Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival April Topic

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - April 2013 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the March Blogging Carnival on Sunsong Ranch Options. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.  

Be sure to check out How To Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic and earn money too.

  

April 2013 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

This month let's take a look back through time and pull out some niche markets that use to be great, but are no longer viable markets.  By looking back at the past, there are always  lessons to be learned that can be applied to the present and the future.  We've all got old niche markets that used to be awesome markets, but are now worthless.  So for this months gold blogging carnival, let's look at a specific niche market from the past.  Dig into what the market was, why it was a good market back then, why it is no longer a viable market, and what can we learn or apply to auction house tactics today.

Name one of your historically profitable markets that is now defunct and what can we learn from that old market.

**********

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Darkmoon Faire Post 5.2 Offers Chance At Free Pets & Vanity Items

The Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket Change

While I was working on the shownotes for the next episode of The Eviscerated Gaming Podcast, I ran across the Patch 5.2 Undocumented Changes.  There are some nice changes that haven't been disclosed in the official Patch 5.2 notes, including changes to the Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket System.  Remember in Patch 5.1, when they changed the production of Imperial Silk to Silk Cocoon, which gave a chance to get pets when crafting Imperial Silk?  Well, they've done something similar with the Darkmoon Faire ticket rewards. 

Check out all of the Undocumented Patch 5.2 Changes at this source.

New Darkmoon Game Prize

With WoW Patch 5.2, the non-profession daily quests at the Darkmoon Faire now each award a Darkmoon Game Prize instead of just a single Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket.  The Darkmoon Game Prize is a container that will always include your 1 Darkmoon Faire Prize Ticket, but also has a chance to contain once of the Darkmoon Faire Pets or one of the newly added Darkmoon Faire Vanity Items! 

The non-profession quests are simply the 5 daily quests of playing games at the Darkmoon Faire.  The quests that now award the Darkmoon Game Prize (and your chance at bonus pets and vanity items) are:

1. He Shoots, He Scores!
2. The Humanoid Cannonball
3. It's Hammer Time
4. Target: Turtle
5. Tonk Commander

In addition to each of the Darkmoon Faire pets, you can also get other items that normally cost Darkmoon Tickets, including the Darkmoon Whistle and Cloak of the Darkmoon Faire.  There are also new single use vanity items that can also be found within the new Darkmoon Game Prize container.

Pet & Mount Collector Tip

So if you are a collector and are saving up to get all of the pets and the mounts from the Darkmoon Faire, then post Patch 5.2, the wise strategy would be to go for both mounts first.  You are sure to get a few of the Darkmoon Pets out of your Darkmoon Game Prizes as you amass the Darkmoon Prize Tickets required for both of the mounts.  Then you can focus on getting the pets once you have the mounts.  This will help prevent getting a free pet that you've already purchased, as you will be purchasing your pets last. 

This new addition of the Darkmoon Game Prize is also a nice boost for running your lower level alts through the Darkmoon Faire as each day they will each get 5 chances at a free pet that you can cage and sell on the auction house (or level up and sell for even more profit).

**********

Top Gifts For Gamers Articles:  Sheldon Cooper's Tees | Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds | Murlocs | Top Gaming Keyboards | Zombie Lovers | WoW Mega-Bloks | Star Wars Gifts |

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds Back In Stock!

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Gifts For Gamers

Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds

The Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds Are Back In Stock!

The Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds are very popular, which has made them super rare and hard to find.  They've been out of stock everywhere for months (most of all of last year), unless you are willing to pay the heavily marked up prices because of their massive demand and low supply.  Jinx & Amazon have both just got a fresh shipment and they are back in stock (for now).  If you've been hunting for these, then don't sleep on it!  Supplies are already dwindling as Minecraft fans are learning they can get them again for regular retail price - that is until they are gone again!

This type of high demand / low supply item presents a couple of oppurtunities.

1. Buyers & collectors can get their Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds kits at regular retail price.
2. Investors can purchase the Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds at normal price, then flip them for a nice profit on eBay, Amazon.com, and other third party sales sites once the supplies dwindle.

The potential to flip these for a nice profit is great.  They've been selling for $55+ for a single Lego Minecraft Micro World prior to this new stock arrival and the price will surely rise again once this current stock evaporates.

Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds at Jinx
Lego Minecraft Micro Worlds at Amazon

In addition to the Lego Micro Minecraft Worlds, there are a ton of Minecraft products available for Minecraft fans.  Both Jinx and Amazon have a variety of Minecraft goodies, like T-Shirts, stuffed creepers, Minecraft figurines, posters, and much more.
Check out the Official Minecraft Store at Jinx!

Visit The Minecraft Store on Amazon
 



Sunsong Ranch Options - March Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - March 2013


Welcome to another 2013 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this month's carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com. Now I present to you this month's participants on the topic of:

"What Are You Doing With Your Sunsong Ranch?"

Sunsong Ranch by DaCheng of The DaCheng Diaries

What To Do With My Sunsong Ranch? by Nev of Auction House Addict

What Are You Doing On Sunsong Ranch? by Soco of Vault of Light

I Use Sunsong Ranch For My AH Salad by Selltacular of Copper To Gold

Still Farming Songbells On Sunsong Ranch by Jason of WoWRounded


Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!



If you enjoy the monthly carnivals, spread the word and help support the carnival as it continues to grow:



 

***********************

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gifts For Gamers - RageGage Dynamic Smash Pads

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Gifts For Gamers


 RageGage Dynamic Smash Pads

Do You Rage Much While Gaming?

Tank pulls too early and you wish you could just choke-slam him?  Tired of getting grenade killed as soon as you spawn in?  Sick and tired of listening to your livestream host begging for donations and wish you could smash his face in?  Well, now is your chance!  Grab a RageGage Smash Pad and unleash your fury!

What Is a RageGage Dynamic Smash Pad?

RageGage is a dynamic, customizable smash pad that is designed to take as much physical abuse as you can deal out.  Use the RageGage periodically to releash your rage and avoid injuring yourself, your gear, or your equipment.  Don't smash your keyboard or throw your monitor out the window.  Just smash your RageGage instead!

RageGage is designed to take the full force of your human rage explosions.  RageGage detects your rage level to make sure you are releasing pent up rage.  And if you aren't, it will make sure you do.  When smashed, RageGage plays a voice clip based on how hard you hit it. 

You can also connect your RageGage to your PC or Mac using the USB cable and extend the RageGage user experience.  From the RageGage website, you can download faux politicians, celebutards, and other fun to smash voices or you can create your own.  You can use the included software to personalize your own clips of voices to smash.  Perfect for adding audio clips of those podcasters that you can't stand!

You can also use it to play games, music samples, and other fun stuff.

Rage On!

RageGage Design Options

Just hover the individual RageGage links to see the various designs.

1. RageGage - Space Cowboy
2. RageGage - Explosion
3. RageGage - Dragon
4. RageGage - Chrome
5. RageGage - Black Floral
6. RageGage - Hypnosis
7. RageGage - White Floral
8. RageGage - Matrix
9. RageGage - Slime



Gifts for Gamers - DJ Hero 2 (My Fav Console Game)

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Gifts For Gamers



DJ Hero Screenshot


DJ Hero and DJ Hero 2

When it comes to gaming, I am a PC gamer at heart and very rarely ever get into console gaming.  There has been one exception.  I did buy a console just to be able to play one super awesome game:  DJ Hero 2!  Combining my love of Electronic Dance Music and gaming together into one game was a blast while it lasted.  That was until my bitch ass ex-girlfriend stole my Wii, DJ Hero 2, and DJ Hero Turntable Controllers just to be a trollface when she moved out.  It's ok, I've got a Traktor Kontrol S2 now!

DJ Hero & DJ Hero 2 are both music based video games, much like Guitar Hero and Rockband.  With the DJ Hero games, you use a plastic turntable controller to play.  The controls are much more complex than just tapping buttons in time and order like with the Guitar Hero controllers.  You have to not only tap buttons, but you've gotta learn to scratch, drag, slide, crossfade, double tap and much more.  During freestyle phrases you even get to crossface back and forth between the 2 tracks and can create some seriously wicked remixes on the fly.  It's a ton of fun!  You get to unlock great DJs like Deadmau5 (in DJ Hero 2) and Daft Punk (in DJ Hero).

I highly recommend the DJ Hero games to anyone who likes Electronic Dance Music.  They are so much fun and will give you one hell of a workout!  The games sounds amazing blasted across your surround sound system too.  The DJ Hero games are so much fun, you can even rock a house party with the party mode.  I had picked up the DJ Hero 2 Party pack which can with 2 Turntables and a Microphone.  Yeah, you can even have a 2nd or 3rd person singing or beatboxing along while you spin, cut, duck, and scratch!

You can even customize how your turntable controller looks with a ton of awesome DJ Hero Controller Skins!

Check out the Official DJ Hero 2 Trailer below:

 

DJ Hero Games For Many Consoles

DJ Hero Turntable & Game Pack

• Playstation 2
• Playstation 3
• Nintendo Wii
• XBox 360

DJ Hero 2 Turntable & Game Pack

• Playstation 3
• Nintendo Wii
• XBox 360

DJ Hero 2 Party Bundle (2 Turntables, Game, & Microphone)

• Playstation 3
• Nintendo Wii
• XBox 360

For you Rap & Hip-Hop fans, there is also the DJ Hero Renegade Edition that features Jay-Z & Eminem.



20 Days of Gold Making (Day 10) - My Farming Theory

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making - Day 10

Do You Farm Materials?  What, Where & Why?

Do I farm on my World of Warcraft characters?  Yes & No.  Do I spend time running around farming for raw materials alone?  Never.  Farming as a primary objective is almost never worth the time investment that is required.  I do however still collect raw materials while out and about in the World of Warcraft, but it's not farming in the true sense of the word.

Crafter / Gatherer Alt Combos

I still level each and every alternate character to unlock the ability to craft within every profession.  I do this in order to have greater diversity and flexibility within the auction house markets.  I still stick with the old-school way of thinking and have a gathering profession paired with each crafting profession.  Since none of my alternate characters are just "stand in town and do nothing but craft" type of characters, I don't have double crafting professions on any character except my Tailor / Enchanter.  Nowadays, Tailoring is also a gathering profession after the inclusion of the Northrend Scavenging bonus.
Since each of my characters are out in the world leveling up and doing dailies for reputation grinds to unlock recipes, I have a gathering profession on each and every one.  I don't go out of my way to farm materials, but I also hate running past materials that are right there free for the taking.  So each character of mine will be able to grab up the ore, herbs, or skins that present themselves within my already chosen path.  If I'm questing and leveling a character up, the nearby raw materials take hardly no extra time to grab and provide the leveling alt with experience as well.  So it's a win win in my book. 

How many materials have you flown over and ignored because you are a dual-crafter?  Wasted opportunities in my opinion.  This expansion it has been pretty easy to not even have to buy many raw materials off of the auction house for crafting because my army of leveling gatherers brings in a nice amount of ore and herbs.  And these are herbs and ores that are near what I'm already doing anyways!
Occasional Targeted Farming

Once in a blue moon, I may set time aside to go and farm something specific, but the desired item must meet specific criteria.

1. Is this item not available in sufficient supply on the auction house?
2. Is this item required in a crafted item that would make it worth my time to even farm to begin with?
3. Are these crafted items selling well on my server's auction house?
4. Must I farm extra resources just to keep up with the demand of the crafted item?

So on the rare occasion an item required in a recipe that I craft that is a nice profitable stable of my auction house business will run low or out of supply on the auction house.  In this rare instance, I may spend some time farming up that specific material in order to keep my crafted end products selling on the auction house.

The best example I can think of is during older expansions when I would commonly go out and spend 30 mins to an hour farming up my own Globes of Water (fishing them from pools in the old Azshara zone).  These are required as a crafting component of the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti companion pet and the auction house would often run dry.  This was during older expansions when the Engineering pet market was a very viable gold making market.  I wouldn't dare think of farming Globes of Water anymore because the market for damn near all pets is now shit, and the Yeti is no exception.



Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Topic For March Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - March 2013 Topic

A big thanks to all of the participants who submitted entries for last month's blogging carnival. Everyone is welcome to write a post for the blogging carnivals at Cold's Gold Factory. Again, thank you to all the bloggers who submitted posts for the February Blogging Carnival on Our Beginnings as Gold Makers. If you missed the last carnival, be sure to check it out! 

What If I Don't Have A Blog And I Want To Participate?

If you don't have your own site, you can still participate in the gold blogging carnivals. Sometimes a topic may tickle your fancy or you may have a unique spin on a blogging carnival topic that you would like to have read by others. Well, you are in luck. There are blogging sites that will post and host your content as a guest post. Just follow the normal blogging carnival rules that the others follow and get your post hosted and live prior to the carnival. Then, just submit the link to me for inclusion in the upcoming gold blogging carnival.  

Be sure to check out How To Get More From Blogging Carnival Participation.

The friendly sites willing to host your content are:

1. Goldgrub's Goblin Academy - Contact: Me (Cold)
2. Squidoo - Join up and make a lens on the topic and earn money monthly with Squidoo.

  

March 2013 Gold Blogging Carnival Topic

We are a ways into the Mists of Pandaria expansion now.  Remember back to the beginning of Mop, when the Tillers Union and Sunsong Ranch where super popular?  Now that we've had months of plowing, tilling, planting, and killing pests let's take a look at how we are currently using our farm plots at Sunsong Ranch.  We've got major changes coming to the farms in Patch 5.2, but what are you currently up to on your ranch?

What Are You Currently Doing With Your Sunsong Ranch / Ranches?

Are you growing crops to level cooking skills?  Growing raw materials?  Doing the Ironpaw Shuffle?  Abandoned the farm all together?

**********

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Gifts For Gamers - Dragon Statues & Figurines

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Gifts For Gamers

Dragon Statues and Figurines

Crusade of Solitude

This week I'm featuring some of the coolest dragon statues and dragon figurines that I've been able to find.  Some of these Fantasy Art Figurines are excellent dragon figurines with painted artwork on the wings, like the Crusade of Solitude pictured above.  These are great dragons for display on your fireplace mantle or your bookshelf.  Hope you enjoy checking out these great collectible dragons.

As always, hover over the individual dragon statue links below to see an image of each specific statuette.

1. Fantasy Art Dragon Figurine: Crusade of Solitude
2. Fantasy Art Dragon Figurine: Guardian of Always
3. Fantasy Art Dragon Figurine: Blood Moon
4. Morning Star The Strong Dragon w Crystal
5. Youngblood Dragon: The Guardian Red Dragon
6. Crystal Flame Collectible Red Dragon
7. Serpent's Spell Dragon Figurine
8. 3 Piece Dragon Figurine Set: Hear No, See No, Speak No Evil
9. Majestic Red Dragon Sword In Stone Figurine
10. Wise Old White Dragon Statue
11. Dark Black Dragon Statue
12. Blue Color Change Armored Dragon w Orb
13. Ice Dragon on Ice
14. Jade Fire Lighted Green Dragon Atop Geode
15. Purple Dragon w Sword on Rock
16. Midnight Dragon Serpent Figurine
17. Spun Glass LED Light Up Mythic Dragon
18. Fire Heart Fairy Dragon

If you are interested in Dragon Toys then make sure to check out these cool Dragon Figures and Toys or maybe your Dragon Lover would love a Tee Shirts For Dragon Lovers.

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas.



20 Days of Gold Making - Day 9 - Favorite Niche Market

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

Day 9 - What Is Your Favorite Niche Market & Why?

Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery

I've always been a big fan of niche markets.  Niche markets are great markets because once you find a good niche, you may be the only seller in that market.  Some good examples of niche markets that I've held complete control over include:

• Arcanite Bars - I was the only one selling these for 2-3 years before others caught on (after my post on them).
• Rich Purple Silk Shirts - I was the only seller for at least 5 years on Horde side on my server.
• Twink Gear - Back in Vanilla WoW, twink item flipping was a goldmine, because non-twink players didn't understand the true value of what they were selling for way too cheap.

My Favorite Niche? 
Mysterious Fortune Cards, Of Course!

Above and beyond all other niche markets, my favorite is definately the Mysterious Fortune Cards market.  Even now in the Mists of Pandaria expansion, the Mysterious Fortune Cards are still a great seller.  Why?  Gambling will never be obsolete! 

Creating the system for barking MFCs was a lot of fun and I caused quite a stir on my server, as well as many others, as buyers of my Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery system brought these great gold making cards to the forefront of the trade chat channel on many servers.  I knew the MFCs had great potential to bring in great profits, but the system of barking them for more sales was and still is an amazing strategy.  I still remember the night I made 35k in a few hours from just Mysterious Fortune Cards. 

To this day, I can plop on a new server and fire up my barking macros and watch the sales role in as I sell out on stock within minutes.  Just proof that other servers are still untapped from using my MFC Barking strategies to make gold.  It really was a lot of fun for me to start into barking with my tested and proven MFC macros and just watch the yellow "A buyer has been found for your auction of Mysterious Fortune Card" messages start to fill my screen.  Nothing beats immediate gratification of your work.


Top Gifts For Gamers Articles:  Top Gaming Keyboards & Keypads | Zombie Lover's Gift Guide | T-Shirts of Sheldon Cooper | Top 10 Board Games | Gifts For Star Wars Fans

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gold Making Beginnings - February Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - Feb 2013


Welcome to another 2013 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please tell them what you think.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this month's carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com. Now I present to you this month's participants on the topic of:

20 Days Of Gold Making (Day 1)

"When Did You Start Making Gold & What Triggered It?"

This month we support Nev's 20 Days of Gold Making Blogging Challenge and answer the first question as the topic for this month's gold blogging carnival.  Be sure to check out Nev's blogging challenge for more topic ideas to write about.  

Beginnings by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

Day 1 by Nev of Auction House Addict

When Did You Start by Theruling of Rul's Random Rantings

How I Started by DaCheng of The DaCheng Diaries

Day One by Soco of Vault of Light

The First Day, In More Ways Than One by Selltacular of Copper to Gold

Gold Making Day 1 by Jason of WoWRounded

When I Started Making Gold by Xsinthis of The Golden Crusade



Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.

Until next month,

Keep on Keepin' On!



If you enjoy the monthly carnivals, spread the word and help support the carnival as it continues to grow:



 

***********************

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Gifts For Gamers - Bliptronic 5000 & Other Chiptune Tools

GIFTS FOR GAMERS - A weekly column at Cold's Gold Factory that focuses on bringing you some of the coolest gifts for gamers of all types. Remember to check back here for ideas for Gamer Birthday Gifts, Stocking Stuffers for Gamers, and Gamer Christmas Ideas.


Gifts For Gamers

The Bliptronic 5000 and Other Chiptune Tools


The Bliptronic 5000

Chiptunes

"Nerd influenced music has seen a substantial rise in popularity over the past decade, mostly due to the ever expanding community surrounding it. Nerdcore hip-hop has dominated for years as the most well-known of the “nerd genres”, but in recent years the focus has started to shift to a new genre of music, which is largely homemade.

Chiptune music is the art of taking beeps and clicks from various retro gaming systems (such as the Atari 2600, NES, Gameboy, etc.), and manipulating the sound output methods to create music. Utilizing such familiar sounds often leads people who are not overly familiar with video game music to think they’re hearing classic old school game soundtracks, but to the trained ear it is obvious that the compositions are entirely new. Having been featured in games such as Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Chiptune has been brought to many people’s awareness, though most of them still don’t know it by name."

-Quoted from the article "Introduction To Chiptunes"

The Bliptronic 5000 LED Synthesizer

The Bliptronic 5000 is a totally unique music making machine that plays sequences, chords, and loops and can be chained together with multiple Bliptronic 5000s or other effects units to create truly unique sounds.  These can be played just for fun or used to create your own 8-bit Chiptune music.  These are created by ThinkGeek and the ability to chain multiple Bliptronic 5000s together to create a symphony of blips and bleeps can be fun for multiple people.

Bliptronic 5000 is Sold Out at ThinkGeek,

but you can Buy From Amazon.



Bliptron 5000 Board Layout



Check out the video below to see the Bliptronic 5000 LED Synthesizer in action.  The video also shows 3 of the Bliptronic 5000s chained together and also shows how you can chain other effects units together to further alter the sound.  These things look like a ton of fun.  You can find all kinds of YouTube videos with these chained with tons of different effects, including guitar pedals, other digital sequencers, and digital effects units. 

The effects unit shown in the video below is the Korg Kaoss Pad.

 



Other Chiptune Creating Tools

If you are interested in producing some of your own chiptune creations, then here are a few more music production tools to help get you started with that video game chiptune sound. 

• Stylophone Retro Pocket Synth
• Korg Kaossilator 2
• Korg Mini-KP Kaossilator Pad
• Korg Monotron 16 Key Synthesizer
• 8 Bit Weapon : A Chiptune Odysey - Chiptunes Sample Pack

Be sure to check out the other Gifts For Gamers posts for more Gamer Gift Ideas.



20 Days of Gold Making (Day 8) - Revisiting Goals

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days of Gold Making (Day 8) - Revisiting Goals

"Thinking Back To Day 2, Did You Reach Your Goal?  Did You Set A New Goal?"

Well, in the day 2 post I talked about my early goals of getting each of the various mounts and the required riding skills in order.  As I earned a regular mount, my next goal was to get the epic mount, then a flying mount, then the epic flyer.  As I completed each of the smaller goals, I set myself the goal of getting the next mount in the advancement order of ground and flying mounts. 

Once I had all of the mounts, my next major goal was to get gold capped, which I eventually reached during Wrath of the Lich King, when I had more play time available to dedicate to constant WoW gold making.

Once I hit the gold cap, I continued to make more gold, but I haven't set a new goal for myself.  Do I need more than a million gold?  Probably never, so I don't see much point in making more gold just to be making gold.  Obviously, not having a new goal to push towards has slowed my gold making, but I'm fine with that.

I already beat the game afterall.  ;)



Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

20 Days of Gold Making (Day 7) - Starter Options

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making (Day 7)

If just starting out or starting over on a new server, how would you start building some capital and what goal would you set for yourself?


How Would You Build Capital?
If switching servers:  Easy answer is to just raise capital by selling extra caged battle pets on the new server.

However, if I was starting from scratch I would first raise some capital by signing guild charters for signature fees and robbing guild banks.  Any fools dumb enough to invite me into their guild and have open access to their guild tabs are just asking to be pilfered.  Well, i guess it's technically not pilfering if you go looking for stuff to swipe. LOL.  Oh you booted me after I took a stack of items to sell?  Oh well, on to the next guild.  This is how I got started with my Alliance spies on the other side of my server.  You'd be amazed at the stuff people put into the guild bank slots that have open access for any member to swipe.  Makes it pretty easy to get starter cash without putting in much work at all.  Hey! Don't call me a thief!  I prefer Opportunist.

For the non-shady way of getting starter cash raised, I would just level as normal and collect items to sell on the auction house like greens, rare materials, meats, etc.

What Goal Would I Set?
Once I got to 200-300 gold, I would start flipping items on the auction house and slowly build some larger chunks of capital before starting in raising professions.  I'd start slow and target nice blue leveling gear, much the same as I did when I stockpiled low level blue leveling gear to sell at the start of Mists of Pandaria.  I'd choose this market to get started because there are always super great deals on low level blue gear put on the auction house by ignorant players.  It's very easy to grab something like one of my favorite flips, the Blackwater Cutlass, for under 10 gold and then turn around and sell it for 100 gold within days.  I'd start with this low level blue market again because the return on investment is just too good to pass up.



Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

20 Days of Gold Making - Day 6 - Most Prolific Market

This entry is part of a series of gold making posts answering the questions in the 20 Days of Gold Making Challenge started by Nev over at Auction House Addict.  If you also blog, then be sure to check out the gold blogging challenge for post topic ideas.

20 Days Of Gold Making (Day 6)

Which Market Has Made You The Most Gold Over The Years?

Looking at sheer volume of  items sold the clear winner would be Mysterious Fortune Cards, but since we are looking at the biggest gold making market by profit, the answer is easily the Glyph Market.  We've only had Mysterious Fortune Cards through 1 and half expansions, but I'm sure they will end up on top over time.  Overall though the biggest gold maker has been the Glyph market, and for a number of specific reasons.

• Maxed Inscription within a few days of it's addition to WoW.
• Early Research discoveries were very kind as I unlocked big sellers earlier than competition.
• First Horde Scribe on my server to get all recipes from Books of Glyph Mastery & researches.
• I made a killing on Glyphs long before everyone jumped on the Glyph bandwagon.

When Inscription was first added to WoW, I identified it as a huge money maker and pushed to maximum as my main priority.  This was a huge payoff as I did my research every day and was able to rake in the gold every single day as I was one of the very early trend setters on my server.  I was able to list and maintain a lot of the research learned Glyphs at 200-300 gold per.  Once we got the Books of Glyph Mastery added into the game in Wrath of the Lich King, I was able to sell glyphs for upwards of 500-600 gold each as everyone was frantically buying the new Glyphs for their classes.  I was the first on the Horde side to learn every single Glyph recipe in the game and had the gold to bully my way around the Books of Glyph Mastery market.  Even after learning all of the Glyphs I could, I was still buying up and relisting all of the BoGM for crazy prices just to thwart my competition from finding regularly priced books to learn the Glyphs that would compete with my own.

I made a ton of gold selling Glyphs at crazy high prices deep into Wrath before the Glyph market became so popular with all of the wanna-be gold makers.  After the crazy influx of new competition into the Glyph market, it's now one of my most hated markets that I barely even dabble in anymore.  I've been working to unload existing stock without even crafting any new Glyphs for quite some time because I just am not willing to babysit and camp the auction house to make gold.  I've got better things to do with my time than to even worry about competing with unemployed all day walling idiotic undercutters that are willing to bleed their fingers to the bone milling and crafting for a few gold profits.  No thanks!

I preferred the early days of listing high priced glyphs with little to no competition and having 50-75% of the stock sell every single night.  Nowadays its a few gold profits per sale and 99% of the Glyphs get returned as unsold. 

I guess you could say I made out like a bandit while the market was fresh and now all of the copycats can fight over the scraps.  More power to you Kobolds fighting over the scraps.

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets