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  1. #1

    Computer Setup of the Month, Blue Posts, MMO Report

    Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
    Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!

    This month
    New SSDs are here and are finally priced reasonably. If you are thinking about purchasing a SSD, avoid the Intel 320 series as there is a fairly serious flaw. Now is a good time to buy, as the next generation is a good while away and the current prices are reasonable. New AMD CPUs will be here in September or October at the earliest, only unconfirmed benchmarks have been seen so far. The AMD Llano CPUs that came out recently are nothing impressive for gaming and the socket will not allow an upgrade to Bulldozer.

    Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date. If you experience problems after updating, roll back to the recommended Nvidia Drivers.

    Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions!

    Peripherals/Monitors

    ComponentPuppy Dolphin
    MonitorASUS VW224U 22-Inch Widescreen - $150ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $200
    KeyboardMicrosoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 - $25Cyborg V.5 - $42
    MouseLogitech MX518 - $30Logitech G500 - $54
    SpeakersLogitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $23Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $40
    ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
    MonitorASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $283Dell UltraSharp U2410 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $510
    KeyboardLogitech G110 - $60Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $75 ($112)
    MouseRazer Deathadder - $48Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $69
    SpeakersCreative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $50Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $83



    Puppy and Dolphin

    ComponentPuppy Dolphin
    CaseNZXT GAMMA Classic - $36NZXT GAMMA Classic - $36
    Power SupplyCorsair Builder Series CX V2 500 - $40Corsair 650TX V2 - $75
    CPUAMD Athlon II X4 640 AM3 - $100AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition - $112
    HeatsinkCooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $35Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $35
    MotherboardASUS M4A88TD-V EVO AM3 - AMD 880G - $105Asus AM3+ 880G M5A88-V EVO - $130
    Memory4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $334GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $56
    Graphics CardXFX 6770 - $137XFX 6850 or EVGA GTX 460 - $163/ $180
    Hard DriveSAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB - $61SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB - $61
    DVDLite-On 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $24Lite-On 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $24
    Total$571$692 / $709


    Narwhal and Unicorn
    All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
    ComponentNarwhal Unicorn
    CaseCooler Master HAF 912 - $60Cooler Master HAF932 - $153
    Power SupplyCorsair 650TX V2 - $75Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $135
    CPUIntel i5-2500k - $220Intel i7-2600k - $315
    HeatsinkThermaltake Frio - $58Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $80
    MotherboardASUS P8P67-M PRO - $147ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO - $210
    Memory4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 4GB 12800 DDR3 - $568GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $85
    Graphics CardXFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $245 / $225XFX 6970 OR EVGA GTX 570 - $320 / $330
    Hard DriveWestern Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $90Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $90
    SSDCrucial 128 GB m4 (Review) - $250
    OR
    OCZ 120 GB Agility 3 (Review) - $210
    Intel 510 Series 120 GB (Review) - $285
    OR
    OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 (Review) - $270
    DVDLite-On 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $24Lite-On 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $24
    Total$955 - $1225$1682 - $1707



    Blue Posts
    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Difficulty to get Valor Points
    Valor Points aren't awarded in a vacuum though, nor are ZA and ZG necessarily the 'best and only' route. Overall, running a raid, even the previous tier's raid, is going to be more rewarding for most players overall than just hitting up ZA/ZG. You can acquire gear of a high ilevel that provides set bonuses to help prepare for the next tier of content, as well as get a chance at potentially lucrative (or useful) BoEs; opportunities you won't find in the troll dungeons.

    That's not to say that there aren't advantages to hitting up ZA/ZG to cap your VP if that's all you're after; but to believe that it's necessarily the most rewarding path if that isn't your sole goal, is, I think, a mistake. They still offer viable alternative for those players who have already spent a good deal of time in the tier 11 raid content too.

    On a related note, we're looking at ways to make raiding accessible and easier to get organized, without at the same time compromising the experience for those who are looking for a challenge. We adjusted tier 11 specifically so that players who haven't seen the content yet will have a chance to get in there and mix it up. In fact, we think that things work best overall when we have heroic raids, normal raids, and then previous tiers all available at the same time - which was an arrangement we didn't quite have in place when Cataclysm launched (unless you count Argaloth, but we don't think a single boss counts as a tier). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    People skipping queues by grouping with a tank through RealID
    Not sure if this is the place to post or not, but you can use the old skipping queue method as a dps by queuing with a tank and the tank leaving instantly. It doesn't remove the dps person like it does on normal queuing. Something to look in to!

    Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention. It’s not a bug, though, and Real ID Party doesn’t change the way this system is intended to function.

    We certainly don’t want players skipping queues and getting an unfair advantage over players that are waiting patiently. Ultimately, the Dungeon Finder rule system is much more “intelligent” than you might think: players who abuse the system may find that they are removed when their tank compatriot leaves, regardless of how long they were already in the dungeon. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Incentives to players to participate in world PvP
    The problem with these "incentives" is that they could potentially cause additional problems or not feel "good" to those that get caught in it when they don't want to be involved. Also keep in mind that though we have PvP and PvE realms, it's all the same game, so if we introduce something, it would go on all realms.

    As you've seen we did some outdoor PvP incentives in Burning Crusade (after it was introduced in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands), but the difficulty then is keeping people involved and interested in going back to it.

    We're always open to constructive feedback on these things, but introducing specific things into the world to inject PvP isn't a simple undertaking and has some potential pitfalls. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Why is Ghostcrawler no longer on the forums?
    Where did he go? I am not aware of what exactly happened. Did he get a lot of trolls attacking him than decide to lay low after that?
    No, it didn't really have anything to do with that. We (community managers) had several discussions with Ghostcrawler and the other lead developers about how we'd be approaching communication on the new community site when it launched. Ultimately, we all agreed it'd be better for the company and the community to have the community managers be the primary source of forum communication. He still reads the forums every day for feedback. Likewise, we stay in touch with him every day, often relaying information he provides us to you all. So his thoughts on any given subject are still very often shared on the forums. The only difference is we, as community managers, take the time to relay his thoughts to you so he can focus more on considering the feedback we collect and provide from the forums, affording him more time to focus on development.

    That said, he's always looking for new subjects to tackle for our blogs, so you still get a direct link to his (and the rest of the development team's) thought process. As we've stated before, we also plan on completely revamping the concept of Ask the Devs. The goal is to make sure the new Ask the Devs format allows for more interaction between devs and players, and has a quicker turnaround time on answers provided.

    He may not be in the trenches interacting with players on the forums daily anymore, but he's still watching. Reading. Contemplating. Waiting to strike. And when he does, we'll be there to share his words of wisdom. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    [...] Just know that we're very close to Ghostcrawler (and the rest of the dev leads), so we can have very frank discussions about game design. Sometimes we'll sit in GC's office and argue points we've seen on the forums, either because we personally agree with those points, or we're playing devil's advocate. He sits with the rest of the class design team too, so it's really awesome to get a philosophic design discussion going with the lot of them. They're very receptive to unfiltered feedback.

    I guess my point is, the perception that something is missing in terms of player feedback from the forums reaching people like GC, is stronger than the reality. But I do agree that the communication about that feedback isn't as strong as it used to be. Our department is relatively new to the structure we have now -- it began shortly before the launch of StarCraft II when the new community site format was introduced about a year ago. We're still learning how to optimize our team and figure out the tools/staffing we need to better support our forum goers. To be honest, the roles and responsibilities of Blizzard community managers have greatly increased over the years, but we know that employee interaction on the forums is still as important as ever.

    For now you'll still probably see developers on the PTR forums from time to time when they need direct testing feedback, or need to inquire further about any issues/concerns. Having said that, it is the role of the community team to get information from the company to the players, and vice versa. When we're doing our job right the developers can focus more of their time on developing the game, while still feeling like they're attuned to what players are saying. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)
    Divine Aegis Visual Effect
    I spoke with the developers about this yesterday. You're likely to see a slightly toned down version of the original effect when it's updated. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    Discipline Mastery
    The root of the issue is this -- our Mastery affects our spells in very different ways.
    The intent is exactly that. If mastery affected all of your spells the same way, then it would really just be a “+healing” stat, which we already offer (Intellect). Crit and haste don’t affect all your spells the same way, and we think it’s a more interesting design if mastery behaves the same way. It is possible to go too far of course. If mastery doesn’t affect enough of your entire healing package (either in terms of number of spells or raw output), then it just becomes a weak stat. Alternatively, it can lead classes, and healers in particular, to neglect spells that are weak because mastery doesn’t boost them. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

    The MMO Report
    You know how it works, first news of the week (or last depending on your timezone), MMO Report!

    Last edited by Boubouille; 2011-07-17 at 08:08 PM.

  2. #2
    Bloodsail Admiral Antherios's Avatar
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    Imo, a good idea to keep GC out of the forums
    When he posted something, trolls just popped out of nowhere to flame

  3. #3
    Good marketing...RealID Instant Q with tank. Buy yours today!

  4. #4
    Deleted
    Close GC in a closet.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Antherios View Post
    Imo, a good idea to keep GC out of the forums
    When he posted something, trolls just popped out of nowhere to flame
    Unfortunately, he was also the only blue on the forums to ever give a straight answer instead of the PR bullshit that the community managers have to feed us.
    Last edited by blackangel209; 2011-07-17 at 08:09 PM.

  6. #6
    Casey has to be gay if he can't even admit Megan Fox has physically attractive features.

  7. #7
    Unfortunatly ghostcrawler was one of the few with a real insight, someone able to give us an honest answer even if not always the one we wanted to hear. Most of these community managers are having to put over to us something they heard at the very least secondhand if not third or more so I think a lot of it gets "lost in translation" to borrow a phrase. They are trying to convey something they do not understand themselves, so really is it any suprise that we the community of players do not understand it ? We need more blue posters who actually know what they are talking about.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleveneleven View Post
    Casey has to be gay if he can't even admit Megan Fox has physically attractive features.
    She doesn't flat chest no real face bad fingers and no ass
    "The sky's will rain fire." "The oceans will boil." "The streets will run red with the blood of billions only then when your last pitiful hope is extinguished will I end your life lets go."

  9. #9
    "The problem with these "incentives" is that they could potentially cause additional problems or not feel "good" to those that get caught in it when they don't want to be involved." Comment is really cute. You'd almost think the current patch wasn't so brilliantly designed that each faction could park their fat *sses on the quest NPCs outside firelands, have entire raid groups dedicated to keeping a careful watch on the breach chokepoint, not to mention have the brilliant Protectors of Hyjal NPCs so well programmed that they stand there with their thumbs up their butts when the player is fighting the quest mobs but decide to go off in all directions to stun / attack opposite faction players just like whenever. gg no re bliz.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Eleveneleven View Post
    Casey has to be gay if he can't even admit Megan Fox has physically attractive features.
    What features might they be? I can't see any behind all the botox/work she's had.

  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by turlyonlost to tirion wtf View Post
    She doesn't flat chest no real face bad fingers and no ass
    By your assessment of Megan Fox I'm convinced you have no effing clue who she is.

    She can't act..but she's hot and nothing you said is even remotely true.


  12. #12
    I dig the lengthy explanation about Ghostcrawler going MIA; lots of fluff to say "everybody got tired of him using the wrong tone and us CMs always had to clean up afterwards".

  13. #13
    Bloodsail Admiral Narshe's Avatar
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    Megan Fox in Transformers = the hotness. Megan Fox in Transormers 2 and any other, newer movie = Fugly! She looked incredible then ruined herself, happens to too many actresses nowadays.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by turlyonlost to tirion wtf View Post
    She doesn't flat chest no real face bad fingers and no ass
    I'd like to know who taught you what the word "flat" meant.

    Not saying anything about what I overall think of the woman, but certainly "flat" is an inaccurate description.

  15. #15
    Maybe GC (and other lead devs) are just too busy working on Titan now?

  16. #16
    What the hell are you on about - puppy and dolphin??

  17. #17
    Deleted
    Cmon now chaud, you dont need a Z68 motherboard if you got a graphics card as well, a P67 does the trick.

  18. #18
    Other games implenting player housing, why not in WoW? Wowwiki got blueposts dated 2004 that says they will add it after the launch of Vanilla wow, that's 6 years since now, get them in Blizz!!

  19. #19
    On the Unicorn build: I don't believe that Noctua HSF will fit properly in the HAF 932 because of the side fan.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Knuk View Post
    Other games implenting player housing, why not in WoW? Wowwiki got blueposts dated 2004 that says they will add it after the launch of Vanilla wow, that's 6 years since now, get them in Blizz!!
    WoW simply doesn't need it. Although I must admit, I have fond memories of being shown around a 'Player Killers' house in Ultima Online and examining what they had in all of their chests.. lots and lots and lots of gear looted after player kills. A strange mix of sympathy for those robbed of their items and awe at how much gear these players accumulated as 'outcast' dread lords.

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