In backchannel team discussion, Dan O'Halloran asked us to nominate our best stories for the year. "I don't mean the most popular or even the most commented on," he wrote, but "editorials, class columns, analysis, or even funny or touching posts," the ones we were happiest and/or proudest of writing. I'd like to think that our list captures (or at least tries to capture) the zeitgeist of the player community, and how things evolved from the very beginning of Wrath to the patch where players will (eventually) face the ultimate boss of the expansion.

Yesterday we realized that, as of today, there are 12 days to go until 2010, so we though what we'd do is break down our favorite posts into each month of 2009.

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Realm First Achievements Changes
This change is a few weeks old but as far as I know I never reported it and a blue posted something about it on the customer support forums. You can no longer get a Realm First achievement if you just transfered on a server!
Quote from: Tailyda (Source) 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.

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Zach is a Battlegrounds freak. Even if he doesn't raid or quest or sell things at the auction house, he'll make sure to get a small dose of Battlegrounds PvP to brighten up his day. You should, too. They're like vitamins. Bloody, face-melting, honor-gaining, sword-clashing vitamins.

This little thing called patch 3.3 came out some time back, maybe you'd heard. I had planned it to be my return from an unintentionally self-imposed hiatus from hardcore play, considering that all the tools would now be in place to allow all players of all gear levels to catch up the the penultimate level of content. It was a good plan, except that a few things here and there kept me from jumping right into it when the Fall of the Lich King went live.

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The story of the Culling of Stratholme is cool, the first time you do it. However after about the hundreth time it gets to be a bit much. And thanks to the random heroic dungeon finder, I practically have Arthas' speech memorized now; he and I yell in sync at the end of each run "To the ends of the earth!"

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Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

Hang on, guys, while I reach back for my Drama Mamas hat ... Just a sec, turning on my helm display ... There. Ok, here's the score: I delete all "First!" comments on my posts, so readers don't have to wade through nonsense posts simply to get a shot at making relevant conversation. Those who persist get hit with the Hammer of Ban Justice. (Don't say you haven't been warned!) Off-topic comments are pointless and rude, and they achieve nothing but demonstrating how spectacularly clueless you are on how to comport yourself in public on the internet. Don't do it, please.

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Our podcast reached the end of part one last weekend, as both Turpster and I announced that we'd be leaving the show. But we didn't let it become a sad affair -- Matthew Rossi and Chase Christian both joined us for some Warcraft discussion (including when it's ok to votekick someone, and lots of Battered Hilt discussion), and we finally were able to have one of our favorite guys stop by: Scott Johnson from The Instance podcast. It was a great show, and as usual, you can tune in at all of the links below.

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Last week's post included a whole slew of commenter tips about WoW-related comic strips, so in addition to reading through your favorites, check out some of these newcomers:

• The latest from Torment of the Week. My main comment here would be: WTB perma-links.
• Here is one from Real Life Comics that is about Diablo 2, but I'll include it because it is also about Blizzard's patching habits.
• GRATS! The De-Evolution of the Quest. I love how game issues are discussed beneath the comic. I also love how the old guy is a dead ringer for Disney's Jafar from the first Aladdin movie when he pretends to be a prisoner in order to convince Aladdin to go into the cave and retrieve the lamp.
• The Battlemasters: Guilded Butterflies.
• Here's a new one: Guilded Age. Start reading from the title page, and next week I'll start posting the updates.
• Working Daze also recently posted two WoW-related comics, including one about patch day.
• Teh Gladiators: They're A Hungry Bunch.
• Da!ly Quests: Goblin Ingenuity. This is exactly what I thought when I first read Allison's The single greatest thing that has ever happened in this game.
• Dark Legacy Comics: Ammunition.
• NPC: Cuddle Cats. That one isn't entirely WoW-related but it rocks, and it does tie into their alt leveling, as well as the next storyline. Declaration.
• NPC: Intervention Cats.
• Beyond the Tree: Chekov's Gunmen.
• LFG #313 and #314.
• NoObz: Ninth Commantment.
• Slash AFK: Fish Pwned.
• Check out Complex Actions #44: Swimsuit Edition by going to their main page.


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Winterschill of Kirin Tor sent in this screenshot of the new leper gnome boss Krick in the Pit of Saron. Krick seems too terrified to be much of an effective fighter without his giant mount. This may be why there aren't a whole lot of gnome bosses in this game. Or maybe Krick is upset because he looks like the end result of an unholy Saturday night liaison between a bottle of vodka and the random character generator.

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Time has passed in this game. People have histories, both personal with each other and in-game with their characters. These histories can be very telling not only about the individual, but about the progression of the game itself. For instance, my first character started out in Northshire in Elwynn Forest killing all the wolves he could get his warrior hands on. Now he's rampaging through the dungeon finder Titan's Gripping everything in existence.

But perhaps more interesting, at least to me, was how I got started in WoW in the first place. I originally began in 2004 by being very excited about EverQuest II, and only picked up WoW as something to try that was a little different. At the time I wasn't very happy with the cartoon like characters of WoW compared to EQII, and I didn't think the gameplay would be as hard core as EQII would be.

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