Under the Heading of "That was interesting...."

I attended GenCon on Sunday, and one of the first things I noticed were the promotions for Rift.

No, not Rifts, the pencil and paper RPG, but Rift.  You know, the MMO from Trion.

The swag bag contained a copy of the game --the same copy that you find in the stores right now-- and the cloth necklace your badge hangs on had "Rift" printed all over it.

Methinks that Trion knows their audience, and if you can understand GURPS or Pathfinder, you can figure out Rift.

Of course, there were a few people pissed off at Rift because it was close enough in name to Rifts that they got some haters just because of that.  It's not like the concept of a 'rift' in time and space is anything new or unique to Rifts, so I shrugged it off.

Oh, and for the curious, there was a huge area for WoW TCG called Darkmoon Faire --which I laughed about, telling my brother-in-law that there were more people in this Darkmoon Faire than the one in-game-- and it was well populated.

Language and Respect

Back in the Wrath days, I was once in a Nexus run that I regretted finishing.

Not that the group wasn’t skilled, or even that one player played in an asinine manner, but of what was said in party chat.

You see, the group had three members of the same guild in it, and they kept peppering party chat with references to how the trash mobs and bosses wanted a piece of their ‘puss-say’.  The Druid tank in particular kept up a stream of ‘puss-say’ talk, all the while keeping his toon on the move and tanking each group in succession.  As the instance progressed, their descriptions became more explicit, and the greater my disgust grew.

I may not show it when I write here on the blog, but I have a temper.  (I’m a redhead, what did you expect?)  Typically I keep it in check, and when it does flare up I usually dip into my pool of obscenities to fling a few good barbs at the offenders.  It's been a long time since nerd ragers in an instance or a BG bothered me, but these three clowns did.  I don’t know whether it was the extremely juvenile nature of the thing or that it was incredibly demeaning to women, but before we had even finished with Telestra, my fingers were twitching.  My desire to reach through the screen and smack them good reached a breaking point by the time we reached Alexstrasza.  As the tank pulled the Malygos-dominated dragon, my mouse hovered over the ‘Leave Group’ selection.  All I had to do was click it and get away from these jerks.

But whether I realized it was a futile gesture, that the instance was almost over, or that I wanted the Badges of Triumph more than anything else, I stayed.

I want to say that I said something to them and forced them to kick me --that I stood up on principle-- but this one time I can’t.  I’ve spoken up in party chat before, defended people who did no wrong in spite of what the other party member said, and I’ve called people out for mean and spiteful stuff.  But I’m not proud of that moment in The Nexus, and I’m sure it will continue eat at me for a good long while.

Fast forward a year and a half later, and I found myself in Eye of the Storm on one of my Paladins (I can’t remember which).  A few of us were holding down the Draenei Ruins, and when the last toon --a Death Knight-- got smacked by my Hammer of Wrath, the Rogue turned to me and said “You really raped that guy!”

My mouth opened and closed.  I knew all too well what he was saying, and I thought about ignoring him.  Or leaving.  Or something. 

But I remembered The Nexus.

“I didn’t,” I finally replied.

“Oh, I saw that hammer come down and he dropped!”

“No.  I didn’t rape him.”

“It’s just a saying.  Lol.”

I ground my teeth.  No matter what I said, to him ‘rape’ = ‘pwn’ and that was that.  Never mind what ‘rape’ really means.  Never mind that you might actually be talking to someone who knows a rape victim –or is a victim themselves.  Or that your borderline misogynistic behavior paints all of us gamers in a bad light.

Words have power, and some words shouldn’t be used lightly.  They don’t make you awesomely badass, they make you sound like a five year old who overheard a few naughty words and is testing their limit.

And you’re older than that, right?

Moar Mounts

If you've seen one of these Winged Guardians...

...you've seen them all.

They're the Sparkle Pony of Cata, or so it seems, but I haven't heard that much discontent out there about them.  Since they're not the sparkle version of "My Little Pony", I guess people are okay with them.

Well, I've a bone to pick with them.

Since Blizz enabled flying mounts to be used as ground mounts in BGs, I see them all the time.  Flying, you see them as they are above.  Running, here's what they look like:

Yes, you're riding a BIG GLOWING ENGLISH SHEEPDOG WITH WINGS.

Anyone up for a Shaggy Dog marathon?


EtA:  Both pics are links.  The mount pic is from Blizzard's web site, and the English Sheepdog pic is from a Reuters pic found on animalpicturesarchive.com. 

Playing to Your Strengths

"Play to your strengths."

"I haven’t got any," said Harry, before he could stop himself.

"Excuse me," growled Moody, "you’ve got strengths if I say you’ve got them. Think now. What are you best at?"
--From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire



When you stand in a bunker in Alterac Valley, waiting for it to be destroyed, you have plenty of time to think.

Oh, I'm constantly moving my viewing screen around, checking for the inevitable attempt to retake the thing, but aside from the occasional nerd rage there's not much going on at 5 AM.  Most guildies are asleep, and those that aren't just came off of the graveyard shift and will be hitting the hay shortly.

This morning, however, I was still turning over something in my head that I heard on the Double O Podcast yesterday.*  Oestrus and Ophelie had on Vidyala and Voss from Manalicious and Sword and Board, and they were discussing guilds and guild leadership.**  The topic, while entertaining, didn't really apply to me; I'm not a GL/officer and don't plan on being one.  However, a statement made by one of them got under my skin.  The discussion had shifted to the officer corps and how some people take care of certain aspects of the guild, like fish feast preparation, without being an actual officer.  One of the panelists --Vid, I think-- mentioned how thorough their guild interviewer was, and how he's good enough that he was considering making it his career.  It was a minor point, but that got my attention.

How often are we advised to improve our weaknesses, but play to our strengths?  At work, certainly.  In sports, hell yeah.  In an MMO?  Um....

Yes, you can solo an MMO and do it successfully.  I'm living proof of that.  However, when you make that step into an instance, a BG, or a raid, the game changes.  It's no longer about you as the hero, but the team.  Then the question becomes:  what do you do well that can help the team?  Or guild?  Do you even know what it is you excel at?

Sure, maybe you've got that DPS rotation on automatic pilot, and you can just sense when some adds are zeroing in on the healer, but what else can you do with that attention to detail?  Can you help the prep work for the raids?  Does the guild need gems cut and ready to roll?  Enchantments available?

Are you good at organization, helping to line up raid and BG groups?

Do you communicate in an instance or BG, or is your 'communication' limited to "yoo all suk!"

Do you stop and help out the lowbies from time to time?  If you're on a PvP server, do you defend Grom'gol or the Rebel Camp from gankers?

Do you know how to make a killing on the auction house?  Why not apply that knowledge and help the guild's coffers?

Really, the choice is up to you to do what you want in-game; nobody is forced to do this.  But if you enjoy what you do, and you do it well, you expand the enjoyment of others in the game.***

And believe me, I hate-hate-hate a Polyanna attitude, but this is just common sense.  You can work on your weaknesses, but odds are good that you'll get more satisfaction when doing what you're best at.



*I used to be able to listen to podcasts on a regular basis, but meetings have been steadily consuming my work time to the point that anything more engaging than background music --and yes, a WoW soundtrack counts as background music-- will just get ignored.  That's a shame, as I've not had much of a chance to explore the WoW podcasts out there.

**Vid is the GL of Business Time/Moonrunner(US), and her husband Voss is the raid leader.

***Well, except for that ganker loitering around Forest Song that you took out, but he got what was coming to him, right?

A Bit of Nostalgia

2004

(Apologies to Bowling for Soup and their song 1985)

Liese just hit the wall

She never had it all

Firelands dailies all day

Her GL’s MIA

Her optimism ceased

When BC was released

Only been with one guild

What happened to her goals?

She was gonna be a hardcore raider

She was gonna get world firsts

She was gonna dance around

On C’thun’s bloody corpse

Her sparkle pony is now the enemy

Looks at her stable of toons

And nothing, has been…

All right since

Cata and Outland

Way before Northrend

There was AQ and MC

And Naxx was still in EP

The newbies in her guild

They tell her she’s a greybeard

Cuz she’s been playing since

2000, 2000, 2004

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

(2004)

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

She’s done all the classics

She knows every boss

Four Horsemen, High Priest Thekal

And even Princess Huhuran

She cleared Maraudon

Not a big Stonecore fan

Thought she’d get Exalted

With the Frostwolf Clan

Where’s the Tier 2 gear from Nefarian?

And when was Thrall replaced by that guy in Grommash Hold?

When did the Alliance get Shamans?

Whatever happened to Rexxar, and Bolvar

They’re not where they were before

Cata and Outland

Way before Northrend

There was AQ and MC

And Naxx was still in EP

The newbies in her guild

They tell her she’s a greybeard

Cuz she’s been playing since

2000, 2000, 2004

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

She hates expansions, they make no sense

When did Dire Maul become a mid-level instance?

And when did Blood Elves become playable?

Please make this stop, stop, STOP (tick tick tick) and remove

Cata and Outland

Way before Northrend

There was AQ and MC

And Naxx was still in EP

The newbies in her guild

They tell her she’s a greybeard

Cuz she’s been playing since

2000, 2000, 2004

Woo Hoo Hooooo!

Cata and Outland

Way before Northrend

There was AQ and MC

And Naxx was still in EP

The newbies in her guild

They tell her she’s a greybeard

Cuz she’s been playing since

2000, 2000, 2004

Zen and the Art of Losing in a Battleground

There was a time, in the distant past, when I ran as a Holy Spec Paladin.

It's now hard to believe, given that I DPS almost exclusively, but I have healed instances on both Quintalan and Tomakan.  Nothing since 4.0.1 dropped, but I retain some of the trappings of those days on my UI, with Healbot and Decursive being the prime examples.  Like any good Ret Spec is capable of, I can step up in emergencies and heal in an instance when the Healer drops.  I may not look pretty doing it, but at least I can hold my own with Ret's limited mana.  (And I look much better healing than tanking.  Ol' Twinkletoes Redbeard doesn't exactly strike fear in the hearts of trash mobs.)

In spite of all of that, I have been tempted to switch to Holy Spec when I see absolutely no healing in sight in a BG.  I figure, 'bad heals is better than no heals', but then I remember that Quint's Holy Spec gear is stuck somewhere between T9 and entry level Cata greens.  I suspect that Neve would have more armor on her than Quint in his creaky old Holy Spec gear, and when I last looked at Tom's Holy Spec gear I laughed when I found items dating from Uldaman. 

Well, it was a thought.  And believe me, after running WSG on my furball dozens of times, you can just tell you've got a winning or losing situation based on the number of healers.

A good tank or two can make up for a dearth of healers, but having three good healers in WSG can make a team an unstoppable juggernaut, tank or no tank.  Sure, you have to still play smart and not have everyone running off in different directions*, but your odds of winning just went up by a huge amount.

***

I'd like to say that I'm an expert at BGs, but come on.  I merely run them.  The experts are the ones that use my toons for a doormat.

My poor furball and his oversexed Succubus sidekick got caught in a WSG buzzsaw last night.  After about 5 minutes into this particular run, a pair of Rogues, a kitty Druid, and a Holy Spec Pally set up a tent and went camping at the Alliance graveyard.  No matter what we did, we could only barely get to the edge of the graveyard before we got sapped, sliced, and diced.  The few times I escaped, I ran into the secondary tier of the rest of the Horde crew who had set up a Worgen-dog stand.  I lost track of the number of times I died, and since the Horde side was content to rack up HKs, the game dragged on until the time limit.

And then, a measure of vindication.  The end screen popped up to deafening silence.

The game ended in a tie.

I laughed bitterly when I saw the number of times I died:  21.  Yes, that's right.  Twenty one.

And I still tied them.

[Insert Appropriate Zen Comment Here]



*Like I saw in Arathi Basin late this afternoon.  "Go to the Farm!  Go to the Farm!" someone cried when we lost the Stables.  What happened?  Two to Lumber Mill, two to Mine, three fought in the road between the Blacksmith and the Stables, and one went to the Farm.  The rest defended the Stables, and watched the saga unfold.  Needless to say, we lost.

I Sense Much Fear in You

There are times when you just know something is going to go badly.

Like the time I was in Arathi Basin a few weeks ago.  Tomakan ported in, and I scanned the data in Healbot to see who I'm running with.  Healbot usually takes a second or two to scan each toon to let you know what spec each one is, and over the course of the next ten to twenty seconds I felt a disturbance in the Force.

• We had six rogues
• We had no tanks

At first we also had no healers, but a Druid switched to Resto while buffing. We were living the high life, let me tell you.

Well, I thought, stranger things have happened before, so I decided to stick this run out.  In retrospect, I think it would have been better if I'd just dropped and taken the debuff instead.  The Horde swarmed over us like kids after an ice cream truck, and the Warrior and two Frost DKs made a special point of making me their personal punching bag.

I figured that was just a bizarre twist of fate to be grouped like that, like the time I was in a four Pally run through Gnomer, until this morning.

My little Furball of Evil got into Warsong Gulch at the crack of dawn, and as I scanned Healbot, I saw the familiar Purple and Yellow in abundance.

"Oh oh," I muttered.  We had three Locks --myself included-- and three Rogues.

No tanks.  No healers.

Then someone dropped and we got a Resto Druid.

"Oh, this is not going to be good."

One of the Locks kept his Voidwalker on, and I resisted the urge to suggest he try a Succubus or Imp.  Sure, that Voidwalker wasn't going to help much against players who would just ignore its threat, but considering the group's makeup, I figured it wasn't going to matter.

On the initial run out from Silverwing Hold, I got caught from behind and one-shotted by a Hunter.  I respawned, and before I got anywhere, it happened again.  The third time, I got as far as halfway across the no man's land just in time to actually see my enemy before he dropped me.

Rinse and repeat.


While I waited for the Spirit Healer, the Resto Druid complained that nobody was protecting him and he dropped.  "Kind of hard to protect him when we're all dead," somebody replied in BG chat.

We respawned to find two Hunters, a Disco Priest, and a Holy Pally camping us.  "Oh, come on," I muttered while dropping DoTs as quickly as I could before I was killed.  "Like we're a real threat anyway."

In the end, I think I was killed about eight times in the span of seven minutes.  It could have been worse, I suppose, but I'd be hard pressed to find a BG run outside of the one time I ran Rated BGs that I got facerolled like that.

Dear Blizz--


Your BG finder needs work.  Please correct.


Signed, 
The Smudge on the Ground That Used to Look Like a Worgen