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The best of Massively's MMO Family column
While young children aren't Massively's target demographic, we frequently encounter MMOs that appeal to kids as well as MMO gamers with kids. That's why we ran the MMO Family column for over four years. Helmed first by Lisa Poisso and then Karen Bryan, the column reviewed kid-friendly games and offered advice and insight on how to survive as the parent of budding MMO gamers. Enjoy our picks for the very best of their collected work in MMO Family.
About the Bloggers: Lisa Poisso
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. What do you do for WoW Insider? These days, I'm rather akin to my rogue (above, slipping along with her stealth pack after spotting some Alliance players out leveling) or recently departed editor-in-chief Dan O'Halloran in that most of what I do happens behind the scenes. I'm the Mama Smurf of WoW Insider, painting the blue dot that means "copyediting complete" on each and every post that runs through the WI queue. This process is entirely separate from the content review done by our lead editors, and it's where I spend most of my WI time these days -- because this gang has a lot to say, trust me ... Somewhere in there is writing. I've managed to acquire one of the highest word counts of anyone at WoW Insider by dint of long tenure and the rather mind-boggling list of features I've worked on during that time. Currently, I only write two features: 15 Minutes of Fame and Drama Mamas (although Drama Mama Robin gets the official byline on this feature). The list of what I've worked on in the past, however ... That's another story. I created Insider Trader (now Gold Capped) and the now-defunct features Gamers on the Street and [1.Local]. I also wrote Well Fed Buff, which was absorbed into World of WarCrafts, which I also wrote for a good stretch. I've also sat a spell in The Classifieds and WoW Rookie. Oh yeah, and Two Bosses Enter. Is it soup yet?
15 Minutes of Fame: Life as a WoW Insider writer
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. What's it like when World of Warcraft becomes your job? This week, 15 Minutes of Fame zooms in for the second half of a behind-the-scenes interview with a handful of WoW Insider staffers. We'll muse over what it's like to write about WoW for work, what it's like to play WoW for work, the rewards and frustrations of writing for a living -- and the No. 1 question we get asked by readers: How can someone get started writing professionally about gaming? Zach Yonzon pens The Art of War(craft) every week and creates many of the graphic images you see on our home page, guides and posts. Matthew Rossi, one of the most seasoned hands on the WoW Insider crew, is our resident warrior expert who also writes about game lore and general news. Michael Sacco, a senior editor, started writing at WoW Insider after working at Blizzard itself. Alex Ziebart started out as a weekend blogger and is now a senior editor. Fox Van Allen joined WoW Insider early this year and writes the shadow priest portion of our priest column. Lisa Poisso (that's me) started out writing the professions column three years ago and now works behind the scenes as an editor and turning out several weekly columns.
15 Minutes of Fame: Behind the scenes at WoW Insider
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. Who are the people who write all this stuff, and how did they come to start writing about World of Warcraft every day? Being a WoW Insider writer is admittedly a pretty cool gig. Readers ask us what it's like on a regular basis. Giving a single, accurate answer, however, would be a mighty difficult proposition. Some of us are full-timers, while others pen a single column each week; some of us spend most of our time behind the scenes, and some remain constantly before readers' eyes. Despite being scattered all across the world, we come together every day (well, it's more like a waxing and waning, 24-hour cycle) in the WoW Insider chat room (war room? newsroom? Pandora's box of geekery and chaos?) when we're working. Being on the WoW Insider team is a little like being part of an incredibly tight guild, whose members manage to share not only World of Warcraft and many other interests in common but also their workdays, as well. Although we do have an old, outdated series knocking around somewhere that looks at members of the blogging team, we thought it was about time to give you a fresh look behind the scenes at WoW Insider. Without further ado, let's meet a tiny sampling of the people who work at WoW Insider: Zach Yonzon pens The Art of War(craft) every week and creates many of the graphic images you see on our home page, guides and posts. Matthew Rossi, one of the most seasoned hands on the WoW.com crew, is our resident warrior expert who also writes about game lore and general news. Michael Sacco, a senior editor, started writing at WoW.com after working at Blizzard itself. Alex Ziebart started out as a weekend blogger and is now a senior editor. Fox Van Allen joined WoW.com early this year and writes the shadow priest portion of our priest column. Lisa Poisso (that's me) started out writing the professions column three years ago and now works behind the scenes as an editor and turning out several weekly columns.
WoW Moviewatch: Life of a Vendor
Life of a Vendor is one the most subtle, beautiful WoW movies I've seen this year. The music video is set to I don't know by Lisa Hannigan. The video's author is Galenmereth. (At least, as far as I can tell: if someone knows differently, please drop me a line.) The movie is focused on the vendors in Azeroth, Northrend, and abroad. To quote Galenmereth, "this is a video dedicated to all the vendors who usually only get our coin and not our love." Even ignoring the subject of the video's dedication, Life of a Vendor is shot with a careful, artistic eye. Its stop-motion method is relatively unexplored as a WoW movie technique, and the style serves wonderfully when shot over the shoulder of so many NPCs. The song is obviously a treat. I enjoyed Lisa Hannigan's work and will probably check out other music by her. If it's as good as I don't know, it will quickly take up residence in my iTunes. Overall, Life of a Vendor was a great video. Nice job, Galenmereth. Edit: As pointed out, "time lapse" is probably a better way to describe this technique. Mea culpa. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Breakfast Topic: Your wish
When I was first exploring the Wrath of the Lich King beta, I thought that the Dalaran Wishing Fountain was one of the coolest things ever. I'm an avid angler in WoW, and I'm a huge lore geek. Combining the two is a recipe for success, I think! I really enjoyed the ability to get a little glimpse into the mind of various lore characters, and it was offered up in a pretty interactive way. It's not only the fun quotes, but a sense of discovery accompanies each new coin.The contents of the fountain has inspired a question that's been making the rounds through the WoW community: If you had a coin in that fountain, what would it say? What wish or musing would be left on it? I posed the question to the WoW Insider team to see what they would come up with, ranging from the silly to the serious, from speaking in-character to speaking as a player. Here's what they (we) had to say...
[1.Local]: Thank you, thank you
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.In this last installment of [1.Local] for 2008, we'd like to thank a few people – you, our readers – with some of your own words. Here is a quick sampling of some of the more recent thank-you's we've received. For this [1.Local] only, we included notes that came in via e-mail and other methods, as well. We think these messages of appreciation point to good writing, good material, good reader perspectives ... a good deal all the way around.Be sure to dive into the comments area of each thread (not this one!) and add your own thoughts – unlike your mama, we like us some hot, fresh backtalk.Who's the tank?Readers thought this Moviewatch was a job well done – and its creator was surprised and flattered for the recognition. "I'd just like to give a big thank you to Michael Gray for posting my "Who's the Tank?" video on WoW Moviewatch," wrote Michael Schroeder of BroncoTV. "It's really hard to get a lot of recognition on YouTube, especially because our comedy sketches don't really fit the requirements for a good viral video (e.g., someone getting hit in the nuts). So I am ever so grateful that you gave the video such a boost. Again, thank you very much for showcasing my video and I'm really glad you enjoyed it!"
Teach someone to order fish online and they'll never go hungry again
Lisa Poisso of our sister site WoW Insider brings us news of one man's innovative World of Warcraft business idea: fish farming! For a fee, player Koobluh will sell high-level fish dishes to those on the Dethecus server. Now, before you get roused to start your gold farming rant, be it known that Koobluh, a one-man company at present, only works for in-game gold, and freely shares his methods with visitors to his site, Elite Fish Vendor.However, EFV has been given a warning by Blizzard for violating the non-harassment policy for advertising, by claiming his site is 'non-WoW related'. <sarcasm>Right, because these cooked fish products will come in handy in Tabula Rasa.</sarcasm> Koobluh has gotten no further note from Blizzard, but has taken the preemptive tack of taking down an EVE Online advertisement he had running on his website, just in case that was the reason Blizzard sent the warning.If you're in support of Elite Fish Vendor (which is going to be my next cover band name, I swear it), there are 2 forum threads for you to participate in. Good luck, Koobluh. Maybe someday I'll be wealthy enough to actually afford the Savory Deviate Delight![Thanks, Lisa!]
