About
World of Warcraft mechanics explored from first principles, with maths, game theory and economics.
Hogger Fodder explores aspects of World of Warcraft mechanics using maths, game theory, and economics. I am an academic economist, so these are the tools I have available. Topics are chosen purely based on what I find interesting, but maybe someone else finds them interesting too. Since this is just a minor side quest, I won’t stick to any schedule and I don’t think anybody is sitting waiting for more of my rambles. However, please point out mistakes: in the comments under a post (they need a GitHub account), or by email to hoggerfodder@proton.me. Corrections are folded in with credit in the revisions section at the bottom of each post, like acknowledgements in a paper. Logged data is welcome too: some coefficients can only be pinned down from a few thousand swings.
Premise. Let’s explore some aspects from a more fundamental, first-principles perspective. The blog won’t tell you what gear to choose or how to play exactly. The idea is to get a better understanding of how things work, which will hold up against rebalances and nerfs.
AI (Claude) will be used to check the numbers, code the site, and keep things running on github. If that’s not your thing, you have been warned.
Tips. Posts are free. If one was worth something to you, there’s a Ko-fi. Fair warning, it changes nothing about what gets written and yet it might make me write a little faster at the margin.
Name. Hogger is the gnoll in Elwynn Forest who is patiently waiting for players unwilling to group up. Fodder is what he eats. It’s also food for thought.