When you're thinking about naming your character, be careful and consider this: Unless your name is 5 characters or under, your guildmates will probably forever refer to you by the first syllable in your name.
I made the character Diagnose (my rogue) to take advantage of the conjunction with "the Patient" title. The guild I was in started referring to me as "Dia" instead of Diagnose, so when it came time to create an alt, rather than confuse everyone, I chose a new name that started with Dia - Diagram. If I'd planned ahead I would have made the priest Diagnose and the rogue Diagram, but whatever. Every time I make a character I think that it might end up being the most important character I have, otherwise I probably won't finish getting to 80 with it.
So if I follow the current pattern, I found a list of other words that start with Dia. Diabolic would make a nice warlock name, and Diamond would make a good tank. You can be pretty sure that I won't have a character named Diarrhea though.
So even though Putrescence sounds like a fun name to have, don't be surprised if down the line everyone in the guild starts referring to you as "Poo."
Monday, March 29, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Escape
There's a number of reasons people play warcraft. Educators are studying the internal rewards system and examining why kids will play for hours and hours on end - even while stating that they are bored with it and tired - because it can be addictive for some people. Others like to see the graphics and interaction of the game, and when they've soaked up all of the visual potential, they grow tired with it. Some people like to log in and sit around and chat.
Unlike most people, I know exactly why I play because I've thought about it, and I think about it every time I plunk down $30 for two months' play time: It's cheap therapy.
The real world often sucks, and due to very complicated societal obligations that prohibit killing people, smashing vault doors, and eradicating endangered species, we will accumulate a lot of stress restraining ourselves from showing displeasure at the things that bother us during the day.
If someone cuts me off in traffic and screams obscenities at me, I can't jump out and smash his car with a tire iron, but I can wait until later and log into warcraft and demolish his siege engine in Lake Wintergrasp. I can turn on the television and hear people screaming about how the world is coming to an end because of politics, but in Warcraft I can ignore one or two people and still hear what everyone else is saying just fine.
I had a wonderful episode on Wednesday, that describes this perfectly. I was in a meeting with a group of people who were giddy, nervous, and talking over their heads about management material. After a half-hour of uncomfortable and ridiculous exchanges, the presenter made a gross insult against my family. He knew better than to say what he did, but said it nonetheless, and I found it offensive enough to leave the meeting (and not smash things with a tire iron). Of course as a result I was disciplined for leaving the meeting. Feel the love.
The perfect anecdote was to log into warcraft, be given clear direction by a questgiver, and offered a non-negotiable reward. I did several of these, and started to relax. Then I joined a pick-up group in Hellfire Ramparts and healed a group through the dungeon, keeping everyone alive and healthy while we looted the place. Everyone got what they needed, and I got some compliments for my healing ability. Later, I joined an Alterac Valley battle and we battled against another army, strategizing and cooperating on the fly, and earned a strong victory.
If only more people played warcraft, they'd understand where we were coming from, and we'd have a common language to communicate with. Like when someone tells an off-color joke we can say "dude, not in guild chat please." Or if someone steals from your bank you can kick them out of your guild, and put them on your ignore list. Warcraft is honest where the real world fails, and it gives us feedback that we desire in our daily lives but never get. It heals people, and it reinforces self-worth - even in tiny amounts it at least assures you that you are not crazy.
/tireiron
Unlike most people, I know exactly why I play because I've thought about it, and I think about it every time I plunk down $30 for two months' play time: It's cheap therapy.
The real world often sucks, and due to very complicated societal obligations that prohibit killing people, smashing vault doors, and eradicating endangered species, we will accumulate a lot of stress restraining ourselves from showing displeasure at the things that bother us during the day.
If someone cuts me off in traffic and screams obscenities at me, I can't jump out and smash his car with a tire iron, but I can wait until later and log into warcraft and demolish his siege engine in Lake Wintergrasp. I can turn on the television and hear people screaming about how the world is coming to an end because of politics, but in Warcraft I can ignore one or two people and still hear what everyone else is saying just fine.
I had a wonderful episode on Wednesday, that describes this perfectly. I was in a meeting with a group of people who were giddy, nervous, and talking over their heads about management material. After a half-hour of uncomfortable and ridiculous exchanges, the presenter made a gross insult against my family. He knew better than to say what he did, but said it nonetheless, and I found it offensive enough to leave the meeting (and not smash things with a tire iron). Of course as a result I was disciplined for leaving the meeting. Feel the love.
The perfect anecdote was to log into warcraft, be given clear direction by a questgiver, and offered a non-negotiable reward. I did several of these, and started to relax. Then I joined a pick-up group in Hellfire Ramparts and healed a group through the dungeon, keeping everyone alive and healthy while we looted the place. Everyone got what they needed, and I got some compliments for my healing ability. Later, I joined an Alterac Valley battle and we battled against another army, strategizing and cooperating on the fly, and earned a strong victory.
If only more people played warcraft, they'd understand where we were coming from, and we'd have a common language to communicate with. Like when someone tells an off-color joke we can say "dude, not in guild chat please." Or if someone steals from your bank you can kick them out of your guild, and put them on your ignore list. Warcraft is honest where the real world fails, and it gives us feedback that we desire in our daily lives but never get. It heals people, and it reinforces self-worth - even in tiny amounts it at least assures you that you are not crazy.
/tireiron
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Light and Shadow
Now that I'm in Outland where the gold is pretty darned good, I've got my alchemy and herbalism to Outland level, and I've pait for my flying mount, the next expense on the list is dual spec.
For those who are not familiar with dual specs, it allows you to switch back and forth (out of combat) between talent specializations. For a priest this means that sometimes I can be healing as a holy priest and sometimes I could do damage as a shadow priest.
I never really went shadow, fully. I tried it a long time ago with my original priest and was kind of disappointed at the results. I didn't kill stuff that much faster, I was still basically shield-and-cast, sit-and-drink. Looking at the shadow tree it seems that there have been some improvements made to the talents since then that should make life easier.
The one that sticks out in my mind as the best change is to Vampiric Embrace. Having it a self-buff instead of a dot that consumes a GCD and can be applied to only one target is a major improvement. It's more of a cast-and-forget benefit, which makes DPS more relaxing and less like an affliction warlock trying to juggle DoTs.
I've got about 100 gold to go before I can afford it, but either today or tomorrow I'll probably have the gold and will buy my second spec. These are the talents I'm looking at, feel free to comment on my choices:
For those who are not familiar with dual specs, it allows you to switch back and forth (out of combat) between talent specializations. For a priest this means that sometimes I can be healing as a holy priest and sometimes I could do damage as a shadow priest.
I never really went shadow, fully. I tried it a long time ago with my original priest and was kind of disappointed at the results. I didn't kill stuff that much faster, I was still basically shield-and-cast, sit-and-drink. Looking at the shadow tree it seems that there have been some improvements made to the talents since then that should make life easier.
The one that sticks out in my mind as the best change is to Vampiric Embrace. Having it a self-buff instead of a dot that consumes a GCD and can be applied to only one target is a major improvement. It's more of a cast-and-forget benefit, which makes DPS more relaxing and less like an affliction warlock trying to juggle DoTs.
I've got about 100 gold to go before I can afford it, but either today or tomorrow I'll probably have the gold and will buy my second spec. These are the talents I'm looking at, feel free to comment on my choices:
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Vacation on the Dark Side
Every once in a while, no matter how fun and smooth your life as a (insert class here) is, you feel like taking a break from it, usually to perform a different role. Tanks may decide they want to DPS, healers may feel like tanking, DPS might want to heal. Sometimes you can change your talents around to fill a different role, sometimes you can't.
My rogue is great fun. If the Cataclysm expansion came out right now I'd probably hop back on the rogue and start adventuring in the new content. But I was a little tired of DPSing, and decided I wanted to roll a priest - a class I haven't played in a long time - and I'm enjoying leveling as holy.
I asked the guild if they thought I could go from level 43 to Outland in one weekend and they laughed at me, but by the time I logged out Sunday night I was level 59 and cruising through Hellfire Peninsula. Last night I hit 60, and had the gold for my flying mount. Leveling through Outland is so much better when you can fly everywhere.
A big part of the accelerated leveling was due to grouping. I did Sunken Temple twice, Blackrock Depths about a dozen times, Uldaman and Maraudon countless times, Scarlet Monastery until I was nearly falling asleep. It was less interesting than leveling, but also less relaxing. Because when you rely on grouping for your progress... you are taking a walk on the dark side.
Everyone likes to think that they are the reasonable person in the group. You can be young, old, new, experienced, undergeared, tweaked out, doesn't matter, that is always true for every group - conflict are never your fault, it's always someone else's. And I've seen it all in the last 40 levels, anything you can possibly imagine. I don't like votekicking, but I've initiated my share. I don't like complaining, but sometimes even the most gentle soul is left with a head-spinning 'wtf??'
Why is that death knight doing terrible dps? Maybe because he's got resurrection sickness.
Why are we chain-pulling when I'm out of mana? Oh - the warlock's pet is on 'aggressive.'
Why is that hunter standing next to the boss and taking cleave damage? Because he ran out of arrows about 15 minutes ago and is melee attacking everything.
It never ends. Just when you think you've seen it all, someone shows up with their "perfectly reasonable" quirkiness and throws the whole group on its ear. The little things are easy to deal with - like druids who panic when they see the tank taking some damage and they stop doing dps to heal them (hey, that's my job - back off). When it gets more challenging is when people bring their prickly attitudes to bear on these little quirks, and a slightly inefficient run turns into a personality explosion.
Last night I had a doozy, doing Hellfire Ramparts with a death knight tank (Ramparts is tanked by DK's whether you like it or not, it's practically a law). The tank wasn't very good, but we managed. We got to the final boss and he decided that the little fire on the ground didn't look that dangerous so he decided to sit in it to keep himself warm while he tanked the boss. Unfortunately, the fire does far more damage than the boss, and armor doesn't mitigate any of it. About 20 seconds later he finally lost health faster than I could keep up with GCD's, and he died. The group wiped. Out of nowhere: "OMG HEALER YOU SUCK WTF ARE YOU DOING"
Calmly I popped open recount and linked the 23,000 damage he took from Liquid Fire, and pointed out that this was damage that he easily could have avoided.
"YOU SUCK! YOUR SO BAD I BEEN HEALED THRU THAT BEFORE"
Some things are just so awful/obscure they have no answer. Almost immediately, the DPS whispered to me to please ignore him and not leave, so we could just finish the run. I agreed, we rezzed and rebuffed.
Tank: Don't ****ing suck this time healer
Me: Don't stand in the fire this time, k?
Tank: ST*U your the worst healer ever I swear
DPS (whisper): ignore him! plz plz
Tank: btw you have shield and renew its not hard
Me: Btw, fire is red
And we proceeded to kill the boss easily. The tank decided not to stand in the fire - which reduced the healing required by about 80% - and it was a cakewalk. Won some loot, vendored it. Got some xp, yay. /Leave group, teleported out.
Then the beauty of the system - put the tank on ignore (yes, you can /ignore people from other realms) and now the LFG system will never put the two of us in the same group again. I'm sure the tank is happy about that, and I know I sure am. I took a break and stretched a little and had a glass of water before settling back in.
The next group I was in was smooth as silk and everyone was very complementary of my healing. It was a wonderful reward for tolerating the previous group, and I wished I could have added them all to my friends list.
And we all leveled happily every after.
My rogue is great fun. If the Cataclysm expansion came out right now I'd probably hop back on the rogue and start adventuring in the new content. But I was a little tired of DPSing, and decided I wanted to roll a priest - a class I haven't played in a long time - and I'm enjoying leveling as holy.
I asked the guild if they thought I could go from level 43 to Outland in one weekend and they laughed at me, but by the time I logged out Sunday night I was level 59 and cruising through Hellfire Peninsula. Last night I hit 60, and had the gold for my flying mount. Leveling through Outland is so much better when you can fly everywhere.
A big part of the accelerated leveling was due to grouping. I did Sunken Temple twice, Blackrock Depths about a dozen times, Uldaman and Maraudon countless times, Scarlet Monastery until I was nearly falling asleep. It was less interesting than leveling, but also less relaxing. Because when you rely on grouping for your progress... you are taking a walk on the dark side.
Everyone likes to think that they are the reasonable person in the group. You can be young, old, new, experienced, undergeared, tweaked out, doesn't matter, that is always true for every group - conflict are never your fault, it's always someone else's. And I've seen it all in the last 40 levels, anything you can possibly imagine. I don't like votekicking, but I've initiated my share. I don't like complaining, but sometimes even the most gentle soul is left with a head-spinning 'wtf??'
Why is that death knight doing terrible dps? Maybe because he's got resurrection sickness.
Why are we chain-pulling when I'm out of mana? Oh - the warlock's pet is on 'aggressive.'
Why is that hunter standing next to the boss and taking cleave damage? Because he ran out of arrows about 15 minutes ago and is melee attacking everything.
It never ends. Just when you think you've seen it all, someone shows up with their "perfectly reasonable" quirkiness and throws the whole group on its ear. The little things are easy to deal with - like druids who panic when they see the tank taking some damage and they stop doing dps to heal them (hey, that's my job - back off). When it gets more challenging is when people bring their prickly attitudes to bear on these little quirks, and a slightly inefficient run turns into a personality explosion.
Last night I had a doozy, doing Hellfire Ramparts with a death knight tank (Ramparts is tanked by DK's whether you like it or not, it's practically a law). The tank wasn't very good, but we managed. We got to the final boss and he decided that the little fire on the ground didn't look that dangerous so he decided to sit in it to keep himself warm while he tanked the boss. Unfortunately, the fire does far more damage than the boss, and armor doesn't mitigate any of it. About 20 seconds later he finally lost health faster than I could keep up with GCD's, and he died. The group wiped. Out of nowhere: "OMG HEALER YOU SUCK WTF ARE YOU DOING"
Calmly I popped open recount and linked the 23,000 damage he took from Liquid Fire, and pointed out that this was damage that he easily could have avoided.
"YOU SUCK! YOUR SO BAD I BEEN HEALED THRU THAT BEFORE"
Some things are just so awful/obscure they have no answer. Almost immediately, the DPS whispered to me to please ignore him and not leave, so we could just finish the run. I agreed, we rezzed and rebuffed.
Tank: Don't ****ing suck this time healer
Me: Don't stand in the fire this time, k?
Tank: ST*U your the worst healer ever I swear
DPS (whisper): ignore him! plz plz
Tank: btw you have shield and renew its not hard
Me: Btw, fire is red
And we proceeded to kill the boss easily. The tank decided not to stand in the fire - which reduced the healing required by about 80% - and it was a cakewalk. Won some loot, vendored it. Got some xp, yay. /Leave group, teleported out.
Then the beauty of the system - put the tank on ignore (yes, you can /ignore people from other realms) and now the LFG system will never put the two of us in the same group again. I'm sure the tank is happy about that, and I know I sure am. I took a break and stretched a little and had a glass of water before settling back in.
The next group I was in was smooth as silk and everyone was very complementary of my healing. It was a wonderful reward for tolerating the previous group, and I wished I could have added them all to my friends list.
And we all leveled happily every after.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Speaking of Quitting
I have no intention of quitting Warcraft. Once upon a time I wondered if spending hours playing a video game was a wise choice of time, but that just isn't a concern anymore. First of all, warcraft has completely replaced my television watching time. I find it highly ironic that the mainstream population that baffles at us gamer types spending hours plunking away on a keyboard has no problem opening up a 6-pack and parking their ass in front of a television for an entire afternoon.
Warcraft is easy and quick entertainment, it's an ongoing story that I am the director of, and it's really cheap. If you're not a kid - if you're a financially secure adult - 15 bucks a month isn't a big deal. I can skip a couple meals and end up saving the money, and at my age/metabolism skipping a meal here and there isn't a bad idea. It's so cheap that I plan on keeping up my subscription whether or not I choose to play.
But my subscription time has run out, so I need to head to Walmart to pick up another time card and plug it in. It's about $30, and lasts two months. I could choose to pay via credit card online, either as individual payments or through automatic billing, but I prefer to buy the card and enter the code.
I really don't know why I do this other than I suspect it fulfills some basic need to participate in a transaction in order to get the fullest satisfaction from it. Everyone in my office has direct deposit, but I still get a paper check and take it to the bank each week. The money ends up going right back in the bank most of the time, but it's the value of being part of the process that keeps me satisfied.
This is one reason why I keep playing Warcraft, and haven't transitioned to some other subscription game by now: I can buy playing time at Walmart. If City of Heroes had time cards at Walmart I might be playing that instead (especially if I could buy the Architect Edition at Walmart). Whatever MMO ends up displacing WoW, the time cards will be available at Walmart.
People forget how powerful that point of sale is for the mainstream gamer. Most people who play Warcraft don't see ads in the back of comic books or read MMO websites to know what the newest/greatest game is - if it isn't on the shelf it might as well not exist. And if you're going to charge for a subscription, you'd better sell your time cards there too or you won't get much repeat business. That's just the way it is.
But in any case, the game is so cheap that paying for maintaining my subscription is nearly independent from whether I feel like playing or not. It's a few bucks, I'll pay for it in case I decide to log on sometime this month. And if I don't, I still browse the forums a lot and like to interact there. I guess if I want to post any comments I need to re-up my subscription.
Looks like I'm skipping lunch and heading to Walmart today.
Warcraft is easy and quick entertainment, it's an ongoing story that I am the director of, and it's really cheap. If you're not a kid - if you're a financially secure adult - 15 bucks a month isn't a big deal. I can skip a couple meals and end up saving the money, and at my age/metabolism skipping a meal here and there isn't a bad idea. It's so cheap that I plan on keeping up my subscription whether or not I choose to play.
But my subscription time has run out, so I need to head to Walmart to pick up another time card and plug it in. It's about $30, and lasts two months. I could choose to pay via credit card online, either as individual payments or through automatic billing, but I prefer to buy the card and enter the code.
I really don't know why I do this other than I suspect it fulfills some basic need to participate in a transaction in order to get the fullest satisfaction from it. Everyone in my office has direct deposit, but I still get a paper check and take it to the bank each week. The money ends up going right back in the bank most of the time, but it's the value of being part of the process that keeps me satisfied.
This is one reason why I keep playing Warcraft, and haven't transitioned to some other subscription game by now: I can buy playing time at Walmart. If City of Heroes had time cards at Walmart I might be playing that instead (especially if I could buy the Architect Edition at Walmart). Whatever MMO ends up displacing WoW, the time cards will be available at Walmart.People forget how powerful that point of sale is for the mainstream gamer. Most people who play Warcraft don't see ads in the back of comic books or read MMO websites to know what the newest/greatest game is - if it isn't on the shelf it might as well not exist. And if you're going to charge for a subscription, you'd better sell your time cards there too or you won't get much repeat business. That's just the way it is.
But in any case, the game is so cheap that paying for maintaining my subscription is nearly independent from whether I feel like playing or not. It's a few bucks, I'll pay for it in case I decide to log on sometime this month. And if I don't, I still browse the forums a lot and like to interact there. I guess if I want to post any comments I need to re-up my subscription.
Looks like I'm skipping lunch and heading to Walmart today.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Obsolescence
Warcraft is entertainment. It's pretty cheap entertainment as far as that goes, for only $15 a month you can connect up and play as much as you want. Quite a few people have noted that the hardest part about quitting warcraft isn't the withdrawl - if you're bored with it, you don't want to play it - but the huge replacement cost of being entertained at the same level.
For $15 you can't even buy the family dinner at a fast food restaurant, or take a date to the movies. I've paid bigger late fees for movie rental before. $15 is chump change, which is what makes the "Omg, I'm outraged!" customers on the warcraft forums all the more amusing. For $15 you typically can't get anything of quality, but it will buy you a monthly access to the best MMO in the world.
But it is entertainment, and even inexpensive entertainment becomes undesirable if it isn't kept fresh. Television has done a good job of proving this for us. Warcraft has a huge world filled with entertaining activities, and to a large extent it is all replayable with different characters, but there are some things that should be changed because the game itself has changed so much over time.
Back at level 60 there were two sets of divergent changes being made to the game. On the one hand there were additional features being added to the game - battlegrounds, guild banks, etc. - and on the other hand there was additional content being created specifically for the 1-60 leveling experience. Some of these things are still fresh and fun, but some have become obsolete and should be either upgraded, or removed.
The first one that comes to mind is class quests. Back in vanilla Blizzard decided that it would be fun to add in class-specific quests (all of them requiring a visit to the Sunken Temple instance) that would add to the uniqueness of each class. For example, as a priest you need to visit ST and kill the dragon Morphaz and bring a vial of his blood back. In return you can choose between a ring, wand, or trinket. All three items are fairly worthless, and are guaranteed to be replaced in about six levels when you venture into Outland.
The concept at the time was that you would learn something about the instance, something about the lore of your class in relation to it, and you would gain an item that would help you level and possibly not be replaced until you raid at level 60. Well, these days are long gone. No one does their class questline anymore because it's pretty tedious and the rewards are really low. I would wager that more people complete this questline at 80 when they try to get the Loremaster title than people who are at-level trying to just get quests done for leveling.
It's a good concept, but the rewards don't hold up over time. The instance itself is pretty confusing and irritating - spiral stairs that overlap each other, mobs and bosses on multiple levels inside the temple, gobs of trash in small fight spaces. It feels like a parking ramp sometimes (where did we park again? which stairway goes where?) and has some sequential kill requirements that are a turn-off to casual dungeon crawlers.
Another thing that was added at level 60 was the tier 0.5 dungeon set. The tier 0 set was the blue (mostly BoP) drops from 5-man dungeons all over Azeroth, and dungeons had to be run multiple times to collect all the pieces from each to put together a set for all the bonuses. Tier 0.5 was a set of questlines added on top of that that allowed you to upgrade your gear pieces to 'light epics' that were superior to the basic dungeon set, but inferior to the raid set you could get from Molten Core.
On RP servers sometimes people will run dungeons and collect the gear and then do all the questlines to upgrade the gear just so they have a unique set they can walk around in on occasion, but no one does this stuff anymore for practical reasons. At level 58 when you can enter Outland your first quests will reward you with items that are far superior to Molten Core gear, much less tier 0.5, so it makes no sense to do this process for anything other than intrinsic reasons.
And then there's the issue of Alterac Valley. Once upon a time it was a battlefield of epic proportions, with NPCs stopping players from running willy-nilly all over the map, and battles took hours (occasionally even days!) to complete. There are a lot of people who miss that type of battle, one where lines needed to be maintained, and the fighting is mandatory instead of just being a race to PvE the opposing general.
In Cataclysm they are removing marks of honor for battlegrounds, opening up the possibility for Alterac Valley to be restored to its original state. The reason AV was reduced in difficulty was because Blizzard wanted each battleground to last about the same amount of time, so that marks were fairly equal in value, but if all the marks are eliminated then it's possible for them to restore AV to its original state. However... since they are including the Daily Battleground option in Cataclysm they probably don't want AV battles to last forever again.
Aside from class quests, tier upgrades, and battlegrounds, there are many other things created or conceptualized for level 60 that need to be updated for the L80 (L85) game in order for them to remain valuable as content. And content is king when it comes to entertainment. Updating the game makes the difference between $15 spent and a $15 bargain.
For $15 you can't even buy the family dinner at a fast food restaurant, or take a date to the movies. I've paid bigger late fees for movie rental before. $15 is chump change, which is what makes the "Omg, I'm outraged!" customers on the warcraft forums all the more amusing. For $15 you typically can't get anything of quality, but it will buy you a monthly access to the best MMO in the world.
But it is entertainment, and even inexpensive entertainment becomes undesirable if it isn't kept fresh. Television has done a good job of proving this for us. Warcraft has a huge world filled with entertaining activities, and to a large extent it is all replayable with different characters, but there are some things that should be changed because the game itself has changed so much over time.
Back at level 60 there were two sets of divergent changes being made to the game. On the one hand there were additional features being added to the game - battlegrounds, guild banks, etc. - and on the other hand there was additional content being created specifically for the 1-60 leveling experience. Some of these things are still fresh and fun, but some have become obsolete and should be either upgraded, or removed.
The first one that comes to mind is class quests. Back in vanilla Blizzard decided that it would be fun to add in class-specific quests (all of them requiring a visit to the Sunken Temple instance) that would add to the uniqueness of each class. For example, as a priest you need to visit ST and kill the dragon Morphaz and bring a vial of his blood back. In return you can choose between a ring, wand, or trinket. All three items are fairly worthless, and are guaranteed to be replaced in about six levels when you venture into Outland.
The concept at the time was that you would learn something about the instance, something about the lore of your class in relation to it, and you would gain an item that would help you level and possibly not be replaced until you raid at level 60. Well, these days are long gone. No one does their class questline anymore because it's pretty tedious and the rewards are really low. I would wager that more people complete this questline at 80 when they try to get the Loremaster title than people who are at-level trying to just get quests done for leveling.
It's a good concept, but the rewards don't hold up over time. The instance itself is pretty confusing and irritating - spiral stairs that overlap each other, mobs and bosses on multiple levels inside the temple, gobs of trash in small fight spaces. It feels like a parking ramp sometimes (where did we park again? which stairway goes where?) and has some sequential kill requirements that are a turn-off to casual dungeon crawlers.
Another thing that was added at level 60 was the tier 0.5 dungeon set. The tier 0 set was the blue (mostly BoP) drops from 5-man dungeons all over Azeroth, and dungeons had to be run multiple times to collect all the pieces from each to put together a set for all the bonuses. Tier 0.5 was a set of questlines added on top of that that allowed you to upgrade your gear pieces to 'light epics' that were superior to the basic dungeon set, but inferior to the raid set you could get from Molten Core.
On RP servers sometimes people will run dungeons and collect the gear and then do all the questlines to upgrade the gear just so they have a unique set they can walk around in on occasion, but no one does this stuff anymore for practical reasons. At level 58 when you can enter Outland your first quests will reward you with items that are far superior to Molten Core gear, much less tier 0.5, so it makes no sense to do this process for anything other than intrinsic reasons.
And then there's the issue of Alterac Valley. Once upon a time it was a battlefield of epic proportions, with NPCs stopping players from running willy-nilly all over the map, and battles took hours (occasionally even days!) to complete. There are a lot of people who miss that type of battle, one where lines needed to be maintained, and the fighting is mandatory instead of just being a race to PvE the opposing general.
In Cataclysm they are removing marks of honor for battlegrounds, opening up the possibility for Alterac Valley to be restored to its original state. The reason AV was reduced in difficulty was because Blizzard wanted each battleground to last about the same amount of time, so that marks were fairly equal in value, but if all the marks are eliminated then it's possible for them to restore AV to its original state. However... since they are including the Daily Battleground option in Cataclysm they probably don't want AV battles to last forever again.
Aside from class quests, tier upgrades, and battlegrounds, there are many other things created or conceptualized for level 60 that need to be updated for the L80 (L85) game in order for them to remain valuable as content. And content is king when it comes to entertainment. Updating the game makes the difference between $15 spent and a $15 bargain.
Monday, March 15, 2010
What Makes a Main?
For those who aren't fluent in Warcraft, every player is allowed 10 unique characters on any realm (server), and a total of 50 across your entire account. You can only play one at a time, of course. Of all of your characters there is probably one that is your "main", and the rest are "alts". Sometimes people will have more than one main. Sometimes people can't identify their main, they love all their alts. To make this a little clearer, I will attempt to lay out the guidelines that help you identify a "main".
First things first. When you first log in to the game, which character do you want to log in and spend time on first? Yes, you want to check your auctioneer mule, and there may be some reason why you need to see something on an alt, but most of the time you are logging in your main to check everything out and remind yourself of the things you want to get done with that character today.
Say hello. Even if there aren't any raids tonight and you don't feel like running your daily for a couple frost badges, you probably log into your main to say hey to other people and see who's online (because wow is just an interactive 3d chat client, amirite?). You may do this with ventrilo instead, but there it's even easier - the name you use on vent is often the name of your main. Your main is probably the identity you use on the forums also.
Levels. This is easy: We toy around with a lot of classes, but our main is usually our highest level character. If you only have one L80 character then it's probably your main. Given that we're over 5 years into this game, by now most experienced players have more than one L80.
Achievements. Somethings are fun to do once, but not twice. If an achievement comes up that you'd like to get done for a character, odds are there's a character you'd like to do it with in favor of your others - that one is probably your main. Your level 80 alts may be under 2000 achievement points, but your main will be over 4000, have the rare pets you found, have a bunch of titles, etc.
But... The things above are just indicators as to what your main might be. In actuality, your main is always the character you spend the most time playing. I have seven or eight level 80s (I forget atm) and two of them are highly competitive. But right now, my main is the priest I'm playing. I don't really care if my rogue progresses any further (even though it may become my main again in Cataclysm), but my priest is fun, and I'm playing it full-time. Therefore, it's my main, and I have several L80 alts.
That's it. Your main is the character you are mainly playing the most.
First things first. When you first log in to the game, which character do you want to log in and spend time on first? Yes, you want to check your auctioneer mule, and there may be some reason why you need to see something on an alt, but most of the time you are logging in your main to check everything out and remind yourself of the things you want to get done with that character today.
Say hello. Even if there aren't any raids tonight and you don't feel like running your daily for a couple frost badges, you probably log into your main to say hey to other people and see who's online (because wow is just an interactive 3d chat client, amirite?). You may do this with ventrilo instead, but there it's even easier - the name you use on vent is often the name of your main. Your main is probably the identity you use on the forums also.
Levels. This is easy: We toy around with a lot of classes, but our main is usually our highest level character. If you only have one L80 character then it's probably your main. Given that we're over 5 years into this game, by now most experienced players have more than one L80.
Achievements. Somethings are fun to do once, but not twice. If an achievement comes up that you'd like to get done for a character, odds are there's a character you'd like to do it with in favor of your others - that one is probably your main. Your level 80 alts may be under 2000 achievement points, but your main will be over 4000, have the rare pets you found, have a bunch of titles, etc.
But... The things above are just indicators as to what your main might be. In actuality, your main is always the character you spend the most time playing. I have seven or eight level 80s (I forget atm) and two of them are highly competitive. But right now, my main is the priest I'm playing. I don't really care if my rogue progresses any further (even though it may become my main again in Cataclysm), but my priest is fun, and I'm playing it full-time. Therefore, it's my main, and I have several L80 alts.
That's it. Your main is the character you are mainly playing the most.
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