Rays Gaming

Kill Video of Supremus and new site

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:09:00 +0000

I have uploaded my first kill video of Supremus to stage6.com. It, as of now, has not yet been approved but when it is there will be a link for it. Also the site will be moving to raysgaming.com . still working the kinks out on that site so stay tuned for more info when the move occurs.

Badges 2.4 now availble on PTR

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:26:00 +0000

Strat Videos Soon to be Released

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:04:00 +0000

I will be frapsing every fight from here on out that our guild clears and actually making a useful video out of them. No crazy music and hyper speed where you can't see anything. A lot of work will be going into these videos to make them more for a learning experience than just watching some other guys view of a fight with no idea what is actually going on. They will start to be posted here on wednesday the 20th. Should be atleast one video of the first boss in BT. I got tired of the terrible videos put out of boss fights with no commentary or strats.

Ashes of A'lar drop for our guild

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:47:00 +0000

Congrat's to Xyphan, who won the roll the other night on our journey to kill kael to get some new people keyed. Looks kinda funny on a troll. I think it would look better on me, since I'm orc.

Flask of Pure Death and Flask of Binding Light

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:44:00 +0000

You will now be able to buy these items from the vendor with your Mark's of Illidari. Just thought I would throw that in there also. This improvement seems reasonable. I know our guild uses the marks for raids all the time. Some of us, elemental shaman for instance, always use them.

Primal Nethers , Nether Vortex's, and Badges 2.4

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:41:00 +0000

There has been some recent confirmation that Primal Nethers are no longer bind on pickup. Also you will now be able to purchase Nether Vortex's from G'eras for 15 badges and 7 gold. The last piece is 25 man bosses will now drop 2 badge of justices. They just keep making the game easier. Keep it coming to help support the people who can't struggle for anything!

Dude Where's My Mount? Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:37:00 +0000

As promised here is the first part in the series.

Deadly Disease Erupts in Warcraft

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:14:00 +0000

An outbreak of a deadly disease in a virtual world can offer insights into real life epidemics, scientists suggest.

The "corrupted blood" disease spread rapidly within the popular online World of Warcraft game, killing off thousands of players in an uncontrolled plague.The infection raged, wreaking social chaos, despite quarantine measures.
The experience provides essential clues to how people behave in such crises, Lancet Infectious Diseases reports.
In the game, there was a real diversity of response from the players to the threat of infection, similar to those seen in real life.
The players seemed to really feel they were at risk and took the threat of infection seriously

Professor Nina Fefferman, from Tufts University School of Medicine
Some acted selflessly, rushing to the aid of other characters even though that meant they risked infection themselves.
Others fled infected cities in an attempt to save themselves.
And some who were sick made it their mission to deliberately infect others.
Researcher Professor Nina Fefferman, from Tufts University School of Medicine, said: "Human behaviour has a big impact on disease spread. And virtual worlds offer an excellent platform for studying human behaviour.
"The players seemed to really feel they were at risk and took the threat of infection seriously, even though it was only a game."
She acknowledged that a virtual setting might encourage riskier behaviour, but said this could be estimated and allowed for when drawing conclusions.
Constraint
She said a major constraint for epidemiologists studying disease dynamics at the moment was that they were limited to observational and retrospective studies.

For example, it would be unethical to release an infectious disease in real life in order to study what the consequences might be.
Computer models allow for experimentation on virtual populations without such limitations, but still rely on mathematical rules to approximate human behaviour.
A virtual world may be a way to bridge this gap, said Professor Fefferman.
Her team at Tufts are looking to use models such as the World of Warcraft to further study human behaviour, particularly in relation to disease outbreaks.
Dr Gary Smith, professor of Population Biology and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, has been working on modelling infectious diseases.
He said: "Very few mathematical models of disease transmission take host behaviour into account."

But he questioned how representative of real life a virtual model could be.
"Although the characteristics of the disease could be defined before hand, once released into the virtual world, the study is just as 'observational' as disease outbreak studies in the real world.
"Nevertheless, I suppose one could argue that the proposal describes an opportunity for study that we might not otherwise have."
courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6951918.stm

Gay Rights win in World of Warcraft

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:08:00 +0000

The maker of the hugely popular online game, World of Warcraft, has changed its policy on gay teams following an outcry from many players.

Blizzard was accused of being heavy-handed by threatening to expel a player for advertising a gay-friendly team or guild.

Blizzard has officially apologised to the guild recruiter, saying the warning should never have been issued.

More than five million people regularly play World of Warcraft worldwide.

Team play

Warcraft involves players taking a character adventuring so they become more experienced in their chosen class of warrior, mage, rogue, druid, hunter, shaman, warlock, priest or paladin.

The row blew up around Warcraft player Sara Andrews, who plays a high-level mage called Shimmre on the Shadow Moon server. Each server runs a separate duplicate of the Warcraft world.

Warcraft adventurers, Blizzard
World of Warcraft is a social phenomenon too
Warcraft players are spread out across the realms to make sure the game worlds do not get too crowded.

When adventuring, many players join "guilds" to get help from other players in regions filled with dangerous monsters, get quick access to good magical items and, just as importantly, so they can stay in touch with friends and make new ones.

Many guilds use Warcraft's text chat channels to recruit new members.

In late January, Sara Andrews used these channels to say that the guild she helps run, called Oz, was set up to be gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender "friendly".

But an in-game administrator issued a warning saying that such talk was a breach of Warcraft's terms of service.

She was threatened with being banned from the game if she continued to advertise the Oz guild using such language.

Ms Andrews challenged the warning and the claim that it broke the terms of service. She said many players used homophobic language in the game that went unchallenged.

To publicise her plight, Ms Andrews visited many discussion sites and forums where Warcraft players gather. The debate that followed largely criticised Blizzard for its heavy-handed treatment.

Many pointed out that Warcraft has a thriving community of gay players, or gaymers, and that it made no sense to censor talk about players' sexuality outside Azeroth.

Gay pride marches are known to have taken place in Warcraft and there are many other guilds in the game that are known to be friendly toward the gay community.

Two such guilds, Stonewall Champions and The Spreading Taint wrote an open letter to Blizzard criticising its policy.

Sensitive area

Stone giant, Blizzard
World of Warcraft has become hugely popular
The uproar has prompted Blizzard to officially apologise to Ms Andrews. It said that her comments should not have produced a warning.

In an e-mail to Ms Andrews, Thor Biafore, senior manager of Blizzard's customer service, said: "Please accept our apologies for the way our staff characterized your conduct, and rest assured that your account will not be penalized in any way for this occurrence."

The 1,000 or so in-game administrators Blizzard uses to police Azeroth are also to get training to help them deal more sensitively with such issues.

Blizzard defended itself by saying that information about players' real lives can lead to harassment in the game and its warning was only intended to limit such harassment.

The game firm also said that it would create a separate chat channel in the game that guilds can use to advertise themselves and look for recruits.

By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4700754.stm

New Heroic Badge Items

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:13:00 +0000

just a snippet of the new heroic badge items available.

Shots of first boss in Sunwell

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:54:00 +0000

This is one of the first shots found of the new boss in sunwell.

Way too much new data to list.

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 01:48:00 +0000

There is a ton of new data about sunwell and the new armor out. It's hard to sort through everything but if you havn't caught any of the info yet check out this post on mmo-champion.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=4163.0 There is a mountain of data there showing all the new set pieces along with the changes to the pvp gear for pally's, some of the loot from the new 5 man instance, and anything else you could possibly imagine.

Preview of Sunwell Loot

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Recently posted is an image of some of the loot available from sunwell.

Dude Where's My Mount?

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:18:00 +0000

Its dry humor. Just check it out. I'll post the other episodes through out the week.

Offical patch notes released for 2.4

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:06:00 +0000

Finally, blizzard releases the final patch notes for 2.4. Which means it should be right around the corner. Most of the notes are as expected from post's i've made on this site along with some new stuff I have never found anywhere. I would list them here but it is quite an extensive list. So here is the link
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

Using this Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:11:00 +0000

I also have noticed that visitors may be new to a blog site and how it works, but just a note. My blog shows the current days posts along with the previous day and thats it. All other posts are on the right side of the page in an archive. There are some really great posts like World of Warcraft in IRL?. Just thought I would mention that.

Blizzards answer to cheating

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:04:00 +0000

I found an article on BBC News that talks about the software blizzard uses to monitor botting programs such as glider and whatever else is out there. In the article, he discuss the software known as The Warden which is what blizzard uses. This software monitors all current running processes on your machine as it is said to only read the name of the windows that are open in your current windows environment. This knowledge of the program came about from a software engineer named Greg Hoglund. He disassembled the software and discovered that it did a lot more than just checked running processes and looked at open windows. Mr Hoglund said: "I watched The Warden sniff down the e-mail addresses of people I was communicating with on MSN, the URL of several websites that I had open at the time, and the names of all my running programs." The EFF has named this software spyware and has considered it a serious invasion of privacy. I'm not sure about you but I don't use bot programs but I don't like having blizzard monitor all my actions while the game is open. Thats ok for all those Chinese botters out there that make their living by exploiting the game, just not for me. The full article can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4385050.stm

Most HK ?

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:08:00 +0000

I just found some numbers and thought this was kind of interesting, since there is no real way to know who has the most HK'S or who the current leader is. From the data I have found, the current champ is a player named simply, Theplague. I guess so. His/Her armory link is http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Frostmane&n=Theplague
Can anyone beat that?? If you can email me at ericmartinez1@gmail.com and I will post your armory link on the site in this topic.

Unconfirmed Patch Notes 2.4

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:47:00 +0000

WARLOCK
- Improved Shadow Bolt now only works for the warlock who casted the bolt.
- ISB reduced to 15% at max rank
- Incinerate coeff increased by $
- Demonic Knowledge reduced to 10% from 15%
- Lifetap coeff reduced by $
- Lifetap health cost increase by 10%

MAGE
- Icy Veins and Bloodlust no longer stack
- Icy Veins no longer increase chance to freeze, but provide full pushback immunity for all spells while active.
- Mana cost of Blink and Slow reduced by 40%
- Improved blink changed to increase blink distance by 30%
- Prismatic Cloak buffed to 6% damage redux
- Arcane Fortitude buffed to 100% of intellect as armor
- Ice Floes now provides 30% pushback resist for ice spells
- Improved Fire Ward changed to 50% chance to reflect, and 4% less damage taken while active
- Improved Ice Armory type talent changed to 50% chance to reflect

PRIEST
- Mana burn cast time reduced to 2s base, amount of mana burned reduced 50%.
- Improved Mana burn increases burn amount by 20%. It is unclear whether or not it still provides cast time reduction
- Lightwell charges increased to 15.
- Focused will down to 4%.

ROGUE
- Envenom no longer consumes poison charges

WARRIOR
- Improved hamstring has a 10 second internal cooldown on the proc
- Endless rage fixed

SHAMAN
- 30% dispel resist on that threat redux nature talent
- Earth shield mana cost reduced by 50%
- Tremor totem and poison cleanse totem reduced from 5s pulses to 3s pulses (!!!!)

PALADIN
- Turn Undead works on demons now and will be renamed, so apparently you can fear-lock warlock pets, 10s duration with DR

DRUID
- Cyclone range reduced to 20 yards
- Lifebloom coeff reduced by $
- Treants now have a 15% chance to proc entangling roots
- Natural Perfection was nerfed slightly (don't remember numbers)

Guild Update

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:23:00 +0000

New boss down in Hyjal, 4/5. http://forsaken.guildomatic.com

Caverns of Time Portal

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:19:00 +0000

Just quick information about the portal. It will be included with the patch and is said to require "the appropriate reputation, which is easily gained". So it looks to me as though we will all be able to use this to goto Hyjal instead of having to do the long trek to Tanaris.

Possibility of a new Hero Class and Profession, Pvp, Old Instances

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:59:00 +0000

A recent interview by Jeff Kaplan, the lead designer of Wrath of the Liche King. In the article he talks about the Death Knight class which we of course all know about. He also, very quickly, mentions a class only known as "being some kind of Archdruid quest directly connected to Malfurion Stormrage and the much-anticipated Emerald Dream." Kaplan says.

Another big mention was a new profession. Inscription. The profession is described as having the ability to adding new features to spells and abilities. He describes it as "Enchanting for spells and abilities". He gave one example. A mage, for example, could use inscription on their frost nova spell to increase its range or longer duration.

Some other talk was of the area Pvp and the use of old content to create new. He describes, in brief, some of the outdoor pvp. Basically it comes down to the same thing as we have now in BC except just different types. He also mentions something about how BC used hillsbrad as a backdrop for a new instance, and they might be using Stratholme as some sort of new instance with a story background having to do with Prince Arthas.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=181521

The Lunar Festival Begins Today!

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:37:00 +0000

This annual in-game holiday is scheduled to coincide with real life Chinese New Years. Asian style outfits, ceremonial fireworks, delicious dumplings and a once-a-year raid boss are all part of the celebration. Quests send you to find 50 coins and turn them in for various goodies as well. It's a fun RP event taking place across player cities throughout Azeroth, but mostly centered in the Druid village of Moonglade.

Full details at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/lunarnewyears/

Patch 2.4 Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Here are two new updates found for the 2.4 patch. Nothing has been confirmed in concrete except for the major 2.4 post I made previously, but most of these changes are sketchy.

New Heroic Badge Rewards
Thought this would be of very high importance to most players like myself who have badges collecting dust.

Alterac Valley
Alterac Valley will see a few very significant improvements in the next patch and we wanted to share the details of what we have planned.
The first change will be to move the Horde's starting tunnel back to a more equal distance from the first objectives, which will help evenly distance the starting points for each side across the terrain when the battle commences.
In addition, the General and Warmasters for each faction will receive a stacking buff from each other that boosts their health and damage. The more of them that are still in the battleground, the more dangerous they will all be. This will put a greater focus on destroying (and defending!) the towers that remove the Warmasters as players work toward defeating the appropriate General and conquering the land.
Also Balinda Stonehearth has been studying her spellbooks to become a more challenging opponent to the Horde and will do more damage with her spells. The additional health we recently added to Balinda and General Vanndar Stormpike will no longer be needed with these improvements and will be changed back to their previous amounts with the patch.
With these improvements teamwork and strategy will be more important than ever from beginning to end as the Alliance and Horde battle for victory in Alterac Valley. We'll see you on the battlefield.

More Updates to 2.4

noreply@blogger.com (Raynham-Smolderthorn) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:08:00 +0000

* Sunwell Isle - A new area located north of Silvermoon City
- Sunwell Plateau - A high-level 25-player instance featuring six bosses
- Magister's Terrace - A high-level 5-player instance
- New Reputation - The Shattered Sun Offensive is Shattrath City's answer to Kael'thas's operations in the Sunwell; it is comprised of the combined forces of the Aldor and the Scryers, led by the naaru.
- New Daily Quests and Interactive Quest Hub

* UI Improvements -- New combat log features and customization

* Quest Improvements
- New daily fishing quest
- Maximum daily quests per day increased to 25
- New repeatable Battleground quests

* Item Improvements
- New Heroic badge rewards
- Some PvP rewards now obtainable through PvE content

* Caverns of Time - New teleportation portal to the Caverns of Time accessible through reputation with Keepers of Time