Saturday, October 15, 2005

My videos @ Google video!

World of Warcraft Videos

I gank...
-Made this video in my mid 40's. Also marks the first time I met my friend Omegalegend (Tauren Warrior).

Die Another Day
-Made the day before I recorded most of the "I gank..." video. This was good practice in how to edit videos via Windows Movie Maker.

A day in the life of Tanglefoot
-Recorded this video out of boredom after an early morning run through EPL.

Counter Strike Source Videos

Two of the Greatest Things Ever
-My pride and joy :) Enjoy!

Battlefield 2 Video

Lets Go
-Just practice with the BF2 recorder.

Update: 5 Nov, 2006 - Applied labels and updated post.

Friday, October 14, 2005

MO3 - The Arathi Basin Cycle of Azgalor

Here is how the cycle works.

1. Alliance/Horde uber guilds form uber 15 man raid with nothing but their highest PvP ranks.

2. Said group owns Arathi Basin 2000 resources to 0 within 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Group leaves and within five minutes they have another Arathi Basin match.

How is this possible?

It is very simple actually. Most players leave a battleground the second they see these hardcore groups enter and then re-queue themselves for a new one. Well this fuels the cycle because now everyone in line is being thrown into the battleground that everyone else is quitting. So quickly the entire line, regardless of how long they were waiting gets into a one sided Arathi Basin slaughter. The cycle repeats and there is so many new people in line that once the uber group is done with the slaughter they simply re-queue and are instantly back where they started.

On top of this since people are cycling through the battleground the uber group can easily get a new battleground because there is no one with an extended waiting period in line… so the uber group is escorted to the front of the line.

Increase the number of uber groups employing the tactic and you have a cycle that moves so fast that a pick up vs. pick up is impossible. Add to this the fact that most uber groups will NOT FIGHT EACH OTHER and the problem is multiplied. Two uber groups rarely, if ever, will fight each other. The time involved is not worth the reward. They don’t care about skill… they care about winning as fast as possible because in the end that gives them more honor for PvP rank.

How to avoid it.

Get lucky enough to get into a battleground that is out of the cycle… one that is pick up group vs. pick up group. These matches last longer and since the lines refresh so fast due to the cycling in and out of the slaughters another pick up vs. pick up match is almost guaranteed after your match is done. However, get stuck on the other side of the cycle and it will be a miracle you get into a non-slaughter match.

Same principle applies as the uber groups also. Your pick up group leaves after a battle and everyone elses queue time is short because of the cycling you jump in right in front of line instead of the people that have been waiting forever for a fair match, but keep getting cycled.

How to fix it.

Simple. One set of battlegrounds for “Arranged Groups” and one set of battlegrounds for “Random”. Like I’ve said before its like letting pro football teams play high school teams to claim the Lombardi Trophy. It isn’t even remotely a measure of anyone’s skill.

In conclusion…

I will be told to “cry more newb”, “go whine on your blog”, and various other comments from the uber crowed. These are the people that get WoW served to them on a silver platter. These are the ones who are whining about 1.8 changes to give casual gamers more chances at loot. These are the ones who day in and day out do nothing but ruin the game for those that have other obligations in their life.

Blizzard doesn’t owe casual gamers anything. Blizzard doesn’t owe hardcore gamers anything. They owe the players of World of Warcraft a fair and balanced experience. Developing their systems in such a way where it heavily favors one play style over another is obscene.

MO1 - Blizzard and Battlegrounds
MO2 - Stun

Thursday, October 13, 2005

WoW expansion speculation

Well the internet chat wires are full of rumors of what two new races World of Warcraft will have in their upcoming expansion. Just a couple things I wanted to say... without fueling the fire to a specific race.

1. The new races don't need to "balance" out Alliance vs Horde. Horde does not need to get a "pretty" race to balance out NEs. The Horde does not need to get a "short" race to even out Gnomes. The Alliance does not need a "big" race to even out Taurens. This is the sort of thinking that lead to cookie cutter racial traits instead of varied and unique traits.
"They still haven't even told us if the races are specifically aligned with one side." - Heartless_
2. Goblins could be a new race. They still haven't even told us if the races are specifically aligned with one side. I'd like you to find anywhere where they said they have! Goblins could very well be a new race that BOTH sides got to play. Goblins would then be neutral and could attack both sides. However they could ally themselves with one side to visit their cities, but to become friendly with both Alliance and Horde would be a very difficult task! We could essentially wind up with TWO new races like this!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

I almost fainted when I logged in this morning...

Almost 3/4 of rank 6 gained with a BELOW average week for myself. I ranked high at 263 overall, but felt I had a two day string of really bad Arathi Basin groups. Well I am now 1/4 away from getting my goal of rank 7! A little less Battlefield 2 and Day of Defeat:Source and I may just have made it to rank 7!

Grats to Blizzard for listening!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

WoW Patch 1.8 - Blizzard gets a clue?

Link to the World of Warcraft 1.8 patch notes.

To start off I just want to say that I am surprised by this patch. I don't get to play tuesdays because the servers are down for weekly maintenance during my play time... so I really don't do anything with WoW unless there is a patch going live. Well 1.8 blind sided me and now that I am at work... I am catching up on the patch notes. But enough of my boring life... onto the commentary.

Disturbance at the Great Trees and The Stirring of the Silithid... or as I like to call them... epic loot for the casual crowd. No long raid instances! The dragons should offer the chance for pick up raids to hopefully beat them into the ground. The new content in Silithus basically breaks down into grind for epic items. Will have to see how it pans out though.

Next we have "The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance." Probably the most controversial of the patch changes... but it really doesn't need to be. Most epic weapons are now better than their blue cousins. Fix that was needed... even though I hate loot being > player skill. You were near the top end with easier to get blue items... but now those are slightly nerfed. Oh well.

My favorite patch note... "The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been increased." Finally!

Then there is... "Alterac Valley has received an overhaul", but I doubt this will pull people out of Arathi Basin. Most people only grind the FOTM battleground because of the epic rewards for exalted and revered reputation. Which just got easier... "Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual)." Hopefully it does make it easier and maybe gets some more battlegrounds open.

Bug fix that has been around forever for my shaman class... "Ghost Wolf - Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by Nature's Swiftness."

Leatherworking got A LOT of new items... so maybe it is a good thing I held onto it. However I don't have skinning anymore so probably be stuck in the auction house for materials.

"Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar, should be substantially reduced." I am skeptical at best on this... we will see when I log on tommorow.

Farmers = OWNED. "Tyr's Hand now has the proper outdoor elite monster respawn time.
Hearthglen now has the proper outdoor elite respawn time."
Never could figure out why these places spawned every couple seconds resulting in the perfect gold farming spots.

Overall it seems Blizzard is making some good moves. I must say that I am surprised and I will continue to play :) This is exactly what I needed to stay interested!