You’d think this was a no brainer, covered under “being an honest, ethical person”, but bloggers are people too, and subject to the same moral lapses that plague anyone.

Someone says to you, “Hey, if you tell people how much you loved my product or service ‘X’, I’ll give you something. Money, a free product, whatever. Something. A free WoW Account. Just… don’t tell anyone that you’re getting this. Just act like you loved it and wanted to talk about it all on your own, spontaneously.”

That’s wrong. It’s misleading, it’s unethical, deceptive BS, and here in the US, if you’re a blogger, it’s actionable.

Here in America, the Federal Trade Commission, also known as the FTC, published new guidelines last October that makes it absolutely clear that such deceptive endorsement practises aren’t allowed, even for bloggers on the internet.

You can always endorse whatever you want… but you have to admit up front that you’re getting a kickback for doing it. That you were paid, whether in goods or in services.

For us WoW bloggers, if you want to talk about how much you love a particular mouse, ventrilo service, headset, a Ferrari, book, etc… you have to be clear to mention whether or not you have received anything for providing your opinion in favor of that product.

Per the posting;

The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

How will this affect the Big Bear Butt going forward?

Well, it won’t.

Despite what people who email me sometimes think, I’m not paid by anyone to write here, I’m not given anything at all by anyone. I don’t have ads, I don’t have paid link throughs, I don’t do paid endorsements, I don’t get services, nothing.

I did talk favorably about, and review, the book by Christie Golden called Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, but I didn’t even get anything for that. I received an advance copy to read to review, and as soon as I was done I gave it away. I also was alotted a certain number of books to give away as part of a promotion, and I was happy to do so, to benefit my readers, and I thought it great fun.

Doesn’t matter whether I got anything or not for that, of course, since I was up front about the whole arrangement. :) I be good with the FTC, dawg.

I write here for fun, and as I’ve said before, the day it’s no longer fun is the day I close up shop.

If someone were to ever wish to hand over any money to me, they don’t even get to hand me money for nuthin’… they have to get something for it, by buying a shirt or mug over at the Cafepress Store on my sidebar. :) And even if you decide you don’t like me anymore, at least you’ve still got a shirt to cover your naked bod or a container with which to hold your hot, steaming beverage. That’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

So, there shall never be any secret money-making shenanigans here at the BBB.

That being said, however… if anyone out there IS a Ferrari dealer and wishes me to endorse your product, you can reach me at tigerlordgm AT yahoo DOT com.

Just sayin’.

The words have drained out of me. There ain’t none there to share.

I find I have nothing of value to say, assuming I ever did in the first place.

Nothing about Bears, nothing about patch changes to instances, nothing about playing at all, nothing about the game or the life outside.

Perhaps it’s simply depression, or the winter blahs, or perhaps it’s a function of how busy I am with more important things like work and family, I don’t know.

I do know that since Sidhe Devils blew up a few months ago, the game feels a lot different for me now than before. Most of it has to do with trust issues, of course, and the baggage I have in my head from years of cheerful upbringing, but I learned long ago that just because you can identify something with logic and reason, that doesn’t necessarily change the way you feel about it at the time.

It’s not the only thing going on, but it’s certainly a major contributing factor to my blahs.

Wherever my head may be at, I don’t have any inspiration to write anything. And if I don’t have anything useful to say, best if I don’t say anything at all.

I’m sure things will change, and I’ll have an attitude adjustment soon.

Looking back on things, I’ve mostly been cheerful and optimistic for years now, day in and day out, even with the occasional rants, and I think that might qualify as crazy all by itself. Hmmm. 

I just wanted to let you folks know that there won’t be any real bloggage until I get my words back, and get my head screwed back on straight.

Thanks for your time, and have a fun week.

BBB

An earlier comment by Domm sparked a discussion about creating original language and terms for places, people, whatever in your writing.

I was going to comment in more depth, but it’s actually one of my, well, if not ‘pet peeves’, it’s certainly one of the subjects that I burn the most brainpower on when I’m writing. So I think it warrants a post of it’s own.

I know that when I’m writing, especially a story set in a pure fantasy setting, it’s one of my biggest weaknesses and concerns. And it’s a weakness that truly cannot be corrected by doing or practising, but by study and learning. By research and knowledge.

For getting the rhythym of a story down, learning character development, designing story arcs and having fun just writing… you can learn as you go, and get better by the simple act of doing.

But not this.

I’m talking about the etymology of words and the history of language itself. How our current words and usages developed from earlier languages and cultures, what informed and infused our language, and what the roots of words are.

For most fiction, it’s a minor but fascinating topic, because the best way to nail a character in a modern story is to work back to the style of language that person uses, and get the phraseology right. How someone talks is influenced by and indicative of how they think, and someone using the wrong words for their persona, in a well written story, sticks out like a sore thumb. It’s jarring, and for some thrillers and spy novles I’ve read, it’s been used as a technique to intentionally have someone be caught out in the story as an impersonator by those that knew the original person well.

How often have you seen the device used, where one person knocked out a guard, took his radio, and when someone asks if he’s okay, he tries to impersonate the guard he knocked out well enough to fool someone?

Okay, we’re geeks… I can reference Han in the cell block command post trying to run a bluff while Luke went down the row looking for the Princess’ cell.

It’s a device that works best when your grasp of character personality is consistent. The characters talk in a way that is evocative of who they are and how they think, and the reader gets a feel for that, and can even learn to recognise what is or is not ‘appropriate’ dialogue.

We have to delve a whole lot deeper for fantasy literature, though. Most especially when writing a book or books about a fantastic world with cultures and species completely divorced from our own, a world disconnected from our own language roots.

Not only do you have to develop dialogue specific to a character personality, but you don’t have cultural accents that you can use properly without riding the razor’s edge of farce.

How many people expect their dwarves to sound Scottish? Show of hands? Anyone?

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

But far more than that, and the heart of it, is using terms that have a specific, traceable historical etymology that others WILL recognise, in a world that could not have developed a parallel.

It’s a subject I think about all the time.

As an example… I know from my own background what a Company, Regiment, Battalion, Squad, etc are, what they represent. 

I have military organizations in my own fantasy world.

Do I create a whole new organizational structure from scratch, with different terms, starting from base principles and reasoning, and let people figure out what they mean along the way, or do I use known terminology that the reader is already familiar with, take the hit on it being out of place, hoping that the time savings and familiarity have more benefit than irritation?

Many other people are comfortable with the size and organizational groupings that those terms represent. Using familiar terms will help them grasp sizes of forces quickly. Do I use those exact same tems to represent military organizational structure in my fantasy world, at least for this one culutural setting, knowing that for true military historians who know how these terms developed it will be jarring and even, possibly, irritating to see?

Everything has to be subjected to that kind of analysis. Do I go with the familiar, or do I create from scratch? At what level is it acceptable to use the familiar?

Ranks of aristocracy like Count, Duke… these are also prime examples. 

And then you get into naming conventions. Names are so redolent with the flavor of a particular culture, aren’t they?

I really don’t have a good solution for this. As I said, knowing the issue exists, and trying to research the origins of words and make conscious decisions as I go is the best I can do. 

When I call someone a Sergeant, or someone is a Duke, I have at least tried to think about how those terms came into use, and may even have worked into the history of the world why those terms may have come into being… or have knowingly developed an exact traditional reason why Duke Hope has leaders in his forces he has termed Generals, but not a single other Border Lord will promote someone to a rank of General in their own force structures, out of respect. Or why nobody, not even Duke Hope, will name themselves King of their area, why they each respect the limitation of calling themselves Duke as the highest position of authority amongst the Borderlanders.

I’m really curious if any of the other writers amongst my readers have insight into learning more about etymology, or using it in your writing, because really, I would love to learn more about it. The entire subject fascinates me.   

I think that the better you understand the root of language, the better you can work your true meanings, or layers of meanings, into what you write without everything being right there on the surface.

You know, there’s always something going on somewhere to talk about. Whether you folks think it’s relevant to what you expect here or not, well, that’s another story.:)

Last night, the Druid Q&A by Ghostcrawler and the Blizzard Community Team went live, and I read it, chuckled a bit, and hit Lady Jess with the high points I knew she would enjoy. Sure enough, I sent her into a Jessrage. All in good fun, of course.

Thing is, there’s a lot of nice discussion about the past, current and future overarching direction of the Druid class, but it was short on specifics I really felt needed to be discussed, at least from a Feral point of view. There was some confirmation that Feral tree split spec for either optimized Cat or Bear is working as intended, there was the surprising idea that they would consider changing things so that we would have to shift frequently, apparently because they want to see us wearing the artwork of the gear they designed (note: I stay in forms because I chose the Druid FOR it’s forms… me choosing to be in a Bear form all the time should be, in my opinion, considered a class design WIN, not a freaking problem. FWIW, anyway.).

But, there was nothing in the Q&A I was all that enthusiastic about talking about. I came up with what I thought would be a cute name for a post about it, “QQ&A”, but there wasn’t even anything I was particularly enthusiastic about crying over.

See, I already had two plans for blog posts for this week, and that’s not even counting the PBeM story post I’m still in the middle of, that is with Lauchlin, but that I scrapped because in my humble opinion it drifted into ‘teh suck’.

I’m enthusiastic about writing these other things, and not the Druid Q&A. So, I’m not gonna talk about it.

It’s not that I’m not enthusiastic about Druids. Far from it, I have literally done nothing BUT play my Druid with delight for weeks now, both Tank and Heals.

What brings me back blogging time after time? I’m still enthusisatic about what I do. There’s always something new, and I go bounce/bounce/bounce my Big Bear Butt off doing it. It ain’t never boring. If things seem quiet, well hey, bring your own fun!

Here’s a few examples of the things we’ve done lately, things that I’ve been having fun with.

I like soloing things as a Bear, but it’s too easy doing old world stuff. So, the thought occured to me, I’ve got this level 80 Hunter that is all decked out for raiding as a BM with a Spirit Kitty… why not Dual Spec my Hunter… as another Beastmaster? TWO Beastmaster specs? I can have my second spec be strictly designed to maximize pet survivability and damage, and I could take my Bear pet (named “Clawsome”), and I could go have fun soloing Attumen, a mount soloing spec-and-pet system.

Basically, I could be a Bear tank two ways. :) Maybe even see if my guild is crazy enough to let me do a Heroic with my Bear pet tanking. Sigh. It’s just… something that sounds fun, and gets my enthusiasm for new things going, ya know? So yeah, I got the Dual Spec and pet and all, haven’t had a chance to go take down Attumen. Why? Because while on the way, literally, to Karazhan, landing in Duskwood, Ratshag and his lovely and talented fiancé Shianti wanted me to come do Heroic Violet Hold.

I do so… and then have to go to bed. And later that same night, I’m told, Shianti liked my idea of doing Karazhan SO MUCH that she wanted to go try Attumen right away that night… and the damn Attumen mount dropped, and she got it.

That would have been MY instance of Karazhan… so by rights, that’s my mount drop she got. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. It was all an evil plot by Ratters, I’m sure.

Okay, another example.

I’ve been doing Argent Tournament dailies every day, to build up seals and work towards Crusader so when the 3.2 changes hit and Heirloom chestpieces are available, I can just pick one up immediately. As of last night, I’m done with Darnassus and Exodar.

Well, I’m banging around doing Threat with Jardal and Kaelynn, and Barre asks in Guild chat if anyone has the Molton Core zone drop enchant, Enchant Weapon – Spell Power.

It’s a rare drop in Molten Core, a weapon enchant that does +30 Spell Power and that can be applied to level 1 weapons… like Heirloom weapons.

Nobody does, and someone mentions Jess spent two days in Trade channel before she found someone that could do it.

Well, heck, right? I ask Jardal and Kaelynn if either has an enchanter. Jardal does, a level 62 Prot specced Paladin.

So I ask him if he’d like to bang around in Molten Core, like right after dailies, see if the enchant drops? Sure, sure.

So Jardal, Kaelynn and her 80 Rogue, my Druid tank and a few guildies all head into Molten Core on the spur of the moment of a Monday night, just for the heck of it.

We ended up doing a 100% full clear that night, just because it was so easy with level 80 tank, healer and 3 to 4 DPS to keep going.

And guess what?

Sure as hell, the Enchant Weapon – Spell Power does, in fact, drop. Thing has, according to WoWhead, a 1% drop chance on only a few bosses… and even if Blizzard upped it’s drop chance recently, it’s not BoP anymore, so it is farmable, and it’s still pretty rare. And now we have someone in guild that can do it. :)

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to remind yourself, the game is truly great, but shouldn’t be expected to always have to come up with new content, and work to keep your bored short attention span mind all engaged.

Sometimes, it’s nice to remember, you can take the initiative to look for things that sounds fun yourself, and then go out and do them

If you think about WoW, and you can literally find nothing about the game that you feel enthusiastic about, then it’s not really the game’s fault in my opinion. Maybe it’s time for you to go find something you ARE enthusiastic about and do it! Take a break, you know?

Fantasy Football Leagues are about set to kick off here in the States, Summer is here and there’s lots of stuff to do out of the house, there are great books and movies out there, concerts, whatever. Go out, go bowling, dance at a club, have fun. Get enthusiastic with life.

I still find WoW keeps me coming back, having fun and talking about it.

I guess I’m just getting pickier about what I write about, though.

Druid Q&A? I’ll let WoW.com handle the dissection if that’s all right with you folks.

I cannot believe you people forgot about Red Snappah!