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15 Minutes of Fame: Games designer James Wallis Part 2
Is there anything about WoW that as a game designer you especially admire? Mostly I'm preparing for the new semester and a new intake of students on the university course I lecture on (Computer Game Development, University of Westminster).
[1.Local]: Fix it yourself
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."You don't like it? Fix it yourself." We've heard this exhortation to users of wowwiki.com in the comments before. Still, you have to wonder why more WoW fans don't get in there and make their mark.teacher: I'm a bit surprised that WoW.com still uses WoWwiki anymore. It used to be all I used, but sometime around the end of BC, it stopped being very accurate and updated. Now it seems pretty much useless. Don't get me wrong, I would love it to be better updated, but as of right now, a site like Wowhead (specifically the comments) is a much better resource.theRaptor: Then update it. It is a wiki; you are the editor. There isn't a horde of slaves out there waiting to fulfill your every whim. The only reason a lot of articles are stuck in BC is because of the huge surge in growth during BC which lead to a lot of articles being created then. In early BC a lot of articles were still stuck in classic.I always check WoWwiki first even for items because they usually have pertinent summaries and historical data (such as item ability changes in patches; wowhead often has this data but it is much more disorganised and sometimes requires trolling through a lot of comments). Then I click on the wowhead link if there is one. A lot of the content of WoWWiki is simply not on a site like wowhead (such as the class articles).So if you hate the way something is set up, take the initiative to turn it into something you love. Hate, love ... Love, hate ... Hmm, we feel a set of Breakfast Topics coming on ...
15 Minutes of Fame: Clint Hackleman of Myndflame machinima
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.The subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame has actually carved out many, many more than a mere 15 minutes on his own. Clint Hackleman is known to WoW fans as the force behind Myndflame, the team responsible for such wildly popular machinima as Illegal Danish: Super Snacks, Learn 2 Play and Epic Flight Form. So who's a Myndflame fan? Blizzard, for starters. "How can something so familiar feel so foreign?" Blizzard asks rhetorically in a news update on its main site about the Illegal Danish III Prelude. "... If you're a World of Warcraft player who feels something is missing from the StarCraft universe, the creators of the Illegal Danish series have sensed your internal disturbance, bringing you a hilariously off-kilter redux of the StarCraft II cinematic trailer, now with 100% more Gnome action. It's about time!"We thought it was about time, too, to go behind the scenes with Hackleman and get the story behind Myndflame's blazing success.
[1.Local]: In which He-Man and Eddie get pwned
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.Sometimes it's the smallest details that people grow attached to. Take, for instance, this note that came in on the news tip line from a dejected reader named Brian. Brian and his compatriots are lamenting a dearly departed Battlemaster - one who seemed strangely reminiscent of a certain Eternian prince.Subject: Adam Eternum is MISSINGSome time around patch 3.2, all the Battlemasters in Shattrath were changed. Gone is Adam Eternum, with his smashing magical loincloth and Gnome sidekick.Instead we have, as a royally ticked-off guildie puts it (after having downed several stiff drinks in despair), "Shome Draenei hussy ... hic!" My guild here on Ysera, at least, has gone into mourning.Oh where, oh where has Prince Adam has gone? Find out what else readers have been mourning or celebrating this week - plus peek at an internal WoW.com team e-mail in which Hunter columnist Eddie Carrington gets soundly pwned - after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: Pre-Raid Trivia pumps up enthusiasm, strats
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.How do you get guild members to log in nice and early before raids, remember their consumables, build a steam head of enthusiasm and polish up their knowledge of strats and game skills? Believe it or not, it's not a struggle - it's what Relyimah of <Klatoo Verata Niktoo> on Kilrogg-US and her guildmates do for fun. If it's an hour before raid time, it's time for Pre-Raid Trivia.Most of Relyimah's trivia sessions cover the gamut of WoW knowledge, but every session is capped off by strategy questions pertinent to the encounters the raid will be tackling that evening. She calls the learning process "strat by osmosis." "All rounds are 20 questions worth one point a piece, and the five bonus-round questions are worth five points each," Relyimah explains. "I have a lot of fun writing the questions, as it makes me learn the strategy as well. I usually grab my info from WoWWiki or Tankspot.com." Winners scoop up 25 gold plus prizes such as an epic armor kit or Frostweave Bag - but the best reward, she notes, is a raid that succeeds.
15 Minutes of Fame: Pre-Raid Trivia
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" - neither did we, until we talked with these players
[1.Local]: we're acusing him of been respoble
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.It's the middle of the holiday weekend, and we hope you're either happily socializing offline (Warp Burgers on the grill, anyone?) or getting your uninterrupted game on. Either way, we've got dessert – so open wide for these two sweet bon-bons of [1.Local] goodness from the past week: a slice from a LOLcat battle in the WoW.com staff chat room (screenshot above), plus the following gem from a player who evidently wasn't too clear about who to contact (or how to communicate his issues) after receiving some sort of action on his account. [Name Redacted]: If you continue mail me with this and that and acusing me for things i never done plz have im mind that then i will contact my lawyer and sue you and everybody been respoble for this Crap emails send to my acc.Have a nice time and enjoy your crap game that even in 100 years i was not ggoing to play it.Take that, WoW.com! (And yes, I do usually run a basic grammar/spelling/punctuation edit on [1.Local] comments to make them easier to read – unless the style itself makes a particular point that's relevant to the matter at hand. As with this case. Ahem.)We'll look back at several engaging reader conversations (stat simplification, emotional boss encounters - oh, and apple pie, ice cream and boobs) from the week in review, after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: Alice in Warcraftland
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Who's on your list of the proverbial 10 People to Invite to My Dream Dinner Party? Leave a spot for Alice Taylor. When it comes to gaming and geekery, there's nowhere you won't find traces of Alice and her self-mocking, good-natured humor. She's the face behind the popular social media and gaming blog Wonderland Blog. She commissions cross-platform education content for teens for Channel 4. As a gaming writer, she's been seen at BBC News, Kotaku, The Guardian and Paste. She was a semi-pro Quake player on the UK's first Quake team. She's an indie crafts maven. You may have heard of her husband, Cory Doctorow. Oh -- and of course, she's a WoW player.
[1.Local]: The BACK back room
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.True confessions time: It really is that cool to work at WoW.com. We're a chatty team. You're probably already getting a taste of that at @wowinsider on Twitter, manned randomly by team members who're feeling particularly gabby. If you're a real Twitterati, you may be following individual staffers (listings available in the latest WRUP; follow me @eMused). But the real WoW.com snark and hot debates go on behind closed doors. There's a chat room where everyone who's "on duty" hangs out - always good for a heated debate on mechanics or lore, as well as the inevitable off-topic romp on ... well, off-topic stuff. (Like Michael Sacco's post-dental work, Vicodin-inspired ravings, screenshotted above - but that's another story.) There's also the news line/team e-mail list, where nobody can ever seem to resist adding their zingers to the daily cacophony of annoyed moms who want us to cancel their son's WoW subscriptions, confused TV viewers searching for customer support for their cable service and clueless "readers" (do they actually read us?) who submit endless news tips on that awesome machinima nobody's ever heard of. [1.Local]'s already all about the back room chatter – so we knew we couldn't exclude you from the best of the deep, deep backroom scoop at WoW.com. Look for a sampling of the behind-the-scenes staff insanity each week, mixed with the rest of the chatter on [1.Local]. Because without the insanity (and your tacit support), where would any of us be?
15 Minutes of Fame: Members only
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.As Blizzard re-imagines old Azeroth, sweeps tired systems out the door and injects new ways for players to connect and work together, we can't imagine why anyone would not want to take advantage of what this top-notch MMO and company have to offer. There are players, however, who choose a different path. These players game on private servers, where conditions range from near-original mirrors to god-mode gameplay with super-GM abilities.We don't condone private server play, which is clearly against Blizzard's Terms of Service and EULA. Still, there are plenty of players who believe differently, and we were curious why they've chosen the private server route. We visited with a player who plays on a relatively tame private server featuring near-"normal" game play. What can he do that we can't? And what do we have that he doesn't?
[1.Local]: Cataclysmic shock and awe
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.And so it begins. Cataclysmic shock and awe is sweeping through WoW.com's [1.Local] channel (that's the post comments, for those of you so shell-shocked by the expansion announcements that you automatically assumed we meant that we, too, have a new feature you haven't discovered yet) as readers began gulping down the deluge of information coming out of BlizzCon this weekend. It all started with Blizzard's official announcement of the next WoW expansion: Cataclysm. joggoms: And just like that, I'm all excited about playing WoW again!cowy: I've never had such a mixed bag of feeling's over a game before! I love Azeroth; it's my home away from home and the place my little cow grew up, lived and played in for many years. While I am so psyched about the expansion and the changes (this is going to be fantastic), there's a odd sadness I can't seem to dismiss completely. Goodbye old Azeroth; it was good times.Derbeste: Unifying the high levels with the leveling and twink communities back in the old world in a NEW way is a GOOD thing. I'll gladly pay for it.More reader reaction to the flood of Cataclysm news (and of course, links to much of the news itself), after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: Fantasy author muses on WoW themes
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.The World of Warcraft is a season of life. You could approach it strictly as a video game - many do - but as soon as you push beyond the surface, you find yourself building relationships with fellow players, musing over storylines, sharing frustrations and triumphs in a way that punctuates time. It's no stretch of the imagination, then (or is it, perhaps, entirely about stretching the imagination?) to consider the impact a game such as World of Warcraft might have on the fertile mind of a fantasy writer. So when we spied comments around the internet from Catherynne M. Valente (author of Palimpsest) pointing straight toward gaming, we suspected she'd had her hand in the WoW cookie jar – and we were right. While she's not currently playing WoW (having sworn off its siren call to devote her time to writing), she responded enthusiastically to our interest, producing an interview filled with gaming, WoW, fantasy, science fiction and the timeless themes that tie these worlds together.
15 Minutes of Fame: Fantasy author muses on WoW themes, Part 2
Gamers commonly seem to be fans of roleplaying, fantasy, mythology and sci fi, and they're attracted to game worlds and genres that explore common themes and elements in these genres. WoW is am amazing postmodern patchwork of mythologies.
[1.Local]: Take from the comments everything!
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.My significant other arrived home from work today just I was cropping the pictures for this weekend's [1.Local]. Curiously, he wasn't entirely convinced that the opening shot should be a horizontal zoom running the entire width of the column – even though I had clearly centered the massive header on the impressively rippling, cobblestone content./sigh The things we change to please our readers ..."Was I the only one thinking of a 300 quote that could be twisted for this article's title?" wondered Dreadskull after reading this week's WoW Rookie exhortation for players to Save everything, sell everything."Leave the corpses nothing! And sell to vendors, EVERYTHING!"More comments rippling forth (heheh, she said "rippling") from the back room, after the break.
Looking for interview subjects at BlizzCon for 15 Minutes of Fame
The WoW.com team will be at BlizzCon in force this year. Between liveblogging the big announcements and resisting the siren call of the Diablo 3 demo stations, we want to talk to you, the loyal readers, and we don't mean just at our 3rd Annual WoW.com BlizzCon Meet Up. We are planning a special BlizzCon edition of our weekly interview series 15 Minutes of Fame and are looking for some candidates for the column. We are especially interested in interviewing those WoW players who have a unique approach to the game. Are you the oldest player in the game who doesn't play with family? Are you the youngest and shouldn't be reading this site without adult supervision? The guild leader who does things differently? The guy who plays without the UI/Keyboard/Talents, etc.? Are you famous for something in or out of Azeroth? Should we interview your entire guild at once?If you think you bring something special to how you play the game and will be at BlizzCon next week, send us an e-mail at 15minutesoffame at wow dot com explaining what makes you a candidate for this special BlizzCon Edition of 15 Minutes of Fame. We'll pick the most interesting stories and contact you to make arrangements to meet during the convention for the interview. If we get enough interesting emails, we may even pick more than one.Please send your emails by Monday, August 17th to give us time to read through them all and coordinate the interviews. Don't leave your story and contact info in the comments of this post, send them to 15minutesoffame at wow dot com."I never thought of playing WoW like that!" - neither did we, until we talked with these players. From an Oscar-winning 3-D effects director to a custom action figure artist and even a bunch of guys who get together for dinner and group raiding in person every week, catch it on 15 Minutes of Fame.
15 Minutes of Fame: A World of Warcraft love story, Part 2
From an Oscar-winning 3-D effects director to a custom action figure artist and even a bunch of guys who get together for dinner and group raiding in person every week, catch it on 15 Minutes of Fame.
15 Minutes of Fame: A World of Warcraft love story
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.In this era of Match.com and eHarmony, it's not so unusual to have married friends who met online. Couples tie the knot with elaborate in-game weddings. The taste for WoW-themed wedding cakes grows every year. Wedding rings unite lovers in Azeroth and the world at large. So it's no surprise that 15 Minutes of Fame would eventually roll around to the story of a couple who met and fell in love inside the World of Warcraft. Meet Ghrelsognn and Aleiriella of Defiance on Farstriders-US. Ghrel and Aleir are no starry-eyed youngsters – both in their 40s, they found themselves mesmerized by love when (and where) they least expected it. Join us for the story of their walk up the levels and down the aisle, in their own words, after the break.
Friday Night Gin: Your weekly Blue roundup
Good evening fine ladies and good gentlemen, I want to invite you to head over to your liquor cabinet, grab some of that fine gin and do with it what you will. I like mine without anything added, right at room temperature. Ghostcrawler prefers his with coffee. Once you're settled, come back to your computer and read up on the best of the blues and the ghostly-crab-crawler.Welcome to a new weekly column here at WoW.com. Each week we'll take a look at what Ghostcrawler and his cohorts at Blizzard have said about the game, highlighting all the important announcements and discussions.What Ghostcrawler says in particular is of great importance these days to WoW. A lot of the stuff he's talking about is reflective of the direction of the entire design team at WoW, and if you follow what he's saying you'll have a better understanding of where the game is headed.So after the break we'll wrap up what Ghostcrawler and the other blues had to say this week. This week's topic include: Battleground Focus, 5 Second Rule, On Class Representation Versus Actual Power, Going to heckle at BlizzCon?, Water Dungeon, Affliction Changes, Console WoW, Truth In Developer "Promises" About Change & An Angry Community, Amount Of Leveling, Phasing Technology, and Flying In Old Azeroth.
15 Minutes of Fame: So you think you can nuke Part 2
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" - neither did we, until we talked with these players
15 Minutes of Fame: So you think you can nuke
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_15_Minutes_of_Fame_So_you_think_you_can_nuke'; 15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Forget the Brothers Karamazov. If you're looking for artistic expression, passion and the bonds of brotherhood -- plus a healthy dash of World of Warcraft -- it's all about the Brothers Kasprzak. Evan Kasprzak, a Top 6 finalist in the reality show So You Think You Can Dance, has gamed his entire life with brothers Ryan (also a top finisher in this year's SYTYCD show) and Ian. There's no denying how tight this trio is. One viewing of Evan and Ryan's journey through the beginning of this season's SYTYCD competition as a team (see video, above) or a glance at photos of the threesome with their matching wrist tattoos ("brother" in Greek) show the obvious depth of their bond. And so while Evan is socked in right now beneath the insane pace of the competition's home stretch, we snuck in a visit with Ian to find out how the family finds a foothold to fit all the pieces together. For the gaming, dancing Kasprzaks, support from family includes the WoW family. "In top 6, you can use all the support you can get," Ian notes, "and I know how amazingly supportive the smaller WoW community on my server has been. I also love how WoW.com highlights the multidimensionality of gamers. I think it helps break down some of those stereotypes that gaming is somehow isolating and anti-social, when it is very much a social medium. ... Sometimes, the person behind that Mage that just Frostbolted you might just be someone climbing up their way to the top as America's next favorite dancer."
