Play Live Progress and a Tiny Blog Update

Happy Monday everyone! I am working hard to get some steady content back up here. Last month I took two online courses and a webinar that really gave me a lot to think about. The biggest one being- where the hell is the pillar content? I realize I lack it something fierce, so I'm trying to write some things that I think can be interesting and relevant for more than a month :)

Also, as you know, I am participating in St Jude's Play Live. I've been obsessing over it really. Learning how to stream on Twitch has been really fun, and I'm still trying to figure out how to talk on it lol. And its kind of exciting to see when people are watching my games. I'm a pretty private person by nature, and really not even that confident a gamer. I don't even talk in Vent when I play WoW, so putting my face on the screen while playing has been huge for me. I am sad though that I haven't gotten any donations yet, its a little disheartening. I still have the $15 iTunes gift card giveaway happening until the 20th, and nobody has entered :( There are no donation minimums, I cannot stress this enough. Even if you donate one dollar, its a help. I wish I could give you guys the great stuff like video games and headsets, but its just not financially in the cards for me right now. Maybe next year I can come into this with some sponsors, but right now I'm freeballin' it (for lack of a better expression).

The team I'm on (Team TradeChat) is currently number two in the leaderboards for most money raised. This is largely due to Danielle, as she has such a web presence. She really cares about this fundraiser, and I'd like to help her out. And in a really sad turn of events for her, her father passed away from cancer over the weekend. Loads of people asked what they could do for her, and she responded that she'd like them to donate to St Jude. She got a lot of troll lashback for it (which is so rude), but her asking makes perfect sense to me. Her father just died of cancer, and shes trying to help raise money for a place that not only takes care of cancer stricken children for free, but who also do research on cancer.

This post sounds really bitter. I will probably remove it in a fit of blogger's remorse later. Its just that when I focus on things, I really want them to turn out the best they can be. I really want to help Danielle raise all the money she set out to, not only for the St Jude's children, but now for her father. It makes me angry that so many people badmouthed her right after her father died, I want to prove them wrong, that what she's doing is a good thing. And selfishly, I'd like reach the goal I set for myself as well. I want to know that if I set my mind to something, I can achieve it.

St. Jude's Play Live (Updated!)

Hello everyone! I am happy to share this awesome fundraiser that I have signed up to participate in, and I hope you'll sign up for it too.

As you know, I watch Danielle's videos on YouTube quite frequently. She was one of my favorite contestants on season one of King of the Nerds, and it was just major bonus points that she's also a fellow World of Warcraft player. So I was super excited to see this video, explaining her involvement in the upcoming St Jude fundraiser Play Live.
With all the buzz surrounding John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, childhood cancer is having a moment. Which is good, because awareness is never a bad thing. But cancer isn't just having a moment with me, its been a constant in my life. I've had family members that have fought long, hard battles with cancer that they ultimately lost. In my late teens/early twenties, I had precancerous cells removed from some pretty important parts. And since then, I've had a bevy of tumors removed from various other parts. Luckily those have all been benign, but at some point I figure my luck will run out.

I have signed up under Danielle's team (Team TradeChat) to fund raise for this event. Any donations I earn will go towards Danielle's ultimate goal of raising $100,000 for the hospital. I have set my goal at $100, and I hope you'll be there to help me reach it. If I can get five people to join the team by June 12th (the day before the fundraiser officially begins), I will hold a giveaway here on the blog. I have some Attack on Titan, Titanfall, League of Legends things to give away....and that's just for starters. If I can reach that $100 goal I've set for my team by June 20th, I will add in some more awesome prizes. I guess its like Kickstarter...or achievement unlocking. Help me reach my goals, and I'll reward you with awesome goodies :)

This is the first time I'll be live streaming anything, so I'm really nervous about it. I will be playing World of Warcraft and Hearthstone for the streams. I'm not the best player at either game, but I figure I need to get past my gaming insecurities so I can help out this great cause.

I really hope you'll join me on this adventure: http://playlive.stjude.org/krystellemt is my donor page info. Play Live runs from June 13th 2014- September 1st, 2014.

Everyone seems to take on causes whether they mean to or not, and cancer has always been one for me. This St Jude's fundraiser is a great way to support geeky guys and girls in their gaming endeavors while supporting a great cause like St Jude's. And even if cancer isn't your personal crusade, think of all the Augustuses (Augusti?) and Hazels out there that could benefit from St Jude's research and facilities.

WoW Wednesday - BlizzCon 2013 The Recap

Hello Everyone! This post has been a long time coming, so thank you for your patience! My computer issues have been solved for the moment (had to wipe the husband's old laptop and start anew. Mine is still completely dead), so things should be getting back to normal. This post was supposed to go up last Wednesday, but in all the computer mayhem, plus a death in the family, it was lost in the shuffle. It wasn't all horrible though, my lagging gave me the opportunity to find a great contributor to write about her experiences with the virtual ticket aspect of BlizzCon. So yay for that! Lets jump on in, shall we?

I think the biggest thing to come from this year's BlizzCon was the announcement of the new expansion. We all knew it was coming, but finally the confirmation was here. Which should have been a big deal except....a few days before BlizzCon, I saw a post on MMO Champion that said that Blizzard had copyrighted the name Warlords of Draenor in Australia/New Zealand. So really, the news was already out. But its nice that Blizzard made it official :)

Some fun things to come out of the expansion are the garrisons (which seem a little Everquest to me, but I'm still down), level cap raised to 100 and the race remodels.

If you want to see lots of cool pictures from BlizzCon, check out this post from Mandie over at Geeky Glamorous. She got some pretty awesome shots and it looked like so much fun! I am determined to go next year.

And here is TradeChat's video recap of BlizzCon:

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But enough of my ramblings. I am proud to introduce the first (and hopefully not the last) contributed post, written by Kimberlee.

My Thoughts on Virtual Blizzcon 2013

Most. Underwhelming. Xpac. Announcement. Ever.

Ever.

Don’t get me wrong, I like some of the changes that they’re planning to roll out with Warlords of Draenor, like the long overdue item squish. I’m also more than a bit happy that my tabards, toys, and all that stuff will FINALLY have their own tabs rather than occupying my ever dwindling bag space, void storage (no expansion, seriously?!) and bank (also, the bank toon and 5 bank tabs I have there).

But, let me go back to my previous rant for just a moment… Because… Heroes of the Storm got a cinematic but the new expansion didn’t. Every expansion has had a cinematic trailer, except this one. To say I was completely unimpressed with the announcement trailer would be an understatement. Blizzcon gave us in-game footage, concept sketches, a few shots of the new areas that are still under development, and a look at the racial re-skins. None of this felt terribly inspiring, and I think it fell far short of the bar in terms of setting the stage for the feel of the expansion in the way that previous releases have shown us. Re-watch the announcement trailer, and then go back to watch the announcement trailer for Cataclysm, or Pandaria, or ….. You’ll see my point.

We did, however, get a look at the new Alliance and Horde capital cities of Karabor and Bladespire Fortress. Did anyone else notice how, again, the Alliance got a kind of "pretty" starting area while the Horde are shoved into a wasteland of a slightly different flavor? Anyone? But I digress, as much as the cinematic was a TERRIBLE set up for the new world, I think that Draenor, as it was presented in the panels, will be a challenge and hopefully a better version of the things we loved about Outland.

Anyone familiar with the Warcraft book series will be well versed in the lore that is the foundation for Draenor. Those of you familiar with the Warcraft games, specifically 2 and 3, will recognize characters like Grom Hellscream. Hopefully we’ll also see some familiar faces, like Rexxar, since we’re going back to the time before the first war.

While I could go on about all of the impending changes, and a rant about 10 levels without flying (oh, how times have changed since Vanilla), let’s take a quick look at the thing we’re most excited for:

GARRISONS

Customizable housing is long overdue, I’ve been expecting it since Conan released theirs. Thank the Old Gods it won’t be like the housing we’ve seen in games like Ultima. While I’m fairly certain this is going to involve at least a bit of a "mini game" concept, and it’s going to be another level-grind to get to max garrison size, I think the ultimate utility of NPCs who will complete tasks while you’re afk will more than compensate for any inconvenience. (If it’s well executed.) I’m also hoping that eventually we’ll see some of the housing storage utility, like those in games like Star Wars Galaxies.

At the end of the day, I bought the Virtual Ticket for the pet, because I pretty much can’t help myself when it comes to in game collectibles. Presentation aside, I think Warlords of Draenor has the potential to take the playability of the game to a whole new level for all players, regardless of raiding or guild affiliation.

Poppin' Off- Nerdy Reality TeeVee

Being nerdy is a thing now. So like anything thats trendy, there are teevee shows about being nerdy. Some might say it even exploits being nerdy. I'm going to talk about a few shows and how I feel about them, and feel free to tell me in the comments below if you think reality nerd teevee is helpful or detrimental to the nerd culture.

*My Life As Liz (MTV)- This to me is the first reality nerd teevee show. Started in 2010, it followed Liz Lee and her Nerd Herd through her senior year in a small Texas town. By the time Season 2 was set to air, plenty of critics had come out against the show, calling it more of a sitcom or scripted reality show than actual reality (MTV prefers to call it a mockumentary at this point). I loved the show, I loved Liz Lee. I still think shes a good representation of a nerd girl and it was a nice change of pace from the regular trashy chicks MTV usually features on their "reality"  shows.

This is the Season One cast of My Life as Liz.

*King of the Nerds (TBS)- I was so excited for this show, and I don't think it disappointed. Nerdy guys and gals living in the same house, completing nerd based challenged for a chance to be the King of the Nerds. I felt that the guys that were cast for the first season fit the nerd stereotype a lot more than the girls did (with the exception for Alana. And when I wasn't hating her for being annoying, I felt sorry for her, because she didn't fit in at all). My favorites for the season were Ivan and Danielle (aka TradeChat! I post her WoW videos from time to time), and even though neither one of them won, they did get awfully close. And I think Genevieve probably should've been the winner, because she was nerdier than Celeste. BUT, it was a game, and Celeste is a pro gamer, so its really no surprise.

That's me with Ivan at WonderCon this year in Anaheim. He was such a nice guy and I was having a total fangirl freakout meeting him! 

*Heroes of Cosplay (SyFy)- Honestly, I didn't know this show existed until about two weeks ago. I mean, I heard a little about it on Instagram (its actually the reason I'm writing this), but I couldn't tell you anything about it. I was writing a paper on gender confusion and needed some background noise. I saw that the SyFy channel was marathoning the show, so I clicked over to it. Big mistake. I was sucked in right away, and it took forever for me to get my paper done. I've heard a lot of cosplayers complain about the show though, saying its too Project Runway and portrays the world of cosplay as cutthroat and mean. Well, I love Project Runway, maybe that's why I got sucked in? Lol, really though. I didn't catch that vibe. And as far as the cattiness, or drama that was shown, well......that's reality teevee for you. But, I am also not a cosplayer, so I don't know anything about costume construction or contests or anything about that world. And if I had a hobby that I loved and a show was made about it, but I thought it misrepresented it, I'd be pretty pissed too.

*Fangasm (SyFy)- Oh Fangasm, the new kid on the block. I didn't get to watch the show the night it premiered, I had to wait a few days (thank goodness for DVRs). I heard that this show is what nerd reality teevee is supposed to be, and its the second reason why I'm writing this. But......I didn't see the difference between this show and say, King of the Nerds. Here, they are seven interns, working to make Stan Lee's Comikaze a success. Okay. But they are still living in the same apartment, and are still completing nerdy objectives. To me, its like a nerdy version of Real World (awkward hot tubs moments and all). Doesn't mean I hate it though. In fact, I really loved how Molly was so disappointed when they went to the Geek Pride Day event, and saw all the skanky girls dressed as superheroes and actually said something about it exploiting geek culture. Its fake geek girls like them that give the rest of us a bad name, and kudos to Molly for pointing it out. I think there will be a lot of fun to come out of the series, and hopefully there will be a season two so I can audition :) Who wouldn't want to intern for Stan freaking Lee?!!?!

The cast of Fangasm.

WoW Wednesday- Preparing For The Siege of Orgrimmar

I know, I know. I'm late to the party. The announcement for its official release date was like two weeks ago. But with my little Internet absence I missed writing about it right away, but that doesn't mean I can't still write about it now :)

Above is the trailer, I think it looks pretty awesome. Here is the link to Battle.net regarding the above video. Now, a lot of people are excited for this, mostly because we get to kill Garrosh lol. But I think the concept is interesting, a leader actually breaking away from his faction to do his own thing. For a long while my husband and I had talked about the prospect of Sylvanas breaking away and doing her own thing, since she has the Forsaken on her side. But I suppose Garrosh is a nice substitute. Although, it is a little sad that the pretty Panda lands are getting destroyed. I haven't really had a chance to explore them (I only have one Level 90 and a few 86's, but I haven't gone through all the quests in Panderia yet). Here is Blizzard's guide for getting prepared for the patch. Are you ready for it? Excited for it, or disappointed? Let me know down below :)

Also, here's a video from Panser aka Trade Chat about some of the things going on in Patch 5.4.

WoW Wednesday- Child Neglect and the World of Warcraft

The other day I was watching the video down below (thank you Trade Chat!) and it saddened me to hear that another WoW playing couple was in trouble for child abuse. I don't have tolerance for child abusers, I really don't. There isn't anything a child can do to an adult to warrant hatred, neglect, abuse, whatever the case is. And I have no problem with child abusers being put on blast in the media, they deserve to be shamed. What sucks though, is that when they play a game like World of Warcraft, the media hones in on it like the game is the cause of these people's awful parenting skills. Like these people wouldn't be neglectful, horrid people on their own. And you know they probably would be. But they give the rest of us a bad name.

I am a parent of two young children, and my husband and I both play World of Warcraft. Our children are well fed, well dressed and very well taken care of. We don't play WoW all the time. We only play together on his days off or a little bit before he goes to work. Most of the time he plays when he gets home from work and I'm already sleeping. I'll play when hes at work sometimes, but only if one of my children is napping and the other one is where I can see or hear them. Also, I don't raid. I decided a long time ago that raiding isn't for me (people take it way too seriously, and really, I don't have the time to sit there all night fighting the same boss over and over). He raids though, and that's fine. I'm still available for our kids if they need us, and we can both still play the game. It baffles me how people can get so caught up in the game that they don't address their children's most basic needs.

When I first started playing WoW, I was in a really great guild. I miss that guild a lot, except for this one girl. She was the type of girl that girl gamers hate - she constantly used the fact that she was a girl to get things that she wanted in-game. Anyway, she was always logged on. I mean, always. It didn't matter what time I signed on, she was always on. She's kind of like Clara from the Guild (just not as funny). At first I thought she might just be lonely and all her friends were in-game, which I kind of understand (I don't really have any friends locally, and at that time, that guild held all the people I could count as friends). But you could hear her kids yelling for things to eat when she was talking on Vent and she'd get so put out about it. And when her husband was home, she never did anything. She always made him do stuff for the kids. He was in our guild too, so we got hear both sides of it. Eventually it came out that she had started a thing with someone in the guild, and he went to visit her. He said that her house was filthy. He said that it smelled like urine, and that she let her kids run around in just their dirty diapers. He also said that the kids were really dirty, and that she barely fed them (mostly just juice and crackers). And even while he was there, all she wanted to do was play WoW. Talk about an addiction. I do believe that authorities were called on her, but I don't think anything ever came of it. I always think about her when I hear about these abuse stories though, if shes going to be one of them one day. I don't play on her server anymore, and since her guildie romance went South, I don't know anyone that talks to her. I can only hope that shes changed her priorities and put her kids ahead of WoW.

Whats that tip from Blizzard that appears occasionally on the loading screen? Take everything in moderation, even World Of Warcraft (I might be paraphrasing there). More people should take Blizzard's advice.