Smores over Felfire

FAQ

1. Why make an FAQ for a blog? It seems fairly straightforward… you type, we comment, end of story.

I know, but I’m sure there are going to be a few often-asked questions that don’t nessesarily pertain to the most recent blog-post. I want to cut those off at the pass because I just don’t have the energy to deal with repeat questions on the blog when I have to deal with them all day at work.

2. Fair enough. So what is “madravengames?”

Mad Raven Games is an unofficial company several of my college friends have “made” for gaming purposes.

3. Err.. gaming? Like video games?

No. Tabletop. Like Dungeons and Dragons style.

4. Oh… isn’t this was a WoW blog?

Yeah. But this is what the website was for overall. I’m just using the webspace for something the world can see.

5. So… I can’t see the gaming stuff?

Nope.

6. Ever?

Well… if you want to contact me for the nitty-gritty details on what we’re doing, we’ll see. There’s just a lot of really cool ideas we put into this system that I, and they, don’t want stolen.

7. OK, Back to the blog. What do you play in WoW?

My main, as explained in the “About” section, is a human warlock. I also have as of May 2009:

80 Priest

75 Mage

70 Rogue

70 Death Knight

71 Warrior

69 Shaman

49 Hunter

48 Paladin

8. You’re one of those “obsessive” types aren’t you?

Not really… SotD was a guild that HATED doing 25 man raids because it boiled down to 2 hours of waiting, 2 hours of wiping, and 1 hour of progress/success for every 5 hour raid we did. So before Wrath came out, I was gearing alts with Kara/ZA gear while getting the feel for each class (kinda important when you’re Raid Leading).

9. OK.. first.. “SotD?”

Sons of the Dragon. Get used to it, I use the acronym a lot.

10. Fine. Second, isn’t that an unsaid (and unfortunately) requirement for raiding

The wiping? OK, I’ll give you that. No one but the most hardcore guilds can go through an instance without wiping a few times if it’s progression. But I’m of the school of thought that my time is precious. Most of my guildmates have jobs and/or lives AFK, so their time is precious. Wasting 2 hours a night for 3 nights (we raid 3 times a week) every week for 10 people is a lot of wasted time (2 X 3 X 52 = 312 hours).

11. But you’re a casual guild right? What’s with all the emphasis on time efficiency?

When was the last time you were able to honestly say “I had a great time, especially since we waited 45 minutes before our first pull!” after a night’s worth of raiding? Yes, we are casual, but that doesn’t mean don’t hold ourselves to high standards including respect for other people.

12. OK, I get it… but aren’t you being a little fanatical about this?

Yeah, probably.

13. So this is going to be a WoW Blog right?

Yes. There will be several flavors of posts though. Some with be an ongoing story, others are observations on patches, RP notes, OOC notes, etc.

14. So… anything you really feel like doing?

Basically. I’m not going to limit myself to, say, “patch-note analysis” because we already have resources for that: wowinsider and mmo-champion.

15. You mentioned a story, what is it?

It’s going to be a WoW-based narration from the viewpoint of my warlock, Teris, as he travels through the world.

16. Sounds neat, can my character be in it?

I anticipate several SotD and non-SotD characters will have their 15 seconds, but I do not intend to make the story one giant cameo-fest. If you want your character in it: fine. I’ll talk with you to see if I can use you and/or you like what I would do with the character.

17. Can I help you write the story?

No. Unequivocal no. I appreciate input, analysis, and constructive criticism, but I will not turn this into a multi-author work. If you don’t like what I pitch to you for your character’s actions, that’s fine. I’ll take it out and no love is lost. But once it’s published, it’s published.

18. What if I like the first part but not subsequent chapters?

Then I’ll work with you to either have your character walk off into the sunset, die, or something in the middle.

19. When can I expect updates?

Soon(tm).

20. But I want them now! It’s been hours/days/months/millenia since your last post!

And I have several other projects I’m working on, many of which keep me fed. I understand the frustration of the reader when authors don’t update regularly, I really do. But new and interesting material needs 2 things: an idea and time. Time is easy, the idea is hard. You try to create something without a good idea, you get Matrix 2. You try to create something with a good idea and not enough time, you get Duke Nukem Forever.

That’s all the questions I can think of for right now. If you have another one, send it to me and I’ll do my best to keep this updated.