Hijinks Inc.

Category: Fred Smith

  • How To Make Money (Gold) In Cataclysm

    How To Make Money (Gold) In Cataclysm

    With the imminent release of the latest World of Warcraft expansion looming on the horizon, I’d like to spend some time talking about that thing that makes the world go around. Cash. Money. Dinero. Yeah, gold baby.

    Specifically, I want to give you a couple ways to make a TON of money in the first couple weeks of the release of Cataclysm. It only requires that you have a max level character with at least one gathering profession.

    Number 1.

    In the ensuing hours after release thousands of rabid WoW players are going to be racing to level up their trade skills to take advantage of the new recipes. This is a freakin’ gold mine for the rest of us. If you’re a miner, sell the gems and ore. If you’re a herbalist, sell those flowers! Remember, trade materials will be extremely inflated for the first month or so of the expansion, then everything will be dirt cheap, with plenty of time for you to max out your blacksmithing or leatherworking skills. Only this way, you’ll be several thousand gold richer.

    Number 2.

    Loot EVERYTHING. Sell Bind on Equip items on the auction house for at least 50 gold a piece, and sell the rest to the vendors. Trash loot can add up quickly when questing, so make sure you loot every bone, hide, and horn.

    Number 3.

    Stay away from the buy button while you’re at the Auction House. Remember, EVERYTHING is going to be more expensive at the start. Only buy with the intention of reselling for a profit.

    Have fun in Cataclysm!

  • What I’m Playing (and doing)

    What I’m Playing (and doing)

    It couldn’t last forever. After almost three months of weekly posts, I’ve gone AWOL for the past two weeks. This happens to coincide with a new role I’ve taken on at work, which involves me learning a completely new set of skills and working a lot of long hours.

    That’s not my excuse mind you. My excuse is Starcraft freakin’ 2. That game has taken over what free time I have left and consumed it within its addictive goodness. Which brings me to this:

    What Fred is Playing: Starcraft 2 Edition

    I bet you knew that Starcraft 2 was a thing, but did you know that there were even cooler things within that thing? I just blew your mind, I know. In Starcraft and Warcraft 3 there were these things called Custom games; user created maps that used gameplay derived but usually very different from the core campaign.

    The most popular was a Warcraft 3 map was called Defense of the Ancients, or DotA for short. One guy (the monosyllabic ‘Eul’) created the map, little knowing he was creating a new genre of games. Several standalone games have been developed based on this core concept, such as League of Legends, Demigod, and the more recent XBLA release of Monday Night Combat.

    Naturally Starcraft 2 had to have its DotA, and it does. They called it Storm of the Imperial Sanctum, or SotIS for short. Its not quite as polished as DotA was (and still is), but the developers are making great strides toward achieving their forerunners success.

    I’ve been playing a couple games every night, along with a couple marathon sessions on my weekends off with some friends. At some point in the future I’m going to write up a couple item builds for my favorite heroes and post them (ya know, so I can say I’m “researching for an article” when my girlfriend asks me what I’m doing).

    I’m hoping to get another promotion in the near future that offers some better hours, but until then, blogging might be a little hit or miss. Til next time!

  • The phone that (probably will) get me fired.

    (Editor’s Note: This isn’t a review, just a sad story)

    In the past month I have been late to work 3 times. If I’m late again, my employment will be terminated due to unacceptable tardiness. Would I be sad? No. But what I want to focus on is why I’m in this situation. Concisely: The Droid made me do it.

    It started out simple enough. My trusty Motorola Razr (the fifth replacement in my two year contract) was on its last legs. The outside screen was shattered, the interior screen was broken, and not having my phone as an alarm clock was forcing me to rely on my old bedside clock/radio/iPhone dock. It was time for a new phone.  In the minutes before I left for the Verizon store that fateful morning I hurriedly glanced at some phone reviews. Palm Pre Plus, Blackberry Pearl, and the Droid all scored well. These were not the iPhones I had dreamt about, but they would do.

    I entered the Verizon store. I looked at the fifty dollar Palm Pre Plus; too cheap. I glanced at the Blackberry Pearl; too ugly. I walked up to the Droid display; my bank account looked at me with sad, reproachful eyes. I was moving on to the ‘Multimedia’ phones when something caught my eye. It was a Droid, but it carried a price tag under a hundred dollars. What was this? The UI was friendly and intuitive, almost like it made (wait for it) Sense. I had my Goldilocks moment…this was just right. (more…)

  • And now for something completely different

    Aaron posts useful hacks, technical expertise, and drops knowledge on a semi-weekly basis? Me? I post YouTube videos.

    Well not normally, but I’m making an exception. A video producer friend of mine has a buddy that makes music using only his mouth, voice, and water glasses.  His song choice wouldn’t be my first option, but he nails it.

    Check out his YouTube channel if you like it.

  • Musing about EGM, journalism, and life in general

    When I was growing up I didn’t give a whole lot of thought to my future career. I either wanted to be a private detective in the style of Frank and Joe Hardy, or a farmer like my biggest hero, my dad. Sometime in the last couple years of high school I suddenly grew an affinity to writing, and almost literally overnight I started writing pages and pages of the most random crap you could imagine.

    Being 16-17, a lot of it was just me trying to make sense of life by emptying out my thoughts onto paper. I created my own fantasy setting, complete with six different races and a complete world map. I tried to describe exactly what true love was (all I figured out were dozens of things that it wasn’t), and theorized on the meaning of life, and more importantly, where I should go with my life. Pretty run of the mill teenage stuff. (more…)