Something is bugging me…

I’m really tired of the lines we draw amongst ourselves in our little corner of the world. TomeoftheAncient hit on a exactly what I have a problem with in our society as a whole with this post here.

I think it’s because on reflection, if I tally up the mean, hateful, things that have been done to me in my lifetime I’m coming up even on the male/female thing so my view is that it’s more a people problem. Let’s face it, us humans can be such jackasses to each other.

Tome makes reference to another article from Harpy’s Nest here. In short, a 15 yr old girl is told how as a girl she could never be a fighter pilot and that the military has no place for her. Is that right…of course not. But is it wrong for the reasons you are thinking? Perhaps not. Raise your hand if you instantly viewed the “wrongness” in that as “How dare that military man belittle a young woman in such a sexist manner. How dare he predetermine her place in the order of society and decide for her what she can or cannot do based on her gender.” Was that truly what was wrong?

Let’s change the scenario a bit…”Dad, you see how I draw all the time. I have a clear natural gift for art. Painting, pencils, ink, markers, crayons, chalk, charcoal, any medium. I love it all. I especially love comic books. I read them, copy them, draw my own. I want to be a professional comic book penciller one day Dad.” “No you don’t. That’s not a career son. What idiot would ever want to do something so childish and foolish for a job. No, you will go to college and take on a real major like Pre-Med and become a Doctor. A proper career.” This is male to male. Nothing sexist here. Its an economic judgment to be sure on what someone perceives as a valuable career certainly. Is this better? Worse?

The truth in both of these scenarios is that the “wrongness” is the same exact thing. Its a person in a position of influence, power, and authority telling someone else what they CAN NOT do. As opposed to ENCOURAGING them to pursue their dreams and passions. I am a father of 3 kids (1 daughter, 2 sons). I do not treat one differently than either of the others. My daughter is a head strong, take no prisoners, natural leader. My oldest son is very reserved and sensitive, he hides himself within his shelf most often to protect himself from being hurt, bullied, or taken advantage of. My youngest, well…err…God help us all. He’s a bit of a terror. I encourage all of them to be themselves; to be content with who they are…not trying to live up to someone’s standards – not even mine or their mom’s!

GET TO THE POINT….yeah yeah. So what does this have to do with Gamers. Well, we constantly judge one another, we pigeon-hole each other into gamer stereotypes: Gamer Guy vs Gamer Girl, Progression raider vs Casual raider, PvPer vs PvEer, on and on it goes. The only REAL classification that matters is Hunters vs ALL others in my book…but kidding aside perhaps Alliance vs Horde? I can live with that rather obvious difference within the game. Aside from that, even our class roles are not an us vs them scenario. We need one another. DPS needs tanks to hold threat. Tanks need healers to keep them alive. Healers need DPS to kill the boss faster than they run out of healing resources. Its a circle of support, that accentuates our differences to create something greater than the sum of its parts. It’s not about dividing us and separating us into stereotypes to be segregated and admonished.

I am not even going to get into the gender clashing we all see across the interwebs right now. My perspective is my own. Those close enough to me to truly know me accept my viewpoints and appreciate them. I’m fine with that. I’ve discussed the whole Hardcore vs Casual I feel ad-nauseum to this point. In my book, we are all casual because none of us play this as a career.

Its MY $15 a month. Its YOUR $15 a month. We all get to choose our game play on our own terms and with whom we choose to play alongside. More importantly none of us should be judged by others based on our decisions. I know the classic response to this is “But there are other players waiting on you!” Smart RL’s carry extra bodies or alts as needed to ensure a full raid compliment. Additionally, we’re not talking about the poor attendance raider who leaves folks in the lurch constantly due to their own selfishness. That’s not judgment, that’s agreed upon standards by both parties. We currently have raiders on our team whom we have depended upon who need time away from the game for health, school, family, etc. No one condemns them for making those decisions, we SUPPORT them.

So what is those truly about? Discussion and debate are always driven by a difference of opinion. Arguments are driven by the unwillingness to accept those differences. If you look closely at the comments on various blogs, at the forums, listen to podcasts, read articles….It’s not discussion, it’s arguing. It’s an entire community drawing battle lines as opposed to finding the common ground and discussing where the differences are. ALL sides are guilty…no one is innocent here (save for the folks who just log-in to play and never hear a word otherwise). Bad human behavior is bad. Game play doesn’t matter. Gender doesn’t matter. Your guild tag doesn’t matter. Your achievement points, titles, gear, progression don’t matter. Whether you have a blog or not, no matter how many hits you get, or no one ever reads it. It doesn’t matter what you do for RL work, how much you make. Your religion, race, creed, accent don’t matter. Whether you had a picture taken with Ghostcrawler or not doesn’t matter. And yes, honestly…even if you don’t play a hunter…it doesn’t matter.

We’re all human beings trying to just spend some time in a virtual world and relax. Perhaps make some friends. Perhaps have some accomplishments we can be proud of. None of the above matters…what matters is treat others as you would like to be treated. No one likes to be slammed for their opinion. No one likes to be flamed, called names, and verbally beaten up for not being perfect. RL is hard enough without the in-game life being just as hard.

Yes, this is MY DAD VOICE here…we’re in the car, I have one hand on the wheel, I am turning around and looking at ALL OF YOU in the back seat and saying…”KNOCK IT OFF”

You want to be treated like a mature intelligent human being, then act like a mature intelligent human being. THAT is what matters.

Sixth Meme…

So Laeleiweyn tagged me on the Sixth Meme…I had no idea wth this meant! THANKS LAE! MAKING ME DO WORK LIKE READING AND STUFF!

So I need to find the 6th photo in the 6th day of the…oh hell…read the original WoW Insider article for yourself…WoW Insider.

The original basics are found here…Armageddon’s Coming

• Go into your image folder
• Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.
• Publish the image! (and a few words wouldn’t hurt, though I dare say I couln’t stop a blogger from adding a few words of their own).
• Challenge six new bloggers.
• Link to them.

So finding the 6th folder is tough on my comp. My iMac’s iPhoto library isn’t broken down like that. So I found the 6th image from me library and also grabbed the sixth image from my WoW screenshot folder.

The first is a shot of my two oldest at the NE Revolution game  from last fall….

This is a a screen grab from the first General kill with Phalanx of Nod…

So any shocks or surprises? My fam and WoW. Kind of the center of my world and all.

And now its tagging time….

Morynne at Marks 365
Ceraphus at Variant Avatar
Frostheim at Warcraft Hunters Union
Eidotrope at OutDPS!
JC Sway at LOL Survival and the WoW Hunters Hall
Borsk at Borsked.com

Ok. mission accomplished. Lae, thanks for forcing me to be social…revenge is forthcoming

Slow days…are slow.

*yawwwwn*

So, my guild has gone 8/8 regular mode. We’re not the “Hard modes must be done!!!” kind of crowd, so what’s there to do to fill the WoW time? No, we haven’t given up on Dragon Soul, there are plenty of things to still do there including getting our Rogue his legendary. But the question remains, short of continuing to beat ourselves against the same content over and over again…what is there to do?

Well, for one…ALL the previous content!!! Sure some of the much older content from Vanilla and BC is completely solo-able, but most Wrath raid content is not, nor are Tiers 11 or 12. And to be perfectly honest, there are some nice rewards for players out there to be had.

1. Transmog Gear: There is gear a plenty available that is absolutely stunning to look at. I am especially fond of anything from Ulduar. I happen to be particular about Mimiron’s Repeater.
2. Achievement Points, Mounts, and Titles OH MY!: Now, I know not everyone cares about APs, but I am a total achievement lover! They are there for the taking. Additionally many meta achievements still carry various titles and mounts upon completion. Including the beautiful Ulduar proto-drakes.
3. BiS gear: No, Ulduar and ICC do not have usable items, but heroic modes for T11 and T12 could in fact still provide upgrades or even BiS items based on class & spec.
4. Development: Some of the encounters can be difficult to still over come even if out-geared/leveled. They can be great opportunities to allow some folks to use alts, try out a new spec, or a new roll. Want to see if that Holy Pally really can tank in Prot…run them as MT in BoT or BWD before heading to DS.
5. PvP: Doing guild BGs can be a lot of fun, especially with having a more organized team.
6. FUN!: Seriously. Its fun to sometimes kick back and beat the snot out of some of these old instances. Our 10 man had about 45 min left in raid, so we knocked out Naxx40, MC, and BWL in quick order. MC was particularly fun where essentially 2 people ran to each boss and then we all met up at Rag. I think MC took us 10, maybe 15 min in total. it.was.fun!

I know, not all of these kinds of things are everyone’s cup of tea, but if you give some of them a fair chance you may find them enjoyable…more so than you’d have thought. You’ll notice I did not suggest leveling an alt. At this point, most players have had more than enough opportunity to level additional toons and classes. While getting a 5 man guild group together to Dungeon run can be fun, I really was focusing on what your raid team can do in lieu of the same raid zone over and over again.

What will you be doing with your raid group once you’ve completed your benchmark for progression?

Patch time…mmm, yummy buffs!

With today’s patch we have some Hunter specific changes that will boost all 3 specs DPS to hopefully be more in line with the Legendary toting DPS classes numbers (in line: meaning closer gap…but we won’t be overtaking them any time soon). Additionally some of these buffs will specifically help Survival Hunters out…

Here they are for the Hunter class…

1. Aspect of the Hawk now grants roughly 35% more attack power.
2. Deterrence now also reduces damage taken by 30% while active.
3. Black Arrow now ticks every 2 seconds for 20 seconds, as opposed to every 3 seconds for 15 seconds.  The total damage dealt by the ability is unchanged.
4. Lock and Load no longer benefits Arcane Shot, nor is it consumed by Arcane Shot.

So #2 gives us a nice damage mitigation for those things not already blocked (which feels an awful lot like everything most days). #1 certainly aids all three specs in raw dps. But numbers 3 and 4 are SV specific.

The Black arrow change will increase proc chance on LnL…nice change. The LnL adjustment will allow for more delicious Arcane Shots as well as Explosive Shots. No more accidental Explosive Shot consumptions on the LnL proc by an accidental Arcane Shot cast and allows us to weave Arcanes in with LnL to bleed focus. If you were not already glyphed for Improved Arcane Shots, you definitely should now.

I’m curious to know why there aren’t buffs specific to Beastmastery & Marksmanship. One could argue the LnL changes are merely quality of life changes to fix an unintended affect, and that the proc rate/format for Black Arrow is also a correction to unexpected behavior (using traps vs BA to proc LnL). So truly its all about a flat dps boost for all 3 specs.

Is this what the devs were thinking? Are they trying to specifically shepherd us to SV as the primary Hunter dps spec? Thoughts to ponder.

Full patch notes.

Blizzcon 2012, Here I come….errr waitaminute!!!

So, no Blizzcon 2012 eh?

Disappointing…sure. Expected…YES! Here’s why:

1. 2012 game launch: Diablo 3
2. 2012 game launch: Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
3. 2012 game launch: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

So, right there you’re thinking…SO! That was on tap long before 2012, plan ahead dammit, and they’ve had game launches even multiple and still had a Blizzcon. WTF?! Yes, but look at those three titles a little more closely.

Diablo 3: Long anticipated follow up. Final tweaks and revisions going on now. A MUST home-run on this title.

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm: Now, I am anticipating this won’t actually launch in 2012 but rather in 2013..however timing wise 2012 would make more sense. Wings is getting long in the tooth already for the gaming community. Swarm has been teased enough to this point. Again, it HAS to be a home-run. It cannot miss.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: The supposed LAST expansion for WoW. I say supposed only because if…IF…the next gen MMO is not ready for any kind of release, Blizzard will want WoW to have longer legs. So expect at least the possibility of one more expansion to be the back up plan. Additionally, its still possible that Project Titan is in fact the next gen MMO and next gen WoW all in one…WoW 2.0 if you will. Point blank…MoP CANNOT be a failure. If its the last Xpac, then it must leave a good taste in the community’s mouth. If it is not the last one, it must keep players interested a little longer until their next gen is ready for the world.

Now this is enough for them to really want to hunker down and focus on game development and release. No distractions, cancel all vacations and leave, call in the reserves!!! However, there is another consideration here…Blizzard is a business folks. Conventions, Demos, and Symposiums like Blizzcon are all about one thing…driving revenue shares. I.E. MAKE MORE MONEY. Corporations use these things to create buzz about their products usually enhancements or new releases. Assuming the above three titles launch before or near October 2012, they will not be on the table for discussion and stir. Starcraft 2: Operation Protoss, Diablo 4…too far out for any kind of buzz. Only one thing left to talk about, thats right….Titan.

So, what is Titan? We have no clue. Blizzard is more tight lipped about Titan than Romney was about his tax bracket!! How far out is Titan, well up until today I would have said no idea…but this tells me one thing: YEARS. I suspect Blizzcon 2013 will be all about Titan, what ever it is. There will be a nostalgia component about the “retirement of World of Warcraft” and what its future holds (because believe me…they will NOT let a franchise this successful just fade to nothing), the Protoss expansion of SC2 will be previewed and discussed, the ongoing enhancements to D3 (assuming there are any – which I gather there would be), and finally the showcase of Titan.

So will it be worth the wait?

Full announcement from Blizzard.

FOOD PORN!

OK, I know…2 non-WoW posts in one day…BLASPHEMY! BUT, here me out…

Mike O’Connell is a fellow New Englander, and a total foodie. The guy can cook as well as anyone. His food blog is one of the few NON-WoW blogs I read, and honestly…I read his more religiously than my favorite WoW blogs (Sorry Mory, Frost, MMOMeltingPot, et al). Seriously folks, I read and re-read constantly. Just staring at the pictures is an afternoon well spent in my book.

So, Mike’s (aka The Rooftop Gourmet) latest post was his New Year’s Eve food bash. Its drool worthy to say the least. I have a ton of respect for home chefs like Mike. So check it out if you like food!!!

http://www.rooftopgourmet.com/beef/new-years-eve-feast-2011/

Thoughts to ponder…

I’m not normally one to share such inane things as “Hey, this is funny…read it!” BUT…this is funny…so yeah, um, read it.

1. Life is like a jar of Jalapeno peppers–what you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
2. In the 60′s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.
3. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
4. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospitals, dying of nothing.
5. Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years
6. Men have two emotions : Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.
7. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
8. Life is sexually transmitted.

Don’t worry about old age–it doesn’t last that long.

Bags are packed, but what skin shall I put on?

So, my bags are packed, and I’m going Alliance! Hoo-boy. Alliance eh. Haven’t done this Alliance thing in ~3 years!!! WOAH! Where are my manners?!?

Big thanks to Ceraphus of the Sundering and the guild Phalanx of Nod for welcoming me into their band of bacon scarfing merry miscreants!!! I hope I can bring some good raid dps and capability to their team when I am asked to come in and contribute. Otherwise that bribe of 150 lbs of prime Benton’s Bacon (used by David Chang no less), will have gone to complete waste.

So, the real question in all of this is…RACE CHANGE! General consensus (WHU & Arcane Shots for example) of a pure mathematical nature on Hunter dps and its effectiveness by race, or more specifically, racial abilities; leads one to the following breakdown:

1. Orc (DPS racial king)
2. Troll
3. Goblin
4. Worgen
5. Night Elf
6. Blood Elf
7. Human
8. Undead
9. Draenei
10. Dwarf (Clear winners in good looks)
11. Tauren

So, let us set aside the clear “truth” that Frostheim spouts: Dwarves are best. I have a Dwarf Hunter at level 70 in the WHU on Icecrown already. One Dwarf Hunter is more than enough for any one player. I refuse to play a Human Hunter…in fact, I refuse to play ANY Human character. One part of playing in a Fantasy MMO such as WoW is to suspend reality to some extent. Playing a Human just doesn’t help me do that (no offense to those that play humans, its definitely a personal preference thing).

Side note: On the Horde side the no-no race is undead. I never play any undead. Why? Because in my book the undead are inherently evil. I like to think the Horde is not evil, merely misunderstood or have a differing albeit opposing perspective to the Alliance. Undead however are EVIL! They are UNDEAD! Somehow I cannot bring myself to think I am nothing more than their next meal. Its like I’m Kramer and they are Newman. I see them licking their chops!!!

So, this leaves the choices of Worgen, Night Elf, and Draenei. Draenei do have an increase to hit which is nice for a Hunter, but wholly unnecessary as with current gear choices we are always well over the hit cap. My current WHU Hunter was originally my Night Elf Hunter from Vanilla/BC…so I spent the first 4 years of WoW as a Night Elf. This leaves Worgen….now, from a pure statistical point, they win. 1% crit is quite huge in many ways. I actually have an alt Hunter who is Worgen and is currently level 74, so I have some experience with them, the back story, the racial quirks *sniff sniff*. Its a comfortable decision for me.

Your choice would be? And…um…yeah…For the..oops. Go Alliance?! Wait, where’s my battlecry?! WTF do I say now on this faction!! Seems to me I had read about this issue before…OH YEAH, I had!

@Vidyala wrote something I bet I will be feeling in a month or so as well.

Q

Update!

Sorry folks, its been a good month since a post. December is a busy work month and the Holiday season makes it even busier due to home life! Playing Santa for 3 kids is always very very time consuming!

I have not had much WoW time in the last 30 days. Enough only to be demoted to “casual” in my guild which prompted a /gquit from me. Excessive? perhaps. But I do not see eye to eye with the new RL & Officer direction. I’m not one to make waves, and seeing as how I am merely DPS…I’m replaceable. I will find somewhere to play that makes me happy, I feel welcome and appreciated, and ultimately where I want to log in because its fun and enjoyable…not an obligation.

I have some comments about the LFR that I will get out in another week or so. Completing the content within LFR has soured me on doing it in a 10/25 format to some extent. I just don’t feel the same completionist drive. I suspect others may feel the same way, perhaps its just me!

In the mean time, I am guildless. I’ve spoken to a few folks who have great raiding guilds and teams and I could settle in nice and snug and contribute…BUT…I just don’t have it in me for 4 – 5 nights of raiding any more. I would love to do it, but with 3 kids, work, coaching, and most importantly a spouse who has become a WoW-widow the last few years; I need to do right by all of them. 2 nights would be perfect, 3 acceptable. If anyone needs a Survival Hunter for 2 or so nights of raiding, let me know. I’m all ears to talk.

Otherwise, I’ll be busy working on old achieves I still can do; and leveling another hunter with a cute Space Goat Priest over on Terenas – US!!!

I will repeat myself once more…

Why? Because it bears repeating…

IT IS NOT A SPRINT! (see, I really am repeating myself)

Going 7/8 or 8/8 in the first night or week is not an invitation to do Heroic modes. You probably have not garnered enough of the newest gear to be ready to conquer the hard modes; additionally you may not have had enough experience with the newest raid mechanics to have committed to muscle memory and be ready for additional obstacles you will face in that hard mode.

No no…I am not saying you can’t attempt it. Go for it. But there are 2 inherent issues that you may face in your sprint to the finish line of Cataclysmic content…

1. If you AREN’T ready, you will find yourself banging your head against the wall. Head banging leads to burnout. Don’t be surprised if that burnout happens more readily as well. Folks may not be as inclined to killing themselves during the holiday season, nor for the final tier of content given that the next XPac is probably a considerable ways away still.
2. If said XPac is in fact still quite some time off, you may find yourself all too quickly “bored”.

Again, I always find myself reminding folks…Blizzard is not creating the next Mount Everest like life challenge for you to overcome. They are selling a product! They want this to last and provide as much bang for the buck as they are able. I have also heard and felt the pangs of “Its too easy!!” Well, that makes sense, it allows for the greatest scope of accessibility for the user base. Don’t look at the game through your “player” eyes…put on a pair of “business” goggles. What they have done makes total sense in so many ways, whether we like it or not.

Now, the argument back I hear consistently is the following: “Well, if they continue like this, I will be unhappy, and I will quit playing. SEE…they need to do it the way I like or they will lose people.” The problem with this perspective is that first off, its been said every major content release, and players always come back. Secondly, and 10 million players they are still far and away the leader of the pack. They have the clout and data to take the chance that YOU will be p.o.’d about the Raid Finder being too easy (or whatever your flavor of complaint is).

Its NOT perfect, don’t get me wrong. I am not trumpeting 4.3 as the greatest content ever, nor do I think Blizzard can do no wrong. I simply feel this new content has so far been fun. The dungeons are a welcome change from the Trollroics. I love the lore that has been laced in (I will admit I am a total sucker for the Lore based part of the game…I LURVS IT!).

My advice…pace yourself. Get folks geared up, spend a few weeks in the normals. Go back and get some of the older tier heroic modes done too. Take your time! There is no extra reward for being first. In fact, if you finish the content today or finish it 3 months from now…there’s really no difference beyond being able to say you did it first. If bragging rights are that important to you, go for it. Honestly, its in my nice to have list…not my must haves.