Big Daddy Gamer

almost almost

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:52:00 +0000

I miss blogging... but I'll need another couple weeks until work and home cool down.

I worked 11 hours today. When the software test team is reporting major defects faster than the engineers can fix them, maybe, I don't know, call me crazy... but the software is not ready for release. Luckily I work for a company that is the 800 pound gorilla of its industry, which means we can delay a month or two and get this sh1t right. Not a great situation... but, gawd I hates saying this, polish counts.

I've purposely avoided blogging about the divorce. For obvious reasons such as this site is supposed to be about gaming not my personal life. But I have to say it's going relatively well all things considered... still one of the top five worst experiences of my life (hey... there's a not so fun meme for you). The "other parent" and I are working hard to make the split and transition easy for the kids (and us too). Sigh.

My daughter is using all her charms to talk me into getting a tabby cat at my house (like the one pictured above). I'm more of a dog person... but what can a daddy do when his princess wants something?

BRB RL

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:53:00 +0000

I'm taking a break from posting for a few weeks. Too many real life responsibilities to keep things balanced. The software engineers think they have a release candidate ready to hand over to the test team. Then there is the crappy "family reorganization" thing I don't want but have to handle regardless. The other option, I suppose, is to further reduce the amount of time I play games... uh nope.

Dancing Queen

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:59:00 +0000

My friend's family has a beach house, and we did a "boys' weekend" at the coast. A few facts to put the trip in context: Oregon, January, rain and snow and wind, (very) small town, five guys, beer, rum, more beer. We walked down to the beach and in to town a few times, but hung out at the beach house most of the weekend. Much non-PC social gaming this weekend.

Pool. The beach house is decorated in classic 1970s style. However. The pool table upstairs scored big points. A decade ago I could shoot pool. Not so much anymore. Note to self, brush up on billiards skills.

Dance Dance Revolution. At some point late Friday night someone pulls out DDR for the Xbox. Not my idea... but I'm drunk and happy and what the hell. I felt dorky and self conscious at first... but, you know, after you let go of silly notions like pride and shame the game is fun. It works as a party game. I couldn't imagine playing it by myself or stone cold sober. We danced for 4+ hours. But it's not really dancing. More like stomping in time with beat of the techno music. My body was hurting the next day. I recorded a 30-second video clip on my cell phone. Black mail material. Or insurance that a similar clip on my friend's cell phone won't show up on YouTube.

Chess. Four player cutthroat variation. Five second clock. Playing in the local hippie coffee shop Saturday morning. The teams weren't fair though. Our opponents couldn't remember how all the pieces moved. Or so they claimed. All I can say is L2Play newbs!

Halo. Most of my friends are the twitchy console gamer types. They paid me back for slaughtering them at poker and chess. I tried. I died. Over and over. I'll admit I'm not good at these games, but I'm playing against someone who recently spent 10 hours playing PvP on his day off from work. The same guy who refrains from shooting or throwing grenades to "make it fair." Gee, thanks. Hehe.

Poker. Texas Hold 'Em. We played for beers later Saturday night at the one bar in town. I put the hurt to my friends and won 8 beers. I opted for 4 micros instead of 8 light beers. Not that I have anything against PBR, but I was already drunk and I've learned to listen to that little voice that says slow down.

Dance Dance Mortal Kombat. Sunday morning we had the bright idea of trying the DDR pad with other games. Halo was a no go... but Mortal Kombat 2 worked. You can move the characters and attack by "dancing" on the game pad. The "Finish Him" move looks ridiculous but got us talking about the future of how we interface with games.

Theater Thursday - January 24

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:05:00 +0000

Today is a double feature. Funny stuff. Watch them. You will comply. Resistance is futile.

The Grind - Episode 1

The Grind - Episode 2

All I can say is... sky rockets in flight afternoon delight.

P.S. I promise next time I won't just repost something I saw on WOW Insider. Lame. I know. My excuse? Um, jury duty for a few days now. Listening to lawyers drone on and on is melting my fncking brain.

Missing You

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:47:00 +0000

I pushed the reset button when I returned to World of Warcraft two months ago. A fresh start on a new server, new faction, and new guild. No complaints. A positive experience every time I play. I'm having a great time exploring new zones, new quest hubs, and new lore. The guild is full of friendly, fun, and mature people.

However. I miss the Outlands. There, I said it.

I retired my old main, a level 67 orc hunter. He's on vacation in Blade's Edge Mountains. But I'm considering playing him one night a week, just to get a taste of the Outlands. Why do I feel dirty thinking this?

Here is a thought I had driving home last night. I'm certain it's not an original thought. I can buy a new name from Blizzard for $10. I can buy a new server from Blizzard for $25. I'd happily pay Blizzard for the ability to start a new toon at level 60. I don't mean buying an account or paying someone to level up a toon for me. I just want the option on the character creation screen to start at a higher level than level one.

Some questions though...How would it work? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks?

Perfect Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:36:00 +0000

A few weeks ago Stormgaard over at Se7en Samurai was complaining about not having enough time to blog and wanted to cut back. His self-imposed slow down was, of course, short lived. A few days at most. And then what shows up in my Google Reader today? A freaking 35,000 word doctoral dissertation on how to play a holy paladin in World of Warcraft. All I can say is:

OMGWTFBBQ!!1!
/wink

I don't play a paladin, but the piece is well written, provides concise details, and gave me some excellent insight into the class. Okay, I just lied... I do play a paladin... but that's my daughter's level 9 toon and a story for another day.

Polish This

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Polish. The word bothers me. Read Bildo's post about Conan getting delayed again "to polish the game even more." Excuse me for beating a dead horse, but this little rant is timely for me. You see, my work has delayed their main product again and they actually used "polish" as the excuse. Um... right... I'm in software test. I've seen defect log and it ain't pretty.

When a company tells its customers they're postponing a release for "polishing"... that is PR putting a positive spin on a bad situation. When a company tells itself they're postponing release for "polishing" ... that, my friends, is politics.

If I hear the "polish" excuse, I think the product has too many:

Broken features... that is, good ol' bugs. Hopefully minor things like typos and not hangs or crashes.
Half-finished features. Either the feature was poorly specced to begin with or the software engineer cut corners to finish on time.
Poorly designed features. Maybe it sounded good on paper but beta testers found it boring.

I had a point to all this... but lost it. Meh. I'm just bitter they delayed Smash Bros Brawl again.

Where's My Warcraft?

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Rum? Check.
Coke? Check.
Warcraft? No.

The kids are fast asleep. I have an adult beverage in hand. Thoughts of running a few dungeons buzzing on caffeine, sugar, and alcohol. I pugged Dead Mines the other night and they called me god after multiple demonstrations of my near divine healing skillz. Not to brag (hehe). Wonder how I'd do over the legal limit.

Nope. Blizzavision has gone fubar on me. Hung at authentication. Perfect.

Thinking I need a "plan B game" for times like these. Something to fall back to if WOW is down. Maybe I'll dust off my copy of Rome Total War or try my hand at the boy's Zelda Twilight Princess. Now that should be interesting with good buzz going.

Theater Thursdays - January 17

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:29:00 +0000

Just Loot It via WOW Insider.

A modern Aristophanes emerges. The poetry is sublime.

Greed roll when you pass
Oops I mean need
Need need need
Then log with ninja speed

Goodbye Guinness

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:34:00 +0000

Today I buried my Guinness, my dog of almost nine years, beneath a tree bordering a field behind my parents' house. I cannot describe my sadness. He was a great dog and a member of our family. Guinness was sweet, funny, smart, loving, protective, obedient, silly, friendly, and happy. He was a black lab and golden retriever mix and had the best qualities of both breeds. Guinness was a fantastic family pet.

He went so quick. Two days ago my daughter and I took him for a long walk. Last night we played for a long time with one of his new toys from Xmas. Noon today Avril called and said he was too weak to come in from outside. She took him to the vet, and I met them there. He was bleeding internally and badly. A tumor. Even with a blood transfusion and emergency surgery his odds were bleak. We had to make a difficult choice. His head was in my lap as he drifted off. I cried while I dug his grave and covered him over. I miss him already, but I won't forget all the good times we shared.

P.S. I'll tie this post back to gaming by sharing this silly little fact. Whenever I play a game where my character has a pet wolf, I've always named it Guinn. My ranger in pnp D&D, druid in Neverwinter Nights, and hunter in WOW all had pets named Guinn.

Adios Soulcalibur Legends

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:58:00 +0000

I'm not a fan of the fighter genre of video games. Too much button mashing for my liking. Except for the excellent Super Smash Bros series. However, I'm a daddy and a gamer. The kids and I bond while playing video games, so that means I play games outside of my comfort zone. For example, Soulcalibur Legends for the Nintendo Wii.

My son and I received the game through our GameFly account. Two days later it's back in the mail. We enjoyed Soulcalibur 2 for the Gamecube. Rather, my son enjoyed it and I tolerated it. Hehe. The Wii version looks about the same but features a cooperative quest mode. Completely unimpressed. This is a next gen game? My advice: save your money and your time.

What I disliked about the game the most were the controls. Okay, it's cool using the Wiimote like a sword... for about ten minutes. This makes me sound like a wimp but the constant, fast, and repetive motions made my arm joints sore. I didn't bother looking through the game's options to see if there were alternate control schemes available. To be honest I'd rather play Super Smash Bros Melee with the kids or watch the boy play Super Mario Galaxy.

Anticipation

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:33:00 +0000

Where was I one year ago? What was I doing? It's hard to believe that a year has passed since the Burning Crusade was released.

A year ago my raiding guild was eager to start playing the expansion. We had a handful of people that played in the beta. Between their reports in the guild forums and the info we scoured from the intrawebs, the guildies were dying to start running the new instances and working on our Kara keys.

I reserved a copy at Gamestop and made plans to pick it up at midnight. That night I showed up early and stood outside in the cold drizzle with a few hundred others. The install and account upgrade went surprisingly smooth. I was soon in the game, stepping through the portal, and running away from a roaming fel reaver.

The Burning Crusade was the first time I played an MMO on release. I was a little kid again, feeling joy and giddiness like I hadn't felt for so many years. All the recent MMO releases just don't excite me. At least not enough to tolerate the standard new-release-problems-and-issues.

So... I've purposely been ignoring news and info about Warhammer. Anticipation is okay but only in small doses, thank you very much. However. Stupid me. I subscribed to the Warhamma podcast and listened to it on my shiny new iPod on the drive home tonight.

How many more months until WAR's release...?

KOTOR MMO Video

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:29:00 +0000

OMG. This blog is not a news site. But check out this video... could be video of early design work for the yet-to-be-announced Knights of the Old Republic MMO.

...

P.S. I feel dirty for fibbing. Forgive me.

Auctioneer One Month Later

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:10:00 +0000

About one month ago I posted about the Auctioneer addon for World of Warcraft. Today's post is a quick recap on my experience with it.

A little background information. My main character (since resubscribing and going Alliance) is level 37 and has two gathering professions. I have a few other very low level characters. The loot and materials this character collects gets sent to my auction house character parked in Stormwind. His sole purpose is to scan the auction house, create auctions, and flip the occasional underpriced item.

He started with 2 gold and now has 190 gold in his pocket. This doesn't include the 100 or so gold he sent back to the other characters for gear. This is anecdotal evidence of course. Your mileage may vary.

Tobold posted a good article on the limitations of Auctioneer. See here. All valid points. But this is my thoughts on the addon... sure it has its limits and the data you get can be a bit whacky. However. It simplifies the auction house. I spend a fraction of the time posting auctions compared to my pre-Auctioneer days. No more hemming and hawing on the price of heavy leather for example.

My shaman is in STV now, so I have plenty of those Green Hill pages. But Auctioneer had no data on it. Weird. Then I realized it doesn't have any data because the auctions are bought out too fast. Sure enough, my auctions were gone in minutes.

A few more tips for you:

Search for underpriced raw materials such as herbs, ores, and leather.
Stay away from engineering and enchanting materials. I find them volatile and too much trouble. Cloth is also dicey.
Look for level 19, 29, 39, etc. weapons/armor with +stamina and +whatever else is good for the kind of class that would use it such as agility for hunters on leather gear or strength for warriors on chainmail gear or +shadow damage on for priests/warlocks on cloth gear.
Remember patience is key. Both in scanning and posting auctions. That is, you may have to sit on an item for days before you can post it for a good price.

Out of It

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:43:00 +0000

So... I've been out of it lately. That is, I haven't been writing new blog posts or reading blogs for awhile. See the unread count on my Google Reader widget?

Silly me forgot to take Monday off from work. Meh. Slow day and an empty office... perfect for catching up on my reading.

Dirty Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:41:00 +0000

Playing a low level character in World of Warcraft can be annoying at times. I'm talking about the random party invites from level 1 characters, usually on the wrong continent. Don't bother accepting them because they're just ploys to pitch you gold buying or character leveling.

Ahhh, but thanks to Blizzard's recent changes the party invites have disappeared. I don't have the link with me but the kids at Blizzavision removed the ability for free trial memberships to do party invites (I may have read it on a blog... sorry for not remembering who said it). So nice not having to Decline a party invite every 30 minutes.

Last night I was messing around on my level 27 shaman, and the same level 1 character kept spamming the Ashenvale general chat with things like: "Where can I find iron ore? PST" and "Free 16 slot bags. PST"

Odd that someone with 16 slot bags to spare wouldn't know how to find iron ore nodes... or know enough to sell the bag in the auction house and buy the iron ore. Hehe. I got to try the new report spam feature. Daddy likes.

My guess? The next dirty trick the gold sellers are trying. Good luck.

Inspired

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:26:00 +0000

I mentioned my family gave me season 1 of Heroes on DVD for my birthday. I watch an episode every few nights. Last night I felt inspired.

O Muse! Speak through me, you winged dove.
Sing your bawdy tale of lust and love.

No, not inspired like that. (That was my lame Pope imitation, btw). I was looking at the kittens on icanhascheezburger.com for um... my daughter... because she likes cats... right. I never tried the LOLCAT BUILDER feature. Very easy and somewhat amusing. Here is one of my creations.

P.S. Thanks for all the support from everyone in comments, emails, and guild forums. I can't tell you how much it means to me during this difficult holiday season. Much love.

Ghost Wolf FTW

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:07:00 +0000

I rolled a shaman to join my guild's Monday night team. My target is level 35, and I'm at level 24 now. The shaman class is fun to play with its mix of ranged and hand-to-hand combat plus heals. The ghost wolf travel form is crazy. It's like having a mount at level 20. Fun, fun.

The Game Dame posted a couple articles with tips on playing shamans. Good stuff for a newbie shaman like me. Check it out:

Last weekend I was tapped to fill in for a Team Manaka (the guild's Saturday team) member who couldn't make it because she had to work. The all guild team consisted of a warrior, priest, mage, hunter, and shaman (me). I was nervous because I was a substitute for a regular team member, but no worries once we got rolling. Friendly, fun, and mature. That's how I describe the team. Everything clicked and we had a great run.

I've played the healer and DPS in many small group dungeons from Ragefire Chasm through Underbog (tanked a few times too). But this was the first time I was playing back up to all three of the primary roles. This was a challenge, but a fun challenge. When the priest went out of mana, I backed him up. When the mage pulled aggro, I frost shocked the mob over to me and kept it occupied. But I spent most of my time dropping totems, interrupting enemy spellcasters, and smacking things in the noggin.

I picked up a couple pieces of armor and a rolling pin. No, that wasn't a typo. A better one-handed mace dropped and I won the roll for it. Cookie's Tenderizer (I think). It looks like my toon is swinging a rolling pin though. Increased my DPS by about 15%. I'd post a screen capture... but I'm at work. Hehe.

Fun Fact Friday: In real life I worked at a small bakery for about a year. The specialty breads and pastries type of bakery. While I never had to whack a murlock over the head with a rolling pin, I made some killer sweet rolls.

Waking Up

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:08:00 +0000

Just skip reading this blog post. I'm all full of sad today and spilling it here.

...

Six months ago I told Avril about Second Life, thinking it was a Sims-like MMO. My wife played the Sims and Sims 2, but lost interest in them over time. I think the games were too static and lacked the human spark that makes online games so much fun. She really jumped into Second Life. I'm impressed with the quality of the objects she builds and sells in her online store, which she says gets about 25K in daily traffic.

Three months ago I bought a second computer at her urging. My thought was that we would play games on the same nights and NOT play games on the same nights. I saw it as a win-win... more time with Avril and more time playing games. That was my hope... but that hasn't happened. She plays every day. I miss my wife. I love her. I told her I miss her. But she ignores me. For example, I gave her one of those Missing You cards and wrote a sweet note inside. She didn't say anything.

When I was a raider in World of Warcraft, I had troubles keeping games balanced with life. I was playing too much and cutting into the time we'd normally spend together. I was putting a strain on our relationship. I woke up. I made changes to when and how I play games. When I returned to WOW, it was with a better understanding of how to keep things balanced.

I don't know what to do. I'm worried to be honest. I feel like a fool writing about it here.

...

P.S. Promise my next few posts will be about my recent UI changes or running Dead Mines with the 7S team or something, anything less emotional.

Blood Watch Is Under Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:08:00 +0000

The other night I hearthed back to Blood Watch to turn in a few quests for my dranei shaman, fly to Exodar to train skills, and then log out. It was late and I was tired, but I like to leave my characters in a "ready to play" state.

After the loading screen disappears, I'm greeted with a ghost town. Some level 70 warlock sack o' shite has turned the sleepy village of Blood Watch into a killing field. I have to admit I was impressed with the thoroughness of his rampage. Bones everywhere. Not a NPC left, and he'd take them out soon after they respawned. Guess I missed all those "Blood Watch is under attack!" messages in my chat frame.

A dozen or so lowbie players were standing around. Some were laughing about it. Some where cussing about it. I'm more like ho hum. Time to make bandages or quickly sell junk to a respawning vendor before Mr. War Crime one shots him.

Eventually some high-level Alliance take pity and shoo the warlock away. Thankfully this scenario doesn't happen often. I can appreciate the thrill of taking out an entire town in a starter zone. Not my thing... smells like griefing to me. Why waste all that time just to deny other players access to vendors and quest givers?

I have an idea. To encourage that "here comes the cavalry" behavior, give these good samaritans a reward for swatting a pest. Bonus honor, gold, special two hour buff, experience, fluff trophies, whatever. Anyone doing damage to the griefer or healing someone doing damage receives a reward appropriate to their level.

Ah... the joys of playing a popular MMO.

Happy Burrr-thday

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 17:25:00 +0000

Happy birthday to me. Avril and I went out with some friends, and tried to recapture my youth by drinking far too much beer. McMenamins FTW. Thankfully I have plenty of sick days left at work. Hehe.

The usual suspects for gifts. Money is always welcome. I was thinking either an iPod or a widescreen monitor. The kids gave me Heroes Season 1 on DVD. I missed the first half of the season. A garden hose (?) and cordless laser mouse rounded out the gifts.

Our gas furnace celebrated my birthday by breaking, which makes for a cold night here in the Northwest. Avril's too busy doing her online thing to keep me warm at night, but that's a different story. I hoped the overpriced Mr. Fixit that came out would just call me an idiot for doing something stooopid like not relighting the pilot light. If only... so much for that iPod.

An example of the cosmos balancing itself out. Hehe. No worries though.

Small Group Feel Inside a Guild

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:58:00 +0000

I know a few people in RL that play World of Warcraft. Unfortunately their work schedules are opposite of mine or they play so infrequently that I rarely see them online. The people I liked from my old raiding guild are still in that raid-or-die mentality. While they were polite when we chatted, I got the feeling I was little more than a failed raider and ex-guildie to them. Sigh.

What is a hardcore casual player to do? I enjoy the solo play, but the group content is what takes the game to another level. I tried being a raider, but that didn't fit my play style. Pickup groups are too risky and frustrating. I like reading Wilhelm's posts over at TAGN about his regular WOW gaming group as they tackle different instances week after week.

/jealous
/sad
/QQ

That's what I want... a group of players that keep their characters within a narrow level range and meet once or twice a week to have fun and run instances. But how? How to join a group when most of my friends and family are non-gamers. If they are gamers, they're the Halo type of gamers.

Does this sound familiar to you? Keep reading.

Earlier this summer I posted a short series on why I left WOW. Stormgaard from Se7en Samurai commented on it and suggested I check out his guild. After resubbing last month, I did. The guild I recently joined, The Seven Samurai on Alleria (Alliance), is genius in how they establish teams (small play groups) within the larger guild environment. Money quote shamelessly reposted here:

Our guild teams offer members the opportunity to group on a regular basis without having to worry about out-leveling each other. The secret to this is that team characters are only played on the nights specified for each team. Think of it like a weekly "Poker Night" - it's in the exact same spirit. We pick different classes that compliment each other and have a blast leveling through the game together.

Anyone may join one of our established guild teams or create their own if they wish. If you join an existing guild team it's required that stay within a workable grouping level range of the other members. If you wish to create your own team you will need to name at least one team captain so that other guild members can contact you if they have any questions.
-Stormgaard

There is a one-to-one relationship between characters and teams. That is, once you have one of your toons join a team, you only play on that team and on the scheduled night. (Except, obviously, to do stuff like tradeskills or training, etc.) The key is once a character joins the team you keep your character near the same level as the rest of the team. You progress through the content together.

Also, perfect if you like playing multiple toons. For example, I could have one character on the level 20 team, another on the level 45 team, and a third at 70. Plus a couple of other alts I play on the off days. That's an example of course... my new toons are currently levels 3, 11, 14, and 20.

Joining an existing team or starting a new one is simple and informal. Filling in on a team if someone is absent is also a possibility. Just ask in game or post something in the forums. So much simpler than that raiding guild I was in. Daddy likes. Hehe.

I didn't okay this with the guild ahead of time, but if you've read this far down the post, then I assume you're interested in The Seven Samurai. We play on Alleria server on the Alliance side. Players are spread across all the US time zones, so chances are there's a team for you. Post a message in the forums if you're interested in joining or ping someone online.

Wush I Had A Edjukashun

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 04:23:00 +0000

Apparently my crazy blog writing skills are at the high school level. Intentional, of course. Hehe.

Click the picture to try other blogs or web sites.

Auction House Made Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Link) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:23:00 +0000

The Auctioneer addon is an important tool in the World of Warcraft, but has no part in the UI that I am slowly piecing together. Why? I use Auctioneer to streamline the whole buying and selling process. But the addon is a memory hog.

I want to spend as little time as necessary posting the raw materials my toons collect or the random equipment that drops. Plus Auctioneer lets me earn some money the old fashioned way... buying low and selling high. I earned about 5 gold with literally about 2 minutes of work. Not bad since I only have a couple under 20 toons on this server.

The first step in my system is to create a character that just hangs out in a capital city. This is the only character with the Auctioneer addon loaded. His only purpose is to move items from the mailbox to the auction house, and then send money back out. My other characters send him stuff in the mail instead of posting the stuff in the auction house themselves. This reduces time spent travelling and keeps my main characters' bags tidier.

The next step is to scan the auction house often, but not more than once a day. The key is patience. You can't download the addon, run it a few times and expect the magic to happen instantly. You want at least a week's worth of data to get a clear picture of an items real value. The more times it scanned the auction house, the more confident you can be in Auctioneer's suggested price. I click the Scan button and find something else to do. In fact, it's running as I write this blog post.

After the scan completes, I can mouse over the item in my bag and a new little tooltip tells me what Auctioneer thinks is the items real value. Also, in includes info if the competition is above or below price. No more having to search the auction house manually to figure out how much my stack of light leather is worth. That's not fun for me. Some people may enjoy it. Thank you, but I'll take the easy route.

Next up is searching the auction house for items priced well below market value, so I can scoop it up and repost it. Flipping under priced items is easy money... assuming you're willing to take the occasional loss. My rule of thumb is to not risk any more than I'm willing to lose. Right now it's about 50 silver. That's my threshold. I won't buy an item to resell for more than 50 silver. As my toons' wealth grows that threshold will increase.

I can't stress how important patience is to making money with Auctioneer. You need to wait for data to collect. You also need to wait to post items at the right times. I've had to sit on a good item for a few weeks, because some yahoos were underselling it.