Posts with tag monster

Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same.

Something peculiar is happening to my addon interface folder -- it is becoming more streamlined. Whether this is a product of Blizzard's own default UI's becoming more capable or addon developers' just fusing options together, it feels like fewer addons are doing more things, and I cautiously approve. My UI has remained relatively unchanged since the end of Wrath of the Lich King, so little tweaks and changes these days are big deals.

My inbox was overflowing with questions again this week, so I figured we could answer some more of them and see what kinds of recommendations we can get out there to readers who need a little guidance and help. People do, however, still like an addon recommendation as well as questions, so you'll get a shorter recommendation this week, since there isn't much to say, and a lengthy mailbag. Sound good? Wonderful.

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

Editor's note: Elizabeth Harac, creator of this amigurumi murloc, makes these adorable critters for a charity she established, Hands of Hope, which designed to help inspire and empower children in third-world countries. Read more about Hands of Hope, and join us after the break as Elizabeth shares the pattern along with a step-by-step photo guide on how to make your own amigurumi baby murloc.

I have been doing various needlework since I was a child and Mother was trying to keep me still for more than five minutes. Last October, I had the idea that since needlework taught me a lot of things -- like self-confidence, purpose, planning, and relaxation -- it might be helpful as a skill or hobby to other people. I had seen a TV segment about a sewing program in the projects somewhere and how the confidence the girls had gained was flowing into schoolwork and other areas. My original idea was just to find ways to teach needlework to girls in third-world countries where they could use the skills to also raise money for themselves. I needed to make money to make embroidery teaching kits, so I started making amigurumi and selling them.

Then I met Betty Makoni. She was a CNN Hero 2009. She runs the Girl Child Network Worldwide. She rescues girls in Africa who have been raped, abused, sold into slavery, forced to be child brides and worse. She loved the idea of the embroidery. In May 2010, we sent 52 kits to Zimbawbwe, and we have requests now for hundreds more. The girl are teaching each other; they are making clubs and using the time to talk about dreams, planning how to reach them, and working through the trauma of abuse. As a victim of rape and abuse myself, my heart went out to these girls.

We reported yesterday about the new icy splash screen which has appeared on many of Blizzard's corporate and gaming sites. There's already tons of speculation speeding around the web about it, and of course the pot was only stirred all the more this morning when the picture changed slightly: the light in the middle of the cracked ice became brighter, and there's some new detail that can be seen through the ice, including a rune of some sort just to the upper right of the center. we can probably assume that the picture will change more each day until something is announced at the Worldwide Invitational. However, the question remains: What is being announced?

Right now, there's two major schools of thought about it: One school says that this will lead up to the announcement of the WoTLK Beta, while another says that this will be the announcement of Diablo 3. Each side has some pretty passionate arguments, and are bringing the analysis to back it up. Let's look at what we have after the break.

Author Christie Golden, who's written a few Warcraft books for Blizzard in the past, has started up a blog, and her first post is full of fun info for fans of the expanded universe. First, she's going to be doing a novel about none other than the Lich King himself, Arthas Menethil. She's been chatting with Metzen about the book, and she says she's excited to tell the story of how "good people slide down that terrible, slippery slope to becoming monsters." Sounds about right to us.

She's also working on a short story to be featured in Toykopop's Warcraft Legends series, based around Winter's Veil and called "I Got What Yule Need." Cute. We'll assume Goblins will be involved somehow. And finally, she's working on a third secret project -- it's not clear that it has to do with Blizzard (Golden writes her own fiction, as well as fiction for a few other properties), but why else would it be so secret, right? If we had to guess, we'd probably say a retelling or connection story for the Diablo stories -- if we do see the announcement of a new Diablo game at WWI, time would be ripe for Blizzard to catch players up on the lore of that setting as well.

[via Blizzplanet]