CharPool Has Launched: There’s A New WoW Site In Town

Over the last few years, I have always wondered why there was no site that would allow me to track my progress in World of Warcraft. Sure, there’s the WoW Armory and sites like Raptr, but all these places take more of a “your char right now!” approach which never came close to what I had in mind. And those that did go into the direction I was thinking didn’t click with me.

But what exactly did I have in mind? This is where it gets a bit complicated. I was looking for a site that would automatically keep track of my characters for me, make daily snapshots, let me upload images and notes… Give me a timeline of their progress… In short, something that would allow me to document the “life” of my toons. Maybe something that would give me a bit more, with “more” still being a very diffuse idea.

Anyways, I always felt this was strange there was no such site, as I believe there’s an audience for that. So many people do invest so many hours, so much energy and money into the game, I can’t possibly be the only one wanting.

I ended up firing up TextMate and starting to code, and only a short while °cough° later, I had something I deemed good enough to release as a beta.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you CharPool.

The site does exactly what I’ve described a few paragraphs ago, but it also throws in (in my opinion) funky Twitter support, whereas you can tweet in the name of your characters, and these tweets will show up on the chars timeline, together with your achievements and screenshots etc. It also has feeds.

There’s also a page which shows you the WoW-related tweets of your guild mates and also of the people you are following on CharPool. The guild support is still rather rudimentary, and at the moment is mostly just a hint at things to come. Again, it’s Twitter-based, because I’ve read somewhere on AOL that it is what the “cool cats” are “digging” right now.¹

So, I am having plans for CharPool. Big plans. But it’s still in its infancy, there’re a few rough edges, and I’ll need testers to take a look, poke around, and give me feedback. Preferrably WoW players, because, you see, without active characters the site is rather pointless. :)

I’ve opened up 250 beta slots which are given away on a “first come, first serve” basis. I’d appreciate it if you could take a look if WoW is your cup o’ tea. If not, maybe you know someone who is a player? Then you could pass him a note.

Thank you very much in advance.

Avatare im “SZ Magazin”

Vor ein paar Wochen wurde ich fürs Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin interviewt—es ging um Avatare und die Leute dahinter, i.e. um die Charaktere, die Menschen in Onlinespielen spielen.

Heute wurde es veröffentlicht.

Hendrik, der auch interviewt wurde, hats sogar ins Print-Magazin geschafft, ich war anscheinend zu hässlich und kam “nur” in die Web-Ausgabe. Aber hey, das passt schon. Was ich etwas schade finde: ca. 90% von dem, was wir gefragt wurden und was wir gesagt haben, haben sie nicht verwendet. Schande!

Wie dem auch sei, hier bin ich zu sehen und hier ist Hendrik. Und hier ist ein Screenshot, für die Nachwelt erhalten. (Klick darauf geht zur großen Version.)

World of Weakness

Ich bin schwach. Hendrik erzählte mir interessante Sachen über den neuen WoW 2.0-Patch, und eh ichs mich versehe, habe ich den Patch runtergeladen, installiert, und meinen Account reaktiviert.

Super, ganz toll. Ich bin so schwach.

Ich hab zwei (für mich) ganz neue Ansätze ausprobiert: Untot & Magus. Dummerweise hab ich jetzt wieder Spaß, allerdings hab ich auch noch nicht so lang gespielt. Wenigstens hab ich Urlaub; eine gute Ausrede.

Danke, Hendrik. Vielen Dank. :P

EVE… Stop hurting me, baby

When Hendrik dropped a few bomb shells about the upcoming EVE expansion, I was feeling a bit unsure at first. On the one hand, I love playing with him. (Yes, I know how this sounds.) Plus, EVE consumed quite a bit of my time in the past; actually I dropped out and in a few times by now right from the beginning.

On the other hand, my relationship with EVE was always somewhat …abusive; I wanted to like EVE, I actually still do, but she kept hitting me over and over again. Mostly with boredom, while at the same time flashing off some nasty (the good kind).

I always felt like there was much love just around the corner, but in the end it boiled down to doing endless cargo runs, spending mindnumbing hours mining asteroids or quickly dying at the hands of some over-equipped, merciless (and most likely also bored) ass enemy player.

(Let me tell you: after doing endless cargo runs or spending mindnumbing hours mining asteroids, dying quickly at the hands of some over-equipped, merciless (and most likely also bored) ass enemy player is to fun what a McNugget is to a real chicken.)

Nonetheless—I loved how EVE doesn’t put silly limitations on you. It just doesn’t. There this huge, vast playing field, waiting for players to fill it, and I always just loved the feeling of having no limits. Trading? There. Fighting? There (alright, point’n’click). Playing the stock market? There. Auction house? There. Shiny things? You bet. Skill trees, warfare, money making, team play? They got you covered.

In the end, tho, it always ended with me looking for a good corporation to join. I was looking for a casual outfit. The problem with that? A casual outfit/corporation probably won’t cut it. If you want to play with the big boys, you have to put in some real effort. But sorry, I already do have a job, I am looking for a game. I doubt you can make a difference (or play a nice, fun game) when you’re on your own. So I couldn’t find a good corp, got bored or frustrated, and left. Then wait a few months, see something shiny, let the “wounds” heal, forget, rinse and repeat.

And now they dangle Revelations before my watering eyes, and the more I read about it, the more I feel my weakness grow. Damn you, Mans! God, I hate you. :P

Anyways, the expansion is supposed to be out tomorrow. And the feature list and what the devs are blogging is mouth-watering. Oh my.

Are some of you playing EVE? I told you what I was looking for. Are there any companies willing to show two, somewhat capable pilots (who actually still have some funds left from the past) what EVE feels like if you have a bigger crew to roll with? Hypothetically speaking, of course. I still don’t know whether I will reactivate my account.

EVE, baby, I might be coming back. Will you promise not to hit me again if I do?

Tales from the Auction House, part 1

Bought an Hakkari Coin at the AH for the great price of 5g 78s. Wanted to resell it for a better price (better for me).

When I realized I had put it up for auction for 7s minimum bid and 9s buyout, it was to late. Argh!

Well, live and learn. Thank God it wasn’t real money. :)

World of Warcraft, giving you all the joy and excitement of Ebay without the real life pain you might go through…

WoW EU

By the way, I’ve cancelled my US subscription and set up shop at Argent Dawn EU.

Ambea, Tauren druid. A wholly new experience. First, the damn timezones “lag” is gone. The first evening of play in Mulgore I was wondering whether my video card was broken, until I realized I was witnessing night fall. Oh right, none of that -6hrs shit anymore! Very good.

Then there are so many people. Again, playing in the same timezone as everyone else is really making a difference.

And then the Battlegrounds. I had the opportunity to enter Warsong Gulch once during my time on Argent Dawn US, Alliance side. First of all, timezones. Then the Alliance/Horde ratio. It always felt like there were like 10 Alliance people per 1 Horde player, which made finding an enemy BGs group somewhat hard.

EU + Horde side == BG every time I want. w00t!

Anyways, gimme a shout if you’re around.

Hot Interracial Deeprun Tram Encounters!

Discord :: View topic - Roleplaying Realms Rule:

Out of sheer boredom and the need to do a little PvP research, I recently found myself exploring the Deeprun Tram on a local roleplaying server. With exploration under way, I trekked deep within the confines of the tram and found something rather unusual. What was this standing before me? Two naked night elves of course.

Hijinks ensued.

Update 2007-02-07: Apparently I still get a number of hits from Google for this story. I don’t know why, but it still seems to be a hot-button issue! So I’ve updated the link. There you go.

Weekend WoW roundup

So, let’s see…

DING — Graun reached season 50!

Then I’ve had a very nice conversation with a human priest or warrior (?) named Ptalaphose about the future of the Alliance.

I met a friendly Night Elf priest named Avaa which in Felwood. Our paths happened to cross a few times again. A overly pleasant lass. She invited me to run a few Zul’Farrak errands together with her and a few of her friends. We had a blast. It was a very nice group, two lvl60, two Gahz’rilla Scale Armor. Lucky me.

Oh, and I’ve even travelled to Aldrassil and bribed a few younglings to help me start my own guild. Which already has another member, an aspiring young Elven druid named Yule.

Later on I’ve convinced those tunnel-dwelling Furbolgs to let me pass from Felwood to Winterspring and Moonglade. Ah, Moonglade… I’ve never been there, can you imagine? I’m playing almost since release day, and I had no idea.

All in all it was a rather nice WoW weekend. Lots of casual and even a bit of not-so-casual roleplaying. It’s amazing how much difference well-formed sentences and in-character conversations can make. That’s why I love Argent Dawn.

It’s quite nice to have the feeling of not being surrounded by 12-year-olds (“OMGLOLZRUGAYWTF”) —- unless the Blackrock server goes down again and Ironforge is overrun by profane Gnome warriors. Which reminds me: I’ve reported about a dozen of those since they were making quite a ruckus on Saturday, heavily spamming the chat channels, yelling profanities, cussing at Argent Dawn citizens. Less than 12 hours later I’ve got an email from Blizzard support: they are taking actions against those players. Now that’s nice, isn’t it? Apparently I wasn’t the only one the kids’ve ticked off. I’ve no problems with PvP people using RP servers, for PvP is an integral part of the game, but people with the clear intention of gameplay disruption need punishment.

Anyways… if you happen to run around on Argent Dawn, drop me a line some time, I’d appreciate it. Also, if you’re unaffiliated and like cunning head wear, the Fancy Hat Brigade will be there for you.

(That probably sounds like I’ve done nothing but playing WoW the whole weekend, but interestingly enough, that wasn’t the case.)

Ryzom, baby, Ryzom

Mail from them to me:

You have been selected to take part in The Saga of Ryzom Beta 2.

You are amongst the upcoming wave of new beta-testers.

Yeeehaw! :)

Player wipe?

Ah well, it’s still in the testing phase, so hey. But I’ll sure miss my lvl48 JE with his bad ass lvl4 mining devices and his über-l33t prospecting skill. ;)