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Where Are They Now? The WoW personalities of 2010 and 2011
Quite a few of today's World of Warcraft players first set foot in Azeroth during the Cataclysm era. The years 2010 and 2011 saw gaming in general move into its own, and we began interviewing more and more WoW players and public personalities who were confident and eager to talk about their game of choice. Are they still playing today in Mists of Pandaria? Many are -- although the exploits of those who aren't are sometimes equally as interesting to hear! Catch up on 2008 and 2009 in part 1 of our retrospective, and be sure click the bold subheadings at the beginning of each entry below to see the original interviews. Pulverizing WoW MMA fighter Jens "Little Evil" Pulver has been trying his hand at Mists while preparing for his next fights. "I have not been inside a dungeon or raid but I have enjoyed leveling a few characters," he writes. "My hunter is my PvP character, and I try to get in a few games in the evening. Outside of WoW, I have been wrapping up my career as a MMA fighter and will be fighting in the semi's of the ONEFC bantamweight Grand Prix in April." Jens is also hard at work on projects including gaming hardware, depression, and motivational speaking; find out more at JensPulver.com or @jens_pulver on Twitter.
Storybricks starts Kickstarter campaign, welcomes aboard animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Build-your-own-MMO toolset Storybricks is getting a major second wind today as the company's announced that it's brought on board legendary animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman to assist in animation and character design. The two are well-known in both the film and video game industry for their work on The Secret of NIMH and Dragon's Lair (among many other projects). "We intend to bring our experience in animation and character design to help provide appealing, believable, thinking characters to Storybricks' founding partners' vision for gaming," Goldman said. The two join a dream team of advisors for the project that includes Richard Bartle, Liz Danforth, and Chris Avellone. Storybricks is also tapping the Kickstarter well to help fund the project. The team hopes to raise $250,000 in pledges by June 1st. "Though we have found the right people who share our mad (or perhaps inspired) vision of role-playing and storytelling in computer RPGs, we haven't been able to find enough people willing to write us a check," the team explains on the page. Sponsors can get copies of the game, beta keys, and even digital versions of themselves inserted into the final version. [Source: Storybricks press release]
15 Minutes of Fame: More from gaming industry veteran Liz Danforth
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. You'd think a gaming industry insider like Liz Danforth would be fairly blase about an interview -- but her reaction last week after part 1 of our conversation was anything but. "... For some reason, the idea of a post in WoW Insider made me unaccountably nervous and excited at once," she confessed on her blog. "WoW really has been a huge part of my life for some time, and yet Lisa was equally interested in all the related parts of the gamer me." All of it, indeed! This week, we're back again with Liz to finish our conversation about all those related parts, starting with a new direction in the gaming industry veteran's life: writing. Read Part 1: Gaming industry insider Liz Danforth 15 Minutes of Fame: So Liz, after years of being known primarily for your artwork or as a public libraries advocate for gaming, you're now diving head first into the writing pool. Liz Danforth: I always thought I would be an accomplished writer sooner or later. In honor of Speak Out with Your Geek Out this week, I wrote at length about my long, awkward journey working toward that end. Writing has been a roller coaster for me. Suffice to say that by about 1999, I decided I was truly not a writer and never would be. It was an unhappy decision, but I thought I was simply facing the facts. I still tried to do some after that but, really, I gave up.
15 Minutes of Fame: Gaming industry insider Liz Danforth
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. For the crowdsourced site that it is, it's funny how Wikipedia's attempts at straight-laced objectivity so often nail the tenor of its subjects in an almost poetically understated fashion. Take this week's subject, Liz Danforth: "Elizabeth T. Danforth is a figure of note in the game industry. Although primarily recognized as an illustrator, she is an editor, writer, game scenario designer, and game developer." A figure of note? I'll say so. When I oh-so-casually mentioned who I was emailing back and forth with this week, the IMs from my husband (who's been playing pen-and-paper RPGs and card games since 1978) hit capslock mode: "WHO? Oh, HELL YEAH! Ask her if she can send the art for TUKNIR DEATHLOCK!" Thus began my immersion into the world of Liz Danforth. Lest you think she comes strictly from an old-school perspective, Danforth's route today continues forward through computer gaming and forges ahead into new frontiers of MMO design. As our sister site Massively noted just last month, "Danforth is an industry pro whose resume stretches back to include classic PC games like Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Wasteland, and she said she was impressed enough with what Namaste was doing with Storybricks to allow herself to be called out of semi-retirement and back into action. Right now she's providing the team with concept and promotional art." Interviewing Danforth is no small prospect. The lady is passionate about everything she's involved in, from gaming to her work as a professional librarian to ... well, we found ourselves chatting late one night this week about standing desks. Of course, the point here is to see how the World of Warcraft figures into the mix -- and on that, like everything else, this outspoken WoW veteran has plenty to say.
Storybricks: Opening the Pandora's box of MMO design
"I could make a better game than this!" At one point or another, we've all said this, usually in disgust after we've become fed up with another tired MMO trope or lazy quest design. Unfortunately, most of us don't have the good fortune to work for a major game studio and thus will never see our brilliant ideas come to fruition. Except that this may no longer be true. Enter Namaste Entertainment's Storybricks, a bold and intriguing concept aimed at putting game design in the hands of Joe and Jane Gamer. Namaste is a small startup that began in 2010 when its team members got tired of derivative titles and mechanics in the industry. Storybricks is the team's first project, and while it's still in its infancy, it's already started to capture the imaginations -- and excitement -- of gamers everywhere. At this past week's GenCon, I caught up with Brian "Psychochild" Green and the rest of the Namaste crew as they publicly demoed Storybricks to the gaming crowd. Hit the jump as we look at why this program may just be the answer to a question you've never fully asked.
