Posts with tag blogs

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Have you ever noticed that a search for tips about WoW brings up about a million blogs on the subject? Blogs can be found on nearly every aspect of WoW -- you can find lore blogs, class blogs, race blogs, profession blogs ... You name it, there's a blog on it.

I personally maintained a blog for raiding mages for a while, but I had to let it go when my raiding group went on hiatus and I simply couldn't fit any of the other raiding groups into my schedule. I'd like to get back to it. It was a lot of fun, and I also noticed that since I was trying to pay really close attention to mechanics so that I could pass the information on to other mages, it made me a better raider. My husband currently writes a blog about being a dad who games. I know that there are a bunch of those out there too, but it's fun for him to discuss situations that come up in his daily life with other people who understand completely.

What about you? Do you blog about WoW or gaming in general? What's your specific topic of expertise? Do you feel like you have a lot to contribute on the subject? Have you thought about starting a blog but just haven't found your niche yet? Do have any specific blogs about WoW that you really like?

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This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

Long, long ago, there was a time when I didn't read WoW Insider. When I started playing the game in vanilla WoW, I didn't read anything -- I didn't even know there were WoW sites on the Internet. I got all of my information by word of mouth, and when someone finally told me about Thottbot, it was a game-changer for me. It wasn't until late BC, however, that I even heard about this blog, and I don't think I read it regularly until Wrath.

Keeping track of World of Warcraft news and changes has completely changed how I play the game. Rather than wandering through the world until I come across something interesting, I get a heads-up about new reputation factions, daily quests, mount drops, and craftable items that I can then go searching for. I've learned more about my class, become a better player on my alts, and been assured that it's not just me who hates heroic Grim Batol. I even have an auction addon now, and though I don't play the auctioneer game, I am impressed by those who do.

When did you first start reading WoW Insider? Has the game changed for you as a result? What have you learned about here that you never knew before?

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We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• The Pink Pigtail Inn is collecting nominations for a "list of the year," picking the best in a few different categories from the World of Warcraft in 2009. Go leave a nom for their awards, and then come back here -- we'll have our own year-end list of top stories as well.
• Kinless Chronicles has not had such a great experience with the Dungeon Finder so far. Low level DPS might be out of luck on finding groups fast.
• Tank Like a Girl examines some good tanking gear in the new Frozen Halls 5-mans.
• And while Alliance pride is hard to find, Kimberly D knows exactly why she's Horde.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Everyone's playing guild musical chairs: Sheep Blink Invis just disbanded one of their guilds, We Fly Spitfires wants to find one, Nibuca's working on names for hers, and Hots and Dots is seeking mages for theirs. Hopefully we made at least one match in there somewhere. Good luck to you guildless folks!
• Grandpappy Frostheim says Hunters these days have no respect, I tell ya.
• Planet of the Hats has a nice long post up about "gear pollution," a growing problem in the game.
• And OutDPS tells you how to hunt for Heroic Northrend Beasts. The encounter, not the actual beasts themselves.

It's been five years since this game launched, and it's changed so much that you might have forgotten what life was like back then. But thanks to the magic of the Internet, those times are saved in clear HTML. Let's dig up some memories of the early game.

It's interesting to think what Blizzard was like before World of Warcraft. Today, the two are almost synonymous -- while they have two other major franchises (and one secret IP hiding in the works), it's almost impossible for anyone to think of Blizzard without thinking of WoW, and vice versa. The company has become almost solely defined by what they've done with this game. But of course, before the release, that wasn't the case.

This is certainly an issue (if not a full-blown problem) in my guild, so I wouldn't be surprised if most guilds have a rough time getting guild members to use some of the outside resources they've put together. Nowadays, there are so many ways to make a guild website and so many different things you can do with one that most every guild has at least one place online to call its own. And those places are usually frequented by one or two people in the guild (usually the person running the site and/or maybe the GM and an officer or two), but in my experience, it's kind of tough to get people to use those resources, just because of lack of interest or know-how or habit. What's the point of having a database of members, a message board, and a blog and picture gallery when no one uses it?

Enter Ankie of WoW Ladies, with an intriguing idea to support the guild's website.

If you've ever wanted a close-up look at the game's healing zeitgeist, Miss Medicina has it -- she recently started up a survey/meme of healers around the WoW blogosphere, and the answers are now in and posted on her site. They make for some interesting weekend reading, especially if you're interested in healing and what healers think of it. I'm sure there's lots of conclusions that could be drawn out of this (I'll let you all come up with some in the comments as well), but just reading through them on my own, it seems like there's a few threads between them. The majority of healing seems to be done in 10-mans, which probably isn't too surprising, given that's where most of the endgame players are right now as well. There's no clear winner on class or spec (all four healing classes are represented pretty evenly, though I didn't really crunch the numbers), though there are quite a few priests, and of those, things seem to be split between holy and disc.

In terms of a favorite spell, there's almost no crossover at all -- people are all over the place, from Beacon to Penance to Circle of Healing. To hear these guys tell it, healers have all kinds of fun spells to play with. In terms of a weakness to healing, two main answers appear: mana regeneration (always an issue with mana-heavy classes like healers) and mobility. Shamans and druids have problems with big burst healing, and paladins say they need more group healing strength, but almost everyone mentions either mana or movement. There's a lot more to look through, too, in terms of how healers evaluate their performance and addon recommendations from everyone. As a look inside the healer "scene," there is a ton of information in there about what healers are up to out on the realms.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

The video I've included in today's edition of The Queue is... something. It is certainly a thing. A thing that is entirely unrelated to WoW. I know the music is produced by Justice, but the video? Well. It's a video. Enjoy?

corwin asked...

"Is anything more going to be done with the Grizzly Hills Venture Bay PVP areas? It seems like it has a lot of potential and isn't paid any attention."

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Skeleton Jack covers a pair of dual wield builds for Death Knights in Patch 3.2, when dual wielding will make a comeback for the class.
• Nourish has yet another tasty treat for us: Broken Isles Iced Tea. I'm a little confused, though. I think they forgot the booze!
• Runeforge Gossip thinks that WoW's PvP could learn a few things from DotA.
• This link has absolutely nothing to do with WoW whatsoever, but it has inspired me to make a few strips of bacon with whatever I decide to have for dinner tonight.

• Nourish is back to regular updates again, and has already given us three more delicious recipes.
• Alterac Volley explores ways to profit from PvP.
• This one is for you roleplayers out there. Do you use personal NPCs?
• Check out some of the great contributions to the latest shared topic from Blog Azeroth.
• Righteous Defense explores a few possible talent specs for Protection Paladins in patch 3.2.

Every day, our tip line gets a number of requests for link exchanges, publicity, and feedback on whether a post would be good for inclusion in the Daily Quest. We're really happy to be able to direct traffic to bloggers with good information, but sometimes we get requests that leave us baffled, uncomfortable, or both. While it's pretty easy to deal with some of these (gold-selling sites wishing to advertise here are a quick, "No thanks"), some of them come from otherwise well-meaning bloggers who want a link, but who may not get the desired results from one. Naturally this leaves us with a bit of a dilemma, and these are the things I think about while nosing around incoming links and my own list of favorite blogs:

Please don't ask us to link your blog. Ask us to link a post.

Even if we love your site and we read it all the time, we still need a reason to link you that's relevant to a subject we're writing about. Readers dislike getting recommendations like "It's a great blog!" or "You're going to love it!" Uh, why is it a great blog? Why should they love it?

Nothing speaks so loudly or effectively as a great post on a good topic. Moreover, if we're linking a post of yours, your blog's main page should be linked as well. Even if we got dumb and forgot, it should be a simple matter for readers to find your central page (and you've got a design problem on your hands if they can't).

• This Saturday, the guild Exodus will be joining Stompalina and crew on the Rawrcast. It kicks off immediately after our own podcast, so give it a listen!
• Part seven of Too Many Annas' epic Angrathar fiction has been posted.
• James Peripheral, one of WoW.com's user bloggers, tells the world why he plays MMOs. Why? Family.
• Big Hit Box supplies some very basic tips for players new to grouping as melee. All of you new Death Knights and Retribution Paladins might want to take a look. Ret Vets get a pass.
• Do you have children that play WoW? Are you concerned that they might be seeing things in chat channels that they shouldn't be? NoStockUI has some suggestions for the parent that wants their child's game experience to be a little safer.