Blog Posts from "Whowho's Machinima Gaga" - Gameriot.com

Origano’s latest Achievement!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:36:17 -0500

Who had a plan? I did. And what was that plan? To take off all my cloths and to run through the set of The Achiever 3 naked and to ruin as many shots as I possibly could. Why? Fame and fortune! Eventually SOME ONE will pay me to put my clothes back on and now there’s a movie with my face (and other things) on the interwebs!

So Origano approached me recently and said “Moo, moo, moo, moooooo!” Which probably meant;

“Whowho you smexy son of Elune!

Write me a review!

Your naked march ruined my movie,

Do it or I’ll sue!”

Or possibly he was complimenting me on my Antlers…

Origano’s latest Achievement can be found here!

It’s a comedy! I like comedies: Comedies make me laugh. I also like Machinima: Machinima if full of community rich references! So I’m happy to see this Machinima, as it’s sort of a return to the classic Warcraft Comedy, y’know, a comedy set in the World of Warcraft game’s setting, and not come bizarro world.

A few months ago I said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there were WoW Machinimas that took the mickey out of the WoW Machinima community? Also, don’t my antlers look nice?” Well I was absolutely right, but I’ve missed the likes of the classic comedy, things like The Grind and Snacky’s Journal. The Achiever is very much in that vein, and is much welcome return to the format.

As for the comedy it’s self; it goes up and down. Some things I didn’t find funny, some things I smiled at, and two things were so funny I got to do my rarely heard “Belly Laugh: It’s pretty loud” laugh. Origano announces at the beginning of the film that the comedy is very silly. That’s true; things constantly flying through the air and crazy things happening in the background. But there were other great comedy points: there where game jokes in there some were; Origano managed to mock his own dramatic techniques at times and the jumping-jack level of seriousness is the core of comedy: If you try to be serious in a comedy, no doubt it’s for lolz.

So the comedy comes in at different levels, you might find some of it disinteresting, but it’s worth sticking to for the gems. It wasn’t all as funny as it could be though, because Origano is still shaky on his editing skills. There were patches of silence, the comedic timing was often off, and the music was good hit/bad miss at times. Having talked to Origano he admits that his comedic effect needs work, but I think at the moment it’s only because he’s limited by his Machinima experience.

The editing lets the movie down at times. Voice acting wasn’t as clear as some people would like and subtitles are a certain must for the next movie (Although Almighty Farseer’s voice was so good I wish he could voice act for blizzard, because Jaina really could do with a new voice actor) the camera was so shaky it made me picture a tauren holding a cam recorder and running through Azeroth going “Zoom! Zoom!” And general sound would love some more attention.

This is my favorite part of the review, the bit where I get to talk about me!

A wonderful thing is happening in Machinima; me! (Someone PLEASE tell me when I start taking this vanity thing too far ^^) I’m suddenly appearing in a raid group of machinima. As we can see from this typical scene of Baronsoosdon’s Sex Gnomes And Videotape:

I think Origano’s target audience for this movie was actually me; I laughed so hard each and every time I saw myself it came very tempting to vote 5/5 on warcraft movies (Something I never do, you should be proud of your 3.5/5!) But there’s something odd. Now I’ve appeared naked on the internet many a time Erunno can confirm this but never, NEVER without my shoulder mounted moon wells and antlers, when I saw that I didn’t even have the right hair I almost raged my typewriter into my monitor!

But Origano assured me that this is all part of the plot, and that I would make a heavy presence in the 4^th movie where I gain my iconic clothes and film star smile! What I’m picturing is an over the top super-hero-getting-dressed montage just from me getting the Shave and Haircut achievement, only to interrupt myself when I see my reflection and start signing “I’m too sexy for my Antlers”. But let it be known! No other Machinimarist will get away with presenting Whowho without antlers or Moonwell shoulders!

... apart from Paus’ red Whowho.

What the Achiever 3 had and Achiever 1 through 2 didn’t have as much of was plot. I was happy to see an A and B plot! A being the quest for the achievement and B being the Over Achiever’s exploits, the trouble is I don’t think the two plots where stitched together all that well: Once oregano was looking for the big jump the Over Achiever got completely forgotten. I also think the transitions between the two plots needed more editing magic juice: Almighty Farseer is ramping up the into for their star, he points, and we see a Titan night light, and I think “Huh, how is that thing going to be able to do the Hallow’s end achievements?” and then I completely forgot that I didn’t know who the Over Achiever’s star is.

What I would like to see from the next one.

First of all: 100% more antlers.

Secondly, people being waaay to dedicated to Achievements. You know how people take our game (Haha you just lost it) too seriously? I would love to see this represented in the Achiever; incredibly over the top Achievement pep talks, people shouting “For the Achievements!” before rushing to their doom, people really taking some time consider if the “Cut off your own arm” achievement is worth doing.

With this big movie Origano has secured his self (Although uneasily) on the spot of some one that has a promising Machinima series. I give you Origano a thumbs up and say you should certainly stick with this and make sure I have many more cameos.

Top 6 WoW comic's I'd respecc feral to see as Machinima

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:27:05 -0400

Before I go into my article let me talk about the goings ons (The article is down there V for people that don’t like to hear about me)

So I’ve been slacking, it feels good.

In other news! The majority of my good chums in #Machinima have taken a vendetta into making me the most famous wow character ever. I approve of this! Sadly, Leeroy Jenkins will not admit that the whole whelps thing was my idea, so expect a large amount of movies showing flimsy (Yet lovable) representations of me.

In addition I am now addicted to Twitter. I have high hopes for the bird that’s twittering my tune, so please come check me out when you find the time (You’ll need a bucket of it; I’m not one to shut the heck up) So look at me here -> Flintlocke vs the Horde.

Not only is it funny; well written; full of fun personalities; the perfect parody of the average wow group; and a story with one of them rare things: a final punch line, Flintlocke one and two is something so iconic to wow’s community that if “Flintlocke in a Machinima” where to get made there would not be a soul watching it that wouldn’t be able to laugh at the re-appearance of the much loved characters.

(If you’re saying “what’s Flintlocke?” right now, please keep that to yourself ^^ as that proves that I’m so out of touch with wow’s community I might as well start making things up)

So Baron took me to France

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:04:43 -0400
[Warning, the following review is written ENTIRELY in character, the review it self is hidden in a jibber jabber of me talking about how awesome I am. You might just want to equip your soulbound socks, because this review might just blow them off!]
As soon as you hear a certain meme repeating it’s self over and over again you know you’re in for something by a certain Soosdon. [Link]

So I was enjoying my vacation, I was sitting on Darkshore’s beach one night watching the waves washing in and away, and the tranquil lights of Treldrasil twinkling in the distance. When BARONSOODON drove a BOAT onto my foot! I’m a night elf! My feet are already big enough to plant and farm parsnips on! I don’t need a boat to make them ANY BIGGER!

So I ask Baron why he was on a F**king boat, and he said that he and his flippy floppies wanted a review for his NEW machinima! So I told him that he can bugger off back to his apartment In The Mountains because I’m on holiday!

Then he managed to say (With great effort as his primitive orchish tusks kept him from talking in anything other than references and in jokes) That I’d be in the movie.

After painting Baron’s house, buying him an epic mount, and announcing him the second sexiest guy on Azeroth in thank you I walked down to his set to have not one, but FOUR cameos (One of them is very tiny, I’ll have you know that I am NOT a tiny man! I’m 8 feet tall and purple)

Baron was all “Let’s go to France!” And I was all “Oh no no no, France is full of French people, I gave the French people a bad review and now I’m perma-banned from their forums”

But baron said something about turning into gnomes or something and that’s when it became obvious to me (Because I’m smart y’know) that this wasn’t just a documentary but an adventure! The bending between documentary fact and crazy ass fiction was due to Baron being dammed cleaver about narrative, also, the Troll Voodoo stuff we ate down in the air port terminal might have had something to do with it.

On the motorbike trip Baron was talking to me in Orcish, which is a horrible language where each and every word is to do about how they killed Cenarius and how fun it was. The gits. But, remembering that time he tried to speak Darnassan to order a hot dog and it came out as “Hay! Blowing up the world tree sounds like a great idea!” It was nice to hear him talking directly to me without shame of his ugly ascent.

It was on the trip that he told me that we were going to a party for Obilith, I was relieved to hear that the event had something to do with a Machinimaster as us working together enriches our community and keeps a distance between us and the dirty riffraff that is the muggles who would get their dirty hands all over my fabulous antlers.

France it’s self was a funny place! I managed to stay there all day without giving some PvE movie guy a bad review causing him to puke in his toilet! Before I got to the party I needed to pay some people to tell me how awesome I am (As I do each morning) But! Not having any Euros I had to rob a stray gnome of his cloths, hat and 160 gold. With my ego filled I explored France to see that it was very much like home! Except with some tacky differences like that pointy tower supper glued to everywhere, I found this quite amusing and charming and really made me question what was real and what was not and what Baron had feed me that morning. Despite the visual crazyness *ahem* Le Crazyness, France felt a lot with home, more so when the homely Rickroll approached me on the street, ah I could be back in Darkshore e-mail pictures of myself to Baron for all I knew, it was nice to find something familiar in this strange new place Baron had taken me.

At the party venue it’s self I found Baron again and he was explaining to me about the event, it was very interesting! But then he stopped because he thought he might bore me and wondered over to Paris to past the time. I of course followed him so that I had someone I could ask about how wonderful I am without the need of a French phrase book. We quickly bumped into an adventure with two gnome girls that Baron asked me to film for his private Machinima collection. It was a fun event and lightened the mood greatly.

We returned to the party venue and saw Obilith there in person, and it was weird seeing him outside of the Model viewer studio: he was real, and actually had his famous purple cloths. I felt like Baron had given me an insight into the secret life of a Machinimaster. Baron pointed out all the fun things that were going on at the party and made it seem really appealing! I would certainly come again next year and join in, but Baron stopped me from playing with the gnomes because he was busy showing me snippets of his own movies, and I was happy to have an insight to his upcoming project concerning XT-002.

BECAUSE I’M GOING TO BE IN THAT MOVIE!

Then it was time for the event to end and to go back to that country that I live in. (You’re not going to find out where I live that easily) I really enjoyed the trip with Baron as I got to see him exercise the things that make him so iconic in a new and interesting way! I hear he has plans of making a second documentary some when in the far future, I hope he’ll take me with him to where ever he’s going again.

Unless it’s Aion! Blegh!

EDIT: So I got back to my log cabin on a cliff in Darkshore, only to found that Baron had posted pictures of me with a cow on the internet! I have no idea where they came from, they are obliviously fake as I am NOT smiling in them and I always look murderously handsome! I am loyal to my Kodo Dona, and as far as I am concerned this is the end of the matter.

Ulduar By Jack By Jack. (Update x1)

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:22:14 -0400

Movie link!

Yep, that’s the tile on WarCraft Movies ^^ you can’t blame Jack for making sure his name goes onto it, there’s a never weave sack of Uldaur movies, some of which have Cranius raping- err, rapping in them!

Anywho! This is a PvE movie! Which means it has not place on Myndflame what so ever, but it still deserves an article as it’s a PvE movie that I like. Now I like many things: Long walks on the beach; running through enemy cities on a kodo mount naked; pestering Machinimasters for hours on end for cameos/interviews/comments on my reviews/pictures/home addresses, but I rarely feel a PvE movie can engage me in any way other than that sad sinking feeling you get when you fall into a bottomless pit. (In Memoriam: Retubution) but Jack seems to pull it off.

The older stuff that looks like this!

Burning Crusade The Movie (By Jack) was the first PvE movie that I actually really enjoyed. Jack presented the trip through T5 and T6 not only through truly epic editing and music work but with a general sense of a grueling journey. We followed ManThrall and NelfAkama through the bleak Outland landscapes and dungeons and it all lead towards Both Illidan and ManThrall’s deaths. Just like real raiding!

There was a story, but it was kept loose and easily ignored, it was only there to make the encounters more intense and real. (Which is he complete opposite of what I normally go for in a Machinima, but if the explosions are meaningful I’ll gladly enjoy them)

I wasn’t all that impressed with the sunwell adaption’s (Infact there were a few PVE Sunwell videos with a Jack feel to them, good thing to, Jack knows what he’s doing and is a good guy to look up to) So I looked towards the inevitable Uldaur movie with hopeful glowing eyes.

Voice Actors! There's two of them!

The most notable thing about Ulduar By Jack By Jack compared to The Burning Crusade The Movie is that Jack has made use of his own voice actors! Which, seems like both a good thing and a bad thing. Firstly we are spared having to have Major Lore Figures crammed into the bodies of us mere mortals, and Jack has more freedom with what he can have his characters say, I looked forward to dramatic conversations with raid bosses. But a big scary thought is that: Jack speaks French, I speak English, will all the great lines be lost in the translation?

I’m really not certain; I just can’t make up my tiny elvish mind about whether I like the voice acting as a whole. I liked Christopher M. Grant; Christopher M. Grant filled the dramatic role of the raid leader realy well! Sounding both intellectual and dramatic at times. I did not like Genna A. Bain, she’s got a lovely voice, but the soft genital soothing smoothie that is her voice just doesn’t fit when a 20 foot tall mechanical 3 year old is smashing you for play time.

The divide between the two voice actors is widened by the strange way that Christopher get all the really good lines and Genna all the really bad ones. “Biggest” “Huge” “Strange” “Size” The way her character talks is very flat, and her introductory narration to the movie is the weakest part to it I think. But then Christopher says “Is every one ready?” And I practically burst out of my chair! But then sat down very quickly when Genna said “I am.”

“We can bring the beast down, and put the beast down!” Is a great line, it just puzzles me how Christopher’s character is written so well but Genna’s isn’t. By the time Genna got to say “After winter, comes spring!” I just said yuck and ignored her completely from that point on. But both the characters are over shadowed by the hilarious Brann as him self. Jack had a great library of Brann sound files to work with and he made him perfectly cheesy as the comic relief of the movie. While Christopher held the pep talks Brann held the dramatic banter with the raid bosses and it worked so well! Still Jack does make good use of his voice actors and the little bits where they try to figure out what to do before each fight was nice, although was a tad short of epic at times.

The fights themselves!

Jack perfected the presentation of the boss fight long ago; his editing his shots the directing but most of all the sound of the fight. Jack makes great choices in music that set the tone of the fight, be it victory or despair, but he also links it to the movement of the fight, the boss slams the ground and the drums start playing, the music goes quiet just as the boos utters it’s iconic line. Maybe it’s all coincidence. I am very glad that he’s moved away from the comic book like over blown footage he cut into his Sunwell movie, sure it’s fun to see flying mages turning pit lords into dust, but it just chucks a Kodo sized spanner into the movie. It’s The Tale Of The Past syndrome of turning your characters into super heroes, I’m glad he went back to his Burning Crusade ways.

Over all the only thing Jack did wrong with this was Gemma’s character. But I still think Jack can go further; as it rarely felt in the movie that the Characters where ever actually going any where, dramatically or emotionally. Not that they should be going anywhere far emotionally: This is a raid video and an emotional storyline will do nothing but give it multiple personalities disorder. But there still needs more over arching presences, a stronger build up to the final encounters and a change in the characters; Yogg-saron is meant to be messing with our raiders minds but not much attention is given to it in the first half. The second half was good, what with all the working towards entering the big boss room, it kept it in the forefront of our minds, but it was all exposition, in the end I just wanted ominous silent shots of the big scary door.

I would certainly expect a kick ass Icecrown movie from Jack once 3.3 is here (Or possibly 4.0, these things take time) I would also hope that Christopher M. Grant to stay with the guild and a focus on Magni, Varien, Tirion, Morgrain and Jaina (They will be no substitutes for Brann though) but most of all in Icecrown I want a big fat build up to the Lich King. The whole of Wrath has been leading up to that battle and so should Jack’s Icecrown movie I’d say. I would even go so far as to suggesting the 5 mans get a look in, as apparently we’ll be seeing old Lichy in that as well.

Should the characters have an emotional commitment to killing Lichy? It would be nice and help that build off and have a nice pay off at the climax of the film, but the revenge story is just so cliché now. If Jack tries it he should think of something original, like his character wanting to kill Arthas because he’s a great big Thrall/Jaina shipper.

On a side note: There Was No In The Mountains Reference In The Entire Movie!! Jack SERIOUSLY dropped that ball on that one.

UPDATE EDIT!

After talking Gemma, or Intricacy as we all know her, she's informed me that her and Chris have both signed up for the next movie! Which is good to know. She also agreed with me on the subject of her part being poorly written, or more so translated, saying that for Icecrown: "Hopefully I can have a word with them about the script"

I feel really smug right now about getting a mini interview ^^ Sure it's because she thought I was calling her a bad VA, but I'll take what I can get.

The Last Machinima Gaga article.

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:39:41 -0400

…for a while.

I’ve been in a state, missing deadlines, releasing articles with out screenshots I’ve scrawled over with MS paint; booting up the internet and then not instantly logging into #Machinima; I don’t even watch all the movies uploaded to Warcraft Movies under Machinima anymore, just the rated stuff! If I didn’t keep my antlers so immaculate wouldn’t recognize my self in the mirror.

But I’ll be dirty dirty gnome before I let my blog fizzle out, I’m going out with a bang! Hopefully one with so much bang that I get over my burn out and have an article ready for Thursday! So, y’know, when I say for a while, I mean a month tops.

…or maybe a day if Paus figures out my true identity and arrives at my door stop with the thumb screws.

So here’s the bang I’m going out on! The Article I’ve always wanted to write!

Then, up and down the internet, minds were blown: In Memoriam Northwatch Hold. Literally, brains splattered on walls, PC monitors got all gookie. What? You didn’t hear about this? If it happened why wasn’t it on the news? Because every news channel producer in the world was a fan of machinima, the entire race was wiped out for a day and THAT is why you didn’t hear about this movie killing millions of people with its awesome-ness.

Okay, so that’s a wincy bit of a hyperbole.

But the movie really grabbed the community’s attention. I still think to this day that Gnome Chewer produced the most striking opening ever given to a Machinima by making the opening look like a bucket of rubbish. And it’s just so cleaver: At the beginning we can see the jittery fraps work, the names over the characters and clumbsy fades to title screens that plagued the low quality Machinima of the time. Watching this opening the viewer has no doubt that was she or he is looking at is a group of players playing world of warcraft.

But then it all dissolves. We see a lone guard stumble upon the carnage that we, the players, have put on northwatch. He stands there in shock with his back exposed for 13 seconds. Gnome Chewer knows what’s going to happen, we know what’s going to happen, heck, even Illidan could have seen these coming and he managed to get betrayed by every living being he ever met.

Gnome chewer holds the moment and lets the music, oh sweet elune the music! fade over the image of the dyeing man at rest, and he is pulled upright into the body of his living self. In that moment the game has gone, no more task bars, no more fraps, no more guild names with typos. We’re now in Azeroth. We’re shown all these photos and documents that Gnome Chewer created from scratch to show this man’s life in a completely new way, and well done! The photos and documents are all that’s left of this man now, and in the actual game these things don’t even exist. It’s really powerful to see both Azeroth and the Guard being expanded on in this striking visual way.

I say Machinima is the art of coupling the familiar with the alien, this is exactly what I mean.

I could say the memorable devolve from fraps to something more symbolizes Gnoemchewers change into some one who goes far beyond the norm, but that’s not really true, he never truly leaves the poorly made frapsed opening as he never feels the need to use voice actors or scripts, although he claims this is because he sand every one he’s ever met sounds like a maul with a cold I think it’s because he’s found his footing in this style of Machinima. A footing so firm he could build a theme park on it.

Odd Things!

There wasn’t really a massive follow through of uber Machinima, before Gnome Chewer’s next Big Block Buster he toyed with things as all artists must. The movies where by no means perfect, or some not even good, but they are all oddly memorable.

The last action crusader was just a fun joke, but did show Gnome chewer’s fascination with the scarlet crusade for the first time. The shaman video is just, really odd. But I think that’s the point, it’s just a shame it isn’t a good point. All the same it explores and expresses a culture in wow, in much the same way Northwatch explored the NPCs of Northwatch, (something he will do a lot of) these are shamans. Shamans are weird.
The Unjoy of Death is nice, sweet. It also seems like a continuation of Northwatch, but a good one. Thanks to Gnome Chewer’s soon to be loved crazytalk, a ghost of a man laments the unjoys of death by possessing other dead things that still remain. Pictures of him self, statues, and also nature: the grass, the sky. Poetic.

RIGHT! Good stuff again!

Gnomechewer created a kick ass warcraft war movie about kicking warcraft ass in time for 2007’s Christmas! Action! Blood! (Gnome chewer loves blood, and because of this movie I love that he loves blood) All war movies need the cliché war marines that are uniform yet absolute bad-***** with opinions and back stories that are all exactly the same! But Gnomechewer sticks to his no voice acting policy and instead gives us the bad-ass marines in his own way. The best part of the movie in my opinion is when we see the dwarf pilot’s locker. If you’re asking your self what is the Gnome Chewer flavor? It is a dwarf’s locker with a poster signed by Gimli: Gnome Chewer’s art within Machinima. Horde Kills scratched into the metal of flying machines; writing inspirational messaged with draenei blood, a poster behind Warcheif Thrall’s throne Promoting, Warchief Thrall.

Trivia: We see a hall way walk that’s almost identical to the GIECO advert and a small hint at a future movie with a please stand by screen displayed.

It’s a romp in Gnomechewer’s unique presentation of Azeroth!

Less testosterone filled is The Crimson Sisters Of The Scarlet Flame which shows Gnome chewer diving into an exploration of the scarlet crusade with a little inspiration from Warhammer 40K. Gnome chewer uses his grainy old movie look, which almost makes it feel like this Machinima is a documentary or a political film within Azeroth. With the aid of his grainy camera and red colour pallet Gnome chewer takes a real good look at the zealot feel of the scarlet crusade, which he’s perfect for: He can make promotional posters, zealots love promotional posters. Horray! Gnome Chewer draws out the film, giving it a slow feel which is both a blessing and a curse to the Machinima.

Gnome Chewer dose say that this is one of his “What if” Machinimas, but it does seem to hit the nail on the head with the hammer that never lies. Sure the scarlet crusade isn’t all female, but other than that it’s true, the Warhammer 40K reverences aren’t there because Gnome chewer’s lazy, they’re there because it’s a good parallel.

Ballard of the Blood sail is like The Crimson Sisters, but completely different. Not only has it got a completely different subject, it has a different tone and presentation. Gnome Chewer explores the blood sails and the steamwheel cartel in much the same way he did for the Scarlet Crusade (Y’know, gore n’ stuff) but he goes about it completely differently: this is a harsh pirate tale of pirate life (Most of Pirate Life consists of Pirate Death) Confiding it to a comic book was such an original and bizarre idea; although the life of the blood sail is fun with all the bar wenches and pillaging, it’s not very comic when you get caught and hung. Gnome Chewer has a fun sense of humor ^^

Standing in the way of control is a machinima that from its release has really been stuck in my head. For some reason I remember Moo-money’s Movie Watch article on it too, weird huh? I like it not just because it is something that it so different visually, but because it’s a celebration of us! The common adventurer that saves the day on a daily basis. Gnome Chewer addresses us in much the same way he did in Northwatch, but this is a happy happy thing was you let the music and art and action remind you of how awesome you are at saving the world.

(Unless you count that time you killed that innocent person in Dragon Blight or brought the most evil being from military history back to life in shadowmoon valley)

Addressing the common wow player and saying “OI! This is you!” is just a great thing I just don’t know why more people don’t try to do it.

Cookies 4 u is nice. Lower city gets the Gnome Chewer attention. Alliance and horde getting along, world peace in lower city, woo!

Trivia: We see Gnomechewer’s fascination with Keal’thas for the first time, and more hints towards his Pilgrims plight film. Also, space Dwarf is never seen again.

(Notice as I get later into Sunday night my review get shorter?)

The Best Gnome Chewer Movies!

…are conveniently both made in the summer of 2008 (This is all in chronological order by the way) First of is one of the absolute Gnome Chewer Classics:

There Will Be Cannibalism. Gnome Chewer’s gore potential is realized as he has Forsaken chewing on a captive; not only that but Gnome Chewer’s internal media (posters n’ stuff) takes a second step as he makes puppets! We know there must be puppets in wow, has blizzard bothered to show us any? No! Gnome Chewer goes the extra mile.   Not only does he show us a media with in Azeroth we’ve not seen enough of before, he shows us an aspect of a culture we’ve not seen before: Forsaken being bloiting evil and having sadist fun as they eat their captive. Gnome Chewer can touch upon things Bizzard just can’t, and because of it he’s managed to sum up the Forsaken race to a T in just one Machinima.

Oh! And isn’t the music good? It will ruin your mind trying to figure out where you’ve heard it from you know. That’s the beauty of the perverce tune to the perverce content, Notice how Gnome Chewer pretends to have removed even gorier scenes? It all so evil the video quality it’s self seems to have decayed! Love Gnome Chewer work. I want that Scarlet Crusade poster on my wall.

The Best Ever Gnome Chewer Movie:

Is gone.

Sorry! Copy write and all that, it got pulled down.

…

What?

You’re still here?

…

Okay-Okay, just because you’re such good readers, I did some searching and found a site that still had it: http://vimeo.com/1215719 You better leave a constructive comment after this!

Okay so it’s Vimeo and didn’t take much searching but it was a goodly 5 minutes. Time is Money and Money is limited edition Whowho action figures!

Back In Your Head!

It’s post modern Azeroth! The media, the face book pages, the internet! Azeroth’s internet! Photo booth pictures! Photographs! Videos! Gnome chewer when full out and showed us Jaina’s relationships not only in a completely new and original way (How many times do I have to say original before it seems run of the mill?) but also stunningly well. The song isn’t that good, but the video shows us in silent dignity the troubles the characters go through, and we don’t even need to see a lot of it: We don’t see all the gossip and scandal we associate with today’s high profile relationships, but show us a magazine with a picture and quote on it and there you go!

Gnome Chewer en-riches his settings with more than action. Gnome Chewer’s characters leave their marks, and the marks alone speak louder than any voice actor could (You’d damage the microphone for one thing)

I could give Gnome Chewer my opinion on what will help him make a good machinima (He wasn’t lying on his recent return when he said he was rusty) but really all he needs to do is sit down, level an alt and see what parts of the game interest him enough to expand. In fact any Machinimator could do it, just ask your self what parts of Azeroth exist but aren’t shown to you by Bizzard.

BROTHELS DON’T COUNT BONKEY!

... but if you really want an idea: Ugly Keal'thas stalking an unknowing Jaina whist singing this. It's just, creepy; Ugly Keal'thas creepy.

Yeah, I know I’m only half way through his movies (His good movies, you should see the things I’ve skipped) But this is already the 5^th page! Right, this is certainly a big enough bang (Blowing up the world tree? Hmmm, maybe next time I take a brake) I’m going to hop on my epic mount and spend a holiday in Booty Bay and enjoy the fruits of this year’s Brewfest for a while, keep the Machinima community warm whilst I’m gone!
(Notice that out of all my articles it wasn't until the first last article that I finally figured out how to use the Myndflame head line colours ^^ I was just having waay too much fun to notice!)

Whowho Sick

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:54:08 -0400

Smile Whowho Smile!

Laugh Whowho Laugh!

Why Whowho ****?

Smile Whowho Smile!

Laugh Whowho Laugh!

Now Whowho Quick.

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be Happy!

Whowho Write Review?

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be Happy!

Whowho Seen By You.

Smile Whowho Smile!

Laugh Whowho Laugh!

Why Whowho ****?

Smile Whowho Smile!

Laugh Whowho Laugh!

Now Whowho Quick.

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be Happy!

Whowho Write Review?

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be Happy!

Whowho **** By ***.

Smile Whowho *****!

Laugh Whowho Laugh!

Why Whowho Sick?

Smile Whowho Smile!

***** Whowho Laugh!

Now Whowho Quick.

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be Happy!

Whowho ***** Review?

Whowho Watch Movie!

Whowho Be *****!

Whowho **** By ***.

Smile Whowho *****!

***** Whowho Laugh!

Why Whowho Sick?

Smile Whowho *****!

***** Whowho Laugh!

Now Whowho Quick.

Whowho ***** Movie!

Whowho ** Happy!

Whowho ***** Review?

Whowho Watch *****!

Whowho Be *****!

Whowho **** By ***.

***** Whowho *****!

***** Whowho *****!

Why Whowho Sick?

***** Whowho *****!

***** Whowho *****!

Now Whowho Quick.

Whowho!

Whowho!

Whowho?

Whowho!

Whowho!

Whowho.

That's right

Whowho just wrote a poem ^^

Anywho, I've caught what ever crazy thing Erunno had so now my how system has collapsed in on it's self due to one ***** of the planned time table being filled with bed rest. I'll be back on my comically huge Night Elf feat with a review soon enough!

Oh, the poem is misleading, I'm enjoying the experience of illness, just not with a smile as my mouth tastes funny at this moment.

Oxhorn’s latest

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:36:27 -0400

The Story of Thunk.

AH-HAhaHAhaHAhahAHahaHAHaha-Hohehoheho-heehee-ah-hahahaha-Ah-HAHAHAHA! *Chuckle*

This entire 1.2 pages of this article could just be me laughing, but we all know that if there’s some one I can rely on to create Machinima that I can analyze so much even Shakespeare would be jealous. (Shakespeare, or as his homies call him: Milk Shake, would have reached a far bigger audience if he toyed with Machinima, not so smart after all huh?)

First off, this movie is FUNNY. If funny was rotting flesh Oxhorn’s house would be in dire need of regular cleaning. Why is Thunk’s biography funny? Every character Oxhorn creates are not only brilliantly written, but all manage to be both intelligent and stupid. Oxhorn can not resist thrusting the self-defeating life theory gag onto his characters and a bloiting good job he does to (‘And I Hate violence! I’ll Kill you!’). His satire always acts towards a moral and I almost missed the moral as I was laughing too hard to hear it.

Second off, Oxhorn’s short shorts series (If anyone ever manages to nail oxhorn to the ground please tell me where you left him, as I so badly want to interview him about this amazing series) has swelled it’s self with so many great gags and characters that Oxhorn is now reaping the benefits with the funny scythe. So many in-jokes, ones you can see coming and you almost cry with anticipation of the punch line, and ones you just can’t see coming until they floor you. Yep, Oxhorn rewards you for following his series with jokes so good they make watching Orcs In Space worthwhile.

Some other thing I love about this movie is that it is long! It starts off with a great build up to the punch line, but it just keeps on running and we are treated to a moral on accepting other people’s selves and ideas that would have brought a tear to my eye if they weren’t all ready filled from laughing. Oxhorn dose like his morals, and that possibly the best thing about him, every machinima he crafts makes the world just a little bit nicer.

Oxhorn narrates the tale him self, and it’s something I’ve not heard him do to this existent. The narration keeps the long story rolling when Thunk is alone and has no one to share dialogue with. His narration reflects a lot of his own character, I would not be surprised to hear that the narrator was meant to be Brandon M. Dennis him self: The narration give the Machinima a Jackanory mock children’s story feel to it. The narration, even if I feel is the weakest part of the Machinima, personified Brandon’s happy but witty out look and brought him closer to his characters than we’ve ever seen him before, he must really love Thunk to stick around even after he took a massive dump in Orgramar.

Oxhorn certainly knows where he’s going with his series; he constantly filling it with people and cross-overs that he can use to show us his unique and delightful look at the world, and he does it all whist being comically appealing and visually iconic. Sadly this meens that he’s done NOTHING WRONG in his latest movie, I can’t criticize it! This means I can get away with being in a perfectly good mood for all of my article! Now that Oxhorn has moved away from his Inventing Swear Words series (Which I felt seemed a tad forced at times) he’s doing what he does best: Creating a rich population of characters.

Why bother writing a review of something every one saw on Monday if I don’t offer any constructive advice? Well Oxhorn is so experienced at Machinima-making at this date all I certainly can’t give him any pointers, (Other than: Give me an interview please?) all I can offer him is praise he deserves.

Thunk and his long deserved story is a celebration of Oxhorn’s brand and a great gift of laughs we’ll be asking for again soon enough.

Oh, did I mention that I found it funny?

In unrelated news: GnomeChewer is back! Finally an excuse to write an article on the most artsy of Machinimators!

Yumfries, Poshjark and wick’s “Forever a Nub”

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:07:59 -0400

Sorry about there not being an update last update. You see during the summer at work there’s enough people missing that there’s no one to notice you’re spending your time listening to Thorim say in the mountains for 10 minutes and domestically there’s enough people home to pick up the slack that nobody cares that you’re spending your time listening to Thorim say in the mountains for ten minutes. Sadly summer is gone and the ice cream venders have gone into hibernation; it’s suddenly becoming difficult to find the time in the week. But worry not! The Thursday update can’t go away as I do not have the skill to edit the banner Erunno has made me.

Yumfries, Poshjark and wick’s Forever a Nub’s link

Not long ago I reviewed Yumfries and Poshjark’s last song, Innkeeper. Forever a Nub is visually and audibly similar; same characters, same singers, use of special effects and colour schemes, but this is far better made and glossy machinima, it’s so glossy I could tape two of these movies to my feet and slide about on my kitchen floor. Yumfries has managed to employ a sizable collection of effects into this, which usually spells doom for a music machinima, yet somehow he’s managed to avoided making it too cluttered with effects.

It is cluttered, but it’s not quite too cluttered. Although your opinion may differ.

I think it’s tolerable really, and if you can tolerate the kaleidoscope goodness the more the better. Often when a Machinima is full of colour filters and flying animations it over whelms you, you can’t appreciate it as you can’t see anything because it’s all hidden behind something else.

Yumfries makes it bearable by keeping everything in its place: the bars are at the top and the bottom keep their place, but not their colour; the silhouettes of dancing girls do move, but they leave silhouettes behind to point you in the direction of where they’ve gone; the leveling montages keep the characters in the center of the screen.

It’s still by no means perfect, it was a strain on my eyes to read the subtitles and appreciate the visual meal at the same time, and the intro with all the short screens was annoying, but it shows promise. The fact that Yumfries has created something with enough colour filters to deck out the two star wars trilogies with light sabers, and got away with it, is pretty impressive. Yummy has put a lot of effort into this, I can’t wait to see what the next attempt is at pushing boundaries. I’d like to see someone try to reach for more impressive visuals and employing more tricks to keep it watchable.

But enough about the visual, let me jibber jabber on about the song and the characters.

I like the content of the song, it’s an idea I can really get behind: No matter how leet you get, or how decked out in epics you are, at heart you will still be the innocent noob you were 50 levels ago. It’s a nice idea of eternal innocence and it makes the characters seem more humble despite their gear(One of my criticisms for Innkeeper was that Poshjerk was meant to be this guy who didn’t enjoy the game, but he’s decked out in T It also turns the Blood Elf Rap idea on its head; gives me the idea that none of these shirt less blood elves are any better than anyone else that tried to solo pull Hogger.

The same characters are kept from Innkeeper, which is good! It allows the dedicated viewer to enjoy developing characters. The characters quickly develop an identity this way, and the quickest way to develop character identity is to make them openly patriotic for its race. Being a role player I love it when a draenei acts like a draenei, and it’s always a surprise: Initially you always picture the avatar as the author, and when the author makes the avatar its own identity it’s a big memorable gesture. Creating a personality can be incredibly important to music machinima: Nyhm is a great example of this, as is cowboy Cranius. And the true king of identifiable characters is Oxhorn, if you put personality into your characters, your characters put personality into your Machinima. I encourage yumfries to follow through on this so I can be all smug and tell everyone I saw it coming. An identifiable Draenei in the sea of generic blood elves is an interesting thing! (It may become a problem that Wick and Poshjark look very similar)

Forever a Nub isn’t just a stepping stone though, I’m sure it will lead Yumfries and Co. to big and even better things if he chooses such, but this is already a great machinima that’s had a lot of care put into it. The only way Yumfries could disappoint me would be if he re-rolls a blood elf.

Stand Preview!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:06:23 -0400

I lied, there is no preview. (But find his preview post here)

If you spend much time on Myndflame you’ll soon come across the Orc named Grubthar. His comments are so intellectual and meaning-full that it leads me to believe he is actually a floating brain attached to the internet. He’s also been working on a little project for blizzcon 09 (It wasn’t nearly finished on time, floating brains have a lot to commit to these days y’know?) he’s still working on it, but he gave me a look at his not yet finished work all in the name of publicity. Why he came to me then is beyond me.

Watching the video now I’m thinking two things: “Hahaha! I can see this and you can’t!” and “Wow, he’s actually managed to make viewing a machinima feel claustrophobic, intentionally obviously.”

Which is good! When people are trying to make a war piece (Stand is a war piece by the way) they’re all setting out to say the same thing: War zones are not nice places! Doom to all who choose this place as a picnic spot! So sadly the majority of war pieces are on the edge of being generic. Gloomy music and gloomy colors just don’t seem to be enough anymore, not that war shouldn’t be gloomy; unless the rainbows are a part of death lasers they have no place on the battle field.

Stand doesn’t have any ironic rainbow death lasers, in fact in the beginning it looks like gloomy war movie #147’s nerdy WoW playing sister, but once Grubthar gets going he gets going; you can’t see what’s going on in the back ground because grubthar pushes orcs, fire and inside of helmets so close to your face it makes you wish orcs would take a shower every now and then. To give you an idea it makes me wish the movie was 3D, lame glasses and all just to see the close camera action a tad closer. The battle is so focused you can’t see what’s happening in the back ground, or even behind your point of view for all the bodies, fighting or otherwise, that are packed into shot. It’s isolating, as you lose as sense of scale for the battle field and you focus on what’s happening in front of you.

This inspired camera work pulls you as if Grubthar has his dirty orcish hands clamped round your neck, just when you’re there in the battle field thinking “Wow, grubthar REALY knows what he’s doing-“ Grubthar lets go of your neck and slaps you in the face and shows you something new; there’s moments where you just don’t know what’s going to happen. The orcs don’t speak for one thing you’ve got no idea what their plans or issues are, and then there’s your comrades, who you only get glances at at times and you don’t know if their swaying in the wind because they’ve been hit by an arrow or if they just got their iPod working.

What’s this about me damning any movie that shouts “Yay explosions!”? Okay, I do say I dislike meaningless action, but Grubthar met my expectations and have given me (But not you) action which can get an emotional response from me:

War is sad.

It is though! War isn’t all explosions; catchy one liners; jokes about where the respawn is; and dancing girls. I feel a little for the characters Grubthar creates, and I feel for them for the tragedy of battle they are going through. I’d like to believe that this movie is a response to all the action lusting machinima that can be found.

So look forward to Grubthar finishing this movie; the only way animated war could be more emotionally driven would be to have the jeeps having happy and sad faces painted on them.

Also, as this was a preview I can not simply snatch a screen shot from the movie and stick a caption onto it like a sweety from some one else’s sweety tin, so enjoy my improvisation!

No Article today

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:57:23 -0400
Sorry chums, no article today, still, check out the great work Erunno did on the new Machinima Gaga Banana. And like my previous no article article I will think-a-typing for a while.
But don't you be expecting no pictures!
No one wants an interview with me, I haven’t got a buffer article prepared and I really don’t understand this video enough to review it…

…Sure I could compare it to something by Cranius and Legs and say about how they’ve missed the dart board by making their personas flawless, because without character flaws their songs are all bloated boasts, that they're taking them selves way too seriously, that blod elf rap needs to be a laughing poke at all the self loving raps, not an actually self loving rap, but they keep making that same mistake that I’m beginning to think I’m the one missing the dart board.

Maybe they’re aware that their characters are un-relatable, unlikable... Mary Sues? Can you even get Mary Sues in song? Maybe it’s all a big joke, that’s so flawless we don’t realize it as such. It would explain why they’re all blood elves, joked to be the vainest of races. Maybe it's a joke on some level, comedy is used through out Blood Elf Rap videos.

Maybe I would enjoy the songs if I could place myself in the singers place; enjoy that feeling of smugness in knowing that I’m better than everyone else at pwning, but I just can’t. I know the cool cats I hang out with in #Machinima can’t either: “[@BaronSoosdon]: There can never be too much belf rap hate Whowho!”

I did try to review Teach Me How To Pwn, but there was the nagging feeling that I didn’t have any place to; maybe they know that their characters are inaccessible with all the fun they’re having, and maybe that’s it: They’re having fun singing about all the fun they’re having pwning people. Fair game! If their target audiences are themselves that okay. Some will say it’s vain but it’s not harming anyone, well unless you count their ears.

But like I said, I don’t feel up to reviewing it with all these doubts, so that’s why there’s no article today. Instead you guys can have a discussion about blood elf rap: Is it on the most part to vain to access these days? Does it matter if they have good fun making them?

Also playing cool cat and Teach me how to pwn at the same time makes it oh so much more enjoyable!

Whowho Reviews: EVERYTHING

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:42:18 -0400

So this is going to be a big article. In mild response to Erunno’s article I’m taking a look at the shape of WoW Machinima’s ever changing community; I’ll look at the size and momentum of our community; the sites that are in competition to support us the best; the nasty term of “elitist”, Erunno’s potential #Machinima comic, and whether all this matters.

At various points in this blog’s past I’ve reared off at a desperate tangent to address how WoW Machinima is more meaningful than other Machinima because it’s attached to a better community, and as Machinima is a community’s response and interpretation of its media the community is the key. Machinima and community are words that go hand in hand, like paladins and nerf.

WoW’s Machinima community is at a most odd position, something I realized when I first saw Obilith’s Never Stayed Tuned 4 (a-HA! I said I’d get round to reviewing it! Didn’t I?) Its opening blew my mind; we saw something I’d never thought I’d see: a Machinima, parodying a separate Machinima? For me this was the point that WoW Machinima’s community had reached the point where it no longer needs to parody wow, no no no, it had grown to such a size that it could parody its self!

Never ending parody loop!

But this was something I quickly forgot about as I’m sure something shiny distracted me. A separate story is one of The Myndflame site, which needs no link as you’re reading this article here I should hope. When I first visited place wide eyed with a typo riddled idea of a blog clutched in my grubby hands Clint Hackleman sat me down and told me of the legend of the Community Center. A place where all people interested in Machinima come and admire each other’s work and criticisms, a place that was just a myth, a place that he hoped the Myndflame site would one day become.

Or possibly he didn’t tell me that, I’m not sure whether I made that up- but none the less the WoW Machinima community is split between all the places giving support to it: Warcraft movies provides and endless archives of movies, but nowhere but the comments section to talk about them; WeGame offers a great community support, but also harbors the other Machinimas, we can not find our own identity there; Machinima.com offers something I’m sure, but I can’t remember what it was as I haven’t visited it in a long time. Then there is #Machinima, the great Machinima Channel: a never ending river that flows with the memes and in jokes of its visitors, but its down fall is that nothing there is concrete, as all things eventually are lost down the river into the ocean of forgotten conversations.

WoW Machinima’s community is spread out finely. Each site has its own niche so it’s not foreseeable that any of them is going to fall to competition. We are probably stuck like this, but something odd has happened on the Myndflame site. The Adventures of Puff and Lil’puff: A pod cast dedicated to a Machinima series, and then I came around and started a blog dedicated to whatever Machinima took my interest, and then came Erunno with his blog dedicated to the Machinima community, and then, just a few days ago there was created a comic using wow models, not about wow, but about the people associated with WoW Machinima.

This is very much like that opening to NST4, or if I give credit where it's due, even earlier the cast of Illegal Danish seen filming in Org in an episode of The Grind. The WoW Machinima Community has recognized it’s self and is indulging in in-jokes and self promotion!

All right, but what are the implications of this? Well I thought to my self as I linked guild mates to the comic in which I got tortured by lesbian vampire tauren in the mountains and I realized that they wouldn’t get any of the jokes. The trouble about a community poking fun at its self is that all its jokes are in jokes, things that isolate the laymen, maybe making community un-accessible?

Pift, un-accessible my antlers. People are shouting about the apocalypse waaaaaay too early: so a layman strait from wow sees a Machinima where a Nelf starts running but then gets blinded by excessive bloom, falls, brakes her ankle and then gets bombarded by rick rolls by an enraged director, the Layman doesn’t get any of the jokes, says “lame” votes down and merrily moves on to the next Machinima.

It’s no different from when a Layman, strait from a life without MMOs, find a perfectly normal WoW Machinima, watches two reporters discuss the location of some guy’s wife, doesn’t get the joke, says “lame” votes down, and merrily moves on to watch some normal stuff on you tube.

What we get, the members who take enough interest in the community to understand the context is a gem of humor catered for us: aimed not at the wow player, but to the WoW Machinima Viewer. I call it “WoW Machinima Machinima” movies which completely set about joking about their community.

If this trend continues and we take enough interest in ourselves to crake jokes and there people about that are about to laugh the community can surly look after its self- center or no center. I don’t think Warcraft Movies should make a move to expand its self, I think it does what it does really well and should stay like that. Hopefully the Myndflame site has found its niche and will provide enough satire to keep the community chugging healthily for years to come.

But what about the mythical community center? Or as Erunno puts it, the Rome of WoW machinima. I think the person who put it best was Grubthar (Who I’m quickly coming to believe is the most intelligent person attached to our community) Rome was a dump. There is a problem with large communities: they get to large to cater to all of their members. I think a nice analogy is the humble wow guild. Many wow guilds swell to massive sizes and achieve great things, but I stay well clear of them in favor of the small wow guild, a tight group of people, almost hand picked by recruitment officers.

Maybe the right word isn’t elitist, I prefer exclusive. Keeping you viewer ship small reduces the amount of drama. Machinima Rome would be full of people shouting foul at the numbers of PvP videos, flame wars over how 3D animation has no place there, and whether or not Tales of the Past 3 was a good movie. Machinima Rome would be a very noisy, angry place, and I think it’s an out of date vision. I have more confidence in the community aiding abilities of a Machinima in which Drewbie quits The Grind and visits every Machinimator looking for a job than I do in a massive shapeless forum.

The Kodo Egg: I like it!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:39:47 -0400

Sadly the awesome thing I lined up for today’s article is yet to happen. Now I may on occasion claim to be able to see the future but I’m going to level with you, I’m going to have to improvise tonight if I’m going to keep my tidy “Updates Monday’s Thursday” thing.

So! Without further ado I give you: The Kodo Egg!

Ollgabopi (Such a cool name) has created a wonderful little mystery of a machinima. Right across the internet where he’s posted this movie he has said Nothing in the description, and that’s dang cleaver of him; you need to watch this machinima with the fresh eyes of some one that has no idea what’s going on.

… That’s your cue to go watch it, because I’m going to start talking about it now.

Right! What I love about this short and sweet machinima is that when it starts you have no idea what it is, the distorted shots of Westfall’s hills with the wood wind music and the sound of a horses sigh make it seem oddly surreal, the first time you watch it you honestly have no idea what’s going to happen. The strong presence of nature (I’m pretty sure I saw a chicken, that’s nature right?) and the odd image of a lone man walking with an egg of all things, a pilgrimage? Perhaps he is going to make an offering to the egg gods of Stormwind. Call me crazy,(People often do) but for a few seconds I thought I was watching something to do with Native Americans; the music; the nature; the odd imagery and more important the feeling of complete lack of understanding the western world feels for the native people.

The first line of the Machinima didn’t help at all: “I made it… I made it all the way back home…” I’m sitting here not just wondering where he came from, why he went there, and why he has an egg; I REALLY want to know what the hell’s going on! And that’s a good thing: It sucks me into the story so fast there’s a Whowho shaped cloud on my sofa.

More shots of wildlife in the forest as the man walks in the back ground, being a night elf I’m certain that this is all some great symbolism for nature that I’m just not getting yet. Suddenly the Machinima grants me some story; and it’s Matt Forrest’s voice acting that makes it perfect. All while the silly explanation of his plan unravels we find it amusing and funny, but we never stop holding our breath long enough to realize that it’s an actual joke: the man’s determination and certainty at his plan keep us hooked just long enough that we don’t realize that he’s reciting the old “Don’t count your Kodos before they hatch” tale until the exact point he trips over the rock.

The punch line was perfect: I laughed; I smiled; I thought about reviewing it tomorrow in Thursday’s article. The joke of the Machinima is short, sweet, and wonderfully obvious, but only Matt Forest’s voice acting, and Ollgabopi’s visuals could keep us all second guessing for exactly as long as they wanted us to.

Keep a look out for these guys, because I expect a lot from them now.

Yeah I know there’s no picture in the article, I wanted to make a picture of the Kodo omelet in a mock crime scene, but I had to rush this out as Paus kept sending me death threats.

Visit Monday when I might have the awesome thing.

In Memory Retribution: It’s fairly terrible

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:49:10 -0400

The Movie Link

Rarely do I find a Machinima which I believe deserves to be called bad. Normally I enjoy everything to some degree, and everything really is flowers and kittens, puppies and ponies. But now I have found a movie which I believe is, well… bad. But I can’t bring myself to say such things about it as I look into the cute puppy eyes of its author’s profile picture. Although the dirty jobs must be done, even if we must protect our identities to do so! That is why for this article I’m taking the name of: TotalWhowho.

Time to rant fl*ck up.

(Isn’t it magnificent that censoring Oxhorn’s “Flack” makes it look like a much more offensive word?)

I’m sorry to say this Necka, but In Memory RETRIBUTION is a horrible attempt to link story with PvE. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy good PvE movies, sadly the only good PvE movie ever made was “The Burning Crusade: The Movie” By Jack of Empire guild. Necka has clearly taken a big chunk of meaty inspiration from Jack.

Being me I’m going to beat around the bush for a while and say why Jack’s movie was a good PvE movie before taking the plunge and call out the many design faults of In Memory RETRIBUTION. “I just can’t shoot it in the face when it’s looking at me!”

In its heart the PvE movie is a PvE movie; swopping shots of 25 people shooting pretty colors at a raid boss who spews out flawlessly wonderful quotes in the mountains. Jack obviously realized this as the extra mile he adds to it is only there to make the minuets of inch tall T6 sprites shooting colors at bosses more engaging, because normally it isn’t. So what did Jack do to his PvE movie? Thank Elune he didn’t splice clips from Harry Potter and Kung fu Hustle like he did in his previous movie, no he added a subtle yet appropriate story.

I’m amazed this hard core raider, known only as “Jack” managed to make such a story from so little. He only used in game sound files (And a good thing to! Don’t call it lazy because if it is so is using models from the game) so a lot of it was silent, brooding shots. In true High Fantasy style he added the context of a journey, which makes for the best low budget story available (REDSHIFT is a nice example) High Fantasy and journeys go hand in hand as if the gods are trying to remind us that in Science Fantasy everyone can bloiting teleport everywhere.

Jack’s story is subtle, appropriate and serves only to build up the tension for the fights. Necka’s story does not. His story swallows the PvE and PvP content to the point when you’re surprised when it happens. PvE and PvP Machinima is annoying on its own, it doesn’t need a horrible story to make me even more aware of that. The story is simply horrible: it relies entirely on overblown set pieces that do nothing to the characters, and they all come out of nowhere! Not in that they’re a surprise, but in that you say to your self “Why is this happening?” The prime example is when the Night elf is told by the Troll to go warn the alliance that the Lich King is up to no good, he steps out side AND THE PLANET BLOWS UP! Didwe just skip 10mins of the film? All this action serves nothing; none of the characters are developed, and if they are we can’t tell because we’ve never seen these characters before!

The fact that the story also ignores a whole lot of the lore to get these set pieces is laughable, I know that it’s all hypothetical, but we come up with hypothetical situations for a reason or moral, not because we want to see planets explode and people betraying people (Because we have the original trilogy of Star Wars for that) in being wholly made up the movie sacrifices any chance that we can relate our raiding or game play to it, because this never happened!

1) People need to stop battling the lore, and should start seeking it as much as they can to make their movie a rooted in the world we’ve all played or play in.
2) People need to stop prioritizing set pieces over characters because our characters can’t relate to explosions (Apart from mages)
3) People need to be aware of what’s at the heart of their movie: Be it an engaging PvE battle, a tragic moral, or a heart warming story.
Too many people are being distracted by explosions! It would be wrong for me to forgive a movie that dares to break all three of these rules. Feel free to beat me to the spirit healer if I ever give such a movie any leeway.

This movie should be titled “Tales of the Past 4: Screw You Whowho! I’m going to make you relate to these characters even less than you did with Blazer!” Or “TotP4:SYW!IGTMYRTTCELTYDB” for short. Do not make a sequel.

Can I be nice now? I feel so bad for Necka.
It’s not too disgraceful to be distracted by explosions, they are very noisy.
Oh and if all goes to plan I should have something mildly special for you in Thursday’s article.

Blizzcon 09 Machinima Boot

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:36:22 -0400

Blizzcon 09, on the plus side all mentioned machinimas got shown in full. That’s a small plus side; the short allowed movie length; there not being multiple categories; the official live stream (Whether you paid for it or not) finishing before the contest was properly over, and most annoyingly no one working at blizzard’s cinimatics knew what machinima was! Watching the lead designer trying to figure out what to call the 45 mins of Starcraft 2 they filmed with in-game models was painful. The good parts of Blizzcon 09’s machinima was the stuff Blizzard wasn’t responsible for, the Machinima!

What I feel like are Honorable mentions!

Murloc Suchi

This is Adrian Buettner’s second machinima ever, and that’s hard to believe; This Machinima looks so good it makes me glad that I own eyes. The Machinima sports a gleaming finish: candle and star lit shadows and gleams are placed expertly, camera shake and zoom, blur and Gnomechewer-esk additions. Somehow it doesn’t go over board, it stays realistic and it makes for a better setting. In other aspects this machinima does not excel; the voice acting in unconfident, and there’s no story or punch line worth mentioning, but it still holds a gem of a thriller scene, the Murloc hunt!

The music wells up as the character wanders over a beaten, but deserted track. From the murloc perspective to the rabid chase to the cowering within the tree trunk it’s a well made scene with an odd humor about it, some what reminiscing of Snaky’s Journal. The sad thing is that this scene is sandwiched between underwhelming story and scenes. Adrian has made this Machinima well, it’s a shame that what he’d set out to make wasn’t what it could be. Still stunning for a second machinima though!

The Salad Elf

Some times I don’t want to watch a Machinima because it will make me laugh, but because it can make me happy. Sadly the Salad elf made me laugh as well as making me feel happy. As a Night elf druid I’m more than happy for our culture to get some mocking screen time. The rhyme and love filled lighting (Yes, love is a technical term) this nursery tale is overflowing with childlike charm. It all sprouts from the community’s love at poking fun at elves, (Which is all Oxhorn’s fault by the way) the twist at the end was perfectly pantomime like with the big reveal, that worked perfectly with the theme of the piece.

It is both well made and well written and Irdeen spent every inch of thought into making sure that this movie makes me look like a juvenile whiny, hippy, poorly dressed dweeb. Well I can’t condemn a job done well.

Now give me back my boar plushy.

The Grind: 3 minuets

3 minuets of comedy I’m surprised didn’t get placed. Maybe this short serves as nothing more than a reminder of how jaw dropping hilarious The Grind is and how episode three will blow our socks off so fast it will take our legs with them. Once episode three finally comes out I’ll certainly have to write an article looking at the series as a whole.

The grind team has somehow hit gold with the wonderfully effective humor of pissing off Macheath. The guild just can’t get a break from their comedic mild misfortune (Much to our delight) and this entry fishes up all kinds of feelings of nostalgia and anticipation from the Pond that is my heart. Don’t be fooled by its short length; it’s certainly just as good as a normal episode of The Grind, but without any kind of story (So it’s a perfectly normal episode of the Grind Hah Hee Hah!) In fact without the story there’s more space for more jokes! Humor humor humor! The rest of the funny side of the internet can pack up and leave because we’re satisfied.

Now for the winners! The lucky bloiters.

Warrior’s Dream. (You got placed, you don't need a picture from me!)

Sadly Slashdance’s Warrior’s Dream is yet to be uploaded on the internet, but whist I wait impatiantly for it I still feel I can talk about at length about it with out having any clue as to what it’s about.

The title of this surprised me, as I was fully expecting something with “REDSHIFT:” slapped on the beginning of it as we all know my idea of the perfect Machinima is pretty much Redshift. Pursuit left with many uncompleted plot points and a cliff hanger. Although I can’t condemn Sedrin for wanting to branch out into new stories, but I can spam the forums noisily asking for Redshift 3.

Why I haven’t seen the movie yet is because Blizzcon’s Machinima contest allowed for only short videos (5mins would have been far more acceptable than 3) and from what I gather Warrior’s Dream had been cut down to size so that it became an action movie. I don’t really want to see an action movie. Redshift has shown us the power of character driven stories and I’d gladly take character over action, so I’m sure the completed Warrior’s Dream will be well worth the wait.

If not Redshift 3 surly will *eye twitch*

Cruel, Cruel moon.

Ah the joys of spiffworld, his animation of peoples songs shows his love of the everyday life, but with a hint of surreal for good measure; like a comparative work environment, but with zombies; the daily routine, but with 400 pound gorillas; and now relationships, but with werewolves.

This movie was actually made months ago for a different contest, but don’t tell Blizzard that because that’s conflicting with the rules! Although this was all because Blizzard changed the rules mid way so no one’s the blame here. The song it’s self is hilarious, of course it’s spliffworld’s animation that adds the charm. The graphic novel like action panels give the movie constant energy and animation and work perfectly at showing the opposites of lovely Marry Lu and the ravenous werewolf in parallel.

Don’t make me get my main!

Firstly let me say OMGTheGnomeBackUpSingersAreBackHowCuuuuuuuute! *Ahem* now that I’ve got that out of my system I can ever so slightly more serious. This is my serious font.

This film feels wonderfully personal, knowing that Cranius is a PvP Clint Eastwood he probably does try to explain to the Horde that ganking him really isn’t a good idea. Not only is it personal it’s relatable; we’ve all been ganked whether we admit it or not, this movie hits it right on the money by setting it in Strangulate Thorn Vale.

I also think that it’s a song that only Cranius could have sung: It starts out bad ass, and only Cranius can sound bad ass with out sound like an ass. I’m looking at you Azerothian 6, can’t say I miss you. And it slowly falls into comedy, Cranius’ alt’s repetitive attempts to run away, matched with Legs’ rendition of a Scooby Doo like chase scene was simply funny. And after all this, after he finally logs onto his main and flies to Strangle thorn he dies again anyway! But the best bit is when he realizes that the Horde have brought a friend and Cranius actually screams! I never thought such a thing was possible.

A day in the life.

X-Cross really did deserve to win this; Machinima is the skill of putting a story into something already made. Now Kaydar’s Darklegacy Comics are already well made and X-Cross made the best choice in picking this particular comic. I remember when I first read it, I was laughing like this:
What X-Cross added to it was his boyish happy charm that his animation has, and it complements Kaydar’s comic perfectly! X-Cross and Jesse Cox show that they are true Dark Legacy fans because Miji is spot on. The little details X-Cross puts in; the kobold saying “Yonotakecandle” in his sleep, him getting out of bed and he’s already fully dressed, him showering with all his clothes on, the kobold’s wife having hideous lipstick. Hell, kobolds are dumb. The face animations, the morning colors, the bloody and tattered body parts, X-Cross has added a finish to the comic good enough that there’s no question as to why he won.

If your Machinima didn’t get a mention, That’s my fault! Because I’m lazy and lack an attention span long enough to write about more than 7 machinima. Feel free to drop by #Machinima anywhen to chuck rotten fruit at me (Apples are preferred)

And monday's artical may be late because it's a Elvish holoday (Three Day Weekend Woo!)

Cataclysmic Machinima

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:47:06 -0400

Howdy! At this moment I’m working tirelessly and unwaveringly on the Blizzcon 09 Machinima Boot (So far I’ve thought of the title!) Why a boot? Because most people don’t know what a wellington is. Shame on them.

In the mean time I’m frolicking through the festive phantom’s of Friday’s news: Cataclysm! So how can I talk endlessly about Cataclysm in a Machinima blog? Quite easily knowing me.

What should I expect to happen to WoW Machinima because of Cataclysm Whowho?

Number one: Expect a rapid increase of lol cats! This is “Caturday” all over again, and it’s already happening! LINK

Number Two: Deathwing! Deathwing is awesome because he somehow pulls of being both a stark raving loony and a charismatic member of high society at the same time! He’s unhinged, but still lifts up his pinky finger when he holds a straw. So people will make Machinima about him. Don’t. Wait until Cataclysm comes out and you can use his model, because it is so sexy blood elves up and down the county have started dieting. In previous lore Deathwing has always appeared slender, almost snake like with gleaming silver armor plates. That dragon was obviously an imposter, as Cataclysm’s Deathwing is a flying (Partly melted) tank.

Number Three: Worgen (The new Blood elf rouges) There’s something about Blood elves that make them so appealing to Machinitors; probably their complicated character. Well it doesn’t get any more complicated than a Wolf that’s trying to remember how to be a human again but doubting if they want to be a human again because of how selfish they used to be, all while getting to grips with your intestines as they rip them from your chest.

Number Four: Goblins (Not the new gnomes. Go home!) Goblins are wonderful creatures, and I’ll be roleplaying one some when, and I dearly hope some one makes a Machinima that takes Goblin humor to its limits, but Goblins have been in the game since launch (Although now on the silver screen they don’t look as hideous as.. well a goblin really) I’d expect some Horde lover will try to include Gnome engineered awesome in their Machinima in the form of Goblins, but it won’t be worth watching. (Not that a horde can voice act through them beastly tusks! HarHar!)

Number five: War Chief Garrosh In The Mountains! Whether or not Garrosh becomes war chief, a lot more people are going to enjoy poking fun of him. Well, it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. Go memes go!

Whowho! My set for my future Machinima is going to be blown up by a drunk-driving dragon! What should I do?

Don’t panic! Firstly, put me in the Machinima! As this link will show you, I’m simply dashing and write my own lines you know. I’m sure my film star smile can save your broken set.

If that doesn’t work, when patch 3.3 comes out it’s a smart idea to make a copy of wow, copy paste the files to a different folder “Old WoW” or something. You could use these files with a private sever (Oh how naughty!) to revisit pre-cataclysm, which has much better re-sale value than post-cataclysm wow. The old old world will be lost otherwise.

Whowho! Ummm, what should I ask for a third question?

You know, most of what was announced at blizzcon was on my wish list a year ago, ask my guild, I wouldn’t’ shut up about my ideas. I called it “WoW set five years in the future” I think my title is catchier. Also the new guild system is everything I wanted when I was an officer (That’s right, an entire guild trusted me to stop them all from spontaneously combusting, I was a Guild Leader for a short time as well.)

Maybe I didn’t build Cataclysm, but I’m sure we’re all going to enjoy it all the same. In fact I’m thinking of re-starting my old blog, which was just me rambling on about what I did in wow during leveling and how it’s all so wonderful and full of daisies! But who knows?

I’m not going to be stopping Machinima Gaga; I may not be able to just talk endlessly about nothing like I normally do, but I enjoy giving my honest opinion on Machinima.

Visit Machinima Gaga on Thursday for my Blizzcon 09 Machinima Boot!

The "No artical today" Artical

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:46:34 -0400

Apologies people of the town that sits on the river named “The Machinima Chanel” there is no article today! Why? You bloiting know why you pond loving rick rollers! Blizzcon is going to drop a bunch of 3 minuet machinimas on my feet. So I’m far too busy purchasing steel capped boots for “Machinima Gaga’s Blizzcon 09 Machinima Kick”. I made up that title on the spot.

But whist I’m here on the myndflame site (Hi Clint!) I’d like to congratulate Erunno, who if it wasn’t for him there would be no Machinima Gaga! Because his blog on WC Movies was so disappointing I felt the need to show him how it’s done! (I joke I joke, I love him because he’s also a night elf, and a lot of what I do in the machinima community was inspired by him) Something every one on the myndflame site are talking about is Machinima in the Mainstream. This is an article I’ve been meaning to write for months.

Why other machinima can kiss WoW Machinima’s feet, and why it doesn’t matter because they have no place in the mainstream.

I also made that title up on the spot.

“Whowho! You human shaped plum!” The e-mail read, “Your blog is called Machinima Gaga, and yet you only ever talk about wow machinima. Why won’t you blab on about Red Vs Blue which got there first and has more guns.” Troll’s are so cute! Their human imperfections make them so adorable to me! But the e-mail asks a good question, why do I shun non wow machinima?

(At this point you’re wondering how this gets to the main stream discussion, don’t worry; my mind can not stay on any one subject for longer than I can count on my fingers.)

Non wow machinima does not get a second thought from me as it lacks something wow has. A community that has seen its content in its original setting, a community much larger than the numbers suggest. 11mill is a LIE! Because that’s current players, wow machinima has a strange effect on any one that has every played wow ever.

No other game has a community with such a momentum, there is no community with as many memes: Murlocs; Ghostcrawler; Gnomes, gnomes, GNOMES! In The Mountains; Capt. Placeholder; fel reavers that come out of nowhere! Seriously! How did a tower block sized robot sneak up on me? Did it parachute in?

The list goes on and on. And when a viewer sees some small part of this on the silver screen there is an odd familiarity to it, memories come out of nowhere (They also have parachutes) and the viewer finds that they are a part of something, a cult something. Even recognizing something as trivial as the Ass-Candy sword from vanilla-wow can have this effect. Watching wow machinima when you’ve played wow makes the movie oddly… personal.

Other sub genres of machinima also have this effect (The home movie effect) but just not to the degree that WoW has to offer. Red vs Blue is wonderful as a series, not a halo series: There is a notable lack of halo jokes in RvB. (Is there such a thing as a halo joke anywho?)

I call it the Home Movie effect, it’s a sort of nostalgia I guess. Watching your own home movies is a wonderful experience, but watching someone else’s… isn’t. Enjoying wow machinima is a wow community sort of thing; that wonderful feeling when we recognize, well, everything, surly can not be felt by out sliders right? The Home Movie effect shows that people who have nothing to do with the content can not enjoy it to the degree we do. (eg: X-cross hating Stratholme: The Retaliation because he’s got nothing to do with WC3, unlike me) It can only be a novelty.

But novelties are still good you know. People laugh at me so novelties must still be funny. So we’re not deader than Cap. Place holder just yet. But I can’t really say I’d be all that interested in watching Machinima catered to the normal peoples. WoW Machinima stripped of all references, all gnome punting, all rick rolls, all in jokes? I’m more jolly than Santa Clause and that thought has some how made me depressed! You can all go and be rich and famous, I’m sticking here in my hole laughing at gnomes.

Oh no! I accidently posted an article after all!

Culling of Stratholme The Retaliation: So good you wish you made it.

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:24:14 -0400

Find it here

I waddle back from my holiday to find this welcome home gift! Sitting on warcraft movies like a good ale wrapped in shoddy pvp movies! I like to think that deathmatic read my advice I gave him two weeks ago, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t because this is a good machinima. Either way he’s paired up with Cape to kick out some historical machinima so good that I feel obliged to stay up untill 4 am writting this very artical prasing it.

Thanks to my night elf heritage I have vanity levels high enough to shamelessly plug the article I wrote looking at Enternaty’s end. From a distance it’s the same as Eternity’s End (the story of war craft 3 put into machinima) but applied to the last, and best, third of the human campaign.

Okay, maybe it is the same idea put into different setting, but it’s also done with such care, attention and genius that it gives the story an epic finish no one dared hope for.

Right at the beginning you think, “Oh no, not a PvE video!” because you didn’t read the description and the intro has this overly perfected and shiny and well done zoom in to Mal’ganis and Arthas that normally only uber guilds have the patents to make. I can’t help but think that when these two we’re making this piece that although they couldn’t shout “For the Guild!” as I’m sure all machinitors working for guilds do, they were probably shouting “For the Story!”

And it is a great story which is a tribute to Blizzard, it made WC3 worth playing again and again. Cape and Deathmatic productions took the sound files and nostalgia of the game and crafted onto something that surpassed nostalgia and was actually worth watching by only adding in the visual aspect (And music) that fitted perfectly with it.

It starts with an oddly empty Stratholme as the WC3 sound files of Arthas and Mal’ganis drift to our ears. Finally the camera arrives at the appropriately dramatic setting of the pair’s first battle and we can truly be thankful for the weight of the words “Just you, and me” because of the visual juiciness. This seemed too good to be true, but then I was given an actually impressive fight sequence between the characters. Remember how I said that combat should show character? This combat shows character- bloit, everything that’s been added in shows character. Arthas comes across as overly determined and almost blood thirsty in the short few seconds, and Mal’ganis is the imposing battle force he deserved to be.

As we see the characters of Arthas and Mal’ganis in their combat, we also see the character of the settings in the perfect sweeping camera work: The burning Stratholme holds nothing but despair (And the wonderfully elvish Prophet) The *cough* Stormwind* harbor is impressive and handsome. The plinky plonky music filled Northrend is… well, almost perverse with its plinky plonkyness, at other times It’s massive and seems to swallow up the caravan of footmen.

We are reminded of the relentless scourge forces, and because of that short, somewhat weird scene with the rampaging ghouls we spend the rest of the movie looking for scourge in the corners, and the land its self seems to be evil. It’s not how Northrend felt the first time we went there in WC3, it’s better.

Two things were changed: A line was cut concerning trees, rightly so, as the trees that Arthas’ men cut down aren’t there anymore duh, and the Ice Troll mercenaries were switched for more footmen. It seems like an odd decision, but it creates one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. The bulk of Arthas’s army arrives at the forgotten shore and sees Arthas and his party, the camera zooms out and suddenly we can see that this looks like a face off and it’s startling. We see Arthas brand, not ice trolls, but his men that were loyal to the point of burning their ships for him, as monsters. We see a lone footman walk up to, not some one of his own size, but a woman, and he casually murders her. The scene turns into chaos and Prince Arthas walks away, not a slither of guilt in him. And most importantly the Captain watches it all, silent and shocked; quietly knowing the act Arthas just committed.

What Cape and Deathmatic have done is almost create a fully new character in the Captain: a lot of the movie is almost threw his eyes. Shots of him watching Arthas in shame were added in; the captain in WC3 was a prick that didn’t care that Arthas was evil and was just happy he was around royalty. This Captain is older and more aware of what’s going on, and was the only person to be saddened by Muradin’s death.

While they surprised me in creating a character, they delighted me in making my most loved lore figure exactly what he is meant to be: Mal’ganis. The scene of him spying on Arthas captures perfectly how this dreadlord tormented the prince. The ghouls are for once in formation around Mal’Ganis. Mal’Ganis towers over the scourge in battle. Mal’Ganis is in control of the dead and he is so bad ass I’d gladly let him drive me insane in any weather. It makes his memorable defeat and the corruption of Arthas the perfect climax for the movie.

Oh, and Frostmourn and its cavern is nicely evil to boot.

So in conclusion 5 out of 5, spectacle is for character, eat your greens, come back on thursday, and hope that Cape & Deathmatic productions give us more of this heavenly cake of machinima.

The Top Ten Bad Guys of WoW Machinima

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:57:46 -0400

Top ten lists are so fun to write I was afraid of writing them too early in case I end up jumping the shark and having to have “The Top ten rodents of WoW Machinima” (The answer is obviously the rat in Obilith’s “Where evil grows” Music video) But I’ve finally realized why media fails when it has to jump a shark! Sharks are Cliché and Boring. That’s why I plan to do all the mistakes everyone else is doing, only to get away with it by instead jumping a vat of slowworms! (Also a vat of slowworms is a lot safer, honestly Fonzie, use your head!)

I love bad guys, they’re so much more memorial, sure no one will build a statue of you after you die if you’re evil, but if you do your evil job right, you might just get some guy on the internet mention you in a cheesy top ten list. So join me as I look at the 10 bad guys I care the most about, and there's a prize for number 1.

#10 The Dwarf Priest from the Grind

The antagonist of The Grind series, so rarely seen that I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that we imagined him, this guy hits all the best villain clichés: great voice actor; shadowy shadow form; dramatic music; and a laugh that’s so impressive I’d break my neck in two if I tried to copy it.

But the thing that really made this dwarf memorable is that he never actually did anything, nor is anything about him explained. For some reason he hates the guild; for some reason he knows they’re looking for a dwarf priest despite being on the other end of the continent; for some reason he’s in Sholomance! All we see him do is order a hot drink and that’s what makes him so effective- we’re dieing to see him do… anything really, but episode 3 just isn’t here yet. This guy just shows us how much we’re looking forward to that lost episode, like the son of a lich that dangles 300 gold in a trade box but never clicks accept.

#9 You! You sods! You killed the guy In Memoriam of Northwatch!

This video is probably my favorite piece of Machinima; after watching it you can’t help stopping and thinking “Wow, I’m a real sod” well, I can, as I’m not a filthy filthy Horde.

Faction competition aside, a clumsy death that was so obvious you could have seen it coming with both eyes shut turned back and put us in our place when we suddenly see the life the nameless NPC lived. Seeing the ghost of the man watching his grieving widow was a real Lion King- daddy lion’s dead moment. I’m not comparing low level horde members to the infamous Scar, but still, you can’t deny killing countless people for gold and levels is pretty cold.

#8 The Blood elf from The Demise that completely came out of nowhere

If you thought we didn’t know much about The Grind’s antagonist, you’ve clearly forgotten this chap. He’s only in one short scene, we never see him before, and we never see him again. He’s just some unknown sadist that finds the letters and alerts the guards to a human trespasser. I’ll have to ask Surgee what inspired this stranger, maybe it was to show how eventual the discovery of the lovers was by having some John Dick or Harry find out. A John Dick or Harry with a look so cold it could put out house fires.

Thanks to the art used, the demise is full of stunning imagery and the discovery scene sticks out. While this anonymous villain hasn’t got very high on this list, he sure has the best picture: I can practically see his nose hairs disapproving.

(Speaking of Surgee, Monday’s article will take a look at the preview of his next machinima)

#7 The Lich King from Tales of the past III

I can go on and on nit picking at this film until Martin himself brakes into my house and snaps my neck, but I admit that crazy spectacular awesome sauce tastes good when smeared on the Lich King.

This guy had real presence in the film, partly because the characters wouldn’t shut up about him for the first half of the movie. We only see him for 3 scenes, we never see his face, and he never breaks a sweat. He walks past some elves and they just evaporate that’s pretty effortless. The protagonist all have to second guess him what he’s actually doing and he turns round and laughs in their faces: going all the way to south kalemdor just to recruit one person, just to freak out half a person (A dwarf). The only thing that I can say againced him is that he had a weird voice actor.

Oh wait! He puts on his helm of awesome and suddenly his voice causes space and time to rip in half!

#6 Whoever or whatever the badguys from the Return were

The return is one of WoW Machinima’s classics, and the villains of the franchise are notable for a few reasons. Firstly these guys managed to completely and utterly mess with this one old guy’s life so much then when the film suddenly (and famously) stopped moments before the final battle, I actually picked up my monitor and shook it as if the missing scene would fall out of it. Other thing is that they make no sense! They needed to amass an army of the most war-hearted warriors in Azeroth’s history to defete the very same foe an Old Man manage to completely avoid whist wandering the streets of Stromgard without actually knowing he was in danger. it’s not even shown why he thinks he needs an army either, unless he somehow picked up on the seer’s cryptic hints. But it’s the fact that it doesn’t add up that gives it a strange quality, in all the time waiting for part two I can dig apart every line to uncover a huge conspiracy in which it turns out the seer is the antagonist and she’s leading the surviving members of Strom to their deaths.

Unless it just turns out it’s the bloiting syndicate.

#5 Boomkins!


I admit that if shouting BOOOMkinz! At my computer late at night wasn’t so fun that these feathery herculean beasts wouldn’t be so high on the list, but tell you what, next time you can choose number #5 m’kay?

The truth is that these guys are a joke villain from the imagination of the Myndflame Brothers and Voodooray, but let’s actually look at what these creatures have done: 1) Killed a child in broad daylight, well that in its self is pretty high on the evil deeds list, it’s more than a notch above scrimping apples that’s for sure, I could understand if the child was a zombie or if she dropped rare loot.

2) Took over the world. There was a long space of time between that child killing and 28 patches later in which the Boomkins really felt they weren’t filling their reputation, maybe there was a conference and a power-point presentation, either way the antler wielding owls invaded and rules over the real world. Not many fictional characters can claim that fame, I’m sure that eventually someone will watch spiderman 2 and will think that having evil metal arms would be neat, but until then the Boomkins take the prize.

#4 Lady Prestor from Blind

I think Percula’s astounding contribution to the Machinima world (Well, maybe not a world, it’s more like a pond with a load of RickRolls at the bottom) is so visually stunning that people miss how great the silent characters are: The Blood elf rogue? Honestly, the only sexy female blood elf ever (tough cookies Gigi) And, well there’s only two other characters and only one of them is number 4 on this list.

Spending ages putting your characters in maya means you can create truly perfect fight choreography, and in my very large, very heavy book the perfect fight is one the shows character. *Nods at Lady Prestor* Just watch her, she never even takes step. She pulls out 50 foot tall wings and only one person sees them, and that’s probably because she wanted her to. She doesn’t flinch when the blind spell is cast, she made a previously flawless rogue tumble and fall, and she does it all without breaking a nail. This fight scene shows a character that is completely in control. She never even gets killed, she just got bored and left the game.

#3 The Guards from Welcome to the Jungle

I bet you didn’t see this one coming. Sadly, Fubarius’ astounding music video has had its music removed, ah well, I just play the music alongside it. If you can get this video to start when the movie gets to 2.17 it’s perfect. Although you need to shout BANG! Loudly at your computer at 6.41, you can’t hear all the gun shots, or the skeletons shouting abuse as they found out that the actual guns N’ roses couldn’t make it. And most depressingly you can’t hear the damn awesome voice acting by the Guards.

“The Law? We ARE the law!” is the perfect quote; they are corrupt, unreasoning, arrogant, and not the sort of people you keep on your Christmas list. Not to mention that people who rape people don’t tend to be likable people. They chase our anti-hero duo across half a kingdom and right the way through it you’re sure that they truly believe that they are in the right. If you’ve not seen it back when it had audio you’re really missing out, maybe I should check with Fubarius as to whether he’s still got the sound saved somewhere.

#2 Thorne from the Thorne of Rose Street

There will come a day when all male characters are voiced by Caruu, and the radio will be popular again.

He only made a brief appearance in part one at the end, but we already knew he existed Leda gave an out of character (read: truthful) warning to Thayle that Thorne would stop at nothing to get his pretty elf head hanging at the end of a rope (Also, she said this just after bringing Thayle to Thorne’s house… is Leda ever going to give us a reason to trust her?) and as former deputy to the late chief we were sure that this man was the killer.

But now we just can’t be sure; part two showed the character as being so amazingly determined to keep Silvermoon’s streets clean that we can’t be sure if he’s a good guy that will burst through walls for the good cause, or a good guy that would kill his chief if it too was a good cause.

Sinless or sinful he very close to finding Thayle, all that has to happen for Thorne to have Thayle in a trap is Leda stabbing Thayle in the back, which probably happens on a daily basis anywho. I’m not sure he even needs that to happen, this man broke down a bar and didn’t even think to steel any alcohol.

He’s also, well, cool.

#1 The Robber Baron


Do you remember Scrooge? Do you remember what an awful villain he was? If every bad guy suddenly became the ashbringer after just three people telling him to be good we wouldn’t have any raid dungeons and global warming would go through the roof.

He’s cold, he’s heartless, he’s greedy, he’s… hairy, and from what I hear, he’s still single ladies! Pinkhair has created the perfect villain with the simple synopsis of being rich, horde, and a damn dirty twink. He’s also hilarious to watch, I like a villain that can give out a snappy one liner; it lightens the mood just before they kill me. He also enjoys the best of the clichés, tying people to train tracks, rugged fights on top of said train. It’s a shame he hasn’t got a mustache to spin, but an alliance paladin by the ankles is a nice spinning substitute.

He also has a kick ass name, no wonder he’s a twink.

Pinkhair has already won awards for this chap and all! A nice big computer, so whatever I offer him as the prize of coming first place on the villain chart will be a small let down. Congratulations Pinkhair! You have won a poorly drawn picture of my character choking on a muffin! (I have it mailed to you once it’s finished)

So there you have it! Any one of these guys could out evil Sargeras on a good day, or if not Lord Voldemort, and I wrote his huge article all without forgetting a single WoW Machinima Villain!

BLOIT!

Deathmatic's Eternity's End

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:41:16 -0400

The video is here -> Link

Being a Night Elf I’m quite proud of the Night elf culture, but being a Night Elf that spends most of his time in Stormwind’s many taverns getting smashed to the point where I resemble a dwarf I feel like the general understanding of this culture is slipping somewhat. Also, being a lore nerd I squeal like a quilbore when I see a historical Machinima.

This is Deatmatic’s first machinima, and like any soon to be successful artist he has asked for feedback, which is like the freaking bat signal to me.

This machinima is a breath of minto fresh air; I somewhat feel like Blizzard has somehow dropped the ball with night elves in wow as they don’t come across as secretive, or fierce warriors, and only slightly religious*, but this was shown perfectly in the later Orc and Nightelf campaigns. I think Deathmatic should strive towards this image as the culture is both fascinating and unclear in wow.

And if that doesn’t attract viewer, nostalgia sure will. Carry one using sound files from Warcraft 3 to your heart’s content, it’s really effective seeing the story unravel in a cinematic fashion and it’s the perfect way to practice your machinima skills without being bogged down with story and voice actors. (When I clench my nose tightly and dive into the Machinima swimming pool, this is certainly how I plan to enter it)

On the other hand, what I’m most looking forward to is seeing what Deathmatic adds in to the story. He’s limited by not having access to the voice actress, but the elongated opening of Tyrande looking complacently over Ashenvale is effective at showing a more troubled side of the character. Well placed scenes of silence, or violence, will go down a treat. I wouldn’t object to flashbacks to Grom’s interaction with the nightelves either, or brief flash forwards to Illidan atop the black temple (you’ve got to show the corruption of him touching the skull somehow)

Something else that’s on my wish list is to see Tyrande’s character explored, if only a little. I never found the character that interesting when I was playing WC3 so I’m looking forward to Deathmatic doing more of the same moments of silence and seeing what the woman does when idle. And her class is so ill-defined Deathmatic could do whatever he wants with her in battle.

Enough of me chucking ideas as if they were rotten fruit. What surprised me was the opening music of the Machinima, it’s powerful and it drifts up and down the octaves and has the hint of vocals and grace that fits the Night elves well. I wouldn’t mind hearing music taken strait from the game either, but anything with slow vocals and strings give an appropriate feel. What I didn’t like was the battle music at the end, as it smashed through this tranquil mood as if it was paper. Putting music to the sentinels’ war march may prove a challenge, as we know them to be savage fighters, but leaping into this can lose the night elf feel. I’d suggest taking what you can that’s associated with Amazonians as that’s was the concept the Night Elves were originally spawned from.

Actually I didn’t think much of the battle scene (What we’ve seen of it) Mostly because the music didn’t fit. Archery doesn’t have the fast dramatic movements sword play has, so it’s best to stick to tension building music and camera angles to help this and to show of the dramatic hit of the arrow. Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see a sentinel cleave an orc in half.

How far into the story Deathmatic goes before switching to a different project is anyone’s guess, but whether it’s just a few more minutes or a feature length effort I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what he does with his project. Most people lack to desire to make a historical, so really, whatever Deathmatic does will be somewhat original. (Until unbroken comes out and kicks over his sand castle)

(Moment of weakness follows) And Deathmatic? If I send you the WoW Model viewer info, can you put me as one of the Druids woken up in the following mission? Pleeeaaaasee! There’s some doubt on Azeroth because of a rumor that I am actually two goblins on each other’s shoulders in a night elf costume, some hard evidence that I was at the wake up event would be really helpful to me.

*If you’re listening blizzard, don’t take any of my advice on quests as I don’t work for you. Also tell Chris Whowho says Hi!

Machinima could be sucssesful just because it's cute

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:01:21 -0400

I’m a spot embarrassed at missing Monday’s update, maybe not a big spot; being a night elf I’m annoyingly sure about all the things I blow up for the greater good. Basically the thing I was reviewing got removed from the internet, so it would have been silly (More so than usual) to post my review. Sure I could have written a second review, or pulled out one of my unused articles looking at a trailer every one’s forgotten about, but posting on your blog reliably is letting the Burning Legion win!*

Anywho, today’s review is of the phenomenal I’m MT act 1. Most of the following review can be skipped because all you really need to know is that it’s just sooooooo cute! Cute with a u so high pitched it can make crystal glasses evaporate. My WoW Insider counterpart Blogger Grey admitted such at the risk of losing one of his three remaining Man cards, can’t really blame the bloke.

The first thing you notice about the machinima is the wonderful cartoons we see in the intro, eventually it will become obvious -to your delight- that these cartoons persist throughout the entire series (Shame there’s only one episode so far) and it’s just so fun to look at. The second smartest thing that has went into this piece is ending it somewhat abruptly, because it is then that you realize how much more of these cartoons you want. (The least smartest thing is the fact that the antagonist looks like a Night elf Lumberjack/ Ganondorf look alike, that’s so crazy it might just make the most intimidating Machinima antagonist to date just because you’re terrified if the concept of a Night elf/lumberjack/Ganondorf)

What I love to see in machinima is when someone surprises me by pulling an unseen concept out of the depths of inspiration and then show me this ingenious concept in a meaningful and visually pleasing way. That’s why I started tap dancing when I first discovered Gnomechewer’s interpretation of Azeroth and took up the Ice Troll tradition of pulling the limbs off people I meet when I saw Baron’s No Point: Stretching time.

Gforce has found a stunning way to present Azerothian characters like never before; where Gnomechewer used his media filled Azeroth to make characters seem startlingly human, Gforce has done almost the opposite. I’m MT is the first ever WoW Machinima Cartoon. In true Cartoon fashion everything in this piece is used for comedy. If music couldn’t be used for comedic effect, I truly believe this would have been a silent machinima.

Actually, my criticism is that the music joke is over used, well that and the Lumberjack trying to break into the temple of time. I would speculate that if this episode was any longer I would grow tiered of the repetitive humor all together. It’s funny seeing people being repetitively sent to the graveyard (The Ten thousand level 80 rogues in Strangle Thorne Vale agree with me) but its greatest strength is its greatest weakness; repetitive humor is… well, repetitive.

Of course this is why ending the episode abruptly is number two on smart things Gforce has done. The nest episode is eventual and unless I see some more character in Act 2 I’ll be disappointed. Something that nags me while watching I’m MT (Like the nagging feeling Thrall gets as Garosh threatens to open war on the alliance as he drags him over to the next diplomatic mission) is that I have no idea who this Orc character is, other than being some guy that was killed by Ganondorf Mooncutter, he’s just some guy that’s tagging around. The Troll also seems to be less developed, other than the fact we see he’s unaware of how to play his class, and he might be a friend to the Orc guy.

If I wasn’t being hypnotized by how cute these characters were I would be exceedingly suspicious that these two are only pretending to be the group’s friends so that they might pillage from them once they wipe. Lucky the characters are just cute enough that I’ll never come to this conclusion.

*Mzac! Misguided Zealots Against Corruption! Remember kids! If it’s for the greater good, you’re encouraged to kill things! (The z is silent)

Major lore figures can make your Machinima, not destroy it

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:47:10 -0400

So I got grilled for insulting Tales of the Past yet again (I etch ashbrigers into my keyboard each time I do) and I have to admit at times having an awesome major lore figure can be nothing less than actual awesome.

If you don't does it like Tales of the Past that is.

To help me show you how brilliant the concept can be I've enlisted the help of an actual lore figure! What better lore figure than THE lore figure. Say hello to Machinima Gaga's first guest post by none of than the dark titan Sargeras! Who also has a blog, which is so well written that it makes me green with envy.

Well, that's the excuse I'm giving for not bothering to write an article today.
_______________________________________________________________

I am Sargeras! EVIL RARR GRRRRRRR
Right!
I was invited to guest-post on this blog on one condition: I had to write about machinima. Well, no problem there. I am the universe's leading expert on the subject!
So. Many people ask: what is machinima? We can find the answer by breaking down the word itself, for it is of course a portmanteau of two words: "machine" and "enema." Naturally, the use of a machine allows an experience that is much cleaner and more efficient than -
What's that?
I'm sorry?
I'm being told I don't actually know anything about machinima.
Well, that's okay. I'll just do a quick search on the Internets, and...ah. Wow. I was way off. Like way, way off. Okay, so machinima is actually cinema made from video taken in video games. Who knew?
Anyway! I am sure the whole machinima community is clamoring to make a machinima about me (Sargeras!) since I am by far the most awesome character in World of Warcraft, and indeed in any game ever, including Pong (those rectangular paddles were a couple of pansies). But it's bound to be difficult, because - central though I am to the WoW plotline - I make precious few actual appearances. What's a machinimist to do?
Lucky for you I've come up with:
SARGERAS'S TIPS FOR MAKING MACHINIMA ABOUT YOURS TRULY EVEN THOUGH I AM BASICALLY LIKE NOT IN THE GAME AT ALL
1. Go into Spore and make a character that looks like me and then do your video with that.
2. Go into Mario Paint and make a sprite that looks like me and then do your video with that.
3. I think I'm in, like, a cut scene in Warcraft III or something?
4. Heighten the tension by having the movie be all about me without me ever actually appearing. And then at the end everything goes black because I DESTROYED EVERONE!!!1!! Artsy.
5. Build a time machine (one that actually works, not one of those lame ones on eBay, and yes I've been burned before) and travel into the future to the very last patch of WoW where I'm a fightable boss.
6. If you do #5, freaking send me a video or something. Am I stunning? I bet I'm stunning.
Those are some tips!
Well, what have we learned today?
1. Machinima has nothing to do with...that.
2. I am awesome.
3. Spore is good for making stuff that looks like Sargeras.
4. See #2.
5. See #4.
6. Time machines.
Good effort, team. I think we've all learned a lot about machinima today. I know I have!
Because, honestly? Ew.

_____________________________________________________________________

You can find more of these... posts, on his blog http://www.cwsargeras.com/
But really, it is mostly girly Huikus.

The Avenger Review

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:43:35 -0400

The Avenger by Dtbn (Link)

I tend to favor character driven dramas when it comes to machinima, but every blue moon I’ll admit a story can be miss-placed. This was my main criticism for Dtbn’s Trollbane series; the dialogue and characters always seemed forced and sloppy. The stories were always messy and just complicated things, and really made the Trollbane series hard to watch. Fortunately I read movie descriptions on Warcraft Movies (I lied; I’m never actually going to review the site changes) and in his trailer for The Avenger he promised a much more stream lined story, and that’s exactly what we’ve been given.

No disappointing dialogue as there’s only a vague narration, and the characters don’t need any depth because they’re all driven by revenge so they stand on the top of church spires and shout until their lungs hurt. Surly this would make the movie a bad machinima? Well yeah, but there's a brighter way to look at it.

Well people should always play to their strengths; X-cross can make gnomes into colourful things that boggle the eyes, but he didn’t shy away from getting help with script writing. I play to my strengths by never actually making machinima. Dtbn admits him self that he's not the best of story tellers. I’m sad to see the story left behind, and without a strong story it’s not a 5 star success, but it’s hard to criticize the movie for that knowing that it’s better without it.

This being a movie by Dtbn, the story is only there to explain why there’s action, and there’s a lot of action. The comments section on the WCMovies page is going crazy with people comparing it to Craft of War and Kill Bill, really I don’t particularly agree with them two comparisons, because I just plan have a grudge for Kill Bill and Craft of War: Blind’s combat is oddly intermit, or oddly playful and that was one of the things that made it's combat good to watch. The action you’ll find in The Avenger is a woman cutting an elf in half with a sword the size and shape of a cricket bat.

I don’t hate the action being like that, because at a few points the action reflects something in the character. Ideally I’d like combat to reflect character, and for that character to move the story along; which is pretty much the exact opposite that most action flicks attempt to do. It’s difficult showing character in a person that’s just jumped 8 feet into the air warring full armor whist blowing stuff up with fire, because then they become tools for the action, which I will call the Tales of the Past effect.

While the Tales of the Past effect is present in the Avenger, there are times were the combat has some character to it. The pivotal moment where the protagonist is stabbed through the back is surprisingly gritty compared to the jumping cricket bat dance that preceded it; we could see it about to happen; it was slowed; we could see the facial expressions of both characters; we could see a moment of regret in the elf’s face before she just walked away. It’s a great moment. A second example is after the protagonist kills the Gnome that brought her back, but then reflects that she doesn’t know why she did.

What’s more effective though, is perhaps the lack of reflection throughout the piece: with all the characters pumped up so much with revenge (It’s even in the title and I still can’t decide if it’s referring to the forsaken or the elf) we get a feeling of how mindless these people are as they start killing each other without question just to raze more blood thirst. The defining moment was the closing thought of the protagonist; in which she realizes that now she’s got nothing left and no purpose, and questions if the elf to will rise from the grave and the same thing will just repeat its self.

There may be little character is in this movie, but what there is subtle and vital for making the movie watchable.

Oh you wanted me to talk about how awesome the fight scenes were? Well actually I think it all looked too effortless on the protagonist’s part. I understand the need to make the combat over the top and crazy awesome like, but at times it just felt silly seeing people slashed clean in half as if they’re made of butter, although if I feel like that I probably should just watch a western.

Just to let you know, Thursday’s update may come late (read: Friday) or it might come early and we end up with two updates between Thursday and Friday, but no one wants that right?

An interview with Farinar: The Peasant

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:16:18 -0400

Here on Myndflame Farinar is constantly talknign about his current project, The Peasant: The Cost of Freedom. A character driven drama set in westfall. I sat down with him (In an Irc Channel) And talked to him about the project:

Whowho: Feel like an Interview? *jabs you with my pencil*

Farinar: Yeah sure! Sorry, was off cooking something

Whowho: Oh no! Now I'm hungry!

Farinar: :P

Whowho: Bleh, anywho, interview!

Farinar: Yep

Whowho: *shuffles about for my notes* So Peasant: The Cost of freedom is something I wouldn’t have expected from the person that made "Dr McNab destroys Halloween!" a year ago, how did you go from comedy, to this drama?

Farinar: Well. The Halloween Contest at WarcraftMovies sounded really interesting to me and I wanted to participate in it. However, I hadn't got many ideas, but I knew that I would like to try out the comedy genre, a genre I haven't been much into before. The entire movie was made within a week, which is the reason that the voice-acting is so bad in it, as I had to do it myself because of the short time.

The idea of an evil gnome, who seeks revenge on Farinar (my main character) seemed funny in my head, and I think it turned out of okay. But it's definitely not up to par with any of the other comedies around. I've always enjoyed dramas and stories with a huge background and have enjoyed telling stories from childhood. So when I saw the result of Dr. McNab, I thought that I'd better stay a million miles away from comedy and go back to my roots – drama.

Whowho: So The Peasant is the sort of movie you've always wanted to make?

Farinar: Yeah, basically. I've always wanted to make a movie with a story that was a bit different from all other movies. A movie that focused on normal people, and not epic heroes. I've always thought that fighting for what you believe in and dream of is the most beautiful thing you could do. So, yes, you can say that The Peasant is the result of everything I've wanted to tell and show and also the message I want to send.

Whowho: Now that is a machinima concept I agree with! It sounds like your just the man to make this movie then, but where did the plot come from? Why a peasant and a governor, and parent killing and the lark?

Farinar: I live in Denmark, and we've lacked the revolutions like the one in France and America. But around the region where I live, the goes a story/legend (I'm not sure if it's true) about the evil lord and a farmer son, who lead a group to kill him. It fascinated me, and when I first heard it from my old teacher I thought: "I need to use that sometime!" So you can say that the story is based on a maybe-not-so-true-story

Whowho: Wow, a plot with a history, very interesting! So will we see these themes in the film? Revolution? Poverty maybe?

Farinar: Indeed. Maybe not so much in the first part, but later definitely. I have some great stuff planned for chapter two already

Whowho: So there's a change in feel throughout the finished product?

Farinar: It will be a trilogy, and the first part will be all about introducing the characters and such. The other two will focus on the storyline

Whowho: But how will the story being split into episodes effect the story telling? Will it be somewhat episodic, or will it be like the lord of the rings where the first movie ends practically in the middle of a sentence?

Farinar: Episode 2 takes place 3 months after the first movie and there's a time span between the second and third episode as well. I haven't planned how long yet, but I'd like the story to be told throughout a year from beginning to end.

Whowho: A year? Is this linking into the harvest failing in the first movie? Or did I just guess the ending of the third movie Haha

Farinar: The harvest failing is the beginning of it all A lot of things can happen in a year, so the third movie will probably end a year after the harvest failed.

Whowho: And the harvest will do wonderfully and every one will be happy! Or it will fail again and it turns out it was all for nothing Hehe.

Farinar: Haha, wait and see

Whowho: I already am! From the teaser you released a few weeks ago, there was evidence of a build up to battle. I take it the Peasant isn't all character, it has a dash of action?

Farinar: It has action as well, yes. Every movie needs a bit of action in order to advance the story I think, whether it is verbal or physical action. The Peasant will have both. I also think it's needed in order to keep the viewer interested in the rest of the movie. If it was all "blah blah" it would soon go "yawn yawn"

Whowho: That's true, attracting an audience to a bloodless machinima might be difficult.

Farinar: Yeah, and to quote jigsaw: "Oh, yes. There will be blood."

Whowho: What interested me when you first announced this project is that it's set 30 year before wow, in westfall, why that setting inparticular?

Farinar: I'd like to make a movie that didn't mess up the lore as much as many other movies out there. And I thought that setting it in a mostly loreless region (except for the defias) 30 years before the Defias even rose would give me unlimited possibilities as to where I run the story. The story of the Peasant hasn't been mentioned in WoW. But just because it isn't mentioned doesn't mean it didn't exist. Actually, the first thought of my movie was to have The Peasants fighting the defias, but the idea didn't quite cut it for me

Whowho: So when we're watching it, there will be nothing to make us believe that this didn't happen? It will be nice to have something set so firmly in the Azeroth setting. Especially in Westfall: it’s an iconic zone, long fields of wheat, harvest golems, an ocean view, and broken barns, you've got to love barns. Will you be taking advantage of the setting's visuals?

Farinar: Westfall is a beautiful zone, if not the most beautiful in the entire game. The ruined houses fit perfectly with the poverty that the Lord who rules over the lands has created. So yeah, they will be used to simulate the movies' feeling and background. One guy said to me: "I can make Moonbrook into a nice little village", but I said "No way, it's not a nice little village". Because the ruined houses in Westfall is a symbol of everything the movie is about so the setting is very important for the movie.

Whowho: An iconic setting makes an iconic movie. But so does effets, what can we expect in quality of effects? You're not spending just a week on this, so I'm expecting something above the level of McNab destroys Halloween.

Farinar: I've spent a year already since I began planning the movie (that was May 0. I've learned a bit of After Effects now, so you can bet yourself that the effects will be better than Dr. McNab. However, the ModelViewer seems to still not be functioning fully, so all spell effects cannot be used.. yet

Whowho: I've seen After Effects make some incredibly impressive things,

Farinar: It's the ultimate tool

Whowho: but a year of production? Will it take a year for each individual episode? Or are you somewhat started on the second two?

Farinar: I have all three episodes basically planned out and half of the script for the second episode done. Also, a lot of things have come in my way while producing episode one. Episode 2 and 3 should be faster to produce. I hope. My goal is to be done in 2011 if everything goes right. If the interest for WoW machinima is still as big that is

Whowho: Then how long is each of the episodes expected to be? Almost a year a piece there's a lot you can make in that time.

Farinar: I think the episodes will be shorter than you expect I expect episode one to be about 15-20 minutes long with the others being slightly longer - around 30 mins each. That way it will be around 1 hr, 20 mins total, the length of an average movie.

Whowho: Actually that's more than I exspected! 1hr 20 is an impressive size for a machinima, a feature length machinima is always an impressive piece of work.

Farinar: 1 hr 20 mins is all three movies in total mind you

Whowho: You're suggesting the idea of a 1hr 20mins movie three times? Haha! But 80 mins or 20, will this movie be a blockbuster machinima? You've been generating a lot of hype for it; the blog on Myndflame, the pictures, the teaser, and this interview for example?

Farinar: It's just something I do for my own pleasure and because I enjoy doing it. It would be awesome if it was, but we'll have to wait and see how the audience receives it. I've announced a few things primarily because I like talking about everything I do

Whowho: Ahh, so you're just a big tease, I get it.

Farinar: Basically yeah ;P

Whowho What we don't know anything about is your main character, other than he's a peasant, how much work have you put into him? Do you enjoy writing this tragedy for him?

Farinar: Well. His name is Thomas McGill and he is in his early twenties. He is voiced by Ezra Fergusson. Thomas is a young man who has spent his entire life working on his father's farm. He has never gone to school and can't read, which is his biggest weakness. But he is very friendly and the born leader. His problem is that he believes too much in people and tends to trust the wrong people. We'll especially see this in later episodes.

Whowho: That sounds like a character with plenty of potential to be fatally flawed, I look forward to seeing what you do with Thomas.

Farinar: I enjoy writing his story very much, because he is character that has many sides to him. He's a bit like myself, and writing stories about yourself is always awesome! However, your first impression might change throughout the series when his story expands

Whowho: A healthy amount of Character development, I'd expect nothing less Haha.

Farinar: indeed.

Whowho: Well we've been interviewing for over an hour, I think we should start wrapping it up, how are you doing for a release date? I understand you've had plenty of production interruptions.

Farinar: That is true. I haven't had much time to work on it this month either, due to exams and driving lessons (I get my drivers license next month, when I turn 1. Also, I'm going to Italy Saturday, which means that further production might be pushed a bit back. I'm still aiming for end 2009, but nothing is sure yet. Any accidents and I might as well get into early 2010, denouncing the teaser. That's just called "Pulling a Myndflame" though

Whowho: You can't be that far off, your original target was for June wasn't it?

Farinar: The original schedule was Summer 2009 yes But things change :P

Whowho: It's still something that is certainly worth looking forward toothough. And from what you've told me you're putting a lot of effort into it, but one last question,

Will Drewbie cameo in it?

Farinar: Not in this one, no.

Whowho: What a crying shame.

Farinar: Would be awesome to have it though, never thought about it, but I guess it's something that could be changed

Whowho: Haha, put him in the credits animation!

Farinar: Might as well do that

Whowho: By the way (Out of curiosity) what font to you use? You always seem to use the same iconic font.

Farinar: I can't really remember. I downloaded it on 1001fonts.com and the title is composed of one for the basic text and another font for the "stuff" and the sides

Whowho: I'm a Monotype Corsiva elf my self

Farinar: Haha
_______________________

So exspect The Peasant: The cost of freedom some when between now and the end of time! If you're a machinimarist working on a project, or some one looking for a review of something they've allready made, let me know! You'll oftern find me in the #Machinima Irc Channel, or send me a PM on here or Warcraft Movies.

The Innkeeper Review

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:38:07 -0400

See? I’m the new Whowho that keeps his outlandish promises; Monday’s article is here on Monday:

Yumfries’ Innkeeper

It’s rare that you come across an unknown on Warcraft Movies (More about their site change later) that is to say, a person that releases a great movie, but has no previous ones on the site. A quick visit to the chap’s youtube page and I saw that he had a habit of putting rap videos into wow, there’s a big jump of improvement between the older videos and Innkeeper. It’s evident that he’s happy with it as he’s set a picture from Innkeeper as his display picture, and why wouldn’t he be? Over 4,000 views on WCMovies, and a Movie Watch article on WoW Insider; it’s clear that Innkeeper is likely the fabled big brake for Yumfries.

(That name is making me hungry)

The video is a wonderful re-imagining of a song about a man that’s just broke the law, as a machinima about a player that’s just broke his girl friend’s laptop under the stress of trying to break out of the world of war-crack. Although the lyrics are at times forced, at others they are perfect, and at unexpected times hilarious.

What I love about this song is that it’s a change of pace; I went from watching an undead scream through his dilapidated lungs and seeing an orc being chased by the police, to a surprisingly mellow machinima.

Although sitting at a bar is a mellow song in its self, Yumfries takes out the irony and makes a somewhat depressed character. The draenei male is the perfect choice; the exaggerated walk animation and heavy body gave the character a natural tired look, reflecting how tiered he was of the game. The feeling is aided more by moments of the character being alone, or surrounded by a contrast of happy dancing- or perhaps jeering characters.

What kept the mood of the machinima as mellow and not depressing was the excellent voice of Yumfries himself; his singing was suitably relaxed with hints of despair in the face of a hopeless struggle of escaping wow, but it also had hints of upbeat tones, which keeps perfectly with the alcoholic themes of the song. What makes the piece work as a whole is the simply hilarious and unexpected chorus he’s written for it. I’m so happy with his singing that I’m going to say the low point of the song was when PoshJark started singing, sure his singing was good, but Yumfries could just hold the mood better.

What Yumfries has done best though is show just how trapped in wow the characters are; the song is sung by the character in Rl, and yet Yumfries sets the character on the shore of Loch Morden, it’s a wonderfully quiet irony that even after quitting wow the main character is still a Draenei in the middle of the Eastern Kingdoms. This changed in the chorus; the character is clearly outside the game, looking at a disembodied laptop screen and yet he’s still a draenei, and the outside world is nothing but a white void. The concept is almost eerie, but it shows perfectly the isolation of the character and the comparative colour of the game.

All in all Yumfries has created a machinima that shows a character's losing struggle to leave wow with confidence; with a strong sense of character, song, and visuals. It’s a setting all wow players can relate to, and is given with a bit of dignity, and absolutely no gamer talk what so ever!

If Yumfries will achieve this level of machinima next time remains to be seen, but I’d gladly write an article for when that happens, and I will have the hind-sight to have snack of chips ready when I do.

(I don’t even like chips! Still, writing Yumfries is an improvement over writing AFKPL@YERS)

Coming Thursday kids, we’ll have something really special!

Sticking it to the raid boss

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:51:47 -0400

I am posting this monday artical SO early (I think it's still saturday in some places) that I might even produce a second artical for monday! Horray for being ahead of time! Mayeb you should get your hopes up, maybe not, but anywho, time for today's artical.

Now what to write about? I could give Fariner that interview I owe him; I could review the changes to warcraft movies I said they would make; or I could talk about something that isn’t Machinima at all!

Well, for the moment it isn't a Machinima, just you wait, for soon will come the rize of;

The Scourge Vent Recordings

I may not have any proof of this, but when I first read the Scourge Chat logs on CW-Sargeras my response was jumping up and down on my chair proclaiming that this would be first turned into an adequate voiced skit, and then turned into half a dozen machinimas by Machinimarists who know good funny when they read it.

And thanks to WCRadio I get to look all smug to everyone I told this prediction to!

It was a good piece of work already; for characters that have been conjured out of the blue and grafted on to the faces of major lore figures, their surprisingly identifiable, and completely unexpected! An00b’arak is obviously that whiney kid pretending to be in his twenties and desperately trying to find ways to be the center of attention, or if not, an idiot. TheLichKing is an almost spoiled persona who nit-picks at the smallest of things, but then desperately trys to avoid his superiors, or his scourge spontaneously turning into chaos because someone hacked admin again. And SARGERAS is… well… the internet, with over 9,000 1s at the end of every post, more capitals than South Africa, and an understanding of spelling that makes me look good.

But the point I like to make is that this is all very familiar. There’s something in every wow player that makes them want to poke fun at the raid bosses, such as stating that the frozen throne is a euphemism for a toilet. From almost every wow comic ever made to the impressive series Azerothian Super Villains by Ian Beckman, bad-ass raid bosses get put down a notch, and it’s comedy we just can’t get enough of.

Now I can talk until the point someone shots me in the chest for saying too much about how WoW Machinima characters should be relatable to either the wow player (How To Paladin), or the wow player’s character (Redshift (Yes I still worship slash/dance)) but taking great lore characters that Blizzard shift heavily to the character side and tugging them over into an almost player like 4^th wall smashing comedy, is something different.

Sometimes we don’t want to relate to a character, sometimes we just want to see some one that kills us / we kill on a weekly basis and point and laugh at them as they make a fool of themselves on the internet. (It’s totally mutual!)

Something Scourge Chat Logs and Azerothian Super Villains have in common is that they are both situation comedies: A lot of people who hate each over locked up in an environment their not accustomed to, namely the 4^th wall perspective of the wow player. And really there’s no other environment we can put them in where we can poke fun, because, well, they sit so comfortably as a damned evil menace of Azeroth that they need to be taken away from that setting for them to be truly flawed. Thank you Blizzard.

Basically this entire article has been leading up to an allegory of catching raid bosses in their natural environment, shipping them off into an inner city zoo, and laughing at them as Kil’jaden and the Lich King swing on the bars chucking their poop at us.

Hehe, poop.
Well, the Scourge chat logs and ASV are slightly more high-brow comedy than that, but you get my point as to why it’s effective.

And obviously I was laughing in my chair at the Vent logs, Brian’s wonderful caricature characters voiced wonderfully by the WCRadio team with a lovely use of comic timing, although there are some bumps in the jump from chat to vent, but not criticism to Total Biscuit; the little flaws give the remake a valuable charm, when Dustin as An00b’arak started spelling out long words, out loud, I laughed loud enough to miss half of the recording.

Personally my favorite Chat log is the third one, where half the characters brake through the 4^th wall as if it was made of paper, and the others were left oblivious, and I look forward to WC radio adapting it. And I never stop looking forward to the last two episodes of ASV, can’t forget them.

But even more I look forward to the machinima opportunist (I’m looking at YOU!) putting a picture to the voices, because it will work oh so well!

And if it doesn’t, you didn’t hear any of this from me. It was all Sargeras with his girly Haikus.

Machinima Gaga: Back

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:34:24 -0400

Every time I rejoin a project I’ve neglected for a month I always picture Black In Black to start playing. Needless to say that Machinima Gaga is NOT dead, and thanks to the nagging from /promises I’ve made to Legs and a player called Derexius I’m getting back into this! And it was this or writing a Termininator Salvation Fan Fiction.
(I also promised Derexius that I could get Legs to try to pronounce his name aloud)
Two birds, one stone!
Anywho, the reason that it all went quiet was a combination of work, writing machinima scripts I don't have the computer to make, and for the obligatory 3rd point, let's say... badgers.
But the fact that I am not dead is not news! What is news is that I'll probably update regularly: that is to say, by every Monday and Thursday each week, there will be a new Machinima Gaga Article (These things take time to write, and my time is worthless, so exspect some to come early) And it will have mostly correct spelling; only brief mentions the thing it is meant to be reviewing; and will not call Cranius a rapist.

Like I keep saying I have a nice buffer of articals to use if I get lazy and don't write anything new. Regular updates means Machinima Gaga is on the verge of being a proper blog! Exspect blog is a phoneticly disgusting word, so I'm calling this a Colum.

See you between now and Monday!

Whowho looks at the Warcraft Movies site

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Sun, 17 May 2009 08:57:03 -0400

Firstly, apologies for not being about, lately I’ve been having less and less time to be online. Ah well, such is the internet half life.

But really it is my fault for not doing what I keep telling my self to do and make a buffer of articles, the idea was that I start updating every Sunday and Friday/Thursday each week, some how, not posting anything for a few weeks seems like a step in the wrong direction.

My attempt at said buffer was to write some articles looking at machinima community sites, today I returned to my half finished article on the much visited site Warcraft Movies, and by chance, I had a lengthy discussion with Styng, who is one of the developers of the site. And we talked a lot about what’s planed for the site; basically it was everything I was going to criticize rectified, which is great and all, but I’m a bit annoyed that it makes that half finished article useless.

Now I can either wait for these changes to be made and then write an article on the finished product in comparison to how it’s operating now, or I can do the impatient thing and discard that conversation and still talk about how it works now and what improvements I’d like to see.

Well, I think I know what I’m going to do. Tut tut; some people never learn.

Warcraft Movies! There’s something about the name: it’s not WoW, but Warcraft. Which is a lovely middle ground between the Azerothian setting and the MMO setting, which reflects the range of movies you’ll find in its extensive archives.

And it’s this archive that makes Warcraft Movies simply the greatest website to the machinima community. There can not be a machinima community with out machinima, and WCM has the lot. (Apart from Edge of Remorse, you have to go to you tube for that. It’s outrageous) In fact I know that every fan that looks for a new release doesn’t go to each individual machinimarist’s blog (I only do that because I have no concept of using my time constructively)

Keeping this in mind, this Shangri la website that is the true center of Wow Machinima Community that is said not to exist is glaringly obvious as being WCM . And yet why do we keep searching for this legendary community center? Why aren’t we content with WCM? Why aren’t I?

Warcraft Movies is like a great library, stretching for miles in each direction, a massof WoW culture in each room. It could never be challenged as the place to go to find any or every part of that culture. But do any of you, my few readers, go to a library for a Saturday night with your friends? Of course you bloody don’t! If you did enraged librarians would descend upon you like a flock of seagulls. What the Machinima Community is looking for is a pub of sorts, or in my case a wine bar, because in the end that’s what a community needs.

So how can warcraft movies become the Shangri loaf the community? Community Constructive Discussion; but trying to get committers to say anything other than “That was great!!1” is like trying to get a kodo egg to roll up hill. Styng and I talked over a mass of ideas to encourage such a thing, and to my surprise a lot of that is already in development, if it all works we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

In the mean time, that lack of sense of community is causing sites like Myndflame, WeGame, and Machinima.com and the dozens of blogs make a push to become our community’s site, and they all offer something nice: community discussion; competitions; articles; analysis. It’s debatable if they do it well, sure, but these features are surly responses to what is at the moment is lacking.

And really it’s still any one’s race, the community is crying out for a capitol, and I wouldn’t be surprised if these web site improvements are the first step in an arms race of sorts between the sites. (Which is a good reason for me to look at each site in turn eh?)

If we’re lucky we’ll have our selves our community center, and if Warcraft Movies is lucky, it will be them.

Once Warcraft Movies has its updates I’ll take a second look at it, hopefully Styng (I think that sounds for St. Young, don’t you?) will keep his word and it will have the community support I’m craving for.

Whowho Reviews Inventing Swear Words 5!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Mon, 04 May 2009 18:05:56 -0400
So I'm late, it's a long story; Windows Xp said that Hat was the cutest Oxhorn character, I said Thunk, so Windows Xp gave me the Blue Screan of Death (And let's not beat about the bush) that is just a big middle finger to me. Anywho, Review! ...and link

One of these days I’ll find out what it is about Oxhorn that allows him to create such lovable characters, and then I’ll force him to share it with the world: the characters may seem to have been conjured from simplistic concepts; average good hearted tauren; the role player; and Teh Uber 1337 Haxorz. Infact, Oxhorn hinted that in the first Inventing Swear Words, the characters were merely his character, and Stag and Mort were representations of the extremes of the player base’s talky-talky idiolect. (I’m certainly an extreme Stag: I almost vomited when I typed Teh Uber 1337 Haxorz)

But from these humble beginnings, Oxhorn Brand now holds a massive community of lovably characters, with interconnected histories. It is every fictionist’s dream. But save Mort’s marriage, these characters are still these simple ideas, and yet they make a more believable character than I do! This is where Oxhorn shines; his lively, almost cartoonist voice acting reflects the character’s dialogue perfectly, and in every character appearance Oxhorn finds new ways to show this character’s concept: Stag being level 33 for role playing reasons, Stag insisting on going with an epic quest with Hat instead of taking a portal, Stag singing a sea shanty! (Admittedly not all that odd, I do these things all the time!) And Mort, Haha, even I will probably say “Roflwaffle” some point in the future!

Oxhorn created these 3 characters (No love for the master of euphemisms!) for the Inventing Swear Words series, but I have such confidence with Oxhorn’s ability with them, he could use them in any story setting, hell, an hour of “Saying Swear Words” would probably still be worth watching!

Normally in these reviews I go on about how the Machinima represents some flaw in WoW and it’s community, but the comedy is so effective in it’s self, I really don’t need to talk about how in an original way Oxhorn presents the flaws in Blizzard’s support and design, and even ending up telling them how to do their own job, and at the same time pointing out how the player base insists on presenting it’s self as a group of idiots, but you know me, I’m going to anywho!

Art needs purpose, art loves purpose! And the good thing about Oxhorn is that you can depend on him making machinima to preach to us his opinion! Be it about meat, or invisible unicorns, I’m glad to hear it with a hefty side plate of Oxhorn Brand Humor. And today’s topic is the player base’s talky-talky idiolects, but Oxhorn tackles it in an odd way, maybe it’s because it was his first works, but he committed him self to a story line where there is no 4^th wall, and at times it comes across that he’s not skillful with it. In his other great sub series, he finds an in-game explanation for everything! the best quote in Orcs in Space 2 was “And there’s the maelstrom produced by excess kodo emissions!” it’s a wonderfully refreshing an effective look at our Azerothian setting, and in ISW 5 Oxhorn still treats him self to such things, but a large amount of the humor is such things as the writing of the movie, and blizzard’s production of the game. He does it well, it’s top humor still, and he introduces it nicely with Mort trying to make a re-cap. It’s jarring, but less jarring than it could be.

Incidentally this is the last of the ISW series, having such a clear-cut stop to a sub series is an odd move, maybe Oxhorn is wise to plaster over that 4^th wall, but he does it in a truly worthwhile way; ISW 5 is full of great humor, an impressive plot, amazing use of characters, and certainly the dramatic ride into the sun set that Inventing Swear Words deserves.

(Thunk Rules!)

Interview with X-cross and Eriyanna of FI5VE

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:15:34 -0400

I can only go so far with my own reviews, I'm limited to my own analitical viewpoint, alot more can be covered in a convisation, that's why I encourage comments and most of all interviews! And finaly I've managed to pin down two people in an IRC channel for just that.

So in light of the FI5VE intro X-cross posted, welcome the animator and voice actor X-cross, and the writer and voice actor Eriyanna!

X-Cross: And now where did Whowho go? >.>

Whowho: Horray! *Eating hot cross bun*

Eriyanna: Hehe

Whowho: Almost done. Both of you feel like an interview?

X-cross: Yeah sure.

Whowho: Eriyanna?

Eriyanna: Yes.

Whowho: Right, welcome X-cross and Eriyanna! Good to have you, So, FI5VE huh? X-cross posted the deleted intro a few days ago onto Myndflame's site,

X-cross: Yeah, that's right.

Whowho:  And this does seem to come across as a sort of Saturday Morning, super gnome group sort of thing, Is that what you were aiming for?

Eriyanna: Well, it is a comedy about a band of gnomes. However, we will see some bigger overall theme in the plot that won't just be for laughs.

Whowho: Ahh, so there's action as well as comedy?

Eriyanna: Exactly.

X-cross: Yeah. I guess mainly comedy. Atleast to begin with.

Whowho: The deleted intro would lead peopel to think otherwize, but I guess that's one of the reasons why to trashed it. "To begin with"?

Eriyanna: The new intro isn't too far off from the original, however, it is shorter and also captures more of each character's personality.

Whowho: Ahh, that makes sence, as the deleted intro was all action, sort of a power ranger feel to it, more so with the bright colours X-cross uses. But X-cross has been mentioning this project for a long time, what was the consept that started this project? Was it just a regular series about a band of gnomes?

X-cross: Yeah, I want to give it some kind of comical feeling.

Whowho: I know you like comedy X-cross Haha.

X-cross: Well the reason I started this project is pretty wierd to be hoest but I actually decided to start this about a half year ago.

Whowho: Really now?

X-cross: It was back at the WeGame august contest I first made up Tinkle and Ellie as characters. And as I found five different outfits of the same style I decided to make something out of it. So I tried to think of something and it ended up with Five.

Whowho: Are these the same Outfits as we see in the intro? Were the characters always these odd classes?

X-cross: Yeah, those are the outfits.

Whowho: Engerneering goggals and all I'd exspect, so if you've had this idea in your head for so long, at what point did Eriyanna join in with the writting?

X-cross: Well she started to help out pretty recently.

Whowho: How did that come about?

Eriyanna: He needed a gnome female voice for Ellie

Whowho: Oh yes, and you got to talking about writing?

X-cross: Yeah well. After I finished the script it wasn't too good so I asked Eriyanna if she wanted to write it instead. And ofcourse she said yes to it.

Eriyanna: Of course

Whowho: Writting for some one elses project Eriyanna? You must be mad Haha

Eriyanna: It's difficult that's for sure. It's harder to write a script based around someone else's inital idea. I want the script to be funny, entertaining, and stay true to what XC wants to create.

Whowho: A good recipie for sucsess, but how many episodes is FI5VE are planned? If there's some over arching story, is it going to take the back seat to make room for some fun in the earlyer episodes, or is it going to have more of a presence?

Eriyanna: Our plan is to release some "minisodes" that will give the audience a taste of each character's background. We hope to release the actual first episode of FI5VE at BlizzCon 2009.

Whowho: Ahh, setting the scene for bigger things I'd guess?

Eriyanna: All good machinima has a story, unless you're Baron Soosdon, and even then, I'm guessing his people walking in Azeroth are going to arrive somewhere... eventually.

Whowho: Haha, don't get me started on Baron Soosdon, this is an interview, not a 5 page review of why walking is effective ^^ But, and here's the big question, why Gnomes?

*X-cross coughs*

*Eriyanna points at X-Cross*

X-cross: Well gnomes are and have always been my favorite race.

Whowho: Haha, force of hobbit? There must have been some start to it X-cross.

X-cross: They are even the reason that I started out with WoW from the very beginning.

Whowho: Ahh? They do have that boyish charm, it's a shame that there's so much Gnome hate for the sake of Gnome hate, that's possibly a reason why having a series about Gnomes being everything gnomes can't at the moment be might be risky, I'd exspect you've had to put alot of thought into the characters to compensate for that?

X-cross: Well why not fight the lore a bit? :P

Whowho: Haha, you have every reason to! Selserene has freeking Draenei in her Silvermoon in “In for a penny”, and a Gnome playing a panio! So you're planning on playing fast and loose with the Azerothian setting.

Eriyanna: There are several themes that we cover with this series. The fact that people can be anything they want to be, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Whowho: Oo! Juicy! A saturday Morning show with a moral at the end

X-cross: Haha, exactly. Even though this might be a montly saturday morning show.

Whowho: If it's posted on a saturday morning it's still a saturday morning show!

X-cross: Hah, true.

Whowho: And I guess Gnomes are perfect for that moral role, what with them being the shortest race that gets picked on, and not even having a home, Can I hope for things like that to get an apprence in the series?

X-cross: Well I beilieve so yes. Atleast them not having a home. If it's Gnomeregan you're thinking about?

Whowho: Haha, For Gnomeregan! (I’ve never played a dirty Gnome, Night Elf Whow’ho Moonglare!) Yep, Gnomer. So why an episodic thing, and not a single movie?

X-cross: Well Five was actually ment to be a movie from the very beginning. But after thinking of it for a while I instead decided to split it up to episodes because first of all it would be horrible if something would happen with all the project files.

Whowho: Ah yes, that's what did Fury in.

X-cross: Also I want people to look forward to something every time they have finished watching one episode.

Whowho: Cliffhangers?

X-cross: Yes, I beilieve that's what it's called.

Whowho: Haha, exselent! Now what sort of visual magic should we exspect? Your Machinima style is very visualy impressive and colourful, and is still getting better with each Machinima you post, and the Intro is really good to watch in it's self.

X-cross: Well i've decided to work much more with 3D animating then earlier since I got my good teacher Calle to help me. Nhaa, but Calle have done alot for me and he still does. He will even compose all the music for the series which is amazing. If you don't know who calle is you might know him as Irdeen. So I give alot of creds to him for teaching me alot about editing and 3D animating.

Whowho: I'll have to look him up I'm afraid ^^ You've found a blind spot in my machinima knowloge

Eriyanna: Calle is an amazing artist. He's done 3D animation pieces for other machinima.

X-cross: Yeah.

Whowho: But what do you meen when you say 3D Animating, are we talking loading the characters in to Meya? I think that's what was used in Craft of War Blind

Eriyanna: As an example, there are some things we don't quite yet have the ability to do with WoW Model Viewer. This requires 3D rendering to help us out. If we want to strap a rocket onto the back of a skunk and send him flying over Azeroth, there's no default setting for that in WoW or Modelviewer. We get some help from artists like Calle and After Effects, and we have a flying skunk

Whowho: Shall we be expecting many things to have rockets strapped to their backs and sent flying over Azeroth in FI5VE? = )

X-cross: Haha! You’ll guess.

Eriyanna: Expect the unexpected. With XC, you never know what could happen next, because in machinima... anything is possible.

X-cross: Yeah.

Whowho: Poetry! I'll have to remember to quote that some when Eriyanna

Eriyanna: Haha

Whowho: Right, one last question! How have you enjoyed working together on this project?

X-cross: Well atleast I have. Genna is a wonderful voice actor and she makes the script 1000 times better than me and of course she is a very nice person too.

Eriyanna: It's been a blast. I'm learning Swedish because of X-Cross, and we have enough crazy ideas between us to make an amazing story come to life.

Whowho: Great! Lots for the veiwers to look forwad to then! And you must be getting along for you to learn swedish *Scratchs head* I've been learning German for 4 years and I still can't order a brew.

X-cross: Hehe.

Eriyanna: Haha there are a lot of Swedish WoW players in Ensidia, and a lot of Swedish machinima directors, it's a good thing for me to learn.

Whowho: Anywho! Thanks for this guys! I'll have to copy this into word and do some tinkering with it to fit it into an artical, and ofc to run spell check to make me and X-cross look presentible ^^

____________________________________________________

I look forwad to the first miniepisode to be posted on a Saturday Morning some time next month-ish.

Oh, and if you exist, and feel like an interview with Machinima Gaga, give me a PM or any form of comunication.

On a seprate note, how do you feel about the FI5VE consept commenters?

Whowho Reviews Honor Killz & the A6

no.spam@gameriot.com (Whowho) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:40:27 -0400

Apologies about this being so terribly late, but due to computer issues I've had to write this a few times, but I see Crom has kept you entertained.
_____________________________________________________________________

I am terribly torn with Honor Killz; on the one hand RedEyeLobine is an amassing visual machinimarist; his promotion is a blatant rip off of Pixar, but it's just so good that you can't say that he doesn't deserve that. If you ever want some something spectacular, RedEyeLoben is the guy for that. And there is nothing more spectacular than seeing these big names of the Azerothian6 all in one place, some sort of justice league of monsters of the Blood elf (Tauren too!) Rap, it's amazing to see on screen, and with out doubt Nyhm is the focal point, him appearing in a Blood Elf Rap video now is the equivalent of him rising from the dead! We all thought he was gone for good.

And for that reason, the Azerothian6's work will all be so spectacular that when you first watch this first video, you will be drooling slightly.

Sadly there's the other hand. And I really would love to just chop of that other hand of mine, but the point is still there: Honor Killz is ALL spectacle; RedEye makes the character's gleam in the wonderfully filthy underground, and I squealed with joy when I saw these names together, but there's just not any content in what the A6 is trying to present to us here.

What gets to me is that this machinima portrays nothing more than egos, Big Egos. Nyhm, for all I love him, in this machinima even he isn't a likable character, none of these rappers are, they're here to boast to us about their "honor kilz" and how much they love being the best at such things. I find it very difficult to relate to this message.

Nyhm's greatest Rap in my opinion is "Can't Pug KZ" because he comes across as the normal wow player, the flaws made him a much better character, the awful kara pugs, the *cough* awful singing made it all the sweater. But now to my dismay I can only see 5 rappers who all can actually sing, and the only remnants of Nyhm's cheeky character is the face he pulls at 1:52. It may seem weird, but these characters come across as too pro! This song is to a standard where it can't possibly be a parody, and the humor isn't in the lyrics, (There is good humor mind) the song it's self doesn't grab my attention in anyway. Which makes me disappointed more than anything.

Because of all this, they come across more as the superhero-esk lore figures we see standing in throne rooms in wow, than the millions of players you might try to run a pug with, and you your self are a member of.

Spectacle is good (Excellent in this), but you can't have a movie that relies totally on it, but do not condemn the Azerothian6! Honor Kilz is all spectacle, there is no suggestion of characters we identify with, or any hidden commentary on the WoW Community other than the Ego factor, but I would compare it to Martin Falch's Tales of the Past. Tales of the Past was the Epic; Lore Characters we only wipe on! A plot that could destroy the world! And wow machinima's, First Feature Length Movie. All these things made Tales of the Past an Epic, but in truth I didn't like it *Ducks behind the desk! Don't flame me!* Okay, I drooled a little at times, and I got a shiver down my back when Thrall said "Legendary!" but the second time I watched it, when the spectacle can be predicted, it didn't seem like a good movie: The story line didn't seem to affect the every day wow character beyond the unexpected destruction of everything; the characters where all 6 foot tall ken dolls, and Blazer, the leading character, was a Mary Sue.

Honor Kilz disappointed me because apart from the Epic, it offered me nothing, and that's not because of the fact that this is the greatest assembly of Big Names yet, but because the concept and the writing is a little poor; Let us not forget that I didn't like Tales of the past, but Falch's "Divided Soul" blew me away: Connotations of identity, the single warrior in the army, good and bad, inner conflict? *Whistles*

I'd say that Honor Killz was worth making, if only as an advertisement for the Azerothian6 (And as advertisements go, this is a colossal one) with a sure footing in the viewer's minds, the A6 can work to use their powers for good! I have high hopes for the next of their productions; I certainly expect it to be to the quality of Divided Soul.