I'm Awesome

Here we are again, a day late thanks to some technical issues, but here regardless, to discuss, bash, praise and poop all over some stuff happening in the MMO world.  Two come to the forefront this week.  As you’ll recall from the past week, we’ve been dealing with Blizzard and their lack of follow-through on their Warcraft Twitter contest.  There has been some updates and potential closure on that issue as well as some other things happening in Azeroth.  Warhammer has fallen on tough times, it seems.  I stated previously that I was going to hop into the game, and see what was what with the new patch and if it fixed the glaring issues destroying the core of the game.  Read on after the break! (more…)

So as I mentioned recently, I participated in and “won” the Battlecry contest hosted by Blizzard’s @Warcraft account on Twitter.  Blizzard hosts at least 3 accounts, @Diablo, @Starcraft and @Warcraft.  Around the date Blizzcon was about to go down, these three accounts started having little twitter contests.  Naming items in Diablo, Starcraft memories and a faction specific Battlecry from Warcraft.  All simple little things, all rewarded some prize.  Or did they?  I know the Starcraft account was giving out Starcraft 2 Beta keys for its contest winners.  You can see all three contests listed, along with their premises on WoW.com and Blizzard’s own forums, so this isn’t something a few people hallucinated. (more…)

Are we going backwards here, Blizzard?  Are we going from the realm of excellent customer care and the industry standard business model, to the polar opposites in such a short order?

WoW, the 1989 edition!

This week’s post is going to be short and sweet, because I am none too pleased with Blizzard this week.  Yes, me, who usually tows the Blizzard line even if the decisions are questionable.  But these two gaffes are just too much for me to be quiet about.  The first, people know about.  The second is something they seem to be doing to a select few of us.

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We all saw this coming. The next step in Blizzards’ plot to take over the world, or at least your salary. Blizzard micro-transactions using their new Battle.net platform.  Today Blizzard has added 2 new items to their online store for World of Warcraft players.  Two new in-game pets.  A mini Kel’Thuzad and Pandaren Monk for $10 each.

Some people are acting like this micro-transaction thing is new to WoW when in fact, it’s not.  It’s just presented in a different way.  Instead of going through the official World of Warcraft site, it goes through Battle.net.  Blizzard already has a bunch of paid for services like server transfer, name changing, sex changes, race changes and faction changes.

Are any of our readers planning on buying one or both of these new in-game pets? Or are you one of those than can resist these two new cute vanity items.

Wanna bet that is a toilet, as well?

Arthas approaches… Well, more like we approach him, I guess.  With a goodly portion of the Icecrown bosses either having already been tested or about to be tested on the PTR, it is fairly safe to say patch 3.3 is not too far off in the distance.

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I’m a day late writing this, but sometime life just slaps you in the face.  But I have recovered, and boy do we have some exciting stuff on the way!  Most things I write here are WoW-centric and there WILL be a WoW project in here, but the meat of this week is the VGXpo that I will be attending this weekend.

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This is a weekly column in which I will examine issues and questions in regard to the world’s most popular (and best) MMORPG, World of WarCraft.  I’ll handle everything from issues that affect newer players or folks rolling alts, such as class and race selection, to problems or stories affecting end game players.  Hell, you’ll even find the occasional rant or reader Q&A in here, I’m sure.

Let’s start with the basics, shall we?  What does a new player or returning vet from days of old want and need to do, in order to get the most out of their playing experience?  I’ll provide a few quick tips in this first week for these people, or perhaps even for the curious Geek who has never tried an MMORPG at all.

Once you have the game purchased and installed, and your account created, the first choice you will be prompted with upon your first log-in is to choose a server.  WoW currently has 4 server types. Choose which one best suits your playstyle.

How cool are you?

• Normal – “PvE” ruleset (Players vs Environment).  On this type, you will not be flagged for player vs player combat in contested zones.  Perhaps the best server type for easily frustrated or new players.
• PvP -  “PvP” ruleset (Player vs Player).  All the same rules as a PvE server save one very important one.  Whenever you’re in a contested or neutral zone, you will be flagged for PvP combat at ALL times.
• RP – “Roleplay” ruleset.  These servers are the same as PvE, only with enforced naming rules and in-game chat enforcement.  Lots of dorks.
• RPPvP – A combination of RP and PvP rulesets.  These servers are for those who aren’t quite as dorky as RP servers.  Meaning thye MAY have seen a real boob or two.

Select your server and you’re on to one of the most important decisions OF YOUR LIFE!  What character to create.  Horde or Alliance.  We all know Horde is the best, but some people still roll Alliance.  Why?  We’re not sure.  An accident, perhaps.  A misclick.  Maybe they think better eDating on Alliance?  Who knows.  But this is where you will you will choose which character to make.  Race is not much of an issue, these days.  Pick whichever you like to look at most.  If you pick Gnome, uninstall the game.  Any other race, you proceed to class selection! (more…)

Well, not really.  But I think this is as close to the end of this world as you’ll ever see in this game.  Yes, on Friday, the opening day of Blizzcon 2009, they finally confirmed all the rumors were true.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is reality!

DeathWing is happy to be back, if you couldn't tell.

Well, not yet.  But it will be.  It seems we have finally pissed off and pissed on enough of the Old Gods that they’ve seen fit to unleash DeathWing into our world, forever shattering it’s geography, playing experience and allowing for a whole slew of jokes about DeathWing’s chin being a Jay Leno pop culture reference.  But seriously, I couldn’t have a bigger bag of mixed feelings about this.  Not mixed in the sense of what it will mean to gameplay and the WoW experience.  Oh, no.  Those will remain as polished and intense as we’re all used to, perhaps more-so.

My mixed feelings come in as more of a nerdy sadness.  This is our world, WoWers! Am I the only one who remembers looking at screenshots of this beautiful environment since 2001?  Of logging in for the first time in beta (Or release if you weren’t as lucky as me!) and just being stunned at the world we’d been given to take as our own?  I’m sort of sad to see it all blown to bits, or in some cases, being given life where there was none before.  I’ve spent a large chunk of my time most nights for the past 4+ years in this iteration of Azeroth.  The concept of it being shattered is only slightly less shocking than if I woke up to a river of lava destroying the corner store that has provided me with way too many Mt.Dew and Ruffles over the years – Sorry, I don’t do Cheetos.

I suppose, though, that I’m more excited than anything.  Because unlike a *real* river of lava outside my dwelling, the ones in WoW will prove to be fertile grounds for adventure, misadventure and aerial ganking! I can’t wait to explore all my previous environs, now shattered and destroyed.  I can’t wait to see these new areas I’ve been waiting to loregasm over for years now.  And most importantly, I cannot wait to see all the emo bastards leave the Horde, and go play their lycan… I mean, Worgen on the Alliance.

But how will I even worry about all these things with the sweeping changes to actual gameplay going on!  So much is changing, so much of it for the better.  A quick rundown… And I mean as quick as possible, because the new information could go on for pages and pages.

• Level cap raised to 85
• Two new races: Goblin for Horde, Worgen for Alliance
• Lots of new race/class combos.  Gnome Priest… Tauren Paladin! Join the Argent Mooooosade today, kids!
• Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor utterly changed forever
• ^ Flying Mounts in these new areas.  Woot. ^
• Mastery System put in place to remove bloat and un-fun from talent trees
• Removal of bloat stats on items, further streamlining boss loot tables.  Defense, Spellpower and Attack Power all being removed as “Straight” stats and will all be derived from base stats now
• Hunters no longer use mana, but instead get an improved version of their pet’s Focus mechanic. (Think Rogue Energy)
• Rated Battlegrounds for Arena points.  I bid a personal farewell to the Arena, one of the only features ever put into this game that I abhor.
• Tol Barad.  WinterGrasp 2.0
• Guild Advancement.  Take that, WarHammer Online!  We stole your only fun feature
• Path of the Titans.  Further character advancement at level 85
• New Secondary Profession: Archaeology
• Heroic Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep
• 100% brand new leveling experience from 1 – 60
• Countless other new Raids, 5 Mans and profession material, too much to list

Phew.  Did I miss anything?  I probably missed some things, but that’s bound to happen with the sheer amount of stuff included therein.  This seems like more of a game overhaul than an expansion.  I mean hell, in EQ, when they broke THEIR world it became EQ2: Terribad Adventures in MMORPG Making.  In the coming weeks, I will without a doubt review a lot of this more in depth.  Probably from a Lore and Raider perspective, mostly.  That’s just how I roll.  Perhaps I should have introduced myself at the beginning of the post.  Meh.

Tzeriel, level 80 T8.5 Blood Elf Mage on the Earthen Ring server. Few 80 alts.  WoW player since the dawn of the game.  I’ve been a Warcraft fanatic since I was 12 years old and received Orcs vs Humans as a gift.  Love Diablo and StarCraft as well, but not even close to the level of my Warcraft love.

TLDR: I cannot freaking wait for Cataclysm.  World shattering events?  Check.  Radical gameplay overhaul? Check.  Emo kids switching from their Blood Elves to their Lycans – I mean Worgen? Check, I hope.  Watch this space for continued expansion updates, rants, raves, thoughts, hot dogs, murloc noises and other WoW related junk.

I can already see the Worgen newbie area now…

LOL LYCANZZZZZZ

~Tzeriel

I remember when this intro was the greatest and most realistic graphics I have ever seen on a computer.  It sucked though that my 25Mhz computer (with TURBO button on!) couldn’t handle this intro.  So, I had to watch it at my neighbors house.  Boy was I jealous.

When I finally got a computer that could run Warcraft 2, I immediately started playing and fell in love with my first RTS game.  I also remember my first days of Battle.net.  They consisted of a 28.8Kbps modem over the Prodigy ISP, my dads cell phone, and my friend from middle school.  We played 2v2 matches until our bedtimes. Boy did my dad get mad and ground me off the computer when he noticed his cell phone bill the month after.

See, my friend from middle school had it good.  He already had 2 phone lines.  One for his computer, the other for regular phone calls.  I didn’t.  So, I used my dads cell phone as my walkie-talkie or VoIP as we would call it today. I would be yelling out:

“He’s spotted me!”
“Do you need help?”
“GO GO GO!”

At that time, my dad didn’t know what I was yelling about. But I was a good boy and wasn’t doing drugs. So, he let me play my computer games.  this is the game that got me into the Blizzard franchise.  It was like my gateway Blizzpill.  Cause right after that was Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood Wars, Diablo, Diablo 2, Warcraft 3, Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, then finally, the World of Warcraft.

Thank you Blizzard for making such great games.  I can’t wait to cover Blizzcon Friday.

Thanks to the wonderful people at MMO-Champion, we might have new and leaked info on the heavily rumored World of Warcraft expansion called Cataclysm.  Now these are labeled leaked rumors for now.  But we’ll be at Blizzcon next week to give you the definite news.

New Races and Class Combinations:

• Goblins
• Worgens
• Human Hunter
• Orc Mage
• Night Elf Mage
• Dwarf Mage
• Blood Elf Warrior
• Dwarf Shaman
• Undead Hunter
• Tauren Paladin
• Tauren Priest
• Gnome Priest
• Troll Druid

Leveling Experience

• Level Cap raised to 85
• Azshara becomes a low level starting zone
• Barrens split up into two separate zones

Other Updates

• Azeroth will be entirely revamped.
• Flying is allowed in parts of old Azeroth.
• Unreleased zones and dungeons, including Hyjal, Gilneas, and Uldum will become part of WoW.
• Deathwing and Azshara will be playing a major role in the Cataclysm that will happen.

For the full post, go past the break.

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