WoW is ruined: Three still ride on

Yes, it's a provocative title. However, that is how it feels right now, as the Three Dunces/Stooges are clearing one Cataclysm 5-man instace at a time, one shotting the bosses which we spent several sessions to overcome with our first team.

Blackrock: Cleared in two sessions, with several wipes due several issues. Explanations, explanations, but in the end it felt less of a challenge than with the first team.

Throne of Tides: cleared with couple of wipes in two sessions only because the final boss event bugged. Our general thoughts were along the lines that the game is broken or we are just that awesome, clearing the place with our trio at just adequate level. Well, tankadin and rogue were at the proper level, healer-shammy one below. In the first team it was a pain to go through the instance at the proper level.

Stonecore: Whereas we struggled with different parts of this dungeon with the first team, we just blasted through it with the second. Granted, the team was just on level 83, right after the MoP patch, but it just felt wrong in the sense that our gear is not up to date. My shammy still has stuff of level 78 on him, so every gear drop with int/spi is an upgrade. And I mean every!

So we are playing, enjoying the giggles and amazing the update on the game client. The new one really blew some new light into the cinders and seems to be working as intended. Also the changes to talents and shammy play are a source of constant wonder, so there is still a lot to do. WoW is definitely getting more simple by the patch. I'm waiting for the five button combat, which is bound to be just around the corner, right after MoP burnout fall of subscribers...

I'm just wondering am I going to go for the Mists with my brothers... But I'm just wondering.

The Three will ride on. With less deaths and gore than before, but still riding on!

The Three rode to... success?!

"What shall we do tonight, Brains?"
"The same as every night, Pinky. Conquer the world."

Not a very bad comparison there, really, when you think of the bottom line of Pinky and Brain versus The Three Stooges (in the sense discussed in this blog, aka. the adventures of three misguided brothers in WoW): both start with grandeur ideas of conquest and glory, only to fail miserably in trying.

Gee that sounds great condensed that way.

The start was similar last night. "What shall we do tonight?", a common question heard from three players. Not simultaneously, naturally, as we logged in at a bit different times and - naturally - didn't know someone had already gone there. After two different discussions we decided to take on the formerly impossible Blackrock Caverns.

All except Bishopgeorge being at lv82 (that bugger had dug himself to 83 via Archeology), we slightly over levelled the instance. Despite of that, we had visited the place only once and then resorted to the LFD to get us at least a feel of the place; an experiment that left us with very negative view of our possibilities to actually finish the instance at all. All those new - to us at least - mechanics and things left us a bit dumbfounded. The encounters include interesting and different mechanics than anything we've seen so far (except for Laiskajaakko with his 'extensive experience' in ICC raids...), so we felt a bit off to even be there.

First was Rom'Ogg the Bonecrusher. Had the Tank kept his cool, we wouldn't have pulled that fellow while cleaning the trash away from the area. To add to the pain, the darn shackles got somehow inside the mob itself, making it effectively impossible to target! Not even tabbing showed the shackles, so... Oh, we wiped.

The second try was perfect show of execution: Rom'Ogg went down even with one cultist picking on us on the run. "RAZZ SMASH!!"

I started to wonder what the heck had happened to the group when we cleaned the trash from Rom'Ogg to Corla: I could pull whole groups of four and they would go down without us even breaking a sweat? Was it really all about new daggers Förgelös had acquired the last time or what?

But Corla, Herald of Twilight, with her Evolution rays... Mind you, this is the second time we even visited the instance, and already the pressure was mounting. How to handle the two rays with three players so that we could a)tank, b)spank and c)heal effectively over the fight. The solution was to have Bishopgeorge on one ray, tank Laiskajaakko on the second and our resident town fool dps dance the night away backstabbing the Herald.

All fine and dandy, except for a slight bit of lack in communication, which lead to Evolution of Bishopgeorge, an immense damage spike on Förgelös and effective wipe as Laiskajaakko was swat on the floor.

Back to the execution part: everyone watch their own cooldowns and buffs, and not listen to anyone else giving any sort of comments on them.

Corla went down without the slightest problem.


There was silence.


Some more silence.

"Now that was awesome."

And the congratulations and comments started flowing. We downed Corla, Herald of Twilight on our third try as trio, on our second visit to the whole instance, without the help of any darn strategy guides!

Full of ourselves and Bishopgeorge grasping his new Baton we went on to Karsh Steelbender. The flame elementals were tricky due to the quicksilver adds they heat up, but nothing serious. As customary, you have to wipe to learn the basics, so we wiped on Karsh because one darn stupid tank didn't move him out of the flames promptly enough.

Like Corla, the second time was impeccable performance: like watching a movie. Quite astonishing.

The corehounds were just pushovers, really, nothing to comment, and we really descended hard on the Ascendant Lord Obsidius with his two adds and role switching.

We were exhausted, exhilariated, excited and really proud of ourselves. Three manned Blackrock Caverns on our second visit! We didn't manage that on Forge of Souls, despite the fact that it was more simple and straightforward, we had better gear related to the instance and we knew the instance better.

The conclusion was, that even though Blackrock Caverns has more interesting mechanics and a bit more demanding bosses, it was too easy for comfort.

So we had to take beating to get us back to the ground, and to the Throne of the Tides we went.

Oh, yes, that felt like home again: even trash requires some crowd control, which we are short of. And at least the initial boss, Lady Naz'jar, requires some increased dps to get through the adds in time before the fat lady sings again.

Needless to say, we wiped once and again and after the third time we decided it was time to rest and reconcile what we had learned.

All in all, a fantastic evening, loads of laughs and glorious "WTF just killed us all?! 30k OVERKILL?!" moments. Something to forget before we ride again.

Seriously.

C out

PS. Just a thought: if we three man the instances and are in a same guild, shouldn't the run be a full guild run?
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Detached from the world

Reading Twitter pays sometimes off. There was a nice little discussion about phasing and it's effect on the game experience earlier, to which some bloggers have commented (and to even more to which the tweeps have commented on) on their own. In a way the chit-chat - as far as I know - lead to Rowan's splendid post "A Little Player in a Very Big MMO", to which Pete from Dragonchasers later in Twitter added one link to a very, very nice post about the problems of phasing, that being Battle Priestess Moxiedoodle's post "Hey! What about that Other Game?", which in turn pinpoints one sore spot I've been trying to find myself.

Whew. What a monster of a sentence.

Anyhow, now that I have lured you off from the blog I'll return to the topic. Even though I think that the quests flow nicely from hub to hub and that the whole system guides you forward at increasing speed, it still detaches you from the actual game world. It works well - exceptionally well, in fact - when you start a new character who has to get to know the basics of her trade and get the feel of the world as it is before she can take it on herself.

Fine and dandy, like a tutorial.

But for the higher level character that seems a bit exaggerated solution. The freedom to go from one hub to another has been taken away, as you must follow the story of the area to 'unlock' the next hub or flypoint. I felt very much cheated as I flew around Mt.Hyjal when I could see the flypoint mark on my minimap only to disappear as I came on the spot where it was supposed to be. Even more disheartening was the fact - which Moxiedoodle also pointed out - that the mining nodes which showed on the minimap just blinked out when you come to the spot. And no, there was no-one to be seen around the area.

For me the feel of being part of the world comes from the freedom to roam around and find the quests you really want to do. Unnown was a great blow to my belief that Cataclysm still had that trait, even though Gnomore has done miracles to the attachment to the world itself. With Gnomore I'm effectively out of the loop of guidance and mandatory quests only because I cannot do them due to the killing restriction: most probably this will cause severe problems to the character later on, as the phasing and leading from quest hub to another will become an issue working against the levelling. But I'll deal with that when it's due.

The question is, has Blizzard gone too far with the hand holding, hub to hub leading and catering to the speed levelling?

Is it really so that Cataclysm was the first blow which will kill WoW as we know it?

C out
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New year, new projects

Happy New Year and prosperity to all.

I bet you thought that I'm moving on as you read the headline. No chance, sorry about that. I though I'd change my blogging a bit: thus far I've been stuck to the text version alone, as I find the pictures in blogs a bit dull to follow myself. However, as I started one new project it might be a good thing to go through that with a dedicated picture folder and some chit chat about the progress.

Because this project is a follow up of a failed one, I'll start with that one. The failed one was my worgen druid, Unnown, who was supposed to be a non-violent, non-killing worgen. However, it's impossible to even become a worgen without completing the worgen starter area questline, so the whole project dried up in a whimper.

As it happens, I took only few screenshots of that try, which I promised to present at one point or another. However, the follow up project, gnome priest Gnomore (EU/Thunderhorn, if you want to check the stats) will be an ongoing project as it was possible to escape Gnomeregan even though he was radioactive and not cleaned... talk about hygiene over there.

I will also keep you bored with the adventures of the Three Stooges, me and my brothers, who will bang heads with the instances of Cataclysm in the holy trinity of warrior tank, rogue dps and priest healer, mostly failing miserably where everyone else succeeds. Hopefully I'll start using the wonderful gift of screenshots with that, too, if it seems more pleasant.

This doesn't mean that anything else will change though. I will be the grumpy one complaining about one or another thing in the game and wondering things that people take for granted. I will also test and try other games, as I'm not 100% pleased with our beloved WoW as you may have seen already...

Anyhow, I hope this year will be as prosperous and happy as the last one was, or even more!

C out
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Three against... What?!

It was the night before New Year's Eve, when the Three Stooges took off again. With some fuzz with the contents of their bags they rummaged through the auction houses, banks, inns and stores of Stormwind, weeping for their trusty Northrend purples which had gone stale with the new, shiny greens of Cataclysm.

With much rage and crying they set their foot in Blackrock Caverns, the place they so fittingly died in the last time they were around.

"Off we go", claimed Laiskajaakko, as he entered the Cavern with Bishopgeorge. Without much ado he launched to the first caster mob, unaware of the fact that his brother had just exited the instance to show Förgelös, the middle one, where the Caverns entrance is.

Score: 1-0 for the instance.

Much rage and laughter commenced, as the three of them proceeded the instance. The first 'boss' with his lovely chains of appreciation caused the second death in the trio, when Bishopgeorge - instead of running straight - decided to run in circles around the feller. In the end, Laiskajaakko had only ten or so hit points left when the big bad boss went down, with all the cooldowns gone and potions chugged.

Score: 2-1 for the instance.

Onwards behind the shoulders of Raz the Insane or whatever his nickname was, and down the tunnel to Corla, that damned priest of the dark forces. The encounter is definitely done to humiliate us who want to have a real challenge in the instance, because it's quite impossible to complete at this level, with the dps available to the gear available. There just isn't enough dps to kill the beast beauty with the standard combination of the holy trinity: tank - dps - healer. I say standard, because none of us is a hybrid, nor do we have any pets to play with, pets which most of the time bring another party member to the foray, really.

Naturally it was a wipe. Twice even, even though we tried to rotate the one standing in the light ("Don't look into the light!").

Score: 8-1 for the instance.

"The heck with it", decided Bishopgeorge, and as the group leader put us into the LFD. Which, amazingly enough, filled the group before we got back from the spirit healer. (Ok, well, almost.)

And the instance was a breeze. The only problem was the fact that Laiskajaakko had never been in the instance before, so every boss was a new experience. There were wipes and deaths, but in the end the final verdict was that the instance was easy but designed so that it would be a real challenge for the three of us at anytime soon.

Score: 20 - 6, for the instance.

After which it was time to recuperate in the gentle care of Stormwind. Over the instance run there was next to no chat, no help, no advice from the two extra members, even though they had been in there several times. Laiskajaakko had to ask for guidance in Corla (ok, so the debuff's wear off, thank you) and that furnace master feller (now I know I have to drag him through the lava, thank you for telling that to me after the first wipe even though I asked). Without the constant chit-chat over the vent among the three of us, the instance experience would have been very, very shallow and dry.

Due to the fact that you have to know where the entrance is, the three decided that it was time for Bishopgeorge and Förgelös to gain their Sea Legs and Sea Horse. They went for the boat, stood on the same pier, but couldn't see each other: the glorious side effect of the phasing system. Upon reaching Vashj'ir the two landlubbers started doing the quests as planned, while Laiskajaakko did some mining and monster bashing, granting the two 'off-phased' brothers some extra experience. Which was nice and everyone was joyous.

Long story short, the three rode into the Throne of the Tides and engaged the first boss in there. That Nazga or what her name is. Anyhow, we got our behinds handed to us in a very grand and typical manner, as Bishopgeorge missed the healing que while yawning loudly, wiping first Laiskajaakko (Heals, please, Hello!) then Förgelös (Could we really have some heals here, please?!) in rapid succession. The only excuse was... "hmmmh... aye, that was partly the fault of the player, partly... hmmh..."

So we called it a night.

Förgelös put it nicely, and I have to agree with him on every word. You see, he said: "Despite everything Copra/Laiskajaakko claims and writes in his blog, one has to admit that the developers at Blizzard have really put some effort to the new areas and instances. So much so that you can really see that the polish isn't just skin deep."

Like I said, agreed. And I have never denied that WoW is extremely well done, polished and completed with great care.

It's good to end the blogging year with these warm words and wish all of you readers a very nice New Year.

C out
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On challenge in WoW

I've mentioned already this week that there seems to be less and less challenge in the game, especially Cataclysm has taken majority of the solo game challenges off. The railroaded themepark questlines are so secure and sure to guide new player through the 1-60 to the great unknown, unchanged Outlands which stands suspended in time out there.

At no particular point there is any considerable challenge presented to the player, not even the 15-50 instances provide any meaningful challenge to the groups at that level due to the fact that the players mostly overgear the content. I've also noticed that there are usually one or two characters in a random group at the 45-55 range (at least) who are either a couple of levels higher or lower than the rest. This in turn means that the ones lower get carried through and the ones higher get to carry the rest.

But.

There are challenges in WoW later on, and a quite huge amount of them, really. Let's list some of them for discussion:

1. Run only LFD PUGs and not lose your temper at all.
2. Endure a jerk in a random LFD group.
3. Gear up after getting into level cap.
4. Gear up for raiding, even though it is now possible both by doing heroics AND normals.
5. Find the right strategy guide and accompanying videos to heroics and raid instances.
6. Learn the instances by heart before committing to them, see 4.
7. Learn the raids by heart before committing to them, see 4.
8. Play some minigame while waiting for a random group and beating yourself every time, unless you are blessed with a guild running at the same level and progression.
9. Do not leave a group in an instance in which no-one understands the basics of crowd control at all. This applies to the instances from Dire Maul onwards, really, only to be forgotten in Outlands.
10. Level outside the pre-planned storyline.
11. Level without killing anything.

As you can see, learning to play your class isn't included. Naturally. That is not a challenge, that means only that by going through the quests and questlines you should have learned everything there is to learn. At level cap you should be a master already, even though it takes 10.000 hours to master anything. 

We all know it doesn't take 10 000 hours to level from 1 to 85 anymore, though...

Anything else I forgot to mention as a challenging thing in WoW?

C out

PS. I know a certain German reader who will point out that 'to have fun' would be one, but I doubt I wouldn't be playing the game still if I didn't have at least some kind of fun with it, right?

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Not at all!

I admit, the lasts few posts have been the same old me again: complaints and critiques of the game as it appears to me. This post is supposed to be something completely different. Not at all like the previous ones.

First of all, my first contact with the Shattering was in fact a new alt, an Undead Hunter with whom I blasted to level 18 I think. What a joyous ride that was! The quests flow from the beginning in such a way that you are really 'living up' a story of an up and coming hero rather than one of the guys at the cemetery, like it earlier seemed to be. The phasing provides a pull which is otherwise impossible to achieve and you really see the world change from a scene to scene.

After playing the worgen and goblin starter areas and seeing the gnome starter, I can say that the beginning player's starting experience has been streamlined and polished to the extreme. The only pitfall in this is the possibility that the starter areas are lacking the challenge one would expect to see in a world torn by constant war and strife.

But the biggest fun came later on with the Undead: there is this particular quest at the border of Silverpine Forrest and Hillsbrad area, where you get to be the questgiver. And you get to had three quests to three different kinds of characters. No more spoilers, but this quest was the first time in the game where I laughed with tears in my eyes to a scripted event. And the follow ups with the questees later on were a cracker, too, but not the way the original quest would have suggested...

At the high end levelling areas one cannot be but amazed of the quality, continuity and flow of the story itself, and contrary to what Blizzard said about quest hubs (something like "players want to see their minimap blinking with yellow exclamation marks"), they condensed the hubs instead: only few quests usually doable in the same area and at the same time, continuing the story or two simultaneously only to be finalized in a sort of climatic encounter before leaving for the next area. Well, the same worked in the new revamped 1-60 quests, too, but in the end levels it's even more profound.

What really warmed up my cold heart was the fact that the crafted gear is again worth a thought: even the first BoE gear which is craftable by a blacksmith are worth the while. I replaced WotLK purples with the first three pieces I could do and without a single doubt! I haven't checked the other crafts yet, but I bet that the tailors have the same situation at their hands as soon as they get enough cloth in their hands. I can only hope that this continues to the cap, because it would seem a waste to be subjected to the instance and point gear only.

In saying that Blizzard provided more of the same you would be making an underestimation: they provided even more of the same, but with some very innovative approaches. However, in railroading the play experience the game has taken quite a few steps towards the massive multiplayer solo game, and by doing that the group content will suffer the most in the end: people just do not know how to cope with the group content, blasting away with the ways they have learned while soloing. Then again, one of the nifty little things Blizzard provided the players with are the progressing quest chains: you get both experience and the next quest of the chain on the fly, and these combined with the instance create a very, very interesting concept. The same system has been used in the wilds where you may find a quest while doing another (triggered by random kill or an area like a cavern) which liven up the questing itself, giving you the illusion of free form or sandbox quests.

If we think of Cataclysm from the newcomers point of view, then the overall experience has improved to cater the complete noob in a fantasy game: it provides interaction, specified and achievable quest targets and guides and ushers you onwards with the story and out into the world. The ongoing storylines really push you beyond the earlier level 10 barrier Blizzard reported, as they continue way beyond that limit.

So from the newcomers point of view, Cataclysm made WoW even better.

For the veteran quester who has seen the content up to WotLK the new levelling experience is a refreshing change to the old one, providing new insight into some quest types and using phasing as a real tool in advancing the story. Also the fact that you have to find the instances in real before you can queue to them via the Dungeon Finder is a refreshing thing, and urges people either to go through the quest lines in the area to reach the conclusion in the instance or to explore the area to find the entrance. As I haven't reached the cap yet (only lv83) I cannot say what changes in there, but I expect it will be even more of the same as it was in WotLK, causing me to turn my face on working with my alts.

All in all, Cataclysm turned WoW into a roller coaster which urges you to go by the numbers. It's not a bad thing considering the changing customer base, but it's not exactly what the genre requires to improve as whole. I for one am having the feeling that by streamlining the system Blizzard has gotten rid of the danger and challenge in questing, and for me it is not enough to have that sense of challenge in the heroic instances alone.

So for the next time I would love to see some sense of challenge, possibility to fail even if you do your best and more emphasis on group content. By this I'm not saying that the instance content is bad, quite the opposite: the instances I've been so far are top notch and entertaining, the bosses are different and have various mechanics and all. But the change from WotLK facerolling with AoE damage to the crowd control required style seems to be too abrupt for the majority of the players and the questing and levelling content doesn't help the players to understand this change.

Was that pep enough for a change?

C out
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Sad long silence

Ah.

I had almost forgotten I had a blog. All this due to a couple of weeks of travelling due to work related things, then being hyperactive in RL and finally getting a new computer - which was broken to begin with - to cut my actual play time in shreds.

And then the ultimate waste of time, Cataclysm.

Of course I had to try everything. Worgen, goblin, undead hunter, Vash'jir, Hyjal.

First things first. I started a long time 'dream class' of mine before the Shattering hit: Undead Hunter. And I admit, hunter is the face rolling machine to level. The experience is spoiled only by the fact that the starter area has been reduced to a no fun hand holding guidance, even though the quests themselves have been linked up into a better flow of the story. This is where Blizzard has really made the most improvement: the story of the character really flows and you are moved from one part to another when needed. No more the minimap is full of stars exclamation marks, but only few which you can do at the same area. And the real treat of the undead story progression comes when you are leaving the Silverpine Forrest. The quest in which you are being put into the place of a quest giver. I have never laughed as much while playing the game, except when we're really wiping with my brothers. If you do not want to play an undead, do yourself a favour and play this far. And a bit further, as the story continues later on...

Cataclysm came and it was time to see the levelling areas. Vash'jir and Hyjal at the second wave of levellers == not fun. Everyone and their cousins have this urge to get to the cap as fast as possible, as if they were afraid that they might start liking the quests, stories and the deep - and quite often - fun lore of it all. The main gripes of the whole charade is the fact that the quests, especially the most interesting ones, are designed for single player, only to be raped by hundred player characters simultaneously. Kill stealing and other obnoxious and anti-social traits rule the areas, when people just tag a mob and let others kill them. Or just pick the collectable stuff while you are killing the mob guarding it.

So I have dropped it. I'm not in such a hurry to the cap even though the guild is most certainly about to start the first 'raids' soon. We will have the next expansion in what, two and odd years, so why hurry to the end and be bored with no content?

Goblin starter area screams for comment: played it and didn't like it. It just doesn't fit my mindframe, it's too 'contemporary' and it overdoes the pop-cult references abundantly. Just my bowl of porridge there.

But the worgen starter area. Goodness gracious! Everything seems to fit the story in here. And the game: the werewolf people fits the overall game like no other of the added races ever. The story is just as grim and gloomy as you could expect, the only thing that left me cold was the actual voice acting. It just sounds so off from the british accent you expect that it isn't even funny. One could have expected Blizzard to put as much effort to it as they have put on everything else in the game, to make the Victorian setting sound as one (or as we see it through Hammer Studios movies and Sherlock Holmes' interpretations) as possible.

The only thing I regret about the expansion so far is the fact that my dream of levelling up a worgen druid who would kill nothing to the cap has been shattered by the fact that you cannot get a worgen out of the Gilneas without killing a wild worgen or two. Or at least as many as the quests require, add a few scourge in the mix. This was confirmed by a GM who helped my character to respawn after I had explored the whole area available for play the other night, when I noticed that everything was phased, there were no creatures (save spiders and stags) in the area and even the trees were absent. And the world ended in a shining, transparent wall beyond which there was nothing towards Hillsbrad and only a bottomless crevasse towards Silverpine. Even Shadowfang Keep was absent from the area around Wall of Gilneas!

So this is what I've been doing for the last few weeks. Thanks to the people in The Wild Hunt, I have forgotten my calling to write: you know who you are.

Maybe it is now safe to try the levelling areas again. Off to Hyjal with the Three Stooges again!

C out
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What to raid and what to loot..

Cataclysm is getting closer and closer and a lot of players are realizing that the world of warcraft as we currently know it will 'cease to exist' when Cataclysm hits the shelves. Its not that all of the areas will be destroyed, its more the fact that the old content of WotLK will be soon forgotten (as the old-world and Outland was). As a result, players are trying to gather all their last achievements which will become feats of strength, and trying to get the mounts which will vanish.

On the other side of the spectrum people are looking forward into the near future. What will be the way class X should gear in Cataclysm and what will be the best spec to level in. And that is my current dilemma.

In the past I always did raids with my warlock. A fairly OK geared character which could usually be found in the middle of the top 10 dps. But, as more locks joined the raid, I requested the Raid officers for a switch to my druid healer (there is always room for more healers it seems). So it was done and rather quickly my gear was boosted from 2 parts of the regular T10 to 4 parts of normal sanctified T10. Now with my lock, who didn't need that much gear, I had carefully saved up some DKP. But, with 2 specs to tend to I quickly tore through my DKP and am now back on bidding minimum and hoping nobody wants the same item.

My dilemma now is that by the end of it all, I'll have a fairly complete healing kit, capable of being at the top of the healing charts (which I've already, suprisingly, found myself several times)and will be a valuable asset to the raid till then. But what will it bring me when Cata hits? The person who will want to quest in the new expansion instead of just heal random dungeons? Sure I can go quest in my epic healing gear, but that will not bring much joy I fear.

So, what to loot? Should I stay with my current decent healing gear and collect feral stuf from now on and leave my raiding buddies to fate? Or should I keep working on my healing gear and grind my teeth when cata hits?(Or, as a side trail, should I go for boomkin as apparently ferals won't be doing that well at the start of cata...)

I for one am going to keep working on my healing gear and will trust in Blizz to provide me with decent enough gear to level through the content. But I don't think everybody will do the same and I'm affraid many raid leaders will grind their teeth till cata hits due to the priority settings of its raid members and naggers who want to raid a different instance/boss for specific gear.

Someone always has an upper hand

Cataclysm hitting the game with all the changes to the guilds, talents, gear and stuff.

It's always like this. The friends and family beta, closed beta, less closed beta and PTR. And finally launch. The ones who get the upper hand in the next expansion are those who spend the better part of their day in reading the leaks, scrutinizing the news and blue posts and speculating on what will happen on the market.

Thinking of which, the same people who will anyhow consume the content fastest because they are running for the end game anyhow are the ones who are given the upper hand in the form of preliminary information which they can collect and put to use as plans for plunging through the content fastest.

Then again, there is always someone out there with the upper hand. Why the heck do that vocal minority have the right to spoil the fun from us who are not so keen on speeding through the levelling and willing to learn by trial the nooks and crannies of the new talents and builds? Why is it so that the whole concept of a MMO like WoW has turned into a battlefield between the players on who is faster, better and more vocal on how bad the others are?

Upper hand goes to those who devote more time to the game. Granted. But that shouldn't be taken off from the ones who do not spend as much time to the game, in the game or off the game.

The game should be equal field. Playground for all.

Equally.
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Is it epic?

I have been touching the subject of raiding being revered as The Game within the MMO. I myself think that raiding itself has been created as a superficial way to keep the players who want to beat the game and see the flashing Game Over, You Win screen happy and working ad nauseatum. The opposing point of view deems quests and levelling as boring solo endeavour and raiding as being epic battles and epic experiences.

Look around in the blogosphere: how many posts about quests, epic storylines or great deeds done while completing quest can you find? Let alone blogs?

Based on what I've seen -which isn't much- I think it's pretty few, most of them mostly concentrating on completing the Insane to the Membrane achievement or speed levelling by going through the few longer quest lines, skipping the finale because the reward is obsolete at the time you reach that point.

Now that I've dipped my feet into the raiding end of the pool, I'm waiting for it's magic to get hold on me. The min-maxing minigame which being capped forces on you finds its culmination point in raid gearing with all the finesses from flasks, potions, enchants and buff food. The further we go in an expansion the higher and higher the arbitrary gs expectations of the PUG raids go, leading us to the point where a fun run in Sunwell Plateau requires "properly geared, min. 5.6gs players" (saw yesterday a call for full group of lv80's for that one...) and you can't get on weekly below 6k. Couple of days ago I was turned down from weekly in Ulduar (XT-002) for lacking from 5.6k gs...

This superficial requirement armada creates the false assumption that the life at the cap is the cream of the crop. It makes us forget the stories, the lore and the real adventure experienced while climbing up to the top. Then again, the game designers guide our decisions and impose us with certain solutions to their puzzles, forming the way the game is played. If they wanted, the game would look very much different.

One aspect I've noticed lacking is the quest line composition. There is no way of telling if the quest you just picked up is a continuing one (unless you run a quest helper addon or another), and despite what Blizzard thinks not everyone is rejoiced to find a quest hub and see their minimap blink yellow: the most rewarding quests and quest lines I've taken have been those which you find out there in the wild, in a dungeon which you just passed or out there, beyond any quest hubs. Sense of adventure, excitement and exploration, I say!

The quests should give us also choices which have the chance of changing the future quest composition. You should be able to make a decision whether you want to torture a prisoner or turn their superiors in. By choosing either your future quests should reflect this change, thus making every levelling experience different by more than just choosing another area (only to return to the same path later).

There are no real epic story lines out there, even though there are some pretty long ones. The ones that tickle your fancy and force you to hurry to the next chapter in the story are few and far, but those are the ones that really make the game epic.

Will we see this change in Cataclysm? I don't know. Like I said earlier, I hate the Cataclysm leaks, and can't bother to find out beforehand. But if the questing is more and more the same as always, then the only thing that remains epic is gear.

The question is, whether the quests and questing in general is epic enough, when beating the 'unbeatable' odds of group content seems to be?

Could questing be as epic, even?
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Leaks

by Copra


Cataclysm beta leaks. I hate them. I really do. But they are a genius pre-marketing tool from Blizzards side in many ways.

Achievements. Guild levelling. Instances. Class changes. Gear wipe. You name it.

Every little bit of information going out of the new shiny expansion fills a specific marketing target. There is a fabulous name to this creation of future expectations which cause people focus on the future rather than to the current moment.

Nextopia.

It's the current trend that we expect the next big thing to be The Thing. The same as the reason to publicise the next big concert a year ahead, put an outrageous price tag on the ticket and see how the price of the tickets declines the closer we come to the gig. It's the way we look our world tomorrow and forget to concentrate on the current moment. Tomorrow everything is better.

And we're all playing according to Blizzards pipe on this.

Take the guild achievement system for example. ICC is more or less on farm for most of the guilds out there. They are keeping some sort of raiding schedule to keep the raiders happy, to feed the not raiders through the LK grind and get everyone geared for the next big thing. (See what I did just there? Nextopia!) Some have started to look for greener pastures, and Blizzard reveals their plans for guild achievements and how ancient legendary weapons are ranked high in that system.

Guess what happens. Oh, sorry, you may have seen this, so it's no spoiler at all.

The guilds which have gotten bored or just lost the zest to go through ICC for the umpteenth time turn their eyes towards their legendary weapons. Suddenly there is a new surge in going through Ulduar, vanilla raids and so on. The people scatter from Dalaran to do their magic in the areas where they have set their foot a couple of years ago, if ever.

Blizzard just created 'meaningfull' stuff to do to you people! Clever marketing trick using the Nextopia idea!

At least I'm interested to see how Blizzard will fool us all to go through the old content once again. Cataclysm itself started the new minigame boom on achievements, but what if they introduced another one just to make sure everyone leaves the safety of Dalaran to see the old world again...

I can't wait for it to happen. It's bliss to live on expectations!
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Should we praise the talent change?

by Copra

I have decided to keep the information I receive about Cataclysm to minimum, but the new talent change thing penetrated my shields. The system changes considerably, and as far as I understood the amount of talents is going down as well as the selection of optional ones, too.

In a way I see this as a step back from the 'freedom' players have had so far. EQ2 took a step back from character archetypes and switched to more open system of AA's in the early days. Now it seems to me at least that Blizzard is taking the opposite direction: moving from freedom to archetypes.

The change reflects the same ideals as the proposed and withdrawn RealID issue: to make the game more non-gamer, social friendly. By making the original character development decision the player commits to the character (which I like, because people are really making a mess of the game by playing tens of alts and not learning even one of them properly), but at the same time it urges people to make more characters to experience all of the classes out there. From 10 classes to 30 archetypes.

Make no mistake, I'm not a min-maxer type, but doesn't this sound like Blizzard is trying to make that min-maxing more a curiosity than a viable metagame within the game?

Or am I just paranoid in thinking that WoW is getting a wee bit more dumbed down to the direction of Free Realms and Facebook integration?

Bored before launch

I wonder what would have been the result if Blizzard would have dropped Cataclysm in without giving out all the information first?


I mean, we are swamped with information about the Cataclysm expansion to WoW. The character class changes, skill changes, races, mechanics... What remains is to go and see how they work in real.


I'm sick and tired of this already. 


I would much rather take an expansion with proper foreshadowing and the changes as -slight or major- surprises as such. Change the world progressively and subtly rather than expose the major change through 'information leaks' and 'discussions'.


The mechanics have been chewed to perfection before the expansion lands, and the people who are bound to consume the content faster others anyhow are doing it faster than ever and will be burned out even faster than they were with earlier expansions. The only thing we cannot be sure of is the actual content and quality of the quests, instances and raids.


The way I see it... Blizzard gave out the facts and figures which could have kept the 'community' buzzing for a long time with the expansion way before the expansion comes live. To make sure that everyone reading the information would surely use it and burn out as fast as possible.


I wonder...


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Problem with level 10

As I have now been levelling up totally new characters in the RP server (Argent Dawn-EU), I have been experiencing the first 10 levels. The 10 level experience is important factor in making people to stay in the game, at least according to Blizz who has made their trial last for so long. The players -trial players- who make it beyond lv10 are only 30% of the people who activate trial, which is something that caused a slight stir in the blogosphere. And quite naturally at the Blizzard Marketing Division.

Leading to several changes to make the initial 10 levels as easy -and compelling- as possible.

The result.

The initial starter area where the character begins its journey to heroic deeds is way too easy. There is only one red -aggressive- creature in this area, where as there were earlier several. Heck, there were areas in the starter area where you wouldn't have gone right away because of the fact that all the creatures in there would have jumped on you and eaten you alive!

Now it's a stroll in the park. The aggressive monster is as easy as earlier neutral ones, posing no threat to the survival of the newly created character. The same goes on in the adjacent area, where the neutral and aggressive mobs are mixed together. However, the aggressive one are so weak that you have to make a terrible mistake to get killed. Like fighting your way into a campsite of the mobs and get jumped on by respawns. It happens, but... not likely.

However, at this point you get into the first capital city and enter the first 'contested' area. And that's when the drag starts. First of all, the first five levels in the beginner area come in such a rapid succession that it doesn't even feel nice. The level up seems more an annoyance than a reward, as the actual progress in the power level of the character comes more from the -poorly itemised- gear than from the few skills. Levels five to ten change this the other way around: the game becomes a constant struggle to get enough money to get all the skills, especially if you enter the tradeskills. The levelling becomes very much slower than it was. At level 7 I struck a kind of soft wall with all my toons, a situation in which the levelling seemed to slow down very much. The next such wall comes before level 15: the game becomes cyclical in progress.

The reason why level 10 is such a barrier IMO is the fact that the beginning is too easy: it poses no challenge, and no social contacts. Its the epitome of a massive single player game. Where the beginning area is too easy, the next stage of the game is too demanding for a player who has never set their foot on an adventure game or MMO: the challenge changes abruptly from super easy to the level where it should have been in the beginning.

The progression isn't smooth, it's erratic.

If I started WoW now with the knowledge I had when I first began, I doubt I would progress past the beginning area. It's just too lame, easy and unchallenging.

Here's my fingers crossed for Cataclysm to make it right again.

Random thought: Loremaster after Cataclysm

Thought popped up in my small mind yesterday, as I had written my latest post: What will happen to the achievement Loremaster after Cataclysm has destroyed the Old Azeroth and most of the quests have been redone?

How about other Old Azeroth, vanilla-WoW based achievements? Will they be replaced with something as extravaganza, too?

Just a thought.