Another 20 Days (Day 3)

Saga at Spellbound has come up with her very own 20 Days of WoW Blogging challenge - this is Day 3.

Your first day playing WoW

I remember the crunching sound the snow made under my toon's feet, and it even left little footprints in the snow. I remember climbing up the hill to reach Ironforge, the great statue of Anvilmar greeting you as you enter the gates.  It was stunning. And then, when you actually enter The Great Forge and see the lava flowing, it was amazing. I fell in love with Ironforge on my first day playing WoW. I remember flying to Ironforge on my very first flight, which was also my very first screenshot.

(which I still have in my folder of screenshots)

And then I looked around and realized that all of the people flipping and prancing and sparkling around me were real people all around the world playing this game with me. It was love at first sight. I didn't wait for my trial to end before I started paying to play. I think it was two days later and I couldn't wait any longer to be able to chat and send mail and join a guild, all that fun stuff.

The other thing I remember from my first days, was realizing that Paladins in WoW don't play the same as Paladins in other games. Although it may be the same premise, Paladins were too different from what I had grown accustomed to in other games. So after leveling Orenda into her 20s, I deleted her in favor of a Warlock, mostly because the friend who introduced me to WoW said they were easy to level.

The Warlock ended up not being the best choice for me either, but that's a story for another day.

Who Wears Short Shorts?

Apparently Audrid wears short shorts...

I never thought I'd say this, but...

I'm anxious to get to Outlands so my gear will look better.

You heard that right... Even the crazy green pants with the purple zigzag look better than this hot mess. They'd even totally match the green booties I'm wearing now. (>_<)

I really can't say any more. I'll let you judge for yourself.

I'm a Paladin?

Blog-drama

Well, here we go again. Its been a long time since I've piped up on the drama-of-the-week, but I just couldn't resist getting in the ring on this one.

Kiss My Alas wrote a very well written post about her take on Big Bloggers effecting Small Bloggers. And, despite his recent departure from the world of blogging, Tamarind has taken it upon himself to respond at The Pink Pigtail Inn.

While it is not always comfortable to receive criticism, whether constructive or not, its something we all have to deal with. The internet is a public space, and as has been said before, even if you may be the most neutral of parties, eventually someone is going to disagree with you or dislike your blog.

Mama always told me that if you don't have anything nice to say then it is best to say nothing at all. However, nice is one of those arbitrary words that is entirely dependent upon perspective to have any meaning at all.

Discussion and argument are part of what makes blogging such an interesting passtime. The irony is that I have quite a neutral opinion myself. I think Tam makes very valid points. I think Alas makes very valid points as well. I don't think either of them is wholly "right." Disagreeing with someone is not necessarily being a dick. How you do it could be perceived as dickish behavior, but the simple act of disagreeing is not that. But as Tam has said, dickish behavior is highly subjective.

What troubles me about this whole argument is fear of linking and/or commenting. I like that sometimes Larisa and Tam and other big bloggers link to and comment at some more obscure but interesting blogs. It may be unfortunate that not every person that reads these bigger blogs is a "nice" person, but to blame any negative feedback that occurred after you were linked from a larger blog is to ignore the purpose of linking, which is to share readership and to promote discussion.

I think we all need to step up and take responsibility for our own spaces. Regardless of size, eventually a troll or someone who very vocally disagrees with you will happen upon your blog. If you don't like what is being said then you have a right as a blogger to moderate comments. No, you can't control what is said at other people's blogs about you/your blog, but you can choose to respond to it or ignore it.

I respect what Zel and Alas have said about different sensitivity levels. I agree that greater diversity makes for a better community. However a blog is not a private space (unless we make it so), and we all know that when we create our blogs. There are options to limit who can read what you write. It is a known risk we all take when we make our words open for the whole world to read. If you are not ready for that, then maybe it is time to reconsider your permission settings.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't want to live in fear of giving someone some link love, whether they have a large readership or not. And I for one don't want any of the larger blogs to not link to me if I happen to say something they want to talk about (regardless of whether they agree or disagree with me).

What kind of blogging community would it be if we couldn't have something as benign as Tuesdays with Tarinae at A Healadin's Tear? Oh wait, we can't have that anymore because she's gone too. /cry But I think you get my point.

That Warlock Itch

I've been reading more and more Warlock blogs lately...

Oddly, I miss Ashwynn.

Since I have deleted my toons I haven't really missed them much, except Ashwynn. She was the last one I expected to miss, afterall, she sat for years as nothing more than my bank alt.

I don't make a good Warlock player. I know this, but I really love having demonic minions. Muahahaha!

Errm... yeah.

So my random six may be expanding to seven, before I've even gotten all of their stories up here. In fact, there are 2 that I haven't even gotten to level 10 yet. Do they make a d7? I don't think so. /sigh

Pardon me while I run off and create Warlock after Warlock deleting them until I find the perfect imp name.

Another 20 Days (Day 2)

Saga at Spellbound has come up with her very own 20 Days of WoW Blogging challenge - this is Day 2.

Day 2: Why you decided to start a blog

I have always had a desire to write. As long as I can remember I have loved reading and writing. As a teenager, full of angst and emotion, I wrote what in retrospect is really bad poetry. I wrote every day, whether it be in my journal or working on poems. At some point I just stopped. Maybe I realized just how horrible my poetry was. Maybe I was no longer feeling so angsty or emotional. Maybe I had dulled my senses with marijuana. Whatever the case may be, I had stopped writing altogether.

Years later I discovered LiveJournal. Many of my good friends used it as a place to write and to share little bits of themselves with the world. So, I made a LiveJournal too. I rarely posted on it. I mostly used it as a way to keep track of my friends. When they all made the exodus to Facebook I removed my LiveJournal and followed them there.

Facebook, however, was nothing like a writing site, nothing at all like LiveJournal. It didn't take long before I was inundated by friend requests, bumping into people I didn't want to, and in general getting overwhelmed. I deleted my Facebook account. I don't regret that choice. I am shy and introverted to an extreme. Facebook was far too social for my liking.

Around this time, I started poking around different WoW sites, and I discovered the blog written by Aurdon and Rhii, I Sheep Things (Rhii has since moved on to her own blog Oh My, Kurenai). It was love at first click, and through their blogroll I discovered a whole world of WoW blogs. This was a whole community of people who were doing the same things I was doing and writing about it. I couldn't resist creating my own little space.

It was on March 23rd, 2010 that I began blogging at Love and War in Azeroth. I saw it as a way to practice my writing, a way to vent about WoW stuff, and a potential way to be part of a community.

While the blog has changed and my game playstyle has changed, the reason for the blog has not. I am happy with my little space on the web, even if especially because I have limited readership and am unlikely to be linked at WoW Insider. I'm not sure I'd be well equipped to handle the staggering amount of readers and comments that places like The Pink Pigtail Inn get, nor do I think my writing skill warrants such attention.

At the end of the day, the reason for the blog is just because I love reading and writing (about WoW).

Embrace of the Viper

This low level gear set is aptly named, because it creates drama.

I know what you're thinking, this is level 21 gear, low level loot is serious business, right?

Apparently it is.

Herein lies the problem... the stats on the Embrace of the Viper are itemized for melee or hunters boasting agility and stamina, while the set bonuses increase intellect.

And so inevitably any time I run Wailing Caverns I end up in a group with a druid healer and hunter who end up crying "Ninja!" at each other until someone gives up or gets kicked.

As if I didn't hate Wailing Caverns enough as it....

Introducing Shysse

Shysse is an energetic and very young Night Elf eager to learn the ways of the Sentinels, anxious to become one of the proud warrior women of her people. While her energy and dedication are promising attributes, she has a tendency towards wanderlust and an insatiable curiosity. This is what led her astray. This is how she met the Satyr Zenn Foulhoof.

He promised her happiness. He promised her she would have all that she desired and even things she had never dreamed she could have. He was strange and exotic, but oddly desirable, his hair an unusual red and so silky, his hooves a gleaming gold. She longed to simply touch him. She decided that she must gain his friendship, his love.

And so she snuck away from Dolanaar in the quiet of mid-day to bring him the things he desired from her. She indiscriminately slaughtered the wildlife of the area in search of flawless owl feathers, the perfect nightsaber fangs, that last bit of untangled spider silk.

She returned to him as night was falling, as the town was beginning to awaken. With blood and gore on her hands, she handed him these choice objects. And he laughed. He called her naive and gullible and kicked her away from him as he fled with her gifts.

She landed in the mud, covered in every horrible substance imaginable, the worst of which was her guilt and shame. And she cried. It was in this same spot hours later that her mentor, the Sentinel Kyra Starsong, found her.

It was in a daze that she went with the Sentinel and allowed herself to be cleaned up. She was brought before The Council of the Forest in Darnassus for judgement. She was told that this act of wrongdoing would prevent her from ever achieving her ultimate goal. She was banned from ever becoming a Sentinel.


Her heart broken, her entire world shattered, and no one to blame but herself, Shysse had a decision to make. To stay amongst her people as an outcast or to flee to another part of the world where no one would know her and her wicked deed. Her wanderlust won this battle, just as it always seemed to do, and so she boarded a ship for Stormwind and was on her way.

Stormwind would not be her final destination though. There were plenty of Night Elves that made their way to this Human city. She needed to be even further away, in a place where no one would recognize her.

Very few of her people ever made the trek to Ironforge, not least because the easiest way to get there was by using the Gnomish contraption, the Deeprun Tram, which tunnels deep into the earth to reach the mountain home of the Dwarves. Her natural distrust of Gnomish engineering and the dislike for being underground was just something she would have to overcome.

Once her journey was over and she had arrived in Ironforge safely, her distrust for engineering quickly became a fascination. She became fast friends with some members of the Gnomeregan Covert Ops, and is aiding them in routing the Trolls out of Dun Morogh. In return they are teaching her their stealthy ways as well as a bit about tinkering.