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Nerthfu and Bouleau: Mauling the challenge mode record charts
That dude's a beast. If ever you were to use the above phrase to refer to a fellow WoW player, these are the guys that should inspire it. Nerthfu and Bouleau of Haven (Lethon-US) have manhandled WoW's challenge modes into submission, setting scalding instance completion times across the board. As of this writing, the duo from Canada holds all but one American region record, with the rest mere seconds behind the EU's world records. As you can well imagine, a conversation with such high-performance monsters plunges into the realm of the specific almost immediately. That's why we're dividing their perspectives into a two-part interview over the next two weeks. We'll look at both tanking and healing at warp speed and find out what kind of play it takes to defend the top spot on the charts week after week. WoW Insider: How does one become addicted to speed on this level, guys? Are speed runs something you guys have always enjoyed doing in WoW, or did the addition of challenge modes mark a new way to play for you? Nerthfu: As far as I can remember, I always loved running dungeons as fast as humanly possible in WoW, but it wasn't really organized or a goal but rather just my way of doing things. It started in vanilla WoW, where I would constantly get aggro on my rogue and had to use Feint and Vanish almost on cooldown to wipe my threat. Then came Burning Crusade, and I switched to a fury warrior. That's where things started changing a lot. I started playing much more often with Bouleau and had even more issues than before with my threat -- so much in fact that I would end up always getting aggro off the tank and die in most heroic dungeons and raids. ... That was how most of our heroic dungeon went until we were so overgeared that Bouleau could heal just heal me while I was tanking entire packs of trash in heroic dungeons, and that's where we really started running dungeons as fast as we could, which most of the time meant four DPS and one healer.
The unfiltered Adrianne Curry gets Explicit
You know you've dialed the right number when you call Adrianne Curry because you get geek music on hold -- Star Wars, Inception, it's all there. Make no mistake: This lady is no poseur. The original America's Next Top Model wields established fandom credentials in Star Wars, cosplay, A Song of Ice and Fire, and of course World of Warcraft. Her pedigree in sexier pursuits is no less enthralling: two Playboy covers plus the Playboy Top 25 list in 2008, the Maxim Hot 100 list in 2005, national and international magazine and runway modeling, various stints on reality TV -- and of course, more important events such as hosting BlizzCon's live coverage on DirecTV in 2011. The words Adrianne uses to describe her upcoming talk show on Sirius Radio make a pretty solid description of her life in general: "from fashion to sex to Warcraft." That's Adrianne Curry, in a nutshell. We caught Adrianne in the midst of leveling up with new boyfriend Todd Roy, producer of The Jace Hall Show. (Read our previous interview with Todd.) Think you'd be a good match for a guild with the two of them? Explicit is recruiting now. See if you have what it takes to game alongside this World of Warcraft vixen, plus hear Adrianne's unfiltered take on leveling up a significant other and balancing WoW with life in the spotlight. Editor's Note: This interview contains explicit language, which may not be safe for work (or children). Read at your own risk!
What can WoW and other MMOs teach us about literature and storytelling?
While the world of academia has not infrequently pried back the edges of World of Warcraft to peer through its lens into fields including psychology, sociology and anthropology, and economics, we don't often hear reports from the intersection of WoW and literature. With a lore and canon of their own making, WoW and the Warcraft world don't fit alongside such developments as Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative, a course from Vanderbilt University available via free online educational provider Coursera that leans heavily on the riches of narrative theory, intermediality, and game theory in Lord of the Rings Online. But there's no denying the omnipresence of WoW's influence -- and yes, that includes within the ivory-tooled tower of literature, as well. "I'm a literature professor," states Dr. Jay Clayton, one of the Coursera class's instructors. "I'm fascinated by what games can teach us about the operations of storytelling." Dr. Clayton says he's hoping to attract WoW players and their own WoW-tinged perspectives to his class this summer in order to help build a more complete picture of what WoW is itself as media, not only as a lens through which we can view other disciplines.
Revving up the comments with WoW Insider regular Revynn
We love our readers -- and come to think of it, they're probably a big part of the reason you love us, too. At a time when the comment sections of many sites are overwhelmed by trolling and pettiness, WoW Insider maintains an even-natured profile with a crop of commenters known for their level-headed touch. Making his mark among those commenters is long-time reader Revynn, noted again and again by WI writers themselves for the insightful profile of comments he's built across the site. "I think I'm going on four years now," Revynn says of his longevity as a WoW Insider reader. "I stumbled across WoW Insider during Wrath when I was trying to get to the official World of Warcraft site and just typed in 'wow.com.' When I finally decided to stop lurking and start actually saying things, it was under a different username that I abandoned when I changed mains at the end of ICC." "It's easy to look back and be surprised at how much time I've dedicated to a website that I don't own or receive any compensation from, but it's a lot like WoW in that respect," he continues. "I can think 'I've really wasted a lot of time here,' or I can reflect fondly on the good people and good conversations that have come and gone over the years. People like Krotzer, Cutaia, Draknfyre, Pyro, Grovin, Ravyncat, Killik, Jeff and many, many others are what make WI such a fantastic place to come to for information or just to hang out."
WoW Insider's interview with Nick Carpenter, vice president of Art and Cinematic Development
WoW Insider's sister site Massively attended the gallery as well -- make sure you check out their coverage! While I was at the exhibition opening for the Art of Blizzard Entertainment gallery and book signing, I was able to interview Nick Carpenter, the vice president of art and cinematic development. He, Chris Metzen and several artists were there to sign the soon to be released book and to answer questions about it. The book itself was available for purchase at the time and contains a selection of art from all Blizzard games throughout its existence, as well as commentary by Nick Carpenter, Chris Metzen and Samwise Didier. I felt very fortunate to be able to ask Nick a few questions. WoW Insider: You are the VP of Art and Cinematics, what does the art part encompass? Nick Carpenter: That's everything. So I work with all of the art directors, and a lot on the box art, creative development, and the game teams -- helping everyone sort of work in the same direction.
Mionee checks off soloing Cataclysm raids, begins bloodying Mists
Evidently, the EU realms are a hotbed of death knight creativity and initiative. While he might be among the best-known players for his crazy soloing accomplishments, Raegwyn is hardly the only DK to crack the code of soloing endgame content. Mionee, a savvy and seasoned death knight from top EU guild Envy, is also making name for herself from soloing a few little things. What kind of things? Everything from Deathwing, Ragnaros, and a challenge mode dungeon down to older content such as Yogg-Saron/0 keepers and the Lich King. "The only normal mode encounters that cannot be soloed right now as a DK are Kalecgos in Sunwell Plateau, Valithria Dreamwalker in Icecrown Citadel (unless you're a draenei with Gift of the Naaru), Conclave of Wind in Throne of the Four Winds, as well as Hagara the Stormbinder and Spine of Deathwing in Dragon Soul," Mionee muses. "That leaves quite a lot of soloable encounters. On a more general note, what's left to solo are the heroic versions of some encounters, or the 25-man versions of bosses that have only been soloed in 10-man." "To give a rough estimate," she continues, "by the end of Wrath of the Lich King, I was doing Mount Hyjal; by the end of Cata, I had completed nearly every possible heroic encounter from Wrath (a few exceptions aside); and right now, I have completed everything in Cata aside from the three above-mentioned encounters." Mionee gives us the inside scoop on soloing some of the game's toughest content and answers the question of whether death knights are really overpowered, after the break.
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.
The Queue: But you can take it, can't you, big man?
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi will be your host today. This is pretty much how I imagine a Garrosh/Varian throwdown. You can decide who gets to be which character, and who Batman's supposed to be. Lor'themar? Jaina? Up to you. FlinthammerHall asks I just recently realized there was replica transmog vanilla PvP gear for those of us who achieved rank 8 or above during vanilla WoW. I'm a bad person for asking this, I know, but has Blizzard given any indication that more than the original characters who earned that rank (and got the appropriate Feat of Strength) will ever be able to purchase and use this gear? If there has been any indication of that I haven't heard it. The goal was to leave those particular sets the province of characters (not players) that actually earned the rank.
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.
Detail-oriented artist shows Blizzard how it's done
Marie Lazar got the chance to step into the shoes of a Blizzard Entertainment intern last summer -- and there's still a chance that you could, too. The deadline for this year's Blizzard student art contest is next week. If you're an aspiring 3D artist, get your portfolios in by Jan. 15 for a shot at a three-month mentorship at Blizzard under the wing of a member of the WoW art team, plus a one-year subscription to WoW and some delicious WoW memorabilia and goodies. You'd best be up for a stiff challenge, though, because this is no mere fan art contest. You'll face artists the likes of last year's winners Jessica Dinh, Peter K. Lee -- and the subject of this week's interview, the detail-oriented Marie Lazar. "It's all about the details," said WoW lead environment artist Gary Platner of Marie's work. "When we create art for WoW, we have to follow some rules. Pieces must have hand painted textures that match our unique art style and they must tell a story. Marie's work does this very well! And, if you look close enough, some great details come through. It's a library of the afterlife floating on an island in the sky! There are book references everywhere, books lying around, book grave stones, even the roof is made to look like an open book. All of us could look at this piece and come up with a great story."
Where Are They Now? 5 years of WoW personalities, 15 minutes at a time
Azeroth is certainly not the same place it was back in 2008 when we began interviewing players and people associated with World of Warcraft for WoW Insider's "15 Minutes of Fame" feature. We face a new landscape with new threats, new stories, new opportunities. While many of the people we've talked with over the years have moved on to other horizons, plenty of them are still right here in Azeroth -- and many of them are doing things as remarkable as those that first caught our attention Where are they now? To find out, we have to go way, way back -- all the way to January of 2008 ... Be sure to click the bold subheadings at the beginning of each entry to read the original interviews. Noor the pacifist Five years ago, the idea of someone playing an MMO like WoW without killing any monsters seemed incredible at best and ridiculous to many. But Noor kept at it -- and he's at it still. "I've got my mage up to 90, but haven't done much with Noor for a while," he reports. "I missed the small window of opportunity to create a neutral pandaran by getting off the starting turtle without choosing a faction by using Zen Pilgrimage; there's still a way that should work, but it's a very long grind ... (Basically, herb and mine to level 41, which takes more than 50,000 nodes, then take up inscription and make a scroll of recall and read it.)" Um, yikes. Read more of Noor's exploits at Pacifist Undead Priest.
Why the WoW Ironman Challenge champion is returning to the iron path
From 0 to 90 with no gear, no talents, no grouping or professions, and perma-death -- no more playing that character if you die ... It's a grim challenge that only one player so far has managed to take to its conclusion. Yet so compelling and addictive is the unforgiving gameplay of the player-created Ironman Challenge that Mists champion Lyssan is already rolling a new monk down the iron path. An interview with the triumphant Lyssan, a Diablo 2 hardcore mode veteran, reveals a player bubbling with wry humor, an adventurous spirit, and an abiding appreciation for the very fabric of the World of Warcraft. WoW Insider: Leveling under these conditions sounds absolutely brutal. How much do the restrictions of the challenge impinge on normal game play? Lyssan: Playing under Ironman rules makes WoW an entirely different game. You no longer have the luxury of trial and error with the "one death" rule. The skillset available is very limited, and you need to use it to its fullest in order to advance. One mob that for a regular toon is just a minor nuisance on the way to the quest objective is most of the time a deadly puzzle for an Ironman toon: Do I have enough HP/mana to take it down? Will it call reinforcements? Do I have an exit strategy in case something goes bad? Are all my cooldowns ready? Due to these restrictions, playing content at the character level is usually not a very good idea. With Lyssan, I was most of the time at least two to three levels above the content I was doing, except for quests that didn't involve any killing. (I've done some of those in Pandaria.)
Random Acts of Uberness: That wicked-cool guy
Remember Random Acts of Uberness, your opportunity at WoW Insider to offer a shout-out or kudos to a fellow player who'd made your day in WoW? "It's when another player lights up your night with precise play, a wicked sense of humor, or unexpected generosity that your login becomes something to remember." 'Tis the season, folks. Ready to play? Let's start the snowball rolling with this email from a player on Stormrage (US): Dear Lisa, MERRY CHRISTMAS! In searching for some last minute gifts in WoW for my wife (I always think I don't get her enough), I thought about getting her Lumpy the rare winter's veil Battle pet. However I'd waited until Christmas eve, and they were going for 30K in the auction house. YIKES! So I put in trade chat once that I'd like to get lumpy for my wife for Christmas, hoping that somebody would sell theirs cheaper then 30K which I didn't have. A rogue named Eroldel on the stormrage server offered to GIVE me his Lumpy for free, with only a "Merry Christmas" as payment. It was such a great moment in game I felt he deserved some recognition. Sincerely, Rhokk from Stormrage I'd say Eroldel deserves a smooch under the mistletoe, wouldn't you? Who's been making your day in game this holiday season (whether you remember their name or just "the orc shaman in Stormstout Brewery late last night in the group with the newbie tank")? Let's give them a shout-out right here in the comments. 'Tis the season to share those random acts of uberness!
World champion gladiator Venruki cracks open arena PvP
There's more than one World of Warcraft within Azeroth. The high-stakes realm of competitive arena play is one such microscosm. Compared to WoW's gargantuan PvE player base, relatively few players delve very deeply into arena play, and an extensive fandom for arenas as an e-sport has been slow to catch on. So when Blizzard took the Battle.net World Championship to Shanghai last month, the StarCraft II-crazed event cracked the door wider for gladiators from World of Warcraft. At stake: international dominance and a prize pool of nearly $200,000. The BWC threw the top 10 WoW 3v3 arena teams from across the world into a high-pressure, best-of-five round robin series. The top four teams emerged to face a brutal double-elimination bracket for the global championship. When the void zones dispersed, one team remained: Bring It, a North American team composed of frost mage Venruki (Elliott Venczel of Calgary, Canada), BlizzCon veteran and warlock Snutz (Kelvin Nguyen, also of Canada), and well-known PvP shaman Kollektiv (Timothy Yen, United States). We caught up with Venruki to crack the high-stakes world of WoW arena as an e-sport. WoW Insider: Congratulations on your win! I'm guessing you've been kicking back and taking it easy since the championship? Venruki: Thank you very much! I have been taking it easy since the championship. It's funny though, I thought after BWC was over I could finally take a break from World of Warcraft ... Recently seems like I play more than I did before. I'm still having a lot of fun with the game. How do you go about preparing for a championship like the BWC, anyway? Because the game was on the new expansion Mists of Pandaria, I knew that I had to play ... a lot. I practiced over 1,000 games of 3v3 arena in the couple of months I had to prepare. When my team was on, I played with them; otherwise I would practice with whomever I could find. I knew that to do well, it was going to take knowing the game inside and out.
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Maps, guides and forums
Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok commented today on a thread talking about some features of Azeroth (and Outland) past. Unlike other recent discussions on the forums, though, this doesn't relate to players bemoaning some removed aspect of a long-passed expansion. No, this relates to the World of Warcraft website, and its manifold features. The thread begins with a reference to the above map, which was part of the main site, and can still be found online. It's a pretty interactive map of what was, then, the world, allowing players to see various bits of information about the world, such as profession trainers, dungeon entrances, zone levels and the like. Why doesn't the same exist now? Bashiok Yeah! That map was cool. I don't think it got much traffic though. Having an updated map is one of those wishlist items, but the info is already out there on fansites and such, and even a lot of that info is in-game now compared to back then, not to mention quest flow and getting around is far more intuitive, so it's not a particularly high priority. source Would you like to see more maps and other items such as this? Or do fan sites and addons pretty much have it covered? While we're here on the old WoW site, there are a couple more pages highlighted in the same thread that are worth a look. The world dungeons, for example, had a page which gave a brief insight into the zone and the lore, and a map location. Note the limit on player numbers! And lastly, there's the old forums. The links don't work, it seems, but there is one fun thread title. The poster was obviously a seer of some sort... Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Student artist's Darkmoon carousel stuns Blizzard, earns internship
Blizzard only wishes they'd made art like Blizzard student art contest winner Peter K. Lee -- no, seriously. "The carousel," writes a stunned-sounding Eric Browning, WoW's lead prop artist. "Holy crap. It was the exact right mix of 'WTF' and 'Why didn't we think of that?' Stylistically he nailed it, so it wasn't just a goofball idea that we loved (it was); it also fit almost perfectly into the game. Literally. It's now in the game. It has its OWN THEME SONG! That's how awesome it is, and I'm not even sure if our sound department made music or that it's just so excellent that it makes music on its own." "And I challenge anyone to look at those carved wooden mounts and not," he continued, "in some dark and quiet place in their brains whisper, 'I want that. I want it to be my friend and go on adventures with me. So baaaad.'" Like fellow contest winner Jessica Dinh, Lee's top-notch work in the art contest earned him a 2012 summer internship at Blizzard. We checked in with him to find out what it was like to work with a team he both admired and had managed to astound.
Have you seen these WoW players?
Break time? Tilt the screen away from your boss's line of fire, fire up a fresh playlist with your earbuds, and pull up some WoW Insider. (Much healthier than something out of the vending machine, am I right?) How about a behind-the-scenes interview? Who would you like to read more about? Tell us! Who's doing something useful for other players or playing the game in a way that makes you say, "Wow, that sounds cool!"? Let us know what they're up to. Send us your nominations! While an interview with 15 Minutes of Fame isn't exactly designed to be an achievement award for good behavior or service to the gaming community, we'd love to talk with anyone out there who's doing good stuff. (Examples: A guild for players with social anxiety, the quadriplegic player compiling resources for other disabled players, the raider who plays "guide dog" to a blind guildmate.) Know anyone out there who's doing it right? Send us your requests! Who's the Mr. Nice Guy behind that warrior on your realm that everyone seems to know and like? Who's the gnome behind the WoW-themed crochet patterns you download as quickly as can post them? Who's the savvy player behind your favorite resource site? We'll find out. Tip me at lisa@wowinsider.com or @lisapoisso on Twitter. Azeroth's Most Wanted List We're betting you know where the interesting folks are hiding. Check out our Most Wanted List after the break.
Interview: Fantasy art legend Michael Whelan relates his vision of Deathwing
Sometimes we're so busy geeking out over the ways Blizzard inspires us with World of Warcraft that we forget that behind the curtain, the folks at Blizzard are busy geeking out over the people and things that inspire them. So when we learned that Blizzard had commissioned fantasy art legend Michael Whelan to create a painting of Deathwing for Blizzard's headquarters, we knew we had to bring you the inside story of how this singular vision of the iconic dragon came to fruition. The most honored artist in science fiction, Whelan has created book and album covers for authors and musicians like Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, the Jacksons and Meat Loaf. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009, the first living artist to join such luminaries as H.G. Wells, Steven Spielberg, and Ursula K. Le Guin. While Whelan actually executed the commission for Blizzard early last year, his enthusiasm for the project remains undimmed. The world-renowned painter of imaginative realism chatted with us about his rueful discovery of Deathwing's unique draconic qualities, his admiration for Blizzard's art team, and the special project he's working on now in memory of "Dragonriders of Pern" author Anne McCaffrey. WoW Insider: Your artwork is such a part of the fantasy world that we need to go back a bit to get the full perspective of what you've done here, the long view you bring to an upstart like Deathwing. Michael Whelan: It's been a little ways ... (laughs) I've been working at this for what, 35 years? We have a Pern fan on staff who's curious about how you reconcile the stylistic differences between the art for Pern and art like what you've just done with Deathwing for Blizzard. Now that you're focusing more on fine art than illustration, was it odd to switch back to working on a commission with someone else's vision? Yeah, it's really hard. Try as I might, there's always a period of adjustment between working on a commission piece and doing something for the gallery, where I'm just trying to satisfy my own aesthetic and intellectual sensibilities. It's funny; it can take me days, even, to switch gears and go from one mindset to the other.
Well-known druid blogger Lissanna lowers the boom(kin) on autism research
It's only been a couple of weeks since we reported on the crowdsourcing effort to fund the autism research of well-known Restokin blogger and Blizzard MVP poster Lissanna, aka Dr. Elisabeth Whyte of the Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience at Penn State. So far, supporters have boosted Dr. Whyte to just over a quarter of her funding goal for the project, which focuses on how children and adolescents with autism understand language and process information from faces (such as recognizing people or understanding emotional expressions). Her goal: designing a video game to help kids with autism improve these skills. How does an MMO-playing grad student transform from anonymous gamer to well-known WoW blogger, Blizzard forum MVP, and Ph.D.-level researcher bringing gamification to the treatment of autism? If you follow the example of this lady: with ease. WoW Insider: One-fourth of your funding already under your belt -- congratulations! Our readers already know that WoW can be beneficial to kids with autism, so it's exciting to hear about a gamification project designed to help kids with autism. Lissanna: Many kids and adults with autism seem to enjoy playing video games. We have some evidence that using fun activities can motivate learning. Our goal is to develop and test the efficacy of an educational game that impacts face processing abilities and social skills. With much of the research focused on important early intervention work, there is a huge gap in the services that individuals with autism can receive when they are older. We think that a sophisticated game can fill the need for social skills services targeting older individuals to help with tasks like preparing them for jobs or developing friendships with their peers.
Drama Mamas: When 'he' turns into 'she'
More than a few readers have wondered if the Drama Mamas ever make up reader letters in order to make a point. Let me be perfectly clear: We do not. The letters you see here represent genuine emails received from readers, usually within the past month or two, sent directly to the Drama Mamas. This fact leads directly to another rather incredulous question: "Can there really be that many people out there having trouble with this particular issue?" Almost without fail, the answer is yes. In the case of this week's topic -- the social implications of being a transgender player in an online environment -- there are enough players struggling that even though we addressed the issue just two years ago, players continue to write in. Here to answer two recent letters about coping with transgender issues is guest Drama Mama Rachel Gold, who you may have met just a few days ago in an interview here at WoW Insider. Rachel is the author of Being Emily, a young adult novel about a teen struggling to work her way through the implications of becoming a young woman after being born in the body of a male. First, our reader letters: Hey , I've been a role player since wow began , along the way I've met up and became good friends with a lot of people but over the few years I've been having gender reassignment therapy and now surgery, I've not been able to vent and Skype with my guild for ages and now I can't raid , I'm now asking for help with my drama. -- Melissa
