I have a few more things I’ve noticed that I thought worth a mention.

I previously noted that I had my own Battle.Net account, and I had made a second one for my son when he began to play World of Warcraft.

I recently merged his World of Warcraft account onto my Battle.Net account, and I have been seeing first hand what this means.

Last time I talked about this, I mentioned that every item that said “Bind on Account” could be mailed to BOTH World of Warcraft accounts.

I also mentioned how every pet and mount I had, his account also gained.

I revealed how, as the account that was moved, ALL of his pets were wiped, and that I had fortunately caged every pet I could before that happened.

I told you that the handful of mounts he had on his account that I did not own WERE added to my account.

Well, there are a few new things.

First, I had every reputation Commendation that you could buy in the game. As you may know, many of the Pandarian factions had Commendations you could purchase from their reputation vendor that would allow any other character on your account to get TWICE the reputation gains from items or quests.

My son’s account did not have any such Commendations. Now that we are merged, he has ALL those Commendation benefits on his characters. I tested this by doing some solo farming of the Zandalari Warbringers and Warscouts, those mobs can drop tokens that are Bind on Account that give you 1000 rep a shot. Yep, if you’ve got a Commendation on your account, they give double rep, multiplied yet again if you are Human and if you have the Guild Level rep bonus.

I leveled my son’s reputation with Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan and Klaxxi from baseline to Exalted in less time than it takes to tell. If your second account has a tailor or enchanter, this can be a very good way to get that Celestial rep to Exalted for the bag or bracer enchant recipes.

Second, I had never purchased a World of Warcraft Collector’s Edition of any of the releases before.

Today, I took advantage of the $20 digital upgrade to make my own World of Warcraft account of Mists of Pandaria a Collector’s Edition.

I logged into my son’s regular old normal World of Warcraft account, and sure enough my new Collector’s Edition pet and mount are both shared with him, and usable by his characters. Upgrading one WoW account gave the pet and mount benefits to both.

Another note. You might not have considered this before, but the Recruit a Friend mounts that I had previously earned, such as the Swift Zhevra and the Scroll of Resurrection mounts are all shared with his WoW account as well.

So. More and more the only two downsides I’ve found to merging an account is that only the first person who logged into the Battle.Net account can actively pet battle or level pets (although all WoW accounts can access and display the pets of their choice), and also that there are Battle.Net account chat issues.

Specifically on the chat issues, my wife and I are used to chatting exclusively on the Battle.Net friend channel, and IF she were merged onto my Battle.Net account, we could no longer do that. We’d have to either create a custom in-game chat channel (which we’ve done in the past for special events such as the Raid for the Cure charity drive), or just do the traditional whispers.

What we’d permanently lose would be the ability to chat with each other across factions, if she or I were playing Horde for a change. Battle.Net friend chat is something I need to explore more, to see if there are any workarounds.

I hope this has given you a little more info on how merging accounts can work for your family. I know it’s really cool to consider that if any of us level a pet, we all benefit. Likewise if one of us scores a rare mount or an upgrade in pet rarity, we’ll all get it.

And of course… if I am lucky enough to score a Heirloom weapon from normal Garrosh, I can share that with my son. Wooffie the Warlock has certainly not been complaining about his new staff.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Some days, it feels like I’ve been writing here forever, other times it’s like my first post just went up yesterday.

Mostly, it’s the yesterday thing.

So many things have changed in just the short time I’ve been writing, and whatever direction my writing takes next, I want to get this one thing out there.

We can spend so much time championing the things we believe in that it’s easy to lose sight of the world as it is right now. 

When my first post went up, I was considered crazy for including my real name on my website. It just wasn’t done. You hid behind a pseudonym, you don’t put yourself out there bold as brass. There can be repercussions, your work might find out you play games, or talk about things. 

Times have changed. There can still be repercussions. Retribution. People will still attack you for speaking your mind, if they don’t agree with what you’re saying. But I’m no longer thought crazy for doing it, most folks are fine with putting their name to their words.

Everyone has always had a voice, but now you can make that voice heard… or at least put it out there for anyone to find.

Today’s social media reminds me (in a good way) of the old film Pump up the Volume, with the ham radio operator broadcasting his complaints about his high school and having fun playing rap music and being a goofball. He was unique at the beginning because he had the equipment, he had the know-how. He touched a lot of people, and many of those people wanted their OWN voices to be heard. At the end, the credits were overlayed with all these pirate radio stations springing up everywhere, inspired by his example to share their own voice and to listen. To no longer be alone.

I’m not the trailblazer on my blog, not by a long shot; I’m just one of the many people who have raised their voices to be heard, on blogs or podcasts or videos or whatever social media is the flavor of the minute. More people like me join every day, talking about everything and nothing, as we choose. HOW we choose.

Changes.

Everyone has a voice, but does everyone have an audience? No.

Is everything sunshine and daffodils and long walks in the park? Hell no.

Changes keep rolling on, building up all the time.

Things change, and they’re still changing all the time. Nothing stands still. The only certainty in life is shit be changing all the time, yo. Yes, even now.

But the one big change I have seen is how, when someone stands up and speaks their mind, others rise to challenge it, to oppose it, to debate it.

It’s taken for granted and that amazes me. Have people forgotten the past so easily?

Being able to challenge someone in public, to argue with them and have your own voice be heard, your counter-argument, your words of opposition, your reasoning… that is massive.

Yes, I’m saying that it is a good thing. A great thing.

It’s not about challenging someone and winning an argument, or converting them to your point of view, or humiliating them or striking them down or raising up a mob against them.

It is about having another point of view brought up, recognized, talked about, SEEN.

When the challenge is made, when the issues are discussed, when the controversy makes us all talk about it… our children hear. And they get to hear ALL the sides of the debate. The debate exists, and informs, and they learn.

Our children get to see us question authority, question why things are the way they are, why people think they way they think, why we believe what we do and get to hear the reasoning, the justifications, and in some cases get to hear people caught out in lies.

This is what is important. The argument. The discussion.

The world doesn’t end with our generation. We’re not the final form. Our preconceived ideas are not the ultimate end result.

As we fight to change things, as we champion our causes, the next generation is being born and growing up surrounded by the argument. They are having their ideas formed amid freedom of research, sharing of ideas, and some of the most incredible propaganda bullshit I’ve ever seen. But they still have it all right there in their face.

Our children still hear and see racism and misogyny, but they also see it challenged wherever it is visible, and seeing it hidden and concealed in shame is a lesson all on it’s own. 

People stand up and are heard, challenging what we see as hurtful, hateful, oppressive and wrong. That is the miracle to fight for, to keep alive.

We are no longer a people that pretends we didn’t see the wounds. That pretends we didn’t hear the hate. Some do, but the next generation is building on this and taking it for granted. 

This is my point. This. This huge change.

It’s not that shit is all better. It’s that when someone speaks their mind, it gets challenged immediately and everyone EXPECTS IT.

It is now okay and accepted for there to be immediate debate over what people say.

When the debate turns into one side trying to destroy the other emotionally, financially and even with physical pain because they don’t agree, that is where shit goes off the rails. But the argument, the immediate challenge… that is precious.

This is the most incredible victory for our future I could imagine.

This is what our future will be built on. That someone can speak their mind and have it spark a lively debate without fear of being stoned to death. That is where we need to always be heading.

Phil Robertson is asked a question in an interview, he speaks his mind and it sparks a lively debate.

That is a good thing. That is a GREAT thing! Never lose sight of that one fact; it is right and good to challenge people on their beliefs, and have an open discussion. An OPEN MINDED discussion.

Bring it all out, talk about it, get everything out there. Get some thinking going on. Show our kids that we can talk about these things like adults, apply some serious thought to them. Challenge age-old preconceived ideas and test them. Shine the light on our beliefs, ask where they come from, why are they this way.

You may not change minds that are set, that have been raised believing that anything that challenges your blind faith is a test that must be resisted.

But the discussion will be heard by more people than you know. And seeing one person defending calling a type of love evil or a sin, and someone else saying that love comes from God, that Jesus IS love… it can help the open minded to think. Really think, not rely on blind jingoistic rhetoric.

Our greatest task is to encourage the debate, the argument, the discussion without going too far the other way. An open-minded exchange of ideas is what is grand and good.

It does not matter what the subject is, if someone speaks their mind it should be an opportunity to stand up and say, “I do not agree with you, I think this whole other thing here. I’m not saying you’re evil or wrong for thinking your way, but this is what I think, what I see, and I’d love to talk about it.”

I’m not saying that you shut someone else up. You don’t act to silence the voice you don’t agree with. Debate, yes. Challenge, yes. Silence? Why should you be able to silence someone you disagree with? Sure, silence them, but only if we get to silence you when we don’t agree with you, too.

Who decides which voice is allowed to be heard? Those with the power to enforce their decisions on who is permitted to speak.

THINK about it. If you desire the freedom to live your own life in accordance with your faith and belief system, then you MUST allow the free and open exchange of ideas. Give someone the power to silence the people you hate, and sooner or later something you think will add you to the list of the silenced. If not you, then your children.

It is not right to try and hurt someone else for thinking differently that you do. To silence them, to attack them, to gain vengeance upon them. 

There seems to be this idea out there that if someone speaks their mind, and what they think doesn’t meet the proper criteria, then it is an offensive and hateful attack that deserves the ruination of the speaker’s life, driving them to hide in their home, lose their jobs, and be hounded by the media around the clock. Anything is justified in punishing these evil beings, including having their families physically threatened as some kind of ‘justice’.

Try and have perspective. If you’re offended by what someone says, then open your voice and challenge the ideas, win over the hearts and minds through passionate debate and a coherent, well reasoned argument.

Stop with the violence. Do not give in to your own hate, even if hate is what you think you see. Hate is ugly. Even if your cause is wonderful and your passion is real, if you are consumed with hate then you are doing more harm than good. People with open minds will see your hate, and rightfully judge you by it. 

Challenge what you see is wrong and rejoice in having the freedom, the power to do it. Just don’t let the power of the mob make you feel the worm has turned and it’s time to get even, to gain revenge for every wrong, real or imagined, that you think has fallen your way. 

Again, the fight is not to convert the person whose words you challenge. You can’t expect someone to just abandon deeply held convictions because you said so. If you expect someone to respect the depth of your own feelings, then you MUST have the capability of respecting that they may feel theirs just as strongly.

The fight is to present a competing idea, to present more than one point of view, to get everyone seeing that there is not just ONE ‘right’ way that everyone must obey or fear ridicule.

The violence towards those that speak what they believe… that is the danger I see for our future.

There are those who have felt powerless for so long that I think  now that they feel the thrill of being a part of the mob, the taste of blood, that they want more. They want to see the people who think differently from them torn from the herd and thrust into the center of the pack to be ripped to shreds and satiate their lust for vengeance.

Now is the time to recognize the dangers to our freedom. The very act of challenging what you disagree with is already so powerful that it changes how our children see the world. If you unleash hate and violence on anyone that thinks differently, and it’s okay, oh well they aren’t like us… that message will get taught to our children also.

The right to challenge what we see as wrong with reasoned debate… that is so wonderful. It is the very best of freedom of speech. To hear someone say some stupid bigoted crap, and be able to stand up and disagree.

Maybe you don’t see it. I don’t know. Maybe I’m crazy. 

~——————~

That really ends the relevant part of what I wanted to say. The rest of this will be personal stories that directly relate to where my head is at lately. If you read this far, thank you. I hope you have a blessed Christmas, I really do. God bless you.

~——————~

I’m in my mid-forties. I see my son growing up, I talk with him all the time as he plays Minecraft and I play WoW by his side, and it shocks me how different he is from me at that age.

He sees the debates, he hears the arguments and the way people say something and get called on it all over the place. He sees that it is right to make that stand, and to have that discussion. He sees that you don’t ignore it, or pretend it didn’t happen so as not to make a fuss.

What I’m going to say doesn’t prove anything. It’s just what I see in my own life, my small little section of the country. And it gives me hope.

My son is ten years old, and he goes to a private Catholic school. He’s in fifth grade. He’s gone to this same school his whole life.

I’m not Catholic myself, although my wife is. I believe in God, and I have spent an amazing amount of my time really thinking about it, feeling my way through.

What I am, is a guy that grew up in one of the more violent inner city schools in the country, and I wanted what I think most people want; a better life for our children. Wrap that little sucker up in duct tape so he doesn’t get hurt.

So, a Catholic school promised a far lower chance at the kind of gang violence that was normal in my Miami public school. Oh yeah, and it had a very good academic record. Like I care, my grades were horrible. If he gets hooked on learning, he’ll learn whether grades reflect it or not.

It’s been a balancing act.

I don’t want him to be taught hate towards lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender people, misogynistic ‘the man is the MAN and priests speak the direct word of God’ crap, or intolerance towards other religious faiths. I don’t want it either blatantly being beaten into his head or have it seep into him through constant immersion. I watch for signs of that like a hawk. You have no idea, simply no idea. It is my one greatest fear for him, that he learns prejudice without us seeing or knowing.

I read, understood and thoroughly grok the Illuminati trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. I am a true believer in freedom of thought, of raw information and analysis. I just don’t think you need drugs of any kind to expand your consciousness. I get high on my own imagination all the time without drugs. Um, except caffeine. LOTS of caffeine.

So I’m nervous, sure… but his school is a place where bullying and violence simply does not exist. Does. Not. Exist. The people there are so square you could use them as a foundation for the pyramids.

When I was the age my son is now, I carried a gun and knives to school on a regular basis. I lived in fear for my life. I will never forget that. It’s probably fair to say that I’ll never get over it. My son, he just… I’m not blind. I know how clueless most parents seem to be, but my son truly does not know how deep that rabbit hole of desperate fear can go.

His only real worry is not getting an A on his report card, his only stress is how much homework the school piles on each day. He doesn’t have that fear for his life, he hasn’t felt what it’s like to be hunted by people in a place you are required by law to attend, and for that I am truly grateful.

Cassie and I have stopped attending the actual church services because of how bad the sermons got about homosexuality. I live in Minnesota and yeah, it’s been pretty bad. But it’s not in the actual classrooms.

Even if he is seeing it, Cassie and I are a competing point of view, and we’re there more than the school and his peers are. SO FAR. I know that will change, but so far, so good.

It’s hard for someone to sell the idea that other people are evil because they love each other, when there is a competing point of view to be shared. Jesus is love, and I can make a pretty good argument that if two mature adults feel true love for each other, then that love must be a gift from God because love is such a fragile, precious thing.

It’s hard for someone to argue against it, at least honestly, without resorting to “but this book said so”. As I said earlier… hate is pretty ugly. So is fear.

For the record, that is what I personally believe. True love between mature, consenting adults is a gift from God. I truly don’t give a shit, in any way, what race, color, creed, biology, whatever. I am not a champion of a cause, I don’t march, it just seems so clear that I don’t get it and I never will. Love between consenting adults is love, period. Acting as though it were evil or a sin is something I don’t think I’ll ever understand or comprehend. And trying to make it illegal? Just, wtf over.

Evil to me is any mature adult trying to take advantage of an innocent child. Children aren’t capable of understanding what they really feel, and look to older authority figures for guidance and direction on what they need to do to be accepted. The abuse of the innocent, especially by those in positions of authority, that is evil.

But again, I’m NOT an activist. It’s like saying I’m an activist for gravity. I’m watching people saying gravity is evil, and I just… how? It’s gravity! How do you deny it exists, or try to say this kind of gravity is okay but that kind is wrong? Just, OMG I’m going insane.

My son, he asked me the other night, all on his own, if we could talk about the dinosaurs and Adam and Eve.

He tells me that for years now he’s known that the school teaches that God created the heavens and the earth and Adam and Eve, but it bothers him. If that is what happened, where did the dinosaurs come from? He’s heard several things, but he’d like to know what I think to help him make up his mind.

That is my hope for the future, right there. An open mind, willing to get a few different points of view and make his own decision on what he believes. And a desire for empirical research. :)

Even with all of this, I face the fact that my son is white, and he’s a guy, and he’s going to a Catholic school. For a lot of prejudiced people of my generation, they will assume and treat him as though he’s a selfish, privileged racist hate-mongering bigoted misogynist, a potential militia member and a probable white sheet wearer to boot. Who would probably own slaves if given half a chance. 

I’ll do my best to raise him so that when he is treated that way, he can calmly challenge that thinking with a clear, coherent and reasoned argument. Not with hatred, or fear, or violence.

I’ll try. Even though I myself think the people who act that way to me are worthless assholes that need to have some sun shining on the mold in their brains. Or a good ass kicking.

Sigh. I guess that whole non-violent thing is kind of an ongoing project for me.

For every person that stands up and challenges what you think is wrong, thank you. You are building the future I want my son to live in. I don’t care what it is you think or believe. What is important to me is that you stand up for what you believe in, and make sure your voice is heard.

Just please, try and temper your passion with a sense of proportion.

I have merged accounts. The power has been unleashed!

It’s kinda funny how this all came about.

I was online the other day farming more endless ore in the quest to make Engineering pets and mounts.

As I character swapped to Farmville part IV: The Reapening, I was bitching about the character swapping to Tom.

See, I have access to two Engineers. Three soon, when my Warrior hits max. One is my Warlock, and is almost up to making another pet. Probably Pierre this time, since it’s about time I make one for myself.

Then there is Hailsword, my son’s Death Knight. He’s six days away from making me a Sky Golem.

Of course, then there is my Blacksmith, who is a few days away from making my Warrior a new 553 plate belt, and 6 days away from upgrading the two handed axe to a level 502.

Sigh. So many professions, so much farming…

I can tell you straight up, if I had to fly around Pandaland mining for all this ore, there is no way, NO WAY I would have such ambitious goals.

As it is, with my Hunter Alchemist farming Motes of Harmony to have extra cheap Living Steel Transmutes, and with extra procs, I can just about stay caught up with everyone’s needs. God bless that damn farm.

So I’m bitching to Tom about the sheer drudgery of character swapping to farm and farm some more, and then I have to log out of my Battle.net account, switch over to the one I set up for my son, log in and then do the crafting on his characters, and all that. Plus, the crafting seems to be going forever because first I make him all the pets and mounts, and then I can start making them for myself.

And then there is helping him tame new pets, level them, someday do the Celestial Tournament…

Tom says to me, “Well, why don’t you just move your son’s WoW account onto the same Battle.net account you’re on?”

Umm. What? The whole point is we play together. Like, online at the same time. So he has his Battle.net account, and I have mine.

“Oh no”, he says, “You can both be logged into World of Warcraft at the same time on the same Battle.net account. You have to have two fully activated WoW accounts on the same Battle.net. I do it myself to swap Heirlooms back and forth.”

Umm.

Wait, so let me get this straight. If I had a second fully paid WoW account on my own Battle.net account, it could be logged in on one computer while I’m logged in on mine. AND I could mail Heirlooms to it?

“Yeah, anything that is ‘bind to account’ like Heirlooms, pandarian treasures, all the pets and mounts are shared…”

WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?!?!

How may years now, and there is always something new to be surprised with.

So I investigated. I emailed Blizzard support. And I asked flat out if I could move a WoW account from one of my Battle.net accounts to another.

I wasn’t worried about being suspected of selling or buying a WoW account. Both of them have had the same recurring billing info forever and a day. I just didn’t think they’d let me move an entire account.

And if they did, what would happen? The Cub has mounts I don’t have (like the Sky Golem) and I have many, many pets that he doesn’t, and mounts, and some of my pets I have three full ones of.

What would happen to the mounts? Would his get lost? Would MINE?

What about pets that he has, that I have three of? Would he get them in cages in his inventory or game mail, or would they just vanish?

Would his lower level pets replace my max level?

I got a reply back from Blizzard after two days.

I was told they certainly could move that account from one Battle.net account to another, no charge, no problems. I was provided a link to a three page PDF form I had to fill out, and I was told to attach a picture of my photo government-issued ID and the form to the ticket and they’d take care of it.

So I did that thing. Three pages, easily filled out, quick scan of my state driver’s license, attached them to the ticket, sent it in.

Less than 6 hours later, I went to login and the Blizzard Battle.net beta game interface had a new feature; a drop down box right over the “play” button that let me choose between my original account, and the newly named “WoW1″.

I logged into WoW1, and there was my son’s character list, just like normal.

I’ve been playing with this for two days now, and I have discovered some interesting things.

I have merged a World of Warcraft account that was played in it’s entirety on another Battle.net account.

Both of my WoW accounts now share mounts. Mounts he had, such as the Sky Golem, we both now have. Likewise, everything I had he now has access to. Perfect mount merge.

Achievements he earned I got credit for, like parts of the Explorer meta. And all the achievements and titles I had earned, he now has access to.

The pets… the pets didn’t go quite as I’d hoped, but about exactly as I expected.

It turns out, every single pet he had vanished in the merge. All of my pets, and the quantity of them, remain unchanged. He has my pets as his own, now, including the names I gave them.

Where we had both had max level Minfernals, we do not have two of them after the merge, just the one. His is gone into the Twisted Nether. Likewise any pet he had, regardless of level. They were not merged; they are simply gone.

Now, like I said, I had hoped I’d log in and find two Minfernals, you know, that kind of thing. But I anticipated that, worse case, his pets would vanish.

So just in case, before I sent off that ticket with the attachments… I caged every single pet in his list that I could, and mailed the cages to my Warlock. I figured worse case, all of his pets would be gone but he’d have mine, and we’d have his caged pets to mail to Cassie to see if she was missing any.

That was a lot of cages. Many, many cages.

Good thing, because if I hadn’t of done that, all those pets would have been lost too.

It makes me wonder… he had a trial account (the free to play to level 20) on that old Battle.net email. Did the pets all stay on that account, left behind? If we were to login to that free trial account, would all those pets still be there, patiently waiting to be played again?

I like to think so. Given that situation, I consider it a gift that he brought his Sky Golem with him. After all, I didn’t have it, and it would have been so much fun to have it just vanish silkily into the satin darkness.

Tested the logging in; yes, we can both log in at the same time, on our two different WoW accounts.

Drawback? We can’t BOTH be on Battle.tag chat for both transmit and receive. Someone could send something to me, and I won’t see it if he is also logged in, and vice versa. That is a big drawback, because there doesn’t seem to be any warning to someone that their messages aren’t getting through to me. After all, Alex can see them fine, he just ignores them.

Mailing Heirlooms back and forth between accounts does indeed work. All those Heirlooms I spent so much time earning and upgrading? All now have a use once again! Now the Cub can use them!

And then the biggest drawback of all hit me between the eyes.

After logging in and out for about 20 minutes, showing the Cub how it works, my account got locked.

Locked hard.

Why?

Changes in my logging habits.

Really? Something changed in how I’m logging in? You’re kidding! You don’t think it had anything to do with, oh, I dunno… adding a whole new second account I’m swapping between now, do you?

I was locked.

I was told to check my email to find out what to do. I mean, locked. Cannot access Battle.net or any Blizzard game in any way, period.

So, let’s see the email.

The email gave me a link to follow to begin the process of unlocking my account.

I had to provide my Battle.net email address, my first and last names, and enter in one of those CAPTCHA graphic codes.

I hate CAPTCHA codes, because the damn letters frequently blend into each other so I can’t make them out. I suppose I should be grateful English is my native language, so I can recognize mangled versions of the English alphabet.

So I enter that in, and I’m taken to another screen where I have two choices.

One, I have to answer my account security question, OR…

I have to enter in the first 6 digits of any of my Blizzard game authentication keys that are actually on my account. And it has to be the first 6 digits of a key from a physical game, NOT a digitally purchased game. Like, the code from a store box bought game.

Oh, holy crap. OMIGOD.

So, what is the security question? I don’t remember setting that up.

“Who is your childhood hero.”

Wait, what? Really? I set that up nine years ago, and I expected myself to remember that? Shit, that’s exactly the kind of question whose answer changes from week to week. I look back and have no idea who I would have thought was my childhood hero.

What did I answer, Robert Heinlein? JRR Tolkein? Gandhi? Margaret Thatcher? Han Solo?

Think, think…

Shit, I have no idea.

I try Heinlein, it’s the most likely choice… no.

Casca?

No.

I know!

Remo Williams…

No.

Fine, go back, this is doomed.

The first six digits of an authentication code… of World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, any of their expansions…

Shit.

I have purchased three copies of World of Warcraft and all of the expansions over the years, one for me, one for Cassie, and one for the Cub. Since the Cub’s accounts are now on my Battle’net account, I’ve got a 66% chance of having that code, right?

Yeah, fuck no. Tried ‘em all, nope nope nope.

Okay, so what else might I have considered a childhood hero?

Maybe it was Robert A. Heinlein…

Shit. And I wouldn’t have picked Sten or Steven Brust, I didn’t get into them until I was in the Marines.

WAIT!

I only bought Starcraft II once, for my account! Alex has been playing it on my account, so if I have the disc, I have the code!

Search my desk… there it is, shiny and new as the day I bought it.

Hands shaking, I enter the code…

YES!!! I’m in! I’m in, thank you, thank you, I can play the game, I haven’t lost it all, and seriously what the fuck, another CAPTCHA?

I enter the CAPTCHA, choose a new password… and I have to enter another CAPTCHA.

No, I’m not kidding. THREE of them throughout this process.

But finally, I’m logged back in. Access is restored!

Okay, note to self. Don’t ever, ever get rid of my Starcraft II game disk case, or the code. Ever. Like, EVER.

Adrenaline is a bitch. Ten minutes later, ooh, feel the burn. Where were you when I was freaking the hell out?

You can have my World of Warcraft account when you pry my Starcraft II disc out of my cold, dead hands.

This will certainly bring much fun in the days ahead, but for now, I note that my son is delighted at the expanded options for mounts and pets. DELIGHTED.

He tells me, “Now we can send each other messages in pet names!”

Yes, you can indeed.

Whew. Scared the shit out of me.

So, here’s the thing.

I went out and bought two full sets of World of Warcraft, the Battlechest and Mists of Pandaria on US servers.

Everything needed to play the game, with the 30 days that is included.

I intend to give these two sets of the game away to two people who would like to play the game as my Recruit a Friend buddies.

If you are one of the two, I’d follow the process of sending you the RAF invite, and then email you the codes for the game. They’re yours, period.

I would hope that you’d have so much fun you’d keep playing the game, and along the way pay for the two months of time that would send a reward back my way.

If for some reason you decided you didn’t really enjoy the game though, I would not hold you to any obligation to do so. Maybe I’m crazy, but if you play the game and after a while decide you don’t like it, I’m not going to expect you to pay for more game time. Screw that, who makes their friends resent them with that kind of thing?

The disclaimer. I can’t promise that I will level a character all the way to max with you. I work full time and pop on and off a lot for family stuff.

I also tend to go in bursts of enthusiasm, playing the hell out of an alt before some other shiny catches my eye to obsess over in the game for a week.

That said, I do have one empty character slot left on my main server, and one low-level character, a level 40-something Shaman. So it is possible I could do some leveling with you.

What I can promise is that, if you are on Alliance side, I would be delighted to run you through anything and everything until we get to content I can’t quite solo on my Warlock, such as some of the Firelands bosses. That is a lot of stuff that your character will be able to see and loot as you level.

I can’t make that same promise Horde-side, I don’t have a high level Horde character. Sorry.

So, you get the game for free, and the benefits of teleporting each other around (and I do have a Mage so that can be handy whenever you need to get somewhere fast) and someone to chat with and run you through stuff.

I potentially get an RAF pet or mount if you decide you like the game enough to keep playing it three months from now. And I also get a new friend to run shit with, because you know, it’s nice to feel needed to do stuff in game and have friends.

If you are seriously interested, send me an email at thebigbearbutt AT gmail DOT com, and let me know why you’d be at all interested in being my RAF buddy. Not looking for an essay or anything, just want to be sure you have some idea of what you’d be getting into.

First two folks who contact me and seem serious are in. This ain’t a contest, no hoop jumping. Just a handshake and taking a lot on faith.

Hope to hear from you soon!

WoW Insider has a nice “Tell us more” article up this morning, asking what we as players would like to see in our Garrison.

Great timing on that question, because there is one thing I’ve had on my mind for our Garrison that they could do, that I haven’t seen mentioned before.

First, what I can’t have. What I would wish more than anything is that our Garrison architecture would match our character race. It would lend the ultimate Warcraft III feel to our Garrison, to go along with our minions scurrying back and forth under our command.

Sadly, I know that’s not going to happen. The panels at BlizzCon made it clear that there was going to be one style for Alliance, the Stormwind castle design, and one style for Horde, the basic Warcraft orc hut style.

To implement an alternate design scheme appropriate for every race would require the art and framework to be developed all over again. That would be hundreds of new buildings, maybe more, to have race-specific versions. Crazy talk.

Blizzard said it was a “maybe someday” thing, but not a launch goal.

I hope it does see the light of day, sometime in the future.

I know if I were a Blood Elf, I’d hire Blood Elf architects to design my buildings and a Blood Elf crew to build them. I wouldn’t expect my personal fortification on an alien planet to look like what those short lived, short sighted Orcs would throw together out of mud and sticks. Even if they DID grow up in the hostile environment I’m trying to defend against.

Barring that, there is one other thing they COULD do in the time remaining that wouldn’t break the design bank, so to speak. Well, maybe it would.

What I’d like to see is one special building in your Garrison among the default structures that relates directly to your character class.

The Garrisons are supposed to be character-specific right now. They’re leaving waffle room for maybe making them account wide, but most comments from developers talk about doing an accelerated Garrison for your alts similar to our current farms. Just like every character has to do everything to unlock the farm all over again at an accelerated reputation pace, so too our first Garrison will be the big one to do over time, and our alts should see a faster buildup.

Well, if my Warlock is my main, and I build my Garrison, I would love to see one of the default buildings, the first ones that get built, be a Warlock tower of some sort. A place where I have my citadel, my personal workroom, the place I get my studying done.

That one touch of individuality that will separate this Garrison from the ones my other alts have.

If I then decide to create a Garrison on my Hunter, why not have a building unique to the Hunter? A Mage getting a Mage Tower, Warriors getting Strongholds, Shaman having an elemental shrine like the place in Nagrand.

I would love that. Even if the design focus of each building was as a place of meditation or contemplation, like a place a character might design as his or her sanctum supreme, place of power or hard point fortification for you Warriors out there.

Paladins would want a place to pray, as would Priests, but with slightly different themes. Thieves might like a little backalley access to the Black Market Auction House, and that secret closet where they hide the poison lab and plundered loot.

I know it would require designing and decorating a lot of different buildings, basically twenty-two new buildings, 2 designs (Alliance and Horde) for each of the eleven character classes.

I don’t know if Blizzard would want to build twenty-two new structures just to give your character a ‘home within a home’ feel. The Garrison itself is such a massive step up from the farm that it’s insane. I keep looking at those slides from BlizzCon and feel overwhelmed.

But of all the ideas I have for what I’d like to see in the Garrison, this is the one that really clicks for me. A Garrison is a fortification out there on the front lines, where my hero can fall back, regroup and prepare for the next push against the Iron Horde.

If I were to build a Garrison, I would have at least one building ideally suited for my interest, my power, my skills.

If I were a Mage, I’d need that tower to focus my arcane arts and collect my tomes of power for easy access.

If I were a Hunter, I’d need that Safari Park where my pets can roam and be trained to my hand. Maybe with my own training dummy on the KD course.

And yes, I would simply love my own secret Sorcerer Supreme / Doctor Strange style Warlock tower, a place where my dark studies can continue unhindered. It’s nice having those Warlock-only places like the Slaughtered Lamb in Stormwind, but let’s be honest. Once I got my feet under me, I never went back there. I’m a Warlock, those other Warlocks aren’t my buddies, they are my competitors in the dark arts. I’m not dropping in for a cup of tea and a fresh bottle of pig’s blood, damnit. The Slaughtered Lamb? That’s where the wanna-be Warlocks hang out with their black cloaks, dribbly candles and face makeup, moaning about ‘the other side’.

If wishes were fishes we’d all be up to our asses in chum, but I can still dream.