thenerdygamer:

This Man Has No Eyes, Yet Can Play World of Warcraft

Ben Shaw has had one hell of a last few years. Serving overseas, the former British Army soldier was wounded by a roadside explosive in Iraq, and as a result had to have both of his eyes removed.

Yet does that stop him playing World of Warcraft? No, it does not.

Before the incident, Ben was a member of the Chamber of Aspects guild, playing as Hexu, an Enhancement Shaman. And he still is, thanks to the assistance of his online friends, who can relay information to him and help him continue to play the game.

One guildmate in particular, a Death Knight called Davidian (actually a Scottish lad named Owen), serves as Ben’s “Guide Dog”, who warns him of upcoming threats, helps with the timing of his attacks, etc.

Here’s how he does it:

My role to Ben is that I play as his in-game eyes, using the follow function put into a macro he can tab through the group and target and follow me. … Every encounter, Ben is using a series of macros (e.g., target of target) to play his way through the game. Everything from boss fights to a simple repair goes through me. An example of this is the drakes in Dragon Soul that take you out to Warlord Zon’ozz and Yor’sahj. I have to first target them for Ben to interact with my target to take the flight out before I can.

Probably one of the most helpful things in the game for me is the addon GTFO, which helps me that little bit extra when there is loads of things going on. That just gives me that clear signal of “OK, I am dying … That means Ben is as well — gotta move.” Other than that, clear voice communication is probably the best thing to go by. Our Mumble channel is always flying with commands to help Ben, from a simple “Run in, Ben!” from a knockback to a “BLOODLUST, BEN!!!!”

I find this incredibly heart-warming and inspirational.

shiverregurgitaterepeat:

thelegerdemainlounge:

shiverregurgitaterepeat:

So, I started a Gaming and Online Communities course today, and one of the things that was explained to me was how World of Warcraft works.

I got a little confused about the… “spawns”, I guess they are, that attach themselves to the bosses.

Red, green, yellow, blue, black— I guess it was stated that once one of them hits the boss, it gives him an ability, and depending on which boss, it can either annihilate you, or you sustain a huge amount of damage, but your healers can still pick you back up if you’re quick enough.

What I was confused about is that it looks like a cell-divide concept to me, in that the review we were watching, it was talking about how red and green together make for an extremely deadly combo.

I guess what I’m wondering is, is there a way for these “spawns” to combine?

They look like massive globs of… ooze, if I’m not using the right term for them.

And they look like they could join together, and then it would be a duo combo of red-green, or yellow-blue, or something like that.

Can they combine like that and become potentially more dangerous, or is it that just one of them hits at a time, and then the other one starts in, and if that one hits as well, the abilities just pile on?

Okay, this is in reference to one single boss in the latest content of the game. He spawns three of these “oozes” at a time. They oozes themselves don’t combine per se, but you can choose one of them to not reach the boss. This means that there will always be two of them destined to hit the boss, giving him two separate abilities at a time. The red one causes three random players to drop to critical levels of health, while the green one causes steady damage over time, having a high potential of killing these players outright. So to answer your question: no, the oozes don’t combine, it’s just that the abilities that they grant can be devastating in certain combinations. And every time the oozes come up, his powers reset, so he only has two powers at a time.

THAT makes sense.
Okay.

Do they only come up with Yor’sahj the Unsleeping, or do they pop up with anyone else?

We honestly were just shown a short demo of a raid, and the process was mostly explained around this demo, so.

Can these effect any other additional monsters that are spawned and make them more lethal, or is it something that just goes towards the main boss?

This mechanic is one exclusive to Yor’sahj the Unsleeping, and has yet to show up anywhere else. As for it affecting other monsters, that possibility has been unexplored as during that boss fight the only additional monsters that spawn are the oozes themselves. So in short, this particular ooze mechanic affects Yor’sahj exclusively.

shiverregurgitaterepeat:

So, I started a Gaming and Online Communities course today, and one of the things that was explained to me was how World of Warcraft works.

I got a little confused about the… “spawns”, I guess they are, that attach themselves to the bosses.

Red, green, yellow, blue, black— I guess it was stated that once one of them hits the boss, it gives him an ability, and depending on which boss, it can either annihilate you, or you sustain a huge amount of damage, but your healers can still pick you back up if you’re quick enough.

What I was confused about is that it looks like a cell-divide concept to me, in that the review we were watching, it was talking about how red and green together make for an extremely deadly combo.

I guess what I’m wondering is, is there a way for these “spawns” to combine?

They look like massive globs of… ooze, if I’m not using the right term for them.

And they look like they could join together, and then it would be a duo combo of red-green, or yellow-blue, or something like that.

Can they combine like that and become potentially more dangerous, or is it that just one of them hits at a time, and then the other one starts in, and if that one hits as well, the abilities just pile on?

Okay, this is in reference to one single boss in the latest content of the game. He spawns three of these “oozes” at a time. They oozes themselves don’t combine per se, but you can choose one of them to not reach the boss. This means that there will always be two of them destined to hit the boss, giving him two separate abilities at a time. The red one causes three random players to drop to critical levels of health, while the green one causes steady damage over time, having a high potential of killing these players outright. So to answer your question: no, the oozes don’t combine, it’s just that the abilities that they grant can be devastating in certain combinations. And every time the oozes come up, his powers reset, so he only has two powers at a time.

smallfeetinthehall:

you people act like you’ve never seen a tuesday before.

Lol you’re so funny. It’s like it doesn’t suck just because we’ve seen it before. :D