The Game Dame

http://flickr.com/photos/pebblechen/

It’s been one year since my first Game Dame post. I originally started this blog when I was studying Game Design.* I started writing with the silly idea that if I blogged good and hard for six months, I might be able to finagle some kind of press credential for the GDC in San Francisco. I got a new job shortly thereafter and it became clear that my employer wasn’t going to give me the time off to attend the conference. Thus, I never ended up going to the GDC.

In the meantime, I noticed that there was a dearth of shaman coverage in the WoW universe so I started writing more about playing an elemental shaman, even though I have never considered myself an expert at either WoW or shamaning. One thing has lead to another and I have had the pleasure of meeting some pretty spectacular people on this-here blogspace. I even got two jobs out of it: at WoW Insider and, most recently, at The Examiner. As an anniversary exercise I thought I would sum up where The Game Dame has gone this past year and where I think it’s going in the future.

Retrospective

• 85,213 total hits
• 13,033 average hits per month (last 4 months)
• Only one regret: a post I wrote about seeing David Cook at a Dodgers game.
• Top posts:
  • How I Won the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Contest
  • How to Prevent Motion Sickness from Halo 3

Future

Although I’ve really enjoyed writing this blog, there are certainly days where I think about quitting it. Sometimes blogging in general can get you down. Not so much here on my own blog, where I feel pretty safe and generally supported. But when I write for other blogs, sometimes I lose my faith in humanity. I think that the anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in 80% of people. It’s those times where you’ll see me vent here and in my head I threaten to quit blogging altogether. 

But not today. I still have a lot of things to say that can’t be said through my other writing venues. In fact, I’m thinking of writing a book about all of it.

And for those of you who patiently read this entire post, here’s my new picture.

——
*Which I am no longer studying due to financial realities.

I try not to pimp my “day job” here at my own blog, but this little gallery on WoW Insider is pretty darn funny. And I didn’t even create it!

from WoW Insider

Hey, intarwebs, I got a favor to ask ya. Today I got my first Digg badge on one of my WoW Insider posts and I was hoping to drive that puppy up the link-love food chain! Can you help me out? If you have a Digg account, please go press the Digg button on my article. If you don’t have a Digg account, well, this is your perfect excuse to create one!

I am to be thanking you muchly! And I promise, more Game Dame content very soon!

Welcome WoW Insider readers! Please don’t break my intarwebz. Also, under no circumstances should you ever, ever read my post about WoW Insider. (Heh.) And now for the meat of today’s post…

The Voting Has Ended

I’m going with the brown tauren icon that I asked you to take a look at the other day. You can still continue to vote, but I doubt it will change my mind. I will, however, admit to making some ITSY BITSY changes to the brown one for the final version (not done yet). And, as promised, Kestrel’s night elf is up next…

Crowd Control? Wait… what?

Alright, I’VE HAD IT! I have HAD. ENOUGH. I’m soooooo over everyone saying (in high squeaky voice), “I don’t play a shaman cuz they have no crowd control. Waaaahhhhh!” I’m calling you people out! Especially when it comes to leveling.

You see, I’ve been playing a frost mage on the q.t. lately, just to see if those shammy-bashers were right. Um. Okay. WRONG. I find it MUCH easier to level a lowbie shammy than a mage. Case in point: There’s no way, at level 17, my mage can take on more than 2 mobs at once and sometimes not even 2 if they resist my Frost Nova or are undead and can’t be sheeped. If I pull a third mob accidentally, I have to run like the dickens and hope my potions can bail me out because (1) I HAVE NO ARMOR; I might as well be nekkid. (2) I CAN’T HEAL MYSELF. And (3) I have to stop and drink practically while running away. I mean, dude, these guys can put away some liquids!

I use my sheep when I can — which when leveling a Forsaken is almost never due to the high amount of undead in these here parts. (”Parts?” Was that a pun? God, I hope not.) I use my Frost Nova whenever it’s cooled down — and yes, I invested talent points in lowering the cooldown. I use Frost Bolt almost exclusively instead of Fire Blast because it slows everyone down and I’ve shortened the cast time with talent points. Yet despite all these crowd control efforts, I still get my booty kicked regularly, do corpse runs as if my life depended on it (uh… wait…), and pay so many repair bills that I often can’t afford to buy my new spells.

My shaman? Well, my elemental shaman (not even enhancement) could easily take on two mobs and quite often 3 at a time. Why, you mage-heads ask? Take numbers (1) through (3) above and then assume the opposite of each. Yeah. I have armor, I can heal myself, and I use mana wisely.

So three words, shaman haters: IN. YOUR. FACE!

Art and Job Stuff

I added a portfolio tab to the blog, so check it out if you want to. My plan is to use it to both push and pull design work (as well as writing and marketing work when I get the resume portion finished).

Also, when I get back from vacation next week, I’m going to start a video blog (with an eye toward making it a documentary) about how I’m going to go about starting my own business. So keep an eye out!

Another Goody for WoW Insider Readers

Did you get down this far? If so, please go check out our anti-PuG experiment at Pox Arcanum!

1. Two Bosses Enter. Seriously? Who cares! Newsflash: we want to know how to beat the bosses ourselves. And, in case you didn’t know, we are hip to the fact that the bosses cannot actually get out of their hidey holes to fight each other. That whole series is just a waste of an Excel spreadsheet. The game is already a fantasy and sometimes meta is just pointless.
2. Too much focus on PvP.
3. Two words: “No Ratshag.”
4. Other blogs already do what you’re trying to do — and they do it better. BigRedKitty (whom you had to steal), Kestrel, Kinless, Less QQ, More PewPew, and many others.
5. Two more words: “No TemerityJane.” (Okay, not sure if that’s 2 or 3 words.)
6. No out-of-the-software-box thinking. Why hasn’t WoW Insider come up with cool games-within-the game, like Gnaked Gnome Races or the Pox Arcanum experiment?
7. Too much recycled content. Comics and movies should be produced by and for the mag exclusively. Don’t you think we surf the web and already see what you’re reposting?
8. No clear theme. What’s the point of the magazine? It’s kind of all over the place. Is it to help us play more effectively? (How does “effectiveness” work into a sentence with “play” anyway?) Is it there to help us have more fun in the game? Just a fanzine, documenting the “culture” of WoW? Sometimes I get bored by it because it’s trying to be everything to everyone and not doing any of it very well.
9. About the Bloggers. I mean, really, who cares? Wayyyy too self absorbed!
10. Lazy content. Too much focus on generating forced “interaction” from readers (e.g., “What do you think about that? What are your thoughts? What do you do on Wednesdays?”), rather than letting it arise organically out of thoughtful, helpful articles. It’s a content cop-out. Why not take some initiative and actually put together communities that don’t exist right now, or get interviews with gamers or people at Blizzard?
11. lolWoW instead of Around Azeroth. Please. Screenshots, for peetsake?? /eyerolling. Maybe if you add some kitty pidgin to the pics, you’ve got a great series!

[digg=http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_features_Blog_Azeroth]Woooooot! How exciting! Our new little WoW blogger forum called Blog Azeroth is being featured on WoW Insider today. Go Phaelia and Valenna!