Weekly Prediction: WotLK - 1.21.2008

For my new feature, Weekly Prediction, I'm going to post my predictions for different MMOs (and sometimes console games), mostly pertaining to release dates, every week.

This week, I'm going to make my prediction for the Wrath of the Lich King release date.

THIS POST CONTINUED SOON... Sometime this quarter...

-Matt Graham

Escape From Orgrimmar - 1.2.2008

After 1.5+ years, Myndflame has released the Illegal Danish 2: Escape From Orgrimmar, the sequel to their famed machinima.

In my opinion, it's 24 minutes of "meh". A huge disappointment for me is that most of what was in the trailer for this machinima did not show up in the end project. This includes the "Do you know who I am?!" (Zinwrath's return) part and the Orgrimmar ambush by the Illegal Danish guild members part of the trailer. Also, there was zero character development and the story was very hard to follow at times. The movie just seemed to be all over the place between numerous attempts at humor in unnecessary places and scenes that never actually needed to be there to help continue the story.

All in all, I'd have to give this a 6 out of 10. Sure the editing and quality was great and it was very creative, but it contained a bunch of filler and it was just a huge disappointment given the time Myndflame had with the project. As an example, I'll keep going back to The Grind, a series by Oblivious Films that was able to pump out 4 amazing machinima films out in one year.


@Myndflame

Although it's very hard to do, the people are going to compare your movie to Tales of the Past III, so live with it.

Ya, it's free entertainment, but when you put yourself out there and have made your name so big you have to expect criticism.

-Matt Graham

Merry Christmas! - 12.25.2007

Joe Zara and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Have fun!

-Matt Graham

Greatest Guild Leader Ever - 12.24.2007

Today, Leehotti of the US WoW General Forums made a great thread.

Troxxed, the apparent "Greatest Guild Leader" ever, leads the War Ensemble guild on the Illidan server. From what I've read, he is the biggest ass in the guild; so much so that he now has his own soundboard.

Just though I'd share this little gem with you guys.

P.S. - The soundboard is extremely NSFW!

-Matt Graham

The Sunwell - 12.20.2007

So, a few days ago, a prominent Swedish magazine interviewed Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) with regards to patch 2.4. As ever, the details he provided were sketchy and not nearly enough in quantity, but I suppose we should be glad for any new information Blizzard divulges.

Perhaps the most pertinent piece of information is the fact that Sunwell will incorporate an 'AQ style' opening event as well as a reputation based system in order to gain entry. The 5 man instance apparently will require Honored reputation in order to gain access, whilst Sunwell Plateau, the 25 man instance, will require a certain level of reputation for players to fight the end bosses of the instance.

Leaving the reputation issue aside for a moment and focusing on the opening event - apparently it will be based on daily quests completed by the server population at large. In my opinion this is a fantastic step up from the antiquated AQ opening event, which required large amounts of materials to open the gates - many of which required hours of grinding in low level areas, and some of which were worth rather more on the Auction House than in the hands of your respective faction. Daily quests are a much better incentive for everyone on the server to participate in: they're relatively quick, they give a reputation reward for the player, and (probably most importantly) they give a monetary reward. In this way I think there will be much less toil involved in opening the Sunwell, and it's something that non-raiders have a decent motivation to be a part of.

However, as good as this 'dailies policy' is, is it perhaps unfair for low population servers - who by definition will have less people doing the daily quests and therefore will not get access to the Sunwell for some time after the larger servers? I suppose Blizzard could instigate a system recognizing lower population servers and make the number of dailies required smaller, but this would be a) hard to set up and b) prone to population shifts making it unfair (i.e from free server transfers).

As always, would love to hear opinion's on this matter.

P.S. - If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly suggest watching Tales of the Past III; I'm not particularly interested in machinima, but this movie is fairly exceptional; if you're into Warcraft lore, you'll no doubt love it.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]

'Twas The Hour Before Raid - 12.18.2007

Today, Rufuscrim from the WoW General Forums posted his WoW version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas; he calls it 'Twas The Hour Before Raid.

Twas the hour before raid time, and all through the Crew,
Not a player was joining the Warsong Gulch queue;
They finished their transmutes of new Primal Mights
In hopes that the GM would send out invites;
The guildies were herded, all packed into Vent
While links to hot epics kept them on the scent;
And Note in her cat gear, and heal gear on Cam -
Does that new recruit shaman have enough stam?
When out from the leader there came such a chatter;
I asked, "WTF?" to see what was the matter.
Out of the instance I flew with a flash-
Someone had just pulled five groups of trash.
"Run back," said the leader, "don't wait for a rez!"
All but the new shaman do what he says;
He got the boot, and who entered the mix?
A pimpin’ Dwarf Warrior decked out in Tier 6!
I looked for a guild tag and found not an answer:
I knew in an instant he must be a transfer!

More rapid than Nihilum, trash mobs we cleared;
The orders then came that a lesser guild feared:
"Now Bogdon! Now Tuon! Now Rufus and Hathin!
On Trynan! On Darkblaze! On Warrax and Ultrin!
To the top of the healing and DPS meter!
Now pull the boss! Pull the boss! Pull her and beat her!"
As bones from past wipes lay scattered around,
The tank used a charge to help cover some ground;
So up to the end boss' lair, o, they flew
With eyes on the epics, and the new warrior too;
And then, over Vent, I heard some shrill cries,
"I'll @*$& up the healers if the tank dies!!"
As I mashed on the keyboard to Backstab the boss;
The raid quickly suffered its very first loss.
"The new warrior's dead! Oh no! We're so @#&$’ed!"
"Are not!" yelled the GM, "We just got bad luck’ed!
We've battled through worse! We will not relent!
She's already down to sixty percent!"
The DoTs and the heals, they hit and they flew;
Look out! Change it up! She's entered phase two!

The DPS stopped while the tank gained some threat;
(The healers still must have been worried, I bet);
"DPS on!" was the call to attack;
"Hey warlock! Too fast! Soulshatter! Pull back!"
"Twenty percent!" someone shouted with glee;
Better get ready, it's time for phase three!
"She hits so much harder! Blow cooldowns and fight!"
"That was too close! Quick, more Holy Light!"
Three percent! Two percent! One percent! Dead!
The guildies and I went to teabag her head!
"What did she drop?" the raiders all wondered;
The raid leader went to go see what was plundered.
Officers gasp... they're the first ones to see;
Rejoice! They have given an epic to me!
The portals are up, the raiders are gone;
I wonder what enchant that I should put on?

The GM did shout as the mood became lax,
"Good raid, everyone! This guild is teh hax!!"

The names in this poem are people from in Rufuscrim's guild, Strange Brew. Also, the word "Crew" in the first line refers to the guild's nickname, The Brew Crew.

I hope that this gets you all into the Holiday Spirit like it did me.

-Matt Graham

Verne Troyer's Turn - 12.17.2007

It is rumored that the highly anticipated WoW commercial starring Verne Troyer has appeared during Attack of the Show on G4 about 10 minutes ago. Check back for updates and a YouTube link if this is true.

Links to Commercial
PC Download
Mac Download



-Matt Graham

Lack of Posts - 12.12.2007

Well, some of you may know from last year that November 1st through February 1st is an extremely busy time for me - as it is for everyone. So, I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts lately. I just haven't had any time to write anything - the same goes for Joe Zara [Phoee]. Hopefully soon I can return from this holiday season better than ever! Who knows? Maybe I'll even have a few tricks up my sleeve...

-Matt Graham

Vivendi and Activision Merge - 12.2.2007

Fifty-eight minutes ago, it was officially announced that Vivendi (Blizzard's parent company) and Activision merged, creating Activision Blizzard.

Not to worry though people, Vivendi bought Activision. It wasn't Activision buying Vivendi.

Click the hyperlink in this post to find out more. I'd rather not explain all of this business "mumbo-jumbo" this early in the morning. >.>





-Matt Graham

Name Changes - 11.25.2007

Just a small post from me this week regarding the Name Change option now available for characters - is this not the stupidest thing I have seen Blizzard implement on this game so far? I mean who would be so opaque as to feel that renaming their character would have any influence on how they play or what they experience in game; or indeed have anything to do with their happiness level?

Well, apparently, quite a few people on my friends list! Came online the other day and saw this random person online in my friends list - I promptly thought I'd been keylogged and someone was messing around with my account until the guy messaged me telling me who he was and that he'd changed his name :)

Upon further investigation, most people that are considering this option/have already done it seem to have fairly justifiable reasons for doing so - this probably isn't an issue in the US, but in the EU people seem to want to change their names to avoid being 'labelled' as from a certain nationality; not for racist reasons I'm sure, but to generally escape confusion. For example, two English players I know have changed their names to avoid being stereotyped as Scandinavians - when they chose their names originally they were unaware of that name's significance in other languages - and I'm confident this situation is not uncommon.

So as it turns out there may be at least one viable reason to change your character's name. In my opinion, you need a good one before throwing your money away.

Would love to hear people's opinions on this.

-Joe Zara [Phoee]