How to Help Ombre
So we’ve gotten lots of feedback about our “help” of Ombre. Most of it negative.
“Dude was coming to help you, and you trashed him!”
Well let’s let you in on the thought-process for that particular post.
We had to post the entire screenshot. Why? Because explaining the “red text” required showing his buffs and debuffs. Cropping different sections of the screenshot would not present the entire story.
Obmre’s UI is “non-traditional”. There’s no getting around that at all.
If we presented the UI as-is, the self-appointed UI Inspection Team — i.e. some readers who enjoy doing nothing but criticizing — would descend from on-high and denounce, critique, and pass judgment. We didn’t want that.
How to present the screenshot without giving the masses carte blanche to whoop and holler and be pests… that’s the problem.
Our solution? Be the jerk ourselves, and then punish ourselves in the post. Hopefully people would see that Brain would not even permit “BRK” to be a cad to someone who had an honest question. And if we really did it right, people would spend more time criticizing us than Ombre.
That was the plan, and it worked pretty well. We got lots of criticism! Hooray!
But some people still felt the need to criticize Ombre. /fail
So where do we stand now? If you had issues with how we dealt with Ombre, we quite proud of you. You’re standing up for your fellow hunters and not even letting us be a meanie. Our own ego kinda hopes that you know we didn’t really intend to be a meanie, though.
To Ombre specifically: we really did not intend to be a meanie. Thank you for your email, we hope we gave you a satisfactory answer, and hope you know it was our goal to protect you from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, not inflict them upon you.
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36 Responses to “How to Help Ombre”
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People thought you were serious with that ribbing? Yeesh. Especially since you made fun of his character’s race more than anything else. -_-;
When a figure of power points out a fault in someone, it always seems to unleash the elitist jerk within us, in particular because hunters get cop slack from the other raiding classes already
“Dude was coming to help you, and you trashed him!”
Me thinks brain needs more latte. I believe that should read “Dude was coming to you for help,…”
Made my brain go “huh? what the…. oh, must be this”
I get real wary whenever I see a level 80 with “newb” questions and they’re decked out in level 70gear..
That being said, maybe he just didn’t want all those quest rewards that were such obvious upgrades as he leveled. Maybe he really digs that 147 resilience.
idk
The whole thing reminds me of a scene in Steve Martin’s “Roxanne”.
May I quote CD Bales; “Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don’t get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony’s not really a, a high priority. We haven’t had any irony here since about, uh, ‘83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.”
I think the post was good, I learned something…and the tail ring comment about made coffee come out my nose.
I thought it was an awesome post. Brain is funny, Brainless BRK=funny also, made for a riot.
Makes me wonder if there will be a Brain vs. BRK segment in your projectlore show.
/hope
I think you may have been better served to just answer the question, and not comment on the rest of the UI. Then delete any comments insulting the poster.
The problem with the “being a jerk” method you chose is that we don’t automatically like BRK Brain. In fact, I think most of us are rooting for regular BRK to outfox him.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the British show Yes, Minister. (I can’t think of an American analogy at the moment.) BRK Brain is Sir Humphrey Appleby, and BRK is the MP Jim Hacker. Appleby is smarter and cannier than Hacker, and is usually able to maneuver Hacker into doing his wishes. But Hacker has the sympathy of the audience, and the few instances where Hacker outwits Appleby are moments of triumph.
(Great, great show, btw. Highly recommended.)
Not entirely sure where this is going, but in my opinion your chosen method didn’t work because, even though BRK Brain is right and correct, BRK has the sympathy of the audience.
Some people need to relax and learn to laugh.
I don’t ever want to show anyone my UI, because I have abilities ALL over the place. How I remember where they are, given that it’s all different with all my alts, I don’t know. But I do.
Either way, I didn’t think you were being horribly mean at all. I thought it was funny.
As for the tail ring… it’s pierced. *waggles eyebrows*
see my post in the previous thread…
If I post my Hunter in, say, one of those “Rate the Hunter above you” threads, I expect to get hammered. That said, that hammering usually includes some truly beneficial criticism.
Thick-skinnedness is a necessary virtue in this community, for better or worse.
So basically, BRK was acting like.. an… elitist… jerk?
Oh the irony, it burns!
I found the post quite funny. If I was Ombre I would be glad for getting my question answered and have a good laugh, not be mad or hurt.
The things I miss in just a few hours.
Man. I have no real comment since I read this before the, “meanie,” post so it’s all been done. I actually hope that Ombre is someone who has just missed some important stuff rather than buying a toon becasue to me, that’s cheating.
It’s far better to play and grind and often fail while learning than to try to get something without working for it. We don’t know the full story here at all so I’m assuming the best.
Your argument that you were trying to deflect the criticism is a bigger epic /fail than your original post – you could have just sent the guy an email answer (or at least blurred his name). Instead you try to publically humilliate him.
I think there are better ways of managing it in the way you did – but you probably already had that figured out, which is why you wrote the above post.
I think the thing that bothers people about asking questions in the WoW-Community is that it exposes their ignorance, and in some places on the net, ignorance exposure leads to a beatdown. Blogs are typically a better place to deal with that, since you can see whether someone is knowledgeable and decide to email them, discreetly, to seek advice on a particular subject. I suspect that Ombre wasn’t quite expecting the treatment that he received – and I have to say, exposing someone’s ignorance to the world was unkind at the very least, even if presented the way that you did it (in the context of this new post, rather than the old one). My thoughts reading that post weren’t “Gosh, BRK-Brain is nicer than BRK.” or “This Ombre guy needs help, off I go to the comments to help him!” but rather “BRK is a great big jerk!” (something that I feel is not true in the context of the blog as a whole).
I don’t believe BRK was trying to be mean. In fact, I thought the post was good-natured and mostly, trying to be entertaining while creatively answering the question.
I just don’t understand why he did not simply blur out the name. Very simple and easy solution.
@Hammaer
Again, the point has been missed by the likes of you and yours. If the full screenshot had been posted, people in the comments would have publicly humiliated Ombre without any need for commentary from BRK whatsoever. The full screenshot was necessary in order to point out that Viper was causing his stats to be red; ergo, the thought process was to get the ribbing out of the way in the post itself, in a humorous manner so as to discourage ribbing that is decidedly not light-hearted in the comments. Was the attempt a little misguided? Maybe, but to suggest that his intentions were anything but honorable is flatly ridiculous.
Rather, if BRK’s post had been in a different format instead of “if the full screenshot had been posted.”
I had typed up a pretty long post about this “Ombre” fellow, but I’ve decided to spare ya’ll the “TL;DR” version.
In a nut shell…
“Ombre” is a Huntard or an Ebay-ed toon. You know it. I know it. Let’s just stop dancing around the issue.
This dude wouldn’t last 10 seconds, after seeing him, in any group that I put together. In fact, his “kit choices” are so off the wall, that I’m not even sure I’d give him the time of day. He’d probably just get a “Go to the forums and L2P” from me.
The truth hurts, folks.
This blog and associated forums used to be about helping people learn how to be better hunters. The helpful, encouraging and polite posts I found here 2+ years ago seem to have disappeared recently.
I am very proud of my hunter and any hunter who tops the meters without pulling aggro, has the ability to chain trap, manages cooldown’s efficiently and otherwise plays well. Many of these skills I have now I first learned from this site back when it was a still a nice place to visit.
What happened BRK?
Personally I think you have nothing to be ashamed of BRK if a person has gotten to level 80 and cant read the tooltips on the abilities they are using there is a problem.
I could have answered the question easily without posting the screenshot at all:
“I see you have Aspect of the Viper on. With that active, your damage number will be red to show that it is being reduced by Aspect of the Viper.”
Where’s the need for visual aids?
@duniness
You tell us. What happened? Because as far as I’m concerned, nothing happened and BRK is an imperfect human who has lapses in his normally good judgement just like you do. BRK is something of an e-celebrity, but he is not perfect. He is not a god. He is not even a demigod. He’s a person with a lot of e-responsibility to a lot of people, and sometimes when you are under pressure you slip up and don’t do something exactly the right way.
Maybe we should take a step back and recognize this fact for what it is?
“Ombre” is a Huntard or an Ebay-ed toon. You know it. I know it. Let’s just stop dancing around the issue.
That player logged in to that L80 there has never played a hunter. But hey, no time for learning like the present, huh? :/
I apologize if my comment seemed overly harsh as I do love BRK and this site immensely. Of course everyone makes mistakes and very often what we “say” is not what people “hear”. This is his wonderful site to do with as he pleases.
That being said, while the cesspool that permeates the “official” forums has not shown up in force here either in the posts or the comments, it seems to me that it is beginning to make more frequent appearances.
I suppose I am getting old and am longing for the “good old days” before the trolls arrived and BRK had to even think about locking the comments on a thread (as he had to do a few weeks ago).
Many of us have been fighting the stigma of the so called “huntard” for many years. Positive and constructive criticism, helpful hints, and pointers on where to go to find more information can only help all of us in the long run.
In my humble opinion it is this philosophy that BRK Worldwide Amalgamated was founded on. And 4.69 million hits seem to agree.
I felt that the previous post was just good-natured ribbing and I hope that Ombre took it as such.
As someone who barely comprehends the concept of damage meters, formulas for max dps and calculating the best gear + gems to deck out my newly initiated SV hunter, I’m fully aware of how it is to be viewed as a huntard (very painful experiences in my “learning” period).
Honestly, I couldn’t really see what was wrong with Ombre’s set up and gear, other than the Aspect of the Hawk/Dragonhawk combo.
At this point, I’m afraid to show a screenshot of MY UI/character gear to anyone.
It’s important to have a sense of humor in this game, and not take umbrage at every perceived slight.
If you’re a long-time BRK reader, you should know what he’s like. BRK can be blunt. BRK will say what he thinks without worrying too much about other’s opinions. But in my short time as a reader to this blog, I have yet to see a mean-hearted streak in him. That should put his previous post in perspective.
In my previous post I was sincere to tell Ombre to try to read the basics for his class. I stick to it. I have been playing for a year and when I arrived in my guild I was wearing Shammy armor at level 65. I think that tells you how much I knew at the time. What helped was the same thing that I am telling Ombre. One of my fellow guildies gave me a few links and things improved. So Ombre take a look at the links on the homepage and start from there
BRK..
Your original post about ombre containing you and your brains conversation was oustandingly funny and I sincerely hope you will continue posting like that.
Don’t mind all the humour-less critique-buffs .. they would just find something else to rave about so it doesn’t really matter.
Keep up the fine work fooshizle!!
I’m sorry but this is rediculous, if a question is going to be answer’d in a public forum then someone is going to be negative it doesn’t matter at what level you are.
If you want privacy /w a hunter you see arround Dala with Naxx gear, they will know the basics >.>
If you want a noob simpathetic forum, pro lore is very very freindly
plz, crying because a blog chose to be entertaining is .fail and tbh BRK you should withdraw ur apology it should not be needed
… or of corce you can always choose to do nothing, ignore hunters with questions and contiune just posting damage meters. I’m sure thats a much more worthwhile read!
like cod liver oil, just coz its good doent make it right =)
Evaluation is life, and we can’t learn without feedback.
For many people, negatively slanted feedback is far more productive than happy little non-aggressive hints and suggestions.
But in this case, this is BRK’s domain and he has always held to his own standards of entertainment, education, and fun. Who are we to judge?
In my opinion, Ombre was treated with all due respect.
I thought the post was amusing, and not totally at the expense of Ombre. Sure, it was a little on the questionable side, but I got the joke.
The reactions though…OMFG. SRSLY?
Does Ombre’s UI look kinda funky? Yes. Does my UI lack logical order? You betcha; it’s a friggin’ mess.
Are tier sets better than some of the initial drops you get in Northrend? Yup. I was wandering around in my pretty princess pally plate drops from rushing Outlands for the first 3-4 quest chains in Borean Tundra, and didn’t completely replace it all until my first Nexus run. Until then, it was what the game gave me. Had I had T4 or T5, I might still be wearing it, too.
Can you still be a Noob at 80? Well, lessee…I’m at 72 with my main, bought the game in August of last year, and am still wiping on stupid crap occasionally because I often forget important things like trinkets, Vigilance. etc. I remember more often than not, but I still have attacks of noobishness now and again. 6 months does not an experienced player make.
Lastly, do you have to have the absolute best gear, a completly clean, soulless UI, a minimum of 10k gold in the bank at all times, 2 complete sets of purples and matching pets for the upcoming survival/BM dual spec, and the hottest, most wiz addons to enjoy playing the game? Absolutely not. It’s a game to be played and had fun with, no matter how you’re geared, what your arena rating is, or how many hits your blog gets.
Let me say that again: IT’S A GAME. Those of you on your elitist horse need to hop off and look around you. None of this stuff actually exists…it’s all pixels in a VonNeumann machine somewhere in the world. Fun? Yes. Much less fun when you’re being berated for having a different kind of pixel than the pixel certian people consider “uber,” however.
People seem really intent to focus on his gear. But strictly speaking,
when leveling, especially on a hunter, who really thinks about gear?
Like alot of people, I went from 70 to 80 (and into 10man naxx) wearing my
T5/T6 raid gear. I straight up solo-ground from 70-80, ignoring most quests
and instances. I don’t think I saw what could be construed as an “upgrade”
till I hit 80, and then only rings or trinkets.
And who knows, maybe that hunter isn’t even his main. He could be a
‘weekend’ hunter, i.e: he might be some OP healer or something like
that. you never really know these days.
WoW is just a game. Ombre is just an average-Joe player in that game. I can never consider him “Über,” nor “Huntard,” but a generally well rounded player, like most people in WoW. And yes, Ombre the Hunter is his own main; he just doesn’t play often. I confirmed that with the guild. His ui’s just fine (I have seen messier ui’s from pre bc), and I liked to wear s1 gear, come to think of it.
Yes; he helped my Hunter gear up, I helped him gear himself up in BC, also. (My hunter was the first in my [and Ombre's] guild to hit 70, when Ombre was ~level 35 and when he just joined our guild. SM-runs were ftw). And he helped me gear my lesser-classed Warrior, also, through his lesser-classed pally. Congratulations, Ombre, for appearing on BRK, and God bless you.
eh, i still think u shoulda faded out his name…i think in hindsight, you know that too. you could still have presented the whole UI thing and addressed it the same by changing his name or blotting it out – you know, like the things they do in the movies “names have been changed to protect the innocent”? i mean, you’re the guy who points out karma for not looting a beast for the benefit of skinners! you can’t preach karma and goodness, and hail people for helping one another out, and then trash some dude reaching out to you.
All the points you made on him are correct, but, protect his identity man.
and, who knows how old he/she is? many of us are older players, but you theoretically *could* be addressing a 14 year old. i doubt any of us would want our kids subjected to ridicule and harassment from an online community. i guess just ask yourself, BRK or Brian, would you want your kids to be treated this way from someone they potentially admire?
and furthermore, about his aspects, he has ALL of the aspects out on his UI. Both Hawk and Dragonhawk are out. Maybe he just likes to see them, who knows.
one of the reasons ive read your blog is because of how positive and helpful you have been in the past. the post could have been just as “entertaining” had you blocked out his name.
@Juzelle
Part of the fun for me is gear. I enjoy upgrading my gear. So, folks like me pay attention to gear, I guess.
By the way…
T5/T6 is not the same thing as Season 1 Honor Epics. I’ve heard of LOTS of people who didn’t upgrade that stuff. I only had Kara epics and I didn’t upgrade those until 76-78 range.
Just sayin.
I mean, really…
I don’t think I like this website anymore