Who Gets What

In my time as a guild officer, I've come to realize that loot distribution is much like planning a dinner party. I know, that's a totally metro analogy, but just hear me out. =P When putting a party together, you have to take into account who can be there, when they can be there, and who is likely to show and not to show. You must consider what they would like to eat as appetizers, the main course, dessert, what drinks go best with the food, and what live music they would enjoy listening to while eating. One also must think about who these individuals get along with best (don't want drama at a dinner party, after all), how long these guests can stay, and when and if they are all satisfied, to send them on their way. You want everyone to be happy, but with so many variables involved, there are bound to be bumps in the road, no matter how fabulous the party may be.

Such is also the case with WoW raiding and loot. Everyone will not always be happy with who gets put into the raid party, or with who gets what in terms of loot drops. Trust me when I say that a lot of thinking goes into the design of a raid party; we have to consider people who need items off of bosses we are attempting while making sure the individuals in there can get the job done as efficiently as possible. That can mean that some players who need gear don't always get into the raid, which is always a bummer, but it happens, and I am always hopeful people will see the big picture and understand why (and thankfully, our recruitment efforts have paid off in that our members are VERY mature in this regard). But it gets complicated, especially when there are multiple players online who can benefit from drops and perform equally well during a specific encounter. We officers stay very objective when working with such instances, and follow some guidelines we've designed for loot distribution purposes. These are nothing PK members haven't heard before (so this should be nothing new), and some of them include...

[Prom Kings members, head over to our forums to read the rest.] =P

Tweet

Recruitment

So, now that merger talks have come to a close, Prom Kings is opening recruitment back up to select classes. It's kind of a bittersweet moment, to be honest. Bitter because recruitment is, for the most part, an exhausting process that can really take it's toll on a guild, especially if the wrong people are brought in. Sweet because it means we're back to looking ahead instead of working on the present. So yeah, I guess in that sense, recruitment is like washing a piece of chocolate down with tonic water. One can only hope that chocolate was worth it. ;)

The application process remains unchanged, for now. I'm actually going to talk with the rest of the officers about changing things up a bit in terms of the written portion of the app. I think I can add a few questions that could help gauge one's personality more clearly and therefore, how well they could potentially mesh with our current members. I know that all members don't have to agree on things, but it's important that we have the same approach to how we handle things. Communication is very important, and is the key to stability, and that's what we're going for here.

So, what are we looking for? Healers, mainly. Priests, Shamans, Druids (we can definitely use a couple Dr00ds for sure), etc. We'll have an official list once we talk about it in more detail, but for now, if you're a healer, and have been reading our blogs, agree with our expectations, and get the feeling you'd fit right in, head over to the Prom Kings forum (www.promkings.net) and fill out an app. Yes, there are requirements, but we consider each app individually, so why not take a shot. ;)

More to come. Oh, and to those of you in the guild or close to people in the guild. If you know of anyone that you think would make a great fit and who is also looking for a guild, send them our way. Use your best judgment too. We don't want to waste their, or our time.

Lates.

Tweet

Because Jade is Selfish...

You'll notice that in the right column, there is an updated picture of my 'lock, sporting a T4 Voidheart helm. Because there are so many people out there who give my guild's GM a hard time, calling her selfish and what not, I think it'd be good to tell you exactly how I ended up with the piece.

Jade and I both have our T4 gloves, and Jade recently got her T4 shoulders, giving her a two-set bonus. Now, if you've been reading this blog, you'll know that (before yesterday) Prince has never dropped the 'lock T4 helm token for our guild, and that both Jade and myself have been waiting for it for a very long time. And, being our GM and raid leader, Jade has 100% attendance and her DKP is way higher than mine, so the helm would be hers for the taking. So, why did Jade PASS on the Voidheart helm for me, especially when Jade is selfish, as so many ignorantly immature players suggest? Because to her, it's all about the guild.

The moment the token dropped, she started emoting cries like a little baby, and as a result, I knew immediately exactly what had happened. She had already decided to give up the helm to me (so that I could have my set bonus too), and she was just trying to come to terms with her decision to do so. We chatted on vent, talking about how long we've been waiting for this thing to drop and how badly we both wanted it. Really, the discussion itself was unnecessary, because if she really wanted the helm, she had the dkp for it and didn't need to clear anything with me. It was rightfully hers, but she spoke with me anyways. We talked about her decision and after lol'ing about her luck, briefly considering passing the helm to a hunter, and rolling for the hell of it, I ended up with the token in my inventory.

Yup, she's a loot-hungry, selfish bitch alright. GG ;)

Tweet

Dating Sucks

People often give me strange reactions when they find out that I'm 28 and have been married for 5 years, or just married at all, even. "What on earth did you do that for, and why so young?" are the usual questions that immediately follow me around while hanging out with other people my age. Hell, my parents even wondered the same thing, and sometimes, they still do, which is quite annoying as hell, but anyway. My usual response consists of the basic "I love her," "I want what's best for her," yadda yadda yadda, but the one reason that hits home the most in those who are questioning me is that "dating sucks," period. That's usually enough to change the subject.

Those of you who date (if WoW players can get dates, oh schnap!) know exactly what I'm talking about. You have these expectations, hopes, shallow or profound, and eventually, you find it incredibly frustrating how much time you can waste dating people who cannot fulfill them. I mean, how many dates do YOU give a person before you can truly decide if they are compatible and worth seeing again or not? One bad date is usually enough, but the fact that people put on their best so that they can give a good first impression complicates the time-investment issue greatly. So how much more time do you give it?

I found that the best way to keep sane while dating is to stop seeing someone at the first real sign of significant incompatibility. Not many people do this, and stay together for far too long (52% divorce rate in the U.S., anyone?). But if you do, you save yourself the torture of a drawn out relationship and the heartache of change. If there is true incompatibility, walk away.

Warning: Incoming WoW Application

Prom Kings and Halcyon were seeing each other for a few weeks, raiding 25-mans together and talking a long-term commitment, i.e., a merger. It was hawt lovin' for sure, but a couple of nights ago, we had our first sign of real incompatibility. We always had a different way of doing things, and that probably should have tipped us off early on that this potential merger wasn't a great idea. I mean c'mon, most mergers end up with guilds breaking up and reforming again... not something we even remotely want to experience. But, we decided to continue to give it a shot. We continued on with our efforts, realizing more and more (as I'm sure they did) that this wouldn't last. And finally, during our last raid, the frustration broke through.

It wasn't an incredibly ugly experience, which says a lot about both guilds, but it wasn't fun either. Ultimately, there was just too much stubbornness to work with, and little issues started to become bigger than they needed to be (on both ends). After talking for a long while that night, we decided it was time to stop and not risk animosity towards one another. After all, good people comprise our guilds. It'd be a shame to let some petty issues cloud our better judgment of one another. And, it's much less stress this way too. =)

So yeah, it was fun while it lasted, and it may be a couple weeks before we attempt Gruul's again, but it was time to move on. I think it's better this way.

/salute Halcyon. Good luck to you guys.

Prom Kings, SHG LF UHP. Inquire within. <3

Tweet

Grats Lachatyl!!!

Congrats to Lachatyl, who just hit exalted with the Netherwing faction and got his Nether Drake mount. Kudos to the server first man! You must have been farming eggs like mad!!

Omelets pls. Your treat. =)

Grats again.

Tweet

Today in Snipets

"That #$% Captain Skyshatter..."

I spent a good deal of time grinding away at the Nether Drake mount quest chain today. Most of that time was spent on the "Top Gun" quests, where you follow 6 different npcs on their flying mounts at high speed, all while they are shooting at you from their mounts. If you fall behind or get shot down, you gotta challenge that npc all over again, and let me tell you, it's very EASY to get shot down and killed (especially since the dragonmaw shoot arrows at you during the quest, which just has to be a bug). The first 5 challenges were pretty easy though. I equipped my Riding Crop and Carrot on a Stick and flew above the npcs while looking straight down to watch their flightpaths. That way, it was very easy to follow their movements and avoid their projectiles, even when things got a little crazy. However, the 6th challenge, Captain Skyshatter, was a completely different story.

Skyshatter (aka Skyshitter) took forever for me to beat, for several reasons. First, the chase is buggy as hell, and the guy kept despawning on me even when I was right next to him. Second, his projectiles (giant, fiery meteors) weren't loading fast enough, so I would get hit, catch fire, and fall off my mount even before I knew anything was coming at me. Thirdly, Skyshatter is on a Swift Netherdrake, which has a 310% mount speed compared to my 280% stock speed. Even with my trinkets, I was moving slower than he was, so I had to move in a straight line as much as possible to keep up (which made dodging the meteors even harder). There are other reasons, but whatever be the case and even excluding the bugginess of the challenge, he's hard as hell. Last I knew, only 3 people had beaten him horde-side (Lunthak, Chloe, and myself), which is pretty incredible if you think about it. I'd tell you how, but as all three of us agreed upon, it's more luck than anything, so I hope you got some with ya when you give him a shot. You'll totally need it. ;)

"Finally, More Warlock T4"

Jade and I have been running around with our Voidheart gloves for some time now. Just to give ya an idea, I was the first warlock Horde-side to get T4, so yeah, it's been a while. We've taken Prince down many, many times and not once has he ever dropped the token for the 'lock T4 helm. I swear the guy hates us or something. Maybe he's in cahoots with... meh... I won't go there. =P So anyway, yeah, the both of us looked forward to our Prince attempt this week. And we STILL look forward to it in hopes that he will drop a helm for us, but Jade's shoulders were taken care of today courtesy of the High King. Yup, our pairing with Halcyon put us back in Gruul's this week and finally got our guild another piece of the Voidheart rainment. I am totally thrilled for Jade and am glad a boss has finally showed us 'locks some love. Hell, I'd recruit the guy if I could. Meh, he'd probably be poa... yeah, not going there. XD

"Hit or Miss"

I learned something in Gruul's today. Actually, it was a thought that was reinforced more than anything. I desperately need more spell hit gear. I've always given spell dmg priority over spell hit, but after my shadowbolts were getting resisted time and time again in Gruul's tonight, and now that Karazhan loot is buffed nicely, I think I can start picking up some hit gear without having to sacrifice dmg output. Should be nice. Hmm, maybe Ruin wouldn't be such a bad idea either...

"Coyotes are KoS"

So I'm lying in bed here tonight and all of a sudden I hear this puppy yelping incredibly loudly down the street. The yelping turns into child-like screams of helpless horror. That lasted for a good 15 seconds. Then, silence. Other dogs in the neighborhood started howling and barking, and it turned into one of those "wth" moments for me. I got out of bed and walked out of the house just to catch a glimpse of a coyote, just like I did a night years ago when my sister's dog was attacked while at my parent's house. She had to be put down that night, and when I got home, I shot a pair of coyotes I saw parading down the street. I've hated coyotes ever since, and I swear if I see one, it's dead.

"Getting Old"

I don't know if it's the season or what, but I've noticed a lot of people getting fed up with the game and our server's garbage attitude lately. I can't say that I blame them -- it's so childishly retarded when someone from another guild won't group with you for a pug run because of your guild tag, but it happens. The harassment of our GM has continued on, and that is getting very old as well. I'm getting to the point where I almost find it necessary to call these so-called men (military men, even... psh) out and even post some of what they've had to say. I'm sure their wives wouldn't appreciate the stalking, obsessive nature that they approach Jade with. Hell, no respectable person would. Hmm, that kinda reminds me of a comment an alliance re-roll made about generalizing the actions of a few to an entire guild. Well, there's your answer. No respectable, good person or group or entity would put up with garbage like that. But anyway, that's an entirely different post, and I gotta save some material for later, so... later. =)

Tweet

Server First

My warlock on his very own Nether Drake. =)


Okay, okay, so it wasn't really a server first. Hell, it's not even really my warlock's mount (QQ). But thanks to the good engineers over at Bliz, the new v2.1 patch, and a broken, buggy quest line, I got to enjoy flying one of these beauties all around Outland for a good while today. Lemme just say that these things are LARGE, and their animation and sound effects are just FABulous. It is totally the mount I pictured an epic flyer to be, and it drew quite a crowd while I was parked in front of the Scryer bank for a short time. Reactions were mixed, ranging from the gawkers and cheerers to the haters and jealous types (hearing the word "hacker" on the day a major patch is released is always hilarious). I'm sure it was motivating for many at the very least, as it was for me. All in all, it was a very good time. =)

See you all on the Netherwing Plateau!

Tweet

What Kind of Cake are You?

Saw this on Netherdream's blog, and after seeing how Jade's thread on the Alex forums went all cake-lust on us, I figured I'd post my results as well. Hope you don't mind, Nether. =)

You Are Strawberry Cake

Fresh, sassy, and romantic. You're a total flirt, who never would turn down a sugary treat. Occasionally you're a bit moody - but you usually stay sweet!

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Ugh. So apparently, I'm a whore. Wonderful.

Tweet

Ferraro Watch

Her Ferraroness has posted a new pic...


...and all I can say is, fishing a little?


I totally gotta know what kind of bait was used...

XD

Tweet

Advice

A friendly piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood warlock: you may want to know exactly who you are talking to before you make an attempt at poaching them.


Thanks for the lol. ;)

Tweet

Rotting Rat Stink

Dealing with behavior problems in others is such a daunting task. It's complicated, requires many intricate steps, involves attention to detail and un-phased dedication to a goal, and there is so much that can potentially go wrong in the process. Every workday, I show up as early as 6:00 a.m., put together a behavior profile for each individual, examine their respective environments, analyze potential stimuli for reinforcing potential, classify those reinforcers, identify competing behaviors, implement them, plan for the long term, and hope to all end that I did things right the first time so that I wouldn't have to go through each one of those steps all over again. When that happens, it's complete torture. Kinda reminds me of a morning last week when I stepped into my garage and inhaled the most putrid, almost visible odor. I recognized the smell of a rotting rat immediately, but the odor completely filled the room, so I had no idea where it was coming from. Searching through the olfactory mess in search of the source of the problem... was the problem... so yeah, they're kinda similar that way.

The past few weeks of WoW have been eerily similar as well. In Prom Kings, we've had to deal with a level of inexplicable behavior comparable to Alex's worst (you know, rotting rat stink), loot-whoring from the mis-judged, general hate thrown in our direction, harassment of our GM, attendance and recruitment issues, and a complete redesign of some of our member's assignments. Such experiences have broken guilds apart, but our practices and ideals kept us intact. There's been lots of analyzing, re-analyzing, working, re-working, doing, re-doing, and finally, this week, solving.

Together with Halcyon, we've answered, at least for the moment, our attendance and recruitment problems. Co-op, we have enough for 25-man content and recently downed the High King (I totally stole his crown, btw) -- not a big deal, but it's a step in the right direction in that we got to see each other play and measured our group chemistry well. I was worried at one point, since the raid did start off slow, but once we settled into our respective roles and got used to each other's habits, we started to roll. DPS was hawt. Healing was hawt. And Kergen, well, he was just a star. Now, if only he can figure out how to enable comments on his blog. ;)

This weekend will see both of our guilds attempting Gruul for the first time as a unit. And now that we're in-tune, I'm sure that it'll go just as well as it did with the King if not better. Should be fun.

So yeah, we've put a lot of work in the past few weeks, getting things back in order and moving along nicely. We've had our hiccups and felt like we've had to start all over again, but even so and amidst the hate and the rumors that our guild no longer exists, we're here, we're pressing forward, and we're gonna have a hell of a time.

We totally found the rat, and we're not scared of it's stink anymore. After all, we've got potpourri, biatches. =)

See you at the top.

Tweet

Re: "Wasting Time"

This was a comment I made over at Jade's blog, and since I wanted to be certain that our anonymous trollers saw it, I'm posting it here now. Welcome to your life:

Heheh, Nether[dream], you're one of the good ones.

As for the trolls continuously harassing Jade, they are a common breed that literally have nothing better to do than throw hate at a girl they desperately wanted to impress, but failed miserably at doing so. It's an attempt to save ego. To save face. To legitimize themselves within their own mind. It's how little kids approach difficult self-realization issues -- and that's what we're dealing with here: people with the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.

While they think they are being funny and strong by saying such derogatory statements, the reality is that they look ridiculous. They must know this is the case, because they hide behind anonymous posts even here (where they can't get in-trouble with Bliz) and wouldn't dare talk in the open. Such is life on the internet - a masquerade of failures trying to make themselves feel better about who they are, or more appropriately, who they are not.

I'm not phased by this in the least bit, but I'm also not getting what Jade is getting. People don't crave my attention like they crave for hers... and I can see how playground-tactics at getting a girl's attention (you know, throwing sand in her face because you like her and desperately want a reaction from her) can get very frustrating when you're 20-something. It is a complete waste of time from this angle, but to them, it's worth having that control -- no matter how infantile their logic and approach may be.

Kinda pathetic, isn't it.

Clinically speaking, individuals like those I described in that comment usually have reasons for acting that way. Either it was a bad relationship, or even issues spawning from childhood and how their mother treated or didn't treat them. Whatever be the case, there is no excuse for the behavior. Fortunately, I'm certain every sane person in their real life environment agrees. Unfortunately, WoW creates a haven for these social rejects, saving them from the responsibility and consequence of their behavior.

Seek professional help. You desperately need it.

Tweet

Kicking Through Barriers

If you are reading this blog, you are more than likely a horde player on Alexstrasza, which means you somehow lost the WoW lottery when Bliz decided to recommend the server to you, like it did with me. And if you CHOSE to come here via a transfer or whatever, well, what were you thinking?? =P I mean don't get me wrong (I've said that waaay too much lately), I've had a wonderful time and have met some fabulous people here. There are definitely no regrets in those departments. But when it comes to progress, our horde seems to miss a step here and there, and pretty much everywhere, every chance it gets.

While our alliance has SSC on it's resume and is looking beyond, our horde hasn't even attempted Mag yet. It was more of the same pre-TBC, with the alliance tearing through Naxx while the horde barely peeped into AQ40 and never attempted Naxx. The worst part about it all is that people horde-side don't seem to care much about the general lack of progress, perhaps out of frustration. Some guilds are working on it, yes, but when it comes down to it, the discipline just isn't there. You know the kind of discipline I'm talking about, right? The individually-based kind. The kind that makes a person acknowledge responsibility while ignoring childishly-selfish desires, etc. Essentially, I'm talking about the idealistic definition of an adult - a mature, consistent, responsible player. They are hard to come by in a game like this, I know, but they are out there, and there are many in Alexstrasza's horde. So, what's the problem?

Over the years, I've come to know some very reputable players on the server. They are all loyal, mature, courteous, consistent, responsible, passionate, positive, driven, optimistic, and for some reason, have different guild tags beneath their names. I was in Lower City queuing for some BGs when I ran into Slickwilly and Ibiss. Slickwilly says something along the lines of "3 friends, 3 different guild tags" and then emotes the always depressing tauren /cry. Looking around, I see that kind of thing everywhere. Why this is the case, I have no idea, but the Alex horde have seemed to make a habit of it. That may very well be why we're having such a hard time progressing...

Whatever be the reason behind the observation, the fact of the matter is that it's getting kinda old. It's getting rather sad, seeing the smaller guilds lose their less-than-loyal (among other things) members to bigger guilds, leaving their mature, loyal players stranded in Karazhan. It's sad to see those guilds get frustrated, knowing they have the talent, but also realizing that there is a massive shortage of good people on Alex (who won't grab loot and run), so recruitment comes to a stand-still. It is sad that these smaller guilds haven't put a serious effort into working together for the common goal of progress. It is sad that it has taken us so long to realize that such cooperation is what is necessary to kick through the barriers that have kept us stagnant for so long. It is sad... but what matters is how we approach such things now, and Jade, Blawle, and myself are working on it.

It's time to put aside our frustration with how things have gone and start working toward how we want things to be.

See you in Gruul's Lair, Halcyon. We're all very much looking forward to it. =)

Tweet

10 Random Thoughts...

There's this unwritten rule in the realm of WoW which states that the significance of any action or event is forgotten 3 days after it occurs. I think it's an exaggeration, but I can't help but believe that it's at least somewhat true. After all, think about how quickly we forget about those who stop playing...

I think Voltron was a better cartoon than Thundercats, even if I didn't realize it as a kid. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved them both. They were amazing and much better than G.I. Joe, He-Man, and Transformers combined. But watching Voltron today is much more enjoyable and brings back much better memories than Thundercats does. Or maybe it's because Princess Alura is hotter than Cheetara. =) Who knows... is it just me?

Measty left the guild early yesterday. The most frustrating part about that isn't that he's no longer a member of Prom Kings, or that we're out a healer and Jewel Crafter. No, the most frustrating part is that Jade and I talked with him about his problems a couple days ago and at that point he was in complete denial. Yet, today, his goodbye post on our forums suggests that he now understands what we were trying to get across to him. So, why leave the guild? It's essentially admitting you're wrong, but then acting like you're right anyway. Whatever.

You'd think the Transformers in the upcoming movie would have picked better cars to roll than American models...

The arena is evil, especially for an under-practiced team full of skilled ego-maniacs. We had our first 5v5 set the other day, and while we did okay (we're at about 50-50 atm), it's obvious there are a lot of loose ends we need to take care of. Sure, we'll tighten things up with practice and experience, but I'm wondering if I have the patience to deal with all the drama that comes with PvPing, especially when I'm not built for it anymore.

In Kara today, General chat was full of old friends that I haven't spoken with in a while, chatting it up and having a good time. Prom Kings asks that it's raiders do not talk in the General channel. I didn't break that rule today, but I so wanted to.

I am so proud of the focsu (yes, focsu) the guild showed on Saturday. Even with all of the distractions that we could have allowed to cloud our vision and progress, we stepped into Karazhan and did exceptionally well. Best of all, we were laughing at the end of the day, and that's what playing this game is all about. As long as we keep that up, we should have no worries about where this guild is headed.

Megan Fox ftw.

I have this mouse with a bunch of buttons on it, none of which were binded until just a little while ago. Yeah, I'm a nub. I bound Healthstone and Health Potion use, Camera Flip, CoEx, Banish, Insta-Howl, and Soul Shatter onto the buttons. Initial impressions are good, but I may change them up a bit after I actually get some raid and arena experience with the setup. Still can't believe I never bound anything before. Sad, right?

Some people worry too much about the lives they've created in WoW, and not enough about the life that's passing them by in the real world. I hope they know what they're doing...

Many more thoughts to come... eventually... =)

Tweet

lol...

In vent today:

Majinn: "So what do you do for a living, Krarr?"
Krarr: "Moo?"
Majinn: "You 'moo' for a living?"

...and then we somehow ended up on a conversation about kidney stones...

Krarr: "Mine are like the consistency of diamonds. They stay hard and just shred their way out."
Majinn: "Pissing diamonds ftl."

...and then we got into an OVERLY detailed explanation about how to handle passing a kidney stone. When to squeeze. When to push. When to sit. When to stand. And when to "cut it off." It was like Prom Kings meets the Discovery Health Channel.

Krarr: "Man, I pissed one so hard once it chipped the toilet."

Just awesome.

I laughed so hard... but I guess you had to be there cause the text just doesn't do the moment justice.

Anyhow, it was good to see you online again, Krarr. =)

Tweet

Works of Art

I love it when people get a little creative in-game. I mean planting bodies in-front of major cities was funny, but to put a little creative spin on it, like the recent Saved by the Bell and The View-themed massacres in-front of the UC and Orgrimmar, is just priceless! They totally had me and many other players stopped in our tracks, laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all, and appreciating their brilliance too. WTB real character models for Kelly Kapowski and Elisabeth Hasselbeck pls! Oh, if you haven't seen it already, Rosie O'Donnell is a male Tauren Warrior. If there's any question as to why that's the case, this image should answer it well. Intimidating shout, a little?

Thanks to whoever put those together. I totally look forward to the next exhibit. Good times. =)

Tweet

Losing a Gamble

The guild had a pretty rough day yesterday. Gamble stepped down as officer after a dispute with two other guild members, and all three ended up leaving the guild when things didn't quite go their way. Fabulous, but it didn't stop there. Gamble left a majority of his materials with the guild, trashed all of his gear, and quit the game. I thought it was a little rash and out of character for a guy that is usually cool, calm, collected, and thinks things through, but he seemed very passionate about his decision to leave, and I respected that. His wife called him a "pos quitter" though. Lol a little. Anyway, I wish him well.

So, where does that leave the guild? Well, we still have a MT issue, but that's being handled. Kergen and Deject have stepped in, respeccing to Prot and picking up some tanking gear so that we can get our raiding fix asap. We should be back in Karazhan later tonight, and I can't wait. Lycanno apparently quit the game, so we're out one of Alex's best druids and players, but we've also picked up some new players that show a lot of promise, and I'm excited to see them raid. Best of all, they have a positive, fun, AND seemingly mature attitude, which is always good at keeping moral high. Also, Jade is working hard on recruitment, so ideally, we'll be hitting the 25-mans soon and passing all the guilds in progression that we flew by while in Karazhan. Quality over quantity will win in the end, no doubt.

Oh, and on a serious side-note, to those of you on Alex who get off on sexually harassing female gamers (you know who you are): we'll put way more effort than required to get you guys perm-banned if you make a habit of it. Think about that before your lonely-misery gets the best of you and what you type.

Tweet

Concept of Ownership

A while back, I read a research article in a Developmental Psychology journal which stated that children as young as 18 months old are able to identify items that belonged to them and that belonged to other children. This concept of ownership, the research concluded, appears much earlier in development than previously thought, and signifies an ability to self-evaluate, even at less than 2 years of age.

Yesterday, I received a message in my WoW mailbox. The note read something like "I hate to have to ask, but can you give me my gold back. I hope we can work this out." It was from an ex-guildie that has a long and less-than-lustrous history on Alexstrasza as an emo-stalker of sorts, but that's beside the point. The back-story here is that he was quitting the game and gave all of his toon's gold and BoEs to me, which I took only after verifying that it was his intent to give up his belongings permanently and that this was not a loan. He agreed. But then he requested that I give the gold to the guild and in his name. Sure. Done and done.

That was a while ago, and yet for some reason, he is asking for the gold back with the precedence that it is HIS gold, even after giving up ownership of it. Now, if you know this guy and what he's like, this should come as no surprise to you, and I'm rather upset with myself for taking his gift and presenting it to the guild. I wouldn't have unnecessarily involved ourselves with him had I thought more clearly about dealing with such a character, whose past socially-unacceptable behavior is a clear indication of a lack of self-evaluation, and therefore, a concept of ownership. Either he lacks basic self-perception or he has an agenda (actually, it's probably both), but whatever be the case, the gold he gave the guild is no longer his, and has long been spent as such.

When you give something away, it is no longer yours. A pretty simple concept.

I chose not to respond to the in-game message so that I wouldn't reinforce the guy's behavior. I was also having second thoughts about posting this here, but I figured it was a good way to get the issue out there, and maybe make people a little bit more aware of themselves and personal issues they need to address. Present-to-hand, I think is how Heidegger would put it (someone correct me if I'm wrong, pls), although I think he would just shake his head and walk away at the thought of a 20-year-old failing to master a concept a 2-year-old can achieve. Actually, we might do well doing that ourselves.

;)

Tweet

In-game Harassment Leads to RL Beating (lol!)

I picked up on this story earlier this morning. I'm not sure if it's real or not (I'm assuming it is because of the police report), but it's definitely worth noting either way. Here are a few snippets from the article:

Bronco Carson, a World of Warcraft player from Mexico, reported to police on Saturday that three men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and totalled his computer. The reason? Carson had been repeatedly ganking the WoW character of the wife of one of his assailants...

...Carson made the mistake of giving the woman his address, telling the woman that "if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this."

Now, I've witnessed some pretty pathetic attempts at gaining the attention of female players over the years. Much of the behavior breaks down into what can be considered harassment, which justifiably results in two very frustrated parties. But I have NEVER heard of someone ridiculously giving out his address and ASKING to be confronted in a physical manner, just to maintain communication with the female he's essentially stalking. I mean, that's just a new level of pathetic, isn't it?

Alex has it's fair share of creeps, to say the least. They engage in elementary-grade-level practices in order to tell a girl, directly or indirectly, that they like her. You remember what you'd do back in the day, right? You'd follow the girl around, showing off your skills on the monkey bars, always targeting her during dodge ball, putting bugs in her food, eating glue just to gain her attention, flinging mud in her direction, etc. That's what this is all about. The difference is that we're no longer little kids and that such behavior can no longer be explained away as a result. Unfortunately, it's not punished either.

WoW provides a consequence-free shelter for such individuals - we've been dealing with the same "stalkers" on Alex for years now, even after many complaints to Bliz about their behavior. So when a player gives out his real address and asks for the consequences to come find him, it's a pretty fair measure of how juvenile his mind really is and how disconnected he is from reality. I feel bad for him and people like him, really, because they are truly sick in the mind.

One thing this story highlights is that there ARE consequences to how we act in-game, whether we see them or not. People do get angry, annoyed, etc, and you will earn a reputation that probably speaks greatly about the kind of person you truly are (in an indirect sense, this gets into why Prom Kings values lengthy applications and downtime over "progression," but that's a completely different post). If you're the kind of person who doesn't care about such things, well, I'd like to see how that affects you in other aspects of your life (probably not so well, I'd imagine). And, you might not want to give out your address. You might one day find yourself like our good friend Bronco here.

By the way, what kind of parents name their kid "Bronco?" Either he's incredibly impressive in the nethers, or his parents must have a horse fetish I don't care to think about any further...

Tweet