Posts with tag community

This week's Warlords of Draenor alpha build includes a new NPCs named for WoW community members. A large number of them are members of the PvP community, but the list also includes individuals who are active on Twitter and other spheres of the community. Our own Sarah Pine, also known as Ilaniel, made the list with the NPC Ilaniel Pine. Congratulations, Sarah!

Wowhead datamined the community nods and you can find the full list on their site.

---

Good deeds are all well and good, but good people truly make the world go 'round. If you're recruiting for your guild, you couldn't do better than to find players like these. Good times with good people -- that's taking the random roll out of Random Acts of Uberness.

Caught being uber: Aret, Baelgun (US- Alliance) I'm leveling a Priest alt, Holygears, and I'm in Uldum. The area seems particularly busy perhaps because so many of us are trying to push alts to 90 (we have to use all that yummy Timeless Isle gear, don't we?).

My quest was The Bandit Warlord and required killing Warlord Ihsenn. While I'm flying there, I'm thinking I might have to wait awhile for a respawn because of how busy the area is. As the Warlord shows up on the horizon, I realize he's alive but already tagged. Bummer ... worst timing ever!

Just to help him go down faster, I start hitting the Warlord with Penance, Holy Fire, and a Smite. In the middle of whacking buttons, up pops a group invite. Since the Warlord is going down fast, I quickly accepted, the Warlord died, and I got credit. I typed "Thanks" in party chat and Aret of Baelgun replied with an abbreviated "No problem." Aret managed to invite me and Mesmerizze of Whisperwind before the Warlord died so we could all three get credit.

It's not a huge deal, but it turned a potential "sit and wait" depressing scenario into a "keep on going" moment. Thanks, Aret. -- Holygears, Alexstrasza (US-Alliance)

Crazy metagaming projects are among my favorite topics here at 15 Minutes of Fame. It's impossible not to catch the excitement of someone who's figured out a new way to spin Azeroth. Take for instance the curious case of Doubleagent , the "neutral" pandaren who's managed to make it to level 80 and still climbing without ever leaving the pandaren starting zone. In his case, staying put also means never having chosen a faction; Doubleagent is neither Horde nor Alliance but instead remains a neutral party. And the method to his madness? Flowers. Lots and lots of herbalism and flowers.

Ticking through level 83 when this article was posted, Doubleagent continues to drift through the gentle fields leading to level 90 and beyond -- because oh yes, this is one player who plans to take his leveling project all the way to the top in the coming expansion as well.

You know the new guild on the scene is making a impact on the community when other players offer it up as a solution to other players' woes. Take a look at this excerpt from the comments of a recent Drama Mamas column, wherein a player was unhappy with the way her new raid guild membership was unfolding:

janet.houck I think you need to leave your current team, do some research to find a good match, and move. Aerie Peak has the CTR uber guild, and we're sitting at over 90 raid teams. You can always find a team for you. If you can't, you can build it.

MarshallGlenn @janet.houck wth is CTR uber guild?

janet.houck @MarshallGlenn @janet.houck Convert to Raid, the podcast, has a greenwall'ed guild on Aerie Peak-US A. I think there's 8 sub-guilds at the moment. We tend to attract an older and more serious crowd, so for a 45-year old player, it might be a nice place to check out. :)

TaxmanCDN @janet.houck @MarshallGlenn All of my toons are in the CTR guild. Best guild I've ever been in. I'm on two raid teams, and on my off-nights if I feel like doing a flex there's always someone looking. Great community there, and I've found it to be a better class of raiders (in general) than on other realms.

Liopleurodon @MarshallGlenn @janet.houckConvert To Raid is a popular WoW podcast. They have a series of raiding guilds on Aerie Peak, because there's a cap to the number of people you can have in a guild. I was also under the impression that there were 'steps', like the more casual guild splinter vs the hardcore one to make it easier to find your niche but I'm not entirely sure about that. There are a few other mega/meta-guilds similar to this around, too.

MarshallGlenn @Liopleurodon @MarshallGlenn @janet.houck ahhh very cool. Edit

bluefer I had something like this problem and I transferred my toons to Aerie Peak and joined CTR. I suggest you roll an alt on Aerie Peak. AT L15 you can join CTR mega guild and find a ton of teams to choose from with good people and lots of raiders who treat each other pretty well. Best of luck.

While Bluefer sent our letter-writer off with a "best of luck," we don't suspect the Convert to Raid success story has anything to do with luck. We suspect it has everything to do with Pat Krane.

Why stop at one world boss when you can knock out a whole handful of them? It's easy with a little help from a fellow Hordie. No transportation? No problem!

Caught being uber: Kaza, Zul'jin (US-Horde) Why hello there! I'm Evianary, a level 84 Undead Mage, that's currently on Zul'jin. While on my mage the other day I found a World Boss group and thought why not do it on my mage to try and get prepared for level 90? Unfortunately, I cannot fly in Pandaria, and there were no Warlocks in my group!

I was in quite the pickle, till Kaza, an awesome troll hunter also from Zul'jin. She, or he, flew me to all the various bosses including Sha, Galleon, Oondasta, and Nalak! I even got some shiny epics that are currently waiting for me. I'd just like to really thank her/him for helping a fellow Hordie out! -- Evianary, Zul'jin (US-Horde)

What does World of Warcraft sound like from an entirely different cultural perspective? Jump to about 8:30 in the above video and listen to the last moments of this heroic boss kill -- the point at which terse expletives usually bristle from from even the most disciplined, well-oiled raiders, the whole thing followed by a deafening avalanche of shouts and cheers when the boss finally falls. Contrast those expectations with the understated pleasure here of CAVAG, a guild of Japanese players on Proudmoore (US-Horde), and you'll gain a sense of just one of the more outward cultural differences between this group and the typical American raiding guild.

Welcome to the world of #wowjp, a network of Japanese WoW players who've learned English primarily through playing the game. You can find localized versions of World of Warcraft in Korea, mainland China and Taiwan, but Japanese players are left to their own devices -- no dedicated servers, no language localization. To solve those challenges, Japanese players have banded together to create their own Japanese game guides, share addons and tips for typing in Japanese within the game, and form a network of Japanese-language guilds across several North American realms.

Bringing us this interview with two Japanese WoW players is the Sha of Happiness, herself a native Japanese speaker and a member of the #wowjp community. But before we begin, a simple and heartfelt message from the Japanese players:

The wowjp community wished to tell the readers/Blizzard: "Thank you for providing the Hippogryph Hatchling for the tsunami relief efforts. Thank you for all of your donations."

After a veritable hurricane of goodwill during the holidays, it's seemingly back to business as usual on the highways and byways of Azeroth -- except for these players who took something personally in all the right ways.

Caught being uber: Glasnost and Purix, Zul'jin (US-Horde) So I've been trying to tame Degu for weeks on end. I'm just not coordinated enough to do it on my own. So tonight, after my fourth or fifth death, an 88 mage, Purix on Zul'Jin, asked if I wanted some help taming him. We both died a bunch more times trying. So I started advertising for a tank. Oddly enough, I had a DK volunteer, Glasnost on Zul'Jin.

The three of us tried countless times, and the three of us died countless times. Finally, after the DK made the comment, "Alright, now this is personal," we tried a few more times with the three of us and died. Then the DK had the idea to have the mage not do anything, just to let him tank Degu alone. He took the beating until Degu was down under 20% and let himself die. I threw down the ice trap, Deterrence, and hit tame. I got him! I tried to pay both the folks who helped me and they wouldn't let me. I gave the mage all the cloth I had in my bags and the DK says, "Nah, just name him after me." So I did. -- Zentagia, Zul'jin (US-Horde)

Sometimes a letter from an appreciative fan is the best way to introduce a player to WoW Insider readers:

I'm writing in to nominate a wonderful man that I recently had the pleasure of working with. Known as Turwinkle on Twitter or Palmerbomber1 on YouTube, he comes from Moon Guard and has recently begun making rounds on Wyrmrest Accord, where he gets in touch with various guilds and interviews them about what they are, what their stories are, and advertises their members. He also has a series with his gnome Turwinkle where he records himself leveling through the game, narrating the adventures of his mage.

The exposure he's done for the Wyrmrest community is second to none, and I'd love to see him get the recognition he deserves. The two hours he spent with our guild was a blast for everyone involved, and I'm sure many of the others he's spoken with felt the same.

Introducing the gentle good humor of Turwinkle the gnome, star of the "let's play" Adventures of Turwinkle and host of Turwinkle Talks interviewing roleplay guilds across Azeroth.

Nobody ever protected me from the Fel Reaver when I was a mere young'un in Hellfire Peninsula ... /sniff

Caught being uber: Fireßugz, Ravencrest (US-Alliance) I'd like to send a shout-out to Fireßugz, level 85 dwarf shaman on Ravencrest-US(Alliance). There I was, minding my own business killing Crust Bursters in Hellfire Peninsula ... when the notorious horror of Hellfire appeared overhead! It was a Fel Reaver, of course, and despite popping a health potion and Darkflight, things looked grim ... until suddenly the Fel Reaver turned aside from me, distracted by a flame shock!

Fireßugz descended from the heavens, destroyed the Fel Reaver, and went on his way. I don't know what he was doing in Hellfire Peninsula, or what inspired him to stop to kill it, but it's truly appreciated. -- Carnassial, Ravencrest-US (Alliance)

There seems to be a common misconception flying around in regards to Warlords of Draenor. Yes, you will be able to boost one character to level 90 upon purchase of the game -- in fact, as it was revealed yesterday, upon pre-order of the game. Yes, Blizzard will be offering this service as an optional purchase in the Blizzard store as well. But what people seem to be worried about is that this is a "pay-to-win" feature that is very quickly going to kill the game.

Which is a really odd assessment to make. There is no real "winning" in World of Warcraft, unless you want to count sweeping a PvP season, or maybe being the first to complete all heroic modes of every raid in the current expansion. The thought of "winning the game" is an arbitrary, muddy label that doesn't actually apply to anything in Warcraft -- it's not a game designed with a finite endpoint or a finish line you can cross.

Let's be clear, here -- level 90 boosts may not be for you. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be available, and it definitely doesn't mean they're going to kill the game.

The author of this week's first Random Acts of Uberness letter reports hearing rumblings in trade chat as he was busily receiving Recruit-A-Friend levels. What happens when you attract the attention of townies when you're insta-leveling in public?

Caught being uber: Axtin, Stormreaver (US-Alliance) I was in Stormwind receiving free levels from 23 to 85 from the RAF benefit. Some people were commenting about it, and when I hit 85, I mentioned that I needed to get some gear, now. I was just going to go to the adventuring supplies vendor and buy everything I needed, when Axtin told me to hold on.

He came back a few minutes later and gave me a complete set of plate gear, rings, and weapon for my newly minted 85 warrior. I tried to pay him for it, but he refused. By far one of the coolest experiences I've had. Saved me a huge amount of gold buying all the vendor gear. -- Eriine, Stormreaver (US-Alliance)

That one holiday achievement you can never seem to check off, no matter how many years you persist? With the help of a random act of uberness, consider it done!

Caught being uber: Aliviani, Kilrogg (US-Alliance) I've been unable to complete the achievement Crashin' and Thrashin' for five years. My guild tends to scatter for the last half of December in order to enjoy the holidays, and I've had the darnedest luck getting people to crash my little toy car into. I had 4 crashes leading into the holiday this year. Well, that all changed!

Thanks to cross realm zones I headed over to Ironforge and asked for help. Aliviani, a druid from the Kilrogg server kindly offered to group up with me and summoned her own racer as many time as necessary until I had gotten the achievement. She already had the achievement, and wanted nothing in return! She has no idea how much I appreciate the kind gesture. Now that one achievement no longer haunts me! -- Celna, Silvermoon (US-Alliance)

The flood of holiday happiness continues this week with a record number of Random Acts of Uberness reported across Azeroth. This week, we start off with a note that turns the tables on the player who reported the lead story in last week's Random Acts, proving that when players reach out to build community, everybody wins.

Caught being uber: Kazekana, Hyjal (US-Horde) Well, during the Winter Festival, Mistsofjade and myself (Lucidluna) passed out free cookies, milk and ports to everyone who came up to us, then Christmas Eve night we handed out Fortune cards! We got tons of heartfelt sweet messages from people as well as thank yous and even a few gifts from players, but Misty and I both were SHOCKED to find out that we were on WoW insiders! We received a whisper while in LFR about it and tons of congratulations from the servers players.

Misty and I both really wanted to thank Kazehana from Hyjal for submitting us. Misty is actually my mom and we both were having a very less than fantastic Christmas this year, and that really meant allot to us both. It was really great of them to do that for us and they have no idea how much it lifted our spirits and made our Christmas! Thank you Kazehana for making our Christmas 100x better! -- Lucidluna and Mistsofjade, Hyjal (US-Horde)

'Tis the season to be uber, as demonstrated by this bursting-at-the-seams gift bag of Random Acts of Winter Veil Uberness.

Caught being uber: Mistsofjade, Lucidluna, and Taise, Hyjal (US-Horde) These ladies are handing out free cookies and milk to everyone on my server. The mage (Lucidluna) is also handing out free ports. They are dressed for the season as well. They are super nice. I also attached a screenshot of them handing stuff out under the tree in Org. I think they deserve the love and kindness they are giving this holiday season. -- Kazehana, Hyjal (US-Horde)

Apparently, the secret is getting out: It's building good times with other players that positions World of Warcraft at its most enjoyable. This principle helps explain why you'll find so many old timers not inside raid instances but spending entire evenings somewhere like the Amphitheater of Anguish helping other players.

This week's Good Samaritan was spotted on the Timeless Isle.

Caught being uber: Jakrer, Malfurion (US-Horde) Jakrer was using the new Raid Queue system to find those who needed Celestials, and he probably sat there all night doing it. I have a stack of alts, simply listing my name, earned an invite, the boss dropped fast, he remained with those who were left, invited more people from the Raid Que system, they downed it, and then he kept inviting more and more.

Easily a great help for us Altaholics out there. He probably made sure a lot of people got their legendary cloak as well. -- Anonymous, Malfurion (US)