So, what goes into a Hallow’s End party? First, we have the environment. have to make it spooky. Then we need costumes. *cracks whip at guild* We need to make sure the guild comes. Also, we need lots of booze and party favors. And then….games. I’m thinking about dungeon speed runs, maybe a goofiest screen shot. And then there are the prizes. (stop saying “And then” Erinia). This is the part I’m having the most trouble with. What should we award people with that’s not a ridiculous prize? 2000 gold? Some pots? Hugs? Suggestions?

In other news: Maahes is going back into surgery; his mast cell tumor is coming back, but caught it early and there’s nothing to worry about….allegedly. And I’m not going to Blizzcon due to some very unfortunate events. I’m going to NOLA the same day though.

(and welcome to everyone from WoW Insider! You rock!)

Keep rockin’ on and thanks for stoppin’ by,

Erinia

Yes, it’s complicated, but it’s as close to impartial as I can make it, but there are days when I feel as though I’m the only one who does it. I hate it when I see the same person get 3 pieces of loot in one lock out period, I hate it when I see loot go to the same people over and over. I hate it when people get heroic tier pieces to make a 2 piece bonus, when they should already HAVE the two piece bonus from VP. (okay, so some of this is a bit of bitterness at falling behind in damage because I haven’t gotten much (just 1 piece) of heroic loot, but the point is valid).

I realize that every raid has their set of performers and underperformers. Underperforming isn’t going to change with better gear, however, it is disheartening to go to every run, only to not get gear, which leads to worse performance, not better. Yes, I’ll be the first to tell you that Rhyolith is the bane of my existence, but from week to week, I dramatically improve, but it’s not enough to get loot. Is some of this coming from how far I’ve fallen behind in heroic gear? Most undoubtedly. I look at my WoL and see that I’m only doing 80-90% of the ranked performers. Even the lowest ranked have way more heroic BiS than I do, so I’m doing damned good in comparison. Yet, I’m getting passed over for loot. Less loot means that my performance will appear to suffer in respect to the raiders who do get loot, which puts me even lower on the loot list.

So, what can be done to make loot council better and more impartial? How have you been affected by LC?

Thanks for stoppin’ by,

Erinia

So, an update. I got Shadowmourne on Saturday! Finally! It took like a year, year and a half. I totally used it to take down LK and I got my Crimson Deathcharger. Because I’m nice, I gave the rest of the chest away. Still doing social events for the guild. I’m running a guild raffle bi-weekly, and I’m starting the lottery tomorrow! It’s exciting stuff and requires math. I’m so glad I have math majors in my guild. I have a brewfest party in the works and a major Hallow’s End deal. It’s hush-hush so people don’t steal my ideas! It involves costumes, so I’ll be plugging another website soon enough.

So what else have I done regarding gaming and counseling and stuff? Well, I did do a seminar about problematic gaming and presented it to my superiors at my intership. They were impressed! I’m scheduled to present to students in November about problematic gaming, the signs, and treatment. Treatment is a very general term. Gaming addiction exists, but the reasoning is important. I can’t tell someone with social anxiety, who’s entire social network is online, to quit WoW. That’s ridiculous. I also plan to interview some folks at Blizzcon. Random folks, or volunteers. It’s so I can get some internship hours while I’m on vacation.

Anything else? Well…I do plan to blog a bit more. I have some extra free time. Kinda lost my job on thursdays.

Thanks for stoppin’ by,

Erinia

When seeing clients who play online games, it is important to be familiar with the vocabulary they may use in session.

MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
EX: Rift, World of Warcraft (WoW), Warhammer, City of Heroes (CoH), Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR)

DnD: Dungeons and Dragons (can also be played in table-top format)

GM: Guild Master; normally the person who runs or leads a guild

RL: Raid Leader; normally the person who leads the raids

RL: can also refer to Real Life
IRL: in real life

FPS: First Person Shooter
EX: Call of Duty, Medal of Honor

RTS: Real time strategy
EX: Starcraft, Age of Empires
LFG: Looking for group

WTB: want to buy

FTW: for the win

n00b or noob: a player who performs poorly

OOC: out of character

OOM: out of mana

Mana/Rage/Runic Power/ Etc: a type of power. Used to cast spells or special abilites.

Ninja: a person who takes loot or gear from a mob that they don’t need, didn’t earn, or didn’t have a right to.

Tank: the person who holds the monster’s agression and takes most of the damage

DPS: Typically the players who deal damage to the monster, but may also refer to Damage Per Second

PVP: player versus player combat

PvE: Player versus environment

RP: role-playing

XP: experience points

Toon: refers to a player’s character

Main: the character a player uses the most

Twink: a low level character wearing gear far superior to their level.

Class: refers to the type of character a person plays. e.g.: mage, warlock, druid, rogue, bard, elementalist, stormcaller, etc.

Guild: A group of individuals who normally play together within a game. Guild members may develop close friendships with each other.

Dungeon/Instance: an area of the game restricted to 5 players that poses some challenge, usually in the form of bosses in which players acquire gear in order to raid.

Boss: an extremely difficult mob that requires between 5 and 25 people to defeat depending on whether it is a raid or an instance. Requires a great deal of coordination and communication between players in 10m and 25m. Players are normally required to do a lot of different steps in order to succeed.

Raid: an area of the game that contains bosses and is restricted to 10 players, or 25 players. When a player “raids”, this can refer to a 10m (10 players), or 25m (25 players). Some guilds raid upwards of 20 hours per week.

Trash: inconsequential mobs that lead up to boss fights.

Mob: a non-player character such as a monster that can be killed for points, experience, or loot.

Loot/gear: weapons and armor that help a player become more powerful.
Epic gear is normally purple and is the kind of gear most players want.

Valor/Justice Points, Badges: Tokens that players can redeem for special items or gear. (The name varies from game to game).

Quest: a challenge that must be completed by a player. Usually rewards a player with an item, in-game currency, and experience points. See dailies.
Ex: Go save 6 bunnies from the fire and return!

Dailies*: quests that are able to be redone once per day.

BG: Battleground; a massive instance separate from the rest of the game world in which players are able to fight each other. Common objectives are capture the flag, or gain x amount of resources first. Depending on the battleground there can be between 10 and 40 people.

RBG: rated battleground. Getting a rating of 1700 or more is usually considered to be pretty good. RBG’s are considered to be the raids of PvP. They require a great deal more coordination as you are fighting against other players, not computer controlled bosses.

Arena: it’s basically a special form of a battleground. Players form teams and fight against other teams. There are 2 man, 3 man, and 5 man teams. It should be noted that there are sponsored arena tournaments in which players can win a large sum of money, so it is very competitive and stressful.

Ganking: attacking someone unexpectedly in the game world. Common on PvP servers.

Griefing: generally any behavior in game that can be considered harassment. See Camping

Camping: refers to a player who kills another player, waits for the dead player to respawn (come back to life) and kills them again. Sometimes done by higher level players against lower level players. Has been known to happen for hours until the dead player gives up and logs out. A form of griefing.

PUG: pick up group. Usually a random group of players who work together to complete an instance or a quest.
May be referred to as a random.

Heroic*: refer to the harder mode of a dungeon/raid/boss.

Random*: the game will allow players to queue (or line up) for a random dungeon appropriate to level. Players may queue up alone or in groups.

*You may hear a client say “I just logged in to do my daily heroic or my daily random.” The daily heroic and daily random both refer to a dungeon appropriate to level. A person gets extra loot for doing their daily random/heroic everyday. (Such as: extra gold, or badges). Players lose out on bonuses for not doing the daily heroic everyday.

Drama follows me around.

But, I thought I at least owed you an update and a plan. My blogging, as you have noticed, is taking the backburner. That’s just the way it has to be right now. Hobbies and things you enjoy just have to be set aside at times to make room for what is important. I will do my best to update once or twice a month if I have any ideas.

Death Knight wise Erinia is doing well. She is 3/7 in Firelands. If my guild doesn’t fall apart over the next week than things will be savvy. Learned an important lesson about not burning bridges and as such I’m looking forward to a raid tomorrow night with a different guild made up of some friends who left my current one.

Guild wise: We killed the whale shark last night. We actually killed two. He’s a bitch. I have a new thing I’m doing social wise with the guild. To facilitate bonding, when a new member joins, I send them a personal welcome message…and either a gem, some gold…just something small. Let’s the new people know we appreciate them.

That’s all. How are ya’ll?

Thanks for stoppin’ by,

Erinia

So, I’m a little late to the game and needed some inspiration. I came across Saga’s post (http://spellbound.nu/?p=829) after seeing a bunch of things on twitter with the tag #20daysofWow. I haven’t been blogging lately because, frankly, real life has kept me busy. I’m a year away from graduating and the work keeps getting piled on. This leaves me with no time to really write. Heck, even twitter has hit the backburner.

Hmm, my initial reaction on seeing this topic and Day 13’s topic was: how the hell do I answer this without leaving someone out or offending someone? Then I remembered, it is my blog…I’ll say what I want.

Anyway, Bossy Pally (http://bossypally.wordpress.com/) is at the top of my list for favourite blog, and also a blogger that I admire. She is. Really! That girl is smart and she rocks! For webcomic, it’s definitely the Disco Priest over at Disciplinary Action (http://disciplinaryaction.wordpress.com/). And general wow site? It’s WoW Insider. Of course. (mutter mutter).

Honestly, I can’t tell you why I’m drawn to these sites in particular. I know that Bossy Pally in particular was very welcoming to me. I even remember being on twitter while DP was starting The Orc Detective. The talent displayed in that webcomic is phenomenal. The writing is witty and the art fantastic.

Also, I do have to give a shout out to The Wow Guys as I won tickets to Blizzcon from a contest they put on! Thanks guys!

Just saying. Ahem.

So, anyway. One of my new projects in the World of Warcraft is throwing monthly birthday parties. The last party, the June party, was actually a success. Many, many people showed up. We played with cars, balls, and zepplins. We got drunk, dueled, and raided. There were lots of presents and everyone got something. It was a lot of fun.

But I have taken to also celebrating birthdays daily. We have a lot of people in the guild, so we have bunches of birthdays. I asked everyone to send me their birthdays. Those who did got put on the guild event calendar. When birthdays roll around I take gold from the guild vault and make sure everyone gets at least: a birthday cake, a present, a pet, a maelstrom crystal, 100 gold, and a hug. They also get an MoTD and if we are raiding, we sing happy birthday. Oh yes. It’s grand.

Endow appreciates its’ members. We want our members to know we care and a nod to birthdays is a nice gesture and full of warm fuzzies.

I also suppose that 4.2 will be here soon. Personally I’m looking forward to the new quests. ZA/ZG kinda backfired for me. When they first came out I was all “Great! Pity epics! Maelstrom crystals!” Unfortunately…maelstrom crystals don’t go far when you don’t win a single other effing mat. Yes, I’m an enchanter. No, I do not win the greens to DE. Back to the point: I intensely dislike ZA/ZG. Honestly, ZG is too long for me. I don’t think I’ve finished that dungeon in under an hour, combined with a 45 minute queue…it’s unbearable. ZA is slightly better. It’s much shorter, but I still hate it. This hate comes from missing the fucking timer by 10 seconds. Yes, you read that right. 10.fucking.seconds.Yes, the call to arms has helped get into a queue, but I’m still waiting between 30 minutes and an hour most nights. Honestly, it’s not uncommon for me to get into a group as it’s falling apart. At that point, I cry.

But why am I looking forward to quests? It’s something new to do. I honestly don’t mind end-game questing. Usually, it’s pretty funny. I’m interested in seeing the new Hyjal. Ragnaros with legs can go die in a fire…or maybe an oxygen-less chamber. I’m approaching this new raid with wariness.

/ponder

And how are ya’ll?

Anyway, the point is, coming up with events is hard. A few weeks ago I had the bright idea to get everyone’s birthdays on the calendar and then I noticed something…we have 10 people who’s birthdays are in June. Why not have a group birthday party? So, I scheduled a party for next wednesday and I have been asking (begging) the other officers to pimp that party. All who attend will get party favors. (Yes, I have a bunch of presents a la xmas). I have bought that crash em racers, stocked up on cake, sweets, booze….oh yes. This party will rock. If people show up. *cough* Afterwards we will probably finish ulduar and do Kara.

But bringing people together is what is important. Raiding is somewhat of a bonding experience, but at times it’s not really fun. You can’t really chat and it’s stressful, especially on progression nights. Social nights are for no-pressure interaction. We can bond, chat, and get to know one another. A guild that is bonded together has a greater chance of survival in the long term. It’s also a good way to interact with the new members of the guild.

Right now I’m in the process of sending out invitations via guild mail. OMG, stupid roster. It’s huge. I have about 100 invites to send out tonight. That’s 100 customized invites. Shoot me now.

Making things special for guild members is what is important. Make them feel special and good about being members of the guild. Make them feel important and worthwhile. Make them feel appreciated. And that’s what social events and parties are all about.

Now, back to studyin’

Thanks for stoppin’ by,

Erinia

One of my supervisors here thinks that I should work on a paper to publish about gaming addiction. We are of the mind that the person who writes about gaming should be a gamer themselves. Now, there is the question of objectivity, but at the same time, a gamer can ask questions that other gamers would understand, especially in the context of MMORPGs. We know the lingo, the slang, the dialect inherant to veteran and upcoming players. (Speaking of, I swear we need to incorporate a language dictionary into WoW for new players. It took me over a year to figure out what LFG and WTB and WTT meant. I was a brand new, never played an MMO before player though).

Anyway, I had some thoughts about gaming addiction. Some researchers and doctorate level individuals have suggested that gaming addiction really isn’t an addiction because gamers don’t spend obscene amounts of money on their addiction, or do they have the bad health consequences of drug addicts.

Here are my thoughts: gamers do spend money…they spend lots of money on their game. Sure, some games don’t have a huge monetary investment, but many do. Some things that spring to mind include the 600$ and up WoW TCG mounts and items on ebay, pets, and now “premium” services. What about things like farmville and cityville. It has become increasingly common to hear people talk about their signficant other, child, family member, etc. running up huge credit card bills or spending lots of money for virtual cash.
As for the health consequences, many gamers are indeed very healthy! Some studies have shown that gamers are as healthy or healthier than people who watch TV for their 30 hours per week, or whatever. There is that small subset of gamers though who take things to extreme. You know the type; they have poor nutrition and poor hygiene because leaving the game to go take of business is unthinkable or even painful.

Other researchers have postulated that gaming is a coping mechanism for stress. I’m sure it is in many cases. But what happens when the stressor is removed or resolved. Does gaming continue? I’m not sure this theorectical model can really explain problematic gaming.

Some things I found today: gamers are approximately 50/50 male to female. This blows my mind. I actually don’t know many female gamers aside from twitter and two guildmates. Are ladies afraid to speak up? I’d like to know. A study in 2005 suggested that in MMORPG’s it’s more like 81% to 19% male:female. That sounds a little more correct. I still want to know about true numbers though. A few studies mentioned that female gamers actually log more hours played though.

Some other things: gamers have high rates of depression than the normal population, but lower rates of anxiety. Considering that a risk factor for developing gaming addiction is social anxiety, I would like to pursue some research in that area. That just doesn’t sound correct at all.

Anyway, sorry for the random post. Just had some thoughts in my head and wanted to get them out. Do I have a specific research question? Nope, not yet. I know I’ll need a bunch of demographics though. I also forsee a survey and some follow up interview questions. And also some giftcards to distribute randomly to participants. I do wonder if Blizzard would help out though. I know Sony did for a couple of studies involving Everquest.

Thanks for stoppin’ by and feel free to add your own two copper,

Erinia

Soooooooooo, I won 2 tickets to BlizzCon courtesy of The WoW Guys. I entered their contest. Much to my surprise…I won.

Now I have to figure out who gets my spare ticket.

I’m super excited. I have NEVER done anything like this. I’m going to need Valium to get on the plane.

I think I’m going to go faint again.