Why is it OK before Hagara to stand in the damn blizzards?

At least I’m disc. If the damage already got to you, I can’t help you anyway ;) I also can’t heal you through the fail-fires in HoTs, I can’t brez, and I don’t interrupt (not a belf!)

I think the problem with LFR is currently that we’re seeing the alt’s alts running in there. Those are the “totally different class/role” toons that often have the attitude of “yawn, 2 of my toons have done this and are geared, this is lolezmode” and then get destroyed by a mechanic that the other two toons never encountered. Or because their clothie has no mitigating armor/shells/bubbles. But I really don’t know why people all of a sudden stopped single-targetting the little flaily things on platform four… In short, I think that right now we’re in the “arrogance kills” phase of an expansion/patch…

Back to letting the dps warrior die because he needed on an agi-cloak…

A little background on this. I use terms of gender as to calling a person “him” or “Her” based on the sex of the character, without making assumptions as to the actual sex of the player. I myself am a man in real life, and the majority of the characters I have in WoW at the moment are female. I do not play characters I personally identify with as my alter egos, I play character personalities from a role playing standpoint that are not me. I am not playing as myself in the world of warcraft, I am directing someone else’s actions. I have never had a problem enjoying a great story told through the point of view of non-male characters, including the Dragonriders of Pern novels, or the Honor Harrington books, both series being on my favorites list Im putting together by request for a bloglist. As such, I do not make the assumption that other characters represent the people at the keyboards playing them. I never assume another avatar is a direct physical representation of the player.

I do not think that a naked female night elf dancing at a mailbox in Stormwind is a representation of the person at the keyboard.

In fact, I tend to err in the opposite direction, which is admittedly just as bad. I tend to assume that characters played in stupid, offensive or outright trolling ways are automatically being played by 14 year old boys with anger issues, and frankly, that is just as wrong of an attitude to have. I know it is, and I am trying to work on it. I guess that is one of my prejudices on display right there. I don’t expect mature adults of any sex to act like that, and I don’t really expect women to be trolls or asshats. Which is sexist of me, but I’ve never really known but one troll asshat female in real life, so my sexist belief that most women are actually nice or mature enough not to be trolls has an honest foundation, even though I know intellectually that it’s wrong. I’ve seen far more asshat men in my life. FAR MORE. I’m working on my attitude, though. I am doing my best to come to grips with the knowledge that women can be just as douchey as men, and not just assume all asshats are men be default.

That brings me to what you seemed to be saying, that I assumed the person playing Dalra was a female just like the avatar, and thus addressed her ‘the player’ in derogatory terms aimed at hurting a female. That I was talking about making her, ‘the player’, my little bitch, with the feminine quotient of ‘bitch’ being intended.

that was not the case.

I called the avatar ‘her’, because I was discussing the avatar. The avatar’s name was Dalra, and was female. It wasn’t intended to imply the player was, too. I get that you could take it that way, but it wasn’t intended.

As far as the term ‘bitch’ goes, in the world I work in, making someone your bitch is now gender neutral, much as someone being a gimp.

In our Iron Foundry, pouring molten metal and getting dirty and dealing with idiots, I run a service sector of the plant. My techs report to and aid, or ‘serve’, other employees to resolve their problems. Therefore, joking that someone whose job is to report to another and help them is going to be that persons ‘bitch’, is using the term bitch to mean a menial slave, and is used much like ‘bring out the gimp’ from Pulp Fiction. Hell, I just told one of the other supervisors a few days ago that Barry would be his bitch for the day, knowing Barry would come right back with a smartass line, and Barry did not disappoint. The joke in it is that Barry is NOBODIES bitch. Which is why it was okay to use that term in that situation.

When I used the term, it really was not intended to imply any thought towards the real players vagina or the existence thereof.

Now, that being said, the actual use I made of ‘bitch’ comes directly from offensive male behavior, and for that I totally get where you are coming from. It comes from an implied meaning of ‘menial servant or slave’. That making someone your bitch can have grown to mean making that person your slave is a deplorable fact, and this is where I absolutely get your point. If I was really thinking of the player as a female, and then started using language about making that person my menial slave, that shit is VERY offensive. Hell, I would have used far more angry terms when directed at myself for it.

That you took it that way was unintended by me, and I apologize to you. I absolutely get where you’re coming from.

I used the term because it was appropriate to what I was doing to the player behind Dalra, regardless of and without consideration for, whatever gender the player actually is, but since the character is female, I can totally see why you would think that was where it came from.

I do understand that feminism and gender hate is a very prominant topic in the wow blogosphere at the moment. It was not my intention to add to those concerns here, and I hope that by taking the time to talk about some of the thoughts behind the word usage I chose you’ll, if not forgive me, at least understand that it wasn’t intended as being directed at a real female.

And I stand wholeheartedly behind making the player controlling Dalra my slave to the use I put him/her in the blog post, in getting some actual benefit out of that trolling asshat. I used him/her to make my point, and I think it worked very well.

And if the healer dares tell the DPS to hit the button? You get a self-entitled clown who then aggressively sneers, “L2heal” “It’s LFR and you can’t heal through that?”, etc.

And if you don’t heal them? Sadly, your fellow healers do. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s AOE healing. Perhaps they think it’s part of normal mechanics. Perhaps they’re also meter whoring. Who knows?

….Yeah, I have issues with LFR.

No. It isn’t.

Yes, she was being stupid about it, and I’m a dedicated reader of yours, but it is never necessary to resort to misogynist terms to get your point across.

ANYONE can be an asshole about things. Doesn’t matter if the toon or player possesses a vagina.

Now I am completely of the view that people who don’t get out of the “fire” should be punished. Instant-death effects are okay, but why not hit dps where it hurts? Have a makes-you-do-1%-dps “fire”, and you will see dps moving like you wouldn’t believe.

Some effects that make the main boss go immune to damage during add phases would be great too. Had a rare case where another unholy DK did similar damage on Ultrax, ship, and Spine–and I was enjoying the competition–but then he pulled ahead of me by about 20% on Madness. Now he was 10 iLevels higher and did have the tentacle sword from Deathwing (which I still desperately needed at that point), but I didn’t understand why he was suddenly so far ahead. Looked at Recount afterwards, and found that he’d never switched to the adds. Bastard.

Overall, I actually find healing LFR the least stressful role…so long as half the “healers” aren’t dps who queued as heals without actually having a healing spec.

I usually don’t even try to heal folks standing in fire, I’ll give them the courtesy of warning them if I can but if no improvement (even slight) is made then down they go! Actually when Cata first hit this was just a fact of lfg. If a priest, druid, shammy, or pally had just started healing a random Cata pugs most likely he/she simply weren’t able to heal through it. Too much damage and not enough high-end gear to help compensate. Plus with all of the changes to mana and regen from Cata, initially I nearly gave up on healing completely. Too painful. But gradually things were nerfed, buffed, tweaked, etc. and it got better.