May 2, 2012
Pretty Much Terrible All The Time: wonders of the world

Note: the author here is my GM, and the player in question is me, as I brave the strange new world of PvP.

snackerston:

I want to take a moment and really express how goddamn amazing everything is.

This morning I had a conversation with friends who live in Virginia and Florida about how best we can help a friend who lives in Britain play a video game better, and had more people from the Netherlands and other places jump into the conversation.

The conversation spanned about a half hour, and every bit of communication was held under the constraints of a maximum of 140 characters of text/numbers/etc., that every bit of dialogue was condensed to the purest form of mutual respect, adoration and a genuine willingness to help each other. 

We come from different worlds, different generations of life; our lives are all in a number of different directions. Some of us are married, some have children, some are dating, some are single, some are collegiate educated, some barely finished high school, but take one moment to realize that we had a conversation spanning thousands of miles in every direction nigh instantaneously and realize, really get that the internet is fucking magic, a wonder even sci fi writers like Eddings, Gibson and Asimov had NO CLUE how to predict accurately.

This is probably why I like social media a lot, besides the whole “having a global audience for masturbation jokes” thing.

3:08pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z0ey1yKlDHdx
(Notes: 10)
  
Filed under: world of warcraft community i fucking love this game gotta gear that pvp chicken 
April 12, 2012
"

The most important element of my experience with World of Warcraft is summed up right there: the community I’ve discovered as a result of the game. World of Warcraft, more than any single other activity or hobby I’ve ever had, has brought me some of the best and most treasured friends of my life. It’s opened my eyes to new possibilities in my career pursuits. It’s challenged me to flex my creative drive in ways I never dreamed I would.

Through World of Warcraft communities I discovered modern thinking on social justice and I met many people from diverse backgrounds who have challenged my perceptions in ways I will forever appreciate. I do not wish to insinuate that I never could have developed these things without World of Warcraft, because I certainly hope that I would have, however it just so happens that in my life Warcraft was the medium through which these things came to me. Surely that is something special.

Life sometimes takes us through dark places, and often the light we rediscover while there is cradled in the hands of other people. One of my favorite quotes is from the book Contact, by Carl Sagan, and it sums up what I feel rather well:

“You’re an interesting species, an interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone. Only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable… is each other.”

Thank you, World of Warcraft, for giving me more of the each other.

"

— from Ilaniel’s “The Last Place I Expected, the First Place I Looked”

7:31am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z0ey1yJXIYXd
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: community friendship world of warcraft 
March 30, 2012
"

Your stories are personal – and the more personal they are, the bigger a risk you take when you lay them out in front of people, all your words in what you hope are the proper order. When people reject that, they’re not only rejecting the work you put into writing, but a slice of your history and identity.

It’s pretty scary stuff. So sometimes, maybe, you try to hold stuff back. I know I have a few lines - they’re pretty far out there and, honestly, the name of my game here seems to be Writing About Embarrassing Moments and Nail Polish so it isn’t like we’re running up against many of my boundaries. But there are a few things I still regard as utterly private. I think I’m not the only one who has those private things. And then it gets even more scary - because you have to negotiate sharing the personal so you can get that connection (which is the most addicting payoff ever) without alienating people.

It’s definitely a tightrope walk; it feels dangerous when you don’t have your mental balance.

I’m not complaining when I talk about this stuff. Because, holy shit, you guys, as scary as it can be when it’s hard, writing for you is such a rush.

That’s part of the payoff of confessional blogging, for me. The idea that we can reach through our screens to each other is life changing.

"

— Marianne Kirby

3:54pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z0ey1yIozawK
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: community writing so many feels 
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