Putting the Fun Back into the World of Warcraft

Putting the Fun Back into the World of Warcraft
By Sophie Kelly
Posted 23/5/11




Deathwing the Destroyer (Flickr.com)

Ok, so we have all had our new Cataclysm release for about six months. We have madly levelled our characters and geared them up as best we could. Now come the endless hours of raiding - or in some guilds, I should say wiping. So many of us spend our time going over and over the same content, spending night after night trying to kill the bosses in the raids so that the guild members can then fight over the loot that drops. Much as I love WoW, that is not the life for me. I get demoralised every time I die and in my role as a healer, that is multiplied a hundred fold every time I let others die. So I don’t raid anymore. I study the lore and I travel the world meeting the in-game characters. I help out low level players when they post a cry for help. I really enjoy learning about the game. 

For example, I know you all know that Deathwing is now a major threat but do you know how long he has suffered (over 10,000years) or that there is a vicious owl in Winterspring, who was also named Deathwing, but now goes by the name of Hell-Hoot?  

Sometimes you just have to take a step back and have some fun.

Rjurik Davidson

Rjurik Davidson is an associate editor of the Overland, a lecturer at VU and an author. Davidson is, in fact, a published SF author, where SF  stands for speculative fiction. His stories range from the bizarre, as in “The Interminable Suffering of Mr. Wu” to the fantastic, with his four short stories set in Caeli- Amur. Caeli-Amur is a fictional land where mythical creatures and humans co-exist and Rjurik has created some fascinating tales about the inhabitants there. These are by far my favourite stories of his because of the blend of strange creatures and unusual situations. I felt a sympathetic connection with the characters and wanted to read more.

While I didn’t like the ending of some of Davidson’s stories, the journey he takes the reader on is always satisfying. His stories are well written and easy to read and for a short while, the reader becomes immersed in these imaginative tales. Davidson is making a departure from short stories and “Unwrapped Sky”, his first novel, will be released in 2012. This novel builds on characters he developed in his short stories that were based in Caeli-Amur. I am looking forward to see if he can maintain his unique story telling in a longer format.

Teenage Books

As the mother of two teenage girls, I find there is a distinct lack of books for teens over 15. I have just found a series of books about the Gallagher Girls' Academy. These books are a light hearted look about students at a spy training school which masquerades as an exclusive girls boarding school and what happens when one of the girls falls for a "normal" boy. These books are very entertaining and fill in the gap between kids fiction and adult fiction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pFLtBSrRak