Dragon Lady.

The Lunar New Year in the "real" world began on January 23. This is the astrological year of the dragon. *They* say that those who are dragons always know they are dragons. *cough*

Maleficent gets her rage on...

For the record, I am sure this is not an original idea. But perhaps the more voices join in the chorus, the sweeter the song?

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder looks at Matty as if she is an insect, or maybe she didn't get any tokens on that last LFR run.

Last summer, I was thinking that it would be *sho kewl* if there was another heroic class like Death Knights; but, what could it be? So many fantastical forms already existed: Draenei, Dwarfs, Forsaken, Trolls, Tauren, Night and Blood Elves, Goblins, Gnomes, and Humans. Did I forget anyone? Oh, Orcs. My pardon. But perhaps instead of taking existing races and creating a "class" such as knights, maybe another race altogether, or perhaps a way to alter a race into: DRAGONS!

Alexstrasza thinks Matty may be on to something...

It's all right there: you could choose to have powers of time, magic, dreams, earth, life, and don't forget great physical strength and beauty. And a rockin' hot body: I am convinced this one player would have left her real-life husband for Kalecgos.

Do a search for cosplay-ysera-sexy-dragons, and it will lead you to some interesting sites (still trying to figure out what "cleavages" are. Holy Bra Strap, Batman!). This one is from Deviantart-exquisite costume.

Nozdormu, Alexstrasza, Ysera, and Kalecgos (Matty popped her wolves in her excitement)

For an easy read, and most everything you need to know about the dragon aspects, go to this wowpedia post.

This is just a sketch of an idea, but think about it: whichever dragon aspect you choose those would be your special skills, physical form, and talents. One design issue or question is, "do you turn into a big hulking dragon and can't fit in the instance?" I don't think that's necessary. However, you get the special perk of being able to turn into a dragon as your first mount, similar to the Vial of Sands, similar to as other classes get their specialty mounts. (Shamans have to hoof it or hitch-hike, like a bum.)

The devil's advocates would come up with other arguments, too, as to why we players can't be dragons, but the obvious argument is every one will want to be one, and the next thing you know, all of Azeroth will be overridden by dragons. Well, to that, I have heard the same thing about Blood Elves, Draenei, and Worgens. Oh, my. A world dominated by panda bears is perfectly logical, I guess. (I cannot help but think of Club Penguin every time I think of MoP.) Yes, I will most likely start a panda, but like my worgen, she may not get much play, unless my friend and I goof off together. I don't see either of us taking it too seriously.

But dragons...come on...the possibilities!

Link: Disney homage to animated dragons.

Postscript: I always thought Deathwing's jaw reminded me too much of this:

Here, thought you needed some eye candy to wash the Pete the Dragon image out of your mind:

Daenerys by Teilku

Theme song: How to Train Your Dragon/Forbidden Friendship

*Yes, you inferred correctly. I am 12.

Ladies and Gentlmen: Mat has something to say.

Mat struggles to watch her tone with this post: the last thing, the most road-to-Hell-damnable unintended-intention, would be to alienate, make anyone feel 'called out,' or upset anyone. In fact: she wants you to know a few things, a few positive, very positive, things. (She had originally titled it: "He's Just Not That Into You,"but that's a bit mean-spirited and worse, inaccurate.)

Bear with her, please. (Tank bear level of threat? Yes, it might require that.)

In spite of what the trolls say in Trade Chat, the sexist, racist, and nerd-rage comments, both men and women, play WoW. And: we are different. Having some experiences with the dangers of sweeping generalizations, she is cautious when it comes to putting any gender-stereotype in Box A or B. It's more complicated than that, of course. Most of us do not attend all-boys or all-girls parochial schools at any point in our lives, or even at all. We have friends, relationships, and bonds with both genders.*

Herein lie the generalities of gender differences: men tend to be very "let's get this done," and women tend toward (read: over-analyzes) of subtleties and like, to, well, talk. Mat's human has done some field work in this area, and some research. And although she doesn't completely agree with everything he says, a good resource, in case you're interested, is John Medina, author of Brain Rules. One aspect of male/female communication styles that tend to ring true is that men/boys tend to talk side by side - they do not look at one another, nor do they need to. Women/girls, on the other hand, need, perhaps crave, that eye contact; they want full-face communication (which is probably why when a man tells a woman she has 'the most beautiful eyes' it still works...). 

Mat wonders if others have experienced this: The little scrolling world of whisper chat can get a bit complicated. Nuances and shades of meaning are lost, or are misunderstood. When we see a friend pop in the world to play, naturally we want to greet them, and make them feel welcome.

And here is where things can get a bit mucky: Sometimes we're just, well, busy. We may have guild events, catching up with other friends, or sometimes we just want to be alone. Sometimes our focus shifts toward one player friend that we may need at that moment: if you think about it, even in our real world lives we have different kinds of friends for different needs. We have the "fun" friend, the trustworthy listener, the colleague, the silly friend, close and the steadfast ones. We never intend to hurt feelings or ignore those whom we've come to enjoy spending time with in Azeroth.

Mat likes to play WoW. She doesn't like to play mind games (being released by Blizzard in 2012, by the way). As her circle of friends grows, she wants them to know this: She really thinks you're wonderful. Each of you has brought a smile to her face, and some insight that she wouldn't have otherwise obtained. Her human has kept friends for life. She does this by knowing there is strength in confidence of allowing a friend to 'put you back in the box' for awhile, and come back at intervals. Maybe it's that, since we all help each other craft our character's skills, we feel a bit of ownership, a Pygmalion response. But we don't. We're friends, and that's a really good thing. It's really cool - honest. If you want to hang, great. If not, no problem. No harm, no foul. She doesn't read any more into than that.

* Duh.

Postscript: Mat had one of her friends cracking up relating the story from when her human was in high school, and decided to check out the D&D club. Now Mat's human is not unattractive. You have never seen a more confused boy in your life: he really didn't know what to make of her. Between being flushed with teenage hormones and frustration over the fact that she just COULD NOT understand the dice, they both walked away from the experience a bit bewildered.

Editor's Note: this strikes a better tone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZGHTkmhxgQ (and for the record, Mat has a visceral dislike of Jack Johnson).