Where WoW meets the Mushroom Kingdom

I was a huge Mario fan as a kid, playing old school Nintendo back in middle school. So what happens when the mushroom kingdom and WoW collide?

Part 1:

Part 2:

So cute!

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National stereotypes

I'm having a hard time lately finding inspiration for blog topics, which is sad, but even sadder for me given that I don't even blog about strict WoW stuff most of the time.

Anyways, so in keeping with my "not really related to WoW at all" blog theme, a kind of funny and not necessarily politically correct lesson in reminding us that we're each looking at things from our own perspective with our own stereotypes. Yanko Tsvetkov has created a series of maps depicting Europe according to national stereotypes.

Europe according to Americans:

Europe according to the Brits:

Europe according to the Italians:

Europe according to the Germans:

Europe according to the French:

Ok, maybe I should at least try to bring it back to WoW somehow. So we have US, EU, Oceanic, South American, and Asian WoW servers. I wonder whether server or pug or raiding dynamics differ based on cultural and country differences. I mean is there less pvp graveyard farming on EU servers? More pleasantries and hellos in pugs on South American servers?

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Brewfest and info overload?

So Brewfest. It's actually the last holiday achievement I need on K to finish the holiday meta. Yep, it's taken 3 years worth of holidays to get it done. I don't know, I've always participated in the holidays but I guess I never felt the urge to finish all the achievements.

It is super nice that you can instantly just port to the holiday boss, isn't it? But as Jess noted, it does seem incredibly cheap somehow when you pug it. Heck, if folks don't say hello in random heroics, they sure as hell aren't going to for the 2 minutes it takes to get the holiday boss. If a daily random heroic is a one night stand, what is a pugged holiday boss? A quickie at the bar?

Anyways, in honor of Brewfest (and for my beer drinking guildies), a pretty interesting beer chart (see full size via link or click on pic below):

In other news, I did see the info on the new resto druid mastery, which looks awesome. I'm trying to keep up with the new resto druid info at the very least. I'm not sure why I can't keep a handle on the rest of the information.

So you get a sense of how well I keep up with Cataclysm info, I was talking to Jess and Beru just last week about the guild talent stuff. They were both like uh, K, they got rid of that a while back. What? Huh? Really? Oh, ok.

Oh well. I thought it was a neat idea, as I would have liked to have had the opportunity to make decisions specific to the needs and interests of our guild. Or at the very least it would have been a good chance to tell Jess what to do. Hmmm, I shall find another way!

I'm not sure if I just have a hard time reading about stuff as opposed to actually experiencing it. Maybe all the new Cataclysm info is just info overload for me? Or maybe I just have a short attention span?

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Cataclysm talk and my tree-ro

I rarely blog about Cataclysm because honestly, I just don't really keep up with the info all that much. I tend to go into patches or expansions sort of knowing what the changes are, but for the most part I go in semi-blind. What I have been doing though is whispering Beru (who also just got 10 man hard mode LK!!! Woots!) whenever I have any questions about Cataclysm changes. She's kinda my go to source for all things Cataclysm.

While I'm still coming to grips with losing tree form, the way we heal isn't going to be a huge difference for me. I've been a weird tree for a long time because I currently use regrowth and nourish a lot more than most trees. A lot. But from what I hear, as things stand now, I'm going to be oom all the time which makes me really grumpy. I don't think there is any more helpless of a feeling than a healer out of mana.

With the idea of losing tree form and being oom, let's add something else that gets me really really hot under my collar. It just so happens that if you google the phrase "10 man BOE gear" the very first result you get back is an old post of mine. Look!

Ok, if I'm the first google search result, I should really continue to take up the cause. I'm not sure why this gets me so riled up, but it does. My guildies will try to joke around sometimes and know that all they have to say is "10 man boe gear" and they'll get a couple of f-bombs from me.

Now I think I wrote that post back before the Cataclysm raiding changes info came out. But seriously I am going to be pissed... F'IN PISSED!!! if 10 man bosses in Cataclysm raids continue to not drop BOE gear while 25 man bosses do.

Please please please, give 10 man guilds the opportunity to sell BOE gear for guild funds or to gear up alts. Don't screw us for choosing a different path from 25 man raiding.

Finally, I'll end on a positive and less bitchy note. Kae and her guildies at Vortex have notched the world second and US first strict 10 kill of hard mode Lich King. I can't even comprehend the level of skill, near perfection, perseverance, and tenacity required to get a world second kill, a kill that is seemingly impossible in strict 10 gear. Awesome. Just awesome.

As I commented on Kae's post, she is seriously my tree hero. My tree-ro.

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Friday post!

A couple of old pics from Kimchee I wanted to share. She's raided about half of ICC! OMG! I've dps-ed a raid! Look how freakin' cute she is:

Freakin' cute! And here she is after an unsuccessful Putricide attempt:

OMG so sad, so sad. After that attempt, she had to definitely readjust her Pigtail Holder, a gift from her friend Pinchy:

Kimchee still does a lot of pvp and her pvp set is now as good as it can be before doing arenas. She hit 10,000 HKs this week! Go Kimchee, go! Now she was in AB the other night and was at the mines with another DK. We were fighting off 4 or 5 hordies and in the midst of it all, the DK actually whispers me.

DK: "Why don't you fear?"
Kimchee: "I am! It's called diminishing returns!"

Sigh.

Finally, most of you have probably already seen these posts, but a great post from Ophelie about dating and being a single woman in WoW and from Kae about what it means to be a girl gamer.

I missed the LK kill for Vyp last week, but I'm glad I made it into the story. Check out this incredible story from Ratters.

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Yay stereotypes!

An article just recently published on Cnn.com, "Five bloody new video games for guys".

#4 on the list: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (Blizzard, PC)

"We know: Despite what you see on "South Park," women love playing this sprawling online fantasy saga just as much as closet barbarians.

But nothing says "screw it, I'm going dateless this year" quite like its latest add-on, which offers enough new areas and quests to keep any dashing knight's social calendar gridlocked for months. Hey, at least flying mounts don't get mad when you go three days without showering."

Really? And beyond the "for guys" bit... WoW? Bloody? To be listed alongside Halo? Really?

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Geek and Gamer Girls Song/Video*

*Edit: I didn't know that Metaneira at Empowered Fire already posted a much more well written post about this. Go check her post out.

************

I came across this video parody of Katy Perry’s California Girls on Geekologie. First, take a look at the video:

And yes, that was Stan Lee in the video. The video (click the link to see the video if the Youtube video ends up going away for copyright stuff or whatever) was on Wired. An interview with the group, Team Unicorn, provides interesting information like:

Why the name “Team Unicorn?”
Because like unicorns, geek girls are not supposed to exist!

Why do you think it’s important that geek & gamer girls stand up and be proud of their geekiness?
Everyone is a geek about something, whether it be football, gaming, politics or comic books! It’s so amazing that girls are becoming more accepted and holding their own against a typically male-dominated field. Really, we’re all just enjoying expressing what we love so much, and we hope other girls feel the same!

The interview article also has the full lyrics of this song, which include:

Epic Lootz
For the Win
Hyjal’s what we’re raiding in

Gamer ladies? (Yeah?)
Raidin’ tonight babies? (Uh huh!)
I’m all up on y’as
Cuz you representin’ geek and gamer girls

Ok, I'm not even sure where to start. First, let's just start with the lyrics. Raiding Hyjal? Really? Really? Come on, if you're going to make a WoW reference, at least make it current.

Ok next. While I'm all for the notion of female gamers, I have a hard time getting behind this video. I don't know, maybe its the girls lying conspicuously naked with their goodie bits covered by geek paraphernalia? Perhaps it's part of the Kary Perry parody? I guess I find the whole notion of trying overly hard to not just make it about geek and gamer girls, but hot and half naked geek and gamer girls a bit irritating.

Here's the thing. I do appreciate the notion of getting out there that yes, normal and even attractive girls could play video games. I mean look at Felicia Day in The Guild's two videos. They clearly highlight her looks, whether its more in a spirit of a parody or not. So I don't know, is Felicia Day pretending to get spanked in "Do You Want to Date My Avatar" really that different from this video?

I guess my thought with this video is that it seems to overly make the girls sex objects, parody or not. While it's nice to get out into the common conscience that normal everyday females play video games, it'll be even nicer when that notion doesn't have to be tied to hawt model type girls.

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Illustrated fail pug stories

Most of the time I've spent so far on my gnome lock (who I totally have an infatuation with... is it weird to have a crush on your toon?) has been doing pvp. She has about as good a pvp set she can have without stepping into arenas. Though this weekend, I spent some time running pugs on Kimchee for badges to gear up her pve gear.

Now K never really did real pugs with the LFG function when it first came out. Her runs were pretty much all guild runs, and if we had to pick someone up via the LFG, it might have been one dps. So yeah, this weekend was probably my first time experiencing the range of pugs you encounter. Let me share some tales with an illustrated commentary.

First, there was the tank who was equipping a lvl 70 weapon from Hyjal. Really buddy, really? Look I don't need a 6000+ gear score tank. I'm all for doing heroics with new level 80 tanks. But come on, come somewhat prepared!

Just because it's purple doesn't mean you should be still equipping it. His total health was around 19k, less than Kimchee's. Then a couple of nightmare pulls later, he hearths saying that oops, he should really train first. Luckily he left soon after saying he had to go because his "mom was trippin'". Fail!

Then, there was the elemental shammy who kept asking for dmg meters after every other pull and gloated that he was on top. I guess he didn't care for the fact that he pulled insane aggro nearly every pull and got himself killed (and pissed off the healer) a couple of times. Fail!

Then there was the dk tank who couldn't hold aggro to save his life. And the 3 dps were really trying to behave! Fonzy told me to check if he was in frost presence. Yep, he was in blood presence. I asked him to switch to frost presence, which he did but then asked why. /sigh

Finally, I couldn't think of an appropriate pug story to go with this pic, but I had to share it because I feel its my duty as a responsible blogger to warn you guys to keep your hands to yourself.

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Arena ratings and another great controversy

We had our typical arena night this past Monday again. It's been frustrating because while we may end our nights going 7-3 or 6-4, we hardly go up in our total arena team rating. What I don't understand is how our matchmaking rating is somewhere around 1740 when our no one on our arena team is rated above 1690 and none of us have ever had a personal arena rating past 1700. WTF. I don't get it.

Secondly, we're coming up against a good number of 1800+ rated teams who end up getting 48 points for whopping us. Which from what I understand means that they have individuals with much higher personal or matchmaking values and the system is giving them 48 points to bump them out of our bracket. I don't know, maybe with the season going so long a number of high rated teams are carrying newbies.

The crux of the matter is, we still haven't hit 1700. Thus the arena rating system is flawed. Flawed I say!!! (Actually it probably means we're a high 1600 rated team, but it makes me feel better to rail against the system than to admit that). /sigh.

Anyways, there has been a lot of controversial topics in the blogosphere lately. Let me add to the controversy via this interesting graph from this study of regional variations in the use "Pop" and "Soda" to describe generic carbonated soft drinks:

And for the record, its soda! Let the trolling from the pop users begin!

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Is this how it is to off tank?

We had a really good week of raiding this past week, after a month or so of up and downs with raiding attendance. This meant we successfully completed 5 ICC hard modes for the first time this past raid week! Woot! It's been really nice actually having loot drop that people really need again. It's also been nice being challenged on bosses prior to LK and recalling how it was when we first saw those bosses in normal.

Part of the reason we've been able to raid successfully lately is because we've had some old friends from Emerald, a guild we've long known, run with us. Last night as we were seeing heroic Blood Queen for the first time, Venezia shared this video from a guild called Kamigami that we just had to watch:

LOL! It was perfect for us last night because we had a feral druid off tanking. I love the elevator music during the clip. But it's also hilarious to look at the madness going on in the background. OMG red line of death! OMG purple cloud of death! OMG bite me before you go insane! OMG scary fear and massive blood bolts! OMG! OMG! OMG! And the bear is just playing bejeweled. Sigh.

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Three year blogaversary and I'm back (I hope)

So yes, as Jess mentioned, today is my 3 year blogaversary. Though as a typical WoW hubby, he forgot the date until I told him. /sigh. I can't be too mad at him though because he did post a really sweet post about our relationship.

I don't feel particularly great about the blogaversary this year though, since I've been sort of uninspired and offline from the entire blogging world for a month or so. Beru asked me last night what I thought about all the posts going around on feminism, and I had to get a run down from her about it as well as what the main arguments were. I think I'm still sort of confused.

Perhaps though this blogaversary (and hopefully a quieter September at work) will be the impetus I need to get back into blogging a regular schedule. Maybe I just needed a little break to recharge. Three years, eh? Geez. And it just so happens that the math works out that I've done 500 posts over these 3 years, with this being my 501st. As long as I am playing WoW, I hope to be blogging. And when the time comes for me to leave Azeroth, I will most likely start a personal blog.

Last year as this blog turned two, I noted that perhaps I would enter the terrible twos and blog with a lot of screaming and crying and ranting and throwing tantrums. Hmmm, for this third year, let's just hope I get my blogging mojo back.

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