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Where Are They Now? 2012 personalities, including the blind player and his 'guide dog'
At last, our look back at five years of WoW personality interviews rolls around to the duo everyone's been asking about: Hexu and Davidian, the British soldier blinded in Iraq and his redoubtable "guide dog" guildmate who steered him through full participation in current raid content. Their story exploded across the internet after we interviewed Davidian here on WoW Insider, and Blizzard recognized the dynamic duo with in-game helms with flavor text alluding to their inspiring bond of friendship. Hexu and Davidian are both still playing World of Warcraft -- but the duo is together no more. As of the new year, the ever-energetic Hexu has been raiding on a new rogue, Dirtypawz, in Unqualified on Stormrage (EU). "I know!" he replies to my unspoken exclamation of surprise and sadness. "It was just that people were only raid logging, and it got boring -- but it was all amicable and cool. I still speak to people in Die Safe. I just wanted to do more than raid three nights a week." Hexu/Dirtypawz says a "very nice bloke" named Vatic is serving as his current raiding "guide dog" helper. "The people in the guild are all nice people," he adds, "and there [are] always things going on." We'll visit with Hexu/Dirtypawz next month about how he's settling in and dig into his tips for the many sight-disabled players who've written to us during the past year trying to reach him for advice. Meanwhile, Davidian reports that the year since we interviewed him has been packed with recognition and encouragement. "The publicity was just unreal," he says. "Even to this day, I get people coming to our server just to say how much the story inspired them and restored their faith in the gaming community. The biggest thing of all, though, was the fact that it made its way to Blizzard, and myself and Ben got signed copies of the collectors edition of Cataclysm signed by at least 50 members of the Blizzard team, and [we] received in-game pets also. Then to top it off, having in-game items with our names on them was just outstanding -- I mean, to be immortal in a game that we love to play is just, well words couldn't possibly describe it." All good people connecting to play a game that's close to our hearts ... Keep reading for more updates about people who love World of Warcraft, from our interviews during 2012.
University of Michigan's Computer and Video Game Archive houses over 3,000 different games, roughly 35 unique consoles (video)
Systems such as the ColecoVision, TurboGrafx-16 and 3DO may have been ousted from most home entertainment centers long ago, but they still have shelf space at the University of Michigan's Computer and Video Game Archive. Slashdot caught up with Engineering Librarian and Video Game Archivist Dave Carter and took a look inside the repository, which has curated around 35 classic and current-gen platforms and more than 3,000 different games. Having "one of everything" is the project's ultimate goal, but the logistics of acquiring every new game make achieving that feat a stretch. "Our realistic goal is to be sort of representative of the history of video games, what was important -- what was interesting," Carter said. "And then, not only to preserve the games, but also to preserve the game playing experience." As a "useable archive," patrons of UM's library can dig in and play at different stations with era-appropriate monitors and displays. While many visit for leisure, students have used the resource to research topics ranging from music composition to the effects of texting while driving (using an Xbox 360 racing title and steering wheel peripheral, of course). You can catch a glimpse of the collection in the video below or visit the archive's blog at the more coverage link.
Real-life librarians hit the Ironforge stacks
For so many World of Warcraft players, the game is all about connections. It was connections (a glowing recommendation from gaming industry insider, WoW player, and previous interviewee Liz Danforth) that led us to contact Australian librarian Ellen Forsyth for an interview (not coincidentally connecting even more dots, WoW-playing educators and innovators Peggy Sheehy and Lucas Gillispie, in the process). And it's connections that Forsyth draws for a living in her work as a professional librarian who both studies and advocates for gaming in the public libraries -- that's right, gaming for the people! "Libraries, games, reading, content creation, stories and a few other things as well" -- that's how Forsyth's Twitter profile characterizes her interests, a fairly delectable concoction for the typical WoW Insider reader. We played the WoW card to tempt Forsyth into chatting with us about the regular academic symposia she moderates in Azeroth (the Ironforge library, to be exact), the growing influence of games as a public library resource, and the sweeping imaginative and technological vistas opening up as more and more readers discover the parallel worlds of gaming -- and of course, World of Warcraft.
Librarians gone bad: TERA's Runekeepers revealed
As we jog nearer and nearer to TERA's release, En Masse continues to unveil the intricacies of this world. Few things are as important to talk about than the uglies and nasties that we'll be beating on for the duration of our career, which is why the studio has added a new entry to its beastiary with the Runekeeper. Near or far, no player will be safe from TERA's Runekeepers. These nasty demons pack a punch up close, with spiked fists that seem to say "Kill!" in a universal language. If you keep your distance, the Runekeeper is liable to chuck a bomb at you -- not a chemical bomb, mind you, but little critters known as guuthangs who have a tendency to explode. It's a lose-lose situation between your face and the guuthangs, really. Oddly enough, the Runekeepers have a massive hunger for knowledge. "Unfortunately, the runekeepers' destructive nature makes it impossible for them to get a library card," the official description reads. "Barakas insist the runekeepers actually devour the books."
College librarians urged to think like gamers, play more games
During the annual meeting of the American Library Association, a packed room of crusty academic librarians received some new-fashioned advice: Play more video games. Speakers urged fellow bookworms to bridge the divide between today's students ('digital natives') and themselves ('digital immigrants') by playing games, developing organizational systems that don't require training to use ("We should never read before we play"), and hosting after-hours LAN parties. Solutions remained conceptual, and attendees were encouraged to return to the murky depths of their university stacks and start experimenting.This just in... three undergraduate students are thought to be missing after entering a mysterious green pipe; installed in the east wing of Yale University Library early Monday morning. A handwritten note taped to the pipe reads: To Level 8-1. Elsewhere, a University of Texas sophomore claims to have encountered a spike-shelled, fire-spewing creature guarding the school's Rare Book archive, though she later admitted to ingesting a large mushroom found stashed behind some Mycology texts. When asked why she ate the mushroom, the young woman said she was told it would help her reach the books on the top shelf. A campus official noted that librarians had recently removed all stepladders from the premises. [Via /.]
Got a disagreement? A dance-off will settle it!
Forget for a moment that libraries are supposedly places where one can go for some quiet reading. Forget too that librarians are typically known for being shushers and squelchers of anything resembling fun. Finally, forget that there's an inverse relationship between time spent exercising and time spent sitting in a library. Now you're ready to accept the wackiness of a situation in which a teenaged librarian uses DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) to settle disputes between patrons and to determine whether an overdue fine should be waived. Totally awesome, if completely inappropriate in a library environment. [Via BoingBoing] [Image via flickr user Librarian Avenger]
