The Squirrel's Den

Lich King Talent Observations - Arms Warrior

2008-07-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

My first alpha-talent breakdown comes at the class I have the most experience with in World of Warcraft; the warrior. My first set of talents will be in the Arms Tree. For those who have yet to see the proposed Alpha Lich King Talents, head to http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent. Here are some thoughts on the proposed arms warrior talents in their current incarnation.

Arms

Sudden Death - 0/3 - Your melee critical hits have a 10% chance to allow the use of your execute ability regardless of the target's health state.

This ability has the chance to provide an arms warrior with some pretty impressive burst damage in the form of additional executes. There are several issues I have with this talent. First, it is difficult to justify three points into a talent that does nothing 20% of the time (i.e. the time one can use execute anyway). Second, this talent is gear dependent and RNG dependent in that, the better the gear, the greater the likelihood of an execute. The overall effectiveness of this talent will need to be thoroughly theorycrafted but at a first glance, it seems reasonable for a deep arms PVP build or level grinding and an occasional rage dump for PVE Arms.

Trauma - 0/2 - Your normal melee critical strikes increase the effectiveness of bleed effects on the target by 15% for 15%

This increases to 30% with 2/2 and seems to be targeting PVE arms warriors as this talent's prerequisite is Blood Frenzy. There is so much ambiguity with this talent that for now, I will reserve judgement. Obviously, theorycrafting will need to be done with this to truly estimate its effectiveness (how good is rend in WOTLK? Does it stack with Mangle?, etc). The thing that really gets me with this is the way the tooltip is worded. Most notably, ..."normal melee critical strikes...". Does this mean only white damage or any melee strike? Why word it this way if its the same as flurry which is worded as follows?:

"Increase your attack speed by 5% for your next three swings after dealing a melee critical strike"

Notice it is not a "Normal" melee critical strike. What's the difference? Who knows?

On a personal note...

I still have absolutely no idea why Blood Frenzy is an Arms talent. I understand that Arms warriors would bring just about nothing but DPS to a PVE raid environment but as it stands now, Blood Frenzy single-handedly unbalanced warriors as it places Fury warriors on the sidelines in raid scenarios that are void a full time Arms warrior with the talent. To me, this is the quintessential example of imbalance and what Blizzard usually does well; focuses a class spec on it's primary function and provide that spec small degrees of flexibility. Based on Blizzards track record Arms = PVP, Fury = PVE. Giving the best PVE dps talent to Arms warriors makes no sense. Arms already has the vast majority of outstanding PVP talents.
To further qualify the position, Blizzard has already adjusted talents in the past when this kind of issue has arose. Blizzard took Improved Intercept, a clearly PVP ability, and moved it to the Arms Tree, despite the repercussions it had on Fury spec's PVP viability. I see no reason the same precedent should be set for fury warriors.

At any rate, back to the evaluation...

Unrelenting Assault - 0/3 - Reduce the cooldown of your Overpower and Revenge abilities by 1 second.

This seems like more of a filler talent than anything else. I find that the only time I really look to use Overpower is in arena when fighting a rogue. I use Revenge significantly while tanking but no one who is raid tanking will be this invested into Arms. These are only linked in this manner because the abilities share a cooldown. There are some combos that one could set up with improved overpower and maintaining flurry via crits but overall, this just doesn't seem worth investing points into.

Bull Rush: - 0/3 - Increase the stun duration of your charge and intercept abilities by 0.4 seconds.

It scales .4 to .7 and then to a full 1 second duration. If there was one thing that PVP warriors and rogues taught us in arena is that stuns can be difficult to overcome. Sure it's cheesy and void of skill but they are ridiculously effective. Still, 3 points for 1 second additional seems like minimal value for talent points. Regardless, this may be something warriors consider for arena play.

Strength of Arms - 0/5 - Increase strength and total health by 1%.

Perhaps I expect too much at this venue for talents but this just doesn't do it for me. Sure, it does scale with your total health as opposed to just stamina but at this point, I wanted something a bit more original. This talent is boring and its just more filler to get to the 51 point talent. Nevertheless, the extra strength and health never hurt so people will take this just to get to prerequisite to test Bladestorm.

Bladestorm - 0/1 - Instantly whirlwind all nearby targets and for the next 4.5 seconds, perform a whirlwind ever second. While under the effects of a bladestorm you can move but cannot use any other attacks or abilities but you do not feel pity or remorse or fear and cannot be stopped unless killed.

So most of the first impressions on the forums are less than impressed with this talent. I can sort of see why. It only lasts for 5 seconds and you can't do anything while using it. Sure, you get to whirlwind every second or so but 4.5 seconds goes by quick. Classes that can CC can out range this and wait it out and classes with exceptional mobility can simply run from it. With that said, there are some decent things about this ability. The cooldown is very reasonable at 90 seconds and will be used frequently. I know how annoying The Beast Within works for hunters and I imagine this will be just as annoying for arena participants. My major question is do the whirlwinds this ability generates going to net rage? If that is the case, the 25 rage spent here will likely translate into a rage gain once the Bladestorm ends. This could be very useful in sequencing attacks, particularly with its short duration. At any rate, this is an ability that will likely need theorycrafted quite a bit to make a good decision about.

Miscellaneous Changes to Arms Talents

Iron Will is now 0/3 and scales to 10/20/30%
Sweeping Strikes and Death Wish have switched places once again.
Sweeping Strikes now only effects the next 5 melee swings as opposed to 10 as it did in the Fury Tree.
Improved Rend has become Bloodletting 0/3 and increases the effect of rend and bloodbath by 25/50/75%
Mace Spec can only trigger once every 6 seconds.
Overpower now has one rank and does only weapon damage.
Poleaxe spec now increases both critical strike chance but also increases damage done from critical strikes.

The big changes here are with Sweeping Strikes and Death Wish again. This time they nerfed both before returning them to their original trees. Sweeping Strikes now only affects the next five swings as opposed to ten. This could be a mild adjustment from a two-handed build versus dual wielding but either way dropping from ten to five is significant enough to mention. Death Wish took an even bigger hit but we will get more into that next week =)

By in large, most of these change seem to be adjustments to game play. Adjusting Poleaxe to increase crit chance and damage was a logical response to resilience for PVPers who use axes. Improved Rend is thankfully gone and replaced with what appears to be a better version. Time will tell on that front but overall, nothing else really struck me as game altering.

As a whole, I can't say I am really excited about these talents. They seem to focus on PVP with minimal PVE except for the ridiculousness that is Blood Frenzy and now its counterpart, Trauma. Bladestorm and Sudden Death will be interesting to test but nothing here truly makes me want to spec Arms for any degree of time. Quite honestly, I am a bit disappointed. It's been over a year and a half and this is the Alpha test talents? Sure, these can and will likely change in the next few months but I certainly would like to see some more original talents. Blizzard has had plenty of time.

Next up....Fury Tree

Return to Activity

2008-07-11T13:34:00.001-07:00

As many avid readers have noticed, it has been nearly two months since any blog activity. This has been for several reasons and while many of these same things are still ongoing, this blog will once again, return to active form. To better qualify what has taken place, here is a list of the issues that have been responsible for the silence the past two months:

The largest infiltration of my time has been a return to the classroom. Well, at least the online classroom. Most of these classes are easy but they take up large volumes of my free time.
As it stands now, my commute to work is a three hour round trip. Part of the return to the classroom is geared to obtain qualifications to change jobs. I enjoy my work as a corporate trainer but given the travel and salary, I need to find something closer to home.
My daughter is now 10 months old and has taken to crawling and the basics of walking early. As a result, she is high maintenance and requires constant supervision.
We are also in the process of obtaining a mortgage and filing the appropriate paperwork and information has been yet another topic of contention.

Even with all that has been going on, I still have made some time to play World of Warcraft although not nearly as much as I did during the spring. My goals are to prepare my characters for the upcoming expansion and to try new things with renewed vigor. This has meant a return to the realm of WoW PVP and arena. More on that to come in future blog articles.

One other note of interest that I wanted to mention is that this blog may receive a boost in readers as this blog is now listed on the Virginworlds website (link to the right). Virginworlds is the premier MMO news website, loaded with blogs, podcasts and links to most major MMO games and it is very much appreciated that Brent was kind enough to add us to his blog roll.

For the time being, readers can expect a new article at least once a week for the immediate future. This schedule will be maintainable for myself and should still produce the quality of articles that have been published in the past. For any new readers to the blog, feel free to read any archived content for a feel of the blog itself. Until next time....

Observations Regarding Wrath of the Lich King News

2008-05-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, WoW Insider (http://www.wowinsider.com), published a slew of new Wrath of the Lich King information for the general public. As many others have indicated, the timing upon which this information is released is "coincidentally" just before the Age of Conan release. At any rate, the depth of the details include some specifics regarding Death Knights as well as some zone videos but the major changes published today have to do with PVE raiding. While I won't publish the Death Knight Specifics, here are some headlines regarding PVE game play:

All 5-man dungeons will have a Heroic mode
Heroic dungeons will have a separate loot table than non-Heroics
A new token system will be used, similar to the Badge of Justice one used now
All raid dungeons will have both 10-man and 25-man versions
The 10 and 25-man progressions will not depend on each other
There will be no attunements or keys necessary for any raid
The 25-man loot will be a tier higher than the 10-man loot
The 10 and 25-man versions of the same raid will be on different timers so that each can be attempted on the same day by the same people

It's quite clear that Blizzard is constantly adapting the game. Here are some observations from the changes listed here.

It is rather obvious that Blizzard has segregated its population with regards to game play intensity. The PVP crowd has been largely given a very hardcore environment upon which to progress while by contrast, the PVE element of the game has largely been watered down and made very casual friendly. This isn't to say there is no room for a hardcore raid guild or a casual arena team but Blizzard's intent for those demographics have been definitively established.
I am still on the fence with the Death Knight although the information provided in the articles do make them sound fun to play. Still, while there are obvious differences with game play mechanics, there does seem to be a lot of functional redundancy between Death Knights, Warriors and Paladins. More information is needed to really get a good understanding of the class and its capabilities.
With the introduction of a new class, there are always players who abandon a character to begin a new "main" character. Will this be at the cost of core classes, most notably healer classes who get burned out or former protection warriors who want to be able to dps and tank? Impossible to speculate for now but it is something to keep in mind down the road.
The changes to the PVE raiding system were alluded to in previous statements by Blizzard, which indicated that Blizzard wished more of the player base was able to experience the upper echelon of game content in Burning Crusade versus the ~2% of players working on Sunwell encounters. Providing both a 10 and 25 man option to every raid instance in the game allows guilds of large numbers and small numbers to participate in game content.
Furthermore, the changes to raid composition may result in more social and guild stability by giving players in a smaller guilds a platform to advance without high degrees of regular recruitment. This lessens the dreaded "feeder guild" phenomenon where smaller guilds gear up good players who hit a wall progressionally that can only be scaled by moving on to a larger, 25 man capable guild. The only potential downside is that current hyper focused 25 man raiding guilds may have more difficulty recruiting in the event a core, high attendance raid member suddenly vanishes. This isn't to say there won't still be guild hopping; it's just that if the motivation for guild hopping is to experience content, the likelihood of a player making the commitment to end game raiding is less likely.
It's clear that Blizzard learns what works and what does not. While I too grow weary of the same daily quests, there is no better way to accumulate gold in a reasonable time frame. Badges of Justice allow the disparity in gear between casual and hardcore players to a minimum but still keep the hardcore player ahead with more options at their disposal. 10 and 25 man raid templates have been very successful. All of these things have been expanded upon in Lich king. By contrast, the process of key flagging players necessary to field a 25 man raid consistently is the kind of "time sink" grind that generates burn out. These have been removed from Lich King.
While this is just speculatory, it is reasonable to assume that the consequence for no key quests to enter raid instances is that the first encounter in every new 10 man and 25 man instance will be quite the "gear check" encounter. The days of being indirectly rewarded with encounters such as Attumen, The Loot Below and Loot Reaver are over. In fact, don't be surprised to see an encounter like Brutallus as we venture into new raid content for the first time, where a raid of players will need optimal gear from every member just to defeat the encounter.

There will be certainly more news ahead and rest assured whenever the chance to enroll for the open beta arrives, I'll be applying. Until next time...

The Five Most Undesirable Group Members

2008-05-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

Greetings! It has been over a week since the last article. This has been in large part due to an online class I have been taking. All of the work for the class was due this week and of course, I had procrastinated and hadn't looked at the assignments required. It is rather sad that the same stupidity I did at 20 has carried over to age 30 but at least this time around I can blame my apathy on a full time job and an 8-month old baby (That's my story and I'm sticking to it). At any rate, all of the work for the class was completed in two days and my goal is a "B" in the class. The class itself was not difficult but it was the kind of topic that doesn't really translate to academia very well. It is the kind of class that would be better taught using kinesthetic learning but online classes do not lend themselves to this kind of learning except on an individual basis. Regardless, on to this week's article...

Exactly how many of us enjoy pugging? I know I sure don't. It's not that I am a recluse but more that I have a limited amount of time to play and wasting time on incompetent groups incinerates that time in a non productive manner. I also have an intolerance to stupidity and that intolerance shuns me away from the roulette wheel of pick up groups. With that in mind, I have a list of the five least desirable group mates in the game. I am sure we can all pick out one of these people in our travels throughout Azeroth. In my gaming experiences, here are the five player stereotypes that have facilitated my disdain for pugs.

5. The Emo Caster

This is the 20 year old second year college student playing in his dorm room in the dark. The world doesn't understand him so he immerses himself in the world of Azeroth, only to discover that he truly doesn't understand himself. The backlash is seclusion. He plays a warlock and solos most of the time, in dark, deserted places while listening to Flyleaf and Linkin Park via Itunes. In the rare instances he does unveil himself to group, he is the guy who fears mobs at every turn and instinctively death coils anything that gets near him only to meet an unfortunate demise by the seven mobs who his feared mob have now pathed and brought to the group. After his death, he begins lamenting about his "miserable" life and how he cuts himself when he's alone. The immaturity and self loathing suck the fun out of the experience like a vacuum. The group disbands and logs as C-SPAN 2 suddenly seems uplifting.

4. The Stoner Healer

This is the 22 year old college drop out who spends most of his life under the influence of illegal drugs. He starts the group off with mildly entertaining group chat but as he smokes more dope while playing the game, becomes less and less focused and begins drifting. As he drifts, his attention to detail and reaction times become slower and slower and eventually net persistent wipes. His once entertaining banter has become incoherent rambling and grinds the group to a halt half way through an instance. In the end, the group has to boot him because he is no longer responding to chat and his toon isn't moving. He has either fallen asleep or the munchies have sent him on a quest for twinkies.

3. The Patchwork Tank

This is 15 year old Johnny's pride and joy; his level 70 warrior creatively named Taurenwar. He gets to play two hours a day after his homework is done. As a result, his gear is a mish mash of battleground gear, auction house fodder and a few quested greens. Unfortunately for Johnny, his gear has no focus to it in any aspect with some pieces having dps statistics while others having defense. He even has a ring with spirit and agility because he got it as a random drop while fighting in Nagrand. When this guy gets in a group, that group is in for a long night.

Within the first pull, it is readily apparent that this guy has no clue how to tank. Furthermore, even if he did know how, his gear is so god awful that he couldn't hold aggro if you super glued it to his head. He keeps his two hander equipped at all times because his shield is in the bank and because it's a "sucky green". The rogue and enhancement shaman inherit the role of tank and are killed many times over as a result. The group attempts to keep going but there is no hope with him in the party. His dps sucks. His tanking sucks worse. He doesn't use battle shout. He doesn't use commanding shout. He used retaliation on trash, thinking the pretty swords that fly around him might entice monsters to hit him. His first aid is leveled up but he doesn't have the cloth to make bandaids. This guy is a cancer, sucking up coin and loot. He is eventually replaced as the group cannot progress with his presence after which he begins spamming the group members asking why he was kicked. After futile attempts to reason with the group, his mom tells him time's up and he logs off till tomorrow.

2. The Omniscient Advisor

This is the 23 year old guy who joins the group with his level 70 mage in full green garb. At first the guy is harmless but as the group gets configured, it starts. He begins instructing the druid how to heal, the rogue how to fight and the warrior how to tank. Not only is his advice unwarranted, in most aspects, it is completely wrong. Things like mortal strike is the best skill in the game for threat and full resto druids are uber dpsers with wrath spam. Meanwhile, he is so busy telling every one else what to do, his performance as the mage is miserable. His dps is garbage due to his amazing green gear and his 250 spell damage. After focusing on the other members for the first 25 minutes of the instance, his haphazard play wipes the group. This begins the whining about how if the group listened to him, they would have been done by now. After 30 minutes of his bitching, the warrior in the group gives him the infamous "STFU" and the fighting starts. The warrior intentionally stops tanking in an effort to get the mage killed. After two deaths, the mage finds the largest pack of mobs in the instance, frost nova's them, ports out and disbands. The group may wipe but assuming they can replace the mage, they are far better off.

1. The Ebayed Character

This is the story of 16 year old Mikey. Mikey's dad is too busy with his business to really deal with Mikey and Mikey has been telling stories about how all the cool kids at school are playing this game called World of Warcraft and little Mikey wants to join. In an effort to compensate for being a marginal father, Mikey's Dad buys him a level 70 priest from Craigslist for $500 and tells Mikey to enjoy. Little Mikey jumps right in and begins looking for his friends. Unfortunately for Mikey, his friends are on a different server but Mikey has no clue. He begins the futile quest for looking for his friends on the wrong server. After spending an hour figuring out how to log in and press the buttons. Mikey begins searching the world. He has some of the best gear in the game with Memento of Tyrande and Full Tier 6 healing gear. He gets random whispers from people saying "Awesome gear, man" and "Dude, I wish I had your stuff" but Mikey has no clue how to respond. In fact, Mikey has his combat log up and never sees these whispers. Inevitably, Mikey dies 22 times running around the world looking for his friends only never to see them. After a while, Mikey begins to click his interface and discovers the chat channels. He begins reading the general and trade channels frequently.

After messing with the channels for a while, Mikey begins to understand how to talk and communicate. After a few days, he gets invited to a place called Karazhan. Mikey has heard his friends reference this place and thinks, "Hey, I might find my friends there!" and promptly joins the group. The group gawks at Mikey's gear with phrases such as "OMFG, your gear is ridiculous!" and "Damn man, why the hell are you coming to Karazhan with T6?" but Mikey is oblivious to any of this banter. Instead, he asks if he will find Aaron inside. The group replies "Ya, Aran is a few bosses away but we will get to him." Delighted by the response, Mikey says "Thank god - I've been looking for him for a few days." The group ignores this and begins to start. The group asks Mikey for Fort and he tells them that the last fort he saw was back in the Orc city. They ask him for Spirit and he guides them to the spirit healer, a place he is most familiar with by now. The group laughs as they think he is being sarcastic. He has no spells on his bar as he doesn't know what spells are in the first place. The raid starts and Mikey watches the group kill stuff and begins to melee mobs but then he sees the other priest in the group summon a shadow fiend. This intrigues Mikey to figure out how to do that so he begins clicking on buttons. Meanwhile, the group has begun to fight Attumen. Mikey is far, far away and dies to Attumen's repeated charges. Pleas by the group to collapse on the tank go unnoticed by Mikey who is still enraptured by locating a way to summon a shadowfiend. Regardless of Mikey's epic failure, the group defeats Attumen and moves on to Moroes. That's when it happens.

Mikey clicks on the spell book and finds his spells. While he doesn't click on the shadow tab, he does open to the holy tab. One spell sounds exceptionally interesting; Holy Nova. He figures out how to bind a spell to his casting bar and now begins spamming holy nova throughout the entire raid. He runs up the stairs to a host of aoe mobs where his holy nova is met with a zerg. The group asks what Mikey is doing but Mikey doesn't respond. The group presses on and urges Mikey to wait for the AOE pulls before using Holy Nova. He has no idea what AOE means so he just keeps using it for every pull. After clearing the trash for Moroes, the group gives him the healing assignment of the main tank. This turns out to be a bad idea.

Even with his ridiculous amount of overgear, Mikey's holy nova's can't keep the main tank alive. Worse, his holy nova's have broken the shackle and the frost trap, thus resulting in the death of the hunter and second priest (go go no threat from Holy Nova!!!!1!). The group now understands what they are dealing with and put Mikey on raid healing the rest of the night, where he spams Holy Nova over and over and over again until he is OOM. By the end of the night, the group only can get to Nightbane, where Mikey repeatedly dies to Charred Earth and his lack of healing ensures the main tank's death. The group disbands and blacklists Mikey from further raiding. In the end, Mikey never finds his friends and begins to hear the ramblings of 10th graders about Halo 3. After telling his dad about Halo 3, His dad once again buys him the game and Mikey never plays World of Warcraft again.

So there we have it. My questions to the masses are as follows:

Which one of these do you fear the most and why?

Is there a stereotype that I missed that you feel is more undesirable than one of the five mentioned above?

Why do you hate pugs (not the dogs)?

Trampled by the Engine of Progression

2008-04-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I was reading the MMO blogosphere and came across Tobold's article:

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/

followed up by this article:

http://potshot.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/fixing-wows-progression-problem

Tobold's article was a follow-up to a previous article regarding guild hopping and a rather radical way to prevent it from occurring; having the raid epics from a guild member vanish and enter the previous guild bank when a member /gquits. Tobold presented a follow up to his article today which was a bit more reasonable by providing some numeric ways to track guild loyalty and tenure. Potshot wrote a follow up on the second article with more potential game play changes done in an effort to level off progression and keep people gearing up at roughly the same tempo. Both articles are well done and provide solid solutions to the problem. Nevertheless, I don't agree that game play changes are the answer to this issue.

The fundamental problem with guild hopping stems from an issue that has been touched upon this blog before and will continue to be a point of contention. The issue at hand is that players value the binary code over the people who made the binary code possible. Once the flow of more binary code decreases, these players ditch the guild that made the first set of binary code possible so more binary code can be accumulated. The cycle rehashes itself from this point forward. There is a way to solve the issue or at least make the advent of such an issue unlikely. It is the responsibility of the guild leaders and officers to curtail this issue by inviting the best quality people to their guilds.

To some degree, the player base has created this issue in and of itself. Many guilds evaluate the basis for inclusion to a guild only from a game play and gear standpoint, requiring a gear minimum. While this can be necessary for the content, using this as the only requirement for guild membership is an invitation to failure through e-bayed accounts and these lewt mongers who hop from guild to guild leeching as many upgrades as possible before bailing to the new flavor of the month. From a personal standpoint, I will invite someone to my guild who shows a true interest for people but is in all greens versus the individual who is epicced out but does nothing but talk about pushing content. I can teach the newer player what to do and feel good about it. I can't change the ways of a lewt whore who will leave after he gets what he wants at the expense of my guild members.

But, by in large, WoW manifests this behavior by its design. The whole game can be soloed if desired. While this in and of itself is harmless, it does harbor a lone-wolf style of player who only plays the game to upgrade their character, without cause or concern for anyone else. Guild hopping in WoW is significantly more prevalent than I recall in EQ simply because in EQ, you had to have a guild to progress. The group aspect of the game bred more friendships and more concern for the fellow gamer. People knew just how hard players worked for gear, with countless wipes and late nights with no loot to distribute. While WoW can certainly bring about this style of game play, the ratio of players who engage it is considerably less.

Given this environment, the players are ultimately responsible for who they include in their guilds and this should be more than a check of the armory to ensure an applicant has all their gear enchanted. Talk to these people. Interact with them and gain an impression of what their motives are and if they will mesh with your guild. Behavioral based interviewing isn't required but some form of true interaction and social grouping should take place. Guilds that don't live by this creed will find themselves trampled by the engine of progression.

Observations of Age of Conan

2008-04-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

I've had some people ask about this game and if I recommended it or had interest in it. As such, I did some reading and I can't say the game peaked my interest. By no means do I think the game will be a failure. To the contrary, the numbers the game is posting with regards to sales are outstanding. Nevertheless, I have two major concerns with the game as a whole.

The first issue I have with the game isn't really a fault so much as it is the intellectual property of Conan being redundant with games like WoW, LoTRO, and EQ2. I've played EQ1, EQ2 and WoW extensively and the advent of learning and playing another fantasy MMO doesn't appeal to me. Sure, I do find the combat system as a solid innovation to the traditional fantasy MMO but the game play isn't what I find redundant despite the hot key based system to which most gamers are accustomed; What I find needs changed is the fantasy genre in general. We can only grind casters, tanks and dps classes for so long, despite the innovative combat system the game employs. Something different as far as setting would have peaked my interest more. Most of the classes in AoC, by in large, seem to be rehashed versions of EQ and WoW classes (e.g. Dark Templar = EQ Shadowknight). Perhaps this is a product of my apathy more then a flaw in the game but this article really isn't written to point out flaws with the game; it is simply a list of things that concern me about the game as a whole.

The second concern I have with the game has to do with the overall system requirements. This is something that Tobold touched on today and I agree with him in most aspects. Something I have said with persistence is that World of Warcraft is the pinnacle of MMO marketing and that creed rings true in most aspects of the game, including the minimum system requirements. This allows more casual gamers, who aren't in the habit of updating their computers frequently, with a game that can operate without issue. By contrast, the system requirements for AoC are amongst the most demanding I've seen in a game to date. My current desktop, purchased in 2004 (NVIDIA GEFORCE 6800GT 256 meg, 3.4 single core p4, 160gig hard drive and 2 gigs of ram) could barely run the game using the minimum AoC requirements. These kinds of requirements relegate a game to only the most tech savvy of the populous at release. Nevertheless, this will not deter hardcore gamers from obtaining the game. Past history has shown that dedicated players will upgrade their systems to run a game they feel passionate about. My primary concern is that the game will still fail to operate with minimal latency even with a system that meets the required guidelines. In a game as twitch based as this combat system appears to be, an optimal system with little to no graphic lag or latency seems paramount to the game's success. This is my primary concern.

Does this mean I won't attempt to get into the open beta? Probably not. I will in all likelihood attempt to download it although this will be quite a download. By in large, I don't expect to purchase the game unless I find the game to operate without issue on my machine and the game surprises me in fun value or game play. Perhaps the open beta will change my preconceived notions.

Format Change

2008-04-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Avid readers will notice quite a format change from before. This comes after receiving some feedback from several people, one of whom has one of the best MMO blogs in circulation. The comments are almost all the same. The writing is fantastic; the page format is not. In an effort to persistently make the site better, I made a change to the format. At first, I was simply going to adjust the HTML code to expand the original page template into a more reader friendly size, particularly for those running 1280 X 1024 but the template did not take well to my adjusting the width of the page. So, I decided to change the template altogether. This layout definitely maximizes space efficiency and as a whole should be easier to read. The only thing I dislike about this template is that I wish the Date Header and Post Title had a space between each other. I tried to adjust the code using basic HTML but alas nothing worked. A long as it is legible, I can live with it for now. Any comments on the new format are most welcome!

Evaluation of the Five Problems with WoW

2008-04-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, I ran across this article from Mobhunter http://mobhunter.com/001564.html. The individual who wrote this article is Loral Ciriclight. He is an old school EQ player who happened to play on the same server that I did. The guild he ran with back in the day was one of the most friendly on the server. He is also an exceptional writer and has been writing on MMOs far longer then I have. He is someone who's opinions I value and respect so I felt it necessary to provide some insights about his most recent post.

Here is Loral's article:

Weakness 1, A Focus on Solo Gameplay

Early on in the days of Everquest, the game designers stated that one of the strengths of their game was a requirement for group play. Characters would be very good at a particular slice of gameplay but not at others. Warriors could tank well but did only moderate damage and had very little ability to heal. Clerics could heal but were not able to tank or dish out a lot of damage. Rogues could pour out the damage but couldn't take much and couldn't heal at all. These dependencies forced players to work together which led to the true strength of an MMO - getting people together.

World of Warcraft built itself around soloing. Players can log in, play for ten minutes, finish a quest, get some experience, get a new item, and log out without worrying about leaving others behind. Characters can level from level 1 to level 70 without ever grouping with another player.

There exists a distinct lack of social interaction in World of Warcraft. Friendships aren't as easily forged. Relationships aren't as easily built. You're not very likely to meet someone in World of Warcraft the way you were in the old days of Everquest.

We have seen what sort of success a group-based game would have these days. Take a look at the popularity of Vanguard or the lack thereof. MMO philosopher Richard Bartle states that World of Warcraft has broken the ability for a new MMO to build the sort of world that conducts the formation of rich relationships. No one can make another game that forces groups and expect to succeed.

The ability to solo in World of Warcraft is a great strength, but for it we pay a heavy price.

While I certainly agree with this statement, I have to disagree that it is a weakness of the game. Players have the option to group or solo at their leisure. It is a matter of apathy. It is easier to solo in WoW. It is easier to log on, grind out quest content and log off. With that said, I think it is safe to say Blizzard has made it too easy to solo however they are simply catering to the player base. Players are inherently lazy and will do whatever is easiest to better their character. Others may live a lifestyle that doesn't allow much time for gaming so the solo option best fits their needs. It is much the same reason why people don't have time to sit and eat a family dinner. The "on the go" lifestyle has become status quo. Perhaps worst of all, players will go into great detail about just how bad casual grouping in World of Warcraft is. The consequence of a high volume of players soloing is that basic group dependent skills go unused and render players unqualified for group play.

The reality is that the social networking aspect of online gaming has largely been replaced by websites like Myspace or Facebook. It is unfortunate that the most successful online game has such easy soloing that it has come to this but it is simply more evidence that WoW is more an exercise in marketing that it is in MMO innovation.

The advent of social interaction exists in WoW but the players must take the initiative and embrace it. As it stands now, it is simply easier to go it alone.

Weakness 2, A Focus on Player Vs. Player

Unfortunately, one of the few ways players do meet in World of Warcraft is to kill each other. Many players enjoy the battlegrounds full of fast and furious battles but what sort of social interaction exists when the goal is to kill the other players? Player vs. Environment (PvE) is one of the great strengths of an MMO. That becomes broken when one of the primary reasons players play WoW is to fight each other. It has taken one of the deepest games and turned it into Halo.

Players also behave at their worst in the battlegrounds. Unless one forms a select team of people they already know, likely from either a guild or people they know in real life, they are likely to face completely silent allies who are there strictly to farm some honor. There is no longevity to the relationship and no interest in discussion. One simply kills the enemy and moves on to the next battleground.

Battlegrounds is the rotten core of World of Warcraft.

I have to agree with Loral here. Players go here to obtain resilience gear necessary for Arenas and that's it. Players don't go here to interact on a social level. Hell, they don't even go to battlegrounds because they have fun. They go there to earn points to better their character. A battleground that requires group tactics and interaction does "sort of" exist in Alterac Valley but too many people just go there to farm honor kills and not actually interact with the game strategy. The scale of the zone is designed to compensate for that but the attrition of so many "commando" types and honor farmers has rendered this compensation useless.

Battlegrounds are a means to an end, a redundant timesink to obtain necessary gear to participate in arena play at a competitive level, and more marketing tactics to keep players paying subscriptions. In essence, battlegrounds represent the worst in WoW on every level.

Weakness 3, Redundant Quests

World of Warcraft prides itself on the incredibly vast array of quests. When people saw how many quests World of Warcraft offers, they had to question Everquest's choice of name. There are more than enough quests to move through all of the levels in WoW. The quest system is very robust and easy to use. It is the single path that moves players through the game, often tying them to the lore and giving them reason to do what they do.

These quests are also often sterile and boring. Many of the quests revolve around killing some number of creatures and retrieving some number of items. Many of these quests have drop rates far too low to make them worth while or stories that seem scripted out of a fortune cookie. Sure, a player can quest through the entire game but how many of those quests are unique and interesting? Many are, but many are not.

I understand his view point on this issue and while I too get sick of doing the same quests from time to time, I will play Devil's Advocate and say that it could be construed as a strength of the game in a sense that players have a strong and viable leveling path to get from 1 to 70. In Everquest, the path needed to go from 1 to 65 was a long, hard road of grinding. There was no easy way. The only option was to spend countless hours grouping in dungeons or grinding mobs. A somewhat interactive script through the zones is at least an upgrade to the mindless EQ grind.

Is the WoW quest grind perfect? Not at all. Is the WoW quest grind better than grinding an inordinate amount of Plane of Valor mobs? Absolutely. Is there a better way to do it? Most likely although I find it as the consequence for a linear path to leveling a character and if this allows players to create new toons for more options during their gaming experience, I find this as a comparable trade-off.

Weakness 4, Long Duration Dungeons

The dungeons in World of Warcraft could be the one area that truly brings players together and helps them build the lasting relationships that a MMO should allow. However, after getting players used to completing quests in about 20 minutes, having dungeons that require a two-hour commitment is too demanding.

World of Warcraft should cut all of its single-group instances down to an hour. It should also include a few half-hour instances that can bring players together but ensure there is enough freedom to leave when needed. Longer instances should be limited to ten-man raids such as Karazhan. We have become spoiled by the instant gratification of World of Warcraft's quest system. The gap between the ease of solo questing and the heavy time requirements of WoW's instances is too great.

I can't really see how the dungeon experience translates into a weaker game. We touched on the fact that WoW instancing is a source of player pain largely because there are so many players that grind from 1 to 70 completely solo and as a result, are not qualified to play the class effectively in a group scenario. The results from this are that players will either go it alone or will only group with a select group of players. Once again, the typical Min-max WoW player will go where the easiest path to advancement takes him. Perhaps shorter dungeons would entice players to interact with this content on a more frequent basis both post 70 and during the leveling experience. Regardless, I don't classify this as a weakness of the game.

Weakness 5, No Console Support

This is the weakness that will likely raise the most eyebrows. With the ease of play of World of Warcraft, the beauty of its design, and the simplicity of the gameplay; it already feels like a console game. However, the complicating factor of the PC will always get in the way. Right now Blizzard spends a fortune tuning World of Warcraft to run on a nearly infinite array of possible machine configurations.

Were it a console game, WoW would only have to focus on a hand-full of possible configurations. While WoW would have to be substantially different on a console, the console world is clearly ready for a good WoW-like MMO and if Blizzard isn't careful, such a hit on a console system could steal their crown.

Ten million players is a lot, but there are currently 20 million Wiis and 18 million Xbox 360s in people's homes all networked and waiting for the next big MMO. If Blizzard is smart, they will begin using their talent for MMO game design on the next generation platform. If they don't someone else will.

I think at some point, Blizzard will go down this route but these kind of numbers are misleading. Sure, there are 20 million Wiis and 18 million Xbox 360's in circulation but does this mean that half of all users, the current WoW subscriber base, would gravitate toward the consoles for MMORPGS? I find that unlikely. Sure, it would increase the already incredible player base Blizzard has for WoW but to water down the already elementary world of Azeroth into something that would function on the console level would be something too simplistic to hold interest. I would assume the console world would attract a younger crowd and dilute the server population into too many kids and that may detract interest from the current player base. Rest assured, if Blizzard believes they will profit from it, it will happen. It is something that I personally don't wish to be a part of. Perhaps World of Diablo can make its way to a console system but I'll pass on the demographic that permeates that platform. WoW is already bad enough in that regard and I think there are a significant volume of players who agree.

So what have we learned? I think it is safe to say we have learned that WoW is by no means a perfect game. But I think the major lesson I take from it is that the WoW rewards system as a whole has ruined the social aspect of the game largely because the motivation to play World of Warcraft revolves around improving character gear versus the social manifest of the MMO. It is a recurring theme throughout this piece. Battlegrounds are done for gear. Quests are done for experience and gear. Soloing is done to leveling a character individually. Sure, there are avenues for the group player but those require organization, initiative and drive, things that a smaller percentage of WoW players gravitate towards versus the masses that honor or quest grind. Even then, the end game can attract players that just value gear versus friendships. Blizzard will take stock in what the majority of its players want and tailor the game to that end. This means more easy quests for gold, relatively easy level grinding and minimal required social interaction. There is no change in sight to this other than player interaction. This to me is the glaring weakness of World of Warcraft.

Time is Money, Friend - Part II

2008-04-16T11:59:00.001-07:00

Nearly a month ago, I posted an article entitled "Time is Money, Friend" asking the readers the following question:

Is there a way to market an MMO that does not require an extensive time investment to progress?

Let me go on record saying that finding a defensible prototype for a time friendly MMO has been surprisingly difficult. In retrospect, I see why. Normally, when designing an MMO, one doesn't base the design exclusively on a demographic. But in this scenario, the primary objective was to design a game that above all else, allows progression without incredible time investments. At this time, I do not have a finished product, however I do have an outline to follow with regards to the most important components for a time friendly MMO.

First and foremost, the game must be fun and the game must have replay value. While this can be said with all MMOs, the issue at hand is that a game that doesn't have huge time investments and that doesn't have replay value is doomed. Whatever is created must above all else, fit this mold.

From a game play standpoint, the biggest challenge in this game is to create tangible risk versus reward that doesn't require major time investments yet can still be entertaining, rewarding and provide a general sense of accomplishment. In traditional MMOs, players will eventually achieve their goals after sufficient time is invested. The greater the reward, the longer the quest or progression sequence necessary, from running a particular instance to dragging a raid around to complete an epic quest. Our goal with this exercise was to remove the time requirement from the equation. This doesn't necessarily mean no player loot but if everyone eventually has all the best gear necessary in a week, why keep playing? Having the infrastructure of traditional MMO player motivation largely removed is the consequence. As of now, this has been the primary detriment to creating a prototype.

A major lesson from games like Vanguard is to create a game in and of itself. There is no reason to try and become a "WoW Killer" and modeling a game to attempt such a task is foolish. The majority of the blogosphere has correctly stated over the course of the last year that WoW will die a death of 1,000 paper cuts, slowly bleeding players of the course of its lifetime. The rate at which this occurs will largely be determined by Blizzard's ability to create new content and adapt to player desires and other gaming companies ability to create games that lure the current WoW crowd to new games. Our goal with a time friendly game was not to set out to attack the WoW player base. It was simply designed to take advantage of a potential niche in the MMO consumer base.

One could make a case that Blizzard has made an effort to take advantage of this niche. Easy to complete daily quests, lower leveling curves for new characters and tier 6 quality gear for easy to obtain Badges of Justice have made WoW more casual friendly than ever before. Something I've said repeatedly is that WoW is more a marketing success than game play innovation. This falls right along those lines. The marketing team sees a potential leak in the ship and plugs it up. Nevertheless, this is good for most gamers as it removes much of the time demand needed to reap rewards.

I have two other ideas to truly brainstorm for a time friendly MMO before I throw up the white flag. The challenge of keeping players paying monthly subscriptions without forcing time sinks has been the most difficult obstacle to overcome. Once again, any input from the readers is most appreciated. I should have the final two ideas hammered out by next week and should conclude this series at that time. Until next time...

Knowing When

2008-04-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we had one of the cornerstones of our guild abruptly quit playing World of Warcraft. This retirement was sudden and unexpected. He was one of our more prolific players with 3 level 70 characters and he was one of the best players on our server. He played all three of his characters at a high level, had a high knowledge of the game and was a great guy and influence on the guild. No real explanation was provided but it is presumable that something drastic took place in his life to warrant such a quick action. This brings up an interesting question for the masses:

How do you know when it's time to quit playing your MMO of choice?

This topic has been breached by most who write about MMOs but the obvious answer is the correct answer. It is the responsibility of any adult player to know when to move on.

The first skill necessary to balance real life and gaming is time management. Without time management, it is difficult to regulate game time and as a result, could infringe on real life obligations. This is a difficult task in respects to high level MMO play in that many guilds require attendance. This isn't necessarily a bad thing although it does put a minimum time expectation on anyone engaging in this content. One must ask themselves if their lives are able to balance the minimum raid requirements.

The second really isn't so much a skill but a realization. Players must realize when the game is no longer fun. I know people who played EQ long after the game held no real fun value for them and as a result, were miserable people playing a game. How utterly ridiculous! Why on Earth did they keep going? For some, it was a sense of obligation to the guild. For others, it was to maintain online friendships. For a select few, it was because they had nothing else to do. The purpose of all MMOs is to have fun. When the game no longer feels fun but feels more like an obligation, in my opinion, it's time to move on. Obligations are reserved for work, family and to one's self; not to an online game. If one holds a position of importance in a guild and burns out, then they need to take the steps necessary to fill the role and exit gracefully. Think of it as a smooth transition from one job to another. It fills the "obligation" to the guild while moving on with your time.

From a personal perspective, I try and play a little each night although there are days when I simply don't have the time to log in. I have a 7 1/2 month old daughter, a wife and two step children. This will often relegate playing the game difficult if not impossible. The key is that WoW is a great game but it's biggest downside is that it requires a fair time investment to progress. I know my life scenario doesn't lend itself to full time raid detail but it does allow me to play a few nights a week and I can still enjoy the game even if it means I don't get to raid Illidan. Sure, I'd enjoy the opportunity to take on some 25 man content but if this doesn't occur because I have things to do outside of WoW, then that is the sacrifice necessary. For the time being, I am enjoying the game. If there ever comes a time when I can't enjoy the game or circumstances don't allow me to enjoy the game, I'll move on. One can take a vested interest and do things right without losing touch of what is important.

I know I have written an entire article about this but it bears repeating; Once the WoW servers come down and no one plays, it doesn't really matter how much Black Temple loot has been accumulated or how much DPS can be achieved with a given spec. In essence, the games are fruitless for not the company kept during that tenure, regardless of how much time was invested. Once again, illustrating the point that the people you meet along the way are the only tangible "gain" you'll ever have the potential to keep in Virtual Worlds. The rest is binary code.

The bottom line is that MMOs are a game. And while they are fun and can be incredible time sinks, it is important to keep it in perspective. And despite what the media would like to portray with addiction allegations, it is all of our responsibility as adult gamers to set a limit or outright quit when necessary. While I am saddened by the departure of my guild mate, I hope he finds solace and success outside of World of Warcraft. I know that the guild of people he left behind will continue to keep in touch, long after World of Warcraft is no more.

Endangered Species

2008-04-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

"A group of intrepid heroes gathers around and discusses a plan of attack for a newly unveiled evil in Magister's Terrace. A powerful fire mage, a stalwart holy priest, the cunning combat rogue and the uplifting enhancement shaman all prepare for battle. However, they notice that there is a piece of the puzzle missing; a brave soul needed to encounter the evil doers head on in melee combat. The quartet set on a journey to locate such a hero."

At first, the group starts by interviewing potential candidates for the role...

Enhancement Shaman to Random_Warrior_1223: Hey, would you like to join us in Magister's Terrace? We need a tank.
Random_Warrior_1223: lolz prot sux - i'm arms.

10 minutes later....

Fire Mage to Paladin_Bob: Hey, can you tank Magister's for us?
Paladin_Bob: Sorry, I'm Ret.

20 minutes later....

Enhancement Shaman to Dr00d_342: Hey, we need a tank for Magister's. You want in?
Dr00d_405: I'm in a group already -thx.

30 minutes later...

Priest: Afk kids

45 minutes later....

The combat rogue skulks away into the depths of the Arathi Basin never to be seen again, the priest has been afk dealing with her kids and eventually times out and DCs and the mage is trash talking people in trade channel about the most important topic in WoW; Chuck Norris. All warriors asked are dps. All paladins asked are either holy or ret. All druids asked are either resto pvpers or are already in a group. Ultimately, the band of intrepid heroes is defeated by the quest for the tank. Deep within Magister's Terrace, Kael'Thas laughs at their expense.

Sound familiar? This seems all too common on Twisting Nether. Blizzard has surely made some adjustments to the warrior, paladin and druid classes but why are people not taking this role? What is causing tanks to be an endangered species?

Let's start by saying that tanking isn't easy. There is some math involved and there are as many bad tanks in the game as there are good. Not all warriors can hold AE threat, taunt when needed or have taken the necessary time to collect the required gear for the role. This makes finding a good tank even more difficult as players have to sift the wheat through the chaff. For the purposes of this article, we will stick with examining exactly why there are so few people specced protection, the skill of the player aside.

The first reason that comes to mind for the lack of protection warriors, pallies and feral tanking druids is that a PVE tanking role is so focused that it doesn't perform optimally in the solo aspect of the game. I can't really speak about protection paladins with much expertise so I'll refrain from making any judgements about them. However, I have a 70 druid and a 70 warrior so I can comment with a fairly high degree of experience about both. With the protection warrior, I can stack Shield Block Value and grind or I can dual wield and devastate spam. I have about 600 Shield Block Value which is about average these days and grinding is slow although most mobs never hit me. Dual Wield spamming trades significantly more efficient killing with extra downtime due to eating more frequently. I normally sub out most of my protection gear and wear fury gear for dual wield grinding. Devastate scales with attack power so it only makes sense to gear accordingly. My big issue with this is that grinding becomes spamming one button; devastate. Sure, I can toss a whirlwind in but it's not required. It's functional but it's not optimal and it's boring.

The druid is in the best position in solo content. Currently, my druid is a resto healbot however she was leveled primarily feral and did a fair amount of tanking at all levels of play. The major upside the feral druid has over both the prot warrior and prot paladin is that Mangle, the primary feral tanking tool, is also a hell of a dps ability in cat form. All the druid needs to do is collect a feral dps set and he's good to go. I'll go on record and say Mangle is the most overpowered ability in World of Warcraft. Sure, its a 41 point talent but the degree of flexibility it provides the feral druid is something I'd just kill for on my warrior. Clearly, if shield slam was doing bloodthirst kind of damage, there would be QQers crying about "balance" issues but druids can get away with it, primarily because there is nothing to compare with Mangle. Each druid talent tree is so different from the other, it makes any sort of "balance" issue without tangible comparison. I don't have concrete math to back this up with but I'll guesstimate there are more tanking druids at this point then there are tanking warriors or paladins in part due to this issue.

Another issue with being protection specced as a warrior comes when involved in world PVP. With the druid, I have far better success simply because mangle can pump out some respectable damage and whenever a feral druid is out soloing, he is normally equipped in cat dps gear. Druids also have a significantly better survivability rate as well as more escape methods (root, Cyclone, cat form, dash, prowl or simply run in travel form till out of combat and fly away). However for the warrior, players see a Kings Defender and some Tier 4/ZA tanking gear and they smell an easy kill. Some protection specs are more PVP friendly then others but if a player has one of the two most popular choices for PVE tanking (12/5/44 or 8/5/48) neither are designed for PVP. This makes the solo experience even worse. Resilience is now the primary survivability PVP stat, rendering the high armor and HP values protection gear less useful. Players with high resilience will be nearly impossible to damage down with the mild damage protection outputs. Thus, as a protection warrior, players have very little strengths in PVP and a high volume of shortcomings. Players on PVP realms usually feel better with some degree of confidence that they can fend off a ganker. Most protection specs don't provide that confidence.

These two issues result in the worst case scenario for Blizzard:

In the many aspects of the WoW experience, particularly on PVP realms, the protection warrior in it's current manifestation has too many instances where the spec is simply unfun.

In a nutshell, this is why there are so few tanks, let alone good tanks.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Here is the natural response to this is:

"So, if it's not fun, don't play protection. Go respec arms or fury and enjoy the game."

This line of thinking is flawed in that, this is what the warrior community is doing and it's why the same people spouting this dribble are the same ones begging for a tank and crying that there's a tank shortage. Hypocrisy? You bet. Let's try a more proactive approach.

There are some options to work with the strengths of the spec or overcome it's disadvantages in various game play scenarios. The first is obvious; respec when required and use a dps spec when grinding solo. This is all well and good but even with the plethora of daily quest gold in circulation, this could potentially get expensive. The second is a bit more difficult. If possible, be proactive and get involved with an active guild or a small group that plays together regularly. This ensures an instance group for every evening and a group doing daily quests together on a PVP realm is a much safer group then the players who goes it alone.

The lesson is that for the foreseeable future, there will be a tank shortage, particularly on PVP realms. There is nothing from Blizzard in the way of change as noted by the minimal changes for warriors that came from 2.4. Remember to take care of the warriors in guilds who tank often as it can be a frustrating experience. This is why tanks burn out so quickly. Keeping the game fun is the key. The consequences for not doing so may be the difference between tank endangerment and tank extinction.

The Concept of Balance

2008-04-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most discussed forum topic with regards to World of Warcraft is on or focused on the concept of "balance". This primarily has to do with PVP but can also spill over into the PVE experience. Many of these advocates of "balance" have some legitimate disputes but a larger portion are QQers, asking for a specific class to get nerfed, most likely due to their inability to adapt or the inevitable frustration of losing. In World of Warcraft, the concept of "balance" should be metaphorically compared to Captain Ahab and the White Whale. The lesson being that obsessing over such a glorified ideal to a degree where one begins forsaking everything else will inevitably have this coveted experience be their demise.

For those who are unaware, The aforementioned reference is that of Herman Melville's classic story Moby Dick. The story revolves around an obsessive sea captain, driven to slay the elusive and vicious white whale who maimed him on a previous whaling venture. The whale is named Moby Dick (duh). The captain's pursuit turns to obsession and eventually leads to the destruction of the ship and the death of all but one crew member. The same fate would befall World of Warcraft if many of the forum goers would have their way by the sheer fanaticism some players have with "balance". I am here today to clarify exactly why WoW is as balanced as it possibly can be.

Let's start first with an actual definition of the word, Balance courtesy of http://www.dictionary.com/:
Bal·ance –noun

1. a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.

2. something used to produce equilibrium; counterpoise.

3. mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior, judgment, etc.

4. a state of bodily equilibrium: He lost his balance and fell down the stairs.

5. an instrument for determining weight, typically by the equilibrium of a bar with a fulcrum at the center, from each end of which is suspended a scale or pan, one holding an object of known weight, and the other holding the object to be weighed.

6. to bring to or hold in equilibrium; poise: to balance a book on one's head.

There are several other definitions of Balance (mainly from the world of accounting) but the definition we are interested in is listed here, most notably number 6; to bring or hold in equilibrium. While Blizzard isn't holding a book in balance, the concept of balance in this context is simply a level playing field where both sides involved have an equal opportunity to win. This seems simple but in the realm of MMO's it becomes a massive undertaking. The issue is with MMO's, there are an incredible amount of variables. These variables create disparities between game mechanics and the art of balance is managing these disparities to a degree where one side does not have an overwhelming advantage over another.

The first variable on Blizzard's list would be character level. There is little in the way of regulation with regards to world PVP but from a controlled PVP aspect, arena combat is only available in the live game servers at level 70. This removes the level variable from competitive based PVP.

The second variable is the easiest to conceptualize and sadly remains the most important with regards to PVP in WoW. That variable is gear. Gear is nearly impossible to regulate on an individual basis. Blizzard can't control how much time a player invests into each character. In a sense, the amount of "work" a player invests usually pans out in more options for equipment. So what does Blizzard do for balancing a variable that seems relatively uncontrollable?

As most are aware, Blizzard didn't throw WoW together haphazardly. They took their time and did a fair amount of research. Not only does Blizzard balance the gear issue but in a way, they use it to their advantage. This started with Burning Crusade and it's the answer to a very poignant question that burns the forums frequently. That question being what's the point of resilience? As most know, most PVP gear includes healthy amounts of Resilience. This statistic reduces damage from critical hits and has segregated PVE gear from PVP gear. This statistic provides a distinct advantage in PVP combat but most classes and specs have very limited options with gear that includes resilience. This limitation is done to a degree where most of the geared PVP players are wearing roughly the same equipment. By limiting the options available, Blizzard indirectly balances gear by pigeon-holing every class/spec into roughly the same equipment, effectively neutralizing the gear variable from the equation at high levels of PVP. This culturing of gear has limited effects at the lowest level of organized PVP (battlegrounds) and resonates further as players advance into higher PVP brackets, with the pinnacle of arena combat, sporting players in virtually identical gear.

The third variable seems to be the variable Blizzard has the most control over however the complexity of this variable makes it nearly impossible to perfect. This variable in and of it self is a collection of variables. This has to do with the individual class match-ups in PVP as well as the two versus two, three versus three and five versus five arena metagame. The amount of testing in this aspect is mind boggling with a high degree of personal variance, circumstantial interference and luck. There is no real exact science to this but its apparent that Blizzard does test the metagame. The changes to mana drain and resilience reflect that Blizzard felt mana drain teams were overpowered if done correctly so a change was made to keep the field level.

The final variable has to do with individual skill. Skill in this sense is knowing what abilities to use when and the reaction times and recall memory of keybinds dependant on the scenario. This is the one variable Blizzard doesn't really attempt to balance. Instead of balancing, they simply reward players for success by awarding more arena points. If you lose most arena matches, you just gain arena points slower.

The forums are a bust with players crying for changes, adjustments or flat out nerfs. These days druids seem to be the most complained about class with warriors and warlocks second and third respectably. The issue is that this persistent QQing does nothing. Not only does it do nothing but it makes the average WoW player who posts on those boards look foolish. Worse yet, the balance that these players crave would be catastrophic to the game.

Picture WoW in a state of balance that these QQers want. Either they wish a certain class to be blatantly over powered or another class nerfed into irrelevance. Why not just make everyone on even ground, same spec/same class/same level/same gear? That would achieve the complete and total balance that these forum QQers whine about, wouldn't it? The issue is that taking all the variables out of an MMO render a game uninteresting. WoW in that state would be exceedingly vanilla and would render the game to an incredible bore. Games in the 21st century have options and are complex and with complexity comes small degrees of imbalance. In the long run, these small imbalances average out. In some instances, players will have an advantage and in others, the opponent will have an advantage.

In Moby Dick, Ahab wanted control over nature and his obsession cost him everything. For World of Warcraft forum QQers, craving balance at all costs will ruin the game because it will never meet their self-poisoned expectations. The game is as balanced as it can be. It's a game. Enjoy it. Stop crying for a white whale that's neither attainable nor desirable. Let it go.

Blizzard Announces New Progression Based Servers

2008-04-02T13:29:00.000-07:00

This is cut and copied from Blizzard's website. Enjoy!

[Irvine, CA] Blizzard is proud to announce the introduction of a new type of World of Warcraft server called Progression Based Servers or PBS for short. We have been given permission by the developers to provide some information regarding how these servers will work. We do not have an ETA as to when these servers will go live however we do anticipate the first set of PBS servers to activate prior to the expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King".

PBS servers will come in all current server formats PVE, PVP, RP and RP-PVP
Characters created on a PBS server are identical to current World of Warcraft Servers except that the level cap is decreased to 60 upon server conception.
Characters must progress through the game to unlock content. For example, defeating General Drakkisath in Upper Black Rock Spire will allow players to begin the quest for Molten Core attunement.
Various Milestones exist throughout the game and further game content will be unlocked at each interval.
NPC's at each major city will allow players to track progression.
Quests have been added to unlock each Battleground. A very special reward awaits the first player on each server to complete the quest for each Battleground!
New progression encounters have been added to provide a dynamic feel to the world of Azeroth.
New rewards await the victors!

We believe these new servers offer a fresh and exciting new return to previous content as well as alllowing new players to experience game play that may have been missed. For more news, log on to http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev

WoW Perspectives #3 - 2.4 Patch Changes and a Personal Crossroads

2008-04-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

While continuing to work on a follow up for my previous column, Time is Money, Friend, I wanted to provide some thoughts on some observations over the past two weeks of my WoW experiences. I know that a few select bloggers such as Tobold have been given some degrees of negative feedback when discussing his characters and his experiences in the game. I really have no idea why people would get so hostile about his observations. Observation provides insight and without asking questions about these observations, one can never better themselves. This rings true in all aspects of learning, from WoW to University studies. As a corporate trainer by profession, I can say with a high degree of certainty that people learn in various methods and if Tobold wishes to use his blog as a sounding board for learning, then I'm all for it. Those who feel otherwise should simply stop reading his blog. The same will apply to my blog for this article. This article will be as personal as it is editorial.

Of all previous WoW patches, I have to say this patch has been the most exciting for me since the game started. The addition of a multitude of daily quests, non diminished returns for battleground combat, a new instance to explore and new 25 man raid content for raiding guilds make this patch a complete winner in my eyes.

The first major observation I have is that it is quite clear Blizzard is making a major step in eradicating or at least severely damaging RMT activity with regards to coin by adding super easy and relatively fast daily quests that require no prerequisite reputation grind. In most instances, all that is required is any flying mount. I have always struggled saving coin as a protection warrior due to potion costs, rep costs and a sheer disdain for anything grind related as the lack of efficiency combined with the lack of PVP survivability means a frustrating and unfun experience. In just a week of daily quest grinding, and when I say daily quest grinding I mean, I log on, do the dailies and log off, I've made about 1,200 gold in a week. This is roughly 90 minutes each day and I usually do it in small bursts between dealing with my daughter and work. This includes some primals from the Throne of Kil'Jaeden and Blade's Edge dailies and many greens turned Arcane Dust or Planar Essence from Sunfury Supplies. It's really hard to place any negatives with this for all players. Hardcore players can burn down as many as 25 dailies a day. I normally get 13-14 done depending on the Battleground daily (for whatever reason, my Battlegroup never wins WSG but nearly always wins Basin). With the new gold available, I can now afford to finish Blacksmithing and an epic mount in a reasonable time frame. If I ever get some extra time, I could even grind the dailies on both toons. From a math standpoint:

14 daily quests per day at roughly 10g per quest = 140g

Value of miscellaneous items accumulated through daily quest circuit = 25g

165g per day times 7 = 1,155g

Doing this with two toons per week = 2,310g per week using two toons. This is an epic flyer in less then two weeks.

What if we did all 25 dailies per day?

25 daily quests per day at roughly 10g per quest = 250g

Value of miscellaneous items accumulated through daily quest circuit = 45g

295g per day times 7 = 2,065g per week

Doing this on two toons = 4,130g per week. This is an epic flying mount in roughly 9 days.

The second major change I took with the onset of 2.4 is for the first time in at least a year and a half, I respecced out of protection for over a one day time frame. For a while, I was toggle respeccing for arena using an arms build but that was just to grind points and return to the land of tanking once 10-20 matches had been completed. This week, I respecced 17/44 fury and stayed that way for an entire week. The results were mixed to say the least.

Positives

Even with a marginal array of fury gear, grinding mobs has never been more fun and easy. Having been used to devastate dual wield or sword and board for so long made seeing four digit white damage swings and 2k bloodthirsts just awesome.

For whatever reason, a protection warrior in the world environment seems to attract gankers, particularly casters. Resilience renders high hp and armor values useless in PVP thus taking the only real strength a protection warrior had out of the equation. My spec was also highly PVE focused and as a result, I would take a long time to kill, but inevitably, I would die versus most classes simply because I couldn't damage them enough to make a difference. While fury specced, the number of gankers even in Quel'Danas was down and the wins and losses were much, much better simply because even with people in full resilience gear, I could do enough damage to dent their health.

Negatives

In the last year and a half of being a primary tank, I have received a very small number of those infamous tells with the words "R U tank?" or "Tank?". However, I've had 14 of them in one 90 minute span and at least 30 of them this week alone. The saddest part was, over half were from other warriors. Clearly this was because people wanted to run the new instance Magister's Terrace and needed a tank. Needless to say, I have yet to see Magister's Terrace as a result of my week of fury fun and I find this as the only negative but this day qualified two concepts that were otherwise rhetoric spouted through various blogs without much in the way of qualification:

1. There truly is a tank shortage on Twisting Nether, if at nothing else, in the warrior population but likely applies to Paladins and Druids as well.

This leads me to believe the following is also true:

2. The mechanics of the protection warrior, while improved, are still flawed given the small percentage of players involved in this role.

Perhaps I will write an entire article devoted to it but it would be third on my list of projects at the moment. Regardless, I think this will be a topic at some point in the future.

I think it is safe to say I hit some tank burnout in the last few weeks. This is due to two primary reasons:

Lack of Guild Progression: One of my previous articles asked the question progression or preparation. Unfortunately, the disappointing lack of guild progression has me thinking that at this point, it is probably better to simply gear up for the impending level grind versus improving tanking gear via badges. At the rate of guild progression, gearing with t6 quality badge gear will render itself pointless. My gear as it stands is good enough to tank anything up to Halazzi in ZA, much less what we currently raid on a weekly basis. In all likelihood, a mix of badge and Karazhan gear will suffice for the first instances of WoTLK just as PVP/tier 1 served for BC. Using that logic as a basis for gearing, I am better suited buying t5 and t6 equivalent fury gear to allow the easiest level experience possible.

Lack of Diversity: Farming as a prot warrior can be done in one of two ways. If the gear is available, stack Shield Block Value, hit shield slam with a bunch of devastates and win. The other option is to equip the highest top end damage one handers available and spam devastate ad nauseum. From a practicality standpoint, stacking SBV is difficult without access to tier 5+ gear so that only leaves the dual wield devastate spam option. From a tactical standpoint, devastate spam is just miserably boring. It would be like moving the same pawn every move for every turn in chess indefinitely. At least with fury, I have to be cognisant of my Rampage timer, my whirlwind cooldown and my flurry procs, not to mention its just better for farming anyway.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I currently have more fun playing fury then protection. This is likely due to being protection for so long and seeing how easy it is to farm the daily quest circuit using a fury spec. So, for the time being, I will most likely split time between the two specs; Protection for raiding when necessary and fury for fun outside of raiding. The cost to respec given the amount of gold I can make per day is trivial. From a gear perspective, I will begin focusing on fury gear for the level grind, seeing that additional protection gear isn't necessary until further progression is made. I certainly still enjoy main tanking and if gear upgrades for main tanking present themselves, I'll pursue them; I just wish I could expand horizons with regards to the content I tank and at this time, I don't see much chance of that happening before WoTLK.

The Vernal Equinox

2008-03-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

The Vernal Equinox is defined in astronomy as the point in time at which the Sun is directly over Earth's Equator. Contrary to popular belief, this is actual a fixed point in time as opposed to an entire day. Nevertheless, the world celebrates the coming of the Spring Season. Beautiful purple lilacs with a soft, clean fragrance, the chirping of songbirds, long forgotten since the early Autumn days, ever growing daylight hours, more sunlight and a renewing of the land all mark the transition from Winter to Summer. However on this Vernal Equinox, the frenetic weather in a time of such planetary symmetry brought fourth a new and unexpected change to my 12-year-old step-daughter. That change was a nasty spring virus.

The virus was brutal causing a hacking cough and a blistering 104 degree fever for over two days. Needless to say, my weekend was full of hydrating, taking temperatures and trips to the doctor. This also was a major factor in the lack of content on the blog this week.

As a result, I was unable to generate a solid response to my last article, Time is Money, Friend. Rest assured that a clear and well thought out response will be provided in the days to come. I also have another article in the wings ready to write so more content will come soon. In the mean time, I wanted to provide a few quick observations regarding the upcoming 2.4 patch:

Warrior Changes: I have to admit, I can't say I'm thrilled with the upcoming changes. I appreciate Blizzard's intention with the Cleave changes but reducing the game to stacking Cleave on my white damage attacks with a mouse over Devastate macro seems like a simplistic solution to AOE tanking. This takes some of the limited challenge out of the game with regards to PVE. The rest of the changes are virtually all bug fixes from the Endless Rage change to the Flurry and Whirlwind changes. All in all very ho hum.

Druid Changes: By contrast, I was most happy to see the druid changes. The original change to Lifebloom undone and instead a 20% nerf to the final bloom effect was added. This will change the PVP game a fair amount but the PVE healing game will not be effected. Furthermore, a reduction in the cost of Regrowth actually buffs PVE druids quite a bit. I have gone from dreading the upcoming patch with my druid to really looking forward to it.

Shaman Changes: I really liked the original change to the fire totems with the Mortal Strike debuff added. Perhaps a bit overpowered but nonetheless, it would have provided Enhancement Shaman a serious niche in PVP arena combat. I must admit, I had an entire article ready for the 2.4 Shaman Mortal-Strikesque debuff but alas, it was beat down with the nerf stick.

Honor Changes: I am on the fence with this one. On one hand, I think that the volume of honor one could achieve with this change in Alterac Valley has seriously increased. By contrast, the amount of Turtling this change will instill will be mind boggling. Hell, the alliance already turtle most of the time and lose with zero honor on my battlegroup. At least with this change, honor kills will theoretically net some decent honor in rehash style battles like Stormpike Graveyard sieges. I guess only time will tell.

Overall, I really do look forward to the patch if for nothing else new content to explore. Regardless, the patch is well anticipated and promises to be fun. Until next time...

Time is Money, Friend.

2008-03-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, while leveling my WoW druid, I managed to stop in the Gadgetzan area of Tanaris and complete the normal quest progression line, filled with easy experience, handfuls of mageweave cloth and the inevitable level 70 rogue ganker. After travelling throughout the zone in an effort to complete the quest content, I stumbled upon goblin vendor after vendor providing a greeting whenever clicked. The most common was the title of today's article. After spending several hours completing this quest grind, I got to thinking.

MMOs by nature are time sinks. Back in the late 90's, Everquest raiding was my hobby and just by the nature of the game, required a massive time investment. From hours of learning new encounters to leveling hundreds of levels of alternate experience, the game itself while fun, required the dedication of a second job. This is the reason I stopped playing. I simply couldn't justify 30+ hours a week playing the game. My predicament was not uncommon and many long standing Everquest players stopped playing in a similar manner.

As most gamers know, this is done by design. The primary reason for this is, of course, money. Game designers need to maintain subscription numbers and by making MMO's require large time investments, publishers and game design companies generate consistent revenue. This is nothing new and most gamers are well aware of this. However, like most business practices, there is an inevitable consequence and the company that cashes in on this consequence may have tapped into quite a lucrative market.

The primary consequence has to do with demographics. When Everquest was originally released, it was rather apparent that the demographic the game was targeted for was largely male ages 18-25. This was done intentionally to obtain as young a subscription base as possible. Younger players net longer returns on gaming as younger players will have less influences that effect their ability to play the game. Attracting an 18 year old to the gaming world could snare a customer for the next 10+ years versus the 30 year old gamer who has a wife and two kids and simply can't invest vehement volumes of time necessary to progress. The 30 year old has a significantly higher chance to quit the game entirely thus causing the company to lose the subscription. Fast forward 10 years and now those same gamers that were 18-20 years old are now 28-30 years old. Life should go on and if it does in a healthy manner, those same 18-20 year olds have full time jobs, potentially a steady significant other, wife, husband and or children. In all likelihood, their time is significantly less available for gaming. This brings me to my second question for the masses:

Is there a way to market an MMO that do not require an extensive time investment to progress?

Whenever talking about MMO marketing, one should likely start with the king of all marketed MMOs, World of Warcraft. In many columns, I have stated that WoW is much more a product of marketing genius versus MMO innovation. From a business standpoint, it is easy to see why this viewpoint is one of the minority. The current model has been so successful, particularly for Blizzard, why change? As it stands now, Blizzard has a massive subscription base. In an effort to maintain longevity, Blizzard has already made minor changes to the leveling curve, the proposed 2.4 badge of justice rewards and daily quests for easy gold. It is plausible that such changes will continue in the future. However, it is likely that this issue will effect WoW just the same at some point in the future. It's cut from the same business model as Everquest.

To better illustrate the issue, consider the following:

Let's assume a 32 year old male who has two kids wants to relax in the evening with WoW. He is new to the game but reads how solo friendly warlocks are and starts there. He has 1 hour, three times a week to play the game. How long will it take him to level from 1 to 70?

24 hours x 6 = 144 hours

144 hours/3 hours per week = 48 Weeks.

Assuming this individual continues to play, it will take him 48 weeks at this pace to level from 1 to 70. To me, this seems like an awful long time to grind out one toon. This is a very low leveling time as well. A newer player, a player who wishes to explore various extra content and a player on a PVP server will almost certainly have a longer leveling time. This could result over a year of time just invested in the leveling process. From a subscription standpoint, it's great but this is dependant on the player staying interested that long with such little weekly progress.

An immature subsection of the WoW populous will provide the dribble that "Casuals don't deserve gear" and this attitude is held primarily by the opposing demographic. While players that invest more time should have more options available within the game, this line of thinking is flawed in that, the most stable and financially secure members of the gaming community are the older, casual gamers. This is also the largest demographic of players. Alienating this group doesn't lend itself to good business practices and WoW in particular has watered down the game to make it more practical for these players. Despite all these changes, the fact remains that the game is designed for moderate term character advancement followed by long term character enhancement through gear until the next expansion is produced at which point, the cycle virtually resets and repeats. This has been the business model for most MMOs in the last 10 years and for the most part, has been successful. The question remains; Is there a more time efficient way?

The phrase "time is money" is undoubtedly a cultural platitude. Nevertheless, the concept holds true and resonates through the current world and MMO landscape. The challenge to the readers is to decide if there is a business model for an MMO that doesn't require massive time sinks to progress yet can still maintain monthly subscriptions. I will provide some thoughts and ideas in an upcoming post. Until next time...

WoW Perspectives: Volume #2 - Redundancy Breeds Contempt

2008-03-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

The title of this weeks WoW perspectives is something that a college writing professor preached regarding the overuse of ancillary words in college level writing. This included prepositional phrases, persistent use of second person pronouns and so forth. His message was that this flaw in writing was repetitive and convoluted the message. He felt readers would grow tired of filtering through the unnecessary verbiage to discern the writer's message and become disinterested with end result being the reader would stop reading. After yesterday's run through Karazhan, it became readily apparent that this concept rings true in more aspects of life then just writing. WoW has hit a point where redundancy has begun to breed contempt in players caused by a noticeable lack of new game content.

This flaw first came to light during Tuesday's run through Karazhan but blossomed completely last night. I should preface this by stating that yesterday's run through Karazhan was perhaps the sloppiest and least organized run through Karazhan we have had in months. Mindlessly wiping to mobs we have had on "farm status" for months. Brain-numbing mistakes such as breaking Flame Wreaths on Shade of Aran and fumbling tank switches on Netherspite. Ironically, the roulette wheel known as Prince Malchezzar was one-shot, a boss that is as much luck as it is skill. Regardless, it was apparent that our guild members have become complacent and that complacency has settled into not taking the same redundant encounters seriously. It is the results stemming from repeating these same encounters for months on end.

With the promise of tier 6 quality gear for Badges of Justice, most casual players like myself find themselves in a position where the best way to better their toons is to farm as many badges as possible. For most players, this means grinding Karazhan or the same old heroic instances repeatedly. Perhaps I am in the minority but while easy to obtain badges may appeal to some, I would prefer some new content to experience in conjunction with obtaining badges as opposed to obliterating Heroic Slave Pens for the 100th time or clearing Karazhan repeatedly. It takes the dynamic element of a persistent world and relegates it to a static grind.

The PVP experience is much the same. Exactly how many times does one have to grind Battlegrounds for gear? Here is just a rough estimate:

Let's assume we receive 300 points of honor from each BG we complete. This could be a relatively high estimate but if one focuses on AV, this is not entirely out of the question.
If saving honor points for an item that costs 14,500 honor, it would roughly take 48 1/3 trips to Alterac Valley to accumulate this amount of honor.
If each match takes roughly 20 minutes then it would take 960 minutes to accrue this value of honor or roughly 16 hours of game time.

Sure, there is the daily quest for honor but 300 honor per match is a fairly high estimate if the player does Warsong Gulch persistently. This estimate is not unrealistic. This kind of repetitive game play will inevitably result in burnout sooner or later.

This concept rings true even more for the leveling experience from 1 to 60 as most players have done the newbie areas, westfall, barrens, or other instances countless times. The lack of new content in these areas is staggering, with only a revamped Duskwallow Marsh and the two newbie areas from Burning Crusade being implemented since release. One could argue that the Duskwallow Marsh changes were done sheerly to alleviate the massive population congregated in STV from levels 32 to 40 as the zone is one of the few options available for characters in this demographic. It would have been refreshing to see Blizzard add some more content to Northrend in an effort to revitalize the leveling experience.

Perhaps the greatest area that rings true for WoW in this area is the concept of daily quests. I personally find daily quests incredibly boring. While it does provide the casual player some easy to access gold, it rehashes the same ridiculous quests over and over and over again. At this point, I never want to see Skettis again for any reason. Sure, occasionally I still drag my toons there for gold but I do it not because I enjoy the content but it allows me to better my toon from the gold that results. It is no secret that daily quests were implemented with the notion of running gold farmers out of business more so then providing the player base with more content. It is just more evidence that lends itself to prove that WoW really is a product of marketing versus a truly innovative MMO experience.

Is there a nostalgic feel to WoW? Sure. I still enjoy Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep, Scarlet Monastary, Scholo and many of the original dungeons. Nevertheless, I would still like to see new and exciting places to explore not only with my level 70 toons but my lower level toons as well. And the bottom line is, at this time, one can make the statement that WoW's biggest flaw is its redundancy. After all these years, I'm sure that college English professor would agree.

Rebuttal to Devil's Advocate

2008-03-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

I was handling my six month old daughter this morning, reading some e-mail when I stumbled across this article, linked from MSN's website:

http://www.slate.com/id/2186203

This is a column written by Erik Sofge regarding the passing and the legacy of Gary Gygax. After reading this article's contents, I felt it necessary to respond. Here is the thesis statement to the article:

"But it has to be said: Gary Gygax wasn't a visionary to all of us. The real geeks out there—my homies—know the awkward truth: When you cut through the nostalgia, Dungeons & Dragons isn't a good role-playing game; in fact, it's one of the worst on the market. Sadly, Gygax's creation defines our strange corner of the entertainment world and drowns out all the more innovative and sophisticated games that have made D&D obsolete for decades. (As a game designer, Gygax is far outclassed by contemporaries such as Steve Jackson and Greg Stafford.) It's the reason that tabletop gaming is not only stuck in the pop culture gutter but considered pathetic even by the standards of mouth-breathing Star Trek conventioneers. And with the entire industry continuing to collapse in the face of online gaming, this might be the last chance to see Gygax for what he was—an unrepentant hack, more Michael Bay than Ingmar Bergman."

Mr. Sofge's justification for claiming Gygax was an "unrepentant hack" lies completely on his qualification of himself and "his homies" as "real geeks". Perhaps I missed the segment where he qualifies himself as a "real geek" or what this even means but there is nothing in this article that lends me to that conclusion. To the contrary, his statements and position in this article lead me to believe the opposite. Here are some examples:

"What's wrong with Dungeons & Dragons? It plays like a video game. A good role-playing game provides the framework for a unique kind of narrative, a collaborative thought experiment crossed with improvisational theater. But D&D, particularly the first edition that Gygax co-wrote in 1975, makes this sort of creative play an afterthought. The problem is most apparent in one of Gygax's central (and celebrated) innovations: "experience points." To become a more powerful wizard, a sneakier thief, or an elfier elf (being an elf was its own profession in early editions, which is kind of like saying being Chinese is a full-time job), you need to gain "levels," which requires experience points. And the best way to get experience points is to kill stuff. Every monster, from an ankle-biting goblin to a massive fire-spewing dragon, has a specific number of points associated with it—your reward for hacking it to pieces. So while it's one player's job—the so-called Dungeon Master—to come up with the plot for each gaming session and play the parts of the various enemies and supporting characters, in practice that putative storyteller merely referees one imagined slaughter after another. This is not Tolkien's Middle-Earth, with its anti-fascist political commentary and yearning for an end to glory and the triumph of peace. This is violence without pretense, an endless hobgoblin holocaust."

Something I commented on in a previous article was the death of creativity. It is thinking such as the above that persistently qualifies that line of thinking. Let's start with the fact that D&D is a game. This means that whatever the group of people playing the game enjoy should be its focus. This might be a hack and slash fest or it could be five hours of roleplaying with not a single combat sequence, or a mix of both. The game was what the players made it. A good Dungeon Master would recognize this and tailor the game play session to the group. In many instances, I can recall numerous game play sessions where we had massive plot twists and developed characters. It may not have been to the depth of Tolkien, but I personally would not want to play a D&D campaign tailored to that degree of detail (I'd just read Tolkien, instead). To claim that since the game has structure and an advancement system means that the progression through the game must be as linear as the above is ridiculous. D&D provided a frame work and it was the creativity of the players within that frame work that lends itself to Gygax's vision.

"Here's the narrative arithmetic that Gygax came up with: You come across a family of sleeping orcs, huddled around their overflowing chest of gold coins and magical weapons. Why do orcs and other monsters horde gold when they can't buy anything from the local "shoppes," or share a jug of mead in the tavern, or do anything but gnash their teeth in the darkness and wait for someone to show up and fight them? Who knows, but there they are, and you now have a choice. You can let sleeping orcs lie and get on with the task at hand—saving a damsel, recovering some ancient scepter, whatever. Or you can start slitting throats—after all, mercy doesn't have an experience point value in D&D. It's the kind of atrocity that commits itself."

This is where Mr. Sofge qualifies that he simply doesn't get it. The DM should come up with a reason the players are in this situation. Perhaps the orcs are under the control of an evil wizard or are stealing gold to build their own city or have evolved and wish to take over the current human settlement. No matter what the reason, the players are responsible for the continuity of their game. Each group is different and each group should have fun with their decisions. At least he get something right; the players should play how their character would react to the scenario. It's the quintessential example of the freedom and game play decisions characters have throughout the D&D experience. This is what made the game so different.

"For decades, gamers have argued that since D&D came first, its lame, morally repulsive experience system can be forgiven. But the damage is still being done: New generations of players are introduced to RPGs as little more than a collective fantasy of massacre and greed. If the multiplayer online game World of Warcraft is the direct descendant of D&D, then what, exactly, has Gygax bequeathed to us unwashed, nerdy masses? The notion that emotionally complex story lines are window dressing for an endless series of hack-and-slash encounters? There's a reason so many players are turned off after a brush with D&D. It promises something great—a lively (if dorky) bit of performance art—but delivers a small-minded and ignorant fantasy of rage, distilled to a bunch of arcane charts and die rolls. Dungeons & Dragons strips the "role-playing" out of RPGs; it's a videogame without the graphics, and a pretty boring one, at that."

At this point, I truly question if this individual is qualified to write this article. First, let's get something straight; WoW was not the direct descendant of D&D, Wow was the direct descendant of Everquest. Without the success of Everquest, Blizzard may never go forward with WoW as it is more a product of marketing success than gaming experience. And Everquest, DAoC and Ultima were the descendants of countless MUDs and perhaps the MUDs were indirect descendants of D&D as they are different mediums. So at best, WoW is a fourth or maybe fifth generation descendant to D&D. Regardless, comparing WoW to D&D in this example is out of context. Players do not control anything in WoW other then their character with Blizzard supplying the content (or in D&D terms, playing the role of Dungeon Master). The closest online experience to D&D is D&D Online or Neverwinter Nights 3 while having one player create an adventure for the others. WoW is what it is; a simplified, polished version of Everquest with various game play options designed to appeal to a mass market. D&D is a pen and paper roleplaying game that started the process. In essence, this is apples and oranges.

"There is a way to wring real creativity, and possibly even artistic merit, from this bizarre medium—and it has nothing to do with Gygax and his tradition of sociopathic storytelling. In the mid-1980s, right around the time that Gygax was selling off his company, Steve Jackson began publishing the Generic Universal Roleplaying System, or GURPS. Jackson's goal was to provide the rules to play games in any genre. More importantly, characters in this new system could be fleshed out down to the smallest detail, from a crippling phobia of snakes to a severe food allergy. And when it came to experience points, characters got whatever the "gamemaster" decided. They might earn points for succeeding at a given task or simply for playing their character in a compelling way. Of course, players could still take out their real-life bitterness in a fictional killing spree, and the game master might end up with a bumbling and incoherent story line. But GURPS created the potential for so much more."

I regret to inform the masses but this is what Julie Whitefeather from Virginworlds would classify has Hutzpa. How can one justify that since a game published in the mid 1980's has better structured gameplay then a game published in the mid 1970's then that means the creator of the older game was a "hack"? That's like saying, "Wow, Dell sucks because the graphics card in my laptop in 2008 has more ram then my entire laptop did in 1998." Are you joking me? According to this article, Mr Sofge is a "contributing editor to Popular Mechanics" so under that pretense one would believe he is familiar with the progression of technological advancement. The same applies in virtually every aspect of life. Cars have 40 gig hard drives, Cell phones have GPS trackers and Internet access, and roleplaying games have evolved into online games. It's not so much that Gygax's game didn't have flaws, of course it did. It's the fact that his game was creative, innovative and is largely responsible for the success of tabletop and online gaming. To classify Mr Gygax as a hack using this feeble of a supporting argument is highly questionable.

"There are other complex, challenging games out there, and GURPS is still in print. But the bloodthirsty Dungeons & Dragons franchise remains a bestseller. If it seems overly harsh to fault Gygax for his seminal work, keep in mind that in 1987 he helped create the gaming equivalent of Plan 9 From Outer Space. In the now-infamous Cyborg Commando, you play a man-bot battling an invasion of alien insects. Unfortunately, you seem to have been built for comedic effect, with lasers that shoot out of your knuckles and your brain inexplicably transferred to your torso. That frees up cranial space so you can suck liquids through your nose for further analysis. Not that there are any rules for said chemical analysis, or for much of anything, really. Gygax wasn't much for the details. In the end, his games are a lot like his legacy: goofy, malformed, and fodder for a self-deprecating joke or two—before being shoved in the closet for good."

Why do we need complex rules for chemical analysis if we are playing a game? People play games to relax and to escape, not chart the chemical breakdown of polysaccharides. The bottom line is that if the players are enjoying the game then who cares about a specific set of rules to deal with such trivial situations? Most players of D&D will tell you countless rules lawyering ruins the D&D experience. And to mock the creative nature of any game is misguided. The fact that there is a game that lets people shoot lasers out of their fingers and analyze chemicals lends itself to creativity, which in my mind is a good thing. In the end, this author appears to be attempting to play devil's advocate on a subject he isn't qualified to write about in a situation where such a position is neither necessary or plausible. I for one will place Mr. Sofge's article where it belongs; in the closet for good.

Preparation or Progression

2008-03-10T16:36:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I watched Brett Favre retire from the game of football. For many, this announcement came as a bit of a surprise. His team made it to the NFC Championship Game, losing to the eventually champion, New York Giants. From a progression standpoint, his team made it to the "final four" of the NFL season, which for most teams, is solid progression. One may have felt that this kind of showing would entice Brett to return for another season, seeing how close he was to another Super Bowl. However, Brett decided that the mental preparation for another season was too much. He felt that the preparation was not worth the progression, even though the progression was clearly visible. Oddly enough, This led to a rather odd segue into my current scenario with my WoW guild on Twisting Nether.

Should we continue to attempt 25 man progression in Burning Crusade or should we prepare to gear up through other means for WoTLK?

At first, it seems like a silly question. Most of us want to see the other zones and areas in BC just to experience the content. From that standpoint, it seems like a good enough reason to keep plugging away. Yet the main challenge we face night in and night out is a lack of players that play during our time frame (12am - 4am EDT). We constantly have issues fielding more then 25 players on at any one time to really begin pushing 25 man content. If we had the numbers, it would be a no brainer. The question I have to ask myself at this point is "Is it really worth it now?

We could be content doing 10 man content. Zul'Aman is not bad and has fairly decent RvR for its content. But even that zone has caused us headaches with having the right mix of players to attack the zone. Not having AOE for the gauntlet before Akil'zon causes major issues to a degree where we have made virtually no progress in months. Proactive efforts to recruit have now been ongoing for a nearly equivalent time frame with marginal results thus far. We are ever so close to being at the point where we have the right class balance. Yet it may be too late for it to matter. There is a storm coming and the game is evolving around that storm.

The cloud that hangs over our head is the cloud named Wrath of the Lich King. Yes, it is likely several months away, maybe even as late as November-December 2008 but my guess is more like 5-6 months away. This sounds like a significantly long time but without more raiders in our guild, we will find ourselves in Kara/ZA until the expansion, whenever it rolls out. The question then becomes do we progress through ZA or do we find other means to prepare for the expansion.

Math time...

The BG option

Currently I have 3 piece of season 1 pvp gear. Assuming I complete the set along with the vindicator accents and necessary weapons, I am looking at around 165,000 honor and many tokens from all battlegrounds. At 2,000 honor a day, this would take roughly 82 days to achieve. This takes us to about the end of May to grind out a comparable PVP set in a rather casual amount of time. This seems fairly reasonable to grind out and would net some solid gear to use for the upcoming level grind. There is also the chance that season 4 will start and the season 2 gear would be available for honor purchases,making this reasonable.

The Arena Option

There is also the Arena option. First and foremost, this forces me to spec arms, which I am not terribly well geared to do. As such, I would almost certainly grind out the belt, bracers, boots, rings and necklaces before doing BGs. There is no way to upgrade the gear otherwise. This in and of itself would net 45 days of BGs. After that, grinding roughly 300 arena points a week would take several weeks just to get one piece. I currently have around 1400 arena points saved up. Assuming 300 points a week, this takes roughly 22.5 weeks to get the entire season 3 set minus the shoulders. That's nearly 6 months. Unless I stumble into a team that can carry me and grind out significantly more then 300 points a week, this is not a viable option.

The Stagnant Option

Then there is the stagnant option; continue to farm Karazhan and Heroic Badges for the upcoming Patch. Karazhan has long been on farm status and the guild as a whole is rather sick of clearing it. However, Blizzard has placed new incentive to obliterating the zone week in and week out. I'm going to go on record and guess that patch 2.4 to be live by April 2nd. Assuming this is the case, this leaves roughly four weeks to farm badges of justice before the patch goes live. Then there is the wait for the content to be opened to the masses. Twisting Nether is a rather retarded server in terms of progression with only one Illidan farming guild on the server and none really close to following. Let's give ourselves five weeks just for posterity. A full clear of Karazhan is 22 badges of justice. If we do the daily heroic three times a week, this nets 2 badges per day while the instance we run could net anywhere from 3-5 badges itself. We also could grind heroics on downtime with most being easy mode and completed in very short time frames these days. Let's assume three dailies a week and a full Karazhan clear:

5 X 3 = 15 + 22 = 37

37 X 5 = 185 Badges of Honor in five weeks.

This could be more if I grinded more badges of justice via non daily instances or played more. 185 Badges can purchase a fair amount of gear. Granted, there is some limitations to what gear can be purchased but the bottom line is that this is seemingly the easiest way to gear up in the current format. This clearly seems the most time friendly option from a preparation standpoint, but this really does nothing for progression.

So in the end, the question remains; Progression or Preparation. At this point, the only option seems to be preparation as we don't have the numbers to grind out 25 man content and this relegates a tank obsolete. Sure, if the opportunity presents itself, 25 man content would prevail but this isn't the case with little change in sight. From a risk versus reward standpoint, the math is clearly favoring skipping tier 5 content entirely. The gear obtainable via badges is just as good or better. Yet knowing the gunslinger that Favre was, I know where his heart would lie....

WoW Perspectives: Volume #1 - Introduction

2008-03-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first weekly installment to WoW Perspectives. Each week, I will delve into some personal rants, raves and experiences through the game of WoW. This could be a myriad of topics from theorycraft to suggestions for game improvement to editorials to recent raid results but the recurring theme will revolve around the game of World of Warcraft. This weeks article will deal with an introduction to my personal experience through the game to give readers a sense of the circumstances behind the perspectives to come.

In the fall of 2004, I was playing Everquest 2 primarily but the game was disappointing me horribly and many of my real life friends were running with WoW. As a result, I made the move shortly after WoW's release. It was difficult to leave EQ2 behind, as many of my EQ1 friends were giving EQ2 a run but after 34 levels on my troubadour, I just couldn't stomach the game as it was. Severe gameplay changes kept taking place to a degree where I didn't really know my role as a Troubadour. In EQ1, the role of the bard was to provide support to the raid and make everyone else in the group more effective. After a major change in which agility was adjusted and my primary song for melee characters was effectively nerfed into uselessness, I couldn't find groups and had to solo to level. Even with a PGT (Polished Granite Tomahawk, a heritage quest item with roots from EQ1, ahhh...Highpass Hold) which at the time was the best melee weapon I could use, soloing was painstaking. I eventually saw others dropping like flies and going back to EQ1 or quitting altogether. I decided to shelf EQ2 at that point, and focused on WoW exclusively.

Fast forward to today and my WoW character progression reads as follows:

Started with a Night Elf Druid - got to level 34 and stopped playing the druid. At the time, the feral and balance tree were god awful.
Switched servers and rolled an undead priest. Leveled to 60. Played primarily a healer role as I did in EQ1 (my main EQ1 toon was a cleric).
Rolled an alt on that same server and leveled a tauren druid to 60. Once again, I played the healer role for a group of real life friends. At the time, druid healers were much different then they are today. I recall having to spec resto to really heal effectively early on (Wailing Caverns comes to mine). Nevertheless, I always enjoyed the druid class quite a bit in WoW.
We did some raiding with the guild but I switched shifts at my job and found myself working primarily 2nd shift. As a result, I would always come home too late to do much of anything. The group of real life friends I had played with also migrated to other games or interest so I found myself solo frequently. I ran my priest as a disc/holy healbot for a while (GoGo power infusion version 1.0). I made many a warrior and mage happy but never really found a stable to play consistently. I contemplated quitting but I still enjoyed the game, I just didn't have people to enjoy the game with anymore.
After several months of searching, I found a guild on a new server that was playing the game in my time frame. I asked what the guild needed and the response was a warrior. Thus, my current main toon was born. After several weeks, I was level 60 and this toon is now level 70.
This fall, I caught the druid itch again and leveled a druid from 1 to 70 as well. What a difference a few years make! Mangle is just incredible and the balance tree is just a ton of fun. As it stands now, my druid is resto but come expansion time, I will revert back to feral for the level grind.
Just recently, I rolled a mage. Our guild is very short on main mages so the next best thing is alt mages. She is only level 14 at the moment but with the new quest rewards, hopefully the leveling process will be short. I enjoy the content but at this point, we need mages badly.

I currently play a level 70 protection warrior, 70 restoration druid and a level 14 mage who has yet to spend any talent points. I am unsure as to how I wish to level her but I must admit, I am leaning toward frost. Frost seems more tactical and I find myself gravitating to that kind of gameplay frequently. By admission, I am a very numbers oriented player in most respects. I enjoy reading the theorycraft and will often experiment with builds and read some of the information the raiding community provides. Most mage boards seem to advocate leveling fire up to 40 and then respecing to deep frost for the elemental. Others just stick with the "Three minute mage" variants or a deep fire build. At any rate, I will start with the frost build and go forward and see if I enjoy the style or not.

My warrior is currently epicced out in mostly Karazhan gear. She sits at 15k hp unbuffed with around 505 defense. I am a bit concerned as her static dodge rate is nearly 24%, which will become a liability later in progression (See strats on Zul'Jin for specifics). As such, I will begin the process of waning some of the dodge gear out. Her current tanking spec is 12/5/44, which is an efficiency style build. It is designed for maximum rage efficiency at the expense of some mitigation and utility. There are positives and negatives to all builds and this particular build has served me very well throughout Karazhan although I am leaning toward 8/5/48 for ZA soon. 8/5/48 is the "cookie-cutter" tanking build in the game but there are different variations to it. Some choose Improved Defense Stance while others choose Improved Shield Wall. I personally see little difference with Improved Defense Stance this early in progression. 3 talent points for 6% seems like a stretch. To qualify, a 5,000 aoe attack with improved defensive would only mitigate 300 damage. This seems useless to me at least for three talent points. Further along in progression, 6% spell damage may make a difference; currently it does not. So, until the need arises, I'll stick with my 12/5/44 and maximize threat per rage.

My druid currently sits with a mish mash of Karazhan epics, quest items, PVP gear and green junk. Nevertheless, she sits at around +1150 healing and wakes in fear of the upcoming Lifebloom healing coefficient nerf. I am not looking forward to this as it basically relegates druids a distant fourth for PVE healing. There may even be questions as to exactly how useful a druid healer may be post patch to a degree where we see fewer druid healers and more druid tanks. There is supposedly a tank shortage serverwide. This seems like a rather nasty way to increase tank population. Again, this is speculation but if the PTR changes go through, it will be interesting to see how much this change hurts.

So, in a nutshell (or in this case a blog) that is how I ended up playing WoW and now provide the masses with some insights to my gaming. Any suggestions regarding how to spec a baby mage are more then welcome as my knowledge of the classes is marginal. Until next time...

The Spark that Starts the Inferno

2008-03-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

In the onset of this blog, I described how I personally became acquainted with online gaming. It seemed like a proper way to establish an MMO Blog. Yet with the news of this morning, I can't help but provide an even greater background.

Perhaps twenty years ago, a group of friends introduced me to a game called "Dungeons and Dragons". It was unlike anything I personally had ever experienced with an emphasis on personality and critical thinking. It encouraged reading, tactics and it encouraged imagination more than television and definitely more then Atari and Nintendo. Hours and hours of exploring dungeons, disarming traps, speaking to locals, entertaining crowds and saving the world are great memories of my childhood. In most respects, this was truly the introduction to the RPG world for myself. And many of us gamers who now play any fantasy MMO can look to the late Gary Gygax for providing the spark that set the current MMO Inferno.

Without D&D, one can make a strong case that MMOs in their current format may never exist. First person shooters could easily have been the focal point for the MMO genre. Sure, we may have had an early version of Planetside but very possibly we would have had no DAoC, no Everquest and without Everquest, there most likely would be no WoW. Sure, MMO games may have evolved, but would MMO games thrive the way they thrive today? The fantasy genre appeals to so many demographics it's hard to imagine a more successful medium.

Every person on Earth has the opportunity to set a positive foundation for those who come after their time has expired. If the legacy of a man's life is measured by the volume of positive influence he has had on his fellow man, Mr Gygax can rest peacefully knowing he has left a positive influence on millions of people worldwide and millions more to come.

RIP Gary Gygax; the world would be a different place without your vision.

Creativity's Revivication

2008-03-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

In the last post, I posed the following question to the readers:

If given all financial resources required, what type of MMO would you create?

After giving some thought to the question, here are the results:

Setting: Outer Space

Whatever setting chosen had to be fun and interesting. Fictional settings lend themselves better then historical settings because historical settings have boundaries where non fictional settings can be molded without thought. One setting that really stood out to me were 19Th Century America, with a wide open western frontier, various Indian tribes and the Civil War. There are a multitude of possibilities with this theme. The second theme was outer space, most notably our most local solar system. There are 8 planets and a host of dwarf planets to visit with moons, asteroids, comets and the like. The scale of such a world would have to be immense to capture a realistic feel and this can lead to issues if done poorly so I was a bit leery of this setting although if done well, it could be breath-taking. The third setting that seemed good for potential use was a totally fictional world from scratch. This world would need to have a high degree of verisimilitude yet also have some defining characteristics that will make it interesting. No one wants to play a game in a boring world. The sky would be the limit with this kind of undertaking. While all three settings appealed to me, I chose outer space for this example. In reality, all of them could work in the right scenario.

Story

It is the year 2777 and Earth is in peril. Virtually all the natural resources remaining on the planet has been consumed. For the sake of survival, human kind must begin cultivating resources from other, non life sustaining worlds. Unfortunately, other species on other planets have also evolved and begun the process of harvesting raw materials from other worlds. It is only a matter of time until the evolved races inevitably collide. The competition for survival has begun!

Races

I personally would include a diverse amount of races although the more races, the more difficult the balance issues become. I believe five seems optimal. Here is a template of some possible race options:

Humans - Humankind of the future. Humans have evolved past their petty differences and bonded together for survival. Faithful and resilient, humans strive to maintain society on Earth by harvesting natural resources from nearby planets and star systems. Peaceful by nature, humankind has strong grasps of physics and can be a deadly adversary if provoked.

Above Average Technology Scores, Average Physical scores, Above Average Faith Scores, No Magic Scores. Bonuses learning new skills as humans are resilient and learn quickly, Bonuses to faith based skills.

Elysians - Stereotypical aliens seen in movies and in abduction accounts. Elysians are now nomadic by nature, roaming from system to system consuming all natural resources encountered. Elitist and malicious, Elysians feel no race in the universe can outmatch their technology and are unconcerned how many species die in their wake.

Exceedingly High Technology Scores, Exceedingly weak physical scores, No Faith Score, Below Average Magic Scores. Bonuses to doing anything using technology, bonuses to learning new skills.

Kord - Super Evolved Insects resembling earth bees. Kord are hive mentality creatures, surviving on their incredible ability to harvest resources throughout space. While possessing little in the way of technology, Kord are powerful creatures, able to naturally survive the vacuum of space. Stories have been told of entire space vessels being obliterated by a swarm of Kord in deep space.

Low Technology Scores, Above average physical scores, Above Average Faith Scores, No Magic Scores. Bonuses to resources gathering, Space Survival, Flight

Vhorses - Vhorses were once similar to humans until their home planet was changed when their home star captured a binary partner. In this event, the Vhorses home planet was pulled closer to its host star; a blue giant that began pouring new radiation into the planet. This initiated a genetic change in the Vhorses, distorting physical appearance while activating genetic dispositions to magical abilities. Vhorses are evil creatures by nature, scolding races that believe in deities and looking to use other races as slaves for the Vhorses advancement.

Average Technology Scores, Average Physical Scores, No Faith Scores, Exceedingly High Magic Scores. Bonuses to Magic, Resistant to radiation, fire.

Wulgar - Wulgar are half feline half humanoid creatures, evolving slowly through a lush jungle ridden planet. Wulgar are hunters by nature and have only recently begun the exploration of space. Wulgar care little for space combat but are amongst the most formidable melee combatants in all of space. Wulgar have a nutrient rich planet and are forced to defend it frequently. Wulgar have currently begun space travel to better understand why their home planet has been the target of invasions.

Below Average Technology Scores, Exceedingly High Physical Scores, High Faith Scores, No Magic Scores. Bonuses to physical combat, bonuses to physical speed

Classes

Without creating a combat system or what not, here are some general ideas for some classes:

Engineers - Fix technology items, create bombs, weapons, traps and create robots to fight for them

Pilots - Fly both transport ships, battle ships and fighters. Make modifications to ships as they see fit.

Brawler - Ground combat unit - Strength: Melee Combat

Infantry - Ground combat unit - Strength: Ranged Combat

Skirmishers - Ground combat unit - Strength: Versatility

Scout - Fly scout ships for recon, Ground combat unit - Strength: Subterfuge

Certain races would have very different classes. Vhorses would have spell casters while the Kord would have insect subtypes such as Workers and Solders.

Kord Soldier - Insect Soldier specializing in melee combat - able to survive in space and in planetary systems. Able to fly in planetary systems

Vhorses Shadowcaster - Ranged combat specialist focused on dark energy attacks doing significant damage.

Gameplay

Imagine a space combat sequence with traditional flying saucers fighting giant space insects fighting in a huge crab nebula. Or a ground combat sequence on the frigid snow plains of Enceladus during a cryovolcanic eruption. These are the kinds of things that would make a game such as this interesting. Combat should be more then button mashing but not plotting three dimensional spaces. I don't have too many specifics with it but, it should be engaging and not brain numbing or uninteresting.

In conclusion, it is important to note this took about an hour or so to just toss out on paper. With more planning and thought, I'm sure more detail and information could be provided. While there are obvious holes and issues, this is simply an exercise in brainstorming. Feel free to provide other ideas and concepts. Who knows, in five years, we all could be battling Vhorses Shadowcasters on the molten peaks of Io.

The Death of Creativity

2008-03-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Something that truly drives me crazy is the amount of hideous rehash the Entertainment industry provides the American consumer each year. Exactly how many Batman movies do we really need? Please take Rocky whatever and destroy it. While I am a fan of the Indiana Jones series, I can't help but question if a 65 year old Harrison Ford can really sell the role of Indiana Jones 19 years after his last trip to find the Holy Grail. And for those who might have missed the bus on this one, Coolio's most memorable song, "Gangsta's Paradise" was formerly a Stevie Wonder song entitled "Pastime Paradise". The lyrics are different, but the music is nearly identical.

So, exactly why does this occur? Well, the answer is perhaps a universal answer to more questions then anything on Earth. The answer is money.

To get a movie funding, a producer has to sell it to someone who has the money to invest for its production. These could be anyone from venture capital firms, private investors or a large studio. By simply choosing rehash, the producer gains an advantage because the individual who has to be sold on the concept is probably already familiar with it.

Another huge factor is marketability. It isn't difficult to sell Batman or The Lord of The Rings to the American public. People are familiar with these titles and that familiarity may sell tickets regardless of how bad a movie may be.

Perhaps the largest consequence this practice has is that in many respects, creativity dies. What I mean by that is it is significantly easier to simply find a Intellectual Property and run with it versus creating new intellectual properties. Every year more and more movies fall into this trap and every year I personally find myself going to fewer movies.

This trend has already begun in the land of MMOs. Matrix Online, LoTRO, and SWG to name a few. Games such as this already have movie and literary fan bases and those fan bases are critical for marketability. It means that no matter how bad a game may be, people will play just to be a part of the lore.

There is one clear beacon of brilliance in the MMO realm and that beacon is EVE Online. There really isn't anything like it and it is unlikely that there ever will be. The depth and technical complexity provide a creative niche in the world of MMOs. It is a credit to CCP for its innovation. It is thinking such as this that needs more credit for its approach.

While I do play World of Warcraft, I can't help but admit it's simply a product of marketing. Blizzard carefully examined the landscape of the MMO world, what players enjoyed, what players did not enjoy and engineered a game that would above anything else, sell boxes out of stores. In terms of MMO depth, WoW is rather average as the fantasy MMO has been done and done well in the past; in the realm of MMO Marketing, it's the quintessential example of how to tailor a product to a consumer base. In other words, its a product of creative marketing and in a sense, should be provided credit at least in that respect, given it's overwhelming success.

So, now to my point. I provide the readers my first question for the masses:

If given all financial resources required, what type of MMO would you create?

The only rule with this is that it cannot be a current Intellectual Property. As with most things in life, the higher degree of detail, the better. This doesn't mean source code is required but a good understanding of the background, setting, characters, classes and the general driving force behind the game should be provided. The purpose of this exercise in thought is just that; to think and create. Being stagnant is the first step to death. A process that has long begun for the motion picture industry and one that has nearly consumed commercial music.

I look forward to any and all responses. Next post, I will provide my feedback and thoughts of an MMO idea of my own. Until then, stay warm as I toss another copy of Spiderman 3 into the campfire.

The Quintessential Lesson

2008-02-29T18:32:00.000-08:00

My current guild on World of Warcraft is rather casual with minimal guild drama and marginal progression. We target a very specific demographic of people and play on an RP-PVP server, which isn't conducive to recruiting. As such, we have virtually no 25 man raid experience but have had Karazhan on farm for many months at this venue. With that said, recently we had a new member run Karazhan with us and collect some gear. He seemed like a decent guy and a good player and by the end of the night, he had a guild tag. All seemed well as growth in a guild such as ours is a difficult task. Unfortunately, by the next week, he randomly /gquits and joins a different guild without notice or remark. At first, It was a bit abrupt and disappointing as fielding 25 people for us is difficult. Losing people at the rate we grow does not lend itself to exploring further content. Alas, sometimes things work themselves out for the best.

Yesterday, I had the distinct displeasure of logging into the WoW Realm forums and learning this individual apparently ninja looted an item in a normal five man group. While the details of this event were convoluted at best, it is apparent that this individual did indeed ninja loot the item. Of course, this warranted the flame thread where I learned this information. Now various people are taking time out of their day to flame each other. Perhaps I am in the minority but when I think of playing a game, having the equipment ninja looted by one of the members ruins the experience. Not because I care about the loot; because I care about the people in the game. And actions such as that, qualify that one of the individuals in the group isn't someone who I truly wish to associate.

In nine years of online gaming, it is easy to learn that in game items, most notably in games such as Everquest or World of Warcraft, have a shelf life. My Everquest cleric was at one point one of the best geared toons serverwide. Fast forward several years and I would be outclassed by even the most casual player of EQ. I really don't remember looting many of those items on that toon, yet I see the old guild's message boards and stay in touch with the people who I spent hours and hours grinding mobs and learning content. World of Warcraft is even more severe with TBC rendering even some of the most challenging pre TBC raid content obsolete.

The Quintessential Lesson is to play the game for enjoyment and the enjoyment of the others who share the experience. The true rewards are the friends you make along the way. They are the one non piece of virtual loot in virtual worlds. The items are binary code.

An Introduction: A Glimpse into the Hollow

2008-02-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

In reality, a squirrel's den is nothing more then a hollowed out domicile, used for shelter and warmth by Tamiasciurus Hudsonicus (American Red Squirrel). From a metaphorical standpoint, this blog will mimic such a place. It will be a small escape from the world of $3 gas prices, traffic and global warming and instead focus on the virtual worlds of MMORPGs (Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games) with a focus on World of Warcraft. Before I continue, I feel it necessary to provide some background regarding who I am, my experiences within online games and a general direction of the blog in weeks to come.

Many years ago, a good friend of mine was discussing his downtime from work. One of the items he mentioned as a hobby was a game he played called "The Moosehead Sled". Without getting into too much detail, it was a very simplistic form of online roleplaying game. It consisted of classes, races and random number generators, designed to progress a character through levels. The major difference between the Moosehead Sled and today's MMORPGs was that the Moosehead Sled was all text based, much like old school Dungeons and Dragons. Nevertheless, the game was very interesting to watch and marked an introduction into online gaming.

Several months later, Verant launched Everquest in March of 1999. Having caught the online gaming bug, I purchased a copy and the rest was history. For five years, endless Mistmoore and Karnor's Castle trains and an unbelievable ride through the Planes of Power and beyond, I found myself investing excessive amounts of time raiding with my guild on the Quellious server. After defeating most of the bosses in Gates of Discord, I felt it necessary to reallocate my time in other ways. Quite simply, while raiding was excellent fun, it was an incredible time investment. At that point, I felt my online gaming experience had come to an end.

Then, out of the blue, a friend introduced me to Planetside. Planetside was a far cry from EQ and didn't require the extreme time investments to make headway. For two years, we had a great time with the game. Unfortunately, Planetside really never evolved and after some issues with hacking and imbalances, we stopped playing the game. On occasion, I activate my Sony account to play for old time sakes but the amount of cheating that takes place on an every day basis takes the fun out of the game. (And by seeing the total lack of players on all servers, the cheating seems to have taken the players out of the game, too.)

After being gameless for about two months, we settled into World of Warcraft and that is where we currently reside for the time being. The game is fun and polished and relatively easy to play with a family and a full time job. At this stage of my life, that's exactly what's necessary.

I know what you're thinking and you're right. Yes Squirrel, this is all great. You seem like you have lots of gaming experience but, quite frankly, I don't care. What's the point of your blog? What can I expect to read? Why should I read it? Well, I'm glad you asked...

The contents of this blog are the opinions and thoughts of me, the squirrel unless otherwise noted. Any content that is not original will be sited with a source. Providing credit to where credit is due is paramount in any literary medium.
The opinions listed upon the blog are just that; opinions. I don't claim to hold the truth in all scenarios. On the contrary, it is beneficial to obtain some dissension. Bill Gates once said "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning". In the context of debates, the individuals that disagrees vehemently with a given topic may provide the most interesting debates.
Debates are encouraged to be civil. Posts full of profanity may be deleted. A post will never be deleted for an opposing viewpoint.
Content posted that does not pertain to the blog or that is deemed as malicious to the site will be deleted. This includes things such as keyloggers, trojans, or links to commercial websites.
Readers may suggest topics to discuss although if I feel unqualified to write on such a subject, I will make that reader aware of the situation. While I am well versed in a variety of topics, I will never write on a subject that I don't feel qualified to provide insight upon.
I don't claim to be a fanboy of any game and will try my best to be as impartial as possible. No game is perfect and the flaws and imperfections of the industry will inevitably be a topic of discussion someday.
Accountability for statements made by all on this blog are the responsibility of the individual who provided the statement and all statements made on this blog by myself will be qualified or defended when necessary. The degree of anonymity used within the parameters of the blog will be kept to a minimum.
Articles posted on the site will be in my writing style, which has a degree of magniloquence and sophistication. This goes against conventional wisdom as most professional writers will stick with a "less is more" attitude, which is in many cases the best road to take. Readers are encouraged to comment upon how this style of writing conveys the necessary message with each post.
These guidelines are subject to additions and modifications as the need arises.

In conclusion, I want to thank anyone who has made it this far. The first topic of discussion will be posted as soon as possible and it is our hope and desire that the blog become a regular contributor to the MMO community. Until next time...