I had a couple of requests for a post about how to get started playing WoW. First, let me say that I’m not a complete expert on the fastest way to level or the best class to pick, etc. What I can offer is my experience getting started and some tips about what I’ve learned as I’ve been playing. Let me point you, then, to two other sources of information that might be useful: WoW Rookie, a column at wow.com (generally a good resource for all kinds of things) and How not to be a Noob at Wowwiki (another good resource).

So, to get started, you first need the game. I’d recommend starting with the free trial. It gives you 10 days of free play time. You can decide whether you like it or not before investing in purchasing the full game and signing up for a subscription. A typical subscription will cost you $14.95/month, which is really a bargain compared to cable, for example. But it is an investment.

If you can, start playing with someone you know, who can walk you through the game as you go. Your friend can answer questions via chat without having to be in the same area as you are, which is a really nice feature. I’ve done this with the kids; it works pretty well. If you can’t start with a friend and/or when you’re on by yourself, much of the game will be self-explanatory at first.

First, you’ll need to select a character and you’ll have to choose which side to play: Alliance or Horde. I started out as Alliance simply because the character looks appealed to me (who doesn’t like elves!), but am now playing Horde since that’s where all my friends are. I’ve even moved my old Alliance character over. So, if you’re going to play with friends, you’ll need to a) be the same faction (Alliance or Horde) and b) be on the same server (which you’ll pick before making a character). A note about servers–there are PvP servers (where players can always fight each other), PvE servers (where players are usually questing and killing non-players) and RP servers (role-playing, where players are into the story of the game).

Next, you’ll decide what race/class to play. That is, will you be a night elf hunter or a tauren warrior or an orc shaman. The race isn’t a huge decision as there aren’t a lot of benefits to playing one race over another, usually. There are a few race-specific abilities that are nice to have for certain classes, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. The class is more important. Generally, think about what kind of player you’re interested in. Do you want to heal? do a lot of damage? tank? be primarily melee or attack from afar? I’ve chosen, in most of my characters, to be a melee damage kind of person. That is, I get right in a monsters face and beat on him until he dies. I will say that it’s fun to play and easy to level as a melee damage character, but you might be interested in healing or want to be able to heal and do damage effectively (shamans or druids are good at this) or heal and tank (paladins and druids). Classes are much more flexible than they used to be, in that you can be two different things thanks to dual specs, so if you choose a class for healing but decide you like doing damage more, it’s easy to switch. Here’s the WoW Rookie class guide, which is a little dated, but still has good info on choosing a class.

So, now you’ve got your character set up and you’ve logged in. The starting areas in WoW are basically tutorials, but you’re playing the game and playing counts toward your overall leveling. It’s not separate from the rest of the game, which I think is nice. The first thing to do is to look for a NPC (non-player character) with an exclamation point over his/her head. This indicates that he has a quest that you can go on. Right click on him/her and you’ll get the text of the quest, which you should read to figure out what you need to do. Click on accept and then you’re off. Your first adventure! Woo hoo!

Generally the first quest involves killing 10 or 15 creatures of a particular kind. To kill the creatures, you need to use your abilities. To start off with, you’ll see some in your action bar at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see probably 4 or so items, usually place 1 to 4 along the bottom. 1 is usually your basic attack, hitting the creature with whatever weapon you’re wielding. 2-4 are usually special abilities that deal more damage. If you mouse over each item, it should tell you what each thing does. So, you go off to kill your creatures by clicking on them and the firing off an attack by pressing one of the buttons. Generally, you will auto-attack if you have the creature targeted (by clicking or pressing the tab button). This will become second nature pretty quickly. You’ll be surprised.

Once you’ve killed a creature, you can loot them, which you do by right-clicking on their dead body. Loot will come in the form of money and items. There might be weapons or armor or items that can be used in different professions, or at this level, junk, things like claws and eyeballs. You can sell off this stuff to a vendor and make more money.

But you might die. If you do, you’ll be a ghost and will be hanging out at a graveyard. You’ll need to walk back to your body in order to resurrect yourself. Your body will appear as a gravestone on the map and there will be arrows in the minimap showing you the way to your body. More on dying next week.

You gain experience for killing these creatures as well as for turning in the quest, which you do by returning to the quest-giver who now has a question mark over their head. There will be many quests in the area to do and as you do them and gain experience, you will eventually level up, moving from level 1 to 2 to 3, etc.

Some tips that will help you in the first levels:

• Explore the area, including the NPCs, checking out what they sell and finding the trainer for your class.
• Put on items that are better than what you are wearing. You start out with gear that makes you look bedraggled–some raggy pants and shirt and shoddy shoes. As you loot, you will probably see items that you can wear that are better than what you have on. Wear them! Press c to bring up your character, then drag the item to the right slot or right-click it and then you’ll be wearing it. Don’t worry too much about specifics at this point in terms of what’s best for your class. Just increase your armor and any other stats that might be useful. Keep in mind that some classes can’t wear certain items. Priests, for example, can’t wear anything but cloth items. Generally, if you can’t wear an item, it will be red. It may be something you can wear in the future if the restriction is because of level or because you have to learn a weapon skill, so you can decide whether to keep it for future use.
• Sell off stuff you don’t want to increase your funds. You can sell stuff to any vendor. Things that are green or blue (the text is this color as well as the outline in your bag) can usually be sold for a larger profit in the auction house. Hold onto these until you get to the auction house in a major city. I’ll discuss this more later.
• Buy another bag. Or two. Usually there’s a vendor who sells them in the starting cities. You’re going to end up with lots of stuff, most of it not useful, but you don’t want to have to keep coming back and reselling your stuff every 5 minutes.
• Train as soon as you can. As you level, you can usually go to your class trainer and learn new skills. Keep up with these as they will help you kill off mobs faster, which means you can level faster.

That will get you through the first few levels, which might take you a few days to get through. Next week, I’ll talk about professions and getting to a major city with an auction house and all kinds of other goodies.

My interests are at once focused and all over the place. I have books that are languishing and books I’ve raced through, but here’s what’s on my shelf right now:

A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence by Patricia Hersch. This is a study of teenagers that is now over a decade old. It is, in many ways, a heartbreaking study where kids are alone and lonely, going through quite difficult transitions without much adult intervention. Hersch is a sympathetic observer without being judgmental. She tells the story of adolescence in the mid-90s through the individual stories of several teenagers. I keep wondering what the advent of gaming and Facebook and IM’ing has meant for teenagers. On the one hand, it may fill a hole, providing a relatively safe way for teens to connect with each other without adults always looking over their shoulder. On the other hand, it can also provide the opportunity for misbehavior, bullying, etc. I’ve been testing the ideas in the book by asking Geeky Boy about them. I’ll let you know what his verdict is, too.

Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts. I’m having trouble with this one. Bennetts’ tone is condescending and annoying. I’m not very far into it for that reason. I’ve written about her work before and perhaps I’m already biased.

Opting Out?: Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Homeby Pamela Stone. Do you see a theme here? I’m almost done with this one but, it’s argument is kind of tired for me. Basically, the workplace is unfriendly to parents, especially if you’re in the high-powered kinds of jobs the women profiled in the book are. Their husbands are also in high-powered jobs and can’t or won’t take on childcare and household responsibilities. The women can’t figure out how to make it work, even with paid care and household help, without feeling completely stressed out. Stone tries not to blame the husbands and talks more about the workplace. I’m still on the fence. Maybe when I get to the conclusions section, I’ll be more definitive.

I Wear the Maternity Pants in This Family by Susan Konig. A fluffy collection of personal essays. I must say, I didn’t really like it. And that’s all I’ll say.

I’m trying to use the library more, but it’s not as well-stocked as I wish it were. I have ordered books when necessary, but sometimes it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

Image via Wikipedia

The kids have the day off in honor of Yom Kippur. Geeky Girl is currently at a friend’s house, having spent the night there. Geeky Boy, still asleep. I, too, slept in. It was much needed after the last two days of running around. Saturday, we had 3 hours of soccer. Pictures, lunch, then practice and a game. It was colder than it’s been all fall and so after the game, Geeky Girl and I went to Starbucks and I got my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season. Yay!

Sunday, I had an 11:30 meeting, which I had forgotten about until the woman I was meeting with called me. Luckily it was 5 minutes away. I threw some clothes on, put my hair in a pony tail and rushed out the door. Geeky Girl had to be dropped off at a party at 1 and picked up at three, then dropped off again at 7:30. In between, I finally showered and did a few loads of laundry. I sent Mr. Geeky to the grocery store, which he was none too happy about. He claims he’s never going again. Apparently, there was an altercation with the clerk and they were out of half the stuff on the list. I might have to try delivery again.

Geeky Girl and I had to make a map out of homemade play dough before her sleepover and I had to put together a beef stew for dinner almost simultaneously. Thankfully, the two projects did not get intermingled.

We popped the map into the oven and then went to Staples to get paint when we realized we’d sold all of our art supplies in the garage sale. As a sign of how I was feeling, I stopped by the beer store, which was right next door to Staples, and got a case of Pumpkin Ale. I promptly put two beers in the freezer. The map and the stew came out great and we ate the stew while watching Gosford Park. Shortly thereafter, I dropped Geeky Girl off and then settled in to kill virtual monsters, which felt pretty damn good.

From xkcd:

Image by lorda via Flickr

So, I’ve been using some of my spare time to do some volunteering at my kids’ schools, mostly at the elementary school since they seem to need more help. I somehow ended up being the PTO webmaster. Okay, I told them I’d do it and it’s a good use of my skills. What this has entailed so far is setting up the site, responding to suggestions for functionality, etc. and then, posting information that was sent to me. Well, the requests to post started coming in more quickly and I decided to teach everyone else how to post (the site is a WordPress blog, so it’s pretty easy). That worked out fine and now most people are happily posting their own announcements. I also go to the PTO meetings and do the usual participating in schoolwide events.

I’m happy to be able to be involved in my kid’s school and it’s useful in keeping me informed, but my angst comes from feeling like they don’t really need me. Let me explain. The school is well-funded. What the PTO provides is mostly extra. They’re not buying supplies or paying teacher salaries or making sure low-income students have what they need to succeed. I can’t help but think that my efforts would pay off more at a school or organization that has significant needs.

Also, once you get on the “list” of people willing to volunteer, you get asked to do lots of things, partly because the percentage of parents who do volunteer is pretty small. And I often have this gut reaction of a) this seems like such a non-important thing to ask people to volunteer for and b) I can barely find time to keep my own life in order, much less the school’s. So, meh.

Other than perhaps some increased endorphins, most people receive no real reward for playing a game like WoW; however, there are lots of rewards in the game that provide motivation for many people to participate in certain activities. And Blizzard is constantly tweaking this reward system so that players are motivated to do different things. I am easily amused and, at the same time, easily discouraged. What can I say, I live at the extremes.

For example, the reward for most achievements–things like finding a bunch of different kinds of creatures or cooking a bunch of different types of meals–is just a little flashing thing on the screen and some points (which, as far as I can tell, you can’t do anything with in terms of buying other things). But I get a kick out of that flashing thing on the screen that announces the achievement. So, I’m easily attracted by that and will often pursue these achievements just to see that appear on the screen. I know, I’m like an infant. Bright and shiny things.

On the other hand, there’s gear (a primary reward in the game) that’s quite difficult to get. It drops off of certain monsters or can be obtained from so many tokens which are themselves obtained through doing many different dungeons. I’m at the point where what I need in terms of gear is of a high enough level that it’s going to take some work to get it. And it’s going to take help. You can’t run a dungeon by yourself. And whether it’s doing something on my own or gathering enough people to do it, it takes effort. And I get discouraged by that. Because also, just because the item drops off a mob deep inside a difficult dungeon, there are 20 other things that could drop and the percentage chance of the one thing that you really need dropping might be 1%. And, then, if it drops, there might be 3 other people in the group who want it. And then you have to roll on it and then you might not win. So, sometimes, I just don’t even want to try.

Another common reward is rep rewards. These rewards come from gaining a certain reputation with factions in the game. Each area has a number of factions with names like Sons of Hodir and Knights of the Ebon Blade. Reputation goes from hated up to exalted and usually once you reach exalted, there are rewards that you can buy from a certain vendor (called the Quartermaster, usually). Reputation is gained by doing quests, daily quests (which are repeatable once a day), running level 80 dungeons while wearing the faction’s tabard (not all factions have tabards), by turning in tokens that drop off of mobs, or by killing certain kinds of mobs. So, there are lots of ways, usually, to gain reputation and you can choose your path depending on your personality. If you run a lot of dungeons, wearing a tabard while doing so works really well. If you like questing, then this path is a good one (also the rep points gained per quest are usually pretty high). Some tokens can actually be purchased in the AH, so if you have a lot of gold, this can be a fast way to the top. The rewards vary. Some factions have good gear and some offer mounts (like the flying dragon I got once) and still others give you enchants or other enhancements that can’t be found anywhere else. And some get cute pets. Although gaining reputation can be a lot of work and take a lot of effort, it’s a slow and steady sort of progress and you’re guaranteed something at the end, even if it’s just a little flashy thing on the screen.

The game also rewards gold for almost everything you do–but that is a topic for another post–maybe next week.

So, perhaps this isn’t very enlightening, but it’s been interesting to me to consider what I’m willing to do in game based on the likely reward. And then to think about mapping that onto real life. Being easily amused means I am likely to reward myself with simple things when I complete a task–like a snack or a break. But I’m also likely to slog through something over the long term for a guaranteed reward. I wrote a dissertation, after all. But if there’s a slim chance of a reward and a lot of work involved, I’m gonna need some serious support and convincing that it’s worth the effort. Exercise is kind of like that for me. It’s a lot of work and, for me, at least, there’s not much of reward. It’s not like I’m seeing the pounds fall away. I have to invoke the first reward system of the simple flashing thing in order to motivate myself to walk every day. Being able to see the progress toward a goal is also very motivating, so, for example, seeing the page count increase in writing feels good while not seeing pounds lost is counterproductive. You can see this progress in many of the reward systems in game. There’s a place to see how much progress you’ve made towards a reputation and how much further you have to go. And that’s true for many of the achievements as well. So, I guess the big lesson–not new really–is that motivation is higher when the rewards are concrete and it’s clear how to attain them and when progress toward your goals is easily measurable. The trick is to try to make all your goals like that.

After Laura pointed out Maureen Dowd’s piece on women and happiness in the New York Times, I hopped over and read it. And read Ariana Huffington’s and Marcus Buckingham’s, who’s going to write a series of posts based on his book, Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently.

I think about being happy a lot, mostly because I really want to be happy as often as possible. I started reading Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project blog, though I haven’t yet been as prescriptive as she is about being happy. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Generally, I’m happier than I was a year ago, which is a good thing. My job was making me unhappy, and so I left it, creating, as Buckingham puts it, some imbalance in my life. He says that imbalance is good, that women should focus on doing the things that make them happy and not try to keep every ball in the air for an equal amount of time. That sounds right to me somehow. With the stretches of time I now have, I have the luxury of doing what I want, and I’ve taken advantage of that, and it’s made me feel better about my life.

That said, there are certainly times when I question what I’m doing, when I don’t feel so great about where I am and where I’m going—more often feeling down about the present than the future. I’m the ultimate optimist.

So here’s some thoughts about things that make me unhappy:

• When my kids are unhappy or unsuccessful. In other words, I feel their pain. When they struggle or fall, I immediately feel like I’ve let them down. I worry about what I can do to help them not make the same mistake again. The thing is, kids will make mistakes. I shouldn’t let them affect me the way I do, but I do.
• When Mr. Geeky and I aren’t spending enough time together. This is something that kind of sneaks up on me. We used to try to do date nights, and of course, we got the opportunity to go to Paris alone, but things slip and before you know it, weeks have passed where we haven’t been able to have a conversation with each other. Unlike the first item, this is easy to fix. We just have to be consistent about it. It’s hard when life gets busy, but obviously, it makes me happy, so I should focus on it.
• When my work is not appreciated. I like to be thanked when I do something, especially when I’ve put considerable effort into it. My kids almost always thank me for making dinner and their lunches. They like my food! But no one thanks me for doing the laundry or mopping the kitchen floor. So I’m not motivated at all to do and it actually makes me unhappy to do it. Hint to Mr. Geeky.
• Related to above, when I feel like I’m the only one doing the work or who cares about it being done well. This applies most obviously to housework. If the kids and Mr. Geeky don’t pitch in, I start to feel like the hired help instead of contributing family member. But it can happen at work, too. I used to get frustrated when I’d go to meetings and be the only one who had prepared. For you academics out there, think about the service work you do and think about when it seems like a colleague never has to do any.

That’s really about it. And I feel better just for getting that down. Weird. I might actually read Buckingham’s book. I’ve read other things he’s written and have generally liked them. I don’t think I need to do any dramatic rethinking of my life, though I am intrigued by the idea of imbalance vs. balance, which would be a huge change in philosophy for me. I can always use some tweaking, though.

Last week, Laura at 11D had a minor identity breakdown. Vast stretches of time lay before her with no clear path of what she was supposed to fill them with. I can totally relate.

So, I have a business and I do want that to possibly be successful. Just this morning, I came up with a potential project that might work well for it. For a while there, I was spending time on something to do with the business every day. Now, though, it’s gone to the back burner. With this new idea, it might move back up again.

In addition to the business, however, I’m also working on a book project, something I started years ago, but which I’m hauling back out again. I’ve pretty much thrown out what I started with except the core of an idea and have been working away at it every day for the last two weeks. I’ve spent at least an hour every day on it and sometimes two. I was feeling bad about this lack of productivity. Shouldn’t I work for 4 hours, 6 hours? So I Googled for information about the writing habits of famous authors. It’s all over the map. Some authors go for a word count, some work in a certain amount of time (anywhere from just minutes to all day, with the average probably 2-3 hours). It kind of gave me the idea to go with my gut, and my gut says I’m doing okay, though I should probably aim for at least three hours. And yes, you can laugh at me for trying to compare my work habits to people like Stephen King and Dan Brown. Dan Brown writes all the time, even on holidays. If my book gets made into a movie, maybe I’ll do that too, but for now, no way.

And then there’s the walking piece. I’m up to walking 3 miles a day, which takes about 1.5 hours. I’m walking mid-afternoon, which is a good time, both for my schedule, and for the weather, as it’s usually quite warm and pleasant by then. I have to be back by 4 since that’s when child number one gets home.

In theory I could put in another hour of work of some kind after that, but that would put me, believe it or not, over an 8-hour day.

If the business picks up, what will likely go is housework, which has got to be the most boring thing ever invented, but at the same time seems more pressing than anything else and its neglect gets noticed more than anything else.

So I’ve settled into a routine that gives my days a shape and a purpose that I’m happy with for now. The nice thing is that it can shift as necessary, though I must admit, that as it does, I can feel the identity shifting with it. Funny how that works.

• Puberty has hit our household with a vengeance. I went bra shopping, got a request for deodorant and for shaving lessons. Now everyone in the house shaves.
• Lots and lots of laundry and general house cleaning and the house still seems messy. Sigh.
• No walking this weekend due to both the above bullets. Seriously, I spent from 8-4 yesterday doing some kind of housework.
• The heat came on for the first time, but it’s still predicted to be near or above 80 all week. These wild swings in temperature are always hard to manage. Should I get out the fall clothes or no? Wear a jacket or no?
• 6 a.m. seemed extra early today, especially for Geeky Boy.
• Once again, the week looks hectic.

Remember that post I had about paying for public school? Well, here’s another suggestion that parents pay for laptops. I’ve been noting the many things I’m paying for that are not covered by the school. The PTO asks all of us to contribute, trying to raise close to $30k for cultural programs and other activities. Now, it’s true that if that money suddenly disappeared, it would be a big loss, but the school would still function. At the very least, almost everyone pays dues in order to get the directory. That’s $15. I also pay dues at another school. Another $15. I pay for field trips, which this year, will cost me about $100 because the 5th graders go on a big trip. I pay for school supplies, another $100 altogether for both kids. The soccer team booster club wants me to pay them $70. I’m not entirely sure what for. And there’s the cleats and shinguards and socks I’ve had to buy, well over $100. I’m paying $10 for a new music book for Geeky Girl who’s continuing to play the violin this year. Oh, and I’m paying about $15/month to rent the violin itself.

And I’m not counting all the extra things we do in order to boost the kids’ intellectual abilities: computers in the home, museum memberships, buying books, sending them to camp. And I’m not counting keeping them clothed and fed, also expensive.

Sure, I could choose not to let Geeky Girl play the violin or Geeky Boy play soccer. Those are optional, but they’re also really good for the kids. I can’t put a price tag on the skills they’re both learning from those activities. And really, it’s hard to put a price tag on school itself. I can’t imagine what it must be like for a family who struggles to buy the school supplies and who doesn’t even think about their kids playing a sport or a musical instrument because it’s cost prohibitive. When colleges increasingly look at what my mom used to call the “left side of the folder” at the activities kids are involved in to differentiate themselves from all the other applicants, kids who don’t have those are at a disadvantage.

As I said before, I know public schools are strapped for cash and some are more strapped than others. The ones that are most strapped are the very places where many parents can’t afford the extras, so asking parents to pick up the tab for more and more of the things that schools feel are necessary is just wrong. It just increases the gap between the school haves and have nots. Yes, it’s true that referendums to increase taxes to benefit schools often fail. Someone needs to work more on the argument that having good schools is good for everyone.