I'm a little unreasonably proud of it, but I changed the default label widget to a more trendy cloud-type widget.
It's my first time playing with CSS/XHTML, but it wasn't too hard to figure out.
Woot. :)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
I'm back
Rough time in the past month or so, but I made it out okay. Work, real life, etc.
I missed writing in this blog, but I simply could not think of anything to say that was worthwhile. I didn't really like the article I had been writing (part 1 of which is below) and I haven't been doing much in WoW besides levelling a mage, who just hit 80 yesterday.
I've been feeling very burnt out on raiding. I revisited this feeling when my mage hit 80 without me even realizing I was about to do so. I hadn't been paying attention, and it was quite surprising when the achievement and grats from the guild popped up, actually. A mere hour afterward, where usually I would be busy running instances repeatedly grinding for rep, badges, and gear, after a failed bid at Wintergrasp for a VoA run and two heroics--one of which failed miserably--I logged off and went to go play [prototype].
Perhaps it's because my 25-man guild recently dropped to 10-mans after repeated attendance problems crippled our 25-man progression runs, and I just cannot take 10 mans seriously enough to make a determined effort. I know I'm feeling a bit disenfranchised and bored with life at 80. Too often I get feelings of deja vu contemplating running dailies for the 24215345th time, or busting my ass grinding money for raids that are inevitably wipefests on bosses we've already cleared before, or levelling professions again, or starting another alt to do the same quests for the fifteenth time.
All right, I'll say it: WoW is definitely starting to lose my interest. A lot of people would squarely blame Blizzard for that, but in truth, it's as much me changing as the game. Here's what it really comes down to: I simply do not have the resources or inclination to sacrifice social life for the game at this point in my life, although I know I'd enjoy it all over again, at least for a while.
I had considered changing guilds to one that required attendance for raiding slots, but I realized that it wasn't just my schedule that I would be accommodating, but my wife's, and I wouldn't consider choosing to play WoW (raid or not) over spending time with her on any kind of permanent or semi-permanent basis. My wife's schedule is simply not set up for raiding with a new guild either, and finding a guild that will (A) end raids early enough for East Coast people with a 9-5 on a Mountain Time server, (B) take both of us, and not just one or the other, and (C) just happen to accomodate our both (reasonably full) weekday schedules while allowing for my occasional days of working late on top of that... well, let's just say, we were lucky to find the one that we're in now. A hardcore progression guild is simply out of the question, even with the recruiting frenzy going on.
Even if the stars aligned, we don't have the cred or the drive for a hardcore guild at the moment. So, changing guilds is definitely out.
And all of the above is completely disregarding the fact that both of us are reasonably attached to the people in our current guild at the moment.
Is anyone else (subscribers, followers [like i have any], random commentors, or google spiders) feeling burnout on WoW atm? Kyrilean has a post on it on his blog, but what about others? Can you deal with it? Somewhat recently I read the archives of one of the top guilds on Kel'thuzad--Pacifist--and their reasons for quitting in the midst of Burning Crusade (with an excellent and nostalgic retrospective by the members). Pacifist wasn't just one of the top guilds on Kel'thuzad, they were one of the top in the world, at a time when nobody really cared about world-firsts and shit except WoW players: in BWL/AQ40 and Naxx. And you know what? I liked it that way. I also keep remembering the reasons for the breakup of my old Horde guild on Thunderlord, also in the midst of BC, with whom I raiding with throughout pre-BC content, and all of these things seem to echo my feelings now.
I really don't want to quit yet. I'd be a fool not to see where I am headed though.
I really miss life at level 60. It was really the best time for the game.
I missed writing in this blog, but I simply could not think of anything to say that was worthwhile. I didn't really like the article I had been writing (part 1 of which is below) and I haven't been doing much in WoW besides levelling a mage, who just hit 80 yesterday.
I've been feeling very burnt out on raiding. I revisited this feeling when my mage hit 80 without me even realizing I was about to do so. I hadn't been paying attention, and it was quite surprising when the achievement and grats from the guild popped up, actually. A mere hour afterward, where usually I would be busy running instances repeatedly grinding for rep, badges, and gear, after a failed bid at Wintergrasp for a VoA run and two heroics--one of which failed miserably--I logged off and went to go play [prototype].
Perhaps it's because my 25-man guild recently dropped to 10-mans after repeated attendance problems crippled our 25-man progression runs, and I just cannot take 10 mans seriously enough to make a determined effort. I know I'm feeling a bit disenfranchised and bored with life at 80. Too often I get feelings of deja vu contemplating running dailies for the 24215345th time, or busting my ass grinding money for raids that are inevitably wipefests on bosses we've already cleared before, or levelling professions again, or starting another alt to do the same quests for the fifteenth time.
All right, I'll say it: WoW is definitely starting to lose my interest. A lot of people would squarely blame Blizzard for that, but in truth, it's as much me changing as the game. Here's what it really comes down to: I simply do not have the resources or inclination to sacrifice social life for the game at this point in my life, although I know I'd enjoy it all over again, at least for a while.
I had considered changing guilds to one that required attendance for raiding slots, but I realized that it wasn't just my schedule that I would be accommodating, but my wife's, and I wouldn't consider choosing to play WoW (raid or not) over spending time with her on any kind of permanent or semi-permanent basis. My wife's schedule is simply not set up for raiding with a new guild either, and finding a guild that will (A) end raids early enough for East Coast people with a 9-5 on a Mountain Time server, (B) take both of us, and not just one or the other, and (C) just happen to accomodate our both (reasonably full) weekday schedules while allowing for my occasional days of working late on top of that... well, let's just say, we were lucky to find the one that we're in now. A hardcore progression guild is simply out of the question, even with the recruiting frenzy going on.
Even if the stars aligned, we don't have the cred or the drive for a hardcore guild at the moment. So, changing guilds is definitely out.
And all of the above is completely disregarding the fact that both of us are reasonably attached to the people in our current guild at the moment.
Is anyone else (subscribers, followers [like i have any], random commentors, or google spiders) feeling burnout on WoW atm? Kyrilean has a post on it on his blog, but what about others? Can you deal with it? Somewhat recently I read the archives of one of the top guilds on Kel'thuzad--Pacifist--and their reasons for quitting in the midst of Burning Crusade (with an excellent and nostalgic retrospective by the members). Pacifist wasn't just one of the top guilds on Kel'thuzad, they were one of the top in the world, at a time when nobody really cared about world-firsts and shit except WoW players: in BWL/AQ40 and Naxx. And you know what? I liked it that way. I also keep remembering the reasons for the breakup of my old Horde guild on Thunderlord, also in the midst of BC, with whom I raiding with throughout pre-BC content, and all of these things seem to echo my feelings now.
I really don't want to quit yet. I'd be a fool not to see where I am headed though.
I really miss life at level 60. It was really the best time for the game.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Real life intervenes, again
Going to have to delay part 2 for now, as work is picking up more and more every day. I may have time for a post tomorrow or the day after if I'm lucky.
In my free minutes at work, I'm watching the Priest Q&A thread on the WoW forums as closely as I can. I wish they would allow RSS feeds for forum threads because I'd be all over that feature. Merlot over at Misery had some interesting questions for the developers to answer that I'm looking forward to seeing. Here's hoping they get to them.
In my free minutes at work, I'm watching the Priest Q&A thread on the WoW forums as closely as I can. I wish they would allow RSS feeds for forum threads because I'd be all over that feature. Merlot over at Misery had some interesting questions for the developers to answer that I'm looking forward to seeing. Here's hoping they get to them.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Blizzard's new philosophy, part 1
Sorry for the late post, but I only just caught up with WoW news yesterday after coming back from my honeymoon. However, I wanted to chime in with something that's been tickling me for a while about the game.
Blizzard has, in recent memory (meaning the last year or two), begun in earnest a public relations campaign that continues to out-do every MMO company that has ever existed. The amount of community interaction that Blizzard manages, on a large scale, competes favorably with smaller MMOs that regularly interact with their fans. Now, more than ever, Blizzard continues their new trend of community interaction that they began shortly after Burning Crusade's launch, with their new Q&A initiative launched several days ago.
However, this new drive is, I believe, what has contributed in large part to the loss of "old-timer" players and general disenchantment with new gameplay mechanics that are not just surprising, but actually a bit saddening to long-time WoW gamers.
Let me get two things out there right now. I'm not a Blizzard-hater, nor do I hate WoW. Blizzard is a company that continually surprises and impresses me, and the content of this post doesn't even apply to yours truly for the most part. Secondly, I in no way believe that this is the wrong direction for the game to take. I just wanted to offer a perspective on it from the eyes of someone who has played WoW almost since the day it came out in November, 2004.
The disenchantment that I have felt on occasion stems from a natural resistance to change that I, like most people in the world, possess in some quantity or another. Everyone likes the familiar game they've kept as a hobby on the side through different changes in their own "real life," and I'm no exception. However, stagnation kills MMOs. Everquest is a good example of death by stagnation. Although I played the game myself for at most a week, I could see that each expansion was content without evolution, over and over again. Innovation, to the eyes of one unfamiliar with the game's intricacies, was minimal, and repetition, the annoying device of the MMO god of carpal tunnel syndrome and loot whores, was high. As a result, when competition came out that promised a new, exciting experience, players left in droves. By the time SOE attempted to revitalize its marketing, it was far too late already to attract new players. Blizzard has, quite obviously, and beyond the ability of anyone to show otherwise, demonstrated the ability to avoid stagnation in WoW.
However, the other side of the coin is too much change causes players to lose that feeling of stability that maintains their desire to return. Players lose touch with the game when they feel that it's changing too fast to provide an individualized experience anymore, for a variety of reasons. The world of the MMO doesn't conform to memory or experience, or re-learning new rules of the world repeatedly becomes tiresome and unwanted. For a good example of this extreme, check out the "Combat System Revamp" (another SOE flub) in Star Wars: Galaxies. I won't get into the depth and consequences of the changes in this one patch alone, but let's just say they could also have called it the "lose half your subscribers overnight" patch.
Blizzard is walking a fine line here. Stay traditional, but not too traditional. Change, but don't change too much. The more people, and competing desires, the harder to balance--It's essentially a question of economies of scale. I don't think many people who regularly complain about various aspects of the game really appreciate the difficulty that Blizzard has in becoming successful without becoming a victim of that same success. Blizzard has evidently chosen to focus on their community, not exclusively, but to a great degree, as a source for the change that they recognize is necessary for the game to undertake. I'm going to make the assumption that their resistance to certain changes is also guided, less evidently but undoubtably to some degree, by their community interactions.
How Blizzard is walking this line between change and tradition, and the effect that their approach has on their long-time players (as opposed to newbies, or late-coming players) is really what I'd like to address. However, this will have to wait until part 2! I'll try to make it worth it. :)
Blizzard has, in recent memory (meaning the last year or two), begun in earnest a public relations campaign that continues to out-do every MMO company that has ever existed. The amount of community interaction that Blizzard manages, on a large scale, competes favorably with smaller MMOs that regularly interact with their fans. Now, more than ever, Blizzard continues their new trend of community interaction that they began shortly after Burning Crusade's launch, with their new Q&A initiative launched several days ago.
However, this new drive is, I believe, what has contributed in large part to the loss of "old-timer" players and general disenchantment with new gameplay mechanics that are not just surprising, but actually a bit saddening to long-time WoW gamers.
Let me get two things out there right now. I'm not a Blizzard-hater, nor do I hate WoW. Blizzard is a company that continually surprises and impresses me, and the content of this post doesn't even apply to yours truly for the most part. Secondly, I in no way believe that this is the wrong direction for the game to take. I just wanted to offer a perspective on it from the eyes of someone who has played WoW almost since the day it came out in November, 2004.
The disenchantment that I have felt on occasion stems from a natural resistance to change that I, like most people in the world, possess in some quantity or another. Everyone likes the familiar game they've kept as a hobby on the side through different changes in their own "real life," and I'm no exception. However, stagnation kills MMOs. Everquest is a good example of death by stagnation. Although I played the game myself for at most a week, I could see that each expansion was content without evolution, over and over again. Innovation, to the eyes of one unfamiliar with the game's intricacies, was minimal, and repetition, the annoying device of the MMO god of carpal tunnel syndrome and loot whores, was high. As a result, when competition came out that promised a new, exciting experience, players left in droves. By the time SOE attempted to revitalize its marketing, it was far too late already to attract new players. Blizzard has, quite obviously, and beyond the ability of anyone to show otherwise, demonstrated the ability to avoid stagnation in WoW.
However, the other side of the coin is too much change causes players to lose that feeling of stability that maintains their desire to return. Players lose touch with the game when they feel that it's changing too fast to provide an individualized experience anymore, for a variety of reasons. The world of the MMO doesn't conform to memory or experience, or re-learning new rules of the world repeatedly becomes tiresome and unwanted. For a good example of this extreme, check out the "Combat System Revamp" (another SOE flub) in Star Wars: Galaxies. I won't get into the depth and consequences of the changes in this one patch alone, but let's just say they could also have called it the "lose half your subscribers overnight" patch.
Blizzard is walking a fine line here. Stay traditional, but not too traditional. Change, but don't change too much. The more people, and competing desires, the harder to balance--It's essentially a question of economies of scale. I don't think many people who regularly complain about various aspects of the game really appreciate the difficulty that Blizzard has in becoming successful without becoming a victim of that same success. Blizzard has evidently chosen to focus on their community, not exclusively, but to a great degree, as a source for the change that they recognize is necessary for the game to undertake. I'm going to make the assumption that their resistance to certain changes is also guided, less evidently but undoubtably to some degree, by their community interactions.
How Blizzard is walking this line between change and tradition, and the effect that their approach has on their long-time players (as opposed to newbies, or late-coming players) is really what I'd like to address. However, this will have to wait until part 2! I'll try to make it worth it. :)
Friday, May 22, 2009
Lack of updates
My upcoming marriage and honeymoon have caused WoW to be put on the back burner (in terms of mental activity and priorities) for the moment, which explains the lack of updating.
I hope to return to serious posting(tm) afterwards. My future wife and I expect to get much more in-depth with raiding. Hopefully this will allow us to push through some of the current barriers we're running into.
Until then... see you later!
I hope to return to serious posting(tm) afterwards. My future wife and I expect to get much more in-depth with raiding. Hopefully this will allow us to push through some of the current barriers we're running into.
Until then... see you later!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
A note to puggers
I really dislike it when people specify "x DPS minimum for invite" or other related criteria. It is literally impossible to quantify expected DPS unless you are talking about one specific situation. For example, on a Heroic Target Dummy. And I do 4k+ dps in a well-constructed 25man raid but I'm not going to brag about my 2800 dps on a target dummy. The only other option is, like the theorycrafters at Elitist Jerks, to simply assume that the player in question has all available raid buffs period. This assumption makes sense when comparing top end capabilities of classes in progression guilds in progression content. However it makes little to no sense to compare these imaginary situations to reality when you're spamming for group members in Dalaran.
So, if you're one of those people that sits in Dalaran spamming Trade with something to the effect of "LF 1 DPS 10 man Ulduar 4k dps please" you're an idiot. You're not even going to guarantee you're going to get a decent dps'er either. Depending on your group makeup and buff synergy, in a ten-man raid my 4k+DPS in 25 man Naxx can turn into 3k or less. It's just how the game works. By the time you lower your "required DPS"to an accurate and representative level for the instance you're finding group members for, the less useful and discriminating your ad is going to be.
Therefore, please don't encourage meter padding and bads that raid with one eye fixed on Recount with those LFM ads.
What you want is a 2.8k dpser who will stay alive to the end of the fight, rather than a 3.8k dps'er who dies to a void zone ten seconds into the fight. You're not going to be able to find that kind of player much more easily than simply taking who you can find (in an appropriate level of gear) and giving the instance a go.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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