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15 Minutes of Fame: Legendary appreciation for a job well done
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.When the Duranub Raiding Company of Argent Dawn-US got its first Fragment of Val'anyr, they handled the decision on who should get the drops with typical aplomb. The group put the matter up for a vote. Appreciative raiders unanimously selected healing lead Elnore to receive the 30 precious fragments that she will eventually combine to create the legendary healing hammer, Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings. In the wake of the decision, Belghast (Duranub co-founder and GM of Elnore's guild) invited Elnore to write a guest post at Tales of the Aggronaut explaining how she felt about the group's momentous decision to award her the legendary weapon. "Often times we don't think about the emotional experience certain raid decisions have," he noted. "In this case, we can take a step inside her head."
[1.Local]: The rare and benevolent internet troll
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.What's a blogger gotta do to get linked on WoW.com? It's no mystery. Allison Robert tells you exactly how to make it a fait accompli. Allison gives you the inside line on how to get your blog crashed by WoW.com: tip us off to specific posts, create useful content – oh, and develop some thick skin, because you're about to develop a fascinating collection of troll quotes. Among the descriptions bestowed upon Allison by her loyal (or maybe not-so-loyal) readers: "beyond terrible," "keyboard-thumping howler monkey," and the over-the-top favorite she wishes someone would be creative enough to deploy, "can't be trusted with animals, plants or reasonably intelligent paramecia." The Chilli God: Hey, Allison? You can't be trusted with animals, plants or reasonably intelligent paramecia. ... There, now you don't have to pretend that it's a real troll quote anymore! Enjoy! :DAllison Robert: /cheer Our readers always come through for us! :DGamer am I: It's the rare and elusive Benevolent Troll!! Someone take a picture!WoW.com's [1.Local] channel – always ready to tease and to please. Read on for more of this week's thunder and nonsense.
15 Minutes of Fame: Learn to game, to game to learn
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.Fun is a great motivator for learning – but you knew that, didn't you, World of Warcraft player? Think of all the math you've used poring over DPS charts and gear stats, all the reading you've done deciphering terse quest instructions ... the research you've put in to decode what you need to know and then where to find it ... the tactical analyses you've ground out figuring out how to get that last boss to fall ... Peggy Sheehy and Lucas Gillispie came to our attention in the comments of a previous 15 Minutes of Fame about a player who teaches a college course inside the World of Warcraft. "My middle school will be starting with an after-school club (always the gateway)," wrote Peggy, "but others joining us will be implementing it with the 'at-risk' student population, the 'gifted' student group, as well as mainstream classes for specific content-area projects." This is no upstart project; Peggy established the first middle school on the Teen Grid in Second Life three years ago, while Lucas has established an online wiki where educators all over the world can collaborate on a standard-aligned curriculum for using WoW in the schools.As Darkmaster Gandling would say, "School is in session!" 15 Minutes of Fame pulled up a chair to chat with Peggy and Lucas on using WoW as a platform for teaching.
15 Minutes of Fame: Learn to game, to game to learn Part 2
We've spoken with other groups of academics who band together in guilds, and they don't always progress very far or become truly embedded into WoW's player culture. In a given 45-minute period, the teacher might be the expert and then the student might be the expert.
[1.Local]: You had us at "Toolhelm"
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.Would a Maelstrom expansion mean the return of Maiev Shadowsong? At least one WoW.com reader hopes not.Kylenne: For the love of everything holy, I hope he's wrong about Maiev. I don't think there's anyone I hate more than her in all of the lore, up to and including the various jerkfaces we've come to know and hate in WoW (including Fandouche Toolhelm). Probably my favorite mission in TFT was killing her over and over to save Illidan from her little red wagon. I'm kind of sad she didn't end up entombed with her girlfriend in Suramar.Really, she inspires some pretty bad nerd rage in me. I would take an entire raid of nothing but Murlocs before having to deal with that chick again. You had us at "Toolhelm."
15 Minutes of Fame: The two shall be as one
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.There are couples who play together, and there are couples who play together. Jen and Mike, members of <The Panic Attacks> on Scilla-US, fall into the latter category - so much so that perhaps their playstyle doesn't accurately qualify as "playing together" at all. More accurately, Jen and Mike play as one, sharing the controls to seamlessly guide their mutual character, FertZane, through Ulduar and all the rest of WoW's endgame content.A rare disability called arthrogryposis keeps Jen wheelchair-bound and binds the couple's gaming together. The congenital disorder causes joint contractures, muscle weakness and fibrosis and leaves Jen with quite limited use of her arms and legs. Nonetheless, she says she's always loved video games because it was something she could enjoy as long as she could manage the controller. "For using my computer, I use a pen in my mouth to type and trackball mouse that I can hold in my lap," she says. "This makes computer gaming a lot more challenging for me, since I cannot look at the monitor while using the keyboard - but a mouse just can't always do everything that needs to be done."
[1.Local]: The dead ponies edition
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.Some readers will undoubtedly consider a discussion of Alizee and the female Night Elf dance to be beating a dead horse – but that's not actually the topic that the title of this week's [1.Local] is referring to. The dead ponies come later. (Didn't Mama always tell you to save the sweet treats for last? Mmmm, crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle ...) This week, we start out with one lucky reader's story of the Night Elf dance -- wedding style. Mike: My wife (who plays Warcraft quite a bit) learned this dance (the one in the video) so she could dance like this at our wedding. So we gave Alizee's music to the DJ, had him play it, and she danced like a Night Elf in front of everyone she's ever known. The neat part was that all her friends liked the dance style, so she was out there on the dance floor teaching all these other women how to dance like Alizee. My friends (who also play Warcraft) and I stood watching with our jaws on the floor. If you think one chick is hot while dancing like this, you should see five or six ...DM7000: You're a lucky man ...Tirrimas: Where would you like your Internet sent?Mickthathick: Pics plx!Sounds like a celebration to remember. Come on, Mike, we're all friends here – pics, please? Tips line, Attention: [1.Local] ...
15 Minutes of Fame: The Craft Dinner gang
15 Minutes of Fame is our 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.I really can't think of a more enjoyable way to game than in the same room as your friends. Even back in the EverQuest era, when my husband's Monk and my own Magician actively avoided one another outside of raids (incompatible characters, incompatible playstyles – we couldn't have been a worse mix), we got plenty of kicks and giggles from keeping an eye on one another's screens. These days, raid nights at our house mean not two but four players (three in my office, one upstairs – more, if friends with laptops are here). AFK breaks spawn a queue at the fridge that inevitably coalesces into a rowdy debate over the evening's tactics and drops.So when I spotted these kindred spirits in a news tip from Khaz Modan-US, I knew I'd found a group of players who could show WoW.com readers the glories of playing in the same room. "We're a group of eight friends in real life that get together once a week for what we call 'Craft Dinner,' which involves lugging all our gear to one of our houses, sharing a meal together, then hitting up a 10-man raid (we PuG the last two to three spots, generally)," wrote Stumpsky. "Last night, we just cleared 10-man Naxx for the first time -- which was a big accomplishment, as we just started to raid as a full group at the beginning of May. We don't use Vent, because we're all in the same room, and we all find it the most enjoyable way to play the game we love."
[1.Local]: Dumber than a box of nails
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.When Entertainment Weekly chatted with Ryan Reynolds about his "Must List", the X-Men: Wolverine actor had nothing but scorn at the possibility of his having a favorite video game. "I don't really play videogames," he told EW. "Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?""He's probably just grumpy because the cover made him look dumber than a box of nails," commented WoW.com reader Gessilea. "Come on, that expression totally screams 'Which end do I put this in again?'"We suspect Reynolds may have just finished reading the comments at WoW.com – whewww, what a fractious lot this week! Join us in picking a few nuggets out of the rubble and wrap up with a couple of latecomers to last week's epic rap battle comments war.
15 Minutes of Fame: Druid at the decks
15 Minutes of Fame is our 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.Did you know that players on Argent Dawn-US have their own soundtrack? Fellow AD player Aspeth -- aka DJ Aspeth of Sao Paulo, Brazil – has been posting trance mixes on the AD forums since she was a lowbie DJ still spinning her first talent points. Now, she jet sets from continent to continent (hope the screenshots for this profile make it in before she hops her next plane for Europe; if you don't see them, you'll know why!) to mix it up for a ballooning fan base entranced with the Aspeth sound.Her fans on Argent Dawn are both vocal and loyal. "Thanks for the new mix! I've been a huge fan of yours for years," posted Athraku. She repays that following by dropping by the AD forums with a sample of her latest work. "Whenever I can, I share a mix in the forums," she says. "I haven't been able to do it monthly lately, but I try to at least once every two months or so." When you get a look at Aspeth's wicked schedule, you'll wonder how she ever finds time – but find it she does, as well as carving out a few moments to keep her little Druid soaking up the sounds (and sights) of Azeroth.
[1.Local]: The epic rap battle comment war edition
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.Wild applause! Mad QQing! The floodgates of Patch 3.2 information have opened, and the comments here at WoW.com reflect it. As much as we love a good debate, [1.Local] will be steering clear of the 3.2 threads -- after all, nothing's set in stone yet, and all the hue and cry begins to sound tiresomely similar after the third or forth topic. Instead, let's start off this week's [1.Local] with a much more novel (and entertaining) method of presenting (and settling) differences of opinion: a comments rap battle.
15 Minutes of Fame: The furry fandom
15 Minutes of Fame is our 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.If you think "the furry fandom" sounds like a bunch of players who like playing Tauren, you'd be right -- to a tip-of-the-iceberg degree. This week's 15 Minutes of Fame looks at a often maligned, frequently mocked yet little understood hobby and lifestyle: the furry fandom, or furries. Furries (or "furs") are fans of fictional, anthropomorphic animal characters with human personalities and characteristics. Together, these furries form the furry fandom, a community of artists, writers, roleplayers and general fans of the furry art forms who gather on the internet and at conventions. Yes, these are cosplayers in fur suits – but there's a lot more to it, as this week's profile will show.Now, before we proceed: Yes, there's a segment of the furry community that's into erotic art. While the media have had the proverbial field day with this furry fodder, the sex-focused furs are by no means an especially representative segment of furry fandom. Even if they were, this profile is not headed there. Instead, let's head back to the WoW.com context of the furry fandom: a World of Warcraft player (and frequent WoW.com commenter) who expresses himself emotionally and spiritually through his furry persona.EDIT: As always, hateful, insulting and trollish posts will get deleted. You don't have to agree, but you can disagree without resorting to personal attacks. Multiple offenders will be banned, k thx ~ The Management
[1.Local]: The all a-Twitter edition
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.Ahhh, Sunday -- what's known around our place as "the day of extras": extra sleep, extra housework (blarrrg), extra mileage on the jogging trail, extra errands in game (going fishing in hopes of catching up with Mr. Pinchy, anyone?). If you're pining for some WoW love this weekend yet find yourself stuck outside of the game, don't feel as if you're all on your lonesome. Join the WoW crowd on Twitter. Most of the WoW.com team is there, plus a wider community of WoW players from all over the world. It's addictive – come follow the latest scuttle and see for yourself.More of the latest scuttle, of course, from other WoW.com readers, after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: Discover your inner ShrinkGeek Part 2
Other than the handsome [colorful adjective redacted] in the Utilikilt you're talking to? Come say hi!) I've got some pants from the days when I was going dancing four nights a week that I'd love to fit back into.
15 Minutes of Fame: Discover your inner ShrinkGeek
15 Minutes of Fame is our 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.We've already shown you how one WoW player got lean and mean while playing WoW. This week, we'd like to introduce you to what we think is one of the coolest new web resources for geeks and gamers seeking to uncover their inner Hugh Jackman: ShrinkGeek. ShrinkGeek is exactly what it sounds like: a fitness blog for gamers and, well, geeks. Take a look at some of these post titles: Better bio breaks Make a saving throw vs. Stinky Encumbrance and equivalencies Reroll your diet/exercise routine 'A Lesser Blood Clot' hits 'YOU' for 96! Yeah, we're geeking out, too. "In the words of the immortal Mr. Spock," writes ShrinkGeek cofounder (and former WoW guild GM and blogger) Michael C. McGreevy, "our ultimate goal is to help you 'Live long and prosper.'"To bring you this behind-the-scenes on ShrinkGeek, we visited with WoW-playing ShrinkGeek Rafe Brox. To be honest, actually, we merely directed the flow by interjecting the occasional question or comment. We suspect we've pinpointed one of the sources of ShrinkGeek's pump-it-up energy -- no shrinking violets here. Come geek out while getting pumped, after the break.
Insider Trader: All about patch 3.1
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.This week Insider Trader will be discussing everything craftspeople need to know about patch 3.1. By the end of this article, you will know what you should be doing to prepare for patch day, what will be changing, and how the community is reacting to these changes.I have been covering these topics to the best of my abilities as information has been released and altered over the weeks, but as we draw closer to patch day, the post-patch scene is becoming increasingly easy to visualize.
Official World of Warcraft websites feature Spring Festival gallery
Earlier this week, the World of Warcraft community sites (multi-regional) updated with a gallery from WoW China. Chinese WoW players participated in an event called, "I Love World of Warcraft, I Love Spring Festival" that combined a passion for WoW with the Lunar New Year celebrations. Chinese players submitted pictures of themselves that incorporated both of these things and the community picked their favorites. This is, by far, one of my favorite galleries that any of the official community teams has ever done. As a blogger here on WoW Insider, I see every day just how much community has been built up around this game, and I know very well that there are faces behind the characters. I've met many of my guildmates in person, and I hear similar stories every single day through WoW Insider's tipline. I love seeing the faces behind the characters, and that is exactly what this gallery does. Sure, they posed for these things and they're not exactly candid, but it still shows that the game is very personal.We're all players, but we're also people. I much prefer galleries that display that, rather than yet another mount gallery. Mount galleries are cool and all, I just like this better. Go on, check it out!
The Ghostcrawler Experiment
Greg Street, aka Ghostcrawler, is the lead systems designer at Blizzard for World of Warcraft. It's his job to make sure all the numbers work right, that the talents are spiffy, and all that "other" stuff. He became a presence during the Wrath of the Lich King beta, posting daily about updates to the game and interacting with players in a way that hasn't been seen before.The daily activity by Ghostcrawler has lead to him become a staple of sites such as WoW Insider and MMO-Champion. Every day you can see at least one or two items from him. We here at WoW Insider are particularly watchful of what he says, since his posts usually contain detailed information about why something was done and what might be done in the future. That's great content that we like to talk a lot about.However despite the volumes Ghostcrawler publishes each day, some people feel that his welcome has ran out – that this experiment of him providing community interaction has failed. Some feel that his penchant for forum interaction is time wasted, that he's done nothing more than incite riots with certain classes, and that his demeanor is less than appealing. There was a forum post today about this very topic, but that in itself is nothing new as lots of people have been QQing over Ghostcrawler for a while.Don't let all the crying fool you however – he has some major supporters throughout the community.
