the-leveling-agony
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Where Are They Now? 2012 personalities, including the blind player and his 'guide dog'
At last, our look back at five years of WoW personality interviews rolls around to the duo everyone's been asking about: Hexu and Davidian, the British soldier blinded in Iraq and his redoubtable "guide dog" guildmate who steered him through full participation in current raid content. Their story exploded across the internet after we interviewed Davidian here on WoW Insider, and Blizzard recognized the dynamic duo with in-game helms with flavor text alluding to their inspiring bond of friendship. Hexu and Davidian are both still playing World of Warcraft -- but the duo is together no more. As of the new year, the ever-energetic Hexu has been raiding on a new rogue, Dirtypawz, in Unqualified on Stormrage (EU). "I know!" he replies to my unspoken exclamation of surprise and sadness. "It was just that people were only raid logging, and it got boring -- but it was all amicable and cool. I still speak to people in Die Safe. I just wanted to do more than raid three nights a week." Hexu/Dirtypawz says a "very nice bloke" named Vatic is serving as his current raiding "guide dog" helper. "The people in the guild are all nice people," he adds, "and there [are] always things going on." We'll visit with Hexu/Dirtypawz next month about how he's settling in and dig into his tips for the many sight-disabled players who've written to us during the past year trying to reach him for advice. Meanwhile, Davidian reports that the year since we interviewed him has been packed with recognition and encouragement. "The publicity was just unreal," he says. "Even to this day, I get people coming to our server just to say how much the story inspired them and restored their faith in the gaming community. The biggest thing of all, though, was the fact that it made its way to Blizzard, and myself and Ben got signed copies of the collectors edition of Cataclysm signed by at least 50 members of the Blizzard team, and [we] received in-game pets also. Then to top it off, having in-game items with our names on them was just outstanding -- I mean, to be immortal in a game that we love to play is just, well words couldn't possibly describe it." All good people connecting to play a game that's close to our hearts ... Keep reading for more updates about people who love World of Warcraft, from our interviews during 2012.
Drama Mamas: He's ready to plaaayyy ...
Time for a nostalgic trip back to Ulduar, boys and girls. This week's letter writer? Like a certain clockwork creation from our past, he might be just a little overeager to come out and play ... Hi WoW Insider Drama Mamas, So ... I'm a WoW n00b. I get the impression I'm a rarity these days (even with the release of Mists of Pandaria) (I'm so n00b I've only recently worked out that WoW means World of Warcraft and not like "Hey, man, WoW!" with a badly placed capital letter). IRL I'm a pretty outgoing bloke as well. I'm not short of mates, and friendly to most people I know. I even have a young family, and a wife I love very much. I'm an internet veteran who remembers ICQ and IRC chat. I've hung out on rock band and football club forums and successfully existed online there. I've played MMO style games before, in particular Second Life which is all about being social, and I've done well in the whole making friends thing there. But when it comes to WoW, I don't seem to be able to strike it, socially at least. I've got one mate on my friends list, who I know from RL; however, I worry I make him sick of me bugging him with my n00b questions. (What's the Dungeon Hunter? Where do I get leather from to make stuff with? Who's Leeroy Jenkins?) I had a brief "fling" with a girl kind enough to take me on my first dungeon run. I kept dying. I'm sure she was laughing her head off. But she was very gracious, kind, and friendly. I friended her, however I think she's since culled me from her friends list which of course makes me sad, but hey maybe she had to cull her list because it was too busy for her to concentrate on playing perhaps. I understand that sort of thing completely and I'm certainly not hurt over it. Other than that ... Every time I chat publicly to someone I'm either ignored or they run away. Comments in the casual guild I've joined seem to get ignored. And like I say, I don't want to drown my RL mate in-game either. Would love to see what you both have to say. What makes the WoW denizen different from other online hangout denizens? Many thanks, Scott Nofriends
Finally, a leveling guild worth calling home
Join a leveling guild? More often than not, I find myself advising players to steer clear. My Drama Mamas mailbox is overflowing with tirades from players stranded by the inevitable explosions of time-bomb guilds that've been hastily duct-taped together by random new players. Even the groups that manage to gather a congenial group of people almost unfailingly burst into flame when members reach the endgame and hit Real Issues: loot rules, raid group membership, scheduling conflicts, rules of conduct ... In these rudderless, inexperienced groups, drama is unavoidable. Most disintegrate sooner rather than later, with members moving on to guilds with more formal organization, rules, and missions. But then we heard about a European guild that seems to have a lock on this whole leveling guild thing. Tipster Ben jumped the English language barrier to clue us in: "This guild is different. People recently start to create leveling guild mostly for the perks, and this people are here way before the perks. I believe they are around for helping and not for making gold." We investigated and found a guild that's focused not on reaching the endgame but the journey there -- special events and grouping and friendships and contests and retro raids and teamwork ... And the officers seem to enjoy organizing it all as much as the players do participating in it. Why would an experienced WoW player keep coming back to a level 54 character to spend a massive slice of her time and energy leading a guild full of players who are toddling through content most players are more than happy to speed-jump? It's all about The Leveling Agony.
