This sounds more like the title given to an expansion than a full game, so the speculation that World of Warcraft’s next expansion will be titled Cataclysm, or possibly something along those lines.

Let’s do a little more speculation about how the next expansion will shape up.

The two main continents of Azeroth will be destroyed. That’s the cataclysmic event that the title portends. It won’t be a complete destruction, only the areas level 50 and below will be destroyed.

It’s no secret that Blizzard have gradually been reducing the importance of the original game for some time. Leveling has been sped up in order to get players to the high level raid content, and let’s face it, no-one goes to the original WoW dungeons (raid or otherwise) anymore.

So this will give Blizzard a chance to get rid of all that pesky low-level content in favor of the high level stuff.

Of course this means one of two things must happen.

1. All new characters created will start at level 50 or above.
2. Blizzard will subtract 49 from the character level, effectively scaling everyone back down 50 levels, but with all the old attributes and gear intact.

Some of the old content can be repurposed for high-level use. After all a cataclysmic event often brings new and more serious challenges to a population. But much needs to be destroyed otherwise there will be too much new high low-level content and we know Blizzard doesn’t want that.

Cataclysmic

My first reaction to the news that the Chinese government has banned gold farming was that it was a huge step in the right direction. It won’t shut down the gold selling industry, but it will hurt this particular group of sociopaths who engage in shady and downright criminal behaviour at the expense of a whole range of other people.

That’s a big woo hoo right there.

But gold farmers have shown that they’re not above criminal practices to make their gold. Expect to see a big rise in the number of account hacks and keylogger malware as these people desperately try to recoup their losses.

It’s probably a good time for a warning to be really careful with your account. Do the following:

1. Update any virus or malware scanning software you use. That’s a good idea at anytime really.
2. Don’t use Internet Explorer, it’s still the most popular browser in use and thus a huge target for hacks. Firefox is pretty good, but it’s also widely adopted which makes it less secure. Try a newer or less popular browser like Opera, this makes it less likely that a malware webpage will be able to exploit your computer. I’ve been using Google’s Chrome which isn’t bad, even if it’s still a bit rough, but it has some decent malware detection.
3. Don’t give your account details, including username to anyone. If you have a character with a name which is the same account username give some thought to changing one or the other.
4. Change your password — regularly. Use a strong password, ie. Not a dictionary word, use both upper and lower case letters AND numbers, and if possible use punctuation; Oh, and use a minimum of eight characters.

There’s a whole ton of money in the gold selling industry. Just because one avenue for cash gets closed down, don’t think for a minute that the people who profit are going to pack it in. They’ve already shown that they are quite prepared to engage in fraud and other nasty practices to get your money. Now that there are (less) legitimate means to farm gold, they’ll likely turn to the illegitimate.

Like I said, even good things don’t always have the results that you’d expect. Be careful with your account.

China Bans Gold Farmers – Time For Care

It’s been a bad news day today hasn’t it?

There appears to be more to come for us Aussies. Nestled among the stories about Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcet — my sympathies to their loved ones — is another about the Internet filter that our so-called democratic government wants to foist upon us.

It looks like that they want to protect us now, aside from child pornography, from racy and unrated downloadable games that we can get from the internet. And since Australia does not have a 18+ rating for games, that means many of the unrated games that we can now get from overseas will be filtered.

A lot of gamers possibly won’t find this an inconvenience. After all they buy their games from stores which by law must be rated.

For MMORPG gamers though… well that’s the sticker. Apparently most of these are unrated in Oz simply because they are primarily available online and the content changes. (Though there is some dispute over this at the moment as I understand.) It’s entirely possible that the Australian government will decide to block games like World of Warcraft for this reason.

And games like Age of Conan may be hard pressed to get a rating even if they apply. AoC has blood splatter and decapitations, and worst of all, to the shock and horror of the what-about-the-children crowd, it has exposed boobies. Oh who will save us from those evil knockers!

Now here’s where it could badly affect casual web gamers.

Pretty much none of the independantly developed games out there are rated, at least officially, it’s way too expensive. If the Australian government decides to go the whole hog and censor all unrated games (perhaps unlikely) then there will be virtually no access to independant web games within Australia. That’s an exteme possibility, but when have governments ever been rational?

The thing is, I thought this filter idea was effectively dead. Some months ago, a number of the top ISPs in Oz withdrew from the trial saying that it was a bad idea, a waste of time, and that they weren’t going to have any more to do with it. They also said what everyone else knew, the filter was going to slow our access speed down to a crawl, a bad idea considering the comparatively low speeds we currently get.

Now I’d like you to do something. I know there are a lot of Australian readers of this blog, the stats say that Aussies are the second most common visitors, with the Americans being first.

If you don’t want Australia to be locked away behind a firewall and secret blacklist and be unable to access the games you want to play, contact your local member of Federal parliament. Tell them you are unhappy about being treated like a child.

If you are an indie game developer, hey you’re losing customers. Try letting your Aussie customers know what is going on, and get them to raise a stink.

Finally, if you’re a blogger, even if you’re not from the Land Down Under, I’d appreciate if you could publicise the issue too. The more noise and ill feeling that we can raise against this completely inappropriate violation of our civil rights, the better.

Slouching Towards The Nanny-State

A few bloggers have expressed surprise at the announcment, with only Heartless_ saying I told you so and reminding us of the toxic effect that EA has on the game developers that it buys.

Me. I’m not so surprised really. On both counts.

Jacobs rapid departure, despite the positive spin, looks very much like the old tap on the shoulder. It’s no secret that EA was hoping for a WoW killer with WAR, or at the very least a game that would strongly compete with WoW in the US and Europe. For it to only have 300k subscribers sixish months after release would be the topic of many heated boardroom discussions.

These sort of conversations usually result in asking someone to fall on their sword.

As for the merger. No surprise there either. Big companies buy out smaller companies all the time and take over all the administrative functions, laying off the unnecessary staff. Why support two finance departments that duplicate the effort of the other? Sometimes a bigger company will buy a smaller more innovative business simply for the IP. Once that has been transfered, bye bye. Slash and burn.

And with the current financial crisis, EA would be looking at cost-cutting in every part of their business. Merging the two studios does make a hard business sense. I’m more surprised that it didn’t happen earlier.

Don’t forget that originally Mythic were going to be EAs MMORPG department. All MMOG development was going to go through them. Then they bought Bioware. A few eyebrows were raised at that. With the poor performance from WAR, Bioware seem to have become the shining star of MMORPG development at EA.

My guess is that they were waiting for the Land of the Dead release for WAR and possibly some other internal figures and perhaps some milestones from Bioware before doing the merger.

As for the toxicity refered to by Heartless_? Yeah. EA does have a well deserved reputation of taking over a successful and innovative studio, absorbing everything that makes money, and discarding the shriveled husk of culture and innovation.

The only saving grace in this situation is that Mythic has been merged with another studio (Bioware) with a strong culture of innovation. Hopefully much of that will be allowed to work through both studios.

As for Bioware? My guess is that they’ll need to make a very strong success with The Old Republic if they want to avoid a similar fate in the future.

Jacobs Out, Mythic & Bioware To Merge – No Surprise Really

So the announcement that Dungeons and Dragons Online is going to a free to play model in the near the future certainly sparks my interest. I did subscribe a while back, but only for a couple of months between other games. At the time it came across as a reasonably decent MMORPG, but in the end I couldn’t justify the monthly fee to keep subscribing. But with this announcement that decision becomes a whole lot easier.

I may not subscribe the moment DDO goes F2P, that depends on what else I’m playing (and doing) at the time, but I expect that at some time soon I’ll be crawling through some DDO dungeons.

Dungeons and Dragons Online – Another Choice

About the only movie tie-in that I’ve played that was anygood was the Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Maybe that’s because Vin Diesel is a gamer, and involved in making games.

But anyway, here’s a thought. The post-apocalptic setting of the Terminator movies would make a fantastic framework for a MMORPG.

Obviously it would have to be PvP since it’s a war between man and machine, but there is a ton of scope for inventing new scenarios and mythology. Especially since the (movies acknowledge) that the future is fluid and changes based on the actions of the protagonists/antagonists sent back in time.

Hypothetically, if a Terminator MMORPG were on the drawing boards, what would you like to see in it?

Terminator The MMORPG

Over at Game Politics there is a post about the most recent study that supposedly proves this link. The article talks about how a researcher from a Texan university is disputing the results due to the use of poor research methods.

And this is the crux of the matter. It seems every one of these studies (that I’ve read about) has used methods that either bear no relationship to the way things work in the real world, or are designed to achieve a desired result. This latest study seems to do the former, but there are many studies out there, commissioned by so called family groups or others with some form of social agenda, that use completely suspect means of gathering and analysing the data.

You would think that if such a correlation between violent games and real-world behaviour actually existed, the researchers wouldn’t have to use unreliable and disreputable methods, and as a consequence there would be a ton of irrefutable studies out there.

So where are they?

Has Anyone Proven The Violent Game Link Yet?

The Halasian Empire is a long established guild, and has the added advantage of having a few Aussie members. It’s nice to be able to be online with a folks from my own timezone. It’s also includes a few blogger friends, some of whom I met in the Casualties of War.

Of course, none of the characters I’d previously rolled were on LDL, so a new class was necessary, and having not played a healer for a long long time (barring a stint as a Warrior Priest in WAR) I thought I might give the classic cleric a try. My side motivation was that clerics are often sought after for groups, and I’d definitely like to do some grouping, even if it’s a majority of PUGs that I end up in.

I’m also trying a different style of play.

Normally I just rush to the level cap. Well, perhaps rush is the wrong word, but in essense I just tend to go where the levels are. But in Everquest 2, one can turn off adventure experience and quest experience in order to remain at the current adventure level. That can be pretty useful if you’re doing a static group with friends and just want to play your character while your friends are offline. That way you never outlevel them.

But this has another advantage with EQ2. You can still earn AA points by completing level 10+ quests, killing named NPCs, or by exploring new areas. Those points can then be invested into various attributes and such in order to make that character more powerful.

So by stopping and smelling the roses, and visiting every zone that caters to my level and doing the rounds there, I’ll end up with a stronger Templar when I’m grinding through the middle levels.

If I feel like I need some level advancement, I’ll simply switch the adventure XP back on.

I’m also spending more effort crafting, and this is good because crafting in Everquest 2 puts the crafting in World of Warcraft and, dare I say it, LotRO to shame. I honestly have never seen the point of a crafting system where you just feed in a bunch of mats, press a button, and go make a cup of coffee. Macro much?

I picked the Sage profession for crafting mainly because I’ll be able to create all the spells I’ll need later on up to the Adept 3 level. Although that’s changing in the latest Game Update. According to the GU52 patch notes the Apprentice 1 to 3 spells will be renamed to Apprentice, Apprentice 4 will be Journeyman, Adept 1 is Adept, Adept 3 is becoming Expert, and the Masters 1 and 2 will be called Master and Grandmaster respectively.

Unfortunately, SOE are also dumbifying (or perhaps I should say WoWifying) the spell names. Instead of a unique name for each level of a spell, they’re just going to use the same name and number them sequentially. So the healing range of spells will simply be called Healing I – IV (or whatever the max is.) It’s a real pity because it just seems SOE is catering to the lowest common denominator here when they don’t really have to.  (As an aside, even in WoW I have always thought the sequential number of spells and abilities is lame. It’s always struck me as lazy and unimaginitive. Sad to see EQ2 pandering to that.)

Anyways, back on track. Sage. Right. Over the weekend I leveled him up to 20 tradeskill level. The first ten levels are a snap. The crafting tutorial quests do all the work really. The next ten levels are a bit harder. The trick here is to craft something you’ve never made before each time since you get bonus XP for doing so. It took somewhere between two to three hours standing at the engraved desk in the guild hall, but I did hit 20 which makes me eligible to do crafting writs and earn a bit of status, both for myself and the guild.

So there you go. My current gaming status.

Oh, and one other thing. I cancelled my subscription to World of Warcraft.

That little duty has been on my mind for a couple of months now, since the bottom has fallen out of the job market especially. I’m saving pretty hard right now as my contract completes at the end of August (unless I get another extension.) Worried? Yep a little. I’ve even had a bit of insomnia as a result. So I’m cutting excess costs, and even though a sub to WoW is on the low end of expense, it’s something I can’t justify at the moment. And since I’m not playing much Eve at this time, that will probably go too.

At least resubscribing is an option when times get better.

Everquest 2, Adventure, Advancement, Sages and WoW Status

In the post titled, Where the heck have you been? McQuaid briefly recounts the last couple of years since he departed the Vanguard team. In the final paragraph he says:

But in the last few months I’ve really felt that desire to be back in the industry and creating games.  I’ve been putting feelers out and weighing my options.  Part of me ‘reaching out again’ is this website and blog.  It really feels good to return from my self-imposed exile   Hello everyone, I’m back!

I can certainly understand that desire. As a programmer I’ve occassionally taken on less programmy roles — team leader, test engineer, documentation writer — and have missed the feel of coding. I reckon it must have been tough on him to spend two years away from the field that he loves.

Just a couple of weeks ago I posted an article asking why do gamers, and MMORPG gamers in particular, seem compelled to dump a bucketload of hate on successful game designers who have a single failure. I was referring to luminaries like Richard Garriott and Bill Roper in that post, but I feel this equally applies to McQuaid.

The man was involved in developing the history of some of our most well respected games, starting way back in the text based MUD days, and going on to be a producer and one of the lead designers of Everquest.

It was his stint with Vanguard that proved to be his undoing. Running a company is a completely different kettle of fish than being on a team and it’s my opinion that this, not the game design/production component, is what caused the anxiety he mentions in his post. And that’s not unheard of, and not unforgiveable either. A lot of people move upwards and out of their area of competency, and fail, it happens all the time.

But hey, that’s what life is all about, growth and failure.

It’s said that you learn more from your failures than you learn from your successes. Where most of us take small steps and fail quietly only to retreat back to our corners (if we take the steps at all,) McQuaid pushed himself out of his comfort zone, and failed. In this case spectacularly, with a huge audience. But do you know what? Who cares.

I figure everyone deserves another chance. I for one hope Brad finds a suitable role for himself, somewhere he can pursue his passion, and deliver to us, the hungry MMORPG masses, another great game.

Welcome back Brad.

Welcome Back Brad

One of the commentors on that post, Dylan, made the statement that he believed that Blizzard has ruined World of Warcraft by taking what, upon release, were a blend of complex game mechanics implemented in a simple manner, excellent content, and a good PvP game, and have dumbed it down into a far too casual game that has effectively eliminated all need for grouping (except for raid content.) — Paraphrased.

So what do you think, has WoW been nerfed into oblivion?

If that’s the case, why is World of Warcraft still the king of the MMORPG hill?

Let’s discuss.

Has Blizzard Ruined WoW?