Metroblogging: Azeroth

When I stumble across news like this, I stand on my head and thank the SGNews gods for changing Techonolgy to Geek, because this is one of the geekiest things you're going to learn about today.

Years ago, during the height of the Elian Gonzalez controversy, the Budweiser "Whassup?" guys were at the peak of their fifteen minutes, and it was natural that someone would take the two newsmakers, and combine them into an Internet Meme. More recently, Ninjas tore up the Internets with their Real Ultimate Power, right around the same time the Sars virus was scaring the everlivingshit out of the world. It was only natural, then, that someone would combine the two phenomena into Real SARS Power. At this year's eTech, people were talking about social networking sites so much, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a site that could help web-savvy people find some valuable private time in an increasingly linked-in world. That site was isolatr.

The man behind all of these projects is SeanBonner. Sean is the co-creator (with Jason DeFillippo) of Metroblogging.com, and co-owner, with his wife Caryn Coleman, of Los Angeles art gallery Sixspace.

When Sean isn't working with artists or running a global blogging empire, he plays World of Warcraft with people like Technorati's Joi Ito, Napster's Shawn Fanning, Socialtext's Ross Mayfield, and Suicide Girl Posh (who has an ultra-hot WoW photoset, natch.)

Everyone who knows Sean knew that it was just a matter of time before these two passions intersected, and about a week ago Metroblogging: Azeroth went live.

I iChatted with Sean this morning about his latest project. (Disclosure: Sean is a good friend of mine, and I am a writer for the Metroblogging flagship, blogging.la)

Wil - How long have you been playing WoW?

Sean - Hmm... 6 months or so?

W - When did you cross the tipping point from "this is fun" to "I want to make a Metroblogging site about this world because I totally live there and I'm totally addicted and I haven't been outside except for food after delivery hours in months" ?

S - Hmm... 6 months or so?

W - Unlike something that would make a great April Fool's gag, like Metroblogging: The Island from Lost, this could actually take off, because to many people, Azeroth is a real place. When you did it, did you think at all that it would have a life longer than the typical "I kiss you" meme?

S - Oh totally, we didn't do this as a prank, and that's exactly why we didn't do it on April Fools. It's something we've been thinking about for several months now at least and finally had enough people who wanted to give it a shot. So we put it together in all seriousness, just like one of our other cities, to see what happens.

W - What is it about WoW? I mean, I just don't get it, like I don't have the gene or something. But I know so many people who are positively crazy about it, and the metblog site you did reflects that: it's not like, "HEY LOOk at ME I dID Some K3Wl THING IN W@RCRAFTZORS!!11" at all. It really feels like a real metroblogging site. Last time I checked, we didn't have a style guide, so there must be something about the world (of warcraft. har.) that is so real and compelling, it gets people totally excited about it.

S - I started playing WoW because Joi [Ito] was bugging me to play. Every day he was IMing me "come play!" etc. I've never been a gamer; I played a lot of Super Mario Bros as a kid, I knew the hack to make the chick in Metroid take off her clothes, but other than punching the occasional guy in GTA at a friends house, I haven't ever been into this stuff so I figured with WoW that I'd join, play for a week or two and then move on, but it's SO MUCH different than I thought it would be; it really is its own world.

I mean, there's 6 million people running around, it has it's own fairly stable economy, there's no real way to "win" and hundreds of different ways to play. It's very good at being a virtual world.

W - Does Caryn play?

S - No, she doesn't. However, a lot of husband / wife teams do. With Caryn, she tried and someone talked to her right away and she quit. She's not very social. :)

W - How much time do you spend playing?

S - More than I want to admit?

W - Hah. That's a great answer.

S - That's actually a kind of deceptive question, but you wouldn't know it if you don't play.

W - Oh, perfect. Another Geek meme I'm not in on.

S - Dude, seriously, it's nuts, you should check it out.

W - No way. I lost a year of my life to a MUD, and that was free and just text over telnet. I'm going to have to go to a meeting now, just because you brought it up.

S - I also played MUDS. FWIW there's a lot of families in WoW, parents who play with their kids, it's kind of cool.

W - Would you call yourself "fanatical," "hardcore," or "[something else]" about WoW?

S - No, I'm a casual player for sure. Most of the people who I play with fit in that category, since we all have real jobs and lives and stuff. Unless you are in college and have endless freetime I don't think you can be hardcore or fanatical; hence the "new golf" stuff.

Ed note: The phrase, "WoW is the new golf," first appeared several months ago, in a PC Magazine article about WoW replacing country clubs and golf for a new generation of wired businesspeople. C|Net had a similar article around the same time.

W - Do you think you'd be able to do a metroblogging site for any other in-game worlds, like San Andreas, or wherever the hell EverQuest takes place?

S - I never like to say never, but a huge reason we did this was because it's something I'm interested in. I like people and cities mostly, but I'm not going to say that if tomorrow it's the biggest thing on the planet I wouldn't consider other options.

W - I noticed that the Azeroth metblog isn't just a news site, or like any of the other WoW sites I glanced at this morning. It truly feels like an actual city, populated by real people who want to talk about it. How do you think the hardcore WoW nerds are going to react?

S - There's tons of "news" sites out there, I'm not interested in reinventing the wheel. With metblogs, this is a site that I didn't think existed so I asked people to approach it the same way they do the other city sites they contribute to - anything goes as long as it's about the city, and with that comes everyones own take on it, which makes for a unique feel I think.

W - Finally, if Leeroy Jenkins wanted to write for the blog, would you have him?

S - HAHAHA, yes, Leeroy could be our spokesperson.

Metroblogging.com currently has forty-five real-world cities in its network. Azeroth (population 6 million) joins cities like Chicago (population 2.8 million), Karachi (population 11 million), and Los Angeles (population 10.1 million). As far as we know, Azeroth is the only city in the network with Night Elves and Murlocs.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/15192/Metroblogging-Azeroth/