If you’re not following @Greyseer, the author of Lorecrafted on Twitter, you’re missing out! Between him and @Cadistra (the author and artist of World of Warcraft, Eh?), and of course the indomitable @YoggSaron himself, it makes for incredibly entertaining days watching their interactions.

But now thanks to some sketches by Cadistra and Greyseer’s mad plush-making and sewing skills, we have the Cuddle Me Yoggy, a lovingly made hand-crafted plush Yogg-Saron, perfect for bedtime cuddles!

I watched while Greyseer worked on the little guy all day, stabbing himself with a needle and everything. The cloth looks cuddly and soft, and he comes complete with plush tentacles and five little eye-maws to complete the look. I mean seriously – who could be afraid of that? He’s adorable! Just wait until he eats your guild – you still won’t be able to stay mad at him.

Over at the venerable WoW Insider, Senior Editor Mike Schramm stirred up quite a controversy by pointing out something that’s been rumbling in the WoW community for a while now: should Blizzard get rid of/bolster and rework Vanilla WoW?

Now by “Vanilla WoW,” we mean all of the original level 1-60 content that launched with the game. You remember that stuff, don’t you? Onxyia and her whelps, Tier 1 gear, Deadmines and the Defias, Tauren fighting the Centaur in Mulgore, and of course, who can forget Barrens chat?

Silliness aside, there are two very diametrically opposed camps here; some people out there want Blizzard to open “Vanilla Servers,” where the level cap is still 60 and all of the content ends with the content released before Burning Crusade – a place where people can still wrap themselves in the original content without the treadmill rush to level to 70 and then 80, rushing through Outlands and then Northrend. On the other side of the argument are the people who want to essentially sunset 1-60 entirely, and make all characters like Death Knights: as long as you have an 80 somewhere you can roll a new character starting at level 55 anywhere. Some of those people even say you can limit it to a server – if you have an 80 on that server, you should be able to start any class at 55 on that server.

I can see both sides of this debate: there are those of us looking to gear, level, and armor up to assist our guilds with raids and instances, and for those of us who are looking to do that the original content from 1-60 is little more than a path to that, and at worst it’s an obstacle in the way there. At the same time, for those of us who really enjoy the original old world content for its rich story, lore, interesting NPCs and gameplay, the thought of removing it or otherwise toning it down or isolating it from the higher-level game content is abhorrent.

(more…)

Argent Tournament. Naxxramas. Ulduar. Obsidian Sanctum. Arenas. Children’s Week. Noblegarden. Dailies for every class. Rep grinds for just about every faction. Achievements. There’s tons – TONS more to do in the World of Warcraft now than there has ever been before. Even back in the days of Burning Crusade there were plenty to do, but not quite as much as we have now.

Between grinding out rep for the multitude of Northrend factions, staying on top of our regular achievements like Loremaster and Explorer, reaching for character titles, and achievement/annual events on a multi-monthly basis, there’s tons to do, whether you’re a casual player or a hardcore raider. The din from casual players has died down now that there are easily more dailies to do in the world than you have slots for, and there are events like the Argent Tournament to do that can be done alone or in smal groups. Hardcore raiders are barely out of three-drake OS and now there’s Ulduar to brave – a dungeon so freaking hard that it very well may break you and your guild.

I’ve felt the pressure myself, honestly: between doing the Noblegarden quests, raiding Naxx and trying to progress into Ulduar every week, trying to improve my rep with the factions that still have gear upgrades for me, and still trying to be generally social and help out people in my guild and other friends, and then still trying to level a few alts, there’s simply too much to do in the time that I have to play WoW. It’s at the point where – if it wasn’t like this before – there’s definitely enough in the game to keep someone playing as if it were a full time job!

Personally, I’ve been trying to make progress on a couple of alts but haven’t managed to because of the world events and achievements that I try to participate in on my main. At the same time, even my casual guild (we only raid once or twice a week) is feeling the pressure to progress into the newest content while simultaneously helping each other out with the world and holiday events.

Am I the only person who feels this way? How is everyone else doing with all of the content additions, new achievements, events, and other things to do? Are all of your skills maxed out? Do you have any professions you’ve been meaning to level? Any areas in which you just never got around to questing? Does it get a little overwhelming for you too, or are you pretty solid — or at worst, bored?

Ah, gold. The main reason I hear from some of my guildmates that they haven’t picked up dual-specs? It costs 1000g. The main reason our my pally friend is tired of respecing between healing and tanking? Gold. Everyone needs it, not all of us have a good, solid way of getting it.

Have you ever wondered how people seem to play the auction house to make money? Have you ever wondered how you can take the economy on your server and turn it into a moneymaking machine without putting so much time into it that you’re distracted from actually playing the game? So have I! Which is why this post, Gold Making Tips from a WoW Millionaire over at WoW Economist piqued my interest.

In the first video, our tutor manages to make 1000g in 4 hours of /played time:

The post goes on into another video that outlines the narrator’s typical day of milking the auction house for all it’s worth – the best part is that this strategy doesn’t particularly rely on being brutal against other players and devastating the server economy in order to make a few extra copper – it’s just playing off the need for certain items and the willingness of many players to simply overpay for something because they want it. All of the videos are created by the writer of WoW Auction Mastery, where more videos and tutorials are promised soon.