WoW-ology

The other day I was having a nice guild chat with SG. Out of no where, the term WoW-ology came out and how this word came about was a discussion about several experienced guildies that have researched so much about WoW, they are can be called as WoW-logists because they have countlessly spent hours of research in the field of WoW-ology. It is as funny as the term as Hamburgerology. However, I kid you not, Hamburger University does exist and it is a university setup by McDonald's Corporation.

I cracked up at the terms and decided to do a dictionary search on “ology”. This is what I came out with:


Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ology
ol‧o‧gy [ol-uh-jee]
–noun, plural -gies. Informal or Facetious.
any science or branch of knowledge.


Don’t you think it is kind of cool that WoW has so much of an impact on our lives that there should be a library of knowledge and enough material for WoW-ology to be taught at the University of Blizzard Entertainment? Imagine this:

Lecturer moves his hand to switch on the monitor and activating the projector to beam a bright presentation on a white retractable screen. The presentation shows several bolded words and paragraphs of notes alongside with some drawings. The lecturer starts to clear his throat while adjusting his microphone brooch, taps the mic several times before speaking,

“Ok. As you can read on the projection, today we will be focusing on the topic Ganking; ways of preventing, ways of causing, physiological point and root-cause of it. We will also cover on several topics with regard to Ganking which will be appearing in this mid-term paper.”

Haha… >:D

Inactivity in WoW.

I haven’t been playing WoW a lot during the past week. Reason due to the fact I was busy with work, other real-life commitments and had a weekend holiday to go outstation. So, I had to put some of my raiding schedules and WoW experiences on hold for a week or so. Hence, the lack of blogging. =(

Meanwhile, I foresee that I wasn’t able to fully utilize my account and would like the idea of my account to be idle. A couple of weeks back, I actually persuaded a close buddy of mine in real life to experience WoW for himself. He was thinking why am I so immersed in WoW? Is it that addictive and engrossing? So, I said to him,

“Look at it like this, since I won’t be playing much during this week, I will break some of the rules that Blizzard provided to me.”
“I wont be worrying you ninja-ing away my account ‘cause I know where you live and I can just easily burn down your house if anything happens.”

He stared at me and I told him I was jokingly being sarcastic. DUH! Why would I burn down the house of my friend which I have known for 7 years?!

“You can have my username and password to create an account in my server. Here, take this CD and install it at your PC so that you can try it out. “

He was reluctant and skeptical about it at first. Excuses like, “I don’t have the time to play.”, “Nah! I don’t think it would be that great. It will just be another MMORPG.”, “I don’t have to money to continue.” and “I don’t want to be addicted like you!” spurted from his mouth zealously trying to reject my offer. At last, I said,

“Ok! I will give you some gold in game and promise to sit down with you to teach you about the World of Warcraft to get you a good head start. Not only that, there will be no expenses to be paid at all, just use my account and get a feel of World of Warcraft. It is free to play for many months to come and you can access it whenever I am not playing. Deal?”

He gave me a squint and agreed to the terms. I cheered while saying he would have the time of his life and WoW isn’t like any of the MMORPG that we have played before. He is now a level 4X Hunter enjoying WoW as much as I do. Whee! Soon I will have another friend joining my ranks in WoW, if he decides to transfer his character out and maintain an account of his own.

OMG! It is… Vanguardlock

With about half an hour of work for a duration days, I finally finished my other masterpiece. Behold! I present to you, Vanguardlock and his favourite succubus, Carna. =)

Inspired by Dreadpaladin’s portrait, I decided to give Vanguardlock a try. This is how the portrait looks like initially, from sketching to the final touch-up.












Sketching...













A more detailed sketch


Carna is partially hidden from the picture to give her a mysterious look and this has also somewhat made her look sexier. Quoting from a Irish dramatist, novelist and poet, “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”













The initial colouring... Yucky colours


I initially wanted Vanguardlock to have a shocked look in the face but then I ended up giving him a cheeky look with Carna giving him a seducing look.













Colour toning













More colour toning...


The final touch-up made Carna look like a Night Elf; pointy ears and purple toned skin. I really can’t remember if she has an ear or not but it looks nice on her, so I decided to just leave it there. Vanguardlock had his hair colour done and there you go, the Master and his Mistress.













The Master and the Mistress

GKP or DKP?

During the past weekend, I have been participating actively in a couple of 20-man raids involving GKP system. Previously, I used to raid with Gaea; a guild which broke off from Outcast (an ex-guild of mine). Gaea is now progressing very well and all their raids use the DKP system, which encourages consistency of the players to be always turning up for raids.

The 20-man raids that I went with Gaea were Zul’Gurub and The Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Those raidings were done on a weekly basis when Dreadpaladin was guildless and sometimes using Vanguardlock when they needed the appropriate classes. It is a pity that Vanguardlock is not able to take part actively in the guild’s 20-man runs due to the difference in time zone and Dreadpaladin is always not available for her guild’s 20-man runs.

Coming back to the raid system; DKP and GKP, what does it actually mean and how does it work?

I am quite sure many MMORPG players are familiar with the term DKP, which denotes Dragon Kill Points. This system was created to enable a fair looting system amongst the players which have contributed to the raid. DKP itself has several systems which are widely used by many guilds in WoW. Recently, I have seen a spamming of a new term noted as GKP.

GKP? Gold Kill Points? How does it work? Basically, most GKP runs consist of several core raiders which highly geared to be the pillar of the raid. The fillers are normally PUGs aka Pick Up Groups. This system thrives on the aspect of Pick Up Groups because there are a vast majority of players that are not able to run 20-man raids successfully and even more casual players that cannot afford to give the commitment and time to attend DKP based raids.

The way this system works is pretty unique and I would say almost a win-win situation to all the raiders that stuck through out the raid until it ends. Lets take an example here for instance:

Raid A – GKP has 6 bosses and assuming each boss drops 2 items. This means the raid will have a total of 12 items at the end of the raid and the minimum bid for each item would be 20gold. The bidding system would be an open and an increment of 5gold would be required. No ties are allowed.

Boss1
Item 1A – bidded for 30g
Item 1B – bidded for 20g

Boss 2
Item 2A – bidded for 50g
Item 2B – bidded for 30g

Boss 3
Item 3A – bidded for 100g
Item 3B – bidded for 90g

Total gold collected – 320g

The total gold collected would then be divided evenly amongst the players in raid, in this case by 20 because it is a 20-man raid. 320g / 20 person = 16gold / person. This is on top of the gold that drops off the bosses plus I have already lowered the amount of bosses and items that would drop in order to simulate a simple example. Most GKP raids would earn more than 1000g per run.

Now, your rational may seem that not everybody is willing to spend hundreds of gold in a raid and then walk-out slightly buffed than they were before. Therefore, a GKP will not always work. However, You must bear in mind that some of the items that are dropped inside are BoE; Bind On Equip and has resale value. Assuming the item is worth at 200g in the AH; Auction House, the minimum bid could most probably be 20g and may bid up to 80g or 90g. You have the item and start re-selling the item to other players at an under-cut price of 150g thus giving you a raw earning of 60g to 70g.

In summary, the systems explained actually boils down to GKP – fast loots, fast gold / short term geared players, DKP – consistent loots, less gold / long term learning players. So, which suits you more, GKP or DKP?