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UK design student creates a smart chest binder for trans people
A UK design student created a smart wearable that could make chest binding safer, easier and more comfortable for transgender men and non-binary people. Chest binding is the act of flattening one's breasts using a tight garment in order to make the chest appear more masculine. While it can have immense mental health benefits, it can take a physical toll. Many people have reported broken ribs from too-tight wraps, and binding can be especially difficult in the summer, when the wearer is at risk of overheating. With this garment, called Breathe, Loughborough University industrial design student Miles Kilburn hopes to address many of those of common issues.
WoW Rookie: Of hearth and home
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.Looky, Mom, we're all original: we didn't call this post "Home is where the hearth is" (but only because that title was already taken). And speaking of being trite, hearthstones may seem like a rather mundane matter -- not exactly high-value gaming strategy, eh? -- yet seasoned players manage to accumulate a little hearthing savvy that makes life in Azeroth (and the Outland and Northrend) a little more convenient. Hearthstones link you to an inn in a location of your choosing, allowing you to transport ("hearth") back there once every 30 minutes. Prior to Patch 3.1, when you could only use your hearthstone once per hour, choosing where to bind and how to most efficiently order your errands and quests called for more than an insignificant amount of thought. The lower cooldown time today makes planning simpler, but there are still a few points worth knowing to help tune up your efficiency and dial down your travel time.
Tracking dead bosses in the instance you step into
As you will have noticed by now if you've entered an instance in progress since patch 3.1, Blizzard's new binding notification system is in effect. Whenever you join an instance in which bosses have already been killed, you get a warning that staying in there will bind you to that instance -- thus hopefully preventing you from accidentally sticking to an instance you don't like.However, as a few players have noted, there's still some functionality missing there. While the notification will tell you that bosses have been killed, it won't yet tell you which ones, so a malicious or confused guild could invite you a Naxx in which only one wing has been downed, when really all they've got left is Sapphiron and KT (or no bosses at all, if they really wanted to ruin your week). Fortunately, Zarhym agrees, and says that discussion about adding a little bit to the notification is incoming. It seems a little bit weird to just have a list of killed bosses on your screen when you first walk into the instance, but maybe they could add some sort of "boss tracker" to the instance maps, where you could see at a glance what was going on in any instance you join.As a few other people say in the thread, most of you may never have seen this notification pop up -- if you only join instances where nothing is killed yet, you'll never see it. But for those of us who take boss kills where we can get them (in PuGs and guild runs where an opening appears), it's a nice feature to have.Thanks, Medros!
Fallen Earth dev interview with designer Brandes Stoddard
We're keeping our eyes open for information dealing with the post-apocalyptic MMO title Fallen Earth in development at Icarus Studios. Netherlands-based gaming site MMOZONE got a hold of Fallen Earth systems designer Brandes Stoddard, asking questions ranging from the game's PvP system to design decisions as they relate to the title's ESRB rating. Since there will be no classes in Fallen Earth, Stoddard explains what a typical group will look like -- a mix of melee and ranged combatants, he says, with others using their mutations to heal and buff. Stoddard also goes into how gear specialization will impart advantages tempered with drawbacks specific to those items in question. Mounts will also be a key aspect of Fallen Earth's gameplay. Since teleportation of any sort won't exist, characters will actually have to travel to visit other locations in the game's world. Despite the importance of these means of transportation (or perhaps because of it), it looks like it won't be possible to steal them from other players. Mounts, whether vehicles or animals, will be bound to their owners, and will require either energy or food to maintain. Fallen Earth's vehicles, in general, will only be available through player-crafting efforts. If you're interested in hearing what else Fallen Earth's system designer has to say about the game, check out the MMOZONE interview with Brandes Stoddard.
Breakfast Topic: Where's your hearthstone?
Well duh, it's in your bags, of course. But more importantly: where's it set?We've covered this one before, but that was before we had a whole other continent full of inns and towns to bind ourselves to. While I used to be bound to Grom'Gol, I went ahead and switched my stone to Thrallmar (right across from Honor Hold for you Alliance) for easy access, as well as a quick exit back into Outland after I finish training (since there's no trainers in Outland).But as soon as I hit 62 or so, I figure I'll have outgrown the good ol' HP (Hellfire Peninsula, to those of you still in Azeroth). So where to? If you've made your way into the mid 60s, where's your stone set? And if you beta players have insights for us too, have at it.[ Thanks, Tim, for the suggestion! ]
