World of Warcraft guild leader wins Oscar

Enumerating the accomplishments of one Steve Preeg would be a lengthy undertaking, indeed. He's got a magnificent surname, for starters. He's worked on the digital effects team of some of our favorite films, including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I, Robot, and Ri¢hie Ri¢h's Christmas Wish. The World of Warcraft guild that he heads up has conquered all but one of of the title's demanding raid bosses (curse you, Sartharion!), which is truly no small task. Oh, and he won the highest available commendation for cinema last night at the 81st Annual Academy Awards. We nearly forgot about that one.

Preeg's small digital effects team took home Oscars in the Visual Effects category for their computer-assisted oldening of Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, beating out fellow cinematic contenders The Dark Knight and Iron Man. We're sure it'll go down as the proudest, happiest moment of Preeg's spectacular life -- that is, until he and his guild finally take that bastard Sartharion down. Best of luck!

Reader Comments (20)

Wow, that boss isn't even a guild fight on our server.. pick up a random group (pug) and kill him.

Grats btw

The article meant to specify Sartharion with 3 drakes up (source: http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/02/23/guild-leader-wins-oscar/)

Yea a friend of mine got me playing again. And yea that boss is really easy we also pug it on our small server. Accept one thing

Win Oscar> Saratharion seems to me he is pwning life out loud. I felt kinda torn with Benjamin Button winning visual effects, but I understood why. Really the effects are what made that movie, watching him just become younger and younger made it that Brad Pitt didn't really have to act. While Dark Knight and especially Iron man had better effects I think that is what won the judges over.

In my heart I feel Iron Man had better effects in my mind I think that Benjamin Buttons effects played bigger role in the movie.

they mean Sartharion 3 drakes

OS3 is pretty damn hard

That is really badass. I hope I can eventually achieve that much in my life....which I seriously doubt will happen.

Since when are WoW bosses 'demanding'? The headline could equally have said "Man with two eyes..." or "Man that can tie his own shoes..." Do you really think that guy has "warcraft guild leader" at the top of his resume?

Since when is it really that difficult to detect sarcasm on the internet?

1969 it was when I last detected sarcasm on the internet and boy I tell 'ya, 'twas a big one!

Chill out Lee, this is a *emphasis added* gaming site. So the fact that he's a guild leader is the only reason why it was worth mentioning his Oscar here. The relevance of the story is in what it tells us about gaming, not what it tells us about this man, or about cinema.

The article fits into a broader picture in which gaming is becoming increasingly mainstream, similarly to the stories about Kevin Werbach on Obama's FCC transition team who was a level 70 Tauren shaman.

Just checked his armory page (the FCC guy was called Supernovan Jenkins) and he's now level 80, for the record :p

Any relation to Leeroy Jenkins?

They can be, aside from people who play the game way too much, and know everything about the boss prior to engaging it. Sometimes its good to explore in an mmoRPG, once that feeling is lost, everything seems to be a chore. WoW is great, but i am on my 3rd hiatus from it... I like going back and being out of the loop, learning new things upon return which keeps the game fresh for me.

Congrats to Mr. Preeg

I cant believe Button beat Hellboy 2 for makeup, that entire movie was about makeup. Button only really used makeup on Brad Pitt, and most of that was even CG. Hellboy had entire cities, literally, full of people in makeup and costumes! Cant believe it beat Iron Man for special effects too.

You know what, Hell Boy was pretty up there in costume design and make up, i will have to agree.

There's "Lots of special effects" and "good special effects"

Good SFX is when you don't notice it.
But on Iron Man its all there in your face.

I'm near the end of a VFX degree and it was basically put to us that you get higher marks if it looks like you've done nothing.
So I show my Tutor a video of some people walking along high street, nothing spectacular, until you have the breakdown and the source footage was filmed on a Sunday with an empty street.

Sartharion with 3 drakes is annoying as they come at the moment.

I don't really care about this article, but did anyone else notice that the lady in the screenshot (above) seems to be looking *past* Benjamin Button? Movies + CGI still haven't worked that out.

What's 'World of Warcraft'?

What's 'World of Warcraft'?

OMGOFOMG

Well there was an actual man standing there with a blue hood on and then they just added a CGI old-Brad-Pitt-head on top, so she would have been looking past the original actor as well. This isn't a fault of the CG.

From the looks of it he's in an average raiding guild. OS3 gets pugged constantly. I haven't seen the movie but the effects would have to be pretty amazing to justify winning over the competition.

World of Warcraft guild leader wins Oscar

Reader Comments (20)

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