Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

Pet of the Week - Blue Moth

well unfortunately, Greatfather Winter didn't feel pet collectors were good enough this year. no new pets under the in-game evergreen. oh well. i'll send him a letter next year hinting for a baby evergreen Teldrassil Sproutling that's constantly being showered with snow and covered with ornaments and festive lights. :P

anyway, this week's pet is the blue moth. i remember it took me a while to actually go and pick up this moth as well as its brothers/sisters from exodar. mainly because exodar was out of the way and so damn hard to navigate at the time. it took some determination on my part to finally head over and buy all of the moths. heh.

why i love it
it's absolutely gorgeous in its simplicity. the colors remind me of the hyacinth macaw. and as we all know, blues and purples even in their most primal colored state have "special" meaning in the world of warcraft. (see: rare and epic)

blizzard has kindly instructed all the moths to attend flight school so that they may keep up with flying mounts. so that's a definite plus!

as with moths irl, they really don't have a special sound that they make, so the lack of sound save for the constant wing flutter is indeed appropriate.

what i would change
one thing i would change would be its size. for a moth, it's quite gigantic. i don't know about everyone else, cute or not, if a moth that size (in relation to me) came up to me one day, i'd have a very hard time convincing myself to NOT run away or smack it out of my face with a rolled up newspaper. (i have a thing with insects, specifically GIANT insects >_<)

then again, shrinking this companion's size would most likely reduce the visibility of the finer details such as the dust floating around its wings or the antenna feathering. i'm torn about its size.

a commenter over at warcraftpets.com had a suggestion of maybe giving this moth as well as all the others a light sensitivity animation, where it would be obsessively attracted to light.

but to me, this moth, with all its vibrant and glorious colors, is a moth of a higher standard and breed. to see it scamper over to a campfire or light-post and hover around it compulsively seems demeaning to both me and my moth. it would add a bit of fun and hilarity to this pet, yes, but it would remove that regal and formal air that it currently holds so well.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Celebrating the Holidays

HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all. here's hoping for new companion pets under Greatfather Winter's tree this year! *crosses fingers*

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

TCG Pets

Mr. awesome just bought me the tuskarr kite. thank you, a million times, thank you!

but i wonder, what do most people do with the loot cards after they've redeemed them? throw them out? try to resell them back to a card shop? unless you play the card game, i don't see how useful these cards can be after you've redeemed their codes.

i plan on keeping the cards for sentimental reasons. it's rare for me to have any TCG pets in general (all gifts and all greatly appreciated <3), so i feel as though the cards, redeemed or not, are extra special.

i even have a nifty little card holder so they won't get scratched or dusty :)

the tuskarr kite is so silly, btw. i can summon it while in bird form, but instead of flying by my side or above me (like you'd think a normal kite would)... it flies beneath me.

hopefully this kite won't get me in trouble during raids XD

Monday, December 21, 2009

Pet of the Week - Obsidian Hatchling

the obsidian hatchling was my first baby raptor pet. i made sure to log out near breanni in dalaran so i could buy it as soon as i logged in. :)

why i love it
it's a miniature version of an adult raptor, what's not to love? his colors are darling, and he makes the cutest raptor squeal i've ever heard. the way he taps his big toe with that menacing looking claw of his makes me /lol. it's almost as if he's saying 'hurry up! i'm waiting! /taps foot'

what i really love about it, though, is that although he's a vendor pet (unlimited supply no less), he's unique. this means he's easily accessible for lower level collectors or those who just don't have the time/gold to get a raptor hatchling elsewhere. everyone can at least have one baby raptor because of this little guy.

what i would change
if i could think of an idle animation for him, i would probably give him that animation. except i'm not sure what animation would fit his namesake. the other baby raptors have animations that fit their name. the darting one "darts" around for example. but an obsidian hatchling? hmm... this may take some thought.

other than that, though, i don't think i would change a thing. he even does that classic "raptor-sigh" XD

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A Pet for Every Holiday

i noticed that with patch 3.3, there is a new valentine's day achievement: tough love. it's obviously a new holiday specific boss encounter, much like the headless horseman, ahune, and coren direbrew to name a few.

that got me thinking, it seems as though they're adding a holiday specific boss for each (major) seasonal event, so what about pets? here's what i came up with:
the only in-game events that are missing from this list are day of the dead, pirates' day, and the lunar festival.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Pet of the Week - Giant Sewer Rat

wow-wee, patch had me busy all week! late post is late.

this week's pet is the giant sewer rat. fishing him up was really a stroke of luck for me. i managed to get him after only about 10 minutes. someone had already been fishing in the area (for what appeared to be a long time), so by the time i came along and they left, i guess that the RNG had caught up with the casts. i just got lucky and was the one present when it happened.

why i love it
can you say... HUGE? gi-GANTIC? e-NORMOUS? in terms of large pets, i believe he's one of the biggest when he stands up. it's adorable in a flea-infested, plague-spreading type of way. haha. normally i'm not one for rats, but because he looks so clean and pristine, he almost reminds me of the pet mice that are sold in real pet stores. those are cute!

at the very least, this one is unique. he's a rat.... but he's so much more too!

what i would change
upon closer inspection of this little (big) guy, he's missing his whiskers! how can a rat or mouse go without their whiskers?! if he had whiskers, i'd also add a new idle animation where he occasionally sits back on his hind legs and cleans his face and ears. very reminiscent of a real rodent imo :)

he's also a mute, lacking the classic rat/mouse squeaks. then again, i'm not sure if i'd want to hear the squeak from something as large as him. it might sound more like a bark than a squeak o_o heh.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Now to Sleep

perky pug. took me two days. lost count of the hours. many groups with 100 random pugs.

worth it? totally.

i'm pretty fond of the new random heroic dungeon tool too. :P

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Patch Day!

i was one of the lucky ones who managed to log in prior to the huge battle.net issue and log in lockout. at first i thought the core hound pup was a mistake like the op shirt that was unintentionally sent to a player by a GM. it really did seem like a mistake since only a handful of people online at the time got one too.

imagine how overjoyed i was when i found out that it was really a pet reward for having a blizzard authenticator attached to your account! i seriously thought that the pup would be part of the next expansion or a blizzard pet store item.

*insert eeeeeee here*

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Pet of the Week - Peanut

peanut was the first pet i chose from the outlands children's day quests. i was ecstatic because i had a pet that matched my then new purple elekk mount. :P

why i love it
peanut is the definition of adorable. he acts just like the older versions of himself, minus the saddle and mount on his back. whenever he stands up on his hind-legs and trumpets, it makes me 'awww'. although he's not as big as a full grown elekk, he certainly has a big heart. :)

i adore his size. he's one of the larger vanity pets, and you'd think that would defeat the purpose of a miniature companion, right? nope. he goes perfectly with my elekk mount! give him a pet biscuit and then we may have a problem of large baby elekks trampling on people's feet.... :P

what i would change
i would definitely create peanut to be one of the pets that changes color upon each summon. much like the nether ray fry, there are many different colors of the full grown mount. so why aren't there many different colors of their baby counterparts?

other than that, i wouldn't change a thing. his animation's cute, his vocalizations are what you would expect from a baby elekk, and he's overall very eye pleasing.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

WarcraftPets Contest

i just sent in my submission for the Suggest a Pet Contest being held at WarcraftPets.com, sponsored by WoWLootCards.com!

i really don't want to get my hopes up, since i know there will be MANY MANY entries. it's tough to not hope, though. oh well, we'll see what happens.

even if i don't win, i think this is still a wonderful idea. not only will it give the entire collecting community a chance to officially voice their ideas (we're never short of pet ideas and creations XD), there's a small chance that blizzard may take notice and expand on one of our ideas or two. at the very least, i'm sure the blizzard devs will be amused. :)

this contest is also awesome because it doesn't require picaso-like art skillz! ...which i'm lacking. lol. a lot of contests are based on created art of different mediums. i've dabbled in drawing, painting, and some graphics art, but none of which were award winning. (think refrigerator art haha)

so a contest that only requires one to follow directions, fill out a form, and get creative is perfect for me!

and unlike the many other 'sign-up here, get a chance to win' contests, i feel like i'm actually contributing something meaningful (that isn't exceptionally tedious or difficult to come up with). not just a user account.

ahhh, december 11th couldn't come any sooner!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Santa IS Real

or at least very keen ears are. :)

i wasn't expecting to get my hands on any of the TCG pets (although part of me did hope), nevermind the newest Spectral Tiger Cub and Tuskarr Kite. so imagine my surprise when i found out someone had bought the kitten for me!

Mr. Awesome found some of his old cards and decided to trade them in for credit at a local card shop. then he went on to pay the remaining amount for the spectral cub (about $100). the worker at the shop even gave him a 10% discount.

he definitely didn't have to, but he did. and i'm shocked. and upset. and ecstatic all at the same time!

and last but not least, i'm very very grateful. *heart*


ahhh, i've already redeemed the code and am now sitting with my newest companion in dalaran. i am a super happy collector!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Don't Provoke the Suicidal Turkey!

ok, so the Plump Turkey jumping into fires was cute and amusing... at first. but now whenever i pull this pet out to just ENJOY it, rather than see it commit suicide, there's always at least one smart ass who thinks it would be amusing to watch my turkey die.

that's one of the downsides of companion pets who interact with the environment around them. it's often hard to mitigate and control, sometimes making it a headache for the actual pet owners.

this isn't a call for a change. i wouldn't want blizzard to stop implementing vanity pet + environment interaction. that would remove a lot of the existing and future interesting and fun animations. this is more of a frustration rant, heh.

so for now, unless i'm feeling morbid, i'll be summoning my turkey as far away from fire as possible. it will be up to make to take care of my sensitive feathery friend because no one else will!
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Perks N Peeves by Quintessence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.