Community Spotlight: Viva La Dirt League
For years, the Internet’s video game boy band from New Zealand has been putting out hits … of sorts … but only recently did they turn the full force of their video creation toward World of Warcraft. This week, we visit with Adam King of Viva La Dirt League in our Community Spotlight.
Q: Let’s start with your name. What’s up with that?
A: We were initially just planning on calling ourselves “Dirt League”, but there was already a YouTube channel called that already so the name was taken -- which we’re thankful for now. Viva la Dirt League just has such a nice ring to it.
Q: What’s your history with World of Warcraft?
A: I started by playing Warcraft III. I randomly picked it up in a game store and thought the description on the back sounded fun and then loved it so much that I probably played it through about five or six times.
The first World of Warcraft character I played was a Gnome warrior and I remember coming out of the starting zone and setting my eyes on Dun Morogh and Ironforge for the first time - my jaw must have dropped and hit the table! I was so enthralled. Questing my way through all of the original zones I fell in love all over again and I haven't looked back since!
Q: So questing is your main activity?
A: I'm a big storytelling geek, so I get into every single nook and cranny of the story that I can. Whenever a new expansion comes out, I’m straight into the quests and the storylines. I read every single line of text that every NPC says, and I pick up every Warcraft manga, comic book, and novel. I love how the game brings people together. I have a lot of friends to this day that I met in game, so I like to spend a lot of time in the chat, talking to people, getting to know the people that I group with.
Q: How is Viva La Dirt League doing?
A: Alan, Rowan, and I are gamers, filmmakers, and most importantly—nerds. We love making videos that appeal to the community. Youtube is an amazing place and we have an awesome audience that we love so much. They’re like us, and they get to know each other. They talk about the games, they talk about our videos, and the get to interact with us. It’s such a nice vibe constantly. It’s cool to see that passion they have for our channel - and we give it back to them 110%.
We’ve started doing three videos per week. On Mondays, we have our new inspired-by-WoW comedy series Epic NPC Man.
Q: Tell us more about Epic NPC Man?
A: The idea came from playing games like World of Warcraft. Alan, Rowan, and I were thinking about how NPCs are hilarious. As soon as you focus on one, you see that they only have one line of dialogue, or they only walk between point A and point B, or they have an amazing backstory that a lot of players miss. They don’t seem to care about their safety. So we put all our heart and soul into making a first season with help from a local museum, the local LARPing society, and some dedicated. The reaction to it has been so overwhelmingly positive that we are going to make it a permanent fixture of our channel and keep it going for the foreseeable future.
Q: What are you looking forward to in World of Warcraft?
A: It has to be the culmination of the story of the Legion invasion of Azeroth. This expansion is bringing together so many awesome threads of a story that has been told on an epic scale for the last 12 years. But most of all, I’m keen to try out the demon hunter!
Check out Viva La Dirt League online at these fine sites:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VivaLaDirtLeague
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vivaladirtleague
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vivadirt
Songs: http://vivaladirtleague.bandcamp.com/
Viva!