Change of Plans

Well this little blog has been pretty much beaten down to the ground. Not that I have nothing to write about WoW or Blizzard, it's just that I decided to move my "maging through Warcraft" efforts to my Russian blog (that I write for my guild mates). I still play the game every now and then, not as much though. Sometimes you just feel like none of what you're doing in the game is worth the time or the effort. Yep, yet another burnout. Only this time I'm not going to look for something else to play, I'm just going to take a break from MMOs altogether. Plus my WoW-friends (sounds kinda lame, doesn't it) have suddenly quit the game. So I soon realized that WoW for me was more about the people than the game itself.

The Magree Blog is going to become a general blog about real life things that fascinate (or infuriate) me. I don't really know how often I'm going to post stuff here, at least I hope that there will be enough things happening in my life to spark my interest. Or I can just through in the usual rotation of a daily routine "get up - go to work - work my pants off - go home - pet the cat - pet the dog - get a drink with a friend or two - sleep". Fun stuff!

But seriously, I'll try to keep the blog relevant. It's going to be about human relations, music, politics and whatever else that comes to my mind.

A Little PvE Can't Hurt

Well the Cataclysm excitement has worn out a bit. I'm still playing WoW and still feel pretty bored with WoW's PvP. The burnout has pretty much passed but I try to find something interesting to do in the game. Due to my blasphemous nature I decided to go PvE and through myself at the mercy of the deadly boss dolls (sorry, mobs). Instances in WoW are like Alterac Valley plus 10. Thanks to the recent changes in Patch 3.2 I can now get some nice PvE gear without actually spending too much time raiding. The Trail of the Champions is a big loot pinata, so I'm happy to say that gear isn't such a big deal anymore. Again thank you, Blizzard, for raising the quality of life in the game.

Hardcore raiders may bitch and moan about the game's turn to a more casual audience, but the majority wins, so put a sock in it. PvE, as most of the things in an MMO, is as good as the group of people you're doing it with. I'm back with my old guild and I actually have fun running heroics. It is an awesome thing that Blizzard decided to give the players a good reason to run the basic Northrend insctaces and experience the quality of these short and fun pieces of art. Raids are great and all, but there are basically three of them and despite the good look, it will get in your nerves after ten or so wipes, so you don't run around staring at the walls. Plus getting a handful of the Seals of Conquest in 15-20 minutes is a bargain.

Dwarfs with Rifles

As I delved deeper into my WoW-burnout, I decided to level my long-lost dwarf hunter. A level 43 character isn't a bad place to start something new in the game. XP for BGs is a very useful thing of course. And it is nice to try another class in PvP. I like the sound of a rifle along with the power to gain frags without doing a lot - my gorilla is such a better fighter than me! But running Arathi Basin with my dwarf hunter reminded me of another character I used to play. He also was short and solid, he had a rifle, but instead of a gorilla he had a turret that went ka-pow. My engy...

Well poopy! I really hate myself for this. I feel that I now miss Warhammer Online (just like I used to miss WoW once). I guess that my WoW burnout is doing its thing. I'm looking for something else to play. I remember the frustration I had with WAR after a few months of playing, the amount of lag, the bugs and exploits. Terrible PvE, zoned world. Order. But the thing is, I'm now so much sick of doing the handful of BGs and a couple of dailies, that I sort of want to do some of the stuff I used to do in WAR: namely, PvP my socks off and forget that PvE ever existed. And why not go to WAR for a couple of weeks or a month or two? Maybe it is polished enough for it to be the game it should have been from the start?

I'm still torn on this. I haven't made up my mind about going back to WAR, while I wait for Blizzard to shake WoW with the Cataclysm. The concept of completely redoing Azeroth fascinates me completely. But for now, I'm bored with Northrend. And with WoW's PvP. I do have my doubts about Warhammer of course. I wonder if there are enough players involved in the game? Will I be one of the few non-40 characters and be forced to be running around all by myself? Are there any substantial changes to the game? I've got some thinking to do. There is one thing for certain: I have to take a nice long(ish) brake from WoW in order not to burn myself out to the point of no return. It is either giving WAR another try or quitting MMOs altogether for a while.

But the engy does look sexier than the hunter. Hmm...

MMOs and You - The Burnout

Patch 3.2 got me giggling like a baby. I was simply overwhelmed with joy! I didn't (and don't, and probably won't) care a slightest bit about the new raiding content, however the the new BG - Isle of Conquest - got me extremely excited. It is full of fun toys like ehhh...pretty much every vehicle Blizzard can through at you. And I love it. The new BG is a nice break from Lake Wintergrasp, which started to really get to me (and I bet to every regular Wintergrasp-enthusiast). So I would step on it on my way home from work to get to the new "toy". All in all, Isle of Conquest is a work of art. And of course we can't forget mounting up. It is now fun! Some new pants and a ring you can buy in Lake Wintergrasp and some hot druids. And a new animation for fishing...I think. Anyway, thank you, Blizzard.

With that said, I still feel a sense of boredom with the game. Don't get me wrong, the new features are fun, but the new car smell will wear off soon enough. And it is wearing off. So I' m even thinking of laying WoW aside until the next expansion, which has me pumped out of my mind. Maybe I should contain myself for a year and a half only to prance on sweet new content rapaciously? WoW Cataclysm does sound a bit cheap to me actually. But I don't effin' care! Destroy the world to make room for new ideas? Knock yourself out, Blizzard! WoW does need some major reshuffling. But for now, I'm just bored.

The problem for me lies in the fact that I don't see any other MMO coming out in the near future that could draw my attention like WAR did. I'm simply playing WoW because I've fot nothing better to play. Single player games are practically dead for me, even though the experience in this type of games may be 10 times the Isle of Conquest, but playing alone and surrounded by nothing but NPCs is just sad. But I very often question the point of playing an MMO. If not for just leveling your toon. Gear gets redundant after a while and you'll never finish the achievements. So why spend your free time doing what ultimately proves to be pointless?

I guess it is human nature to socialise in different ways, even if those are based upon pissing off the opposite faction in PvP. But playing with/against other people is what makes MMOs so attractive to me. People shape the inanimate world of the game and give each realm a certain spark that fosters the development of the server. Even the fact that some dummy can drop the prices at the Auction House makes you want to log in just to keep up with things. And it doesn't have anything to do with the "I can be a hero in this imaginary world" crap. Yes, there may be some hardcore RPers who take on a personality, but for a vast majority of players their character is an extension of themselves. And you cannot take on a different personality in-game. The anonymity of the on-line world brings the real core of the people playing. You can try acting as someone you are not in the real world, but you are what you are in the MMO.

The whole division between RL and on-line is incorrect to my mind. That means calling YouTube unreal. Real people shape the "on-line world", while MMOs merely provide a certain framework for people to socialise in. Yes, that framework can bore you at times and it makes you take some time off the game. But if you are generally into gaming and gaming with other people, be it your friends or a PUG, you pretty much see the point of playing in the long run. An individual wants to be part of a team or community; doing stuff together and overcoming obstacles is what drives people to an MMO. That is the point - sharing you experience, your joy or frustration with others. It is kind of like when you are watching a really funny comedy alone, you wish there were somebody to laugh it out with.

And there are times when you want to do something else or just take a break from that which used to be fun. It is the natural course of events in society. But in the long run you will come back simply because humans are social creatures. We are addicted to other people and to keeping up with them or competing against them. MMOs are just another way of doing that. A comfortable and sometimes safer way.

[Insert Title Here]

God, it's been too long...
After my final goodbye to WAR I kinda fell into a hole of MMO vacuum. There is just nothing to eagerly expect and nothing exciting to play. Well for me at least. WoW is still the big dog and I have to admit, it is the MMO. I've got to hand it to Blizzard, they are twisting and stretching the game to make it something more than just a PvE game, where phat epics make you king. PvP is getting some love. Even though Lake Wintergrasp is essentially a BG now, thus proving that massive PvP encounters are to big of a task for the devs, WoW is much much more PvP viable. Just don't try to shift the focus. Let WoW be WoW. And please, don't make the Icecrown Citadel into a the Land of the Dead. Or make it a PvP objective. And piss off the hardcore raiders that can't do jack in PvP.

What I want from Blizzard is more BGs, more Wintergrasps and more PvP-gear. I want ranks, different sets and maybe even trophies. Why not? Would it be such a big deal to just provide entertainment for both PvP- and PvE-players? I mean really, there isn't much to do at 80 except raiding, which I don't really enjoy. I don't know what's wrong with me, I just can't get myself down to doing it. I may want the loot, but the thought of spending 4 hours in an instance killing dolls just depresses me. So I focused on my PvP-gear and spent a ton of gold on enchants and stuff.

It is funny actually. I'm constantly demanding things from Blizzard. That doesn't really make me too different from the constantly nagging WoW-geeks, that are always pissed at some kind of imbalance in the classes. Oh, by the way - Paladins are still rolling their faces through BGs. I want some of that on my mage ;). I guess, what I really want from Blizzard is to come up with something so ground-breaking in their secret MMO, that it'll make me wish to spend my Friday night and the whole weekend indoors. I want the feeling of excitement, a new toy to make me jump all over the house in joy. Warhammer was that toy, but it ultimately turned out to be more of a disappointment than anything else.

I'm all over the place in this post. Well I just need to get myself back on track with MMOs and some real life issues in general. So I just hurled some thoughts indiscriminately (like I always do, but I like to think that I'm actually thinking stuff over before posting). The blog is going to be more just a big rant about WoW or WAR, I'm going to rant about real life too now. Maybe I'll intertwine RL with MMOs somehow - we'll see.

A Farewell to WAR

WAR is over for me. I haven't been playing the game for a while and I don't really feel like logging in anymore. I' m not saying that the game sucks and it doesn't deserve the 300,000 player base, but it just stopped being as fun as it used to be. In my previous post I have already written about the game being "shallow" in that there is really nothing else to do but grind through sieges. I guess, there is some fun in the sieges but after a while it gets repetitive and boring. You just want to get it over with and that's it.

Warhammer does have its strong points. The fight mechanic is great and I really enjoyed the abilities of my Engy and Squig Herder. However I haven't been really getting into other classes to get the whole picture, but as far as my experience with the game goes, most of it is pretty decent. The problem is that if a game has a fun fight mechanic it should make the content fun for it to make sense.

What bugged me about WAR was the lack of some in-game ways of coordinating the war effort. Yes, there is the alliance chat and you can schedule the events but most of the planning goes on guild forums. It is not much of an issue to take part in the forum activity but you have to log off or alt/tab out of the game to do so. And sometimes you just want to hop in and actually play. Sometimes you just don't have the extra time to do the offline planning for the city siege (which is still the worst part of the game). An in-game tool for proper coordination would make a big difference.

Mythic has advertised Warhammer as a casual gamer friendly MMO. In reality it demands more involvement and time than most of other MMOs out there. Talk about meeting the expectations. And that is just the issue with this game. It didn't meet the enormous expectations that it had built up while under development. It was supposed to be the next big thing after WoW and it failed. Mostly because of the game being released to early and some of the exciting ideas like a massive city siege being implemented in a twisted way that no one wanted it to be. The devs must have thought that the crafting system was something original and fun to do, and in the official podcasts it was indeed portrayed as something awesome. In reality it turned out just the opposite. I'd rather just have it completely remade.

The final nail was the fact that none of my friends stayed in WAR. It may be the biggest argument in favour of letting the game go. But this issue is the result of the foregoing. The fact that I've got I guild that I enjoy in WoW makes me stick with it. Even though Blizzard refuses to give some consideration to the Mages. And it made the Wintergrasp dailies weekly. And it gives Druids new skins while the Mage is stuck with the crappy looking fireballs.

P.S. I'm still going to keep my eye on Warhammer Online. Who knows, maybe in a couple of months it'll turn out to be a hell of a game. It still has the potential.

The Secret MMO

Blizzard has allegedly stated that their new top-secret MMO is not going to be anything Starcraft related. I say allegedly because I heard and read so much rumours that a don't know what to believe. Even if some Blizzard guy would come up to me and say that to my face, I would still question it. I any case I am more in favour of the new MMO being a completely new IP. That makes things even more exciting. For me at least.

The problem with the Universe of Starcraft (or whatever) is that it is to narrow for Blizzard, and if they want to "kill WoW" with the new MMO, they have to make it so that everyone would be interested. Personally, I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan, and even though I was pumped about the possible Starcraft MMO, I had (and have) my reservations about it. Dudes running around with swords appeal to me much more than marines with guns. Except the Zerg. Love me some bugs.

The MMOFPS is something people have been talking about recently. Despite the innovative tune to the genre, I don't think it is going to be it. Again, I just don't see Blizzard making an FPS, Valve maybe, but not Blizzard. I've been asking some people in my guild, and it turns out that most of us would still prefer it to be an RPG. But if the swords, spells and dragons with Lich Kings is a read book and Sci-Fi is to narrow, then what is left?

I know one thing, the current loot and gear system has got to go. You cannot expect people to keep doing the same old raiding, whining over loot and showing of the gear as a symbol of success in life. Please make it more skill oriented, Blizzard.

I Want to Be Just Like That When I Grow Up

This is why I like PvP. Yes, you may be the first guild to clear Ulduar, you may have fancy gear and you may treat the game as a job. But nothing compares to that feeling of "OMG I pwn!".

P.S. I'm pissed about the machine scaling in Lake Wintergasp.

And Grunty sucks.

Stop Enjoying PvP!

<=== This guy is not amused

Blizzard has come up with another spectacular idea. Make Lake Wintergrasp dailies weekly. It seems that it has become too popular, so in order to avoid server lagging Blizzard decided to curb the amount of people rushing into Lake Wintergrasp every day. Outrage... Blizzard states that the amount of shards and honor points per daily (now weekly) will rise. It will now be 10 shards, and 3723 honor points per weekly. How are 10 shards a week even close to 3 shards a day? The same with honor. I am used to doing the Wintergrasp dailies almost every day and so are some of my guildies. Getting some of the PvP gear for some of us will soon be a much more tedious task.

It seems strange to me that Blizzard is now trying to get people out of PvP after having rushed them into it. Why even make Lake Wintergrastp if you now try to get players out of there by turning it into a playground for those who go in just for the sake of slaughter (like me)? "Newsflash" - people are most certain to be doing the weeklies the day they reset. That will mean that that day will deliver a massive blow to the server. Is that any better?

It turns out that Blizzard can't handle open world PvP. It is too much of a strain for the servers and blah-blah-blah. Well that is more or less understandable. But why advertise Lake Wintergrasp so much? I mean, it turned out not as intended from the very launch of Wrath. There were no flying machines. Plus the server issues that caused the players to crash to desktop if they logged out in Northrend. If you pimp your product so much - deliver!

Why make PvP gear so accessible just to take it away later? It used to almost be a breeze to get the Hateful Gladiator set, which is pretty good, it gets the job done. You could get it fast and fairly easy. The change does injustice to those who are yet to ding 80. The chunks of honor you got in Lake Wintergrasp were the main source of gear for me and for loads of other players that were fond of PvP. Now it is back to BGs. And personally, I don't really enjoy the BGs. These "PvP mini-games" get very annoying after a while. And it feels much more like a grind to try to get honor points by running several BGs in a row. It is like Blizzard wants to halt PvP after letting it loose. And in the process it's just screwing over the lovers of PvP. The company is so sure of its firm leadership at the MMO market that making a big chunk of players dissatisfied with the gaming experience doesn't seem like such a big deal.

/bored

*Yawn* It's one of those periods of time when nothing interesting is happening in the MMO world. Yes, the Land of the Dead is coming soon. But as I had said in my previous posts, Mythic isn't exactly selling the "free expansion" to me. Too many PQs, a bit too complicated for my liking and still no major improvements to end-game. So...yeah, I'm not interested.

Free Realms looks nice. I bet it's a nice game for nice people. The more gameplay videos I watch, the more I read about it, the nicer this ultra-casual game seems to be. My only issue with this MMO is it being too nice. I really want something more rugged and fantasy-like. Pixies are cute but I'd rather kill orcs or take keeps. So even though the game itself may turn out to be awesome, it just isn't my style of an MMO.

WoW is being WoW. I'm still playing. Not as much though, I mostly log on to Lake Wintergrasp and an occasional BG. Although BGs are getting really old really fast. They say that there is a new BG coming our way, so that is something to look forward to. But guess what, it's not enough for me. More open world PvP please ^_^. In PvE non-news, I got pretty fond of the Argent Tournament. The fact that there is something under construction there makes room for some expectation. Another stage of the Tournament? A new arena? Perhaps a jousting arena? Or maybe a new dungeon? We'll have to wait and see.

You can now sign up for Starcraft II beta. I know, it's not an MMO. But it is a potential base for a new MMO by Blizzard. The Universe of Starcraft, Starcraft Ghost or even a new IP will be big even if it will suck. And I hope it won't. I want a great new game and unfortunately I don't see any other developer company that is able to create something genuinely terrific, a WoW-killer. In any case, the new Blizzard MMO is too far ahead. But who knows, maybe they'll reveal their secret next-gen MMO at this year's Blizzcon. Or they could at least announce the third expansion to WoW.

Maging through PvP

When you get outdamaged by an equally-geared druid in heroics it really gets to you. How, why and WTF? You start thinking that either you stink or that there is definitely something wrong with the class. Personally I get discouraged. And what do you do when you're down in the dumps? Go to Lake Wintergrasp or BGs and kill some dudes there. PvP is the best thing for boosting your self-esteem.

Frost spec is meant for PvP. It is my favourite and you can surprise a warrior that is following you while you run away for your life waiting for the cooldowns to pass. And when they do - meet my elemental friend and watch your feet. The elemental is such a huge asset for a frost mage. The ranged frost nova and AoE are doing wonders for honorable kills. But of course there are some classes that make me cuss at the screen and kick my WoW-watching cat off the table.

Rogues. The arch nemesis of any cloth-wearing class. Death Knights and AoE-friendly content have done their job. There are fewer rogues. At least on the Alliance side. But the Forsaken are still being "original" and stick to rogues. Vanish, sapping, backstabbing - all that makes rogues deadly and extremely annoying to me personally. Rogues still roam BGs. And the fact that they aren't very viable in raids and Lake Wintergrasp makes them pissed and they take it out on mages in BGs. And they are vicious. Sometimes I get lucky and run into a careless rogue. I hear a stealth sound behind my back and "Blink! Ice Barrier! Frost Nova! "Do I dare to turn around?" Elemental! Triplify! and Ice Block!". And when I manage to kill the unfortunate rogue I get happy as a little kid on Xmas. I don't even mind being hit on the noggin by a Death Knight at that moment.

Death Knights. The OP class, the Hunter of today and the blue-eyed hunk of unholy power plowing through our ranks. They do sick amounts of damage and their ghouls are a big pain in the butt for a caster. Even though the DKs are a bit OP I don't really mind their hard-hitting moves. At least you can see them coming at you. What really pops my baloons is Death Grip. I guess Blizzard decided to make DKs so awesome that they wouldn't even have to actually charge at anyone. They casually extend their hand and make the foe come to them. Special delivery for Mr D. Knight! When I'm standing in some cosy spot spamming Frostbolts, minding my own business, the last thing I want is to pop up in the middle of the enemy zerg. Which isn't as grave for an arcane mage. Instant vanish is such a nice thing to have. But I usually go in on Frost and enjoy the Ice Barrier. So when I see a dozen of red names around me the first instinct is Blink. Which doesn't really help a lot. I guess I should just do a /dance macro for just such an occasion. At least the Horde won't expect me bursting into dance.

Paladins. Seriously, my notion of a martial healer is a Warrior Priest kind of guy. Paladins in WoW are sick! Sicker than DK. They sap. They heal. They have their damn bubbles. Killing a Paladin is like killing a concrete slab. Instead of damage you see "Immune". Instead of "target is dead" you see a metrosexual stomping your head into the ground. Paladins shouldn't be more deadly than Warriors. It just doesn't make sense. All in all I feel content with where I am now in PvP. I'm scared of some classes and I'm intimidated by Paladins. But that is OK, PvP should be challenging. The only sad thing about it all is that some classes like Rogues, Mages and even Warriors are better off PvPing than running Instances. It seems that Paladins make better tanks than Warriors, Rouges don't really have to sap anyone in raids, just as Mages don't really sheep anyone these days. Neither do they do sufficient damage. But at least I get to do PvP and I enjoy me some good PvP. The only problem is that not everyone likes it. But everyone wants to have fun playing.

Noblegarden...meh

I was definitely going to finish the event and get a title at some point in time. But, as it often turns out, I was too lazy to devote several hours of my weekend to trying to snatch eggs from other bunnies. Season events in WoW just don't get me going. Clicking on a hundred or so eggs, finding mates for your pets, planting flowers in deserts...booooring. Yeah, I think I have a couple of extra hours of my life to waste on some Easter festivity in a non-existing world.

I actually like the Warhammer approach to holiday events. "Xmas is coming, people! Let us all kill each other!" Now that is fun. It is actually one of the few features of the game that I still like. I just wish WoW could have the same brutal and yet funny way of celebrating. I want squid pies in my foes' faces! Don't make me blow kisses or eat chocolate eggs all day, make me go to Lake Wintergrasp and throw Easter egg-bombs at people.

I have to admit that making holiday events not just a PvE waste of time (not that PvE itself is a waste of time, rather the egg clicking is) in a PvE game is not an easy thing to do. You can't really rush people to do instance runs, because some players just can't afford it, and Blizzard has to think of non-instance-goers too. PvP objectives (which I would prefer) are even less likely to be accessible to the majority of the players. So I guess that the only way of structuring the events is the way it is done today. Boring, "there and back again", "gather ten this and eat ten that" quests. Simply because that way most of the players can finish them.

But why not give the players and alternative? Give the PvE players their gathering quests and the PvP players their killing quests. I'd rather search for eggs in Lake Wintergrasp than in Kharanos. And the eggs should be explosive!

Land of the Dead and WAR Issues

Mythic is putting out some hot content. The new RvR dungeon or rather a zone, bigger than the Lost Vale and "RvRier" than most of the zones in the game. Making epic content is a great way to get people back in WAR. At least if I were a frustrated lvl 40 I would definitely log on to check out the content. The official podcast explains a lot right here (part 1) and here (part 2).

The problem with such an expansion, to my mind, is that it won't keep the players interested for that long. It is huge, it is hardcore, you have to purge the place of the opposite faction when the zone flips, but what is there to do when you clear all the PQs and instances? It is back to trying to sack Altdorf or the Inevitable City. Which is still the worst part of the game.

The system of controlling Nehekhara is again based on zone control and killing the players of the opposite faction. That takes time and determination. You can't just fly up to the Instance and enter, you have to spend several hours fighting other players for resources first and then get to see the new content. That sounds fun but how can a casual player fit in such a game? Mythic was portraying WAR as a game that you can play casually and not worry about the content "running away from you". But in reality Warhammer forces gamers to spend hours and hours fighting for objectives (which isn't fun). Otherwise you can just log on to your alt and run around Tier 1 and 2. Personally I doubt that I would have enough time on my hands to dedicate to City Sieges.

When I first heard of Warhammer Online and the City Sieges I was sooo pumped. Really, what can be better than fighting other players for a whole city? I was sure that it was going to be all about RvR. It turned out that it wasn't. It was mostly PvE. I'm actually glad that I haven't gotten to 40 with my Engy. And the truth is, I don't really want to level that fast because I know that the higher you are - the less fun the game is.

So it seems that even with the introduction of the new content Mythic isn't addressing the issue. What they really need to do is make the end-game actually fun and worth striving for. Not to mention fix all the bugs that still pop up every now and then. I'm now playing around with my squig herder in Tier 2 and I'm having a fair share of fun. But unfortunately the buzz of the game is gone for me. Everything gets repetitive after a while and keep sieges are no exception. The thing is, I don't even see the point of leveling my toon. I'm not convinced that Mythic is going to overhaul the City Sieges and make them actually RvR. Its all about the objectives, no end-game - no game.

Is That?...

In my previous post I was ranting about the lack of vehicles in dungeons. That's what you get for being behind with the gear. I was watching YouTube and this is what I came across.





If that is what I think it is then all hail to Blizzard! More of the same please!
*Note to self: watch YouTube before ranting.

I'm Peeved, Merlin...

These words came back to me recently. And they came back to me with regard to WoW. What kind of a game is it that can bring both friendly fun and frustration at the same time? And you keep coming back to it even after having left and slammed the door on the way out. But that is not the point.
Dps. The ruler of the game. It seems that it is never enough. Stats in general often leave people out of the action just because it is very hard to get into a raiding guild. If your stats don't comply with requirements that some people set for others you are pretty much screwed. The thing is that you have to get epic gear and the best way to do that, to my mind, is running heroics. Dressed in blues and thinking of improvements I was eager to run the instances. Unfortunately the organisation in our guild is on the sloppy side. So I have to get into PUGs occasionally. Nonetheless I'll stick with my guild. We are trying to make things better and I just like my guildies. I'd rather hang out with lay-back gamers than go raiding with people who treat the game as a job.
PUGing through heroics isn't a fun experience. And there will be some guy with the Recount add-on (I believe that is what it's called). This mod has some magical effect on people. As soon as they see that the amount of dps is not sufficient in their judgement, the dungeon run (that was going ok) falls apart. It is like the damage meter tells you to wipe. I remember clearing instances with much less dps than average but with two healers. It took longer but there was no recount to break our run.
If you are lucky, you will find a big guild for all types of players and where purple guys find time to run instances with the blues, thus helping them in their quest to the top. But on my server it seems that the badass guilds are getting better and better and raise the requirements for new recruits even higher, while the lower level guilds find it harder and harder to get their teams together and get the guild running. So the gap between the guilds is getting wider. The raiders get the epics and the young guilds get discouraged.
The new dungeons are very straightforward. Dps is the solution to most of the bosses. That makes the dungeons much easier in regard to brain activity. I'd rather have dungeons where one had to have his/her head screwed on right, where you had to figure out some things in order to make the boss weaker or break his protective shield or something. Instead the game revolves around things getting bigger and more powerful. You cannot raise level caps and dps forever.
Why not make dungeons and boss fights more of a controls challenge? Use vehicles, flying machines or whatever fun toys to defeat the boss. The encounters where you would have to aim, dodge or work some vehicle as a team would be so much fun for me. And it would make more sense. I mean what is up with high-end raids like the old Gates of Ahn'Qiraj or any of the new ones? 25 people defeat some overlord, that eats vast armies for breakfast! Warcraft 3 was a dumb game and the armies were just a waste of time. You could just get 25 guys to defeat the Burning Legion.
WoW will probably be there for a long time even if Blizzard still continues to just raise level caps and the stats along with them. But don't the devs have any ambition? They do want to make the game better, don't they? I'm no dev and I probably don't realise a tenth of the difficulties of making and running an MMO, but still, doesn't implementing some aspects of other types of games into one MMO make the experience much more diverse and fun than just collecting achievements, mounts and epic gear (which will be completely useless with the launch of another expansion)?

Patch 3.1 and stuff

Patch 3.1 brought some joy and sorrow to WoW-fans. I've heard loads of complaining about server issues, countless bugs and so on. I was fortunate enough not to encounter any major problems. I only had to update my only mod - bartender.
Dual spec is a blast! I feel so flexible playing my mage. I'm now arcane/frost for the price of one. And I can choose to AoE mobs to death or blast single ghouls with arcane missiles. Unfortunately I am behind with my gear, so I can't check out Ulduar. But it is just one instance and this patch is so much more than that. A bit of whining ahoy.

A ton of tweaks and changes for death knights and just a bit for the mages. We get more mana regeneration, which makes me happy both on frost and arcane. Plus Mage Armor is much more useful now with 50% mana regen while casting. Less drinking for me. Unfortunately mages still got no spell power improvements and are still beaten by warlocks in the game of damage dealing, while still being the squishiest class of them all. I can understand frost mages being underpowered with their Frostbolts, accounting for the high level of security and great crowd control. I don't really know if it is me being so used to Ice Barrier or is it the arcane spec but with arcane in dungeons I tend to be killed the second I realise that I'm being attacked. Mana Shield isn't getting the job done to my mind. Although I get a whole lot of resistance to magical stuff, so it is arcane against the "mage bosses".
As for the non-patch agenda, Lake Wintergrasp is really fun (as much fun as you can get without collision detection). Riding on a tank and spamming Frostbolts and AoE Blizzards upon the heads of the foes is so pleasant, especially if you have your guildmate driving. Frost spec is so for PvP. The Water Elemental has so much utility with his ranged Frost Nova. And again AoE Blizzard. Just herd'em up close to each other and see the magic happening.
Lake Wintergrasp is an awesome thing to implement and I look forward to more of the Alterac Valley type of innovations.

Well...80. Hurra.

So I got to 80 with my mage. I am pleased. The only thing left is getting epics and earning a title or two. Heroics! The best thing in WoW. I am coming for them. So...yeah. I don't know what to say really. Oh, I know! If Blizzard raises the level cap to 90 in the next expansion, I will be pissed! Very pissed.
As for the content in Northrend, it is wonderful. They really put a lot of effort into making quests interesting. I actually have fun with dailies. Shooting dragons with harpoons, bombarding zombies, climbing the mountain on a gnome bot - I enjoy that stuff.
Blizzard people are smart, they have to think of some ways of making expansions without making people go through 10 more levels. And the problem with Wrath is the fact that it is en "elitist" expansion. There is nothing there for the lower level guys. I want new races and Gnomeregan. Give gnomes lore!

A bit about WAR

Damn...I hate to say it, but WoW has been taking most of my gaming time. And not just because of my determination to get to 80 and explore everything there is to explore in the expansion. I'm not playing that much because I'm no longer having fun with my Engy. I still like the class. The main reason for my discontent is the type of realm (open RvR) and the faction.
I made a mistake getting on an open RvR server. Taking keeps is a useless activity unless you are at the top of your tier. There will be dumbass players in higher tiers taking a keep and ripping you to shreds, although they get nothing for that. So it is scenarios for you until you grow up to play with the big boys. Some may call me a sissy, but I like having fun in a game and not going to pains just for the sake of being hardcore.
The faction. I can't stand Order! I bit the bullet just because I liked playing the Engineer but now I can't take the cheesy feathered helmets of the knights of the blazing sun, the puritan clothes of witch hunters and the uppity elves that look too posh to fit in the game. Order has no character and even the Slayers can't do anything about it. I feel ridiculous running around with wimpy looking humans. I realize that the time of choosing your side has long gone and I should have thought about that earlier but we all make mistakes. And seriously that is not such a big deal - so I'll have to either level my squig herder from tier 2 or get a new alt. I'm thinking of getting a Choppa. We'll see.
Not liking the faction is not much of a complaint really. Although I played a human in WoW and liked the Alliance. Mythic has made Order too dull; I still can't shake the feeling that Order is portrayed as some loser that is made fun of. I may be wrong. By the way in all the trailers Destruction was kicking Order's butt. How is that for an advertisement?
So I'm going to the dark side to look for fun there. I just hope that such discontent with one of the factions isn't the sign of just getting sick of the game all around.

A bit about WoW

Two levels left to go until I hit 80 and will be free of leveling ... for a little bit. In any case my level 78 mage is running around Icecrown killing zombies and vikingish people. The land looks like Mordor on Xmas day. Why invent a new type of land when you can copy LOTR? Next thing you know, Arthas's only weakness will be the One Ring (or maybe the One Frostmourne). But I'm just ranting right now.
I'm really getting sick of crawling towards 80, but I am a man! I'll keep on going till I get to my ultimate goal (and then get to another one - epics; and then another - titles; and then another - collecting mounts; and then another - collecting pets; and then another - buying the next expansion to find all my in-game possessions to be obsolete). Actually I don't really see why people would submit themselves to so much punishment farming achievements. Bragging? Maybe. Personally I'm not a fan. I've seen better achievement systems (guess where). The only title I'd like to have is "Diplomat", so maybe I'll farm for that if I get around to it sometime. Despite my somewhat slighting attitude towards Achievements the fact that you have so much "mini-games" inside a game is a very prudent thing in the long run. It gives the player reason to stick around after hitting 80, there is so much you can do in WoW besides killing mobs or PvPing. And Blizzard has so many people hooked on the achievements which results in more money for the company. More money for new projects.

Blizzard will have another expansion for WoW. I have no idea what they will think of next. Maybe they will not let us kill Arthas in Wrath - so they wouldn't have to come up with a brand new villain. But won't that get really old by the 3d expansion? All I know is that I hope so much that they won't raise the level cap again. I'd be disappointed to the state that I'll just loose faith in Blizzard's creativity. And what the use of a company that can't come up with something so revolutionary that it would redefine MMOs? And if Blizzard may not be able to do it - I can't imagine who could. I'm being a bit pessimistic here, but still.

The Mage Issue

I like playing a mage. The only reason I didn't roll a bright wizard in WAR was the fact that there were plenty of them already. The damage you can deal with them justifies the smallest HP in the game. And you can do so many awesome things with the BW. The powerful fireballs, AoE and DoTs make the class fun to watch, fun to play and painful to play against. When a played my squig herder I would run away in search of some big rock to hide behind whenever I got so much as a single hit from a BW. These guys would fry your butt in seconds. Now that is some ranged damage dealing.
I play a mage in WoW. There is definitely something wrong with the class. It is no longer the primary damage dealer it used to be (and has to be, taking into account the lack of HP). Warlocks are now at the top along with the Death Knights. That makes the mage just a vending machine that can also provide portals. For that reason there are not many mages around and, really, it is not like people really need them in raids. They can go with a warlock and be just fine.
I blew a lot of gold on respecing this week. I initially was frost spec and it does reduce the damage by about 10-12%. That is a considerable number. First I went Arcane because I heard that it is not the joke it used to be. It is a fun spec - that's for sure: more resistance to all kinds of magic, improved blink and almost instant invisibility. Great for getting out of tight spots. It was hard getting used to Arcane but it got me to Wrathgate. The spec gave me more mana regen, took a great chunk of crowd control away but granted more damage. But still not enough.
Next I decided to try fire. Felt like a BW a bit. A lot of damage, long cast times and wild consumption of mana. Fire is for the damage but for some reason I did not enjoy it. I ran a dungeon with my guildies shortly after. I was fire spec before so I didn't have to get used to the abilities. But man was that a hard run for me! I can't live without AoE and CC of the Frost spec. Plus there is no way a mage can go about without an Ice Barrier. The squishiness of the class doesn't let you be unprotected when swarmed by mobs. Mana Shield is not the answer for me. And my guildies told me that they really miss my AoE Blizzards. So I went back to Frost. I had to bite the bullet and swap damage for AoE and CC.
The mage is facing a predicament. Not enough damage for a class that is supposed to be the primary damage dealer in the game. When you try doing more damage by respecing you lose mana and ultimately your life. There are less and less Frost mages around because of the lack of damage and less fire mages because of the lack of CC. Arcane is somewhere in the middle, so I guess that this is the spec to go with for most mages today. I'll stick to Frost however, I just love the crowd control too mush.
It looks like waiting for the new patch and hoping for some mage-love is the way for me. Dual spec will only be available at 80 and I'm not leveling fast enough.
Another thing is the graphics. The Mage spells don't look too hot. The Warlocks have received some cool spells and the imps are chatting all the way through the dungeon runs. Arcane spells look ok but both frost and fire haven't changed since 2005 it seems. If Blizzard won't give the Mages more power - they could at least make us look cool. A mage should be much more than just shooting Fireballs and Frostbolts. Make frost mages freeze the earth around them or something. And fire should be like the one we see in Utgarde Keep.

Quality PvE

Having decided to take up WoW again an get my mage to lvl 80 after all I have given myself the opportunity to make my gaming experience more diverse. I am now playing both WAR and WoW, and that means that I'm making half the amount of progress in both. In any case I'm not in for the leveling race.
Wrath is actually very very good to say the least. Even though I didn't like it from the start in the Borean Tundra, I find more and more good quests as I get deeper and deeper into Northrend. And the fact that I am not actually committing to the game makes it a relaxed lay-back experience. It is nice to have some high quality PvE every once in a while. The quest chains get pretty interesting and I like the rewards. And the fact that you don't look like a clown in the gear you get is also a big deal for me. I am not going to describe the gameplay or the quests - it has been done a million times already.
Blizzard have really outdone themselves with this expansion. And I am not talking about any innovations, I can't say that there is anything conceptually new in Wrath. But quality is oozing all over Northrend. The "new and improved" quests would have never hooked me for Wrath, but the looks of Northrend did. The ambiance is phenomenal and the best thing contributing to it is the music. I have always liked the way Blizzard structured the environments (Hillsbrad and all) and it still doesn't seize to amaze me. I just wish Mythic could make the Warhammer world as open and captivating.
Now the thing that always bugged me. Making lots and lots of gold. Strangely I discovered that it is not as hard as it used to be. Maybe it is just the prices for gold clover are way up but I made 1100 gold in two levels (70 - 72) - that's not much but still. I never was great at making money in WoW, always having just enough to afford mounts and learn spells, but now gold isn't such a big deal.
I am having fun with WoW so far. I guess it will last till the awesomeness of the environments along with music rub away a bit, but they still hold a tight grip on me.
Quality can make even the things you didn't initially enjoy look like fun.

Be the Master of Puppets

PvP should be different altogether. Playing a scenario in WAR I realized that I didn't feel like I was PvPing, it was like I was killing mobs. I guess that you get so used to RvR (or rather ZvZ for zerg vs zerg) that it turns into another type of routine slaughter. I am not bashing WAR right now. Their PvP model is awesome.
But I start thinking that for PvP to be more of a human vs human player experience you have to be able to have more control over your character's actions. I am eyeing Darkfall. I followed the game for some time, watched videos, previews. As far as I understand, the PvP in the game is more like actual fighting, the style that you can see in Oblivion. You don't just click and see your character fight the opponent, while throwing in some spells and abilities. You actually hit and block and hit again yourself. Now that is the direction that PvP games should evolve in. More human factor.
Considering Darkfall, I don't think that I'll be playing the game however. I cannot say that I like how it looks or that it is worth trying out for me. There is a bit too much realism in the graphics for my liking. I like cartoony things. Plus the type of character control isn't the only thing that makes a game fun. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything that would excite me. However I am not the one to judge, considering that I haven't actually played the game.
In any case, I like the Darkfall type of PvP; but seriously - playing 3 MMOs? No way.

As I was taking a break from WAR

I decided to take a few days' rest from WAR. No matter how good a game is there should be times when you take a break so that the game doesn't get annoying. Surprisingly I felt like going to some Northrend dungeons. I hopped on my level 70 mage and shipped out to that rugged land of zombies and spectacular landscapes. Despite my hatred for PvE I had fun. Quality PvE is just as important as balanced RvR, just for different kinds of players.
So that time playing I did the thing I loath - I got in a PUG. A group of two druids, a priest, a death knight and me, the mage. With only two players for dps it was a slow progression, but strangely enough that made the Nexus fun to play. I even shot a couple of videos.

Watch more videos of WoW

and the boss (after a wipe)

Watch more videos of WoW

more to see here http://www.wegame.com/users/Magree/

So that was my day having a break from Warhammer. It turned out better than I thought it would. Oh, and I recently got an invite from a guild called the Zerg (funny name). It's not a bad one, I like it so far, so it may turn out that I'll be playing WoW after all. That doesn't mean of course that I'll put WAR aside. Anyway, to be able to judge a game (WoW in my case) you have to get to the good stuff, run the instances, get to 80 and have some decent crafting, which I missed so much.

Killing Time in WAR

What do warriors do in between battles? They get ready for the next one. What is there to do when there is nothing going on in WAR? Well you can go get some coke out of the fridge while waiting for a scenario to pop up. You may go PvE. Although that is not for me apparently. If I wanted to PvE, I'd just play WoW. But I don't - so I play WAR, which is, as stated by Mythic, a constant battle. Unfortunately there is no such thing as constant battle (in the game of course). So there are certain times that can be characterised as ... truce I guess. During those times you can just as well go afk or log out.

There is just not enough to do in the game. PQs are certainly a great way to get xp and some gear, but I mainly use them as a means of killing time while waiting for a scenario or a call to arms. I just stand near a PQ location and pick out mobs, then go to a scenario, then go back to killing mobs. It seems that they put the PvE content because you kind of have to. You can't have an mmo without PvE. So there - knock yourself out.

Mythic could really do something about the crafting system. It hasn't been fun before and it isn't fun now. I'm starting to think that the only way to make it better is just changing it altogether. It could have at least been like WoW's trading skills. Instead we get some skills that are in fact useless from the economy perspective. And we get a billion of potions that basically do the same thing but with insignificant differences. 1500 health over 12 seconds or 1233 health over 7 - choose wisely young dwarf! Do we really need such diversity? I'd like to see potions that differ by the amount of health they grant you and not the time that they need to do their job.
I just can't shake the feeling that most of the things in WAR aside RvR are there just for the sake of being there, just because it's the rules. The world of WAR lacks depth.

Wanna Be the Best Around

After the introduction of the Slayer and the Choppa I expected to see loads and loads of the two around the starting areas. Which is not surprising. But my astonishment had no bounds when I stated to meet Slayers in Altdorf two days after the event. Big deal right? But seeing Slayers in their 20s two days after the event is completely "WTF?!". I understand, people were so eager to play the new classes in their Tiers that they just had to play them no-stop for two days. But seriously. Do some "mmo-enthusiasts" even pick their butts up from the chairs? I remember a similar impression when there was an announsement on WoWs general chat about some orc who was the first one on the server to get to 80. Again 2 (or 3) days into the game.

Personally I always was kind of to shy to have the best gear or to be the first one on the server to get to a certain level. To have an awesome character is a good thing of course, it means that you are devoted to your dwarf or orc or whatever and you can set aims and reach them. However there is a fine line between being good at the game and being a nerd. Playing your character 10 hours a day is just freaky. If you want to impress people in an mmo you are probably at the wrong place. I admit - some kids will praise you for your leet skills, but is putting real life aside and playing like crazy (and probably having no fun in the process) really worth it? You are just showing everybody around that you spend to much time in front of your computer, that you have no life and that your priorities in life are screwed up.

Bitter Rivals

The Slayers are coming hurray-hurray, the Slayers are coming hurray-hurray!

Oh yes, the new patch and some sweet new classes. I really liked the cosmetic changes to some arms and more detail in maps. The Open RvR Rallying Cry is a thing I've craved for for too long. This new feature has made Open RvR more dynamic, taking a keep "while no one is looking" is now possible only if the opposing side are a bunch of lazy blokes. Although the highlight is most certainly the Twisting Tower scenario. It is a wonderful scenario, you get to fly up to the tower, it looks good and there are a lot of places for my engy (Klondike Snow who has become my main after all) to set up his turrets. The dreaded columns are a pain! Those pesky sorceresses and zealots are getting from the line of sight, who do the thing they are?! But no matter...
The event itself isn't such a big deal, I guess it is OK. There isn't much to say about it, it is a lot like the Night of Murder. You do quests that are not that difficult, I was actually expecting something more challenging. But I have to hand it to the devs, it is not difficult or easy enough to be boring. I had fun, so thank you, Mythic.
Now getting to play the new classes early is a sweet deal and I am reflecting whether I should play a Slayer. Of course I am going to try one out but am I going to really get into the class? The tattooed dwarf is attractive, to say the least. But I am not a melee type of guy; and the fact that there are going to be loads of them out there isn't exactly selling the class to me. Not that it should matter to anyone wanting to play a berserk but it kind of does matter to me. Another demerit is that I'll have to level yet another dwarf through all the stuff. Do not want! But we'll have to wait and see - who knows, maybe the Slayer will be such a cool character that I'll forget all about the leveling burden.

But if you're not going to be a Slayer the new class wave is a perfect time for making an alt. The starter zones are going to be full and the fist PQs will most probably be a blast. Regardless of having a tank or a healer as an alt, you will be in high demand. Slayers can't tank or heal themselves and suddenly you appear on the horizon, a shiny Rune Priest extending your healing touch upon the dying Slayers, prolonging their quest to find death and restore honor! You'll be a star - chicks will digg you. And that leads me to believe that a high-level Slayer will lorewise be the biggest loser a Slayer can be - you're alive, what kind of a Slayer are you?!
That is all just jokes. I am actually very excited about the new classes, they will make RvR so much better. It is such a pain going up the stairs to the keep lord - the first guys showing their faces on on the second floor die if you have anything less than awesome healers. A character that can get through all the people to make room for the ranged guys (like me) is a real treat. The times of awesomeness are almost upon us. I am almost sure of it. Don't let us down, Mythic.

There is no I in team, there is U in failure

Some days are RvR-friendly, others turn out to be a total failure. Today was the day when Destruction could give themselves a good pat on the back. They ruined Order's attempts at taking a keep (any keep) several times in a row . I played my engy today, so obviously I was one of those who got their asses kicked. The situation that we found ourselves in was caused not by the Destruction being more awesome (as it usually is), it was the fact that our organisation totally sucked. People couldn't agree on anything. "Lets go left! No lets go right! Get to the dwarfs, before the destro comes. No lets focus on this keep! You suck! Screw you! Res plz! Noob!" Yep, one of those day I tells'ya...

MMOs need team effort in order for the players to achieve anything. And WAR is all about team effort, RvR just doesn't work any other way. Play by the rules or eat dirt. I don't know any other game that requires people to work together and interact as much as WAR does. That is the main reason why you just have to be guilded to get the real taste of WAR. And let's face it - the game's PvE is not developed enough to focus solely on mob slaughter, it is...well it's just dull.
I realize that not all people want to interact all the time while playing, some people prefer soloing and group only for dungeons or raids, some people just don't do PvP. A more "classic" game is the one for them. WAR, as Paul Barnett put it, is the Led Zeppelin of the MMOs. That is the most precise description that you can apply to Warhammer. It is for those people that like their MMO to be the ultimate one. It is the multiplayer game of massive scale. And such a game is not for everyone. You can't make people be a part of a team if they don't want to. So most of casual gamers that are not into RvR will stick to what they have and what satisfies them. And that's OK.
No matter how awesome WAR is, it will never be the biggest MMO ever, it will probably grow a bit, but really, I will be surprised if WAR breaks a one million mark. I will be pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less.

Machinima - use it wisely

WAR needs machinima. The art of machinimating has been pimping out a lot of games and to my mind it often works better than fancy trailers and advertising. To see funny, dramatic or action-packed things within the game really gets me going. Type machinma in You Tube and press search: you will get the idea. The most popular movies have over 5000000 views and among those people there has to be a good portion of those that think "this kicks butt, maybe I should try the game out and see if it really looks as good".
WAR machinima has its ways to go although there are some decent movies already. Warhammer strikes me a as pretty machinima-friendly game, you can really poke around with the emotes, the locations can really give the movie character. To my mind Mythic has done a great job with making the world of WAR: the towers in Ostland trudging through the thick branches, the beams of sunlight coming through the trees and all the fancy and pretty awesome stuff you find in the dwarf locations will make a movie look like a million views! Although the game could use some diversity when it comes to transportation. There could be some ships to go across the oceans or something along that line, there could have been more cities (not like Altdorf or the Inevitable City) or rather towns. I mean the war camps are great but I'd like to see the Lands consisting not just of a big capital and villages.
I realize that you cannot ask the game to change so that it would be better for machinima. It is not machinima that makes a game, but developers should keep in mind that there is a wonderful type of art out there. And you can use it for your greedy needs *evil laugh*.

WoW and Me

While playing WAR today I started thinking about the days when I was into WoW and what I liked about those days. I guess, I sort of miss WoW.
World of Warcraft was my first MMO ever .Yes, call me a what you will, but I never even touched the Dark Age of Camelot or Everquest. The only reason I decided to give WoW a try was (and is) my love to Warcraft III. So I couldn't let go of the chance to play around in the beloved Warcraft universe, the thought of going to Ashenvale or Lordaeron just blew my mind. The fact that it was an MMO made it even more exciting.
The game wasn't perfect but it was good enough to fall in love with it. One should admit that when it comes to PvE, WoW is the best. The dungeons, even the first ones like the Wailing Caverns, had those moments when you had to say "woah, coool". And it got better and better as you progressed. The best locations by far (to my liking of course) were the Hillsbrad Foothills and the Hinterlands. Oh the happy hours spent there...grinding =). But it was all good until I had my "in love with Warcraft" level up. One thing that is pretty important to me is the way the environment is structured. Some people may complain about the "cartoony" graphics in WoW (which is not so bad imo). It actually is a prudent step to avoid massive lagging and it made the game more accessible to people who did not own a high-end PC. And the soundtrack...it is not diverse, the several types of locations had standartized music, but it fit them perfectly.
Now I realize that a major role in my enjoying the game was played by my guild "Azeroth" which later became "the Guardians of Wisdom".* I loved my guild and I liked playing with my friends, doing instances, or just chatting away. It really kept me interested in WoW- it was more than just leveling, it was the friends now. Gear wasn't such a big deal for some reason, we did everything we felt like as long as it was fun. WoW gives you the choice, you can go crafting or gathering herbs if you don't feel like PvE or PvP. Then Real Life had me quit the game for a while. I had to take the graduation exams and start thinking about my future. And WoW took to much time, and I needed a break from it anyway. After plowing through RL issues I finally had time to play WoW a bit. Not as much, but it was enough for me. I got a bit older and the fan-boy excitement was not as strong as it used to be. And there was a big difference from the old days now. I was on my own.
It's all fun while you are a happy little noob, but then comes the grind. The grind for everything - money, gear, levels, PvP. The expansions made thing worse. Blizzard took the easy way out: raising the level cap, introducing loads of new gear, which made everything you worked so hard on useless after the first few levels in Outland. It ruined the game. For me at least. I still wanted to move on, but the constant grind, the fact that I had to kill mobs which are extremely predictable and the lacking PvP did their thing. It was boring. And frustrating to say the least. People in WoW would kill for phat loot, it seems. So the point of the game is not killing Blackwing, Illidan or Arthas. No! It is getting that epic staff of pwning. So I quit again. I logged on a couple of days ago and tried to play a bit and got sick of it in a couple of hours.
Now when I think of WoW and actually start missing it, I realize that I am not missing the game. Oh no, I'm missing the good old days with my first guild running around Hillsbrad. The game itself , although polished, is not doing it's main task - making people (or rather me) have fun and relax after a hard week of working. Instead you have another job online and you have to make money there too, lots and lots of it. Otherwise you won't be able to buy the epic flying mount or whatever.
All this is said with my mind still on WAR. It will have an expansion one day; I hope that Mythic will not make it the way Blizzard did. Great games should not be ruined just because a company has to make money.

*A shoutout to Landriana and Sinnz, the people I had the most fun playing with.

Dwarfs are going nude

I've been thinking about the introduction of two new classes to WAR - the Slayer and the Choppa. Enough has been said about the two, both are melee DPS classes and represent berserks. They hack away at their foes paying no regard for defence. A useful thing in RvR I should say.
Two new classes are definitely going to make WAR more diverse and colorful. Especially the Slayer (although that is totally IMHO). It's not that I don't like the Choppa, on the contrary, I adore the greenskins. But Destruction has enough character already, the bad guys have never been as awesome as in WAR. The Choppa, despite his cool animation, will not serve to make Destruction more attractive to players. I mean can you make Destruction more attractive? Nor will the Choppa make the greenskins (look) any different. He will be a valuable addition to the army but he will not make a revolution.
The Slayer has pretty interesting lore. A dwarf who has disgraced himself to the state when he had no other choice but to seek glorious death in battle. He has a unique look - red mohawks, elaborate tattoos, really cool armor that doesn't look like anything we're used to. I hear a lot of people saying that they would try playing Order just because of the Slayer. I think that Mythic might have hit the nail on the head with Slayer. He will most likely lure some people on the side of Order, he is just to awesome to ignore. A naked suicidal dwarf with big axes and a flaming mohawk - try beating that.
But there is a downside to the awesomeness of the Slayer, he may become the dominant class on Order. Melee DPS is great but imagine a third of the warband consisting of Slayers, there are not enough tanks out there and tanking is not what berserks are good at. I really wouldn't like the Slayer following Death Knight's steps. Mythic has a pretty big task ahead of them: introducing the new classes without harming the others, not to mention class balance.

"WAR Comes to Russia" or "the Second Coming of the Launch Day"

Wouldn't it be sweet if one wonderful event could come back to brighten your life? Well it can happen and it is not the Solstice - it is WAR's launch. And I'm proud to announce that I know how it feels. On February 5th WAR officially opened servers for Russian players. I was lucky to experience the "big day" and feel like a little kid ripping away at the box of presents on Xmas day! Cool steel boxes, complimenting the game inside, appeared on the shelves luring unsuspecting gamers into the RvR net.
I must say, I had doubts about WARs success in Russia as I didn't see the amount of advertisement the game deserves; I mean when Wrath was about to launch Arthas was all over, you had to either be living in a cave or be completely oblivious of everything game-associated. WAR never enjoyed such amount of publicity and I was in all seriousness afraid that there just wouldn't be enough players for the game to be played as it should be. Promotional events in shops just don't give the game the needed horde of fan-boys stooging around the shop the night before the game finally launches.
And I have never been so happy to be wrong! Joy to the world - WAR is doing just fine. Russia has greeted the game with traditional Russian hospitality. The servers assigned for Russian players a "high-high" already and if that keeps up, Mythic will have to open some new servers. I guess they have learned their lesson with opening to many, so it's better safe than sorry. The launch day itself went pretty smooth, thankfully the game did have some time to polish out the glitchy scratches. Ten days have passed since WAR arrived in the country of endless forests and no gold sellers in sight. It is either the Banhammer or the fact that gold sellers decided to spare the effort in a game where gold is not such a big deal. People seem to have taken to the RvR and are taking keeps like crazy; things are going good so far, I just hope that it won't change as soon as the free month is over. But at least there is no "this game sucks" or "WoW is waaay better - you can actually sit down" and that gives me some confidence.
Today I witnessed a queue on a core RvR server, a thing a haven't seen in a while. And, believe it or not, the queue was for Order. I'm not ready to declare the Order majority in Russia but still it is pretty unexpected. Oh how Russians love to good guys! What is even stranger Destruction seems to be very keen on PQs while Order sweeps the RvR lakes. I believe it is just the beginning stage of the game and things will come back to the state that we are so used to.
Of course Russia is not a major gaming country but it will provide a solid amount of customers for Mythic.

...and we begin

The fist post...hmm.
First of all, welcome to The Magree Blog and many thanks for reading (if there is anyone out there actually reading this stuff).
I guess I shouldn't go beating about the bush and just cut to the chase. I will mostly write about MMOs and a bit about real life, so there will be no "my life is a lie", "I hate McCain", "I hate emo kids" or "the financial crisis...". I am not a hardcore gamer - I would've been if not for real life...we all have responsibilities, right?=)
I focus my attention on Warhammer Online, as this game is just what I yearned for playing WoW. WAR has the best PvP (RvR) action, even if the game itself is not as polished as its juggernaut of a counterpart, but take into account that it took 4 year of constant tweaking to reach such solid gameplay. I'll write more on the WoW-WAR issue in a relevant post later.
I realize that I'm not being original by writing about WAR because there are loads of great mmo blogs out there - take A Wall of Text for instance - but nevtheless I desided to start my own blog. I got some thoughts, ya'see?
So much for the introduction, more to come.