Blizzard Entertainment launched a new World of Warcraft selfie scavenger hunt this week, using the massively multiplayer online role-playing game’s “S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera” toy. This allows players to take selfie-style screenshots of their characters.
Here’s one truly terrible example:
Above: Dark, drab, photobombed by a pet, and taken by an Alliance character — SO many things wrong with my selfie.
Egads. No, that won’t do at all. If you want to take winning selfies, you’ll need to adopt the techniques that these expert selfie takers use. They gave us permission to show off their creations. Follow their lead and you’ll soon be submitting your screenshots in style.
Pick a great location
Indoor shots are tricky, but the shaman Viviane shows the right spirit here. Her creator told us about framing this lovely shot, taken in the finest of settings.
The Garrison outhouse.
“I got the idea of the bathroom selfie when I was speaking to my best friend. I had just gotten the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera, and he was scoffing about it — I could almost hear him rolling his eyes — and saying they were useless, blah blah. I said that they were so much fun, and couldn’t I be like all the other pretty women who take pictures of themselves in strange or inappropriate settings?”
The selfie scavenger hunt restricts your locations, but that doesn’t mean you need to skip making fine art like this:
Above: Viviane the shaman, on her throne.
Capture the right emotion
The S.E.L.F.I.E. camera causes characters to rotate through many different facial expressions, so don’t just settle for duckface and go. (No really, please don’t.) Instead, wait for your character to express their true emotions, based on the action in the scene!
Shanixx the dwarf shaman shows her dismay here over the impending attack by Deathwing in the Dragon Soul instance. Really, the giant fiery dragon boss won’t attack, instead hanging in the air to deliver about 10 minutes of role-playing dialogue before flying away, but poor Shanixx doesn’t know that!
This, from her creator:
“I was bored while waiting on Deathwing to finish his role-play. When I take selfies, I like to hit the button several times to try to get the best pose possible and this just happened to be one of the poses that I captured. When I saw it the first time it made me giggle, so it’s now my favorite selfie.”
Above: Oh noes! I may die of boredom from excessive RP!
Make sure to bring along the right companions
Oh, sure, you can always take a picture with your friends, or your pets, or other pedestrian accomplices. But if you want your selfies to stand out, only the very best groupings will do.
I confess to having a weak spot for Pepe the bird, so when I saw the druid Sparkleclaws’ composition, well … I even forgave her for being a night elf. Sort of. You can, of course, bring him with you to all the scavenger hunt locations.
Her creator says Pepe wasn’t being cooperative, so the duckface is actually appropriate.
Above: Take this selfie quick; one can only keep a bird on one’s head for so long without consequences.
Don’t forget your pop culture references
The best screenshots don’t just include your own character — they include secret references to pop culture obscurities that’ll warm the cockles of people who share the same eclectic musical/film/manga preferences you do. We’re making bets that Blizzard includes at least one pop culture reference in the scavenger hunt locations.
Evilcupcake, a draenei hunter, happened across this one. Do you recognize it? Are you sure? Don’t give up! You’ll disappoint her creator. How about now?
“This has to be one of my favorite screenshots/selfies, and Easter egg, Blizzard has added into the game.”
Above: OK, we shouldn’t tease, we like Depeche Mode, too.
Always be fabulous
If you can’t find the perfect setting and the perfect companion, don’t fret. You can always overcome any selfie obstacle by making your characters the very best subjects they can be. Perfect that transmog! Pick the perfect face and hair! Find a well-lit location and vogue like you just don’t care!
The priest Ozma shows how it’s done, with a collage — bonus points for presentation.
Above: The many faces of Ozma.
If all else fails, you can always drink
If all this perfect is just a little too much stress, player Thea Raintree has a solution for you. She took a series of action shots while running through a Looking-for-Raid difficulty version of the large-group Blackrock Foundry raid dungeon. Her character is a moonkin, a balance-spec druid, so her shots show what’s going on in the room.
Not that this really mattered.
“Our guild, Karazhan Chess Team on Blackrock, is full of fun people,” she said. “One of the raid leaders decided to host ‘Drunk LFR’ on one of the off raiding days. Basically, you show up either drunk or drinking, get on [voice chat], group up, and queue for LFR. I decided to take my balance druid, Neutryst.
“Did you know that you can rapidly click the capture button and take a series of action selfies? I found that out. Only bad thing is that the ‘Screen Captured’ letters show up in subsequent photos. But whatever — I was flying! The look on my druid’s face perfectly captures how fun that run was, and it was the best way to break in my new camera.”
That’s one way to make this contest a whole lot more fun.
