Paladin Progress, Favorite Toons, and other Ramblings

Well,
I've spent the last several days leveling my Paladin Ahrias. He is Prot specced and all the way up until he hit Cata Dungeons he was wrecking the 5 mans during leveling phases. Then he hit a bench mark where DPS folks were tearing his aggro meters to shreds. I've done a bit of research for 5.3 to ensure at least the spec was right. Gear would still be a problem for a bit though as the proper tanking gear isn't really available at this point. I kind of tapered off on Dungeoning for the moment until I can rehasg what is going on aggro wise. But, I've really gotten into the storyline for MoP. I hadn't taken any of my other toons this far into the game as I was dreading the gear disparity. Still, I actually started to take my time again in reading through quest lines and picking up the lore as I could.

Throughout this process Ahrias has traveled all over Azeroth, with the exception of the "Waterworld" Cata phase. I never enjoyed that area and easily by passed it. Hyjal as always was a blast and the Highlands were also a lot of fun to roll through. I didn't do every quest, just the ones I liked or felt were relevant to his persona. His Jewel crafting has kind of hit a wall between 505 to 520, the next major breach, but that will come in time for me. At now lv 86 soon to be 87 he feels pretty formidable and carries the weight of his Holy Warrior status well. Over all, I've been very happy with his progress and enjoyed the time he has traveled about.

So why talk about it? Well, Ahrias is the first toon I've really taken a liking to. I'm not all into the holy preachy warrior thing, but Ahrias strikes a special chord with me. I've been developing a persona from the immersion perspective in fleshing him out to be something more than a pixel action figure/doll to play with. My wife can easily tell you I hire and fire alts so fast, she looses track of what I am working on at the moment. Though I keep the names I like the most on standby, very few ever make it past lv. 30 before they stop resonating with me. It's odd how I have grown fond of the old, grey eyed, silver maned paladin. He has started to take a life and personality of his own.

I don't really get into RP anymore, though perhaps I'll crack it again sometime. What I will say is, Ahrias as a project has come to life for me. In the end, he is what I enjoy about WoW. The creation, the progression and the development of something I can take away as fond memories of glory. I personally think this is a part of why even old veterans who grumble about the state of the game still play. It's not the whole reason, but I figure it is a part of it. I get lost in the story and I look back through his eyes and see what has been accomplished, and what remains to be done. He embodies some of who I am in the real world, and many things which I aspire to be in attitude, execution and overall bad assery. So, while I have plenty of other toons, many which umm...well, die by my hand more often than by the dangers of Azeroth, Ahrias has stayed on and above the rest.

So, what toons have you my fellow readers call your personal favorite? Are they main class? Alt? RP? What makes you enjoy the special ones? Do drop a line when you get the chance, I always love a good conversation over ale, whiskey, or even some well brewed tea! Till next time, may your bags be loaded with gold and may glory be showered upon you!

Remember back in the day? Player Base Culture Then and Now

People change, they row, they come and go. Games do the same. WoW is certainly no different here. What I find interesting is how the player base and attitudes have changed since my return from back in 2011. For that matter, going all the way back to pre TBC days. I here the constant laments of how much mroe difficult it was back in the day compared to now and how the game has gone EZ mode.

I have also heard a ton of doom sayers claim the deathknell of the game due to a loss of 1.8 million players this last quarter. Hmm...that's a huge number and WOULD destroy any other MMO. Ok, the player base has declined. The game is 9 years old. Most MMOs completely die out after about 6 years...tops. For an Elder of a game, I'd say it's no where near life support stage. I've played a lot of lesser MMO's in my sabbaticals from WoW and here is what I find:

~ First 90 days, population boom. People burning through content, figuring out the game mechanics, leveling battle areas into virtual glass ashtrays....

~ 90 days to 6 months; Players have gotten pretty comfortable but the new shinies aren't as shiny anymore. Progression raids have been fullfilled, pvp brackets have been maxed and...what is there to do again? Oh yeah, try out new classes and spec trees etc. BUT...player base starts to go away due largely to discontent of what the product promised vs. what it delivered upon launch.

~ 6 months to Year 1; Die hard niche players and guilds hang on together due to friendships or progression. But, subs decline at this point. Sometimes fast...othertimes slow. But, the first doomsayers make thier mark in the forums. they blame everything upon the dev teams and how no one listens to the players. This creates discontent and foments general toxic attitudes that create forum wars and often turn off new prospective players that haven't tried the game out. Ahhh the joys of the Mob mentality. Now, some companies have money to push out new Xpacs and new content. Of course in thier rush to  push out the content, they innevitably screw up coding and make life hell on the player base. which repeats the cycloe of toxic attitudes.

~ Year 2; Only the die hards remains, but by this time we start to see servers chut down, merge, and game becomes life support for the curious and the few fans. Players will traverse for miles and miles without seeing another face. PvP becomes non existant. Instance groups become rare occurances. Less meaningful content gets pushed out. This is about the mark in my experiences where a game dies off.

Now...World of Warcraft....9 years, new content on reasonable time tables. Not everything appeals to ALL players. But there is enough variety within the game to cater to just about everyone. 8 Million subs still active. For a Grandfather of a game that hasn't really updated it's graphics base I gotta say hats off to the business model. It works. It is still a juggernaut, just a very matured one.

So why all the glum feelings of loss and what not?

In my opinion, it has to do with the changing virtual culture base. It also has to do with folks just plain old moving on. There in lies the key. When we develop relationships, even virtual ones, there is an emotional investment that most people are very uncomfortable tlaking about. Those who have been around have seen thier old buddies move on to other things. And the new player base (relatively speaking withing say Cata to MoP) has a very different attitude in progression, challenge vs. reward and social interaction. Now some may blame this on game design. I don't think that is entirely it though. There is more to it than simple design mechanics exploitation. It is the culture of the people that has also changed. Old veterans remembered long ago glories and how much harder it was to obtain things as simple as a mount. They remembered the difficulty of putting together 25 - 40 member raid teams and keeping them focused. These veterans remember even simple dungeons requiring skill vs. BoA gear run throughs. Yet now, many of these challenges are overcome simply to level fast to see the End Game.

New players want everything now...and FAST. Attention spans have significantly shortened. Get it now or I'm out. And social relationships? What the heck is that? These are some of the challenges as aged as WoW is has to deal with. So there is a cultural clashing here that I feel often isnt mentioned.

In the end, the game has to remain fun for people. I actually had to re evaluate WHY I played and WHAT I enjoyed, player culture be damned. As I write this, I am looking at my toon list which is growing. Some of these toons I have rerolled already, but 3 or 4 are definite keepers.

I love WoW, and though I may periodically take breaks from it, I enjoy what it has to offer. I look forward to the future of the game as it approaches it's first Decade mark. But if you find yourself at a loss, rememebr not so much that you HAVE to do ABC in that order, but to skip and play a bit.

Till next round, I'll see ya out there in Azeroth

WoW Girls Gone Wild....but there is a point to it.

I've brought it up before on the psychology of male and female interaction within the MMO community. This had to do with sexism in the WoW community and how it can be umm chaotic in nature. Let's face it, by and large mmo's were designed with young males as the primary demographic. Hot plate armor (you know like plate armor bikini's that mitigate more damage than an M1A1 Abram's tank), bouncy umm peices parts and cutes looks. Bu guys, what if the tables were turned. So, check out this link on If Women ruled WoW .

 First and foremost it was hilarious. But on an interesting note, everything that was dramatized here, I've seen happen time and time again only the guys were the perpatrators of poor, patronizing attitudes. Either women are met with straight up offers of umm relations, or they were thrown all kinds of goodies based solely on their gender, or they were looked at with outright derision. What if the tables were turned? Based upon a lot of the thin skins I've seen throughout my gaming time, I doubt males could even handle being treated this way without totally nerd raging out.

My point here is bottom line, sexism still exists on many servers. Like, well, females are ok at dps or good at healing but god forbid if we let them tank...that sort of thing. Now, I'm not saying this happens all the time. I know several very competent female raiders of every class that would put most guys to shame. Time to face it, the nerd mancave of the mmo is now being equalized with a more and more game savvy female population. It behooves the gamer population to step back a little and respect the player, not the gender. Anyways, the idea here was supposed to be humorous, but it brings up some interesting points.

Have a fun day in Azeroth folks, hope most are enjoying the new 4.2 series, I know I am, though getting those damned tokens to get into the Firelands has been kinda a pain in the ass lol.

Indecision is a Bitch

Lately I been experimenting with several alts trying to build professions and experience different classes back and forth. This has slowed the progress of Grimnhak to a grinding halt. He hit 80, started questing in Hyjal and....well I keep switching around. The current guild I belong to has humored me though occasionally I recieve a ribbing here and there as I never seem to settle. Summer is here so its not a big deal since the guild has gone pretty silent for the time being while everyone is out enjoying the sunshine and doing stuff. My wife and I work together on different alt combos but we never seem to settle on one team. She has gotten into BGs now with her rogue and is enjoying it. I've quieted down my BG activity in favor of running around doing other stuff.

But where is it leading to? I'm not sure at the moment. I want to keep progressing with Grim but sometimes even that is a chore. Not that the quests are hard, most are super easy with a hunter. But then what happens when he reaches 85? Do I dare to get into the raiding business? I'm not sure. The reason is that I can't commit to a particular schedule with my work. Matter of fact, because of being out of town on the job for a 3 month stint, I won't be playing WoW at all. I think this has had a direct effect on my focus to get Grim finally complete. It also has me chasing my tail as to what to play on any given day. I like working at toons. I hate seeing my time grow short though. So...I am at a crossroads to to speak. Ehh well, friday is here and tonight after I finish up with work I'll log on and beat down some XP, though with whom I dont know yet. Guess we will see when it happens. Happy weekend everyone, I'll catch ya after a bit!

The Storyteller

So this morning as I was burning through breakfast, running late for work and catching snippets on the net, I came across a new post from Ama concerning her ideas about writing. I enjoy Ama's writing by the way but it piqued my interest even a little more today. Here is why, I enjoy being a storyteller. I love to read and hear stories from others, but I love being a storyteller, creating a world around me. I think it started back when I was a young kid, when I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, the Taran series( loose welsh myth/fanatasy) and the Hobbit. After reading those fine books, I wanted to be the one telling the story. I loved dreaming up new worlds and creating my own heroes. Time passed, I started playing old school D&D, I started living those adventures.

Times jumps forward now and I live in Azeroth currently. I still am living and creating stories in my mind. I love getting immersed into the adventures of both my Alliance and Horde toons. Though neither of the guilds I belong to are really RPers, I still get "into" by most beloved heroes. Of course, many of them die a permanent death if I don't feel them come alive. But I still always have a few here and there that I see come to life. I can envision them both in the heat of battle and in the mundane daily life as well. This is where I see them bloom. If I can watch them grow and ask questions as to why they do the things they do, I keep them. Some I don't revisit for quite awhile, others I watch regularly.

My wife hates this sometimes because I'm always bouncing around. Well she doesnt hate it per se, she gets frustrated. But in a way I am tasting the lore from so many angles and allowing Azeroth to actually come alive for me. It does live and breathe in my mind. So I often ponder, why don't I write about it? I mean I got a ton of material, so why not? Well, part of the issue I think is that I'm so busy living the dreams that I rarely find time to write about them. The other issue often is that I understand the lore of Azeroth is extremely complex, and where my hero actually falls in on it needs to be somewhere balanced between making a difference and not blowing the entire storylines that greater heroes have already been written about. So for me, it's been really hard to create fan fiction that is enjoyable to write and will get the interest of fellow readers. I could care less about money, I make enough in the real world. I just like sharing stories.

But then comes the next idea, I do enjoy writing, and as a wannabe fantasy writer I can't write about Azeroth. Why? I need my own personal touch. My own world. It doesn't have to be epic in nature though I often think on the grand scale. It can be small, one person and their view to start. Tolkien once wrote in an essay that's how the Lord of the Rings came about. He started with just one leaf in complete detail (the beginning of the Hobbit) and then let it grow, till he saw a tree and then the world around it. Interesting thought. Well, I haven't quite gotten to where I am going and it may take some time before I get where I can write about it. I can say I might regale in a fe written pieces of the exploits of my brothers and sisters in Azeroth, I'm just having too much fun living their dreams now. If you have read this far, thank you. Take my advice, write for fun but write for you. If you ever plan on writing for profit, make it your world, but write for your audience. Anyways, have a great day out there, and Happy Hunting in Azeroth!

Apologies and a fun weekend....

First and foremost, normally I write at least 4 - 5 times a week as a habit. My apologies for being silent in that area. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, I have been devoting a lot of time towards my career progression classes in the real world. This takes a fair amount of time during my day where I used to have a lot of spare time. Lets face it, I love WoW. I love Blogging, but I have to balance that with my real job. The second part of this however, is that I spend a fair amount of time reading other peoples blogs, I think I am subscribed to almost 60 now lol. I tend to write short comments where appropriate but it is time consuming to read every one's thoughts, so that slows down my own writing. The thing is, I love all the blogs I read, everyone has good stuff to say. I don't always comment, but I love the community and I am addicted to reading other people's thoughts or commentary. So, my apologies in this area.

Now, let's see. Oh yes, I took a break from my regular guild over the past few days. Most of them are gearing up in the real world to go out overseas for military duty, so I rarely see or hear from anyone lately. What did this break include? Well, it wasn't a break from playing that's for sure. My main did manage to get his 500th HK which is laughable because I doubt as a tank he has more than a handful of killing blows. I parked him again as he is close to hitting lv 80. But then what? My guild is all quiet and I hate running Ronin style. Well there is the other 5 lv's to go, but really I don't want to deal with that yet till I get some better gear. My Feral pvp druid Damios hit 30 so his BG days are limited for a couple of levels. I do need to get some farming done for more cash flow to feed my little army though. That is the limit of my Alliance side work.

My real fun was with my Orc hunter Grimnhak over the weekend. While leveling he is a cash cow, but then its on to the BG's and open world pvp wherever I can find it. I am noticing he is having a harder time fighting out there and I do need to add in an additional pvp style pet but I had a blast fighting AB all weekend. I am currently specced Survival, not sure if its the best for pvp but I stiil love it anyhow. At anyrate, because AB was on the extra honor awards, that's where I fought. Sadly, my horde compatriots had very little in the ways of healers on the pug side. Worse, many times they didn't remember to fight at the flags and to hold ground. Too often I found myself either alone or with maybe 1 or 2 others to defend. This became an issue as in AB you need to hold the points with at least 5. Even if the enemy zergs on you, they rarely to it organized enough to put a serious push on you. Everyone is racing so their attack is rarely coordinated and you can pick them off one at a time a they approach at range. The problem arose when in many of the fights I ran, zerg mentality ruled the day. I'm not sure if they were trying to get acheivements done, but it was at many times brutal. I'd say throughout the day on Sunday, I saw a 30% win ratio. Not too impressive but it did teach me a lot about what not to do.

Some things I did have a ton of fun even when the battle was lost:
Traps galore! Gods having traps everywhere has saved my skin. Being able to move my pet as a sentry for early warning approach. Tracking both unstealth and hidden. Hunters may not put out the ultimate dps, but their additional abilities make them a unique and welcomed Swiss army knife. Flare is another beautiful thing, cuts back on those 1 shot ambushes significantly.

Things I need to get:
A new pet. I love my raptor, don't know why but I do. Spiders though are so damned useful in slowing the prey down. I hate spiders, but it looks like I'll need one. Enchants and glyphs. On Grimnhak's server (Emerald Dream) prices are stupid outrageous. I am not a part of a solid pvp guild as yet. I did manage to find a low Lev guild though to be honest I don't think pvp is their focus. Soooo...I am somewhat ham stringed their. The problem is, there aren't too many pvp guilds on that server accepting lowbie toons still learning the Art of War. It's ok, I'm bashing my way slowly up the ladder, just waiting for the right time for him. I thought about finding a strictly pvp server but I have yet to find one that is ok with a newbie pvper like myself. Much like the titanic Raid guilds out there, PvP guilds can be very much the same way in looking at the peons of the world lol.

Finally, for anyone looking for a good pvp outlook on patch 4.1, I advise you to head on over to Cynwise's Site and read this. Excellent info for those wanting to know the up and coming scope of the pvp world. Cynwise is also very very experienced on the BG strats etc, it is definitely worth looking at. Yup that was my shameless plugs for one of the Bloggers that I got a lot of respect for lol. Anyways, I hope your Easter went well everyone, for those who spent a little time doing the Noble Garden stuff, hope you got yer Bunny on! Speaking of which, good places to get the eggs and such: Alliance get on down over to Dolanaar or umm the Space Goat zone. Avoid the hell out of Human or Dwarf zones they are always ovewr camped.  For Horde, try out The Blood Elf beginning zone, not too bad there for gettin yer egg on. And with that, take care one and all, I am still out there pluggin away!

The Adaptive Gamer....Challenges which can be over come

So I ran across this yesterday concerning an Adaptive Player. The player was really trying to get across that it is possible for someone with physical or mental handicaps to still play and enjoy WoW up to and including Raiding. The responses over all were pretty positive with only the occasional troll out there. I was actually pretty inpressed by the tenacity of the player and applaud his efforts to still enjoy the game. I think the diea here was to help other disabled players see that there are methods to still enjoy the game. There are a few posters that were less than cordial but that is their right to post, so I ignored them for the most part.

I have had first hand experience with working in a PUG with someone visually impaired. He put raid icons over our heads which we werent used to and kinda screwed with my kill order. After asking him why, he explained it helped him see the tank and healer to easier to assist in attacks due to his visual impairment. Well I gotta say that I support fully to assist those with disabilities who still are motivated enough to play the game and overcome some problematic issues when dealing with the physical aspects of repetitive motions and manual dextuerly required for doing Hotkey hits etc. His idea also incudes creating a website where people can go and share techniques in overcoming these challenges. Should this website go up, even if you are not an Adaptive player, just someone who enjoys the game and raids, it might expose you to understanding those who play WoW with disabilities. Well Walaman good luck to you and I hope your idea takes off!

Sexism and harrassment - MMO Style

Guys want chicks to play WoW with them. Guys love this, it means a cute ass is in front of them and a virtual babe which is real because hey...girl is behind the keyboard. This is SO HOT! and hey...maybe if I play my virtual nerd cards right, I can get me some bowchicawowow!!!! At least maybe in game. sort of. And that's where the sexism begins. This tends to be the most blatant form. But even the mmo industry game design supports this. Females always look better in robes than males, ergo female toons tend to be casters of one sort or another. Funnel mechanism right there folks. Armor of any sort that looks like lingerie rather than something that keeps a toon alive or would seem extremely uncomfortable ( a plate thong.... is that possible?). Very well endowed female toons. Even when slide bars are available...it aint that much difference. Just hose creation points makes it the nerd guy's dream. But folks that's only the beginning and it concerns me. I mean, I do allow my kids to play the game. What message does that send them? For certain when my daughter was under 18 I would have made her throw out anything that would be overtly revealing such as mini skirts/midriff tops etc. I'm old fashioned that way. Should I think any different in a game that might allow such conduct to go on?

You are asking yourself...where did this all come from? Well, today I was surfing through allot of Blogs. The Greedy Goblin got me started. At first I was agreeing with the fact that honestly if you are carrying your significant other in game especially for raids, you are pretty much wrong. But then the tone became rater sexist to the point of...why would I date a girl if she isn't skilled like me? My personal feelings on this particular subject will have to wait for another time. I'll leave you the reader to make your own decision on what you feel about Devlon's ideas. Suffice to say, it got me thinking about how male and female interaction occurs in game.

Then I came across this post from In Character an RP focused Blog. What struck me the worst was the commentary about rape, flirtations, sexual advances or gurls suxz attitudes. My reply in that blog had more to do with the customer service from the GM's but my personal thoughts went back to the shitty make attitudes that were thrown about. Look, I'm an older guy. I don't tolerate disrespect of women. My wife plays and I'll get down right ornery with people who are rude to her based upon her being a woman, which does still happen. Oh, I know she can give as much as she takes, but the caveman in me still does the whole protective attitude even if it's in a virtual universe.

But really, has the Internet created monsters out of little boys? A real man doesn't need to portray such shitty attitudes, or at least I wouldn't think it's necessary. I'm no knight in shining armor, nor am I a prude in the least. But outrageous conduct is a sorry ass sham of being so anonymous that no one has to worry. If it's typed in, I wonder what the real person is like? Is this what they harbor deep inside? To hurt and abuse the opposite gender? Or make a hostile environment towards those of other racial background? Hey shit talkin is ok. Between consenting folks the whole ERP thing is ok if that 's what gets them hot as long as its done in a non public manner. What concerns me is a new social dynamic of mistreatment to the point of dehumanization. This bothers me.

So, in the community abroad I pose a set of questions to each of you.

1. Is sexual harassment an issue that needs to be addressed?

2. Should developers seriously cater to a much more conservative view of the female needs such as less revealing clothing or less objectified female toon looks?

3. Should the GM's of a given mmo have a priority list for sexual harassment allegations with a means of proof and a means of dealing with such crass behavior?

4. Overall, what are your opinions of allowing females to feel welcome in the nerd's world of video game mmo mayhem and murder?

I am honestly interested in reader opinion and would like to see a healthy discussion ensue.

Day #15 - Your Desktop Background - 20 Days of Blogging

Morning folks. Well for today's topic, I am explaining my desktop back ground. To be honest, I keep it on rotation from the stock nature orientated backgrounds. I don't have any themes per se. Just that it's nature orientated. These get rotated out every few months pending on mood, current distraction, or whim. I know alot of people tend to have their favorite game for a background theme, not me. I see enough from the game already. My back grounds tend to be exotic when possible as far as locale. They are places I would love to see. The thundering silence due to lack of human contact tends to appeal to me. Even the wind is it's own music. My computer backgrounds tend to reflect this ideal.

Ok, that;s a small bit for now. Last couple of days have been pretty busy and my work schedule has been hectic. Last night I wanted to just sort of gel out so instead of playing I decided to sit in to an evening of House. Yes, House is one of my favorite shows. I happen to love the character's attitude, it's always entertaining to me. Ok, nuff said for now. I'll write more when I get some time.

Oh, I have been formulating a short story page. I know I haven't been writing on it and I see a few of you have at the least been checking out the link. Please be patient, I have stories to tell, but sometimes time constraints slow my progress for what I dream in one hand, and output in the other. See ya on the High Ground!

Day #14 - 20 Days of Blogging - This Upsets You

An old mentor of mine used to say: It's all about being mellow. Good advice for getting through life one would think. Certainly it does help to keep one's persepective and sanity when stupid shit in the world gets thrown in one's lap...on a daily basis. But, there are a few things that totally piss me off. These things get me into a total rage / nerd rage. So here goes!

RL:
Mediocre performance - everyone gets a friggen medal. Look, I don't expect people to be the best at everything, but today I see too many people expecting rewards for lackluster performance. Mostly this happens in the working environment where rewards aren't hard fought for. Weak performance seems to continously get rewarded in the thanks for trying catagory. It pisses me off. I can't help my self.

People who talk in movie theatres or while I'm watching a video - Look, my brain gets focused. It's kinda linear at times when I just want to be involved in a movie or a show on TV. Interrupting my train of thought, annoying me in a theatre that I paid outrageous amounts of money for a ticket and a lil popcorn/soda thoroughly pisses me off.

Politicians who have never lived in a foreign shit hole of a country dictating policy like they really know what the hell they are talking about. They don't. They've never had to put thier neck on the line. for them...STFU!

I really hate it when peopel piss and moan about how another country is soooo much better than their own. FINE! GO FUCKING LIVE THERE! For the record, I love living in my country. I think every country has something interesting to offer. But if you don't like living in the same country as me and think other countries are so much better, leave. Don't let the door hit you in the ass. Stop bitching, crying, and complaining. Just leave. This is a real piss me off issue. My country isn't perfect, we can change shit in my country. But at least my country allows us the ability to change policy. There are countries that also allow this fine bit of freedom. There are also countries out there that would just knock on your door in the middle of the night and put a bullet in your skull for not keeping your mouth shut.

In Game:

Idiots in Battle Grounds - Cmon, simple tactics and no one follows them. I'm by no means the top dog of BGs but common sense seems to be lacking. Simple things can make life go so much easier, but it rarely ever does. Look there are times you get facerolled. I got it. No biggy. But being downright stupid on a BG? Really? GAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

Spam Duel Requests - Wow, take a hint please. If I refused you the first 2 times, chances are when you annoy the shit out of me with a 5th and 6th time, I'm ready to explode. While we are on this, stop asking me to duel when you are 30 levels higher and in epic epeen death gear. Do I have a stupid mark on my forhead? If it's a friend, I got it, playin around, but random shit? Cmon that's annoying.

DC - Friggen Internet connections. If I dC in the middle of combat it really nerd rages me out. Nuff said.

The evolution of female MMO players

I read a post today from Jinxed Thoughts that sort of piqued my interest and got to making me think even further. You see, the virtual worlds of MMOs have become their own culture which has evolved over the last 15 plus years. The interaction and involvement of female players has also evolved. And that is what I decided to talk about today.

So, 25 years ago I was playing AD&D on tabletop. It was me and the guys, the nerd squad...typical Saturday night. Then BOOM! Brian brings a friend into try the game...a FEMALE friend and she was cute to boot! Us nerd guys had a chance in the world with girls who actually at least would smile at us. So began my experiences with women and gaming. Yes I'm getting to my point here in a sec, but it's my wall of text so please bear with me.

Years go by and low and behold I'm in the Age of MMO's. In the beginning we knew there weren't very many if at all female players. There wasn't a way to prove it since vent wasn't really up at that time. Yet, there were plenty of female avatars running around. Thus began the era of geeks who play female toons...I blame Tomb Raider for that lol. This brings upon other topics of toon genderbending of which yes I do occasionally play one. But back to the point at hand. I might have been able to see 1 in 100 RL female video gamers who played mmos. Most were husband and wife teams with just the spattering of female single players.

Time passes, I don't think about it but then I run across some podcasts dealing with RL gamers that are female with a wide range of ages. It brings up a ton more of social issues within the community when this is revealed as a truth (back in 02-03) from the casual gamers world, much like a woman being brought into a monastery. Most young boyus who were into MMO's acted like young boys and pretty rude over all. Older guys were trying to actually find relationships from the virtual space dreaming of Lara Croft in their arms. The female gamers weren't having an easy time integrating in a world dominated by hormone driven boys. Female toons had the ability to look like Maxim models and even the strongest armors were Ahem...well not there, mostly it was skin and a lot of it (this still happens lots lol). So, while guys were begging for real females to play, I have a theory that by their own ideas and or attitudes, they kept females from playing, or only accepted those females who either A: used flirty sex, or B: were one of the guys.

In the early 2000's Nick Yee created the Daedalus Project which attempted to look at the social and psychological aspects of the MMO gaming world. Allot of interesting topics started to rise when the issue of gender came up. One such study started to show an interesting trend of how females were introduced into the gaming world. One of the biggest points of that was that at that time, female MMO gamers tended to be on average older than thier male counterparts and were far more likely to be romantically involved with the male gamer PRIOR to coming into the MMO world. Checking around the net, I find that women who play WoW often start with romantic involvement prior to participation. The above site by the way is also a statement on the social issues at hand. Warcraft Chicks is by it's own nature a use of male orientated terminology.  This by the way, was the case for me when my wife decided to join into WoW. She knew I wouldn't stop playing so she gave it a shot and eventually really enjoyed it. Mind you the findings were from respondents and therefor a sampling with probably some bias or disparity involved. Overall females participating were about 16.5 % of the population base as of 2003.

This gets to my main point, female interaction has increased since then. Socially MMO's have crawled out from the nerd cave and into mainstream. Now there are different motivations for women  who play. For some, the competition of play or achievements. For others, the social aspect. For others, to spend time with family. As women have begun to populate more and more into the gaming world, we notice also different personalities arise. Back in 2009, Sydera wrote this post on female architypes that can be observed in the MMO community and not always in a pretty way. Now we begin to see the different identities arising within the community. But by and large, these particular stereotypes tended to arise more so in the Raiding Guilds than on the casual/social side. I contend here that when competition for pixelated rewards which have no REAL intrinsic value, specific personalities arise through the need of competing. They are often perceived as being bitches, divas etc. I'm wondering if that's just the social complexity for competitive play, of which I do believe Raiding is.

Now much of what I have said above is condensed and somewhat simplified but it is bringing to light a social aspect of this game that is sort of...not mentioned. My hats off to the female gamers of the world. Special thanks to my wife who has been my steadfast partner in WoW and a couple other MMOs as well. Even when no one else is on in or guild, we always got each other.

So, these were the thoughts which went on in my mind and are up for full discussion for any who care to. I know that there are a good many female bloggers out there as well as males. What will be interesting is to see the response rate if any on the subject. With that, enjoy your day and happy hunting!

Day #11 - Bad Habits and Flaws from 20 days of blogging

No one on earth wants to admit they have flaws for the world to see. It hurts thier reputation, character, and thier own self esteem. Well, almost no one. So today I will tell you all about a few of my flaws...well maybe quite a few heh heh heh. See, I'm human. Humans have bad habits and flaws. But then again, I say deal with it, you like me or you don't. I get by either way. So here goes:

- I can be an arrogant prick when I'm being stubborn. That's right, I'm right and if you disagree, your wrong. Period. Well, at least untill I've digested what you have to say for a few days after an impassioned arguement. Ask my wife.

- I'm an altiholic. No, I mean to the point that I will fire a toon I've been working on for a month (delete) without so much as a breath of thought if I want to try something new. It also takes me forever to level a main because I'm working on different objectives constantly. My wife gets infuriated when I server hop to play my horde toons or pvp toons on pvp servers.

- I sometimes get piss friggen drunk during an instance and take stupid chances...or conversely, I've been known to faceplant into my keyboard with drool and passout till about 4 hours later asking...what happened?

- I start projects that if I don't see pretty quick results...I start different projects. Ergo the above altiholism.

- I can be such a procrastinator in my daily life.

Well folks, I bared my ass off to you all for a day. You got to see my not so pretty side lol. Have a great day!

Day #10 of 20 days - Favorite Blogger/websites

I hate this topic. I don't hate the people, just the topic. Here's why: I have found on MANY Blogs people that I like. I don't always agree with them, but I like them. Some write in an entertaining manner, others in an easy to read but indepth manner. Some are about raids, some pvp, some social, and some RP.

But here are a few of my favorites in no particular order:

The Pink Pigtail Inn

Need More Rage

Specced For Drama

World of Saz

Too Many Annas

The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon

Kallixta's Notes

Ferocious Inspiration

Eccentrica Jones

Grimmtooth's Troops

Big Bear Butt Blogger

Now mind you, my blogging world consists only of WoW orientated material. These sites were fresh and interesting to me and I enjoy the people who write them. There are others but I am always looking at these in particular as to what thoughts they have concerning the game as a whole. Notice that there are various viewpoints and styles from the writers. I like the diversity. The list isn't done in order of preseidence, jsut whatever came to mind quickly and kept my attention on a regular basis. Anyway's I might be writing on other topics later, till then, have a great day!

Day 09 – Your first blog post

Actually, my first ever blog post was here on this site. I had never considered blogging before but this appealed to me. It was mostly a welcome and small background on me and who I was. One can still go back on my historical posts here to see it. At any rate, it wasn't anything spectacular, mostly an experiment or getting my feet wet. The intent mainly was to give myself a direction to follow while working on writing for WoW related/social things I thought about. At any rate, have a wonderful Sunday folks, I'll be here on duty lol.

Day 08 – 10 things we don’t know about you

Hmm 10 things...thats alot!!!

1. I love pralines and cream ice cream
2. I love greek food
3. I study alot of history and foriegn affairs
4. My hair is starting to grey, but not fall out....too badly
5. When I retire I want to build a Dome Home because they look so different and have sustainability
6. I am sort of a conservative...but with some liberal attitudes as well
7. I drive a beat up old Ford Explorer
8. I prefer the company of animals over most people I meet
9. Scotch is my favorite drink
10. I like to poke around old trinket shops and consignment shops on occasion

Ok there are other things you don't know about me...but I refuse to tell all my secrets! That would require you my dear readers to partake in an Epic level quest. Happy Hunting out there!!!

Day #7 - 20 Days of Blogging - Why did you choose to name you Blog this name?

Interesting question. The Rusty Blade sort of reminded me of a small town tavern where old soldiers would hang out. The name doesn't really exist, but It's places I've been where veterans would gather. It also alludes to the fact that I had just picked up WoW Cata after a long break, so I was getting back into the swing of things as a WoW Player. Aside from all of that, nobody else had the name and I thought it fitting for this old man. So there you have it, a brief synopsis of the reason I chose the Rusty Blade for my Blog. Happy Hunting out there.

Day #5 Favorite Items

I can't say I have a favorite Item. Point in fact, to me as the game progresses even pretty items or showy items end up being replaced very very fast....I am waiting on the lil Core Hound Puppy though.

20 Days - Day#4 - Most memorable WoW event

Greetings Fair Readers,
Today I am going to speak of one of those special all time favorite moments in WoW. My first happened back in 08' when my wife and I were in twink 19s for the Battlegrounds. There is nothing more satisfying than watching her on her shadowpriest capturing and running the flag for 3 perfect game wins while I jaunted alongside and butchered everything in our way. It never happened in such a fine streak after that but it was pretty intense and hilarious watching Hordespeak being repeatedly yelled across the Battlegrounds. I can't verify what they said but it had to be something really angry. Anyways aside from the winning of those three games, the teamwork that my wife and I displayed were just right on par. It was just that perfect synchronicity and yes the cliche about a dance with eacthother comes to mind, though this dance was filled with bloody corpses in its wake. I don't pvp nearly as much as I used to, but it was such a fine memory.

Another fine memory was hunting in the Hinterlands and getting the Horde so riled up after killing 5 equal leveled toons in Open world that they had to send a kill squad out to hunt me down. Being chased by another 4 Horde (all skulls to me) tells me I made quite an impression on them. Being wanted dead and being camped by them for almost 30 minutes afterward tells me they musta been pretty mad. It's all good though lol.

So those were my pvp days. Very memorable for what they were. I still pvp on a somewhat irregular schedule, based mostly on mood, but I do miss some of the old days as I meander through the PvE world. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy PvE quite a bit. But there is something about facerolling someone of equal level that hearkens back to my AoC days of blood and gore lol. And with that, I leave you Gentle Readers untill next time. Hoist a couple for me, as it's back to work I go. Happy hunting out there!

Day #2 of 20 Days - Why a Blog?

Ok, so this is day #2.
Question of the day is why did I start this Blog?
Well, I've tried to partiicpate in forums, and often found them filled with I want, I want, I want. Or Blizz sux. Intelligent or just friendly social conversations are never started. If a topic is raised, crappy attitudes ruin it one way or another. With a blog, I can decide what I want to write about. I don't have to worry about snotty commentary. If I don't like the post, it's my discretion as to whether or not to take it off. I also enjoy the aspect of just writing about what I see and experience in WoW for the sake of writing. Now, there are a ton of blogs out there for raiders, pvpers etc...but for me this is jsut for social and friendly talk. Anyways, thats' my Day#2. Happy hunting out there in Azeroth!!!

Day #1 of 20 Days

Day 01 – Introduce yourself
Hi, My name is Keith. I'm married to my wonderful wife Laura. We currently live out in Arizona with our 2 dogs and 3 cats. All of our animals which are very dear to us are rescues and rejects. In my real life, I'm a soldier, have been an instructor and have seen more than a bit of time in third world countries. My main is Mhorgrim, a Prot Warrior that has been busy leveling up since Cata started. I have several alts both Horde and Ally. I currently play out of the Tanaris Server for PvE but jump on my other server alts when the mood strikes me. I enjoy all aspects of the game but never completely focus on just one. Hmm, I'm 42 now, have 6 more years before I can retire and looking forward to it. Ok, that's a snapshot of me for the moment. More to come tommorow!