Doomsday: The Mayan Code

Earth is humanity’s cradle, but by no means can it completely harbour us from harm. Many risks threaten individual lives, but there are some catastrophic enough to wipe out entire species. Is it possible for the prolific human species to face extinction?

The Maya empire fell centuries ago, yet their work continues to intrigue to this day. Among many opinions of that work is the conclusion that the world will end on 21 December 2012. How well does that theory stand up to modern scrutiny?

Raid Checklists [Checklist]

Like an airplane, a raid is made up of several parts that need to work together for the whole thing itself to work. Those parts need to be set correctly in order for that to happen.

Because of the daunting number of controls to set, airline pilots need to use checklists to ensure that every switch, dial and button are in the correct states for whatever the plane will be doing, whether taking off, cruising or landing. Similarly, several aspects of a raid need to be in specific states for the raid experience to be as smooth as possible. The following checklists mimic the pre-flight checklists used in airline aviation, listing the states of the various aspects of a typical raid.

There are checklists for:

• Preparing for the raid (pre-raid checklist)
• Preparing for a boss attempt (pre-boss checklist)
• Handling a raid wipe (wipe checklist)
• Concluding a raid (post-raid checklist)

Value Added to MMO Items

In real life, people engage in production to make goods and provide services. In doing so, they hope to add value of the finished product above what it cost them in materials, labour and capital. Normally, this is what actually does happen, however in MMOs (massively multiplayer online [roleplaying games]), especially those whose skills are difficult to learn, items actually decrease in value as they are processed.

Like their real-life counterparts, items usually are assets, that is, they provide economic benefits to whoever is in possession of it. As part of production of a real-life asset, any combination of materials, labour and capital may be used in an effort to add value to it. This is usually what happens with an ingame asset as well.

As is the case both in real life and ingame, as a person/character repeatedly makes the same good or provides the same service, they learn more about how to do so. As part of an asset's total value (which includes its value as part of a finished product), there is value placed on its ability to facilitate such learning. When the materials/items are finally processed, such benefits are consumed and the total value somewhat falls.

WoW Mathematics: Server Loading

Hosts of MMORPGs face several dilemmas regarding the servers they operate. One of these, by far a significant one, is the maximum capacity the servers are able to take. Too low a capacity and players will complain about latency and other performance problems, while too high a capacity and the investment in the hardware will not be cost-effective. This problem is exacerbated by the tendency of the load to change cyclically throughout the day.

Deciding on the servers' capabilities is not a simple matter of allowing for a specific number of players. As the mathematics that follows shows, the throughput load created by those players will change according to the tendency of players to cluster together in the game world.

Merchant's Guide to Orgrimmar

Orgrimmar is the orc capital city and the capital city of the Horde territories. Also the current political capital, the incumbent Warchief Garrosh Hellscream is based here. It is the hub of the Horde's extensive zeppelin network and sees the bulk of adventurer traffic among all Horde capitals.

This combination of factors give Orgrimmar a high potential for lucrative business. It is large enough to boast five trade districts, each characterised by the architecture of the races that dominate their populations.

Goblin Slums

The Goblin Slums consist the goblin district in Orgrimmar. Dwellings are cloth tarpaulins supported by either branches or metal beams. Rudimentary waste disposal and a crude oil extraction operation has left the pond slicked with run-off seeping into downstream Valley of Spirits. Fishers are advised not to consume fish, especially endemic Toxic Puddlefish, caught from these waters.

Looking for Equilibrium

When using the Dungeon Finder to find a group, damage-dealers (dps) endure long waiting times, while tanks and healers enjoy a much shorter time in the queue. Since the facility was introduced, this has remained the case.


One may wonder why the average waiting time for a dps has not decreased, but instead even increased, since then. Having economic insight, one may envision the three roles as three choices a dungeoneering player decides on as part of an economic decision, and also that the the three choices, on the large scale with several people, tend to economic equilibrium with each other.

Cost and benefit
When faced with a choice of activities to perform, a person makes an economic decision whenever they try to gain the most satisfaction by choosing the best activity for them. For each activity, they need to compare the costs incurred with the benefits gained. The excess of the benefit over the cost is their (accounting) profit from the activity:

Accounting profit = Benefits - Costs

How to Catch Crawfish

As part of the Cooking daily quest (daily) Crawfish Creole, the player is required to "catch [sic]" Muddy Crawfish. Due to the likelihood of a player's doing it with the day's Fishing daily, they may interpret the instruction incorrectly.

When a person obtains a fish using a fishing rod, they are said to 'catch' it. In the circumstances, the player may apply that same definition to the word as used in the quest text. Of course, doing so is erroneous.

To interpret the instructions correctly, the player must read it somewhat more literally. The literal meaning of 'catch' does not imply the use of a fishing rod, in which case, the player is encouraged to use their hands (as they would for a slow-moving ball in flight).

A baseball can (literally) be caught using a special mitt.

Technically, the Muddy Crawfish NPC is to be looted in order to obtain the namesake item for the quest. Mousing over the NPC model reveals that it can be looted. To catch it ingame, the player must enter looting range and right-click.

EDIT 14Nov11: Appended hard copy version.