MO4 discussion links and other updates

Update: 9 May, 2009 - Removed post. This will be kept as a placeholder for historical value.

Originally, this post contained links to various reactions to my MO4 article.

MO4 - Overcomplicated Beta sign ups

Two days and two MOs? You're damn straight.

So what brings us to the topic of beta sign ups? Vanguard's recent announcement of their beta 1! Does everyone see me jumping for joy? My past thoughts on Vanguard:SoH.

Lets start out by pointing out what they did correct with this beta phase. First off they are offering it to community members and not a general sign up for everyone with a net connection. That is the correct way to reward your community. Hopefully they don't just pick Joe Schmoes that signed up just to apply for beta, but I doubt it. Well... that ends the good.

The bad? Where to begin. I guess with what "grinds my gears" the worst. Over complicating the process and giving false hope. Here is a perfect example.

"How will you go about selecting participants?

Once you have submitted your application, your name will be added to a list of potential participants. Each week, we will add the needed number of people from that list. Sometimes, they will be chosen based on our specific needs for testing (for example, we might need more testers that play during a particular time of day) and sometimes, names will be chosen pretty much at random."

So now every new beta application is going to be over stating what hours they play or the person submitting it will try to *guess* the *magic combination* of inputs to produce the highest % chance of getting into beta. Congratulations Sigil; you just flooded your beta application pool with a bunch of false information.

But why even have such a process in the first place? If they honestly think they are going to get any sort of actual *testing* (I use the term loosely) from an over-hyped MMORPG community… they obviously failed basic MMORPG sociology. I could link hundreds of beta leaks and broken NDA contracts, but what would be the point?

What you need to know is the fact that betas are infiltrated by those that want sneak peaks at the game. Definitely not by those that truly wish to test the product. Internal testers and paid testers have proved for years to be able to produce very finished products in the single player market. Apply this to the MMORPG market please! I understand some smaller companies would be unable to fund such testing, but this is Sigil and last time I checked they weren’t short on funds.

Sigil is using this beta as a promotion which is a sad fact. Not only that, but they are overcomplicating the process stealing valuable resources from the game itself. How much work is it to review countless beta applications? I have no solid numbers, but there is no way they can convince me that it doesn’t take away from the game development.

The idea of NDAs is also hard for me to understand. World of Warcraft had no problem without one. Blizzard proved exactly what betas are for… a free pass to view the game. This created a knowledgeable community inside and outside of beta. WoW beta only suffered from too much interest, but Blizzard did a remarkable job of eventually getting 500,000 testers online.

Skip the bullshit Sigil and get to stress testing. Nail down game play, get the game launch ready, and hit the stress test hard. Sigil will be balancing this game as any other MMORPG… over time! If you get the game into a state where it is playable, has a sense of balance, and technically stable… you have a beta. Take all the time it takes to review beta applications and put into reviewing and organizing bug reports.

This isn't about me getting into beta at all, because honestly I have no interest in Vanguard. This is about developers wasting time, resources, and energy on overly complicated beta processes. Make it about the damn game already.

Responses to MO3

MO3

World of Warcraft board warriors unite! Enjoy! Here are some highlights...

"If its on the internet, it must be true.
Its really that no one gives a $!@% about your blog, nor do they want to read it.
You want to make a post about something, post here.
BTW, make a name for yourself in PvP before you comment on how good it is or how much it sucks.
5 minutes in AB doesnt make you a professor on the subject." - Bigbear

"Well, everyone in upper pvp ranks keeps up with each other, that how they knew Razor would get high, they keep pushing till boodah gets it, then mags and tanaki, they take time off so they don't pass each other up, dunno.

Not entering av had a positive outcome on that lol, oh well, there are so many things wrong, I don't care anymore." - Enmity

Time misconception between hardcore and casual gamers...

Lifted from a World of Warcraft .com PvP Forum thread (bad link, removed).

"The problem is there is a misconception here. hardcore and casual player have 0 to do with time invested.

Lets say bob the hardcore decides to get to the top rank. He plays 12 hours a day doing nothing but pvp for 2 months and gets it. Time invested= approximately 720 hours.

Joe the casual decides he wants to go for the top rank, he unfortunately can only play 4 hours a day. He does this for a year. Time invested aprroximately= 2190 hours.

Now the problem is obviously hardcore players invest LESS time to get to the top ranks. Its not that casual players dont play enough, its that there is no option for someone who plays 4-6 hours a day every day (which isnt even that casualy) to have a chance in their entire lifetime to make the top rank because of the way the system works- aka the ladder system.

I am not even going to go into how retarded the ladder system is because it is based solely on hks/honor which means dps classes are the top contenders. Classes arent balanced against each other 1v1 for pvp but somehow they are considered balanced against each other to be competeing in the same ladder." - Spiraldancer

Blizzard never fails to tease!

So, rampant speculation about World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion is all over the net, but then a Blizzard poster has to go and drop this little tidbit on us.

"We're going to be showcasing the starting area of a race. We won't be revealing all our secrets. ;)"- Caydiem

On a side note... anyone notice how fast any thread a Blizzard employee posts in gets to 10+ pages?

My videos @ Google video!

World of Warcraft Videos

I gank...
-Made this video in my mid 40's. Also marks the first time I met my friend Omegalegend (Tauren Warrior).

Die Another Day
-Made the day before I recorded most of the "I gank..." video. This was good practice in how to edit videos via Windows Movie Maker.

A day in the life of Tanglefoot
-Recorded this video out of boredom after an early morning run through EPL.

Counter Strike Source Videos

Two of the Greatest Things Ever
-My pride and joy :) Enjoy!

Battlefield 2 Video

Lets Go
-Just practice with the BF2 recorder.

Update: 5 Nov, 2006 - Applied labels and updated post.

MO3 - The Arathi Basin Cycle of Azgalor

Here is how the cycle works.

1. Alliance/Horde uber guilds form uber 15 man raid with nothing but their highest PvP ranks.

2. Said group owns Arathi Basin 2000 resources to 0 within 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Group leaves and within five minutes they have another Arathi Basin match.

How is this possible?

It is very simple actually. Most players leave a battleground the second they see these hardcore groups enter and then re-queue themselves for a new one. Well this fuels the cycle because now everyone in line is being thrown into the battleground that everyone else is quitting. So quickly the entire line, regardless of how long they were waiting gets into a one sided Arathi Basin slaughter. The cycle repeats and there is so many new people in line that once the uber group is done with the slaughter they simply re-queue and are instantly back where they started.

On top of this since people are cycling through the battleground the uber group can easily get a new battleground because there is no one with an extended waiting period in line… so the uber group is escorted to the front of the line.

Increase the number of uber groups employing the tactic and you have a cycle that moves so fast that a pick up vs. pick up is impossible. Add to this the fact that most uber groups will NOT FIGHT EACH OTHER and the problem is multiplied. Two uber groups rarely, if ever, will fight each other. The time involved is not worth the reward. They don’t care about skill… they care about winning as fast as possible because in the end that gives them more honor for PvP rank.

How to avoid it.

Get lucky enough to get into a battleground that is out of the cycle… one that is pick up group vs. pick up group. These matches last longer and since the lines refresh so fast due to the cycling in and out of the slaughters another pick up vs. pick up match is almost guaranteed after your match is done. However, get stuck on the other side of the cycle and it will be a miracle you get into a non-slaughter match.

Same principle applies as the uber groups also. Your pick up group leaves after a battle and everyone elses queue time is short because of the cycling you jump in right in front of line instead of the people that have been waiting forever for a fair match, but keep getting cycled.

How to fix it.

Simple. One set of battlegrounds for “Arranged Groups” and one set of battlegrounds for “Random”. Like I’ve said before its like letting pro football teams play high school teams to claim the Lombardi Trophy. It isn’t even remotely a measure of anyone’s skill.

In conclusion…

I will be told to “cry more newb”, “go whine on your blog”, and various other comments from the uber crowed. These are the people that get WoW served to them on a silver platter. These are the ones who are whining about 1.8 changes to give casual gamers more chances at loot. These are the ones who day in and day out do nothing but ruin the game for those that have other obligations in their life.

Blizzard doesn’t owe casual gamers anything. Blizzard doesn’t owe hardcore gamers anything. They owe the players of World of Warcraft a fair and balanced experience. Developing their systems in such a way where it heavily favors one play style over another is obscene.

MO1 - Blizzard and Battlegrounds
MO2 - Stun

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!