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Neutral pandaren Doubleagent hits level 90
World of Warcraft may not have a third faction, but there is one player out there who has managed what seemed like a nigh-impossible feat. Doubleagent, the neutral pandaren who refused to choose a faction and leave the Wandering Isle, hit level 90 yesterday amid a crowd of cheering pandaren. Because he was stuck on the Wandering Isle, he had to obtain all those levels by picking herbs for a measly 20-30XP per node. Nonetheless, Doubleagent's patience won out, and now he has obtained the highest level he can currently get in game -- at about 174 days played on the account. What's in store for Doubleagent now? Waiting until Warlords, of course, at which point he can theoretically begin the long trek to 100. I highly doubt that anyone at Blizzard really expected a player to accomplish this feat, but one hopes that perhaps his perseverance will be acknowledged in some way. If nothing else, they could re-name the Herbalism trainer on the Wandering Isle after him, considering he's long since proved his prowess when it comes to picking posies. For more information from Doubleagent himself on the process of leveling sans-faction, check the thread on the official forums, and take a look at our interview with Doubleagent from earlier this year.
15 Minutes of Fame: Flower power pollinates leveling for true neutral pandaren
Crazy metagaming projects are among my favorite topics here at 15 Minutes of Fame. It's impossible not to catch the excitement of someone who's figured out a new way to spin Azeroth. Take for instance the curious case of Doubleagent , the "neutral" pandaren who's managed to make it to level 80 and still climbing without ever leaving the pandaren starting zone. In his case, staying put also means never having chosen a faction; Doubleagent is neither Horde nor Alliance but instead remains a neutral party. And the method to his madness? Flowers. Lots and lots of herbalism and flowers. Ticking through level 83 when this article was posted, Doubleagent continues to drift through the gentle fields leading to level 90 and beyond -- because oh yes, this is one player who plans to take his leveling project all the way to the top in the coming expansion as well.
15 Minutes of Fame: Converting all of Azeroth to raid by the thousands
You know the new guild on the scene is making a impact on the community when other players offer it up as a solution to other players' woes. Take a look at this excerpt from the comments of a recent Drama Mamas column, wherein a player was unhappy with the way her new raid guild membership was unfolding: janet.houck I think you need to leave your current team, do some research to find a good match, and move. Aerie Peak has the CTR uber guild, and we're sitting at over 90 raid teams. You can always find a team for you. If you can't, you can build it. MarshallGlenn @janet.houck wth is CTR uber guild? janet.houck @MarshallGlenn @janet.houck Convert to Raid, the podcast, has a greenwall'ed guild on Aerie Peak-US A. I think there's 8 sub-guilds at the moment. We tend to attract an older and more serious crowd, so for a 45-year old player, it might be a nice place to check out. :) TaxmanCDN @janet.houck @MarshallGlenn All of my toons are in the CTR guild. Best guild I've ever been in. I'm on two raid teams, and on my off-nights if I feel like doing a flex there's always someone looking. Great community there, and I've found it to be a better class of raiders (in general) than on other realms. Liopleurodon @MarshallGlenn @janet.houckConvert To Raid is a popular WoW podcast. They have a series of raiding guilds on Aerie Peak, because there's a cap to the number of people you can have in a guild. I was also under the impression that there were 'steps', like the more casual guild splinter vs the hardcore one to make it easier to find your niche but I'm not entirely sure about that. There are a few other mega/meta-guilds similar to this around, too. MarshallGlenn @Liopleurodon @MarshallGlenn @janet.houck ahhh very cool. Edit bluefer I had something like this problem and I transferred my toons to Aerie Peak and joined CTR. I suggest you roll an alt on Aerie Peak. AT L15 you can join CTR mega guild and find a ton of teams to choose from with good people and lots of raiders who treat each other pretty well. Best of luck. While Bluefer sent our letter-writer off with a "best of luck," we don't suspect the Convert to Raid success story has anything to do with luck. We suspect it has everything to do with Pat Krane.
15 Minutes of Fame: Japanese players build their own community in World of Warcraft
What does World of Warcraft sound like from an entirely different cultural perspective? Jump to about 8:30 in the above video and listen to the last moments of this heroic boss kill -- the point at which terse expletives usually bristle from from even the most disciplined, well-oiled raiders, the whole thing followed by a deafening avalanche of shouts and cheers when the boss finally falls. Contrast those expectations with the understated pleasure here of CAVAG, a guild of Japanese players on Proudmoore (US-Horde), and you'll gain a sense of just one of the more outward cultural differences between this group and the typical American raiding guild. Welcome to the world of #wowjp, a network of Japanese WoW players who've learned English primarily through playing the game. You can find localized versions of World of Warcraft in Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, but Japanese players are left to their own devices -- no dedicated servers, no language localization. To solve those challenges, Japanese players have banded together to create their own Japanese game guides, share addons and tips for typing in Japanese within the game, and form a network of Japanese-language guilds across several North American realms. Bringing us this interview with two Japanese WoW players is the Sha of Happiness, herself a native Japanese speaker and a member of the #wowjp community. But before we begin, a simple and heartfelt message from the Japanese players: The wowjp community wished to tell the readers/Blizzard: "Thank you for providing the Hippogryph Hatchling for the tsunami relief efforts. Thank you for all of your donations."
15 Minutes of Fame: Turwinkle the gnome charms with adventure videos and community interviews
Sometimes a letter from an appreciative fan is the best way to introduce a player to WoW Insider readers: I'm writing in to nominate a wonderful man that I recently had the pleasure of working with. Known as Turwinkle on Twitter or Palmerbomber1 on YouTube, he comes from Moon Guard and has recently begun making rounds on Wyrmrest Accord, where he gets in touch with various guilds and interviews them about what they are, what their stories are, and advertises their members. He also has a series with his gnome Turwinkle where he records himself leveling through the game, narrating the adventures of his mage. The exposure he's done for the Wyrmrest community is second to none, and I'd love to see him get the recognition he deserves. The two hours he spent with our guild was a blast for everyone involved, and I'm sure many of the others he's spoken with felt the same. Introducing the gentle good humor of Turwinkle the gnome, star of the "let's play" Adventures of Turwinkle and host of Turwinkle Talks interviewing roleplay guilds across Azeroth.
15 Minutes of Fame: TEDx speaker on overcoming anorexia with WoW
Continuing our look at young people successfully folding World of Warcraft into their successfully unfolding lives, this week we interview another student for whom WoW has made a big impression. "I saw your Breakfast Topic post How has WoW made your life better?, and well, a few weeks back I had the opportunity to give a TEDx talk about how playing World of Warcraft helped my fight anorexia and a crappy education system," wrote Erik Martin, aka Klaes of Emerald Dream (US). Talk about All The Things ... Also a game designer who has even worked on projects for the federal government, Erik has rallied from anorexia to go on to advocate for student agency and motivation in education. With a confidence bolstered in Azeroth, he's assembling his own experiences and aspirations into a big-picture view large enough not only to fill his own sails but to help others push off from safe harbor.
Growing Up in WoW: One-third of a lifetime shared with Azeroth
A few months ago, I received an email from the kind of player who sets off all sorts of bells and whistles for a feature writer like me -- a WoW fan who's integrated the game into a balanced, engaged, lively lifestyle. If you've ever found yourself shaking your fist and snarling at teenaged players as a group -- Get off my lawn! -- then you've probably never met a young player who's got his stuff together quite so well as Zukkai of Area 52 (US). I'm 18, I'm a raid leader for one of the 10man teams in our guild, and I've been playing since I was 12. In December, I can claim that I've played WoW for a third of my life. Along the way I've been in school full time, and will be attending university in the fall. When I first started playing, my parents regulated my play time. Once I started controlling my play time, I had to learn about my own time management and how to balance WoW with RL priorities. I've also learned how to deal with the social stigmas of playing WoW through high school, including how to explain to your friends that you might not be able to go somewhere because you have to raid. I've managed to grow up right along side the game, and I think playing it for so long has taught me a couple of valuable lessons along the way. I've had stretches where I'd be playing 4-5 hours a day and I've had stretches where I've toyed with quitting, but I've kept going for 6 years. I've never had massive amounts of time to play, but I've managed to put together my Insane title and collect a large sum of pets and mounts, as well as raid at the heroic level. Fixated on gaming? Hiding away from life? Not in the least. Our conversation with Zukkai reveals a player for whom World of Warcraft is just another pastime -- albeit one that's filled a full one-third of his lifetime. Moving in and out of WoW with the rest of life's rhythms is as natural as breathing, as Zukkai demonstrates in this look at life for one of the many players today who are growing up in Azeroth.
The fascinating personalities of World of Warcraft
The annual "Where are they now?" roundups for 15 Minutes of Fame are a high point of my year as a feature writer. It's rare to get a built-in opportunity to re-open the conversation with someone I've interviewed, and it's always intriguing to learn where these passionate, involved players and people are headed today. Not everyone's answers make print, of course; the pool of past subjects after six years is much larger than we could reasonably follow, and not everyone is still doing something related to WoW. So far, limiting coverage to those who reply to an email inquiry seems to keep things to a manageable roar. The downside of compiling a yearly update is all the time I lose wandering down the side streets of Memory Lane. This year, I finally realized that if revisiting all those articles was so interesting to me, it probably would be to you too. So today, I'm curating some of my favorite 15 Minutes of Fame interviews for your perusal. There are many more I couldn't include due to space constraints, but you'll discover a little something for everyone here. As we push off from the shore of a new year, I think you'll find the creativity and passion with which they weave the World of Warcraft into their lives to be positively energizing and inspiring.
15 Minutes of Fame: Where are they now? 2013 edition
Five or six years is a long time, even among MMO players. Many of the people we spend every night with raiding, laughing, squabbling, and goofing off inevitably move on, diving into the next passion in their lives with as much gusto as they once held for Azeroth. Of course, many more are still right here after all this time, like the WoW personalities we've interviewed here at 15 Minutes of Fame over the past six years. What about the people we met during 2013? We touched base with everyone we hadn't caught up with since before BlizzCon to see what's going on in their worlds -- and, of course, in Azeroth.
15 Minutes of Fame: Where are they now? WoW personalities, 2008-2012
It's somewhat ironic that the very earliest group profiled on 15 Minutes of Fame to have responded to this year's for "Where are they now?" updates remains one of the most vibrant guilds making a name for itself in today's game. Spectacular Death from Llane (US-Alliance) just keeps running "the stuff you wish your guild did," tempting players in search of an active, engaged, relaxed and somewhat silly group of gaming friends. (Full disclosure: They tempted me into the fold, too.) The spectacular attraction of Spectacular Death "As we head into our seventh year of existence, I guess that sort of makes us an 'elder' guild, in terms of longevity," muses GM Gimmlette. "(You kids get off our lawn and leave the flamingos and the garden gnomes alone.) Our core mission is still the same as it was when we started, to see all and do all but in a casual fashion. "It's not a race, it's a journey, and that journey is generally filled with hilarity and looking at the game from a slight skewed perspective. We're the guild who revels in trying to skewer ourselves on the steeple of the church in Stormwind as well as working through SoO in flex mode. Elephant parades in Ironforge, naked runs of Molten Core, raft races in Krasarang, jumping off of Dalaran -- yeah, we've done all of that, and more. "We're still going strong and I don't foresee us closing up shop any time soon," she continued. "I asked tonight why people stay in the guild and was told: 'The dental plan means I keep all my teeth in raids,' 'the 401(k),' 'I was promised a pony,' 'Oompaloompas,' 'tasty cookies,' 'beer,' and 'earworm night' ... um, yeah." What are the other 15 Minutes of Fame's WoW personalities of 2008 through 2012 doing today?
Voiceover actor Matt Mercer on working in games and comics, plus the "Vezax voice"
Halion the Twilight Destroyer. General Vezax. Ka'roz the Locust. You know Matt Mercer already -- he's the voice booming in your head in Ulduar, during the Siege Orgrimmar, in the nooks and crannies of Azeroth. The phenomenally popular video game and anime voiceover actor is known for -- well, let me just slide you a link to his Wikipedia page and let you delight in discovering his stamp on one of your own favorite comics, anime or video games from Sinbad to Resident Evil 6. Behind that panoply of voices is a WoW player and fan whose GM, actress Michele Morrow, describes as a wonderfully down-to-earth and nice guy. "Every now and then, we'll have his boss [that he voiced in game] come along, and so we yell at him ... to do the voices," she recounted last week here at WoW Insider. "He's fantastic; you'll love him."
WoW-Playing Actress Michele Morrow: Less Sylvanas, more chaotically awesome
When we first met actress Michele Morrow in 2010, she was inching her way across the shallow field comprising the Hollywood crowd that plays World of Warcraft. It appeared to be a successful combination for Michele; in fact, for a while it seemed the horror flick star might actually be becoming best known as "that actress who wants to play Lady Sylvanas in a WoW movie," courtesy of a vocal Facebook page created by an enthusiastic fan. While Sylvanas doesn't now appear to be spawning in the upcoming WoW movie, Michele's been popping up not only in Azeroth itself (with a commemorative NPC on Wandering Isle) but on gamer and nerd websites across the internet and in gaming-related film projects slated to begin hitting in 2014. Reconnecting with Michele at BlizzCon 2013 unspooled a reel of geekery worth investigating anew, as well as relatable tales of the sort of down-to-earth, casual raiding and in-game friendships that so many players enjoy as the WoW experience today.
How the Sha of Happiness conquered BlizzCon 2013
It stands to reason that if someone known as Angryorc turns out to be Mr. Nice Guy in person, someone named the Sha of Happiness could turn out to be a real stinker. Fortunately for all of us, the Sha of Happiness took BlizzCon 2013 by storm in the sunniest of ways. Her relentless positivity illuminated the dark convention hall in Anaheim, and players discovered to their delight that the character they've embraced on Twitter is as welcoming and personable in the flesh. Whenever the Sha was about, BlizzCon's Meeting Stone and Community Corner positively glowed as welcoming destinations that other players found themselves returning to again and again. Inspired by Angryorc and other WoW-themed roleplay characters such as @Arakkoa on Twitter, Shappi (as she's popularly known) created the Sha of Happiness character to shine a little light into the WoW community at large. "I've been posting on the EU/NA Warcraft/D3 general forums and more for about five years now, and I've been disheartened at the farewell posts and them stating that it didn't feel like a home for them anymore," she explains. "Whether it be Sanctuary or Azeroth, everyone should have a safe space. I strive to provide something like that for people on Twitter."
