Filed under: WoW Insider Business

WRUP: GDC edition

by Basil Berntsen Mar 12th 2010 at 8:00PM

The Game Developers Conference is in full swing this week. There's been a bunch of interesting news out of it, so in addition to telling you fine folks what we plan on playing this St-Patrick's day weekend, the bonus question is what we are most excited about seeing from GDC 10.

Can I answer stout ale drinking games to both questions?

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

WRUP: We wish we were playing...

by Elizabeth Harper Mar 5th 2010 at 8:00PM

...Mass Effect Online? World of Grim Fandango? So why aren't we? Well, just for a start, they don't exist. And, while we can daydream up our favorite games in newer, better formats, what we're playing this weekend has to stay within the realm of reality. So what is the WoW.com team playing this weekend? And what's their I-wish-I-could-play MMO? Well, you're simply going to have to keep reading to find out. (And if you don't care about what we're doing? Well, you can always tell us what you're doing.)

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

WRUP: What you'd like to see next edition

by Elizabeth Harper Feb 27th 2010 at 9:00AM

It's the weekend again -- which can only mean it's time for an escape from the tedious grind of the working week -- to replace it with the tedious grind of our favorite video games! For us, you might assume our favorite game is World of Warcraft, but the team is all over the map on gaming preferences. Some of us are still lost in Mass Effect 2 others have moved on to BioShock 2, some of us are in the StarCraft II beta, and some of us are -- gasp! -- flirting with other MMOs while waiting for the next big thing in WoW. As a show of our gaming diversity, as well as checking in on what the WoW.com team is playing this weekend, I've asked what features from other games they'd like to see in WoW. For their answers -- and to add your own -- read on!

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

WRUP: Our favorite shows edition

by Elizabeth Harper Feb 20th 2010 at 9:00AM

Love Is in the Air may be coming to an end, but for those of you in need of entertainment away from the grind of daily quests, the Lunar Festival continues into March. If neither of those sound entertaining... Well, a lot of the team would recommend the recently released Mass Effect 2 or BioShock 2. Don't worry, WoW will still be here waiting for you to come back. And whether you're playing WoW or not, it's the weekend which means it's time for WRUP. And this week we have a special bonus question and have asked the staff what their favorite television show is (because, after all, you need some sort of distraction to keep your brain going while playing hunt-the-elder). So read on to find out what everyone's up to this weekend -- and leave us a comment to tell us what you're doing!

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

It came from the Blog: Love is in the Blog snapshots

by Robin Torres Feb 17th 2010 at 9:00AM

We had the loveliest time last Saturday at the Love is in the Blog event. First, many of the WoW.com staff mingled with the guildies at the court fountain in Silvermoon City. Then we ran around and did Love is in the Air quests. The staffers that showed up were:

Elizabeth Harper
Michael Sacco
Lisa Poisso
Allison Robert
Matthew Rossi
Chase Christian
Christian Belt
Rich Maloy
Dawn Moore
Anne Stickney
Fox Van Allen
Amy Schley
Basil Berntsen
Robin Torres (That's me!)

It was such a success, that we plan on holding a mixer before the Lunar Festival event as well. Details for that coming soon. In the meantime, please enjoy the annotated snapshots in the gallery:

Gallery: Love is in the Blog 2010

The back of the middle of the Meet and Greet

Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog

WRUP: Love is all around edition

by Elizabeth Harper Feb 13th 2010 at 4:00PM

It's a holiday weekend, so you know what that means for the WoW.com team -- and, no, it's not going out and celebrating in real life. Or, at least, while some of us may be celebrating off in reality, all of us are celebrating in Azeroth. And if you'd like to join the celebration with us? There's no better way than by joining us for today's holiday extravaganza. And if you're enjoying the holiday weekend -- or even if you aren't -- why not head over to the comments to let us know what you're playing this weekend?

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

Reminder: Love is in the Blog event today

by Robin Torres Feb 13th 2010 at 2:00PM

Today! Mix with the WoW.com staff! Then do Love is in the Air quests! Do it!:

When: 5:30pm EST (2:30pm PST, 3:30pm realm time) Saturday, February 13 2010 (Show up at 5pm EST for the Meet and Greet)
Where: Court of the Sun fountain, Silvermoon City Zangarmarsh U.S.
Who: Any Horde character, any level.
What: Love is in the Air daily quests.
How: Ask Robinator, Robiness or any It came from the Blog Lurker or above for an invite to the guild.

I am so excited about the Meet and Greet. Many, many of my fellow WoW.com staffers have said they will be there sometime during the pre-event mixer. We'll be hanging out by the fountain in the Court of the Sun, Silvermoon City until 5:30pm. Then we'll start the Love is in the Blog event proper.

Unlike many of our events, lower level characters may have more fun than higher ones, so there's no need to get a DK up before the event this time. If you have any other questions about It came from the Blog, please see our FAQ.

Be there!

Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog

It came from the Blog: Battleground Bonanza II snapshots

by Robin Torres Feb 12th 2010 at 7:00PM

Last month, It came from the Blog got together for another Battleground Bonanza. We split into the appropriate battleground group ranges and enjoyed some PvP with our fellow Bloglings and Lurkers. I was in the level 60 to 70 range and we worked on our AV rep by doing the quests and a couple runs.

While we had fun, I think that the queues make this a not great group event. Also, the fact that we have to split up into so many different ranges is not exactly conducive to good screenshots and guild interaction. So I think Battleground Bonanza II will be our last. But that doesn't mean I've given up on It came from the Blog PvP events. Next month, I've got another idea in mind for beating up on our fellow players, if that's your thing. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, we'll be having our Love is in the Blog event tomorrow. Please join us!

Gallery: It came from the Blog: Battleground Bonanza II

Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog

Resto shaman and auction house columnist chosen

by Dan O'Halloran Feb 9th 2010 at 3:00PM

Putting a call out for a pure resto shaman columnist brought out the best in applicants and this time we came out with a clear winner. We know him as Joe Perez, but you may know him as Lodur, the resto shaman columnist at World of Matticus. He will be joining Michael Sacco and Rich Maloy on Totem Talk in the next week or two when we get him contracted and set up.

When Euripides of OutDPS wasn't chosen as our hunter columnist, he came back with a proposal to write a weekly column about the auction house. We liked what we saw and asked him to join us. In addition to writing for one of the premiere hunter blogs, Basil Berntsen also runs a podcast on Auction House gold making and hopefully will be making appearances on our own podcast as well. He will be coordinating with Amanda Miller on Time Is Money and Michael Gray on Insider Trader to bring you even more tips on making gold in-game.

Thanks to all who applied! If you didn't make it, make sure to check out our new call-out for guest writing.

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

It came from the Blog: Love is in the Blog

by Robin Torres Feb 8th 2010 at 7:00PM

Love is in the air and that means it's time for another It came from the Blog get-together:

When: 5:30pm EST (2:30pm PST, 3:30pm realm time) Saturday, February 13 2010 (Show up at 5pm EST for the Meet and Greet)
Where: Court of the Sun fountain, Silvermoon City Zangarmarsh U.S.
Who: Any Horde character, any level.
What: Love is in the Air daily quests.
How: Ask Robinator, Robiness or any It came from the Blog Lurker or above for an invite to the guild.

As you can see, we are also going to be having a pre-event mixer. Many of our bloggers will be showing up for a meet and greet a half an hour before the event. They will be chatting with readers and posing for photos to be posted on the site. So show up early if you wish to hangout with some of the WoW.com staff.

If you have any questions about It came from the Blog, like why Horde or why U.S., please see our FAQ.

We hope to see you there!

Filed under: WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog

Call for Posts: What I want to see at BlizzCon 2010

by Adam Holisky Feb 8th 2010 at 6:00PM

Last week we did a test run of our Guest Writer program asking our Twitter followers to write an article giving five tips to DPSers running random heroics. Our test run was a success (the winning article will be published later this week), and we're now ready to begin allowing everyone to have the chance to become a Guest Writer on WoW.com!

WoW.com runs the program through Aol's Seed. You can find out more about the program in our announcement post about the Guest Writer program, and at our newly re-vamped Contributing to WoW.com page. This week we're looking for contributions from writers telling us what they want to see at BlizzCon 2010. We're looking for between 75 and 150 words, and we'll select 3 to 7 entries for publication on WoW.com. If your entry is selected, you'll be paid $10 through Seed. Last week we found out that BlizzCon could be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center and that Jay Mohr is hosting again.

In order to get started read up about the program, sign up, and then submit your paragraph over on the article page (you can't see the article page unless you have a Seed account). We are accepting submissions until 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday February 14th. Please follow all instructions exactly. US residents only right now, although we're told our international friends will be able to submit work through Seed soon.

Good luck!

Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Guest Posts

WRUP: Why am I still awake edition

by Elizabeth Harper Feb 6th 2010 at 12:00PM

It's four in the morning -- so why, exactly, am I still awake to write WRUP? Personally, I blame BioWare and Mass Effect 2. Not that the game has secret mind control powers (that we're aware of), even though a vast majority of our staff seems to have been sucked into the game this week. Give us a bit of time, and I'm sure we'll all find our way back to Northrend, though. But in the meantime, here's a run-down of what we're playing at WoW.com HQ this weekend and -- in honor of the upcoming holiday -- we talk about our favorite in-game events.

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

It came from the Blog: Winter Veil snapshots

by Robin Torres Feb 5th 2010 at 8:00PM

At the very end of last year, It came from the Blog got together to celebrate the Feast of Winter Veil. We slaughtered dragonhawks for their young in order to bake cookies. We bribed Greatfather Winter. We pretended we cared about what the real message behind the holiday was. And we threw snowballs at Cairne. But mostly, we had fun!

Upcoming for It came from the Blog:

Battleground Bonanza II snapshots
Lunar Festival event
Maybe a Love is in the Air event. Maybe.

Questions about WoW.com's guild? Please see our FAQ. Enjoy the holiday snapshots below!

Gallery: It came from the Blog: Winter Veil 2009

Filed under: WoW Insider Business, It Came from the Blog

The new WoW.com Guest Writer program

by Dan O'Halloran Feb 3rd 2010 at 11:00AM

You may be seeing some new names on the site soon, but don't be alarmed! In addition to the new columnists who have recently joined us, we also are starting a new Guest Writer program through Aol's Seed.com. Seed is new site designed to allow writers submit work for publication on many of the blogs Aol owns, in this case, WoW.com. (If you are interested in potentially writing for this or any other Aol site, I encourage you to set up your Seed.com account now. Seed only works for USA based writers and your real name will appear on our site.)

We're going to be using Seed in a couple of different ways:

We'll be tapping WoW writers around the internet to write specific posts for us. In fact, you will see two this week: one from Chris Dinwiddie (aka Graylo of Gray Matter) and another from Richard Powell (founder of the LoreCrafted blog).
We'll occasionally call out for anyone to contribute on specific topics and pick the best for publication. You may have noticed us doing one of these already! Our recent call out for tips on running random heroics received dozens of submissions and we're going through them now.

For any future opportunities, keep an eye on the site or our Twitter feed -- we're aiming to call out for your content once or twice a week. And in the meantime? Don't panic if you see unfamiliar names on the site -- after all, the next name could be yours!

To be crystal clear: we now have two ways of hiring writers. We still have the old way where we can contract writers regardless of the where they live for regular, long term writing on the site and we have this new way which we use when we only want to use a writer once or irregularly. This new way, unfortunately, is limited to writers in the U.S. The geographical restrictions for Seed submissions are unfortunate, but out of our control. If it changes, we will let you know.

Filed under: WoW Insider Business, Guest Posts

WRUP: Not in Azeroth edition

by Elizabeth Harper Jan 30th 2010 at 2:00PM

Is it just me or does it seem as though everyone (myself included) is playing Mass Effect right now? I suppose there are a few people who aren't, but I'm pretty sure they're off playing Star Trek Online. Well, I suppose we all have to find something to occupy our time between raid resets and daily timers. Oh, for the simple times when all we had to worry about was chasing Arthas and pals around Northrend -- juggling more games only means more problems! For this week in WRUP, commemorating the recent release of Bioware's Mass Effect 2, I've also asked the team what game they're looking forward to most in 2010 -- some of them even got the answer right. (Hint: it starts with "c" and ends with "ysm.")

Filed under: WoW Insider Business

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