This is a reminder that submissions for the bank alt screenshot contest are due tomorrow, Wednesday January 27th by 11:59 p.m. EST. E-mail your submissions to dawn@wow.com.

This is your chance to flaunt your WoW fashion to the rest of the community, and possibly win fabulous prizes in the process. Please make sure your submissions are in a .jpg, .png, or .gif format, and if your bank alt is a higher level character, make a note in your e-mail.

Thank goodness!

Anyone else relieved that this funky device is removed from the game? I have to admit, I wasn’t a big fan of the big head look. I’ve been “pitied” many times by random players (and even those in my own guild). Dwarves and mohawks just don’t seem to mix. In any case, Crygil has confirmed that the mohawk grenade will not be around any longer. Ever since the grenade became active on servers back in November, I couldn’t walk around Dalaran without seeing large heads everywhere. Is this the last time we’ll ever see Mr. T plant these grenades in game for players to use?

Somehow, I have a hunch that this won’t be the last time we’ll see mohawks in game.

The music video was created by Millinia93. The video does good things for the song, and flows very well with the tempo and lyrics. The only real complaint is that the subtitles could have used a tad more polish, since the apostraphes could be a little distracting. (I’m used to the plural nickname for Alliance being Allies instead of Ally’s, for example.) Still, a lot of that is a stylistic choice, and Millinia’s work was ultimately impressive.

I’ll close with the obvious joke that this parody is likely to become Jaina Proudmoore’s theme song.

In news from the WoW community, guildmates of MMA grappler Haydn Clasby, aka Croc of <Defiant Hearts>, US Bloodscalp-H, are rallying in support after he suffered a broken neck in what was called a freak accident during a match in New Zealand last month. Friends and fans are publicizing a Recovery Fund to help Croc out with the medical costs of the devastating accident.

Our friend Jens “Little Evil” Pulver, also an MMA fighter and inveterate WoW player (and seen in yesterday’s 15 Minutes of Fame), offered these words of support for Croc: “My heart and thoughts go out to you, brother. Make sure you keep your spirits up and tackle this with the same grit and guts you used to get in there in the first place. Take the time to heal and get well soon. Chin down, hands up and always come out fighting; don’t let this stop you. I wish you all the best.”

Best wishes, Croc, for your continued recovery!

Let’s open up The Classifieds …

RECRUITING

• Family-friendly, limited schedule raiding <Knights of Ancient War> of US Arathor-A
• Prepping for endgame content <Dual Core>, US Aerie Peak-A
• Just starting 10-man raids <The Dollhouse> on EU Quel’Thalas-H
• Building additional 10-man teams <Blood of Sparta>, US Alleria-H, has just downed Saurfang; <Gravitas>, US Greymane-A, is building second and third 10-mans with an eye toward 25-man content
• Casual 10-man <Ladies Knight>, US Nagrand-H, is solidifying its 10-man team; <Is Legendary>, US Ghostlands-H, is looking for brand new raiders with limited play time
• Mature family/professional group in ICC-10 <Elite Guards of Alliance>, US Thaurissan-A
• Looking for healers: <Vintage> of EU Turalyon-H seeks new healers over age 18 for ICC
• Hardcore 10-man strict <SRC>, US Malfurion-H, seeks experienced, min-maxing raiders
• ICC-10 and -25 teams <Knights of the Shadow> of US Gnomeregan needs ranged DPS; <Circus Ninjas> of US Gilneas-A is building an additional 10-man team and prepping for 25-man content; <Limbo> of US Caelestrasz-A seeks “unstuffy,” friendly players for 10-man teams and a new 25-man team; <Bring Out Your Dead>, US Shandris-H, is looking for a prot pally and a rogue for 25- and 10-man content
• ICC-25: <Talamasca> of US-Executus-A seeks DPS and healers, including a shadow priest who can off-heal, an enhancement shaman and a resto druid; <Cataclysm>, US Mannoroth-H is recruiting all classes, particularly an ele shammy and rogue; <TUWG>,”The Unknown WoW Guild” of US Thorium Brotherhood-H, seeks mature players for its 25-man team
• Hardcore 25-man: <Eximius> of EU Silvermoon-A seeks seasoned raiders with world-ranking aspirations

DOWNINGS

• <Havoc> of US Burning Blade-H, which formed on Jan. 4, is already 4/7 in ICC-10 and -25 in its first week of raiding. Good work, guys!
• <Dragonvein> of US Borean Tundra-A is proud to have recently cleared TOC-10.
• The “uber-casual” <Havoc>, this one from US Fenris-H, downed both ToC-10 and EoE-10 earlier this month. Congrats on the Champion of the Frozen Wastes titles!
• <Baraka> of US Gorgonnash-H has become the second Horde guild on Gorgannash to clear the first wing of ICC-10. Good work!

GUILD RANKINGS

• 25-man Progress <Adept> sweeps into the top five to capture first place.
• 25-man Achievement <Gentlemens Club> of US Korgath and <Balance> of EU Grim Batol climb into the top five.
• 10-man Progress New this week to the top five: <Enigma> of US Deathwing and <Og> of US Burning Legion.
• 10-man Achievement
• 10-man Strict Progress <The Typhoon Struggle> of EU Defias Brotherhood climbs into the top five.
• 10-man Strict Achievement

COMMUNITY NEWS

• An effort to organize the EU’s 10-man Strict community and address 10-man strict concerns is forming on the WoW Europe forums. “As the 10-man Strict raiding community is a small one, spread over all European servers, it is really hard to activate the majority,” writes player Ghengie, EU Frostmane), “as it is very time-consuming to make alts on all servers to have a chat. We are a small group of players, so our combined voices still is not a really loud one. This results in the topic being on the edge of floating off the first page all the time.” Lend your support and feedback on the forums.
• Word just in from Aleksey, former GM of Sedition on US Cho’gall-A and part of the movement to jump-start Cho’gall’s overwhelmed Alliance population. Aleksey has finally thrown in the towel and moved on to a realm with more active Alliance players. Better luck to him on his new realm and to those still struggling to build an Alliance community on Cho’gall.
• Speaking of world PvP, players on US Scarlet Crusade are still coming down from the high of a massive, multi-guild Alliance raid on Orgrimmar: eight full 40-man raids, countless individuals and other raids and groups, in an effort that took weeks of planning by Alliance guilds. The Horde responded with a well planned counterattack. All in all, Thrall, Cairne and Varian all went down — as did Scarlet Crusade as well as the entire Reckoning Battlegroup. Good times for all.
• Players on US Moon Guard are organizing an in-game event next month in support of cancer awareness. Get involved on the Moon Guard forums.

MILESTONES

• Congratulations to <Ministry of Truth>, US Winterhoof-H, on marking its first anniversary. Dedicated to helping new players, the guild has grown to more than 100 members with two active progression teams (one moving through ToTC after downing Lord Jaraxxus).
• <Order of Golden Fries>, US Moonrunner-A, is celebrating four years together this week. Congrats!
• Marking its three-year anniversary is <Suncrown>, the longest-lasting Blood Elf roleplaying guild on US The Venture Co-H, “where VCO is for FITE and wonderful world PVP.”
• Our condolences to friends and members of <Insert Latin Name Here>, US Scarlet Crusade-A, on the loss of guildmate Uthrine, who passed away early this month. “He was young, vibrant, full of humor and life,” wrote guildmate Boz. “His untimely death has rocked the whole guild and the many players on Scarlet Crusade who have had the pleasure raiding with him. Uthrine 1989 – 2010 — he will be missed.”

RANDOM ACTS OF UBERNESS

• Wår, US Nesingwary-A “As tank, his gear/HP wasn’t uber. His attitude more than made up for it. Group was so awesome we ran four to five more. Total blast, great guy, fun runs. Hey Wår — keep it real and maybe the LFD will put us in a group again some day.” (Lornicide, US Hydraxis-A)
• Maceman <Core>, US Greymane-A “Maceman joined us for our guild’s initial foray into ICC-10 as a pickup healer. He wound up raid-leading us through the first two bosses. Not once during the 18 wipes did he complain, mock or discourage us. He truly is an exceptional player!” (Helzibob, GM <Brotherhood of the Vale>, US Greymane-A)a

Attention worshippers: your god is vastly inferior to the insect god. With eight legs, it can light fires, smite unbelievers, and deliver commandments with maximum efficiency. It also has the ability to paralyze and devour competing deities, which your run-of-the-mill supreme being lacks. All bow to the insect god! (Thanks to Krem for this Old Kingdom screenshot.)

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val’kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

It could be considered a small, fine point, but I’ve always been a stickler about naming my characters. I’ve been known to sit around for days, repeatedly rerolling and renaming the same character until something clicks just right. I just can’t bring myself to play a character if the name doesn’t line up. For better or for worse, we only have a few basic customizable options for our character, so the name tag provides the first hints about our character to other players.

If the first impression about your character is delivered by the name you’ve chosen, it becomes the most customizable aspect of your character. If you use one of the many mods that let you use a surname, then you’ll even have two names to choose from. But, for the purposes of this article, let’s just stick to the single word that everyone sees.

Take a look behind the jump, and let’s discuss some tips for naming your character.

1. Avoid names that draw from overplayed concepts, like “Death,” “Rose,” or “Night.”

Experienced roleplayers often groan when they see a new Death Knight waltz into the local tavern rocking out the name “Deathnightrose.” Of course, the player of Deathnightrose might be the most skillful, entertaining roleplayer ever to grace the World of Warcraft, but most people are expecting bad things right from the start.

There are a lot of interpretations for why the names are bad, but I think the majority of the issues revolve around these names being overplayed. In a world of a thousand roleplayers, “death” is a pretty darn common name. It’s just become a generic moniker, and one that very easily gets associated with the worst behavior among roleplayers.

Death, Rose, and Night are my favorite three words to avoid in naming a new character. They aren’t the only three, of course. I think that “Moon” and “Luna” have probably been over-used for any Night Elf or druid, and “Sniper” is certainly a tired meme for hunters now.

Examples to words avoid include: Death, night, rose, grave, blood, dark, evil, and raven.

2. If you’re going descriptive, aim for subtlety.

It’s tempting to name a dwarf character “Ironbeard” and “Grayhair.” It’s a fairly realistic name for dwarves. Ironbeard is certainly a name rooted in the genre of the game. It blends right in with the Wildhammers and Bronzebeards. But my favorite dwarf name I’ve seen was actually “Calloused.”

The name was a reference to the character’s hands. The dwarf was a warrior and a blacksmith, and his roleplay featured the character’s hard work and well-calloused hands. The name had implications about the dwarf’s stoic behavior, also, just by virtue of that name constantly hovering over his head.

Spend some time considering your character’s personality traits. Does your character become fascinated by the world’s beauty? Or perhaps your gnome’s fingers are constantly stained with ink smudges from his work in the royal libraries. Looking for these little touches of character will help provide you some unique inspiration.

Some good examples of descriptive names include: Subtle, Distracted, Harmony, Taunt

3. Make a name which humans can pronounce.

It’s fair to hypothesize that a name in the native Draenei language might be unpronounceable by humans. And that might be true in a strict immersion sense. However, it’s been my experience that we all think in spoken language. (On some level at least, anyway.) If your fellow roleplayers are unable to pronounce your character’s name in real life, you may find them shying away.

I don’t think it’s very common, but I’ve definitely seen some verbally undecipherable names. For example, I’ve caught more than a few characters with names made up entirely of consonants. You can string vowels together fairly well, but you probably still want to keep it fairly straightforward. Combinations like “ae” and “io” are obviously fairly viable, but I would wonder about a name like “Aierst.” It’s an unfamiliar construction, and many people will trip over it.

4. Lean on consonants for harsh character.

This is probably a preference thing, but I like harsh consonants for my thug characters. “Kogrok” sounds like a big, tough barbarian who’s eager to bash people with his club. It just sounds right to my ear. You can then go the other way around, and use a soft, consonant-light name like “Yalla” to represent a graceful, elegant healer.

5. Count your syllables.

Like I said, this is awfully subjective. But when I am creating a regal, noble character, I often look for multiple syllables. “Baron Ted” probably doesn’t work as well as “Baron Theodore.” While I’m sure there are numerous examples of famous leaders with single syllables, it’s still a general trend in my mind.

6. Avoid homage names.

When Wrath of the Lich King first hit the shelves, there was a small army of “Arthas” names hitting the servers. I think when the A-Team rolls through the theatres, we’ll probably see a few Hannibals and Murdocks rocking out the servers. Every time G.R.R. Martin releases a new book, Starks, John Snows, and Eddards rear their head in Goldshire.

I prefer to think of these names as homage names, not “rip offs.” I don’t think people who are huge enough fans of other works are really trying to be annoying. Instead, they’re paying deep respects to the subject of their fandom, and this just translates through to WoW.

Unfortunately, when you’re naming roleplay characters, using an homage name just broadsides your fellow roleplayers. They won’t be thinking about your skillful phrases and deep roleplay. Every time your fellow roleplayers look at your character, they’ll simply be thinking about the source of your name. Ditch that baggage, and cling to your original creative work.

Examples from Lore

Deathwing is an obvious exception about not using “Death” in your character names. Of course, Deathwing has the advantage of having been created may years ago, and also being created by the actual game writers. That’s a level of street cred that a level 1 Blood Elf cruising around Silvermoon won’t be able to recreate. However, those names are pretty rare in WoW’s NPCs.

Thrall’s name is actually my favorite among WoW NPCs. Obviously, the name is sourced from Thrall’s past as a slave to the humans. However, the subtlety gets involved when we look at how Thrall’s grown since those humble origins. He’s now a Thrall to his own leadership and his own people, constantly struggling to promote the Horde’s goals. It’s a beautiful, poetic use of the word, and I’ve never stopped being impressed.

Kor’kron isn’t the name of a specific character, of course. The Kor’kron are the elite guards of the Horde, and every use of them in game clearly involves some kicking of butts. The name, therefore, is incredibly harsh on your tongue. It sounds like a guttural exclamation, which works very well for the Horde’s warriors.

Sartharion — along with all the other dragons — is elegant proof that many syllables can describe a regal, noble character. Every dragon has a long, beautiful name. (The shortest dragon names I can think of are Malygos and Eregos.)

Summary

Finally, don’t be afraid to ditch a name if it’s not working for you. Hopefully, you’ll know whether a name is appropriate within the first ten levels of a character. That way, you don’t miss out on much by deleting the character. However, if it’s not until level 80 before you get tired of a character’s name, you have the option to go for a paid name change.

Between yesterday’s submission and today’s, it seems like it’s pretty easy to have Trial of the Crusader bug out on you. Gnolie of <Eye Candy> on Executus got to the gunship battle before the massive area lag brought the server to the edge of disaster. All the NPCs on the ship disappeared, and the constant spam of Death and Decay and Consecrate caused the ship to look like it had become the victim of a surprise volcanic eruption.

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val’kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

Admit it: You thought murlocs were spineless little critters, didn’t you? Take a peek inside our gallery, below, and you’ll see that even this sweet little fellow boasts his share of backbone — literally. World of WarCrafts visited with Bradley Barger (aka Monmanteau of US Stormreaver), one of the winners of this year’s WoW Holiday Dessert Contest, for a taste of the inspiration behind his winning creation. What we discovered beneath this little guy’s skin (a backbone of steel!) was more spine than we ever expected from a murloc.

The creation is based around a metal armature, which Bradley covered with cereal-based cake and butter cream, then finished with fondant for a smooth texture. The spines are made from colored sugar, melted and cut to shape. The pond water is fashioned from a high-temperature molten sugar mixture, poured it into a frame of fondant.

If you’re at all like me, and since you’re reading this site you probably are, there comes a point where you play so much WoW that you end up playing too much WoW. It’s that point where you’ve farmed 70 badges in a day and just stop all the sudden and think to yourself, “What the heck did I just do with the year the day?”

And it’s at that point where you put the game down and stop playing for a bit. In my case it’s usually a couple of days, or in some more busy periods of my life it’s a couple of weeks (oddly, with my job here I find that I can’t play much during patch days, right around the time I want to jump in and run the new instances and what have you). I’m curious to know how long of a break you all take when you’ve played too much WoW, and when those breaks tend to come about.

So answer away, and after a few days I’ll compile all the comments into some graphs, representing at least the portion of WoW.com visitors who responded to today’s breakfast topic. It should be interesting, even if it’s only a segment of the overall community.

Have at it! When is it too much WoW?

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

It may be relatively quiet around here this week, but World of WarCrafts is still managing to keep the holiday spirit rolling. Allow us to pass along several submissions from crafty readers with a Christmas-y bent … First up, the Christmas tree ornaments (above) sent in by Faylinne from US Duskwood. Faylinne created these as a gift for Cyer of US Blade’s Edge, the friend she credits as inspiring her to play World of Warcraft. Sounds like great results from both sides of that particular equation.

Join us after the break for a Horde cookie cutter and gingerbread cookies, plus a small gallery of sweets from a baker new to WoW-themed desserts.

Next up, a mini-gallery of Horde holiday gingerbread cookies from Herzreh from Ysera. Herzreh fashioned an old cookie cutter into the Horde symbol to add a WoW twist to the usual tree cookies on this year’s holiday cookie tray. Nicely done!