Vacation

I'll be back in one week. Happy gaming!

Perfect Again

4.0

Three in a row. 4.0 cumulative. Enough said.

The Burning Crusade

I loaded up World of Warcraft's 10-day trial for their expansion, The Burning Crusade, yesterday. Today, I finished getting all the way to level 61, but a big catch 22 slapped me in the face.

In the trial version of The Burning Crusade players are hard capped from gaining a level past 60. It stops the experience bar at 1 exp to next level. It makes absolutely no sense. Here is a trial for an expansion geared for level 61+ players and the trial doesn't let you level past 60. Retarded.

Work: Day One

Well I have officially finished my first day of work at my new job. All went well. I set up my own Windows 2003 server and domain to play around with as I learn the software I will be configuring and setting up in the future.

Interestingly enough, the guy I work with is a World of Warcraft player. Go figure.

Close To Home

That terrorism thing: its real. I don't want to get into details, but let's just say that I was a wee bit close to this following story: Officials Find Explosives in Car.

Berkeley County Sheriff's department says it has arrested two men for unlawful possession of explosives. According to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s department, deputies closed Highway 176 after finding what they thought were explosives in the trunk of a car at about 6:00 Saturday night.

Agents deployed a robot and pulled what looks like a small bag from the trunk. After multiple agencies arrived on scene-- Charleston County Sheriff's Deputies detonated the suspicious material around 3:45 am.

Fortunately, I sacked out in my hotel last night and studied for my Linux+ certification exam.

A Card Game?

John Smedley's big announcement: a virtual collectible card game for Everquest players.

It’s called Legends of Norrath. It’s an MMO Card/Strategy game built directly into both EverQuest and EverQuest 2. It will allow EQ and EQ 2 players to challenge each other, or allow people to play from outside of either game and challenge people who are playing inside. The game itself is literally a part of both clients, and it’s incredibly fun to play. The first set (called Oathbound) has 375 cards. In addition, we have loot cards for each game that have some awesome in-game items, some of which are extremely rare (new mounts for example).

That's it. Nothing more. Just a little side project tacked onto SOE's main franchise.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is Official!

World of Warcraft's next expansion has been officially announced.

It's official: The next World of WarCraft expansion is coming; it's called Wrath of the Lich King, and will open up the continent of Northrend to players of level 68 and above. This second expansion will focus on the return of Arthas Menethil, a.k.a. the Lich King, ruler of the Scourge, and one of the most powerful beings in all of Azeroth. This semi-sequel to the saga of Arthas (from WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne) is intended for experienced players with a couple level 70 characters in their pockets.

Breaking down the details a little: there will be a new class, a new continent, and ten new levels.

The new class will be a Hero class, entitled Death Knight. Hero classes are epic character classes that will be gained through a quest at max level (which will be 80). Once gained, a newly created Death Knight will start life at level 60 or 70.

A new continent, Northrend, will also be included with a tentatively scheduled ten new zones. Among these zones will be a new outdoor PvP zone featuring destructible environments and siege weapons. Plus, another battleground will be added. Finishing it off will be classic whack a mole zones for leveling goodness.

Finally, there will be ten new levels bringing the level cap to 80. Along with this the skill cap will be increased to 450.

If I had to describe these changes in one word, it would be mudflation. Its just more of the same. I haven't even touched The Burning Crusade, but from playing the base game for almost three years, I have a pretty good idea how TBC plays. Therefore, I have a pretty good idea of how Wrath of the Lich King will play. Blizzard does not reinvent the wheel. Blizzard makes shiny, stable new wheels and then polishes them to a mirror like sheen.

The most distressing news, is the lack of news about the good old world of Azeroth. Azeroth is quickly becoming a wasteland and nothing more than a speed bump for The Outlands and soon to be new playground; Northrend. I truly wish Blizzard would drop half the planned zones for Northrend and restructure the current zones of Azeroth.

From all accounts, Blizzard learned a great deal from the base game and made the effort to make TBC kick ass. Hopefully, they will do the same for WotLK. However, I strongly caution Blizzard not to apply what they've learned simply to new expansions. Blizzard needs to take that knowledge and revamp the original game, or the WoW community will become even more splintered.

Oh, and Blizzard, I better damn well be able to level past 60 or 70 without buying the damn expansion.

Job

I went on a job interview yesterday for an IT position at the college I go to. This was my first job interview since leaving the active duty military a year ago. They offered me the job, and I accepted. I start next week. My gaming time will be almost null from this point forward, until I finish school.


Yes, I am that damn good that they hired me on the spot.

Dreamblade: Night Fusion Preview

The official first look at the next Dreamblade expansion, Night Fusion, has been posted here.

My Thoughts

Blah. The pieces are always a mixed bag with new expansion previews. Most of the previews give little indication of how well the expansion will fair in tournament play, but they are an invaluable starting point for understanding the expansion.

What irks me about each consecutive Dreamblade expansion so far, is the fact that they just introduce more and more and more. Baxar's War, the first expansion, offered some solid pieces and very few new mechanics. Bazar's War is my favorite expansion because of this.

Dreamblade launched with a comprehensive rulebook. It was advertised as "all the rules the game will ever have". Every planned ability was supposedly listed. Sadly, new expansions have not followed this mantra.

Surely new mechanics and abilities can't be bad? I wish that was the case. There are tons of abilities in Dreamblade and Wizards of the Coast has, for some reason, made most of them completely unplayable or made abilities that are far superior. For example, Skirmish and Advance are almost required because they allow pieces to be moved around the board. Movement is king in Dreamblade and abilities related to it are far more desirable. Other abilities, which could be usable, are often attached to a creature that is unplayable or is given a cost that is infeasible for any warband.

I don't want to get off track here, but needless to say, abilities are not balanced in Dreamblade. WotC is not helping the situation. Instead of giving players new pieces that are playable with old abilities, they develop new pieces with new abilities or pieces with restricted old abilities.

The Night Fusion preview is a perfect example. Every piece has restrictive versions of old abilities. Instead of giving the game a decent Bodyguard, they develop another spawn expensive piece, but give it a damage restricted bodyguard feature. I truly wish they could just release some figures that are solid and playable with abilities that are already in the game. Screw all this new bullshit.

I guess this is one of the reasons I'm dropping Dreamblade. New expansions are just becoming bloated and overly advanced for my liking. For every ounce of good an expansion brings, there is enough garbage and overpowered pieces to make purchases a losing proposition. And WotC wonders why sales are in the gutter.

World of Warcraft Hits 9 Million

Have you ever heard the phrase; "television killed the radio star"? Or maybe this one; "The Burning Crusade killed World of Warcraft!". While television may have killed the radio star, The Burning Crusade has not killed World of Warcraft. In fact, World of Warcraft has grown: to nine million subscribers.

From all evidence, the growth is coming from the western market, contrary to what many MMO bloggers have been posting. The Burning Crusade has not launched in China yet, where WoW pulls in a few million of the current total user base! The ten million mark is not that far off, and TBC's launch in China may just be the spur to get it there. I firmly believe, and have for some time, that World of Warcraft will hit ten million by year's end.

This falls in line with what I've been reading and seeing lately. A lot of casual gamers are completely digging the extra ten levels of content, new zones, extended professions, and more accessible end-game content. Most raiders seem to have fallen off the horse as their "perfect" 40-man guilds disintegrated upon TBC's launch. It has been a hard road for them as they restructure, regroup, and realign for the 10 and 25 man content.

So, wouldn't raiders quitting in frustration decrease the numbers? No, because raiders make up a very tiny minority (just shy of 2%) of players. Casual and core gamers have and will continue to make up WoW's majority. Building the game around them has once again proven to be successful. It is a pleasure to read some of the reports from friends that have returned to WoW.

Actually, the more I read about The Burning Crusade, the more I want to play it. And I will play it. I have some time off coming up and I plan to give the TBC 10-day free trial a whirl.