A Bounty of Thanks

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and so too goes Pilgrim's Bounty. Firstly, the cooking stuff was awesome. Just straight awesome; I got Taraz (my DK) from zero cooking to 352 in about an hour and a half. Sweet Jesus yes; I want it to stay all year round. That more than anything made the 5-year anniversary special for me.

When I go to the Alliance cities as Horde, I feel a great sense of awe and wonder I don't get in my own cities, except maybe a small tinge at Silvermoon, quickly squashed by the knowledge that inside untold carnal acts are constantly taking place between deviant Tauren sexchiefs and their wispy Elven consorts. Where was I? Oh yes, awe. Viewing Ironforge from the outside, a mighty city-fortress jutting out of the cold rock and snow evokes strong themes, themes of Dwarven resilience and pride. Then I run in just long enough to put my dirty troll feet over everything and I'm out.

Long story short, I love achievements where I go to alliance cities for harassment, because the long motorcycle cross country tour serves as a buildup to amazing architecture and rare sights of (shock!) well designed cities, Darnassus aside. The rest of the year, I slum around in that pile of twigs and poo called Org. I was glad to see one more of these roadtrips, even if the guards' aggro made hopping in chairs frustrating at times.

Onto the bad now; oh god Turkinator. When will Blizzard learn to stop adding achievements that are easy in proportion to how god awful late you are willing to stay up? I actually had some fun with this one, but that's because I can afford to stay up til 3 or 4 the night before Thanksgiving to get it done. To the rest of sane, working people playing wow it's kinda a dickslap.

Finding the 8 rogues is irritating as hell, because /who won't find anyone of the opposite faction. Camping Dalaran for hours looking for a Dwarf rogue, just to give up and cajole someone into making a quick alt and driving 30 minutes to high-five them and hearth is not time well-spent, and really burns my taint. These achievements are clunky and inherently flawed, to a degree. As an added serving of suck, if you miss even once with the Turkey Gun, perhaps accidentally hitting an already-turkey'd rogue, it increases the number of dailies needed for the holiday from 10 to 11, adding an extra day onto things. Harsh.

Overall, I'm happy to see a new holiday without any heavy grinding or camping (Noble's Garden) or heart-rending RNG aspects (Love is in the Air). It can be completed in 2 days, which is appropriate given that many people's Thursdays, and possibly Wednesdays and Fridays are lost to celebration, at least in the States. And while there was no LOL TANKARD epics, a 2-hour cooking raiser is welfare enough for even the neediest noob. What I really want to know is what the hell are the Pilgrims in WoW lore; what's the tie-in? The closest thing are the Orcs, who sailed to a new world to escape persecution, but then what the hell is the Alliance celebrating? I don't think they quite thought that angle out. But who cares? 1- 350 Cooking, and that's all you need to know!