One month ago… We asked you all for nominations for the annual “Piggie” awards for MMORPGs and MMORPG blogging, as started by Larisa of the Pink Pigtail Inn.
Now, after a month of nomination madness, we’ve tallied up all the emails, blog posts and so on, and we’re proud to present your nominees for the best of the best in 2011’s MMOSphere.
MMORPG Game Elements
Best Raid Instance
- Blackwing Descent from WoW: Cataclysm
- Throne of the Four Winds from WoW: Cataclysm
- Dragon Soul from WoW: Patch 4.3
Least successful raid instance
- Firelands from WoW: Patch 4.2
- Throne of the Four Winds from WoW: Cataclysm
- Draigoch’s Lair from LoTRO: Rise of Isengard.
Best small-group instance
- Well of Eternity from WoW: Patch 4.3
- The Esseles from SW:TOR
- Zul’Gurub from WoW: Patch 4.1
- End Time from WoW: Patch 4.3
- Deadmines Heroic from WoW: Cataclysm
Least successful small-group instance
- Deadmines Heroic from WoW: Cataclysm
- Halls of Origination from WoW: Cataclysm
- Blackwing Caverns from WoW: Cataclysm
- Zul’Gurub from WoW: Patch 4.1
- The Stonecore from WoW: Cataclysm
Most longed for instance
- Well of Eternity / War of the Ancients from WoW
- Dragon Soul 5-mans in general, from WoW
- End Time from WoW
Silliest gold sink
There were very few nominations for this category, and WoW in general has suffered from a severe lack of gold sinks in this expansion, so we’ve decided to retire this category for this year.
Biggest game addition/improvement
- World of Warcraft: Transmogrification
- World of Warcraft: Constant improvements to the loot system in PuG groups.
- Lord of the Rings Online: Instance Finder
Best quest
- WoW: Rhea’s questline in the Badlands
- WoW: The Lilian Voss storyline in Tirisfal Glades.
- WoW: Silverpine as a whole
- WoW Patch 4.3: Fangs of the Father legendary questline
- WoW: The Day That Deathwing Came
Ugliest new piece of outfit
All submissions were from WoW.
- Death Knight Tier 12
- Hunter Tier 11
- Priest Tier 11
- Mandible of Beth’tilac
- Druid Tier 12
- Rogue Dragon Soul tier helm
Favourite non combat pet
Again, all nominations are from WoW.
- Horde/Alliance balloons.
- Mr Grubbs
- Lil XT
- Withers
- Creepy Crate
Most charming games company employee
- Blizzard’s Zarhym, AKA talkingcongas on Twitter
- Bioware’s Daniel Erickson
- Blizzard’s Nethara AKA Sachant on Twitter
- Blizzard’s Critho
- Eric of Elder Game
Best podcast
Most memorable blog post
- Accessible Fan Art; or, PONYPONYOMGPONY from Flavor Text Lore.
- Are 400 Pull Kills Good Design? Are They Fun? from Falling Leaves and Wings.
- The 20 v. 24 War from Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual.
- I’m Doing It Wrong, and I’m OK With That from Jaded Alt.
- How Baby Boomers Built Warcraft from Disciplinary Action.
- Sylvanas, the Val’kyr, and the REAL master plan from Orcish Army Knife.
- On Lone Wolf and Cub, Oriental Adventures, and Pandas from Cynwise’s Field Notes.
- On The Forsaken from Cynwise’s Field Notes.
- Death-who? from Tusks And All.
- Getting Back on the Nightsaber from Tree Heals Go Woosh.
- Out of the mouths of, well, you know from Big Bear Butt.
- CSI: MMO from Killed in a Smiling Accident.
Most noticed blogger breakthrough
- Garrosh Hellscream of Warchief’s Command Board.
- Stubborn of Sheep the Diamond.
- Apple Cider of Apple Cider Mage.
- Bravetank of Bravetank.
- Niki Casselberry of Gamer’s Fridge.
- The team of bloggers over at Flavor Text Lore.
Most solid content provider
- Cynwise of Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual and Cynwise’s Field Notes.
- Derevka of Tales of a Priest.
- Nils of Nils’ MMO Blog.
- Rohan of Blessing of Kings.
- Rades of Orcish Army Knife.
- Anne Stickney of WoW Insider’s Daily Quest and Know Your Lore.
- Tobold of Tobold’s MMORPG Blog.
- Gazimoff of Mana Obscura.
Best writing
- Cynwise of Cynwise’s Battlefield Manual and Cynwise’s Field Notes.
- Stubborn of Sheep the Diamond.
- Rades of Orcish Army Knife.
- Tzufit of Tree Heals Go Whoosh.
- Melmoth of Killed In A Smiling Accident.
- Beruthiel of Falling Leaves And Wings.
- Big Bear Butt of Big Bear Butt.
Most hugged blogger
- Oestrus of The Stories Of O.
- Vidyala of Manalicious
- Beruthiel of Falling Leaves And Wings.
- Derevka of Tales of a Priest.
- Alyzande of The Gold Queen
- Karegina of The Reluctant Raider
- Larisa of The Pink Pigtail Inn and now The Velvet Cafe
- Shintar of Priest With A Cause
News and Affairs
Biggest controversy
- The Firelands nerfs in World of Warcraft.
- Mists of Pandaria as the next WoW expansion.
- The Destruction of Theramore announced for WoW 5.0.
- The announcement of the Raid Finder in WoW.
- Top raiding guilds recieving an 8-day ban for exploiting the Raid Finder.
- Blizzard’s decision to play the homophobic Corpsegrinder interview at Blizzcon.
Most Appreciated Announcement
- Transmogrification in WoW Patch 4.3
- The lack of Dungeon Finder in SWTOR
- Mike Morhaine’s apology for the Corpsegrinder incident.
- Dungeon Challenge Modes in Mists of Pandaria
- The free copy of Diablo III with the WoW annual subscription.
- Battle Tags for Battle.net
- New talent tree/skills learning systems for WoW in Patch 5.0
MMORPG Company Of The Year
- Bioware.
- Turbine.
Most “Er… what?” moment in MMOs this year
- The Pet Battle System announcement at Blizzcon.
- Mists of Pandaria as the new WoW expansion.
- Pandaren as the new WoW race.
- The various Raid Finder loot rule fails.
- The difficulty or lack therof of Dragon Soul, Cataclysm’s final raid.
People’s Choice
People’s Choice: Blog Post
- How to LFR and The Dragon’s Soul: The Classiest Guide
- Are 400-pull kills good design? Are they fun?
- I’m Doing It Wrong And I’m OK With That
- Getting Back on the Nightsaber
- CSI: MMO
- Why I Would Love To See Heroic Scarlet Monastery
- On Lone Wolf and Cub, Oriental Adventures, and Pandas
People’s Choice: Games Company
- Bioware
- Bethseda
- Blizzard
- Turbine
We’ll be revealing the winners next week! Winners will be chosen by the MMO Melting Pot staff, but we’re always interested to hear what you think, and we’re influenced by the community’s opinion, so if you’d like to comment on the nominations, please do!
The exception, of course, is the People’s Choice category – we’ll be opening voting for that category on Monday, for one week!
Congratulations to all the nominees!
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
WoW in general has suffered from a severe lack of gold sinks in this expansion
Is this a joke?
@Rilgon Arcsinh – Not at all – I agree with Fox Van Allen on this one: http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/09/19/gold-capped-warcraft-needs-a-new-gold-sink-and-it-needs-it-yes/
What gold sinks would you point to in the Xpac? Aside from the (frankly rather ugly) Vial of the Sands, I can’t think of one.
@Hugh Hancock – if you’re upgrading on the regular, transmog is a HUGE money sink, especially since it’s been implemented with no in-game cost in every other game that’s done it.
@Rilgon Arcsinh – The only problem with gold sinks is that it encourages people to buy gold. By not having any gold sinks, players wont feel the need to buy gold so they can have whatever cool item Blizzard has put into the game.
Some interesting nominations there! Such as Zul’Gurub as both best and least successful small group instance…
Or that Blizzard didn’t get nominated as game company of the year in the main category but they did as people’s choice…
Also, I’m fascinated that someone nominated me as most hugged blogger – it feels kind of flattering but I don’t actually recall being hugged that much right now. ‘:)
GL to all the nominees
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