Gamers Trust Multi-Gaming Platforms

World of Warcraft Gamers Trust Guild

Here is the place to sign up to become a review candidate or get more information about our review candidate membership in WoW.

OverWatch Gamers Trust Group: BioRage

Here is the place to sign up to become a review candidate or get more information about our review candidate membership in OverWatch.

Rocket League Gamers Trust Team: Eclypse

Here is the place to sign up to become a review candidate or get more information about our review candidate membership in Rocket League.

As a Multi-Gaming nonprofit organization, Gamers Trust Incorporated, has done it’s best to identify and establish for it’s members the top games that the internet has to offer and you the gamers are currently playing. We have had a long time presence in our World of Warcraft – Ravencrest server, going on 9 years now, but recently we have decided to return in a big way to the Steam platform that started it all for us way back in the Counter-Strike days. More games will be added as we continue to grow our Rocket League and OverWatch expansion groups, so keep your eyes peeled and enjoy the show!

Thank you on behalf of the <GT> Membership, <GT> In-game Leadership and, the <GT> Board of Directors…

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Want to join Gamers Trust Incorporated

A little bit about us first;

Gamers Trust Incorporated is a registered nonprofit organization founded in 2008 that promotes leadership and teamwork in virtual gaming environments.

Our focus is promoting the highest standards of conduct amongst our membership because our environment is priority #1.

Cooperation, kindness and respect are the hallmarks of a <GT> Member.

We run a World of Warcraft® casual raiding group on the weekend that has improved steadily while having a blast doing it.

We are currently ranked the 15th alliance raid group on the US Ravencrest/Uldaman servers for the Draenor expansion and previously 6th during the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

We are drama free and proud of it!

We pride ourselves on having the best members in any game.

You won’t find any elitist or superior attitudes here but you will find elite and superior people in <GT>.

If you are interested in joining our World of Warcraft® group please contact one of our members in-game, use the guild finder on either the US Ravencrest/Uldaman servers once you’ve logged in, or simply fill out our Membership Application on the website.

We are looking forward to talking with you soon about your want to join Gamers Trust Incorporated.

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Gamers Trust Membership Rules

These Gamers Trust Membership Rules were created and decided on by the membership for the membership

Gamers Trust Membership Rules 1-11

1.)    Do not cheat in any way, shape, or form.

2.)    Ongoing abuse of <GT> facilities is considered breach of membership.

3.)    Always be helpful to other <GT> Members.

4.)    The relationships inside of the <GT> facilities should always be productive by maintaining the highest Gamers Trust standards.

5.)    Be respectful to ALL gamers at ALL times.

6.)    Every member’s game name must reflect well on the organization.

7.)    Always conform to the direction of the organizations goals.

8.)    Do not use language that is unacceptable in a public forum.

9.)    If you are unsure of any of the <GT> policies or procedures, proceed with CAUTION.

10.)  Constant challenges to our rules will result in removal from membership.

11.)  Kindness is a virtue, and we expect you to promote such while interacting with both the public gamers and <GT> Members. (This includes designated leaders and assistants as they are in positions of importance within <GT> and must always hold themselves and others to the highest standards of social conduct.)

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THE INVASION BEGINS SUMMER 2016—Watch the World of Warcraft Legion Cinematic

THEN PRE-PURCHASE WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: LEGION WHICH IS NOW AVAILABLE!

Prepare for the Burning Legion’s return with early access to the expansion’s Demon Hunter hero class

Instantly boost one character to level 100 TODAY

IRVINE, Calif.—November 6, 2015—The Burning Legion’s assault on Azeroth begins next summer—but for heroes around the world, hunting preparations start now. Today at BlizzCon^® 2015, Blizzard Entertainment announced that World of Warcraft ^® : Legion, the sixth expansion to its acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now available for pre-purchase at www.wowlegion.com.Players who pre-purchase World of Warcraft: Legion digitally can immediately boost one character of their choosing to level 100. In addition, those who pre-purchase will get early access to the brand-new hero class coming with Legion, the Demon Hunter, prior to the expansion’s release.During today’s BlizzCon opening ceremony, Blizzard also unveiled the intro cinematic for the expansion, setting the stage for the demonic Burning Legion’s devastating return. As the Horde and the Alliance battle against hopeless odds, heroes of both factions must seek salvation among the Broken Isles—ancient center of a doomed night elf civilization. There, they’ll take up mighty Artifact weapons and make a forbidden pact with the dread Demon Hunters of the Illidari—a final, desperate bid to save their world from falling under the Great Burning Shadow.“World of Warcraft: Legion is one of the most intense chapters in the Warcraft saga yet, filled with features and content that will push new and veteran heroes to their limits,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Whether players want to boost a new character or get a head start on mastering a Demon Hunter, they’ll be primed and ready to battle the Burning Legion when the expansion launches next summer.”Prepare for BattleWorld of Warcraft: Legion will be available in a Standard Edition (physical and digital versions available; SRP $49.99), which players can pre-purchase digitally now at www.wowlegion.com. Players also have the option to upgrade their pre-purchase to the Digital Deluxe Edition (SRP $69.99), which contains the following in-game bonuses for World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games (available upon or before the expansion’s launch):

• World of Warcraft – Illidari Felstalker Mount and Nibbles Pet — Stalk the invading demonic forces atop one of the Burning Legion’s own twisted hounds of war, and summon a delightfully demented companion to keep you warm by the fel fire—both available immediately upon pre-purchase.
• Heroes of the Storm – Felstalker Mount — Charge down the lanes of the Nexus and wreak havoc on the opposing team astride this fierce fanged terror.
• StarCraft^® II – Fel Protoss Portraits — Take back Aiur in infernal style with psionic-infused StarCraft II portraits of Illidan and Gul’dan.
• Diablo^® III – Wings of the Betrayer — Equip your hero with Illidan’s wings and strike terror into the hearts of Sanctuary’s demons.

Players who pre-purchase either the digital Standard Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition of Legion through www.wowlegion.com will be able to immediately boost one character to level 100, allowing them to experience the latest World of Warcraft content alongside their friends. Players who wish to prepare multiple characters for battle against the Burning Legion also now have the option to purchase additional level-100 character boosts directly through the game at $60 each. Further details on character boosts, including information on the gear, skills, and Garrison upgrades boosted level-100 characters will receive, can be found at www.worldofwarcraft.com.

Pre-purchasing Legion will also grant early access to the Demon Hunter prior to the expansion’s release. This dexterous and deadly new hero class turns the twisted power of the Burning Legion against them; drawing on fel forces to fuel their attacks, Demon Hunters pursue their prey with uncanny agility, unleash pent-up fury in the form of devastating attacks, and metamorphose into terrifying demonic forms. As a hero class, Demon Hunters begin their journey at a higher level than other World of Warcraft classes. During the pre-launch early-access period, players will be able to complete the Demon Hunter’s unique starting experience and achieve level 100—leaving them fully prepared to join their allies on the Broken Isles the moment the expansion launches. Further details on the Demon Hunter upcoming early-access period, including the timing and duration, will be announced at a later date.

World of Warcraft: Legion will also be available in a retail-only Collector’s Edition (SRP $89.99), which includes the digital bonuses from the Digital Deluxe Edition along with a full-color hardcover art book, a behind-the-scenes two-disc Blu-ray/DVD set, a CD soundtrack, and a Legion mouse pad. Supplies are limited; players should check with their local retailer for pre-order details and availability.

World of Warcraft: Legion Features

World of Warcraft: Legion is filled with features and content that will transform Azeroth’s heroes into Legion-slaying avatars of vengeance, including:

• New Hero Class: Demon Hunter — Unleash the demon within as an all-new melee hero class gifted with preternatural mobility—and the ability to metamorphose into hellish new forms.
• New Feature: Artifact Weapons — Smite the Legion with class-specific weapons of lore. Unlock awesome abilities and traits, and customize your weapon to suit your needs.
• New Continent: The Broken Isles — Discover the fate of a lost night elf civilization, confront twisted fragments of the Emerald Nightmare, and hunt agents of the Legion in all-new zones.
• Boost to Level 100 — Come fully prepared to battle the Legion with a level-100 character boost, and fight alongside your friends in this epic new chapter of World of Warcraft—available immediately upon pre-purchase.
• New Feature: Order Hall — Unite fellow NPC members of your class’s order to carry out missions at your command.
• New PvP Honor System — Fight for fame, glory, and a range of new PvP-specific powers as you face the opposing faction in Arenas and Battlegrounds.

For more information about World of Warcraft: Legion or to sign up for the upcoming beta test, visit www.wowlegion.com. For screenshots, videos, and other media, visit the Blizzard Entertainment press site at http://blizzard.gamespress.com/world-of-warcraft.

With multiple games in development, Blizzard has numerous positions currently available—visit http://jobs.blizzard.com for more information and to learn how to apply.

Players upgrading from World of Warcraft Starter Edition must wait for trial restrictions to be removed (up to 72 hours) before using character boost. World of Warcraft: Legion will launch in summer 2016 (winter 2016 in regions in southern hemisphere; on or before September 21, 2016); Demon Hunter early access timing will be announced at a later date. Only one Demon Hunter per realm; requires at least one level 70 character on realm.

Corresponding World of Warcraft expansions required.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft^® and the Warcraft^®, StarCraft^®, and Diablo^® franchises, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes nineteen #1 games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net^®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

Sales and/or downloads. Based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about World of Warcraft: Legion, including with respect to its launch date, features, and gameplay, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

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Warcraft Official Movie Trailer HD
In Theaters, June 10, 2016
www.warcraftmovie.com

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By: Zarhym 5/28/2014

At BlizzCon 2013, we shared a lot of our ideas for Warlords of Draenor’s Garrisons. We knew early on in development that this feature would strike a chord with long-time Warcraft players going back to the RTS days, as well as set the tone for the conflict with the Iron Horde. Since BlizzCon, we’ve been experimenting and iterating on Garrison concepts in our design laboratories, and we wanted to give you an updated preview of what’s to come.

In this 4-part series, we’ll be giving you a much closer look at how Garrisons are shaping up and how you can expect to interact with them in Warlords of Draenor. For this first installment, we’re going to start off by painting a picture of Garrisons in relatively broad strokes, setting the stage to delve into the functional depth over the coming weeks in parts 2 through 4.

Establish Your Garrison While You Level

We want the process of staking your claim on Draenor to fundamentally shape your gameplay experience. Over the course of building your Garrison, we want you to face exciting decisions that will meaningfully impact how you interact with the world around you, fulfilling that fantasy of building and operating your own Warcraft base.

The story you weave in Draenor is one of personal heroism, but your actions have a wider impact—part of your mission is to raise an army capable of toppling the Iron Horde, and the Garrison is integral to that experience. In terms of gameplay, that means you’ll be creating and strengthening your Garrison as you journey to level 100. While questing through Draenor, you’ll encounter opportunities to choose between different types of buildings to add to your Garrison. Each choice will have an impact on your leveling experience, influencing the quests you’ll have available and the zone-specific benefits you’ll unlock upon completion of your chosen structure.

As an example, you can choose either the Lumber Mill or the Sparring Arena while questing in Gorgrond. Not only does this choice unlock the design blueprints that allow you to add the building to your Garrison, it also lets you construct a military outpost centered around that building in Gorgrond. This plays an integral role in how you experience the zone, as you’ll be sent on quests specific to the building you’ve chosen and will receive a permanent benefit whenever you’re in Gorgrond.

When you’ve completed constructing a building in a zone—and subsequently unlocked it for your Garrison—we want you to feel duly rewarded for helping to strengthen the forces in the area against the Iron Horde. To give you more of a feeling for the ideas we have for zone benefits, imagine summoning a brutish ogre bodyguard from your Sparring Arena when in Gorgrond, or calling down artillery strikes from your Armory while in Talador. Our goal is for each zone to offer equally compelling alternatives from which to choose, and to provide you with plenty of powerful creatures to vanquish with your newfound powers.

Enlist Followers to Join Your Garrison

Your Garrison wouldn’t be much of a base without some citizens to populate it—we call these brave souls Followers. You’ll be able to recruit Followers through a wide variety of methods—you can think of it sort of like collecting mounts or battle pets. And, like battle pets, different Followers will have varying skill sets, including their own strengths and weaknesses. Some Followers are unique and might even have names already familiar to you, while others will make for fine grunts to operate the saws of your Lumber Mill, brew potions in your Alchemy Lab, or craft magical components in your Enchanter’s Study. You can maximize the productivity of your Garrison by assigning specific Followers to the posts where which they’re most proficient, such as Johnny Blacksmith, who will increase the output of materials from—you guessed it—your Blacksmith when assigned to work it. Similarly, Followers more suited to combat would be ideal to send on missions, from which you can acquire an assortment of useful bounty.

Missions will have variable difficulties, durations, and group size requirements, and some will play better to the strengths of particular Followers over others. A wise commander will create the ideal team for a mission and send them off to reap the maximum rewards. Complete enough missions and your Followers will level up, and once they’ve reached level 100, they can continue to improve their item levels, abilities, and traits. After you’ve sent a group on a mission, progress will continue whether you’re hanging out in your Garrison, battling through Blackrock Foundry, or even sleeping soundly logged out of the game.

The buildings you create, NPCs you meet, and Followers you recruit will ultimately determine who inhabits your Garrison, and you’ll see them going about their business each time you visit. You’re in charge of your own base and citizens, and you’ll even host leaders and other notable heroes from your faction to talk war strategy—among other things.

We’ve also improved NPC AI (artificial intelligence) to further reinforce that “bustling town” feeling as you expand your Garrison. While Azeroth’s NPCs have traditionally been manually scripted to move along set paths for predetermined amounts of time, stopping at certain locations and then heading in new directions only as commanded, this behavior wouldn’t have sufficed for Followers. A particular Follower might need to know on which plot within your Garrison you’ve built your Trading Post, for example, so he or she can make the trek to and from that specific location while doing your bidding. This improved AI also allows us to create more dynamic behavior, where NPCs can react to your commands or other situations happening around them. Want to have your subjects join you in a conga line around town? Thanks to improved AI and a new player emote, you can . . . and they will!

Fortify Your Fortress

Questing during the leveling process on Draenor will be the primary means by which you establish and grow your base, but the blueprints that allow you to construct different buildings can be obtained in a variety of ways. For example, you can find Followers who will teach you blueprints, obtain them via drops from creatures out in the world or in dungeons, or earn them via faction reputation. At level 100, you can also purchase blueprints from a vendor for the buildings from each zone you originally didn’t choose. So, if you decide to build a Mage Tower instead of an Armory in Talador, you’ll still be able to purchase the blueprints that allow you to build an Armory in your Garrison later on. From there you may decide you want an Armory instead of a Mage Tower in your Garrison—or maybe you’ll find room for both!

You’ll have access to 21 unique building types in all, each of which can be upgraded through 3 levels and then assigned specializations to maximize their effectiveness, and your Garrison can be expanded from its initial 4 building plots to a maximum of 10. If this sounds like too many big choices to make as you go along, don’t fret! You’ll be able to alter your building choices to suit your needs—and the needs of the war effort.

The Garrison also grants you other powerful benefits. It will play an integral role in your professions on Draenor, giving your character access to more than just the normal two primary professions (we’ll cover that in more depth in part 2 of this preview series). In addition, amassing a powerful army of Followers will maximize your chances of earning mission rewards like dungeon and entry-level raid loot for your character—but these will be tuned to feel more like bonuses rather than eclipsing your character’s direct accomplishments. We want there to be a ton of depth to the gameplay and customization of the Garrison, but we also don’t want to make players feel like they’re required to spend more time than they’d like laboring away on it after they’ve reached level 100. We recognize that there’s a fine line between introducing a system that provides cool bonuses and adding “chores” that feel necessary for cutting-edge endgame progression. To this end, players who prefer to level up mostly through dungeons or Battlegrounds will still be able to purchase the building blueprints that would otherwise be obtained through questing on Draenor.

The Last Line of Defense

Draenor is a savage and dangerous land. From the moment you set foot onto its soil, you will be hounded at every turn by the united clans of the Iron Horde. With few allies at your side, establishing a well-defended base will be one of the first orders of business. As the story unfolds, you’ll find that Garrisons are intimately integrated into every zone—whether you choose to follow the main quest path or just head off into the hills to explore, you will meet allies (and enemies) in every corner of the world. While your main fortress will always be in Shadowmoon Valley (Alliance) or Frostfire Ridge (Horde), you will establish Garrison outposts in Gorgrond, Talador, Nagrand, and Spires of Arak, all customized based on your building choices. Eventually, your forces will span the continent, and you will have an army capable of assaulting the fortified Iron Horde Foundry. Will your troops succeed? That’s entirely up to you, commander.

More to Come!

Thank you for joining us on this quick tour of your Garrison, and we hope you’ll come back for the rest—we’ve only just scratched the surface of this exciting new feature. In Part 2, we’ll take a much closer look at the buildings, including all 21 unique building types and their perks and specializations, as well as how professions are integrated. Stay tuned!

Original article: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/14001702/garrison-preview-part-1-your-base-on-draenor-5-28-2014

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I am going to try and clear up some of the misunderstandings and the concern about the future of 10 man raiding guilds when the World of Draenor expansion hits.

Is the Warlords of Draenor release the death of 10 man guilds in World of Warcraft?

My opinion and the definitive answer is that 10 man raiding guilds will not be eliminated in the next expansion. This truth is contrary to the current outcry that Blizzard is killing 10 man raiding guilds in favor of creating 20 man raiding guilds.

Blizzard is however giving the elite raiders and raid guilds exactly what they have been clamoring about for so long. They are providing them with a gift to their incessant mantra, “The raid bosses are too easy!”

These elite raiders and their 10 man raid team guilds that are burning through the 10 man regular content within the first few weeks of any expansions release and then downing the heroic mode soon thereafter will be the ones most affected by this imminent change of the mythic raid structure of 20 man.

Now I am not bashing these elite raiders though I do see the irony of them getting what they asked for and then complaining about it. To understand what Blizzard is trying to accomplish with mythic mode we must first learn exactly what that means.

Normal will be as difficult as the current Flex Mode is today
Heroic will be as difficult as current Normal Mode is today
Mythic will be as difficult as current Heroic Mode is today but with a 20 man requirement instead of an option for 10 or 25 man

This it seems has all kinds of elite guilds in an uproar. 10 man elite guilds complain that they will have to recruit upwards of 15 more raid members (10 more to fill the required spots and 5 more to sub on the bench) and 25 man elite guilds say they will have to drop as many as 10 raid members (5 to meet the requirement and 5 other subs from the bench).

Now anyone who is in Gamers Trust already knows that we have very rarely if ever run a heroic mode setting in any current expansion. As an example we consistently ran and downed the 10 man content on normal mode during Cataclysm every week without fail on a 2 day raiding schedule 2 hours per night.

When we tried to run heroic mode we either couldn’t pull it off or felt that it was simply a repeat of our previous efforts and even though the lure of better gear waited for us it just never materialized as a reality.

I don’t see us changing that any time soon. Currently we have a loose 10 man raid group and even though some of our raiders are exceptionally geared most of our team has an average gear level and our guilds raid progression in MoP shows it. We find ourselves fighting against Tortos weekly and although frustratingly difficult at times we have seen glimpses that his downfall for us isn’t to far off (we had him down to 60% last week).

This proves that the current content of normal mode for our guild is plenty difficult enough. Being in Throne of Thunder as a guild isn’t a bad thing, we are doing what we have always done. We are progressing at our own pace and enjoying the content we are currently on (most fights anyways). Gamers Trust has never been a hard core raiding guild, in fact we are exactly the opposite; we are the definition of a casual raiding guild.

Our overall goals are similar if not identical to the hard core raiding guilds (we both want to down content and we both want to get better gear) but our priorities to do that are completely different (we don’t want to down that content at the expense of our guild environment and/or our fellow members being left behind).

Hard core raiders pride themselves on things like realm first victories, and having the highest gear available to them as soon as possible. These are admirable priorities if that is what makes the game most enjoyable for their members. Often however, priorities such as these create an environment of winning at any cost, irrespective of the consequences such a vicious cycle produces within the guild itself.

We casual raiders pride ourselves on providing a place where our members can get to know each other on a more personal level and can help each other progress while doing so without the normal pressures of having to compete for available raid slots, or over burden ourselves with the quest for immediate progression and better gear at the expense of inclusion and fellowship.

Neither of these guild types and their priorities is necessarily better then the other. Neither of them makes the other less valuable. But without any doubt these are guilds at polar opposites within the world of World of Warcraft.

Most hard core raiding guilds that cannot maintain their progression and by extension better gear drops for the elite raiders in their mists fracture and dissolve into oblivion.

It is a vicious cycle that has repeated itself over and over and over again. Unfortunately many good guilds that strive to compete at a high level simply fall apart once that singular priority is no longer attainable. Their members go to other hard core raiding guilds and the process repeats. Abuses of persons and practices permeate such occurrences and many times hurt feelings and abandonment issues create a rift that cannot be repaired.

So in closing I hope that those hard core raiding guilds that clamored for harder content worthy of their elite skill sets, be they currently running 10 or 25 man heroic modes, realize that what they asked for they got with 20 man mythic.

What I seem to be seeing brew however is the beginning of a new wave of separations amongst their ilk to adjust and compete as they have always done. The uproar we hear now is only the tip of the iceberg once these guilds shatter into still more disgruntled elite players who feel disenfranchised at the idea that Blizzard provides them with their wish for harder content in this way…

We in Gamers Trust will duck this conundrum as we have always done. We will not be the realm first guild for any achievement; we will not be pursuing gear at any cost, and we will honor our way of doing things while providing for ourselves and fellow members. We will be downing bosses at our own pace and getting the gear drops as they fall.

10 man guilds still live in Warlords of Draenor but they look more like us. It seems we are setting a trend without even trying.

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I cannot tell you how many times I wished that I could stay at the anvil and continue crafting while I leveled my Blacksmithing instead of having to stop and run to the bank to get mats I had stored there.

I wished so many times that when I was ready to craft the next piece of epic gear for my Warrior that I didn’t have to go back and forth between the bank, the auction house and the anvil in an epic waste of time.

I cannot tell you how many times I would just go to the auction house to by mats only later to discover I had them all the while in my bank.

Needless to say I think this will be a great addition to my personal gaming experience.

When I read the warlords of draenor news article from Blizzard about these new UI changes this one in particular jumped out at me and smacked me in the noggin. It was like they had read my mind. Now I know that many of you will tell me that this is nothing new, that there are plenty of add-ons that do exactly the same thing and I could only say of course your right.

But those pesky little add-ons for every little thing eat up computer resources like nobody’s business and for someone like me who has an ancient machine (7 years old) I have to limit my add-on allowance to the absolute bare necessities like Deadly Boss-Mods and Skada.

So every time Blizzard incorporates into the game a feature that does away with the need for a special add-on for this or that it helps all of us out, even if you have the latest Cray 5 computer and can run anything and everything all at once on ultra-mode.

Why you say? Well for example any third party add-on by extension is not 100% compatible with WoW. That means as new patches get released the add-on is immediately out of date and someone has to rewrite its code to bring it back into line. While this rewrite is occurring all of us who have the add-on are running around missing it and our individual experiences suffer. Now multiply that, times, however many add-ons anyone person might have and I think you get the point…

Not to mention the fact that if one of those add-ons are rewritten wrong it will crash your game and ruin your day.

My biggest wish now for an add-on to be absorbed into the game is reforgenator, it was a very simple and extremely small add-on. With one button push it would give you all the necessary stats to reforge each piece of your gear instantly! What a concept! unfortunately the developer has abandoned the project and left all of us fending for ourselves on Noxxic.com, Mr. Robot, etc… or by having to do all that research to actually reforge manually :(.

This nice little add-on used to provide me and others like me with a fail-safe method to get the most out of our toons and be the best we could be by maintaining the hit/expertise caps while maximizing our most valuable secondary stats at the same time. This helped our raid groups, LFR’s, and dungeon compainions get helpful participants. Blizz are you listening???

It’s almost Christmas after all.

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Garrosh Hellscream has released upon the sacred valley of Panderia the ancient and evil heart of an Old God. This catalyst of horror is just the beginning stages of a war that threatens once more to drag all of Azeroth into the abyss of destruction.

And so it goes in the fantasy World of Warcraft universe with the release of wow 5.4 but as we subscribers explore the story deeper we find many parallels to some real world ideas that are far from make believe.

For example Garrosh has declared all other members of the traditional Horde outside of his elite and ‘pure’ band of Orcish forces weak and not worthy of the title ‘The True Horde’.

Isn’t this an idea that sounds rather familiar to our real world’s history? A group of select ‘pure’ believers who are hell bent on wiping out all that the world has previously known and built, led by a fanatical and bloodlust driven Warchief.

This pureness theme has reoccurred in human history for as long as our story as a species has been told. From what we today would consider only myths like the Frost Giants in the Asgardian tales of Thor, to our current reality of fundamental terrorism based upon religious and political beliefs.

We as humans are inherently well versed in these themes because so much of our tales warn us against the path of elitism. We know that the balance of the world we live in depends in most part on the conscience of reasonable men to remain reasonable about inherent differences amongst our species.

Ok back to the storyline of 5.4 Garrosh has discovered beneath the ground of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms a way to drive a wedge between the moderate Horde and his truly frenzied legions that will carry out whatever it takes to win a total victory.

What he doesn’t realize yet like most other fanatical leaders, is his belief and its origin is an idea that is not his own. It was the Old God Y’shaarj who whispered into his mind the idea that he was destined to be the leader of a perfect race of Orcs who would overwhelm Azeroth’s defenders and finally claim victory for his True Horde.

A world ruled by Orcs.

It seems that World of Warcraft’s idea behind 5.4 will have legs with its more mature subscriber base because of the path the writers have chosen to explore. It is a more realistic theme based, in part at least, on real world history both past and present.

The post The Parallels of WoW 5.4 to our Real World appeared first on Gamers Trust Incorporated.

Published by Rick Lane in 2011

How 9/11 Influenced Gaming

Where does 9/11 stand in the context of gaming culture? Cultural and artistic mediums fall within the neutral zone on the litmus paper of 9/11 influences, somewhere between international politics and equestrianism. While it might seem like games fall closer to the study of horses in the amount of influence 9/11 has had on them, games have actually been more heavily affected than you might think.

Aside from one or two abortive attempts at creating a game that actually revolved around 9/11 (such as the cancerous merchandising offshoot World Trade Center, based on the equally questionable Oliver Stone film), direct references to 9/11 are notably sparse across the games industry. It’s therefore going to seem strange when I tell you that gaming has one of the most complex relationships with 9/11 of any artistic medium, and that this relationship is also a powerful indicator of where video gaming stands from a cultural perspective.

Perhaps the oddest thing about the relationship games have with 9/11 is that it began with a curious retroactive denial that the twin towers ever existed; a move mirrored in other popular media. A fairly straightforward example of this was Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2. Released in 2000, it originally featured an image of a plane flying toward the twin towers on its back cover – an understandable cut from the marketing plan following the attacks.

This was a simple alteration compared to the changes made to Spider Man 2: Enter Electro, however. Also released in 2000, the final battle of Enter Electro was set atop the World Trade Center. After the attacks the game was pulled from the shelves, and the final stage was re-worked and re-released so that the final stage was no longer referred to directly and less resembled the twin towers.

Whether this retroactive cultural redaction of the World Trade Center from media was the right or wrong way to react to the attacks is a subject which is still debated. Yet it was perhaps more important for games to respond to the heightened sensitivity of the time than other cultural mediums, as the industry quickly came under fire due to the suggested use of Flight Simulator by the perpetrators for training purposes, and the old stick of video-game violence with which the mainstream media so loves to beat it.

In fact, one of the most politically sensitive and high profile titles to be released around this time was Grand Theft Auto III which, unlike Spider Man 2 and Red Alert 2, was still in development when the attacks occurred. On 19 September, 2001 the president of Rockstar Sam Houser issued an email that announced a delay while the company made ‘a full content review of all our titles’ as a result of the attacks. For GTA III, this included ‘certain small contextual references that we were no longer comfortable with’ and ‘a couple of very rare gameplay instances that no longer felt appropriate.’

The actual changes made included the removal of a character from the game, a revolutionary named Darkel who intended to bring economic collapse to Liberty City, and a change to the color scheme of the game’s police vehicles from a light blue (resembling that of the NYPD) to a more general black.

How 9/11 Affected Media

In this sense, gaming was no different from film and television in its response to the heightened sensitivities of the time (a trailer for the 2001 Spider Man movie was also edited due to a shot which featured the World Trade Center). Yet, while films and novels were eventually created that revolved around, referenced or were otherwise inspired by the 9/11 attacks, games continued to avoid mentioning the subject.

Why? Because there’s a presumption both within and outside the games industry that a video-game about 9/11 would be offensive by default.

Part of the problem lies in the semantics of the word ‘game’. It implies an experience which is there primarily to entertain; a series of rules and mechanics designed for the purposes of having fun. Hence the idea of ‘making a game about 9/11’ immediately suggests a product that intends to make 9/11 enjoyable, while films and novels are recognized as being able to aim for other emotions.

This isn’t because the games industry is incapable of making an intelligent and thought-provoking game based around 9/11, it’s just that doing so would require a significant departure from a lot of mainstream gaming conventions.

What games have managed to take from the political aftermath of 9/11, though, is a scenario which has allowed the games industry to stay concurrent with real-world events without fundamentally altering mainstream design philosophies.

This is probably the most obvious influence 9/11 has had on games – the current FPS obsession with the middle-east and a modern warfare setting. Yet it is very much an indirect, generalized influence, and one which took a long time to develop. At the time of the attacks, mainstream shooters had only just discovered World War II as a potential setting: Allied Assault was not released until October 2002, and the original Call of Duty only emerged in November 2003.

In fact, the only major release to feature a middle-eastern setting before 2005 was the Playstation 2 game SOCOM: US Navy Seals. In a sense SOCOM was way ahead of its time, as it was released two months before Allied Assault landed on the beaches of Normandy. The final stages of SOCOM were set in Turkmenistan, with the team chasing down an Islamic terrorist group named the Allah Sadikahu.

Yet the influences the War or Terror had on SOCOM are only applicable in a general sense. Just like 2005’s Battlefield 2 (when the modern combat setting really came to the fore), the primary focus of SOCOM was multiplayer, and the setting was little more than a novel framework for clicking on virtual soldiers’ heads until they fell over.

Indeed, the majority of contemporary FPS games have either concentrated on multiplayer or, as with the Modern Warfare games, used the middle-eastern setting as only a part of the full experience. It’s another defensive tactic; a distancing from the reality of the ongoing middle-eastern conflict. The controversy over the unreleased Six Days in Fallujah was a stark reminder of what happens when mainstream gaming treads too closely to politically sensitive topics. Ultimately, publisher Konami decided to drop the title.

One of the main criticisms that Six Days in Fallujah encountered was that its relatively unconvincing visuals were at odds with the developers claims that they were creating an authentic and intelligent experience that evoked the experience of being a modern day soldier. The media often claims that it’s the ‘realistic’ graphics of games that makes them dangerous. Ironically, though, it’s often games with cruder visuals (such as Manhunt, Postal II and Six Days in Fallujah) that come under fire. It’s the difference between attending a funeral in a smart black suit and turning up in ripped jeans and a t-shirt with a provocative slogan. If the look doesn’t fit the occasion it can be offensive, intentionally or not.

9/11 and the Games Industry

Only very recently has technology reached a point where videogames can truly evoke the horror of being in a city during the event of its destruction, and it’s interesting that one of the first games to capture this atmosphere – Crysis 2 – is set in New York. Even a decade after 9/11, the decision to set Crysis 2 in New York was still seen as a bold and possibly foolish move for Crytek.

Crytek was careful to assure gamers of their sensitive treatment of the topic, however, and this treatment is clear to see in both the general and specific aspects of the game’s design.

For starters, the game is primarily about a race of squid-alien-things that have come to claim the Earth, rather than extremists. More specifically, when the fighting in the city escalates and buildings begin to crumble, they do so in a manner which is very different to the twin towers. Attentive players will note that all the buildings which collapse in Crysis 2 either do so forward or at an angle, and not vertically downward as was the case with the World Trade Center.

Nonetheless, there are moments in the game where the similarities to 9/11 are undeniable, particularly when an alien spacecraft crashes into the back of a skyscraper. And yet it does not offend, and has caused no controversy.

The reason?

The game is extremely well made. The original Crysis was a technological marvel, but the second coming carefully crafted that raw tech into a powerful and yet harrowing depiction of an alien invasion of New York. Any potentially controversial similarities to 9/11 were vastly eclipsed by the game’s creative vision and its focus on a very different type of fiction.

Ultimately, the response to 9/11 by the games industry over the past decade highlights gaming’s standing within society as a mode of social commentary – it doesn’t have one. Of course, gaming is now capable of such commentary where it may not have been ten or even five years ago, but there remains a chance of such an attempt being misconstrued by mainstream media as exploitative or seeking cheap thrills. So, gaming remains silent, and that it does so is worthy of both respect and scrutiny.

There is also one, final reason for gaming’s quiet stance on 9/11; it simply doesn’t need to address the subject. Frankly, films and novels have covered the ground more than sufficiently. What’s more, gaming tends to look forward more than it does back.

The original Deus Ex, with its dark envisioning of a conspiratorial future, covered many of the complexities of the War on Terror before it even happened; even famously lacking the twin towers from its New York skyline. Originally omitted because of a texture problem, Ion Storm then explained away the issue by claiming that the World Trade Center had, like the Statue of Liberty seen in the opening level, been attacked by extremists.

Here in 2011, gaming has other fish to fry. The recent release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, for example, reiterates gaming’s capacity for forward thinking and intelligent debate. Its deep and erudite discussion on the relationship between advancing technology and what it means to be human will be of far greater relevance to society in the coming decades than what happened in New York ten years ago.

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