Leafshine: Lust for Flower

Leafy's 2010 Top 5 Posts

2010 is winding down, with 2011 standing, nervous and eager in the wings. I'm technically on holiday, but I'd thought I'd just round up my top 5 posts of the year by traffic:

1. I am an unique snowflake - a stupid picture caption post. Everything you need to know about this blog is contained therein… (IIRC, I was linked by WoWInsider for this post.)
2. My little changing everything pony - I run some estimated numbers on sales of the sparkle pony. I still think it changes everything.
3. The invisible War Against The Nightmare - a post in which I rail against the lack of reflection of major plot points from the Stormrage book in the game world. Gets lots of search traffic. 
4. EXCLUSIVE: Blizzard accuses Leafy of Ninajing - another stupid pic cap post, from the Blizz April Fools.
5. RealID, Social Theory and Blizzard's Community Problems - my token serious post of the year. Some meditations on the direction Blizz is going with its community, trying to take the heat out of the hysteria that built up around RealID.

So, basically, expect more stupid pic cap posts and meditations on current Blizzard events next year. It's all that you deserve. ;-)

Happy New Year, all. 

Secret Santa: Dr Jones, Dr Jones!

'twas the night after Winter's Veil, and all through the realm, not a druid was stirring…

Yes, it's BlogAzeroth Secret Santa time again, and this year, my secret santa is Lady Erinia of Moments in the Life of a Death Knight, who brings me a gaily-wrapped post, possibly inspired by one of Aqua's earliest hits:

Sit back,and enjoy:

Dr Jones, Dr Jones!

If you have ever done the level 70 10-man instance Zul’Aman located in the Ghostlands, odds are you have met Harrison Jones. Dr. Jones is a lovable rascal that is modeled after a certain adventure series that contain archaeology bits and Nazis. 

Meet Dr. Jones

Harrison Jones has certainly been around the block a few times in WoW. He always seems to want to, um, “explore” some type of ruins and “discover” and “protect” some treasure. Well, it’s better him than some goblin like Schnottz right? 

After supposedly perishing in Zul’Aman, he popped up again Northrend in the Drakil'jin Ruins for some more…treasure hunting. With the addition of the archaeology profession in Cataclysm, Dr. Jones decided to don his professorship hat and train some would-be adventures in the new profession, but only if said adventures are members of the Alliance.

I’m the coolest Professor you’ll ever know.

All hope is not lost though. If you are Horde, you still get to do the wickedly fun Harrison Jones questline in Uldum which is modeled after a certain Indiana Jones movie. 

His Hat is awesome.

I highly recommend doing the Harrison Jones quests at once when you have time because there are cut-scenes and references galore. You might even get to star in some of the cut-scenes! You’ll get to witness Dr. Jones using his whip to swing around and destroy precious statues, participate in a dogfight (an airplane fight, not a canine fight), and save the Ark of the Cov….I mean the Coffer of Promise from the Naz..errr…Commander Schnottz and Deathwing’s minions.

Long story short, if you are an Indiana Jones fan, then this questline is for you! Who knows? In a thousand years, even you might be worth something! I had a great time doing the quest line and I cannot wait to do it again with my next toon.

Racking up the Dings

Don't you hate it when you have everything lined up for a lovely, lovely ding screenshot - and somebody flies into shot at the crucial moment?

Gee, thanks.

I made sure that didn't happen for the 82 shot:

Which mean that, yes, I'm at 82 and levelling nicely. And yes, I'm taking my time. If we're two years from the next expansion, I don't see any point in blowing through all the levelling content in the first week. That just seems like an utter waste to me. 

Even so, I'm hitting the levels so much faster than I did in Wrath. Ding 1 took 24 hours. Ding 2 a further week. But as we're only getting 5 levels this time, I'm at the equivalent of ding 74, which took over six weeks.

I'm really hoping that Blizz has the next expansion in a state to release in significantly under a year, or that the content patches bring a whole load of extras, or this will be a really quickly consumed expansion…

That was fun…

…can I throw some more baby bears out of trees now? Please? Pretty please?

Ladies and gentlemen, if you're not reading the quest text in Cataclysm, you are depriving yourself of some of the most amusing moments in the game. This, for example, was in an optional bit of dialogue:

This raised a smile on the face of this druidic old hand:

And this just p3wns. In your face:

Cataclysm: 1000% more quest text humour.

New Expansion, New Leafshine, New Lust For Flower

All change! 

Cataclysm is here, and changes are in the air. There's whole new looks:

New friends to make:

And thus, time for a brand new Lust for Flower!

Out goes the Borean Tundra backdrop and old-style tree form in the header. In comes a new, Cataclysmic header, with the new look Leaf, and a whole new blog design to go with it.

Whaddya think?

Festive Gryphon Hatchling

The Leafy Cataclysm Postponed

 

It's Cataclysm week.

In mere hours, the first of us will leave Northrend behind, and make our way into the new areas of the Shattered Azeroth where heroes are needed. We'll learn new skills, and face new challenges.

For the last two expansions, I've been in the forefront of those people, online as soon as the servers came up. Leafy lagged her way through the Dark Portal into Outland the moment the servers came up. She took to boat to the Howling Fjord in similar style.

But not this time.

Leafy will be sitting this one out, at least for a while.

I'm in Paris, as an official blogger for Le Web, an European web conference. My copy of Cataclysm is Not Here. And neither is the time to play.

And so, the earliest Leafy will take her first steps into Hyjal will be Friday. Enjoy the new expansion, friends, and leave some quests for me…