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The Daily Grind: What's your favorite title?
In real life, many of us lack a distinguished title. Oh sure, sometimes we get called "Sport" when someone forgets our name, or "Stupid Lady!" when we drive over a dog, but the "Reverends" and "Doctors" and "Honorables" and "Flag Admirals" tend to escape our grasp. What do you have to do to get one of these? Pay a hundred bucks at the DMV? Happily, MMOs are more than willing to dispense titles -- AKA "Name Bling" -- to any and all who show up and perhaps slaughter a town's worth of critters. Warhammer Online, Star Trek Online, Lord of the Rings Online and many of the new MMOs boast a title system. And why not? After all, it's one of the easiest reward systems to throw into the game from the devs' side, and players just go nuts over them. So what title is your absolute favorite, and what did you have to do to earn it? I was always partial to WAR's "AHHHHHHH" title, which was earned by falling to your death 25 times. Because if you're that accident-prone, you might as well get compensated for it. What about you?
15 Minutes of Fame: When WoW meets real-world religion
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Gaming plus religion or politics is a potentially volatile conversational destination -- and this week, we're going there. Meet the Rev. Jonathan Fisk, pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield, Pa. Over the years, 15 Minutes of Fame has been through more than a couple of aborted conversations with pastors about the intersection of real-world religion and the World of Warcraft. Whether the questions get a little too pointed, or the potential for reaction from the pews gets a little too hot ... Whatever the case, the interviews don't make it through to print. Until now. Hats off to Fisk for what's turned out to be a tour de force of an interview examining one man and one denomination's insights on the convergence of gaming, pop culture and WoW. One note before we get started: While we welcome your comments on this obviously sensitive subject, please remember that personal attacks and name-calling, anti-religion tirades and other trollish asshattery in the comments will not be tolerated. Keep your comments constructive and pertinent to the interview, please, or we'll be obliged to remove them.
