For whatever reason, I've been on a huge comedy binge lately.  I can't help but share just a few of the guys I've heard over the last little while.  I'm sure most of you have seen most of these, but maybe some haven't, so here you go.

Jim Gaffigan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Im9Le9Vy2o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9c9lAfXQHs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xLDhN2FO-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSa-xifKjs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpqwXSaxKrI

Brian Regan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9m2FLHlEwA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM-HWkbnDfg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUU9CqrtFiU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A194vDpXzyA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5id8lW-Gm4

Frank Caliendo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAMIlPudalQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBW7ysPcbT0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElWNFgMqGuE

Other miscellaneous crap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avOiTUcD4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=985gQXDNO5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZGzoRXPP0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXNnJE6gNEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93CPo0sBVZc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAYWPV3F41Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2meeXRJ79Ls

and this was just kinda cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2bWOtYFDw&NR=1
 

I hit level 75 of Dufe last night.  I figure this is probably a good time to stop and share some of my thoughts on Wrath thus far.

For starters, the environment is much better than BC.  Between the shadow improvements, more detailed terrain, and just generally better zone layouts, Northrend will be much more enjoyable place to level.  I think the quests tend to be more inter-related to create a more cohesive lore path as well.

There are technically 2 more zones than in BC as well, although the PvP zone doesn't really count in terms of leveling.  The "level spread" of the various zones is similar to that found in BC. In terms of leveling, the added PvE zone would be kind of like having another nagrand level zone in BC.  I think they've done a good job of designing the zone/quest hub layout (more quest hubs than BC) in way that will reduce congestion, even if only slightly, from what we saw in places like Hellfire Pennisula.

As for gear, I have now replaced one thing.  I swapped out my [item]Carved Witchdoctor's Stick[/item] last night for the Wand of Blinding Light. All of the other gear I've seen pales in comparison to the T5/6 level gear I've got.  The stats that Blizzard seems to be using to differentiate between healing vs dps caster gear are about what we expected.  Some gear has MP5 or loads of spirit (healing gear), the "dps" gear tends to have either hit rating, or just more crit and haste than the "healing" gear.

Time for some philosophical, idealistic nonsense:

As I have watched guild chat and the guild website I have seen some interesting trends. I hadn’t noticed anything until I had an odd conversation a couple weeks ago about group communications, norms, and rights – and to some extent responsibility. A group is often defined as 3 or more people with common beliefs and/or goals. Our guild is unlikely to share common beliefs on everything (esp. RL), but as far as WoW is concerned you can certainly find some commonality in both belief and goal. There are, of course several sub-groups within the guild that have different goals regarding their drive to excel in PvP, end game PvE, or simply social game play at any level; however, it seems that the thing that ties these groups of different aspirations together into a guild may be some common beliefs of what a guild should be and how a guild should act. One thing that strongly suggests this is the fact that all wow players are generally pursuing one very few goals. If this were the only factor in determining guild membership, then there would only need to be roughly 3-4 guilds on every server; a PvP guild, a PvE guild, etc.

So what do we, as members of Downfall, believe a guild should be? This isn’t a question I expect or want to hear answered person by person, but rather a rhetorical question intended to get you thinking about what you get out of your guild . . . as well what you put back into it. I think that some things have been made abundantly clear in the past: Downfall does not exist for the purpose of getting gear for our members. Downfall does not exist for the purpose of being better than every other guild in terms of prowess in end game or PvP.