Cranky Matojo is Cranky

Normally I am pretty patient with people (shut up, Kaphik) and willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Well, people that don’t spout hate language/misogyny, gem for mp5 and/or wander through life with their head lodged firmly up their arse.

Oh, wait.

My guild has picked up somebody that takes everything that I hate about wow_ladies and sticks it into a single, annoying human being. Making a big deal of being female? Check. Misogyny and misandry? Check.  Insistence on hand-holding when attempting to figure out a new spec (right down to asking what each and every talent does)? Yep. Constantly asking for help? Yeeeah.

Fuck me with a rusty pike.

Maybe I have been spoiled by my guild’s relative sanity and its female population’s lack of the stereotypical and idiotic. I mean, I rarely complain about the guild and I haven’t had such an issue with a guild member in a very long time, so this must be A Big Deal.

I knew this person was a bad fit when their response to a tale about two Blood Elf priests being jackasses in a pug was, “Ooooh, gai boiz, how CUTE!”

That’s right, folks. All Blood Elves are gay males. Let’s forget that the characters were later mentioned as being female – I bet that suddenly stopped being cute for that person. Lesbians, after all, aren’t nearly as adorable as gay dudes, right?

I just … whatisthisIdon’teven. For the second time in what, three years, I’m going to have to add a Harbinger to my ignore list.

I have seriously never seen the stereotypical gamer grrrl outside of wow_ladies and I don’t like this and I want them to go away. Make it stooooooop.

In other news, apparently girls ask a lot of questions and are bad at WoW. DID YOU HEAR THAT, MERI, WE ARE BAD AT WOW AND WE ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS. HOW DO I MINE FOR FISH, GUYS.

THE HATRED OF A THOUSAND RAGING NERDS

HEY. HEY HATERS. HEY.

There has been a case, on my server, of some Orc players taking every possible opportunity to talk about how they hate Blood Elves and wish they weren’t part of the Horde, as well as sharing their opinion that the wee elves should be removed from the game.

For the record, I think the guys that have been spewing this shit are fucking idiots.

Hatred of a particular race or faction on the part of the player just doesn’t make any fucking sense – and neither does judging a player based upon what they play.

It’s to the point where I am, unfortunately, beginning to wonder what the correlation between playing an Orc and being an unpleasant asshole actually is, then I stop and realize that isn’t fair to the cool people that I know that occasionally play Orcs (hell, even I have one – Mikome has just barely dodged the chopping block). Frankly, I’m a little embarrassed by the jerks on behalf of the non-jerks.

I do not understand people that claim to hate any particular race in a game, or any particular faction. Did Blood Elves kill your father? Did the Alliance take your lunch money? I mean, I understand why characters may hate on elves – but their players? Is it a case of being unable to separate the self from the toon?

I think it’s a case of Nerd Rage or something.

Nobody has to like everything – I don’t like human dudes, have you seen their fucking upper lip when they don’t have facial hair? – but it really isn’t logical to hate on pixels or the people that play them. “I don’t like Night Elves” is fine. “I hate Night Elves and anybody that plays one is [Insert Insult Here]” is not, and anybody that honestly believes that is a fuckwad.

Playing a particular race or faction does not make anyone inferior.

Read that line. Re-read it. Memorize it. Beat it into your skull.

Guess what? Some of my best in-game and Blogging friends have Blood Elf or Alliance mains. You may know some of them. They are awesome people. There are other awesome people in the same boat that I have not linked and, guess what? Their choice of race and/or faction does not make them any less awesome.

My server is lucky to have some of the best, in my biased opinion, Blood Elf roleplayers ever. They have deep, interesting backstories that have developed and continue to develop over the years and months since BC. They have fun roleplaying and killing shit, they are amazing people on an OOC level and they, like me, roll their eyes when the obligatory daily “I hate Blood Elves” pops into /tbdf.

Yes, there are some Blood Elf character concepts that make me roll my eyes and sigh – but the things that some players do does not make the race suck.

I am sick of Blood Elf hate. I am sick of race and faction hate in general. Fucking stop it. It’s tiring. It doesn’t make sense.

STFU, haters.

On Playing Half-Elves

I apologize if I’ve covered this before, but I was up way too late last night debating about this very thing, so it’s on my mind.

Most who roleplay with me are aware that I’m willing to accept a lot of things. I can deal with the walking homosexual stereotypes (though, to be honest, I’m getting a little tired of people playing up the stereotype of the FABULOUS gay elf – you do know it’s possible to be into members of the same sex without being flamboyant, right?), the occasional speshul snowflake, the dudes with mechanical parts (though that is supported by lore and people that don’t see that obviously never quested in Stonetalon, Borean Tundra or ran Gnomeregan) and the secret somethings. I can deal with strange shit if it’s played well.

What bothers me the most about the play of half-elves is that, like secret dragons, they are rarely played in a manner that realistically matches the setting.

In World of Warcraft, Quel’dorei – the blue-eyed, pink-skinned elves whose majority population became Sin’dorei with Kael’thas upon feeding on Fel energies – and humans are considered traitors by the Sin’dorei. For the Quel’dorei, it’s because they didn’t join the Sin’dorei in their transformation. For the humans, it’s because they basically left the Sin’dorei to die when the Scourge happened. So, one can imagine that neither race would be welcomed to the Horde with open arms – their offspring even less so.

So, try to imagine a half-elf that doesn’t have green glowy eyes. Tell me how long you think that would last in a Horde city, realistically speaking.

Yeah. Exactly.

You would also think that a character that has been challenged for being the product of two traitorous races’ mating, has been threatened and has had their points of view regarding human relations to pretty much every member of the Horde would be a little more careful about how… they… act. You would think that they wouldn’t be so quick to exclaim, “I’m part human!”, or to express their like of humans and how totally not dicks they are, seriously guys.

But, no.

Azeroth is a world that is at war. Most Sin’dorei are unwilling to forgive the Quel’dorei and the humans for screwing them over, and most of the other Horde races are pretty rar-fase over anything with an Alliance tabard. Yes, there are exceptions, but those are rare – and the player-characters that actually play out being “roooar hiss” are met with… surprise on the part of the half-elf. The half-elf who has been met with these reactions before.

What.

I’m not quite sure where my point was, I know I had one. I guess it’s this: If you’re going to play something that the in-game world at large considers “taboo” or outright traitorous, for the love of Djehuty who guides my writing hand please at least attempt to play your character in a manner that’s realistic for the setting. This does not include putting a spotlight upon yourself and bragging about where you’re from or what you did while under Alliance rule (I’m writing from a Horde P.O.V. here), nor does it include spouting off about how the Alliance are so totes cool and omg the Horde isn’t innocent either we should all be ~*friends*~. It… isn’t working that way in the game world. It really isn’t.

… No really I had a point come baaaaaaack.

To Each Their Own

The topic of ERP has come up (pun unintended) quite a bit in my RP community. For those that aren’t aware, ERP refers to “erotic role-play”, which tends to be the butt of roleplay-server-related jokes.

Truth be told, a lot of people in various roleplay communities have an unhealthy fear of erotic roleplay that borders on fascination – people are very, very quick to judge those that may partake of this activity and vehemently deny, deny, deny any interest that they may have.

I’m gonna be blunt here, folks: the more one cries out against an activity while, at the same time, being extremely curious and fascinated by it, the less I believe that they think it’s bad.

I have participated in intimate roleplay. I occasionally enjoy it, though I haven’t actually pulled any off in quite a while (usual RP partners off having lives, me getting eaten alive by PvE fever, my RP not generally leading in the direction of sexytiems OR the characters that do go that way are characters I’m not comfortable following into their bedrooms) and I’m pretty indifferent to what other people want to do with their time. The things that I’m noticing when I see people rail against erotic roleplay are the following:

• Internalized misogyny: Female characters that are dressed in “revealing” clothing are pointed out first, and often as “fishing for ERP”. Slut-shaming abounds. Would the same questions and shaming arise if the character happened to be male?
• Closet fascination: Many times, the people that I see that express disgust over this activity also seem to be very, very fascinated by the concept. They think it’s wrong and horrible but they want to hear about everything to do with it.
• An unhealthy view of sex: Adults regarding sex in the same way that the pre-fifteen crowd does tends to worry me just a little.

To the RP community’s credit, at least we don’t have “ERP ruins the ~meaning~ of sex and makes 14-year-olds pregnant!”-guy anymore.

When this topic is brought up I tend to cringe. I know that slut-shaming is on its way, along with the usual tsking, and it’s disappointing that people that otherwise take pride in being mature, well-adjusted adults are so bloody childish when it comes to this.

I’m not gonna re-hash what others have said regarding double standards, internalized misogyny/sexism and slut-shaming when they really did say it better (I will also take recommendations for other articles).

“Oh, that’s disgusting! … Tell me more.”

Often when a potential ERPer is spotted, the spotter announces this to the channel. The rational and well-adjusted among us respond simply with, “So what?” and move on with our lives, while the others’ reactions vary from “OMG! What are they wearing?” to “What are they doing?” to “Omg you should hit on them”. People want to know as much detail as possible. It becomes a serious case of voyeurism that is… both hilarious and sad to watch.

It’s natural for people to gravitate toward a train wreck in order to watch the carnage.

With that said, this type of behaviour makes me want to say, look, if you’re that interested, stop fucking denouncing the activity and just admit it. You’re a voyeur. Intimate roleplay interests you. You secretly like smut. We get it. No amount of insistence of your disgust over it is going to prove otherwise.

Matojo Says: “For fuck’s sake, people, grow up already.“

Guess what? Intimate roleplay is exactly like other forms of erotica in that it’s a natural byproduct of a culture that… likes sex. There’s nothing wrong with it, especially not if one is interested in, say, erotic stories or art. Or porn. Some of the exact same people that have no problem with erotic literature or art are the very same folks that bash erotic roleplay and those that partake of it.

Guys? It’s the same shit, it’s just a different medium.

Grow the fuck up already.

What Matojo Thinks

I occasionally ERP. It’s another tool in my character development toolbox and it has (sometimes unfortunately) shed some light on some of my characters’ personality quirks and why they are the way they are (although very little can explain Ojore aside from if your siblings were murdered in a Quintaglio-esque culling you, too, would be fucked up). It is not the focus of my RP, though I have absolutely no issue with smut for smut’s sake. Sometimes, it’s hilarious (Dybo: Ticking Timebomb Extraordinaire), and yes I’m a horrible person.

There is nothing wrong with erotic roleplay. To each their own, and if the idea of somebody including sex in their pretendy fun-times is that much of a threat in one’s mind, they need to grow the fuck up. You’re adults, for fuck’s sake – sex-related talk should not be met with highschooler derision and flailing.

TL;DR Erotic Roleplay is just like roleplay, but there’s sex in it. Oh noes. Grow the fuck up. Blah blah blah misogyny, slut-shaming, double standards, sex is not icky you fuckwads.

On The Necessity of Having Thick Skin as a Blogger

There is some hubbub in the blogosphere regarding a post that, regardless of intent*, advocated griefing of bad RPers in-game and… posting the results or somesuch, my memory is short, blah blah blah whatevah.

The point made elsewhere was that griefing is bad.

Griefing is described, in short, as in-game harassment.  If you’re confused, take a look at Blizzard’s RP Server Rules and Wikipedia. A Griefer is not someone that formulates an intelligent response to something on the interwebs. Griefers are rarely intelligent and are in the same pool as forum/blog trolls (which usually can be found posting anonymously and often lack tusks).

That whole thing has been hashed and re-hashed to death. No, instead, I’m going to talk about blogging and why it’s important to have thick skin when you post things on the internet.

It’s important to have thick skin when you post things on the internet.

Blogging is a hobby. Blogging is a hobby that takes place on the internet. The internet is, more or less, the public’s domain, and is made up of many people with differing opinions on all topics (including the importance of the difference between a cheeseburger and a McDouble, I shit you not). Opinions, remember, are like assholes – everyone has one. The difference between an opinion and an asshole, however, is that everyone wants to share their opinions but – okay, bad analogy. Anyway.

If you post something on the internet, expect that someone, somewhere, will disagree.

This is Internet 101. The internet is a vast, strange, often nasty place – and not everyone is going to agree with you.

It is extremely important to understand, accept and embrace this if you are going to become a blogger. If you are going to join the blogosphere, you must be prepared for the inevitability of a disagreement. I can’t repeat this enough. If the prospect of someone disagreeing is a huge threat to you, don’t become a blogger. Or, join something like LiveJournal that allows for private postings.

If you are going to blog, you need thick skin.

The people with the thickest skin I have ever seen happen to be columnists on WoW.com (folks on my Twitter may note that my frothing about the asshattery of the commenters there may or may not coincide with my reading of one of my favourite bloggers). I’ve watched a particular new columnist get raked over the coals for daring not to suck EJ cock to suggest things that are a little different than what the majority of commenters are used to.

He has yet to flounce from the Blogosphere (with Ra as my witness I swear, if you do, I’m sneaking over the border and smacking you upside the head). Some of the shit that’s said is pretty damned nasty – nastier than anything I’d seen before! – but… fella keeps on truckin’.

Oh my Gods that was pathetic.

My point.

If you are sensitive to the point that someone disagreeing with your ideas is threatening or upsets you to the point of you shutting down, blogging publicly is not for you. This does not mean that you are a bad person – it’s just, y’know, not everybody’s meant for this stuff. That’s okay. You’re okay. Everyone’s okay.

Except for the dipshit declaring war over the whole thing, but whatever. Way to overreact, bub.

Hi, I’m Matojo and my rage bar is always full.

*Yes holy shitfuck that’s way, way high on the harsh-o-meter for this particular subject but I think it illustrates the point pretty damn well. Plus, it’s an important topic anyway. Just ’cause one doesn’t intend harm doesn’t mean no harm takes place.

The Value of Education, or: Why It Sometimes Pays Not to Be An Asshole

I have noticed a disturbing trend in the WoW community. Am I slow on the uptake? Maybe. Is this going to sound utterly hilarious coming from me? Well, yeah.

We live and instance in a gogogo culture where anybody that isn’t at the top of their game is left in the dust and so is anybody that does things differently than what Elitist Jerks imposes upon the population (WoW.com’s Jerkerati, anyone?) – experimentation is frowned upon and honest-to-Djehuty (The Scribe seems appropriate here) newbies and clueless types are promptly chewed up and spit out.

WoW players eat their own. All gamers do.

It’s not always the right thing to do.

The Asshole Mentality

With the relative anonymity of the new LFG tool, everyone is pretty much encouraged to be an asshole. Groups that would otherwise consider themselves to be a bastion of helpfulness are reduced to packs of snarling dogs when faced with things that don’t quite match their idea of how a dungeon should go.

Often, it’s justified. Just as often, however, it is not.

Myth: At 80, Everyone Will Know the Ins and Outs of Their Class

The majority of the Asshole Mentality stems from the above idea. Yes, most 80s should know their class. Most 80s should understand what gear they need and how to spec, but the fact is, not all of them do. Not every 80 had the support of a guild, group, or knowledgeable friend behind them. Not every 80 was able to understand what they were finding on Google, not every 80 is skilled at separating the grain from the chaff when it comes to dissecting what is good, current information and what isn’t. You hear about clueless DPS and healers all the time, and nobody seems to try to say, “Dude, you want some pointers?” When there’s a failure, people are more willing to jump up and say “You fucking suck, you noob, L2Play!” instead of “I think I know how we can handle this better.” Tanks are automatically screwed unless their HP is at 30,000 or higher (why do you think I wear both Brewfest stamina trinkets on my Death Knight?) and are often subject to the highest, most rage-inducing scrutiny. Guess what, folks? I can tank Heroic UK just fine at 25k-28k HP Unbuffed.

The community has this immediate need to jump somebody that doesn’t meet expectations and a lack of interest in at least offering to help somebody improve.

And we wonder why it’s so hard to find new tanks, good DPS and healers that know what they’re doing?

Fact: Nobody Appreciates Abuse

You know that saying about attracting flies with honey (or is it distracting evil piles of vomit with Fly Honey)? For the most part, it’s true.

I have heard all sides of this. I have heard, “Why bother trying to help when I just get yelled at?” “Nobody likes being told how to play.” “It’s not my job to teach people how to play their class.” “I don’t know everything about the game.”

Fine. That’s fine.

But that doesn’t mean you have to be an asshole if somebody, who is obviously new or completely clueless, doesn’t perform as expected.

I have been in parties at all level ranges where, when an individual was attacked for their performance, pretty much 100% of the time the person lashed out right back at whoever gave them hell. I have been the person that wasn’t performing well and, as soon as I said, “Gimme a break, I haven’t played this toon in forever” or “Well, that’s why I’m running heroics – to get emblems and gear so I won’t suck”, I was left alone. In groups where it was some poor sod against the rest of the group, as soon as I – usually the tank or healer – piped up with, “Dude, it’s okay, we all have to start somewhere. Why don’t you try x, y, z instead?” or “Here’s why what happened Is Not Cool but we will deal because these things happened” … things cooled down.

Being level-headed and not an asshole gets shit done.

The attitude of “it’s not my job to teach” is just as bad as the general assholery. If everyone adopted that frame of mind, can you imagine how shitty the gaming experience would be? I’d still be a fail!hunter. I’d still… well, I’d fail at this game in general because no amount of research makes up for hands-on learning. Something that I was taught as early as High School is that different people have different styles of learning. Some can adapt from reading websites and guides like WoW.com, Elitist Windbags/Jerks and various blogs. Some need to watch videos and see it in action. Others need to be coached in-game. Requiring a different learning style does not make somebody flawed or inferior, it just means that they process information differently.

And that’s okay.

Besides, it does not take much time out of your run to suggest a different approach to a boss, a different set of skills to use, or for a party member to check out a certain blog that’s been suggested to you by a friend or an online community. So, it’s not like you have to write up a lesson plan and teach these people their class from the ground up.

Matojo’s Point

It’s okay to be an asshole in a case of genuine asshattery or stupidity that isn’t caused by somebody being unfamiliar with how things work (such as mages that pull, tanks that refuse to allow drink breaks, etc), but when dealing with somebody that’s brand new or just utterly clueless who most likely needs a helping hand – not cool. If the Newbie turns out to be an asshat in disguise, by all means, fire the cannons.

Remember: People can hit 80 and start into heroics without having any bloody idea of how to play. How else would we have level 80 Mages doing 400DPS, even in quest greens?

Tool of the Day: It’s a Cornucopia of Fuckery

Back at'cha, Princess(es).

To be quite honest, I have lots of material – mostly from LFG – for Tools for this week. I mean, lots. I’ve been leveling my Gnome Warrior over on Zul’jin for most of the weekend, so a new battle group means new stupids (but new awesome people and I need to know what a good title for “Awesome Dudes of the Day/Week/Month” is), especially from the perspective of a tank.

I mean, not to say DPS and healers don’t experience fuckery – we do. Oh Gods, we do. Hello, DK tank that rides the threat meters just slightly above a Frost Mage whose only good aspect is that she’s at the hit cap.

This, however, is a completely different kettle of fish.

The Love is in the Air event has added an instance achievement that we’re all familiar with but that I really didn’t experience first-hand (because this? It isn’t the first of its kind) until this year. Prince Keleseth, as well as two other bosses, drops one of two bouquets – Ebon and Red, or something – and the bouquet is part of the meta achievement that goes toward the title and the drake. However, this isn’t the part that’s the problem.

It’s the fucking level 80s that queue into the regular version of the instance and then drop once (if) they win the bouquet.

I am, inevitably, the tank on these runs (because the two toons I’ve been running through this content are tanks, a Feral druid and a Frost Dual Wield Death Knight) and they have both been Retribution Paladins, so I wind up fighting them on the threat meters the entire time they’re in group until I think, “Fuck it, I’m not taunting off him, I’m level 70/72 and he’s fucking 80 and in Tier gear.” Then we hit Kel, Kel drops, so does the bouquet and… poof, dude drops group.

What the hell, man.

You queued up with us lowbies, you made us fight your aggro and now you leave us one member short in an at-level instance whose boss fights are a bitch if you’re lacking in DPS. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

You, achievement-chasing serial group-dropping fuckwits, are the Tools of the Day. Sit on an Armadillo and spin.

At least, when my Death Knight goes chasing this achievement, he’s going in all his defense-capped glory as a tank and I’m stickin’ out the entire thing, because that’s the non-dickish thing to do.

A Tip For Those Who Share A Battle Group With An RP Server

Sunday night, I decided to help a guildie with learning this whole healing thing by tanking Drak’tharon Keep. I was on Matojo, Wyat was DPSing as Pierse and Najat was the level 80 Disc priest that was healing my little blue ass.

I love being healed by Discipline Priests and Resto Shamans because, assuming their gear is at least okay, I can keep pulling and they rarely run low on mana – yay!

Well, some poor bastard from Jubei’thos – Smite, I think it was – decided to start whining about RP realms and how they should have their own battle group. Hey, I agree – most RPers do – but for completely different reasons. After I told her that she should really watch herself since 3/5 of her groupmates are from the same RP server, she promptly sealed her fate with more whining along the lines of, “Oh God why”, and I initiated vote to kick.

Frankly, my dears, if you’re going to be like that you don’t deserve to run with me and I don’t want to dent my 18k health pool (22k buffed, which… I can’t imagine what it’ll be at 80 if I keep up with his gear, enchants and gemming) for you, so get out.

“But Mat!” You cry, “That was so mean! You should have given that person a chance!”

Eff that, man.

I deal with a small amount of shit for my server, and that amount is enough to make me very protective and defensive when it comes to TB. I often hear the following, in no particular order, from various sources (including LJ):

• “RPers are scrubs.”
• “RP on TB is dead.” (FUCK YOOOU)
• “You’re on a RP realm? Fail.”
• At this point I’ve run out of examples because the cold meds are starting to stomp on my head.

So, naturally, I’m not gonna put up with that shit when I can help it.

Remember, folks: Roleplayer does not automatically equal “shitty player”. You go ahead and keep up pulling stupid shit, though – I enjoy biting back, and I bite just as hard as any other player.

RP Fail.

I wish people weren’t so private with their RP and actually RPed randomly instead of only in their guild setting. Lots of good RPers who ignore random RP.

~ Member of RP Community

Oh, really?

I would have more stock in this if it was from somebody that didn’t demonstrate trollish behaviour on the official forums, who didn’t frequently create guilds for the sake of “saving” RP on my server and who didn’t play a Tauren banshee with mechanical legs at one time or another.

I guess I’m an elitist!

When I actually stick my face out into the crowd, I do my best to include strangers, random RPers, even people I don’t like (assuming they aren’t the people that have caused me a ton of grief, those people can go fuck themselves with a rusty fork).

“But Matojo!” You cry, “People privatising RP is a big problem! Something has to be done! RP is dying!”

Really now?

I think the bigger problem is the Chicken Little Syndrome.

Allow me to explain.

Chicken Little Syndrome is when members of a server’s Roleplay community – usually individuals with a reputation as attention-seekers (much nicer description than what I was originally going to type) or people that have never done anything but complain, anyway – begin to cry out that RP on the server is dead, it needs saving, oh woe is the RP. They blame the cliques, they blame the PvPers, they blame the raiders, they blame everyone and everything under the sun.

Yet, when I’ve seen these individuals at events (namely, The Drunken Kodo, I have yet to see them at The Refuge’s Campfire), their interaction with other people consists of talking to themselves in their own language, or simply making a rude remark or two and not really trying to engage others, among other behaviours that don’t encourage characters to try to interact with them.

When the local RP Hermit (Me) can happily poke and prod at people when she shows up to things, there is a problem. That problem isn’t the server, in that case, nor is it the community.

Guess what?

RP requires effort on the part of the individual. There is nothing wrong with RPers sticking to their guilds if that’s what makes them happy, and the more that people complain, the less likely we are to poke our heads out.

Also consider this: People like me, who have been playing for a long time, have also had a large share of drama of our own. We’ve learned what type of people are more likely to create problems and, as such, we strive to avoid that. If one finds people actively avoiding RP with them (and I mean, completely ignoring their actions and refusing to speak to them if the setting isn’t insanely busy like many public events are), the problem may not be them. The problem may be you.

The saying is “once bitten, twice shy”. I’ve been bitten before, so have members of my guild. We are tired of bullshit so we’re very careful of who we let in – at least, to the Big Stuff – but we still ask that you aren’t afraid to approach us when you see us sitting around a campfire and boozing. Yes, the Harbingers of War are tight-knit and a clique of a fashion, but all guilds are, and we’re also fairly easy to get along with.

Generally, this is the case with most RP guilds if other people are willing to put in the effort.

My point is this: RP never, ever, ever just comes to you. It requires effort, it requires care and hard work. It’s something that, if you try, if you work at it, it will yield great rewards – but if you spend a lot of time b’awwwing about the lack of it, all you’ll do is continue to push it away.

Want to make guilds? Great, develop a story, advertise, pimp, openly recruit, be loud and be proud.

Don’t make it your personal mission to “save” RP anywhere – that just turns people off. RP for the sake of RPing and leave it at that. If you play a character that isn’t very social, don’t complain about lack of RP – develop some characters that are or concoct a reason for that character to speak up. Does he have strong opinions? Maybe s/he pulls something stupid or inherits a pet or magical object that just doesn’t agree with him.

Most of all?

BE CREATIVE.

Bitching? Gets you nowhere.

Bad Matojo, no bikkit. Stop cannibalizing your own Godsdamned community.

How to Make a Cranky Matojo – Healer Edition

WoW_Ladies got me off on a little tangent, of course, so I figured I’d expand here.

I can be a pretty cranky healer (some days, I even reach Angry Healer level). For some of my friends, that’s the appeal of having me along – if people are being idiots I’ll say so and I occasionally pay enough attention to be able to give pointers on what to do (whether or not people actually listen to me, I don’t know). When I’m not running into pats. Or getting lost. Or jumping around. Or dancing. Or spacing out. Or being chewed on by the cat (“NO SIMON NO NOT WHILE I’M HEALING AUGH MY FEETS – theregoesmymouse”). For the most part, I’m pretty chill.

But there are ways to wind up on my shit list, oh yes, and some of them are fairly common for most healers.

1. Don’t run back after a wipe, just wait for me to rez you. That is, after all, what my mana is for, right? You might as well save your mana and food for soloing! I’ll just take my time getting to you. First, I’ll have to drink – gotta have full mana to rez the lazy bastard! – and then play with the cat. Oh, and feed the cat. And rescue the dude that got lost on his way back. And and and…
2. Don’t eat or drink. My mana, after all, is endless and there’s no way in hell that I pay the same amount of in-game currency for my stacks of water and food as you. Besides, it’s not like you have anything better to do while waiting for me to get my health and mana back, nope. Standing around with your thumb up your ass is a much better use of your time.
3. “Rez plz. Rez plz. Can I get a rez?” OH! How silly of me, I didn’t notice that your health bar was empty and that you were lying on the floor THANKS FOR REMINDING ME. I NEVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN TO REZ YOU IF YOU DIDN’T ASK. YOU KNOW, IF MY HEAD WASN’T STUCK BETWEEN MY SHOULDERS I WOULD FORGET THAT TOO, LULZ AND SO FORTH.
4. Treat other party members – especially those who have my guild tag above their heads (<Harbingers of War> and <The Refuge>, respectively) – like shit. Bonus points if it’s the tank and his name is Wyat/Sorchia/Shaliandra or Rikua or Violeta/Cyael or Douzer and his disguises.
5. Please tell me how to do my job, because I obviously haven’t been healing for ages and don’t know my head from my ass.
6. Trigger events if you’re not the tank. Go ahead, do it. I hear the floor is nice this time of year.

So, dear other party members, if you’re a decent human being with only a small stupid streak, I’ll be decent right back!

What do other players have to do to wind up on your shitlist, readers?