Existential Worlds

Kill Ten Rats

2007-06-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

My blogging has tapered off of late, as my virtual and real lives have gotten exceptionally busy. Militiae Templi killed Tidewalker, Fathom-Lord and The Lurker Below this week, making great progress in SSC on our mains. My alt warrior is now main tanking most of Karazhan, and raiding has absorbed most of my time. I just don't have a desire to reblog every story that comes down the pipe, and I haven't had the time nor inclination to think of anything noteworthy to post. I have a few thoughts here and there, but not enough to keep a blog as current as it should be for ones readers to remain engaged.

As it turns out, Ethic of Kill Ten Rats, was looking for a few bloggers to join their team, and I have signed on. I will spend my time their discussing the MMO raid game, and World of Warcraft, and would like to invite you all to join me at that site. My posts can be found here.

I do not plan on closing Existential Worlds, because I still have quite a lot I wanted to cover and discuss, and never had the chance to do so. There is mileage left in this blog, but I don't know when or how often my readers can expect updates. My work at KTR will stay there, and will not be reblogged here, so please come on over to Kill Ten Rats, and join that wonderful community.

Shit hits the game industry fan...

2007-05-25T07:52:00.000-05:00

I take an extended break from blogging, and the industry falls apart in my absence. I must have been the glue holding everything together...

Well, so it could be believed if one read all of the shocked and awed accounts of the Death of Sigil and Vanguard, as if we in the shouting-class press, hadn't seen the writing on the port-o-john wall circa 2004.

Schlid was the premier source of information on the scandal, and the ensuing posts at f13 were of the highest entertainment value. Essentially every other blogger had something to say on the issue, and my links at the right would be a good place to start if you awoke this week and were taken by surprise at this news.

I did not feel any remorse. I did not feel any animosity, nor any glee at seeing this colossal failure come to its bitter end. In fact, I was so uninspired, it took me days to even work up the motivation to blog about it. You see, I had already worked through the stages of post-fanboism grief, and after years of spite, I just didn't have anything left.

I knew this time would come for quite some time now, as I am sure, did many others. I have a funny anecdote that I spoke about in my 'First Impressions' post on the Vanguard Beta forums after my first week in Beta 1. After two straight days of downloading, because the first two times I had tried, the client simply disappeared sometime during the 20 hour process, I finally loaded up my system, and sat for another four hours while it matched my client to the current version.

With the excitement that only years of fansite participation, hype and finally having a chance to test the new shiny in town, I rolled up my Goblin Necro and zoned in...

...to nothing. I was hovering 25 feet above the ground, with a few players and NPCs also hovering in a similar fashion, at the edge of a body of water. I could see smoke and a few fires on the shoreline, but I could not get to them from my levitated vantage point. After about an hour of logging out, logging back in, and bug reports, I just quit in frustration.

Later, after slogging through the forums and asking some questions, I learned that I was in fact on a large ship at the waters edge, with a small exit door supposedly in an upper level, but the ship had failed to render and I could not find the exit to begin playing the game.

My First Impressions post basically amounted to: If very experienced gamers, who have been waiting for this game for years, get frustrated and quit in the first hour they see your game, you have very real problems ahead of you. Who actually thinks this is Beta ready?

The ensuing flames and venomous insults from the gathered forum monkey population, gave me the distinct impression that Vanguard was headed for disaster. I held my tongue and kept playing, kept reporting the same bugs over and over, and getting more and more annoyed until I finally quit. During Beta 4, I re-patched and rolled another Goblin Necro just to see how things had improved, and when I loaded in, the fucking ship failed to render, and I couldn't help but wonder just what $30 million buys these days.

I made this post when the NDA was lifted, and haven't given the game another thought until now. I don't think Brad is the monster or the moron that people are painting him as. I just think he was in over his head. I know if someone gave me $30,000,000 and five years with very few deadlines and no oversight, there is a very strong possibility that I would fuck it up too. I think a lot of good people got hurt and that saddens me, but the industry has grown up a bit from all of this. As an industry, we needed a Vanguard to remind us all that having a dream does not guarantee success, and that hype does not equal playability. Perhaps studios will give more money to QA and CFOs who are there to keep the rampant creativity in check. Sounds very boring, I know, but sadly business is boring. Everyone has a thousand great ideas. Hell, I have 5 MMOs in my head right now that would blow WoW and LoTRO out of the marketplace, but I don't know the first thing about assembling a team, and making my vision a reality. And therein lies the moral of this story.

Vacation & a social experiment

2007-05-02T13:06:00.000-05:00

I am going on vacation and I am not sure if I will have the motivation to write while I am enjoying my time off from the grind. I have been busy as all hell lately and have slacked off a bit around here, so it won't be a drastic change for my regulars, and I'm sure the Google visitors won't notice the difference.

Speaking of Google visitors, I have read some funny posts around the blogosphere about where people have gotten some.. err... exotic traffic from. It seems our errant Google visitors are oft enticed by less than reputable searches, and are a bit surprised to find we are not writing about the games they had in mind. Sure everyone loves a nice sex and bondage game in the bedroom, but that isn't what this blog is about, so they leave disappointed and jaunt off to Google about hot sluts or giant boobs or whatever they are searching for.

Well, sorry to disappoint you, but this blog is strictly PG13 to R, depending on how strict you are about language. You won't find any XXX content or naked pics here. It's just not what we're about.

PS: If you found this blog post through a misdirected Google search, I suggest you try Second Life. It has all the content you were looking for and then some.

It will be interesting to see how many disappointed visitors stop by on my vacation... Google is an interesting tool, but could you imagine a world without it?

Of Dice and Men

2007-04-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

Gaming for me was a natural progression from the pen and paper genre, to something substantially more persistent and available. My tabletop days were an era of my life that I reflect upon often and fondly, however my core group was often scattered to the four winds and thus, often defunct.

The founding group consisted of my brother, and my two cousins. I write this because just recently we had a D&D reunion of sorts. My cousin is getting married and for his bachelor party we decided to get the gang back together to consume alcohol and slay orcs. Eventually we ran out of orcs and built a bon-fire to sit around while we tried to finish off the beer. The game has changed quite a bit since I wandered the worlds of AD&D 2nd edition, where last I left it. We played mostly in Forgotten Realms at the time (yes, Ed Greenwood is a demi-god) and the flavor and detail of the campaign realm provided us with endlessly descriptive role playing material. Often we would spend hours just role playing our time in Waterdeep or the high seat of Cormyr and never encounter a single skirmish. Those were the days, indeed.

We adventured for years, often in a campaign continuation style of play, with perma-death being the only obstacle to greatness. However, as the years passed and obligations grew, our binge weekends became fewer and fewer. I tried gaming with other groups, but they often lacked the expertise or seriousness that I had grown accustomed to, and I often found myself frustrated and eventually gave up on it all together. Neverwinter Nights, Ultima Online and eventually Everquest filled the fantasy void created by the loss of my d20 days, and though it is hardly a replacement, time erodes those memories and one begins to forget the joys of dice and men.

Warhammer Online wins Existential Brownie Points

2007-04-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

From the WAR April 2007 Newsletter (via Ethic at the KTR Forums)

It's been an interesting year for us at EA Mythic, a year filled with new
challenges, new opportunities and of course, a year filled with WAR! We have
watched Warhammer Online become one of the most highly anticipated MMORPGs in the world as it garners praise from the press, earns kudos from the community
and receives enthusiastic support from our partners and friends at Games
Workshop. I’m happy to say that the task of bringing WAR to life is going well
here at EA Mythic. However, we have important news to share and as always, we
want you, the WAR community, to be the first to know.

We have made the decision to move our ship date for the US and Europe to the first quarter of 2008. (Release dates for Asia will be announced at a later date.) Since our
acquisition by EA, we have been afforded many wonderful development
opportunities and we plan to take full advantage of everything that is
available. This includes taking several additional months to make the best
MMORPG possible.

I admire any company that cares more about the quality of the product than they do about their artificial time lines. This shows that they have a serious belief in their game, and its eventual success, or else they would just pump out an unfinished product and hope for the best. They are learning from the 'Blizzard model' and recognizing the failure's of the Sony style of production.

Warhammer Online is certainly on my radar screen, and has been for some time, but PR like this makes my participation in their release almost a certainty. If they keep up the good work, they may just have a game worth playing.

Magtheridon's Lair

2007-04-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

In the bowels of the Hellfire Citadel, the fel demon, Magtheridon is held captive by Illidian's orc legion. Heroes of the Burning Crusade, seeking treasure and glory, are delving into the Hellfire Basin and entering Magtheridon's Lair in hopes of freeing the beast, and slaying him.

Recently we have begun serious attempts at Magtheridon, and while we have yet to finish the task, Militiae Templi are closing in on the kill. It is a hectic fight, requiring precise actions and timing.

The trash leading up to Magtheridon, are on a 1 hour respawn timer, so given the clear time, you have approximately 45 minutes to work on him, between clears. The trash is also insanely hard, which has caused many guilds a great deal of frustration when that window shrinks to 30 minutes or less due to excessive trash wipes.

The trash consist of packs of 3 Orc casters who emit a Shadowbolt Volley hitting everyone in Line of Sight (LOS). These can be interrupted by kick, bash, gouge, shield slam etc., and should be at all costs. They also Death Coil and Fear, making tanking a challenge, and they DoT the raid with Shadow Word: Pain, and Unstable Affliction, making the cleansing a bit more challenging.

Our strategy is to pull one over the lip of the ramp, leaving 2 and some healers below LOS, while the raid works on one at a time. It has proven successful and we can now move through the various packs in under ten minutes time.

Magtheridon is a very complex encounter. He is not pulled until you engage one of the Channelers which are positioned around the room at the points of a pentagram, behind five floating boxes that rotate like a Rubik cube, and emit a beam of pink energy at Magtheridon, much like a Drain Soul spell. Once engaged, Magtheridon will begin to break his chains and will be free in two minuets. Your goal is to have 3-4 Channelers killed before that happens, but it took us a few days of attempts to get our DPS to that point.

Position your warlocks and hunters around the room, while remaining in range of the kill target, and have them control the Infernals that are summoned periodically. The Channelers can summon two maximum, so at first you can have as many as ten in the room, but that will decline as your DPS increases, and they remain for sixty seconds. They hit like trucks and have various abilities similar to the Warlock summon, so be sure to Fear, Banish, Ice Trap, anything to keep them under control.

The Channelers heal and cast Shadow Bolt Volley, and the heals must be interrupted or you will not be able to DPS them down fast enough to survive the fight. Focus on the heals, kill them as fast as possible and move on.

When Magtheridon breaks free, the Main Tank picks him up in the center of the room and holds him there. Continue killing the Channelers. When they are down switch DPS to the boss.

The only other tricky element of the encounter are the clickable Rubik cubes around the room. They can be used in unison to banish Magtheridon for ten seconds, and must be used to counter his ability, Blast Wave. Blast Wave is a channeled AOE that is going to wipe your raid if you screw up the Banish.

Assign groups of two (preferable DPS or the Channeler tanks) to each cube, and a rotation for those two people. When Magtheridon begin to cast Blast Wave, all five people assigned to first rotation, click the box and channel for the full ten seconds. Each will take approximately 800 damage per second for the duration, so they need high health or to be healed through it. If one dies before the channel begins, a replacement must be quickly assigned.

After the channeling concludes, those players will be affected with a debuff that prevents them channeling for a brief period. Group two must step up and prepare to channel the second Blast Wave.

Continue this cycle until he dies, and loot your epics as well as your first Tier 4 chest item.

Walk of Shame: Sony and IGE the morning after...

2007-04-13T09:44:00.000-05:00

After a passionate night of dirty incestuous relations that the editors of Existential Worlds have deemed too illicit to depict here (for fear of FCC reprisal), Sony and IGE were allegedly seen sheepishly walking out of their love nest. The walk of shame had begun.

In a (not even remotely) surprising twist, Sony has joined forces with the IGE network, to (scam) provide users with a new blend of (horrible) excellent Sony service. Not only have they raised their prices to continue to provide (1.5th) third generation MMOs, and (embarrassingly bad) industry leading standards, they will now provide their customers with convenient methods of disposing of their hard earned wages.

Ahh, don't they look cute together? I wonder what their children will look like?

Patch 2.1.0 Goes Live on PTR

2007-04-13T09:26:00.000-05:00

Word has been trickling out of the Emerald Tower of Blizzard for the past few weeks, that this upcoming content patch would be a milestone of progress for the company and the player community. With the launch of the patch on the Public Test Realms today, we only now realize just how extensive the game changes have been. I for one am amazed at the incredible detail and progress that this patch brings to the tBC and aside from the complaints that I have regarding these changes, I am very optimistic about the patch as a whole.

You can read the entire patch notes here. Grab a chair, pour a beer, and prepare for a long read.

Of particular note, is Blizzard's attention to both player bases, the raid oriented and the casual gamer. With the patch comes the much heralded Black Temple opening, and with it the requisite cry that Blizzard caters to a vocal minority of players, while the vast percentage of the population will never see that content. However, 2.1.0 opens three new quest hubs, and reputation factions that can provide the solo player and small group with more epic quality rewards.

Heroic mode dungeons have been retuned to make them more accessible to the non-raid geared player and possible even to the average pick up group. In addition, end heroic bosses are now set to drop epic loot on every kill, making them a significant alternative to Karazhan for the casual player.

Content additions aside, this patch has addressed hundreds of minor bugs, game inconsistencies and interface issues, that they players have been complaining about for quite some time. Auto-dismount options on action use, for example, or my favorite, Gnomes now able to run in the Black Morass water like everyone else rather than needing to swim.

Blizzard, great job with 2.1.0 and we look forward to more content updates in the coming months. Please continue this trend of expanding the game for all players, and addressing the bugs and game mechanics that your players are pointing out.

Patch 2.10 Content Announcement

2007-04-12T11:12:00.000-05:00

The next content patch and the opening of the now defiled Black Temple, home of Illidan and his minions has long been known. However, the patch is also introducing a great deal of new solo and 5-person content as well, with new rewards, factions, outdoor bosses, and items. As we’re approaching the release of the patch we wanted to share a glimpse into some of the upcoming content that hadn’t yet been confirmed for this next patch, or hadn’t even been heard of until now.

Druid Epic Flight Form

The Druid Epic flight form will be available through a series of quests, similar to the Warlock and Paladin Epic mount quests before it. This quest series will also open up a new boss in Sethekk Halls, and ultimately to the epic flight form.

Ethereum Prison

Players in good standing with the Consortium will be tasked to deal with the most recent activities of the nefarious Ethereum. With new quests, items, and content for the solo and small-group level 70 player, the Ethereum Prison will be the proving grounds for many aspiring to greatness.

Skettis

The Skyguard, Sha’tari warriors specializing in their command of the skies above Shattrath, have taken the offensive directly to the Arakkoa capital city, Skettis. Perched high in the mountains of Terrokar, and only accessible with use of a flying mount, Skettis holds new and exciting content for the solo or small-group level 70 player. All new quests, 5-person bosses, rare and epic items, and a new type of flying mount await those willing to lend their sword or
stave to the battle.

Nether Drake

The Netherwing faction and quest line continues and the long awaited Nether Drake becomes available. The Nether Drake is a special 280% speed epic flying mount that is obtainable through solo and small-group play. The quest to obtain one will be difficult, but the reward will surely show your dedication to the Netherwing cause as you soar through the skies of Outland on your very own ethereal drake.

Ogri’la

The Ogre plateau of enlightenment opens to those who prove their worth in Blade’s Edge Mountains. Level 70 players will be able to help the Ogres of Ogri’la battle invading forces and engage in new and exciting quests, such as a repeatable and ever popular bombing-run, this time using your own flying mount but with a dangerous twist! Featuring tons of new quests, the Ogri’la faction, 5-person bosses, and rare and epic items, Ogri’la is a place we’re hoping all
will aspire to enter.

Trinkets: New Darkmoon cards

You will now have the chance to find additional Darkmoon cards (Lunacy, Storms, Furies and Blessings) on high level creatures in Outlands, which you can turn in to the Darkmoon Faire to make powerful new Darkmoon card trinkets.

New Graveyards

Two new graveyards have been added to Blade's Edge Mountains.

New Flightpaths

New flight points: Felwood, Emerald Sanctuary (Both)
Ashenvale, Forest Song (Alliance)

New flight paths: Stormwind <-> Thorium Point
Grom'gol Base Camp <-> Flame Crest
Ratchet <-> Gadgetzan, Astranaar, Brackenwall Village
Brackenwall Village <-> Ratchet, Camp Taurajo, Freewind Post
Thunderbluff <-> Zoram'gar Outpost
Evergrove <-> Toshley's Station
Honor Hold <-> Shattrath

In addition, many flight paths have been adjusted to be shorter, faster flights.

Profession Changes in 2.1.0

2007-04-09T14:51:00.000-05:00

Blizzard has been hinting at upcoming changes to the way that alchemy works in an attempt to reduce the need for consumable farming in order to best the top tier content in the World of Warcraft endgame.

Today, we have been given some insight into the details of these changes, and while some aspects seem promising, there has been much speculation that some fairly disastrous consequences will arise to nerf any positive that these changes may bring.

From this post at the official forums:

Alchemy

Elixirs now stack in two categories, Battle (Offensive) and Guardian
(Defensive) Elixirs. You can only have one of each type of Elixir up at a time.
As a result Elixirs now stack with class abilities such as "Arcane Intellect."

Four new defensive elixirs have been added. Two are on trainers, one is in
Halaa and one is in Cenarion Expedition. "Flask of Petrification" can no longer
be turned off during its duration, but it now will clear all threat from all
monsters for the duration of the effect. Though monsters may reaquire you after
the effect ends.

The cost to purchase Imbued Vials has been reduced.

The reduction of the vial cost is a much needed change, as a standard raid night was costing between 8-20G for the vials alone, for those of us on the cutting edge of content, let alone the farming time required to craft the necessary materials.

However, the Elixir changes, while seemingly will cut down on elixir usage, will only serve to drive more guilds to demand the usage of Flasks to compensate for the lost effectiveness of their members.

For example, as an Affliction Warlock, my standard raid consumable list looks like this for every pull:

Elixir of Major Shadowpower
Arcane Elixir
Blackened Basilisk
10 Superior Healing Potions
5 Superior Mana Potions

On Severe DPS race events, I will add a Flask of Supreme Power into that
mix, but those events are rare, and often only during the learning phase of
those encounters.

However, if I become restricted from using one of my two elixirs, my dps will decrease, multiplied by the lack of effect of 24 other people, and the resulting raid effectiveness will prevent us from advancing. Thus, we will have to use flasks to compensate.

Unless Blizzard retunes the encounters to account for these profession changes, they will be inadvertently forcing us to farm more rather than less.

Farming the Beta

2007-04-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

In what appears to be an industry first, Turbine, Inc., creators of the soon-to-be top tier MMO, Lord of The Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, have inadvertently created a beta gold farming craze. With their unprecedented World Tour open beta program, that allows pre-order customers to retain their characters into live status, they have opened the door to gold farming, before their servers even launch.

Over at the brand-new Kill Ten Rats forum, Ethic had this to say about the game, that ultimately sparked the debate about this strange turn of events.

I'm having a real love/hate relationship with this game. The other day I stood
on a dock, smoked a pipe and looked at a rainbow. There was even some morning
fog. It was very nice. Then later I was near the farmer fields and watched as 5
people stood around a workbench and appeared to be throwing seeds on the ground
and table. I'm sure they were doing something else, but the visuals ruined the
whole atmosphere for me.

After delving into the available information, this graphic is indicative of the trade skill, farming, and the workbenches used in the process have become hubs for max level characters (Turbine caps advancement at level 15 in pre-release) to grind out skill points and gold by processing the skill repeatedly.

From Tobold's LoTRO Journal back in February (emphasis added):

Playing a Farmer turned out to be more fun than I would have thought. I
spent quite a while growing pipe weed, and ended up making a good amount of
money in the process, after getting past the first stage. There are different
kinds of pipe weed, of different skill levels, from apprentice, over journeyman,
to expert and beyond. You can smoke pipe weed, which gives a fun animation and
smoke rings, but there is no in-game advantage to it. But you can sure sell the
pipe weed you grow.

Without knowing the details of the LoTRO economy, or the intricacies of this trade skill farming, I can not make an accurate assessment regarding the long-term impact that this mechanic will have on the game, but I can only imagine that over a month of max-level characters farming a steady steam of gold will severely impact the game economy and trivialize future gold sinks, such as Mounts or gear purchases.

It may amount to nothing, or Turbine may have overlooked a severe hazard in their clever pre-release scheme. Only time will tell.

Gruul Strategy

2007-04-04T12:10:00.000-05:00

Not only are the members of Militiae Templi, a highly skilled and efficient raid team, they are also masters of art and graphical design, as evidenced by this representation of our first Gruul kill from a few weeks ago...

Slow News Week

2007-04-04T08:39:00.000-05:00

It has been a very slow week in the gaming world from my standpoint, and I just couldn't rustle up the will power to invent a topic to discuss, so I just left well enough alone. Last night I hit level 70 on my warrior, Sunzu, and respecc'd deep protection to begin the instancing and raiding circut.

I have never had two raid ready characters before. I've posted in the past about how I lack the Alt fever that many players feel, and that I am enjoying the off-night fun of a totally different style of play. Ranged DPS on my Warlock and Melee tanking on my warrior. It is a perfect combo, and if I leveled either my priest or druid to 70 and had a healer, I would complete the trinity.

That being said, I am approaching uncharted territory. My guild is ramping up an alt Karazhan run on off-nights, which I assume will get underway within the next few weeks, and I will be raiding basically every night either on my main or my alt. Fortunately, Cyndre is basically done with Karazhan once I obtain my T4 helm, and I can take a break on Kara nights, though I can see the guild stopping as a whole once we get serious about Serpentshrine over the next month.

I love raiding, but I also need time off from it, in order to someday horde enough gold to buy my epic flying mount... on two characters...

Well I suppose we shall see how it goes, but the versatility I have now is amazing. I am LFG in guild and, my wife being a holy priest, we can basically form any group we want on the spot. Need DPS, no problem... need a tank, fine, I'll log over... Very nice situation to be in.

Is the Emerald Dream Coming to WoW?

2007-03-28T14:53:00.000-05:00

Stormgaard over at Se7en Samurai has the scoop:

Apparently Blizzard has been modifying
the MPQ file that contains the Emerald Dream, which is leading folks to
believe it's probably the next planned expansion - it's a bit too big to be
considered patch content like Ahn'Qiraj, or (likely) Grim Batol and Uldum.

Head over to his site to get a sneak peak at more cool screens of these unfinsihed zones.

Did Blizzard un-ruin Melee DPS?

2007-03-26T13:32:00.000-05:00

As a follow-up to this post about the unintended effects that certain mob abilities have had on melee DPS classes in the Burning Crusade, Blizzard has announced the following changes in internal testing for Patch 2.1.0:

The following changes to cleave have been made for the 2.1.0 patch.

--Cleaves will only hit people in front of the creature.
--Cleaves will have a chain length equal to the combat reach of the
creature.

We still don't have an exact estimate on when this patch will be ready but
development is wrapping up and the test phase should begin relatively soon. As a
reminder, the patch undergoes internal testing before public, PTR testing.

This change would go a long way toward reestablishing some balance in PvE game play for melee and ranged DPS classes. Good work, Blizzard and thanks for reading my blog... /wink

Opening the Serpentshrine Cavern

2007-03-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

This past week has seen two guild first kills for Militiae Templi, Gruul the Dragon slayer and Nightbane. Both possess quest items needed to unlock the first Tier 5 raid dungeon, Serpentshrine Caverns.

The quest to obtain the 'key' to unlocking the raid one is obtained in a heroic mode Slave Pens. Just after the first Boss, an imprisoned NPC offers a two-click quest. This process makes the quest unsharable with others, but is relatively easy to clear to, and posed no problems for our seasoned guild ranks as we prepared for our eventual kills on the end-zone raid bosses.

This week saw those two bosses fall, and many of us were present to loot the Blazing Signet and the Earthen Signet, and complete the chain to become attuned.

What mysteries await us in the lair of Lady Vashj, queen of the Naga?

Gruul's Lair: pt. II

2007-03-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

Last night, Militiae Templi ventured forth into the lair of the dread Gronn-lord, Gruul the Dragon slayer, and put the beast in his place. Despite our many attempts in recent weeks, we simply could not win the DPS war against this abomination, and though we had learned the mechanics of Shatter and were staying alive, his enrage damage boosts would eventually put him in a position to one shot our tanks before we could extinguish his life.

Apparently we were not alone, so in response to an overwhelming belief that the encounter was far too difficult for all but the most successful Uberguilds, Blizzard retuned the fight and many guilds found success where only failure had wallowed.

Gruul is a long encounter due to his extraordinary amount of hit points. Prior to the nerf, I think he was in the 4-5 million range, though that received a significant reduction during the hotfix this past week. In order to challenge the beast successfully, you will need to understand and master a few important details about this fight.

Gruul enrages periodically which boosts his attack speed and DPS. It was not uncommon to have him hitting for over 8000 damage on the main tank by the end of the fight and our DPS was firing hard. This makes it critically important to avoid unnecessary deaths because if too many of your DPS fall victim to the various periodic damage or your healers die, you will simply not have the gas to take him out before he becomes a tank killer.

Quite frequently, Gruul will knock the ceiling causing a Cave In, which is an AOE damage effect, that can easily be run out of. If you pay attention and move quickly, you will never lose a player to this effect, and if you see someone die, be sure to berate them for lack of situational awareness. You simply can not afford to lose anyone to this effect.

Next is the most difficult ability to learn. Ground Stomp sends every member of your raid flying through the air in a random direction. You must then space out quickly, before the Gronn-Lords Grasp immobilizes you in place, and you Shatter, causing damage to yourself and anyone within 20 yards of your location. If 3-4 people are grouped together, they will all kill each other and you might as well call it a failed attempt. If only 2 people are within range, you should take less than 5000 damage and can fight on.

Gruul also will silence the raid, and we found that this was a frequent time for tank deaths, so be sure to keep HoTs stacked on your main tank and off tank throughout the fight.

Tanking Gruul is a difficult task and requires two tanks with plenty of damage mitigation and tons of health. Your main tank will take nearly all of the attacks, but Gruul will switch to his second highest melee threat every once in a while and Hurtful Strike for 12-15000 damage. If your second highest threat player is not a protection warrior or feral druid, they are surely dead. Our guild has the Hunters cast Misdirection to the two tanks throughout the fight, every time the cool down is up, to boost their threat position against Gruul.

All in all, the fight has become quite manageable and he went down after a few short tries.

Jewelcrafting Resources

2007-03-20T13:18:00.000-05:00

I have recently been directed to this site. I would consider it the most useful Jewelcrafting and Cut Gem database currently on the Internet. A must-see for all Jewelcrafters and adventurers looking to optimize their gear.
Tobold has a great write-up on the cash cow that Jewelcrafting has become for him. I was skeptical at first, but since reading the write-up I have refrained from selling my Adamantite Ore and last night I built up the nerve to take the gamble, and more than doubled my potential profits.
Tired of whispering guildmates for which gem recipes they have, or worse, having them whisper you? You need this UI mod, GemHelper, and your troubles are over. You simply whisper a gem type, color or stat and the mod responds with a list of available recipes that the crafter knows. (example: /w Cyndre !gem Blood Garnet)

Did Blizzard ruin melee DPS?

2007-03-19T09:22:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about the declining role of melee DPS classes and specs in the new tBC PvE environment. Top tier dungeons, heroics and the raid zones have such specific demands for crowd control, tanking and healing, that it has become necessary to pick and choose the class balance and more and more, guilds and groups are opting for DPS classes that can play multiple roles and still turn on the heat when the need arises.

Add to that, the apparent implementation of cleave, short range AOE, and other mob abilities that make it almost impossible for a Rogue, Catform Druid or DPS Warrior to stay in range and keep up with Warlocks, Hunters and Mages on the damage meters. So if the classes simply can not produce the same DPS as a ranged class, offer less raid viability and crowd control options, why would anyone want to fill spots with them?

Last night in Gruul's Lair, the top five spots on our guild's damage meters during our High King Maulgar kill were: 1) Affliction Warlock 2) Destruction Warlock 3) Shadow Priest 4) Marks Hunter 5) Marks Hunter...

The two Warlocks (myself and Sendrak, respectively) died with close to a minute left in the fight and still ended with close to 50,000 more damage than the #3 spot. Sendrak tanked one of the adds (Olm the Summoner), providing massive raid utility, and I was debuffing every mob with Shadow Embrace and Curse of Shadows, also providing utility over pure damage.

To me, the above two paragraphs imply a broken mechanic in the PvE realm. In fact, it has become so widely recognized, that top tier guilds have painted the strategy for the cleanest boss kills in Outlands as requiring two tanks, four tank healers (one of each healer class for raid buffs), five shadow priests, five affliction warlocks, and eleven destruction or SM/ruin warlocks. Any time that taking sixteen of one class to a twenty-five man raid is optimal, then mechanics and balance are currently major game issues.

Guildmates of mine mentioned last night that Blizzard has acknowledged the close range mob ability issue, however despite my searches, I can not locate a Blue response to this issue. In looking beyond the raid content currently available to most guilds, the disheartening fact remains abundantly clear... unless Blizzard makes significant changes to melee classes or to mob abilities, this problem will only continue to grow, rather than decline. As ranged classes gain greater and greater utility and mob cleaves grow in power and effectiveness, this divide will grow more pronounced and the spaces in raids for those effected class types will continue to dwindle.

Militiae Templi has a very skilled Rogue core, and we have one exceptional DPS warrior who continue to compete despite the challenges that they face. As a guild who values skill and commitment, they will always have a home, however we are not the norm for hardcore raid guilds, and the min/maxing guild officers are going to be seeing this trend and eliminating the less useful players and classes.

What steps must Blizzard take to fix these unintended mechanics? Retuning mob abilities is one step, or reworking class abilities to grant more viability in close combat with AOEs or Cleaves is really the only solutions. Do you see this trend or have suggestions on how to correct it?

Virtual Worlds as Virtual Reality

2007-03-15T10:38:00.000-05:00

I have been catching up on some reading that I've wanted to do, and the first on my list was Synthetic Worlds by Edward Castranova. I will post a complete review of my thoughts on the book when I have finished, but I wanted to take a moment to look at a very interesting distinction that Castranova draws early in his work.

The difference was this: the science program focused on sensory-input hardware,
while gamers focused on mentally and emotionally engaging software. As you
can imagine, a person can become "immersed" either way: either the sensory
inputs are so good you actually think the crafted environment you're in
is genuine, or, you become so involved mentally and emotionally in the synthetic
world that you stop paying attention to the fact that it is only
synthetic. It turns out that the way humans are made, the software-based
approach seems to have had much more success (Castranova 2005).

The parallel that he draws with regards to the scientific study of virtual reality and the rise of the gaming industry, specifically in the genre of online virtual worlds, is very exciting. I think that great merit lies in the underlying hypothesis that he is able to draw about human nature and our need for the emotional and mental elements that the 'synthetic worlds' provide.

The greatest distinction lies in the relevance of human social contact. In a virtual reality engine, these sensory inputs stimulate our brain to perceive those social bonds with our environment and with other members of the environment, but they do not if fact exist. I believe that on a basic 'gut' level the human brain and body will always be aware of that distinction. However when we transition to virtual worlds, the interactions with other humans through their representative avatars, we experience those same sensory mechanics, however the brain and body knows that the interaction is genuine. The world may be crafted but the fundamental societal and emotional capital within in are fundamentally real.

Independant Games Festival 2007

2007-03-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

When I first started discussing the GDC and all of the trappings of gameatopia it brings to us, I mentioned that the IGF is one of my favorite elements of the conference. We get an opportunity to see some of the lesser known options out there and see talent that is often overlooked on game sites like mine, that focus on MMOs and tier one games.

So I read the news, Aquaria, won the big prize and I went over to check the game out. Turns out I can't play it because it isn't released yet. I am mildly pissed off that an award has been given to a game that doesn't exist in meaningful terms yet. Sure it's set to release this spring, but this award should be reserved for a studio that has actually created a product that is currently marketable.

Aside from my frustration over the nature of the award this year, looking at the very limited screenshots and game play video currently available, I just don't see any reason why I should give this game a second look. I see some innovation with regards to their approach to fluid interface and the casting actions; graphically the game is pretty but any game focused on a 2d engine in today's market is running with scissors, and in the end, it looks basically like Super Mario Brothers crossed with Metroid or something.

Torn Asunder... in a good way

2007-03-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

I have always been a one avatar kind of guy. In my EverQuest days I tried to level alts but most often found myself either switching game play entirely or neglecting to spend the kind of grind time necessary to progress the character to a point where the investment was worthwhile. When Warcraft was released, I rolled a warlock on the first day, and then did not play another class until my wife joined the game, and I rolled a warrior to level beside her. As soon as she hit 50, I switched back to my warlock and helped her to 60, thus letting my warrior Sunzu, languish in his early 50s for about eighteen months.

Contrast that to a member of my guild who had a level 60 of every available class at the time, and you are looking at one very focused player. I play a lot, and my /played on Cyndre is a bit outrageous, but its what I enjoy, and I never saw a reason not to play that way before.

Until now that is. When raiding tapered off in the calm before tBC storm, I switched to Sunzu to farm and to finish his last few levels. He dinged 60 in Outlands on the second day of release, while Cyndre was stuck in a crashed Blood Furnace instance. As soon as Cyndre reached 70 and finished the Karazhan key, I began to level Sunzu.

Currently I am splitting time rather well between the two characters and enjoying it immensely, something I have not previously been very adept at doing. Sunzu is almost 67, Cyndre continues to round out his reps, gather epics and rares and certainly raid at every possible juncture. Now to add to the multiple personality disorder I am developing, my wife and I are starting to level some Draeni alts. She has started a Shaman and is 22, and I have begun a Priest who is a mighty level 11.

I can't help but think this is a very good thing. If anything, I have an overabundance of items on my virtual 'TO DO' list, and while I often wish I was on the other one, I seem to have developed the perfect anti-burnout strategy.

So the question to you, my readers, is do you weight your time in favor of a 'main' or do you prefer to alt it up? Taken to the next level, would two MMOs played simultaneous be possible or is that taking this too far?

GDC: The Nintendo Wifeometer

2007-03-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

Thanks again, Alice!

Excepted from Miyomoto's keynote speech at the GDC.

Maybe you’ve heard of the first one, maybe too much about it. The Expanded
Audience. It’s taken forward our corporate vision of marketing to everyone:
5-95. I’d like to talk about a personal experience of [mine]: I have a personal
way of determining if a product will be succeed with the intended audience, I
call it the wifeometer.

[laughter]

This wifeometer measures one variable: the interest level of my own wife.
Maybe some of you can remember when you played Pac-Man, or a game like Mario.
And maybe you think that these were important moments in your lives. They were
not important moments for my wife. But then Tetris came out. The problem was
that, when I thought my wife would be interested in this game, she was not, but
then when my daughter started playing Ocarina of Time at home, there was a
little change. My wife had gone from complete disinterest to a background
observer. She watched my daughter play. I thought, oh maybe there is
hope!

[laughter]

Nintendo's vision and Miyamoto's comical assessment of that vision in his own home shares a parallel success model with the current runaway success of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. I do not believe that my wifeometer would have measured Everquest as a success, just as Vanguard would not have taken root in my home. However, Abryn found a comfort and an interest in Azeroth. Create accessibility in games and variety beyond the FPS gore craze and the industry opens doors to new demographic expansions that are ripe for marketing.

In Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castronova shows only 7.8% of Everquest players from his sampling are female. This does not strike me as a surprising statistic, though I would hypothesize that a far greater percentage would reflect the current residents of World of Warcraft. This demographic shift can be attributed directly to the foundations build by the vision of Miyamoto and Nintendo in expanding the playing field, so to speak. It was then carried forward by Blizzard and has been adopted by every smart design team since.

Thanks, Miyamoto for everything you have done for our industry and your passion will be remembered.

GDC: Zing! from the Cap'n

2007-03-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Rob [Pardo VP Blizzard]: I disagree with raph. I don't think the most
important MMOs will come from big media. I think the games are important,
because big media is interested in them...

Daniel [James CEO Three Rings]: wait, aren't you big media?

Rob: [laughing] er.. Anyway.

Best moment of GDC coverage so far this week from Wonderland, who was live blogging the MMOs: Past, Present and Future panel featuring Raph Koster, Rob Pardo, Gordon Walton, Mark Jacobs, Mark Kern and that rapscallion Cap'n Daniel James.

Classic.

GMG becomes 38 Studios

2007-03-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

Via Nerfbat.

Executives of Green Monster Games, a new studio located in Massachusetts with Curt Schilling as CEO and founder, have officially renamed their company to 38 Studios, LLC. This has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the products that they will hopefully produce, and though I like the former name better, this company continues to top my MMO Watch List.

The creative, community development and design team that has been put together is a veritable whose-who of industry stars. Moreover, having a money man like Curt Schilling, whose love of MMO gaming is no secret basically ensures that appropriate financing will be available to see the premier game title to a successful launch.

I figure we are four years away from a 38 Studios launch and by that time, World of Warcraft, LoTRO, Vanguard, EQII and whatever meanwhile titles will have aged beyond relevance, paving the way for a new existential world to fill gigs on my hard drive.

Heroic Mode Dungeons

2007-03-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

As players reach level 70 and begin to work on their Karazhan attunement, run Dungeon 3 instances and begin to gather the gear set that will carry them through Tier 4 and Tier 5, they will begin to consider playing the five man instances of the Burning Crusade on Heroic mode. Much like in games of yore when we beat our favorite game and then proceeded to replay it on god mode for extra bragging rights, Blizzard has introduced a game mechanic that makes dungeon re playability sensible and valuable for the average player.

Heroic mode dungeons require reputation based keys from each of the five Dungeon 3 factions. Revered with Honor Hold is required for the Hellfire Citadel key, Cenarion Expedition for the Coilfang Reservoir key, Lower City for the Auchindoun key, Shattar for the Tempest Keep key and finally Keepers of Time for the Caverns of Time key.

Once you reach Revered with a given faction, you can purchase the Heroic key from the faction Quartermaster, and the group leader may then select dungeon difficulty in the group options tab on his picture tool tip. So why run Slave Pens on hard mode, you ask? Well, the answer is gear, fun, and relevant quests.

Thus far I have seen the vast majority of epic loot available in Karazhan and from the first boss Maulgar in Gruul's Lair, and I can attest that many Heroic rare and epic grade items are superior to the raid sets available currently. Blizzard has stated that they will be looking at these sets to provide a much needed buff, but until that time, the smart player is learning Heroics and gathering the best loot possible.

Difficulty is scaled dramatically. Five decently geared level 70 players entering non-Heroic Slave Pens would have very little trouble plowing through the instance, however Heroic Slave Pens requires precise actions, focus and a well skilled and reactive team. Balance, crowd control and constant vigilance is essential as every mob can one shot a healer or DPS and healing the tank is a constant strain on mana and timing efficiency.

The concept introduced by Blizzard is truly exceptional. They have created an avenue that normal players can find raid quality gear with just their local group of friends. Raid guilds can continue to improve their players and gear during off-nights or when all available content has been cleared, and feel as though their time is put to good use. Dungeon re playability has long been an issue for MMOs and this has made huge strides towards rectifying those problems.

I look forward to the day when I can attempt a Heroic Black Morass... O.o

Game Developer's Conference 2007

2007-03-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

The GDC is underway in San Francisco. The largest conference of professional game developers in the world, the GDC is most definitely a hoopla of geekdom all housed in one shiny event. I am looking forward to seeing the entrants and eventual winners of the Independent Games Festival, as it has traditionally been a forum of fantastic design talent and ingenuity. Something about success and funding saps the creative freedom and courage out of a design team...

Darwinia won last year. There is a playable demo on their website, and it is a very cool game, though a little scattered thematically for my tastes. Needless to say, the talent and creativity in Darwinia is more prevalent than many of the ultra popular and success games in today's market, so its nice to see a forum for recognizing them.

Outside: The MMO

2007-03-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

A longtime member of my guild said farewell to us and to Warcraft today and posted this as his next MMO. Good luck in the new world, Nommos.

Trinity Course Update & Observations

2007-02-27T09:11:00.000-05:00

Via the comments section of this post, Dr. Delwiche made note that the course currently being offered does not utilize Everquest nor World of Warcraft as the medium for virtual world research. The course material this year revolves around Second Life, and the specifics can be found here.

I left out personal commentary in my last post on the subject, but I certainly have a few thoughts to share on the matter. This type of scholastic undertaking is critical in today's culture and educational environment. While it is true that the main stream media and corporate world has begun to give virtual worlds some attention, it is often from the prospective of tapping into or observing a niche market or freak counterculture. The millions of subscribers and active participants are statistics without recognizable features or social standing, thus they can be dismissed as an exclusionary minority rather than a common thread within our larger global world.

When I walk the lands of the existential worlds that I choose to inhabit, those that walk beside me represent a very fundamental cross section of our entire world community. The days of geek subculture or fringe dominance in the medium are long gone, with family oriented, professional players comprising a considerable cross section of the virtual populations. To ignore this trend and the underlying significance is shortsighted and ignorant, yet sadly indicative of the type of coverage we do receive when the glaring light of media scrutiny falls upon us.

I once read a book called Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community written by Robert Putnam, that struck me as visionary. His basic theory states that our culture is growing more disconnected from one another with each passing year, and our societal structure has become isolationist. More Americans bowl now than ever before, but this is dominated by individual groups of a given social network acting autonomously, rather than forming an artificial community such as a bowling league. This is just one of many examples he provides to document the trends that can be observed in all aspects of our society.

At the time I read this, I pondered whether the Internet and our shift towards an electronic culture was a cause or effect. Has our dependence on this distant medium, weakened our bonds to one another and diluted our instinctual need for 'pack?' Or has this paradigm shift progressed our psychological need for social packs, and pushed traffic to virtual worlds to compensate for the lack of social capital in our communities?

The research and time frame of Putnam's works, suggest the latter is the case, as these trends have been observed for more than a quarter of a century. Long before Norrath, Azeroth or the Lindens began to attract visitors, humans were feeling a social void subconsciously, and have turned to new mediums to find their sense of belonging.

Times they are a changin

2007-02-26T13:16:00.000-05:00

An actual Trinty undergraduate course:

COMM 3344: Games for the web (Interactive multimedia)Spring 2005Dr. Aaron Delwiche (a delwich @ trinity.edu)
Course meeting times: T + TH 2:10 - 3:25 (RCC 400 /402)Office Hours: M + F 10:30-1:30T + TH 9:30 - 11:30Office: Laurie 363Phone: 999-8153

Course description
A staple of nerd subculture for almost three decades, role-playing games have taken on new life in the era of networked computing. High-speed connections, sophisticated graphics and powerful microprocessors have paved the way for massively multiplayer games (MMOs) such as City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, and Second Life.
The popularity of these virtual environments is staggering. At any given moment, at least 90,000 players are interacting with one another in Norrath -- the fictional world of Everquest. With game characters and virtual objects fetching thousands of dollars on eBay, sweat shops have been set up in developing nations to service this micro-economy (Dibbell, 2003). According to one recent study, the world of Everquest is the 77th richest “nation” on the planet with a per-capita GNP that outstrips China and India (Castranova, 2002).
In recent months, we have seen the emergence of second generation MMOs characterized by stunning visuals, improved artificial intelligence, and game dynamics that appeal to a broader variety of playing styles. One of these games, World of Warcraft, sold 250,000 copies in November 2004. It was the most successful PC game launch in history, outstripping the sales of Halo 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Half-Life 2.Of course, MMOs are just one subset of a much larger videogame industry. From home gaming consoles to arcade-based machines, gamers are confronted with a staggering array of choices. As more individuals turn to interactive media for entertainment, television and film audiences are dwindling. In 1999, “total videogame software and hardware sales in the U.S. reached $8.9 billion, versus $7.3 billion for movie box-office receipts” (Poole, 2000, p. 6). Clearly, videogames are here to stay.
In this course, we will conduct an ethnographic study of the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO gamers. Along the way, we will play and critically analyze a variety of videogames. In addition to exploring game mechanics and video-game aesthetics, we will investigate sociological and psychological dimensions of virtual worlds as well as social controversies surrounding game violence and gender representations.

We have three objectives:
1. to explore themes of cyberculture studies through sustained interaction with other residents of World of Warcraft
2. to understand the behaviors, cultural practices, and motivations of MMO players through the use of ethnographic methods
3. to develop a critical vocabulary for analyzing all types of videogames

Prior technical and gaming experience is not required for this course. Course requirements and materials
Readings will be drawn from the course packet and from two assigned texts.
Communication 3344-1: Games for the web
Richard Bartle (2003) Designing virtual worlds. Berkeley: New Riders Games.
Vernor Vinge and James Frenkel (2001) True names: And the opening of the cyberspace frontier. New York: Tor Books.
World of Warcraft game software ($45)
World of Warcraft monthly subscription ($15/month. First month is free.)
The course packet, which costs $___, is available at Kinko’s Paw Prints on the third floor of Coates Library. You are responsible for all assigned readings, even if they are not addressed during class.
Throughout the semester, we will spend a significant amount of time in World of Warcraft. This virtual world is an ideal location for studying on-line gamers, cyberculture, and videogame aesthetics. A significant amount of class time will be spent in the game-world, but you are also expected to devote at least five hours a week to ethnographic research within World of Warcraft. To ensure that everyone spends enough time in the virtual world, two group gaming sessions will be held between 6:30 and 9:00 on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. You are expected to attend at least one of these sessions each week.
You are welcome to play the game on the lab computers when other classes are not using the facilities, and you may also be able to install the game on your personal system. If you want to install the game on your home system, it must meet basic system requirements.
If your computer is more than two years old, your graphics card may not be capable of rendering this three-dimensional environment. If this is the case, you will have to access the game via the lab machines.

Finding Meaning in Azeroth

2007-02-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

This list, Seven Things I Learned From World of Warcraft, is really awesome. You should take a minute to check it out.

Thank you to Life in Azeroth for the link.

Gruul's Lair

2007-02-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

Militiae Templi ventured into the first of The Burning Crusade 25-man raid instances last night for the first time. This instance is quite small, having only two bosses and a handful of trash pulls in the entire zone. We spent about 3 hours wiping to the fight to sort out the sorted details, then potioned up and walked away with some shiny epics.

Located in the northern reaches of The Blades Edge Mountains, Gruul's Lair is home to the evil Gronn, Gruul the Dragonslayer and his terrible legion of Ogre minions. The first of the two boss encounters in the instance, pits your raid against High King Maulgar, lord of the ogres, and his four advisers.

The advisers are:

Blindeye the Seer - Blindeye is a priest. He has two basic abilities, an AOE heal that must be interrupted by kicks, pummels etc., and a Power Word: Shield that must be DPSd through in order to interrupt his next heal.

Olm the Summoner - Olm is a warlock. Olm summons a Felhunter that is enslaveable. He casts deathcoil, and an AOE shadow DoT.

Kiggler the Crazed - Kiggler is a shaman. He uses a high damage lightning bolt, has insane melee DPS, an ability Arcane Shock which does damage, disarms and causes aggro reductions, and periodically polymorphs his highest threat target.

Krosh Firehand - Krosh is a mage. He casts a magic shield that reduces magic damage he takes by 75%. It can be spell stolen by a mage. He repeatedly casts a Fireball that deals 9000 dmg per hit, as well as an AOE fire nova centered on him that does massive damage.

This event requires precise positioning and some very specific mechanics for success. Prior to the pull, a group consisting of a Moonkin druid, healers and a hunter for Nature Aura move along the back wall to the far side of the cave, opposite Kiggler. Moonkin is the best shaman tank, as they can tank from range with spells and in form are immune to the polymorph.

Position your Main Tank in the center of the back wall. For this fight we used a feral druid to tank Maulgar, due to his high health and armor, and the spike damage caused by Maulgar is easier to withstand and heal through when your tank has 20,700 hit points.

A mage will need to tank Krosh on the right side of the raid, just below the small ledge. The mage pulls with an AP fireball and then immediately spell steals Krosh's mage shield thus reducing those fireballs from 9000 dmg to only 2250 dmg. They must have 10,000 health at a minimum, because not every fireball will be eaten by a shield, so be prepared to eat a few. Elyane, our mage, used a macro that announced to his healers "NO SHIELD, Prepare for 9000 damage!"

A warlock will be the primary tank for Olm, though you will need a warrior or bear tank to manage him at times. Olm summons a Felhunter that must be enslaved then used to tank Olm. It can Spell Lock his AOE shadow effect, resists the death coil, and takes the add out of the fight. The Felhunter will die before a new one is summoned, so your Off-Tank should be building aggro and be prepared to tank for a bit while the warlock gets the next add in position.

Maulgar is a warrior, that does massive damage, and periodically whirlwinds. He hit me for over 19,000 damage (on cloth) with a ill timed crit. Tank him against the wall, exactly where the druid or warrior set up for the pull.

The pull is the most challenging part of the event. It was chaotic and took many tries to sort out the mess to a point where our DPS could go to work in any meaningful fashion. We had our mage tank and our warlock inch up to range, and had hunters use misdirection/ aimed shot on Kiggler, Maulgar, Blindeye and Olm to their respective tanks. (Send Olm to the Off-Tank warrior, not the warlock.)

DPS goes all out immediately on Blindeye. When he dies, DPS switches to Olm and once again, goes all out. After Olm goes down, your assigned healers for those groups, should divide between your mage tank and your Main Tank, in order to further mitigate the spike damage and any unexpected events. Have a second mage building aggro on Krosh in case an untimely fireball kills your primary tank.

DPS runs around Maulgar to the far side of the cave and begins to DPS Kiggler from range. Do not melee at all, as he will own your melee and it will mess up his aggro. Have your melee run around and bandage everyone in the raid, while your DPS goes all out. After Kiggler dies, move back to Krosh, staying out of range of his Fire Nova. Same as with Kiggler, no melee DPS.

When all of the council are dead, move to Maulgar. It is important to have melee run out of range prior to the Whirlwind. Play it safe here and limit melee access to 25 seconds, as he will decimate your raid if you mistime this. DPS him hard until 50% at which time he enrages, gaining Flurry, Intimidating Shout and a random Intercept. Fear Ward if you have it, Tremor Totem, to break the fear, or have an Off-Tank positioned outside fear range and taunt him as soon as the fear goes off, to drag him out of your raid. Create a semi circle around him so that his charges do not send him into the entire raid. He would charge then Whirlwind at times last night, and it was nice to only lose 2-3 people instead of 15.

Maulgar take a bit of time to kill, but with careful aggro management and patience with your melee exposure, he is quite easy once learned. Finish him off and collect your Tier 4 shoulders and some other shiny objects.

Travian

2007-02-23T14:47:00.000-05:00

Zubon reminded me of a MMORTS game that Tobold played for a bit last year. I had been meaning to give it a try, as it seems like the type of time commitment that you could play during MMO raids in the downtime or while meding when playing solo.

I have always loved the Civ style game, but I just do not have the time to commit to a full game, and I lose interest in single player games quite easily. After reading what little information is available about Travian, I can see myself really enjoying something like this.

I haven't fired up my village yet, but I am thinking I'll play Gaul with a more strategic, defensive strategy. I know going in that I will not have the ability to manage my empire every hour or so, making the heavy raid oriented cultures and strategies much less effective. I will prevent annihilation from aggressors by making their lives a living hell, and stashing away my resources so that attacking me is an exercise in frustrating futility.

Well, that sounds like a rosy picture anyway, except for this one little social problem that I have...

I am bloodthirsty and I don't take kindly to attacks. In EQ, my main was an anti-PK, but only in name. I viciously hunted known PK guilds and reveled in the kills. I also, secretly, had a troll shaman named Lootzu. You can guess what I did with him...

So, reality of my situation is thus... if you come to my village, and you are carrying anything other than a fruitcake or a lasagna, you better believe I will be coming for you.

Karazhan pt. II

2007-02-21T10:26:00.000-05:00

Continued from this post.

Now that Moroes is dead, move back to the stairs position that you used for the first AOE packs and begin to clear the Ballroom to your right. Once again, you do not need to clear this entire room, simply take care of the roving patrols and the packs in the center and right of the room, and work your way around the outside-right of the Ballroom, to the stairs on that corner.

At the top of the stairs you will find more packs similar to those in the Ballroom, and you will see the option to head straight across to the Opera House or take a right half-way across the room. Clear this entire area, as you will need to do so eventually, and they will no longer respawn, as they are tied to Moroes, who is now deceased.

The path you are taking, is a short jaunt into the Guest's Quarters, your quest objective and ultimately the Maiden of Virtue, who has an unbelievably good loot table. These packs are a bit different than what you have seen thus far, and require some precision. There are two different packs, one Spectral Guardsman, are straightforward tank 'n spank mobs, that summon hound adds during combat. The hounds simply respawn after killed so just get the guards down then worry about them. The second pack consists of three different types of female mobs. Concubines have an AOE seduce, and are actually demons, thus can be Banished by your warlock. The other two have a variety of nasty AOE damage, dots and debuffs, so Shackle, Ice trap and DPS hard.

In the room flanked by the two large lion statues, on the table in front of the bed, lies the quest item that you require. Pull the three packs of female mobs, grab your book and move on to Maiden. If you are having trouble initially, you might consider getting Maiden out of the way first, because you are on a one hour respawn timer which will stop once she dies.

The Maiden of Virtue has four basic abilities, that create a very difficult fight. The first is an AOE holy damage aura that strikes anyone in melee range and extend close to the edge of her dais. This will have to be healed through and does not pose a great deal of trouble for the raid. The second is a chain lightning effect that will do massive damage if people are near one another. You are going to want no more than three people in melee, maybe four if they are perfectly spread out, or you will all get hit every time this is cast.

The third and easiest ability to counter, is Holy Fire. This is a single target direct damage spell that applies a DoT that ticks for over 1000 damage per tick. After much testing we have determined that this ability is cast upon the target closest to Maiden, but outside of her holy aura. Unlike the priest spell of the same name, this is fire damage, not holy damage, and can be cleansed. Thus, pick a Holy Fire 'tank' equipped with some fire resist, position them closest to Maiden and have them eat the fire. A good choice is a paladin, because they can cleanse themselves and heal or bubble is things go awry.

The final ability is truly a pain in the ass. Repentance causes a ten second stun upon every member of the raid. Zerk rage can break it, periodic damage can break it and bear form druids are often immune though not consistently so. Free action potions are reported to work as well, though we have not had sufficient opportunity to say for sure. Basically eat repentance, have your warrior stance dance before it hits and hope for the best.

On to the Opera House.

The trash leading up to the Opera event is some of the nastiest pulls in the instance. Skeletal Ushers hit very, very hard, and will essentially one-shot everyone but your tanks. They also have an Ice Block ability that freezes your tanks and resets his aggro. The strategy to deal with these guys requires three tanks in most cases, two building aggro individually and one building aggro on both, so that when they drop the tank, they leash to the third tank. Have your DPS hold until after the first tank transition, then burn these guys down as fast as possible fore another ice block.

Past those pulls are a few AOE packs, but most can be avoided by hugging the right wall and moving to the orchestra pit and up to the backstage area. In the backstage area, Spectral Performers and Stage hand can be pulled, and aside from one annoying ability they are quite easy. They explode when they die with a witty ability called 'Curtain Call.'

The Opera event is triggered by talking to the Stage Manager, who then proceeds to walk onto the stage and announce the upcoming performance. To this point you will be unsure of what you are facing, as this can be any of three different events, Romulo and Julienne, the Wizard of Oz, or the Big Bad Wolf. Each of the three have different strategies and loot tables.

Romulo & Julienne

The fight begins with Julienne on stage. She self buffs with Devotion which makes her spells cast much faster. This can be spell-stealed by a mage, or Devoured by a warlock Felhunter. She casts a self-heal that must be interrupted by kick, pummel, shield slam, Felhunter spell lock or mage counterspell. Sort out a rotation and she is a piece of cake. When she dies, Romulo spawns and duel wields poisoned rapiers. He casts a self buff, called Daring, that greatly increases his attack speed, thus must be Devoured or spell stealed ASAP. Cure Poison on your tank quickly and bring him down.

When both have been killed, they rez together and now you must DPS them down again, this time at exactly the same time. Start by bringing Romulo to about 30%, while having a small team keep Julienne from healing him. Switch DPS to Julienne and bring her to 10% or so then bring them together and finish them off at the same time, similar to the Tiger boss in ZG.

The Big Bad Wolf

Big Bad is a straightforward fight with one twist. Periodically the Wolf casts a debuff on a raid member and aggro switches immediately to them. They then start kiting around the stage while the rest of the raid DPS him hard. If you have done Buru in AQ20, it is the same concept only at full speed, with less room.

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothee - Has no aggro, and will move around the raid at random. Simply ignore her and heal the raid as she damages them. She summons Tito.
Roar - Warlock should chain fear Roar until he is up on your kill order.
Strawman - Fire spells cause Strawman to become disoriented and Warlocks and Mages should continue to cast on him.
Tinhead - Ice spells apply a 10% movement speed reduction on Tinhead that stacks up to 8 times.
Crone - Crone casts Cyclones that deal nature damage, and various other spell attacks.

Your Main Tank will pull Strawman, Tito and build aggro on them. Your Off Tank will place a few sunders on Tinman and then begin to kite him back and forth across the stage, while mages cast Ice spells on him to keep him at 80% movement speed reduction. Warlock chain fears Roar, and DPS hits Strawman hard, keeping fire on him whenever possible.

Your kill order is Strawman, Tito, Roar, Tinman, Dorothee. After Dorothee dies, grab Crone, get Nature Aura up and watch out for her Cyclones. Grab your Epics and move on.

To Be Continued...

Karazhan

2007-02-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

I had written a rather detailed and extensive review of Karazhn after last week instance reset, however, Blizzard retuned the entire instance, making significant changes to the encounters, and thus invalidating nearly everything I had to say. After a week of relearning these encounters, I have rewritten my review.

Karazhan is an amazingly well designed raid zone. As the first of a rather extensive end-game, designed for The Burning Crusade, Karazhan provides cutting edge encounters and gear, on the standard 7 day instance timer, with just 10 people required as opposed to the antiquated 40+ man raids of yesteryear.

Karazhan has changed considerably in the past seven days. Last week, in Militiae Templi's first foray into the tower of the Archmage, Medivh, we ran two raid teams through, and cleared up to the final boss of the instance, Prince Malchezzar. With few exceptions, the instance was shaping up to be a loot pinata, until the re-tune when mildly challenging has become unbelievably difficult and completely unforgiving. Grats to Blizzard on recognizing the need for a change, and fixing this zone before it was too late.

Gone are the days of 15 skilled, prepared raiders carrying a 40 man raid on auto-pilot through high end content. In every fight of Karazhan, one mistake is all it takes to wipe a raid, and every member of your team has many opportunities to make those mistakes.

Karazhan is located in the southern most section of Deadwind Pass, and requires an extensive attunement quest to gain entry. Every member of your raid must have The Master's Key in their Keyring, similar to the Onyxia raid encounter. Details of the attunement chain, can be found all over the web, though I recommend Wowhead for your Burning Crusade information needs.

You enter the tower and are greeted by a green con NPC who grants you your first quest and offers information about the instance. To your immediate right lies the Servants Quarters, home to elite spiders, bats and hounds. When the entire area is cleared a silver elite 'boss' spawns, and drops one epic item 'of Random Enchantment.' It is often better than current gear, however we consider it a waste of time and skip it. To your right up the stairs is access to the Guests Quarters, the Dining Room, The Opera House and beyond.

You will be heading left first, to The Stables. The Stables are on a strict 30 minute spawn timer, and if you pass this time, you will have to start over before attempting to fight Attuman the Huntsman and his steed, Midnight. This area consists of various packs of Spectral Steeds and Spectral Stablehands, which can be CC'd with Shackle, Ice Trap and Pally fear if necessary. DPS the Stable hands first as they can heal the Steeds, and have low HP. The Steeds hit like Mack Trucks and randomly Intercept, so keep an eye on the healing here, and try to keep your pace, as you are on a clock.

A well executed clear takes less than 15 minutes, and you are soon facing a non-aggressive Midnight. When spoken too, Midnight attacks, and at 95% health, Attuman spawns. Off-tank Attuman and continue to DPS Midnight. At 25% Attuman mounts up and their health is restored to full. DPS the mounted Attuman down and collect your epics.

To your left is another green-con NPC, and the objective of your first quest. Kill the mobs around him and turn it in. He will send you to the Guest Quarters to retrieve a book. Incidentally, at honored with The Violet Eye, he will also serve as your Blacksmith for repairs and vendoring trash drops. He also has a few epic Blacksmith patterns for sale.

Here, it is recommended that you return to the entrance and proceed up the stairs to the Ballroom. In front of you are packs of non-elite Spectral Guests who can be AOE'd down, but hit incredibly hard on your casters. Mixed in, are single pull, elite Spectral Valets and Skeletal Waiters. These guys can two shot well geared tanks with untimely crits and have a debuff that reduces armor to zero. Do your best here until you get the hang of it, and remember to just release and run back when you die. This can be zerged if needs be.

You do not need to clear every pack here, simply the wandering patrols and the two large packs in front. You are headed left eventually, so have your puller creep into the room and pull the table of dinner guests back to your position on the stairs. More AOE packs here and a few Waiters and Valets. Once the first wave is down, move into the Dining room, and stand on the first table to finish clearing the room.

Here you will see Moroes the Tower Steward for the first time. He is surrounded by four named elite mobs who are part of his event. They are four of six possible adds, and their name indicates their class and ultimately, how to deal with them during the encounter.

Lady Catriona Von'Indi - Holy Priest
Baroness Dorothea Milstipe - Shadow Priest
Lady Keira Berrybuck - Holy Paladin
Baron Rafe Dreuger - Retribution Paladin
Lord Crispin Ference - Protection Warrior
Lord Robin Daris - Mortal Strike Warrior

After numerous attempts to off-tank, shackle, trap and so on, we determined that the best method for controlling this encounter is to kill three adds and Shackle only one. Ideally, you will be perma-shackling Crispin, as he hits lightly yet has a ton of armor and HP, thus takes forever to kill. Your kill order should be Catriona, Keira, Dorothea, Rafe then Robin, depending on which of the six you get. In the meantime, Robin is a priority for CC as his DPS is high and one untimely Mortal Strike on your tank is GG.

Kill your three then target Moroes. Moroes is basically a Rogue on crack, with a few abilities that must be mitigated quickly, or he will destroy your raid. The most critical is he Vanishes periodically, reappearing behind a random party member and applying a Garrotte that ticks for 1000 dmg and lasts for 5 minutes... ya that's right, over 100,000 total damage. This can be removed by Ice Block, Blessing of Protection and the quest reward from EPL, The Luffa. Go get it or petition a GM to replace it if you sold yours. Leave Garrottes on your tanks and just heal through it, in order to save your BOPs for your healers and casters. Moroes also blinds and gouges your tanks, thus have two tanks fighting for aggro constantly, to avoid him leashing off your MT and slaughtering your healers. Otherwise, DPS him down, kill your fourth add, and collect your loot.

To Be Continued...

My blog is 1337!

2007-02-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

The Site Meter said so, so it must be true...

Anyway, I figured I'd take a minute to analyze some site metrics on this 1337 occasion. I am proud of the progress this blog has made over the past few months, and though I did not build my little corner of the interweb to get a bunch of people to listen to me, it is nice to have people stop by from time to time. I especially enjoy seeing the repeat visitors and the occasional comment.

To put my traffic into prospective, one of my regular reads, Tobold's MMORPG Blog, has had 475,750 visitors at my most recent check. However, he has been at it since July, 2003 so he has a good jump on me.

My numbers:

Site Hits since inception (09/19/2006): 1337
This Week: 328
Single day record (02/13/2007): 170

The recent increase in traffic has more to do with my involvement in the MMO blogosphere, than any independent factors related to my site and content. My largest traffic is from referrals, often directed from click-throughs at the comments section of another blog.

Top five referral sites:

1) Tobold
2) Kill Ten Rats
3) Nerfbat
4) AFK Gamer
5) Google (Most common searches include 'Burning Crusade', 'Karazhan'
& 'Gnome Warlock')

Anyway, thank you to the people who stop by, and I hope I can keep you mildly entertained, enough to want to stop by again.

LoTRO Impressions

2007-02-12T15:08:00.000-05:00

The day has come and the clandestine cover of the Lord of The Rings Online beta test NDA has been lifted. I am at last free to offer my impressions of this highly acclaimed title from Turbine, considered to be one of the top potential MMO releases of 2007.

I enjoyed this game. I spent about 3 weeks playing through early beta and I have returned after wipes to test out features and see what progress Turbine has made during the latter implementation phases, and I can say that while I am unlikely to play post-launch, I think this game has promise. Turbine certainly has a great deal of content to back fill to flesh out the game and tighten up the polish, but LoTRO has some very creative mechanics and entertaining game play.

But First The Bad:

Immersion into the battle for Middle Earth is difficult. Turbine actually did a very good job incorporating elements of the Rings trilogy into the MMO lore, but also suffered quite a bit from the bulk of such an extensive and comprehensive licences. The trek from Bree to Rivendale is short and uneventful and the landscape lacks any significant 'high adventure.' Were this generic MMO, it would be commonplace but the user expects to be accosted by Orc, and pursued by Ring Wraiths and an MMO setting just can't simulate the journey of the Nine like a film can. Besides who gets to be Gandalf?

Magic is far too prevalent. Gandalf lit fires the old fashioned way for a reason. He had limited magic and only in rare events did he use it. Healing was done by a very special few. In LoTRO in order to accomplish the traditional MMO role archetypes, Turbine introduced alternate interpretations of magic and healing. Health and Mana are not there, but the two colored bars that represent it are. A rose by any other name... Bards 'heal' characters by playing tunes and lifting their spirits, but in the end, Bards are the priests and paladins of Middle Earth and Lore Masters are the wizards.

Static Mobs. In my first few hours I recall wandering out into the noob zones, hunting wolves. The wolves barely moved from their spawn spot, and graphically they were quite limited. This underwent significant improvements during the later content upgrades, but it never reached a level indicative of a top tier MMO.

Wow That Sounds Like Crap... I Thought You Liked This Game:

I do. I said it has potential and I meant it. Game dynamics are excellent and the game is quite fun to play. There is a feat style character development system that I really enjoyed. They are not game breaking advancement, but you get cool titles and small stat bonuses as you acquire these Accomplishments. At one point I killed a bunch of brigands on the roads and received a title Cyndre "Watcher of Roads" and another for exploring so many different elven ruins. I wish more MMO titles added these types of 'flavor' elements to their games.

Combat is very well thought out and designed. I consider it to be one of the best examples of organic combat on the market, rivaling Warcraft in terms of smooth animations and polished actions and animations. For a while my Bard lacked any real actions but these were added around the time that instruments were added to the class.

Class use is creative, and despite my dislike of the prevalence of magic, I don't see how they could have gotten away without a healing archetype and a ranged caster archetype. If they had to implement them, they did so well and with very deft mechanics. I played a Bard for the better part of my time in Middle Earth and I enjoyed it. They were able to implement the class with minimal use of twisting a la EQ Bard.

All in all, I wish Turbine the best in this endeavor. I think their release will be quite successful given their delay in following the release of Vanguard and Burning Crusade and quite a few subscriptions will go their way. If they continue to update the content and polish at the pace that I witnessed in Beta, they will have a very solid title 1 year, 2 years 5 years from now.

Great Minds Think Alike

2007-02-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

Excerpted from a thread on Mud-Dev, via the new archive provide by int:

This has consequences. There used to be a virtual world called NeverWinter
Nights, unrelated to the BioWare RPG, on AOL. When it was closed down, its
refugees descended on Meridian 59. They immediately wanted M59 to incorporate
every piece of NWN functionality that they could remember. In general, players
view all their subsequent virtual worlds in the light cast from their first one.

From my post a few days ago:

Isn't it strange that with each graphical improvement and feature addition, I
still compare every game to Neverwinter?

The comments from MUD-Dev are by Richard A. Bartle, from a paper he wrote called Why Virtual Worlds are Designed By Newbies - No, Really! It's a good read and has been posted in its entirety at MUD-Dev in the thread I excerpted. He is well known for his collaboration on MUD, and his writings at Terra Nova.

Also, no one told me about M59 when NWN closed. I am feeling quite left out right now, but I would imagine choosing Ultima Online as my next existential world has led me here, so I can't really complain too much.

Then again, those who went to M59 took the road less traveled, and perhaps that has made all the difference?

Grats Abryn!

2007-02-08T09:31:00.000-05:00

My wife, night elf Priestess extraordinaire, hit 70 last night!

Not a moment too soon, as Militiae Templi has begun running Karazhan this week, the first wave of brave souls, having ventured in Tuesday and spanked the first four bosses. I am leading the second wave through Sunday night, and I'll be sure to post an update Monday morning regarding the progress.

The drama I have been chatting about in previous posts, is starting to pick up steam. Ten man raids certainly make keeping everyone happy very difficult, and I think to some degree, our officers are getting over-analyzed with every action they take.

If they tell everyone in our 35-40 person per night guild that they will be in the Kara runs, then they are going to get slammed when they can't possibly deliver four balanced raids with equal leadership and success. If they make a lottery to distribute the spots, then class balance will be totally fucked and the raid will most likely wipe with little or no real progress... again, officers will be blamed for the failure.

In the end, they have chosen to basically offer very limited guidance on how Karazhan should be handled, and then stepped back and out of the line of fire as best they could. I and a few others stepped forth and organized our own runs, which alleviates a great deal of the pressure from them in some ways...

If I make a raid that fails, the officers will avoid blame, and no one will attribute it to anything more than a tough night of raiding. They will pick up and move on. Not so for the officers, they would get blasted for being unprepared, not taking the right classes, or worse, not taking the 'best players' to succeed. If I leave people out when forming my group, the officers have stayed above the fray by setting no guidelines on how the slots should be allocated. Its really up to me, and thus I take heat for any perceived favoritism.

Of course, knowing this, I created my group equitably. Everyone in our guild is talented or they wouldn't be in the guild, so I simply determined which class allocation we needed and then filled spots based on the first people to whisper me their interest. When a given class was missing (read prot warrior) I asked the only people available and keyed who could handle the job. No favoritism, no problems.

Now at first, I was particularly annoyed with the lack of structure that necessitated my stepping forward to take charge. These people are officer's, lets get some concrete policy and get rocking, I thought... Of course, the depth of frustration from those not invited to Tuesdays first big run, was also unexpected. If they run the show, they are likely to have a mutiny on their hands after a few weeks of people not getting into raids. After it all settles down, and enough groups form up and the rest of the guild gets to 70, the issue will all but disappear and they can step back in and shore up some future plans, without the visceral animosity that is now directed their way. Time cures all things, as they say...

Ding: 70

2007-02-04T13:38:00.000-05:00

I hit 70 last night on Cyndre. I dinged from exploration experience... very cool. I'll put up a screen shot of it at some point.

The Red Dragon Inn

2007-02-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

Growing up, I was blessed to have a father who was ahead of his time. He bought his first PC, an IBM in 1981 and for as long as I have been sentient, I have had a PC at my fingertips. On my ninth birthday, I was given Pools of Radiance, which ultimately led me to my first MMO.

We got the Internet and email really early. We started on Compuserve, and I used to play a text-based game called Black Dragon, which I suppose was my first experience in the genre, as it could loosely be considered a MUD, but I consider the TSR series the predecessor to the first MMO that I really played and truly loved. Neverwinter Nights on AOL.

In 1992, I was 13 years old. I had heard from some friends on Black Dragon, that they were moving to a new graphical online RPG over at America Online, and besides that, the chat rooms and the search engine were 'totally rad.' What game, I asked? Neverwinter Nights by TSR. My skin tingled... Pools of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secrets of the Silver Blades and the Pools of Darkness were staples of my gaming diet, and this was an online game based on the best series ever!

My dad signed us up for AOL, and grudgingly cancelled his beloved Compuserve. It was cheaper anyway, so he didn't mind. I made an account named Darwin, my favorite PnP character name and walked into The Red Dragon Inn where I would spend the next few years of my life.

The Red Dragon Inn was a chat room. It was also a cesspool of decadent role playing and tavern frolicking, exactly as my pre-pubescent dungeon master mind has painted so many times with words in our basement gaming sessions. It was a scene from my wildest daydreams, and I was welcomed in from the cold reality outside and given a warm seat by the hearth of my imagination.

I spent every night in Neverwinter. It was a magical time, of monster hunts, PvP ladders and guild wars. I started the adventuring company from my D&D gaming sessions, and took them into the virtual world. My gaming buddies convinced their parents to get AOL and The BlackBlade Mercenary Company was born online. In those days, there was very little in the way of formal guild management tools. So we all created new accounts and added BB to our name, so our community could identify us. I was BB Darwin. I remember with fear and awe, other guilds that did the same... the PvP guilds KAAOS (Killing As An Organized Sport) and MECH.

AOL back then, was a per minute subscription pricing scheme, and although my parents understood my enjoyment of gaming, and tried to be supportive, our monthly bill always broke $100.00 and reached as high as $450.00 one month. They made me get a job to support my time in game. I didn't care. I was chasing the dream, that my imagination had been building since I was barley old enough to walk. I was an existential explorer, beholding foreign yet familiar sights and building ties with a tight community that continued to grow every year. I was only 13 when I started, but by the time AOL went monthly subscription and Neverwinter's population exploded, I was a gamer through and through.

The Red Dragon Inn was a home for me in those days. I would stop in and have a drink, chat with friends and role play. It was in the taproom of the Inn in the spring of '97, that I heard the news that AOL was closing Neverwinter forever. I was a seventeen year old, and I cried. I cried with married adults, and children as young as I had been when I first wandered in. It's just a game I was told, by so many. There will be other games...

There have been many, but none can ever compare to the first. I recall fondly my guilds rebirth in Ultima later that year, but it wasn't the same. We tried to role play our move to Brittannia, but role playing was not as prevalent in UO, and soon that too sputtered and died out. Isn't it strange that with each graphical improvement and feature addition, I still compare every game to Neverwinter?

It wasn't the features, or the graphics that made me return every night, or work all week to pay the subscription bill... It wasn't the content, or the developers brilliance... there were no content upgrades...

I returned night after night to the Inn, because of the community... because of my friends.

Raid Size Part Deux

2007-02-01T09:44:00.000-05:00

There has been progress within Militiae Templi around the raid size issue that I mentioned yesterday. I do not think it is a permanent solution, however, I think some of the insights posted by one of our guild leaders in response to the issue could contain a few grains of insight for my readers who are going through similar struggles, or who will start to soon.

It is also worth reading Tolbold's post about the race to 70 and the impact of 25 man raids on the WoW2.0 guild.

Shaso, one of our fearless leaders, and our Main Tank, pointed out the length of time necessary to prepare for Gruul's Lair and Magtheridon's Lair. These are presumably the first 25 man raid zones that players will access, both for ease of progression, as well as the lack of keying necessary to enter. The Eye and Mt. Hyjal both require a complex key process and are considered to be a much more difficult instance.

That leaves Kharazan and the 3rd instances. By 3rd, I mean the level 68-70, 5-man instance at each major dungeon hub. Shattered Halls, in Hellfire, Steamvault in Coilfang, etc... Kharazan is a 10-man instance with an extraordinary amount of content within, as well as an exceptional array of gear for new 70s to begin the epic hunt. Guilds will most defiantly be running multiple Kharazhan runs each week for the first few months of the raid season, and this is going to smooth the transition to a multi-team approach to raiding.

An unspoken element of all of this is that during that time, many will remember why they wandered away from the game and shrink the available players down further. Once Gruul's Lair is started, having 35 online will not be unusual, and presumably, a Kharazhan run and a Gruul run could happen at the same time.

My feelings on two raid units is basically this... no matter what you call them, there will be an A team, and a B team. A 'good' team and everyone else. Which teams to the officers play on? Which team progresses faster, and who is getting their T4-5 first? Because of instance timers and raid lockouts, teams become fairly static after a while, and you start to see the divide. Two raid teams starts to mean two raid banks, and two sets of leaders. AKA, two guilds in one guild chat.

If it can be done drama free, that's fantastic, but I have never seen it happen before. Hopefully, the officers commitment to spreading time among all prepared members, is genuine, because eventually enough will quit or move on, that we will have one strong raid unit, with a few people benched at a time, but not on an ongoing basis. If only a few are trained and geared in the first few months, everyone suffers when regulars quit or jump guilds.

It's all fun and games until...

2007-01-31T13:20:00.000-05:00

...people start getting benched.

Blizzard changed raid content in The Burning Crusade to be smaller, focused raids, capped at 25 players in the zone. Most raid guild to that point had built a team of 50ish raiders to consistently field 40 for the weekly raid content farms, and still account for those with conflicts or who burned out along the way.

I have mentioned previously, that I am a member of the Militiae Templi guild, on Magtheridon-US. We were no different, in terms of our guild roster, but due to a somewhat casual element to our guild structure, we had turnover to a much larger degree than did more focused raid guilds. Friends would come and go, all the while, we recruited to fill the spots left open as we progressed through AQ40 and Naxx. In the waning months of WoW1.0, MT went through this decline and recruitment at a much more rapid pace, due to a heavy burnout ratio and a tightening school schedule from a lot of the regulars.

Enter 2.0... Many have not returned from the void, but as expected, many have. A new thread is up on our forums, tracking the class balance of our future raid team potential, and at last count, we had 48 people actively making progress towards level 70 and undoubtedly expecting a position on the raid team.

You do the math... 48-25 = 23 people or roughly half of the active guild who will not be invited to raid on any given day. Another way to look at that math is 48-25 = drama.

I can only imagine that this is a fairly consistent situation in nearly every guild on every server in WoW2.0. Today, guilds are having a great time, working together for mutual progress on the path to 70 and instance attunement. Tomorrow, they will be politely explaining to long-time dedicated members, why they are not going to have a spot available for them in the Mag raid.

I hate guild drama. I am not looking forward to the growing pains that are about to set in.

Anyone else see this in your guilds?

Real Life: The MMO

2007-01-31T08:53:00.000-05:00

Sleep is such a wonderful sensation. I love that feeling before you log on, where you are vaguely aware of yourself, but still asleep. It is most definitely the best of both worlds... at least until your semi-conscious state starts remembering all the shit you have to get done today. I just leveled last month, and I have a bunch of new skills to train up, and I really need to farm some cash. Fine, I load up and log on.

The older I get, the longer I sit at the loading screen. I hit snooze at least twice now, and even after I am up, everything is still a bit fuzzy. Load lag sucks, and I have almost gotten killed a few times nearly falling down stairs I hadn't even registered were there. Fucking life devs need to work on the god damn server infrastructure. I swear they only care about the fucking bottom line, and performance doesn't improve because they don't want to spend the damn money on it.

First thing I do every morning is buff up. I can't get anything done without a haste buff, and coffee seems to have the longest duration, unless you are willing to buy cocaine or meth which is considered speed hacking, against the TOS, and can get you perma banned. I eat and drink sometimes, if my stats are low, but most mornings I just want to get to my grind spot as fast as possible and get things going.

I am a member of a pretty decent Company. I joined about a year ago, because my old Company was a bunch of drama queens and we were stuck in terms of progression. People were just slacking and not pulling their weigh, and shit was going no where. If I had to listen to one more noob whisper me, bitching about this or that, I might have uninstalled right on the spot. Emo more, people. The people in my new Company were getting some phat loot pretty fast, and I wanted to get in on it. Some nice loot has dropped for me in the past year, and my Bank is filling up at a pretty decent rate, but its a pretty boring grind mostly. We farm the same clients for loot day after day, but I have a pretty decent farming spot, and my clients drop better than average loot, so I can't complain too much. I am still a long way off from the epic mount I want, though. Acura TL... nice car, and way faster than my current one.

I solo farm mostly. My class is pretty good solo, or duo, and sometimes I run with this woman at work who has some skills. (At least I think its a woman, but with plastic surgery these days, you never really know.) Grouping seems to slow things down for us, because there is always some idiot who says the wrong thing at the wrong time and wipes our chances of closing the deal. Its hard to find a good group in my line of work, even from within my Company, but grouping is good for Rep with the Company faction, so sometimes you just have to suck it up.

Occasionally my whole division gets together for a Company raid on a particularly important client. They drop the nicest loot, but each of us only ever has one small function to perform, and it gets very boring doing the same small task over and over. The experience sucks, and the Supervisor is usually yelling at everyone to focus. One asshole in our company always whispers me about how he should be the supervisor, and asks if I would support him. He is a washed up chump, and he is so damn annoying it hurts. Fucking devs should program a mute feature on the VOIP in this damn game. I mean what the fuck to they do all day anyway? I should find the official forums and give them some pointers on how to make a decent game. WTF.

My job forces me to group with Lawyers a lot. That class is so ridiculously overpowered. $150 fucking dollars an hour. It takes me a day or longer to farm that much, and they basically AFK for an hour and its in their inventory. They are smug too. You suggest they put it on group loot, and they are always like "LOLZ, THX FOR THE GRP NUBS!1!11." I would fucking gank their asses so fast if I could catch up to them. damn epic cars...

The devs really need to nerf Lawyers. Class balance in this game is absurd. At least they got it right with the Doctor nerf a few patches ago. Man, the HMO patch really put them in their place, and Lawyers total melt their faces in PvP now.

Speaking of ganking... I saw some fucked up shit on the news the other day. Apparently in my area, a PK'er is running around ganking people. He must be a dread lord by now, because this asshole has pk'd like 20 people, and the cops can't figure it out. I have a hint for them... he is probably some pale faced loser, picked on by other kinds when he was young, who still lives in his moms basement. Fucking noob. Oh well, my parents rolled me on a PvP server so you just have to watch your back.

Anyway, today, I am going to hit up the Mall and buy my wife a BOE epic ring. It hurts the Bank, but the wife faction goes up like crazy, and the faction rewards are very, very good. I need to hit revered if I want to buy my epic car anyway, so its worth it. We spend most of our gold, twinking our daughter. We train her well, and get her nice gear, so she is going to totally WTFPWN all the other little kids when she levels up a bit more, and its going to be fun to watch.

RMTs and Virtual Economies

2007-01-29T14:57:00.000-05:00

Black Markets exist on the Internet for in-game currency, time in the form of leveling services and pre-made characters, and items. The buying and selling of these goods and services is expressly banned by nearly every major MMO studio TOS, and while they seek to halt this illicit activity, it continues to be a growing problem within the industry.

The problems that game worlds face with the introduction of an outside market influence, such as real world currency, are many. Primarily at play, is the basic integrity of the organic in-world economy. Virtual economies are constantly evolving and changing under the press of the distribution and prevalence of game goods. Because virtual worlds do not have finite resource allocations as exist in real world economics, they face unique challenges and their integrity hangs upon a delicate balance. Altering this balance with an exterior factor, not accounted for in the design and development of the economy, can have drastic and dangerous impacts on that system.

Take a farmable game resource such as Iron Ore, for example. In a real world economy, there is only so much ore that exists. The prevalence of that ore is further limited by the processes and expense of mining it, and the distribution channels available to the miners. Now take that same resource under the scope of a virtual economy. The ore veins are spawn timed, with an infinite potential allocation of ore, limited only by the human hours available to harvest it.

In an encapsulated virtual economy, lets assume the player market settles on a 1G per 10 Iron Ore. Gold is earned at a specific time per Gold formula, with some players having more and some less, but the same basic exposure and availability to that currency. Now introduce real currency into the mix. 5% of the population purchase Gold, and are willing to pay 1.5G per stack of 10 Iron Ore, to insure that they get all that they need. Markets shift, and the in game currency is devalued.

Gold Farmers respond to demand, and since in game currency is a basically limitless resource, game economies become burdened with excess currency when farmers introduce the resource into the pool. More Gold in circulation means rising costs, without a compensating rise in 'currency-per-hour' availability for those not purchasing this external resource. Inflation that only effects goods, without effecting income.

There are countless other reasons why RMTs are a bad trend for the game industry, but the bottom line continues to be that they are a violation of the Terms of Service. Some argue that certain policies are overbearing or unnecessary, but when we agree to join a game world of our choosing, we agree also, to abide by the rules of that game's maker, despite how we personally feel about them. Those that bot, hack or cheat in other fashions are no more culpable than those that commit account fraud or participate in RMT activities.

This post began at this Nerfbat discussion thread.

Endgame Raiding Explained

2007-01-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

http://endgamewowraidinglol.ytmnd.com/

If you created this, we /salute you.

Design on a Dime: The MMO-IT

2007-01-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Before the geek squad starts picturing the IT department of an MMO studio, please read my first Design on a Dime post, in which I lay out an MMO financing concept based upon the investment model of an REIT. Thus, MMO-IT stands for Massively Multiplayer Online - Investment Trust.

Lets assume for a moment that I know something about finance and a little about the online game space, and I decide to build this investor pool. For the math whizzes in my audience who needed a calculator during yesterdays lesson, the total investment dollars at play in my proposed model is $10,000,000. (1000 investors at $10,000 each) This is a very conservative assumption when considering the scope that most speculative investors want to work in, and I personally would contribute $10K to a plan like this, were it set into motion.

So I have my first investor, me... Easy sell, but the next 999 are going to need more than faith and my good looks to convince them. So here is the financial pitch:

I have no idea what an MMO costs from concept to gold, but I am going to assume that $2,000,000 would be sufficient to launch a decent MMO. If I am way off, feel free to lambaste me in the comments section, and I'll gladly adjust my assumptions. I am also going to assume, that any fully-funded design studio can go gold, regardless of the quality of their product, and with creative marketing, can sell 25,000 units in the initial launch, before closing down due to lack of subscription interest. This will be the metric assumption I use for a failed project.

Lets assume a 20% success rate for fully funded design studios, and 250,000 units sold as our standard for 'success' with a 200,000 subscription pull through.

When looking for quality MMO design options, I shop my $10MM to five studios, in order to diversify and spread my risk. My failed investments generate gross revenue of $1,250,000, netting me a $750,000 investment loss, while my successful title launches with a net profit of $10,500,000, and an annual gross revenue of $3,000,000 assuming no additional units are sold.

If we assume the development cycle lasted four years on all projects, then after our first full year live, our MMO-IT will have grossed $17,800,000 and netted $7,800,000 in that same time frame. So how did we do with our $10,000? Each investor now has $17,800 after just 5 years, which is an annualized return of 16%. Not too bad.

Our success story was a relatively small game, and our failures were very, very bad sales numbers and we still turn a decent profit, with fairly low risk. If we have no pull through, we move 125,000 units from 5 different titles and gross $6,250,000 with a four year development cycle. In that scenario, our investors only lose $3,775 each. That's a very palatable loss given the potential gain with just one mildly successful title. Throw in a World of Warcraft or an EQII into our success pool, or manage a 40% pull through and we are talking serious returns on our investments with a very short time horizon.

Design on a Dime

2007-01-25T13:59:00.000-05:00

A successful game launch requires two very important elements to be successful. The developers need a good design concept, and the financial resources to make their vision a reality. Design concepts are like assholes, we all have one, and when push comes to shove, the vast majority just result in is a steaming pile of shit.

I believe that the best design concepts die on the vine, conceived in an indy studio or a yet unknown developer's notepad, and forever lack the second necessity to really revolutionize this industry. Money... Since money, and how to get it, is something that I am intimately familiar with, allow me to elaborate on the problems with this industry and how to solve them.

Game development, particularly in the MMO space, has become an inbred industry. Designers, developers and producers work in much the same arena, in a relatively small industry dominated by a few very big gorillas. So when an indy studio, with a genre shattering concept runs out of cash, they all turn to the same basic set of options to proceed. Cancel the project, or call the gorilla. Equally poor choices in my opinion, and here is why...

MMOs, from a monetary standpoint, are a speculative growth industry. Much like commodities, they have an absolutely mind boggling P/E potential, while also having a very high speculative risk factor. Venture capital firms, small private equity firms and many wealthy investors spend billions every year finding avenues to dump money on these very same metric opportunities. So why not in the MMO market as well? Because no one is asking them.

The game industry, if it is to be truly revolutionary, needs freedom to develop concepts without oversight from a interested investor. The gorilla is a very interested investor, and despite the press release indicating that all creative input will remain with the boutique studio, you can assume that is 90% PR bullshit... it is spin.

So how do we bridge this divide and find these Sugar Daddies, just waiting to throw us boatloads of cash with no strings? Well, designers need to employ money men, with enough industry knowledge to make the concepts palatable to the investor, while also knowing what the investor wants and needs. Development firms need to employ financial industry salesmen to pitch their product to disinterested investor groups, much like REIT managers do.

REITs are a good comparison example. I have $10,000 and I want to make a lot of money. My broker suggests Real Estate is an area with phenomenal growth potential, but what can I buy for 10 grand? And truth be told, I don't know dick about Real Estate, nor do I want to manage it. So he takes my money to an REIT, pools it with 1000 other people's $10,000 and he buys a bunch of properties. Some lose money, others win big, and at the end of the day, all I care about is watching my $10,000 become $11,000. I don't need to know how, I don't care if the buildings are painted white or blue, or if one building lost $100,000 and went under.

So how do we apply all this pseudo-intellectual bullshit into a usable concept? Well, you start by having a design idea. Get your idea mapped out well, and rudimentary designs and features in place. Then find your salesmen to pitch your potential to investors and gather the assets to make your vision a reality. At the end of the day, mediocrity in the industry would return enough to satisfy your investors, and with the freedom to design in your own way, you just might transcend mediocrity and make something revolutionary.

It's not the size that matters, but how you use it...

2007-01-25T11:34:00.000-05:00

Ryan has a great discussion going on over at Nerfbat, regarding world size and optimal user concurrency (is that even a word?).

Anyway, I won't bore you by regurgitating it here, and if you cared anyway, you'd head over and read it there.

Endgame or End of the Game?

2007-01-24T09:59:00.000-05:00

As I wander the dank holes of the MMO blogoshpere or the rank holes of the many MMO forums that we all love to hate, I am constantly taken aback by the diverse prospectives of what an MMO or what it should be with regards to game progression. As I meander down the level progression of The Burning Crusade, no end of people whiz past me at full speed, desperate to reach 70 and begin enjoying the game again... or stop enjoying it again... So is an MMO about the journey or the destination?

I have always been an Endgame minded player. In EverQuest, it was hurry up and level, so that the fun could begin. The game began at the end so to speak. When I moved to World Of Warcraft, I did so with friends from my EQ days, and that mentality guided our actions from 1-59. I didn't bother enchanting good gear, knowing it wouldn't last more than a few levels. I abandoned green quests that would yield less then optimal experience, despite enjoying the quest chain to that point, and we skipped whole zones that our research indicated had a poor xp to effort ratio.

Personally, I enjoy the Warcraft endgame, but I attribute much of that enjoyment to my wife who raids alongside me, my guild who are both fun and successful, and to copious amounts of alcohol. I read a never ending stream of chatter about how boring the game is a 60, and I read those same sentiments back in EQ's heyday.

So now the chance to quest and enjoy comes along again, and the race is on to 70. Seems to me that the journey is just an annoyance that must be surpassed to reach the destination. Is this a result of faulty design synthesis, a loot based progression issue or is it just a symptom of a gaming population effected with engorged epeens? I made the conscious decision to enjoy each level on my way to 70, but I have the rare luxury of knowing that whenever I get there, raid content will be available to me quickly, and despite being weeks behind in the sub-raid instances, I will quickly pass all but the very best on my server.

Despite that, I really can't wait to get started. The first time you fight a Raid boss is magical. Much more so than killing 1o Bog Lords, and earning 10,000 XP. Seems to me that MMOs are about the Endgame, and I am simply trying to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of the time before I get there, rather than the opposite.

In the end, it is somewhere between a design flaw and a gamer flaw. Devs have not forgotten the success of EverQuest, and that success was in large part attributed to the commitment of its raid population. Design for the people who pay the rent so to speak, and now those people dominate the industry and perpetuate those very same ideals when proposing new MMO concepts. We eat it up as consumers and the cycle begins anew.

The Burning Crusade: A Gnome's Tale

2007-01-24T09:15:00.000-05:00

(A Gnome's Tale is an ongoing player fiction story, following the ingame exploits of Cyndre and Abryn. The complete story to date can be found here. Enjoy!)

The barred and locked service entrance was no match for the deft skills of their companion, Ninga, who awaited them in the half-light of the Outlands night sky. It was he who had found their path into the terrible fortress, using Stealth and the many tricks of his shadowy profession to infiltrate their defenses and scout out their path.

As they made their final preparations, Cyndre gazed in wonder at the vista above them. The moons and stars of Outland and the Netherstorm swirled above them in a magical dance of color. If the struggles in this place were not so different from Azeroth, it was the sky that reminded him that he was far from Ironforge, the city he had called home since the fall of Gnomeregan. Pangs of nostalgia gripped him as his mind wandered to his homeland. He had lost so much there... his family, his legacy, his soul...

Shaking off those bitter memories, Cyndre glanced at his beloved. A look of peace softened her delicate Elven features, and the light glow of the accouterments of her station and power, filled him with warmth and comfort. Her majesty and holy grace lifted up the companions Spirits and bolstered their Fortitude.

Ninga motioned for them to proceed as the door swung open. Once inside, the companions moved forward quietly and quickly, before their presence was noticed by the wandering packs of orcs. The Rogue slipped ahead of the party, darting from shadow to shadow, nearly invisible in the dim halls of The Blood Furnace. Cyndre could barley make out his silhouette as he crept up behind the unsuspecting guards...

With a thud, Ninga sprang into view and before the startled guard could ward off the blow, he was struck soundly from behind, rendering him senseless and immobile. Thorik Charged forward with a raucous Battle Shout, Intercepting the second guard as he lept to his comrade's defense. As the skirmish waned, the Sapped guard regained his bearings, and moved to strike the unsuspecting Rogue. As the axe descended upon Ninga's exposed back, a soft twang and a sickening gurgle could be heard, as the orc slumped to the floor, a barrage of arrows protruding from its spine. Ninga glanced at their fifth companion, Hunterace, and nodded his appreciation.

The companions moved through the halls of The Blood Furnace at a rapid pace, staying just ahead of the orcs pursuit. They had to map out this terrible factory of doom, if the forces of Honor Hold were ever to plan an assault to halt the flow of troops pouring out with each passing moment. Abryn continued to gather the foul blood of their fallen enemies, and the companions found treasures of great worth upon the corpses of the slain foes.

The battles raged on, and the companions wound deeper and deeper into the recesses of the halls of Hellfire Citadel. As they reached the center of the Furnace, a feeling of unspeakable evil swept over them. Drawn to the source of this raw and terrible power, the Militiae looked out over the balcony upon which they stood, and saw far below them a demon of such immense size and nightmarish power. Magtheridon... a being of the greatest evil, was here! They had to warn the others, before it was too late.

2.4 Million Copies in 24 Hours

2007-01-23T16:05:00.000-05:00

The Burning Crusade sold 2.4 Million copies in the first 24 hours...

2,400,000 x $39.99 - production cost... carry the one...

Anyway, its a boatload of cash. $4,000,000 per hour was spent by gamers last Tuesday. To doubt the relevance of our community or our our market from a strategic business sense is unthinkable.

And no digital downloads means Blizzard has retained their spot as every game store's favorite company.

You would be surprised what Joe Shopkeep can do for your game's dominance when he wants too. Just go to your local EBGames right now and see the WoW product placement vs. the Vanguard pre-orders or the EQII & company boxes. Sherlock Holmes couldn't find those products if he wanted to, while WoW has 5-6 different displays around the store.

Grats Sendrak

2007-01-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

Sendrak of my guild, Militiae Templi is the first player that I know of to aquire the epic flying mount. Required level 70 and costing over 6000G in total to obtain, this is no small feat.

Are you Joran the 23rd Spearman?

2007-01-23T10:53:00.000-05:00

Grouchy Gnome has started another heated debate at Nerfbat about recapturing the epic feel in the MMO game space. While it is true that most elements present in the worlds we inhabit today, are devoid of that feeling of greatness... the spine tingling excitement of a wondrous adventure that we are swept up in and are uniquely a part of. it is mostly because hundreds of thousands of other people are swept up in the very same adventure to kill the very same villain and acquire the same Halberd of Heroism.

Jason responded to one of my posts and made a comment that gave me pause and ultimately led to this post. When you gather your party and go after Gor'lash the Unyielding, are you Joran the 23rd Spearman of the 5th Company, or are you Joran the Hero whose exploits are the stuff of bardic tales?

Designers have a responsibility to set the stage for you to become Joran the Hero, but all of the responsibility does not lie with them. MMOs have deteriorated in some ways, not wholly because of lazy design and capitalistic agendas, but also because the player base has become stale and lazy.

This is not going to become a rant promoting role playing, as I am do not role play in MMOs, but consider how many players stop and read the lore that developers code into their games, and internalize it. How many players take responsibility for their own immersion? In World of Warcraft, what percentage of players have scrolling quest text turned off and simply click accept, alt-tab, read allakhazam for the sekrets and then power level right over the storyline? Is any title out there different?

Developers do need to take ownership of their game content and the storyline that it represents. I have been quite vocal on my appreciation of the lore Blizzard has put into The Burning Crusade, and my thoughts on the epic lack of immersion in Vanguard are no great secrets, but it needs to be taken to the next level for a game to be truly revolutionary. But lets say they do... what then? Is dynamic spawns or epic story going to change the power leveller in each of us? Are we going to chortle a hearty battle shout and leap into the fray, or are we going to CC the adds, single pull the boss, loot the quest item and run like hell to get our 10K xp and shiny new trinket?

The Burning Crusade has offered me plenty of good lore and I read the quests. I have even started writing an epic player fiction tale based on my wife & I's adventures. I refuse to be Cyndre the 234,543rd Warlock on the 47th Server. I am Cyndre Shadowsoul, the tormented hero, and my adventures are EPIC!

The Burning Crusade: A Gnome's Tale

2007-01-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

(A Gnome's Tale is an ongoing player fiction story, following the ingame exploits of Cyndre and Abryn. The complete story to date can be found here. Enjoy!)

The celebration was short lived. Word had come back from Militiae Hunters in the field that the death of the Dragon menacing the Ramparts of the orc Citadel, was doing little to stem the tide of troops pouring out of the bastion of filth and desecration.

With scores of would-be heroes haplessly questing against the fel tide, and no apparent decline in the forces of the enemy, the officers of the company gathered with the leaders of the Honor Hold uncover the source of this strange occurrence.

"How could this be so," demanded the Dwarven Warrior furiously. Thorik glared angrily from beneath his dented visor, a testament to the increasing ferocity of the orc menace. Those gathered muttered curses echoing the Dwarf's anger and frustration.

A stately Draeni Warp-Scyer, raised his hand to hush the gathered assembly, "My divinations indicate some foul sorcery is at work here. We believe that they are not training these troops, but rather, growing them in some foul laboratory." He continued, "We have intercepted a dark missive and believe that they call this foul factory of flesh, the Blood Furnace."

Disgusted and terrified, Thorik shouted above the clamoring crowd, demanding the right to put an end to this, "I shall take from our number a party of great heroes, and we shall investigate this Blood Furnace." With that the Dwarf stormed out of the great keep to gather his team.

***

Lost in his dark meditations, the Gnome did not hear her enter. Perhaps in some light yet recessed part of his calculating mind, he could sense her and he knew her, for his acute intuition would never have let an enemy approach him unnoticed... that and the seven feet of hulking demon would have beheaded anyone but her.

"We are summoned." stated the Priestess softly.

Cyndre heard her, and in her words he could hear the will of a warrior, a born wanderer... the clarion call of the road and of places unknown was deep in her blood, and these past weeks had been hard on her. Confined to healing the many wounded, she had watched time and again as her brothers and her lover rode off, hoping only that each corpse wagon that passed the gates would bear unfamiliar visage.

"We?" asked the Gnome, hoping his mistress would finally again be at his side.

"They have need of Blood Samples from the Nascent Orcs that are being bred with the Blood Furnace, and my alchemy and healing talents are more valuable in this endeavor, then in the infirmary. Thorik requested our presence for this reason." she replied.

***

They had resolved to meet by the din of nightfall upon the Southern Ramparts of the Hellfire Citadel. Their scouts had found a little used service entrance, barley guarded through whence they could descend into the dire depths below the great Orc stronghold.

They were just five, but they were solid of mind and spirit. They had learned much in the past weeks, and their power had grown. This was to be their greatest challenge yet, and the dangerous path began upon this wooden stair.

As the made their way upon the treacherous precipice, visions of foul experiments taking place in the dark recesses below, filled their thoughts, and as one they shuddered at the terrors they would face...

TBC Week 1: First Impressions

2007-01-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

So the first week of The Burning Crusade is nearly gone, and I have a very clear impression of the work Blizzard has done to make this expansion successful. There have been some trials and tribulations, restarts, lag and the usual press of desperate levelers stealing each others kills, but as the dust begins to settle on the mad dash to 70, those of us who have been stopping to smell the roses, and the fetid Underbog flowers have seen some wonderful sights and fantastic game play.

Rissiel of Militiae Templi started a post listing his favorite observations from TBC so far, and I will do the same:

Quest progression, complexity and availability: The Burning Crusade is chalk full of fun and diverse questing options. In Hellfire Peninsula alone, there are well over 30 quests that the hapless adventurer can choose from, and while many are kill X and bring Y, the devs have also expanded the quest menu to include flying bomb runs, destroying key enemy objectives, lots of mini-boss type quests and some PvP based objectives.
Tradeskilling: Blizzard has decided to further incorporate the trades into everyday leveling. Last night I learned that herbalists can 'skin' plant mobs for useful reagents and quest items... Jewelcrafters have a direct impact on the improvement of quest and instance gear... Blacksmith's can improve on their creations as the progress, taking their Masterwork Longsword to a Grandmaster's creation (so-to-speak_... These are just a few small examples, but we keep finding them with each passing day.
Instances: The new group instances are dynamic, quick and available for all players. From Hellfire Citadel, accessible to all gear levels, to the Underbog that is a very demanding instance they have created an array of options for those with just 45 minutes to plan, to those with hours to spare.
Graphics: The backdrop of Outlands is just stunning. The battle worn lands set against the space-like sky is one of the most amazing scenes I have ever quested in. The first time I crested the ridge of Terrokar Forest and the visage of Shattrah City came into view, my breath was taken away. I had goose bumps from a game...
Completeness: Aside from a few bugs and testing oversights, TBC is very, very polished. One druid in our guild complained that the Reagent for his L70 Gift of the Wild spell has not been coded into the game yet... Oops.. (Ya, Yorick hit 70 after 4 days... WOW) For the most part, the quests work, the servers are holding strong, items function properly, and the game play is smooth and enjoyable.

The first two days of release, Hellfire Citadel instance servers crashed on Magtheridon, where I play Cyndre. I was trapped inside a down zone for about 75% of the first two days and got a bit behind on leveling, but last night I Dinged 63 regardless. The game plays fast, even though I am taking my time. Having a very skilled guild, using Vent and assisting each other in every facet is a great boon for me, and as a guild we are progressing through TBC content very fast, and with few issues. I expect Cyndre will reach 70 inside of three weeks of real time (not /played) and we should be starting a partial raid schedule inside of one month as enough of our compatriots reach max level again.

I give The Burning Crusade three thumbs up, and wish I was playing right now... so close to 64, must quest....

/AFK

TBC Day 2: LOL

2007-01-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

I am Vanguarded

2007-01-18T10:44:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I warned of an impending rant about an as of yet, unreleased MMO that has been much acclaimed during it's development. Now would be the time to click your browser back button if you would like to avoid, said rant.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has been on my proverbial MMO Watch List sense Brad McQuaid left SOE and announced he would be developing a third generation MMO with his production company, Sigil Games. For my regulars here at Existential Worlds, you know that I have a bit of a World of Warcraft addiction at the present time, but that was originally meant to be a temporary fix, while Vanguard was developed.

For me, Vanguard was to be the culmination of a long string of frustrating MMO experiences. From Neverwinter Nights on AOL, to Everquest, I had wandered the existential worlds of the MMO game space, only half satisfied with my role in them. They lacked that feeling... Tobold dubs it the Crushbone Factor, which is certainly applicable, despite the fact that it refers to EQ.

So I watched and I waiting, and finally the day arrived... my email inbox brought me tidings of my involvement in Vanguard's Beta development phase.

My first impressions were very mixed. The world was stunning in some respects and completely disappointing in others. The engine was a behemoth and I could hardly have visual setting above the bottom tier 'Highest Performance' in order to move my avatar at all. I thought to myself, this is Beta... this is why I am here. Customization, optimization, bug correction and game play evaluation... these are my quests...

After weeks of frustration, I had to walk away. It was early Beta, but I felt as though the game had been pushed to Beta too soon. I was struggling to stay involved and never once felt immersed. I felt as though I should not have been there yet, it was too raw, too empty to even test appropriately. Too 'broken' if you will, or perhaps too 'unstarted' even. So I left.

Three weeks ago, I reinstalled my client and decided to give Beta another try. Beta 4 had been announced and I felt that perhaps the progress I had been looking for would be in place and the game would be ready for testers. I logged in and found myself gaping at the same landscapes devoid of npc life, the same bugs, the game graphical failures and the same uninspired implementation of truly inspiring innovations...

I set about leveling my Cleric and once again, I felt deep disappointment at the absolute waste of wonderful innovations. They had burdened the title with a bulky and unwieldy engine, game play is choppy and modeling and animations are uninspired. Questing is bland and unoriginal. Progression is chaotic and poorly thought out, and the client continues to struggle under the press of their system requirements. I run a powerful machine and I still can't play at even the 'balanced' graphics tier without tremendous lag.

A few days later Sigil and Sony announced the January 30th release date for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and I uninstalled my beta client and walked away from the game forever. They promised a third generation MMO and produced a half finished 1.5th generation MMO in the vein of Everquest with a few bells and whistles as differentiation. They Beta'd too early and failed to address the concerns of their testers in any cognizant fashion. The progressed the Beta too fast, and placed too little emphasis on content development, instead focusing on expansive lands and a diverse feature set. They innovated conceptually and programmed poorly. They gave me high hopes, and dashed them with forceful abandon.

So now I am Vanguarded against new titles. I refuse to be spun by fancy press releases and doctored screen shots showing the absolute best a game can do. Anyone can crank up their graphics settings, snap a fancy photo and post it on the interweb... but do they have what it takes to make a truly inspired world? A world alive that simply makes you scream... I WANT TO LIVE HERE! Sigil failed in that regard. Brad's 'vision' and Brad's reality did not align properly, and SOE and Sigil are going to release a very unfinished game into a market dominated by a very polished Warcraft and a slew of great titles that are getting better with each passing content patch.

Farewell, Vanguard... The dream of you was sweet, but now I must move on.

The Burning Crusade: A Gnome's Tale

2007-01-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

(A Gnome's Tale is an ongoing player fiction story, following the ingame exploits of Cyndre and Abryn. The complete story to date can be found here. Enjoy!)

Shadows flickered and danced upon the walls of the quaint Inn room, as a stiff yet otherworldly breeze swirled the Hearth flames about. The Inn at Honor Hold was a small establishment, never intended to accommodate the vast numbers of adventurers who had sought its refuge. Rooms had been booked, but the lovely Night Elf had ephemeral charm that few men could resist, and the Innkeeper had been convinced to make arrangements for the odd pair.

Cyndre stared into the flames lost in thought. The first few weeks in these lands had been hectic indeed. Militiae Templi had arrived with much fan-fare as they had served aside many of these fine soldiers in the battles for Silithus and against the forces of the Lich King. Many of their company were Exalted with the Cenarion and Ardent Dawn factions, and thus their reputations preceded them and they had been welcomed with open arms to the front.

Feasts were boisterous yet short lived, as the fel orc and demonic forces pushed hard upon the beleaguered armies of Azeroth. Parties of Militiae forces had been dispatched quickly to weaken the enemy, gather resources and destroying key elements of the orc offensive. They had seen great success, and Honor Hold was spared from the onslaught, as the orcs regrouped and gathered in their dire stronghold at Hellfire Citadel.

Startled from his reprieve, Cyndre turned to face his beautiful companion as she entered the small room. Abryn's blue glimmering robes had run crimson with the blood of countless soldiers, and the constant flow of casualties into Honor Hold had left her with too many stains and too little sleep. The Priestess was skilled in the healing arts, but she was growing weary of the constant need of healing and too few healers to assist the wounded. For every one she saved, two could not be, and the sadness in her eyes mirrored a heavy heart.

"I was told you had been assigned the mission," the Elf maiden whispered.

"Yes," responded the somber Warlock. Cyndre knew she would not be pleased to stay behind, but the need in Honor Hold infirmary was too great. Abryn's healing prayer's had saved the Gnome more times than he could count, and he knew that she feared the worst, were she unable to travel with his party.

"A dragon is terrorizing our forward shock troops, and the infantry can not progress up the Path of Glory, with it flying overhead. We must dispatch the beast and return with it's head to display upon the bastion of Honor Hold, and strike a blow against the enemies moral," continued Cyndre. "The company is stretched thin on these many fronts, and I have the talents to Weaken the Ramparts of Hellfire Citadel. I must go."

With that, Cyndre gathered his gear, blew a kiss to his beloved and headed out. His companions were waiting for him on the road.

The ride was short and quiet as the companions steeled their minds to the horrors they would face in the terrible orc stronghold. Elyane the Mage meditated, collecting her thoughts and preparing her spell components for the coming battle. Nommos the Paladin whispered prayers of thanks to his gods, and Blessed the adventurers to aid them in their quest. Nefasu the Druid gazed into the maw of the Citadel, a Feral gleam reflecting deep in his Elven eyes, and lurking in the shadows, the devilish Sendrak, leader of the Militiae Warlocks rasped curses while clutching a stolen Soul in his bony grip.

Cyndre was pleased. A fine group this was, of the highest caliber. They were sure to prevail and the glory and Experience would hone his mind and body and prepare him for what lay ahead in this war torn land.

The companions made quick work of the outer defenses upon the Ramparts. Nefasu called upon the great spirits of nature and assumed the Bearform, Mauling his victims and holding their enemies on the defensive while the companions assailed them with spells of great power. Sendrak and Cyndre commanded their demonic allies to hold the gathered forces of the orc legion at bay, while Elyane Sheeped and froze them in place.

Reaching the perch of the fel beast, the companions gathered their strength for one final battle. The beast's deadly breath scorched the fur of Nefasu, but Nommos held his wound at bay, while the casters hurled Bolts of Shadow and Frost into the beast's scaly hide. As the creature expired it hissed a curse upon them, foretelling of their deaths at Matheridon's hands. They shuddered at the prospects, but cheered their victories!

After claiming the beast's treasures and its head, the companions began the journey back to Honor Hold, marching proudly to the tune of the infantry forces cheers that lined the paths to the outpost. Their Reputation with these people was growing... their power was growing by the day... they could sense the future held great adventures and powerful treasures, and they were glad.

Cyndre looked at the pride in his companions eyes, and smiled... they carried the manner of heroes, and the Militiae Templi were heroes indeed.

The Burning Crusade: A Gnome's Tale

2007-01-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

(A Gnome's Tale is an ongoing player fiction story, following the ingame exploits of Cyndre and Abryn. The complete story to date can be found here. Enjoy!)

The fate of all Azeroth hangs in the Balance. The unlikely pair knew it as much as any in their Alliance, as they had witnessed first hand, death and destruction at the hands of the foul demons and their terrible ilk. They were strong of mind and body, this pair... battle tested heroes of the greatest magnitude. Veterans of battles long since relegated to the hearth tales of bards and minstrels.

"Come to me Thoodhun, I have need of you," whispered the Gnome, a fel glint deep in the sockets of his fire rimmed eyes. From the shadows of the rocky perch where they awaited their compatriots of the mighty Militiae, a menacing presence emerged.

"You inconvenience me Master, provide me my morsel as per our arrangement or die where you stand," rasped the terrible demon. Reaching into the dark recesses of his skull adorned robes, Cyndre drew forth a tiny shard and tossed it to the Felguard. Inside the crystal, a purple light danced as if a living presence was trapped within...

"I shall never understand why you tolerate him," shuddered Cyndre's beautiful companion. Abryn forced thoughts of the terrible price Cyndre had paid for his powerful magic out of her mind. There was so much she would never understand about the Gnome, but she loved him despite his many flaws.

Moving further down the crest of the precipice where they took cover from the raging battle below, the full vantage of the blasted crater below came into view. The Blasted Lands were aptly named, for the scars of a millenia of wars had left these lands devoid of life. In the center of the Crater, a lone structure dominated the skyline. A doorway to the unknown... the Dark Portal. The Portal swirled with a hellish light, that neither had seen before. It was alive they knew, changed, different, and the strange world beyond was growing more visible with each passing moment.

Upon the steps, heroes of the Alliance and Horde were engaged in skirmishes with the demonic invaders, and while a tenuous truce had been struck between Thrall and King Magni, old hatreds die slowly, and battle between old enemies waged thick amidst the chaos below.

One by one, members of the mighty adventuring company, Militiae Templi, gathered at the designated meeting place. It had been many months since their last great battle with the fel lord Noth in the dread citadel Naxxrammas. So many of their number had been lost in the battles against the lich king's undead tide, that a somber mood still hung heavy upon the hearts of the noble guild. Many had been laid to their final rest, others had set off for distant worlds in search of dreams that only they could see, and many had simply seen too much suffering and laid down their weapons for the last time.

Cyndre wondered just how many were left... had the mighty company seen too much to rally for one final adventure? First one, then in small groups, the band of brothers started to assemble. His heart swelled at the sight of his comrades, some bearing fresh scars from their recent exploits, others wielding items of great power that they had found in the weeks and months since their last great battle.

The renowned warrior, Shaso, raised a hand for silence. As a hush settled over the assembled company, the warrior addressed his comrades, welcoming them back from their time apart. There was much to be done he said... they knew. There were matters of guild business to discuss... they were prepared. Great dangers lay head, and many would not return... They nodded sagely. Azeroth relied on the great guilds of the day to ride forth and protect them from the evils that lay beyond the Dark Portal... they were ready.

With a nod to the Dwarf at his side Shaso donned his great helm and drew forth the dire blade he had wrested from the hands of the foul witch of Naxxrammas, Faerlina. The company mounted as one, preparing reagents, notching their bows, and gathering their blades... Ragnar the Hunter fired an Aimed Shot at an unsuspecting Demon, and as their voices rose in a Battle Shout, the mighty Militiae Templi charged forth into the fray.

"Assist him," commanded the Gnome with a gesture at his Dwarven leader. Thoodhun Sprinted off, with a muttered curse. Glancing at his lovely Night Elven companion, he saw raw emotion dance in her eyes... Fear... excitement... Smiling, he whispered an arcane incantation and hurled a Shadow Bolt into the fray...

The war was on... The Burning Crusade had begun!

TBC Day 1 AKA Loots & XP & Server Crashes OH MY!

2007-01-17T08:22:00.000-05:00

Release day for the highly acclaimed expansion to World of Warcraft has come and gone, and the staff here at Existential Worlds were on the scene to bring you live coverage from the momentous event. We would liken the experience to a bowl of Sweet and Sour Soup. No, No, more like Waffles with Maple Syrup, but no coffee...

AFK, grabbing some food.

Ok, where were we? Oh right, the The Burning Crusade release...

Design: Unbelievable. That is really the only way to describe what Blizzard has accomplished with TBC. Detail is amazing, quests are so full of lore and that sense of belonging in the struggle, that you can't help but get swept up in the adventure. You get that sense that without you, the tide is slipping further in favor of the demonic forces... It has been a while since I have experienced that level of immersion.

On first glance, the Outlands map does not appear to be very large. Comprised of a handful of geographic regions, you get the sense early that it is about the size of half of an old world Continent, perhaps the size of Arathai Highlands north to the ocean. Once in Honor Hold and questing, the overwhelming size of just Hellfire Peninsula, the first of the zones, becomes clear.

Questing & Experience: The quests in Hellfire have a very fluid progression and provide some freedom to deviate and still maintain momentum and retain the lore immersion, while avoiding the usual pitfalls of carry this there, kill 20 whatzits and retrieve 7 woozels. Those exist, but there is a fun diversity in the nature of the quests. Examples include a bombing adventure where you navigate a flying mount through a patch of terrain, dropping bombs on enemies, and a series of quests where you torch critical points of both Horde occupation and the unaffiliated Orcs that dominate the zone and its primary instance dungeon, Hellfire Citadel.

Server Stability: I started off awestruck at how smoothly Blizzard pulled off this expansion release. I spent a bit of time following the midnight download and patching, just having a look around... no lag, not even a server 'hiccup'. Left work a few hours early to get a jump on the madness, and Abryn and I played for about two hours with basically no lag and without a single crash. Could Blizzard have done it, I thought? Of course not... About 7pm EST, we started to run the Citadel. Apparently, a few hundred thousand other players were thinking the same thing, and all hell broke loose. By 8:30pm server time, I was on my warrior finishing up the last of the Silithus quests to Ding 60, because Outlands were so unstable, it was going down every 30 seconds or so.

I expected this. I was disappointed as a player, that I could not complete the amount of content that I had hoped, but as a critic, I expected at least a week of terrible play conditions, before the level spread started to occur and players began to space out around the world again.

The Burning Crusade: AKA Midnight Madness

2007-01-16T10:02:00.000-05:00

01-16-2006

Sort of a bland day isn't it? Not much happens on January 16th. The holidays have ended, you have your credit card bill by now and realize you can't afford a vacation anymore, work has started full tilt again, and all the good games released before the holiday rush. Amirite?

Well, usually I am, but not so this year. Blizzard Entertainment has launched The Burning Crusade, the first expansion to their record breaking MMO. If you have played WoW since release as some of us have, you have done every last thing there is to do in Azeroth over the past 26 months. You are either devastatingly bored, or you quit.

The Burning Crusade offers new zones, 10 new levels and spells, new Battleground, flying mounts, and wait for it... PHAT LOOTS! So as any addict in need of immediate gratification, I headed down to my local EBGames outlet at 11:25pm last night and got in line... with about 300 other geeks who couldn't wait 6 hours to buy the expansion at a reasonable hour.

I quickly upgraded my CD keys for my wife and I, knowing full well that the Account Management system was about to get owned in the coming storm, then proceeded to install the game. After an hour long 2.5MB download, I was IN!

My first experience in Outlands did not last long, but what a job Blizzard has done. I really have never seen anything like it in gaming before. The graphics, the detail, the smooth transition from release to expansion... simply amazing, and at a standard only seen once prior in my long gaming career... 11/23/2003, World of Warcraft launch day.

I grabbed a few new enchanting recipes, set my hearth to Honor Hold, and logged out a very happy Gnome. What adventures await in this uncharted land? What horrors lurk in the depths of this war ravaged terrain? What treasure shall be uncovered and at what cost?

To say I am excited about The Burning Crusade is a mild understatement. I don't remember ever feeling this giddy and lightheaded in my entire gaming career (although that could just be the lack of sleep and 12 cups of coffee...) and my guild seems more focused and hungry for success then we ever have. I'll keep you posted...

Necroposting

2007-01-16T09:42:00.000-05:00

Three months since my last post... That's the worst kind of necroposting, when you just won't let something die when by all rights it probably should. Where have I been? Well, I am a married man after all, with a beautiful young daughter, a full time job, and a healthy addiction to online gaming. Need I say more?

Anyway, I spent the last three months chasing the dream, so to speak... testing new Existential Worlds, and perfecting my role in my current world of choice. I have a lot to say on a lot of subjects and way more thoughts than time to express them here. However, as your trusty blogger, I shall take them one by one and do my best.

In my absence, I tested two highly acclaimed titles currently in development, and a handful of lesser known games on the horizon. One is currently in double-sekret mode, so I can't share my thoughts just yet. The other just entered the public domain, and is fair game for my highly opinionated and heated rant. I'll get to that in a bit...

My realm of choice is World of Warcraft. I dated around, but there is just no way to look at any other game with the same joy as I do Warcraft. I don't know why exactly, but I believe after my recent exploits in other worlds, that it has something to do with polish. WoW just outclasses them. Oh, and they just released The Burning Crusade... it's kind of a big deal I hear. I'll get to that in a bit...

So my wife, the intoxicatingly beautiful, Night Elf Priestess, Abryn... and I, the devastatingly handsome Gnome Warlock, have been quite busy raiding with our guild Militiae Templi, and PvPing in the Battlegrounds. You may have heard of us? We are kind of a big deal in the MMO community...

LOL, just joking. My wife and I are somewhat casual, as is our guild for the most part, but we hold our own in terms of progression, having done quite well in AQ40 and Naxxrammas, in much the same time frame as the uberguilds.

So I'm back, you know where I was, and you have a pretty good idea of where this blog is headed over the next few weeks... You also, should have a pretty good idea what I will be doing with my free time for a while, joined by some eight million of my peers world-wide...

South Park and MMO Comedy

2006-10-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

From Kotaku:

South Park keeps on keepin' on, entering its 10th season (!!!) and kicking
it off World of Warcraft style. Check the preview for a sneak peek at
Wednesday's upcoming ultimate crossover for night elves and the boys who love
them.

WoW Analysis and Research

2006-09-27T11:54:00.000-05:00

Terra Nova has put together a collaborative piece published in an academic journal. It focuses on so many different aspects of MMO life and there is a ton of information. I have just started digging through it, and frankly there is some pretty good stuff here. It is going to take me a little while to digest it all, but I defiantly recommend it to all of you.

Corporations go MMO

2006-09-25T13:41:00.000-05:00

Mainstream would be the word to describe the recent relevance of the virtual world in current tech society. With games such as World of Warcraft attracting record numbers of people, to MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach and its ilk targeting a totally new segment of the population, it comes as no surprise that leading institutions will be capitalizing on the trend in some way.

The first reported case, being IBM. IBM has begun to use Linden Lab's Second Life, as a forum to host meetings, conduct breakout sessions and employee trainings, as well as utilizing the pre-existing tools developed by the virtual world, to conduct business culture experiments. In exchange for the use of the space, IBM has done free coding of various in-world features, and provided the rights to Linden Labs.

Note to Self: Go work for a company that hosts company outings in Naxxrammas.

WTF are they thinking!?! Tech Companies against Net Neutrality!?!

2006-09-23T06:20:00.000-05:00

These people should be drawn and quartered. My thought on Net Neutrality can be found in this post. More from Slashdot in this article.

This Week in Gaming

2006-09-22T15:43:00.000-05:00

The third expansion of EverQuest II, enters the Beta phase of testing. Blackguard has the scoop at the EQII forums.
Ironically, that is likely to be the last scoop, that Blackguard has for a while. Ryan "Blackguard" Shwayder says farewell to Sony and Everquest II.
The Serpents Spine, the next expansion in the venerable EverQuest dynasty is now live. A truer game title was never coined...
VGTact has a Vanguard Beta key contest for September. Do you have what it takes?
Maybe this guy should put less blame on World of Warcraft, and more on failing at life? Please go play in a busy street, prior to contributing any more ammunition to the 'gamer addict' meme.
Guild Wars: Nightfall is conducting a free world preview today through Sunday. Nightfall is the third expansion for the popular game title, with renewed focus on PvP in Guild Wars.
Kotaku directed me to this, interesting story about the virtual sex trade rampant in Second Life. For my money, I'd rather slay dragons and inspire kings than grind on the man-gina, but to each their own.
I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried, folks... MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach entered Beta this week, produced by Macena Technologies. Macena designer and Terra Nova alum, Betsy Book has the scoop, and its implications in today's pop culture madness.

Gamer's Guide to Politics: Censorship, Gaming Legislation and Protecting Children

2006-09-22T10:19:00.000-05:00

Can you hear and do you care and can you see we must be free to Teach the
children to believe and make a world that we can live in. Teach your children
well, their parent's hell did slowly go by and feed them on your dreams, the
ones they picked, the ones you'll know by. (Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash).

As a family man, father of one beautiful baby girl, these issues have a certain resonance with me. Beyond that, I can speak from a position of personal involvement, as these are factors that my wife and I consider on a daily basis. How will media effect Arianna? How do we raise our daughter with a sense of moral understanding and a foundation in right and wrong, and how much exposure do we allow to the reality and alternate reality worlds that exist in our culture?

This task is the sole responsibility of the parents. Legislators have no business in legislating morality and interceding in my relationship with my family. Video game and movie violence has been greatly vilified of late, as a cause of violence and social imbalance in young people... This is simply a blame game of the worst kind. I grew up exposed to extremely violent TV, movies and various media, yet my subliminal urge to kill has never surfaced. My parents guided and molded me into a proper social animal, just as I am doing with my child.

Recently, legislators led by Senator Joseph Lieberman passed S1902, the Children Media Research Advancement Act (CAMRA). This bill allocates government dollars to study the effects of violence in gaming, on children, with the expressed intent to follow with restrictive legislation, should the results indicate a link. To support such measures is a direct assault on the principle of free speech that this country holds dear.

So, in the interest of protecting my daughter from harm by sheltering her from violent media, these legislators would confiscate her basic and inalienable rights. What trade-off is that? Gun Control opponents have a very famous line, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" and I think a similar link can be made here.

Children that take up arms and slay others, may play games as has been implied in the recent, tragic shooting in Montreal. However, this is a case of a social malcontent, mentally unstable and without the proper childhood guidance. Video games did not cause that shooting any more than God is responsible for the deaths of our fellow citizens on 9-11 because some mentally unstable, radical Islamic extremist claims it to be so.

So what should be done... Well, for one thing, we the gaming community must continue to educate the public that we are normal people from a wide spectrum of social backgrounds, and demographics. We must combat reactionary public policy at every turn, and counter insinuations that because we engage in or produce violent media, we are social misfits, and most critically, we much pressure our state and federal representatives to oppose radical actions that infringe on our basic rights.

Sen. Lieberman must go. The reasons are too numerous to list, but this guy is wrong for Connecticut and wrong for America. Do what you can to help elect Ned Lamont this November and support someone who wants to preserve basic American rights, such as free speech.
Call your representatives in Congress. Call your Governor. Tell them that you are responsible for your children's well being, not them, and you want them out of your computer, your TV and your personal lives.
Get active and get vocal. The shrill voice of the censorship shills are much more vocal than us, and they spend more money lobbying Congress. We have the votes that matter, however, and must use them.

46 days until the midterm elections... 46 days to let the political elite know we mean business... 46 days until the proponents of censorship are kicked to the curb. Volunteer, call and write your representatives, find out where they stood on S1902, and other key initiatives, and last but not least, cast your vote this November and send a clear message to Washington that THIS WILL NOT STAND!

WoW... just, wow.

2006-09-21T11:46:00.001-05:00

real shaman

This is what happens when we take our game avatars too seriously. If you know this guy in real life, please slap him for me. kthxbye.

Err, cough... "my" MMORTS Design Idea

2006-09-20T14:18:00.000-05:00

I love RTS games... ALOT. So when Brian at Psychochild, put out this MMO concept, I was naturally intrigued, however, I decided to take a different angle in my design process.

You see, since Wizzel has come up with a truly wondrous invention of a MMORTS, and since that idea is so good, I would just knock him off Sopranos style, and take his idea to the development team. Naturally I would make a few adjustments to "my" idea...

Starting Cities are unconquerable. This eliminates the 'end' of your avatar in the world, which would alienate many subscribers. Players who have lost all significant territory and developments to invaders would be cornered and have the option to join the Clan of the invader, or continue to try to expand out and reclaim land. There would be game mechanics in place to make conquest drastically harder as you approach a base city, and development, harvesting and civilization maintenance on a war front will always be the most costly in the game, making holding those lands difficult, but not impossible.
Online vs. Offline. The basic macro management concept laid out by Wizzel, makes this an easy hurdle to overcome. 90% of the behaviors and movement of the civilization AI is automated based on the UI selection and previous actions, thus the civilization would continue to persist while the Leader was logged off. The disclaimer to this is basically, this game is not for the lighthearted... log out for a week and you might not like what you find when you get back.
Clans: This game would require one of the most extensive guild management engines to date, due to the extensive nature of the management process. This system would also alleviate the Offline issue to some extent. Within your Clan, you can grant varying degrees of control over the mechanics of your sub-civilizations. Just like in a current MMO guild, Leader has all powers, Officers have some limited powers, and so on, the various members would have varying degrees of control over each others lands. Clans are the staple of the game, and as Wizzel has stated, a long civilization can not sustain itself without outside resources, thus trade and partnership are vital to survival, and conquest and protection from conquest are side benefits.

I will continue to flesh out this concept and add to it. Bravo Wizzel!

Game Testing and NDAs

2006-09-20T09:07:00.000-05:00

I try to stay fairly plugged into industry news and communities, and thus I run across a myriad of opinions about game testing from the denizens of the dank rocks under which I hide. One of my pet peeves is the prevalent attitude that game testing, specifically public or private alpha and beta phases, are for the benefit of the test participant rather than for the company or the game title.

Here are some things that game testing is NOT:

Reward: Game testing is NOT an entitlement program for your good citizenship, your connections in the industry or your 1337 skilz at pwnz0r teh nubs in X game!
Free Gaming: Game testing is NOT an opportunity for you to try out a new game before you have to pay for it. It is NOT there for your entertainment, gratis.
Skill Development: Game testing is NOT an opportunity to hone your skills at the next big MMO title, so that you can get a jump on everyone else or join the uber guild.

Here are some things that game testing IS:

Stress Testing: Game testing IS an opportunity for developers to see how their game features and servers perform under 'normal' conditions.
Bug Discovery: Game testing IS an opportunity for developers to find and correct game bugs, unintended mechanics, and close loopholes and exploits.
Focus Group: Game testing IS an opportunity for game developers to get a pulse on what the player think about the game and the various features of said game.

So what impact does game testing have on the success of a given title? The answer varies, but with the right testers and the proper action from the development team, game testing can be the difference between a disastrous flop of the highest magnitude, and a well polished game shipped when it is ready.

When you join any phase of game testing you agree to certain rules that prohibit the sharing of information, outside of the private forums and sanctioned events. These Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are critical for the integrity of the testing phase, for a number of reasons. An example of this, is World of Warcraft vs. the current beta leaks coming out of Vanguard: Saga of Heros. During my time in the World of Warcraft testing, my initial impressions were terrible. Game play was choppy, bugs were prevalent, content was disastrously minimal and the servers were unstable as all hell. However, after months of restarts, rollbacks, patches, feedback and fixes, World of Warcraft shipped as one of the most polished MMOs in industry history. Sure there were bad news leaks out of the WOW alpha and betas, but they were minimal and did little to quell the hype surrounding the game, and the result is history.

On to Vanguard... Everywhere I turn, non-public information about the current state of the game is available. Videos, screens, commentary and frankly, very little of it has been positive. Is Vanguard a bad game then? I would wager money that it is not a bad game at all, however the people who violate the NDA are painting that picture with very vocal brushes. This is unfair to the company, the title, the fans eager for this game, and the industry as a whole. When you join a testing phase, you are agreeing to represent that company and until said NDA is lifted, it is imperative that the information and opinions that you develop during your time there are secret.

So what do I do when I am invited to test a game?

I log in, and play hard.
I try to break the game, exploit every way I can think of, use every feature and push the limits of the world that the development team has created.
I take detailed notes. This servers two purposes, as I can both formulate my opinions for public discourse after the NDA is lifted and I can make informative posts for the development team.
I report my findings often. Find a bug? Repeat it and record the facts. Write a synopsis and submit it with detailed concise information and a clear header [BUG] Moss Snake Kicks.
I respect the NDA. I may think this game sucks and will flop, but it is not my place to push it over the precipice. There will be plenty of time for that after the NDA is lifted.

I hope everyone who is invited to join in the game testing process, can make a similar set of mantras for themselves, and help the industry grow and develop.

Housekeeping

2006-09-20T08:42:00.000-05:00

I added a sitemeter to my blog last night, because metrics are fun. I built this place to put my thoughts in one area instead of strewn about the intertron on various forums and blogs, but its still nice to know if anyone visits me and what drives them to the site. Its a neat little shareware program for anyone that is looking for that type of thing.

You may have surmised from the stunning layout and extreme creativity of my blog design, that I am a hack designer/ programmer. In fact, if it wasn't for the Blogger mechanics, you would be reading this on little napkins taped to a poster board in my office. God damn it, I ran out of tape again, so you'll have to wait for the next post...

So this is a work in progress, and it will improve over time, but I care more about the words and ideas than I do about the design, so don't hold your breath for any web awards in the near future.

MMO Watch List: Immortal Destiny

2006-09-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

I have recently added Immortal Destiny: Edge of Empyrean to my proverbial MMO Watch List. To say that this title is in the infant stages would be a gross understatement, as the development company, Neogence LLC only issued the press release on September 4th, 2006. Under normal circumstances, I would shy away from any game title with so little substantive information, but the limited information on the new websites FAQ was very intriguing. They would not be the first company to promise a lot of features that I want to see in-game, and deliver on significantly less, but its worth watching.

Also of note, is the development team itself. Robert Rice, aka Nicodemus of Kill Ten Rats fame, is leading the project.

Some excerpts of note from the FAQ:

Primarily skill based.

Every character starts as one of three archetypes: Warrior, Priest, or Mage.
While each has some benefits, there are no restrictions on what specializations,
professions, skills, magic, or items that an archetype can use.

No levels. Character advancement is primarily judged by skills and the amount of
raw power they control.

Player vs. Player combat (PvP) may occur anywhere. Players can also place
bounties on each other, and pursue other means of revenge against those that
attack them unwarranted. Griefers will not survive very long.

There is a variety of in-game social structures and organizations…Great Houses,
Minor Houses, Guilds, Clans, Gangs, Military, Government, etc. There are very
few, if any NPC leaders. Most city and town governments will be run by player
characters.

Most items either decay over time or degrade based on usage. Some rare item
types will last a very long time.

Things ye be wantin ta do today, Matey!

2006-09-19T09:08:00.000-05:00

Yarr! in honor o' me favorite o' holidays, I've slung together some task fer ye ta chew on. The Old Salt among ye, ha seen ta the task afore, but look lively o' it'll be a dance with Jack Ketch fer ye!

Yo-ho-ho, it's talk like a pirate day, fer me!

Ye'll want te be signed up fer this ere, Pirate of the Burning Sea, Beta phase, now won't ye?
Find yerself a buxom beauty, an have tha wench fetch us some rum!
If ya be needin a Jollyboat fer yer travels, Costco will be tha first stop ye be wantin ta make. Only $20,000 doublooms!

Console - online gaming love affair continues to struggle

2006-09-18T12:49:00.000-05:00

I do not understand why no console system can get this right. No matter how hard these companies try, they simply can not produce a consistant, successful presence in the online gaming industry.

More failures, from Kotaku:

And here's where it really looks bad:
Neversoft is confident the PS3 version of [Tony Hawk's Project 8] the game will ship at launch in November, but it still hasn't received all of the software libraries and has no indication of how the online components will work on PS3, so it's not offering them.

Gamer's Elbow?

2006-09-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

I have reached the high point (low?) of my gaming career... Last night during my guilds raid on the dread citadel, Naxxrammas, I began to notice a sharp pain in my left elbow. It has steadily gotten worse to the point where I am actually pained to write this entry. You see? I am suffering for you my faithful readership.

So there you have it, ammo to sling at the naysayers who claim that our beloved gaming is a lazy man's hobby. It is indeed, a high impact sport, much like Football strains the body of those who engage in it, gaming and raiding day after day, causes similar physical deterioration.

Bring that up next time you try to pick someone up at the bar by telling them you are level 60 and have 34 epics.

Existance precedes and rules essence

2006-09-18T11:29:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, I was asked why I consider Massive Multiplayer Online game worlds to be 'existential worlds' and thus why I named my blog as such. The short answer is, My Dad's Blog Can Beat Up Your Dad's Blog, was taken, so I had to go with my second name choice. The long answer is much more involved and takes a look at the very nature of human existence and the functions and roles of our virtual worlds.

The renowned existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartes, wrote that 'existence precedes and rules essence' in his famous work Being and Nothingness.

This simply means that man first is, and only subsequently is this or that. In a word, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself. And the definition always remains open ended: we cannot say what this man is before he dies, or what mankind is before it has disappeared. (Action Magazine Dec. 29, 1944)

This analysis of Sartes famous line has always elicited images of charachter creation at game launch. The avid gamer has read up on their most antisipated title for months, begun to define themselves on the forums and establish their identity in the budding community and ultimatly as they unwrap the freshly purchased game, and begin installation and charachter creation.

As the gamer nears the completion of his future identity in this new world, and hits Enter, he is thrust into an unfarmiliar world with no ties, no status and no destiny. It is in his free existance and presence that he defines himself in the virtual world.

Another predominant existential thinker, Edmund Husserl, coined the German term Dasein, meaning being there, in his noted work Being and Time. The basic premise is that temporality and presence in the world, the Dasein as he says, is a more definative existance, than the corporality of the world itself.

Husserl's Dasein, represents a fundamental building block in my 'existential worlds' principle. At the risk of oversimplifing a rather involved concept, our presence in the game, makes it real and our actions and choices there define us. The walls are digital, the npcs are AI, the gold is ephemeral, death is temporary... However, we as sentient beings are there, and in our precence, essence is instilled in our avatars.

So next time you take flak for spending too much time gaming, or for hiding from reality in a game, you can confidently state that they are free to define their existance and essence in whatever manner or forum they choose, and you shall do the same.

Hot of the Press!

2006-09-16T13:05:00.000-05:00

From Eyonix over at the Warcraft forums:

Alright, I will provide you and everyone else with two tidbits of information that we've not yet revealed through any source. Both of which I'm personally very excited about, and hopefully you will be as well. First, when the Burning Crusade launches, healing over time (HoTs) spells such as Rejuvenation and Renew will stack for every player casting them. For instance, if there are three priests in your group, a target could potentially receive three renews as one time. Second, we're going to be scaling Warlock and Hunter pets come expansion so that they become stronger as the player gains more statistics through itemization.

This is both an incredibly overdue change and an exceptionally exciting change, given that my main in Azeroth is one of the afore mentioned classes, and my wife plays another (Ya, thats right guys, I married a girl gamer... Perhaphs if you stick around here long enough, I'll share the secrets of my success.)

2006-09-15T15:29:00.000-05:00

Technorati Profile

This Week in Gaming

2006-09-15T13:01:00.000-05:00

Curt Schilling, famed ace of the Boston Redsox and Everquest junkie, has teamed up with Todd McFarlane and R. A. Salvatore, to develop Green Monster Games. As a Red Sox fan, and an avid Salvatore reader, I am interested in the progress of this MMO company.
New York Times, has the scoop on the highly awaited Nintendo: Wii release. $250.00, November 19th, 25 game titles at launch, and enough copies to avoid the major sell-outs of the 360.
It appears that the MMO Blogosphere is falling in love with a new Spanish MMO, PrisonServer... Just don't drop the soap guys, and you'll do just fine.
Blizzard has released an Interactive Map of Outlands, the new world in their eagerly awaited expansion, The Burning Crusade.
Everybody whose anybody was at the Austin Game Conference last weekend, which means I was at home reading about it. Rob Pardo of Blizzard received great reviews for his Keynote address on the success of World of Warcraft and the lessons that the MMO community can learn from that success.
Newsweek on Living a Virtual Life. They have put together a fairly balanced look at WoW, and they seem to be implying that normal, successful people play MMOs...
Heartless Gamer has a, well... heartless take on the four newly released Vanguard: Saga of Heros videos. MMO fans everywhere want to love this game so badly, and we can't stop wondering why Brad&Co. are working so hard to change that...
The 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming. We /salute you.

Gamer's Guide to Politics: Net Neutrality

2006-09-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

(Gamer's Guide to Politics is a weekly article about the most important real world political issues that impact the Gaming Industry, and the gamer communities, and what yours truly thinks we should do about it.)

Net Neutrality is or should be, one of the meta issues of any gamer's political philosophy, and a deciding factor in our decisions about who we support, or who we kick to the curb this election cycle. Democrat, Republican or Not-Interested, Liberal or Conservative, this is an issue that we all need to care about and more importantly, do something about.

So what is Net Neutrality, you ask?

Net Neutrality legislation would insure equality and equal access to the speed and flow of information on the Internet for all users and providers. It would prohibit cable and telecom providers from charging different rates to different providers for the same service of accessing and providing access to the Internet through their cable and phone lines. In short, Net Neutrality would preserve the very existence of the information super highway, as we know it today.

Here's the danger of life without net neutrality: Currently, an Internet service provider, or ISP, charges the companies whose sites it hosts, be they Google or Willamette Week, the same amount of money per byte that's transmitted. What Verizon, Qwest, BellSouth, Time Warner, SBC, Comcast and AT&T—the main supporters of the new telecom legislation and opponents of net neutrality—want is to charge content providers more for higher levels of service (Willamette Week Online).

So who cares if Google or The New York Times can pay a little more money to have priority access and higher load speeds, right? Any proponant of free speech, the free and equal dissemination of ideas, and preserving the sanctity of the Internet in its present state, should be outraged.

The primary issue at stake is the extent to which a fully deregulated Internet, as proposed in the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006, will have on our ability to access all forms of public opinion, media and content. What happens when Rupurt Murdoch, decides that his political views are more important than your right to access a myriad of political and social views? After MySpace parent, Intermix Media, was purchased by Murdoch's New Corp, unconfirmed reports began to sping up almost immediately of MySpace pages critical of Republican and conservative leaders were being shut down or regulated.

Ok, so some big companies could restrict the flow of information on the Internet, or prevent certain content from being available to consumers... I am a gamer, I kill dragons and /dance over the corpses of my slain enemys... What does this have to do with me?

Well, the Internet is the physical manifestation of our virtual homes. The cable and phone 'roadway' that links us, with the Existential World of our choosing, is under attack, and I for one, am not going to sit idle, while some newb company ganks my right to access that world! After they strip the Internet of all 'questionable' content by rendering it unviewable due to increasingly slower load times, who is to say they will not decide that Azeroth or Norrath are questionable content, and begin to squeeze our access as well? Blizzard and SOE could afford to pay the highest tier toll rates on access, but could indie game companies, or newly produced games that are barely able to afford to ship, let alone pay for the right to transmit their product?

Ok, now I'm pissed, but I'm just a pimple faced geek living in my parent's basement, who can barely get the Cheetos stains off my fingers... what could I possibly do about all this?

We have camped the same spawn for hours, in search of that one drop to round out our set... We have run the same grueling plane over and over flagging our guildmates to progress, we have grinded on the same damn mob for weeks to level, or farmed the same instance for gold and loot upgrades...

We are gamers, and when we want something bad enough, we can be persistant and we can be tireless in our single-minded pursuit of that goal. That is what we must do to insure that this assault on our virtual worlds does not go unpunished.

It's time to camp the Politician Spawn. We have to pwn these noobs for not supporting Net Neutrality. 53 days until the Mid-Term elections. Call your Congressional Leaders. Call your Governors office. Write them an email. Do it often. Let them know that no matter how great they are on such-and-such an issue, and what they may have done for our Country, being on the wrong side of this issue is going to get them voted out.

Town Square

2006-09-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

Today's must read, from Demitri and Constance at Terra Nova. Are MMOs the town squares of tomorrow?

We need time out from our daily grind (oh, the irony), and a chance to meet new people and hang out with the regulars. In a healthy society, these places form the building blocks of good communities and civic life. Classes and ages mix, ideas are exchanged, and the pace of life is moderated. Think the Spanish town square, the Italian piazza, the Greek taberna and the American, err, umm. Ok, America just has the mall, which is pretty sad. The idea we toss out there is that MMOs, and other online spaces, are beginning to take on this key function.

What the hell is a cyndre?

2006-09-14T14:03:00.000-05:00

Over at Kill Ten Rats, Oz has a classic post regarding the importance of our virtual identity. In MMOs, the single most defining characteristic of your avatar is your chosen name. Thus, the importance of being 'Blaznarat' as he says.

At character selection, gamers make many decision that will have a lasting impact on our role in the virtual society that we have chosen to inhabit. We can be male or female, gnome or elf, brown hair or black... No matter what choices you make in customization, however, you will still be just another brown-haired elf maiden, in a sea of elves. Thus it is the naming convention that allows us to define and hone our virtual selves.

MMOs are built and sustained on the community that develops and thus remains loyal subscribers despite any number of reasons why they should have moved on. Take Ultima Online for example. They are approaching ten years, and despite inferior mechanics, outdated graphics and a host of newer options in the marketplace, their faithful continue to log every day. It was not the choice to be female, or elf that kept Nightshade playing this long, but rather the virtual person that Nightshade has become, and the friends she has made.

So what the hell is a cyndre, you ask? Well, Cinder was a name I used for many of my D20 characters back in the day, and when I joined the grandpappy of MMOs, Neverwinter Nights back on pay-to-play AOL, my beloved name, the very spirit of who I was in my fantasy life, was taken...

Cyndre was born that day, and I have never had to race against a host of others to be Cinder, Blade, Ghost or any other iteration of oh so sought after, leet identities. I don't have to worry that my friends from UO would see my name on their new EQ server, years later and wonder if the asshole PKing the newb, was the same Cinder they knew, or later still, if I was the clown spamming /1 in Elwynn Forest who they hadn't seen since we uninstalled Norrath.

I don't need to be leet, I just want to be me.

Welcome to my world

2006-09-14T10:04:00.000-05:00

Why do people start blogging?

I would imagine there is a plethora of motivations that drives each one of us to begin pontificating on our topics of choice, and as many diverse reasons as there are blogs. So the real question then, is why did I decide to start a blog?

Well, because you NEED to hear what I have to say. Life or death... glory or tragedy... victory or defeat... Its that important. So like any clandestine hero, whose only fault is the hubris that shall be his end, I have arrived to deliver the gospel according to me.

You on the other hand should probably find anywhere else to be. You see, I'm just Some Guy. I'm no Grouchy Gnome, secretly hiding my insider identity behind my online persona, although for other reasons I have chosen to post as my virtual moniker... more on that later. So why should you click back here day after day? Well, because I have a lot to say, on topics that you obviously care about, or you would never have found me in the first place. In my great hubris, I believe I have some useful insight to share, and if nothing else, I read more forums, information sites and blogs that any human should, and I am usually a good source of the current events in the gaming industry, and the virtual worlds that I have chosen to call home.

I hope you agree, or disagree and challenge me in the comments section. I love PvP after all, and whether its pixilated or typed, its always fun to go toe to toe with another skilled individual. So welcome to my world, your presence here makes it your world too, and I hope you choose to stay.