Let's get this right out there: I love Alterac Valley.
I loved the old AV when it was full of NPCs and it took literally days to complete a battle, I liked the middle version with the NPCs nerfed and long-capping towers, and I like the current version with its race to the finish. We could get all nostalgic and argue about which version is best, but there's a place for all of them in my heart.
In the current version of AV, which has been stripped down and mostly been reduced to a race to each others' general - don't forget to wave at the enemy as they ride by - there are still some things a person can do to bring back the PvP in an otherwise PvE battleground.
And before we discuss it we should probably mention that the L80 version of this battleground is drastically different than the 50-60, 61-70, and 71-19 brackets. In the 80 bracket you can have the best-geared tanks in the game riding down to pull the general for you, and these are the icecrown raiders who aren't afraid of nothin'. With proper heals they can pull the entire room with all the generals' buddies and tank them all at once. It's crazy. Multiple times I've seen the Horde (and the Alliance only once in my battlegroup) ride straight through from one end of the valley to the other, ignore the towers and graveyards along the way, and pull the general's room immediately. Five minute finish, 600 honor. Not bad.
Most of the time though the group just can't do it. If the pull messes up then you have dead tanks and healers, and they need to ride all the way back because you skipped graveyards. If the DPS pulls too much threat and gets themselves killed then you can end up fighting the boss forever and eventually the other team will show up and make you wipe (die to the boss). Sometimes it doesn't take anything more than a rogue or druid to sneak in and throw some crowd control on the tank in order for the whole pull to fall apart and people to start dying. The "blitz" works best with a good tank, and a decent sense of surprise.
Aside from that, the typical strategy is to cap the towers and bunkers and graveyards, and when all of the towers and bunkers are destroyed (each building destroyed gives you one less NPC to fight with the general) you pull the general and kill him quick. Each NPC still alive when you fight the general adds to his strength, but at L80 it's still pretty easy to take one or two of the NPCs with him and still burn him down.
If the battleground has lasted six minutes your enemy is probably not blitzing, and is eliminating adds (and getting extra honor) before they take out the general. If you see them taking every tower and graveyard along the way, you know they aren't blitzing or they wouldn't bother. In this case, where they are waiting for bunkers and towers to be captured, there is the opportunity for espionage.
Enter the rogue.
If both teams are waiting for the towers to go down before they pull the general, then usually the team that caps first is going to win. It is my supreme joy in AV these days to mess up that schedule by sneaking into our captured towers and recapping them before the timer expires. You have four minutes from start to finish, and no matter where you are on the field - which is huge - it is still enough time for you to ride to a tower and turn the flag in your favor, at least if no one kills you before you can complete your attempt.
My secret weapon is the AV trinket. Starting at level 51 you have the ability to complete a quest for your AV faction to go into a cave in AV and retrieve a piece of a banner. It's guarded by a bunch of higher-level mobs, but it's not too difficult to pound or sneak your way in there, get the banner, and return it to your questgiver in the Alterac Mountains. In return you get a trinket that will allow you to teleport from anywhere on the field to the entryway to your general's building.
For most classes this is a suicide mission. Once you show up the enemy is usually waiting there (for the tower timers to expire) and seeing you show up is like throwing meat on a kennel floor. *chomp* But for rogues and druids, if we click our stealth buttons just at our teleport is finishing, we will immediately go stealthed when we arrive, and we can scoot out of there before anyone detects us.
Then it's the difficult science of sneaking into a tower, identifying the people guarding it and figuring out how much or how little they are paying attention, and using the right timing or crowd control to create eight seconds during which you are not attacked and can recap the flag.
It's a science. Hunters and DKs with pets on auto-attack can be a nuisance. Sometimes you end up CC-ing the pet and not the character who is oblivious. Sometimes you need to use two forms of CC to keep them busy. Sometimes you need to use one form, wait for them to trinket out of it, and use another. But the very best tower recaps, the ones that taste like grade AAA prime rib au jus are when there are three or more people in a tower guarding that flag and you still recap it. My personal record is six. I stood right on top of a tauren right in the middle of a pack of people guarding it, and vanished without being attacked. It was savory.
See there's safety in numbers but there's also complacency. Everyone thinks they're helping the effort, but not primarily responsible. When I go to recap, that flag is mine. It's my responsibility. When they defend it's just something they're helping to get done. If they took as much responsibility for their job and paid it as much attention as I do, they'd never allow a recap. Some players are tough and really expect a recap and they're pretty hard to deceive, but most are pushovers. Some you need to trick.
When a tower or bunker caps anywhere in the valley, there is a red swirl around the flag that looks exactly like someone is trying to recap it. If you time your recap correctly you can make it overlap with you actually capping the flag and it buys a couple extra seconds before the defense reacts. And oh God are they pissed if you dupe them and they know it.
By the way, the Horde word for rogue is "THROM!" Shout it louder, Hordies. I drink in your confused tears.
AV battles played: 409
AV towers defended: 324*
*That's the number I got from the armory and I'm almost certain my actual total is higher. My record for recaps in one battle is 9, although some of them were recaps of the same tower. I don't try to kill the person capping, I just recap it so they have to cap it all over again and restart the timer. All I'm trying to do is buy us enough time to win.
**The armory site is wrong, as usual. In-game statistics say 213 AV battles, 330 towers defended.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
We Built This City
In honor of the Trolls settling in Echo Isles and the Gnomes retaking Gnomeregan -
WE built this city
Say you don't pity, or care about my race
Say you don't care that my old home is a disgrace
Knee deep in the murlocs, running for my life
Too much radiation lighting up the night
Tired of Orgrimmar drums,
Too quiet in Ironforge
Don't you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on Troggs and Trolls!
We built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Sure you're having fun now, raiding in Icecrown
Who cares about winning wars abroad when you've lost your town
We just want our homes back, someone stole our land
We're gonna take it back by force, war is being planned!
Tired of Orgrimmar drums,
Too quiet in Ironforge
Don't you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on Troggs and Trolls!
We built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
It's just another Tuesday, in the Echo Isles
Zalazane's got another thing coming, we'll wipe away that smile
Who runs all the gearworks, who's put in the elbow grease?
We hold up the pillars of Ironforge and subsidize the lease
Don't tell us you need us, 'cause we're headed for Gnomeregan
Unpack the radiation kits - this time the war is on!
Don't you remember ...
Tired of Orgrimmar drums,
Too quiet in Ironforge
Don't you remember?
We built this city
We built this city on Troggs and Trolls!
We built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
Built this city, we built this city on Troggs and Trolls
We built, we built this city yeah
We built this city
We built, we built this city
Monday, February 22, 2010
Everyone is a Critic
Anytime you open your mouth, you're subject to the opinions of others. In WoW this is taken to the extreme. In fact, because of the young, anonymous nature of the playerbase pretty much every aspect of behavior is taken to the extreme.
People are extremely condescending to each other whenever they get the chance if they don't have any prior history with the other person. They insult names, gear, habits, pets, guilds, arena ratings, talent spec - pretty much everything. When they run out of things game-related to insult they turn to the chat channels and use everything allowed (and many things disallowed) to describe their fellow players personally.
It's interesting to watch in the same way that seeing a knee surgery is interesting. Oh look, under that person's skin is... wow, who would have known they were hiding that? Given the right subject and the wrong words, even the mildest-mannered people turn into frothing e-thugs who get all tough and rowdy and talk about violating each others' dead grandmothers.
I've got to wonder where it came from. There is the preconception this is just the way things are (the saying "welcome to the internet" comes to mind), but I remember a very short time in 2004-2005 when it wasn't always this way. Back in the beginning there were consequences for being a jerk. Not only were the chat channels moderated far more than they are now, but guilds themselves would exclude people who were public nuisances. And generally the people who couldn't keep their chat clean were problems in other areas too, and it was good for the guild to blacklist them.
Things have changed. Another 6-8 million people have joined the game since then, and they are younger on average than the previous generation of players, and are more insecure. They react with harsh words towards anyone who they think might be questioning them, and they quickly turn every disagreement into a circus of monkeys flinging crap. Sometimes they just like to see it fly, and start out tossing the first load to see how much hits the fan. It's as much an e-sport to them as the game itself is, and they strive to 'build cred' by being a reliable foil.
Well, it isn't impressive or amusing. It's dumb. Not that they care what people think, there's not anything a person could say to make someone change their behavior, because the antisocial feed on discontent. The only thing that could possibly affect them is being banned from the game, because it would rob them of participation. So really, the only recourse for anyone who dislikes this growing sport is to leave the discussion.
Most people who don't care for the chat /leave the global channels altogether. It affects them somewhat because they are left out of some economic or grouping opportunities - legitimate traffic interspersed within the insults - but for the most part they end up playing a separate game within the larger game with a separate group apart from the larger group. The insults continue, the groups break into smaller pieces, and eventually the fun dwindles for the smallest groups and people leave the game.
And that leaves WoW as a game on the decline, because Blizzard decided not to moderate their own global chat. It's their choice, but if they truly valued the quality of their content they would realize that the chat is a large piece of that content, and moderate it to some degree. Maybe they see that their product is on the decline and view that effort as tossing money into a losing proposition, in favor of creating new titles for people to migrate to.
Dunno, but it has been interesting to watch as a social dynamic. Anyway, it's on the internet so no one is free from insult, even if you just write a tiny blog for your friends somewhere.
People are extremely condescending to each other whenever they get the chance if they don't have any prior history with the other person. They insult names, gear, habits, pets, guilds, arena ratings, talent spec - pretty much everything. When they run out of things game-related to insult they turn to the chat channels and use everything allowed (and many things disallowed) to describe their fellow players personally.
It's interesting to watch in the same way that seeing a knee surgery is interesting. Oh look, under that person's skin is... wow, who would have known they were hiding that? Given the right subject and the wrong words, even the mildest-mannered people turn into frothing e-thugs who get all tough and rowdy and talk about violating each others' dead grandmothers.
I've got to wonder where it came from. There is the preconception this is just the way things are (the saying "welcome to the internet" comes to mind), but I remember a very short time in 2004-2005 when it wasn't always this way. Back in the beginning there were consequences for being a jerk. Not only were the chat channels moderated far more than they are now, but guilds themselves would exclude people who were public nuisances. And generally the people who couldn't keep their chat clean were problems in other areas too, and it was good for the guild to blacklist them.
Things have changed. Another 6-8 million people have joined the game since then, and they are younger on average than the previous generation of players, and are more insecure. They react with harsh words towards anyone who they think might be questioning them, and they quickly turn every disagreement into a circus of monkeys flinging crap. Sometimes they just like to see it fly, and start out tossing the first load to see how much hits the fan. It's as much an e-sport to them as the game itself is, and they strive to 'build cred' by being a reliable foil.
Well, it isn't impressive or amusing. It's dumb. Not that they care what people think, there's not anything a person could say to make someone change their behavior, because the antisocial feed on discontent. The only thing that could possibly affect them is being banned from the game, because it would rob them of participation. So really, the only recourse for anyone who dislikes this growing sport is to leave the discussion.
Most people who don't care for the chat /leave the global channels altogether. It affects them somewhat because they are left out of some economic or grouping opportunities - legitimate traffic interspersed within the insults - but for the most part they end up playing a separate game within the larger game with a separate group apart from the larger group. The insults continue, the groups break into smaller pieces, and eventually the fun dwindles for the smallest groups and people leave the game.
And that leaves WoW as a game on the decline, because Blizzard decided not to moderate their own global chat. It's their choice, but if they truly valued the quality of their content they would realize that the chat is a large piece of that content, and moderate it to some degree. Maybe they see that their product is on the decline and view that effort as tossing money into a losing proposition, in favor of creating new titles for people to migrate to.
Dunno, but it has been interesting to watch as a social dynamic. Anyway, it's on the internet so no one is free from insult, even if you just write a tiny blog for your friends somewhere.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Festival of Fail
So most of us casual battleground players are just there to fight hard against the other faction to try and win, and we don't say anything. Well, sometimes we'll through out something like "need help at Icewing bunker" or "there's 2 rogues stealthed at Stonehearth" but aside from that we keep our mouths shut and just enjoy the game.
There are two vocal factions that squeeze us every match, and make our lives miserable.
The first group is the "I don't go afk in the cave because I'll get booted out of the battleground, but otherwise I'm doing the next best thing and I'm totally worthless all match." These people are usually easy kills, often run off and attack the wolves and rams on the side of the field, and take up space that people could fill who really wanted to win and would try hard. These folks are famous for saying "just let them win," because they want the match to end quickly so they can go sit in another one and farm more honor. They aren't playing because they enjoy it, they just want to use the honor to buy gear.
The second group is the "I despise all of you because I am an excellent PvPer and I am convinced that the only reason I ever lose a game is because you drag me down." These people spend the entire match bitching at everyone else, insulting them, yelling strategies and belittling people, and generally making everyone's lives as miserable as possible.
Finally I was in a group and I was sick and tired of being called an idiot - I'm probably in the top 1% of all players in terms of AV matches played, I'm exalted on eight characters in AV. There was one player who started out doing this - you've probably seen it before:
Well, I'd been hearing this insulting garbage for a few games now and I was fed up. So I followed him all the way to the entrance of Drek's bunker, casted Tricks of the Trade on him (transfers threat to another raid member) and ran in and attacked Drek and his crew. They promptly ran out of the bunker and beat the snot out of this jerk. The following is the result of my efforts.
I thought it was highly amusing. There's nothing like getting clear revenge on someone who's being an unsolicited, obnoxious jerk. And the best revenge of all was that after this person cleared out and stopped playing AV for a while, the victories started rolling in.
There are two vocal factions that squeeze us every match, and make our lives miserable.
The first group is the "I don't go afk in the cave because I'll get booted out of the battleground, but otherwise I'm doing the next best thing and I'm totally worthless all match." These people are usually easy kills, often run off and attack the wolves and rams on the side of the field, and take up space that people could fill who really wanted to win and would try hard. These folks are famous for saying "just let them win," because they want the match to end quickly so they can go sit in another one and farm more honor. They aren't playing because they enjoy it, they just want to use the honor to buy gear.
The second group is the "I despise all of you because I am an excellent PvPer and I am convinced that the only reason I ever lose a game is because you drag me down." These people spend the entire match bitching at everyone else, insulting them, yelling strategies and belittling people, and generally making everyone's lives as miserable as possible.
Finally I was in a group and I was sick and tired of being called an idiot - I'm probably in the top 1% of all players in terms of AV matches played, I'm exalted on eight characters in AV. There was one player who started out doing this - you've probably seen it before:
So-and-so has marked you afk. Please type /AFK to clear this out or you will be removed from the match.This is really mean. What it's designed to do is to trick newer players who don't know any better into typing '/afk', which removes them from the match and gives them a 15 minute debuff. It works, but it's pretty mean to players of the same faction. Well, this guy caught a couple of people and he thought it was hilarious, so he did it a couple more times. I said I thought it wasn't cool, and immediately got bombarded with insults. Ugh, whatever. Then they insisted that we should zerg because it was the only way to beat the Horde, and started insulting everyone for not rushing to General Drek fast enough.
Well, I'd been hearing this insulting garbage for a few games now and I was fed up. So I followed him all the way to the entrance of Drek's bunker, casted Tricks of the Trade on him (transfers threat to another raid member) and ran in and attacked Drek and his crew. They promptly ran out of the bunker and beat the snot out of this jerk. The following is the result of my efforts.
I thought it was highly amusing. There's nothing like getting clear revenge on someone who's being an unsolicited, obnoxious jerk. And the best revenge of all was that after this person cleared out and stopped playing AV for a while, the victories started rolling in.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Ramblings
With apologies to the Beatles, today's forum nonsense
Ahh, look at all the lonely hardcores
Ahh, look at all the lonely hardcores{Elanor Rigby}
{Elanor Rigby} Raids every Thursday at nine but nobody shows
Their man tank blows
They wait until midnight, one by one everyone logs back on just to see
A guildmate leave
All the failing hardcores
Where do they all come from
All the failing hardcores
How did they last this long
[Warlord] Mckenzie
Looking for people to queue for Arathi Basin
No one chimes in
Look at him spamming. Sitting alone by the wall as he waits for his queue
Nothing to do
All the lonely hardcores
Where do they all come from
All the lonely hardcores
How did they last this longdisbanded the guild and the bank was sent to the GM
He moved to Drenden
[Warlord] Mckenzie rerolled a blood elf death knight and RP's on Moon Guard
This game isn't hard
All the lonely hardcores
When they've had their fill
Find something else to do
As happy casuals
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Baseball
I'm a pretty big Brewers fan also, and as part of our winter-long preseason pep rally I photo'd a nice image based on a thread discussion, carboned here for posterity.
Only 10 days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training!
Only 10 days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training!
We Didn't Start the Crying
Yesterday the typical server maintenance extended past the expected 2pm deadline, and people came out of the woodwork to flood the forums with their QQ. It never ceases to amaze me what people think they are entitled to when the servers get a hiccup, and how much customer service they think they deserve for their $15 every month.
To honor their incessant crying I reposted an old song rewrite of mine. It's filled with all the things that people have whined about for one reason or another since 2004, and intended to be sung to this Billy Joel song.
To honor their incessant crying I reposted an old song rewrite of mine. It's filled with all the things that people have whined about for one reason or another since 2004, and intended to be sung to this Billy Joel song.
Rested state, hearthstones, auction houses, leper gnomes
Uldaman, Gnomeregan, dishonorable kills
Zeppelins/boats, hunter class, level 60 xp cap
Swivel cam, deeprun tram, swirly ball, tradeskills
Winter Veil, Maraudon, fishing in Stranglethorn
Eye of Shadow, Launcher App, Arathi Basin
Shadowflame, Zul'Gurub, global chat, L2P n00b
Dungeon timers, world dragons, Kazzak kited to Stormwind
We didn't start the crying
The QQ hasn't ceased
Since warcraft's been released
We didn't start the crying
You say it breaks the game
But play it just the same
Naxxaramus, shard bags, weather effects, server lag
Class talent revamps, Love is in the air
Shamans overpowered, linked auction houses
Tier 0.5, AQ hive, main tank is a bear
Arena teams, voice chat, rogues stabbing in the back
Plagueland towers, camped for hours, Silithyst is sand
Quel'Thalas, Azuremyst, Tseric logs out really pissed
Brewfest, Hallow's End, through the portal to Outland
We didn't start the crying
The QQ hasn't ceased
Since warcraft's been released
We didn't start the crying
You say it breaks the game
But play it just the same
Trade your epic gear for greens, blood elves dominate the scene
Karazhan, Zul'Aman, warriors rage
Warlock nerfs, server locusts, Coilfang, set focus
Arcane shot, druid HoTs, kite Tin Man cross the stage
+Healing/Spell, Halaa, retcons, Akama
MP5, Maghar alive, max debuff stack
Welfare gear, arena's quear, Metzen the Reindeer
AV NPC's axed, TK merely a setback
We didn't start the crying
The QQ hasn't ceased
Since warcraft's been released
We didn't start the crying
You say it breaks the game
But play it just the same
Gemcuitting, Inscription, engineering's just for fun
Heroic dungeons, badge gear, you are not prepared
Dalaran and back again, no class trainers in Northrend
Tier looks dreary, Martin Fury, nobles deck to darkmoon faire
Gear score, get on vent, grind rep with argent tournament
Midair combat, Patchwerk in three minutes flat
South Park, Ulduar, Garrosh and the Chin
Might as well pack it in, all your gear's replaced in Cat again
We didn't start the crying
The QQ hasn't ceased
Since warcraft's been released
We didn't start the crying
You say it breaks the game
But you still log on, and on, and on, and on...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Alts in the Bullpen
You know you're dragging your feet leveling when you'd rather think about the next character you're going to play before you even get the current one to 80. I spoke with Azu in game yesterday and she's been leveling an alt with her s.o. and some friends and has taken a break from the druid, she stopped at 70. I thought about possibly taking a break and letting my rogue earn some rested state* for a while.
*(For you non-WarCraft players, 'rested state' is earned by logging out and not adventuring. When your character is rested they get twice as much experience for killing monsters as normal. If you log out in a city or at an inn, you earn rested state much faster than if you log out in the wild. You can earn up to a level and a half of rested state before it caps out - accumulating that much takes around 7-10 days.)
I would probably be doing more random alts than I am right now, but I'm trying to hold back a little bit because I want to have the energy and enthusiasm for the next expansion. In Cataclysm (due sometime this summer) we'll get two new playable races, the Worgen and the Goblins. The Worgen (who will join the Alliance) are awesome-looking furry werewolf people, and the Goblins (joining the Horde) are short, nasty-looking green things.
I was definitely set on rolling a Worgen because they're cool and I'm really enjoying the Alliance community right now, but I think everyone and their sister is going to roll a Worgen asap and the starting zones are going to be flooded with new wolf pups. But there are going to be new classes available for the old races in Cataclysm too, so there are lots of unique combinations that were never available before. Still more people will be taking their current 80s to level 85 and exploring the new content and clearing raids and stuff because they don't want to play 'catch up' with the raid content.
Anyway, given all of the current and future combinations, here's my list of things that I want to roll, either immediately or in the future.
*(For you non-WarCraft players, 'rested state' is earned by logging out and not adventuring. When your character is rested they get twice as much experience for killing monsters as normal. If you log out in a city or at an inn, you earn rested state much faster than if you log out in the wild. You can earn up to a level and a half of rested state before it caps out - accumulating that much takes around 7-10 days.)
I would probably be doing more random alts than I am right now, but I'm trying to hold back a little bit because I want to have the energy and enthusiasm for the next expansion. In Cataclysm (due sometime this summer) we'll get two new playable races, the Worgen and the Goblins. The Worgen (who will join the Alliance) are awesome-looking furry werewolf people, and the Goblins (joining the Horde) are short, nasty-looking green things.
I was definitely set on rolling a Worgen because they're cool and I'm really enjoying the Alliance community right now, but I think everyone and their sister is going to roll a Worgen asap and the starting zones are going to be flooded with new wolf pups. But there are going to be new classes available for the old races in Cataclysm too, so there are lots of unique combinations that were never available before. Still more people will be taking their current 80s to level 85 and exploring the new content and clearing raids and stuff because they don't want to play 'catch up' with the raid content.
Anyway, given all of the current and future combinations, here's my list of things that I want to roll, either immediately or in the future.
- Tauren Shadow Priest. First of all, there's nothing better than being called a 'holy cow.' It should make finding groups a little easier than being DPS, and with dual spec I can level shadow and switch to holy for healing in groups. And can you imagine this giant shadow cow lumbering at you in a battleground? That image alone is priceless. I haven't played a priest for a long time, and there's a good reason why - they suck solo. Really bad. Yes it's possible to get into a groove and being able to heal is helpful, but those are people apologizing for how bad it is - every other class is faster.
- Tauren Paladin. This is where the paralysis sets in. Taurens get to be priests, but they also get to be the new Paladin race for the Horde. I would probably be playing a Horde Paladin already, but I cannot stand the Blood Elf race. I hate their laugh, their model, their animations, everything about them says "I'm a spoiled, greedy, whiny, underdeveloped energy addict" and I find it repulsive. I wanted to be a Horde Paladin bad enough that I actually got a Blood Elf to L68. I've tried to log in and play him again, but it takes about 30 seconds to remember why I abandoned him and I log out again. But Tauren - an awesome race, for an awesome class.
- Worgen - anything. The key here is finding a good name for a Worgen to go with the classes available (Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior). I'm a big believer in having a fun name for my character. If it's stupid or bland, I just can't ever get enthusiastic about the character and it gets abandoned. So for example if I could get the name Dogshift for a Worgen Druid, it would be awesome. Joanofbark for a Warrior. A mage named Sheep would be a double entendre; being a wolf in sheep's clothing, and being a mage that sheeps (polymorphs) enemies. Wolferine for a Rogue, Howloterrier for a Warlock, etc.
- Goblin Warrior. Back in vanilla the Goblin Bruisers were famous for being the #1 cause of all player deaths because of the world PvP that would break out in towns like Gadgetzan. If the name were available - highly unlikely - it would be fun as hell to be a Goblin Warrior named Bruiser.
- Gnome Priest. As above - only if the name Pockethealer were available.
- Hunter, any race. Haven't played this class in a while.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Northrend Blues
I can't wait for Cataclysm. My favorite part of every expansion is the xp nerfs to the previous content for leveling. Now, I'm a person who really likes the little things in the game. I read the dialogues from each NPC, and I wonder if someday the meat vendor in Crossroads will end up marrying the Innkeeper in Orgrimmar, but there's only so many times I can read and experience the same thing and still enjoy it.
First trip: Horde Druid.
When Wrath came out I jumped straight into Northrend. Because a guild of us were all trying to zoom through content and start raiding right away I skipped past most of this stuff and ground out quests and mobs as fast as I could so I could hit 80 in a week. I lost sleep, I missed lore - somehow I totally missed the wrathgate event, if you can believe it - and because I started raiding right away I didn't fully explore all the zones.
Second trip: Horde Shaman.
At some point I got tired of people talking about shamans and having never played one, so I did more of the quests and got to see the wrathgate, and learned about the different factions in Northrend and how the whole storyline worked. I took my shaman to 80, and then I stopped before I got to Icecrown because I got talked into playing Alliance.
Third trip: Alliance Shaman.
The quests for Alliance are different than the Horde of course, and in my opinion you get a much better storyline on the Alliance side. The plot is richer, the characters are more vibrant, and true to Alliance form, they send you on more errands so you get to know the lay of the land better than on Horde side. I liked this trip a lot, but after leveling two shamans back-to-back I got burned out and had to do something else.
Fourth trip: Horde Warlock.
After a long break during which I farmed on my horde druid and leveled up an Alliance Paladin almost to 80, I went back to Horde and did the trip again with a Warlock. By now I was sick of Northrend, but thanks to new changes in the game I was able to level almost exclusively in battlegrounds and only saw the northrend starting zones.
Fifth trip: Alliance Rogue.
Let's be frank - if I didn't have a compulsion to complete this rogue just so I could run around and spam Fan of Knives, I'd never finish leveling him. They nerfed the xp gains from battlegrounds, so the best way to level is in groups and questing... and I'm sooo tired of questing in northrend. I just want it to end. It's boring, time consuming, and doesn't feel at all like I'm playing for fun, which is a terrible way to feel about a game. But when I finally crank out the last five levels, I'll be done and I'll have earned my 80.
And then maybe I'll start leveling a hunter...
First trip: Horde Druid.
When Wrath came out I jumped straight into Northrend. Because a guild of us were all trying to zoom through content and start raiding right away I skipped past most of this stuff and ground out quests and mobs as fast as I could so I could hit 80 in a week. I lost sleep, I missed lore - somehow I totally missed the wrathgate event, if you can believe it - and because I started raiding right away I didn't fully explore all the zones.
Second trip: Horde Shaman.
At some point I got tired of people talking about shamans and having never played one, so I did more of the quests and got to see the wrathgate, and learned about the different factions in Northrend and how the whole storyline worked. I took my shaman to 80, and then I stopped before I got to Icecrown because I got talked into playing Alliance.
Third trip: Alliance Shaman.
The quests for Alliance are different than the Horde of course, and in my opinion you get a much better storyline on the Alliance side. The plot is richer, the characters are more vibrant, and true to Alliance form, they send you on more errands so you get to know the lay of the land better than on Horde side. I liked this trip a lot, but after leveling two shamans back-to-back I got burned out and had to do something else.
Fourth trip: Horde Warlock.
After a long break during which I farmed on my horde druid and leveled up an Alliance Paladin almost to 80, I went back to Horde and did the trip again with a Warlock. By now I was sick of Northrend, but thanks to new changes in the game I was able to level almost exclusively in battlegrounds and only saw the northrend starting zones.
Fifth trip: Alliance Rogue.
Let's be frank - if I didn't have a compulsion to complete this rogue just so I could run around and spam Fan of Knives, I'd never finish leveling him. They nerfed the xp gains from battlegrounds, so the best way to level is in groups and questing... and I'm sooo tired of questing in northrend. I just want it to end. It's boring, time consuming, and doesn't feel at all like I'm playing for fun, which is a terrible way to feel about a game. But when I finally crank out the last five levels, I'll be done and I'll have earned my 80.
And then maybe I'll start leveling a hunter...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Never Let Them Win
The right message, but too many words for the crack babies to read all of. Nevertheless, as I recently posted on the forums:
In before 'cool story bro' and 'let them win' and TL;DR.
I'm famous for slamming death knights and blood elves, and I like getting under peoples' skin when they take themselves too seriously, but when it comes down to it, I can respect anyone who plays this game for the fun of it. It's a really great game, the best MMO we've ever seen, and they deserve every penny we give them.
But I have to question why people are playing sometimes. We all know that there is a gear treadmill, and everyone needs to take a few steps on that treadmill or they fall behind the gear curve. But that's just a condition of the world, and we do what we can to try and improve ourselves as new content is released.
But do you really play for gear? Do you choose what you participate in only for gear?
If you hate what you're doing then the rewards will never be enough, trust me. I've been at peak progression in PvE in both BC and Wrath, and accumulated about a quarter million kills in PvP. All of these things have rewarded me gear, but it isn't why I did them. I did it because it was fun.
When I raided Kara twice a week for a year it wasn't because I was missing some gear, I was going back and enjoying the encounters with friends, their alts, their friends, and their friends' alts. It was a pleasant experience.
When I started PvPing back in the play-all-day-or-die old ranking system, I didn't do it because of gear. I topped out at the blue set on several characters and got to meet lots of people I otherwise wouldn't have interacted with. I even got to know the players on the other faction and we built friendly rivalries.
What I didn't see was begging. I didn't see quitters. I didn't see people asking 'what's in it for me?'
We knew that we were doing things in the long run for our own personal gain, that's a given. Things will work out if you do your part. In pvp healers got shafted for a long time on honor gains because of the way kills were calculated but it didn't keep them from participating.
Did you catch that?
The healers participated even though they were hugely shafted on honor gains, and back then they had some pretty low survivability. We were gibbed all over the field, we were harvested like wheat by rogues and easy kills for many classes. But when we saved lives and turned the tide of battle, we got a reward that wasn't measured. We felt pride.
It would be nice if anyone had any pride anymore, or if anyone had any shame.
Let's be clear - there's no shame in losing. PvP is like any other competition, if you fight hard and you lose, you have to tip your hat to the winner, they earned it. It doesn't mean someone automatically "sucks." You can't claim to be any good unless you play good competition, and if your opponent is just as good as you then they're going to win sometimes. Accept it. It's good for your healthy sense of competition to lose once in a while, but you should never learn to like it or let it happen to you, that's just poor sportsmanship, and this brings me to the point of my post:
Never say "let them win."
It's probably the most insulting thing you can say - to yourself. It means that you don't know how to compete, it means that you're doing something you don't like for rewards you may not get, and it means you have a poor sense of sportsmanship.
If your situation is so bad that you have to find a way to ease your own pain by appealing to your fellow combatants to let the other team win so the match ends, you shouldn't be playing. You need to log out, evaluate why you think this game is fun for you, and don't log back in until you really know what you want.
We all know that the game (and the forums) are playing a small part in filling the gaps that therapy and parenthood don't cover, so here's one old man laying it out for you:
Go play something else, and come back when you're ready.
In before 'cool story bro' and 'let them win' and TL;DR.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Past and Future Myth
People have been speculating since Warcraft dethroned EverQuest as the top MMO how long their reign would last, and what would replace it. I've made a post on it before too, and wondered what form it would take when it arrived.
My assumption is based on a business model I am familiar with - casinos. It's standard in the industry to accept that from the moment you begin to promote your property that you have seven years to plan the reinvention of that property. It must be rebuilt or rebranded every seven years in order to remain a competitive destination.
I see MMOs in the same way. First of all you need to make sure that they are entertained when they arrive. The things that you promise must be delivered, and done with a variety that keeps them coming back for more. Now assuming that they are still coming back for more, you also have a time limit of seven years to reinvent the product or you will lose the customers even though they are satisfied. This is a difficult concept for people to understand sometimes - customer satisfaction does not always equate to return business. People like to try new things even though they're happy with what they have, and if they suddenly discover something else they are happy with that is newer, they'll go there instead.
So you've got seven years, because the competition is coming. The next batch of games won't be Conan and Warhammer, because they've learned from the industry's mistakes. They will provide content, a good UI, balanced PvP, class balance, good character development, and a world with rich lore that is fun to explore. Some will provide extra features that Warcraft doesn't, like player-generated content or console support. Some will have brand tie-ins that Warcraft can't match.
The only thing left that I couldn't decide was what genre the next MMOs would choose. I would argue that Warcraft hit a high when it did because it came fresh off the release of the Lord of the Rings movies. The whole genre was mainstream, and WoW was in the right place at the right time with an exceptional product, and took all of MMOs with it to the mainstream. This wasn't EQ-type exposure with ads cut out from the back of comic books, Warcraft time cards are on the shelf at Walmart. There is nothing more mainstream than Walmart.
The buzz right now for titles lining up to try and take away market share include the two largest sci-fi properties out there - Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Trek just reinvented their entire franchise with an excellent movie about the origins of the original Trek crew (Kirk, Spock, etc.) and have a legion of Trek-loyal fans who could crossover, and Star Wars has a phenomenal bullshot under their belt that has everyone drooling for some player-vs.-player lightsaber action.
On the one hand, I'm happy to see that people aren't trying to beat WoW at their own game and instead are offering games in a different genre. On the other hand I'm a little disappointed that they only went as far as picking the easiest competing genre - space. The swords and sorcery model and the space ranger model are very similar, one involving face to face combat and magic against mythical creatures, the other involving ship to ship combat and future technology against mythical aliens.
There are other things people could use as a setting for adventure. Ninjas. Pirates. Sports. Spies. Musketeers. Personally, I think it's a crime that someone hasn't linked into the Harry Potter brand and made an MMO based on that universe. But in the end the top frontrunners chose space as their genre and I think I know why. It isn't a limit on their imagination, but a limit on ours. No one wants to play an MMO alone. There are a lot of people who only want to play the top MMO, regardless of gameplay, because it's starting to ask for so many hours of gameplay that it's substituting for a big chunk of their social life.
People are fine with that, as long as they're jumping into a deep pool. When WoW hit the point that more people play it than live in Finland, it was suddenly ok to spend six hours a day there, talking to people while you play a game. Log out? Why? All my friends are already there.
So now let's say you have two great-looking games on the shelf, and you're tired of playing WoW (not really tired, but you're in the mood to see if there's something new you would also like). In our example, let's say one game is Herman Wouk's World at War, a fascinating, historical tale of war and espionage in 1940's war-torn Europe, and the other game is Galaxy Raiders, a tale of aliens and starships and glactic exploration and adventure.
Gee, I wonder which one I could get my friends to play.
I'd probably enjoy them both, but one of them is something that even my most over-beered friends can understand. They may not want to run a quest to find a safe house on the Polish border to pass intelligence through beneath the notice of the invading German army, but they could probably get excited about unleashing some thermal torpedoes on those tentacled Q'irxxi starships and maybe pick up some green-skinned chicks at the Comet's Tail cafe. It might be a case of bad currency pushing good currency out of circulation, but as long as the AI can't pass a turing test we want to play the game that everyone else is playing, and we'll sacrifice some things to do it.
My assumption is based on a business model I am familiar with - casinos. It's standard in the industry to accept that from the moment you begin to promote your property that you have seven years to plan the reinvention of that property. It must be rebuilt or rebranded every seven years in order to remain a competitive destination.
I see MMOs in the same way. First of all you need to make sure that they are entertained when they arrive. The things that you promise must be delivered, and done with a variety that keeps them coming back for more. Now assuming that they are still coming back for more, you also have a time limit of seven years to reinvent the product or you will lose the customers even though they are satisfied. This is a difficult concept for people to understand sometimes - customer satisfaction does not always equate to return business. People like to try new things even though they're happy with what they have, and if they suddenly discover something else they are happy with that is newer, they'll go there instead.
So you've got seven years, because the competition is coming. The next batch of games won't be Conan and Warhammer, because they've learned from the industry's mistakes. They will provide content, a good UI, balanced PvP, class balance, good character development, and a world with rich lore that is fun to explore. Some will provide extra features that Warcraft doesn't, like player-generated content or console support. Some will have brand tie-ins that Warcraft can't match.
The only thing left that I couldn't decide was what genre the next MMOs would choose. I would argue that Warcraft hit a high when it did because it came fresh off the release of the Lord of the Rings movies. The whole genre was mainstream, and WoW was in the right place at the right time with an exceptional product, and took all of MMOs with it to the mainstream. This wasn't EQ-type exposure with ads cut out from the back of comic books, Warcraft time cards are on the shelf at Walmart. There is nothing more mainstream than Walmart.The buzz right now for titles lining up to try and take away market share include the two largest sci-fi properties out there - Star Wars and Star Trek. Star Trek just reinvented their entire franchise with an excellent movie about the origins of the original Trek crew (Kirk, Spock, etc.) and have a legion of Trek-loyal fans who could crossover, and Star Wars has a phenomenal bullshot under their belt that has everyone drooling for some player-vs.-player lightsaber action.
On the one hand, I'm happy to see that people aren't trying to beat WoW at their own game and instead are offering games in a different genre. On the other hand I'm a little disappointed that they only went as far as picking the easiest competing genre - space. The swords and sorcery model and the space ranger model are very similar, one involving face to face combat and magic against mythical creatures, the other involving ship to ship combat and future technology against mythical aliens.
There are other things people could use as a setting for adventure. Ninjas. Pirates. Sports. Spies. Musketeers. Personally, I think it's a crime that someone hasn't linked into the Harry Potter brand and made an MMO based on that universe. But in the end the top frontrunners chose space as their genre and I think I know why. It isn't a limit on their imagination, but a limit on ours. No one wants to play an MMO alone. There are a lot of people who only want to play the top MMO, regardless of gameplay, because it's starting to ask for so many hours of gameplay that it's substituting for a big chunk of their social life.
People are fine with that, as long as they're jumping into a deep pool. When WoW hit the point that more people play it than live in Finland, it was suddenly ok to spend six hours a day there, talking to people while you play a game. Log out? Why? All my friends are already there.
So now let's say you have two great-looking games on the shelf, and you're tired of playing WoW (not really tired, but you're in the mood to see if there's something new you would also like). In our example, let's say one game is Herman Wouk's World at War, a fascinating, historical tale of war and espionage in 1940's war-torn Europe, and the other game is Galaxy Raiders, a tale of aliens and starships and glactic exploration and adventure.
Gee, I wonder which one I could get my friends to play.
I'd probably enjoy them both, but one of them is something that even my most over-beered friends can understand. They may not want to run a quest to find a safe house on the Polish border to pass intelligence through beneath the notice of the invading German army, but they could probably get excited about unleashing some thermal torpedoes on those tentacled Q'irxxi starships and maybe pick up some green-skinned chicks at the Comet's Tail cafe. It might be a case of bad currency pushing good currency out of circulation, but as long as the AI can't pass a turing test we want to play the game that everyone else is playing, and we'll sacrifice some things to do it.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Glitch King
Ensidia became the first guild to defeat the Lich King in a 25-person raid, and within 24 hours received a three-day ban on all their accounts for exploiting a glitch in order to defeat him. Of course, this is exploding into all sorts of drama on the Warcraft forums.
Ensidia is a European guild of semi-professional players. They are sponsored players, and their benefits are said to include account payments and hardware is provided for them. They are in the business of being the world's best guild in the world's largest game, and they have a track record of being the very best.
The specifics of this crime are simple. During the fight with the Lich King part of the floor gives way. This gives less room to fight and occasionally players are dropped to their death. What the guild did was to use saronite bombs during the battle (not unheard of for engineering rogues to add in to their rotation). Unfortunately, using the bombs in the manner they did caused the floor to not fully collapse, bypassing the difficulty of this content. By no means was the remainder of the fight easy, but it gave them a tremendous advantage over everyone else attempting the fight.
Blizzard's response was to issue a three-day ban to every member of the raid. Blizzard has total control over the game, can see every message sent by every player, keeps extremely detailed time-synced combat logs, and is more or less omnipotent (including being able to check your local PC to make sure you aren't running banned programs in conjunction with the Warcraft client). They would not have done this unless they were sure that Ensidia was purposely using the exploit.
So there's a lot of screaming, laughing, crying, shouting, and electronic nonsense going on right now on the forums. Lots of people are rushing to their defense, lots of people are laughing at Ensidia for being greedy cheaters. Their defenders point to the long list of "firsts" Ensidia has achieved for several years, their accusers cite previous times that Ensidia has used exploits to clear content, apologized, and been forgiven.
And there's the rest of us, many of whom don't know or care who Ensidia is, and will never play this game at their level. Frankly, many of us will never fight the Lich King at all before the next expansion is released, so we don't really have a stake in this at all.
But we think we do, because this is the game that we play to the best of our ability, and we are bound by the rules that Blizzard sets forth for play. If me and the guys down at the X&Y Factory had a guild and we exploited this fight to kill the Lich King before Ensidia did, our accounts would probably get deleted, and nobody would ever hear from us again. But because this is a guild with - for lack of a better word - fame, they get a suspension and a warning, and let off.
I can see the reasoning. No one cares if me and Fred lose our accounts, but the superstar at the top of the bragging pyramid is untouchable by us, so we start to expect that they are untouchable by Blizzard. This is not the case. This is not Major League Baseball and Mark McGwire - the steroid abusers had a players' union to negotiate with, this is just a video game with an EULA that states all of your data and input becomes property of Blizzard. Fair or not, Blizzard can empty your account just because they don't like you. Seriously, it's in the user agreement. Your only recourse is to choose not to play.
So right now Ensidia is the Mark McGwire of Warcraft. There is an accusation of cheating, and at least one member of Ensidia has posted on his blog that he's quitting (we'll see). There's no absolute ban, there's no one stopping play yet, but there is a huge cloud hanging over their LK kill - and everything else they have ever done - because of their approach to this suspension. Ensidia's response is to blame Warcraft for allowing the glitch to appear in the game to begin with, and they are proclaiming their innocence.
Which brings me to the part where I express my opinion on the whole thing.
Anyone who wanted a respected kill would have seen that the fight was glitched and called for a wipe - give up, let everyone die, start over. Ensidia and their defenders say that it shouldn't be necessary, but I argue that it is. If you want to be the first and the best, you must also be completely honest in your approach. Their defenders say that it shouldn't matter, a kill is a kill, and they shouldn't be held to a higher standard.
Oh yes, they should. They should be held to the highest standard possible.
This is a guild that is semiprofessional in nature, and is not shy about claiming to be the best guild in the world, and is completely self-promoting. They want the attention. They want the admiration. They want people to visit their website and see their bosskills and revere their ability. So if they want to be the best and hold that banner, they need to hold up a banner that anyone can carry. It needs to be a banner gained without the use of exploits, without cheating.
Blizz would punish us, they should punish you. Just admit it, move on, and kill that boss again next week without taking short cuts that others can't follow.
Ensidia is a European guild of semi-professional players. They are sponsored players, and their benefits are said to include account payments and hardware is provided for them. They are in the business of being the world's best guild in the world's largest game, and they have a track record of being the very best.
The specifics of this crime are simple. During the fight with the Lich King part of the floor gives way. This gives less room to fight and occasionally players are dropped to their death. What the guild did was to use saronite bombs during the battle (not unheard of for engineering rogues to add in to their rotation). Unfortunately, using the bombs in the manner they did caused the floor to not fully collapse, bypassing the difficulty of this content. By no means was the remainder of the fight easy, but it gave them a tremendous advantage over everyone else attempting the fight.
Blizzard's response was to issue a three-day ban to every member of the raid. Blizzard has total control over the game, can see every message sent by every player, keeps extremely detailed time-synced combat logs, and is more or less omnipotent (including being able to check your local PC to make sure you aren't running banned programs in conjunction with the Warcraft client). They would not have done this unless they were sure that Ensidia was purposely using the exploit.
So there's a lot of screaming, laughing, crying, shouting, and electronic nonsense going on right now on the forums. Lots of people are rushing to their defense, lots of people are laughing at Ensidia for being greedy cheaters. Their defenders point to the long list of "firsts" Ensidia has achieved for several years, their accusers cite previous times that Ensidia has used exploits to clear content, apologized, and been forgiven.
And there's the rest of us, many of whom don't know or care who Ensidia is, and will never play this game at their level. Frankly, many of us will never fight the Lich King at all before the next expansion is released, so we don't really have a stake in this at all.
But we think we do, because this is the game that we play to the best of our ability, and we are bound by the rules that Blizzard sets forth for play. If me and the guys down at the X&Y Factory had a guild and we exploited this fight to kill the Lich King before Ensidia did, our accounts would probably get deleted, and nobody would ever hear from us again. But because this is a guild with - for lack of a better word - fame, they get a suspension and a warning, and let off.
I can see the reasoning. No one cares if me and Fred lose our accounts, but the superstar at the top of the bragging pyramid is untouchable by us, so we start to expect that they are untouchable by Blizzard. This is not the case. This is not Major League Baseball and Mark McGwire - the steroid abusers had a players' union to negotiate with, this is just a video game with an EULA that states all of your data and input becomes property of Blizzard. Fair or not, Blizzard can empty your account just because they don't like you. Seriously, it's in the user agreement. Your only recourse is to choose not to play.
So right now Ensidia is the Mark McGwire of Warcraft. There is an accusation of cheating, and at least one member of Ensidia has posted on his blog that he's quitting (we'll see). There's no absolute ban, there's no one stopping play yet, but there is a huge cloud hanging over their LK kill - and everything else they have ever done - because of their approach to this suspension. Ensidia's response is to blame Warcraft for allowing the glitch to appear in the game to begin with, and they are proclaiming their innocence.
Which brings me to the part where I express my opinion on the whole thing.
Anyone who wanted a respected kill would have seen that the fight was glitched and called for a wipe - give up, let everyone die, start over. Ensidia and their defenders say that it shouldn't be necessary, but I argue that it is. If you want to be the first and the best, you must also be completely honest in your approach. Their defenders say that it shouldn't matter, a kill is a kill, and they shouldn't be held to a higher standard.
Oh yes, they should. They should be held to the highest standard possible.
This is a guild that is semiprofessional in nature, and is not shy about claiming to be the best guild in the world, and is completely self-promoting. They want the attention. They want the admiration. They want people to visit their website and see their bosskills and revere their ability. So if they want to be the best and hold that banner, they need to hold up a banner that anyone can carry. It needs to be a banner gained without the use of exploits, without cheating.
Blizz would punish us, they should punish you. Just admit it, move on, and kill that boss again next week without taking short cuts that others can't follow.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Long Live the King
The Lich King is dead.
For those who don't know their WarCraft lore, here's a really long story made short that tells you everything you need to know about the game's storyline. I'm not a giant fan of it myself so I guarantee it will be brief, and I'm only trying your patience so we can discuss the consequences of today's events.
Long ago, WarCraft was a game called WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. It was a real-time strategy game. It was successful. WarCraft2 came out, then WarCraft3. The story behind WC3 was that the human-elf-dwarf faction was fighting the orcs, and then there were scourge (zombies, cultists, etc.). The leader of the humans - Arthas - was obsessed with fighting the leader of the scourge - the demon Mal'Ganis. Along the way Arthas' resolve was weakened and he became less of a holy warrior and more of a bloodthirsty one. Then one day he hears about Frostmourne, a sword that would grant him the power to vanquish the demon and same his kingdom. So he goes and gets the sword, and the sword turns him into a nasty villain. He returns home and kills his dad the King, and then ventures north to become the Lich King.
World of Warcraft was all about learning to live in Azeroth. The Burning Crusade expansion was about the old orc world Draenor, and the source of the demons. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion was all about both the humans and the orcs getting together and fighting the Lich King. So that's the simple version. What it means is that the main character in WarCraft since 2002 has been Arthas. He's been the blond-haired blue-eyed hero-turned-villain main character for eight years.
In the latest patch of World of WarCraft, Arthas - the Lich King - dies. I'm not going to say anything about how or why, but we all knew it was inevitable that we'd fight him, and he dies, so that's it.
Much silence. Tumbleweeds blow by.
Ok, now what?
The whole game has been overshadowed by this dude forever - there is an entire playable race of undead who are scourge that were freed from the Lich King's control - does this world even know how to go on without him? There will always be a Lich King in the game of course. Blizzard has hinted several times that in order to keep the scourge from overrunning the world there must always be a Lich King, but the man who is currently the Lich King - Arthas - is dying and will not be back.
This guy was on the cover of two titles. When kids reached for the box and slapped down their $45 it was his face they saw. If you end his storyline, how many other storylines die with it? There will have to be a focus and energy in another direction with other characters, but will anyone really care? Can they possibly care as much as they did about Arthas?
George Lucas waited about 15 years to make the Phantom Menace. It was a pretty good movie in spite of Jar Jar Binks, a good space adventure film in the same universe as the other movies, but it was missing something that it couldn't get back. Where was Han Solo? If you were a fan of Han, the first three movies were where its at. The last three couldn't touch it. The series was entertaining, but you didn't love it the way you did when Han the space cowboy was flying in with Millenium Falcon to shoot up the bad guys and argue with the princess.
See, the trade was Han for Jar Jar. And after waiting 15 years we felt shafted by that deal, and that's why no one loves the second trilogy.
So here we are, heading into the first expansion after Arthas - the Cataclysm. We lose Arthas, and we get Deathwing in return. I don't really know anything about Deathwing. Yeah, I read the lore and stuff and he's a powerful dragon, etc. So what. Telling me I should care is not the same as caring because of familiarity. They're going to revamp a lot of the old world in the next expansion, and many of the classic zones will be destroyed and remade. Considering how many other things they will also be changing - PvP, character stats, goblins and worgen - how much of this game will we recognize?
And with Arthas gone, will we care? Do we have the energy to care enough to learn the game all over again? Is it too much for the average player? That's the really scary thought I would imagine if you're Blizzard - too much change is a completely different game. There are already people leaving because of the nerfs to raid content, I can imagine people finally waking up and saying "this isn't the game I started playing six years ago" and just decide to log out for good. Will it happen? Will it invigorate people, or finally drive them away? I'm not sure if the change is good or bad, all I know is the whole world is changing and its poster boy is buried.
The kind is dead - long live the King...?
For those who don't know their WarCraft lore, here's a really long story made short that tells you everything you need to know about the game's storyline. I'm not a giant fan of it myself so I guarantee it will be brief, and I'm only trying your patience so we can discuss the consequences of today's events.
Long ago, WarCraft was a game called WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. It was a real-time strategy game. It was successful. WarCraft2 came out, then WarCraft3. The story behind WC3 was that the human-elf-dwarf faction was fighting the orcs, and then there were scourge (zombies, cultists, etc.). The leader of the humans - Arthas - was obsessed with fighting the leader of the scourge - the demon Mal'Ganis. Along the way Arthas' resolve was weakened and he became less of a holy warrior and more of a bloodthirsty one. Then one day he hears about Frostmourne, a sword that would grant him the power to vanquish the demon and same his kingdom. So he goes and gets the sword, and the sword turns him into a nasty villain. He returns home and kills his dad the King, and then ventures north to become the Lich King.
World of Warcraft was all about learning to live in Azeroth. The Burning Crusade expansion was about the old orc world Draenor, and the source of the demons. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion was all about both the humans and the orcs getting together and fighting the Lich King. So that's the simple version. What it means is that the main character in WarCraft since 2002 has been Arthas. He's been the blond-haired blue-eyed hero-turned-villain main character for eight years.
In the latest patch of World of WarCraft, Arthas - the Lich King - dies. I'm not going to say anything about how or why, but we all knew it was inevitable that we'd fight him, and he dies, so that's it.
Much silence. Tumbleweeds blow by.
Ok, now what?
The whole game has been overshadowed by this dude forever - there is an entire playable race of undead who are scourge that were freed from the Lich King's control - does this world even know how to go on without him? There will always be a Lich King in the game of course. Blizzard has hinted several times that in order to keep the scourge from overrunning the world there must always be a Lich King, but the man who is currently the Lich King - Arthas - is dying and will not be back.
This guy was on the cover of two titles. When kids reached for the box and slapped down their $45 it was his face they saw. If you end his storyline, how many other storylines die with it? There will have to be a focus and energy in another direction with other characters, but will anyone really care? Can they possibly care as much as they did about Arthas?
George Lucas waited about 15 years to make the Phantom Menace. It was a pretty good movie in spite of Jar Jar Binks, a good space adventure film in the same universe as the other movies, but it was missing something that it couldn't get back. Where was Han Solo? If you were a fan of Han, the first three movies were where its at. The last three couldn't touch it. The series was entertaining, but you didn't love it the way you did when Han the space cowboy was flying in with Millenium Falcon to shoot up the bad guys and argue with the princess.
See, the trade was Han for Jar Jar. And after waiting 15 years we felt shafted by that deal, and that's why no one loves the second trilogy.
So here we are, heading into the first expansion after Arthas - the Cataclysm. We lose Arthas, and we get Deathwing in return. I don't really know anything about Deathwing. Yeah, I read the lore and stuff and he's a powerful dragon, etc. So what. Telling me I should care is not the same as caring because of familiarity. They're going to revamp a lot of the old world in the next expansion, and many of the classic zones will be destroyed and remade. Considering how many other things they will also be changing - PvP, character stats, goblins and worgen - how much of this game will we recognize?
And with Arthas gone, will we care? Do we have the energy to care enough to learn the game all over again? Is it too much for the average player? That's the really scary thought I would imagine if you're Blizzard - too much change is a completely different game. There are already people leaving because of the nerfs to raid content, I can imagine people finally waking up and saying "this isn't the game I started playing six years ago" and just decide to log out for good. Will it happen? Will it invigorate people, or finally drive them away? I'm not sure if the change is good or bad, all I know is the whole world is changing and its poster boy is buried.
The kind is dead - long live the King...?
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