[Blizzard] No, you're not running for President, but...

Rock Paper Shotgun held an interview with Dustin BRO-wder regarding Blizzard's upcoming MOBA, Heroes of the Storm. The interview went mostly well and covered mainly their strategy going forward and how they intend to distinguish themselves from competitors...then it took a sudden turn when RPS asked about some of the depictions of female characters. I've reproduced the "uh oh" section below.

[WoW] You...disappoint me, Garrosh.

Thrall hasn't cornered the market on disappointment in his former protege, for when I spent 3 hours wiping on him killed him and reaped the benefits I looked back to Blizzard's first attempt at LFR, Dragon Soul, I found myself a little disappointed with the end-all boss of Mists of Pandaria due to his, of all things, loot table.

[WoW] Timeless Isle? More like Time WASTE Isle!

So the Timeless Isle appeared on the scene in patch 5.4 and, true to its intent, promises content for those with nothing left to do, and an easy way to gear-up alts for those new to the expansion (such as me). It is not without its flaws though, and two of them have become glaringly apparent after the first few days of playing. The first is the crazy level of grind the Shaohao rep can be, and the second is the mixed multi-tag/single-tag enemies in the zone.

[WoW] How to be a d**k on the Timeless Isle

As my somewhat perturbed tweets indicated this morning, I encountered an unfortunate exercise in dickish-ness this morning while doing my Shaohao daily. Another player acted in a way that fell somewhere between callous cruelty and outright selfishness. Before I judged I tried to apply Hanlon's Razor, and yet the blade couldn't seem to cut it.

[WoW] Looking for Repugnants

So a luck Burden of Eternity drop resulted in my eligibility for the Siege of Ogrimmar LFR. Eager to see the newest, shiniest raid I jumped in this morning. I can't entirely complain about how things went given that we only wiped once on the Sha of Pride. Still, what never ceases to amaze me is how much verbal abuse goes on in LFR and how generally unnecessary it is.

[WoW] Aaaaand...I went back.

Okay so I am a hypocrite; well not entirely, the mulling and dithering I experienced did eventually result in me returning to WoW. However the return was through the 10 day trial, wherein I made a panda monk and I punched, kicked, and rolled my way through the old world, Outland, and much of Northrend before the trial expired. Downside is I didn't actually make it to Pandaria.

WoW 5.4 Garrosh Cinematic, "You still don't matter" Edition

So while I have not played WoW at all throughout Pandaria, I have occasionally spotted a headline or two on reddit. Today was one of those days, announcing the release of the new cinematic for when the players defeat Garrosh Hellscream. I'm not going to pretend to be good at analyzing the voice-acting work (which felt wooden but that is not out of place for WoW), but the part that got a genuine laugh out of me was the resolution.

AVAST MAYTEE, THAR BE SPOILERZ AHEAD

F__k that loser!

Funny that Diablo 3 might end up being remembered for three words, "Fuck that loser!", posted off the cuff on Facebook by Jay Wilson in what he thought was a private conversation. You would think a lead developer at a major gaming company would know that nothing is private anymore. In this post I aim to discuss why those three words mean far more, and how they represent a pivotal change at Blizzard. Given my previous discussions about professionalism in gaming, it seemed prudent to throw in my hat.

[WoW] Pandaria cinematic analysis

"Si vis pacem, para bellum." - De Re Militari

In my earlier post this morning I briefly announced and began some discussion and analysis of the new Mists of Pandaria cinematic.  I didn't have enough time to go into detail so I'll do it now. As always the CG quality is up to Blizzard's usual level of detail to the point of being practically photorealistic but with a certain 'fantasy' feel. I am not going to uphold it as a cinematic work of art as it relies on many tropes and cliches, but most of them it handles nicely. Comparing it aside the other WoW cinematics I actually would rank it highly because of well thought out use of subtext and content, but it does have some glaring flaws. I have relinked it below and there I go into analysis.

[WoW] Mists of Pandaria Cinematic goes live

I will happily admit that I am not all that excited about Mists; WoW has lost its excitement for him and once my raid cleared Dragon Soul our weekly raid became bi-weekly, then somewhat disappeared all together as we ran out of things we wanted to do. That said, I have always been a fan of Blizzard's cinematics...what can I say, I love CG. So I have linked the new one below and I must say I think it is a step back in the right direction. The previous two, Wrath and Cataclysm have both focused on the villains; Wrath was a nice poetic story and Cata was disaster porn, but they always felt like they had something missing....like...hold on....the players! Vanilla and TBC both featured somewhat "generic" representations of the races and characters but to me they provided the "feel" of an MMO story; where there are many heroes and villains, all dependent on which perspective you have. In the Vanilla cinematic it is not really clear who is the "bad guy" in any of the small duels they show. TBC biased the viewer a little in its depictions of Blood Elves and Orcs but was still a solid watch. Some brief discussion of the video after the link....

Pandaria seems to be going back to those roots by having two more or less generic characters fighting a generic panda...which can be boring, but also allows the viewer to put their character in the view. That and the video is meant to focus on Pandaria, on the mystery. I think it is one of the better done...yes it lacks the poetic quality of Wrath but it "feels" more like a Warcraft movie to me. That and the animated Pandaria is gorgeous...I'm a sucker for cherry blossoms and fantasized Asian settings.

New DK PvP armor, next iconic set?

The way I understand it, despite having a massive budget Blizzard maintains a relatively small art team to preserve the "integrity" of their art style...this supposedly is meant to explain why it takes them so long to come up with new art. Lately I have felt like that the majority of their sets are starting to show stagnation...they're getting a little stale and end up producing sets like Shadowflame that look like the face-melting went a little too far.

[MMOs Generally] The terms I am tired of seeing

Rather sparse posting lately I know, I've hit that busy time of year when final tests and papers are due...leaving me little time to write. Doesn't help that I've picked up SWTOR and am thoroughly enjoying my bounty hunter.

No matter the topic, journalism and discourse are ripe with overused terms. The main problem is that so many of these are more intended to provoke a reaction from the reader that is anything except "form a logical opinion and decide for yourself." They frame the issue in a specific, one-sided way that colors any discourse negatively. Personally when I see many of these words, rather than read what the writer has said, I have to fight the urge to just ignore them completely. Alas, the ones becoming all too common in Gaming. I note that many of these are silencing techniques, but I think that makes it all that much more important that we phase them out and promote actual discourse (deities forbid!).

A smattering of Mists Beta changes and thoughts

I finally got in! Happy for me right? The game is still very much in the beta stages; in fact I'd call it more of an alpha...it's nowhere near release and I think in some ways this could harm the game down the road. That said, a few interesting mechanics changes have made it in and I thought I'd talk about: abilities with charges, class specific quest rewards, better leveling curve and passive-active abilities.

Edit: A few extra notes at the end!

Mists Lore Speculation: Jaina Proudmore & Post-Garrosh Horde

MMO-Champion has been diligent in datamining the Mists Beta and the blogosphere has deftly followed any announcements from the Press Release which turned up some interesting bits of information related to Azeroth's peace-loving mage; Jaina. For those averse to spoilers and avoiding all Mists of Pandaria news, turn back now!

Mists Beta Anger at a Glance, or, "Monks....monks everywhere..."

A brief post today, in regards to my quick 2 cents on the Annual Pass Beta and having gotten to watch a friend who did get in play a little over the weekend.

Challenge Mode Armor in Mists has cool features?

A short post today on a little gem I found in the Mists Beta. In what I consider a somewhat ambitious step Blizzard is adding new "Special" effects to armor gained for completing Challenge dungeons at Silver level...and I love the idea!

Calling it right now...

So MMO-Champion has posted a slew of Mists of Pandaria information as the press tour gets kicking, and while a full post on my opinion on the issues is forthcoming (sneak preview: Its basically the same optimism I looked at the previous expansions with) I thought I'd get a few things out of the way right now:

Female Pandaren Silhouette

As part of the March Madness Mists of Pandaria press tour Blizzard has released a silhouette version of the female Pandaren model that will be shown fully on Monday 3/19...but that's a few days from now and it's a hot topic, so I am going to discuss it right freakin' here and no one can stop me!...except good sense perhaps. The full image after the break. (Warning, image heavy post!)

Death Knight Talents in Mists, or, "Death Pact is the Renegade choice" Part 2

Continuing from part 1 we get to the aptly named "PART 2!!!!!" which I personally find to be among the more interesting choices compared to 1. The best part of this whole talent experiment is that so far, even though there are only six choices, I feel as though I am actually making decisions.

Death Knight Talents in Mists, or, "My Ghoul vomits nyancat rainbows" Part 1

I've hit that awkward time in WoW's cycle when the current expansion is coming to an end and all I really find myself thinking about is the upcoming one. I find it hard to feel motivated playing systems I am not happy with when I know something new (and hopefully better) is right around the corner.

In anticipation of that I'm doing a few little posts on what I see coming down the pipe for the classes I play (which is most of them)...and first, DEATH KNIGHTS. To keep it from being ghastly long I am splitting it into 2 parts (15/30/45 and 60/75/90). Also, I am not much a fan of WoW PvP at the moment so this analysis is aimed at the PvE game, but my opinion of PvP may change in Mists!