About the Author

Way back in 1997, a then 13-year-old girl stumbled onto the Internet. She called herself “Pikestaff” after a character she’d invented based on the “Redwall” series of books; a hare with a penchant for causing mayhem.

Over ten years later, Pike still lives…

“Pike” is the longtime Internet moniker of a freelance writer who is also the author of this blog. She is currently in her mid late-twenties early thirties.  She lives in the town where humans and Vulcans will make first contact according to Star Trek lore, and she is very proud of this fact.

Pike likes robots, bunnies, robotic bunnies, and ice cream. She has a tendency to fangirl obsessively over GNU/Linux, and basically over the entire Open Source/Free Software movement as a whole.

She has been gaming ever since she could wrap her fingers around a joystick and has been writing ever since she could wrap those same fingers around a pencil. As a result, when she is not asleep or working, she is usually either playing games or writing about them. Strategy and tactics games are her favorite genre but she’ll play pretty much anything.

About the Blog

This blog has had a long and convoluted history which began in 2007 and peaked at some point in 2009 or so during which this was– with all modesty aside for a moment– probably one of the most-read WoW blogs on the Internet. I had over 1000 subscribers; I was interviewed by podcasts and WoWInsider and all sorts of fun stuff. Leaving the game, and this blog, was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. But you really can’t fight the urge to come back when it bites you, so here I am!

—Frequently Asked Questions:

Can I link to you? Yep!

Will you link to me? Maybe! I tend to notice when an active commenter has a blog and I’ll add them to my blogroll. If you’re an active commenter and I don’t notice, you can always try poking me. I’m friendly!

Would you like to hook up for some advertising/moneymaking? Probably not, but who knows, I guess?  Contact me.

Can I guest post for you/will you guest post for me? I don’t often do either side of the whole guest posts thing, but I guess one should never say never. Contact me.

Do you really play WoW on Linux? Often times, yes, via a program called Wine. Sometimes I write about WoW on Linux and you can generally find posts about them marked with the “Linux” tag.

But isn’t playing WoW on Linux with Wine wrong/bad/not allowed/[insert story you heard somewhere here]: I’ve done a lot of research on this and my official answer is “not to my knowledge”. Besides which, to quote the trolls, “If it’s wrong, I don’t want to be right!”

I saw a “Tawyn” on [insert non-Silver Hand server here], is that you? Nope. I tend to view my characters as all having distinct personalities and so as such I generally do not share character names across servers.

How do you pronounce Tawyn? Say the two words “Saw Win”. Now blend them together and replace the “S” in Saw with a “T”. And emphasize the first syllable!

What is the cool add-on that makes you and your party’s name plates appear in 3-D?  As of 6.0, Z-Perl UnitFrames.

“For the Horde” or “Glory to the Alliance”? Both! No really, I rather enjoy playing both factions.  I primarily played Alliance for several years, but these days I’m more likely to be found playing Horde.  My favorite Warcraft races are tauren, gnomes, goblins, and blood elves, and, well, three out of four…

PvE or PvP Server? RP and RP-PvP!

What servers do you play on? I play Alliance on Silver Hand – US and Horde on The Venture Co – US. If I mention in passing that I have a character on another server, rest assured that said character is rarely played and not above level 15. /cough

I love your art! Can you please draw me one of your cute pictures/avatars? Maybe!  Hook up with me on Twitter and/or email and we might be able to work something out.  I do charge for this stuff, though.  I don’t want to, but sadly drawing these pictures takes a lot of time.

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Donations:

Tips go toward WoW subs, site upkeep, and maintaining a 100% ad-free experience. No pressure, though!