The opposite of Waaaaggggghhhhhhh!!!

Today the sudden fad for actual democracy has pushed Qaddafi into calling in mercs to quell his own people; still they gather in defiance of him.

It's also led to roly-poly slayer of his people Bobbie Mugabe to jail almost fifty people who were watching the footage of the unrest in Egypt as part of a discussion group. He says they were using it as a blueprint to plan a similar uprising against his rule. Their ultimate fate looks bleak, but may serve as a catalyst for the very unrest Big Bob seeks to crush.

Closer to home Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is learning a similar lesson in miniature-push the people too far, exploit and insult them too many times from behind your carefully rehearsed rationalisations and they'll come and camp on your lawn. Genuine democracy is back on the menu all over the place despite the usual methods of repressing it. Ignore it at your peril.

Half-term halfwits and other rage enhancers.

Half-term giveth and half-term taketh away. While it allows me to travel around on a bus that  isn't crammed to the ceiling with miniature idiots having an all-comers "look at me" contest it conversely guarantees I'll meet those self same teeny-bop cretins while about my lawful business, filling the local supermarkets and game stores, like noise addicted, unreasonable lawn ornaments.

They need a mall to sucker them all in and contain them until they get old enough to switch places with the guy working the till at the fast food dungeon they feed at. That way they wont add to the usual collection of drunks, dishabille ramblers, ambush conversationalists and teak-faced pram jockeys I'm forced to negotiate just to pick up a block of cheese on any given day. A word on that last; I realise that many of these women aren't mothers by direct choice but really, why do they look like they traded their sense of humour in against the trendy buggy that carries their tiny little white noise generator about?

This has been Jimmy reporting on how half-term sucks when you have to work- and this is why this blog is known as The Little Book of Grudges.

Why the HELL would I want to do that?

I'm a man of varied interests; I collect Forteana and have a small personal library of sci-fi and fiction as well as a lot of stuff from the great American fiction writers and self-styled life poets. I play video games and read comics. I like forest walking. I follow politics like a bloodhound with a grudge and my musical tastes can genuinely be described as eclectic.

But recently, as I've taken stock of my life in the light of my coming redundancy, I've noticed a lot more "used to's" and a lot less actual activity. I've become closed-minded, sour, embittered and grouchy. I mean for this to change.

To that end I have decided to conduct an experiment. I have thought of several things to see and do to which my initial reaction was "And why the hell would I want to do that?". My experiment will be to seek for the answer to that question, by going and doing these things with no thought of my own personal dignity.

Most of them will be harmless, geeky things that nevertheless may strike fear and unease into stout but uninitiated folk. Some of them may be totally ill-advised; all of them will be fun. Lets go out and discover them together. Don't worry, you'll be perfectly fine. For a given value of fine.

Shall we begin?

N.B. I'd like to mention that I'm not setting out to poke fun at anyone's treasured pastimes here; I'm not about to go thrusting a spoke in the wheel for cheap laughs and even cheaper column inches. I'm arriving with nothing but flimsy prejudice and hopefully leaving with nothing but experience, bruises and some photos I'm sure to regret.

Today in Gaming Part II

As promised I have been undertaking strenuous research in order to discuss the new features of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I have left no stone unturned and left no feature unprodded.

First and foremost in many casual player's minds are the new races; are they just tired re-skins of existing races with a few naff racial abilities? No. Not even close. Each race gets its own brand new and unique starter quest chain, a little like the Death Knight area in Wrath of the Lich King, but a whole lot better thought out. These serve as training areas for new players to test out their classes as well as tying the newcomer races into the existing Lore.

On top of that each race has some truly unique abilities that go beyond the new character models. The Worgen do not require ground mounts, they simply hunker down on all fours and belt around the place, something akin to the Druid travel form. They also have a distinct advantage in melee combat due to a slight critical hit bonus and an ability that lets them skin animals in a split second using their bare paws. Goblins have numerous tricks that compliment their racial background, like rocket boots, rocket barrages and a Hobgoblin they can summon to access their bank anywhere they choose!

Blizzard have also lifted some of the race to class restrictions now; if you ever fancied being a Gnomish Priest (who wouldn't?), a Human Hunter or a Dwarfish Shaman, now is your chance, although this is largely a matter of personal taste, maxmin freaks will like having more options for racial traits.

The shattering has brought on many changes, building on the popular overhaul seen in WOTLK. Firstly, as you might expect after a giant dragon nuts its way out of the planet's crust, some familiar areas have been changed. Many places have been swallowed by the tidal waves unleashed by Deathwing's reappearance, drowning some starter areas almost entirely. Others are scarred by magma and deep fissures while some of the more barren areas have been strangely renewed and sport new wildlife and plant growth.

Along with these cosmetic changes come renovations in game play- quest chains are much less bitty and rambling on Azeroth, there are fewer frustrating drop quest slogathons to find and one zone tapers more naturally into the next. Essentially this means a lot less aimless wandering and a lot more action. Some people see this as a loss of depth, but I'd argue that the "depth" consisted of largely empty and redundant space, so its better off this way. Exploring is still very possible though- and some of the new zones will repay your curiosity in spades with Vash'yr being probably the best example of this.

Classic instances have also been overhauled; some of the least popular have been hugely truncated, making for a smoother and less stressful clear. Quest givers now helpfully live at the entrance to dungeons (Not Outland ones though for some unknown reason), making reaping XP for your character that much easier.

Others have been completely lore-rolled- new story lines run through The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep for instance; both of these also have heroic modes for intrepid level 85 types to take on. Other new dungeons are a mixed bag, some harking back to the bad old days of TBC as being dull uni-themed corridors, packs and bosses, little more than loot bags waiting to be plundered. Heroic modes are a little different and will present an actual challenge to most, at least until they out gear the encounters.

The new PVP area, Tol Barad, is worth a brief mention, if only for it's infamy. Upon Cataclysm's release Tol Barad was horribly unbalanced in favour of the first faction who won. Once the faction was in control, the mechanics of the battle meant that it was child's play for them to retain control in each successive battle, essentially denying the the other side the chance to access new content through no lack of skill or tactics.

In any case, TB is also the new destination for daily quests; a little bit like a blend of Quel' Danas, Wintergrasp and Alterac Valley. Victory in the PVP aspect allows a raid boss to be attempted and bonus dailies to be unlocked, but as you might imagine its often a frustrating campfest despite Blizzard kindly allowing anyone who causes damage to a quest target to gain credit once it is dead or loot the requisite item. This only works on named quest NPCs however, you'll still need to queue to kill X number of X for X reason.

The stand out addition has to be the new guild system- a guild now levels up like a character, with each member's victories counting towards a daily maximum. Once certain levels are achieved, useful guild-wide rewards are unlocked along with extra special items for those members who prove their loyalty by earning guild rep- those lucky souls can win the right to purchase roaming bank chests and mounts like the Dark Phoenix!

One thing that doesn’t really add much to the game is the new “profession” namely Archaeology. Ill call it how I see it; its a very well thought out time sink within a time sink. To get anything out of it you must move from dig site to dig site accumulating fragments of McGuffin according to the directions of a magical traffic light theodolite. Once you have enough pieces of eight or shards of Gnome tooth or whatever you can “complete” an item. You may then randomly get something nice, or a hunk of garbage worth a few coins. You just have to keep on endlessly grinding the same areas until your luck turns. Honestly, I wouldn’t have cared if this idea was lost at sea during whatever brainstorms Blizzard had to generate ideas for Cataclysm.

All in all it's an expansion that was worth waiting for. Many terrible mistakes that haunted the game since The Burning Crusade have been excised and many excellent features (and one or two stand-out duffers) have made it in. Blizzard have worked hard to retain a balance between the casual players who help pay for their platinum toilet paper and the increasingly irrelevant raiding hardcore. If TBC or WOTLK drove you away, give Cataclysm a chance to make it up to you.