Saturday, December 17, 2016

Gender Dysphoria in Modern Culture
With recent political swings, general public interest, and a growing community, it is more important now than ever to discuss Gender Dysphoria, more commonly known as Transgender individuals, both in a clinical use and cultural sense. Full disclaimer: this is an extremely volatile, heated debate and it is one I am a fully biased in. I will try my hardest to keep any strong opinions from leaking through, but in reality, this is bound to happen on some level.
Firstly I’d like to define what Gender Dysphoria is. The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of mental disorders IV (DSM-5) plainly defines Gender Dysphoria as “people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they identify with”. This is the most basic, umbrella term that still conveys the idea of dissatisfaction with ones at birth sex. While this definition is generally agreed upon, it leaves two keywords undefined.
“Gender at birth” is used instead of the much more common term “sex”, your sex being determined by firstly genetic makeup (XX chromosome/ XY chromosome, or the more present one in cases of multiple chromosomes), secondly by the presence of genitalia corresponding to one of the two binary genders (nonbinary will be discussed at a later point) and lastly by other physical attributes such as breast tissue, hair growth patterns, muscle/fat distribution, etc.  To put it simply, your nonmental and physical attributes determine what sex you are with very little medical abilities available to change it.  The second term, “Identify” or “Gender Identity” is slightly trickier to explain. Gender Identity refers to how one sees him/her/them/xi/ci/elves and how said person wishes to be seen, treated and act according to. While in a typical sense this refers to an at birth male wishing to be a female or vice versa, in the recent decade it has been discovered many more gender identities are possible to develop than the traditional binary roles.
Now in whole, symptoms of Gender Dysphoria vary wildly and extremely based on social position, political/social views, and/or sex; however, there are a few general placements we can put to begin a general evaluation and help determine wants from psychological needs.
In young (at birth) males (children 4-11 years or pre-puberty) the most present and common symptom is a feeling that one day they will no longer be a boy, a strong idea that gender is a timer and one day they This is where you get the classic comedic idea of “When I grow up I want to be a girl!” when the teacher quizzes the preschoolers . I remember from my own childhood a very strong and constant thought that gender was more of a flip flop thing. No one stayed a boy forever, that was obviously ludicrous. From that I often had a vivid fantasy about all the toys I would have and all the girly things I would do when my clock finally hit pink. Short of that, a strong and consistent urge to participate female clothing, ¨strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent fantasies of being the other sex¨(DSM-IV, Gender Dysphoria) and a strong aversion from rough and tumble play, preferring softer less physical games.
In young (at birth) women (children 4-11 years or pre-puberty) it is exhibiting by a refusal of sitting in a urinating position, to the point of anger or tears. It also consists of a strong insistence that they will produce or grow male genitalia.
In adolescents, the signs mature to a different degree. It should be noted that it is possible that individuals can mature away from gender dysphoria through puberty due to the rush of hormones that accompany it, however; those who do not are shown to exhibit a much high chance of depression, anxiety, and being anti-social than their cis(that is, those who identify with their sex) peers. For more than a six month period, a subject must exhibit a consistent want(or psychological need) to be treated as and act like the opposite gender.
There is also, in some subjects, a strong intense hatred of their body, particularly those aspects that are affiliated with the opposite gender (Hoover-31). From personal experience, I can say this is one of the most difficult things for non-trans individuals to understand. The first, most important note is that every individual feels this in their own way, with their own emotions and consistencies. So it is impossible to accurately describe this feeling across a wide and diverse population but I can certainly describe my own. At best, it leaves itself as a near constant deep discomfort. A feeling of being locked in a dark cellar with no door or comforts, all but a single window to which one can peer at the great castles laying upon the hills while never being able to reach them. It is the feeling of utter hopelessness. Now, in contrast, you have the aggressive depression. The days when I look in a mirror and scream at the monstrosity staring back at me. The days I feel like I’m in the stomach of a monster who won’t let me out. The days when your “man hair” feels like a billion tiny needles injecting you with despair. The days when the only reason you don’t peel your skin off is the length of your fingernails. Those are the darkest days.
It is shown that transgender people have a significantly increased chance of severe depression and anxiety(Dentato-Minority Stress Perspective). This is very typical for a minority group, however, the rates and severity are drastically increased. The average rate of successful or attempted suicide in transgender youth is ¬44%(Malone-Trans suicide rates are staggering). To put that in comparison, the average for the middle class, white families is 14%, which is one of the highest groups in the country(AFSP-Suicide rates 2015).
The theories surrounding why this is are very generalized and widely unproven. This is due to the simple fact that depression, like many other things, is experienced uniquely by each individual in their own different and special way. However, in the update from DSM four to DSM five, it is stated that any form of depression or anxiety does not actually originate from being trans in and of itself  but societies view and expectations of them that cause such disturbance in mental process   
Individuals may or not seek counseling to help cope with the transition process, either for daily life or any deeper rooted mental disorder that's come about due to it. One typically stays in counseling for the majority of the transition period, which normally lasts one to two years, and is required to begin a medical transition.
Now medical transitioning is separated into four parts. The first two are separated into “top” and “bottom”. In trans men, top surgery implies the removal of breast tissue via an incision in the lower chest(average cost-$4000) while bottom surgery implies the creation of a neoplastic penile structure. For trans women, top surgery implies an incision either to the side or bottom of existing chest cavities to implement realistic implants(~2,500 dollars). While bottom, or Vaginoplasty, is the creation of a vagina like an apparatus (~$12,600).

The most common and sought after form of medical transition is that of Hormone Replacement Therapy (shortened: HRT). The endocrine system is responsible for emitting hormones into the body's bloodstream. In males, this system typically releases testosterone, a chemical responsible for emotional aggression, muscle growth, and sexual depth. It's counterpart, estrogen, is emitted within the female sex more prominently as it creates emotional depth, and establishes secondary female aspects such as muscle distribution, hairline and more prominent underarm/pubic hair and less prominent sexual arousal.
When undergoing HRT an individual begins to experience physical and mental changes typical for the opposite sex. While there are some things it simply cannot change, such as facial structure, height, bone structure, for trans women vocal depth, and trans men the voice is changed only slightly. However; trans men will begin experiencing facial/chest hair, large muscle growth, particularly behind the femur and mental aspects experienced by cis males.
In trans women, a great decrease in muscle growth(seriously I've lost like fifteen pounds of the stuff), increased fat in the lower abdomen, hips and in front of the femur as well as petite breast tissue growth. Over a two-year period, providing for the therapy, medicine itself, doctor's appointments the bill comes out to about 3,000 with no direct surgery that is almost never covered by insurance.
It should also be noted that trans people do not always follow the binary role, that does not identify as male or female. These people, often labeled as non-binary or genderqueer, tend to be a result of a mix of estrogen and testosterone leading to an identification that is somewhere outside and in between male and female. These individuals often find themselves in a position of oppression and invalidation(David- Physics teacher refuses to debate), despite the fact multiple research studies have this to be a real psychological event that affects a large majority of the transgender population(Psychology Today- None of the above).
While some nonbinary individuals relate more so to one gender then the inverse of said one, but each individual may or may not experience dysphoria in their own individual cases. These spurts of dysphoria tend to be directed at a both binary genders aspects, but only certain parts. While some people may wish to be rid of their facial hair another would relish it, some may crave to have chest tissue while others have attempted to claw theirs off. Non-binaries are notoriously difficult to analyze due to their non-standard, crazy or otherwise atypical behavior.  These individuals also commonly present a linguistic challenge, as there is no third to he/she. In the cause of this, most nonbinary individuals will go by ẗhey/them, extending it to include a single individual in more cases. Others have suggested adding ze/zem or xe/xem to compensate for this.
Gender fluid individuals, on the other hand, are the chimera of scientific gender explanation. No one is quite sure what causes this abnormality; however, a gender fluid individual is one who changes their identity and is dynamic over the course of a period of time. These individuals experience what is known as dynamic dysphoria(Gender Fluid Generation- Evolving Gender Norms). That is, while on a day they may feel deeply that they hate their breast tissue another day they will feel incredibly comfortable being female, proud in fact, and on another, they may wish to be neither. Due to this overly dynamic nature, many gender fluid individuals tend to not receive any form of re-assignment surgery. Some will begin HRT to give themselves more androgynous appearance. These cases are exceptionally rare due to the strong dynamic changes that come with being genderfluid.

Overall, Dysphoria has come a long way since the days of shock therapy and exorcisms but that process is far from being over. If we all just took a little time out of our lives to inform ourselves, we could improve the lives of 1.4 million people in the U.S, as well as allow ourselves to be a more modern, more educated, and a freer individual.  

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Rant+Lack of posting



Just saying, doesn´t seem right.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Playstation Plus Price change

Something slightly different than the typical coverage of this blog, Sony recently announced a price change for Playstation plus membership. The year long plan will move up 10 dollars, to 60, and the three month up seven, to 25. When asked why they made this change sony responded "The new pricing reflects the current market conditions while enabling us to continue providing exceptional value to our members," leading several to believe recent failures have taken a larger hit on the company than expected. What do you guys think about this? 

Friday, August 19, 2016

Thoughts on the OPERA WING

So the second wing of Karazhan is out and, I'm a little disappointed. The "on the nose shakespear" theme of the Julianne fight was somewhat amusing but the Romulo mechanic was straight up annoying. The Big Bad Wolf fight could of been really fun, if it wasn't so easy. Say, if the wolf had 30 health then it would be much more enjoyable. The last witch fight was ok, but frankly it's just too bland and doesn't really add that much to the fight.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Why Chess and Malchezaar are my favorite adventure challenges

So I've seen a lot of hate specifically for the prologue of one night of Karazhan, while it is one of my favorite. This is because people are getting upset because, of all things, you can't make your own deck so it becomes "less strategically approachable and therefor less competitive."

If that sentence made no sense to you, you're not alone. Firstly, the adventures aren't supposed to be competitive, merely unlocking tools to be competitive(or for further fun). Secondly, the "competive" version of adventures, heroics, is still rather difficult without editing a deck. Lastly, as a personal choice I prefer not making decks for encounters, so I can go back to visit old ones without having my deck slots backed up with working decks.

Just a few thoughts, nothing major. Should have a large post out by the 22cnd. See you guys next time!

Friday, August 12, 2016

Thoughts on Legion invasions

So demon invasions have been out for a few days and I have been enjoying every single one I can get to. Here are a few of my thoughts: 

Just throwing it out there, I am a roleplayer and PVP addict so the raid like bosses(particularly the last demon lord of each event) are no where close to my comfort zone and I tend to die a lot during these, so fair warning. 

As a quick rundown:The first stage of the scenario is essentially killing a bunch of trash mobs in a random one of 6 zones, the second killing essentially 3 dungeon/mini bosses. The third is a bit more complicated. Several locations spawn throughout the zone that include trash mobs, mini bosses etc. After all those are defeated then a legion commander raid boss that everyone groups up and kills and happy happy fun times ahead. 

And then another opens up a few hours later so on and so fourth. The rewards are a little lack luster but overall cover a large majority of players (raid gear, transmog and battle pet). The only thing missing is a mount which is a little disappointing, but i'd rather they put that time into actual legion content rather than a crappy mount in the prelaunch event.

Now i've been told the demonic whispers event(the thing where players turn into demons) is implamented, but I have yet to see it actually happen. 

The last thing of note here is that these invasions will increase in frequency as legion draws closer. So yea, demons.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016


Fair warning before I start talking: I am a Alliance player, period stop the end. I'm aware the Horde version of the Broken Shore tells a very different story, but being honest I can't bring myself to play it. 

Now then, let's do a quick recap of what happened:
  • Genn/Janna launched a third force onto the Broken Shore with the players
  • After chopping throught demons, they meet up with Malfurion, Varian, Tyrande and the rest of the crew
  • Continues the chopping of demons
  • The group finds Gul'dan holding Fordring over a pit of fel......stuff(Wait what is all that green goo anyway?) 
  • Gul'dan summons a demon lord thing that promptly fries Fordring and the forces of the Alliance and Horde promptly battle the demon and slay it
  • After a push farther and a chase to Gul'dan the Alliance make an all out stand against the demons Gul'dan continues to summon. 

  • Sylvanas calls a retreat, leaving the Alliance exsposed

    • Eventually, their lines break and Varian calls for a retreat via gunship
    • Varian sacrifices himself to kill a massive demon/infernal thing that Gul'dan summoned

    Now you can sum up my feelings on this as about the same as Genn. I'm pissed, angry and want fucking vengeance(so much in fact I actually made a pug and killed Sylvanas in Undercity. Helped get some of the anger out). Overall the event told a very good story(I've heard stories of people literally crying during it) and. It's amazing seeing some of the lesser seen leaders like Gelbin and Genn will always be my favorite leader(If they kill him SOMEBODY IS GONNA DIE). The entire thing is almost entirly voice acted similar to the demon hunter starting zone(more on that in a separate article) and while it's definitely a casual scenario there was still some ok difficulty in there even for those who play for the story. 

    Some final thoughts:
    fuck gul'dan
    fuck the Horde
    FUCK the legion 

    Ah, that was good to get out.  Sorry to all my Horde readers(i'm actually being half sorry this time) and I look forward to what legion has in store.

    Sunday, August 7, 2016


    You guys seem to like my opinion on cards, so lets do this again.

    Today we'll start looking through the cards by class, so lets start with huntard:

    (also this is my third time writing this because blogger was being  stupid and not publishing my work, so I apologize if it's a little under par)

    Not much to say here. Good 4/3 stat line and gives some resistance to board clear.Slightly worse vs rouge/druid/mage but definitely balanced and playable.

    Clearly not for midrange or aggro hunter, on turn 3 you usually want to play a beast to use Houndmaster on turn 4 plus hunter has almost 0 card draw mechanic. Probably best in Yogg and Load.

    Well, with Freezing Trap, Explosive Trap, Snake Trap, Bear Trap and this one, Hunter has enough good secrets to run a mix of them instead of running just one pair of one secret as usual. This diversity will make each of those secrets stronger just because the surprise factor. I mean, yeah, Freezing Trap is strong, but when your opponent knows exactly that the secret you are paying is that one, it becomes weaker because it's easier to play around that. Now, new hunter cards like Cat Trick and Cloaked Huntress make that secret diversity much more viable, making all of them individually stronger.

    Dear god please work and thanks for reading.

    Monday, August 1, 2016

    Thank you guys so much.

    So we just hit 1000 page views and I could not be any more grateful. When I created this blog about a year ago it was for a school project. Now it it's my passion and lively hood. I'm living the dream I've had since I was a child and it's you guys who made all of this possible.

    Another shout out to Inquisitor Aura and Serendeth. I've never told you this, but I would have never seen this blog past 300 views if I had never seen how hard you two work. I could never ask for better coworkers or friends :).

    Now to something a bit more major. As you may have noticed of late, the ads on my blog have stopped showing up. This is because I have terminated my contract with Google Adsense. I did this for several reasons, first and foremost that if I want to promote something I want it to be a PARTNERSHIP and having big brother Google looming over my shoulder just wasn't cutting it. Secondly I didn't like the look it gave. It was giving off the impression I was a money gruber doing this for easy cash. That being said, the pay didn't make up for either of these. To put into perspective, I do about 2-3 hours of research on standalone articles(like the league rp introduction) and maybe about and hour to half an hour of actual writing. As pay for that, on a good month I was earning ~1.30. So you can understand why I decided to drop out. Now to make up for this I will have to do promotion deals every now and then. I will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS clearly disclose this at the beginning of the article. I won't sponsor shifty services like boosting and will try to keep it to services id actually use. I'll also make sure I never do two in a row just to make sure things don't go stale.

    So that's a quick rundown  make sur to check out aura and Serendeth if you havnt already!

    Sunday, July 31, 2016


    We havnt really talked about hearthstone as much as I think we shoyld on this site, so here are my thoughts on the currently announced cards for one night at KARAHZAN

    Class: Warlock
    Card type: Minion 
    Rarity: Common 
    Mana cost: 1
    Card text: Whenever you discard a card, draw a card.
    Attack: 1
    HP/Dura: 3
    Other notes: Demon

    Remmeber that REALLY stupid mill yourself deck totalbiscuit did a while back? Yea this is bassicly "mill myself" the card. It has some uses like negating the effects of cards like soul fire, but for the aweful Attack/health and the fact it will never be played on curve means I doubt this card will see competitive light. 

    Class: Neutral
    Card type: Minion 
    Rarity: Rare
    Mana cost: 6
    Card text: If you're holding a Dragon, destroy an enemy minion with 3 Attack or less.
    Attack: 3
    HP/Dura: 6
    Other notes: Dragon
    Firstly, Blizzard you will never live down that pun. 

    Otherwise, this seems like a very well balanced card. It has a similar effect as stampeding kodo but with the benefit of targeting the minion as well as triggering other dragon effects. The attack leaves something to be desired but if it clears one minion and takes out a few lower cost ones(Malchezaar's Imp) then your getting value. 

    Class: Neutral
    Card type: Minion
    Rarity: Legendary
    Mana cost: 3
    Card text: Stealth At the end of your turn, summon a 1/1 Steward.
    Attack: 1
    HP/Dura: 1
    Other notes: Steward is a vanilla 1/1 - Blue source 

    Zoolocks dream, the stealth means it must be aoe down or get a lucky ogre swing. The major downside is losing a strong turn three, and if your playing against a Mage then this card isn't going to be doing much. But in control match ups you can get immense value from this one minion if your opponent can't remove it. 

    Raving Grimoire Babbling Book -
    Class: Mage
    Card type: Minion
    Rarity: Rare
    Mana cost: 1
    Card text: Battlecry: Add a random mage spell to your hand
    Attack: 1
    HP/Dura: 1

    An odd filler card, I can see it being used in a freeze Mage deck where you don't have a strong turn one anyway but short of that its just another random effect to add to the pile. 

    Those are all the ones currently on the r/ competitive hearthstone list, so I know I missed a ton but that should give you an idea of my thoughts right now  

    Tuesday, July 26, 2016


    Now that OW has been released for about a month or so and the meta is settling into the usual ups and downs, it's time to look at the state of the game on console. 

    To begin, there is the straight up problem of precision characters being unplayable. Hit scan weapons(Widowmaker and Ana scoped) generally are in a weak, but usable place. However since the fan the hammer nerfs and hit box changes to Mcree and Hanzo have left them in a almost unplayable state. Mcree is the better of the two being able to still kill flanking tracers and genjis with flashbang/fan/fan combo and having a decent-ish ultimate to wipe and push. However; his primary fire is basically unusable unless your aiming at large targets like roadhog or reinheardt. 

    Hanzo is in a much, much worse spot. Since the hit box changes that made it much more difficult to get hits with his arrows, he has brought nothing to consoles. Sonar arrow is useful but this is only in specific situations and maps, making it conditional power. His scatter arrow is able to kill medium health squishies but fires somewhat unpredictably. His primary fire is difficult to hit, is a projectile weapon(i.e not scan weapons therefor even harder to hit) and on top of all that has no scope or zoom. Add all this onto the console's already sketchy aiming, and it all adds up to him being unplayable. 

    Being honest, I have no idea how to fix these short of a full on rework(which i'm starting to think Mcree needs anyway). What do you guys think?

    Monday, July 25, 2016


    Legion is promising a bunch of brand new features and new content, lets look at some of the most exciting things coming up. 

    1.Class order halls are what garrisons SHOULD have been 


    3.We get to fight demons as demon hunters. cool.

    4. Artifact weapons, need I say more? 

    5."Do anything, anytime" Mentality 

    and number 6.

    Friday, July 22, 2016

    Mini Game: LVL RACE


    FEAR NOT, for this week I bring you another mini game to pass the time.

    Players: at least 2 
    Requirements: None! You can even do this on a starter account. 
    Play time: Varies 

    This mini game is based around starting from a level one new character to a pre-agreed upon level. I recommend 10-15 for a shorter play session, 30-45 for a few day's worth or 60 if you want to have a longer race.

    Both players can choose their own race/class 
    Set a predetermined location to end at (Goldshire, boar pin outside of Orgrimar, or other well known locations) 
    No heirlooms aloud 
    No lfd or lfr 
    Dungeons are aloud but you may not que for them

    That's the rules! While they are simple, I find that this mini game is actually very mechanically deep and allows for several very interesting strats.

    Wednesday, July 20, 2016


    Blizzard has mad it very clear that they want to encourage a "play your way" style to Legion. so here is a quick rundown on the different activities available to you.

    Raiding+Dungeons: We currently know of three introductory raids(The Emerald Nightmare. Suramar Palace and night hold) as well as 9 dungeon (Such as the Eye of Azshara). 
    As for game play, Blizzard has said "We want to keep the over all feel and play style of WoD but put the raids themselves in more interesting locations." 

    On top of that, they have also said they want to make Dungeons more than a steeping stone into raiding. They are doing this by giving more progression to dungeons, mainly via artifact power.

    PvP: Blizzard is completely revamping the PvP system. 
    Firstly, honor system is completely gone(don't worry, you'll get paid for the honor you already have)

    Gear is being made almost useless, as all stats will be normalized when you enter the battleground. This means that everyone has a roughly equal shot in winning the battleground/skirmish/arena. The only exception is some minor enchantments or artifact weapon augments will give you tiny boosts, however; Blizzard has said this is something they are being very weary of and would not be afraid to remove in a heartbeat. 

    Probably the largest change is the pvp leveling system. 
    Now when you complete Arenas/Battlegrounds/Ashran objectives, you will earn XP towards your pvp level. Leveling this up gives access to new abilities only usable in pvp zones. Once you reach max level(50), you can prestige yourself back to level 1 to earn cosmetics. 

    World quests: Blizzard is completely overhauling the daily quest system from MOP. 

    They have done their best to remove the "shopping list" feeling from MOP by adding in WAY more quests that cycle through every 2-6 hours. They also made the rewards for these quest much more immediately substantial, mainly by giving large amounts of gold, toys, pets,mounts, artifact power etc.

    These quests will tie into other forms of content(such as pvp or dungeons) and are very diverse in the gameplay(apparently we get to turn into a murloc and go kill other players, so that's a thing.)

    RP: While roleplayers don't have anything particular aimed at them, they did get some nice new toys as a side affect. 

    • Revamped Dalaran
    • Class Order halls, especially for military guilds
    • New, easy access transmog system 
    and on a much smaller note, the /sorry and /threaten emotes are now voiced! 

    So that's a quick rundown on the upcoming expansion, what do you guys think? 

    Make sure to check out my twitter!:

    Monday, July 18, 2016


    So remember back when Smite was getting sued over showing hindu gods in their game?

    Guess what overwatch is getting!

    So the leader of Universal Society of Hinduism is "complaining" to blizzard about the Devi skin and how you "control Devi".

    Obviously this news has gotten many blizzard fans riled up, what do you guys think?

    Thursday, July 14, 2016

    I want to know what YOU GUYS want.

    With the current situation of WOW in it's "dry season", I figured i'd take the time to ask what YOU want to see from this blog! Let me know any ideas you have in comments below, i'd love to read your suggestions. 

    Tuesday, July 12, 2016


    But I definitely called everything in Ana's kit.

    For those who don't know, the next hero will Pharah's mother. I don't have any thoughts on it that I didn't cover in my last post, so check that out!

    Saturday, July 9, 2016

    Mini game time!

    With wow being such a passion for as long as it has been, I have practically explored every potential pass time possible with this game, including mini games. Now back when I was guild master of Drake Balls(I kid ye not, that was our name), our entire guild was based around doing exceptionally stupid things around Azeroth. So I figured i'd share a few stupid ideas we had!

    The Great Azeroth Race!

    This one is straight forward, but VERY fun. It can be done with as few as two people to upwards of infinite! Let's begin with the rules:

    Personally, I think this race works much better if your playing horde side but i'll throw in an alternate version for our boys in blue.

    No MAGE teleport, and no planned mage portals. I would recommend banning portals all together if your group is 3+ or if you have that one friend who is a dirty cheater. 

    Hearthstones are banned as well for the same reason 

    That is to say druid, dk, engi and any other teleport you can think of is totally legal. 
    Here is a map of the first leg of the race
    All players will start at the end of the dock in Booty bay. The first portion is a free race to the portal in Silvermoon that takes you to the Undercity, then to the zeppelin to Orgirimar. 

    Once you get to orgrimar, the next stop is the corner of sithalus

    After that the first person to buy Melon Juice from Dargon in Moon glad shall be the ultimate racer to end all racers

    Hope you enjoy! I've done this a couple of times and it's always been a blast.

    Ok I took two days to plan this whole thing out so I'll get the Alliance version up asap! 

    Thursday, July 7, 2016


    So we FINALLY have some more info on Overwatch’ next hero:Sombra.

    Firstly, we know that Blizzard said that they are going to talk about Sombra, specifically SOMBRA, at gamescom. As a side note, they also promised Rio as a new map and a new game mode.

    Secondly there's this jewel:

    So what I'm gathering is we know there working on a support sniper, and if this sniper is equipped with the same tech as mercy caucuses staff, then we'll probably see a similar style to mercy but instead of switching between healing/ damage boost it will switch between healing shots/ normal shots. If there's going for a biotic feel here both the heal and some of the damage will probably be over time before it expires. If I had to guess she/he/it will probably fill a role similar to zenyatta in being a half support/damage dealer.  (Hopefully better than he does)

    Tuesday, July 5, 2016


    So the RP boards have been up for about a week now, and I have a few points I wanted to say about it. 
    • Trolls, so many trolls 
    I've run a few roleplay threads on the new boards, and not a single one of them have I not gotten less than 3 trolls. Now this is one of the things on this list that we can't really help, it simply fades away with time, but it's still something to look out for.

    • Too much focus on "Ask x!" 
    Now I don't have any problem with the Ask format, but if the trend continues it will be all this board has. I'll admit some of these are very, VERY good(personal favorite), but there is SO much untapped potential outside of these that it would just be a shame if it wasn't realized. 

    • OC's
    While there are a few very good original characters spread around the place but the majority of roleplayers seem to be just be taking the champion, even if the champion already represented in the chat. Honestly this is just annoying, but I suppose it is a good start for beginner roleplayers. 

    Sunday, July 3, 2016

    Let's get this out of the way

    I'm going to write about this topic at some point, so let's get this out of the way.

    Let's address ERP. 

    For a long time erotic roleplay has sort of been an uncle martha of the roleplay family. We tend to ignore it and pretend that goldshire simply doesn't exist, but the thing is it DOES exist and we DO need to address it. Many people enter the RP community after seeing youtubers like Pixel Cat Gamer and wanting to try out the shenanigans for themselves. I know for me personally, this led me to look into less-sexy rp and let me discover my true love of tavern roleplay. 

    This is an important recruiting tactic that we tend to shun without remorse, and frankly it needs to stop. I understand why we shouldn't flaunt it around in front of the rest of the world, but there is no need to shove it into a dark corner in the Lion's pride inn. If you don't participate in ERP, then just acknowledge it exists  and view those who do equally as yourself. And if you do happen to participate, don't shove someone into a scene if they are uncomfortable.


    Friday, July 1, 2016

    Phanmon for Pompous Assh*le

    Hello my fellow Azerothians. My names is Phanmon, and I want to be your new Assh*le.

    Our great world has been plagued for many years by famine, war and random invasion from oddly familiar orcs and totally rad demons. You have been tortured, starved, killed, raised from the dead, killed again, raised again and somehow ended up being a citizen zombie. You may have started as I did, being an enslaved demon by a very rude, loud and VERY ugly forsaken warlock. When I am elected as your Pompous leader, I will fight Vol'troll and Variman for blueberry rights. You will be given full rights of demons and be able to enter the same taverns as your demon brothers. Also, demons will actually be given rights. We will give recently landed demons a way to transfer citizenship from the Burning Legion to either the Alliance or Horde. I will improve relations with the burning legion and give them land to settle. Azeroth will be a beacon of free rights among all the planets. 
    I will crackdown on the use of exceptionally large weapons, leading to less murders and will improve life for all the citizens. 
    I will establish better guard programs to crack down on the black market, and unapproved ERP experiences. We can make Azeroth great again! 

    Thursday, June 30, 2016

    Fun times with recording software

    So the original plan for today was to do a hour long stream with a special challenge, but the game kept disconnecting .

    So naturally I decide to stop streaming but I was really dedicated to this idea. So, I figured it wouldn't hurt to do a youtube video every now and then to spice things up, but the problem persisted.

    4 hours later, still nothing. Sooooooooooooo announcement time!

    I've always loved the idea of doing challenges in certain games that put restrictions on the player in fun and interesting ways. I'm taking my own twist on that. So announcing for the first time:


    Rules will change depending on the circumstance but here area few ground rules:

    1. It MUST be featured around rp, shouldn't have to be said.

    2. It cannot involve anyone not doing rp-I.E I won't jump into a dungeon or battleground UNLESS the other people agreed to do it with me.

    3.Let's leave the ERP to pixel cat, shall we?

    So to kick the series off i'm starting with a doozy. Romantic RP is something i've always admired from a distance but never actually participated in. So, naturally, I give myself the hardest thing you can possibly do in romantic Rp: I'm going to marry someone(in world of warcraft)
    This will likely be about 3 or 4 episodes, but who knows in the end?

    Wednesday, June 29, 2016

    So you want to RolePlay in league of legends?

    Recently a board has been created to be the safe haven for all LoL roleplay. As such, we have many people coming into this community and will be completely lost on what to do. I am going to make this a very short guide to get these players started.

    1. To get started, make sure you have a vague understanding of the lore. You don't have to know every champ bio to the letter, but knowing different locations and events will do you wonders. 
    2. Get an idea for what you want from roleplay. Do you want to play the valiant hero, saving the weak one situation at a time? Or maybe a demacian peasant, struggling to get by and is willing to do anything just to live?
    3. Before you do anything, create an original character based around your idea. There are plenty of very in depth guides online on how to do this, but just know that there are many times you will not be able to roleplay your favorite champion all the time. This means it's good(and often fun) to act out your own character that you can affect it's history and development, rather than having to stick to the written lore. 
    4. Join the League RP discord. While this isn't 100% necessary, it will allow you to reach out to other members of the community and find people to roleplay with.
    5. Head to the league of legends RP board and find a board that seems interesting to you. I'd generally avoid the "ask X champion" threads to start with because the only person getting experience in RP there is the board creator. 
    And just to solidify a few things in, here's a few good tips to help avoid embarrassing situations 

    • This is a rule for almost every RP community, DON'T MAKE YOUR OC TOO POWERFUL. You might think it's awesome to play a world creating, all powerful deity that could "insta-win" a fight but trust me when I say your the only one. 
    • Don't just jump into any RP at anytime. If it's an open RP thread, then wait for a time that is natural to introduce yourself.
    • If you want to say something ooc(that is out of character or as in the person sitting behind a screen) use parenthesis or put )) at the end of the sentence
    • Don't be afraid to ask for help! While other sections of the league community are downright vile, I have not once met a mean or salty roleplayer or one that wasn't willing to help to the best of their ability. 
    Now go on and get out there. If you'd like more detailed instructions on something, i'd suggest you look at riots official Guide for Newcomers 

    Have any other tips? Leave them in the comments below! 

    If you're looking for a RP partner you can message me on the RP discord server or send me a friend request on league(Summoner name-Singady)
     I'm streaming over at you guys should come check it out. YOU MIGHT EVEN GET TO BE ON STREAM

    Tuesday, June 28, 2016

    Interview: Doron's Movies

    The other day I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with Doron’s movies to ask him a few questions about his thoughts on legion. 

     How long have you played wow and what is your main playstyle(pve pvp rp grind etc)

    I started playing World of Warcraft around 2008. My first experience with Warcraft in general was Warcraft II that I played back in 2000 when I was very young. Later I got into Warcraft 3 and I played both Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne a lot, finishing the campaign at least 10-15 times. When WoW was released I was aware of it but due to my bad internet connection I wasn't able to actually play the game, but when I finally upgraded around 2008 I started playing on a private server. In 2010 I finally saved up and bought a retail account where I had played ever since.

    I've never really played the game hardcore in the true sense of the word. When I started I was really into pvp and I spent a lot of time doing it but was never too serious about it. Later I got into raiding and I searched for guilds and did pugs here and there, but it was never on a consistent basis. Around this time I also got into RP and I did roleplay pretty seriously from 2010-2013. Currently I don't really roleplay and I play the game pretty casually but in Legion that might possibly change.

    How do you think legion will effect the state of the game, popularity wise?

    I'm hoping for the best. It seems to have a lot of potential, based on my experience so far in the alpha and the beta. If everything goes well I think Legion could jump start wow back to 7-8 million subscribers at least.

    How will legion affect your channel and your content, if at all?

    Hopefully positively, there was an increase in views and interest in the warcraft franchise when the Warcraft movie was released. Currently a lot of people don't really care about WoW but I'm expecting a few million people returning to the game once Legion is out. That means that more people will be searching for warcraft related youtube content.

    Is there any feature in legion that your particularly wary of?

    Nothing in particular I can really think of. I'm a bit concerned about the artifacts and how that will affect the rarity of the loot we get as when you have the best thing why would you want to search for anything else.

    Last question, what do you want most from legion?

    Honestly just for it to bring wow back to it's previous glory. On top of that I also can't wait to see how the story develops further.

    And there you have it, make sure you all go check out Doron over at

    He's got some really interesting discussion and lode videos and definitely deserves attention. 

    Monday, June 27, 2016


    In the last few weeks this blog has skyrocketed in popularity, so I think it's time we try adding a bit to it.
    Today I am announcing SINGADY’S SUPER AMAZING LEVELING GUEST EXTRAVAGANZA(or the Lvl? Podcast for short).  In this series I will stream over on every week with a different guest. This guest will decide which race and class we will take from level 1- to a number decided by a random number generator. Any number below twenty will be rerolled and the guest decides how we will get to said level. If they want to meet up with a group and do hardcore dungeons or spend all their time doing roleplay for three hours, it's their choice. This means no two episodes will be the same, and funny moments are sure to ensue.

    To celebrate this new endeavor i will be streaming from 7 am(possibly early) to 5 pm(Eastern New York time)  all day long on
    If any other streamers would like to jump on the stream, I'd be glad to mess around with you, just send me a tweet over on @LolipopWthrwind or just say something in chat, I can wait to see you all there!

    Sunday, June 26, 2016

    How to write an RP story!

    While many people can make up their minds that they are going to do RP or maybe took a little nibble and liked what they got, it can be hard to know where to go from there. Well, I am here to give you a step by step guide on creating your very own background!

    Start with a general idea; This doesn't mean you should know EXACTLY  what your character will be. Keep to simple stuff like how they are aligned and if they are extremely important or a simple person.
    (Know that roleplayers tend to shun those who insert themselves into the lore: you might think it's cool to be the lost son of Sargarus and have god like powers, but trust me you'll be the only one. )

    Start filling in details: again don't go too in depth, keep it to things like family, organizations, job etc. Don't try to join a group that is just outrageous, but joining something like the Argent Dawn or going solo are perfectly acceptable.

    Here's the hard part: start developing a story: if you don't have any idea where to start, start thinking about your character from childhood. What did your character enjoy when they where young? What where their parents like? How did some event in their childhood affect them. For example, my character loli’s parents where swords for higher but took it upon themselves to provide aid at the crashing of the Exodar. Loli snuck along with them and witnessed death first hand, in that moment she made up her mind to be a healer. From the childhood think about what would they have been lead to do as a result.(And please avoid the classic “ my parents died when I was young so now I'm hunting their killers” trope. It's frankly just over used. )

    Alright so you have your backstory figured out, you can now go out there and start roleplaying!
    This last part is extra, but a nice touch: fill in tiny little details about a person(favorite flower, food, mount, even find an out of the way housein Azeroth and call it home.) It just gives a nice touch of character to yourself, making it more human.

    Saturday, June 25, 2016

    I recently sat down with the lore toting, spell bending genius Machik from LoreCraft to talk about the upcoming expansion, as well as the direction wow is going.

    Firstly, how long have you been playing wow/ what is your main play style(pvp pve rp etc)?
    Oh wowsers, good question.  Alright, so I started in 2007, just after patch 2.3, early December.  WoW was my first MMO, and so I had a ton to learn.  My main play style today would be mainly RP with PVE as my secondary.  But I've done it all.  Mained PvP toons, mained PvE toons, raid leader during Wrath, and even helped build an RP/PvP alliance one year on the Emerald Dream server.  So I run the gamut, depending on what the state of the game is.

    In general, how do you feel about legion so far?
    Oh man, coming right out with the tough questions.  So, let me say I am enthusiastic, but cautious.  I've started messing around a bit in beta, but I'm one of those that doesn't want to do too much until the xpac drops.  I think Demon Hunter is going to be a lot of fun to play.  I'm excited about artifact weapons, and I really want the class halls to work.  I'll admit, I'm one of those that often looks through rose colored glasses and really enjoyed the story of Wrath, and so for me, if the story is exceptional, then I'm going to love it.  And so far, what I've started to hear about the story, what I've explored in the beta, I think they're moving back in the right direction.  And the recent announcement of fewer xpacs and more patches really has me thinking that we could be in for one heck of a story.

    (I'll admit I have my hopes up as well, but I haven't gotten the chance to go hands on with the beta.)
    How do you think legion will affect the RP community?
    The RP community tends to adapt fairly well as patches come out.  I think initially we're going to see some difficulty incorporating Demon Hunters into roleplay, similar to what we saw with Death Knights.  I think the story lends it self to some exciting paths that roleplays can follow.  But there are problems.  Artifact weapons for example.  I will be transmoging my artifact weapon, as I don't believe my character would actually wield a weapon as powerful as what is being offered.  Adding to that, everyone of your class may have that weapon, so it takes away from your character's story.  The other part that is hard to know is will the story be strong enough for roleplayers to create their own story arcs.  WoD didn't really allow that.  It was very orderly.  This, then that, then that.  I'm hoping that if there is a strong story, that there is an openendedness to it.
    What will you most be looking forward to/ have already been disappointed by in legion?
    Well, I'm excited about some of the changes to the professions.  I think what they've got going with quest lines for each profession is kind of cool.  From a lore perspective, Alleria and Turalyon showing up is going to be awesome.  I'm always worried about the tweaking in game play for classes and specs, and until I've messed with all of them, I'm going to be wary that it's going to be a mess for the first month or two.  And then there is the dichotomy of love and hate for an xpac that deals with demons.  Will we see Sargeras?  Will we get more info on the Titans and Titan constructs?  Is it going to feel like TBC?  And of course other, smaller questions, such as will the order halls become like garrisons and merely be burdensome?

    But again, all of that is secondary.  I think they're movement back to story and lore, evident in Chronicle, means that we'll finally have something to latch on to.

    Oh, and then there is Darlaran.  I mean, again?  Really?

    Moving away from legion slightly, how will legion and its release effect the LoreCraft podcast?
    The biggest thing is it gives us more lore to talk about.  Truthfully, we probably have more than enough to chat about even without the xpac.  But with Illidan returning, Guldan's whereabouts unknown, and lots of demons heading to Azeroth, there will be a ton of stuff to talk about.  We actually hit our 2 year anniversary the same week the xpac drops, so we're going to have a pretty big release podcast.  But then it's business as usual.  I'm excited to share with the listeners the new RP locations.  With every expansion there are nice little nooks and crannies for people to head to and RP.  And I think Legion will be no different.  Oh, and with the possible big lore ramifications that have been mentioned, such as certain deaths, I think there is going to be a lot of discussion on where the Horde and Alliance will be headed in the future.
    Lastly, is there anything else you want mention/announce/comment on?
    I encourage anyone and everyone to try out roleplaying once during their Warcraft career.  And stop by on August 29th for our 2 year anniversary podcast.

    And that about wraps it up.

    If you want to check out more from Machik (and you should) you can find him at

    Friday, June 24, 2016

    To play or to role? That is the question.


    Alas, I suppose we should talk about the elephant in the room at last. I may lose followers for this, but i’m just going to say it…

    I roleplay

    Now before you run off thinking that i’m some disgusting erotic roleplayer who plays the game for fake sex, hear me out. I want to explain what roleplay actually is, and maybe even convince you to try it. To explain the euphory of what roleplay is, i’m actually going to use a youtuber as an example to refer too. Inquisitor Aura  is a Youtube and podcast hostess that creates content around RP(roleplay) and, what I feel, is a good representative for the roleplay community.

    Let’s get one thing out of the way, roleplay is about the world and your character. It is not about sex, acting weird or being a nuisance. It is about filling a role in the world and acting towards that role. Are you a strong willed, light bound paladin? Well you're probably not going to be spending a lot of time in the taverns, unless it’s to convert others toward your cause. Where you a small child when your parents were murdered by the Horde or Burning Legion? Then the opposite stands true,as you could lounge around being the town drunk. This is where I think Aura does very well. Her series, How To RP, covers the roles of each class/race combination well. I would also like to mention that you don’t necessarily need a deep understanding of the lore, however; just know that there are people who can talk for days about the history of one location(looking at you Aura) so don’t try to bs your way through it.

    So if that all sounds interesting enough to look into, it can be confusing on how to start. To start out, i’d recommend Tarcanus Frostbourne’s channel. He was the original player who convinced me to try rp and is an excellent place to start. Once you know the basics, even I have learned a lot already from Inquisitor Aura’s  channel. She goes over the lore of each class in a simple, easy to listen to way, and i’m willing to admit that she could talk me under the table when it comes to lore.

    Big thanks to Aura for letting me use her for this piece, you guys should all go check out her channel!

    One more trickle of advice before we wrap up.
    When playing on a RP server