WRUP: How we play and how we work

It's time for another weekend, which means it's time for us to tell you what we're planning to play. We're a wild and crazy bunch like that. But this week, we're going a little further. Reader Jenny is an aspiring writer, and was curious how the intrepid WoW Insider staff gets our work done. "What do you work on? I use Microsoft Word on a PC but I want to know how the professionals do it." How can we pass up a request like that?

Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) This week I haven't played much WoW, but this weekend I'll be diving back into dailies and LFR. Probably will hit up my Monk for a couple hours each day as well.

I do my work on a Mac Performa 200, running System 7. I don't have the QuickTime extension installed, but I do use HyperCard a bit for most of my record keeping. I've got a really nice stack that works a lot like Wowhead going. It's pretty cool.

Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I'm actually doing stuff around the house this weekend as well as getting some writing done -- I expect what little playtime I have will be spent raiding with the guild on Sunday. As far as computers go, I have a pretty standard desktop PC with Windows 7 on it. Nothing too fancy, although I do have two monitors set up so I can write on one screen and pull reference material or the game itself up on the other one. It comes in handy!

Dan Desmond (@Antigen_) I picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution during the Steam sale a while back and I recently decided to slog through it to the bitter end. In my not-so-humble opinion, the game isn't that great; it's predictable, it's repetitive, it's frustrating to play it "correctly" (i.e. sneaking around, not setting off alarms, etc.), but I'm going to beat it so I can move on with my gaming life.

I do all of my work on a custom-built PC, Windows 7, dual 24" monitors, and Logitech keyboard (G11) and mouse (G500). I have a laptop that I got when I graduated high school, but it's so frickin' old that all I dare do on it is occasionally watch a stream... when the wireless decides to connect, at least.


Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb) I should finally hit Exalted with August Celestials, after which I will be taking a vacation from dailies (aside from getting my Ironpaw Token) for a while. I will likely be using the saved time to either get my Warlock to 90 or finish getting meat and fish for Master of the Ways. The latter will also possibly net me some rare fish for getting Best Friend with Nat Pagle, too. I'll also probably grab me some LFR runs while I'm at it.

I generally just use my good old fashioned windows PC to do my work. If I'm on the road, I have a nice little Netbook.

Elizabeth Wachowski (@leeatwaterlives) Maybe some Skyrim at night, but mostly working and baby care, which is a shame because I'd really like to do some leveling in WoW. I work and game on a huge Asus gaming laptop and I love it.

Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) What am I doing this weekend? Playing WoW. For the first time in a long, long while.

Joe Perez (@lodurzj) AC3! it's my reward for hitting 18k words in nano so far >.>

Bonus: When I'm at home, my Windows gaming rig, if I'm on the go it's the iPad with bluetooth keyboard. I like photo editing on the iPad more though, and I do all my article images on the iPad with my SensuBrush and some awesome apps.

Lisa Poisso (@lisapoisso) Wow, I need to hit tailoring! That just kinda fell off the map somewhere. I need to whip out a couple of town outfits, too -- one for farming and one for fishing, for sure.What's the best way to stock up on a ton of cloth, I wonder?

Bonus: I write and edit at my desk on my desktop/gaming PC, and I answer non-urgent email, check social media, and handle light research and administrative tasks on my laptop at my standing desk. Because the standing activities are less break-time activities than they are tasks that require a less sustained focus, I still have to devote considerable and frequent time at my standing desk, and that adds up to a fair bit of moving around. (Except this month, when my 11-year-old has commandeered my laptop for NaNoWriMo, so it sits wherever she fell asleep doggedly tapping away the previous evening.)
Matt "Matticus" Low (@matticus) Will be busy leveling my Shaman so I can get that achievement with having two separate classes at 90. Otherwise, I'll be trying to poke around on the PTR and getting it to not crash (ideally).

I do all my work on an abacus. ... Nah, just kidding. My work is done on my Windows powered PC. But if I'm away from home, it'll be on my Macbook Pro.


Megan O'Neill (@slowpoker) The wonderful world of SimulationCraft! Oh, is that not a game? Sorry. Um...I think some warlock soloing is in order, especially since some dragons went down fairly easily already. Bonus: I use good old pen & paper to brainstorm, but writing takes place on my Win7 gaming desktop. I only have one monitor, but I have super experience in alt-tabbing, and it's a widescreen monitor so I can easily set windows side by side. I like to use multiple windows of Chrome and bookmark folders (Open All *cackle*) to organize my writing research tabs. For images, I'm a big fan of Paint.NET.

Michael Gray (@writegray) I'll be at FaerieCon in Baltimore this weekend. Incredibly excited. For work? MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone. Yeah, I'm one of those.

Olivia Grace (@oliviadgrace) I'm going to be casually WoWing. Maybe some arenas, battlegrounds, but likely leveling up my priest. I'm a little poorly this week so the idea of anything that involves any effort seems rather too much! I do my writing across two laptops, both with windows 7. One of them is my flashy gaming machine, which has all my WoW screenshots on it, but has a rather sub-par keyboard for typing. The other is an older, less high-powered laptop, but has a really lovely keyboard. Yes, I could buy an external keyboard, but I love the portability a laptop allows!

Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel) I'll be leveling my druid, I think. Bonus: I work on my Pinkbook (pink Asus netbook) for simple stuff, such as writing, reading emails, perusing websites, etc. It has really big keys, so I don't have to sacrifice normal typing to work on it. For screenshot manipulation, or anything that requires a bigger screen, I use my gaming PC. There's nothing really special about it. Both computers run Windows 7.

The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!