World of Warcraft

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• Diablo 3 — I screwed up

  World of Matticus

  Matticus

  15 May 2012 | 5:29 pm

  I already had the annual pass. Spent the first 90 minutes or so this morning trying to login but like everyone, I was thwarted by all the connection errors. I decided to pass out and play early in the morning. Game’s a ton of fun. Playing the Diablo 3 beta, I already had a solid idea of what to expect and how the game play would work out. My impressions of the gameplay itself were already favorable. I ended up being disappointed with the connection and logging in issues. On the one hand, I felt that Blizzard should have been prepared for the volume of traffic that would be impacting their…

• My first visit to the Diablo III auction house

  Tobold's Blog

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  16 May 2012 | 3:04 am

  Due to login server problems I didn't play Diablo III on launch day. But this morning I was able to play for 10 minutes, just to make sure the game worked. I got to level 3 and had 438 gold pieces. So I went and checked out the auction house: 400 gold pieces bought not one but two blue weapons (I made a dual-wielding monk), each having over twice the dps of the best weapon I had found up to that point. While some people had posted items for big amounts, there were already hundreds and thousands of low level blue and epic items available for extremely low prices. The real money auction house…

• An introduction to the Diablo 3 economy for WoW players

  WoW Insider

  15 May 2012 | 8:00 pm

  Are you a WoW economy titan, or do you simply dabble? Either way, you'll be in for a treat in Diablo III. Blizzard has created a virtual economy that mirrors WoW's in many ways, giving you the ability to gain (or lose!) a fortune. Before you dive in and lose your virtual shirt, though, it wouldn't hurt to review some of the basics. Gold is king As in WoW, the primary resource that makes the world go 'round is gold. There's no silver or copper here, though; it's gold all the way down, and lots of it. If you're still in the WoW mindset of "Gee, a couple of thousand gold is a lot of money," then…

• Mists of Pandaria says bye-bye to cookie-cutter builds

  WoW Insider

  15 May 2012 | 3:00 pm

  I had no idea that talents existed in vanilla WoW. I wasn't really stupid -- I just didn't know what talents were or that they were something I should be getting. I expect they were detailed somewhere in the instruction booklet that I didn't bother reading before I started running around Azeroth. I was finally clued in to their existence around level 40 or so on my first character, when a friend asked what spec I was putting points into. My blank "... points?" response garnered an immediate lesson on talent trees. Talents received a massive overhaul between Wrath and Cataclysm, one that saw a…

• “I’ll Wait Till It’s Free”

  Mana Obscura

  Gazimoff

  15 May 2012 | 11:03 am

  When I started playing MMOs, it seemed that the genre was split into two camps. Subscription based games were seen as champions of quality, coupled with legendary customer service. By contrast, free to play games were looked down upon with distain, being games for those who preferred to buy their way to victory instead of earn it the hard way. They also had a tinge of underhandedness, as if developers were looking for increasingly ingenious ways to crack open customer wallets. Over the last five years, I’d argue that our perceptions have changed. Guild Wars 1 and 2 introduced the “buy the…

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  WoW Insider

• An introduction to the Diablo 3 economy for WoW players

  15 May 2012 | 8:00 pm

  Are you a WoW economy titan, or do you simply dabble? Either way, you'll be in for a treat in Diablo III. Blizzard has created a virtual economy that mirrors WoW's in many ways, giving you the ability to gain (or lose!) a fortune. Before you dive in and lose your virtual shirt, though, it wouldn't hurt to review some of the basics. Gold is king As in WoW, the primary resource that makes the world go 'round is gold. There's no silver or copper here, though; it's gold all the way down, and lots of it. If you're still in the WoW mindset of "Gee, a couple of thousand gold is a lot of money," then…

• Diablo Moviewatch: Diablo III: Wrath

  15 May 2012 | 6:00 pm

  Work warning: Pretty violent video. Well, if I didn't know that Diablo III released today, the empty halls of the WoW Insider headquarters would certainly tell me. It's like a ghost town around here. I've not been able to play yet, but that's OK. I've got this incredibly awesome animated short feature to get me by. Diablo III: Wrath was revealed for the community about a week ago. If you're just now getting your hands on the Diablo universe for the first time, this video gives you a great sense of the mythos. The animation is fantastic and gorgeous. I could almost wish for this to be an…

• Mists of Pandaria Beta: Spirit gear is coming back in fashion

  15 May 2012 | 5:00 pm

  It's been known for a while that spirit gear isn't on the list for the most part right now for players leveling in Mists. DPS cloth abounds, and the idea the designers have is that you can just reforge the DPS gear into healer gear easily enough (or at least reforge it so that it's passable as healer gear). In part, this concept comes from the new rewards system, where you don't see all the gear rewards the quest giver offers but rather only the ones that are specific to you. As a solution to this, Blizzard provides green gear vendors that distribute off-spec gear. However, Ghostcrawler…

• Improved digsites in Mists of Pandaria archaeology

  15 May 2012 | 4:00 pm

  When I hit the new skill cap in archaeology on beta and achieved Zen Master, someone in my beta guild remarked that 600 skill points in archaeology sounded painful. But it's not -- it's actually better! Archaeology got some buffs in Mists of Pandaria. There are only two new races to worry about, the pandaren and the mogu, and you get nothing but these two on the continent of Pandaria. As usual, players get four random digsites across the entire continent, though it's currently bugging out to three or even two sites only. But Pandaria is so huge, you say. We're restricted to no flying until…

• Mists of Pandaria says bye-bye to cookie-cutter builds

  15 May 2012 | 3:00 pm

  I had no idea that talents existed in vanilla WoW. I wasn't really stupid -- I just didn't know what talents were or that they were something I should be getting. I expect they were detailed somewhere in the instruction booklet that I didn't bother reading before I started running around Azeroth. I was finally clued in to their existence around level 40 or so on my first character, when a friend asked what spec I was putting points into. My blank "... points?" response garnered an immediate lesson on talent trees. Talents received a massive overhaul between Wrath and Cataclysm, one that saw a…

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  WordPress.com News

• Stay In The Conversation

  Beau Lebens

  15 May 2012 | 6:01 pm

  It’s now much easier for you and your commenters to keep track of the conversations you’re involved in across WordPress.com. Some recent tests have shown that by subscribing commenters to new comments by default, they are more likely to stay engaged and come back and comment more on your blog. With that knowledge, we’ve changed the default comment following behavior to help you get more conversations going on your blog. We made the initial changes last week and after great feedback from you we just launched an update. Here’s how it works: By default, posting a comment…

• Look at These Gorgeous Blogs

  Sheri

  15 May 2012 | 1:05 pm

  We’ve added a user showcase where you can view stunning customizations made by people just like you. From complete redesigns with CSS to adding pizzazz with Custom Fonts to clever use of options like background and header, this showcase will spark your imagination and inspire creativity. Discover details about what each showcase blog is doing with WordPress.com themes and customizations by clicking a thumbnail to see a colophon-style list of credits on the left. We’ve also updated footer links so blog owners can show off the types of customizations they’ve made and visitors can…

• Photo Blogging 101, Part 1

  Erica V.

  14 May 2012 | 10:00 am

  Spring is in the air. With the weather warming up, now is a great time to get started on a photo blog. Creating a photo blog is a wonderful introduction to blogging on WordPress.com or an opportunity to refresh your current site. Ready to get started? You can sign up for a new blog right over here. Getting started Photo blogs, sometimes called phlogs, use pictures instead of words. While many photo bloggers choose a type of photo that they want to focus on, such as portraits, others use their photo blog to document their life’s events. Photo blogs come in a variety of styles, including…

• New Themes: Just Desserts and Oxygen

  Michelle Langston

  10 May 2012 | 8:11 am

  Happy Thursday! We’ve added some exciting new themes to our ever-growing collection, and we’re happy to tell you all about them. First out of the oven is…Just Desserts. Yep, that’s a theme! Designed by Andy Rutledge, Just Desserts is a deliciously stylish premium theme that’s perfect for blogs centered on food. With its responsive, single-column layout and unique presentation of images and posts on the front page, Just Desserts gives you a delectable canvas on which your mouthwatering photos and text can really shine — even when viewed on smaller mobile devices…

• Find Friends Who Use WordPress

  Nick Momrik

  1 May 2012 | 2:32 pm

  Are you curious to see how your friends are using WordPress? Give the new and improved Friend Finder a try to connect with your Twitter, Facebook, and Google contacts who have WordPress sites! After authorizing WordPress.com to use your Twitter, Facebook, or Google account to find your friends (don’t worry — none of this account information is saved!) you’ll see a list of people you know who have WordPress sites. Click Follow and each time your friend publishes a new post it will show up in your Reader under Blogs I Follow. If you have multiple blogs, make sure to set the…

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  World of Matticus

• Diablo 3 — I screwed up

  Matticus

  15 May 2012 | 5:29 pm

  I already had the annual pass. Spent the first 90 minutes or so this morning trying to login but like everyone, I was thwarted by all the connection errors. I decided to pass out and play early in the morning. Game’s a ton of fun. Playing the Diablo 3 beta, I already had a solid idea of what to expect and how the game play would work out. My impressions of the gameplay itself were already favorable. I ended up being disappointed with the connection and logging in issues. On the one hand, I felt that Blizzard should have been prepared for the volume of traffic that would be impacting their…

• 3 Simple Things You Never Thought of While Preparing for Mists

  Matticus

  15 May 2012 | 9:00 am

  Matt’s taking the day off today. He’s busy storming the gates of hell in Diablo 3. Today’s post is from guest writer, Aunaka of Aunaka Heals. I’ve gone through 3 new expansion releases and I’ve dealt with each of them a little differently. During Burning Crusade, I waved to it as I was doing school work and was unable to play till a later time. For Wrath, I managed to buy it on opening night, but then a certain show was being opened at that time and I was working 70 hour work weeks. I managed to get to that one later than the pack as well. Then there was Cataclysm, where I was…

• 8 Step Checklist: Finishing Your Blog Setup

  Matticus

  14 May 2012 | 9:00 am

  This is another series for the New Blogger Initiative. Find more posts by following the mmonbi hashtag or visiting the forums. Now that you’ve come up with a name for your blog and what it’s going to be about, the next steps to getting started can be a little daunting. You’ve got your hosting plans all figured out, you have your domain name, and you’re ready to go, right? Your blog is just sitting there and waiting. Hold on there, skipper! Before you go pounding out posts to your heart’s content, there’s several things you’ll want to check off first before going live. RSS Feed…

• Black Markets in Pandaria!

  Matticus

  12 May 2012 | 6:08 pm

  Just saw news of this. There’s a Black Market in the game. They sell really expensive, random stuff. Apparently the Black Market has stuff like: Tier 3 gear Mounts like Ashes of Alar Pets Really rare, hard to find crafting recipes In other Priest changes: Glyph of Lightspring Glyph of the Val’kyr Glyph of Confession I will now use Glyph of Lightspring instead. Nice addition! No more having to forcibly remind people to click the damn Lightwell! Glyph of Val’kyr is now going to be on my number one list of minor glyphs to add to my Priest. I am pleased! Et toi? (And you?) "You…

• MMO Declines, Being a Brewmaster, and Joining a New Guild

  Matticus

  12 May 2012 | 12:00 pm

  This week, the guild scored two progression kills between heroic Zon’ozz and Warlord Blackthorn. Otherwise, not many other events are going on at the moment. Still hard at work laying down the foundations for the guild league. It’s 1:20 in the morning as I write this and I am in the mood for some serious pho. MMO Decline Caused by Moves to Smaller Guilds Theories about the decline of MMOs? Even though the past investors call from Activision Blizzard showed no significant decline in active subscriptions, there’s no doubt that people are quitting the game. Rohan surmises that it might be…

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  Gray Matter

• Tier Six Talent Revamp

  Graylo

  8 May 2012 | 1:22 pm

  There has not been much Druid news coming out of the beta recently, and I was starting to assume that meant druids were done. That wouldn’t be an entirely bad thing either. On paper I like the over all design of the moonkin play style. However, there are some areas that I thought could use improvement. The most notable example of area needing improvement was tier six talents (lack of moonkin glyphs is a very close second). While I had given up on the possibility of changing the tier six talents, others had not and Blizzard listened. So the good news is we get kick ass new talents and…

• Graylo is Legendary

  Graylo

  3 May 2012 | 12:17 am

  I've been working on my legendary for six months with four different guilds, and the day that I get one is finally here. After playing this game for +5 years I doubted that I would get one since I have had so many guild issues this expansion. Needless to say I'm quite excited and can't wait to get into my next DS run.Of course, there are many people I need to thank for helping me getting it. First and foremost, I need to thank all of my guildies at Resurgence. After having such a tough year guild wise, it's nice to finally find a good home to raid with. I should also thank two of my…

• Scumbag Moonkin

  Graylo

  14 Apr 2012 | 10:30 pm

• Tier 4 Updates: Beta Build 15589

  Graylo

  11 Apr 2012 | 11:59 am

  According to MMO Champion there is a new beta build on the way, and if MMO Champion's datamining is correct it has a lot of changes for all of the classes. Most of the druid changes were for Feral and Restoration, and there aren't many that significantly affect Balance. Who knows what this means about the status of Moonkin development, but lets take a look at the few bits of new information that we do have.Incarnation v3:It should come to no one's surprise that Chosen of Elune (the moonkin portion of Incarnation) has been changed once again. This is a good thing because version two turned out…

• Why Beta isn't a Huge Deal

  Graylo

  9 Apr 2012 | 10:54 am

  The Mists of Pandaria Beta is here, which is awesome for quite a few different reasons. It means that the new expansion isn't to far away (Aug or Sept if history is any indication). It's also a time when Blizzard reveals what plans they have for each class/spec and what they are trying to do to improve them. And most importantly to most people it is the first glimpse we get of all the new content from new races, new classes, new levels, and a lot of other new stuff.The beta is an exciting time in the WoW life cycle. Everyone wants to be involved, and it sucks to be one of the people not…

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  Dungeon Play

• Character Planning in EVE Online

  Vaxas

  13 May 2012 | 5:21 pm

  For new players, figuring out how to train your character can be one of the most daunting tasks you’ll encounter in EVE Online as you start out–the skill training process can be extremely time-consuming and wasted time means the difference between being productive today and having to wait several days before you’re able to do the things you want to. While a few wasted days aren’t necessarily a big deal in the long run, when you’re first starting out it can mean a lot of unnecessary downtime while you wait for necessary skills to finish training. With that in…

• A Primer on Disc Priest Healing in Rated Battlegrounds

  Vaxas

  16 Apr 2012 | 10:24 am

  Last week, one of my guild’s healers had to call-out for one of our RBG nights since he had some exams to study for. As a result, we ended up PuGing in a Disc Priest who turned out to be pretty terrible. When you’re running a three-healer comp for RBGs, you can’t afford to have even one healer that isn’t pulling their weight, and because of this Priest’s apparent ineptitude, we ended up having to call it a night after two lost matches. Those matches served as a good reminder to me that the skills that seem obvious to me aren’t to others, and so I ended up…

• Transferring Servers in Anticipation of a New Expansion

  Vaxas

  30 Mar 2012 | 8:30 am

  Part 3 of the “Wut Do?” series is still in the works and should be along shortly. In the meantime, I had an interesting conversation with a friend last night that I thought would be pretty good post fodder that I’d like to talk about today. My friend had mentioned last night that he was considering transferring to a new server before MoP comes out to join a guild that was more progressed and had a higher US ranking than the guild he’s currently in. This was something I had done myself prior to the release of Wrath, and I had a few concerns I wanted to share with him,…

• Wut Do?: A Guide to Rated Battlegrounds, Part 2 – Death Knight

  Vaxas

  28 Mar 2012 | 5:30 am

  In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the overall basics of rated battlegrounds: what it takes to be successful in rated battlegrounds, how they differ from regular battlegrounds and arenas, basic character requirements for viability, some typical team compositions that are popular this season, and some basic strategies for each map. Today, we’re going to look at rated battlegrounds from the perspective of a Death Knight and talk about some viable talent specs, what a Death Knight’s role is within the group for various maps, and crowd control and cooldown management. Viable…

• Wut Do?: A Guide to Rated Battlegrounds, Part 1 – Basic Overview

  Vaxas

  27 Mar 2012 | 11:10 am

  Stepping into rated battlegrounds for the first time can be a little daunting for some. You probably already have a lot of experience in regular battlegrounds and maybe even some arena experience as well, and while that experience will definitely help you perform well in rated battlegrounds, don’t make the mistake of assuming that it’s taught you everything you need to know to be successful already. Rated battlegrounds, while borrowing several skill sets from both arenas and regular battlegrounds, are a separate entity unto themselves and should be approached as such. This series…

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  Blessing of Kings

• [Diablo 3] Release

  Rohan

  15 May 2012 | 2:53 pm

  Diablo 3 was released last night. I actually got home pretty late, so I decided to stay up for a little bit longer and see if I could get started at midnight. I got the infamous "Error 37" for about half an hour or so, but eventually I was able to log in and play. I'm starting off with a Demon Hunter, mostly because I think she has the best voice. It's really too bad there's no knight/paladin archetype in D3. I got to level 5 before deciding to go to sleep. The cutscenes are very nice. The game does seem a little harder than it was in beta, at least starting in the cathedral. But that might…

• [TERA] Looking For Group

  Rohan

  14 May 2012 | 12:08 am

  One of the interesting things about TERA is that--even though it has a cross-server instance finder--transient dungeon groups often still form via the old method of asking in local chat. It seems sort of odd, given the experience in WoW, where the Dungeon Finder has completely displaced asking in chat. So why does local chat still work for forming groups? I have several theories: 1. First, TERA's LFG has no rewards associated it. Using the instance finder has no innate bonus other than letting the system find a group for you. 2. Dungeons are located near people questing. So far, all the…

• [WoW Videos] Scarlet Toy

  Rohan

  13 May 2012 | 12:00 am

  This is one of my favorite videos. Greyfoo does really good work, and this is one of his best. It's interesting, because he did this video for the Rise To Power contest, and that contest produced a *lot* of really good videos. Yet another example of the idea that restrictions breed creativity.

• Structure of Large and Small Guilds

  Rohan

  12 May 2012 | 1:03 am

  Ratshag left a comment on the previous post on MMO decline, and I've decided to highlight his comment and my response: I notice you done completely skipped over the change from 40-man raiding ta 10/25 what came in TBC. If'n yer arguements was correct, should there not have been a drop in subscriptions then? Afters all, it hit a lotta raidin' guilds hard, and hardest hit were the 15-or-so grunts what (accordin' ta conventional wisdom) was bein' carried. Leaders, not so much. So how's come the subscription numbers went up? I also notice what you says 10-man raidin' came "into vogue" in…

• Cross-Realm Zones

  Rohan

  11 May 2012 | 12:32 am

  I love Blizzard. Their playerbase is busy arguing about pandas and their dances. Then out of left field, Blizzard goes, "Hey guys, cross-realm zones. And they're seamless." Ahh, Blizz, raising the bar for everyone else. Never stop. I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of sharded servers. An end to the time when specific servers corresponded to specific pieces of hardware. Rumor has it that Blizzard basically operates a cloud of servers now, like Google, and the servers are all virtual. I was wondering how they managed to put a million people in the Pandaria Beta with only four…

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  Kill Ten Rats

• Other Funding Sources

  Zubon

  15 May 2012 | 6:04 pm

  The latest news on Copernicus is not good. Reason comments. Recent successes on Kickstarter led to discussion of the inevitable project that is not an utter fraud but just the normal well-intentioned vaporware (or a released but lousy game). Rhode Island’s loan guarantee is the potential equivalent of a $75 contribution from every citizen, except that they pay only if the project never ships. : Zubon Other Funding Sources is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

• Bearded Lady

  Zubon

  14 May 2012 | 12:02 am

  Q: There do not seem to be any female dwarves in Middle-earth. How do dwarves reproduce? A: The “New Character” button is directly below your existing characters. : Zubon Bearded Lady is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

• [GW2] Searches I Did Not Think Would Work on Google

  Zubon

  13 May 2012 | 12:02 am

  “guild wars 2 guilds” Yes, it takes you to the page you want on the wiki. Even “guild wars 2 guild” gets you the desired link on the first page of results. That is, if the page you want is how guild mechanics will work in GW2. If you wanted a list of Guild Wars 2 guilds, I don’t think that really exists yet. : Zubon [GW2] Searches I Did Not Think Would Work on Google is a post from: Kill Ten Rats

• Not Caring About Alex Mercer

  Zubon

  12 May 2012 | 6:17 am

  I’m a big advocate for awesome tutorials, because you’d better spend some time on the part of the game that every single player will see. I picked up Prototype on sale some while ago, booted it up recently, and found myself distressingly uninterested in an opening that went with too much awesome per unit of grounding. It either needs less grounding, so that awesome/grounding approaches infinity, or I need a reason to care about what is going on. If you haven’t played, Prototype starts in medias res. This is apparently a month after the start of the game, to which you will…

• [GW2] The Long Game

  Ravious

  11 May 2012 | 8:00 am

  There are a lot of head scratchers in the halls of ArenaNet. It’s not that things are wrong per se; just that sometimes they are really going against the grain. For example, their dynamic events are incredibly deep as this video illustrated. Yet it took some small amount of effort to find the hidden depth of the dynamic event. I admit that it can be hard to stop. Just stop. And enjoy the moment. The transitions  between most events are really quick, but the NPCs do take a small chance to talk. I noticed that I have to stop and pay attention. Fiddling with loot, trading post, or…

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  Stropp's World

• Launch Day Blues…

  Stropp

  15 May 2012 | 11:02 pm

  …for a single player game. What the hell is that about? You kinda expect it for a MMORPG, but lots of players just want to play the single player mode. Why Blizzard didn’t allow an offline mode like they did in Starcraft 2 is beyond me. Dumb move. If you’re prepared to get kicked out of the game at a whim, or wait in a queue to play single player Diablo 3, then by all means buy it now. Otherwise, wait until everything has died down and get it when this rediculous always on thing gets fixed. Launch Day Blues…

• Secret World Links

  Stropp

  13 May 2012 | 9:03 am

  Since I’m not in The Secret World beta at this point, I’m living vicariously through others. Here are the links. Pete at Dragonchasers gives us a first glimpse into The Secret World. Still a bit rough which might cause some launch controversy, but the quest structure (warning a bit spoilerish) makes it sound a little more traditional RPGish. Sente at A Ding World thinks there are quite a few nice things about the game. Lot’s of pictures in this post. Arkenor is doing a series of articles on The Secret World beta weekend. The Secret World Beta Bonanza, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,…

• Have You Ever Wished…

  Stropp

  10 May 2012 | 6:58 pm

  …for a device that can stop time around you and let you get everything done you need to in a day? Years ago there was a Twilight Zone episode, the newer ones from the 80′s or 90′s not the originals, where  a woman finds an object (a fob watch I think) in her backyard that grants her that ability. Of course, because it was Twilight Zone there was a sting in the tail, but still… I wish there was such a device at the moment. Have You Ever Wished…

• A MMORPG Should Be Like A Vacation

  Stropp

  9 May 2012 | 7:29 pm

  Yesterday when I wrote about what I think Bioware is doing wrong, I made the following statement: If SW:TOR has been released five years ago it might have been the WoW killer everyone has been dreaming of, but instead it has been released at a time when there appears to be a growing disatisfaction with the subscription themepark model. I said this, in part, because I’m a part of the group feeling that disatisfaction with the themepark model. The problem I find is that I also enjoy the direction inherent in a themepark. You go to a location, do a bunch of quests that when complete direct…

• Star Wars The Old Republic: Quick Thought

  Stropp

  9 May 2012 | 8:30 am

  While I was writing the last post, What Is Bioware Doing Wrong? A thought came to mind that didn’t fit in that post. Having the Star Wars IP to develop a game is pretty much a free pass to a million or more box sales. So why, with your development, go where every man has gone before? (I know, Star Trek reference doesn’t mix with Star Wars!) Bioware could have done anything with The Old Republic. They could have made it a full sandbox with no quests, and sold two million boxes. So why did they stick with the themepark model that has been copping so much negativity over the last few…

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  Honor's Code

• Think Tank: The Social Side of Tanking

  Ted A.

  23 Apr 2012 | 10:45 pm

  Today on TORWars, I’m looking at the social side of tanking. If you’ve ever tried to break into a new guild as a tank, this article will probably have a familiar feel. Hello again, TORWarriors, and welcome back to another edition of Think Tank. Today, I’m thinking about the social side of tanking. Last week, we talked about the gear, and before you can become the tank for your guild, there’s a whole other set of obstacles to overcome and skills to master.  They are social ‘soft’ skills you will need to effectively tank. We can talk about gear, and rotations, and consumables,…

• Think Tank: End Game and Gear Grind

  Honors Code

  9 Apr 2012 | 8:41 pm

  Today on Think Tank, I’m discussing the grind from a fresh Level 50 all the way up to a full fledged ready to raid tank. TORWars: Level Cap and Gear Grind Hello TORWarriors, and welcome to another Think Tank. Today, I’m thinking about the level cap. My Knight, Atceth Makabba, just hit the big 5-0. DING!   Things are working out pretty well with the new guild, but my playtime is still severely limited. We seem to have an abundance of tanks and melee DPS right now in the guild, so when 1.2 comes out I’m going to reroll my a DPS Commando. A couple of old guild mates have rerolled on…

• Think Tank, Guild Mergers, and Blatant Self-Promotion

  Honors Code

  2 Apr 2012 | 10:36 pm

  My latest article is up on TorWars today. I’m looking at the changes to tanks coming in 1.2. Guardians look to be getting a pretty substantial buff and that makes me all kinds of happy. Think Tank: Patch 1.2 and You Greetings my fellow TORWarriors, and welcome to another exciting edition of Think Tank. This week, since all of the other columnists are thinking about it, I’m also thinking about Patch 1.2. If there is one constant in MMOs, it is change, and with 1.2 major changes are coming. This content update for Star Wars The Old Republic is huge, so I want… In personal news, my guild…

• TORWars Think Tank – Tank Stats

  Honors Code

  27 Mar 2012 | 10:59 pm

  Monday, my latest article on TORWars went up. In this post I talk about the secondary tank stats and analyze some of the latest theory craft out there. The theory crafters have it a little tougher in SWTOR because until Patch 1.2 there isn’t a combat log to test some of the theory against. I’m also having to interpret other people’s posts and experience as my own progress has been slow. This has been a deliberate choice on my part to spend less time in game and more time working on various writing projects. Think Tank: Tank Stats, Survival, and DPS Hello again, TORWarriors, and welcome…

• TORWars: Think Tank – The Combat System

  Honors Code

  19 Mar 2012 | 8:38 pm

  I’ve got a new article up on TorWars talking about how the combat system works in Star Wars the Old Republic. It’s fundamentally different from the system we used in World of Warcraft. http://torwars.com/2012/03/17/think-tank-understanding-the-combat-system/ Greetings TORWarrriors, and welcome to this week’s Think Tank! This week, I’m thinking about the combat system. While on the screen we see the flash of lightsabers, and the smoke of mortars, and the tenor rumble of explosions, what is going on behind the scenes and on the servers is an array of number crunching to figure just what…

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  Two and two half paws.

• Happy Belated Mother's Day

  14 May 2012 | 5:00 am

  The one thing I wanted to do for Mother's Day? Sleep in. I put in the request early, reminded Damm and then stayed up late watching "The Vow". 9 a.m. the next morning my husband and kids bounced in with flowers, big smiles and loud cries of "Happy Mother's Day!"I think we've forgotten what sleeping in means in this family.After two cups of coffee and breakfast from Mcdonald's I felt like a person and rather enjoyed the rest of the day. I bought a 54-ounce bottle for my iced coffee (24-ounces just wasn't cutting it) and a new bottle for my protein shakes. Life is good. And here are my adorable…

• Final is today. Have some pictures.

  8 May 2012 | 5:00 am

  I love fake flowers. They never wilt and you never have to water them (only dust them occasionally). Here are three new displays I've put up:(This one I arranged myself)(You can't tell but the colors here are AWESOME in person. And the bouquet was pre-made from Walmart. I had to be there anyway for an item Albertson's didn't have.)(Another display that looks wonderful in person because of the colors. And it's another bouquet from Walmart:)(There's me.)(Real flowers!)(A tomato plant! And it's still alive!)(A melon plant. I'm not sure the container is big enough for "ahem" its melons:)

• First time "HIIT"ting it.

  2 May 2012 | 1:31 pm

  For those of you who aren't constantly reading fitness magazines and articles (like me:) HIIT is: High Intensity Interval Training. I've heard the term bandied about recently (along with the dangers of wearing high heels-who would possibly have guessed that? I am being sarcastic of course) and I've started to add in sprints to my walking and running workouts.Then, in the April edition of Oxygen magazine I came across a guide for a killer HIIT workout. I couldn't do all thirty minutes of it and in fact barely made it through half. Here's what I did (on our treadmill, 2% incline:0:00-0:59 3…

• Blogger hatred.

  29 Apr 2012 | 1:37 pm

  I was going to write a story post but upon seeing blogger's new posting format thing I stopped.  I don't like the all white screen and it bothers me to the point where I cannot creatively function.

• Making the switch.

  26 Apr 2012 | 10:44 am

  Like many of us, I shop at Walmart.It's cheaper, it's got a big selection and you can get your photos printed. Unfortunately, depending where you live, it's also a depressing place to go into. The one where we live is always crowded and the employees look (to me, anyway) dejected. I will also add, although it's horrible to say, that all elements of society go there, and, well, hmmph. Not going to proceed with that statement; it's too uppity:) Maybe it's just our city; in Missouri the local Walmart was a lovely place to go, the employees were bright and friendly, the place was clean and…

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  Tobold's Blog

• My first visit to the Diablo III auction house

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  16 May 2012 | 3:04 am

  Due to login server problems I didn't play Diablo III on launch day. But this morning I was able to play for 10 minutes, just to make sure the game worked. I got to level 3 and had 438 gold pieces. So I went and checked out the auction house: 400 gold pieces bought not one but two blue weapons (I made a dual-wielding monk), each having over twice the dps of the best weapon I had found up to that point. While some people had posted items for big amounts, there were already hundreds and thousands of low level blue and epic items available for extremely low prices. The real money auction house…

• How not to launch a single-player game

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  16 May 2012 | 1:51 am

  I have lost count of the number of MMORPG launches I participated. Given that sort of experience, I would say that the launch of Diablo III was par for the course: Login servers overloaded. Strange error messages including "you don't own a copy of Diablo III" regardless of whether you bought the game online or retail. Lack of official information from Blizzard. Pretty much what you'd expect for any big MMO launch. Only problem: Diablo III isn't exactly a MMORPG. A significant part of the people who bought the game will not have played MMORPGs, and would have expected the launch of Diablo III…

• How not to do digital distribution

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  15 May 2012 | 12:52 pm

  Diablo III Digital Purchase on Battle.net for Europeans today: €59.99 Diablo III retail version at the Media Markt in Belgium today: €39.99 Why does Blizzard think that I am willing to pay a full 50% more for the digital version?Tobold's Blog

• The Favorites of Selune campaign - Level 2 - Session 2

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  15 May 2012 | 1:39 am

  In the last session my group started the Reavers of Harkenwold adventure. They learned of a group of evil mercenaries called the Iron Circle having taken control of the Barony of Harkenwold, and started helping the resistance movement by going after a tribe of bullywugs that was allied with the Iron Circle. In this session their fight against the bullywugs continued. Having dispatched the bullywug guards in the entry part of their cavern the last time, the party now advanced into the interior of the cave. There a more epic battle ensued. Besides regular bullywugs there was their leader, a…

• Writing for an audience of one

  Tobold Stoutfoot

  14 May 2012 | 4:38 am

  I recently wrote about my doubts about the New Blogger Initiative, and could have expressed myself clearer. To be absolutely clear, I approve of new people blogging, and it is great to give them support and advice. My doubts were on the part of the initiative where they talked about using the NBI to generate traffic for new blogs. My comment was that if you write a blog with the express purpose of generating the maximum amount of traffic, then there are probably hotter subjects around to blog about than MMORPGs. Now personally I don't write to maximize traffic, even if that is often assumed.

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  Too Many Annas

• Introduce Your Pandaren

  Anna

  14 May 2012 | 9:04 am

  What kind of Pandaren are you planning on playing? Will you be rolling a monk, or some other class? Have you thought at all about an RP idea or a character basis for that character? I’m kicking around the idea of a little old lady Pandaren – nosy, busybodyish, and constantly peddling all kinds of (probably disturbing) folk remedies. I have this image in my head of her wandering around with a big jar of 4 Thieves Vinegar with a dead bird foot in it, forcing it on anyone that even hints at getting sick. I haven’t decided what class she’ll be (which probably means…

• Where have all the levelers gone?

  Anna

  10 May 2012 | 8:42 am

  I’m noticing more and more how deserted it’s been leveling Ancelyn and Annata. There might be one occasional player, though it’s seemed as often to be a Horde player as not, but I’m almost always alone while I’m out in the world. Hard to find even anyone to /wave at, let alone do things with. Combined with the much-earlier times that I’m playing (I am offline by 6:30 or 7 server time unless I do some serious planning ahead) and the general lull that is the wait before an expansion, and it’s pretty darn lonely! My guess is that all the people who are…

• Names: Don’t Fence Me In

  Anna

  8 May 2012 | 7:59 pm

  *this post is part of the Newbie Blogger Initiative – if you’re new to the world of MMO blogs or thinking about starting one, check out the site!* Part and parcel of starting a new blog is, quite simply, deciding how you’re going to set up what you want to write about, and then naming your blog. Do you want to write about PVP? Maybe how to make tons of gold? Passionate about high-level raiding? That’s all pretty easy to think about, but when you’re just getting started, quite honestly, you don’t know for sure what you’ll be writing about in three or…

• I have a little warlock

  Anna

  7 May 2012 | 8:03 am

  *sings* I have a little warlock, She’s pretty fun to play, And when she’s feeling evil, We DoT things up all day! Amazing art by Loreli, of course. (I can’t explain how much I love this portrait. There is so much personality in it! Lore does commissions (of which this is one) and they’re worth every penny. Right now I’m not playing a whole lot, but my attachment to my warlock is growing steadily. She’s a little bit evil, and that’s made her encounters with the largely sub-human populations of Ferelas (ogre, gnoll) highly entertaining. We’ve…

• Leaving SWTOR?

  Anna

  20 Mar 2012 | 9:03 am

  On one hand, all I’ve done for the last 6 weeks is log in, find the game channels deserted, not be interested in questing, and log out. On the other, I wonder if I’ve really given the game a chance. On one hand, the RP I thought would come out of playing Star Wars has utterly failed to materialize. On the other, I wonder if I’m not a good part of that, and shouldn’t put more time and effort into writing it. On one hand, Aely just isn’t working as a Jedi. On the other, that doesn’t mean my other characters don’t have a story they’re waiting to…

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  WarcraftEcon.com | Cataclysm WoW Gold Guide Blog

• Now Hiring Content Manager

  Oligopoly

  8 May 2012 | 7:05 am

  Want to join the Warcraft Econ team? With the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion as well as Diablo 3, we will have our hands full! So WoW Econ is looking to hire an avid WoW auction house player to manage content on the site as well as an economy news writer. These are paid position as we will be busy with our Diablo 3 gold guide blog, our sister site, for the next few months. Knowledge of WordPress is a plus, but not required. We can train you. See this hiring post for more details of what we are looking for. Please contact us if you are interested or if you have any questions. Related…

• Interview with Jim Younkin – Founder of Power Word Gold. On Gaming as a Profession, Gold Guides, and Diablo 3 RMAH

  Oligopoly

  30 Apr 2012 | 7:05 am

  Today we have with us Jim Younkin of PowerWordGold.net, the man responsible for one of the few gold making podcasts, streams, and one of the top gold blogs. Recently he has created an illustrated guide that has a “You Choose Which Price” model. Meaning you can choose to pay which price of the available prices you want for it. We thought it was really interesting idea so we decided to contact him and set up an interview to see what it is all about as well as to get to know one of the predominant figures in the gold community. This is the first time we have done an interview like…

• Black Market Auction House Coming to WoW Mists of Pandaria

  Oligopoly

  29 Mar 2012 | 5:09 am

  This client string was datamined by MMO-Champion recently: BLACK_MARKET_AUCTION_HOUSE At first we thought it was a neutral auction house in the new expansion or possibly a cross realm AH. However further investigation led me to the fan site WoW Interface that participated in the press tour about a week ago. They had asked about upcoming UI changes. Blizzard responded with: Addition of black market windows Auctions by NPCs of rare items for players to bid on. Updated auction house windows Wow! I can only imagine the possibilities. Could it be a vendor with a new gold sink that gold capped…

• World of Warcraft 5th Expansion In The Works Already? Patch 6.0 – The One After Mists of Pandaria

  Oligopoly

  24 Mar 2012 | 1:17 am

  Looks like the lore team is getting started on the expansion after Patch 5.0, Mists of Pandaria. It doesn’t look like WoW is going anywhere anytime soon. There will most likely be another one after that too! World of Warcraft’s fifth expansion pack is already approved and in development at Blizzard’s Irvine, California HQ, the company’s confirmed. “I got the pitch from Chris Metzen of what they plan for 6.0 and I’m pretty geeked up about it. They already know what they’re going to be doing for multiple expansions ahead.” (Source) In other news,…

• Hall of Fame – 1 Million Gold Cap Club: Gintara of The Sha’tar-EU

  Oligopoly

  23 Mar 2012 | 8:05 am

  The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame interviews the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 999,999 gold 99 silver 99 copper as well as ones who have obtain 500k and 250k. We have with us, Gintara of The Sha’tar-EU, who will be sharing their story with us today. Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience. Hello, I am Gintara from The Sha’tar-EU. Am a 23 year old 4th year architecture student with very few lectures during the day and a lot of free time in the evening as my boyfriend lives in another country, sadly. This leaves me plenty of time…

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  35 Yards Out

• That Kiril Moment

  Loronar

  7 May 2012 | 8:14 am

  As many hunters (and druids) know, the proc effect of [Kiril, Fury of Beasts] actually causes some annoyances. For example, Bauxite of Aspect of the Dork had this to say about it over the weekend. My Kiril keeps proccing and I keep hitting my head on the ceiling in Wailing Caverns :( #firstnerdproblems— Nick / Bauxite (@aspectofthedork) May 06, 2012 I went to do a Keepers of Time reputation run at Durnholde Keep on Saturday when Kiril decided to proc right before I entered the orc camp houses. Of course, I had to wait for the effect to wear off until I could fit into the doorway and set…

• The Blue Child

  Loronar

  28 Mar 2012 | 8:53 am

  There is a picture from an MMO Champion thread that making its rounds among lore enthusiasts. As a Burning Crusade baby, I never realized that Azeroth once had two moons. The sky I have always seen in Azeroth is that with a single moon, the White Lady. However, the one pictured above, the Blue Child, will soon make its return in Mists of Pandaria. According to lore, the Blue Child was sent away by the Earthmother prior to the arrival of the Burning Legion. Its return now must mean that Azeroth is safe from the Burning Legion for now. I’m still playing. Most of the time I will only log…

• That Lame Duck Period

  Loronar

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:31 am

  For some reason, the new year has brought a “lame duck” aura over Cataclysm, where we are just waiting for the release of the next expansion. This is actually the first time that I have cleared raid content for an expansion while it is current. Loronar, Destroyer’s End, killed Deathwing two weekends ago. Now I’m beginning to focus on my somewhat neglected alts to see if I can get them to 85 before the next expansion. Cataclysm moved surprisingly fast. The final raid content was released within one year of the expansion’s release, staying true to Blizzard’s…

• Survival’s Silent Comeback

  Loronar

  15 Dec 2011 | 8:52 am

  It probably says something when six of the top ten Alliance hunters on my realm is raiding as Survival over Marksmanship. Here is how the rankings look as of this morning. WoW Heroes is a quick way to check realm rankings because it can quickly parse guild rosters according to specific classes, so all I needed to do was update the hunter rosters of the Alliance guilds that have entered Dragon Soul on Eredar by cross-checking with WoW Progress. Incidentally, I am ranked 22nd as of this posting as Survival. The first Beast Mastery hunter appears in 26th place. This is a marked difference…

• Speaking of Rage

  Loronar

  12 Dec 2011 | 7:28 am

  On the first night that the second half of Dragon Soul opened up on Raid Finder, I was lucky enough to have the [Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth] drop for me. This meant I had access to the best-in-slot ranged weapon pre-progression raiding. Of course, the purpose of this entry is not to brag. It is to investigate the proc damage that is done by this bow. Your ranged attacks have a chance to deal 7040/7950/8970 damage over 2 sec. The tooltip may lead you to believe that this is a static damage caused by the bow. This is, however, not the case because the damage is not physical damage, but magical…

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  Business Egotisticalpriest

• BUSINESS IDEAS BANK: FREE ADOPTION OF BUSINESS CONCEPTS

  admin

  9 May 2012 | 7:53 pm

  There must be millions of ideas out there. However, rarely do they get progressed and most of them just remain thoughts in someone’s head. One way to find all those ideas is to search on the thousands of websites. And to make it easier for you to find them, the ideas can be listed in one site that acts as ideas bank. But why bother? What are those ideas for anyway? Ideas are very important in one’s societies. Inventions and businesses came from one simple idea and now, those are the ones who are keeping the economy alive. Unfortunately, there are many people out there who are…

• Guide to shopping in cashback service

  admin

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:12 pm

  If you follow this guide, you will find that shopping cashback best way to recoup some money you will surely spend your groceries. However, in order to get the best value, you should check cashback sites as much as possible, learn how much cashback on purchases that they offer a variety of familiarizing themselves with the requirements and additional costs. obviously this can cause a significant reduction in monthly utility customers addicted. so do not be blinded by the great cashback offer – shop around! In addition, there are many reports of customers do not pay cashback on their…

• Your Guide to Home Office Layout and Design

  admin

  3 Jan 2012 | 6:25 pm

  Your home based business needs a dedicated area in your home to work from. It’s essential to your overall success to have a properly designated space to work from in order to maintain your work ability and efficiency. Simply “making do” won’t help your business be a success in the long run. Choosing the best area in your home to locate your home office in is a key task for anyone who ever wants to work from home. Now you’ll need to look at what part of your home you’d like to convert to a home office. Which room in your home will readily convert to a home…

• 

  HuntsmansLodge.com

• Evil is Nearly Unleashed

  Garwulf

  15 May 2012 | 1:30 am

  Less than one hour until the launch of Diablo 3… I’m pretty excited about this – how about you? As many of you may have noticed…things have been awful quiet around here lately. I haven’t had much time for gaming – but whatever time I have had to kill bad guys (or talk about killing [...]

• Garwulf Hunter UI Update

  Garwulf

  22 Apr 2012 | 8:18 pm

  Hey, folks. Sorry for the lack of posting around here, but I have great excuses…trust me. I really haven’t been able to play much in the past few months, but I did log on today for a bit – and – I also managed to update my UI download on WoWInterface. If you’ve been using [...]

• Updated List of Hunter Class Changes in the MoP Beta

  Garwulf

  27 Mar 2012 | 3:11 am

  MMO-Champion recently posted a compiled list of all the class changes that are in the MoP beta. I’m not sure how new all of these hunter updates are, but regardless…I’m just now seeing them for the first time. I’ve been out of the WoW loop for quite a few weeks now, but I hope to [...]

• New Spirit Beast in Mists of Pandaria?

  Garwulf

  27 Mar 2012 | 1:25 am

  I’m a little behind on the recent wave of MoP updates, but for those of you who’ve seen this… Ummm…is that what I think it is? If this is in fact a new Spirit Beast model, I imagine a few of you out there will probably want to tame it. Yeah…that has to be a [...]

• Cataclysm Hunter Power Auras

  Garwulf

  14 Feb 2012 | 7:22 pm

  It only took me nearly a year and a half, but I finally went through and performed a complete update on my Hunter Power Auras page. I was maintaining my complete sets of strings on the page, but today I decided to update the entire guide — individual strings, descriptions, screenshots, etc… I also removed [...]

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  We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog

• Looking Forward To Diablo 3’s Real-Money Auction House

  Gordon

  12 May 2012 | 3:26 pm

  "Sorry honey, but I just spent this month's mortgage gearing up my Wizard" I have to say that I’m quite looking forward to Diablo 3’s Real-Money Auction House (RMAH), not because I intend to buy or sell anything through it (although I can’t say that I won’t) but because I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how its introduction affects players and online gaming in general. See, I reckon Diablo 3 is going to sell by the bucket load and make Blizzard a mountain of cash, a mountain that will turn into Everest itself one they start raking in…

• Why I Don’t Like Raiding

  Gordon

  7 May 2012 | 5:38 pm

  I have no idea what's going on in this screenshot I’ve never been a big fan of raiding in MMOs and it’s certainly something that I talk about fairly regularly. For me, raiding offers a pretty disjointed experience, counter intuiative to the whole leveling game in itself. Indeed, just like we now have games like League of Legends that offer what equates to essentially full-time PvP battlegrounds, maybe we should have completely separate games for raiding instead of trying to tack them onto a leveling game? Perhaps I’m a ‘traditionalist’ in the way that I like…

• Why Females Are Oversexualised In Video Games

  Gordon

  6 May 2012 | 3:00 pm

  Pre-Victoria's Secret concept art from Diablo 3 Update: A lot of this article has been misconstrued either through confusion or in the name of melodrama. To be 100% clear, I’m not condoning sexism or oversexualisation in video games in any way at all. Indeed, if anything, the purpose of the article is to highlight the history of inequality that has existed between the genders and try to answer why it not only happened but still continues today. For the sake of consistency, I’ve left the article unmodified even though I’ve been sorely tempted to correct areas where…

• Play World of Warcraft, Become A Mass Murderer

  Gordon

  21 Apr 2012 | 5:14 pm

  Didn't you know? WoW will turn you into a sociopath Or so some of the press would have us believe. I don’t know how much it’s being reported in the US but in Europe the media are having a field day reporting that Anders Brievik, currently on trial for the murder for 77 people in Norway last year, played World of Warcraft 16 hours a day for one year solid. It’s the old “video games are evil” debate all over again except this time the Internet is being thrown into the mix too. Now I can’t say for certain that computer games don’t impact our mental…

• The Real Key To Player Retention

  Gordon

  15 Apr 2012 | 3:00 pm

  Behold, pet battles! The future of all MMORPGs. There’s little doubting that the long-term financial success of MMOs is in player retention. Box sales alone don’t count for much and I could easily run off plenty of examples of games that sold well on release then took a nose dive after a month or two and now languish in low popularity limbo. However, when it comes to what matters most, few developers actually seem to have been able to unlock the secret player retention. BioWare for one looks like it’s suffering and if their latest awful promotion is anything to go by, they…

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  TyphoonAndrew's - Eye of the Storm

• Fire from the sky has ended

  typhoonandrew

  15 May 2012 | 8:30 pm

  To postpone the hungry cadre of gamers trying to install Diablo 3, the system declared that the fire from the sky had not ended. We waited. None patiently. Now the great zerg to play D3 has begun. A few updates and patches, some apologies for errors, and a lot of persistence has players now enjoying the game. My take – well I’ve created a toon and entered the world, but I’ll only be commenting on major stuff in the first ten levels which is different from the beta, or where something is darn odd. I’m pleased to say that it is exactly as expected so far. It’s…

• Excellent D3 Prequel Cartoon

  typhoonandrew

  11 May 2012 | 2:13 am

  D3 is only a week away, and Blizzard has released a darn good 6 minute cartoon which tells the pre-story to Diablo. More games should be released with this style and flavour of side-material. It shows (at least to me) that Blizzard understand the audience who arekeen to play Diablo 3, and that they are really aiming to create something worthy of the lore we have grown to love. We have also had the “End of Days” tv spot / promo for the game too, which is also very good, but not a cartoon akin to the one above. The animation in End of days is more realistic than the prequel, but it…

• Playing many games, casually.

  typhoonandrew

  27 Apr 2012 | 2:56 am

  I’m in that happy state where I get to play many games. World of Warcraft has taken a significant backseat due to real life events, and along with that I’ve chosen to look into the MoP Beta and the Diablo 3 Beta. The odd distracting iphone game gets a look too. Playing of the big three games very briefly and casually is actually more satisfying in the short term than trying to play one game solidly. Initially I would doubt that to be true. In a nutshell I think being moderate has pushed my expectations, and I now find the small elements of fun amongst a range of games. For now its…

• Cryptic Accounts Compromised

  typhoonandrew

  26 Apr 2012 | 5:30 am

  Cryptic tell me via email today that my password and some user credentials might have been compromised. Eff’ing what? “The unauthorized access included user account names, handles, and encrypted passwords for those accounts. Even though the passwords were encrypted, it is apparent that the intruder has been able to crack some portion of the passwords in this database. All accounts that we believe were present in the database have had the passwords reset, and customers registered to these accounts have been notified via e-mail of this incident.” I want details, more detail…

• DK Mullet Set – pvp tier

  typhoonandrew

  26 Apr 2012 | 2:56 am

  The new Death Knight set has been shared by MMO Champ – I’m calling it the mullet set. Business in the front, party in the back. … A mullet joke is better than the “me-so-horny” jokes you’ll see in Stormwind and the Deeprun Tram very soon. The set without the helm is good, I don’t understand the helm design. Filed under: Death Knight, Warcraft Tagged: dk, Gear, mullet, pvp, set

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  Dakona: "The Huntress"

• Getting Distracte...err Closer

  26 Apr 2012 | 5:45 pm

  Oh how that warm weather calls to me. Yes it has been tough to log in these past few months but some snow yesterday had me running back to Azeroth with my tail between my legs. Adult Dakona has already retired to her summer slumber and I predict she will stay there until early fall. However baby Dakona refuses to go down and continues to crawl a long at a snails pace. She now has Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills and Dragonblight under her belt. She is currently over half way through Zul'Drak and is itching to get to Sholazar Basin where her bestest friend awaits her. Baby Dakona…

• Tag I'm It?

  27 Feb 2012 | 4:28 am

  I've seen this a few times on other blogs lately and was surprised when Sesamee tagged me on her blog Shooting Azeroth.Apparently the premise is as follows:Go into your image folderOpen the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.Publish the imageChallenge six new bloggers.Link to them. I didn't have six image sub-folders so I just took the sixth image in my screenshots folder. As a blogger I randomly take screenshots here and there when I think I see something worth snapping, so the photo that I am sharing has no real meaning to it.It's just Dakona on her Time Lost Drake stopping…

• New Adventures

  23 Feb 2012 | 6:06 am

  Everyone's character looks like their age could be anywhere from 16-60 depending on the race you are. As a blood elf I fall at the younger end of that and I've sometimes wondered about the years "before" I took control of Dakona. Now I'm not much of a role player, but in order to have played this game for so long I've had to relate to Dakona and assume parts of myself are in her. Anyone who knows me, knows that I HATE questing. In fact Kecco my paladin and my original toon was leveled from 50 to 70 from only healing instances since I refused to play Retribution. I currently have every class…

• Update 2012

  21 Jan 2012 | 1:50 am

  It's been a while since I checked in, but as I said at Christmas it's not due a lack of WoW activity. In fact this is turning into one of the most enjoyable periods of WoW I've had in ages. I'm still on the dying server of Scilla, and I joined a predominately all Asian guild that speaks very little English but I'm loving life and the new LFR set up. But the most exciting news is I have put together my transmo set!. It took about 5 Black Temple and 3 Hyjal runs to get everything but I finally got it all and I'm pretty stoked about it. I've come to hate Shamans in the last few months, having to…

• Merry Christmas!!!

  25 Dec 2011 | 8:04 pm

  I hope Santa was good to everyone. I've been slacking on the blog but I've been playing WoW more than ever. Lots of new updates and blogging for 2012 I promise. Thanks for visiting my blog this year and I look forward to the year ahead!

• 

  Raging Monkey's

• NBI - Different ways to contribute

  Syl

  8 May 2012 | 3:59 pm

  I've noticed people on twitter asking how they could show their support for the ongoing NBI which no doubt you must have noticed by the amount of blogger advice currently being offered all around this colorful bazaar we call the blogosphere. Maybe you feel like adding another voice to the list of topics where bloggers share their personal experience and helpful tips - maybe you feel reluctant about this or dubious how to possibly contribute anything that hasn't been written already. The reply tweets included a link to the NBI forums and how to sign up for becoming a sponsor. What if you're…

• The unsavoury Case of Tera's regional Morals

  Syl

  5 May 2012 | 5:24 pm

  With more and more armor and boob complaints on the female character models in Guild Wars 2 popping up, it struck me how quiet the blogosphere has been in regards to Tera - and what has been going on there in terms of character representation and "censorship" over the last couple of months. I wonder: is it a sign of the more western oriented blogosphere's disinterest in this MMO, or have players just given up on discussing delicate issues where Asian games are concerned? Well, here's some background: Act I) In April 2012, Tera's publisher announces the removal of ingame blood splatter effects…

• GW2 Beta Weekend - Overflow, Exploration, Combat and a second Look at Customization

  Syl

  29 Apr 2012 | 2:04 pm

  Just when I had tweeted the above picture waiting on the GW2 beta on Friday evening, ANet's servers suddenly went live - over one hour before official beta start. I am tempted to call this a smart move on their side, ~1mio people trying to log on during the same, small time window = not fun. Anyway, I was an early starter and a rocky start it was! After so many hours of disconnecting and not finding your mates because of cryptic overflow mechanics (I CAN'T SEE YOU!), I went to bed hoping for some fixes. It's certainly been a good stress test and ANet were fairly responsive in getting the…

• So...where to head first in the GW2 beta?

  Syl

  25 Apr 2012 | 11:22 am

  Having arrived back home from a rather lackluster interview experience, my good old PC has finished all its work in the meantime - the GW2 beta hath installeth! My install auto-switched to German, no doubt thanks to blasted IP-detection (I don't even live in Germany!), but then I sincerely hope ingame language can be changed after logging in. To those of you who, like myself, did still not receive the official invite email, fret not: head here, follow "News and Announcements", login and go for "Getting Started". If you have registered via pre-purchase before, you can download the client and…

• Monday musings on phony media, SWTOR, birdchat and wishing it was Friday already

  Syl

  23 Apr 2012 | 4:40 am

  Last year's media controversy regarding the mass murders in Norway, has resurfaced once more among bloggers. I commented on the ludicrous claims in July 2011 and how angry it makes me every time newspapers and TV channels pull the video gamer card when such exceptional human tragedies occur somewhere on the world. Redbeard, Tobold and Gordon have each voiced their concerns in the past week and I briefly wondered about the timing. Around here, the news have gone very quiet for some months now, as is the way of the world. We are shocked, we cry out wringing our hands, we pay our condolences -…

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  BullCopra

• Free mount? Count me in!

  4 May 2012 | 3:00 am

  Allods became 'mature' as a MMO. I mean, it came one year old and because of that they hand out free mounts to all 'established characters'. Which in short means characters who have reached the capital city and have access to the mail box. Allods itself hasn't changed much. It's still pretty, eye candy, with nice features and very unique feel to the graphics and all. In a way, I could recommend it if you were on WoW but wanted to have something wee bit different to try. The talent grids have changed and all characters not so up to date will find their skills and talents reset. Which is…

• Team Two to the victory - again

  2 May 2012 | 1:20 am

  Last weeks news, really. Three brothers took on Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning and - unsurprisingly - conquered them both. It's getting pretty boring already to be able to go through two instance in one evening, even more so because we have to find ways to get wiped, consciously. Hecklers, do we really have to pick up the heroics to get any challenge here, huh? Then again, with heroics we know that three appropriate level characters can never dish enough damage to counter the rage. Thus this is vain to even mention. On another note: the distribution of experience changes considerably…

• Superheroes away

  26 Apr 2012 | 5:00 am

  How clever things new owners sometimes do. I mean, I liked Champions Online when it turned F2P. But I ran out of steam as it is really, really boring to go through the quests which are a repetition of the same over and over. Now the new owner, Perfect Worlds, introduced some nice revamping and features to suck me back. It was exactly 160 days since I had last logged in (how nice of them to state that in the login room... :P ) as I punched my Mystic, Mystico to the world again. The first thing was that the skills were reset. And the whole crafting had been revamped. And there were new…

• Brothers united

  23 Apr 2012 | 5:43 am

  As mentioned in earlier post, all the original Stooges are now under the same guild as the second team. In short, Three Stooges are now all in the same guild, which in turn is owned by... Three Stooges! Due to the fact that we got a bit carried away and accustomed to the guild perks over our time in high level raiding guild, we came to the conclusion that the more the merrier. In short, The Order of the Fist opened it's doors and was added into the guild recruitment system. We do not promise anything apart from our own Thursday threesomes. The guild is there to provide social playground and…

• Three still rule

  13 Apr 2012 | 1:00 am

  Three dunces took yet again a new feather into their bright, shiny and feather filleg high hat by tackling a new set of Northrend dungeons at about the right level range. Ok, Team Dos - or Two as we cleverly put it - has evolved a bit over the level range of the dungeons just now, but we're catching up with the glass roof soon enough. The night's menu was Violet Hold, Zul'Drak and Gundrak, and despite the fact that we were undermanned, we were astonished how easy they felt. And how darn challenging they have always been for full random groups in the past. Granted, though, that our level range…

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  Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog

• No Quarter

  Pugnacious Priest

  10 May 2012 | 8:41 am

  Ancient legends say the rank a fallen warrior held Depended on an Honor Guard of foes that one had felled. And so in tardy tribute to the one we couldn’t save, We’ll lay your fiery deaths like crimson flowers on her grave. No Quarter – Echoes Children – Honor Harrington One of the things that disappoints me in RBG’s is the tendency for losing teams to leave the BG “Where did they all go?” So you have to go through the motions of capping the flag 3 times, or waiting for your resources to cap out. This happens because the other team,  sometimes one at…

• Update your Guildox Profile and Win a Companion Pet

  Pugnacious Priest

  10 May 2012 | 8:40 am

  Guild Ox are giving away 2 companion pets thanks to WoW TCG Loot and who doesn’t want to play with a lil XT when he spent all that time chucking tantrums at us in Ulduar “How to win? Simply log in to GuildOx, go to your options page and update your guild’s recruitment needs – you don’t need to be a guild officer to do this. Anyone that updates their recruitment profile will be eligible to win one of these two companions. The prizes will be drawn on the 11th May so don’t delay.” go to http://www.guildox.com to log in and update your recruitment…

• Bench warming

  Pugnacious Priest

  1 May 2012 | 11:19 am

  ( Bench from Ikea) Right now we are running a little heals heavy.  By heals heavy  it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the healers are available all the time. So mostly it works out that we seem to always have enough healers around, and a couple of healers that can do offspec dps if we need the dps, but sometimes a healer or two,  or a dps or two will need to bench warm for a boss. Sometimes while we were working on hard modes,  this would mean a significant part of the raid night, and then we would slowly lose our bench warmers to alts, or they would just would log off and not…

• Lose – ah.. USE the Lightwell.

  Pugnacious Priest

  17 Apr 2012 | 6:10 am

  The light-well is a pain. I can’t put it down on Heroic Yor’sahj in case someone clicks it and gets a stack.  ( better to be safe then blown up right?) I stick a bright yellow bowl of light in the melee and no one notices it, or clicks it to see what happens before the fight has began and considering I watched someone eat 10 charges of my lightwell last night when I had placed it for attempts at Heroic  Warmaster Blackhorn only to see it disappear before pull, made me VERY MAD. * Priest rage Priest rage* No one takes it seriously.  People rarely click on it and I seem to be one…

• Real beta invite V Fake one.

  Pugnacious Priest

  16 Apr 2012 | 3:27 am

  Over the last week or so, I got these two emails, and I thought it would be interesting to have a look at them. One is a real invite, and the other is a fake, but what are the differences. The from emails  are potentially believable  @blizzard.com v @email.blizzard.net Say it’s from Blizzard and we will believe it right? The top one is the real one ( and yes did check my account) Titles of the emails are the same, the name of the “From” is the same  but it’s only the email address that is different. ( and Sif bliz  would use a .net Images are identical.  The Text…

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  Jaded Alt

• If You Remember Nothing Else….WRITE! #MMONBI

  Windsoar

  15 May 2012 | 11:37 am

  May is just flying away, and there are a hundred and one other things I can talk about blogging and getting started. Last year, I’d provided a little snapshot into my own pet peeves when reading blogs: like all advice take it or leave it. There have also been a slew of helpful posts on hosting and things over at the NBI forums. I particularly enjoyed these three posts on setting up your blog, connecting with the community, and handling that RSS mess. And while I could provide similar and just as well meaning advice on connecting with the greater community of bloggers (that’s kinda…

• Diablo 3 Auction Houses

  brunpal

  9 May 2012 | 9:00 am

  Diablo 3 AH is a game changer in every sense. However I’ve not seen a lot of analysis and if possible, even less since the rates have been announced. Sure people have been gasping and saying “Two AHs?  What does it mean!?” for months now but that doesn’t really count.  So here’s a bit of analysis: The Diablo 3 AH will be very different from current expectations now that the rate structure is out. It’s a fair bit more expensive than expected. I predict that the Diablo 3 AH will be screwed up, or at the very least screwy. But the % fee isn’t what is…

• What’s In a Name? #MMONBI

  Windsoar

  6 May 2012 | 1:46 pm

  Another day, another post for the Newbie Blogging Initiative! Before we get started, I’ve had a couple of questions about getting involved. Whether you want to be a blogger (or are a newbie!) or if you wish to sponsor the NBI, just head over to the NBI forums, find the appropriate section of forums (Sponsor or Newbie) and sign up! There’s already some good threads started where brave souls have ponied up some questions. Don’t be shy, we won’t eat you! The Bard would tell us that our blog is going to be awesome no matter what we call, and in that, he’s not far…

• So You Wanna Be a Blogger? #MMONBI

  Windsoar

  4 May 2012 | 12:31 pm

  Before we get into a lots of nuts and bolts of how to manage your blog, you really have to decide whether you want to blog. While no one can really answer that question but you, here’s some things to think about as you contemplate signing up for your own writing space.   What It’s Good For Do you like reading about your favorite games? Do you spend a portion of your day cuddled up with your S.O. blabbing about your recent kill, or even worse, don’t have anyone to talk to about your gaming hobby? Or you could be that person who swamps their guild forums with every guide…

• Be a Blogger Campaign | Newbie Blogger Initiative

  Windsoar

  1 May 2012 | 10:00 am

  I love reading blogs, I love keeping in contact with a cadre of other bloggers through twitter and Blog Azeroth, and best of all, I want you to ask yourself: Should I be a blogger? For the month of May, in conjunction with a swarm of other bloggers across the MMO genre, I’ll be posting about the nuts and bolts of blogging, the good, the bad, and technical, to encourage you, and you, and yeah, you over there, to take your thoughts, stories, and screenshot folder, and share them through a blog. I started my own blog in September 2009, somewhat as a whim, but primarily as an archive.

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  Mana Obscura

• “I’ll Wait Till It’s Free”

  Gazimoff

  15 May 2012 | 11:03 am

  When I started playing MMOs, it seemed that the genre was split into two camps. Subscription based games were seen as champions of quality, coupled with legendary customer service. By contrast, free to play games were looked down upon with distain, being games for those who preferred to buy their way to victory instead of earn it the hard way. They also had a tinge of underhandedness, as if developers were looking for increasingly ingenious ways to crack open customer wallets. Over the last five years, I’d argue that our perceptions have changed. Guild Wars 1 and 2 introduced the “buy the…

• Just Listen You Idiots!

  Gazimoff

  7 May 2012 | 9:10 pm

  It doesn’t matter what MMO I talk about, I’ve only ever played two thirds of the game. It doesn’t matter if it’s World of Warcraft, RIFT, Star Wars: The Old Republic or any of the countless other worlds I’ve kicked around in. Whatever the game, I’ve avoided PvP completely. I’ve not always been like this: back in the vanilla days of WoW I’d play my hideously overpowered mage and have huge amounts of fun. Looking back, I think that my interest in PvP plummeted when all these special rules and exceptions came in. Resistance gear. Diminishing returns. Trinket rules. Yadda yadda.

• The Trans-Temporal MMO Sausage

  Gazimoff

  5 May 2012 | 3:22 pm

  I’m incredibly excited by the future of MMO gaming. This year alone, the launch of TERA, Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World shows that developers aren’t afraid to experiment with new concepts in order to keep the genre alive and fresh. The free-to-play market is also bubbling away, with Firefall, Warhammer Online: Wrath of Ancients, and Tribes Ascended offering us new and unique experiences. If anything, the free-to-play model has shown Western studios that it is possible to make a good quality MMO without the overhanging subscription free. Although we’ve seen many top-flight examples…

• You Can Write Too!

  Gazimoff

  2 May 2012 | 5:55 pm

  Boxes of chocolates are like boxes of frogs. They’re both boxes. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarity ends, as anyone who’s received a box of frogs on Valentine’s Day will surely agree. So, boxes of frogs are actually nothing like boxes of chocolates, and should under no circumstances be used as a gift for loved ones. In fact, putting frogs in boxes is a ludicrous idea, unless you happen to be a biologist specialising in amphibians. Another thing completely unlike a box of frogs is a blog about massively multiplayer online role-playing games, such as this one. The construction,…

• Annual Pass: A Post Mortem

  Gazimoff

  15 Apr 2012 | 11:23 am

  I promise this article is going to be the last thing I write about the World of Warcraft Annual Pass. Once this is finished, I’m done with the whole sorry saga. To me, the whole process has been a great concept gone disastrously wrong, exposing how far a company will push their terms and conditions at the expense of customer satisfaction. It’s also – and I’m being honest here – the symptom of a bet gone bad. Of calculating the probability of when key events would happen, and getting it wrong. While these events are still somewhat inside Blizzard’s control, it’s something…