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Recommended Reading: Shoes that vibrate to guide your travels
These vibrating shoes guide your steps as you play tourist Maurizio Pesce, Wired Imagine all of the things you might notice on your next weekend trip if you weren't constantly staring at your phone to guide you. EasyJet's Sneakairs vibrate to let you know when to turn or if you've arrived at your destination using Bluetooth and the Google Maps API. And yes, they were made by the UK budget airline, which makes the project even more interesting.
Mogu'shan Vaults world firsts
Following the release of the Heroic version of Mogushan Vaults on October 9 in the US and October 10 in the EU, the very, very early morning of October 13 -- 00:43 UK time to be precise -- European guild Method took down Heroic Will of the Emperor 25-man. Despite the delay, where the raids were released in the US several hours earlier, Method came from way behind in the starting grid to snatch the World First from Vodka and Blood Legion. World second went to another European guild, Envy, with Vodka third and Blood Legion fourth. Blood Legion and Vodka set up a healthy lead, alternating first and second between them for Stone Guard, Feng, Gara'Jal and the Spirit Kings, but Method crept into second place for Elegon, the penultimate boss, pushing Vodka into third but still behind Blood Legion. According to Method's website, the world second took place a full 12 hours after their world first. But, the race for 6/6 Mogu'shan Vaults had already been won over 30 hours earlier, when Finnish guild DREAM Paragon swept to the end of the heroic 10-man version of the raid, downing Will of the Emperor on the afternoon of October 11. Paragon came in world 4th for the second 10-man boss, Feng the Accursed, and world 1st for every boss thereafter in the 10-man raids. But it seems that people still count the 25-man race as the "proper" race, despite Paragon's remarkable achievement. What do you think? Can 10-man world firsts be considered the same as 25-man world firsts? Should Paragon try to go back to 25-man? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
StarCraft vs. Warcraft: What is the WoW community missing?
For the past year or so, I've been living a double life. To some, I am a skilled and tenacious night elf priestess, adventuring through Azeroth at the charge of the Holy Light, healing the injured and saving the incompetent. To others, however, I am but a lowly brood mother, commanding a swarming, parasitic army with occasional success against my enemies across the Koprulu sector. Don't follow me? Basically, I've just been playing a lot of StarCraft 2 whenever I'm not raiding. Still, being heavily invested in WoW and StarCraft has really felt like living two lives at times, especially when you consider how dramatically different they both are. And I'm not talking about the gameplay; obviously one would expect an MMORPG and an RTS to be incomparable. What I mean is that that the culture and community that surrounds these two games are distinctively different, despite the fact that the games share some of their playerbase with one another. You'd think that one game community would be pretty similar to the next, but they're not. The whole thing has left me with a lot of questions to turn over in my mind. Is it possible that the WoW and StarCraft communities could learn from the other? Seven years in, is it even possible for the WoW community to change in any significant way at this point? And if so, is there something missing in the WoW community? To explore the idea further, I started making a list of all the things I thought the StarCraft community had that the WoW community was lacking.
Spiritual Guidance: The priests of BlizzCon 2011
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. This past weekend, BlizzCon 2011 brought a plethora of announcements for World of Warcraft. Players can now look forward to pandas, a dramatically new talent system, a Pokémon-style minigame, and lots more. Priests in particular are in for radical changes with the new talents, and while I suspect some of you would like to hear my perspective on things, I'm going to wait a week and see what else unfolds from the blues as they respond to some of the more obvious questions the community is asking. This also gives me the opportunity to follow through with my original plans of introducing you guys to some of the priests I met at BlizzCon 2011.
Medea Vodka (and its radical programmable LED bottle) now ready to party
It may not be your birthday, but it's most definitely the weekend. And if you're looking to have a "good time," there's hardly a better place to look than your local ABC store. We mean... whatever place you can find that sells Medea. Put simply, this vodka maker has decided to wrap its spirits inside of bottles that boast programmable LED displays, and while the company has been kicking the tires for a small while now, we'll have you know that these things are now available for purchase ($39.99 a pop) over the world wide web. Programming information is down there at the source link, and if you've been searching for the perfect complement to your LED rims, look no further. Man, if only Brennan Huff and Dale Doback would've had access to this while shooting their first and only music video...
Editorial: Thoughts on the Ensidia ban
Are you wondering what has caused all the ruckus in the raiding community the past few days? Have you been typing your fingers to the bone since Wednesday night, arguing for one side or the other in forums and chat channels? Whoever you are, or whatever side you're on, in the still-burning aftermath of Ensidia's ban, I feel some reflection is needed. Thus, I am going explain, to the best of my ability, what happened to cause such uproar in the raiding community this week. I am also going to, as the title implies, offer my speculations.
Spiritual Guidance: Disciplined raid healing
Every Sunday Spiritual Guidance offers Holy and Discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music. I decided to take a break from gems this week to discuss a style of priest healing that is becoming popular among raiders: discipline raid healing. Though the concepts behind it are extremely simple to understand and execute, this style of play seems to have slipped under the radar of many players despite its amazing potential. Tag along with me after the jump and I'll fill you in on the basics and benefits of disc raid healing. Holy priests, I'm talking to you, too.
Vodka gets North American first Yogg-Saron kill
We're getting reports in of Vodka scoring the first Yogg-Saron kill on North American realms. Vodka had been one of the top guilds in the US throughout Tier 7 raiding, and are quickly solidifying their position at #1 (#2 in the world.) That leaves Algalon as the final boss left to down in Ulduar, along with almost all of the hard modes. Yogg-Saron isn't the end of the race, not nearly. Ensidia and Vodka have a lot more work ahead of them to win this thing. The loot consisted of... Garona's Guise Chestguard of the Fallen God Mantle of the Wayward Vanquisher Mantle of the Wayward Protector A Fragment of Val'anyr I cropped the screenshot above which was submitted to me via an anonymous tipster to hide any glimpse of Yogg-Saron, so we don't spoil the show for those who care about that sort of thing. If you want to see the full screenshot, you can see the full version here, which also contains the tooltips for all of the items I wasn't able to link above.Congratulations to Vodka, and good luck getting to Algalon!Update: Those reports are definitely confirmed, Vodka's guild website has additional screenshots.Update #2: Premonition wasn't far behind.
Ensidia downs Yogg-Saron
It was inevitable that someone would down Yogg-Saron pretty quickly, and less than twenty four hours after the patch went live European guild Ensidia have claimed World First on the Death God. Given the non-linear progression into Ulduar, a lot of other guilds were able to pull off world firsts on other bosses. It also seems that Ensidia was focusing on clearing Ulduar in normal mode, as none of their kills were done on hard mode. This means we're unlikely to see Algalon downed this week (not by Ensidia, anyway). While it came as no surprise that someone killed him, what surprised me was that it was Ensidia. I was betting on Vodka (can I get a 'for the Alliance!' from anyone?) and that they managed to do it while many of the EU realms were having stability issues. Of course, it should be noted that Ensidia was the same guild that cleared all Wrath content three days after its release (they hadn't decided on a name yet).Boubouille over at MMO Champion has a full raid list and info on some of the loot that dropped, including a rather nice cloak and a piece of that legendary healer mace.
The Daily Quest: Cake is delicious
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Vodka, currently one of the top raiding guilds in North America, has put out their Ulduar preview video. Give it a watch, then just try and tell me it doesn't excite you Children's Week is quickly approaching, and the Hunting Lodge wants to bring the holiday into the real world. Head on over to the Hunting Lodge and give Child's Play a helping hand! Of Teeth and Claws talks Druid DoTs in Patch 3.1. DoTs of the Feral persuasion, mind. You Moonkin are out of luck on this one. Wonderland has some sweet, sweet baked goods for all of you to salivate over. If you want more cakey goodness, don't forget that we have our own World of Warcraft cake gallery. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Russian state-run liquor store to authenticate vodka with SMS
In a bid to cut down on knockoff vodka -- yeah, "Keepin't real fake, the drunk edition" -- a state-run liquor store in Russia named Rosspirtprom will verify if your booze is legit based on the bottle's serial number. All a conscientious drinker needs to do is text the number on the bottle to a special SMS short code and you'll be hit back with a reply to let you know if your drink of choice is legit or not. Apparently responsible for 40,000 deaths a year, dodgy vodka can be loaded with cologne, antifreeze, and even pure alcohol, and while we don't see the harm in the pure alcohol bit, we assume excessive use could lead to problems.[Via textually.org]
Tetris ice cubes for the remarkably unashamed
Some of us prefer to hide our geekiness, fearing a loss of social status and reduced favor with the opposite sex. Others know that such things are mere trifles, and display their dorkdom with honor and pride. For those of the latter, we would point you to a step-by-step walkthrough of how to make your very own tetromino ice cubes. Yes, it must be Tetris craft week all around the intertron.The steps are clearly written and easy to follow, but some woodwork and silicone supplies are required. If you're a handyman (or woman), go make yourself some cubes: they'll go wonderfully with that Russian vodka. Just kidding. We mean pop. (Punch Out!! reference FTW)
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]
