Playing WoW

Jumped in for Mists. I'm excitd so far. I don't really know where to start, but I've been digging questing in the first area. Gotta hit up farming, pet battles and PvP.

Playlist:

1. WoW

New Updates

Over at my WoW blogger.

This includes character portraits that I am way too proud of. Go check it out!

Playlist:

1. WoW

Back

Daniel did a great thing the other day and paid for a month of WoW for me. Yay!

I was playing it and it was weird. Going to take some getting use to again. And remembering what I was even doing in that game.
Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft

Guess what I'm playing?

Two guesses, you'll only need one.

Playlist:

WoW Problem

No matter what quest text they have before, the end result is always "go pick some berries"

Apology

I'm Sorry

World of Warcraft as ruined gaming for me. Probably forever. I've been spoiled by it. I no longer see the point of any other games. Why would I play something that doesn't add up to something. Games can't just be fun. They have to mean something. You have to play with people. Single player games became irrelevant long ago. Why would I ever play something that would ever only been seen by me and playing against the computer just felt hollow. Unfortunately, I've developed a condition. I don't like playing against people. I get competitive. I don't like always having to be on top. I don't like that feeling. Having to always win.

So World of Warcraft did what I wanted. I wanted to play with people, not against people. It allowed me to play something that meant something and required investment. It required by intellect and my attention. It had a massive depth. It was a giant math problem. A constant computation.

I cant never go back Kate. I can't.

What Have I Been Playing

I mean, not that it's really important or anything. BuT. Basically I'm a bad person and I've been playing lots of World of Warcraft. Lots. The sad part is, it's just as action pact and fun as TF2 is. I was in a raid yesterday, and it required a lot of concentration, experience and constant movement, on top of healing. I had to be paying attention to lots of things at once. Then, when I'm not in those battles, I have to be preparing for the next encounter. This takes a lot of meticulous research and forethought. This I also like. The fact that you can have such minute details about a game to leads to the sentence(s):

"WotLK makes yet another sweeping overhaul to the regeneration model. In 2.4, we all became used to the regen formula of:

which made spirit very valuable, and intellect slightly so. Not only was the coefficient lowered as we leveled to 80 (as expected), but Blizzard made the decision to lower the coefficient yet further in an attempt to remove our ability to 'regen infinitely'"

The fact that this sentence means a lot in the end game content is mind blowing to me. I love it.

But, unfortunately, Tuesdays I have section at 8am and the WoW servers are down from 5am to 11am every Tuesday has forced me into other games. Such as Mount and Blade. This game is basically just a Medieval combat simulator. It's basically the game mechanics of Dynasty Warriors mixed with the graphic engine of Morrowind. Which I happened to adore. So I like this game. I picked it up for $5 (I think) on Steam one day, and it's definitely worth a play. I also grabbed Torchlight. Haven't started it yet.....

Playlist:

1. WoW

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

General

* Level cap will be 85 because developers wanted to focus on the right things: redoing Azeroth and providing more end-game content.
* A new guild advancement system will let you earn guild perks and level a guild through 20 levels with points to spend in a talent tree. You will access abilities such as cheaper repairs, less durability loss on wipes, or mass resurection.
* Phasing can now add and remove terrain based on your progress. Coasts will be progressively more flooded depending on how far you are in a storyline for example.


Path of the Titans

* Talent trees won't be extended, you will just get 5 more talent points.
* The Path of the Titans will let players follow a path (not restricted to classes), this is a new talent system with new skills and passive abilities.
* A mastery system is being added as well, a lot of talents will be reworked to be more fun. The point is to get rid of a lot of the talent skills and not make you spend all your points in a talent tree just because it gives you more damage or higher crit chance.


Archeology

* Archeology is a new secondary profession, not many details about this one but we'll probably hear more about it in future panels.

Deathwing

* Deathwing, the leader of the Black Dragonflight will be the main vilain of the expansion.
* Deathwing heard the whispers of the Old Gods after the arrival of the Burning Legion, he eventually grew very powerful and also became very very crazy.
* His plan was to catch the Alliance and Horde unaware with something so massive that it would bring up the Elemental Planes.
* The Elemental Planes were created by titans to contain the elementals, they weren't happy with this decision and some of them like Ragnaros got really angry.


New races - Worgens

* Other races were discussed for the alliance, but the developers really felt that the alliance needed a monstrous race and horde needed something fun and tiny.
* Genn Greymane closed the Greymane Wall to block the Scourge's plague. Gilneas got nervous as the Scourge progressed to the south.
* Arugal was a patriot, he called the Worgens to battle for Gilneas but eventually was surprised by how dangerous what he called down was.
* Worgens are from somewhere else ... or even someWHEN else. They have a wolverine temperament and spent a lot of time trying to contain the beast within.
* One of the Worgen racial will be Dark Flight, a short duration sprint


New Races - Goblins

* Goblins are a technological race from Kezan, their society is broken up into trade cartels run by trade princes. They are new factions and not the ones you can already see in game.
* The Cataclysm hit Kezan really hard and it's possibly destroyed. The goblins are now refugees on the Lost Isles.
* As a goblin you start as a neutral cartel and eventually join the horde as you progress through the questlines.
* Racial - Rocket Belt will have multiple functionnalities, you can use it to launch yourself forward or launch rockets at targets.

he World

* Azeroth is now flyable. Pretty much all the zones will be changed to some extent, some of them like Elwynn Forest won't change too much but others like The Barrens will be sundered in two by Deathwing.
* The Wailing Caverns are now a lush and verdant Area.
* Desolace now has a lot more waters and a lot of plants can be seen in the screenshots.
* The Horde finally conquered Southshore.
* Auberdine was destroyed and the night elves have set up a new camp north of it. Garrosh wants to expand the horde and has built a fortified camp at the south of the zone.
* Stonetalon has been cleaned by the Goblins, Azshara will be the new Goblin zone, and are using quarries in the mountains of Azshara to build their town.
* We all left a little part of ourselves in Northrend and the old world will be much darker than it was to make heroism and brotherhood more meaningful like Warcraft should be.
* Every zones will be revamped with new quests, items, and art. The old world will be a brand new experience and you won't have to deal with the annoying agility/spirit quest rewards anymore.
* 7 new zones will be added : Twilight Highlands, Mount Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum, Gilneas, The Lost Isles, Sunken City of Vash'jir.
* The Worgens and Goblins starting zone level goes from 1 to 15.
* Sunken City of Vashj'ir will be an underwater zone and was the home city of Lady Vashj before the original sundering, this is a gateway to the Abyssal Maw. Going through the Abyssal Maw will take you to the Elemental Plane of Water, even if the zone will be underwater you will be walking on the sea floor here, new underwater mounts will be available and should have the same speed as normal flying mounts.
* Deepholm will be the new hub of the expansion, you will have portals here to let you teleport to Hyjal, Uldum, etc ... The Twilight's Hammer now serves Deathwing and have brought him back to full health in the Temple of Earth at the center of the map.
* Uldum will have at least two dungeons and is heavily inspired from Egypt. The sea at the west of Tanaris was just an illusion created by the Titan and Uldum is actually a brand new zone. It is rumored to hold a super weapon. Uldum is also the home of the Tolvir, a race of stone-like cats created by the titans.
* Ragnaros used the cataclysm to come back from the Plane of Fire where we sent him and is now sieging the World Tree in Mount Hyjal to burn it down. Malfurion is back from the Emerald Dream. The whole zone (Hyjal) will make extensive use of phasing.
* Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol,
* Apparently Orgrimmar will be rebuilt and reinforced with steel, it now looks a lot like Garrosh strongholds...
* Undercity has been redesigned to be flyable, it now looks much more impressive from the outside.
Deepholm isn't really connected to Azeroth, the connection is where Deathwing emerged from the ground.
* The Twilight Highlands will feature Grim Batol, Deathwing literally broke open Grim Batol as he emerged from the ground. This is the new Twilight's Hammer base in Azeroth and both Horde and Alliance will have a new port town with boats here. The Red Dragonflight is still here but has been pushed back to the west of the zone near the Wetlands.


Dungeons & Raids

* The Firelands will be a new raid dungeon, it will let you go to the Elemental Plane of fire and visit Sulfuron's Keep, Ragnaros will be here and he's really pissed.
* Uldum will feature two new dungeons, the Lost City of Tol'vir and the Halls of Origination (a titan city)
* Grim Batol will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.
* Skywall (Air Elemental Plane) will have a level-up dungeon and a raid instance.
* The Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep will be back in a brand new level 85 heroic version.
* Blackrock Caverns will be a new level-up dungeon located in Blackrock Spire. This is an entirely new dungeon, new art, new creatures, new everything.

Player vs. Player

* Battle of Gilneas will be a new battleground where the objective is to control the city by controlling as many districts as possible.
* Tol'barad will be a new PvP zone and will also be the most important daily quest hub. Just like Wintergrasp a battle will happen every few hours and the winning side will get access to the Tol'barad Prison and extra daily quests, the really profitable ones.
* Rated battlegrounds will be added to the game and should get you the same rewards as Arenas.
* New arena maps will be added.

In a Return to Form

So yes, it's been a long time since I've last written here, but I feel like I should be doing so. Especially if I want to be a video games writer. I wonder if I would write more if it was my only job. I don't know. Maybe I'm so uninspired because I'm not getting paid. That may be part of it.
Anyway, I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 lately. Like almost an unhealthily large amount of it. I'm in class right now, but I'm guessing my Xfire profile is going to have about 20 hours this week. I do know for certain that I just hit 400 hours of it. That's a long time. I almost have 1,000 in World of Warcraft and that game is very very conducive to sitting down and playing for eternity. Team Fortress 2 is not. But somehow, I'm just gaining time slowly but surely.
Now, everyone who reads this blog knows already about the Spy vs Sniper update that just came out. Valve decided that their old system of unlocking weapons was fubar and so they decided to overhaul it. So they released a system that would randomly give you weapons as you accumulate play time. After playing for a week, I have to say this system is retarded. While I'm playing, it is nice not to have 4 snipers and 3 spies running around in every server in attempt to unlock achievements. However, I've played about 20 hours and have only unlocked one new weapon: The Ambassador. I have unlocked three other force of natures and another sandman. It's infuriating if I think about how much I'm being ripped off. But, if I just play the game like it's suppose to be played, I have fun, namely because there are only a slightly larger number of spies and snipers.


This is an informal piece of writing, right? Okay, good. Well, when I'm playing Team Fortress 2 my name that I have on Steam is “Awesome”. This sounds really self serving, right? But, I feel as though I deserve the title. I was playing yesterday and felt especially vindicated when I have 19 points, the next guy had 9 and my friend had 0. I just sat back and said, “wow I really am Awesome”. I have been getting really good as a sniper actually. Par example, I was sitting at about the midway point of the first Goldrush at the first point. I was looking through my scope and hear a Pyro near me. So, instead of trying to kill the Pyro who was bum rushing me, I looked slightly to the left and saw another Pyro running. I flicked by wrist and clicked. My life then ended. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that I did indeed kill him. I was very pleased with myself.


Recently, funnily enough, I have been recently been thinking of renewing my World of Warcraft account. Yes, I know I should not and I think I'll be able to stave of this craving until I finish finals, but I am really thinking of doing it. I've been thinking about how much fun it is to just run around Azeroth. I care about the world. I like to go Dustwallow Marsh or The Hinterlands. I like to explore the world and think about how the world use to be so bustling and important. I like finding the huts that are off the beaten path and looking around. I also like speculating about future expansions. I like to read about The Emerald Dream and think about how they may implement it. I want to get to level 80 and then go back and clear all the Burning Crusade dungeons. I want to get some bored people together and run some AQ. I find myself wishing I was really involved in Vanilla WoW. I played then, but I didn't really play. Back then, getting a group through Van Cleef was a huge deal. Most of the time we didn't have enough people or people had to leave or the group was retarded. Westfall was a beautiful place and was fun to run around in. Gaining a level was a big deal and you felt as though you had fun with the whole thing.


This is how I want to play WoW if I started again. I would play Akoris, sure. But I would do everything meticulously, trying to do all the quests in an area before moving on. I'm not sure I want to raid however. I definitely want to clear all the dungeons and heroic dungeons in Northrend. But I don't know about Raids. I may PUG a raid or two but I would make sure that I knew the fight very very well before going. I just don't want to have a commitment to a guild that I can't always fulfill. I think I'll be holy after I hit 80 though. Healing gets you into lots and lots of groups and I feel like I've a good healer. I hear that you can obtain an obscene amount of money in Northrend so I'll be able to get my epic flying mount. Then, I can go back to Outland and finish all the quests. Then, I can go back to Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and finish doing those quests. Then I can grind reputation for all the factions I never got to exalted. I feel like I want to play this like I played Grand Theft Auto and that's okay with me. I've just been being really nostalgic and longing for the days that I rode my elekk into Un'Goro Crater while watching Groundhog Day.


I also want to start a guild. I always got a kick out of my <We Hate WoW> fake guild spam and I feel like if I created the guild, people would join. It would be the people who I like too. The only people to join would be the ones with the subtle sense of humor because those would be the only ones who thought it was funny and worth responding to. I would invite anyone and everyone. I wouldn't care about any sort of guild disputes or anything. My motto would be “well fuck it”. I think we could be a pretty good griefing guild and become notorious. I would not mind being known for that. I think running a guild would be fun. Oh, and about the guild bank, I would allow everyone to take everything. I would of course tell everyone about that beforehand. It just seems unfair for someone to expect something they deposit to be there and it's not there. That's rude. But funny. Maybe I shouldn't tell everyone. Maybe I'll make a blogspot for the guild. Just talk about nothing. Should be fun.


I need to review a couple games actually. I played enough of Dawn of War 2 to review it, and I believe I have the review on this computer. I played through Braid and was very impressed by it. I could review that. I could also review Demigod. I've only played about 10 hours of it, but I feel as though I fully grasp the gist of the game. I also could review Sins of a Solar Empire: Entrenchment. I have played only like 2 games, both as TEC, but again, I feel as though I get the game.
Writer Curtis Wright knows that renewing WoW right now would surely be the end of him

Earn That Content

With Call of Duty, the more and more I play it, the more and more I realize how brilliant of a game it is. I'm level 52 right now. And I am playing it to play the game and experience it. Achievements have infiltrated every game that I own, so I've resorted to one of the games where they don't matter. Well, challenges give you silencers, ACOG scopes and red dot sights. And leveling up gives you new weapons. So what am I talking about?

Call of Duty 4 is a prime example of having to earn your content. I'm actually still on the fence on whether I like it or not. Earning your content, I mean. I know for sure that I like Call of duty 4. How would the game change if everyone had every gun at the beginning of the multiplayer game? Cod4 is not nearly as time consuming as WoW in terms of earning your content. Anyone who spends any time playing it gets the guns fast enough. You decide what guns you advance and what guns you leave alone. I really do applaud Infinity Ward for their balance of all the guns. From what I think of now, most guns are viable killing machines. No gun is extremely over-powered, but I do think some are under-powered. Although, if the player is good, usually he can do well with any gun.

Speaking of earning content, I'm plugging along in WoW. I finished all the quests in Howling Fjord, but now I'm not really looking forward Borean Tundra. I've heard from numerous people that the Fjord is better. But I'll stop talking about WoW. That's why I have a WoW blog, right?

LAN. December 13th-14th. I plan to have a good time and not have a seizure. Unlike last LAN. I plan to play Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4, Left 4 Dead, Trackmania Nations and Warcraft 3. I would be totally down to play some Company of Heroes. But we will see how the cards fall.

Today I also updated and patched Worms, so now I can play it online. Talk about a game with no achievements and only playing it for the fun of the game. I wish they made it for mac, because for whatever reason, Worms seems to belong on a laptop. I'm not sure why I feel that way. Wow, just think of it, playing Worms during class. I'd really get nothing done.

The Death of Desktop Gaming

The Media has its crazes. When it sinks it's teeth into an idea or a story, it never lets go. The Death of PC Gaming is one of those ideas that it will not let alone. For the past two or three years, we've been continuously assaulted by the idea that PC Gaming is going to die. I really really doubt that. Too many people are devoted PC Gamers and it is too good of a platform to fall by the wayside. But one thing that I think we may see the death of is the desktop computer.

Now I am a PC Gamer. I was a late convert, but once I saw the light, I accepted the true way of PC Gaming. The platform is so much more flexible and powerful than consoles and most games are more fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, with the exception of racing games and Gears of War. But that's why they make Xbox 360 controllers connect with a USB port. I built my computer from scratch, buying most my parts from Newegg about a year ago. I won my case from a LAN party but this last friday I went and picked up a replacement case. This lead me to thinking: who really has a desktop computer nowadays? My mom just bought a new laptop, my dad uses a laptop and most my friends only have laptops. The only people who have desktops are my gamer friends. People don't want to spend the money on a monitor, keyboard, mouse and computer. They want it all set up for them with something that is easy to use. And laptops are that answer.

Laptops are easy to setup, take down and transport. My desktop certainly is large and I had to debate what to do with it when I went home from college over these holidays. It would have been thousands of times easier to just fold my laptop and put it in a case and take it on the train. But as it was, I bought a box and packed it all up. The box was heavy and large and would have been extremely inconvenient if I did not have a car.

I don't know if I will ever buy a gaming laptop. The keyboard in front of the screen kills the immersion for me and I don't think they make 22 inch laptops. I also like my desktop too much. It's large, noisy and bright. But that is part of the allure of it. I am expecting to get a new video card for Christmas and part of the fun of the gift is the fact that I am going to have to put it in. One thing that laptops can not do easily is upgrade. It is possible to do but the technical know-how required is not something that your average consumer has. This argument of upgradability is largely moot, however, for in all practicality, you do not need to upgrade to play any new games for at least 2 years. And that is enough time to save up to buy a new laptop.

This leads me to my final point. I think that PC Gaming will be around forever. There is a hard core fan base for it and I do not see that going away. What I do see is the death of desktop computers. The only people who will continue to buy and furnish desktops are hobbyists. I am a hobbyist and I fully expect to continue to build computers all my life. This minimization of the market might lead to a slow down in the development of the technology for desktop computers and I really hope that Western Digital, nVidia, ATI, Intel, AMD and all other companies really do see the potential profits in continuing to humor us and make us hardware.

Playlist:

1. Left 4 Dead
2. WoW
3. Cod4

Left 4 Dead and other stuff

So I have not written in here for a while. Let's rectify that, shall we? Left 4 Dead came out and the game does not disappoint. It has the most incredible blend of shooter with co-operative game play. Playing it over and over with only the same chapters does not seem to matter. The levels are so well designed that playing them over and over doesn't get boring. The key to it is that each level is randomized. The witch is not always in the same place and you don't always get a tank when you go into a certain room. The director decides what enemies get thrown at you and when. And even if you die within the same chapter, every time it is different. This helps the game maintain its freshness. Another key thing that L4D does right is that it is designed around co-op and team play. If a survivor runs off by them self, they will die. There is no way that they can survive all the hunters and smokers that are continuously thrown at the party. Survivors are not the only team that needs team work. When playing as the infected, you need to coordinate your attacks. Just going one at a time will not work. This intense team work will satisfy most of the gamers out there. Gamers that like to lone wolf it will not find L4D as enjoyable as Call of Duty 4.

Wrath of the Lick King also came out recently. I have not been playing it as intensely as I have been playing L4D. But Wrath is good. The quests are very similar to what they were in classic and Burning Crusade, but if something's not broke, don't fix it. The quests are better than they were however. A lot of them are more compelling and have things to do that are more fun. I've been taking it slow, doing a couple quests at a time then logging off. I'll get to 80 eventually, but right now I'm taking the time to smell the roses. I think that this will lead to a more highly enjoyable experience. I'll probably raid over either winter break or over summer break. I won't have time to do it while in school.

Playlist:

1. Left 4 Dead
2. World of Warcraft
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Company of Heroes
   

The coolest song in Audiosurf

So, in celebration of one thing or another, Steam decided to put Audiosurf for $3. Audiosurf is this game that generates a track, based on a song you choose and you ride the track, collecting points. I chose on old favorite, "Lip Gloss and Black" by Atreyu. And oh mi gawd. That song is amazing. Both by itself and as an Audiosurf track. It generates tunnels when things are intense in the song and when Atreyu is yelling "Live. Love. Burn. Die", tunnels appear. And it's just a cool feeling.Other than Audiosurf, I've basically been playing WoW, Geometry Wars, World of Goo and Call of Duty 4. I decided to play COD4 again on a whim and I really enjoyed it. It's not so much a shocker on why the game is so popular, because it is intense and unforgiving.
Playlist:

1. Wow
2. Geometry Wars
3. World of Goo
4. Audiosurf
5. Call of Duty 4
   

Wrath of the Lich King; the end of new WoW players?

Should this game be called “World of Warcraft: Now You Have No Life!”? With this content expansion, they are essentially barring new players from starting. The focus of the game up to this point was accessibility and ease of play, but this new expansion is doing the exact opposite. Leveling to 80 is a very daunting task. From 70, its only 10 levels and for the experienced 70s, its 10 levels of refreshment. They have had lots of time at level 70 to play around not having to level up. They got to raid and reputation grind and all. But now, they have are anxious to return to what initially drew them to the game: leveling up.

But what about the new guys? Everyone started out at one point and leveled up. But now we run into a barrier to entry. Most people playing the game now have been playing for a while and they have built up a social structure while playing. The vast majority of players are in a guild and have friends in the game. The newbies have none of this. If the entrees can bring themselves to level to 80, who are the guilds going to take on a raid: the guy who has been there for several months, or the new guy who just leveled up? They will take the veteran and the newbie will get discouraged, quit, and not encourage his friends to join. Word of mouth is the most effective form of advertisement. I think in this case though, its called word of ventrillo.

How do we judge the successfulness of a MMO? I can't be how fun the game is because we all know that MMOs are boring as shit. We judge a MMO based on subscription numbers and WoW has been no different except the quantity of subscribers. At the peak of WoW, the numbers were at about 11 million people playing. Those numbers have dipped since then, with many people defecting to Warhammer Online, Age of Conan or simply getting bored. With this release, Blizzard is expecting to pick up lots of subscribers. But who is really making up that increase? Chances are, it is veterans coming back to the game, wanting to see the new content and experience the process of going through Northrend. How many people are going to join this game because they see an advertisement on their TV? I'll admit, I played up to 70 because of a Mr. T commercial I saw about a night elf Mohawk, but I was a veteran. I didn't have a 70,60,50 or even a 40, but I started out a long time ago. I started playing based on a friend's recommendation in 2005, a year after the game came out. I didn't see Mr. T saying, “I pity the fool who doesn't play WoW” and run out and buy World of Warcraft, its expansion and a time card.

The bottom line is that Blizzard is now catering to the hardcore and experienced players. All the people in the game will be vets and very few new players will be coming to the game. The game that started out as a very user friendly and accessible game is now turning into the exact opposite. The connotation of a WoW player is very present in the video game community and even in the main stream world. It is viewed as a overweight person, sitting in a basement who has no life. This is actually contrary to reality, for studies have shown that MMO players are actually just under the national obesity average. Now, the time commitment to really make the game fun is climbing ever higher and now the stereotype might have to be true for the entry level players. They will have to move into the basement, become obese, eat mounds of Cheetos, Hotpockets, and Rockstars. Unfortunately, since nerds have no social skills, they will not be able to convince their parents that living in the basement is a good career move, at which point they will be kicked out and there is no internet o the street. This game is becoming school: you have to have started reading early or else you're so overwhelmed by the quantity of work, you just don't bother.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
   

Shameless Plug/Update

I started a WoW blog to just babble about WoW. It's so this isn't so nerdy....if thats possible
Playlist:

1. WoW
   

I Can't Believe It

I started to play World of Warcraft again. I think that patch 3.0 and being there at the live recording of the instance is what really encouraged me to renew my subscription. And, I have had a pretty good time playing it so far. The achievements have made this game a little more addicting than heroin. I've been running around revealing lots of parts of the map. Also, with all these achievements that came out, I realized how much I really haven't done in the game. I only have about 1000 points. I'm not sure the maximum that can be achieved, but I have about 93/750. That's a lot of stuff to do. I do have to take issue with some of the things that happened. I killed some of the bosses that it said I didn't kill. I have the t4 helm to prove it. Anyway, most of my work has been me running around exploring everything. And raping low level dungeons. With this release date and patch, the game is starting to feel like the end of high school did. Everyone knows the end is coming, but we are all still there. We are doing things as if they don't have repercussions. I bought lots of expensive gems for my ret set, which is something I wouldn't probably have done unless I had a lot of money. Everything is now a joke. We 5 manned Onyxia, and Kara groups are a dime a dozen. No one is taking this game seriously anymore, and I have always felt that games really become fun when the game isn't too serious. It's a thing that this game will have for a while. No raids will really exist until about next spring which might actually be a little to early. People will hit 80 soon, but enough people to have a reliable raiding guild is something that will not exist for a while.


Speaking of Warcraft, I've also been playing Warcraft 3. Just normal games online, with matchmaking. It's a really fun game. I remember everything that I liked about RTSs and I do like them a lot. I also played Starcraft recently and it is still fun and an amazing game. Games that good really transcend the age barrier. By that, I mean are immune to the passage of time when speaking of playability. I have also realized that I have played WoW since basically the beginning of the game. I started in 2004. I never got past level 36 but I was playing. I had my mage, then a druid and various other characters. I never really settled on a character like I have now. I do like my druid, but my paladin has everything that I want and it makes playing him a real joy.

I said earlier that Shawn Elliot left the brodeo and it spelled certain doom for it as a podcast. Well, he never really left. He will always be here with stories. Only this time they will be read by Chuff(Anthony Gallegos) and Babito(Robert Ashley). And now Ryan Scott will actually be able to talk. However, it would not surprise me in the least if they got Jeff Green or Shawn Elliot to phone in to the podcast using their fancy new ….phone in technology. GFW was my favorite podcast and it still is. I really like their random tangents but they usually have good insight. I hope that it wasn't just Shawn who had the insightfulness. Shawn Elliot is such an amazing individual and he will be sorely missed.
Back in the good ol' days.

I really like to write, I have realized. I like to flush out my thoughts and put them down on paper. I do have this blog, and I am trying to evolve this blog into a thoughtful, insightful place. I will, of course, just put random things on there, I.e.: hatdog, but I also want to try and put things that delve into the game theory. The problem is, I might be going into it already, but it lacks life relevence, so its going to be hard for me to really recognize when I do it. So, it is here I announce that I am probably going to write a back story for my World of Warcraft character, Akoris. Dun, dun daaaaaa.
Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Warcraft 3
3. Team Fortress 2
   

My Mage (100th Post)

Well, I have a paladin, druid, hunter and a really low level mage. Now, I like my mage, but I always think that they are better than they really are. They really don't have enough health to stand up to anyone in a melee fight. They do have the power to kill people from afar but then they really have to rest after they kill anyone because of the large mana requirements of all their spells. I wish I could have all these guys up at 70, but I really don't have the time. I work all the time and I wish I didn't so much. I have worked constantly since two wednesdays ago. Wednesday through saturday, monday through friday, then i went to tahoe with my family until today. Now, this is a vacation but I like my house and I like my room and I miss it. I have all this stuff for a good reason, which is to use it. There was internet up at tahoe but it was slow and only available from the window sill of my room. There was the Hyatt across the street and I didn't want to go over there just to play World of Warcraft. I will also be working from wednesday to saturday it looks like. This bums me out a little bit. We are returning home a little early, which I am all for. I do want some off days though. I want to just sit around and play World of Warcraft. I also want to play through the new Team Fortress 2 achievements and test out all the new heavy weapons, which one of them seems to be a sandwich to regain health when you do not have a medic around. This is a good thing to put in there, allowing heavies to be a class that is good to play when you do not necessarily have a medic on your team.

I think that heavies are a class that really insights terror into the other team. When I as a soldier round to corner and see that ugly russian heavy visage, I turn and run right away. There is no way that I can take him on. I can take him if i get the element of surprise on him, because I can get at least 2 rockets at him before he can even start shooting me. The sandwich will not be in any way replacement to a medic. I am assuming that the sandwich is a single use thing that must be switched to use. This would stop the damage output from the heavy by a significant amount, first to stop firing, switch to it, use it, and then switch back to the minigun and start firing again. So this sandwich will probably just be a out of combat use thing that you use after a fight. Also, the new five maps will have to be played so that I can get use to them. I still think Goldrush is a thing of beauty along with Dustbowl and Badlands. I hope that the new payload map is as genius and fun as Goldrush. I do admit that I have not really played a lot of Fastlane and that other new one. Also, arena mode will be able to bring the strategy of Counter-Strike Source to Team Fortress. As it is now, there might be game plans, but they are only general strategies. There are no things that people do that are incredibly specific like in Source.

Speaking of Source, I have sorta taken it up on my free time. It's an incredible game. It's fast, intense and complex. My favorite map is definitely Dust2. It's evenly balanced, and small, allowing for quick transversals of the map. The thing that really makes me mad is when I die very quickly and don't even kill anyone, or even hurt anyone. That is one thing that Halo really hooked people on, is the ease of killing people randomly and not dying easily. You can throw a grenade and, if there are any people around at all, you can probably kill one. But, Halo also made it so that you could take a grenade and not die. It was the game for people who were new to shooters and it hooked them in for other ones. I do not particularly like Halo anymore, but I have many fond memories playing it with all my friends. It also hooked me in for games like Gears of War and Counter Strike.

This furthers my belief that what you like now is primarily a product of where you were. I first played Halo at Chris Clark's house and I was really bad at it. But I liked it and kept playing and got way better, eventually becoming the best of all my friends. I then learned about the video gaming center The Matrix. We went down there and use to pay $5 an hour to play the games on their high end computers. I use to play Counter Strike and Battlefield 1942. I eventually got Counter Strike on my home computer and played there and stopped going to The Matrix for I could play all their games. I then played Halo 2 a lot after it came out. I think the success of Halo 2 rested on the ease of play online and the fact that no other games for the Xbox came out at that time. There were games like Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike Source, but I didn't have the money to do computer games then. After Halo 2, came Gears of War, then Halo 3. I liked Gears a lot more than I liked Halo 3 I think because Gears was so different and a departure from the traditional run and gun gaming. But then, I started playing more and more computer games on my brother's computer, which reigned supreme over my eMachine piece of garbage. One day, I bought the orange box and played Team Fortress 2. That game was truly amazing and I remember the day I knew I would play it forever. I bought a BFC can of monster on a friday afternoon and played until 3am. That was last October. And I am still playing it. I did take a break from it for a couple months and right now am not playing it a lot, with WoW taking up most of my time. But I am not expecting to quit any time in the near future. There really isn't game on the horizon that has me very excited. I am very on board with World of Warcraft, its upcoming expansion, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike Source and Starcraft 2. Okay I lied, Starcraft 2 has me excited.

What does worry me is if World of Warcraft will get boring. The grind is pretty common in virtually all forms of WoW. Even with my level 70, I am still needing to grind rep in order to get those patterns. With Wrath coming out, all the factions that we grinded o so hard to get up will become useless because new factions will come out. Argent Dawn is not going to all of a sudden become useful again. If they do, they are rewarding old players and not encouraging new players to come in. That is the same reason that the Sha'tar will not be useful in Wrath. I think that World of Warcraft will end at level 100. By that time, levels 1-90 will be a breeze. It will fly and it will only demand about a quest or two a zone to level up. I also think that either 80-90 or 90-100 expansion will be the emerald dream. Maybe, in a bold move, Blizzard will make the Emerald Dream expansion a 80-100 expansion. Also, I think a very interesting idea would be that if you could start a character at level 60. All characters that went through the all 100 levels will be "true" level 100s but you can do it.That would allow people who want to play a chance to only have to level 40 times. That would devastate the old world and would make getting an instance group together for anything but 60+ instances impossible without prior planning. One thing that would also not surprise me is if Blizzard made every instance available in Heroic mode. If Razorfen Downs was a 80 instance, I might be encouraged to go do it. That is the only reason I am doing things like The Botanica and Ramparts. I might be able to experience Blackfathom Deeps and Maruadan and Dire Maul. Also, it would not surprise me if they tuned down Upper Blackrock Spire and Molten Core and other old raids and even Burning Crusade raids to 5-mans and made it a heroic. If Blizzard did those things, it might breathe old life back into a dead world.

on the road blog

now now now, what is there to do? well, i could write. but of course, what is there to write about?

Altophobia

Now, I usually right about things that are philosophical in nature, usually trends in video games that I see as troubling. But, I have exhausted tings to talk about for now, so I'm going to be a little more shallow and World of Warcraft related.

As previously stated in this blog, I have a level 70 Paladin, who happens to be Holy Speced (Healer) Paladin named Akoris. I do have about 20-21 days of play time on him and I still have a lot to do. I play him continuously because I need to do things that I can do without raiding. Namely, getting badges for my good plate healer belt, but I was able to pickup a blue healer belt for about 70g today on the AH. I'm also going for the best healing trinket in the game. I have a badge trinket that is very good and my other is just a philosopher's stone, making it better than my running trinket. I do miss my Nifty Stopwatch. It made getting away from a lethal fight a lot better. But, I need to craft my healing trinket, from alchemy. I did pay about 700g to level that up to 375, which is the max level. Now I have to get to revered with Sha'tar. I did recently get to honored with them and that allowed me to purchase the Heroic key for the Tempest Keep instance wings. Then, I have to make an alchemist's stone with the recipe I can purchase with the revered reputation. That will take a lot of money to do, but it will give me +15 to all stats, which will help. After that, I have to gain exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive, which I'm at about half way to. Exalted will get me the Redeemers Alchemist's Stone recipe, which will give me +115 to healing and mana potions become 40% more effective. It will also give me a good neck item that gives some pretty bonus healing. Then, I have some raiding to do to get some gear. I need a new chest piece, gloves, wrist and shoulders. My chest, gloves and shoulders are good because they are epics and have good stats, but they are PvP pieces of gear and are not for raiding. My gloves and pants are cloth and don't give enough armor, but will do because they are PvE pieces. 

That is stuff I have to do. That is a lot to do. I have a 36 Druid from my server Kil' Jaeden that I transfered to Kul Tiras. I went balance spec because I was bored with feral. I do like it actually. I heard that Moonkin form is pretty good, so I am excited about that. But, I don't want to play him when I have so much more to do on Akoris. I feel like I am not doing him justice or something. I feel I need to have someone good before I work on someone else. I also have a 21 hunter that I would to play some more of but I run into the same dilemma that I do with the druid. I get on them and realize that I have more to do with Akoris. I also immediately realize why I loved Akoris and why I played him all the way to 70. I really loved Paladins and I loved him so much that I played him constantly all the way to 67.  

My LAN party

I went to another AG LAN Saturday. Pretty good LAN. I played a remarkable amount of World of Warcraft for a LAN party. I played a lot of Team Fortress 2 as well. I punched out a lot more BonK members as a Heavy than I should have, namely 3. Sorry, I'm sorta blogged out for now. Read my post below to know why.

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Team Fortress 2
   

My Favorite Game(s)

What defines a favorite game? These days so many games are so different that comparing a game like Oblivion to a game like Team Fortress 2 seems unfair. So I'm going to give two favorites: favorite Single player and Best Multi Player.

Favorite Single Player:
This is a tough one. I would have to give this one to Bioshock. I beat the whole thing only one time and in basically one sitting. It was such an experience that was haunting and enlightening.
Runner-Up: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1

Favorite Multi-Player:
Another toughy, but it's easier than single player. I'm actually going to differ from what I though earlier today and say World of Warcraft. That game has sucked me in and kept me there for the longest amount of time and offers such an in-depth system of player interaction that I have to give it to it.
Runner-Up: Team Fortress 2

Playlist:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Rock Band