In short, sick of thousands of complaints in a growing player base,  they are giving these player reported cases back to the players to decide what they should do. Cases are reviewed by players who qualify and agree to this.  They then get random cases to review, access to the complaint, and potentially a copy of the chat logs of the incident.  If found guilty by a majority the punishment is suspension,  but if a player keeps getting suspended their suspension period goes up, and eventually may get banned.

I bring this up, because its a novel idea, and one that could be applicable to Wow. I’ve not played League of Legends, but I have reported players to Blizzard for misbehaving, or providing ‘a negative experience’ , it doesn’t happen as often as you would think, and I’m pretty sure I have written about most of the times in someway in this blog. That I felt so deeply affected by the behavior of one player that I needed to raise it with Blizzard.  Yes I have been deeply enough affected by a player to vent here, to make a comment to them, in raid, or in chat, but actually bring it up the line to a formal complaint, I haven’t done it that often.

Why don’t I do it more?

Well I have to be deeply affected first.  That your pixel text, or character needs to raise in me such righteous indignation that flames beyond a short burst.

And secondly – There  is no real transparency in Blizzards punishment system as we don’t know how they get punished, and I can think of one example of  a player who ninja’d a significant pot of gold from a GDKP. The players had entered into an agreement, a contract of service, and at the very least of expectation that certain rules would be followed. He broke that agreement ran off with all the gold,   he was reported, and in all appearances,  none of the people who were scammed got their gold back,  and he was back on server within a week.

and guess what, he did it again.

Yes I get frustrated at Jerks, yes I have been insulted, yes I read in sadness the state of trade chat. Yes when people who do jerky things proclaim ” I’ve been reported heaps of times and nothings happened” I feel the current process is ineffective.

“A jury of your peers” is one component of most western world justice systems that I have heard of, but can it work in a game, and is it necessary?

It’s unclear how many people will review a case in League of Legends but I have one major concern

“The gamer judges will be rewarded with “influence points,” one of the game’s currencies with which they can buy new characters and gear in the game. But the judges will only get those points if they vote in the majority, the majority verdict being the one Riot will assume is the right verdict. Those who consistently vote in the minority will lose their tribunal privileges”

I’m not sure I like the idea of being rewarded for administrating  justice ( but what else would be incentive enough) , or punished for not agreeing with the majority.  I can’t imagine that everyone would be paying spectacular attention to all the issues ( even with a compulsory page view time before you can give a verdict) and make snap decisions as they churn their way through case after case. They have the wrong incentive to do that,  a reward. Justice is supposed to be blind, and impartial.  When you add the reward  for majority decision  Your first purpose  – to clean up the community can be forgotten.

We have been taught to grind by the nature of the games we play.  We grind Rep, gear, quests, badges.  It would be very easy for any of us to slip into a Justice administration grind when there is reward to be had.

I think they should have tried to do their tribunal with no reward or public recognition.

I also think you would get enough of the right kind of volunteers that still have an interest in cleaning up the community, and I think that interest  – to be completely fair and impartial needs to be first.  If something of that sort was introduced into Wow consider the people in our greater community who already contribute things of value to the player base for free. I believe it would be relatively easy to get those people involved.

Yes they could be considered dressed risque and completely impractical,  but I like the look, and that’s what’s important right, pure atheistics as apposed to practicality.

But it is like playing dress ups on my barbies again. ( Yes I had barbies, and I even used to make clothes for them ) All these were straight off the AH.  I stood there in the dressing room on the AH and tried on all the gear until I found a look I like at a price I can afford. ( All skimpy mail leggings are going for a small fortune )

Zippina  ( now on Barth )

For some reason these pants on Dwarves create an un- natural attachment, so  I don’t wear these.

The alternative is what has to be the most multicoloured mix you could get, and I shall dub this my Pvp rainbow frump look. ( fashion 101  – do not wear turtle necks when you have big boobs)

And Desdemonia my horde hunter on Jubei”Thos who even got a cloak to match!

What I notice more so on my Horde hunter wearing her bright green,  is how colourful she is compared to most people.  If you look around a city most people are dressed in very dull greys and browns. I think the green is refreshing.

I could do a proper banner for it like on my blog, but since most of my peeps on FB don’t really care about wow, and it’s likely to confuse them anyways I wanted it to be simple.

And simple it is.

Gah.

Too simple

Model viewer and Gimp.   Let me practice,  I haven’t made a banner in a while.

Yes I know the glow effects are flat on their ears….

Why would I join a raiding guild ( and actually raid in said raiding guild ) when I can do LFR on 4 toons a week and have endless excitement.

So some general advice

Don’t forget to food and flask, make sure you have all the buffs you can get.  Ask the locks to give you their haste buff, or rogues to give you tricks, don’t be afraid to ask, and ask often.  Being demanding may encourage them to give it to you to shut you up.

No clicking on Lightwells,  and grouping to stand on the healers AOE, why should you move or make any effort to keep yourself alive it’s your job to dps and carry the rest of the scrub add killing guild members raid members.  Your Uber dps is what wins all the fights.

If you do die don’t forget that you are important, even if  you managed to pull agro before the tank could. Tell them to Battle rez you.  Tell them again and again, until you get one.  If you die on Deathwing  because you ‘fell’ demand a healer comes back to get you.

Don’t forget to link your Recount after every boss to reinforce in everyone’s mind how awesome you are.

Now for the Boss fights

 Boss 1 Morchock  (Aka Moar Rock  – he is a big rock)

Ignore the resonating crystal  – if you get targeted, even if your line is red. Do not move. It’s only LFR and the healers can heal you through it.

After he casts You have about 2-3 global cool downs before the blood of the earth ( that black stuff )  chases after you. Don’t run to the spines as quickly as possible,  if you get hit there will be a healer in range to heal you up.

Boss 2 Warlord Zon’ozz ( elephant on Steroids)

Pick a spot and don’t move.  Don’t group up so that it makes it easier for the healers to heal or dispel you.  They won’t let you die anyway.

Boss 3 Yor’shaj the Unsleeping ( the ooze dude)

Pick a spot and don’t move, don’t chase after blobs.  Make sure you AOE when the multiple adds come,  and do not kill the Mana ball

Boss 4 Hagara the Unbinding ( lightening emo chick) /swagger

Stand in anything you feel like, frost circles, whirlwinds, lots of Aoeing opportunities on the trash never mind about agro, the tanks have you covered.   Your still going to need to watch out for the spines  or you will die,  and dead dps does no dps.  If you’re a pet class be careful of the spines, and of the lightening phase you may lose your pet – and lose dps..

Boss 5 Ultraxion ( Big dragon staring contest)

Don’t click that purple swirly thing,  the healers will just heal you up,  and no one will remember when you miss it every single time.  You don’t have to do much besides stand there and dps and use your cool downs.

Boss 6 Warmaster Blackhorn ( I’m on a boat.. again.. )

Range is supposed to target the drakes – don’t.  That will involve changing targets. So just focus on the two dude in the center.  When a large purple swirling thing hits the deck, ignore it, you don’t need to move.  You still will need to pay attention to the dark purple circles. Don’t stand in them,  if you do it can be difficult for a healer to heal you through it.

Boss 7 Spine of Deathwing ( I’m on the back of a big mutha of a dragon ripping it’s armour off ( hey its kinda cool )

It doesn’t matter if you kill more stuff  then your supposed to,  dps freely. Just close your ears to the “STOP DPS YOU NOOBS,”STOP ” “OMG Stop!!!” if its red shoot it, and since more tendrils killed means more corrupted blood to dps.  If there is nothing up to kill dps the Amalgamation (s) as you feel like.

Boss 8 – Deathwing ( BIGGEST scary dragon and the dude that this whole expansion is supposed to be about )

Don’t swap to the corrupted tentacle, or the bolt when it spawns.  Stay on the Wing for as long as possible, until the tank screams at you ” SWAP” If your melee and you hide behind the back you might be able to escape detection. Aoe where possible.  Don’t single target anything, the healers can heal through everything.  When you reach the last phase ignore all sets of adds, just focus on deathwing.

It’s natural to have some form of favoritism to people you know,  like, want to impress, want them to like you. Even when trying to be fair on the 5 man dungeon levels when there are people from the same guild  running it they might look out for each other more, heal more often, be more forgiving of stupid stuff, encourage silly stuff – eg I’ve been instances where I have had to heal 2 tanks because the two people who knew each other thought it would be funny to try to compete with each other over who the tank was going to be.  When I asked who was tanking I was told it was my job to heal. When crap goes down, and people are dying you may heal your friends a little more than the random.  You might be more attentive of the healers mana if the healer is your friend, defend your friend when the group wants to kick him because he has dc’d. You also might give your friend that piece of loot that they need/want .

I understand wanting to help someone more than wanting to ‘hurt’ them

Why should I give a crap about  the Mage that told the Tank to suck his appendage because he pulled before the tank and got called on it,   Not only was he rude, he wasn’t playing by the ‘rules’.  He could iceblock, and then it becomes the tanks job to fix his mistake,  Then an  offtank who convince the raid to kick *such and such* because of low dps  ( when it was the main tank he wanted kicked)   I can only imagine that his motivations where to get the main tank position and possibly roll on the loot the tank would have ( main tank had been a DK too)  Or maybe he just didn’t like him.

You get a lot more power as a group then you do as an individual.

When it’s 3 rogues and 2 druids from the same guild and server, trying to kick half the raid in a LFR  you can see that there might some under-tow of interest, and that they at least know each other because they are all in the same guild. They were found out, and people started clicking no to the raid kicks.

Its gets a little difficult when it’s  people on the same realm, but different guilds,  and you need to look closer at interactions to determine if they know each other.

But when you add different server, and different guild, and they aren’t shouting greetings in raid chat ” Oh Hai, fancy meeting you here”  then you have no idea who is in cahoots with each other.

And the conspiracy to hoard and swap gear, or kick people they don’t want in the guild  is less transparent.

The upside is you will never know.

The downside is you don’t then have the choice to leave,  take the 30 min debuff  and chance it with another group.

So I handed over this healing cloak, and didn’t bat an eyelid when the healer rolled on the dps staff.

On my horde hunter I paid a DK from my server 500 gold to give me the Agility trinket he needed on after he said ” damn blizz shouldn’t have let me roll need on that” and left group.  He was on my server so I had a second chance – I made the offer – he made some gold on a piece of loot he ‘should not’  have rolled on

In LFR I am passing on the Tier pieces I already have on my priest’s healing spec even though I should be ‘needing’ for my shadow spec

Also in LFR I don’t bother when arguing with people who win two pieces of tier for the same slot,  even though they might be a warrior that doesn’t have a heals and dps set they could use it on. Sometimes this works out ok for me,  On my Shammy the other Shammy who won two leg tokens realised and gave me one, on my priest,  I got a spirit non tier chest that another priest had received two of. It’s about 50/50  in LFR when someone who receives two of something  hands it over.  I won two non tier hands and had 3 people whisper me demanding I give it to them.  I then had to whisper two of them back and say no,  ‘such and such’ was the 2nd highest roll – and I gave it to them.

My heart broke a little on my horde hunter when a hunter seemed to have kept two of the polearms from DW.  He looted two and then left raid quickly after, not sure if he gave it to someone else,  but I was 2nd highest roll and he left a little quickly to trade.

We know that guilds are running LFR wearing gear that is better and  rolling on tier to pass to guildies – and that there are ‘underhanded’ deals being made in regards to the power of a class to roll on an item that they may or may not need.  I had some random offering to roll on a piece of tier for me on one boss, I said no thank you initially  – but then I won the trinket and considered that the piece of teir might be as good  – or at least one step closer to a 4 set, and therefore worth a trade. So I said,  ok,  if you win a token I will trade you.  ( and he didn’t win – so the deal never happened)

We can argue till we are blue in the face with people about what we think is fair or not,  and not only are we battling with lady luck and RNG,  but also the whims of random people.  Sometimes someones idea of fairness aligns with the general sence of fairness in the raid, or amongst a class or role set and they will pass so its not an issue, or they will re-distribute the winnings. Sometimes they will roll just because they can, and blame blizzard for letting them.

We are creatures of free will, and I really don’t want to roll on everything I can, or on something I know I won’t use, as tempting as thinking ” screw you all” is.

It’s only pixels – repeat that to yourself.

but somestimes I feel like singing

“What about me, it isn’t fair
I’ve had enough now i want my share
Can’t you see i wanna live
But you just take more than you give”

and so I leave you with some classic Australian rock from the 1980′s and a band called Moving Pictures ” What about me”

Or if you prefer the Shannon Noll  version

I shall qualify this first by reminding you I am female, and yes I wore these pants and I liked them. **

For those under a Rock the newest patch 4.3 bought about the  ability to transmogrify via  Transmogrification, pieces of armor to look like other pieces of amour in-game that you have in your possession. AKA Mogging!

The first set of gear I mogged into on my Priest Main was the easiest one I could find, and involved a nice little red crimson cloth set. Feeling ‘sexy’ with plenty of cleavage.  I wore it around a little because I could, and felt rather silly.

I got my tier shoulders and changed into something more respectable.

I came across one of the few players I have seen who have gone out of their way to expose every bit of flesh possible in the AH.  It was more of a crotch-ful – eyeful.  Be careful where you pan your camera when they are standing next to the Auctioneer.

There doesn’t seem to be many people who have mogged their gear into the most extreme cases of  ‘lets show all the flesh I can on my Toon . ‘ The Santa baby Human commoners in their little red santa suit are dressed more scandalously then even a small fraction of players toons are.

” Where are all the Tarts?” is sensationalistic, and it’s a backwards mentality that women are judged by what we wear – more so then a man ever will.  It is a very clear judgement of the choices you make in the clothes you wear as to how you are perceived.  I’m not restarting the armor design and every mans fantasy argument either, but I will observe that given the choice ( within your armor class)  all players have the ability to Mogg their gear into what ever they please, and the vast majority do not seem to have gone down the path of the scantily clad.

Have we been shamed into not dressing like that?  Can we just not be bothered? Have we chosen to dress more respectable,  or is the value we place on matching tiers from the past,  and style more important then dressing like a Tart? ( sic)

I changed out of my Red Crimson set because it ‘felt’ inappropriate – it’s not how I wanted my character to be perceived, but lastly it didn’t match my new tier shoulders and I wanted to show them off more than I wanted my NE boobs cleavage flashed.

Wear/Mogg what you want. Sometimes we have a choice, Sometimes we don’t.  I remember playing my first pally that I attempted and put a  quest reward on in Westfall on to find it wasn’t much more than a bikini bottom with some side flaps and another toon chasing me around telling me to put some clothes on.

But for the same reason I will probably make my toon wear the santa suit at least once,  why occasionally I dress up in a ‘lovely dress’ I like my toon looking cute, feminine, sexy, lovely, adorable, pretty and that’s ok, but I guess I can only liken it to playing dress ups I only want to do it occasionally.

( PS – I love seeing the careful effort people have put into the collection their favorite tier pieces to mogg into)

*********

On a serious note for when it comes to female armor read  Fantasy Armor and Lady Bits  The problem with Womens armor in games by a man who makes armor ( via Kotaku )

Metal boob shaped plates basically shout ” My heart is in between these – stab me here”

My main changed her offspec from Disc to Holy so she would do better on metres in raid finder in case I ever wanted to impress someone enough to go into a normal DS  considering whats the point of this existence if I am not even considering to try to get the best gear available I can,   even if I am not raiding, but  this means I can’t PVP as disc,  so I have been Pvping as Shadow only  ( I would get laughed at if I went in as holy)

I miss playing in bg’s and arena as Disc. ( and yes this is a good argument for 3 specs!)

I miss playing.

I was pvping long past the need for points,  I would remember I was honor capped on occasion after getting geared up and spend it on enchanting mats.  Sure I had no real purpose bar the pure pleasure of playing,  but I would log in less, or late take more frequent breaks, do more creative things

My Horde hunter went from DING 85! to Raid finder in just over a week.  I just gquit the random guild that invited me when I was a lobie because well they were never going to do anything organized, and I am hungering for purpose.  I should be getting better gear, I should be raiding, I should..

I have a shammy too that also hit 85 recently that I leveled like a demon – her aim is to suffer  through enough heroic dungeons so she can get that ever important Ilevel through gear or JP points for Raid finder so I can run her through as heals as well.

Does anyone play anymore?  Or is everyone grinding? Jp Points honor, gear.

We run the daily for the points,  we run whatever till we get to cap.  I like bringing my main Zahraah to stuff because well she is really the only toon I care about. I don’t care if she is JP capped, Honor capped, I want to play her.

I  have people close to me, and I do it to some extent -  on what ever alts have my fancy at the time,  that when there is a holiday boss/loot they grind all the toons through it to make sure that they all have a trinket, or the ring, or whatever.

I like playing to play. I shouldn’t need a purpose, or a cap,  or a goal,  I just want to play.

I’ve been pretty lucky with the Raid Finder.  2 Pieces of Raid Finder Tier  – and luckily the most important two,  the helm, and Mantle.  ( the looks,  gotta have the looks)   I mogged a robe to try to match the colour schemes of the neck piece and I came pretty close using the Spirit Mend Robe.

Tonight, just after reset I scored the Raid Finder Seal of the Seven Signs +406 intell and 2573 Haste proc – which isn’t a bad for new loot.

I went on public record ( on Facebook to my friends) to say that I didn’t like the new Tier when it was first announced. I can’t deny it looks pretty cool  with it’s  harlequin eyes. However I cannot get away from thinking I look like a chess piece.  I could be a Bishop or the Queen, ( there is spikey crown) and I don’t look very happy, and nor do I feel very wow priest like. But it’s certainly very different and well designed.

I’ve been running LFR  ( and doing pretty well ) and all the new twilight dungeons as a healer.  I was disc  and then I went holy, as our Arena’s 3′s team has been split over realms and we haven’t quite decided who is changing to what toon where,  I haven’t needed my Disc Spec and have found holy healing in Raids much easier.  I can only liken it to the difference in shooting a gun on my hunter and shooting a bow.  The bow is smoother,  it flows,  it has a soft twang,  the Gun is very violent and forceful,  I find holy healing like shooting the bow,  it flows better I fill up your health bar,  instead of slapping a bandage over the wound to prevent extra damage while other people fill the health bar up.

**********************

In other news.  I now have 2 85 hunters.  My Dwarf I’ve had for a little while,  but with the 4.3 changes,  funnily enough my newest 85 ( my BE Hunter Desdemonia) is now my 2nd best geared 85. She had a bit of unexpected funding help from a reader a little while back ( thanks Glenn if your still reading)  which came in handy with the chanting and gemming of the new gear.

I had been avoiding raiding and even doing instances before 4.3 on my hunter(s).  So I had a little tweaking to do. ( like remember to remove cower, and to not use Kill command ) Because I had some other hunters in raid to compare to – look at what they were doing I made some changes and am pretty happy with my dps in LFR now

I had a warrior ask me for my tier token when the helm dropped.  I stuck around for the next boss,  unlike some people who win a tier token and leave group, and when he asked ” Did I mind if he grabbed that helm”  I said “Yes”  it was going to be my two set and that was pretty much the conversation.  I think he was the tank,  but he couldn’t even use the excuse that I was scrub and didn’t deserve it because I was doing good dps,  as in  – in the main pack,  pretty high on the list. (  though there does seem to be a bias between those who perform badly in LFR and lady luck -or it can seem that way sometimes)

It was ballsy of him to ask,  but I was going to take lady lucks boon, and run it ( or run away with it)

Yes LFR is charity, but I have experience,  I have loot,  I see bad’s and afker’s getting kicked, so the self-regulation seems to be working ok, and I have not seen one person unfairly booted. ( so far)

I am not sure if I am just getting old, and cranky in my years.  ” When we were leveling,  we had to walk uphill in the snow” or just my  tolerance for annoying things is getting shorter, but I have 7 all time un-favorite sounds in-game – of note they become more annoying when you’re at the receiving end of them.

7.  The Squeal of a Deranged Helboar in Hellfire & the Mobs in Razor Fen – Do I need to say more.  Squuuuueeeel. Snort.  Squeeeeeeeel Snort. Can you just imagine their little slimy noses smacking into you with each hit.

6. Drain Lfe – it’s a Bunsen burner  burn ( remember those from highschool science) it sounds like your life is burning from inside you. You can’t swat it away, and it just keeps burning..  get it off me!

5. Earthbind Totem- Woooooo Wooooooo Wooooooo reminds me of the sound of massive wind turbines.  This time the sounds doesn’t do much for warning you,  because if your close enough to hear it, your close enough to be caught in it, and  then your running through quicksand.

4. Mindspike. The Whoosh,  then a slash sound like a  knife cutting the air. ( matches the graphic) if you hear one,  you know at least 2 more is coming, and then an instant mindblast, and BAM there goes 30-50% if your health depending on the crits. I hate the sound because it’s a forewarning of bad things to come, and the knife sound sends shivers up my spine.

3. Mana Burn: Whoosh – and the sound of a cocked of a gun.  It’s different when your the person doing the mana burning, but that sound in Arena, and Bg’s and it’s not you is like Oh crap. I need to get out of LOS There is no debuff when your being mana burned,  just that sound that lets you  know your having  your mana drained.

2. The Fte Fte sound that a hunter’s Kill command makes. Fte fte fte fte fte fte ( try it fast with your tongue hitting the back of your teeth)  Fte is the only way I know how to copy it . ( possibly helped by the little gap I have between my front teeth. ) That sound enforces in the imagination the feeling of the pets claws tearing at your robes. Cutting in your skin.

And Finally….

1. The Stupid monkey yip,  when it’s attacking something. It Squeeks, it yips, it’s teeth gnash at you,  it’s monkey paws slapping at you.  it’s like one of those yip yip dogs while it’s attacking you.  This is especially annoying in arena, Some people have said that  it’s most affective attack is it’s sound..

I know the solution to these annoying sounds is to turn the sound off.  I already play with the sound down to around 11%,   and it’s enough for me to get a general feel of placement in the game. When I wear my in-the-ear ear buds walking down the street,  they are very affective at blocking out sound.  It’s like being submersed underwater.  I ‘feel’ the world differently because of the loss of one of my senses.  ( it is also how people get hit by things on roads because they can’t hear them) .

I think that sound is still very important to my experience in the game,  I feel more immersed and I’m not talking about the haunting trombone that plays as you ride in the Battle of Gilneas,  or the little irish lilts in the pub.  Sound ingame is information.  I can tell when I am being mana burned by the sound, I can tell I am being mindspiked by the sound.  They act as warnings, and I do not need to look at debuffs or raid frames to react.

But if you really have had enough of annoying sounds,  there’s an add on for that!

There is an add on for a Worgen sniff remover,  there is also a Annoying Wow sound remover  on curse as well that mutes “906″ annoying sounds ( I haven’t downloaded it – because I really don’t want to lose that many different sounds )  If only they made an add on that works to mute Sydney Train passengers.