Project Lore

[caption id="attachment_9295" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Tribute to insanity, AMIRITE?"][/caption] When I was in high school I remember my brother absolutely losing it.  He snapped, falling into a fit of uncontrollable rage and despair.  It's possible he's never been the same since.  It had nothing to do with his heart being broken, or being cut from the basketball team (he wasn't).  No high school-style earth-shattering moment at all.  He simply died in Diablo II, on a hardcore character, at level 82, because he was playing on a 56k modem. He selected this masochistic task because he had already beaten Diablo II countless times.  It challenged his mouse-clicking skills, and gave a true meaning to dieing in a video game for the first time (followed later by Steel Battalion).  Imagine if he took it further.  Not collecting loot, not grouping with other players, and not questing, then he'd be just insane right?  Neverdied, a now level 80 mage on Chimera is insane, and insanely dedicated. According to MMO-Champion, Neverdied hit level 80 with no deaths, quests, instances, BGs or Arenas, mounts, flight paths, professions or looting, and only 80 Achievement points (hitting level x).  The character was leveled Rogue style, good old fashioned grinding. Neverdied did buy equipment from the AH, something I am left scratching my head over.  If the toon had no professions and didn't pick up any loot, where did the money come from?  Was coin looting allowed, or was there a support toon involved?  Either way, it is an incredible achievement, something I will never attempt. Neverdied wasn't the first character that the player attempted to be hardcore on.  All of the careful planning and execution was made possible by the previous failed attempts (he had a warrior toon crater).  The community will never cease to amaze me at the different ways they can achieve random things in World of Warcraft. A collective 31900+ mobs were harmed in the making of Neverdied.

Ah, Silvermoon city. Home of the highly effeminate blood elves. A magical city, where housework is performed by magical brooms and there are more inns and mailboxes than perhaps any other Horde city. Its no surprise that Silvermoon is a little more magical during Winter Veil. Around the various inns in Azeroth, you may find a pair of "Winter Revelers" flirting under the mistletoe (I use flirting generously; they really just stand there). Players can then /kiss one of the revelers to receive a special seasonal item, like Mistletoe or Snowflakes. Most inns have one reveler of each sex.

The same couple last year

However, if you head on down to Silvermoon for the holidays, you may notice two male revelers under the mistletoe. Its unclear whether or not this was a mistake, but it definitely happened last year as well. The pertinent question here is not if these are gay Winter Revelers, the question is why they changed to green suits and dropped the hats from last year. Blizzard has traditionally been very friendly and accommodating for its LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) players, especially relative to other online video game providers like Microsoft. There have been hints of some LGBT characters in WoW, and one of the biggest guilds in all of World of Warcraft exists as an LGBT-friendly guild. In case you haven't picked up on any LGBT characters in your WoW experience,  check out this roundup done by Michael Sacco at WoW.com:

Question, though more of a curiosity than anything, really: Are there any gay/lesbian/bisexual or even transgender/genderqueer characters in the Warcraft lore?

Officially? I don't think so. There are a few characters that people tend to question in terms of sexuality, though.

Readers point out that Sentinel Sweetspring at Stars' Rest in Dragonblight is flirting openly with another female Sentinel. Skyguard Khatie will also ask your character on a date, regardless of your gender. Even Maiev Shadowsong and her female lieutenant, Naisha, are insinuated to be an item in WarCraft III.

Chromie, the Bronze dragon, had a dragon model in the Culling of Stratholme named Chronormu, which is a male name, but Chromie's mortal form is a female gnome. That model was renamed to just "Chromie" to match the gnome form, though, so the world may never know. I think it was probably just a typo.

It may seem like there's a ton of heterosexual "main" characters (because there is), but remember that the world is populated more by players than NPCs, and players' real-life backgrounds aren't something Blizzard has a real hand in. And even then, we don't know the story behind most NPCs, either.

I'm not sure we'll ever see an "out" main lore character, but times are changing, at least in the real world. We'll see.

As with all of our posts on Project Lore, discussion is encouraged, but purely hateful or "flaming" (the irony!) comments will be moderated.

Chances are if you're reading this post, you're a fan of World of Warcraft, but are you a big enough fan to ask for some Azeroth-themed gifts over the holidays? Merchandising has absolutely exploded over the past year. Sure, all the usuals are there. You can find most of the basic shirts, hats, and other accessories on the Blizzard Store (as well as more esoteric ephemera like the Pandaren Brewmaster figure and a Murloc plush doll), but what about all the 3rd party stuff? Jinx has a litany of exclusive apparel to purchase (though some of it can also be found at your local Hot Topic store), including several new items for the Holiday '09 period. Then there's good old FigurePrints. What better way to immortalize your or a loved one's favorite WoW toon than ordering a highly-detailed statuette for the holidays? Adult gamers would no doubt enjoy a professionally-made beer stein for loading up some eggnog on Christmas Day, or they could save it for a week later and put it to good use for New Year's Eve! And that's really just the tip of the iceberg. You can find Warcraft-related calendars, gaming mice, action figures, posters, authenticators, trading cards, miniatures, boardgames, novels, comics, and hell, even the game itself! It's too late to order most of this stuff, of course, but if you or someone you know is looking for a last minute gift for a WoW player, might I recommend a code for one of the deluxe in-game vanity pets? Maybe something for a distant Warcraft-playing SO or to show a little bit of appreciation to your guild leader for putting up with so much crap the rest of the year? This year, all I've requested is this fancy Horde wallet (depicted above). Geeky, I know, but my old one's busted and this one seems like a suitable replacement (not to mention a convenient way of wordlessly displaying my faction of choice to anyone who might recognize the symbol on the front!) We here at Project Lore would also like to know if you're planning on giving or receiving any related gifts this holiday season. At the very least, did you ask for anything or is it just far too dorky and embarrassing to have under the tree?

World of Warcraft has never been balanced, ever.  Since the beginning of time one or more classes have been considered stronger than the rest, until it was hit with the nerf bat.  Warriors, hunters, rogues, priests, paladins, druids, death knights, I am fairly certain every class has had their time to shine.  Due to the rampant issues, the term OP, or overpowered, entered into WoW's lexicon, and has remained a staple to this day. If every one of WoW's ten classes was designed to do the same thing the game would be very boring.  You can argue that the differences have become cloudy all you want, but the classes still maintain core abilities that others cannot recreate.  Mages are the masters of crowd control, rogues love to incapacitate, paladins live in a bubble and hunters are a big tease.  Each class has their perks, but some remain on a single track.  That's why I believe they deserve to be the best at what they do.  Not overpowered, but designed to excel at their sole purpose, DPS. In my ideal world, where gear and skill are equal, rogues and warlocks would top the DPS charts on most fights.  They'd be followed by mages and hunters, and then a menagerie of the other classes. No, stop it.  Scroll back up here.  At least read the rest of the post before you head to the comments section to tear me a new one! These four classes have been singled out because DPS is truly their method of choice.  They cannot perform any other aspect of the holy trinity, in any spec.  In a pinch, any of the unnamed classes can attempt to fulfill one of those other rolls. I'm not suggesting that their be a large DPS gap between these tiers either, just a noticeable one.  Something like 1.0% for the top tier and 0.5% for the second, both of which could easily be overcome by a more skilled or geared player of the other classes. Judging by the information on WorldofLogs.com, my pipedream is almost a reality, at least in ICC.  Rogues are in fact on top, oddly enough, in all the fights.  But the stab happy class seems to be a bit out of line with everyone else, doing a substantial amount of extra DPS.  This could be explained by excellent use of Tricks of the Trade swapping however.  Warlocks and hunters are maintaining good DPS, even if they aren't plentiful in terms of appearances.  Warlocks should ideally be a bit higher on average.  Even other classes are managing to be sprinkle themselves into the top slots.  If there's one class that seems to be out of whack it's mages.  The class is present, but well below the other three on average. Naturally, I may be a little biased since my main is still a gnome rogue.  What would your ideal DPS tier be?  I wish I could ask the same about healing, but I've realized that healing ranks for certain fights can change radically depending on the encounter.  Whereas a healing rotation may change for fights X, Y, and Z, a rogue will use the same rotation for pretty much everything.

[caption id="attachment_9273" align="alignright" width="225" caption="To tweet or not to tweet...Photo By L. Simon"][/caption] It finally happened, I opened a booster package of the WoW TCG and found my very first loot card!  For the first time I have a foil card in my grasp, one that cost me at least $100.  I don't care that it's one of the most worthless cards of the Scourgewar series, a super common.  The fact that its laying on my desk means I finally, finally got something back for my investment. Not only is the card monetarily worthless, but Tiny (Alliance/Horde) is the last piece of loot from Scourgewar that I wanted.  Being an avid pet collector I would have much preferred either the "pet" Kite or the Spectral Kitten.  Both of which would raise my pet counter.  Instead I am stuck with a meh horse.  A mount, something I could not care less about.  If the raptor was obtainable for me then maybe I'd give my tired Mechanostrider a break, but that isn't the case.  So the card has remained unscratched. In the spirit of Winter Veil I am leaning towards simply giving the card away.  But to whom?  A guildmate would be an obvious choice, or perhaps a bit of bribery to my guild master or raid leaders.  I am new to the guild, so I could use all the help I could get, but I don't want to get known that way.  Instead I've decided to give it to the person I've been playing WoW with the longest.  Someone who I've meet in real life a few times, and can always count on having a good time with, even if it isn't productive.  It just so happens that he's an avid mount collector, so this somewhat elusive and new mount may just make his holiday. There is a chance, however slim, that he already has the uneventful horsie.  Should that be the case, you definitely should pay attention to my Twitter account.  If it comes down to it I will scratch off the card and post it there to award the reader with the fastest fingers. One of these days I'll actually find someone to play the trading card game with...

WoWFlix is a column featuring videos from around the web related to World of Warcraft. If you find something you’d like to be featured, leave a comment or send a tweet to @Heartbourne. You may be familiar with the lyrical stylings of Ryan Myers, author of such hits as "Action Bars", "Clint Felwood", and "All the Ninja Raiders". It was recently performed by EmberIsolte, who has a magnificent voice, especially as far as most amateur WoW singers go. RavenSylpheG made a machinima for it, making this a great collaborative effort between three very talented people. Its a step up from when Ryan performed it himself: You can grab the mp3 from Ryan's site.

[caption id="attachment_9252" align="alignright" width="298" caption="Snow flurries count as action, right?"][/caption] Tokyopop returned to the forefront of Warcraft's extended universe by releasing its ninth Warcraft related manga, World of Warcraft: Death Knight, two weeks ago.  The book marks the first in the line of class-based stories, and artist Rocio Zucchi's first major undertaking.  Writer Dan Jolley has had numerous cracks in the business, even penning a Warcraft short for each of the first three Warcraft: Legends collections. Death Knight tells, and retells, the story of Thassarian, the first of his kind to break from Arthas' grasp and rejoin the Alliance.  Thass is by no means a stranger to WoW players, acting as one of the main quest givers during a death knight's fight for freedom.  The upside to that is that Thassarian's known lore allows Jolley and Zucchi to recant an incredibly brutal story.  Jolley's tale is one full of action.  Not long battles of wit and spell casting mind you, but confrontations of well executed strikes that result in a quick, and grisly deaths and dismemberment.  Even chickens were beheaded. Much of these battles follow previously known atrocities committed by Arthas and his minions.  The sacking of Lordaeron, the battle at Light's Hope Chapel, and Frostmourne Cavern are all retold from Thassarian's perspective, with each being a key moment in death knight's life.  Key moments that anyone familiar with today's lore can easily detail.  By and large the only new chapters of the story are Thassarian's beginnings.  His love of the farm, duty to his family and ambitious military career are the few poignant aspects of his life not previously known to lore nerds.  For a lorejunky like myself, the only redeeming quality of the later chapters is Jolley's interpretation of the Lich King, how he speaks with and controls his minions. It's quite apparent after reading WoW: Death Knight that Jolley's creativity was handcuffed by Thassarian's standing lore.  Rather than being able to craft any character he wanted, he was constrained to using specific events, interjecting small bits of lore and details as he went.  For those that have focused on the current lore, and death knights especially, the story is largely known.  But Jolley's dialog, and the few aspects of new lore shine through and continue to show us that he's a capable writer in our favorite universe.  Capable enough that he should be crafting his own stories, in short or long format. Zuchhi's freshman outing wasn't constrained like Jolley's, enabling her skills to highlight Jolley's action-packed tale clearly and efficiently.  I never once had to rescan a pane to understand the art, a common issue I have in action manga. World of Warcraft manga will continue with Richard Knaak's June 2010 installment, WoW: Mage.  Little is known about the plot, but it has been disclosed that Mage features Kirin Tor's Dalaran, and (sadly) Knaak's pet character Rhonin will be in the title, but (thankfully) not the main character.  Mage will be followed by WoW: Shaman, that has no known author currently.  Tokyopop has stated that Shaman, another 2010 release, will tie-in with Cataclysm.

Protip is short video series with various tips and guides. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne for notifications of new videos!

Moving on with our Winter Veil coverage, I grab the achievements Scrooge and On Metzen!

[caption id="attachment_9257" align="alignright" width="300" caption="European Player Nymh saw this when he was the first player to reach 80."][/caption] I've never earned a server first achievement. I haven't even ever come close enough to taste it. Some would argue that trying to obtain them, for most people, is a fruitless venture; that they're the domain of a realm's absolute top guilds. And fundamentally they'd be right. We are all careful observers of the world around us. We don't need online, 3rd party ranking sites telling us whose the best, because we interact with them all the time. Like any enclosed community, word travels quickly around a server, through tells, trade chat, and guild website, that "Group X" has done "Goal Y" before anyone else has. Was there ever a need to rub it in by giving them an achievement, too? But there's an extra dimension to the world first, indeed, to anything in the game that's remotely challenging at all, and that's the waning underdog hope that things will be different next time. That you'll be at the top, you'll finish the latest dungeon before anyone else in the world. Even .01% means there's still a chance! But also like any close-knit community, a server's players are that server's players. In-fighting and jealousy be damned! They don't take kindly to outsiders transferring over from another realm and taking over the scene, especially if they're intent on skirting the system to take that coveted server first title away from those who have otherwise worked so hard to earn it. So Blizzard's changing the rules. From here on forward, a player must remain on a new server for at least 60 days before they're eligible to receive any such rewards:

Any player who has been on the realm for longer than 60 days is entitled to a realm first achievement. In this particular case, the matter was investigated thoroughly for all parties involved and everyone who was entitled to the achievement should now have received it. The reason it was changed was to stop players practise on one realm then transfer over to a newer realm and get the achievement, potentially blocking the players on that realm who have been there longer earning it themselves.

In the end, this won't affect me much. And it probably won't affect you, either. After all, the server first club is awfully exclusive. But if we don't take up for and cheer on our own, then what are we worth in the end?