drinking
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iBreathalyzer is, yes, a breathalyzer for your iPod
It's late Friday night, you're stepping out of the bar into the cold after a few drinks, and as you head towards the car, you stop, realizing that it might not be the right time to drive. But how can you know for sure? Simple -- you just pull out your iPod. Because the iPod hasn't had enough random things attached to it, there's the iBreath, a breathalyzer that connects to the bottom of your iPod or iPhone and will not only tell you what your BAC is, but transmit your iPod's audio to your FM radio as well.You've gotta be kidding us. Not only should you never drive after drinking, as even legal levels can be dangerous, but even if you just want to know your BAC you can buy a regular breathalyzer for a lot less than the $80 this one costs, and you don't even need an iPod to connect it to.But we'll give these guys their credit -- of all the things you can attach to an iPod, this one might be the strangest.
Brew of the Month for October: Autumnal Acorn Ale
Apparently that 200 tokens I spent on the Brew of the Month club was well spent -- I got my second Brew in the mail this week, and it's a good one. Autumnal Acorn Ale is not only tasty, but it'll make you smell like Autumn Acorns, too. Drinking it will get you drunk and call Woodland Squirrels up to show you a little critter love (or hate). I sipped it for the first time last night during a Slave Pens run, and at one point I had three cute little squirrels showing their affection. Apparently they'll also throw acorns at you, though I missed that in the chaos of the instance last night.Plus, it's an unlimited use item after 3.0.2 (14 day duration, though BotM members can buy more in Ironforge), which means you get as much alcohol as you want, and every time you drink one, you get an "empty brew bottle" to throw with a glassbreak bang. Very fun.If you didn't round up enough tokens to become a BotM member, you're unfortunately out of luck -- I originally thought you could buy the brews in Ironforge even if you weren't subscribed, but no dice, and the brews you get sent are soulbound. You'll have to wait until next Brewfest to sign up for your monthly beer. Can't wait to see what shows up next month!
Attend the WoW Insider Blizzcon meetup tonight, meet cool people
Blizzcon starts tomorrow in Anaheim, CA, and WoW Insider and Massively are already on-site to provide the best coverage we can! If you're in town, we want to invite you to the WoW Insider meetup tonight at 8:00 PM Anaheim time. You'll have chances to win cool prizes and swag if you know your World of Warcraft trivia, and the WoW Insider podcast will be taped in front of a live audience, so you can be a part of that mayhem as well.The meetup will be at The Lost Bar at 1150 W. Magic Way, near the Disneyland Hotel. The party will go on through much of the night, so even if you're not getting in until after 8:00, feel free to show up late and relax with the WoW Insider crew post-flight or drive.
Barrens Chat: Bubbles bubbles everywhere...
And way too much to drink.Just a short this week in honor of Brewfest. Which has ironically fallen on the same week as this school's homecoming, so no matter where I look there are parties and drunken revelry. Anyways, I haven't had the chance to participate in Brewfest too much this year, although I did roll up an alliance not long ago and rode the Tram for the first time.In closing, have a safe and happy World of Warcraft holiday, and don't drink and ride!See you next week. %Gallery-22361% Barrens Chat is a weekly comic strip that's been shortened today due to too many trips through the festival grounds. If you're looking for something longer, why not try an unwanted parody. Like 'em short and sweet? Try this shocking shorty. Come back next week for another comic!
Blood Sport: Healing in Arenas
Healing in Arenas is necessary. It's that simple. Outside of the 2v2 bracket, it is virtually impossible to find an Arena team comp without a healer. Of course, in the 2v2 and 3v3 brackets, that usually means a Druid. There's no question, however, that healing is key to every strategy and a good healer can spell the difference between a 2 rating win or a 26 rating loss. And just like in most cases, a healer gets the most of the flak for botching a match because it's easier to spot a missed heal than if your Rogue mistimed a Blind or your Shaman blew Elemental Mastery too soon.In fact, some team members will nerd rage on their healers for missing heals but the DPS classes have an equally important responsibility to peel enemies off their healers. Healing is a thankless job but someone's got to do it. If you happen to be the healer on your team, or luckily one of two or more, I salute you. You've taken on one of the most important roles in Arena PvP. When you heal in Arenas, you basically have to master three important skills: humping, juking, and drinking. Getting those three down pat should help your team coast to more wins than losses... or at least help you get a lot less nerd rage.
3 Point Entertainment releases Horde and Alliance beer steins
A company called 3 Point Entertainment has apparently been contracted by Blizzard to make some WoW steins -- yes, tired of drinking your ale out of a plain old authentic German stein? Now you can drink it out of a Warcraft-branded, Horde or Alliance themed WoW stein. As much beer as we drink, we can't exactly say we're stein connesseurs, but these look pretty well done to us. Each one features a bas-relief illustration from two artists who've done a lot of work for Blizzard, Glenn Rane and Samwise Didier, and they're made by a company called Ceramarte, apparently a big player in the "beerware" business.They'll set you back a whopping $79.99, though, which seems pricey (although it's been a long time since we went stein shopping, so maybe that's a bargain). Think we could drink our mead out of something a little cheaper, maybe a Thunderbrew-branded sippy cup?
Advice for those with drinking problems
If you caught the MLG Orlando live stream over at GotFrag TV last weekend, you might have noticed a critical strategic move that many of the world's best players did over and over, particularly in the longer matches -- drink. Because mana-dependent classes don't have a constantly renewable resource such as Rage or Energy, drinking in Arenas is an important skill to master. Watching the tournament was educational because many of those pro Arena players knew how to drink like crazy.The trickiest part of drinking in an Arena match is getting out of combat. Some classes, such as Druids, have an easier time than most but watching players escape focus fire with or without their teammates peeling opponents off them is really amazing to watch. It's a skill unto itself. Night Elves have a ridiculous advantage with Shadowmeld, allowing them to immediately enter stealth upon finding a safe spot to drink. This makes them harder to find, allowing them to get just a few more ticks from Star's Tears. Despite the nerf to drinking inside Arenas in Patch 2.4, players have managed to get those precious four seconds (and hopefully more) to get just enough mana back during matches. In the heat of combat, the nice cold drink is refreshing, indeed. Tips on how slake your thirst after the jump.
Scrollbar does potion shots with Final Fantasy night
We're quickly becoming big fans of Scrollbar, an excellent pub with an excellent name, located near the IT University of Copenhagen in Denmark. They previously entranced us with their Mario theme night, and have now blown us away with their evening of Final Fantasy, complete with cosplay and custom drinks.What were they serving? A green lemon-lime concoction called a Life Stream, a "virgin" red drink called the Aerith (LOL), and an adorable pink sweet concoction called a Moogle. Shots included a devilish One Winged Angel (aka Sephiroth), and a Phoenix Down, for the hardiest of battles. All ingredients and directions can be found on their site (but please drink responsibly, folks; those Phoenix Downs don't actually work).[Thanks, Mike K.]
Water un-nerfed outside Arenas
You wouldn't think something as prosaic as the water that restores our precious blue bars would be undergoing a controversy, but that has certainly happened during the time patch 2.4 has been on the PTR. A change was made such that if you sat down to drink, and drank for less than five seconds, you would receive a reduced benefit -- i.e., less mana. The assumption was that this nerf was made to combat people regenning mana too fast in the Arenas, which led to objections to the change being applied to PvE situations as well.European US CM Bornakk replied that in most cases we'd be drinking more than five seconds in PvE situations, and players responded with many counterexamples (chain pulls, etc.). Bornakk replied to that saying basically that he still thought it wouldn't be hard to drink long enough to avoid the change's effects, and that the change was meant to effect "more than just Arenas" anyway. Well, it looks like they've changed their mind: Kalgan himself just announced that the water nerf will now only affect Arenas. PvE casters rejoice!
The problem of burst drinking
Yes, burst damage is an increasingly important factor in class balance, but have you heard of burst drinking? Apparently that's a big problem, too, as the latest update to the patch notes adds a very strange function to drinking: as of patch 2.4, "the benefits of drinking have been delayed," and the real mana regen won't start until five seconds after you've started drinking. Wha?But it's true-- apparently Blizzard felt that anyone drinking for only five seconds (either in a PvP or PvE situation) was getting too much mana. Drysc confirms that it's a serious change, and that anyone worried about their mana regen only needs to drink for six seconds, at which point they'll have as much mana as before the patch (which suggests that there is a burst of mana given at the 5 second mark, to make up for the delay).But is this really that much of a problem? Sure, with the changes to spell haste, things are going to get faster in the battlegrounds. But are we at the point already where an extra second of out of combat drinking makes all the difference? Blizzard thinks so.
No, It's not a drinking problem
Matthan of Burning Blade brought up an issue with drinking to recover mana on the public test realm. He found that he was not receiving the normal benefit from imbibing. Hortus indicated that this phenomenon is not a bug but a change in the mechanics that ramps up mana regeneration over time. Players are used to a steady increase in mana with every tick. This change was not included in the patch 2.4 notes. The general consensus from players is negative. Speculation suggests that the change was geared toward casters drinking Star's Tears or conjured water in the arena. Posters have made many arguments on why this would have negative consequences in the PvE environment. Many casters drink between pulls and do not usually have the opportunity to spend thirty seconds drinking in raids and instances. Incremental increases in drinking over time would inconvenience all members of a party or raid as they would have to wait for casters to fill up on mana. This could change become disastrous in chain pulls and endurance fights, where every second counts.
Stand up for Blade's Edge bugs
This is the best bug I've heard about in the game yet so far-- Drysc has confirmed that there is a known bug in the Blade's Edge plateau area which will cause everyone, when someone starts up the Bombing Run quest, to stop eating and drinking and stand up. It's a respect thing, you know? Stand up for the cause!No, it's just a really, really weird bug, and a fix is on the way in an upcoming patch (I'm a little surprised they don't aim to fix it earlier, but apparently all that will be lost is the food anyone sits down to eat at the wrong time in Blade's Edge). Once again, I am dumbfounded at trying to figure out just how Blizzard's code works-- seems like they have the absolute weirdest bugs happen to them sometimes.
Officers' Quarters: The wrong stuff
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.A big reason I love writing for this Web site is you, the readers. Whenever I write a column and ask you for feedback, you always provide some insightful comments. And whenever I fail to mention an important point, you guys always manage to catch it and comment on it. It's a supportive and intelligent community here, and it certainly makes my job easier!Last week, I wrote about the "right stuff" to look for in a good officer candidate. I mentioned five traits to value in a candidate: maturity, generosity, good communication skills, emotional intelligence, and game knowledge. Necessarily, that means someone who is immature, greedy, barely literate, emotionally stunted, and a total noob would have the "wrong stuff." But, as several readers pointed out, there are other warning signs that someone will make a bad officer.
/silly: Where everybody knows your name
"Welcome, stranger. Pull up a stool and make yourself at home. Say, you look like you're a bit run down this morning. Tuesday gotchya down? I here ya. But I think I've got just the thing to perk you up. Nothing gets your blood pumping like a stiff shot of /silly. This ones on the house. I told ya last time, your money is no good here."Once again I have pulled from my epic stable of alts to fill a starring role in this week's comic. The legendary Banhammer, level 9 dwarf warrior extraordinaire, is here to get his drink on. Which is what he does best. And most often. Not that I'm insinuating that he has a drinking problem, but he often refuses to enter combat unless he is properly "buffed". And by "buffed", I mean "completely sloshed out of his gourd." It's a time honored dwarven tradition, I hear.It may be the lack of sleep talking, but I'm actually quite happy with the way this comic turned out. I employed a different technique of coloring that I had found in a digital art magazine a few months back, and the results are a lot more clean and professional then I had expected. Perhaps we will see more of this style in the near future - or perhaps I'll switch to drawing stick figures with sidewalk chalk, just to keep you guys on your toes. Expect the unexpected!
Last day to enter WoW Insider's Brewfest Giveaway
Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter a comment (on the other post, not this one) to get a chance at winning this striking Thargas Anvilmar toy... sorry again-- "Action Figure" from WoW Insider and DC Unlimited. Brewfest ends on Tuesday, and this figure doesn't release in stores until October 24th, but we here at WoW Insider are making the best of the drinking festival and hooking one lucky reader up with this baby, a Dwarf Warrior outfitted in Tier 5!To enter, put a comment on our original post (not this post) by this afternoon at 3pm EST telling us what your favorite drink for Brewfest is. You guys all went with the "in-game" idea, which is fine, but personally, I like drinking out of game a lot better than in-game (in-game drinking just gives me a headache). So for me, Jack and Coke is the drink of choice. For beer, definitely Fat Tire with a meal, or Guinness if it's just a pint at the pub.But good luck with the contest! Official rules are here (short version: must be in the US and 18 or older, one randomly selected comment will win and you can only enter once). Happy Brewfest!
Nissan begins testing drunk-proof car
On August 1st, Nissan Japan will begin joint testing with authorities on a new system which prevents drivers from starting their cars if they've been drinking. The technology, which we mentioned back in 2006, can disable the vehicle's ignition after analyzing a driver's level of intoxication using an onboard breathalyzer. The tests will take place with cars used by local government staff in a variety of Prefectures around Japan, utilizing the opinions of the drivers to further develop the system. The company recently added a "Carwings" navigation system to its vehicles, which issues warnings to drivers under the influence, and the automaker hopes that technologies such as these could halve the number of serious accidents involving Nissan vehicles by 2015. [Warning: subscription required]
Nuvo Wino infrared wine thermometer sports retractable sensor
There's no shortage of gadgetry designed to keep your wine legit and chilled, but the Nuvo Vino infrared thermometer is hitting the market to ensure that your pre-drink rambling doesn't lead to you drinking an overly warm glass. The simplistic device sports a retractable sensor that purportedly measures the exact temperature of the wine itself, and there's plenty of accompanying documentation to inform you of what perfect degree you should look for before indulging. As expected, it also features a fairly attractive motif in order to catch the eye of the affluent, but until they add built-in aural cues that blurt out whether or not your beverage is ideal, we'll hold onto our $49.95.
News Brews blends RSS feeds into multicultural beverage
Getting updates on the weather and current time is no problem for modern day coffee machines, but Benjamin Brown's project aims to blend the hottest worldwide news into a multicultural cup of joe. Rather than taking time to find out what's going on in the world around you with your eyes, the News Brews hopes to shovel the latest RSS feeds into your brain via your taste buds. The steampunk-inspired device "connects to internet news feeds and parses them to determine the relative frequency at which different coffee growing regions are mentioned," which means that your brew will differ each day depending on how frequently a given country is mentioned. Of course, not everyone will be down with an unexpected coffee suicide of sorts to wake them in the AM, but trying to figure out what your mouth is reading on the drive to work certainly beats running others off the road or illegally texting at stop lights.[Via TechDigest]
Phat Loot Phriday: Mirren's Drinking Hat
Unfortunately for us Hordies, this snazzy hat is Alliance-only. But if you're the right faction, the MDH is the perfect headgear for drinks on the go!Name: Mirren's Drinking HatType: Rare Cloth HeadArmor: 92Abilities: +18 Intellect Increases spell damage and healing by 35, which makes it a nice quest reward for any caster around level 62 or so Restores 5 mana per 5 sec, which makes it even better And here's the fun part: Use: Reach into the hat for a drink. That's right, once every 60 minutes, you can use this hat and get a free drink in your inventory. The drink changes all the time, but it's usually some type of alcohol (naturally-- you get it from a dwarf). And some of the drinks that come out actually work as mana drinks, too, although at one every hour, it's not quite enough to live off of. How to Get It: It's cake if you're already in Outland. Down in the southwest of Hellfire Peninsula, just south of Falcon Watch (the Blood Elf tower), there's a little dwarf camp where you'll find Mirren Longbeard. He's got a short chain of two quests-- the first one will be a quick run back to Honor Hold to fetch the guy some beer (but wait, if he's got this hat, why does he need beer?), and the second one will send you just south to the Arrakoa camp to kill their pet birds and collect the feathers.Bring back the feathers and he'll give you this pimp hat, obviously named after 2007 Best Actress Oscar Winner Helen Mirren.Now, Horde, like I said, this quest isn't for you-- this is, unfortunately, an Alliance-only item. But don't worry-- you still get free booze! Down in Stonebreaker Hold, there's a barrel to the left of the inn that you can click to get some free Stonebreaker Brew! (the barrel despawns when too many players use it at one time, so if it's not there, check back later) Free booze!Apparently there's also a clickable barrel for Alliance at Allerian Point. But since they get this hat, we just won't tell them about that one.Getting Rid of It: Sells to a vendor for 1g 85s 22c, or disenchants (req 225) into either Arcane Dust, Lesser Planar Essence, or a very small chance of a Small Prismatic Shard.
Russians congregate over internet, drink via USB shot glasses
Considering that we've all some of us have been enjoying online chats, poker, and dating for quite some while, it's not too shocking to see the Russians utilize the power of the web to bring alcoholics and social drinkers together in inebriated harmony. Sergey Mikheev, head of e-generator, has devised a USB shot glass to allow lonely, alcohol-needing individuals to get their drink on while safely at home. While we don't consider ourselves experts in Russian culture, it's apparently not tactful to get plastered solo, and while online drinking might be stretching the rules just a bit, we're sure those vodka-lovin' internet dwellers aren't complaining. The idea is to join a group of drinkers in an online lounge, where the USB shot glass levels are shown on each person's screen; once the go-ahead is given, the folks turn up their glasses and chug it down, ideally showing an empty glass after a random smashing of keys somehow spells out congratulatory phrases. As interesting and novel as this may be, let it remind us all how "getting a life" should be taken oh-so-seriously.[Via ChipChick]
