WoWFanCon: Day 1 Impressions and Wrap Up

Two sides of the conflict are presented in the game: US Air Forces and Luftwaffe. So, you have an opportunity to fly and fight on legendary aircrafts such as P51 Mustang and Messerschmitt Bf109 in Standard Missions Pack and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Messerschmitt Me262 Schwalbe in Additional Missions Pack. Warning: Easy to start playing, hard to stop.

WowFanCon Day 1 Wrap-Up

I’m going to preface this overview of the events of WoWFanCon by saying that I used to be an avid WoW player ( Guild Leader of Beartron, Revenance, Officer of Shadow of the Phoenix, all Eonar, US Alliance) but recently stopped due to lack of interest in the game. That being said, I attended WoWFanCon with some trepidation. I have to say I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would. Utherverse’s Virtual Wide Web technology is better than I thought it would be, and the keynote speakers were entertaining and informative about a number of topics, not just WoW. Star Wars: The Old Republic was also discussed quite a lot. That being said, let’s get down to business.

I arrived at the convention through the main lobby, went through the main hall into the convention hall and was met by a bevy of sights, including this.. um.. I guess you could call it a gem. VERY NSFW!

Wut? Intrigued, or slightly repulsed, I proceeded inside to click on the embedded youtube video. Check it out below.

I guess they were rather desperate to fill space (and I’m guessing Utherverse is rather adult themed in some areas), but it is what it is. I laughed either way. After that I headed into the Academy Hall to listen to the seminars and Q&As.

Brian Shuster – Making Gold Seminar

Unfortunately, I missed this seminar, but I was told that it was extremely informative and gave basic tips on making gold for beginners such as buying out all low priced items of a hot market and inflating the market by relisting them at much higher prices, thus making you tons of gold. Here’s some information on Mr. Shuster via the WowFanCon site.

One of the pioneers of the internet, Mr. Shuster is the inventor of dozens of issued and pending internet technology patents. He created one of the first and most successful free web hosting companies in history, Webjump.com, which he sold to TheGlobe.com in 1999. After creating several other highly successful internet ventures, Mr. Shuster founded Utherverse, Inc. in 2003 to develop a network of interconnected virtual worlds using a common platform. By 2006 the company was expanded to Canada where Shuster continued to innovate in the virtual world space, culminating in the release of the “Virtual World Web” in the fall of 2009. The VWW now boasts more than 60,000 user generated Virtual Worlds operating on a uniform platform and the world’s first 3D Internet browser. Shuster’s pioneering spirit continues as he continues to develop new use cases for the technology.

Mr. Shuster started playing MMOs many years ago, starting with Asheron’s Call. He developed a character using add on software that he helped develop, which led to the creation of TradeBot, and within months his character owned 50% of the wealth of the entire user base.

Mr. Shuster started playing WoW a few years ago and using similar strategies he was able to crack the WoW economy. By using only the proper rules of the game; no gimmicks, NO FARMING and he can teach any player how to make endless Gold.

Towelliee Q&A

Some interesting stuff here. Towelliee is a popular Youtube and Livestream World of Warcraft personality. His opinions on raiding in particular were interesting as he finds hardcore modes quite intriguing – he dislikes casual playstyles and MMOs without a hard or challenging endgame. He sites Rift as an example of a game without a challenging endgame saying that in a night or two his guild just rolled right through the endgame, with no hard modes to keep him interested.

Many questions on WoW Game Balance were asked, he feels that Holy Paladins are the best healers right now (he should, considering he plays one), and talked about Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, saying that “Just when you think your class is balanced, he mind f***s you and you’re a scrub again.”

This is something that’s actually going to be interesting about upcoming MMOs such as SWTOR and hopefully there is an intriguing endgame to be had, such as the hard modes as WoW.

Another interesting point – Towelliee went over exactly how much livestreamers have the potential to make: He makes $3400 a month livestreaming and $500 from Youtube. He makes enough to live off of, obviously. Wouldn’t that be great? He started streaming around 2 years ago – his inspiration for being a livestreamer was a Winamp Radio show he used to run back in 1999.

Again, some more information on Toweliee via the WoWFanCon site:

Roberto Garcia has been a hardcore gamer for the last 25 years.  He currently plays World of Warcraft and is among the top Tanks in WoW.  Roberto’s passion is gaming and he runs a successful twitch.tv channel and plays everything from WoW to Modern Warfare.  He grew up in the streets and takes his swag and attitude with him wherever he goes.  Quote: I am the most real gamer out there and I keep it real for the fans and the public.

Twitch.tv/towelliee

Vanguard Q&A

One of the best arena Ret Paladins in the world, attained the best rating for Ret paladins on ArenaJunkies and other community websites for over 2 seasons.

He went on to talk about Arena balance a bit, talking about things like his execution of certain strategies like using mass burst for double DPS teams. He recommends Hunter/Healer as a good team build to rollout with in 2v2s, with Hunter/Rogue a close second.

He suggests using Gladius as an addon and watching videos of players who are good at your class if you are just starting out. Communication is key.

I will say that Vanguard has a really bad connection and kept dropping out during the convention. Bad form!

More information on Vanguard from the WoWFancon site:

Sam aka Vanguards is one of the most established gamers in the arena format. He obtained the "Gladiator" title in season 7 and 8 given only to the top .5% of the arena ladder players. In season 9 he obtained the "Vicious Gladiator" title given only to the players who ranked number 1 in arena. Vanguards, known to be one of the best retribution paladins in the game was the only ret to get 3000+ Ratings in season 8 and 9. He held the title of the highest rated player for months on Arena Junkies in both seasons, and also had the highest rated 3s team in the whole world in season 9 for over a month. Vanguards has been ret through some of the hardest times it was for the spec, and still managed astounding achievements.

Day 1 Closed out with a comedy jam from comedian Patrick Mahlia. I personally didn’t find him to be very funny, but you can judge for yourself at his website http://www.xxxunrated.com (no, it’s not porn, though he does talk about porn quite a lot.)

Tomorrow, Vork of The Guild will be in attendance, so look forward to that!