Why am I just standing here?
When I am online with my level 80 character, I have time to stop and smell the roses, one of the roses being in the form of /guildchat. Whether I am flying around looking for pretty plants, or fishing in Wintergrasp and fighting off the occasional hordie, I have time to read what my guildmates are doing. If I want to, I can chime in with a few "LOLs" or "Grats!" or I can simply be quiet. My guildmates don't know whether I'm actually at my computer watching the screen, so If I don't respond there is no guilt on my part and no angst on theirs (hopefully) during quiet times.
On Horde side I have a character, Monjini. She is busy. She is only 75 and working hard to level to become an asset somewhere. She wants very much to be able to go into Naxx. When I began playing with her again the other day, it just felt weird to be guildless. It was too quiet, even if I didn't want to actually "say" anything, there was a void without the "chat." So, when a nice person invited me to their guild I joined after asking about the size of the group. I wish to be a part of a certain size guild so there would be "chatter" and a possibility of raids later on.
Now the conundrum. After joining I found out that my new guild doesn't really use guildchat -- they interact via teamspeak. When I asked about communication for raiding it did not occur to me to ask about their communication process in general--during the "rest" of the time. In fact several times in the course of my second night in the guild the only guild chat basically consisted of a reminder to activate teamspeak for all communication, the guild announcement for the day, and as achievement auto-announcements popped up my "Grats".
So the "Get to know your guildmates" is done verbally.
That means headset and microphone (check) and the teamspeak program (check).
Pros: For raids, and instances, yes. I like that. Officer decisions, totally good.
Cons: I wear a headset all day at work. Sigh. I don't want to wear one constantly. I am willing to wear one for instances and decision making process, BUT NOT ALL THE TIME. >.< My ear hurts.
I want a bit more anonymity. I want to be able to ignore questions I feel uncomfortable answering with simple on screen silence. It is easier for me to Type "um I'm not ready to discuss much of my real life" than to hem/haw around in voicechat.
Voicechat is not a comfortable thing for me. Typing is.
When I am concentrating on questing, it takes all my brainpower to do it. I know, some of you can do this stuff, talk, chew gum, and knit a sweater all at the same time. I cannot. So, I was trying to quest, with my headset on, and trying to be somewhat attentive to the chatter and not miss out on a cue if they were speaking to me and I really got flustered. I stopped questing and found myself just sort of hanging there, in mid air, on my flying carpet, not going anywhere. (Funny, troll fems loose their straightback posture and look undeadish standing on the carpet.)
Don't get me wrong, those I've met through the guild using this venue of communication all seem very nice. Helpful. Calm. Mature. It's not them, it's me. I am not comfortable.
I have to decide how much time to give myself to find my niche. This is the trial period after all. A time not only for the guild leaders to see if a potential full member will fit with them, but also for the new member to see if the guild dynamics are a comforting presence in her life online.
For now, I want to just stand here. I chose discomfort over running away. I want to give us time. Like two individuals that have just looked into one another's eyes, there is wonder and trepedation. It is okay to be uncomfortable, it adds a tension that causes growth and excitement. So just standing here, quietly watching and shyly smiling is okay. I will find the roses in this new encounter.
It's hard to be "new".
Potential for personal growth FTW!
Showing posts with label Horde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horde. Show all posts
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
THEM
The other guys. You know THEM (not us).
Scenario . . .
Esiwlil, a little level 6 mage just running for her life from wolves, defias gang, and spiders in Elwin forest runs into the village of Goldshire. Whew! As she stands panting in front of the inn, she sees and hears a commotion. What is that? A huge Tauren warrior, so far ahead of her in levels she can’t even see his level. The Chuck Norris of Warriors! She watches in horror as he swings his axe and kills 4 toons in 2 seconds. Her hands clench a little stick of a staff, but she has just learned a couple of new spells. She positions herself in the doorway of the inn, takes a deep breath and casts a bolt of pain. As the bolt barely touches the Tauren Hordie, she becomes “marked” and the Tauren laughs at her pitiful attempt as he slices through her without even seeming to move. She falls. Dead. She can hear the Tauren laughing even from the graveyard. As a spirit now, she runs back into the doorway where her body is laying twisted in death. Horror!
She can see that she is still marked and remains a ghost for 5 minutes. The mark goes away. She bends and caresses her own dead face and re-enters life. She is shaking a little and needs time to regain a bit of health and Mana (the force that allows her to use magic), but she is safe because she waited until she were no longer marked PVP.
The Tauren is still there. He is dancing on the body of his latest victim. Furious and fearful at the same time, the little mage yells . . . “Where are all the heros of this land!? Don’t you care that we apprentices of warcraft are being dealt death from this brute?”
Someone yells back, “Leave him alone!” or “Ignore him.” But, the mage looks around and sees that all the NPCs are dead and so she cannot speak with them. She really needs to speak with someone about this last quest, right now. But they are all dead. Killed by the Hordie, by the “THEM”.
She yells, “They are killing us all! We need help!” “Please?” She remains hopeful that some high level will come to rescue the denizens of the town of Goldshire from this horrible fate. Hordies. “They are dancing and making chicken noises at us . . . Where are the he . . .” Her voice falters as she sees a group of her allies riding (They have horses? Wow!) down the street toward the Tauren. Her allies are all very big, wearing armor that glitters and shines and they carry huge weapons.
Big fight! Tauren dies! Finally! . . . most of the others new toons make their way to the newly spawned NPCs to continue their gameplay, but not Esi. She looks at her saviors and /bows and /claps and /cheers and /dances!! She is ecstatic!! “Thank you, Thank you!!”
Those allies on horseback (they have horses!) . . /nod to her, turn and saunter back to the big city of Stormwind.
---------------------------------------------
In World of Warcraft there are enemies or “bad guys.” For example I might walk up to a computer generated character and this character gives me a quest (a job) to go kill, lets say, a character named “Hogger”. Now Hogger is a computer generated character that when engaged will fight and give me the chance to kill and loot him, thus completing a particular quest. I then go back to the quest giver to let him know I completed the task he has set me, and he rewards me with goods, money, and/or experience. (He has killed me several times!)
Hogger is NOT the THEM .
To play World of Warcraft you create a character or a “toon”. For example you may be human, dwarf, gnome, nightelf, draenai, death knight on the Alliance Faction or troll, orc, tauren, undead, bloodelf, death knight on the Horde faction. Since my character, Cantique is a dwarf, I am Alliance. That means all Horde are THE OTHER GUYS.
You cannot have both factions in one guild. You cannot have the other guys as “friends” in your in-game friend list. In fact they even speak a different language. You cannot send mail (unless the other guy is one of your toons and you are sending a piece of equipment called heirlooms which are bound to your account with Blizzard.) You cannot group with the other side to go into a dungeon. You cannot trade with them.
You can “emote”. An emote is something like /dance or /rude or /laugh, wave, hug, kiss, poke and on and on. You can purchase items they have placed on neutral auction houses. You cannot go into one of their towns or cities without serious consequences from the computer generated characters or from actual players!
Upon entering the other guys’ cities you activate something called PVP. PVP stands for Player (real person) versus Player. Suddenly any of those OTHER GUYS can attack you whether you want to fight or not!! (NOTE: There are different servers where you are always tagged PVP as well.) I happen to belong to a RP (role play) server. So, unless I do something to cause myself to go PVP I am safe from THE OTHER GUY.
Gotta go for now, /wave /bow ….
Scenario . . .
Esiwlil, a little level 6 mage just running for her life from wolves, defias gang, and spiders in Elwin forest runs into the village of Goldshire. Whew! As she stands panting in front of the inn, she sees and hears a commotion. What is that? A huge Tauren warrior, so far ahead of her in levels she can’t even see his level. The Chuck Norris of Warriors! She watches in horror as he swings his axe and kills 4 toons in 2 seconds. Her hands clench a little stick of a staff, but she has just learned a couple of new spells. She positions herself in the doorway of the inn, takes a deep breath and casts a bolt of pain. As the bolt barely touches the Tauren Hordie, she becomes “marked” and the Tauren laughs at her pitiful attempt as he slices through her without even seeming to move. She falls. Dead. She can hear the Tauren laughing even from the graveyard. As a spirit now, she runs back into the doorway where her body is laying twisted in death. Horror!
She can see that she is still marked and remains a ghost for 5 minutes. The mark goes away. She bends and caresses her own dead face and re-enters life. She is shaking a little and needs time to regain a bit of health and Mana (the force that allows her to use magic), but she is safe because she waited until she were no longer marked PVP.
The Tauren is still there. He is dancing on the body of his latest victim. Furious and fearful at the same time, the little mage yells . . . “Where are all the heros of this land!? Don’t you care that we apprentices of warcraft are being dealt death from this brute?”
Someone yells back, “Leave him alone!” or “Ignore him.” But, the mage looks around and sees that all the NPCs are dead and so she cannot speak with them. She really needs to speak with someone about this last quest, right now. But they are all dead. Killed by the Hordie, by the “THEM”.
She yells, “They are killing us all! We need help!” “Please?” She remains hopeful that some high level will come to rescue the denizens of the town of Goldshire from this horrible fate. Hordies. “They are dancing and making chicken noises at us . . . Where are the he . . .” Her voice falters as she sees a group of her allies riding (They have horses? Wow!) down the street toward the Tauren. Her allies are all very big, wearing armor that glitters and shines and they carry huge weapons.
Big fight! Tauren dies! Finally! . . . most of the others new toons make their way to the newly spawned NPCs to continue their gameplay, but not Esi. She looks at her saviors and /bows and /claps and /cheers and /dances!! She is ecstatic!! “Thank you, Thank you!!”
Those allies on horseback (they have horses!) . . /nod to her, turn and saunter back to the big city of Stormwind.
---------------------------------------------
In World of Warcraft there are enemies or “bad guys.” For example I might walk up to a computer generated character and this character gives me a quest (a job) to go kill, lets say, a character named “Hogger”. Now Hogger is a computer generated character that when engaged will fight and give me the chance to kill and loot him, thus completing a particular quest. I then go back to the quest giver to let him know I completed the task he has set me, and he rewards me with goods, money, and/or experience. (He has killed me several times!)
Hogger is NOT the THEM .
To play World of Warcraft you create a character or a “toon”. For example you may be human, dwarf, gnome, nightelf, draenai, death knight on the Alliance Faction or troll, orc, tauren, undead, bloodelf, death knight on the Horde faction. Since my character, Cantique is a dwarf, I am Alliance. That means all Horde are THE OTHER GUYS.
You cannot have both factions in one guild. You cannot have the other guys as “friends” in your in-game friend list. In fact they even speak a different language. You cannot send mail (unless the other guy is one of your toons and you are sending a piece of equipment called heirlooms which are bound to your account with Blizzard.) You cannot group with the other side to go into a dungeon. You cannot trade with them.
You can “emote”. An emote is something like /dance or /rude or /laugh, wave, hug, kiss, poke and on and on. You can purchase items they have placed on neutral auction houses. You cannot go into one of their towns or cities without serious consequences from the computer generated characters or from actual players!
Upon entering the other guys’ cities you activate something called PVP. PVP stands for Player (real person) versus Player. Suddenly any of those OTHER GUYS can attack you whether you want to fight or not!! (NOTE: There are different servers where you are always tagged PVP as well.) I happen to belong to a RP (role play) server. So, unless I do something to cause myself to go PVP I am safe from THE OTHER GUY.
Gotta go for now, /wave /bow ….
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