WoW Crossword: January 13th, 2009

Some of you may remember that some months ago, we tried out these WoW Crosswords on Sunday mornings to go along with Sunday Morning Funnies, to give your lazy-day a slight newspaper feel. Open up the blog, read your comics, fill out the crossword, and then read the stories. Really, though, what WoW player does that on a Sunday? If you're at home, you're probably killing boars or whatever and not trying to fill in some blanks. Tuesday is more likely the WoW player's Sunday, isn't it? Kind of a slow day, you catch up on the news, you don't have to worry about tending to the crops, so you find other entertainment, right? So let's try this crossword thing again, but with feeling.
Here's how this works: Below the cut will be your hints/questions. There is only one correct answer for each blank. Some answers are two words, and if that's the case, leave the space out of your answer. Pretend the space between them does not exist. Most of those ones are obvious, and usually marked.
All of the questions are related to WoW, WoW Insider, or the greater community around the MMO, such as machinima, fan content, or simply related nerdity. For example, one day you may run into a question in which the answer is Kevin Werbach. He plays WoW and has been mentioned on our site, so he is fair game. You will not, however, get a question like "What is Batman's true identity" because as far as I know, that has nothing to do with what we do, unless Bruce Wayne is the next Lich King. If that becomes the case, we're just screwed then, aren't we?
Here's how this works: Below the cut will be your hints/questions. There is only one correct answer for each blank. Some answers are two words, and if that's the case, leave the space out of your answer. Pretend the space between them does not exist. Most of those ones are obvious, and usually marked.
All of the questions are related to WoW, WoW Insider, or the greater community around the MMO, such as machinima, fan content, or simply related nerdity. For example, one day you may run into a question in which the answer is Kevin Werbach. He plays WoW and has been mentioned on our site, so he is fair game. You will not, however, get a question like "What is Batman's true identity" because as far as I know, that has nothing to do with what we do, unless Bruce Wayne is the next Lich King. If that becomes the case, we're just screwed then, aren't we?

You can see a bigger (easier to read) version of this (and every) week's puzzle in the WoW Crossword gallery. I'll be posting the answers next week Tuesday when the next WoW Crossword is posted. If you get stuck on something, ask in the comments! I wish we had a chat channel to offer, but unfortunately, we don't. However, if you guys really want to use one to help eachother out, there's always the WoW Insider Show's Ustream page. Even when we're not broadcasting, the chat channel works!
I'll go ahead and list my own criticisms of today's crossword, just to get the ball rolling. I made it, but it could certainly be better!
PS: I'm aware that the formatting of this crossword is not a 'true' crossword. It's not the kind you would see in print, like a newspaper. It's asymmetrical, and it's kind of bare in comparison to a print crossword. Cry more! If you think I can come up with a symmetrical crossword about WoW every week, you're nuts.
- I could be more consistent with the formatting in the hints. I put the phrase 'two words' on there two different ways, and I completely forgot it for 14 Down, which is, indeed, two words. Sorry! I didn't notice that stuff until the crossword had been put together, so I take a vow to suck less at it from this point forward!
- I should have made a more printer friendly version. I'm sure a lot of you would prefer to have this thing in front of you to pen in your answers, rather than doing it from memory on your monitor. All that black is going to suck up more ink than it really needs to, I should've left the filler white.
- Too easy, maybe? Of course, I made the thing, so naturally I know the answers. Still, seems like it's all stuff that's way too easy to look up. Maybe I should've gone a little more obscure on some of them. Do you guys agree?
- It was my first time using Crossword Weaver, so there are probably more bells and whistles in there I can use to make this thing cleaner and more interesting.
- Holy crap that was a lot of words for a crossword post. Shut up already, Alex!
PS: I'm aware that the formatting of this crossword is not a 'true' crossword. It's not the kind you would see in print, like a newspaper. It's asymmetrical, and it's kind of bare in comparison to a print crossword. Cry more! If you think I can come up with a symmetrical crossword about WoW every week, you're nuts.
Filed under: Fan stuff, WoW Crossword






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shiggy Jan 13th 2009 9:14AM
Great, I love crosswords and the idea of getting to do these each week is just awesome. I hope you continue to make these. I would like to see more of just WoW the game clues, maybe a crossword on just in game stuff. Great stuff and loads of fun!
Sam Jan 13th 2009 9:24AM
Without starting the crossword, I have to say it looks pretty poorly made. The lack of symmetry is fine, but there's big gaps and the whole thing is one branching tree? Not a single cycle? It looks like it was thrown together pretty casually. I'd be surprised if designing the crossword took more time than writing-up the rules.
And "Still, seems like it's all stuff that's way too easy to look up. "?! If I wanted to look-up the answers, I should probably just wait till next Tuesday. Is this just a google scavenger hunt? :(
Alex Ziebart Jan 13th 2009 9:32AM
Well, to fill in that space, it's just a matter of asking more questions. If you go to 30, 40, however many questions, it starts getting more filled in and takes on a more complex appearance because there are more opportunities for shared letters. It won't necessarily be harder, but it'll certainly look more 'filled in.'
I can definitely add more questions next time, if that's a common critique/complaint. Not a problem at all.
As far as it being a 'google scavenger hunt,' what I meant by "too easy to look up" is... It's WoW, pretty much everything is going to be REALLY well documented unless I start throwing in numbers, and do you want a crossword puzzle with numbers? Prooobably not. That'd be less fun than being able to go to wowwiki.com and plug in "Thrall" to find his mother, IMO.
I certainly don't INTEND for you to go looking things up to complete it, not at all. That's lame! I just mean that if someone decided to do that, they'd finish the thing in about 2-3 minutes.
Thanks for the feedback, Sam! Even if we have some crossed lines there, I'm definitely keeping what you say in mind. : ) Thank you so much!
Reddarin Jan 13th 2009 9:41AM
Lighten up dude.
Tell ya what...you don't like it...don't do it. Of course, you could make one yourself and send it in. You are obviously the world's #1 expert on crossword puzzle design... I am sure they would appreciate the input.
Have a great day.
Marc Jan 13th 2009 9:34AM
Any way you can make the crossword directly accept entry into the boxes and then accept answers and display results? I sure as hell am not going to print it out.
Alex Ziebart Jan 13th 2009 9:37AM
It's definitely /possible/ that I could do it in Flash, but I have no idea how to use it, and I don't know of anything that'd like me make a Flash-based crossword puzzle myself that's easy to use. So at the moment, I'm pretty incapable of doing it, but maybe sometime in the future!
If you have any suggestions as to what I could use to do that, I'd love to hear it. I'll keep an eye out myself as well. That'd make this a whole lot easier for everyone, but this is all we have for now. Sorry!
Marc Jan 13th 2009 10:06AM
No need to apologise! I appreciate the effort you put into this. It just is somewhat inconvenient for people like me without (access to) a printer. I looked around a bit but I couldn't find a crossword creator that outputs to a web based crossword. I'm sure that such a thing exists and I hope other readers will point it out.
Babyblizz Jan 13th 2009 9:34AM
This is awesome! Would be great to have it every week, but next time, please in a more printer friendly version!
Azhariel Jan 13th 2009 10:11AM
Oh, that's great! And I'd like to see something like this every tuesday, I totally agree that it's the slowest of weekdays.
Dez Jan 13th 2009 10:18AM
Would be nice to have a set of more cryptic clues, the set here is just a bit too easy to be worthwhile. And the clues need a letter count after them (so the clue for "Illidan the Betrayer" has (7-3-8) at the end).
And iterating what someone said earlier, small symmetric grid would be better than a large grid with loads of black spaces, though the former takes a good deal more thought. An if-you-have-the-time-for-it idea really.
Armath Jan 13th 2009 12:18PM
The usual convention for multi-word answers is to put the number of words after the clue and let the solver figure out the letters. They don't even bother with hints like that in more rigorous crosswords.
I agree with the other posters about wanting the puzzles to be more printer-friendly. It's a small puzzle, so it should be able to go on a single sheet (8.5 x 11 or A4) without much trouble.
Emrys Jan 13th 2009 10:20AM
These are awesome. I would like a printer-friendly version though. :-)
Jason Jan 13th 2009 11:37AM
I'd have to agree. I tried to print the last one out and had a hard time making out the clues etc. The numbers and clues were hard to read on the screen and were worse when I printed them. a high-quality, printer friendly version of the puzzle would be awesome.
Nick Jan 13th 2009 10:38AM
Lich Batman will be the end of us all.
nbcaffeine Jan 13th 2009 11:00AM
Crosswords aren't my thing, but I love this idea. From a quick google search, http://www.eclipsecrossword.com has a pretty cool looking tool. Here is one they claim uses that tool: http://www.freeinternetpuzzle.com/
I like that, able to be completed in the web page. Maybe it would make your puzzle symmetric for you. Worth a try since it looks free.
No, I'm not affiliated with either of those places, just the first google result for "Interactive crossword puzzle generator"
Laynne Jan 13th 2009 11:31AM
I'm glad the crossword is back :)
The biggest issue I've always had with the crosswords is that they're not very printer friendly. I would also love to see more directly wow related questions (in game, lore/history, etc.). Good idea moving it to Tuesdays; I personally am much more likely to do this during the week.
Adél Jan 13th 2009 12:16PM
This is a great idea!!! Gives us something to do while they play around with updates and whatnot. I know it'll help keep me from pressing F5 a million times on the realm status page, over at blizzard. So gratz. And zomg, I think Lich Batman would be hawt! *drools*
Rob Jan 13th 2009 12:21PM
Fun idea, but I only knew two answers off-hand. So...maybe too hard without googling stuff (which ruins the fun imo).
Tatiyanna Jan 13th 2009 12:53PM
I just d/led that tool and tried it out!
That would I think work perfect for this!!
Jared Jan 13th 2009 12:56PM
Just an idea... Have a theme to the puzzle. Maybe have the puzzle Q&A's all be related to a dungeon (Deadmines), or a Zone (Wetlands), maybe to a specific character (Arthus), etc. You could even have Q&A's which make us go into the game and find the answer... "The name of the flower vendor in Redridge"... something like that.