World of Warcraft

I’m sure you’ve been just as frustrated when it happens. There you are, happily waiting for the queue to pop up, and there it is! You quickly enter your Arathi Basin, buff yourself up and…realize you’re one of 3 people there. The clock is ticking, and you watch anxiously as the opposing side fills up to full, while you start the round with 5 people. Desperately trying to cling to your last node hoping for reinforcements in time, you get rolled by 15-5 odds, and the game ends within a minute.

Ugh.

Blizzard isn’t ignoring our plight, per se. From the sound of it, they’re not happy with the way the system currently works, either. Here’s what Zarhym, a Blizzard CM, had to say about it:

” The fact of the matter is that the queue system has been altered over the years since the implementation of Battlegrounds to be the most convenient to the most players with regards to selecting one’s preferred Battleground, as well as the amount of time one must wait before entering a match.

An equal number of players from each faction at the top of the respective queues are selected at the launch of the Battleground. Each player selected is given a grace period to enter the match before they are automatically removed from the queue. The issue you’re describing is a result of players not entering the match when selected, and not leaving the queue before this grace period ends. By the time new players from the top of the queue are offered the chance to join the match, it has already begun. Most of you understand this; I only mention this to acknowledge the primary cause of the situation discussed in this thread.

It can be very demoralizing when one team is forced to begin a battle with less members than the opposing team. I’ve been there and experienced that first-hand many times over.

There are inherent issues with both leaving the queue system as it is, and imposing further requirements before a match begins. For instance, if we keep the match from starting until each side has an equal number of players, everyone is forced to wait beyond the actual queue time to ensure enough players have accepted to enter the match.

The choice may well be between suspending a match indefinitely until both teams have the same number of players; and starting a match lopsided so players can get through the match and carry on with their gaming. I suspect not everyone would have the same preference given this choice, and the difference could greatly impact the style, reason, and enjoyment of the Battlegrounds for many.

That said, we aren’t completely satisfied with the queue system as it stands.”

So what it boils down is that they WANT to fix it, but they don’t want to fix it by breaking something else. Seems fair, eh?

A hotly contested match decided MLG’s PC Circuit Arena competition in San Diego. While a number of players lamented the term “e-sport” and have some choice words for the idea that Warcraft is balanced enough to have a tournament around, it actually had an interesting team setup in the final match.

Frag Dominant rolled in with a Rogue/Warrior/Druid

Nihlium went with a Priest/Druid/Hunter (Hunter? Really?)

After 8 matches, the teams were tied at 4-4 before Frag Dominant pulled out the victory, I’ve never been interested in watching video games, but even I thought it was kinda cool to see what the best arena team brought to bear on its opponents. Here’s a short summary from MLG’s website:

“San Diego’s World of WarCraft competition marked the dawn of a new era in MLG’s ever-expanding world. MLG’s first foray into PC Competition was a fabulous success, with nearly all of the world’s best teams in attendance. Frag Dominant took no prisoners as they ousted higher ranked teams and fan-favorites alike on their way to MLG’s first PC Circuit title. With literally hundreds of thousands of people tuned in to the live broadcast from over 100 different countries, it’s clear that WoW is here to stay and we can only expect it to get more intense as the season progresses.”

Personally I think it’s great that some players are able to be compensated for something they love to do. You won’t see me over at the pro circuit any time soon, but I think the increased competition will encourage balancing pvp combat and give WoW a higher profile.

There’s an interesting discussion over at the forums today talking about the role that badges will play when Wrath of the Lich King hits the shelves. Essentially a Blizzard CM, Bornakk, confirmed that they’ll be changing the way that badges are distributed and used. Rather than a system where all badges are created equal, they’ll have different instances drop different badge types, which will then be traded in for different quality items.

Needless to say, this has caused a bit of a stir among the playerbase given that badge rewards were seen as a way for casual players to progress their characters without being pigeonholed into doing content they don’t have the time or inclination to see. On other hand we have no idea how the badges are going to be dispersed, gear quality between badge types, or if you’ll be able to exchange badges for another quality type. I actually read a great suggestion over at WoWInsider as to an exchange rate that players could utilize to trade in their badges for different rewards:

“BitterCupOJoe and darian, in comments on the Blizzcast post, neatly addressed this issue through a simple mechanism: exchange rates. Let’s say there are four types of badges; we’ll call them A, B, C, and D for simplicity. We know (from this same Blizzcast interview) that they want the 10-man and the 25-man versions of the same raids to be separated by about a tier in terms of item quality. Therefore, it would make sense if:

* Naxxramas, the tier 7 raid, drops A-Badges on 10-man and B-Badges on 25-man.
* Ulduar, the t8 raid, drops B-Badges on 10-man and C-Badges on 25-man.
* Whatever the t9 raid turns out to be drops C-Badges on 10-man and D-Badges on 25-man.”

Ultimately I think different badge rewards from different areas could be a boon to raiders and 10 man warriors alike. I’m not so sure that this new system will be an artificial barrier for players, but unfortunately that is a possibility. Only time will tell of course, despite the usual widespread speculation on the forums.

I love reading new tidbits about the expansion. Collecting and piecing together what to expect once WOTLK hits has been a fun exercise in patience, considering Blizzard’s rather slow stream of info pouring out. The latest is an addition to the monsters and races we’ll see in Northrend, the Magnataur. These huge, hulking creatures are essentially like the hulk version of centaurs, combining the top half of a giant with the bottom half of a mammoth, as per the above.

My first impression was “eh.” After all, does it really take that much creative ability to fuse together a larger centaur? But after reading the background for these beasts and their symbiotic relationship with arctic kobolds they’ve really piqued my interest. First impressions aren’t all that and a bag of chips, as it turns out.

Here’s a nice summary from the Beastiary page:

“Magnataur have the torso of a giant attached to the body of a mammoth. This peculiar appearance has sparked speculation that their race might be related to centaur or even Keepers of the Grove. Many wonder if these races share a common ancestor, and some have even suggested Cenarius himself.

The notoriously long-lived magnataur are rumored to engage in cannibalism during times when food is scarce. Single males are known to control giant herds and produce sizable litters, but in the frigid, perilous wastes at the roof of the world, only the strongest and meanest survive.

Despite their hostility to most races, the magnataur have become tolerant of the arctic kobolds, who follow the herds for safety and mutual benefit during long hunts. Although the redoubtable magnataur lead solitary lives, adventurers who cross paths with them quickly learn that it would have been wiser to stay at a safe distance.”

Bring it on!

Tom Chilton, one of the lead game designers over at Blizzard, recently had an interview at Gotfrag about the state of the Arena game and what we can expect in the future. Much of it deals with the “esport” area of Blizzard’s development. Essentially many of Blizzard’s games have benefited from professional tournaments and matches associated with their games. Starcraft, for example, may have died out long ago if it weren’t for the professional organizations to keep many a player’s interest in the game, particularly in Korea. It seems that they are aiming to increase World of Warcraft’s lifespan in this manner as well.

What I found most interesting was a question related to the importance of PvE vs. PvP gameplay, here was Tom’s answer:

Where is Blizzard’s priority when it comes to changes made between class dynamics; PVE or PVP?

“We strive to evaluate all aspects of World of Warcraft evenly in terms of class dynamics. We want every class to feel unique and useful in instances, raids, Battlegrounds, and Arena play. Ideally, no matter what class a player chooses, he or she will be able to experience and enjoy all aspects of World of Warcraft in one form or another. Players should be able to customize characters by changing equipment, talents, or play styles to correspond to the type of game experience they prefer.”

So there you have it, the answer is both! Many players complain about the so-called “focus” on the esport side of arena gameplay. Some may argue it’s unbalanced, while others claim it can never be balanced and so can’t really be viable as an esport. Whatever the case may be, it hasn’t significantly affected my gameplay or experience to date, and so I’m neutral on the issue myself.

You can view the full article here.

It’s true, after quite a number of guilds vying for the very first killing of Kil’jaeden, SK-Gaming has managed to bring him down. I tend to have a rather distanced view of such events, much like someone says a huge earthquake in China caused all sorts of damage and misery, and you respond with “oh.” I can somewhat respect the accomplishment, but it’s so out of my scope that I can’t really gage the effort or time needed to do it. That content is beyond my time schedule, and likely will continue to be until the next expansion, but I do hope to see it at some point.

If you’re curious, here’s the link!

It’s almost a shame that MMO companies are faced with the fact that a lot of players put so much time into their game that they have to constantly create content for them to churn through, while the vast majority of players barely scratch the surface. Such design tends to perpetuate the treadmill feeling that many players complain about in “I quit!” posts. After a few weeks of chewing glass you move on to a more challenging boss, where you’ll chew glass until you get them, get their gear to move on to a….see where I’m going with this? It tends to inflate item power too fast, or force game developers to make content so insanely hard that no one can beat a boss until they’re good and ready to let them.

As a rather casual player myself, I think I’d get quite bored with the schedule that SK-gaming, Nihlium, or any other “hardcore” guild mandates. I like to spread my time around various activities, WoW being one of many. On one hand I admire their dedication, but on the other I have to believe there’s more to life than downing bosses in a video game. Such is the conundrum for game designers and not me to consider, I suppose.

Regardless congratulations are in order for SK-Gaming!

Quite a number of players are foaming at the mouth to receive the latest information on the expansion’s hero class: The Death Knight. We’ve seen tidbits here and there that give examples of the class’s abilities, but nothing of too much substance. Well wait no longer, some of the mechanics and spells of the death knight have now been officially released.

So how will our fallen heroes play out? It appears that they’ll be a hybrid similar to a paladin, though more offensively oriented. They’ll be able to wear plate, have a tree dedicated to tanking, raid dps, and a more pvp-focused damage tree as well. This is broken down into 3 schools:

* Blood: Talents in this tree focus on damage-dealing abilities. Blood Presence increases damage output by a percentage.
* Frost: Talents in this tree focus on tanking abilities. Frost Presence increases threat and lowers damage taken by a percentage.
* Unholy: Talents in this tree have a variety of functions including summons, diseases, and PvP-focused abilities. Unholy Presence increases attack speed and reduces the global cooldown on death knight abilities.

Death knights will also have the ability to utilize runes in these trees as well. They gather up runic power for various spells and abilities that they will unleash upon their enemies (some are said to consume all of a death knight’s runic power).

In addition we have some spell details available:

* Raise Dead: The death knight can raise a ghoul companion from the corpses of fallen creatures, as well as those of both friendly and enemy players. If cast on a friendly player, that player will have the opportunity to actually play as the ghoul, controlling its movements and actions.
* Army of the Dead: This channeled spell raises a group of undead followers who will attack the death knight’s enemies but only exist very briefly before disintegrating.
* Summon Deathcharger: Every death knight can summon the level-40 version of a deathcharger land mount. At higher levels, they can complete a quest to learn the epic version.

Everyone with a level 55 character or above will be able to create a death knight of ANY race. I’m not sure if I’ll play one myself, as they are bound to be quite numerous when the expansion hits. A free level 55 with a mount does sound rather tempting, though…

I admittedly found this over at WoW Insider, but thought it humorous enough to share with you all as well. Whether or not it’s true of course remains up for debate, and there are plenty of players cheering this person on as well as people bashing them for being stupid. Regardless, a recent post over at the EU forums told by the boyfriend of a girl who went into labor and finished out the WSG match she was in after going into labor:

” Like it says me and my girl friend were doing some pvp on the 2nd of May when around 8:30pm her waters broke and due to shock I droped the flag died quite a few times : / (I dont think I have ever been so scared in my entire life lol) she continued untill she completed the WSG we were playing though lol (just show’s labour aint that bad!)

Then less the 12hours later she gave birth to our fisrt son Hayden, he is now leveling a gnome rouge too

Thanks for everyone that has wished us and the little gnome the best…
Atrimis & Lils
Wildhammer”

Now obviously she was told to stay put…but wow, I think she’d want to lay down or something.. even I’ll admit that’s pretty hardcore. Then again I don’t know next to anything about child birth or the process it involves, since I don’t have kids and don’t foresee any in the near future.

Regardless it makes for a pretty hilarious story.

Upon reading the title of this post, you might actually think it cause for celebration. No more death and/or Uncle Sam eating my paycheck? This is a glorious day! I hate to disappoint and all, but that’s not what I’m referring to. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s ok too, because up until a few days ago, I didn’t know who Death and Taxes was in relation to Warcraft, either.

To illustrate my point, see exhibit A.

A lot of forum chicken littles like to point to things like this and say “SEE! The hardcore riaders are leaving!” That’s all well and good.. except they didn’t leave, they re-rolled to hordeside. Also, what people don’t seem to understand is that these things can and do happen all the time in any game. I can’t really wrap my brain around those who try to grab at any straw they can get their hands on that might hint on a failure on Blizzard’s part. They want to see the game fail just to post an “I told you so” on the forums. Seriously, find something better to do with your time. Go outside.

It still does open an interesting avenue for discussion, however. Given the new-found accessibility of content and the expectation of this to continue (10-man versions of every raid instance in the expansion), many “hardcore” players have decided to head to greener pastures. I’m not convinced this is a bad thing. Being the largest MMO ever created in this history of the genre, Blizzard has the awkward position of trying to make large groups of different players happy. They want the average player to be able to login for an hour a day and accomplish something, but they also want mr. 6 hours of raiding a day to have something to do as well. So they develop dual content like Magister’s Terrace and Sunwell Plateau, which as you probably know, the average player will never even set foot inside the new 25-man instance.

Personally I think this comes down to pride and PvP. Many players raided so that they would have the best gear to go kill other players with. It didn’t make sense and it was a horrible system for anyone below the curve, but when they changed it, a lot of raiders felt like they got a playing point taken away from them. Now they were on equal footing with anyone with the inclination to pvp, and that was a bitter pill to swallow. So raiding is now what it always should have been about: progression and content.

Blizzard’s recent outpouring of expansion information continues today with a preview of a new area: The Nexus. Aside from the cool name, there’s actually some fascinating lore that accompanies this as well. Here’s a quick summary:

“Determined to forestall a catastrophe, Malygos decreed that the world’s unbridled magic must be reined in by any means necessary. And so the great Aspect turned to the Arcanomicon, a map of the world’s ley lines. Gifted to Malygos ages ago by the titan Norgannon, the Arcanomicon has been continuously updated and revised by the blue dragons over the long years of Malygos’s seclusion.

Now Malygos uses the Arcanomicon to locate and tap into the ley lines, diverting the magical powers that course beneath the earth to his home base in Northrend, the Nexus. Once harnessed, the energies are focused through the Nexus’ ascending rings and blasted into the Twisting Nether. Malygos’s redirection of the ley lines has carried disastrous consequences, however, splintering the world’s crust and opening unstable rifts: tears in the very fabric of the magical dimension. ”

Needless to say as magic-using mortals, we’re not exactly pleased that Malygos decided to get rid of all the magic, so it’s likely we’ll have to go and “neutralize” him. Teaming up with the red dragonflight, Dalaran has been moved to float above Northrend. There are, of course, other mortal magic-users that have joined Malygos, and you’ll have to contend with them as well.

I’ve heard some good reviews so far from my fellow players, what do you guys think (You can find the full Nexus page here)?

I’ll be honest, before I read this quote from a recent interview with Blizzard employee Tom Chilton, I didn’t even know what a legacy item meant. After doing a little bit of research however, it turns out that legacy items are awarded to players depending on how long they’ve been playing. In the past Blizzard stated that they wanted everyone to have an opportunity to get items, and awarding players simply because they’ve been here the longest would disadvantage newer players who are trying to get into the groove of the game themselves. It appears they may have reversed their position on this, as the quote below demonstrates:

“Legacy Items; we haven’t really talked about those in the past. We are planning to do certain types of items that essentially bind to your account, so they’re deliberately created as twink items. So you might be able to find one of these items when you’re doing an endgame instance, or a raid, or something like that, and you might get an item that binds to your account and then hand that off to your other characters, but it does have to stay within your account. So you can be deliberately overpowered for a low level character to help level up or whatever.”

On one hand I tend to go against the grain on this sorta thing. I remember Ultima Online had item rewards for players who had been playing the longest, but by and large these were simply cosmetic awards. A “purposely” overpowered weapon for a low level character does have serious implications for those participating in the battlegrounds at that level. However there is something to be said for the ability to level faster thanks to a legacy item. Let’s face it, leveling a brand new character from 1-80 is going to be a long..daunting..potentially boring process. If legacy items could help cut down the amount of time required to bring up a new toon…should we really be opposed to it? I think Blizzard’s best bet here is to let them serve their intended purpose: to help you level faster. Don’t allow players to participate in low-level Battlegrounds with these. It’s bad enough as-is.

You know it figures as soon as I make a post about information not coming fast enough…Blizzard releases an entire presentation on what we should expect in the coming expansion! You can check out all the nitty gritty details here, but I’ll post the highlights for those who don’t feel like reading through it all…

General

* All 25 man raids in Wrath will also be available to complete with 10 players. This is so that more players will get to see end game content (Even the Arthas encounter will be available as a 10 man raid).
* There will be completely different loot tables for the two different raid types. They will also be on separate cool downs, so players could fight in both the 10 man and 25 man raid on the same day if they wish.
* The mounts available to buy in Wrath will probably be able to take passengers. These mounts will also work in the old world (Provided they are land mounts), so players can give low-level characters a ride! The new mounts will also be slightly faster, around the speed of the Armored Netherdrakes.
* All 5-man instances in Northrend will feature Heroic modes, and the loot tables for the 2 modes will be totally separate. Heroic dungeons will have their own “Tier” of armor completely unique to that level dungeon.

Death Knights

* Death Knights will be available to players who have a character level 55+ on the same realm. There is no other requirement at this time.
* Players are allowed 1 Death Knight per realm that they have a level 55+ character on.
* Death Knights will be “born” in a floating Necropolis over the Eastern Plaguelands, similar to Naxxramas.
* Death Knights will start at level 55.
* A Death Knight’s starting armor will be a mixture of green and blue quality items. The first few quests that they encounter will provide upgrades to these starting items, and these upgrades will be armor specific to Death Knights.
* Death Knights can dual wield.
* One Death Knight spell is Raise Dead, which converts a fallen unit into a ghoul for a time to serve the Death Knight, similar to a Hunter’s pet. If the spell is used on a fallen friendly player, the player will be presented with an option box similar to a resurrection message, and if they accept, they will take control of the ghoul and will be able to use its abilities for the period of time that it is active. This can work as a sort-of battle res, and Chilton stated it may be available in Arenas.

Northrend

* Northrend is Huge. It is larger than Outland by a couple of zones, and some of the zones in Northrend are bigger than the largest zone in Outland.

It’s tough waiting for a game you’re excited about. I almost wish I didn’t know something was being released until the day before it happened. Think about it. When you’re going to the movies and you see the trailer for the next Batman (or whatever piques your interest) and you get all psyched and excited only to get hit with the release date…

“Coming in (sometime over a year from now)”

Wonderful.

Blizzard, for it’s part, has been no better. I want to play Starcraft 2, but who knows how long until that game comes to fruition. Worse still is the newest expansion for World of Warcaft, Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard has been very tight-lipped about what exactly we’ll see when the game is released. They’ve trickled out information here and there, but nothing of real substance. The forums seem to be a place to vent their frustration about them being so tight-lipped. Neth, a Blizzard CM, had this cryptic response:

“The great thing about vapor is that at some point it condenses and becomes rain. The rain then falls and nourishes that which it falls on. It takes time for it to happen, but it does happen. Signs point to clouds forming in the sky, but you never can tell when they will let loose the rain…”

So it appears that there is a large amount of information waiting on the horizon, but they’re not at liberty to discuss the details. Whatever it is, it better be good, because as Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part.

Having a priest horde-side and loving it, I’m always curious to see what bad things players have to say about the class. I tend to be a “glass is half full” kinda guy, so class shortcomings are often a source of entertainment for me. If someone says “X specs sucks and can’t raid” I will go out of my way to spec say, discipline, and take it in to see how it holds up. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I run through and say “well it worked..but yes, not exactly optimal.” Improvements can and should be suggested to help developer’s understand class issues. What issues do players bring to the table for priests? Let’s see…

There you have it, from my own priest’s view as well as a variety of responses on the class feedback thread. Priests do need a bit of love and have a few glaring issues (holy talents!) but all in all they are still a total blast to play. Maybe if I was a min-max kind of player I wouldn’t like them so much…good thing I’m not.

That’s right, it’s children’s week again and it’s time for you to step up to the plate and temporarily adopt an orphan of your choice! It’s particularly exciting for me since I’ve never done the children’s week event before, but I fully intend to this year. While I was kinda hoping to be able to take my orphan into glorious battle, that doesn’t appear to be possible.

From what I understand the whole process is pretty simple. Kid’s like to explore, so you’ll be leading them around various parts of Azeroth and/or Outland in the hope that the experience will make their lives a little less miserable. After all if you’re stuck at the oprhanage all day life can get pretty boring. Here’s where you’ll be taking them around Azeroth

* The bank in Darnassus (Alliance)
* The lighthouse in Westfall (Alliance)
* Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore (Alliance)
* Mor’shan Rampart (Horde)
* Lordaeron Throne Room (Horde)
* Cairne Bloodhoof in Thunder Bluff (Horde)

That’s not all though, Orphans in Outland need to see the world too! Here’s what they’d like to see:

# The Dark Portal
# The Exodar (Alliance)
# Silvermoon City (Horde)
# Caverns of Time

So what’s in it for you? Well if you’re looking for a sword of oprhan-awesomeness, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. You can, however, find some nice non-combat pets that are fairly humorous and entertaining. Everything from a rat and turtle to outland creatures like *ahem* Willy. A full list of the pets can be found here.