Sunday's episode of True Blood continues to pick up the pace from last week. And for the first time since the season started, things are really starting to go somewhere. But, the number of sub plots and characters continues to bring everything down a notch. There is just too much screen time spent with Jason, Sam, and Lafayette right now that is badly needed elsewhere.
So, Sookie has been kidnapped and brought to King's place. Eric is playing gay-man to earn favor (so he can get close enough to kill the King). Vampire Bill is in deep trouble, having betrayed his new King to help Sookie. Lafayette goes on a date that goes wrong. Jason is dumb, and a complete dick for no reason. Jessica is hungry. Tara is still trapped, but finds it easy to manipulate her 'future vampire husband'. Sam connects to his brother, and figures out long after the audience what is up with his family. And the Queen is forced to agree to a political marriage with the King of Mississippi.
Even with all of that, the episode was definitely better than last weeks. The scenes between Lorena and Bill were very well done. And I even liked the scenes between Sam and Tommy--Tommy is acting less of a pure dick now, which makes him a more interesting character. Eric is playing his game...though the actor is seriously over-acting in a bad way. They are definitely starting to explore more of Sookie's nature...I'm interested to see where that goes exactly (I wonder if she's going to be more supernatural in nature than she seems to be at first glance).
Though True Blood often ends on a cliffhanger, the one for this week was more effective than most. Even if it was telegraphed well in advance. And the preview for next week's episode was very cool. And it looks like certain plots are starting to merge, which hopefully will help with the pacing as well.
Other notes...
- Is it just me, or is Jason just not very cool this season. Jason works because he is dumb, yet likable. This season he's been dumb, and very unlikable. His dickishness in this episode was a good example of that.
- Why aren't we seeing more of Jessica? She's a cool character, but is always left completely behind by everyone. The mash up of Jessica and Arlene is very cool though, I have to admit that.
- Obviously Crystal is a shape shifter. That was pretty much confirmed when Jason commented on just how hot she was (and he wasn't referring to her looks). If I remember correctly, Jason married a woman named Crystal in the books...or was that someone else? She also obviously connected with the drug-dealing group that have been screwing with Lafayette. So I'm guessing that Jason and Lafayette's stories will start coming together at some point.
- Sam spent most of last season in his own little show until near the end. This one is pretty much the same. It's too bad really, since he's the most charismatic male actor on the cast IMO. Sam's problems with his white-trash family are just annoying though. But fortunately Tommy is becoming a more interesting character, slowly but surely.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Impatience! The obsession of a gamer.
I have a confession to make. When I was young I was a very impatient person. Of course this wasn't just limited to games, but to all aspects of my life. I'm not sure if I ever really got over that, but I'm certainly a lot more patient and tolerant of long waits than I used to be.
Take Starcraft 2 for example. It used to be, when a new game coming out that I wanted I would be dying to get a hold of it. Even if it would be months in the future, I couldn't wait. I'd obsess over it. I'd read magazines (back when before the Internet became the main source of gaming news). I'd have dreams about. I would even make up elaborate stories in my head about the game, just so I could experience it in my mind before it was actually released. I'd do the same for TV and movies too. And oftentimes this would lead to disappointment when the game actually came out. The fun in my head was often a lot better than anything a game could really deliver. This is perhaps why I've ways been so interested in story-based games. I love a good story. Put it into an RPG, and Adventure game, hell, even an RTS, and I'll love it (even if the game play sucks).
But days are different now. I knew Starcraft 2 was coming, for example. But until this week (and that beta invite) I had no idea that it was about to come out. I haven't read up on much of the game. I haven't seen many trailers. I haven't seen much in the way of artwork. I haven't been reading blogs, or IGN articles, or anything else either. I haven't seen a single spoiler yet. So when SC2 comes out next week it will be mostly virgin to my eyes. I think the only thing I know is that I read a vague thing yesterday that the campaign model in SC2 is going to be 'different'...maybe more like a dynamic campaign with fixed missions instead of the old SC mission model. And the second SC2 game (the Zerg one), will be much more RPG like. That news actually sort of shocked me. Though I'm sure a lot of people are aware of that.
So now it's one week out and I'm still not obsessing over the release. I did buy the SC Anthology. I wanted to revisit the old game before the new one came out. But if I'm not done with it by next Tuesday...I won't be starting SC2. I'll wait until I finish the Anthology first. And since my WOW guild raids Tuesday through Thursday, my first real opportunity to play it might not be until next Friday. And I usually go out Friday night, and will be busy Saturday. So, in reality, the game might come out on Tuesday but the first chance I'll get to play it is on Sunday of next week! And I'm OK with that.
But when I was 15, I think I'd be about to have a heart attack just thinking about it.
Take Starcraft 2 for example. It used to be, when a new game coming out that I wanted I would be dying to get a hold of it. Even if it would be months in the future, I couldn't wait. I'd obsess over it. I'd read magazines (back when before the Internet became the main source of gaming news). I'd have dreams about. I would even make up elaborate stories in my head about the game, just so I could experience it in my mind before it was actually released. I'd do the same for TV and movies too. And oftentimes this would lead to disappointment when the game actually came out. The fun in my head was often a lot better than anything a game could really deliver. This is perhaps why I've ways been so interested in story-based games. I love a good story. Put it into an RPG, and Adventure game, hell, even an RTS, and I'll love it (even if the game play sucks).
But days are different now. I knew Starcraft 2 was coming, for example. But until this week (and that beta invite) I had no idea that it was about to come out. I haven't read up on much of the game. I haven't seen many trailers. I haven't seen much in the way of artwork. I haven't been reading blogs, or IGN articles, or anything else either. I haven't seen a single spoiler yet. So when SC2 comes out next week it will be mostly virgin to my eyes. I think the only thing I know is that I read a vague thing yesterday that the campaign model in SC2 is going to be 'different'...maybe more like a dynamic campaign with fixed missions instead of the old SC mission model. And the second SC2 game (the Zerg one), will be much more RPG like. That news actually sort of shocked me. Though I'm sure a lot of people are aware of that.
So now it's one week out and I'm still not obsessing over the release. I did buy the SC Anthology. I wanted to revisit the old game before the new one came out. But if I'm not done with it by next Tuesday...I won't be starting SC2. I'll wait until I finish the Anthology first. And since my WOW guild raids Tuesday through Thursday, my first real opportunity to play it might not be until next Friday. And I usually go out Friday night, and will be busy Saturday. So, in reality, the game might come out on Tuesday but the first chance I'll get to play it is on Sunday of next week! And I'm OK with that.
But when I was 15, I think I'd be about to have a heart attack just thinking about it.
Summer Blues
My current guild is really starting to suffer from the summer blues. Attendance is down. Several people have quit. And they've been having a harder time fielding raids. And while they have recruited new people, none of them seem to be sticking around.
Of course, a part of this is the fact that an expansion is coming. And there's little incentive to keep playing right now. We're not likely to progress much farther, so it's just farming to hold the guild together for 3, 4, maybe even 5 months. Considering the state of the beta, I get the impression that we are a bit farther out than we were at this point with the Wrath expansion. By all reports, the Cataclysm beta is far more buggy and incomplete compared to the Wrath Beta at the same point.
For me, I've been having a harder time making runs than ever before. With my younger sister and her family moving in while their house is being built; and with my older sister here with her family from Brazil, and with all of the after-hours work I've been having to do...my attendance has been down. I'm expecting things to start to calm down in a week or so, but it's times like this where I really feel guilty no matter what I do. Miss a raid to spend time with family, and feel guilty about contributing to the attendance problem. Or raid, and feel guilty about missing time with my nieces and nephews, some of whom I won't really see for a whole year.
Actually, when I put it that way it's easy to pick between the two. But that doesn't help with the guild's attendance issue.
Of course, a part of this is the fact that an expansion is coming. And there's little incentive to keep playing right now. We're not likely to progress much farther, so it's just farming to hold the guild together for 3, 4, maybe even 5 months. Considering the state of the beta, I get the impression that we are a bit farther out than we were at this point with the Wrath expansion. By all reports, the Cataclysm beta is far more buggy and incomplete compared to the Wrath Beta at the same point.
For me, I've been having a harder time making runs than ever before. With my younger sister and her family moving in while their house is being built; and with my older sister here with her family from Brazil, and with all of the after-hours work I've been having to do...my attendance has been down. I'm expecting things to start to calm down in a week or so, but it's times like this where I really feel guilty no matter what I do. Miss a raid to spend time with family, and feel guilty about contributing to the attendance problem. Or raid, and feel guilty about missing time with my nieces and nephews, some of whom I won't really see for a whole year.
Actually, when I put it that way it's easy to pick between the two. But that doesn't help with the guild's attendance issue.
The Human Campaign!
Nostalgia can be a powerful thing. Take the original Starcraft for an example. I seem to recall that fabled RTS to have a very deep, complex story which started out with a bang. I remember the human campaign being filled with tons of cool characters, political maneuvering, and general bad-assery. And, compared to many games at the time, maybe it was complex and deep.
Today, though, not so much.
The human campaign is very basic. You have Jim Raynor, who is basically a law-man. Sarah Kerrigan, a kick-ass girl. Mensk, a corrupt, even revolutionary. And Duke, a confederate general. There is also some type of android chick with pipes in her face, is there for exposition only and she is never named.
Of these characters, only Duke is not an iconic character for the series. Jim Raynor is a deeply tragic character, and perhaps the most interesting character in the series besides (perhaps) Tassadar later. Jim is a character that really doesn't get any brakes, and looses everything that is important to him. Especially Kerrigan. Yet, while I remember there being a deep abiding romance between the two, in practice their 'romance' happens almost completely off screen. They go from not knowing each other, to working together, to strong flirtation in just 3 missions. And you never really get the sense that Raynor really cared about Kerrigan until AFTER she's betrayed and he walks away from Mensk in disgust. It's also interesting that both characters, especially Raynor, the heroic one, go along with Mensk's plans. The plan to lure the Zerg to Tarsonis in a bid to destroy the Confederate capital is monstrous.
Based on the human campaign, both of these characters would be completely forgettable. Kerrigan becomes an icon character later, of course, and is a prominent feature of the Zerg campaign. And Raynor is an important part of the Protoss campaign. And both are quite important in Brood War later on.
Mensk is actually more interesting here. In hindsight Mensk seems like a character with a plan. He uses people, and is very good at taking advantage of the situation to complete his objective. Even his lies are at least plausible, though honestly his rise to power here seems a bit too staged. And Duke, well, he's just there. His turn from asshole confederate military commander, to revolutionary is laughable. But I guess could really signify a knack for seeing which way the wind is blowing and shifting alliances accordingly.
But the other thing missing is that the game really doesn't show the depth of the devastation. The humans in Starcraft are not really the big players after all. The humans are really just caught in the middle of a much larger war between the Protoss and the Zerg. The Zerg's interest in humanity is not really clear (at this point); while the Protoss simply are willing to kill everyone who gets in the way with little regard for the innocents caught in the middle.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Zerg campaign, where hopefully my memories will begin meshing more with the actual game.
Today, though, not so much.
The human campaign is very basic. You have Jim Raynor, who is basically a law-man. Sarah Kerrigan, a kick-ass girl. Mensk, a corrupt, even revolutionary. And Duke, a confederate general. There is also some type of android chick with pipes in her face, is there for exposition only and she is never named.
Of these characters, only Duke is not an iconic character for the series. Jim Raynor is a deeply tragic character, and perhaps the most interesting character in the series besides (perhaps) Tassadar later. Jim is a character that really doesn't get any brakes, and looses everything that is important to him. Especially Kerrigan. Yet, while I remember there being a deep abiding romance between the two, in practice their 'romance' happens almost completely off screen. They go from not knowing each other, to working together, to strong flirtation in just 3 missions. And you never really get the sense that Raynor really cared about Kerrigan until AFTER she's betrayed and he walks away from Mensk in disgust. It's also interesting that both characters, especially Raynor, the heroic one, go along with Mensk's plans. The plan to lure the Zerg to Tarsonis in a bid to destroy the Confederate capital is monstrous.
Based on the human campaign, both of these characters would be completely forgettable. Kerrigan becomes an icon character later, of course, and is a prominent feature of the Zerg campaign. And Raynor is an important part of the Protoss campaign. And both are quite important in Brood War later on.
Mensk is actually more interesting here. In hindsight Mensk seems like a character with a plan. He uses people, and is very good at taking advantage of the situation to complete his objective. Even his lies are at least plausible, though honestly his rise to power here seems a bit too staged. And Duke, well, he's just there. His turn from asshole confederate military commander, to revolutionary is laughable. But I guess could really signify a knack for seeing which way the wind is blowing and shifting alliances accordingly.
But the other thing missing is that the game really doesn't show the depth of the devastation. The humans in Starcraft are not really the big players after all. The humans are really just caught in the middle of a much larger war between the Protoss and the Zerg. The Zerg's interest in humanity is not really clear (at this point); while the Protoss simply are willing to kill everyone who gets in the way with little regard for the innocents caught in the middle.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the Zerg campaign, where hopefully my memories will begin meshing more with the actual game.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Current State of World of Warcraft
I started re-reading some of my first (rather bad) posts when I opened this blog. It was during a time of transition, right before Wrath was about to come out and change the game. My previous guild, Nerfed, had disbanded, crushed by the lack of defined leadership and the inability to recruit new members at the same caliber of the first ones.
And you know what I learned? My writing was bad back then. And isn't much better now! :)
But today World of Warcraft is yet again in transition. A new expansion is looming. There is no more Wrath Content pending (Ruby Sanctum is a joke, at least BC was smart enough to include an actual post-Illidan raid). But Cataclysm is still months out (I'm guessing November). And the summer months have brought on the MMO blues. ICC has been out for quite a while now. Blizzard is quite fond with tinkering with it's game, but this too has stopped--all efforts are focused on the next expansion at the detriment of everything else. And Wrath's post LK content, Ruby Sanctum, is a joke. 1 Boss, with way too much trash does not equal Sunwell.
So, Blizzard is coming off what is certainly the worst expansion WOW has made. While Wrath is very refined, that very refinement is part of the problem. Blizzard played it safe with Wrath. Too safe. And over the course of the two years it has broken many of the things that originally made this game so much fun.
Now, part of Blizzard's main goal has nothing to do with high level characters. Their primary goal seems to be to rework the old world to make it more fun for lower level characters in order to increase player retention rates and update the game to a more modern standard. This is a good idea, and worth a topic of it's own, but for now I'm going to talk about what Blizzard needs to to retain old players.
1. Improve class balance and slow down game play. Class Balance is always a harsh thing, but Wrath has been dominated by various classes (first DK, then Druid and Paladin) to the exclusion to everything else. Mages, my pet class, haven't received much love. And Shadow Priests are even worse off (priests in general often seem to get the shaft). Part of the problem is that some classes just aren't designed around the twitchy game play mechanics that the game now requires. This is true in both PVP and PVE...a Mage simply can't keep up in a lot of fights because of all of the movement (as an example). Slowing down fights across the bored will help make fights more meaningful, and also give some far more interesting options in regards to PVE design. This one Blizzard is tackling directly...so we'll see how well they do.
2. Improve social interactivity. The LFG Tool, while cool, has actually hurt the community and has led to random social experiences being much less pleasant. At best, a good run ends up being completely dead, with no talking or communication at all--people there know everything and just want to get through it as-fast-as-humanly-possible. This is something that I do not believe Blizzard is addressing at all at this point. Honestly, what I would like to see happen is an implementation of Guild Alliances, with a GA-chat. And a direct tie in with the LFG tool. If Blizzard wanted to get real cool, then allow those alliances to form between servers even! That way, a member could start a party in the LFG tool, and fill it with Guild and Alliance members from any server in that alliance. And alliances could help avoid the complete anonymous nature of the current LFG system (of course, the current LFG should also remain as well).
3. Fix the raiding game. Wrath Raiding tended to swing between mind-numbingly boring to frustrating. With each new raid boss, the mechanics became more hectic and more frantic, more twitching. And less fun. Blizzard needs to get rid of enrage timers. And include more dynamic elements to the fights.
4. Making leveling more fun. Blizzard quests are a joke. Sure they may have been liked at the time, but things have evolved. And this is one area that only FFXI has gotten right. OK, so leveling quests don't necessarily need to be super-interesting or dynamic...they exist only for grinding anyway. But more story would help there too. The biggest thing Blizzard needs to learn, though, is that quests don't HAVE to just be about leveling. Quests can be about story too, and this is something that can really add a new element to the game that has really been missing. Long quest lines, with interesting cut scenes and stuff to do can really provide an entirely new element to the game.
5. Introduce a new way to play the game. Or get creative and add several. Right now WOW comes down to PVP, 5-Mans, and Raiding (10 and 25s). This is pretty much the staple. But it doesn't have to be. WOW could consider adding some RVR elements (more complex than, say, wintergrasp). They could add a story-mode (much like FFXI had). They could add things like trials and tests...specific trails which reward epic gear for completing certain trials (as long as they aren't just stupid rep grinds or massive money sinks). WOW is getting old enough that Blizzard really needs to start thinking about adding new KINDS of content...not just updated versions.
Of these things, I do not see Blizzard really tackling many of these things. And while Cataclysm MAY be their most successful expansion in the business sense. Retention of new players is very important, and concentrating on that at this point in the game is probably a good idea. It will certainly help Blizzard retain a large player base in the long run and help them to remain a dominate force in the marketplace. But, will this strategy help retain old players? That, I'm not so sure of. My prediction is that Cataclysm will be wildly successful at first...but will fall off faster than either BC or Wrath.
And you know what I learned? My writing was bad back then. And isn't much better now! :)
But today World of Warcraft is yet again in transition. A new expansion is looming. There is no more Wrath Content pending (Ruby Sanctum is a joke, at least BC was smart enough to include an actual post-Illidan raid). But Cataclysm is still months out (I'm guessing November). And the summer months have brought on the MMO blues. ICC has been out for quite a while now. Blizzard is quite fond with tinkering with it's game, but this too has stopped--all efforts are focused on the next expansion at the detriment of everything else. And Wrath's post LK content, Ruby Sanctum, is a joke. 1 Boss, with way too much trash does not equal Sunwell.
So, Blizzard is coming off what is certainly the worst expansion WOW has made. While Wrath is very refined, that very refinement is part of the problem. Blizzard played it safe with Wrath. Too safe. And over the course of the two years it has broken many of the things that originally made this game so much fun.
Now, part of Blizzard's main goal has nothing to do with high level characters. Their primary goal seems to be to rework the old world to make it more fun for lower level characters in order to increase player retention rates and update the game to a more modern standard. This is a good idea, and worth a topic of it's own, but for now I'm going to talk about what Blizzard needs to to retain old players.
1. Improve class balance and slow down game play. Class Balance is always a harsh thing, but Wrath has been dominated by various classes (first DK, then Druid and Paladin) to the exclusion to everything else. Mages, my pet class, haven't received much love. And Shadow Priests are even worse off (priests in general often seem to get the shaft). Part of the problem is that some classes just aren't designed around the twitchy game play mechanics that the game now requires. This is true in both PVP and PVE...a Mage simply can't keep up in a lot of fights because of all of the movement (as an example). Slowing down fights across the bored will help make fights more meaningful, and also give some far more interesting options in regards to PVE design. This one Blizzard is tackling directly...so we'll see how well they do.
2. Improve social interactivity. The LFG Tool, while cool, has actually hurt the community and has led to random social experiences being much less pleasant. At best, a good run ends up being completely dead, with no talking or communication at all--people there know everything and just want to get through it as-fast-as-humanly-possible. This is something that I do not believe Blizzard is addressing at all at this point. Honestly, what I would like to see happen is an implementation of Guild Alliances, with a GA-chat. And a direct tie in with the LFG tool. If Blizzard wanted to get real cool, then allow those alliances to form between servers even! That way, a member could start a party in the LFG tool, and fill it with Guild and Alliance members from any server in that alliance. And alliances could help avoid the complete anonymous nature of the current LFG system (of course, the current LFG should also remain as well).
3. Fix the raiding game. Wrath Raiding tended to swing between mind-numbingly boring to frustrating. With each new raid boss, the mechanics became more hectic and more frantic, more twitching. And less fun. Blizzard needs to get rid of enrage timers. And include more dynamic elements to the fights.
4. Making leveling more fun. Blizzard quests are a joke. Sure they may have been liked at the time, but things have evolved. And this is one area that only FFXI has gotten right. OK, so leveling quests don't necessarily need to be super-interesting or dynamic...they exist only for grinding anyway. But more story would help there too. The biggest thing Blizzard needs to learn, though, is that quests don't HAVE to just be about leveling. Quests can be about story too, and this is something that can really add a new element to the game that has really been missing. Long quest lines, with interesting cut scenes and stuff to do can really provide an entirely new element to the game.
5. Introduce a new way to play the game. Or get creative and add several. Right now WOW comes down to PVP, 5-Mans, and Raiding (10 and 25s). This is pretty much the staple. But it doesn't have to be. WOW could consider adding some RVR elements (more complex than, say, wintergrasp). They could add a story-mode (much like FFXI had). They could add things like trials and tests...specific trails which reward epic gear for completing certain trials (as long as they aren't just stupid rep grinds or massive money sinks). WOW is getting old enough that Blizzard really needs to start thinking about adding new KINDS of content...not just updated versions.
Of these things, I do not see Blizzard really tackling many of these things. And while Cataclysm MAY be their most successful expansion in the business sense. Retention of new players is very important, and concentrating on that at this point in the game is probably a good idea. It will certainly help Blizzard retain a large player base in the long run and help them to remain a dominate force in the marketplace. But, will this strategy help retain old players? That, I'm not so sure of. My prediction is that Cataclysm will be wildly successful at first...but will fall off faster than either BC or Wrath.
Star Craft 2 Beta! Um, FALSE ALARM!
I was pretty psyched to get a chance to look at SC2. I mean, I just got an invite Sunday! So, I got everything installed on Sunday night. Left it running to do updates when I went to bed. And I planned on playing it all last night. Except, of course, the beta ended at sometime yesterday afternoon while I was at work. What a cock tease.
So anyway, I was now in the Starcraft mood. So I went ahead and installed the SC Anthology instead and began playing through the series. It's been a long time since I played SC and Broodwar. So starting from the beginning to catch me up on the plot and story of the game seemed like a good idea. And I'm seriously needing to spend some time outside of WOW anyway. I didn't get to play it very long, but I did make it through roughly 5 missions.
Not surprisingly, my memories of the game aren't quite matching up to the reality of it. Now, Star Craft is one of the best and most distinctive of all RTS games. It's pure sci-fi setting is only part of what makes this game unique. More importantly, the game system itself, and the three main factions and their distinctive play styles which set Star Craft apart. All three races, Terran, Zerg, and Protoss play in fundamentally different ways, yet tend to be very balanced against one another (when played well). The mechanics for the races seem to take inspiration from fighting games...sure it's still a fighting game, and your still pushing buttons, but a good fighting game makes each fighter distinct. Not just variations of one another. Other games have attempted this, to some degree of success but SC managed it and did so while still maintaining balance. It's pretty impressive actually. Even today and hundreds of games later.
The first mission is pretty simple. Probably too simple for this sort of game. Especially considering that the game includes a set of tutorial missions. This is a problem that I've noticed with lots of similar RTS games...the first campaign gets shafted by having to include all of the 'ease the player into the game' mentality. Don't get me wrong. Stuff like this is important. But it also tends to leave the first campaign feeling shallow, and short. As I recall, the missions from the Zerg and Protoss campaigns start more complex, and end up being much grander in scope than anything in the Terran campaign.
There was something else I noticed, though. I seem to recall there being much more mysterious surrounding the aliens at the start of the human campaign. But, that is not the case. The protoss, and the zerg, are mentioned very early in the campaign and there is very little mystery involved. There is much more mystery later in why the factions are fighting; but no 'first contact' scenarios here. Which, I feel, actually detracts a bit from the campaign in general.
The second mission is a bit more dynamic. You have an old base to expand, and you actually take on a Zerg infestation head on. Most units aren't available, of course, but unlike the first mission this one is at least an RTS mission. This probably should have been the first mission from the start.
Now, the third mission is a bit infamous to me. I seem to recall having a bear of a time with the third mission. The third mission is simple. After the events of Mission 2, the Zerg are on the offensive and everyone is about to die. You have made an alliance with Acturus Mensk to get your people to safety, though you'll certainly get branded a traitor in the process. The goal of the mission is to 'survive 30 minutes. Now, when I originally played this mission I kept dying. A lot. To the point that I gave up on the game and put it away. Now, about a month later I came back to it and finally beat the mission. But I still remember feeling frustrated about it.
A similar thing happened with me and the original Command and Conquer. And today I've come to the inescapable conclusion that...back then I sucked at the games. Hard. Today the hardest part of 'surviving' 30 minutes is staying awake through the whole thing. Now, back then I think the difference was...I foolishly believed that buying extra SCVs was a waste of money. And while this does allow you to build a bit more in the beginning...during the middle you just start falling behind in resources and have no chance to keep up. It's the kind of tactic that is a staple in RTS games, but to newcomers it takes a while to learn. Much like building lots of extra sunflowers in plants vs. zombies. Rule Number 1. Make sure to spend resources on resource gathering.
Now the fourth mission is a puzzle/dungeon crawl through a Confederate base. Looking for data disks. Now I'm not sure if SC was the game that introduced these sorts of levels into RTS games (it might have been Red Alert, but honestly I don't remember and since no one reads this blog anyway I can't be bothered to find out). These things are pretty annoying and bland in SC. The trick with them is almost always to try to find the correct path which gets your your objective before you run out of units. These sorts of missions were implemented in much better ways in WC3, but here they are a bit out of place and rather bland.
After that, the game introduces Kerrigan in the first mission. She is not as hot as I remember her being, but she's still a pretty cool character overall (and probably the most ironic character from the whole series...and her parallel's with the Lich King in Warcraft are inescapable). Ghosts are some of the coolest units of any faction in this game, and Kerrigan is a very cool unit to play with. Not as overpowered as, say, a Commando in Command and Conquer, but that just makes her more awesome because you actually have to think using her. In the fifth mission, you use Kerrigan to kill an enemy officer and take over a base (helping the locals rebel). It's on a new planet, with a quick transition. And once you take the base, you have to then use it to take out the Confederate base. Fifth mission in, and only 2 have had any major Zerg involvement and no Protoss (except oblique references).
See what I mean about the first campaign in these games? All of the cool stuff comes later. Half way through and very little has actually happened. And it's too simple to really be 'fun' yet. But that's OK, because I know it gets better later on.
So anyway, I was now in the Starcraft mood. So I went ahead and installed the SC Anthology instead and began playing through the series. It's been a long time since I played SC and Broodwar. So starting from the beginning to catch me up on the plot and story of the game seemed like a good idea. And I'm seriously needing to spend some time outside of WOW anyway. I didn't get to play it very long, but I did make it through roughly 5 missions.
Not surprisingly, my memories of the game aren't quite matching up to the reality of it. Now, Star Craft is one of the best and most distinctive of all RTS games. It's pure sci-fi setting is only part of what makes this game unique. More importantly, the game system itself, and the three main factions and their distinctive play styles which set Star Craft apart. All three races, Terran, Zerg, and Protoss play in fundamentally different ways, yet tend to be very balanced against one another (when played well). The mechanics for the races seem to take inspiration from fighting games...sure it's still a fighting game, and your still pushing buttons, but a good fighting game makes each fighter distinct. Not just variations of one another. Other games have attempted this, to some degree of success but SC managed it and did so while still maintaining balance. It's pretty impressive actually. Even today and hundreds of games later.
The first mission is pretty simple. Probably too simple for this sort of game. Especially considering that the game includes a set of tutorial missions. This is a problem that I've noticed with lots of similar RTS games...the first campaign gets shafted by having to include all of the 'ease the player into the game' mentality. Don't get me wrong. Stuff like this is important. But it also tends to leave the first campaign feeling shallow, and short. As I recall, the missions from the Zerg and Protoss campaigns start more complex, and end up being much grander in scope than anything in the Terran campaign.
There was something else I noticed, though. I seem to recall there being much more mysterious surrounding the aliens at the start of the human campaign. But, that is not the case. The protoss, and the zerg, are mentioned very early in the campaign and there is very little mystery involved. There is much more mystery later in why the factions are fighting; but no 'first contact' scenarios here. Which, I feel, actually detracts a bit from the campaign in general.
The second mission is a bit more dynamic. You have an old base to expand, and you actually take on a Zerg infestation head on. Most units aren't available, of course, but unlike the first mission this one is at least an RTS mission. This probably should have been the first mission from the start.
Now, the third mission is a bit infamous to me. I seem to recall having a bear of a time with the third mission. The third mission is simple. After the events of Mission 2, the Zerg are on the offensive and everyone is about to die. You have made an alliance with Acturus Mensk to get your people to safety, though you'll certainly get branded a traitor in the process. The goal of the mission is to 'survive 30 minutes. Now, when I originally played this mission I kept dying. A lot. To the point that I gave up on the game and put it away. Now, about a month later I came back to it and finally beat the mission. But I still remember feeling frustrated about it.
A similar thing happened with me and the original Command and Conquer. And today I've come to the inescapable conclusion that...back then I sucked at the games. Hard. Today the hardest part of 'surviving' 30 minutes is staying awake through the whole thing. Now, back then I think the difference was...I foolishly believed that buying extra SCVs was a waste of money. And while this does allow you to build a bit more in the beginning...during the middle you just start falling behind in resources and have no chance to keep up. It's the kind of tactic that is a staple in RTS games, but to newcomers it takes a while to learn. Much like building lots of extra sunflowers in plants vs. zombies. Rule Number 1. Make sure to spend resources on resource gathering.
Now the fourth mission is a puzzle/dungeon crawl through a Confederate base. Looking for data disks. Now I'm not sure if SC was the game that introduced these sorts of levels into RTS games (it might have been Red Alert, but honestly I don't remember and since no one reads this blog anyway I can't be bothered to find out). These things are pretty annoying and bland in SC. The trick with them is almost always to try to find the correct path which gets your your objective before you run out of units. These sorts of missions were implemented in much better ways in WC3, but here they are a bit out of place and rather bland.
After that, the game introduces Kerrigan in the first mission. She is not as hot as I remember her being, but she's still a pretty cool character overall (and probably the most ironic character from the whole series...and her parallel's with the Lich King in Warcraft are inescapable). Ghosts are some of the coolest units of any faction in this game, and Kerrigan is a very cool unit to play with. Not as overpowered as, say, a Commando in Command and Conquer, but that just makes her more awesome because you actually have to think using her. In the fifth mission, you use Kerrigan to kill an enemy officer and take over a base (helping the locals rebel). It's on a new planet, with a quick transition. And once you take the base, you have to then use it to take out the Confederate base. Fifth mission in, and only 2 have had any major Zerg involvement and no Protoss (except oblique references).
See what I mean about the first campaign in these games? All of the cool stuff comes later. Half way through and very little has actually happened. And it's too simple to really be 'fun' yet. But that's OK, because I know it gets better later on.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Star Craft 2 Beta
It's no secret that I've been interested in the Cataclysm Beta (i've never been in a WOW beta before, and I'm curious). Yet, this weekend I got a Star Craft 2 beta invite. Um, 1 week before it ships. Yay? I'm presuming that Blizzard is more interested into doing final server load testing before release...so I'm guessing I didn't get 'lucky' here at all and tons of people got beta invites this weekend.
Still, tonight I'm planning on playing with it and seeing what it looks like. I'm particularly interested in the SC2 level editor. I had a lot of fun with the level editors included with SC, and WC3...and I won't mind playing some other things. Hopefully my friend also got an invite so we can play a few games against each other. He hasn't checked his email, but will be looking tonight when he gets home. If that's the case, I'm looking forward to trying everything out.
Still, tonight I'm planning on playing with it and seeing what it looks like. I'm particularly interested in the SC2 level editor. I had a lot of fun with the level editors included with SC, and WC3...and I won't mind playing some other things. Hopefully my friend also got an invite so we can play a few games against each other. He hasn't checked his email, but will be looking tonight when he gets home. If that's the case, I'm looking forward to trying everything out.
Warehouse 13
A friend of mine purchased the DVD for Season 1 of Warehouse 13. We've started watching it. And have now got through the first disk...3 episodes out of 12 I believe.
Now, Warehouse 13 is definitely a SciFi, excuse me, Syfy show. They are more overtly fantastical over other cable shows like those on USA. And, since I am a genre fan, generally more interesting to me. It's interesting to see that, post Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13 is more light hearted and less serious. Unlike Stargate Universe which is full of dark, annoying characters who are hard to relate to, yet inherently less likable than the BSG cast because they inherently act stupider while being just as angst filled.
Warehouse 13, however, seems to follow the mode of other Syfy shows like Eureka. With an inherently likable cast where nothing is taken too seriously and things are more self contained. I'll confess, though, that I've never actually seen an episode of Eureka, though I have read show reviews...point is I might be WAY off on this.
Like many cable shows that don't come from HBO, Warehouse 13 has an inherently small cast. There are essentially only 3 main characters, with a few side-characters that receive a little screen time when they interact with the main 3. You've got Arty, the 'mysterious' but likable and 'dark' head of the Warehouse. And Myka and Pete, to Secret Service agents which are brought into the Warehouse for their special skills. Pete is psychic, at least in a limited way, and is very good with people and has very good street smarts. And Myka has a strong sense of detail, a very good education, and more book smarts. The two are supposed to complement each other very well, but while X-files comparisons are often linked to this show, I'd say there is very little in common with that show.
Warehouse 13 seems to thrive on the quirks of it's characters and it's artifacts, and the Warehouse itself. Though it's probably too early to tell, a lot of the fun of the show seems to come from the discovery of the nature of the artifacts themselves and how they became artifacts in the first place. Yet, even from the second episode, the character's tend to be very cavalier with the artifacts in general, playing with them, and treating them as interesting diversions. And there is a few obviously story-elements already being introduced, mostly in regards to Artie himself (and his past) which I know will become more important later.
So far though, Warehouse 13 seems to be very much a 'monster of the week' format, with the focus being on the investigation of a new artifact. I've heard, though, that the show turns much more serial later on, so we'll see what happens. As a light-hearted affair, I'm finding the show to be pretty interesting, if not perfect. I might end up purchasing the show for myself at some point (but I'll wait for the Blue-Ray version).
Now, Warehouse 13 is definitely a SciFi, excuse me, Syfy show. They are more overtly fantastical over other cable shows like those on USA. And, since I am a genre fan, generally more interesting to me. It's interesting to see that, post Battlestar Galactica, Warehouse 13 is more light hearted and less serious. Unlike Stargate Universe which is full of dark, annoying characters who are hard to relate to, yet inherently less likable than the BSG cast because they inherently act stupider while being just as angst filled.
Warehouse 13, however, seems to follow the mode of other Syfy shows like Eureka. With an inherently likable cast where nothing is taken too seriously and things are more self contained. I'll confess, though, that I've never actually seen an episode of Eureka, though I have read show reviews...point is I might be WAY off on this.
Like many cable shows that don't come from HBO, Warehouse 13 has an inherently small cast. There are essentially only 3 main characters, with a few side-characters that receive a little screen time when they interact with the main 3. You've got Arty, the 'mysterious' but likable and 'dark' head of the Warehouse. And Myka and Pete, to Secret Service agents which are brought into the Warehouse for their special skills. Pete is psychic, at least in a limited way, and is very good with people and has very good street smarts. And Myka has a strong sense of detail, a very good education, and more book smarts. The two are supposed to complement each other very well, but while X-files comparisons are often linked to this show, I'd say there is very little in common with that show.
Warehouse 13 seems to thrive on the quirks of it's characters and it's artifacts, and the Warehouse itself. Though it's probably too early to tell, a lot of the fun of the show seems to come from the discovery of the nature of the artifacts themselves and how they became artifacts in the first place. Yet, even from the second episode, the character's tend to be very cavalier with the artifacts in general, playing with them, and treating them as interesting diversions. And there is a few obviously story-elements already being introduced, mostly in regards to Artie himself (and his past) which I know will become more important later.
So far though, Warehouse 13 seems to be very much a 'monster of the week' format, with the focus being on the investigation of a new artifact. I've heard, though, that the show turns much more serial later on, so we'll see what happens. As a light-hearted affair, I'm finding the show to be pretty interesting, if not perfect. I might end up purchasing the show for myself at some point (but I'll wait for the Blue-Ray version).
True Blood Mini-Review EP 5
Maybe it's the fact that I watched Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, but Season 3, while in many ways the most dense and interesting season so far...is also turning into the worst. The reason for this is simple...too many characters, too many plot lines, too little focus, and its getting harder and harder to get behind any one storyline because so little happens in any single plot thread.
This is all from memory, but lets see:
1. Sookie and Alcide, having survived Pelt's party, decide to talk to Alcide's Pack Leader. Who we learn is afraid, and unable/unwilling, to deal with the new werewolf gang's threat. Then Bill appears seconds before the the Vamp King shows up, she shows off her finger-light powers again...leading to said King deciding that she is important after all.
2. Tara has been killed off by freaking British Vamp. Who works for the King, is a complete psycho, and is drawn to Tara because she is as fucked up as he is. And he's made the decision to turn her into a Vamp to become his 'Vampire Bride'.
3. Lafayette gets a new BF in Jesus, who is an orderly at his mother's old-folk home.
4. Sam's white trash family is white trash. That's it.
5. Red Heads butt heads. Jessica pines for her Ex.
6. Arlene has pregnancy issues. And her new BF Terry is moving in. And he's stressed about it, but happy. Yet, this is not going to end well b/c Arlene lied about the baby being his.
7. Eric is trying to play the King against the Queen in a desperate bid to save Pam. And he flirts with the King's BF, who seems to be vulnerable and not quite so happy with his situation with the King. However, plans change as he figures out that the King actually killed his father 1,000 years ago.
8. Jason is a dumb ass. And now things he can be a cop, but he's too scatterbrained to be able to do the job. So instead of gets all horny over a new girl, Crystal. Who meets him in the woods and says, 'this is the best moment of my life'. Allllllllll----rightty!
9. And the King of Mississippi is still moving his pieces across the board, making his move against the Queen of Louisiana. He's the leader of the wolf-pack, using them to do his dirty work. But he's also committing the same crimes as the Queen--and his are perhaps even more serious.
10. Bill Compton is still pissed at his maker. And trying to play both sides against the middle to protect Sookie. He, of course, is the one that put Eric into his situation. And he's certainly much more aware of what's happening with Sookie than he lets on. But he doesn't actually do much other than mope, then escape to find Sookie...just when the King shows up.
11. Tommy Mickens, Sam's brother, is a prick. But not as much of one this week. Oh, and his family has some 'hold' on him...duh duh duuuhhh!
12. Oh, and Hoyt goes on a date!
Seriously, there is just too much happening that at the end of the episode nothing has basically accomplished. The show is completely treading water at this point. And for everything that is happening on screen 90% of it is useless. And any time some momentum is built up in a story-line, we end up jumping back to Sam, or Tara, or Jason...and it's like watching the air blow out of a balloon. Pffffffft! Momentum gone. The only thing saving the show is the way the actors really take the material and go for it. I wouldn't necessarily call the acting very good, but everyone is pretty interesting to watch.
I get that True Blood is an ensemble show. But, there is a certain point where too much is too much. And True Blood Season 3 is groaning under the weight of too many divergent story lines that are progressing too slowly because very little screen time is spent on any of them. And instead of starting to tie things together, the show seems bound and determine to add even more characters to the mix to a show that already has about 6 too many. Hopefully, these plots will start emerging into a clear narrative, but until then the show is pointlessly meandering it's way into it's first truly mediocre season.
This is all from memory, but lets see:
1. Sookie and Alcide, having survived Pelt's party, decide to talk to Alcide's Pack Leader. Who we learn is afraid, and unable/unwilling, to deal with the new werewolf gang's threat. Then Bill appears seconds before the the Vamp King shows up, she shows off her finger-light powers again...leading to said King deciding that she is important after all.
2. Tara has been killed off by freaking British Vamp. Who works for the King, is a complete psycho, and is drawn to Tara because she is as fucked up as he is. And he's made the decision to turn her into a Vamp to become his 'Vampire Bride'.
3. Lafayette gets a new BF in Jesus, who is an orderly at his mother's old-folk home.
4. Sam's white trash family is white trash. That's it.
5. Red Heads butt heads. Jessica pines for her Ex.
6. Arlene has pregnancy issues. And her new BF Terry is moving in. And he's stressed about it, but happy. Yet, this is not going to end well b/c Arlene lied about the baby being his.
7. Eric is trying to play the King against the Queen in a desperate bid to save Pam. And he flirts with the King's BF, who seems to be vulnerable and not quite so happy with his situation with the King. However, plans change as he figures out that the King actually killed his father 1,000 years ago.
8. Jason is a dumb ass. And now things he can be a cop, but he's too scatterbrained to be able to do the job. So instead of gets all horny over a new girl, Crystal. Who meets him in the woods and says, 'this is the best moment of my life'. Allllllllll----rightty!
9. And the King of Mississippi is still moving his pieces across the board, making his move against the Queen of Louisiana. He's the leader of the wolf-pack, using them to do his dirty work. But he's also committing the same crimes as the Queen--and his are perhaps even more serious.
10. Bill Compton is still pissed at his maker. And trying to play both sides against the middle to protect Sookie. He, of course, is the one that put Eric into his situation. And he's certainly much more aware of what's happening with Sookie than he lets on. But he doesn't actually do much other than mope, then escape to find Sookie...just when the King shows up.
11. Tommy Mickens, Sam's brother, is a prick. But not as much of one this week. Oh, and his family has some 'hold' on him...duh duh duuuhhh!
12. Oh, and Hoyt goes on a date!
Seriously, there is just too much happening that at the end of the episode nothing has basically accomplished. The show is completely treading water at this point. And for everything that is happening on screen 90% of it is useless. And any time some momentum is built up in a story-line, we end up jumping back to Sam, or Tara, or Jason...and it's like watching the air blow out of a balloon. Pffffffft! Momentum gone. The only thing saving the show is the way the actors really take the material and go for it. I wouldn't necessarily call the acting very good, but everyone is pretty interesting to watch.
I get that True Blood is an ensemble show. But, there is a certain point where too much is too much. And True Blood Season 3 is groaning under the weight of too many divergent story lines that are progressing too slowly because very little screen time is spent on any of them. And instead of starting to tie things together, the show seems bound and determine to add even more characters to the mix to a show that already has about 6 too many. Hopefully, these plots will start emerging into a clear narrative, but until then the show is pointlessly meandering it's way into it's first truly mediocre season.
Cataclysm = Borean Tundra?
I have a confession to make. In many ways I feel that my time in World of Warcraft is coming to an end. I no longer play with any of the friends that made me care about the game. And the ones that still do play are pretty much sick of it. And are no longer even in the same guild. Without those online friends and connections, the draw for an MMO drops considerably. All that's left is the gear grind, which has always been an annoyance to me anyway. And this close to a new expansion, has no appreciable benefit to my character anymore.
So my original plan was to quit after the start of the new expansion. I wanted to see all of the changes, of course, and to see all of the new 5 mans and first raid zones--basically see everything there is to experience before the real grinding set in. And then quit, either by moving to FFIV, or SWTOR. The real end-date for quiting WOW really has little to do with the game at all at this point. I still enjoy raiding and larger groupings. And WOW is still king in that regard, what with most new MMOs concentrating on PVP content...and crashing and burning in the process (it still surprises me that so many MMO makers concentrate exclusively on PVP and RVR content, when PVE content seems more popular to the 'masses'. I guess those content developers are very much like most PVPers...hardcore,
So, my original plan was to quit at the end of Wrath and the death of the LK, along with a friend (my last RL friend who still plays this game). That way I still get to see the new content, while it is still new, and then I can bow out once the grind hits in full force again. But as I already admitted, Cataclysm is interesting me a lot more than I was figuring it would. Though I don't think it will be able to get past the fact that much of the content seems designed to bring in new players, to revamp the old world at the expense of adding a lot of new high-end content. Sure alts will be 'fun'...but that's still a super-long level grind, which is always the sort of thing I've left to alts when I never had anything to do with my main.
Still, the story progression in Cataclysm seems interesting, and is starting to definitely look like it will be worth going through at least once. But, there is another problem that seem to be emerging out of Cataclysm. And that is the fact that region design seems to be suffering from what I call the Borean Tundra ADD Syndrome. Now, there is no mistaking the fact that most zones in Wrath were quite interesting and beautiful. But Borean Tundra, while still pretty, was a zone badly suffering from ADD. Each little area was a patchwork microcosm of radically divergent terrains which had nothing to do with each other. Oh look, ICE? Right next to a swamp; right next to rolling plains, right next to icy cavers, right next to wheat fields, right next to volcanic fissures and hot springs, right next to....well you get the idea. Borean Tundra was a zone that in no way would exist in the real world...Outland zones were more realistic (as dumb as that sounds). And flying above the zone you just get the idea that the developers had 10 or so ideas on what they wanted to do, put them on pieces of paper and threw them in the air and marked where they all landed. The zone's schizophrenic nature took away from the actual beauty of the zone, and it's ability to make large, openly expansive regions look beautiful.
The region design in Cataclysm looks very much like Borean Tundra. And while the old world may have been boring in its visuals (at least by today's standards), massive terrain variations normally happened between zones, or within zones, where the changes at least made some sense. Cataclysm zones are much denser, much like BC/Wrath...yet to me look very much like patchwork zones of massively divergent terrain features that make things look very stupid when you really think about it. And it completely takes me out of any suspension of disbelief when you look at it from the air.
Now, this is the sort of thing that simply won't change before Cataclysm ships. So, and since I've only seen a few videos of the zones so far, maybe I'm just seeing the most radical zones first. But this sort of ADD-addled zone design is annoying at best. And probably related to the concept of tighter quest hubs being localized to small sub-zones before moving you on to the next sub-zone. Maybe playing through it might not be so bad, but we'll see.
So my original plan was to quit after the start of the new expansion. I wanted to see all of the changes, of course, and to see all of the new 5 mans and first raid zones--basically see everything there is to experience before the real grinding set in. And then quit, either by moving to FFIV, or SWTOR. The real end-date for quiting WOW really has little to do with the game at all at this point. I still enjoy raiding and larger groupings. And WOW is still king in that regard, what with most new MMOs concentrating on PVP content...and crashing and burning in the process (it still surprises me that so many MMO makers concentrate exclusively on PVP and RVR content, when PVE content seems more popular to the 'masses'. I guess those content developers are very much like most PVPers...hardcore,
So, my original plan was to quit at the end of Wrath and the death of the LK, along with a friend (my last RL friend who still plays this game). That way I still get to see the new content, while it is still new, and then I can bow out once the grind hits in full force again. But as I already admitted, Cataclysm is interesting me a lot more than I was figuring it would. Though I don't think it will be able to get past the fact that much of the content seems designed to bring in new players, to revamp the old world at the expense of adding a lot of new high-end content. Sure alts will be 'fun'...but that's still a super-long level grind, which is always the sort of thing I've left to alts when I never had anything to do with my main.
Still, the story progression in Cataclysm seems interesting, and is starting to definitely look like it will be worth going through at least once. But, there is another problem that seem to be emerging out of Cataclysm. And that is the fact that region design seems to be suffering from what I call the Borean Tundra ADD Syndrome. Now, there is no mistaking the fact that most zones in Wrath were quite interesting and beautiful. But Borean Tundra, while still pretty, was a zone badly suffering from ADD. Each little area was a patchwork microcosm of radically divergent terrains which had nothing to do with each other. Oh look, ICE? Right next to a swamp; right next to rolling plains, right next to icy cavers, right next to wheat fields, right next to volcanic fissures and hot springs, right next to....well you get the idea. Borean Tundra was a zone that in no way would exist in the real world...Outland zones were more realistic (as dumb as that sounds). And flying above the zone you just get the idea that the developers had 10 or so ideas on what they wanted to do, put them on pieces of paper and threw them in the air and marked where they all landed. The zone's schizophrenic nature took away from the actual beauty of the zone, and it's ability to make large, openly expansive regions look beautiful.
The region design in Cataclysm looks very much like Borean Tundra. And while the old world may have been boring in its visuals (at least by today's standards), massive terrain variations normally happened between zones, or within zones, where the changes at least made some sense. Cataclysm zones are much denser, much like BC/Wrath...yet to me look very much like patchwork zones of massively divergent terrain features that make things look very stupid when you really think about it. And it completely takes me out of any suspension of disbelief when you look at it from the air.
Now, this is the sort of thing that simply won't change before Cataclysm ships. So, and since I've only seen a few videos of the zones so far, maybe I'm just seeing the most radical zones first. But this sort of ADD-addled zone design is annoying at best. And probably related to the concept of tighter quest hubs being localized to small sub-zones before moving you on to the next sub-zone. Maybe playing through it might not be so bad, but we'll see.
Monday, July 12, 2010
True Blood!
I rarely watch live television. I generally prefer to purchase TV shows as seasons and then watch the whole season in a short period of time instead of having weekly breaks. So a few weeks ago I purchased True Blood Season 1 and 2 (they were on sale, I assume because S3 was about to start).
I don't know what I was expecting from the show. I guess I was mostly expecting a murder mystery involving vampires. But, the first season spent very little time on the mystery itself. Instead, the show focused more on the people of the town, the politics, the racism, and the quirkiness of all of the characters. By the time the actual murder mystery took center stage, it was like ep11 out of 12. And a lot of the 12th episode was all about setting up the next season. Though it wasn't what I expected, the show was quite fun in its own way.
Season 2 was at once better, and worse, than the first season. While Season 1 had it's moments, Season 2 was more interested in shock. It had two main stories. One involved the disappearance of a vampire 'sheriff' in Dallas. The other, an evil maenad fucking with the town. Of the two, the stuff in Dallas was the most interesting. But that was over way too quickly. Maryann, the seasons 'big bad' was annoying beyond belief, and evil group-sex just didn't really sell the story very well. By the end, the whole town was fucked up, and there were some genuine creepy moments. But the ending fizzled completely. The Queen of Louisiana was a joke character, and there were moments where characters were forced into some of the dumbest actions merely to set up the story (I'm looking at Tara, and Eggs specifically). So Season 2, while still fun and more polished, also had more things detracting from it.
So having now seen both seasons, I've started watching Season 3, which is now 4 episodes in, is certainly more engaging than either previous season. It's more complex. There is obviously more thought into what is going on. The King of Mississippi is making a move against the Queen of Louisiana, whom is in a vulnerable position, I guess, and is also selling Vampire Blood. The King has Bill captured and offers him a deal; work for him, give up the Queen's secrets, and he'll make Bill a sheriff. Oh, and not kill Sookie.
There is definitely a sense that more stuff is going on here. And for the most part it's more interesting. But, the third season is somewhat suffering from having too many plots. Too much screen time is being spent on characters that have nothing to do with the main plot. And while in previous seasons this has always been an issue, there is just too much going on now and it's slowing everything down. Considerably.
Fortunately, each individual sequence is generally interesting--even if they are completely irrelevant. Except for Sam. I like the character of Sam. And I like the actor, who is very charismatic. In some ways he should be the heart of the show. But his story is at this point so completely disconnected from the rest of the show that he might as well be on a show of his own. And my interest in his family's antics are about the same as Jason's Children of the Sun story arc in S2...while I'm sure things will intersect at some point, there just isn't enough good there to justify the time spent on it. I'd much rather watch more Jessica than Sam's family.
But now 4 episodes in certain things are beginning to merge. Erik's hunt of the nazi/werewolf club is going to lead him directly to the King. And the King now has the goods he needs to take out the Queen (with Eric also likely to be the obvious scape goat). Tara's been captured by a vampire goon/detective who works for the King (and he's been very effective in finding out information; including the fact that Sookie is a telepath). And Sookie herself is now in harms way.
So, at this point all that needs to happen is a bit more focus on a central story--either by starting to bring all of these stories back together; or spending much less time with them. If they can do this, then Season 3 has the potential of being better than either of the first 2 seasons. If they don't do that, then this season is going to end up very much like the others. Fun. Genuinely thrilling at time. But fundamentally flawed.
I don't know what I was expecting from the show. I guess I was mostly expecting a murder mystery involving vampires. But, the first season spent very little time on the mystery itself. Instead, the show focused more on the people of the town, the politics, the racism, and the quirkiness of all of the characters. By the time the actual murder mystery took center stage, it was like ep11 out of 12. And a lot of the 12th episode was all about setting up the next season. Though it wasn't what I expected, the show was quite fun in its own way.
Season 2 was at once better, and worse, than the first season. While Season 1 had it's moments, Season 2 was more interested in shock. It had two main stories. One involved the disappearance of a vampire 'sheriff' in Dallas. The other, an evil maenad fucking with the town. Of the two, the stuff in Dallas was the most interesting. But that was over way too quickly. Maryann, the seasons 'big bad' was annoying beyond belief, and evil group-sex just didn't really sell the story very well. By the end, the whole town was fucked up, and there were some genuine creepy moments. But the ending fizzled completely. The Queen of Louisiana was a joke character, and there were moments where characters were forced into some of the dumbest actions merely to set up the story (I'm looking at Tara, and Eggs specifically). So Season 2, while still fun and more polished, also had more things detracting from it.
So having now seen both seasons, I've started watching Season 3, which is now 4 episodes in, is certainly more engaging than either previous season. It's more complex. There is obviously more thought into what is going on. The King of Mississippi is making a move against the Queen of Louisiana, whom is in a vulnerable position, I guess, and is also selling Vampire Blood. The King has Bill captured and offers him a deal; work for him, give up the Queen's secrets, and he'll make Bill a sheriff. Oh, and not kill Sookie.
There is definitely a sense that more stuff is going on here. And for the most part it's more interesting. But, the third season is somewhat suffering from having too many plots. Too much screen time is being spent on characters that have nothing to do with the main plot. And while in previous seasons this has always been an issue, there is just too much going on now and it's slowing everything down. Considerably.
Fortunately, each individual sequence is generally interesting--even if they are completely irrelevant. Except for Sam. I like the character of Sam. And I like the actor, who is very charismatic. In some ways he should be the heart of the show. But his story is at this point so completely disconnected from the rest of the show that he might as well be on a show of his own. And my interest in his family's antics are about the same as Jason's Children of the Sun story arc in S2...while I'm sure things will intersect at some point, there just isn't enough good there to justify the time spent on it. I'd much rather watch more Jessica than Sam's family.
But now 4 episodes in certain things are beginning to merge. Erik's hunt of the nazi/werewolf club is going to lead him directly to the King. And the King now has the goods he needs to take out the Queen (with Eric also likely to be the obvious scape goat). Tara's been captured by a vampire goon/detective who works for the King (and he's been very effective in finding out information; including the fact that Sookie is a telepath). And Sookie herself is now in harms way.
So, at this point all that needs to happen is a bit more focus on a central story--either by starting to bring all of these stories back together; or spending much less time with them. If they can do this, then Season 3 has the potential of being better than either of the first 2 seasons. If they don't do that, then this season is going to end up very much like the others. Fun. Genuinely thrilling at time. But fundamentally flawed.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Real ID and Blizzard Forums
By this point everyone has expressed an opinion about Blizzard's plan to force the use of real names, based on billing information, in the forums. This, of course, has ticked off a lot of people. No one really likes it, and the complaining has reached interesting (if expected) levels to say the least.
Me? Though I live in a closet. I'm completely indifferent. I've never posted on the Blizzard Forums. And don't ever plan to. They are a cesspool, where useful information is few and far between.
But I will say, Blizzard's stated reason for doing this--to try to prevent trolling and increase worthwhile posting--is admirable to be sure. And certainly won't be achieved by this method. The only way to control trolling is to take draconian measures to prevent it. That means deleting any trollish post, temp and perma bans for abusers. And a team of people dedicated for just this specific purpose. Considering the size and volume of those forums, that is likely to never be possible or economically feasible.
All Blizzard will accomplish is to reduce the actual volume of their forums. And in the end that might be their main goal after all.
Me? Though I live in a closet. I'm completely indifferent. I've never posted on the Blizzard Forums. And don't ever plan to. They are a cesspool, where useful information is few and far between.
But I will say, Blizzard's stated reason for doing this--to try to prevent trolling and increase worthwhile posting--is admirable to be sure. And certainly won't be achieved by this method. The only way to control trolling is to take draconian measures to prevent it. That means deleting any trollish post, temp and perma bans for abusers. And a team of people dedicated for just this specific purpose. Considering the size and volume of those forums, that is likely to never be possible or economically feasible.
All Blizzard will accomplish is to reduce the actual volume of their forums. And in the end that might be their main goal after all.
Argent Dawn Rep Farming
So, I've been in a rut when it comes to games. I've got several pretty interesting games on my radar. inFamous, Red Dead Redemption, and Heavy Rain. All are sitting near my TV already purchased. And I still haven't finished either FF13, or God of War 3. But last night I had the perfect opportunity to do something different. My raiding schedule is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...and we had last night off as we cleared everything there was to clear. So why did I farm Argent Dawn rep instead of pulling out Red Dead Redemption?
Blah.
So, I've been farming Argent Dawn rep for several reasons. The primary one is for the achievements. Though in reality I wouldn't have bothered except for the fact that I found that I could make a substantial sum of money in the process. Farming Argent Dawn rep is simple. Just take your level 80 (70+ will work with some classes). Get the argent dawn trinket so that undead mobs will drop marks. Then go to Scholo, or Strat and start instance farming. Mobs in those zones give 3-10 rep per kill, and bosses from 50-100. When you are done, take the marks you've collected and turning them into Argent Valor tokens (each turn in is worth 50 each). Then take those takens and use them for an extra 100 honor per token. If there are any quests in either zone, pick them up in the process as they are worth 1000 rep each. The combination of all of these things earns you quite a bit of rep per run--as much as 3 to 4 thousand.
Just a tip. For level 80 mages, Strat is actually easier. No magic immune mobs there to slow you down. I think I earned 22k rep in a total of 3 Strat Runs, and 1 Scholomance Run. Each run took less than an hour
Of course, making money is important to me right now so farming Strat was killing two birds with one stone. More achievements, a title, and a rather substantial amount of money. How substantial? I think I made total of about 4K in drops, though I think I got a bit lucky (seeing how I got an Orb of Destruction, and a BOE epic drop as well). So, a new rep completed. 2 more achievements. A title. The Deathcharger mount and achievement. And about 4k gold total. Not bad IMO.
Next, I'm probably going to work on Cenarian Circle. Though I'm not sure. I don't really see an easy way to farm this, but then again I haven't really looked into it again. Maybe I should just wait for AQ20/40 pugs? The only reason I'm considering it is that I'm only 12k from Exaulted anyway and I actually have around 80 twilight pages sitting in the bank (they've been there forever). Are the obelisk summonings still broken? I wonder. If it's too much of a pain in the ass I probably won't bother. But I'll at least look into it.
Blah.
So, I've been farming Argent Dawn rep for several reasons. The primary one is for the achievements. Though in reality I wouldn't have bothered except for the fact that I found that I could make a substantial sum of money in the process. Farming Argent Dawn rep is simple. Just take your level 80 (70+ will work with some classes). Get the argent dawn trinket so that undead mobs will drop marks. Then go to Scholo, or Strat and start instance farming. Mobs in those zones give 3-10 rep per kill, and bosses from 50-100. When you are done, take the marks you've collected and turning them into Argent Valor tokens (each turn in is worth 50 each). Then take those takens and use them for an extra 100 honor per token. If there are any quests in either zone, pick them up in the process as they are worth 1000 rep each. The combination of all of these things earns you quite a bit of rep per run--as much as 3 to 4 thousand.
Just a tip. For level 80 mages, Strat is actually easier. No magic immune mobs there to slow you down. I think I earned 22k rep in a total of 3 Strat Runs, and 1 Scholomance Run. Each run took less than an hour
Of course, making money is important to me right now so farming Strat was killing two birds with one stone. More achievements, a title, and a rather substantial amount of money. How substantial? I think I made total of about 4K in drops, though I think I got a bit lucky (seeing how I got an Orb of Destruction, and a BOE epic drop as well). So, a new rep completed. 2 more achievements. A title. The Deathcharger mount and achievement. And about 4k gold total. Not bad IMO.
Next, I'm probably going to work on Cenarian Circle. Though I'm not sure. I don't really see an easy way to farm this, but then again I haven't really looked into it again. Maybe I should just wait for AQ20/40 pugs? The only reason I'm considering it is that I'm only 12k from Exaulted anyway and I actually have around 80 twilight pages sitting in the bank (they've been there forever). Are the obelisk summonings still broken? I wonder. If it's too much of a pain in the ass I probably won't bother. But I'll at least look into it.
New Talent Trees! What?
I have to confess. When I first heard about the fact that Blizzard was totally reworking the talent trees, effectively halving the amount of talents in the process, I was flabergasted. I'm not one that's normally against change. Though change for the sake of change has always been annoying to me. Of course, in practice I can see Blizzard's point. The higher the level cap, the more complex the talent trees become. And while Blizzard wasn't introducing a new tier of talents, having 5 more points to spend in the trees would require a rethink. The existing talent trees weren't designed around the possibility of having 5 additional points.
Now in practice, for some specs 5 additional points wouldn't be all that useful. But for others, 5 points would be a massive boost. Imbalances there would be inevitable. Which I figure is the main reason why Blizzard was planning such a major change in talents anyway. Of course, their plan now is quite a bit more radical. Characters will only receive 1 talent point every other level now. And talent trees will be smaller--more like they were at level 60. I assume that the trees will be simpler in design as well.
In some ways this change seems very similar in purpose to the idea of only increasing the level cap by 5 instead of 10. I assume Blizzard realized that an increase of 10 level every expansion would be difficult to sustain and lead to uncomfortable levels of bloat. Even a 5 point talent change in an expansion could lead to the need of a major revision. With the design now, characters will only gain 5 levels, and effectively 2 additional talent points. 5 and 3 with the next expansion, if they follow the same design.
It took me a while of thinking about it before I got to the heart of why I didn't like the change at first. You see, I was looking forward to the possibility of greater flexibility within the existing talent trees. By not increasing the depth of the tree, I was expecting to have a few more options on how to spec. It might make spec types previously worthless more interesting, depending on how they redesigned it. I liked the idea of that choice, and didn't really want to let that go.
Of course, in practice that was never going to happen. Talent Trees were already being reworked to such a degree that they wouldn't look anything like their current design. And those 5 points would have been planned for accordingly. And the Mastery stat itself would force people towards 51 point talents, making specs that don't go all the way down one tree even more useless than they are right now. The idea of an expanded tree with more options was a pipe dream from the start, and would never be realized anyway.
So, in the end I figure Blizzard is probably going in the right direction here. A shallower tree, and a more simplistic one at that, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Talent Trees have always been around the illusion of choice anyway--in practice, for each class/spec combination there are only 1 or 2 competitive options. And talent bloat itself will be reduced. Sure there will be fewer points to spend. But then again each individual point will be more valuable because of that. And if Blizzard follows through with the promise of getting rid of 'boring' stats (i.e. ones that just provide static boosts), and focusing on more dynamic talents that provide more interesting benefits, then a shallow, simpler tree might even lead to more actual choices than we have right now. We'll have to see, though. To date I haven't seen any indication that Blizzard is achieving this goal. But maybe we'll have a clearer idea when Blizzard actually implements the changes.
Now in practice, for some specs 5 additional points wouldn't be all that useful. But for others, 5 points would be a massive boost. Imbalances there would be inevitable. Which I figure is the main reason why Blizzard was planning such a major change in talents anyway. Of course, their plan now is quite a bit more radical. Characters will only receive 1 talent point every other level now. And talent trees will be smaller--more like they were at level 60. I assume that the trees will be simpler in design as well.
In some ways this change seems very similar in purpose to the idea of only increasing the level cap by 5 instead of 10. I assume Blizzard realized that an increase of 10 level every expansion would be difficult to sustain and lead to uncomfortable levels of bloat. Even a 5 point talent change in an expansion could lead to the need of a major revision. With the design now, characters will only gain 5 levels, and effectively 2 additional talent points. 5 and 3 with the next expansion, if they follow the same design.
It took me a while of thinking about it before I got to the heart of why I didn't like the change at first. You see, I was looking forward to the possibility of greater flexibility within the existing talent trees. By not increasing the depth of the tree, I was expecting to have a few more options on how to spec. It might make spec types previously worthless more interesting, depending on how they redesigned it. I liked the idea of that choice, and didn't really want to let that go.
Of course, in practice that was never going to happen. Talent Trees were already being reworked to such a degree that they wouldn't look anything like their current design. And those 5 points would have been planned for accordingly. And the Mastery stat itself would force people towards 51 point talents, making specs that don't go all the way down one tree even more useless than they are right now. The idea of an expanded tree with more options was a pipe dream from the start, and would never be realized anyway.
So, in the end I figure Blizzard is probably going in the right direction here. A shallower tree, and a more simplistic one at that, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Talent Trees have always been around the illusion of choice anyway--in practice, for each class/spec combination there are only 1 or 2 competitive options. And talent bloat itself will be reduced. Sure there will be fewer points to spend. But then again each individual point will be more valuable because of that. And if Blizzard follows through with the promise of getting rid of 'boring' stats (i.e. ones that just provide static boosts), and focusing on more dynamic talents that provide more interesting benefits, then a shallow, simpler tree might even lead to more actual choices than we have right now. We'll have to see, though. To date I haven't seen any indication that Blizzard is achieving this goal. But maybe we'll have a clearer idea when Blizzard actually implements the changes.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Current State of Raiding
I think I'm going to post about several things today. I'm just in the mood I guess.
Of course, I recently switched both servers and factions, moving from Malygos/Alliance, to Earthen Ring/Horde. I've certainly suffered from second thoughts because of the switch, but by this point I am back to being firmly comitted to my Mage on Earthen Ring.
Mal is now a Blood Elf. She's hawt. She's a redhead. And she looks much more like her FFXI incarnation than ever before, which is a big plus to me. And she's now in mostly ICC 25 / ICC 25 Heroic Gear. She's got a base SP rating of about 3350, a Crit Rating of about 42%, and 1125 Haste (before buffs). Her gear score (I hate GS! just had to say it) is around 6100...still a bit behind much of my guild, but now by a much smaller margin. I'm still Arcane. And my average damage in ICC on a single-target mob is normally around 11-12k DPS. I'm consistantly holding 6th to 10th on damage in my guild, and I just don't see that gap decreasing much at this point (those that are ahead, are a LOT ahead). I'm doing over double the damage I was when I left Malygos, which, by the way, I think is rediculous.
My guild is now downing 9/12 Heroics in ICC. All that is left is Putricide, Sindragosa, and LK there on Heroic. Halion proved to be very easy for us, and I'm expecting us to switch right to hard modes on him, though I could be wrong (I'll find out tonight!) - this just in...I was wrong!.
I think I had posted it before. But my main goals after the transfer was to get back to 50k gold on Earth Ring. Get into an active guild doing 25 man content. And re-establish the alts I'd need to support raiding (specifically, I needed a farmer and an alchemist, and a Jewelcrafter). Much of these goals have now been reached. Though I still don't have an alt-farmer high enough for current content farming (my alt hunter is 63 now). Everything is in a good position.
I was spending a lot of time actively working to make money, but I quickly burned out on that. Fishing seems to be a very good and reliable way to make money on Earthen Ring...but it's so damned borning. I have, however, decided on a slow-but-steady approach involving minimal time and effort (I'm talking about 2-3 minutes tops a day), and even though I'm spending less than 5 minutes on it I'm still averaging about 200g per day. That works better for me, and its been reliable and consistant.
Though I doubt anyone cares, all I'm doing is two basic things. I transmute a Sky Sapphire into a purple gem and sell it (usually for around 120-130g uncut...cut gems sell for about the same amount, but much less often). And I do the jewelcrafting daily, and sell the gem for 80g. I've stopped doing dailies entirely. Though I will sometimes do some fishing before a raid, and that can quickly add up to another hundred or so gold in 30 minutes.
So, now that my main goals have been reached, I've moved onto new things. I've started spending time achievement farming. For example, I've just finished with the exploration achievements and I did all of the summerfest achievements (something I normally don't bother with). I've started working on re-earning my lost 5-man dungeon achievements (a lot of them were lost with the transfer)...and this has led me to consider working on Argent Dawn Rep (my one Strat run was awesome and netted me a lot of gold for very little effort). I think I earned about 2.5k gold in just one run, including an Orb of Deception (worth a lot), the Deathcharger mount and achievement, a ton of righteous orbs, several other valuable BOE blues worth over 100g each, and about 200g in misc mats.
So, I'm definitely going to go back and redo all 5-mans with my mage. And I'll probably go ahead and work on getting Argent Dawn rep up to max. That'll earn me a new title, though little else. I might even try to run all L70 instances so w/ my mage. Though that may not be very easy...we'll have to see. I did do a clear of normal Magister's Terrance at level 80 in Uldaur gear, so going back should be easier now and MT is one of the harder 5-man BC normal instances. After that I might consider trying to max out Cenarian Circle rep. I'm not actually that far away from that anyway.
After that, my plans are bit more murky. I've considered going back and trying to earn old-world quest achievements. But I'm a bit leery of this, even considering that this content is probably going to be gone for good in a few months. But in practice, I don't know just how extensive that is going to be and considering I'm planning on doing 1 or 2 new alts in Cataslysm, and I've just been (slowly) working up two alts right now...I just don't have that much incentive to work on those achievements. Not to mention the fact that the faction change erased so many quests from my completed total. I think I'm currently considered to have completely only 70 or so Kalimdor quests and less than 100 Old Kingdoms quests.
I'm also going to stick with my slow money-grind. I think my new goal will be 80k before Cataclysm hits. And that should be very easy to reach at this point since I have no more big purchases to make. I might even spend a bit more time with my DK. And I'm also thinking about merging my 2 accounts back to one. My current experience has shown me that the ability to run characters through instances just isn't that big of a deal anymore. LFG makes it too easy to find groups (and IMO lower level groups tend to be more friendly anyway). So the biggest draw just isn't there anymore. And that would save me a considerable amount of money over the course of a year.
Of course, I recently switched both servers and factions, moving from Malygos/Alliance, to Earthen Ring/Horde. I've certainly suffered from second thoughts because of the switch, but by this point I am back to being firmly comitted to my Mage on Earthen Ring.
Mal is now a Blood Elf. She's hawt. She's a redhead. And she looks much more like her FFXI incarnation than ever before, which is a big plus to me. And she's now in mostly ICC 25 / ICC 25 Heroic Gear. She's got a base SP rating of about 3350, a Crit Rating of about 42%, and 1125 Haste (before buffs). Her gear score (I hate GS! just had to say it) is around 6100...still a bit behind much of my guild, but now by a much smaller margin. I'm still Arcane. And my average damage in ICC on a single-target mob is normally around 11-12k DPS. I'm consistantly holding 6th to 10th on damage in my guild, and I just don't see that gap decreasing much at this point (those that are ahead, are a LOT ahead). I'm doing over double the damage I was when I left Malygos, which, by the way, I think is rediculous.
My guild is now downing 9/12 Heroics in ICC. All that is left is Putricide, Sindragosa, and LK there on Heroic. Halion proved to be very easy for us, and I'm expecting us to switch right to hard modes on him, though I could be wrong (I'll find out tonight!) - this just in...I was wrong!.
I think I had posted it before. But my main goals after the transfer was to get back to 50k gold on Earth Ring. Get into an active guild doing 25 man content. And re-establish the alts I'd need to support raiding (specifically, I needed a farmer and an alchemist, and a Jewelcrafter). Much of these goals have now been reached. Though I still don't have an alt-farmer high enough for current content farming (my alt hunter is 63 now). Everything is in a good position.
I was spending a lot of time actively working to make money, but I quickly burned out on that. Fishing seems to be a very good and reliable way to make money on Earthen Ring...but it's so damned borning. I have, however, decided on a slow-but-steady approach involving minimal time and effort (I'm talking about 2-3 minutes tops a day), and even though I'm spending less than 5 minutes on it I'm still averaging about 200g per day. That works better for me, and its been reliable and consistant.
Though I doubt anyone cares, all I'm doing is two basic things. I transmute a Sky Sapphire into a purple gem and sell it (usually for around 120-130g uncut...cut gems sell for about the same amount, but much less often). And I do the jewelcrafting daily, and sell the gem for 80g. I've stopped doing dailies entirely. Though I will sometimes do some fishing before a raid, and that can quickly add up to another hundred or so gold in 30 minutes.
So, now that my main goals have been reached, I've moved onto new things. I've started spending time achievement farming. For example, I've just finished with the exploration achievements and I did all of the summerfest achievements (something I normally don't bother with). I've started working on re-earning my lost 5-man dungeon achievements (a lot of them were lost with the transfer)...and this has led me to consider working on Argent Dawn Rep (my one Strat run was awesome and netted me a lot of gold for very little effort). I think I earned about 2.5k gold in just one run, including an Orb of Deception (worth a lot), the Deathcharger mount and achievement, a ton of righteous orbs, several other valuable BOE blues worth over 100g each, and about 200g in misc mats.
So, I'm definitely going to go back and redo all 5-mans with my mage. And I'll probably go ahead and work on getting Argent Dawn rep up to max. That'll earn me a new title, though little else. I might even try to run all L70 instances so w/ my mage. Though that may not be very easy...we'll have to see. I did do a clear of normal Magister's Terrance at level 80 in Uldaur gear, so going back should be easier now and MT is one of the harder 5-man BC normal instances. After that I might consider trying to max out Cenarian Circle rep. I'm not actually that far away from that anyway.
After that, my plans are bit more murky. I've considered going back and trying to earn old-world quest achievements. But I'm a bit leery of this, even considering that this content is probably going to be gone for good in a few months. But in practice, I don't know just how extensive that is going to be and considering I'm planning on doing 1 or 2 new alts in Cataslysm, and I've just been (slowly) working up two alts right now...I just don't have that much incentive to work on those achievements. Not to mention the fact that the faction change erased so many quests from my completed total. I think I'm currently considered to have completely only 70 or so Kalimdor quests and less than 100 Old Kingdoms quests.
I'm also going to stick with my slow money-grind. I think my new goal will be 80k before Cataclysm hits. And that should be very easy to reach at this point since I have no more big purchases to make. I might even spend a bit more time with my DK. And I'm also thinking about merging my 2 accounts back to one. My current experience has shown me that the ability to run characters through instances just isn't that big of a deal anymore. LFG makes it too easy to find groups (and IMO lower level groups tend to be more friendly anyway). So the biggest draw just isn't there anymore. And that would save me a considerable amount of money over the course of a year.
First thoughts on Cataclysm
I'll preface this by saying that I have not personally seen the Alpha or Beta. I don't even know who has been in either. All I've done is read up on notes, watched videos, and read up on things that I could find. It's not enough to really get a good feel for the the way it will play out, but it does give me a bit of an impression as to where it is going.
At this point Blizzard has done 2 expansions for World of Warcraft. While each was different in various ways, both were eerily similar structurally. Wrath of the Lich King was clearly build using the same design philosophy as Burning Crusade was the first time--only with a bit more polish and a better understanding of where the major pitfalls were.
There was, and still is, a very drastic move from levels 1-60 to Burning Crusade. It's not just in the massive gear shift (when outland greens could be better than t3). It's most obvious in the changes in how leveling is handled--the much tighter quest hubs, and the explosion in the number of quests. The structure of the five mans, which became much smaller to fit short runs (and despite being more scripted, also became less dynamic). Even the aquisition in new abilities changed slightly. Heroics were introduced. A new profession added a major new facet to the game's economy. And even raiding changed from large, single instances to multiple smaller instances.
Wrath simply built on this model. Another new 10 levels. A new land with a linear quest progression (though now there were effectively 2 starting paths to keep things seperated better). Another new group of 5 mans. A new profession. Class changes. No new races, but a new 'hero' class...which was anything but heroic yet still managed to be completely overpowered (how they pulled off that contradiction still amazes me). It was also much easier than BC, and not just at the start either.
So now Cataclysm approaches us and we're starting to get a good look at what Blizzard is up to. Though I certainly don't know what is going on in their minds at Blizzard, it is pretty obvious that there are certain design goals they are hoping to achieve with Cataclysm:
1. Re-introduce the old world and zones and revamp the leveling process from 1 to 60 to make it more in line with the BC and Wrath design philosphy.
This is a big one. Not only were the actual zones updated (to support flying), but Cataclysm's design certainly involves a great deal of updating of the origional content. It looks like they are trying to completely update the questlines and storyline of the origional game in order to provide an entirely new experience from 1-60. Though I'm sure some things will remain untouched, a lot has been updated and there will be a lot of new things to find for old players. From what I've heard a lot of the starting areas are very different. Zones like Westfall, Aszhara, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Red Ridge, all seem radically changed. I assume that this will hold true all the way through to mid levels as well. And of course, the zones for 78-85 are all taken from previously inaccessible places in the old world (like Hyjal, which was there but you couldn't actually go to it).
2. Give the old world a true make-over, and increase the graphics quality of the entire game to increase it's appeal in the market.
This isn't as big, but is certainly necessary. Not only do the zones look better, and the new zones much better (seriously, some of the new zones are beautiful), but overall graphics quality has been increased. I believe I heard that updated engine supports DX10 (or maybe 11?), so much of the new quality doesn't really affect graphics card performance for newer cards. It's not perfect...WOW's graphics weren't state of the art even 6 years ago; but the style works very well even today in masking just how primitive the engine really is.
Another part of this is the addition of two new races. I'm not entirely sure that new races = new content, but the new starting zones look very nice and quite interesting. It's a bit interesting how the new racial traits are completely overpowered, though, compared to the older races...I assume they'll update that as well.
Even with that, all of the races receive new class and race combos. Now I'm originally alliance. And now I'm horde. Malfaire is a Blood Elf female, and honestly I really like the way she looks (I'm a sucker for my character's appearance and always have been). I'm not really a fan of the brutish look of the horde races in general. Tauren is an exception (I like their look). And Goblin may not be that bad either, so I'm happy with that. But I kinda miss the old alliance races. And I have to admit that Worgen is pretty sweet looking (I especially like the fact that they can look human, or worgen). Blood Elf is getting Warrior. But too bad they are not getting either Shaman or Druid...and neither is goblin.
3. Change the way gear and gear itimization is handled. Many 'confusing' stats are being removed and/or simplified. This doesn't just affect the gear itself, but the idea is to have and require fewer types of gear--no more gear that caters just to one spec of one class (I'm looking at you, holy paladin). This is certainly a dumbing down of gear and stats, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. They also added a 'mastery' stat, which favors characters who go down 51 points in a single tree (i.e. virtually everyone).
Along with this change is a massive gear update. All gear is being altered to fit the new stats. And not only that, the switch in gear from Wrath to Cataclysm is as big as the one from vintage to BC. I've seen Cataclysm quest greens that are equal to or better than ICC 25 Heroic gear. And stamina changes are massive...stamina itself easily doubles in Cataclysm (and that's just at the start).
In addition, raiding changes are designed to slow down gear stat bloat. Wrath's 2 to 3 level tiered gear caused major gear changes. TOC and ICC had three effective levels of gear: 10 man, 10-man heroic/25 man, and 25 man heroic. This caused an larger increase in gear levels between new raiding tiers. By making tier gear the same across 10 and 25 man, they reduce this problem to 2 predictable levels every tier (normal, and heroic). Of course they might destroy 25 man raiding in the process...but...
4. Increase difficulty from 80 to 85. By updating the old world and all of its content, Blizzard seems to be returning to the concept that the highest level content should be harder. Maybe not too hard at first, but definitely harder than Wrath at the start. They are also returning to the concept of smaller raids, but more of them. Across the tier it will have about the same level of bosses; but they will be spread across multiple instances. No one has seen the actual raids yet (that I know of) but the expected difficulty is supposed to be higher. And heroics are supposed to be much harder as well. Fewer AOE pulls. Required CC. The return of kiting, etc.
This makes sense to me. Especially since they are effectively re-introducing the game. And especially with the LFG tool, there is no reason why someone hitting 80 shouldn't already be familiar with the core mechanics of the game. I've leveled several alts since the LFG tool has been released, and it works very well for older level content (even as a mere DPS). We'll see though.
5. Do yet another major class revision. In some ways this makes sense. In a very real way, WoW's current class mechanics are broken, both for PVP and PVE. Things are so tightly tuned now that twitch gaming has really taken over the game. When I die in WOW nowadays it's virtually instant--from full health to dead in a few seconds. Now I'm a mage, and I know I'm a glass cannon, but that's not very fun. But it's damned annoying when a warrior charges me and in his initial barrage brings me to 1/3 health in about the same time I can get off an instant like a fire blast or blink...there is something wrong here and it's not just me being bad at pvp.
In BC there were a lot of class changes. But those seemed to make more sense to me. The entire game was changing back then. BC was a more radical break from the old world than Wrath was from BC. The addition of 10 more levels certainly changes things. But Wrath's changes seemed more for the sake of change. And Cataclysm in some regards seems the same. Though in other ways, I also see the need to address the twitching and fast nature of the game to something more realistic. The changes to healing makes sense to me. As is trying to reduce the impact of front-loaded burst damage. The concept of slowing down fights and slowing down the game won't just help PVP, but it will also help with designing new PVE encounters. Hopefully that will lead to more interesting encounters not based around artificial enrage timers or twitchy insta-death mechanics where if you lag for 1 second, or don't instantly react to something, your dead before you even have the chance to compensate.
7. Increase the story telling. This isn't so obvious at first blush. But having watched some videos of the new content it is clear that Blizzard is taking the next logical step from Wrath's 'story' progression and making the story take center stage. Probably not to the degree of, say, FFXI, or the first twenty levels of AOC, but it's obviously there. With flashbacks. Cutscenes in dungeons. And more inherent conflict not only between the horde and alliance, but also from within each faction.
This is a great thing IMO. FFXI, especially with its expansions, did a GREAT job in making the game feel like a FF game within a MMO. Though it did suffer from long cut scenes at times, they were almost always better than anything wow has today. A typical FFXI cutscene had the quality of, say, the wrathgate FMV...but there were hundreds of these throughout the story, and many of them were on a much grander scale than anything in WOW. Today most of WOW's 'RP' comes from annoying scripted conversations in raids that you have to sit through each and every time (horde saurofang, Kael, LK himself, etc). They are not dynamic. They are not interesting even the first time. And it's inexcusable that you can't skip them through repeated wipes.
This will bring a great deal of improvement to the game as a whole. And might help to offset the 'naxx effect'--where simply updating something old doesn't really work as well as something really new. Of course, part of the problem with Naxx was that...while many people didn't see it when it was 'new content'...a lot of people HAD seen it at 70 just by running through old encounters. New Naxx would have worked much better if the bosses had been not just updated, but radically altered. Cataclysm seems to be doing just that.
8. Alter Raiding to prevent gear bloat and people being forced to feel required to raid both 10s and 25s each week. This is the most controversial, and the most likely to fail. However, I do like the idea of 10 mans dropping the same gear (and I am an avid 25 man raider who would prefer 40 mans honestly). This does solve the gear creep problem that Wrath introduced. And it will make 10 man raiding more of an option to me if for some reason I can't keep a 25 man schedule.
But, I do fear that the change will severely wreck 25 man raiding guilds. I'm sure some will survive, but I'm afraid that they'll be hampered by being trapped in a more precarious position. But I also see most arguments against it being self-serving. The biggest problem with a 25 man guild is the fact that there are greater scheduling issues. And it's harder to find a voice there. Meeting people online can be hard, and becoming friends with 25 people almost impossible. 25 man guilds, and 40 mans guilds, are less personal. There is a larger barrier of entry. And you as an individual are less important (unless, perhaps, you are the main tank).
At the same time, 25 man raids are inherently more complex even within the encounters. ICC is a great example of this. A lot of fights require spacing between players--something trivial in a 10 man, but a damned pain in the ass in 25s (say, Deathbringer, or Princes, or Blood Queen, or Sindragosa, or Lich King, i'm mean fuck it). 25 mans may be less dependant on an individual (though this is not true in hard modes IME), but they are harder to execute in many situations. 10 mans put a larger burden on the individual player, but are mechanically simpler because they have to be.
With the gear change Blizzard promises to make 10 mans as hard as 25s. And I just don't see that. Though certainly there are fights where these can be accomplished, they will mostly be in tank-and-spank like encounters which are relatively straight forward. The more complex the mechanics of the fight, the more the 10 man's advantage will become.
Certainly Blizzard sees the need to provide some incentive to run a 25 man. They have talked about...more gold (yah?), and more tokens (double yay?). Both of these incentives are completely, utterly worthless. Money means nothing in this game anyway (and btw, I have no problem with this). And tokens are normally useful only for the first few months of a new tier (at most), or for heirloom items. But the real slap in the face is...token earning per week is capped! A 10 man raider can still earn the same number of tokens per week...he'll just have to run more dailies. A 25 man raider won't need to do that...and also will have no incentive to do so. Fucking brilliant.
Increasing item rates won't help much either. Considering the disparity today between 10s and 25s, the rate difference of today is annoying. But I guess since the gear is better we should expect that. I mean, a 10 man gives 2 items per boss. A 25 man 3 (1 item to split between 15 additional people). Equal split indicates that 25s should expect 5 drops minimum per raid boss...maybe even 6 (but that might be pushing it, they aren't sure.) I certainly don't see the reverse happening...i.e. making 10 man bosses drop only 1 item each. A guild would never get geared that way.
This, of course, means a 25 man raider will take theoretically less time to gear (and with drop patterns and 6 drops I'd say that the time taken would actually be less than the increased drop rate would indicate. It means that a 25 man raider will gear faster. Be required to do less out-of-raid activities (an because lock outs are shared, raiders cannot do as many raids per week anyway). And a 25 man raider will spend more time waiting for the next tier because they'll get through the cycle faster than a 10 man raider.
In some regards, this means that a 25 man raider will actually benefit from having the option of spending LESS time in the game than the 'casual' 10 man bracket. Not that I have a problem with this, come to think of it :) I certainly won't miss the annoying huge badge requirements for ICC stuff.
9. Reduce level creep. I should have touched on this earlier, but whatever. Another major change with cataclysm is a change in the amount of new levels earned. Now, other MMOs have limited level growth in an expansion, but WOW increased the level cap by 10 in both BC and WOTLK. In cataclysm the level range goes from 80 to 85. This isn't a content loss--reports indicate that it's going to require the same general level of effort and questing to get from 80 to 85 as it took to get from 70-80. We'll just have to do the same amount of effort for half the levels. But this does reduce the amount of new talent points (and we aren't getting a new level of talents either, which is interesting). This is probably a non-issue, honestly. The class revamp will have a bigger change to the game than the 3 new abilities we can expect to get by the time we hit 85. And the actual leveling experience won't change much (though you can expect me, and probably a lot of others, to spend MUCH more time doing 5-mans).
Obviously this also means a complete talent re-write, as now talent trees have to be designed around the idea that players will have 5 extra points to spend without having a taller tree. Hopefully they will design this in such a way as to increase options in trees, but with Mastery a major new feature I'm doubtful. I've peeked at some of the previews, but honestly they seem way to early to really evaluate in any meaningful way.
Anyway, I've gone on long enough with this post as it is. I find my interest in the expansion is quite high, higher than I was expecting. I mean, the main draw of the game has always been the ability to play with friends--something that just doesn't happen anymore. And my interest has definitely waned even as I've managed to re-establish myself in a new guild in a new faction, on a new server. And other MMOs are taking my interest too--FFXIV, and TOR are both in my target sights. But those are still a ways off, and Cataclysm seems to be looming. I would expect pre-events for Cataclysm will start within the next 3 months, with the expansion coming around October or November. Certainly I've heard that the Alpha was VERY rough, and the beta not much better. Certainly not nearly as polished as Wrath was at this point. So it's possible things will slip. But at this point its only a matter of time.
At this point Blizzard has done 2 expansions for World of Warcraft. While each was different in various ways, both were eerily similar structurally. Wrath of the Lich King was clearly build using the same design philosophy as Burning Crusade was the first time--only with a bit more polish and a better understanding of where the major pitfalls were.
There was, and still is, a very drastic move from levels 1-60 to Burning Crusade. It's not just in the massive gear shift (when outland greens could be better than t3). It's most obvious in the changes in how leveling is handled--the much tighter quest hubs, and the explosion in the number of quests. The structure of the five mans, which became much smaller to fit short runs (and despite being more scripted, also became less dynamic). Even the aquisition in new abilities changed slightly. Heroics were introduced. A new profession added a major new facet to the game's economy. And even raiding changed from large, single instances to multiple smaller instances.
Wrath simply built on this model. Another new 10 levels. A new land with a linear quest progression (though now there were effectively 2 starting paths to keep things seperated better). Another new group of 5 mans. A new profession. Class changes. No new races, but a new 'hero' class...which was anything but heroic yet still managed to be completely overpowered (how they pulled off that contradiction still amazes me). It was also much easier than BC, and not just at the start either.
So now Cataclysm approaches us and we're starting to get a good look at what Blizzard is up to. Though I certainly don't know what is going on in their minds at Blizzard, it is pretty obvious that there are certain design goals they are hoping to achieve with Cataclysm:
1. Re-introduce the old world and zones and revamp the leveling process from 1 to 60 to make it more in line with the BC and Wrath design philosphy.
This is a big one. Not only were the actual zones updated (to support flying), but Cataclysm's design certainly involves a great deal of updating of the origional content. It looks like they are trying to completely update the questlines and storyline of the origional game in order to provide an entirely new experience from 1-60. Though I'm sure some things will remain untouched, a lot has been updated and there will be a lot of new things to find for old players. From what I've heard a lot of the starting areas are very different. Zones like Westfall, Aszhara, Ashenvale, Darkshore, Red Ridge, all seem radically changed. I assume that this will hold true all the way through to mid levels as well. And of course, the zones for 78-85 are all taken from previously inaccessible places in the old world (like Hyjal, which was there but you couldn't actually go to it).
2. Give the old world a true make-over, and increase the graphics quality of the entire game to increase it's appeal in the market.
This isn't as big, but is certainly necessary. Not only do the zones look better, and the new zones much better (seriously, some of the new zones are beautiful), but overall graphics quality has been increased. I believe I heard that updated engine supports DX10 (or maybe 11?), so much of the new quality doesn't really affect graphics card performance for newer cards. It's not perfect...WOW's graphics weren't state of the art even 6 years ago; but the style works very well even today in masking just how primitive the engine really is.
Another part of this is the addition of two new races. I'm not entirely sure that new races = new content, but the new starting zones look very nice and quite interesting. It's a bit interesting how the new racial traits are completely overpowered, though, compared to the older races...I assume they'll update that as well.
Even with that, all of the races receive new class and race combos. Now I'm originally alliance. And now I'm horde. Malfaire is a Blood Elf female, and honestly I really like the way she looks (I'm a sucker for my character's appearance and always have been). I'm not really a fan of the brutish look of the horde races in general. Tauren is an exception (I like their look). And Goblin may not be that bad either, so I'm happy with that. But I kinda miss the old alliance races. And I have to admit that Worgen is pretty sweet looking (I especially like the fact that they can look human, or worgen). Blood Elf is getting Warrior. But too bad they are not getting either Shaman or Druid...and neither is goblin.
3. Change the way gear and gear itimization is handled. Many 'confusing' stats are being removed and/or simplified. This doesn't just affect the gear itself, but the idea is to have and require fewer types of gear--no more gear that caters just to one spec of one class (I'm looking at you, holy paladin). This is certainly a dumbing down of gear and stats, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. They also added a 'mastery' stat, which favors characters who go down 51 points in a single tree (i.e. virtually everyone).
Along with this change is a massive gear update. All gear is being altered to fit the new stats. And not only that, the switch in gear from Wrath to Cataclysm is as big as the one from vintage to BC. I've seen Cataclysm quest greens that are equal to or better than ICC 25 Heroic gear. And stamina changes are massive...stamina itself easily doubles in Cataclysm (and that's just at the start).
In addition, raiding changes are designed to slow down gear stat bloat. Wrath's 2 to 3 level tiered gear caused major gear changes. TOC and ICC had three effective levels of gear: 10 man, 10-man heroic/25 man, and 25 man heroic. This caused an larger increase in gear levels between new raiding tiers. By making tier gear the same across 10 and 25 man, they reduce this problem to 2 predictable levels every tier (normal, and heroic). Of course they might destroy 25 man raiding in the process...but...
4. Increase difficulty from 80 to 85. By updating the old world and all of its content, Blizzard seems to be returning to the concept that the highest level content should be harder. Maybe not too hard at first, but definitely harder than Wrath at the start. They are also returning to the concept of smaller raids, but more of them. Across the tier it will have about the same level of bosses; but they will be spread across multiple instances. No one has seen the actual raids yet (that I know of) but the expected difficulty is supposed to be higher. And heroics are supposed to be much harder as well. Fewer AOE pulls. Required CC. The return of kiting, etc.
This makes sense to me. Especially since they are effectively re-introducing the game. And especially with the LFG tool, there is no reason why someone hitting 80 shouldn't already be familiar with the core mechanics of the game. I've leveled several alts since the LFG tool has been released, and it works very well for older level content (even as a mere DPS). We'll see though.
5. Do yet another major class revision. In some ways this makes sense. In a very real way, WoW's current class mechanics are broken, both for PVP and PVE. Things are so tightly tuned now that twitch gaming has really taken over the game. When I die in WOW nowadays it's virtually instant--from full health to dead in a few seconds. Now I'm a mage, and I know I'm a glass cannon, but that's not very fun. But it's damned annoying when a warrior charges me and in his initial barrage brings me to 1/3 health in about the same time I can get off an instant like a fire blast or blink...there is something wrong here and it's not just me being bad at pvp.
In BC there were a lot of class changes. But those seemed to make more sense to me. The entire game was changing back then. BC was a more radical break from the old world than Wrath was from BC. The addition of 10 more levels certainly changes things. But Wrath's changes seemed more for the sake of change. And Cataclysm in some regards seems the same. Though in other ways, I also see the need to address the twitching and fast nature of the game to something more realistic. The changes to healing makes sense to me. As is trying to reduce the impact of front-loaded burst damage. The concept of slowing down fights and slowing down the game won't just help PVP, but it will also help with designing new PVE encounters. Hopefully that will lead to more interesting encounters not based around artificial enrage timers or twitchy insta-death mechanics where if you lag for 1 second, or don't instantly react to something, your dead before you even have the chance to compensate.
7. Increase the story telling. This isn't so obvious at first blush. But having watched some videos of the new content it is clear that Blizzard is taking the next logical step from Wrath's 'story' progression and making the story take center stage. Probably not to the degree of, say, FFXI, or the first twenty levels of AOC, but it's obviously there. With flashbacks. Cutscenes in dungeons. And more inherent conflict not only between the horde and alliance, but also from within each faction.
This is a great thing IMO. FFXI, especially with its expansions, did a GREAT job in making the game feel like a FF game within a MMO. Though it did suffer from long cut scenes at times, they were almost always better than anything wow has today. A typical FFXI cutscene had the quality of, say, the wrathgate FMV...but there were hundreds of these throughout the story, and many of them were on a much grander scale than anything in WOW. Today most of WOW's 'RP' comes from annoying scripted conversations in raids that you have to sit through each and every time (horde saurofang, Kael, LK himself, etc). They are not dynamic. They are not interesting even the first time. And it's inexcusable that you can't skip them through repeated wipes.
This will bring a great deal of improvement to the game as a whole. And might help to offset the 'naxx effect'--where simply updating something old doesn't really work as well as something really new. Of course, part of the problem with Naxx was that...while many people didn't see it when it was 'new content'...a lot of people HAD seen it at 70 just by running through old encounters. New Naxx would have worked much better if the bosses had been not just updated, but radically altered. Cataclysm seems to be doing just that.
8. Alter Raiding to prevent gear bloat and people being forced to feel required to raid both 10s and 25s each week. This is the most controversial, and the most likely to fail. However, I do like the idea of 10 mans dropping the same gear (and I am an avid 25 man raider who would prefer 40 mans honestly). This does solve the gear creep problem that Wrath introduced. And it will make 10 man raiding more of an option to me if for some reason I can't keep a 25 man schedule.
But, I do fear that the change will severely wreck 25 man raiding guilds. I'm sure some will survive, but I'm afraid that they'll be hampered by being trapped in a more precarious position. But I also see most arguments against it being self-serving. The biggest problem with a 25 man guild is the fact that there are greater scheduling issues. And it's harder to find a voice there. Meeting people online can be hard, and becoming friends with 25 people almost impossible. 25 man guilds, and 40 mans guilds, are less personal. There is a larger barrier of entry. And you as an individual are less important (unless, perhaps, you are the main tank).
At the same time, 25 man raids are inherently more complex even within the encounters. ICC is a great example of this. A lot of fights require spacing between players--something trivial in a 10 man, but a damned pain in the ass in 25s (say, Deathbringer, or Princes, or Blood Queen, or Sindragosa, or Lich King, i'm mean fuck it). 25 mans may be less dependant on an individual (though this is not true in hard modes IME), but they are harder to execute in many situations. 10 mans put a larger burden on the individual player, but are mechanically simpler because they have to be.
With the gear change Blizzard promises to make 10 mans as hard as 25s. And I just don't see that. Though certainly there are fights where these can be accomplished, they will mostly be in tank-and-spank like encounters which are relatively straight forward. The more complex the mechanics of the fight, the more the 10 man's advantage will become.
Certainly Blizzard sees the need to provide some incentive to run a 25 man. They have talked about...more gold (yah?), and more tokens (double yay?). Both of these incentives are completely, utterly worthless. Money means nothing in this game anyway (and btw, I have no problem with this). And tokens are normally useful only for the first few months of a new tier (at most), or for heirloom items. But the real slap in the face is...token earning per week is capped! A 10 man raider can still earn the same number of tokens per week...he'll just have to run more dailies. A 25 man raider won't need to do that...and also will have no incentive to do so. Fucking brilliant.
Increasing item rates won't help much either. Considering the disparity today between 10s and 25s, the rate difference of today is annoying. But I guess since the gear is better we should expect that. I mean, a 10 man gives 2 items per boss. A 25 man 3 (1 item to split between 15 additional people). Equal split indicates that 25s should expect 5 drops minimum per raid boss...maybe even 6 (but that might be pushing it, they aren't sure.) I certainly don't see the reverse happening...i.e. making 10 man bosses drop only 1 item each. A guild would never get geared that way.
This, of course, means a 25 man raider will take theoretically less time to gear (and with drop patterns and 6 drops I'd say that the time taken would actually be less than the increased drop rate would indicate. It means that a 25 man raider will gear faster. Be required to do less out-of-raid activities (an because lock outs are shared, raiders cannot do as many raids per week anyway). And a 25 man raider will spend more time waiting for the next tier because they'll get through the cycle faster than a 10 man raider.
In some regards, this means that a 25 man raider will actually benefit from having the option of spending LESS time in the game than the 'casual' 10 man bracket. Not that I have a problem with this, come to think of it :) I certainly won't miss the annoying huge badge requirements for ICC stuff.
9. Reduce level creep. I should have touched on this earlier, but whatever. Another major change with cataclysm is a change in the amount of new levels earned. Now, other MMOs have limited level growth in an expansion, but WOW increased the level cap by 10 in both BC and WOTLK. In cataclysm the level range goes from 80 to 85. This isn't a content loss--reports indicate that it's going to require the same general level of effort and questing to get from 80 to 85 as it took to get from 70-80. We'll just have to do the same amount of effort for half the levels. But this does reduce the amount of new talent points (and we aren't getting a new level of talents either, which is interesting). This is probably a non-issue, honestly. The class revamp will have a bigger change to the game than the 3 new abilities we can expect to get by the time we hit 85. And the actual leveling experience won't change much (though you can expect me, and probably a lot of others, to spend MUCH more time doing 5-mans).
Obviously this also means a complete talent re-write, as now talent trees have to be designed around the idea that players will have 5 extra points to spend without having a taller tree. Hopefully they will design this in such a way as to increase options in trees, but with Mastery a major new feature I'm doubtful. I've peeked at some of the previews, but honestly they seem way to early to really evaluate in any meaningful way.
Anyway, I've gone on long enough with this post as it is. I find my interest in the expansion is quite high, higher than I was expecting. I mean, the main draw of the game has always been the ability to play with friends--something that just doesn't happen anymore. And my interest has definitely waned even as I've managed to re-establish myself in a new guild in a new faction, on a new server. And other MMOs are taking my interest too--FFXIV, and TOR are both in my target sights. But those are still a ways off, and Cataclysm seems to be looming. I would expect pre-events for Cataclysm will start within the next 3 months, with the expansion coming around October or November. Certainly I've heard that the Alpha was VERY rough, and the beta not much better. Certainly not nearly as polished as Wrath was at this point. So it's possible things will slip. But at this point its only a matter of time.
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