Helllo Rawrcast readers, it’s Cornelious here yet again bringing you another edition of Under the Hood.
If reading the post title didn’t make things obvious enough I’ll break down nice and early and let you all know that I’m gonna be taking some time today to talk about Razer products. Before you start shouting at me for being biased or writing with an agenda let me stop for a minute. The main reason I’m choosing to dedicate some time solely to Razer is based on the ridiculous amount of praise I have for them both as a company and a product line. I’ve used and owned far to many “gaming” peripherals in my day and still have yet to find a company that consistently leaves the same impression on me as Razer has been able to.
While there is a lot to talk about I don’t want this to turn into nothing more than a “OMG GO BUY THIS MOUSE!!!” post. I’ll do my best to highlight the pros and cons of whatever I bring into the limelight and present some actual opinions as opposed to blind fanboyism.
One of the most difficult things about WoW is that to get the most out of the game play, you have to rely on other players. Usually, this isn’t such a big deal. You’ll occasionally find yourself in an instance with some disagreeable people or you’ll be involved in a raid that fizzles instead of fires. Trade chat can be an exercise in endurance, namely how disgusted can you get before you leave the channel. Outside of these events, my interactions with other players have been like my interactions with people in real life; mostly pleasant and predictable. I can rely on my favorite tank to show up for raids and I can rely on my fellow DPS to perform at the top of their game (and gently rib one another if they aren’t). Read more…
This week Haf and Stomp took a different approach to their raid week, and began working on the Lich King encounter along with their guild. Join them in recounting the good, the bad, and the slightly frustrating points of preparing for the encounter.
Additionally, they share some of this week’s news stories, including a charity auction being held to raise money for the Peninsula Education Foundation in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. If you are interested in getting your hands on this amazing basket of World of Warcraft memorabilia, ACT QUICK! The auction ends today!
All of this, an much more is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, direct download, or you can stream it from our website!
The planned interview with Mike Schramm has been rescheduled for next week’s show. Sorry for the delay!
Links to topics discussed this week:
EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK
- Lands of Lore by Eulixe indulges in private diaries found within Duskwood
- TIP the RAWR: Help us Get to Blizzcon!
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Hellllo again Rawrcast readers, Cornelious here bringing you another installment of Under the Hood. Many of us have come to that point where we look at our computers and start to seriously consider upgrading. Maybe it’s been awhile since you payed much attention to the market(s) and now find yourself suck between a rock and a hard place. You have the money to upgrade your system but you’ll end up spending more then you planned due to supply and demand driving the prices of older hardware up over time. Once you factor in time spent tracking down parts and a few other things you may start to wonder if it’s really worth the hassle…maybe rebuilding the system from the ground up will end up saving your some green down the road.
Read more…
Game theory is a field of mathematics that “attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others” (Wikipedia). It’s a relatively simple model for making optimal decisions and predicting the behavior of others. A lot of times while playing, I often wonder why players behave the way they do and whether they make the best decisions. For example, I hear all the time in Arathi Basin that if we currently control 3 nodes, we should just defend them, as we only need 3 to win. However, in Warsong, once we cap the flag once, I don’t hear any suggestions that we should just defend until time runs out. These seem like very similar strategies, and I’m curious if they are truly similar and good strategies. As such, I’ve decided to explore how game theory can be applied to World of Warcraft, beginning with battlegrounds. Read more…
Hellllo again Rawrcast readers, Cornelious here bringing you another installment of Under the Hood. Spawning off my last post I wanted to take some time to talk about system memory and Hard Drives. While WoW is very CPU intensive it can often be one (or both) of either your memory or hard drive that’ll end up dragging things down. Stay with me for awhile as I try to clear the air and dispel some common misconceptions.
Hard Drive Performance & You
Sadly, your computer’s hard drive is one of the more misunderstood pieces of your gaming machine. It’s fairly common knowledge what the hard drive is intended to do but there are some key points that are often glazed over. After WoW has loaded, your hard drive is still hard at work. Add-ons are one of the biggest contributing factors to poor hard drive performance. As I mentioned in my last post, add-ons like Quest Helper and Auctioneer are constantly referencing their own databases…compounding your hard drives work load. Read more…
Setting: It’s a Sunday night and you’re getting ready for your 25 man Lich King attempts. On your right is a Chicken Parmesan Sandwich. On your left is a 20 oz Coke. In the background is the cheer of the crowd and the crack of the bat; the Giants just took the lead.
So far, your day has been close to perfection. You’ve spent a couple of hours earlier in the day running Ulduar 25 man hard modes getting your acheivements together for the proto-drake; a task that has been sitting on your WoW To Do List for months now. The early part of the day was spent enjoying a beautiful spring day in the park. Then the inevitable happens. You hear a hurrumph and look up into the scowling face of your girlfriend. She’s clearly pissed that you’re playing WoW again and the set of her jaw is indicating that she may not put up with it for another four hours. What do you do?
My Bonehead Solution: Since I’d made a promise to my guild that I would be there, I calmly inform my girlfriend that I have agreed to play and I don’t want to let my guild down (this comes out in a squirmy series of run on sentences, complete with sputtering and trailing off at the end). She stalks off into the bedroom and shuts the door with a resounding thud. A ready check pops up on my screen. I click yes. My girlfriend and I spend the next day in an uncomfortable silence and I skip 2 raid days that week to make up for my Sunday binge. There has to be a better solution.
How do you all deal with RL aggro? I usually try and schedule out time in advance but tbh, there are just days when I can’t get enough WoW. Any advice?
Hellllo Rawrcast listeners…I mean, readers. Wow, it sure is good to be back. No longer will there be that familiar intro gracing your ears each week on Rawrcast, “Under the Hood” has officially made it’s move to our lineup of blog entries. The topics and content are intended to remain the same as they were originally and I’ll be shooting to have at least one post per week ready to go, schedules allowing. I’ll be covering everything from how to get the most out of your system to addon tips.
Past all the pleasantries, what are we stopping to take a look at today you might ask. I wanted to re-start the segment with a look at the addon scene in WoW, how they effect our gameplay, performance and steps we can take to minimize any negative impacts.
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