About the Bloggers: moo Money
Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.
What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write the daily machinima posts for both WoW Insider, and its broader MMO sister site, Massively.
What's your main right now?
This won't make me very popular, but I actually don't really play WoW. I did for a while after it came out, but I'm not a very good grinder and it just got lonely.
This is an outrage! How dare you write about WoW without playing it?
That's actually a really good question. I got my start in machinima roughly two years ago when I was hired to promote it in Second Life, an oft-mocked virtual world. Through experimentation with machinima, as well as the education that I provided to others, I became known as one of the "It" people for machinima in SL.
When Second Life Insider folded into Massively in November 2007, I volunteered to write the daily Cinemassively. After about 45 days straight of blogging them, WI asked me to do the same for WoW Moviewatch!
Read on to find out more about the Notorious M.O.O. ...
Seriously, though. How does that qualify you to write about WoW machinima?
Well, what qualifies you to rant on and on in comments about a specific class or race that you've never played? Machinima is machinima no matter what platform it's made on. Through my experience with filming and editing, I can recognize what techniques are used, as well as what's good or bad.
In order for something to be posted, it usually has to meet a bare minimum standard that I've set. Not everything will be Baron Soosdon or Dopefish level, but I don't want it to be like that, either. I enjoy giving the underappreciated, yet highly talented, newbie a chance, hoping that one day, they too will be on that expert level.
Do you even know anyone that makes WoW machinima?
As a matter of fact, I do! There's a whole machinima clique that meets monthly on Skype and in Second Life to discuss developments in the scene. At one such gathering, Dopefish was the special guest. We got to chatting and he invited me into #machinima on Quakenet. When I was asked to take over WoW Moviewatch, I embedded myself in their community. This allowed me to get submissions and information from them faster.
In addition, at the 2006 Machinima Festival, I moderated a panel that I created on Machinima from a Professional Standpoint, which featured Terran Gregory (Rufus Cubed/Return) and Tristan Pope (The Godfather/Crafting Worlds/Machinima101), of Blizzard.
You think you're so cool writing under an alias! What's up with that?
It's really not that exciting of a story. I was recruited to blog for Second Life Insider. My Second Life name is moo Money, so that became my writing name. When SLI folded into Massively, we went over to the new site, and my name stuck. If you must know, since it's not that hard to find, my real name is Sasha Rudie!
What's the number one thing Blizzard could do better?
I'm biased, but I'd have to say that they could change their EULA to allow more WoW machinimators to profit off of their work.
When I'm not playing WoW, I'm...
... starting riots, sabotaging PR campaigns, and accidentally blogging subliminal machinima. Speaking of riots, today is the First of May! I'd like to give a shout out to Jonathan Coulton and Mike Spiff Booth!
