Fuck, Fuck, Fuck

I've talked up Spore around the Internet as possibly one of the most defining games of all time for the PC. My bravado for the game has taken a -50 DKP hit today with the following announcement:

All it’s taken is one little post and a landslide of others follow. At least that’s what’s happened when Bioware’s Derek French reveals that Mass Effect and Spore will be coming with a fairly hefty piece of DRM attached. It won’t just activate online when you first install the game - it’ll also have to check in to the server regularly to continue working. If ten days go by without a check-in working, the game stops working. In other words, major lengthy internet outage, no playage. Since RPS-comrade Rossignol is going to be having that kinda length of time offline shortly, this has to be frowned at.

DRM kills games for me. I have avoided weighty DRM, and promoted avoiding it, for a long time. I simply refuse to buy games tied down by DRM. What the fuck is EA thinking? DRM that checks in repeatedly, not just upon installation?

My stance on Spore, as a game, is taking a sudden back seat to this DRM issue. I will most likely NOT BUY the game if this DRM makes it through to the final release and there are no alternative ways, such as Steam, to purchase the game.

So, as my title states, fuck.

Making Assumptions Makes You an Ass

TG Daily has an article up detailing billions of dollars in lost revenue for Epic and Crytek due to the pirating of their games.

This statement confirms the attitude a lot of game developers discussed earlier this year at the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA. We spoke with Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, and learned that the Unreal Tournament 3 servers received over 40 million attempts at illegitimate access using pirate keys. That number is huge, and the real magnitude comes when you calculate the retail price of $49.99 (59.99 for Collector's Edition).

If those 40 million players actually paid the full price, it would have been nearly $2 billion more in Epic’s pocket book. That is more than the quarterly sales results from Nvidia or AMD. To add another perspective, the government lost out as well, because no sales tax is earned on pirated copies.

This is almost as fun as saying World of Warcraft has 10 million subscribers, so 10 million x $15 a month = $150,000,000 a month in revenue! It is just simply wrong, just like saying that 40 million attempts to join an Unreal Tournament III server with a pirated key is equal to $2 billion dollars in lost revenue. Yippee for broad assumptions!

The fact of the matter is, that it has NEVER and WILL NEVER be shown that people who steal a copy of a game (referred to as pirating in the article) are willing to pay for it in the first place.

Unfortunately, the truth for both Epic and Crytek, is that they built games far above the power curve. The paying consumer base voted with their wallets and told Epic and Crytek that no, we don't like paying $1,000 for PC upgrades just to play your games. Sadly, they then assumed everyone that stole a copy (not pirated) would of been glad to pony up $60 and now we're here.

What's truly sad is that both games, Crysis and UT3, actually did end up selling above average for each company after slow starts, but since they jumped on the OMGZ pirateZ train early, they can't simply jump off now without looking the part of an ass.

I can't wait for Epic and Crytek to become console exclusive and suddenly realize that when they make a shitty game, no one buys it and no one steals it, which means no one plays it, no one talks about it, and it becomes another $10 wonder in the bargain bin of GameStop.

Battlefield Heroes Beta Sign-ups Soon

Battlefield Heroes, a free-to-play WWII shooter due out later this year, will soon be opening its doors for beta.

Battlefield Heroes is one of those titles that easily crosses a few genres. There's no question, however, that the game has a good chunk of free-to-play MMO shoved within its most gooiest bits.

Eurogamer has the news that sign-ups will be handled over on the official website on May 6th for anyone interested in playing this quirky-go-lucky online shooter. If you somehow haven't seen this inspiring trailer, you really need to check it out. The character screen features plenty of hard-points for character clothing options and the required level/experience-to-next-level indicator that completes the MMO addiction trifecta.

It goes without saying that we'll be tossing our hats into the beta ring. The gameplay looks exactly how you would imagine a WWII-cartoon-styled persistent online first person shooter -- or WW2CSPOFPS if you love acronyms -- would look like; strangely awesome.

Just for history's sake, this will most likely be the third Battlefield game I will play. What's funny about that is the fact that I skip every other one. I played Battlefield 1942, skipped Battlefield Vietnam, played Battlefield 2, skipped Battlefield 2142, and will probably be playing Battlefield Heroes.

Warhammer Concern

Looking over recent releases from the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) circle, both beta leaks and official information, I have a concern I want to voice. Yes, I said beta leaks, but they are merely confirmation of what is publicly speculated at large.

First, WAR seems to be treading a dangerous line towards the traditional problem most class-based MMO PvP games have: ranged standoff fights. In a ranged standoff, ranged classes spend the entire fight pea-shooting each other back and forth. Any attempt to gallantly charge the enemy down as a melee class is met with death at the hands of the ranged classes.

Now, since WAR is focusing on a lot of keep and castle sieging, the ranged DPS problem is actually OK in my book in certain situations. Ranged DPS should be king in keep fights, simply because melee are physically blocked by keep walls and should be focused around helping take the doors down.

However, what seems to be happening currently (and this is just beta), ranged DPS is king in every single fight. They do massive damage, have tons of crowd control, and for the most part can just walk away when approached by melee.

I think there are a couple contributing factors to the ranged stand off problem. First, the fact that ranged DPS is insanely high. Plus, the ranged classes have a ton of crowd control, as I mentioned. Secondly, and more importantly, the ability for healers to stand in the "back line" and heal the ranged DPS while they have fun. This means tanks/melee DPS don't get heals when they charge, because both the melee and healer are cut down from range. Players are smart and will maximize their progress potential and if that means healing the ranged DPS, who are getting all the kills, then that is what will happen.

That is not how WAR was advertised early on. Mythic was very strong about healing being minimalistic and requiring the healing classes to fight first while they "built up" healing power to heal later. It seems that is not the case any longer, with healing classes able to sit in the back row and heal away on the ranged DPS classes. I hope this is not how the game goes live, because I am sick of pigeon holed healers that just spam heals. Healers should be forced into combat and should be required to stay fairly close to their healing target.

This gives tanks renewed purpose as they have to go in with the healers to defend them with defensive skills such as bodyguard and the fact that through collision detection they can physically block opponents. This also allows melee DPS to get into the fight following the tank and healers in. Then ranged DPS can come into the fight. The battle then becomes a far more classic fantasy fight, with a grand melee in the middle of a bigger fight.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem the direction that WAR is going any longer. Which brings up problems of its own. Namely, the fact that Mythic has brought stealth back into the game for melee DPS classes. This is a direct result of ranged DPS cutting down melee classes. Now the melee DPS classes are "stealthed" and thus can't be targeted as they approach. Bad design decision in my book, regardless of how limited the stealth is.

This will not ruin the game, but it will definitely create problems as once again far too many ranged DPS classes get played compared to healers/tanks. Thus going right back to the problems of tank and healer shortages every diku-inspired MMORPG has had since Everquest.

Oh well, keep sieges are still looking kick ass.

Ganking, Deal WIth It

Blizzard has a solution for ganking: deal with it. In Blizzard's eye, players have a choice of where to play. Even if someone started on a PvP server, they are only a server transfer away from PvE friendliness.

I guess that little PvP indicator on the Server Select screen needs to be changed then and be replaced with a "You will be ganked." sign. I've played on a PvP server since launch and since about my third month I can't remember finding PvP anywhere on the server. Yes, battlegrounds and arenas are there, but those are within my battlegroup, not server.

Let me cut to the chase. I don't disagree with Blizzards point. If someone doesn't like getting ganked, don't play on a PvP server. If that isn't an option, then get some people and fight back. If that fails, just stay home and come out only when the area is clear two miles in each direction.

Sadly, none of these cover my situation, the "I'm playing on a PvP server, looking for PvP, but all I keep finding is ganking." None of Blizzard's little quips exactly helps. I reckon I am not the only one that rolled on a PvP server four years ago expecting to get a few years worth of PvP out of it.

Unfortunately, a "PvP server" tag is not indicative that PvP will take place on that server. Breaking it down, Battlegrounds and Arenas exist on all server types. PvP combat can take place in all zones on any server.

The only distinction for a PvP server is that PvP doesn't have to be switched on, its always on, and can not be switched off. That isn't even all that hardcore. Players know its coming and expect it to happen. They simply stop, die, and run back to their grave. Click "Accept" and its back to business as normal.

Hardcore would be a player playing on a PvE server with their PvP flag toggled on at all times. This ensures no moment of safety, as the player is truly vulnerable anywhere in the world. Plus the only way this type of player gets to jump someone is when they have set themselves for PvP as well, meaning they are fully willing and able to fight.

This type of player only gets to fight when someone else deems them worthy to fight. No easy kills for this type of player and my guess is they would just get mind-numbingly ganked by players that flag and unflag themselves, until they swapped over to a "true" PvP server. I personally gave this method a go for 47 levels on a Mage and it actually lead to a few well balanced fights, but mostly it was dirt nap city to gankers. PvP flag enabled on a PvE realm is asking to get ganked, because there is no repercussion.

So, wouldn't that make PvP servers better? The option for revenge is there, open for the taking. Well thats if the player that was ganked also happened to have their epic flying mount, Season 3 gear, and a ganker dumb enough to stick around. But the kind of player that has all that doesn't get ganked in WoW, because they aren't standing still long enough to get ganked. Getting camped? Get friends, and hope they have epic flying mounts and some magical way to ground one.

No, the players that get ganked are players that have no chance in hell to escape, let alone fight back and retaliate. Blizzard is fooling themselves if they think PvP servers are a cut above.

The fact is, most leveling areas up until the major parts of The Outlands are empty aside from the random level 70 causing heartache or farming items. Severe, progress-stopping ganking doesn't even come into play until The Outlands. And that just so happes to be where the gankers get the fun little toys to make a levelers life hell. Epic flying mount? Check. Vastly superior level 70 gear? Check.

Come on Blizzard, how the fuck can Drysc be allowed to spew the bullshit he just did? In the link above, Drysc states "It isn't always going to be fair", to which I say IT IS NEVER FAIR.

I would love for Blizzard to prove me wrong and roll up a new toon on a PvP server and come across any fair fights. It won't happen, because it can't. The majority of players are level 70 and the last thing they want to do when leveling an alt is waste time fighting a fair fight. That leaves the "PvP" up to the fucking gankers and gank squads.

Fuck them, and fuck Blizzard for even dreaming that their PvP servers offer and sort of redeeming PvP content.

Good Call/Bad Call

A while ago I made up my mind that I would not participate in Pirates of the Burning Seas (PotBS), even though I did attempt to try the trial a few weeks ago (without success). At first, I tried to play it off as lack of time leading towards a lack of interest in the game. I completely ruled out the SOE publishing deal as reasoning behind my decision.

I have to admit though, that the SOE publishing deal did sour me on the game as a whole. Looking back, it wasn't really the fact that it was SOE, more than it was the fact that Flying Labs suddenly looked desperate to get this game out the door. Flying Lab was great during the entire development period, always sharing insight into design decisions and never short on previews.

At some point along the line, a decision was made to include avatar combat as a major part of the game. This fell in line with Flying Lab's decision to delay the game, not just for avatar combat, but for a publishing deal as well. This all leads to where PotBS sits today: a sinking ship.

The short story of what is wrong with PotBS can be seen at the previous link, but in the interest of summary here: avatar combat sucks, content is cut'n'paste between nations, and PvP is a negative-sum situation all around. Personally, that is about what I guessed before the game launched. Every preview for avatar combat looked bland, and the explanations behind it sounded dry.

While SOE may get off the hook for this sinking ship, another in their huge pile of sinking ships, I can't help but believe that the delays related to publishing PotBS directly lead to bad design decisions by Flying Labs to include avatar combat, essentially taking away resources from polishing the main features of the game: ship combat and the player economy.

I sit here and believe I made a Good Call in not devoting my time to PotBS. The MMO industry is tough, and getting tougher. More gamers are in the market, but it doesn't seem like any title outside of World of Warcraft can keep them coming in and more importantly, keep them playing.

CCP = Epic Fail

Not much to say here: Eve Online Client Source Code Leaked.

Full source code for the client for popular MMORPG Eve Online was made available recently via BitTorrent on The Pirate Bay. Along with the torrent, the user posts a chat transcript with a representative identified as [IA]Morpheus from Eve’s developer and publisher CCP. In the lengthy and scatological exchange, the poster of the source code attempts to get some answers about CCP’s much maligned security practices, particularly concerning the rife issue of bots and scripting in their flagship game. The conversation was a little less than professional.

I'm sure that player government-thing will get right on this one.

Beta Leaks

There is a certain website that has sprung up recently dedicated to anything and everything that is beta leaking for MMOs. The site features NDA-breaking leaks for Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, and other titles. The main focus of the site is finding "beta leakers" and allowing them to post "beta leaks".

Being a MMO blogger, I appreciate "insider information", so I assumed this beta leaking website would be of value. I truly wanted some juicy information to confirm my worst fears or better, solid information to base my opinion on. Unfortunately, the site isn't about beta leaks and most of the "beta leakers" could be mistaken for misplaced third graders.

What I've found is a Special Ed class in "I don't have a fucking clue about MMOs, but I'm in a beta for one!". The forums for this website are littered with "OMGz this is overpowered", "the graphics suck", and worst of all, "its not like WoW!!!" postings. Someone would have to work really hard to discern any "leaked information" from these rants about games that are still in beta. It would be so easy to just reply a thousand times over "its still beta, how the FUCK can you make any determinations when you are only testing the first few levels of content?".

It really depresses me that these oxygen thieves were given beta slots in the first place. I do get a good laugh though, as about every other day, a "beta leaker" posts their "I got banned" post because they posted a screen shot or video displaying their character's name. At least we know someone is watching closely.

But even worse than the leakers, are the clowns that show up and post in response.
They confuse "beta leaking forum posts" as "this is how the game will be on launch day", and make all kinds of wild assumptions. Some even go so far as to start breaking down numbers, without even having a fraction-of-a-decimal-point of information to base their claims on.
Reading the posts, a casual reader could easily confuse the conversation about beta information, for information about a game that has been around for five years.

Yes, I do still check the website occasionally to see what has been posted, but I doubt I'll keep it up much longer. I don't feel like wasting any more time reading two page posts about some idiot who got into a beta last week, played for a few hours, and absolutely hates the game now. I can get that from normal forums.

Update-adin

One of the coolest parts of playing a Blood Elf Paladin in World of Warcraft is the nickname, Belfadin. Since starting my Belfadin I've received a few different tells asking me how I liked my Belfadin. One from a new player that was watching me destroy Silver Pine forest and one from a friend. My response: "I love my Belfadin."

My Belfadin is now a ripe level of 24. I know, absolutely burning through the levels. One of the most satisfying parts of playing a Paladin is the fact that it is really tough to die. A player literally has to give up control and go AFK for a Paladin to die. The only times I've died are in situations where I was really pushing my luck, like attempting to solo a level 20 elite at level 19 or attempting to ninja mushrooms in front of level 27+ NPCs at level 22.

The "oh shit" buttons built into the class are insane and really let a paladin test the waters of any situation.

Lay on Hands - Instant full heal
Divine Intervention - Invincible for a few seconds, easily able to heal to full
Blessing of Protection - Immune to melee attacks
Blessing of Freedom - Remove any movement impairing effects
Pursuit of Justice - +15% run speed talent, which I like to use in a "stun and run" fashion with Hammer of Justice (stun)

All of this, minus Pursuit of Justice, available to the base class. It really makes me wonder what the hell Blizzard was smoking when they designed Shamans. Originally, Shamans were Horde exclusive and Paladins were Alliance exclusive. It is painfully obvious to me, after just 24 levels, why there has always been more Paladins in the game than Shamans.

With The Burning Crusade, Paladins and Shamans became available to both sides. Paladins quickly trumped the number of active Shamans on the Horde side, while Alliance Shamans remained almost non-existent. The Paladin is just a better designed class, with great features available to players REGARDLESS OF TALENT SPEC!

Paladins are better healers and should Retribution ever get the buff Blizzard has promised, better melee DPS than any Shaman could ever hope to be. Not to mention Paladins can easily spec protection and become a tank, something Shamans will never be able to do. I firmly believe this is because the underlying, base class is far superior to Shamans.

The base of Shamans are Totems and Weapon Buffs, but the best totems and buffs are not available until they are enhanced via mid-to-late level talents. PLUS, to get the REQUIRED +30 yards to range for Totems, Shamans need to spec into the Restoration a little bit. Imagine if Paladin's had to spec into talent trees to unlock any one of the "oh shit" buttons mentioned before AND THEN had to spec into ANOTHER tree to get something like Lay on Hands.

Yes, I am bitter about the way Shamans have been treated by Blizzard. The Totem mechanic has been proven to be flawed since the game launched, but Blizzard has done almost nothing to change the system. Other classes have been completely reworked and overly buffed (Warrior, Warlock), while Shamans have sat idle watching their talent trees and skills get nerfed into mediocrity.

If a flawed Totem system wasn't enough, Shaman weapon buffs have been three quarters useless since the first Shaman dinged 60. To this day, it is Windfury or go home. Sure, Flame Tongue can somewhat compete when a vastly superior, fast OffHand weapon is available instead of a slower one, but in the current WoW, a slow OffHand weapon is not that hard to find. Rockbiter and Frostbrand are NEVER used once Windfury is unlocked and only serve as a filler buff for leveling. Blizzard should just give Windfury at level one to all Shamans, so they get a feel for it before the later levels. It makes no sense to provide a BASIC CLASS MECHANIC that will not follow a class all the way max level.

Shame Blizzard, shame.

Operation Paladin?

I am tired of my Shaman. That is a bit saddening as I've worked really hard to get his PvP gear and if I abandon him now I'll have barely enjoyed instant-ghost wolf, something I've wanted for my Shaman since 2004.

However, it is apparent to me that Blizzard doesn't give a damn about the class, aside from making sure that Shaman's Restoration talent tree is buffed enough to provide another viable healer class.

If I don't respec Restoration I'll probably never get the Badges of Justice needed to get some new gear.

Since I refuse to do arenas, I'll probably never upgrade my current PvP gear from what is available for purchase via Honor.

Lastly, I don't want to farm 2.5k more gold for my epic flying mount, just so I can farm mining nodes. I'd probably be a bit more motivated if I could somehow rain terror down upon Stormwind from an epic flying mount, but I can't so I won't be farming gold any time soon.

Which brings me to my new project: Operation Paladin. At first I was going to redo my warrior, because they melt face in PvP and tanks are always in demand. Yes, it would take some talent juggling, but it would be worth it unlike respeccing Resotration as a Shaman to try and get better DPS gear that still won't mean jack crap for my Enhance DPS build.

But then I did some thinking and figured a Paladin might be more enjoyable. Why? Because Belfadin is a cool nickname for Horde Paladins. Also, I've never enjoyed the level 1-20 Blood Elf content and I figured it's about time I do so.

Plus, Protection Paladins own face in PvE and hold their own in PvP. Mostly, they don't die in three seconds and at some point I fully intend to perform the fabled Bubble Hearth. Actually, that will probably be the first PvP activity I participate in with my Belf-protadin.

Warhammer Online Delayed: Picking Sides

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) has been delayed yet again. Now, for most MMORPGs, the vapourware police would be bouncing off the walls right about now. Fortunately, that isn't the case here. Unfortunately, the "WAR will suck" haters have taken their place. I don't care. I'm dead set on playing WAR, whether it is complete trash or not, and damn the players breaking the NDA (I will post about them soon enough).

With that said, I want to take some time to talk about picking sides in WAR. Literally, what side are you going to play? Destruction or Order? Race? Class?

I've struggled with this decision since I started looking into WAR. Having played a fair bit on the "evil side" for the last few MMORPGs, I figured I would just fall in line with Destruction (Greenskins, Chaos, and Dark Elves). However, I didn't want to constrain myself. I sat down and thought about what would be important to me in choosing a side.

Overwhelmingly, visual style WILL play a huge role in my choice of sides for WAR.

In Dark Ages of Camelot, I rolled Midgard with my guild. Ironically, I caught myself staring at Albion's buildings, cities, and castles. They had working doors! Also, I found myself envious of the fairly human looking races offered on the Albion side, especially considering that my Kobold Runemaster was blue and furry. To me, Albions looked the part of Epic Fantasy Hero, plate armor and sword at hand, but most importantly human.

Then, I started as a Troll Shaman of the Horde in World of Warcraft to roll with a new guild and there I have remained ever since. Aside from Thunder Bluff, the Tauren's home, there wasn't a single visual aspect of the Horde that I enjoy. The races are ugly, the main cities are depressingly drab, and not until The Burning Crusade launched, and with it Silvermoon City, did the Horde even know colors other than brown and rust existed.

Moving back to my topic, picking a side for WAR, visual style will guide me more than any other aspect. Screw class and population balance, they will be sorted out regardless of the side I choose. If a side has a class and race combo that interests me with the visual intrigue I am looking for, I am taking it.

So far, that looks like the Empire, the relative good guys of WAR. They have a very old-world European look to their world. Plus, they are humans and not since Ultima Online have I played something with a normal skin tone.

I completely accept that as the "human" faction, the Empire will attract a lot of newbs, because the human sides in MMOs usually do for some reason. I don't care, WAR is going to be about FUN for me and FUN starts with what I'm looking at as I play the game. So far, the Empire screen shots look amazing.

No, I will not be playing a Witch Hunter, probably the most hyped class for WAR.

World of Warcraft Patch 2.4

Today is the day! Patch 2.4 is on the Blizzard downloader and sometime this afternoon World of Warcraft players around the world will be romping through Sunwell Isle. See the excitement in my typing? See it!?

The basics of the patch for me are: Druid's Cyclone gets nerfed, Shamans get slightly buffed, but Shamans still suck and Cycloning Druids will continue to be crazy-popular in PvP. The status quo remains unchanged.

There will be some new loot to achieve as players cash in Badges of Justice, PvE currency, for PvP rewards. Sorry, there is no way to pay honor, PvP currency, for PvE gear. Blizzard doesn't like PvP to lead to PvE. However, PvE that leads to PvP is awesome in their eyes, because PvE takes like coordination and skillz and stuff. PvP takes no skill, especially for the AFKers and Warlocks.

Yes, I said I was quitting WoW, but I just can't do it. Blizzard is buffing Shamans! Even if it is just a little bit, I've waited too long for instant Ghost Wolf to quit now!!!

Bad News Bears

It has been hell since I've upgraded my computer. First, a mother board. Now, my video card. My EVGA 7800GTX took a dump on me this morning, and in the interest of time, I had to shop locally to find a replacement. Nothing sucks worse than Spring Break without a PC, not only for gaming, but the mountain of homework I need to catch up on.

Good news is that the local computer store had an MSI 9600 GT for close to $200. So, I picked one up and I'm back online. Now about that homework...

Shamans Hit Bottom

It's official: of the top 100 Arena Players in World of Warcraft, 0% are now Shamans. I guess it wasn't bad enough that Shamans were the least played class in game.

I hate to quote Arena numbers as much as the next WoW blogger, but I can't help but notice how EVERY CLASS, OTHER THAN SHAMANS, GETS BUFFED TO COMPETE IN ARENAS. I hate the idea that Blizzard is balancing classes based on Arena gameplay, but it is fairly evident that they are leaning that way currently.

Personally, I think WoW is about as lost as it can get in terms of PvP and class balance. I just want to know when it will be my turn, as an Enhancement Shaman, to be on the top of the OP stack. Actually, I would settle for anything other than the bottom.

Better than Guitar Hero

What I Really Did This Weekend

If you've been following along, I had some spare time to game this weekend. Here is what I played:

Bioschock demo - Downloaded via Steam. Great graphics, killer atmosphere, and exceptional game play. However, I can't help but admit that my first person gaming skills have passed me by. I just could not get a decent grip on my aim to hit any of the mask-wearing freaks in this demo. After finishing the demo, I definitely have thoughts about buying the game.

ET:QW demo 2.0 - I don't know if it was just an error or something, but the demo would not allow me to play online due to "Punkbuster not being installed". Every other Punkbuster game I own works fine and Punkbuster is most definitely installed. Doing a bit of research it turns out that demo 2.0 clients can only connect to Punkbuster disabled servers. I don't have enough time to fuck around with a demo, so I canned it before even trying.

Pirates of the Burning Seas trial - Oops, they don't have a open trial offer. The only trial is through a buddy key program and unfortunately nobody I know bought the game. Well thats a lie, I did find one person who offered to send me a key, but never actually sent it. If I do get the key I will probably give it a go.

Peggle Extreme and Peggle Deluxe Demo - Peggle simply rocks, and not just because it is available via Steam. Peggle Extreme comes packaged with The Orange Box, but I had never paid much attention to it. Due to some no-Internet time (bad storms this weekend), I played a good bit of Peggle. I was thoroughly enthralled with the game and downloaded the Peggle Deluxe Demo as well.

The game is very casual at heart, but definitely hits on some hardcore gaming tendencies (high scores, replays, combos). I found myself alt-tabbing into Peggle repeatedly while playing World of Warcraft and Portal, but often not alt-tabbing back! The actual game costs only $9.95 through Steam and should the wife approve the purchase order, I will own it soon.

Portal - Also part of The Orange Box, Portal is an award winning puzzle game. I admittedly have never finished this spectacular game. I am actually still sort of stuck on a certain level, but I forget which one. If it wasn't for Peggle I would of probably beat the game and downloaded some fan-made bonus levels.

World of Warcraft - Sadly I must admit that I played an unhealthy dose of World of Warcraft on top of everything else. I deleted my warrior alt and started a new warrior alt. Why? Because Undead are cooler than Trolls.

I also spent a good amount of time running battlegrounds on my main, Tanglefoot the Troll Shaman. I earned enough honor for a new piece of Vindicator's gear and am halfway to another piece.

I also got around to grinding honored reputation with every faction needed to gain access to all the Heroic Mode dungeons in The Burning Crusade. Now, I haven't actually tried a Heroic Mode dungeon, but at least now I can if I so choose.

Smedley Says

I like to play a game, sort of like Simon Says, called Smedley Says. However, in Smedley Says, players don't perform any action when it is prefixed by Smedley Says.

For example: "Smedley Says PS3 MMO set to rival Warcraft!"

Any player that believes that, is eliminated from the game and may be subject to being tagged as an oxygen thief.

I Hate My Glasses

The damn lens just popped out of my glasses. Tiny screw which none of my screw drivers fit. Also, the damn lenses are impossible to clean. I have glass cleaning solution, but I swear it just streaks a filmy mess all over them. Water and soap isn't much better.

Sigh, lose some great gaming hours to get this fixed. My wife will probably laugh it up, since she is out this weekend and gave me permission to game away my time.

Update: Fixed for $2.48, price of screwdriver and extra screws for future incidents.

Talk Is Cheap

Drysc, Blizzard poster, dumped a wall of blue on an "I quit!" post. I've captured the post for posterity below:

It happens, but I'll try to touch upon each of your points and maybe give some small amount of insight and reassurance that they're all points we're either aware of or actively working to resolve.

Regarding spec viability we would definitely like to see every spec at least partially viable, that doesn't mean however that each spec will be equal in a very cutthroat PvP environment like the arenas. A prot warrior or shadow priest or what have you should though be able to jump into a battleground or arena and be able to do something with some small amount of success. How much success that should be is really the question, but our general philosophy is that we're ok with some specs not being as viable as others, we sort of have to be.

There's a synergy within the classes for PvP, as well as PvE, that doesn't lend itself to a model where every spec is exactly the same, exactly as viable as the other, in every situation. At that point we start watering down classes, watering down abilities, copy and pasting, the focus of the game is lost, dogs and cats are living together... mass hysteria.

Moving on to battlegrounds I don't believe we've ever stated that we have fewer maps to keep queue times short, that's not an issue. The issue is the amount of time it takes to create a battleground, and balancing that work time with other areas of the game. Battlegrounds are very labor intensive, Warsong Gulch which is probably the smallest of the battleground maps still has some terrain issues here and there. Playtesting, balancing, making edits, all require a very large amount of resources to ensure a successful battleground.

Now, that's not to say we aren't willing to put in the time, only that we have an entire game to put resources into, and those resources have to be delegated appropriately. The entire team is now working full force on Wrath of the Lich King, and the new battleground it also includes. Hopefully there will be some time to get additional battleground maps into the mix even after it ships. Personally though I think I'm most excited about Lake Wintergrasp just to see how it turns out.

In any case I'm sure the people you've been playing with have appreciated your time with them in the game, and I think you'll be pretty excited with the stuff going on in Wrath once we get a bit closer and can start revealing more and more.
But I hope you had fun, and see you around maybe.

Talk is cheap and I'm just going to come out and call bullshit on this entire post.

First, the idea that Blizzard can't make all specs viable in PvP. I guess he wasn't around when Warlocks, Warriors, Druids, Hunters, and Rogues all were turned into PvP powerhouses. I think what he is meaning to say is "... not all specs will be viable in Arenas."

Secondly, the idea that battlegrounds are too tough to develop alongside expansion packs. I don't see any problems with them pumping out new PvE zones, instanced or not. I don't see any problems with them adding new Arena maps. I don't see any problems with them rebuilding Alterac Valley a dozen times over.

It is well documented that other battlegrounds were in development at some point, but dropped for whatever reason. Fact is, Blizzard dropped the extra battlegrounds to develop Arenas. Blizzard does not care about battlegrounds. They are in it for Arenas and the e-Sport now.

Lastly, I just had to laugh at the Lake Wintergrasp comment. Lake Wintergrasp will be a world PvP objective that will feature siege warfare and procurable objectives. Looking at the history of world PvP objectives it will end one of two ways.

1. The rewards will be extremely popular and everyone will flood the zone. Non-Alterac Valley battlegrounds will pretty much end up at a stand still, until Arena Season 2 gear hits the honor vendors.

2. It will be forgotten after the initial rush of levelers have passed the zone by, just like nearly every single world PvP objective in The Burning Crusade.

I do not see Blizzard toning down the Arena rewards and therefore the majority of PvP rewards will center around Arenas. This eliminates almost any chance that Lake Wintergrasp can fit into the end-game reward structure. Lake Wintergraps will be another epic PvP fail for Blizzard.

Gaming Impasse

I've found myself at a gaming impasse. My wife, bless her heart, is out of town all weekend. That leaves me (plus the dog, cat, and rabbit) alone to game. Unfortunately, I don't know what the hell to play!

World of Warcraft has once again brought out the true Heartless. I spend more time cussing, bitching, and griping than I do playing. I could probably bypass the pain by avoiding battlegrounds and PvP all together, but then what would I do? I don't really enjoy PvE and I'm not really ready to sign up for any raids. My gear would probably get me laughed out of the room anyways.

I could try a new game, but I don't really want to spend the money. Looking at some demos and trials that are out, I have some choices to make. So, I put them in a nice little list.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Demo 2.0 - I played the original demo, but felt the game was a bit messy. Supposedly, the developers have heeded the call and updated the demo to reflect recent changes to make the game more accessible. I guess it's worth giving a try. Bonus: its available through Steam.

Bioshock demo - Game is supposedly great, so hopefully the demo will be as well. Bonus: its available through Steam.

Pirates of the Burning Seas trial - This was supposed to be my next MMOG, but the delay and SOE publishing announcement fizzled my enthusiasm. Lackluster reviews have kept me away since. My worry with the trial is that I will not have enough time to actually enjoy the game. I don't want to spend a couple days grinding for nothing.

Anyways, anyone have some thoughts to spare? I may end up just vegetating in front of World of Warcraft. I'm sure my wife will love this when she gets around to reading my blog again :P

Blizzard: Another Reason To Dump Arenas

Another reason has surfaced that convinces me that Arenas are having a horrible effect on World of Warcarft. It seems that every month a new exploit is unveiled regarding Arenas, the latest being queue dodging, which allows teams to pick and choose whether or not to fight a match and in turn wasting their opponent's time. I have no doubt Blizzard will remedy the situation, but it doesn't matter.

Arenas, and the rewards gained from them, are destroying the game.

It is simple to understand why the Arenas are booming in popularity. The rewards are awesome, gained from one single activity, and for the most part fairly easy to attain (if you are willing to put in the time). The top-end rewards are now being restricted, but Personal and Team Ratings (along with Arena points) are just a few thousand gold pieces away these days.

I've crusaded my entire WoW career for balanced rewards in PvE and PvP. Some would say that is where Arena rewards currently stand, but that does not justify how exploitive the system has become where people are more likely to abuse or buy their way to the top rather than earn it themselves.

The question that comes to my mind is whether these exploits would exist if there was no rewards, aside from bragging rights, to be gained in Arenas. I'm sure some of them would exist, as people still hate to lose, but the widespread exploitation that we currently see would not. There simply wouldn't be the drive to exploit the system for essentially no gain.

Without the gear rewards, arenas would also be far less popular and end up pushing out a lot of the lower skilled teams as there would be fewer equally ranked teams to match them with.

Personally, I think that may be the way to go, as Blizzard preps Arenas for a more professional e-sport presentation which naturally pushes out the lower skilled teams. Blizzard has proven that PvE is their strong point and as a die hard PvPer, I can live with that.

Move the PvP focus back to battlegrounds and world objectives. Vary the rewards across each battleground and world PvP objective, instead of bottling all the great rewards into a single system (ala Arenas currently). Spread the PvP population out instead of forcing everyone into queues to line up for their next Professor Plum.

As a side note, as I leveled up through the Outlands, I couldn't help but feel disgusted at what a waste the world PvP objectives have become. I ignored pretty much every single one, as there was rarely an enemy to fight or challenge and I knew that the real rewards (Season 1 Arena gear) were at 70 and easily gained through the honor grind. Honestly Blizzard, why waste the development time on the world PvP objectives if their rewards are going to be made obsolete?

Oh and did I mention I'm debating quitting WoW again? Guess I did now :P

Unmake That Game

The question, "What game would you unmake?", is floating around the gaming blogosphere currently, and in true form I'm here to chime in with my opinion. As I am fairly narrow minded at times, I'm going to look at the MMOG genre by default.

The game I would unmake? Everquest.

Everything I despise and loathe about MMOGs is epitomized in Everquest. Grinding? Check. Leveling? Check. Harsh death penalty? Check. l33tn3ss? Check. Housing? No. Role-playing? Limited. Player cities? No. Anything other than just playing whack-a-mole? Not really.

Don't get me wrong, Everquest is not the first game to use these mechanics or commit these sins, but it was truly the first large-scale commercial success of the graphical MMOGs. Which in turn spawned the Everquest-clone syndrome that has doomed a hundred projects since. Every developer thought Everquest had it all figured out and subsequently tried to cash in with a game just like Everquest.

Some people will try and argue that World of Warcraft copied Everquest and is now the king of the MMOG hill. Therefore Everquest obviously did something right. But I would argue that WoW took it's ideas from the Diku text-MUDs that inspired Everquest, not from Everquest directly.

In my jaded-gamer view, Everquest also copied the Diku style, but did it in an absolutely horrible way. Everquest was complete and utter trash in comparison to the original Diku style. It added inordinate tedium and frustration to a system that truly worked best in text form over an infant Internet.

Not until WoW launched was the Diku style actually realized properly in a graphical MMOG, and even then it is fairly limited to the leveling portion of the game. The one concession I will ever make for WoW as an EQ-clone, is in the end-game raiding which was heavily lifted whole-sale from EQ (Blizzard just executed it better) and has been fairly directed at the EQ-type of player. However, that is Blizzard's fault for not controlling the former EQers on the WoW development team.

Erase Everquest from the history books and the MMOG genre might actually be at an innovation flood instead of an innovation standstill. Ultima Online, The Realm, Meridian 59, all had better approaches to the online space. All have been ignored.

Don't like my opinion? Comment.

BREAKING NEWS: Blizzard Hates Shamans

BREAKING NEWS: Shaman's Flame Tongue Weapon buff and Warlock's Life Tap nerf have been reverted on World of Warcraft's public test realm. Show no signs of return. Blizzard cites Arena participation numbers as key determinant. Details at noon.

Ok, I'm not that surprised by the rollback. Blizzard is notorious for announcing big changes, only to baulk on implementation and pull them before patches go live. It is just a bit irritating to see Blizzard quoting "Arena participation numbers", of the top few percent of players, as their reason.

Just a cursory glance at the numbers they provided clearly shows some issues for certain classes. Not to mention, an easily noticed abundance of Warlocks in all brackets. However, I am not going to take the time to poke all the obvious holes in the data provided. I'll just hope Blizzard has someone with a brain looking at more than just what was posted.

I truly hope that Arenas are not the deciding factor in everything that is class balance in WoW.

If anything is true of Patch 2.4, it's been a hell of a roller coaster for Shamans! The patch notes started off quiet, but then Blizzard spilled the beans on their plans to "progressively patch the test realm". Instead of releasing a big list of changes, they decided to slowly roll out various changes to the test realm, announcing them as the test realm updated.

I have to admit, the "progressive" approach is turning out to be one hell of a soap opera. One second Warlocks are finally getting nerfed, the next, its another sad joke on the part of Enhancement Shamans everywhere!

Patch 2.4 isn't as bad as I'm squealing about right now for Shamans. Shamans still receive meaningful updates to Ghost Wolf, Totem cooldown, and the Toughness talent. Shamans only lost an anti-healing buff to Flame Tongue weapon, which would have forced Shamans to lose some burst damage in favor of some anti-heal. Sadly, there is no real change to make non-Restoration (healing) Shamans viable in Arenas.

Oh well, at least Blizzard built the Shamans up a bit this time, before crushing them. At least now, I don't have to get a new offhand weapon for my Shaman, and I can stick with the status quo: WINDFURY OR DIE!!!

Favre Retires

Thanks Brett. As a Green Bay Packers fan, born and raised in the heart of Wisconsin, there is not a more iconic character than Brett Favre. He was a superhero, someone I thought I would find in one of my favorite comic books, not on the football field. There he was though, every Football Sunday for the past sixteen years, his #4 hovering over center, poised to strike at any moment.

He set records, won games, lost games, made big plays, but most of all, he played the game the way it was meant to be played. He defined toughness and perseverance, while reminding us that yes, he was still human.

Packers fans lived and died by Brett Favre, watching him match brilliant plays with bad. However, Favre always seemed to come up on top. Broken thumb? Give him a band aid. Bloody puke? Its time for him to throw a touchdown pass. Interception on one of the biggest stages in sports? He's thrown more of them than anyone else, but he's also played more consecutive games, thrown for more touchdowns, won more games, and the list goes on.

Brett Favre, described often as a grizzled gunslinger, never passed up an opportunity at glory. Even in the depths of a losing season, he came to play and fight. In his mind, a win was never more than a gunshot away.

Favre steps down after a year of surprises. The Packers were supposed to be on the bottom this year, they came out a step away from the Super Bowl. Just as opposing defenses often looked on in amazement as Favre threw into triple coverage, the 2007 Packer season amazed everyone that watched.

In my opinion, it is fitting that Favre's last pass, possibly, at Lambeau Field was an interception that cost the 2007 Packers a trip to the Super Bowl. After all, he is only human and was playing in a game that NO ONE expected him to be in. Maybe that is why it is so easy for Favre fans to question whether this really is the end.

Update: 15 July, 2008 - Edited labels and last paragraph in anticiaption of Brett Favre potentially making a comeback.

WINDFURY OR DIE!!! World of Warcraft's PvE-PvP Break

A post over at WoWInsider details a bit of frustration coming from World of Warcraft players recently in regards to class changes made by Blizzard in an attempt to balance Arena matches.

Are we really ready to split the game into World of Warcraft and Warcraft Arena? There will no doubt be a lot of players who want to continue to play their characters in both PvE and PvP, balance be damned. But if Blizzard is as committed as they seem to be to balance Arena as precisely as it needs to be balanced to turn it into a real e-sport, they may have to eventually make the jump and separate the two games completely.

I couldn't agree more. Blizzard has reworked classes, rebuilt talent trees, and tweaked classes in the past. Minor changes were often held back and packaged with other changes to ensure a more comprehensive change for the intended class. Also, past changes had a much broader focus intended to fix problems in PvE and PvP. Most of all, they were never aimed at fixing one specific problem in one specific instance.

Unfortunately, this policy has changed as Blizzard begins a series of directed class and game changes with Patch 2.4 that are aimed squarely at fixing specific Arena problems with little regard to the game as a whole. Enhancement Shamans are getting a semi-overhaul aimed at making them competitive in 3vs3 arenas (quote from dev needed). Drinking is getting nerfed, but only while in an Arena. The Warlock ability life tap, is being significantly scaled back since it is a bit overpowering in Arena matches.

I want to focus on the Shaman changes, because I have played an Enhancement Shaman since late beta. The Shaman changes to the Ghost Wolf, Totem global cooldown, and Toughness help give a little more utility to skills that sparingly see use in PvP and normal play. The totem change will assist greatly in boosting PvE for all Shamans.

One of the main Enhancement Shaman changes, the addition of an anti-healing de-buff to the Flame-Tongue weapon skill, is pin-pointed at improving Enhancement Shamans in only a very specific instance: 3vs3 arenas. In my honest opinion, that is an asinine move on Blizzard's part.

Three out of the four weapon buffs available to Shamans have been all but useless since the game was released. Shamans have pleaded for changes to make them more equally balanced instead of the current standard of WINDFURY OR DIE!!! Instead of admitting that there might be an issue, Blizzard simply tacks on an unneeded addition to Flame Tongue to fix a very specific problem in a very specific instance for a very specific spec.

This just drives me mad. The Enhancement spec is completely pigeon-holed to start with, and now Blizzard makes changes to pigeon-hole them even further in a specific role. I'm not a game designer, but it makes sense to me that class design changes should be aimed at the overall experience of the class, not just a specific instanced problem. For whatever reason, Blizzard has abandoned this approach.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post. World of Warcraft needs to be divided into World of Warcraft: The Game Everyone Enjoys and World of Warcraft Arenas: Serious Business Only. This would allow Blizzard to take far more drastic measures to balance classes for e-Sport competitiveness. Also, it eliminates the gear inflation occurring with the current Arena system. Most of all, it allows those of us who actually enjoy the other aspects of WoW without the hindrance of class changes meant to fix Arenas only (which in turn screws the rest of the game over).

Maybe then, Blizzard could get around to fixing the other weapon buffs for Shamans.

I Can See!

Today is my first day with my first-ever pair of glasses and all I can say is: "wow". I honestly did not realize how bad my vision had gotten. When I sat down in my car after picking up the glasses, I looked at the building and noticed all these little details I could not see without my glasses. There were cracks on the side of the window panes, there was a definite stucco finish to the walls, and I could actually read the sign that said: "Hours: M-F 9am - 6pm".

I am very excited and can't wait to play a game with my glasses on. I can't even imagine what I've been missing. Unfortunately, that may have to wait as my new motherboard isn't arriving until later today and I have a group project to work on tonight. Plus, I will be out of town all weekend :(

Oh well, eventually I will get to see the real World of Warcraft, Team Fortress 2, and Call of Duty 4 I've been missing all this time.

Stage 6, We Hardly Knew Ye

Sad news for those of us interested in quality video watching over the Internet: Stage 6 is closing down on Feb 28th.

You may only be vaguely aware of DivX's Stage 6 video site (which probably explains why it wasn't successful) but it's going to be shut down entirely at the end of February. Stage 6 was DivX's YouTube-like video site meant to provide a bunch of streamable content for living room and mobile DivX players. The fact that it's being canned speaks to how successful the effort was. Most of you won't miss it, but we'll have a special place in our hearts for the handful of nudie clips we found on it that one time.

If you never had the chance to visit Stage 6, you truly missed the REAL DEAL in regards to online video. Stage 6 trumped YouTube in every single category. Stage 6 videos were higher quality, more interesting, and rarely came with the nonsensical comments and "Leave Britney alone!" bullshit of YouTube.

Alas, Stage 6, we hardly knew ye.

New Computer Parts = Broken Computer

TigerDirect.com had a deal I just could not resist. Quadcore processor? Check. Motherboard to support quadcore? Check. Enough RAM to support an eventual upgrade (downgrade?) to Windows Vista? Check. Essentially, this deal had everything I was looking for in my quest for computer upgrades.

At the time, this all made sense. I wouldn't just stumble into the multi-core processing scene, I would blast into it with a quadcore! Unfortunately, in my haste to capitalize on a great combo deal, I didn't do my homework. Now, I'm left out in the cold, posting this via my secondary, can't run World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2, computer.

Everything started out great. Motherboard and hardware install went great. Booted the computer up to my Windows XP Pro CD to do a repair install to update the Windows HAL (hardware abstraction layer) to support the quadcore processor. Install completed perfectly and a short call to Microsoft and my copy of Windows XP Pro was divvied over to my new hardware. Then, I did a bit of work and reinstalled service pack 2 and several other updates.

The computer worked beautifully at this point. CPU temps were holding steady, RAM was working fine, and I was just about to throw this machine into it's first workout. However, I ran out of time for the day and shut the machine down. Unfortunately, that was the last time it was seen running.

Long story short, the motherboard died between bootups. No amount of CMOS resetting or hardware finagling can save it. Doing a bit more research, I am not the only one with a dead XFX motherboard. Every corner of the Internet seems to have someone with a dead XFX nforce 680i LT Sli motherboard. Even the TigerDirect.com customer reviews section is littered with dead on arrival (DOA) motherboards.

I am not some newb to computer hardware. I tear down and rebuild hundreds of PCs every year at work. I've helped numerous gaming friends build kick-ass rigs. I have never been stupid enough to jump on a hot deal. Yet, here I sit with a piece-of-garbage motherboard that needs to be returned. All because I wanted to catch a deal before it ended. I'm learning my lesson the hard way.

If I could, I would return the entire packaged deal, but I opened the CPU and it can not be returned. So, I will keep the OCZ RAM and Intel Q6600 quadcore CPU. However, the XFX nForce 680i LT Sli motherboard is history and I will never purchase another XFX product.

Lesson learned, be patient and smart about your computer purchases.

Heartless Needs Glasses

One of my all-time favorite episodes of The Simpsons, Last Exit to Springfield (show synopsis here), involves a discussion inside Homer's head between Marge and Lenny. Anyone familiar with what I'm talking about will recognize this quote:

"The latest contract proposal gives them a free keg of beer for their
meeting ('Ray!) in exchange for giving up their dental plan. All
rush for the keg.

Lenny: So long, dental plan!
Homer: [thinks...]
Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces."

While I am not currently in any sort of union struggle myself, I did have a similar conversation with my wife about two months ago. My eyesight has been bad for a while, but I've never seen an eye doctor. It finally got to the point where I couldn't read the board at school. Unfortunately, we had opted out of vision coverage for 2007, which then prompted the discussion:

Heartless: [thinks...]
Wife: Heartless needs glasses.
Heartless: Quadcore processor!
Wife: Heartless needs glasses.
Heartless: Quadcore processor!
Wife: Heartless needs glasses."

for 2008.

Well, we elected to have vision coverage this year and I visited an optometrist yesterday. It was fairly painless to determine that I needed glasses, and the optometrist was quite surprised that I've gone this long without them. The lady that fitted my glasses also assumed I've been wearing glasses forever and just needed a new pair. Of course, she figured it out when I looked like a complete newb looking at the various frames available.

Starting next week I am an official four-eyed-geek.

Gen Con Files for Chapter 11

One of the cornerstones of gaming conventions, Gen Con, has had it's fair share of trouble over the past few years. Canceled events, lackluster support, and now a Chapter 11.

Gen Con LLC announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the State of Washington. This action became necessary as a result of significant unforeseen expenses associated with attempts to expand its core business to encompass externally licensed events. Gen Con’s flagship show, Gen Con Indy, remains a vibrant, profitable event. Gen Con Indy will take place as scheduled August 14–17, 2008, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Fortunately, as quoted, the big-daddy event in Indianapolis will continue, so that means that I still have a chance to attend at some point. Hopefully, the Chapter 11 will spur not only Gen Con, but gaming companies, to put a little more effort into the various conventions that so many rely on for word of mouth advertising and new product information.

Ding 70!

Over the weekend I finally hit the magical level of 70 on my Shaman, Tanglefoot, in World of Warcraft. It was a long time coming, but that was my plan. I felt no pressure to hit level 70 until I was pretty much in the later stages of level 69.

When WoW first launched, I wanted nothing more than to just be level 60. So, I raced to level 60. However, when I finally hit 60 the game came to a grinding halt. I didn't have time to run most instances and PvP was still in an infant stage, so my time was spent "farming" the Auction House. I enjoyed that, but it eventually lead to a fairly lengthy break from the game.

The Burning Crusade, WoW's first expansion, launched during that break. I wanted to be there on Day 1, but I held off for the fear of lag, server crashes, and general idiocy surrounding most MMO expansion launches. TBC, to everyone's astonishment, launched fairly smoothly, and I missed it. However, that really doesn't bother me.

There was still a crush of people flooding through the entry areas of the Outlands and resources were scarce. That is one aspect I can say I thoroughly did not have to worry about, because I started my trek towards 70 well after the flood of players had steamrolled TBC.

Also, the auction house was full of bargains when I started. I easily replaced nearly every item on my character with a TBC green for just a few gold per slot. Due to the mudflation of items in TBC, I was far more powerful than most players that started TBC at it's launch. This made the first few levels relatively painless.

Unfortunately, there are a couple things that surfaced due to my late start: lack of groups and level 70 gankers.

With the majority of players already level 70, I often found myself begging guildies or random players for help with elite group quests. This usually meant I didn't complete said quests until I was a few levels higher than them. Dungeons, on normal mode, were also extremely hard to get groups for and at level 70 I still have not visited a good portion of the Outland dungeons.

Secondly, the fact that I play on a PvP server meant that I was ganked my fair share of times. Most level 70's have a) flying mounts and b) pretty uber gear. There was nothing I could do and only once did I ever get the upper hand on a level 70 who tried to gank me. But that is life on a PvP server. Someday there might be PvP, but until then, ganking is the status quo.

In the end, levels 60 through 69 came and went and 70 arrived. In reality, I am back at level 1. I'm just a baby 70, barely able to hold my own in dungeons five levels below me. Fortunately, unlike the original WoW, Blizzard planned accordingly and there is a plethora of new content to experience at level 70. Having purchased my first flying mount, I've unlocked the Barrier Hills and Skettis. I am slowly grinding battlegrounds for honor to unlock new equipment. All-in-all, level 70 is the beginning of another journey, which I plan to fully discuss later.

PC Gamers Rejoice!

Spore has a release date!

Spore, the sim-everything simulator, finally got its amino acids together today and plopped out a release date of September 7, 2008. Looks like EA's boss was right that the long-in-production sim would reach retail "before the holidays" on the PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, and mobile phone platforms. Maxis' main man Will Wright said, "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year." That makes, well ... just about all of us.

Mass Effect is coming to the PC in May!

Given the absurdly long period of time between releases of the Halo games on Xbox and on PC, I wasn’t expecting Mass Effect till we had a new president, at the very least. But today we’ve gotten word that Mass Effect is coming to PC this May.

The game has been optimized for PC, with a new, fully customizable control scheme which will allow you to hot key biotic powers so you can avoid those pesky menus. Between the ability to hot key and higher res visuals, I’m almost sold. There’s also a new decryption mini-game and an “enhanced inventory screen” with a new GUI which hopefully means the absolutely horrendous equipment screens won’t be such a mess anymore.

Porn is still free!

Mark Jacobs Leaves the Door Open to Canceled Classes/Features in WAR

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) has worried me for some time. No, it is not the numerous beta delays or EA acquisition. Actually, I am worried about the lack of information being fed to the community, which is abnormal for a Mythic developed game. Of certain interest to me lately has been the lack of class information being provided which prompted me to post on Warhammer Alliance.

In the post, I speculated that Mythic may be considering cutting classes from the game prior to release. Many argued that it was simply a marketing move. I contended that it makes no sense for a game that was already supposed to be launched to have not released basic information on each of the planned classes. Along with a addition of a new career mastery system, it is feasible that Mythic could scale back on the number of classes they had planned for launch.

Mark Jacobs happened across my post and had the following to say:

Folks,

In terms of the number of classes, marketing, release, etc. It's still pretty simple, we'll release it when it's ready but keep in mind that beta is for chucking what doesn't work in order to replace it with stuff that does work. So, if a class doesn't work out the way we hoped it would, we *might* keep it out on release if we can't come up with a good way to fix it. It would make no sense to either release the game with a broken/bad class or to hold up the game's release if we are not sure even how to fix a bad/broken class. One of the lessons from DAoC's development/evolution was that less is indeed sometimes more. Again, please don't read anything into this post other than the usual "this sort of stuff is what beta is for" disclaimer. Besides, with the new systems we have been putting in, players will have even more options to customize their class than before so I don't think players having a dearth of class/options is something you have to worry about.

Mark

I read it like this: "Folks, we're cutting stuff that isn't working." Which is fine by me, and is to be expected for games still in development. However, it is worrying that Mark, a normally no bullshit type of guy, is leaving the door open for truly blockbuster news that something big could be cut from WAR, whether it be classes or features.

Really though, why all the fuss? The game is still in development and nothing is ever cast in stone until day one of launch. Fortunately, Mythic has communicated almost all major changes to the game and I would hope they would continue to do so. However, as the PvP flagging debate showed a while ago, the general MMO community can't be trusted with information that is left up to interpretation. Thus, why this statement from Mark Jacobs has me worried.

On one hand, he assures us they are doing what needs to be done and telling us that stuff that doesn't work is going to be cut, not band-aided on to the game in some hope it will work in the future.

On the other hand, he shows us that Mythic has the capability to reveal more major changes to WAR. So far, those major changes have been welcomed warmly, but I fear that may not be the case if Mythic starts talking about removing something from the game. We shall wait and see.

Better Than I

Julie Whitefeather is my hero. Earnest Cavalli can now consider himself owned, not by some non-factor blogger like myself, but by a peer within his own field. It is painfully obvious that Mr. Cavalli wants nothing to do with my criticism of his work, but that is where Julie Whitefeather steps in. I will quote her response:

"... If a writer who gets paid to play and evaluate MMO games sees such striking similarities between a promotional video and a prior title, don't you think the average gamer might have trouble differentiating?" - Earnest Cavalli

I wasn't going to respond until I read the sentence above - so while Mr. Cavalli is busy tooting his own horn, perhaps I should give a small toot on my own. Back in undergraduate school - before BOTH master's degrees and before I GOT PAID FOR WRITING (albeit in another field) who would have pointed out the following.

The arts, of any sort, be they video games, a painting on a wall or a movie in a theater is not done for a professional reviewer. They ARE done for the "common man" (a figure of speach I use only to make a point for there is nothing common about each of us).

Having to resort to the phrase "..if a writer who gets paid..." is nothing short of the same response a politician gives when he or she says "I don't think you understand all the issues involved." I see this all the time in MY PROFESSIONAL field. Phrases of that sort are used for one reason and one reason only and that is a cheap last ditch defense that is tantamount to a journalist who, lacking any other sufficient arguement, stands in his own virtual back yard and yells...

"Nyah, nyah, nyah - and so's your mother..."

And while Mr. Cavelli is busy responding to Heartless with "Thank you Heartless for providing an excellent example of why deigning to respond to criticism is generally such a terrible idea" I will respond in kind...

Thank you Mr. Cavelli for such a trite and meaningless response and "deigning" to respond to us all here - you didn't hurt yourself when you climbed down off your pedestal did you? I might also thank you for a response that proves to US the lack of originality in the article you wrote - surely a journalist who deigns to responds to us poor downtrodden masses is worthy of more originality in his work.

I will end with a phrase my dear departed grandmother was wont to use...

Mr. Cavelli, if you can't take the heat - get out of the kitchen

And yes, I will see you on line...

again, and again and again.

p.s. the hours spent on the figurines were for the grandchild of a board member.

While he passes it off as an opinion piece, the truth is that Mr. Cavalli posted an article that has no journalistic integrity! His article shows obvious signs that he paid no attention to the disclaimers given within the video he criticized and more than once he directly contradicts what he is stating. That folks, is not journalism.

I'm glad that my angry rant can be so easily backed up by people that Mr. Cavalli might consider "worthwhile". Respect +1 for Julie Whitefeather.

The Following People Are Wrong

I hate mis-information. Funny to say that, because I'm responsible for my fair share of it. However, I am fairly willing to correct myself. The following people are wrong and need to correct themselves.

NOTE: None of the following have deleted any comments.

1. Someone at DungeonRun.
2. Cameron at Random Battle.
3. Earnest Cavalli, the guy who originally drug out the dead horse, over at Wired's Game|Life blog.

I don't really want to put a lot of energy into this post, but I need to outline a bit of my argument here. First of all, it has been proven, beyond-a-doubt, where the Warcraft universe originated. Mr. Cavalli even states so in his article:

"Of course, I realize the Warcraft universe is functionally lifted wholesale from the Warhammer universe..."

Point numero uno, Warhammer's look was here first, not Warcraft's. Therefore, Warhammer Online has every right in the world to look the way it does without a copycat tag being applied.

Next point on the docket: the game-play in the video sucks and looks staged. Well, that is correct, as stated by Paul Barnett in the video!

Lastly, the proposal that someone could mistake this video for World of Warcraft. We've covered the "similar looks" debate in the first point. I'll bend a little bit here, as WAR is shaping up to play and feel a lot like WoW. However, that is a bit misleading and I'll explain it a bit here.

WoW does a lot of things right. Not just in terms of MMOs, but in the terms of just being a game. I will not play games that do not follow the benchmarks set by WoW. If that means WAR feels and plays a lot like WoW, then so be it, but that is what games (not just MMOs) need to do in today's PC gaming market. However, don't for a second call that a "clone". The whole clone debate is something fairly restricted to the elite MMO circles out there and is a dead horse beyond worth beating.

To reiterate the points presented here. The Warhammer look came first and was liberally used in the creation of the Warcraft universe. The game play in the WAR video is staged and is not representative of the way players will eventually play. Finally, WoW is a great game and other games should LEARN from the aspects that WoW has perfected.

I know, I'm not being nice. Go here for a nicer version of what I'm trying to say.

Deleted Post

Update: 16 Aug, 2009 - Deleted post, because I lost the picture. /sadface

Awwww Hell

Tick.... screech.... tick, tick, tick....

Those are the sounds my hard drive is making! Fortunately, it is not showing any signs of failure yet and checks good through Western Digital's drive checking software. I know better than that and commence with the backups I shall.

Reading Goal for 2008

Upstate Geeks, a new online hangout opened after the fall out of my local non-video gaming scene, spurred me to consider my reading plans for 2008.

While the original poster plans to do five books a month, I don't see myself hitting five books in the entire year. At one point in my life, two books a month was a good average, but I never read hardcore (probably due to my gaming addiction). So, my goal is four books read by the end of 2008, not including the few hundred pages left in my current book, A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin.

My tentative reading schedule:

Finish A Storm of Swords by George RR Martin
A Feast For Crows by George RR martin
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

...and if I like the Novik novel, I'll finish the year out with the trilogy.

What are your reading goals for 2008?

In The Toilet

My local non-video gaming scene took a turn for the worse over the past few weeks and is essentially in the toilet.

It started in early January when the organizer behind our local Dungeons and Dragons Meetup.com group stepped down due to health concerns. No one has stepped up in his place and the group is quickly fading into the sunset. The Meetup.com group was a great monthly get together for D&D nerds of all flavors and offered an easy way to find a steady group. Sadly, it does not look like there will be a big party when D&D 4.0 hits later this year.

If the death of the Meetup.com group wasn't enough, my favorite local game store is closing it's doors and this time there is no one around to save it. A few months ago, the original owners announced they were moving, and we all feared the worst at that time. However, a family stepped up and bought the store. Unfortunately, it does not look like they will be able to keep it going.

Sadly, a couple major downers were not enough. The cornerstone of our local gaming scene, the game store in the mall that has been around for 20 years, has also announced it will be closing. This one honestly came out of left field and shocked most of us. This store was always busy, partly due to location, and while it had no actual space to play games, it was the place to go and buy supplies and harder to find board games.

Now we're left with an upstart game store that everyone thought wouldn't make it past a couple months in the face of the other two, more popular, stores. But now those two stores are closing and that leaves the upstart as the sole king of the mountain. I just worry that the upstart is struggling due to an expensive store location and massive prize support to bring in local gaming groups.

Also on the plus side, our local board gaming group is still going strong and the decision about which store to host events at has been made really simple now. Hopefully, the store closings will end the "this store vs that store" mentality and we can all get back to gaming! Speaking of that, I should go check when the next Board Gaming Day is.

Update: 1 Feb, 2008 - The gaming store located in the local mall may have just made a successful saving throw and looks to remain open for the time being.

News Bits

World of Warcraft has officially hit the 10 million active subscribers mark. A lot of people, including myself, predicted this as a year-end goal of 2007. We were close. Also, a bit of clarification on what a subscriber is:

Blizzard defines subscribers as those who have paid a subscription fee or are using an active prepaid card, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game during the last 30 days are also counted as subscribers, but players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions and expired prepaid cards are excluded. WoW currently totals more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.

Next, there is news that EVE Online will be available via Steam, Valve Software's digital distribution platform. As a fan of Valve and a regular game-buyer through Steam, I am pleased to see MMOs make the move to the platform. Unfortunately, most MMOs are linked with publishers that only sell boxes, or that have their own digital distribution platforms. Unfortunately, I have yet to find anything as good as Steam.

Lastly, some sad news out of Hollywood. Heath Ledger has kicked the bucket. The only question I have: how does a great actor like Heath Ledger die and a walking reason for abortion like Britney Spears remain alive?

Another Age of Conan Delay

Funcom set a new release date for Age of Conan today.

Funcom announces a new release date for Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. The highly anticipated MMO receives 8 more weeks of development, allowing Funcom to deliver a more polished MMO experience when the game launches on the 20th of May 2008

With the rumormill and beta leaks swirling, the news coming out of the Age of Conan camp has not been good. I don't harbor any ill-will towards the title, but I am a bit confused by the delays for the title.

I praised Age of Conan at one point for showing the fans what they wanted to see: PvP sieges, mounts, city building. However, apparently most of what was touted to be "in-game" was actually not. What fans have seen through demonstrations seems to have been pre-canned development server stuff, which is disappointing.

Is this the last delay for Conan? I think so, but I also thought I would be playing both Pirates of the Burning Sea and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning back in 2007! Oh well, I still hold to my 2008 predictions that AoC and WAR will both launch.

Heartbreak, Bad Weekend

Well, the Green Bay Packers managed to throw out a stinker tonight and forfeit their chance to go to the Super Bowl this year. I'm proud of what the Packers accomplished this year, but I am absolutely dismayed by the performance they put on against the Giants. I am still not sure what team and coaching staff showed up, but it was not the same one that had been in Green Bay all season.

I give credit to the New York Giants for the win and playing a good game, but I can't stand the "destiny" tag that the Giants fans have thrown on their team. Let's face it, they beat a fairly flat Tampa Bay team, were in the right place at the right time to catch Dallas with their pants down, and then really just got the luck of the draw and catch the Packers playing their second-worst football of the year.

Congrats to any team that wins a Championship game, but as a football fan, it pains me to see underdogs limp into a win over a team that for whatever reason falls apart for a few hours. However, that is why the NFL is so great, any team can win on any Sunday and being a football fan, GO GIANTS AND BEAT THOSE PATRIOTS!

On top of a heartbreaking Brett Favre interception to end my weekend, our heating unit died. We had snow the other day and last night either the heat pump seized or there is a freon leak that turned our unit into an ice cube.

Adding insult to injury, our dog has absolutely gone off the deep end, coming within an inch of biting a random joggers hand. We've worked extremely hard and long with our dog, but she has gotten worse by the week and it is starting to worry us that there is something we're missing that has turned a friendly puppy into an aggressive 11-month old dog. Sadly, as a Doberman, our dog does not get a second chance and one bite could be the end.

I'm not sure what else could go wrong in the next thirty minutes to make this weekend any worse, but at least I have tomorrow off from school and work. Too bad I have an online test to take, two massive assignments to get done, a heater to get fixed, and I still have to get around to getting into see the eye doctor and figure out why I am going blind.

Life's a bitch, but I'm not one to gone down quietly.

Challenges

I really wanted to tackle my RE: RE: Why Be Nice Anymore? post today, but time is just not on my side.

I am enrolled in a capstone course for my Computer Networking degree. This is the big daddy of classes and will require my complete attention for the next fifteen weeks. Already, in the first two weeks, I've dedicated more time to the project than I am used to dedicating to gaming!

The class is split into teams of three, each team responsible for designing a Request For Proposal for an imaginary company. Basically, our team will design a computer network from the ground up on a budget of $150,000 dollars.

Being the outstanding person that I am, I was elected to be the Team Captain. I understand some readers may not believe that, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. In reality, I was hand-picked to be part of this group by my instructors.

The group that I am part of has a perceived advantage, a forth person to split the work with. Unfortunately, the fourth person is the odd-man-out in the class and presents a unique situation. The extra member has been deaf since birth, has never really learned English, and has struggled to get into this course.

Yet, he has persisted and made it to the crowning achievement of the networking degree program at my college. In reality, this should be a ticket to a diploma, but it is doubtful that my team member will be able to pass his programming courses anytime soon.

I have been tasked to lead this team to success. My instructors have undaunted faith in my patience and leadership ability to see this through and produce a noteworthy end product. I have been challenged, and I do not plan to disappoint.

Bad Weather Incoming!

Looks like a wintry mix of rain, snow, and ice is going to hit overnight here in the Carolinas. Hopefully this means class and work are canceled for tomorrow... and that the Internet connection and power stay up! Then I can post my follow up to RE: Why Be Nice Anymore?

RE: Why be nice anymore?

Over at Wife Aggro, PVTHudson, asks: Why be nice anymore? Apparently, I am not nice, which may be a good thing according to PVTHudson, who seems to have grown bitter on the idea of playing nice.

Bloggers are guilty of being human. It is better to be nice, because no one likes to get noticed for being the Negative Nancy in the room. There is an argument to be had about the Internet and the effect anonymity has on a person, but in my decade of travel across the vast online sea, I've found most people to act fairly normal. Even as much as I'd like to argue that I'm a pretty nice guy in real life, and I am, I can't deny the fact that I have a whiny and combative edge.

The real effect of the Internet: amplification. I am inherently more whiny and combative on the Internet. I wish I could fully-explain why it occurs, but I can't. I observe it in almost every blogger I know personally, whether it is politics, gaming, or knitting (yes, with needles and yarn).

I know part of it comes from passion and the fact that most blogs get started out of a person's passion for something. Bloggers inevitably break down and say "Here it is world! Here is the fire that lights my world!". That opens the door for criticism and most people do not want to deal with criticism.

This blogging thing they started was suppose to be about them and their passion, how dare criticism become involved. How dare what they say matter. How dare that someone else on the Internet has an opinion. Honestly, how many bloggers have woken up to find some massively rude comment on their blog? I know I've had my fair share of wake up comments on this blog.

So, we end up with a lot of bloggers that talk in hushed tones and rarely have an opinion differing from the mainstream. I like to call it the "I agree too" problem. How many multi-blog posts have occurred where hundreds of comments and dozens of posts are written basically agreeing with the one before them. Everyone gets together at the end and pulls out some grand conclusion that the rest of us better live by, or else!

Lastly, it is wrong to go against the grain, because it puts a label on a person. For example: Heartless_ is an angry gamer. See what happened there? In reality though, it isn't going against the grain. It is following the grain, but differentiating one's self from the noise.

More to come...

The Agency: Are You Fucking Kidding Me?

I won't lie. I hit the Hatorade pretty hard in regards to SOE. But come on, they aren't even trying anymore!!! Evidence: The Agency gameplay video.

UPDATE: Please read the comments for speculation on when this video was from. I blame it all on Razor.



I'm not sure what's worse: John Smedley's Steve Jobs "I only wear comfortable clothes" impersonation or the actual gameplay footage. I could sit here and make a bunch of comparisons between fat chicks and the gameplay, but I won't. SOE, put this garbage back in the shed until you have something decent to show us.

6 Truths of Life

1. You cannot touch all your teeth with your tongue.

2. All idiots, after reading the first truth try it.

3. The first truth is a lie.

4. You're smiling now because you're an idiot.

5. You soon will forward this to another idiot.

6. There's still a stupid smile on your face.

2008, The First Few Minutes

Guess what, our dog hates fireworks. Happy New Year from the East Coast.

Tag: 2008 Predictions for 2008

I am going to try something here, in the manor of chain-blogging. I'm not sure if that is what it is called, but here's the idea: I will make some predictions for 2008 and then pass it on to another person. That person will then make up the next set of predictions before passing it on. The goal? 2008 predictions by the end of all the tagging.

The rules are simple: no limit on the number of predictions per person, tagged bloggers can elect to pass, and links to the before and after predictions in relation to the current blogger. I will try my best to tally the score and see how many we get.

Scorecard:

Me - 10
Grimwell - 11

Total = 21

My Predictions:

1. 2008 will be a year of announcements for MMOs. 38 studios, Bioware, Zenimax, Red 5, and many other studios will all announce their MMO projects. Some will come out of left field, while others will just confirm current rumors.

2. 2008 will be a year of launches for delayed games. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Age of Conan, and Pirates of the Burning Sea will all finally launch. WAR will be the only big success in the group.

3. 2008 will NOT be a year for micro-transaction or RMT based games. RMT and micro-transactions will take another hit as WAR launches and proves the monthly subscription model is still king of the hill for revenue. RMT and micro-transactions will turn a profit, but only in accounting terms. The model will barely break-even in economic terms.

4. 2008 will be a year of web-games. Already popular web-games will continue to grow. New web-games will launch. None of them will challenge the revenue generation of monthly subscription or box sale titles. All will be susceptible to any sort of web 2.0 wrinkles.

5. 2008 will not be a good year for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE is closing out 2007 in grand fashion: developer scandals, buyout rumors, and reportedly falling subscriptions. Two of which, the buyout and falling subscriptions, have been denied repeatedly. Tack this onto SOE's shift in revenue models and 2008 doesn't look pretty. Grimwell, I await your response :)

6. 2008 will be a Dark year. Dark Age of Camelot will feel increasing pressure this year as WAR launches and replaces the Realm vs. Realm gameplay model with a newer and fresher version.

7. 2008 will be a Cold year. Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft's second expansion, will launch late in the year. It will be successful, but will fall short of the success of The Burning Crusade. China will not see the expansion until 2009.

8. 2008 will be a year of MMO podcasting. MMO podcasting has picked up over the last couple of years, but 2008 will bring it into the limelight as more commercially driven entities enter the market. Unfortunately, popularity will remain in the hands of the "weekend warriors", not the commercially driven podcasts.

9. 2008 will be a year of lawyering. From the RIAA chasing grandmas with MP3s to IGE's potential criminal investigation, 2008 will be an unprecedented year for lawyers entering the online-circus. Expect to see some major court cases develop over the year, but don't expect them to finish before the year is out.

10. 2008 will not be a good year for Gax-Online. This is a personal pick. The dog and pony show holding up Gax-Online will finally realize they have become what they've always chastised, sending them into a cataclysmic tailspin. Or, they'll sell out the second someone offers them half a donut and a cup'o'joe.

Tag: Grimwell, Ethic at Kill Ten Rats, and Tobold. Oh, and Mr. Freeman.