Posts with tag real-life

A bunch of blogs have come up with this interesting discussion lately, with Saresa over at Twisted Nether collating all the posts on the topic. It's a pretty good question and some World of Warcraft bloggers have taken it upon themselves to answer the question -- we've got someone who wants to be a Mage; another who thinks she'd be a Warlock; while this lady believes she fits Paladins best; and finally one lady who actually wants to be a bear. We thought this was a clever idea and decided to share it with you for this morning. It might kick off a post for your own blogs, as well.

The cool thing is, I think that a lot of people fit into certain class archetypes, even without any of the abilities or spells. A priest at church would quite obviously be a Priest, while athlete fighters would probably be Warriors. Your uncle who goes off deer hunting in the Fall just might be a Marksmanship Hunter. With or without class skills and abilities, I'm sure we all have a class we sort of identify with, or whose powers we wished we possessed. You can even think of it as the WoW player's version of HEROES, choosing a class because of their powers.

Myself, I'd probably stick by the Paladin. Being able to cure diseases and heal the sick would be a great thing, while still being able to lay the smackdown on baddies. Of course, when things get hairy, I'd love to be able to put up an invincible force field and... go home. How about you? You can use this Shared Topic to write your own blog post, but at the same time we'd love to hear your ideas on which class you'd be in real life.

Aurdon over at I Sheep Things spotted this great collection of comparisons between real-life environs and the in-game places that they inspired. Not all of the comparisons are pitch-perfect, obviously (there are no Nagrand-esque floating islands in the real world, and the Crystalsong Forest picture shows trees covered in ice rather than the mystical wood that grows in-game), but lots of the pictures are really dead-on, and they show you really well how Blizzard uses a kind of hyper-realized version of Earth to create what seems like a very real Azeroth.

We've posted before how the architecture of WoW mirrors real-world places and culture, but even the natural world of Azeroth uses lots of Earth's real-life elements. And it would be cool to know where these pictures actually come from -- some of them are recognizable (obviously, Stranglethorn Vale is based on parts of the Amazon, and The Barrens represents Africa's savannahs), but even Icecrown and Zangarmarsh are represented (in slightly less mythical form) on Earth. It would be interesting to know exactly where.

A little while after BigRedKitty closed shop on his blog last week, there was another post from TJ on there asking for help with a "secret project" (that lots of you let us know about -- thanks!). And now, the secret has been revealed: a few of BRK's fans have put together a goodbye video for the knowledgeable Hunter with the big red cat, and you can watch the whole thing above.

Very touching, and very cool to see a community come together to thank someone who's done a lot for them. BRK also reported on his blog this week that he hasn't left Warcraft for good, but it does sound like the choice to focus on his real life and family rather than what happens in Azeroth was an excellent one. We've also heard, through the grapevine, that Blizzard may be honoring BRK in their own way in the future, much like they did with Phaelia of Resto4Life. We'll keep an eye out for nay Big Red items we may come across.

Well that'll teach us to assume -- earlier this week when mentioning the upcoming Noblegarden holiday, we pointed out that considering it was being tested on the PTR right now, we'd likely see 3.1 hit the live realms by the time Easter came around in the real world. But Kisirani has appeared on the forums saying, "Not so fast." Blizzard has apparently gained the power to cancel Easter, because they say Noblegarden and 3.1 will start when it's ready, not because there are kids hunting for eggs on the White House lawn.

So basically, if patch 3.1 isn't done by Easter, we won't see the holiday ingame until it is done. And while it'll be a little strange to be looking for eggs in May (if it comes to that), we have to agree that's the right decision: we all know what happens when Blizzard releases a patch that isn't fully tested.

We can wait. Noblegarden might not match up with the real-life holiday this year (if the patch does come late -- Kisirani still says this is a plan, so maybe the patch will be done by April 12th), but hopefully when it does appear, it won't be broken.

GamePolitcs had an interesting news brief about Michael Pachter, a financial analyst with Wedbush-Morgan, who contends that MMOs will not be impacted in the current economic downturn because the majority of people who play them are "addicts."

The full interview with Pachter is available from Reuters.

Besides the negative stereotypes and sweeping generalizations that come with statements like "people who play [MMOs] are addicts," Pachter does make a good point. He notes that "Losing their jobs makes them more likely to play because they have more time to play."

I thought about this for a minute. If I were to lose my job here at WoW Insider, I would no doubt start looking for new employment almost immediately. I would scale back my expenses – probably get rid of cable TV (Hulu is my TV now anyways), I'd eat out less, I'd use the library more and Barnes & Noble less, and I would generally be more frugal with my spending.

But I don't think I would cancel my WoW subscription.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

Wrath of the Lich King marked a turning point for WoW guild life. In a raiding environment based on smaller groups, Wrath allows players to gobble up endgame content in much more intimate groups. Many guilds have grown smaller, and many friendships have grown tighter. Many gamers who've been around the block with MMOs a time or two care a little less now about being in it to win it (with a rotating cast of a thousand relatively anonymous guildmates) and a little more about kicking back for some good times with their buddies.

Meet the members of Vivid (Frostwolf-H, US) – literally. Meeting in real life is the glue that has cemented the friendships in this energetic young guild. Vivid has gathered four times over half as many years, from a "small kegger at Chico State" to a recent New Year's house party with more than 20 guildmates cozying up at a cabin in North Lake Tahoe.

We visited with some of Vivid's real-life friends to find out why their meetups have become integral to their guild life.

Believe it or not, there are things out there that are more important than a computer game. Occasionally you need to turn off WoW and go do something like eat, bathe, sleep, engage in some form of non-finger exercise, etc...

One of the problems with a MMORPG like WoW is that some people often get consumed in the dynamic social and entertainment parts of the game, leaving off activities and events happening in the real world. This is problematic for a number of reasons, and is something that everyone who plays this game a lot should guard against happening to them.

And with that in mind, today I heartily recommend that you take a respite from our Azerothian domain and head over to the television to watch some of the presidential inauguration. No matter if you're a democrat or a republican or a whig, watching the historic swearing in of America's first African American commander-in-chief is something that you'll want to be able to tell your children and grandchildren about. The last thing you'll want to say was "I was playing WoW with all those cool 3.0.8 changes."

I admit it. I play too much WoW. That's alright, if you're visiting this site, you probably do, too. I have found it interesting how WoWisms have made it into my everyday life. I'm not talking about weird things like naming a kid Onyxia or getting plastic surgery to look like a Blood Elf. Some WoW habits just become normal. So here goes, you might play too much WoW if:

...words like gank, pwn, and aggro have made it into your regular vocabulary.
... you find yourself hitting your push-to-talk key to the person next to you, on the phone, or any other place that's not Vent.
... You've had nightmares that involve Death Knights, Murlocs, or *shudder* Gnome Rogues.

Scene: Just outside the BlizzCon badge pickup area, the Thursday before BlizzCon, 10 minutes before 4pm badge pickup.

Crowd: (Mills around, is huge, waits patiently, talks occasionally about everything from the Protoss to the weather. Throws out a random "WoW Insider rocks!" yell as we pass by -- thanks for that!)

BlizzCon Employee: (Steps out of Convention Center to address the crowd) Hi everyone! We're going to open up the doors here in just a minute, but we will not be giving out badges until 4pm. So when we open the doors, in about five minutes from now, come on in and line up, but we won't give out badges until four.

Crowd: (Various murmurs of excitement, until, from in the back:) Why aren't you wearing a blue shirt?

(Laughter from all sides.)

Employee: Ha, that's funny. No, I'm wearing a black shirt today, not a blue shirt. Ok, so in five minutes we'll let you in, and then we'll give out badges at 4pm. (Turns and heads back inside.)

Crowd: (Follows immediately, calmly flooding inside without waiting, while convention center employees stand and shake their heads.)

A few weeks ago while I was browsing the official forums, I noticed an interesting guild recruitment post. Someone was recruiting for people not based on class, skill level, or preferred play style, but rather on geographic location. He was hoping to create a guild of people from Portland, Oregon.

It's an interesting idea, and one I've sort of kept in the back of my mind since I saw the post. I like to think that most of us, these days, have started to realize that there really are other, living, breathing, flesh and blood people on the other side of the keyboard. In fact, many of us have met some of these people at conventions and guild gatherings. There's also many families and friends who have decided to play WoW together.

However, building a guild from the group up to be a "local guild" seems to be a different beast altogether. You're not meeting up with each other after having been in the guild for a while, or playing for family ties. Instead, you're looking to get actual benefits, game-related or otherwise, of being in a guild of other residents of your city, state, province, or what have you.

Reader Richie has done something genius -- he is a big fan of the Scarlet Crusade, having collected all of their armor and their tabard ingame. And when one of his guildies hit a birthday, he decided to take the design from the tabard, and put it on a T-shirt. You can see how well it turned out above, and there are pictures of the box (probably my favorite part of the whole thing -- he actually printed the "tooltip" for the t-shirt on the front, in the official WoW font, called Friz Quadrata) over on his site. The whole thing looks terrific.

More pics of the shirt, including the front of the box and a pic of the shirt in action, in the gallery below (hopefully we won't murder Richie's site, though it was loading slowly when I first pulled it up). This is a brilliant idea -- what other Tabards should be t-shirts? Forget Figureprints, Blizzard should let you print your own guild's tabard out as a T-shirt for sale on their site.

I've recently been pondering if, and when, I should retire from raiding. Playing with 24 other people to accomplish a common goal is a wonderful thing. The teamwork and exhilaration from downing a boss for the first time is something that's hard to put into words – it's fun, challenging, frustrating, and all around a great time.

But when is it a good time to stop?

Everything eventually gets old and dies. Yes, one day our beloved WoW will no longer exist; even though that might be a couple decades from now (although I have my doubts WoW will ever truly go off-line, but that's another article). What I want to be sure happens is that I leave this activity I love so much on a high note – and not leave when it's become a pain and something that I'll look back disfavorably upon.

Right now my life allows me to raid. I have classes and WoW Insider work during the day, and at night I have time to raid for a few hours and hang out with the girlfriend and other folks as well. That strikes a good balance in life – allowing both things that I want to do by myself (WoW), and things that I want do with others (girlfriend, friends, etc...)

Not everyone enjoys fishing. Even the fishing quests from 2.4 can only do so much to liven it up. Still, I know several folk who put up with the pain of fishing for the chance to capture that most cagey of crocolisks -- Chuck. (And his three closest friends: Muckbreath, Toothy, and Snarly). In honor of those farmers of fish, we bring you the latest in real life imitating WoW (hereafter referred to as the Rocky Files, owing to the previously-covered real life Mechanical Squirrel).

Officer Glenn Johnson from animal control in Maryland has completed his first fishing daily by catching an 18 inch alligator with a fishing pole. Apparantly, the little fella had been cruising a local golf course. After a few days of baiting the gator with dog and cat food, Johnson broke out the big guns. He set up camp by a lake with a fishing pole and fried chicken. By the afternoon, he'd succeeded -- gator in a bucket.

The baby gator is being hosted in a local zoo, but his name hasn't been announced yet. We're all pulling for him to go by Chuck.

This is something that I had never known before about World of Warcraft (and I've been studying this game for quite a while): some of the ingame locations are actually based on real-life buildings and environments. Tree of Life has a terrific post (based on one of our own Around Azeroth screenshots) up showing comparisons of the ingame reproductions and the real-world influences, and some of them are almost perfect recreations.

Most of the dances I at least recognized as their real-life counterparts, but other than maybe the Stormwind Castle (and Stonehenge -- duh), I don't think I recognized any of these overtly. Of course, the influences are there -- you can definitely see the Oriental flavor in the Night Elf architecture, and Human buildings are definitely inspired by English and French architecture, but did you know that Durnholde's wreckage compares to a ruined castle in France, or that Zul'Farrak is a take on Macchu Picchu?

Very cool finds. Definitely shows you how much Blizzard borrowed from the real world to make this fantasy setting as believable as possible.