Bob the goat speaks

So, now that I have resigned myself as a Age of Conan player and closed my WOW account, I think I need to talk about Conan a little.

Here are the things that I like about Conan.

Combat:
Combat in WOW for most classes boils down to clicking between 2-5 buttons over and over and over and over and over and over and over.  For most fights you are not moving, just standing there mashing a button.  In WOW there is one button for auto attack, then some other buttons for special attacks / spells.  You click that button and the spell or attack happens. 

Combat in AOC for most classes is a complex dance of movement. In AOC there are three basic attacks (left, middle, and right).  Those are similar to your auto attacks in WOW, but they are semi-automatic (one click = one hit).  In AOC there are “Combos”.  A Combo is a button that you hit, similar to WOW, but then up on your screen pops one or two arrows.  For example Up and right.  You must press up and right in that order to initiate the combo attack.  Combos do much more damage than regular attacks and have other abilities, like adding a DOT, lowering armor, lowering damage, or many other things.  If you fail to hit those two basic attacks in that order within a short period of time (about 3 seconds) then the combo fails to cast. 

This means you have to pay attention.  Each combo is the same each time you cast it (so “Rapid Blows rank 2″ is ALWAYS right then up).  So, you start to learn which combos happen in which order.

The other thing to keep in mind are shields.  You, and mobs you are attacking have three shields.  They start having one on the left and right, and one up.  If you focus your attacks on one side they will shift their shields to that side, exposing the other side.  One good strategy is to start out with a couple medium attacks to one side to get their shield switched, followed by your strongest hit aimed at the newely exposed side.

Choosing the right combo based on what the mob is, how much ability you have to kite, how many mobs there are, and how much life the mob has is critical to success.  If you open with things that lower damage / armor then that helps, but when the mob is almost dead using an attack that does huge damage makes little sense. 

Fatalities:
I thought about putting this next inside combat, but these are cool enough to warrant their own section.  A fatality is a killing blow….kind of a Crit killing blow.  If you do a fatality it does a really cool animation, then gives you a buff.  That buff increases damage and gives you a good amount of stamina regen.  When fighting chains of mobs a fatality can really cut your downtime.  Also, I slightly underplayed the animation, but they are FREKIN SWEEEEEEET!  As an assassin my fatalities are all based on dual wielding daggers.  At first you start with one that lunges the dagger into their chest and yanks it out sideways with a loud yell / growl.  Later on they get more complex.  The one I started seeing this past weekend was I would jump up into the air and stab my dagger into the side of their throat, then yank it out the front of their throat.  Blood sprays everywhere.  The DPS buff is pretty substantial. 

Death:
If you die it is pretty forgiving.  You get a debuff that lasts 30 minutes.  If within the 30 minutes you make it back to where you died you find your headstone (it shows up on the map).  You click on the headstone and it removes your debuff.  I have had 3 stacked at one time doe to stupid choices.  5 minutes later they were all done. 
Pots:
Heath pots work differently, they instantly heal a small amount, then apply a HOT that lasts about a minute.  Same with Mana, and Stamina potions.

Stamina is a new element.  Every class has Stamina, it is used for sprinting (fast running), and Melee attacks. So, if you are doing a run around and get things quest, pop a Stam potion and you can spring more.  If you are in a long fight pop one to keep your stam up, so you can keep dealing melee damage. 

Bags:
You start out with a backpack that has three tabs.  One is general, for everything that you can vend.  The second is for Quest items, the third is for crafting mats.  All quest items and crafting items automatically go to the correct tab.  You can buy a second bag that adds another general tab.  They are expensive and not that big.

Inventory control is a big concern. Frequent trips back to town to empty my bag reminds me of Diablo, or early WOW days.

Quests:
The quests have a story behind them, and all relate to plot lines.  Many of the plots are intertwined.  Once you complete a step in one plot, then the other plots reflect that action.  I really enjoy the quests.  The other nice thing is that all quest end points show up on the map.  So, you can look at the map and see for example a large hatched circle telling you where the bears you need to kill are, then an X showing where the sword you need to find is, then 3 X’s showing where the berries you need to pick are.  That makes it VERY easy to swing thru the countryside completing quests in batches, avoiding un-necessary running around. 

Classes:
The classes are divided into groups and subgroups.  So, there is a tanking group.  Within that there are three classes.  Each of those three classes share traits with the other three, but have their own special abilities.  Rangers (hunters), assassins (rouges), and Barbarians are all in the same class, so there are skills that they all have, and skills that are specific. 

Feats:
These are similar to talent trees in WOW.  There are two trees for your sub class, and one tree that is generic for your class type.  Rangers and Assassins are both stealth classes, so the generic class tree has things that buff generic things that DPS needs.  Trees are not locked up by dependencies (i.e. you must take this skill to get to that skill), there is simply a requirement that you must have a certain number of points in that tree. 

Eating / drinking:
In AOC food and water are consumable buffs.  That is all.  There is no eating and drinking like wow.  Instead you get an ability called “Rest” that is usable out of combat.  It regenerates Health, stamina, and mana.  No more carrying stacks of water for mana.

Skill Points:
As you level up you get skill points that you can assign.  Skills include boost things like climbing, run speed, increase health / stamina / mana regen while resting, decrease stamina drained while running, ability to hide, movement speed while stealthed, stealth detection, etc.  None are 100% required for gameplay, but they are all nice. 

Loot:
This is a huge thing.  Generally, you loot items that are an appropriate level for what level you are.  Quest items are really strong.  The harder the quest, the more powerful the items.  For example, I did an epic quest at level 20.  I got a pair of pants I looted off the boss that were for a level 18.  I did not replace them until level 28.   

Also, when you kill something the loot drops in a bag on the ground.  If you open the loot box and loot something, then leave something behind, other people can come along and loot that item.  So, if you are running thru somewhere it is not uncommon to see bags of loot on the ground with junk items in them.  If you have bag space you can loot them for some free cash.  This is handy when running into an area just for one quest as you are likely to not be there long enough to fill your bags, and free cash is free cash. 

Ok, that is a good start.  I’ll come back with more as I think of it.

So, we just got a call that the underwriter approved the loan, so we made it past the last person that should be able to say no, the rest is just i dotting and t crossing. 

YAY I ALMOST OWN A HOUSE!

While working on all this our funds have become seriously stressed.  We had a small savings that was decimated by having to pay for the inspection, appraisal, down payment, and “earnest money” deposit. 

While paying bills I realized that we are $18 short for the month.  Crap.  I can’t pay anything late because all the bills that have not been paid yet are auto withdraw. 

I had to make a hard decision. 

This is the first month that I have had to pay for Conan and WOW. 

I had to make a decision.
I began playing WOW on April 14th 2004. 

After 4 years, 3 months, and 5 days later…last Friday.  I closed my account.  I will probably be back for Wrath, but I’m not sure.  I have fallen in love with Conan. Unless it completely tanks I think I could stick with it. 

My main has over 123 days played, and my top two alts have 15 between the two of them.  3,312 hours played. 

I vended a bunch of crap that I was holding for no good reason.  I gave 3 mail messages full of herbs to our alchemist.  I sent 5 messages full of cloth to the tailor.  I sent the MT all my healing and mana potions.  I sent my flasks to the hunter that I trained in Kara. 

Finally, I made a little donation.  One of our off tank’s mom’s played one of his toons for us in Kara for a couple months.  Without her we would not have been able to go.  She finally started a character of her own. She is a level 41 pally.  She now has Five 18 slot bags, and 1500G as a thanks for the time she donated to our runs.

I said some sad goodbyes, got all remorseful, and logged out.  I still talk to them in TS while playing Conan, and three of us are playing Conan.

I will never again get to say “Loot the Dog” and have people understand me.

MOOOUUHHHHAAAHHHHAAHHHHA

(insert [evil laugh.wav] here)

Ok, so not so unlimited…and really…not much power at all.

My WOW guild leader and I.  We get along very well, as we are both older and unwilling to put up with any crap. 

Friday the two of us were playing AOC.  Last week she met someone somewhere and got a guild invite.  She got the other two of us from WOW into the guild.  The problem was that the guild was full of whiney 12 year olds.  I do NOT tolerate that for very long.  I had my fill and decided to quit the guild.  After only a few days in, I don’t think they were distraught to see me go.

I was level 21.  I was the only person in our little 3 person group that was over level 20.  In AOC creating a guild is super easy.  You get to level 20.  You click on the guild tab when you are not in a guild.  You choose a name, government type (which names the ranks), and you hit a button and boom, you created a guild. 

So, I gquit the first guild.  I started my own guild, and invited my WOW guildies.  I told my guild leader that when she hit 20 I would pass over control.  She said that she had seen enough time as a guild leader and did not look forward to doing it again. 

“Fine, then I’ll do it.”

Words that will live in infamy.

So, I am now a Guild Leader…or as named by the government type I chose, my new title is Potentate.

“a ruler who is unconstrained by law” according to Google. 

MOOOUUHHHHAAAHHHHAAHHHHA

(insert [evil laugh.wav] here)

So.  My first act as guild leader was to invite the two other people that were from WOW.  I was the leader of a 3 person guild.  Then they spent the next 10 minutes logging into alts so I could invite them.  I promoted them to the rank of officer.  Then I spent 10 minutes promoting all their alts to officer.  Then I switched to my alts an got them invited.  Then I switched back and promoted my alts to officer.  Then I put some stuff in the guild bank and made sure that they could withdraw.  Then I demoted one of them until they could not withdraw so I knew which rank had guild bank access. 

Saturday I came on to see 5 new names in the guild.  Apparently, we got two new members (and their 3 alts).  I then promoted them up so they have guild bank access.

The guilds name I selected hastily, but I like it so far.  “Per Ardua”.  It means Through Adversity. 

Apparently the latin phrase that means “we will gkick you if you act like a mentally disturbed 12 year old, or if you say the name Chuck Norris more than once a week” was a little too hard to spell. 

If anyone feels like joining up create a toon on Dagoth.  My main is Lump. Send me a tell. 

I’m finding a lot of little things I like about AOC, and a few little annoyances.  I like that I can send someone that is offline a tell and they can get it when they get online (and I don’t have to find a mailbox).  I like that I can add someone to my friends list when they are not online.  I like loot is left on the ground if no one loots it.  You can make some serious bank just running around instance behind a group looting what they leave behind. 

Also, Fatalities are the Awesomeest thing since….well…hold on…I need to start over.  Fatalities are Awesomer than sliced Bread.

This weekend My wife and I were invited to spend the weekend with my Aunt and Uncle on their boat in Lake Michigan.  YAY!  We had a BLAST!  It was so relaxing just lounging on the beach.  My cousin has a boat at the same Marina.  They went with us. 

We were all sitting on the beach and having a nice relaxing afternoon.  My cousin has a 8 year old boy, and the pair of friends they had with them had an 8 year old daughter.  We buried them in the sand.  We dug them out.  We built a sand castle.  I jumped back into the water to get the sand out of my crevasses.  Then the boy took off up the beach.

Apparently, while we were building the sandcastle a flock of Seagulls landed on the beach, about 100 of them.  The boy scooped up a stick as he ran. 

(note: this is why I say I can not be responsible enough to be a parent.)

I yelled out “I bet you can’t catch one!!!”

I was quickly shushed and the boy was yelled at.  My wife turned to the group and said “Don’t worry, I’m setting an appointment for his vasectomy for next week.”

Well, I delved deeper into Age of Conan this weekend.  I am playing an Assassin.  (Rouge for you WOW types).  Here are my Pro’s and Con’s of AOC v.s. WOW.

Pros:
-Combat is much faster paced and more free flowing.  You target a mob, and start swinging.  If that mob walks away and another one walks in front of you you can start damaging the second one, but still be targeting the first one.  Sometimes on a pack of two I will stealth up to the left side of the left mob, then target the right mob, and usually get to damage both.  So, even generic melee attacks can be a kid of AOE attack. 

-The first hit out of stealth does SICK damage.  If I crit I can one shot even level mobs.  At level 20 I can non-crit one shot a level 15 mob. 

-Fatalities.  These are like a Crit Killing Blow.  You do a special attack, if it is the blow that is the killing blow it has a chance to do a fatality.  If it does proc it does a special animation (and sprays blood everywhere), then you get a buff.  That buff increases damage, and heals you a fair bit for a few seconds.  Chaining them together leads to SICK damage.  There are many different animations that can happen, and they are all sweet looking.

-Graveyards.  You discover them as you fight thru an area.  After you discover one you have your choice of where to Rez when you die.  After you die you get a debuff.  That debuff is removed if you find your headstone (where you died) and click it.  I have used this to travel.  i.e. I’m far into the instance and my bags are full.  Die and respawn by the beginning of the instance where there is a vendor.  Dump all my bags and run back.  Snag my headstone and I’m on my way.  This saves the long run back to the beginning of the instance.

-Night Mode.  You talk to someone and it flips you to Night Mode, which is Single Player.  You are still online, but there is a chain of single player quests for you to complete.  Those give good exp and are easy to solo.  Probably the best exp per hour you can get.

-The graphics are much more realistic.  I know WOW was not shooting for that, but BC is just a little too cartooney for me to get into it.  STV was nice.

-The weapons have some varity to the style.  A dagger is not just a dagger.  At level 15 I had seen 5 different models of dagger.

-The low level instances are not private.  This means when you are going for the AOC version of Van Cleef there are 10 other people clearing their way there at the same time as you, and when you get there, you group up, gank the boss, and disband.  It is a strange slurry of solo and grouping that works well. 

-Group members that are inside the same instance can always loot what you kill.  If someone dies and is running back you can keep killing the quest mobs for drops and when they get back they can loot. 

-Mobs don’t scale as fast.  I was in a group at level 17 with a 15 and a 13 and we were all doing good together and finishing things, and all getting good exp.

-You get new Combo / Feats (spells) every level, without having to find a trainer and pay for them.  They are automatically mapped on an empty slot on your toolbar, and higher levels replace lower ones.

- You get 1exp from killing lowbie mobs.  So, running someone thru a lower area is not a complete waste of time.  Technically, you could do the Southpark “kill a billion boars” level up.

-The AH, bank, and mailbox are all tabs when talking to the same guy.  No more running around to find them all.

-You start out with a backpack for general items, and a tab for quest items that are automatically placed in there, and a tab for crafting items.

-All quests are marked on your map.  If you have to loot items from mobs then there is a shaded area on the map showing where those mobs are.  This makes it super easy to plot out a route to get the most quests done in a small time.

-The minimap can be zoomed in and out, and even pan away from where you are if you need to see off the edge of it.

-Quest items all have a white smoke coming off them, similar to the glittery effect WOW just added.

-Starting a guild is just a matter of clicking a button.  No finding a guy, then a bunch of people to sign, then turning it in.
Cons:
-Bag space is limited, and it is SUPER expensive to get more.

-you can accidentally sell your potions (but there is an undo button)

-All of my friends still play WOW.  So far, the guild leader and I, and one other person are the only ones playing AOC.  On the plus side, she does not want to be a guild leader anymore, so I will probably get a chance to do it.

Well, I believe last we left off in this little saga that is our home buying event, we were turned down for financing.

So, here is what happened since then.

-We know that we need to move to save on cost of living expenses.  So we found a cheaper apartment.

-We applied for the apartment.  When the girl looked at our application she said (and this is a direct quote) “Your income is so good, this is a no brainer.  I have to submit it as a formality, but you got the apartment.”

-We got a call from our finance guy saying that they found a mistake, corrected it, and that we were approved again.  He said that to prove it, he ran a test loan app thru the system and it went thru without so much as a yellow flag.

-We called to find out if we could re-submit an offer on the house we wanted.

-We found out that the house had sold in the meantime.

-We got a call from the Apartment office.  Apparently, when you apply for a home loan (test application or not) it shows up in some computer systems.  The apartment people said that because there was a home loan pending in our name they could not agree to lease us an apartment.  So, the apartment we had to get because we could not get a house, we could not get because we were getting a house.  Talk about a catch 22.

-We wanted to go look at 4 more houses that just came on the market, and re-look at the house that we called “the second place house” from the first round of house shopping.

-The day we were supposed to tour those 5 we found out that 3 had sold, so we only got to see the second place house, and one new one. 

-We walked into the new house and fell in love. 

-We sent in an offer on Friday 6-20. 

-They counter offered on Monday, nothing to do with money, just some clarifications on things.  When we read the counter offer we found a mistake that our realtor made in the wording of the offer.  Monday night we re-worded the offer and included the text from their counter offer.

-That was sent on Tuesday to their realtor.

-Wednesday passed with no answer.

-Thursday passed with no answer.

-Friday passed with no answer.

-Saturday passed with no answer.

-Sunday passed with no answer.

-Monday they called our realtor with a question, but then the day passed with no answer.

-FINALLY.  Yesterday.  8 DAYS since we sent them the offer.  They accepted.

So, we are back to having an offer on a house that was accepted, and it is back to the finance guys. 

If this does not go thru…I’m going to live in a cardboard box under a bridge.

Ok, so I saw this Age of Conan game, and thought it looked cool.  Then I heard that a couple guys in my guild started playing it.  Then I read more about it.  I read that guilds can build their own cities with buildings, and can attack other guilds buildings. 

That was the clincher.

I picked it up Saturday.  After a TWO DVD install that took 45 minutes, then a 45 minute patch I was into character creation. 

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!  I have never seen a character creation like this.  You start out with a base model.  There is a triangle with a dot in the center.  The top of the triangle is skinny, the bottom right corner is strong, the bottom left corner is fat.  You move the dot around the triangle to create the general body shape.  Then there are about 10 “starter” faces to get the general face of your character.  You choose your hairstyle and color.  Then you get to the advanced body screen.  There are sliders for your body shape.  About 10 sliders can change the bulk in your arms, chest, thighs, legs, waist, butt, etc.  Then the face.  There are about 20 sliders that control the shape of the face.  There are like 5 sliders just for the nose. 

I have never seen that level of control of character creation before.  It is INSANE. 

You get into the game.  The movement is similar to WOW.  The targeting is different.  With melee classes you don’t really target like normal, you just kind of swing.  If you are close enough you hit, if not you don’t.  Unlike WOW you control your dodging.  If you see them winding up a big shot, a quick double tap and you move to the side and avoid the blow.  Doing that means if you are good at dancing you can dodge a lot if incoming attacks, so you can attack a lot of higher level mobs. 

The other thing I really like is that it is a MMO, but there is a single player side to it.  Once you get into town you can go to “night mode” and do a bunch of single player quests that are all doable at your current level.  You can switch back to “Day mode” and play in the general world. 

Because I am a hunter in WOW, and formerly an Amazon in Diablo 2, and a Marksman in Hellgate London, of course I started a Ranger. 

The ranger is what would happen if a WOW hunter and Rouge fooled around in the back seat.  The rouge is a rouge.  They stealth, they dual wield, the have no ranged.  All of their abilities are melee, and they do a ton of damage.  The Ranger is also a rouge.  They have some ranged talents, and some melee talents.  They do good damage in both forms. 

The thing that made me absolutely INSANE for this game.  RANGERS GET STEALTH!  I can stealth around, I can backstab from stealth for a huge damage bonus, or I can de-stealth and unleash some ranged pain.  Right now I am getting to where I can handle a three pack of even level mobs.  That took some practice, but I’m getting it. 

The graphics in AOC alone make it worth the $50.  The world is very realistic looking, it kind of reminds me of a Tolken inspired Call of Duty 4 graphics. 

Oh, yeah, and there are finishing moves.  Watching your rouge with two daggers jump up in the air and bring both daggers inward in a crushing stabbing blow to both of your opponents ears at the same time….I have never thought of a game as porn before, but that was close. 

Sorry for the dead time.  Stress at work has kept me from thinking, and the house buying has kept me busy at home.

I hope this will be over soon.

Well, a long time ago I posted about my adopt-a-noob program.  I dedicated that once a week I would help someone out for some period of time as I saw fit.  It started as a weekly Gnomer run.  This is because I am the only person in my guild that will run Gnomer without a gun to their head.

So, for a couple weeks it was Gnomer.  Then it was Stockaides.  Usually 2-3 runs of that place, or Deadmines.  Then we did a couple weeks of BRD / UBERS to get people their Onyxia Attunement.  All was well and good.  I would run these people thru.  As a result whenever I was on my lowbies I could always get a group to go somewhere. 

Saturday I decided that it was adopt-a-noob day.  I logged in and only found 3 people online.  2 were PVPing together, and 1 was in Kara on his alt.  Well, no one to help.

I was working on cleaning out my bank of the junk that seems to accumulate when you are not paying attention when a new person logged in.  This is a very special person.  One of our Off tanks has two accounts.  One for his main, and one for his mage alt.  He does this so he can dual box.  One day his mom was watching him play and started asking questions.  She got interested.  He got her on the mage and he played the Warrior and they farmed together.  The mage is 100% ice, so it is basically spam Frostbolt.  They farmed together a lot.  She started her own toon, but never made it all the way to Goldshire before getting bored and quitting.

One day we were in Kara and lost a person.  We scrounged around and could not find anyone.   Finally this guy had a brilliant idea, I’ll get my mom to play my mage.  We were doing Attuman, Morose, and Maiden, none of which required her to do anything but spam frostbolt.  She sat down and he ran thru details like how to watch the threat meter, and what it meant when we said “STOP DPS”. 

She ran Kara with us that night and had a blast.  Over the next few weeks she ran Kara with us a couple more times.  She got excited and decided to start playing for real.  She has come with us a few times since then. 

So, back to the present.  She logged in.  She has 2-3 toons in the high teens, but has started to settle into her pally as her favorite.  I asked her if she wanted a run thru something, and offered Stockaides as she was level 22ish.  She was already in Stormwind, so I grabbed my mage and teleported there.  We hit stockaides.

First off, this was a LOT of fun, because I had not done it on my mage in a really long time.  The last time I was mid 50’s.  I struglled and we almost wiped a couple times.  I was fire spec, and hitting a group is difficult.  One fireball is instant death, but getting it off when 3 guys are hitting you is difficult.  Now I’m level 66, covered in +DMG gear, and frost spec. 

This was an AOE run. 

The room I ran into and started Blizzarding, then Cone of cold, and one Arcane Blast finished the stragglers off.  The second room was the same.  The third room I ran into and arcane blasted, then ran into the fourth room and blasted, gathered them up, frost nova, then Blizzard.  This is REALLY fun.

By the end I would run into three rooms, and as I ran into the third she would run into the fourth and meet me back in the hallway, mobs in tow.  A string of Arcane Blasts would decimate the group.  It would take her longer to loot than it took me to drink. 

This was the most fun I have had in a long time.

We finished clearing.  I said “That was fun, empty bags and do it again?”  She was all for it.  We headed back in and did it again.  Clearing 4 rooms at a time with Arcane Blast left the place empty in record time.  We cleared the place a total of 4 times, getting her a level and a half of EXP. 

In the end she replaced 4 pieces of gear with good green upgrades, and two blues.  I had about 3 trips to dump my bags of grey / white items, and two full mail messages of greens, and 1 blue. 

That was Saturday afternoon.  Sunday night I got online to do Kara.  When I did I got a tell from our Off Tank (her son).  He said thanks.  She was so excited that she called him at work to brag about her new gear. 

That made me smile. 

I heard this term a while ago and never put much thought into it.  I play a lot of WOW, but is my wife a WOW Widow? 

So, I started thinking of things that a normal gamer would do, and things that a gamer gone overboard would do.  For each of the following pairs, assign yourself the points listed and see if you have left a WOW widow behind.

-1) I have never spent more than 2 hours gaming in a row.
1) I have spent 4 hours straight playing a few times.
3) I spend more than 4 hours a day playing.

1) I like to keep a snack for extended play times.
2) I have brought 3 cans of pop to my desk to save me trips back and forth to the fridge.

-1) My computer came free with a 10 gallon fill up.
1) I have a pretty good computer.
3) My computer costs more than my car.

1) I play world of Warcraft
2) I have more than 2 level 70 toons.
4) I have more hours played in the last year than hours at work.

-1) I like FPS games like Counterstrike.  I play defense.
1) I average a 1:1 Kill to death ratio.
3) I have complex codes written that buy all the guns and gear I want, I have 11 different setups based on circumstances.

-1) I have never read the WOW website.
1) I used the WOW website to find out what a Shaman was.
2) I have read some WOW stat sites, and have a few different talent point makeups I want to try.
4) My WOW blog has been referenced in a book, or on the WOW website.  Every WOW player knows my site.

-5) Wait, there are boats in this game?
1) I can name the opposing faction major cities, but can’t spell out Shat.
2) I have a WOW t-shirt / sticker / hat / patch.
5) I have a WOW related tattoo.

1) I use TS / Vent.
3) I have my own TS / Vent hosted server.

-1) I have a pet that I care for that is not neglected.
0 ) I don’t have a pet. 
1) My pet could used walked more.
5) I had a dog die and didn’t notice until it smelled.

1) I can identify IF, SW, and BRD.  Beyond that is a little hazy.
2) I can understand it when someone spew out a sentence with 45 letters and no actual words.
3) I write those sentences, and they are not only understandable, but the right thing to do.

1) I like dailies.
2) I’m sick of dailies.
4) I have done all 25 dailies 5 days a week for a month.

1) I’m in a guild.
2) My guild has activities I go on 1-3 nights a week.
4) My guild has my home phone, cell, IM, work phone, and mom’s phone number. 

-3) My wife / girlfriend knows that I like to “Play on the computer sometimes” but can’t name any games I play.
1) My wife / girlfriend knows that I play Warcraft and can name my character’s name. 
2) She can name the class I play, and what they do.
4) She can also name their spec, and why that is good, and a little about the guild drama involving loot drops.

1) I have talked to my wife about her playing Warcraft.
3) I bought her a computer and started an account and twinked it for her, but she never made it past level 6.  Now I’m out a white sword with Fiery on it. 
-5) My wife started playing a little every now and then.
-20) My wife has a 70.
-50) My wife raids.
-100) My wife is the MT / MH / #1-2 on DPS.
-1,000) My wife has trash talked an NPC / Raid boss over TS / Vent.

-5) Wait, what is this TS / Vent you keep talking about.
1) I read and answered every question here.  They were funny.
3) I posted this in my guilds forum.
-100,000,000) My wife got a score higher than mine.

So.  There are 15 questions.

If you are less than 20 I would say you are not in risk of having a WOW Widow. 

20-25: a bit above average, but savable.

25-30: perhaps it is time to slow down.  You look like a Vampire.

35+: Your tower is a headstone she can mourn at.  She may as well have a wake every time you log in. 

I just squeaked in with a 19, only because I got my wife to play Warcraft a little.  I got her