Woman in WoW - are you discriminated?

I don't know why, but in spite of the fact that I've wanted to write a blog post about gender perspectives of World of Warcraft for quite a long time now, at the same time, I've hesitated about it for some reason. Maybe it's because of fear to be misunderstood, or to rather strengthen than work against the stereotypes and prejudices that are around, simply by raising the issue.

But now the time has come, I'm ready to have a look at the question about female and male things in WoW and ask myself: do I ever get treated differently because I'm a woman?

One thing that is quite obvious is that the graphic sometimes is rather full of clichés. You just have to watch the log in screen in Stormwind to see the female ideals. The design of the clothes is a bit odd sometimes, like last Christmas, when female characters were expected to run around half naked with small bikinis, while the male ones had real Santa Claus costumes to put on themselves. Some female models swing their bottom so much when they run that it looks quite stupid. And it seems to be mandatory to go through breast enlarging operations in Azeroth.

But all of these are things that I can be patient with, there's no difference to any kind of popular culture, that's the way things are even in comics and movies. The main issue for me is that the stats are the same, that the gear doesn't divert when it comes to function. As long as a female warrior hits as hard and can take as many hits as a male one I'm happy.

What about the players behind the characters then? Are they as full of clichés as the game? No, generally not, I would say. Or rather: I don't think that I being a girl is treated worse or differently if I compare it to how I'm treated in society. Of course there are a few ignorant bastards that think that the natural place for a woman is the kitchen, and that doubt the existence of serious female gamers. But such idiots exists everywhere, you can find them at your work as well. In the game it's even easier to avoid them, you're free to put them on Ignore and problem is solved.

An example of gender prejudices that I do meet now and then is that other players seem to take it for granted that my other half plays WoW. He certainly doesn't, on the contrary he hates it, my playing is a constant subject for conflicts as in so many other homes of gamers. But there seems to exist an idea that if a girl is playing WoW it's because of her boy friend, not out of her own passion for it. When you think about it it's kind of funny that I so often get that question, if he plays WoW. I don't think that people in the same taken-for-granted way will ask male players if their girl friends play as well.

After all I don't really mind it so much, it doesn't upset me. And I don't care if the speech on the vent sometimes becomes a bit... well... male. After all, it's a team play, you have to take things easily sometimes, be forgiving. Else it just won't work.

On one occasion I went really mad. It was when an ex guildie went over every line and uttered a to say the least stupid commentary about girls being worse players than guys, since they weren't as goal oriented, competitive and motivated. Girls, according to him, would by default never reach the same levels as the guys. This made me furious, expecially since he himself was a perfect example of the opposite. Recently he had endured huge problems performing the task he was assigned on one of the bosses I Karazhan, being the cause for number of unnecessary wipes for the raid. A task that I knew that a female friend of mine would be able to do with her eyes shut. And now he of all people had the guts to generalize about the shortcomings of female players! Smack! I gave him a verbal box on the ears on TS. Probably he didn't change views, but at least from now on he was wise enough to keep his thoughts to himself.

What about sexual harassment, does that exist? Well, I've heard about girls that suffer from sloppy suggestions from pimpled teenage boys dreaming about cyber sex. But in reality I've never encountered it myself. And I haven't noticed the opposite either, that you could use your gender and flirt in order to get favours that male players wouldn't get. Or, to be honest, I haven't consciously acted that way myself. But what don I know, it's possible that I've been treated better sometimes without striving for it or even noticing. And if that is the case I guess I should be forgiven for it.

Gender is anyway for most of the time a non existing issue, even in the normally notorious pugs. One explanation could be the uncertainty of how things are: just because someone has a female char it doesn't necessary mean that there's a girl behind the keyboard. If you thoughtlessly start to flirt with her you could end up like a fool, it could as well be a guy making fun of you, taking screenshots that he wants to spread out over the world.

I've never done anything to hide my gender. For some reason I prefer to play female chars, it would feel odd for me to run around in a beard, since I somehow identify with my chars. If someone asks I never lie, but simply tell them that I'm a girl and what age I am. The last piece of information sometimes makes young boys gasp, especially if the question comes up after running an instance together. But we don't stick to the subject for long. As long as I do my job as a mage, show that I'm a competent player, I may be female, man or hermaphrodite, it just doesn't matter.

Are there any things that differ? Is there something that is typical for female or male players? No, honestly I don't think so. It's not only guys that compete with each other, looking at gear stats, fighting to get higher on the dps lists. Winner skulls you find also among us girls, I would say. But since we after all are in minority you probably won't notice us as much.

Maybe there is one small difference after all. I think it may be a bit more common among girls to have bad confidence, to underestimate their capacity as players. At least that is the only reason I can see why I until this day never have met any female player leading a raid or even marking in a 5 man instance. This fact annoys me a bit. There is some kind of exaggerated humility among some female players (I tend to show that behaviour too), we sort of apologize, "No, but little I shouldn't..." "You guys know that better..." When we should trust ourselves and take what we deserve just like anyone else.

Now it isn't the obvious choice to have a mage marking in an instance, so I guess I can blame that fact (in combination with that I'm relatively new as player) that I myself never have agreed to mark and lead. I guess I'm a bit lazy as well, after all it's more convenient to let another player handle most of the thinking and just obey orders. It takes time and effort to study an instance so well that you can remember the suitable kill order and what cc methods that work best on respective mob.

But at some point in my WoW life, when I've become a little more experienced, I'll push myself over that threshold as well. While I'll keep patting my cute pet rabbit, and by doing so probably confirming every prejudice you could possibly have about female players.

Prejudices are there to be questioned - and to be confirmed whenever you like. Yes, I have chosen to have a cute character with pink pony tails, a chicken in the bag, letting out hugs and kisses and emotes around her, behaving like a happy puppet, especially whenever a boss goes down. "Typically girls" probably some guys think, and it's possible that I lose some respect that way. But at the same time I'm just as interested as anyone else to watch the crits in the combat log, to study the gear and damage of myself and others and above all to challenge myself. I've got a lot of guts in me, I want to push my raiding as far as I can, I don't settle with tranquil flower picking and cooking, if anyone thought so. In short: I REFUSE to be sorted into a box, one way or another.Most of all I'm a human being, or maybe rather a WoW player (I guess we're a different kind). When I play the gender is subordinated. At least in the mind of Larísa.So for me the answer of the question I threw out in the beginning will be: No. I'm not the slightest discriminated and I'll never be. Frost nova, blink, turn around, icy veins, pull an trinket, BAM few godd spells and that idiot is down. Speechless.

Simple, isn't it?

A jump into the pool

Finally it was time to have a look at Sunwell Isle! When I mounted the bird in Ifronforge this Wednesday I was at first a bit frightened to see the long flightpath the way it appeared on the map. Would I be sweeping THAT far over open sea? It seemed as exciting as that occasion when I fell from the boat and kept swimming until I gave up from fatigue...

Thankfully the map didn't show reality. A shortcut made it feel rather like a teleportation, but with a softer landing in the end, where you could cruise over some now, unknown, suncovered beaches. So lovely the first time! Maybe not that lovely after a month, but who did think about that at a moment like this?

So there I was, far from alone. The framerate sank like a stone and I moved stiffly, almost blinking my way in different directions, trying to orient myself. To turn down the video settings helped a little, but oh, this was laggy.

"Do you think there are a lot of people? You should have seen when TBC was launched. There was a huge crowd around every single pig in Hellfire", my hardened coplayers declared.
For me this was enough of people. I picked up a few daily quests and run around killing things, thanks god in a group, since I still found it hard to get a picture of the place as well as the mobs in this crowding.

Afterwards it dawned upon me what the place reminded of, suiting, considering the name of the island: it was exactly the same feeling as at the outdoor public pool a hot summer day in the city where I live, where there's no lake suitable for swimming for miles. People stand packed in the water, trying to make a swimming stroke, but of course they just hit each other with the arms all the time. To actually swim is out of the question. You mostly stand there splashing a bit. That's exactly how things were at this island. To move systematically, in well considered fashion, was out of the question. Mostly I ran around aimlessly, sometimes I ran into a coplayer, sometimes into a mob (there were pretty many of them, in spite of the fact that there was a bizarre amount of corpses all over the place, I guess they spawned quickly). No, to make myself a better picture of the island I think I have to come back in a more odd time of the day, to explore it in my own pace.

What about Magisters Terrace? Yes, I got the opportunity to try it out the first day, together with my guild, which I was very grateful about, to pug it on the first day with this lag and general confusion would have been daring. We ran it through on normal, which you have to do in order to qualify for the heroic version. We didn't experience any big difficulties - we had a lot of cc (hunter-warlock-mage) and could easily manage the quite a few huge pulls. The environment was a mix of outdoor and indoor surroundings, where the gardens made you think of Scarlet Monastery, but with more colour and in blood elf style.
The movie thing in the middle of the instance was a nice thing, even though I doubt you'll see it more than once. Anyway I hope Blizzard will do what they'll been talking about, offering movie sequences in the instances in the expansion.

Most fun was - of course - the end boss, sending us upp in the air, swimming around among bubbles. There was birds flying, eggs spinning in the air, a lot of colour and effects. I felt a bit like being in the middle of one of the movies from Disneys more surrealistic periods. Dumbo and Alice in the Wonderland, I've always suspected was produced under the influence of... well... something.

Then the party was over and we took a handy shortcut out by an orb, being rewarded with a awesome gem each, for me a Runed Crimson Spinel that will come handy once the badges reward vendor opens up the shop. That was some bag of candies you brought home from this party! No less than two 20 slot bags had dropped on our way. And the gold kind of flooded during the night. A decent contribution to my funds, I'll see if it was an extraordinary happening or if it's a trend. Who knows, maybe it will be a bit easier to build up your savings from now on.
In spite of the crowd I must say that the first jump into the pool was nice. The fact that the game crashed every time I teleported from the island - well that's children diseases that we can forgive now in the very beginning.

Clueless about badges

The patch is happily downloaded and by now I'm pondering about my badges. That will be the subject for today's reflection.

For the time being I have about 150 badges, and I hope to get more in a decent pace. But if I should buy everything I would need about 560 badges, so I have to wrestle my mind, considering how to make the best out of my assets. What would give the best dividend per badge? Where are the bargains?

Unfortunately I don't see any obvious answers. Most of the items won't give me an upgrade on all of the stats, there's always one or another drawback (I guess they've done it intentionally, those cleaver game developers). And one thing is for sure: whatever I chose I'll have to look over all of my gear, to make sure it's got the right composition and the best gems for the new circumstances. I'll need new enchants for sure. So the upgrades won't just cost me badges, but also quite a lot of gold. But of course it's nice looking forward to certain gear upgrades!
The badges loot is debated on some forums. The veterans whine, finding it disturbing that casuals like us will be able to put our hands on gear with almost the same stats as the items that drop in the highest raid instances. They have worked so hard for their drops, and here we come, getting them "almost for free".

Here I've got an objection: the gear is far from free. Of course, if you're a member of a guild that has Kara on farm, giving you the possibility to run the daily heroic three times a week, you'll get about 50 badges a week without any problem. But that's not the way things are for a majority of the players! There are still loads of players that have never put their foot into Karazhan and that are happy if they manage to complete even one single heroic instance in a week.

For these people getting even 60 badges for a ring will be a huge project. And once they get it I think they deserve it just as well as any hardcore raider.

Another thing to remember is that there's a difference in what you feel for a piece of gear that you've had as a drop and something that has been crafted or bought for badges. At least when it comes to me. The drops have always a memory connected to them. Like the Prince dagger. I'll never forget the night I got that one, it was the first time we downed him at all. One of the happiest nights I've had in the game. Now there will be the Scryer's Blade of Focus with slightly better stats to buy for 150 badges. It will hardly be topping my wish list, it's simply a bit too expensive in comparison to the quite small upgrade. But let's say that I eventually will be literary bathing in badges, and actually will buy it. The stats will be better, but something will be missing. The nostalgia. The fact that it's equivalent to about 50 heroic instances won't help, there's nothing to hang up your memories on.

It's the same thing when I inspect others. If I see someone dressed up in badges loot it doesn't tell me anything, except for that he or she has been hard-working. Specific drops from raid bosses is a completely different thing. Aha! You've taken down the xx-boss in the x-instace. Cool!

So even though I guess it will be more common to see players in full epic gear with great stats, I don't think it will diminish the value or feeling of the gear that has been acquired by hard work in raid instances.

The badge loot is only a threat for players with very low self esteem. It gives more guilds the possibility to come a little further in the game before the expansion than they would have else. And why should you not let them do that?

Fixed and patched

The Day has arrived! The Sunwell patch is rolling out right now and when we switch on the pc tonight it will be as exiting as always on a patchday.

First thing: will the patch download painlessly? It seems as though the preloading has gone smoothly, but you never know. For me the patching is usually quite slow. Often I get a yellow light and a " you appear to be behind a firewall"-message, until the computer finally gives up and let the new information, mildly protesting.

Second: the nervous waiting to see what has happened to all the addons. Which ones do still work and which have become just a mess? Since the last huge patch I've put down quite a great job into improving my UI and I'm afraid a lot of this will be a waste.

But optimist as I am of course I hope to pass those obstacles and that I tonight will be able to taste some of the new content. It will be lovely, to say the least.

The very thought of getting access to a new area makes me smile. And the idea that the place will change when the server is progressing is simply wonderful. A world in development! We want more of that!

There will be loads of new daily quests that I of course have to check out some time, although I doubt that I'll make them all. More attractive is the new five man instance - I wonder how fast I'll be able to run it? And will it be enough to run it once in normal mode to be attuned to make it in heroic? I haven't found int out yet, but I guess I'll see.The 25 man instance is something I can just forget about, it's far beyond my reach. And the fact that they've skipped the attunement for Black Temple is nice, but in reality it doesn't make a huge difference, it doesn't take me one step closer to actually running it.

But there are so many other things to be happy about. Above all: all the new gear that I'll be able to buy for badges. That is the question that most of all is is occupying me and any other player with badges in the bank. What should I chose?

To be continued.

Very Special Moments

When is the very best moment of the whole raid? Is it in the second, when the end boss, the main target of the night, finally seems to have decided to let go of the 1 percent stadium, that he somehow strangely always seems to stuck on, when I take his last breath, stumbles a few steps and falls to the ground and the cheering starts on the vent?Or is it when you for the only time in history roll 99 and sweep away that missing set piece you've been longing for months to come up?

Or maybe the magical moment is during actually raiding. In the middle of the fight, when the vent goes silent. You're focusing completely on what you're doing, you're absorbed by the game, you have full control of all of your meters, o the fight, of your coplayers, and you know that everybody else has it too. You are a cog in a fantastic machinery, a team that is using it's full potential. You may not realize it then, when you're in the middle of it, you have other things to think about, but afterwards you'll know that it was in that very moment that you were as happy as you'll ever be in the game.

Or maybe it's just like it is in Christmas. Never is the Christmas as wonderful as late, late the night before Christmas Eve (the day we celebrate in Sweden), when the smell of the traditional freshly cooked ham is spreading through the house, when all the gifts are wrapped up and you've done verses on all of them, when the house is cleaned (well, a bit at least), the Christmas tree is decorated, the fridge is full of food, and the relatives are still friends. The preparations are done and all the expectations are still there, all the possibilities. That is exactly how it is the moment before the first pull. Everything is in place, everybody has sharpened their weapons, taken their boosting drugs, adjusted the bags, thought over the strategies and taken a deep breath. Focus. Presence. End of muddling. You know that the raid will happen, there's no late no-show-up, no dc, no ill-just-fix-this-thing. Now the adventure will start - and no matter if it will be a tough learning-a-new-boss-fight-night or a more easy we've-got-the-boss-on-farm-night anything can happen. The parcels are still there, unopened. The magic is in the air. The play can start.

Of course with raiding there'll always be a lot of very Unspecial Moments. Moments of waiting and fuzz. Endless corpse runs. Things just don't work out. Prolonged discussions about loot. Information on boss strategies that you've heard one hundred times before, that will turn into something like the security review on an air plane. It's hard to focus on, even though you know that you should.

But in the memory still the golden moments will stay. And it's hard to pick one above the other, they're rather like a pearl necklace of small pills of happiness, from the first pull to the last loot. The necklace that make us willing to pay the price and grind for gold, gear and consumables.
Very Special Moments

Larísa ranks five man instances

Which one is your favourite instance? That is an endless subject for discussion in many WoW forums.

For some reason the lists are often topped by Deadmines. I can't help thinking that nostalgia is one of the reasons. Maybe you thinking about your first experiences from instance playing - the pleasure of novelty, the fascination, the challenge. But certainly it's got charm. I like the variation of the rooms, there are a lot of small cleaver details, like the one where you open one of the doors by using a cannon. And the boat - yes I get as happy every time I see it, no matter if I'm about to boost someone or be boosted myself. Suddenly there's light and space, pirates speaking with a funny accent. And a smart door to the back for a smooth exit. Less charming is the endless corpse run from the graveyard and the risk for a poor gnome renounce of sense of direction to get lost in the mine labyrinth.

Another favourite in the old world is Zul Farrak. I appreciate Egyptian temples, and of course the stair scene is very vivid in my memory. It's simply a lovely instance, just as Stratholme is, although it's got a completely different style with all those rats and dark, cobblestoned streets.
Unfortunately I suspect that the later one nowadays is sadly left out, since Outland is awaiting when you're getting close to level 60. If you're going to Stratholme it's probably not to gear up, but rather to feel the atmosphere. And that's no bad reason when you think about it.

Instances that are less attractive in the old world... Well that would be Stockade. I've never understood the idea about that place at all. It's hard to find anything more static, predictable, unimaginative, yes even boring. 19 identical prison cells and some guys messing around in the corridors.... AND? I ask with my most whining teenage voice. That the situation in the middle of Stormwind is brilliant doesn't make up for the boredom of it.

Over to TBC. Here it's hard to decide clear winners or losers. Durnhold Keep at least is a winner. I like there's a thread, a story that is moving forward throughout the instance. It's not just a bunch of bosses that are put there like in a museum exhibition. Something's happening all the time. And the outdoor setting gives an extra plus, there's no risk for claustrophobia. Black morass gets a high grade due to the intensity of it, although you can hardly say it's varied.
I like large, challenging pulls. They make my mage sheeps popular, they demand perfect cooperation and - sometimes, when things go wrong - improvisation. That's why Shattered Halls is an instance I like to go, especially with a rogue in the party, so I don't have to wade through slime.

The Netherstorm instances are also top rated, mostly thanks to the wonderful resurrection place just beside it (completely different from the boring pipe swimming in Zangar) and the free health and mana potions that drop there. Perhaps I've ran Mechanar a few times too many to give it a high rating. Then I prefer Botanica, with all it's flowers, bright colours and transparent floors - it's a bit like paradise, and I laugh every time I'm polymorphed into a flower. (Talking about that, shouldn't the end boss rarely drop a book for mages to train polymorph flower? Please, Blizzard?)

All in all, it's hard to pinpoint The Best Instance. It depends on the shape of the day, my mood and - above all - the group. The right group can make any instance into a pleasure - while a terrible group (read PUG) can destroy everything. I think my feeling towards the instances is coloured unconsciously by the experiences I've had. And some instances I've done too little to be able to give them any judgement. Auchenai Crypts. Have I done it at all into the end? I doubt it, and I know I'm not alone in that. How come that everybody skips that very instance? Is it ugly and boring? Or maybe it's as simple as it has a strange name that nobody knows exactly how to pronounce? Sometimes I suspect that is the real reason.

Now, as most of us I guess, I'm longing for the new five man instance coming in the next patch, Magister's Terrace. It's supposed to be outdoors and you'll be able to see the stars, Wowwiki tells us on the strategy page that is already there for us.

Oh, I wish I was there! No instance is as attractive as the one that is still virgin.

Owned in Arena

Oh, oh, what a noob I was yesterday when I was running around with a flag attached to my bottom, trying to catch a glimps of the opponent team.

Our little improvised 2x2 team had six losses in a row and the fastest match was over in like... 10 seconds. All because of me. The opponents probably just couldn't believe their eyes. What kind of a strange little mage was that, that was merrily strolling around, and then stopped up, just stood there like a statue? What was she actually doing? It was supposed to be a match, not an execution. Why didn't she show any resistance at all?

They couldn't know that they had been lucky enough to encounter the worst PvP player on the whole Stormrage server. Being teamed up with an excellent Arena veteran of a rogue wasn't enough to save it. It takes two for a tango, as the saying is.

What was the problem? Well, first of all I think it was my lack of mobility. To see the targets quickly, to catch them, get myself into spellcasting distance and actually DO something. There's no time for standing and contemplating - nobody else does it. One thought too many - and you're owned - believe me.

Then I must admit that I had a hard time to find my way at all in there. "Take left and run up the ramp to the bridge", my partner suggested when one of the matches was about to begin. Still somehow I managed to miss the ramp, run in way too far and got completely lost.

Mind you also, neither my gear, nor my spec is suited for Arena games. Larísa was built for raiding purposes, without any compromises. And the same thing counts for my spells and keybindings. I do have for instance Dragons Breath on hot key, but it's not one of the weapons I use daily. When I throw it I have to think first, it doesn't come naturally.

Did I improve? Well, maybe. A little, if you put it nicely. I got a feeling of what Arena matches are all about. I had another macro on my repertoire, a combination of frost-nova and blink, that isn't bad to let off a second faster than before. In one of the games I actually managed to first counterspell and then sheep an opponent - and keep him sheeped, which helped my teammate to take down another player. Yay!

Above all I got the insight that I need to practice, practice, practice. And I actually don't believe that I need to run real Arena games to do that. I should start from the very beginning, by duelling. So from now on I'll stop doing as I've used to do by instinct, clicking "decline" whenever someone challenges me. I'll grab the opportunity to duel whenever I can if I'm not occupied doing other things.

Of course I'll be humiliated, but who cares? The main thing is that I'll learn, I'll improve little by little and slowly crawl up from bottom of the trashbin of lousy PvP-players. My intention is not to climb the ranking lists or to be able to say that I've won so and so many matches. It's not to enhance my PvP statistics in Armory (right now it looks like if I haven't a single hk, which is wrong, I've actually killed 687 players, but there seems to be a minimum level to be shown).

No, If I'll improve in PvP its only because I want to become better in PvE. I want to know my own class better as well as understanding other classes. And above all - I want to become a bit quicker in my feet, more movable. Right now I often find myself just standing there, like tired and heavy, just throwing my fireballs over and over again from the far distance. Many times that works very well - but not always. Some fights demand that you're more like a jumping frog - something that seems to come natural for PvP players.

Playing PvP is good for you, no doubt, but is it fun? Well, that adrenaline rush that my partner enthusiastically talked about I didn't feel at all. Of course I needed to be focused and present, but it wasn't close to the feeling when you take the last dps out of your mana pool, when the raid boss got a few percent hp left and the major part of the raid is dead. When you're on the verge between success and despair after a long evening of hard work, and when one single crit in the right moment can be crucial. That is what I mean by a kick!

But what do I know, maybe a horde rouge got the adrenaline rush of his life yesterday by taking down Larísa. Good for him. See it as an easter gift from Larísa.

PS I now noticed that Arcane Brilliance has published a lovely article: 10 things every Mage should know before going into the Arena. If you read it it was only expected that I would die. If you don't have a healer in your party, you're always the first target. The opponent will kill you before you can say Iceblock, the writer says. So true. But you get quite a few good suggestions in the article and I'll try to learn from them. Who knows, next time I may survive a whole minute!