The big, high-stakes tournament is a critical trope in fantasy books, movies, and games. Grim realistic medieval worlds and high concept fantasy worlds with magic and dragons both tend to have tournaments with banners, jousting and giant turkey legs. It’s a comforting staple of the fantasy genre, and it is World of Warcraft recreated players in June to raise money for those affected by the Turkey-Syria earthquake in February.
Role players created the Northeron Games in Epsilon, a creative server where players create their own scenes using existing World of Warcraft assets. These games gave role players the chance to bring the Horde and the Alliance closer together after years of conflict and war – and allowed them to connect with other players through platforms such as Twitter and Discord to raise both consciousness and awareness. over $2,000 in funds for Doctors Without Borders to help the victims of the earthquake and its aftermath.
Belethe and Gwetha are two members of the World of Warcraft roleplaying community. “Gwetha and I grew close to an Epsilon community member who was affected by the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and whose family was impacted by its destruction,” Belethe told Polygon. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck more than 15 million people in February. To raise money and honor a new friend, Belethe and Gwetha reached out to other players and began organizing the Northeron Games.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Fence Macabre
The Northeron Games is a fan-created collaboration run by the role-playing guilds Fence macabre and the Honeyhearth clan. The idea was simple: what if World of Warcraft heroes skipped dungeon digging and boss killing, and attended a three-day tournament in the vein of the Scottish Highlands Games? The event is inspired by Warcraft’s Wildhammer Dwarves, who ride gryphons, use elemental powers, and drink copious amounts of beer.
Veteran role-playing guild Fence Macabre represented the Horde and got more people to the games. “We had a little bit of everything; there was the competition games themselves, where characters could win real trophies that they could spawn at home,” says Gwetha. “We had vendors for market RP and live performances.”
Some players, such as an artist named Calriaran live booths where they drew character portraits for players waiting patiently in line. Another player, Brook, kept the pub manned for the duration of the event, keeping the beer flowing. “We had 35 people helping, from RP sellers, stage builders, game facilitators, volunteer moderators, RP facilitators, and artists, and another 10 artists who contributed over 25 art commission slots that we auctioned,” says Belethe.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment via Fence Macabre
Epsilon’s moderation tools kept everything on track, despite the moving parts. This came in handy when a group of visitors tried to mourn the event. “Epsilon allows us to take people out of the phase and into a place where they can’t easily get back in,” says Belethe. “If this was on the Wyrmrest Accord or some other live Wow server there is no real way for people like us to avoid grief and trolls like we can on Epsilon.
Players can also add Epsilon with other mods created by community members who want to extend the base experience. Role players used Arcanum, an Epsilon add-on created by Mindscape, on the Northeron Games to play unique and interesting games such as obstacle courses, gryphon races, and quests. Mindscape is one of the mods created exclusively for Epsilon that allows the private customer to recreate the classic fantasy tournament atmosphere.
Finally the Northern Games served as another example that could be called while the game World of Warcraftcommunity can often work together in inspiring acts of charity and sacrifice.