WRUP: Happy birthday other kid who isn't Mat

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Last week here at WRUP, we presented you with Mat's Birthday Wish, a Horde-flavored birthday celebration of joy, innocence, and whimsy. A lot of you liked it but were unhappy with the twist ending. Well, good news. I've scoured the internet trying to find a birthday wish story with a better twist at the end. And I think I've found it (warning: it's a shock video): T is for Truck. It looks like some birthdays turn out happier than others.

Those of us on staff who haven't been murdered by French hoodlums will likely be playing all sorts of fun video games and whatever this weekend. We tell you all about it after the cut -- and, per usual, you're free to tell us what you're doing too.

This week's bonus question: I don't feel like raiding until 4.3. Help me out. Give me really good excuses for why I can't raid next week. I'm pretty sure my raid mates don't care enough to read the normal stuff I write, little less WRUP. So it's cool. They won't know. Probably.

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Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) I'm going to be all over Skyrim this weekend again. Katie is gone and I've got the house to myself, so I'm not going to be surprised if I get some very serious play time in. Will I see the sun this weekend? Nope! And I'm proud of it.

Fox, your raiding excuse can be that you need to get SG in a day early. Not that you do ... or do you? ...

Alex Ziebart (@alexziebart) I'll be playing Skyrim solo, Saints Row: The Third co-op. Both extremely fun in their own ways.

Tell your raid that you love them very much but you're feeling terribly burnt out on the game, and ask them nicely if you can have a week or two off so you can perform at full capacity when patch 4.3 launches. Or tell them your dog ate you.

Allison Robert (@allisonrobert) My dog's still recovering from surgery, so probably just puttering around the house, getting some cleaning and cooking done for Thanksgiving, and a few relaxed heroics. Or not-so-relaxed 4.3 heroics on the PTR.

Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) This weekend will be spent finishing off the desk thing I'm building and making a couple of monitor risers. Oh, and I might look into getting Skyrim. Possibly. Maybe. Bonus question: Tell them you cannot raid but you can't tell them why because it's classified information and you MAY HAVE SAID TOO MUCH ALREADY. Then ask them to pray for you.

Chase Hasbrouck (@alarondruid) Just finished Rhapsody on my DS. A little different, but charming, and there's some neat Disgaea references. FWIW, I cordially hate all of you playing the current bounty of gaming goodness.

Bonus: Post a bunch of links to socially conscious YouTube videos in your guild forums then announce that you're joining the Peace Corps. (It can "not work out" later.)

Daniel Desmond (@hazmacewillraid) I think the weekend's forecast calls for cloudy skies and Skyrim on my Redguard warrior, followed by a touch of rain and Skyrim on my Breton mage.

Bonus: You caught bubonic plague and you need a week to shake it off.

Daniel Whitcomb (@DanielWhitcomb) I'll be sort of stuck beneath an Avalanche of RL stuff, but I am hoping to continue to get 100% Sidequest and DLC completion on all my Mass Effect 2 Shepards. Four down, two to go! I am also considering a fresh Shepard who will stay single over both games so as to get a drama-free slice of Vega when Mass Effect 3 comes around.

For getting out the raid? Uh. Tell them your parents are in town for your goldfish's funeral.

Elizabeth Wachowski (@leeatwaterlives) Skyrim, incessantly. I'm still not sure whether to go Stormcloak or Empire. Also, I'm down like 30 quests. But I'm having fun!

Bonus: Just make really annoying speech macros in Vent -- they'll stop asking you to raid soon enough.

Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) (gplus.to/foxvanallen) I'm spending this weekend in Philadelphia with my friend Chester. There will probably be too much RL fun to leave any time left for game playing.

Wait, lying to get out of a raid? I'd never do something like that. Who wrote this WRUP anyway? What's going on?!

Joe Perez (@lodurzj) Playing a lot of Skyrim this weekend now that my steam stuff is sorted out, going to find more time for LoL since the new champion came out. He reminds me of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and every time I kill an enemy champion I scream out "CUTE AND FLUFFY!" and he summons a shark to eat people's faces. If I have time, I'm going to work some more Assassin's Creed: Revelations because that game is simply amazing.

For an excuse for Fox, I go to the Book of Barney. Tell them you've been recruited by S.N.A.S.A. and must go on an urgent mission the the SMoon, for the very fate of the earth rests in the balance.

Josh Myers (@elamqt) I'm heading out to Michigan to see my parents for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I'll have a laptop along, so the answer is Skyrim, which is downloading from Steam right now. (The download is using up all my internet and forcing me to sit down and right my article, so this is a win/win for me.) Other than that, I'll probably rock some Pokemon Black on my 12-hour car ride to the state that time forgot.

Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra) WoW, artsy-stuff and Skyrim. Apparently my gathering neurosis in WoW has carried over very nicely to Skyrim, so ... that's what I'll be doing.

An excuse to get out of raiding? I don't know ... say you're on the can. Each day you're raiding. ... For several hours at a time.

Lisa Poisso (@lisapoisso) Some WoW plus pounding on two library books I've had on reserve that are suddenly both up at the same time.

As to getting out of raiding? I suggest taking your phone to a dark alley some evening and shooting some mysterious happenings. Post one single shot on Twitter hours before the raid. A blurry one. Then radio silence.

Mat McCurley (@gomatgo) (gplus.to/gomatgo) This weekend it's Bastion on the Xbox, WoW on the PC, hopefully a SWTOR beta if it's happening, and potentially another Mass Effect 2 play-through, this time on the computer.

Fox, just say "AFK Grandma tornado." Never fails.

Matt Low (@matticus) Will be at MineCon this weekend in Las Vegas! If you happen to be around, look for me at the LegendaryCraft booth right next to Razer's booth. No time for any other games other than Minecraft. Once I get home, I will most likely lose myself with World of Warcraft and League of Legends.

Matthew Rossi (@matthewrossi) I'm basically playing a ton of Diablo 3 beta, Dragon Age 2 with full DLC, and doing WoW in between. I'm desperate for some way to afford Skyrim, but that's not likely to happen soon.

I'm also reading a lot of old fantasy stuff, and so I suggest you tell your raid group you can't raid because a magical talking horse has chosen you to be a mystical guardian and you have to go to mystical guardian school.

Michael Gray (@writegray) I'm staring down the barrel of some Arena time, which could go either way. I'm hoping for great success. I could also hurl my keyboard through the drywall. We'll see.

Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) If my SWTOR beta still works (I'm not on the weekend plan), I'll be fiddling with that some more. Otherwise it's Tiny Tower, Sims Social and Pilgrim's Bounty on Sunday.

Fox, show up pretending to be completely hammered, so that they won't let you play.

Tyler Caraway (@murmursofadruid) Still rockin' the slog of betas that I have to push through, trying to fit some Skyrim in there, also attempting to solo everything in Dungeon Defenders on Insane -- which I've come to discover is far more about grinding out max levels on each class than anything else, oh, and the right builds. I'm sure there's a social life being thrown in there too; I've just got to find it at some point.

The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!