Because the internet needs another gaming blog.

EverQuest II and World of Warcraft are the two MMOs that I’ve spent the most time with; three and a half years subscribed to EQII, and approximately one and a half with WoW.  Despite no longer having an active subscription to either one, I still follow the news from both games as much as I can.

Both games received major patches recently and both released cinematic trailers for their respective patches.  The first one I saw was for EQII’s Game Update 54, Will of a Tyrant.  Here it is, courtesy of YouTube:

I’ve always thought EverQuest II could use some work in the advertising department.  The trailers they’ve released over the years have never really done much for me, but my immediate reaction to this one was generally positive.  I find it to be more “cinematic” than previously released trailers, with the sweeping camera movements, the music, and the semblance of a story behind it (albeit small), as opposed to randomly inserted action scenes without context.

Soon after, World of Warcraft released a trailer for Patch 3.3, Fall of the Lich King.  Once again, courtesy of YouTube:

World of Warcraft, in contrast to EQII, has never lacked for advertising, consistently releasing top quality trailers.  To me, there is an obvious difference in quality between these two trailers, and yes, I think the WoW one is significantly better.  The camera work, the pacing, and the music are all masterfully executed, not to mention the story.  Anyone who has played Warcraft III and its expansion will be familiar with the story of Arthas and its significance in Warcraft lore, and for over a year now, WoW has been re-telling that story, building its players up for the events depicted in the trailer.  For over a year now, players have been chomping at the bit to get at Arthas/The Lich King, and as I watch the trailer I can’t help but feel an epic sense of anticipation.  Even though the chances that I’d even be able to take part in any of the fights depicted in the trailer are slim to none, I still feel an urge to resubscribe.  That is some great advertising.

… indifferent.

It’s now been almost three months since I last played World of Warcraft and I have just one week left until my subscription runs out.  In that time I haven’t once been compelled to go back and play again, almost as if the longer that I’ve been away, the less I want to play.  When I quit EverQuest II however long ago, I struggled almost daily fighting the urge to resubscribe, but I’ve felt no such pull with WoW.  Until Cataclysm comes out I can’t see there being anything I want to do in that game, of course, I suppose I should never say never.

There isn’t any MMO out there right now that appeals to me, and that’s mostly due to my lack of free time to play them, but I also don’t really like the direction they seem to be taking.  WoW especially seems to be strictly all about gear upgrades as opposed to creating a sense of adventure, and fun.  Yes, I know that ultimately the loot is a prime mechanic in any MMOs, but no game hits that point over your head like WoW does, and it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even know which badges can be used to buy what armour and frankly I couldn’t care less.

If Cataclysm can bring back that sense of adventure and exploration as opposed to an endless grind for better gear, I’ll be back.

No doubt by now the entire Internet has heard all the details about Cataclysm, the next expansion for World of Warcraft.  When the details were leaked by MMO-Champion.com I was fairly quick to dismiss it as crazy fan-boy rumour.  I figured there was no way Blizzard could get all of those changes done in any sort of reasonable timeline, but I have to say, I’m quite impressed that all the rumours were true. Cataclysm looks like it will be a gigantic expansion.

The expansion announcement confirmed one thing for me; I have officially broken free from the WoW tractor beam.  After reading the feature list and watching the trailer, my reaction to it is what could best be described as indifference.  It all looks and sounds really cool, but I just don’t care a whole lot.   At least not right now.  I’m getting a kick out of seeing people who I’ve heard say they “never want to see the old world again” rush out and create alts because they’ll “never be able to experience the old world again!”

Despite my current indifference, I fully believe that closer to Cataclysms release I’ll be right back in there with everyone else, but my goodness, this is probably a year away at best.  Blizzard truly is the master.  As more and more people are getting bored with the game and starting to play elsewhere, they announce this expansion and bring a whole bunch of them back.  I’m sure there will be just enough little stuff released between now and the expansion to keep those people going as well.  Just as they’re starting to get bored again, the expansion will be out, and everyone will be starting all over at level one yet again to see all the new content.  I plan on going back to check the new stuff when it’s released, but for now I’ll stay happily unsubscribed.

I’d say Blizzard has the MMO space safely locked up for the next few years for sure.  How can any other MMO compete with World of Warcraft now?

I was playing World of Warcraft last night, as I’ve been doing much more lately, basically during every free moment I get.  I’ve been working on leveling up my Mage alt and it’s been going fairly quick actually, going from level 34 to 43 in just under a week.  That’s quite fast for me given the limited amount of time I get to play.

My inventory was overflowing with all manner of crap so I bought some bigger bags and started rearranging stuff when it struck me… it was 11:30 pm, I was tired, and there I was rearranging my virtual inventory.  Is that really what I wanted to be doing?  Furthermore, let’s just say I manage to get my Mage up to the level cap.  Then what?  As soon as I hit the cap with my Shaman I pretty much lost all interest in the game, which is why I created the Mage in the first place.

I slept on it for the night but as soon as I woke up this morning I came down and canceled my account.  I’ve still got three months, so I’ll continue to play a little bit here and there, but beyond that, I think that’s it for me and World of Warcraft for a little while.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about how crappy pick-up groups can be, particularly in World of Warcraft.  I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve never really had to rely on them because I usually have had a steady group of people to play with.  Last night, I got a little taste of PUG Hell.

I was grinding out some quests with my level 37 Mage when I received a whisper asking if I was interested in the Scarlet Monastery library.  I had the evening free and it was still early enough so I said, “sure”, and joined the group which was now just lacking a tank.  After fifteen minutes or so a tank was found and we all started heading towards the instance.  While on the way there, a Warlock in the group all of a sudden remembered “he had something to do” and dropped group.  He was quickly replaced by a level 38 Paladin, who upon joining the group was asked, “do you DPS?”.  His response: “What’s DPS?”

This should be interesting, I thought.

I was the second to arrive at the meeting stone and we began to summon the rest of the group.  We were finally all in place and ready to roll out when it was discovered the tank, another Paladin, was wearing a cloth chest piece, and had a two handed weapon equipped as opposed to a sword and shield.  We shrugged it off though given that we had two Druid healers, so we weren’t too worried about keeping him alive.

After a quick ganking by some high level Horde, we finally made it into the library.  One party member however, (the “what’s DPS Pally”) had lost track of us as we entered the Monastery.  We tried our best to guide him into the zone but he just had no clue.  I was watching him on the map and could see he had walked down the path away from Scarlet Monastery and was headed toward Western Plaguelands.  “Stop and head back west along the path,” we’d say, but I’m guessing he had no idea what “west” meant because he kept heading east into the Plaguelands, which, at level 38, wasn’t a place he’d survive in for very long.

For five minutes we tried directing him, to the point where I figured he was just utterly hopelessly clueless, or messing with us.  Unfortunately, I think it was the former.  The rest of us decided to continue on, when, right before our first pull, the tank stops and says, “I’ve never tanked before, what do I do?”.

To my surprise, the four of us were doing just fine, dispatching mobs without any problem, all the while still trying to direct the lost Paladin toward the Library.  He was now even deeper into Western Plaguelands and dying constantly.

We made it to the first boss, Houndmaster Loksey, when one of the Druids said, “Dudes, I gotta go, my mom is pissed”.  He logged off, and left us with just myself, the other druid, and the Pally tank.  The Druid decided to step just a little too close to the boss, pulling him, and his three dogs to us.  Again, to my surprise, we killed the Houndmaster without difficulty, but the tank then said, “I’m going to go”, left the group, and hearthed back to Stormwind.  At least he had the decency to say he was leaving, as the remaining Druid, the one who started the group in the first place, hearthed back home unannounced.

There I was, almost an hour and a half after accepting the group invite, standing alone in Scarlet Monastery, when the “Lost Paladin” said to the party, “What’s going on?  Can someone just please summon me again?”.  I dropped group and hearthed back to Ironforge.