Monday is Hug a Gamer Day!

I saw on Facebook the last that several of my friends are "attending" the event called "Hug a Gamer Day" which takes place nationwide, tomorrow - November 29th.

Curious, I clicked the event and decided that I'll be attending too!

Here's the details, taken from the official Facebook event page:

"We've got days to wear towels, days to talk like pirates, but (according to a web search) this is the first planned Hug A Gamer day. So give your nearest geek a cuddle! They probably need it after all those pixels, but watch out for the Counter Strike reflexes. The date of this event is November 29th (the day Pong was released). Let us celebrate. Join in the hugs.(And invite as many people as you can so this can grow)."

Sounds like a pretty neat concept!

At the time I'm typing this post, 167,881 people are "attending" with thousands "maybe attending" or "waiting for response."

Whether you join the event/group on Facebook or not, do a gamer a favor and on Monday give them a hug!

30 Days of Me: Day 20 - A Hobby of Yours

Hm... I guess a relevent hobby worth talking about (since I already covered my musical talent and shared some of my artisticness in previous installments of this meme), would be gaming.

I've been playing video games since I was about the age of 3 or 4.

It was around 1987 or 1988 and I remember the older brothers of my childhood best friend had gotten a Nintendo. We would sit and watch them play from time to time and when they weren't around we would try our hand at it (we weren't very good). They had a handful of games, including some old school skating boarding game I could never figure out the controls to, Mike Tyson's Punchout, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, DuckTales, Gauntlet, Castlevania and Anticipation. My friend and I played Mario, Zelda, DuckTales and Gauntlet regularly, and would occasionally play Castlevania, although I remember thinking that one was a bit creepy! One of her brothers was really good at Gauntlet though - while we could only get so far on our own, I remember he giving me updates on how far her oldest brother had gotten while playing himself!

We also tried Anticipation but since weren't even 5, it was years before we were any good at that game! (Anticipation's the one where the computer draws an image and you have to guess what it is and spell it correctly before the time runs out - if you get it correct you get that colored piece and once you get all the colored pieces in that level you advance to the next slightly harder level - there's 3 levels you have to beat in order to win.)

Wanting a gaming system of my own, for Christmas one year my somewhat older cousin (by 3 years) sent me his old Atari system as he had gotten a Nintendo himself and didn't need the Atari. I remember it was okay - I mostly played Pac Man and Space Invaders on it as I couldn't figure out how in the world to play the stupid ET game (which apparently has been named one of the worst games ever made - doesn't surprise me one bit!). Eventually "Santa" brought me my own Nintendo system for Christmas one year - it came with Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt and a track game that required the included Power Pad. The Power Pad kinda sucked as apparently I wasn't heavy enough for it to register me running my little legs off, but I got plenty of use out of Duck Hunt with the gun, and of course playing Mario on my own so I'd be good when playing with my best friend or my dad. My favorite babysitter I had when I was a kid was a girl that was REALLY good at Mario - we'd spend a good bit of the night playing Mario and she'd show me some tips and tricks I didn't know about, including warp zones.

Eventually I got some more games, including The Legend of Zelda (which my mom's brother spent what seemed like an entire day and night playing when he came to visit us once, getting all the way to the last level - he got farther than I had ever seen!), the Little Mermaid game (which I didn't beat until I was older - that one's actually pretty easy, I could do it in under a half hour, as I started timing myself for kicks, lol...), and my favorite to play was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game, although I never got to beat that one until I got the Game Genie cheat adapter. Over the years I've gone back and bought a few from used gaming stores that my childhood best friend had (we used to borrow games and bring them back and forth to each others houses). I used to rent them from the video store some weeks too - I remember there being a Muppet game where in one stage you had to float around on inter-tubes without crashing into various objects... I have yet to find that one for sale!

As we got older, my friend got annoyed with me a bit, as I got a little too into the game (ie: jumping when my character did, or freaking out and giving a little shriek if I thought I was going to die, etc) - I remember her playing the last level on Mario and I had to go stand in the closet as she beat it cuz I was distracting her too much with my "getting in the game" a bit too much, lol...

I think it was 2nd grade when I got one of the original bulky Gameboy handheld systems. It came with Tetris, which I would be glued to for hours (until the 8 batteries the system required died!). Other games I had for it were the Ren and Stimpy game and Kirby's Dreamland, which I got pretty good at! I think I had a few others, but I can't remember what they were... Eventually they came out with the slimmer Gameboy Color while Sega had the Game Gear handheld. I always wanted to upgrade to the Game Gear, but never got one. I almost bought a Gameboy Advance in college, but spent the money on something else. I'm sure we'll get Jay a handheld at some point, although I wouldn't be too surprised if he keeps finding mommy and daddy playing with it, lol...

In 5th grade, I worked hard and got good grades and my dad promised he'd get me a Sega Genesis, as by then the 2 big systems to have were a Super NES or a Sega Genesis and I really wanted the Sega as I liked playing Sonic over at a friend's house.

The console we got came with Sonic 2, which as you know, was the first one that introduced Sonic's sidekick Tails. In single player mode Tails mostly just followed you around, and in co-op mode the 2nd player could control him a little bit, but there wasn't much to do with him. He was cute though and I enjoyed saving all the little critters from Dr. Robotnik. I had trouble getting past the Vegas level though... I recently went back and played it not too long ago, finally reaching the last level and OMG... that last level is a PAIN IN THE BUTT! Other games I had for Sega were The Lion King and Toy Story. The Lion King game I enjoyed, but again, I hard time getting past the Hukuna Matata level - fortunately, I had subscribed to Disney Adventures magazine and they published a cheat code that let you select what level you started at and could give you infinite lives - thanks to this, I was able to eventually beat the game (now I can do it without the code). They also published a code for Toy Story which made it so I could finally see the end of the game (some of the later levels were really difficult!) I also purchased used the Anamaniacs game as well as Aladdin, which I had played at a friend's on her Super NES system.

The summer before 9th grade we went out east to visit family and met up with some cousins I hadn't seen in ages. They had a Playstation which my parents agreed was pretty neat, as the graphics were so crisp (for the time). We eventually got one of those for Christmas and over the years I had quite a bit of games for it (my favorite racing game was the Test Drive series), although in a matter of years we upgraded it to a PS2 because of the DVD player that came as part of it and the backwards compatibility of being able to play regular Playstation games in addition to the PS2 ones.

Sometime in high school I got hooked on The Sims and had bought multiple expansions for it (Livin' Large, Hot Date, and Unleashed - the one with the pets). I loved building the houses and thanks to the rosebud code I could just give myself infinite money so I never had to worry about my Sims missing work. Back in the late 80s, I also enjoyed playing DOS floppy disk games, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as well as some mine hunter game my dad (which I wish we could remember the name as I LOVED that one - from what I can find online, it's similar to Boulder Dash).

When I went off to college my sis, high school boyfriend, and eventually my college boyfriend all had Gamecubes, so I got to play on those from occasion. Coming home I'd play Mario Party 4 (or was it 5?) with my sister; some RPG game and occasionally football with my high school boyfriend; and my college boyfriend enjoyed that Donkey Kong bongo game, Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Bros Melee, and Mario Kart: Double Dash. I also had bought myself the Naruto game for Gamecube that's similar to Mortal Kombat, as my ex and I watched Naruto and he had the Gamecube, but unfortunately I never got that one back after the break-up, no matter how many times I reminded his roommate (who was dating my roommate) to tell my ex I wanted it back and to bring it over with him at some point.

Speaking of his roommate... he had an XBox and I remember playing Fable on it a little bit - that was a pretty neat game! If we ever get an XBox, that's one game I wouldn't mind getting and playing more - the concept was pretty interesting, as your actions determined what path your character would ultimately take. You could be a hero or an evil villain!

Eventually for my birthday one year, not wanting me to take the original PS2 that belonged to the family and stayed in the Rec Room, my parents got me one of the newer, slimmer PS2's to have for myself down at school. It came in handy, as between me and my roommate we had 2 NES's, I think she had a Super NES, the Sega Genesis, and a Gamecube. Guitar Hero became pretty popular shortly after I got my own PS2 and it was an instant hit for when we had people over - I had gotten Guitar I and II with guitars for Christmas one year, so that was always a fun time! My ex also got me into the Kingdom Hearts games and I still play some of the Tomb Raider games from time to time.

I was happy with my PS2 for years, but hubby and I both wanted one of the newer 3 big systems - PS3, XBox, or Wii. The Wii I figured was a must have, just because it's so different, but we plan on getting either a PS3 or an XBox at some point (hubby doesn't like playing the Pro-Sports or Shooter games on the Wii - he's leaning more towards XBox though, while I'd prefer the PS3 just for the backwards compatibility with the PS1 and PS2 games). I actually got our Wii and most of our games and accessories for free, as I'm part of the VH1 VIP community and won VIP of the Month several months in a row last winter (in which the grand prize is a $100 Amazon gift card each month, or a $20 gift card for the 5 runner-ups) before they changed the rules and added restrictions to how many times you could win (oops!). I had saved up enough in Amazon gift cards though to get us the Wii bundle with Wii Sports, an extra Wiimote, a charging station, New Super Mario Bros Wii and the Mario Kart Wii bundle with an extra wheel. I also bought us Lego Star Wars and hubby got some WWII fighter pilot game and MLB 2K10. We have a 2nd nunchuck too and I got Lego Harry Potter and Lego Indiana Jones for my birthday a few months ago. I look forward to when Jay's old enough to play - I could see him really enjoying the Wii when he's little! I'm hoping to get Mario Party 8 once the price drops a bit, as the Mario Party games are pretty fun for both kids and adults!

And we all know in college, I got sucked into WoW (World of Warcraft) at the end of my 3rd year of college and it had me hooked for years. I still play occasionally - the addiction comes and goes really (I'm lucky to already be playing the Beta for the upcoming expansion which is released about 2 and a half months before Jay is born, which means I'll have just enough time to level up at least 1 of my 3 80s to 85 before I gaming takes a backseat to parenting). I tend to get sucked in for a bit when the newest expansion comes out, but after awhile, after doing all the new content once, twice... three times, it gets a bit boring and I hate grinding and farming items for rep or materials. Since I started playing WoW I also tried out City of Villains, which was pretty interesting, as well as the Star Trek MMO Beta, which was okay, but got a bit boring and repetitive after awhile.


Do you game? What games and consoles have you played?

Displaying your real name to the masses? So much for protecting your player's safety, Blizzard!

I am typing this post from my unreliable laptop (as previously mentioned, the power supply on it has issues - I just watched my battery bar jump from 100% down to 7% as the power cord got bumped...) as it is Wednesday and well, the topic of this post is WoW-related and was just announced yesterday - it is kind of a major, important issue for those of us that play any Blizzard-owned game.

Last night hubby was telling me about some upcoming changes that are soon to be implemented on the Blizzard forums, using the Real ID system I mentioned awhile back. Like most, I'm not too thrilled about this upcoming change, in where if you want to post on any of the Blizzard forums (Starcraft, WoW, etc) you will have to sign in using your Real ID which will display your REAL first and last name.

Today, while reading through my Twitter feed, I noticed WoW Youtuber TradeChat posted a link to a post made by Ciderhelm of Tankspot regarding the upcoming change in which he calls it unethical and dangerous (for those not familar with Ciderhelm or Tankspot, he is very well known in the WoW community for posting some of the best instructional raid boss strategy videos that many, many guilds use, link to and reference).

As Ciderhelm posts, there are a few very very bad things that can come from having your Real ID on the WoW forums displaying your real first and last name.

One of the big ones a lot of people aren't thrilled about is that just like anything online, your employer or potential employer can Google your name and anything you post on the Blizzard forums will now show up too - unless you have a really cool boss that plays too, most employers probably won't be too thrilled to learn they hired a gaming addict. And who knows about that boss that plays - could they get in trouble with corporate or their shareholders for being associated with online gaming this easily? Many people play to get away from the stresses of real life - this is just adding one more stress as now all their co-workers can learn that they have a gaming habit. Many that don't play, don't get it and tend to look negatively on those that play, as they see it being a waste of time (try explaining to a non-gamer that you have a raid at 7pm on Saturday night - they may think you're a loser for spending your evening online "playing games" instead of going out for drinks with everyone else). No matter how much time you put into gaming or how much you may actually accomplish or learn (just recently it was learned that a CEO at Starbucks says everything he knows about managing the corporate world he learned from being a guildleader in WoW), many still view gaming as a slacker's hobby and no employer wants to hire a slacker.

Another big issue is gender and age.

There are PLENTY of minors that play WoW, most with parental approval, but honestly, I doubt many of the parents actually monitor their teenage kid's activity in game or what they post on the forums. Now I have met some VERY mature 15 year olds in game, some even playing/raiding with their parents who are also in the guild, but I have also met some VERY immature teens in game too - ones that go off on you for refusing to give them gold handouts, or whine if you beat them in a duel or outroll them on loot (I've also met adults that do this too) - these kids could very well destroy their future on these forums if this is implimented. I'm not saying we should approve of their nasty behavior, but let's face it, kids are kids - teens have a bad habit of not thinking before they say and do things and just like anything online - sure you can go back and delete it, but who knows how many people have already seen what was posted? Not to mention the fact, there's the whole safety issue of Blizzard giving out the first and last names of minors. Sure, it won't display their age with it, but if you run in similar circles in game (PVP circles, raid circles, etc) most likely people in the same circle as you have some rough idea as to your age - like I said, I've come across quite a bit of minors ingame. Who's to say some malicious angry person they may have crossed in game won't take that anger and maliciousness to a whole new level outside the game? I mean they have the kid's name now, which means they could probably find the kid on Facebook, stalk them on there, and do who knows what. This is just fail on Blizzard's part.

And of course many women are fearing an increase in sexual harassment now. Being a female gamer, it's not uncommon to occasionally get hit on or sometimes have unwanted sexual attention or things said to you by some guy in game who found out you were female. Now, with our real names shown, it means ANYONE trolling the forums can know for sure that we're female, roll an alt on our server, and come harass us in game. Reading some of the responses to the Blue Post about this change, there's quite a few females who have come forward stating that Blizzard has done little to nothing regarding with punishing those that sexually harass women in game - all they're doing now is giving those same predators even more women to look up and harass. And not only that, but since they have our names, they can Google us and look up our Facebook and who knows what other accounts and being stalking us outside the game - not very smart, Blizzard!

Another big issue, which I fall into this category, is the safety of those of us with uncommon names. Now my married name is quite common, as is the combination of my husband's first and last name, so he doesn't have too much too worry about with this, as there's hundreds with his name, however, my WoW account is still in maiden name, is it was too much of a pain in the ass to change it to my married name (requires faxing a whole bunch of documents to Blizzard and then some). My maiden name, for those that know me in Real Life, is VERY uncommon. You Google that name and I'm the only one that comes up. And I have a small handful of douches on my server that seem to have it out for me** - the last thing I want is for these jerks to have my real name and be able to track me down outside of game and continue their harassment (as it is, if I'm on my pally - the toon I'm most known by - and I say something in a public chat channel and one of them is in there too, even 2 years later they STILL bring it up and publicly harass me - I've gotten so I ignore it, but I still have to inform the members of whatever guild or group I'm in of what actually happened).

There's also the issue with identity theft too. Now like I said, those with common names, they don't have to worry quite so much about this, and while it has been said that your identity can't be stolen with just your first and last name, well, it gives those that want to do it a good place to start! Like I said, accidentally cross some malicious, angry player and now that they can find out your first and last name via the forums, who knows how and what lengths they'll go to to mess up your life outside the game, all because you outrolled them on an item or beat them in PVP!

This is also gives spammers and hackers one more way to try and steal your account and increase their phishing scams as now with your first and last name they can look you up and spam you even more now in other ways (ie: spam you with fake links to your Facebook account, or even your business email!)

I really hope Blizzard rethinks this through and reconsiders before it goes live with Starcraft 2 at the end of the month - as it is, there's well over 60 pages of people upset and worried about this "solution." The whole reason for it, Blizzard is saying, is to put an end to trolling and spamming on the forums, which is annoying, but like others have suggested, there's other ways to go about it, such as make the person choose which toon of theirs they want their Real ID to be associated with or make it so that regardless with toon they post with, you can still see all the other toons associated with that Real ID, or even make it so the toon you're posting under is a certain level to post - that would take care of all the lowbie and level 1 trolls!

Displaying a player's real first and last name with their posts in the forums is just a bad, bad idea - there's too many bad, malicious problems that can come from this, as not everyone in the World of Warcraft (or the Blizzard gaming community for that matter) is nice, friendly and innocent.

As it is, there's plenty of players who don't really even post on their realm forums where much of this trolling and drama is spurned from, but they do share mechanics and suggestions with others in the class forums, to help others learn how to play their character's class and spec better. There's also plenty of people who post on the customer service and tech support forums, to share with Blizzard what their problem is and work with the mods and staff to find a solution, all publicly so that others with the same problem can see what to do to fix it. Now these "good samaritans" to the Blizzard community will be at risk for harassment outside the game as well as even identity theft.

I know if this is implimented I most likely won't EVER post on the forums anymore - it's just not worth the harassment I know I'll get from those few jerks who are convinced I did something I didn't. Although then again, maybe they'll finally drop it, knowing that I can see their real name now too... either way... it's still not cool.

Way to fail, Blizzard. Way. To. Fail.

**hubby's account got hacked over 2 years ago and the hacker robbed the guild bank as he was an officer and then transferred the character to another server, Blizzard took like a month to restore it cuz they had to do an investigation into the case due to the severity of the hack, we have the emails to prove all this, yet since I had quit the guild months prior due to personal issues I had with the leadership several of the guildleaders and friends of theirs seem convinced it was all my doing, even though I was on another toon of mine when it happened. They're also convinced we sold the items and such to a gold site and used the money to pay for our wedding, even though Blizzard eventually restored everything and my parents paid for our wedding - I highly doubt the value of the items that were stolen cost enough real life money to even pay for my dress, let alone an entire wedding!

At least he's got chicken!

That's right, this week's installment of Warcraft Wednesdays is about good ol' Leeroy Jenkins and his guild, Pals for Life.

Here's the infamous video:


I remember when this video was posted in the summer of 2005, my character was in the 30s or 40s, so I was unfamiliar with the instance (Upper Blackrock Spire, aka UBRS) or room the video takes place in, as at the time it was a 15 man raid instance for levels 58-60. My boyfriend at the time tried to explain it to me, but unless you had been there, it was hard to describe.

The room in the video takes place in is just after the first mini-boss in the instance. In there room there are a bunch of whelp eggs, where if you get too close to them, they spawn a few whelps, in which a few of those whelps go off and break open other whelp eggs in the room and if you're not careful you can literally get a ton of whelps like they do in the video. Back in the day, when the level cap was 60, you had to be careful killing these guys (or just carefully avoid them altogether) as it was easy to get overwhelmed and wipe. The main case for going into the rookery and actually killing these guys was because the boss that gets summoned drops the priest dungeon set shoulders (which any healer class can and would sometimes wear back then), so usually, if you didn't have a priest or if all the priests in the group already had the item, you would normally just cut through the right of the room that had a staircase leading upward to go onto the rest of the instance, skipping this room. However if the priest did need the item, you would usually have a rogue or druid stealth to the orb on the far left side of the room that summoned the boss and then hurry back to the room just outside where the rest of the group would wait and kill everything safely (usually with a ton of AoE), so that you didn't have to worry about more eggs breaking than necessary.

This video is funny because it totally mocks how serious some raid leaders were (and still are) when it comes to raid strategies and that there's always the one dumbass that wasn't listening or paying attention who runs in and messes it up for everyone, causing a wipe.

This video became huge among the WoW community, with people quoting it and threatening to "pull a Leeroy" and became worldwide.

• In the WoW South Park episode, they pay homage to Leroy Jenkins, as the main antagonist of the episode is known as Jenkins.
  
• Blizzard (the company behind WoW) even made a Leroy achievement just prior to the release of the last expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, where if you go into the rookery in UBRS and your party kills 50 whelps in 15 seconds, you get the achievement "Leeeeeeeeeeeeroy!" and the title "Jenkins" that you can select to have displayed after your character's name tag.
  
• There is also a Leeroy Jenkins card in the WoW Trading Card Game too, and is a detriment to the rest of the player's team, exhausting them for the current and following turns. For gameplay reasons, his effects are not entirely negative: although no one else can attack, Leeroy can attack instantly should the player repeat Leeroy's famous shout Lerrrrooooy jenkinnns, and his attack is unusually high compared to the cost of playing him. However, his health is such that opponents should deal with him easily on subsequent turns.
  
• In the WoW Miniatures Game, there was also a Leeroy Jenkins figurine created, holding a chicken leg in his left hand.
  
• In 2007, Toyota released an ad for the Toyota Tacoma parodying the video, using the line "Let's do this!"
  
• And apparently, on the DVD release of the movie Year One there is a deleted scene in which the character Isaac ruins a planned attack by running senselessly into battle screaming the famed battle cry, "Let's do this! Leeeroooyy Jennkinnnnsss!" and getting his entire party killed in the process. Isaac himself escapes the fate of his party, and when confronted by a dying companion, goes on to say, "at least I have chicken".

So keep on doing stupid, silly things in your MMOs and posting them to Youtube - you never know, you might be the next WoW sensation to get picked up by the media!

South Park meets WoW

Keeping with the Warcraft Wednesday theme, I decided to post this Emmy-winning gem of a South Park episode - "Make Love, Not Warcraft" - South Park episode #147, which was the 2nd half 10th season premiere in October 2006.

I remember being a raid, however no one was paying attention, as we all had our TV's on Comedy Central, watching the episode and commenting on and quoting it on Ventrilo and in raid and guild chats.


South Park - Make Love, Not Warcraft

DARK RIDER | MySpace Video
(this is a version I found to embed via Myspace videos - if for whatever reason it does not work, feel free to watch the full episode here at SouthParkStudios.com)

In the episode, the boys (Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny) are new to World of Warcraft and starting out in Elwynn Forest. However, they are soon harassed by a gamer who has figured out a way to hack the game and kill all the other players (while PVP is a feature in WoW, you can't actually kill players of the same faction) and won't stop killing everyone else's characters so no one can actually play the game and level. Frustrated, the boys hatch a plan to gather all their friends and try and gang up on the guy to put a stop to him. However they are too low level. They devise another plan, where they will kill the ingame boars to get enough experience to level up and then try once again to take on the griefer. The Blizzard Entertainment execs (the company that makes WoW) are also worried, as they're afraid the griefer has no life and cannot be stopped ("how do you kill that which has no life?") and his behavior will frustrate new players and cause them not to play anymore. Determined to help the boys slay the evil griefer, the execs decide to give the boys the Sword of a Thousand Truths, a weapon so powerful that it was removed from the game and stored on a 1 GB USB flash drive.

The episode makes use of the infamous Leroy Jenkins name, areas in WoW and the infamous WoW soundtrack. WoW has since incorporated "The Sword of 1000 Truths" which mentions a character from the episode on the item, as well as a weapon "Slayer of the Lifeless." Blizzard also added in a "Make Love, Not Warcraft" PVP achievement. Also, in the upcoming WoW expansion, humans can be hunters (which Kenny's character is in this episode).

This episode was brought to us by both the creators of South Park - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - as well as Blizzard Entertainment, as they helped Park and Stone create the Machinima to make a better emulation of the game. It was definitely one of the more memorable episodes and us WoW players LOVED it!

My virtual selves

Throughout my nearly 5 years of playing World of Warcraft I've created and played many different classes - having gotten at least 1 of each class to level 10.


Flourentine

The first character I chose to play was a human female Paladin. Originally, I wanted to play a rogue like my soon-to-be roommate was and also thought the warlock class sounded kinda neat (I thought they had some amusing pets), but my boyfriend informed me that I couldn't be either of those classes if I wanted to be in the guild with him and our (his) friends.

Why?

It was an RP (role-playing) guild on an RP server (one of the few original ones ever made!) and they RP'd that the guild was a "holy Templar" guild and rogues were considered to be thieves while warlocks use demons and dark magic.

He suggested I try a Paladin, explaining that it was a melee fighting class, that could also heal, and thought it would be a good class for me to play while learning the game, since being able to heal myself gave me less of a chance for "dying."

I also picked the herbalism and alchemy professions, as my boyfriend explained that I could benefit from making potions for myself that would increase my stats and replenish my health and mana if needed.

He had me put my points in the Retribution (melee dps) tree and never really explained the other 2 paladin trees to me, so Ret was all I knew how to play in addition to throwing the occasional heal on myself when needed.

Yes, I realize her name is part of a common chicken dish. When my ex told me I needed an original RP name, it was honestly the first thing that came to mind and I don't know why, but it sounded "olden" enough to me. Most people ended up calling me Flour (pronounced floor) for short though.

I've done so much on Flour that it just feels strange when some people in game call me by one of my other toons' names. On her I've PVP'd back in the day, raided all the old school instances and raids, been diplomatic and made a lot of friends (and a few enemies). It's almost like she's part of me. She was the co-leader of a somewhat well known guild back in Vanilla, being the more diplomatic leader of the bunch and being pretty well-known on the server at one point. She was part of the 2nd wave of Paladins to get their epic quest mounts and then helped most of the paladins on the server successfully get theirs, since people seemed to think I was awesome at teaching the simple seal-mobwave strategy someone else had taught me. She was also pretty well-known among the server's RP community during Vanilla as well (Public RP on the server pretty much died soon after Burning Crusade came out and is near non-existent these day and very rare to find!).

The first picture of her I took back in spring of 2006, during one of our early guild allianced Molten Core runs. Her mace is Finkle's Lava Dredger, which drops out of Majordomo's treasure chest - it was my first epic weapon ever and I got it on the day AQ opened on our server too, which makes it even more memorable. I swear I wore those blue legplates out of AQ20 forever too - the Judgement skirt would just not drop for me, ever, until after I didn't need it anymore cuz I had better, but I did eventually get them for nostalgia sake, cuz they look awesome! She's also wearing several pieces of Soulforge - the Paladin .5 dungeon set that you upgrade through an annoying and long quest chain (I ended up with 6/8 pieces). The chestpiece is from the ZG rep quests - I eventually got 5/5, but usually only wore 3/5.

Notice, in the 2nd picture, when the in-game Barber Shops were introduced right before the release of Wrath, Flour instantly went and got a new hairstyle. While her ponytail was practical, she had been fighting mobs for years and I decided it was time to go ahead and let her hair down. That's how she currently looks, gear and all. Poor Flour... I haven't really played her much since the release of Ulduar.

Atreyuu
This was the 2nd character I leveled to 60 back in Vanilla, however she wasn't my first attempt at a warrior.

I had played a male warrior in the beginning human areas, just to try it out but the whole being a dude thing wasn't working for me and I got bored with it.

I actually leveled this 'new' warrior - the female Atreyuu - with my ex as he leveled a rogue, so it made leveling pretty painless and more fun. No - her name isn't because of the band, Atreyu (although I do like them); yes - she is named after the boy warrior in The Never Ending Story, a movie I grew up watching. I eventually bought her the white epic horse mount, she she does have her horse too.

Since Atreyuu was an alt, she didn't get priority on main raids so I mainly just dps'd on her, taking her Arms 2hander/Mortal Strike spec, but when it came to alt-MC and alt-ZG (which those of us regulars would take our alts so the lesser geared mains could take their toons), I would help offtank on her.

Unfortunately, I never really enjoyed playing her past Vanilla. In Burning Crusade, compared to Flour, she just felt really weak and to be honest, I don't enjoy being a tank (I'm not that great at it). I think she is currently level 63. She is also mining/enchanting spec'd, but I haven't done much with them in awhile.

Sammarah

Sam was my first night elf character and my rogue that I eventually made. While leveling her, I would also RP on her - she was convinced she was a pirated and loved adventure. I even put together a pirate ensemble for her.

I really enjoyed the Subtlety spec and parked her at level 59 to PVP with her in the 50-59 bracket during the last portion of Vanilla WoW. It was a lot of fun stealthing around - especially in Alterac Valley, where I would stealth over to the horde base and climb up the towers, capturing them while the raid was still maybe halfway through the map. It was fun!

Currently, she's an engineer and a miner. I decided that once the next expansion comes out, I'm going to faction change her to a cute little pirate gobin and what profession goes better with a goblin than engineering! This caused me to start leveling her again, as I didn't really play her too much once Burning Crusade came out (I think she was level 63 when Wrath came out). Right now she's in the lower 70s.

No, she's not named after the freaky little girl in the movie The Ring. I originally wanted to name her Sammy or some variation on that, however they were all taken. So I gave her a Sam name and just refer to her as Sam or Sammy for short.

Nailed and her pet Hammered (pictured above with Burning Crusade Flourentine)

When I saw how cool Blood Elves looked in the Burning Crusade previews I decided I wanted to make one. And I always wanted to eventually level a hunter (I had made one and failed miserably at it before I got a chance to do the pet quests - all my armor broke, I had no money and no way to repair so that toon was a bust). Hubby's first main was a hunter and he made it look so fun, and the hunters I knew always seemed to have fun as well so I figured I'd give it a try when Blood Elves were available.

I wanted my hunter and pet to have names that went together, so I thought of some clever ideas and decided on Nailed for my hunter, Hammered for her pet (which can go 2 ways).

At first I just leveled her when I was bored on my alliance toons, but when I was trying to focus on graduating, I banned myself from raiding and so in my freetime, once I had my homework done, I'd just log on this one. And since I was busy with work post-graduation and couldn't fit raiding into my schedule, I just worked on leveling this one. Eventually I began casually raiding on her when I could with my guild towards the end of Burning Crusade - I was a decent hunter, keeping up with the Beast Mastery spec'd ones while I was Marks.

Once Wrath came out though I switched back to my alliance character and didn't really play her much for about a year, then I picked her up, dusted her off and leveled her up to 80 and did a little raiding on her. I eventually dual spec'd Survival on her, as I loved Marks but realized I wasn't doing nearly the same amount of damage as the Survival hunters I found myself grouped with. I use Survival as my raid spec, as well as a wolf named Smashed for a raid pet. Now Hammered is my regular pet I use for non-raids and he's a Springpaw that Nailed got in the beginning Blood Elf lands. But the Wolves give a buff that helps in raids so that's why I recently tamed one and leveled it up.

Yarris
As soon Flour hit 80 I started raiding Naxx on her with my guild. After the first few months, she was pretty much geared up and my guild had the problem where 75% of the time we would have leather or Vanquisher items drop, yet we had no one in the raid that could use them. I started leveling up Sam, since she fit the category, however it wasn't as fun.

I decided to level a Night Elf Druid to help with this issue.

Yarris wasn't my first druid though - back in Vanilla I once made and leveled to 30 a Tauren druid on an alt server during some downtime on my regular server (it was for a few days so some of our friends and in our guild all rerolled horde on this alt server). After our server was fixed though, no one really played these toons anymore so I kind of abandoned her (I tried to play, but it was an RP-PVP server and yeah... PVP servers kinda suck when you're in contested territory plagued by higher level jerks). I enjoyed playing a Boomkin though so I rolled this druid the same spec, with healing as an off-spec (HoTs are sexy!).

I did pretty well as a Boomkin and actively raided on her in my new guild (the previous guild I was in fell apart weeks before I hit 80 on her). It was a lot of fun!

And no, I did not name her after the stupid Toyota car - it's actually bohemian and for those that know me in person, well, you know what Yarris is!


Hm... which will I play first come Cataclyism?


Other characters I have:

• Weeblez - a gnome DeathKnight I made and play on occasion. I made a guild with her called "WobblezButDontFallDown"
• Mizerie - a blood elf DeathKnight I sometimes play on my roommate's server
• Mizerie - a blood elf shadow priest in her 30s, a horde character I sometimes play (this Mizerie came before the DK)
• Kattina - a level 30 human warlock on a friends server. I haven't touched her in years, aside from getting her her mount early when they complimented the patch that let you get them at 30.

The rest of my characters are under level 10 and inactive, cept for my alliance banker.

My journey in the World... of Warcaft.

As many know, I am a bit of a former WoW (World of Warcraft) addict - it comes and goes.

There's times where all I want to do is play - I'll do the things I have to do like go to work and get x-amount of sleep, but the rest of day, I'm logged in (meals become simple, quick things like microwave meals, ramen, sandwiches, pasta or macaroni - things that don't take long to cook - or we order pizza). Then there's times where I login at night and either spend half the time bored cause I can't get a group late at night or no one I enjoy playing with is on, or I sit in one zone, grinding out a mob or quest or jumping in circles in a major city, chatting with friends, using it as an instant messenger. This phase usually means I'm bored with the game and need to take a break. This is the phase I am in now.

Since WoW has been a part of my life for almost the last 5 years and I've found several other female bloggers who also play, I decided to add a new weekly segment - Warcraft Wednesdays.

I started playing near the end of the spring 2005 semester, after hearing all about it from my soon-to-be roommate (who originally started playing to have something in common with a guy she was crushing on) and having my boyfriend at the time show it to me and let me create a character on his account to try, I admit, I thought it was pretty fun, however I didn't want my own account until after my finals were done (which being an art major, my finals were a week before everyone elses and this semester the only big thing I had to focus on was my portfolio review). Once the semester was out, I installed the 10 day trial my now-ex gave me, recreated the character I had made on his account and seriously began my journey with World of Warcraft. 

It started out innocent enough - I would play during the evening and into the night on my laptop in my dorm suite's common room, as my other 3 roommates all had finals to study for and I did not. My boyfriend would help me with quests and explain things to me, sometimes showing up on my screen with his character and help me kill mobs I had trouble with. It was also neat because some friends of ours (his) that went to different schools - including out of state - also played, so it was nice to get to get to do something with them more often than we previously did.

That was also the summer I started working at the theater and got an apartment with my long-term roommate. I had to be out of the dorms the weekend after finals, but we couldn't move into our apartment for another 3 weeks or so and I had already started at the theater. Since driving back and forth multiple times a week from home to work would suck, my soon-to-be roommate cleared it with her current roommates that I could crash on their couch several times a week - for example, I would be home one day, drive down for my shift, work til close and stay at my future roommate's if I was working the next few days straight, then go home for a day or 2 and repeat. Since the theater was on the county school's schedule and not the college's schedule, I didn't have to be at work until 3pm at the earliest. Getting back at midnight, this gave me and my roommate plenty of time to play at the same time, even though we were on different servers. I eventually caught up to her character she had started not long before I started playing (she liked to play alts) so often times we'd be working on the same quests and could help each other.

When we moved into our apartment, her, myself and our 3rd roommate all played. And even though I had a summer class in the morning 4 days a week, I only worked a few days a week so the rest of the time was spent playing WoW. Needless to say, I got hooked. I had set a deadline for myself to hit 60 by the end summer and get my epic mount (which actually required work and effort back then). Then I got introduced to raiding and was co-leading a guild - really it turned into a 2nd job.

When I wasn't in class or working I was playing WoW.

The pressures of leading a guild though where 50% of the guild wanted to raid while the other half could care less and I was stuck being the diplomatic one trying to make everyone happy and keep guild alliances together really started to affect me outside the game. Fortunately we were able to merge the guild with a bigger guild that offered raiding as well as other aspects that the majority in our guild could take part in which solved that headache and I was able to just focus on the (mostly) fun parts of the game.

As the first expansion - Burning Crusade - was released I took a more casual approach to the game, as I had gone back to school after a semester off and was working as management so that limited my raid times greatly. It took me awhile to level up, as I didn't enjoy a lot of the quests and zones Burning Crusade had to offer (the instances were fun though!). I raided when I could though, as the guild I was in for the first half of BC was more laidback and a lot of fun. But that came to end, and for the rest of BC, on alliance side, I just couldn't find a guild that was as fun, so I decided to just focus on finishing college, casually leveling my horde character up. Eventually I played mostly just that one and got to raid a little bit on her for the end of Burning Crusade.

Then Wrath came out.

By this time, I was married and working a casual job a few days a week, so that gave me plenty of time to play. With hubby and a few friends, I leveled up in record time (it was just over a week). We joined a guild made up of some of the people we were guilded with during the first half of the previous expansion and raiding regularly most nights of the week. I also leveled another toon to 80 during the time when I wasn't raiding and once that guild ended, I joined one on my new toon and was an active raider on that one. When that guild fell apart (seems to be a reoccuring thing) I decided to go back and level my horde character, finding a casual raid guild made of up members from her former guild.

Then I started to get bored again.

We took some time off around Thanksgiving and I wasn't really active again until after Christmas. When I came back, there had been another big patch - the one with the Icecrown Citadel content - and my guildleader said my gear was too low to join them on those raids. I hate grinding. Raiding and working to get drops is one thing, but grinding instances for badges over and over to get an entire gear set... just gets annoying and boring. I can't do it.And it didn't help that the part inside of my laptop that connects to the power cord only works 50% of the time and would cost at least $300 to fix.

So this is where I ended my World of Warcraft addiction... for now.

Hubby had canceled his account back in December so he could pay for his EVE account and had planned on switching to Star Trek Online, but decided not to, after playing the Beta for a week or so. Since he canceled, I didn't really have anyone reliable to play with - a lot of my "close" friends in game had already quit months before and the ones that were left were either too busy with their guilds or didn't really do much. It became a $15/mo instant messenger and why pay for that when I can use AIM and Facebook for free? I figured that was an extra $15/mo that we could be spending elsewhere for now, so I canceled too.

Now don't get me wrong, I do have urges to reactivate my account and play - especially more so now that hubby is working most evenings and I get bored easily. But I manage to resist the urge.

Don't worry though, we plan on coming back for the next expansion - Cataclyism - which comes out (we're guessing) in the last half of this year. I already have plans for a few goblin toons - including one as my horde banker with a Harry Potter-ish Gringotts name =D Hopefully by then I'll have an actual gaming laptop too - Macs are great for designing stuff, but I'll admit, PCs are much better for gaming!

Flashback Friday: The Evolution of Gaming Consoles

Today our Nintendo Wii arrived and so in light of that, this week's Flashback Friday we'll be taking a look back at the various gaming systems I've experienced in the last 25 years.

Now last week, in our flashback to Toys of the 80s, I mentioned my early gaming experiences with both the Atari and Nintendo NES systems, so rather than repeat myself (and save you guys the time) let's move on to the next systems on the list.

Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis
In the early-mid 90s, we were already accustomed to Mario, Luigi and Bowser, but then Sega introduced us to Sonic the Hedgehog and his nemesis Doctor Robotnik with the release of their gaming system, Sega Genesis. With better graphics and play than the Nintendo NES, it was only natural for Nintendo to update their system and give us the Super Nintendo.

Most people I knew had one system or the other, since they generally offered the same game selections (save for the exclusive Nintendo and Sega characters) and the graphics and game play were pretty much the same, however I did know a few people that had both. Me, I got the Sega Genesis - I remember getting it in 5th grade, in the fall of '94 as a reward for getting good grades on my report; my dad took me to the now defunct Funcoland store and we got a good deal one that game with Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While I enjoyed my new system, getting games like the Lion King and Toy Story for Christmas later on, I still played my original Nintendo from time to time.

3DO
In the mid-90s, we were introduced to a few more systems, the first of which was the 3DO - the first system to use CDs instead of cartridges. I remember seeing this one in Media Play and playing the game Gex. The graphics were pretty neat, however the sticker price was high and there wasn't nearly the game selection that Sega and Nintendo had to offer for their systems.

Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64
In 1995, Sega released their next console, the Sega Saturn, which was one of the first consoles to include a memory card function. However unlike the previous Genesis system, the Sega Saturn wasn't as popular and couldn't compare to the Sony Playstation, which was released in the same year!

The Sony Playstation also used CDs instead of the traditional game cartridge and due to its popularity, graphics and gameplay, it proved that Sony had arrived in the gaming world.

Nintendo soon offered up their latest in gaming - the Nintendo 64 - however unlike the rest of the consoles on the market, Nintendo decided to stick with the traditional gaming cartridges instead of making the switch to CD. One thing the N64 consoles had the others didn't was the option of being able to plug in 4 controllers instead of just 2. Sure, there were accessories that the other consoles offered to increase the number of players, but the N64 had theirs built in. While the N64 didn't have the lengthy load time that the Playstation and Sega Saturn did, compared to the Playstation, the graphics didn't seem as great - Playstation offered more life-like graphics in their games (I remember my family and myself being in awe of neat it looked!) the N64's still felt a bit cartoon-y.

In my house, we got a Playstation for the family back in '98, after having visited with out of town relatives the previous summer who had the console and introduced us to it. Eventually, we also got an N64 for my younger sister, as the system seemed to appeal more to the younger demographic.

Sega Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox

The Sega Dreamcast, despite being the last console Sega would put out, was the system that paved the way for our current gaming systems. A neat thing about the Sega Saturn was that you could put the game CDs into your car stereo (for example) and listen to the game soundtrack (I knew a guy in high school who did this often - when he wasn't blaring either the Matrix or Mortal Kombat soundtracks, Rammstein or Rob Zombie, he'd have a Sega CD playing!). Deemed "ahead of its time" back in 1998, the Dreamcast was the first console to include a built-in modem and a way to connect to the internet for online gaming. Unfortunately for Sega, the consoles that would soon follow would utilize this technology and vastly improve on it.

The PS2 - Sony's follow-up to the original Playstation - also offered the availability to connect to the internet and was the first console to be able to play DVDs. It was also backwards compatible, so in addition to playing the PS2 games, you could also still play your original Playstation games on it.

Nintendo soon followed suit and released another new system, the Gamecube, which was Nintendo's first console to a CD instead of a game cartridge, but unlike the other consoles, Nintendo's gaming CDs were mini-discs. Like the N64, it also continued the Nintendo trend of offering 4 controller ports instead of just 2. Still, unlike the others, the graphics still didn't feel as life-like as those of the PS2 and the soon to be released Xbox.

The Xbox was Microsoft's first big venture into the gaming world and had a unique feature of including a harddrive in the console that was similar to that of a basic desktop computer. Originally, gamers were iffy about this new system, as the console was bigger than it's competitors, cost a bit more, and the feel of the controller was a bit strange, however that was all put aside with the release of the ever popular shooter franchise Halo, which was now exclusive to Xbox. It also didn't required memory cards, as it could save the game data directly onto it's harddrive.

My family eventually upgraded to the PS2, as the added DVD feature and backwards compatibility with the original Playstation games was a pretty nice combo for our family rec room in the basement and eventually my sister got a Gamecube. Later on in my college career, I received the slimmer version of the PS2, as I had plenty of games, but no system to play them on since the original PS2 was considered "the family's" and was also being used as the basement's sole DVD player. A roommate and my ex both had the Gamecube, so I also played that system from time to time as well. I had tried the Xbox over at my ex's, as his roommate had one, and I did enjoy the Xbox exclusive title Fable, however the cost of one was too far out of my reach.


Something else noteworthy during this time was the return and increase popularity of alternate controllers. We all remember the plastic Nintendo gun that was essential for playing Duck Hunt on the NES back in the day, but not since then were alternate controllers very popular. With the release of Guitar Hero for PS2 and Rock Band for Xbox, these games utilized and made popular controllers in the shape of objects such as guitars, microphones and drums.

And now we are brought to generation of consoles.

Xbox360, PS3 and the Wii
In 2005, Microsoft released an upgraded version of it's Xbox, titled Xbox 360. Similar to the previous version, the 360 offered a bigger harddrive, HD DVD plug-ins, and introduced the Xbox Live feature for online gameplay with others all over the globe.

In response, Sony released the next generation of Playstation - the PS3. The PS3 went a step beyond its previous version, now doubling as a Blu-Ray DVD player and the first console to support HDMI output of the box. Like the Xbox, it includes a harddrive and no longer requires memory cards to save game content. Up to 7 devices can connect to the PS3 via Bluetooth as well.

The same week the PS3 was released in the US, Nintendo released their latest and groundbreaking new console, the Wii. Like the others, it uses CDs for games, has a built in harddrive so there is no need for memory cards and has the ability to connect to the internet. What makes this system unique however is the groundbreaking gameplay. The wireless controllers are called Remotes and numerous attachments can be connected to make gameplay more interesting. The controllers are also motion sensitive, so it requires you to actually get off your butt and  interact with the games, encouraging a bit of a workout with many of its game titles. It also offers access to play many old school Nintendo titles you may not have played since the original NES days and it also plays Gamecube games! Before getting ours, I had only played it once at a friends and briefly via the in store displays, however the system is so groundbreaking in its gameplay, I had to get one - this is one console you MUST add to your gaming collection. As a workout tool, its great, as it provides so many different interactive titles, and as a gaming system, it still acts as a regular gaming console.

While we would like to get a PS3 someday, right now the cost is too far out of our budget and our PS2 still works just fine for now, so I'm just fine with our Wii and PS2.

Gaming consoles have come quite far in the last 25 years - it'll be interesting to see how they will be improved upon in the next 25 years!

Might as well call the games Angelina Jolie: Tomb Raider

I remember being back in junior high when we first got a Sony Playstation and soon after I got the first Lara Croft Tomb Raider game - it was an interesting game with adventure and puzzles to solve. Lara's like the female version of Indiana Jones, which to me was awesome as growing up I loved watching Indy!

Over the years, I got a few more of the Tomb Raider games but never really played them much or got very far as I was just simply busy with other things. The other night, I decided to play some PS2 and popped in Tomb Raider Anniversary - which celebrates 10 years of the franchise and has you play through some of the earlier games, including the first one. It was neat because I remembered the levels but had to relearn the puzzles, not to mention the graphics were a lot nicer than they were in the original game.

I was a little disappointed though... Tomb Raider Anniversary came out in 2007, and well, in game, Lara Croft looks more like Angelina Jolie's incarnation of Lara than Lara Croft.

Okay, so you can't really tell too much from the images, but in game, she really does look like Angelina - I showed my husband and he too agreed. She now has some pretty pouty lips and a face that resembles Angie's!

It just disappointed me that it seems like they more "real" the graphics look, the more they're molding the character to look like her movie franchise counterpart, rather than the actress having to look like the character. Something about that just disappoints me.

What do you guys thing?

Dear Internet: Enough with the boobs!

By now I'm sure at some point during your regular daily web surfing you've seen one ad or another for an online browser game called "Evony."

Originally, the ads started out pretty harmless, showing a knight and his sword preparing for battle. But apparently that wasn't attracting enough players, so they decided to ditch the knight in favor for a medieval dressed woman with a little cleavage showing. Eventually that "little" cleavage became "a lot more" cleavage.

And then, someone made the decision to just ditch the drawn images and go for hot chicks in tight little tops.

But that wasn't good enough either.

Soon enough, I saw this ad for the game:

Yes, that's right - it's a busty bra-covered torso with matching little panties.

My first thought: "What the hell does that have to do with this game?"

I found out recently, that a brother-in-law of mine sometimes plays this game, saying he can start a building or farm, go do something else and come back 20 minutes later and it's still going. He also pointed out the fact that the ads have NOTHING to do with the game - the graphics aren't that great, there are no females or sexy hot queens to rescue - it's like a smaller scale browser knock-off of the Civilization games.

What really drives me nuts is that 1) I see these ads on nearly every other site I visit these days (you can't get away from them!!) and 2) I'm a female - this type of advertising does not appeal to me! I don't want to be checking my facebook or some forum I visit frequently or reading a news story on a news site and see this crap! It's bad enough I have to see commercials with women dressed like this while watching late night tv - I shouldn't be forced to see it while I'm doing my daily web surfing routine!

If you'd like to see the evolution of these ads, be sure to check it out at this site.

Does anyone else find these ads obnoxious and distasteful?

Video Game Art

Having an art degree, I love seeing some of the crazy fun stuff people come up with.

Recently, I was introduced to this fun blog - www.spritestitch.com.

It's a blog that features custom made video game art - mostly well known classic characters like Mario, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Space Invaders and some Final Fantasy. It's really neat though!

My favorites are the Donkey Kong shelves and the NES Controller Coffee table, both can be seen in the Amazing Custom Gaming Room.

Too funny!

If you're a gamer (especially if you play WoW), you'll appreciate this and crack up like we did!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Some online gamers take it a little too seriously...

I heard Josh telling his raid last night about this story and when I logged into Hotmail to check my email, there was a link in the MSN news section about it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27337812/?GT1=43001

Basically, this woman was married to some guy online in a Japanese version of the US MMORPG Second Life, called Maple Story. Upon finding out her ingame husband decided to suddenly divorce her, she freaked out, logged in and plotted to murder his avatar in the game. Apparently now she's facing up to like 5 years in jail or something...

Then in the article, it goes on to talk about a 16yr old in Japan who somehow swindled $360,000 worth of virtual currency in another game and how he was arrested...

And then there's a link at the bottom of a story where you read about 2 teens in Denmark who coerced some younger teen into giving them some rare ingame items and how they're stuck doing community service now for theft.

WTF??? I wish we could arrest all those keyloggers and hackers that make our MMORPG experiences less fun!