[WoW] Timeless Isle? More like Time WASTE Isle!

So the Timeless Isle appeared on the scene in patch 5.4 and, true to its intent, promises content for those with nothing left to do, and an easy way to gear-up alts for those new to the expansion (such as me). It is not without its flaws though, and two of them have become glaringly apparent after the first few days of playing. The first is the crazy level of grind the Shaohao rep can be, and the second is the mixed multi-tag/single-tag enemies in the zone.

[WoW] How to be a d**k on the Timeless Isle

As my somewhat perturbed tweets indicated this morning, I encountered an unfortunate exercise in dickish-ness this morning while doing my Shaohao daily. Another player acted in a way that fell somewhere between callous cruelty and outright selfishness. Before I judged I tried to apply Hanlon's Razor, and yet the blade couldn't seem to cut it.

[RP] What good is a Background?

I am of the opinion that a character's background in an RP is one of the most important parts of the character. Certainly their base personality and concept is important, but both of those are informed and honed via the background. I once met another player who genuinely wondered "Well what's the point? It's all the past." So I thought I'd address that. I'll use references to WoW because they are very familiar to me.

[WoW] Looking for Repugnants

So a luck Burden of Eternity drop resulted in my eligibility for the Siege of Ogrimmar LFR. Eager to see the newest, shiniest raid I jumped in this morning. I can't entirely complain about how things went given that we only wiped once on the Sha of Pride. Still, what never ceases to amaze me is how much verbal abuse goes on in LFR and how generally unnecessary it is.

[LoL & SMITE] A tale of two characters, or, "Who the Hel is that?"

So in the past few weeks two of the bigger MOBAs have each introduced a new female character...well in one case it's a rework of an old one, but given that the character got a complete revamp, I think it counts for the purpose of this post. The characters are Jinx from League of Legends, and Hel from Smite respectively. You see the two show fundamentally different design philosophies; one takes a step forward, the other a step back. Yar, there be satire ahead; and remember, we can be critical of media while still enjoying it. Also, the horse isn't dead yet!

I'm officially a Twit....ter...er?

As the title says, I've gone to Twitter, a move I once said I'd never do. Good thing no one recorded it and I didn't ad...mit...to...damnit. Either way, come find me at 0utofBeta and tweet: your thoughts, comment on posts, tell me how terrible my last post was, discuss your fantasy sports league, share brownie recipes (keep it legal kids), or just say hello!

Warframe's Gender Depictions, or, "Wut r u doing?"

So I've been enjoying Warframe quite a bit since I was introduced to it at PAX this year. Given my post history, I figured that at some point I would want to examine it for how it deals with gender issues. Overall the game isn't sending any messages, and it's depictions are actually better than I thought at the outset...so lets dive in.

Laughter inducing Abilities/Powers

These are dark times: Breaking Bad is over, the US government is shut down, and no one seems to be able to see why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch. So I think it's time for a post with a little more levity in it! Every game has one or two abilities that make me laugh, they're the abilities/weapons/powers/whatever that somehow managed to get from a whiteboard and into the game and yet something about them makes me laugh hysterically when used appropriately (or inappropriately). Maybe they are meant to be taken completely seriously but something about them just lends itself to situational humor.

[WoW] Aaaaand...I went back.

Okay so I am a hypocrite; well not entirely, the mulling and dithering I experienced did eventually result in me returning to WoW. However the return was through the 10 day trial, wherein I made a panda monk and I punched, kicked, and rolled my way through the old world, Outland, and much of Northrend before the trial expired. Downside is I didn't actually make it to Pandaria.