March 16th, 2010 -- Posted in Weekly Happenings |
Welcome back, family and friends. Its Monday Tuesday, which means I’m a day late but worth the wait to review the happenings of last week , shake off the weekend hangover and get back to the grind.
I’m happy to say I had a much more successful week in terms of capturing news of achievements and a little more flavor of non raid related news. Its always a tender balance between raiding and non-raiding content. Raiding tends to be the most organized aspect of group play generating the most planning, forum posts and overall buzz. That doesn’t mean it even represents the majority of the most hardcore raider’s time in game, though. Luckily I was able to keep a better ear to the ground and found out about a ton of awesome successes in ECC this week.
Achievements:
Ari is in the middle of a march towards Loremaster of Northrend on her Shaman, eliviani. This week she checked off Might of Dragonblight and Veteran of the Wrathgate in the process.
Cicera and Naiadmuerte each popped achievements that make my mind boggle: Lance a Lot and 1000 Fish respectively. Anyone willing to Joust or fish that much has a strength of will and depth of patience that I will just never be able to approach.
Speaking of patience, Shengli and Jaileth have both been getting their PuG on with Looking for Many and Looking for Multitudes. Titles and cute pets abound!
Anarche (AKA Kitten Tits) popped 30 exalted reputations this week. He seems to have a knack for getting both NPCs and humans to like him despite his gruff exterior. I wonder if he’s found a way to make NPCs laugh with buady stories…
Haian is getting his start down the same road with 5 exalted reps himself. I’m not sure if fables of finding people fornicating with foul will help you as much as they did Arch, but its worth a try.
Egodina has been dishing out some PvP pain to earn That takes class. Hopefully she’s been able to avoid letting too many hordies return the favor.
Bakku is seeking the Holy Grail, and picked up Its Just a Flesh Wound en route. Hopefully he already knows his favorite color, or Terry Gilliam will pwn his arse.
Finally Avvala either has OCD or is incredibly lucky… or maybe a lot of both. He finished off Bloody Rare this week in the kind of killing spree that will have the NSA recruiting him as a spook in no time.
Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.
New Members:
We only had one person pass muster and join the ranks this week. So, please give an extra warm welcome to Rothwell. According to the Armory… Roth is a Blood Elf Paladin who’s joined ECC on the Kilrogg server. Perhaps he’s a spy, or he’s going under the knife for a soul change operation… Either way, it sounds like there is one less Pally around to gank me in Wintergrasp while I farm, so lets all be glad for it.
Raiding:
Third Time’s a Charm hit a technical bug with one of their scheduled raid days getting dominated by instance server crashes. They still managed to get the Blood Princes down Saturday and are extending the lockout to renew their domination of Valithria, and show Blood Queen Lanithel how its done… and by it, I mean dying… and by showing her how, I mean doing it repeatedly in her presence until she decides to try it herself.
The Cherry Poptarts are back at it. Lue took the time to lead a bunch of folks into the fray for the first time against Lord Marrowgar for the weekly quest last week, and this week they’re running Friday and Saturday night. Its not too late to sign up for the team and get into the action! Justclick
right here!
Cornerstone met with news this week that their beloved leader (and lover of chickens) Handimus is likely on the verge of a WoW break, and are making the most of their next few weeks with him. Stay tuned for news. I’m sure whatever happens, the team will continue their march toward ICC and have a blast in the process.
Guildie of the week:
I’m still waiting for my first outside submission for guildie of the week. In the meantime I have to go with the people that I have the best chance to see doing awesome stuff for their comrades, and this week that has to be Beansey. If you missed his Trivia event on Sunday, I can only hope whatever else you did made you darn happy. A grand time was had by all, and we learned that Ecco and Beansey have similar movie knowledge, much to other competitors’ dismay.
If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.
Forum Post of the week:
Shadesta took this one in a landslide victory. A couple of weeks after his stellar post on hunter gearing stats, he went far beyond the call of duty by looking up a good sample of ECC hunters on the armory and proactively finding general tips that he felt would be useful to many of them. Who puts that much work into providing informational resources to their guildmates? Apparantly Shad does, and he deserves some recognition. Give him a high five next time you see him in Dalaran trying to degrease his sausages.
Coming up:
Later this week I’ve got another treat for you in the form of an interview with one of our very own XOs, and I’m working on an editorial on how to be the best asshole you can be.
Be well and love fiercely,
Ecco
March 5th, 2010 -- Posted in Blog Updates, Getting to know ECC |
This is the inaugural interview of my “Getting to Know ECC” series. Once or twice a month I will set some game time aside to chat with one of our members and bring our conversation to you here. My goal is to give you a chance to learn a little more about your fellow guildmates, and hopefully give you an excuse to chat someone up that you might not have before.
Beansey (you may know him as Gnurman or Manski as well) was kind enough to be my first victim for the segment. I hope you have as much fun reading about him as I did interviewing him.
When you finish reading, please take a moment to check out the trivia contest that Beansey is running. Its called “Do You Know What I Know?” and its happening Sunday, March 14th at 5 PM Server time.
[Ecco]: Would you mind starting by telling me a little bit about yourself outside of your WoW life?
[Beansey]: I’m a father, a husband, huge movie buff, Raider Nation Passport Holder. I like onion rings and shooting Nazis in Call of Duty
[E]: A Raider Nation member? How do you feel about Gradkowski getting a 2nd round tender?
[B]: I am going to stay mum as mentioning my beloved Raiders makes me see blood and poop nails, but I do like Gradkowski and hadn’t heard.
[E]: What got you started playing WoW?
[B]: I was a huge Warcraft buff before hand, had never been disappointed in any Blizzard game to date. I figured it was worth a shot.
[E]: Had you played any MMOs before?
[B]: Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot
[E]: Do you miss either game?
[B]: As I slap my arm trying to make the vein come up for WoW… I mean… No
[E]: So with 3 MMOs under your belt now, it seems like you’ve been gaming for a while. How “out” are you as a gamer in your real life?
[B]: Oh no, let’s see, EQ, DAoC, Champions Online, City of Heroes and Villians, and Star Trek Online… and WoW. But to answer your question, I met my wife in BRD
[E]: Wait, back up. Can you tell me the story of meeting your wife in BRD?
[B]: Absolutely. I was a healer at the time (Druid) and in a huge guild. I was asked by a friend to help out with some BRD. I logged in and there was this Gnome mage named Thimblefinn. I liked her name, thought it was clever, and so I started talking to her.
That night I kinda thought she thought I was an ass and wouldn’t want anything else to do with me. We talked alot, dunno why. She would find me online and discuss her day, or issues with her love life… kinda drove me nuts.
Then one day she asked me to jump on vent and told me she was so in love with me she couldn’t see straight. I moved two thousand miles to be closer to her. That was the beginning of the best thing that’s ever, EVER happened to me.
[E]: Wow! Thats amazing.
[B]: Also there were two other guys who were kind of into her to some extent, and I got to tell both of them that they lost.
[E]: How much time was there between meeting and moving?
[B]: About four months
[E]: That’s pretty quick.
[B]: Makes it sound like a [Match.com] thing eh? It should be told that she lived in BC, and my best friend lives in Northern Washington
[E]: That doesn’t make it any less daring.
[B]: There were some rocky patches, and there will be more. But Joy is the most awesome person ever, and an incredible lay… just saying.
[E]: Do you mind if that last bit makes it to print?
[B]: Nope. She’d be the first to tell you. She’s laughing now.
[E]: Maybe I should be interviewing her. Why hasn’t she joined ECC?
[B]: Her account is down right now. Our son is a needy boy, and doesn’t seem to like me much. She does have a rogue in the guild though, and she’s coming back for Cataclysm
[E]: Maybe down the road when she reactivates, we’ll get her side of the story.
[B]: NO! I mean… Ummm, she’s shy… yeah… that’s the ticket.
[E]: Will you play together when she gets back, or do you need your space from each other in WoW?
[B]: Hell no, I love playing with her, and she’s a slammin pally healer… and a great tank too.
[E]: I want my wife to take lessons from your wife.
[B]: It makes for some stories we cannot share with out families, though. We can’t really brag about a vacation in the barrens.
[E]: Well that gets back to the question you never answered: How “out” as a wow player are you to friends, family, work?
[B]: I am not a shy person. I love to talk about what I love, and I love gaming.
[E]: Are you comfortable telling people you don’t know well that you play WoW?
[B]: Oh hell yeah, how else will I meet gamers? Last night I told the guy at Taco Bell that he needed to transfer here so we can get another pally healer.
[E]: You’re our British Columbian recruiting office!
[B]: I live in Alabama now, but I’ll work here too.
[E]: Speaking of working for the ECC, can we plug your event coming up? Talk a little bit about what drove you to do it, and why a trivia contest?
[B]: I was in the last guild meeting, and I saw some people upset at a loss of a “family” feel to the guild. Honestly I disagreed. I feel that with a minimal effort on my part I was a part of the family. However, I remember being younger and how hard it was to just put myself out there. How hard it was to risk talking to people for fear that I would be rejected. So, I wanted to put forth a touch of effort to get some people who may not join vent and be social an excuse and a format to come on. A way to introduce themselves to us as a body.
Its a trivia contest for two reasons:
1) I can do it in vent, and people do not have to stop farming or instancing or boppin around and come to Ironforge, or Stormwind or whatever. They can keep doing whatever it is they want to do.
2) Trivia means that those of us that have a nerd flag can raise it high.
[E]: The funny thing is I had been talking to a friend before you posted and we were talking about how getting on vent makes such a difference for newer folks but it can be so hard to get them on and comfortable. I was thrilled to see you were 5 steps ahead of that curve.
[B]: I hope it helps; I want the new folks to hear us and know that we’re just gamers, like they are.
[E]: Can you give a tiny preview of what to expect… a category heading or two?
[B]: I’m working on that honestly. I work 50 hours a week and have a wife, two kids and a plethora of other excuses.
[E]: Okay, keep your plans close to the vest, I see how it is.
[B]: Well, suffice to say Video Games will be there… Movies, some sports stuff… You know, topics that people who like couch sitting would know.
[E]: Are 8-bits fair game?
[B]: I wasn’t planning on reaching that far back
[E]: Drat! That’s my long suit
[B]: I will be putting on my announcer voice and getting crazy though. I just hope a few new people come along.
[E]: I’m looking forward to it. Is there anything else about you as a person or player that you really want others to know?
[B]: Yes, yes there is. I like pudding. I like pudding A LOT… and hamburgers.
[E]: Any Particular flavors? Butterscotch? Pistachio?
[B]: Chocolate is okay, vanilla with caramel sauce is king though
[E]: Ah, so you dress it up a little.
[B]: There’s another way to eat it?
[E]: Sugar free or full on sugary?
[B]: I’m Diabetic. So, sugar to the free is all for me, but as a warning for you kids out there who don’t know: Sugar free chocolate is a laxative… seriously.
[E]: This interview is supposed to be about you, not me, but I just have to say: A bag of sugar free Reese’s PB cups, and an airplane flight are a bad combination.
[B]: HOLY CRAP! That was the first candy that I ever ate sugar free.
[E]: Did you have to throw away your pants too?
[B]: No, but I had to hold myself off of the seat. It was all raw and sensetive
[E]: We’re going to have to rate the blog “PG-13” now… unless you say “asshole” again; then we’re at “R”.
[B]: And you used up my last turn there.
[E]: Well, in that case, maybe we should wrap things up. I think we should leave people wanting MORE Beansy, but I do have one last question
[B]: Shoot
[E]: You use Gnurman, Beansey and Manski as handles… can you pick one for all of us to save on the confusion?
[B]: Mystery is my calling card…. ::POOF::
[E]: How about we use Beansey. That’s what you’re listed as up and down my chat log now.
[B]: Sounds good.
[E]: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat, Beansy. You’re going to be a tough act for the blog to follow.
[B]: Nah, and I had a good time yo, but my shy wife is giving me looks. So, I’ll have to say g’night. G’night!
[E]: G’night!
