Sideshow & Syrana

That’s right, there is a new incarnation of #iblamesyrana on Twitter.  A few folks have already started to warm up their blaming skills in anticipation.  You may have heard a little about it on a couple of podcasts or even seen the post over at Azeroth United.

So, here I am, going to lay it all out for you and get you pumped for charity!

Of course, I want to encourage you to give to the Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity drive over at Azeroth United (AU) which is aiming to raise $5,000 for Child’s Play Charity between November 1st and December 13th.  There are even some nifty incentives you could win!

Whether you are able to help give to the cause or not, you can help us give to the cause.

How This Works:

• Starting as of November 1st, we’ll be keeping track of tweets containing #iblamesyrana.
• For each blameworthy tweet (no empty tweets please) Sideshow and I will donate 10 cents to Child’s Play. (up to a maxium of $50)
• At the end of the drive, we will match the amount raised via tweets (up to the maximum).

Examples:

• There are 500 blameworthy tweets containing #iblamesyrana.  At 10 cents a tweet, the tweets raise $50, so we’ll donate a total of $100
• There are 100 blameworthy tweets worth $10, so we’ll donate $20.
• So, you got ganked ingame? Computer crashed with the BSOD? Your tire is flat? Tweet about it and add #iblamesyrana

I urge you all to help us reach the 500 tweet mark!

Don’t have a Twitter account? Well now is the time to get one! It’s free and you can abandon it after you blame me if you really want.

Why is there a cap in place?

Well, I’d feel bad if there ends up being thousands of tweets bringing us to a total we can’t afford.  And we don’t want to disappoint the children, am I right?

However, if you guys want to continue blaming if/when the maximum number is reached, feel free! It may still help put the word out there and get folks to donate.

Now get out there and spread the word (and blame)!

————–
*Sidenote: If the maximum tweets are not reached during the drive, we’ll consider counting the ones that went out this week in all the excitement.

For those readers within the United States, today we have a holiday: Memorial Day.  Many of us have off of work (or school) and have a tradition of traveling, grilling out, and spending time with family on this day.  Memorial Day is also a day to remember those that have served in the US Military, especially those that never returned home.

Today, I would like us to take a glimpse at who would be honored if there was a Memorial Day in World of Warcraft.  I want to thank @Athryn, @Kenichan, and @Samodean for responding to my tweets requesting feedback on a list of fallen heroes. 

After looking at the list below, who else would you add?

(continue reading…)

Since there was a significant gap between this segment and previous parts of this series, I understand if you need a quick refresher.

Part One – Introduction

Part Two – The (Playable) Races

Alright, back? Ready to have some fun and discussion? Good.  Now let’s take a look at class stereotypes…  (continue reading…)

Last week we had the Intro to this little series.  Today, I’d like for us to take a look at the stereotypes out there for the playable races in WoW.  I must limit it to playable because it would be quite the daunting task to encompass every single race within Warcraft.

Although, maybe we could look at some of them down the road? /ponder

Here I give to you a list of player race stereotypes (good and/or bad).  These can be formulated through role playing, lore, playing experience, relation to real world (out of character) things, whathaveyou.  Please feel free to add any you think I missed (or discuss what I list) in the comments!  And remember, most of all, to have fun with this series!

Horde

Orcs: Blood-thirsty, brutal, warriors, skilled with axes, dumb, thick skinned, ugly, smelly, simple, gifted shamans, no anger management control, stout, lawless, primitive, clans

Trolls: Slow, Jamaican, voodoo users, witchdoctors, lanky, tall, cannibalistic, crazy, threatening, lawless, tribal, cunning, aggressive, hostile

Tauren: Slow, cow like, earth and nature worshippers, strong, peaceful, nomadic, simple, vegetarian, story tellers, tribal

Undead: Evil, smelly, untrustworthy, vengeful, zombies, mindless, no feelings, cannibalistic, sneaky, lawless, outcasts, faithless

Blood Elves: Pretencious, snobby, high society, orphans, magic addiction, rich, pampered, intelligent, educated, traitors, good hearing, good eye sight

Alliance

Humans: Rulers, intelligent, ruthless, manipulative, diplomatic, educated, explorers, builders, arrogant, proud, order, political, betrayers

Gnomes: Tiny, sneaky, untrustworthy, intelligent, mechanically inclined, inventors, eccentric

Dwarves: Alcoholics, quick tempered, stout, war driven, miners, beards (male and female), gryphon handlers, dumb, earthen, Scottish(?)

Night Elves: Nature and moon worship, elegant, sneaky, hunters, intelligent, bouncy, good hearing, good eye sight, rangers, protectors

Draenei: Lost, space goats, alien, healers, resilient, heroic, adaptive, Russian, affinity for magic, religiousness (Holy Light of Creation, Naaru), intelligent

Next time we’ll take a look at classes (regardless of race) and some of the stereotypes that are attached to them.

Hello class!  Today you could say I was actually inspired by a training at work… *gasp*

I know! Hard to believe.  This will be at least two parts, I think.  But today’s Cultural Diversity training at my office got me thinking about it in Azeroth and how it can apply to in-game characters and gamers alike!

Much like the real world, in Azeroth there are many different races with their own cultures and subcultures.  Each race has their own stereotypes they assign to other races, and even classes.  The cultures can and subcultures can be viewed as where members of a certain race live, what class they are or tend to be, their racial traits, etc.  Subcultures could go further with classes and specs, and even roles.

And like in real life, there are certain things throughout our lives that mark or symbolize us, our generation, our culture.  Things we embrace which shape who we are and how we interact with the world around us.  I might even toss up some of the workshop’s “busy work” questions and see what we can do with them from character perspectives.

As in… imagine Syrana and a bunch of other Hordies sitting through this training and what they’d be getting out of it.

Piqued your interest yet?

I hope so.  I don’t want to go to wild on this first part and more or less wanted to outline this idea so I can start piecing it together and organizing my thoughts.  Plus, I had to look through a ton of screenshots before I found one that seemed fitting for the topic.  (Yes, I know, somehow I screenshotted a loading screen…)

What we’ll explore:

• The stereotypes and subcultures of races in Azeroth
• The co-existing groups that include traditionally Alliance and Horde races
• Becoming culturally diverse in the World of Warcraft (from a character or RP perspective)
• The players behind the toons, including another spin-off look at the hardcore vs. the casual debate

Last Week’s Screenshot Recap

It seems that the portal from last week was a toughy.  I honestly had never seen that portal until about a month ago when I was doing some exploring in Feralas.  Yes, that lovely greenish portal with the floating skull in it (which was kinda freaky) is located in Dream Bough, Feralas.  It doesn’t seem to go anywhere… yet.  Maybe in an expansion?  And because I liked the look of the portal, I’m reposting it along with a map of where you can find it for yourself!

See it?!

Where's the portal go? Nobody knows~

And now, introducing….

Happy Valentine's Day beyond the grave.

Last Week’s Screenshot Recap

Ah, yes, a few of you knew exactly where the fallen statue was in Azshara.  (Ok, probably more than a few knew, but a few commented!)  It’s an odd place to get to and I almost missed the bridge across.

Introducing…

When you want to get away, find a portal.  But where would this one take you?  Heck, where would you find this one?

Is that...is that a skull?

Seeing as how Sunday has always been sort of my laziest day of the week (even within the World of Warcraft) I thought I’d try to keep up with a Sunday posting of a screenshot of some sort.  Right now, I’m on an NPC kick.  Sometimes we miss the humor in the names and/or looks of these non-playable inhabitants of our virtual world.

Last week’s screenshot recap

Last week introduced Winkey, who I had found off the southeast coast of Tanaris.  I was working on the Tanaris exploration achievement when I thought I saw an island in the distance.  I didn’t see the land mass on the map and wanted to check it out for the heck of it.  I hope you visit her.  I don’t want her to get too lonely on that deserted island.

Introducing….

This interesting lady…err.. woman…err NPC isn’t as difficult to find, but is interesting nonetheless.  She also sings a fun version of “The Hip Bone” if you hang out long enough.

There are many things to love about World of Warcraft.  There’s phat loot, friends, lore, quests, pop culture references, and scenery.  You know… those special little touches that Blizzard adds that really puts them over the top.  We even have the ability to capture some of these gems with the sacred Print Screen button, whether we need proof (SS or it didn’t happen!) or just a memory keepsake.

But have you seen it all?  I know I haven’t.  I recently came across this gem, and I think this is now my favoritist NPC (for the moment!).

Anyone want to venture a guess as to where this lil’ lady (no pun intended) might be found?  I came across her by accident while doing some exploring.  Thankfully, she didn’t think anything of me taking her picture!