Patch Day! 3.3.5

Yay! Patch 3.3.5 is here! I am so excited! All of my friends across the servers can now talk to me easily! Well waiting for the servers to open I figured that I would film a new video blog! Tell me what you think! Much love to all those who are reading and commenting! I would love to know what you all think, so tell me!

Zephy

Love.Peace.WoW

Hey all!

Time for an update with our lovely Zephyira. She is now in an actual raiding guild on the server. Things went to down hill shortly after the first post and I ended up taking her out of Midlo and placing her in the guild Nicotine, where I was quickly asked to be a raid leader and an Officer in the guild. Things are going fairly well we are currently working on getting our two raids set in stone so that those who are running with us have the chance to actually do progression. We would like to be able to get the Lich King down here shortly and start running Hard modes.

Been spending the past few weeks trying to level my warrior Zerenity on Luella's server so that I can have an 80 over there to play with her. Well at the same time making sure that I spend enough time on Zephy so that I am not considered MIA and lose my Raid Leader spot. I would be super sad then :( To level her fairly quickly I have been running random dungeons for a few hours each night. Something that I have noticed is that a decent group is REALLY hard to come by.

For example I had just signed on and qued up for my first random of the night, instant que because I am leveling her prot, enter Scarlet Monastery: Graveyard and I get a healer that is at first blowing up chat talking so I did the nice thing and asked if anyone minded big pulls with no reply. I go about pull the first too and get them down then pull the first half of the next room. The healer is to busy yelling at everyone else in chat to heal me and I die. He then proceeds to turn around and yell at me in chat saying "U SUX STOOPID TANK!" I laughed and watched as he left and requed us, thinking to myself had he just shut and healed there would have been no problem. I am not a bad tank I know what I can pull and hold without dying and I have a nice reaction time from years of playing a hunter and having to act quickly.

I go through a few more groups then end up in a decent one, progressing nicely through Graveyard. About to run down to the boss and low and behold there is one of the three rare spawns, Ironspine. (At this point I had yet to see him and I had run it a good twenty times in the past few nights). So we kill him fairly quickly and he drops his chest piece, Ironspine's Ribcage! I am so excited at this point because this is a HUGE upgrade for me, and I am the only Mail wearer in this group! So I roll Need and people are telling me gratz when I look down at the rolls in my chat and see that the Rogue in the group had rolled need too....How douch is that?? I am now pissed at this point this rogue had run off to kill a mob and I had to chase after to save him, attacked when I said no attacking and now had just stolen one of the best upgrades in chest pieces for me at this point. I did the nice thing and asked very calmly in Chat if he would mind handing it over since it wasn't something he could use, and got ignored. Everyone in the run was asking him to open it. I even opened a trade window and asked him in whispers to hand it over. At this point I was so pissed at this jerk that I was about ready to just leave the run all together and make them suffer through a wait for a new tank. I decided instead to wait the two mins that is left on the timer for the rogue and kick him. Still didn't get me my chest piece but it made my bad day turned even worse night feel a little better :P

Going on that night run two more randoms with fail healers and am about to give up for the night when on the last try I get this awesome healer, Lunai - Deathwing. Not only was she able to allow me to pull large groups she could keep me topped off to full with no problem at all! I ran for another two hours that night with her and we ended up talking in whispers. Turns out she is a real girl gamer herself! It made me smile to think that the best healer I had seen in a while in the lower runs was a girl and all those guys that we had dealt with had no idea that the two people keeping them alive their tank and healer were in all reality girls! Anyways if you are reading this Lunai you are an awesome healer and I hope to get to run with you again!

The sad thing that comes from all this is that people in game have become really elitest. I remember leveling in the days of Vanilla WoW and being able to team up with just about anyone and they were willing to help and to teach. Now you get in a random group and somewhere in there there is usually one person who thinks that they are better then everyone else and is going to comment on everything that everyone else is doing instead of watching what they are doing. I don't mind the constructive comments that actually help better people! I do mind the "I am better then you" and "n00b" comments. All of us were learning at one point or another. The moral of this story?? Be careful you never know who is in your group with you! Just because they don't have BoA's doesn't mean they don't know what they are doing and who knows you might just get blogged about! :P

Peace. Love. WoW

Zephyi

Video Blogs! Take One!

So me and Luella figured we would try a video blog this time around, and see how well it goes! We had a lot of fun doing it. And with Luella's awesome editing skills it turned out totally AWESOME! So watch and enjoy! /kiss

I hope y'all enjoyed it and come back for more!

Peace. Love. WoW.
/kiss

Zephyi

Birthday Recount and Games in the News!

Birthday Recount, Hello 23!

My Birthday was on the 30th of April and I have to say that this was a pretty awesome Birthday! Well I guess it didn't start out so well I will admit that. That's right Zephyi got broken up with the day before her birthday :( BUT it's okay! I am over it! We decided that we are better off as friends. :p

Anyways! On with the most amazing things! A few of my in game WoW friends got together and helped me get the last few achievements I needed to get the final Achievement Glory of the Hero! just after Midnight on my Birthday. Which worked out amazingly. They spent a total of about three hours helping me get Abuse the Ooze, My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time (in which Skadi dropped Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake and Killerpalli won the roll but gave it to me as my birthday gift :D) Ruby Void, The Incredible Hulk and just after midnight on my birthday it's self we got Zombiefest! Winning me my achievement and my Reins of the Red Proto-Drake! Yay! I have the most amazing friends sometimes!

Zephyi on her Red Proto-Drake

I got the normal gifts from family, you know new converse, jeans, and girly stuff from the mother and sisters :p The greatest gift ever came from the Best Friend Luella! She got me a watch with World of Warcraft Logo in it *giggles* she was so excited to have it sent all the way from Hong Kong! Which I find absolutely amazing personally. Along with the watch she got me the hunter pin from J!NX, the ultimate stop for all gamer/geek/nerd ware! So that I can represent my class of choice!

Luella's Gift To Me

Speaking of Luella and Birthdays! For her birthday this year I came up with the idea of making her Hearthstone Brownies! I figured that she would love them and she did. I also got her the first book of the Warcraft Series Day of The Dragon, that way she can start to work her way through the lore herself instead of turning around and asking me :p I joke! She can ask me at any time, I love her questions because she makes me think more about the lore and what is going on in the world!

Hearthstone brownies, made by yours truly!

Alright! Enough about Birthdays! Recently well reading through a one of my favorite sites The Jace Hall Show I was shocked to find a two posts on two different news casts done by CNN, attacking gaming and more specific on one of the World of Warcraft it's self.

This kind of stuff really upsets me. As Jace so nicely put it:
"It is my opinion that human beings are capable of creating destructive relationships and associations with almost anything. Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain is a fundamental trait of the human condition. This trait can occasionally direct people toward the use of escapism. Sometimes this can be a necessary mode of survival and very healthy – other times is can lead to counterproductive personal and social behavior."
Meaning that anyone can addicted to anything that holds a place of interest in their world. Be it drugs, gambling, reading, drinking, sex, working out, watching movies, and even eating. Yes, video games can be among those things but to right attack World of Warcraft and blame it for all this kids problems is WRONG! Obviously there was issues there before hand. His parents even said that he was what we would refer to as a "nerd" and often times, high school and society can be hard on people who tend to fall under that label. Now I am the first person to hate labels but the reality is that yes people are treated differently depending on their "social tag". As his mother states Ben was "far more animated then we had seen him in years." Is there something so wrong with a game allowing someone to find themselves in the world?? And the fact that the people here are stating that he had become "anti-social" is wrong. To play and to actually excel in WoW you must be social. Just because you aren't sitting there talking to the person face to face doesn't mean you aren't being social. In fact for people with social anxiaty disorders it is a lot easier to talk over a voice system then to sit there in an uncomfortable position and have a face to face conversation. Here they can be themselves without having to worry about a panic attack or stuttering or so many other things. And eventually it gets to be easier to talk and helps build that self esteem you need to function in society.

What's the difference between talking to someone on the phone and talking to them in game?? A lot of people in today's world want to sit here and say that games are so bad because they stunt social abilities but the reality is that they actually help. To get something done in any online game where you are playing with others you need to be able to explain it to the fullest and allow everyone to understand what is going on and for that you need social skills!

Now yes, Ben did get addicted to the game, but like I said before there is something else that needs to be looked at here. Addiction is not because of the game itself, the depression is not brought on by the game. There is a larger factor here, you need to step back and take a look at the family and the life around the person. As the report itself says, most people in this case use the game as an "escape hatch" here they are in a fantasy world where people look at their stats and what they can bring to the game, not at their apperance, not at if they can sit there and talk to you face to face without having a panic attack, and it offers all these people a way to relax and function. And yes some of these people do get addicted but I reiterate it is not the game causing these people to get "addicted" it's something else going on in there life and with them as a person. To out right attack the game and EVERYONE that plays it is wrong, and a poor choice on CNN.

The problem that most people in society have with video games and the like is that they don't understand how someone can sit there and play for hours. Now here is my point, I don't understand how someone can sit there and watch a mindless TV show for hours and hours a night. At least with gaming, I have to think. I have to react. My mind is functioning. And specifically with World of Warcraft I have to be social. Not just sit and stare a box that lights up feeding me information, that mind you tends to be very bias. But I don't attack you for watching the TV do I?? No, I smile and I let you have your TV shows well I sit there and play my video games.

Another issue to look at here. There would have been no issue in the parents eyes with Ben had he gone to school gotten the grades and came home and did his homework and then sat in the sollitued of his room for hours on end depressed as can be. The fact that he was affected by a game and for once in his life was "animated" well doing something caught their attention. Ben was one of the unlucky few who couldn't find a balance in playing and life itself. In all honesty I feel bad for the kid because for those few months he was something! He had self esteem and a social life, and made memories that will last him the rest of his life. Had he just found that balance.....he would have been okay.

Now onto the third and final thing of the day! CNN's second video on Gaming!

First of all let me say that those people that walked by, even the lady he helped are all the scum of society. How hard is it to pull out a cell phone and call nine-one-one?? Not hard at all. You don't even have to stick around just give them a point to arrive at and leave.

Now here is my problem with CNN. Why attack video games over this?? What the hell does video games have to do with this at all?? You want to look at something where violence is being pumped into society, look at the news! It's not often that I see a "nice" news report anymore. It's all this person killed this person and this person raped and pillaged the land, and so on and so forth. I mean I turn on the News today in the middle of the day when children are normally getting off of school and what do I see?? A sex act happening in the class room and the teacher doing nothing to stop it! A husband murdering his wife in cold blood. A male teacher raping a child. And to top it all off a MOTHER raping and killing her daughters playmate and then burying the child's body off somewhere so no one will find it. And yea video games are the spawn of the devil that makes perfect sense to me, what about you?? (please note sarcasm :D)

Alright for all you gamers out there one last thing! We need to support the fist amendment rights in games and sign the petition to protect them! There is no way this is fair to allow them to sensor what goes into our games and what we can or can not play as a society! That would be like them telling us what we can or can not ready! That is called Book Burning and I don't know about y'all but last time I check we do not live in Fahrenheit 451.


Zephyi

Hello! And Welcome!

Hello! And welcome!

Well let me tell you a little about myself, and what I am all about. (This first post is going to show you all about me, and give you an insight to my background) I am a true blue girl gamer and very proud of myself for that. Not only am I a gamer, but I am one of the all time classic Nerd/Geek girls, and I embrace this. It is who I am and very happy with that. :p

I love Science Fiction! Everything from books to movies and in between. Of course I love Fantasy too, I am a huge lore nerd on all the games I play. I am currently working my way through all of the World of Warcraft Books so that I can know the lore front to back by the time Cataclysm releases.

Girls and games have a long history of not "belonging together" as one of my favorite comic artist put it in her first ever strip, and that to me is so sad. I have been a gamer all my life, at the age of three my daddy put an Atari control in my hand and let me play a game of Centipede, it was True Love at first play. And since then history.

Meet Zephyira, my one and only 80 Currently. She is an Orc Marksmen Huntress in World of Warcraft and my pride and joy. I have spent a lot of time getting her to the point that she is at. With a current gear score of 5752 according to the add on GearScore, which means that I am fully geared to run ICC25 Heroic Mode! I am rocking the PvE world. But currently because of school and work I am only running a 10m progression with my guild Midlo Mafia. They are a decent bunch of people. They have a long way to go to get to my standard of raiding but maybe one day we will get there. I am a classicly trained raider, meaning I played during the days of Molten Core, and remember what it is like to be a hard core raider and have no life other then school work and WoW. Not that its much different now, still pretty much school work and WoW :p just a lot more School now.

I am Horde at heart but I am guilty of playing alliance every now and then to play with my Best Friend in real life on here server so that I can at least keep up with what is going on over there. LOK'TAR OGAR! The funny thing about that is that the guild she is in is actually half way decent.....alright I give they are awesome! They are already on the Lich King in two of the ten man runs, which is better then a lot of the Alliance guilds on my server, heck its better then the Horde ones too! No worries we will get there one day!

As you can see from the above World of Warcraft is my game of choice currently but it's not the only game I have/do play. Like I said I am a classic gamer, I currently own a SNES, a N64, a Game Cube, a PS2, and a PS3. I had a one point in time (which are gone now mainly because they died :/ ) an Atari, an Intellivision, a NES, a Sega Genesis, a Famcom, a PS, and an XBox. My next system to own will be XBox360! Until then I get my fix playing my Best Friends. :D Followed by a Wii! In hand held games I have a "Brick" a.k.a GameBoy, a GameBoy Color, a GameBoy Advanced, a GameBoy SP, a DS (yes it's PINK!) I had a Sega Game Gear too but after years of play it died :(

Now my all time favorite game would to this day have to be Super Mario Bros. 3! I never had the original one (at that time the games I got to play were whatever my Cousin and Daddy wanted because girls and games were frowned upon and my family was still trying to convince me to be a "true girl") but I found and fell in love with the game in Super Mario All Stars for the SNES. Sadly I now have three copies of the game and none of them work :( It's okay through, give it a bit and I will find a new copy! Alright! Other then Super Mario Bros. 3 I have many games I love. I won't sit here and name them all because you would be scrolling FOREVER, so I will just leave it I love every type of video game (other then sports games, only because I am a huge advocate of being active! and would much rather go outside and play then play it on a TV.) Yes even the "shoot'em up" games, in all honesty the bloodier the game is the happier Zephyi be!

Like most girls in the "nerd" "geek" or "gamer" world I am considered an oddity, and have had my fair share of "OMG! You're a girl!"s and the "What?! Girls Don't Play"s along with the all classic "You're Not a Girl"s. And have had to prove myself more times then I care to think about. From tournaments at the local Game Stop, to the comic shops and booths at Anime Expo thinking "Girl = Shojo". Yes every now and then I enjoy a girly comic but in all honesty give me the action and the fights over the kissy kissy!

I personally not only had to convince the world around me, but the people most important in my life, that this is what I love. Along with the convincing them that this is my passion I had to compromise in some places, my family wanted a daughter and a sister, which I can respect and this worked out amazing for me. I am what I lovingly refer to as "Geek Chic"! A look, and a lifestyle that embraces being a girl in the world of "geekery". Currently I am seeing this "style" more and more as people realize that girls are openly playing games now, and more and more we are seeing the "Pretty Girls" admitting to a love affair with the Geek world! It's no longer just for guys! This is in part thanks to girls like Felicia Day, the Frag Dolls and Michele Boyd, who are showing that "Pretty Girls" play too!

It's okay to be the smart girl. It's okay to play Video Games. It's okay to enjoy a game of D&D or any tabletop game. It's okay to be a techy, and still be a girl.

Zephyi