Thrall would like it back. This is all well and good, but when I looked at it from the eyes of my rogue, all I could think was that it was shiny, and pretty, and she would probably enjoy keeping it. So I did -- I never turned in the quest, and it is one of a few that are left unfinished in my quest log. But with the introduction of GHI, I could make other odds and ends that suited my character, like the journals of Arch Druid Fandral Staghelm pictured above. In addition, I could make copies of every readable book in game and carry them around with me as my very own mini library! I wondered though, what with the particular ingeniousness of this addon, what sort of items other people would make for their characters. What would represent them, what would they consider something that their character just "had to have" whether it be for looks or just a fun trinket to play with. Would it have a sound file linked to it, or would it just be something to read? With GHI, the possibilities are nearly limitless. So if you guys could make one thing for your character to carry around, what would it be?
Christie Golden chat transcript posted
As planned, Medievaldragon hosted a live chat with author Christie Golden last night, and even if you didn't tune in, you can see the transcript right over on WorldofWar right now. It's a very interesting read, especially if you're into the lore of the book and these characters -- Golden talks about how she built up Arthas' life and relationships, and turned him from the Human prince he started out as into the (her word) "monster" he is today. And she mentions a few fun tidbits about her influence on the game -- she created the Taretha character in the Old Hillsbrad instance, and there's an NPC in the Plaguelands that bears a striking resemblance. There's also something in the Balnir Farm that she suggested they put in. You'll have to go and see for yourself what that might be.And even if you're not interested in the book and the lore, we get another little pull on the line in reference to Gilneas -- when Golden is asked what's going on at the Greymane wall, she says that she "really can't comment as to that." One more little breadcrumb in the trail leading us to either the next big content patch or the next expansion.Definitely give the chat a look if you've got any interest at all in the Arthas book (which comes out in just over a week on April 21st) or the history of the game's current big bad.
Golden's Arthas delivers the lore goodness
A note from Alex Ziebart: When Simon and Schuster sent Daniel and I a pair of free, early review copies of Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, we immediately went about planning how we were going to handle a 2-man review. We've been good friends for years, and one of our favorite past times is debating things like this back and forth. We rarely agree on books, and we can argue our sides until we're blue in the face. We were going to write an Alex vs Daniel knock down, drag out argument about Arthas and it was going to rule. Unfortunately, things didn't go our way.When we finished reading the book, we got together to talk about it. It was... unsettling. We completely agreed with each other on almost every point that was raised. The high points and the low points, we were completely on the same spectrum. That's just not right. We decided that, rather than write two reviews parroting each other, we would just go with the one. Daniel's review says everything I want to say better than I could have said it, so once you read what he says, just pretend you can hear me say "Ditto" at the end. Take it away, Danny! As WoW Insider's self-proclaimed junior lieutenant Lore Nerd, when Simon & Schuster so generously offered to send us a couple of free advanced copies of Arthas, the new World of Warcraft book by Christie Golden, I was all over that. As soon as the book showed up on my doorstep, I turned on the answering machine, grabbed a soda, popped some popcorn, curled up in my favorite chair, and pretty much read the whole thing straight through. The only breaks I took were to discuss various scenes and their ramifications for lore with Alex. And by discuss, I mean "fanboy out." But I am being completely serious when I say, of all the Warcraft manga, comic books, and novels I have read, Arthas has the most solid, balanced writing and best realized characters. It's not a perfect book, but it's a very worthwhile read for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the why and how of that big armored dude up on the Frozen Throne.
