Cross Realm Auction Houses - BLOGGING CARNIVAL

Is the CRAH a good or bad idea? What would you predict would happen to the auction economy?  Does the notion excite or horrify you?  Would a CRAH we good or bad for WoW?

This post is part of the November Edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

So it has been mentioned that with all these recent changes that a Cross Realm Auction House is not beyond the realm of possibilities in the future. Now I am coming from a selling place, I’m no amazing Gold Goblin mere silvers away from his 1 million gold target but I still like to play the AH I just measure things in terms of being able to pay for my professions and save a little to invest.

I really can’t see how a perhaps Battlegroup wide Auction House is going to be good for those of us who like to play the markets. You have to think of it in the ways that you or the average goblin might try the AH. So say you’re a jewelcrafter and let’s leave the other profession blank for this example and you want to do some crafting. Let us say rings so you go to the AH looking for ore, good news it is dirt cheap but then when you check the prices of the rings you want to make they work out less than the cost of the mats.

Why you ask because you are now dealing with 4 times the amount of competition being fuelled by god knows how many times more bots from the various servers flooding the ore market. Now imagine this across all the professions as very few have gold making possibilities not directly linked to the raw materials. You could maybe argue Inscription and DMF cards because of both the fair only being 1 week per month and the cards being limited by source materials with a 1 a day cooldown but that market is fairly limited and will be limited further as we are currently in a DMF.

This stuff of course is not necessarily game breaking for all but for those who like the AH the effect would be quite noticeable. I think the more important thing to consider is the reason behind things like the discussion of a Cross Realm Auction House and the establishment of the Cross Realm Zones. These are all just Blizzard branded plasters covering the festering wounds of dead and dying servers (now that’s some imagery for you).

I’ve been on one of those abandoned servers (Blizzard liked to call them Recommended) and I know how much of a nightmare they can be. The server that I was on wasn’t always bad but it slowly went down as top 10 guild after top 10 guild server transferred away. Yes they are the elite but where they go others follow and soon two of the guilds I was in which were nowhere near the top decided to move on as well.

This all took time 5 level 85s worth of time, so when I decided to move to follow a friend and her guild I had to start over from scratch. Which is the other part of this with all this Cross Realm talk Blizzard can continue to double charge people to move server and faction just because they can’t properly deal with the fact that they need to consolidate servers.

This issue goes all the way back to when LFG and BGs went from just your realm to your Battlegroup. Unfortunately for me it seems that Blizzard has gone so far down this road that they are really not going to turn around now so perhaps goblins everywhere should be prepared to deal with a Cross Realm Auction House.

I can't really publish this without pointing out that Cold talked about this when the initial talk began during the Cross Realm Zones discussion.

K-K-CANCELLED!?!

So it is November and it is getting seriously cold out there. Not that I have anything to complain about given the devastation around Cuba, Haiti and of course the Eastern seaboard of the United States. I felt that I just had to at least mention that before moving on to the discussion of TV shows.

Unfortunately good friends I bring you news of cancellations.

The first show is Fairly Legal which has been cancelled after two seasons. It starred Sarah Shahi (she being the reason I watched) about a lawyer turned mediator with a bit of a hero complex and an incredibly messy personal life. It also featured Michael Trucco that you probably recognise from Battlestar Galactica as one Samuel Anders.

It was a solid enough show that showed during the off season but I could never truly sympathise with the lead character as she always come over a little too self righteous for my liking and the mess she made of her private life made even a singleton like me wince on more than one occasion.

I enjoyed the antics of her personal assistant played by Baron Vaughn, he was just so intensely likeable as was his brief courtship of the sandwich seller. I can fully understand though why the show was cancelled as deciding to come up with the main romantic prospect in the 2^nd season was never likely to work. Still I will miss Sarah Shahi and her smoldering looks.

The other show to get an official cancellation notification was Political Animals starring Sigourney Weaver

The reason this one left me surprised was the fact that it was a miniseries, I don’t know about you but when  I hear the term miniseries I assume only one run and not several seasons, otherwise it wouldn’t really be a MINI-series then would it? Still for whatever reason USA made the announcement, from what I can gather Political Animals was one of those critic, good, ratings, bad shows that often like to appear every now and then.

I watched the entire run but I can remember only catching up on the final 5 episodes weeks after they aired just to say I had watched it because the show didn’t really move me. I get the idea it was supposed to with some many heavy hitters in the cast list but then I have never been one for mainstream drama. Perhaps the American public gets more than enough of their politics from Fox News.

SOME GOOD NEWS TO FOLLOW BAD

Homeland has been renewed for Season Three and it is only five episodes into Season Two. That is pretty early as renewals go especially for someone who generally is still waiting to hear whether or not his favourite show is going to return in May or June after a season finale. Homeland stars Damian Lewis who also starred with Sarah Shahi in Life which was a cop procedural that lasted two seasons. It is a great show and I am glad to see that it is going to be around for awhile though I do have questions about how far it can go.

Arrow is also going to be show in its entirety for the first season. Obviously this isn’t as big news as a renewal but it is still important as all too often shows like this might be silently lead off to execution after only a few episodes of a longer intended run. Look up Birds of Prey as a noteworthy example.

Arrow is certainly no Smallville it goes in another direction probably more accurate to equate it with Batman which Arrow is a copy of. It makes sense for CW to run with it though as the Batman rights are in use, the writing and pacing of the show is excellent though one minor gripe is for Oliver to go a little further with his family than just being the obnoxious playboy.

WORK PROGRAMME - 2ND VISIT

So this is a summary of my second meeting with the people of SEETEC

One of the first things that we covered once we got started was the CV, last interview I was asked to send my CV in which I decided to comply with subject to making some changes. The first changes I made to the CV itself was to add a watermark (you can do this easily in Windows or if you’re advanced you can edit the PDF with Acrobat) which said ‘DO NOT COPY’. I also removed my telephone number and e-mail address. Finally I added a line in red that said please do not disseminate (fine word).

As you might guess my data is important to me so to ensure that there would be no mistakes I wrote an e-mail stating that I was providing this CV only because I had been directed to do so in my previous appointment and that by accepting this copy of my CV, SEETEC (my provider) were agreeing to destroy any previous electronic or paper copies of my CV that they may have had as a result of me being on their New Deal programme previously or that they may have somehow received from DWP.

The advisor accepted this and told me that my e-mail had been passed on to the manager so that everyone knew how seriously I took my data which was great. A little later I was asked whether or not I was using the e-mail and I said that I was not comfortable using it and then the advisor spilled this little bit of info. The reason that they do this is for lazy people who they feel don’t do enough to look for jobs so they (SEETEC) can then send off applications to jobs. The advisor agreed with me that if there are jobs they want me to go for they can get in touch with me.

So overall an excellent interview with no one trying to screw me over.

OTHER THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO

I have to attend a 2 hour CV workshop compulsory but a total waste of time. I only went to a CV interview at the job centre maybe 2 months ago which was pretty useful more for the interview practice than the CV thing as my CV was made by someone who used to work in recruitment and it has proven reasonably successful in getting interviews.

I also have a two hour VTC Elvis session. This is an online training area which to be honest I have to check out but when I do I will try to write a little something about it.

So big thanks to everyone over at the Unemployment Movement

http://unemploymentmovement.com/forum/welfare-to-work

Without the advice from those guys I don’t know where I would be. Keep your eyes peeled for WP labelled posts if you want to hear of my misadventures but be warned it is not the only thing I blog about.

WORK PROGRAMME - Thoughts

So there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about job seekers being work shy and living in luxury on the tax payers’ dime but have you ever thought about the so called solution to unemployment – the Work Programme and the WP providers?

I recently got referred to a Work Programme and I am going to share my experiences with you so you can get an idea of what happens.

First when you are referred to a Work Programme you are disavowed by the Job Centre meaning they will no longer help you with things like travel expenses and everything they do is now covered by the work Programme, unfortunately the Work Programme is a business not a government service.

One of the things people entering on the programme notice is the very stiff penalties for falling foul of the WP providers and the rather high rates of people then receiving those sanctions.

On my first appointment I was almost inundated with information and forms to fill in, fortunately I had done a lot of research before that interview mainly down to an earlier experience with the same WP provider when they did work on the New Deal, basically to cut a long story short they attempted to bully me as well as asking me to take steps that would have lessened my chances at getting a job also they failed to keep to their promises as laid down in the contract.

The important things that came out from my interview:

 Data protection waiver:
You are asked to sign a data consent form which if you did means that the provider can use your information as they see fit. The main way in which this works would mean that they can apply for jobs on your behalf without your consent or knowledge. They can also contact your employers after you find your job to ask about your performance and ultimately claim a bonus payment from the government because you found work.
 The WP provider took it upon themselves to create an e-mail address for me despite the fact that they already had mine on their record. Furthermore I was informed that they created this e-mail so that they can use it to inspect any job applications by logging into that e-mail address.

So I decided to withhold my consent in terms of the data waiver. I am concerned with losing control of my own data which I think is a reasonable response when dealing with a company that gets paid on the back of people finding jobs often with little help from them.

That is enough from me for now I have a further interview tomorrow so I will be sure to take lots of notes and to be prepared for the reaction to my non-signing of the data waiver.

So This is How Things Are Going

Personal Stuff

I'm on the Work Programme I thought I would share at least that much though I suppose depending on if SEETEC is as bad as it was last time then you may find me blogging about it nearly as much as a blog about TV which I think we all agree would be weird. Last time when it was the New Deal it was a very bad experience to say the least in fact I barely want to type about it suffice it to say they treated us like we were recently paroled convicts with brain damage who needed help on the job front, that or perhaps those kids in school who aren’t allowed in your normal classroom environment because they’d break shit up.

I’m published YA KNOW!!!

So yeah I got something published on Hypable.com again which was nice. I am not saying that makes me some amazing journalist as I think they will print anything regardless of content as long as you know it reads well and isn’t insulting or just a bunch of nonsense, what was good about getting the article out there is of course seeing some reaction to it. 4 comments since I last checked and I think likely it will stick around there but then 4 comments are most certainly better than none.

It is a review about Video Game High School from RocketJump.com

Read it here

Job Interview, Shmob Interview

Image provided by StockFreeImages

Yes it is that time again so even as I am writing this I am making notes on the questions I am likely to be asked at the interview. As far as I know this is just a straight interview as in one without an attached task which is pretty rare these days. I can’t be sure but there is no task mentioned in the invite and usually they are quite good about such things.

Wish me luck I’m bringing my A game as I really want to be through with this unemployment thing and get back to a job, something I can excel at.

A Weekly Roundup?

MISTS OF PANDARIA

I have a level 90 Death Knight and have been running around like a headless chicken ever since. The ‘WTF’ moment had to be when I got an achievement ding for doing 25 DAILIES in one day, ugh. I have decided to work on Golden Lotus, Order of the Serpent with a little Tillers rep thrown in. Slowly starting to level my 2nd character to 90 also gold making has been going surprisingly well even sold my first mount.

THE DEATH OF LEMON LUCOZADE

So I was just walking around doing some light shoppery when I noticed that Lucozade have added yet another new flavour replacing the most beloved of all flavours Lucozade Lemon. I find this interesting not least because I know of a certain low cost supermarket branch that had a suspiciously similarly flavoured drink which one day just disappeared only to replaced by a pathetic sugar free version. If you ask me there was just more sugar than someone somewhere high up wants in drinks. I however will very much miss it and the new replacement is pretty meh.

It is not just me the Internet is in an uproar

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1643694
http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=2&TopicID=280326&PagePosition=1

Undoubtedly by the time you read this there will be more uproar in fact things shall be quite loud all around.

MY OTHER BLOGS

So I thought I would just put in here that I have been doing my best to line up some interviews for my other blogs. You would not know it from look at the analytical on this my personal blog space but on the other blogs I run do have regular decent numbers for me with posts generating at least a couple hundred hits each and the site hits being well into the hundreds of thousands. So of course I want to take that success and go somewhere with it improve things for those people who come to my blog so hopefully they will tell others and so on. I have one interview sorted but the big name stars are far harder to get hold of which makes sense as I am just a guy and not someone writing for a popular celeb blog or a newspaper but we will keep on trying.

So that is all from me, questions? Hit the comment button and try to remember this isn't YouTube. Thank you kindly.

So I Got A New Computer

If you’ve been following my adventures you will know that my old gaming machine packed up a couple weeks ago. Well I got a new computer after a lot of head scratching and reading of reviews I came to a decision and got a HP Pavillion g6.

I was very worried after reading various graphics cards review sites that the G6 wouldn’t be able to play World of Warcraft at any reasonable frame rate however thankfully after a touch of insight I searched YouTube for examples of my preferred laptop and graphics cards running games that I was interested in. 

Thankfully I want to play World of Warcraft and not some lesser known game, after checking out YouTube I was convinced it was worth trying this laptop out.

THE SPECIFICATION

·         1.9 GHz dual core processor

·         Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium

·         15.6 inch Brightview HD LED display

·         500GB hard drive

·         6GB RAM

·         DVD drive (dual layer with re-writer)

·         Wi-Fi enabled

·         HDMI output

·         Warranty: 1 year

·         Webcam and digital microphone

·         Multi-card reader

As far as I’m concerned that is a nice set of stats as it allows me to do what I want as I have now seen after playing around with the computer for a little over a week.

GAMING

So far I have played World of Warcraft and Star Wars The Old Republic, I played WoW on some custom settings (who needs shadows?) and got very respectable results indeed I never felt I had any frame issues but to be perfectly honest I haven’t done many backgrounds to really test how it handles 20+ players onscreen spamming their buttons to death. The Old Republic runs well enough but it has very weird options in terms of graphic settings so I am loathe to mess with those but the game was very playable.

GENERAL

The laptop does everything else that I want it. That previous  statement also includes not running slower than molasses. I can run any videos I want and running multiple tabs or letting the virus and spyware scans run in the background no longer cause me to have to stop everything else.

There isn’t really a lot else to say though I will keep you guys informed on any issues arising from the laptop though it seems to be going well so far. So that is enough from me I hope that your computers are problem free.