Be Your Own Advocate (Not WoW)

I don't post non-WoW stuff very often but I wanted to share something from my life these past few months.

In August I realized I had a medical issue. Nothing bad, nothing that couldn't be taken care of with medication. I went to see a doctor about it and was put on some meds that I will probably have to take for the next few years. Soon after that I began having sleep problems. I mean really weird awful sleep problems. I had a really hard time getting to sleep and when I could finally get to sleep I was unable to stay asleep for more than 4-6 hours at a time. You might think that's no big deal. Let me tell you that after a few months of 4 hours of sleep your brain just does not function the way it should. Add to that I quit smoking in early December and you have a recipe for utter crazy.

It's Good to Be Nice!

After weeks of Tol Barad dailies I have come to a conclusion. I am going to be nice. Now I'm not a not-nice person in game generally, though I am a keep-to-myself type player lately. I don't mind grouping for quests or asking for help in general, but I will usually wait and see if I can either manage it myself or hope that someone else comes along who needs the same thing I do.
I am usually nice to others and prefer to strike up at least small conversations in PuG's just to break the ice. I generally try to help others who ask or who are near me and need it.

As I had posted not long ago it feels like there are not a lot of people around while questing. The phasing has thrown us all into our own private Idaho of sorts. So when I turned 85 and started working TB dailies I was quite annoyed at A) all the crazy people pulling everything in sight and B) all the crazy people ganking my mobs. It pissed me off that I had to fight others of my same faction to kill that guy in the tower or grab some stupid fish from a rack. After a few weeks of this I found I hated it and I was beginning to hate all those other players out there who were being crazy asshats. It was a big huge I hate-you fest, with everyone running around trying to get what they needed as quickly as possible and screw everyone else. I also found I was starting to act that way. I was running past people who had gotten caught by a bunch of mobs thinking "hey what a moron" while I grabbed that piece of lumber he was headed for. The problem was, in the next area I would become the moron and wonder how all these jerks could run past me and leave me to die! Ha ha karma!

So I decided to turn the tables and go back to my old "let me help you" self. You see I was always one of the first people in my guild to say yes I'll come help you with that elite or run through that dungeon. I don't mind killing things over and over and I don't mind doing dungeons I've done several times. I enjoy just playing, especially with guildies. It gives me an opportunity to spend time with different people in the guild and get to know them and that's important as a GL. There are boundaries of course, but generally I was the helpful sort. The last few months I've been a bit lethargic and have tended to say "no sorry" I'm doing my own thing right now.

So what am I doing differently?
In Tol Barad:
1) Help anyone else in front of me that is killing something (yes I have even helped Hordies). Even if it's just to throw a dot. Many times I've been in a situation in TB where I've been overwhelmed by mobs and I've watched people run by me and leave me to die. I will not do that to others any longer.
2) Invite as many as possible from my faction that are standing around waiting for one of those local bosses to spawn (i.e. Largo or Wellson) so as many people as possible can complete it together.
3) Take my time. I chose to come here to do the dailies. It is not a race. If I don't have time to do it I shouldn't be here. It is NOT important to run past or over others to get something that will respawn in 7 seconds. It's not worth it. Nor is my blood pressure.
4) It does not make me feel good to be an asshole, so don't do it!

In General:
1) I have a do not ignore policy with my officers. If someone asks for help someone must answer them. Even if it's to say I'm sorry I can't help right now. So at least the guildie asking does not feel like they are being ignored by everyone. I personally also try to offer a solution such as I can in 30 minutes if you can wait. If it's something long-ish I might suggest another day. Then I follow up and show up when I say I'm going to.
2) Be brave in trade chat, and be courteous. If I know answers to questions people are asking I answer them. Respectfully. Many times I will simply whisper them directly. I have gotten responses from others that ranged all the way to sending me 25g for helping answer a question. (I sent it back by the way. I didn't answer for a reward, but I thought it was a very nice gesture.)

My goal is to treat others the way I would want to be treated, and without the expectation that others will do the same. Let me tell you right now...they won't. My intention is not to be nice to reap rewards, but to know that I did it. That is the point. I am doing it to feel better about who and what I am in game and what I want to represent to my community.

Hello My Name is Zab, and I'm an Altaholic.

I haven't been writing much lately because really there's not much that has struck my fancy to write about. I am pursuing my worgen druid and my troll hunter with a few others thrown into the mix. My priest is 81 as well as my warrior. If I have to do Hyjal or Vash'jir one more time I think I'm going to /wrists! This was not a really good idea Blizz...5 levels and 6 zones do not make for very much diversity here.
My warlock is 85 and doing heroics fairly regularly but I've had more fun leveling others. This is indeed the xpac of the alt.
I'm slowly getting some things in RL wrapped up and caught up so I hope to be here more often, if only just to post some Blog Az shared topics.

Oh...I did join the Rift beta for a day. The only thing I can say is it's very WoW-like in the way it feels, it's easy to just roll a character and start playing. The mechanics and play are a bit slow. One thing it has over WoW though was that you can customize the UI. All aspects of the screen are able to be resized and moved around. I do wish Blizz would do that.

/wave

The WoW Disease?

Hiya. I've read a couple of posts lately that have gotten me thinking about why I'm feeling so lethargic about WoW lately. I feel it, my husband feels it, and a couple of my other friends. People that used to log on regularly aren't logging on as much it seems. I have been attributing it to RL and other things going on as you might have seen from my posts, but really I do think there is something more happening here.
To see what spurred me on in this post please read The Pink Pigtail Inn - The Honeymoon is over.... and Screaming Monkeys - The Cataclysmic WoW Disease.
There are some others I've run across like this ECTmmo.com - Pondering, End-game Motivation and yet another Screaming Monkeys - WoW Crossroads.
Ok...needless to say there are a lot floating around the blogosphere.