Thursday, July 28, 2005

WoW Review - Part IV

Click here and read.

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

Lost rank... again...

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

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

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

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

Pondering a return to DAoC?

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

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

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

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Blizzard, master of the bait'n'switch?

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

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

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

Read up.

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

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

July 26, 2005 Required Reading

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

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

Read it. Love it. Comment on it.

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

Sunday, July 24, 2005

The problem with engineering...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, July 22, 2005

BF2 Patch 1.03 announced.

Link.

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

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

Thursday, July 21, 2005

WoW Review - Part III up in reviews...

Click here for Part III.

Enjoy!

Multiple Choice Test

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

a. Battlegrounds

b. PvP honor system.

c. Lvl 60 instance grind.

d. All of the above.


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

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