Welcome to
the latest World of Warcraft newsletter from Ten Ton Hammer.
The Overpull, where we gather most of the things we should and
a
few we probably shouldn't.

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In
this section we'll look at the hits and misses taking place in the
game. 

This week Blizzard is completing extended maintenance on a long list of
servers (mine included). Let's hope this will alleviate the Uldu-lag
that so many have been plagued with during raiding of the latest and
greatest content.



I have to retract my dissing of the Argent Tournament. I went up there
with a huge chip on my shoulder (like a teenager not wanting to go on a
family vacation) and found out that the events are a good bit of fun. I
don't know how much more of these types of mini-games I want to clutter
up the game, but the tournament is a nice diversion.



href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67611">Blizzcon
tickets will go on sale May
16th. Similar to crossing the Ghostbusters' beams,
nobody knows exactly what to expect.



In a big "Boo!" to the interwebz fishermen/people, I've received two of
the "OMG, you're account has been haxorz, send us your secret account
info ASAP!" I don't answer the car warranty calls either people, leave
me alone!

 

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This week we look back at the delivery of content, and how Blizzard has
changed their ways of refining and tweaking.



This
week I look back at the way I play the game now versus four years ago.
Four years is a long time. The game has undergone major changes,
metamorphosis and evolutions. But in reality, my play style hasn't
changed at all. I have one or two main characters, and a bevy of alts.
Is that odd?



In pre-BC WoW, there was almost nothing to do at level 60 if a player
didn't raid. So those of us that couldn't make the raid times, or
didn't have any friends started alts. Now there are thousand things to
do with a level 80 character - from questing for gold (remember when
you couldn't get anything but XP?) to Reputations, the Argent
Tournament and what seems like an insane number of holiday events.
There is no better time to have a main and play only that character. I
still love my alts though. Maybe that's why I haven't changed.

 
 

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alt="Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem">

During
the down economy many companies are discounting inventory, adding perks
and doing anything they can to sell merchandise. In a show of how
recession-proof Blizzard feels, they have upped the costs of Blizzcon
tickets to $125. At first glance it seems appropriate. They could
probably raise the prices to $500 and still sellout. Oh and don't
forget that they've moved the date from October to August which means
peak season prices at the hotels - yikes! The questions are;
should
they, and are the tickets worth it?



Should
Blizzard raise the prices? The capitalist in me says "Hellz yeah!"
while the side of me being pinched by the economy squeals "No!" The
swag bag alone is worth the price of admission. The bags from the last
two years have been nothing short of awesome. Filled with all kinds of
gaming swag and special authenticators, last year's bag was the only
thing that made me happy I went. If the extra $25 goes into goodies,
then I'm all for it.



Are the tickets worth it? This is a tough one. Blizzard is batting .500
in the last two years - one strong Blizzcon in 2007 offset by the
snoozer last year. I guess you could flip a coin to determine whether
or not you should go, Blizzard is working on two other key properties
you may have heard of - Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2. Both are coming
closer to launch, but we probably won't see them anytime soon. This
Blizzcon may be more of the Starcraft 2 debutante ball so the other
games (WoW included) may be taking a back seat. There is speculation
that we'll find out about the next expansion, but my bet is that we
won't know about that until 2010. The question of how much content
we'll see at this year's Blizzcon is way too tough to call.



Oh yeah, remember the lines? Think of those lines during August which
is the hottest time of the year in Anaheim and average 86 degrees. It's
not like I see the sun that much so maybe it could be a good thing. Or
I'll just spontaneously combust.



I'm on the fence as to whether or not I'll be attending this year. The
money has me scared off, but the siren's call of Blizzcon is a tough
one to ignore. Maybe we don't have to feed our
children...everyday. Or
maybe I'll just pay per view it.



Moving on with some quick hits:



Wintergrasp quest changes to reduce to amount of people playing is
bumming me out. I understand why they are trying to reduce the lag, but
changing the daily quests to weekly seems like a lazy way to fix it.



According to the PTR patch notes, there are going to be recipes
dropping from bosses again. In an area that I used to both loathe and
love, I thought the random dropping of recipes off bosses was one of
the better mechanics. I'm glad that some 10-man bosses will start
dropping some recipes.I knew Blizzard read this column.



So are you going to be hitting F5 all day on May 16th so you can go to
Blizzcon? Stop by and let me know href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=42872">on
our forums.



Until
next
week, have fun and thanks for reading,

Medeor href="http://wow.tentonhammer.com/">