Posts with tag wrup

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Don't sit there sad and alone on yet another Friday night. Come on, give us a call and find out what the hottest WoW Insider writers are playing this weekend. Alex Ziebart, Adam Holisky, and more ... just waiting after the jump.

WRUP is $4.99 per minute. Please be 18 or older, or have your parents' permission. Or don't get your parents' permission. We'd actually prefer you don't, cause they'll probably just say no.

This week's bonus question: Do you still participate in in-game holidays? And do you participate in the Lunar Festival, in particular?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Ladies and gentlemen, WoW Insider is not where I typically get political, but there's something that needs to be said. And if I'm going to say it anywhere, it's going to be on the rudderless ship of filler we've all come to know and love as WRUP.

As you may know, this past week, half the internet wound up blacking itself out in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two anti-piracy bills that could have wide-reaching consequences in terms of what those of us who make a living as internet creatives do. The congressmen who support the bill barely know what the internet is and sound like sputtering children when they try to explain why SOPA and PIPA are good bills. They're not.

SOPA is dead for now, but its House sponsor promises to bring it back in February. PIPA, SOPA's sister bill in the U.S. Senate, is undergoing retooling after a massive nationwide protest Wednesday. We did good, but we haven't won. And because the bad guys have unlimited money and stand to make more of it by passing SOPA/PIPA, we may never win for good. They'll keep trying. We have to keep fighting.

Why should you care? There's this thing out there called fair use that lets us at WoW Insider use certain copyrighted material to bring joy to your life. Fair use is what lets us talk about and show you images from World of Warcraft without having to beg Blizzard's permission. Fair use is what lets me bring video clips like that of Duane above into your life. SOPA and PIPA would literally kill WRUP. SOPA would kill Duane.

OK, I've said my piece. I'll get down from the soap box and hand you back your WRUP. Watch that video of Duane over and over again until the bad taste of politics is out of your mouth. Today's bonus question is a fairly innocuous, SOPA-free one: How far have you progressed in the new Dragon Soul raid? Are you running hard modes? Working on 10-mans? Or just running the Raid Finder? The world needs to know.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Ladies and gentleman, there is a Twitter account I'd like you all to meet: @horse_ebooks. On its surface, it's nothing special -- just a Russian-owned Twitter spam account designed to sell (predictably) ebooks about horses. To appear as if it were a human, the account employs a comically bad algorithm that tweets seemingly random sentences fragments.

If @horse_ebooks is an attempt to pass a Turing test, it fails on every level. Little it says seems relevant to horses; nothing it says seems to make sense. It's short dispatches are internet-age poetry at its finest -- absurd works of art, all. It's my inspiration.

But that's not the only Twitter account I'd like to introduce you to. There's also the must-follow @WoWInsider. And @mikesacco. And @foxvanallen. And ... well, this kinda brings me to the week's bonus question that I asked our columnists: If there's one Twitter account you'd recommend everyone follow, what would it be?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Guys, I have terrible news. If we can't nail this week's What aRe yoU Playing -- and I mean really knock this thing out of the park -- they're going to close down the community center. There won't be any place for us kids to get off the street. We'll have to WRUP on a street corner next month. And I've spent enough time on street corners.

We have to practice, you guys. We need to bring our best game to the WRUP competition and show up those jerkstores from the other side of town and show them that we're the kings of ... knowing what we're playing.

So, hold on while I get out the Chaka Khan tapes so we can have a top-notch training montage where we WRUP poorly at first, but then get better at WRUP over time. While I'm putting on these leg warmers, why don't you go ahead and tell me what you're playing this weekend?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Ah, New Year's Eve -- a magical evening when you get annoyed by Ryan Seacrest for a few hours, watch some bands (who will be entirely irrelevant by 2013) perform, and suffer through an unsettling attempt by a stroke victim to accurately rattle off a countdown. And it's all followed up with a sad, post-midnight attempt to recreate the magic by watching Chicago celebrate the Central Time Zone's version of the New Year. Silly Chicago -- your New Year's doesn't count. Only New York's does.

But, of course, New Year's Eve is about more than just traditional network programming. New Year's Eve also affords us all the chance to make New Year's resolutions. That's what today's WRUP is all about -- New Year's resolutions. What's your New Year's resolution? And ... of course ... what are you playing?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Happy holidays! Merry Christmas! Those of us here at WoW Insider are busy decking the halls, trimming the trees, and in the case of Mat McCurley, making last-minute reservations at a New York City Chinese restaurant. Dec. 25 means something different to all of us, but to me, it will always mean one thing: presents. Getting presents. Lots and lots of presents.

And since the true meaning of Christmas, contrary to all those television specials, is getting gifts, I organized the first ever WoW Insider Winter Veil Secret Santa. After the break, all our columnists are giving each other gifts such that they may receive gifts in the true spirit of the holiday -- with a little bit of traditional WRUPing mixed in, too.

In that same spirit, I'm offering you, the reader, some of the absolute worst Christmas movies and TV specials. It's all condensed into bite-sized videos for your holiday enjoyment.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Greetings, humans! I am a time traveler from the near-distant future. Three hours in the future, exactly! I'd give you news and tidings of the future, but I arrived over three hours ago, so all my unique knowledge is already outdated. Sorry about that. Bad planning.

Time travelers such as me have unique needs. We are subject to terrible bouts of time sickness. And, of course, we need gobs of mammoth chunks and delicious powdered horse milk. (100% horse -- no ponies!) Thankfully, there's a store in Los Angeles that caters to these needs, the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. It seriously exists, and it seriously sells stuff like Robot Milk. There are pictures after the break to prove it.

The store is actually a front for 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for city kids. So if you're hungry for horse milk, you can get some while supporting the youth of Los Angeles. Which is a pretty awesome thing. I mean, we need to start nurturing the next Fox Van Allen now. I can't keep this WRUP thing up forever.

Which reminds me: We should probably get this WRUP rolling. So, everyone, What aRe yoU Playing this week?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Last month, I used WRUP to wish our very own Mat McCurley a happy birthday. Today, I'm using it to wish myself a happy birthday. I turn 24 on Sunday. Or maybe I turn 32. Or 27. I don't know ... I'm bad at math. I digress. The point is that many years ago, a child was born in the wilds of New Jersey, a child with the most awesome name on the planet: Fox Van Allen.

All of a sudden, though, I have some competition for my throne. It seems that last month, two Skyrim-loving parents named their child Dovahkiin. (The name translates to Dragonborn in a special fake dragon language that programmer nerds made up.) That said, this week's WRUP asks: If you had to name your baby after a character in World of Warcraft, what would you name him or her?

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Happy non-denominational, non-religious, made-up in-game holidays, everyone! It's that magical Winterveil season. All the good boys and girls in Azeroth -- 95% of whom seem to be orphans, go figure -- are sitting on all sorts of strangers' laps asking for Grindgear Gorillas, a sixth season of The A-Team, and whatever else it is kids like nowadays.

In addition to the usual question of What are you playing? this week, I asked our columnists exactly what it is they all want from Greatfather Winter this year.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Happy holidays, everyone! It's a magical time of year where those of us in the United States load up on flavorless turkey, dull mashed potatoes, and that terrible corn that comes from a can, yell at our family members who have different political views than we do, and fall asleep in awkward positions on couches. Oh, and then we all head out to Best Buy at, like, 2 a.m. so we can save $100 on an HDTV.

As for you Canadians, well ... you already had your Thanksgiving in October. I'm not sure if you eat turkey at all up there. And frankly, I'm too lazy to head over to Wikipedia to find out for sure. I'll just assume that you eat the Canadian equivalent of turkeys, which are probably geese or something.

But I digress. With the holidays upon us, I felt it time for us at WoW Insider to give thanks. And that's what this week's bonus question is about, at least for Americans: "What are you thankful for?" For Canadians, a different question: "How jealous are you that us Americans get to eat boatloads of dry, flavorless turkey?"

And for those who live in neither the United States nor Canada, your bonus question is this: "The four numbers a > b > c > d can be paired in six different ways. If each pair has a different sum, and if the four smallest sums are 1, 2, 3, and 4, what are all possible values for d?"

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very important weekend we are about to undertake. Important, you see, because it is the anniversary of Mr. Mathew Genzer McCurley's birth.

Mat's having a birthday party down in New York City this weekend, and I'm driving down to attend. But what's a birthday without presents, right? That's why I've written and illustrated my first-ever children's book, titled Mat's Birthday Wish. And because I figured you'd want to see it, too, I'm giving the book its world premiere right here, tonight, in WRUP.

So, without any further delay: Mat's Birthday Wish.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Saturday, Oct. 22 Like many of my fellow WoW Insider writers, I start to feel a slight tickle at the back of my throat. The BlizzCon Flu! As the day wears on, my skin starts feeling itchy and, in some select areas, starts to fall off. I consider calling my primary care physician on return to Boston.

Sunday, Oct. 23 For some reason, a trip to Jack in the Box doesn't seem to sate my appetite. Shortly after leaving the restaurant, I throw Basil Berntsen down to the ground, crack his skull open, and start feasting on his delicious brains. It has nothing to do with me wanting to steal the rest of his Gold Capped columns from him, I swear.

Monday, Oct. 24 New editor-in-chief Alex Ziebart makes an executive decision to lock me in a closet "for my own safety."

Tuesday, Oct. 25 Fellow WoW Insider writer Tyler Caraway is shoved into the closet with me. My first instinct is to eat him, so that's what I do. I remain hungry immediately after, as his body carries on it absolutely no meat nor nutritional value.

Wednesday, Oct. 26 Apparently, the BlizzCon Flu has gone full-on epidemic in Anaheim. I hear the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland is finally entertaining, if not slightly inappropriate for children under the age of 13 (on account of the surprisingly realistic murdering and blood and brain eating, you understand).

Thursday, Oct. 27 Apparently, Taylor Lautner has been here in the closet this whole time! Being hungry, I eat him.

Friday, Oct. 28 Since I haven't heard from Alex in a while, I shamble out of the poorly barricaded closet. My moisturizer seems ill-equipped to handle the level of dryness my skin has succumbed to -- it's still falling off in chunks. My ability to solve simple puzzles and think rationally seems strangely impaired, if not gone entirely. Sadly, the only thing my quickly decomposing brain is still able to handle is ... compiling What aRe yoU Playing.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Oh, man. BlizzCon 2011. It's almost a reality. As you read this, I will be somewhere over Kansas or Oklahoma or one of "those" states on my way to Southern California. I'm going to be the first staff member hitting the ground in Anaheim, and I couldn't be more excited about it.

WoW Insider will be covering all sorts of exciting World of Warcraft news once BlizzCon starts, but in the meantime, the focus is on travel. Being a helpful guy, I've compiled a few air travel tips and tricks to help make your trip to Anaheim an enjoyable one:

• Grab something to eat before the flight. I know it's a cliché, but you don't want to spend six hours in the air armed with a meager bag of airline-supplied peanuts or Chex mix. Get real food first. Bonus tip: While the food court's Sbarro may make a delicious lunchtime treat, avoid the breakfast menu at all cost. Egg brick and cold potatoes may seem like a good idea at the time, but you don't want that slimy crud working its way through your system while you're trapped five miles in the sky. Trust me.
• Be aware of security precautions. Since Sept. 11, airports have been on high alert! You should never take a suspicious-looking package on board that was given to you by a stranger. Unless the stranger who hands it to you looks totally trustworthy. Further, leave your firearms at home! You'll have plenty of time to buy guns upon arrival on the streets of Los Angeles.
• Make someone else pay for your in-flight wireless! My strategy? Wait until you're actively on the plane to write that week's WRUP. Business expense!

Having dreaded this six-hour plane ride that I am currently on, I asked our venerable WoW Insider staff for some recommendations on how I can best kill the time.

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Going to BlizzCon? No? Why not? It's the '90s! Everyone's going to conventions these days!

Sure, it's in Southern California, and for many of you, that's a long way from home. But man, this is the '90s. They have planes now. And some of those planes even have air phones. You can hook up your 14.4k modem to one of those and connect to your favorite Warcraft 2 BBS, maybe play a little Legend of the Red Dragon from 20,000 feet. Why not? It's the '90s!

What's that? You say it's not the '90s -- it's 2011? Well, of course it is! I know exactly what today is. See this Casio digital watch on my wrist? It has the day, week, month, and year on it. Everyone's got one -- everyone, that is, who's living in the '90s.

BlizzCon, the hottest event of the '90s, is coming up in a mere two weeks. So today, in addition to the usual question of "What are you playing?" (Super Nintendo and Scattergories, obvi), I had our top-notch writers (many of whom have Tripod pages) answer a bonus question: "What terrific advice do you have for the go-go BlizzCon attending folks of the '90s?"

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

Hello again. It's me, Faux Van Allen. Pull up a seat, ladies and gentlemen. It's been a long time.

Five months ago, the blogger you know as Fox Van Allen ventured to a place you may know as over there -- a parallel universe where there's a second version of everything, people included. The airplanes of your universe are zeppelins in ours. And the website you know as WoW Insider is known as Wow.com over here. At least, it was known as Wow.com up until last month. It's now known as wowgame.nbci-xoom.com/warcraft. (Long story.)

Dear friends, I'm afraid we're really in it up to here. It seems that someone -- and darned if any of us can remember who -- tore a permanent hole between this universe and the one over there. Since then, the WoW Insider team and the Wow.com team are in regular contact, sharing information to help bring you the latest news. But it seems that this is less than useful. They've never even heard of the Yellow Dragonflight. And their "death knights" as a hero class? What that hell is that? That doesn't even make sense.

What's really weird, though, is this bizarre yet sad flicker I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye, like there's someone else around, someone who belongs and yet is so terribly out of place at the same time. A dangerously underweight flicker that likely needs treatment for malnutrition. It's like the universe is trying to correct some kind of mistake that we can all agree doesn't need correcting at all. Strangest thing.

Anyway, though we've seemingly got all those universe-devouring wormholes from May under control, we've still got issues with quantum entanglement regarding the over here and over there versions of WRUP. Don't worry, though, we've got a lot of creepy, bald-headed technicians working on the issue as we speak.