WoW expansion speculation

Well the internet chat wires are full of rumors of what two new races World of Warcraft will have in their upcoming expansion. Just a couple things I wanted to say... without fueling the fire to a specific race.

1. The new races don't need to "balance" out Alliance vs Horde. Horde does not need to get a "pretty" race to balance out NEs. The Horde does not need to get a "short" race to even out Gnomes. The Alliance does not need a "big" race to even out Taurens. This is the sort of thinking that lead to cookie cutter racial traits instead of varied and unique traits.

"They still haven't even told us if the races are specifically aligned with one side." - Heartless_

2. Goblins could be a new race. They still haven't even told us if the races are specifically aligned with one side. I'd like you to find anywhere where they said they have! Goblins could very well be a new race that BOTH sides got to play. Goblins would then be neutral and could attack both sides. However they could ally themselves with one side to visit their cities, but to become friendly with both Alliance and Horde would be a very difficult task! We could essentially wind up with TWO new races like this!

I almost fainted when I logged in this morning...

Almost 3/4 of rank 6 gained with a BELOW average week for myself. I ranked high at 263 overall, but felt I had a two day string of really bad Arathi Basin groups. Well I am now 1/4 away from getting my goal of rank 7! A little less Battlefield 2 and Day of Defeat:Source and I may just have made it to rank 7!

Grats to Blizzard for listening!

WoW Patch 1.8 - Blizzard gets a clue?

Link to the World of Warcraft 1.8 patch notes.

To start off I just want to say that I am surprised by this patch. I don't get to play tuesdays because the servers are down for weekly maintenance during my play time... so I really don't do anything with WoW unless there is a patch going live. Well 1.8 blind sided me and now that I am at work... I am catching up on the patch notes. But enough of my boring life... onto the commentary.

Disturbance at the Great Trees and The Stirring of the Silithid... or as I like to call them... epic loot for the casual crowd. No long raid instances! The dragons should offer the chance for pick up raids to hopefully beat them into the ground. The new content in Silithus basically breaks down into grind for epic items. Will have to see how it pans out though.

Next we have "The mechanics of most instant melee attacks have been modified to improve item balance." Probably the most controversial of the patch changes... but it really doesn't need to be. Most epic weapons are now better than their blue cousins. Fix that was needed... even though I hate loot being > player skill. You were near the top end with easier to get blue items... but now those are slightly nerfed. Oh well.

My favorite patch note... "The percentage of players that may reach ranks 6 through 14 has been increased." Finally!

Then there is... "Alterac Valley has received an overhaul", but I doubt this will pull people out of Arathi Basin. Most people only grind the FOTM battleground because of the epic rewards for exalted and revered reputation. Which just got easier... "Each Battleground has an individual turn-in quest associated with its related victory/loss condition. Upon completion of a Battleground, the winning side will be awarded three Marks of Honor while the losing side will be awarded one Mark of Honor. Three Marks of Honor may be turned in to the associated questgiver for Honor Points and faction increase. Should players complete this turn-in quest, they will find that the bonus Honor Points for completion are twice that of normal turn-in conditions (individual)." Hopefully it does make it easier and maybe gets some more battlegrounds open.

Bug fix that has been around forever for my shaman class... "Ghost Wolf - Will now correctly have its cast time reduced by Nature's Swiftness."

Leatherworking got A LOT of new items... so maybe it is a good thing I held onto it. However I don't have skinning anymore so probably be stuck in the auction house for materials.

"Latency upon entering crowded areas, such as Ironforge and Orgrimmar, should be substantially reduced." I am skeptical at best on this... we will see when I log on tommorow.

Farmers = OWNED. "Tyr's Hand now has the proper outdoor elite monster respawn time.
Hearthglen now has the proper outdoor elite respawn time." Never could figure out why these places spawned every couple seconds resulting in the perfect gold farming spots.

Overall it seems Blizzard is making some good moves. I must say that I am surprised and I will continue to play :) This is exactly what I needed to stay interested!

On Game Worlds - bojoism blog

Technorati.com is becoming my new favorite website to waste time on. I've spent a good chunk of time just searching millions of blogs around the net for my favorite topics: MMORPGs and gaming!

So tonight I found a blog post about MMORPG game worlds. (Removed broken link to original article.)

A little preview;

"The simple truth is that this genre is stagnant. In my opinion it will ultimately take complex variations of A.I. to generate and run a world dynamic enough that the 2,000 “heros” on a server aren’t the only things that make the world seem truly alive. NPC interaction should be just as important as player interaction, although players should have priority on how earth shattering their decisions are in relation to the world, since they are after all the heros.";

And my response:

Stagnant is very true!

I wouldn’t say WoW is innovative in anyway at all. It is simpler, more attainable, and straight forward. That is a better description for their removal of so many tedius things that plague other MMORPGs. Sadly at level 60 that world changes and WoW is EXACTLY the same as any other MMORPG with a grind.

Here is my firm belief on SWG. It needed to have the economy of EVE online and the action of an FPS. Add in exciting space combat that EVE lacks and you have a killer game. If you try real hard you could play both and imagine they are a *single* game.

Static worlds is another downfall of WoW. So much potential with the recent plague that hit and Blizzard failed to provide anything fun to do with it. They could of created quests for cures or quests to escort doctors from far away lands. Sadly Blizzard doesn’t develop like that and I seriously doubt live events will ever occur in WoW like promised. And if live events do occur they will be relatively canned experiences.

A good MMORPG needs to be about the business as much as it is about the game. If the business model fails then the game will also. If the game fails then so does the business. However, good business practices can keep crappy games a float for a little bit. SWG is a perfect example of a brand name supporting an MMORPG. Getting a license for hot brand names is good business.

Play what you enjoy. I am pissed at myself for being so addicted to WoW and that I just can’t shake it. I end up logging out in anger more than anything. I play on my alts a lot which is pretty fun, but I have no drive since I have a 60 Shaman already.

On a side note; the best thing about blogs is they let us play with those “perfect MMO” ideas with like minded people."

Update: 10 Nov, 2006 - Removed broken link, edited post, and applied labels.

My BF2 video @ Google videos!

Checking around the net and did a search for "BF2" on Google Videos. Here is my result.

I had submitted this video a long time ago (See original post here) and for some reason I was never able to see it or get it to show on a video search. Even the link that google provided for the video did not work! So I wrote Google's free video hosting service as a broken tool.

Lo' and behold... it works. Will have to see why it took forever to display via Google Video and possibly use it for more uploads.

Required Reading: Chrono Trigger

EatMyBomb, a blog I found through Technorati, has a great article up about the SNES RPG, Chrono Trigger. It is one of my all time favorite games!

Link to the article.

From the article;

"The most ingenious part of the game is the combat system. Chrono Trigger uses an Active Time Battle system. It’s a great combination of Turn Based and Real Time combat giving you both detail and fast paced excitement. Each combatant has a time bar that must fill before they can carry out an action. Higher levels and speed upgrades allow your time bar to fill faster, while magics like Haste and Slow can temporarily change its pace. The combat keeps you on your toes. If you spend too much time deciding what to do, your enemy’s time bar will fill and they’ll get another attack. Once your time bar is full you can attack, use items, or use tech which can be magic or special moves. There are also combo moves called double techs and triple techs which two or three characters can use together. You acquire these combos when certain characters spend enough time together in combat. This adds extra replayability to the game if you want to acquire all of the combos between all the players. The tech animations are exciting to watch, but never slow the action down like they do in some of the Final Fantasy games."

Update: 10 Nov, 2006 - Edited post and applied labels.
Update: 7 Jul, 2008 - Edited label.

TotalBF2.com discussion thread

TotalBF2.com thread on my 1.03 commentary post. Enjoy!

Update: 6 Nov, 2006 - Updated post and applied labels.

Battlefield 2 Patch 1.3

So what is so good about this patch? Well it fixes a lot of things... and by fix I mean changes that were needed! First and foremost the requirements for each rank have been reduced SIGNIFICANTLY! I logged in and after a few kills I was awarded three new ranks.

This allowed me to finally unlock some more weapons instead of the pansy medic weapon I had already unlocked. I can't tell you how insanely unbalanced the ranks were... it would of taken me years of gaming to get the rank that I have with the 1.03 patch. A very good change indeed!

Next you won't be running anyone over by just touching them with vehicles anymore. You actually have to hit them full force! This is great considering how ultimately lame it had been to get killed anytime a vehicle so much as grazed you.

Commanders no longer get teamkills for artillery strikes. Good for pick up games, but probably will be abused in organized matches. It still kills your own team, but no punishment.

Many improvements to the in-game server browser. Still pissed off that the server browser was released in such a crappy condition. Also the patch broke the Xfire and other server programs ability to launch into a server. There is a fix... here.

Various other changes in the patch also and the addition of a new map, Wake Island. It is a remake of the BF1942 classic map and is the first map I ever played any BF game on :) Sadly the new version seems to be getting mixed reviews. I have yet to play it much.

Overall I am happy with the patch, but still have some requests for *changes* to make the game even better.

1. Vehicle vs Infantry kills should only give the driver/shooter one point for the kill. I am sick and tired of matches where the gold/silver are just tank/aircraft whores.

2. Sniper rifles still feel horribly inaccurate 50% of the time and still are extremely weak. A shot to the chest or head area should = death.

3. Increase accuracy of support machine guns. Bullets should drop off at a shorter distance to prevent long range sniping.

4. Tanks should be easier to destroy... fewer AT rockets required.

5. Map balance... give infantry more damn places to hide so we stop getting raped by the vehicle whores.

Rank 6!

Finally hit rank 6 in WoW tonight. Tanglefoot is now a Stone Guard. My new goal is Rank 7, but I doubt Arathi Basin will still be going strong in a few weeks. Without Arathi Basin I will have literally no access to a decent, quick, and fun battleground :( We will see what happens!

Movie Review: A History of Violence

What a movie! I am fully aware that a lot of critics have a joking response to this movie. IMHO, this movie is full of comedy that sticks oddly in your throat. It is uncomfortable in the way that it makes you want to watch it. It drags you in and throws you around.

In essence the story is of a small town man, Tom Stalls (Viggo Mortensen), who when faced by a pair of murderous robbers in his coffee shop performs in a way that lends the viewer to believe there is something else behind this man. To tell you more would be to ruin the movie.

Some people will not understand the ending... the purpose... or why it ends where it ends. Honestly, I don't see why it ended where it did. The story felt cut off... at a point where I was really drawn into the movies core. That core is Tom's family and how it dealt with the situation at hand.

Like Stephen Kings masterpiece, The Shining, it is about the degradation of the family under extraordinary circumstances that interests me. The movie version of The Shining failed to deliver on the family aspect, but the book does not fail.

In a strange way I caught myself thinking back to The Shining and how A History of Violence sort of completed the family aspect. How do families respond when their entire world is flipped upside down? Sadly A History of Violence will leave you sitting on that thought, but it goes a long ways to answer some of it with graphic scenes all around.

The violence is graphic, in a way where that makes you feel for the characters and what is happening. Eerily, it compels you to watch. This movie has actors that filled the parts they were cast in. Not one stands out from another. All are believable.

A History of Violence is an outstanding movie for those that care to watch it. If you want cheap thrills then I am sorry... Stealth has already flopped a month ago.