Theorycrafting, part 1: Spell mechanics

From WoWWiki:

"Theorycraft is the attempt to mathematically analyze game mechanics in order to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of the game."

As it applies to World of Warcraft, theorycrafting usually involves analyzing stats and spell rotations to optimize damage output.  In this article, I'll go over the basics of WoW's spell mechanics in order to lay the foundations for more substantial theorycrafting.

Note: Although I'm starting with the basics, this series of articles will culminate with the creation of a simulation program.  Some knowledge of Java might be helpful, but will not be necessary.

Effectiveness curves

A few years ago, I took a game design course as a non-major-specific elective.  Many different "curves" were discussed throughout the class: difficulty curves, learning curves, effectiveness curves.  Each of these curves is a theoretical function with arbitrary units which is given a whole lot of thought, despite being unmeasurable.  Weighing my compulsion to quantify things against the difficulty of trying to measure the skill levels of a sufficiently large number of players, I've decided not to get too number-y here.

Fun facts: A sense of scale and the accidental Rhode Island conspiracy theory

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is a three-part musical web series written and directed by Joss Whedon during the writer's strike, starring Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion.  If you haven't seen it yet, shame on you.

This morning, I set out to answer some burning questions I had about the scale of our in-game world.  Because that's how I play the game now: I log in, admire the scenery for a while, take a few measurements, maybe give a training dummy a piece of my mind, then admire the scenery again.  And I'm okay with that.  This won't be a technical article at all - more of a list of "fun facts".

Gravity on Azeroth, part 2

Because if there's anything that needs a sequel, it's Gravity... right?  Okay.

When we left off, we (read: I) devised two ways to calculate acceleration due to gravity in World of Warcraft.  The first, more basic approach, assumes constant acceleration and uses the relationship

$$a = {{2h_0}\over{t^2}}$$

The second approach assumes that drag (air resistance) functions realistically in-game, and uses a more complex equation with no neat solution.  To reiterate: we will be measuring (directly) the time it takes to fly to an arbitrary height, the time it takes to fall from that height and (indirectly) the total displacement, and then attempting to calculate the acceleration due to gravity and the magnitude of drag.

Gravity on Azeroth, part 1

You know who's better at guitar than he lets on?  John freaking Mayer.  Let's get started.

Simple math: killing boars

How many boars does it take...?

When leveling from 1-90, some zones seem to fly by while others were apparently designed to push the boundaries of players' patience (I'm looking at you, Arathi Highlands).  While much of this is undoubtedly due to zone design, can some of the leveling-time disparity be attributed to experience formulae?  Let's find out!