Personally, I’m of two minds on the subject; I think it’s misguided to disallow positive descriptions of LGBT people just because your GMs don’t want to deal with a homophobic response. Hello, welcome to our world; I suppose I should be reporting every “oh, that’s gay” and “don’t group with that fag” comment I overhear on channel 1, but I’d rather be playing the game than policing their TOS. Besides, I think everyone involved knows that a gay MMO guild will get some harassment. A gay anything in this country will get some harassment. The only way to get the harassment to stop is to confront it, right?

At the same time, this is Blizzard’s ball we’re playing with, and they have every legal right to go home with it. They have to cover their ass in the TOS, or else lawsuits would shut down Ironforge even faster than bad lag. Should we really expect a game company to push for anything more than better gameplay and greater profits? (The guild leader mentioned that Lambda Legal contacted her, and is checking if this policy violates California state law; Blizzard reps—who have finally stopped deleting forum posts about the controversy—say they are preparing a response as well, so expect at least a little more on the story.)

More fundamentally, though, I have a hard time supporting anyone spamming general chat with their guild promotional message. My ignore list is getting too full as it is. With that said, if I knew there was a gay guild on my main server, I’d probably drop my guild and join in a minute. Especially the one named “Fruits of Elune.” How can I resist a name like that?

And if guilds don’t advertise in game, where can they advertise? This might be a cue for someone to make an announcement of some kind, if he’s ready to do so.

(first link via Wonderland)

Intent, originally uploaded by Jason.

…As long as we’re clear on that.

TIP: There is no secret cow level.

Sniffle…Sob… Next you’re going to tell me that there that is no Greatfather Winter, either….

Well, at least some small part of the legend lives on.

Lowbrow humor, originally uploaded by Jason.

Yeah.

The snowball is an instant cast, no-mana, spell interrupt. Yeah, try it out. I’ve successfully stopped a Priest from flash-healing his mates while my people got in the reinforcements. Reagents are cheap, casting time is zero and can be used when silenced, distance is 30 ft, which means I can stay out of the Priest’s mindflay, and there’s no known resistance gear against it.

Snowmen are the perfect fall damage mitigation trinket. Jump down the lethal drop in AB, at the middle of the fall insta-cast snowman, release snowman and fall the rest. Voila, no damage.

Carebear? Maybe. But more than anything, Blizzard continues to give the ingenious new ways of beating the dumb. Thanks, Grand-father Winter.

Cem-”I slaughtered Merzen”-etor

Other bits have been fun out in the field. Picking up holiday snow around the Ruins of Alterac makes for fun impromptu snowball fights. Some guildies and I headed up there to do the Greench quest, and while waiting for it to spawn, we’d run around and toss snowballs at each other while our party-members/targets were trying to collect more, preventing them from doing so. Finally, after the Greench popped, we had him stolen by a high-level Horde rogue. After he won, the rogue turned to us and made a /rude gesture at us. We promptly pelted him with snowballs for 30 seconds, and he was a good enough sport to stick around and let us get it out of our system. That was good for a laugh all around.

The presents for everyone under the tree, the snowmen and holiday food, the goblin gnome-o-matic, the allegory of the meaning of the holidays being lost in a rush of consumerism… I love it all, and just a few things go a long way to make me feel immersed in a real world with a real sense of tradition and the effects of passing time. That, and it’s fun to sit outside Ironforge as a snowman and turn down duel challenges, saying, “You want to duel me? You want to duel me? I’m a freaking snowman, tough guy, how am I gonna duel? I got no legs, I can’t run anywhere. You’re gonna stand over there with your little twigthrower and anything’s just gonna pass right through me because I can’t bleed because you know why? I’ll tell you why. I’m made of snow, wiseacre! I’m 100% water save for this carrot and the coal and the hat. Oh, I got these branches, you know what? You hit me there and I’ma bleed sap. Whaddaya gonna do, duel me with a stack of pancakes? Send a rabbit over here to eat my nose? You gotta be kidding me. And forget having a snowball fight, I ain’t making ammo out of my own ass. A snowman’s gotta have principles. Just save it, kid. Go back to dueling school over by Anvilmar with all the other charity cases.”

Just call it Goblin Engineering gone wild.