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World of Warcraft stands out as an exception in the MMORPG world. Where nearly all other titles have either faltered or drastically altered their business models in order to survive World of Warcraft has remained steadfast to its subscription based system. This has made it the most successful MMORPG ever, making it a multi-billion dollar business all of its own. However its heydays are long behind it, with subscriber numbers slowly dwindling over the years. The more regular release of expansions have helped to keep the number up somewhat but the downward trend was still easily noticeable. Blizzard, obviously aware of this, has decided to stop reporting subscriber numbers altogether after their last quarterly report yesterday.
The last subscriber count pegs World of Warcraft's player count at about 5.5 million, the lowest it's been in 10 years. Whilst that number might sound like the first rattles of World of Warcraft's death knell it's likely anything but as many long time MMORPGs have survived on much smaller subscription numbers. For Blizzard it does present a challenge as dwindling numbers can often have a runaway effect; reaching a critical point where the majority of the playerbase abandons the title for greener pastures. That point is probably still some time away and indeed if the last subscriber peak (from the last expansion) is repeatable then I see no reason for World of Warcraft to go away any time soon. However the change in what (Activision) Blizzard communicates, as well as their recent purchase of King, is indicative of some of the other issues the company is facing in their attempt to stay relevant.
It was around this time that Blizzard was planning to announce their next MMORPG based on an entirely new IP. This was known internally as Project Titan, a name which got more than a few people fired when it was made public. Unfortunately the game simply didn't work in the way it was originally envisioned and it was scrapped late last year. Whilst Overwatch may have arisen out of its remnants it meant that many who were looking towards Blizzard's next MMORPG were left wanting and thus began to look elsewhere. Had project Titan been released around this time the demise of World of Warcraft might have been fully sealed but it would have been a greater win for the company overall.
This has led many to call for World of Warcraft to change their subscription model to be more inline with current trend of switching to free-to-play. To be sure the transition can be made as The Old Republic and other titles have shown however there's little incentive for Blizzard to do so when their monthly revenue rate is still in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Until they're really hurting for numbers, and I mean really hurting, such a transition would likely devastate their revenues to the point where World of Warcraft wasn't sustainable. However I think Activision Blizzard recognises this as a potential possibility and that's where the acquisition of King comes into play.
King, for those who don't know, are the developers behind the incredibly successful Candy Crush saga. Activision Blizzard is paying a cool $5.9 billion for the company which isn't a bad deal if their current profit rate of $127 million per quarter is anything to go by. They are undoubtedly one of the leaders in the free-to-play model and there's every chance they're buying them with a view to revamp the business models for some of their products. This isn't limited to Blizzard titles of course, but the timing of the two announcements certainly makes it feel like they might be related.
This definitely feels like a pivot point for Activision Blizzard as they muse through their options for future growth. There's definitely a trend for their newer IPs to be done differently to those of the past and how Overwatch is positioned will be strongly telling of how they see game development in the future. Right now it points to a free-to-play future, one that could very well make its way into already established IPs. If any company can make the transition work, and work well, it's Activision Blizzard but no change of this magnitude is without risk.
Logging into my World of Warcraft account is always a mix of feelings for me. On the one hand I have so many great memories, forging friendships with people and just enjoying the enormous amount of content that was on offer. It wasn't all roses however and thinking back (and looking at some of the screenshots) it's painfully obvious just how much growing up I needed to do. Today World of Warcraft is no longer a major part of my life, instead it's something that I enjoy from time to time, reveling in the Warcraft world and trying my hand at the latest raids. Indeed the World of Warcraft of today feels like it's catered towards people like me and the improvements in Warlords of Draenor continue that theme.
Garrosh Hellscream's thirst for power has no bounds which culminated in him releasing the Sha of Pride upon the lands of Pandaria. This led to the Horde and Alliance joining forces to overthrow him in the Siege of Orgrimmar which eventually led to his capture. However before he could be sent to trial he was rescued by a bronze dragon, Kairozdormu, who shared in his ambition for power and control. The dragon then sent him back in time to before the orcs drank the blood of Mannoroth, preventing the blood curse. He then united the disparate clans under the banner of the Iron Horde and set out to conquer all of Draenor. It is up to you, dear champion, to stop this madness before it unwrites the history of the world and Garrosh's madness spreads beyond the lands of Draenor.
Warlords of Draenor feels about the same from a graphical point of view, mostly due to the short difference in time between this expansion and it's predecessor, however they did make some noticeable improvements to the base character models. It's a welcome change as those models, whilst looking great in 2004, had started to show their age 10 years on. Apart from that though everything is at about the same level although it seems like the default draw distance has been ramped up significantly (with little impact to performance, I might add). Still it's hard to get tired of Blizzard's trademark style with the vibrant colours and wonderful stylization.
Much of the core gameplay remains the same as it did from previous expansions with the classes remaining largely the same with a few tweaks and balance changes. Warlords of Draenor continues on the quality of life improvements that came as part of Cataclysm, ensuring that everything from questing to running dungeons is simple and free of frustrations. The biggest change is the inclusion of the Garrison, your own private town in which you'll have a multitude of buildings and resources that you can use to craft items or sell on the auction house. The Garrison also brings with it followers which are NPCs that you can send on various missions to level them up, acquire loot and provide resources for your garrison. Overall long time World of Warcraft players will feel instantly at home with Warlords of Draenor and be incredibly thankful for the improvements that Blizzard has made.
Unlike previous expansions, where upon logging in I was greeted with action bars missing numerous skills and dozens of alerts on what I should be doing, Warlords of Draenor kept the character classes largely the same. I'm speaking from the point of view of my paladin, of course, although my cursory look at other classes seems to show they underwent about the same amount of changes as use paladins did. This meant that I was able to get into the game much quicker than I have been able to previously, my muscle memory (and keybinds) still carrying over from my last stint in WoW early last year. It's both a good and a bad thing as whilst I'd lament having to figure out how to play my character again it is kind of satisfying when I feel like I've mastered it again. Still, I'll take quality of life over many other things these days.
The Garrison is by far my favourite improvement in Warlords of Draenor as it takes away so many of the things that made playing World of Warcraft feel like a chore rather than a game. You have your very own mine, herb garden and fishing pond which you can plunder on a daily basis for resources. You get to select a handful of buildings which do various things, some of which enable you to do things like craft items without having the profession. It also serves as an alternative route to gearing up your character as there are several different buildings which can provide raid quality gear. It also comes with its own currency, Garrison Resources, which whilst primarily aimed at buying buildings and sending followers on missions, can serve as an alternative means to acquiring resources and other things. For the semi-casual players like myself who can't dedicate a good portion of their lives to the game anymore the Garrison serves as a way of levelling the playing field, although the hard core still have ways of getting ahead.
The flip side of this though means that, should you have the resources to power yourself ahead, you likely won't be able to. Nearly all of the resources required to craft high end gear or grant you access to epic gear avenues are on strict timers that can't be rushed. Thus the time your account is active is a far bigger player in how far you'll progress your character than time you spend in the game, at least for us filthy casuals. For someone like me who sometimes finds himself with a decent chunk of time on his hands to thrash things out like this it's a little frustrating, but at least it means that I don't feel compelled to spend that amount of time every day trying to advance my character.
I deliberately avoided playing the game at launch as I was sure that, even 10 years down the line, Blizzard would still be unable to deal with the onslaught that is an expansion release. For the most part my experience has been extremely pleasant with nary a queue to speak of unless I try to login between 8pm and 9pm. Even then the queue, which I've seen reach 1000, is usually done and dusted within 15 minutes so no issue there. There are still some quests which bug out or have incorrect minimap icons, which can be highly frustrating at the time, however out of the hundreds I completed I could probably count the number of broken ones on both hands. By this point though it's somewhat cliche to praise Blizzard for their ability to deliver a polished product as that's their MO for every single title they've released in the last 2 decades.
The story of Warlords of Draenor is an interesting one, although as someone who skipped the later parts of Mists of Pandaria I did have to do a little reading to catch up on just what the hell was going on. Like most Blizzard games the world has an exceptional amount of detail however it peters out quite quickly once you're not talking to any of the main characters. The main story is quite interesting however although there just wasn't quite enough to draw me into it. Then again this isn't exactly a story-first kind of game so I wasn't exactly looking for it either. Overall I'd say the story was serviceable, just lacking in an emotional hook to draw me in.
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor demonstrates how well Blizzard knows their subscribers, vastly improving your quality of life when playing through their signature MMORPG. Players returning from a long time break will find the game familiar enough to get a running start but different enough that they don't feel like they're playing the same game from a couple years ago. The Garrison is the stand out improvement of this expansion, introducing dozens of new game elements whilst removing much of the grind that is common to MMORPGs. I have yet to set foot in a heroic or the recently opened up LFR for Highmaul however, something which I'm sure will keep me going over the next few months. In closing I feel that Warlords of Draenor is a solid improvement on the World of Warcraft title, one that even decade long players like myself can readily enjoy.
Rating: 9.0/10
World of Warcarft: Warlords of Draenor is available on PC right now for $54.95. Total game time was approximately 33 hours reaching level 100 and iLvl 617.
There seems to be two major camps of thought when it comes to levelling in MMORPGs. The first are those who like to take their time with it, soaking in the experience of the vast world presented to them and diving deep into the story elements. The others are fiercely focused on the end goal: get to max level and begin attacking end game content to create the most powerful characters possible. Both are legitimate forms of play and indeed a good MMORPG caters to both players but no matter which camp a player belongs to they will all ask the same question of a new game before they dive into it.
How long does it take to get to max level?
The reasons for asking the question differ significantly between both camps. For those who enjoy the levelling experience (I count myself as being primarily in this camp, although a little more on that later) the time to max level is a signifier of how much content they can expect to see before their preferred experience comes to an end. Heavily story based MMORPGs like Star Wars: The Old Republic the answer comes back as varied range depending on how far you want to dive into a particular story arc. End game raiders typically want to know the minimum amount of time required, often shortcutting past story elements and less efficient levelling zones, as the game for them doesn't really start until they reach max level.
After you've done the levelling once though it's often not the same when you go through and level again. Whilst many recent MMORPGs have made significant inroads to delivering unique experiences to different character classes, factions and whatever delineations they might have it's almost inevitable that there will be some overlap between them. Thus levelling another character, referred to as an alt (alternate), can often be seen as something as a chore. Indeed for my first alt in World of Warcraft the game played out almost identically with the only difference being how combat evolved and my place in the various dungeons. It's quite different now though and indeed the time taken to reach max level has been drastically reduced so when an item like the above shows up, allowing you to reach max level instantly for a price, the reaction has been somewhat mixed although I feel it's overwhelmingly a positive thing.
I've been the proud owner of at least one max level character (usually 2) in every World of Warcraft expansion that's come out. Whilst I've thoroughly enjoyed the levelling process on every occasion I rarely want to go through it again. Indeed nearly every time I've come back to World of Warcraft there's been some kind of incentive program that made my levelling life a whole lot easier and the thought of having to redo it, for real this time, often doesn't appeal enough. Something like this which would allow me to try out a character class which I'd otherwise have to slog through for countless hours for seems like a good deal to me, even if I feel the asking price is maybe a smidge above what I'd be willing to pay. I think that's the point though and the next expansion comes with a free level up anyway.
I would put one caveat on it, if I could, and that would be that you would need at least 1 max level character before being able to purchase additional ones. This is something that the World of Warcraft forums have long debated over, often wanting the ability to boost their alts up to a certain level once they have a single character at max. I think the idea has merit as those who truly enjoy the levelling experience will do it regardless and those who are seeking end game content, the ones who usually spend the most time with the game by far, will always have at least a single max level character before they seek out another.
For me though things like this present a chance to reinvent myself every time a new expansion comes out. Whilst I've been an on again, off again player for the better part of 10 years now there are still classes I've yet to play in any meaningful sense and the allure of starting completely fresh in a new world is always enticing. I may never purchase one of these level boosts but I'm glad they exist as they would give me the opportunity to play with others who don't have the time to invest in levelling.
There's something to be said for a game that's been around for 8 years and can still claim the title of most subscribed game in the world. There's a good reason for that, World of Warcraft provides one of the most polished gaming experiences around and continues to provide fresh content on a very regular basis. It's for that reason that many people like me find themselves coming back for every expansion, even if we don't end up staying for long after we finish the main quest line. I've been a little late to the party on this one, mostly because I didn't have much incentive to go back, but when my friends told me they had reactivated the accounts I figured it was a good time to give it a playthrough and I'm very glad I did.
Mists of Pandaria takes place after the events of Cataclysm and the defeat of Deathwing. The young prince Anduin Wrynn (I played on Alliance side for this one) was travelling between the continents when his ship came into contact with the horde. During the ensuing battle an as of yet unknown landmass was discovered and both the ships were wrecked there. One of the crew managed to get a message out prior to this happening and you, along with a crack team of alliance soldiers are sent to rescue him. However what you discover is the long hidden land of Pandaria, inhabited by a race of humanoid Pandas who have embraced a monkish life, favouring balance over all things. The Horde and Alliance presence there has had the unfortunate effect of awakening an old evil, one that must be defeated lest Pandaria fall.
As always Blizzard has done an amazing job with the graphical improvements in Mists of Pandaria. The draw distance has been increased dramatically, allowing you to take in massive vistas that seem to sprawl out forever in front of you. The modelling and texturing in the new areas also appears to be vastly improved over its predecessors which does unfortunately highlight how dated some other aspects are (like when you're browsing faces in the character creator). Still it says a lot that my screenshot folder was filled with all sorts of wonderful landscapes as they really were quite impressive.
Whilst a lot has changed since I last played World of Warcraft (around a year or so) the core of it still remains largely the same. You start off in one location, head off to do some quests and once you're finished in that area you'll head off to the next one to repeat the process. How you go about that has changed rather dramatically with the ideas introduced in Cataclysm, quest hubs and the like, improved upon considerably. There's also been vast changes to the skill and talent systems which meant that character classes I was once familiar with suddenly feel very different. All of this adds up to a game that has the same overall feel as previous expansions did but plays very differently.
Probably my favourite among the improvements in Mists of Pandaria is the much smarter rewards system that takes into account your current class and specialization, offering you gear that is quite likely to be useful to you. I can't tell you how many of the rewards in previous expansions just went straight to the vendor but in Mists the vast majority of them were useful upgrades. Even better was the fact the rewards kept scaling upwards with each new area I'd go to, ensuring that I always had enough gear to complete quests there rather than me having to hunt through the Auction House in order to make the cut. Couple this with a few dungeons here and there and I never felt like struggling, unless the encounter was specifically design to test me.
I think that feeds into the larger overall feeling that the whole World of Warcraft experience has just been streamlined, almost to the point of perfection. After I had blasted through 80 to 85 (as I got a Scroll of Resurrection from a friend) I was surprised just how well the quest chains seemed to line up. It was pretty much spot on for me gaining a new level and then a quest would send me onto the next area, ensuring that I didn't waste my time in an area that would slow down my levelling pace. Couple this with other things like the in built quest tracker, better designed quests and dungeons that don't require Deadly Boss Mods and 10 minutes on Wowhead to understand means that you'll rarely find yourself wanting for anything, bar possibly the occasional Google search.
I unfortunately failed to get to 90 before deadline so I didn't get a look into some of the endgame content but my friends who have been playing for a while before me say its top notch. The addition of raids to the dungeon finder has apparently made the whole experience much more enjoyable. Gearing up for current raid tiers has also been made a lot easier by significantly upping the drop rates of items in previous raids, saving people a lot of time by not requiring them to run old content constantly (something that was a real drag in the past). There's also a whole host of other things I didn't bother trying like crafting or pet battles but I highly doubt I was missing out on anything amazing there.
What really impressed me though was the huge amount of work Blizzard has put into the quests and the storylines behind them. All of the storyline quests, of which there are many, are fully voice acted, something that was limited to in game cutscenes and cinematics previously. This would be cool on its own but every quest hub also has its own little story line behind it, giving you an insight into why they're there and how it all fits into the larger picture. It says a lot when you actually start caring about the NPCs as they just felt like part of the environment before. Now they're actual characters, integral to the overall story.
This goes hand in hand with the brilliant music direction care of Russell Brower who's been behind the music of all the expansions since The Burning Crusade. Whilst many games can get music right in pre-rendered scenes and scripted in game events rarely does the music feel like its meant to be there during the regular parts of the game. In Mists of Pandaria it's far more than background noise, adding that extra element that complements everything else. If you're interested it's available on iTunes, if you don't want to play the game that is.
I've been a long time fan of the World of Warcraft series having followed it from closed beta all the way up to the game that it is today. The way I've played it has changed dramatically over the past 8 years and the changes they've made are the reason I've kept coming back time and time again. Whilst I don't believe I will ever get back to the same insane, near addiction levels that I did all the way back when I first started playing I don't believe that's a bad thing. Instead World of Warcraft has become that co-operative RPG that I play with friends every year or so and I'll be damned if I don't have fun every time.
Rating: 9.0/10
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is available on PC right now for $69.99. Total play time on a new level 80 character was 32 hours, reaching level 89 (and maybe 1/3rd of the way through that).
Unquestionably the Internet has drastically altered my behaviour in many ways. In the beginning it was merely a curiosity, something I was able to lord over the other kids in the playground because I was one of the precious few that had it and would become instant friends with many who wanted to see it. As I grew older and my interests broadened it became my primary resource for finding information, leading me to investigate many wild things that I would not have paid any attention to otherwise. Most recently it became my platform for communicating with the wider world whilst also elevating my career to places that I couldn't of dreamed of.
In short, I feel the Internet has been good to me.
Looking from the outside in however would probably paint a much different picture. My near fanatical obsession for my current object of desire often led me down destructive paths, one of which was my World of Warcraft addiction would could not exist without an Internet connection. My desire for information often leads me down paths that aren't relevant for anything past satisfying my curiosity, filling my head with facts that I will likely never find a use for. The Internet has also chronicled some of my worst moments and whilst they're not exactly common knowledge they serve as a reminder of the parts of myself that I'm not particularly proud of.
However whilst it would be easy to lay the blame directly at the tool which enabled this behaviour, an easy thing to do given its current ease of use and pseudo-anonymity that enables everyone's Inner Fuckwad, I can't say that these same things would happen absent the Internet. There are many, many people that advocate cutting down or doing away with the Internet (or anything, realistically) will lead you onto untold benefits but as a Verge reporter found these effects are usually only temporary:
It's a been a year now since I "surfed the web" or "checked my email" or "liked" anything with a figurative rather than literal thumbs up. I've managed to stay disconnected, just like I planned. I'm internet free.
And now I'm supposed to tell you how it solved all my problems. I'm supposed to be enlightened. I'm supposed to be more "real," now. More perfect.
But instead it's 8PM and I just woke up. I slept all day, woke with eight voicemails on my phone from friends and coworkers. I went to my coffee shop to consume dinner, the Knicks game, my two newspapers, and a copy of The New Yorker. And now I'm watching Toy Story while I glance occasionally at the blinking cursor in this text document, willing it to write itself, willing it to generate the epiphanies my life has failed to produce.
I'm not going to say that the Internet isn't an enabler for some particularly bad behaviours, my use of it is a great testament to that, but the issues that cause can always be traced back to the person. For me my WoW addiction was an escape from the crazy world I had put myself into, working 3 different jobs while studying full time at university. In my escape I found some control and, unfortunately, also power over other people that was incredibly intoxicating. Only when that power dwindled and I was left with no one else to turn to did I start to realise how destructive it had become and I ended up leaving that part of me behind for several years.
Maybe we need that time away in order to get clarity on those destructive behaviours that we associate with specific tools. My honeymoon was decidedly devoid of technology, even though I smuggled my laptop along with me, and after the first couple days of adjustment I felt oddly liberated. Whilst the revelations I came to at that time weren't about my use of the Internet (indeed this was several years after I dreged myself out of that rather dark place) I certainly felt I had a better understanding of how I interacted with those things that I was absent from. Perhaps then instead of advocating giving up something completely we should take time constrained breaks, lest we establish the same bad habits using alternative means.
That is definitely something I can attest to as many of my life changing decisions have been made when I've been in situations that were decidedly different from the norm, not from giving something up completely. Indeed I feel abandoning something completely often means giving up part of yourself, your identity. Of course there are times when this is appropriate but for something as benign as Internet use I don't believe that giving it up will solve your problems. However seconding yourself away from it for a time might just give you the insight needed to rectify the worst parts of it and broaden your perspective on the issues at hand.
I'm something of a collector of failed MMORPGs. Every since my addiction began with World of Warcraft it seemed I was forever doomed to roam the genre in search of that same feeling that World of Warcraft inspired in me. Let's just say that in my travels I've seen nearly everything, from inventive PvP systems to epic grinds that required almost more time than I had invested in World of Warcraft just to reach the end game content. Over time I've started to notice the patterns of what causes some MMORPGs to carry on whilst others struggle to keep their users just months after release. The answer is quite simple but it seems some academics might have a different idea.
Take Ramin Shokrizade, a self proclaimed virtual economy expert who's latest piece takes aim at Star Wars: The Old Republic's decision to convert their MMORPG into a free to play model in order to try and get people back into the game. Whilst he does make some good points regarding how TOR felt like a massively single player game (as the campaign was arguably the best thing about it, even though it was a lot more fun to do with friends) the main point of his article, that the monetization strategy was the primary cause for failure, is ultimately only a side issue to the bigger issues at hand.
Shokrizade makes the point that the value players generated, judged by looking at auction house prices and the cost of purchasing credits from real money trading sites, decreased rapidly over the first month. He lays the blame for this specific decline at an instance reset exploit that allowed users to generate quite a lot of credits and whilst this might be a factor in the decline his analysis also fails to include the fact that in any new MMORPG in game currency attracts a high premium at the beginning, usually due to the fact that there isn't that much of it in circulation. Indeed if you tracked the same statistic for other virtual worlds you would see identical declines as the currency generating capacity of the wider player base and the gold farmers increased significantly. This is not a new phenomena as I've seen it happen in nearly every MMO that I've played to date.
He also makes the mistake of saying that "As combat in SWTOR was balanced for PvE, PvP combat balance was never attainable". Nearly all MMORPGs tend to focus on one of these two aspects in order to attract players to the game. SW:TOR focused heavily on the PvE aspect as that's where BioWare's strengths are and indeed by all accounts they succeeded at doing so. Whilst the PvP wasn't as balanced in the beginning saying that because of the PvE focus PvP balance was unattainable is laughable as balance is an ongoing process that evolves with the game. Indeed when I left the PvP balance was far better due to the 50 only arenas, more people having better gear and vast improvements in game code to make the world PvP areas much more playable. The items were comparable to their PvE counterparts however they had PvP stats on them which meant for guilds who were tackling high end content on the hardest difficulties they were unfortunately useless as you couldn't achieve the stats required.
However Shokrizade's biggest blunder is when he lays blame at SW:TOR's monetization scheme for its current troubles. He posits that the unlimited model, the one where you pay a monthly fee and get access to the entire game, encourages people to pay through all the content as fast as possible before dropping it for the next game. Now whilst I won't discount the fact that there were many a hardcore friend of mine who took time off work to reach level 50 in the space of 4 days or so this was by far not the norm with many players taking at least a month to reach max level (I would know this, I was among them). Even then those who did reach max level would usually roll another character straight afterwards to level with the others who were still catching up mostly because the single player lines for each archetype are unique. He then goes on to peddle his ideal solution and then decries that the monetization scheme is the ultimate factor in deciding a MMORPGs success.
This is as far from the truth I've seen anyone get. Anyone who's played MMORPGs knows that there's one thing and one thing only that decides whether a game in this genre will be successful or not. That thing is the content.
Of all the failed MMORPGs I've played over the years the reason that they struggled can always be tracked back to problems with content. Age of Conan is probably the best example I can think of as it promised a large world, shaped by your actions, with content all the way up to a staggering level 80. This would have been all well and good except the fact that once you hit level 50 there wasn't any content to speak of until level 80. Warhammer Online had the same issue as people quickly tired of the warzones and many servers locked themselves in a stalemate for the end game PvP, leaving them to turn away. Indeed the biggest problem that SW:TOR had was the fact that the end game content was just so gosh darn accessible, meaning that within the first month or two anyone could see the entire game if they were so inclined.
This was the exact reason why so many people decided to leave SW:TOR when they did. My guild mates and I managed to blast through all the end game raids in just under a week once we were all level 50 thanks to the normal level of difficulty which made the encounters quite easy by end game standards. After that point it's hard to motivate people to redo content they've done before especially when the rewards are only incremental upgrades. Then the only thing left is to grind PvP or flash points in order to get better gear and only the hardcore will keep on doing that after a month or so.
So why does Shokrizade believe that monetization, above all else, is the key to MMORPG success? At the risk of stumbling into ad-hominem territory the reason seems pretty obvious: he's a self proclaimed expert on virtual economies even though his only experience in economics comes from playing EVE Online (and I'm struggling to verify his claims of leading a 5000 strong corporation in there). It's then prudent to take what he says with a grain of salt as he has a vested interest in saying things like this, even if they don't gel so well with reality.
MMORPGs are hard things to create and maintain and it's a testament to companies like Blizzard and BioWare who've managed to actually release one and not go bankrupt in the process. Whilst SW:TOR might be struggling to keep people going so are nearly all MMORPGs, even the mighty World of Warcraft is back to 2008 subscription numbers (is their monetization strategy the problem, Shokrizade?) and that shows just how hard it can be to get people coming back time and time again. The one secret though is the content and there is no doubt that Blizzard has mastered that art and for all it's successes with the campaign missions BioWare unfortunately missed the mark and they're paying the price for it now.
It's scary just how much of my World of Warcraft life mirrored that of your run-of-the-mill addict. At the start everything was good: all my friends were playing and we were all having a blast, whiling away our youth in the fantastical land of Azeroth. Then people started to leave, the ones who couldn't spare the time at first but as the month went on the nomenclature changed from "I just stopped to playing" to "I'm out" or "I've been clean for 2 weeks now!". Indeed in the years that have followed since my hey days where I was spending 1 day (total play time) out of every 6 in World of Warcraft I've found myself relapsing and going back to it whenever an expansion comes out. Strangely enough though whilst the attraction to go back is strong it seems I'm becoming better at saying no.
I kind of missed everything in the Burning Crusade as that was when I found myself destitute, languishing without a guild and without a group of friends I wanted to play with. However Wrath of the Lich King saw me return with meteoric fury, flush with a new group of friends I made through work I lovingly plunged dozens of hours back into the game. It wasn't the same as the height of my addiction days but then again I had much less time on my hands than I did before so on a relative scale it was probably pretty close. However the same cycle of people leaving and going clean happened again and eventually I found myself leaving the world once again.
I returned for the latest expansion, Cataclysm, for a while and even made my way into some of the high level raids thanks to having some contacts in the right places. However this time around I didn't last that long before the magic wore off and I realised how long it would take for me to gear up a character to the level I wanted. I haven't gone back since then as my dedication to reviewing one game per week (only 1 week missed so far!) has overridden any desire I might have had to while away my time in that familiar crack den.
This is a feeling that I believe is shared by many long time World of Warcraft players who have been with the franchise since day 1. It's hard to believe it but release day was almost 8 years ago and those fresh faced teenagers who started out with this game are now adults with all the fun responsibilities that come along with it. Thus it is not surprising that for the first time in 4 years World of Warcraft's subscriber base has declined to 9 million. Whilst this is very likely to see a major bump come Mists of Pandaria time they've been on the downward slope for a while and that makes you wonder what the future holds for this iconic game.
Ever since I first heard about the latest upcoming expansion I heard in tandem that it was slated to be the last expansion with World of Warcraft bowing out to the upcoming secret MMO dubbed Project Titan. It made sense as the writing appeared to be on the wall with subscriber counts but it seems that Blizzard intends to keep World of Warcraft going for much longer with the expansion pack to follow Mists of Pandaria already in production. Whilst that might seem crazy if you compare the numbers on other MMOs that are widely believed to be successful you can see that Blizzard could easily keep the franchise going with 10~20% of the numbers they have now. Depending on how well Mists of Pandaria does at stemming the attrition rate it may take the release of Project Titan to see the end to World of Warcraft. Even then it might take a year or two before the subscriber count hits danger territory for Blizzard.
I've long relegated myself to coming back and playing through each expansion that comes out mostly because the levelling experience, especially since Cataclysm, is one I very much enjoy. I'll definitely be back for the expansion when it comes out late next month but as for me becoming a long time subscriber again? I can't see that happening any time soon. In fact I'm not sure that any MMORPG will be able to captivate me in the same way as World of Warcraft did back in the day and from what I can tell I'm not alone in this feeling. Still the nostalgia feeling will be enough to swell their ranks for a time and that may be all Blizzard is looking for.
The new year is upon us and its a good a time as any to take stock of the year that just past. 2011 was quite a year for gaming with several hotly anticipated block buster releases hitting the shelves, some mere weeks after each other. It was also something of a coming of age for this blog in terms of game reviews, seeing myself being flown up to Sydney to preview Modern Warfare 3 and getting my very first ever review copy of a game. Now with the year over it's time for me to put my vote in for game of the year and whilst I'd love to say it was a close competition it really was anything but.
All in all 2011 saw me complete 22 games total (there were far more played, see here for an explanation as to why they didn't get reviewed) and here's an exhaustive list of the reviews in chronological order:
As I was creating this list it struck me just how mixed this list of games is. Whilst the dominant platform is still PC for me there's 2 other platforms in there and their respective releases both felt right at home on their platform of choice. The dominant genre here would appear to be FPS although just going off the usual 8~10 hour playtime rule for said genre I dare say that the vast majority of my gaming time in 2011 was spent on RPGs or games with a RPG element to them. Although if I'm honest I have blown quite a lot of my time recently in Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer and a heck of a lot more in Star Wars: The Old Republic (review coming soon!).
Before I dive into the game of the year however there's a few games that deserve recognition either for their accomplishments or outright failures.
Gemini Rue is by far the most underrated game of the bunch. It's been well received critically both here and elsewhere but it's still a title most people would not know if they heard it. I'd say this was because of its lack of a release on Steam when it first came out (which has since changed) even though it had a digital distribution channel. Still the game is expertly crafted, bringing up all kinds of nostalgia whilst delivering a story that I really cared about, thoroughly exploiting all aspects of its chosen pixel art medium. Whilst it might not make the cut for my game of the year it would definitely get my vote for independent game of the year, hands down.
For most over-hyped/biggest let down of the year the title can go to none other than Duke Nukem Forever. I was thinking about making it a tie between said title and Rage but in defense of id's latest release it at least had some redeeming features in the engine and game play. Duke Nukem Forever is unfortunately nothing like that being little more than a generic shooter that rode the Duke brand as hard as it could. Indeed it's the definition of a critic proof release as for Gearbox it was a commercial success despite it's woeful critical reception. I'll be honest this is the only game that I played through to the end just so I could review it as for any other title I would've just stopped playing and not bothered to review it.
So what then is my game of the year for 2011? The answer is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
As a game Human Revolution really is something amazing. The graphics are simply superb with it rightly taking the title away from Crysis as being the game to stress test your new rig with. That'd all be for naught if the game wasn't good but suffice to say it's brilliant. The plot and characters are engrossing, there are wide and varied game mechanics ensuring that no 2 playthroughs are the same and it has rekindled that feeling that everyone had when they first played the original Deus Ex. Put simply Deus Ex: Human Revolution sets the bar for the FPS/RPG hybrid genre and does it with an almost effortless elegance. It's fitting then that it received my highest score review score of the year, putting it second only to StarCraft 2.
With 2011 now done and dusted its time to look forward into 2012 and the games it holds for us. It's already shaping up to be a fantastic year for gaming with games like Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 due out early in the year. It will also be the year when I ramp up my game review efforts significantly on here as I've got plans to make my console reviews better (and do more of them), dabbling with the idea of producing video reviews and overall playing more games so that I can do more reviews. In the end that's what its all about, well that and my not-so-secret desire to be a games journalist… 😉
I'm a long time MMORPG player, coming up to almost 7 years if I count correctly. I haven't been playing any recently since I've had so many other games to play (and 3 still awaiting their turn) but whenever there's a drought of good game releases I'll usually find myself back in World of Warcraft or the new MMO of the day. During that time I believe I've got a good feel for the general MMORPG community as I've been involved in nearly every aspect of those games, from the lowly casual just looking for an hour of fun to the 3AM hardcore raider who's friends question his sanity.
One of the bugbears of the MMORPG community has always been that of players with more in real life (IRL) cash buying their way past parts of the game that less financially well off people have had to slog through. It's a genuine gripe as it serves to lessen the value of their in game achievements if someone can just slap down their credit card and get the same thing. Most MMORPGs strictly forbid any form of real money trading because of this, usually banning people from selling in game items and currency and shutting down accounts that are caught doing so. There are a few that condone it in a limited sense, like EVE Online that allows users to sell game time (keeping all the money in CCP's pockets), but they are in the minority.
You'd think being a long time MMORPG player that I'd be with the community on this one but I'll have to admit to using a real money trading (RMT) service in the past. You see back when I was just starting out in EVE Online I wasn't terribly familiar with the games rather ruthless take on death. For the most part I had stayed in high sec space, running PVE missions and slowly building my way up to one of the sexier battleships. I eventually got it and started running missions with it and that's when I was introduced to the world of high sec piracy. Not long after getting my shiny Megathron I lost it, along with all the cash I had plunged into it. Angry and frustrated I turned to the online ISK sellers in order to get myself back to where I was, shelling out $25 real dollars to get myself back on my feet. I went back there once more in order to get myself ahead again, but I haven't used any RMT services since then.
To me the fact that a player can pay a token amount to get ahead doesn't lessen the achievement any more for me, mostly because I know that despite the game developer's best efforts it still goes on in every MMORPG. No matter how many characters they ban or currency they remove from the world there will always be a legion in waiting, ready to service those who's credit card is more readily accessible than their free time. The best thing game developers can do in this instance then is to make sure that there are approved channels for doing so within the game so that players can easily tell who's bought their way into success. Driving it underground just ensures that the game developers are missing out on some potential revenue, whilst the players still suffer in the same way.
You can imagine then how disappointed I was when I read how naive the World of Warcraft community was being when the release of a new pet, the Guardian Cub, that was tradeable in game sparked widespread concern that RMT was coming:
The other, major, thing which sets the Guardian Cub apart? It's tradable. Once you've purchased it, you can on-sell the little guy to other characters, in exchange for in-game gold or items – and you can set the price. Sticking with the "one-time-only" theme, once you've handed the Guardian Cub over, he will be added to the recipient's Companions list and cannot be re-traded again later. "Be sure to choose a master wisely," warns Blizzard.
Costing the now-standard US$10, but tradable for almost anything you'd like, the big-eyed Guardian Cub is being heralded as the Beginning of the End – opening the door to real money trading in World of Warcraft.
Realistically you can say that RMT is already here for World of Warcraft as a quick Google search for "WoW gold" will net you dozens of sites ready, willing and able to switch out your cold hard cash for in game currency. The only difference this new pet makes to that equation is there's now a semi-legitimate way of doing it even though most people who want the pet will just go straight to the Blizzard store to get it. Really if you're worried about Blizzard bringing an official RMT system to World of Warcraft you should really open your eyes to the reality of the situation, it's already happening, it's just not Blizzard who's doing it.
I'm not saying that RMT doesn't have any effect at all on MMORPGs but their overall impact is realistically quite low. RMT has been around for as long as MMORPGs have been and many players will go their entire in-game lives without even noticing the impact that it has on their game of choice. Officially sanctioned methods are far and away better than their black market alternatives and opposing them is akin to sticking your fingers in your ears and pretending it doesn't happen already. It does happen, it will continue to happen and you'd be best served by a supported method, whether you believe that or not.
I've played my fair share of MMORPGs since my first introduction to this genre way back in 2004. After falling from the dizzying heights that I scaled within World of Warcraft I set about playing my way through several similar games only to either find them half done, unplayable or have their community boil down to just the hardcore in little over a month. There are only two MMORPGs that I've ever gone back to after an extended period of absence: World of Warcraft and EVE online. Both had characteristics that begged me to come back after I had left them for good and both have continued to reinvent themselves over the course of their long lifetimes. Today I want to take you through World of Warcraft's latest revision, the Cataclysm expansion.
This expansion signals the return of Deathwing, one of the dragon aspects of Azeroth who's first appearance in Blizzard's Warcraft line of games dates all the way back to Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal. His emergence from the depths of Deepholm have torn the world asunder, laying waste to much of the original world and changing the landscape of Azeroth permanently. This expansion differs significantly from the previous 2 in that it did not add a whole new world, it reinvented the old whilst adding a few new zones. This allowed the developers the opportunity to redo the entire old world in order to make the 0-60 levelling experience more fluid as well as allowing everyone the opportunity to use their flying mounts in the old world. This is in addition to the complete overhaul of every class, 2 new races, a dozen new dungeons, 4 new raid encounters, a new secondary profession, rework of the stat system and an overhaul of the badge based reward system.
I had a few choices when it came to exploring this new old world that Blizzard had set before me. Reports from friends told me the levelling experience was quite nice and the new starting zones were of similar quality to that of the Death Knight area, long praised for its intensely immersive experience. Still I had 2 level 80 characters ready, willing and able to experience the new content right away and logging onto one of them I was instantly greeted by some of my long time World of Warcraft buddies. The decision to level my 80 Shaman had been made for me before I knew it and I set about blasting my way to 85.
The first thing I noticed was the vast improvements to the game experience that Blizzard have added since the last time I played. First there's a quest helper that not only tracks all your quests it also points you in the right direction and marks out an area for you to find the mobs or items required to complete it. Additionally the character panel has seen a significant revamp with many of the stats now providing insight into what they mean, like the amount of hit required to not miss a certain level target. There's also lots of tiny little additions that make the game experience just that much better, like the little icon that hovers above your head when you get 5 stacks of Maelstrom Weapon as a shaman something which required a whole other mod to achieve. The revamped raid/party bar is also quite good and a testament to how necessary the Grid mod was before Blizzard rolled their own. There are still a few things missing that I still consider necessary like a damage meter and a loot browser but overall Blizzard has shown just how closely they watch the community and listen to what their needs are so that they can include those things into the main game.
The levelling experience from 80 to 85 was incredibly enjoyable, probably the best experience I've had out of any of the previous releases. I was never lost for somewhere to quest as part of my usual trips back to Ogrimmar there would always be a quest on the Warchief's board that would send me to a level appropriate area. Whilst this has left me with a couple areas left uncompleted (like Vashj'ir and Uldum) it did mean that I didn't spend time on lower level quests that yield significantly lower experience. The usual line is that the levelling time from 80 to 85 was supposed to be the same as 70 to 80 but I found that it was significantly less, probably about half or so. I think this can be attributed to the random dungeon system they added in a while back with the added bonus that instead of having to do long quest chains to get those juicy dungeon quests nearly all dungeons have quest givers right at the start.
Like any of the Blizzard titles what really got me was the depth and breadth of the lore behind each of the areas. Whilst many of the quests are you're standard kill X of those, gather Y of these type of encounters there are quite a few that really bring you into the world that Blizzard has created. The screenshot above is from one such encounter where after leading a band of goblins up the hill I've finally met with Alexstrasza who soon after takes me on a direct assault against Deathwing himself. There's also extensive use of the phasing¹ technique giving you that feeling of being the hero of the world, even though you're in a world of heroes. This lead me to follow many long quest chains to their completion as I just had to know what happened next, spending hours battling various foes and gobbling up the quest text at every opportunity.
The end game has improved significantly as well. Back in Ulduar Blizzard began experimenting with teleporters that would take you a fair way to the part of the instance you wanted to be at. They continued this in Icecrown Citadel and they have made their way into every instance I've played thus far. The instances themselves are also quite entertaining with new boss mechanics and some instances even having in game cinematics. Sure you're over them once you've seen them for the 5th time but it's a nice touch and goes a long way to revamp the old dungeon grind.
I've spent the last month playing through the level 80 to 85 content and I'm still not lost for new things to do in Cataclysm. It seems every other day I find myself in a new dungeon I hadn't yet done or a new section of a quest area I hadn't yet discovered and that's just what keeps me coming back day after day. I've still yet to dive into the revamped old world in the form of levelling a new character but from reports I'm hearing from both long time veterans and first time players the experience is as enjoyable as my level 80 to 85 experience. So for those of you thinking about reactivating your old account or for anyone who's had the slightest inclination to play World of Warcraft you won't go wrong by starting now in the new world that was torn asunder in Cataclysm.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is available right now on PC for$39.95. Game was played over the course of the last month on the Oceanic Dreadmaul server as a Enhancement Shaman.
¹Phasing, in World of Warcraft, is when part of a world is in a sense instanced. This allows them to show a different world to different players which is usually used to show the effect of a quest on the world around you. The example given is that if you get 10 wooden planks to repair someone's house it will in fact be repaired. However anyone who hasn't yet done that quest will see that house as still damaged.


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Those who were looking for a major overhaul on Apple's latest mobile operating system were left dissappointed on Monday when iOS 6 looked an aweful lot like the same. Granted there are some really nice changes in Apple's 1st beta, and I'm sure we'll see even more changes before it officially kicks off into the big dance of public release. But really there was nothing of major change like when iOS 5 brought a new notification function. Multitasking is still its awkward and screen real estate wasting self. No widgets. No Palm-esk card switching. Design-wise, they didn't do any major overhauls but for a few apps.
But iOS 6 isn't about major redesign. It was about Siri, Maps and connections. But iOS 6 does have a lot of little changes – little tweaks here and there with the goal of making it an overall better experience.
You already know about the majors things, and maybe you're already goofing around with iOS 6 yourself. I just wanted to share some of the little things I noticed with iOS 6:
No more lock icon on the top of the lockscreen. It's an interesting move as there is no longer a need to identify itself as the lockscreen.
The volume rocker rotates when you move the phone. I noticed this similarly on Apple's iCloud.com, where the silver moves with your mouse. I appreciate when stuff like this ties itself together.
Settings app is organized, and Bluetooth is brought to the front of settings. It's much better, though I believe Bluetooth and Wi-Fi should be and On/Off switch on the main page similar to Airplane Mode, and yes, I named my WiFi network after the delicious ice tea company, but I digress…
If you see an app in the App Store that you already have downloaded on your phone, it gives you the option to "Open" instead of a greyed out "Installed"; which is more useful.
Downloading an app no longer takes you back to the home screen. You get to stay in the App Store and shop some more. Yay!
And I know we've already talked about these, but I figured I'd share some screenshots with you all -
New Weather and New Music app designs:
Newly downloaded apps have a little "New" blue tag untill you open it once in case, you know, you forgot you downloaded it.
The status bar changes with the app (eg. Calendar, Messages or Phone apps). It seems to update to a blue color when the header is blue. I haven't been able to produce any color other than black and multiple shades of blue, but it is interesting to note the change. I will also add that I'm not a fan as it just doesn't make sence to update the status color. I feel that the status bar should be similar to the Mac's task bar; a solid and static element to ground the OS. I'm hoping this goes back to all black. My fear is developers updating it to crazy colors to match their app. It'd get ugly, fast. Oh yeah, new keypad in the phone. Neat!
The 'pull to refresh' mail animation is a nice touch. It's hard to describe, but if you've ever played "World of Goo", yeah, it's like that.
Some of these tweaks may not make it to Fall. Some items may be changed and altered as this is still a beta, but I like many of these changes. However I do have a growing concern with some of the elements being introduced and what Apple didn't do. Some elements make no sense, like why the notification slide is still being 'pulled over' instead of 'behind' the screen. To me, the dark grey, linen background Apple uses on an app folder, Siri and multitasking is 'behind' or 'underneath' the UI. Lion handles app folders similarly, and Mountain Lion handles its new notification feature as 'behind' the screen as well. Why iOS notifications is behind and on top is beyond me. I would think you'd just pull the screen itself 'down' to 'reveal' the notification. And there is a growing distance between the development and modernization of apps as Apple focuses on some (Maps, Siri, Reminders, iCloud) and leaves others to rot (YouTube, Compass, Stocks).
Have you played with iOS 6 yet? Of course there are some other small changes, and some big ones as well. Have you noticed any other little thing? What are some of your favorite changes?

subset: commoncrawl


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Red Bird Sam's Club evacuated because of 'suspicious package'
Updated at 10:38 p.m.: Police and Dallas Fire-Rescue have cleared the scene and said no harmful devices were found.
Original item at 8:30 p.m.: Dallas police have evacuated a Sam's Club in Red Bird to investigate a suspicious package.
Police are asking people to stay clear of the scene in the 2900 block of West Wheatland Road near South Hampton Road and Interstate Highway 20, said Ofc. Colton Johnson. Management evacuated the store after finding an unattended briefcase.
No injuries have been reported.
.@DallasPD has evacuated Sam's Club at 2900 W. Wheatland Rd. to investigate a suspicious package. pic.twitter.com/Ro9HWXECIL
— Colton Johnson (@JohnsonDPD) August 8, 2014


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Nelson's panel urges $4.5 billion of eased cuts in social services
Mental health services would be restored. Child Protective Services would actually gain, not lose, front-line staff. Current rates would be kept, not cut, for paying foster care providers. And Medicaid fees would be cut only by 1 percent for doctors and 3 percent for hospitals, "over where reimbursement rates are today," said Sen. Jane Nelson, describing a list of recommendations her subpanel of Senate Finance approved Thursday.
Nelson, R-Flower Mound, also said rates for nursing homes would be reduced by 2 percent, not the 10 percent in the base budget — though that didn't consider another 20 percent whack caused by not replacing federal stimulus funds.
"We still have difficult decisions ahead of us," Nelson said. "This $4.5 billion represents our best effort to address our top needs first. We have also identified $2.6 billion in 'priority two' items that we feel are very important yet we realize due to budget constraints we had to rank by priority. Should additional funds be made available to Article II [social services] , this is our how our subcommittee would like the money spent."
Republicans on the subcommittee, such as Sens. Kevin Eltife of Tyler and Bob Deuell of Greenville, voted for the list, but made it clear they were doing so to advance the budget-writing process.


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July 31st, 2006, 09:40 PM
HI my name is andy and i am 13. I think fishin is a grate outdoors thing to do. this was probably the first thing i started to do in the outdoors life.i have a spine cast rod and a couple of luers but unfortunly my family is kinda miss shaped cause my moms in and out of jobs and my dad died when i couldent remember. i live in missouri so i like fishin for bass cats and crapie. please if any body would like to help me out or give me some advise please feel free.
thank you lots,
thank you lots,