If Bush Played WoW
I don’t know where it’s from, but one of my WoW guildies posted it on our boards today, and I had to share.
Archive for WoW
If Bush Played WoW
Posted in Gaming News, MMORPG, Political, WoW with tags Gaming News, Humor, MMORPGs, Political, WoW on 12/18/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)Holiday Happenings
Posted in Everquest, Gaming News, MMORPG, SWG, WAR, WoW with tags EQ, EQ2, Gaming News, MMORPGs, WAR, WoW on 12/17/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)It seems that the Holiday Fever has taken over all of our favorite MMOs.
Sony has a list for all of their games posted here.
WoW has Winter’s Veil, as well as WAR and their drunken games. What have you thought of it all so far? Post your thoughts and comments here! I’ll be posting mine as the week goes on.
The Death Penalty
Posted in EVE Online, Everquest, Gaming, MMORPG, WAR, WoW with tags EQ, EVE Online, MMORPGs, WAR, WoW on 12/08/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)Massively put out an interesting Article about the Death Penalty in EVE this past weekend.
As a recent EVE player, who has actually died in game now, I must say that death in EVE is expensive to say the least, but not harsh. When your ship gets blown up, it’s gone. Kapoot. Ships are not cheap, but you can get right back into a starter ship if needed for a fairly low price. As long as your clone is up to date, all you lose is your ship (and you can even loot the reckage for your stuff). Now, if you have a lot of skill points and a not-up-to-date clone, you could lose a few skills as well.
But I do feel that even with all of this, the original Death Penalty in Everquest was worse. I remember grinding out for days while working on a level (this is before bonus XP and any of the new perks of today). You could easily lose a level or two of progression if you died in the wrong place, or got yourself in to a loop of death at your bind point. And there was also the chance of dieing in a very dangerous, and hard to reach area (befallen anyone?) and not be able to actually get back to loot your corpse. All of your items were gone. This Death Penalty was the catalyst for the boy who committed suicide, whom I talked about in an earlier entry. Granted he had major issues in real life, but his final straw was losing his body in game.
The games of today (WoW, WAR, etc.) can be considered “MMO’s on Easy Mode.” These games have little to no Death Penalty. There’s no true work put in when you die. Everything is just handed to you. Death means nothing and is just a minor setback of time. I truly feel that games SHOULD have a stiffer Death Penalty and not baby the players.
I believe that a stiffer Death Penalty also creates a closer knit community within the game worlds. People are more inclined to work together and make friends if they know they could lose everything (or even just a little). We can see this fairly clearly in the new MMOs. There are more soloers than groupers, and even in guilds, no one seems to help each other anymore because it doesn’t benefit them. There’s no true reason to work together except on raids. While I don’t attribute the growing lack of community fully to no Death Penalties, it does make you think about how making these games easier and easier is destroying the sense of kinship that games such as Everquest, and EVE, seem to foster.
And Now He Cares?
Posted in Gaming News, WoW with tags Gaming News, WotLK, WoW on 11/18/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)So, according to a recent news article, a 15 year old boy collapsed after a two day WoW binge.
NOW his father says he’s going to monitor his computer use closer and make sure he doesn’t play too much. So, what I get from this is that it took his son ALMOST DIEING for the father to pay attention? How horrible of a parent can you be? This is the perfect example of a parent who throws money, cars, and computers at their kids in order to keep them out of their hair.
Did we not learn anything from Columbine or other horror stories? It wasn’t games and music that causes incidents like that, it’s the parents. I don’t care what anyone says about what kind of pop-culture influences were being referenced or were the supposed cause, negligent parents are to blame.
Hell, if I started playing games for too long when I was younger, my mom would stand there yelling until she was blue in the face until I got up and went outside or did something else. It showed she cared. This kids dad (and others out there) need to grow a fucking set of balls and show an interest in what their kids are doing. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll get thrown around that this incident was the fault of Blizzard and WoW, and not the true parties that are to blame.
This also reminds me of the boy who commited suicide years ago over Everquest. The mom tried to sue Sony and the media played it off as it being Sony’s fault for making such an addicting game. They failed to mention in most articles that the boy had serious social problems and was clinically depressed and bi-polar (if I remember the whole incident correctly, it’s been a while). And where was the mom in that? No where to be found, she parked him at the computer and only cared once he was dead. And even then she was just looking to make a buck off of her son’s death…what she needed (and this father needs) is to take a long look in the mirror.
I have an idea…how about requiring a liscense to reproduce…if your too stupid to know you have to actually do some work in raising your children, you’re not allowed to have kids…dumbasses…
/end rant
WotLK Cleared?!
Posted in Gaming, MMORPG, WoW with tags WotLK, WoW on 11/16/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)Wow…that was pretty fast and anti-climatic…
They’re going to have a boring two years…
Confuzzled
Posted in DDO, Gaming, MMORPG, WoW with tags DDO, WoW on 11/15/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)So, I’ve been in a weird gaming mood lately. Shortly after finishing off Fallout 3, I couldn’t decide what I wanted to play. There’s so many games out there, and I’m on a burnout of all of my regulars.
I decided to first hop into a game world I had not visited in a bit: the lands of Stormreach in Dungeons and Dragons Online. I have not played since launch and was pleasantly surprised to actually find myself getting into the game. I’ve joined up with a couple of RL friends and plan to have DDO nights with them. I’m currently a level 2.5 monk in training.
Of course, there was one game I could not get away from…and that game is World of Warcraft. With the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, I was drawn back into the lands of Azeroth. Before vising the lands of Nothrend though, I felt it appropriate to fuel my Altaholism and create a Death Knight. Talk about a fun class. Blizzard has hit the nail on the head with the DKs. They’re fun to play and their lore is amazing. Nice job.
Later I logged into my Dranae Priest and head over to the Borean Tundra. I pulled into the docks of Valor Keep (sounds an aweful lot like Honor Hold, but I digress…). So far I’ve gained a level and a half and am really enjoying the new zones. Although I took a run at the Nexus with some friends and I must say that the respawning plants suck…they suck hard…All I can say is Payback’s a Bitch.
Heavy Metal!
Posted in Gaming News, MMORPG, WAR, WoW with tags WAR, WotLK, WoW on 10/29/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)In an attempt to combat the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, Mythic has pulled a rabbit out of a hat. An in game event, entitled Heavy Metal, will start on November 17th and will end with the arrival of the Knight of the Blazing Sun and the Black Guard classes into the lands of Warhammer.
The coolest part of the event? You can play the classes a week early if you complete a daily Tome of Knowledge Unlock that will be unveiled during the event. Damn, I’m starting to sound like a fanboy.
My biggest problem? I still play both games, and definitely don’t want to be struggling to decide which to focus on. This was a smart marketing move by Mythic. While I don’t think that WoW will actually be hurt by it, but I think some will think twice about picking up WotLK right away and may wait a month. What do you think?
I Agree…
Posted in MMORPG, WAR, WoW with tags MMORPGs, WAR, WoW on 10/27/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)Tobold made this post yesterday, and I have to say, it speaks loads of truth.
I logged into WoW last night, right into a horde of Zombies in Shattrath. Soon enough, I was one. When I finally died (I should say, blew myself up by accident) I decided to make a break for the flight master. Well, guess what…he was dead.
Now, I could have spent time complaining, but I didn’t. I took a step back and realized how unique an event Blizzard had created. It reminded me of some of the old Game Events in Everquest, like “The War” from a couple of years ago. To me, it is a great idea. Sure, it inconveniences you a bit, but if you take it for what it is — lore– then you can really get into the story.
Others didn’t see it as I did. There was constant complaining. It was in every channel in game. People just wouldn’t stop crying about it. The WoW Forums were overrun as well. Some people loved it, but most hated it.
My advice to those that can’t shut up and stop complaining: Get over it! Stop the “woe is me” and learn to actually get into the game a bit. You are NOT the only person playing the game, and the developers put in the event as a story arc, not as a personal attack against you.
But, as Tobold says, this is why WAR will never have 10 million subscribers. While I hope we’re both wrong with that statement, I don’t think we are. PvP is a major turn off for some people (particularly the losers). With WAR being such a PvP-centric game, where you have the potential to be kicked out of your city for DAYS, some of these WoW QQers would never last. Most people don’t have the patience to wait 3 minutes for a respawn on the Flight Master or trainers, imagine not being able to access your home city for a week. They would simply keel over and die.
3.0.2
Posted in Gaming News, MMORPG, WoW with tags MMORPGs, WotLK, WoW on 10/15/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)Wrath of the Lich King is just over the horizon, and the “Echoes of Doom” can be heard throughout Azeroth; it’s denizens waiting eagerly in anticipation to board the transports to the new lands of Northrend.
The time is almost here, and Blizzard has sprung the first major content change of many at us. Whether you were ready for it or not, it is here. This patch included a slew of class changes which has torn up the communty. I for one like what they’ve done.
They’ve made many long past due changes to most of the classes. Blizzard also introduced the new achievement system, which keeps track of different milestones in the game. While this is not a new development in the gaming world, it is a fun little addition to WoW. The pet and mount changes were also needed. It saves tons of bag space not having to haul around mounts and vanity pets…yes…I’m a pet whore too!
For the bad news though, most of the Addons are broken. I never really realized how many custom addons I used until I tried to log into the game, only to find a very empty screen. I’ve always been a custom UI whore, even in EverQuest. I could never be satisfied with the norm. Who knows what nifty new addons that WotLK will bring.
What do you think of the newest patch and the soon to be released WotLK?
Blizzcon ’08
Posted in Gaming News, MMORPG, WoW with tags BlizzCon, MMORPGs, WoW on 10/11/2008 by Jeremy (Jmo)I’ve been trying to follow the news coming out of Blizzcon, as I am admittedly a big fan of Blizzard’s games. While my biggest hope of their announcement of their still unnamed MMO project never came to light, there was a lot of cool news to be had in their WoW class panel discussion.
I’ll let you read the article for yourself, but I think one of the coolest announcements came at the end of that article. They want to implement a Dual-Spec system so that classes can switch between two different Specs. I know I’d heard it rumored before, but never thought they’d actually do it. I for one cannot wait for this feature to hit the Live servers. There’ll be no more “Sorry, I’m specced Shadow” or something similar. If you play a priest (as I do), you can spec Shadow to do your dailies, quests, or PvP, then have a Dual-Spec set for those groups or raids in need of a healer! Great news in my opinion!
