Weekend Update
So my weekend was essentially defined by Ratatat, skiing and gaming. I'm pretty sure there isn't much else that I did over the past few days that wasn't somehow linked to one of those, and really, the Ratatat bit was more or less simply overlaid on top of everything like a giant tablecloth. A wonderful, clicky-beepy tablecloth that seizes hold of you almost hypnotically and demands your attention. I've seriously had Seventeen Years and El Pico running through my brain in an almost continual loop. The rest of the album is also quite excellent, but in a different manner. The first two tracks are kind of the lapel-grab that seize you and hold you in thrall, while the rest of the disc is much mellower, almost in apology for that brusque attention-grabbing. Hopefully that makes more sense than my last post about this CD, and it is of note that the 24 hours previously mentioned is now pushing 72.

As to the rest of the weekend upon which Ratatat insidiously sank into, the skiing was pretty good. Sunshine is still open, and while the conditions are certainly less than stellar, they were still quite decent. It was cold in the morning, which lent to more downhill skating than skiing and the potential for hard, sliding doom should one wipe out. I did not, surviving into the afternoon wherein it warmed up, the ice turned to a wet snow and things were not too bad at all. As an extra special treat I got to watch the Sunshine Dummy Downhill, being a gong show in the highest order. The gist of it is that the lifties and other Sunshine employee folk cobble together ramshackle mannequins, strap them to skis or snowboards, and push them down the hill. The creations are then judged on a variety of criteria, ranging from Best Dressed to Best Destruction, to Best Jump (yes, there is a jump built into the track). The dummies ranged from interesting (two blowup dolls, one on the other's shoulders, with two-by-fours for legs, wearing skis like a person might) to the sturdy (a blobbish, Jamaican-looking dummy on a catamaran-esque ski platform), to the ornately fragile (a homemade replica of an Apache helicopter, complete with gun racks and rotor blades). One of them, consisting of the upper torso of a female rescue dummy (with a styrofoam head) grafted to a beer tub like an alcoholic centaur, took the jump like a pro, but ejected its head on landing, similar to the cork in a champagne bottle. I don't know who ultimately won, but much fun was had by all.

The topic of gaming is slightly more meaty, but what follows carries the disclaimer "Warning! The following is a bunch of rambling and speculation about recent developments in World of Warcraft!".

See, Azeroth is a much harsher realm in these dark days of the 1.4 "honor patch" than it once was. Where before a nervous tension existed between Horde and Alliance, now there exists naught but open, murderous war. Southshore was once a peaceful community on the northern edge of Alliance territory, victim to the occasional raid by the undead, but otherwise left alone. Now, it is the staging ground for a perpetual melee, and gets sacked and pillaged every couple of days. Booty Bay was once a neutral town, serving as one of the eastern continent's gateways to Kalimdor. Horde and Alliance both did business there under the watchful eye of the Booty Bay Bruisers, and while the odd barfight broke out and people were killed, it was kept at least sane. Now, the Bruisers have gone catatonic, unable to step in and break these fights up, and as such the Horde have basically taken over. If I have logged out from the Salty Sailor Tavern, I need to cross my fingers that there isn't a troll or orc in the room when I log in, or I am all but gutted stem to stern within moments of my materializing. I can no longer enter or leave the town via the main entrance, and need to covertly sneak in through the underwater entrance like an inept Navy Seal (ironic, since my aquatic form looks more like a fat sea lion or an angry manatee than a seal). Having the Bay as a staging ground, the Horde have spread their influence in Stranglethorn Vale like a pox, killing any who get in their way.

My beef is basically that the honor system, while implemented (and implemented well), is still only halfway complete. To have honor, but not dishonor, is like having a bipedal walker robot with only one leg. It can probably do its thing with the lasers and smoke and such, but can't quite get around competently yet. As well, I am not sure what the rules for what constitutes an honorable kill are yet, so I don't know if attacking another player who is exhausted and on the brink of death from fighting a monster constitutes "honor". I say it's dirty pool, but that's just me. Furthermore, I have heard tell that the dishonor system as currently proposed only governs the slaughter of NPCs in town, the ones that sell you wares and give you quests, and not the slaying of other players. If true, it's too bad, since the tactic of systematically wiping out low-level players (and to a level 60 Orc, there are a lot of other players who fall into that category) has become widespread in the hopes that the victims will plead for help and worthy opponents will take up the fight. It's like being in the Matrix--if you see an enemy whose level is shown to you as "??", run. You can't hurt them; just run.

If dishonor were now implemented, I think it would fix a slew of these problems. It would probably create some of its own, like the Horde would wait until you've killed your mob and are nearly dead instead of attacking mid-fight, but even that example is a bit of improvement. The root of it is that when you're level 60, you have very little to do aside from perfect your equipment and crafting skills, and even those can be completed given time. As it stands now, there's no reason NOT to murder every elf that you come across, and dishonor could address that in a variety of ways. The simplest would be that NPCs just don't work for you anymore, and eventually might attack on sight, but that would only slow this behaviour down, rather than stop it--I'm sure there are a great many high-level orcs that don't give two squirts whether NPCs attack or not. Personally, I think it would be cool if the most dishonorable players showed up on a global Wanted List with bounties for killing them. Every time they went into a town, the wanted list would update with their last known whereabouts. Of course, this is just my speculation as to what would be a Very Cool Thing Indeed, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

So on one hand, I heartily approve of the honor system. It brings a lot of flavour and texture to the game, and makes things more interesting on the whole. I love the idea of having these huge battles raging elsewhere in the world, and having news trickle to my ears about how things are going there. On the other hand however, it's fucking infuriating being killed by wandering high-level Horde players with nothing to do but cause grief. It's only going to get worse too, as I gain levels towards that coveted level cap. (Fortunately, it will be a while before I hit the REAL danger zone, where you give honor to the 60s but still can't hurt them in the slightest.)

I suppose all I can do is have faith that Blizzard won't let me down, and that in time, all will be well. Until then, I'll just have to steer clear of the most war-afflicted zones.  ¶ 9:00 a.m.