User blog:Meriahm/Public Appearances: At least there would be beer.

One of my friends was playing the Kim Kardashian iphone game the other day. From what I could gather (and I wasn't paying a lot of attention becuase Heroes of Dragon Age is just so much more interesting) part of the game required you to make public appearances at parties. This was something of a requirement to keep some sort of score up - honestly, after this, they started talking fashion and I stopped paying attention.

It kind of reminds me of the Moon Guard forums, tumblr, and wiki in a way.

There's a huge community outside of the game, which is something that has always fascinated me from a sociology standpoint. "Moon Guard" really extends far beyond the scope of the server it's based on at this point, and when I'm introducing someone to the server I feel as though I need to show them all the websites for them to understand the full scope and bredth of exactly what the server is. It's difficult to convey until someone actually sees it.

The people we would consider major players on the server tend to at least have a presence over multiple, if not all, websites. I have to wonder if this contributes to status within the community due to a level of respect, or rather because of sheer visibility - the names get stuck in our brains. Either way, there is definately a correlation between the "brand recognition" of a player (that is the best word I could come up with for it) and the amount of work they do outside the game.

I made a tumblr a while back that was specifically for Warcraft, but I haven't been on it since then. Neither do I post very much on the forums. I wouldn't say I'm altogether active on anything other than the wiki. Which, for someone who is so heavily involved in the Senate and who has been on the server for so long, is a bit odd to consider. One would think I'd have a bit more of an active role in things, but I prefer to sit on the sidelines and blog about it.

I've never been a sole GM of a guild, but I've been high up in several. As such, I tend to like to let other people be the face of the guild, which allows me to quietly work without being interrupted. To use the iphone story from the beginning, public appearances really aren't my scene - I'd rather be the one managing it. Though I'm not sure I'd mind those parties.

There would be beer.