No heals.

So Jess had to go four days and three nights without heals while somebody was on vacation. I figured I’d see if I could make her feel just a tad guilty. Also I’ll throw in a little tribute to my favorite TV show. I know she won’t get it, but maybe a few browncoats out there will.

“You know, it’s funny…we went to Naxxramas never looking to come back, but it’s Northrend I couldn’t survive. You carried me through that raid, and now I need you to carry me just a little bit further, if you can. Tell my folks I wanted to do right by them and that I’m at peace and all. When you can’t run anymore you crawl, and when you can’t do that, well, yeah you know the rest.”

You have aggro.

Here are three words that have no place anywhere in the game, whether it be a chat channel or online forums.*

Retarded. Any parent can understand how trying it is or could be to have a child that is disabled and cannot experience life in the same way as others. To use this term as an insult is truly sad. If you really want to comment on someone’s lack of leet skillz, then go with a more archaic term like “idiot,” but probably it would be best if you just shut the fuck up.

Fag. Some people are gay. Some people aren’t. So what? Honestly why is someone being gay a big deal? The only problem with being gay is the shits who think “fag” is an insult. If you can’t deal with two men or two women in love and/or having sex, then it’s your sexual hang-up, not theirs.

Rape. I realize that rape is a gaming expression, but I’ve also seen less figurative uses of the term in WoW, and I’m sure many have seen “Sapped girls can’t say no.” Rape is a terrible crime. I have never been raped, and I do not know anyone who has (or if I do they’ve not told me), but it still greatly disturbs me that someone can make a joke out of it. Rape isn’t fucking funny, ever.

*To be clear, I am not calling for a ban on these words or suggesting that they cannot be used in a way that is not offensive. My issue is how they are used. This is upsetting to me.

Ulduar: The ponytail approves.

Watch for Jess in her next movie: Catapult Keredria from the Demolisher.

So The Left Claw made it’s first foray into Ulduar on Friday. We got the Flame Leviathan down with maybe three attempts. We had a good time with this encounter. I was driving a chopper and having a great time with it. Jess looks great on a chopper with her ponytail flapping in the wind. Ok, well maybe they don’t have that animation, but in my mind it was. Jess got herself some Flamewatch Armguards which are a nice little upgrade. We tried to get to Ignis the Furnace Master but wiped a few times on trash before we got a bad case of the sleepies and called it a night. We were not disappointed though. Most were pleased that the trash in Ulduar are actually a bit of a challenge.

Guild culture.

So for reasons that have nothing to do with WoW I recently found myself flipping through the book “Individualism and Collectivism” by Harry Triandis, a social psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He discusses research regarding two general dimensions that have been used to explain many cross-cultural differences in behavior. Very roughly speaking (I am not a social psychologist) these are individualism (focus is on the self) versus collectivism (focus is on the group), and vertical (inequality) versus horizontal (equality). Crossing these two dimensions yields four “archetypes” for lack of a better word. Some researchers have used these attributes to describe not just individuals and cultures but organizations as well. This got me thinking about how one might characterize World of Warcraft guilds.

• Vertical Individualism. Focus on the autonomous self, while seeing others as potentially different in status. This pattern is most common in the United States and France. A vertical individualist guild has members that are concerned largely with themselves rather than the guild as a whole, and there is a clear hierarchy of status (ranks) within the guild. It seems to me that a vertical individualist guild would not typically be a healthy or stable guild unless members near the top of the hierarchy could consistently motivate members to work together by identifying aligned goals (i.e., loot).
• Vertical Collectivism. The self is viewed as part of a group, but there are differences in status among the members of the group. Countries that demonstrate vertical collectivism include Greece and India. Guild members are focused more on the welfare of the guild over themselves, but the guild has a strict hierarchy. I think some larger hardcore raiding guilds could be characterized as vertical collectivist. Members of the guild want the guild to succeed, but a status hierarchy is necessary for organization.
• Horizontal Individualism. An autonomous self with equality in status among others. This pattern is found in Australia and Sweden. This might characterize some PvP and twink guilds rather than raiding guilds where individualism would not conflict with the objectives of the members and there is little nead of a hierarchy within the guild.
• Horizontal Collectivism. The self is viewed as part of a group where members of the group having equal status. This pattern is found in Israeli kibbutzim and some monastic orders. This would characterize some small raiding guilds of people who have a common goal and, except for maybe a crazy raid leader, equality of status. I would suggest that my guild is a horizontal collectivist guild.

Who am I?

Big patches always turn our virtual worlds upside down. Add-ons break or behave in very mysterious ways, abilities and talents are changed, and there are subtle undocumented and confusing differences in graphics and sounds. But for me the new dual-spec feature is, well, it’s just a bit unsettling. With the click of a button I go from a protection warrior to an arms warrior in 10 seconds. What was once a relatively expensive and time-consuming change of identity is now something that can be done quickly and casually with the click of a button or two.  I suppose it wouldn’t feel so odd if my off-spec was another tanking spec, which is something I may do in the future if that is needed for Ulduar. Dual-speccing is a feature that I welcome and I will use it and enjoy it, but it will take some getting used to. Is it just me?

The real problem with current WotLK raiding.

Haiku? I can’t even count!

Two memes in one day! Ratshag tagged me on this one, and Keredria wrote one for me. I’ll return the favor.

Epic gear, leet skillz
Trying hard to stay alive
She says try harder

Honest scrap.

Sigh. I sorta hate these things, but you can’t say “no” to Keredria. Anyways here are the rules:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

Ok so some bloggers to tag. I won’t try to pick people who haven’t already been tagged. First a couple of podcasters: Alachia (please try her “meta” podcasts), and Renata of World of Warcast (the podcast I listen to while doing the dishes). She’s already been tagged, but I’ll tag Megan of Out of Mana anyway. Although I very rarely PvP, I admire people who are good at it. I’ll tag Dezdemone of Will Tank for Healz! and Anglachel of The Meatshield Diaries in an attempt to get them to post more, and Khol Drake of A Stab in the Dark just because he comments often on my blog. Oh and how about Auzura of Chick GM because, as she says, “playing like a girl rocks.”

Ten boring factoids about Jess:

1. I try to be a lacto-ovo pescetarian. So no “land meat” but if it lives in the sea and doesn’t have a blow hole, I will try to eat it.
2. I don’t know any languages other than English, and am rather ashamed about that. I have a great admiration for multilingual people.
3. Dancing makes me feel extremely self conscious. I’ve “fast danced” three times in my entire life, although I have repressed those memories. There isn’t enough alcohol in the world to make me do it again.
4. I have never been to a funeral. A few weeks ago I took an 18 year old cat to the veterinary hospital and had to have her put down. I’m still dealing with that.
5. The color of my eyes is ambiguous. They can be blue, green, or grey depending on what I am wearing.
6. I have one more degree than Keredria — four degrees from two different universities. The latter two are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She’s secretly jealous.
7. I have a book contract with a major publisher. Writing has been slow.
8. I often prefer to think or talk about things rather than do them. I don’t call this procrastination. Rather I say I am more theoretical and less applied.
9. I am not very artistic in any way. I greatly admire people who are. However I’ve done a bit of fine art black and white photography in the past. My favorite cameras are a Rollei SL66 and a Mamiya 220.
10. I am significantly taller than Keredria. I have far fewer shoes.

Edit: Ooops. I originally had 11. No wonder we always have too many people signed-up for raids. I can’t count! I took one out. Yes, I know the rules are “at least 10,” but for some reason 11 seems pretentious to me.