Killing 'em Slowly

If Hollywood Can Do It...

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:13:00 +0000

With layoffs happening at Bioware and now the news that 38 Studios gave everyone the boot, I find myself wondering: Just what is a good launch metric? 3 million is not good. 1.2 million is not good. How about 5? Or is anything short of WoW's double digit millions just not good enough?

It's not an easy question to answer. Obviously, it varies a lot based on the size of production budget. Still, I can't help but feeling like there's a lot of dumbassery going around. If you sell 3 million copies of something, especially something that costs like $50 a pop, how are you losing money? Well, spending it, derp, and I suppose video game production ain't cheap.

It makes me think about movies. Aren't there a whole bunch of movies with ginormous budgets that completely tank and lose money. Yet, you don't hear about huge layoffs at Universal, do you? (It's an honest question, I confess that I don't really know). It seems to me that perhaps video game companies are going about this the wrong way.

How do movies work? Don't they secure a whole bunch of financing and then create a specific subsidiary company to produce the movie? Contracts are signed, people get paid (a lot in some cases), and the movie gets made. If it tanks, the smaller company files for bankruptcy or something and the big cogs keep on spinning.

Okay, a financial analyst I am not. This is just me spitballing here. I may be completely off base. I'm just saying that perhaps game companies need to shift to a more Hollywood approach. Currently, it feels like gaming companies need to hit a home run on absolutely every release. That's a horrible way to do business. It's just not going to happen. You can execute everything to perfection and still have a flop. Maybe the idea was flawed. Maybe the fickle waves of society have swung in a new direction. It happens.

Not that Hollywood is a bastion of fiscal responsibility or anything. I guess I just feel like, if they can muddle through it, with all the egos and flash, why can't gaming companies? Or maybe the movie studios have all the same problems, they just don't make Internet news as much. I don't know.

Who takes the loss when a movie flops? The stars still get paid, right? Maybe video game developers should have similar contracts where they get paid for the job, then... done. Not salaried, but contract work. I don't know, that probably sucks. As an engineer myself, going from the security of salaried to the rick of contract is rough. However, how much security is there really in the video game industry?

Like I said, this is all just idle, mostly uninformed speculation. I was reading the gaming news and thought about how I've heard of, say, superhero movies with a lot of special effects that brought in $100 million or something... and oh, darn, had a $200 million price tag. By the time those numbers are in... the stars have already been paid and moved on to the next project. You don't hear about people getting laid off. I assume that lawyers just fight it out in the dark of the night or something. (Lawyers are like Batman, is the main point here.)

My point is just that if Hollywood can weather $100's of millions in shortfall, keep producing movies (many of which probably fail), then why can't game companies figure out a sustainable system? Or is my image of Hollywood just overblown and it doesn't really work either?

I guess at the end of the day, I'd be thrilled if a million people are buying my work. Maybe gaming companies should just aim (and budget) lower. I don't know that we're going to see a 10 million subscriber behemoth again (except when Zynga perfects mind-control and puts out Hypnotoadville). I'm okay with a lot of niche 1 million subscriber games done well. How about you?

#Diablo - A Monk-ee?

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 24 May 2012 18:16:00 +0000

I hate wasps. I do not like them in real life, and I dislike them in Diablo III as well. A lot of it is probably because I'm a monk, a melee. I have to run through their stupid explodey offspring (or darts, or whatever) to attack them. And they run away. And the mini-wasps hurt.

Fortunately, I can teleport. What now, wasps?!

Anyone else find that they change their talent choices to match the trash? For a monk, I flip between many of the main attacks. The first one, with the teleport rune, is nice when stuff sits at ranged. Zip, zip, zip... dead. The second is great for waves of attackers. It has a slight range to it that knocks through the lines of baddies. I feel like shouting YOU SHALL NOT PASS. The third is amazing for dashing into giant groups of mindless zombies, and then going to town. I feel like a badass firework of death.

I've not quite found how I want to use the fourth one yet. The first three seem to cover my needs.

I tend to pair the basic attacks up with supplementary "hotkey" attacks. Like, if I'm in sweeping strikes (firework of death) mode, I put either the bell (for waves) or the immune-dashy attack (I know, I'm great with names) because it's fun. When using the teleport main attack, I try to use the other skills to boost AoE. So the main attack deals with the main body of baddies, the secondary stuff is for the random, annoying, one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other mobs. It's surprisingly fun and fluid. There's something to be said for having fewer abilities that mesh better together. I hope they apply this same thinking to MoP.

Some Random Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:33:00 +0000

In what's becoming somewhat of a trend during the pre-expansion lull, my Monday will once again be the home of some random recaps from the weekend. I have some Diablo thoughts to share. I want to link to a bit of warlockery from the great Cynwise. I've not played TOR due to Diablo, so, um, nothing there. Sorry TOR. I'll be back once I bring my glass of ice water all the way through hell, which I'm suspecting a max-level monk will be able to do. I'm pretty sure that's how Diablo ends: a triumphant character, holding aloft a sweating glass of clear beverage whilst hordes of demons swoon and slobber at the sides. "In the land of the thirsty..."

Anyway, Diablo. Yeah, I wanted to share a bit about my playstyle. I've mentioned that I rolled a monk. Basically, every time I level, I've been trying the new skills I get. After somewhere around 17 levels, I find myself gravitating toward a certain playstyle and speccing to match it. I like to use the charge ability (I forget its name, it's on the 2 button) to zip in, and then unleash holy hell. I've been using sweeping strikes, as I feel like that hits everything around me the best. I also use the fiery roundhouse kick (at least that's what I count it) as my secondary ability. I have the heal on 1 (with AoE rune) and the suck-everyone-in-and-explode on 3. Though, for 3, I just got the run-around-like-the-flash-with-fists, which is vying for usage. The main perk with that one is that you go immune to damage for a few seconds. Great "oh shit" button.

Since I'm mixing it up in melee, I generally try to bring a ranged companion. Right now, it's the Scoundrel that's picking off the stragglers. Also, his blatantly loot whoring makes me laugh. The Templar is just too dull.

[Insert flashy game transition here]

I have two links I wanted to share, warlock related. I didn't have enough to say to make a full post, so I'm tacking them on here random-style.

First, Cynwise wraps up his wonderful series with a surprisingly hopeful post concerning the future of warlockery. I guess it shouldn't be surprising. Still, halting the downward slide of the class I love is no easy task. Cynwise has laid out a solid, logical path, but will the devs take it? Initial forays by 'locks into the beta (myself included) see good signs. Only release will tell the true tale, but there are definitely things to look forward to. I wanted to link and thank Cynwise for his exhaustive look into 'locks. Really great stuff.

Second, I wanted to link a new (to me at least) warlock blog. Amijade the Warlock posts over at warlockery.com. Immediate shards should be given for the site name. Furthermore, seems to be good content over there, and I mentioned that I was on the lookout for new souls as part of the whole NBI thing. This is the first warlock-specific blog I've seen. Thanks to Rivs for pointing it out. Amijade, consider yourself /followed.

That's all for today. Hope your Monday is overrun with zombies. (That would be an improvement on most Mondays, right? Especially if you're in the firearms business.)

#Diablo - Onward to Ring Two

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I spent another night in Diablo yesterday. I figured I'd join the blogosphere with some Day 2 insights. Only these will be less of insightful. It's more like I was able to verify a lot of what I learned through comments yesterday and wanted to publicly declare it. Which sounds sort of egotistical, but one of my general principles here has been to simply chronicle what I've learned. Chances are, though there are many people that learned before me, I won't be the last.

Anyhoo, the night started off with another server scare. Logged on only to be immediately rebuffed. Error 37, or 3003, or whatever. I think they should have renamed it error 666, just cuz. So I went and tended to my Castleville castle, stared at some football slides, and came back about 30 minutes later. Got right in.

Fuu had finished downloading somewhere in there and logged in herself. The first thing I want to report is that the ease of a private multiplayer session were just as easy as described. Fuu exists on my realID list. I clicked her name, and my monk ported into her game. Pretty neat, though I was slightly OP since she'd just started. We had fun playing co-op for the rest of the night with nary a disconnection.

I've swiftly gotten over my initial displeasure at a lack of character customization. You don't really zoom in close enough to mind. Also, since gear can change, at the level we can say, that's probably enough.

Playing co-op meant I got to see how the story varied if it were Fuu (witchdoctor) or me (monk). Pretty similar, though slightly different flavor. A cool thing I learned is that all the dungeons re-spawn randomly. That is, we did the first cathedral part again... and it was different! Some stuff was recognizable, but I didn't know where I was going. That's pretty cool. I had seen someone mention that feature, but hadn't experienced it for myself.

So Diablo was good last night. Hopefully the servers can remain stable enough to play. If not, there's always Zynga, the Productivity Vacuum company.

Thanks to all the folks that commented yesterday. It was all just as you said.

My First Night In Hell

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:34:00 +0000

I think Blizzard has taken immersion too far. Not only did they want me to play a game simulating a fantastical hell on Earth, but they really wanted me to feel it as well. This, of course, is evidenced by the server failure just as I was getting going.

I didn't have a whole lot of play time last night, but I did roll a toon. A monk. I think I'm around like level 6. The early levels go fast. Having never played a Diablo title before, the gameplay is all new to me. I can't speak to any improvements.

I like that it is very mouse driven. It provides a nice change of pace from most of the games I've been playing lately. I guess I feel that I'm playing in a more relaxed posture because of that. Slumped back, hand laid negligently across my poor mouse (which may quickly tire of the repeated clicking). It's a far cry from the normal "stooped gargoyle" look.

The gameplay is addictive. I'm enjoying my monk. I think the game design engenders a feel of nostalgia, even for someone that didn't play Diablo. It's "throwback" without looking "old."

I've not tried any of the online features yet. I was simply playing single player. Fuu started her download after her raid last night, but it didn't complete by the time I was being kicked off. Server instability appears to be an issue with Diablo. There was a whole lot of rage on the forums.

I'm not terribly upset, despite my comments above to the contrary. These things happen. I do wish Blizzard had seen fit to include an "offline" mode for pure single player play. I don't see why this couldn't have been done. Having to rely on server connectivity when playing alone seems pretty dumb. Maybe there are reasons, though. Otherwise, it doesn't surprise me that their servers are getting bombarded. They gave away a ton of games essentially for free, plus I'm sure there are a whole boat load of people that didn't do the year-long deal. That's a huge in-rush of players. Still, who better to handle this than Blizzard? It's not like they're new to the game.

I suppose I have some questions, not knowing much about Diablo. I've not read up a whole lot. Perhaps the wisdom of the interwebs can rescue my newbness. Feel encouraged to answer me in comments:

Am I right that there is essentially no character customization? You simply pick class and gender?
Do different classes have different stories, or does that not matter?
I saw the "make game public" option, but what if I just want to play with my wife? How does that work? I'll break this down into two sub-questions:

Are private co-op games easy to create?
Do you both have to be on the same story parts? If not, how do the levels resolve? That is, what's to stop me from bringing a max character to a new co-op event? Not that that's necessarily a problem, just wondered...

That's all I have for now. Gotta run to lunch. Thanks in advance for the help! I'm sure y'all know way more than I do at this point.

Another Fail Week

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Another week, another lack of post ideas from yours truly. I swear the weeks are flying by. Being busy in other areas of life will do that. Still, I'm hopeful for more than one post this week. Diablo is releasing tonight (at 3AM my time, I think... so effectively tomorrow after work, as I'm not taking the day off). That should give me something to write about later in the week.

For now, I did want to point out one thing. There's been a lot about ToR's recent subscriber loss. I don't have a whole bunch to say about it other than I'm still playing, still paying, and still feel like I'm getting my money's worth. It's a different sort of mindset than with WoW. I'm not really trying to do the endgame. I'm just trying to jump through all the stories. I basically do some random PvP, and while I'm waiting for the WZ to pop, I run the class quests. I don't pick up any other quests.

The benefit is that levels and planets come fast. The downside (?) is that everything is pretty challenging. I'm routinely under-leveled for things, and every so often I run up against an elite that I cannot beat. Usually, a few days of PvP dailies nets me another level, and then I can continue. I'm not sure how this will hold at the higher levels. For now, though, it adds challenge and is fun.

One good change that ToR made recently (that seemed un-trumpeted, IMO), was the slight change in PvP dailies. It went form a simple "get X wins" to "play X times" where wins count double. For me, this is a huge quality of life improvement. Where before you may be frustrated by a string of losses, now there's an end in sight. I've found that most things in life are infinitely more tolerable when you know what you're shooting for. I wanted to complete the dailies, but it was frustrating when you just couldn't get a win. This alleviates a lot of that frustration, as you get there anyway. Good stuff.

It is changes like this one that makes me happy to continue on with ToR. They seem to have a good eye for what is annoying for the player base, and try to change it. They can't fix everything immediately, and I'm willing to be patient. It's good that they're trending in a positive direction.

By contrast, I've felt WoW to be trending in a negative direction for me. The whole Cataclysm Warlock debacle, as chronicled by Cynwise, was a huge reason. Secondary was a focus on endgame, which when that fell apart, left me with little to do. There are no class stories in WoW.

I think Diablo will be a welcome addition to my gaming life, and I still look forward to MoP. I'll play ToR until I've experienced all 8 class stories (four on each side). I'm hoping that by then they'll have added a lot of content and quality of life improvements, so I'll keep playing. I'd say that's pretty likely. Still, if ToR shut off development today, I'd play through those stories and then be done. They're fun. I hope Blizzard improves on the class story idea in their next MMO. I think they could do a great job with it as well.

Any Newbie Warlocks?

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Are y'all out there, lurking? I know I've been a bad blogger lately, but I swear I have good intentions. Like, I really thought the New Blogger Initiative was cool beans, but didn't feel like I could really sign up to sponsor because I'm more of a study in what not to do lately. Especially when you compare it to these stellar articles.

Side note, I really love the Pot. It makes my linking life a lot easier.

Instead, I wanted to mention that if there are any new warlock bloggers hoping to get in on this NBI thing, shot me a link in the comments of this post. I would love to link you in a post to be created at a later date. With all the gloom and doom Cynwise has been analyzing, new 'locky bloggers deserve a special mention.

Side note, from a warlocky perspective, isn't gloom and doom good?

I'm full of side notes today.

Hey! That can be my useful tip. Don't know what the hell to write about? Just start typing and then randomly throw in side notes. You can even give them their own paragraph to add length to your post. It's all about appearances, am I right?

Okay, so that's a lie. Content helps. Especially, if you want to get linked by the Pot. (Which, I must note--but not side note--is a laudable goal.)

Side post, are there many class specific SWTOR blogs out there? No, not you, Targeter. I already know about you. (But even you have branched out a bit). I think altitis has been encouraged so that the concept of a "main" is somewhat muddled in TOR, if not altogether destroyed. Anyway, I'd love to find someone writing about Balance Shadows. Does such a person exist? Google says "no" (apart from yours truly and forum guides).

Closing side note, Day Jobs suck. Just sayin'. (Which makes it okay.)

Sporadic Posting Inc

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:38:00 +0000

I've been a bad blogger. Seriously, one post last week? That's slacking. I honestly tried to write a second post on Friday, but was so busy that it has sat half-finished in the unpublished state. I've tried over the years (wow, has it been years?) to not make a whole lot of these self-indulgent apology-type posts. I think we have an unspoken bond of trust, whereby I do my best to write interesting things and not waste your time, and you believe that I'm doing my best. It may not be true in all cases, but the assumption has generally served me well.

As such, I'll keep this short. Don't want to waste your time, you know. Day Job is acting up just as optional Night Job (as an author) is struggling through my final round of edits for my latest book. Day Job is sending me to our plant in Juarez, Mexico. I'm actually writing this during my layover in Houston. Though, I'll have post it later because I'm not paying $7.95 for sub-par wifi for an hour. Nor am I downloading your software, Boingo. If you'd just pop some ads up, I'd be okay with that. Annoying, but I get it, you gotta make money, too.

Anyway, it probably comes as no surprise that my gaming has taken a bit of a back seat. And when you don't game, it makes it really tough to write about gaming. I'm not quitting though, I guess I just wanted to poke my head in and say "hi." A lot of you are probably caught up in the whole Guild Wars 2 storm right now anyway. I've got nothing to add there. I don't plan to play it upon release. I may check it out at some point (some of my Facebook friends have already pulled me into a group they have for the game), but it'll have to be when I get some time.

SWTOR has been frustrating lately. For a while, Reps were winning a lot, and things were good. By a lot, I mean probably 50% of the time. Coming from a much lower percentage, it seems like a lot. Then, things swung back the other way. Now it seems that every time I log on, I can't get a win. Makes it not so much fun. So I levelled an Imp to 10. Got a win my first try. I'd like to keep working on my main, but not at the expense of fun. With the introduction of the Legacy perks in 1.2, I think it's high time I spent a bit on alts. So my plan is to swing away from PvP and back to levelling. I'll queue while I'm working on quests, just to see if I can get on a lucky streak, but no reason to beat my head against a wall.

For WoW, I'll probably have to miss my raid this Friday on account of travel. My plane will just be touching down when we're supposed to start. Maybe I'll catch the tail end of some action, who knows. Otherwise, I've not had time to jump in the beta any more. Surprise, surprise.

Maybe next week. Though, at this pace, it'll more likely be May 15th before I can work in some solid time. Yes, that date choice is intentional: Diablo III should drop. It may make a great (and free) welcome back gift. Until then, expect some sporadic posting.

Weekend Update

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:47:00 +0000

I'm feeling a Weekend Update style post today. Unusual for me, I know, but I've got some more random thoughts. My gaming time has been limited as I work hard to get some new fiction releases out over at my author site, but I've been squeezing it in. Makes for a wonderful break after editing a couple chapters.

First off, Beta update. There is none. I didn't Beta at all over the weekend, despite auspicious plans to the contrary. I mean, I wanted to hang with Poneria, but just couldn't bring myself to log in. This is why generally in the past I've not signed up for betas. It's hard for me to get motivated to spend time on something that's going to be reset and then I'm going to have to do it all over again. It was great to log in, respec, spend some time on a dummy. Also wonderful to check out the new character creation options for pandas, but after that... I don't think I really want to level or do anything of substance. Part of the joy of a fresh expansion is experiencing that new content for the first time. Do I want to ruin that?

So I'm not sure if I'll get back into the beta. I may want to muck around with the Demo rotation a bit, just to see what I think. I may just try to travel to one of the new areas just to see how to get there (but not start questing). I could always transfer over my DK and give PvP a shot, too.

One good take-away, sort of on the heels of what I posted about the Affliction rotation last week: the new rotation apparently made an impression on me. I logged in Friday night to raid in non-beta WoW and felt a bit sad that I didn't have the new setup. I was back to clunky old Catalocky. I didn't spend all that much time with the new rotation, but already it felt smoother than what we've been stuck with for the last year or so. That's a good sign of things to come, I think. Stokes my excitement, which is a good thing. I would love to feel reinvigorated on my 'lock in MoP.

In other, sorta-beta, news: I have not beta'ed Diablo III. Was that sign-up automatic with the year pass, too? If not, then I didn't sign up. Still, one of my buddies at work got into the beta. He played it with his main squeeze, co-op style, last weekend. Had a lot of good things to report. Since Fuu has somewhat fallen off the MMO horse, a solid co-op may be just what the doctor ordered. As such, I'm really looking forward to the game (even though it wasn't a deciding factor for choosing the year pass... sort of like "why not?"). Unexpected good surprises are, um, unexpectedly good?

That meme probable needs to die, doesn't it?

Finally, I'll touch on TOR. My activity there mostly amounts to PvP'ing. I snagged Battlemaster this weekend, which is something of an achievement, though I fear it doesn't mean as much now. Still, I continue to enjoy the PvP side of TOR. Something of a surprise to me, post 1.2 patch, is a renewed interest in alts. With the addition of the Legacy system, I find myself more inclined to progress the other classes to level 30 in order to add them to my family tree and get the perks. In particular, I love the idea that my buff gets enhanced by each different classed level 30 toon. It's provided an unanticipated bout of altitis, something I don't normally suffer from.

We'll see how long it lasts once DIII drops. I could see that eating up a lot of time if my wife is amenable. The couple that plays together, stays together, right? Or, I could adopt a more Lannister-esque approach: The things I do for love.

/push

Beta Warlockery Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:02:00 +0000

Real thoughts this time. I actually got the beta to download and run! O, frabjous day, callooh callay! Which is what I exclaimed right after my mouse went snicker-snack through the character creation screen. I created a Panderen Monk first, of course. Spawned in to about a million other pandas. And that's not even exaggerating (much). One wonders how anybody was left on the live servers...

I only hung around the starting area for about five minutes. It was fun. Jumping was cool. Animations were smooth. I just didn't want to level with the throng. Might save it for a month after release or something.

Instead, I immediately logged out and worked on transferring my warlock over. It was simple, and I was able to log into him within ten minutes, easily. I noticed one problem right off-the-bat. While I was snicker-snacking above, I used my name for my panda. Thus, the real Fulguralis was flagged for a name change. I found this hilarious, so I changed it to Fulgularious.

Poneria, here's where you want to pay attention. I rolled both toons on Lost Isles. I searched for you, even stalked twitter a bit, but I don't think you were beta'ing. However, I am on that server now, should all and sundry wish to find me. I would have hollered more last night into the void, but it was swiftly approaching bed time. I didn't want to coerce anyone on, only to peace out when they showed up.

Anyhoo, I imagine I'll be on randomly in the next several weeks or so. Probably mostly this weekend. We'll see. I don't have any majestic plans, just wanted to poke around a bit. If I get to say "hi" to folks in addition, well that's just bonus.

Apart from just getting everything running, I did spend some time speccing my 'lock and playing with spells. I even got in some quality time with a dummy, though I was surrounded by those same million people that were in the panda zone. I swear they were following me around. Adoring, probably.

The good news is that I think the changes make the Affliction rotation more elegant. That is, there seemed to be less clunk than the current iteration. I like most of the changes, though I hardly delved deep. An AoE drain life is pretty awesome. Malefic Grasp feels burstier since damage starts right away. From a flavor perspective, I suppose I like it more than Shadow Bolt. Spells seemed to mesh together well, and I felt like I had fewer buttons to press (which is a good thing... fewer chunks as Cynwise might say).

I still think there were areas that could be polished. For instance, I choose Doom to replace Corruption (just to see) and I don't think Soul Swap flung it around appropriately. That is, I think it dropped off one of the targets, which Corruption never did... so that would seem like a flaw if it's meant to be used in place of Corr.

I had to check out the different pets. I'm not sure how I feel about Observer vs. Felpup. I like that each demon seems to have a signature ability that you're suppose to activate. Makes them seem more integrated.

I have no idea what they're trying to do with soul shards. It seemed like haunt cost a shard (though I didn't see that in the tooltip). In addition, nightfall gains shards back (since we have no more s-bolt). I seemed to be regaining shards far faster than I could use them. Probably should have used more Soulfires or something. I don't know. Again, see aforementioned delving depth. The skinny here is that I hope they aren't done with the system. I think it needs more options or something. Just doesn't feel quite finished.

All in all, though, it was a pretty positive little test session. I'm not going to hang my hat on any one thing in particular, since I assume it's all in a state of flux. The good news is that the underlying ideas seem sound. Affliction hasn't take a right turn off into the Arcane Mage weeds or anything.

I was all right with the pandas too. The one I made had orange-ish patches around his eyes. I kept calling him ULTIMATE WARRIOR PANDA. It made me cackle. Now, if they only add feathered 80's hair options...

Random Thought Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:11:00 +0000

This is not a recurring feature or anything, just doing a brain dump today. Every so often in blogging, I've found that my brain needs emptied. All those topics that didn't get written don't always ride blissfully off into the nether. Instead, they like to kick around and whine that they didn't get their day in the sun (despite having been found wanting). When enough of the buggers get peeved, they march down my neurons and do their own "occupy" imitation on one of my lobes. So I have to periodically call in the cranial guard to kick them out. Let the dumping commence....

First SWTOR:

The Rakghoul plague looks like a fart. Or, perhaps more accurately, Pig-Pen. Makes me want to bathe.
The lightsabers with black cores appear somehow larger.
I wish people always exploded when killed. Makes me feel powerful. Dirty, but powerful.
The glowing eyes and green cloud aren't very stealthy.
Why, in the technologically advanced culture of TOR, do the news anchors wear headsets? Are they Bluetooth? Do Imperials get Redtooth variants?
Has anyone ever tried to make a Hutt line of clothing? A Hutt in trooper armor would be impressive. Slimy, too.
New gameshow: Jedi Counselor -OR- Hobo? With your host, Jacobim Mugatu.

And WoW:

Oh yeah, I have DI. Derp.
This getting upgrades stuff is bankrupting me. So. Much. Reforging. At least gems are cheaper... well, not the purple ones. Light no, not the purple ones.
Now that Cynwise has exposed the innards of everything warlockerly, what is seen cannot be unseen. I used to enjoy this complication, right?
The coolest I feel as a Warlock? When I use my portal right. HA, ALREADY HERE, BITCHES.
Tentacle face is not a good look for me. Back to burning skull.

That's all for today's dump.

#SWTOR - Yes, They Did.

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:51:00 +0000

One of the biggest 1.2 timesinks for me from this last weekend was the time-honored tradition of UI finagling. With all the Legacy changes, PvP changes, and now the Rakghoul World Event... I think the UI changes got a bit glossed over. At least in coverage I've read, they did.

I wanted to make sure we all remembered that changes were made. Yeah, pretty much everything is customizable now. A personal favorite of mine is the check-box that lets you move any pop up window around. So. Nice.

I probably spent a good hour just moving stuff around. I had to fiddle with the drop down to get the nice colored boxes to show me what I wanted. My basic strategy was to make everything smaller (on my screen it was just all too huge), and then consolidate along the edges to maximize center viewing space. It turned out pretty nice (I didn't take a screenie, sorry).

The real perk came when I flipped over to my Trooper. I was almost disheartened when the old UI greeted me. Despair from the thought of having to redo all the work I'd done to get my Shadow just-so was threatening to overwhelm me, when a thought raced across my mind.

"No, they couldn't have."

"They should if they haven't."

"They DID!"

Yeah, my saved UI from my main toon was available on my alt. I simply selected it, hit "load," and everything snapped right to where it should be.

I know it seems like such a simple thing, but that made my night. I got right back to playing. I love it when things are simple.

MoP Beta Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:37:00 +0000

If you're looking for real thoughts, you probably want to go someplace else. Yes, I got a beta. No, I haven't tried anything out. Why? Probably because I can't get the felling thing to run.

Here's a quick recap of what I did. Got the email. Manually went to my Battle.net account (because you know you can't trust email links, no matter how official they look). Clicked on the appropriate areas to let me download the client. Download started, and I left for work.

When I came home, my computer was stuck on a pre-boot screen. It informed me that Windows could not start because the installation device (my solid state drive) could not be found. I had a mini-flail fest inside of my soul, where I swiftly imagined the worst for my big rig. Fortunately, I just had to do a hard reset, forcing a power off (not the reset button mind you, that just stuck me in a not-working loop), and restarting everything.

After I got to my familiar desktop, my eyes quickly strayed to the shiny, new MoP beta icon. Of its own accord, the mouse traversed the background pixels and clicked on pandas. Pandas have that effect on mice. A notice telling me that "setup files were being updated" popped, and I began to get excited. Surely, my beta adventure was launching.

But it got stuck. I stopped about 75% of the way through, green bar unmoving. I stared, made a sandwich, took a bathroom break, cleaned the kitchen, pet the giant rabbit, took another bathroom break (I was excited, mind you), settled in and out of the chair several times... nothing. No movement. So I did what every rational being would do: I clicked the "x" and went and played SWTOR.

(Okay, maybe only those with a lightsaber fetish would make the same choice.)

(That should get me some interesting search hits.)

Last night, I attempted to uninstall the beta. My plan is to start fresh this evening and give it another (fully attended) try. The uninstall went okay, though it threw some errors about files it couldn't find. Probably the same ones that were preventing me from a pandariffic experience. We'll see.

It's a beta, so I can't be too upset. Still, one does not wish to play tech support to log onto a game and play more tech support (in the form of a beta tester, no matter how fun said tech support may be). I wonder, is this the sort of bug I should report? Or is it likely something so specific to my setup that Blizz wouldn't pay attention? Where does one report bugs when not able to launch even the MoP client?

At the very least, I wanted to relay my experiences in the spirit of full disclosure. Hopefully, if anyone else is experiencing the same frustration, we can band together and start a pandaless support group. If nothing else, this further explains the lack of beta thoughts from this blogger.

#SWTOR - Patch Thoughts and A Small Rant

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:23:00 +0000

This is not about the MoP beta invite I just received in my mail. The title may have given as much away. Still, I wanted to note that beta thoughts are probably inc next week, as I'm downloading the beta at home right now. Actually, it's probably done, but I'm stuck at work.

Instead, because when it rains it pours, I wanted to talk about the other game that had big recent news. TOR's 1.2 patch was just released, and it's really the first major content patch we've seen. A whole bunch of functionality was added and, quite frankly, if you've made it this far into the article, you're probably aware of many of the changes. There's legacy, new PvP stuff, new PvE stuff, new guild stuff... something for everyone really. And, of course, the controversial free game time.

Here's where the "small rant" is going to come in. I had to force my fingers past "controversial free game time," because honestly, is this what we've come to? I hate to use the "trophies for everyone" analogy (it's so over-played), but why does it seem like every time someone gets something, the Internet weeps blood for all the folks that did not get something. Life is unfair. Deal with it. Sometimes people get things that you do not. It happens. Every. Day.

Let me clarify, I'm totally cool and respectful of well-formed opinions. For the folks that are complaining but then offering constructive advice like "what if, instead of basing 30 days free on having a level 50, they base it on accumulated time played. Say, for everyone over a month in-game time." Or something like that. I've seen some constructive shit. That's good times. That's solid discussion. You're not just being a whiner. You're applying brain.

For the folks that insist on perpetrating the logical fallacy of "if someone calls someone loyal, that means everyone else is disloyal," I reserve my most warlocky Glare of Ire. Raised eyebrow at no extra soulcharge (like surcharge... get it?). But seriously, the Internet needs to get over this particular fantasy. In fact, people in general do. (Politicos use it all the flippin' time.) Someone saying something positive about one thing does not inherently mean everything else is negative. There's this whole middle ground where SHIT IS NEUTRAL. Yes, you can have neutral feelings about things.

For instance, I can say: Yeah, Stop at Stoppable Force is an awesome writer (and I wish he wrote more)... and that doesn't mean I think Psynister sucks (and should write less). (In fact, I think Psy took a rather mature approach to his criticism of Bdubs, but that's beside the point.) (Can you do a parenthetical bumped up against another parenthetical?) Asides aside, the point here is that it is completely possible to feel positive toward one group of people without feeling the exact opposite toward another group of people. Calling someone loyal is not calling everyone else disloyal, no matter how much we may wish to perceive the slight. Yeah, it sucks not to get free game time. It's probably even unfair. That's life. If it pisses you off enough, vote with your dollar and leave.

Was that a small rant? Maybe medium-sized, I don't know. The more positive (less-ranty) point I'd like all and sundry to take home is that we should take care in our negative criticisms. We don't want to let jealousy of nice things to color us so green that we advocate no one getting nice things ever just so we don't have to feel jealous. I guess I'm saying that I'd rather buff everyone to "haves" than nerf everyone to "have nots," but you probably have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. The Internet would do well to keep that frame of mind in the headlights while they're speeding full-on to a nerd rage.

/steps down from soap box

Other than that, I found the patch to be pretty awesome. I had the usual amount of information overload when I logged in. Stared blankly at the screen before spending far too much time tweaking my UI. My respec was relatively fast, as I didn't detect any glaring chances for the Balance Shadow (if I missed something huge, feel free to slam me with your nerd rage racer). I even got to play the new Warzone. I was berated as being AFK when I stood there for the first ten seconds, drooling on myself because: "hey, this is new, and there's a cut scene." But otherwise it was pleasant. Went 3 for 3 on the Rep side, always a good night.

I'm going to have to re-figure my gearing strategy, as currency and such has changed slightly. It looks like it's been simplified a bit, as you just have to have the Battlemaster gear before snagging the War Hero gear (they each require the previous piece as currency). Monday, hopefully we'll be able to get our little group together and check out some of the PvE stuff.

So apart from my "get off my lawn" irritability, patch day and post-patch day have been pretty fun for me. Just wish I had more time. How about you?

Those Are Some Huge... Pixels?

noreply@blogger.com (M) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:23:00 +0000

I don't have a screenshot, so this didn't happen. I apologize. But on the off chance I didn't just imagine it, I wanted to make a public service announcement about a little bug I came across.

First off, this has nothing to do with the Beta. Also, I'm not sure it's a bug, exactly. It may have just been a problem with my system. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's what happened. I logged into WoW on Friday with the intent to raid. Yes, raid! I'm back to raiding. I found a "second" crew that's going to be doing DS stuff on Friday nights. I've decided to tag along. It's pretty loose and with some good people I know.

Anyway, I log in and I see, well, giant pixels. Where the water used to be pretty, it now has big, ugly boxes on its surface. My framerate suffered whenever there was water in my screen, and it looks awful. I was flying around Stormwind, stuttering, artifacts popping up all over.

I tried tweaking things. I reset my AMD Radeon 6800 Series GPU to factory settings via the Catalyst SW Suite. It was one of the first things Google told me to do. I also fiddled with the in-game settings. I had to crank things down from "Ultra" to "Fair." A huge downgrade.

Raiding only made things worse, but I could hardly hold everyone up for a few annoying artifacts. Besides, I can still perform pretty well in low FPS situations. Affliction Warlockery is all automatic to me. All I need is a DoT timer. Besides, we were just doing LFR (we were short last night as details are still being worked out for a couple raiders).

After we'd downed Deathwing (yeah, that's as much of a side note as I make it sound. Had a good group, and I didn't disgrace myself despite pretty much a two month hiatus), I went back to consulting Google. Apparently, what I had was not a common issue. Still, I'm guessing there may be others out there experiencing the texture error.

What ended up working for me was closing WoW and launching it in DirectX11 mode. I believe I'd been using the default Dx9, which maybe didn't play so well with my GPU. I don't know why now, this patch, instead of patches previous, but maybe they altered the deal. I pray that they do not alter it further, because launching in Dx11 worked. All was well in Azeroth upon my return. I cranked everything back up to "ultra" and went to redeem my loot drops. (Two upgrades! Sometimes it pays to be behind everyone else. Mind you, I did not just get carried, there were plenty of DPS below me).

So if you happen to log in one day to find some crazy huge pixels, try appending the Dx11 string to the desktop shortcut. You can do this by simply pasting the following immediately after the path in the "target" box: -d3d11. Put a space between them. Do not include the period from the sentence.

I think the DirectX11 mode is still "experimental" or something, but it works well for me. Got me back on the "ultra" path. Anyone else have this problem?

#SWTOR - Flashpoint Confusion

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:35:00 +0000

Okay, I know the rest of you have been running flashpoints since day one, but our guild just finally got our act together and organized something. We've been pretty casual along the way, just because most of us have a lot going on outside of gaming, but we knew we wanted to play together. Waiting has its perks, too. A lot of the bugs should be fixed by the time we get around to things.

All that being said, we found ourselves pretty clueless last night. The SWTOR heroic modes seem a bit confusing. How do you turn on HM's? Which flashpoints actually have an HM? Do you have to run something first before being able to turn on the HM?

All of these answers are pretty readily available with a bit of Google searching. I think we sort of know what we're doing now, but it was a pain to have to go searching. Why couldn't this information be easily accessible in the game? We have a codex. Is it in there and we just couldn't find it?

And where is the HM switch? We randomly chose to do Red Reaper. Does that one have a HM? Some of us had never run it, so we did normal mode first. After that... ???

What I think is supposed to happen is that after you've unlocked the HM, the option appears under the right click menu of your portrait allowing you to switch on HM. Why can't it just be there all the time, but grayed out. Then, on mouse-over it could tell you: 1. No HM available or 2. HM locked until you do it on normal mode. Put the info right there. I don't remember all the things I've done/not done.

Am I just missing the easy button, or could the UI really use some help in this area? What do those of you who are, by now, familiar with HM's think?

The FP itself was fine. Fun, reasonably quick. There were a few tricky mechanic fights at the end. It was good to see it on NM first.

Tonight or next week we'll probably head out to Ilum for the level 50 NM FPs. Finding the entrance to some of these is a bit confusing, too. Which ones are on the fleet? Which aren't? I guess I wish there were a simple list on the codex with locations and modes available. Sort of like what they have for Ops (the lockout list). Why not?

In the absence of a dungeon finder, I'd at least like a clear list. Is that too much to ask?

(Edit: Got this great link in comments. Pretty much exactly what I needed. Awesome graphic! Thanks to Mythbusting for the link.)

A Shadow Of A Shadow

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:58:00 +0000

Short post, but a well deserved Shout Out. Cynwise has been quantifying my feelings and expounding them in true Cyn-fashion. The latest entry in the The Decline and Fall of Warlocks in Cataclysm series was particularly heart-rending for me. Not that I have a heart, mind you. Like many others, I've felt extremely frustrated with my 'lock for some time, for all the reasons Cyn mentions. I could never quite put my finger on it...

I really hope someone at Blizzard is reading and taking notes. And I hope it gets fixed in Mists. I miss my 'lock. The real one, not these fake Cataclysm pretenders that are but a shadow of our former shadowy glory.

Original Sin In An RPG?

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Here's a random deep thought I had today. It may not be fully fleshed out, but I thought it was interesting enough to share. I'm assuming if you're reading here, you've probably played some sort of RPG somewhere along the way. Could be an MMO. Could be single player. Anything that has you build a character, really.

At least one of these games probably had some sort of morality system. Sometimes it's clearly evident, other times it might be hidden. But it's there. My most current example would be the Light Side/Dark Side system in SWTOR. Bioware has been using a system like this for a while now. WoW doesn't really have a morality system (rep doesn't count), but there are a lot of other examples out there.

The one constant, as far as I know, across all of these is that the player starts with a "blank slate." We start neutral, gray, morally ambiguous. My thought was: what if we didn't? What if we had original sin?

You could take this deeper. Do people start basically good, or basically evil? Likely, it completely depends on the world and character you're building. But why not? Why do Sith and Jedi alike start off neutral? Are we to believe that they've never made a choice until the very moment that we rolled them? Is this sort of the Bioware "age of reason" doctrine?

Now, I get it. It's a game. Starting off neutral makes good gaming sense. Then you can create a simple system that revolves solely around the choices of the player. But I would argue that you could still do this with the original sin concept. Instead of grinding "good points" until you "become good," why don't we just average the summation of all currently made choices? That means, if you create a character and only make one good choice, you're fully good. Over time, you might progress to gray. Also, the more choices you've made, the harder it becomes to overcome your previous choices. You've developed a reputation, it seems.

Wouldn't this be more realistic? More fulfilling? And it doesn't seem hard to implement. Today, most choices are worth some sort of points, and they are additive. Just make all choices worth "the full bar," and then average them. Done.

Syp over at Bio Break inspired this idea. He's writing specifically about LOTR's virtue system, and mentions several things. I'm not familiar with the Ultima X system, but it sounds like it was a bit different from what we're used to. Maybe there are other examples I'm not aware of as well. Feel free to point them out in the comments. I guess all I'm saying is that I'd like to see more thought given to these systems in general. The current "grind to good" (or evil), is growing stale, and I'm not sure it even makes sense.

The Dream (PvP) Team

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:57:00 +0000

Saw this on BBB's blog today. All I want to say is: Dibs on being on Cynwise's team. I'll even take Gnomer if we can figure out some across-the-Earth thing, (even though he's a mage). Can we have a fantasy draft? I'll need some sort of Average Honor Per Battleground (AH/BG) stats for appropriate judgement. Or what would be the best stat of effectiveness?

I don't think I count as a PvP blogger, though. Maybe I'm more of an alternate, since I've mentioned PvP occasionally at least. And I'm not sure my WoW toon is geared well enough to be less than a burden on the pros out there. I'm about one season behind. I can look pretty. And fight on the flag. And set a mean mid-map pick for the FC (Frost DKs can be supremely annoying).

My Jedi is damn near Battlemaster, though. Decked out. Not that that improves my odds of being chosen on any Dream Team. (The odds are not in my favor, much like a certain Everdeen.)

I think a blogger PvP brawl is a great idea. I don't have the wherewithal to set it up, but it's a great idea. Maybe BBB should pawn it off on Hugh again. ;-)

Shake That Shadow Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:44:00 +0000

I received a rather interesting comment for consideration yesterday. It was on my "No Beta" post, asking a pretty specific question. Namely: As an Affliction Warlock, how do you manage heavy-movement fights? The commenter, Sibylle, pointed out that there didn't seem to be many guides or help-articles around the blogosphere covering this topic. Thus, I decided I'd give it the old college try.

I guess I should start out with the caveats. Any too-good-to-be-true offer has fine print, right? Why should this potentially helpful article be different?

In my best legal radio announcer's voice: /deep breath. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author who, though having played an Affliction Warlock for many years is no longer raiding. His raid group dissolved and he has yet to finish the DS fights, which is probably really sad. Still, he's making the most of it by, well, waiting for the next expansion. The point here is that he may not be on the up-and-up about the newer fights. /deep breath

Sibylle asks specifically about Morchok, which I've actually done a decent amount, so I should be able to help there. Also, I think a lot of what I'll say is generally applicable. Still, I know I have a couple more-shadowy-than-I Warlocks lurking out there that may know things I've missed. (Poneria of the Blood Pact, I'm looking at you. I'll beta-read for you any time, just shoot me an email. You're a rock star in my grimoire. Also, you're blocked at work, hence why you're getting the comment here, in the middle of an article. Convenient, no?) Feel free to help our fellow 'lock out in the comments with some specific tips on DS fights.

If memory serves, on Morchok the basic idea is that you have a small bunch of ranged that are on "shard duty." They have to close with a randomly spawning shard to decrease damage, and do it quickly. Also, there's the whole run-behind-a-rock phase as well. Those are pretty much the two "problem zones," right? (I'm going to assume that most of the folks reading this know what to do if you're just standing there, not chasing anything. If not, check out my guides and feel free to ask questions to that effect.)

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot you can do running to the shard. It spawns randomly, making it hard to anticipate. Your raid leader can help by positioning folks to minimize the running. That is, we used to just spread out as ranged, and the three nearest did the running. Sometimes, they assign runners though, and if you're one of them and a shard doesn't spawn nearby, it's going to suck.

Even in the worst case, we can do a few things. You have Fel Fire to keep UA up. Corr and BoA/D are instant, so you can keep those up. That alone should keep you from bottoming out. If you get a lucky nightfall proc, that's a bonus. The general idea when running is to keep an eye on all of your instants. Don't let them fall off. Sometimes it goes against the stand-and-sling rotation, I know. For instance, you may want to clip your DoTs (*gasp*), but look at it this way: anything you take care of while running is something you don't have to take care of while standing. It may not be mana-ideal, but you can keep DPS flowing and that's your #1 job.

While running to the shard sucks, running back should be the easy part. I mean, you did drop your demonic portal, right? Right?! If not, it's okay, that's one of my fails, too. After the first run of shame back to your starting point, you'll be like: oh yeah, I should drop that. The portal lets you get back to point A in a green flash, and back to casting right away. Proper portal use is key to minimizing problem zones in a fight. Clever use can almost always boost your deeps.

Bonus, the portal can help you in the hide-behind-a-rock phase, too. He'll yank you in, you port back out. Generally, this lets me find a rock earlier and, in some case, find a space that lets me still DPS the boss. This trick is dependent on lucky rock placement. You have to get it where the safe, non-ink zone allows you to stand and not be LOS'ed from the boss. Porting out, giving yourself more time to look for a spot, only improves your odds.

So, the crux (horcrux?) of performing on the run seems to be possible to distill to two main points:

Pay attention to your instants. Refresh on the run what you can, freeing up more standing time for cast-time only spells.
Figure out the best use of your Demonic Portal. This will vary between fights and mechanics, but can usually go a long ways to smoothing out the dead zones in your DPS. It is almost always worth dropping, even if you forget before the fight.

By focusing and improving in those two areas, I've generally been able to out-perform my companions. Affliction 'locks have a bit of a perk when it comes to movement fights, as we can keep up a full contingent of DoTs even on the move. We only miss out on the filler spam, really, and generally I'll spam Fel Fire if all my instants are in good shape. Again, you have to be careful about mana consumption, as you'll probably need to tap after Fel Fire spam, but if your health is not in jeopardy, it shouldn't be a problem (plus it's another thing we can do on the run).

I'll touch on one more trick before I wrap this up. Soul Swap is a great spell to remember to use. A lot of fights combine movement with refocusing on a second target. Sometimes this is adds, sometimes the head, or leg, or whatever. Affliction Warlocks are going to suck on anything short lived (fair warning), but if you just need to bump over sustained DPS (think of the dogs in the Shannox fight), proper use of SS can be a solid bump to the deeps. The inhale lasts for longer than you think, so it's often possible to suck in the dots, let the new thingy spawn, and then exhale on the run (both are instants).

Hopefully this helps. It's not so much a guide as a springboard for specific ideas. The keys can vary widely from fight to fight (especially with portal placement and SS usage), but the basic ideas are the same. Sibylle (and others), if there are other specific fights that are hamstringing you (I think I covered Morchok well enough?), feel encouraged to mention them in comments. Me, or other more shadowy readers will likely have a few tips and tricks. This is a great topic, and a place where I feel like Aff'locks can shine, but definitely requires clever play.

No Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:26:00 +0000

No, I didn't get a beta invite. At least not yet. I'm stuck reading from the sidelines with most everyone else.Which also means that I have no answers... only questions. Questions I've not seen adequate answers to (though, admittedly, I may just not have looked hard enough). In random-stream-of-consciousness style, here's the list of questions running through my brain. Feel free to answer in comments with exposition or linkies, whatever's clever.

What's up with new Warlock pets? Seriously, just caught some pics today, are all those talents going to be in the demo tree?
While we're on that thought, has anyone seen anything about Affliction Warlocks? Specifically, wtf we're going to do with soul shards now? I mean new information here. I remember what they said back in the day, but has anything actually been implemented? Or are we all just going Demo this x-pac because they're going to make it too awesome not to?
AoE Loot. Fuck yeah. (Pardon my demonic, but it is warranted in this case. Also, there is no question here. It just needed to be said.)
When does Diablo come out again? Seriously, I thought this was announced but it was promptly driven from my brain. May 15th, right?
Is Pandaria really that pretty? I've seen some raving-lunatic-like pronunciations. How much can they really do with this ancient engine? I don't mean this to sound as negative as it sounds, but I guess I just have a hard time believing the OMG IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL crowd. Like, maybe I'm just jealous. Green is a good color of me.
GREEN FIRE. (Sorry, spontaneous combustion happens.)
Going back to the pets... am I in danger of not using my felpup? Floaty eye =/= felpup. Just sayin'.
Can we, instead, get a felpup update with little bits of mage stuck in its teeth?

Okay, I'm just getting silly now. It's Friday. Brain wants to go to lunch. This will have to be it for now. Feel free to add your own questions (if you're not in the beta) or answer them (if you are or are just well-informed).

Flash Fiction With Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 21:10:00 +0000

I generally shy away from writing contests. I don't know why. I suppose it's just hard for me to write on command. Plus, I suffer from the writer's common cold. You know, the "I'm not good enough" one? Still, it's a BBB writing contest. That's pretty hard to resist if you ask me. But, but... I'm running out of time and work was really hard today and my brain is coasting and I don't have a whole lot of time before I need to get out of here and do another things and if I leave without doing it, I'm never going to do it and...

Okay. I can do this. Flash Fiction, 100 words or less. Go:

The slender elf leafed through the tavern’s gift shop rack. “Does liking this make me vain?” she asked, holding up a pair of tights.

“It says juicy on the butt,” was the dry reply from the dwarf.

“You’re right, it doesn’t hold a torch to the ones with the see-through star.”

The dwarf rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you just get one that says ‘shaft please?’”

The elf shot her a puzzled look. “Where’s that one hidden?”

77 words. Not bad. Nailed all the prompts, too. Now, I just need to put a link in BBB's post comments.

Information Overload -or- My Top Three

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:35:00 +0000

I mentioned that the MoP NDA was lifted yesterday, and floods of information resulted. On the SWTOR front, they're getting ready to release a giant 1.2 content patch. Thus, the wires I watch are blazing with the fires of fresh knowledge right now. My poor brain is a bit overwhelmed, and I'm probably missing a great deal.

Here's what I think I'm looking forward to in Mists:

Scenarios - Right up my alley.
WoW Farmville - Yes, I'm looking forward to this. I don't know why. I didn't play a lot of Farmville. I think I saw someone, somewhere call this "backdoor player housing." That's probably why I'm excited.
Horde Destruction - We get to kill Garrosh and maybe be the heroes that we're supposed to be. And people are whining already about the Alliance "winning." All I can say is: It's about felling time we won something.

Why those three thing stuck out to me, I have no idea. That's just what's getting through right now.

And for TOR 1.2, here's what I'm liking:

Artificing improvements - namely more color crystal choices and PvP specific crafting (I believe the term "closed loop" was used).
A diversification of PvP gear - That is, we should be able to remove mods and put them into different orange items (so we're not stuck with the PvP-specific purples like everyone else).
Legacy! - It's about time those levels mean something.

That's the top three I'm seeing there. Also, the free weekend was apparently a hit, so cheers to that. I'm glad that there may be more. I have a few friends I'd like to force (get it!) into playing.

I guess you could say these are my top three things for each game. At the very least, they're what I'm focused on today. Tomorrow that may change. What are your top three today? Pick either game, or both!

MoP NDA Lifted

noreply@blogger.com (Fulguralis) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:31:00 +0000

The flood gates have opened and Pandas are pouring forth in a furry tide of information. I've not had a chance to review much yet, but wanted to link over to a well-organized post at ZAM. They have links to most of the highlights. There is a lot that sounds really cool. But, then again, Cataclysm sounded really cool, too (and was at the start, to be fair... it just petered out for me). I remain, still, cautiously optimistic... though I'd really love to see Aff'locks given some love for once. Demo and Destro have gotten all the new shit (so far, from what I've read), while we're stuck in the mud. I know we're badass and in a cool place, but is it too much to ask for some breadcrumbs? Maybe I've just missed them. If so, show me the way!

Everyone seems to be doing "things to get excited about posts," so I won't bore you with more of the same. To me, the biggest "thing to get excited about" is the fact that this patch seems like serious business. There's a lot going on. It doesn't look like they're phoning this one in.

Now, if we could only get green fire... right Poneria?

I Hate Tharzog

noreply@blogger.com (M) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:28:00 +0000

If that name rings a bell for you, it's probably because you've played Lord of the Rings: War in the North. You'll recall that he's the big one, and the Dwarf is excited for the challenge. In fact, you can probably recite the entry lines to this first boss.

War in the North is a pretty run-of-the-mill button masher, set in the LOTR IP. We're playing it on PS3, though it's available on other platforms. There are some RPG elements, like a talent tree and equipment slots. The story is pretty much on rails, though you have conversation options, but they don't appear to effect anything.

It's a simple, straightforward game. Nothing groundbreaking, yet it's been pretty fun so far. It' a great game for playing co-op with your brother while he's visiting for a week over spring break. All good, until we got to the first boss.

Chieftain Tharzog was, well, awful. It took us three days to kill him. Three days of wiping as if we were raiding or something. The fight represents all that is soulless and wrong with game design.

Now, don't get me wrong, once we got through the boss, we've gone back to enjoying the game. Even with the three day frustration, I've not been spoiled on it. It's a nice little side break from my general MMO fare.

But Tharzog made me want to punch a developer. There's a big boss, and then constantly re-spawning adds. Four of them, at all times, and three of you. One person could tank the adds, but they die pretty fast. Also, you don't really hold aggro. The big guy himself isn't too bad, but his guards hit like trucks, too. And once you get in the room, you can't go back and level any more or anything like that. You just have to l2play, or perish.

I don't like such a challenging fight so early in a game. From all I've been able to look up online, there is no trick strategy we were missing out on. You just have to get lucky, time your rezzes right, and hope for the best. You don't even have a whole lot of abilities at this point (being as you've not leveled a lot yet). It's just dumb and discouraging. Save the ball-breaker fights for later, says I.

Any of the rest of you play this game? Do you have similar nightmares about Tharzog? Google tells me I'm not alone in my frustration. And we're passed it now. The game is fun. Similar, I think, to Diablo (or at least what I've heard about Diablo), so if you're looking for something to do in the mean time... maybe worth checking out. Just... don't let that first boss get to you.