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WRUP: A farewell to Mr. Mat McCurley and Ms. Kelly Aarons
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! Hello, everyone! I've finally returned from my pseudo-vacation roadtrip across the country. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet Anne Stickney (again), see a dude freak out on the floor of the Illinois House of Representatives, go skydiving, check out the Art of Videogames exhibit at The Smithsonian, survived being stranded for 10 hours in the blazing California desert, and -- well, it was pretty damn action-packed. But as much as I'd love to regale you with tales of my adventure, we have some sadness today. Beloved WoW Insider columnist Mat McCurley has gone to a better place. (The better place, in this case, being a totally rocking job with Riot, the folks who make League of Legends.) If you're the type who reads WoW Insider without checking out the bylines, it's hard to fathom how much of a loss this is. Mat is a huge part of what makes WoW Insider what it is. I first met Mat as part of a somewhat impromptu one-day trip. Mike Sacco and I drove from Massachusetts down to New York city, meeting up with McCurley and (then writer) Rich Stoneybaby Maloy for a really awesome evening or drinking and WoW talk. By the next morning, the groundwork for one of the most amazing working friendships I've ever had was laid. My favorite thing about Mat was his almost child-like enjoyment of WoW. He shows such an incredible enthusiasm for the game that it's infectious. If you met him at BlizzCon or saw him perform at PAX East, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It really sucks that we're losing Mat as a columnist. The only consolation: He's going to go on to do even more amazing things for Riot. And also he's going to come out to live in Los Angeles, right down the street from me. Awesome. And making matters worse, we're also losing Kelly Aarons here at WoW Insider as well. I wish I knew Kelly as well as I knew Mat, but I never got a chance to drive up to Canada. From what I do know about her, though, she's awesome. Her drawings were awesome. Byron rules. As a farewell, I figured I'd republish Mat's Birthday Wish one last time. It was an epic effort on my part -- a children's book I wrote to pay tribute to one of the coolest dudes out there in the WoW-verse. And while we're WRUPing, we'll all answer this week's bonus question: What's your favorite Mat McCurley/Kelly Aarons moment?
Breakfast Topic: What WoW title would you choose in real life?
The other day, I tried to come up with a title for Kelly Aarons. It was one of those fleeting moments where you have the opportunity to display your wit, and in doing so, show everyone that you're actually a funny, lighthearted, and interesting human being (as opposed to a boring, soulless low-life ... sigh). In those racing seconds, I grasped desperately at all the WoW titles floating aimlessly in my head. How about Kelly the Noble? Kelly the Light of Dawn, perhaps? No, that might seem self-absorbed or creepy. Kelly the Exalted? Salty Kelly? I was about to type out Merrymaker Kelly when I realized my window of time had expired and anything after that would just make me seem like some sort of desperate try-hard. "You'll never be witty, Dawn. Give it up already." Sighing internally, I held down the delete key and kept quiet. It made me wonder, though, if I were going to give myself my own title, what would it be? In game, I've only displayed a few titles on my characters over the years (Rival, Sergeant, Chef, and the Light of Dawn), but I don't think any of those titles suit me personally. Dawn the Patient seems fitting. Maybe Dawn the Explorer? I think I might have explored outside my house at some point -- that works. What about you?
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.
WoW Insider Show episode 130
Despite some horrendous latency issues (sorry folks), the WoW Insider Show podcast broadcast this Saturday with special guest hosts Basil Berntsen and Kelly Aarons, and we discussed the upcoming 3.3.3 patch, as well as the Ruby Sanctum raid instance coming with Patch 3.3.5. We also answered reader emails, as we do each week -- you can email theshow@wow.com to have your question read on the air. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show live today at 3:30 PM Eastern
It's been a wild day for WoW news, and what better place to hear about it than on the WoW Insider Show podcast? We return to the airwaves today at 3:30 PM Eastern time, with your host Michael Sacco, cohost Matthew Rossi, and special guest hosts Kelly Aarons and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen (our new auction house columnist). We'll be answering reader emails, shootin' the breeze, and discussing the week's top stories on WoW.com and around the web. And, of course, we'll talk live with the folks in the chat channel. You can email the podcast any time of night or day at theshow@wow.com, and you'll be able to listen in to the show on the feed on our Ustream site, or after the jump.
Listen to the WoW Insider Show today with special guest Mary Varn
Yes, our podcast is back again this afternoon at 3:30pm EDT, and this week we're welcoming Mary Varn, the creator and artist behind NPC Comic, a webcomic about a girl and her two cats who all play World of Warcraft. She'll talk with us about her work and her own characters, and since we'll also have Kelly "Cadistra" Aarons of the new Byron the Tauren Rogue comic on again, maybe they'll be able to share some insight on putting WoW-related cartoons together. Turpster and I will make sure it's not all about drawing comics, though -- we'll be answering emails and talking about the most popular posts from the last week, including what's going on with patch 3.3 and when it might drop, what's up with all of the outages lately, and what it takes to get all of the achievements. All of them. Should be a great show -- you can tune in over on our Ustream page at 3:30pm Eastern, or just head after the break. See you then.
WoW Insider Show Episode 118: Taking sides
We had a great time as always on last weekend's podcast -- Kelly "Cadistra" Aarons and C. Christian Moore (a.k.a. Colby, a.k.a. C-money) joined us on the podcast to talk about comics and PvP, respectively, and we hit on the most popular posts of the past week as well, including wrapping up Pilgrim's Bounty, our favorite memories of the game for the fifth anniversary, and how GDKP works -- both in terms of mechanics and as a loot system. Additionally, we talked again about the Dungeon Finder system and how it will affect the game, as well as why Blizzard probably won't provide any more character slots per realm, even in Cataclysm. And we hear some more great fan-made intros -- if you'd like to send us one (or anything else, really), the address as always is theshow@wow.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
Listen to the WoW Insider Show today at 3:30pm Eastern
Our podcast (which is nominated for a Podcast Award, by the way -- this is the last time we'll ask you to vote for us over there, since voting ends on November 30th) is headed back to the virtual airwaves as usual, and this week we're bringing two new voices into the mix. We'll welcome not only C. Christian Moore, informally known as Colby, to the show (he's the new author of our PvP Blood Sport column), but also Kelly Aarons, informally known as Cadistra, both of WoW Eh and our brand new comic here on WoW.com. Should be a lot of fun -- they'll chat with Turpster and I about the biggest stories of the past week, including Pilgrim's Bounty and some superfast cooking leveling, the game's 5th anniversary and what things were like back when it all began, and this GDKP system everyone's using, as well as other player-created looting systems. Sounds like a full show (and that doesn't even include answering your emails and our other silliness). It all kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern/8:30pm GMT this afternoon over on our Ustream page (or on your iPhone or iPod touch, or just after the break if you want to do it that way) and if you are listening live, don't forget to show up a little early for the pre-show, and stay a little later for the aftershow. Hope to see you this afternoon!
WoW's 5th anniversary: Our writers' memories
We at WoW.com are a sentimental bunch. I always privately thought that, but now I've got the sort of ironclad proof beloved by canny blackmailers everywhere. In the weeks before WoW's 5th anniversary, a backchannel team discussion sprang up on our memories of the game and the players with whom we've had the great privilege of playing, and we decided to collect them here in honor of WoW's birthday. Some of us are hardcore gamers with lots of experience with other games. For others, WoW was their first (and in some cases, only). Most of us raid, and some of us PvP or theorycraft. A few of us are nuts for hardware arguments, but others are surprised to discover that WoW does not actually play on our toasters. Many of us are pretty easygoing in our approach to the content; others would sell their grandmothers up the river for a server-first. One among us hates warlocks, and everyone else just hates rogues (unless you're Chase). But we do share one thing in common, and that's that we love the game no matter what we're doing while playing it -- and we hope you do too. From all of us at WoW.com, happy birthday, World of Warcraft!
WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue!
Welcome to the first installment of WoW.com's Weekly Comic! Every Tuesday morning we'll present a new page in the comic from Kelly Aarons. The story kicks off with a rogue named Byron, stealthily hanging in a rather precarious situation. We'll be keeping all these in an ordered gallery, which you can access below for easy reading if you want to (eventually) catch up on everything. However to begin with there's obviously only one page in there... but what a page! Check the full resolution out above, and tune in next week for the second page! %Gallery-77825%
WoW.com welcomes artist Kelly Aarons
WoW.com is pleased to announce a new and unique addition to our staff -- Kelly Aarons of WoW, Eh? fame! Kelly will be joining us each Tuesday morning posting a new comic, in much of the same style as WoW, Eh. Kelly produces some great hand-drawn art, and will no doubt give everyone something to look forward to during those boring maintenance periods. We've recently interviewed Kelly in our 15 Minutes of Fame segment, which provides a good insight into how she goes about her business. You can see more of Kelly's work over at WoW, Eh? and at her Deviant Art page. She also just won the World of Warcraft: Comic Contest in September. So check back tomorrow for the first installment, and be sure to give Kelly a warm WoW.com welcome!
15 Minutes of Fame: WoW, Eh?
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.It's not every day that your interview subject offers to whip up some custom artwork depicting the 15 Minutes of Fame interview process in action - but that's how WoW, Eh? creator Cadistra/Kelly Aarons rolls. She's cool like that. That's Cadistra above, chatting with my retired priestess (who's normally found flitting about Darnassus in a Festive Green Dress with my daughter, chasing Wisps and leaving sparkly trails with her Benediction [to endless whispers of "Hey man, where does that staff drop?"] - so it was time for the wench to finally get some work done, you know?).Still, our enthusiasm for Cadistra's artwork can't top her own well deserved elation over a September win in Blizzard's monthly comic contest. As part of her prize package, Kelly received three volumes of Blizzard Entertainment manga. More importantly, she'll be considered by TOKYOPOP for contributions to upcoming volumes of both Warcraft: Legends and StarCraft: Frontline -- a heady opportunity, indeed.
