Friday, January 1, 2010

The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009 - The Community

Welcome back to the continuation of The Pink Pigtail List of 2009. Previously we have looked at the instances of 2009 and at some things we saw in the game. Today we'll remember some of the people in the community who made themselves a name over the year. Fanfare!

1. Most juicy guild drama:

Nominated: Guild drama is obviously something that many players experience from time to time. "I've had too much of my own, I can't keep up with everyone else's", as someone wrote.

Rathernotsay for instance nominated his own guild. "Our GM going spastic every time someone quits. It gets old, but it is funny as hell to see the dude go apeshit."

One reader suggested: "building the new healing mace". Yeah, I bet that may have caused a bit of drama in quite a few guilds. No matter how fair you tried to be, there would always be players who got so disappointed that they blew up about it.

However: even if the drama we all experience from time to time, I was looking for events in the community that became big news - guilds that became world famous and guilds that we talked about - enthusiastically or in contempt. The juicy guild drama should be something you wanted to gossip about.

A couple of readers had the same idea about this and nominated:

1. The Martin Fury cheat and the ban that followed
2. The guild Exodus who first grabbed the world-first kill of Yogg-Saron+0 in front of Ensidia, but who shortly after were revealed to have done it by an exploit and were punished for it.

The winner is: The Martin Fury incident!

Motivation: This story really grabbed the attention of the whole community, since it was so easy to relate to it. The thought was provoking and tickling. How would we have reacted if we suddenly had gotten this magic item in our mailbox? Would we have resisted the temptation to use it? There were many strong opinions about it. Some players thought that the ban from Blizzard just served those players right since they knew perfectly well that what they were obviously violating the exploitation policy, while others thought that Blizzard were too hard on them, considering that it was the mistake of a Blizzard employee that had made it possible.

No matter what we thought about it - it surely was one of the most memorable dramas involving a guild during 2009.

2. Most charming Blizzard employee

Nominated: Ghostcrawler. More Ghostcrawler. And yet another Ghostcrawler. Yeah, we all love Ghostcrawler. The one and only. BUT he won this class last year and since we want to spread the love a bit he'll have to pass this year. He's probably never heard of the PPI anyway, so I don't think he'll be too disappointed about it.

Other Blizzard employees who have been suggested are: Chriz Metzen "for making dorks look kind of cool" and Netharea - "She is fun and playful, all while providing the information we need from her. I wonder how she keeps that thick skin moisturized!"

Hots and dots has another favorite: "I’ve always been a fan of sarcastic wit and no one does that better than Zarhym".

Miss Medicina revealed that he has a bit of a crush on Bornakk: "if you hadn't picked it up from my emoted swoons and such whenever I quote something he says on the forums. It is completely due to the fact that he is courteous, funny, a bit of an underdog, and a sexy, sexy orc."

Then there are those anonymous, but yet popular game masters:

"The one(s) who FINALLY fixed the glitch in my Argent Tourny quests, and the one(s) who got all my stuff back when I got key-logged. They really do take security seriously, I appreciate that."

A bit odd nomination is Lady Jaina Proudmore. "Whe is very nice especially she is making a big role Jaina feature in 5 man dungeons on ICC". Well, maybe she's nice, but I never thought about NPCs as Blizzard employees.

The winner is: Patric Beja!

Motivation: The suggestion came from Stomalina at Rawrcast if I remember correctly, and I'm all with her. This Frenchman has charmed us blogging, twittering and podcasting (How I WoW among others). I was certainly charmed when I had the honour to participate in the same roundtable as him in Twisted Nether Podcast last summer. Now he can't participate in the community the same way as he used to, since he has joined the Blizzard staff and isn't allowed to share the corporate secrets with the rest of us. However: he has showed us all that it's possible for a gamer and fan to make it all the way into the Blizzard offices. That's well done! I just wish that the category winner next year will be Ixobelle. He's the most charming wannabe Blizzard employee as it is, that's for sure.

3. Best podcast

Nominated: The Instance, "The tankspot ones", Rawrcast, Turpster from Wowinsider show, The Hunting Lodge, Outdps, Van Hemlock.

And of course Twisted Nether. TN is admittedly one of my absolute favorites, having a clear blog focus, and as you all know, WoW blogging is a passion of mine. This said, it won the category last year, so that leaves them out of the question. But I'd really like to give them a special mentioning, waving and cheering for Fimlys and Nibuca. I think you mean more to the development of the WoW blogging community than anyone can imagine.

I'm also waving at Mike Schramm and Turpster at the Wowinsider Show, who made a wonderful, entertaining show and now unfortunately have left the scene, I'm waving at Stompalina and Haf at Rawrcast, who manage to be personal, enthusiastic and charming week after week, and I'm waiving at The Instance, which probably is the most polished, professional Wow podcast there is.

However: The winner is: Blue Plz!

Motivation: Blue Plz! isn't what you would call big and fancy; on the contrary, it's the most basic little one-man show you could think of. No famous guests appearing, no interviews, not even a co-host to quarrel with. Just one, slightly insane host, alone with his microphone and a bunch of music recordings to mix it up with.

Most of the time Totalbiscuit is angry, sharply bitching and commenting on current events. Occasionally he surprises us, going enthusiastic over something, such as he recently did with the new five-man instances in Icecrown. But no matter of if his current mood is bright or dark - Totalbiscuit is always, always personal and passionate about what he's doing. I think he deserves more recognition from the community than he currently gets.

The End
And once again: that's all for today. Please come back for the final part in the series of the Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009. Then we will remember the highlights from the blogosphere - the bloggers and blog posts that made the biggest impression on us in 2009.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I probably wasnt paying attention much about the category all I thought it was INGAME npc, not a blizzard employee. lolx sorry about that larisa. if I would have changed it before you posted this. I would also chose Ghostcrawler, I like his avatar on the forums ahaha!

Miss Medicina said...

I think part of the reason why so many people choose GC is mainly due to familiarity. If you don't read the forums, there are a lot of Blues who you won't know about other than GC. And there are a lot of really great, super hard working and generous Blue posters. They have to have a lot of patience doing what they do. So since we're here at the Inn anyway, I'd like to buy a round for all those Blues who put up with so much and get so little appreciation.

Cheers, folks! Thanks for having such great attitudes about your jobs!

Syrana said...

I finally had a chance to read through the winning series thus far and am loving it.

I cannot wait for the rest of the reveal and you've done a fantastic job of highlighting the nominations as well as explaining how/why the winner was chosen.

I know it's based on opinion, as you previously stated, but to me it's more fun to read WHY than just "this is the one I picked."

I appreciate the effort you have put into this and rather like seeing the results as a series instead of just a one post listing! :)

Great job!

Anonymous said...

I am completely loving these!

It's so fun to see what everyone else has said, and your own insights :)

I'm a bit slow in getting caught up with them as I come out of my holiday stupor, but I find myself excited to see the next edition!

Tesh said...

Seconding the Ixo nomination.

TotalBiscuit said...

Thanks for the generous remarks, I'm glad to see that you 'get' what I'm trying to do.

Just a couple of corrections though. To say the show has 'no interviews and guests' isn't true, it's hosted interviews with Ensidia, Premonition, Method, Forte, Death and Taxes, Nihilum, Curse/SK and a whole host of other community personalities, mod-makers and machinamators. WoW Radio's interview list on our WoW Wiki page is huge and that's just a fraction of those we've spoken to.

The show also hosts the regular satirical radio-skits Nubcake News, Ask the Murloc as well as parody songs, so it's not exactly as basic as it gets either.

Thanks for the recognition, have a great 2010!

Larísa said...

@Christine: no problem, I've not been completely transparant about what I mean with my categories.

@Miss Medicina: Hear, hear! Three cheers for those hardworking anonymous Blizzard people!

@Syrana: thank you very much! It HAS been a lot more work than I would have imagined. I'm glad someone notices it!

@Falling leaves and wings: thank you!

@TotalBiscuit: I must admit that I'm pretty new as a listener - I didn't listen before 2009 and I think those things you're mentioning are from longer back, mostly. But I might have missed something during 2009. Anyway - guests or not - I love the format of the show. I noticed wcradio is changing a bit now, but I'm looking forward to keep following your passionate shows in the future too. I really really appreciate them!
Cheers!

Hatch said...

Very happy Blue Plz got the nod, it's the only WoW podcast that I always look forward to.