Posts with tag slashdance

Your regularly scheduled host Michael Gray will be back soon. He is all snowed in, and that's no fun for anyone. You've got me again.

Yesterday's News by slashdance is one of my favorite WoW machinima videos. Maybe because I have a soft spot in my heart for the coolness factor of the various types of meeting stones in game. Maybe because I totally feel for the poor Dwarven stonemason who builds them. Most of all, I think I wanted to share with you all this video because with Mists of Pandaria coming out, we'll be on expansion #4. A lot of time has passed in World of Warcraft. Like ... a lot. Going back and seeing how things used to be is almost like a history lesson as much as it is a nostalgia trip.

One of the things that strikes me about the video is that it's almost like watching myself play from the outside. I see people running up to stones and I see them clicking on portals, but it's not me doing it. These are actions that I take in game being represented in the fiction, but we perform that action all the time. It's a movie about a phenomenon in a game that is being portrayed as having its own reality. Whatever. It's late, I'm tired, and I love Yesterday's News.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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We recently asked our intrepid WoW Insider staff about some of their favorite machinima. First up among the answers is Dawn Moore's favorite, Slashdance vs. Ulduar. In this movie, a raid group prepares to face Ulduar, only to find the raid is much more difficult than they were expecting.

This is what Dawn has to say about the video:

The setup is so perfectly wanky. The use of those long pans with some epic score has become so cliché among novice film and machinima makers in recent years that you kind of groan when you see them. To see the fourth wall come down on it at the end is absolutely delightful.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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We often utter a small sigh of nostalgia as an expansion leaves us. Don't get me wrong. I am very excited to see a new world and I can't wait to play Cataclysm. But I have fond memories of my years in Azeroth. I sometimes look back on the way things "used to be" and miss old, familiar faces.

I've covered Yesterday's News by Slashdance before, but as I sit here wondering what the future will be like, I am reminded of the sad story of the dwarf who makes the summoning stones. The summoning stone was once hailed as an innovation that saved immense time and trouble. Now? They're barely used. This is a fantastic story, and it all sums up how I feel looking forward to Cataclysm. The ability to capture that kind of complex emotion is part of the brilliance of Yesterday's News, and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I did.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.

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As our Editor-in-Chief Dan O'Halloran announced yesterday afternoon, the Blog Formerly Known as WoW Insider shall now be The Blog Formerly Known as WoW.com. We're going back to our roots and taking up the WoW Insider identity once again. An identity crisis is rarely something to celebrate, but we'd like to buck that annoying little trend. We shall revel in the change, and you're invited to the celebrations.

This week, we're giving away some leftover loot that was gifted to us from the ever-generous WoWTCGLoot.com. We're giving away:

• One (1) Paper Flying Machine Kit
• Two (2) Path of Cenarius
• Three (3) Little White Stallion Bridle (Alliance) / Little Ivory Raptor Whistle (Horde)
• Three (3) Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.

That's a total of nine loot codes. We will randomly choose one person per code for a total of nine winners. To enter, all that you have to do is leave a comment on this post before Sunday, Sept. 19 at 11:59 p.m. You may enter once per day until the end of the contest, so don't forget to come back each day. Winners will be announced on the new new WoW Insider, which will be found at wow.joystiq.com (note that it says wow.- and not www.-!) on Sept. 20.

Good luck!

WoW.com is giving even more loot cards away today, thanks to an extremely generous donation from WoWTCGLoot.com. Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny codes (these are horses for the Alliance and raptors for the Horde), or one Path of Cenarius code.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline is this time tomorrow morning. To be more clear, the deadline is May 26th at 6:00 AM EDT. Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

WoW.com is giving more loot cards away today, thanks to an extremely generous donation from WoWTCGLoot.com. Why? Because it's maintenance day and because we feel like it! Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of five different codes: one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny codes (these are horses for the Alliance and raptors like the one pictured above for the Horde), or one Path of Cenarius code.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline to enter is May 20th at 10:00 AM EDT, so leave a comment while you can and win! Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

WoW.com is giving more loot cards away today, thanks to an extremely generous donation from WoWTCGLoot.com. Originally the plan was to put four loot cards up for grabs this Tuesday, but since Blizzard moved up the release date for the Paladin class preview, we're going to throw in one more as a celebration. Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny codes (these are horses for the Alliance and raptors for the Horde), or one Path of Cenarius code.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline is this time tomorrow morning. To be more clear, the deadline is April 14th at 7:00 AM EDT. Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

No way. No way! Can it be so? Can WoW.com be giving away even more loot cards this Tuesday? Yep! Today WoW.com is giving away five more loot cards, all of them courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com. Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny (yes, these change into raptors for the Horde) codes, or one Path of Cenarius code.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline is tonight (March 30th) at 11:59 PM. Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

Yesterday's News by Slashdance was an entry into the Rise to Power contest. On the off chance you're reading this blurb before watching the movie, please take a moment now and check it out. It is the simple story of a man who's spent a lifetime honing his craft to an art, only to find himself replaced by the rise of a new technology. In the face of someone else's rise to power, his own living is destroyed.

Did you check out the movie? For some reason, it didn't place in the Rise to Power contest. I don't really have any feedback about why, since those decisions aren't really publicized. I won't guess at why the video didn't manage to score a winning spot, but I can say some things about this video.

There's obviously a lot of machinima out there. Some of the stories are beautiful and compelling. Some of the artwork is technically and visually amazing. Almost all of it is artwork derived from the effort and vision of its creators. One of my favorite things about being the Moviewatch guy is that I regularly get exposure to an entire host of artists who create so many amazing things.

Nothing has changed from last week. Maintenance days are still boring. So today WoW.com is giving away five more loot cards, each and every one of them courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com. Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of two Slashdance codes, one of two Tiny (yes, these change into raptors for the Horde) codes, or one Path of Cenarius code.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline is tonight (March 23rd) at 11:59 PM. Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

Maintenance days are so boring, so let's try and spice it up. Today WoW.com is giving away six loot cards, each and every one of them come courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com. Today you have a chance to get your hands on one of three Slashdance codes, or one of three Tiny (yes, these change into raptors for the Horde) codes.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this post. Make sure you comment using an email address you check frequently, as that's how we'll be contacting our winners. You may only enter once or you will be disqualified. The deadline is tonight (March 16th) at 11:59 PM. Comments will be disabled at that time, and winners will be chosen randomly (and so will the prizes).

Good luck!

Since we're in the middle of a pretty lazy Sunday here at the Wow.com secret world headquarters, we decided it might be cool to reach into the old prize box and pull out a few goodies for all you evening browsers of WoW news and information. In particular, we're going to be handing out a few TCG loot codes courtesy of our good friends at Upper Deck.

For starters, let's throw out two codes for some Slashdance grenades, which will make everyone in the blast radius break out into dance. Pretending you are the Music Meister optional. We'll also give away an old but goodie - a code for 50 Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits, which will make the targeted vanity pet grow. Use it on your Teldrassil Sproutling and pretend you have a pocket druid healer (actual healing ability not included).

Leave a comment below before 2:00 am EDT, and we'll pick a few of you at random to get these codes. It'll give us something to do while we wait for more submissions for our October Guild of the Month contest.

Sam Pierce, the director and producer for Slashdance, dropped us a note to let us know the final, full-length cut of Warrior's Dream is available. And every moment of this breathtaking video is gorgeous. The video scored 3rd place at the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest, and it's easy to see how it did so well.

Like many BlizzCon machinima entries, Warrior's Dream was originally released in a smaller, 3-minute version in order to conform with the contest guidelines. Now that the contest is over, the Slashdance group retooled the video to its better paced, full featured glory.

This video is just absolutely wonderful. While the authors provide interpretation for the Fantasia-like framing, I'd recommend watching the video before you read that summary. The words "wonder" and "fantasy" can't describe this video adequately, since it really is a soaring, imaginative journey through Northrend. For me, it manages to capture the "wow!" and "look at that!" in the World of Warcraft, and does so in an open, embracing approach.

It's a great movie, and one worth sharing with friends. As a final note, this is a video I immediately shared with both WoW friends and non-WoW friends. It's a beautiful film, and one I think most people will enjoy.

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Good evening, WoW.com! Tonight we have a surprise giveaway. Right in front of me are three Slashdance loot codes, courtesy of Upper Deck. Each code grants you 100 Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.s which you can use to get your raid burning up the dance floor! Or the auction house, or the Horde/Alliance tunnels before Alterac Valley starts, or... you know, wherever it would be most obnoxious. Do you want one of them? All you need to do is leave a comment to this post before 11:59 PM EDT this evening, which is a little less than five hours from now.

When the clock strikes midnight tonight, I'll be turning off comments on this post and randomly selecting three winners. You may only enter tonight's giveaway once. We have ways of finding out if you've commented multiple times, so don't hose yourself out of a loot code. Comment with a valid email address, because we'll be using that to send you your loot code.

If you don't win one tonight, don't worry! Upper Deck was kind enough to give us a whole load of loot, so we'll be giving them away pretty often until we've bled ourselves dry.

Update: Congratulations to our winners InsiderFan, Jon B., and Friend. They're our winners this evening! I'll be contacting all three of you via email shortly. Again, if you didn't win tonight, don't worry. We'll be giving away many, many more of these in the near future. Just keep an eye on the site.

When I saw slashdance vs. Ulduar for the first time, I wasn't sure whether I should laugh or cry. This is slashdance's version of a raid-patch trailer, something to help get its members riled up and ready to go raid. Of course, it's obviously more of a parody about those kinds of similar movies. But this piece is much more tailored to the "rest of us." You know, those of us who struggle a bit more with the content.

I can't really discuss too much about the movie without spoiling the plot. But it's slashdance, who's very well known for the Redshift movies. The author's eye for quality is definitely apparant here, and I like the wry sense of wit. I also have to admit, I've been the guy to say "You are not prepared!"

[Via WarcraftMovies.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch