It’s anecdote time again! In this special, MeinMMO editor Karsten Scholz reveals why he met his wife through a giveaway for Guild Wars 2 and is still considered the best consolation prize of all time.
The last time I shared stories in written form, it was about my freelance time before MeinMMO and stories about risqué superheroes. Today, we go a bit further back to my beginnings in the video game industry.
In the summer of 2009, I landed as an intern at the buffed editorial team, which grew and thrived due to the ongoing success of World of Warcraft. In the six months in Nuremberg and Fürth, I learned a lot and met many great people who became friends.
From Intern to Ninja
Among them were Imke, Lars, Benny, and Ramon, four other interns who sought their way into the industry with great passion and motivation. The five of us got along so well that Imke invited us to help expand her existing blog Ninjalooter.de during and after our internship (which is no longer maintained today due to a lack of time, but is still online).
When Karsten Scholz dipped his toe into the video game industry, Wrath of the Lich King was rocking the WoW servers – here is a particularly iconic scene from that time:
The creative alliance quickly showed initial results. In April 2010, for example, the first NinjaCast went live, which became increasingly popular with each new episode. In addition, there were many articles, but also special projects like an interactive talent planner for Guild Wars 2, a 109-page online guide to the datacrons from SWTOR, or download templates for the Gwent card game from The Witcher 3.
The site was doing great. Meanwhile, the team grew, adding stalwarts from the buffed community like Haggy and Cala, but also former buffed editor Florian, who is now Head of PR at THQ Nordic. If there had been Patreon and Steady back then, we would probably have gone “All in” with Ninjalooter and the NinjaCast.
How Life Plays Out
Ninjalooter.de was not just a small blog stumbled upon by a few people each month by chance. We made a name for ourselves, even among some MMORPG developers. This explains why, for example, ArenaNet supplied us with three versions of the upcoming online role-playing game before the launch of Guild Wars 2, which we were allowed to raffle off in our community.
The highlight, of course, was the grand prize: the packed Collector’s Edition of Guild Wars 2. The task for everyone who wanted to participate in the giveaway was: “Send a photo of yourself and complete the sentence ‘I deserve the Collector’s Edition because…'”
Normally, Imke would have received the submissions and collected them for evaluation. However, since she was on vacation at the time, I stepped in. So, until the deadline, almost new works from the community arrived every minute, each photo more creative than the last.
A Contest Changes Everything
A particularly nicely staged picture collage featuring three pets and their owner caught my eye. Since I knew the email address, I took a chance and thanked the participant for her contribution. I wanted to know how life was with the little furry creatures and whether the dog got along with the two cats. I myself also had a feline sibling pair.
A friendly response and new questions yielded further emails. A few days later, we sat together on Skype for the first time. “Wait, you live in Leipzig? I’m in Berlin!” We had to meet. We fell in love. We have been together for almost twelve years now and have two wonderful kids.
However, in the end, it didn’t work out for the Collector’s Edition of Guild Wars 2 or the two standard editions. I was something like the consolation prize, which she still playfully reminds me of from time to time. If you want to know more about me, check this out: Our new MMORPG expert introduces himself: “Hello, I’m Karsten”
