Unfortunately, the WoW.com article and many of its comments are an exercise in missing the point.

Says Schramm:

If you don’t like what your character is wearing, then you can find something else.

Well, sure we can, but why should we have to? If we like the stats on a particular piece of armor, why should we have to go looking for something comparable?  And what happens when one of those pieces belongs to our tier gear?  Up until 3.2, the Conqueror’s Aegis chestpieces were battle-bras.

Suck it up and get Tier 9?  Sure, the plate gear gets better, but what if a female rogue doesn’t want to flash her cleavage in her Triumphant VanCleef’s Battlegear?  What if female priests don’t want their midriffs bared to get their set bonuses?

Several commenters have a solution for this, of course:  “So wear a shirt underneath or put on your tabard to hide it.”

And again, that’s not the point. The point is, why should we have to? And, as several other people pointed out, putting on a shirt might slap a bandaid on the problem with chestpieces, but there’s no way to avoid the thong-and-thigh-high-boots on the legs.

Also peppered throughout the comments are suggestions that the bikini-armor should be made available to male characters.  I agree; it should — if you want to put your characters in those outfits, whether the avatar is male or female, that should be your choice. But “making both sides have skimpy outfits” isn’t the solution — you still have people who don’t want that kind of armor on any of their characters.

There’s the usual, sadly predictible amount of “get over it” and “you feminists hate fun” and “it’s just a game, gawd” in the comments, along with plenty of “suck it up, it’s the way the genre works” and “this game is marketed to men, so deal with it.”

As commenter Kylenne says on page four:

Not even 20 comments in and I’m already one square away from Anti-Feminist Gamer Bingo.

Yes.  This.  Here’s the thing:   if any player, of any sex, gender, or sexual orientation, would like their characters to wear those outfits, that’s okay. But the reverse needs to be true as well:  if a player is uncomfortable with those outfits, there needs to be an equal alternative that is just as easily obtained.

Schramm links to gamer Elsa’s post, “Me and My Chainmail Bikini,” in which she discusses why she occasionally misses her chainmail bikini while playing a fully-armored character in Dragon Age.  However, there’s a whole chunk of her post that discusses the flip side to it, conveniently left out by Schramm:

I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with my chainmail bikini. There’s something very liberating about prancing through the countryside slaying various beasts and critters while attired as a Dominatrix, but on a larger level it bothers me a bit. Mostly it’s an immersion issue. Being an “actual, real-live female” I KNOW that there is no way you can run through the forests wearing 3″ heels. I’ve worn high heels most of my adult life… I can walk fast in high heels, I can even run to catch a bus in high heels on a sidewalk – but there is no possible way in hell that I can run through the forests or across a bumpy meadow, battling bad guys or nasty critters while wearing 3″ spikey heels without breaking an ankle. It’s simply not possible! Reality also intercedes with the whole “boob” thing. Any woman with a C cup or more knows that it’s painful to run braless. You have to strap those puppies down… pushing them up just creates the potential for two black eyes. I always shudder when I see Lara and her massive mammaries “shimmy” along a wall and all I can think of is OUCH! It’s rather the equivalent of a guy seeing another guy getting kicked in the balls. Weather also plays an immersion role. I can’t help but be taken completely out of a game when I see my scantily clad siren skipping through a white winter wonderland in practically no clothing. Brrrrrr!!

Schramm also, disappointingly, seems to be dismissing the idea that the depiction of female avatars in body-baring armor might have an affect on how women view themselves:

Is this an issue, then? For this game, at this time, probably not. Most players of the game realize that not only do people not walk around every day wearing plate armor and wielding magical swords, but that most real-life people don’t try or have the interest in living up to any weird expectations of sexuality placed on them by a fantasy character.

We’ve got ourselves a logical fallacy right here, cats ‘n’ kittens.  Magic swords: not real.  Bodies like the ones depicted in WoW: nearly impossible to attain, but real.  (And before anyone hops in to point out that there aren’t people running around IRL with hooves and tails like the Draenei, I’m talking about the tiny waists and huge chests on the females, and the super-muscular barrel chests and perfect abs on the males.  But I’m pretty sure you knew that already, right?)  So yes, actually, real-life people do have “weird expectations of sexuality placed on them by a fantasy character.”  Every day, we’re told that this kind of body is acceptable — on tv, on the covers of magazines, in the movies.  That if we don’t look like that, we’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not worth as much as the people we’re told are beautiful.  The bodies and outfits in WoW perpetuate that.

I’m not sure Schramm actually read all of Elsa’s post, because she goes on to make the same point, with a plea to the developers:

Chainmail bikinis and the accompanying virtual gals that tend to wear them also promote a body image almost impossible for most real-life women to attain. Double D cups rarely accompany a 24″ waistline unless silicon or suction is involved somewhere. The proportions of these nubile young lasses continue to promote our North American obsession with plastic surgery, unhealthy diets and eating disorders. While sex sells, and games are still full of scantily clad, hormonally enhanced female and male body shapes (particularly in fighting games), I do think that things are gradually, slowly changing and devs can help play a role by promoting something just as sexy but a little more natural and realistic in terms of proportions. Please devs, no more double D cup boobs unless they are accompanied by the reality of a padded waistline that holds them up, or they sag down to sway and play peek-a-boo bellybutton. Attire can still be sexy, but please make it appropriate to the game’s environment and character’s actions. I think it’s quite possible to design sexy attire that is still practical.

Another argument that comes up in the comments is, “the game is fantasy. It’s escapism. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to play an idealized character if I want to?”  See above:  if that’s what and who you want to play, that’s okay. Right now, I’m all right with Threnn’s build:  she’s a paladin and a blacksmith — she should be toned.  But Annalea’s a priestess and a bard; her body shouldn’t be the exact same as Threnn’s, just with a different head.  I don’t believe that WoW’s graphics engine is ready for us to be able to customize body types, but if that becomes available, players should be able to create characters with whatever body types they’d like, including the ones available to us right now.

See, I’m not advocating that we take away the chainmail bikinis or the idealized bodies.  I’m advocating more variation in our choices.  Several players have spoken up on the WoW.com thread stating that they’re female players and love their chainmail.  It makes them feel empowered, that it’s cool for them to watch their avatar going toe to toe with the bad guys and kicking ass in next-to-nothing.

Say it with me: that’s okay.

For the commenters who suggest that feminists just want to take away their fun and dictate their video game experience, this is a big ol’ NO WE DON’T:  it’s okay to play whatever kind of character makes you happy, and we will support your choices on that because that’s how feminism works.

Someone in comments suggests that armor have a “gender toggle” — that if you want to see the bikini armor, you go into the same place where you choose to show helm/show cloak and check off “show gender armor.”  That commenter’s heart is in the right place, but it is still a solution that reinforces the stereotype.

“So, falconesse,” (asks the imaginary audience in my head) “are you just going to criticize everyone else’s solutions, or do you have a fix of your own to propose?”

Why, in fact I do!  I’m so glad I asked!

Don’t make it a toggle.  Make them into their own pieces, with their own separate item numbers — same stats, same tokens/badges/price to purchase them, just with different art.  We have the dressing-room feature, so let the player compare how the Nagasaur Breastplate of Badass looks in both full-chestpiece and battle bra versions, and choose which one he or she buys from the vendor.

Schramm does seem to believe that at some point, we will see games that allow for different body types:

I believe we’ll see more games and instances where these traditions are subverted, where our heroes aren’t manly men or sexy women, but real, actual people of all shapes and sizes.

Unfortunately, he follows that up with this:

But let’s be honest: just as some men have their traditional genres where depictions are skewed, so also do some women. And as long as people continue to support and invest in those genres and their conventions (and why wouldn’t they? It’s fun wearing crazy armor and killing bad guys!), they’ll be around in this form for a long time.

/facepalm

Because a sweeping generalization about a different genre’s the way to make your point, amirite?  Further, while some (but by no means all) romance novels do offer unrealistic depictions of men and women, that doesn’t justify it happening in our own genre.  The way to bring about change is to work towards it yourself and support other people who are working towards it as well.  You’re happy with the armor sets you have?  That’s great!  Let’s show some support for the players who would like a different kind of armor, so they can be happy with their armor sets, too.

It doesn’t fix everything, not by a long shot.  There’s still more objectification going on than I could shake a tree at, but Schramm is right on one point:  it’s going to take a long time to change attitudes and defeat stereotypes in any genre or medium, though the seeds of those changes are already starting to sprout here and there.  But at least, in the meantime, it’d be nice if my characters could cover up against the cold.

“Roll for fashion.”

There are plenty of items in the game that just plain look cool, but their stats are wrong for your spec, or they’re the wrong armor type — a tank in a dress isn’t going to be able to take too many hits when facing Yogg-Saron.

Threnn is, ICly, a swordsmith.  She’s always preferred the weight of a blad to that of a mace, and yet, in-game, there are very few healy swords for holy paladins.  (The first I heard of was a drop off of 25-man Kel’Thuzad.  It appears that there’s also one at the end of the 25-man Trial of the Crusader, in heroic mode.  But for the most part?  Maces, maces, maces.)  So whenever we’re running around ICly, it’s not her shiny mace of shininess at her side, but ye olde Lightforged Blade from way back at level 50 that she carries around.

Davien also did a brief stint running around in pants rather than a skirt for a while, and it brought to mind the thing that’s made me grit my teeth for 80 levels now:  She’s a tailor.  You’d think she’d be able to keep her knees from showing through every pair of pants she wore.  Believe me, I get it: the Forsaken are all corpsified and gross.  But good lord, let them at least be able to not rot through every item of clothing they don.

What crafted or endgame items (or level-appropriate ones, if you’re like our beloved Fellsie and not levelling nosirnohow) do you wish worked with your characters’ RP?

First, a disclaimer: while I’m sure there will be lore aplenty and all kinds of speculation over the months leading up to the expansion, we still have in all likelihood a year before its official launch. This means anything and everything is subject to change. I’m not sure how much we’ll discuss it here — I’m personally very interested to see the story bits as they come out, but as for the mechanics (guild achievements, changes to stats, etc)… they don’t hold as much interest for me. (Yva or Bricu might have some neat musings on those things, though, which is the beauty of co-blogging.)

Second disclaimer: spoilers of a minor nature within. I’m not going into great detail, but if you spent last weekend hiding behind a rock to avoid news about the expansion (much like I did when the last Harry Potter book came out), you might want to click away now.

Hokay. Are they gone?

Here we go.

One of the things that interests me very much is, broadly, the idea of change. We’ve been questing and RPing in what is a fairly static world for the last four years. The phasing system helped with that in this most recent expansion, and several times, they used it to great effect. Think about the starter quests for the Death Knights, when between one phase and another the world turns red with the blood of Havenshire’s citizens. Or, out in Icecrown, how you get to witness the construction of Crusaders’ Pinnacle.

But Old-World Azeroth has been largely static. Stormwind Harbor was a brilliant addition, as was the opening of Eversong Woods and Silvermoon City, but for the most part, the world remains completely unchanged. The skies over Stormwind darkened during the pre-Wrath Zombiepocalypse, when Arthas sent his minions to attack, but once that event was done the city went right back to normal.

More years ago than I care to mention, I played in the beta for Asheron’s Call. My favorite part, since it was my first experience with an MMO, was running from town to town and being a tourist. As the beta wound down and the official game-launch approached, an ominous, omenous comet appeared in the sky. All over the world, things started changing. Cities that had previously been sanctuaries were suddenly overrun by monsters or engulfed in flames.

I still, somewhere, have a screenshot entitled “Rithwic Burns.” When I’m less full of fail, I’ll dig it up.

What made it so very cool was the idea that anything could change, that it was a mistake to take that world for granted, and that the next time you logged on, something might be vastly different.

With WoW, the only sweeping changes that happened came during content patches or over the course of a few days’ questing. Once you got to the end of a chain and the phasing was done, though, that was it; the world settled onto its foundations and stayed that way for your characters. Any changes in their IC environment had to be in the players’ imaginations: shop burnt down during the Zombiepocalypse? You have to emote the scorch marks and ruined timbers, post the tale of it and ask your fellow RPers to imagine along with you, or explain it to someone in whispers during a random encounter.

So now, we’re headed for upheaval on a very grand scale: Deathwing’s rise is going to break the world — floods and fires, once-dead places suddenly in-bloom, what once was green becoming barren. A wall long sealed cracking and spilling forth its very-altered inhabitants.

Oh, the RP opportunities.

Sure, once the expansion is launched, the landscape won’t be shifting on a weekly (or even monthly) basis, but the initial tumult is going to leave most of our characters reeling for a good long time. It’s a chance to strip them of things they’d once thought solid, eternal. Or to make them rediscover what they’d forgotten was most important. Will they try and rebuild? Will they take the opportunity for vengeance and set out to destroy? Will they simply walk away, let everyone believe them dead in the wreckage and start over completely?

It’s true that it doesn’t require the developers shifting pixels around for us to do these things. If you want to turn your character’s lives upside-down right now, you have the power to do it at any moment. But the idea of it happening on a global scale is what’s intriguing. Everyone will be witness to these events. Not a single person will be unaffected by the drastic changes. Even if, say, Stormwind somehow escapes unscathed, its citizens will still feel the far-reaching effects.

Obviously, we have a long way to go. We can try predicting where our characters will be in a year, but we still have a pissed-off Lich King sitting up there in Northrend, biding his time. So, rather than asking what RP plans you’re making from an expansion, I’m inviting you to toss out things you’d love to see affected by the Cataclysm. It can be stuff that’s already been confirmed at Blizzcon or your own wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if type of speculation.

Mine?

Nagasaurs.

Okay okay. I’d like to see the redemption or reclamation of some of the lands that have been in ruins for years and years — Duskwood, or even just a corner of the Plaguelands, maybe some of the Dead Scar up in Eversong. Imagine being one of the inhabitants of that area and finally seeing your homeland heal, just a little. How would those citizens celebrate, especially when some of their gain might have come at the expense of a neighboring area? Say, Darkshire becomes sunny Grand Hamlet once more, but every day they have refugees pouring in from the now-shattered Lakeshire.

I know that I, personally, wouldn’t be likely to play a goblin — goblins creep me out just about as much as gnomes creep out Yva.

Worgen might have a bit of potential — I always liked the Arugal story, and Pyrewood Village out in Silverpine.  But unless you’re playing someone from Pyrewood, the original worgen come from another dimension.  They aren’t werewolves.  I’m guessing, for RP purposes, we’d see a huge influx of players who either didn’t know that, or who’d go all Mary Sue on us and declare their worgen character different from all the others.

However, much of that speculation was put to rest with this picture from MMO Champion, showing the rest of the Hallow’s End masks.  You’ve got male and female murlocs (I’m assuming the pinkish one’s a girl, anyway), male and female Vrykul, male and female… are those ogres?  And then there’s the devilsaur and the naga-lady.  I’m a little confused about why there’s a devilsaur instead of a male naga, and decided to drive my guild leader crazy with a wild NAGASAUR theory for a few moments (OMFG IMAGINE THE NAGASAUR SUES.)

So, while I’m afk writing the backstory for my devilsaur paladin (don’t ask how he holds the mace with those tiny arms.  I’m still working that out), I thought I’d make this an open thread for you all to chime in on what races you’d like to play, given the chance.  You can be serious or silly.  Make me giggle with your imagined hybrid races, or make me wish there really were playable gnolls (come on, you know you want to see things from Hogger’s point of view).

Have at it!

**ETA:  I do stand corrected (several times over!) that that bottom mask is indeed a male naga rather than a devilsaur.  I still think Nagasaurs are funnier. And, actually, you all realize that it only gives me fodder for more evil loony theories, what with the naga’s former lives as Highborne elves –  Queen Azshara.  Devilsaurs.  Rule 34.

Ultima Online had it. Fallout 3 has it. Lord Of the Rings Online has it. Simply put, housing should be a feature in WoW. Even if one ignores the enormity that PC housing would have on RP, PC Housing is a flat-out win for all players.

I think Blizzard should go beyond having Player Housing in the Capital cities and allow for phased or instanced housing in certain picturesque locations. Why should this feature be limited to certain locations on the map?

What are your thoughts on Player housing? What features would you like to see? What are the drawbacks and problems that could occur? Given the option, where would your character live?

I know some of this stuff is way out there, but these things would make me so very happy.  What are your WoW wishes?  Share!

…but Davien finally got her Loremaster achievement.

I’m not usually overly concerned with achievements.  It’s nice to get the glowy announcement, and a round of huzzahs from whatever guildmates are online (or the /congratulations from random passersby), but the majority of them are simply bonuses for me.  Loremaster, though — as soon as I saw it on the list, I knew Davien had to have the title.

For years now, the members of Noxilite have referred to her as “Loremistress.”  Originally, it was simply my rank in the guild: I organized some of the RP nights, (including the still-running weekly gathering/story night), and the title kind of stuck.  It’s been her Flag RSP title for a long time.  Davien is a collector of stories — human tales gathered when she was a girl, Kal’dorei legends, stories from the orcs that made their way through the Dark Portal — there is an ever-growing library in the little cottage she keeps in Moonglade.

The Northrend requirement was mostly painless.  Most zones were easy enough to solo your way through the required number of quests.  Icecrown was the sticking point, since I found myself thirteen quests shy of the achievement with a log full of group quests.  Getting people together was easy enough; the problem was the phasing.  With four quests to go, I thought we could knock out the Riders of Blood, Unholy and Frost, then go kick their master’s ass.  Except, there were only two of us who were far enough in the chain to see the mobs, and no way in hell was a squishy mage and a newly-80 paladin going to duo them.

The good thing was, I still had one quest chain left that didn’t leave anyone phased out. The day was saved.

After that, it was time to go back to the old content. I’d finished up the Eastern Kingdoms achievement before Wrath was released and had a head start on Kalimdor.

Kalimdor.  Ugh.  Guess who’d never spent much time in the Barrens.  At least Davien had Cavale, her epic deader pony, to carry her to Mankrik’s wife.  I probably went through the better part of 400 quests, breaking them up into manageable chunks so I didn’t burn myself out.

Then there was just Outland to finish up.  It went quickly enough — the only zone I had to do more than ten quests in was Shadowmoon Valley.  In the end, Ruul the Darkener was still too much for a squishy mage and her mirror images, so I enlisted some help.  After Ruul, we summoned ourselves a firelord, and woo-hoo, triple achievements!

Cairne Bloodhoof himself sent a letter to commemorate the occasion, and bundled up with it were the Loremaster’s colors.

Yeeeaaah, about those colors…

I get it; it’s cute — you’ve done a couple thousand quests and have seen a metric fuckton of exclamation points.  But, I dunno.  I guess I would have pictured something a bit more dignified for a loremaster.  It’s a good thing the only tabard Davien ever wears ICly is the Noxilite one, anyway.

Bitching aside, though, it was neat to spend some time in old haunts, and get a whole lot of story along the way — some things I’d forgotten about that I’d glossed over on alts were cool to revisit for this.  The Test of Lore quests out in Ashenvale gives you a bit of story about the dragonflights that ties in nicely with all the dargon-killing we seem to be doing in end-game content these days.

If you’re feeling crazy enough to go for the achievements yourself, a few tips that might be helpful:

Break it into chunks. Either set a goal for a number of quests to get done, or a certain amount of time to spend on questing before you move on to other things.  If you hit your goal, nothing says you have to stop and walk away — sometimes you get into a groove and want to knock out a few more. But backing away and evaluating how you feel is a good idea every now and then.

Have either a questing buddy or be in a channel (either IC or OOC, or both!) where you can chat. I did most of the questing solo, but I could always stop and chat while riding around smiting gnolls.  When it came time for the Icecrown group quests, I got to RP my way through them.  So much fun.

Music makes it go faster. I always had iTunes up.  Sometimes you’re still going to spend longer than you want to think about waiting for a quest drop or a mob to spawn, or maybe running around in Silithus just makes you and baby zombie Jesus cry.  Having good tunes can be the thing that keeps you slogging through the not-so-fun patches.

Flight paths are a good excuse to get up and stretch. During a couple of my questing marathons, the long flight between, say, Thunder Bluff and Gadgetzan was when I’d walk away from the keyboard for a while and get some laundry done.

Do some research. There are “hidden” quests all over the place.  Sometimes questgivers are off the beaten path. Sometimes mobs drop items that start new quests, and if you’re not looking for them, you might find yourself short of the goal.  This thread was a huge help to me as I got close to the end of Kalimdor.

Stop and read the quest text. Sometimes we fall into the habit of just looking for the exclamation points and skipping right to the “bring me ten feathers” part of it.  There are lots of stories contained within those questlines.  Some of them are bigger-picture ones, others are just there for flavor, but glossing over it means you might miss out on some cool bits of lore.

Have fun! There is plenty out there that can be tied into your RP.  Look for fodder for new storylines, or the continuation of old ones.  Ashenvale was hard for Davien to return to; she hadn’t been back there since her brother’s death nearly four years ago.  I wouldn’t quite say she put his ghost to rest, but she came to better terms with what occurred as she traveled through the forest.

So, one long journey done.  Now come the next RP achievements for her: Well Read and The Schools of Arcane Mastery.

Your turn!  What achievements or titles are you after for your characters because they fit with their stories?