Breakfast Topic: Where would you like to play hooky in Azeroth today?

Good morning. Today's your lucky day, boys and girls. You get to play hooky from school or work, and you get to do it in Azeroth come to life!

Your guidelines: While this is Azeroth as if it had come to life, you are not your character –- this is the real-world you who's slipping into Azeroth. For the purposes of faction balance, you may assume that you appear to be the appropriate faction and race to be accepted by the inhabitants of the city or land you choose to visit. You can also communicate with the residents.

However, aggressive monsters will remain dangerous to you, and since you are real you and not your character, we don't recommend choosing a zone where you could be attacked by anything at all. (Unless, of course, you're actually qualified to battle these creatures yourself -– in which case, do send photos to lisa@wowinsider.com.) It's probably not a good idea to try stepping into a general zone or instance, unless you're certain you know a safe spot. But what about a city? A quiet fishing hole out of aggro range? A sightseeing tour via zeppelin, or a boating expedition along the shores of Krasarang?

Your advantage is the gift of instant materialization. Wherever you'd like to go, there you'll be. If you'd like to spend the afternoon reading under a tree on a floating island in Nagrand, we can make that happen. If you'd like to party in Goldshire, we'll get you there without braving wolves, spiders, and bandits (although what you'll have to brave once you're there is up to you). You can travel about only if the real you could manage it using Azeroth's usual modes of transportation.

What would you like to see? Who would you try to meet -- and do you think you could talk your way in to see them?

Where would you like to play hooky in Azeroth today? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

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Breakfast Topic: Where will your character rest for the last time?

Back in the era when playing an MMO was an all-or-nothing proposition, choosing a final logout location could be an emotionally overwrought event. Today, however, players drop in and out of games with regularity. We may skip patches or even expansions that don't particularly appeal to us. We may temporarily step out of Azeroth to focus on real-world goals. We may fall out of love with a character and pick up an alt, only to return months or even years down the line.

Even so, I confess to remaining sentimental about where I log out before an extended (or final) absence. I can still tell you exactly where each of my EverQuest characters is camped out, and I've bookmarked a couple of YouTube videos that run past those areas so that I can occasionally recapture their spirit even without access to the game. I'm a little less attached to logout spots for my WoW characters simply because I use nearly all of them at one point or another for screenshots or in-game contacts for WoW Insider. After this many screenshots, they've ended up scattered across some fairly odd spots.

Where will your main character log out for the very last time? Is it someplace you've grown comfortable with over the years? Somewhere representative of that character's adventures or character? A familiar spot behind the counter of a favorite vendor or banker? Or perhaps, like the screenshot above, somewhere holding a tinge of tragedy? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, quitting, quitting-wow, retirement, unsubscribing, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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Where Are They Now? 2012 personalities, including the blind player and his 'guide dog'

At last, our look back at five years of WoW personality interviews rolls around to the duo everyone's been asking about: Hexu and Davidian, the British soldier blinded in Iraq and his redoubtable "guide dog" guildmate who steered him through full participation in current raid content. Their story exploded across the internet after we interviewed Davidian here on WoW Insider, and Blizzard recognized the dynamic duo with in-game helms with flavor text alluding to their inspiring bond of friendship.

Hexu and Davidian are both still playing World of Warcraft -- but the duo is together no more. As of the new year, the ever-energetic Hexu has been raiding on a new rogue, Dirtypawz, in Unqualified on Stormrage (EU). "I know!" he replies to my unspoken exclamation of surprise and sadness. "It was just that people were only raid logging, and it got boring -- but it was all amicable and cool. I still speak to people in Die Safe. I just wanted to do more than raid three nights a week." Hexu/Dirtypawz says a "very nice bloke" named Vatic is serving as his current raiding "guide dog" helper. "The people in the guild are all nice people," he adds, "and there [are] always things going on."

We'll visit with Hexu/Dirtypawz next month about how he's settling in and dig into his tips for the many sight-disabled players who've written to us during the past year trying to reach him for advice.

Meanwhile, Davidian reports that the year since we interviewed him has been packed with recognition and encouragement. "The publicity was just unreal," he says. "Even to this day, I get people coming to our server just to say how much the story inspired them and restored there faith in the gaming community. The biggest thing of all, though, was the fact that it made its way to Blizzard, and myself and Ben got signed copies of the collectors edition of Cataclysm signed by at least 50 members of the Blizzard team, and [we] received in-game pets also. Then to top it off, having in-game items with our names on them was just outstanding -- I mean, to be immortal in a game that we love to play is just, well words couldn't possibly describe it."

All good people connecting to play a game that's close to our hearts ... Keep reading for more updates about people who love World of Warcraft, from our interviews during 2012.

Click the bold, linked introductory text of each paragraph to read the original interview with these WoW personalities.

Booming support for autism research Support from WoW players helped nudge an autism research project from well-known druid blogger Lissanna (aka autism researcher Dr. Elisabeth Whyte) over $5,000. "We will be working hard at getting this project moving next semester," she notes. "I am currently working hard at writing grants to fund the project long-term. I am always truly amazed by the generosity and awesomeness of the WoW community." Follow Lissanna at Restokin and the Team Waffle podcast.

Sequel in the works We liked what Rachel Gold, author of a YA novel about a WoW-playing transgender teen, had to say so much that we invited her back to talk about transgender issues as a guest Drama Mama. She did a fantastic job, and we can't wait to read more from her, including the upcoming sequel to Being Emily. Rachel's also just signed a deal for a romantic paranormal/urban fantasy novel to come out in 2013, featuring demons (some of them, good guys) and witches fighting for power in modern San Francisco.

Putting the "war" in Warcraft The battle between the Horde and the Alliance continues on the shoulders of world PvP advocate Gug. "Gug has been busy," reports the indefatigable orc, "assassinating the Alliance leaders, camping Stormwind, fighting in the Krasarang Wilds, slaughtering Alliance on all levels... But the real focus I'm ashamed to admit has been Pet Battles. Still convinced these addictive things were secretly created to keep Gug's axe from hewing Alliance skulls. Singing Cricket, Gug is coming for you!" Find Gug at Horde Strike Force.

WoW Insider's published authors WoW Insider's published authors keep turning out interesting reads. Scott Andrews is doing heroic raiding with his guild on his feral druid and working on an update of The Guild Leader's Handbook, as well as working on a science fiction novel and co-leading two sci-fi/fantasy workshops in the Philadelphia area. Matt Rossi has switched back to a DPS orc in game; outside the game, he's putting together a third collection for publication and pounding away at three novels in progress. Find Matt at Once I Noticed I Was On Fire I Decided to Relax and Enjoy the Fall, and check out Bottled Demon for a cool read.

Update on the updater Predictable, Wowhead's Perculia has stayed busy making updates on patch 5.1 and now patch 5.2 content. "Our biggest feature was integrating Item Upgrades into the site, including the popular Item Comparison tool," she says, "and I'm particularly proud of our Brawler's Guild and 5.1 Battle Pet guides." Follow Perculia on Twitter at @perculia.

How to Priest Veiled of HowToPriest.com has moved to a new guild with a lighter raiding schedule. "Running HowToPriest.com is time consuming," she explains, "and the three-day schedule in my new guild accommodates that nicely. ... Currently we are working on a donor rank for the site that will have a few perks. February will be our two-year anniversary, as well, so we are going to be doing some giveaways for that." Find Veiled at HowToPriest.com and @HowToPriest on Twitter.

Punting it back Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe? "Currently rabble-rousing and ruffling feathers everywhere," writes the outspoken social advocate. Find Chris at @ChrisWarcraft.

The newlyweds After marrying in a WoW-themed wedding during 2012, WoW player Amanda has parted ways with her new husband -- but only in game. "My husband is now playing Eve since he wasn't enjoying the expansion," she explains. "He is busy being a pirate and blowing up stuff in space and I am busy being overwhelmed with how much there is to do in Mists." But guess what else they've been up to? "A few days after your article was posted about our wedding," she writes, "we found out that I am pregnant with our first. We will be welcoming our new little addition in the beginning of May. So our gears are changing to prepare and get ready for the new addition to our family." Find Amanda at Deviant Art.

Queuing up Blizzard's new, firmer stance on premade battleground groups has pushed changes on premade team organizers like Rathamus. "The Rath Strat AV's (and all 40-man BG premades) have been a little more difficult to assemble due to the removal of some of the automation that made it easier to queue larger groups, and I seldom run them unless there is interest," he reports. "I have been very busy maintaining the World of Warcraft Public Vent server, which is nearing its sixth year online supporting raiders, PUGs, arena teams, [and] premades [for both] Horde and Alliance. I have also joined forces with Tiny, who created the mesh networking premade/LFM addon called oQueue, which is taking the premade community by storm and helping to create, organize, support, and maintain its communications needs."

MVP Alona MVP Alona is pushing her way through pet battle achievements, still helping others get into the game she loves. Find her at Corgi Island.

Home's where the boom is Pathosìs of realm-hopping (and now happily settled) Bless the Martyr has switched mains to a resto/boomkin druid. "Bless the Martyr is plugging away at heroic bosses," she reports, "and we're actually doing considerably well given half our raiders being in the Northeast when Sandy hit. Thankfully they were all okay."

Keeping his feet on the ground Gilran and his all-dwarf guild are continuing their explorations in Pandaria. "I am mostly roleplaying with some PvP now and then," he notes. "I have lost my interest in raiding in the early Cataclysm; never got back to it ever since. As for PvP, I mostly do the WPvP rather than battlegrounds and arenas."

All dressed up The amazing WoW dress collection of Asukachan (now Asuka) is going strong. "Pandaria is offering a lot of exotic Asian designs, which I am eager to get my troll paws on," he writes. "So far, I've added five new dresses to the collection." Asuka will also be emceeing the grand finals of the University Star League Starcraft Tournament in Sweden.

No stress Although Cantafrond has moved on from Swords for Everyone, the guild for players with social anxieties, he say the guild is still active and recruiting. "In game, I've been responsible for a horrifying number of (usually) accidental deaths as I level my disc priest to 90," he writes. "Outside of WoW, I'm in the process of starting up a blog to discuss and explore the social aspects of online gaming and interaction, specifically in the realm of MMOs. We'll also be touching on other issues like mental health and social anxiety and their relation to video games and gaming in general." Find him on Twitter at @cantafrond.

Booking it Aussie librarian Ellen Forsyth hasn't been playing WoW lately because she's been in Timor Leste for three months, where she says the internet connection isn't fast enough for online games. "It is not fast enough for quite a few other things as well," she notes wryly, "but it works well for email, which is great. I am looking forward to playing WoW again." In-game talks for librarians will begin later this spring with "some exciting people who are doing research in WoW." Find Ellen on Twitter at @EllenForsyth.

Anytime, anywhere Anytime Anywhere Messenger Service has been busy since Mists opened. "We've gotten new recruits, been threatened with arrest for interfering with the war and [are] busy exploring Pandaria," says GM Derscha Kettlebomb. "We've moved to a new headquarters in Booty Bay." The holiday season was especially busy, as AAMS sponsored a cross-faction Secret Santa program for the realm. Find the cross-faction messengers at AAMS.

Inside The Insiders WoW Insider's meet-and-greet guild, The Insiders on Zangarmarsh (US-Horde), run weekly fun runs of previous raid tiers plus LFRs for Mists raids. "We are also planning to start normal mode MoP raiding after the holidays," announces Kijani. "We still have an open door policy, so if anyone wishes to join The Insiders, all they need to do is ask. The same goes for raiding with us; the only thing that will prevent us from taking someone to a raid is game limitations -- if you can get in the door, you can come play." The Insiders runs guild dungeon groups throughout the week plus guild LFRs on Saturday for anyone who's interested in getting gear and learning fights without "funsuckers." Find Kijani on Twitter at @edgesumariajr.

Over the edge Charitable high-rise rapeller McChoppy is still finding time for WoW while graduating from college, starting a job search, continuing to work on a children's book about a particularly pompous moose, spending time with his daughter and baby boy -- and signing up to go Over the Edge again in June 2013. "Time for another falling achievement!" he exclaims.

The biggest "little" guild "After your article broke, gnomes from all over the World of Warcraft traveled to Wyrmrest Accord to join our ranks," reports the all-gnome Gnomeregan Forever's GM Forbidra. "In fact, we received another surge of applicants this week after Crithto posted a nice compliment in one of our threads. We are now over 250 gnomes strong and thriving!" For Gnomeregan!

Hodor! "I've been playing WoW a decent amount since MoP," reported Game of Thrones actor Kristian Nairn before the holidays. "I'm very extremely impressed with the expansion so far, although I have yet to get into the daily grind. Still as the stage of leveling my toon and QQing when I get to 90 in BGs because I have no gear, then leveling something else. Having been to and met a lot of the people behind the game when I made it to Blizzard last year (shout-out to Crithto <3). Saw some amazing things, and it made me very excited for the future of the game, meeting such talented and passionate people." Kristian wrapped filming for Season 3 of Game of Thrones last year; look for him soon in an episode of BBC America's Ripper Street.

Brain power North Carolina State University's Dr. Jason Allaire is currently using StarCraft 2 to develop maps that are designed to assess and improve cognitive functioning in people of all ages. "We are also developing a new measure that is designed to assess MMO, FPS, and RTS knowledge," he says. Check out Dr. Allaire's research at Gains Through Gaming.

Still leveling "After 15 Minutes of Fame, we got a hell lot of new players joining our guild, trying to find what they couldn't before!" wrote Colosia, GM of The Leveling Agony of Xavius (EU-Horde). "We deeply appreciate each of them and we hope we have them for a long, long time. And we even started raiding! We thought why let people that love us leave us for raiding when we can just expand our activities and start doing it? We have stable group, full guild of happy faces and social chats so much that you can't read them all!" The guild also created a sister guild in Guild Wars 2. Join the fun on Facebook or at The Leveling Agony.

A beastly guild The all-druid guild Druids of the Beast is pushing into Mogu'Shan Vaults on beast power to push for the timed challenge modes, reports the guild's Monsterbaby. "[They] have proven to be very tricky, being only druids, due to the limitations of buffs and cooldowns," she notes. "Overall, we find the expansion very nice for druids, with the new extended talent trees and abilities and balanced damage, despite [missing] out a lot without other class buffs."

A sweet whiff of yesterday Nostalgia-minded movie-makers Order of Watchers are more active than ever, reports the guild's Larenon. "Our raid and PvP group is also making nice progress in our own pace, so I can say all is well here, and Mists of Pandaria is the best thing that has happened to WoW in a long time," he says. "As for new guild movies, we are not making a big one right now, but around Christmas, there just might be a short movie, which we shot during our seventh birthday this August." Keep your eyes on the guild's website at Order of Watchers.

The craft of crafting Master craftsman Daen of Daen's Crafting Emporium is not only still providing some of the best crafting service in Azeroth, but he says he fully intends to keep running the emporium until the game itself ends -- "just so everyone knows." Find out what Daen can craft for you at Daen's Crafting Emporium.

Working IRL After being featured here, Sevrin's movie on WoW addiction, IRL, managed to reach more than 1 million viewers worldwide and earning him recognition at film festivals and on TV, radio, and websites. "Also I have since graduated from university (with quite a good degree)," he adds, "which is in stark contrast to my WoW-playing days, where I was almost thrown out of university! I play very casually now and log on occasionally, as I am busy working on more films (also some WoW machinima stuff for the future)." Find him on YouTube (IRL), at AnthonyRosner.com, and on Twitter at @antronoid.

70-year-old raid GM keeps pushing 25s 70-year-old raider and GM Marthazon has stayed busy with ongoing recruiting for Spartans, now one of only about three guilds on her realm still focused on 25-man raids. She was floored by the international media attention after our interview. "The publicity was amazing from your article -- you have a very large following," she writes. "I heard from so many players -- and it was wonderful to find that being older and playing WoW is not as rare as might be thought. One of the more amusing things to have come from the publicity was a phone interview with a Chinese newspaper. The reporter spoke some English, while my Chinese was limited to weh (I'm hoping the meaning was "hello"). We talked as best we could."

A stealthy success It's been an up and down year for the all-rogue RP/PvP guild Vile Thorn of Defias Brotherhood (EU). "We did suffer from the pre-MoP lull when activity on the server and in RP circles died," says GM Arli. "Unfortunately, the current state of rogues in PvP means many of our members get to 90 and then take a break out of pure frustration. We are RP/PvP, but without the PvP, we lose half of what makes us Vile Thorn. So we are concentrating a bit more on the roleplay side of things and still sticking to our weekly IC guild meet and RP-themed event." Rogues interested in the group should stop by Vile Thorn.

Volunteering in-game and out The charity-focused members of The Bearers of Light on Moon Guard (US-Alliance) celebrated their fifth anniversary in April with a realm-wide party. During their Random Acts of Kindness Month, they promoted daily in-game generosity along with real-world service such as volunteering in soup kitchens and community fundraisers. They capped the month with an adoption and donation to Heifer International, an organization that provides farm animals to families in parts of the world that need them. Find the good-hearted guildies at The Bearers of Light.

Five years of WoW personalities

Where are they now? Catch up with five years' worth of the people we've interviewed in 15 Minutes of Fame.

Where Are They Now? 2008-2009
Where Are They Now? 2010-2011
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: all-druid, all-druid-guild, all-dwarf, all-gnome-guild, all-gnomes, all-rogue, all-rogue-guild, alona, anytime-anywhere-messenger-service, asuka, autism, being-emily, bless-the-martyr, blind, chris-kluwe, cross-faction-trading, daen, daens-crafting-emporium, davidian, dirtypawz, dress-collection, ellen-forsyth, facebookfeed, featured, gilran, gug, guide-dog, guide-dog-player, hexu, hodor, how-to-priest, howtopriest, howtopriest.com, IRL, irl-movie, jason-allaire, kijani, kristian-nairn, librarian, librarians, lissanna, marthazon, matt-rossi, mcchoppy, order-of-watchers, over-the-edge, pathosis, perculia, premades, rachel-gold, raiding-granny, rathamus, research, restokin, scott-andrews, sevrin, social-anxiety, swords-for-everyone, the-insiders, the-leveling-agony, transgender, volunteering, wedding, world-of-warcraft-interviews, world-pvp, wow-community, wow-interviews, wow-people, wow-personalities, wow-themed, wow-wedding

Filed under: Interviews, 15 Minutes of Fame

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Where Are They Now? The WoW personalities of 2010 and 2011

Quite a few of today's World of Warcraft players first set foot in Azeroth during the Cataclysm era. The years 2010 and 2011 saw gaming in general move into its own, and we began interviewing more and more WoW players and public personalities who were confident and eager to talk about their game of choice.

Are they still playing today in Mists of Pandaria? Many are -- although the exploits of those who aren't are sometimes equally as interesting to hear! Catch up on 2008 and 2009 in part 1 of our retrospective, and be sure click the bold subheadings at the beginning of each entry below to see the original interviews.

Pulverizing WoW MMA fighter Jens "Little Evil" Pulver has been trying his hand at Mists while preparing for his next fights. "I have not been inside a dungeon or raid but I have enjoyed leveling a few characters," he writes. "My hunter is my PvP character, and I try to get in a few games in the evening. Outside of WoW, I have been wrapping up my career as a MMA fighter and will be fighting in the semi's of the ONEFC bantamweight Grand Prix in April." Jens is also hard at work on projects including gaming hardware, depression, and motivational speaking; find out more at JensPulver.com or @jens_pulver on Twitter.

Raegwyn the solo artist Raegwyn the DK soloing specialist has mostly wrapped up Mists content by now. "I'm just working on some smaller video projects like Scarlet Monastery challenge mode solo or Spine of Deathwing, which will probably both be done when your article goes online," he wrote in December. Next up: some DK-only raids. "I'm also thinking about making a mega-event like 500 DKs vs. Sha of Anger just to see 500 armies at one time -- but not sure if i will be able to organize that," he says, "... although I think six DKs should be enough for that boss." Keep up with Raegwyn on YouTube and Facebook.

The Megaguild business Mists has reinvigorated several hundred members in the WoW branch of mega-guild The Syndicate. "Those members are really enjoying the new content and specifically the endgame zones," writes leader Dragons. "Outside of WoW, we just finished writing the official Planetside 2 Wikia for SOE; have a massive presence doing internal testing/consulting for another large MMO in development; had SyndCon 2012 (our 11th annual conference); updated our Guinness World Record for the oldest continuously operating online gaming community; and are starting work on another MMO consulting project in the near future." Find them at the Syndicate.

More, more, Morrow "Busy year!" reports Michele. "Hosting two shows for Bite Size TV: App Attack (app reviews) and Chicks with Joysticks (totally ridiculous video game news show with Chloe Dykstra). I'm also still writing for HelloGiggles and producing the FWL. Lastly, my hometown painted me in a 60-foot mural as Sylvanas, holding Frostmourne. They don't know who Sylvanas is... but it's kinda epic." Then of course there was a certain familiar NPC who appeared in Mists, Mei Chele (plus NPCs for her two cats, Azreal and Samus, and Lamplighter Mu for her boyfriend). Find Michele on the web, on Facebook, or Twitter at @michelemorrow.

Producer with pizzazz Mists has pulled Jace Hall Show producer Todd Roy back into the swing of WoW, but his offline schedule is as crazy as ever. "Still doing The Jace Hall Show," he reports. "In fact, just finished season 5 exclusively on IGN. In addition to that, I co-created a fitness series that looks like a combination of Pee-Wee's Playhouse mixed with Sesame Street starring fellow WoW fanatic, fitness model Alicia Marie." Find Todd on Twitter at @Todd_Roy or via The Jace Hall Show Season 5 and the Cardio World Series.

The Guild's Michele Boyd Actress Michele Boyd is another formerly semi-retired WoW player recently returned for Mists. "Got my shammy leveled to 90 and working on Golden Lotus and Klaxx rep," she writes, "although for some reason, I can't leave the damn Tillers rep grind alone. I have this weird urge to make them all my best friends!" Michele's fresh off two indie films that should be at Toronto Film Festival this year, plus Game Changers, a webseries for Red 5 Studios. "It takes all the themes and stuff you see in video games like jet packs, parkour and zombie killing and tests it out in the real world. Coming soon!" Find Michele at Michele Boyd and on Twitter at @micheleboyd.

PvP Ferengi style "I'm still playing, all PvP, and my priest Nursratchet, Keldar my mage, and 'lock Vasuna are all 90 and full Dread," reports Aron Eisenberg, aka Nog of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. "So, I live in the BGs, same as always except for the fact that I'm on Area 52. I hope all is well with you and life at WoW Insider is good. I'm still on your site daily looking for cool info. And when in the worlds are they going to bring warriors back down to earth?!?!?!"

The incredible Incredibles Real-life meetup mavens The Incredibles are going strong in both World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic, celebrating the guild's eighth anniversary. To connect with this social bunch in WoW, look for new GM Holywhacker; in SWTOR, look for Laohastwoguns.

Theramore RPers hold fast The Theramore-based roleplaying characters from Templars of the Rose suffered a "devastating loss with Theramore's fall," reports GM Arialynn, and guild member Merlynne produced a Goodbye Theramore video to commemorate the loss of their beloved RP hub. With renewed energy, the Rose is now campaigning in Pandaria, where it currently seeks to put down the Sha of Anger.

Computational WoW "I like Mists of Pandaria," reports anthropologist Bonnie Nardi, "especially the visuals. I understand my resto shaman better, and Healing Rain is lotsa fun. ... In research, I'm using my WoW data for theory about the evolution of large computational systems, analyzing changes in the game since I started playing in 2005. I taught Games & Society to 197 undergraduates in the fall term, and, as always, I'm impressed by the smarts, resourcefulness, confidence, and humor of gamers. In other research, I'm collaborating on information technologies for post-sustainability. Leaving the zombies to Homeland Security which seems to take them seriously, we focus on a future world (not too far away) with expensive oil which will profoundly alter how we live. No easy substitute for oil exists because oil is more energy-dense, by far, than any other resource. How will we cope with the drop in energy? Stay tuned!"

Collector's heaven Mists of Pandaria is sheer heaven for a pet, mount, and outfit collector like Drrum. "While my mount collection has kinda taken a back seat during this expansion, my pet and armor collections are nearly overwhelming me," she says. "But in a good way, as I continue to add to my pet portraits gallery. Since Drrum's 15 Minutes of Fame feature, I've launched a blog, and I'm also thrilled to report that as of 4.1, Blizzard paid me the ultimate honor by giving me an NPC: Michelle De Rum , who sells Winterspring Cubs in Everlook." Find Drrum at Drrum's Warcraft Pet and Mounts and Drrum's Pets and Mounts Gallery.

The family that plays together Road warrior Golis and his family guild Crusadoken (A-Shadow Council) grew this year as his son went off to college. "Warcraft really became the best way for us to keep in contact," he says. "Now it is not just me being on the road, but my son who is now gone every day. With classes and work, the kids didn't have nearly the time they had in the past to keep playing, but we still got to enjoy a number of nights this semester with the kids, myself and of course, my parents who are retirement age, but can still put out some decent DPS." Find Golis on Twitter at @BlaineSundrud.

The Singing Sunflower Singing Sunflower and Plants vs. Zombies theme composer Laura Shigihara is loving Mists of Pandaria. "Call me silly, but I'm especially impressed with how creative and fun the new items are (Flippable Table, Magic Banana, etc.)," she says. "As for out of game, I've been working on a few projects (upcoming video game soundtracks, a new music album including this song and finishing up the game I'm developing." Find Laura at Laura Shigihara.

Still AFK /afk movie creator Benjamin Dressler released the new I Play WoW music video for The Jace Hall Show last year. "State-of-the-art visual effects, references to the original, and cameos of WoW celebrities -- we packed it all in," he says. "If you haven't seen it, check it out." /afk is still collecting views, especially among Brazilian players. "The great people behind the Summoning Stone events send me this amazing reaction video with a crowd in Fortaleza watching /afk."

Voicing enthusiasm WoW-inspired voiceover pro Candace McCarty had to take a medical leave from work but is prepping some new demos and returns to work in this month. "I did return to World of Warcraft for Mists of Pandaria after leaving in early-ish Cataclysm," she says. "This expansion has really re-vamped my love for the game." Find Candace on Twitter at @CandaceMcCarty.

WoW in School Lucas Gillispie and the WoWinSchool Project continues to thrive and grow. "We've expanded the project to a second middle school in our district, West Pender Middle," he reports. "It has expanded to two schools in Seminole County Florida, has launched at the REACH School in Rogue River, Oregon, and has begun in the Pandora-Gilboa School District in Ohio." The project is extending to GuildWars 2 as well, and the student/player guild, The Legacy, is growing as a multi-game, multi-site guild. Find Lucas on Twitter at @PCSTech.

Fishing for content "The obsession in El's birth is slowly giving way to the responsibilities of parenthood," writes WoW fishing maven Tim Howgego of El's Extreme Anglin'. "A gnome is for life, not just for Winter Veil! Perhaps the biggest surprise of the year is that I'm now on Blizzard's Christmas card list! Not just El, but a diaspora of fansites, writers and podcasts. Part of a broadening of fan engagement, a brave new experiment by certain Blizzard employees. WoW is struggling for pace in an age of immediacy. It is a shame that a lot of Pandaria's fishing content has been lost in the backlash against infinite dailies. But there is hope in the shape of the Tillers." Stay on top of WoW fishing news at El's Extreme Anglin'.

Alzheimer's journey continues Player Bill Craig's journey through WoW and Alzheimer's disease continues. "We (psychiatrist and wife) feel like I'm edging into stage V (and some of VI) of my dementia," he writes. "This means I get confused easily, misplace things and accuse my family of having stolen from me and fly into rages when I can't find something I put down maybe only a minute ago. I can still converse and write, but I forget things like my own phone number, what day it is, hygiene routine (leave conditioner in hair instead of rinsing it). My wife helps me lay out my clothes for the next day. The only time I feel quiet and at peace is when I'm playing the game (except I fly into a rage when I forget to pay my monthly subscription and the game lapses). I am at Level 87 in the game and I credit other players with helping me to get there. The repetition and knowing the action bar has made it much easier." Keep on rocking in 2013, Bill!

Talk about flavor items ... Mists gray items are piling up for Pestle and her astounding Traveling Museum of Debris. "I'll be graduating in May of 2013 with degrees in game design and computer programming and am working on launching my first game worldwide in early 2013," she says. "I still have the museum and am looking to starting up a blog to better display the collection in full and document / database what I have. I don't really have anything screenshot-worthy at the moment, but I'm still in search of the Ancient Coin. I've been searching for a while, and have been getting tons of MoP grays! Hopefully by mid 2013, I will have the blog up and running and will post about my different adventures in hunting down new grays and rare grays as well."

Knitting together more fun Last year at this time, knitting grandma Pointilliste had just met Quilterspwn, another crafty grandma who had read about Pointy here at WoW Insider. Then the two discovered they lived only an hour apart. As you can imagine, much knitting, quilting, and WoW has ensued. "Thanks to WoW Insider, Pointy and Quilty now spend many busy hours together in Azeroth and elsewhere," writes Pointilliste. "Quilty just leveled up to 90, and Pointy is working hard to catch up so they can take advantage of all the adventures in Pandaria."

Come AFK at the AFK Tavern "I still get asked about the first article/interview you did with me!" exclaims Kayla Graves, owner of the game-themed AFK Tavern. "It's done quite good by us. The Tavern is doing fantastic! We've had a good profitable year and are very much turning into the place we set out to open. We're working on our second location right now. Myself and much of the staff are back on WoW. Most of us play in a guild called Water Tribe on Moonguard when we aren't at work."

Tunnels & Trolls It's back to the beginning for gaming industry old-schooler Liz Danforth as she helps pick up the threads for a Kickstarter reboot to Flying Buffalo's Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls, designing "new content, new art, and some very cool rewards." She continues: "I'm part of a retrospective art book for Magic the Gathering, completing a new painting with a character who could have stepped off the streets of Stormwind. And yes, I'm thoroughly enjoying WoW despite deep misgivings about MoP. I think Blizzard outdid themselves, and I'm spending waaaay more time there than is ideal for my productivity!" Find Liz at Liz Danforth or on Twitter at @LizDanforth.

Care packages for the masses Player care packages are still flowing on Moonguard thanks to Venita and her crew of charitable guildies. "I still run the care package service and it continues to gain a lot of support," she reports. "I have picked up on my personal YouTube channel again and started preparing it for 2013 with vlogs, gaming-related things and what have you. Probably one of the biggest things going on in my life right is that I had a weight loss surgery done back in September; I am down over 100 lbs. in little over four months. It has been such a blessing and has totally changed my perspective on life. My guild is still kicking it. We are keeping up with our personal roleplay story, raids and enjoy all the new alts!" Catch up with Venita at Venita Speaks and YouTube.

Election-year madness We can only imagine the chaos that transpired during the election year for progressive guild Wreck List on Garrosh (US). "We're all still playing and enjoying the expansion very much!" writes busy GM Dkosmama.

In Kirina's closet Kirina has continued to update Kirina's Closet behind the scenes with more transmog outfits. "Earlier this year I was contacted by Fairchild Books regarding a screenshot of mine from my blog they wanted to use in their newest textbook edition of The Meanings of Dress – 3rd edition," she reports excitedly. "I assume that it was used for the new section of the book titled Fashion and Fantasy, though I cannot say for sure where it is in the book or if it even made it through the cut of being published. However, the fact that I was contacted about it I still think was pretty cool." We do, too!

Greener pastures

Not all the players and personalities we interviewed two and three years ago are still on the World of Warcraft scene.
World of Warcraft and Philosophy author John Nordlinger is in his last year of film school, too busy for gaming. "Pandas look fun," he adds.With a young son and having gone back to school and back to training, Olympic silver medalist in swimming Megan Jendrick hasn't played in quite a while. After some chatting for this retrospective, though, we suspect that could be changing in the near future ...John Keating, one of the creators of the movie The Race to World First, reports: "We did manage to get out to the Phoenix Comicon for their film festival where we won the best documentary category. After that we were approached by some producers that are now working with us to get the film professionally distributed. Because of that we have had to pull the film offline until the details are worked out. Meanwhile, we have been developing a StarCraft/South Korea project. Its focus would be on the gaming culture that has evolved there and the real lives of three of StarCraft's top contenders." John's generously made the film free to view for WoW Insider readers at Vimeo.Internationally renowned musician David Arkenstone, creator of many WoW soundtrack segments, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of a recording career spanning more than 30 albums, film and television soundtracks, and video game scores. His new album, to be released in March, will be a fantastical new adventure exploring the depths of romantic love with a mermaid. Songs are sung in Mermish, a new language created especially for the nine-track collection. The album will be performed along with Arkenstone classics as a lavish live, orchestral production on March 16 in Los Angeles, California. Follow David on Facebook, Twitter, and at DavidArkenstone.com.
Video Game Choir director Julia Seeholzer has graduated from both college and WoW. "I certainly miss it, though, and plan to jump back in during the next month or so -- I need to explore MoP!" she says. "I passed the choir into new hands when I graduated, and I'm happy to say they're doing very well." Find Julia at JuliaSeeholzer.com or on Twitter at @mmmmMozart.Playing WoW with Kinect-like body-sensing software is off the table for researchers at USC these days. The team has moved on to work related to PTSD.A shaped-up, slimmed-down Jonathan raced his druid up to 90 before backing out of WoW to refocus on a master's degree -- and staying fit. "I have managed to generally keep my weight down, which is a big victory, though I recognize it will be a lifelong struggle to stay healthy," he reports. "I stay active through hockey and some time at the school gym." Find Jonathan DJing at Mixcrate or on Twitter at @homeworkfilms.
Read the latest on WoW personalities from 2008 and 2009, and stay tuned for a look back at the most recent year of interviews with WoW personalities next week!
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: afk-movie, afk-tavern, aron-eisenberg, benjamin-dressler, bill-craig, bonnie-nardi, candace-mccarty, david-arkenstone, deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls, dkosmama, drrum, els-extreme-anglin, facebookfeed, featured, golis, jens-pulver, john-keating, john-nordlinger, julia-seeholzer, kayla-graves, kirina, kirinas-closet, knitting-grandma, laura-shigihara, little-evil, liz-danforth, lucas-gillispie, megan-jendrick, michele-boyd, michele-morrow, nog, personalities, pointilliste, race-to-world-first, raegwyn, templars-of-the-rose, the-incredibles, the-syndicate, tim-howgego, todd-roy, venita, video-game-choir, where-are-they-now, world-of-warcraft-interviews, wow-community, wow-interviews, wow-people, wow-personalities, wreck-list

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Where Are They Now? 5 years of WoW personalities, 15 minutes at a time

Azeroth is certainly not the same place it was back in 2008 when we began interviewing players and people associated with World of Warcraft for WoW Insider's "15 Minutes of Fame" feature. We face a new landscape with new threats, new stories, new opportunities. While many of the people we've talked with over the years have moved on to other horizons, plenty of them are still right here in Azeroth -- and many of them are doing things as remarkable as those that first caught our attention

Where are they now? To find out, we have to go way, way back -- all the way to January of 2008 ... Be sure to click the bold subheadings at the beginning of each entry to read the original interviews.

Noor the pacifist Five years ago, the idea of someone playing an MMO like WoW without killing any monsters seemed incredible at best and ridiculous to many. But Noor kept at it -- and he's at it still. "I've got my mage up to 90, but haven't done much with Noor for a while," he reports. "I missed the small window of opportunity to create a neutral pandaran by getting off the starting turtle without choosing a faction by using Zen Pilgrimage; there's still a way that should work, but it's a very long grind ... (Basically, herb and mine to level 41, which takes more than 50,000 nodes, then take up inscription and make a scroll of recall and read it.)" Um, yikes. Read more of Noor's exploits at Pacifist Undead Priest.

Years and years of Spectacular Death This casual guild was a pacesetter in classic WoW for retro raiding and special events designed for "regular" folks. (Apologies for not having room to include the sonnet, haiku, and other goodies guild members sent along with their update -- you guys are irrepressible!) Check out Spectacular Death for the latest on their weekly mount runs, smacking down bosses in the buff, marmot punting in Orgrimmar, guild battlegrounds, helping each other and the guild get achievements, finding creative new ways to die, and taking their summons and liking it (even when they're standing right by the stone).

The day he dinged 20 Suul, the level 19 twink PvPer we interviewed in 2008, has finally leveled up and is raiding and PvPing in arenas. "With BoA gear and class damage output, twinking at low levels doesn't interest me much anymore," he explains. "Suul accidentally leveled to 20 when visiting Dalaran. However, I still had the queue and entered battle. The opposing team consisted of a group of Alliance twinks that knew me and all gathered around and walked me with the flag to my base for my last cap. I actually teared up a little."

From artist to blogger Cenarion Circle mage Aislinana made a name for herself back in the day designing character art for players. Today, she GMs her own guild. Find her at Apple Cider Mage and on Twitter at @applecidermage.

Once banned, now an in-game namesake "Has it really been five years?" wonders mega-mage Lhivera. "When I was first interviewed for WoW Insider, I had just received a permanent ban from the forums for theorycrafting about Arcane Barrage while it was still officially unreleased information. The ban was reversed about a year later, and today I'm part of the forum MVP program and have an NPC named in my honor: Li Vera, who may be found in a cave on Shan'ze Dao Island. It's been an interesting and enjoyable turnaround!" Lhivera still plays his frost mage the most, although what he calls "the demands of real life in middle age" keep things casual. Find him at Lhivera's Library or on Twitter at @Lhivera.

Breanni's pet supplies Pet mecca Warcraft Pets has become more popular than ever since the advent of Mists of Pandaria and pet battles. "Our team has been working hard to bring new functionality to the site for pet battle enthusiasts," Breanni reports. "We recently added a stat calculator to each pet's profile, allowing users to determine the stats for pets of any level, rarity and breed. We've also expanded our database with all of the new pet battle abilities. On a personal note, I recently became a first-time father." Congrats to Breanni and his family!

The Spreading Taint The Taint family of GLBT-friendly guilds on Proudmoore (US) continues to thrive both in-game and in real life. "We have now grown to a membership of 7,500+ characters in 11 different Taint guilds," reports Kyan, its current leader. From social events to a realm-first Will of the Emperor (full clear of heroic Mogu'shan Vaults), this collective offers a home for all playstyles. See Taint and their umbrella organization, The Rough Trade Gaming Community, at GaymerCon 2013 in San Francisco, or visit Taint.

Working at Blizzard The guy who created the I Play WoW app? "Still working at Blizzard as a senior engineer 2," reports Nick Gerakines. Ding -- achievement complete!

The devoted blacksmith Ah, one of our favorite updates: An old-school blacksmith specialist who still plays WoW and still loves his smithing! "I've kept up the blacksmithing and have made it a point to get as many of the patterns in-game as possible," Gaiusseptimo reports. "Right now I'm sitting around 96% completion on my BS list and am confident it's the most complete list on server."

Gripping tenacity Despite being disabled by a rare condition that dislocates her joints at the drop of a pin, Lileya hasn't given up playing. "I've learned a lot about accessible design since the last time we spoke and it's opened up my options for playing," she reports. "I'm currently working on a script for my controller so I can use that for farming and fishing and polishing up my speech recognition software with WoW terms so I can use it for chat and secondary casts. We launched an accessible gaming website, Dual Ring, early this year and I've been working very hard on it. We write accessible game reviews and cover adaptive technology as well as providing guides and tips on how to make gaming accessible without requiring specialist knowledge or equipment."

Standing up for WoW Stand-up comedian Jeff Reitman continues to play WoW and perform comedy at Wackygamer.tv. "[We] are regularly updating our video channel with new content, and our live comedy show just got accepted into SF Sketchfest, which is huge!" In his day job as a game developer, Jeff's created Hoboscope and Ozgood (on the App Store) and will soon ship Burt Destruction on iOS and Android.

WoW goes to school "This year the Suffern Middle School branch of WoWinSchool (House Enigma) has grown their ranks to 35 members," reports educator Peggy Sheehy (in costume at far right, above). "Blizzard stepped up and generously provided game keys to Cataclysm and Pandaria, and our Hero's Journey continues into the Mists. On opening day of Peter Jackson's movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the WoWinSchool was first to enter the local IMAX Theater -- some dressed in full cloak and full beard! Since The Hobbit is the companion novel in The Hero's Journey course, Middle Earth is like a second home (Azeroth being the first). A small contingent of heroes is also exploring Tyria, but our allegiance to The Alliance remains steadfast." Look for more on WoWinSchool from Lucas Gillispie later in this retrospective.

WoW, Eh Former WoW Insider's Weekly Comic creator Kelly Aarons is no longer with our site, but she's still playing WoW. "I got to take Cadistra through a bit of Pandaria -- it was truly a rekindle of a old flame," she reports. Kelly isn't yet clear of the arm injuries that caused her to resign her position with us; we miss her and send best wishes for a complete recovery!

Quadriplegic player carries on While quadriplegic player Quadilious has recently scaled back his efforts to assemble software and hardware resources for disabled gamers due to a real-life move, in game, he's been hitting 5.2 content hard with a 10-man team. "MoP has been very exciting for me," he reports, "and I feel I've pushed my playing way above any level I ever thought possible." What an amazing guy!

Goddess guilds for women Looking for an all-female guild? Goddess of the Horde on Nesingwary and Goddess on Winterhoof (Alliance) are both now level 25 guilds, reports GM Myredd. "Since you did our profile, the guild membership has changed and grown, but the purpose remains the same -- to provide a safe, fun atmosphere for women players (and their daughters or granddaughters) to play WoW," she says. The groups are primarily leveling guilds, raiding only old-tier content; they are LGBT-friendly and family-friendly. Find the Goddesses through the guild finder on Nesingwary or by sending mail to Ligana on Winterhoof.

Child's Play The Child's Play charity has had another incredible year, thanks to the generosity of gamers from all over the world. "Together we've raised almost $3 million so far in 2012 for children's hospitals, and we still have a few weeks to go!" reports Kristin Lindsay. An avid pet collector, Kristin says she suspects the expansion was created to fulfill her dreams. "I have so much admiration for the pets that are also raising money for great causes," she notes. "They are the ultimate example of gamers giving back... something that we at Child's Play are 100% behind!" Chat with Kristin at @Peeardee on Twitter, where she says she's "always down with trading pet battle tactics, disc priest tips, Child's Play info, and anything else on a gamer's mind."

Greener pastures

Quite a few players from 2008 and 2009, of course, have moved on to greener pastures.
Kooz, host of the now-defunct O'RLY Show on the also now-defunct WoW Radio, dabbled a bit in Wrath and Cataclysm but is now focused on several business ventures.Researcher Dr. Jessica Langer no longer plays, but her recent book, Postcolonialism and Science Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), includes a chapter on WoW, and she's currently researching virtual worlds, selfhood, and consumer behavior. Look for her at JessicaLanger.com or on Twitter as @DrJessicaLanger.Being dad to twin 2-year-olds keeps WoW researcher and anthropologist Dr. Alex Golub plenty busy outside Azeroth these days. He's finished writing his book on WoW and is submitting is to potential publishers, and he plans to hop into Pandaria to brush up on his MMO skills before teaching a class on virtual worlds this spring.Fitness enthusiast Rafe Brox hasn't played WoW in a long time, but he's still fit as a Lightsteel rod (making his first 500-pound deadlift earlier this year) and intermittently blogging at Digital Discipline.AishaLove, our friend from the furry fandom, has moved on to other games. He's still a fan of things furry: "I think it's our love for animals that draws us to play furry characters like taurens, worgens and pandas!"The Kraft Dinner Gang of players who enjoyed real-life meetups has moved away from WoW, but most of the friends still game in StarCraft, LoL, and various console games.As you might expect, author Cory Doctorow and his wife, gaming goddess Alice Taylor, haven't had much time for WoW lately. "Alice has been busy launching Makies, the company she founded, and I've been on tour with Pirate Cinema," Cory writes."Retirement guild" leader Boltac has stopped gaming himself, but Vanguard of Norrath is still active on Blackwater Raiders as well as a branch in Star Wars: The Old Republic.Stay tuned as we ask "Where are they now?" of the standout WoW personalities we interviewed during 2010 and 2011 -- next week!
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: facebookfeed, featured, world-of-warcraft-interviews, wow-community, wow-interviews, wow-people

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