Hemlock’s Tuesday Night Noob Club has drawn Nightfall to a close.  Nicely done, sir.

Five months later, we’ve done it, and are goddamned heroes. Perhaps this was always how MMOs were meant to be - a modern day analogue for the days of sitting around a table with friends, pizza and pointy dice? I’ve really enjoyed it, and this probably isn’t the end of it all. After a bit of a break, the Tuesday N00b Club will return…in Guild Wars: Factions…

Meanwhile, over at this week’s Escapist, Sanya throws out a piece that resonates with me in a number of ways. I imagine the reasons are fairly obvious. Tweety’s Song is the story of Sanya Weathers’ voyage from opinionated blog maven to the icon of community management.

At some point, I felt the urge to give back to the gaming community, and I volunteered to provide customer service. These days, this concept strikes people as ridiculous, but at the turn of the century, in order to be the front line of customer service, you either had to train in Bangalore for six intensive months before being allowed near a phone, or you could do what I did and answer a questionnaire. After weeks of not communicating with an actual company employee, weeks spent soaking up abuse from angry people, I snapped. I wrote out a rant and found myself laughing. I polished that little rant until it shined and posted it on my favorite EQ message board. I called myself Tweety.

All of these posts are very much worth your time.