Customized bindings for effectiveness

There is this good buddy of mine, Varche, who does pvp a lot. PVP-ing ran back into the old days when we were playing a different type of MMORPG before we joined WoW. The normal key bindings provided were normally not enough for our own usage and will have to somehow customize the keys to suit our requirements. I am not too sure about Varche but for me, I try to put almost every spell near my left hand, especially near my fingers for better efficiency.

Why do I need to be efficient? It is because I do not have to use my mouse to click the User Interface or move my hand too much allowing time for my enemies to come out with a counter-attack or escape from my wrath! Owing this habit to my buddy, I have customized my bindings in WoW as well and I felt that I should share it out since it has helped me a lot during PvP and raiding as well. So, here goes:

` - Decursive Hotkey
Z – Exorcism
X – Seal of Righteousness / Seal of Justice
C – Divine Favour
F – Holy Shock
G – Blessing of Freedom
Alt+1 – Seal of Light
Alt+2 – Seal of Wisdom
Alt+3 – Divine Shield
Alt+4 – Blessing of Protection
Alt+5 – Redemption
Alt+6 – Summon Charger
F9 – Blessing of Wisdom
F10 – Blessing of Kings
F11 – Blessing of Might
F12 – Blessing of Salvation
Ctrl – Vent Push-To-Talk Key
Delete – Consume Wipper Root Tuber (no longer of much use after having to sharing the same cooldown with Major Healthstone)
End – Consume Greater Healthstone (if available)
PageDown – Consume Major Healthstone (if available)
Home – Consume Major Health Potion
Insert – Eating (Conjured Food)
PageUp – Drinking (Conjured Water)

Too mind boggling trying to figure out my key bindings? Haha, I guess you must be referring to the keyboard while trying to imagine my bindings. Anyway, I have done a MS-Paint job of a standard Microsoft Keyboard labeling my bindings accordingly. Enjoy!



My keyboard bindings!

I shall make another post on Vanguardlock’s keybindings, which is somewhat similar with only different spells for each key. I guess when my keyboard letters starts to fade; you will know which alphabets will start to fade first. Hehe…=)

Why is WoW addictive?

I recently had a talk with my brother telling him about my adventures in WoW and informed him about a recent article which I read not long ago stating that WoW has 7 million active subscribers world-wide. What is that I hear you muttering? Huh… you don’t believe me? Ok then, try going to Google.com and type “7 million subscribers wow” in the search text. This should give you:


OMGWTF#$!%^BLIZZPWNEDUS$%#$&!!!11!!11oneoneone...

Being well educated and all in Mathematics during my high school years, I shall do an extremely complex equation that no one has ever attempted. So, here goes…

*starts scribbling while narrating*

Assuming each player pays a monthly fee of USD 14.99. With 7,000,000 subscribers, the below equation will explain things a lot better:

USD 14.99 x 7,000,000 x 12 months = USD 1,259,160,000
USD 14.99 x 7,000,000 x 1month = USD 104,930,000

Hmm… no doubt it is a rough number since the numbers are based on world-wide statistics; some countries pay a lower monthly fee while some pay slightly higher. Still… that is a lot of commas and zeroes.

Coming back to the question again, Why is WoW addictive? Is it because of Blizzard’s marketing strategy? Is it because of Blizzard’s quality content in a game? Are we all part of a mastermind scheme by Blizzard that has lured us into addictively playing their games while they suck our brain juices? I just don’t know.

Let study this from a physiological point of view. Taking my brother’s words in to consideration, do we actually know the gender statistics of WoW players? I would assume that male players will be more dominant and the ratio for male to female players would be approximately 20:1 or maybe 30:1. Now, ask yourselves… why male players would be more dominant in MMORPGs such as WoW?

With the assumed statistics, my brother told me why WoW has so many active subscribers is because men in general have a strong sense of being able to conquer. How do you define conquering? Is it the feeling that gives you a swell in your chest when you have achieved something significant? Is it a feeling that makes you smile without thought and makes you want to scream because you are about to blow if you don’t let it out? Is it a drive that you make work towards while taking down any challenges which prove to be an obstacle in your course of achieving your goal?

No doubt that the content in WoW is extremely well portrayed with many elements of allowing a player to feel that they have conquered something. With each “conquer”; it feeds the pride of the player. For example, finishing a quest and rewarding the player with experience or defeating a dragon which is a prominent character in the Lore of Warcraft. Being able to organize 40-man together to venture on a journey to kill elemental lords and rewarding players with equipments which makes them feel more powerful. All these examples actually give players the pleasure of conquering. Blizzard has wittingly made a lot of progress on content and publishing it on their website which allow players to look forward to “conquering”.

Is that what men truly feel and is it total sense of domination which drives men differently from women? I am not implying that females do not have a sense of conquering; I am just simply assuming that it would be more dominant in males compared to females.
I guess it could be our hormones which makes us act differently and Blizzard is smart enough to actually tap into our weaknesses which we have undoubtedly fell prey thus making WoW the most successful MMORPG of all times.

Nefarian on farming status

Lord Victor Nefarius is the human form of a dragon which is known as the Lord of Blackrock. In his dragon form, he is more commonly known as Nefarian, leader of the Black Dragon Flight. He is the heir to the throne after the disappearance of his father, Deathwing aka Neltharion, which was suspected to be dead although with the rumours remained unconfirmed.

Nefarian, son of Neltharion, brother of Onyxia has been continuing his father’s experiments which are to combine all the powers of the other broods to make the ultimate dragon species which has the strength of all the broods. Nefarian dwells in Blackwing Lair located in Upper Blackrock Spire where all of his experiments are conducted.

After many attempts to clear his lair with 40-man raids, SG has successfully defeated the Lord of Blackrock 3 weeks consecutively and can safely term that BWL is currently on farming status. Ahn’Qiraj 40-man raid is the next instance to venture into after Blackwing Lair. Beware Old God C’thun, SG will be coming for you soon!

The vicious cycle

A couple of weeks ago, Vanguardlock’s guild, Damage Inc which will now hence forth be known as DI had a recent defection of two Officers. Not only they are Officers, they are also the Class Leaders for our Molten Core raids. One of them a Paladin and another is a Mage. Both are decently geared to a point where losing them would hurt the guild's progression but nonetheless not a big enough impact to shake the guild and breaking it up. However, the abrupt defection of the two Officers have personally taken me aback.

Do the player or the person behind the computer screen even comprehend the meaning of tactfulness and integrity? I really doubt the players in World of Warcraft. When the people that you communicate with and had given you a commitment that their allegiance lies with the guild. One would expect them to not leave guild under most circumstances. We put our trust in them feeling that they will be tactful enough if one day they were to leave; they would be courteous enough at least inform the Guild Master or the other Officers about whatever are the reasons for a defection. I feel that the failure of notification or lacking the sense of informing reflects how bad and courageless that person is in real life.

Yes, no doubt people come and people go, I will just have to deal with it. However, giving more thought to it, if you reflect in real life, guilds in WoW are like companies, some are successful taking on big business opportunities and some which are small but contented with the achievements that they have made. However, DI is a guild which is striving to be one of the big boys in the WoW by clearing more end game instances, in reflection to the real world, a company that is climbing up the ladder and taking on business opportunites to eventually be able list itself on the first or second board in the share markets.

Now taking the same example of reflecting a guild is somewhat similar to a company in real life, Guild Members would therefore correlate as the employees of a company. Officers of the guild would somewhat be the Managers, and Class Leaders can be referenced as a Department Head. Lastly, the Guild Leader would be the reflection of the director and Raid Leader would be the CEO of the company driving it for greater achievements.

Coming back to WoW, two Officers and coincidently Class Leaders as well, which means they were holding an important role in the guild, have left abruptly without warning or explanation. Sure, you may add saying “It is a frigging game man! Just deal with it because people come and go! Chill! Do you need the waa-bulance for your whining?”. However, have you ever thought that how you react to a situation in the game also depicts how you would react in the real life? You may say WoW is a game, real life is different because you cannot afford mistakes and a person would act differently in real life as it is irreversable. After all, making mistakes in a game would mean no harm, you just have to press the restart button. Is that so? I find that extremely wrong! What you portray in game actually reflects your ability and characteristics you would present yourself in real life, especially in MMORPG games which requires extensive communication and interation skills.

I feel sad for the lack of tactfulness in both the persons that I mentioned for leaving the guild without any notice. Sure, bigger guilds are definitely more attractive in terms of game progression and when an opportunity arises, it would be highly likely for a defection when the terms are right but at least be tactful enough and leave a guild in good faith! I am quite sure you would do the same in real life if you were to leave a company for a better company, why can’t people do it in game as well? Is it because a game is just pixels and programming codes? Heck! You may not even know the person behind the monitor, what more to actually compromise and take care of their feelings? Do such childish thoughts go thorough the minds of the players in WoW? I don't know.

Maybe it will take some time for me to actually adapt to the situation. Well, another lesson learnt and another day wiser, life must go on and adaptation is the key to why we humans exist and will still exist for a long time. I guess it is people like this which make the world a crueler place to live in. I will just need to learn how to adapt to it.