Ya Think?

Short ‘n sweet, I couldn’t not post this….

Classmate: So what’s it like being deaf?

Me: Well…it’s very quiet.

Why I Play

People play WoW for lots of different reasons. Some play it to hang out with long-distance friends, some play it to get some quality time in with their WoW-addicted family members, Some just play it because it’s fun…the list goes on and on.

Me, I play it because it lets me be normal.

In real life, I have a genetic disorder that has left me with some pretty significant disabilities. My life has never been what one would call normal, but it has become increasingly less so as time goes by.

In Azeroth, though, I’m just like everybody else. I am not limited by what my body can no longer do, but by my level, my class, my gear, and my skill. My restrictions are all things that can be overcome, that I have the ability to improve or change.

So yes, I play WoW way too much some days. I really should spend less time in Azeroth, and more time in the real world. When it’s a choice between asking for help with simple, everyday things or being totally normal, though….sometimes it’s hard to pull myself away. WoW is my escape.

RWD (Raiding While Deaf)

Obviously, I’m not raiding with my little warlock yet (who is now level 49, by the way). I do have Kara experience with my priest, however…which was a more interesting experience on some levels than most people encounter while raiding, because I am deaf. No big deal during normal gameplay, when ingame chat is fine and dandy, but when you’re in a raid, and everyone BUT you is at least listening on vent…

That’s when it gets interesting.

Luckily for me, my guildies were very understanding about the whole “I can’t use vent because I can’t hear you” issue. Either that or they pretended to be ok with it because they needed me to heal them…either way, I never caught even a hint of anybody being ticked off about it, which was cool of them, because it DID slow things down some. I always had a designated “listener” who would relay information to me via /w when a new encounter was being explained or important information was being passed on, and whoever was leading the raid would usually check in with me as well to make sure I had gotten the information that I needed. This system didn’t work so well when something went screwy in the middle of a fight and people were screaming changed orders into their headsets, which did unfortunately lead to a few mishaps that would not have occurred had I been able to hear what was going on. Everyone was always very nice about it, though — they knew there wasn’t much I could do about it.

So, fine and dandy, right? Well, not exactly. See, even though everybody was really nice about the whole thing, and even though I always had someone making sure I got all of the important stuff, I also missed out on all of the between-fights banter and chitchat that are a big part of what makes raiding fun. I don’t blame anybody for this, it’s simply an unfortunate fact — I ended up being left out of a lot of the raid, simply because there was no other option. I couldn’t very well expect everyone to keep all of their chitchat ingame (and there was SOME ingame, at least), that would hardly have been fair of me. Knowing how much I was missing, however, really sucked a lot of the fun out of raiding for me. It got to the point where I was only going because it was a fairly small guild, and they did not have another healer who could take my place on a regular basis. I went to support my guildmates, not because the raid was particularly enjoyable for me. I was not particularly heartbroken when we were forced to stop running Kara because of the loss of a couple of key guildmembers due to leadership changes (though I was unhappy when said leadership changes ultimately resulted in the guild imploding).

So, in the end, I choose not to raid anymore for now. Will that change in the future? It’s possible. I have a new auditory implant (which I may discuss in a future post) that, while it doesn’t let me understand people without lipreading at the moment, may let me do so in the future as I get better with it. If I get that good, who knows? Raiding might be fun. Right now, it’s not, and I’m lucky enough to be in a new guild with people who don’t demand that level 70’s raid or else. For those of you who have a deaf guildie, please be kind enough to give them the same respect…because unfortunately, there is no feasible way for raiding to be as fun for us while keeping communication as easy for you…and some deaf people may be cool with that, and may have a blast raiding regardless…but I know I’m not the only one who has been through the experience and ended up feeling stuck on the outside because of it. Don’t assume we don’t want to help the guild progress, or don’t want to help our guildies get the best gear they can.

I don’t want my gameplay to be an unpleasant experience. That’s all there is to it.

Bank Ninja

Some people….

My guild had a bank ninja pop up today. He stayed in the guild long enough to get promoted to a position that would let him take several items out of the bank at once, then proceeded to do so and put said items on the AH. Luckily, an attentive officer noticed pretty quickly that this guy had taken out a bunch of items that were way too high for his level all at once, so she took a peep at the AH…when she saw said items for sale, she privately confronted the thief, who promptly /gquit.

This kind of behavior REALLY ticks me off…come on, people, the guild bank is there for everyone to help each other out, not to make you money! People who pull this kind of crap ruin things for everyone else, because not only are guild leaders more hesitant to give people promotions and permissions after dealing with someone like this, but other guildmembers are also more hesitant to make something speicifcally to put in the bank — say, bags for a lowbie — because why waste your own money if someone is just going to steal the stuff? This guy isn’t the first bank ninja I’ve heard about, either…seems like they’re popping up all over the place as more of them are learning to take advantage of the new guild bank system. Yes, guild leaders can put more restrictive rules in place regarding bank use, but that presents its own set of problems….

Bottom line — don’t be a jerk like this guy, please. Thanks much.

WoW Bugs…

Well, BRK was nice enough to link to me, and as such I actually have a few hits on my blog…so hi to all you BRK fans!

So, maybe it’s just me, but I really wish Bliz would spend a couple of patches trying to fix well-known glitches before giving us more new stuff…just as a little gnome ‘lock, there are a couple that reeeeeally drive me nuts, and this is just a fraction of the game….

First, the “my minion is stuck!” bug. This bug kicks in at the worst of times — when you’ve aggroed a stealthed panther, when the murloc you’re killing runs off to grab three of his buddies, so on and so forth…I have yet to have a stuck minion inside an instance, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. I know hunters were having some pet-sticking problems as well, unless that’s been fixed…point being, it’d be awfully nice of Bliz to make it where we can rely on our minions to actually do their jobs ALL the time, instead of taking a break when they feel like it.

Second, the sailing minion bug… when taking a ship from one continent to the other, your minion will vanish midroute…which is fine, you get your soul shard back and all, just like when you walk too far away from your minion….right? Well, you’d think so, but no. Minion, poof, shard, nowhere to be seen. A friend and fellow ‘lock asked a GM about this, and was told that “Blizzard is aware of the issue”. The GM then suggested that until the problem is fixed, minions hsould be set to “stay” far enough away from the ship that they vanish and deposit their shard in your bag before your departure. Are they serious? What a pain!

I know there are plenty of other bugs, but those are my biggest annoyances right now…what about you? What bugs drive you nuts?

Gnaked Gnome Race!

Wow! The Gnaked Gnome race was pure chaos, but it was a blast! Despite the fact that a few people took the opportunity to make idiots of themselves, spamming and whatnot, it was quite an experience. We got portals to Shattrath after the end of the race (much love to the mage who poraled us, for dealing with so many people being less than patient), and there was a good bit of hubbub in /2 at the sudden appearance of so many gnomes!

a BIG thank you to BRK, TJ, and all the other folks who participated in herding the hundreds of gnomes who showed up!

The race (shortened for your viewing pleasure):

It starts…

So, I have been won over at last. I’m starting a blog. Took me long enough…

Anyhow, My gnome warlock is currently level 47, and suffering through what I refer to as “the blehvels” from 40 to 50, where there is far, far too much zone-hopping for my taste. I’ve got two 70’s already — a hunter and a priest — but I rarely play them at the moment. I left WoW for a couple of months, and when I came back I felt like starting fresh rather than trying to jump straight back into endgame.

I’m actually writing this post while waiting for BRK’s Gnaked Gnome Race to start…I’ll be recording the race with Fraps, so maybe I’ll post a video later…it’s 45 minutes to start time, and we’ve already got too many gnomes to count. It’s utter craziness, and a heck of a laugh watching all these naked level 1 gnomes jumping around.