World of Warcraft: Death Knight
Picked up Wrath of the Lich King a few weeks ago, and against my better judgment, rolled up a Death Knight (DK) intending on a frost spec for tanking. After the boredom and monotony that was hunter grinding (hunter's mark, misdirection on pet, steady shot, pop kill command/bestial wrath when they're up, steady shot til mob is dead), the attention that a DK demands was a pleasant change of pace. Granted, I just got this game a few months ago, so I don't know how the rogue, warrior, or other melee jobs pan out, but if they have any of the features a DK has, I'll gladly give them a go.
By a strange coincidence, my DK ended up resembling a character I had created over a decade ago, and what do you know, that character's major focus was in ice-based abilities and two-handed swords as well. If I wanted to optimize my DK for damage, I would have gone for an orc or troll, but I was in a role-playing mood, so I went with my old standby...the blood elf.
It took me a bit of trial-and-error to get my melee legs going, but once I got the hang of that, then I moved on to learning how to properly rotate my runic abilities, balancing those out with the abilities that use up runic power, and of course, that global cooldown thing. This means I need to keep track of my runes, how much runic power I have, my global cooldown, disease duration, and the numerous self/raid buffs that the DK can cast on herself. Considering that my DK rarely uses her auto-attack for more than three seconds at a time, this job is nice. I mean, it's really nice; I'm not sure how well I can tank or DPS with her (since I haven't run any instances in a real team), but I'm fairly sure she can DPS with the best of them, and her defensive abilities seem to be leaning towards negating magic damage and preventing spells from being cast, meaning that I'll probably be main tanking magic-using mobs.
All that ticks me off now is that I have to grind a character to 55 whenever I want to play a DK on a new realm. Geez. That, and having to give up the sexy black armor and sword. I really missed that. (Of course, I kept all the DK starter and quest gear, as it sells for peanuts and can't be disenchanted.)
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On a video game-related note, Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason made the observation that "The more sophisticated video games require intense concentration, but in the end, the cognitive reward for the master of the video game amounts to little more than an improved ability to navigate other, more complex video games." (p.252) She then goes on to further support that argument by contrasting it to books: not only does reading more books develop a further understanding of the books you've read before, but the books you haven't even read yet.
For example, once you've understood the importance of baptism in American culture (that is, you've read the Bible, or at least the New Testament, or were raised around Christians), every time a character is drenched or dunked under a large body of water, rained upon, or in some way submerged, you have an opportunity to read that passage in a whole new light; this understanding applies to all works where the idea of a baptism has some place of importance. Or on a less religious note, once you get the idea behind vampires or the devil, you can see the archetypes playing themselves out as metaphors in stories that have no supernatural or religious bent whatsoever.
Video games, on the other hand, don't do this, mostly because when you're trying to concentrate on other things with your hind brain (like jumping a platform or quickly shifting targets), you don't have time to think about how clever video game designers are being in referencing anything. Sure, they stick to formulas, but for the most part, video games don't reference other video games, or even other sources of pop culture, in any deep and meaningful manner, and why should they? The purpose of a video game, after all, is to distract and entertain, not to educate and enlighten.
But anyways.
Jacoby goes on to say that every good book increases the knowledge and breadth of knowledge for the reader. They make you think about things you never gave pause to, for example. As an avid video gamer and reader, I can't help but agree with her assessment (again, any reference in a video game would be self-referential within the larger frame of pop culture), but in some ways, I feel that her opinion has a hole or two in it, something I'll be giving some thought while I level my DK.
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And finally, job hunting sucks for English majors. I swear, graduate school is looking less like a career choice (one that hasn't been made yet, mind you!) and more of an escape from these dismal pickings. I was hoping for a job in publishing, but oy vey, 3-4 years experience required for almost everything. (Where's the entry-level crap?) We're not even talking MI here, I'm talking about the Commonwealth area (which is where I've recently started expanding my search).
By a strange coincidence, my DK ended up resembling a character I had created over a decade ago, and what do you know, that character's major focus was in ice-based abilities and two-handed swords as well. If I wanted to optimize my DK for damage, I would have gone for an orc or troll, but I was in a role-playing mood, so I went with my old standby...the blood elf.
It took me a bit of trial-and-error to get my melee legs going, but once I got the hang of that, then I moved on to learning how to properly rotate my runic abilities, balancing those out with the abilities that use up runic power, and of course, that global cooldown thing. This means I need to keep track of my runes, how much runic power I have, my global cooldown, disease duration, and the numerous self/raid buffs that the DK can cast on herself. Considering that my DK rarely uses her auto-attack for more than three seconds at a time, this job is nice. I mean, it's really nice; I'm not sure how well I can tank or DPS with her (since I haven't run any instances in a real team), but I'm fairly sure she can DPS with the best of them, and her defensive abilities seem to be leaning towards negating magic damage and preventing spells from being cast, meaning that I'll probably be main tanking magic-using mobs.
All that ticks me off now is that I have to grind a character to 55 whenever I want to play a DK on a new realm. Geez. That, and having to give up the sexy black armor and sword. I really missed that. (Of course, I kept all the DK starter and quest gear, as it sells for peanuts and can't be disenchanted.)
-
On a video game-related note, Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason made the observation that "The more sophisticated video games require intense concentration, but in the end, the cognitive reward for the master of the video game amounts to little more than an improved ability to navigate other, more complex video games." (p.252) She then goes on to further support that argument by contrasting it to books: not only does reading more books develop a further understanding of the books you've read before, but the books you haven't even read yet.
For example, once you've understood the importance of baptism in American culture (that is, you've read the Bible, or at least the New Testament, or were raised around Christians), every time a character is drenched or dunked under a large body of water, rained upon, or in some way submerged, you have an opportunity to read that passage in a whole new light; this understanding applies to all works where the idea of a baptism has some place of importance. Or on a less religious note, once you get the idea behind vampires or the devil, you can see the archetypes playing themselves out as metaphors in stories that have no supernatural or religious bent whatsoever.
Video games, on the other hand, don't do this, mostly because when you're trying to concentrate on other things with your hind brain (like jumping a platform or quickly shifting targets), you don't have time to think about how clever video game designers are being in referencing anything. Sure, they stick to formulas, but for the most part, video games don't reference other video games, or even other sources of pop culture, in any deep and meaningful manner, and why should they? The purpose of a video game, after all, is to distract and entertain, not to educate and enlighten.
But anyways.
Jacoby goes on to say that every good book increases the knowledge and breadth of knowledge for the reader. They make you think about things you never gave pause to, for example. As an avid video gamer and reader, I can't help but agree with her assessment (again, any reference in a video game would be self-referential within the larger frame of pop culture), but in some ways, I feel that her opinion has a hole or two in it, something I'll be giving some thought while I level my DK.
-
And finally, job hunting sucks for English majors. I swear, graduate school is looking less like a career choice (one that hasn't been made yet, mind you!) and more of an escape from these dismal pickings. I was hoping for a job in publishing, but oy vey, 3-4 years experience required for almost everything. (Where's the entry-level crap?) We're not even talking MI here, I'm talking about the Commonwealth area (which is where I've recently started expanding my search).