Patch 4.2: thoughts and opinions imbound...

Honestly... I just been out of the loop and need to go do some research, then hopefully I will have some insightful posts/rants on whats to come in 4.2 that I like/dislike :)

-V

Funny WOW screenshot collection 1:

The screenshots folder. Often added to, rarely browsed. I must have about 5gb of screencaps from my adventures in Azeroth. And thats after using batchconverter on the 5mb a piece screenshots from vanilla wow so they are about 50kb each instead. Since I have so many, I will only include a handful here, but that does make-way for future posts with silly screen caps :D. Below are some of my Cataclysm screen-caps. Enjoy!

Click to embiggen!

I knew I should have gone before getting on that Griffon...

Yes, I really am 12 inside.

O Noes!

No caption required...

WOW Patch 4.1 - Valor Point Changes - Alternative? (again!)

So WoW Insider put up an article regarding the valor point changes in WoW. It basically details the fact that the Daily Heroic system is changing. In my opinion it is changing for the better, but alas, my pessimistic mind has rooted out a number of problems this may cause that make it not seem like a fantastic change to me...

Currently the first random heroic you do each day gives bonus points and awards. This is a fairly nice system that encourages players to try to login regularly and go do at least one run each day. The downside to this is that if you are not able to login for a day or three, or are unable to random it up due to other commitments then you don't get to claim those rewards.

The new system basically allows you to do randoms until you have done all 7. This then refreshes every week. Advantage: If you miss a day or two, you can still do them when you are free. This adds great flexibility to the game and reduces the pressures to login when you do not want to play just to claim those points.

The negatives?

Cluster questing:
As soon as the weekly quest allotment refreshes, people will start cramming in early runs. Think of it like "payday" - for many: you get paid, you go out and buy all the stuff you want/need or just party or go on a shopping spree. You are then left scraping to make ends meet until the next payday, which in turn encourages you to go straight out as soon as you get paid again and start spending. A bad habit. With this system I see it being pretty much the same. The quests refresh - and you hit the randoms to claim those rewards, and keep doing it until you have none left. This makes sense - if you know you are free to do them in the first day or two but don't know if you will have time later in the week, or have other in game commitments then you might miss out on rewards, and you are inclined you do the randoms as soon as you can.

I had a couple of other points that I have nullified whilst re-reading the article. At least with the system in place they avoid one problem that I anticipated:


Chain-lockout:
Undoubtedly there is always one dungeon that people just don't like, don't enjoy or cannot get their head around. If you were required to actually go collect the quests one at a time and progress through them in a linear fashion - then what if this dungeon becomes your daily? you would be stuck with it until you get it done, or possibly until the next weeks refresh. As it is explained it is the first 7 heroics that you complete that give you these rewards, which makes perfect sense to me as long as they are clear in displaying that you are in a dungeon that will give you the bonus rewards and you don't have to manually track.

Personally I would like to see the system get a further tweak - an alternative so to speak:
To avoid this initial cluster of dungeon romping, they could perhaps allow for the first random in a day you complete be your daily heroic - and if you miss a day, then you get to "stockpile" that daily so the next day you can do 2, if you dont do one that day, the next you can do 3, etc. This basically differs the rewards to reduce the initial influx - and to keep people questing throughout the week without them getting penalised for missing a day. At the end of the week if you have a number of unclaimed heroics, they can rollover into your allotment for the following week. Allow each player to have say, 10 stockpiled daily rewards to claim - and if people are having a break from the game, or go on holiday or are really busy and cannot do their daily randoms, then when they come back they have access to all these rewards and are encouraged to start doing the randoms.

Follow this example:

Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 1 Reward available.
Wednesday: 2 rewards available.
Thursday: 3 rewards available. you do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic reward for both. 1 day rolls over.
Friday: 2 rewards available
Saturday: 3 rewards available
Sunday: 4 rewards available
Monday: 5 rewards available - do 2 randoms and get the daily heroic for both. 3 days roll over.
Tuesday: Patch day& Daily Allotment Refresh. 4 rewards available.

Etc, Etc. Or is this system too convoluted/complicated to implement in a game that is aiming to be fairly simple when some people we stumble seem to lack the cognitive capacity to pick their nose? Anyway, I think it could be an interesting system although I will admit, I am quite happy with the change they are making. After writing this I answered some of my own critical analysis queries so that it didn't have as many holes as I was expecting!

/Ramble.
-V

Wow Dungeon Finder - Call to arms: again.

Looks like this topic has continued to gain momentum, and some strong opinions. Wow Insider put an interesting post up on the topic that is worth a read, that also links to a number of the big bloggers out there, and their opinions on the topic. Im almost tempted to hit up the main forums and see what the thoughts of the masses are!

-V

Wow Dungeon Finder - Call to arms: Yuz!

In my foray into Cataclysm and the new and improved dungeon finder, I found myself taking a liking to healing and tanking random pugs - although sometimes you still had fairly lengthly queues to join as one or the other if you were not the class that was lacking.

I think the Call to Arms addition to the dungeon finder shall prove to be a great thing, for many reasons - although I can single out a few potential niggles at the same time.

It is great because it should indeed shorten queue times, since those that may not be thinking of pugging a dungeon can see that their class is lacking and either through a sense of noble responsibility - or the fact they will get into a dungeon instantly - they are more likely to hit that join button. It is also great because it will encourage those that normally DPS, or dont normally pug - to give it a blast since there is more incentive to get in there. And lastly, who doesn't like free stuff - especially if you were already planning on hitting up a random! (This also however, leads to '1' below)

The downsides I can see to it are:

1) That it may push potential tanks or healers over the precipice from DPS who may not be geared or experienced enough to perform. Whilst it is good to get them practicing right away, that kind of breaking in is in my experience usually best to be done with a group of friends as the group you crash may not appreciate you causing them to wipe way more than they should, and also the backlash of this may put you off of pugging as the abuse and echoes of "Noob" rattle around in their noggins. It may not even be their fault that the group wipes, but lack of confidence and the rest of the group just doing their normal thing and not accommodating for the inexperience can pull what it cant handle or rush.

2) Blackmail. If your role is flashing as "Call to arms" - the douchebags are going to crawl out of the woodwork. People will (its inevitable, even if rare) start to demand certain drops go to them or they will /quit and leave the party in a lengthly (although not as lengthly as before) queue. They may just act like total idiots and ruin everyones experience knowing it is unlikely they are going to be kicked and replaced, and that folks are more likely to just grin and bear it.

Amendment: 3 below does not exist: You must queue up solo. This leads me to a new 3: I see this as a bad thing as it encourages you to do everything without people you know... Not very sociable >:-(
(Invalid)3) Working in a pre-set group with friends or guildies, it is, in my experience, common to find more than one person queuing up as a tank or healer - this might produce conflict if one is not willing to back down or of they both go multi-role that one person might keep getting the role that gets the goodies.(/Invalid)

Overall as I say - I think this is a positive thing, but unfortunately the conflicts mentioned above ARE going to happen from time to time, although you may be lucky enough not to witness it.

Happy hunting!
-V

Wow mobile apps? Mobile guild chat.

Wow Insider just released this article about the Mobile Guild Chat app for mobile phones...

I gotta say, it looks awesome! I wish they had it years ago - it would make guild management so much easier. I remember a time when helping run a guild that I was logged in for about 6 hours per evening - this was after a full time job and having to look after kids - to keep an eye on and help run the guild. The guild was fun and pretty successful when it came to raiding, but the amount of time needed to do all this was overwhelming, and burned me out big-time. Ive never been able to properly get back into the game since.

Being able to have guild chat open on my phone, and peek in from time to time, and answer questions should they arise whilst I do something else that doesn't involve sitting at the PC would have been great!

I was never a big fan of the Wow Armoury mobile app - which you need to pay for, it just seemed to overdo it. How freely do you need access to your armoury page anyway? The funny thing is, external guild chat I WOULD probably pay for.

As I understand it - you subscribe for "remote access" now rather than for the remote armoury - so I wonder what else blizzard has up their sleeve. I remember back in the early days of Star Wars: Galaxies - I regularly visited a website (it may have been the in game forums but I honestly cannot remember.) where I would post up the materials that I had prospected/mined up and then meet a "buyer" in game and sell them the mats. It was awesome. Blizz kind of already have this with the auction house which is much easier to use than the Bazaar was, but still!

-V

My top 5 WOW music videos.

I find myself returning time and time again to YouTube and listening to a variety of WOW themed music videos, so I thought I would link in my top 5 ear drum thumpin songs from the likes of Cranius, Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain and more. :)

1.) Cranius - Big Blue Dress. 

  2.) Level80 Elite Tauren Chieftain: I am Murloc.









3) Cranius: Tie between: Darrowshire and Happy Place :).


4) Percula: Wow - Blind. - not such a fan of the music, though it is catchy: The animation is awesome :)


5) Taverncast: If I had a murloc. 


I must admit that this was a hard list to compile...  I have a whole load of them in my head that I wanted to consider but couldn't find them to review, and I still aint 100% sure that is my top 5(6) list... E.g. many more cranius songs, "shes too fat for me", Do you want to date my avatar... oh and of course: The Internet is for porn, (music by Avenue Q.)

A career from WOW? Indeed you can!

Everyone has probably heard of the tales of people getting jobs because of their in-game credentials - some may be true, they may be false, but the fact is: You CAN get a job from Wow... By being able to identify and analyse the transferable skills that you learn along the way, to include on your CV.

Whether you are a loner, a raid leader or even run a guild - there are many skill sets that you develop and use on a regular basis.

It is not just World of Warcraft that gives you these transferable skills. Most MMORPG's will share a similar skill-set, as well as many single player games.

So... What are these skills you may ask? Well... lets analyse!

From the moment you pick the game up from the shelf you are analysing the product and will need to figure out if it will work on your machine, how to install it, register an account and get it working. A little bit trickier than your normal plug and play console game! This develops some basic I.T skills surely?

What if you play the game for a while? Well - you likely have a main character and multiple alts. These characters all have an inventory, a bank, trade skills, talents, be working in different areas on different things... This all requires a level of organisation to get by. In your day to day gaming you are likely to work in a group with others, trade items, ask/answer questions and perhaps interact within a guild. This helps to develop your communication skills, as well as your reading and writing comprehension. (Although it all this is solely through the use of trade chat spam, the point is questionable! :p)

Most of these skills don't sound impressive - but being able to evidence these skills is a good thing and can be transferred to almost any job position. Now, what if you are a raid leader, or run a guild? On an almost daily basis you are responsible for managing a group of people, to problem solve, work as a team, communicate through issues and organize the team/guild/guild bank/officers, etc. You may even be required to build or maintain a website or forum - more reinforcement of your I.T Skills as well as some web-design abilities.

One last area that pops to mind is Macros and Mods. You may just use them, or modify them to suit your own needs - but you might also be involved in the creation which requires some basic programming skills. Again, maybe not something that may relate to the job you are looking at getting, but it shows your willingness to learn and take on new challenges.

There may indeed be a day where you can put on your CV "Plays World-of-Warcraft, 3x level 85's" but I wouldn't be this blatant on your CV - the fact is more likely to be frowned upon than praised - but the transferable skills are there, and they are real - especially if you are a raid leader, or a guild leader or officer.

Good luck out there!
-V

Wow patch 4.1 - Heirloom items, Battlenet and Arcane Mage changes O my!

I took a look at Wow Insiders notes for patch 4.1 that is on the PTR and there are a number of changes that interest me.

#1 on the list is most definitely the changes to Heirloom Items.:

Heirloom items are now properly "account bound" - tied to your Battlenet account, so that you can send them to any character that you have. Yey! I have been waiting for this change for years! I don't want to move any characters about but I have been wanting to play with friends on other servers and have wanted the new characters to have access to the heirlooms. This bodes well for my return *plots*

It looks like Zul'Gurub will be making a return, along with some snazzy new mounts :) mayhaps if I find time to do some raiding, I will return - I quite liked the experience I had with the original version.

Lastly: one that I like that is tempting me to make an up to date Arcane Mage Guide is the changes to Arcane that are going through.

• Arcane Blast:
• Damage increased by 13% and cast time reduced to 2s from 2.35
• Arcane explosion damage increased by 30% 13%. (Umm... what?)
• A Frost tree change: Fingers of Frost bonus damage applied to ice-lance is up from 15% to 25%

If you have not seen the patch changes, checkout this >Link< to wow insiders breakdown and enjoy! :)

-V