Saturday, August 2, 2008

Me and WoW blogging – a love story

So I went on vacation to the mountains for a week. Not so surprisingly I felt a little loss, a slight debuff of abstinence. But do you know what? To my own astonishment the thing I missed most actually wasn’t playing WoW. It was reading and writing blog posts.

Sounds weird, doesn’t it?

I never...
There’s a shared Blog Azeroth topic this week, “I never”… which asks you to talk about things that turned out differently in the game than you had imagined. My blogging is definitely one of those things.

In the beginning of this year I had heard about that blogging existed as a phenomena. I had realized that I, being a professional PR and information officer, probably should try to learn the basics about it since it’s a medium that’s important and probably will be even more important in the years to come. But I never, ever, imagined myself as a devoted blog keeper myself.

One month later, on the 2 of February (yes, exactly 6 months ago), I wrote my first blog entrance. I was very insecure, fumbling in darkness, still not knowing what I was doing, why I was doing it or what direction this would take.

Since then I’ve taken step by step, getting more and more enchanted and involved in the WoW Blogosphere. The first and biggest one was of course that finally, after a couple of months, made up my mind and converted all of the blog to English, a decision I’ve never regretted. It is a bit painful to be aware of all those spelling and grammar mistakes I do (as if typos wasn’t enough), but blog readers seem to be more forgiving than I am, so I can live with it.

Just like a guild
While I was away this week I suddenly realized that the Blogosphere has become like an extra guild to me – it’s just that we’re spread out over servers, fractions and continents. By following blogs overtime you sort of get to know the people behind it. (Or at least you think you do.)

And now we’re offered to know them even better – thanks to Twisted Nether Broadcast. That was my comfort actually this week – during my long journey I listened to the nine first episodes in my mp3 player. It was just amazing. It was fun, it was interesting, it was inspiring – I swore to myself when I listened driving the car, since I had no means to take notes about all of the blog post ideas I got from listening.

Hearing those voices felt sort of familiar. I had heard them already in the blogs – now another dimension was added. (Who could possibly read Gun Lovin’ Dwarf Chick without hearing the laughter of Breana in the background after hearing TN?)

Of course this is quite a huge guild. And you don’t feel connected to everyone in it in the same way. Some guys you only know by name – and your interests in the game are so diverse that you barely say hi, you haven’t got much in common really. Others are guys that you whisper to when they log on, the guys you love to party with. We are the ones that keep reading each others blogs, keep commenting and inspiring each other to new posts. You know who you are, I’m pretty sure.

Then there are the Officers of course. The Big Names. The Well Known Blogs, with ten, a hundred or even a thousand as many visitors as the average WoW blogger can count on. I look upon them as some kind of bearing pillars of the community. I guess I could dare to speak to them. But I honestly don’t expect much attention from them. They’ve got full hands, developing the guild and maintaining their pillars.

Blogging about blogging
Oh dear, this seems to turn into another rambling, ranting post without any clear direction. And another meta-blogging post! I write too many of those, it’s just that I’m so fascinated by this medium I guess. It challenges me, it has made writing fun again; my lust for it had been turned off after years of pretty boring professional writing. This is something totally different. It’s playful, it’s inviting, it’s totally free and yet not altogether easy. You get immediate feedback all the time (even lack of feedback can sometimes tell you something). And you must be able to deal with it.

I guess that’s what’s uniting the Guild of the WoW Bloggers. The urge to express ourselves and the experience of performing publicly, of meeting an audience, however small it may be, day after day. And of course the love we share for the game.

Twisted Nether rocks
A final thought; when I arrived home from my vacation I downloaded Episode 10 of Twisted Nether. Krizzlybear had pointed out that I had some special reasons to do that. Believe it or not – a blog post of mine was mentioned and even discussed in the show!
Woot!!!

Words can’t express how I felt about it. I was totally incapacitated, a rogue couldn’t have done it better. Speechless. I can only say: thank you. It was very encouraging and inspiring. And I hope you get many listeners. Not just episode 10 actually, but every episode.

If any of you readers have missed it (I myself didn’t listen to it for a long time since I’m so lost when it comes to new technology, downloading and listening to podcasts seemed way to complicated to me – how wrong wasn’t I?) – stop hesitating.

There’s no excuse not to listen to the show. If you think you haven’t got the time – this programme will actually save you time, since it’s an easy, convenient way to keep up with news, both about the game and what’s going in the Blogosphere. It’s a time saver.

Download it, listen to it in the bus or the car or while you’re doing some insane grinding of Bog Lords, Primal Shadow or Fel Armament. TN will keep you company and make time fly!

What's next?
Six months of WoW blogging. I had never imagined it could be this fun and there were people out there who actually were interested in what I – a mage newbie – had to say about the game. But then I hadn’t met the Blogosphere. Now I have. I’m in love.

And if you ask me where I’ll be in six months I’m pretty sure I’ll still be around. But you can never promise, can you? A blog will always be a day-by-day-project. Without any ties, without any commitments. Written out of pure lust and inspiration as long as it keeps flowing. That's what's so charming about it.

The End.

PS I realize that my comparison with a guild lacks a guild master. I guess it would be Matticus, with his ambitions to rule the world, or whatever it was? Or are there any other suggestions?

PS2 As a strange coincidence Gnomeaggeddon wrote a post that was a bit connected to this one, where he as well compares the Blogosphere to a guild. I probably stole the idea unconsciously using the telepathic channel we switch to from time to time when the lines to Australia just are lagging too much. Thanks for giving it too me anyway.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, glad to hear you had fun =)

Nice analogy by the way.

Green Armadillo said...

I can relate; I do occasionally find myself crunched for time and choosing to spend the limited time I've got on writing blog posts about playing the game instead of playing the game. Ah well, I find it worthwhile, so I guess it's all good.

Loronar said...

I think Auzara (Chick GM) can be our guild leader? :O

Anonymous said...

Thank you, dear guildies! or... party members :)

@Green Armadillo, actually even though blogging takes some time it's much easier to get it since you can take a minute here, a minute there and any amount of breaks. You don't isolate yourself from your family. Which is the constant pain and struggle if you want to raid. Blogging is a great substitute for people who can't play as much or uninterrupted as they'd like.

@Loronoar. That sounds great! She's the guild leader of my dream. Can't fail.

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