Anything I Like?

Now that I've earned the World Explorer title, I have to ask, is there anything at all about Northrend that I like?

Well, not really.

There are a few spots here and there within the zones that are nice to look at, but overall the content simply does nothing for me. Outlands was similar for me, but there were a few more things about it that I liked.

Northrend is just too dark maybe.

Even the music is lacking.

I wonder if it is a case of over-production? Sometimes when something is too heavily produced it looses an important aspect.

Another issue I am having with Northrend is how crowded it is. There are a few places where there are some wide open vistas, but most of the continent is so packed with camps and ruins and citadels that you can stand almost anywhere and see something not far off. Also, the filters change too quickly. You do not have to walk far at all to suddenly find yourself surrounded by different color. Many zones have several filter colors within their borders.

These quick changes take away from the epic vastness that should be in an MMORPG. I don't know if they can do it, but I would love to see all the content in Northrend simply stretched out to about twice what the map is now. Not every nook and cranny has to be filled with something clever of related to a quest. Unfortunately, Blizzard's level of quality demands that every inch of the game be unique and hand drawn. This means that by adding twice the land mass, Blizzard designers and artists would have to add twice the amount of unique detail. Which would just result in more filters I suppose.

Anyway, those are some of the reasons I am not enjoying Northrend. I fear the day I level an alt enough that he has to go through this zone. I may never have an alt go past level 70.

On the Road Again

In one of my recent posts I told how I was so close to cold weather flying and level 80. But it had been so long since I even logged in I had forgotten I was only at level 76...over three and a half levels to go till cap.

Anyway, the last two days I've ground my way to level 77 and my coveted cold weather flying skill. I also earned the World Explorer title. Still have to figure out where to get the tabard, but it sure is nice to have my second title in the game. I've been sporting Sergent for years. However, now that I have a new title, I'm keeping Sergent displayed. Frankly, it is just more rare and was more difficult to achieve. It shows that I at least used to have some measure of skill in PvP and rather than just had nothing better to do than wander around the world filling in maps.

So, now I'm level 77. Three more levels to cap. Not sure I can hang in there. I think I'll brave the new group system and see if I hit the fast track to leveling. Not sure anyone will let me stay in their groups though. I'm still wearing a mix of Karazhan epics, level 70 dps blues and greens, and one Northrend green sword. I don't even have the best-in-slot gems. All that and I no longer know how to play my character properly in tanking mode or dps.

We will see how far determination will get me.

The Craziness of Time

Time can be a strange thing.

We are on the cusp of World of Warcraft's third expansion. It is going to happen this year. For Blizzcon next year, we can expect the official announcement of the fourth expansion.

For Cataclysm, we are going back to Azeroth (I predict an upcoming Machinima spoof of "Going Back to Cali"). Chances are very good that the fourth expansion will take us away from Azeroth (at least the one that we know) once again. The designers do not want to keep us in one place for too long. They want to keep us moving.

The crazy thing is that they have already been working on the fourth expansion for at least six months. Maybe even longer. They will have all of this year and likely all of next year to flesh it out and finalize it. The team that is on Cataclysm will probably be sent onto the fifth expansion.

Somewhere around this time (this year or the next) Blizzard will officially announce their next MMO. I predict it will happen this year at Blizzcon 2010.

Seems like a lot to have on your platter but really, any successful game developer will have several projects in development at once.

It's just a funny thing though. We live in the here and now. Lich King is complete. They are giving us one more random raid encounter, then it is onto Cataclysm. But for them, they are living at least six months, or a year or more in the future. For them, Cataclysm is all but launched. There will be a team on hand to work out the three major content patches for the expansion, but there is also already a team on the fourth expansion...it's crazy.

Something in the Air

When I first began playing World of Warcraft, I had to do it on dial-up. It was not so bad at the time. The original Naxxramas had just been released so most players were busy trying to gear up for it in level-60 raids.

There were plenty of alts running around the old world still, they really had no place else to be unless they were raiding on their mains, so I was not lonely while leveling up my first toon. I was even able to run Dead Mines a couple of times before moving on from Westfall.

As I played more often and in ever growing stretches of time, I eventually found myself playing long into the evenings. At the same time, there was a lot of excitement over the Burning Crusade that was about to drop, and realm populations were on the rise from an influx of new players as well as old players coming back.

I was still on dial-up and had not seen any problems yet. From time to time I experienced a slow-down and some nasty lag, but it was something I was able to work around. But now, all of a sudden, my loading screen was taking a long time letting me into the game.

Then I experienced my first disconnect. I had waited a minute or so for my loading screen to let me through then I caught a glimpse of Stormwind but I could not move. My character just stood there for a while then I was dumped back into the character screen.

The problem escalated until I realised that the population in Stormwind was now a problem. I was eventually able to log in long enough to get out and park myself in Goldshire but I could not enter the city without a disconnect. If I did get into the city, I had to put up with disconnects throughout the zone. Eventually I made a new home with the elves. Far fewer people there. No disconnects.

We finally agreed to pick up cable internet and will never go back by choice. Life was bliss in World of Warcraft again! Except that it was not. Now that things were sort of working properly I could see that I had other issues. I could not raid properly. I had to have all of my video settings down to minimals just to move around. It was mostly OK in close quarters like in most of the Karazhan encounters and in Gruul's, but in the open spaces of Serpent Shrine Cavern, things did not go well at all.

I replaced my video card but I had few options since it turns out my motherboard was obsolete. Which meant my CPU was also a handicap.

I had to drop from raiding until I could overhaul my computer. Oh the sadness. Yes, I was essentially replaced and still being somewhat new to raiding, I was not prepared to see new people in my slot when I was finally able to raid again. From then on I was just kind of miserable. I had the latest and (not quite best on the market) CPU, Ram, Video, and motherboard and now had little joy in raiding. Every time I got in I felt like I was just in the way. I began to complain a lot.

Eventually the guild leaders left, then the guild was disbanded. I joined another guild and got some raid time and they seemed to like me well enough, but they soon merged with another guild and no longer needed me. I went solo for months. I took my first hiatus a couple of weeks before Lich King dropped and found myself simply unable to get back into the game.

My character sits at about 77 1/2 levels. Cataclysm is on the horizon. Back to the old world! If I map out Northrend I'll get my first "big" achievement, my second title, and one more of many tabards. Just a half a level and I can be flying again. Then it is just two more levels to "the end".

Then I can just play around until the expansion comes in. Maybe do some arena stuff and get some new pets.

I don't know. Something seems to be in the air. I really would like to finish this expansion out before the next one drops. I'll be going into Cataclysm with no epics. Maybe not even any blues. But it will be Azeroth and it will be fun again.

The Coming Storm

In my previous post, I brought the marketing and merchandising juggernaut that is Activision-Blizzard.

We know that among the new marketing/sales agendas that the recently merged company has implemented includes quarterly tracking of profits. I don't mean the obvious "are things still selling strong?". I mean the new "What can we do to further increase our profits even though we have no reason on God's green Earth to ever want for another red cent?"

The answer, of course, is to increase the quantity of product releases. Which, of course, does not necessarily mean an increase in quality. There is a line of balance between quantity and quality and it is very easy to cross that line one way or the other. Activision-Blizzard has obviously chosen to go with quantity. Over the next twelve months (or so) we will see the release of three Starcraft II games, Diablo III, World of Warcraft's third expansion, and Blizzard's second MMO.

Then what?

Normally, Blizzard would slowly work on the next high-quality item which might take one or two years more to release. But with the more profit-oriented Activision-Blizzard at the helm of all the Blizzard products, we are seeing the trend of more quantity released more quickly to fulfill quarterly profit goals. That means we will see a deluge of merchandising online and offline, and also either a storm of sequels to the top sellers or a whirlwind of new products and franchises.

Some of these upcoming releases will not be the hits that Blizzard is known for.

Does Blizzard have the back bone and resources to pull out of their deal with Activision if it seems their reputation is being diminished? Would they even want to? There is a lot of money being made since the two merged.

Wait and see, wait and see.

Plushy Pets

It seems the plushies are in after all, and they do indeed come with in game codes for pets. In my previous entry that went over all the ways to obtain vanity items and the costs to get them, I knew there would eventually be a Blizzard-sponsored vanity store of some sort, but I did not know how close they were to revealing it.

The Blizzard store has two pets with two plushy/pets on the way. It is interesting how quickly they came up with a way to make players spend more money for their vanity pets.

Also, take note that the store is called the Blizzard Store, not the World of Warcraft store. That means they intend to sell similar items for Starcraft and Diablo as well. That may seem like a "duh!" detail, but it is important if you want to see where things are headed.

Activision-Blizzard is a juggernaut of marketing and merchandising. The first major clue was the announcement of Starcraft II being released in three volumes rather than one huge, epic game.

I fear some of the features that we will have to pay for to fully enjoy their upcoming MMO.

Of Stats and Gear

Early screenshots of World of Warcraft included pics of a window with lots of stats. It was obviously a hold-over from pen-and-paper games, namely Dungeons and Dragons, where the game was centered around dozens of stats to follow through the course of character development. For many years, these lists of stats was essential to the core gameplay of all pen-and-paper and even computer fantasy role-playing games.

The developers for World of Warcraft decided that the stats would be too cumbersome for the type of player that they wanted to attract. The solution to character growth was found in the gear. Where older games added very limited bonuses to gear, WoW relied heavily on it.

In older games, a single weapon with a single bonus stat (ex, +1 to damage) might last a character for several levels, even through the course of the majority of the game.

But in WoW, a starting weapon would be inadequate within five quick levels, even sooner for less-experience players. You begin receiving upgrades from quests immediately out of the gate. In fact, the very first upgrades can arrive for a level one character from just the first few kills of level one beasts. This sets the stage for the remainder of the character's life. Without the quick upgrades, characters would find themselves outmatched very soon.

By now, most players are familiar with characters who have gear with thousands of points in stats and hundreds of bonus points on top of that.

This is also why there is so much gear in the game, and why Blizzard must spend so much time on gear creation and testing. So much time is spent on gear now that Blizzard has been forced to limit the unique physical features. Characters of different classes have to wear the same gear, but in different colors.

In the end, it appears that by removing the standard stat window with stat-laden gear has caused many headaches for the developers.

What if they were to remove most of those stats and put in that old stat window? Would that give the developers more time to design more unique gear? Or would it just move the headache to a new place rather than removing it all together? Would the artists even be able to design more gear or are they pretty much stuck with their current level of output?

There is so much gear in the game and so much to be added still. I would love to see more interesting designs rather than the oft-hastily slapped together items that we normally get. If moving those stats to a separate window would allow the team to create fewer identical pieces with all of those class-specific stats, and also allow them to focus on more unique designs, would it be worth the effort?