Welcome to the Overpull. This week we talk about resilience, Dalaran, and what makes World of WarCraft so playable. So lets jump right on in!
Heres the lineup this week
So what happened this last week? Well, a lot of nothing happened.
Resilience was buffed, increasing the length of PvP matches and somehow injecting a bit more skill into the mix. To me all I can see is unkillable healers who have to be taken down with precision strikes that if they fail will require planning, waiting, and a second attempt. Of course, thats just my opinion.
Gold Sellers have gone insane. I was witness to a legion of newbies running around with gold selling site names. Theyre getting desperate. The economy of the game is going haywire and things are working against them. The price of gold is falling and rising, there are legions of teleporting farmers going under the world to gank titanium nodes, and accounts are getting hacked left and right.
This is a war people. This is a war for your accounts, for your gold, and for your real life money. To them they want to take your account, take your gold, and then when youre desperate for it back they sell it back to you. Theyre using authenticators to keep you from getting on, Google ads are filled with phising sites that aim to steal your account, and Blizzard is being bombarded on the forums and IRL over the phone with restore requests. Scammers, here at home, are trying to even take advantage of this by scamming Blizzard into restoring their accounts and getting something from nothing.
Im not an alarmist when it comes to online games. I do like to write paragraphs that sound very fun though. All of this is true though. Gold sellers are on a rampage right now. More so than Ive ever seen. Keep your account safe and pick up an authenticator. Want to know why? Click here and read this article. If you shrug, just remember if you dont get one and get hacked the gold sellers will attach an authenticator to your account keeping you off and slowing the restoration process.
With that said, its been a quiet WoW week. See you next week with hopefully more news.
Oh, Prince Keleseth will no longer melee players. Thats good.
New patch notes are out, which are pretty cool. Can't wait to shatter the barrier.
Talk about this weeks news on our forums.
Welcome our new Moderator
Last week we were talking about classes. This week well talk about something with a bit less class. Dalaran.
I love Dalaran as a city. Think about the majestic city floating in the sky on a starry night. The streets still bustling as adventurers move to and fro through the streets trying to get somewhere. The fountain in the middle giving a cooling mist as you walk by and down the streets. The glowing street lamps lighting the way as the purple hue of the Kirin Tors banners make you proud to be in the city.
The roleplay aside, the city is freaking cool. Heres why.
It starts off with a bit of history. Dalaran was originally founded by mages fleeing the restrictions of Strom (the unified nation before the Alliance) so they could practice their trade with some peace. They built the Violet Citadel (the city that we know call Dalaran) on an island in the middle of Dalaran and the large violet gardens all around with their magical knowledge.
Of course, using magic like that comes at a price. Demons from The Burning Legion began showing up. Strom was ready to invade so they went to the High Elves and made a deal that formed the Order of Tirisfal. The order would appoint the Guardian of Tirisfal to protect Azeroth from the demons while they worked to control the use of magic to prevent any kind of special tears that would allow the demons to invade.
During the Second War, long after all of this, the Horde invaded Dalaran and razed the city. Of course, the Horde invaded EVERYTHING ELSE OUT THERE. So they rebuilt, like EVERYONE ELSE did. Then in the Third War they needed a book in order to go rez Kelthuzad and bring about the summoning of Archimonde. Yeah, AGAIN WITH THE KELTHUZAD. That guy should just be the end boss of WoTLK.
Archimonde destroys Dalaran of course, because hes a cool guy. They throw up a giant purple bubble and rebuild the city. In patch 3.0 they fly the city to Northrend and plant it in Crystalsong Forests skyline. There they sit at war with almost everything, the Blue dragons, the Scourge, and Harry Potter fanatics. Err, scratch that last one.
There are some really cool things about the city. There are potions in the Underbelly that can turn you into a fly or a walrus with extra fishing. There is an auction house only accessible to Engineers. The Alliance get a Beer Garden (lucky them). Windle Sparkshine will light all of the lights in Dalaran at night and sell an item thats from the Harry Potter movies. Minigob Manabonk will Manabonk random players which sends them a wand to polymorph someone in Dalaran.
You can also jump off the edge of Dalaran and die in the forest below, if you so want to. Well, you can do that in Outland too, I suppose, but there is nothing like jumping off a floating city and wandering where your parachute went.
Today question is: Do you think PvP and PvE should somehow be self contained? Different skills, different servers, etc?
Forums to comment.
Xerins Soap Box
Rarely do I speak of other games in my life as a WoW Professional, the joking title I constantly throw around. There isnt a lot I dont know about WoW, unless you count the fact I keep confusing Karazhans limits between 10 and 15 (ZG is really stuck in my head). Ive been a subscriber since day one and WoW is the only online MMOG I want to play. That is not to say that Im ignorant of the gaming world. I make it a point to try other MMOGs all the time, as part of my responsibility to my job here at Ten Ton Hammer and as part of maintenance on my hilarious title of WoW Professional.
With that, Id like to run through some of my experiences in a few of the games Ive played, in the form of a long run on sentence. Post on the forums how many games youve played!
Ive played ball in Pangya, had over 8 50s in Dark Age of Camelot, flown ships in Earth & Beyond, smacked sewer rats in Everquest, mined an entire night away in Eve Online, watched my game client crash over and over in Vanguard, leveled to 80+ in the first open beta of Ragnarok Online and again in the second, played tanks in Gunbound, banged my head into the desk at the discussion in Maple Story, failed to see the point in Runescape, played one map over and over in Phantasy Star Universe, sighed when they announced they were closing Phantasy Star Universe, wore tights in City of Heroes, did it again in Champions Online, rode around on a horse and had fancy conversations in Ultima Online, played and quit the free trial in Lord of the Rings Online, died within a few minutes of opening DarkFall, ran in circles in Dungeon Runners, ran an impressive guild in Guild Wars, asked where Captain Kirk was in Star Wars Galaxies, tried to figure out how to scan ships in Star Wars Galaxies, could not jump properly in Star Wars Galaxies, thought that the graphics were good in Lineage 2, played basketball in Court Rivals, missed the point in Free Realms, summoned a ton of pets and solod everything in Dofus, did the starting zone in Runes of Magic, played a bit of Rappelz, did all of the councils requests (many times) in Kingdom of Loathing, cut wood in Puzzle Pirates, tried to figure out what to do in Neocron, tried to figure out what to do in Necron 2, admired the music in Neo Steam, played one of the relaunches of Ryzom, rode around in circles in Auto Assault, quit at the grind in Ace Online, Air Rivals, and again in Space Cowboy Online, felt like I was playing Diablo II in MU Online, and finally felt that forums that are games shouldnt be a game like zOMG!
I have a lot of experience with games. This past week Ive been in the open beta of a game I wont mention but I will say it involves space combat. It reminds me just like all of these other games why I continue to play WoW.
WoW is a solid game, the U.I. is streamlined and usable, and there is no lag unless its with you. When you start at level one youre a pitiful example of what a warrior should be like. You have literally no abilities, nothing to do but jab things with a stick or somewhat pointy weapon or cast a spell that does less damage and takes longer to use. Within ten levels youre a holy or unholy warrior of justice setting enemies on fire, summoning pets to your side, and then your journey gets progressively better. Youre getting new gear and work your way to flying around bombing enemies, killing major characters in the lore, and finally reaching the 80th season where you stand on piles of gold, wearing shining armor, and destroy everything in your path. You end up throwing your blade up to old gods, immortal kings, and betrayers.
WoW is so good because it appeals to everyone. Its not a risk taker; it doesnt try something new and rush it out the door then cries when it fails. It knows what people want. They want to login and kill things, alone or with friends, and they want to feel a sense of power. They dont want to read manuals to figure out how to do the very basic things like combat nor do they want to suffer a grind that never rewards them.
With that said, I wish more game developers would learn from WoW. Learn from the good things about it. Its not questing or yellow exclamation points that make WoW. Its not the combat, the classes, or the spells. Its the whole experience. Its not the U.I. (or the U.I. icons that some games tried to steal), its how easy the U.I. is to use. Its not the questing system that everyone plays for; its the fact that it gives you a pleasant game experience. Its not the combat with swords or magic, its the fact that combat is easy to get into and responsive.
So you dont have to steal how WoWs U.I. looks to make a good game, you just need to have a U.I. that provides the same kind of function. You just need an easy to use U.I. that tells you what you need to know and doesnt include too many other details. You dont need to steal WoWs combat to make a successful game, you just need to see the mojo behind it. Its not the questing or combat either, but instead the basic principles behind it.
Before game developers continue to release games that underwhelm at the start or completely copy WoW and fail at it they should look through the game to see why its such a success. They should take their time in development and focus on these key aspects, chop off a ton of the extra features that they think are cool but development time will make them faulty, and finally they should simplify the game enough that its easy to get into but still has enough depth to keep you playing for a long time.
Finally, Blizzards COO Paul Sams said this sometime last week:
We will not pull the rug out from under them and ship it before it's done, so people feel that when they out their heart and soul into a game, they'll be able to deliver the game they envisioned.
That is another prime example of what many games need but do not have.
Thats what is bothering me this week. Join me next week as I look into how arena matches compare to real life Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.
P.S. Sulu is behind you.
Thats the Overpull this week. Stay tuned next week for more awesome news, funny stories, lore, and questions rolled together in your ultimate WoW newsletter.
-David "Xerin" Piner
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