This one’s a little old since the content is pre-Wrath and from when Burning Crusade was new stuff, but it’s still hilarious, especially if you’ve played through BC and enjoyed it. I particularly like the gnome who gives the environmental report. He clearly has better things to do with his time, and uh…I guess I don’t blame him.

That’s right folks, the Night-Elf Mohawk Grenade is active in live realms – pick one up and give ANYONE, regardless of their race in-game, a night-elf mohawk. And we’re not talking about taking their existing hair and making it a mohawk, we’re talking about making their heads a night elf with a mohawk, Mr. T style.

The video above is a commercial for World of Warcraft that features the grenade and features Mr. T advertising the in-game item that only he could market. You’ll have to visit a mohawk grenade vendor outside of one of the starting zones to get one, but once you’re all stocked up you’re ready to party in your next raid or battleground! Personally, I love the things – I’ve seen some hate for em, but then again, haters are gonna hate no matter what, so I say sit back, relax, and lob a mohawk grenade at ‘em.

On that note though, I love how his first target is a gnome. Hee! They’re just such easy targets!

I first heard the story (and snagged the headline, since the story makes for a better headline than it does a story) from an excellent post at WoW.com on the matter – apparently the folks at Warcry managed to sit down with Rob Pardo of Blizzard to talk about what he thought some of World of Warcraft’s biggest mistakes have been. One of the notable mentions? Arenas:

We didn’t engineer the game and classes and balance around it, we just added it on, so it continues to be very difficult to balance. Is WoW a PvE cooperative game, or a competitive PvP game? There’s constant pressure on the class balance team, there’s pressure on the game itself, and a lot of times players who don’t PvP don’t understand why their classes are changing. I don’t think we ever foresaw how much tuning and tweaking we’d have to do to balance it in that direction.

I don’t think this is quite as controversial as WoW.com and a lot of other bloggers do, and I also don’t think it’s as huge news as everyone seems to think it is, personally. I played on an arena team for a while there in season 2 and 3, back when it was still fun, and while I agree that 2v2 matches were horribly mismatched, I thought the strategy involved with 3v3 matches and the chaos that was your average 5v5 match was fun to participate in.

The downside of course, as Pardo explains, is that Blizzard had to keep balancing classes around one another so everyone had a relatively fair shot to participate in arenas in some regard, or else classes and specs would completely get left out for them. This is a concern that a lot of players raised over the course of arena seasons, and Blizzard did a really good job of trying to make changes so the classes could match up with one another, but in the end there’s just nothing you can do about it.

Pardo points out that the dichotomy to the game – whether World of Warcraft is a cooperative PvE game or a competitive PvP game – is difficult to manage and it’s almost impossible to balance classes and encounters so they can be both at the same time without obviously tipping their hand as to which direction they think the game should lean.

Personally, I think that Blizzard could have done just as well to spend more time balancing the classes for PvE as long as that’s the majority of the player base, and allow PvP players to carve out their own niche. It might be painful at first as a number of PvP players will whine and complain, but the truly skilled players would find a way around some of the obvious class imbalances and others would simply get by playing teams of the preferred classes instead.

It’s kind of a backhanded compliment to the people I used to play arenas with to suggest that the best thing Blizzard could do for arena PvP in World of Warcraft is to ignore it: they’d probably be the happiest making the game work for them instead of being handed changes by Blizzard, and of the arena players that would whine about class imbalances, they’d eventually get shouted down by players who managed to make skill their ultimate competitive weapon, but in the end, Blizzard has a choice – they can spend more development time on the PvE elements of the game that really draw in new players, or they can spend development hours tuning classes for PvP, which is great for people who enjoy it but it’s not adding to the core elements of the game.

The post RPG Nostalgia: What Got You Into RPGs? was inspired by a shared topic post at the Blog Azeroth forums. The beauty of the shared topics is that several other amazing bloggers from the World of Warcraft community weigh in on those topics as well and share their experiences.

I shared mine, now go read theirs!

• Triv, of the blog Raid Naked, and the one who originally suggested this amazing shared topic, whipped up an excellent post, and reading it I see he is totally right there with my love of MUDs of all shapes and stripes. But perhaps most importantly? We share a mutual love of Dungeons and Dragons! Thanks for dropping in and commenting on my post, Triv!
• Naithin of Tank N’ Tree shares an excellent post about his history in MMOs heading all the way back to the original Asheron’s Call! Prior to that, he was known to play games that I loved just as much, like Descent and Mechwarrior 2!
• Kirei, of A Gamer of Sorts, has a love of RPGs that’s deep seated and rooted in some truly amazing games that may sound old school, but maybe it just feels that way because I’m getting old: Mario World and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I have to admit, Mario World has some amazingly RPG-esque elements in addition to the classic platforming action we all know about – the whole opening up zones and moving between them, saving up special items and then going back to areas you’ve been through in order to get more goodies – nice call!
• Rajjs of The Angry Alt had some choice words describing her gaming history, most notably that she picked up a love of RPGs from her mother, who was an avid MUD player! Way to go, mom! It was all downhill from there, eh Rajjs?
• Ophelie from The Bossy Pally dropped in on my RPG nostalgia post to point out that couples that WoW together may not always stay together, but they at least have some fun when they play! Her RPG first loves are games like Final Fantasy VII and the venerable, amazing, glorious Might and Magic – a game that I remember loving when I played it as well.

What a great run around the WoW community on this one, and an amazing shared topic! Head over to the posts linked to read the perspectives of the other bloggers!

Looking to do a little research and determine if someone’s a loot ninja before you invite them to your run? Maybe you’re just as afraid of PUGs as the rest of us and you want to make sure that you’re not grouping with someone that everyone else on the server already knows is going to make your run miserable. Thankfully you can run their name through WoW Jackass, a community-fueled site where players report loot ninjas, bad tanks, horrible healers, hapless DPSers, and other all around assy players who are known to steal nodes out from under you when you’re mining or tag all of the quest mobs in the area just because they see you coming.

There’s a flip side to this kind of site though – because it’s all community generated information, you have no real guarantee that the person listed is the jackass or the person doing the listing is the jackass – there are always two sides to every story. So keep that in mind when you go hunting for jackasses – it’s one thing to be a ninja known across the server, it’s another thing to read someone’s personal account of when another player wronged them. But if you do come across some genuine jackasses, it’s worth getting their names up there so the rest of the world knows to avoid grouping with them.

This is an amazing question for me, because multi-player role-playing games and table top RPGs and I have a long, rich, and mixed history. What about you? What’s your history and love affair with role-playing games? Shout it out in the comments!

And yes, I’ll bare all, don’t worry, just behind the jump:

I’ve been a tabletop gamer for a long time, although I can’t say I’ve always enjoyed it. Back in high school some of my friends and I tried to play a Dungeons and Dragons Dark Sun campaign, with me as a 6-foot tall preying mantis called a Thri-Kreen. (You can see what artists imagine them to look like at Google Images.) I thought the playable race was fun, until in our campaign we kind of exploited it to make me hear something no one else could and I slowly went insane and went on a killing spree over it. Kind of put a damper on the campaign. Potential, but we just didn’t keep it up.

At the time I was more engrossed in Magic: The Gathering, which I still love and while technically isn’t an RPG in the strictest sense, I think it’s arguable that it would fit into the topic. When I got to college, it was all about MUDs and MUSHes and other text-based games on the Web like Legend of the Green Dragon, which were playable in quick bursts from computer labs or class.

I dabbled in other tabletop games, but it wasn’t until my roommates and I started playing Warhammer Quest (probably the only Games Workshop game that didn’t require a billion figures and was relatively forgiving) that I really really got into tabletops. We would throw on the soundtrack to .hack // SIGN and play a couple of dungeons, invite a few friends over, and completely dork out for a few hours. It was a lot of fun, and I still love the game.

Around the same time, I started getting into MMOs – I don’t remember which one was first, but I picked up Final Fantasy XI at the behest of the same roommates, and while I loved the game visually and gameplay-wise, I was about to get my first taste of the social drawbacks of MMOs. Everyone I played with – all of my roommates – stayed up later than I did and at the time didn’t work as long hours as I did or commute as far as I did, so they had plenty of time to play while I was working or out with friends and such. I wound up falling behind level-wise, and as anyone who’s played FFXI knows, grouping with people who aren’t of approximate level in that game results in a pretty hefty experience penalty for everyone involved.

Eventually interest in FFXI waned even though the game lived on, and my friends started dropping off of the game. I did the same, and even though I still haven’t found another game that encourages people to stay logged in the way that FFXI did with its Bazaar system (where players sat and AFK’d outside of the auction house and sold their own wares that they didn’t want or couldn’t put on the auction house) – I mean, I’d leave for work in the morning with bags full of items to bazaar, and come home at night after having been logged in for 9 to 11 hours to find empty bags and tons of gil.

I will consider The Adventures of Fisternis and Prufrock the everliving testament to how awesome that game was.

Shortly thereafter – and probably through the entire time, I was seeing my first MMO love. A little game that not a lot of people may have played, but was rich with experience, depth, roleplay options, and amazing design and graphics: a space-based MMORPG called Earth and Beyond. Seriously, check out the trailer: it’s epic:

Of course Earth and Beyond got completely rolled over because it wasn’t making enough money to keep EA happy, and they were worried about the looming threat of the still popular but wildly more complicated and more massive space MMO EVE Online. That being said though, I played a Jen’quai Explorer named Laithe – a proud Sha’ha’dem intent on following his explorer heart as a member of the explorer caste but without sacrificing the teeth that he had earned from training with the Shin’wa warrior monks of the Jenquai people. Yeah, I know that’s all gibberish to you, especially if you’ve never played the game, but it was a lot of fun, and when I wasn’t exploring vast sectors of space, responding to distress signals and jumpstarting ships, or mixing it up with alien baddies out in the depths of space, I did a little reporting for Net 7, the in-game fan-contributed news and community portal.

I probably played Earth and Beyond for a couple of years, almost right up until Sunset, when EA and Westwood decided to shut the game down. I wasn’t there for that, but I’m glad to see that a couple of Google searches for the game prove that the idea still lives in the form of emulators and fans trying to recreate the in-game galaxy on their own servers for other fans who miss the game as much as I do.

I went without playing MMOs for a long time until I got accepted into the beta of this new game that my friends told me would change the face of MMOs forever. I didn’t really believe it, although I admitted that the company behind it had some strong lore, amazing storytelling power, and so far the screens I had seen looked interesting. A little game called World of Warcraft.

I signed up for the beta and fell in love – the game was immersive, beautiful, fluid, and had tons of different character classes and races, as well as factions that opposed each other – it didn’t take long for me to decide I had to play it when it came out. The closed beta became open beta, and the open beta went live, and I dropped off for a few months. At the behest of my friends who had run out on launch day to pick it up, I snagged it too, and well…the rest is history. Haven’t stopped playing since.

So what about you? What got you into RPGs? Did you start with tabletop games back in the day, or is World of Warcraft your first RPG love? Was WoW your gateway drug into a new world of role playing, or would you say WoW is pretty much the only RPG you could ever see yourself playing?

Over at the venerable WoW.com, they had huge news that I think is worth sharing, partially because I highly reccomend everyone head over there and read the result of that news, and partially because it’s a huge deal for a very good friend of mine: Kelly Aarons, also known as Cadistra of the Webcomic WoW, eh?, is joining the staff of WoW.com and will be working on a weekly comic just for the site!

The comic is called Byron: The Tauren Rogue, and heralds what is sure to be one of the signs of the apocalypse: ninja cows. Verify we are living in the endtimes.

I’ve mentioned Kelly several times before: in my WoW people to follow at Twitter post, again when she conceptualized what a Tauren Paladin might look like, and again when she started submitting recipes for Nourish! The Azerothian Menu. Okay, I probably mention her too much – but her art is amazing and congratulations are in order – head over and take a look!

Can you believe it’s been five years since World of Warcraft was released? I’ve been playing since back in those wholesome vanilla days, and while I was in the beta I waited a bit before I picked up the game proper…not too long though, maybe a couple of months-so I could play with my then-roommates, and I’ve been playing ever since. A lot of people I know have come and gone in that time period, and tons more people have signed up to play with the release of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, but Blizzard is about to celebrate World of Warcraft’s 5 year anniversary with a massive sweepstakes event in which just about every WoW player is entered.

So what do you have to do to enter? Nothing, as long as you have an active account that’s in good standing – you’re automatically in!

And what do you win? Every week Blizzard will give away some prizes to a few lucky players. Check out the prize listings below.

A. On Wednesday, November 4, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before October 26, 2008 to receive one (1) “Charge of the Great Dragon Flights,” Stein, with an approximate retail value of $89.99;

B. On Wednesday, November 11, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 2, 2007 to receive one (1) set of PPK Gaming Glasses from Gunnar Optiks, with an approximate retail value of $59.00;

C. On Wednesday, November 18, 2009, seven (7) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 9, 2006 to receive a One ASUS ENGTS250 DK/DI/1GD3 video card with an approximate retail value of $149.99;

D. On Wednesday, November 25, 2009, five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 16, 2005 to receive a prize package consisting of One (1) SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Mousepad, One (1) SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse and One (1) SteelSeries Siberia V2 Full-Size Headset retailing $79.99, with each prize package having an approximate retail value of $194.97;

E. On Wednesday, December 2, 2009:
1) Three (3) qualified entrant will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 23, 2004 to receive a prize package consisting of One (1) ASUS ENGTX260/HTDI/896M Nvidia video card with an approximate retail value of $149.99, and One (1) Game Card redeemable for one (1) year of World of Warcraft game time with an approximate retail value of $155.88; and One (1) Autographed Onyxia Print with an approximate retail value of $19.99.

2) Two (2) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor at random from all qualified entrants who created an account on or before November 23, 2004 to receive a prize package consisting of: One (1) ASUS Republic of Gamers 3D Vision enhanced laptop with an approximate retail value of $2,499.00, One (1) Game Card redeemable for one (1) year of World of Warcraft game time with an approximate retail value of $155.88; and One (1) Autographed Onyxia Print with an approximate retail value of $19.99.

(Emphasis mine.) How hot is that?! The full rules and eligability details are here at the official contest rules site. I’m actually pretty glad to see that some of the love will be given to old-timers who have had their accounts for ages like me, but then again, there are probably millions of us in each of those categories, so I’m not holding my breath to win anything. Even so, best of luck to all of you!

See this little guy? Isn’t he adorable? He’s Mini KT, the Littlest Lich – and he can be yours for the low low price of $10 USD. That’s right, I said $10 DOLLARS, not 10 gold, and he’s not the only pet you can get in-game for that amount of money.

Remember back when we noticed that interesting new pets were appearing in the source files of the game? I was intrigued by the Pandaren Monk pet, but WoW.com also noticed a Core Hound Pup along with Lil KT up there a while back on the PTRs. Speculation ran rampant that they were potentially collector’s edition pets for Cataclysm, but now we know their true purpose: Blizzard will sell them in-game, through their Blizzard Store online, and likely through Battle.net at some point.

If you drop the ten bucks on the Pandaren Monk, half of that purchase will go to the Make-A-Wish foundation, which is a pretty good reason to spring for it.

In any event though, this is Blizzard’s first dabblings in micro-transactions in World of Warcraft, and it’s gotten more than a few people pretty riled up. Many other MMOs that have gone before WoW (and likely those that will come after) that used micro-transactions to get more real money out of the players who are subscribed, and most free MMOs use micro-transactions to get money out of players who can sign up and play for free, but if they want the best gear or a custom avatar or better graphics, they have to shell out a little cash.

The argument on both sides of this is immense, loud, and pretty empassioned: some people herald micro-transactions as the end of World of Warcraft entirely, both as a popular game and as a professional, high-quality one, labeling micro-transactions as the mark of MMOs that are on the decline. The other side sees this as another fantastic way that players who are willing to pay for it can customize their characters, and look forward to other potential options like special RP clothes, custom avatar appearances, and more.

Personally I can see the logic of both sides of the equation, but I have to call attention to the fact that Blizzard has essentially already given players what they want for real money in-game in the form of faction changes, race changes, server transfers, and so on. Even appearance changes (which cost in-game money, not real money) came at player behest. I’m completely on-board with the thought that only MMOs that need money or are moving to a “free to play” model currently make heavy use of micro-transactions, but World of Warcraft certainly isn’t there, and it’s certainly not on the decline.

So the moral of the story? If you don’t want to spend real money for an in-game pet, don’t buy one. If there are enough people who agree with you, it’ll be unpopular and Blizzard will shut it down. If on the other hand there’s a demand for it and people love the idea, it’ll grow in popularity and more items will likely be added to the store. In any event, it’s likely not the end of World of Warcraft as we know it – that’s going to happen in Cataclysm.

A while ago I mentioned the Azeroth United Hearts, Hands, and Voices for Child’s Play Charity. On November 1, Azeroth United officially launched their HHV Charity Giveaway to start ramping up donations for Child’s Play!

To donate, head over to AzerothUnited.com or directly to the Hearts, Hands, and Voices for Child’s Play Charity page and click on the “Chip In!” widget to donate! The goal is $5000, and all of that cash goes directly to the Child’s Play charity, which donates the gift of video games to terminally and chronically ill children.

As part of the giveaway, every donation of $10 or more to the HHV campaign has a chance to be one of ten lucky winners and score some of the following gear in the Filled Hearts Giveaway, presented by sponsors of the charity event:

* Curse Networks – Get your hands on one of these great items: mouse pad, USB flash card that are super slim and fit in your wallet they are the size of a business card! OR a Premium Curse Subscription for 12 months
* Azeroth United – Snag one of many assorted WoW TCG Loot Cards
* Geek Girl Diva of Entertainment Earth: $25 Gift Certificate
* J!NX Clothing Company – $10 Gift Card and J!NX Keychain

Every donation of $20 or more to the HHV campaign is entered into the Exclusive Helping Hands Giveaway where one lucky winner will walk away with some of these fantastic prizes:

* Rawrcast: World of Warcraft Podcast – 60-day World of Warcraft Game Card
* Sideshow and Syrana – 30-day World of Warcraft Game Card and 2009 Blizzcon Authenticator
* Unbearably Hot – Custom, one of a kind, handmade bracelet themed after the Hearts, Hands, and Voices charity event. Sure to be a Blizzcon conversation starter!
* 3point.com: Warcraft Stein – Artwork by amazing World of Warcraft illustrator James Zhang.
* Raid Warning Podcast: Steel Series World of Warcraft Gaming Mouse
* SwagDog: 3ea. $100 Gift Certificates and Weekly 25% Off Codes for all contributors. You can get your code from your favorite Azeroth United Unity Member.
* J!NX Clothing Company – $25 Gift Card, Talking Murloc Plush Toy, and J!NX Keychain

There are some awesome prizes in the mix, and of course, donating money to an amazing charity that does a lot of good work. Head on over and chip in today!