Tag: world of warcraft
Yep, I was all set on creating yet another positive missive of sunshine over lunch for everyone, but then I totally got sidetracked and upstaged by gnomes. Yes, gnome races are not the most unique of things in World of Warcraft but they are always entertaining on some level.
You can check out the main article taken from Massively on the latest gnome march, or check out the gnome afterparty below.
Today’s cheap Sunday update is more of a way of showing both sides of the argument regarding World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I wrote about the angst over Cataclysm a little while back, but it’s always good to see how the other side argues. And what better way to counter a positive opinion with one that is negative?
That’s why I brought in Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation for a bit of a (somewhat stereotypical) microcosm about the not-so-nice opinion about Cataclysm:
I’m actually interested in what people think of the criticisms in the video.
Before I get started today, a random question…what is with the whole “mysterious hands floating around a crystal ball” thing, anyway? While searching for images to yoink for today’s post there was an eerie similarity in how people handle crystal balls (insert “that’s what she said” joke here). I mean, c’mon people – it’s not like it’s going to burn your hands or face off like the end of an Indiana Jones movie. Ah well.
Anyway, the imagery of a crystal ball is supposed to evoke that age-old tradition of bloggers to make predictions for 2011 or so. You can find a sample of this among the geek bloggers I follow, like Keen, who takes a….well, keen eye to the future of MMOs. Another interesting read is a post from a few weeks ago from Lum/Scott Jennings where he looked back at what he predicted for 2010 in games and saw how accurate it was.
But you’re not going to really find any such posts from me. Don’t worry – I’m not bashing these kinds of posts (that would be negative, and you know how I feel about that), but I also refrain from making them for a few reasons. One of these would be the fact that more than likely, I’d be completely and totally wrong. I’m not really an industry luminary by any means, and my current association within the gaming business is more focused on people and communities rather than on product, per se. As far as the rest of geekery, I’m plugged in but I don’t have an ear to the ground like most people.
This makes any sort of prediction I make about how geek media is going to change (or not) equally likely to be accurate and true. I could tell you that all the slated MMO releases for 2011 will launch with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and it would be as accurate as if I told you World of Warcraft will allow you insta-roll a max level character for money. I could tell you something safe like predicting that games will be played by people, and it might have the same chance of coming true as us discovering that aliens are among us, and they play Call of Duty obsessively as a means of education about earthling behavior. No, I don’t trust my ability to accurately and credibly predict anything, and neither should you.
The other reason why I wouldn’t make such a post is really the fact that it’s A)more fun to discover what happens in geek media on our own and B)geekery is so unpredictable it’s hard to see what they latch onto from year to year. For examples, look no further than recent history, which probably couldn’t predict that a service which allowed you to tell people what you were doing and also cruelly forced you into a 140 character limit would be wildly successful. Or how about the fact that streaming media would begin to encroach (or in the case of poor Blockbuster, kill) on traditional markets of “modern” media consumption. What about how viral media and a familiar term from sci-fi rocketed an alliance of companies into a contender to unseat the iPhone? I’m telling you, sometimes you can’t predict this stuff – especially in the world of geekdom, who have taken on a mantle of not only being hyper-analytical about things but also vulnerable to the next shiny thing that comes along.
Really, though, it’s a testament to geekery that its gadgets and software and games and the like are not easy to predict. It’s a dynamic, flowing, changing segment of consumerism, and it has the backing of industries and workers that have a clear and seemingly limitless path of advancement. With such “sky is the limit” behavior, it’s no wonder that the darlings and surprises of the geek world have appeal just because they come out of left field and impress. In the end, I plan on sitting back and watching to see what will be successful and amazing out of the geek media world in 2011 – and you can be sure I’ll be trying to write about it in my own, sunny, perpetually happy way.
Just the other day I caught a post from roller coaster-like blogger Keen regarding AAA titles. It wasn’t really the point of his post, but what did catch my eye was the “inferred meaning” of AAA meaning Everquest or World of Warcraft caliber. It struck me as odd. Afte rall, here at Overly Positive there is no such thing as something that isn’t “AAA”, though I think my small but faithful readership understands that from what I’ve been putting up for two years. No, everything is the best, the brightest, the…well, AAA-iest, even.
Let’s put aside the fact that I just made a bad attempt at making a new adjective, and just focus on the fact that to me, it just sounds awkward, this whole “AAA” thing. Last I heard, AAA referred to those guys whose logo I shanghaied for today’s post – you know, the ones who help you when you totally meant to lock your keys in your car. Or maybe it refers to those guys who can’t quite hack it in the majors in baseball and have to play elsewhere first, in which case they are certainly not the best. Either way, I don’t understand where the idea of AAA in terms of a definition of “good” as attached to the idea of it being “massively built” came from.
I don’t know about you guys, but something that is AAA to me is something that’s just fun and enjoyable to me to play. For many of us, the differences regarding that are pretty staggering. One person might enjoy dungeon crawling, while another might like killing other players. Yet another person might want to enjoy crafting, and a fourth might just like dancing in public for an online audience. It’s all different when it comes down to it, and when you boil it down to what is fun or enjoyable, it doesn’t matter if the MMO you’re playing was made with a budget of shoestrings and french fries or one that could have its own Swiss bank account. The important thing is the game you play stays AAA for you.
How does this explain how the most popular titles are considered to be the “AAA” titles? well, we all like different things, but some games simply offer an opportunity to appeal to more people at once. That doesn’t make them necessarily better, just more widespread. And it’s silly to hate on these titles too. Hating World of Warcraft, for example, is like hating precocious pop artist Justin Bieber – sure, you can not like them, but you can’t help but have a bit of secret denial for the fact that for many people, they are appealing. No matter how many sex for epic mount stories or polls voting for North Korean exile are created, there’s still apparently something about heavily populated titles that helps more people have fun than others.
My point, as always, is that that shouldn’t stop you from likening AAA to your own set of standards, and being fine with it. My AAA right now is running around slotting limited skills and using team synergy to win, something that Guild Wars fits for me quite nicely. I hope that everyone else decides not to worry about what others say AAA should be, and focus on what it should be for themselves.
Word has come from Jim Sterling of Destructoid, reporting on another article which talks about the first player to supposedly “beat” World of Warcraft. Those of us who are crazy enough to be into MMOs know that the way that works, it means that someone has beaten all the content the game currently has to offer. In this case, Taiwanese player “Little Gray” has acquired just about all the achievements in the game, amassing some pretty interesting numbers along the way.
Now I could take the easy route and create a few Overly Positive Thoughts about how the really great achievement is not leaving the house or getting laid during this player’s gameplay, but Jim already beat me to that optimism, and I think this deserves another angle. First, I do really think it is some kind of accomplishment to get all of these achievements, because it does sort of prove that someone, with the right amount of dedication and playtime, can do so. Achievement hunting was popularized by the XBox 360 system of accomplishments and points, and while it was nice to go out and aspire to get all of them, it was never really a realistic goal to begin with.
This also proves a bit of the value behind unlocks and achievements in MMOs, which were arguably started by WAR and are now copied and continued in WoW. Successful MMOs appear to have a variety of interesting, yet time-consuming elements to them in order to appeal to players of all kinds. PvE’rs will tackle dungeons while PvP’ers will choose to prove their worth against other players, crafters will look to acquire recipes and prove to be an asset, and so on and so forth. People who find value in achievements are just another subset of players who are simply finding a way to enjoy their favorite MMO. In this respect I can’t fault Little Gray for doing what he did.
Besides, we all know that this isn’t truly the end – not when it comes to MMOs. There’s always going to be a bar raised, new content and levels to achieve, and yes, new achievements for any MMO in the market to have long-term life. Little Gray’s notion of “beating” World of Warcraft is quite temporary, and maybe that’s the true charm of playing games like this – they always have another challenge just over the next mountain that waits to be achieved. Will we see more in the future in terms of achievements? With the fact that someone just proved you could do it all, I’d count on it.
So before I get started with today’s heaping helping of positive attitude, I have to say, hooray for being linked on Slashdot! Thanks random Slashdot poster, and thanks to my friend Aiiane for pointing it out to me.
So why does a potential worldwide disaster mean there are good things on the horizon? Well, with regards to our world, if you want to believe Hollywood it means Bruce Willis will be suiting up to save the world. Hey guys – he can still go, believe that. “We win Gracie” indeed.
But when it comes to MMOs, potentially ending the world is probably best because it makes everything new all over again. MMORPG.com has a link about how someone with loose lips at Blizzard Entertainment has leaked details about World of Warcraft’s new expansion, Cataclysm. Among the juicy bits is a bunch of re-imaginings of WoW’s “vanilla” content, resulting in new, revised bosses of old and dungeons that will be revamped to versions of themselves that will take into account everything that Blizzard has implemented and learned since the release of their first expansion, Burning Crusade.
For people like myself, who have fond memories of WoW’s 60-level content as it was prior to BC and beyond, like Molten Core, Onyxia, and even Blackrock Spire, this is great news. While you’ll probably never see me pick up the WoW needle ever again, this is definitely enough for people who have long since left to take another curious look at the game.
MMOs, to be honest, have a more difficult time recycling their content and creating replayability than other games. While downloadable content and new achievements for console games are an intensive endeavor, they are probably nothing compared to the balancing act that revising your own MMO content is. Still, there’s nothing like a worldwide wiping of the slate in order to make sweeping changes, so such a thing like this has probably been in the works for some time for Blizzard.
Though WoW’s numbers still make it the #1 MMO from a subscriber standpoint, it’s no secret that the many other entries into the genre are grabbing slices out of the WoW pie, putting chinks in its armor. As a way to extend the legs of the game, and also to create some nostalgia, they could do worse things. So be sure to check out the full details when they’re officially released – Blizzard’s certainly got some great plans in place for Blizzcon next week.
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So, my good friend and fellow Warhammer Alliance worker Kristen pointed me out to something I just had to read to give the Overly Positive touch. The ever prolific Jim Sterling of Destructoid wrote about an interesting development in WoW that pretty much puts more cement on the foundation of WoW being not just a game, but a cultural phenomenon. Apparently, a psychiatrist, along with a few others, plan on getting into WoW and offering in-game therapy to those who are in need of it.
You know, I gotta say that I thought that Blizzard had done it all with the Mountain Dew offer, the endorsements from everyone from Mr. T to Ozzy Osbourne, and the amazing addition of Peggle, but this has to be the best thing yet. Imagine, if you will, in Ironforge, or in Orgrimmar, such a service. Thousands of players, angry over the fact that the guild officers above them who are sleeping with each other won’t give them raid loot, or depressed over getting ganked by min-max maniacs in Arena, would flock to the professional services of these few, brave souls. Sure, these people who play 60 hours a week and neglect their wives/husbands/significant others might, just maybe, have more issues than a simple messup with items made of pixels and data bits. But every little bit helps, right?
Just think of what good this could do for the WoW community when it comes to feedback. The WoW forums are currently a quagmire of “lol” and “I quit” and “this guy is tooooootallly exploting” posts, but imagine what some decent in-game therapy might do for them? Instead of whining on the forums about how the latest cookie cutter spec is “soooooo OP” and that their class “didn’t need a nerf ,wtf”, they’ll just do it to the in-game therapist. Who knows, maybe the therapist can get them to acknowledge that their issue with Yardak the Orc and his extermely epic sword goes back to a desire to sleep with their mother, creating an epiphany of epic proportions. Doesn’t that sound great?
Of course, the real heroes are the therapists themselves, who will soldier their way through many an emotional antisocial hermit in WoW’s faceless crowd. I mean, ok, they’ll probably have gear worse than a gold farmer, making remote house calls to psychologically disturbed raid groups who wipe 20 hours a week difficult, but they’ll manage. There could be the possibility of a few flubs here and there, too. Heck, if you were a therapist and the cute female night elf you thought you were counseling for bad bouts of PMS-induced rants was really a portly, effeminate dude, you’d probably feel discouraged and foolish too.
But seriously, the extra effort that these people will take to login to the game, dodge all the mailbox dancers and gold spammers, and sit in a single place just to listen to people whine has to be applauded. If for nothing else, it A)keeps all that high-pitched nerd raging off of the internet and B)makes for really, really good blogging material.
Thumbs up, online therapists – and good luck. You’ll need it.
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…when a director actually agrees to work on a movie project for an MMO – in this case, World of Warcraft the movie.
While WoW has been the most pervasive into mainstream culture as of recent years (celebrity commercials and endorsements from soft drinks among their achievements), a movie is a whole other step in a new direction. This might seem like an annoyance to some people, but in the realm of making games more palatable to a larger audience, it’s not such a bad thing.
With Sam Raimi at the helm, can we expect to see Arthas mumble his way through a spell meant to save the world but instead unleashes the undead on the world? Can we see some wise old Tauren talking about how “with great power comes great responsibility”? One can only wonder.
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Be a badass like him - after 2000 DKP and 400 hours.
So marking yet another milestone in the war of PC gaming, it seems that Blizzard’s hugely successful World of Warcraft franchise has hit a new note, logging 2.8 million units sold in the first 24 hours, according to Gamespot.
Let me tell you that once, a while ago, this needle was firmly in my arm. Not only was I a subscriber, I was a raider, an officer, and a DKP counter, a trifecta of time-consuming borderline second jobs that eventually drove me more insane than I already am. So, like any other recovering addict, I look upon the former object of my time and money with a sort of plaintive regret, as the small portion of me that wants to re-subscribe gets repeatedly bitch-slapped by my common sense. I like having common sense. It’s less expensive.
Anyway, don’t make this seem like this is a big old hate post. We don’t do that at Overly Positive. In fact, I’m happy for the millions of people who have decided, once again, that even though that they have gotten to the pinnacle of geek fame by possessing the gear the sparkles the most, that it wasn’t enough. I’m glad for the fact that lots of people will decide, instead of crowding the places I tend to go to, like bars, restaurants, and theaters, to sit in front of a computer staring at the rear end of an avatar they have more than a passing attachment to.
I mean this is obviously the end, right? Ten more levels to 80 and a cool new class which is amazing simply for wearing black and wielded badass weapons. There can’t possibly be anything beyond this that keeps players hooked like crack whores, if you don’t count the shiny, the desperate need to be recognized, and the awesome ability to go to a forum and post “QQ moar” to the person who you beat in PvP. In fact, this could possibly be the greatest game ever. And by that, I mean the greatest game ever to make people do the same thing over and over and over again, wrapped in different packages every time. If only politicians and scam artists could learn from the methods of the MMO developer – they’d probably be as rich as Oprah.
So kudos to Blizzard, and the now-11 million subscribers of Crack of the Lich King, for smashing records and the social lives of gamers everywhere. I’m sure there will be plenty more people to hook out there.
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