Friday, September 30, 2005
A post... on Azgalor of course
Just bored and after a long night of BG fun.... I had to post. Thursday night / Friday mornings are my power game time. 555 HKs and I think 11 Arathi Basin wins. Should be enough for rank 6 this coming week :) WIN!
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Taozu = Tactics .... a WoW video
Update: 5 Nov, 2006 - Removed post, but this will be kept as a placeholder.
This post contained a video of a fight against Taozu who I battled in World of Warcraft. Later Taozu switched to the Horde and we have begun fighting together instead of against each other.
Monday, September 26, 2005
The last video card you will ever need...
Update: 5 Nov, 2006 - Removed post, but this will be kept as a placeholder for historical value.
This post originally linked to an article at Gamergod.com (now defunct) about video cards. No copies of this article exist.
I hath been challenged...
Seems my rousing of the Azgalor WoW.com forum has produced a brave knight that wishes to challenge me. His name... Mav.
Who?
Exactly what I was thinking.
Hopefully he is man enough to come here and set it up. We will see.
Who?
Exactly what I was thinking.
Hopefully he is man enough to come here and set it up. We will see.
Hoping for rank 6...
But I'm not to optimistic that I will get it. Not that I had a bad week in WoW, but just because I didn't get to play during the weekend battleground holiday that "increases" honor gained in battlegrounds. Sadly the increase is HUGE... nearly 1,000+ extra honor in an Arathi Basin win. Sorry I do not have the real number with me at the moment because I'm at work.
It pretty much slaps you in the face for playing during the week in the battlegrounds. Players can dedicate one or two days to all day battleground runs and get just as much honor as I do in five days of trying. This means the players that already have too much time to play can do their MC, BWL, ZG, and Onixyia raids during the week and still catch up on the PvP ranks on the weekend.
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However that skill is mute when it is displayed against weekend warrior pick up groups.
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Blizzard brought this about to bring more people into battlegrounds and it has. Problem is it has attracted the arranged PvP groups that completely utterly destroy a pick up group in literally ten minutes or less. They have pretty much moved weekend dungeon raids into organized battleground raids. This has proven that there is at least some skill to PvP in WoW. The skill lies in organization and communication within a group. However that skill is mute when it is displayed against weekend warrior pick up groups.
In turn this pretty much kills the battlegrounds for the casual crowd. PvP ranks are UNACHIEVABLE by most, if not all casual gamers. You will get to rank 5 and hit a literal wall. Even though I spend 90% of my in game time in the battlegrounds I have not made a rank in weeks. With Arathi Basin out now gaining 60,000 or even 100,000 honor will not get you anywhere at rank 5 or higher. That is just unacceptable in my book.
I won't pretend to understand how the ranks work. All I know is that before battlegrounds people with 2,000-4,000 HKs were rank 8+. People gained 4 ranks a week with 20,000 honor. I gained ranks 1 and 2 in my first week... then rank 3 and 4 in my second week... and then rank 5 the next week and never broke 10,000 honor. I saw rank 5-8's all over the place. Then I went on summer vacation and came back as rank 4 (from rank decay) AFTER battlegrounds was released. I have not been able to make it past rank 5... I am at a wall and I am gaining 40-70,000 CP a week... which obviously is not enough. I see a handful of rank 5-8's and usually I see mainly rank 1-3's.
Blizzard has stated they are looking at how it works... honestly I feel its been broken since battlegrounds with some sort of change being put in that wasn't mentioned.
Of course I need to offer some sort of fix... and honestly this is what I believe. Make ranks 1-9 easier to achieve. Don't make them super competetive... leave that for ranks 10+. 1-9 gives you a full set of blue PvP gear... which IMO you deserve if you put hard work in every week. Right now you have to be in battlegrounds 5-6 hours a day to compete past 5... which I hope was not Blizzards intention. If it was... these PvP rewards better become equivelant to MC or better gear. However this is just minor... not fleshed out... Blizzard needs to do something.
It pretty much slaps you in the face for playing during the week in the battlegrounds. Players can dedicate one or two days to all day battleground runs and get just as much honor as I do in five days of trying. This means the players that already have too much time to play can do their MC, BWL, ZG, and Onixyia raids during the week and still catch up on the PvP ranks on the weekend.
However that skill is mute when it is displayed against weekend warrior pick up groups.
------------------------------------------------------
Blizzard brought this about to bring more people into battlegrounds and it has. Problem is it has attracted the arranged PvP groups that completely utterly destroy a pick up group in literally ten minutes or less. They have pretty much moved weekend dungeon raids into organized battleground raids. This has proven that there is at least some skill to PvP in WoW. The skill lies in organization and communication within a group. However that skill is mute when it is displayed against weekend warrior pick up groups.
In turn this pretty much kills the battlegrounds for the casual crowd. PvP ranks are UNACHIEVABLE by most, if not all casual gamers. You will get to rank 5 and hit a literal wall. Even though I spend 90% of my in game time in the battlegrounds I have not made a rank in weeks. With Arathi Basin out now gaining 60,000 or even 100,000 honor will not get you anywhere at rank 5 or higher. That is just unacceptable in my book.
I won't pretend to understand how the ranks work. All I know is that before battlegrounds people with 2,000-4,000 HKs were rank 8+. People gained 4 ranks a week with 20,000 honor. I gained ranks 1 and 2 in my first week... then rank 3 and 4 in my second week... and then rank 5 the next week and never broke 10,000 honor. I saw rank 5-8's all over the place. Then I went on summer vacation and came back as rank 4 (from rank decay) AFTER battlegrounds was released. I have not been able to make it past rank 5... I am at a wall and I am gaining 40-70,000 CP a week... which obviously is not enough. I see a handful of rank 5-8's and usually I see mainly rank 1-3's.
Blizzard has stated they are looking at how it works... honestly I feel its been broken since battlegrounds with some sort of change being put in that wasn't mentioned.
Of course I need to offer some sort of fix... and honestly this is what I believe. Make ranks 1-9 easier to achieve. Don't make them super competetive... leave that for ranks 10+. 1-9 gives you a full set of blue PvP gear... which IMO you deserve if you put hard work in every week. Right now you have to be in battlegrounds 5-6 hours a day to compete past 5... which I hope was not Blizzards intention. If it was... these PvP rewards better become equivelant to MC or better gear. However this is just minor... not fleshed out... Blizzard needs to do something.
Friday, September 23, 2005
How to stop this crap
From a previous blog post...- Battleground match-ups are now either Arranged Team or Random Team. Random Team consists of players who joined single; Arranged Team consists of a group of players who queued together. Arranged Team players may only be able to play against other Arranged Team players, likewise with Random Team players who can only play against other Random Team players.
Perfect! Hopefully everyone would get a clue and go with the random groups because fighting stacked groups is only fun for full guild groups... otherwise it blows and is just free honor. Blizzard needs to think of crap like this BEFORE releasing stuff... it is time to stop serving things up on a silver platter for the hardcore players.
Its like letting NFL teams play highschoolers to claim the Lombardi trophy.
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This scenario kills BGs every night. Normally they are logged in from 3 PM until 5-6 AM the next morning. They have nothing better to do than WoW PvP and that is how the ranks system is built. They sit on Ventrillo all day long and do nothing else.
Yes they are good... damn good. Do I want to fight them? Yes if I could get a good guild group of my own, but I can't. These no-lifes should not be allowed to fight PUGs. Its like letting NFL teams play highschoolers to claim the Lombardi trophy. It is dumb!
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Irth Online beta preview up @ Gamergod.com
Update: 5 Nov, 2006 - Removed post, but this will be kept as a placeholder for historical value.
This post originally linked to an article about Irth Online at Gamergod.com (now defunct). No copies of the article exist.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
WoW PvP changes... rumors
Don't ask where these came from... and no they are not official.
- Grand Marshal no longer awards the purchase of weapons at rank 14, but only access to the Grand Marshal's Armory. The GM's Armory has a selection of weapons, armor etc. which can be purchased from special Insignias that drop from all players of the opposing faction, and other various honor tokens rewarded from battleground victories. Each item in the armory costs a certain number of Insignias/tokens. Players who reach Grand Marshal may still have access to the Armory even after losing GM rank. The selection of items within the Armory will change all the time.
- Honor from players outside of battlegrounds has been increased significantly. Players outside of battlegrounds now drop Insignia’s which can be used to purchase special items.
- The Battle Standard awarded through the PvP honor system can once again be used outside of battlegrounds.
- Honor from players inside of battlegrounds has been altered. Players who are higher rank, or from a higher ranked guild now are worth much more honor, and award additional bonus honor for a battleground win.
- The "diminishing returns" from killing players inside and outside of battlegrounds has been altered slightly.
- Cross-server battlegrounds have been introduced.
- Battleground match-ups are now either Arranged Team or Random Team. Random Team consists of players who joined single; Arranged Team consists of a group of players who queued together. Arranged Team players may only be able to play against other Arranged Team players, likewise with Random Team players who can only play against other Random Team players.
- The Guild Honor Ladder has been introduced, which ranks guilds on servers based upon honor rankings. The highest ranked guild on the server will find special rewards available to them (such as a reduced repair cost, savings on taxi services etc.), as well as their tabard displayed on all battleground entrances and outside the Knight's Quarters.
- The honor rewards for Warsong Gultch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley have been altered slightly.
- Grand Marshal no longer awards the purchase of weapons at rank 14, but only access to the Grand Marshal's Armory. The GM's Armory has a selection of weapons, armor etc. which can be purchased from special Insignias that drop from all players of the opposing faction, and other various honor tokens rewarded from battleground victories. Each item in the armory costs a certain number of Insignias/tokens. Players who reach Grand Marshal may still have access to the Armory even after losing GM rank. The selection of items within the Armory will change all the time.
- Honor from players outside of battlegrounds has been increased significantly. Players outside of battlegrounds now drop Insignia’s which can be used to purchase special items.
- The Battle Standard awarded through the PvP honor system can once again be used outside of battlegrounds.
- Honor from players inside of battlegrounds has been altered. Players who are higher rank, or from a higher ranked guild now are worth much more honor, and award additional bonus honor for a battleground win.
- The "diminishing returns" from killing players inside and outside of battlegrounds has been altered slightly.
- Cross-server battlegrounds have been introduced.
- Battleground match-ups are now either Arranged Team or Random Team. Random Team consists of players who joined single; Arranged Team consists of a group of players who queued together. Arranged Team players may only be able to play against other Arranged Team players, likewise with Random Team players who can only play against other Random Team players.
- The Guild Honor Ladder has been introduced, which ranks guilds on servers based upon honor rankings. The highest ranked guild on the server will find special rewards available to them (such as a reduced repair cost, savings on taxi services etc.), as well as their tabard displayed on all battleground entrances and outside the Knight's Quarters.
- The honor rewards for Warsong Gultch, Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley have been altered slightly.
WoW's black plague
The lands of Azeroth have been infected! Originally the message boards lit up with posts about some plague spreading accross the land and killing untold thousands of players. Wannabe heros raced accross the land in search of cures. What was causing all this death?
A bug. Just your run of the mill "Oops missed this on Test Center" bug. This quote from Shacknews sums it up best. "Blizzard adds in a new instance, Zul'Gurub. Inside is the god of blood, Hakkar. Well, when you fight him he has a debuff called Corrputed Blood. It does like 250-350 damage to players and affects nearby players. The amazing thing is SOME PLAYERS have brought this disease (and it is a disease) back to the towns, outside of the instance. It starts spreading amongst the general population including npcs, who can out generate the damage. Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die).
GM's even tried quarantining players in certain areas, but the players kept escaping the quarantine and infect other players."
Here is a short flash put together by WoWaids.YTMND.com that IMO describes it best.Click at your own risk!
But WTF? This was actually something exciting to drown out the boringly repetitive gameplay of WoW. Like everyone else I truly believed this was a LIVE EVENT... something Blizzard promised to be part of WoW. Sadly it was not the case.
I wish Blizzard was quicker on their feet and would of offered a quest of some sort to cure the disease... making a bug into an actual event. This is the sort of development I want to see from Blizzard... from any MMO developer... PLEASE.
A bug. Just your run of the mill "Oops missed this on Test Center" bug. This quote from Shacknews sums it up best. "Blizzard adds in a new instance, Zul'Gurub. Inside is the god of blood, Hakkar. Well, when you fight him he has a debuff called Corrputed Blood. It does like 250-350 damage to players and affects nearby players. The amazing thing is SOME PLAYERS have brought this disease (and it is a disease) back to the towns, outside of the instance. It starts spreading amongst the general population including npcs, who can out generate the damage. Some servers have gotten so bad that you can't go into the major cities without getting the plague (and anyone less than like level 50 nearly immediately die).
GM's even tried quarantining players in certain areas, but the players kept escaping the quarantine and infect other players."
Here is a short flash put together by WoWaids.YTMND.com that IMO describes it best.Click at your own risk!
But WTF? This was actually something exciting to drown out the boringly repetitive gameplay of WoW. Like everyone else I truly believed this was a LIVE EVENT... something Blizzard promised to be part of WoW. Sadly it was not the case.
I wish Blizzard was quicker on their feet and would of offered a quest of some sort to cure the disease... making a bug into an actual event. This is the sort of development I want to see from Blizzard... from any MMO developer... PLEASE.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Nintendogs... the gift of game
To say I was nervous when I purchased a Nintendo DS and Nintendogs for my girlfriend’s birthday would be an understatement. My girlfriend doesn’t play video games at every chance she gets like I do. She has played Mario Kart: Double Dash a half dozen times with me and can make cute little faces imitating Kirby. Some limited PC gaming with her siblings many years ago playing the original Warcraft ends her experience with gaming.
I kept the receipt and made sure not to open any of the packaging. I had no idea if this gift was going to be a hit or flop. Luckily it wasn’t the latter and she absolutely loves the gift. So much so she is going to be getting the newest Kirby game, Kirby Canvas Curse. She absolutely loves her Nintendog and treats it almost as though it was real… because honestly that is how good the game is.
The innovation packed into Nintendogs is amazing. Every unique feature of the Nintendo DS is put to good use. The wireless capability allows you to connect to other DS owners without any sort of leash… err… cable. The touch screen is used for petting your puppy and performing various tasks. The microphone is really the centerpiece of the game allowing you to train your dog to respond to voice commands. Teaching your first puppy its name is quite an experience for even the most seasoned gamer.
The game is very intuitive and so easily picked up that I found myself just letting her plug away. I didn’t need to explain anything as I had feared. I didn’t underestimate her ability to pick up the game and learn it, but with many hardcore gaming years under my belt I knew that even the simplest children’s games could require an innate amount of knowledge to get started in. A prime example is the bubble blower toy in game. The operation is so simple it almost made me laugh. Blow into the microphone and bubbles appear on the screen. She didn’t need a pop up menu to tell her how to do this… she just did it. It was common sense!
This sort of technology has been a long time coming. The gaming market is growing stale with sequels being the dominate factor. Feature lists are now the “innovation” instead of the technology. Nintendo has reversed this trend in their hardware. The hardware is the innovation and games that capitalize on it are innovative. I still remember articles detailing how Madden ’05 had innovative features and I can’t help but letting a small part inside of me roll on the floor laughing.
Innovation invites new gamers into the market. Games like Nintendogs focus on fun and can easily win over a new gamer. These gamers are very likely to branch out into other games that intrigue them such as my girlfriends fancy with Kirby. The key for Nintendo is to keep these gamers attracted to Nintendo products. That isn’t hard to do considering the direction most of the industry is heading.
The Nintendo DS is an inspiring piece of hardware that really has endless possibilities and Nintendogs is becoming its flagship. It is more than just cute puppies and virtual dog shows. It very much is a game.
I kept the receipt and made sure not to open any of the packaging. I had no idea if this gift was going to be a hit or flop. Luckily it wasn’t the latter and she absolutely loves the gift. So much so she is going to be getting the newest Kirby game, Kirby Canvas Curse. She absolutely loves her Nintendog and treats it almost as though it was real… because honestly that is how good the game is.
The innovation packed into Nintendogs is amazing. Every unique feature of the Nintendo DS is put to good use. The wireless capability allows you to connect to other DS owners without any sort of leash… err… cable. The touch screen is used for petting your puppy and performing various tasks. The microphone is really the centerpiece of the game allowing you to train your dog to respond to voice commands. Teaching your first puppy its name is quite an experience for even the most seasoned gamer.
The game is very intuitive and so easily picked up that I found myself just letting her plug away. I didn’t need to explain anything as I had feared. I didn’t underestimate her ability to pick up the game and learn it, but with many hardcore gaming years under my belt I knew that even the simplest children’s games could require an innate amount of knowledge to get started in. A prime example is the bubble blower toy in game. The operation is so simple it almost made me laugh. Blow into the microphone and bubbles appear on the screen. She didn’t need a pop up menu to tell her how to do this… she just did it. It was common sense!
This sort of technology has been a long time coming. The gaming market is growing stale with sequels being the dominate factor. Feature lists are now the “innovation” instead of the technology. Nintendo has reversed this trend in their hardware. The hardware is the innovation and games that capitalize on it are innovative. I still remember articles detailing how Madden ’05 had innovative features and I can’t help but letting a small part inside of me roll on the floor laughing.
Innovation invites new gamers into the market. Games like Nintendogs focus on fun and can easily win over a new gamer. These gamers are very likely to branch out into other games that intrigue them such as my girlfriends fancy with Kirby. The key for Nintendo is to keep these gamers attracted to Nintendo products. That isn’t hard to do considering the direction most of the industry is heading.
The Nintendo DS is an inspiring piece of hardware that really has endless possibilities and Nintendogs is becoming its flagship. It is more than just cute puppies and virtual dog shows. It very much is a game.
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