WoW Review - Part IV

Click here and read.

File complaints with the complaint department... 2nd floor on your right.

Lost rank... again...

14,000+ honor this week. Now I know it isn't alot... but I firmly thought it was enough to keep rank 5.... RANK 5 of 14. Not only did I lose the 1/6 of rank 5 I had... but I lost 1/4 of rank 4 I had. This was about 4 hours of BGs last week... about all I care to play anymore. I'm sorry but if that means I can't maintain my rank... I am not playing WoW.

WoW's PvP before BGs was fun and fighting around the world was a blast. That sort of PvP is gone... since there is motive behind the fights now. WoW destroyed a good thing... in a bad way. Enjoy farming your BGs... contimplating my next move.

WoW the master of the bait'n'switch and carrot on a stick.

I guess Blizzard is happy having the majority of players rank 3 or below... because that is all I see now. So much for the promise of rank 1-9 being filled by people that can't dedicate 3+ hours a day to BG farming.

Pondering a return to DAoC?

DAoC recently released three new servers with the title of "classic"... meaning no Trials of Atlantis(ToA) (no more master levels and artifacts) and no buff bots. These were two of my largest issues with DAoC orginally. You needed a buff bot to compete and after ToA you needed to be ML 10 with a full set of level 10 artifacts.

On top of the new servers Mythic also announced "The Island". Movie title monkey-business aside this fixes another issue I had with DAoC's New Frontiers mini-expansion. There was no longer an area to frequent for reliable RvR action... leaving tower camping power groups and stealth wars as your soul enjoyment.

So this leads me to ponder a return. A new account... a new life in DAoC. Stay tuned.

Blizzard, master of the bait'n'switch?

A great thread over at Dizzarian.com has been going for a couple days now debating whether or not Blizzard is the new master of the bait'n'switch with World of Warcraft (WoW).

The thread started from a post I had made on this blog about WoW's casual gameplay vs. its end game level 60 hardcore only content.

Good read and feel free to contribute. No highlights needed, as the whole thread is good.

Read up.

Update: 11 May, 2009 - Edited post. Removed broken link (the thread is lost 4ever).

July 26, 2005 Required Reading

I am going to start posting required reading; or article and news tidbits I feel are required reading for the Heartless_ Gamers out there.

Starting it out is this Gamedev.net in depth look into MMO development.

Read it. Love it. Comment on it.

Update: 11 May, 2009 - Edited post and applied labels.

The problem with engineering...

Can't log into WoW at the moment... won't bring up my realm of Azgalor. So I did some we surfing. Found this little tidbit about engineering in an online gaming journal.

It is a good read... here are the highlights.

"Basically Engineering cannot be the only Profession that offers "personal power/ability growth". If Engineers gain such growth through Sapper Charges, Mind Control Caps, and Fire Reflectors -- than other Professions must offer similar "personal power/ability growth" that is also restricted and unique to each of those Professions."

-Very true. Engineers get so many gadgets that only they can use... making it in reality the "must have" profession for the serious PvP gamer. It is sad and was pointed out in beta... over and over... and even after the nerfs to beta engineering it is still completely unbalanced against other professions.

"Nerfing is not the answer. It would not solve the problem either, because eventually Engineering items would grow in power for a 3rd time, and we'd bere here for the 3rd time. The solution is to bring other Professions up to par with what Engineering offers to Engineers personally in combat."

-So true... when will MMO developers start trying to fix things instead of just dumbing them down or nerfing them? Sometimes a nerf is a fix... but more often than not its just the easy way out instead of putting actual thought into it.

BF2 Patch 1.03 announced.

Link.

"Server and Client performance improvements
Improved Server Browser – added Favorites and History Lists.
Point-farming prevention - game will stop Support/Medic/Engineer point farming exploits.
Squads - locked squad leader will get a message if someone wants to join.
Many HUD improvements - see the names of others in your vehicle, zoom level changing depending on vehicle, map zoom depending on map setup (16, 32 or 64 player map) etc.
Teamkilling changes – the logic of how teamkills are tracked will be changed.
Gameplay tweaks - the way transport helicopters work will be tweaked.
Additional scoring changes - players who destroy an enemy commander's assets will be given points."

Looks good so far. I am curious to see the exact effect on transport helicopters. Blackhawks are currently way out of line and unbalancing in the gameplay. Also nice to see spec ops getting the points they deserve.

WoW Review - Part III up in reviews...

Click here for Part III.

Enjoy!

Multiple Choice Test

My addiction to WoW is being sawed off by a rusty hack saw known as...

a. Battlegrounds

b. PvP honor system.

c. Lvl 60 instance grind.

d. All of the above.


If you get it wrong... do not pass go and do not collect 200 dollars.

Update: 14 Sept, 06 - Reviewed, labeled, and edited.

Battlefield 2 Review - Part I is up in reviews.

Check it out here.

Let me know what you think.

Ahhhh the memories...

Browsing the net I ran into a write up on the history of the Atlantic shard in UO... which I played on faithfully for over two years.

Link.

Enjoy the read... UO was truly a great game once.

BF2 has me hooked

And I'm not stopping anytime soon. I have played WoW only for a few battleground runs in the last few days. In the same time I have logged nearly 30 hours of BF2 and it has me hooked... hooked hard.

It is a great game when played with friends. The ranks and stat tracking by the game is so far excellent.... aside from the "stat padders" who have their own ranked servers to exploit on. EA/Dice seem to be 100% commited to remove these exploited scores from the ladders and ban the user's account. Good to see.

BF2 is still not a perfect game and still needs a few patches to get it right. It seems all the time was spent making the game look awesome and then at the last minute a server browser and squad manager were thrown in without any functionality.

I love this game.

Check up on me and how I am doing.... my stats can be found here.

Top 5 ways to be Teamkilled in BF2...

Can't quite get to 10... but I tried.

As with my other post X's denote deaths I've experienced. A Y indicates TKs that I've committed.

X 5. Artillery strike right as you are about to cap a flag... obviously blue dots tell commanders "Artillery here!".

XY 4. Being run over while repairing a vehicle.

Y 3. Knifed by a jealous pilot/driver who doesn't want you to steal his precious
X 2. Mid air collision from a team mate after you've stolen the enemy's Blackhawk... people really need to get some skill and stop crashing into transport helicopters trying to get 6 kills. FYI 6 TKs get most people kicked off a server and FYI you have missiles and machine guns to SHOOT things down.

X 1. Spawning in front of your squad leader who is a sniper and just pulling the trigger. Must of been a head shot :)

Top 10 ways to die in Battlefield 2...

After a long day and night of BF2 with my boys over at [MW]HQ it is only fitting for a Top 10 list!

X's indicate death's I have experienced personally.

X 10. Lag death.

X 9. Getting knifed while reloading.

8. Sniped out of an aircraft's cockpit.

X 7. Jeep off of a cliff to avoid a tank.

X 6. Artillery yourself as the commander.

X 5. Leaving a vehicle only to have it run you over.

X 4. Hitting 9 one too many times and closing your parachute mid-jump.

X 3. Mid-air collision.

X 2. Being crushed by a supply crate after asking for an ammo drop.

X 1. Teamkilled... which could have a top 10 list of its own.

Another hour gone to the WoW BG que...

Waited an hour today for a WSG group and none started. Not sure if Horde had enough to start one or if Alliance had to few. Not sure. Then I went to join the AV BG and there was only 29 people in it. Of course it tells me there is a 29 minute wait. Lets do some math... 40-29 = 11 slots open. Thanks to Blizzard I succesfully lost Stone Guard (Rank 6) and am on the verge of losing First Seargeant (Rank 5) because during the off hours there is literally ZERO PvP action anywhere... BG's or high level zones.

Pretty sad my WoW time is spent waiting to get into a BG and rarely do I get in one. Instances are no fun anymore and I will never have the time for a 40 man. WoW is dieing for me :(

Blackwing Lair is bugged!

According to this post on VN it seems that after the 2nd boss in the newly released Blackwing Lair the locked door that is suppose to open does not...

WTF!?!?!?!

I am so glad I stay away from 40 man raids into these types of dungeons. Blizzard needs to stop hastely releasing these patches and areas.

Guild Wars flop in Korea?

Seems like SirBruce has some reports that Guild Wars has flopped in Korea selling only 27,000 copies. A sharp contrast to North American sales of 650,000 copies.

This falls in line with bad beta reports and previews that littered Korea. It seems Korean gamers just weren't into the massive PvP concept of a free MMO.

SirBruce further explains that this spells trouble for Arena.net because of operating costs and the fact they are not going to have an expansion out this year to bring in revenue.

Guild Wars was great in concept, but is hindered by a laundry list of mistakes in its gameplay mechanics.

World of Warcraft 1.6 Patch

Since the Blizzard downloader works as well as a fat chick, with emphysema, trying to suck a golf ball through a straw...

Update: 8 Jul, 2007 - Edited post. This will be kept as a placeholder for historical value.

Originally, this post contained links to various World of Warcraft patch download websites.

WoW Patch 1.6

Link to the notes.

My thoughts...

"There is now a progress bar on the Honor tab of your character window that displays how close you are to your next rank."
-Experience bar 2.0

"Players rank 11 or higher can now chat in the WorldDefense channel."
-Anyone say "WorldDefense: WTS [Wang]"

"Frost Shock - Targets that are immune to movement slowing effects will no longer be affected by Frost Shock's movement slowing effect. Damage will still be caused."
-First the nerf and then the fix! Woot!

"Due to significant talent changes, Warriors/Warlocks will have all talent points refunded and can be respent."
-Nice to know they get do-overs... because we all know changes and nerfs don't affect other classes talent builds.

"Fixed some typos in Gilnid's text in The Deadmines."
-Man that was pissing me off!

Fix WoW Battle Grounds!

Read this over at Grimwell.com and then consider the following...

Why is WoW's system so dramatically different between PvP and PvE? Beta PvP had item damage upon death which proved to work very well to deter zergs and promote good PvP. The only problem was that people didn't fight unless they outnumbered their opponent and could ensure an easy victory.

WoW has quickly taken a change for the worse. The battlegrounds(BGs) are a rampant mass of people spawn charging every 30 seconds from graveyard to graveyard. There is relatively no PvP outside of the BGs now. The BGs themselves are all about one huge penelty.... lost time. You wait 30 minutes or more now to get into them only to have one side dominate the map in the first 15 minutes and then its back to waiting.

The few times you get into the 40 vs 40 BG it closes way to fast. When you get into capture the flag you are doomed without a good group. And watch out if you play during the off hours... the BGs will rarely be open for you to enjoy due to a huge lack of players.

Not to mention that PvP ranks seem impossible to maintain anymore with most people slipping way down in the ranks because there is no longer a surge of people to kill.

WoW's PvP is fast and fun... I am not arguing that it is not. But the system as a whole is horribly ineffecient and results in a net loss for everyone.

Fixing the system is another post in itself. This was meant more to make people think. USE THAT BRAIN!

Top 10 things I learned on summer vacation!

10. Teaching a girlfriend how to fish is infinately easier than teaching her to golf.

9. Thirteen hour car trips are fun... even better when followed by three hour trips back to your own house.

8. There is enough dead bugs on my car for me to officially nickname it RAID.

7. Sun Drop is better in the glass bottle.

6. Sun tans are great... the pasty white area left where your shorts were is not.

5. Farting in church is wrong.

4. Slowly passing cops near the speed limit and then accelerating when they are well behind you will still get you pulled over.

3. When the sign says "Lane ends, merge" don't try to skip ahead down the open lane that is about to end... merging later just slows down everyone else.

2. One million people attending the "Taste of Chicago"... and I was damn glad not to be one of them.

1. Wisconsin > *