Krystalle Voecks

Krystalle holds a black belt in goth-fu and has been known to play a fierce game of Chez Geek. When not catching up on sleep or term papers, she can be found in Outland as either a Rogue, a Druid, a Mage, or a Warlock. Or, if you'd prefer a bit on real life, she can be found hanging out with friends and family, or hunting for new music or comics.

Articles by Krystalle Voecks

Blizzard & Make A Wish bring WoW to life
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Blizzard_makes_a_WoW_wish_come_true'; I've spent some time working with charities over the years, and I've been in many companies that donated time and effort towards a charitable cause. That said, this is the first time I've seen anything like this done. (And pardon me if I gush a bit, but this is one of the reasons I'm a devoted Blizzard fangirl.)Recently Blizzard had the honor to have a 10-year old join their Development team - if only for one day. You see the boy, Ezra Chatterton, has a brain tumor. The diagnosis is not too good. But despite the news, and facing a lot of treatment, Ezra's wanted one thing and one thing only since he woke up in the hospital -- to be allowed to play World of Warcraft.
WoW Moviewatch: Betty and me
In this edition of Moviewatch, we drop in on an excited Dwarf and his lovely Night Elf wife who are expecting their very first baby! With a little help from their Doctor, that is... Kind of makes you appreciate just how strong that Dwarven ale must be if he hasn't been able to figure it out. Although when taken together with Oxhorn's Anti-Elf Anthem, suddenly you begin to understand why those Dwarves don't trust Elves either. Previously on MovieWatch...
Dear Alliance Mage (and three friends)
As I've said many times before, I'm not particularly good at PvP. This is primarily because I generally don't ever take PvP quests, and I avoid the battlegrounds for the most part. But the other night while running around on an alt, I ran across the PvP quest I'd skipped on my main to capture the three posts in Hellfire Peninsula. Since it was 2 AM server time, I figured what the hell (no pun intended) and took the quest. Hellfire seems to be deserted on most days with everyone playing World of Motecraft lately. Surely 2 AM had to be even better for my chances to capture the towers and get away without any trouble! So, I accepted the quest, jumped on my trusty kodo, and hauled my Druid butt out to the first objective. Sure enough. As expected, nobody was around. The Alliance had the flags, so I dropped off my kodo and flagged so that I could "recapture" the Stadium. After waiting a few minutes... *whoosh!* Horde had control! Hooray! Still cautious, I jumped back on my kodo and beelined for The Overlook. Waited a few minutes, and *whoosh!* The second objective had come under Horde control as well! Woot! Still flagged, I hopped back on my kodo and headed for Broken Hill. Almost as soon as I got there, two level 70 Alliance players flew by on their birds. As my Druid is currently level 63, I knew no amount of bear tank weardown would save my noob PvP self from the beatdown they would undoubtedly soon be coming to administer. Nervous, I slid off my kodo and surveyed the area. Good. Nobody else around. Maybe I could finish and get back to Thrallmar! But just as the flag slider on the bar was about to go into the grey area between Alliance and Horde control, the two Alliance players landed and started towards me. They were unflagged, and talking between themselves in that strange Common language. I mentally prepared myself with the certain knowledge that I was about to become a rug...
Patch 2.1 live tomorrow!
For those of you who didn't want to wander through the extremely long transcript for the Stratics House of Commons Dev Chat in the last post, I thought I would point out one extremely pertinent bit. According to Tigole, Kalgan, Drysc and Eyonix, patch 2.1 is going live tomorrow morning to all servers. If you've been holding off on running the torrent, or meaning to look for that patch mirror site but never got around to it, you might want to get that download started. In either case, patches generally mean strange bugs and rolling restarts, if not an extended downtime in the first place. Best to prepare for an extended WoW jones now and some frustration as the bugs get worked out of the system.Me? I've got my World of Warcraft home game, WoW Insider, and caffeine. I'm ready to face patch day!What kind of things do you do on patch day? Have any particular things you do on maintenance Tuesdays like the WoW LJ community does with their Caturday - Servers Screwed thread? Share your tips and save your fellow WoW players from boredom tomorrow!Edited to add: Yep, Drysc confirmed extended downtime: We will be performing extended maintenance on May 22 for all realms.
Stratics Chat: Live with the Devs
As promised, I'll be reporting on anything and everything going on in the Stratics chat. I'm hopeful that the devs will pick some of the truly tasty questions that have been offered up to answer. For those who want to join us on IRC for this, you can get all the pertinent information here. For those of you who are unable to get on IRC but still wanting to keep up with the action, just refresh this post periodically. I'll add my running commentary here via edits as the chat progresses. (Please note that all timestamps are EST.) Pre-show: Had a lovely chat with TotalBiscuit from WoWRadio and caught some of his Devchat pre-show while waiting. Great guy -- and a great site. If you haven't checked them out, be sure to do so! 5:45 pm: Drink? Check. Snack? Oh man. I knew I forgot something...5:50 pm: Wow, this channel is packed. There are easily several hundred in here. Of course, considering the guests of honor, that's really no surprise.6:00 pm: Brannoc has said they'll begin shortly. So far, so good. Eyonix, Drysc, Neth are here as well as Kalgan and Tigole. More official people seem to be joining.6:07 pm: They're going through the introductions now. -- Ah, first question. Wants to know when Azeroth will begin getting a significant revamp as it's a ghost town now.6:09 pm: Tigole says that they're looking at revamping some older zones at some point. Also planning future expansions, mentions Karazhan and CoT as examples of future content plans. (The rest lives behind the jump)
WoW Stratics Chat redux
Just a friendly reminder -- don't forget that tonight starting roughly at 6:00 pm Eastern is the Stratics chat with the WoW Devs. (or at least, we're going to hope this one goes off!) As Eliah is unfortunately unable to make it tonight, I'll be doing a running live commentary from the IRC room in his stead. Also remember, If you have any questions or comments you'd like me to try to get through, please leave me a comment here! I can't guarantee that I can get all of your questions answered, but I'll make sure that they're entered into the QT bots that Stratics has set up for just such questions. User questions also help me to know what information I should be on the lookout for tonight, and what is best to give the most time to as far as quoting -- so let me know!For those considering jumping on IRC tonight and checking out the Stratics chat with the Devs for yourself, more information can be found about tonight's events by clicking here. For those unable to go, you can always come join me here. In any event, it should be interesting!
PSA: Bogus Blizzard mails
Issuntril, one of the CMs from the EU forums posted this warning earlier letting people know about a new account scam that's been happening through regular (out-of-game) email. Apparently it states that the person who received the mail is breaking the TOS by attempting to sell their account. They further indicate that if the account isn't "verified" (meaning you send them all the juicy details) then Blizzard will permanently shut your account down. I've included the full text of the email going around beyond the cut for those interested. Obviously some of the wording will undoubtedly be changed for the American iteration of this, such as the addresses and the tag line.
WoW Moviewatch: The man song
Just how manly do you think a pink haired gnome could be? Personally I never thought of gnomes as being the epitome of manly, but this one certainly feels that he is! In this cute video submitted by Seraya, we're treated to dancing Night Elves (surprise, eh?) a human wife who knows just what she wants, and the gnomish husband who sings his manly song telling us all about who rules the roost in his family. Having never listened to the Bob & Tom (radio) show before, the song was new to me. Hopefully if there are more silly songs from that show available, this machinima creator will create some more videos. Once you do, send them our way so we can all enjoy them!
Tseric has now left the building...
"Treacherous" on the official forums pointed out a new CM opening on the Blizzard site, then asked if Tseric's recent absence was somehow related. The very next response was Eyonix with the following statement: Tseric is now pursuing other opportunities and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.While I know Tseric's opinion wasn't always popular, I did think that he was an excellent CM for a very long time. He brought some of the better zings to the forums, and until the last bit, was generally a pretty nice guy from what I saw of him. Many people are still hotly divided on whether or not it was his right to reply like he did to that one post... Was he right or wrong to reply in that gruff of a manner? And just how far is too far when you're dealing with customers? Obviously we don't know if he walked out on the job after dealing with the forums for 2+ years, or if he was let go due to that bit of forum head-explody that happened. (And Blizzard wouldn't dare tell anyone because that's a lawsuit in the making.) But in either case, I personally would like to wish Tseric the very best for his future, and I hope we'll hear from him somewhere down the road./salute Tseric/bye
Cool WoW ink!
While floating through the blogosphere looking for WoW tidbits the other day, I stumbled across a blurb featuring the picture on the above right. It didn't say too much about it, beyond that the girl who had the tattoo played a Tauren Warrior, and that she and her other half had matching tribal Horde symbols done. Now, I should preface this with the fact that I'm no stranger to body art either, having 7 tattoos myself. (all of which are easily hidden -- hooray corporate America) It simply got me wondering just how much WoW ink was out there and what kind of designs people were getting.Armed with Google, search terms, and rampant curiosity, I set off in the search of World of Warcraft ink and the people behind it.
GM says "Mailbox piccolo concerts are right out!"
A forum thread about a player and a GM talking about the Piccolo of the Flaming Fire popped up yesterday. As usual it was deleted, but the image was saved by Neuroxin on the WoW LJ community -- where I saw this. While GM threads are nothing new, the reason that this player was contacted by a GM is a new one on me. Were you aware that using the Piccolo of the Flaming Fire when you are AFK on top of a mailbox can get you in trouble with the GMs?While I totally appreciate that the piccolo can be annoying over a long period of time, does it truly interrupt the ability to play? Is it on the same level as ganking someone over and over as someone suggested? I'll admit that I totally hate that item, but not because it makes me dance. I hate it because a small flute should not sound like a harp. (and yes, that's nitpicky of me)
WoW goes mobile on the OQO!
No, this isn't the wireless property that we saw Blizzard hiring for recently. This is a completely seperate thing. The OQO is a "uPC" (ultra-portable computer) that you can take anywhere for wireless on-the-go access. "Cool," you say. "But what does it have to do with WoW Insider as opposed to going on one of your sister blogs like EngadgetMobile?" Not only is it cool new tech, but the OQO can run World of Warcraft -- and surprisingly well, considering!Check out part one:
Breakfast Topic: Toons have character
I never really thought about this before, but someone started a thread on the General forums decrying a term that I use every day. They stated that everyone should quit using the term "toon" and instead use "character" -- or as Drysc commented, "char" for short. Something I will admit to being doubly guilty of, as I realized that I use both interchangeably.I don't honestly know where i picked up "toon." I am pretty sure that I started using it back when I was playing EverQuest, but I can't say that for certain. I know it was used heavily in City of Heroes, as everyone thought of their characters as being comic book creations by and large. I didn't even notice until the post, but I actually tend to use both terms. I'll say "toonhop" when I'm switching between characters. On the other hand, I also say "I'm going to play this character" if I'm indicating one of my characters as being the preferred one for that run/group/etc. I've also said that I would "jump to another toon" as well. Considering the uproar, I should probably just say "charhop" when I'm switching between characters, but somehow it just doesn't flow as well as "toonhop" does. And really, since I'm just saying that to save my friends the trouble of doing a bunch of "goodbye" "welcome back" typing, does it matter?So what do you prefer? Character or Toon? And where did you pick your terminology up? Does either term drive you bonkers? Personally, neither one offends me, and nobody's ever asked me to stop using either term. Go figure!
Then and Now: Pretty addicts & space squids
Flash back to six months ago. There were people swearing up and down that the Blood Elves would ruin the Horde with their silly antics and their overly-pretty looks. Many on the Horde side had misgivings that we'd be dealing with a slew of switchers who were just rolling Horde to play pretty characters, but otherwise would bring little to the table. I remember seeing forum postings saying that Blood Elves would be outcast and unwelcome, and even a couple of "boycotts." Many other people were complaining about the "space shaman" that the Alliance were getting. Well, okay, most of the complaints were about the male models -- I don't think anyone on the Alliance side disliked the female Draenei models. Then of course, there were those who were just as unhappy with the changes to the Blood Elf models made towards the tail end of the open beta and swore they wouldn't roll one due to the larger chest.Flash forward to now. My guild has one Blood Elf paladin who is approaching endgame: an old guild mate who re-rolled. We also have a host of Blood Elf alts in various stages of being run up through the ranks. None of us are even batting an eyelash at any of them. There again, none of these are new players to the guild, so we aren't dealing with any potential switchers. Another of my guild mates is doing the faction grind to get her undead a chocobo... err... thunder chicken... whatever those things are. The forums are no longer ablaze with "Blood Elves suck!" or "Just say no to space squid!"I know for me, despite misgivings, the Blood Elves have largely been a blip on my personal radar. I have a Blood Elf hunter (stereotypical, had to do it) who is all of level 19, and has been collecting dust for some time now. I saw the content and experienced most of the new quests, which was pretty much what I set out to do. None of it has made me want to level a Blood Elf to endgame to take the place of my Troll/Tauren/Undead characters. And that's even including the Blood Elves having some extremely awesome racials that I'm sure will eventually make me level one. Have the Draenei or Blood Elves totally changed your gaming landscape? Have you noticed a lot of faction switching, or did you switch to the other side yourself? Did people really boycott, or were prejudices eventually left behind? For those of you who rerolled or switched, have you been treated any differently?Just curious, since there was so much fire and vitriol about the new races before Burning Crusade went live.[many thanks to Sean]
Goggle costs and a bit of RP
I think of all the trade skills I have, Engineering has to be the one I feel has been overlooked the most by the devs. The patterns have traditionally been scarce, and it seemed to me like the material costs were pretty crazy for many things when I was leveling up. In contrast, I still haven't gotten all the patterns for tailoring and recipes for alchemy. Enchanting is definitely a pain in the arse, but I can justify that one with tips and the occasional sale when I have the mats. Engineering, for me, was something I picked up and only leveled for the love of toys. (Like my long-ago-nerfed Gnomish Shrink Ray in combination with Nogginfogger Elixir, which was great for laughs.)I've listened to my Hunter officer, who has maxed his skill out, decry the material costs of many of the new patterns. (I haven't pursued it on my alt as yet) So when I saw this tidbit today, I thought that many engineers would be glad to hear that they are actually looking at improving a pattern as opposed to nerfing it. Per Drysc when fielding complaints about the inclusion of Primal Nether in the epic goggle schematics: We're in the process of reevaluating the power consumption needs of the goggles. While it was felt that the Primal Nether would be able to sufficiently power the devices, and through further testing, we're currently investigating other power sources and their availability.Good news, and a bit of RP. We'll have to wait and see what the final decision is in regards to "power sources."
Spam prevention in Patch 2.1
This tidbit came down the wire recently, and should prove to be interesting for many of us. Blizzard has released some of the specifics of the changes regarding Spam prevention being implemented in the upcoming 2.1 patch. The interesting thing to me is that once you report someone, it will automatically ignore any chat or mail from that account -- not just the one user name. And so long as the throttle doesn't stop messages in trade, I see that being an awesome feature. The major downside to the new spam prevention additions (at least thus far) would be that it only lasts for your current session, and it is based on using your /ignore list.My question would be this: if you have a full /ignore list, will it still ignore people once you report them since it's only a temporary /ignore? (Blizz, if ya love me, you'll hook me up with that unlimited /ignore list I've asked Greatfather Winter for the last couple of years.) While I'll be the first to agree that these changes are definitely a step in the right direction, I question how many people will use the chat reporting option. At least, when you consider that there are mods now that block you from ever seeing the spam whispers in the first place. I do see that one-button mail-spam reporting getting a lot of use, since the mods only block whispers. Hopefully that will help knock some of the compromised accounts out of circulation faster.So hey, if you're listening out there Drysc -- I will personally buy you a drink at BlizzCon if you can get the built-in spam prevention measures up to where we never have to see spam again - and we don't need a mod to do it. (I'd offer to buy the entire Dev team a round, but I don't make that kind of money.) Deal?(Ooh, I just noticed, later in the thread he says these aren't the only changes. Let's hope!)[Drysc's notes from the forums are behind the jump]
Tseric may not be the most popular person right now but...
If what Tseric is saying on the shaman forums is any indication, we're in for some wide-reaching changes in the months ahead. While I'm pretty sure his reply is not what the shaman want to hear right now, he is at least throwing out some interesting information to keep an eye out for on the horizon. Sayeth Tseric:Because the UI work load is longer than anyone wants to think about. We're dealing with mass-appeal items first, like in-game VOIP, Guild banks, Additional base UI, etc.Now, as I've mentioned elsewhere, the other game that I occasionally cheat on WoW with is EVE Online. (Please, don't throw stuff at me for my blasphemy. It's only once in a while, I promise!) I mention this because EVE just implemented an in-game VOIP a couple of months ago. Let me tell you, having an in-game VOIP capability is seriously sweet. There's no more having to download TeamSpeak because you're grouped up with this guild, or Ventrilo if you're hooked up with that guild, or Skype to talk to someone else you're questing with. (Or maybe like me, you have all three!) For the Mac side of the house, an in-game VOIP could solve all manner of problems -- like the ones I've seen my Hunter officer have with his Mac and a certain professional Vent hosting company's codecs. Bam! Instant compatibility built right into your game. No fuss.
Patch 2.1: Live clients downloading now!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/The_World_of_Warcraft_PTR_2_1_is_live_today'; For those of you who signed out at any point early this morning, you will probably notice that your background downloader is running and you're likely in the process of downloading the 247MB patch file to your computer. (Note: that's PC side, and North American servers -- Mac client may be of a different size) As most of us have learned by now, getting the jump on any large content patch is generally the best idea. Trying to actually download these great big patches on Tuesday can often be an exercise in futility. Well, that is unless you happen to know the location of a seperate mirror site that you can snag the file from. For those poor unlucky souls who are stuck with the official Blizzard torrent program... Yeah, I don't think I need to say much more beyond that. Since last Tuesday was the rolling restart week for maintenance, this week is slated to be an extended downtime week. Are we getting 2.1 this week? Most of the people on the Test Realm forums seem to be of the mind that this next week would be releasing too soon. There are epic and PVP tweaks yet to be implemented, but those could be pushed in a smaller file on Tuesday if we're talking about a small handful of changes. I suppose we'll all have to wait and see.In any case, for those of you who decided to pop in and see us before you head out for the day, be sure to fire up your WoW Background Downloader before you go! (Just log in and out, even if just for a moment. That should take care of it.) And hey, tell a friend to start theirs before they head out too. They'll thank you for it.
Auction House Updates in 2.1
I love the Auction house. I've got a mule parked there just specifically so I can log over periodically, scan, and then snap up any bargains and either stash them for tradeskills, send them to an alt, or resell them if it's an item that has been severely under priced. (I can't tell you how many copies of the Savory Deviate Delight recipe I've bought from the AH for 40s that I resold for at least 5g.) But I have to admit, I've never thought that the search interface was too terribly good. Then I saw a blue reply to a forum request for changes to the auction house that made me a happy panda. According to Eyonix:...We're also working to improve our user-interface, which includes the auction house. Below are some of the changes slated to be implemented for the next patch. The Auction House now has a reset button that will reset all fields you have entered to allow you to quickly try a different search. When items are being put up for sale on the Auction House, if the item you are putting up for bid is the same item and quantity as the previous item you put up for bid, it will automatically fill in the price and buyout for you with your previous price. Gems are now searchable in the Auction House under the heading of Gem with the gems then broken up by color so you can search for all gems of a specific color. I just wonder if the end version of automatic fill they implement will remember prices from when you were logged in before like Auctioneer does? Or will the auction house "forget" things as soon as I log out -- or perhaps even as soon as I close the auction house interface? It's not enough of a change to replace Auctioneer for me, but it's a step in the right direction at least. And I lest I forget -- Hooray searchable gems by color in case you missed it in the previous patch notes![via the General forum]
Fun with guild meetings
My guild is coming up on its next guild meeting here in a few days. As it's the first one we've been able to have for some time due to scheduling problems and other things, we are really hoping that we can make it fun for all who attend it, no matter the level. Previously, we've done things like all-guild PVP in the Gurubashi arena, and a "Running of the Bulls" type events like the ones that have happened on several servers. Our version involved most of our people rolling a Tauren of any class, and then proceeding to run from Mulgore to Light's Hope Chapel in Eastern Plaguelands wearing nothing but a green holiday shirt, and using no abilities/spells/etc. (my favorite name was "EatMorChikn") This time, we think we've hit something a bit more fun to do, but just as potentially deadly. Our original intent was to get everyone out to Shattrath and use our flying mounts to play Nogginfogger Roulette. The problem is that this would have prevented all of our under 70 members from being able to play. That wasn't going to work, because the whole point of the meetings is to spend time together, no matter the level. As such, the officers checked the in-game event calendar, and set our meeting for this Saturday when the Darkmoon Faire is open in Mulgore. Those who can get the elixir will stock up, and using the cannon at the faire, we'll have our competition! The idea for the game is this...

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