Nyhm originally released Nerf You in December 2009. This video is a proud continuation of his work through the years. However, I feel like Nyhm's really nailed down a particular dynamic in the lifestyle of playing WoW. Getting nerfed sucks, there's no doubt about it. But for every person who feels like the nerf hammer hit them especially hard, there's probably a few who realize that it was probably for a good reason.
I especially think Nyhm's vocal skills are on display in this video. It not only has a pretty catchy tune, but he really gets to show off his ability to use verse and intonation to bring it up to another level. The video is pretty fun also, and I'm thankful for the pseudo-subtitles for helping to keep me up with the lyrics.
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Our intrepid Moviewatch host, Michael Gray, is fine but is dealing with the aftermath of far too much snow and has asked me to show a rerun. He tells me that he's been receiving submissions again for Craft of War: Blind. Percula's wonderful machinima is easily our most requested video and rather than try to fight it, we just succumb to reader pressure and show it every few months or so.
The history: Percula made this amazing movie and promised us more. He hosted it on Vimeo, who decided that it was gameplay footage (which they don't allow) and deleted it without warning, taking all of the comments and views with it. Percula was able to get it rehosted with a promise not to delete it again. In the meantime, Percula has stopped playing WoW and is no longer planning on creating the much anticipated sequel. A sad, sad thing.
Of course, we're mostly playing this again for our pleasure. We don't really think our readers will stop submitting this, telling us it's a crime that we've never posted it in Moviewatch before. But just to set the record straight, we showed it here first on December 26, 2008 and often since then. Enjoy!
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You might remember Melvenor from his previous work, the Ballad of Matthias Lehner. He's now followed up with the Echoes of Lordaeron, which is (I think) a final homage piece to a roleplay thread than ran all through Wrath of the Lich King. As the story goes, Echoes of Lordaeron tells the tale of two soldiers who were friends before the wars. After the final defeat of Arthas, the two men have a final catharsis, as they both come to grips with what happened in Icecrown.
The thing that really struck me about Echoes of Loraderon wasn't the story or even the voiceovers. What really rocked me about the movie was just how sheer darn beautiful it was. This is one of those movies that felt like wall-to-wall eye candy. I don't know if some of these shots come from in-game cinematics, but if Melvenor created all of this from scratch . . . well, I sure as heck hope he keeps doing it.
Grats to Melvenor on a beautiful piece of work, and here's hoping you keep creating.
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This movie was created by RavenSylphG, who you might recall was the machinima creator of the incredibly popular Ninja Raiders. Raven has put together a new video for the song On the Horde. It's pretty nice to be able to feature more of her work, since I'm really finding myself enamored of her graphic style.
On the Horde is performed by Kirstieanne, Cryssy, and Sharm. (You're probably pretty familiar with Sharm from videos like I Kissed An Orc). This is the first time I've been exposed to Kirstieanne and Cryssy. I liked both of their performances, and think they did a good job singing with Sharm. I will admit that On the Horde didn't hit me as the best song ever, but I still respect the amount of work and effort that must have gone into creating it.
Ultimately, I'm really excited about seeing all four of these folks break out more music and videos into the WoW culture. I think theyr'e doing great things, and I'm eager to see what comes next.
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EmberIsolte's last movie, Ninja Raiders, was certainly a hit. She's now following up with Altaholic, which is a parody of Katy Perry's Hot 'n Cold. The video and lyrics were created by Gack and Eidni, while EmberIsolte performed the vocals.
The video for this song is pretty fun, with a heavy mix of machinima techniques and gameplay footage. The lyrics for this piece do a great job fitting the music, without any of the "forced" feeling which many parodies suffer. The vocals sounded a little funny to me, but that sometimes happen when checking out a movie through YouTube. However, EmberIsolte does a pretty good job of nailing Perry's voice technique from the original song.
It's nice to see Draenei surfacing as strong machinima characters. While that's not a direct commentary on movies like this, I think the choice of main character helps separate Altaholic from many of the other WoW parody pieces. Getting some variety in machinima is always a bonus.
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I'm a man who likes to tank. If you find me in PvE content, it's almost always out there doing my very best to take as much damage as possible. It's kind of my thing. So when I first saw Ascension Gaming's This is Why I'm Prot, I was understandably excited.
The song is a parody of This is Why I'm Hot with a protection warrior spin. Still, I think it probably applies to all tanks about equally, even if the song pokes a bit of fun at the protection paladin crowd. The music itself is fairly straightforward, and completely accessible. It's got a solid beat, and I'd actually love to hear the rapper do other work -- he felt pretty solid to me.
The video itself was a little more bland. But if you consider that the video is meant to be a vehicle for the music, it served its purpose very well. The flashing lyrics were slightly distracting. But if you view the machinima portion as being a little more trailer-like, and a little less music video, I think the whole thing comes across better.
This was a fun video, and I'd definitely like to hear more from the performer. And at the end of the day, this is why I'm prot.
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Life of a Vendor is one the most subtle, beautiful WoW movies I've seen this year. The music video is set to I don't know by Lisa Hannigan. The video's author is Galenmereth. (At least, as far as I can tell: if someone knows differently, please drop me a line.)
The movie is focused on the vendors in Azeroth, Northrend, and abroad. To quote Galenmereth, "this is a video dedicated to all the vendors who usually only get our coin and not our love." Even ignoring the subject of the video's dedication, Life of a Vendor is shot with a careful, artistic eye. Its stop-motion method is relatively unexplored as a WoW movie technique, and the style serves wonderfully when shot over the shoulder of so many NPCs.
The song is obviously a treat. I enjoyed Lisa Hannigan's work and will probably check out other music by her. If it's as good as I don't know, it will quickly take up residence in my iTunes.
Overall, Life of a Vendor was a great video. Nice job, Galenmereth.
Edit: As pointed out, "time lapse" is probably a better way to describe this technique. Mea culpa.
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I wasn't sure what to expect when I was tipped off to Happy Anniversary by Britty. I hadn't previously been exposed to her work, so she was relatively unknown to me. This is her fifth machinima, and she started off her notation about the video acknowledging that it's (yet another) Evanescence-inspired WoW video. I'll admit, I didn't have high hopes.
Within a very short time, though, I was completely blown away. Britty's skill for animation is very clear, and her characters are immediately accessible. She's definitely got some amazing chops. She mentioned in her excerpt that she didn't include any voice acting or lip synching for Happy Anniversary because she didn't feel the story required it. I absolutely agree with her. Between the power of the imagery and her perfect timing with the music, she absolutely conveyed the narrative without any additional voices or character singing.
The video has a fairly harsh ending, which I think is appropriate given the context of the video. It's actually a little more raw and gritty than what I was expecting to have happen, so it wins a few style points in my book. This was a great video, and I'm totally going to check out Britty's other work in the future.
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Looking for Group by Michelle Madison is a fun WoW spoof of Lionel Richie's Hello, is it me you're looking for? The video was created using in-game footage, so there's not many fancy machinima techniques. This seems to be Michelle's first machinima video, so a lot of the production values are at that opening level of sophistication.
Michelle did a great job of the vocals, and I enjoyed her singing. I think she managed to nail a WoW-version of Richie's singing, which is a pretty interesting trick to have pulled off. The video was fine for this level of work. It doesn't have a lot of flash-bang, but mostly exists to complement the lyrics of the song.
Overall, this was a fun video to watch. I hope Michelle gets enough feedback that she continues grow a repertoire. If not, then I hope she at least enjoyed dipping her toe in the waters of machinima creation.
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According to its author, Icecrown Citadel - The Movie was inspired by Invisura's Ulduar: The Movie. The comparison is fairly apt, since this kind of long cinematic view of a raid is a relatively new concept. According to Cybeloras, Ulduar: The Movie is his favorite WoW film "of all time," so he's understandably pretty excited about this project. There's enough call-backs to Ulduar's that you don't miss Icecrown's roots.
I think this is a fun movie for anyone who enjoys the lore of Icecrown Citadel. There's plenty of information here to get your fix for story and genre, while still focusing on the experience of raiding the Lich King's homebase. Cybeloras has done a pretty good job with this project, and I'm excited to see what comes next. The first part only includes the bosses from the lower spire, and the second part will be out once the creator has enough footage.
Check it out yourself, and let us know what you think.
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I think Still Alive -- JoCo version wins the "genre bending" award. Still Alive was originally the closing credits song for Portal by Valve Software. The computer system known as GLaDOS promises the Portal player cake throughout the game. It's kind of the carrot to keep the player moving. (This is also the source of The Cake Is Not A Lie.) Still Alive is performed by GLaDOS at the end of the game.
Well, being the geek savant that he is, Jonathan Coulton covered Still Alive. Being the WoW culture savant that he is, Spiff took JoCo's cover and turned it into a World of Warcraft machinima. (There are plenty of references to the original Portal game in the video, though, so this version isn't entirely detached from its roots.)
Like all of Spiff's videos, Still Alive -- JoCo version is a lot of fun. Spiff does a great job capturing the fun and humor of JoCo's original music. Not to mention, his animation skills are constantly growing and always impressive.
Edit: JoCo wrote the original song, mind you. Still Alive was performed at the end of the game by a female artist. This song, then, is the version performed by JoCo. "Cover" is a tough word to use for this, so I wanted to clarify it.
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Sharm's I Kissed An Orc was stuck in my head for days after I heard it. I admittedly spammed it on Trade channel, in Wintergrasp, and even in an Icecrown Citadel. Sharm's outstanding voice and flair for effect parody makes I Kissed An Orc a solid, outstanding WoW song. Sharm's musical talent is absolutely amazing.
The music video was created by Millinia93. The video does good things for the song, and flows very well with the tempo and lyrics. The only real complaint is that the subtitles could have used a tad more polish, since the apostraphes could be a little distracting. (I'm used to the plural nickname for Alliance being Allies instead of Ally's, for example.) Still, a lot of that is a stylistic choice, and Millinia's work was ultimately impressive.
I'll close with the obvious joke that this parody is likely to become Jaina Proudmoore's theme song.
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It's been a while since we've looked at the wonderful series, I'm MT. The series has obviously progressed pretty well, and the characters continue to be heartfelt and adorable. The animation style is still fun to watch, and our hero now seems to have levelled up into the twenties.
The opening segment for I am MT - Season2 - EP03 is absolutely fantastic. The call out to the Super Mario games is an inspired choice, since it calls out to the roots of gamers everywhere. I even found the final gag to be pretty amusing, since it still exemplifies the slapstick humor of the main character.
Watching the video, I was pleased to see the new, wide variety of characters that have been added to the show. There's a new troll, of course, but you also get to see the author's interpretation of the Alliance as well. I am MT - Season 2 - EP03 is a fairly long movie, clocking in at about a half hour. But if you've got the time to check it out, I think you'll find it worth it.
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A type of machinima that we don't see very often are recruiting videos. There's certainly been a few, like the Scytheguard Recruitment Video. But they tend to be relatively few and far between. Creating a recruiting video can be a lot of work for what most guilds consider not enough payoff.
Today's video is the SABR Recruitment Ad, for the SABR Guild on the Wyrmrest Accord roleplay server. SABR stands for Special Action Battle Regiment, so the video is an apt parody for the Army Strong advertisements. The SABR version follows the same flow as the original Army video, and has the same general epic feel.
This kind of video can be a lot of fun for a guild, and my hat's off to SABR for their work. Here's hoping it works out for them.
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How to Punt a Gnome - Method 1 is the first episode in a new machinima series by Bloodvein Movies. The series has a basic premise, which you can probably easily noodle out by reading the title of the installment. In summary, it's all about different methods for gnome punting.
How to Punt a Gnome has several great touches. I like the general animation style, of course, and it shows that Bloodvein has decent notions about how to accomplish machinima. For an old gamer like me, though, the Mortal Kombat sequence is probably the finest part of this video. While I was always a die-hard Scorpion fan, any Fatality is a good Fatality.
My only significant criticism of the video regards the undead's voice. I had to crank the volume up very high and listen to the soundtrack many times to make out what that character was saying. That could be a YouTube issue, maybe, but it was definitely distracting from the overall movie.
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Feb 9th 2010 at 12:00PM 
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