Highlight Posts of 2009

2010

You didn’t think I was going to finish out the year without the traditional “Best of 2009” post, did you? Here’s the top posts of 2009 based on your views, comments, and tweets.

On healing
On gaming and society
On guild management
On recruiting
On raiding
On blogging

To other WoW bloggers, I’d love to see you compile a list of your favourite posts that you have written over the past year and don’t be afraid to post a link in the comments to it below.

Have a safe and happy new year! I would share my New Years party stories, but chances are, this Dwarf would not remember. There was that one year where I woke up half naked with a Tauren beside me and a banana…

Welcome to the Year of the Tauren

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The Lunar Festival is well under way in Azeroth. But you might be wondering which animal this year belongs to.

Well my friends, I proclaim this the Year of the Tauren (or Ox)

Great! What’s that mean?

Characters created during the Year of the Tauren tend to evolve into strong leaders. The Tauren is a symbol of reward through perseverance and hard work. Such characters are dependant and level headed. They are able to endure through many wipes knowing full well that is what it takes to achieve their goal. Taurens do not complain. They are calm and collected under pressure.

When coming up with strategy, Taurens tend to work best when they are at peace. Every thought and every action is methodical and systematic often revolving around logic. They are often quiet. But when they speak, everyone listens.

The Tauren does not like to borrow gold because they abhor being in debt. They don’t like obtaining lots of epic mounts or other such status symbols. They prefer the security and stability of being in a guild.

Taurens are honest people. They do not like undercutting or being competitively nasty. When it comes to loot, they are not driven by the prospect of singular or material gain.

When interacting with Taurens, don’t forget that they are social when there is nothing for them to worry about or if they feel unthreatened. Taurens care and love all of their friends but if they become annoyed, they will whip out the Totem of Whupass in anger.

Image courtesy of Cadistra

Resolutions

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On New Year’s Eve, I was at a friend’s house celebrating and having a good time in general. I played a clutch game of Taboo of guys vs girls. Heh, one of the memorable ones went something like this:

Aimed shot!
HUNTER!
YES!

All the guys cracked up and all the girlfriends had confused looks on their faces. It was glorious.

Once 12 AM hit, we did the usual toasting and cheering and we went around the room listing off resolutions we’d all do this year. This was done to the sound of a modern day Mo-Town type group on the TV (I resolve to sing on-key in Rock Band). Some of the ones I heard were realistic (I resolve to maintain a 3.0 GPA), to the downright impossible (I will never drink again). Then there were the usual ones that people say every year that never goes through (I resolve to lose 30 pounds).

Of course, the last one was made by me. Then a friend spoke up and said something like this:

”Matt, you shouldn’t do that. Don’t set a goal as a resolution. Set a process. Resolve to walk around for at least 30 minutes a day. There’s a Starbucks nearby you, I know that much. Or even go to the public library. Spring and summer are a few months away. Come out and play soccer with us sometime.

And I thought about it and I realized he’s right. You can’t have a goal without a way of attaining it.

Blog

Goal 3000 subscribers

Process: Continued discipline in blogging, raising awareness of posts, more use of Twitter. This blog is in it for the long haul as is the editorial team. Double or nothing.

Goal Increased content (to at least 1.5 posts per day)

Process: Further expansion into the healing arena. More partnerships with player/bloggers. Looking to team up with a Resto Shaman, Holy Paladin and a Disc Priest on the blog to provide more.

Game

Goal Top 10 server

Process: Ner’Zhul is one of the most competitive servers to play on in terms of raiding. Around 20 guilds have taken down Malygos and done Sartharion with 1 drake alive. To do this, loot council will have to continue making smart choices. I need to remain diligent about upcoming raid content and experience it first hand myself via the PTRs if it’s possible.

Goal Avoiding burnout

Process: For the sake of myself and the blog, I cannot risk overdoing it. Healing is both fun and stressful. I can’t do it all the time or else I risk losing interest or not playing my best. To do this, I may level an alt like my Paladin or have some more fun on my Shaman (who is now 2/5 T7.5).

Goal Raid achievements

Process: Going to start looking at these in more detail and determine what we can do and what’s out of our reach. I’m going to start publishing achievement strategies (or at least, my proposed approach).

Personal

Goal Let things go

Process: There are people out there who intentionally go out of their way to try to irritate me for no reason (in life, in game, etc). Yeah it’s annoying and it’s incredibly dumb for them to do that. I’m just going to ignore them until they have something intelligent to say.

Goal GPA to 2.5

Process: The last semester saw my GPA climb to a 2.25. That’s enough for me to get into my program. I got momentum going into the exam. Found me study buddies, converted all my notes, and (the key) applied real life examples to all the concepts I learned. I realized late that the best way to understand a concept is to apply it.

This will be an intriguing 2009. More guest posts are coming (thanks to all the submitters)! A lot of ideas are on the to-write list.

But I think I’m going to go for a walk first.

Check out some other New Year resolutions from the WoW bloggerati:

What are your resolutions? Feel free to add it to the comments below or write on your blog with a linkback here (it shows up under trackbacks).

Image courtesy of sofijab