I'm very pleased to report that our friends Melissa Muromets and Peter Massimo have officially returned to the UWoW fold. So now we at least have one decent WoW player here (Pete) to lend some credibility, in addition to a complete noob (Mel) and a pathetic-for-having-played-for-two-years noob (me).
Hopefully Melissa will actually do some work on the graphic side of the blog this time around, rather than just saying she will and then never doing anything about it like in the past! And hopefully Pete Pete won't lose his cool the first time I tell him something he's written is a sack of crap!
Both Mel and Pete will begin reviewing podcasts again, probably as soon as next week. Melissa has already been added back to the blog as a contributor as you may notice, and Pete shall be by the end of the day today. Pete was supposed to be back a week or two ago, but he (understandably) wanted to avoid Brewfest podcasts at all costs so strung me along until now!
With a few notable exceptions, the WoW podcasting landscape seems to have completely changed from where we left off in the Spring, and we'll look to see if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The three of us have to update our master list as well as I haven't listened to a single podcast outside of Blue Plz! and Ctrl Alt WoW in months and don't even know many of the changes that have happened, or which podcasts have started to fade, halted completely, etc.. That will probably be a collaborative effort by all three of us.
The re-introduction of Melissa & Pete will not mean the re-introduction of "The Code." The Code was a bizarre set of communication rules I put in place which prohibited the members of the blog from speaking with each other in real life. The point of The Code was to keep each reviewer in a vacuum, where none of us with stronger opinions would be able to influence the other in terms of the sort of review they wrote.
While it may have been an interesting concept, it failed miserably in execution and led to a host of unintended consequences we really should have considered before even attempting it. Toothy, who will not be coming back to the blog, is still convinced I created the rule so that I wouldn't have to be seen in town speaking with them in person. And to a degree he is correct, although In my case it is more from a time-wasting point of view than an image point of view.
When the blog started we had just met each other, so things were always going to be a bit awkward. Rather than getting to know each other, I then decided to cut off communication. While everyone was enthusiasic at first, it became clear in the very first week that it was going to cause problems. But I stubbornly refused to change without giving it a solid try first. In all, the very code that was supposed to help bring us together and help keep our opinions fresh nearly killed the blog completely.
Also, we had like 19 bazillion different email addresses and contact points which was a mess for everyone. That's all gone. If you want to contact the blog, just shoot me an email at: jimsurge@gmail.com, or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/uwow
So, here we are, ready to give it another go. A heartfelt thank you to the hundreds who continue to check the blog on a weekly basis, your support is much appreciated. Hopefully we'll continue to give you reasons to keep coming back.
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