Looking for something in particular?

• Home
• Blog
• About
• Gaming
• Plugins
• Free Stuff
• Wishlist
• Contact

World of Warcraft Satire: The Guild

October 24, 2007 | 2 Comments

While browsing YouTube as I typically do when I’m bored in the evenings, I found The Guild. The show focuses on “Codex”, a female WoW addict and her guild’s in and out of game interactions. The star, Felicia Day, is also the writer and has done an amazing job at capturing the varied personalities that you often encounter in an online gaming group.

As a former addict to World of Warcraft, I (and to some degree, my wife) could immediately relate with the characters and had us laughing throughout. The script is quality.

Here’s the first episode:

Episode 1

There are currently 3 episodes (with more in the making) and a gag reel. Check them out here:

• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Gag Reel 1

I just found out from the official The Guild Site that episodes 4 and 5 just gained funding so those should be out at some point soon! w00t! I need to go donate :D

Code Monkey: Software Developer Theme Song a-la World of Warcraft

August 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I just found this video over at the Geekend blog at Tech Republic.

The song is by Jonathan Coulton, a rocker that seems to understand the life of a love-struck code monkey. I headed over to his site and found that I like a lot of his stuff. He’s got a great sound and his songs appeal to my taste :) To top it off, he quit his life of being a programmer in 2005 to pursue music and has done a bang-up job in my opinion. A lot of funny and geeky tunes. Of note are:

• Code Monkey
• Re: Your Brains
• Skullcrusher Mountain
• Baby Got Back (His own twist on the song…awesome)
• Mandelbrot Set
• A Laptop Like You

Etc, etc, etc. I like a lot more of his stuff (which he calls ‘well crafted geeky folk-pop). The best thing of all, he offers the songs for purchase from his store DRM-free! I will definitely be buying a number of them to add to my collection. Definitely worth a listen.

UPDATE:
Ok. So I like this dude’s stuff. I’ve forked over the cash and bought all his songs. w00t. Geekly songs abound (and some non-geeky ones). I have also found another very well done video rendition of “Code Monkey” done anime style with footage from “Black Heaven“. I figured I’d share it here too. Here it is:

World of Warcraft Addiction

April 1, 2007 | 2 Comments

This video - while one would first like to chuckle at the thought of a World of Warcraft addiction - speaks volumes to what is a reality for many who play the game.

I, for a time, was spiraling down towards addiction to the game when it was first released…if I had not been married at the time, I’m quite sure my life would have suffered with the addiction. There are a few people I know that are quite thoroughly enthralled by WoW that they spend gobs and gobs of time playing, sometimes forfeiting time with friends and family to opt to raid. It is fun, don’t get me wrong, but there is a balance that needs to be reached and many just don’t have the willpower to draw that line.

I am one of those people. I can’t play a game like that without getting fully involved…I thrive on that type of thing…so steering clear is the best bet. Thanks to Randy I’m a board game geek now and spend time playing Euro Games when I’m not doing stuff with my wife or programming or screwing around with EatPoopUCat.

Not everyone can pull themselves away, though…MMO addiction is sadly a reality. How much longer before we begin having Interventions for addicted gamers?

WTB Epic Flying Mount For 1 Butt Tattoo

March 5, 2007 | 4 Comments

World of Warcraft is permeating our lives and what we do to ourselves. Wow. This guy is truly one crazy dude. Read this quote from this member of the Garithos guild on the server of the same name.

Wow. Just wow. Here’s the dude’s video:

Google Maps: Map World of Warcraft

February 7, 2007 | 8 Comments

Google Maps has been taken to a whole new level. The greatest mashup of the gaming world has been created using data from World of Warcraft and the Google Maps API. The end result is brilliant! Its name? MapWoW.

What is it exactly? Well, its a map of World of Warcraft that you can zoom in and out on Blizzard’s wonderful MMORPG world with the familiar controls of Google’s mapping tool. MapWoW gives a good description on what can be done with the tool:

Overall, a fairly groovy mashup with a lot of functionality for World of Warcraft! Awesome.

UPDATE: It seems the guys at MapWoW have an Outland map as well. w00t!

World of Warcraft Motivational Posters

January 18, 2007 | 3 Comments

Inspired by Cruise Gazing and Despair, I decided to make my own Motivational Posters.

WoW UI Mod: FuBar

January 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

When I played World of Warcraft before my hiatus, TitanPanel was all the rage. What did it do? Well, it put this sexy little bar at the top of your UI with a lot of useful information that would otherwise have taken up a large area on the screen with the default UI. Titan Panel was excellent in that it provided easy to use hooks for other User Interface developers to tie their mods in with TitanPanel.

My new love in minimized data display in a sexy-little-bar format? FuBar. Why? Well…its basically the same mod with a slightly uglier texture behind it…but it has one amazing benefit that sold me on first use. You can have more than one bar!!!!! There’s a bit more than that so I’ll list FuBar’s features below:

• Drag and drop rearragement of plugins.
• Any plugin can exist on left or right.
• Automatically adjust frames (can be turned off)
• Any number of bars (not limited to just 2), you can attach to the top, bottom, or detach any amount you want.
• Can detach a tooltip and pin it to the UI.
• Object-oriented design.
• LoadOnDemand capabilities for plugins.
• Modularity (absolutely no plugins are intimitely connected to the core)
• Minimal resource usage
• Lots of handy features for developers.
• Well documented API.
• Skinning support
• Can change the thickness, font size, transparency, spacing through simple sliders on the right-click menu.
• Can place plugins on the minimap, which will function like standard minimap buttons.

Yet another mod you should adopt.

A Guide to Druid Forms

January 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Over my time off and on World of Warcraft, I’ve seen a number of questions regarding Druid Forms. Well, the other day while reading a random WoW forum, I stumbled on an animated signature image that detailed some of the key forms a Druid character can become. Here are the words of wisdom:

Amazing descriptions to live by. Thank you. That is all.

Wowhead, The New ThottBot

January 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment

If you are a fan of World of Warcraft, there’s a high probability that you have found yourself at Thottbot - a search engine for WoW data - a time or two. My wife and I have used that as a resource for quite some time when trying to find the optimal monster to kill for a given item, the location of a hard-to-find NPC, etc. Thottbot was our one-stop-shop.

Enter Wowhead. (Yes, that’s the correct spelling)

What is Wowhead? Its basically a sexy-looking Thottbot. It provides:

• A clean and usable interface
• Colors that more closely jive with the feel of WoW
• Item/Profession/Class information
• Embeddable Talent Calculator (you can put the calculator on your site)
• Periodic contests

What is really exciting at Wowhead is that they plan to create a set of APIs for Developers. I have some ideas that I’d love to accomplish with WoW data, however, it would seem silly to re-create the wheel and create my own Thottbot/Wowhead. Creating a WoW mashup would be much more desirable. I’ll be watching and waiting with fingers crossed.

WoW UI Mod: MetaHud

January 10, 2007 | 8 Comments

MetaHud is an addon that adds a HUD to your UI, showing all the information normally displayed by the Player and Target frames and more. This is a derivative of Drathal’s HUD with some added features that are pretty useful…some of the excess stuff has been removed.

Here are the features:

• Health/Mana Bars colour levels.
• All Bars are animated.
• Shows Level, Name, Class and Elite/Boss, Pet, NPC.
• 4 Alpha Settings for: Combat/Target selected/No Target/Player is regging.
• 4 Displaymodes for Health/Mana.
• Many positioning and Scaling Options.
• Hide Blizzard Player/Targetframe.
• Target Menu with Leftclick on Targetname.
• Player Menu with Rightclick on Playername.
• Castingbar with Cast-time.
• Option to hide Petbars.
• Option to hide Targetbars/Text.
• Load-on-Demand configuration display.
• Target’s Target display - click to switch to that target.
• Aggro alert - audible and visual warnings.
• Target PvP status.
• Self PvP status.
• Status icons for Rested, Combat, Raid leader, and Loot Master.
• Target distance display.
• Support for Mobhealth, Mobinfo2, and Mobhealth2.
• FlightMap support.
• myAddons Support.
• FuBar Support.

So what’s the use of MetaHUD? You’ve got your health and the mob’s health at the top left of the screen as per the default World of Warcraft interface. Well, thats the problem. I play with a high resolution and a small UI which places that information at the far top-left of the screen, well away from the center of the screen. In tight situations, the act of pulling my eyes from the center of the screen - however easy that seems - can be the death of your character. You know…that idiot Alliance Rogue that’s creeping around to back-stab you and had your eyes remained in the center of the screen rather than checking your target’s health - you would have seen the little bastard appear for a split second and you could have reacted appropriately, pwned him, and continued on your merry way. But no. You find yourself pissed, dead, and rezzing at a graveyard.

Thats why MetaHUD is useful. Stop crying and download the mod. You can thank me later.

WoW Druid Macros

January 5, 2007 | 20 Comments

Introduction

Continuing my Macro listings, I'll post some Druid Macros! These macros are all thanks to World of Warcraft Druid Forum. I don't play a druid on any server, yet the macros are pretty straightforward. If you have questions or suggestions...let me know and I'll update/post them here.

Feral Macros

Ravage/Shred combo

Ravage/Shred/Ferocious Bite
If alt is pressed, cast Ferocious Bite. Otherwise if in stealth, cast Ravage. Otherwise cast Shred.

Pounce/Rake combo
If not stealth cast rake, otherwise cast pounce.

Pounce/Rake/Rip
If alt pressed, cast Rip. Otherwise if stealth cast Pounce. Otherwise cast Rake.

Pounce/Mangle combo - Note the extra ()
If not stealth cast Mangle, otherwise cast Pounce.

Prowl or Faerie Fire (Feral)
If out of combat and not stealthed, cast Prowl. Otherwise if in combat and not stealthed, cast Faerie Fire.

Maul/Mangle
This is a space saver macro! In combat, Mauls first, then Mangles, then Mauls, then Mauls. Each 'spell' requires a click.

Mangle (Bear) replacing auto-attack
Starts off auto attack with a Mangle...if Alt is held while clicking the macro, you will stop attacking.

Shifting Macros

Shift to Caster
Shift to Caster Form from any form

Shift to Dire Bear
Shift to Dire Bear Form from any form - note: to have this macro also de-shift you, include "[stance:1] Dire Bear Form; " somewhere in the /cancelaura line.

Shift to Dire Bear and Charge
Shift to Dire Bear From and Feral Charge from any form

Dire Bear and Equip
Shift to Dire Bear Form and equip Idol/Weapon
* "Shift to Dire Bear From from any form, equip Warden Staff and Idol of Brutality only when you actually shift to Dire Bear. Note that the test for the equip is still [nostance] because it hasn't yet registered that the stance has changed. You don't need to worry about the global cooldown, because the stance change and the weapon equip both trigger it at the same time, so you only suffer once. (...equipping things can be done during global cooldown.) "

To Cat Form
Shift to Cat Form from any form - note: to have this macro also de-shift you, include "[stance:3] Cat Form; " somewhere in the /cancelaura line.

To Cat and Stealth
Shift to Cat Form and stealth from any form (first line makes the macro display the Prowl cooldown)

Shift to Cat Form and equip Idol
Switch from any form to Cat form and equip an Idol

Shift to Travel Form from any form
Self Explanatory

Travel Form + Nature's Grasp - note: you can cast Nature's Grasp in forms
If you are in a non-travel form, cancel it. If you are mounted, dismount. Cast Travel Form, cast Nature's Grasp.

Spam Travel Form
If you are in a non-travel form, cancel it. If you are mounted, dismount. Cast Travel Form.

All-Terrain Travel Form
If you are in a non-travel/non-swimming form, cancel it. If you are mounted, dismount. If you are swimming, cast Aquatic Form. Otherwise cast Travel Form.

Spam All-Terrain Travel Form
No matter the current form, cancel it. If you are mounted, dismount. If you are swimming, cast Aquatic Form. Otherwise cast Travel Form.

Spam ATTF + Mount
If you are in a non-travel/non-swimming form, cancel it. If you are standing still, mount. If you are swimming, cast Aquatic Form. Otherwise cast Travel Form.

Spam Travel Form + Rejuv - the WSG flag carrying macro
Cancel any form. If you are mounted, unmount. Cast rejuvenation, travel form, travel form, travel form (one per button press in that order).

Shift to Tree of Life form and switch your actionbar from #1, to #2
Since most spells don't work in Tree of Life, you can set up a dedicated actionbar with ToL-only spells.

Return to Caster Form and restore original actionbar

Restoration Macros

Cleanse Poison/Curse Combo

Spam Cleanses

Pseudo -Decursive

Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch

NS + HT/Regrowth

ZHC + NS + HT/Regrowth

Heal target or self, based on context

HoT Stack

Rejuv + Idol

Heal Target or Target's target

Healing Touch Mega-pack

General Utility Macros

Faerie Fire and Feral Faerie Fire combo

Spammable Prowl and Shadowmeld

Innervate - note: Innervate supposedly can now only be cast on units with mana.

Moonfire Spam
Cast Moonfire rank 10, 9, 9, 9, 9 each time the button is pressed. Reset the macro if you change targets, enter combat, or hold ctrl and press the macro.

Moonfire Flex
If you hold control, cast moonfire 1. If you click with your second mouse button, cast rank 9, otherwise cast rank 10.

Moonfire + Idol

Totem Killer - needs testing

Faerie Fire Target or Target's target

Hurricane+Barkskin - note: for some reason, this still show's Barkskin's cooldown

Gift of the Wild/Mark of the Wild

Mark of the Wild + Thorns

Stun and Self-Heal (Tauren)

Stun and Self-Heal (Dire Bear Form) - doesn't work yet...

WoW UI Mod: Cartographer

January 3, 2007 | 56 Comments

Because I've re-introduced myself to World of Warcraft, I've also re-introduced myself to modifying (modding) the game interface! As time progresses, I'll feature mods that I find super useful. First off: Cartographer.

Cartographer is a modular, lightweight, and efficient framework for manipulation of the world map. It is based on Ace2 and other libraries of the Ace community. It features:

• Battlegrounds : allows viewing of battlegrounds outside of the zone.
• Coordinates : adds coordinates to the bottom of the world map of the player and the cursor.
• Foglight : Shows unexplored areas on the map. replacement for MozzFullWorldMap or Unexplorer. Much more efficient, though.
• Group Colors : turns all your party's and your raid's POIs into circles colored based on class, and shows a number on them based on their raid group.
• Instance Maps : shows maps of instances.
• Instance Notes : adds boss notes and such to instance maps.
• Look 'n' Feel : allows you to change the transparency, position, and scale of the world map.
• Notes : lets you put notes on the map.
• Professions : automatically tracks herbs and minerals.
• Zone Info : on hovering over a zone, it will show the levels of the zone, the instances in the zone, their levels, and the number of men the instance is made for (e.g. 5-man, 40-man).

The basic map provided with World of Warcraft is severely lacking...heck, there aren't even coordinates! My previous map solution was Atlas...a great instance map mod, but thats where its usefulness ended...instances. Cartographer is a full blown mod that gives a you all the sweet stuff (see the list).

What's more? Cartographer is on the WoWAce Wiki with resources for using Cartographer functions for other mods. w00t.

WoW Priest Macros

December 29, 2006 | 25 Comments

Introduction

Using my post on macros, World of Warcraft Forums and a number of other random resources and suggestions, I'll be posting useful macros for each class. Because I play a Priest on Illidan, I'll start with that class first :).

Crowd Control Macros

Shackle version 1
This macro will cast Shackle Undead if the target is hostile. It will then tell the party that you're shacking the target. The stopmacro line will prevent the announcement if the target is not hostile, cutting down on unnecessary spam. However, I think you'll still get a /p message if you attempt to cast shackle undead on a non-valid target. (confirmed for 2.0.1)

Shackle version 2 (Focus Combo)
Allows you to set your focus and bind a spell directly to that focus. You should be able to cast the second spell without ever losing your current target. If used with a heal spell instead of shackle, this should also be very helpful for MT/Raid healing.