I started writing a post about Child’s Play, and then saved it as a draft cause work almost made me miss making my annoucement anywhere near the time I promised. When I got back to my draft, finished it and published, it published it BEFORE my announcement so most of you may have missed it.

Since it’s something I feel so strongly about, I wanted to make sure I drew your attention to it.

Either go on down to check it out a couple posts back, or hit the link here.

Thanks a lot everyone!

Okay, for the big super-duper announcement I promised you….

WoW Insider has a weekly column for Druids, called Shifting Perspectives. It usually goes up on Tuesdays, and covers everything from stuff for brand new Druids and players new to the game in general, to the role of Druids in end-game raids, and everything in between.

As of today, around 11:15 AM Central time (Edit: wrong, it went live at 10:15, darn it!), my first article as a writer for WoW Insider will be going live on the Shifting Perspectives column.

As I’m just starting out as a writer for the Druid column, I thought it would be the perfect time to start a new series of articles, right from the beginning of what to expect as a brand new Druid, and eventually following the course of leveling your Druid all the way to 70. I expect to touch on button bar arrangements, UIs, useful addons, quest chains and abilities, and a whole lot more.

As it’s only one article a week, I don’t see it affecting the frequency of my writing here… except that my language will most likely become more workplace safe. Have no fear… I will remain as prolific and random as ever.

So, I encourage you… go to WoW Insider today, after 11:15 AM central, and check out my first article in Shifting Perspectives. By all means, let me know what you think… both the good and the bad.

And if you have an idea for something you’d like me to write about in the future, a question or a screenshot in-game that’s Druid related that you would like to see me use, and that you’d give me permission to post, please email it to me. I’ll give full credit for any questions, ideas or screenshots I use.

Wish me luck!

EDIT: And, apparently, the article is up and live NOW! So much for one hour warning… I guess wheras I’m on Central time… it went up an hour earlier than I expected. Oops! Go! Go check it out now!

Last edit… I have been asked, so yes, that is Cassie in the middle, decked out in her Defias set. I’m the cat, and a guildie named Vanai is the bear. Next time, I’ll be in a better area for color, and I’m definitely gonna have to change my graphics settings away from performance to quality, darn it. But it was lots of fun getting the screenie taken

I’d like to remind you that ’tis the season to donate to Child’s Play.

I’d like to encourage you to at least think about donating some money to Child’s Play, either through The Bronze Kettles’ wonderful idea of a charity raffle, or by going to the Child’s Play site directly.

In short, Child’s Play is a charity where you get to pick a Children’s Hospital of your choice, from all over the country. Or heck, pick lots of them. Then, when you pick one, it brings you directly to an Amazon wishlist of wonderful toys, books, movies, and games that you can personally select from, choose what you are comfortable in buying and what you can afford, and when you complete your purchase the items you selected will be sent directly to the Children’s Hospital that you chose. No cash is going into the hands of Child’s Play unless you choose to donate it directly to them. I find that being able to pick the items myself adds a personal touch to giving that I love.

Ever since I first became aware of Child’s Play, I’ve donated what I could. Which really means, each year, that I pester my wife into donating, since she keeps track of how broke we are :).

You may or may not know this already, but Child’s Play was originally set up by the guys at the webcomic Penny Arcade as a response to all of the bad press gamers and people who love games get, and how we are portrayed in the media, all of the time. This link includes a FAQ with great info, including the original post that the Penny Arcade guys made when they kicked this whole thing off.

Players of video games in general, and World of Warcraft in particular, are currently the ones most often suffering the finger pointing in the media. It is the same kind of blatantly opinionated blame linkage that has been used so many times in the past, when talking about other news items of violence or tragedy, where one of the people involved ‘played Dungeons and Dragons‘, or ‘listened to Marilyn Manson’, or maybe was ‘a fan of Harry Potter’, or ‘played Grand Theft Auto’.

You get the idea. You know EXACTLY what stories I’m talking about.

There is something about the things we gamers enjoy as recreation, our interests and creative activities, that glow like a big shiny red target for media writers out to make a name for themselves. So many journalists take an ordinary, tragic event that is, sadly, in and of itself not an uncommon event at all, and MAKE it somehow newsworthy by tyeing in one of the interests that we as gamers love, implying that it is our hobby that is the root cause of the problem.

All it takes is someone, somewhere involved in the story having, as ONE of their interests, the playing of video games, or the enjoyment of music, or whatever.

It often seems to me that any hobby that is not enjoyed by the generations that lived through World War II, Vietnam and the Korean war years is made to be the cause of the world’s sorrows.

Perhaps there is a certain amount of pandering that goes on in the media, that some news agencies write these pieces of trash to reassure our over-forty generations that, yes, the world really is getting worse every year, and it’s not the fault of politicians, media, corporations or any government or institutions’ lack of responsibility to society, but rather it’s all the fault of that music those darn kids listen to, it’s the fault of the games those darn kids play, and if only they would play checkers, gin rummy, and cribbage, listen to good wholesome music like Bing Crosby, get a haircut, and use a typewriter instead of those computers, then maybe everything would be okay with the world again. Just like the good old days.

But it is a rebuttal of that portrayal in the popular media that is, in my mind, what the foundation of the Child’s Play charity is all about.

Mike Holkins and Jerry Krahulik, two guys running a webcomic, saw this idiocy themselves, this obvious prejudicial malicious bias seemingly intended to portray people that enjoy playing video games as evil, spiteful, malicious self-centered time bombs waiting to explode into violence.

They looked around at the people in their lives, just as I look around at the people in my life. You know, you, me, my wife, my devout Mormon friend and HIS wife, my father, heck, just about everyone I know to one extent or another. All of them play video games, to some extent. Maybe some are still hooked on Final Fantasy Tactics and the original Zelda (my brother-in-law, HVAC repairman and father of two), or anything with Mario in it (my Mormon friends’ wife), or maybe first person shooters like Halo 3 (my brother). Whatever it is, they are all gamers, to some extent.

Well, the Penny Arcade guys decided to show just what gamers are really like.

They started this little charity thingie… sent a call out to their webcomic readers, and to people in gaming companies they had developed relationships with.

Their message is clear. We are gamers. We are people that play video games. And we are also people that care about others, and would love to make a difference in the life of a child that is suffering through terrible times.

The webcomics and gaming community has responded, and every year, as the word gets out, more people hear about this wonderful charity and get involved. Each year, the number of Children’s Hospitals involved gets larger. And each year, more of us hear about this, and donate.

I was just now asked by a co-worker what it is I’m writing. He is a Vietnam vet, he owns his own small plane and enjoys flying, he owns and operates his own machine shop business, and he works at the same place I do as an engineer supporting wave solder operations, mostly for the benefits. I mentioned how I’m writing a pimp post about Child’s Play, and then when he showed interest I described the charity and what they do… and why it got started.

“Give me the link”, he said, “That sounds like exactly what me and my wife would like to support this year.” And then he told me a story about how, when he was much younger, and they were quite poor, his 14 year old daughter was in a great deal of pain. They could afford no insurance at the time, and had no idea what to do. They finally brought thier daughter to the Gillette Children’s Hospital, where they found out she had a benign tumor growing over her spinal column, causing the intense pain. The operation to remove it was a complete success, and his daughter has long been well and recovered. He told me how, if you ever feel your troubles are starting to overwhelm you, you should spend a few hours in the waiting room of the Children’s Hospital, in the company of the kids and their families. He said you quickly gain a sense of perspective on your own problems, when you realize what these kids are facing every day.

This is an absolutely true conversation, that just happened within the hour.

I’ll be bluntly honest… every person that donates, is not only helping to put a smile on a childs’ face and ease their pain, if only for a moment…

You are also sticking a massive middle finger of righteous indignation right up in the face of every person that calls YOU evil for daring to enjoy video games.

And to me, that is pure win.

PURE WIN.