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Rant – Need New Shiny Toy!!

February 9, 2010 - 2:59 pm No Comments

So we are a few months away from Cataclysm (we all know it will be out in November or December) and I have to say for the first time in my WoW life cycle I’m getting bored. I log in every night and I barely do anything. If I don’t run ICC I only run the daily Heroic for my frost badges and that’s about it. I stand around not talking to people cause I’m overwhelmed half the time and just put on .

So the question is what do I do now? Do I look for another MMO? While I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie, I’m not a trekkie in the least bit. I don’t really find it all that interesting. If you would have asked me 4 months ago would I see myself leaving WoW for KoToR, I would have laughed at you and said no way, look at the graphics on that crap. Fast forward to now, and I’m going to have to say I’m really itching to try it, mainly cause I’m in need of something new. Not because the game looks any better then it did four months ago.

I’m a really hard person to keep interested. Before the iPhone I was buying and selling phones on ebay all the time just to get something new. Then I got the iPhone then the 3G, I passed on the 3GS but I’ve had the same interface, the same concept of the phone, same icons and I’ve LOVED this phone but when I saw the Google Nexus One I was like wow, a nice new phone, live wallpapers……T-Mobile, yuck, no thanks, then I saw it was going to Verizon….mmmm, I’m interested. But I’m quieted my thoughts and didn’t something I didn’t think I’d do… I jail broke my iPhone. Now I have new themes, new icons and hell I just got an app for it that makes it look identical to the iPad. It’s great, it will keep me interested a while longer till the 4th generation iPhone.

Getting back to WoW, I think I need something like what I did to the iPhone for WoW (NO, I’m not recommending I jailbrake WoW) just that I need a new look, I need a new feel. I’m sure Cataclysm will change all that for me and give me a new race and refresh my need to play. So I can safely say I’m not going to leave WoW, but I do think I need to play something else till Cataclysm (while still playing WoW).

I need that shiny new toy. Problem is I’m just not sure what that toy is right now…

If you all have some suggestions please let me know I’d love to hear them. Either post them here or email me at admin @ valaar dot com (preventing spammers, sorry, just type it out).

Thanks,

Mike aka Valaar

P.S. As I mentioned, I’m not leaving WoW and I’ll still post updates and news right here on Valaar.com

Posted in Rants, WoW |

When is a game not a game?

March 30, 2009 - 8:30 pm 1 Comment

Recently I left my guild (in world of warcraft) that I help start because I was having some difficultly providing the time to raid. I joined another guild who had better raid times and they started on time and ended on time. I thought this would be the right choice. I’ll leave the name of the guild private. Basically they are known for downing pretty much everything with ease. My first raid with them we downed Sarth3D and I received my “Twilight Vanquisher” title. Then we proceeded to do Malygos 25 man and downed him. I thought to myself, WOW, this might be nice.

The next day I logged on and was confronted by one of the guild’s officer’s and rival Paladin tank. I was asked if I knew what “WWS” was and I was confused and responded, no. WWS is apparently and app or mod that the raid leader has running during the raid of an instance that makes a report detailing every players every move. I mean EVERYTHING. It keeps a report on how many times you clicked a certain action or how often you “DIDN’T” hit a certain action. I was then told I wasn’t playing my class the way I should. That I had to learn things and change things. They said they’d be monitoring my play style and would be judging me later.

This left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t pay 15 dollars a month to play a “GAME” for a guild’s big brother to watch over me every second of a raid. I can understand a guild wanting to progress and move forward and down content. I’ve been in a few and I know others in a few guilds that having been moving forward in progression and have downed Sarth3D without any type of WWS or Big Brother antics.

If that wasn’t enough, I left a guild of people that cared and acknowledged me. When you log into Warcraft there’s something about getting a hello or hey from another player whether they mean it or if it’s just a formality. It’s acknowledgment one way or the other. I spent spent a week in this guild and didn’t have one person say hi or bye when I’d log on and say “Hey everyone” or “Later all”. Zero. Zip. Zilch.

I sat in front of my computer and thought to myself what did I do…

I realized that I left people that care, people that talk to you, people that raid together and progress and are willing to work around someone’s mistakes and help them fix it, without addons showing their mistakes… I left friends.

Thankfully I left on good terms, I spoke to Zalikarra and Kiana, two people who’ve made playing this game that much more enjoyable. Because they are real people who have emotions and care for one another. I don’t know if they’ll read this but I want to publicly thank them. I gave up my GL spot and left them in a hard spot and they took me back and with open arms. That is a guild. That is what true friendship is all about.

Posted in Rants, WoW |

Why is WoW so…well, WOW!

March 7, 2009 - 11:31 pm 1 Comment

Ok, so World of Warcraft has got over 14 million subscribers, give or take. This is a feat that no other game in the MMO genre can even come close to at this point. EverQuest the once dominant king of the MMO’s topped out at 400,000 people. That was considered the pinnacle at the time. Then came the juggernaut, World of Warcraft, I can remember seeing boxes in stores for WoW with gold stickers “1 Million Subscribers” then shortly after “5 Million” then “10 Million”….it just kept climbing.

How did Blizzards now flagship title climb so high while other MMO’s could only manage to get under a million or barely over it? Some critics and writers have ideas…such as its ease of game play. That it was user friendly to even novices of computer games. Unlike some games that were extremely difficult to get started with and then jump to a steep learning curve. I’m looking at you Anarchy Online!  Was it the colorful and stylized look that charmed those who wouldn’t normally pick up a dark dungeon crawler? It could have been the features that other games failed to have like an auction house, mounts, vanity pets, better end game content. There are numerous reasons that have been listed and I think they are all valid.

Then there is my theory why this game has done so well and reached a larger audience than EverQuest 1 and 2, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE, City of Heroes, Age of Conan, and even the new and struggling Warhammer. Blizzard is friendly to both PC and Mac. Now I’m not here to write as a Mac fan boy so relax PC devotees. What I am saying is there is a huge fan base of gamers out there that only have a Mac as their computers (they may have a 360 or PS3)….so when an MMO comes out and it’s PC only guess what, they get shafted.  Some people just don’t look at the Mac as a gaming machine. Keep in mind a little studio called Bungie certainly did when it made Myth and Myth 2, and even Halo was first made for the Mac before being purchased by Micro$oft. That aside, I can tell you that I play WoW on a MacBook Pro 2.6ghz Dual Core 256mb ATI with 4gb of ram. All hooked up to a 24” HD monitor….simply amazing. So it can be done. I know a lot of people in my guild that use Macs.

So I ask you all…while there are many things that attract us to WoW…what about those things that allow us to “actually” PLAY WoW. I’d like to try Age of Conan or even Warhammer but I can’t.

So do you agree? Do you think that this has any effect? Do you think other games would make a bigger impact and gain more subscribers and make a dent into WoW’s lead if had the same game plan and went to Mac’s as well?

Posted in Rants, WoW |

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