Gamers on the Street: The Beta beat
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 7th 2008 at 10:00PM
But nevertheless, I did find two willing
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Virtual selves, Gamers on the Street
Filed under: Gamers on the Street
But nevertheless, I did find two willing
Gamers on the Street: Watching for Wrath
by Lisa Poisso Jun 30th 2008 at 6:00PM
Are you spending Monday digging through the pile of Wrath of the Lich King news from this weekend's Worldwide Invitational in Paris -- or is today (and the remaining months leading up to the expansion's release) just another day in the World of Warcraft for you? We popped on to Warsong server this morning, where Stormwind was positively bristling with activity: guild and Arena team recruiting, a PuG for Zul'Aman forming, plenty of spam for various heroics, and a healthy number of twinks going about their Old World business.
I had expected to encounter a fair number of players who weren't aware of this weekend's deluge of Wrath news – or who plain didn't care – but instead, I was met with nothing but enthusiasm. So I pulled up my trusty 3-bubbles-of-xp, level 1 warrior to the steps of the bank to visit with Zidona, a Night Elf Rogue I'd noticed vigorously recruiting (in
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gamers on the Street, Wrath of the Lich King, Worldwide Invitational
Gamers on the Street: Thaurissan and transfers
by Mike Schramm Jun 16th 2008 at 8:30PM
This week there was only one choice for where to go and interview players -- the Oceanic realm of Thaurissan has been at the center of realm population issues in the last week, as Blizzard opened up transfers from PvE to PvP realms for the first time ever. I rolled a Dwarf on the Alliance side (where Horde reportedly outnumbers players at huge ratios) to see what things were like and if I could find some people with opinions on the transfers.
Things seem to be better than they were before at first glance -- we'd heard reports that only double digits of people were playing during even prime time, but when I logged on (about 6AM server time), there were quite a few people in the /who list. Ironforge was far from bustling, but I saw groups running around the Isle of Quel'danas, as well as running Magisters' Terrace.
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Raiding, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Playing with roleplaying
by Mike Schramm Jun 9th 2008 at 11:30PM
The WoW roleplayer is a strange creature -- in a game universe almost completely designed for the non-roleplayer (there are enough pop culture references to make anyone sensitive to anachronisms apoplectic), they soldier on insider RP servers, taking their time leveling up, and having perhaps much more fun than anyone who races towards the endgame might otherwise have.
So for this Gamers on the Street, I decided to head to Moon Guard, an RP server. I had hoped to chat about what players were expecting for season 4, and maybe find out what casual players thought of all the new things coming in Wrath of the Lich King, but when I sent out my query for interviewees, what I found were two roleplayers. people who were taking the game at their own pace and having fun doing it.
I also made sure, due to past reader comments, to speak to Alliance this time. After the jump, meet two roleplayers who are playing the game their own way.
Filed under: Rogue, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Leveling, RP, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Break time (summer break, that is)
by Lisa Poisso Jun 2nd 2008 at 7:00PM
Summertime means big changes for many guilds. The kids are home, so players who are parents can get pulled into more family activities. As for the kids, many are looking for new things to get into while they have a little more free time. Gamers on the Street decided to duck onto the Cairne realm to see what high school- and college-aged players were planning for their short months of freedom. Alliance players seemed friendly enough but didn't have much to say about their summer plans. We did visit with several Cairne Hordies, however, who shared what's ahead for their summer and fall WoW time.
Filed under: Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: How heroic do you gotta be to do a heroic?
by Lisa Poisso May 19th 2008 at 4:00PM
When I popped onto the Thrall realm recently to visit with players for Gamers on the Street, I had intended to talk to players about how the Wrath of the Lich King will offer the same instances in both 10-man and 25-man sizes. But as message after message from players seeking heroic groups or group members scrolled through my chat window – none of them stating "no blues" up front, which players list right up in your face on the realms where I play – I knew I needed to follow up. Do players on Thrall simply assume heroic players possess a certain level of gear? Do they plan to carry weaker players? Does the heroic community only group with others they know? I flipped back to WoW Insider for recent insights and found tips for beginners to heroics and pointers toward the easiest heroics, but nothing that offers players ideas on how to actually get into a heroic group.
So Gamers on the Street hit the street to investigate.
Filed under: Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Reading up on WoW
by Lisa Poisso May 5th 2008 at 7:00PM
When you can't log in to World of Warcraft, do you get your fix from game sites instead? Gamers on the Street visited with two chatty young players from Zul'jin this morning about their WoW reading and research habits. Deathrowcame (70 Undead Warlock) and Docevil (70 Undead Rogue) were both on alts when we met up, but both popped over to Orgrimmar on their 70s to finish our conversation and take a group shot, as well as to share a few tidbits about life on Zul'Jin.
Be sure to drop by the comments at the end of the article and share your own favorite sites and sources.
Gamers on the Street: Hi guys, thanks for sharing. We're curious about people who like to read and research their characters and game info a lot. Are you both the studious type?
Deathrowcame: Yeah, I am. I got a 70 'lock that I bought, so I have to research it – no, I'm joking,. LOL
Docevil: I read up on what abilities I can get and what the easiest specialization is to use to level.
Deathrowcame: I surf wowhead and thottbot daily to research gear for my level and class and what quest my class should do.
Filed under: Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Burned on Bloodscalp
by Mike Schramm Apr 28th 2008 at 11:00PM
This week, I decided to go visit Bloodscalp -- we've been hearing about problems with stability on Bloodscalp since patch 2.4, so I decided to get the word on what was happening straight from the people affected by it. Additionally, I wanted to talk about the upcoming Arena changes in patch 2.4.2, so I had that on the list to chat with players about as well.
I created a Troll Rogue named "Wowinsider," ran up to Orgrimmar, and started chatting with the Bloodscalpians. The conversations I had with three players on the server are after the break.
Filed under: Mage, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Instances, Humor, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Oceanic players persist despite performance issues
by Lisa Poisso Apr 14th 2008 at 5:00PM
Oceanic players continue to snarl this week at continued server performance issues that cramp their play. Oceanic subscribers playing from the other side of the world have dedicated servers, yes – but the servers are physically located in North America, and no consideration seems to have been given to shifting maintenance and resource-intensive background processes to non-peak local hours.
Needless to say, a good number of Oceanic players are up in arms over spiraling post-2.4 performance issues. Blue reps continue to take the heat from red-hot flames, reflecting a continued determination to work through the problems. We decided to pop in on a couple of Oceanic servers themselves, away from the heat of the forums, to see what the player temperature seemed to be.
Filed under: Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Proud of Proudmoore
by Mike Schramm Apr 7th 2008 at 6:30PM
This was the scene this morning on Proudmoore, as they were the first server around to open up the Heroic Badge vendor on the Isle of Quel'danas. So for this week's Gamers on the Street interviews, I decided to go there and see the sights myself. Unfortunately, just as on the PTR, it's not quite that easy to get a level one Blood Elf to the Isle -- I figured I could just fly from Silvermoon like normal, but no -- apparently I had to run all the way to Tranquilien to even get the Silvermoon flight point. So I did.
Fortunately, when I got there, the flight master gave me the flight point to Silvermoon, which would then take me to the Sunwell Plateau. Unfortunately, I was completely and totally broke -- I didn't even have enough cash to fly. I sold everything I had, but it wasn't nearly enough, and instead of begging for gold, I did the next less annoying thing on the list -- I spammed the Trade channel. And I was able to find two nice residents of Proudmoore to tell me about opening up the world event content on Sunwell Plateau.
Fortunately, when I got there, the flight master gave me the flight point to Silvermoon, which would then take me to the Sunwell Plateau. Unfortunately, I was completely and totally broke -- I didn't even have enough cash to fly. I sold everything I had, but it wasn't nearly enough, and instead of begging for gold, I did the next less annoying thing on the list -- I spammed the Trade channel. And I was able to find two nice residents of Proudmoore to tell me about opening up the world event content on Sunwell Plateau.
Filed under: Fan stuff, Blizzard, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Who's winning AV and WSG now?
by Lisa Poisso Mar 28th 2008 at 4:00PM
I'll admit it: I haven't hit the Sunwell yet. My new main is a fresh 70 ("virgin" might be an appropriate word to describe her, except that – well, I PvP), and my guildies and I are simply overwhelmed with the number of things on our to-do lists right now. None of us is much interested in braving the crowds to see the new content; we'll get there once the furor has died down.
But 2.4 introduced more than just the Sunwell – we've got AV and WSG "fixes" in action! Did the fixes really fix these BGs? I have my own thoughts about AV (fine before, fine now; lots of imbalances still, but they don't prevent me from winning most instances when my team is with me), but I haven't had the time yet to get into WSG. Ever curious, I popped in on Wildhammer realm to chat with some of the folks gathered 'round the battlemasters and get their impressions.
Filed under: PvP, Features, Gamers on the Street, Battlegrounds
Gamers on the Street: Ready for the Sunwell
by Mike Schramm Mar 21st 2008 at 8:30PM
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft. Lisa is absent this week, so instead Mike Schramm went to Cenarius to talk directly to ingame players.
When I headed into the game this week to do this column, both Krystalle and Lisa (who usually does GotS) warned me that it was rough out there, and that players weren't really into chatting with random people about what they thought about the past week in Warcraft. But I have to say -- the denizens of Cenarius treated me as well as can be expected. I logged in on my level 30 mage Erban, sent out a tell in /Trade (sorry for spamming, Cenarius-ians), and pretty soon I got two nice players to chat with me. We talked mostly about what they'd been up to in game, what they're looking ahead to with patch 2.4, whether Noblegarden sucks (spoiler: it does), and just how much they'd pay (or their guild would charge) for that Zul'aman bear mount.
Read on to see our conversations.
When I headed into the game this week to do this column, both Krystalle and Lisa (who usually does GotS) warned me that it was rough out there, and that players weren't really into chatting with random people about what they thought about the past week in Warcraft. But I have to say -- the denizens of Cenarius treated me as well as can be expected. I logged in on my level 30 mage Erban, sent out a tell in /Trade (sorry for spamming, Cenarius-ians), and pretty soon I got two nice players to chat with me. We talked mostly about what they'd been up to in game, what they're looking ahead to with patch 2.4, whether Noblegarden sucks (spoiler: it does), and just how much they'd pay (or their guild would charge) for that Zul'aman bear mount.
Read on to see our conversations.
Filed under: Priest, Rogue, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: The buddy system
by Lisa Poisso Mar 7th 2008 at 6:00PM
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.
WoW Insider's Zach Yonzon posted an intriguing Breakfast Topic yesterday: Who's your favorite playing partner? Readers seemed to enjoy chiming in with a tip of a hat to their own partners in crime. Suspecting that perhaps WoW Insider readers are a particularly chatty and friendly bunch, we wondered what we'd find if we logged in over the lunch hour to chat with random players going about their city business.
So we logged into Khaz Modan, a PvE realm, where we were lucky enough to run into three friendly players who each have their own ways of sharing World of Warcraft (and no, it's not just about progression with a guild of folks you've met in game!). We dodged the gold-sellers in Stormwind's main square to bring you their stories.
Filed under: Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: WoW as child's play
by Lisa Poisso Feb 29th 2008 at 9:00AM
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.
How young is too young to play WoW? We've discussed the ups and downs of grouping with kids quite a few times over the years, but the topic – like the kids themselves – just won't go away. Earlier this week, we interviewed an 11-year-old SSC raider and his mother. While most reader comments applauded the family for a disciplined, sensible approach to online gaming, a few readers seemed confused or even aghast that someone so young would be allowed to play World of Warcraft.
Gamers on the Street decided to pop in on Bloodscalp, a high-population PvP realm with what one supposes would be a correspondingly tough outlook on kiddie action. We surveyed several level 70 players at random, asking them about their own experiences with children in game. The consensus: Jerks come in all shapes, sizes and ages -- and children and teens are no better or worse than their adult counterparts. Hear out their reasoning, after the break.
Filed under: WoW Social Conventions, Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
Gamers on the Street: Keeping an eye on the patch
by Lisa Poisso Feb 22nd 2008 at 2:00PM
In last week's installment of Gamers on the Street -- and despite fresh blood in the water, with patch 2.4 news hitting left and right – city-bound players steadfastly remained focused on matters of the heart. Perfume and hearts obviously took priority over returning the /whispers of some hapless reporter from WoW Insider.
But we hapless reporters are stubborn – real stubborn. This week, we trucked off to Stormwind on Lightning's Blade, a high-pop PvP server, to meet up with a trio from <Glory of War>. These "casual" raiders (1/6 SSC and 1/4 TK) unleashed their perspectives on what they've seen on the PTR for 2.4, the war between PvE and PvP balancing and more.
Filed under: Patches, Features, Interviews, Gamers on the Street
