Piggies to brighten your day

Things are very, very quiet in the WoW community this week. Or rather: everyone is busy buzzing about Rift, but since I’m not playing it and not planning to join anytime soon, it holds very little interest to me.

I’ve had a couple of rather dramatic days myself, and I’m still wrestling my mind whether to blog about it or not. Hence my silence.

However, something arrived in the post the other day and I wanted to share it with you, since it gave me a smile.

It’s a Piggie! And in case you have no idea about what a Piggie is, I’ll tell you now. The word was invented by no one else but BBB, who I’ve always thought of as the grandfather of WoW blogging. He had a post a few days ago where he spoke very kindly of PPI and among other things referred to the yearly PPI award as “piggies”.

And this in turn inspired another wonderful blogger, Tesh, to offer me a medal-like icon, which the category winners could use on their blogs to show that their award.

I fell in love with this figure the first time I saw it. Pigtails indeed! While I admit that the Oscar is superior in fame and wealth, it isn’t even close to the piggies when it comes to charm.

It remains to see how many of those we’ll see around. As a matter of fact several of the blogs that have won previously years aren’t active anymore. But I hope someone will pick it up because it’s so cheerful.

And if you haven’t yet been officially awarded, you're free to use the version without the text. I can imagine different kinds of usage. For decoration of course, or perhaps it could replace stars if you're making reviews. Or why not mark out particularly cheerful posts with a piggie, so blog readers who are desperate for something up-beat easily can spot it in the sea of melancholy and apathy that is floating around at the moment.

The piggies saved my week, that’s for sure. Big thanks to BBB and Tesh!

The Pink Pigtail Inn Awards of 2010 – The Blogosphere

Ahem!

May I ask for your attention one more time? I’m here to make one more announcement regarding The Pink Pigtail Inn awards of 2010 – the fourth and final. This time we’re taking a closer look at what’s been up in the blogosphere.

I won’t hide it to you that I’ve had a hard time to make up my mind. There have been moments when I’ve been ready to give up. How could you possibly pick one favourite in each category, when there more often than not at least ten other blogs that would be equally worthy winners? No matter how long and hard the jury thinks it over, there will be bloggers as well as readers who are utterly disappointed and can’t understand how I possibly could highlight THAT scrub instead of their own favourite. But that’s life. There is no justice. And remember, this is just a little bit of fun, OK? With no further ado, let’s get started!

Biggest blog facelift

Nominated: Murloc Parliament (“I’m not sure if everyone even remembers who she was before”), Cold’s Gold Factory, Tree Bark Jacket, Just My Two Copper , Disciplinary Action, Oh My Kurenai, Manalicious

OK, I’m probably not the best person to make a judgement about layout changes to a blog. In the end, I've always thought that it’s the content that matters most. You may tweak your blog into the prettiest piece of artwork ever seen, but if you don’t write decent posts with some regularity, I’m not interested.

However: over the last year, even I have noted how much better the blogs look today compared to when I entered the blogosphere three years ago. At that time 90 percent of the blogs looked more or less the same, using either the most basic design provided by Blogger or Wordpress. My blog still looks the same, unfortunately. Call me a slacker if you want! But many other bloggers have given their virtual homes a bit of polish, and they certainly do deserve some recognition for their efforts.

It’s been a tough call between the nominees. Murloc Parliament resurrected from the ashes of a blog drama that we’d rather just forget about, and did it just beautifully. Rhii broke up from I Sheep Things and created a lovely place of her own under the banner of Oh My Kurenai. Disciplinary Action has gone through a fantastic facelift and looks stunning - even with reverted text, which I'm normally not a fan of.

As a matter of fact I almost decided to give the award to someone who wasn’t nominated – to Blizzard Activision. The community website went through a surgical treatment of epic proportions and some of their leading staff can nowadays ad “blogger” to their business card.. However, since they don’t interact at all with the blogosphere, I don't count them as a part of it, and that leaves them out of the list.

The winner is: Manalicious!

Motivation: Vidyala of Manalicious decided to move over from Pugging Pally, where she previously had built a certain readership. It’s not easy to go through a name and domain change without getting lost, but she has succeeded. Thanks to Vidyala’s drawing skills, Manalicious has a distinct look and feeling of its own, while yet sticking to classic, easy-to-read design principles such as white background and an easily readable font. The fact that she also has helped other blogs to go through a facelift, offering them beautiful banners is of course an extra plus.

Most memorable blog post

Nominated:
Special characters by Tobold
Are we all just playing for second place by Phase 3. profit
'' It's not me it's you '' from Issy on Jaeycandco
Why Thresa must die (a roleplaying philosophy) by Orcish Army Knife
A Friend Avenged by Orcish Army Knife
The Gerald saga at Righteous Orbs
Ratshag’s Dangermouse mourns her friend
I Shapeshift therefore I am by Tree Bark Jacket (“Though I personally completely disagreed with the sentiment, a LOT of druids rallied around this posts and the poster image was seen everywhere.” )

Healertrek nominated the posts about the PuG at Greedy Gevlon:

“Just when it looked like Gevlon had blown all out of steam with his economic take on the world of warcraft, he decided to take on a new project with a bold announcement. Following his success in taking down Ulduar in blues, he thought up a PuG guild where his anti-socialist ways and super efficiency are valued above all else. If you want to see raiding treated like a business, this is a fascinating set of entries to follow that continues to this day. In fact, this is really the entry that spawned a whole new Gevlon.”

Prelimar nominated Gnomeaggedon’s series of posts about depression from November: "It was deeply personal and really amazing. i can't nominate this enough.”

There were a lot of good suggestions, but in the end I picked something different, a choice of my own.

The winner is: An open letter to Blizzard by Shades of Grey!

Motivation: There were so many good posts written during the Real ID debacle. But no one was anywhere near as spot on like this one. It gave me goose bumps to read it. It still does. This post is about much more than just Real ID. It captures the spirit of the game. I can’t refrain from a little quote from it.

“We don’t want to be John Smith.
We don’t want to be Jane Doe.
We don’t want our friends to just be John Smith, or Jane Doe. That’s not the point. That’s not the point of what you’ve given us. What you have given us is an awesome, amazing, awe-inspiring game where we don’t have to be ourselves. Where we can pretend we are Kronk, gruff and oft-misunderstood orc warrior with an odd penchant for interior design. Where we can pretend we are Gisella, noble paladin of the Light and kidnapper of baby wolvar . Where we can forget about the real world, the real world’s problems and issues, the real world’s pressures and annoyances and just settle back and kill some internet dragons.”

It's simply awesome and I must admit that I'm a little bit envious. Just a little. WTB writing skills!

Most noticed blogger breakthrough

Nominated: Just My Two Copper, Vidyala -- formerly Pugging Pally, now Manalicious, Life In Group 5, MMO Melting Pot, Murloc Parliament, Disciplinary Action, Postcards from Azeroth.

Syl from Raging Monkeys was nominated by several:
“Yes, I know she's got co-bloggers... but it was mostly her that I noticed commenting on other people's blogs when they'd only just started up and I've seriously never seen a blog skyrocket in popularity so quickly. That's what I call successful networking!”

And here's a vote for Lathere and Cassandri at HoTs and DoTs:
" Although the sisters from Australia had more entries in six months of 2009 than they had in all of 2010, their fun style has put them on many blogrolls of others I follow. That's as good an indication as any that this blog is having a major breakthrough. And how could you not appreciate the name?"

The winner is: MMO Melting Pot!

Motivation: There was something missing in the blogosphere. We just didn't know it until MMO Melting Pot swept in from nowhere and started to share their findings from the most obscure corners of the community. Under the command of the energetic Rebecca, MMO Melting Pot has established itself as one of the major institutions that brings glue to the community and helps us stay together. It's as if they've always been there. It's a remarkable breakthrough.

Most solid content provider

Nominated: Cold’s Gold Factory, Warcraft Hunter’s Union, Just My Two Copper, Mana Obscura, Murloc Parliament, Killing them slowly “For the fabulous combo of outstanding RP and useful Warlockery”, Righteous Defense, Krasus Kronicles,, Righteous Orbs, MMO Melting pot, Shy At Wow, MMO Champion, Tree Bark Jacket.

Healertrek nominated Matt Low both at World of Matticus and WoW Insider:

"Matt Low is probably the face of the healing wow community, and although he does get some assistance from co-writers at WOM, he still manages to produce multiple quality articles every month. Plus, his perspective on raiding and leading a raiding guild provide valuable insights to other guild officers and even the regular guild members of other guilds who wonder what goes on behind the scenes."

Fidjit suggested Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual:

“Updates might be a bit slower than other blogs, but I've found every single post on "Cynwise's Battlefield Manual" to be absolutely top notch. Extraordinarily detailed, insightful and entertaining."

Shintar nominated Klepsacovic from Troll Racials Are Overpowered:

"Sometimes he strays into crazy rambling territory, but he does update more frequently and more reliably than anyone else I read. That's worth a lot, especially on a quiet Sunday afternoon."

OK, I admit it. This category gave me a severe headache. The previous winners - Tobold and Spinksville were so obvious and outstanding. This year we had several strong candidates and I just couldn't make up my mind. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Righteous Orbs, and they’ve provided a ton of excellently written walls of text over the year, how more solid can you really get? But on the other hand, they've already gotten plenty of other awards.

I hesitated for the longest between Klepsacovic - who indeed is reliable in his updating, although possibly not so "solid", rather a little unpredictable and crazy - and Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket, who all year long has provided posts on a constantly high standard level, along with fantastic guides for resto druids. But in the end, I ended up with someone else.

The winner is: We Fly Spitfires!

Motivation: Gordon is one of those rather rare bloggers who manages to combine high quality writing with a good frequency. He has a wide perspective and doesn't only write about WoW, but also about other MMO:s. But even when he writes about games that I don't play and have no plans on ever trying out, he manages to grasp my attention. His writing is solid, smart and sometimes personal. As a matter of fact, the more personal he becomes, the better are his posts. Sometimes I disagree with Gordon; as a matter of fact quite often, which is one of the reasons why this blog is so worth to follow. When I look for blogs, I look for those that not only tells me what I already knew, but who also challenge me once in a while.

Most hugged blogger

Nominated: Miss Mediocre, Vidyala (Puggin’Pally and Manalicious), Cold’s gold factory, Rhii, Issy, Gnomeaggedon, Apple.

Tobold got a nomination in this category, which took me a little by surprise. He's one of my favourite bloggers, that's for sure, but it hadn't occurred to me that he had hugging potential.

Helertrek argued:

"One of the most solid content providers of the past two years has gotten into some battles but keeps blogging and coming back strong because his community supports him well. There's nobody that stands out like Phaelia and BRK from a year ago, but Tobold deserves all his hugs as well!"

Pike from Aspect of the Hare got a lot of love:

“The outpouring of support when she brought up having financial problems recently was quite impressive. Though not as impressive as that in response to her favourite pet's model getting changed... Hunters. They like to stick together”

"Sweet girl, great site, loving fans."

The winner is: Gnomeaggedon!

Motivation: How do you sense that a blogger should be hugged? You just know it. Frankly I can't think of anyone more huggable in the entire blogosphere. Gnomeaggedon is one of those who make the blogosphere into a better place. He's got an eye for details, a sharp pen and a sparkling sense of humour. But also a big heart. If he ever spots something written between the lines in a post of mine, that might indicate that I'm a tad low, you can bet that he'll write me a worried letter, wondering what's up and if I want to talk about it. In November 2010 he brought his writing to a new level with a series of posts about his personal experiences of suffering from depression, including good advice to others who might be in the same situation. I think it was the bravest writing I've ever seen since I started to blog. It's about time that someone gives him a hug.

Hottest blogosphere topic

Nominated: Markco vs Gevlon. Gevlon’s Undergeared project, 10 vs 25 man raiding changes coming in Cataclysm.Fail PUG stories, Hillarious misrepresentation by GTFOOTF for the JMTC blogging carnivals. Whether being an asshole is bad or not.

Real ID got a couple of nominations:

"Not only does it count as the most controversial happening in the community at large, but Real ID set the blogging community on fire more than any Cataclysmic announcements. Whether you were for or against the changes, everybody had something to say."

Shintar and many with her suggested "the whole feminism debate":

"There was some good and thought-provoking stuff in there, but it went on for so long and got so heated after a while that I just wanted it to go away eventually.

"Frostheimgate" or whatever you want to call it would probably make a pretty decent runner-up though. And if bronze medals were to be given out as well, I'd give one to the whole "harassing bad roleplayers" affair early in the year."

The winner is: The giant sexism kerfuffle!

Motivation: Ever since I started blogging, gender related topics have been on the agenda a few times every year. How is it to be a woman in a male heavy guild? Is it an advantage or disadvantage, are their differences in how we're treated or not? Do or don't our boobs make us different to other gamers? However, the summer and early autumn 2010 was different. It was the year of the "giant sexism kerfuffle", as Rhii named it (thank you very much; I fumbled for a label that was wider than just "women" or "feminism".)

We didn't just talk about players this time around; we also looked into the game design and discussed the stereotypes, female as male. Chastity at Righteous Orbs explained why he found it easier to identify with a female avatar than with a male, whose neck was thicker than his head. The discussion was heated to say the least, and chainlightened between a great many blog, including those posts at The Pink Pigtail Inn. Eventually I think we were all so exhausted that we needed a break for a while. But I have a feeling it won't be long before someone picks it up again.

Best writer

Nominated: Inkobah of Twinkinfo.com, Klepsacovic of Troll Racials are Overpowered, Saga at Girl's don't play WoW, Vixsin at Life in Group 5, Gnomeaggedon, Cynwise from Cynwise’s Blog Empire, Miss Mediocre, Ratshag, Pewter at 'Mental Shaman "for analytical writing", Rades at Orcish Army Knife "for evocative lore filled, beautiful posts".

Ano wrote two long motivations for his favorites:

Vidyala (formerly of pugging pally, now blogging at Manalicious and guesting raaaaather a lot at Sword & Board) is consistently excellent. She's always been witty, informative, irreverant, playful, serious and a bunch of other adjectives which should be contradictory but aren't in her case. Plus it's all accompanied by her wonderful illustrations. Who else could offer an entirely useful recipe and give it true Azerothian flavour?”

Rades at Orcish Army Knife has always written well, but particularly over the back half of the year, seems to have caught fire a little. Nowhere is this more evident than the letters to Northrend series he did for NaNoWriMo this year. I was worried earlier in the year, when I found myself actually caring about some lore or other having read one too many of his lore-related posts. I was exasperated when, having thought I'd come up with blogging gold ("Deathwing is just a stooge - there's something behind him and I can write about it!") he proceeded to write about the same subject with such depth and skill I deleted my draft in self-disgust. And then I read the Letters to Northrend series.

Healertrek nominated John Patricelli at Big Bear Butt:

"I'm not a tank, this I accept. Sure I find it fun on the Death Knight from time to time, but my attempt to tank with my druid have been fail fail fail. However, Patricelli explains things so well about tanking that even I feel like I can get it (as a healer). That's a great achievement, and he's entertaining to read to boot. Definitely my favorite read of 2010."

This was yet another very difficult category. All the suggestions are excellent choices. I’m particularly intrigued by the fact that there seem to be so many good shaman writers. Is there some kind of chain lightening going on there? Apart from the already mentioned Pewter and Vixsin, we also have Charles at Planet of the Hats. He’s not one of the most productive bloggers and he’s not in the centre of the action, but oh, that man can write!

In the end though, I settled for a non-shaman.

The winner is: Chastity at Righteous Orbs!

Motivation: For some reason people tend to mix up Chastity with his fellow blogger Tamarind and I thought it was about time to make it clear that they’re two different persons and two different writers, with different writing style and temperament. Tam, who got the award last year is a brilliant writer - but so is Chastity. It isn’t just that his writing is fluid and pleasant to read, and that I think Chastity could write a good blog post about just any topic you tossed to him. He also has the ability to really get through to the reader, to touch them, set them on fire, make them feel, think and react. More often than not, Chastities posts will spark a discussion, as for instance in the case of The giant sexism kerfuffle. And when this happens Chastity goes into his PvP mode and keeps writing in the comment section, even more furious, precise and poignant. But even in his rabid-dog-who-never-lets-go mode, he always remains sharp and intelligent. The blogosphere would be quite a deal duller if Chastity wasn’t there.

A few final words
So this was it. The Pink Pigtail List of 2010 is complete. I will post the final look of it in a summary below.

But first I want to thank everyone who contributed with suggestions. While we do have a one-man jury, I have taken a lot of inspiration from the nominations.

As I've been working with this list, I've realized that it's somewhat incomplete. Why do I award podcasts, but not videocasts? Wouldn't it be appropriate to have an award for the best WoW comic? Or what about giving out genre awards: the best druid blog of the year, PvP blog, gold making blog or guild leadership blog of the year?

There's a lot more you could do of this yearly event. If I’m still around blogging next year, I might do a few changes to the list. Feel free to come with suggestions!

Only one thing remains: to bring out a toast for all the winners. Congratulations to your well deserved awards!

Cheers!

1. Best raid instance: Icecrown Citadel
2. Least successful raid instance: Ruby Santcum
3. Most longed for instance: Black Temple
4. Silliest gold sink: The Sparkling Pony
5. Biggest addition to the game: The Dungeon Finder Tool
6. Best quest: The retaking of Gnomeregan and Echo Isles
7. Ugliest tabard: Loremaster’s Colors
8. Favorite non combat pet: Core Hound Pup
9. Biggest community controversy: The Battle of Real ID on the forums
10. Most charming Blizzard employee: Nethaera
11. Best podcast: The Obscurecast
12. Biggest blog facelift: Manalicious
13. Most memorable blog post: An open letter to Blizzard by Shades of Grey
14. Most noticed blogger breakthrough: MMO Melting Pot
15. Most solid content provider: We Fly Spitfires
16. Most hugged blogger: Gnomeaggedon
17. Hottest blogosphere topic: The giant sexism kerfuffle
18. Best writer: Chastity at Righteous Orbs

The Pink Pigtail Inn Awards of 2010 – The community

Welcome to the third part in the series of announcements of The Pink Pigtail Inn awards of 2010. This time we’re looking further into the categories that fall into the community area, except for those that concern the blogosphere. Those awards will be presented separately.

Let’s get started!

Biggest community controversy

Nominated: Gender politics, Real ID, The Ensidia 36-hour ban for a rogue using saronite bombs on the Lich King encounter, Continued failure to nerf [other class], Purchasable mounts (aka the Sparklepony Fiasco), women in WoW, GTFOOTF Vs. Markco's Blogging Carnival,

The blogging community talked a lot about gender politics during 2009, that's for sure. However there's a special category for blogging hot topics, where those nominations would fit better.

This leaves us with two strong candidates. Last year this category was named "Most juicy guild drama", and if the label had remained this way, we would have a clear winner in Ensidia. The banhammer hit them so hard that I don't think they ever fully recovered from it.

The other candidate of course is Real ID.

"I deleted my blog because of it, so did others", said Quiet Kjun.

Rhii says: "It actually got me to the forums to add my vote! I use Real ID, but I like to use it on my own terms and have the choice to opt out. Go Blizzard for backing down."


The winner is: The Battle of Real ID on the forums!

Motivation: Some of the commenters suggested that Real ID wasn't a worthy candidate, since there wasn't any controversy about it; everyone was at the same side. I would argue against though. Initially, before Blizzard decided to back off, they were on a clashing course with a huge and very vocal chunk of the community. I think the strong reactions took them a little by surprise. It didn't take them too long to back off from it though, and the community was just as quick to forgive and move on. However I think it was a bit of an eye-opener for many of us to fully begin to grasp where Blizzard was heading, trying to grasp their market share of the social media market, anxious to keep up with their time and not being left behind.

Some players embraced it. Others, old farts like me, are still not convinced that this change of direction is for the better. We want to let our fantasy world remain a fantasy, a different place where we secretly can go under cover and be someone else.

Most charming Blizzard employee

Nominated: “The GM who gave me a replacement dress after I picked a duplicate”, Zarhym and Bashiok (“They’re like the blue Koltira/Thassarian.”), Nethaera

If you asked all WoW players to name one Blizzard employee, I bet the vast majority couldn't come up with a single name. They play a cool game and as long as it works, they're happy. Who cares about the guy behind it? Not even Ghostrcrawler's fame reaches any further than to the most dedicated and nerdy WoW players who can't just stick to playing the game, but wants to read about it and think about it even as they're off line.

However, this list was made by and for such geeks, so let's see what we have in store this year. Ghostcrawler himself, previously rewarded, is out of the competition. But what about the rest? Well, for my own part I couldn't help being a little charmed by Chris Metzen's "Geek is" presentation at Blizzcon. Sure, it was very cheap and simple rhetoric, a neat little trick, but it did the job. Another one I have a good eye to is Russell Brower, who is head of the music production for the game. The podcast The Instance has had him in the show a couple of times, and he was every so charming in the interviews.

I also loved Bashiok for his reckless act of bravery when he stood up for Real ID, posting his name, and became a victim for the cruel revenge of the mob.

But...

The winner is: Nethaera!

Motivation: Nethaera makes the forums to a better place with her presence. She doesn't just display maturity, balance and knowledge; she also comes out as a warm, caring and charming person who has earned a big respect in the community, without ever falling into the gender trap. She's awesome because she's awesome in herself, not because she happens to be a woman and a rare spawn.

If you want to see any more proof of Nethaera's qualities, I suggest that you go and check out Miss Medicina, who devoted an entire blogpost to a celebration of Nethaera.

Best podcast

Nominated: Obscurecast, Castaclysm, The Instance, Rawrcast, Blue Plz!, Ventchat, WoWphiles.

Of all the podcasts nominated I think WoWphiles has the most devoted fans. They were nominated multiple times, with declarations love such as this one:

"I've listened to several podcasts, one however, seems to stand above the rest. WoWPhiles. They have a group of the funniest, as well as insightful show hosts I have had the pleasure to listen to.Episode #50, for example, "Twas the Night Before Cataclysm" Awesome poetry work by Jason Zimmerman, and wonderful topic discussion on the recent shattering changes to our virtual world."

Some readers thought I should award Blue Plz! again, even if it won last year, just because it's that good.

But while I do enjoy the sarcasms of the Cynical Brit as much as anyone else, I think it's good to spread the love a little and give others the chance to get a moment in the spotlight.

I struggled quite a bit to make up my mind for a winner. Two podcasts in particular stood out to me as final candidates. The first one was The Instance, which is a lovely counterweight to all the whining and negativism in the community. It's a podcast that is made with a contagious smile.

However.

The winner is: The Obscurecast !

Motivation: Gazimoff and Pewter have a wonderful banter and a dynamic that really works. As opposed to many other duo led Podcasts they manage to make the listener feel invited to the party. There aren't any inside jokes or bursts of uncalled for giggling. They have pleasant voices, interesting stuff to say, a good mixture of news coverage and timeless topics. Occasionally they have guests appearances, and they're always well chosen. Over the course of the year, the show has only gotten better. There's no doubt that Mana Obscurea is a rising star and a worthy winner of the title Best Podcast 2010.

Did I hear someone say I'm biased because it's from Europe and Gazimoff plays a mage like I do? Noooo, that surely couldn't be, how would that look? Shush.

The End
And that's all for this time. One more announcement remains, the one that covers the blogosphere. BRB!

The Pink Pigtail Inn Awards of 2010 – Things we saw in-game

Welcome to part two in the series where we present The Pink Pigtail List of 2010. Today we'll look closer at some things we saw in game, ranging from huge game changing additions to the not quite as serious competition for the ugliest tabard

Silliest gold sink

Nominated: Mechano-Hogs, Dalaran rings, raiding, Harison Pilton achievement bags, Hyacinth macaw, monocles, The Insane title, Chimaeric chops ("like 3K for an old world cooking recipe? Really?”), Sparkling Pony.

If you look at the number of nominations, the chopper looks like a winner. As Shintar commented:

"Not only are they ludicrously expensive, their sound effects are annoying as hell. I can listen to cars driving outside my window all day, thanks. I don't need that to invade my fantasy world".

On one level I could agree with her, but on the other hand, I must admit that I've enjoyed it quite a bit every time I've been given a ride in them as a passenger. They may be noisy, ugly and unsuitable for a fantasy game, but they're kind of fun and I can actually understand pretty well why some players are willing to pay a lot to get it.

The winner is: The Sparkling Pony!

Motivation: The suggestion came from Redbeard, with the motivation: "You didn't mention whether it was real coin or virtual gold". And he's right of course.

I know there are some of you out there who bought this mount and love to get it on all your alts, ready to ride as well as fly. But I couldn't help finding the sight of a huge, armor covered warrior flying around on that over-sweetened sparkly little creature that could have been taken straight out of "My Little Pony, rather ridiculous.

You don't see much of these ponies around anymore. I doubt it's because people don't have them. I just think the sparkles faded quicker than Blizzard could put the money into the bank.

Biggest addition to the game

Nominated: 4.0 revamp of all classes and their talent trees, new race/class combos, Level 10 keystone ability, Cataclysm, the glyph system, old World flying, the Dungeon Finder tool.

If you disregard of Cataclysm, being launched in towards the very end of 2010, there wasn't much new content released in 2010 in the terms of new quests, instances, things-to-do. We raided ICC until the very thought of the voice of Sindragosa made us want to throw up something. And then we just waited. And waited. However, for the lack of content, there have been quite a few changes changes that I suspect will make veterans from vanilla, returning from a couple of years of absence to check out Cataclysm raise their eyebrows.

Apart from the nominations I can easily think of other candidates, such as the changes in the quest design, which began in Wrath with novelties such as vehicle questing and phasing.

Or take the changes to the UI, which have made the life of the first-time WoW player way easier and many addons obsolete.

However: the choice was pretty easy. There was one change to the game that made WoW of 2010 very different to what it had been in 2009.

The winner is: The Dungeon Finder Tool!

Motivation: Strictly speaking the Dungeon Finder it was introduced in the 3.3 patch of December 2009, but in 2010 it became an institution. Loved and hated – it changed the game, making instance runs easy accessible for everyone, guildied as unguilded. At the same time it became a threat against the existing social structures in WoW such as server communities and guilds. The horror-Pug stories flourished in the blogosphere. Everyone knew how bad it could be, and many of us thought that the one-night-stand character of the pug groups made them feel hollow, leaving a bad taste in the mouth. And yet we kept entering the lottery over and over again. After all it was convenient.

Best quest

Nominated: The Shadowmourne chain, Harrison Jones Uldum questline, Loken chain in Storm Peaks, Venomhide Raptor chain, The Drakuru questline, Battle of Lordaeron, Echo Isles/Reclaiming Gnomeregan, Start a Bar Fight – on the new ship down in Thousand Needles
The Cultist quests in the major cities, Sons of Hodir quest chain in StormPeaks, Crusader Bridenbrad, in Icecrown

For all the suggestions, the competition in this category wasn't exactly bleeding this year. Cataclysm is swamped with worthy candidates and picking the best one will be hard, if this award is still around next year. Quests such as Crusader Bridanbrad or the Loken chain had been out for so long that it hardly felt 2010 specific.

The Shadowmourne questline was a strong candidate; it gave guilds an interesting and challenging long-term project to work on, a true feat of strength. However there were only ever so few players in the game that experienced it first hand, and this pulled down the grade a bit.

So the end candidates boiled down to the pre-events of Cataclysm, with the retaking of Echo Isles/Gnomeregan respectively the cultist quests in the major cities.

The winner is: The retaking of Gnomeregan and Echo Isles!

Motivation: Admittedly there was a little lacking in the execution. Especially the end quest in the battle at Gnomeregan tended to bug out if someone moved to close to the entrance too early. That was a downer, as well as the fairly short length of it. But the fact remains that I had great fun either I was drilled as an army recruit or dancing with the trolls. It gave us few laughs and a nice gnome costume and a pre-taste of what was soon to come.

Ugliest tabard

Nominated: Tabard of the Lightbringer, “All, except Isle of Conquest”, Tabard of the Achiever, Kirin Tor, Wyrmrest (“I know it’s ineligible, but it’s really really ugly”), Loremaster’s Colors.

I don’t know what it is about tabards, but to be honest, just like one of the commenters, I find most of them more or less ugly. If I wear them, it’s always for a good utility reason. In dungeons, to get reputation. Or as in the case of the Argent Tournament tabard: to get a free teleport. I wish I could wear my guild tabard with pride. But I can’t. It’s ugly like everyone else’s.

However there was no doubt one among all those tabards that was just outstanding in its ugliness. I wasn’t aware of its existence before I got the suggestion in several nominations (it was the by far most nominated tabard.) And no wonder! I can’t blame the owners of it for not using it. I would hide it deep down in the darkest corners of the bank vault if I were in their place.

The winner is: Loremaster’s Colors!

Motivation: I think the guy who designed this tabard wanted to be clever, but for all the cleverness, you can’t come away from the fact that it looks plain horrible in combination with any armor you can think of in the game. And to be honest this is a bit of a shame considering the huge amount of effort the owners of it have gone through to get it.

As Ale put it in a comment:

“One works their booty off to complete all the quests and their reward is an ugly tabard with a giant yellow exclamation point. It is just so lame, fugly and a huge disappointment.”

And as if the ugliness wasn't enough, it might also have other consequences to wear it. I'm not sure if the following remark at Wowhead is entirely truthful, but it sure made me smile:

"I found myself unable to wear it as random strangers began offering me wagons of beaver colons in the (unrealistic) hopes that I would return their efforts with money and/or phat lewts."

Favourite non combat pet

Nominated: Curious Wolvar Pup “Nothing beats a pet with a story”, Captured firefly,Argent Tournament Page, The phoenix, Moonkin Hatchling, Lil’XT, Perky Pug, Core hound Pup Deathy, Waurpetinger, Wind Rider cub, Spirit Darter Hatchling, Chuck, Pandaren Monk.

Rhii suggested Sen'Jin Fetish, from the Argent Tournament:

“I love the different masks this pet wears, and the jungle drums that play when you summon it. I also love that it's not all that common, despite being easily available from the tourney and BOE"

I was frankly a little overwhelmed by all those nominations. So many pets! And so many new and beautiful and clever ones, far more advanced and interesting than the relatively crude vanilla pets. (Sorry Snowshoe, I didn’t mean that, you’re still one of my favourites, OK?)

This could explain why Blizzard has been too busy to produce any new Wrath content over the year. The staff had all been re-assigned into the pet industry. No, just kidding. Probably the pet design doesn’t compete for the same resources, and I suspect it isn’t that time consuming anyway. But obviously it’s something that has climbed on their priority list, especially after Blizzard saw the success of their experiments in offering non combat pets for real money. There was definitely a gold mine waiting to be explored! The charity polish they put on the surface couldn’t hide it.

I must admit that I find some of them incredibly cute as well. Especially the Moonkin Hatchling is absolutely adorable. But cute or not, I was never a fan of the concept to buy pure game items for real money, so I couldn’t stomach making it my favourite non combat pet for the year.

The winner is: Core Hound pup!

Motivation: The Core Hound pup was released in December 2009, too late to be considered for an award that year. But I think it deserves an award. As TM put it: “Cute AND foils hackers”.

Either I bring him out or keep him in my bags, I know that my Core hound pup will bite the pesky hackers in their legs. How couldn’t you love such a creature?

There’s a lot of hacking going on out there – I got about ten e-mail attempts to steal my account just the last couple of weeks – and we have every reason to do what we can to protect ourselves and our guilds. And the pet that comes with it is just so adorable, that even if it was sold on a stand-alone basis, I would be tempted to temper with my principles not to buy game items for real money

The End
And that's it for tonight. Next up are the community awards.

The Pink Pigtail Inn Awards of 2010 – The instances

Ladies and Gentlemen!

May I ask for your attention for a little while? I hope you've grabbed a drink, in case you haven't help yourself over at the bar; it's set on free for all tonight. This is a special occasion as you all know. Time has come to announce the winners of The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2010.

It’s quite an extensive list, so I’ve decided to chop it into four parts. We’ll start off lightly with an appetizer, namely the instance categories.

Next up will be a hotch potch soup, which I’ve labelled “Things we saw in-game”, which contains miscellaneous WoW-related classes.

After this it’s time for the main course – the community. And finally - hopefully this week - I’ll proudly present the dessert, which I think is what a majority of you care most about anyway – the Blogosphere awards.

I called for nominations a couple of weeks ago, and I got a lot of comments, letters and suggestions posted on other blogs and I want to thank you all for the input. I may not have followed your advice (which actually would be rather undoable, since it’s pointing in all sorts of directions), but it has definitely given me inspiration and helped me to sort out my own thoughts.

The rules once again, in case someone missed it.
- Winners who have gotten it previous year are not eligible for the same category the following year.
- The intention is that the list if possible should reflect content that was released during or very close to 2010.
- Any content from Cataclysm including the Shattering patch will not be taken into consideration.

And now I think we’re ready for the appetizer! So let’s head back in time and remember the instances from 2010.

Ahem…. To be absolutely honest with you I must admit that there wasn’t much of a competition. There weren’t exactly a swarm of instances launched this year, when Blizzard still followed the Wrath concept: “You shall only raid in one instance at a time and you shall raid it so many times that you never ever want to see it again” rather than the TBC and Cataclysm concept: “We offer parallel raid instances to give you a choice and some variation of scenery.”

However: tradition is tradition, so let’s stick to it and announce the first category:

Best raid instance

Nominated: Icrecrown Citadel, Ulduar.

I wouldn't believe that there would be any competition in this category. I dont' think there is a single raider out there who would rank Ruby Sanctum as a better instance than ICC.

And since Ulduar won the category for 2009, it was basically disqualified from the start. Everyone didn't agree with this though. Sthenno argued that Ulduar was just so good that it deserves to break the rules. "ICC was fine, but calling it the best while Ulduar is still around seems like it might be illegal."

Shintar nominated ICC, while adding: "It was good for a while, but it was annoying and tedious for even longer".

The winner is: Icecrown Citadel!

Motivation: I almost gave in to the idea to give Ulduar the award a second time, but in the end it goes to ICC. After all, no one can deny that it was a well crafted instance with a lot of interesting mechanics, including the green dragon that gave healers a bit of variety to the normal staring on the raid health bars. The LK fight alone, which included several challenging phases and even a piece of cinematic - was good enough to motivate an award. There was nothing wrong about ICC per se. The fact that we didn't have anything else to raid for almost a year is an entirely different issue.

Least successful raid instance

Nominated: Ruby Santcum; Naxxramas, ToC

It was pretty easy not to like Ruby Sanctum, that's for sure. Here are a sample from the comments:

"Odd tuning next to the already heavily nerfed ICC. Would have been better if released earlier.

"A lot of trash for loot no one needed."

"The timing of its release seemed off. It came when people were burned out on raiding and waiting on Cata."

"The least successful instances aren't actually those that people complain about, it's those that they don't even care to go into. There was only one such raid that fit that bill this year: the Ruby Sanctum. I think it's a bit of a shame actually because Halion wasn't a terrible boss. He just felt kind of out of place, both in terms of lore and in terms of difficulty."

The winner is: Ruby Sanctum!

Motivation: I agree with what's been sad. I'll just add this final one, from Rhii:

“We didn't run this on my server. Nobody hardly ran it, guilds didn't run it. PUGs didn't run it. Nobody ran it. I wanted to run it, but if people stay away in droves, something's wrong.”

A boss that no one cares about doing can hardly be considered successful. It felt as if the effort Blizzard had put into that fight was half hearted. Their attention, as well as the attention of the players, was already turned towards Cataclysm.

Most longed for instance

Nominated: Ruby Sanctum, Cataclysm, Coliseum, Frost boss in Wintergrasp, Halls of Reflection/The ICC instances, Black Temple, Heroic Deadmines/Heroic SFK

There were more nominations in this category than I had anticipated. Not really putting much thought into it, I reckoned it was Ruby Sanctum, since it was the only content that had been released. I was wrong.

Toravon in VoA was launched in February, and I reckon some players waited his arrival with huge expectations. Personally I didn't to be honest. I never thought that the VoA was that much of fun. If anything I associate it to all sorts of PuG failures, including "ooops I'm saved" incidents, ninja looting and unreasonable gear score and "already have achievement" expectations. Yet another boss wouldn't change anything.

I agree that Halls of Reflection was an interesting and challenging instance that we had waited for a long time to get; at last a new addition to the 5-mans. But since it was launched in December 2009, the longing was already something in the past.

So what about Ruby Sanctum then? Well, the more I think, the more I realize that there probably weren't that many players who really, really longed for it. We knew it was nothing but a filler. Most people were just waiting for Cataclysm and couldn't be bothered anymore with Wrath at that point.

So I decided to listen to advice from the readers.

The winner is: Black Temple!

Motivation: This might be a bit of a cheat: the list is supposed to cover content from 2010. But you could as well read this category as something we longed for that we had left behind. This year's nostalgic trip. I will leave the word to Shintar, who gave the suggestion:

"I'm finding it hard to pick anything here because we spent all year longing for Cataclysm. I don't think anyone really longed for Ruby Sanctum to come out (and if they did, they were probably disappointed quite quickly). I suppose some of us were longing for the Ulduar days, but Ulduar already won this category last year. Personally I think I mostly longed for the Black Temple, remembering what it was like for raiding to truly hold my interest until the very end of an expansion."

The End
And that's all for today. We'll soon be back with the continuation of the PPI list of 2010. Cheers!

Call for nominations for The Pink Pigtail Inn list of 2010

Ladies and gentlemen, may I call for your attention?

I know your minds are currently blown away by the Cataclysm, but nevertheless I have a small request for a little bit of assistance. You can look at it as a piece of entertainment, something to keep you going while the activity in the blogopshere goes down due to the Christmas season.

For the third year in row, I'm going to put together The Pink Pigtail Inn list, where I appoint winners in a number of categories, covering different aspects of WoW and the WoW community. during the past year. And just like I did 2009, I'm asking for your assistance to refresh my memory.

Who do you think should win those categories, and for what reason? Suggest your favorites for one or several categories, as many as you like. You can write it in a comment to this post, or send an e-mail to larisascorner at gmail dot com. If you're a blogger you're free to put up a post about it, just make sure that I see it by leaving a comment or sending me a note.

The rules

First of all: here are the rules:

• You can nominate almost anyone including yourself. But you can't nominate Larísa or The Pink Pigtail Inn for obvious reasons. And you can't nominate someone who previously has received the award for the same category. (Another category is OK). The reason is that I want to share the love a bit. It makes it more fun for everyone.
  
• The list is intended to focus on 2010. Cataclysm arrived at the very end of the year, however I've decided that Cataclysm content will be ruled out from this list since there has been so little time to experience and evaluate the new content. You can nominate anything that arrived before the Shattering patch. It's OK to nominate content that was released in 2009 since 2010 was a rather thin year when it comes to new tabards, pets, instances etc.
• You can suggest a completely new category and nominate a candidate for it. I might like it so much that I'll pick it up.
• The jury consists of Larísa. My decision will definitely be inspired by your suggestions, especially if they come with good arguments. But it's not a popularity contest where the one with the most votes automatically will win. And no, I don't take bribes.
• The prize for the category winners is the same as always: fame and honor, a special seat at The Pink Pigtail Inn and a virtual toast. If the winners want to design some kind of badge to decorate their blog, they're free to do so. But as far as I'm concerned, all I give out is my love and admiration.
  
• You can keep nominating until I've announced the list, which won't happen until I'm back from my trip, in the beginning of January.
  

The categories
And now over to the categories. Under each one I've listed the winners from previous years, who accordingly can't be nominated again. In a couple of cases I've already decided to change the name of the category slightly to make it a little wider.

1. Best raid instance

2009: Ulduar
2008: Zul Aman

2. Least successful raid instance

2009: Eye of Eternity
2008: Sunwell

3. Most longed for instance

2009: Ulduar
2008: Magisters Terrace

4. Silliest gold sink

2009: The Dun Niffelem Mammoths
2008: Gold Eterium Band

5. Biggest addition to the game

2009: Dual spec
2008: Achievements

6. Best quest

2009:The Quel'delar chain
2008: The Wrathgate quest chain

7. Ugliest tabard

2009:Wyrmrest Accord
2008: Competitor’s Tabard

8. Favorite non combat pet

2009: Onyxia Whelpling
2008: The Phoenix Hatchling

9. Biggest community controversy

Comment: Renamed from "Most juicy guild drama". I decided to make the category wider. Please not that there's a special category for the hottest blog topic.

2009: The Martin Fury incident
2008: The merging of SK Gaming and Nihilum into Ensidia

10. Most charming Blizzard employee

2009: Patric Beja
2008: Ghostcrawler

11. Best podcast

2009: Blue Plz!
2008: Twisted Nether

12. Biggest blog facelift

2009: Righteous Orbs
2008: World of Matticus

13. Most memorable blog post

2009: Archetypes of the Female Gamer, revisited
2008: Noob world reorder

14. Most noticed blogger breakthrough

2009: Greedy Goblin
2008: Chick GM

15.Most solid content provider

2009: Welcome to Spinksville
2008: Tobold’s

16. Most hugged blogger

2009: Phaelia and BRK
2008: Big Bear Butt

17. Hottest blogosphere topic

Comment: The category is renamed from "Blog drama of the year" to make it a little wider.

2009: The Ferraro debacle
2008: N/A

18. Best writer

2009: Tamarind at Righteous Orbs
2008: N/A

And that was the list. Now please go ahead make your voice heard! I'm looking forward to the input.

The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009 - The Blogosphere

Fanfare! Time has come for the fourth and concluding part in the series of The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009.

Before announcing the winners I'd just like to vent a little bit about sitting in the jury. It's been hard work to put together the previous list posts, thanks to all those excellent suggestions I've got from the community. And this post, where I'm putting the spotlights on the WoW blogosphere is no exception. As a matter of fact it's been worse this time. There are hundreds, or I should probably rather say thousands of excellent WoW blogs out there. I only manage to follow a minority of them, and even within my little sample, there are just too many posts, too much talent over the place to pick one in front of the other. No matter what I pick, I'll make the wrong decision according to someone.

But I'm no coward and I promised you a list, so you will get one.

In the last minute I decided to add a couple of new categories. I know, you haven't been able to nominate to the new classes, but you've inspired me there too and you'll get the opportunity next year, right?

Ready? Here we go!

1. Biggest blog facelift

Nominated: WeFlySpitfires, The Rawrcast blog, The Hunting Lodge, Paladin Schmaladin .

" I believe Nibuca of Mystic Chicanery did a some tweaking and layout changes this year, which look fabulous. I love her blogroll buttons!"

"Tree Bark Jacket had a major face lift earlier in the year and the new site looks fantastic. While there wasn’t anything wrong with the old look, the overhaul has categories and additional pages which makes finding information simple. The header is also very beautiful."

"Daniel Howell, BRK to Brain Needed Space. Still follow him as often as he posts. He can write."

Miss Medicina is cheating a bit by nominating two. But she does it in such a good way that I have to quote a long passage:

"I'm going to give this a somewhat liberal translation, and assume it means something beyond just a new "look". In that case, Forbearance and Righteous Orbs are a tie for me. Forbearance for combining the forces of the illestretpally Jong with the random rapping of OOMegan. Righteous Orbs for throwing together Sissy Robe donning Tamarind with math geek Ideathtard Chas. Both are perfect examples of combined forces in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Since he wasn't nominated by anyone else I also would like to mention Krizzlybear at Frost is the new black. He moved from a standard blogspot platform in january to his current wordpress and while at it he threw out the white-text-on-black-background, which I'm really no friend of at all, changing it into a bright, easy-to-read layout. It's a facelift indeed.

The winner is: Righteous Orbs!

Motivation: I'm all with Medicina. The marriage of the blogs I deathtard and Standing in the back in my Sissy robe, was the happiest we ever saw in the blogosphere. We spotted their talent before, but when this new blog was launched, it sparked something more. Righteous Orbs is also very close to my ideal picture of a WoW blog. It's very simple, it's bright, it's easy to read, it doesn't make my eyes hurt and it draws my attention to the very posts and not to anything else, such as ads and banners

2. Most memorable blog post

Nominated:
MMO champion's predictions on Cataclysm,
Gevlon's clearing Ulduar in Blues,
The good bye post from Resto4Life - "I was very sad to see her take her leave, but extremely happy to know that she was embarking on a new and exciting quest in her life!",
BRK's goodbye
"I'm Coming Out" at Arkslaw - "I have never seen such a mixture of true confessions meets wow insight."
Rawrcast called the reworking of old world before it was announced.
Scourge chat log #1,
Miss Medicina’s Healing Survey,
Tamarind's first time in Ulduar: Flame Leviathan v. Golf Caddy,
Ixo's trip to Blizzard,
Mortigan the Lock’s Single Set of Raid Rules

Tobold is Gevlon
WoW.com's investigation into the Ferraro(s)

Greedy Goblin calling out Markco - Miss Medicina's motivation: "Perhaps this is only because it is somewhat recent, but the Gevlon v Marko post (in which I learned that *popcorn* is, in fact, a valid emote), which elicited commentary from multiple wow blogs was immensely entertaining."

All the nominated posts were really brilliant, for very different reasons. How could you possibly chose between Gevlon's already classic post about raiding in blue gear or Ixobelle's fearless recounts from his equally fearless attacks towards the Blizzard headquarters?

However I decided to go for a different post, nominated only by myself.

The winner is: Archetypes of the Female Gamer, revisited by Sydera at World of Matticus

Motivation: This post wasn't only thoroughly researched and thought out and very well written. It also sparked a following debate. The 200 or so comments are just as readworthy as the post itself, and Sydera did what I wish more bloggers would do - throwing herself into an engaging discussion with her readers, making us THINK. I love personal, opinion style blogging, and Sydera did it just splendidly - and actually made me rethink my own position about feminism and stereotypes a bit. And besides - it must have taken quite a bit of courage and integrity to do challenge her fellow blogger at World of Matticus.

3. Most noticed blogger breakthrough

Nominated: Life in Group 5, Hots and Dots, The Hunting Lodge, Restokin - " Lissanna posts regularly and has a fantastic balance of both fun entertaining entries alongside informative and engaging pieces", Sideshow and Syrana, Killing'em Slowly, Dungeons and Daenei, Outdps - "He’s filled the void for me from BRK leaving. He’s not as serious and certainly not quite the writer Daniel is, but his blog is really well organized and full of useful information. And he posts often and with enthusiasm.".

"Miss Medicina certainly got the spotlight’s attention with her fabulous Circle of Healers questionnaire! I thought it was innovative, and she did a super job of keeping track of everyone’s answers!"

Tamarind and Chastity at Righteous Orbs. Rarely do you find a blog where every post is going to be insightful, or screamingly funny, or both. They deliver.

"A toss up between Righeous Orbs, Spinksville, and Ms. Medicina. I think this might be the single most difficult category. Ro has the best writing, Spikns has the best coverage, MM has the most useful information. An extremely close contest. I'm forcing myself to chose here but I am going to go with Righteous Orbs. I do think that they had the most noticed *breakthrough* even if they don't get the hits that MM does. In other words, when they came on the scene they came with a splash as opposed to MM or Spinks which have grown slowly."

There were also a number of nominations for Gevlon at Greedy Goblin.

The winner is: Greedy Goblin!

Motivation: Greedy Goblin started to blog in 2008, but it was in 2009 that he had his big breakthrough, so I think he's eligible for the award this year.

I know everyone in the blogosphere doesn't love Gevlon's writings, and especially not his political views. But no matter where you're standing you can't deny that he has made quite an impact at the community. Just have a look at the nominations for this list for instance. Which other blogger has provided so many posts which will come up spontaneously when you ask people about what blog posts they remember?

Or as two readers put it:
"He might turn your screws a bit, but he does keep bringing in readers for the politics, the challenges, and the gold making skills."

"Undoubtedly Gevlon takes this prize, if for no other reason than that he has made some of the most memorable posts, inspired some of the most rampant drama, and gone to great lengths to provide evidence for his stances."

4. Most solid content provider
Nominated: Wowinsider, World of Matticus, Tobold, Greedy Goblin, Honor's Code, OutDPS and Warcraft Hunters Union, EpicAdvice.com, Gnomeaggedon - " He posts regularly and often has epic length posts that are full of information and humor.", Restokin, Tree Bark Jacket, World of Matticus, Bio Break, Critical QQ - "Euripides has some downtime, but when he's writing he's writing GOOD STUFF.", Tanking Tips, Tank Like a Girl, No Stock UI blog,

Killing'Em Slowly: "My favorite thing about Killing 'Em Slowly is that I know there will be a post every weekday. I may not know the exact timing, but I can rely on the fact that there will be something, and it won't just be a "sorry no time to write today!" post."

Welcome to Spinksville - "Frequent posting, multigaming interests, lots of thoughtful posts too.", "Lots of updates and always interesting".

Tamarind wrote: "as a healer I am naturally biased but I don't know what I'd do without Miss Medicina. But if I was more 'serious' about raiding, I'd have to pick Beru from Falling Leaves and Wings. And for a wider perspective on gaming as a whole then it would have to be Spinks!"

Elnia pointed out that the category is a bit unfair and should be broken down into commentary vs useful information."I think that the most solid commentary is a toss up between Spinksville and Tobold. If you are asking for useful information then I would say either Wow.com or MMO champion."

I agree that the category probably needs a clearer definition. Even though I too use and appreciate resources such as WoW.com and MMO-champion, I regard them as news providers rather an as blogs. And it was blogs that I had in mind for this category. However I might add another category next year, focusing on general news resources.

The winner is: Welcome to Spinksville!

Motivation: Spinks combines interesting ideas and a wide assortment of topics with depth, wits and overall high standard writing, covering not only WoW but also MMOs in general in a way that it makes them interesting even for a WoW-only-player. When the next patch is months away and there's nothing more to say about the current one, you can bet that Spinksville still has some new perspective to add. She is simply amazing and I didn't hesitate for a second about who I would give this title, especially not since Tobold was out of the game because he had the title last year.

5. Most hugged blogger
Nominated: Jong, Gnomeaggedon, Pike of Aspect of the Hare, Gevlon, Tamarind.

"The bloggers that I most feel like hugging and in one case, drinking a Peach Bellini with, are Beru from Falling Leaves & Wings and Tamarind from Righteous Orbs."

"Should be me. But nobody ever hugs a panzercow".

"Sorry, I can’t pick just one! Keredria always makes me laugh, even if she is a “chick” , I absolutely adore Tamarind and can’t get enough of his humor and keen insight into the WoW universe, Lath and Cass are just fantastic…and love peachbellinis! And…last but not least, I don’t know how I can’t hug Lash: He’s a troll with a dog named Lunchbox irl."

Fitz at Healer Trek wrote:
"Well it's certainly not Gevlon. I'm going to go with Phaelia over at Resto4Life. While she stepped out of blogging near the beginning of 2009, she went out on a high note and had lots of virtual hugs on her way to becoming a mom. She also got a hug from blizzard in naming a piece of gear after her"

The winners are: Phaelia and BRK!

Motivation: Let's face it: bloggers come and bloggers go. There are equally many new popping up replacing the ones that are leaving. And very few of us leave any long lasting footprints. But there are exceptions. When Phealia and BRK left the blogging scenes, we saw the most touching farewell scenes ever. BRK:s farewell post had over 1 000 thankful, hugging comments, and the community even put together a special video as a gift to him. Phaelia was celebrated in a beautiful farewell photo album and a wonderful interview at the Twisted Nether Podcast. They even got recognition from Blizzard in form of in-game items named to their honour. That's what I would call a well hugged blogger!

6. Blog drama of the year
The blogosphere wouldn't be the same if there wasn't any interaction going on. A little bit of popcorn-drama if you put it that way. Obviously I'm not the only one to find it rather entertaining, since several of the nominations about the best posts were for ones relating to some sort of drama. So I decided to make up a new category this year.

First a couple of my own nominations:

Tobold's revelations that he in fact was Gevlon was hilarious to read. Gevlon never took the bite, so in the end it didn't turn out quite as dramatic as it sounded from the beginning. It was hugely entertaining though and also a bit thought provoking, as a statement about the trustworthiness of our online characters. Are we really what we claim that we are? We never know, do we?

A dramatic incident indeed was the little war fought between Gevlon and Markco during the autumn. It was fascinating to watch it from the side - especially since also Tobold engaged himself in it. The whole thing reminded me of the fights between the capitalist ducks in Carl Bark's comics: Uncle Scrooge and his equally rich and cheap opponent.

But the winner is a different piece of drama: The Ferraro debacle.
While the other suggested dramas were isolated to the concerned blogs, this really shook up the community. The whole story about identity theft and a blog identity that was inherited, going from person to person, was intriguing. Amazingly enough Paladin Schmaladin survived all this turbulence and is still going strong. And I wonder if anyone will ever know the full truth about it.

7. Best Writer
This is also a new category, invented by me on the fly. For me the writing skill of the author is essential when I evaluate a blog.

I don't care about if the blog provides news - I still get it quicker from MMO-champion anyway, so why bother to compete? I don't care if a blog gives useful advice since I get my need for strategies and theorycrafting covered by other resources such as Tankspot and Elitist Jerks. I don't care if the blog has a lot of fancy screenshots - most of the time they're just annoying and distracting.

But I care a LOT about writing - about the style and beauty in it, about how the author manages not only to make himself understood, but also to really touch me, making me laugh or cry, using no other means than letters and words. We have a few magicians out there, the ones that can make me interested and enthusiastic about things that I normally don't care about , let's say for instance PvP, just because they're such brilliant writers.

For outstanding writing skill I would like to nominate three mage bloggers: Gnomeaggedon, Krizzlybear and Euripedes. They've all impressed on me: Gnome with his humour, which is impossible to resist, Krizzlybear with his special talent for personal writing and Euripedes who is like a firework, never entirely predictable, always full of energy and temperament.

But the winner will a non-mage, who also won another category in this list and was nominated for several others: Tamarind of Righteous Orbs.

Motivation: Tamarind doesn't give a crap about the general advice not to write long blog posts. He writes walls of text which never feels like walls of text, because they're so hilarious, touching or thought provoking, and always, always formulated very elegantly, in a consistent and interesting style-of-the-day. If I wasn't so old and hopefully mature, I would actually feel a bit jealous seeing his abundance of wits and intelligence.

The End
This fourth and final part in the series of the Pink Pigtail Inn Awards 2009 was probably the longest in the history of this blog. If you're still reading this, thank you for staying to the end!

Now it's time to close the door to 2009 and look forward. Who do you think we'll see in the PPI list of 2010? Actually I have already an idea from Miss Medicina. She suggested a new category: "Blogger Most Likely to Succeed in 2010", defining it as a "new WoW blog that shows an extraordinary amount of promise". Her vote vent to Life in Group 5, a new healing shaman blog "which doesn't make overly frequent posts, but the posts he does make are extensive, thorough, and very informative."

Falling leaves and wings suggested another new category for the list: Worst Dressed. "My vote is TOTALLY going with Druid T10 - wtf is UP with that helm?"

Well, if it's any comfort, I don't think it can be any worse than the mage equivalence. Why would a spell caster try to frighten the enemies dressing up in animal teeth? I didn't include this category in the list of 2009 but let's keep our eyes open for ugly clothes for the year to come and save it for the list of 2010.

Because now it's time to call it. Thank you all for participating! It has been a pleasure. And for the records - here is the final, short version of The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009:

1. Best raid instance: Ulduar
2. Least successful raid instance: Eye of Eternity
3. Most longed for instance: Ulduar
4. Silliest gold sink: The Dun Niffelem Mammoths
5. Biggest addition to the game: Dual spec
6. Best quest: The Quel'delar chain
7. Ugliest tabard: Wyrmrest Accord
8. Favorite non combat pet: Onyxia Whelpling
9. Most juicy guild drama: The Martin Fury incident
10. Most charming Blizzard employee: Patric Beja
11. Best podcast: Blue Plz!
12. Biggest blog facelift: Righteous Orbs
13. Most memorable blog post: Archetypes of the Female Gamer, revisited
14. Most noticed blogger breakthrough: Greedy Goblin
15.Most solid content provider: Welcome to Spinksville
16. Most hugged blogger: Phaelia and BRK
17. Blog drama of the year: The Ferraro debacle
18. Best writer: Tamarind at Righteous Orbs

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.

The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009 - Things we saw in-game

We're back for the continuation of The Pink Pigtail Inn List of 2009. Yesterday we announced the instance awards. Now it's time to ponder upon some other stuff we encountered as we were playing the game. For those of you who are wondering about the community related categories - don't worry, I'll come to those in the next post in this series.

The fanfare is played once again, let's get started with the awards!

1. Silliest gold sink

Nominated: Mammoths, mounts, Dalaran rings ("since you can find better nearly everywhere else"), monocle, expensive pets.

Healer Trek argues well for Haris Pilton's Gigantique bag: "For 1200 gold, I can get a 22 slot bag. Oh wait, I can buy glacial bags (22-slots) off the auction house from tailors for 400-500 gold. But since Haris Pilton won this category 2008 I've decided that she's out of the competition this year."

Falling leaves and wings had a candidate of her own:

"When I really thought about the silliest thing I spent gold on it was buying frostweave so I could get the 500 bandage achievement. I *never* use them on Beru, being a healer. I think I’ve got the same stack of 20 that I had when I was leveling! So, I’d definitely say that buying over priced cloth for a silly achievement is, well, silly!"

Silly indeed, I'm all with you.

The vast majority seems to be going for the choppers. However I don't find the motivations entirely convincing. Several of the ones calling it silly will at the same time declare their love for it:

"I bought one just to have it, use it for boosting my bf's alts and when we're heading to ZG or something and he wants to slack". Well, isn't that a good reason to have them, for enjoyment with a good friend?"

"The Mechano-hog for sure – I think these still sell on Barthilas for approximately 15k gold. Though who wouldn’t want a cool in-game motor bike? What better way to impress the ladies? Boys and their toys. After all there’s no cooler way to get around Ironforge."

I can't but agree with Spinksville there:

"But people have so much fun with the expensive motorbike and mammoth mount (where fun may or may not involve accidental boss pulls) that I struggle to see those as being sillier than anything else in the game."

The winner is: The Dun Niffelem Mammoths!

Motivation: I've never understood the idea about expensive mammoths that don't carry vendors. The ones you can get for shards in Wintergrasp is one thing. They're ugly and useless, but you can't really claim they are a gold sink. But the ones you buy for gold, getting nothing but an achievement.... They're plain silly.

Miss Medicina put it best: "The Dun Niffelem mammoths. They don't do anything interesting except keep you from getting into the bank in Stormwind, and block the flight masters so that others will report you."

2. Biggest addition to the game

Nominated: This category was a battle between two giants. Surely there were some nominations for turkey pets, BoA items and Ulduar, and a couple for achievements, but since achievements won this category last year, it's out of the picture.

The community split their votes between dual spec and the new Dungeon Finder system.

Here are a couple of few voices:

Pro Dungeon finder:

"no longer will you have to wait very long to run a random instance, and that's how this system should work. The interface is smooth, has great rewards, and works just like battlegrounds, the most successful PvP aspect of the game. LFG affects every level too, while dual spec is not really useful until Outland level. So LFG gets it by a hair over dual spec."

"The new dungeon tool is probably the most far reaching addition to the game. It has been a game changer, and finally many more people can experience the levelling game as it was originally designed. I’m sure the core team intended everyone to intersperse instances with questing — and now they can. And we are all reminded that it’s actually a pretty good game. I am fascinated to see where this is all going to lead. What effect will it really have on players to keep being thrown in with uber-geared raid bods who are in a desperate hurry? What happens when newer players ‘learn’ from more experienced ones that pulling everything in sight is what the pros do?"

Pro Dual Spec:

"It provided huge flexibility at all levels of the game, and was an extremely valuable asset."

"It might not have been as exciting for the full DPS classes, but for the healers and tanks, it allowed us to do a little more solo content!"

The winner is: Dual spec!

Motivation: While I agree that the new LFG system is fascinating - and possibly game changing - it was launched very late in the year. It's too early to see how the long term effects will be. When the initial enthusiasm is gone and the min-maxers have gotten all the frost emblems they need and we've run even the new instances ad nausea, what will there be left - apart from possibly a increasing ignore list and decreasing friend list? I don't say it's bad. I just don't quite know yet. If it turns out well, it will be one of the candidates for the title 2010, right?

Because of this, the winner this year will be dual spec. This has indeed changed the game. Even if hybrid classes benefit most directly, I think the increased flexibility is useful for everyone. We all know how painful it is to try to find groups and constantly run into the wall of lack of healers and tanks. Dualspec makes the life of healers and tanks a bit easier, and hopefully they'll be willing to keep tanking and healing rather than rolling another dps toon.

3. Best quest

Nominated: Oh, you should rather say: which quest isn't nominated? The abundance of suggestions mirrors the abundance of high quality quests in WoW of today (the kill-ten-rats-model is starting to become something mostly historical), and that players are looking for very different things in the game. Many of the nominations have been for questlines rather than for single quests, and that's OK too.

Here's a few of the suggestions: Oh Noes the Tadpoles, the Icecrown Citadel series "These were really engaging and interesting", the Quel'Delar series, "the questline to discover Bronzebeard is not as dead as we thought", Battle of Citadel/Threat from above, the jousting quest to defeat the Black Knight, Escaping the Mist in Borean Tundra and The Betrayal quest line in Zul' Drak.

There are several votes for the Wrathgate questline and The Battle for Undercity. However it won 2008. Someone suggested the Might of Kalimdor, but that isn't even TBC, it comes from vanilla WoW.

Syrana advocates the quest line starting with A Tale of Valor, where you search for Crusader Bridenbrad and eventually his spirit is saved by the naaru rather than him turning into a scourge. "It's very touching, especially since it was written to commemorate a Blizzard employee's brother who played WoW and died from cancer."

Spinksville and quite a few other commenters went for the Sons of Hodir questline "because the Drakkensryd is just that cool. It doesn’t get any more cinematic than flying in a crazy race on protodrakes, and jumping through the air from drake to drake so that you can unseat their riders. For me it marks why WoW questing is so fun at its best in the new expansion, and it’s because you can experience the crazy dragon rides, cut scenes, and phasing rather than being faced with walls of text."

The winner is... The Quel'delar chain.

Motivation: This was really a tough call. Not only were there many very good candidates - I also didn't quite know how to regard the quests that many players completed already in November-December 2008. I rewarded Wrathgate last year, would it make sense to reward the Sons of Hodir chain this year then? Finally I made my decision I wanted the quests to have become available in 2009. Suddenly the candidates were much fewer. But it still wasn't easy. For one thing: I haven't done the Quel'delar chain myself. It requires a Battered Hilt, and we all know the drop rate for that one. I've seen it drop once in a pug, but that's as close as I have gotten. Can I possibly reward a quest I haven't done myself?

However, I trust the judgment of my readers in this case. "Being able to enter the restored Sunwell raid instance and stand in front of the actual Sunwell itself is amazing.", as someone wrote.

Everything I've heard and read about it make it seem absolutely awesome. And what I find especially attractive is that it offers exclusive and epic experiences also to non-raiding players. I hope we'll see more of that in the future!

4. Ugliest tabard

Nominated: There are many ugly tabards out there, obviously. Quite a few readers want to nominate ALL tabards. Or they nominate their own guild tabard (understandable, I have yet to see a goodlooking guild tabard. I never wear my own. Ever. /blush).

Tamarind suggests the UC tabard: "it has a weeping goth on the front, for heaven's sake." Other nominated are Exodar and the Explorer."

The Competitor's tabard, carrying the Olympic circles, is definitely the ugliest tabard ever made in WoW. However it won the category last year, and doesn't belong to 2009.

But apart from those few voices, the vast majority express their hatred towards two tabards in WotLK. The first one is Wyrmrest Accord. "That tabard is just plain ugly. The colours are gross, the pattern is icky. Need I say more?"

The second one is Kirin Tor: "Seriously, you want my gigantic plate-clad studly Tauren to wear purple? What?"

The winner is...The Wyrmrest Accord tabard!

Motivation: I agree that the Kirin Tor tabard makes my eyes hurt. But I think the pattern on it, with the eye, somehow makes sense and fits well to the mysticism surrounding this faction.
The Wyrmrest tabard on the other hand looks like a tasteless souvenir bought at some sort of tourist trap, not like something you'd expect to find in the outfit of a hero and adventurer. Besides - the colors. Yellow and red - it just doesn't go at all with the Northrend setting. What were they thinking of?

5. Favorite non combat pet

Nominated: Every player seems to have his own favourite non combat pet. I guess that's the point of the wide assortment Blizzard provides us. Among the nominated are: The Pandaren Monk, Sleepy Willy, the Sen'jin Fetish, Wolvar Orphan, Core hound pup, Mr Chilly, Demon Penguin, Teldrassil Sproutling, Wolpertinger, Strand Crawler, Calico cat, Blizzard Bear, Enchanted broom, Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm, Silver Tabby Cat, Mechanical Yeti and possibly a couple of others that I've missed.

Some of those nominated have been in the game for a long time, so they won't qualify for the 2009 prize, even though they're adorable. I've always loved Stinker, just like Miss Medicina says:

" who provided countless hours of amusement to Fuubaar and I in Naxx, while we tried to fill out our 25 man groups. I don't know why the sight of her pet Stinker chasing after my black cat and repeatedly getting his heart broken was so entertaining, come to think of it. Why are we so mean? Poor Stinker."

Now Stinker has been around since 2008, so I'm afraid he won't be on the list this year. There certainly wasn't any lack of brand new pets to choose between. I could personally think of a number of potential winners, not the least among the wonderful new Argent Tournament Pets.

I also know that many players loved the miniature KT, the pandaren monk and the new core hound dog. And I agree that they are really well crafted and awesome to look at. But since they require you to pay real money to get them, I've decided not to include them, since I'm not a fan of that phenomena. I may be conservative, but I think you should get your pets by actually playing the game.

The winner is...Onyxia whelpling!

Motivation: It's really cute and well crafted, knitting nicely to the community and the history of WoW. It also has the little "extra" I want from a pet - some emote or little prank that can to entertain me. Currently I must admit that the "takes a deep breath" sentence is rather annoying than fun - it triggers my reflexes, making me freak out, throwing myself at the nearest wall. But as time goes by and we once again turn our backs to Onyxia, I think our love for it will only increase. This one will become a classic and forever a reminder of 2009, the year of the return of Onyxia.

The End
That's all for today! We'll soon be back with the continuation of the PPI list of 2009.