Miss EQ2 Flames - A Contest Like No Other

by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

Flames sites, the underbelly of the community. The places many don't admit they go, but secretly it's like Paris Hilton coverage. They are glued to their monitor following every second of the drama. While many critics have scoffed at the legitimacy of EQ2 Flames over the past year, it's hard to ignore the impact the community is seeing as a result. Even developers post there on a regular basis despite receiving quite a brutal reception at times.

Recently Elleffgee, owner and administrator of EQ2 Flames announced a Miss EQ2 Flames paegent sending one lucky winner to Fan Faire. While the people voting aren't neccessarily who you'd take home to meet family, the excitement surrounding the contest has drawn quite a crowd to the site. I caught up with Elleffgee to see if I could get a few comments on the contest and an idea of where it was going.

Ten Ton Hammer: First, thanks again for agreeing to this LFG. There are probably some folks that are still unfamiliar with EQ2 Flames. Tell us a little bit about the site, how it's got started and what it's purpose is today.

Elleffgee: Good question! I've been playing MMOs since the Kunark expansion in EverQuest. I've also been an active participant in leading Internet flame sites since Usenet in 1992. When EQ started, there were no official forums, so private server and class forum sites sprang up and became very popular. Those private sites included the Safehouse, Monkly Business, the Fires of Heaven guild forums, among others which still remain popular today, even though most have now evolved from being just about one game to discussions about multiple MMOs and the MMO industry as a whole.

To many people like myself, an MMO forum site represents as much action and entertainment as the game itself. On the old school private EQ sites, forums were communities where people went to discuss the game, how to play their class better, and just as importantly, to voice opinions and grievances about the game and notorious players.

SoE launched its official forums for EQ2 when the game went live. Since there was a ready made, multiple section "official" forum already in place for EQ2, private forum sites never took off or succeeded.

Many users, including myself, didn't care whether the center of discussion for EQ2 was on official forums or private forums. Well, not at first. Initially, the SoE forums were "lightly moderated", and even rude "in your face" behavior was tolerated to a degree.

Then, moderation on the official forums was dramatically increased. Many of the posters I enjoyed interacting with most were banned from the official forums for doing what they'd done in the past. Suddenly, it felt like speech was substantially restricted, and that politically correct speech was required and enforced. After a particular incident where a friend was banned for suggesting that a dev might be more aware of the bugs in game if he actually played it, I decided the official forums were no longer fun, and I decided to create EQ2Flames.

I didn't think EQ2Flames would succeed at first, but after being told 18 jillion times that if I didn't like the rules I should start my own site, I took SoE and the official forum posters up on their advice and did just that.

I want to say I'm not negative in any way about the current management of the official forums, and I think Brenlo and Grimwell have made a lot of good progress recently in restoring the fun there. But I still like EQ2Flames better!

Ten Ton Hammer: So you were just sitting around one night and the idea hit you? Insipration from a bottle of whiskey?

Elleffgee: Whiskey? No, not just whiskey, but Scotch Whiskey, and Johnnie Walker Blue Label at that!

Ten Ton Hammer: Well I guess good liquor does enhance the imagination. Explain exactly what Miss EQ2 Flames is all about? What type of person should we expect to represent the fine folks over there?

Elleffgee: In addition to various other thoughts inspired by gifted Scottish distillers, I decided we needed a Miss EQ2Flames contest because:

First, I decided the contest was likely to motivate hot babes to post pictures on my site. And I have not been disappointed in this regard - more hot babes have posted in the Miss EQ2Flames thread than you can see during shift change at the Canadian Ballet.

Second, I thought the women of EQ2 might think it it was fun to showcase themselves, and disprove various stereotypes held by many male gamers. As the contest has shown, a lot of very attractive, fun, intelligent, skilled and special women play EQ2.

Third, my contest has proven beyond all doubt that women who play EQ2 are much more attractive and interesting than women who play WoW. Ok, I may have just made that up, but it's still true. :)

Ten Ton Hammer: That's a bold statement, because World of Warcraft has a LOT of female players. So the contest is running, what kind of basic rules did you put in place to make this it fair contest? Are you worried about manipulation of the poll?

Elleffgee: I've locked down the site to the greatest extent technically possible to ensure that nobody can register and use multiple accounts from the same household or physical computer. So we have only one vote per registered site user, and all votes can be seen by the public.

Ten Ton Hammer: Well I guess you can't really ask for too much more but I'm sure registrations have hit record levels. I remember when your idea first went up. Your initial attempt at soliciting candidates became...I think a circus would be putting it mildly. How do you feel about all the hype?

Elleffgee: It's a law of the Internet that when hot babes post their pics, male gamers begin sucking in their guts and re-enacting Lord of the Flies. But such behavior is allowed on my site within reason, I try and give the people what they want.

Ten Ton Hammer: Well it seems they want female gamers, which...well duh. There were a ton of candidates, who did you vote for and why?

Elleffgee: It was very important, both to me and for the success of this contest, that all the women who were brave enough to enter and post pictures felt comfortable doing so. I spent hours creating the final contest thread, but unfortunately forgot to include an entry from one woman. About halfway through the first day, she brought that to my attention, and I felt really bad about that, so I voted for her. This also gave me a great excuse to avoid being hated by the other 22 women I didn't vote for. :)

Ten Ton Hammer: Oh I hear you. I voted for Cat Neri the wonderful SOE person who does sound. It saved me from making Sophie's choice between Mysidia, Ily, and Livee all of whom I enjoy reading posts from. Obviously there is the potential for some controvery. How do you answer the critics you know you'll have claiming sexism, objectifying women, etc...?

Elleffgee: The contest is definitely sexist, because it excludes men. But it's not like the dudes are complaining.

Each woman had the opportunity to post any pictures and essay she wanted, and to describe in her own words why she was the best choice for Miss EQ2Flames. So this contest gave every contestant pure freedom in objectifying, or not objectifying herself, as she saw fit. The result is amazing, and in my view is nothing less than a celebration of women gamers, by women gamers.

At the time of this writing, the three leading candidates couldn't possibly be more different from each other. One is a beautiful young gothic/punk empress, another is a mother of two who is best described as the terror of the Nagafen PvP server, and the third is possibly the ultimate girl next door.

Ten Ton Hammer: Yeah I have to echo Aeralik's sentiment that the "girl next door" representing EQ2 Flames would be the ultimate irony. We'll see how it pans out though. Ok, finally, Coyote is asking to personally interview each candidate. What can I tell him?

Elleffgee: Tell him to go find his own! Ok, on second thought, tell him to ask them himself, they all seem like strong individuals who do what they want without seeking approval from men first. In other words, I don't have any pull with these ladies myself, so good luck Coyote! We'll meet in the locker room and exchange info later!

Thanks again for your time Elleffgee and good luck with this contest. There you have it folks, something too unusual to ignore in the EverQuest 2 community. If you haven't gotten a look at these lovely ladies head over to EQ2 Flames and get a look. You can find a link to the poll and all the contestants right here. (Warning: Site does contain adult language)