AFR#232 – S*M*A*S*H*E*D

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The game of WoW is hard to play,
nobody wins it anyway,
someday the screen will fade to gray,
so this is all I have to /say.

Logging off is painless,
and so are most class changes,
and I can go play Star Wars if I please.

For everybody who thought Stromgarde Abbey was too mainstream.

AFR #229 – A lighter shade of dark

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Yeah, I know I kind of did this joke already.  I’m still amused by the contrast between the world-is-going-to-end-ness of Cataclysm and the get-my-carrots-back-from-the-silly-bunny-people-ness of Mists.  It’s true things get pretty the-world-is-going-to-end-y once you move on to the Klaxi and start facing off against the mogu, but there’s plenty of carrots and beer before then.

AFR #225 – Inspirational

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We found the kid.  Why are we still in Pandaria?  Yes, I know we’re there because it’s a new place to explore and do quests and kill bad guys and take their stuff, but story-wise?  The Horde quests say something about seizing the new land’s resources, but unless the ability to grow huge vegetables is critical to the Horde’s war effort, I don’t really see what the Horde stands to gain in Pandaria that is worth the commitment of troops and effort.  And the Alliance really needs a better mission statement than: “Stop the Horde from doing stuff.”

AFR #221 – Mad Panda

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I get what Blizzard was going for this expansion, but it’s really hard to have a philosophical meditation on the tragic consequences of war and aggression in a game that is entirely based around killing things and taking their stuff.  They did their best to make us feel awful in Jade Forest, with everything from the Shado-Pan showing up to ninja-scold us for releasing the Sha, to Lorewalker Cho’s after school special about how Violence is Not the Answer, to Yu’lon being not angry with us after the destruction of the jade statue, just very very disappointed.  After going through all of that, it’s a little shocking to move on into later zones and have Pandaren tell you: “See those guys over there?  Yeah, go punch them in the face until they pop open like pinatas.”

AFR #215 – How to shame your dragon

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Here’s something we learn about dragons in the world of WoW: they like to pretend to be people like us in order to talk to us and get us to do things for them.  That’s not the kind of behavior we generally approve of in the real world.