Get up, Stand up.

I also hate the Westboro Baptist Church people.
But anyway.

I hate battlegrounds.  Actually, scratch that. I hate the people IN battlegrounds. You know, the "OMG YOU GUYS FAIL," the "U GUYZ R RETARDED," and the "WTF U IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!" etc... people.  They're everywhere. Horde or Alliance, these jerks will be screaming in /bg about how stupid we are for not doing something "right".

Recently, I was in an EotS,  and one of the major battleground chat griefers complained that the Alliance was raping us because we were not doing so-and-so (can't remember the words exactly).  Without thinking, I replied that there are people who play this game that have been raped before, and that saying that sort of thing was insensitive.  Yeah, go me.  He obviously continued, replying with "Rape rape rape. Rape rape rape rape."

So... I saw it coming.  But I did it anyway.  The only thing I could do after that was report him, and pray to the gods that others would report him as well, and that he would hopefully realize that what he was saying could actually be really harming someone.

But that's only one experience, and I'm sure you've had many yourselves.

The fact that people can purposefully spit out such vile and offensive things just disgusts me.  And don't get me wrong, I've played this game for about four years now, and have heard things like this before.  I'll probably hear them again.  But I ask you, dear reader, where does it stop?  How does it stop? What would it take?

We all know that Blizzard can only do so much to stop players from saying offensive things like that.  And even then, they'd probably just recommend you to "turn on your language filter" to avoid having to read things like that again. But I gotta tell you, I would never switch that filter on.  I'm an adult, I talk to other adults in my guild, and occasionally we swear.   Ideally, I'd like to be able to pick which words we essentially "bleep out," but I don't think it'll cross Blizz's minds anytime soon.

So what do we do? It's a community problem, I think it will take the community to fix it. We, as the non-asshat people of the WoW community, need to stand up against those in the game who are being jerks. Don't just take it laying down.  Don't let them dump all their rage and insecurities on you and your other party/raid members.  Don't let people walk all over your guildmates just because they're good at tanking or healing or dealing damage.  As the great Bob Marley once said, "Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights".

Now, putting it in the context of a MMORPG, here's the idea:  Don't let people ruin your fun intentionally by acting out on their own insecurities or jerk-ish nature.  You pay the exact same subscription as they do, why should you have to suffer through their immature name-calling and insult-throwing?

Communities are built by people.  By allowing people to walk all over each other, we're not doing our community any good.  If we want our experience to be less trollish and less offensive, we need to stand up against those who are mistreating others. Even if we're standing alone, maybe, just maybe, one of the bystanders will take notice.  And maybe they'll stand up against someone else, too.  Then another person may join in, and another, and another, until eventually, maybe people will realize that allowing people to treat each other like garbage is something we can change.  We just need someone to show us that we can change it.

On the Community...

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

Happy New Year!

Friends, the community of WoW has grown considerably in the past few years, and I know it's a tired subject, but my complaint today is about jerks.

Jerk: Slang . a contemptibly naive, fatuous, foolish, or inconsequential person.



The other day, a friend of a guild mate was invited into the guild's vent server.  One of the first things he said was a very sexist remark, some shot at making a joke (something to do with women and kitchens, I believe you can put the rest of it together).  As I was without a microphone, I could say nothing, however one of (two or three other) women in the channel spoke up and proceeded to rip him a new one.  His defense?

"I don't care what people think of me, in game or in real life."

Allow me to go back into my time machine for a moment here.

Sir, that is not a defense--that is an excuse.  An excuse to act like an idiot, and to make stupid, sexist remarks, to people you do not know.  You. Are. Pathetic.

It's things like this these days, little comments like this, that drag the community of this MMO down further and further into the gutter every day.  And their excuses, the "I'm like this in real life," "This is how I always act," and "It's just the internet," that we hear every time, are ridiculous, failing attempts at justifying behavior that I very highly doubt they often indulge in outside of the video game.  I mean seriously, would you walk up to a group of women you did not know and say, "Lol get back in the kitchen," ?  No? I didn't think so.

My point is, despite what you may think, there are real people on the other end of these avatars.  Your hurtful remarks meant "as a joke" usually do end up hurting other people, REAL people. Think before you speak.  Don't make a jerk of yourself.  Don't intentionally hurt others just because it makes you feel a little less inadequate.

"Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves." - Ulysses S. Grant.

And those words ring true to today.  It doesn't matter where you're from, where you work, or what class you play. As a person, you still deserve respect.  And so do the people you choose to insult.  Think about it.

DROOD!

Well I did it. I finally levelled my druid to 80, and she has since then been working on her healing gear, as well as her feral kitty gear (Though, I'm not doing too well with that spec, dps has gone down the toilet since I dinged).

I ended up missing ICC with my guild on Friday because I logged on 10 mins late on accident, and they filled my spot sadly despite my signing up before most people.  I was kinda bummed, because I lost track of time (and trying to synch Server Time and my time zone down here in Australia sucks), and then my wand ended up dropping. FFS.

Life as a lvl 80 druid has been pretty interesting... Mostly it has been spent cursing at my computer screen.

Fiancee and I leveled our latest toons to 80 at the same time (he made a Shadow Priest with a Disc healing offspec).  We have been switching off and on with healing and DPS, which keeps it exciting for us.

The best part, though, is the amount of complete asshats we have been getting in our random heroic dungeon queues.   Oh wait, did I say best? I meant absolute WORST.

DING. :)

It's awful!

I can't count how many DK tanks we've gotten that are wearing DPS gear.  When asked if they have any tanking gear, they reply that they ARE wearing it.  I understand that if you want to gear up you should be doing heroics--I  mean, I'm doing the exact same thing.  But when you take the e-lives of four other people (and their gold for repairs!) into your hands, we all expect you to be able to take a few hits without dying. Because when you die, we all die, and that's not fun.

I swear, if  I hear one more excuse, "I queued as tank because it's faster" or some variant, my head will explode.  Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD.

We ran into a fury warrior (It's always a fury warrior, isn't it?) that rolled need on a +Agility dagger that dropped.  He refused to give it back, saying it was an upgrade.  We asked why.  He replied, "Armor pen and item level."

People.

PEOPLE.

I have never seen a warrior wielding a dagger.  It's just laughable.  Why in your right mind would you even possibly think for a second that a warrior with a dagger is a good idea?  There's nothing intimidating about a warrior wielding a dagger. It's pathetic.

We wiped a few times because the (really nice, but way undergeared/wearing DPS gear) DK tank couldn't take hits as well as we'd like, and we came upon another problem: The Fury Warrior couldn't find his way back into the instance.

What is with people STILL not knowing their ways back to the ICC 5-man instances. Really, people? I mean, I know it's complicated, but it's no worse than running back to BRD or ST. Hell, it's a shorter travel from the spirit guide to the dungeon entrance than ZF.

Needless to say, I did not tell him how to get back in, and only rezzed him after he told me he would give the dagger to me.  I know, I know, it makes me come across as a super huge bitch, but he had no reason to be needing on that weapon anyway, and I think it was an even trade.  A dagger for your soul? :)

If this keeps on happening... Yes... there WILL be blood.

We started (jokingly) teasing the warrior as we continued our way on to the last boss in Pit of Saron, and he ended up dropping group after declaring that he hated us.  I felt kind of bad at that point, because maybe he was a young kid and didn't understand that we were just joking around... :( So Ramil, if you're out there, I'm sorry if we came across as douches, we were just joking around.

We ended up finishing the instance, nice upgrades dropped for the tank, and we all bid each other farewell.  Special thanks go out to the rogue who joined us and had to endure a few wipes, (We ended up two-healing the final boss because the tank was taking hits too hard).

That's been the general gist of what the last week or so has been like.  It's been frustrating but exciting at the same time, both in game and out.  Woooooo....

<3Mandaconda

Sincerely, Your DPS

Let me say this clearly to all those self-entitled, center-of-the-world, you-would-be-nowhere-without-me-and-you-know-it tanks and healers out there:

Just because you are the most in demand parts of a group does not make you somehow 'above' the rest of us.

DPS is important too.  Without us, sure, you could MAYBE get through a few pulls, but in the end your mana pool would drain and your tank would crumple into teeny tiny little pieces and have to dish out tons of gold to repair his precious armor.

Opening a dungeon with: "We are here for achievements, if you screw it up for us both the tank and I (healer) are leaving."  isn't exactly what we want to hear.  Sure, we went along with your achievement run, but treating us like we're somehow less than you is not right.

See the above picture.  Let me paint the entire picture for you.

• Tank and Healer enter instance, demand that achievements be done right and threaten to leave if failed (even if it were an accident).  
• DPS has no choice but to comply, for the sake of not having to wait for another set of healer/tank combinations.  
• Without even thinking about what other people may want, they completely ignore other bosses in the instance.
• When asked if those bosses could be done, they force the group to go through what THEY want first. Selfishly still holding over their head that the DPS wouldn't be able to finish the other bosses unless THEY get what THEY want.  

In the end, I played nice and didn't wipe them (only because I can't STAND when people do that... but I would have if I were a jerk).  They got their achievements they worked so hard to step all over other people for.  The other bosses did get downed.  But it left a bad taste in my mouth, clearly.

Invisible readers, what do you think? Have you ever had anything like this happen before? Is this something you would do to other people?

Outlands Ahoy!

58 at last!

My lovely druid Thadea is now lvl 58.  Pretty good considering she was 44 just a few days ago.

AV weekend is mostly to blame for this... I gained like 6 levels today, and I'm hoping that my queue pops again so I can get even more XP.

Yes, my tabard is grey and my druid is guildless.  Speaking my mind and suggesting that people not say the word "fag" brought on rudeness from some fellow guildies (and I use the term loosely), so I /gquit out of irritation.  My other toons are still in there, but I'm still kind of pissed about how rudely I was spoken to (and apparently ABOUT).

So yes, that is where dear Thadea stands at the moment.

And to you, sir...I'm not surprised that you turned out to be a dick. I could see it coming a mile away and you deserve a swift kick in the pants.