I like
this post on the General forums about being "realm-famous" and how to get there.
World of Warcraft has a gigantic community around it, but sometimes my favorite part of the game is that there are all sorts of little micro-communities in that big one. There's the player base at large, and then groups of people who read
WoW.com or other sites. Then you've got the realm forums denizens, and that's a different group than the factions on either side of each realm in-game. And then you've got your guild, and then within that, your raiders and maybe even your friends list. We're all part of one big group -- we all play the game together -- but there are all sorts of little identities in all of these little micro-groups as well.
And people can become "famous" in these groups. It's tough for us at a macro level to cover all of that stuff, though I like trying to keep up with some of it in
our Guildwatch column (and the picture above shows what happens when someone can become "realm-famous," or realm-infamous as the case may be. What's your experience with realm-fame -- can you name people on your own server, or have you ever gotten "famous" for nabbing a realm first or earning a reputation?
Tags: breakfast-topic, communities, community, discussion, drama, fame, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, groups, guildwatch, micro-communities, realm-famous, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Filed under: Realm News, Guilds, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics, Forums
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Oct 8th 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 6)
Vagrant Oct 8th 2009 8:30AM
I'm not famous.. at all. I think all the famous people are people I see spamming a lot.
In a good way, by being chatty on the RP channel and in the bad ways, which I need not point out.
Recently gave Aion a try and god, already want to shoot one famous person in the face if I thought that would actually make him stop *grin*
The only fun real realm famous people are probably those with a strange cause like levelling naked ..
so i'm not realm famous
and if I do seem to become famous ... please gimme a tell and i'll stop chatting so much and get some clothes back on
jealouspirate Oct 8th 2009 8:30AM
LIke others are saying, usually the most 'famous' people are just active trollers of trade chat.
There is one rather famous tank on my server though. A warrior, probably the best geared/played tank on the server. He's totally a prick about it, saying things like "Don't worry, I'm the best tank this server has" whenever a new person joins the group... but he is good.
Spazmoose Oct 8th 2009 2:30PM
We had a hunter on our server that did something similar, but did it all the time in trade chat. Given, from my experience, he was a very talented (and well geared) hunter, but all of his spamming annoyed so many people that the account actually got banned (could have been his excessive trolling in trade too).
Note: Famous can lead to infamous can lead to banned :-)
Nix Oct 8th 2009 8:31AM
Anyone playing on Storrmrage-EU (H) knows about Vallupallu ... He leads PuGs and then gives loot to his guild members even if you roll higher.
He is a good player and all, but his ninjaing and big mouth always end in people hating him.
And there WAS also this guy, Unknownly, he was a 14-yr old always trying to act smart.
In fact, there is a little joke on the server ... When some1 starts acting annoyingly or childish on trade chat we ask them "Are you Unknownly/Vallupallu's alt?"
Ikea Oct 13th 2009 1:21PM
Oh yeah everyone knows him, my wife has spent many days just sat in a major city so she can read the Trade Channel spam it's highly amusing. Also worth a note about Stormrage with it being in the Top 5 highly populated servers you often find out breaking news in Trade Chat before anywhere else like for example when there was an earthquake in the UK near me or various famous deaths like micheal jackson.
Muse Oct 8th 2009 8:33AM
Everyone on my realm knows who the first gnome to hit level 80 was. Maybe not if you ask "do you know which gnome hit 80 first?" but if you say "nn was the first gnome to 80" they'll go "oh, him, I know that guy".
Moomoo Oct 8th 2009 8:40AM
Moonglade (EU).
I'm a Dreanei... might be a scarab lord too...
Well yes, I'm infamous for that alone. I've done more fame-provoking stuff though...
...ah what fun!
Jafari Oct 8th 2009 8:38AM
About two years ago, I switched jobs. I had about two months in between where I was not working, and (for obvious reasons) couldn't do anything that really costs money. So I played Alterac Valley. 16 hours a day. For two months.
It was the best vacation I've ever had, and after about two weeks, people on the battlegroup would /wave at me at the beginning of matches. Even more surprising, people started listening to me in /bg chat and we won a lot more often.
It's funny, because after I started the new job, I really didn't play that character anymore. Mage, name is Jafari, from the Vengance battlegroup, Burning Legion. I think he's level 77 or so now, still wearing his season 1 gear.
Kesh Oct 8th 2009 8:38AM
It's a shame when the only way to be famous is to be a complete arse. I'm certainly not aware of anyone on my server that's famous for being nice or having done something to earn it.
julian Oct 8th 2009 8:47AM
That's because the typical symptoms of insecurity are loudness, vulgarity combined with a need to put others down to feel superior for whatever short term. For an insecure person the possibilities to become famous for positive merits seems non existent. At the same time, they have to express their insecurity somehow. Therefore, to insecure people, it's easier to be infamous than unknown.
Zanathos Oct 8th 2009 2:45PM
it works outside the game too
JPN Oct 8th 2009 8:40AM
Seems like everyone has a comment but not too many names "Oh there was this one guy who ninja'd..."
I wouldn't expect anyone to really be "realm-famous" unless I see a bunch of people separately mention the same name. Just b/c someone is famous in your little world doesn't mean they're famous on the realm.
Plus I doubt "everyone" on a realm knows so-and-so, as it's been mentioned earlier.
impurezero Oct 8th 2009 9:53AM
Name names, you say?
On Bronzebeard there's a kid that went by the name of Msorangey and apparently recently changed it to Byte. I've never grouped with this person, so the only reason I know this is because they are in trade LFM for various raids on any given day. You can see him spamming for people for hours because it takes that long for him to fill a raid. This probably has something to do with all the people calling him out on being a ninja and an all-around terrible player.
Now, obviously you can't say "everyone" knows him, but lets not get into semantics. When some one like me knows this much about someone I've never had direct contact with (in other words, this isn't my own little world talking), it's hard to deny that some people really can be "realm famous."
Kal Oct 8th 2009 8:42AM
We've got someone on our server that's pretty well known, he's the guy you always see beating down others in duels, and then being a general dick on trade chat afterwards. That's the only person I know of on our server whose name is known by everyone 70 and up, and if that's what it takes to get your name realm-known, no thanks.
Druljin Oct 8th 2009 9:12AM
As for the horde side of the EU Argent Dawn - it is Bonemane.
He is almost a legend. A pvp-RP oriented player and many, many horde characters have black war bear thanks to him. He organise "lulz" raids for aliance cities, RP nights with fighting the aliance - the massive ocupation of the stormwind, when hundrets of horde players fighting for hours inside the aliance capital...
He makes the world PvP living in a mature way on non-pvp RP server and it is kind of great experience. Thank you Bone!
Rai Oct 8th 2009 10:10AM
Careful, we don't want the infamous Argent Dawn-EU Bonemane threads to start up again.
...not that they ever stopped.
Phun Oct 8th 2009 6:03PM
Bonemane's fairly famous Alliance side too. Apparently.
I remember a few weeks ago a bunch of Horde were summoning a raid into the cathedral and everyone in /general was 'KILL BONEMANE!!11'
decongle Oct 8th 2009 8:45AM
The best way to be famous is word of mouth. If your good at the game and in the role you play in raids, word spreads. There are people on my realm that you dont talk about every day, that dont troll, never cause drama in chat or otherwise, but when their name comes up, your hard put to find someone that does not know who they are, and if there are a few that dont, others let them know in quick order.
Manadar Oct 8th 2009 8:50AM
Well we got Mystafa on Magtheridon EU.
A alliance druid who runs around emoting /spit on all the hordies in Dalaran. Also groups up with 4 other members of the alliance to gang people every now and then. And then spit some more.
Some people love him, some hate him.
Jennie Oct 8th 2009 8:55AM
On Draenor US, Alliance side, there is this one guy named Magicevan (a human mage) that does nothing but organize PvP premades (Mostly Alterac Valley, with the occasional For The Alliance thrown in). He spams trade looking for people to join him while at the same time telling everyone how much they suck at PvP and how much he rules, despite having been pwned numerous times by half the server during duels. As a result, most of the Alliance side of the server hates him.
Another character in our trade chat is Armani, whose gimmick (as evidenced by his name) is that he's a tailor that sells overpriced shirts that do miraculous things to the person that bought them. His ads posted into trade chat are hilarious. "Bella felt unattractive for a long time, but ever since she bought an Armani shirt, vampires and werewolves are vying for her attention! Dreams DO come true with Armani!" is a (paraphrased) example.