Remembering Evol

With all the uproar and public opinions swirling about lately over Blizz's RealID plan, I found myself thinking of Evol this early morn.


For those who may not know, Evol was one of the main contributors at the community 'GRF' forums. His extensive knowledge of the game and guild aspects live on (so far), as an invaluable resourse for many. Shortly before Blizz's bombshell went off, Evol had chosen to retire, move on to greener pastures so to speak. Although his choice was met with support from many, it was also met with sadness.

Much is being said about many of the other inspirational and helpful posters in the community forums. Some have already announced that they will be leaving. These things and more posts about certain forum 'deaths' leave one to wonder about the nature of the overall outcome RealID will have for the community as a whole. Finding helpful players isn't as easy as one would think it should be, and the best options are actually outside of the game and Blizz community. Perhaps this is one of the lesser known reasons Blizz has in mind for bringing a facebook type setting to their forums. And of coarse, we all know that marketing and revenue play their parts.

Aside from all that though, it would seem that the greater part of the warcraft community is not very receptive of RealID. It would also seem that Blizzard (battle.net) is moving ahead in spite of all the community concerns. Just what will become of the "Evols"? Will the warcraft community forums suffer more loss than gain? Perhaps so. Some already speak of the possible death amidst the realm forum threads.

It would seem though that the greatest effect will perhaps fall upon new players in general. Those who are not familure with all the outside resources available to answer their questions about talents, gear, rotations and such. Unless they have a particular liking for the 'facebook' style platform, what level of player knowledge will they end up with since there appears to be a sizeable retreat from Blizzards forums?

As with all things, time will tell its' truths. In the meantime, the battle outside of the game rages on. For those who may be interested in curtailing some of the RealID aspects already in-game, I came across this helpful post...(outside source)

customizing-and-opting-out-of-real-id
 
 
 

Odds and Ends:

I took a bit of a break the past two days. Skipped doing the RDF and settled for just a few dailys and two WG suicide gatherings. That's about all WG is on my server for alliance, some kind of perverted death wish. Maybe twice a week we may win, maybe. So badly out-numbered and out-skilled, even the tenacity isn't of any help. It would seem to me that alliance on this server falls mostly into two catagories; either hard-core raiders or very causal. Not much for 'middle-of-the-road' players. The Horde come prepared to my viewpoint. Usually several raid groups working together with actual stratagy. It does make a difference. I am getting better in there though, over 900k damage done now. Some of the tips I picked up earlier in the week are helping out.


RealID...
Just like several million other players, I've been watching all the comotion over Blizzards' decision to make their community forum posters use RealID. I think in all my game time I've only posted there twice, so there really is no affect for myself. Just weeding through all the trash talk and trolls to find what you are looking for is enough to turn you away. I also think if it was just the trolls they were looking to quell, they would have not gone to such an extreme. It's kind of like a big brother government move they're making: ~The pinky finger is broken, so let's cut the arm off at the shoulder~ The final outcome will be interesting to watch as well. I suspect there will be quite a backlash, perhaps with some legal actions as well. We shall see.

PvP/PvE gear...
The PvP gear I've used to help gear up untill better PvE stuff is available to me, I've decided to keep instead of vendor off as I change it out. Somewhere along the line I remember reading about players keeping two seperate sets of gear between the two and it seems like a good thing to do. I can make adjustments as I go along to each set and probably come out all the better for it.

Resting...
That's about it for now. I'll have to get back into the RDF soon, still need plenty of emblems. I think my gear is good enough now to perhaps try some heroic modes and maybe a 10-man. That should prove very interesting to say the least!

Game-Jerks: not the usual rant...

So....the other day I'm in WG working on taking control of a workshop, and get sapped by a rouge who proceeds to chop me up as best he can. I hit my trinket which is supposed to remove all impairing effects, start to move away, sap again. I shapeshift, same process starts over again. This is one of the difficult areas for me in PvP, being able to defend myself against stuns, silence, polymorphs and such. I'm not very good at it just yet, but working on it.


While this rouge is working on me another ally shows up and takes him out, much to my relief. I whisper the player a 'thank you'. Several minutes later he whispers back, "You could have killed him with two shots." Hmmmm? Yes, I know much better players than myself most likely could have, I've seen it done. So I whisper back that I'm working on getting better, which is met with cold silence.

Battle ends. My recount shows me at the top of everyone who was in and out of my assigned raid group in so far as damage done. This is okay, if not in the top slot here, I am always within the top three. I do a lot of damage. Ususally somewhere between 600-800k against the enemy. This is encouraging for me since it shows I have the potential output of high damage, if not always high dps.

Remembering the conversation over the 'could have in two shots', I head back to Dal intent on finding out what to do in those stun-silence situations that I could be doing better at. Down to the sewers I go where lots of people are always dueling. I wait for some allys to show up and start with the hello's/can I ask you for some tips. I go through the usual amount of no answers to the array of jerk-butt answers until I find someone willing to spend a couple of minutes being helpful.

In relationship to this-I read a forum thread a while back where the poster asked (although I'm sure was already convinced of), if all end-game raiders were sexists and jerks. IDK about the sexist part (being male...poster was obviously female), but I would have to be agreeable that the majority of end-game raiders on my server do come off as jerks with anyone not as good as they are. It would seem as though they expect everyone at level 80 to already know all there is to know about their character, and the game. Therefore, lesser geared/experienced players are subjected to total dis-respect, an array of F-bombing every third word or so, and all kinds of insults.

Uhh...excuse me Mr. Jerk-Butt, but somewhere along the line I am sure you started out in the same situation. Decked out in blues, not purples. Did not know everything about all the fights or how to deal with every encounter. You did not have comprehension about gs, theory-crafting, where to go to learn about getting better, much less knowing some friendly people to at least point you in the right direction. Not everyone is the BIG WOW gamer that you are now, and in your beginning, neither were You! No, you are not required to be helpful to other players, that is your choice. But neither does your 5.4gs, epic gear, end-game raider status of Kingslayer, entitle you to be a total Jerk-Butt towards other players still learning.

Yes, there are Newb's...and NooB's in the game. The difference being that Newb's actually try to be better and are more than willing to hear tips or advice from more experienced players along the way. Since you already know so much about everything, why not learn a little bit about common decency and respect? Are YOU geared up enough for that?