Players rave to underground goblin techno at Wyrmrest Accord's Club Trix

Hey baby, what are you doing this Friday night? Let's party at Club Trix in Gadgetzan (Wyrmrest Accord-RP-US). They've got a real DJ, a goblin named Trixxiz, and his crew spinning goblin-engineered techno on Radio Trix. There's a featured drink menu (Hordeside, at least), regular special events, and a chill crowd enjoying the goblin groove. Originally from Bilgewater in Azshara, Club Trix has moved through Dalaran and now runs out of Gadgetzan, where the underground vibe is hot and there's plenty of room outside for enterprising goblins to get their profit on.

WoW Insider interviewed DJ Trixxiz to find out more about the hottest new club on Azeroth's scene.

WoW Insider: Trixxiz, you're a DJ out in the real world, aren't you?

DJ Trixxiz: I am and have been a DJ since around 2004, I think. I had a few gigs over the years but not many, because within the already limited audience of electronic dance music, I was playing one of the lesser-popular genres of trance in an area dominated by house and techno. (I live halfway between Chicago and Detroit, the birthplaces of each, respectively.) However, the past couple years, trance has been exploding in popularity and I'm looking to break back into the scene this summer. Otherwise, I've mostly been an online presence throughout the years with shows on online radio stations, generally pulling in around 300 listeners, and several labels send me tracks to promote before they're released to the public.

Even though I've got these other radio shows that pull in way more listeners, Club Trix is by far my favorite. With most internet radio shows -- even local radio antenna FM shows which I've also done in the past -- the amount of community feedback and interaction is very minimal. It airs, you hope that someone enjoyed it, and that's that.

With Club Trix, there's this whole level of interaction with the listeners happening in real time through the IRC chat and the game, and they make it all come alive -- which makes it probably the most rewarding radio show on the internet save for a few run by the giants in the industry who can make that happen without the aid of roleplay environment.

Main character DJ Trixxiz (Trixxiz Trueshock), goblin rogue
Guild For Her Tallest
Active character Ravents (Raven Dawnshadow), arcane/fire blood elf mage
Guild Corvidae
Realm Wyrmrest Accord (US)

How does one go about establishing a goblin nightclub in World of Warcraft?

It actually came about as a way to bring more roleplay back into Bilgewater Harbor after the initial rush of activity from Cataclysm's release began to slow. Bilgewater Harbor is one of the best, most well-designed non-capital cities in the game and provides such a great atmosphere to roleplay in; I wanted to make it a bustling place.

Of special interest was the inn where I'd usually hang out. I polled guild members in my mage's guild for ideas on what to do with the space, something that fit it well. It was someone else who came up with the idea of a nightclub -- I wish I could remember whom it was and thank him/her -- and with my experience in DJing, I decided to go for it with a weekly event. ... On its first night in January 2011, we packed the building, and about 80% of those attending tuned in to the broadcast stream. It was incredible.

What about your alternate DJs?

Our afterparty DJ, DJ Particle has radio shows focusing on the parody musical world, working with a lot of WoW machinima musicians. DJ Aulu, our dubstep/DnB DJ, is a relatively new addition to the team. She isn't too active outside Club Trix right now but is looking to change that. DJ Rainlight, who was our old afterparty DJ, also DJed in real life, although has been distracted by other pursuits lately ... Although -- and here's a bit of an announcement -- DJ Rainlight has returned to Club Trix as a resident DJ!

Sounds like a great mix. So how many players show up to party at Club Trix on a typical night?

The listener peak this winter has been approximately 80. We approximate the number of people actually in attendance as 75% of that. (Many people tune in whilst raiding or PvPing.) So that's about 60 people in attendance at peak. And people tend to stick around for about two hours of the typically four+-hour-long event, so I'd guess somewhere around 100 people show up on a typical night.

What about cross-realm visitors?

We get a few every week since the feature was introduced.

How strongly do you try to make Club Trix adhere to WoW's setting and lore?

I've had some people throughout the years accuse me of copying the idea from or bringing Second Life into WoW. And I think one of my resident DJs had DJed on Second Life in the past. But I've never played that before, and when I started this I didn't even know that was even a thing. It was completely a homebrew idea.

I've also had people tell me I'm breaking the lore with it. But what I see is, in the goblin starter zone, we've got these cars we're driving with a radio. And when we hit that button to turn on the radio, we're changing radio stations, and one of them is playing techno music. And these radio stations require some sort of music playing apparatus, and to hear it in the car, that requires a speaker. Goblins are natural partiers. All the elements are there, and it makes sense for their kit.

Are you seeing a lot of roleplay out in the crowd? Are couples and groups following the lead for the whole evening?

Oh, definitely. Most of the people are roleplaying various characters of all types. The enthusiastic couples, the apprehensive recluse being dragged along by friends, the wild partier, the goblin trying to make a buck or two from the crowds, everything. We even have a dance contest once in a while where people will emote complex dance moves, often with a partner, and the best one wins.

Do you get a good number of guests who aren't roleplayers but simply want to come dance and listen and chat and have a good time?

Every week I have at least one person contact me saying, "I don't roleplay, but this is really cool." And I see them off in a corner somewhere /dancing.

Don't you discourage being out of character, though?

There's nothing that can be done about it, really. There will always be someone being OOC, and it's more of a distraction to make noise about it than it is to just ignore it.

And for griefers, the club is especially good at ignoring griefers. I often see them show up and think they're causing trouble, but all it results in is the appearance that someone's gotten so drunk they lost their clothes and are adding to the "special effects" with AoEs.

Ha! Have you actually ejected any guests for bringing pets, not dressing up, wearing their weapons, and so forth?

Back in the early days, I'd hire bouncers to handle this. But in the roleplay world, that actually caused more trouble than without. It provided an authority figure for many characters to rebel against, which is cool for that element of roleplay, but it was creating an atmosphere I didn't want for the event. I like the event to be free of typical bar RP drama, something a lot of attendees don't care for -- a peaceful environment to gather in.

So if someone actually is breaking the rules -- especially if someone brings in a weapon and tries to use it -- the policy is that NPC bouncers are taking care of it, and clubbers are encouraged to ignore the rule-breaker's presence. A lot of the time people do come in with weapons equipped and the like but don't use them, and that's okay. We go right along as though the weapon isn't there.

Now that the event is based in Gadgetzan, what's going on outside the club? Are you seeing other players bringing in other business and roleplaying events and opportunities during club hours?

I'm never outside the club when it's in operation, so I don't know for sure, but that's the goal. I selected the current location of Gadgetzan because of its capability for that. I want to see the city just come alive. There's several buildings in the area devoid of NPCs which can be used for quiet bars, shops, even something of a buffet in one area. I have had people come and sell focusing beam lasers in the past.

I understand you've started a 24/7 music stream on a Club Trix channel. How's that going?

Right now, it's mostly in testing. The music selection for it is limited and a full rotation is being set up to go live in the coming weeks.

What's ahead for Club Trix? What can look forward to next?

In the past I had ideas of expanding to other servers, running it simultaneously on several. We actually tried this with Moon Guard for a couple weeks, but Moon Guard's reputation got the best of it rather quickly, drawing in the wrong crowd, so that was shut down rather quickly. (And before I get a Moon Guardian jumping up to the defense, I know it's not indicative of even the majority of the server, but that's what happened there.) The Cross-Realm Zone feature removes the need to spread to other servers, however, and has brought in the good from other servers.

A lot of goals have been reached recently and a new plan on where to go from here needs to be made. A couple things are growing the listener base of the show and scheduling some special events with WoW celebrities (I've been talking with Mr. Voletron about something huge, but I'm not sure if I can say what yet). I'm sure some crazy new ideas will manifest themselves in the coming months.

Catch up on the latest details on Club Trix.
Tune in to Radio Trix on the web.

"I never thought of playing

WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com.