Aug 192008
 

Lum the Mad has written up a review of the [tag-tec]Deathknight [/tag-tec] starting area, focusing on the lore aspect, and he includes dialog and videos. His feeling is that, until now, Blizzard hasn’t done as good a job as it could have in incorporating world lore into the gameplay.

In the DK area you’ll see that your actions have an effect on the world, which is pretty damn cool. Having played through roughly half of the DK area I’d say it’s fun, different, and if you … well, nevermind. 🙂

I think people are going to really enjoy it. Of course, since it’s a beta, everything is subject to change, but I think the lore will stay pretty much intact.

Here’s what Lum has to say about it:

The presentation of the questlines is nothing short of exhilirating. You are the Lich King’s vassal, the bringer of the apocalypse. You are the primary bringer of death and destruction to the Scarlet Crusade. You work to gather information and destroy their very hearts, minds and bodies. And with each phase, the landscape and figures change to reflect the strides you’ve made. And all of this is presented in a story that has a clear beginning, middle and end.

Keep in mind that Lum’s post does include spoilers. So if you want to discover everything for yourself then just read the first few paragraphs, or skip it and wait for your beta key or the official release.

Here’s the rest of his post: WotLK Beta Review: The Death Knight Tutorial

If you haven’t already you can pre-order Wrath from Amazon.com: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack

Aug 192008
 

So where do you stand on gold farming? Good? Bad? Evil? Gold’s not at all hard to make in WoW, but still.. there is a certain appeal to getting 1k gold or more in 10 minutes. And then there’s that desire in the eyes of certain other people to just execute the buyers and the farmers.

See that little BlogRush widget on the right side of this blog? (yes, this is relevant) It’s kinda cool. It’s a traffic swap type thing and pulls in posts from, ahem, blogs in similar categories. (It’s free, get yours here)

The reason that I bring it up is that one of the headlines, which may still be there, was this: The bright side of gold farming?

Following that lead me to the Looter’s Lounge (an MMO blog) and their The bright side of gold farming post.

What that post is referring to is a research paper, (yep, a full blown research paper) on the economics of gold farming from the point of view of the farmers as well as that of the players.

It’s a serious report and not light reading, but it’s not a theoretical physics paper, either, so we mere mortals shold be able to get through it. If you’re interested in the economics of gold farming in the real world then you should give it a look. It’s pretty interesting.

edit – edited for spelling. Sigh…

Are WoW Raid Bosses too Hard?

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Aug 192008
 

Caught a post today on Tobald’s MMO blog, asking if Final Fantasy XI Raid Bosses are too hard. So I thought I’d ask the same question about World of Warcraft raiding.

Now, I’ve never played FF XI, but the poster and commenters seem pretty adamant about some of those bosses. Some seemed to feel they were there to keep people from “finishing” the game and then quitting.

It does seems to me that going 3 years without a kill is a bit much, but what do I know? 😉

The WoW bosses, tough as they may be (and I’m talking about the 25 and 40 man raids,) are killable with certain strategies, though they will provide boxes full of wipes until that point.

Are they too easy? Too hard? Should there be some that are only killable by the Elite Guilds? Should a well disciplined PUG (Pick Up Group) be able to kill them? Is there any such thing as a well disciplined PUG?

Thoughts?

 Posted by at 11:11 am