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Addon Spotlight: All aboard for Train Smashing station
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Useless flavor items have become an odd duck item in the MMO sphere. While we toil about in our virtual lives, amassing virtual goods in virtual storage, we also collect dumb trinkets and items that do nothing but look cool, make sounds, or annoy our friends. Why is it that we love virtual toys as much as our real life avatars do? I can deal with most of the fun vanity items out there and even proudly proclaim that the best item in the entire game of World of Warcraft is the Tol Barad Searchlight. However, I cannot stand the train emotes. Train sets sounded like a fantastic idea, complete with a funtastic toy shop in Dalaran. What we got instead, during raiding at least, was a nightmare. While combing through my emails a few days ago, I was in a particularly grumpy mood with no real pointed hatred or contempt for /train, but when my eyes finally rested on Edymnion's words, I was stirred to action. Trains need to be stopped. In his email, Edymnion recommended two addons that are designed to not only disable the /train emote completely but to find, capture, try, judge, and execute the perpetrators of train-on-ear violence.
Does gender matter when designing your user interface?
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Our interface today comes from lady gamer Rinjichan. I would not be so inclined to point out that Rinjichan is a woman if Rinjichan herself did not make it a subject of conversation. Why, you would ask, would a discussion of gender be relevant to a discussion about user interfaces? Plenty of reasons, actually. Do genders approach user interfaces differently? Do men and women identify different elements of the UI as important or relevant? Go beyond the stereotypical pink bottom bar and look at the placement of addons, the structure of the buttons, and the overall layout. These are the things that interest me, as well as whether or not a user interface can have gender ascribed to it.
Addon Spotlight: Despite its name, WeakAuras is anything but
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. It's a shame that it has taken me this long to talk about WeakAuras, a fantastic addon that was originally designed as a less resource-intensive alternative to PowerAuras but has become something much more. With an easier-to-use interface, in my opinion, WeakAuras is an excellent way to add information, customization, and flare to your alerts, cooldowns, buffs, and timers. Everyone has heard of PowerAuras, right? Or have they? It's becoming quickly apparent that a lot of players are not being exposed to the grandaddy addons that we're so used to and that come up so fluidly when discussing our roles. But with Blizzard's own on-screen notification for important buffs as well as easy-to-use alternatives like NeedtoKnow and TellMeWhen, more complicated and tweakable addons are swept under the rug. Here's your chance to jump into something just a little more experienced and out of your comfort zone. I promise, it won't bite.
Reader UI of the Week: Magistrum's basic setup makes great addon starting place
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. One of the most amazing things about World of Warcraft's addons is that you're always learning something new or adapting your interface to the new standards because you can build on top of what's already there. Sometimes you do the opposite -- take all of the information you've learned and processed but strip it all away and start from stratch. It's liberating to re-form your UI with years of potentially new and useful knowledge and expectations when going to build your legacy UI. Magistrum sent me a screenshot for his mage's new UI. I looked at the picture first as I usually do when picking out a UI for the column and saw a very basic design that didn't jump out at me while being far from offensive. After reading the short email, it dawned on me that I was looking at this UI all wrong. This wasn't a first attempt at cleanliness with a new player, hitting the game for the first time. No, this was years of learning and understanding what makes your own personal UI yours. The little pieces are all in place where you want them.
Addon Spotlight: AdvancedIconSelector adds cool features to macro creation
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. I don't know about you, but I make decent use of macros. No, I'm not King Macro of Macropolis, but there are choice macros I keep at the ready in case of turmoil or danger. Most notable is a Start Attack macro for most of my heavy DPS abilities so that I'm not missing a second of precious swing time. Macros are a powerful tool in World of Warcraft, with many DPS specializations especially able to string together code and script to swap stances, time abilities, and maximize number output. It's a beautiful thing. The macro interface in WoW, however, isn't. Unlike most of WoW's interface, the macro UI is lacking. Cataclysm brought an updated macro UI that fixed a portion of the problems but not the real issues at hand. Learning macros is hard, and naming and selecting images for macros is clunky. I almost have a hard time making that argument because, frankly, I thought everyone just used the #showtooltip command in their macros to pick whichever ability they wanted to use, but then I quickly scolded myself. "Mathew, shame on you," I said. "Macros are not only used for combat abilities. Macros are used for everything! Look at all of those icons." You were right, me. I've got to give credit where credit is due.
Reader UI of the Week: Deadpool's multipurpose hunter UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. While I was doing archaeology the other day (Is this seriously all I do anymore? What have I become?), pieces of my UI became apparently ... messy. I didn't like the feeling. Something felt off, weird, crazy, or ready to blow. While many people lauded archaeology addons, I only scoffed. Now, I feel like I might need one or two. This week's reader submission is from Deadpool, a worgen hunter with a knack for stylish looks and stylish UIs. His setup is simple and has a decent amount of empty space and buffer room, which puts me in a happy place. I like relaxed UIs. More isn't always better, especially in a game like WoW where the most complex the task usually has a super-simple answer.
Addon Spotlight: Scrolling combat text addons
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. The Addon Spotlight Team and I have been hard at work combing through emails in the Addon Mailbag, doing our best to get answers to as many questions that come in. Sometimes those questions are so good that they get featured right here on the column. Today is one of those magnanimous days. A reader named Jeff sent me an email that stated he is in the market for a new scrolling combat text addon. His email didn't give an exact reason for the sudden swap from SCT staple Mik's Scrolling Battle Text, so the exact reason why he needs a different scrolling combat text display isn't known. I also don't want to assume that everyone just defaults to Mik's, but it has been the predominant force in scrolling combat text engineering and design in the last few years. Here's the whole email: Hey Mat, What's another scrolling combat text addon other than MSBT? Thanks! Jeff For a while, Mik's just didn't work. I think this was back a few patch ago, either in the patch 4.1 days or back near the end of Wrath of the Lich King. I had turned on the default floating combat text that came in the box, and lo and behold, the thing wasn't half bad. I needed more options and information, however, so a search was on for alternative scrolling combat text displays. It is good fortune, then, that I may pass on this timeless knowledge to all who wish to learn.
Reader UI of the Week: How to build a preliminary monk UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. An odd email was sent to me by a reader expressing his concern over some of the new additions to the user interface coming with Mists of Pandaria and, more specifically, with the monk class. This got me thinking -- we need to start getting ready for the next expansion, and we need to do it now. Klaxons are sounding and alarm bells are ringing! Monks and pandas are coming! So how do we go about talking about designing a preliminary UI for the monk? First, we have to look at what is being added to the interface through the new class. Second, we have to use our current vocabulary to discuss what could potentially be applied to monk-specific UI elements.
Addon Spotlight: Stop spending and start saving with NazScrooge
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Addons can be surprising little fellows, breaking out of the perceived boundaries of what is right and easy and giving us something more intelligent or behavioral. These, my friends, are the really special addons, addons that change some aspect of the game that doesn't really affect your character as much as it affects you. Behavioral addons are all around us. DBM is a behavioral addon because it changes the way you react to situations through audio and visual cues. There are new interactions between you and the information that are not happening for your character in-game. What about Auction House addons that force you to conform to a series of clicks each time you hit town, further changing your behavior based on the way the addon works? Interesting.
Reader UI of the Week: Get personal with Absinth's redesign for raiding
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. The raiding game comes upon us faster than ever these days, as the leveling portion of the game shrinks just as much as it expands with each subsequent expansion. While raiding should be a focus for design teams, because you need constant current end game content, the path to raiding is still a long and arduous one. And when the mighty finally ascend the stairs of destiny and plant their flag at the top of the world, then you realize your interface just isn't going to cut it anymore. "But it's been fine like this for 85 levels!" you exclaim. Yes, yes, I agree. It's a weird phenomenon in video gaming, where as you progress through a journey learning skills, gaining allies, and collecting equipment, the fundamentals of your play experience radically shift. It's less of a problem these days with the Dungeon Journal, random Raid Finder and Dungeon Finder tools, and a general understanding of what raiding is among the video gaming populace.
Reader UI of the Week: Healing with Stormstrong
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. As interface concerns continue to move from function to form, player user interfaces continue to move toward simplicity and pared-down constructs. You wouldn't think that players would want interfaces with fewer graphics and a separation from oddities by fixing interface problems themselves, what with the fixed user interfaces of so many games these days. I will never stop championing the UI as one of the prime factors that made WoW the juggernaut it is today. To celebrate the freedom that we all share in this addon world, we hold up our community's creations to the sky and ask the community to appraise them. Is this worthy, UI lords atop Lua Mountain, from where all addons come? The Addon Kingdom. This week's UI comes from resto shaman Stormstrong (love the name) who, like many of my readers, praises minimalism and wants to get his healing job done with as little in the way as possible. Good man, I'd say. Also, has anyone noticed the trend of fewer healing buttons lately? What changed? How are people healing with seemingly fewer buttons these days? Man, I really haven't played my paladin healer in a while ...
Addon Spotlight: Twitter followers recommend addons, again
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Once in a while, I head over to Twitter and ask my followers for information. Some answers are just found better through crowdsourcing. People send recommendations to my Twitter and email accounts unprompted, as you might expect, but when the floodgates open with a call for submissions, people like to put their dog in the race. I recently hit up Twitter for another round of addons recommended by my Twitter followers. These addons run the gamut from old favorites that will never die to new dynamos that shook up the addon community. Be sure to follow me on Twitter so that you always know when I make a call for submissions and get your favorite recommendations into the column.
Reader UI of the Week: Interview with Vhei and a Reader UI update
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Oh, Reader UI of the Week readers, we have a treat for you today. I've wanted to do more interviews on the column for awhile now, and Vhei was a perfect candidate to start this whole thing off with. If you haven't seen Vhei's UI, it's been featured on the column twice, both beautiful revisions of great setups with amazing art and slick settings. Not only do we have a fun interview with Vhei, but we have a UI update from reader Shamonkey, whose UI was profiled here at the end of 2011. Shamonkey was looking for some help setting up his WoW UI on a 13-inch laptop. Let's see what suggestions that he took from the commenters and the article itself to see how a UI can transform with just a few simple changes.
Addon Spotlight: Grab Bag 7, probably the best grab bag
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Do I need to remind you again that right now is the perfect time for you to tinker with your user interface? WoW feels much more relaxed now. A second cataclysm has been averted, Deathwing has been defeated, and life is feeling pretty good right now. Sit back, relax, and clean up your interface. You'll thank me when Mists of Pandaria comes out. Grab bag Addon Spotlights are some of my favorite editions of the column because the regular format means a lot of words about just one addon. That's great and all, but what about those addons that just don't have many words worth saying about them? These little guys fall through the cracks and land in my grab bag collection sack, thrown into the back of a shady-looking truck and taken off for "processing." It's totally painless -- no one complains too much.
Spice up your boss kills with custom victory music
Looking to tajazzle up your boss kills with a snazzy tune to celebrate your accomplishment? Here's a great trick for raiders who use the raiding addon Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) that lets you play a song of your choosing when you kill a boss. Deadly Boss Mods - Victory Sound is a cool little addon that adds to your already existing DBM installation and allows you to select the music you would like to hear when a boss dies. There are plenty of premade victory sounds included with the addon when you download it, but the real magic is copying over your own tracks to play.
Reader UI of the Week: Kaikuri's fork formation
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Welcome, friends, to another edition of Reader UI of the Week, WoW Insider's showcase of your crazy, cool, or just plain useful user interfaces for WoW. This week's tank UI was sent in by Kaikuri and features minimal interface artwork, a clear workspace, and a lot of words to say about it all. But first, we have the matter of the new year to attend to. With Mists of Pandaria most likely coming out some time this year, we're all going to be on auto-pilot for a little while. This is the best time to set some of your precious moments away to work on your UI and tinker around with things. Your raid group might be on hiatus or your buddies just want to take a couple weeks off, but you're still jonesing? This year is going to be gangbusters for Reader UI of the Week, as we keep the hype train going while we wait to roll out our awesome new interfaces when Mists hit.
Addon Spotlight: Glance, a multi-use top bar
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Keeping your interface neat and tidy while still retaining a lot of your precious information can be a tough feat. Some poor souls never get away from a disaster UI, started and finished in sadness, shame, and wreckage. Do not fret, young ones. There are addons that can help you be neat and tidy without too much work on your part. I promise. Glance was an addon that I first discovered while trolling through the comments on my various columns, as am I known to do. My readers are a steadfast bunch, always willing to show support for their man and recommend some great tools to players in need. Well, as it turns out, I am one of those players in need. A few weeks back, I got an email that asked me what was an easy way to get into LDB bars and addons, and I didn't really have a great answer. The first thing that popped into my head was the concept -- the bar addon works as a dock for other LDB plugins. It didn't feel right explaining the whole thing in that way, so instead I went looking for an addon that resembled LDB but didn't take the setup some LDBs require. That addon is Glance.
Reader UI of the Week: 2011 user interface review
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. For me, 2011 was a great year in terms of getting to know you guys and writing about your user interfaces. People sent in a variety of different types of UI, great tips, tricks, and cool new tweaks to a game that's pushing eight years old. As WoW grows the UI community that has sprouted up around it has grown as well, showing the drive to create and be a part of the whole WoW phenomenon is still very much alive. Mists of Pandaria will only serve to fuel more fire. I wanted to thank you all for your submissions last year, as well as issue a preemptive thank-you for all the great UIs that you have sent in over the year. Now, as we are knee-deep in Cataclysm's final patch, we all have time enough to hang out, sit back, and watch The Destroyed explode into sparkles while we tinker with our UIs getting ready for panda time. Here's a little taste of last year's highlights and my thoughts about 52 Reader UI of the Weeks.
Addon Spotlight's top 5 addons of 2011
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Addons and the WoW interface had a big year in 2011. Many famous addon authors and developers left World of Warcraft for different games or exited the genre altogether. Some addons were incorporated into WoW itself, like the oft-requested bag search and a really cool new altitude notification system for tracking on the minimap, making exploration in 3D environments that much easier. Transmogrification and void storage were introduced, and new interface elements like the new Extra Button and PlayerPowerBarAlt confused and amazed us as we scrambled to get our action bars working before raid night. Here are my top five favorite addons of 2011. Remember, these are not addons that came out in 2011, but rather the five addons that I just could not live without this year. These are the five addons that I will never be able to live without, and you probably have some choice words about this list. Let's hear your own top five lists in the comments.
Reader UI of the Week: Ring in the new year with something basic
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. We're going to start the new year off with a simple setup from Emandiputs from the Stormscale realm. Emandiputs is a self-described long-time WoW Insider fan -- and since this is the first Reader UI of the Week of 2012 and my 100th Reader UI of the Week column, I figured I would give the floor to a veteran of the site. So thank you in advance for the submission and the screenshots, Emandiputs. And thank you all for coming along with me on this journey. I didn't really know how long I would be writing for WoW Insider when I joined on. One hundred Reader UI of the Week columns as well as a host of other content later has really hit me today as a substantial thing. Thank you all for reading and letting me get to do this awesome thing. I appreciate it more than you could ever know. Let's get down to business, then. What we've got here is Emandiput's crack at another user interface after a new computer purchase and a trip back to the world of Azeroth. I cannot tell you how much I recommend trying to come up with a whole new UI on a new system. You'll feel fresh and clean and have that happy feeling when everything fits the way you want it to. An old UI from an old computer can sometimes leave behind a weird taste in your mouth. Something just isn't right, you know? It happens for me, at least.
