Sticks and stones may break one's bones, but words will hurt forever. At least, it's the case with the usage of the word "rape" as far as the fairer gender of the wow_ladies livejournal community are concerned.

Livejournal user itsyspy70 recently posted an open letter to all young male guildmembers, pleading that they refrain from using the word rape. She explains that while not being appropriate, usage of the word is also potentially hurtful and harmful to a great many people currently enjoying World of WarCraft.

She also says that while not being a a victim of the cruel deed herself, she understands that it's a very traumatic experience and should not be made light of. While most of the replies were positive and supported user itsyspy70 on the matter, one particular reply piqued the attention of yours truly, and it speaks volumes. Here it is in full, by Livejournal user tamchronin:

Wow. I really AM the only girl in the guild who doesn't agree with you. I've been raped. I use the term all the time in game, and have the ability to remove the association with the horribly traumatic events in my life from the playful "Yeah, we totally raped that boss" or "Damn, that mob totally raped me."

I can choose to be offended by every little thing that I come across in my life, or I can get on with my life and take back my power. I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor. And part of surviving is acknowledging that the world is not going to change and pussy foot around me and treat me as special just because something bad happened to me.

Strong words, indeed. What about you, readers? What's your take on this whole matter? You can peruse the letter in full by clicking on the read link below, and let us know what you think by your comments.

We all know that Druids can shape-shift into Epic airliner Stormcrows or powerful, tanking Bear forms, but this little tip from the wicked entries at the public LiveJournal blog had us doubling over with laughter. This one from Taishokao especially, totally doubled the giggle value. So we guess things aren't all that bad for the Druid class: Blizzard just gave you a new option for specialization - and it goes "beep, beep!"

If you check up on the Druid's Arena Gladiator gear set up on World of Warcraft Europe's Armor Sets page, you'd notice that if you hover your mouse over any of the items, you would spot a set ability that goes a little something like this: "(4) Set: Increases your movement speed by 15% while in Bear, Car, and Travel form. Only active outdoors."

Bumblebee, you've got competition up your sleeve, and they aren't Decepticons. Now we are definitely sure that was a big doo-doo on Blizzard's part, because they've been known for many tooltip typos before. That's not even counting the ones they have on the in-game interfaces and dialogues.

Car form... It'd be nice if you could use that to run over opponents at the Arena. So what level do Druid's get the new form, eh Blizz? *wink, wink* What's next, "Beer" form?

Now this is definitely a sweet piece of news that makes us all go, "YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!" Bowzerblack from the Livejournal World of Warcraft community linked to this sweet piece of action figure awesomeness: an Illidan Stormrage figurine, complete with massive wings and great blades.

The description for the figurine makes it even markedly more impressive:

America's No. 1 selling PC game since 2004 continues its incredible entry into the collectible action figure arena with this Illidan Deluxe Collector Figure from DC Unlimited. This figure is 6.5" tall with a wingspan of 11" - the total height of the figure is 13"!

Of course, people are going to need to be patient if they want this piece of action figure greatness. The figure is set for release on December 19, which is perfect for the Christmas season, but far too long a wait for avid collectors of Blizzard merchandise.

 

We never knew working with Orcs could be so deliciously sweet. Over at the WoW Ladies Livejournal community, caf_pow posts a picture of yet another Horde-inspired cake creation that's 100% Horde, and 120% exquisitely ready-to eat.

As her story goes, she made it for her boyfriend's birthday as per his request, and settled on using the gates of Orgrimmar as her template because they're "for the Horde," as she so eloquently puts it. The cake has some of the following sweets in it, as she notes on the end of her post:

entirely edible bar the candles: chocolate and vanilla sponges with mars bar mini rolls, matchmaker chocolates, jaffa cakes and chocolate finger biscuit and chocolate chip logs.

Ladies and gents, don't forget to think of her as the Baskin Robbins of love: She's definitely more than 31 types of awesome for making it, and a fanatic of the Horde to boot. Enjoy!

 

LJ user Impossibility, wrote in the wow_ladies LiveJournal Community that she feels a bit exposed because her party's Rouge was able to pickpocket her. Here's the image she showed on her post.

Thankfully she got educated by LJ user spikedog, who pointed out that the Rogue just typed "/e successfully steals...", and notes to the impossibility that she can try it too.

This prank may seem old to a lot of folks but it is actually something that even confuses the more experienced folk. We're pretty sure you folks are thinking up your own pranks at the moment like "/e receives [Sword of OMG I Rock!]" or something. Fair warning though: just be aware that it's often more annoying than funny. Oh, and please don't try to scam people with it. The more alert, and impatient folk will probably report you or something.

Oh, and as for the fact that I was lurking in a female WoW LJ community... I was, uh... doing some research. Yes, that.