Larísa’s post the other day (just shows how long ago this post was drafted) got me thinking about the cyclical nature of WoW blogs. I know I was meant to be thinking about what Wolfshead had written and Larísa’s dismay at this, but the problem was, I have seen it before.
Rewriting, Rewording, Rehashing, Reblogging Re:WoW
I’ve been blogging about WoW for 2.5 years, closer to 3, close enough to half the life of the game. I know there are many out there that have blogged since day one, before in fact.
What I write here won’t stop any of us writing, nor force us to change our topic of choice, but to ignore it would be silly.
Of course blogging is more like Twitter than Larisa may ever realize.
Twitter is like a stream of consciousness that the reader drops in and out of. Tweets prior or post that brief moment may as well not exist. So even though you may encounter something tweeted a million times before, if it’s the 1st time you see the tweet, it’s new, fresh, exciting.
Some might even consider the same with schoolyard jokes, and they go back decades… Maybe centuries.
Q: What’s brown and sticky?
When a little kid sprouts a joke you last heard 30 years before hand, the 1st thought you have is “is that joke still around?”. Of course the kid is cackling like and insane Gnome Fire Mage, because the joke is new, fresh, exciting.
A: A Stick
So let’s see, what is rewritten, reworded, rehashed, rebloged, Re:WoW
Hello… Goodbye… Hello…
Saresa is the Grand Mistress of this, the teary, sometimes pointed farewell, followed reasonably soon by a hello post plus a few more, just enough to reignite your passion, then farewell once more.
Still, I will forgive Saresa most things, even her unfortunate choice of class and pray she will return for one more encore.
The new blogger is something else, especially with the story of what has intervened in their posting schedule between their first post and second (yes, I do this occasionally, but try to make it a blog post in it’s own right).
Euripedes once posted on how annoying the apology post is and true to his word has become silent without explanation. While I worry, I respect one less “I’ve been busy” post (and he is back with a suitable tale of woe)
Q: Why was six afraid of seven?
How to level profession or class
Everyone has one tucked away somewhere, I have a series. Pick this herb, do this quest.
For those that have been there done that, they are a quick “mark as read”, for those that haven’t they are a limitless mining node of information and occasionally passion.
Of course even the most jaded veteran reaches the point where an alt is better than quitting, then the search is on for every post that can be collated into the future of the alt.
How to make money
Gawd, if I had a copper for every gold making post, a gold for every gold making blog, then I would never have to farm or visit the AH again.
Just when it seems every avenue for gold making has been exhausted, along comes another post, another post, another…
How to make more money.
Yeah, just when you were sitting comfortably on 50,000 gold, a post and/or a blog comes along that makes it perfectly clear that you are worthless without at least 999,999,999 gold… on each toon.
But god forbid you spend a copper!
A: Because seven eight nine!
WoW is awesome because…
Well I guess because it is.
I doubt there are many blogs that find their birth in “WoW sucks”. Sure there are some (What?!? My Mage Sucks! is back and writing!), but most of us bloggers start the whole process due to the overwhelming joy we experience and our need to share that with people that understand the joy.
Our real world companions may never know our passion, but there is an audience of potentially millions (but in reality hundreds or thousands) that can read and experience our joy through our words because they are so familiar. Many of those readers go on to become bloggers in their own right.
WoW sucks because…
Q: What did the duck say when he bought lipstick?
Heh, because it does. For some of us more than others, sometimes more than others.
Some people have one big “Blizzard fucked it all” post a week after an expansion release. Others have a series of them as an expansion draws to a close.
My class is the best because
Mages are FULL STOP!
Occasionally Warlocks drop by to disagree, but then they are the new QQ class.
Every class blogger loves their class to the extreme that they will research and write about it for more hours in a week than they probably work (especially if they are writing from work)
So expect the “My class is best” posts… Often followed by the…
My class is nerfed.
When you invest so much into a class, any change, even one that will reduce the OP and increase the interest is a nerf.
Even Druids cry about sensible nerfs to CC which will allow them what they always claimed they wanted, a proper fight with a Mage.
Their class is OP
After running around the Arena for 15 minutes chasing a stinking Resto Druid in cat form all I can say is “they are OP!”.
A: Put it on my bill.
Maybe it’s a bit of talent envy. Maybe it’s a bit of “If they can have my evocate, why can’t my mana gem return health as well?”
Sometimes it isn’t about feeling nerfed, wanting a buff, sometimes it’s just about not wanting others to have more fun than us (of course if we just stopped our bitching and enjoyed our class it wouldn’t matter)
This instance/raid is too hard
… and I don’t pay $15 per month to have to think.
If I can’t beat the game in 24 hours like all those cast off consoles in the corner of the room, I want nerfs and I want them now!
This instance/raid is too easy
Q: What goes Oh, Oh, Oh?
Meh, I could have taken the time to enjoy the quest text, but I steamrolled my way to the top only to discover you made the instance for the majority… not for me!
Screw your bell curve distributions, if it isn’t impossible it isn’t worth playing.
My achievement
Guilty?
Who me?
Some achievements are worth sharing, others make a nice image to break the Bearwall ™, sometimes they deserve a guide.
Rarely is the “I got an achievement”, of itself, worthy of a post.
But hell, it’s your blog, if you want to regale me with tales of your daily chores, like my mother did for 40 years (I got off light, I pity my siblings 60 years of chore tales), then go right ahead.
If it’s the only thing you ever post, I probably won’t hang around long, but if we have “that relationship” I will probably be /cheering for you from my desk (a real cheer would be far too unseemly).
A: Santa walking backwards
All PuGs suck
Many do and sometimes it comes in waves, the biggest wave in memory came from the introduction of LFD.
Bad PuGs (or bad players, or opinionated players or sub-optimized player) are easy targets and frequent enough to give bloggers fodder.
At the end of the day, WoW blogs are personal web logs, so it’s only natural that a blogger will use their own “personal space” to vent, to unload on relatively anonymous targets in posts that every reader can relate to.
Battleground players suck
A personal favorite, something I haven’t had much cause to complain about lately. Believe it or not most PuG BGs I have been in lately have been well played.
Throw in a holiday achievement involving the BGs and the wowblogsphere runs with blood. Lovers of PvP want the achievement gone so they can play BGs in a competitive manner they love. BG shunners cry about the unfairness of being forced into an aspect of the game for an optional achievement and being ganked by PvP lovers that can’t believe their luck at being handed a plate full of bunnies for honor kills.
Either way, blood flows, tears flow and it is as regular as the holiday calendar.
He/She/It is a loot whore
Q: What do you get if you cross a kangaroo with a sheep (still one of my all time favorites)
Random PuGs, guildies, friends, lovers, BoPs, BoEs, crafting mats… Loot Ninja’ing whores the lot of them.
We’ve all got a story and the stories never end. Occasionally spurred on by a change in interface, crafting or BoP status, there are a million of these out there waiting to be told.
My guild sucks/rools
My guild sucks. There is no drama, they hand out epics purely because you are there, they join in events they have no real interest in purely to make the numbers and maintain the sickening positive attitude that prevails in our guild.
Screw you Streakers!
That is bound to change right, at which point I can unload in my personal space, destroy friendships and make them rue the day they invited a blogger into their midst.
Guilds can be the inspiration of awesomely good and bad encounters.
Ha! Even Armaggedon’s Coming had frequent disputes between it’s two primary guildies (Gnomeaggedon and Squidly). That was a source of quite a few posts.
A: A wooly jumper
My guild broke up/I just joined a new guild.
The future is bright…
… WTF happened there?
Bloggers, often guild leaders as well, suffer very publicly for a guild split. They also share their newfound joy at a new Guild membership (not that I would ever do that with Streakers).
Of course, just like the Hello… Goodbye blogger posts, many Guild posts are a rollercoaster of /ginvite, /gkick and /gquit (you know they now have a confirmation dialog now to stop all those accidental /gquits?)
Gnomeaggedon is OP!
Q: What has four wheels and flies?
I don’t think I really need to add much to this. If I’m not stating this blatantly obvious fact, then there are a league of bloggers more than happy to do so.
Personally I approve of any blog post that supports this statement of fact.
WoW mechanics suck
Mechanics come in all shapes and sizes (some even display plumbers cracks). Often one person’s awesome mechanic is another’s nightmare.
Whether it’s a class, profession or boss mechanic there are always opportunities to write 1,000 words about how it is killing puppies in their sleep and how Blizzard should have known this 30 years ago.
WoW mechanic is broken
Worse than the “bad mechanic” is the good mechanic gone wrong. Whether it’s food summoning portals that DC you or resetting bosses, there is always more mileage in a bitching blog post that a simple big report on the official forums.
A: A garbage truck.
WoW mechanic is broken (and here is how to take advantage of it)
Ohh what?
The Horde will DC purely by mousing over that Fish Feast?
Bloody hell, better write a blog post about putting one down in the middle of EotS.
If there is something to be gained by abusing a Blizzard mistake (especially when it is already destroying all your game time), then best to tell the world.
Blog begins: I’m a noob writing for noobs.
My dog has no nose
Many, most (?), WoW blogs start from the desire to share noobish learnings to help people avoid the mistakes we gave taken to gain our wisdom.
It isn’t patronizing, it’s a true desire to share, from one noob to another, knowledge and experience to help those starting at level one all the way to the end game.
Blog ends: I’m 1337 writing for 1337’5 not for scrubs.
I don’t know what happens, but somewhere down the line many (not all by any stretch of the imagination) switch from bring shepherds to power crazed dictators.
Do what I say or fuck off!
I need to point out that I have avoided this transformation by virtue of always being an elitist arsehole.
How does it smell?
I’m right, your wrong
Yeah, so great that you hold a view and have the confidence to share it, but wake up to yourself… I’m right, your wrong, L2P!, your mum!
God help us if we ever reach a position were everyone’s opinion was accepted for what it is, an individual’s opinion.
Meh, who am I kidding, disrespect of another’s opinion is the perfect starting point for any post.
My bank is filled with…
Has it happened this quarter?
Maybe just before Cataclysm.
The post where we share screenshots and lists of our blog contents, like we open our personal diary and reveal our soul through those useless trinkets kept for no sensible reason.
Awful!
My pets/mounts are…
More sharing, or keeping up with the Jones’ or maybe just showing the love for another aspect in the multidimensional game we call WoW. Some care not for raiding unless it leads to a new pet or mount.
- My latest acquisition
- My favorite little buddy
- My next goal
- OMFG! A sparkling pony? WTF!
They are all variants on the same theme.
How to blog
L2B nub!
Hehe, nah really.
Sometimes the L2B post is a “you are doing it all wrong post”, but more often it is an extremely useful post (or series) that helps the experiences or starts the newbie.
It was such a series by Matticus all those years ago that prompted me to click the 1/2 dozen required buttons at WordPress and start blogging.
There are gems in every one of them for new and old bloggers alike.
Without these posts I think the WoW blogging community would be several shades duller (the world, my world at least, would be bland without Matt’s inspirational posts which got me started), without fresh meat to inspire and entertain.
Same magic, different post
So while in the case of Wolfshead (and many like him) it might be same shit, difference expansion, in most cases is the same magic, presented in a new and entertaining way by a different entertaining writer and for many readers it may well be the first time the topic has ever been addressed.
While it makes sense to start at post 1 and traverse the 553 and counting posts at DardandDroids web comic, you would have to be completely bonkers (or Prelimar or a spam bot) to start at my 1st post and read to here.
Why would you bother anyway… In this marvelous stream of thought that is the blogging community, you are bound to encounter a similar topic to my 784 and counting posts, written better, possibly by someone with a fresher perspective than mine.
If you are a new reader or blogger, don’t fear you will read or write the same thing at some point – revel in it, it’s a sign of a healthy community.
If you are a veteran reader or writer, don’t shy from the same old magic, there is always someone waiting for your unique perspective!
Gnomer and Out!
One-one was a racehorse.
Two-two was one too.
One day One-one won one race.
And Two-two won one too.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://gnomeaggedon.net/2011/04/06/rewriting-rewording-rehashing-reblogging-rewow/
Q: What happens when you cross a kangaroo with an elephant?
A: You get big holes all over Australia ^.^
You know, I should hate you for getting me addicted to Darths and Droids, but… *Rolls d20* I was eaten by a grue.
There are worse things to be addicted to… like solitaire…
Holes, in Australia?
You talking about Frankston?
Honestly, I have no idea where Frankston is, I live in NZ ^.^
That’s OK… people in Melbourne deny knowing where Frankston is as well
Frankston is a coastal town about 40km south from Melbourne, one favorite place of derision for it’s bogan (redneck ufo sighting inhabitants). I had a girlfriend from there when I was about 21 (she escaped from Frankston and went to Uni – which her career counselors said was just so she could pick up a doctor).
I came from east of Melbourne near (over the road from) a place called Ringwood, where you would frequently see the local youths out on a friday night carrying their sport shop bags with their new baseball bats… no one played baseball, so there was only one use for that.
I remember at one point saying to my girlfriend how no one went to the den of insanity that was Frankston unless sent there for sealing a loaf of bread. It was too dangerous.
She just laughed, because for her growing up, no one went to Ringwood for the same reasons.
So Franktson was (maybe still is) a cultural, rather than physical hole.
I must admit it, I got distracted and started skipping to the jokes. I liked the Santa one.
The rest of the text was only there to ensure your eyes didn’t immediately scan the answer.
Oh Oh Oh
record-length post is record-length. : )
(and i saw that name-check there… thank you, i think!)
Record length… you giving me records?
A personal best that must be conquered… heroic blogging mode?
I would never use you name in a bad way… I think
Heroic blogging. Now that’s a thought.
AoE the packs of trolls asap.
Don’t type in the void zone.
Beware the enrage timer.
Anything else I need to know before the next attempt?
PS – almost finished with Darths & Droids — aside from all the snorts and giggles, i’m also finding myself pondering just how much TIME it took him/them to make it. the amount of screen caps and the writing and… o.O
That thought has crossed my mind too and they have touched on it particularly with the high movement scenes… but yeah, to pick any moment amazes me.
At least it’s a living comic… Glad I didn’t get to 551 and it was the end… I wonder if they will continue that much power in the players hands…
This week’s reveals Annie’s plans and it just makes me want for more.
Ohh and I just found Giant in the Playground (Order of the Stick)… I logged off soon after I logged on last night avoiding arena and instance offers because I wanted to play in this playground.
So maybe it’s all been done before — but it hasn’t been written the way I (or you) want to write it! And that’s the fun of blogging, and of finding new bloggers to read.
I love Darths & Droids! Have you seen the comic that inspired it, DM of the Rings?
Exactly!
Most of us start this as a personal thing anyway and lord knows I have written on the same topic on contradictory fashion more than once.
Really, there are no limits to the ways one can express…
Gnomeaggedon is OP!
and yes, I am part way through DM of the Rings.
Of course there are also all the others from the makers of Darth&Droids.
Irregular Webcomic! (only 2992 of them!)
mezzacotta
Lightning Made of Owls (341 comics)
Square Root of Minus Garfield (687 comics)
Awkward Fumbles (11 comics)
I used to worry about that, possibly more than is healthy. But I came to think that it really doesn’t matter. Look at the history of all literature. Do you know how many original themes or ideas are written or have been written over thousands of years? Not many. People have been writing about the same crap since cavemen painted their daily quests on their new and improved expanded cave walls.
Today, we talk about the lack of daily quests in such places as Hyjal or whatever in the newest expansion. So I’m with you and say let’s all write whatever, because there’ll always be some new buck out there that hasn’t heard of cavemen before.
Well that sure puts the WoW blogging world and WoW (and from what I hear, Rift) into perspective.
No comment. And if there was one, you’ve probably heard it a thousand times before!
Seriously, though, as you’ve indicated, each of our perceptions and interpretations of the same thing are different. The sharing of those thoughts are what allow us all to be better people by virtue of the fact that we are broadening our own perception by the inclusion of others – sort of a two-sides to every story deal.
Let’s not even mention the fact that you can read the exact same piece of text multiple times and get a different understanding each time.
I know, I was reading one line from a technical document yesterday, that meant what it said, but we lost the whole day of work while we discussed what it’s ‘real meaning’ was.
What are you trying to say? lol
I, uh, herpaderp, must remember to fill out name box before clicking submit…
“What are you trying to say?
”
That any clearer
ahhh, you didn’t use me favorite – what does one call a boomerang that doesn’t come back! a stick.
yup, that brings me down to the floor faster than my seizures.
Go Doggies!
Ahhh the ol’ boomerang is a stick joke… yeah that one will never die… or come back.
Doggies are off to a good start this year… but more importantly, so are the Blues! Playing the Magpies this weekend… bound to be a few friendships shattered (again) this weekend.
[...] Tesh …because they don’t know the words! (OK, that’s a shameless ripoff of Gnomeageddon’s post over here, which got me thinking about a few different [...]
Love you too Gnomeaggedon <3.
Bloggers and players like yourself are the ones who keep me going. You may not realize it but I owe you and the rest of the community my thanks and my salutes.
Ahh so true… it’s isn’t just a circle of post topics, but a circle of inspiration.
Which helps to explain why people are feeling the lull in the WoW Blogging community.
If bloggers are only inspired to write about the death of WoW/Birth of Rift, then others will either be inspired to do the same, at least less inspired to write about WoW.
Always good to know you are around Matt. Love you or hate you (I’m in the love camp, is there anyone in the hate camp?) you are one of the backbones of the community… not that you, or anyone else should feel confined by that.