Pink is the new Black

You may remember a post of mine from not too long ago where I talked about a particular community rallying behind a member who contracted breast cancer. Well, it seems that Mythic has caught wind of this situation and has given all players an opportunity to show support as well. The word is spreading. Get your dyes while you can from the special vendor, it won’t last forever. Mythic displays it’s attention to it’s players, and a warmth and friendliness that is uncommon in the industry. Personal attention and responses like this are not common, and is one more list on the reasons why I love this game.

Edit: Apparently I’m an idiot, and still don’t know how to work WordPress. I totally wrote this yesterday, but apparently didn’t publish it. I fail.

See you on Tuesday!

My mother is coming into town today to finally meet her granddaughter, and will be here through Tuesday morning. So that said, please go visit these highly entertaining blogs and posts in particular, as I will not be here to entertain you slave-drivers until then. I’m breaking my chains and running free! Catch me if you can sucka’s!

• Werit finishes his series on the 1.3.5 changes. One change he’s not too stoked about, guess which!
• Tyanon’s awesome 6v6 tournies are going strong, and he’s trying to make it self-perpetuating.
• Aeo at Bluring Shock talks about escalation, arms races, and optimization of tools in WAR.
• Erbse predicts a shift in power with the new patch. Also, officially, congrats on 80!
• Krossus gives trolls a message, play or shut up!
• Kruel talks about the big offenders in the game. Abilities that is, he even names one of his own! Shocker!
• BeHive at Super Effective posts a guide to Lost Vale, but I stopped reading at the three-titted chick from Total Recall.
• Tarelther makes proper usage of POG-terminology.
• Skar ponders Skaven uprisings and the problems with a large, sudden influx of returning players.
• Grimnir gives his experience of the city, right fine action it seems to have been too.

Enjoy everyone, and I’ll catch you on the come-around!

Pinkfortink

Community is what keeps us here and playing. Long after we’ve got burnout of a game, have grown frustrated with bugs and glitches, or beyond the point of us having maxed out multiple characters in the game, community is what keeps us engaged and coming back for more. In MMOs community is one of the key defining characteristics of the genre. Even in PvP games, with all its bile and cantankerous attitude of angsty, sex-starved, teenage boys raging in the fury of physical impotence (the typical stereotype). This is a story about one such community, and it’s defiance of expectations.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

I hope so, otherwise, this multi-day sickness of the lungs I’ve had may have been for naught. I’m back, mostly healthy. I’m only spitting up small chunks of phlegmy chunks of yellowish-green mucous. Mmmm…visuals. So, if you’re wondering why I haven’t been posting, that’s why. I’ve been playing some, sleeping a lot, and the energy to be creative and insightful was about as hard to get a firm grip on as the whole inhale/exhale thing was for the time period. But nevermind me, and the boring “who-gives-a-flying-fuck” details of my life, let’s talk about WAR.

Attention All Newcomers!

There are a LOT of new WAR blogs. I mean a LOT. I am going to be doing a culling of my ‘roll’ in the near future here, so I need some help from you guys.

1. I will axe anyone who hasn’t posted in over a month. Exceptions are made for sites that typically have longer post times (like Fjorador), but it’s my general rule of thumb for activity.
2. If you are new, and not on there, SPEAK UP. I tried to catch as many of the new generation as possible, but I’m human, falable, and overall, a slack-ass. So help a brother out, and remind me of who you are and just how damn awesome you are.
3. If you write about WAR or MMOs and I haven’t included you, let me know as well, and I’ll read you, and possibly add you (Scarybooster, I know, I need to throw you on there). However, let me know if you want to be under “general” or “Warhammer” depending on what your focus is. I’ve been toying with having to move Werit to Warhammer, even though he does of a slight generalist bent. We’ll see.

Thanks to all who come here and help make the community the best MMO group on the net!

I <3 Bandy Belfords

I shit you not, "Bandy" is a sport. Similar to ice hockey.

This will be the final set of questions from my Q&A with the Careers and Items people, Nate, Steve, and Sean (i.e. “Item Guy” or “The young one”), that I might have left over from my live blogging that took place on-site. As well as an interview with Andy Belford, the last of our interviews while there.

I’ll start with this absolute GEM of a quote from Nate Levy. We were talking about add-ons in general, and how it relates to class/game balance. I’m a huge fan of add-ons as anyone here should know, and have a perverse pleasure when participating in the numerous threads that pop up every week to “Ban nerfed buttons and auto-focus, zomg!”

“If there is something an add-on does that is grievously bad for the game, then we can just stop the add-on from being able to do it. Not rebalance the game for it.” 

Backseatdev, +5 internets

This is awesome.

Thar’ be trolls!

Every server in WAR is its own community. Each one is full of personalities, ideas, concepts, friendships, rivalries, and all the other wonderful interactions that can be found in any gathering of different people. Of course, this being the internet, the staple of the typical communication of those communities (forums) is the troll. The troll is an interesting creature, and many a blog post, article, thread, and scientific endeavors* have been done to find out more about them. Yet, the still remain a mystery to most of us. What drives these enigmatic creatures? What pushes them to continue along their misguided path? Are they self-aware? There are so many questions that most rational people have when they find themselves face to face with a troll.

Some recognition

Many of my fellow bloggers say they write just for the fun of writing, and to some extent, that is true. For most of us, this is purely an extension of our hobby, and a way to spend more time around the thing we love when we can’t actually be participating. A good segment of us would still be writing whether we had 10,000 hits a day, or if we had 10. However, getting 10,000 would feel damn good, and I would be lying if I didn’t say that being seen and called out always warms the cockles of my heart, and helps keep the tank on full. So, when we get comments from people, it makes us feel appreciated. When we get CONVERSATIONS, it makes us feel like we are an important part of a community.

For as long as I’ve been playing WAR, Mythic has been strongly involved in the community at large. They hold events with bloggers, send out swag to entice people  and generate buzz, and have just been friendly, fun, and light-hearted about everything they do. Hands down, they have been the most accessible and forthright crew of developers I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with. This type of behavior has been exemplified of late in their WAR Herald with their WAR Blogger Rolecalls. This type of behavior makes my heart light, and reminds me of all the personality and care that the developers over there have for their game. Bloggers usually put a fair amount of time in to what we do, and get the pat on the bum, and an “Atta-boy” from the coach makes it just that much more worthwhile.

Pat attention!

This post has been up for 9 days, and he only has 3 entries so far. Throw your hat in the ring to get some amazing Warhammer-themed artwork done. Forjador does quality work and has been around for a year now. Give a brother some love.