out fox the net

I recently started up World of Warcraft again after a months long break from the game. It is still a fun game and taking a break from it has made it even more enjoyable.

Since I am starting some new characters, I've been working through the low level game again. Up until about level 30 or 40 playing the same quests yet again is wearing thin. So I've set out to find faster ways through the lower levels.

After experimenting with a few different game add-ons and doing some research I have found some faster than average ways to level up.

What I have learned, I present in my short Warcraft Leveling Guide. Check it out. Navigation through the guide is on the left sidebar of the site. As I develop new methods and learn more, I'll build it up.

I hope you find it helpful.

Today, June 28, 2007 at about 5pm, Out Fox the Net enjoyed its 100,000 page view. Thanks for everyone who has come to visit.

OFtN (Out Fox the Net) started about 2 ½ years ago. Here is how it happened.

I met someone online who was interested in a certain web based marketing tool. Being a programmer and having been involved with the web for a long time, I understood just what he wanted and why. In essence the tool, when given a list of websites, would determine and rank which of them were most popular i.e. had the most traffic, highest page rank etc. I registered the OFtN domain and put the tool up in a password protected area.

The guy was very happy with it and suggested that we open a “for pay” service with it. That didn’t sound like a bad idea at all so I started to develop a better interface for it and some supplementary tools to go along with it. That also was working out pretty well until one day…

…completely out of the blue, the guy accused me of “stealing” his ideas and cutting him out of the business he had developed… and on a public message board we both visited frequently. Total paranoid delusions coming from this guy who had been so friendly up until then. Keep in mind that no one except he and I had ever even seen the tool at that point – it was never opened to the public and hadn’t made 1 cent.

Well anyway, to cut a short story short, I posted a calm reply and told him I was done working on the project and was returning “his precious ideas” unused.

But I still had the domain and nothing to do with it.

Over the next year or so, I would occasionally come up with an idea and make a half-hearted attempt at implementing it. Webmasters tools, news aggregator and nothing much of interest.

And then. I bought World of Warcraft.

After disappearing into WoW for several months I came back with some unique techniques for making money in the game. Hmm, Out Fox the Net and crazy money making scams, hmm, goes together like peanut butter and chocolate.

So I wrote up my World of Warcraft money making guide and posted about it on the official WoW web forums. Bam, 100 people showed up and read every page. Then people started to link to it from their guild boards.

Then it got 'ed.

Then it got posted to Digg.

Then Dan Hunter from Terranova contacted me to do an interview.

Then a BBC reporter contacted me to collect information for an article.

Final run down:

• Age of Site: 2 ½ years
• Unique visitors: 27,856
• Page Views: 100,004
• Time spent correcting spelling mistakes: 312 hours
• Number of times site has been completely deleted: 3
• Most unusual visitor location: Greenland
• Number of pages average visitor reads: 3.6

The site has cost me about $239.85 in domain name registration and web hosting costs. Altogether I have made about $196.38 from it.

Prices exclude my blood, sweat and tears

It seems like a lot of people ask where to find the WoW Darnassus Commendation Officer.

The NPC can be found in Ironforge at the edge of the, Military Ward. Coordinates are (61,69).

Here are a few helpful links with maps.

Goblin Workshop

Allakhazam

World of Warcraft Patch 1.9 Features

• Ahn'Qiraj

The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons - the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon. As players delve deeper into the mysteries of Ahn'Qiraj, they will discover revelations of the Silithid infestation and their shadowy masters, the Qiraji. Players will have to complete a world event of massive proportions before they can open the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj on their realm.

--More high level content that I will not see.

• New Armor Models

Many high-level class armor sets are receiving a complete graphical overhaul!

--Always welcome.

• Linked Auction Houses

Planned for launch in patch 1.9, players will discover that they can buy and sell goods with greater effectiveness using the highly anticipated Linked Auction House System. Horde players will find that the Auction Houses in Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Thunder Bluff will now share the same pool of player-created auctions. Similarly, Alliance players will find the same to be true when visiting Ironforge, Stormwind City, and Darnassus Auction Houses. This system has been expanded to support the neutral Auction Houses as well. Tanaris, Everlook, and Booty Bay will all be linked for players of both factions to access. In addition, the "Looking for Group" and "Trade" channels have been unified among the corresponding cities, meaning you can trade your goods or look for groups in Ironforge while in Stormwind!

--This is a great change!

• Multiple Battlegrounds Queues

Players will be able to enter multiple battleground queues! No longer must you make the hard decision of which queue to join -- when queued for all three, you can join the first one available or hold out for that special Battleground you're really seeking. You can also be in the queue for a battleground while inside a different battleground.

--If this leads to shorter wait times, good. We'll see.

• Raid Dungeons

In 1.9, the way raid timers are handled will undergo a significant change. The new system will have all instances reset at a certain server time, regardless of when you were actually saved to the instance. The reset times are as follows:

* Molten Core: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance.
* Blackwing Lair: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
* Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40-man): Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
* Onyxia: Every 5 Days
* Zul'Gurub: Every 3 Days
* Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20-man): Every 3 Days

The resets, if not during weekly maintenance, are planned to occur during off-hours when the least amount of raids are active. We plan on implementing a calendar of sorts on the website to help you better plan out your particular raid schedule. There are many reasons why this particular approach was chosen; we've gone over a multitude of options and felt that this change would be best in the long run.

As the reset time approaches, if you are in the instance, you will be informed of the impending reset every hour on the hour. 15 minutes before the reset, the reminders become more frequent; once the reset time is reached, all players in the instance will be ported to their bind point. You can access your saved raid status at any time via /raidinfo, and you will be informed of your status regarding an instance when you zone into the dungeon.

We know that this change is a major one for raiding guilds; we've done our utmost to make the reset times as convenient as possible for the majority of our players. All saved instances will be reset when 1.9 goes live to accommodate this change.

--If this dramatically improves stability then I think people will be happy. However... we'll see.

• Timbermaw Hold 1.9 Reputations Rewards Preview

We're constantly updating our Reputation Reward pages and wanted to provide you with a special preview of what's in store next patch for players friendly through exalted with the Timbermaw Hold Faction. Check it out here.

• Paladin Talent Update

Have you been curious about the changes concerning Paladin talents in the upcoming content patch? Wonder no longer! In this interactive preview of the changes, you can view the progression, read up on the new abilities and enhancements within the various trees, and experiment with new builds!

--To augment their skills, Paladins will now have an "insta-kill" skill. j/k