In my first ever foray into MMOs I was immediately befriended by someone who much later said that to me after having followed me onto Facebook and looked at my photos. Nice.

They said they were joking, that it was the sort of friendly humour they used. It made me feel even more hideous about my weight, enough to make me feel like I was too overweight to eat, and that people in the cafe I regularly visited at lunchtimes with my dearest were looking at me in disgust. "What's that fattie doing shovelling more food down her already podgy gob - STARVE SLOB, STARVE!" 

I could do with losing a decent amount of weight, admittedly. But then I know that. I don't want or need anyone to rub my chubby face in that fact thank you very much, and if they absolutely have to do so, can they please make sure chocolate cake is involved in the face rubbage first.

Needless to say, between this, and a fair number of fraught conversations, ending in an email to the said person, our "friendship" did not last.

What completely killed our "friendship" though, was their saying that they were just as good as any of the six of us who beat the Balrog. A twelve man raid. A twelve man boss. And this was still when it was top level content. I lost it at that. The six of us had worked together for a while as part of bigger teams. We knew each other well, and we watched out for each other. We cared about other. There were points that we worked flawlessly, and we managed to do something pretty difficult because we knew our team, our limits, how far we could and would be prepared to stretch. We weren't in it for the loot, or the kudos (it had already been done by another guild). We were in it to simply see if we could do it. 

Our reward was the smiles it put on faces for a very long time. We could do it.  We did it. We WERE that good. 

And then that someone decided to tell me they could have done just as well. I'd dispute that fact because they were too selfish a person. They'd have been in on it so they could brag about how their great leadership got them there. They were completely oblivious to what the word teamwork means. 

I was furious.

And now to now....

I seem to be on the other side of this equation in WoW.  We knew when we started that it had been going for years. It worried us a little, that we'd always be running to catch up with others. We knew that things had been nerfed, that content had been made more accessible, "easier", less time demanding etc. Heck, we've even seen it ourselves. Various bosses that proved to be fun are nothing now. In the space of a few months we've seen all sorts of changes.

I've heard the phrase "When I started playing it was...." a lot of times, from a lot of players. And it always seems to me that people have had it harder, the grinds were far worse, the bosses were REALLY tough.

Now here I am, enjoying the experiences, finding everything shiny new. I don't mean to deliberately belittle what people have done before or how they've done it, or rub anyone's face in the changes. At times I WILL be like a child in a sweet shop, because this all so oooh.

So please bear with me when I bounce. I'll try to behave and be polite about things, and respect what you've done.  And I sincerely promise I won't call anyone a fattie.....