Posts with tag bloggers

Guardians of the Galaxy is out this weekend, a thrilling tale of a motley crew of unexpected allies who somehow manage to come together and save the galaxy from certain destruction. I saw it on Thursday night and thought it was hysterically awesome. It's the combination of unlikely characters that makes the film, really -- so when I was putting together this week's WRUP, I thought I'd throw out an unlikely bonus question: If you were going to assemble an unlikely crew from Azeroth's finest to save the world, who would you stick together?

I'm pretty sure Cro Threadstrong would have to be on my team, as well as Asric and Jadaar, Thisalee Crow, and Myra Tyrngaarde. Yes, the bread vendor from Ironforge. You just know she's hiding the secret ability to go ballistic. They'd totally defeat the Burning Legion. ... or at least they'd provide enough of a startling distraction for the other heroes to come in and take care of business.

And of course we ask, as we always do, what are you playing?

So there's this Warcraft movie that's getting made? And they showed off the logo and some props from it this week, and there's apparently going to be a big panel at SDCC where Legendary Pictures may or may not reveal some details about the movie. And so now I'm thinking about it, and I think we totally should make an MMO based on this Warcraft property, if the movie does well enough.

So this week, in addition to asking about what our friends are playing, I asked what they thought about this Warcraft movie and if it would make a good MMO.

This week saw a release date announcement for Curse of Naxxramas, the first adventure pack for Hearthstone. Release dates are fine and all that, but in more relevant WoW news, this week also saw the launch of a brand new beta build that opened up four new levels to obtain, two new PvE zones worth of quests, two model revamps, one PvP island, a mysterious portal, and a whole mess of new places to explore.

Robots. They're an awful lot better at many things than we puny humans. Of course, you would rightly argue that we humans have taught these robots everything they know, and you would be absolutely correct. Indeed, Lisa Poisso met the humans behind the robot last October for an interview! But those humans aren't me. I am not great at math -- I can't do the sums required to exactly calculate reforging or best-in-slot gear or how many hit gems I need to get to the cap.

And that's where Ask Mr. Robot comes in. What does he do? Well, he retrieves your character from the armory and inputs all the details into his remarkable computer system, then recommends reforging, regemming, enchanting and gear upgrades for your character! Mr. Robot recently had a substantial facelift and is hugely improved from his old version, now able to advise on far more elements of gear and offer more specific input according to spec. He even has PvP information!

Like many very clever people (and androids), Mr. Robot can appear a little intimidating to the new user. I know when I started availing myself of his services, it took me a fair while to wrap my head around it -- and that's where Hoofit over at More Cowbell comes in. His guide breaks down the Ask Mr. Robot experience into manageable steps, explaining all the sections of the interface to allow would-be users to get the most out of the site.

As More Cowbell says, if you haven't heard of Mr. Robot, you could be missing out on powerful improvements and upgrades for your character. The More Cowbell guide is a great place to start to see what that robot can do for you and how.

What's that image above? Why, that's a screenshot of Azshara before the goblins took over, taken for our massive series of Before the Shattering galleries we put together just before Cataclysm launched. It also happens to be the sixth image from the sixth subfolder in my images folder, which leads us to a meme started by Gnomeaggedon from the blog Armageddon's Coming -- a meme that has taken off with alarming speed.

The premise is simple: Head into your images folder, select the sixth subfolder, grab the sixth image in the folder, post the image, and select six bloggers to tag for the next part of the meme. Those people post their own sixth images, tag six more bloggers, and so on. Those of you who are skilled at math can already see where this is going.

About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles.

Our podcast brings the usual tricks and treats this afternoon -- before you head out in a costume to go get some real candy, be sure to stop by our Ustream page around 3:30pm Eastern and get some ear candy first. Turpster and I will welcome Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington and another WoW.com writer to chat about the most popular posts on the site this week. On the docket, we'll have the new patch 3.3 notes, hints at things to come, why pallies are up in arms (and why they don't have too much to worry about), and the new looting system and what disenchanters think of it.

And as usual we'll be reading your emails and chatting live with folks in the chat channel, as well as the usual preshow and aftershow (I've heard a lot of feedback about those lately -- people seem to like them). You can join us live on the Ustream page, in the embedded feed below the break, or even in the Ustream iPhone app, if you don't happen to be at home near a full computer. It all begins at 3:30pm Eastern this Halloween afternoon -- see you then!