If the holidays taught us anything this season it’s that taking World of Warcraft on the go is downright impossible. Unless you can get your fix at a relative’s house then you’re just out of luck when it comes to mobile WoW gaming. Other games, such as Guild Wars 2, have heard the plea of gamers and will add in tons of mobile app support and features to let you play on the go, but WoW simply has its mobile armory app that, for a fee, let’s you chat with your guildies.

When we think mobile these days we think tablets and Razer’s Project Fiona, if it makes it out of concept, will be the first dedicated prepackaged mobile PC gaming tablet but, and this is a big but,  I have huge reservations about its application for World of Warcraft. Primarily because the analog controls don’t have enough buttons for MMOGs (the primary feature) and attaching a keyboard creates more of a laptop than a mobile gaming platform.

Razer's Project Fiona may be the answer to the mobile gaming question, but we'll have to wait and see how it works for MMOGs.

So, that brings us back to the original question, how do we take our World of Warcraft with us? Well, there are a few options.

Gaming Notebooks

Let’s face it, notebooks / laptops are kings of the PC market currently. They’re outselling desktops by decent margins at a lot of retailers and rightfully so. Why pay the cash for multiple components when you can have them all rolled into one and be able to take it with you wherever you go?  The problem is that most notebooks can’t play games very well due to their integrated graphics cards and low system specs. Getting technical here, notebooks have a very small form factor which makes high heat (high-spec video cards and CPUs) fatal to the other components without proper ventilation and fitting these large components into a small form factor is a huge enough challenge on its own. Not to mention the idea that they should be capable of running on battery power for a time, so efficiency becomes more important than raw power.

That is where gaming notebooks come into play. Simple enough, these are luxury items that have the beefy specs you need for gaming along with the high pricetags. We’re talking $1,500 USD at a start. Thankfully, the prices have been falling over time, and entry level gaming notebooks are showing up for $899 USD. It’s still a huge chunk of cash, of course, but for those who want to game on the go then it’s the first stop you should make.

Of course, the more frugal among us might just try installing WoW on our current notebooks and seeing the result. My old Dell Inspirion, we’re talking an entry level notebook from 2008, was capable of running WoW at 30 FPS with a graphics card update. You weren’t going to go raiding with it, of course, but if you just wanted to talk to friends or casually level then it stood up to the task perfectly.

Technology has also advanced a lot and what was a gaming notebook 3 years ago is now pretty much the de factor standard that other laptops are built from thanks to electronics getting smaller and the market getting more competitive.

If you’re looking to buy a laptop and want to take WoW with you then look for a graphics card that’s capable of HD video (which is usually gets you WoW running at a decent frame rate) and at least 2 gigabytes of ram. You can search “<laptop name> wow” and often see the experiences of others who have tried to play WoW with that specific model.

Windows Tablets

Of course, for some we’re talking about portability here. We’re talking throw it into your bag and head on out into the world and for that, there is a thing known as a “Windows Tablet.” They start at or around $450 and go up from there and usually come with or without a keyboard dock. The tablet then transforms from a regular tablet into a notebook and vice-versa with ease. The neat thing is that these tablets are also capable of running WoW, although not as fluidly as a desktop or notebook designed for gaming.

The neat thing is that you can run WoW and use a wireless keyboard to play anywhere you go which is great for logging in and talking to your friends, checking your auctions, or any other tasks out there. The same rule applies here, find the tablet you’re interested in and search for it and “WoW’ and see other user’s experiences before you purchase.

Looking around YouTube I can see a lot of older Windows based tablets running WoW almost as good as my desktop, so again, this is a great option if you want ultra-portability.

Streaming Desktops

Another option is to have WoW running on your desktop and then have it stream to your phone or tablet while you’re out on the go. A few really good streaming apps are out there now that let you control your computer on the go and just send you your desktop to whatever mobile device that you sign into your computer with. This is a great option to be able to log into WoW from, say, your phone while at work and check up on your friends and auctions.

Blizzard has stated that streaming through VNCs and similiar programs is fine, but make sure to always double check.

Speaking from personal experience, it’s a great option to use around the house while you’re on the local network (since it uses a ton of bandwidth to keep updating the screen for a game like WoW). I often use it when I’m in the kitchen to be able to stay in a conversation while I’m cooking or relist auctions when I’m really into that. On the go it’s a lot less fluid, but still functional, and I’ve been in my car a few times when I needed to log into WoW and contact someone.

With things like this though make sure that the application is legit and has plenty of positive reviews. You wouldn’t want to open access up to your computer to some ner’do’wells and be sure to have a strong password.

Neat Extras

A lot of phone plans will allow you to tether your notebook or tablet to your phone either for free or a small fee. This is a neat way to give your gadgets life when there isn’t any wifi available but can also become costly if you have a limited amount of bandwidth. It’s usually best to find a stable connection to play WoW from and a lot of places offer it: universities and colleges, coffee shops, most fast food restaurants, hotels, etc.  

There is always the Mobile Armory which will let you talk to your guild mates and check/relist your auctions but comes with a monthly fee (for the premium features which you’ll want). So if all you have is your phone then you can still take WoW on the go.

So how do you game on the go? Load up with a high end laptop or would you rather forget Azeroth on your journeys through the world? Let us know in the comments section below.