This is how you bring the world together

As Gnomer already posted about, we had the opportunity to get together to BG this past weekend, along with the lovely Pugnacious Priest and BBB. I was looking forward to BGing with two folks who have the Justicar title and one who has Battlemaster! This is crazy serious business PvP!

No, but seriously, there were folks in our group with very little resilience gear and minimal PvP experience. But I would say that going in together as a group of 10 people willing to work together and having voice communication trumps gear. I also learned a number of things this weekend.

As we were planning to coordinate when we'd all be on, I became an expert in converting PST to Gnomer and PP's time zone, which I affectionately started calling Koala Standard Time. You can now ask me at any moment what time it is for them, and I have it seared in my brain. It's +18 hours from PST. :)

Accents are hawt. Well, that's not something I just learned this weekend, but actually something I already knew. Honestly I have long been a sucker for accents. And let me just say that our first couple of BGs were quite disorienting for myself and my guildies as we were distracted by the incredibly hawt Aussie accents... both male and female. Did we even win our first couple matches? I can't even remember. Why can't us US folks sound so cool? Sigh.

BBB is a nightelf?!?! Ok, so clearly my rational mind should have known that BBB had to have a nightelf form, but in my mind he has always been a bear. Always. Like running around SW, interacting with the auction house, getting things in and out of the bank... as a bear. My mind just never processed him having a nightelf form. So seeing a female nightelf with the tag Bigbearbutt was almost as disorienting as the Aussie accents.

I think it was our second day of BGing together that we started talking about differences in Australia and the US, for example what things cost etc etc. It kind of blew my mind there that here we were, a group of about 4 or 5 Aussies and 4 or 5 Americans BGing together. As Gnomer mentioned, it really did feel like we were one guild. I think this is how you bring the world together... group up to kill Horde! Rawr!

I'm looking forward to doing it again in a couple of weeks! I have a feeling the more I BG with them, the more I may start to use the word 'bugger'. Bugger this... bugger that... it's a nifty little word, bugger!

I do wish we could BG with those crazy Europeans as well. Though honestly a BG with Aussie, Scandinavian, British, and possibly other European accents? Whoa... I might be rendered completely useless. I'm not sure I would be able to adequately heal because I'd be too busy fawning. ;)

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Another use for your dice

How to Write Badly Well is an incredibly humorous blog written by Joel Stickley. It started with a series of posts dispensing hilarious advice on how to well, write badly well (descriptive titles FTW) and now he has a book coming out as well.

There are so many awesome posts, that I don't even know where to begin in sharing some posts. But here are some: If you find a phrase you like and Personify every object.

Perhaps if I am at a loss on what to blog about, I could just choose one of his posts and write badly well. However it looks like some of my past posts already show signs of writing badly well. I use way too many ellipses, use parenthesis to explain myself, and allow "modern" language to sneak into my posts.

The funniest part of that last link is the last comment on that post... "This would actually be almost reasonable if the characters were playing an MMO". So maybe I get a pass.

Anyways, one of his posts last month caught my eye. The Amazing Random Blurb Roller can basically provide you with a plot. All you need is some dice! Perhaps some inspiration for folks who write RP type posts? Or given how I've mentioned that our guild has been so drama-free, perhaps I can use it to write some made up stories on drama.

So perhaps coming soon, I'll be writing a story about Left Claw drama. Here's the preview:

This story is a disturbing tale of ambition and redemption. The protagonist is sarcastic and haunted; as the story unfolds he/she will be forced to compromise a deeply-held moral code. By the end, our hero will have triumphed, but at what cost?

That sounds like some drama there, no?

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Fail blogger is fail

Even with as long as I've been blogging, my blogging screwups never fail to amuse (if amuse means boggles the mind and slightly embarrasses) me.

So Rades put up a really funny post today about running into me in game. And being so excited with the cute post, I immediately commented. Yet I was already logged into gmail and thus Blogger on my main gmail account. Thus I posted the comment under the profile of a personal blog. Fail commenter is fail.

Similarly you know how when you comment on a blog, you can enable it so that all the followup comments get emailed to you so you don't have to keep checking the post?

When I do subscribe to a post's comments, I am generally glad that I did, until it becomes a post that gets a million comments. I'm sure I can go back and unsubscribe to that somehow, right? Though typically more often than not, I hastily comment on a post and forget to check the subscribe option. Is there a way to go back later and subscribe? Hmmm.

I was also thinking the other day about how I seem to remember seeing the "subscribe to comments" feature pretty easily on Wordpress and personal hosted blogs, but that I don't seem to remember seeing it as an option on blogger blogs. Then I went to my very own blog:

Sigh. Fail blogger is fail. And yes, it is really hard being me.

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Drama, a story, and Twitter

My guildies are probably clueless to this, but fellow bloggers and avid blog readers are well aware of the blog "drama" going on within the blogosphere. I think some of this drama went down while I was taking my break from the game (and subsequently the blogosphere last fall/early winter) so there was some stuff that I was clueless about and had to catch up on.

Now there's been talk about proper blog protocol or ethics or whatever for big and small bloggers. But I don't really consider myself a big or a small blogger. Honestly, I would consider myself more medium sized. Where are the blogging protocols or standards of practice for us medium sized bloggers? Huh? On behalf of medium sized blogs, I am offended! How have I even continued blogging for over 3 years without standards of our medium sized blogs' very own? /boggle! and /flail!

Ok, more seriously though... here's the thing. Yes, the thing (OMG bold!). In each of the situations mentioned on the various blog posts, while I have perhaps leaned more towards agreeing with one party, I have also understood the other party and agreed with some parts of what they had to say as well. And even though I may have leaned more towards one party, there have been parts that I have also disagreed with.

Thus:
- I agreed and leaned towards Zelmaru but also disagreed with some parts. But I genuinely like Zelmaru.
- I agreed and leaned towards Chastity but also disagreed with some parts. But I genuinely like Chastity.
- I've agreed with Alas but also disagreed with some parts. But I genuinely like Alas.
- Finally, I've agreed with Tam but also disagreed with some parts. But Tam already knows how much I genuinely like him.

I don't know... I guess I just want to like most bloggers? And even when I disagree with some things! OMG! Disagreement! Scary! Contrary to popular belief, disagreement is not analogous with not like, or hate. Now what's interesting about my bulleted list above is that I have leaned towards both "sides" in all of this hoopla. It's almost like each situation speaks differently to me, or sparks different emotional responses? Hmmm...

Really the only interaction where I am still struggling to see anything is the whole Larisa/Xeppe situation. I completely missed that interaction last year and I re-read Larisa's original post at least 5 times to try to find how it could have been offensive and set as an example for bullying. I think I could read it 500 more times and still be in the same place. Completely confused.

While its always unfortunate when people's feelings are hurt, I think its completely reasonable to address another blogger's blog post by posting about it on your blog. The thought that you would have to email the blogger to get permission or even to just let them know out of courtesy just boggles me. BOGGLES! If you are putting something out on the public interwebs, its out there for anyone to respond to, whatever the supposed "size" of their blog is.

Now the manner in how someone "of questionable and yet to be determined blog size" responds to the post is another thing. I would hope that they disagree respectfully and debate the idea (not the person) so as to foster discussion and dialogue. Again whatever "size" the blog is. This constant mention and distinction of size makes me a bit uncomfortable. Like we're in some sort of naughty discussion with our shadow priest Nikolai.

Anyways. What has also been interesting in all of this current and past drama is how quickly people get angry and take sides. I wonder how much this "side taking" is really thinking about the issue at hand and seeing where your opinions lie vs having some sort of preexisting friendship or some level of emotional attachment to a certain blogger. Different bloggers, their blog post subjects, and writing styles speak to us in different ways, thus I think it's understandable and natural that we create different levels of friendship or emotional attachment. And when this happens it's natural to want to "defend" them.

Coming to the defense of friends actually comes very naturally and instinctively for me in real life. A quick back story... I had a good friend in college, J, who was the sweetest, most innocent girl I knew. J was also stunningly beautiful and thus seemed to often pick up girls who were quite open with their hostility towards her. Though J was always clueless as to why these other girls didn't like her and quite often hurt and upset over it.

Now our senior year in school, J started working as a hostess at a local restaurant, where unsurprisingly a couple of her male co-workers took quite a liking to her. This angered another hostess who had already been working there to the point that she became quite hostile towards J in front of her face as well as behind her back.

I had heard about this girl previously from J, who was really uncomfortable with the tension and aggression of the situation. So one night a bunch of us are out at a bar, and this other girl, let's continue to call her psycho biatch from now on, was at the same place. Perhaps it was the alcohol, perhaps it was pent up anger and jealousy, but all of a sudden, psycho biatch came up and grabbed a fistful of J's hair, and started pulling her head around while yelling nonsense.

Before I was able to even process what was going on, I had grabbed psycho biatch's hand, twisted it off J's head, pushed this girl back by the shoulders and started screaming naughty naughty obscenities. I think psycho biatch got scared and left the bar soon after. In doing all of this though, I actually broke a finger on my left hand, and spent the next several weeks with my finger in a splint. It was quite the humorous conversation piece within my circle of friends for a long time afterwards.

Why did I tell that story? Not to say that anyone who disagrees with me or my friends are psycho biatches, but more to say that I can completely understand how people want to come to a friend's defense when they feel they are being attacked. In reading some of the nastiest comments on some of the blog posts, I wondered whether there was some of this going on. But really what I did in my story, was completely my doing, my friend J had nothing to do with my actions all.

So its probably not surprising to hear that I do not think a blogger is "responsible" for the actions of their readers at all. Should they be "aware" of their readership? Beyond following the already mentioned concept of debating ideas (not people) respectfully, no, I don't know what being "aware" of their readership or recognizing their blog "size" (omg ew size again!) really means.

Now given how I have a real life history of broken fingers in the process of defending friends, it probably isn't a huge surprise to hear that there is a part of me that wants to defend some fellow bloggers from some of the most ugly (and I believe unwarranted) comments, even though none of these people really need my defending at all. So I shall refrain from doing the blog equivalent of breaking my finger.

Finally, let me talk about where I've seen some of these ugly comments. Yes, there were plenty in the comments of the various blog posts, but I've also seen them on Twitter. Ah, Twitter. It's interesting how Twitter has changed the nature of the blogosphere from just a couple of years ago.

Now, I am not on Twitter and really have no plans on joining Twitter any time soon, or, er ever. For me, its just too much. But I do have some bloggy friends who are on Twitter and sometimes point me to "hot" tweets. In reading some of these Tweets yesterday and following them through to other Tweets, I wondered if bloggers are more apt to forget the "don't blog when you're angry rule" when tweeting. Maybe since putting out a tweet takes much less effort than crafting a blog post?

There is a part of me that thinks it is kind of cowardly for folks to tweet something negatively about someone else, but not have the balls to blog about it. So its ok to put out a little snark on Twitter but you don't have enough snark, or enough thought behind the snark to do it intelligently in a blog post?

When people talk about getting an impression from someone's blog posts, I think that folks should recognize that people generate impressions from your Twitter feeds as well. I'm also curious... for everyone who argued that you should get permission or let someone know when you are blogging about them... does it apply to Twitter? Should you do the same when you Tweet about someone? Especially when this "someone" may not be on Twitter?

So yeah. Twitter. My time around the Twitter world yesterday did a couple of things. It confirmed that I like some people. A lot. It confirmed that I dislike some people. A lot. It introduced me to new people I never knew before that I now dislike. A lot. It also confused me about some people who I thought I really liked a lot.

Here I am at the end of a huge wall of text, and I'm not even sure anymore what the point of my post is. I guess I just wanted to get some things out that have been noodling around in my head.

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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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Blocked blog and recounting guild history

It's been kind of a crazy week getting back into the swing of things. I finished my previous project that I was assigned to since November '08 and started another one that should take me through October. The only bad thing about this is that things are crazy learning the ins and out of this new client, doing hospital tours, and having to do hard core data analysis and financial models again.

But the worst thing? Well I'm working out of our corporate offices for this new client. And get this! My blog is blocked there! ZOMG! WTF! BBQ! (Mmmm BBQ) Jess' blog isn't blocked there! No fair! I'm not sure what this is going to mean for my blog posting schedule because as I've previously mentioned, I do 99% of my blog posting at work. So what? I'm supposed to work now?!?! /sigh I'm going to have to figure out how to work this. As Jess said, the blog must go on!

Anyways, it's been nice getting back into the game as well. Jess and I did a pretty big debrief the first night we were both back on. It's been interesting because now you have this perspective of people outside the game. I think one of the sweetest things for me was seeing how my guildies interact with others, their spouses and especially their children. I saw another side of them.

On one of the nights during Clawcon, Jess and I somehow ended up recounting the entire history of our guild going back to spring of 2007. Recounting old names, situations, and yes, because no guild is ever without it, drama. As we recounted the moments of drama in the guild over the last 3 and a half years, something occurred to me.

I would say that 95% of the drama in our guild has been due to one thing: healers. Yep, healers. Or more specifically, the lack of healers. I think for most of our guild's raiding history, we've been short heals, given that a lot of our raids at the time required 3 healers. And because of this, we've allowed people and situations to persist that should have been dealt with earlier. Our ever present need for healers meant we had people in our raiding group that just weren't right for us. I think sometimes we were too slow to react and turtle like, and perhaps others we were too frenetic and bunny like.

I am hopeful that now that we recognize this, we can try to limit drama from happening in the future. But damn, I just wish we had more heals. Things would be so much easier. But I think by recounting our entire guild history, Jess and I also were able to talk through things we did, decisions we made, and how we've dealt with people and situations. I hope that by understanding this better, we can do a better job in the future.

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Blog vs game vs real life selves

Blogging has been an interesting experience for me. I've been surprised at how long I've kept up with it, the number of people I've met through it, and generally how much I've enjoyed it. Though from very early on, I have been curious how I come across on the blog vs how I am in real life vs how I am in game.

I wondered this when my guildies and friends in game first started to read my blog back in the day. I think I asked some folks if I came across differently on the blog than I do in game. Similarly, those like Nicolause who read this blog before meeting me in game, I am curious if I am different in game than the perception he got on the blog.

I haven't regularly been on my toons in Single Abstract Noun in a while, but it was incredibly interesting to see how other bloggers you've read for a while interacted within guild chat. Some were just as you expected (whatever that means), whereas others gave you a different (not necessarily good, or bad, just different) impression than you got from their blog.

Blogging in a way is a very controlled medium. I mean, we generally think about what we choose to write and share here before we do it. Comparatively, I would guess that we don't think as much before saying or doing things in game or in real life.

So is it possible that people whose personalities I really like on their blogs, I may not mesh as well with in game or in real life? Sure. But I think its also important for me to remember that perhaps those folks whose personalities I don't necessarily like on their blogs... that that is just one side of them that they are presenting. Perhaps I would like them better in game or in real life.

I also think its important to remember that these WoW blogs we read are from the perspective of that one blogger. For every story they tell that involves people or events that transpired, its their perspective, their view, their opinion. And there is another side to it.

Even all the asshat stories I've shared here... while you long term readers may be more sympathetic to me and be more "on my side" (whatever that means), which I really love you guys for, recognize that there is another side to the story. You are only reading my personal take on it, my opinion. What I guess I'm basically saying is that don't assume every story that a blogger shares is 100% what transpired. Just remember you're reading their side of the story.

So between my blog self, in game self, and real life self, what is the real me? Well honestly, I think the real me is a compilation of all three. There are things I can do or say on the blog or in game that I would be more hesitant to do in real life. Conversely, there is a part of my real life personality that has never been shared on the blog or in-game.

I think I just made a huge circle, and I'm not exactly sure what my point is with this post. Perhaps its this... when you read someone's blog, you are getting their personal opinions and a view of their blog self. A self that may or may not necessarily coincide with their in-game self or their real life self.

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I'd rather have the blog relationship...

... than the one night stand. Ok, let me explain.

There is one type of blog statistic that bloggers take note of: hits or page view. Now I've read folks talk about this on their blogs, as well as had private conversations with bloggers about it. It runs either spectrum, folks going "ZOMG look how many hits/page views I have! I am zee awesome!" or folks going "QQ, I haz so little page views, I am zee suck".

Sure, page views are one stat. But you know what? In this day and age where most people read blogs via readers and not directly coming to your blog, page views don't mean as much to me. Sure, you may have had an article here and there that has gotten a lot of links. Or sure, folks may find you via a popular search term in Google. But it's a one time visit.

What is more important to me as a stat is the number of subscribers. I remember surprising Jess a while ago with how many subscribers Pretty in Plate had via Google Reader. This is public information, as anyone can go to any blog in your Google Reader, click on 'show details' on the upper right corner. Now I don't know how exactly accurate it is, but I figure its close.

So why is subscribers more important to me? Well duh, it means these people actually care about what you have to say on an ongoing basis. Its more than just one random page view. To me, it just seems like more of a relationship. So yeah, I would rather have the blog relationship than the one night stand.

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Let's go on a positive note and change the world

So unless you've been living under a rock, you already know about the hubbub that hit the blogosphere last week. I caught it late, about a day after it happened. I was very hesitant to immediately post my thoughts on it because I really wanted to think about it before posting rashly about it. Though now I think the incident and its subsequent fallout has been pounded into everyone's heads and that the time has passed to talk about it.

Smarter and more eloquent folks than I have already talked a lot about this. I point you to Tam, Ophelie, Byaghro, and Soph. Tam's post has some incredibly well written and thought out comments on it. If you're interested, take the time to read through them.

In a nutshell, here's my quick take on the unfortunate incident. In my opinion, I honestly don't think that either Anna or Cranky really intended any harm or malice. But its hard to see through intentions. I do think that bloggers, even the biggest bloggers, have every right to post public reactions on their blogs. Though I do think that Anna could have been a little less heavy handed. I'm really sorry to see Cranky go and hope that she will consider coming back to blogging.

I'm just surprised by how big this drama has gotten. So let's look at something positive, eh? Game designer Jane McGonigal thinks that we can use games to change the world. These games would be "serious games", those that intend more than entertainment for its players. She wants to "inspire large groups of people to pool their knowledge and skills to overcome obstacles, and this is precisely what’s needed to tackle global social issues, such as poverty, hunger, disease and climate change".

McGonigal is the Director of game research and development for the Institute for the Future. In this lecture (link here) she talks "about how to work out real world problems in gaming spaces and how gaming can change the world".

She also specifically mentions our little game here, starting at about 4:32 in the video. "Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems?"

Hmmm. So then she asks what exactly is it that we are learning through games that could be applied in terms of changing the world? She mentions:

1. Urgent optimism, the desire to act immediately to solve an obstacle
2. Our ability to weave a tight social fabric with bonds of trust and cooperation
3. Epic meaning, our desire to be tied to awe inspiring missions

One factoid she shared is that the wowwiki is the second largest wiki in the world, second to Wikipedia. Wow. Now in 2007 McGonigal was involved in developing a game called World Without Oil that started with 1700 gamers, asked to look at how they would react in an oil crisis.

Her latest project is Urgent Evoke which launched in early March. It is aimed "toward young people in Africa primarily and more broadly to anyone in the world who wants to help solve problems in the developing areas. It’s a crash course in how to start a venture, a business, that can tackle these problems [of poverty, disease, hunger] at a local level".

Evoke has quests and missions you can complete. It also has ten skills and abilities in which you can build up points such as Sustainability, Vision, Entrepreneurship, and Local Insight. There is still time to play as the season ends on May 12.

I think she has some incredible ideas, plus I really really love that she is a female game developer. :)

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I smell arrogance and pretention

This post is one that I've thought about doing for a long time. Yet I was pretty hesitant to do so because I wasn't sure if it would seem offensive, negative, ranty, or downright bitchy. That it was something that perhaps I shouldn't blog about because it could be too negative for the blogging community. But finally I decided, what the heck, I'm referring to less than 1% of the community, it's been irritating the crap out of me, and I think others may feel that same way, so I'm putting it out there.

First, let me talk about three rules of etiquette that I hold blogs and websites to. Now these are not only rules that I personally strive to follow, but rules that I measure other blogs/bloggers/websites by:

1. Give credit where credit is due

Seems easy eh? I think there are differing levels of breaking this rule, from the most egregious end of blatantly stealing someone else's posts/content. But I really do believe in a general code of conduct where if you were inspired by someone else's post or even a comment on that post, it just seems like the right thing to do to reference your inspiration. Really, us bloggers and readers read a lot of blogs... and a lot of the same blogs. Trust me, if you think that we don't quickly recognize that you are blogging about something without giving credit... er, we do.

2. Understand the difference between fact and opinion

Maybe this is just a personal pet peeve of mine. But it irritates me to no end when folks seem to confuse the difference between fact and opinion. Let me just clarify this with two definitions of the word opinion:

* a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty
* a personal view, attitude, or appraisal

Now my personal opinion on how you write differently when you're stating facts vs opinions? Two words... diction and tone. Learn it. Love it. Use it.

3. Give a shit about getting it right

I'm not saying that every single thing that you initially publish on a website or blog has to be 100% correct. We all write stuff then find out something is not correct. But damn it, you should care about the quality or integrity of information that you are putting out. This extends to information beyond maths and rules and stats stuff in this game. To me, it extends to information you are putting out around events that transpired or what other individuals did or said. If you have been told that what you published is incorrect, give a damn enough to correct it with accurate information.

Now I said above that these are my personal opinions on blogging rules. Its how I personally measure the integrity of other blogs. It is of my opinion that these rules apply to all blogs and WoW websites/fansites/whatever. Honestly, I really don't give a shit how "big", "important", "number of hits, subscribers, readers blah blah blah" you have. If they continuously break these rules, I personally take note. Yeah, I may continue to read to see what they have to say, or see whether they continue to break the rules, but I do so with less respect and more suspicion.

I've been blogging here now for two and a half years, and have been reading blogs for 3 years. And I truly love the blogging community. While I'm not as involved in various forums, twitter, or other sites as others are, there is definitely a warm and welcoming sense of community. There are a number of fellow bloggers that I truly consider to be good WoW friends, even if I've never played or spoken with them before (though I'm talking to a lot more of them now in Single Abstract Noun!!!). So I have to say that 99% of my opinion on the blogging community is genuinely positive.

However, in my personal opinion there seems to be a lot more pretentiousness and arrogance and general asshattery in the WoW blog/website world today compared to 3 years ago. Does this opinion of mine also have anything to do with my 3 rules of blogging? Definitely. If you continuously break the rules, yeah chances are that I am more likely to think of you as an arrogant arse. But do I also sense arrogance of these blogging rules? Well yeah, I find some folks are just down right pretentious.

Though perhaps it isn't right for me to compare a community that has grown and matured as much as ours has. I think back to the big mama and papa blogs from when I first started reading WoW blogs... those that had such a huge impact on the blogging community (essentially building its foundation) and strongly influencing my personal reason to start blogging. Gone but definitely not forgotten folks like Bigredkitty and Phaelia (omg we miss you Phae!), as well as thank Elune they are still around folks like Big Bear Butt and Ratshag.

Is it just me that I didn't see or sense any bit of arrogance from their blogs? Is it just me that I felt/feel no sense of underhanded self promotion? Maybe I just personally clicked with their personalities and writing styles better, but I felt that they didn't have to try so hard to put across this notion or air of being so popular or important or smart or providing such valuable information. They didn't put out an air of superiority or being better than others. They just did what they did, kicked ass at it, and we loved/love them. They didn't have to try so hard, to ask/demand us to love them.

Now I'm not saying that I think the majority of blogs/websites out there are arrogant. Far from it. In actuality, the number in my head is less than the number of fingers on one hand (ok, maybe two hands). So I'm not quite sure what my point is here. Especially since I am pretty certain most of the folks I am talking about do not read my blog. So my point is... hmmmm. Maybe I just wanted to rant and get it out of my system. Maybe I'm just disappointed. Maybe I should just STFU and get over it since I'm not going to like or mesh with every single person/writer.

Its a fact of life, and should be no different in our virtual WoW world that not everyone is going to be best friends. Could it be that I just don't mesh with the personalities of certain writers? Sure. Some folks are just going to rub others the wrong way. That's fine. But seriously, give me a freaking break. You blog or write... about WoW. If that is something that you measure sooo highly in your life, to the point of being so pretentious and arrogant about it... to need to look down on others... wow, just wow. Uh, can I just say perspective?

Blog because you love it. Blog because you want to rant or let things out. Blog because you want to share ideas or new points of view or be helpful. But when you write or blog because you crave the attention and have the constant need to wave your "popularity or superiority" over others, trust me, we can smell it a mile away. And to me, it stinketh.

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You know we're not normal, right?

I've had a number of resto druids whisper me in game lately. Perhaps I ran across their screen and mesmerized them with mah shiny staff (akin's to Tam's hat). Folks have asked about my perspective on stuff including spec choices, haste and gear upgrades with frost badges. Yes, I did pick up Circle of Ossus over the leather piece. With the haste and spirit... yummers! I also argued that if we need the extra armor from the leather piece, then the tanks are doing it wrong and we should yell at them. Ha.

In all of these conversations, as these druids want to delve a bit more into various topics such as specific haste numbers and spec questions, I end up referencing my fellow bloggers. Here's a sample of the conversations:

K: "What? Haste? You don't read any resto druid blogs? Huh? You have to go see Restoration Druid's post on haste numbers".

K: "Huh? You don't use Grid? Seriously? (this really really pains my woodsy little heart). You have to go see Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket for how to set up Grid to track hots. Go there now! Now I say! What are you still doing here?!?!"

K: "Hmmm... you want my perspective on the T10 4 piece set bonus? Yeah, I don't know if it will do much for us 10 man raiders. Well you must go see Beruthiel at Falling Leaves and Wings. Beru is serius bzness. Did you know she has Val'anyer?!?!"

K: "What? You want to know what druidy drops are in ICC? Go see Firewood at Tree Haelz for a huge list".

K: "So you want advice on how to heal certain ICC bosses? Well this is what I do... (blah blah blah) but all of the above bloggers have great guides, as do Kae at Dreambound and Virile at Rejuvo".

What have we learned here? A number of things. First, I am an awesome marketing tool for my fellow tree bloggers who actually do the more serious and helpful posts with guides and tips. Hee hee. No but seriously, I probably end up scaring most of these folks because I just start rattling off all these blogs they should be reading. I'm sure these folks are like, "Ok.... uh thanks (/step back from the crazy tree)"

However, I think I often forget that most WOW players are not reading tons of blogs. Its not that they're not good players, but just not how they choose to play. Perhaps it seems like too much work for them? I think those of us here who do regularly read tons of blogs and various sites can easily forget that we really aren't the norm for WOW players. We're the crazy seal in the pic above. :)

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Bloggers: what differentiates us?

Let’s take a look at a conversation I had with Jess a while back:

K: Do you think because we both blog, we analyze and dissect things that happen in game more than others?
Jess: No, I think we were that way before we started blogging.
K: So maybe because we tend to analyze and think about things more, is that why we happen to be bloggers?
Jess: Hmmm, maybe.

So this got me thinking. What qualities did Jess and I have prior to us starting our blogs that made us more likely to become bloggers? What differentiates us bloggers from other players?

Skill?

Well, I think its clearly obvious that there are tons of top players who do not blog. And from my personal experience, I've played with folks who know how to play their toons incredibly well, who do not blog.

But how about a WOW blogger compared to an average player? Well, I would guess that a WOW blogger who takes the time and effort to blog about this game would do the same about maximizing knowledge of their class, and perhaps yes, thus be better skilled than average.

Humor?

Mmmm, I think most bloggers have some sense of humor or entertainment value so as to entertain readers, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that bloggers are any funnier than non-blogging WOW players. I know a ton of hilarious folks who don’t blog, but really probably should.

Arrogance?

One of the anonymous commenters on a post here a while back said that I must be arrogant to be a blogger, saying "I'm getting the impression that you seem to think very highly of yourself - after all, you do blog for everyone else to see your thoughts". Really? Hmmm.

Well, from the standpoint of being arrogant in terms of skill, I’m come across a bunch of arrogant folks who cannot play worth a damn. So hmmm, are bloggers more arrogant about skill? On a whole, I would probably say no... bloggers are not any more arrogant than the average player.

However, I can sort of understand what this troll comment was referring to. What makes us bloggers think we have something that is of enough value or entertainment factor for others to read? Is this arrogance? Or maybe more appropriately, could it be called confidence? Is it arrogance to feel that we have something to say, something to contribute to the WOW blogosphere?

Analytical? Neurotic?

By analytical, I'm referring to the tendency to analyze, dissect, think about things more than the average WOW player. You know, if Jess and I serve as examples, I think we definitely analyze and think about stuff more than the average WOW player. I know this because we talk about this to each other. Our chat logs are pretty interesting.

So as Jess mentioned, I think it may be true that we are not more analytical and neurotic because we blog. We were that way before we started blogging. Thus, we were more likely to blog about this game so that we had some place for these random thoughts to go as opposed to getting our heads all muddled up.

If I had to say any one thing differentiates us bloggers, I would say it is most likely this quality. We are blogging as a survival mechanism so our brains don't explode. :)

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Intentional typos?

I'm super busy at work today. What in the?!?! Craziness! I'm supposed to be able to blog here damn it! So just a quick funny comic to share. Next time you see a blog post with spelling errors, consider this from Shoebox Blog:

Hahahaha, what bloggers will do for comments.

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K's pretentious blogging meme

I was inspired a bit by the year in review meme that went around and Tam's project where he provided bloggers with post topics. Thus, I have some questions around blogging that I would selfishly love for other bloggers to answer. I call it the pretentious blogging meme, because its about blogging. Seriously, what could be more pretentious than blogging about blogging?

So I am particularly curious about how other bloggers blog. Ya, call me a total dork. Thus, here are the questions that I want to know about and to get this started, my corresponding answers.

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?
2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?
3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing?
4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?
5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?
6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?
7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?
8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?
9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?
10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

1. How long have you been blogging? What made you start? Who inspired you?

I've been blogging for over two years now (*boggle*), having started in September 2007. I started because I wanted to chronicle my adventures in game. This blog really started as a diary of sorts, hugely inspired by Phaelia of course.

2. About how many hours a week would you estimate you spend on your blog?

I would say about 3-5 hours a week.

3. What kind of experience or background do you have with writing? Do you write in your day to day job?

Well, I always did well in my english classes in school and always had an easy time writing papers, but beyond that I don't have any formal or professional writing experience. I did keep a personal journal for about 10 years though. Does that count? Writing in my RL job is minimal.

4. Talk about how you come up with blog topics. Where do you get your ideas? What or who inspires you? Where and/or how do your brainstorming?

Like most bloggers I guess I look for inspiration for posts while I am playing the game. But I also do a lot of random brainstorming and daydreaming while I am driving to and from the current client I am working for. I am in the car from 2-2.5 hours per day and when I am not busy calling other drivers f'in idiots (which happens often), I find myself brainstorming possible blog topics. I also read a ton of random non-WOW blogs and find a lot of inspiration on topics or random stupid funny stuff on those blogs as well.

5. Do you have any blogging rules or guidelines you follow? Is there anything you will not blog about?

Um, no rules here. I like to think that this blog is about everything and nothing at the same time (deep, I know). Because I blog about everything from our guild's raiding updates, random funnies, pvp/arenas, blogging, asshats, professions, gaming, and finally the occasional post about actual druid stuffs or healing (shock!).

6. Do you have any sort of a publishing schedule in terms of day of week or topic? Where do you do your writing?

For a while now I've been on the schedule of posting 3 times a week. In general I do try to diversify those 3 posts so that they aren't all about the same topic. So I'll try to do a random funny post, the second from something within the game, and the third about gaming or blogging. Though this varies week to week. Im terms of writing, I do a lot of my actual writing at work (shhhhh).

7. How many drafts of potential blog posts do you have right now? In what medium do you draft your posts? How often do you completely scratch or delete drafts or blog post ideas?

I currently have 8 potential blog posts drafted in various stages, whether its a simple idea or written out a bit more. I actually draft a lot of my posts within gmail as draft emails. I will also draft posts sometimes within a word processing platform whether that is Word (work computer) or Pages (personal computer). I find this easier than within the blogspot platform itself. Of the 8 drafts I have right now, I am guessing that 3 will never get written or published. Sometimes an idea just never really develops, or I wait too long on actually writing the post that it either gets outdated or written elsewhere.

8. If you had to leave your blog in your will to another blogger, who would you choose? To ask this in a slightly less morbid way, are there other blogs that you feel are similar to yours in content, style, or voice?

Hmmm, well Jess would have to continue the Left Claw stuffs, Tamarind would continue the random humor/ranting bit, and Beruthiel would continue the druidy/healy stuffs... though seriously she is a much more serius bzness tree than I am or ever could be.

9. Has anything surprised you since you started blogging?

Well, I'm surprised first of all that I'm still blogging, even though my blog has changed a whole lot from when I first started. I'm surprised that I've been mentioned or linked from wow.com three times over the life of this blog. Little old me! Finally, while I'm not very active in a lot of the blogging forums, I have been surprised by the sense of community within the WOW blogging world. As I commented on Beru's blog last week, I think of a lot of you fellow bloggers and frequent comments on my blog as my WOW friends... even though I've never played with you in game or anything.

10. What are your goals or plans for your blog going forward? Any specific goals or plans for your blog in 2010?

No real goals beyond perhaps trying to do some actually serious posts a bit more often. Other than that, just keep on keeping on!

Any fellow bloggers who would like to indulge me in answering any or all of the questions, please think of it as a late Christmas gift for me. If you do blog about this, please leave a comment on this post so that I can make sure that I see everyone's answers.

************
Edited with some answers:
Falling Leaves and Wings
A High Latency Life
Rejuvo
Clearcasting
The Bossy Pally (awesome blog name!)
Sideshow & Syrana
Shadow-war
More Bars Than You
The Tree Unleashed
The Pink Pigtail Inn

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K's 2009 Year in Review

I was tagged by River to do this meme on reviewing this past year. I've also asked Tam to infect me with a syphilis like blogging topic (long story, go read his post). He has asked me to blog about "top tips for controlling a wayward tank, and reminding them who *really* wears the platemail in the relationship". Ah a juicy, juicy topic my friend. Hopefully I'll get this posted later this week.

But for now, here's my year in review:

What did you do in the World of Warcraft in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I've become quite involved in arenas, on 2s, 3s, and 5s. It's been quite a learning experience. Our team makeups have fluctuated a bit, which is always takes a learning curve. I think we are definitely improving and I am getting pretty darned good I think at timing my cyclones. Yay cyclones.

But I think I have to accept the fact that a lot of these arena folks have been playing for numerous seasons... and that I have to level my expectations. I definitely swear a lot though during arenas, and our losses are usually closed out with me saying "F*********k" in a long, drawn out, sad, pathetic way. Who knew the F word has so many u's?

What was your favorite new place that you visited?

My favorite place bar none that I saw this past year is the area leading up to and the room inside with General Vezax. The stained glass, the streaming light... beautiful. Ulduar in general is very beautiful and artistically well done.

What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Two words. Gold cap. That is all. If things go as planned, I'm looking at Feburary/March-ish.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Hmmm, I guess I could say tanking, if you call that an achievement? Heh. No, but seriously, I have always been incredibly intimidated by tanking. I forced myself this past year to give it a go and have been pleasantly surprised. Sometimes I'll start to feel my face itch, and I know that its time to tank and give my face a bit of a workout. I then go through the following steps:

1. Wash face
2. Place face on middle of keyboard
3. Roll face to the right, then left
4. Rinse and repeat

Yay, tanking faceroll! I would like to say that tanking requires some skill but I know a number of tanks who read this blog, so the tanking faceroll is my story and I'm sticking to it.

I may actually be needing to update my tanking gear and skills more often now, as our guild seems to have found itself with the strange, never before seen phenomenon of having enough healers and not enough tanks. I actually even tanked Onyxia 10 recently, which was definitely a learning experience.

What was your biggest failure?

I would agree with Megs on this one that I never fail, and if I do, it was a tank's fault anyways. And if I'm tanking, uh, I blame... dps? Circle of blame is... circuitous? Though if I had to pick one, I would choose the fact that we never went back to Ulduar to finish off Yogg. I still hold out hope that we can go back, but I don't know if it'll happen.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Dual specs. I really love that I can either play around with two healy specs or pick up a tanking spec. But I'm going to be selfish here and say that I would really, really, really, really be excited if we got triple specs. As a druid who is raiding resto, doing arenas, and now tanking, I would love it. Please Blizz? Can I be selfish and ask for triple specs? Please? I'll pay for it!

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Hmmm, I don't know if I would say that I necessarily regret it, but I've sometimes thought that I should farm less (herbing, fishing) and run instances more for the badges that now drop like candy. (Seriously, how crazy is it that in a span of a week, Badges of Triumph are dropping from instance bosses?) But then again, I get tired of running 5 mans over and over... plus I like mindlessly farming while my focus is occupied elsewhere.

What was your favorite WoW blog or podcast?

Mmmm, I don't listen to podcasts, but I do have a ton of blogs in my reader. A favorite blog? Um, maybe I'll just take the easy route and go with Jess' blog for brownie points? However, when does a healer ever need brownie points from their tank? I mean seriously, come on! It's always the other way around, no?

Tell us a valuable WoW lesson you learned in 2009?

The lesson that was just reinforced for me this year? There are real people behind those toons you see in game. This question and my answer reminds me of a topic that I had wanted to blog about in a separate post. Perhaps I'll flesh it out more, but will start it here. There's been a lot of posts within the blogosphere lately around guild drama. Here's my take on this.

Guild drama does not call into question your ability or authority or credibility or any thing ending with "-ity" of your capabilities as a guild leader or officer. Think about anything involving a group of people... be it your family, work, spouses/significant others, friends/social circle. Have you ever been involved in a group of people where some amount of drama has never surfaced?

So why would our guilds be any different? Guild drama for me just reinforces the fact that there are real people playing these pixelated toons, people with different personalities, backgrounds, mindsets, and points of view. Sure you want to limit the drama, but I think its normal and natural for guild drama to rear its ugly head from time to time. What distinguishes your ability as a guild leader or officer is not whether guild drama arises, its how you deal with it.

This was actually kinda neat to think through these questions about this past year. I won't tag anyone, but would invite any bloggers to do their own year in review.

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Japanese spam, HALP ME!

I have never put word verification for comments on this blog. Sure, I've gotten spam from time to time, but never enough that it got too much for me to deal with on an individual basis. However, for the last 3 weeks or so I have been dealing with Japanese spam on this single post every single day. I figured it would die down after a while, but no. It's getting very very annoying.

This is what they look like:

I am a bit confused by the spam because yes, it is in Japanese. Um hello? I doubt any of my readers would be able to read this spam? Plus, there are no links to anything in the comment themselves, and the commenter's name is not a link itself. Argh!!! Can I do anything about it apart from word verification? Any other bloggers dealt with this spam?

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Blog personalities

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of the MBTI. I've taken the full test three times, and each time I've come out as an INTJ. Reading INTJ profiles makes me realize that I am so an INTJ. Why am I sharing this today? Well I came across this site called the Typealyzer where you can type in the address of a blog. What happens next is quoted from the site:

"This text analysis gives a snapshot of the persona by looking at the communication style of the text in the moment it was written. Looking on the results over a period of time will, however, tell you something about how a blogger “normally” prefer to communicate, but it might still be a blog that more reflects a role than how the blogger feels inside."

Hmmm... interesting, eh? I'm not sure exactly how it works, but here is what got me. I typed in my blog address, and I got back ESFP.

ESFP - The Performers

"The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

Anyone else notice that ESFP is the opposite of INTJ in every sense? Isn't that funny? Am I communicating in a style very opposite to my personality... or er something like that? Well this got me curious as to what personalities other blogs I read come back as.

Fellow ESFPs - Megs and Jong at Forbearance, River at A High Latency Life, Averna at Nerf This Druid, Pugnacious Priest. Wouldn't you know, our blogs are all performers!

Jess at Pretty in Plate, Bell at 4Haelz, Beru at Falling Leaves and Wings are:

ESTP - The Doers

"The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket, Tam and Chastity at Righteous Orbs, and Gevlon at Greedy Goblin are:

ISTP - The Mechanics

"The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment and are highly skilled at seeing and fixing what needs to be fixed. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters."

Leafy at Leafshine and Lissanna at Restokin are:

ESTJ - The Guardians

"The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they have made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.

The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

Miss Medicina, Mikata at Resto-Melee, and Amber at I Like Bubbles are:

ISFP - The Artists

"The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of.

They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living."

Niniel at Swiftmend is:

ENTP - The Visionaries

"The charming and trend savvy type. They are especially attuned to the big picture and anticipate trends. They often have sophisticated language skills and come across as witty and social. At the end of the day, however, they are pragmatic decision makers and have a good analytical ability.

They enjoy work that lets them use their cleverness, great communication skills and knack for new exciting ventures. They have to look out not to become quitters, since they easily get bored when the creative exciting start-up phase is over."

Firewood at Tree Haelz, Larisa and Elnia at Pink Pigtail Inn are:

INTP - The Thinkers

"The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about."

Graylo at Gray Matter and Jacemora at Druid of the Moon are:

ISTJ - The Duty Fulfillers

"The responsible and hardworking type. They are especially attuned to the details of life and are careful about getting the facts right. Conservative by nature they are often reluctant to take any risks whatsoever.

The Duty Fulfillers are happy to be let alone and to be able to work in their own pace. They know what they have to do and how to do it."

Anyone else surprised by their blog communication type? More info on how this works here.

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Did I miss something?

I'm going about my afternoon habit of "lets take a break from work and check out my google reader with a great cup of coffee" when I come across this post by Too Many Annas about honesty in blogging. She mentions this blogger from a while ago who got caught in some drama. Well, Anna is much too classy to name names, but heck, we all know that I'm not.

Remember this whole incident from back in May? Well, reading Anna's post, made me wonder, "Yeah, what the heck ever happened to Ferarro of Paladin Schmaladin?

So out of curiosity, I pop on over to this blog that caused such a frenzy this summer. And here is what I find:

A post saying the blog is looking for writers. Some quotes from the post:

* "With my employment to Blizzard being upgraded soon, I might be looking for someone to help take over a little, too."

* "In fact, during the whole WoW.com/Jago debacle, Paladin Schmaladin made over $5,300 in that one month alone. Not the best way to make a profit, but it was what it was."

Then another update regarding the status of this writer search, Ferarro apologizes "to the ninety-three apps I had to cut off."

Um, has it been accepted again somehow that this person (persons? singular? plural?) does in fact work for Blizzard? Did everyone just forget the debacle from earlier this year? So much so that people are clamoring to be writers on this blog? I don't know if I am more amused/confused by what continues to be claimed on the blog, or the fact that the blog's readers seem to be accepting it.

Huh? I'm confused. I want to take what I read at face value. But I'll be honest, it's a little hard to on this blog. Do you think this person really works for Blizzard? Did I totally miss something? Was there some E! True Hollywood Story on this somewhere that I missed?

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Byesies to Ratters

Ratshag at Need More Rage is moving on from blogging to... whatever it is that green orc warriors do. Aww. He was one of the earliest commenters on my blog over two years ago, and back in the day when he was on Drenden, Ratters actually used to dork around with Jess and I in Kara and some BC 25 mans as well.

We're definitely losing one of the unique voices in the WOW blogosphere. Thanks Ratters, we'll miss you!

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Blogging commentary and milestones

Some comments on blogging. First, clearly:

Now that we've established that, let's move on to blog milestones. Now there are a number of milestones that bloggers typically take note of, such as the age of the blog and number of posts, subscribers, comments, hits. But here are some different types of blog milestones that I personally have taken note of for this blog.

1. Trolls

You know you've become a "real blog" (whatever that means) when you get trolls on your blog. For the most part I find them a bit amusing and irritating at the first time.

The funniest story around trolls on this blog is when I did a post once about a certain asshat I encountered in game. I clearly called out this person and the guild in the post and via a screenshot. Well somehow this asshat found this post, and commented with a lame excuse for his asshattery, which I chose not to respond to. But it gets worse. This asshat went to his guild forums and put up a post declaring "I'm famous!" and linked it back to my post.

/sigh. They should know better than to mess with she-bloggers:

Hahahahaha.

2. Your mom reads your blog

You know you've achieved some sort of blog milestone when you have your mom reading your blog. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I should be nicer or not swear or something. Though just because I wonder it, doesn't mean it happens.

3. RL vs Blog Identity

Once you've started blogging a while, I think you start to think about your blog self and your real self. Does my real life personality come across on the blog? Am I different in real life vs blog/WOW life? Hmmm...

4. You spend as much time thinking about the blog as you do blogging

Two cartoons to depict this...

Enough said.

5. You wonder if you are saying anything worthwhile

With so many great WOW blogs out there, I think you often come across wondering if you are saying anything worthwhile... what exactly you are contributing into the WOW blog world.

In closing:

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