Are you embarrassed to be a WoW player?

I am a college student at CSU Fullerton. My major is Communications, with an emphasis on Entertainment Studies. Many of my major classes talk  about how Entertainment and Media affect us as a society. So it's no surprise that video games, MMORPGs and WoW come up in our discussions and lectures.
Last night, WoW came up in my Entertainment and Society class. My professor seemed baffled that no one knew what it was. That was obviously a lie. I did know what WoW was. But I was not about to let people know that I played the game. The reason?

There was one person who did know WoW. I know she knew this because when my professor brought up WoW, she blurted out, "That game destroys lives!"
My professor tried to put a less emotional spin on it by saying that yes, people do become extremely addicted to the game. The girl fought back though. "Trust me, it's a life ruiner!" she declared. Someone else then shouted out how it ruined marriages, relationships, etc.

I thought either one of two things about WoW Hater Chick. Either she once played the game and had dealt with serious addiction because of it. Or she had a boyfriend who basically ignored her and dumped her. I like thinking it was the second one because it emphasizes how bitter she seemed.

This is not the first time WoW has come up during my educational career. Two years ago, I wrote a paper about Video Game addiction, giving both sides and adding my own personal spin. I did admit to playing the game. My thesis ended up somewhere on the line of, Video Game addiction is real, but is about personal (or parental) responsibility, and not the companies. I used myself as an example. I am a good student, who maintains a GPA above 3.5, as well as dedicate over 10 hours a week to the game (usually 4 hours two nights a week raiding). I also was working 25 hours a week.

The second time WoW came up was for an Ethnography I did. I treated WoW as a culture and society, which I'm sure most people would agree. In the game, there is a sense of community beyond that of simply a game. People form relationships and long lasting friendships through the game from people across state and even country boundaries. I myself have gained friends from around the country who I think pretty highly of.

Yet still, I am always hesitant to admit that I actually do play the game. Most people at work think I have quit, which isn't entirely true. I did leave for a couple months to get my school and living situation grounded. But I returned during the summer and will probably keep playing through out the school year. When people ask what I do with my free time, I don't fess up to playing right away. I might feel around to see how a person may judge me before I fess up to having a few guilty pleasures.

I asked my friend, who I met through WoW, what he thought about my hesitation to fessing up about being a player. He basically said that playing WoW was no different then going out every night to party and drink, Partying and drinking is usually well accepted, especially at our age. Most of my friends do it to some extent at some point in time. However, like WoW, drinking can result in an addiction and can negatively effect your life if you do not show restraint and moderation. Oh but WoW doesn't give you a hangover.

In the end, my hesitation and fear is the result of some low self esteem and the effect of other people's opinions on me. I need to honestly get over it. The only person who can truly make me feel inferior is me.

Otacon Report: New Realm, New Look, New Pets, New Mounts, ZOMG NEW PATCH

Screenshots will be coming soon. I am on my little netbook so I don't have my screenies here :(

To say I have been busy in the last few days is an understatement. Not only do I stand here (sit) with an entirenew look and name to replace Otacon, but I also have new pets and a new mount. I am also FREAKING EXCITED about Transmogrification! I cannot wait!

But first, the stable
I finally deleted one of my Devilsaurs because I rarely take them out as it is. I have been rocking my Spirit Owl (Ban'thalos) now properly named Barasou, everywhere I go. Absolutely gorgeous! I use him for doing dailies and also whip him out every now and then in PvP. It's funny when I heal myself using my awesome owl, much to the chagrin of that warrior over there. In your face! 
Asides from him, I added ANOTHER Spirit Beast to my collection. Anhka, the green spectral saber that wonders around The Regrowth has recently allowed me to tame it. I was kind of excited to grab him, despite the fact that it now pushes my total Spirit Beast collection to 8. Do I need this many Spirit Beasts? No...no I don't. But I can't bare to let any of them go, even as I find myself running out of stable slots. I almost let go one of my Birds of Prey (Aotona, a Seagull, and Olm the Wise), but opted not to.
I had one slot left, and eventually decided to fill it. I was determined to be intelligent about this, so I did some research and decided on a Worm to help round out my PvP squad. I went down (up) to Northrend and found Rattlebore, a giant jormunger type worm whose black. Easy tame, no real special needs. He's a hearty worm and I still need a name for him.
BTW I am no longer Otacon
I recently transferred and race changed my hunter to join some friends on Deathwing. Since that one week, we downed Cho'gall and all of BoT in one night, about 2 hours. I am not joking. It was so speedy I felt like I had blinked and it was gone. Otacon is now Covington (yes, like my druid. I had a hard time with names) and is a pretty Night Elf. She's really pretty! At first I kind of regretted not making her a worgen, simply for min/max purposes, but to be honest, I like her feel. I am happy with my decision. It's hard to believe she has down Cho'gall before my druid (who probably will never raid again), but it's part of life and a lot of fun. I have also been PvPing a lot, considering Deathwing is a PvP realm. I really enjoy PvP on a hunter, and find that I have the tools for survivability, as well as the strength to easily knock off a few enemies.
It still amazes me, Battlegrounds do. Some people get so upset when things are not going well, and instead of trying to fix a problem, they just turtle, or do something stupid trying to rack up honor, and complain the whole time. They don't offer anything constructive nor do they try and create a strategy to help us win. I admit I am still fairly new in PvP. I don't know the best strategies for winning each of the different games. But if you tell me what to do, hey I'll listen. In fact, I'm really good at listening. I also follow orders pretty good if they don't include, "Go jump off said cliff." Bgs cannot be won by one person; they are won by a group. Sitting around complaining and freaking out at people will not help anyone in the long run.  
KWEEEEHHHHHH?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Did you know that the best part of FFIX was the Chocobo Hot and Cold mini game. Well now you do!
I don't like the mounts I have on my hunter. There's nothing special about them and none of them look really nice. So I sucked it up and ran out to Magister's Terrace and Setthek Halls, hoping for a BC mount to drop. After about a week of Mag T, the white hawkstrider graced me with his presence. I love that these mounts are all based on Horde models, and now that I am Alliance, it makes me feel even more special riding one. :)
Transmofigration. 
I am one of the few people who are SO EXCITED for this part of the Patch. I loved Wardrobe options in Rift, and I will love them EVEN more in WoW. While I may not change my armor too much, the ability to change my weapons is pretty freaking exciting. I am excited to wield a beautiful bow and a kick ass staff or polearm. Can't wait!
I am bummed it got rid of my T7.5 on my druid. That was by far my favorite outfit and I would've loved to see it on my druid again. But alas. I did save my Mag'hari Chieftain's Staff though :)
That's all for now. Hopefully pictures will be up by Sunday night!

Otacon Report: Shiny Birdie of Awesome

Guess whose back with a vengeance. 
Unfortunately for me, work has been overtaking my life. That coupled with my adventures on a new realm with some friends has put my blogging back on hold. I've pretty much leveled a druid on a PvP server (he's sitting at 70% to 85), but I've recently decided, also to help with our raid composition, to transfer my hunter. I'd like to shift my focus to being a hunter, to trying to be the best dps. I'll always have my druid, but for now looks like I'm on my way to being a meter whore.
Neways, that isn't what I wanted to say.
One month later
It took me a few weeks to level but as I rounded the bend on 85, I made the decision to transfer Otacon. I logged on, and LOW and BEHOLD! new NPC Scan freaked out! Ban'thalos!
I had given up on pets for a while because of the headache it was giving me, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I was already sitting on a tree, so I dropped a trap and waited for the bird to round the bend. As I flew up another hunter grabbed him, but he did not trap him so he died from Harsh Moonlight. As I headed up to shoot him, another hunter flew next to me, causing me to twitch and move my hunter from his tree spot. I sighed and went over to the other tree, the one that he wasn't sitting on.
I waited for the bird to make his round, but noticed two druids buzzing around him. I prayed to God that they weren't trying to pull and kill him. I dropped my trap, headed up and Arcane Shot him down. He hit my trap perfectly and my tame began. I could feel my hands shaking as I stared at my screen. One of the druids was fluttering near me and I began to feel sick, like he was gonna interrupt my tame. But he did not. I must really think poorly of people. When my tame ended, I saw Ban'thalos shrink down, then disappear. I panicked. Where'd he go! Ha! being on a tree caused him to move down down below me. The little fluttering druid cheered for me. We both moved down to the ground and danced away with my new spirit beast!

I used the techniques described on this blog . Thanks to Nesrin for the strategy. Worked like a charm.
Transferring decisions
Unfortunately, transferring means I need to choose a new name and race. I can't seem to figure out what to do. Am I going to Min/Max my dps and be a Worgen, or go with how I feel and be a Nelf. To be honest, I want to be a male Nelf because it's most similar in terms of animations to my troll (the way they shoot). But we will see. I am still having a problem. 

Rare Pet Break Time

Tonight
I dealt with some disheartening things, so it's time for another break from rares and hunting rares. I have a very nice stable, and many rares to be proud of. I do not need to nearly kill myself over this.
Mean people
I've only dealt with mean hunter "griefers" once, when I watched a DK and a Druid kill Karkin, the molten crab in front of me and two other hunters. It's an unfortunate thing because hunters cannot tame unless they have aggro, basically the complete attention of the pet they wish to tame. So it's really easy to mess the tame up if you distract them in any form. I guess taming aggro is very minimum. You can basically take advantage real fast.
I attempted to capture two rares that I really had been wanting to add to my collection tonight. And both ended in tragedy.
Bantha'los
What a terrible place for a rare to appear. Bantha'los, the spirit owl, spawns RIGHT in the Sanctuary of Marlone, a basic quest hub for the Molten Front. I've seen him a few times, but finally got a strategy together thanks to a blog I read.
When I logged on, I was able to grab his attention and try out my strategy. However, my frost trap did not work and I was subjected to an unfortunate Harsh Moonlight spam. As I sped back, hoping to get back into position for attempt two, I noticed a ton of people vying for Bantha'los's attention. The main culprit was not a hunter, who I would've been okay with taking the tame, but a mage, who used Slow Fall to survive the fall. He then proceeded to kill the owl in front of 7 other hunters. Sad!
Solix
Feeling discouraged, I headed out to check out another rare spawn, Solix. And of course, he was there!
He has to be kited while his energy bar becomes depleted. As it finally hits around 30 energy, you can then tame him.
I attempted to kite him, with frost trap and Concussive shot, but i didn't get enough space between him the first go so I died. Hey man , these "taming challenges" require some strategy. I headed back and then saw a night elf hunter standing there. He just stood there. And stood there. I emoted him, telling him to go, because rightfully, it was his turn. I thought maybe being a polite person might pay off. Boy was a wrong. He shook his head at me, then pointed at me to go. So I dropped my trap and began a more successful kiting. Just as I round the bend, watching his energy bar inch closer and closer, I realized that I had lost aggro to the other hunter, who had then begun to tame him. He basically let me do the brunt work and then attempted to steal the tame. I was mad! I remembered Distracting Shot had lost it's power, so I tried grabbing aggro back with an Arcane Shot. Just as Solix turned to me, and I began my tame, a DK came out of nowhere and killed him.
I quietly looted my Crystallized Tear, and walked out of the cave crushed.
Basically
I'm done with this. I was looking up threads about Rare Pet "Griefers" (I quote because I couldn't tell you if this is really griefing or not. Apparently though, it's pretty bad for many hunters), and boy were there a lot. People are really having a hardtime with these. Is this normal? I never experienced WotLK rare hunters during it's peak but I can imagine it was just as tough. It's horribly disheartening. I never had any problems with the other Cataclysm rares, but many of those rares weren't in central daily quest areas. Maybe Sambas, but I've seen him around a lot, and had a fairly easy (although long) time getting him.
So for now, and I mean really now, I'm done with this. I can't handle the stress, the disheartening. It's actually making me hate the game and I feel like quitting as we speak. (Yes I am a drama queen)
I currently have an open spot in my Stable, so I might go find something else to add there, or just leave it open. But for now, and my sanity, I need to stop. There is more to life then collecting digital pets right? Right!
Although, speaking of rare pets
I'm currently working on a Stable page for my blog, with pictures and some descriptions on why I keep these beauties in my Stable. I hope you like it (when it's up.)  

Otacon Report: SKARR

OMG!
So excited. Out of all the new pets from 4.2 THIS WAS THE ONE!
A simple, logged on in a camping spot for Skarr, and there it was. A tiny red dot on my screen. Rushed over, excitedly. He sat there, so cute, just staring at me.
Similar to Karkin
Tame, Silent Shot the Fire Explosion, Tame.
Win!
A great tame before I have to rush off to work :)

I want to tame more, but my Stable is full. I'm not sure what I'll do. I got one more slot, so either the blue or orange lava spider, and the spirit owl.

Otacon Report: Karkin

Metal crab o doom
I'm not sure what hunter taming etiquette is. I'm definitely not up for causing more problems in a situation, but to be honest, I felt this guy had plenty of time.
The story
I was doing Molten Front dailies on Covington, when I saw him. Karkin, the metal crab. He was just chilling on a rock, waiting for someone to tame him. An undead hunter, who had begun climbing through the stones when I did, to begin two dailies in the Molten Front, tried taming him. I watched, but then realized Karkin's fireball attack is an AOE and backed off. I went about doing my dailies, getting thermostat readings and saving flight formed druids. I came back down and Karkin was still there. I took a deep breathe and forced myself to walk away, turning in my quests and returning to the front of Malfurion's Breach.

I tried resisting, but curiosity overcame the best of me, and I switched to Otacon. He was resting in a large cave, where Solix spawns, the orange lava spider I kind of want. I moved out and worked my way through The Furnace to Fireplume Peaks. There he was, STILL there; so was the undead hunter, but he wasn't moving. I poked him, but got no response. Conflicted, I decided to just go with it, and tried taming him. Well, it didn't work the first time. The undead hunter ended up dead because he was just chilling next to me, and was aoe'd fireball'd to death. I survived by Feigning Death, and took a moment to look up some strats from wowhead.
A simple, Tame, Silent Shot the lava aoe thing, Tame again worked like a charm. (The first time I autoshot, then Silent Shot, then Deterrence, then Tame, but it didn't work for some reason.)

I like his look in person then the screenshots I had seen previously. He also does these amusing animations, pointing in either direction and wiggling his lower jaw. It's too bad that he is a tenacity pet. I was hoping I could use him in PvP or PvE, but his special ability, Pinch, has a fairly long CD, and obviously, his damage wouldn't be that high compared to my Chimera or Ferocity pets. Still, an awesome addition to my collection. I still hope to eventually snag Skarr and Solix, but it seems like instead I'll have to settle for second best. XD

Hunter Etiquette?
The undead hunter who had been "trying" to get the Karkin, didn't say anything to me. He just mounted and hopped away. I was confused at what he was doing. Obviously he was trying to tame him at one point, but I was gone for a good 5-10 minutes before I wandered over on my hunter and looked to see what was going on. Not only that, but I wasn't the only hunter around. There was also a Night Elf hunter who seemed to just be watching the shenanigans.
I'm a pretty polite person. I watched Karkin get killed by an Alliance duo one night, but made it clear to the other hunters watching that I wasn't after it, I just wanted to see how to tame it (which was true). Another time, I even gave advice to a hunter trying to tame Bantha'los, but he just gave me very clipped responses or ignored me, and I watched him fail to capture him multiple times. I wonder if he ever did catch him.
I would whisper someone if I saw a rare I already had to try and get another hunter the tame. It's just nice.

So was it right of me to grab Karkin from the undead hunter? Honestly, he had his shot. I did not interrupt his tame and he even had a good amount of time before I meandered over on my hunter. I died twice getting over there.
But I might just be incredibly ignorant. 
So what do you think?

Otacon Report: For Keep's Mom!

Kirix
A quick pet report. With 4.2 came tons of new rare pets to try and tame. Unfortunately, EVERY hunter and his friend are trying to get them. Eventually it became somewhat of a problem for me. I had several dreams that I caught Skarr and I knew right then I had to refocus what I was playing for. This was becoming too stressful!
So since then, I've been checking once in a while, but not camping, and focusing on other things (like getting my pally to 85).
Last night, while doing my regular check, I came across Kirix, a green lava spider. The tactics for him involve a debuff that stuns you, knocks you back and poisons you horrendously. After a couple strategy tries and subsequent deaths, I discovered the best tactic is to:
1. Have Aspect of the Wild on.
2. As soon as you get tossed into the air Disengage.
3. Pop a Potion of Haste then Deterrence.
4. Tame him!
Success! And just as I finished, an Ally hunter, who I saw with Solix, the orange lava spider I was originally camping, rounded the corner. Ha! In your face :D

Yeah. I'm PvP'ing
Keep's Mom is a reference to two old buddies who PvP'd together back in the day. One of them was named Keep, the other was a hunter whose pet was named Keepsmom. 
My guildies recently decided PvP was fun and want me to join. They're talking about 5's, which I hear are bad, but who knows. For now, we've been running Random BGs.
I've always hated PvP. I can take pressure, but being killed at other's expense is no fun. To be honest, I can't handle giving other people, namely Alliance, the satisfaction of killing me.
But to be honest, wanting to raid again has been on the back of my mind, not so much because I want loots and stuff, but I guess I miss that kind of social activity. Namely, I miss my guild.
Well, PvP seems to be the best way to achieve this without ACTUALLY have to raid.
So I sucked it up, had my BF make me a few pieces, read up as much as I could find that was nearly updated, and went in there. On my hunter. No healing, just pew pew pew.
Hunters are op. 
Omg, this is fun. IDK. I die a lot, and get my ass handed to me quite a bit. But I'm having a blast. I'm doing well to. With the spec I chose and the pet I picked up, I'm doing well, gaining quite a bit of killing blows, and able to hold my own. Now, skill level of the other players I've faced might just be low, but HEY, I'm gonna enjoy how I do ok! OK!
I chose Beast Master spec after reading about PvP from huntsmanlodge.com. Garwulf, the writer over there, has some great tips and indepth explanations. I'm always weary of trying BM in PvE simply because my pet tends to eat it, basically making BM less effective. But it seems like in PvP people tend to ignore your pet and focus on you, thus allowing my beast and I to reign havoc on the field. Kind of.
Bestial Wrath is a great cooldown, not that long, but allowing me to burn through an enemy's HP with high focus regen and a big red, scary chimera. Yep. Chimera. Thanks to Garwulf, I choose a Chimera as my pet and I do not regret it. It's been an awesome experience.
My Chimera has a slow that lasts 5 seconds, on a 10 second cooldown, or something ridiculous like that, allowing for a decent up time. He has a range attack and an aoe.

yes his name is forkeepsmom :)

Some things never change though
Random BGs are still full of morons, elitist jerks and elitist jerk morons. I don't understand how yelling at each other and calling each other names will make us win the BG faster, but I guess that's how it is.
Overall though, I think the biggest change has been choosing hunter as my choice. It's fun being able to blow stuff up. I'm still tweaking things, like remembering to use Deterrence and Disengage and my traps. I love that I can be difficult to kill, dropping a Frost trap, then Concussive Shot in the face, Disengage! and melee are far behind me. Fun stuff. :)
I rack up the Killing Blows with my Kill Shot.

mwahaha i can pretend i'm awesome