Posts tagged Samwise at WOW Insider

Posts with tag Samwise

"I am Murloc" gets rocked already

Posted Jun 26th 2008 4:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Machinima, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard

Well that didn't take long. Despite the song only being announced yesterday,"I am Murloc" has been 5-starred on Expert, and you can see the video above to prove it. You can also see the notes they've chosed -- as a veteran of all three Guitar Hero games (and a current owner of Rock Band, though "Green Grass" is giving me trouble on Expert), I have to say that it looks pretty simple, especially compared to some of the other songs in GH3. It is too bad that they used the normal Guitar Hero 3 singer, too, and not a virtual version of Samwise.

If you want something a little tougher, head down after the jump to see a hacked custom version of "I am Murloc" for Guitar Hero 2. The phrasing on that one seems to fit much more, and it seems to work a little better than the official version that got released in the latest game.

Continue reading "I am Murloc" gets rocked already

L70ETC music video contest winners announced

Posted Jun 10th 2008 3:00PM by Alex Ziebart
Filed under: Rogue, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard

Back in April, Blizzard announced a contest to direct your own music video in machinima form to accompany Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain's new song Rogues Do It From Behind. Three Grand Prize Winners would get an 8GB iPod Touch and five First Place winners would get a G15 Logitech keyboard and a signed copy of the World of Warcraft Battlechest.

They've just announced the winners, and you can see all of the winning videos on the official WoW website. I have to say, I don't find most of the winners particularly interesting. They're quality videos, and probably exactly what Blizzard was looking for in a L70ETC music video, but they're not really my style. I tend to enjoy the music videos that are a little more... out there, and don't just show the band members' faces for five minutes. Something happening throughout, with a little less glam or random filler shots. Dayetriper of Nathrezim has a little of that at the very end, but you need to sit through almost the whole thing before seeing it. That's only my personal taste, though. The quality on most of these videos is still very good. After all, they won the thing, and I really couldn't do any better I'm sure.

I enjoyed the video from Naje of Stormreaver, out of all of the glam-filled winners. The scenery and camera work pulled me into the video a little more than the others. You can view that one directly above, or head over to the official page to see them all.

[ Thanks to MMO-Champ for the vimeo upload! ]

Samwise Didier on Blizzard's art and games

Posted Mar 24th 2008 3:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Interviews

Eurogamer has interviewed Samwise Didier, Warcraft artist and icon, and the man who's pretty much defined the look and feel of Blizzard since even the early days. There's a lot of great stuff for Blizzard fans in this one -- I had no idea that an early build of The Lost Vikings had about 20 Vikings in it instead of the three we know -- and Samwise talks about his influences, including the way that Blizzard makes twists on standard genre conventions.

But the guy still stays incredibly humble, and acknowledges that as great as Blizzard's art is, the thing that really brings people back to these games is the fun factor. It's the humor and the enjoyment that Blizzard fans love, and Samwise's (and all of the other Blizzard artists') art make it that much better.

[Via WorldofWar]

Samwise and other artists hold book signing

Posted Mar 5th 2008 5:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends, Blizzard, WoW TCG

Today's the day for Blizzard art news, it seems -- next Saturday, Blizzard is holding that Art of Blizzard benefit show, but this past Saturday, Samwise Didier and a few other Blizzard artists stopped by the Barnes and Noble in Huntington Beach, California to sign copies of Upper Deck's The Art of the Trading Card Game book.

Glenn Rane is the other artist sitting next to Samwise (who you may also recognize as the frontman for L70ETC), and also in attendance were Tom Bava, Randy Gallegos, Terese Nielsen and Justin Sweet, along with Ben Thompson, who we're told was a big part of putting the book together. I suppose it's too much to ask for Blizzard to leave sunny Southern California sometime to do these signings and meet some of us who aren't lucky enough to live there? It is? Oh well -- at least it keeps them close to their real work.

Gallery: Samwise Art of Warcraft Book Signing

First BlizzCast not quite up to the hype

Posted Jan 10th 2008 6:00PM by Zach Yonzon
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Blizzard, Interviews

The hotly anticipated first Blizzard podcast -- creatively named BlizzCast -- has just gone live. Available as a manageable 24 MB MP3 download, Blizzard's first attempt at podcasting contains an interview with art director (and L70TC frontman) Samwise Didier and forum regular Drysc interviewing lead developer Jeff Kaplan. Blizzard's official BlizzCast page explains that this series of podcasts will be a behind the scenes peek behind Blizzard's game development process.

Although most people have been looking forward to the information about Patch 2.4, as Eliah wrote earlier, the interview with Samwise turned out to be more entertaining. In order to fully appreciate the interview, however, listeners should visit the podcast's official page, which contains the transcript of the podcast as well as illustrations and screenshots (future BlizzCasts will be video podcasts). With all the hype surrounding the BlizzCast -- mostly caused by Blizzard hinting at more information on the forums -- Blizzard's first attempt at podcasting seems to fall far short of expectations. The interview with Tigole is a brief eight minutes (compared to Samwise's 12) and most of the information he mentions has already been revealed. In fact, one of the details Kaplan mentions -- the improvements to raid ready checks -- is already in the game from last Tuesday's Patch 2.3.2.

Continue reading First BlizzCast not quite up to the hype

Samwise's holiday wallpaper available now

Posted Dec 24th 2007 1:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Fan stuff, Blizzard, Humor

As usual, Blizzard artist Samwise has presented us with a holiday-themed wallpaper, and here it is on Blizzard's site (you can use the links at the bottom to choose different sizes obviously). Just like the art in years past, the pic tends a little more cutesy than most Warcraft-themed creations, but hey, it's the holidays-- drink some cocoa and melt that frozen, war-torn heart of yours.

And this also tells us what we originally suspected about the Blood Elves joining the Horde-- not only did players enjoy playing a "good-looking race," but it looks like the little Horde ladies did as well.

Friday at the TCG World Championships

Posted Dec 1st 2007 11:30AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Fan stuff, WoW Social Conventions, Blizzard, WoW TCG

The competitors are just getting started this morning in San Diego, but here's a wrapup of everything that went down yesterday at the WoW TCG World Championship tournament there.

First and foremost, they played some cards. Brad Watson, who we interviewed, is doing well, and Upper Deck also put together a huge list of the top constructed decks from Day One. Today, we hear, will be all about Draft decks, as players continue to fight for the Top 8. Here are the standings as of round 9.
Manager of Organized Play Ben Drago made some announcements regarding the future of organized play for the TCG-- he rounds them all up on his blog. Looks like UD is going to choose a "TCG Player of the Year," and the contest starts right now at World Champs.
Multiple TCG artists were in attendance at the event, including Blizzard's Samwise, a Warcraft icon (literally). Bloody Mary, he says, is his favorite card.
There was also some chaos from the online game, as Blizzard reps went head to head against a Warsong Gulch, and brought everyone from Jaina Proudmoore to Hogger into the battle. Upper Deck: you've got to give us bigger versions of those pictures. That looks hilarious.

Lots of fun in San Diego. Stay tuned to both Ben Drago's blog as well as Upper Deck's official coverage page for more as we head towards a $100,000 winner at the end of the weekend.

Upper Deck's WoW TCG World Championships coverage begins

Posted Nov 30th 2007 2:52PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Blizzard, WoW TCG

Upper Deck has begun their live coverage of the biggest event the TCG has ever seen: the World Championships. They are live from San Diego, as a few hundred players are battling it out in the card game for a $100,000 prize. There are other tournaments going on there as well this weekend-- the Darkmoon Faire is in town and giving away tons of great loot. And Blizzard is there as well-- they're even giving away a Dinner with the Devs, where winners of a certain tournament can sit down and talk shop with the devs: Chris Metzen, Shawn Carnes, J. Allen Brack, Lee Sparks, Scott Mercer, Cory Stockton, Travis Day, and Tom Chilton. Artists are in the house, too: Samwise, Glenn Rane, Alex Horley-Orlandelli, Jonboy Meyers, and Dan Scott will be signing cards and doing sketches for attendees throughout the weekend. Pretty rad if you happen to be as big a fanboy/girl as we here at WoW Insider are.

Ben Drago, the manager for Organized Play (who we interviewed a while back) is also blogging live from the event, and been posting updates, both small and big, from his hotel room and the tournament floor. Expect to see lots more coverage, including photos and results, from Upper Deck on the tournament over the weekend.

And we'll have more here at WoW Insider, too-- our coverage started yesterday with an interview with one of the top TCG players, and we'll be keeping an eye on the results all weekend. And even if you're not in the tournament at all, you still have a chance to win something-- watch WoW Insider all next week for results of the tournament and our very own consolation prizes.

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Event	Date
WSG weekend	9/5 - 9/8
Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza	SUN 2p - 4p
Harvest Festival	9/8 - 9/13
Darkmoon Faire (Elwynn)	9/8 - 9/14
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#	Blogger	Posts	Cmts
1	Mike Schramm	99	8
2	Alex Ziebart	61	36
3	Daniel Whitcomb	50	22
4	Zach Yonzon	40	0
5	Eliah Hecht	38	10
6	Elizabeth Wachowski	37	3
7	Moo Money	31	23
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9	Elizabeth Harper	24	21
10	Matthew Rossi	18	51
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12	Amanda Dean	15	0
13	Daniel Howell	10	0
14	Allison Robert	8	4
15	Lisa Poisso	8	0
16	Adam Holisky	7	4
17	Natalie Mootz	7	8
18	Christian Belt	6	0
19	David Bowers	6	46
20	Megan Harris	5	2

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"I am Murloc" gets rocked already

L70ETC music video contest winners announced

Samwise Didier on Blizzard's art and games

Samwise and other artists hold book signing

First BlizzCast not quite up to the hype

Samwise's holiday wallpaper available now

Friday at the TCG World Championships

Upper Deck's WoW TCG World Championships coverage begins

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