House in order...

"Open House"

Well, I made a tough but solid decision when it comes to raiding and that goofy shammy. Mataoka -- I have been feeling it for awhile. It isn't fun to be melee in raids at gear level. I have hinted and suggested I bring other better equipped characters - Kellda has "the" cloak, green fire, and great gear; Zeptepi is working on her cloak, but both warlock and priest are well represented in the 'big' guild, so they don't belong. I would have gone completely restoration on Mataoka, too, but they have great shaman healers and didn't need that either. Logtar is a wonderful GM/RL, and I adore Hawtpocket--she is one of the best players, raiders, tanks, and I just adore her personally. I told her I am thrilled we are friends in Azeroth, and hope to continue our friendship.When the decision is made to try a 25-man, and I'm already bashful about melee in raids, and don't have the experience needed (all my own fault) and then it gets moved down to a ten, I realize as I am looking at my own house, my own family, who falls somewhat apart without me; when I'm trying to raid, I ask for my family's time without making it worth my own or anyone else's. Then, when on Wednesday Hawt told me the guild was forming a flex and I asked the lead hunter if I could go and he said they were full (I didn't think Flex's could get full). This may have just been a miscommunication, I'll grant that. I decided to read between the lines and give a move some deep consideration. I am so proud and happy of how Drunken Fish has been growing. Having Mataoka there to bring points, play, and repuations to the guild will only further help it. Also, it dawned on me that it wasn't that I was running from something, but running to. Playing enhancement shammy takes a lot of practice and work. This character started off from the beginning doing everything 'herself,' and she is well-suited for achievements, solo-play, and the occasional goody bag from healing.

People often ask me why I stay at my real-life job. It is hard, it is stressful, and I am not being hyperbolic when I say potentially dangerous. But I stay because I contribute and effect change. My skills and expertise move mountains in my real life. Sometimes they're Sisyphean boulders, but I've mostly learned how to duck out of the way. Everyone wants to feel like they matter because guess what? They do.

All players say play what makes you happy--first, figuring out when we're happiest in game is not always obvious. But once we see that --it's a clear path.


Drunken Fish: Keep up the good work! Thank you for all you've done. We're almost to Level 19!


Oh, and I have been giving this a lot of thought too: http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/27/breakfast-topic-would-people-pay-for-character-faction-copy/ I would do that in a red-hot minute.

Strength in numbers

Saw this list in Writer's Write this morning, so thought I would share. Now, the distinction between female and male protagonists could be argued - these are defining traits for any strong protagonist. But if female leads are 10-11% but represent 50% of the population, we writers have some work to do. (And stop calling Jaina a bitch: but Blizz writers - give her some more of these please):

The Six Defining Characteristics of Strong Female Protagonists

1. She has a story goal that defines the narrative arc. She has to get possession of something, or relief from something. There have to be important consequences if she does not achieve her story goal. 

1. She is flawed. She is not perfect, and her flaws could change the course of the story. She has to make choices, and she has to deal with the consequences of her choices. There is nothing more frustrating than reading a story where the protagonist fails to make choices. Even if this is how we behave in real life, we want our fictional heroes to be a better version of ourselves. We want them to take action. We want to them to go after what they want. Reactive characters are annoying and we perceive them as weak.

1. She captures our attention. She has that special ‘something’ that captivates us as readers. A strong character has a personality trait that mesmerises readers. Readers want to believe they could be that character if they were put in that situation. They may even want to be that character. She could be brave, loyal, self-confident, intelligent, focused, charming, or compassionate. She should be able to engage our minds, win our hearts and get us to root for her until the end.

1. She changes over the course of the story. She discovers her strengths and weaknesses. She surprises herself and she surprises us as she grows and learns. There should not be a sudden epiphany at the end of the story. We are not watching a Disney movie. Her change should be gradual and believable.

1. She does not exist as a support for another character. Other characters exist to support her. Her supporting cast are there to help her achieve her story goal and complete the narrative arc of her story. The antagonist is there to thwart her, and to show her how strong or weak she is. Her love interest is there to distract her from her story goal, and to show us her insecurities and vulnerabilities. (Remember that a love interest is not necessarily a romantic interest.) Her friends are there to support her, and to show us who she really is, how strong she can be – even if she can’t see it.

1. She has the ability to stand up to the antagonist. She is a strong character who is made stronger by her interaction with the antagonist. She has to have the intelligence, bravery, charisma, and will-power to make the story her own and come out on top at the end of the book.

CD Rogue spent his evening watching the Weeds series. I couldn't stand watching the main character, Nancy, played by Mary-Louise Parker. First of all Mary-Louise is a shitty actress, but the Nancy character -- in the words of CD Rogue - never changes. She is, in literary terms, a static character. When one watches a show like that back-to-back, you realize even if a female is in the lead, the world circles around her. She mostly just looks befuddled and confused all the time, a "Why is this happening to little ol' me?" victim look. Yuck. How much different and far more interesting would that series have been with someone funny and smart. And she's a really bad mom. (So says Judgy McJudgy Pants over here.)

My Azerothian characters - sheesh do they have their work cut out for them when Warlords comes out. So much testosterone! So much things-go-boom! So many big messes left for others to clean up! Booo! Oh well. Have more to say, but now I'm off to be the hero of my own story today…see you soon!

Mataoka, Ph.D(raenei)

First stop: Speak with Emissary Taluun

Well, damn, it's really Kellda who's the 'sexy librarian' in the mix, the one who spends hours in the libraries of Ironforge and Stormwind (and who would love to get her hands on tomes and scrolls in the Undercity's vaults, but you know, the whole 'forbidden' thing, and the dying, and whatnot); regardless, it's time to do some focused research on my favorite race: the Draenei. Speaking with my go-to RP friend and very knowledgeable source yesterday, the discussion and importance of age, timelines, and points in history cannot be overlooked or discounted in terms of character development. Foundational literary cornerstones, such as setting, exposition, conflict, resolution/denouement, and character(s) interact to create the plot. Characters interaction with setting influences or demands conflict, and gives entry to exploration of themes. In other words: loss and war is an eternal conflict/theme: what loss, and what war, can be specific to a character and story. 

Az, you're blocking my light!

One of the best resources I discovered is Yhtomitus' forum post:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1622897733 (Note my studious use of a Highligher in my virtual textbooks on key notes)

2. Age
First things first: http://wowpedia.org/Life_spans 
In the Warcraft universe, longer-lived races also mature slowly. Regrettably, no definite figures exist for the draenei. They are an extremely long-lived race - possibly immortal; although there is no evidence either way about the entire race, Velen is explicitly called immortal in the new starting narration. Whether mortal or immortal, they live at least long enough for some NPCs, most notably Velen but not limited to him, to remember Argus, which makes them more than 25,000 years old. The closest we have to the rate of maturing is a reference is Rise of the Horde, where Durotan notes that a child in Telmor remained virtually unchanged for about three decades.
I've used the night elf figures as a rough reference for Sikon, so she's an approximately 300-year-old equivalent of a human twentysomething-year-old. I can see strict lore-adherers trying to avoid exact numbers. It's safe to say, however, that today's adult draenei were born long before the rise of the Horde. Your character could be born on Argus, on one of the worlds the draenei visited during their flight from the Legion, or on Draenor in times of peace - but in any event, they remember the orcs turning evil and destroying their civilization, and everything that followed then. 
This wow.com article: http://www.wow.com/2008/06/01/ask-a-lore-nerd-youre-how-old/ - contains some speculation (not canon) on what exactly it means to reach adulthood at a later age for long-lived races like the night elves and draenei.

What is problematic for me is, what if Mataoka was born in Azuremyst? Are lore geeks going to pounce on me? For nerds they scratch deep. (Just read Ready Player One and you'll know what I'm talking about.)

Voidwalkers as study-buddies. Awesome.

Mataoka:

This is a writing sketch, based on preliminary research:

She is a child of Azuremyst (because I say so).
Shamanism (spearheaded by Nobundo after the fall of Shattrath, under Velen's personal blessing) is still a new development in the draenei society, and mistrusted. [Unbroken] 
She is a shaman. And she is an adventurer. 

Reading very strong lore opinions, I think--perhaps--there is another way of looking at this. Many writers put things squarely in their own perspective, of how another race/existence relates to human/earth time, and I think this is a fundamental miscalculation. There are more dimensions and ways to consider time/space than a narrow linear perspective. Saying an "old Draenei mother" is comparable to a "100 year old Earth/human mother [sic] is one of those narrow perspectives.  Judging gestation, reproduction, marriage, and placing a fan-fiction framework around it is fine, but I evoke Rule #10: Write What I Want.

And in one of the first stories I wrote about her, she does have a father and mother:

Mat loved her sisters, but she didn’t always understand them. Luperci, the middle girl, could be as self-righteous as an hagiographer, one who begins to believe he is just as holy as the saints’ stories he records.  The notch in Mat’s right horn was a result of Lupe slamming a flaming shield to Mat’s head when they were children. Mat had made some crack about the color or shape of Lupe’s horns. Matty often spoke before thinking, having a sharp tongue on occasion. Lupe had learned a bit more patience over the years, too; thank heavens, because that irascible arrogance and self-importance would have grown tiresome if left unchecked. Mat avoided her as it was.Rumors, mostly faded now, persisted that Matty was the love child of their mother, Alenke, before she married Arkkis. These rumors were true. Her mother had been in love; sincere promises were made, secret vows taken, but he died in battle before a priest could sanctify the marriage. The only thing that wasn’t widely known was the draenei warrior in question was Arrkis’ brother. Arrkis admired Alenke, and married her to protect her honor and out of a sense of obligation to his brother’s memory. Compromises created out of duty do not inspire love, and kills lust. Even so, they were fond of each other. But when eyes were closed and lights extinguished, each dreamed of other faces in the dark in their minds’ eyes. He never loved her as his brother had. That would have been impossible.

(Looking over this writing now I see how clunky it is, but whatever. As my writing group says, "Writing is never finished, it's only due." Even self-imposed deadlines.)

Then, Kil'jaeden's flunky Talgath stumbled upon Draenor.Rather than launch a frontal assault, Kil'jaeden manipulated the orcish shaman into thinking that the draenei had hostile intentions. Trusting their spiritual leaders, the orcs attempted to wipe the draenei out.The few draenei survivors (about a quarter to a fifth of the population) went into hiding.About thirty years later—after the orcs blew up the planet—Tempest Keep materialized off Netherstorm and was immediately mobbed by Legion-affiliated blood elves. The draenei mustered a strike force to capture a wing of the Keep.Unfortunately, they missed a few elves, who sabotaged the fortress and crashed it into an obscure archipelago off northern Kalimdor. And that's where The Burning Crusade begins.

http://wow.answers.wikia.com/wiki/Draenei_History_Timeline 
See? All a big misunderstanding --which can be used to allow Mataoka to see diplomatic pathways to the Orcs. Maybe.

The draenei do not love war, or see it as particularly noble or honorable, it's true. They are not enamored of bloodshed. They do not sing songs of valor on the battleground, or commit acts of genocide to prove their prowess. Dominating the weak and crushing their enemies are not concepts that have much appeal to them. They know mercy, and restraint - forever haunted by the actions of those that were once their own people, they are constantly aware (and afraid of) their own potential for darkness and evil action. This is why they are at time slow to respond to a threat, and often choose to retreat rather than come into conflict - not because they are incapable or unsuited to it, but rather because they are aware of just how suited to it they are. One needs only look at Archimonde, shattering Dalaran to dust with a few spoken words, to realize the potential for power and cruelty every draenei fears lurking within his or her own heart. It's tempting to look at the draenei response to the broken as a reflection of this fear - that without the presence of the Holy Light, they will inevitably fall to the madness of the Man'ari Eredar.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/12/know-your-lore-draenei-are-not-pacifists/

Annotation: why did Matthew Rossi feel compelled to write this post? Was there some underlying misconception that Draenei are pacifists, and he's responding to those misconceptions? Pacisfism itself is a tricky concept: Quakers are pacifists. Not getting involved in a conflict, however, holds many underlying motivations besides not 'believing' in war: simply not wanting to clean up the mess afterwards is one good reason. I think the Draenei have enough to do with all those crashsites. 

I could use the "30 Days of Character Development" guidelines, ala Garrosh (who's a great writer, by the by) and this link: http://asgardianthunder.tumblr.com/post/12903597383/the-most-in-depth-30-day-character-development-meme

One thing is clear: I have my work cut out for me, and an overwhelming wealth of resources. Synthesizing this material to flesh out Mataoka, Ceniza, Luperci, Zeptepi, Haanta, and now Sajja will be a rich reward. Keeping in mind the existing canon, and creating my own headcanon will take time.

Why do all this? Why not just play the game, and let the spaceship pieces fall where they may? Well, I am really looking forward to the next expansion, but am also grateful for the serendipity of its release timeframe: I need more time. If the Draenei have been around 25,000 earth years, that's a lot of catching up to do. Thanks to Effy for this, too: http://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/catch-up-lore-warlords-of-draenor/

Az, would you get me some tea? We've got work to do...

Other resources:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/5825512638
http://www.bastionofsanity.net/library-draenei.htm
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/03/31/know-your-lore-the-draenei/
http://www.wowwiki.com/Unbroken_(story)

Happy Halloween!

This is one of my all-time favorite images of Mataoka:

Of late, I am always a day late and dollar short. Literally. It's Halloween, and I had to wait for payday to buy well, Paydays and pumpkins. But I decided yesterday I needed a well-earned mental health day, (it's been a long, weird week--not bad, but…) and need to brew up some tricks and treats for myself. Patience, my pretties…patience.

These are some sweet witch images

I'd like to think the toads, etc. used in this spell are gulp frogs (right there with ya, Navi)

Witches' Chant (from Macbeth)

1st Witch:

Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.*

2nd Witch:

Thrice and once, the hedge-pig whin'd.

3rd Witch

Harpier cries:—'tis time! 'tis time!

1st Witch:

Round about the cauldron go:
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Sweated venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first in the charmed pot.

All:

Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

2nd Witch:

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.
For charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

All:
Double,double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and couldron bubble.

3rd Witch:

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digg'd in the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew;
Gall of goat; and slips of yew

Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;
Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,-
Make the gruel thick and slab:
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For ingredients of our cauldron.

All:
Double,double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

2nd Witch:

Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

*Gosh, hope that's not Mrs. W!

We all know the Ash Witch is the most bad-ass witch of all time, but these are pretty good, too.

Mirror, mirror...

Keeper Marandis takes a second look...

"Ah, a far more practical hair style, for all of this digging in the dirt!" Matty admired herself in her Highbourne Soul Mirror before she went to dig in the next patch of mud. She believed feeling pretty, inside and out, was satisfying enough. Off she went.

Chestpiece: Lord's Breastplate

Shoulders: Lord's Pauldrons

Belt: Skettis Belt

Leggins: Lord's Legguards

Monopoly.

I was literally having this conversation with my cross-dressing rogue, while scrambling to lay in supplies before another big snow storm hits. I am not unused to snow having learned to drive in Colorado, and the east coast, but here the good government doesn't know how to budget for road salt and plows. Besides, they might run over a salmon or something,

(I kid, of course. Don't call the Salmon Police on me.)

The conversation topic spinning my mental wheels was about the three Draenei Girls Gruff: Matty, Luperci, and Zeptepi. (Their names sound like Marx Bros. names.) Now, those three are all fairly well decked out, considering only the shaman has stepped hoof in any type of raid. (I am at this limbo place where I am not seeking to raid actively either: that would involve tugging at the robes of the guild officers, saying "Let me in coach!" when all I really want to be is the water boy.) The thing is: Valor Points. All three girls need BOE items. Well, Matty doesn't. I said one quick word to Guarf the other week, because I wanted to borrow some of his "extra" ones (with reasonable term interest rates, of  course) and get some bracers or boots for Zep. Before I could give him a shopping list off he went and got them for Miss Matty. No good deed goes unpunished, eh? Like a nagging wife when the husband picks up the wrong brand of laundry soap, I was appreciative but resigned. (Sorry Guarf. Really. Really.) So, off trots Miss Matty with her boots, bracers, and such. From LFR, she got the chest piece and shoulders early on, and the ax, etc. But here's the kick in the head: got the bracers from Dragon Soul, and I'll be damned but those suckers are Best in Slot! DAMMMMIT. I have an abundance of bracers now. Perhaps it's a good thing since carpal tunnel is so prevalent these days.

So -- here was my dilemma: should I continue using my VP on Miss Mattycakes, (she still needs a belt, two rings, necklace, and trinket), or use my VP for Zep and Luperci first, whose gear is not quite as pretty-shiny? Kind of like having three girls go to college all at once; I just can't afford it.

Ultimately, the question is this: who is the most 'fun' to play now?'

Well, perhaps 'fun' is not the right word. None of them are particularly 'fun' right now. But I have found, with the better gear Zep is getting from the dungeons in any case, healing is, well, kind of cool. And as soon as I came home, I saw this posting by I Like Bubbles: Healing is an Addiction 

I have often complimented her use of terse prose: I can't get to the point as quickly as she can.

Well, screw it. This over-thinking about this dumb game is giving me a headache. I don't know if I should put one hotel on Park Place or load up James Street with houses. The RNGs and dice will roll as they shall do as they will. I do know it's pretty easy to get Zeptepi's dance card filled up quicker than the other two, so perhaps, so she'll look pretty and smart, I'll get her the dress to the balls first.

And Guarf, about that loan...