15 Minutes of Fame: Deep Space Nine's Nog gets his BG on
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft personalities of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.
WoW feels more like "Battlegrounds Galactica" when Aron Eisenberg, who played the youthful Ferengi Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, logs in. The battlegrounds aficionado is a huge WoW player and Blizzard games fan, with five level 80 characters, two WoW-playing sons and an easy familiarity with WoW.com's features and content that could possibly rival that of some of our own staff members. The admiration is mutual; we've been known to bring the Ferengi perspective to our articles. Speaking of perspectives, Aron has plenty of his own to share in this two-part 15 Minutes of Fame, as well as an appearance on this week's WoW Insider Show. Beam past the break for part one of our exclusive interview.
Main characterVasuna
Guild <Shadowbornë>
Realm US Cenarius-H
15 Minutes of Fame: Aron, you're obviously a huge WoW fan. How long have you been playing the game?
Aron Eisenberg: For some reason, I didn't get it right away. I think I got it the January after it was released -- I got it on my birthday, believe it or not. It's funny, because I was waiting so long for that game, because I've always played on a Mac. All the other MMORPGs that were coming out were for PCs, never coming out for Macs, so there was never anything for me to play. I wasn't going to go buy a PC just to play a video game ... And I was always a fan of Blizzard, because they would always make games for Mac and PC. I had Macs when Blizzard was pretty much the only company making games for Macs. I played all the Blizzard games, like Diablo II ...
Then I introduced it to my boys. My older son wasn't interested in it at first. But the younger one was 6 at the time, and he was like, "Sure, I'll try that." Then because he started playing, my older boy was like "Hey, what are you guys doing?" And then he got into it. All three of us have been playing since then.
So what part of the game do you enjoy most?
If it wasn't for PvP, I probably wouldn't be playing anymore. I love PvP -- and more battlegrounds than arenas. I'm not a huge arena fan, mostly because I love the whole team mentality of battlegrounds. But I've always been frustrated by the fact that you can only get the top PvP gear through arenas. I was really irked by that, because I'm not a huge arena fan. I'm so looking forward to the rated battlegrounds and making some teams with the guild just for PvP. That's what I enjoy the most. I could play Warsong Gulch all day; I get a little addicted to that.
Warsong Gulch?!
Yeah. Everyone hates Warsong -- or at least, that's the consensus, that it's the least-liked one. I love that game because it's so simple and you have a clear directive. Alterac Valley right now just becomes everybody racing to the end; there's no fighting. AB's fine, but if played correctly, it can get boring (meaning, you should defend the nodes, and you could be sitting there with nothing to do for a while).
Did you enjoy the interminably long AVs from classic WoW?
I didn't do too many of them because they were so long. I liked them when they cleaned them up a little bit. Unfortunately, it's just become ... You're waving to the Alliance on the way to the other side. I miss when you summoned the Ice Lord; that was kinda cool. When there's a team mentality, that's what I enjoy. I enjoy when it takes several people to come together to win a game.
Aron, tell us a little about your characters.
I have five level 80s: a rogue, a 'lock, a mage, a priest and a DK. The DK, the lock and the priest are gear-capped for PvP (excluding arena gear). And they're all undead. I don't play the Alliance at all, although my first character was Alliance. I just love playing an undead. Something's so cool about being a zombie with a mohawk.
Except their armor looks so raggedy ...
Oh, I disagree! I like that my spine's coming through the armor. That's the reason I do like it; I like that I look like a raggedy fighter.
I'm honor-capped. I'm kinda stuck, because I keep buying gems, and then I do the daily and get back up to 75k because there's nothing else I can buy with my honor unless I do arenas. That has always pissed me off. That always bothers me.
Well, all that's changing in Cataclysm.
Exactly! And that's what I can't wait for. That's what I'm looking forward to most in Cataclysm.
So no arenas for you, then?
I think I would enjoy the 5-man arenas more than the 2s or the 3s. Actually, I was playing arenas for a little bit in the 3s and I enjoyed it. They're so quick, and – I don't know. I like a little bit of a longer game, but not too long.
I think I'm a little scared of it, I have to admit, that I might embarrass myself. When I play, I'm always thinking, "Ok, should we go for the heals first or take out the DPS first?" And I'm never quite sure -- because it changes -- and I don't have the experience to know which one I should go after at which time. There's another person in my guild, his name is Kyo and he's a phenomenal player, both raiding and PvP. I like playing with him because I'm like the dog, just "Go, go do that guy." And I'm like, "All right, I'll go kill that guy." And then, "Now switch back to the other one." So I enjoyed playing with him when I did, because he's a good teacher and he'd tell me what to do. That's how I learned. But I didn't play enough, and then the team disbanded.
And the thing that I like about battlegrounds is I don't have to make sure four other people are online or two people are online and then set up our time to play. I can just log on when I'm ready and I can play. It's kind of random, meaning I'm not sure what I'm going to get in the game, which is what I enjoy about it and what keeps my interest. Versus a raid ... I enjoy raiding for the social aspect, but I get bored with the actual game part of it because it's always the same thing once you learn it. Once you learn it, you gotta go through the same motions. With PvP, it's reactionary. You have to react to whatever's happening, whether it's one person, two or three, and it's more chaotic. I enjoy that aspect a lot more than the raiding. The raiding I enjoy mostly because I get to hang out with my friends, kinda like playing poker with your buddies, where you're just hanging out and having a good time.
Have you spent much time playing with the dungeon finder?
Oh yeah, I did that until I got all of the gear I could get, for my main three that I've been playing. You get bored of the heroics – you know, it's the same thing, over and over again.
I'm kinda getting to that doldrum of "There's nothing else for me to do anymore" -- athough I haven't seen Arthas, so if I were home at the time that my guild raids, then I would try to do that a little bit more because I could use that and I would like to see that experience. And then, "OK, I've done that; now back to PvP."
How much do you share about yourself with people you play with, Aron? Are you "out" in your guild – do they know that you're Nog?
Maybe they do (know) and they just haven't said anything. I don't know. I was a little afraid to say something to you guys (about playing WoW), because I didn't want to sound like, "Hey! Look at me! I wanna be ..." Really. I go to your website more than World of Warcraft, Blizzard's web site, because I love all the information you guys supply and I learn so much by reading your articles. So I'm there all the time, and I'm like, "Aww, I love this website!" -- and so of course I want to be a part of it.
I go to conventions all the time. I'm not one of those actors who's public-shy, meaning I don't mind when someone comes up. It doesn't happen often in the real world because people don't recognize me because I was in makeup, but when it does, I don't usually mind it at all if somebody says something. Even in game, if somebody says something it wouldn't bother me.
