I see a lot of the Professions are getting a lot of love lately. Cooking, specially, has been particularly awesome in Wrath of the Lich King, with cooks able to prepare feasts for raids that give excellent buffs. Engineering has been fun, too, although I have yet to see the schematic for my Harley Softail Hog. I'm curious about one thing, though... where are my shirts? With all the options to customize characters in the game -- I mean, those barbershops are pretty neat -- how come there aren't any new shirt patterns?
There are over 50 different shirts in the game, 22 of which are tailored. The rest are uncouth styles that are simply too unfashionable for my needs. I've picked up enough Sleeveless T-Shirts in Alterac Valley to clothe an army. It makes me cringe to see Level 70 characters still sporting their original Thug Shirt. Let's get some style, people! There are a good number of shirts to choose from, but frankly, we need Fall fashions for Wrath of the Lich King. I mean, the last great (and saleable) shirt pattern was the Rich Purple Silk Shirt. And that was from vanilla WoW.
Fashion in World of Warcraft has fallen behind. At least, tailor-made ones. Would you believe that there wasn't a single new shirt pattern throughout the whole Burning Crusade? I mean, I know that demons were at our gates and some dude named Illidan was plotting to take over everything we know and love, but come on! Where was my Netherweave shirt? If I'm going to fight a war, I want to fight in style!
[UPDATE: Phooey. So apparently there are new shirt patterns in Wrath. So the joke's actually on me. So you can choose to look like a 90's Eddie Vedder or Dave Matthews on tour. Uh... thanks, Blizzard.]
I've only ever written two guild applications, but I used to pride myself on writing a damn good one, the sort of application you might see written by the manager of a successful hedge fund, or possibly Mother Teresa. So I had my doubts when tipster Roflharris wrote in to tell us that a friend of his, MsFahrenheit of Sylvanas-EU, had submitted what was possibly the best guild application of all time to Anointed, but it's completely true. You'd have to try pretty hard to top this fully-animated, written and visual joke-infested riot. I just about died when he hit the part about how he got class leader and what attempts on Kalecgos were like.
MsFahrenheit applied as a resto Druid and it looks like he was accepted, not that I would have expected anything less. There's not much more I can say apart from please see this; you'll be glad you did. Just so you know, it takes about 6 minutes to play from start to finish.
(A non-audio version is here if you absolutely must, but the audio version is funnier).
The "negotiating a /gkick" drama above was probably the most legendary drama this week (in fact, if you're a drama connoisseur like we are, you probably already heard about it), but we've got lots more, including the "Tauren or a mouse" quote above, and the usual weekly requisite of ninjas and loot drama. Good times, as always.
For more drama, downed, and recruiting, news, click the link below. And don't forget to send us your tips -- wowguildwatch@gmail is the address. Whether you're tipping us about a great down your guild did, or a hilarious forum thread you saw on your realms' forums, we want to read it all!
If you like winning stuff, you might want to check out BlizzCon and its contests. Whether or not you'll be going to the sold-out event this October, there's something for you to participate in. Obviously, if you're not going, you won't be able to join staples like the costume contest or the impressive (and often hilarious) dance contest, but most of the BlizzCon contests can be joined online.
If you think you've got the chops for stuff like making movies, ace graphic design skills to make motivational posters, or even songwriting skills and making dioramas, then head over to the BlizzCon contest page and read about how to submit your entries. Unfortunately, if you think you're a funny guy (or gal), Blizzard wants to see you in person.
Yes, our weekly podcast is returning to the virtual airwaves this afternoon, and while Turpster is off cavorting around Florida, Duncor, myself, and BRK will be live on WoW Radio talking about the most popular stories in the past week of Warcraft. We're sure to hit on the whole Recruit-a-Friend leveling extravaganza (and if it's hurting the game), Blizzard's removal of the "first to 80" titles (and whether they are hurting the game), and the soon-to-be rarity of the Zul'Aman bears (and whether, you guessed it, that's hurting the game) and our favorite achievements (even though BRK thinks they're hurting the game).
Also, all three of us are in and playing the beta, so we'll do another live version of "Ask a Beta Tester" with the people in the IRC channel during the show -- you can join us on IRC at irc.mmoirc.org in the #wowradio channel, or send your question to theshow@wowinsider.com right now and we might answer it on the show for you.
Don't worry, we're not going back to HKO Insider (although you really did want us to), but we know there's a good number of you out there tracking that other big MMO release this Fall, the one with the "Lich Kitty." And here's the first gameplay trailer for the game we're really hoping to play this November -- forget about Death Knights and siege vehicles and new pets and hairstyles, we're waiting for solving mysteries and Sanrio characters and... well, new pets and hairstyles.
But seriously, it does look fun, doesn't it? WoW could certainly use a farming profession (maybe to go along with some player housing), and everything is just so bright and shiny and fun. The most popular zone in Outland was Nagrand, and we like to think it's because of the rolling green hills and the sparkling blue skies. If you ever get tired of Knights dressed in black metal and dark magics that curse and torment the leaders of the Horde, just know that Hello Kitty Online is out there, waiting just for you.
Players have been doing the math on the notorious Hemet Nesingwary (murderer of animals everywhere), and on the forums, Stubblez has figured out that if you follow all of Nesingwary's beast-killing instructions to the letter, you're responsible for murdering 278 of Azeroth and Outland's fauna. Of course, most players kill even more than that (and there are other quests that ask you to kill even more animals), but even if you take those total numbers and multiply them by the 10 million players Blizzard claims, you get two billion, seven hundred and eighty million animals, all slaughtered in the name of Nesingwary. And that doesn't even count alts.
Fortunately, as Neroblanc notes, all that killing hasn't actually thinned the Azerothian animal population at all -- if anything, the beasts in Stranglethorn Vale are herding thicker than they used to be. We'll have to nuke them from orbit just to get rid of all those Raptors down there.
But that, of course, doesn't keep the hippie animal lovers from fighting back -- as you might know by now, in the expansion Nesingwary is going to face some opposition in the form of D.E.H.T.A., or Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. We have a feeling that Hemet's impeccable taste in leather and animal-skin based wear, not to mention his classic novel, probably won't be too much protection against the do-gooders.
Can't get your World of Warcraft Battlechest fix because Recruit-a-friend has sold out all the copies at Target? Worry not, because Target has got just as great a substitute for you: Paws and Claws Pet Vet 2: Healing Hands. Because when you can't conquer the tower of Medivh or slay beasts in Nagrand, the next best thing is playing a mediocre attempt to grab the money of kids who want to grow up to be vets.
Yeah, it's pretty sad, but then again, Target employees aren't necessarily videogame players. And even more sadly, what exactly does it say about PC gaming when the next best seller to WoW is a vet simulator?
Consider yourself lucky if you've never seen the sight above before -- it's the sign of a former guildleader yanking everything out of the guild bank (including all the stuff above and a good 12,000g) and transferring off to another server. Good times. This is why I usually keep all of my Hearts of Darkness under my mattress at home -- the banks just aren't safe.
This isn't the only guild leader ninja we heard about this week, and it's definitely not the only messy drama -- there's lots more right after you click the link below. Don't forget to send in your tips about drama, downed and recruiting news from around the realms to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. We really appreciate it, and lovers of drama of all kinds do too.
Why now? | Alts Ahoy All of a sudden Nasirah enjoys playing a shaman where it was boring before. In this post, she muses on why her mind has changed.
How to annoy NPC's - Keep Clicking on them! | Pugnacious Priest Amusing detective work shows what happens when you annoy an NPC, including quotes on what they'll do to you if you don't stop. To bad you can't back-talk them too.
Have you ever woken up and known you were going to have one of those days? It's been one of those days for going on a week now. Before you say anything, I went outside of the "lines" in a few places on purpose on my elemental there. The lines and I are having a disagreement, perhaps next week we shall come to a resolution of our differences.
This is something I would like to be doing right now. Maybe in a slightly larger facility, not to mention one without its own face. I once saw a screen shot on the World of Warcraft homepage that had a Gnome standing inside of her Voidwalker. So I wondered, you know those giant water elementals found here and there? Yeah, totally on top of that sport.
I thought now would be a good time to use this idea, seeing as how some people are starting school again soon. Missing summer? Try this!
See you next week!
Gallery: Barrens Chat
Barrens Chat is a weekly comic strip that brings to light some of the stranger things in Azeroth. From emo oozes to mooching floozies, nothing is safe from the battered and bruised tablet of doom. Stop in weekly to see a new comic, spy on some old faces, or perhaps meet a new victim.
Bah. Beta. Everything I read all over is Beta this, Beta that. There's so much praise going for Blizzard's upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion that it's about time we give it some rightful hate! That's right, I'm going to go through a nasty little list of all the things I hate about the Beta. 10. None of my AddOns work Ok, well, some of them do. But since this is a Beta build, it's best to stay clear of any AddOns. I want to test the Beta build, which is unstable enough on its own, so any technical issues I experience will result in a GM telling me to scrap my WTF folder and toss out any AddOns, anyway. So I have to play without critical PvP AddOns like Afflicted or graphical idiosyncrasies like MetaHUD and fun stuff like ShaderMod. Of course, it also means I've got to re-import all my macros and reprogram my key bindings, which -- since I'm a lazy bum -- can be a chore.
Dark Haven on Baelgun actually killed our buddy Illy D this week, but we liked this picture on their website better. Yes, they're coming for you, Defiler.
This week's Guildwatch is chock full, as always, of drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. If you've got some to share with us, about your guild or anyone else's, feel free to send it along to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Click the link below to see what's going on this week in guild news.
Reader Jacckk sent along this funny bit of WoW, hidden in a strange place. On the menu of one Eden's Pizza in St. Paul, Minnesota, there is an item for an "Ornate Triple Pepperoni Blunderbuss," right in between the "Mean Supreme" and "Sicilian" styles (actually, the "Rastafarian" sounds really good, too). And yes, for those of you who've done some gun shopping in Azeroth, the artery-clogging pepperoni with mozza and feta monstrosity is apparently a reference to the old Ornate Blunderbuss, a vendor weapon available pretty commonly throughout the game.
Why they'd name their pizza after a vendor weapon in WoW, we have no idea, but there you go. If you do call them up to order the pizza though (think they'd deliver me one to Chicago?), make sure to get a side of Sulfuras Buffalo Wings, too -- they'll make you "taste the fire of Sulfuron!"*
* I also would have accepted "Sulfuras Buffalo Wings: By fire be purged!"
And yet we play World of Warcraft all the time. You wouldn't think this tiny little tell, above, would cause a guild to rupture apart, but in fact it did exactly that -- Runforyalife sent this tell to someone, they posted it on the forums, and the next thing you know, the GM had kicked Run right out. For his part, Run regrets what he said (we think the GM is a little testy, and whoever posted the tell is at fault, too), but there's a point to be made here: even the little tells you send in game can cause big trouble.
All this drama and more after the break. We've got good news too, though: there are guild downings aplenty, as well as a few recruiting notices (though it seems recruiting has slowed down with the Wrath beta in full force. If you've got a tip, send it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com as always. Click the link below to read on.
I see a lot of the Professions are getting a lot of love lately. Cooking, specially, has been particularly awesome in Wrath of the Lich King, with cooks able to prepare feasts for raids that give excellent buffs. Engineering has been fun, too, although I have yet to see the schematic for my 
I've only ever written two guild applications, but I used to pride myself on writing a damn good one, the sort of application you might see written by the manager of a successful hedge fund, or possibly Mother Teresa. So I had my doubts when tipster Roflharris wrote in to tell us that a friend of his, 
If you like winning stuff, you might want to check out 
Players have been doing the math on the notorious 
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