JohnnyBGamer

Dungeon Found

Though I had read much about the new Dungeon Finder feature in World of Warcraft, I had yet to stumble upon it until this past week. (I would like to note that I did so completely by accident.) Randomly pressing the letter “i” on the keyboard, the Dungeon Finder window suddenly appeared.

Immediately I was presented with a few choices:

What role did I want to play (tank, healer, etc.)?
Did I want to run a specific dungeon or a random dungeon?

After making my choices, I pressed “Find Group”, which put me into the cross-server que. Within moments I was asked if I wanted to join a dungeon, I selected yes. My very first Pickup Group (PUG) consisted of me tanking with my level 53 druid Arclight. The other players were made up of priests, rouges, and mages. Our group proceeded through the dungeon and was doing quite well until the last boss. Right before we entered the final boss encounter, a bad pull eliminated all but one person in the party. In anger or frustration — I imagine — everyone in our party quit. This left me and the remaining player to finish the dungeon. 5 minutes later we completed the dungeon and reaped our rewards. A very satisfying night.

My thoughts so far:

Pro’s-

Instant access to a dungeon party.
Easy experience (XP) earned.
Feels like you’ve accomplished something within an hour.
Instance Teleporting.

Con’s –

Your playing with random strangers.
Party members dropping out for no reason (not dedicated).
Dungeons seem to take about an hour to clear (45 minutes at minimum). Dedicated time is needed.

Overall I have enjoyed the two instances I have run using the Dungeon Finder. More to come soon.

Links

The move to WordPress in 2009 brought with it immeasurable relief from both a design and writing perspective. Being able to singularly focus on content, while good, also caused me to neglect the community aspects of the site. So, one of the ways I would like to remedy this is by working on the blog roll or JBG’s links section. If you have a blog or website that fits under our banner of God, Life, and Gaming, please submit a link in the comments below. Looking forward to getting to know ya’ll better,

– Bryan

State of JBG – 2010

JohnnyBGamer.com caught the waves of the net in August of 2003. What had started as a simple idea on paper soon became a reality as my good friend Scotto plunged into designing the site. The crowning achievement during this process, was the amazing work that Scotto did on the JBG logo — I still owe you! –. He took a sketch of mine and created a look and feel that the site has maintained to this day.

The primary goal of JohnnyBGamer has always been to provide professional content focused on the world of videogames. With many articles and a few reviews out there, I would say that that goal has been reached. However, so much is left to be written.

2009 was a year of big changes for JBG. Consumed with html and basic site design, I found myself neglecting actually putting content up on the site. So, I decided to move JBG to WordPress. One of the best decisions I have ever made. Content has flowed freely since the big move. 2009 ended with record visits to the site. Finally, I have felt like JBG has been gaining traction.

So what does 2010 hold for JohnnyBGamer?

Koinonia (Community)

2010 is the year that I want JBG to reach out and embrace the online gaming community. How do we do this?

Increased presence/ participation on blogs, online forums, and other gaming websites.

JohnnyBGamer exists to provide an equal ground for sharing thoughts, ideas, and even life’s burdens. It is my hope that you will join JBG, in the year 2010, as we move forward together.

– Bryan

Hacked!

The nightmare of waking up to find that all your virtual loot has been stolen is one scenario that I have yet to experience — note that I am not asking for this. I cannot imagine the feeling of characters/ items being ripped off; online possessions that cost a great deal of time to obtain suddenly gone. Account hacking via keyloggers and other nefarious schemes are seemingly quite common in World of Warcraft. We at JohnnyBGamer are all about empowering the people. So here are a few common sense ways to protect yourself:

Create a separate e-mail account for your World of Warcraft account. Never share this e-mail address nor associated password with anyone.
Make sure your browser/ PC is updated regularly (auto updates are good).
Empower your Internet browser to fight back by enabling security features.
Purchase an official Blizzard Authenticator at the Blizzard Store.
Download the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator (link will open iTunes) for your iPhone/ iPod Touch (free).

every day the same dream

Every day you wake up, get dressed, eat, and then proceed out the door — if your like me — to your place of work. Every day the same dream is an indie game created by Paolo Pedercini. The short game follows a nameless white collared worker as he trudges through a monochrome world.

The above image is one of the few glimpses of color found in the game; sparse moments of warmth amongst an otherwise cold world. I wonder how many of us experience these moments of awe in an otherwise mundane work week. Funny how comfort is found in the mundane, in the daily schedule each of us lives. May 2010 be a year of awe.

(every day the same dream was noted in a blog post by Sam Kennedy @ 1Up, thus inspiring this post.)