Paragon and our associates - together we are more

It hasn't always been easy going forward, keeping on raiding with our eyes set on getting world first kills and being as good as we can ever be. During the last 3 years we have been able to see things none of us would have imagined to see, go to places we just dreamed of, and met people we didn't know existed.

We have always worked hard to provide the best to our fans and supporters in form of this website, articles, interviews, guides, kill videos, blogs, photos etc but we've getten a lot of help.What people can see nowaday when they come to this site, would have been impossible without the determination of the whole guild, but also so many others out there including of course our sponsors, but also our many associates.

We are honored to have been able to work with so many amazing and so ambitious people out there, who also have the wow community in mind when doing their work. We want to thank them all here, and introduce them to our readers. You might have read about these people already arelier on this site, but it's always good to hear what they are up to nowadays. So check out their projects and read about World of Warcraft and the community from six different angles.

 

 

DJ Morfar - Nordrassil Radio

http://www.nordrassilradio.com

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

As the owner of Nordrassil Radio, you kinda get that i made the name from the Nordrassil tree ingame because i always loved the mystic about it and wanted to make clear that we WERE a only WoW Oriented radio from the start. As now, i play my resto shaman (BLIZZARD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?) and also my two alts a mage and a hunter. I also host radio show mostly based on wow related stuff, nothing serious but i get a big wow crowd. So i started 6 years ago (?) on Nordrassil EU as Horde and started my radio there on day one. I have done plenty of mmo radio in the past, but i do it for the community. People loved it directly and ever since then i have a sticked post on the official forums.I love giving something to the community that is easy for them to partake in, they only need to listen to good music and a random Sed talking.

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

God, it was in one of my Swedish wow newspapers way back in Ulduar. Was a interview with you and i really admire your guild ever since. If i look back and tell myself that one day YOU are interviewing them AND go to Dreamhack with them i would not believe it in a million years.

 

With Nordrassil Radio guys at Dreamhack Summer 2011 in Sweden. Dj Morfar in the middle.

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

Well we have had several awesome interviews (awesome as in both good laugh and good information) You guys are so easy to interview, as we tend to be very relaxed and laid-back during our interview one could even go and say that is our way to do interviews and i feel you guys are on the same level. And the fact that you guys don't act like superstars but more like normal folks makes its so more enjoyable

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

Really hard question. We need a WoW radio ofc *cough* On a more serious note. I'm going to be straight with you.What i think is that Blizzard need to do something about the starting areas of ALL races so we don't loose newcomer at level 5. Some people think its to dull and boring, or even maybe hard. As I'm not a hard core raider i cannot comment on that aspect. But i would love to see more fun events ingame, like Darkmoon but something else that comes once a month so it two weeks between the two. We need people to stay occupied with fun stuff to do, because let's be honest here, we are loosing players. And on a last note, i would like to see expansion come out way faster. But that's just me.

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

On behalf of the entire 35 people over at Nordrassil Radio we would want to say thank you for inviting us! And may i brag? We just recived press passages to Blizzcon , so maybe we will see you there. ANd make sure to tune into our radio. You can check the site and click shows to see when people are on.

And ye, WE WANT TO DO ANOTHER INTERVIEW WITH YOU GUYS (Yes spam was needed)

This is Morfar saying Thanks and good bye.

 

Nils

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

Hello folks. My name is Nils and I go by the nickname of meth on the Paragon page. My WoW related work has actually been helping Paragon with website feedback, criticism and writing articles and interviews for the website.

 

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

I am not sure entirely when I heard about Paragon for the first time. It must have been between ToC and ICC when they became more and more famous. It was their old website which caught my attention because it was so clean, well styled and packed with information. I love such websites. In addtion to that I saw Paragons members post so much on their own forums and helping people, which further helped me to develop a strong positive attitude about the guild. And you just have to love a group of gaming Finns, I know from the past in other games that those people are just something unique.

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

As I mentioned before, I started out as an active forum member and also by giving feedback to the guild directly regarding their website. I was not sure if I wanted to really offer my help actively or not, because I had this fear that my strong positive attitude about Paragon might go at one point, that I hyped myself up over it, but it stayed and I decided to become more actively involved in the project. Since then I have made some interviews, something that I will continue doing again very soon, and also helped writing other articles and contribute to the website with opinions.

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

That is hard to answer. At first glance, there is almost everything. There are movie websites, streaming is easily possible these days, there are all sorts of guides and information available. What I always wanted and still want for Paragon is to have a website that continues to be about the guild first and foremost with content created by guild members and others, like me, without trying to become a fully fledged news website for WoW. Manaflask is doing that and they are very successful thanks to a lot of very dedicated people behind it (Hi Hans, Mark and Joakim), but I would like Paragon.fi to be different. Remain more focused on the guild, work with and around the guild and also to be a sort of hub for WoW related studies, such as Ladan has been doing very successfully.

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

I hope that Paragon.fi over time will become a ressource for WoW players (and beyond maybe) which offers interesting and diverse content which is still revolving around the guild and remains a guild website at heart.

 

 

Matti Paalanen - Celestial Aeon Project

http://www.mikseri.net/artists/?id=48147

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

Hi, my name is Matti Paalanen and I'm a finnish hobbyist composer/musician. I have produced music under various project names for quite a few years now and publish my material under Creative Commons on the internet. I don't play WoW anymore, but I raided quite actively during TBC era (greets to presumably disbanded Bloodscalp guilds Afterlife and Harvey's Heroes, if any of you old timers read this) and casually soloed WotLK and Cata base content.

 

                                                

 

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

I think it was during WotLK when Paragon started gaining world firsts. I followed raiding scene semi actively then and as a fellow finn, it was nice to see a finnish guild work their way up in the ladder.

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

I composed part of the soundtrack for Paragon Ragnaros world first kill video some you may have seen (and hopefully heard). It was really an interesting and fun project and hopefully I will be able to participate in future video projects as well! Soundtrack music has always been a genre close to my heart and I aspire to hone my style and skill in producing epic themes.

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

Hard to say as I have been sort of out of the loop for quite a while already. I think any communities and games have their natural cycles and timelines. WoW has been around for quite a while already, and I think we are eventually nearing the point where people are sort of starting to wait for the next thing. It will be interesting to see how things evolve especially as Blizzard hasn't really released much information regarding their future projects. But all in all, any online communities need reasonable forums where opinions and experiences can be shared.

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

There's one WoW related pure win moment I thought I could share - back in the days in old AV I tried to figure out ways how I could help Horde win more often by making Alliance attacks fail. It was usually straight rushes to bases and Alliance usually won by 30 seconds or so. I played warlock so there wasn't really that much I could do alone. But then I finally figured out a way that helped me win AVs for quite a while. I lured hunter pet with me into the base where it aggroed the NPC bosses and back in the day the aggro system worked so that the NPCs would aggro on the hunter when the pet died. Also the AV bosses would fight outside the base as well. So, out they go before Alliance is ready and massive chaotic battle begins on the courtyard. And there I am, right at the corner of the main entrance tabbing targets and dishing out seed of corruption as fast as I can. A few seconds and *BOOM* - the screen is filled with damage numbers. Those days SoCs didn't really have reasonable limits for targets. I basically killed the whole Alliance raid with a few SoCs and ran to take back the courtyard graveyard flag. The first time I managed to do this felt really really good :) There was another Horde player defending the base and he mentioned on the bg channel "O...m....f...g...., Lyissa just wiped the whole Alliance!". Good times!

 

 

Zach Henderson - Race to World First

http://www.racetoworldfirst.com/

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

In early 2009, I founded Looking for Group Productions along with my friend and colleague, John Keating. For years John and I have worked as filmmakers in New York City and we just felt like it was time to collaborate on a film. A shared love of video games was an easy choice as the topic of our first collaboration.

We had one goal: Make a fun film about WoW. In January ‘09, we started playing the game, joined guilds and started 25-man raiding. Searching for a story, we conducted hundreds of webcam interviews with players. After filming at Blizzcon 2009, we found the focus of our project: 25 man raiding guilds and the Race to World First to kill the newest bosses.

Our WoW time lately has been fraps, fraps and more fraps. Other than that, John has been running BG’s getting together his PvP set.

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

The World First Heroic Lich King kill sent a shockwave through the whole WoW community. We were in a guild that was ranked around 500th and someone jumped in our channel saying, “Paragon killed it!” It’s a good example of how fast information travels in the game and how far down the line it trickles.

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

We had the great opportunity to meet with Lazeil and Ilonie at Blizzcon 2010. Since then, we’ve met with Xenophics and Lazeil via webcam a number of times. It has been a lot of fun getting to spend some time with our new Finnish friends. Editing “Race to World First” I feel like I’ve spent all summer with you guys!

 

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

The Atramedes fight stands out as a good example of something that needs to change in WoW. The game needs to be finished when new content becomes available. The best guilds in the world often reference M’uru as one of their favorite boss fights. That boss was tuned perfectly and when it was finally killed it left people with a strong sense of satisfaction. Releasing bugged bosses, thus forcing guilds to make judgement calls about what is an exploit and what is working as intended is not the position Blizzard should be putting people in.

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

The film will be released soon. Stay updated on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RaceToWorldFirst

 

Ladan

http://www.raidingresearch.co.uk/

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

I'm a PhD student living in Durham, England, and all of my research work is devoted to World of Warcraft and the raiding community. I'm also a gamer and raider myself, though I've not done any actual raiding in quite a while due to my work. I mostly just log into WoW these days and "watch" what everyone else is doing. :) I look forward to finishing up my thesis so I can go back to playing for fun!

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

I first heard about Paragon in 2009 when I started to pay more attention to the high end raiding guilds for my research. I had, of course, known all about the high end race and world firsts, but since my work started with the more casual raiding guilds I think a newer top guild like Paragon just hadn't come across my radar screen. I do remember being surprised and very intrigued when I discovered they were an all Finnish-speaking guild, though!

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

Well, as I've been doing some empirical research with the top end raiding guilds, Paragon has been very generous in letting me spend time with them and interview individual members of the guild. So far I've found them to be a very intelligent group of gamers that don't take themselves overly seriously--and I mean that in a very positive way. I think it's nice when we have a group of raiders at the top who like to play well and compete and want to do it in a sportsmanlike but fun manner. These days I've been pitching in a bit with my own academically leaning blog on the site and interacting with the guild as I can. Quite a few members are still ok with me pouncing on them with a random research related question every so often. I have a bad feeling my occasional pounces will continue until the thesis is written and submitted...

 

                                                                                    

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

Oh this is not a simple question! WoW is an extremely complicated community with lots of people interested in doing very different things, so what one player needs is going to be different from another. But that doesn't answer the question... so let me take a stab at this. I think what the WoW community needs the most is consistency in quality of content. We are a big enough (and profitable enough) community that we can afford to push the quality of content agenda. It's great that there are whiz-bang graphics or gear but it means nothing if we don't have the quality of content and to back it all up. I believe this orientation toward the content and scale is something that Blizzard has the luxury of employing and sustaining to set itself apart. And this quality of content agenda can and should really be applied at all levels of play, whether we're a casual solo player or a hard core group raider. One thing I've often felt and stressed in my observation of WoW is that the game needs all levels of players to keep pushing it forward--Blizzard cannot really afford to neglect one sub-community over the other, not if it wants to sustain this high level of achievement as an MMO product.

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

Just thanks for asking me to participate and best of luck to Paragon as they work to maintain their ranking! You and your fellow top guilds really make the raiding community look quite classy. :)

Oh and if you are curious about my research or would like to speak with me about your own guild, please go to my research blog: www.raidingresearch.co.uk.

 

Joakim Runeberg - Manaflask

http://manaflask.com/

Please tell us something about yourself and what wow-related do you do?

I'm Joakim Runeberg, better known as eoy, and I work at Manaflask as a developer, graphic designer, photographer and too many tasks to mention here. I have previously brought the first and second incarnation of ensidia.com to life, and I've played in top rated guilds such as Forte, SK Gaming and Ensidia since the end of vanilla. I decided to call it quits after Lich King to focus more on the development side of things, and try to build a more sustainable life.

 

When and where did you hear about Paragon for the first time?

First time I heard about Paragon was when Paragon managed to kill Anub HM before Ensidia. I learnt the hard way that they're a force to be reckoned with (...or at least their fans who (d)dos:ed our server so we couldn't play).

 

What have you been doing with Paragon and what have your experiences been so far?

The first time I met members of Paragon was at Dreamhack in Sweden, where we went to the same party and had a lot of fun. The whole evening didn't really turn out as intended though and we had to split up a little early.

Later I had a great time doing shoutcasting with Xenophics during Assembly (here in Helsinki), and I think that together we might've had one of the most interesting discussions about hardcore raiding to this date. It's really a shame that it wasn't recorded because there certainly was some golden moments and stories, that so regrettably few got to share. Assembly was also pretty special because Paragon had such a big part of the guild present, and it really made you see the benefits of having everyone in the guild from the same country, and the social aspect that comes with that. I also got to troll their group picture (Xeno later returned the favor) which was fun!

I met up with Arx and Xenophics again at Gamescom in Cologne, and by this time it already felt like we were close friends when we met. We shared an epic train ride to Berlin and even though Xeno pussied out and went to bed after our arrival (it was only like 3 o clock!), Arx and I kept to the Finnish traditions and found a bar (and later a Mc Donald's). Overall my experiences with Paragon have been awesome so far and I respect them for their serious and hardworking attitude, and hope for future cooperation.

 

Paragon, For the Horde, and Ensidia members with Manaflask staff in Gamescom, Cologne, 2011.

 

What do you think wow community at the moment needs the most?

Diversity, or whatever the opposite of homogenization is. Allow players who put in the effort to stand out, and allow there to be bosses that aren't killed by everyone. Keep some mystery in the game. I'm myself a part of the big group of online sites that offer live raids, guides and previews of content, but most of the time I feel like the game would be more enjoyable without it. There's no stopping it now though…

If the question actually really refers to the community, I'd say that the community needs to get more involved in the direction of the game and better at expressing their opinion. There are people willing to listen if you stop shouting and act maturely. I will always remember the great effort put out by the Shadowpriest community before and during WotLK <3

 

Thanks for answering our questions, anything you'd like to add?

I want my Clojure book (and my shampoo too if you got it) back!

 Want to work together with Paragon in the future? Are you good at something and want to share your talent? Contact us and we most likely won't say no!