Beowulf

The latest in the marketing campaigns by World of Warcraft for others, the upcoming movie, Beowulf:

We are happy to announce our latest contest, Legendary Tales, inspired by the upcoming Paramount Pictures movie Beowulf. In the style of a graphic novel, tell us your story of overcoming a seemingly insurmountable foe in World of Warcraft. Simply create and submit a screenshot-based photo journal of your in-game exploits, and you could win! Whether you held off the fel orcs of Hellfire Citadel or overcame the chicken scourge of Goldshire, your story should dazzle and amaze.

Five winners will be chosen to receive a one-year subscription to World of Warcraft!

(WoW page for submissions and other details.)

Which sounds lovely, but I doubt very much that this contest was “inspired” by Beowulf, but rather was *paid* by Beowulf. There is a difference.

And I think it would be nice if we just called it like it is instead of pretending the Blizz dudes were “inspired” to create a Beowulf-like contest because it seems like a really cool movie.

WoWHead

WoWHead, the pretty, shiny World of Warcraft item database, has been sold to the ZAM Network for over (an estimated, rumored) $1 million. WoWHead’s announcement is here, along with the now-typical rationalization for selling to former/current/speculated/who-knows-what associates of IGE, gold sellers to the stars.

Here’s what I say: why rationalize? It’s none of our business, frankly.

An interesting history lesson about this and prior fan site sales, including Thottbot and Allaka-adver-popups, by Ahmed Farooq, former acquisitions dude at IGE: “Hot off the Presses: Wowhead sold for over $1 million”.

Goddammit, when is somebody going to go on the record with these stories? The truth is, I can’t figure out WHAT we’ve got and until then, I have to use lots of slashed up phrases for all the “either-or’s” like estimated/rumored/speculated and current/former/not-yet-denied.