Filed under: About the Bloggers

Twice a week (if writers like Zach here keep to their deadlines), our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write the incorrigibly erratic columns The Art of War(craft) and The Light and How to Swing It that deal with PvP and Paladins respectively (and sometimes interchangeably). I also tend to mix up my posts with regular, run-of-the-mill news and the occasional opinion piece, like my analysis on the new Wrath changes to Paladins.

What's your main right now?
I spend most of my time in-game on my Level 70 Blood Elf Paladin, who re-specs 3-4 times a week. One day I'm mashing faces with a big hammer, and the next I'm waving my glowing fingers in the air like somebody's boy toy. I've spent thousands of Gold on re-specs that I'm probably a spec-a-holic. Just don't ask me to tank. I also have a neglected child in my Level 70 Troll Shaman, who was originally my main. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I started playing the game with an Undead Rogue and later a Troll Hunter on a PvE server. My wife and friends later rerolled on a PvP server.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm a shiny new everyday blogger. I started working here at the end of May 2008.

What's your main right now?

My main is a level 68.85 70 (as of 6/28) Tauren shaman named Slig (US Drenden). A lot of people ask me why I play a male toon. In fact, Slig is my only male character. I don't so much identify with him as an avatar, but it's more like I have a crush on him. I love my Sligger.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

Horde, definitely, although I dabble plenty with Alliance alts. I really like the counter-culture, subversive, non-conformist attitude of the Horde. I also like how they make their cities and towns out of the shapes of the environment around them. Whoa, that sure sounds fruity.

Favorite thing to do in Azeroth?

I like to discover new areas and then go kill things there. Lately I've been getting a big charge out of the bombing runs in Nagrand.

What's the best instance in the game?

Embarrassed to say that I haven't done all that many instances. I rock Scarlet Monetary though.

What's the number one thing Blizzard could do better?

Hire me. No, seriously, I've been trying to get a job there for two years. Okay, more related to gameplay, you say? Fine. I think for the most part Blizzard is doing a fine job. My only slight frustration with the game is not having enough non-PvP, solo-able content for higher level players.

Favorite mount?

Mount I own or mount I've seen? I love my Great White Kodo. Kodos crack me up. Mount I aspire to have some day? A roflcopter.

When I'm not playing WoW, I'm...

Writing on my own blog, The Game Dame, riding my bike, dancing Lindy Hop with my husband, playing with my two cats, knitting. Who doesn't!

What accomplishment in-game are you most proud of?

Okay see, I find this to be a very odd question. I don't really feel "proud" of virtual accomplishments except as they relate to areas where I've improved myself. For example, I've long been known to be a horrible PvP player. So tonight I was pretty proud of myself for taking down some folks who jumped me in a 2 vs. 1 fight. I was stomping around my apartment going, "IN YOUR FACE!" to the cats. Sad, really.

Other games I enjoy are ...

Anything Lorne Lanning does; he's my gaming god. (Oh, hey, Oddworld Inhabitants can hire me too!) I play all the Oddworld games over and over. Recently I've also enjoyed Mass Effect and Bioshock. I'm waiting breathlessly for Little Big Planet to come out.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I write the weekly Mage column, Arcane Brilliance, and feel incredibly humbled to do it. I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to being the best, or most knowledgeable Mage out there, and am extremely grateful that the Mage community here welcomes me into their lives each week and allows me to spout off about our wonderful class. I love to write, and I love playing a Mage, so getting to write this column is like some kind of huge nerd fantasy for me, and I feel incredibly lucky to do it.

What's your main right now?

Having said that, it should shock nobody that my main is a Mage. He's level 70, he's Undead, and he enjoys long walks on the beach while plotting ways to destroy the living. He's a PoM-Pyro build, specced specifically for Arena PvP. His current ambitions include gearing up for Arena Season 4 (and crossing his bony fingers for a rating high enough to actually qualify for some of the new ugly, ugly gear), and saving up enough honor to finally get some of the sweet new Guardian's gear. I also have a level 70 Blood Elf Holy Paladin who gets almost as much playtime as the Mage. He's the main healer for a very casual guild that's farming Karazhan right now and about ready to move on to Zul'Aman. I also have a flock of mid-level alts spread across both factions and multiple servers.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

Oh, for the Horde...my bias runs deep. I have a hard time playing my low level Alliance toons, simply because I feel like a traitor when I do so. Also, I like to kill Gnomes. I like to kill them so much.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

Hi there. It's nice to finally make an introduction. The name's Amanda, but you can call me mandy. With a whole generation of Amandas out there it helps to differentiate us.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm technically just your average, run-of-the-mill blogger. Since coming on staff in February, I've picked up the WoW Rookie column and Blood Sport. David Bowers and I write He Said She Said together, but we're taking a little break due to educational commitments. I have the most fun writing Well Fed Buff. I really enjoy writing about intersections between the real and virtual worlds, and I love any topic that gets people talking.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm primarily a weekend blogger for WoW Insider, but I also stick my nose in during the week when I can. I am also a columnist for Hybrid Theory and I take turns with Elizabeth Wachowski writing Know Your Lore.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

Glory to the Alliance! While orcs bug me for some reason I can't decipher, I don't really have anything against the Horde. I started playing Alliance because that's where my friends rolled and we started a pretty awesome guild there, so I stuck around and came to love it. If those people had rolled Horde instead, I might be playing there. Both factions have their own feel, and they're both very cool.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

Currently I contribute the Ready Check column, which aims to cover raid bosses and raiding issues from an endgame perspective. Some of you may recognise my name from the mists of time, however -- I used to be a blogger for Joystiq back when they decided a spinoff WoW site would be a funky idea. Before I knew it I was site lead, until RL called me away. But like a bad penny, I'm back!

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I don't do much blogging per se, I guess I've settled into just keeping up on my two columns; Addon Spotlight and Macro Anatomy. I am constantly looking for new ways to customize my game play, as well as creating little tools to streamline what I do in-game. Aside from that, I pipe in on random conversations once in awhile, but keep to myself for the most part.

What's your main right now?

Right now I'm focused on my Blood Elf Paladin, gearing up in Karazhan for PvE and the Battlegrounds and Arena for PvP gear. I'm a proud holy-specced paladin, who enjoys the tough job of keeping people alive. As my guild knows, I also have aspirations for PvE tanking and PvP retribution endeavors in the future. Ask me next week and I may say one of my numerous alts is my main, its a fluid process.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

I'm for the Horde these days. My previous main was my Human Paladin (see a pattern here?) on a "Normal Server", but I opted to reroll with a friend on PvP server as Horde. Nowadays I don't even bother playing on my old care bear server, I love the tension of knowing other players are fair game. I used to think I'd never go back to Alliance either. As it turns out, I've recently started working on some Alliance alts on a different PvP server. (I really want to pounce on someone with my Night Elf Druid.) So, as always my allegiances are not to one side or the other, but to my own preferences in any given moment. (Chaotic Neutral!?)

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write the daily machinima posts for both WoW Insider, and its broader MMO sister site, Massively.

What's your main right now?
This won't make me very popular, but I actually don't really play WoW. I did for a while after it came out, but I'm not a very good grinder and it just got lonely.

This is an outrage! How dare you write about WoW without playing it?
That's actually a really good question. I got my start in machinima roughly two years ago when I was hired to promote it in Second Life, an oft-mocked virtual world. Through experimentation with machinima, as well as the education that I provided to others, I became known as one of the "It" people for machinima in SL.

When Second Life Insider folded into Massively in November 2007, I volunteered to write the daily Cinemassively. After about 45 days straight of blogging them, WI asked me to do the same for WoW Moviewatch!

Read on to find out more about the Notorious M.O.O. ...

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm just your everyday regular normal blogger. I post on whatever looks cool in the World of Warcraft, and I try to keep on top of breaking news as much as I can. I tend to be biased a bit toward Hunter and Druid issues, I think, since I play both classes pretty religiously. I'm also a pretty hardcore Roleplayer, so I make sure RP issues get some play on the site when I can too.

What's your main right now?

Funny you should mention that, since I pontificated on that just this morning. Right now I'd say I still consider my Feral Druid my main, although I probably play my Hunter more, and either she or my new Death Knight will probably end up being my main come WoTLK. I play on the Cenarion Circle server, by the by.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I'm a standard issues blogger, reporting on just about everything I can get my hands on. I like to concentrate on raid and high-end PvE issues, since that's where I spend most of my time in game. I've also go a few projects in the work for our sister site, Massively. I think my first article should pop up over there next week (knock on wood)...

What's your main right now?
My main is a Protection Spec Human Warrior on Eldre'Thalas. He's been my main since March of 2005. However, I have flirted at times with the possibility of switching to a Priest full time, but that was back in November of 2006. However that said, I also have many other alts that I give a lot of care and love. One of my favorite things to do is to run the level 70 five mans with friends, all of us running on our fourth or fifth alt. It's kinda fun!

More after the break!

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm the columnist for both Blood Pact and Blood Sport. Coincidence?

What's your main right now?

My main is an orc Warlock - currently destro - in gear from Karazhan, Gruul's Lair and the Arenas.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

For the Horde!! I did dabble a little on The Other Side, but decided that Horde (on my server at least) was a little friendlier. I also can't stand being surrounded by short people, having the irrepressible urge to punt a certain dimunitive race ...

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I write the weekly Officers' Quarters column and . . . that's about it! Officers' Quarters is an advice column for guild leaders and occasionally for their members, too. Guilds are the driving force behind all MMOs and Warcraft is no exception. No game can survive without great guilds, and it is my goal to help people create and sustain great guilds. What gives me the authority? I've been running the same guild since January of 2005 -- it's one of the oldest surviving guilds in Warcraft. I have not announced what guild I lead. Maybe someday I will, but not today.

Is my guild exceptional? In its longevity and the quality of its members, it is absolutely exceptional in my opinion. But we also struggle with many of the problems faced by casual raiding guilds: recruitment, drama, progression, and everything else. The hallmark of effective guild leadership isn't running a guild that is completely free of problems -- it's how you weather the hardships and learn from your mistakes.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

First of all, the above is not a recent picture. I just thought it was important for you to know that I'm the type of person who fondles larger than life, mostly naked, movie theater props hanging out in the back of pickup trucks. On to the questions...

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write WoW, Casually, a column for casual players which is supposed to be weekly and will be again. No, really. I used to write Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW, but that is now Gamer Interrupted over on Massively. I also started Totem Talk, the Shaman column. Not that I play a Shaman, but I used to interview players who do. I was very happy that our very capable Matthew Rossi took it over after all of my interviewees stopped wanting to be interviewed. And I go through random blogging bursts which I am always hoping will become more of a regular thing.

What's your main right now?
No matter what alt I play around with, and I fall in love with a new class once a month, I always return to my level 70 Tauren Druid, Freja. She resides on Daggerspine and is sometimes a Boomkin but is usually Resto. I just feel more comfortable healing. I started playing a Night Elf Druid on multiple servers before following the Spousal Unit to Daggerspine and the Horde. I do believe droods are the most versatile and fun class in the game by far, though I'm rather enamored with my Draenei Mage's DPS output. And the Blood Elf Warlock is fun, too. Of course my level 19 Troll Warrior is a blast in WSG. I'd better move on to the next question or we'll be here all day.

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I first started writing for WoW Insider way back in August of aught-six, and my first post on the site wasn't even actually about World of Warcraft. A few months (and many posts) after that, I was invited to co-lead the blog with Elizabeth Harper, and nowadays (many, many posts later) I work alongside Dan O'Halloran in running the whole site and coordinating all of our talented writers, as well as posting news I find whenever possible. I've also done quite a few of the podcasts.

What's your main right now?
My main main is Shamanic, a level 70 resto Orc shaman on Thunderhorn (Horde-side). I also have a level 68 Undead rogue there named Punishment (best rogue name evar), and lately I've been playing a level 61 Night Elf hunter on Cenarius (who needs a guild, by the way). I've also got quite a few alts floating around, including a level 60 gnome warrior, a shadow priest who's about 50, a blood elf hunter around 30, another undead warrior around 30, and maybe twenty or so alts below that. A couple of them are, yes, paladins, but I've never been able to play them past about 25, and I've never gotten a warlock past about 15 for some reason. No idea why.

Lots more (maybe too much more) after the break.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

A little of this, a little of that. Besides posts about shields, I generally write the Warrior and Shaman columns for WoW Insider, The Care and Feeding of Warriors and Totem Talk. I'm also very behind on a Thrall post for Know Your Lore.

What's your main right now?

Depends on who you ask, but I'm raiding on my human level 70 protection warrior the most. Besides him, I have a Tauren, Night Elf and Draenei warrior at 70 and Orc and Draenei shamans also at 70. I like warriors a lot. For me they're the fundamental basis for the whole game and they get a lot of derision and abuse from players of other classes. This despite the fact that they're the most played class in the game, or maybe because of it. Shamans are a close second because they're the scrappy underdogs with a lot of heart and a great array of abilities to bring to any raid or instance. Plus, man, once you've seen Windfury crit, you can't give that up.

I have two paladins stuck in the 50's. I don't talk about them.