6 months is a long time in blog years.  That's like... gosh... must be something like a century!  Windsoar at Jaded Alt has just met that milestone and to celebrate, she's sticking her muse in other people's blogs!  And by that I mean, she's offered to give us all fun topics in which to post on ours.  I signed up and here's the topic she gave to me, out of the kindness of her heart and the musey-ness of her... heart:

"/cast Muse
Those wonderful warlocks are quite vocal about their advantages over mages which can be summed up as “Warlocks RULE Mages DROOL!”
As the newest mage (that I’m aware of) in the blog-o-sphere, I’d like you to weigh in, and tell us of the wonders of the mage."

 First of all, I think it's important to point out that mages do NOT drool.  It is in fact the warlocks that drool after they whine about our Mage Conspiracy, ability to summon vast amounts of tasty strudel, and our pwn-age via pewpew lazorz.  It must suck to have to rely on a demon (yuck) of all pets to do your dirty work for you.  I mean how can you not feel DIRTY after using all that fel magic?

But in all seriousness, warlocks aren't all that bad.  They just aren't as good as mages.

So at the behest of Windsoar the Muse, I give you:

When you were little and things weren't going your way, what did you do?  I used to always run to my mother, usually in tears, and claim that "it wasn't fair!"  It never took her long to remind me that "Life isn't fair" before giving me a hug and a cookie and sending me on my way.  It never really seemed to make me feel any better to hear it, but I thoroughly understand what she meant now.  "Life isn't fair" is a catch all phrase that doesn't just apply to kickball and being popular, it applies to must every aspect of your life, including WoW.

There's been a lot of talk around the blogging community about flaming other bloggers and respect.  It's gotten me to thinking.  I've seen the F-word (fair, not fuck) dropped many a time in these conversations.  Everyone tries to be fair outwardly, to each other and to themselves, but it seems to me that it's not possible to do so successfully all the time.  No matter how hard you try, you're going to piss someone off, and guess what, someone's gonna do the same thing to you.  Sometimes this anger comes out in a flame, sometimes a well-thought retort.  The problem is that each blogger is an individual entity and none of us really have anyone to answer to.  I suppose this is different for the people at WoW.com, who generally get paid for their information and time, but the rest of us are our own boss, legal obligations and website terms of service aside.  In that way, we're sort of responsible for holding each other to standards; it's also the job of our readers to keep us humble. 

Now, I don't condone trolling by any degree, but I fully expect for someone to let me know if they find some information in my blog wrong.  However, I trust that such people will do so with a well-thought-out argument written in a calm argumentative statement.  I know what you're thinking; "Gypsy, you're delusional, honey," and I know it.  Look at the shit people wrote in comments in reply to my post that was linked on the meta-blog.  There were several people who wrote some nice arguments against the what I was bitching about, but there were far more who decided to call me a whiner and not even give me the reason they thought so.  I even got some lovely zings about my spelling.

I thought long and hard after that about whether I wanted to keep up with this or not.  I know more flames are likely to follow, even if I never get linked again.  I'm a sensitive person most of the time, but in my meditation on my future in blogging, I decided that the worst thing I could possibly do was to quit.  Life isn't fair and neither is blogging.  So I say to my fellow bloggers:  "Write what you want to, but be ready to defend what you write.  Expect the negative to come with the positive and deal with it as it comes with a deep breath, a lot of thought, and (if you're old enough) a glass of wine."

As for the game of WoW, I've had any number of experiences in which the phrase "Life isn't Fair" applies.  When it comes to raiding, I've generally (with much bitterness and negativity) adopted the motto "Fair Does Not Exist."  My guild has a rather unique system in which they choose who gets to join their 25 man raids.  We're currently progressing (sometimes) through ICC and while there is a group of core raiders, the attendance is iffy from week to week.  Everyone is allowed to sign up for our single day of 25 man raiding so long as you're 80.  There is no enforced standard for gear, enchants, gemming, spec, DPS, or preparation.  Some days we're reaching for people, even so far as to bring PUGs from outside the guild.  Some days we have to sit 3 or 4 people so that we don't go over the allotted 25 members.  I have been sat twice before.  I understood the first time, and I got royally pissed the second time.

The way the system works is they first ask for volunteers.  Depending on how nice people are feeling on a given day, or how unmotivated, that reduces our numbers by one to two people, usually officers.  Secondly, the raid leaders get up in the super secret vent channel and talk about what they should do.  New guild members are automatically either sat or put in the roll off group.  Other classes are often separated into specific types, ie casters, hunters, melee, healers, tanks.  "Essential members" or generally special people (often healers, raid leaders, and tanks) are exempt from the terrible experience of using a random number to assure you a spot in the 25 man.  I'm not kidding.  We /random roll for spots.

You could totally be the top DPS in the whole damned raid and still have to sit out so some newb who doesn't know their rotation or is the 7th hunter in the raid can go.  Please note that I am not the top DPS in my raid, nor do I have the best gear.  However, I think it's disrespectful to a player that despite the time and effort they put into gearing up, enchanting, gemming, learning what to do, and spending hours on progression beating their head against the wall each week, you may have to give up your spot to someone who is there for the shiny purps.  This raid has also made me very bitter towards hunters because we never carry more than 4 and the last time I was sat, there were indeed 4 hunters and only 2 mages.

It's a flawed system.  I made this known to the raid leaders.  I was pissed.  I vented to a number of people in whispers and wished the guild insincere luck in raid chat before leaving and going to Target to get a copy of Mass Effect 2 so I could blow up aliens and pretend that they were some of my raid colleagues.  In hindsight, I know that this was not directed at me and that it could have happened to any one in the raid.  I still know it's a flawed system, but the raid leaders seem to have faith in it and think it's as fair as they can make it.  So while I still think it's fucked up that there was a parade of hunters and certain people were exempt from rolling, I've mostly moved on and accepted the event as a "WoW is Not Fair" moment.

There's been a number of other incidents to match as I disagree with our loot distribution system as well as the ethics of other raid members in taking loot.  I got called out today by one of the guild loudmouths for taking a 25 man cloak with spirit on it for my resto/ele shaman, so I know it's not just me that feels it.  It stressed me out for a little bit and I felt KIND OF bad, until I talked it through with some of my peeps and looked on EJ's BIS information for resto shaman, where said cloak is listed above every other 25 man ICC hard mode drop besides Valithria whom we have not yet attempted successfully.  I justified it to myself and while I still feel a little guilty, I've already gemmed and enchanted it so there's no going back now.  I'm certain I'll get flack from certain people for scooping up gear on my shammy since I have basically no one to roll against, but I've been on the other side.  I've been a mage sharing cloth loot with every other caster class.  When people complain, I kind of want to sit them down, give them a hug and a cookie, and remind them that "WoW is not fair."

So let's say you're a raid/guild leader and you're dealing with this.  Let's also say that cookies are short and internet hugs are just not potent enough to do the job of a Mom-hug.  How do you deal with this "fair" business?  (Most of these also apply to a number of other situations, including blogging :) )

1. Stand by your decision.  Hopefully before hand you've thought out how you're going to make it and have a damned good reason for choosing what you did.  Everything in WoW has the potential to create drama because WoW is full of players who are human beings and are fallible.  If you doubt yourself before making the decision, then speak with the players involved before you make the decision.  Let them know your thought process.  It'll help them understand better in the end.
2. Listen to and acknowledge what others have to say.  You don't have to agree, but you do have to listen to it and you do have to consider it.  An open mind and a good listener are two major requirements of any good raid leader or guild officer.  You may not make people happy immediately, but they'll be more likely to support you later if you at least lend them an ear.
3. Be creative with your solutions, but be consistent.  I'm all for a new solution to the problem.  I love problem solving.  But it's also important to treat each situation in similar ways, as different as they may be.  If you change it up every time, not only will you confuse people, but they'll never know what to expect.  When people don't know what to expect, people get scared.  And when people get scared, people get defensive and freak out, leaving you a bigger mess to clean up than what you started with.
4. Set down rules and standards from the start.  If it's raiding, there needs to be set attendance rules, loot rules, and preparation rules.  These will hopefully eliminate the people who aren't willing to put in the effort to do their best along with the privilege of getting the purples.  And of course the most important part of rules is to make sure that you ENFORCE THEM in an as unbiased fashion as possible.
5. Consider past incidents as well as the present.  If someone is consistently getting screwed because of a rule or a system, maybe you should consider a change.  If a single person is doing the screwing, maybe you should consider how important they are to the raid/guild.
6. Remember that WoW is not fair.  It's more than likely that you'll end up with the short straw at some point or another.  People are going to abuse the system and you're going to be on the other end of it or the one that has to deal with it.  It's going to suck, but that's part of what your job is as a leader.

If you're not prepared to be the object of flaming, it's going to suck for you.  I empathize, I really do.  The down side of putting yourself out there is that you have to take the bad with the good and sometimes the bad outweighs the good.  If you decide to keep going, remember that Gypsy is always waiting with a "Life is not Fair," a hug, and a cookie when you need it.

I'm sad to say one of my favorite bloggers in the Blog Azeroth community, Crankyhealer, has said her goodbyes to the community and profession.  Her posts are always full of wit and wisdom, with fun images to go along, and she made her blog personal as well, which so few of us have the guts to do.  My hat is off to you, Cranky:  May you find better and less stressful use of your time and enjoy your WoW experience more.  You will be missed.

One of the moderators of Blog Azeroth posted a topic in the blogger forum about why we write.  A number of bloggers responded with their respective reasons and this got me thinking.  Why is it that I write?

I used to host a personal webpage with a diary of sorts where I'd publish my thoughts and feelings, but the problem with that is that as much of a release as it was, it was also very disjointed and personal, not to mention without a real topic that was for anyone but myself.  I often found myself writing out of anger and spite against people who actually read it and feelings would get hurt.  These sort of blogs can work well enough for some people if they lead more interesting lives than I do, but it proved not to be a good enough reason for me to continue.

Recently, one of my dear friends in WoW, Dristanel, decided to share her infinite wisdom with the blogging community of Azeroth.  "Hey, that's a fine idea!" I said.  "Maybe I'll do some too!  I have lots of snarky and sarcastic things to share with fellow WoW players!"  I wasn't serious at first, but then I saw what she could do and the affect it had on people, and I started to consider doing so myself.  And so I did.  And this is the result of a little idea that just happened to work out.

So it's pretty easy to start and be excited about something, but I, for one, get easily distracted and bored with new projects easily.  It's also easy to second guess yourself when you get negative feedback from other bloggers or readers, even if they're nothing more than trolls.  But it's also reassuring to see people regularly posting comments on my blog in reply to a post I've made and the numbers are also a good motivator.  You'll find most bloggers have some sort of counter covertly installed on their blog to keep track of visitors, where they come from, and how they get there.  There's also trackers on RSS feeds, which I myself have fallen in love with -- an RSS feed and the subsequent reader make it easier to check a number of blogs at once for new posts.  Even if you don't post a comment in reply to someone's feed, it lets them know you're listening.

There's any number of different types of bloggers in this community as well.  I personally prefer to be informative but entertaining at the same time.  Other people are more serious with their numbers and their strategies and guides as well as their endeavor to be more informative and to teach.  While we all do CARE if we get read or not, we care for different reasons.

In my personal experience, I've run across a lot of people in WoW playing my respective classes who don't know what their doing.  I don't know that this is from lack of resources or lack of caring period, but it doesn't help to throw some more information out there.  Sometimes it's easier to learn from someone who shares your point of view on a subject or who has an original way to break it down so it's easy to understand.  Part of my job in real life is to educate people on a variety of subjects relating to my expertise, so I consider the blog the same, but in a fun, snarky environment.  If I make a little impact with each post, be it just a nod from someone who agrees to teaching someone something new, then I have achieved what I set out to do.

With my recent exposure to the WoW community thanks to Wow.com's blurb, I've acquired a new kind of reader on my blog.  This kind of person is generally undesirable, completely useless, and otherwise ignored.  We have come to know them as Trolls:

Slang Dictionary (From Dictionary.com)

troll

1. n.
   an ugly person; a grouchy person. : Gee, that dame is a real troll. What's her problem?
2. n.
   an internet user who sends inflammatory or provocative messages designed to elicit negative responses or start a flame-war. (As a fisherman trolls for an unsuspecting fish.) : Don't answer those silly messages. Some troll is just looking for an argument.
3. n.
   a message sent by a troll (sense 2). : Every time I get a troll, I just delete it.

Definition #2 applies here most readily.  I have participated on a number of forums in my long years of internet exposure and I have found these specimens everywhere, no matter the type or format of forum or blog.  Anything that allows comments also allows trolls.   These people like to nitpick, insult, and argue.  But what makes a troll tick?  How do you stop them?


I've played on a variety of server types while on WoW and in on of my more recent server changes I transferred off an (RP)PVP server to a regular RP server.  On the previous server which shall remain nameless, I was a part of an ex-boyfriend's guild, widely known on said server for being a troll guild.  A small membership of said guild were clever and witty and did indeed troll on the forums pretty hard.  The rest of us just raided and laughed in the background at the burns they would throw at nubs and whiners.  My ex was the biggest troll of them all, so I got a first hand look at what sits behind the troll.


I can honestly say that some of these people are not bad.  Their quick wit and sense of humor provides entertainment for all, and I truly doubt they have the intent to hurt anyone.  However, their powers are used for evil in some situations, and despite best intents, people get their feelings hurt.  So why do they do it if it can go sour?  Usually just to entertain themselves (and occasionally others).  Look at the population of people that play WoW - people looking for something to get their mind off other things, like work or school.  Apparently the game isn't enough for some of that population, so they turn to the forums and blogs.  For others, it's just the thrill of the hunt.  Bullies have always existed along with society.  Wherever there is community, there will also be bullies.  These people feed off the misfortune of others, making themselves feel better in the process.  It helps them forget their own problems.  For a select special brand of trolls, there's no other explanation other than they're just assholes.  Nuff said.

I'll happily admit that sometimes a troll is in the right - putting someone in their place for a ridiculous complaint, shutting them up and moving people on to something more worthwhile to discuss.  However, we run across a few problems with these undesirables.

•  Sometimes (often), they just don't care.  Certainly, they're entitled to not care.  No one should or can tell you who or what to care about, and you don't have any business telling others.  However, common courtesy often eludes trolls.  They have little to no filter and telling them they hurt your feelings is not going to get you anywhere.  In fact, they'll probably troll you harder.

• They prey on anyone they see weaker than them.  This can cover any number of aspects; physical, mental, emotional, armory, gear score, level...  If there's any indication that they've got a one up on you, welcome to the target list.  Please note that this is only their opinion of these indications; it may or may not be true.  It's also important to note that trolls are not part of any guild or society.  There is no code of honor among trolls.  This means that they also tend to "eat their young" so to speak.
• They don't always have identifying marks.  Trolls don't run around with a badge pinned to their jacket or a special guild icon in their signature.  They often post anonymously or under a pseudonym to protect their true identity.  This often stems from a degree of cowardice, although it can also be to protect their loved ones.  Only the bravest trolls do so under their actual name (in WoW's case their main character). 
• They come in all shapes and sizes.  I have met male and female trolls.  Big ones, small ones; smart ones, dumb ones; mean ones, and funny ones.  Without the badge mentioned previously, there is no way to tell who or what is going to lash out at you in a post or even why.
• They cannot be exterminated.  They will always exist.  There will always be replies of "QQ more" waiting on you in your forum post or your blog.  Where one disappears, two pop up in their place.  This applies to banning, deleting, and other means of removal.  IP addresses are readily available as are accounts.

So what do you do with them?  Honestly, the best policy is to ignore them.  Remember how your mother always told you to ignore your big brother or sister and then they'd leave you alone?  The same principle applies here.  As long as you feed their fire, they shall continue to burn hot and heavy and all over your blog.  You can try to one-up them, but their arsenal is vast and unless you manage a hell of a re-troll, they'll be back for more.  I tried this once, for fun, and got my ass kicked; I'm not happy to report that, but I learned a lesson from it.  If you're desperate enough, you can always find a bigger troll to take care of them, but more often than not, you'll end up getting eaten along with the whelp.

So I get up this morning, dread filling my veins because I have a day of cleaning ahead of me.  There's coffee, so I go drink a cup, still half asleep.  I watch a Zach Efron movie (obviously still half asleep).  "Man, he's kinda hot for jailbait" I find myself saying.  I check my coffee for something alcoholic.  Nope, just coffee.  After a moderately entertaining movie, I get up and go to check my email, knowing that my good friend Dristanel has left me a present.  I sit down to read my present and find a second present at the end of my present.

Also, I am thoroughly amused. If you check this first and not spam from your blog, you should know Wow.com linked your 3.3.3 mage post.

Spit-take of said coffee.  Quickly and with much anxiety, I rush to my blog, stumbling over the stupid long URL in my firefox browser.  There are comments on my 3.3.3 (.3.3.3.3) nerf post.  26 of them.  Why are there comments on my post.  There are only ever a few comments.  Holy.  @#$@#in.  Sh&t.

So apparently WoW.com gave me a blurb in one of their Daily Quest posts.  So there are people on my blog.  This is good news.

I am not an experienced blogger, nor am I an expert.  I speak from experience, from my own brand of research, and from listening to others.  I'm happy my voice got out there, even if it was in an angry pitchfork post.

Thank you to those who offered constructive criticism, constructive argument, and agreement.  You trolls can go... I'm sapped for a creative way to tell you to shove off right now.  To whomever is surfing my blog from WoW.com, thank you for the generous spot and don't forget the other talented bloggers at Blog Azeroth, any number of them with a good deal of snarky, intelligent, and (or) amusing things to say.  I'm overwhelmed.

The new Random Dungeon System has gotten a bad reputation.  How often do you log into WoW and dread pushing the little green eye to get your daily random in by yourself because your favorite Holy Paladin has already done hers and left you abandoned, naked, shoeless, and cold... in the snow... uphill.  Ok, she hasn't really, but she's not online and there's no one else to take with you.  So you never know what you're going to get.  And even if you have a partial group, you never know who the last member or two is going to be.

So Blog Azeroth has given me my first shared topic.  And boy do I have the story of overcoming stupidness for you.  It involves my drunk-tank DK, one of our up-and-coming enhancement shaman, my favorite DPS warrior, and two PUGs, a holy paladin, and an arcane mage.  My groupies and I are ready.  We're excited.  I love tanking for guildies because when I tank alone in the system, I usually get a line up of Azeroth's Biggest Idiots; I also have this terrible stupid conscience that won't let me leave a group because I know how long people wait for tanks.

Given my tank queue, we get in immediately... to Heroic Halls of Reflection.  *GROAN*  My fingers is on the Leave Group button.  But the enhancement shaman, being the utterly ridiculously nice guy he is says "Nah, their gear isn't that bad.  Let's stick it out."  Damn you and your positive vibes.  The warrior is like "Sure!"  And I grumble and step forward reluctantly.  Naturally I start off with "Kill order:  Priests, Mercs, Mages, Riflemen, Footmen.  I'll be trying to yoink back the mages if we get them for AOE purposes."  I probably should have added "watch the agro" if only for the purposes of our warrior who really likes to whirlwind.

I think it needs to be said here that my DK is not currently a raid tank.  She's rocking badge gear and a few pieces I've picked up in random raids as well as heroic ICC 5-man stuff.  I'm behind in my stats by a good bit and for a long time, had no intention of tanking HHOR without a full guild group.  This is the first time I've tanked it out of guild and the third time I've tanked it at all.  I also hate the cubby technique as it really sucks for mages because of the AOE interrupt of the footmen.

That said, I choose to tank it right out in front next to the entrance door.  First attempt - no one is using the kill order.  I'm not marking because I'm lazy, but I did tell everyone before we started.  I start grumbling in vent.  I'm ready to quit completely.  The shaman convinces me to be nice and stick it out.  He still needs stuff in there.  I grumble and go back in.  The shaman suggests I mark things.  I grumble more.  We take a second attempt.  I'm marking targets this time.  The warrior dies halfway through the first set of waves before Boss 1.  We can't get a rez off before the boss so he runs over and does his thing and I'm getting feared all over the place and getting pissed because this guy's fear is a stun and I'm hitting Lichborne and it's not helping.  IBF sits there unused.  Derpaderp.

We kill the first boss and get the warrior up.  The next set of waves I'm marking and yoinking mages and throwing down DnD and taunting and Strangulating.  The shaman dies and has already popped his reincarnate, so he's stuck dead.  I grumble.  We get to the next boss and kill him because people don't stand in shiny purple circles.  Sigh of relief.

I look back at the logs and see that the mage is doing 2.5k average on my Skada.  I don't use recount because my FPS already sucks and I'm cutting down on my addon usage.  I look at the mage's gear.  Clearly she got into HHOR so she should be doing 3k at least.  Probably more since she's arcane and it's not Rocket Science.  I grumble in vent.  A lot.  Ask Dristanel.

We move on to skelly guy and kill him and our mirrors who generally blow up because of AOE around the same time.  Someone dies.  At this point I'm just happy the first part is over, because let's face it.  That's the worst part of HHOR.  This entire time I'm giving directions and getting acknowledgements from my guildies and the PUGs are silent.  The shaman points out that the paladin is healing her ass off.  So I lay off the paladin.

I explain when we get to Arthas that I'm tanking him 2/3rds of the way up to the ice walls and that we'll be killing the aboms first and fast then worry about the witch doctors.  Again the acknowledgment from the guildies.  Nothing from the pugs.  At this point I could really care less.  So we go through and do damn well on the Arthas escape.  Not quite fast enough for the achievement, but close.  The mage is still doing crap DPS if any at all, but the paladin is again healing her behind off.  We finish and she gets her HHOR achievement.  So we congratulate her since we're a nice guild and she says thanks and starts talking and actually turns out to be a pretty nice person.  Crap drops from the chest, except a nice healy trinket that the shaman passes on for his healing set because the paladin really did heal her ass off.  The mage still sucks and leaves without a word.

So you're probably saying to yourself "what a crappy positive dungeon story."  And I say to you that I am not an optimist.  But here's the positive things:

1. I successfully tanked HHOR with only 1 wipe and 2 pug members.
2. That paladin successfully healed her first HHOR with only 1 wipe.
3. People got some gear they needed.
4. I was locked out of HHOR for the rest of the day.

Maybe not sunshine and lollipops, but it works for me.

Dristanel of the Physician's Log has revealed the admirers of the bloggers that participated in the event.  I got the pleasure of stalking Poneria from Fel Concentration for a few days.  My stalker was none other than Jaedia from The Lazy Sniper!  I loved the little poems and clues!  This turned out to be a pretty fun event and made me more aware of the blog circle on WoW.  It also brought some new people here, cause let's face it:  I'm new and I don't have a following yet.

Maybe it's a little bit arrogant to say yet, but I'd like to be optimistic.  I don't write here just to vent about stuff that bugs me, but also to help other people in what ways I can.  I'm by no means an expert, but I learn from my mistakes enough to help other people prevent making the same ones, or so I'd like to think.  I also love to hear feedback from the people that are out there, so if you are, blog-readers, please comment!

While begging for Shout Outs, I'm also going to give a few of my own, to the people that make my WoW day and sometimes my real day better.  First on the list is of course Dristanel who has been with me through thick and thin and two bad relationships, at both of their ends.  We bitch endlessly at each other in whispers (me more than her, I assure you) and it's always a treasure to have someone to listen to you complain when you need it.  She also reigns me in when I'm going to far, not afraid to tell me to STFU if I'm out of line, and she boosts my confidence when I need it.  Most of all, we can laugh together over stupid things that are ridiculously funny; we secretly giggle during raids and pugs and have our own special names for things.  It also helps that she's very smart and very game saavy and has given me pointers and help in a number of WoW places, not just healing, but also DK tanking and raiding in general.  For the record, I was indeed Drunk Tanking in her Dysfunctional Family post and I did fine, tyvm.

There are a few other rare gems in our guild, who shall remain nameless.  They all have their own niche of goodness, be it raiding or roleplaying or just plain being cool, all of which I embrace.  You people make me laugh and make me thoughtful.  You bring some sunshine to my rainy days and some calm to my stormy ones.  I do love you.

WoW movie people also get a shout out.  I love watching little tidbits of WoW set to music or plot, seeing the full potential this game has to offer in another incarnation and wanting to do the same myself.  I aspire to making my own WoW music video some day and have some songs pick out.

And finally, WoW bloggers, people who bring their own unique interpretation to the game, looking to help those who seek answers and entertain other gamers with their wit.  What more is there to say.

I love you guys.