managed to score an interview with the Chinese (now playing on the Taiwanese service) top guild Stars, who recently claimed world 2nd on Heroic: Anub'arak (
) in the Trial of the Grand Crusader. Many thanks to Frostshock! for sharing the original version of the interview. Below please find the transcript, which I think is worth reading:
First, please introduce yourself to our readers, who are you IRL, what character do you play, etc.
My name is Jue Gao, an Chinese computer technician. In WoW my ID is Pennie, a Paladin as well as officer & Raid leader of Stars.
Now, please introduce your guild, when it had been founded, how many players do you have, what are your goals and main achievements, etc.
Originated from EverQuest guild Ron, Stars was established on July 24th, 2004 for a only goal: to be the best guild in the world. Now we have more than 300 members and 4 independent raid groups, two play for uber and two play for fun, all with different RaidLead/strategy/progression. Major achievements under the one week patch delay:
- 2006,7-13 Naxxramas, Gothik the Harvester, world 4th, Horde 1st
- 2006,8-31 Naxxramas, The Four Horsemen, world 4th
- 2006,9-25 Naxxramas, Kel'Thuzad, world 7th
- 2008,5-12 Sunwell, Muru, world 7th
- 2009,5-16 Ulduar, Mimiron hard, world 2nd
- 2009,6-10 Ulduar, Algalon, world 3rd
- 2009,7-8 Ulduar, Yogg-Saron hard, world 1st
- 2009,9-8 Argent Coliseum, Anub'arak heroic, world 2nd
What is/was the general atmosphere in the Chinese WoW community like in the recent weeks, in the infamously rough transition of the game from The9 to Netease? Does people reroll to Aion and Chinese MMOs, or waiting for the return of WoW?
Chinese WoW players was unsatisfied and angry about The9 and Blizzard when CWoW went off-line between June and July, especially on the Internet, because they felt that their rights were robbed. Some people even considered using the law to fight against The9 and Blizzard. But such sentiments had been eased after Netease re-opened the WoW server. At present, things are fine as usual again. Some of WoW players really have begun to play Aion, as well as some other Chinese online games. However, recently the number of online players in CWoW even reached a new high. Free of charge, as well as WoW its own appeal attracted many new players, the number surpasses those left.
There are a lot of rumors floating around about Stars, so lets play a bit of "is it true" game. Is it true that you had some 500+ members before the migration to Taiwan, and ran 10 paralell raid groups?
We have around 400 members (~150 are active) in our prime at CWoW.
Is it true that in Taiwan, you have to raid from midnight til morning, because of the horrible lag?
It’s true, but not for all raid groups. Our elite group usually raids from 11pm to 6am when progressing.
Is it true that Taiwanese players hate you and the other Chinese players in their servers, because of the cultural differences, the historical background, and because they see you as the reason of the lag and queues?
The gap is real. We are "foreigner" for them anyway., There are many language and habits differences between us although we all speak Chinese. In addition, more players means more burden for the server so hardware environment is indeed worse than before. However, our purpose is pursing World First rather than changing the game environment there, so we hope we can integrate into them as quickly as possible, because it will help us to realize our aspirations.
According to rumors, in China, almost all of the WoW players play from netcafes. Does the members of Stars play from netcafes or from home?
No, not all Chinese WoW players play in the netcafe. More and more are playing at home with their own computer. As for us, I believe we have more members playing at home than at netcafe.
You have some perspective on the western WoW community (forums, blogs, etc.), and obviously on the Chinese one too. What do you see as the main differences between the two communities?
Similarity and difference coexists. We both have a lot trolling and arguing around the Internet. In general, western WoW players are more confident and reasonable than Chinese WoW players.
How much do you raid in progress times? How do you use the advantage of your multiple raids?
Our progression schedule is based on the actual situation. Due to the late patch, we have to change our plans constantly before the patch gets on-line. The progress of EU and US top guilds has a decisive impact on our schedule. When the new patch gets on line, we will focus strength of the entire guild, break up the original raid groups and re-established an elite group to compete. The remaining members are divided into different groups according to their own capacity.
Are you celebrities in the Chinese community? Do you have fans and haters like, for example, Ensidia has?
We are very well-known in CWoW. As you said in your example, we have fans and haters, I think even in the individual level, such situation is inevitable.
Do you have access to some western accounts to sneak around in the PTRs, or you have to start the new instances without any first hand information?
PTR is something we expect the most. No matter from which point of view, Asia NEED a World of Warcraft PTR server. You know, accessing to the PTR in US or EU from Asia is really difficult, especially for end game raiders like us. We have had several attempts get into the US PTR before, only 3.1 can be called successful (but the patch was again delayed for more than a week for us). All other attempts, including 3.2, were failed. This is a very big trouble for us to compete.
Do you keep contact with the top western guilds?
We have good connections with some US guilds because we believe 1+1>2
With the situation of delays in the content patches, do you follow the western forums and sites like Elitist Jerks for boss strategies, or do you develop them on your own from the scartch?
In fact, most Chinese mainland WoW players get the information they need from NGACN.com and duowan.com, and only a very small number of hardcore players will visit the EJ or any other English web site. As for us, obtaining relevant tactics from EJ or other sites is too slow, and we will first go through logs (wws, wmo, etc.) as much as possible to collect information, and then use our own analysis methods to draft several possible tactics, and then adjust and improve them through the actual attempt.
The typical players of western WoW-topguilds are university students in their early 20s, and there are very few girls amongst them. How old are the typical players in Stars, what are they doing IRL, and do you have female members?
Status of Chinese WoW players is very close to EU and US, the average age may be lower. Our guild members have a variety of professions in real life, students, technicians, businessmen, doctors, teachers, so on and so forth. Of course, there are many female players in our guild. Those two in the elite group have as equally good performance as guys.
In your videos, we can see the logos of AMD and ATI appearing, so I guess youre a sponsored guild. How does guild sponsorships work over there? Is it as rare in China, as it is in the EU/US?
If you have paid attention before, you will find this only happened once - in our Yogg +0 video. Because our elite group has an executive from AMD China, this temporary sponsorship is entirely his personal creativity. We do not establish any long-term relations of cooperation with AMD or ATI. In China, very few enterprises will sponsor WoW guild because they feel that the profit is not high enough.
How do you like the recent progress-slowing attemps of Blizzard, like the one hour per week Algalon or the 50 wipes of the Coliseum?
First, we certainly thank Blizzard for all the efforts they have made to improve World of Warcraft. WoW need continuous improvment to achieve long-term prosperity. But this does not mean that we agree with all decisions made by Blizzard. Specific to your question, we feel very good about the 1 hour set up of Algalon, but 50 attempts a week sounds incredible, because the latter is not fair enough, and counters to our understanding of First Down.
What are your favourite encounters in the whole history of WoW, and what are the most hated ones?
My favorite boss is the C’thun in AQ40. He changes the whole aggro system and makes every member as important as MT, which is pretty cool. The most annoying one is Freya because my old computer became very laggy when she casts skills.
Will you return to Chinese servers when Wotlk is released in China, even if it would mean that you have to start again the levelup and gear process, and you'll get the content patches later than the western and Taiwanese servers?
We have gone through game life like that for more than three years. If patches and expansions can not be released fast enough, I do not think we will come back CWoW and start the whole thing again. The goal of our guild is to fight for World First, which is basically impossible to achieve in CWoW from what we see in the current situation.
