A Neat special edition post!

The Z and Cinder blog challenge site was nominated in the Real Neat Blog awards by one of our regular contributors, Marathal. *waves*. THANKYOU, Marathal!! We were both really excited about this and incredibly flattered, and decided to do a combined response to Marathal’s questions. And even better – we haven’t seen each other’s answers prior to posting this.

So without any further ado, here are the questions we’ve been asked to answer:

In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, are you prepared?

Z
Are you ever prepared?  If Zombie started randomly roaming around suburban Melbourne tomorrow would I be ok??

 NO! I don’t have enough supplies to remain holed up indefinitely in my house, not even if I finally got around to eating that can of Chick peas that’s been floating around long enough for the use-by date to rub off. And after a quick google search, I’m now confident I’m even less prepared than I thought I was.

I can’t even finish zombie survival games because they are either gory or scary.. so having to live through a real zombie apocalypse isn’t going to go well for me.   Can I have the nice sort of Zombies like in Warm Bodies?

Cinder
I’d like to say yes, but the truth is I can’t run very fast. Z’s definitely got me on that one! (Oh god zombie Z?!!!! I wouldn’t stand a chance!) *ahem* Anyway. We actually do have a bit of a plan – our theory is that zombies can’t swim. Or wouldn’t be bothered swimming. And we live by the water and there are LOADS of boats around. So our plan would be to commandeer one of those boats and high tail it for the seas!

Have you ever had someone you never would have thought would ever read you blog, mention something you wrote?

Z
I had someone from my guild the other day ask me about something that they could only have known about from reading my blog and it’s not someone I would have thought would have been into reading my random chatter, but since I’m pretty vocal about blogging to guildies it’s possibly not unexpected that they do pop over from time to time.

Cinder
I’m honestly surprised when anyone reads my blog! I ramble a lot and say stupid things, so it’s always nice when people take the time to read what I say and leave comments and stuff. It’s really nice. The most exciting moment of recognition, though, wasn’t for my blog, but for one of my podcasts. Reins of Azeroth was featured in one of WoW’s This Month in WoW posts. You might say I got a tad excited… ok I completely lost my shit. It was AWESOME!

And actually, just the other weekend, I had a moment like this! I was summoning friends outside of Eye of Azsuna dungeon, when all of a sudden someone nearby in a say says:

OMG

It’s Cinder!

I read your blog!

It was really lovely and totally made my day. J

Of course I have to ask.  Alliance or Horde, but also, One Main? or Army of Alt’s.

Z
This is really 2 questions in one. Faction-wise -I always say I play both factions, however I realised the other day that Z has now been horde longer than I ever played Alliance and with the exception of my alliance Druid who is sitting at 102, all my other Alliance alts are 92 or lower.

I also say that I would change back to Alliance in a heartbeat so I could be a beautiful Night Elf Druid, but you know.. I don’t really know if I could. I actually like the horde lore perspective a lot more than from the Alliance perspective. And I’d probably be lonely – I looked at my friends list the other day and out of 30 odd people online, only 2 were Alliance so if I changed my main faction, I wouldn’t be able to play with a lot of my friends.. so you know I think from a practical perspective I’m Horde but with some pretty strong bi-factional leanings.

Main wise – Z is my main, I do all the achievements I can on her. But I have a huge stable of alts that I really enjoy playing, as long as I’ve done everything I want to do first on Z!

Cinder
Definitely Alliance. But I do have a big army of alts. My shaman is my main, but I have a very soft spot for all of my toons, no matter what level they are.

Have you ever had the opportunity to attend Blizzcon, or some other large gaming convention.

Z
The closest I’ve come to a gaming convention would be PAX Australia, which was held in Melbourne in 2015. It was really fun to go to and see all the games that were lined up and buy lots of gaming merchandise and being surrounded by tons of other people that like to game as well was an awesome feeling. Yay gamers unite! I did have plans to go to Blizzcon this year (depending on whether I can win at the click fest which is ticket release) but I’m now actually not decided if I do want to go.

Cinder
No. I’ve considered going to gaming conventions in the past, but the number of people gets to me every time. I’m not good with crowds, and those things draw in some incredibly big number! That’s why I like the Virtual Ticket – I can experience some of Blizzcon in the comfort of my own home. I do get pangs of jealousy, because I would love to meet some people face to face… Maybe one year I’ll get the guts (and the money!!) to go.

Do you think Warcraft will ever end, and how do you see them ending it.

Z
I think it’s naïve to think it will never end, nothing is permanent especially in the world of gaming where technology is constantly evolving. For WoW still to be around with full support so long after it’s launch is remarkably phenomenal. I’d hope it’s around for many years more to come but personally I think the end is possibly closer nearer than I’d like, in its current incarnation at least.  I really like cyclic loops and I see the way the expansions are laid as being on a bit of a cycle. The current world events began with Medievh and Gul’dan and the burning legion and we’re starting to address that now. Mediveh is back in the game, Gul’dan is finally out of the picture (both the original and the Draenor 2.0 version) and it’s possible we’re going to face the threat of the Legion directly, maybe even on their own turf if we go to Argus. It feels to me like the circle is beginning to close. Maybe it’s not there yet but ends feel like they are beginning to wrap up.

 I’d love it if it ended in a way that WoW 2.0 (on an amazing engine, think along the lines of Guild Wars 2/ESO quality) could be launched from. Maybe somewhere we can pick up the story again 30 years after WoW 1 ended and the cycle starts again for example.

Cinder
oh this is such a good question that I feel like we should use this as a challenge topic!! I could go on about this for a really long time.

The short version is that, yes, of course Warcraft will end. When that will be, though, I don’t know. There are actually events happening in game right now that could really easily tie up the whole game if they decided to end it with Legion. But I don’t’ think that will be happening, especially not with the huge number of subscribers they have at the moment.

But I do really like this question…

What in all the years you have played games, has been your favorite to play.

Z
I’ve played lots of different games and yet I always come back to WoW. I’ve put more time into this  one game than any other;  I blog, think and breathe WoW.

It’s the game I enjoy enough to always want to come back to it, because it offers so much diversity in ways I can play the game. And the majority of people I interact with come from WoW. Sometimes there’s many things in WoW that annoy me that I have no control over and there’s always guilt associated with WoW, like if I don’t log in I’ll fall behind. But given I always come back, WoW would have to be my favourite, or I wouldn’t be back.

Cinder
I have sentimental attachment to most of the games that I’ve played. I have memories of travelling on the bus on my year 7 camp with a game-boy knockoff playing Tetris for literally hours on end (something I still do to this day!!) I love that game!!

In my post answering questions from Z’s nomination from this award I talked about a lot of the games I played when I was younger, and I definitely have wonderful memories attached to all of them. I forgot to list Mario Kart on there, which is definitely high on my list too! Not just on the Nintendo 64, but also on the DS. When I was a nanny the kids each had a DS and they would play Mario Kart together. I thought it would be a fun way o bond with the kids, so bought my own DS and Mario Kart, and we would all have fun playing together. I have memories of us sitting on the couches in the lounge, fire burning in the corner, kids literally sitting on top of me clambering to get a better look at the screens of those playing… it was really sweet times.

But overall, I would have to say that WoW is my favourite to play. It is such a huge game with so much story and so much to do that no matter what type of game I feel like playing, I can find it in WoW. WoW has given so much pleasure just from playing, but it has also been something that my partner Thor and I can share together. And it has also made me some amazing friends, including Z. So I will always be grateful to WoW.

And a final one.  Should Tauren be allowed to play Rogue’s 😉

Z
Sure, when Blood Elves can play Druids.

Cinder
Yes!!! Especially the pirate spec 🙂  I do like Taurens. It’s a shame they’re Horde…

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For the next part of this challenge we are supposed to nominate 7 people to answer 7 questions, but we thought it would be better to give a huge shout out and thanks to everyone who has participated in the Z & Cinder’s Blog Challenge so far. We are incredibly grateful to have each and every one of you take the time to think over our silly questions each week. It’s so much fun reading everyone’s thoughts!

So huge thank you to:

WoW Roadtrip

by Natanie and Moo

The Daily Frostwolf

By Navimie

Deez Wurds

by Marathal

Bubbles of Mischief

by Cymre Jones

Strumpet Speaks

by Strumpet

Mama Druid

By Mama Druid

Coffee Cakes and Crits

By Wrathofkublakhan

Reputation Grind

by RepGrind

Rokk Talk

by Rokk

Ann In Wonderland In Azeroth

By Ann