If you’ve ever wondered whether automation of some content, of some customer experiences (not all, obviously) is a bad thing or impacts your brand negatively, one answer can be found in pick up groups, or pugs, in World of Warcraft. These are randomly assembled groups of 5 or 25 people who are given the task…
One of the longtime jokes in World of Warcraft is that the only thing worse than ending a fight with all your cooldowns blown is ending a fight with no cooldowns used. For those who don’t play, the term cooldown refers to any ability of a Warcraft character that has long durations between uses. Typically,…
My main character I’ve been playing recently in World of Warcraft is my marksmanship hunter, which is probably the most complex class of character I’ve played in the game. Why? In order to get the maximum performance out of the marksmanship hunter, you have to memorize and execute a very tight, very fragile rotation of…
Something occurred to me yesterday while playing with Bad Robot Software’s Action FX app. I think it’s reasonable to look for a future in which active gaming becomes one of the dominant forms of play. What is active gaming? It’s where you’re playing video games, using a computer or a mobile computer, but in real…
I’ve made no secret of the fact that a lot of the daily quest routines in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria are boring. Whenever I hop onto any one of my characters, I look at the lists of reputations I need to grind out and it literally feels like a second job, albeit a…
Recently in World of Warcraft, I found myself tackling the problem of declining ROI in my work in the Auction House. I had lots of inventory, I was selling lots of stuff every day, but my net profit margins were on the decline, going from thousands of gold per day down to hundreds. What was…
We humans are funny creatures. We’re inspired by challenges, but oftentimes, if the challenge looms too large, we may choose not to tackle it at all. This is why the easy win is so vital to our ongoing success. For example, in World of Warcraft, one of the challenges is to get your character equipped…
Dr. Barry Schwartz is famous for his TED talk about explaining the paradox of choice: when faced with too many choices, often we choose none. Nowhere is this highlighted more than in the new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Once you reach level 90, you’re presented with a buffet of different choices for…
I read with some sorrow about the political story of one candidate making accusations that their opponent should not be elected because they play World of Warcraft. What silliness – it’s clear to me that the accuser apparently has nothing else to run on. That said, here’s a major reason why I think someone who…
The newest version of World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria, has been a phenomenally fun experience to play. There’s so much to do, so much to learn, so many different ways to play the game, but one aspect I wanted to highlight today is farming. Previously, this meant the laborious activity of gathering minerals or…
