greg
Latest
Global Chat: Best of April first edition
Friday was April Fool's day, and while we at Massively didn't want to stop bringing you all the latest real news, we wanted to get in on the fun as well. In the end, we compromised by making a few little additions to our schedule in the first half of the day. While we had regular news at the top of the hour as always, on the :30s we handed the virtual printing press over to you, our readers. Several of our writers created Mad Libs-style news stories, leaving out the important parts and allowing you, the readers, to create whatever news your hearts desired. Today we're looking at the ones that kept us laughing, so follow along after the jump for the best of April first!
The Onion spoofs WoW with the World of World of Warcraft
The Onion, a popular news satire site, has played off the World of Warcraft before with articles such as "Baby, you mean the World of Warcraft to me," but now they've taken it to the realm of video. The Onion News Network reports on Blizzard's latest (fictional) release, World of World of Warcraft. In it, you create a real life character and guide him or her through the process of playing World of Warcraft, helping them navigate the reading of the EULA and making sure they keep rested and fed with Hot Pockets and Soda. As usual with an Onion article that targets one of my personal hobbies or lifestyle, I'm never 100% sure whether to laugh or be offended -- but in the end I pretty much always err on the side of laughing. Actually, looking the "game" closely, it almost looks a bit like The Sims. You have a character who's modeled after a modern real life person, and you have to keep them happy, well-fed, rested, and entertained. And really, WoW is a pretty legitimate form of entertainment, I'd say. In that case, maybe The Onion is just looking forward to that day when all games are connected in some sort of seamless on-line mishmash of characters and personas. Then again, maybe it's just a funny video. Anyway, go watch it.
Farewell, my friend
For people who don't play the World of Warcraft or similar games, or do not spend much time on the internet at all, it's difficult to grasp the idea of bonds and friendships formed over the web. How can you be friends with someone you've never seen before? I can understand the inability to grasp such a thing, it's rarely easy to comprehend what you haven't seen or experienced yourself. To those who haven't had powerful friendships over the internet, it makes no sense how you can grow so close to someone you can't see, you can't touch.Even through the supposed anonymity of the internet, the greatest of friendships can be formed. Bonds so powerful that you never want to let them go, and may change your life forever, for the better. Despite the distance, despite the inability to touch and feel, you can grow as close as family to these supposed anonymous people. These individuals are more than just "internet people." They're people. In the World of Warcraft, a video game, I have found people that have truly changed me. I would not be the person I am today without them.I've been playing WoW since launch day, and the community I've been a part of in the game has been a constant for all of these years. People have come and people have gone, but for the most part, I've played the World of Warcraft with the same names, the same faces, the same people. I'm 21 now, and I started gaming with this crew when I was 17. I can safely say I've essentially grown up with these people. We reminisce on the old days, and we realize that we've all changed quite a bit since the beginning. We've matured together, we've grown up together. People who have never had this experience, as I said before, don't understand how you can form such bonds over the internet. Some of the greatest friendships I've ever had, and ever will have, have been on the internet. Some people you will never forget, no matter where you met them. This is something I've had to think about quite a bit the last few days.
iLoser retains place in line, crisis averted
Rarely does a reader-submitted tip appear so urgent that we feel the immediate need to leave the comfort of our cushy home office, but when we heard that Greg the iPhone Camper [a.k.a. New Jersey highway maintenance worker and professional line sitter Greg Packer] -- affectionately dubbed "iLoser" in the media -- had been dragged out of line at Apple's Fifth Avenue store along with the rest of the wackos hopefuls, we were obligated to spring into action and investigate. Well it turns out that the reports of Greg's preemptive removal were greatly exaggerated, as the man himself was right there yucking it up with reporters and curious passers-by just like he has been since Tuesday morning. Keep on reading for more pictures of this unlikely internet celeb, along with a few shots of the madhouse that the corner of 58th and 5th has become...
