Welcome to the fourth edition of Reloading…

“The report of my death was an exaggeration.” – Mark Twain

“The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated” – Wil Wheaton

“We have 11.4 million subscribers.” – Mike Morhaime

In 1907, that’s over a century ago folks, Mark Twain’s yacht the Kanawha was delayed by weather as it returned him to New York.  Some of the members of his party elected to take the train, but Twain who disliked train travel waited it out until the Atlantic was calm enough for the trip home.  When he missed his scheduled arrival time it was reported that he was lost at sea.  It seems sensationalism is not such a new idea in journalism as we have been led to believe.   Twain had already been reported dead once before, when a cousin was ill.   It was becoming old-hat.

In 2005, Wil Wheaton wrote this, which has no real connection to Mr. Twain other than he created a clusterfrak, then burglarized and butchered Twain’s quote in one fell swoop of his mechanical keyboard.

I have no idea how many times fans voted to have this guy exiled from the Star Trek series, but I’m sure it happened on more than one occasion. 

Which leads us to something even sillier, if that is possible…

In an earlier column I wrote a bit about the current state of World of Warcraft and how the chicken littles were running helter skelter about the interwebz, their little non-flight capable wings covering their heads, all the while bemoaning the end of the game, the company that makes it and the MMO industry in general. David Piner takes a more intelligent look at the state of WoW in his piece titled, Mass Exodus: A Post-Mortem on the Shrinking Playerbase in World of Warcraft.   

Here are some quick points to consider if you are a WoW player or considering giving the game a shot.

• ·         WoW has 11.4 million subscribers.  That’s approximately 11 million more than its closest competitor.  (This number is +/- 11 million)
• ·         WoW lost 600,000 subscribers and yet, it didn’t really get dented.    There is no other title that could lose 600,000 subs and survive.
• ·         Check out Rift, then quit and play WoW.    I applaud the effort that Trion made, but frankly, starting so far behind the WoW curve made it impossible for them to compete on even ground.    They produced something far superior to what was expected, and in four years maybe they can close the gap to the point that the games are comparable.   Until then, WoW just has too many channels of advancement and entertainment to be dethroned.
• ·         But I don’t like “cartoony” graphics.   Reminder: You’re playing a video game.

Are you still playing WoW, enjoying the shorter queues in LFD and raiding, levelling, collecting vanity companions or whatever it is that you do?

Send me your thoughts and comments on the state of the game or just your favourite cosplay picture.