I have been so excited about this post! Recently, I had been in the dumps and felt forced to find something newsish to write about or something but not this time. I still haven’t got my computer back but I have been keeping up with my reader and had virtual post-it notes in twitter for on the go resources! Yay me and my ingenuity so I can post this anywhere! And now, on to the srs bsns (I love saying that!)
Site Announcements
Something I have been meaning to mention for a while are some changes that I had finally finished around this site. First off, I have finished up my EPIC About Me and The Toons pages. I really enjoy the way the both turned out and I still have hopes to do new character introductions but for now only active end-game characters are reported there. Also, reflecting that, I have updated the armory links on the *points* left sidebar. If you’re in a reader, you are missing out on my EPIC graphic skills. Nah, not really but I am very proud of they way they turned out too! Also, thanks to Zelmaru and my post on Blog Azeroth, I have fixed the chicklet on the *points again* left sidebar. It now reads “Feedburner Click to Subscribe”…this is written so that people who are new to the site won’t click the default RSS feed that I cannot change to my feedburner. I also try to keep my blog roll up-to-date and it will be dated for the last updates!
I am also going to be attempting to work with the post scheduleing thing as my summer position will require me to be at work Tuesday mornings at 8:30, I want to get my Tuesday goodness out to you guys, but I am…still…a noob, so don’t laugh if I mess something up horribly.
Gendered Gaming
Holding a BA in Sociology, the way gamers interact is pretty interesting. Especially the way that people interact based on gender. Mary Varn of NPCcomic recently conducted a poll of whether or not gamers perceived it was harder to be a gamer guy or a gamer girl. The results were astounding that guy gamers believe that it is harder to be a guy gamer. This could be stereotype related or for other reasons; it could also be related to the ratio of male players to female players because both genders believed it was harder to be their particular gender. Other bloggers have also been hitting on the idea of gender lately; links:
- Mary Varn’s poll results
- Zal discusses playing different genders
- Dwism talks about treatment based on gender
- Evensong says SHE plays wow!
Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR)
This blue post announces that the very popular AVR mod for raiding encounters will be broken as of patch 3.3.5:
This is a notice that we’re making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.
I am not a big user of a lot of popular addons, I have a very bare list of mods actually and a lot of standard UI features. Therefore, I am not qualified to discuss the impact of this change but have read a lot about it from these great bloggers:
- Rhidach puts up a defense for AVR
- Shy says yay to no cheating!
- The ‘Mental Shaman talks virtual distance and bossmods
Cataclysm Models
Something I am not going to be posting or discussing much here is Cataclysm models. However, I myself am very interested in a couple of them; specifically:
- Goblin Shaman Totems
- Females Worgen
- Worgen Bear and Cat Forms
- Troll Cat Forms
Big thanks to Aphroditi of Fel Fire for doing the links on twitter!
Medicate yourself!
I promise that I stealed this with permission! I cannot even begin to describe how much I laughed at this and it even cracked my evil boyfriend’s grin 
If you haven’t seen it’s original post it’s because you are not checking out the awesomeness that is OddCraft! Vrykerion does a great job at reporting the oddities that exist in the World of WarOddCraft!
Good luck, Gaz!
Gazimoff of The Mana Obscura has taken to publishing a podcast now, The Obscurecast! First episode was up on May 13th so this good luck wish is a little late but it is never too late for encouragement! Taking the step to put yourself out there in such a big way can be a little scary but have no fear, he does a great job!
A Final Thought & Good-bye
As a final thought, as it has been a busy week, the Auction House Remote Beta is now active to all US realms. You can collect mail/gold from auctions, browse, bid, buy, and create all from the WOW Armory App. This app is accessible for free for iPhone users. For those without iPhone/iPod/iPad access, the web version is also in testing is accessible through the standard armory page. After the beta test is over, the remote service will require a subscription fee of 2.99. This service also comes with its own FAQ from Blizzard. Cynwise has also shown us all how to use our Level 1′s from the armory!
Overall, I have had an exciting week of catching up on my reader and I have gotten great reviews from my healer coordination post! Thanks to all my readers! I haven’t been able to (really) play with the lack of a PC really but you guys make it all better…like a giant Greater Heal Holy Light!
Thanks for the linkage! I’m glad you enjoyed my little ad.
Not happy about that Troll Cat form though. Not one bit. I wanted the cute lil’ bobcats with tusks.
I thought that tigers would have been cool given that it was rumored a long time ago that the trainer was a tiger.
But I also liked toying with the hope that it would be a raptor form lol
Thanks for the link-love! It’s definitely an interesting concept, and I find Mary Varn’s poll results intriguing. I read through all of the comments on there about what different people interpreted from the results, and I found that I agreed with some of what people were saying.
For the AVR subject, I never used it, not because I didn’t think it was cheating, but because I never felt I needed the extra visual aid. I heard about a couple of guilds on my server requiring it, saying they wouldn’t invite you to the raid without it, though. I’m not sure how I would’ve felt in that situation, but I think that attitude would have influenced my feelings about the addon more than anything else.
Er typo, I meant – not because I thought it was cheating.
Thankyou for the link love! Stu and I are having a blast doing the podcast, we’re currently working on our third one!. We’ve also managed to get on iTunes as well, so things are looking up