The Funeral of WoW Gold

They’ve been mocked as mind-numbing, juvenile and even addictive, but it turns out video games can actually make you smarter, according to a blockbuster presentation yesterday at the American Psychological Association convention in Boston.
Researchers detailed a series of studies showing that today’s gamers could well be tomorrow’s surgeons. Their surprising conclusions included:
The popular multiplayer online game “world of warcraft
” can improve scientific thinking.
Laparoscopic surgeons who play video games are 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than non-gamers.
“There are some very compelling cases that video-game playing leads to advanced problem-solving in math, science, and spatial skills,” said
Fordham University psychologist Fran C. Blumberg. “I do think it has benefits.”
The study of surgeons was conducted by Iowa State University psychologist Dr. Douglas Gentile; Dr. Paul Lynch, associate professor of anestheology at the Mayo Clinic; and other researchers.
“I noticed that, invariably, the doctors who played video games were better at surgery,” Lynch said.
Gentile and Lynch argue that video games are producing a generation of more adept surgeons. And here’s the good news: The rest of the game-playing world is reaping benefits too.
With 92 percent of kids playing some sort of video game, Gentile says it’s become a “natural learning tool” for younger audiences.
But he warned that monitoring the content of what kids are playing was instrumental in gleaning gaming benefits.
Gleeful Hub gamers said they were not surprised by the results of the study.
“I can’t say I’m shocked. Games have definitely improved my concentration and reactions . . . especially for driving,” said 35-year-old Chris Boswell, a scientific researcher from Cambridge, who owns a PlayStation 2, a PSP and a Nintendo Wii.
Christopher Cavallacci, 21, an international relations student at Boston University, agreed, but warned “there is a severe downside.”
“It dulls the ability to finitely concentrate on anything that doesn’t have a million things going on at once, such as studying law books or history books.”
Tags: wow gold，world of warcraft gold

Does “stop playing video games, you’re wasting your time” sound annoying? According to researchers gathered at the American Psychological Association convention in
Boston, this is completely untrue! On the contrary, it appears that today’s gamer is tomorrow’s top laparoscopic surgeon!
It may sound rather strange at first, but the researchers backed up their affirmation by using an eloquent example: World of Warcraft (Buy wow gold ). The world’s most popular multiplayer online game has already attracted millions of ardent gamers from all over the world and continues to expand.
What many thought to be a waste of time now proves to actually stimulate thinking, improving skills in systematic investigation and problem solving. Psychologist Douglas Gentile, co-author of the study, explained that surgeons who’ve played video games in the past were better predictors of surgical skills that years of training and surgeries performed didn’t provide.
“So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these (surgeries) have you done and the second question is ‘Are you a gamer?,” Gentile said, as quoted by the Associated Press.
In addition to the chat rooms, where players interact and share knowledge to solve problems, the forums on world of warcraft are just as relevant, showing that gamers are capable of creating an environment in which informal scientific skills are being exchanged.
Although it appears that young people think more strategically than more mature people, and that they see the game from different perspectives, World of Warcraft enthusiasts seem to be more likely to develop scientific skills.
That of course doesn’t guarantee that by playing a video game you’ll become a brilliant surgeon or some sort of genius. Even World of Warcraft advices us to “take all things in moderation,” so enjoy playing and don’t forget you have a life outside the game.

Tags: wow gold，world of warcraft gold

The BBC has suddenly caught on to the growing industry of wow gold-farming, where MMO players pay others, often located in a call-center type of operation in a developing nation, to level-up characters for them, earning virtual world currency along the way.
In
China, two World of Warcraft gold farmers were arrested this spring for “unfair revenue distribution.” In seven months, with a staff of 20, the two had made over 1.6 million RMB (equivalent to about $200,000 USD). In 2007, the New York Times profiled individuals in the gold farming industry, and estimated that gold farming was responsible for the majority of the goods traded in the $1.8 billion per year virtual goods market.
In the gaming world, working your way through the lower levels can be tedious and boring. Paying someone else to do it for you, accumulating currency and objects along the way, is against most games’ end-user license agreements, but the temptation is always going to be there. The underground industry, especially as described in the Times’ article, is a modern, voluntary version of feudalism, where workers make next to nothing for those who own the gold farms, and the entire system is held up by the money of the players in developed countries. Rather than continue attempting to ban the practice, it might make more sense for the gaming companies to regulate the industry, creating a more equitable arrangement for those doing the actual work.
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Men often play the part better than women
Following a modestly successful article about approaching female gamers in social games, some might wonder why I would be following up two weeks later with something pertaining to the same subject.
Not quite.
I’ve been playing my current MMO of choice more than usual these past few days because Blizzard is dangling that proverbial carrot in front of my face from a very long rod. When or if I ever get that carrot is irrelevent, however, in light of our topic this evening. For those of you who do play these MMO games, voice chat is not always an option and even when it is, not all players utilize it. So how can you be sure if the person you’re grouping with is a guy or girl?
You can’t.
In the past, various communities have taken it upon themselves to conduct research in futile attempts to document the men to women ratio in such massively popular MMOs (not to be redundant) such as World of Warcraft. Even games that dwell in its shadow are suspect to this vague territory, such as ArenaNet’s Guild Wars.
There’s really no need to go into the experience of being a true female gamer in these situations, as most major points were touched upon in a previous Sunday Special. Rather, let’s talk about the guys who gender bend for wow gold and goods. As a fairly serious gamer, most of my friends and acquaintances are of the male variety, and I’ve learned that quite a few of them do in fact play one or more female characters (or “toons”) in MMOs. Most of the time, I hear them justify the choice to virtually crossdress with, “The girls just look better.”
You can tell how long ago this was taken based on our armor.
Sounds reasonable enough. Everyone knows these developers can’t ignore their own base instincts, and I’ve been known to make a few male characters myself here and there — mostly on account of not wanting to watch my poor Ranger run around in a bikini made of twigs and leaves, or observe pole dancing every time I hit “/dance.” Aesthetic preferences aside, there is the undisputable fact that females get free stuff. This universal truth has become a deciding factor for many male gamers when creating a new toon, and it only adds to the shady gender aspect of MMOs.
Having played the gender bending game myself in these virtual worlds, I know from personal experiences that in most cases, other players will be nicer to you on a general scale, even before you announce your true sex. That’s not to say they’re meaner to a male character, just less attentive and generous. No, I’m not the kind of person to ask for wow gold or items, and you’ll find that most real females don’t outright beg. No, we subtely hint that we need a new weapon or more money for a certain mount (or just a little help with a quest), and if someone responds, wonderful.
I find that men (and boys), whether playing a male or female toon, show much less tact when it comes to getting what they want. Even when pretending to be a real girl, the charlatans tend to lay it on pretty thick and bluntly. If they want something, they’ll outright ask for it or dance naked (as naked as the game will allow) in a populated region.
The funny part is that their fellow guys often fall for it, and maybe when that false affection runs dry, they’ll turn around to complain about how manipulative women are. Aside from the fact that these “women” are usually men as well, the duped party is likely to repeat such altruistic behavior over and over again until they’re blue in the face. It appears that most gamers know the general ratio of men to women in MMOs, often joking about it themselves; so why do they keep falling for that pretty face with the pointy ears and glowing eyes? In games that allow characters to marry, these situations can get pretty ugly.
Now if you’re an aspiring MMO con man (or woman) who is looking to pick up the art of in-game crossdressing, there are plenty of resources you can turn to for help. I’ve included one below for your benefit. Enjoy, have fun, and just remember to keep it clean!
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The wait to demo the Upper Deck’s highly anticipated World of Warcraft Miniatures Boardgame quickly approached the 2+ hour mark. So while it was clearly the most anticipated game at the convention, I wasn’t willing to miss a significant chunk of the convention to check it out. I can say, the buzz from happy gamers post-demoing was very positive.
Instead, because there was no wait, I demoed last year’s hot topic–Upper Deck’s the World of Warcraft Collectible Cardgame.
I approached this game with skeptical optimism. I’ll go on record as an avid avid fan of the Word of Warcraft (wow gold) multi-player video game. Could the elements that made WOW such a tremendous success as a video game be translated into a collectible cardgame?
Like the video game, the focus of the card game is building up the skills and talents of your individual fantasy hero. All WOW classes and proficiencies are represented by striking character card artwork. Your card deck randomized your resources–weapons, allies, quests, etc)
There are a lot of elements similar to the hugely popular MAGIC THE GATHERING collectible cardgame, including the necessity to “tap” your cards to spend resources. Quests from the world of warcraft game double as “resources” in ways similar to the Magic game.
I had some quibbles with some rules. Attacks can come at you one enemy at a time (in other games, all attacks must be declared at once so that you can choose which enemies you want to block), making defense a tricky matter. Your base character, before it earns a weapon, has no combat skills whatsoever–an aspect that not only contradicts the video game, but contradicts real life common sense as well. My character, a trained warrior, should be able to deal out some sort of unarmed damage against an opponent. (Anyone want to tell Chuck Norris he can’t hurt anyone without a sword or gun?)
I played a two-person combat round from beginning to end, which took roughly an hour. Without the learning curve, I suspect an average play time of 20-40 minutes.
Bottom line–Quibbles aside, if you enjoy the RPG, you’ll find a lot to love here. The game embraces the character-building aspects that make the videogame a huge hit. Overall, a very successful adaptation that won me over.
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