Congratulations Dermont. The former Ironforge Sentinel gas hit the big eight oh. Good work Johnny. He’s working on the video now. I’ll post it when he gets it done.

After listening to The Instance #145 and doing a little browsing, it seems that Blizzard is issuing some strangely unBlizzard-like take down notices.  Mod writers are being asked not to ask for money, iPhone application developers are being told to cease and desist and a German web comic was told to take down a comic.

I’ll miss the Character app for iPhone. It was really sweet and worked much better than trying to use the Armory from mobile Safari. The link to the iPhone Character’s App notice is here: 

http://rudip.com/2009/04/farewell-and-thank-for-all-the-fish/

Is this the end of Blizzard as we know it? Is the Activision culture finally taking hold and changing the company? What does this mean to WoW and Blizzard?
I don’t know. I hope not. I like what Blizzard has done and I haven’t played anything from Activision since Pitfall (Yep, I’m that old.)

[quicktime width=480 height=280]http://www.skoda.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/grim-dings-80.m4v[/quicktime]

Grimlager is the first Ironforge Sentinel to hit the big 8 0.  Let’s get going Crillibunk, you have a long way to go

Grimlager has made it to level 70.

[quicktime width="480" height="280"]http://www.skoda.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/grimlager-70.m4v[/quicktime]

So I patched to 3.0.2 and I’m a little curious about the version number and the fact that the GUI is now re-branded to Wrath of the Lich King.  Did I miss something here?  Do I not need to shell out another $40 to get the update?

My realms are all down but it looks like the death knight class is available on the create a character page and a bunch of Wrath stuff is in the patch notes.  I wonder how this is gonna work out…

With the impending release of Wraith of the Lick King, many of us are saddened by the removal of the Amani War Bear mount.  Blizzard posted that the bear mount was a reward for players who accomplished the feat of the timed quest through Zul’Aman.  They say that leaving the bear mount in the game after the level cap will diminish the meaning of the mount.

I can see their point, but how about changing the color or the armor on the bear?  Make a cosmetic distinction between the old school war bear mount and the one that drops after the level cap is increased.  That way players (like me) who are on the cusp of 70 and have no real chance of getting the bear before the 13th of November can still get a bear mount, just not THE bear mount.

Grimlager at Brewfest, chatting up a lady

I think that Brewfest in the World of Warcraft is my favorite virtual holiday.  I’m amazed at how the folks at Blizzard take real world events, like Octoberfest,  and tun them in to a week long party.

The other thing that’s really amazing is the nature of the event.  It’s a booze fueled festival yet none of the negative troubles seem to manifest themselves.  I suppose that’s because the toon is drunk and the person behind the keyboard isn’t, so all that beer-induced bad judgement that causes troubles at binge drinking parties doesn’t exist.

Playing WoW tipsy isn’t nearly as much fun as playing WoW when your toon is tipsy.  One night I thought it was a good idea to swim from Darkshore to Durotan. I made it to Azshara then hearth-stoned home.  I know, don’t ask, it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.  I know others (no names of course) who couldn’t manage to keep from falling to their death in Gnomer (more than once) while the rest of the team waited, and waited, and waited…

I saw some goblins this morning sending people to Booty Bay to have a drink. I was wondering why the sudden interest pirates in WoW. At lunch I received an email and discovered that today is “talk like a pirate day” See www.talklikeapirate.com for more info.

Arrr, Way to go Blizzard, a quick in-game homage to “Talk Like A Pirate Day” Ye be owed an extra ration of grog fer ye efforts, matey.

A lovely shot of Grimlager (lvl 64 dwarf hunter) and Eartha at the top of the Hinterlands. We had just run through the troll area and are on the plateau by Sharpbeaks cage. I really liked the sunset, so I took a happy snap.

The new WoW WotLK Cinematic is out and it’s stunning. I hope the game is just as cool. I like the machinima trailer that first came out . I know some people were disappointed with a lack of a full cinematic, but now those people should be happy. The frost wyrm is very cool and I’m very glad I took the time to go back and play Warcraft 3. I’ll have to get and play through the Frozen Throne as well. But I probably won’t get all that done before WotLK comes out.