Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Factions, Classes

Most Minnesota Vikings fans are saying that their punter, Chris Kluwe, is probably the best dropkicker to play for the team, and this profile in the Star Tribune reveals something else about the young (he’s 27) football player: he also plays World of Warcraft. Not only is he breaking team records left and right, but he’s an avid videogame player, and talks about his time in Azeroth so much that a local morning show has dubbed him “Chris Warcraft.” His Wikipedia entry also says he once sent a signed Wrath mousepad to a fan in Canada, too. So while he might not be 80 yet (the Vikings have been busy winning my sorry Bears’ division this year, and now they’re headed to the playoffs), he has been around and playing lately.

Unfortunately, while there are quite a few notes about his game-playing around the ‘net (he’s also a big Guitar Hero fan, so Activision-Blizzard will probably appreciate that), we haven’t seen his characters mentioned anywhere, so we have no idea what class or race he plays. For some reason, Mage jumps to mind as a complete guess, and so does Horde, but we’ll probably have to ask Kluwe himself to find out.

Update: Internet detectives in the comments below say he’s a Troll Rogue on Kil’jaeden. And that he’s already hit 80 (isn’t he supposed to be practicing for the playoffs?).

Update2: Kluwe got in touch with us and confirmed that yes, he’s an 80 Rogue (so I’m 50/50 on the random guessing). He also says that he hasn’t had too much time to play lately, since he and his wife just had a baby girl. And he says that if you really want to be amused at how he spends his time, check his achievements. Yes, he’s a Merrymaker.

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe plays WoW originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Humor

Just in case, like me, you missed last week’s Guild episode, you get not one but two episodes of The Guild today. In last week’s episode, we found out more about the eye-dentity of Mr. Eyepatch, and now episode five is out today, ready to watch.

This week, Zaboo continues trying to become a man, with the usual creepy results, and Tink shows a new side of herself — Felicia promised us a while ago that we’d see new relationships sprouting up between the characters, and that’s exactly what we’re getting. Plus, the stuntman, who seemed like he might fit right in with the gang, might not actually be on exactly the same page.

And this episode also shows off the show’s bigger budget in a pretty exciting way (not to mention that the cinematography is looking really good lately). We almost can’t keep up with all of The Guild coming out this year. Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

The Guild: Season 2, episode five originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

Merry No Maintenance Day, everyone! Let’s not waste it and jump right into things. Chilblain asked…

When my guild does 25-mans, it’s not uncommon to have 2-3 Priests, 2 Warlocks and 2-3 Mages. Nearly one third of the entire raid is all rolling on Cloth armor, yet we go entire evenings where not a single piece drops.

If Blizzard insists on the ridiculous notion that cloth should be all things to all people, have they addressed the poor drop rate in comparison to other items? Our Resto Druids and Shaman are all decked out in 213 and while our Priests are still healing in Heroic blues.

Continue reading The Queue: The loot blues

The Queue: The loot blues originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Making money, Wrath of the Lich King

Our good friends over at Massively have teamed up with the GamerDNA site to come up with some stats of MMO playtime this year, and the results are very interesting. Unfortunately, those results are buried under some pretty confusing charts (and these are all approximations of what’s happening from GamerDNA information, not actual subscription numbers), but we’ll see if we can pull out the salient points for you.

In (very) short, WoW rules. Two games that most pundits thought might affect WoW playtime, Warhammer Online and Age of Conan, in fact, didn’t affect WoW logons in the least, according to this data. And while guest contributor (and GamerDNA writer/analyst) Sanya Weathers says she may have spotted a short decline in WoW playtime right around the release of WAR, that was quickly overshot by the release of Wrath, as WoW‘s numbers jumped right back up.

But while Blizzard has weathered the competition this year, things might not be so hunky dory for them in the future: while games like Lord of the Rings Online and EVE Online are showing sharper increases, WoW‘s population seems to be leveling out. It’s still growing, sure, but not at the rate that it has been (and perhaps at the slowest rate in the game’s life). And you have to think, as we said on the podcast last week, that whatever other expansions Blizzard can come up with, none will be as interesting to their players as finishing off the story of Arthas Menethil and the Lich King. WoW is still the undisputed king of MMOs, but the stats say we’re closer to the end of its reign than the beginning.

Massively and GamerDNA chart the MMO market in 2008 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, Blizzard, WoW Moviewatch

Today’s Moviewatch is The Lamp, by Innovatif. Here’s a tip that will help you from the beginning. The two characters are credited as “Blue Idiot” and “Red Idiot.” They’re not stand-ins for kids or anything, they’re just a pair of idiots. That being said, I’m shocked and aghast that Alliance was used for token idiots!

The Lamp is pretty amusing. I’m not sure I laughed out loud, but I was definitely grinning at watching the clods go through their Christmas morning. It doesn’t hurt that their excitement over a found lamp reminds me of my favorite phrase – I love lamp! (Or, for me, I love Tank!) And is often the case when a pair of idiots find a shiny object, the story progresses and hijinks ensue.

“The Lamp” is decent to watch, but I think it struggles a little bit against the recent rash of astounding films. I hope to see more from Innovatif, as I think this shows a lot of promise.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch …

WoW Moviewatch: The Lamp originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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