15 Minutes of Fame: In search of fascinating players
by Lisa Poisso 
Dec 1st 2010 at 9:00AM
We're looking for fascinating people! 15 Minutes of Fame is on the lookout for people who've managed to work WoW into or around their lives or play the game in new and interesting ways. Know someone who fits the bill? Is there a type of player you'd like to hear more about? Tell us!
I know this guy ... Know someone exceptional? It could be someone who plays the game in an interesting way or has achieved remarkable goals in game, or it could be someone who does something interesting outside of the game and manages to bring those ideas and perspectives to the game. Maybe you don't know this player personally, but you know about their accomplishments in game or out and are curious to learn more about their approach to World of Warcraft. Tip us off -- maybe we'll feature your nominee! Tell us in one paragraph what makes your nominee a remarkable WoW player. (We've met a lot of inspirational guild leaders in our time; if you're going to nominate a GM, give us specific examples of what makes this leader stand out from so many others.) Send us your tips, including a way or at least an idea of how to reach your nominee, to lisa@wowinsider.com.
Looking for members Is your guild planning to hit Cataclysm content completely blind -- no spoilers, no strats, no foreknowledge of what's to come? We want to hear from you! But wait -- blind raiders are far from the only players we're searching for. We're looking for a whole host of different types of players for a possible turn in the 15 Minutes of Fame spotlight. Hit the jump to find out if you might know (or be!) any of the players we're currently seeking.
Tell us about these people!
15 Minutes of Fame is searching for players who bring fresh ideas and energy to World of Warcraft. Do you know anyone who fits these profiles?
- The blind raider No, we're not talking about visually impaired players. Is your guild heading into Cataclysm completely blind -- no spoilers, no strats, no foreknowledge of what's to come?
- The home decorator Some people just can't help showing their Horde, Alliance or overall Azerothian pride. Do you know someone whose home bears makes more than passing reference to Azeroth?
- The straight A student WoW players are notorious for letting their grades slip. Are you a high school raider whose GPA is as impressive as your GearScore?
- The charitable type We've all heard of Child's Play, the gaming industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games. Do you know anyone who's come up with another way to use WoW to raise funds for a charitable cause?
- The kiting king We know they're out there -- players who see every new NPC as an opportunity in kiting. Tell us about your most impressive feats of kiting!
- The student of WoW We know that WoW's made it into college and even high school curricula -- but all we've heard so far is the teacher's side. Psst, students -- gotta log out and go to your WoW class now? Tell us more!
- The success story Are you an artist, blogger, designer, modder or other WoW hobbyist whose WoW-centric projects have helped catapult you into your chosen profession?
- The old hand We're looking for an A-team raider who's 60+ years old and still doing hard modes with the best of them.
- The guild "mom" You know this player: the gal (or guy) who keeps everyone's morale high and keeps things behind the scenes humming along.
- The battle-scarred veteran Who taught you the ropes in the arena? We want to talk to your battle-hardened mentor.
- The counselor Any counselors or mental health professionals out there who use WoW and/or gaming as an explorative or therapeutic tool?
- The level 80 collector How many level 80s is enough? Is there such a thing as too many 80s? How many do you have?
- The face of WoW past We've all heard about retro raiders who freeze their levels to play in legacy content. What about players who never purchased any of the expansions at all?
- The AH PVPer The frenzy of the trading floor is where it's at for you. Are you an auction house wheeler and dealer?
Who else in the World of Warcraft do you know who's interesting? What are your friends doing that make World of Warcraft a remarkable place to play? Tell us!
Whether you're nominating yourself or someone else, please include concrete details that let me know why this player is simply exceptional; direct contact info is a plus. You can reach me at lisa@wowinsider.com. I'm looking forward to sharing all these intriguing personalities with everyone!
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with these players, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Aron "Nog" Eisenberg to an Olympic medalist and a quadriplegic raider. Know someone else we should feature? Email lisa@wow.com.Filed under: 15 Minutes of Fame
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
orkerikke Dec 1st 2010 9:29AM
A visually impaired raider would be far more impressive, i'd read that story.
Boz Dec 1st 2010 9:55AM
Ask and thou shalt receive:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/07/06/visually-impaired-players-the-unseen-inhabitants-of-azeroth/
There are also a number of links within that document to stories about impaired players of various types, each one entertaining, impressive, inspiring, or all of the above.
Rakah Dec 1st 2010 9:19PM
There was a huge topic on the EU forums about a completley BLIND kingslayer. think his name was hexxu
Kyther Dec 1st 2010 9:33AM
I had a guild mate who would run anyone through anything he could, be it dungeon, quest chain, or from level 40-50. He would craft using his own mats and then absolutely refuse tips, and he would randomly give out gold to those he thought were in need.
The most benevolent and charitable man in WoW: Loverich on Quel'Dorei
threesixteen Dec 1st 2010 11:30AM
yay quel'dorei!
nymrohd Dec 1st 2010 10:10AM
Is it rare to have good students that play WoW?
ambermist Dec 1st 2010 10:24AM
Been in Trade chat lately? Or a PuG? If the intelligence level of many of these players is average, then I'd say it's a freakin' Feat of Strength.
JiBJUB Dec 1st 2010 11:31AM
I graduated cum laude, was the editor of my school's literary magazine, wrote a regular column for the newspaper, and also played on the college baseball team.
Oh...and I didn't play WoW until I was out of college or none of the above would have happened ;)
Erania Dec 1st 2010 12:04PM
Agree's with above commenter.
I personally am a college student who graduated high school early and am currently juggling 19 credit hour work load (Pre-Med), 20 hours of Clinic Hours a week, and a 4 hour long, 4 night a week Heroic-Mode ICC raiding schedule as a healer. I have personally met no one like me in-game. I am lucky if half the people I know are out of high school and/or are not on some form of narcotics. WoW is really not the place to find exceptionally intelligent people. And it is very sad to admit it.
lisapoisso Dec 1st 2010 12:48PM
Really, it's not all that rare as people would make it out to be -- but 15 Minutes is not only about remarkably different players. We are just as interested in talking to people who manage to balance the game with their lives in an enjoyable and successful way, and students certainly represent a large population of WoW players. If you think you or someone you know fits the bill, please contact me by email.
Byron Dec 1st 2010 1:28PM
High-end, theorycrafting raiders would be among the best places to look for such people.
The ones who actually reverse engineer how all the stat formulas work are pretty smart and scientific-minded:
hypothesize -> dummy test -> pass? raid test | start over -> pass raid tests? work out the formula | start over -> repeat as necessary.
It's a lot of meticulous, painstaking work for a videogame, and sometimes I imagine these people are chemistry lab researchers or something similar irl.
Kuala Dec 1st 2010 7:58PM
I played while doing my english degree and now I'm a magazine editor who still plays every evening. It's somewhere where I can relax and use as much bad grammer as I like! >:D
BoringCommenter Dec 1st 2010 10:20AM
Ta-Nahisi Coates, who is presently blogging for the Atlantic, and is just a knock-down gorgeous writer who posts about WoW occasionally.
Nagaina Dec 1st 2010 1:16PM
I just learned today that the liberal/progressive blog collective Daily Kos has a Horde-side guild on Garrosh US, Wreck List. And John Cole of Balloon Juice plays there, as well.
....I admit, upon learning this, I decided my now-inevitable goblin hunter hit the outs with Gallywix because she's a *socialist revolutionary* who advocates for fair wages, cartel-financed health care, collective bargaining, and safe working conditions for the kaja mine workers. While, y'know, being heavily armed and prone to solving problems with high explosives. She *is* a goblin, after all.
threesixteen Dec 1st 2010 10:55AM
not sure if this is uber enough, but a few years ago my old guild Victims of UC Elevator on Quel'Dorei kited the ungoro devilsaur to crossroads. It was super fun. here's proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-tEj-TnziY
Zindevar Dec 1st 2010 11:10AM
Markco of JMTC fame, the guy is an absolute legend in PVP both in Battlegrounds & the Auction House.
He inspired me to become more active in that side of the game and countless others as can be seen by the number of followers on his blog.
It would be nice to see him get more widespread recognition for his efforts.
Onyx Tanuki Dec 1st 2010 11:22AM
I'm fairly sure I'm not the first to do this, and even if I was, it'd be nearly impossible to tell, especially once Burning Crusade content is open to me, but even so, please allow me to tell the harrowing tale of Eyebrows of Eitrigg.
You see, my little fledgling blood elf huntress had just hit her tenth level, and was enjoying her newfound ability to tame the beasts of Azeroth. She tamed a lynx. She ventured to the lands of the undead to capture a bloodhound and a zombified bear, and even traveled to far-off Durotar for a crocolisk. But she wanted more. She turned her glowing green eyes to my screen and pleaded to me, "Creator, please, guide me to a moth!"
"Sweetie, there are many moths in Outland, you can wait until-"
But the naive blonde, who had heard tales of the fluttering insects in the lands the draenei had claimed as their home, stomped her tiny foot in protest. "But I want it NOW!" In retrospect, I should have named her Veruca Salt. In the end, I buckled, remembering how I long ago guided a troll on the same quest and had procured a moth for him in the span of an hour and a half. Problem was, this was not the same world. This was now a world made in Deathwing's image.
Fool that I was, I initially guided her on the same path as the one before her, surveying the new landscape of Ashenvale and marveling at the destruction of Darkshore. She witnessed the corpse of the Old God of Master's Glaive, and even discovered a mysterious figure sitting in the center of the vortex. And while both sights were shocks to both of us, they weren't our goal. We sought passage to Azuremyst isle.
But lo! Auberdine was now crumbled to the shore, its ruins infested with elementals, and the new village to the north had no harbor to speak of! And while she was a strong swimmer, Eyebrows was a slow one; if she so chose to brave the depths of the ocean and paddle her way toward Teldrassil where the new port to Exodar lie, she would surely die of exhaustion halfway there. We had but one option.
Stormwind.
And so we began the long jog south from Lordaeron, meeting a lonely rotting bear who shared our desire to reach the shores of Bloodmyst, though his reasoning was entirely different, and he and Eyebrows had little love for one another. And yet they still bonded, if only briefly, and he bravely defended her from marauding worgen and raptors as she ran through Silverpine, through Hillsbrad, through Arathi, and well into the Wetlands.
I wouldn't let my previous foolishness repeat itself. I knew that if I continued along the footpath, I'd end up in Dun Morough, where my tiny little hunter would have no means of getting to Stormwind. But as I pondered our next course, the sky turned dark, blood fell from the clouds, and Eyebrows only had time to gaze skyward and see a flash of deteriorating black dragon scales and thick iron armor before she - and everything else in the Wetlands - was burnt to a crisp by the very beast who'd made this journey for a moth so much harder for her: Deathwing.
This wasn't her first corpse run, but it was the most meaningful. Surveying the surroundings that had been set ablaze made me think that perhaps the monstrous dragon was trying to ward me away from my moth. Or perhaps he was testing Eyebrows, and this blaze was to be the purifying fire that would deem her worthy to tame such a beast. I suggested that Deathwing had just eaten too much chili and figured nobody would care that he farted over Wetlands if it killed everything in his path anyway, but Eyebrows was too stubborn to believe that. Whatever the case, it made her trek toward Menethil Bay easier. Most of the sharks had died in the boiling waters.
Most, but not all, and as she swam, she found those near the south had proven resilient, and were hungry. She ran, died to their vicious attacks, ran toward her mangled corpse, and managed to swim a few more feet before succumbing again. And again. And again. But though her flesh was weak, her resolve was tempered harder than dwarven steel. Her mule-like stubbornness was a boon, and pushed her to suffer repeated maulings on her way to the shore, only to suffer further assault by the local Bluegill Murlocs. But even they couldn't stop her from her mission for a moth.
Once out of the Bluegill territories, she found herself swimming along the shoreline, her only company being the rotting bear and the few straggling sharks, and soon enough, even the dangerous fish stopped appearing along the coast. For the longest time, she swam alone, circling around the massive mountainous region of Dun Morough. She did manage to find a lonely, decrepit hut in a tiny pocket of the shoreline, but lacking a way to get to it, resolved to visit it later. Perhaps it could even be "her" spot, where she could gather all of her friends later and tell her harrowing tale, her moth sitting in her lap contentedly eating moldy bits of bread. But right now, that moth was but a dream, a fantasy, a lure on the ground that was pulled away the closer she got, but a lure she dutifully followed, knowing that the arm pulling it from her would eventually tire.
From this point, the tale relates her in two positions; the location of her spirit, and the location of her corpse. She eventually made it to Stormwind Harbor, sank beneath the water, and allowed herself to drown that she might reclaim a new body from the gods on the top of its mast. The Night Elves guarding the ship had other ideas, and twice shot her down, leaving her body to rot on the ship's hull like a twisted maidenhead. But as she prepared to run to the ship a second time, a miracle occured; as the boat entered Teldrassil's waters, he body and ghost were somehow reunited by the powers that be, and she gained passage to that faraway land. The moth was within her grasp. The one pulling her lure was tiring faster than she was, and she could now get her fingers within inches of it before it was slowly dragged from her.
As the boat pulled into harbor, the locals, predicatably, shot her down once more and dumped her into the water. And where did her spirit find itself when released from her newest corpse? Darkshore. Hated Darkshore. But where she previously would have had to swim to Teldrassil, she now would be able to run across the waters. Her first attempt ended in the strange discovery that even ghosts can die of exhaustion, but the coast was within reach, and now that her corpse was slowly floating nearer and nearer to it, her resolve was stronger than ever, and after another few tries, she finally managed to reach the harbor without her spirit losing its energy. It would be one more corpse run as she'd need to drown herself by the Exodar ship, but now that she knew she could, it was now within her power to grab that lure that was being dragged along her feet. All she needed was to bend down and pluck it up.
She rezzed in the crow's nest of the ship to Exodar, and with the ship's crew lacking bows and guns and with the hunter too far for its magic-users to see, she was safe all the way to Bloodmyst Isle. She encountered a dwarven shaman on the way north he gazed at her, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps in confusion. After all, a non-hostile blood elf is a rare sight in that region. I'd like to think she knew what was going on, and was informing the nearby allies that there was another stinking Hordie trying to get a moth, but she couldn't have known the ordeals Eyebrows had gone through to this end. She called upon the bear, where his mission was made clear: to avenge his own death by killing the brown bears in the clan that had betrayed them. They parted ways, and as a young draenei priest looked on in the same way the dwarven shaman had earlier, she tamed her long-sought prize, and only took a moment to ponder capturing a ravager as well before deciding she was satisfied and Hearthing the hell out of there.
Home. The charred, waterlogged, battlescarred, wiser Eyebrows rested, feeding freshly baked bread to her new azure-shaded acquisition that she hadn't the patience to wait fifty levels to claim. She named it appropriately, targeted it, and typed an emote that told the world not only her feelings for her new pet, but also a single phrase that summed up everything she'd went through with bordelrine comedic accuracy that would be lost on anyone who hadn't gone through it themselves. It displayed itself in orange for all to see...
"Eyebrows loves Trouble."
She sure as hell does.
Deevan Dec 1st 2010 12:51PM
Simpsons did it.
dannyleitner Dec 1st 2010 11:50AM
Well i must recognize my own mother here. Yes the Guild "Mom". She is the one who organizes all of the fun Rp events and help things to move along smoothly. She keeps players in line and keeps them up on their Knight duties and trainings. You can be sure to talk to Fushianelph if there is an issue between players. But she doesn't get recognized for what she does. She does all of this work and not even the guild leader or second in command even turn the other cheek to thank her. Imo - She IS the guild leader and needs to be praised for her hard work.
rufwork Dec 1st 2010 2:45PM
Does anyone remember Triviawizard on Proudmoore? He was a level one gnome that'd ask trivia questions -- I saw him in IF -- and give 25g to the first correct answer. Pretty cool for a PC to create some fun for the rest of us.
I blogged about him quickly here, where he's asking, "How many U.S. States are named after a president?" I know, pretty cool, right?
http://panzerkin.blogspot.com/2008/05/triviagnome-is-for-real.html
So an APB on Triviawizard... last seen, May 10th, 2008, location Ironforge. Wearing a purple coat and a pink beard. Not currently locateable on the Armory.
Any help? TIA!