The first real guild I joined Twisting Nether was “The Crimson Watch.” They were a role-playing/endgame guild when I joined with nightly scheduled runs or RP events. By far the most popular event was our guild induction ceremony held every Saturday afternoon on Dreadmist Peak in the Barrens. This is the mountain whose top is covered in black fog and cultists and contains a jewel that lowbie players must shatter.

We would meet in this cave, with the jewel, and dress in our ceremonial crimson robes. Everyone would be walking, not running. Everyone would be in character. Our guild leader, Morghul, would stand atop the plateau in the cave and the officers of the guild would kneel beside and behind him. The entire guild was expected to come to these ceremonies. The screenshot above is one that I took during one of our inductions.

Inductees would be given a speech about our motivations and about the goals of The Crimson Watch. Then they would be called forward one by one and asked to perform three tasks: donate one gold to the guild, prove they had spilled Alliance blood, and then spill their blood before the guild. This was done using the /emote command, of course. If they satisfied these requirements and also spoke once over Ventrillo, then they were given crafted crimson robes and were official guild members.

Every week after the ceremony the officers would dream up new challenges for the recruits. They would have to duel the strongest warrior. They would have to hold themselves underwater until they died. They would have to sneak into Teldrassil and leap from the tallest branch into the sea. They would form a raid and attack Ashenvale. They would be summoned to the starting area for Dwarves and Gnomes and would have to occupy the buildings there. Every week it was different, and every week it was fun.

The role-playing built guild loyalty in a way I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I think one of the most awesome things about WoW is that you always find something new. I’ve got a bunch of toons, so I’ve seen the low level areas a zillion times over. I’ve recently started levelling a priest (which by the way, is my favorite so far out of every class that I’ve played) and spent a lot of time questing and grinding this weekend. I found some new places, some new stuff, and some interesting things along the way…
Read more

I enjoy my triple-head system, as you might have noticed from the screen shots, but not everyone has US$299 to drop on a black box, plus the cost of the extra screens. However, many people have a video card that can do dual-head. Mostly, for games, this sucks pretty badly. In FPSs dual-head puts the crosshairs on the join. In 3rd person perspective stuff like WoW it splits your character in half.

I have previously posted about a compromise between one/three screen(s) and two screens. This was done before I started raiding and discovered the amount of data on-screen that’s part of the UI rather than the 3D world. So, I’ve put together a little guide on how you can use a dual-head system to, basically, move your CT_RaidAssist and chat windows out of the way.

Read more

According to this copy of a screenshot used to sell a WoW:TBC beta invite on eBay (don’t bother looking for it, it was not only pulled but also for the EU/German version), the beta test key won’t be valid until November 2006. If this means we’ll see TBC in time for Christmas (would make sense), or even later (would make people cry), stands to be seen.

About 97 people have sent me the link to this screen shot in the last hour or so. Looks like a pretty detailed FAQ on the long awaited character transfers that we’ve all been waiting a long time for. I heard last week from a few inside-blizzard-birdies that these things were “very close” to being ready to happen, so that makes this screenshot a ton more believable - to me at least.

It also confirms my guess that there would be no PvE to PvP transfers offered, but that PvP to PvE would be OK. Other restrictions include obvious limites on gold, xfrs to high pop servers, and things like that. Check it.

UPDATE: Just got two independent confirmations that this is legit, and seems like a final version of something they’d seen earlier. Also, logging into to your account on worldofwarcaft.com and clicking the character trasnfer option gives you this message:

“The Character Move feature is currently closed. Please watch www.worldofwarcraft.com for any announcements regarding the availability of Character Move.

We are looking into the possibility of allowing customers more freedom in transferring to realms of their choice in the future. No further details are currently available concerning this feature, but any new information (regarding this or similar services) will be posted on www.worldofwarcraft.com as soon as it is available.”

Which is definitely a new massage, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing this open up any day now. More here

Slashdot is reporting that Flickr is delisting screenshots from online worlds, most notably WOW and Second Life because their content is “non-photographic”. Sorry guys, I have to disagree. Just because the subject matter in the shot is virtual, there’s still an art to setting up a good screenshot. Turning off the interface, rotating the point of view just right, setting your screen to its highest resolution and depth, it’s just like setting the ISO and shutter and aperture on a film or digital camera, just in a different space.

Of course, I don’t to add to the FUD right off the bat, as some of my shots are still in my photostream, but if this is going on, we’re gonna need to be raising a ruckus.

I stared at the winner of the May fan-art contest for awhile before i remembered where I’d seen this joke before.

I didn’t get a screenshot, but the humor highpoint of the day on Demon Soul was this message over chat:

“To whoever decided to report my guild name ‘Sapped Girls Can’t Say No’ as being offensive, thanks sooooo much, they’re forcing me to disband it.”

The guild name is a bit too much on the silly side in my mind to be construed as being truly offensive, but I don’t think anyone should be surprised that it was taken down. Of course, to echo an earlier post, This guild-disbanding is brought to you buy the makers of the “How Big is Your Sack?” T-shirt. This makes me want to start an experiment of starting questionably-named guilds and advertising recruitment, and seeing what gets through the filters.

Now forming: “Michael Jackson Day Care”. Only taking characters level 14 and lower.

Forgot I took this screenshot when Paineater was lvl 45, but with all his +dmg gear and shadowy goodness, that’s proof in the pudding, so to speak. Currently at lvl 47, with a 6% crit rate, faces are melted on a daily basis.

I just posted some old screnshots on Flickr that I took during the Beta.

Click here to see two Guardians of Blizzard.

Fishing during the beta left many bobbers on the water. I think Blizzard was experimenting with how to combat fishing bots. This was near Southshore.

Blizzard Construction Co. This was in Deadwind Pass.

World Terrain Some interesting terrain I found during the beta. This was between Thelsamar and Dun Morogh.

Another World Terrain screenshot This was also in the same general area. It looks like someone took a huge eraser and erased some of the snow.