Over-Role-Playing

I saw this article on Massively today that totally intrigued me. It was about a study that was conducted that suggests that gamers take on aspects of the personalities of their game characters. Sheesh. That was a mouthful. Anyway, I saw another similar mention of this...somewhere. I don't remember where. It was more along the lines of certain people gravitating towards Horde while other gravitate towards Alliance (it being WoW specific). I would dismiss this all out of hand as being craycray, but Stanford conducted the aforementioned study and you can't ignore Stanford, right?

The study found that basically, women who represent themselves in a gaming world in provocative clothing see themselves more as objects versus women who don't. I suppose that this study would have to apply to role playing because I, for one, have both Alliance and Horde toons, one of which is male, and they all wear a variety of gear and I don't role play at all. I've never thought of myself as a sexy gnome rogue. Right?

The study goes on to talk about how only 45% of gamers are female and that "many" feel the gaming world is not welcoming to female gamers. I don't feel that I can speak to this from experience. I've never felt unwelcome in any game environment based solely on being a girl gamer. I've dealt with male/female stereotypes plenty. I even got a little bent out of shape on Goolge+ the other day when someone intimated that all women like the Lifetime network, which I hate, by the way. I've also been annoyed PLENTY in game by idiots that follow me around and constantly drop duel flags on me or by 12 year olds who talk politics in trade chat like they actually know what they're talking about. But my many annoyances have never been gender-based. 

A direct quote from the article says, "It used to be passive and you watched the characters. You now enter the media and become the protagonist. You become the characters." I just don't know if fully I agree with this. I also would like to know, of these people, how many of them also have gaming compulsions? It just seems to me that someone who has a hard time separating their real life selves from their game avatar would also have a gaming compulsion. Just a thought.

What's your opinion on this article? If you're a girl, have you experienced sexual stereotyping while playing an online game?

Account Wide = Lost Appeal??

I addressed this topic back when MoP was still in beta and it was new news. But I saw this topic surface on Google+ and thought it was a good time to revisit it. Account wide achievements and mounts. Are they good, bad, or something in between?

I can see both sides of the argument. On the one side of the issue, people say that they don't relish grinding rep for multiple toons. Additionally, they don't like having to earn the same achievements over and over for all their toons, especially holiday or world event achievements.

The other side says that making mounts (earned by rep) available for all toons takes away that sense of accomplishment. Same goes for achievements, but I think, to a lesser degree.

I stand, somewhat in the middle. Account-wide achievements, for example, don't really bother me that much. Being an altoholic, it gets very repetitive going after the same achievements over and over. Taking into account the ones that can only be earned at certain times of the year, it's even harder for those of use paying attention to 5+ (that's conservative in my case, heheh) toons.

As for mounts that are earned via reputation gains and boss drops, I lean more towards the other side of the argument. Mounts can be a pretty big deal, at least in my opinion. Mounts are an entirely visible way of displaying your prowess in the game. Seeing someone with a coveted mount that has less than a 1% drop rate off of Boss So-and-So is enviable to say the least. Consequently, I only have two boss drop mounts and I luuuurrve them the most. I also remember getting them both.

Then you have rep mounts that are obtained after weeks and weeks of mindless rep grinding. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone saying that they enjoy running the same quests week after week trying to get their reputation up with a certain faction. It's fun the first few times, but after that, it's a major UGH in my book. Still, if you're at max level and playing the latest content patch, it's really the only thing you have to do other than raiding.

What if your toon is questing in Northerend. There's a rep mount, Sons of Hodir that gets you the various mammoth mounts. We'll pick the Grand Ice Mammoth for the point of our story.

Grand Mammoth Mount

To get this mount, you have to be exalted with the Sons of Hodir. I happen to have this mount and it's another one I remember getting. I worked for it. I wanted it badly. When I finally got it, I did a long and proud happy dance in my computer chair. At the time, this zone and these quests were level appropriate for my toon. While it was a repetitive grind, it was still basically one of the few choices I had for game play while waiting for the next expac.

Fast forward to MoP times and it's hard to imagine taking the time it would take to grind that rep for a 70-something toon who you're trying to get up to level 90 so that you can go to Pandaria. You just don't want to take the time at this point. Ya know?

So, I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I believe that mounts should be a player achievement, a goal to work towards, rather than just handed out to all your toons as soon as they can ride their first mount. If we're to have everything handed to us, then what's the point of playing? As soon as you roll a new toon, it should start out at level 90, have every mount available in the game, and be wearing all top level legendary gear. See what I'm saying here?

On the other hand, as much as I think that mounts should be earned by each toon, I can't imagine going through the rep grind for ALLLLLLLL the different factions for mounts for ALLLLLLLL my different toons. I, personally, wouldn't do it. There should be some alternative. What that alternative is, I really have no idea. Maybe lower the reputation points required for each faction so that exalted is obtainable within the time it takes to level that zone?? And then still need the required gold to purchase those same mounts? Hmm.

I know for damn sure that I absolutely do not go out of my way to earn achievements on all my toons that one already has even though it drives me batty when I see the "not earned by this character" or whatever it says, on the achievement. Ever notice that? Maybe grinding rep and re-earning achievements will be something to do when I have absolutely nothing left, in game, to do. As if. And monkeys might fly out of my butt. (Bonus points if you get the quote.)

What's your opinion? Are you in the camp of "Give it to me. Give it to me now." Or "It's not grinding, it fun. I enjoy mindless game play." Or are you somewhere in between?

To Transmog or Not to Transmog

I found a blog yesterday by Rinike:  Rinike's Wardrobe. Her main blogging purpose is transmog stuff but she also blogs about other game-related topics. She also lives in Sweden which is nifty to this American girl who has never been outside of North America. And honestly, Mexico and the Bahamas barely count as even leaving the United States. Anyway, her blog got me to thinking about transmog.

This is one aspect of WoW in which I have yet to immerse myself. On the one hand, I think I've gotten so used to wearing a mish mash of gear that it doesn't really even hit my radar. On the other hand, I have a hard time wrapping my head around running dungeons and raids just to get a piece of gear solely because of how it looks. Huh? What? Then I have to figure out what look I even want to go after. Basically, I don't know where to start.

Every once in a while I'll actually take notice of a piece of gear that one of my toons is wearing and stop long enough to think, "That looks nifty!" Then I'll save it back in my bank in hopes of finding other pieces along the line that will match. Then I won't play that toon for a few weeks, go back, clean out her bank and realize that the old, outdated gear I just sold was something that I had been saving for transmog purposes, rush back to the vendor to get it back, and discover that it's been bumped off the buy back tab and forever lost in the mists. I do this. Often. I really don't think transmogging is for me.

My main, Maruka, does have a transmogged gear set. What?!?!?! Yeah. She does but before you get all excited for me, it's generic pieces that I got from questing. I think. It's basically, more or less, this set:  Osul Peak. Turns out that it's also known as the Stormscale Set which I didn't even know until just now when I browsed Wowhead for a screenshot to share on this post. I decided to use this for my transmog for two reasons:  1) Because I just happened to notice that I had a complete matching set before I sold it all. 2) Because the legs are a skirt instead of pants even though it's a mail set.

Yeah. I'm real discerning, lol.

How much time do you spend on transmog? How far out of your way do you go to get a piece of transmog gear that you want?

2013 Newbie Blogger Initiative (Updated)

Corrected and Updated becaaaaussse...

Turns out that Syp didn't organize this year's NBI. This year, Syp turned things over to Contains Moderate Peril  and Red Skies. Any information that you could possibly need or want about the 2013 NBI can be found at either of those links. I think it says a lot about Syp and the NBI that other people were ready and willing to take the reins and keep it going another year. Hopefully, the enthusiasm will continue and the Newbie Blogger Initiative will be renamed the Annual Newbie Blogger Initiative. Huh? Yeah? Sounds awesome, right???

The NBI is how this blog got started. I know. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. All things considered, the NBI launched a bunch of great gamer blogs last year. It was, for me at least, just the incentive needed to take the final leap into the gaming blogging community. I know that I had been considering starting a game blog for quite some time before I saw the NBI. Fear that I wouldn't be able to keep up with it, that I wouldn't have enough post ideas, and that I would bore the rest of the community kept me from taking the chance. The Newbie Blogger Initiative was a great support system for us new bloggers. It was the perfect safety net and I, for one, appreciated all the great comments and exposure that I got last year. I was tickled to see that it was back this year. I hope that Syp decides to make it an annual thing.

As for where I'm at with this blog, it's more laziness than anything that keeps me from posting. I have so many ideas and observations about gaming, specifically WoW, that I have bouncing around in my head and it's just the chore of getting out my laptop and composing a post that's keeping me from putting my ideas out there. Yup. Laziness.

I started a WoW Bloggers group over on Google+ that I've also been neglectful of. I searched and searched and didn't find anything specific to WoW bloggers so I figured I'd start a group. I envisioned it as being a place for both support and exposure as well as communication. Somewhere to bounce ideas, etc. I still have hopes for it. And even though I haven't generated much content, I still very closely monitor the group, so if you're feeling up to it, check it out and add your blog if you'd like.

See you out in the community somewhere.