[Blaugust] [WoW] 10 Years 10 Questions

It’s kinda hard to see, but there’s a Sandhill crane in the middle of this

I’m back from my trip to the Yellowstone area, and even though I had a 5 Mbps DSL connection there (prior years were 512K, so I didn’t expect it to be that good)…. well, I did game some, but it was mostly Civ5 so I could be up and about at a moment’s notice to play outside and whatnot.  The daystar doesn’t burn. . . . .  much.

Anyway, the laptop I was borrowing from work was able to run ESO at a pretty constant 20 FPS, but that was just choppy enough that I really only logged in for my hireling emails on my 2 crafters and to do the daily horse upgrades.  I did muck about with the dyes a bit and I’ll have a post later in the week with some shots of how my look has changed on some of my characters.

***

Since “everyone” is doing it — there’s this survey for anyone who’s played WoW over at this site and while I answered it at their actual survey site, not here, I still thought I’d post what I answered (more or less, since I don’t have it to copy/paste so this is from memory 😛 ).

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?

Buncha IRL friends were playing so I bought it to play with them.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?

Undead Priest.

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?

Friends were playing Horde, so I did too, but since I’m an inveterate altoholic, it wasn’t long before I had toons in both factions.

4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?

Getting spawn-camped by a mob in a cul-de-sac graveyard in a zone that I’d wandered into that was too high a level for me.  The thing was in the graveyard, so I couldn’t even use my hearthstone to get out — it’d aggro and kill me before the cast time was completed, and since the graveyard was a cul-de-sac in the zone wall with just the single exit and WoW doesn’t (didn’t?) have a sprint function I couldn’t run away or sneak around it either.

5. What is your favorite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?

Nothing about WoW really grabbed me, so I only played it for about 2 weeks in vanilla and then for another week in BC so I could try out the Dranei and Blood Elves.  As a result, I can’t really say anything about it was “a favorite thing.”

6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?

Didn’t play it long enough to really know where anything was.

7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?

Real-time play was less than 3 weeks, and I had a bunch of alts.  Got 2 characters to level 14 or 15 and the rest might have made it to 7 or 8.  Can’t imagine the /played was very long on any of them.

8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?

Quests have text?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?

No.  Can’t say anything was “wrong” with the game, it just didn’t trip my trigger to want to play it either.

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?

None whatever.  Again… didn’t play it much.

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And there you have it — my limited WoW experience.  Happy gaming!

Mists of Pandaria Releases September 25th!

A release date!

 

What Ever Happened To the Gigglegibber Goblin Gamblin’ Game?

Big Winner!

Remember when these friendly goblins were put into the game? The first “winner” on server won an enormous amount of platinum, over 3,000. Of course these days I hardly see anyone standing around the machines and with fast travel there’s no one waiting on any boats. The goblins could first be found at the end of various docks; Antonica, Commonlands, even Enchanted lands. Sure, it was a blatant money sink but these NPC seemed quite amusing and at the time a lot of players got excited over them.  With the addition of guild hall amenities we’ve seen a return of our green friends and it becomes easier and easier to spend 10 silver here and there as we wait for groups and form up for raids. It’s not exactly the same as a top online casino, but it’s a great way to pass the time.

My question is have you ever known anyone to actually win this game or is it just as elusive as the real life versions? I’ve gotten a match of five before and that gives you 25 gold, but it always seems like that sixth number is just slightly out of reach.

These days the “big jackpot” is a mere 323 platinum (at the time of writing this) which doesn’t seem like that much. The previous winner walked away with 361 – have the chances of winning increased and thus much less money is put into the pot before being won? I wonder what the statistics are, how many people actually play. Too bad there’s no real way to tell.

EQ1 also had a type of gambling game where you would keep trying to win a golden ticket for some fantastic prizes that you could choose. World of Warcraft has their mysterious fortune cards where players have a chance at winning an in-game cash value by “scratching” the card and once their fortunes are revealed the card can be sold to vendor for as little as 1 silver and as much as 5,000 gold.

What do you think of this type of money sink in video games, where you can at least walk away with some sort of reward?

 

Who Says WoW Isn’t “Pretty”?

Storm Peaks

I’ve been spending a lot of time in world of warcraft since me and EQ2 have had a sort of falling out (it really began months ago but became more ‘steady’ these past two or three months). There are those who would laugh at me for choosing an ‘easy cartoon game’ (their words not mine) and who can not begin to understand what I find fascinating about the game – then there are others who can appreciate the fact that I am a nomadic gamer at heart and I do tend to bounce around playing whatever strikes my fancy.

One comment I hear more often than not is that World of Warcraft is not a ‘pretty’ game. That people don’t enjoy the ‘cartoon’ like art style. I actually enjoy the look of the game, it’s a nice respite from the ‘realism’ that I see in games like EQ2, and Lord of the Rings Online. I also think there are some amazingly designed zones with an incredible amount of detail, especially in Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

Storm Peaks II

“The Storm Peaks have a mysterious history. Long ago, the titans lived here. They created Ulduar as their city, and it is from here that they conducted their experiments. It is said that the Storm Peaks are the origin of the storm giants, and perhaps the dwarves and troggs as well. When the titans disappeared, the races were left to fend for themselves. The dwarves moved south into warmer climates, but the storm giants remained and claimed Ulduar as their own. They developed crystalline golems to aid them in their research and as guards. Over time, the storm giants have dwindled in number and grown ever more reclusive. Now only a handful remain.

The storm giants make their home in the Storm Peaks. They are of an impressive size, more than 30 feet tall and powerfully built. The storm giants are capable of summoning small storms. They keep to themselves, hiding in their caves and tunnels below the surface, and avoid visitors. Myths say that the titans created the storm giants; perhaps dwarves have an origin in common to the storm giants. It is possible that the storm giants may know more about the dwarves’ past than the dwarves do themselves — however, they are not likely to tell anyone about it. The storm giants like their privacy, and their crystalline golems help maintain that. They are the same golems that reside in Crystalsong Forest, gathering crystals to bring back to their masters. In Crystalsong Forest, they are servants and couriers. In the Storm Peaks, they function as door wardens and bodyguards, making sure no intruder gains entrance to the storm giants’ lairs. Magnataur and wendigo are known to roam the area. The magnataur are solitary and easy to spot. [Wowwiki.com]”

I love the lore of the game, there are stories everywhere and while I may not spend very much time in game reading through my quest text – I DO spend a lot of time outside of game reading about the zones that I’ve been visiting. I love learning that everything has a story, a reason for being in the world to begin with. While I’m certainly no lore expert (I just enjoy the stories, not the technical aspects) I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into creating the universe that I’m playing in.

Storm Peaks III

I think perhaps we (as gamers) are too quick to judge a “game by its cover”. Taking the community of WoW to represent the game itself. After playing for a few months now I can certainly say that the community is probably one of the worst that I’ve ever experienced in any game. If it were not for the fact that I am in a relatively friendly guild, I probably would have moved on long ago. Being in a guild and running dungeons as a guild as opposed to constantly running PUGS (pick up groups) has allowed me to ignore a vast majority of the community and focus on what I enjoy most – the game. When it comes right down to it, World of Warcraft is just as ‘pretty’ as any other game out there I’ve played. Even if it does have a ‘cartoon’ feel to it. The style may not appeal to everyone but I like to think I can appreciate those differences.

The Mobile WoW Armory and Auction House

My Listings

I have to admit on my ipod one of the apps that I use the most is the World of Warcraft Armory. This was even before they came out with the new remote auction house which I will get into details about in a minute. I used this app because it’s faster then browsing from the web site, and it’s also exceptionally handy for a player like myself who hasn’t done things a billion times before. I love their ‘find an upgrade’ feature where you can select a piece of gear you own, and search for something that may be useful to you. Right away the app was a big hit. I love browsing stats, achievements, and all the rest. Being able to do it from outside of game is great (I enjoy the eq2 players web site for the same reason, and really wish it would be made into an app).

Then came along the beta version of the remote auction house. For now everyone has access, 25 transactions a day. Once it goes live you’ll be charged an extra monthly fee to use it. I haven’t decided if I’m going to do that yet, but I have been playing with the beta quite a bit.

I love it. I love being able to control my sales from outside of game. In fact it gives me one more reason not to log into game all the time, which I love even more. I don’t need to pop in to check my sales or empty my mailbox I can do it from the ipod. Typically I’m in EVE or EQ2, and browsing the WoW auction house on the ipod and checking my sales. On any day I have 100-200 items for sale per character (mains, I have three of them basically) and I love checking the progress of the sales. I love being able to see the price range that everyone else has listed theirs for, and just playing the auction house game (ie: marketing).

Do I think it will break the market? No. There’s nothing the app does that you can’t already do if you log into the game. I think it will make the game (this particular aspect of it) more accessible to people, and accessibility is never a bad thing. I don’t typically buy anything off of the auction house, but I do use it to sell, often.

I love how it works, the clean interface, and just being able to do everything from purchasing, selling, and re-listing, as well as cleaning out mail. Keeping track of sales, and all the rest.

This isn’t the only game-related app I have either. I’ve been eagerly waiting for the Fallen Earth one to release, I have the Champions Online app, as well as the Wizard101 app and an EVE Online app. Each one is unique and different in its own way (wizard101 is basically just a game where you can win prizes to claim in game, and the Champions Online one is basically a character viewer) and I think that we need to see more of them. I’m actually very surprised that SOE hasn’t come out with their own yet, but I guess they’ve always been a little behind the rest in terms of that sort of thing.

Now, if they’d just add remote crafting..