Move it.

It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks, with apologies to Dickens. Once again my quick-tongue-without-brain got me in a bit of trouble at work, and no, if you're wondering, I will never learn. Genetic mouthing-off is a dominent gene from both lines of ancestry. I remind myself again I am human, I make mistakes, and try to do the right thing, even if once in awhile I step in it. And you know what "it" is.

Point being--kind of feeling a bit off. And on this bad day, I tried to raid with the new guild team, and it went okay. Not great, but okay. Zep got a new belt, but overall the gear is so yucky, and the Shado-Pan dailies so bloody brutal for her Shadow spec, I am more than a bit discouraged. A guildmate last night said so sweetly, "I went into LFR and got nothing, and even used all my charms!" It was her first trip in there I think. And to me, it seemed so poignant, in so much as her disappointment was still laced with hope and kind of an "Aw, shucks!" instead of my current "OH EFFFF."

Okay - those Shado Pan - in my priest spec I died about six times in half an hour. It takes me forever to get those done. Those bug things swoop and dodge and come the HELL OUT OF NO WHERE. I'm singling out one or two and the next thing I have a swarm of those ugly, gross things.

So poopy Shado Pan and poopy work and I raid and most of that is forgotten. I'm focused on listening to directions, to the goal, to the moment. My healing was sub-par compared to the Holy Paladin, but he was wearing 500ilevel gear, so I tried not to feel too ashamed.

What a red hot minute! Ashamed? Hell no. This is what I was trying to say. I really appreciate Bear's post on the loot issue, and I guess in previous ones I've bitched about I didn't distinguish between two very important things: all loot and success are not created equal. To me, there is a huge difference between finally getting a long sought-after pet or mount, or fun item, versus a needed piece of gear or a weapon. Gear and weapons are what allow a player who wants to raid and be somewhat successful play in dungeon groups and raids. Period. This is a game about gear. And when Blizzard blocks that access with the maze of dailies (I called them failies the other day unintentionally, but somehow it works) and faction reputations and low drop rates in LFR, then they are really missing a big ass point. A point I would like them to sit on in a big-ass time out.

But regardless, playing and focusing the worries of the day went away. That's a good thing. Talking with a player last night, I asked him how does he get out of a funk from real life in game, what does he do? This led to a term I had not heard before: microtransactions. This term means, in fancy talk, the little things that keep us coming back to any activity. It became clear to me this is why so many of us has enjoyed pet battling. We cannot get the gear we need to raid, but we can learn about pets and battle our little hearts out, and get all the quick achievements we want, and we, more or less, control it. If there one singular message I want Blizzard to get, it's if the intent is to allow players to play the way they want, allow access to one level of gear that gets them in, and then leave the rest to the RNGs.

Now I'm off to see if the server has restarted for a scourged whelping. Maybe it'll drop a healing mace, too.

Addendum: Kaylyne sent me this quote:

Love it. :)