Breaking News: Brett Favre Signs With Vikings

All the Favre haters can step down for another year. Favre signs a 2-year deal with the Vikings.

The 39-year-old quarterback turned his back on retirement for the second time in as many years, agreeing Tuesday to play for the Minnesota Vikings.

"I felt I did everything I possibly could do to get where I need to be," Favre said Tuesday. "You're 39, your arm may not feel like it did at 21. But the pieces are in place that you don't have to do that much and I agree with that.

"If they were willing to take that chance, I was, too."

My comment: epic! I love Brett Favre.

Scott Jennings in Left Field, Finds Dust

I predicted that in 2009:

8. An MMO project will come out of left field this year and surprise us all. Scott Jennings may or may not be involved, but he’ll blog about it regardless.

Sure enough, Scott Jennings does not disappoint. Read his blog post: CCP comes out of left field, shoots everyone in head. So, he's not involved, but he blogged about. For those keeping count, that's TWO predictions proven true this year.

Personally, I don't feel this has come out of left field. When CCP announced Dust 514, a lot of us suspected it was their fabled and quasi-demonstrated first person avatars addition to EVE Online. Sure enough, they've announced it as such:

The announcement, with the trailer tagline of “one universe, one war”, came at the end of a talk about the history of CCP. It left many GDC Europe keynote attendees — perhaps expecting an announcement for World Of Darkness, CCP’s other rumored project — significantly surprised.

The trailer, with slick in-game graphics, showcased a space station and then impressive first-person shooter gameplay. Petursson said that Dust 514 is “our take on a console MMO”, and was made after the company “looked hard at what people wanted to do on consoles”.

In fact, when Dust 514 launches, the map of EVE, currently divined only by player structures owned in the PC game, will also take into account infantry successes and failures within the console game. Players in the PC MMO can “fund mercenaries and give them goals” in the console title.

CCP’s Petursson hope that “these communities will meld over time”, expecting specific Dust 514 corporations to start with, but eventually social structures that bridge across the two. He quipped of the new game and the relationship between the two titles: “While the fleet does the flying, the infantry does the dying.”

So, I have to disagree that its as far out of "left field" as Jennings makes it out to be. Maybe I can bite on the console and PC interaction, but overall it was pretty much expected.

I'm interested, but I have to see it in action (outside of a developer walk through) before I can give my blessing. I am still not enthused by how CCP treats the EVE community, letting a few gremlins cause a shit-ton of damage for no other reason than CCP can't control their own developers, let alone the community.

Aion Gold, Forgotten

Aion has gone gold. However, it's pretty much forgotten with the rumor mill working overtime for the upcoming Blizzcon and potential World of Warcraft expansion announcement.

Brighton, England - 17 August, 2009. Today, NCsoft, the world's premier publisher and developer of MMOs, confirmed that Aion has been released to manufacturing. Aion is the highly anticipated game that has already taken Asia by storm and has quickly become one of the world’s largest MMO franchises ahead of its release in Europe on 25th September.

Actually, if Blizzard doesn't shock the world and announce that the next WoW expansion will go live in September or October, Aion has fit into a nice slot for release. While I don't believe WoW expansions kill off new games (actually the opposite, it probably helps some), any success is measured against an awfully big stick. Especially for a game like Aion that is so close in terms of potential players with WoW.

Oh, and Aion is available via Steam!

World of Warcraft Is The Best Game I've Ever Played

There has got to be something going on in the universe when I agree with Darren.

First and foremost, I will revisit WoW off and on for as long as it is still active….especially with each expansion. My opinion (…please repeat that word to yourself…heh…) is that you cannot intelligently comment on MMOs unless you’ve played or are playing WoW. Like or not, it is the yardstick and will continue to be so until we all agree that something else is the yardstick.

I'll go one further. World of Warcraft is the best game I've ever played. I don't think you can intelligently comment on the modern gaming market without having played WoW. There are NO other games even close to World of Warcraft in terms of gaming, cultural, and online impact. For jumping sake, Leo Laporte, even plays World of Warcraft. If you haven't played it, and you're opining on the gaming market, your opinion is going to be short-sighted.

Why is World of Warcraft the best game I've ever played? Simple. I sat down to play WoW and it was immediately apparent that the game was a pleasure to play and I couldn't explain for a split second why. Every other game that I've ever played has had some sort of adjustment period or some sort of immersion breaker. I could explain to you how the game could be made better the first time I sat down to play it. I was lost for comment with WoW. The initial game is perfect in my book.

Now, even the best things in life break down at some point (chocolate melts, Star Wars has prequels, etc). WoW eventually turns out to be just another MMOG, but god damn does it hide it well.

Warcraft Cataclysm Expansion: Re-subscribing On A Rumor, Almost

I have complained that Blizzard was ignoring the original world of Azeroth in World of Warcraft in favor of new expansion areas that had increasingly differing rules. I argued that it would be beneficial to update the out-dated world to keep the game fresh and entice players (such as myself) to resubscribe.

I never dreamed that Blizzard would actually do it or that there would be rumors about them doing it. Blizzard has always been adamant about focusing on new content, not retreading old ground. So, here comes the rumor train from MMO-Champion:

New Content

Cataclysm will be the first expansion not to introduce a new continent, instead making use of previously unreleased zones and revamping existing ones.

Classic Azeroth Revamp
A cataclysmic event caused by Deathwing and Azshara will change the face of Azeroth as we know it. Most of the new content for Cataclysm will take the form of a revamped Azeroth, taking advantage of newer additions to WoW such as phasing and daily quests. Most of the quests and mobs in the classic zones will also be redesigned to make leveling less painful. With the revamp, a greater narrative and sense progression will be offered to players. Some zones and dungeons will change drastically to fit this, e.g.,

* The Barrens will be split into two separate zones of two different level bands.
* Azshara will become a low level (~10-20) zone.
* Some of the zones like the Thousand Needles will be flooded.
* Durotar is wrecked and apparently Orgrimmar could be destroyed. A new Orc city is rebuilt over the course of the expansion.
* Gnomeregan will be part of the expansion as well and gnomes might be able to reclaim their capital. (The last part is still unconfirmed)
* Wailing Caverns will be become a lush tropical area as a result of the druid's magic.
* The Blackrock Spire will erupt and a new version of Blackrock Mountains will be available, apparently Ragnaros will be back too.


In the aftermath of the cataclysm, and the new conflicts on the horizon relief efforts can be found in many zones and new open PvP areas similar to Lake Wintergrasp.

Flying in Azeroth
Part of the redesign of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor is the introduction of flying to the two continents, allowing access to many new areas and quicker traveling across the large continents.

Classic Dungeon Revamp
Redesigning Onyxia's Lair in Patch 3.2.2 was just the first step. As most of the leveling will take place in revamped areas of Azeroth, so too will the dungeons, allowing players to use them to level from 80 to 85.

Unreleased Zones & Dungeons
With the addition of flying mounts to Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms and the redesign of many zones, most of the previously unreachable or incomplete zones will now be made available to players. This is where most of the new content from 80 to 85 will take place. Some of these are,

* Hyjal (present)
* Gilneas - The Worgen starting Zone.
* Uldum


It is unclear if the old Goblin locations such as Kezan and Undermine will be included in Cataclysm with the revelation of the goblins' plight, but several new islands have also been risen from the seas by the events of Cataclysm, some on the backs of giant sea turtles and whales, with the addition of several underwater zones.

I can't even begin to explain, conceptually, how great of an idea this is, but I will try to outline three major points: live events, theme-park-itis, and player density.

Live Events:

Restructuring the original world will give Blizzard the setting for multiple, great live events. Players love the old world and I have no doubt they would love to participate in live events focused on reshaping the world. To help spread players out, Blizzard could have simultaneous live events across all affected zones.

With the phasing technology of Wrath, Blizzard could do something utterly amazing and unseen in the MMOG market.

Theme-park-itis:

I have to admit, that I've only played up to The Burning Crusade and have not touched Wrath, so this may be unfounded to players that have exhausted Wrath's content. I also waited a long time after TBC's launch to start playing the expansion. I was still running around Eastern Plaguelands when most players were level 70 and parked in Shattrath. When I first started the content in Outlands, it felt very much like a theme park ride. There were bombing runs, very "on rails" quest lines, and a completely foreign landscape.

It felt very different from the vanilla WoW I was coming from. The Burning Crusade felt like a giant theme park. Eventually, this annoyed me as vanilla WoW felt abandoned and far too plain in the wake of TBC's new mechanics (flying, world PvP objectives, bombing runs).

This theme-park-itis, as I like to call it, is common place in Diku-inspired MMOGs. Everquest has lasted ten years on the concept. It eventually makes the game world feel non-contiguous and broken. If these WoW rumors are true, Blizzard could escape creating another theme park and revitalize a portion of the game world that could drive tons of players back to the game.

Also, this would bring the features of Wrath and TBC back to the main land. Flying, phasing, etc. This improves continuity tremendously.

Player Density:

WoW has always been a solo-friendly game. It has never required having a group to advance to the max level. However, with the theme parks of Wrath and TBC, players begin to disappear and the world feels very empty at times. Mixing in new content intended for higher players in the old world will create tons of crossover amongst various levels.

The hallmark of MMOGs has always been the random interaction of two players meeting in a world and these changes to WoW will ensure this tradition lives on.

Conclusion:

If these rumors prove to be true, I'm all over the next World of Warcraft Expansion. Hell, I almost resubscribed and grabbed Wrath based on these rumors!

P.S. It amazes me how MMO-Champion is such a massive site, with great inside scoops, but they still haven't invested in a spellchecker.