[Gnome]: /target Lord Marrowgar, /rasp

I have a confession to make.

I have yet to set foot into the forbidding halls of Icecrown Citadel and -already- I have a seething hatred for the very first boss -- that swirling mass of frost, souls, and clattering bones, Lord Marrowgar, Guardian of the Spire of the Frozen Throne.

"How?" you may ask, dear reader, "How could such a petty, small-change boss cause you so much grief, especially since -you- haven't even raided Icecrown?!"

The answer, dear reader, is simple and two-fold: [Lord Marrowgar Must Die!] and the Frost Emblems that one would receive as a reward. Trivial, simple, penny-change things that most raiders would take for granted are getting me all tied up in knots... and, unfortunately, it is my fellow raiders who pay the price.

Now, on the whole, I'm pretty laid back when it comes to raiding. PUG or planned, I keep my mouth shut, do my job, and speak only when spoken to when I raid as a general rule, and when ever possible, I maintain an overall easy-going, helpful, and quiet disposition, with a little random humor or assertion of authority when needed. As one of the older players in our guild, that disposition is part of my way of leading by example.

However, I recognize that I am one of those players that a) will push, and push really hard if I want something immediately, b) will start cracking whips if something is planned and no one is preparing for zero hour, or c) will flip out something ugly if something interferes with or outright erases a planned event I have been looking forward to. Generally, though, there aren't any complaints or complications if only one of the above were to occur. Any tantrums really only last about a couple minutes at the worst, and once things get going raidwise, I'd care less about kills, quests, drops, or emblems. I'm enjoying it, and I know everyone I raid with is having fun, too.

Lord Marrowgar, however, brought with him a whole string of complications, and for the sake of not identifying anyone else here, I will not go into detail what those said complications were. Let's just say that when they arose, it got ugly fast, and Marrowgar showing up on our server three times already only made the situation worse. That was on top of Real Life issues, including having a planned day off from work getting eaten up by an emergency at my dayjob.

Let's face it, no one likes getting chewed up by any one raid member, be it over something as silly as losing a day off followed by being unable to run with the rest of the guild for trivial bits of gear and emblems. It's also understandable if it's a tank or a DPS chewing up the raid out of frustration... but when it's the central healer exploding, -don't- bring him to a raid. You're only asking for grief. Why? Because I know this as fact first-hand.

Yes, as of this writing, I'm our guild's main healer and our guildmaster's second-in-command. That's a load of power, morally and administratively, and I'm old enough to know better than to force my fellow guildmates into doing something they felt they weren't ready for. Everyone performs better when they're enjoying themselves, one learns -- the healer included. Unfortunately, in my manic irritation, forcing my hand exactly what I did that night, and once I realized what I was doing, I immediately I regretted it. I was committing what I consider a cardinal sin of raiding: forcing a group of raiders to do something they aren't going to enjoy.

Worse, telling another guildie or raider that they were the cause of one man's descent into nerdrage before a raid even starts is bad form. There is no control over anyone in that situation, save for one's self... So I did the only responsible thing I could do once my douchebag behavior was identified.

I logged out. If I stayed, the raid would have not been enjoyable, much less successful.

It's been several days since the incident, and I've have since been devoting a large portion of my playtime on my Gnomish alt... and loving it. Part of the reason might be the general solitude I had recently due to playing with him, and that is coupled to the light-hearted attitude that seems to follow gnomes around persistently. Most of all, though, is that my gnome has given me a chance to think and understand exactly why I reacted so violently a while ago. Of course, now that I've gotten an idea, that I have managed to wrap my head around what and why, I realize that sooner or later, I'm going to have to go back to my main and face the other factors of what triggered my explosion.

Frankly, though, I'm really in no hurry to return to the endgame, and it's not because of what I might face... oh no! Ludicrous as it may sound or read, I'm just having too much fun on my gnome! I don't know what it is that I did to him when I started tweaking certain character details, but I suspect that I must have discovered some sort of magical secret combination that helps make playing a gnome so enjoyable. Blizzard is sneaky like that...

So, Lord Marrowgar, consider yourself fortunate. You now have one less raider to worry about coming into Icecrown to dismantle your sorry bony arse and making off with all your pretty purple treasures.

I've got more important things to deal with.

*blows dust off blog*

*coughs and waves hand around to help clear the air*

*looking at the ancient entries and shakes his head*

I think it's high time for a change.

When I opened this blog, this was meant to be a sort of practice arena and showcase. In those years, I wanted to be a published author, and my ear was constantly turned to the suggestions of a particular family member of mine. Since then, it's bounced from day-to-day events, to little bits of personal fiction, to sad and depressing rants questioning my life, existence, and future despite intending this blog being a happy place where I can help give other people a smile.

Truth be told, though, I knew something was missing when I was writing articles for this blog, though I adamantly didn't want to acknowledge it -- it was missing a purpose, a passion, a focus.

Blogs, I've learned, tend to be about one subject most of the time. Granted, the authors do drift to other subjects every now and then, but they always come back to the heart of their blog. In that light, I will confess that I never really enjoyed focusing on one subject exclusively, and I will also confess to being rather adamant about not having favorites (as I say I don't have room for such.) ... Well, that mindset will come to an end.

I will still have little fictlet articles with Mout, AJ, and Ryan, but what I want to do is turn my attention to something I've put my time and attention to for nearly 2 and a half years --

-- World of Warcraft.

I hear cheers. I hear boos. I hear groans, and the occasional "GET A LIFE, NERD!" from the audience.

Look, I have a pretty good idea how you feel about me turning my attentions to a time-wasting game-world like WoW. I also know why people hate it, and why others think it's a dead horse that Blizzard keeps beating. I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel the same way about other franchises of this magnatude; ie "Transformers" or "LOTR" or even "DC" or "Marvel".

However, unless you want me to write about my life in general (with all the drama and the financial difficulties, me flunking every class every college offers, and sounding like almost every other half-bored, "please-feel-sorry-for-me" blog that's eating up internet space),you will find that my adventures and misadventures in the world of Azeroth have been some of the memorable moments of my life. True, the world is digital, but the people I share them with are real... and for me, that makes the memories real as well.

Now that you know what I'm wanting to write about, you might be wondering what I like to do on Azeroth. All right, all right... I know. Not all of you are, but for those who want to know, -yes-, I raid. I run instances. I make gold. I quest. All that jazz. All 'normal' Warcraft players do all the stuff... and since I'm on a PvE server, that's pretty much almost all I do, and I enjoy it. But truth be told, my heart isn't really all there. It's nice to run around, killing stuff almost mindlessly, talking over kill strategies, and blowing through Heroic dungeons and raids -- but had I my druthers, I'd move at a slower pace, take in the scenery, and get into character.

More groans and boos? Good. There's the door. There are other blogs that cater to you.

Yes, reader. I am a Role-player. And a proud one. The guild I run with as of the time of this article's penning was founded 3 or 4 years ago on Earthen Ring (US), one of the first and oldest RP servers running World of Warcraft to date. While most of the guild ran dungeons and quested in a mad bid to hit level cap, I enjoyed playing my characters, getting into their heads and seeing how they reacted to the world around them. I was never a hardcore, full time RPer. I didn't even care if I was the hero, or if I was just another voice in the background -- I just enjoyed telling stories, and helping other RPers make sense of their own tales.

I have since moved with my guild to Garrosh(US), a PvE server and one a little less hospitable to RP-like activity perhaps. I don't rightly know, but I'm inclined to believe that there are other players who enjoyed RP as much as I do and would love to enjoy RP again. ... And part of me hopes that I find them. It's sad when you don't have others outside of your own circle of friends to share a particular playstyle with.

So here I am. I will write RP tales based on my own personal toons, perhaps post some artwork every now and then, as well report on the many silly, out-of-character hyjinks I share with my guild and our raiding alliance. Also, as I said earlier, I will still be writing "WhIgmi?" ficlets, starring Ryan and his muses, and I will also be making some of my older, less relevant, more depressing posts disappear. In time, I hope that this blog will bring smiles to people's faces as I hoped it would when I first started.

Thank you, and let us all enjoy this new journey together!

-- The KittyLizard