Each week Matthew Porter contributes The Creamy GUI Center, a column aimed at helping you enhance your WoW experience by offering an in depth guide to addons, macros and other tools we use to play WoW, along with commentary on issues that affect how we all play.
Welcome folks to this week's The Creamy GUI Center. This week I tackle one of the great suggestions left by you the reader in the comment's section. We're gunna examine bag replacements and inventory managers in a special two part series. This week we'll see how to organize your inventory with bag replacement addons. And in the following week we'll look at which addons help you change gear around for different situations. But let's not put the cart ahead of the horse, first we have to organize all that equipment, so let's get to it!
We almost can't believe it's true, but it is. If you're a fan of the WoW Insider Show (and our representative from WoW Radio, Turpster), you won't want to miss Massively's new weekly feature, TurpsterVision. Every Tuesday, the loveable rogue (who actually plays a Gnome Warrior in WoW) will premiere a brand new video segment, full of Turpstery goodness. Massively, if you didn't know, is a blog like WoW Insider, but for all MMOs (not just Warcraft), and each week Turpster will examine another wacky game in the quickly-growing world of online gaming. And it's probably a good guess that he'll also do whatever else he thinks of, too-- his is a kind of rampant talent that you just can't control.
This week, he examines The Endless Forest, an MMO that we don't recommend playing unless you really, really like deer and dancing in wooded graveyards. Yeah-- just watch the video over on Massively, and you'll see what we mean. We welcome Turpster to the Joystiq family (he's like the drunken, obscene cousin, but we totally mean that in a good way), and we're sure that the new TurpsterVision will be a must-watch every single Tuesday.
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.
Happy Patch 2.3! I know that Blizzard gave raiders Zul'Aman, but the rest of the game really became much more casual friendly. This week we're going to talk about many of the Battleground benefits that are there for those of us with limited playtime.
First, let's talk about this weekend's Call to Arms. Eye of the Storm is the battleground giving the bonus honor this weekend. Levels 61 and up can participate in EotS and the battles are often only 15 minutes, not including queue time. Or course, one of the benefits of the Call to Arms is the reduced queue times.
I can't guarantee that the EotS queue times will be that much lower this weekend, however. The fact that Alterac Valley has recently been changed may mean that a lot of people will be trying that battleground out instead of EotS. Also, whatever battleground is in the PvP Daily Quest may affect queues as well.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
You play WoW... a lot. Your non-playing friends and family don't understand and feel neglected. So you have the perfect solution: introduce them to WoW! Be careful what you wish for. You may find that your brother (or bestfriend or significant other) has a not so pleasant online persona. Here are the most common categories of noob inductee to watch out for:
The Timesucker: This person is usually playing while working or parenting. You make an appointment to play with her and she's there: on time and enthusiastic. But then the phone rings. A little later, a child needs discipline. You finally finish a quest and an afternoon snack must be prepared. So many understandable priorities take precedence over WoW and you end up spending an hour or more hanging around the Valley of Trials all dressed up and no one to power level.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
A local Philadelphia news station covered this story yesterday about the dangers of MMO addiction. It is a more responsible article than most because it quotes an actual psychologist as saying that most people have no problem playing WoW, just the people who have problems dealing with reality. On a related note, the always delightful Jack Thompson seems to have sent out another letter, this one to Microsoft, about Halo 3 being marketed to underage gamers. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the merits of Jack's case (cough media slut cough) or the impossible task of marketing to 17 year olds, but not 16 year olds. I also don't want to belittle addiction. Addiction is a real and horrible thing that ruins more lives than just the addict's, whether the addiction is WoW or alcohol or whatever. Often addicts will move from one addiction to another, unable to cope with life without a crutch. I, unfortunately, know somebody like this.
The problem I have with the Internet Addiction news story, all news stories like it and everything having to do with Mr. Virtual Ambulance Chaser is the fact that it is "news" that children don't do well when they are electronically babysat. Well, duh.
More on this topic and some solutions after the jump.
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
My husband, who plays WoW 5 to 6 hours a day at a minimum, informed me the other day that playing video games in general and WoW in particular was very unproductive. Most people would give him the Captain Obvious award, but I consider the timing of the statement a bit odd, considering WoW Insider just hired me to write a regular column (yay!) about balancing real life with WoW. Certainly, playing WoW can range from being a very pleasant escape to ruining your life, but that is actually the case with any hobby or recreational activity. The fact is that, with a little effort and planning and lots of learning from mistakes, you can successfully balance real life with WoW and even use WoW to make real life better.
There are many examples of WoW players using their hobby for being productive, and I am not even talking about the despised and pitiablegold farmers. I'm also not talking about the Blizzard employees, because anyone in the video game biz can tell you that working on a video game can not only ruin your fun in that game, it can make you not want to play any video game at all for a while. But there are people who use the social aspects of WoW for professional networking, there are the professionally sponsored arena teams and there are people who actually put their WoW playtime on their resumes.
Of course, there is more to life than just making money and WoW can help there, too.
As previewed before, the Blizzard developers made mention that they were working on an in-game voice-over-IP system. Well, "Games for Windows" magazine has an article that confirms that Blizzard will be implementing this feature in the future. While the release of this feature has not been scheduled, more specific information and details of the system have been discussed.
Some of the features that have been disclosed include feature that lights up the speaking character's name in the interface, allowing you to actively see who is speaking, and target them if necessary. Also, the voice channels can be separated so that the music can be silenced while a player speaks, or the music can be over normal speakers and voice can be sent directly to a headset.
While the replies of the players are mixed as to the potential of abuse, options of use, and how it will effect gameplay and system lag, I think that this will be a feature that could be amazing if done well. I can't wait to give it a try!
A local Philadelphia news station covered 
My husband, who plays WoW 5 to 6 hours a day at a minimum, informed me the other day that playing video games in general and WoW in particular was very unproductive. Most people would give him the Captain Obvious award, but I consider the timing of the statement a bit odd, considering WoW Insider just hired me to write a regular column (yay!) about balancing real life with WoW. Certainly, playing WoW can range from being a very pleasant escape to ruining your life, but that is actually the case with any hobby or recreational activity. The fact is that, with a little effort and planning and lots of learning from mistakes, you can successfully balance real life with WoW and even use WoW to make real life better.
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