Blog

Updates about the world or the blog at large.

Apologies. Contact form is down.

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Seems like my email service is currently fried. When I switched from shared hosting to a private server, it appears something happened to my email server. So anyone who’s been trying to use the forms to contact us since Friday will need to do so again.

Other alternative methods:

  • Via Twitter: @mattycus
  • Via GMail or Google Talk: matttz at gmail dot com
  • Via AIM: worldofmatticus

Be patient with Twitter and with the IMs. It may still take me a while to respond. I could be raiding, eating, writing, Left 4 Deading, DoTAing, Command and Conquering, PvPing, hockeying, volleyballing, or sleeping (among other possibilities)

EMail problems fixed. Contact form should be good to go.

Matt on Massively

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Darren, that community PR guy for My Game Mug managed to rope me in a quick interview. It’s the same group that’s developed WoW Headhunter. Be careful! That guy’s as sly as a Rogue. The interview on Massively involved both myself and Kree. We both chatted with Darren about what we looked for in candidates as guild leaders, recommendations for what new applicants can do and how important personality is.

And then there’s the shameless praising of WoW Headhunter (naturally).

Some quips:

What are the top 3 things that you as a guild leaders look for in order to recruit the best candidates for your guild? (Answered by Matt)

Attendance – Are the people we are recruiting going to be able to make the majority of the raids? While it’d be awesome to pickup a really good player, if he or she can only do 1 or 2 raids per month, they’re kind of useless to me and the rest of the guild since they’re never actually there.

Knowledge – Often times, knowledge translates to in-game skill. I need to know how you play your role with your given class and spec, things like, when do you end up using your spells and if you use them in the most opportune times.

Personality and Attitude – WoW has a lot of challenges. We’re going to try and accomplish big things and that’ll lead to wiping over and over again. We need candidates that are going to tough it out and make their sacrifices. They have to have the right attitude and personality to want to get better and to help their guild out. They need to be able to stick with it even when times are bad.

What is your recommendation with what candidates should put in their application when applying to your guild? (Answered by Kree)

Originality. The application has to stand out, just like a resume. If it’s too-safe or boring, it’s difficult to stand out from everyone else. Let your personality out in the application.
Also, read the question completely! I asked a question about how people plan on utilizing dual spec and one of the responses I received was, "Maybe". This doesn’t even make any sense! It shows that the person didn’t really read through the application.

Check out the full interview!

Zath is Giving Away a Free Mouse

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Zath, a blogging colleague, is giving away a free World of Warcraft mouse on his blog to anyone that comments. Be sure to check out his review of it while you’re there. Although Zath’s based in the UK, he’s decided to make a generous exception and allow anyone around the world to qualify. All you have to do is comment on the blog and say you want in. The final eligibility date is April 26th. Yes, it’s one entry per person.

Good luck!

31 DBBB: Post Promotions and Another Matticus Interview

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Yesterday’s task via Problogger was on list writing. Readers who have followed me know that I have a personal affinity for list writing. I’m currently fighting off an end of semester flu. It’s a constant occurrence. It always seems to happen during exam periods. As a result, I decided to skip out on that particular task since I love writing lists anyway.

Today’s task is on blog post promotion! It’s a topic I’m also extremely familiar with. In the Blog Azeroth chatroom, something I frequently advise to bloggers new to the scene is to not necessarily link to their blog. Assuming I’m a first time reader of their blog, I wouldn’t know where to start. I wouldn’t know where to begin. Instead, what I tell them to do is to link a blog post or two that they’ve written that they’re really proud of.

Of course, a common response I get back is:

“But I’ve never written a blog post I’ve been proud of!”

Even now I still don’t quite know what to say to that except:

“Then write one that you are proud of!”

List Posts I’ve Liked

Here’s a few that have appeared on the blog recently.

But I can’t hog the entire spotlight. Here’s some other posts from off the blog.

Another Interview

There’s a new blog that’s stirring that’s targeting players with a more casual mindset or those that are actively seeking balance between their lives in the virtual world and the real world. They are here to offer a sense of WoW Relief.

A sudden rash of interviews have been requested recently. I’m quite flattered. I just hope that the questions aren’t too repetitive.

Some of the questions asked:

Referencing your site and posts on Wow Insider, you sound like a natural leader, does that leadership in game also come out in real life?

Every once in a while it does, I play a lot of hockey and volleyball now, being the goalie I don’t really direct people but I will tell them what I’m going to do when they are by my side of the rink. It helps a lot when you tell other players what you’re doing so they can adjust and react to your actions. I notice a lot of skills are transferable since I’m always the one organizing events and get togethers with friends.

Lastly, for anyone who is looking to start a blog about WoW or their toons, what is the best advice you can give them?

There is so much I could say to help but pretty much the best advice I could give is just go ahead and do it already! You don’t have to be a nut like me and grind out posts day in and day out, but start a schedule of setting time aside for writing and stick with it. Otherwise you will lose the habit and it’ll just disappear.

Here’s the link to the full interview on WoW Relief.

I do believe I’ll have another shorter interview tomorrow that I will link to.

On Twitter

I like to link to various websites or posts that I find onto my Twitter. One of the built in services of TweetDeck (a Twitter client I prefer) is that it can compress URLs. The service I like to use is from http://www.is.gd/. Another popular URL shortener used is TinyURL.

Does it matter which service you use?

In a sense, it does. Twitter has a character limit of 140. Every space and character counts.

https://worldofmatticus.com/2009/04/08/my-newfound-respect-for-melee/ – That is today’s post by Syd. It takes up many characters.

http://tinyurl.com/cggf77 – The same post shortened again. 25 characters.

http://is.gd/rtNf – The same post shortened. 17 characters.

That’s another 8 more characters I can use in a Tweet. Some people won’t really care too much about that sort of thing. But 8 characters is the difference between having one tweet vs having two tweets in order to clarify a URL. Do keep that in mind especially when promoting your own or other blog posts.