Well, as usual for this expansion, the PTR for the next, and likely final patch of Mists of Pandaria is already getting underway, a mere three weeks or so after 5.3 hit.
First off, some disclaimers. The PTR does not guarantee the arrival time of 5.4, and in fact, it's highly unlikely we'll be seeing the patch go live for three months at the least. Also, this is not just the PTR, but the very first build of the 5.4 PTR, and thus you should regard it with great skepticism. Much of this will change.
One huge thing is that they will be introducing "Virtual Realms," allowing basically entire battlegroups to function as realms, allowing mail and guilds and all manner of interaction to occur between them. What this means for, say, CRZ in high-level zones remains to be seen, but it should help a lot with underpopulated realms.
The two biggest features are not detailed very much - those being the Siege of Orgrimmar and the "Timeless Isle," which appears to be the new outdoor zone.
What we do know is that there's a model for the Sha of Pride - that most insidious of Sha that Emperor Shaohao warned us about - as well as what appears to be a Sha-Corrupted Garrosh that looks a little like Cho'gall. Interestingly, there also seems to be a model of a ragged and worn-out looking Garrosh. Could this be a post-corruption, cleansed Garrosh who we can send back to Nagrand to repent? Or is that just wishful thinking?
There also appears to be a pair of cool new mounts - one a Forsaken Skeletal Horse and the other a Sentinel's Nightsaber with all the cool new hi-res textures and look. I'd assume this is some kind of reward either for a daily grind or some achievement (please, please no more pet stores mounts. I was so sad about the bat.)
There's also a bunch of new armor models, mostly for PVP (the Paladin one is ridiculously badass, with a more traditional medieval armor look than you tend to see in this game) but also some Pandaria-themed tier sets for Mages and Warlocks.
Proving Grounds will finally be coming to the game, allowing some safe, audience-less training for healers, tanks, and yes, DPS as well.
Likewise, there appears to be a Battle-Pet-based Scenario (that I believe happens on the Timeless Isle.)
Flex Raids are of course a big announced feature, but whatever thing they were talking about that would "breathe life into old content" escapes me. Hopefully they just haven't put it up on the PTR yet.
To reiterate, we've heard very little about the raid itself (though there are some models that fit very well with Garrosh's industrial Horde War Machine theme) and we know next to nothing about the Timeless Isle. There's a lot more to come, but for a first PTR build, there's a lot to get excited about.
Oh, and at least for now, Pierre and the Skyclaw are back.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
A Mercenary without Loyalty in the Console War
The gaming console situation for the past three generations has been an odd one, given that Nintendo, the winner of the last console war, is sort of the Switzerland of the conflict. Nintendo is given little thought when comparing the Xbox and the Playstation. It doesn't have a great deal of power compared to the other systems, and its library is far smaller.
Nintendo is a bit like Apple (before the iPhone/iPad/iEverything explosion) in that it's a company that makes its own hardware and software, and while some are free to make things for it, you're really coming for the first-party stuff. Apple has Final Cut and iTunes, Nintendo has Mario and Zelda.
In the last generation, Nintendo was able to survive by being everyone's "second console." You'd have a PS3 or an Xbox 360 as well as a Wii. This generation things don't seem to be shaping up quite as well for the big N, due, I'm sure, to the gamble to try to make the Wii U work as a true competitor and wade their way back into the Red Waters.
Mind you, I think the Wii U has lots of potential, but whether it's through difficulty working with developers or just the fact that people don't really go out of their way to design for them, a lot of that potential has not been met. I'm sure the upcoming Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Smash Bros, etc. games will be great - they nearly always are - but I'm not holding my breath for the kind of mind-blowing new IP to come to the Wii U. Nintendo has far better first party titles than Sega did, but there's a danger that the Wii U, despite how amazing the potential of its iPad-like controller is, could be Nintendo's Dreamcast. I'm not going to forecast this dark fate, because I still have a shred of hope, but I also realize that this generation is not going to change what was established back in the Gamecube era.
So the PS4 and Xbox One are the two titans that will be clashing during the next/current generation (current because the Wii U is already out.) It's funny, because the last two generations, among the people I know, I seemed to only know those with PS2s, and none with Xboxes, but in this last generation, everyone had a 360, and none had PS3s. (I've literally only played on a PS3 once.)
Anyway, I don't really have a horse in this race (unless Nintendo comes out from behind somehow.)
This past generation has seen the internet integrated into gaming consoles in some clever ways. With hard drives and a connection to the web, indie games like Braid and DLC for established games were made possible.
From what I hear, Microsoft has learned all the wrong lessons from the last generation.
The Xbox One is going to require an online connection at all times, it never truly turns off, it seems that used or rented games will become a thing of the past, as the game disk will only basically let you install and register your copy. It's got a built-in Kinect that, like the console, will not turn off.
Let's mention this again. This is a camera you put in your living room that never turns off. That is literally something out of 1984 by George Orwell.
The list of features of the Xbox One sounds like a huge list of negatives. Perhaps some of these things appeal to publishers, but overall, it sounds as if they wanted to serve us a big pile of crap and expect us to thank them for us.
It's a shame, because I actually liked the 360 in general, but it really sounds like Microsoft is going after the mustache-twirling corporate overlord as their main demographic, and not, you know, people who will actually use the thing. Is there anything in that series of announcements that they actually think will make people want this thing? And for, like, six hundred dollars?
Sony's console seems to be lacking most of what is offensive about the Xbox One. Will it be a good console? I'm not sure. The key point, really, is what kind of games it can play. I've never really followed Sony news that much - I got a used PS2 at the very tail end of its generation mainly so I could play Shadow of the Colossus. Still, given how Sony doesn't seem to be working hard to convince everyone they're evil, I'd say Microsoft has a lot of damage control to work on.
Nintendo, on the other hand, needs to pump out some of their core games and encourage third parties to develop for them. If I could stick with just my Wii U this generation and still be able to play the next Elder Scrolls (not the online one - I mean whatever is the next in the main series,) the next Mass Effect (however the hell that's going to work,) and, you know, some really cool new game that isn't a sequel (I'm thinking a Bethesda-style open-world sci-fi FPS set in a solar system filled with space stations and planets to explore and spaceships to pilot) I would be very happy.
Nintendo is a bit like Apple (before the iPhone/iPad/iEverything explosion) in that it's a company that makes its own hardware and software, and while some are free to make things for it, you're really coming for the first-party stuff. Apple has Final Cut and iTunes, Nintendo has Mario and Zelda.
In the last generation, Nintendo was able to survive by being everyone's "second console." You'd have a PS3 or an Xbox 360 as well as a Wii. This generation things don't seem to be shaping up quite as well for the big N, due, I'm sure, to the gamble to try to make the Wii U work as a true competitor and wade their way back into the Red Waters.
Mind you, I think the Wii U has lots of potential, but whether it's through difficulty working with developers or just the fact that people don't really go out of their way to design for them, a lot of that potential has not been met. I'm sure the upcoming Zelda, Mario, Metroid, Smash Bros, etc. games will be great - they nearly always are - but I'm not holding my breath for the kind of mind-blowing new IP to come to the Wii U. Nintendo has far better first party titles than Sega did, but there's a danger that the Wii U, despite how amazing the potential of its iPad-like controller is, could be Nintendo's Dreamcast. I'm not going to forecast this dark fate, because I still have a shred of hope, but I also realize that this generation is not going to change what was established back in the Gamecube era.
So the PS4 and Xbox One are the two titans that will be clashing during the next/current generation (current because the Wii U is already out.) It's funny, because the last two generations, among the people I know, I seemed to only know those with PS2s, and none with Xboxes, but in this last generation, everyone had a 360, and none had PS3s. (I've literally only played on a PS3 once.)
Anyway, I don't really have a horse in this race (unless Nintendo comes out from behind somehow.)
This past generation has seen the internet integrated into gaming consoles in some clever ways. With hard drives and a connection to the web, indie games like Braid and DLC for established games were made possible.
From what I hear, Microsoft has learned all the wrong lessons from the last generation.
The Xbox One is going to require an online connection at all times, it never truly turns off, it seems that used or rented games will become a thing of the past, as the game disk will only basically let you install and register your copy. It's got a built-in Kinect that, like the console, will not turn off.
Let's mention this again. This is a camera you put in your living room that never turns off. That is literally something out of 1984 by George Orwell.
The list of features of the Xbox One sounds like a huge list of negatives. Perhaps some of these things appeal to publishers, but overall, it sounds as if they wanted to serve us a big pile of crap and expect us to thank them for us.
It's a shame, because I actually liked the 360 in general, but it really sounds like Microsoft is going after the mustache-twirling corporate overlord as their main demographic, and not, you know, people who will actually use the thing. Is there anything in that series of announcements that they actually think will make people want this thing? And for, like, six hundred dollars?
Sony's console seems to be lacking most of what is offensive about the Xbox One. Will it be a good console? I'm not sure. The key point, really, is what kind of games it can play. I've never really followed Sony news that much - I got a used PS2 at the very tail end of its generation mainly so I could play Shadow of the Colossus. Still, given how Sony doesn't seem to be working hard to convince everyone they're evil, I'd say Microsoft has a lot of damage control to work on.
Nintendo, on the other hand, needs to pump out some of their core games and encourage third parties to develop for them. If I could stick with just my Wii U this generation and still be able to play the next Elder Scrolls (not the online one - I mean whatever is the next in the main series,) the next Mass Effect (however the hell that's going to work,) and, you know, some really cool new game that isn't a sequel (I'm thinking a Bethesda-style open-world sci-fi FPS set in a solar system filled with space stations and planets to explore and spaceships to pilot) I would be very happy.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
The Undead, Elven Elephant in the Room
The Horde has got a huge problem that is not Garrosh Hellscream. Sure, the current conflict centers around the fact that the Warchief is so bloodthirsty and jingoistic that he's turned Durotar and the Barrens into a battlefield, but ultimately, this is just Orcish politics as usual.
No, the problem the Horde has, and I think that in the long run it's a bigger problem than Garrosh, is the Forsaken, and specifically Sylvanas.
All that we accuse of Garrosh - that he is merciless, that he disdains peace, that he has inflicted totalitarian tyranny on his people - we can equally see embodied in Sylvanas. Garrosh uses Blackrock Clan brutes to intimidate dissenters. Sylvannas murders or mind-controls them.
The Forsaken have gone through different tragic stages. First, there is of course the inevitable tragedy of undeath - the idea that they have been twisted, and that the lives they originally enjoyed are stolen from them, yet they must still be conscious enough to know the pain of that loss. With their minds, will, and souls restored to them, they are people once again, and people who can suffer, unlike the majority of the Scourge, who I imagine to be practically machines, with no inner life, or at least an inner consciousness so welded to the Lich King's control and the animal-like instincts of undeath that they do not think to consider how wretched their state is. The second tragedy is the way that their former friends and countrymen, and even family, see them purely as monsters to be destroyed.
Sylvanas gave them strength, and created a new identity - the Forsaken - that gave these poor souls a place to inhabit in the world. But while there have certainly been Forsaken heroes, the subjects of the Banshee Queen also seem unable to shake the brutality, ruthlessness, and callousness of the Scourge.
And in this way, in a final, most terrible tragedy, the Forsaken - who by all rights should be the world's greatest champions for freedom, individuality, and choice, given that they know how it feels to have such things taken away from them - have become a lot like the Scourge from which they broke away. When Garrosh asks what makes her different from the Lich King, Sylvanas merely replies that she serves the Horde. There is not even an attempt to justify her actions on a moral or ethical level.
Admittedly, Sylvanas reveals at least what she claims to be her motivations for her methods. She claims that, with the Lich King gone (or rather, with the new Lich King reigning the Scourge in) there is no source for new members. She had always envisioned the Forsaken as a race in its own right, but as creatures of death, they cannot reproduce the way that the living does. Sylvanas laments that her people will inevitably die out over time if action is not taken. She uses this logic to justify the murder of humans throughout Silverpine, Hillsbrad, Arathi Highlands, and attempts to do so in Gilneas (though the Forsaken never get a truly solid foothold there.)
Using Val'kyr that she recruited after Arthas' fall, Sylvanas raises the human dead in the lands she conquers. However, it is here that her hypocrisies become apparent. Every new Forsaken raised immediately becomes loyal to her. Now, Blizzard claims that this is due to the shock of the transformation, and perhaps that all these people realize the inevitability that they will now only be accepted by the people who killed them.
Still, I think this suggests one of two things: a completely tyrannical police state that will stomp out any resistance at the first sign of trouble, or magical mind-control built into the raising process. It's even possible that the Val'kyr do the latter without Sylvanas' knowledge.
The problem stems, I think, from the fact that Sylvanas envisions the Forsaken as a new race, rather than as a sort of robust support group for those who are afflicted with undeath. It strikes me that there must be members among the original Forsaken (before the Val'kyr) who were content to let themselves eventually die out, perhaps expecting the living to eventually re-colonize Lordaeron. Given Sylvanas' philosophy, however, these people must either be keeping this opinion secret or have been wiped out for their dissenting view.
And for those new Forsaken citizens, who were literally raised right after putting up a fierce resistance to Sylvanas' campaign, I cannot imagine that there would not be a group among them who not only have a dissenting view, but would actively attempt to sabotage and strike back at Undercity.
Sylvanas has proven willing to disobey orders from the Warchief. After assuring the Orcs that she would not deploy the plague in Gilneas, she turned around and ordered its use.
The Forsaken under Sylvanas have extremely dangerous weapons at their disposal, and the Horde is justifiably wary of them. Basically, what it all boils down to, from a Horde perspective, is one's interpretation of the Wrath Gate Incident.
On one hand, and giving Sylvanas the benefit of the doubt, it was Putress and Varimathras who orchestrated the whole thing - a kind of declaration of war on the rest of the world. It is unambiguous that Varimathras sought to take control of the Forsaken and Undercity in order to serve the Burning Legion, and employ the weapons they had developed to cripple the Horde, Alliance, and Scourge.
The question, then, is what Sylvanas intended to do with those weapons in the first place. If we are to attribute the best possible motivations to the Banshee Queen, it is that the weapons were intended to fight the Scourge only. Sadly, Southshore proves this is not the case. Still, a member of the Horde could believe that these weapons are meant only to be used against the Warchief's enemies.
Sylvanas could, in fact, be a loyal, albeit disobedient member of the Horde. To me, this seems like the most likely scenario to describe the current situation. The problem, however, is that we really don't know how long such a state of affairs will last. Might Sylvanas see an opportunity in Garrosh's fall to strike out on her own? Might she, in her mad philosophy that justifies the murder and raising of humans throughout Lordaeron, decide that it is time to start raising her Horde allies?
Koltira Deathweaver's fate could set a very important precedent. Do all Horde Death Knights answer to Sylvanas? Or ought Koltira to answer to Lor'themar? Sure, Sylvanas is just as much an elf as Koltira, but if she declares all Horde Death Knights to be hers to torture and "re-educate," is this not the first step toward some kind of power grab?
With the fall of Hellscream, we could probably hope that the Horde's new leadership will try to reach out to the Alliance and mend some fences, even if they don't become full allies. Yet Sylvanas' campaign through Lordaeron has been far more brutal and horrific than anything Garrosh has done so far. Sylvanas could be the torpedo that sinks a lasting peace between the Alliance and Horde.
The Forsaken are capable of being good allies. Beneath the bitterness and the macabre culture they've devised, they are ultimately people, just as any other race in Azeroth is. But as long as the Banshee Queen pursues her reign of terror and campaign of horror, the Horde is going to have to keep looking over their shoulder, and the Alliance is going to have to shore up their northern border.
No, the problem the Horde has, and I think that in the long run it's a bigger problem than Garrosh, is the Forsaken, and specifically Sylvanas.
All that we accuse of Garrosh - that he is merciless, that he disdains peace, that he has inflicted totalitarian tyranny on his people - we can equally see embodied in Sylvanas. Garrosh uses Blackrock Clan brutes to intimidate dissenters. Sylvannas murders or mind-controls them.
The Forsaken have gone through different tragic stages. First, there is of course the inevitable tragedy of undeath - the idea that they have been twisted, and that the lives they originally enjoyed are stolen from them, yet they must still be conscious enough to know the pain of that loss. With their minds, will, and souls restored to them, they are people once again, and people who can suffer, unlike the majority of the Scourge, who I imagine to be practically machines, with no inner life, or at least an inner consciousness so welded to the Lich King's control and the animal-like instincts of undeath that they do not think to consider how wretched their state is. The second tragedy is the way that their former friends and countrymen, and even family, see them purely as monsters to be destroyed.
Sylvanas gave them strength, and created a new identity - the Forsaken - that gave these poor souls a place to inhabit in the world. But while there have certainly been Forsaken heroes, the subjects of the Banshee Queen also seem unable to shake the brutality, ruthlessness, and callousness of the Scourge.
And in this way, in a final, most terrible tragedy, the Forsaken - who by all rights should be the world's greatest champions for freedom, individuality, and choice, given that they know how it feels to have such things taken away from them - have become a lot like the Scourge from which they broke away. When Garrosh asks what makes her different from the Lich King, Sylvanas merely replies that she serves the Horde. There is not even an attempt to justify her actions on a moral or ethical level.
Admittedly, Sylvanas reveals at least what she claims to be her motivations for her methods. She claims that, with the Lich King gone (or rather, with the new Lich King reigning the Scourge in) there is no source for new members. She had always envisioned the Forsaken as a race in its own right, but as creatures of death, they cannot reproduce the way that the living does. Sylvanas laments that her people will inevitably die out over time if action is not taken. She uses this logic to justify the murder of humans throughout Silverpine, Hillsbrad, Arathi Highlands, and attempts to do so in Gilneas (though the Forsaken never get a truly solid foothold there.)
Using Val'kyr that she recruited after Arthas' fall, Sylvanas raises the human dead in the lands she conquers. However, it is here that her hypocrisies become apparent. Every new Forsaken raised immediately becomes loyal to her. Now, Blizzard claims that this is due to the shock of the transformation, and perhaps that all these people realize the inevitability that they will now only be accepted by the people who killed them.
Still, I think this suggests one of two things: a completely tyrannical police state that will stomp out any resistance at the first sign of trouble, or magical mind-control built into the raising process. It's even possible that the Val'kyr do the latter without Sylvanas' knowledge.
The problem stems, I think, from the fact that Sylvanas envisions the Forsaken as a new race, rather than as a sort of robust support group for those who are afflicted with undeath. It strikes me that there must be members among the original Forsaken (before the Val'kyr) who were content to let themselves eventually die out, perhaps expecting the living to eventually re-colonize Lordaeron. Given Sylvanas' philosophy, however, these people must either be keeping this opinion secret or have been wiped out for their dissenting view.
And for those new Forsaken citizens, who were literally raised right after putting up a fierce resistance to Sylvanas' campaign, I cannot imagine that there would not be a group among them who not only have a dissenting view, but would actively attempt to sabotage and strike back at Undercity.
Sylvanas has proven willing to disobey orders from the Warchief. After assuring the Orcs that she would not deploy the plague in Gilneas, she turned around and ordered its use.
The Forsaken under Sylvanas have extremely dangerous weapons at their disposal, and the Horde is justifiably wary of them. Basically, what it all boils down to, from a Horde perspective, is one's interpretation of the Wrath Gate Incident.
On one hand, and giving Sylvanas the benefit of the doubt, it was Putress and Varimathras who orchestrated the whole thing - a kind of declaration of war on the rest of the world. It is unambiguous that Varimathras sought to take control of the Forsaken and Undercity in order to serve the Burning Legion, and employ the weapons they had developed to cripple the Horde, Alliance, and Scourge.
The question, then, is what Sylvanas intended to do with those weapons in the first place. If we are to attribute the best possible motivations to the Banshee Queen, it is that the weapons were intended to fight the Scourge only. Sadly, Southshore proves this is not the case. Still, a member of the Horde could believe that these weapons are meant only to be used against the Warchief's enemies.
Sylvanas could, in fact, be a loyal, albeit disobedient member of the Horde. To me, this seems like the most likely scenario to describe the current situation. The problem, however, is that we really don't know how long such a state of affairs will last. Might Sylvanas see an opportunity in Garrosh's fall to strike out on her own? Might she, in her mad philosophy that justifies the murder and raising of humans throughout Lordaeron, decide that it is time to start raising her Horde allies?
Koltira Deathweaver's fate could set a very important precedent. Do all Horde Death Knights answer to Sylvanas? Or ought Koltira to answer to Lor'themar? Sure, Sylvanas is just as much an elf as Koltira, but if she declares all Horde Death Knights to be hers to torture and "re-educate," is this not the first step toward some kind of power grab?
With the fall of Hellscream, we could probably hope that the Horde's new leadership will try to reach out to the Alliance and mend some fences, even if they don't become full allies. Yet Sylvanas' campaign through Lordaeron has been far more brutal and horrific than anything Garrosh has done so far. Sylvanas could be the torpedo that sinks a lasting peace between the Alliance and Horde.
The Forsaken are capable of being good allies. Beneath the bitterness and the macabre culture they've devised, they are ultimately people, just as any other race in Azeroth is. But as long as the Banshee Queen pursues her reign of terror and campaign of horror, the Horde is going to have to keep looking over their shoulder, and the Alliance is going to have to shore up their northern border.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
The Flexible Raid Could be a Very, Very Good Thing
First, let's get this out of the way:
5.4 will introduce a new raid difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal, with corresponding gear, tentatively called the "Flexible Raid" option.
Flexible Raids allow 10-25 people per raid, and will adjust health and damage numbers to correspond to the number of people you bring. Got a few extra people for your 10 man? No problem! Can't fill out your 25-man? Again, no problem!
The goal of this difficulty is to bring back the easy, but still somewhat demanding difficulty that corresponded with 10-man normal mode in Wrath of the Lich King. Thus there will also be a fourth iLevel of gear, better than Raid Finder but not as good as Normal.
Flexible Raids will be on a separate lockout from Raid Finder and Normal/Heroic Mode. Unlike Raid Finder, though, you will still be able to earn the many special achievements for doing certain things in boss fights, and thus contribute to the Meta achievements (Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider being the upcoming one.)
Flexible Raids will require a pre-made group - this is still something that will encourage guilds to come together, but the difficulty and flexible size are meant to encourage groups to bring the people they like, rather than pushing for only the most skilled players.
Like Raid Finder, Flexible raids will use individual loot, which will come in handy when PUGging.
Ok, now my commentary:
This is a very, very good thing. And there are two major reasons why:
Firstly, the difficulty. Throughout Cataclysm and Mists, Normal Mode raids have been tuned fairly tight. As a totally anecdotal example, my guild was able to clear Naxxramas, most of Ulduar, all of Trial of the Crusader, and had two groups running ICC, one of which was on the Lich King and the other which consistently cleared up through Festergut and Rotface. In Cataclysm, we were able to do BWD, 3/4 in BoT, and then just Shannox and Morchok. And so far in Mists, we're halfway through MSV.
Now, there are a number of ways you could explain that, but one aspect is certainly difficulty. Having a difficulty level that allows for people with laggy internet connections or less-than-great skill makes a lot of sense.
Secondly, the flexibility in size is a really great innovation to bring. So often, our guild has put together a full group and then had to turn people down who either show up late or forgot to respond to the calendar invite, or make a bad roll and have to sit one out.
The way I see it, Flexible Raids can be for casual guilds or in-server PUGs who just want to go knock out the content but still want to actually play with the people they choose to play with and coordinate with TS or Vent. Normal will be for guilds who want to maintain a specific "raiding team," that is regimented and put together with care, and Heroic mode will be for guilds like that, but who want to be on the bleeding edge of difficult content.
Thus, Raid Finder's only real value moving forward will be the automatic matchmaking, which I still think will be enough of a draw to keep people using it (I'm sure I'll keep using it on alts.) By allowing for an easier, more flexible raid difficulty, Blizzard is taking an active step to help people make the game more socially interactive again.
5.4 will introduce a new raid difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal, with corresponding gear, tentatively called the "Flexible Raid" option.
Flexible Raids allow 10-25 people per raid, and will adjust health and damage numbers to correspond to the number of people you bring. Got a few extra people for your 10 man? No problem! Can't fill out your 25-man? Again, no problem!
The goal of this difficulty is to bring back the easy, but still somewhat demanding difficulty that corresponded with 10-man normal mode in Wrath of the Lich King. Thus there will also be a fourth iLevel of gear, better than Raid Finder but not as good as Normal.
Flexible Raids will be on a separate lockout from Raid Finder and Normal/Heroic Mode. Unlike Raid Finder, though, you will still be able to earn the many special achievements for doing certain things in boss fights, and thus contribute to the Meta achievements (Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider being the upcoming one.)
Flexible Raids will require a pre-made group - this is still something that will encourage guilds to come together, but the difficulty and flexible size are meant to encourage groups to bring the people they like, rather than pushing for only the most skilled players.
Like Raid Finder, Flexible raids will use individual loot, which will come in handy when PUGging.
Ok, now my commentary:
This is a very, very good thing. And there are two major reasons why:
Firstly, the difficulty. Throughout Cataclysm and Mists, Normal Mode raids have been tuned fairly tight. As a totally anecdotal example, my guild was able to clear Naxxramas, most of Ulduar, all of Trial of the Crusader, and had two groups running ICC, one of which was on the Lich King and the other which consistently cleared up through Festergut and Rotface. In Cataclysm, we were able to do BWD, 3/4 in BoT, and then just Shannox and Morchok. And so far in Mists, we're halfway through MSV.
Now, there are a number of ways you could explain that, but one aspect is certainly difficulty. Having a difficulty level that allows for people with laggy internet connections or less-than-great skill makes a lot of sense.
Secondly, the flexibility in size is a really great innovation to bring. So often, our guild has put together a full group and then had to turn people down who either show up late or forgot to respond to the calendar invite, or make a bad roll and have to sit one out.
The way I see it, Flexible Raids can be for casual guilds or in-server PUGs who just want to go knock out the content but still want to actually play with the people they choose to play with and coordinate with TS or Vent. Normal will be for guilds who want to maintain a specific "raiding team," that is regimented and put together with care, and Heroic mode will be for guilds like that, but who want to be on the bleeding edge of difficult content.
Thus, Raid Finder's only real value moving forward will be the automatic matchmaking, which I still think will be enough of a draw to keep people using it (I'm sure I'll keep using it on alts.) By allowing for an easier, more flexible raid difficulty, Blizzard is taking an active step to help people make the game more socially interactive again.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Coming back to the Land of the Wolf
After Exodar and Silvermoon mostly felt like graveyards, Blizzard made the two new starting zones for the Cataclysm races (and notice that these went to only about level 12, instead of 20 - Kezan was just the "kiddie pool" area, the way the Valley of Trials or Northshire Abbey work, as opposed to the two fully-fledged zones for both BC races) basically one-shot and you're done. The Goblins watch Kezan collapse and then see the Lost Isles mostly destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The Worgen are forced to merely fend the Forsaken off long enough for their people to escape, and even though the Horde also gets to do a few things there, Gilneas is pretty much a ghost-town.
Likewise, even though there's nothing wrong with the Wandering Isle, one gets the impression that one is not going back there.
In fact, of these zones, it's only Gilneas that you can actually return to at all, even though there's nothing in the way on NPCs except for a few hounds out in the highlands to the north so hunters can get them as pets.
But Gilneas is also the zone among these with the most potential for future stories. It's one of the fiercest fronts between the Alliance and the Horde, and while Alliance players might be forgiven for thinking that this was a total loss, given how the Gilneas quests end, in fact that peninsular country has proven to be a real thorn in the side of the Forsaken War Machine, and remains the one area in the Eastern Kingdoms where they have yet to have had a decisive victory.
As I've said before, the Alliance needs a fist-pumping victory, and while the Siege of Orgrimmar is likely to feel pretty victorious, certain elements will negate a bit of the feeling that the Alliance can be really proud of what they've done - ultimately this is probably going to feel like more of a victory for Vol'jin, and presumably the Alliance will just be handing Orgrimmar back to the Horde when all is said and done (unless Blizzard wants to throw us a huge curveball and make Orgrimmar a neutral city in the next expansion.)
What I would propose is that we get, either in a 5.5 patch or next expansion, two outdoor-content areas that are actually totally separate between Horde and Alliance. The Horde would be dealing with the aftermath of the Siege, putting the pieces of the Horde back together while hunting down any remaining Kor'kron or dealing with whatever Sha-stuff Garrosh unleashed.
Meanwhile, while the Horde is pulling itself back together, the Alliance, emboldened by their victory in Durotar, and knowing that Sylvanas won't be able to get any significant back-up, lands a massive force in Gilneas to re-take the country.
At the end of all of this, we have the new leadership of the Horde finally assembled (whether Vol'jin becomes Warchief, or they have some kind of ruling council, or something,) and the Alliance takes back Gilneas, populating Gilneas City and restoring Genn Graymane to his throne.
Both sides actually come out the better for this: the Horde survives the fall of Garrosh, and the Alliance finally gets to step up their game and win for a change.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Flight in WoW
Burning Crusade seriously introduced much of what makes WoW what it is today. Before BC, there were no heroic dungeons, raids were 40-person monstrosities, PvP gear was just slightly-different in its itemization and nowhere near as good as the late-tier PvE stuff, and there were no flying mounts.
The flying mount is a source of much contention within the WoW community. It's a prime flashpoint for the "immersion" vs. "convenience" debate. To summarize:
Flying mounts make traveling through the world far easier. One does not have to navigate around terrain, nor does one typically have to worry about getting attacked by enemies in the zone. Detractors of the existence of flying mounts argue that this breaks the immersion of actually being in the world. One can set a bearing, hit your autorun button, and go make a sandwich while you cross over a whole continent. A journey to a distant area, by this logic, loses a lot of the epic sense of adventure.
One thing everyone agrees on (almost everyone) is that flying mounts are not going anywhere. Especially when you consider the fact that Blizzard has sold flying mounts for real money, one cannot imagine taking them out of the game, but beyond that, they've now been part of WoW for the vast majority of the game's lifespan.
So admittedly, arguing about this is really just for the sake of argument, but hey, that's what I do.
I think it would be easy to feel comfortable in one's position that flying mounts break immersion if one assumes that the only argument for them is convenience. However, I instead believe that flying mounts are, in fact, a potential contributor to greater immersion.
Examples:
In BC, getting up to Tempest Keep (this was before dungeon finder, so you always had to physically go to the dungeon in question) required a flying mount. The dungeons there were all tuned for level 70, but this requirement reinforced that fact (except for druids, who got their flight form at 68 for some reason.) At the time, flight required level 70, the level cap at the time, and also cost about 900 gold, which was a fairly significant chunk of change back then. The fact that you could only reach the place by flying there reinforced the notion that it was a dangerous, isolated place. Your back was to a cliff, and the only option you had was to push forward.
In the lead-up to Wrath, there was a lot of talk about Icecrown as a zone. Sure, we'd assaulted places like the Black Temple and other fortresses before, but Icecrown was the heart of the Scourge, and nowhere, before or after, has there been a more intimidatingly hostile territory in WoW. During Wrath, one had to hit level 77 before getting the ability to fly in Northrend, and flight was necessary to traverse the expansion's last two zones. Storm Peaks contained pinnacles of such great height that a flying mount was absolutely necessary to navigate the place, but Icecrown used the flight requirement to reinforce that stakes of fighting the Lich King.
The idea was that you were flying there because there simply wasn't a safe place to land.
There weren't any Alliance or Horde bases, and the only group that had even gotten a foothold, which mostly existed in a part of the zone that could be considered to be part of Crystalsong Forest, was the Argent Crusade. So while the two player factions hovered above on their gunships and the Argent Crusade fought a painful battle to gain inches against the Scourge, the Knights of the Ebon Blade pulled off a kind of special-forces op, taking the Shadow Vault and establishing the only friendly base within Icecrown proper (one that is perpetually under attack by Scourge forces.)
What I'm getting at here is that flying in WoW can actually feel very epic and exciting, and totally in-world, rather than simply feeling like a cheat to get out of fighting your way to your location.
Mists is the first expansion to go back to the BC model of flight - making it something that you only got after you'd done your leveling. While I think that's a valid way to present content, (the lack of flight on the Isle of Thunder clearly continuing this feel) I also think that there's room to design zones with flight in mind, much the way that Icecrown and Storm Peaks were. (The Cataclysm zones are a little mixed here. I actually think having some kind of arduous journey through the deserts of Uldum would have been cool, but Twilight Highlands I think worked best with flight, even if I don't think that there could have been more done with flight there.)
Flight is not strictly a bad thing. You can do a lot of fun stuff with it. Should there be limitations? Absolutely. Indoor spaces are a great way to accomplish that in zones where flight is allowed, but the flight or no flight toggle is another way that they can do it. I just hope they don't get rid of one or the other entirely.
The flying mount is a source of much contention within the WoW community. It's a prime flashpoint for the "immersion" vs. "convenience" debate. To summarize:
Flying mounts make traveling through the world far easier. One does not have to navigate around terrain, nor does one typically have to worry about getting attacked by enemies in the zone. Detractors of the existence of flying mounts argue that this breaks the immersion of actually being in the world. One can set a bearing, hit your autorun button, and go make a sandwich while you cross over a whole continent. A journey to a distant area, by this logic, loses a lot of the epic sense of adventure.
One thing everyone agrees on (almost everyone) is that flying mounts are not going anywhere. Especially when you consider the fact that Blizzard has sold flying mounts for real money, one cannot imagine taking them out of the game, but beyond that, they've now been part of WoW for the vast majority of the game's lifespan.
So admittedly, arguing about this is really just for the sake of argument, but hey, that's what I do.
I think it would be easy to feel comfortable in one's position that flying mounts break immersion if one assumes that the only argument for them is convenience. However, I instead believe that flying mounts are, in fact, a potential contributor to greater immersion.
Examples:
In BC, getting up to Tempest Keep (this was before dungeon finder, so you always had to physically go to the dungeon in question) required a flying mount. The dungeons there were all tuned for level 70, but this requirement reinforced that fact (except for druids, who got their flight form at 68 for some reason.) At the time, flight required level 70, the level cap at the time, and also cost about 900 gold, which was a fairly significant chunk of change back then. The fact that you could only reach the place by flying there reinforced the notion that it was a dangerous, isolated place. Your back was to a cliff, and the only option you had was to push forward.
In the lead-up to Wrath, there was a lot of talk about Icecrown as a zone. Sure, we'd assaulted places like the Black Temple and other fortresses before, but Icecrown was the heart of the Scourge, and nowhere, before or after, has there been a more intimidatingly hostile territory in WoW. During Wrath, one had to hit level 77 before getting the ability to fly in Northrend, and flight was necessary to traverse the expansion's last two zones. Storm Peaks contained pinnacles of such great height that a flying mount was absolutely necessary to navigate the place, but Icecrown used the flight requirement to reinforce that stakes of fighting the Lich King.
The idea was that you were flying there because there simply wasn't a safe place to land.
There weren't any Alliance or Horde bases, and the only group that had even gotten a foothold, which mostly existed in a part of the zone that could be considered to be part of Crystalsong Forest, was the Argent Crusade. So while the two player factions hovered above on their gunships and the Argent Crusade fought a painful battle to gain inches against the Scourge, the Knights of the Ebon Blade pulled off a kind of special-forces op, taking the Shadow Vault and establishing the only friendly base within Icecrown proper (one that is perpetually under attack by Scourge forces.)
What I'm getting at here is that flying in WoW can actually feel very epic and exciting, and totally in-world, rather than simply feeling like a cheat to get out of fighting your way to your location.
Mists is the first expansion to go back to the BC model of flight - making it something that you only got after you'd done your leveling. While I think that's a valid way to present content, (the lack of flight on the Isle of Thunder clearly continuing this feel) I also think that there's room to design zones with flight in mind, much the way that Icecrown and Storm Peaks were. (The Cataclysm zones are a little mixed here. I actually think having some kind of arduous journey through the deserts of Uldum would have been cool, but Twilight Highlands I think worked best with flight, even if I don't think that there could have been more done with flight there.)
Flight is not strictly a bad thing. You can do a lot of fun stuff with it. Should there be limitations? Absolutely. Indoor spaces are a great way to accomplish that in zones where flight is allowed, but the flight or no flight toggle is another way that they can do it. I just hope they don't get rid of one or the other entirely.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
My Problem with the Armored Bloodwing
I don't go in for micro-transactions. It's against my nature. Getting me to subscribe to WoW was a big hurdle, and the idea of making additional purchases for a game I already have makes me a little sick to my stomach. For this reason, even full-content DLC material is something I don't really go in for (though part of that has to do with the fact that it's my friend and apartment-mate who owns the Xbox.) So when it comes to a totally cosmetic item like a mount, I can't really justify making the purchase.
Which is sad, because I've been waiting for a Bat mount since BC came out.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of mounts, flying and ground. When I first started playing, mounts were a rare thing indeed, and to have a mount that was not your race or faction's standard was pretty unusual (it also made the Warlock and Paladin class mounts pretty exciting to have.)
Flying mounts were even more limited at the beginning. Basically, if you were Alliance, you'd get a gryphon, and if you were Horde, you'd get a wyvern. These made sense, given that they were the standard "flightpath" animals. Of course, each faction had two such standards - the Alliance has gryphons and hippogryphs, and the Horde has windriders/wyverns and bats. The hippogryph was available to those who could reach exalted with Cenarion Expedition, but even as we've had helicopters, flying carpets, drakes, kites, and a gigantic robotic head added, we have not, until now, had a bat mount option.
Hell, trolls got the druid class and a bat-form before we ever saw a bat mount.
Anyway, it's just a little sad and frustrating because I've wanted a bat mount for my undead rogue since flying mounts were first introduced. I hope that some day, a different model of bat mount is made available for in-game gold rather than real-world dollars.
For now I guess I'll just have to make do with my Headless Horseman's mount.
Which is sad, because I've been waiting for a Bat mount since BC came out.
Nowadays, there are hundreds of mounts, flying and ground. When I first started playing, mounts were a rare thing indeed, and to have a mount that was not your race or faction's standard was pretty unusual (it also made the Warlock and Paladin class mounts pretty exciting to have.)
Flying mounts were even more limited at the beginning. Basically, if you were Alliance, you'd get a gryphon, and if you were Horde, you'd get a wyvern. These made sense, given that they were the standard "flightpath" animals. Of course, each faction had two such standards - the Alliance has gryphons and hippogryphs, and the Horde has windriders/wyverns and bats. The hippogryph was available to those who could reach exalted with Cenarion Expedition, but even as we've had helicopters, flying carpets, drakes, kites, and a gigantic robotic head added, we have not, until now, had a bat mount option.
Hell, trolls got the druid class and a bat-form before we ever saw a bat mount.
Anyway, it's just a little sad and frustrating because I've wanted a bat mount for my undead rogue since flying mounts were first introduced. I hope that some day, a different model of bat mount is made available for in-game gold rather than real-world dollars.
For now I guess I'll just have to make do with my Headless Horseman's mount.
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