Looking Ahead: Mists of Pandaria

Over the years I've been playing WoW, I've gotten more interested in looking at the design behind each expansion as they've come out.

I started playing during BC, so Wrath was my first new expansion.  I hadn't been all that concerned with the beta testing phase, since I didn't have access to anything until 3.0 hit the PTR.  I did, however, check that out.

When the Cataclysm beta testing was going on, I was much more curious about the forthcoming new world and the exploration thereof.  I did wish that I was there, especially since I had ideas about places to go and explore and things to test.

Pandaria will be different.  I already know that I'm in the beta, due to the one year commitment.  I go in with no expectations.  I've been refining my perspective over these past months, gaining greater understanding of a variety of genres.  Hopefully, these efforts will make my voice worth something.  This will be my big test and I'm still preparing for it.

Yes, that's a good part of why I haven't been around.  It was something I needed to do for myself.

Unexpected surprise

This is a bit late, what with the PTR being up and RL eating me for lengths of time, but I wanted to do justice by Circe.....after all, she wormed her way into a permanent spot.

No, I won't be stuck with three spiders.  She had a little....change of heart.....first.....

I knew it was fate when I saw Aotona again.  I don't usually find her in the wild, much less when Kalliope has an open stable slot!  This explains the blue vibe I'd gotten from Circe initially and why she'd come to me as Magria.

Aotona and I have a strange, tangled history.  I fell for her the first time I saw her back in Wrath.  It was the dead of night, north of the Oracles' home.  She wasn't tamable then, and indeed, I hadn't even known she existed before that night.  Had she been tamable, that might not have been the case.  At any rate, I loved her then.  She was a big, gorgeous blue parrot and I couldn't get her out of my head.

This was why I tamed her as Papillote (later Evangeline) on Kallimon.  Except they didn't click.  At all.  Part of it was the opportunity tame; Aotona was up and no one was on to tame her but me.  The other part of it, which I didn't know until I tamed Circe as Aotona, was that the big blue parrot had already bonded with Kalliope, despite Kalli never having actually tamed her.

Funny thing about perceptions...I've only seen Aotona three times when she appeared huge to me.  The other occasions, she seemed small in relation to the jungle around her.  This was one of those times.  The others were the two times I'd seen her north of the Oracles, once tamable and the other not.  It just felt right to tame her this way.

Unfortunately, Circe becoming permanent meant that someone was going to be set free.  It wasn't Icarus; he was another love at first sight parrot.  So I had two parrots and a big headache.  I knew it had to be Tantalus who left, though.  We had grown apart, despite bonding fiercely in the beginning.  He wasn't getting the playtime he needed to be happy, nor was he likely to with Orpheus and Arachne around.  Rather than make him miserable, I let him go.  I've never grown apart from a pet in that way before; it was surprising to realize that it had happened, especially since I'd already declared him a permanent pet.

I'm just glad Circe knew what she was doing, throwing all three of those rares in my path at her whim - and that I trusted her to do it.  She would never have stayed without those transitions, certainly not in this form.  It's pretty amazing how things work out sometimes.