Let me introduce myself a bit.  I’m Linhart.  I run an alliance Guild called Ex Cinis Cineris on the Turalyon server (NA), and my Girlfriend, Luscinia, runs another branch of the guild on the Icecrown (NA) realm, as horde.

Now the Turalyon realm is our “base of operations”, but we like the idea of expanding, and will hopefully continue expanding our ever growing family.

What’s with the name of the site?  Well to be honest, my main. Linhart, is a warrior.  And I feel that the titan’s grip ability is truly what makes a warrior a warrior.  I mean who doesn’t want to wield 2 huge ass swords.  Really.

Titan’s, as some of you might know, are also the creators of Azeroth.  So I got a bit of a dual meaning going on there.  Pretty smart, huh?

Anyway, again, welcome to the site!  I hope you enjoy your stay, and I look forward to bringing you a bunch of new stuff every week!!

Also, if you have any suggestions, either drop me a line, or comment!!!

Don’t forget to follow me while you’re at it!

Have an amazing day!!

-Linhart

Related articles

• The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Specializations in Mists of Pandaria (wow.joystiq.com)

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For all that I criticize MMO’s (at least I think I do…), they definitely do at least one thing right. The good ones, at least. But first, a little background.

Although I previously cited New Game+ as one of the greatest gaming innovations of all time, I’m not much for immediately replaying through a game just to see additional endings, or for other obsessive completionist goals. Oddly enough, however, I have a severe case of Altoholism that I’ve only been able to manage by going cold turkey.

Let’s ignore all the other various factors that contribute to my Altoholism for the sake of this discussion, and focus on what MMO’s do that other games don’t: consistent content updates.

As always, let’s use WoW as an example, just cuz it’s easy. The original content has gone through multiple face lifts, even before Cataclysm literally changed the, uh, face of the world. Every patch changes things, be they abilities, mobs, talents, or, my favorite, quests, just enough so that subsequent play throughs are always a little bit different. Or, if you’ve waited long enough between leveling, those differences can suddenly appear to be rather significant.

This, of course, is the “secret,” so to speak, behind the success of the MMO. And even though no other MMO has approached the subscription and revenue numbers of WoW, I would wager that dozens of them have had more players log more hours played than even some of the most successful non-MMO titles.

All due to those relatively small, yet consistent, updates. Food for thought.

It’s a controversial move by Blizzard, something you can see for yourself if you look at the comments on the RPS post, and it hearkens back to a debate almost as old as WoW itself, but they likely had very little choice.

Killing the Gold Farming Industry

Since the early days of vanilla WoW, it has been possible to arrange purchases of gold from ethically questionable sellers. The gold typically either came from workers toiling in sweatshop-like conditions overseas or from the coffers of compromised accounts. Most arguments against buying gold cite one or both of these two scenarios.

Blizzard has been combating WoW account theft with limited success for as long as the game has been around. It became such a problem for them that they even implemented RSA two-factor authentication and sold branded key fobs — probably at a substantial per-unit loss — to try to get players to secure their accounts. The main driver behind account theft, however, is the demand on the virtual black market for in-game currency. It is cheaper to hack a bunch of accounts than it is to pay someone to farm up that amount of gold.

The easiest way for Blizzard to shut down gold-sellers (and take a portion of that market’s money for themselves) is to offer a permissible way to convert dollars into gold. When players consider the risk of having one’s account closed — and countless hours of work erased — for buying black-market gold,  gold sellers would have to greatly undercut Blizzard’s legitimate channel, forcing many (if not most, if not all) of them out of business, and all just by allowing players something many of them want already: a way to trade money for their time.

This is where the real conflict arises in the player-base, however.

The Purists vs. The Economists

There is a large group of players who firmly believe that if you want gold, you should have to earn it in-game. These purists have a point. Right now, if you need to acquire 1,000 gold, there are pretty firm limits on how quickly you can make that happen. The servers’ economies are balanced based on that gold-acquisition rate, and the amount of gold in the system is moderated by that rate-limiting  along with gold-sinks like armor repair. Increasing that max rate — or eliminating it entirely — will have an inflationary effect as those who have money to burn will either supplement or all together replace their gold-farming activities with gold purchases.

It could also have a compounded effect, as the drive to farm raw materials and produce desired goods would decrease — a player who used to spend a lot of time mining ores might cut his production in half, preferring to just buy the gold he’d have made in that amount of time with cash.

Both of these points mean that items are going to get more expensive, putting a squeeze on folks who don’t want to spend real money: they now have to spend more time in-game to accomplish the same things they previously could.

On the other hand, I struggle to find a practical reason that a person spending two hours running around killing monsters for gold is any different from a player who works two extra hours at their job to buy that gold. From a gaming perspective, does the player running around killing monsters really improving the gaming lives of the other players on the server?

From the purely economic perspective, why not let time be money and let the economies re-balance as they will, fixing economic problems as they arise?

But, even if Blizzard allows the trades, it is not an all-or-nothing proposition.

Shades of Gray

For starters, there’s no need to allow players to spend an infinite quantity of money on gold at any time. It could be limited in a dizzying number of ways. Players could be kept from buying more than X amount of gold per week or month. In-game gold purchases could take a certain amount of time to be delivered, making impulse buys more troublesome. Each server could only allow a certain amount of gold-per-day to be sold for cash, maybe directly related to the amount the server “eats” for item repairs and other consumables. This method could also be use to balance economies either by increasing or decreasing the gold available in the daily pot based on the intended market effect (inflation or deflation).

In addition to any or all of those limiting factors, Blizzard could designate some servers as “RMT-Free”, where no gold would be allowed to be purchased at all, and prevent moves to those servers from servers that allow the exchange.

So while the purists definitely have a legitimate gripe, Blizzard’s interest in shutting down gold sellers (and making more money) will probably, eventually, trump their desire to have their game free of Real Money Transactions.

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If I was feeling particularly cynical, I would say that with all the inevitable server issues, lag and general bugginess that is part and parcel of all new MMO’s, it should be nearly playable by the end of January.

Nah, I’m sure it will be fine. I mean they’ve had enough time to work out all the bugs and they must have a really good idea of the server capacity needed for this. Everything will be perfect… Ok that’s enough rose-tinted nonsense.

At the end of the day we’ll just have to see. Although with my computer being as it is (i.e. graphics card-less) I either play it on a GeForce 7900 in December or I don’t play it at all until January…. Hmmmm

Two dragons of the Blood Storm have been defeated – Four remain. Update 1.5 is the prelude to the next epic saga of RIFT and through the history of Telara you will define its future!

Join us today (9/19) on the Public Test Shard at 4:00PM PDT (11PM GMT) for a first look at the Update 1.5 World Event: Ashes of History.

World Event Overview – Ashes of History

Before the Ward fell and the Blood Storms power seeped into the world a great network of instantaneous travel connected all the people of Telara. The Porticulums are based on this mysterious magic but its secrets were lost in the great war.

Akylios, the mad lord of the deep, sought to sow chaos by burying the ancient Travel Stones – their locations lost to his lunacy. Now his power is failing, and as his grip on the world slips into the abyss these ancient stones have begun to stir back to life – what mysteries do they hold?

Your search will take you to the ends of the earth heroes – steel yourselves, for you are not alone in your quest.  The Golden Maw and Wanton, the cults of Laethys & Maelforge, seek to use these stones for themselves and bring forth a new reign of fire and chaos!

Part 1: The Song of Karine

As the stones reactivate, strange sounds and music are heard coming from them.  As an Ascended, only you are capable of fully understanding the message being sent by the ghost of Karine – Telara’s first bard.

Part 2: A Strange Alliance

With Karine’s warning fresh in their minds, it is discovered that The Golden Maw and The Wanton have formed an alliance and are using the Travel Stones for some nefarious purpose – this can’t be good, and you must uncover the plot.

Part 3: Building Bridges

The Ascended must work to build their own (safe) Travel Gate to reach Ember Isle before The Golden Maw and The Wanton can execute their evil plan!

Character Copy to PTS!

You can now copy your character to the Public Test Shard! Simply click the Transfer button when you’re at Character select on the Live client and select “Copy to PTS” – it’s as easy as that! (though there may be a few bugs/limitations we’re working out). We will no longer be offering Gear/Leveling vendors with the introduction of this feature (except when testing requires it.)

You will need to download the PTS client if you have not done so already, this is approximately the same size as installing the full game and may take some time. For more information about PTS and how to access it please see:

Welcome to the Public Test Shard! – Getting Started

We look forward to seeing you there – have fun!

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All day long I was thinking about writing in my new blog and now that I have sat down to write I discover that I’m not sure what I’m going to write about.  I see some dorky looking guy with sunglasses hanging from the front of his button up; I can’t find a good place to sit and that place I want to sit in in habited by this other Indian guy that for some reason I don’t like already, and his half nerd, half hippy buddies are inhabiting the space – but actually I just decided to sit here anyway since my battery was about to die on my laptop and it seemed like a good place to write.  Oh, also his nerd-hippy-world of warcraft brigade stepped away but he is still.  I’m sure he’s an ok guy, afterall I don’t even know him; and as I write this I think of the people on Youtube that people end up ridiculing because of this reason or that; and I realize that speaking your mind in this society is, unless it is politically correct, frowned upon.

Ok – so I got into a bad vibe earlier and not too long ago.  I’m …

This is also not comfortable at all…

Ok, I just adjusted.  Fucking WOW brigade is back.  The fattest and dorkiest guy is talking about some grandiose scheme about some sort of production he and his group are supposed to be having.  Sounds like a film, but possibly something I hate and I’m willing to bet most people will too.

Kinda like this post.  I can tell it’s drivel, but I have to get it out.  It is HOW I write – not Drivel, Ass!  It is…  Stream of consciousness, I guess.  I was thinking more Flow of Thought but of course when I googled it, that’s the term that came up.  I’m sure there are some famous authors out there who write like this, but I couldn’t tell you who they are.  I didn’t pick this writing style, i didn’t study for years to learn what type of writing works for me; I just did it.

So, back to what put me in such a bitchy mood as to pick on the poor, WOW producers up front (yes, I moved again to a different table because the chair I thought looked so comfortable ended up not being comfortable at all.   This one might work, I dunno.  Back fucking problems..

I bet if I go back and read this post I will throw up.  I really should scrap it, but I want this blog to be an expiriment, an outlet, a journey and a path.  I can’t eliminate who I am or stifle my thoughts so I figure if I go back, and forth and write these things down, and combine some of the old and the new, I will be on some path to self discovery and really find out who I am…

That last statement is completely true and also complete bullshit.

Ok, I have to delve into this so I can write something worth while.  Shitty moods spread, they are like a virus.  Let’s talk about this.  I was in a great mood, discovering, exploring and meeting a couple cool girls today.   I was on my way back to my neck of the woods, driving in my car, and at this cross street I stopped at the 4 way stop, and some douchebag, middle aged business class guy in his minivan thingamajig did a rolling stop while talking on his fucking star trek phone (you guys and girls who think you are sophisticated or cool or whatever talking on your fucking bluetooth ear-buds, PLEASE – No one outside of you thinks you are cool.  You are screaming to the world, “douchebag”.  Also understand that people you are talking to can’t understand a word coming out of your mouth.  They are probably just saying, “ya…” and “uh-huh…” to avoid having to say, “What?” over and over just to hear you gobble and throsh through the phone so that they still don’t understand you.), and cut me off.  It was annoying a little, so I waved him on.  Of course off in his little blue tooth world he was literally oblivious (at least he seemed so) to the fact that he just rolled on through.

That was annoying.   But even MORE annoying was the lady who was crossing the street, coming from the left, who was about 10 feet from my car as I turned the corner, crossing “her” crosswalk.  Look, I know some of you who live in BIG cities know these people.  Some of you in other places may know them too, but in cities like Chicago; well, that’s where you learn these people exist, when you may not have noticed them before.  She shouts as I drive by her, not even (mmmm – sorry, there is this runners club that just came in and this girl in tights is stretching her leg, you know where you pull your foot back while standing, and she is wearing leggings and …  Man, All I can think about is whats underneath.

Girls reading this – Not all guys know you do what you do on purpose.  You girls walk around the city with leggings on that form-fit your ass and leave little to the imagination.  You can not – NOT know the effect you are having on sexually active (and sexually repressed) guys out there.  Actually, all men in general are most likely effected.  I am not complaining.  I embrace!  I love it!!  Anyway the point it, it really feeds into my theory about women being like sexual Venus Fly Traps.  You may or may not have trained yourself to think you dress that way for yourself, “…because it makes me feel good.” but it is to attract mates.  Guys do not put on thongs to go jogging.  Women put on tight little outfits to show off their legs, asses, stomachs, boobs – the works, while they are working out.

Anyway…  where the f— was I?)

….Ok, so I wasn’t even close to her, as I said, and she had to be noticed  ”Please notice me!  I am important too!!!”  Really what she shouted was, “Watch out for pedestrians!”  It just welled up inside me to the point where (dammit I’m so horny now. . .  (see above)) I basically shouted, “Go fuck yourself!” out the window back at her.  The thing is, I’m not a rager.  I’m not that guy who gets all pissed, but I am completely attentive to my moods.  I’ll get back to that in a second.  These people – Cross walk warriors – you can actually see them speed up when you are driving over a crosswalk.

Let’s go over this class of people in Chicago.  I think I will borrow a term from Dungeons & Dragons (lol – yes I will make fun of the WOW dorks up front having played both World of Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons myself at periods of my life): Rules Lawyer.  So compared to a place like, say, Key West, Florida a place like Chicago has a LOT of rules and regulations.  What that creates or attracts are a small group of individuals who make up for their shortcomings in life by overcompensating rules – Hear me out because if you experienced them, you will know who they are.

• Bikers – They do things like get in the middle of the road lane and block traffic at a stop light or wherever.   They will scream things at old ladies like, “Share the ROAD!”  I’m not kidding about the old lady thing.  I came to a stop light once in front of me was this guy on a bike screaming at some old lady telling her he was a cop and didn’t she know how to share the road.  The little old lady was frightened, I could see it.  Anyway so once she went I pulled up next to him and said, “You’re a cop huh?  You have a badge number?  Maybe you should relax a little and not freak out on old ladies.”  I doubt he was a cop.  More likely he was a Rules Lawyer and an asshole.
• Crosswalk Warriors – We already discussed them.
• Poop Patrol – Watch out!  There are people who are paying more attention to your dog, while you’re walking them, than you are; and not in a healthy way.  I was walking my dog once time through Wrigleyville and (well… he’s old – leave him alone) he decided to double poop.  He pooped before, but decided he needed a second go a few minutes later.  I had no bag to pick it up.  After he pooed I scanned the area and decided I would go find a shop close by and ask for a bag.  As soon as I made this decision and was 5 feet from where Mr Poop (my English Bulldog’s real name) pooped I heard some drunk guy shouting, “Oh so you’re just gonna leave his shit right there!?”  He wanted to be the fricking poop police and shout, swear and so on.  We got face to face and soon his buddies came out.  Of course once his friends were there to hold him back he was all about, “I’ll kick your ass – Let me go!” while he pretended to resist his friends holding him back.  Anyway (wow this post is so ANGRY today!  There’s the title.) there is an extreme example of Poop Patrol.
• Bike Path Warriors – Don’t ENJOY the bike path.  It’s not there for you to enjoy.  It’s there for the dude in his $200 spandex suit and goofy helmet to use to compete with the other people dressed similarly.  I was rollerblading one time on the bike path, and talking on my cell phone.  I was enjoying the conversation and laughing.  Some guy freaked out – no one else seemed to care but him, “GET OFF YOUR PHONE!!!  THIS IS A BIKE PATH!!!” I’m not sure about the relation between the two statements.  It’s funny, if you go down the bike path you will see these people who are out there, and I really don’t think they are out there for themselves.  They seriously are there to compete in their minds with everyone else out there.  Don’t believe me – Test the theory yourself.  Next time you are rollerblading or biking and you re having a good go at it, pass one of the people who you think might seem really into this.  If you have the right person, I challenge that if  you were to, for instance, change paths and slow up a little, that that person will just so happen to be following you and will try to pass you.  Another way you can tell is if you catch them in a moment where they are off guard and you pass them, only to notice them speed up and have to pass you back a moment later.  There are similar people on the freeway and you can toy with them too by speeding up very slightly when they go for the pass, and the more you slowly speed up the faster they will go to pass you even if it means going way faster than they were in the first place and slowing down once they are in front of you.

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World of Warcraft has been out for quite a while now – almost seven years. The game has been through so many changes and has been a part of gaming culture so long that it’s easy to forget how innovative WoW truly was. I think WoW’s largest contribution to the MMO genre, and the primary key to its success, is the strong single player aspect.

Let’s backtrack for a moment. The earliest example of bona fide MMO success is Everquest. Even today – yes, EQ is still alive and kicking – leveling in Everquest is accomplished by grouping up and grinding mobs. Sure, there are quests, but, for the most part, efficient leveling comes from grinding. There are dungeons, too, but again, if your goal is to reach max level, find a group, stake out a camp, and start pulling.

Square’s Final Fantasy XI followed a similar path. Quests were few, and generally required groups to complete. Leveling consisted of finding a group and then mindlessly grinding mobs.

WoW took a different approach. Even in its earliest incarnations, you could level from one to 60 completely solo. And, more importantly, you could do so by continuously completing quests – quests tailored to a single player’s capabilities. Sure, there were group quests, but they were easily bypassed if you so desired. And there were dungeons, but they were worthwhile mostly for the gear upgrades, not for the experience points. In fact, several players proved that the most efficient way to level, even back in vanilla WoW, was through solo questing.

Frankly, transforming an MMO into a single player experience sounds somewhat counter intuitive and not all that intelligent. But suddenly you no longer had to sit around looking for healers and/or tanks just to play the game. Or if you just had a few minutes, you could hop on, knock off a few quests, and then get on with your life. Logging onto WoW was committing yourself to hours of gameplay as you searched for a group, found a camp, then felt obligated to hang around in some sense of misguided loyalty to the rest of your party. Ironically, I think this somehow led to people staying logged on to WoW for at least as long as they ever would have another MMO.

Single player leveling is now the norm in new MMO’s, as far as I can tell. WoW did it first, and probably still does it best. Despite where you may stand in regards to World of Warcraft currently, the game established the MMO as the most popular genre of game… for a while. That popularity was mostly due to World of Warcraft’s strong solo player experience.

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Recent Comments:

CrackerDaddy says:

Respectfully, you are off the mark on this one. There are MANY sisters out there who are coming over to the light side. I have been the beneficiary of many of the fine sisters tired of the no-job, no-credit, no-education, no-ambition, no-future brothers in their hood. The top-shelf sisters have know this for the past few years and it’s one of the hottest topics on the boards………even the ratchets are starting to catch on too. The eligible (good-looking, educated, clean criminal record, good job, good credit, real wealth and assets to his name, not on the down-low and not wanting a white girl) brother is, pardon the pun, the white whale for all those sisters playing Captain Ahab out there. Yeah, he exists; but, he’s hard to catch. Many of the sisters are getting savvy to that and re-evaluating their options. Love your blog and your posts. Just thought I’d give you a perspective from the “lighter” side.

I definitely agree with the first comment. Many of my female Black friends are open to dating outside of their race. I haven’t encountered any of this “no good” Black guys ( mainly because my Black male friends are in college with their shit together) personally but I’m very open. I’m not limiting myself because if he is a good man and I find him attractive, his race is not a deciding factor. Though I do notice it and will appreciate his differences. But I find myself finding White men (of varying descents) and Asian men more attractive 9/10. And there is a growing number of Black women interested in dating various races due to a varying number of reasons. But anyway, I enjoy your blog and its nice to hear a male’s perspective.

Are Black Girls Too Loyal?

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MUST SEE Missy K’s Response

Black Men started off with so many obstacles it was like a higher power said “go mocha skinned woman, and never leave this prick, no matter how many times he calls you out your name“.That’s just my theory. Show me a Black Girl who runs out to the club screaming “I want some Asian Dick Tonight, girl” and I’ll reevaluate that. For now, Black Men should just thank god that for some reason, we can’t do any wrong.

Tags:  #misogyny, #certifiedassclowns, #bwe, #compulsivegamblers, #gamblersanonymous, #addiction, #denial, nwnw, #blackwomendeservebetter, #irdating, #bwwm, #princessandthefrog,#blackmenhateblasexisttrolls, #singleblackwomen, #blackchildabandonment, #deadbeatdads, #brainwashing, #mindcontrol, #bwebloggers, #blackgirlsareeasy, #dbr, irdating, #sayno2rayray, #nwnw

When we were a wee baby guild, trial accounts could still join guilds. I made the most of it. By my reckoning a person has to do roughly 100 quests to get to level 20 and I for one will take that and run with it. All those quests contribute to our guild achieve, and it made it worth answering the 6 million questions you get over and over again from a person who has not played before. Really it is. We had around 400 members and at least one third of these were trial accounts. I put in place the 3 month rule. You don’t play for 3 months you get kicked. Seemed fair to me. Now trials can’t join guilds, it does save a lot of work, but at a loss of those nice quests.

We were a level one guild for what seemed like a million years. No one in the guild was over level 40 and our xp contributions to the guild progression was tiny. None of us did dailies and none of us had much of a clue. It was great to watch the rise of the guildies, marking first their ability to ride a mount and later to fly. Flying changes everything.

I hit level 55 and scrambled to make my DK. I loved it. Having been a priest and humbly toting my cloth armour and my big bag of herbs, I attempted the heal the realm. Badly and I died a lot. I did drive by buffs on anyone I saw [and yes in the early days I accidentally tried to buff some horde] Got her all the way to level 85 and enjoyed every minute of it. Time to go back and level my priest. I changed spec to shadow because I had grown to like being able to survive the quests, and there you have it.

Now I didn’t feel so bad about telling people I was a guild mistress, because I was an 85. People started to join the guild voluntarily. Woot!

For the first time in ages, I logged on and felt no pressure to improve my gear and to learn more and more because as GM I would look stupid not being able to answer all the questions I was asked. Yay for wowhead and the wiki!

Now I can aimlessly wander around Dalaran and even waste time fishing for pets or volatiles. Ahhh, the peace.

Got three new guild members who were just looking for a guild that would let them quest in peace. Looks like this could be the start of a new era for my guild. Very apt. Somewhat living up to the name I chose too! I couldn’t resist the chance to use æ in it even though it makes no grammatical sense [see my previous post on my mad grammar skillz].

Sometimes your bff is a ghoul!

Logging on to a polite message from one of your officers who tells you he had a guild of his own all along and is now going to focus on that guild with skills on management that he learned from your guild is a little saddening. He does soften the blow by leaving a level 85 in the guild as a consolation prize. He takes with him several guildies. Foot stamping commences!

This is where my age starts to show it’s frayed edges. I just have a different outlook on the world than my average American teenaged guildie. That, and I’m foreign of course. My mind says that I should keep the level 85 and be happy. Level 85 toons are a gift from the realm gods and are to be treasured. I tried to listen. Then I kicked the level 85 from my guild. And all his alts. Before my foot even hit the ground.

I am GM! Hear me roar! Yes, it’s more like mewling, but I try.

This toon had taken on the role of PvP trainer for the guild, as they were passionate about making this guild work and investing their time into making things better. I did mention I suck at everything except questing, so I was very happy to have an officer with goals and ambitions. I had been led to believe that raids, dungeons and PvPing were desired skills of each and every guild. Yeah, about that.

Then there is the guild officer who was aware that all this was happening, and did not see fit to inform me of the goings on, not one little sprinkle of a clue. Then when asked where those folks had gone, he said ‘not here’. Do I detect a faint odour of dissention in the ranks? More like a big pong really.

Anyhoo. I am being like water. I learned that a GM must make a guild that fits their skills and not rely on others. Henceforth my guild is a questing guild.  Ego quest , proinde ego sum. Thanks for the life lesson guys. You did benefit the guild after all. xD

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MMORPGs are going Free to Play left and right! Recently Age of Conan went free to play, and even more recently City of Heroes announced it too was going free to play. Hell, there’s even talk of sony’s newest MMORPG DC Universe Online going free to play!

For good reason too! Free to Play means bigger money! Lots more people try it and get hooked on it, and end up becoming a premium member, or at the very least spend money to upgrade their character. Me for instance, I am not a big fan of monthly fees, because I am a casual gamer. What would take most MMO gamers an afternoon to accomplish, it takes me about a week. So, it makes more sense for me to slowly buy the newer content for me, as I progress up to the point to access it.

So, it’s a given! Tons of MMORPGs are going Free to Play. In fact most of them. What about World of Warcraft you ask? YES! It already has gone Free to Play – Well, Kind of anyway.

Ok, it hasn’t gone Free to Play.

What it has done however is adopt a limited Free to Play model to take the place of a 10 day trial. Now, you can play the game, and get a good feel for the game, because instead of just 10 days, you can play your character up to level 20, for free! Then, if you want to continue past level 20, just upgrade your account.

Why would World of Warcraft do this though? I mean, WoW is the MMORPG juggernaut right? The King of the hill! Other MMORPGs have to bow down to its greatness right? I mean, I will be honest and upfront here. Even I can’t deny that WoW is the most popular MMORPG on the market, and I detest WoW! Seriously, I really can’t stand the game. I used to enjoy it, and subscribed for a good many years, but then realised that the game never changed. Even the new content was the same old crap with a different name or color.

So, with it being so popular why adopt this new limited f2p/free trial model? I couldn’t say with any certainty. In fact, the only ones who really probably know are the bigwigs in charge of WoW. I can however take a wild guess.

You see, last October World of Warcraft had a staggering 12 million users. However as of January, the amount of subscribers was 11.1 million. Do the math people. In less than a year, World of Warcraft lost 1 million subscribers. So, it’s not really all that surprising that they would introduce a similar strategy to see if they could boost their numbers back up.

Will it work? Probably! As I said, I am not a fan of the game, but it’s a good beginners MMORPG. It’s not overly technical, so it’s easy to get yourself set up and gaming, even if you know nothing about gaming. So, yeah, it will probably increase their numbers! These people will try the game, get hooked, and not want to lose their spiffy level 20 character.

The big question is, will the increased numbers last? Probably not! The game has been around a long time! It’s teetering at the moment, and all it will take is one really good MMORPG to come along and give it that little nudge to push it off its throne. The upcoming Starwars MMORPG looks like it might have the power for that final nudge, however only time will tell.

As usual, I could be wrong about all of this, but I don’t think so!

"Cash or credit?"

While Diablo III will not be released for a while, it is already generating controversy. Surprisingly, this has nothing to do with the demons in the game but with certain features of the game. In a previous post I discussed the matter of Blizzard requiring Diablo III “owners” to be online in order to play the game. In this post I will discuss the auction house.

One new feature in Diablo III is the game’s auction house. While auction houses are nothing new in games (World of Warcraft and other MMOs feature them), what is somewhat new is that players can auction game items to each other for real money. As with a real auction house, Blizzard gets a fee with each transaction. There is also apparently a fee for cashing out the money for real money (but no fee for using the money to buy Blizzard stuff, such as games and in game items).

The selling of fake stuff for real money in games is also not new. Second Life has its own economy as do other games/online worlds. However, most of these involve participants selling virtual things they have made.  In such cases, the selling does seem to make sense. For example, if Bill designs an elaborate virtual house and sells it to Sally, this seems comparable to Bill selling Sally a drawing or photograph. However, in Diablo III, players will be selling loot that randomly drops from monsters which does raise a question about justifying paying cash for such items.

The obvious way to justify this is to argue that while the players did not create what they are selling (it is not like selling a drawing), they did put in the time playing the game to get the item. Of course, luck is also a factor-the loot drops are random, so getting good stuff that people will buy is both a matter of time and luck. As such, these transactions could be seen as comparable to the way prospectors found and sold random bits of gold or other valuables and then sold them. While the prospectors sold physical objects, the value of a flake of gold or a magic sword seem to be primarily in the mind. As such, there seems to be no problem with the selling of “fake” stuff.

One point of concern is that Blizzard would seem to be using players as laborers who mine Blizzard’s game for random items to sell to other players. Blizzard profits from selling the game and also profits from the game’s real money economy. This, some might contend, seems a bit shady. The obvious reply is, of course, that participation is voluntary: players do not need to buy or sell. Also, the players have a chance to make money while doing something fun-which makes this way better than most jobs.

Another point of concern is that this real money auction house will encourage hacking and item farming. Of course, the hacking is mainly Blizzard’s problem-unless people “hack” by stealing from players (as happens in Warcraft). Item farming is, fortunately, not a big concern. Unlike World of Warcraft, you can play Diablo III alone or just with friends. Hence, you do not need to worry about farmers showing up to ruin your game by grabbing up all the monsters. Also, by having a legitimate and controlled means of selling items, the auction house bypasses the black and gray markets that have grown up around MMOs. So, for example, rather than players giving their credit card numbers (or game account information) to people selling gold or leveling, players can just buy stuff through Blizzard’s auction house.

A final point of concern is the ethics of buying items in terms of fairness and in terms of what some might call the spirit of gaming. Being able to just buy items with real money is not cheating in the sense of breaking the game rules (since it is part of the game), but could be seen as cheating in the sense of violating the spirit of gaming. Among those who might be derided as gaming purists, there is a view that items and advancement in a game should be earned in the game. To simply pay cash is cheating since it yields by cash what should be earned by effort. To use an analogy, if someone could just buy a bike and be able to use it in a 5K footrace because she paid for it, then even if this were in the race’s rules, it would still strike runners as a form of “sanctioned” cheating. This is because an increase in speed should be earned and not merely purchased. Likewise, in a game like Diablo III, players should “earn” that magic sword or armor in the game, rather than being able to gear up their character because they have access to mom’s credit card.

It is, however, worth considering that Diablo III is not really a competitive game and, as noted above, players can chose who they play with. Going back to the bike analogy, if someone wants to hold a private race(and the times do not count for records, etc.), in which participants can buy advantages with real money ,  then it should not really be a matter of concern (other than to note that it seems a bit silly to pay money for such an “advantage” in such circumstances) to people who are not participating in the event. As such, my considered view is that it is silly for people to spend real money on fake stuff and it does seem a bit shady. However, if people want to do this, then so be it.

As fluff goes, I do love my outfits and shinies but guildies are by far the #1 reason I stay on a game long after the jazz wears out. I’m in a great mood today and I hope you all are also! Here’s to having a great bunch of friends that I’ve never met in real life but loving them all the same! <3

Allods Online is a free to play fantasy MMO. To begin playing all you need to do is register on their website and then download the client, which doesn’t take too long on an average internet connection. I got up and running and in around 3 hrs.

With nearly all role-playing games, the first thing you have to do is create your character and Allods Online is no different. There are two opposing sides, The League and The Empire. The League are clearly the side associated with good, their races include elves (Slender winged humanoids), Kanians (human looking err…. Humanoids.) and Giberlings (a trio of three small little poodle-like things). I don’t want to say the bad side as I’m sure the races all have their reasons, so The Empire consists of Orcs (Large, brutish tusked humanoids), The Arisen (Tall thin, almost cybernetic humanoids with masks) and the Xadaganians (taller, thinner humanoids). For me, there’s something about a 7ft wide wall of muscle that just appeals to me as a playing style, so I chose myself an Orc.

The different archetypes are called different things for each race, which is a little confusing at first. For example, Orc warriors are called Brutes, Gibberling warriors are called Brawlers and Kanian warriors are called Champions. Not every archetype is available for every race, so you may have to settle for a race you don’t want if you’ve set your mind on a particular archetype, or you may have to settle on a different archetype as the one you want isn’t available for the race you want. Each archetype of course, has their own play style and skills. Summoner’s use the power of disease and curses as well as summoned allies, Warriors can wear nearly all armour and use all weapons; healers can heal themselves and their allies etc. There are quite a few different archetypes to try out so it’s worth having a play around with a few of them. If you are new to MMO’s, you can get to understand which archetype suits you better.

I had my Orc Brute, now I just needed to personalise him to my own tastes. Don’t expect a huge level of personalisation. There are around 6 different things you can change, depending on your race but there is nothing really substantial to make your character stand out. Of course, most of the personalisation will presumably be done by way of the armour that your character wears and the weapons he or she uses, so the initial personalisation not as important as it might be in other games.

"Awwww, hee's soooo cute"

When you enter the game you are taken through a few training missions to get you used to the fundaments of the game. It’s in these first missions that you’re taught how to move and how to attack. The ship you are on is under heavy attack, and it’s up to you to help where possible and eventually teleport off the ship. After you have teleported off the air-ship you arrive in a sewer area with some more quest givers, providing quests of the type you will encounter from now on. The quests aren’t’ mould-breaking. In all the cases I’ve experienced so far, you are usually killing a certain amount of mobs or looting a certain number of items. There’s nothing here that will knock your proverbial socks off, quest-wise.

It’s important to note that the quest-based progression is nicely designed. The quest givers slowly move you around the different areas, ensuring that there are enough quests for you to complete and ergo you are of an appropriate level when you move into a new area.

There are a number of different crafting professions that can be taken up. These are divided up into 2 categories, gathering and crafting. The gathering skills disassembling, herbalism and mining are the skills used to gather the materials for the crafting professions. Disassembling provides pieces of cloth and leather for Tailoring and Leatherworking, Mining gives you ore for Blacksmithing and Herbalism gives you plants to use in Alchemy. The more you gather and craft the higher the level of items that you can gather or craft. Simple! The cost of the professions can seem a little high for a completely new player without any funds behind them. Although, I didn’t see this as a major setback. I just bought the Mining book, quested for a bit and then came back when I had enough money for the blacksmithing book.

Another staple part of any rpg is the advancement of your character. Experience points are given for defeating enemies and handing in quests. As you accrue experience points your characters experience bar fills up. When it fills to the top, you gain a level and possibly some new skills. With each new level your character is given a point that they can use to increase any one of their statistics (Strength, Agility, Stamina, Luck etc.) and every second level you are given a point that you can use in a skill tree. It is this skill tree that allows you to increase the effectiveness of existing skills or even unlock new ones.

One aspect of levelling up which I don’t completely see the point of, is the Innkeeper. In Allods Online as you fight enemies, you will earn an amount of fatigue experience points. These points do not cause your character to level up, but will just sit in your experience bar. When you visit an Innkeeper, for a small fee you can turn this fatigue into experience points. I’m a bit lost on the real point of this, but maybe the usefulness of this will become apparent as I gain higher levels.

As is probably fairly clear by now, there’s nothing here that really deviates from the standard MMO formula, not in any real sense anyway. Although, that is just the shell of the game, and even at my lowly level (only level 7 by the way, so I’m hardly a veteran player) I’m coming across a lot of things that can’t be done yet but are awaiting me at higher levels.

Your characters reputation seems to be a big part of the game. As you complete quests you are given reputation with the group or faction you did the quest for. As your reputation increases more perks, and items are available. There’s mounts which I have yet to experience, I’ve seen the vendor but I’m too low level to be able to do anything with them. Player vs. Player combat is also something I’ve not yet tried. I’ve even read about building and sailing your own ship. I suspect that this is going to be far less interesting than it reads to be, but it’s still something I have to try.

One thing that is an interesting feature is all the free stuff that you’re given. Ok, I’ll tailor that comment a little bit for you. Very early on in the game you are given a chest. This chest will contain items such as potions, masks, confetti…. Nothing that is particularly game breaking, but little fun items all the same. Once opened the chest will start cooling-down. The duration of the cool-down appears to get longer the more times you open the chest. Your character will have an almost continual stream of new items. These items don’t go into your main inventory either, but into a different tab of your inventory called ‘boutique’.

I was also given another chest, which you can open when you reach the required level. Once opened, the chest contains an item and an additional chest which has a higher level requirement on it. The magical item inside can be equipped and it does have a direct impact on your character.

I mean seriously..... why?

So, is this game a time invest or a time-sink? What is my final opinion…?

Allods Online is a game that would be heavily ignored if you had to pay anything for it. However, it’s Free-to-Play and as you don’t have to spend anything it’s a lot more appealing. There’s an online store, if you do feel the need to spend your hard earned cash, but it’s not essential. Graphically it’s quite pretty. The sprites are bold, bright and nicely designed. Allods Online has a magically induced steam-punk feel to it, with copper-piped steam machinery intertwined with sparkling portals and magical creatures. There’s plenty of races and archetypes to try out, and the quests guide you gently through the earlier part of the game until you’re confident enough.

I did find the targeting a little sticky, some enemies were only targeted when they were too close for me to really do anything. Also my warriors charge attack didn’t always work if it was being performed through entrances or thresholds. It’s a little gripe though, and I doubt many games would be completely free of these type of issues. Also, you will run out of bag space quickly. I expect you can purchase larger bags for real money but the free bags you are given in game are a little restrictive, especially as quest items are put in your main inventory. However, crafting items have their own tab and there’s even a bag for the boutique stuff.

This game is nothing new. It’s nicely done, there’s no doubt about that but apart from some of the terms being given new names or mixed up a bit, you’re not looking at anything original.

Allods Online has been around for quite a while, and from what I have seen it’s up there near the top of the Free-to-Play chart. For a minimum of just three hours of your time, it probably is worth downloading. I don’t expect that you’ll lose weeks and months over this game but it is nice enough in its own way. Just don’t cancel those other subscriptions yet.

Yes! I did it! Not one mention of World of Warcraft….

Ah, darn it!

If you do fancy giving it a shot, you can get to their official website from my Free Demo / Games Links page.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.

So, I play World of Warcraft, my family have considered therapy for me, and whisper the word ‘menopause’ when they think I can’t hear them. I like WoW. I don’t intend to stop playing it anytime soon. I joined guilds, I left guilds, I looked for guilds, I started my own guild. There you have it. Myth created.

Apparently unlike other GMs I am human and flawed. My personality tends towards the passive with occasional temper tantrums. I DO stamp my feet like I am 5 years old. I don’t know anything about Raiding or PvPing and I suck at dungeons. I cannot speak in code, acronyms or a clever trolling manner. My coolness has been nerfed. I am 50 years old, I play the game, that’s all you are getting.

I’m just going to write this blog as an outpouring of babble from my head. If you expect insights into strategies and leveling skills I suggest you move on to another blog quickly. If you have nothing better to do, and just need to see if anyone is a little battier than you, then welcome!