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15 Minutes of Fame: Counseling people who happen to play games
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. Do your friends, family or coworkers still cling to old-fashioned notions of video games as the provenance of social misfits and those who can't stay focused on the demands and rewards of real life? Take heart -- there are professionals out there who understand the gaming perspective and are working to help normalize gaming as mainstream pastime it has actually become. One of the many leading the charge is WoW player and master's-level psychology student Erinia of Cenarion Circle, whose track toward becoming a licensed mental health counselor includes helping both players and other mental health professionals understand the pulls, demands, and concerns of players who enjoy games like WoW. Erinia has discovered that magic sweet spot where work, play, and a passion for all of it come together. "Am I an exceptional player?" Erinia asks. "Probably not, but WoW has opened up a lot of doors for me in the real world." We would accuse the lady of understatement here; click past the break for more on counseling, World of Warcraft, and new perspectives on how to help troubled people -- who happen to enjoy playing games -- understand themselves.
15 Minutes of Fame: Will you be at BlizzCon?
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. If you're planning to attend BlizzCon this year, 15 Minutes of Fame just might be looking for you! Our reporters and photographers will be out looking for interesting backstories from some of the most enthusiastic Blizzard and World of Warcraft fans in attendance. If you or anyone you know will be at BlizzCon and fall into any of the categories below, please drop me an email at lisa@wowinsider.com with "BlizzCon interviews" in the subject line. Let me know why we might want to interview you and how I can reach you via email and (optionally) Twitter. Don't be shy -- conventions are chaotic events, and we need plenty of suggestions in order to be able to actually track all of you down! Biggest guild group in attendance Long-distance traveler (How far will you be travelling to get to BlizzCon? Coming up from Down Under?) Cosplayers (Tell me about your costume and give me a feel for its complexity; we'll be interviewing a number of stand-outs!) Long-distance romantic couple meeting for the first time at BlizzCon More players we're seeking at BlizzCon, after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: Progressive guild thrives under uncommon leadership team
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. There's plenty about Wreck List of Garrosh (US-H) that's a little different from your run-of-the-mill World of Warcraft guild. The sprawling social guild doused Ragnaros just days ago with a team of core raiders rooted by several members in their 50s and 60s. In fact, the guild is run primarily by women over the age of 50 -- "at age 51, I'm the baby of the group," admits guild leader Dkosmama. With a median member age of about 40, Wreck List boasts well over 200 members, half of them women. Even more remarkable than its unusual gender and age mix, though, are the guild's roots -- Wreck List is the unofficial guild of the popular progressive political blog Daily Kos. Not limited to members from the Daily Kos community, Wreck List is open to any player looking for a sanctuary from trade chat madness, away from "threatening racist, homophobic, and misogynist language and ideas." The group's official Declaration of Purpose clearly states that "while guild chat is mostly non-political, it is also where we express our leftist political views, which sometimes may include a sharp word or two about Republicans. Because many guild members did not come to the Wreck List through political blogs, we do not expect everyone to hold progressive views on all issues; however, we do expect that all members respect the liberal foundation of the guild." An unusual balance for an entire guild? We thought so, too, and sat down to visit with Dkosmama about the balance of ideas and free expression that makes this whole group hang together. Editor's note: This article focuses on this group's integration with the World of Warcraft and is not an endorsement or promotion of any particular political ideology or agenda. Please keep comments focused on the guild and its activities, rather than political ideologies.
15 Minutes of Fame: Care packages spur renaissance of community spirit
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. All we need to introduce the topic of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame is a simple realm name: Moon Guard. Aha! I see some of you out there have been paying attention ... That's right, Moon Guard's the realm with the reputation for, shall we say, a somewhat more exotic (or was that erotic?) playstyle. Ready to go behind the scenes with a leading realm figure who'll give us the inside scoop on what really goes down on Moon Guard? Well, hang on there, Hoss -- because this ain't yo' mama's Moon Guard (or even your creepy Uncle Harold's). This is a decidedly more respectable Moon Guard. This is a Moon Guard that helps out new players with free care packages, no strings attached. This is a Moon Guard that's building an entire YouTube channel to spotlight interesting realm personalities. This is a Moon Guard whose players josh around with an in-character advice column run by a goblin. This is a Moon Guard boasting a recent player-run roleplaying event that virtually exploded onto the forum scene. Meet Venita, who's spurred on a huge part of this renaissance of community spirit with a wildly popular care package program for realm newbies plus an upcoming community spotlight program making its debut next month on YouTube. %Gallery-134438%
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.
15 Minutes of Fame: The AFK Tavern, where everybody knows your name
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. So these two WoW players walk into a bar. Only it's not just a bar -- it's also a full restaurant serving hearty but healthy (fresh, locally sourced and frequently organic) fare such as the thick, juicy Iron Dragon Steak ("a full half-pound of flat iron steak grilled in dragon's fire and served with sautéed veggies and a GLaDOS baked potato"). And then they don't go home, because it's more than just a bar and restaurant -- it's also a gaming center hosting everything required to enjoy a night of tabletop, console and online gaming. Yes, this is heaven. Welcome to the AFK Tavern in Everett, Wash., the brainchild of WoW player Kayla Graves. "It was kinda my life's dream," she explains. "I run the place as general manager and design most the menus and almost all the drinks (a few are made by our bartenders), so I take the title of creative director most the time. I also deal with all our social media ... And advertisements. AFK started as my project, but we're big on community input, so we've shaped it that way and let it become more than us. It's pretty cool owning a company like AFK Tavern with my two best friends in the whole world." Sound like the place where everybody knows your name? We thought so, too. Come on in.
15 Minutes of Fame: From Romania to Korea via World of Warcraft
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. This is the story of Apathius, a Romanian student of languages who's made World of Warcraft her entree to the Korean language and culture. "A year ago, I used to be a slightly hardcore raider on the EU realms," she writes. "Being a big fan of anime and all that stuff, I opted for a chance to study abroad in Korea. (Japan was out of the question, sadly, but Korea was pretty close, culture-wise.) So at the start of 2010, I hopped on a plane and came here to start a 'new life,' so to speak. But still, there are huge cultural differences between the Asian world and the west, and for fear that I might not adapt to this new environment, I decided to make WoW one of my mediums for permeating Korean society." "I thought I knew WoW well enough to get the hang of things quickly, but I ended up having to re-learn a lot of things, especially PVE-wise," she continues. "'Korean Style!' my guildies told me when I first asked them why almost no one raids as a guild here. I was surprised when I heard they PUG heroic raids like Alone in the Dark and Lich King 25-man. But that doesn't mean they're hardcore, as even the casuals do very well. For example, people who had never seen Putricide before went from a 80% wipe to a 5% wipe after three tries. Also, if you're a top-end raider, you can earn about 5,000ish gold per week from raids, because the DKP here is gold, and only gold. The weirdest part about it though, I really get the feeling they take the PVE side of WoW as fun, not as competition, not as something to be taken seriously, just as a means of getting imba gear and seeing new fights." Join us for one player's quixotic journey through an American game on a European realm from her Romanian homeland to a new home and new realm in Korea.
15 Minutes of Fame: Summer Games heat up summer fun and fall recruiting
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. Work warning: Guild chatter and text in these videos contain the occasional snippet of strong language. Summer break tugging your raiding schedule to shreds? Instead of stressing out about it, maybe it's time to shine your organizational mojo on something a little more fun: a Summer Games event. Time and Tide of Earthen Ring (EU) has done just that, building a weekend of off-season fun and games spanning multiple guilds and even both factions. This may not be the first time we've featured articles about trivia contests, funny challenges and even other special events centering on games before -- but I'm not sure we've ever seen anything as well-planned as these Summer Games. Not content to simply entertain its own, Time and Tide opened the event realm-wide this year in a savvy recruiting move that undoubtedly raised their guild's profile and sparked plenty of interest from other players. You'll want to read our interview with GM and Summer Games organizer Firelash, if for no other reason than to snag some sweet ideas for a morale-boosting, team-bonding, raider-recruiting event of your own!
15 Minutes of Fame: Guilds build their own third faction
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. Shane Moore, author of the Abyss Walker series, missed being included in our recent roundup of WoW-playing authors -- but that's not why we're profiling him today. Shane's been rabble-rousing on the battlefield and around town, cooking up a whole different kind of PVP stew on his home realm: a third faction. If you've ever felt ambivalent about playing sides in the Horde vs. Alliance tug-of-war, you've probably dreamed of what a third faction could be like. Shane and his guildmates are playing around with the idea in game now. At more than 1,000 members and growing strong, The Third Faction claims to draw its powers from the mandate of the masses rather than the tyrannical whims of Azeroth's ruling dictators.
15 Minutes of Fame: Knitting together a gaming life
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. Yes, grandmas who knit play World of Warcraft, too -- and to prove it, we offer you this week's 15 Minutes of Fame with Pointilliste of Nesingway (US-A). Pointilliste is not only a knitting grandma, but a librarian as well. (She holds a master's degree in library science.) Nerdy-sweet enough for you yet? There's more -- this grandmother of four started playing Dungeons & Dragons in her forties, got her first PC nearly 20 years ago at age 50 ... and of course, she plays World of Warcraft.
15 Minutes of Fame: Come one, come all to the astounding Traveling Museum of Debris
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. Back in October, we profiled triple-threat collector Drrum's coordinated armor, pet, and mount collections, meticulously assembled and screenshot in complementary in-game settings. Last week, we chatted with collector Moonjade of Twisting Nether (US-A), who focuses on items somehow linked to game lore. This week, we complete our trifecta of collectors with an interview with a player who's assembled an actual in-game museum -- yup, curator-led tours and all -- of unusual gray items and assorted oddities. Now, we get crazy emails all the time here at WoW Insider about all sorts of weird things that've been found in game ... but man, I've never even heard of some of this stuff! Pestle, who's also GM of Infinite Asylum on The Scryers (US-A), manages the massive, multi-bank collection via Riplington E. Winchester III, the museum's intrepid gnomish curator character. The list of random items that she sent me is so long that there's literally no reader-friendly way to display it here (let alone the fact that it would take days to slap Wowhead links on all of it); we'll stream it for you in paragraph form just after the jump. For a visual idea of the scope of this massive collection, click through the gallery below before joining us to chat with its curator after the break. %Gallery-129232%
15 Minutes of Fame: No bank dust bunnies for in-game item collectors
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. 15 Minutes of Fame profiled the triple-threat collections of Drrum last fall -- an astounding trifecta of pets, mounts and armor sets painstakingly pieced together and then screenshot to dramatic effect in complementary in-game settings. Amazing stuff. And since cool collections that come in threes seem to be such a good thing, we're bringing you two more profiles of in-game collectors. This week, we'll visit with Moonjade of Twisting Nether (US-A), who collects armor and lore items. Moonjade's impressive collection of lore and legendary items make him a suitable ambassador for an entire subculture of players who collect various sorts of items during their game downtime. Then next week, we'll crank up the specialization rating and round out our trio of collectors with an interview with a collector who actually manages and gives tours of a virtual museum of gray items.
15 Minutes of Fame: Holding fast to Azeroth through the journey of Alzheimer's
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. Bill Craig is doing it right. The 61-year-old WoW player has suffered from early-onset Alzheimer's disease for half a dozen years now, winding his way through Azeroth for about half that time. He's ridden a bicycle all the way from Carrollton, Texas, to Carrollton, Georgia, to raise money and awareness for animal welfare -- not once but twice. He's a Vietnam vet. He serves as an advocate with the Alzheimer's Association, having recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., with his wife to meet with legislators about bills impacting Alzheimer's. Bill's contributions and commitment to his community and country are impressive for any seasoned professional, let alone someone living with a disease that monkeywrenches a person's thinking, memory and behavior. I know Bill's doing it right because I live under the baleful gaze of Alzheimer's, too. My mother passed away two years ago after a particularly cruel struggle with the disease. She began batting aside its first tendrils while caring for my grandmother, also stripped bare by Alzheimer's. My father wanders through a related type of dementia -- perversely, with all the sets of symptoms my mother never developed. (Ding! We hit the jackpot, I guess.) In my work, I've written about Alzheimer's and the incredible burdens it places on families, parents with young children who now also care for their own parents over the painfully protracted years it takes life to trickle away. Alzheimer's is inextricably part of my life, too. So none of that makes me special -- Alzheimer's grip on families is all too common -- but it does mean I can say one thing with certainty: Bill Craig is doing it right. His view of Azeroth, however, is very different from yours or mine.
15 Minutes of Fame: Full-body WoW with motion-sensing software
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. The boss is enraging at 7% health and you're locked on target, hunched over your keyboard in a white-knuckled frenzy to squeeze every last drop of DPS from your avatar. Finally, the beast succumbs to your assault, and you sit back, exquisitely aware of the tension crumpling your neck and shoulders and radiating into your fingertips. As you pull in a deep, shuddering breath of relief, you wonder if perhaps it might be more natural to simply stand in front of your screen and show the computer, using gestures similar to those of your character, what to do. Now, you can. Dr. Skip Rizzo, associate director at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, is head of a research project that's applying the same kind of technology used in the Xbox Kinect to the World of Warcraft. The aim of the project, however, is not so much to turn games like WoW into virtual tarantellas of movement and gesture but to make games more accessible to disabled players and to open new avenues for rehabilitation, therapy and even education. The project's Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST) middleware integrates full-body control with games and virtual reality applications, using tools like PrimeSensor and the Kinect on the OpenNI framework.
15 Minutes of Fame: I didn't know he plays WoW!
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. Readers constantly bombard us with tips and requests for features on famous people who play WoW. So here's the deal ... Frankly, guys? Sometimes the hottest celebrities, the ones who seem the most exciting, the really bigger than life types -- they're really not all that exciting to talk to about WoW. They turn out to be pretty much like the rest of us -- they go to work (albeit, more glamorous work than ours), they come home, and they flop down in front of the computer to grind and pug and raid just like the rest of us. They equip their WoW pants the same as anyone else. And then sometimes, famous people just don't want the spotlight shone on their gaming habit. Even today, when everyone plays some sort of game on Facebook or their phones or a console or somewhere, some people consider gaming their dirty little secret. Others are afraid that their privacy will be compromised. Despite not needing to divulge a single identifying detail about their characters, they still don't want to risk anyone being able to figure out the identities of the Azerothian alter egos. Yet over the years, 15 Minutes of Fame has talked with some pretty enthusiastic WoW players who also happen to be somewhat (or very) famous. You'll find some of them in last week's roundup of WoW-playing authors. And we've talked to plenty more -- and so to stoke your curiosity, we've rounded up a list of some of the more high-profile WoW players we've featured. Didn't realize Mr. or Ms. Famous So-and-So plays your game? Click past the break and get the inside scoop.
15 Minutes of Fame: (Almost) 15 authors of fame
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. 15 Minutes of Fame tries to feature as wide a variety of WoW players as possible. It's not only about being famous in the real world, or being a somebody in the WoW community, or playing WoW despite some remarkable circumstance. 15 Minutes covers all those things, yes ... But we also try to talk with players who are representative of the typical player experience -- ambassadors of the Folks Next Door, if you will. But no matter how we try to balance things, we always seem to end up back at another interview with an author. Writers who game are a particular bunch. They always have a lot to say about the fantasy genre and the game lore and way the world of Azeroth is unfolding; it makes for a pretty interesting interview. So when we realized that we'd pretty much overshot the bottom of our dance card despite the line of authors winding past the punch bowl and out the door ... Well, we decided it was time to give everyone a full helping of nothing but WoW-playing writers. With our common enjoyment of WoW and the fantasy genre, we figure most readers will find something from these authors they'll want to curl up with on the couch. Welcome, then, to 15 Minutes of Fame's list of (Almost) 15 WoW-Playing Authors of Fame.
15 Minutes of Fame: Joi Ito on player relationships and connecting
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. Last week, we set the stage with internet superman Joichi Ito in a conversation that meandered through the old days of gaming, from getting his feet wet in MUDs to why he misses 40-man raiding in WoW. This week, we're back to discuss why some people with MBAs make crappy raid leaders, how WoW builds stronger bonds between people who work together, and his plans to bring WoW along for the ride at the MIT Media Lab. Catch up on last week's part 1 of our interview with Joi first. 15 Minutes of Fame: So what's your own guild focused on now? Joi Ito: The Horde side had kind of wound down a little bit. It still exists, but it's mostly the Alliance side now. When we were both going strong, it was really fun because we did a lot of joint stuff. [laughs] What we would do is do sort of sister guild PVP -- but it would always get messy because you'd find people from other guilds noticing and then jumping in. Right now, we're definitely not first in the realm, but we just hit level 25. I'm pretty delinquent; I need to level myself up, so as not to embarrass everyone too badly. [laughs] Every expansion, we go through several iterations of discussing the governance and stuff like that, and a lot of the old-time guild leadership aren't active. I got grandfathered in because it's hard not to have someone in the background, I guess, being the custodian of things to do when no one else can decide. There was a really interesting paper written by Dmitri Williams, who's an academic, and they did a study on the relationship between guild rules and stability of the guild. It said that in guilds that called themselves "casual" but didn't have any rules, the players tended to have more anxiety than those guilds where there were rules, and that "casual" didn't mean no rules, that rules help people feel comfortable. Our guild rules are pretty anal, a pretty extensive set of rules, and there's a lot of participation by the guild members in working on these rules. I don't know how formal rules are in other guilds -- I haven't been in too many other guilds -- but discussing the rules and the governance of the guild seems to be a thing that a lot of our guild likes to spend time on. That's primarily where my focus is these days, making sure that the leadership and the guild rules aren't too out of sync with what's going on in the game.
15 Minutes of Fame: MIT Media Lab director Joichi Ito on WoW
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. Let's get Joichi Ito's professional credentials out of the way first. The 44-year-old Japanese venture capitalist is the incoming director of the avant-garde MIT Media Laboratory. A self-professed "informal learner" (he dropped out of college twice and never finished a degree) now shines as one of the stars of the digital age, serving on the board of directors for Creative Commons, Technorati, ICANN, and Mozilla, and catching the wave as an early-bird investor in Last.fm, Flickr, and Twitter. Currently a resident of Dubai (he moved there so he could get a better feel for the people and the region), he circumnavigates the globe a full two times every month in the course of his international pursuits. According to his Twitter stream, he's been scuba diving in Japan this week taking underwater radioactivity samples; after catching the bug to learn how to dive, he promptly became a master diver and now is a PADI open water instructor. He's the godson of psychedelic explorer Timothy Leary ... ... and a guild leader in World of Warcraft. "My feeling is that what we are doing in WoW represents in many ways the future of real time collaborative teams and leadership in an increasingly ad hoc, always-on, diversity intense and real-time environment," he wrote in his blog back in 2006. In fact, one of his presentations on WoW made it into an early incarnation of our Moviewatch feature in 2007. So yeah, we're going to talk about WoW ... Need anything else to cement his gaming cred? Two more tidbits: Ito's GMed a WoW raiding guild since the original days of Molten Core, and he owns an actual handwritten map drawn by Richard Bartle, creator of the first MUD -- it's like the Magna Carta of gaming.
15 Minutes of Fame: Vampire Empire novelist duo writes, games as one
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. Talking about Clay and Susan Griffith means talking about partnerships. Clay and Susan are husband and wife, WoW partners and co-GMs, and authors of The Greyfriar: Vampire Empire Book 1 -- "married in all things, for better or for worse," as they put it. Together, they've worked on comics and prose with such pop culture icons as The Tick, Kolchak the Night Stalker, The Phantom, Allan Quatermain, and Disney characters, too. "Granted, we are casual WoW players due to time constraints, but we both have level 85s," says Susan. "We enjoy questing and the lore of the game, as well as a fair amount of RPing. When time and fair winds permit, we even have a family raid group." What the Griffiths have learned from collaborating on the page, they say translates directly to playing WoW as a group: trust, respect, and distribution of power and roles. From the Vampire Empire to Azeroth? According to this couple -- absolutely.
