This past evening I achieved level 85, on the very last quest of the very last quest line in Uldum. Well, barring the questlines that go into the instances there. That was pretty spiffy, actually, one of those precision landings you usually hear about over a cup of mulled wine in the tavern. So, the next time I start questing, I’ll be jumping straight in to Twilight Highlands, rather than dealing with loose ends.
Hey, by the way – Flora informs that there are Deepsea Sagefish pools up there now. Casters rejoice!
Speaking of questing; Meta observes that after hitting 85 in a Hunter, Warlock, and Mage, that questing with a priest just seems lonely. Aside from my mana beastie and my evil clones, ’tis true, I don’t keep much in the way of company out there. I wonder if this is true of other multi-classed altaholics out there? Is this a common feeling, that something missing when out and about as a pet-less toon? I personally don’t get it; the fuss and mess seems like it would be a pain.
I’ve availed myself of the Transmorgrification services now being offered. While it is true that this is the same robe that The Dark Father was wearing when we caught him swinging for the other team, it has also long been the regalia of followers of the Light for decades. I wear them proudly.1
The great thing about this service is that you have it if you want it, and if you don’t, then you can ignore it. Oh, some people couldn’t manage to keep quiet if anyone was enjoying themselves, but we have the word troll for a reason. As Flora says, haters gonna hate. I dig it, so do a few of us. Grimm’s not so thrilled, but at least he can replace that horrible helm with some stylish engineering goggles. He says it’s Engineering Pride. Best to just nod, smile, and call for another pint.
Side note: I have a theory that if the game artists would spend more time wearing the ghastly things they foist on us as "tier gear", we’d see a lot more realistic patterns emerge. The elegant simplicity of the Black Ash Robe or the Robe of Power stands out as a far better pattern than anything I’ve seen on the tier vendors’ racks for years.
And don’t get me started on head pieces. You know what? Guys, don’t eliminate the ranged slot. Eliminate the head slot. Because you guys just can’t do it. Again, try wearing the T8 Turtleneck of Doom. Just for a day. My private theory? All helms are designed to scare the bejeezus out of other players in PvP. Only that joke got old real fast and now they’re stuck trying to service the same tired ideas that never worked in the first place.
Incidentally, I’d like to thank the interface designers for the "hide helm" flag. You have no idea.
Anyway.
I’ve been working on and off on a long post about how to succeed at the Glyph business without being one of those annoying "gobbo" types, but it keeps meandering off into a step by step how-to. Got to go back to formula on that one. Soon, I promise.
So, we’re a bit content-free at the moment, apologies for that. Grimm’s full of gloom and woe, Flora’s all excited about Firelands, and I’m just now making 85. Until I get my big project finished, I don’t have much to talk about.
Looking forward, I might heal if I can get some guinea pigs lined up for instances. It’s been over a year since I last healed, and last night marks the first time I even logged out as Disco.
Time may not heal all wounds, but it at least makes you forget where they came from some times.
And, yes, the signature image is now horribly out of date. [↩]
As you may or may not have noticed, the header image on this blog rotates among a collection of images.1 While most of these are screen shots from my own dalliance in the world of Azeroth, others are not.
It is these others that I wish to discuss.
As you may or may not be aware, Blizzard has an extensive art collection, which it posts on the community website. Some of it comes from Blizzard itself, such as concept art, drawings, and paintings. Others come from other Blizzard publications, such as the Trading Card Game. And a large number of them come from contributions to Blizzard by fans, which, as far as I can tell, are also claimed as copywritten by Blizzard.
Now, the Blizzard artwork seems to be generally seen as available under fair use for fan sites and sundry, which most WoW blogs could be classified as if one wished to classify such things. So I don’t have much in the way of qualms about using an especially striking concept landscape as part of the rotation.
Fan art, however, is actually created by someone other than Blizzard. Regardless of whether they claim copyright or not, I’m not sure fan artists realize that greedy dwarves such as myself will often come a-pillaging, and thus the works may propagate outside of that venue.
So, in the interest of fairness; if you are a fan artist that has contributed to Blizzard’s site and you see your work in my image headers, you have the option to ask me to take it down, or require me to provide a link back to your site in exchange. I will of course comply should an artist not wish his or her works be part of the header image rotation of a fairly obscure WoW blog.
I’m going to go play Game Of The Moment and won’t be blogging about WoW exclusively / at all. It was fun while it lasted. Come around say hi and let’s enjoy the next big thing.
How not to do it
I’m going to play SWTOR and if you don’t you’re a loser.
If you are a user of Google Analytics, and you blog anonymously, your real identity may be at risk of discovery.
The problem is that certain aspects of Analytics are public, including a unique ID that goes with a specific Analytics account – NOT the blog itself, but the whole account, which may be linked to multiple blogs.
Thanks to reverse lookup services, Analytics can be used to eventually correlate all blogs on a single account to each other.
If one of these happens to be a non-anonymized blog, well, you’re found out.
What to Do About It
Don’t panic! The solution is simple, though somewhat less convenient than having everything under one roof.
Simply go out and create a new Analytics account for your anonymous blogs. I personally would recommend one account per blog, for enhanced security, but at least decouple your real-identity ones from the rest.
True, this is a bit more bookkeeping for you, but if security is important, it’s worth it.
My Log Does Not Judge
I know there are those that don’t see the need for this level of security because they don’t feel they need it for themselves. I can understand that; I don’t have the need for myself.
However, there are many legitimate reasons, which I will not try to trivialize in any way. Someone hiding from an abusive ex, not making it easy for sleazy collections firms, hiding from Mexican drug cartels … lots of real reasons out there. I’m not going to judge them.
If you feel happy using your real name on the internet, that’s fine. Just don’t be a hater. Respect others’ desire for privacy and either be helpful or stay out of the way.
I don’t usually do this sort of post but this year I’m making an exception since I actually have something to say on the topic.
Today marks the 4th anniversary of the first post (that I know of) to this blog. It seems like longer (in a good way), but four years is what it’s been.
Looking back
Four years ago I was working on getting my DS3 together in Outland. Flora was 52 and already crafting netherweave – she had to; I had been mailing to her to the point it had clogged her mailbox.
I was reading BRK, Hydra and Ratshag on Vox, and Megan on Blogspot. I had been reading them a bit before that, of course. They are to blame were influential as far as what I thought I should blog, how I should do it, and why I should do it.
Megan’s righteous diatribes informed Flora’s personality. BRK’s infectious ebullience taught me to find the fun factor in what I was doing. Hydra seemed to infuse a little bit of herself in her gaming and blogging. Ratters … well, he reminds us all by example that we shouldn’t be taking any of this too seriously. Is game, after all. Of all the orcish souls I have known, his is the most … human.
With this cobbled-together framework and multicultural influences, I’ve been hanging words out there ever since, trying to live up to the examples before me, and yet trying to bring something unique to the party. It’s hard to say how that’s gone.
I Got Moves
I started out on Blogspot. I actually considered Vox1, where I found Hydra and Ratters, but rejected Livejournal out of hand, having first hand experience with the nightmare that is customization on that site. After a tenure on Blogspot I swapped to this current site, self-hosted WP, and then back when moniez got tight. After that crisis, we have returned here and I must say I still like this setup best of all. Being able to give each of the toons his or her own login to help promote the "voices in my head" gimmick helps me a lot when trying to beat together a story. As long as I have a blog, I’ll still have that preference.
Do you hear voices?
In my fevered mind, the "voices in my head" thing has been a moderate success, in that I accomplished my own personal goal with that particular tool. That goal: make each toon an actual character, not a PC-In-Name-Only. Azeroth had personality; I felt the least I could do was infuse my participation in it with some as well.
The RP-ish nature of it has not blossomed into the centerpiece I thought it might become, but it is a sizable chunk of what goes on in my head when I’m thinking of things to blog about. I’ve managed to relegate certain things to certain toons. Flora’s the firebrand of the bunch, speaking angry truths when they need to be. Illume’s the geek of the crowd, with a command of things technical. Jasra’s become our financial wizard, in her lucid and sober moments. The others haven’t really found niches, more like personalities that float around and do things that nobody hears much about, but I’m taking notes.
WoW being an MMORPG, roleplaying is an aspect that I’ve always found interesting but nothing like the current custodians of all that is Holy and True about RP. As an old-school DM, I don’t "do" RP in the same sense that people mean when they say they "did" RP last night. But we have common ground. My sense of "RP" is that I have developed at least a skeleton of a personality around every character I roll up2. It’s part of the race, class, appearance, and name that I come up with when I create them; I also have at least a glimmering of a backstory for everyone. Some have come to pass on the blog itself, such as Faiella’s near-tragedy, Illume’s hopeful beginnings. Others have not yet been told, such as How Flora Met Grimmy, which is essentially the origin story for the whole operation.
Besides the obvious, one reason I avoid Horde toons so much is that I can’t draw the same connection with them as I do with Alliance. This is also why I have had a hard time rolling a Gnome – I don’t relate to the race well enough to do so, though I have been happy to write in my own NPCs from that race. It’s a requirement, more or less. Although, I have to admit, my new Orc Warlock, Hanunga, has a compelling aura about him.
I hate that I’m such a sappy writer at times, but I do what I can; I only regret that some of the stories have yet to be told, and may never be. Sometimes I can’t find the words. Sometimes I’m not brave enough. And sometimes I just don’t know where to start. A story, of course, needs a beginning, even if we already know the end.
It’s all connected somehow
I’ve made friends. I’ve made enemies! The latter have mostly floated by, face down, in the muck. Longevity in the blogging world, especially, requires something more than despite and anger to feed it.3 The friends, for the most part, have been what makes this game, and this blog, worth the time and effort.
We Fear Change
The tone of this blog has changed a lot. When I started, it was more of a journal-style narrative of the things we’ve seen and done. As my guild started to raid Kara, that worked its way into the conversation as well. Little did I realize how central it would become.
The greatest changes, though, took place over the last year. As Jasra flamed out and at least contributed to the end of raiding by her guild, I was desperate to find a way to not undraw the line we had drawn there, and still be able to raid. Eff the Ineffable came onto the scene at precisely the right time.
The problem: I was by no means raid-ready, and had zero experience with serious progression raiding. I am extremely grateful for Alas, Zel, Orv, Nymphy, Morenhai, and many others for tolerating the endless font of derp that is me, and encouraging me as I found ways to shed some of that (in other ways, derp is who I am, but we’re finding ways to work around that). Blog posts here have shifted in tone largely because of this.
As we reach the twilight of patch 4.2, the Effers are 6/7 T12 and stand a decent chance to make it 7/7 before the endgame. This is a position I have never been in before.
Especially That Change, Over There
The future is murky, and maybe that’s why I feel like acknowledging where we are this time around. I’ve had the same sense of uncertainty before, of course (see: Jasra, burnout thereof). But this time the sense of uncertainty has more visible "handles", and seems less inevitable.
While recent drama (both raid-related and not so much) can wear on a GM and the members thereof, I don’t think that EtI will suffer permanently from that. Zel has stated that she believes that the raiding aspect of the guild – which is our backbone, our raison d’être – ends with 4.34. I feel that’s a bit optimistic, considering the attitude of some of our core raiders recently and the approach of SWTOR on December 20.5 At the very best, I think, we lose them temporarily as they experiment and find out if it is or is not worth sticking with. At worst, we lose probably a half-dozen raiders to this game and the raiding aspect of our guild implodes without recruitment – and recruitment’s a mixed bag insofar as results thus far.
Look Into The Abyss
So, kind of bleak looking, and at this point I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to hang up my omg-thats-ugly hat as a blogger as well. Five years would be nice and neat, but, really, it may be hard to sustain posts that aren’t all gloom and woe after one of the two aforementioned events take place.
On the other hand, maybe that means I’ll have more time to focus on other things I would like to do on the blog. There are a number of activities, stories, projects, and other things that I have deferred for lack of time to do them. I have a frantic, almost conveyer-like process every day that I do to maintain the toons that could be dialed WAY back if I didn’t have certain pressures bearing down to always do this and that and the other thing. Heck, I might even write an addon or five.
This fifth year, then, marks a moment of great uncertainty for me. I have much yet to do, but since I’m not even sure I’ll be playing the game past 4.36 I don’t know if I’ll ever get to it. And without any major projects, this blog would go back to what it was in the beginning. I’m not sure that regression is what I want here. I go back and read those kinds of posts years later, and I feel kind of let down. Clearly, not standing up to the test of time.
Opportunity Knocks
Regardless of what I decide going forward, this post represents the perfect opportunity to acknowledge those that have made it all worth while. (In no particular order)
Mrs Grimm, who brings light to my life and joy to my heart. Her superpower is a high tolerance for real-life derp. She is my kryptonite, for surely I cannot resist her.
My long-suffering GM of Ordo Cunniculi Vorpali, who I have known far into early days of FidoNet7, something like two and a half (!) decades. Without a doubt one of the most intellectually formidable people I’ve known, and one of the few who can connect to my inner geek on a fundamental basis. You are a lovely and awesome person.
Alas, also-long-suffering GM of Eff the Ineffable, who is wise beyond her years and patient beyond measure, whether she admits it or not. Thanks for having me over. I’ll be in your posse any time.
Megan, who inspired me to rock out with my ‘lock out.
Hydra, another of my first follows, who brings genius to even the most mundane post. It’s a shame we can’t do that thing8 any more. From her I learned to put myself into my writing.
Big Red Kitty, now known mostly as Daniel, who brought me back into the game by showing how much fun the game was if you just LET it be fun, and still impresses with his ability and competence.
Zel, who’s acerbic wit and outrageous sense of humor is a joy, even if it gets her in trouble from time to time. Well, fine, I’ll cover ya.
Jong, who brought style to the game before Fabulor was a glimmer in Rades’ eye, and taught Flora to find her inner Palpatine. We miss ya, man.
Lonomonkey, who almost has as big a mouth as myself, and who can swear in Franch and still thrill all the ladies. I am intensely envious. May your lightsabre never run out of juice.
Rhii, who brings common sense to the table when everyone else has forgotten to. Since she hangs with the effers, you know she has a sense of humor, too!
No, I have no intentions there. I’d be more at loose ends in that game than I was in WoW at first. Hell, I didn’t even know who Mara Jade was without Wikipedia. [↩]
No, I am not hating on the Pandas. 5.0 looks very exciting. I wouldn’t ragequit over that. If I stopped playing, it would be because all the joy had got sucked out of the game for whatever reason. [↩]
I think enough time has gone by now that we can focus a bit on one of the big technical changes coming in MoP and how it affects us. Namely, the massive changes in the new talent system.
First of all, a LOT of stuff has been taken out of the talent trees. Things that are signature talents now are becoming spec-bound abilities that you automatically get as you progress. So that cuts down on clutter.
Then there’s a bunch of stuff that just came out because it was stupid, or unloved, or it was just added to learnable abilities because everybody uses it anyway.
What is left are eighteen talents, out of which you can choose six. Each tier gives you three choices, of which you can choose one. Each of the three choices is biased towards one spec or another. For example, Grimoire of Supremacy is obviously playing to the desires of the Demonology warlock (and, might I add it looks pretty spiffy).
So here’s how it pans out for MoP.
Abilities that go with your spec that you were going to pick up anyway.
Abilities that go with all specs that you would want anyway.
Talents that may have a bias to one spec or another, but you have a choice.
Compare that to today (Cata).
Talents that go with your spec that you have to have.
Talents that are not of your spec but which you will choose once you are able.
Filler talents in your specs that you use to get to the next tier.
The Illusion of Freedom
The lament has been “But this removes my essential FREEDOM to choose!” I disagree. Your freedom is illusory.
The fact that you can choose a spec that makes absolutely no sense does not mean that you will or should. This was especially true before Cata hit, when we had seventy-ish talents to choose from and no spec restrictions in place. You had total freedom to go with a 20/20/21 spec but only if you didn’t care about being competitive or competent in your class. If you were raiding, you had roughly three to nine templates to choose from, and that was it. So much for “freedom”.
Your freedom was an illusion. You were either going to choose what Elitist Bastards told you to choose, or you just didn’t care about talents at all, in which case your essential freedom was not to choose at all.
Broken
The talent system WAS broken, then less broken, now even less broken – and yet, still broken.
The problem is that any talent that affects performance significantly will either be required – in order to meet performance needs – or it will cause an imbalance if everybody else doesn’t have access to that talent.
All other talents are more flavor or filler talents than anything else. The fact that you shoot green fire instead of red fire doesn’t affect the fact that you’re shooting fire, and green fire has no more damage potential than red.
You can call that freedom, but I don’t.
Paladins have complete freedom to wear cloth. They don’t. Why? The illusion of that freedom is that it’s actually a CHOICE. It is not, if that paladin is going to be serious about doing Pally stuff. Freedom is an illusion for this pally, because she’s going to put on Plate, and she’s gonna use a shield, and she’s gonna go tank stuff with her faith and nice, solid armor. She has the “freedom” to wear a dress instead. Her raid leader has the “freedom” to replace her.
The fact that the game doesn’t stop you from doing something stupid is perceived as “freedom” but the realities associated with why you wear certain things negate that pretty effectively.
Bottom line is, that paladin never had any freedom at all if she wanted to raid. There’s a list of BiS equipment, of best enchants, reforges, and gem configurations, and she will BY GAWD adhere to those or suffer the consequences.
That’s how Talent System 1.0 was. Oh, sure, as Destro you could be either shadow or fire spec. But we all knew which spec worked better, and you wanted your epeen, yes you did, so you went with the spec that put you on top of the charts.
You had absolute and total freedom … to do exactly what you were told to do – or not to raid.
The Choice is Yours
So what’s different about the MoP talent system isn’t that it removes choices, but that it removes the choices you never had. It is doing away with the silly concept that you ever had a choice on your spec configuration, once the spec was chosen.
You still get to choose. You get to choose what spec you want to run. You get to choose which minor talents to use – which is the only real choice you had in the first place. And, mind you, you can choose from ANY school for these minor talents, which you can’t do right now in Cata.
Another thing about these minor talents is that I am seeing a lot of new stuff to play with. These may be minor talents, but they have game-changing significance. Oh, some of the choices are non-choices, as the talents range from “that’s nice” to “OMG MUST HAEV NAOW”.
BUT – what I am seeing is that they are acknowledging that where a talent makes a huge difference there is probably a lesson to be learned; that the real choices should be significant but not unbalancing. That the real choices should define style but not performance.
You mad bro?
I don’t think that the people that hate this new system have thought the matter through on these terms. They perceive a loss of flexibility without acknowledging that they never used it anyway. Sure, there are outliers. There always are. But those outliers are either out on the edge to prove a point, or landed there by accident and don’t really care otherwise.
No, you should not be concerned about the fella that doesn’t even have his talent tree filled in right now. He won’t care about these changes, either, even if he notices them.
The ones that care – the ones that PvP and raid and do other endgame activities – have already surrendered the freedom to choose out of the wider pool anyway. From here on out, they can focus on stuff that they always had a choice on – red, or green?
I have read your feedback and comments about this year’s BlizzCon, and I have also read the feedback to the apology from Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain. I’d like to respond to some of your feedback here.
As president of Blizzard, I take full responsibility for everything that occurs at BlizzCon.
It was shortsighted and insensitive to use the video at all, even in censored form. The language used in the original version, including the slurs and use of sexual orientation as an insult, is not acceptable, period. We realize now that having even an edited version at the show was counter to the standards we try to maintain in our forums and in our games. Doing so was an error in judgment, and we regret it.
The bottom line is we deeply apologize for our mistakes and for hurting or offending anyone. We want you to have fun at our events, and we want everyone to feel welcome. We’re proud to be part of a huge and diverse community, and I am proud that so many aspects of the community are represented within Blizzard itself.
As a leader of Blizzard, and a member of the band, I truly hope you will accept my humblest apology.
– Mike Morhaime President, Blizzard Entertainment
Okay, first of all? I’m glad that Mike had the gumption to step up and accept so clearly WHAT was wrong and WHO was responsible. Oh, not just him, but in general, BLIZZARD screwed up, not the players that were there being offended, or the players who later became offended second-handedly. Well done, that’s what should have been said in the first place, and the sort of person that needed to be saying it1.
Sadly, one of the first comments after that (on the BB) kinda indicates the challenge.
Glad to see an official apology. Now maybe the forums can stop being flooded by new threads about it every 2 seconds >_>
Yeah, see, for a lot of people, the problem wasn’t Blizzard’s monumental insensitivity to, well, people. It’s that it was taking away from the crucial debate of whether Pandaren are worth ragequitting over or not, and so forth.
Sigh.
Time will tell.
Maybe after this email went out, Morhaime had an all-hands meeting and laid it out for everyone – "This can’t happen again, we need to be more responsible, from the top on down, and over the next few months there will be training and other activities to help everyone accomplish this."
Or maybe he went and had a beer with Corpsegrinder et al and apologized to them for having to put up with such an ordeal, jammed with them a little bit, and partied all night in a most death-metally way.
I do feel we will revisit this issue again, in a similar guise, multiple times. People in that state of mind really do take a while to get with the program, if they ever do.
In the meantime, I’m putting Blizzard on Double-Secret Probation and carrying on with the daily grind that is life.
Sorry, Bashiok, but that sort of command-level screwup requires the captain of the ship to take one for the team, not the third mate’s assistant. [↩]
As you may or may not have seen in amidst all the excitement from Blizzcon, there was a decidedly sour note hit at the end of the convention. As fanboy favorite L90ETC hit the stage, they gave a big ol shout-out to the author of this lovely diatribe.
(Despite what you may have heard, this was not bleeped in any way at the con.)
Now, this was presented in typical fratboy "lol-wuz-dat-funny-Billy-Bob-yeah-dat-was-Cleetus-hurr-hurr" kind of way. But, as has been noticed by a few sharp citizens, Blizzard themselves didn’t really seem to mind that our nasty little friend1 was a homophobic bozo. And in fact they didn’t even make a statement about it until people made a fuss on the forums, at which point Bashiok, CM to the Gods2, laid this out there.
If it offended you I genuinely apologize.
"IF it offended you, I apolgize" Weaksauce. There is no apology here. Blizzard isn’t owning this. They’re saying YOU’RE the problem. If YOU are offended, they’re sorry. If you’re not, have a beer, you’re fucking awesome.
It was there because we thought it was funny – it was for fun. We didn’t take it seriously,
"WE think it’s funny. We don’t take things like ‘feelings’ seriously."
it just happened to be a relevant intro for Corpsegrinder as he came out to sing(?) with the ‘horde’ themed LVL80ETC.
"Listen, we needed a relevant video that showed his finer points. I’m sure you’ll agree, we captured that pretty well."
I actually don’t think we’ve ever seen an uncensored version.
"Our PR department was too drunk to float us an uncensored copy or raise any red flags, and in ALL OUR YEARS OF ADMIRING THIS GUY, we never noticed that his jib was cut that way."
I don’t want to continue belaboring the point, but in the video Corpsegrinder (after his remarks) laughs and says "It’s just a game." He’s joking. Granted the joke uses profanity, but there’s no intent behind it.
"Listen, I’m tired of trying to appease you whiners. I’m sorry you don’t like profanity, but he’s not smart enough to find a substitute word for ‘fag’."
Well golly. I guess we should take our little sensitive selves and go play with our dolls. Weaksauce!
The blogging community has been far less apathetic.
I stand with them, and with every one among us that has suffered at the hands of the fratboys and their sycophants. Anyone that has felt they had to hide their religion, gender identity, political party, geek clan affiliation5. Anyone that has had to endure a the hands of bullies because of race, gender, or other deviation from what a bunch of Biffs and Buffys have determined to be "normal."
I don’t care if you were born that way, made a choice, or ended up there after a series of amazing coincidences. It doesn’t matter to me how it happened6. All that matters to me is who you are and how you feel around all this hostility towards yourself.
I remember the feelings. 98 pounds, five-foot-four, surrounded by jocks and rednecks. Getting my ass rolled year after year on the way to and from school. It was hell being a nearsighted underweight geek as a kid, and there are moments of shame I will never live down.
That’s nothing compared to what a gay man or trans woman might experience day in and day out. I was able to leave my childhood behind7, but someone of non-white ethnicity, non-traditional religion, or LGBT – that’s for life, every day, and it has to be pretty damned scary to have to know that there is no end in sight, and even if you have the temerity to speak up in your own defense, you’re told it’s all just a joke and you should just get over yourself.
In the name of a joke, a bunch of inconsiderate louts made the environment around Blizzard HQ – and all it stands for – hostile to people that don’t fit a narrowly defined template of ‘normal’. The message is clear: "be like us, or wipe your faggoty eyes and go kill yourself like like a good <insert thing here>."
No. Not only NO, but HELLS TO THE NO.
Right now we’re playing a little game. How much bullshit are we willing to take from Blizzard before we kick them to the curb? Why is it so hard for them to act like, yanno, people?
But it’s coming to a tipping point. Eventually I’ll be looking at my email, get a reminder that my time card is about to expire, see something like this, and think "Not another dollar, assholes. Not until you own your shit and make things right."
For a company that has its hand out to us in the hope that we’ll plunk down over a C-note for a years’ subscription, they’re sure sending an odd message. One might think they’d be more eager to at least pander to what appears to be a large segment of their customers, instead of making fun of them and going "Ha ha, j/k!" when called on it.
There are plenty of other games out there to play. Plenty of them don’t make people feel marginalized about who they are. And, no, WoW doesn’t actually do that in-game (unless you run into this guy now), but Blizzcon is very much a part of the WoW experience, and it just got tainted, badly, by a bunch of jerks, their fanboys, and their inability to handle it gracefully.
Ball’s in your court, Blizzard. Grow the hell up.
Two final points.
Firstly, a lot of people have gotten the whole horde-vs-alliance thing mixed up in all this. That’s a red herring. I don’t give a shit, really, if you’re that into being Horde. I might feel sorry for ya, bro, but you go right on ahead and pretend it matters. What this post is about, which you should realize if you’re read this far, is that they’re using speech that is hateful to a large segment of the community in the process of trying to denigrate a game faction. Not cool. If it helps, substitute "Niggers"8 for "Fags" and see how comfortable you feel about it.
Secondly, I opened with "it was sure to flare up again". In a way, this isn’t just about LGBT discrimination. This is about mutual respect of your fellow gamer, of your fellow human beings. If what you do is founded on putting someone down, you will eventually lose your footing. Last time, which I referred to obliquely, was around the topic of feminism and the disrespect of females in-game and out that Blizzard has inadvertantly supported. To that, add gay-bashing.
That this recurs is the problem. Blizzard, again, needs to own its shit and clean up its act. Until that happens, this will happen again.
See you back at this particular soapbox in a few months.
Yes, they admire this guy and his band so much that they put an NPC in-game way back in WOTLK. [↩]
I am not discounting the "born versus choice" debate or whatever it’s formally called. It’s an important topic. But, as Alton might say, "that’s another show." [↩]
Not really. Turns out, it wasn’t a smoke screen. What seemed too ridiculous to be real, was real.
Okay, I still think Pandaren are a silly, goofy thing. And they come from outer space. On the back of a giant space turtle, apparently. But then I remember the Eredar Draenai were basically space goats that arrived when their spaceship stolen space fortress crash landed dematerialized on the one uninhabited island in the whole ocean, and I guess it’s no worse than what I’ve swallowed before.
Still, I know one blogger already who has decided that they’ve jumped the shark, and I can’t say I blame him. "Past expansions have been sooo dark!" Well, duh. *WAR*craft, yo. It’s what we do.
Having said that, let’s pretend to take it serious for a second and make some observations.
Newbie area is open for playing at Blizzcon. So they’ve been putting in some significant work already, and this probably explains a few things in other areas, such as why they suddenly decided against that undersea raid in 4.2. Bob, you’re needed in Room 12. No, I’ll take care of this, just go!
Looks like the zones and some instances are ready for fly-throughs already. Again, they’ve had people on this for a while. This is where Cata was at twelve months after the reveal. They really are at it, aren’t they?
The upshot of 1 and 2 is that I think the trends in subscriptions really has gotten some attention, and they really have committed to iterate faster and harder to level that out.
To further pander to the "subs are falling" crowd, there’s the fact that they are now offering Diablo III for free with a full year subscription1. If you’re from "that" crowd, then this is proof positive that they’re worried sick over subscriptions. Either way, this truly is an amazingly potent loyalty reward.
There is a crowd that is disparaging this expansion as the marker of when Blizz officially gave up caring about keeping WoW fresh, and focusing on Titan. I’m not so sure. It sounds like some of the new features – such as "challenge dungeons" – aren’t the kind of thing you see in an abandoned property.
What DOES concern me is the movement away from the darker, gothic setting that is the foundation of the franchise. It’s really starting to look like they’re shooting for a less mature demographic. Kung Fu Pandas2 really appeal more to the child inside, and, while I see nothing wrong with that, I didn’t come to Azeroth for that sort of gratification.
There is far more to this expansion than the Pandaren, tough, and there’s a lot to digest. The talent tree is either far more complex than it looks, or has become disappointingly simplified. Battle pets seems like a cross between Pokemon and Rappelz, which may be instant gratification for pet collectors. As long as Flora’s oozling can grow horns or something she’s happy.
Sadly, this may end up being a guild-breaker for some considering the near-violent reactions I’ve seen in some of my guildies. I think a lot of people were looking for an excuse to ditch WoW for SWTOR (or whatever it is) and its Ewoks, and you gotta admit that this is a fairly polarizing choice on Blizzard’s part.
ONE thing for sure – regardless of how many emails you got from Bioware yesterday, you probably weren’t paying a lot of attention to them.
No, I won’t be. I want to get D3 for my kid, but any copy attached to my account will be unplayable when I’m logged in, and, ya know … [↩]
Enjoy the lawsuit, by the way, Blizz. In Disney there be dragons. [↩]
It’s always fun to read other blogs’ "lookee at our search terms" posts. People get to the oddest places with the most unexpected search terms. I’ve never looked at mine but I thought I’d take a gander. Unfortunately, the people visiting here via Google searches are relatively boring when compared to the freaks that land at, say, Zel’s place.
Let’s have a look.
Varian Wrynn – It’s pretty sad that Flora’s rant about people hating on their own faction is in the top 150-ish search results for our beloved yet oddly quiet (in this expansion) monarch. And, by the way, why is that? He was all over the place in Wrath, but he’s been hunkered down in his new playhouse for Cata.
(Hell’s) Angels Logo – The alt text of the logo for this silly story is in my top twenty results. Within the top 300 results, which buries it way down there, but still. What is this I don’t even.
Oh, wait. That’s this page. Ranked in the top 100? What is this … wait.
Quatloos! Ranked in the top 50? Clearly there are not enough ST:TOS blogs out there.
By the way, that post is also in the top 200 for Murloc Mud Wrestling. Why is this a thing?
Firelands nerf? No, but we have Firelands Nerd. That was … unexpected.
We’ve got Tiffin Wrynn here, ranked higher than her other half. Sadly, since she seemed to be a nice lady and deserves a better destination than this.
I’ve availed myself of the Transmorgrification services now being offered. While it is true that this is the same robe that The Dark Father was wearing when we caught him swinging for the other team, it has also long been the regalia of followers of the Light for decades. I wear them proudly.1
I started out on Blogspot
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