Why I’m Opting In to RealID

First thing’s first: This is going to be rambly. I forgot my anti depressants at my parents’ house and am rather light-headed and nonsensical already – everybody’s affected differently. If I piss someone off, so be it.

So, there’s a lot of concern about privacy regarding RealID. I think y’all ought to read this post before continuing the incoherent rage and whining, first off, and secondly, I need y’all to think about social media.

If you’re signed on to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any number of other social networking sites, your privacy is already out the window. Even if you’re careful about what you post. If you order pizza, your information is already out there. If you rent movies from your local grocery store, there’s another batch of people with your information. If you run your own website, finding out about you is as simple as doing a WHOIS of your domain (if you didn’t put your domain under a pseudonym or something).

Privacy on the internet is a myth. If you put information out there, you cannot take it back. No matter how paranoid you are, someone, some company, somewhere, has something on you.

Scary, huh?

If someone wants to find something out about you and they know what tools they need to do so, they can. If you race-changed and name-changed and then server-transferred a character to get away from someone, they can figure out where you went (there are WoW detective sites that actually track transfers and race changes). Pre-RealID WoW is no more private than post-RealID WoW.

I will be opting in to RealID because a) Most people already know my real name by now (Parasite Eve, sets people on fire, sings, there you go), b) I’m not afraid to tell people “Not right now, I’m busy”, c) I’m not afraid to simply not accept friend requests from people I don’t like.

If people take my behaviour personally, that’s their problem, not mine. I already have someone taking my snarkiness as a personal affront whenever it’s her hubby (who, by the by, can defend himself he’s an adult for fuck’s sake) that’s snarked after he acts like a fuckwad (hey, he’s a dick to other people sometimes, too, I figure he’s earned it). The best part is that afterward he doesn’t take it personally. Why should he? Why should anybody?

If I don’t want to spend time with you, I’ll tell you. If I want to be left alone, I’ll tell you. If I don’t want you knowing where my characters are at all times, you’ll know. Do I give a fuck if you know my e-mail address? No. I use the same e-mail address for everything. I don’t have the attention span to have a different fucking e-mail address for each little thing that I do.

And chances are, if I let you refer to me by my first name, I’ll happily let you stalk add me (that means you, people with my cell phone number).

You have more power with this thing than you think you do, but if your freak-out is lack of privacy, darlings? You’re on the internet. You’re already without privacy.

I hope Blizzard’s enjoying my chat records~

Matojo’s Adventures in DDO

So, while I wait to get my account back, I’ve been poking at a game I’ve been wanting to try for a while – Dungeons and Dragons Online.

The gameplay is interesting and some aspects are rather clunky compared to WoW, but it’s enough to keep me coming back. I mean, I’ve wanted more D&D experience for a while and since I can’t get into tabletop around here, I figured, why not? Maybe I’ll have to check out some of the other single player games, too (the Forgotten Realms versions, I guess that’s all that’s out there?).

For a newbie like me, working with the targeting system is a little unwieldy. It does operate on D&D rules and requires more movement to be effective than what WoW does. The skill/feat system is different, too, with some classes not having much in terms of buttons they can hit until much later in the game.

I have mixed feelings on the DDO Store that mainly stem from the idea of how difficult the information is to even find at first. Prices aren’t too bad for store points, but I dont’ know how earning them via the Favour system compares yet so I can’t comment that way. I have no problem paying for some game features (like Drow and Warforged).

My suggestions to anybody that tries to pick up the game are: Pay attention to tooltips, read the tooltips on your character sheet, pick up a little D&D info before you start and adjust the keyboard turning speed/mouse look speed before going too far – the starting values make movement slow, unwieldy and almost made me drop the game. Also? Don’t try to play the game in windowed mode – DDO’s windowed mode is horrible.

Also, Jesus Jumping Murphy do not start with a bard.

I’m not used to mob killing not contributing to experience, either, so THAT is a bizarre thing for me.

At the moment I’m running a Wizard (Tuhina Dawngarde), Rogue (Kerriganne Shadowfoot), Fighter (Erbin Warglaive), Paladin (Greenshanks) and Cleric (I forget, no seriously). I don’t have much rogue, paladin or cleric experience but I am a big fan of the wizard and fighter’s pewpew.

TL;DR – DDO, though clunky and it feels more like a single-player dungeon crawl than an MMO, is still interesting enough to keep my attention while I wait for my WoW account to come back. I MISS MY HARBIES. ;_;

One More For the Alt Closet and More Babble

My Warlock hit 80 yesterday and is already hit-capped thanks to some crafted gear. Oh, Ebonweave, I love you.

So I am now up to Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Death Knight and Warlock at 80, which probably means I spend way too much time on WoW, but really, meh, whatever. I am finding that my preferences for DPS are tied between Warlock, Mage and Death Knight, surprisingly, so I will probably just prod at their gear gradually between my preferred activity of watching toons gain experience and delving into the occasional Roleplay thing.

I am loling at my community’s belief that there is no such thing as a wrong opinion. Believing that it’s stupid that there are some people that don’t enjoy raiding is, frankly, wrong, because who the fuck are you to decide the stupidity level of one’s in-game preferences? Then again, I have no respect for the person who stated that as his opinion (hello, he spent a long time thinking that he didn’t need to gem or enchant his gear as a raider, his opinion does not matter because it’s bound to be idiotic anyway).

I’m finding that the more certain individuals try to push me into raiding, the less interested I am. When I hear, “Now pick one and get it ready for raiding” my immediate internal response is “no, fuck you” – have I mentioned I’m really cranky and combative lately? Like, if a baby looks at me funny I might punt it.

It’s just… if it’s so damn fun then stop fucking pushing and let me come to it on my own. I’m already wishy-washy about it as it is, damn it, and sitting there trying to debate my decision to do shit other than raid is fucking – AUGH. I rolled on a fucking roleplay server. If I wanted to raid, I’d actually make the attempt at making a character raid-ready.

I don’t have the fucking attention span, so drop it already.

Besides, I’ve pretty much decided that – after attempting to do a Naxx weekly and having it turn into an awesome bashing of the military and plague quarters – I’m only raiding with the Harbingers. [plug]The Harbingers of War are the most awesome guild on Thorium Brotherhood[/plug], they keep me sane through the issues I keep having with real life, thus, they get my undying loyalty and love. They’ve taken me into Naxx, they’ve thrown me at Flame Leviathan, they’ve offered – not PUSHED – me a spot in an Ulduar run (unfortunately, this week’s didn’t have enough people and I was in too shitty a mood to even try it), they held my hand, pointed me at shit and told me to kill it.

… And they didn’t laugh TOO hard when I died to Frogger. Twice. SHUT UP.

So yeah. I have a bunch of 80s and I don’t raid. BOOYAH. Respect my decision not to raid just like I respect YOUR decision to do so. Or something.

Last night, I also tried DPSing as Gahiji (my Death Nugget) and found that a) So far, I like Blood and Unholy about equally, b) I peaked at 3.5k DPS on Loken in Heroic HoL as Unholy, beating my previous DPS record on that toon by a good 1.3k, c) I’d like Unholy a hell of a lot more if I didn’t have to deal with the Ghoul. I picked up a pair of the tournament maces to try out DW Frost DPS, but will have to level up my mace skill first – I plan to finish that tonight, which means potentially pulling an alt into say, RFC or SM or something.

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.

Sometimes, Bad is Bad

Huey Lewis & The News – Bad Is Bad

It’s true.

Bad attitudes, bad playing, bad roleplay – sometimes, no matter how much you try to say otherwise, it’s just bad.

Maybe this guy’s new to tanking, maybe this guy had never played a rogue before, maybe this guy’s trying out a new spec, maybe this hunter is jerking our chains and equipping spell penetration gems to make us think she’s an idiot, maybe Xena the Night Elf Warrior Princess is new to RP and doesn’t realize that “half-Tauren princess of the Sparklehorn Tribe” is a shitty idea.

Or, maybe, they’re all just bad.

You and I, we’ve all known folks that just… we wanted to give ‘em the benefit of the doubt, but we couldn’t. Eventually we had to admit that they sucked. No matter how often they were coddled, given advice, talked to – it didn’t matter. There was no improvement.

At that point, folks, there’s no sense wasting more energy. Everything that can be done without bodily harm has been done, you can’t fix the genuinely stupid or – in some cases – the genuine asshole.

There is a fellow in your community that automatically disagrees with certain people, attacks ideas with the ferocity of a caged, starving wildcat and regularly makes a meal of his own foot. He doesn’t listen when it’s suggested that his behaviour is borderline, nor does he make apologies – as far as he’s concerned, he is how he is and there’s nothing to be done.

Honey, he’s bad.

There is a person in your community who acts as if he is the Gods’ gift to the roleplay community. He is territorial about possible events competing with his, he exhibits troll-like behaviour on the forums, baits the members, gets whiny when people aren’t participating in his events or guild and is generally a bother. He has had his difficulties pointed out but refuses to see an issue.

Yeah, he’s bad.

There is a tank in your raid group that feels she is entitled to the best of the gear, but frequently has issues holding aggro. She seems to think that she should be the raid group’s sole tank and gets pissy when other candidates are introduced. She is not willing to do anything for the good of the raid – it’s all about her.

Yep, she’s bad.

Cool is a rule but sometimes, just sometimes, bad is bad. Not in the Mario Cipollina “bad boy” way, either – genuine, no-good, horrendously shitty bad.

What do we do about it? There really isn’t a damned thing, in most cases – grin, bear it, and continue to avoid these people like the plague that they are. This game has a big self preservation portion to it, too, that folks tend to forget about. Remember: If the game ain’t fun for you, then somethin’s gotta give.

Apologies to Huey Lewis and the News and Mario Cipollina for inclusion in a WoW blog, but I only provide the best to my readers.

Priest Changes and the Prospect of Using Our Powers For Evil

I’m not overly excited about Priest changes. Blizzard seems to think that Disc Priest single-target healing has an issue because of all the bubble use, and yet the mechanics of the class mean that not having weakened soul on a target means we’re gimping ourselves. I like Disc healing style, and if it winds up being more like Holy I am going to be disappointed.

Life Grip, however, or whatever you lot prefer to call it, fills me with a fiendish glee that can only be matched by besting an asshat in a textual pissing contest (I’m easy to entertain).

Now, I know a lot of you are concerned that it means that we will be expected to deal with the stupid people instead of them having to learn some fucking situational awareness – but lo! It also opens up possibilities for our entertainment – and revenge.

Imagine, if you will, a battle against Sartharion. Very, very typical, no drakes (because it’s easy) and there’s one individual that is being an asshat.

You get into position as one of the flame waves starts to come in. And then…

… you grab hold of the asshat and yank him into the path of the flame wall.

Sure, he might not die, and certainly, it’s an asshole move – but we priests, it’s about time we STOOD UP to our abusers! We will not heal you through your stupidity! In fact, we will help you die faster because of your choice to treat us like shit!

THANK YOU, BLIZZARD, FOR AIDING IN THE PRIESTLY UPRISING! VIVE LA RÉSISTANCE! GET YOUR TORCHES AND BITCHFORKS, MY PRIESTLY BRETHREN, IT IS TIME TO YANK SOME ASS!

… I’m getting overexcited aren’t I. Shit.

Stranger in a Strange Land

I’ve mentioned before that I’m playing on a PvE server as well as my usual haunts – especially after some drama with my RP community, hey, I need a break – and, you know what? It really is different.

Overall, the people are nice. There are some people that are jerks (Noumena, launching newbies into the Great Forge? Not cool), but those are outnumbered by the good folks.

Right now I’m working on leveling Bellonah when I’m not trying to get Taashti’s professions caught up to her level (making her goggles and flying machine? That’s gonna suck) and I’m finding that, holy shit, paladin tanking is amazing.

For example, as per my voice post, I had a tree that didn’t take kindly to me deciding when I would pull and he dropped as I engaged the glowy blue dudes in Nexus (at the bottom of that ramp leading to Anomalous). I didn’t die. Between my AoE aggro and good Holy Light timing, I was able to heal myself through it while the rest of the party DPS’d things down. A minute later, our new healer joined the instance and much fun was had.

I have no idea what heroic groups are like in Zul’jin’s battle group, but I’m sure I’ll find out when Bellonah hits 80. She’s 72 now, so there’s still quite a ways to go.

It’s really hard to adjust to a complete lack of Roleplayers, though. There’s no chance of random in-character chatter, the only character development I can get has to be with my own stories, that sort of thing. It’s a little lonely, to be honest, and I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long.

… But I still stay in-character as much as I possibly can. >.>

Tool of the Day: Koonaki, The Strong, Silent Type

Ladies and gentlemen (and not-so-gentle-men), today, Matojo lets you all hear her tell you who’s the fucking tool. Put your hands together, put your headphones on, and pardon the sound quality of the first ever Troll Bouquet Tool of the Day Voice Post.

Matojo vs. The Healer That Tried to Kill Her

Matojo Plays “Ms. Obvious”

Guys, guys, guys, guess what?

I’m into snark and snark communities. Shocking, no? Well, I guess if you’ve never read anything here, it might be. Or… if you’ve never checked out the categories dropdown.

Or searched the term ‘snark’ on this blog. Yeah.

Sorry darlings, but it takes even less than Google’s cache to out me as a snark fan – it’s not exactly something that I hide, for fuck’s sake. ‘Course, I also believe that being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole really sucks. Want proof, here it is. I need to write a version of that for the RP crowd.

In case it’s not obvious, no, I don’t have a lot of content going this weekend. It’s a lazy weekend after a nutty week, though I am picking at Taashti’s storyline and, y’know, if you’re into Shamans and fanfic you ought to peek at Way of the Totem. Readers, if you have fiction that you’d like plugged, e-mail me at matojo@trollbouquet.ca (and be patient).

This weekend – and much of the week – has been spent on Zul’jin, except for a spell where the server’s hamster died and I ran around a little bit on Moon Guard. I’ve basically fallen into my trap of “I must get these professions leveled before ANYTHING ELSE” and thus, I wind up getting sucked into the pit that is the professions grind. Lovely. The Death Knight is caught up, however, but the paladin still has mining to do – for now she’s grinding leather for Taashti’s leatherworking.

According to the poll, I see Grin has two fangirls so far – or fanboys, not sure which. Ho ho ho, fatTroll will be pleased.

Blogosphere, have you tried anything new and unusual (for you) in WoW? Picked up any new classes? Share! Think of it as wow_ladies’ Capslock Friday but without the Capslock. Share-a-lot Saturday? Feh. Type away.

On BlogSelf vs. RealLifeSelf

I said something to Lodur today that I feel needs explanation.

“BlogMat is not RealMat! BlogMat is mean and snarky because RealMat can’t be mean and snarky.”

If [general] you were to meet me, you’d find I’m nothing like the snarky, sarcastic bitch in my blog (at first). I’m quiet, shy, sorta like a cat that isn’t quite sure about her surroundings or these Strange New People. I generally keep to myself.

This blog is like a form of therapy for me – I can say so much here, and it’s expected, that I can’t say in real life or directly to people (even in random groups I’m far more polite than what I’d like to be). I can be honest. I don’t have to spare feelings, or be nice, or keep my opinions to myself.

I can… be what I want to be instead of what I have to be.

And I have a lot of opinions. I deal with a lot of stupidity and I can get so much shit off my chest in a place that’s more satisfying than my personal Livejournal.

I’m not expected or obligated to be nice here.

Frankly, that’s a relief, and without that outlet I think I’d be royally fucked.