5 Rejected WoW Blog Ideas

by

rejected

Image courtesy of alifarid

A lot of WoW Bloggers I know of suffer from Altitus wherein they have so many alts and appear to have a hard time trying to focus on one. While I do have multiple healer alts myself, I’ve maximized my time accordingly and powered them individually so that they are all fairly high level characters. All of them (sans the Druid) are capable of healing Black Temple and Mount Hyjal on their own.
But this post isn’t about Altitus. I suffer from a unique ailment.

I’m afflicted with Blogitus.

There are more WoW blogs out there than Netherweave on the auction house. All it takes is a really killer idea in a niche to set it apart from the rest (so that we don’t end up with another hunter or another druid blog. Not that they’re bad or anything). I quickly examined Blog Azeroth and my reader to try and find out what already existed. Class blogs were out of the question so it boiled down to what I thought people might be interested before mentally shooting it down.

Herez Pilton

What it could’ve been: It’s a play on words off of two different things. The celebrity gossip website Perez Hilton and the in game character Haris Pilton.
Why it got rejected: How much effort and how much entertainment would all that drama actually be? Perez spends 18 hours a day chasing down leads and photos. For this to really work, I’d have to spend copious amounts of time on the WoW Realm forums daily. I don’t have that kind of time to offer, unfortunately.

Prohealer.com

What it could’ve been: A site with numerous healer bloggers culd go and contribute. Would have featured multiple authors and guest posts from favourite names in the community.
Why it got rejected: Difficult to micromanage. Don’t have the resources or the time to invest in it as much as I’d want. Would have to score major cooperation from other writers. Although, I might actually explore this idea later in the future. I’m a chronic project starter.

RaiderRant

What it could’ve been: Nothing more than a rant blog about bad raids and bad guilds. Diary style. Similar to Waiter Rant. It would’ve been day-to-day entries from a raider and 5 minute windows of their raid life. Probably would’ve been updated once or twice a week to help avoid stagnation.
Why it got rejected: My Guild isn’t at the point where I want to rant about them on a weekly basis. A blog like this needs to have some diversity. Readers would tire quickly about stories about the Mage that can’t tank Gruul’s or the idiot hunter who can’t seem to click cubes. Has to be some randomness and the writer has to be able to captivate the audience.

Consuma-blog

What it could’ve been: An extremely narrow focused blog about consumables, items, gear, and such. Would’ve talked about gear guides, where to get them, combinations, criticisms and so forth.
Why it got rejected: Almost as exciting as watching a Holy Paladin and a Resto Druid duel.

The Battle Standard

What it could’ve been done: All PvP talk, all the time, with news, opinion, highlight reel finishers and so forth about Arenas, BGs, and world PvP.
Why it got rejected: I have to actually PvP. I have enough time to either PvP or raid. I can’t do one or the other really well. I also need to have some credibility and having a low arena rating doesn’t do much to inspire justice (although ~1550 in BG9 actually isn’t that bad).

Now that’s not to say that any of these ideas are bad. I merely listed why they were bad for me (at least for now). I think a cunning and motivated blogger could take any of these ideas and make it work really well.

With this in mind, what types of unorthodox WoW blogs can you think of?

MEME: When Matt was a Young Warthog

by

pumba

Kudos to Game Dame for tagging me with this excellent meme last week. Due to the lack of free time over the past week with school (and this blog thing breaking), I haven’t been able to p ost my version of things.

I have to confess.

I’m a little perplexed as to why she tagged me because of 2 reasons:

  1. I’m Canadian
  2. I’m quite possibly the youngest WoW blogger in existence and I don’t recognize these events.

In lieu of that, I guarantee you that this will be a very quick list.

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

I wasn’t around for this event. In fact, I wouldn’t be around for another year. On the other hand, what I was around for was the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. I was in tenth grade and I had just woken up. It was around 730 AM for me at the time and I powered my computer to check out my news sites. Yes, at grade 10, I read news sites. My source? Fark.com. I woke up my dad about it and we flipped on the TV to catch what was happening on CNN.

September 11 attacks

This one I remember fairly clearly. I was in my drafting class working on various technical drawing exercises. The mood was different that day. It felt more somber and I had a feeling something was up. I didn’t get the opportunity to check the news that morning. Many of my classmates were crowded around various computers. I figured they were playing some SNES emulator game like Gundam Wing or Street Fighter. To my amazement, they had CNN streaming live on one of the terminals. Even more amazing, my teacher came by and actually stood there and watched along with us.

Hurricane Katrina

This happened during my graduating year. I don’t remember much about this one. To be honest, as a Canadian and an outsider, it didn’t have as much of an impact on me as the others did. I don’t know why and I can’t really explain it. I think it was because the event occurred over a longer period of time instead of striking all at once within a limited time window. I just can’t remember.

Reagan Assassination Attempt, John Lennon’s death, and Kurt Kobain’s death

I’m sorry gamedame, I’m just way too young for those.

What about you? Where were you at? And why not try these on for size?

World of Matticus Gets a New Face Lift

by

rebirth

Of course, sneaky tech savvy blog readers (or even Google RSS readers) would have been able to access the blog while I was undergoing upgrades. That flimsy placeholder page does absolutely nothing to restrict people. Need to find me a maintenance mo

If my blog was my toon, I’d go all out on it trying to maximize rep and getting all the necessary gear to make it better. Looking at it now, I think I did a pretty good job! You can tell what how much a blogger loves their work by not only the way they write but how they present it.

Let’s discuss the set bonuses features about the new look, eh?

Front page
  • Same blue Matticus: The blues are staying. It’s the official colors of the Alliance and it’ll be the official colors of Matticus.
  • Featured video: On the right side, Wyn and I have the option of embedding interesting videos there that we think our readers would love. They don’t have to be necessarily WoW related. For example, if you play it now you’ll recognize the tune from the Macbook Air commercial (which I believe is very fitting for the occasion).
  • Individual author avatars: This wasn’t a problem months ago as I was the only writer. But with the embrace of a coblogger and accepting guest posts, identity becomes much more important. Cemented with 110 x 110 pixels of writers.
  • Headline ticker: Don’t miss out on the latest highlight reel posts. You’ll notice the massive billboard-like plugin at the top. It will cycle through 5 recent posts that we think you’ll enjoy!
  • Advertising: Yes, advertising has become a little more prominent. They won’t interfere with the content (due to tactical and strategic placement). However, if you don’t want to be exposed to them, why not subscribe to my RSS Feed or via EMail above instead?
  • Expanded blogroll: The recommended reading on the sidebar has been expanded to encompass more blogs. Criteria? Bribery.
  • Tag cloud: Categories have disappeared from the side. Instead, you can find random “streams of thought”. The cloud functions as a keyword type thing. Actively discussed topics are the ones that are in large fonts.
  • Refined categories: Instead of being on the side, categories now appear at the top beneath the pages. Mousing over them reveals a javascript powered drop down menu that will take you to the posts that match what you’re dying to find out more of.
Article page

I’ve not only refined the look of the blog, but I’ve taken care to add extra details to the post pages themselves. Take a gander:

  • Breadcrumb trail: Never get lost again! A breadcrumb trail at the top of each post will let you know where you are at all times.
  • Related Articles: Not sure where to go after you’re done? At the bottom of every post has a list of suggested reading to follow up on.
  • Share this: If you like a particular article or post, why not share it with a friend or guildmate? Supports multiple avenues like Digg, Stumbleupon, and Technorati. You can even share it on your Blogger or WordPress blog (Twitter and Typepad too!)
  • Gravatar support: Gravatar support has finally been implemented. Now you can have your own cool image to help distinguish you from the rest!
  • Comment and trackback separation: In the past, I found it confusing to read through comments and click on trackback links from other blogs. Sometimes I would forget to visit the other blogs because I was so enamored with the comments. No more! When viewing posts, you’ll see the comments by readers first and then link backs from other blogs and sites at the bottom.
  • Commentluv support: Not exactly new, but I never announced it either. If you’re a blogger who posts a comment, the blog will automatically try to pull the latest headline from your blog.
Temporary
  • Banner and header: That will change. I’m going to try and enlist the design skills and support of the same guy that designed the Plusheal banner.
  • Twitter: I found a nifty spot for it in the top right corner. I did a lot of changes to it but I can’t see the little Twitterbird icon. I hope it shows up. Otherwise people will wonder what that random block of text means.

Whew. Time spent? Well over 20 hours. Now I can stop tinkering, coding, and tweaking and get back to the real fun stuff of writing posts!

Actually, I’m late for my raid. Oof!

SYTYCB: Week 2 Cuts

by

I wish I could keep everyone. The standard this week has improved so much that it’s becoming more difficult to choose. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t anticipate it would be this hard. Every blogger (yes, you are now all bloggers) deserves their own blog. Reading and editing these posts has shown me that they can blog just as well as the rest of us out there.

Who knows why they aren’t doing that already?

In any case, it’s with a heavy heart that with I announce who will be leaving us this week.

Crutch

You did well, my friend. But the competition really pushed it to the extreme. I know when we were chatting, you mentioned briefly about the desire to start writing no matter what would happen. I want to see you pursue that desire. And when you do start blogging under your own name, make sure you send me a link. You have great talent, and I know the blogosphere would benefit greatly from your experience and your voice.

Matt & Wyn Live

by

We’re about to go live soon on UStream soon. It would be cool if you made a user name, but it’s not required. It just means we address you as “Uberustreamgamer-87277875143742135248624”. Or something.

How to get in

Link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/twisted-nether-blogcast

Password: tnb73

Then you might have to enter it again.

Join myself, Wyn, Fim and Bre!

Podcast over! Thanks to everyone who joined!