spectacular-death
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Drama Mamas: He's ready to plaaayyy ...
Time for a nostalgic trip back to Ulduar, boys and girls. This week's letter writer? Like a certain clockwork creation from our past, he might be just a little overeager to come out and play ... Hi WoW Insider Drama Mamas, So ... I'm a WoW n00b. I get the impression I'm a rarity these days (even with the release of Mists of Pandaria) (I'm so n00b I've only recently worked out that WoW means World of Warcraft and not like "Hey, man, WoW!" with a badly placed capital letter). IRL I'm a pretty outgoing bloke as well. I'm not short of mates, and friendly to most people I know. I even have a young family, and a wife I love very much. I'm an internet veteran who remembers ICQ and IRC chat. I've hung out on rock band and football club forums and successfully existed online there. I've played MMO style games before, in particular Second Life which is all about being social, and I've done well in the whole making friends thing there. But when it comes to WoW, I don't seem to be able to strike it, socially at least. I've got one mate on my friends list, who I know from RL; however, I worry I make him sick of me bugging him with my n00b questions. (What's the Dungeon Hunter? Where do I get leather from to make stuff with? Who's Leeroy Jenkins?) I had a brief "fling" with a girl kind enough to take me on my first dungeon run. I kept dying. I'm sure she was laughing her head off. But she was very gracious, kind, and friendly. I friended her, however I think she's since culled me from her friends list which of course makes me sad, but hey maybe she had to cull her list because it was too busy for her to concentrate on playing perhaps. I understand that sort of thing completely and I'm certainly not hurt over it. Other than that ... Every time I chat publicly to someone I'm either ignored or they run away. Comments in the casual guild I've joined seem to get ignored. And like I say, I don't want to drown my RL mate in-game either. Would love to see what you both have to say. What makes the WoW denizen different from other online hangout denizens? Many thanks, Scott Nofriends
March's Guild of the Month: Spectacular Death
Yes, that says March and not May. We'll be announcing April's winner soon, but first let's (finally) congratulate Spectacular Death for being March's Guild of the Month. They won a $100 gift code from SwagDog (which they have already received and spent). Gimmlette, their guild leader, tells us about Spectacular Death in her own words: Our guild portrait [above] says it all. People are wearing a wide variety of tabards which represent all the events we've participated in; achievements we've helped each other with; factions we're exalted with. We've gone everywhere and done most everything. We have every race and class.
15 Minutes of Fame: Retro raiders stroll through old content
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – both the renowned and the relatively anonymous. Know an interesting player you'd like to see profiled? E-mail us at 15minutesoffame AT wowinsider DOT com.Sometimes, WoW feels like a sprint for the next hot instance, the next hot gear. Just look at the flurry of interest in the details of patch 2.4 -- and the content's not even on the live servers yet! But something odd is happening: Even while Blizzard is funneling players into end-game content with accelerated XP curves and more gear than ever that can be purchased with badges, plenty of players are picking their own paths. These "softcore" players play on their own terms: shorter raids, smaller raids, alternative character concepts ... WoW's definitely big enough to hold it all.One of the more intriguing trends to appear on the scene is retro raiding – going back to cover all the Old World content, from Dire Maul to Zul'Gurub, from Molten Core to Naxxramas. Even though some of this content will be retooled in the future, much of it is simply outdated. Why would anyone want to run old instances that are no longer any challenge and don't offer any gear worth saving? Some want to see if they can short-man Onyxia. (Answer: They can.) Some want to see all the sights, all the sounds, all the bosses that have sent chills down the spines of so many raiders. This week, 15 Minutes of Fame talks to the GM of a guild that's forming up with the specific intent of hitting all the golden oldies.
