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About the Bloggers: Elizabeth Harper
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. How did you get started at WoW Insider? I was once a lowly IT geek, trudging away at a desk job where I solved people's technical problems. But back in February 2006, I applied for a writing position at WoW Insider mostly because I thought it would be fun -- but it eventually morphed into a full time gig. I was promoted to Lead Writer, then Senior Editor, and finally Editor-in-Chief before, beyond burned out on WoW, I left the site to join a tech startup in 2010. The startup didn't work out, and these days I'm writing for a few different places, including WoW Insider. I write WoW Rookie, keep the rookie and resource pages updated, and write news and other articles as needed.
About the Bloggers: Matthew Rossi
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. Allright, let's do this. What do you do for WoW Insider? I'm an Editor here at WI, which means I do various things - I write, and I also edit and schedule other people's work. I've been here for a while now - my first column was published back in June of 2007 and I've been here ever since. I originally came on board as the warrior columnist, then I started writing Know Your Lore (which I still do alongside my partner in late night lore discussions, Anne Stickney) - essentially I'm the Grumpy Old Man of the site. What's your main? He's a draenei warrior. He started out as a human warrior, back in the days before race and faction change. He's since been a night elf, a draenei, a tauren, a draenei again, a tauren again, a worgen, and a draenei again. In addition to him, I've played several other warriors (another draenei, another tauren, another night elf, a forsaken and an orc) to max level. I basically really love warriors. I've been playing the game since 2004, and my main has seen and done a lot.
About the Bloggers: Scott Andrews
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I contribute the WoW Archivist features and other articles. Recently I interviewed several Blizzard developers at PAX East 2014. For seven years, I also wrote Officers' Quarters, an advice column for officers and guild leaders. If you have an idea for an Archivist feature that you'd like to see, please let me know! Keep in mind that the topic has to be meaty enough for 2000 words. That's almost double the length of this post. How did you get started at WoW Insider? When WoW Insider put out a call for contributors in 2007, I pitched the Officers' Quarters column. Since almost no one was writing about guild leadership back then, the editors loved the idea. I'm sure the master's degree in writing didn't hurt, either.
About the Bloggers: Sarah Pine
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? My official title is "Content Editor," which as far as I can tell is a fancy way of saying "writer." I was hired last year to provide general assistance in keeping track of and writing up news from around the WoW community, with the occasional editorial or Well Fed Buff thrown in, when I remember to photograph something I've cooked. What's your main? I have played the same night elf druid since I picked up WoW, much to the chagrin of the Horde-playing friend who introduced me to the game. Her name is currently Ilanielle, because one of the seven other toons in the entirely of the North American servers with the preferred spelling (Ilaniel) just happens to be a level five rogue on my current server. I shake my fist at thee, sir or madam! I generally raid and run group content as restoration, but my guild has been known to ask me to go feral from time to time. I do my best to maintain workable gear and skill in both specs, but let's be honest: I'm a far better healer than DPS'er. In feral spec, what I'm most proud of is my transmog.
About the Bloggers: Olivia Grace
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. Today, we're sitting down with Olivia Grace, who resides in southeast England and very occasionally paints herself green. What do you do for WoW Insider? I was hired last year to write Blood Sport, WoW Insider's PvP column, and I've recently taken on Addon Spotlight, which (remarkably) is about addons! I also write a lot of Breakfast Topics and some general newsy bits and bobs here and there -- as much as I can find time to do, really. I also hang out in our Campfire chat room laughing at the silly pictures. I don't think the last bit really counts as something I do for WoW Insider. What's your main? Ugh, that's the question right now, in the lead-up to Mists. I do quite a lot of PvP, as you might guess, and for that, my main is a dwarf restoration shaman. I also have a priest and a mage that I PvP on regularly, a paladin that I PvP on as retribution very rarely, and a few other characters here and there. My only PvP quandary is whether I want to stick with a dwarf shaman or go with a pandaren shaman. I'm leveling a second shaman in preparation, so I can race-change to pandaren.
About the Bloggers: Kelly Aarons
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I use my wacky art skills to draw the WoW Insider's Weekly Webcomic. Safe Passage: The Prologue is the story that's currently running. I'm also the resident Photoshop wizard when someone ... needs something Photoshopped, I suppose. What's your main? My main is Cadistra, a female Tauren feral druid. She was my first character that I made on a trial account, and I couldn't be happier. She's also the co-star of my webcomic, World of Warcraft, Eh? What's the best 5-man instance in the game? What's the best raid? The best 5-man? A bizarre tie of Halls of Reflection, the new Deadmines, and Oculus. HoR, because when I looked behind me after Arthas had fended off Sylvanas and he started walking after me, I was scared like you wouldn't believe. That steady, unyielding pace, while myself and the rest of my team was frantically slaying the undead ... I will always remember that. DM, because it's genuinely fun, and Oculus, because I enjoyed the dragon mechanics. Also, I adore the voice acting for Ley-Guardian Eregos. I don't raid, but I love doing old content. My favorite raid is the Temple of Ahn'Quiraj. That place felt epic. Gross, but epic.
About the Bloggers: Chase Christian
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I was hired by WoW Insider in late 2008 to write the weekly rogue column, Encrypted Text. I had actually applied for the position a few months earlier but wasn't originally selected, so I simply assassinated their first choice and left them with no choice but to sign me instead. When WI decided to expand its coverage of hybrid classes, I put in my application for the holy paladin position. I currently maintain both Encrypted Text and The Light and How to Heal It portion of the paladin column on a weekly basis. My secondary role is to get confused with Christian Belt and Chase Hasbrouck.
About the Bloggers: Josh Myers
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I am a writer. I write! My general responsibility is to cover DPS shaman, once referred to as the Defense Against the Dark Arts position of class columns. I'm also one of the Choose My Adventure crew, currently leveling a goblin priest named Clergelam. Finally, I occasionally write news or the rare Occu'thar raid guide. What's your main? My main is the awfully named Elamqt, of Proudmoore. He's a man-cow shaman, generally of the enhancement variety. When I started playing WoW, I went through a large variety of alts that I got to around level 20 and stopped playing. I fell in love with Elam when I discovered that he got Ghost Wolf at 20 and wouldn't have to wait until 40 to get a mount. He became my main then and has largely been my main ever since. I took a short break in Wrath of The Lich King to play a hunter -- and am currently focusing a little more on my mage -- but Elam is always first in my heart. Horde or Alliance? I'm a Tauren, but I don't think much of the Horde's politics. In particular, I hate Garrosh Hellscream. I hate him hard. But even without Hellscream, I don't care for the Horde. I play Horde because I love Tauren, but if they were an Alliance race, I'd be there. I don't really like the Alliance that much either, though. Pretty much, I'm just for the Herd.
About the Bloggers: Matt Walsh
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I write the tanking slice of WoW Insider's The Light and How to Swing It column for paladin's pie. I also head the site's Department of Tortured Metaphors and Analogies. What's your main? Rhidach, a Blood Elf paladin on the Lightninghoof server. I've been playing Rhidach since I started playing WoW for the second time at the beginning of The Burning Crusade. He and I have been through a lot together, from simple beginnings in Eversong to the first raids in the Outland, to the top of Icecrown Glacier and now the plane of Fire. It's been a wild ride, and I can barely bring myself to play any other character. I'll definitely never have a different main.
About the Bloggers: Mathew McCurley
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do at WoW Insider? Originally, I came on staff to take over the Addon Spotlight column and to help revive and reinvigorate the Reader UI of the Week feature that people have loved in the past but had dropped off as a feature. I applied to work for the site with only the addon columns in mind. Over time, after a few guest stints on The Lawbringer and generally always being around to help with the main site, I've graduated to blogging most days and taking over The Lawbringer full time. It's my labor of love -- I get to teach and discuss my opinions about lots of different esoteric gaming topics. I was into podcasting for a while with my own little network and wanted to be a guest on the WoW Insider Show for a long time, well before applying to work on the site. I bugged Sacco to let me be a guest and, before you know it, I was sleeping on the show's proverbial couch and they couldn't get rid of me. Now my name is on the banner. It's how I roll.
About the Bloggers: Daniel Whitcomb
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? My primary focus these days is to write Lichborne, the weekly death knight column. I also write the Tuesday Morning Post, a weekly maintenance day roundup of all the news that's fit to print from the past few days of WoW. I used to do a lot more posting of general news, spending at least a few hours a day just scouring everywhere for juicy stuff, but then I had to get a day job again. Still, I try to do what I can. WoW Insider is a great place to work. I have pretty cool coworkers, and I get to write about stuff I love. What's not to like? What's your main? My main is, of course, a human death knight. (Yes, I'd rather be a high elf. I won't even lie.) I do a little bit of everything, if only so I can write with authority about whatever I need to for Lichborne, but my preferred spec of the moment is 2H PVE frost DPS. Right now, it feels like the tree and spec with the most consistent and flavorful rotation and role to it.
About the Bloggers: Robin Torres
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? I am very happy to say that I've been working at WoW Insider for a while now, though what I do here has changed over the years. Currently, I am one of the Drama Mamas, along with Lisa Poisso. I also adventure according to your whim every week on Choose My Adventure Live. And I am GM of the It came from the Blog family of guilds, which includes organizing monthly events like the haunting of Stormwind. One of my favorite non-column-related posts I wrote a couple of years ago is my interview with a scammer. My previous About the Bloggers post from 2008 describes what I've done here in the past and also includes a picture of me in the back of a pickup truck fondling Tarzan -- if you're into that kind of thing.
About the Bloggers: Joe Perez
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on some of our more longstanding staffers in earlier About the Bloggers entries. What do you do for WoW Insider? Back in February of 2010, I was hired on as the class columnist for Totem Talk: Restoration for all the healing-minded shaman. While that has been my primary focus, I try to help out with other items like interesting news or account security tips whenever I can. I've even stepped in and helped out on a Phat Loot Phriday. I also have been known to help out around the stage area for the WoW Insider meetup at BlizzCon!
About the Bloggers: Alex Ziebart
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. Meet other staffers, both past-day and present, in earlier About the Bloggers entries. What do you do for WoW Insider? Oh, dear. As far as writing goes, I currently write WoW Archivist, Two Bosses Enter, and The Queue (Mondays and Wednesdays), and I handle MMO Roundup to bring you stories from the larger MMO universe that you may be interested in from our sister site Massively. In the past, I've contributed to Hybrid Theory (long deceased, good riddance), Know Your Lore, Ask a Lore Nerd (since folded back into Know Your Lore and The Queue), and Spiritual Guidance. I've also played temporary fill-in for The Light and How to Swing It (retribution), Lichborne, and ... you know what, I'll stop now, because that list is way too long. Behind the scenes, my role is largely the same as the other senior editors -- we make sure WoW Insider keeps chugging on as it should. We make sure assignments are being turned in, we make sure stories are being written up and posted in a timely fashion, we handle our social media outlets, and a whole load of other backend administrative stuff that, if we're doing our jobs well, you guys will never even need to think about. I like to think that one of my best talents is my ability to find the talent in other people and pull it to the surface, by force if necessary. Being a senior editor, I get to utilize that every day. Essentially, we're the guys who let Fox Van Allen be the beautiful shining star that he is. You really don't want the fine details on all of that.
About the Bloggers: Anne Stickney
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more WI staffers in earlier About the Bloggers entries. What do you do for WoW Insider? Oh, man. I write Know Your Lore on Sundays, along with the roleplay column All the World's a Stage. On Mondays, you can catch the Weekly Podcast Roundup. On Thursdays, I write World of WarCrafts, and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I write up The Daily Quest. In addition, I sometimes fill in on The Queue, pop in on the WoW Insider Show when asked, and I do those little guide graphics on the side of the site, too. In short, I write. A lot. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
About the Bloggers: Tyler Caraway
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on some of our more longstanding staffers in earlier About the Bloggers entries. This week we have one of the newer faces on the block, who wasn't around when the original series ran: Tyler Caraway. What do you do for WoW Insider? I'm one of the contributing editors for the site and primarily focus on writing Blood Pact for warlocks, Shifting Perspectives for balance druids, and Ready Check for your raiding insights. From time to time, though, I've been known to write about a multitude of things ranging from theorycrafting, elemental shaman, death knights, and various other class tidbits. Where I could end up any given week is half the fun of the job.
About the Bloggers: Zach Yonzon
Twice a week (if writers like Zach here keep to their deadlines), 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 incorrigibly erratic columns The Art of War(craft) and The Light and How to Swing It that deal with PvP and Paladins respectively (and sometimes interchangeably). I also tend to mix up my posts with regular, run-of-the-mill news and the occasional opinion piece, like my analysis on the new Wrath changes to Paladins.What's your main right now?I spend most of my time in-game on my Level 70 Blood Elf Paladin, who re-specs 3-4 times a week. One day I'm mashing faces with a big hammer, and the next I'm waving my glowing fingers in the air like somebody's boy toy. I've spent thousands of Gold on re-specs that I'm probably a spec-a-holic. Just don't ask me to tank. I also have a neglected child in my Level 70 Troll Shaman, who was originally my main. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I started playing the game with an Undead Rogue and later a Troll Hunter on a PvE server. My wife and friends later rerolled on a PvP server.
About the Bloggers: Natalie Mootz
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'm a shiny new everyday blogger. I started working here at the end of May 2008. What's your main right now? My main is a level 68.85 70 (as of 6/28) Tauren shaman named Slig (US Drenden). A lot of people ask me why I play a male toon. In fact, Slig is my only male character. I don't so much identify with him as an avatar, but it's more like I have a crush on him. I love my Sligger. For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance? Horde, definitely, although I dabble plenty with Alliance alts. I really like the counter-culture, subversive, non-conformist attitude of the Horde. I also like how they make their cities and towns out of the shapes of the environment around them. Whoa, that sure sounds fruity. Favorite thing to do in Azeroth? I like to discover new areas and then go kill things there. Lately I've been getting a big charge out of the bombing runs in Nagrand. What's the best instance in the game? Embarrassed to say that I haven't done all that many instances. I rock Scarlet Monetary though. What's the number one thing Blizzard could do better? Hire me. No, seriously, I've been trying to get a job there for two years. Okay, more related to gameplay, you say? Fine. I think for the most part Blizzard is doing a fine job. My only slight frustration with the game is not having enough non-PvP, solo-able content for higher level players. Favorite mount? Mount I own or mount I've seen? I love my Great White Kodo. Kodos crack me up. Mount I aspire to have some day? A roflcopter. When I'm not playing WoW, I'm... Writing on my own blog, The Game Dame, riding my bike, dancing Lindy Hop with my husband, playing with my two cats, knitting. Who doesn't! What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of? Okay see, I find this to be a very odd question. I don't really feel "proud" of virtual accomplishments except as they relate to areas where I've improved myself. For example, I've long been known to be a horrible PvP player. So tonight I was pretty proud of myself for taking down some folks who jumped me in a 2 vs. 1 fight. I was stomping around my apartment going, "IN YOUR FACE!" to the cats. Sad, really. Other games I enjoy are ... Anything Lorne Lanning does; he's my gaming god. (Oh, hey, Oddworld Inhabitants can hire me too!) I play all the Oddworld games over and over. Recently I've also enjoyed Mass Effect and Bioshock. I'm waiting breathlessly for Little Big Planet to come out.
About the Bloggers: Christian Belt
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 weekly Mage column, Arcane Brilliance, and feel incredibly humbled to do it. I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to being the best, or most knowledgeable Mage out there, and am extremely grateful that the Mage community here welcomes me into their lives each week and allows me to spout off about our wonderful class. I love to write, and I love playing a Mage, so getting to write this column is like some kind of huge nerd fantasy for me, and I feel incredibly lucky to do it.What's your main right now?Having said that, it should shock nobody that my main is a Mage. He's level 70, he's Undead, and he enjoys long walks on the beach while plotting ways to destroy the living. He's a PoM-Pyro build, specced specifically for Arena PvP. His current ambitions include gearing up for Arena Season 4 (and crossing his bony fingers for a rating high enough to actually qualify for some of the new ugly, ugly gear), and saving up enough honor to finally get some of the sweet new Guardian's gear. I also have a level 70 Blood Elf Holy Paladin who gets almost as much playtime as the Mage. He's the main healer for a very casual guild that's farming Karazhan right now and about ready to move on to Zul'Aman. I also have a flock of mid-level alts spread across both factions and multiple servers.For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?Oh, for the Horde...my bias runs deep. I have a hard time playing my low level Alliance toons, simply because I feel like a traitor when I do so. Also, I like to kill Gnomes. I like to kill them so much.
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. ...
