Quit WoW again

Looking in my inbox today I read this:

This message is being sent to confirm that all credit card information has been removed from the World of Warcraft account ********, effectively cancelling its recurring subscription as of September 23, 2007 5:47 AM UTC. The account will not bill or renew any further unless new payment information (credit card or game card) is manually entered in.
The account will remain playable for the remaining time it has already paid for.

So I did it… again. Cancelled. I was wasting money. Hadn’t played the game in weeks, and when I got on even with my mains and alts it was boring. I have BC expansion, but still am lvl 51 on my main, so I’ve never seen the new content except on the public test realms. Its all a pretty useless game at the moment. Having no one else I know who plays doesn’t help either.
They do say:

At this time, Blizzard has no plans to delete or “expire” characters, even if an account is deactivated

which means there will always be the nag in the back of my mind that I could go back – in fact they are betting on it. I think I’ll trade one addiction (WoW) for another (exercise) and I’ll be a lot healthier for it.

WoW Expansion II announced

Logging on to Warcraft on the weekend, I note that a new expansion has been announced at Blizzcon. It features Arthas as Lich King, no doubt in some mega dungeon that you and 25 of your closest friends get to take down. In addition there is new land to the north including buildings you can take down – towers, etc. – very reminiscent of Warcraft3 for all you old school gamers.

A new level cap of 80 as well… I can’t even get to 60. The cap of the original game.

World of Warcraft – Alts

I’ve hit level 50 with my main character now. Whilst I want to get another 10 levels and start on the BC content, I have found the gold I make farming with this character, particularly on recipes, enables me to spec out my alts like never before.

So I started a hunter. I already have him up to level 12 and besides being a bit time consuming, its fun. Playing a hunter is like being in a 2 man group all the time. The pet tanks, and I get my range attacks taking down the target before they hit me.

I also have a lvl 24 pally whom I’ve spec’ed up the same. A lvl 21 Guardian Blade is the two handed sword of choice for my crusader, though it costs 15 Gold on my server from the AH.

I’ve found that having my main as an enchanter means I can also buy the items I want, enchant them and mail them on. The only problem remains: when if ever will the main get to level 60, or even 70!

3D Cards and WoW – the 7300 GT TDH

I recently upgraded to a 22″ widescreen monitor. To drive this monitor in a Digital fashion, I jumped from a Geforce 3 series to a Geforce 7 Series with a Dual Link DVI connector. It turns out the monitor wasn’t dual link, but this review is on the card, not the monitor. The old 3D card was some major brand, I can’t remember which, and since I was upgrading an existing AGP card, I had to choose a replacement AGP card as well. The new one is one of the last AGP models available in the shops for an “entry level” card. It’s a Leadtek 7300 GT TDH.

The visuals of this card are a vast leap in terms of what the old one offered. I can also drive my 22″ screen at 1650 x 1050 resolution, practically full HD (though the computer struggles decoding 1080i). One of my other strong factors in buying a new card was for the World of Warcraft (WoW). I play it casually, to unwind from the real world :-). I have seen the in game visuals jump from slow and nice to fast and brilliant with the 7300 GT TDH. Below is a set of in game screenshots, showing what the game looked like before and after the upgrade. The lack of motion does the pictures no justice at all.

Before	After	After Battle

In the both after shots, a good deal of the quality comes from the fact that this card is fast enough to allow AntiAliasing to be always turned on, even at high resolutions.

The only problem I have had with the card is that it requires a dedicated Molex power connector attached to it, and even though I exceed the mandatory minimum 400Watt PSU, I still get the occasional error saying “Your card is not receiving enough power”. In fact it drew so much power initially, I had to take one of my HDDs out and put it in a USB enclosure.

If you have an AGP slot, a decent computer and a powerful enough PSU, $130AU for this card is worth the upgrade to tide your system over until you are ready to enter the realm of PCI-Express motherboards and 3D cards.