Heresy

Ramblings of a Female WoW Addict

After a weekend of cab crashes, friends in emotional need, guildies needing this or that, and an utter lack of sleep I can only say its business as usual.

As I sit here sipping this Red Bull during a slow work day, I lament that my warlock is still 61, and will probably hit 70 in 2020 at the rate I'm going because there's not enough time to help run a guild and level my alt, especially during a week where I invested in a 5-button mouse and utterly REDID the way I played all my toons- for the first time going to full keybindings. Not so big a deal on newer characters but on Heresy, whom I'd played 1 1/2 years...old old habits were very hard to break.

SO hard to break that to UNTRAIN my fingers from using A and D to turn I had to disable them completely, go to Silithus with Heresy and just kill sh*t, then later Ariades came down to be my test dummy for movement, gouges and so forth..... and one-by-one begin replacing clicks with binds. Its amazing what you don't even know you're doing once your muscles have memorised the action. But it was clear to me I couldn't get away with clicking anymore and I wanted to bring my game up even more. Being a rogue should be - much like it is with mages - a dynamic experience in pvp and that means clicking ain't gonna cut it.

A warlock can be a clicker and get away with things rogues can't. Fireflower is a lot easier and more fun with bindings but even before, she was pretty easy to pvp and duel with.

With a plethora of non-positional instants and ranged attacks its never quite as hard for a clicker affliction warlock as it is for a click backstab-based rogue who relies on tight and specific positioning to move effectively and quickly.

I had put this off for months - dreading the change, how awkward it would feel.

Months.

At lvl 60, a year ago:

Arcorash: "You're a clicker?"
Me: "Yep."
Arcorash: "I never would have believed that from duelling you."
Me: "Fast clicker."
Arcorash: "You should try bindings. If you're good now, you'll be really good then. Took Setanta about a week."
Me: "I ..dunno. Maybe someday. I know I need to...."
Arcorash: *silence*

At lvl 70 (damn him for being right):

Me: "Crap, I can't get away with clicking anymore."
Ariades: "PVE CLICKER!!" /taunts
Me: "Shut up!! I still manage to win some anyway"
Aeron: *sends me his UI to show me what he binds and give me ideas*
Me: "shit this is hard!!"
Aeron: "I know, but stick with it"
Me: "I know, I have to...I have to now."
Ariades: "PVE CLICKER!" /taunts
Me: *screams obscenities on Vent at Ariades*
Aeron: *random chuckling*
Me: *puts gouge on mouse button 4*
Aeron: *boggles* "I don't like putting that stuff on the mouse."
Me: "I like it, I'm keeping it."
Aeron: *silence*
Me: "let's try it again"
Ariades: *spams duel flag in my face*
Me: *gouges Ariades*

Aeron and Ariades and for that matter, Aeon, all deserve big gold medals for putting up with my keybind-adoption emo phase.

A friend in need is a friend indeed - a friend that duels is better.

Me: 2 weeks later, my toons are all keybound except Selwan who is about halfway there and I just need time to finish setting hers up.

Time.

Poor Selly. I miss my shaman, as much as I love my rogue and warlock. The rarely-played Selwan, on my other account, has needed 2000 honour points for a proper pvp elemental chestpiece for 2 weeks now - and I can't find time to do that either, which is bugging me because 3v3 with Narm and Aeon means a lot to me, and my gear sucks for it, having been an enhancement pve whore for 70 levels prior. Suffice it to say a Beast Lord Cuirass on an elemental pvp shaman is...lol. Its so lol that when I log her in I want to scream on /general "I KNOW ITS LOL, I AM SO SORRY". I only wear it because it has a lot of stamina on it and still is better in an arena than my old chest from my backup healbot set which has no stamina at all.

(/rolls need on more time in the day)

All this musing aside....after I eat a bowl of cereal and stare at the forums, and the same names on it - I decide the last thing I want to do this morning is think about WoW.

Controversial for Scotland, its a pretty day. Wednesday is bright and sunny, I decide I'm sick of being at home so many hours and after throwing my boss a "heads up I'll be late" message on Skype, I decide that I'll run out into the hot sunshine of an unexpectedly pretty day and go get some lunch and take care of some errands.

Sunshine. Exercise. Movement.

Yeah ok, I remember this. Something about.."rays"...and "light"...and people with tans. And using my feet.

I try to remember what sun feels like on my arms.

I think I have a short-sleeved shirt somewhere. I think its probably time to wear it. It's probably an old one, you know says something like "Use Your Illusion Tour" on it.

Dressed and blinking, I run out into the city and the real world for awhile.

"IRL".

A phrase I'd never heard before playing WoW - one that begs the question "why did we need that distinction to be made?"

The thing about WoW is its all too easy to be sucked into it past the level of just a game; for a lot of us its everything from a social gathering place to a band-aid for real life dissapointments and pain. For some of us it provides a sense of power and accomplishment that ideally should be provided by real life but that isn't always there, and for others its a place to go because they're gamers, plain and simple, and they've played others, and will do so again.

Just a gamer. That's what I used to be, anyway. Years and years ago before we had the level of quality we do now, I occasionally played pen and paper with friends. Vampire: The Masquerade, the occasional round of DnD and Magic The Gathering (the card game) with old friends in Texas that worked at AMD or were in Uni. If there were such a thing as "cool geeks", these were the guys. Motorcycling, tattoed, guitar playing computer freaks. Best way to describe them. Its a culture thing - not so easy to find, a niche between out-and-out computer nerds but these guys were more like cast members from a Kevin Smith movie.

Alf was the fat party animal that liked metal. Randy was the cute one, Paul the bookworm intellectual, Mike the goth, Kelly the borderline cowboy, and Ross was the grumpy bastard. Valerie was my old friend from Uni...and then there was JD. JD was the mysterious one.

You know the bad guy in "The Crow"? JD looked just like this guy, long hair and all. Drove a really wicked Mitsubishi sportscar and had a nice house in North Austin. Mind you - I had NO clue as to what JD did for a living. He was pretty quiet and looked a little older than the rest of us. Maybe he actually WAS the bad guy in The Crow.

Or an arms dealer.

IRL.

*shifty eyes*

Anwyay, after that, I amused myself with some early MMPORGS like Realm before moving into Dark Age of Camelot which is where I was for some time - I think we were on the Albion server but I barely remember the names of things there now. And having led a small guild, being a paladin, minstrel and finally getting into pvp as an infiltrator (their version of a rogue) and remaining in that game for some time I finally burned out.

I think there's one person from that game - a Swedish guy that called himself Speed - that I wish was still around and had moved to WoW - was one of the nicest, least fu**ed-up, easygoing and talented players I'd met during my time there. In fact since then I've come to realise I just plain LIKE most Swedish and Norwegian gamers I've met. Maybe its just coincidence.

After that period.... it was Eve Online. I came to like this game, for some reason in the winter. As I had never really gotten into science-fiction type gaming I was actually surprised I went for this. If it had a downfall though it seemed corporations were the way to really succeed and I couldn't be arsed so I settled on being good at the map, being good at ninjaing expensive ore from dangerous places and basically trying to avoid pirates at jump gates.

Eve never quite captured my imagination though, and most singleplayer games make my stomach hurt from the movement (true story - I've played Half-life, Thief, and others and I always get queasy..).......UO held little appeal for me, and other MMPORGS I tried didn't impress, so that was about the only thing left that interested me.

And I won't do SIMS. Let me just say something about that game: It freaks me out.

I may have done some things in games that made me question my sanity but paying bills as entertainment is going too fucking far. At some point SIMS-type stuff just...well, really I realise its not made for grownups AT ALL.....maybe if I'm 12 and just got out of some Barbiedoll phase it might appeal to me but as a relatively sane adult ..I can only say..eww. Why in the hell would I want to virtually have to throw out the trash and go to work? WTF?

The most sensible thing my ex ever said was about SIMS: "Why the **ck would I play a game that is just about all the stressful or inane crap we have to do in real life anyway?"

All the wisdom of that statement aside, he was still a nub though.

I know this because I still remember when he had a nelf rogue on Shadowsong and said "I never use slice and dice, I don't see the point."

'kay.

I should have known then we two weren't gonna work out. I just couldn't be married to a nub.

We female gamers have SOME pride you know.

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"I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it." - Mae West
Fireflower's Words of Wisdom: http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ompilation.jpg

Atare

Well...speaking as a guy with a female character as opposed to a RL girl...

*audience says a dissapointed "Oh..."*

...I honestly can't pretend that I know too much about female gamers since I haven't talked to that many as of yet. However...I can tell you that when I levelled up my own mage to 60 on The Venture Co. (before TBC) I honestly was away from the "IRL" part that is so many times mentioned. About a few months back I decided I'd continue playing WoW, but never at any serious expense to RL. Hence - I started with Atare. I levelled her up reeeeaaal easymode. Got her to 26 or so...then I stopped playing for 1 month. Then I started again, got her to something like the 40s and...again nothing for a while. Finally got her to 61 and stopped again. And finally, 1 month ago or so, decided to do a flat out burnout to level 70 and decent gear. Within the month I did a lot of things and I can finally relax now and chill out.

Some might not believe me - that I'd want even BETTER epix. But after finally getting the faster flying mount I listened to the rain fall from my balcony this morning and went out for a walk. And you know what? It felt SO GOOD to do something other than WoW. So I dunno...I understand how WoW sucks people in (it sucked me in too when I was on my mage) but with my hunter I honestly don't feel like I "have to" get better gear or like I "have to" play the game at this and this time. I just log on - see if anyone cool is on, check some World PVP areas, maybe get into a group for an instance and in about 3 or max 4 hours - screw it. I have enough.

So anyway yeah...it can be nasty, but trust me I think it's safe to say that "Taking all things in moderation - even WoW" (as the blizzard tip says) is not as freaking impossible as it sounds - it just requires some trial and error (the kind that doesn't focus on WoW only but also on things outside of it).

Also...

Ye Morning Poste

oops!

callumf

@Heresy - awesome post - just awesome thanks for sharing that with us - I read your whole post and know exactly what your trying to say.

Thank you

__________________
sigged by Firebird of Stratics! Thanks!

Heresy

Hehe, thanks!

Really glad you enjoyed it.

__________________
"I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it." - Mae West
Fireflower's Words of Wisdom: http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ompilation.jpg

Atare

Many people seem to have...heck, everyone on the realm forums wants to be like you! You're a pop star now!

Heresy

You know I don't even know how all that started either..was about Jan 2006 I started writing stories about Heresy and they sort of got a small following.

Then I suppose somewhere along the line I just got full of myself (*shifty eyes*) and got known for either flirting, telling people off or just writing what I felt like writing.

It has an upside and a downside - upside is I get a real sense of enjoyment when I know someone has related to something I wrote or enjoyed a story I created, its a hobby of sorts and so naturally it brings some satisfaction when someone appreciates it.

The downside is the inevitable assumptions that can be made about people being 'drama queens' or 'attention whores'. I've been accused of being both but the reality in-game is often the opposite, I tend to get wrapped up in whatever I'm doing, really get sick of typing and just want to play usually and, especially lately, have to work to get quiet time to accomplish simple tasks.

Somewhere between that and being actually rather horrified that so many people decide they know me is the truth - I have a lot to say and I like to say it in writing, but at the end of the day, I'm not here to be 'known', I'm here to enjoy the game, and my friends.

Its a strange little world, this WoW one.

__________________
"I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it." - Mae West
Fireflower's Words of Wisdom: http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ompilation.jpg

callumf

'drama queens' or 'attention whores'

I have been voted UO Europa Drama Queen in every poll [admittedly only 2]taken on f4g.net.

I always assumed it was for being an IC drama queen and not an ooc one [hush Snub and Pala dont you even dare!].

MMOs need players who are expressive and "do" stuff they are what gives the game character.

SO

Rave on =) ANd tell us some more thoughts

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sigged by Firebird of Stratics! Thanks!

Paladis

But....In truth i think Libertine guildchat would sometimes shock even Callumf,drama queen or not *winks*.

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Atare

Hehe...actually I was reffering to the fact that the form of your post on the realm forums is being copied ala "Conffesions of a male player" "Of random gamer" "of a black player" I meant the current events...not your general status on Defias but...tis interesting to learn about too.

Really - I can safely say I've met a lot worse internet attention whores if you feel others percieve you as such. Just go look at The Venture Co. realm forum and feel quite reassured that you'll probably never reach their level. Other than that yeah...keep writing! Tis good stuff.

callumf

Well I would be pretty unlikely to get into the Libertines =)

Might write an application though.

*ponders*

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sigged by Firebird of Stratics! Thanks!