Project Lore

Alright, I fess up. Despite my open disdain for this Valentine's-inspired holiday, it really wasn't so bad this year. In fact, when I regained control of my characters (after an unfortunate hacking incident), I was pleasantly surprised to see that Blizzard had addressed many of my problems with the celebration.

Sure, you still have to hoof it from city to city to get all the (otherwise exceedingly simple) dailies done, but at least I don't have to figure out what musky sludge to lather up with in the hopes that one of the Undercity's (dearly departed) Abomination guards might find me cute, only to be rebuffed by some of the ugliest creatures in existence.

Ahh, to gather charms by doing what a Rogue does best... killing things!

But that brings me to my next point. Hunted relentlessly and without remorse during Pilgrim's Bounty, I now find myself on the other end of the equation.

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Heartbourne brought up some excellent and not-often-talked-about points in his recent post on the logic and thought process behind the use of frost emblems to buy gear versus their use for gold. Depending on how you play and what you value in-game, there's a lot of aspects to consider before spending those emblems. Read it - it will get you questioning whether you're spending your emblems right.

I'd like to bring a bit of a counterpoint as to why I choose gear over gold. As Heartbourne contends, using your Frost Emblems for gear is pretty much standard despite the fact that they could instead be used to buy and then auction off Primordial Saronite and earn yourself a nice profit. Despite the gold that you and I could be earning from that, I'm here to champion the case of using your emblems to buy gear.

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The still unnamed ProjectLore Audio Podcast - we do nothing fast around these parts - has had but one recurring theme throughout its short life, speculating.  We've speculated on everything from the direction of the horde, the upcoming Auction House app and even C'Thun's connection to being alive (spoiler: he isn't).  During all of that speculation, the crew has kept returning to one specific topic, whether or not there's enough content to last until Cataclysm.

The original discussion was tabled after we realized that we still had no idea when Cataclysm would be out.  That changed during Activision-Blizzard's conference call last week, where it was revealed that Cataclysm will be out in the second half of 2010.  With guilds dropping the hardmodes left and right - 10 of 12 are done - we came to a consensus that no, Patch 3.3 would not last most players until Cataclysm was released.

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Protip is short video series with various tips and guides. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne or subscribe in iTunes for notifications of new videos!

In the first episode of the Love is in the Air guide, I introduce the holiday and spray random passerbys with a giant cologne gun.

As fast as it's spreading around the internet, you've probably seen the hot new machinima by Irdeen Prodcutions at this point, but if you haven't, then you're in for a pretty big treat!

By no means is it the longest or the most ambitious of World of Warcraft-themed videos out there. There's neither a grand story to tell, nor a hint of "Crawling In My Skin" playing over a reel of Arthas footage. But boy is this Discovery Channel-inspired piece set to the tune of Hoagy Carmichael's "Heart and Soul" impressive.

With "WoW Boom De Yada," tour Azeroth as its most famous denizens describe how much they love living there. It's enough to make even the darkest heart flutter (and you might even break into song yourself):

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We learned a few things from last week's Activison-Blizzard conference call. Namely that Cataclysm would be hitting retail shelves in the second half of the year and that the Starcraft 2 beta is more or less imminent on the company's schedule. But one thing you might not have read much about on fan or PC-gaming sites (like this one) is what Blizzard' president Mike Morhaime had to say about console gaming.

Shock and awe, I know! Blizzard has always been a stalwart defender of the computer as the exclusive platform for most of their games, but let's not forget the company cut its teeth on consoles. Many of their pre-Warcraft titles were developed for, or at least ported to, them (Blackthorne, The Lost Vikings, and Rock and Roll Racing are typically the most notable). And even if they were done externally, versions of Diablo and Starcraft have found their way onto our television sets, as well.

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Each time a new Vault of Archavon boss is added, it seems that a PUG's chances of actually completing a full run decrease more and more.

VoA, when you're in a situation like mine in that your faction rarely holds Wintergrasp, can be a tough raid to pre-plan. Once you hold Wintergrasp, your regular 10- or 25-man groups likely aren't entirely on, and other guildies may already be saved to the raid. But those two Emblems of Frost for each kill of Toravon are precious loot that you don't want to pass up; usually, the situation calls for a PUG.

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Upper Deck Entertainment was one of the first companies to jump on board of the World of Warcraft band wagon, and now it is also going to be one of the first to leave it.  According to ManaNation, a Magic: The Gathering site, Upper Deck Entertainment and Blizzard have split.  Fear not, like so many of my high school relationships it was a mutual, or "ami­ca­ble" in business terms.

ManaNation's sources could not locate the exact reasoning for the split, but the website assumes it has something to do with Upper Deck's recent legal troubles.  The card company has had not one, but two foul ups recently.  The first over another licensed card game, the ever popular Yu-Gi-Oh from Konami, and a more recent tiff with one of the company's longest-standing partners, Major League Baseball.

Blizzard's disembodied head hit the official forums shortly after the news broke to clear the air.  Zarhym is quick to point out that although the rumor is true, Blizzard is not going to let the game die. 

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I often can't understand the average player. Many players acquire gold primarily by doing dailies, farming, or running random dungeons. All three are relatively comparable in profitability. Then again, most players don't have much gold and make just enough to get by. Sometimes they get a windfall, like a Battered Hilt or rare pet drop, then put it on the Auction House, convert their fortune to cash, and stop working to acquire gold. Most players will buy their tier 10 pieces or other Frost Emblem purchases as soon as they have enough emblems instead of buying Primordial Saronite and selling it for an easy ~2,000 gold. Its almost like having the ability to control when you get fortunate enough to cash in on a high-tag item, but hardly anyone does it. Why?

There are three cognitive biases that can help explain this phenomenon - the endowment effect, also known as loss aversion, system justification, and hyperbolic discounting.

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