Lolwut?
Having nothing whatsoever to do with the World of Warcraft, or anything else game related, comes this post which I thought was just plain funny.
Standing apart from the bog standard Vauxhall and Peugeot drivers of this world, there exists a special breed, a group who nary flinches when the word ‘insurance’ is mentioned. Such people insure tanks for the daily shopping run. Inspired by this, I decided to take on the ultimate car insurance challenge. I was going to quote me happy for the Batmobile.
I took as my example the Batmobile from The Dark Knight, or, as it’s officially known in movie lore, the ‘Tumbler’. A brief look over the specification reveals myriad possibilities for 3rd party fire and theft, including a jet burner in the rear, landing hooks for when the Batmobile jumps over rooftops, front-mounted machine guns…
It’s a fun read. So take a break from WoW and check it out, here:
Tobold’s MMORPG Blog has an interesting post today. WAR kills AoC, not WoW
First, a bit of background.
Will anything kill WoW? Nope. Nothing will even come close. The only thing that will kill WoW will be brain-dead management, and that doesn’t seem to be happening right now.
So here’s my 2 cents worth.
I really wanted to play [tag-tec]Age of Conan[/tag-tec]. I’ve been reading the Conan books and comics since I was a little kid, so I was pretty jazzed when I heard that the MMO version was coming out. Then I heard it was Funcom . . .
I played Funcom’s [tag-tec]Anarchy Online[/tag-tec] for quite some time. Got up to level 185 with one character (Opi Martial Artist.) Lots of potential, little of it realized, and not a lot of quality bug testing happening. The Heckler AI was . . . interesting. Remember those lumpy rock piles?
AoC has its own issues, with servers and a few other things, though the game at launch was FAR more playable that AO (which apparently wasn’t playable at launch.)
Personally, I think AoC going as high end on the graphics and such was a mistake. For example, the only part of the game that my computer will run is the character generation. Past that, everything looks like water. Some form of scalable graphics system would have opened the game a lot. But . . . maybe it’s only buggy drivers.
Now, all MMOs have their issues at startup. All of them that last any length of time clean up many of those issues and constantly improve the game. AoC posted some pretty good start numbers, as I understand, and that will put a lot of stress on their servers, as it did with WoW, but how many of these people are sticking?
So, I think AoC is out of the running as anything that WoW will much notice.
Now how about WAR?
Warhammer has a good sized real world following. Lots of people play the miniatures wars on a regular basis. Drop into a hobby or game store and you’ll see a large section devoted to the game, and also to Warhammer 40k. Check out Amazon and you’ll see a nice pile of Warhammer books, figs, and stuff.
So there’s a pretty good existing fan base. The online game will draw from these guys (mostly guys, of course) and from those of us who’d like to see something compete with WoW. Combine an interesting, playable, world with good gameplay and a system that will attract all types of players and you’ll have a winner.
If WAR is playable at launch, (and I’m reading good things from the people plaing the beta,) then it’ll get a pile of subscribers. I think we’ll see the number of WoW accounts drop very little, but I think there will be a dip in active players for awhile. If WAR can do the magic that’s required to make people stick with it for months, then maybe WoW will notice.
Blizzard has an awesome track record for making sticky games and it’s definitely the 900 pound gorilla in the playground. If WAR can mount a good launch with a highly playable and fun game, a game that’s playable and fun for a lot of people, then the competition will have a good effect on WoW by forcing Blizzard to improve WoW even more.
WoW is fun for those who like PvP and those who don’t; those who like raids, and those who don’t; those who like role playing, amd those who don’t; those who like . . . well, you get the idea. If WAR can match that, then it’s competition. If it can’t, then it’s just a niche game.
So what’s your take on this?
edit: Some other posts on the topic:
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
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…
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?
Here’s my troll DeathKNight with a couple of buddies in the upcoming WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.
Here’s my pal, the LK himself:
And here’s my bud, the Prince:
Joana, of Joana’s Horde Guide fame, has been touring the beta with, what else? A hunter. Think he’ll have his Horde leveling guide updated for WotLK when it’s finally released? I do. He’s uploaded some screenies, here
Here are a few more screenies, courtesy of Earnest Cavalli, of Wired Magazine.
A couple posts back I put up a Nyhm video, Got an Epic, and also mentioned Nyhm’s guides.
edit: The Nyhm who created the videos in the other posts states that he’s not the same Nyhm who created the Nyhm’s WoW guides, so I have removed the guide links.
If you need a 1-80 leveling guide then check out Zygor’s Guide.
Found this on Spooncraft:
I won’t spoil it for you, but this is a pretty interesting bug. Should be a pretty easy fix, too. Once the Devs stop laughing.
edit: Hmmm… I wonder if it was deliberate? Nawwww….
Video from the Mighty Nyhm, Mwahahaha!
I’ll be posting more of Nyhm’s stuff as time goes on.
