Jeffool.com

Never knowing if they were real or not, my friends and I laughed at Faces of Death when we watched them. I forget how old we were, but it was under sixteen as we couldn’t drive yet. I know I’m a different person now, but how different? A month ago a video started circulating and I’d love to get opinions on it. A Horde guild leader (or officer, I’m not sure,) of a World of Warcraft guild had a stroke and passed away. In the spirit of fond remembrance her guild and friends all set a time to hold a ‘funeral’ of sorts at her favorite fishing spot, which was in a PVP area. As you may have guessed, the funeral is attacked by an Alliance guild who lay waste to the Horde. It’s barely even a fight. (YouTube, hi-res torrent)

I felt really bad when I watched it. The first time. As I watched it a few more times that old aspect of extremely dark humor reared its head a bit. The concept of ‘attacking a funeral’ is so ludicrous that it does seem funny to me. In my minds eye I can see a grieving family standing over a casket just before Cardinal Ximinez jumps into frame shouting “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” But my imagination run amok doesn’t doesn’t change the fact that a real person died and was being remembered here. I’ve no problem admitting a certain level of assholism myself; as I just admitted to, on some level, being entertained by a slaughter at a funeral. But I’m wondering what level of assholism one should regard the attacking Alliance party as. I mean, they were just playing the game, right? In a ‘roleplaying’ way of thinking they saw easy pickings and took it. It’s that “Hitler was a great speaker” way of thinking that forces you to realize that they had a great plan and executed it well. As someone else said, just like the real world doesn’t stop for death, neither does the virtual world.

But at the same time they knew what was going on and targeted the funeral explicitly. Obviously one can’t condone their actions. They used a real world tragedy to their advantage in a video game, slighting others in the process in a manner that’s morally reprehensible. I’d go so far as to say that they deserve a nice solid punch in the face. But they didn’t break any rules, so I can’t see taking any action against them as I’ve seen suggested. This is something that I’d love to hear others take on.

Hi. If you just got eleven posts from me, sorry about that, but thanks for subscribing to the correct (feedburner) feed. I’ve finally moved into blog.jeffool.com, as I actually bought this webspace a while back and never really got around to using it so I started giving that away. (More on that later.) The point is, I’m using it now. Allow me to share a little about myself, again. Let me be honest. I want to change the world. Yeah, I have a bit of an ego but I think I’m generally an affable guy. Like many I aspire to be in game development, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. I program, but right now I’m really just a gamer with a blog so if you’re against reading such, here’s your point of exit.

Also, I mentioned I gave away lots of my webspace, so I just thought I’d mention some of the worthwhile causes I wanted to give space to and I hope you’ll check them out. First off, there’s Evil Avatar Radio, which is a podcast offshoot of the popular linksite Evil Avatar. They’re mostly good peoples, even if the main guy ‘Evil Avatar’ himself is batshit insane and doesn’t dig the idea of the Revolution too much. :D Of course I’m partial to the show because I often appear on it.

Also, there’s DJ Z-Trip, whose turntablism I really dig. I hope you’ll give him a shot. Any artist that releases tons of free stuff is good by me. I recommend at least the Future Primitive Soundsession Vol 2, if not the Anti-War mix as well.

Also, as you may have noticed on the bottom right over there, I’ve discovered Pandora.com If you haven’t, you really should. I often have a hard time finding new music as I don’t listen to the radio or watch MTV, so this has actually helped me some. Feel free to peak into my brain and listen to music I like. (If it has a thumbs up, I’ve already voted it as “Good Stuff.”)

I hope not to screw with the feed any more, so if I do end up resending ten posts, I’m really sorry about that. Dunno how much time I’ll have as I’ve started an little Oblivion mod, but hey, at least I’ll be posting! (Some of you need to post more… Hint hint.)

Is this technically fanfic? I don’t know. But I’m writing some fiction now, and plan to stay in the habit. What have I chosen as my ‘enabler’ to keep me going? Oblivion. In anticipation of the game, I decided to play through it not as just some virtual representation of myself, but as a character I’ve created named Frank. No it won’t be a fanmade novelization of the game, imagine it more along the lines of 8-bit Theatre minus Final Fantasy, plus Oblivion, with a twist of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Wow, I’m the Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper of gaming fanfic! (Ugh.)

You can follow Frank Smith’s journey from Seyda Neen shopkeep to savior of Tamriel at TheAmazingLegendaryFrank.com

Some time tonight/tomorrow Frank should wake up in Oblivion.