Tale Forty Eight: The Women Issue in WoW

I’ve been lurking around some blogs/posts/Trade chat the last week looking for a topic to write about – other than Icecrown and Patch 3.3.

And I stumbled on this gem:

Some people believe that girls can’t play WoW as well as boys.

What is this, kindergarten again?

Let me clear a few things up:

No, we don’t have cooties.

No, we don’t always have pillow fights topless at sleep overs.

And last but not least, yes, we play WoW.

And some of us play it pretty darn good!

The base of argument here (well in Trade Chat – Ah, Cenarius, how filled with drama you are!) was the same old thing. “Guys can physically do more than girls.”

Alright, but this is WoW. This is not Real Life where a guy can lift up 100 pounds and I’m dying as I lift up 10 pounds (Yes, I’m weak. Leave me alone!)

In a game, we’re equals. Oh yes. A girl can kick your ass in PvP. She can beat you on the damage meters. She can be an amazing tank. The one that I will not buy is that we make better healers because we’re naturally nurturers.

Just go ask my friends how nurturing I am. I won’t go pick up after you, I will not kiss your boo-boo and I plain don’t care about your latest drama.

I mean, last time my two best friends had a major fight I immediately told them, “I am Switzerland. Leave me out of this”.

Pretty non-nurturing if you ask me.

Apperantly, a girl gamer is still a weird concept. I got invited to do Ony 10 the other day and when I called out the Deep Breath in vent, three guys –whose voices had not even cracked yet- said ‘Woah! A chick! And she’s totally kicking your ass on the healing meter, Pally”.

I /sighed in real life. Then the paladin healing with me made up a bunch of lame excuses such as ‘Druids are OP’ or ‘she’s better geared than me’. Yeah right.

I just don’t get it. Why is a girl gamer such a taboo?

In my guild, 3/12 of us are girls. Two of us are healers, the other dps. In my guild, we don’t get any of this crap. We’re all raiders. Then again, it’s a real family-style guild so that’s probably why.

In my Horde guild, with over 300 toons (alts included), we have a healthy dose of boys and gals. The only time I’ve really thought ‘woah, she’s a chick’ was in an Ulduar 10 run and our tank’s wife spoke and sounded more like a seven year old than 20 something. Mr Littlebark and I just stared at each other and burst out laughing. Grimm, in his ultimate glory of geniuses, changed her guild note to ‘tanks wife ‘honey, I’m seven!’ Whenever I think of her, all I see is her famous ‘Shut upppppppppppp!’ in g chat. Slightly annoying? Yes. But that’s her thing, and we love her for it.

So, I guess I myself don’t think of myself as a chick in WoW. I think myself as Littlebark. What really made my teeth grind was when someone suggested that girls play boy toons so they don’t have to go through the whole ordeal.

Why should I have to look like an ugly Night Elf Male just because you’re too immature to accept that I am a girl and I play?

I heard from another friend that there was a guy who kept harassing her after a run (Vent had been used) and he kept telling her to send him her picture, because her voice had given him a – well, gentlemen, you know the terminology.

Even /ignore did not stop this guy, and in the end she got a name change and reported him to a GM.

Alright, so guys can be pretty immature. But it does not help when girls in WoW cause unnecessary drama. A girl who snarls “If your name isn’t fucking ---- don’t fucking start the event” will leave impression of ‘man, what a bitch!’ in a persons’ mind.

If you talk and talk and talk, not allowing the raid leader to say anything, you leave the expression of ‘Jebus Christ on a Crutch. Shut her up. Girls talk too much.”

So, I can see how guys immediately think girls = trouble. But honestly, we’re not. Most of us are amazing players who love the game.

Tale Forty Seven: Have you ever looked at the Statistics Tab?

I was curious to see what I had done in my time in WoW and ran into a couple of suprises.

Doesn't suprise me. I'm a very huggy druid.

2, 435 fish and still no turtle mount. ):

Really? Only? It feels like so much more..

Oh my... whacking those poor critters in instances does add up!

*sheepish look*

I was a bit suprised at this one. That's almost a 1000g in travel!

Protest these mad taxi fares!

Vain druid is vain. And I have noticed that since I switched LB to alliance,

I do get more haircuts.

So what about you? Any statistics that suprised you?

Tale Forty Six: Northrend where I live.

So. I thought I was literally in Northrend today. We had a blizzard warning all across the province. And by 10AM today, it was insane.

Needless to say: roads were crazy and the blizzard has still not let up. It's now 12:19 AM. More than 12 hours since those pictures were taken.

Quick, and somewhat embarrasing question. I keep hearing 'PTR' being thrown accross the boars. I know it stands for Public Test Realm... but last time I tried setting it up, my computer funked up. Can anyone help this silly tree? What goes on there?

Hope you are all staying warm!

Tale Forty Five: Seriously. Another one?

What is that LB!?

Let me tell you, reader.

That, is LB002.

You see, Blizzard thought it would be hilarious that my server crash five minutes after I log in. From coming home from work.

4 hours later, and it's still not up.

None of my servers are up, none of my friends server are up.

So I rerolled an alt on an Oceanic-that if it ever gets leveled up- I will probably ship back to Cenarius.

This druid looks what my beloved Littlebark looked like before I turned her to Alliance. I think I'll have fun ;)....

Until the damn server comes up.

Server being down = me not being able to do my Turkey Achievements. = me being a sad panda.

Taler Forty Four: Everyone has already talked about it!

But I really don't care.

Several bloggers have given their opinions on the pets that you can now purchase off the Blizzard store.

Some reacted positively, some negatively and others just didn't care.

I reacted positively.

When I saw the Monk months ago on the Wow.com site, I was thrilled. I'd promised myself that I would grind and sweat blood until I got him.

When I saw that I could buy him for $10, I was happy.

Saresa from Destructive Reach made a video on her view. I saw it and while I didn't agree with somethings, enjoyed it quite alot.

Two things that stuck out for me:
-'$10 is alot'
-You don't get the sense of satisfaction like you do from grinding a pet.

To the first point: to some people $10 IS alot. And if it is, you don't buy the pet. Keeva from Tree Bark Jacket knew that she had car payments ($6000 is 9 months! Woo hoo Keeva!) and therefore did not buy the pet. However, when her friend bought it for her, she was happy. As she said, she'll lecture him about his car payments later!

For those of you that don't know, I'm a college student and I work part time. I live with Mr. Littlebark and we share all our bills. Even with this, to me, $10 is NOT a lot. And $5 of it goes to the Make A Wish Foundation. That right there made me happy I bought it. Sure. $10 could get you a meal at McDonald's or new socks, etc. But it's your money and you can do whatever you want with it.

The second point: I have never grinded for a pet. Ever. I think the only thing I've grinded for is the Talbuk from Nagrand. And that took me almost 6months after I dinged 80. Did I get a "OHMYGOD you guys! Look what I got!" feeling? Nope. It was a "Ohmyeffing God. About frigging time!"

When I logged in and summoned the Monk and Lil KT, I was so happy! I DID get the "OHMYGOD YOU GUYS! I GOT HIM!" feeling. Even now, I love to summon them and giggle when I hear the Monk playing around. I understand that to some people, it might be all "Ho hum". But to me, it's fun. I would have grinded for it, but I didn't have to.

What was even better was that because of my Monk and Lil KT, one of my guildmates bought one too. Another guildmate had just bought it before me. Already, that's $15 for the Make a Wish Foundation.

So to the people that say that $10 is too much for a pet, let's talk numbers:

WoW Game Card (two months): ~$32.00
Snacks (monthly): Varies for people.
Meals (take out): Varies for people

So, in reality, you're spending quite abit on WoW. What about those of us who have multiple WoW accounts? Or, why bother buying the Collector's Edition of a new Xpac? The normal version will give you just as much as the other one.

So you see, I guess my pet peeve is: people slamming those who BUY the pets. You don't have to buy them. So can you please stop calling us Morons and telling us it's silly? As Chandler Bing once said, "We are rather fond of the silly!"

Tale Forty Three: Going Back to My Roots

First:Then:

And the final product:

Well. That's a nice thing after a horrible week of PuGS on the Paladin. Thank you, Littlebark, for cheering me up. <3

Tale Forty Two: I honestly don't why I put up with it.

PuGs. You've read my hate for them.

So why do I keep doing them?!

Honestly? The only answer I can come up with is I'm a complete moron.

And don't you dare disagree with me.

I'm so annoyed with the game. Nay. I'm annoyed at the people who make these PuGs a horrible and painful experience.

I transferred my Paladin to an RP server with Mr. Littlebark's warrior. What pisses me off, is that we transfer them, RP for a day and then he loses interest! Which means that I'm left to wander up and down the server by myself, knowing no one and clad in Naxx10 tank gear, Naxx10/25 holy gear.

No one, and I mean no one, wants a partially geared paladin. Which means I have to PuG. Not knowing who the ninja's are on this server, no one on my friends list. If you read several of my posts, you know that I work hard on my toons.

So, of course, this means pugging content that is now considered on farm.

Wrong.

People are idiotic, people have what appears to be 0 knowledge. I had a druid answer my LFM trade ad with "hey mate, I saw your Naxx25. I dinged 80 just now. Run me threw?"

Yeah. Welcome to my ignore list.

Finally got a Naxx25 group, with my brand new guild. And one of the guys in my guild tells the tank to pull, whilst some of us were still summoning. We wiped, people cried bloody murder and all the sudden, we have a new shaman in the group.

When the hell did that PuG rogue get assist!?

"Either he leaves, or people are going to start dropping."

The "he" that he was referring to was, as fate should have it, my new Guild Master.

I kicked the new shammy, told the people who had assist to stop the nerd rage and to keep going. Only one person dropped.

By the time we got to the boss, I knew it was going to fail. And of course, it did.

Honestly, I am sick to death of WoW. Sick to death of the fact that so many people and PuGs are ruining the game that I love.

No. I am not burnt out. No, I do not want to quit. I just want to gear up as quickly and painless.

Is that too much to ask!?