A History Lesson

While cleaning out a closet I found this huge paperback, published in 2003.  It cost $19.99 plus tax and was almost certainly purchased at GameStop.  It is essentially a walkthrough, with all sorts of character and lore information plus maps thrown in.  

How times have changed!  When the Solo MMO Player started playing video games around 2002, the xBox had been out a few months.  Many games had walkthroughs and there were a few blogs about various PC games.  Podcasts and Twitch and Discord were unheard of.  Back then you could buy game discs at Best Buy, Target, GameStop, online, etc.  Over the next 5 years, blogs exploded.  There were plenty of player blogs that had lots and lots of information about the blog writer's favorite game.  Some people collaborated on the larger websites.  Very few people were paid for this--it was a labor of love.  You can still see vestiges of this era in some of the blogs I reference here that haven't vanished or sites like The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page

Gradually I've watched the main game websites be purchased and consolidated.  YouTube videos started to become more common as the verbal generation is replaced by the visual generation, then Twitch arrived with Discord not too far behind.  Games are digital only.  You don't actually buy a game, you buy digital access to it.  Now the people who write for the big websites are paid and often have only a cursory acquaintance with the game instead of being obsessed with it.  There are very few sources of information about a game in many cases.  If you need help, it is hard to find.

So the Solo MMO blog hangs on.  Hopefully some of the links I wrote about years ago aren't dead and you can still find useful information.  

RIP gaming for fun.  Corporate gaming is here to stay.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

WOW Classic: The Elitist Jerks Live Again UPDATED

Probably the most famous WOW guild back in the good old days was The Elitist Jerks.  And they were just that—plus the most amazing theory-crafters you'd ever see.  Many ended up working for Blizzard later.

Their forum website and all the information therein is gone except for traces in the Wayback Machine.  I found an April 2008 listing of blogs members of the EJ created.  (They aren't traditional blogs but appear to be more discussions and short articles in most cases.)  This is as far back as the Wayback Machine goes for this section of the website.  Change the date slider to explore further.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080415041127/http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/all/

Probably most of these are dead links but I'm going to see how many still have information available. Just because….

Ok, how about this—Application of Military Leadership to Raid Leadership.  (The Solo MMO Player is going to laugh himself silly over this one.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20080421233405/http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/malan/101-application_military_leadership_raid_leadership.html

Here's the Small Wars Journal's article referenced above, just in case the link breaks.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080814003544/http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2007/12/fm-30-operations-sams-rewrite/

Again from April 2008, here's the Theorycrafting Think Tank. First link is the intro.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080407040725/http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/boethius/91-finally_birthing_ttt_blogs.html

Here's the meat of the section.  Have fun exploring.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080409231823/http://elitistjerks.com/f47/t21302-theorycrafting_think_tank/

UPDATE:  If you are pining over the loss of the Elitist Jerks, then this site below is for you.  Why do I think that?  Let me quote from the home page:  "Increasing class synergy and the prevalence of proc-based combat modifiers have eroded the accuracy of traditional calculators that rely upon closed-form approximations to model very complex mechanics. The goal of this simulator is to close the accuracy gap while maintaining a performance level high enough to calculate relative stat weights to aid gear selection."

You are welcome.
http://simulationcraft.org

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Rift Websites (not Wikis)

While looking for Rift blogs, I ran across several Rift websites that look interesting.  The first is HorRIFTic Intentions, which has its own Rift podcast, blog, videos, guides, patch notes, links to official Rift sites and wikis,  and articles about the game.  This is worth bookmarking to keep an eye on.  The second link is the HI blog as there doesn't seem to be a link on the main site to the blog.  I'll be exploring the large amount of content here as I have time and will mention the Good Stuff later.
http://horrifticintentions.com/

http://horrifticintentions.wordpress.com/

The second site is Rift Watchers.  This site also has guides and a podcast and a list of Rift blogs as well as interesting news articles (the number of servers at launch compared across MMOs, articles from Rift Junkies folks, the fact that a dungeon finder tool is planned, a discussion on the lost art of grouping, etc.).   I'll be bookmarking both and watching them carefully for nuggets of information that will help the Solo MMO Player and others with Rift.
http://www.riftwatchers.com/

UPDATE:  Inc Gamers has a nice Rift website, with great detailed maps, a soul builder, videos, a dev tracker, guides and a forum.
http://rift.incgamers.com/

UPDATE #2: Looks like RiftCore.com is also one to keep an eye on.
http://www.riftcore.com/

UPDATE #3:  Here's another with at least some theory crafting in some of the builds.
http://www.etherealshadows.com/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Gold Resources for the Patch 4.0.1 Goblin

Things are changing all over with Patch 4.0.1 and that's as true for Auction House followers as everyone else.

The Pot has a list of good gold Blogs.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/10/patch-4-0-1-–-best-of-wow-gold-blogs/

And they have a link to a useful spreadsheet (Excel).
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/10/just-my-two-copper-how-to-spreadsheet-to-profit/

The Bank Alt site has launched.  The first link describes it and the second is the URL.  The thing is new features that were just added.
http://wowalone.blogspot.com/2010/10/bankaltcom-launches.html

http://www.bankalt.com/

http://wowalone.blogspot.com/2010/10/bankaltcom-adds-filtering-paging.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Kirina's Closet (WOW Wear)

Thanks to the role play column on WOW Insider, I've discovered a site dedicated to the clothing you can wear in-game.  It lists clothing that is appropriate to wear when fishing, items that resemble NPC outfits, where to find a kilt (or sarong), and much more.
http://wowrpc.waddellconsulting.com/

You can even find out where to buy shirts with your home city logo on them.
http://wowrpc.waddellconsulting.com/?page_id=671

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

50 Best WOW Blogs

A list of the best blogs out there in the writer's opinion, with links to favorite blog entries.  Add your favorite in the Comments.
http://www.wowfreetrial.info/50-best-updated-world-of-warcraft-blogs/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Game Blog and Podcaster Interviews

The Grinding to Valhalla project interviews game bloggers and podcasters.  If you are curious about the people behind the game content you enjoy on the Internet, this is the place to explore.
http://grindingtovalhalla.wordpress.com/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

New Soloing WOW Blog

Thanks to Larose I've discovered another blog for those who solo WOW.
http://soloingazeroth.blogspot.com/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com