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[1.Local]: Readers gone Blind

Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

You'd have to be "Blind" not to have seen the machinima everyone's been talking about this week. We posted about it not once, not twice but three times – and we're still receiving chastising notes to get busy and run it. (Come on, folks, read the blog!)

So what's all the fuss about? This machinima has garnered rave reviews (and even offers to have "man2man babies") from virtually everyone corner – although some viewers aren't fans of the music selection. "I disagree with many of the others about the music choice," observed Fawkes, who took up a midstream position between hotly contested views. "While these weren't my favorite genres to listen to, I must say I found the 'Hide and Seek' song a playful match with the action scenes. My advice to Percula would be to take their complaints into consideration, but still take this your own way."

But we didn't hear only from WI readers. Machinima rock star Baron Soosdon and "Blind" creator Percula himself weighed in.



Going "Blind"
"After seeing this, I cried myself to sleep and deleted all my machinima projects," lamented Baron Soosdon. "But as for the movie: it is amazing. The music may not be something that I'd blast out on my free time, but it was in place for the movie. Guess I need to start learning 3-D things next year ... BUT I'M TOO OLD FOR THAT. :D"

We heard from the creator of "Blind," as well.

"Thank you for the compliments, everyone,"
Percula responded. "I've been a long time reader of the WoW Insider and I'm pretty honored to be showcased on WoW Moviewatch.

"The music wasn't something I choose at random but something that I consider to be just as important as the models, lighting, animations, etc. It was the driving force for the pace and the inspiration for the story. Its modern sound did make me hesitant, but you have other machinimas and boss kill videos to thank/blame for helping me decide to use it. :) Since others have used modern music versus grand orchestrated scores, that seemed to have softened the blow and wouldn't seem a huge shock.

"With the feedback I've gotten, consider your voices heard and it'll be something I take into account in the future. I still think I made the right decision and it's not something I'm going to go back and change. Let's agree that we disagree. :)

"For those interested, I'm going to update my summary at WarcraftMovies.com later today and address the music, explain how the story evolved, and other bits of information."

PuG invites: access denied
The local chat here at WoW Insider has been a-twitter lately with debate on in-game ethics. This week's hot button: refusing to accept PuG members whose loot goals might be the same as those of an existing group member. "Dave hit what my problem is," sighed Matchu. "I understand Resto Druids can benefit from cloth, and I have no problem with them needing when no one else does. But as a Warlock and occasional Priest, I can *only* wear cloth and should, in my opinion, be allowed first dibs on it (if it's useful to my class)."

LovetheMage was on the same page: "I'm a Mage, and I run most often with a Priest and a Druid. I totally agree, Matchu. You talk about loot competition! The point is, if I have a crappy roll, I actually find myself rooting for the Priest to beat the Druid, just for the reasons you stated. Clothies have to stick together; we don't have leather as an option."

Don't tell Mom -- the babysitter's Undead
Do you skim right past Around Azeroth? You really shouldn't. Elizabeth Wachowski's commentary bristles with unexpected delights. "Ah ha ha! First time an AA has made me laugh out loud," laughed Cadychan. "Perfect. Especially when your kid is made out of meat ... Mmm..."

The Lich King and his Christmas hat
Here's a comment directly from Arthas himself – or rather, his stand-in. "Can't believe this actually got posted, but I'm glad it did," noted Fleamo on our coverage of his artistic vision of Arthas' holiday apparel. "I don't know how you want to define cosplay, but I don't dress up and go to conventions. I'm an aspiring costume artist, and these are shots of me in my Halloween 2008 costume. Granted, I tend to go a bit overboard at Halloween, but it happens to be my favourite holiday.

"As a part of my Christmas present, my girlfriend arranged to have our friend Brooks take some photos of the costume for posterity. Mix in a bit of Yuletide eggnog, and this is what you get. There are a lot more photos from this set, without the hat and
with Frostmourne, but I just got the proofs today, so it'll take a while to go through them all.

"@ scrumb - not the first time I've been compared to Bill Maher.

"Cheers."

Readers share tabard rep tips
If you're scratching your head over which faction's tabard to buy where and who offers dailies that will help push you along on the road to exalted, check out the comments in this thread on reputation tabards. "Also wanted to note that while the author states that Wyrmrest quests are mostly in Dragonblight, two of the three dailies for the faction are in Coldarra," notes InsaneAssault. "One of the quests (Drake Hunt, the quest where you capture a drake with a spear), you can actually start doing at 71, I believe." Read on for more reader tips and tactics.

15 Minutes of Fame: Where are they now?
And finally, we leave you with a whole gallery's worth of comments from the players we profiled during 2008 in 15 Minutes of Fame. We've got an update on the Booty Bay LEGO masterminds (they're putting out Rawr these days), a surprise collaborative announcement from Auden (Hammer of Grammar) and Gweryc the melee hunter, and an unexpected twist from the enterprising guy who 10-boxed Karazhan. Hear what's going on in their lives today, in their own words -- a sort of [1.Local] roundup of WoW Insider personalities in review.



Arthas

awaits -- and so do your questions. Find the answers you've been searching for to help you on your journey into Northrend and level 80 with Wrath 101.