WoW Forever

That said, my takes are lukewarm at best… though, that is probably more due to my understanding the assignment compared to some people.

TL;DR – It’s vanilla WoW content with some updates.  It’ll do.  I’m good.  Is it Nov. 4 yet?

As for people not understanding the assignment, that started as soon as you get could into the game, at which point there was a hew and cry because there was a queue to get in.

A pretty formidable queue.  I got to see it, the joy of working from home.

16,702 people ahead of you

This got people declaring immediately that the megaserver idea was a failure and WF was doomed… or that Blizz is dumb and couldn’t count how many boxes they sold.

Me? I take the long view.

To start with, this was a beta test, so finding problems like this was the reason for even being here, because you don’t want to find these problems on launch day.  Do we not remember the launch of WoW Classic back in 2019?

It took 100 minutes longer back in 2019

Over at GamesRadar they have a post about the Blizz team’s surprise at the popularity of the beta and how that open salvo helped them find a problem.  For the former, I am sure the sales gave them some idea… but those sales also came five days before the beta… three business days… and you don’t completely reconfigure your server environment in three days.  So we got a PTR environment.  Them’s the breaks.

And by that evening you were able to log straight into the game without a queue, so it was no longer the worst problem in the universe.

I’m not going to declare it “problem solved,” because launch day will still be a challenge.  The game will be open to anybody with an active WoW subscription after all.  But the beta finding a problem is a win… because, again, you signed up, and likely PAID, to be in beta.  (And if you paid you’re an idiot like me.  Welcome to the club.)

So what did I do once I got in?

I made a cash elf druid.  I paid for the damn cash elves, I was going to play one.

Also, they have a new starting area and it would be nice to see something new.  And then I dropped into the world and… whoa Nelly, I was not alone in that desire it seemed.

Cash Elves everywhere

That image doesn’t give you the sense of the density of elf flesh in the little corner of Azeroth.  I carried on the the first quest, which was being stripped by the host of locust that was us, and decided I could maybe save that for later.

So I went and made a human paladin.  I was always going to roll one up.  It is my default… and also I want justice for the original pally talent tree.  I want a viable tanking or DPS pally.

Here is where I ran into the difference between standard definition and high definition models.  The Cash Elves are pretty much the same when you swap the option, and there is a checkbox there in the character creator to let you check it out.

I would say… I was not impressed with the high definition update.

SD top, HD Bottom

These two… do not convey the same look.  I had to take a minute to go to retail to see if the human male model is as bad there… but no.  I mean, it isn’t great with those options, but somehow WF HD is a third version of character models.  Maybe they covered this in one of the panels and I forgot already, but holy moly!

(As an aside, posting this image to Reddit has yielded me my most popular item on the site for 2026.  If there was still an annual Reddit recap, this would be on it.  Also, WF has people confused and they are posting in WoW, WoWClassic, WoWForever, ClassicPlus, and a few other subreddits about it.  There is a message in that somewhere.)

On the bright side, human males seem to be the worst off in the HD models, though somebody at Blizz seems to have pushed the mascara slider a bit too far on some of the female options.  It isn’t just a night elf problem anymore.  But dwarves, for example, look good.

I went back to standard definition, tried to block high def from my thoughts, and rolled on into Elwynn Forest with my pally.  And it was packed.

Not just a cash elf problem

That dismayed me a bit and after running around for just a look, I logged off and left it for later.

In the early evening, when the queue had subsided… I saw 400 people ahead of me but the estimate was under a minute and it was only a few seconds before I was past that… I dropped back in and found myself in a still crowded starter zone.

But not as crowded as before.

There was still competition for mobs, which is especially painful as a pally who has no ranged attack yet and needs a sec or two wind up that mashie for a hit, during which just about any other class seems to feel almost obligated to tag the mob for themselves.  That, however, is the same old story of vanilla.

Most of the place was as you remember, but there were a couple of changes here and there.

For openers, some of the harvesting tradeskill trainers are now hanging around the place, so you can get started right away before you get to the first inn.  There is even a quest to help you get your harvesting skill going.

Here, read a book about it

There is also at least one new quest for me in the human and dwarf starter zones, which I avoided doing.  I saw some concern about additional quests pushing you forward out of zone content too quickly, which always has and always will be a hazard in a game where you have rested experience, unless you just want to punish people for pushing ahead too fast.

It does feel a bit faster than maybe actual 2006 WoW, where I would often split time between the human and dwarf starter zones to keep the quests at or below level.  But where I hope this kicks in is during the classic 30-50 slump zone.  I can live with a little extra speed early on if they can smooth that out a bit.

That will have to wait.  The beta has us capped at level 20 for now.  At least I haven’t seen anybody higher than level 20, though I will admit by Sunday I was seeing a LOT of level 20s.

Let’s see, what other items are there to go over?

Mega Servers

I like this idea in theory.  I don’t want to relive 2006 with friends on a dozen different servers.  In practice… we’ll see.  I am getting a bit tired of this message popping all the time during peak hours.

World Refresh Again!

I hope they have something better when November 4th arrives.  I’ve had that message come up three times in five minutes.  I get it, you need to manage layers and population… but still, other games have managed this better.  WoW Classic managed this better in 2019!

Also, the mega server isn’t great for Euros, or so Reddit would have be believe.  Isn’t there a cloud computing solution for that?

I also think the mega server is a bit of a defensive strategy for Blizz.  No dead servers, no server merges, if this isn’t popular it is only one server and they can scale down the hardware commitment and let it run.

Last Names

I am so in for last names.  I know that this is in there as a way to accommodate the whole mega server idea, but I come from an online gaming history where last names were special, so I just like having them.  And I know the WoW community wouldn’t dream of abusing this new feature.

Like these fine citizens of Azeroth

Okay, well… maybe in the RP split of the mega server it won’t be so bad… though I do hear Blizz is banning people for going over the line on obscenity… which I am pretty sure they do on standard servers where you only get one name.

New Lighting

This got a lot of play in one of the BlizzCon panels, but is otherwise kind of subtle.  A lot of places you have to stand and look before you can see how the new model has changed how the world looks.  I’ll toss this  image in as an example.

The blacksmithing area in Stormwind

I took this screenshot as a bit of a “damn, this place is crowded” demo.  Then, when I was cropping it down I noticed that it was also an example of how the new lighting works, with the orange haze of the twilight sun lighting the area in a subtle way that is very different from how it looked in vanilla, and likely so versus retail as well.

If you are in a hurry and have your head down, you can easily not see it.  But then it can suddenly grab you and you start to see if all around you.

Cash Elves

Nobody likes seeing blatant monetization, and this obvious monetization was obvious.  That said, the cash elves… and I am afraid that name has just stuck for me, so I don’t even remember what they’re actually called… serve a couple of purposes, where “make Microsoft some money” is just one on the list.

A cash elf when you call him a cash elf

Another is to give the horde that “pretty” race that it is alleged that they were clamoring for back in vanilla.  I remember that story.  So if you’re making some strident argument that, say, goblins should have been the added race… well, you’re wrong.  First, not pretty.  Second, they already exist in later content and we’re not going in that direction.  We’re staying in the vanilla timeline… which is why it couldn’t be blood elves either.

And if you’re argument is that the lore is whatever Blizz says it is… you’re right, and they have said it is this.  But I know, people only like the lore when it meets their needs.

Anyway, given all the other things Blizz could have monetized, this feels like we’re getting off easy… for now at least.  They did not, for example, change the subscription price or add in a WF surcharge.  If you can resist the packs you don’t have to pay anything in addition to play.

The Camp Thing

The introduction to camps is one of the new quest lines in the starter areas.  You get to go sit down by the campfire, get some instructions, and get a buff when you hang out long enough.

Sitting by the campfire

This is, no doubt, why you get access to gathering professions earlier, because they can add things to the camp to influence the buff.  And I like, in theory, the community aspect of this, encouraging people to sit together out in the field.  I am not sure how it will play

PvP

We only had two server options for the beta, “normal” and “PvP,” which says something about PvP.

Gameplay Style – Why can’t you just be normal?

Deciding to be normal, I did not opt for PvP.  But I saw a thread on Reddit that declared that PvP would absolutely be the “make or break” feature for WoW Forever, which made me emit an audible guffaw as I thought, “Don’t ever change, you PvP forum warriors!”

But Blizz can fall into that trap too.  I still remember Battle for Azeroth, when they tried to make all servers PvP servers and effectively made no servers PvP servers.

Classic versus Enhanced Experience

I misread this option and chose enhanced, then spent a bunch of time undoing the settings to change it back.

Are you experienced, or have you been experienced?

It does also appear that you get the retail WASD key setup no matter which you choose.  I had to swap the mapping between Q / A and E / D to put strafe and turn where they belong.  My brain is just hardwired to that at this point.

Also, it is a bit odd to see what appears to be Desolace through the portal on the start screen.  I wonder what that portends.

Other Retail Things

I am not in love with the retail UI.  Certainly, its default layout is something I find irksome.  I will, however, allow that the edit mode from retail that let’s you sort things out how you like them is probably better than depending on some rando who made an addon that they might decide not to support a few months down the road.

Also the built-in junk seller is nice, and is one less addon I will have to go looking for.

Transmog… well, I will be able to wield that Kobold shovel forever on my ret pally.  That is all I ask.

Controller Support

I thought this was kind of neat.  It must be stone simple, because I figured it out pretty quickly.

Fighting the Defias with a controller

I was able to successfully run around, target, fight, cast, and loot out in the field, both with the pally and with my dwarf hunter.

I will grant you that characters level 20 and under are probably the ideal scenario.  I am willing to commit to watching a stream of a 20 person raid using only controllers just to see how that plays out.  But it still seemed somewhat viable.  I ran around for quite a while with the controller.

The only hitch is that I could never finish turning in a quest.  There was an option missing from the UI… or I just couldn’t find it… that let you end the quest.

And to swap out of controller mode you have to open up the options and uncheck the box in the correct area.

I want to point out how seamlessly other titles, like Forza Horizon 6, No Man’s Sky, and Valheim, transition between keyboard and controller mode.  But that ignores the fact that WF is loading up a different hotbar when you swap, so it needs to reload the UI.  I am not sure they can even get a hot key set to swap in that situation.

Still, the controller thing is interesting and putting WF on XBox or the Steam Deck is an long desired outcome.

Overall 

What was my TL;DR at the top?  ” I’m good.  Is it Nov. 4 yet?”

What more can you ask for?

Overall it is another dive into World of Warcraft, this time down a path that is neither classic nor retail, but its own thing.  I am going to continue to fiddle around with the beta.  Maybe even get back to my cash elf druid once that starter zoned settles down a bit.  I don’t see anything in the way of what I posted on Saturday about getting the band back together.

No Man’s Sky – Cosmos

Not that I need yet another title to play, but No Man’s Sky expeditions usually have some good rewards and, unless they company artificially gates phase advancement… looking at you The Swarm expedition… you can generally jet through if you keep your eye on the ball.

Or there is the inevitable guide on Reddit… I’ll put the link at the end of the post… which this time says you can wrap things up in as little as four hours.

Unlike some past expeditions, this one is there to show off the new stuff that came out with the Cosmos update.  Instead, this one is a bit of an expedition down memory lane, as Hello Games gives us a look at where the game has been over the last decade.  From their announcement:

As a team, we tend to have our heads down, and don’t often take time to reflect – but we’ve now released 41 named updates for No Man’s Sky! So it was lovely to take the time to look back over that long journey.

We don’t want to spoil too much, but we had a lot of fun resurrecting elements from previous versions of the game, and hiding easter eggs for long-term players to discover. We hope that Travellers who have been with us for a long time will enjoy remembering some of these updates, and newer Travellers will find it interesting to glimpse back in time!

So off we go.  I had already parked in the anomaly in anticipation of the upcoming expedition, so I logged right in, sat right down, and wrote myself a letter… wait, no… I signed up for the expedition.

Welcome to the Expedition

Before that, however, I turned off multiplayer in the settings, because while I love my fellow travelers, you can be a bit much and also the game does not love it when there are more than a dozen of us within a set space.  Or I can claim that I am adhering to the original versions of the game, when it was a solo venture in a shared universe.  I can still see all the stuff people left behind, just not the people themselves.

I took a minute to throw a few items into the basket to take with me, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to collect them until I reached a point in the expedition where I could get back to the anomaly.  But that usually happens pretty quickly.

Some stuff for the trip

I did this well before the post linked below about how to finish the expedition in four hours had shown up.  That came with a shopping list of things to pack, and I failed on most of it.  But an expedition is doable even with items you find along the way.  Also, we have six weeks to finish this.

Then I hit the button and went through the usual opening montage.  You are on a strange planet, bits and pieces of your gear are announced as being online, and then you get the expedition splash.

When the expedition officially starts for you

Then it is time for the usual first step of any expedition, finding your broken ass space ship and fixing it.  Seriously, this is the number one No Man’s Sky trope, the broken down spaceship scenario, tied with the amnesia trope, which goes hand in hand with it.

Another broken expedition ship

This meant the usual local scavenger hunt for materials, made easier by the fact that I was alone.  There is also something to be said for being able to focus.  Though, again, I was able to tell I was not the first person here.

I’ll call him Rocky

You get to name stuff when you discover it first, and even with multiplayer off, the universe remembers and sends it to you.

I also noticed a new material as I was burning down the local flora.

Pray tell, what is Thanium9?

Thanium9 was a new one on me.  Later, when I reached the anomaly, I figured out that this mapped to oxygen because my stack of O2 in the basket was now a stack of Thanium9.

This must be an old school name for it.  I am sure it must be, because once I got the ship going I had finished the first milestone and was told to get back in the ship to receive a message.  The message was about the

Tales from 2016

This, as the quote above implies, is the start, the kick off, the beginning of the ride through all of the named updates, starting with launch, each of which is a milestone on the journey.

The milestones of the first phase

So if you want to know, for example, when the first steps towards multiplayer were introduced, you will find that is was with the Atlas Rises update, which also introduced the first really big narrative quest line.

Atlas Rises makes us floating orbs

The phases also gate what features of the game you have access to.  Sort of.  Some later features are still there, like the solar system map view that arrived with Cosmos.

But others you have to unlock.  For example, Atlas Rises also introduced the third person character models, which are required for the over the shoulder view perspective to the game.

Atlas Rises unlocks

However, you don’t get that view until you finish the next milestone, for the Next update, because they saved it until then.

Third-person mode arrives

Up until then you are always in first person mode, but as soon as that is unlocked you are in third person view.

I had a bit of a problem getting that far because Atlas Rises needs 120 cadmium to finish and I wasn’t finding any.  But the previous milestone gave me the cadmium drive, which I had installed in my ship.  I parted that out, which gave me 125 cadmium, 120 to finish the milestone and then 5 more to play the “double your cadmium” game once I had a freighter and the large refiner that came with it.

And so it goes.  There are 43 milestones broken up across five phases, which all add up to the expedition.

The Five Expedition Phases

As always, you don’t have to do all the phases in order… unless you want to have the game unwind in historical order.  (I read the guide and found out how to jump ahead and get access to the anomaly so I could collect my semi-useful supplies.  I have been staying the course otherwise.)

I am now through the first phase, which gave me the in-game artwork package, which was what I really wanted from the expedition.  But there are five weeks left so I am sure I will find the time to finish it all up.

Related:

• Hello Games – Expedition 23: Our Journey Continues
• Reddit – NMS Our Journey Continues Expedition 23 In 4 HOURS

Fantasy Critic League – Like Fantasy Football, but for Video Games

With changes almost guaranteed, we’ll make our usual stop at the scoreboard from last week to see where we left off.

Week 37 Scores

First out of the gate for the week was Marvel Wolverine.

Marvel Wolverine

It had had already clocked a score of 77.5 last week, so was just waiting for the its moment.

• Marvel’s Wolverine has released!
  • [Picked by Frabjous Day Enterprises (Archey)]

That score was enough to boost Archey’s score a bit, but not enough to change his position in the rankings.

The next day Aniimo had its launch moment.

• Aniimo has released!
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]

However, it did not have a score yet.  Also, I wasn’t even sure what kind of game it was.

Aniimo

The whole double “i” thing made me think of Nintendo, since they have been doing that since the Wii and carry on still with your avatar being a Mii and what that whole Amiibo mini-figure thing is they do.

But no.  It is described as “a free-to-play, next-gen creature-catching open-world RPG” and is planned to be available on every platform except Nintendo when fully released.  So look for it on Steam I guess.

Then, the following day, we got scores for the last two titles expected for the week, with Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter landing first.

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter

This sequel knocked it out of the park with the early reviews.

• Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Now has a score of 93.1

That was in the running for the top score in the league.

Then, a little later, the latest entry in the Fire Emblem series showed up.

Fire Emblem: Fortunes Weave

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave also landed with an extremely strong score with early reviews.

• Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave
  • [Picked by Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)]
  • Now has a score of 90.7

That score could lock in Shintar’s predicted first place finish in the 2026 league.

Of course, holding onto scores like that is a challenge.  Even the best reviewed title gets that site that will only give it four out of five stars because they don’t give half stars and they are holding out for perfection to award a full five.

That hit Trails in the Sky by the end of the day.

• Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
  • [Picked by Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)]
  • Score has gone DOWN from 93.3 to 91.8

Not a huge blow, and it still has an amazing score… but 93 is still better than 91.

Then, as the day faded, Aniimo finally got enough reviews to get on the board.

• Aniimo
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Now has a score of 78.3

That was a decent score.  A little below par, which is about 81 for our league, but still solid and enough to bump Arhanta up a slot on the rankings.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
    • Score has gone UP from 81.8 to 90.2
    • Moved from 4th place to 3rd place
  • Anthania Interactive (Ula)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place

However, the scoreboard was not going to stay still for long.  Later that evening both Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter hit their release date.  Those two titles now in play, the board saw a significant shakeup.

• Publisher Score Updates
  • Play Forever Mwahahaha (Shintar)
    • Score has gone UP from 75.4 to 94.7
    • Moved from 6th place to 3rd place
  • Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)
    • Moved from 3rd place to 4th place
  • Anthania Interactive (Ula)
    • Moved from 4th place to 5th place
  • S Class Warfare Studios (p0tsh0t)
    • Moved from 5th place to 6th place
  • Crash and Burn Games (Shawn)
    • Score has gone UP from 27.5 to 49.5
    • Moved from 11th place to 7th place
  • Green River Gaming (Nimgimli)
    • Moved from 7th place to 8th place
  • Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)
    • Moved from 8th place to 9th place
  • Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)
    • Moved from 9th place to 10th place
  • Neutical Publishing (Cyanbane)
    • Moved from 10th place to 11th place

Shintar jumped from 6th to 3rd position while Shawn jumped from 11th to 7th, each climbing over the people in between.

That was all the week’s releases on the board.

Aniimo came back with a bump on more reviews.

• Aniimo
  • [Picked by Rodent Entertainment (Arhanta)]
  • Score has gone UP from 78.3 to 79.5

We also got a score on early reviews for one of next week’s titles.

• Control Resonant
  • [Picked by Rusty Shackleford (Shilgrod)]
  • Now has a score of 84.6

But nothing else moved the rankings as we landed at Saturday, which left the scoreboard looking like this.

Week 38 Scores

There were two bids this week.  Since nobody had any empty slots left on their roster, that meant swapping a pick for something new.

• Bids in TAGN League
  • World of Warcraft: Forever
    • Won by TAGN HQ (Wilhelm) with a bid of $54
      • Dropped game ‘Rayman Legends Retold’ conditionally
    • Anthania Interactive (Ula)’s bid of $35 did not succeed: Publisher was outbid.
  • Order of the Sinking Star
    • Won by Anthania Interactive (Ula) with a bid of $35
      • Dropped game ‘Grave Seasons’ conditionally
    • Pretty Blue Fox Games (Bhagpuss)’s bid of $25 did not succeed: Publisher was outbid.

I guess I am all in on WoW Forever for real.  I blew my whole remaining budget on that.

Meanwhile, Ula did pick up Order of the Sinking Star, keeping Bhagpuss at bay, which also drained the rest of her cash, so we’re both done for the season.  Whatever we have we’re stuck with.

And that leaves us with the following ten titles up in the queue.

Week 39 Coming Up

We will have another four titles landing next week, and four more the week after that, which will get us down to a mere dozen weeks left in the 2026.  All of us have at least four titles released and almost half of us are waiting on just one or two titles before we’re done.

Related:

• TAGN Fantasy Critic League
• TAGN Discord Server
• Fantasy Critic Site
• Fantasy Critic How to Play
• Fantasy Critic FAQ
• Fantasy Critic Most Desired Reviews
• Open Critic Review Site

WoW Forever

The big one seems to be “What is WoW Forever?”  I’ve been over that one a few times in various locations.  It is not WoW Classic, or even vanilla WoW, for specific definitions of the terms.  But we’ve been down that path before.  In 2019 there were some loudly declaring that WoW Classic wasn’t REALLY WoW Classic because of some detail or need to adhere to the state of computing 15 years past launch.

But it is not merely retail WoW set in 2006 Azeroth.  (Blizz was very careful not to say “2004 Azeroth” and the purists who long for Captain Placeholder were not doubt enraged once more.  There are so many bad threads to downvote in r/wowclassic now.)  We’re not getting flying mounts or Dungeon Finder… hell, the summoning stones won’t even summon party members.  You will need a warlock for that.

And it certainly isn’t World of Warcraft 2.  No, it is not that.

Instead, it is more like Alternate Reality WoW, a version of 2006 Azeroth with the hindsight and resources to make different choices and have additional content to tell different stories.

There were a million different visions of “Classic Plus” floating around over the last few years.  But Blizz could only make one.  And the one they chose adheres to the high level definition commonly espoused in these threads and discussions, in that it is a return to the 2006 world where there will be new content to explore in that original context.  So we get new zones, new dungeons, new race/class combos, revised skill tree and abilities, a new race (that can go either Horde or Alliance, if you have the $30), and a lot of new quests and storylines to help tie the world together.

There is also the promise of staying at level 60, never raising the level cap, and instead having horizontal progression with new raids, dungeons, events, and other content as time goes on.

I have a side bet that we get a level cap announcement at BlizzCon 2029.  But I am a cynic because I have seen how we behave and how companies react… and how they reneg on their promises the second holding to them might possibly affect the bottom line.  (Looking at you CCP/Fenris!)  I feel that at some point some senior exec will overrule Holly Longdale and insist player numbers are down and WoW Forever needs a hook to reel people back in.

But I wouldn’t bet the pink slip for my car on it.  Guild Wars 2 has maintained a viable business model without raising the level cap.  But it also had to start selling content expansions, something it had said wasn’t in the plan early on.  So if you think the WoW Forever cash elves are a problem, I bet you’re in for a rough ride as time goes on.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the Holly Longdale vision is that multiple parallel versions of WoW running along and getting updates will keep people subscribed and hopping between them.  Maybe when we’ve played out the initial WoW Forever content and checked out The Last Titan, there will be a 2029 re-launch of WoW Classic, now more classic than ever, that will keep us going.

I don’t know, but it could happen.

The other question, which gets expressed in a few ways, seems to boil down to wondering who the target audience for WoW Forever really is.  The fact that it isn’t simply WoW Classic or retail, that it is some third path, seems confusing.  And that is not without reason.

Blizz tried to sell us on a lot of details… the paladin talent tree remap landed hard with me for sure… but the vision was a bit hazy, too wrapped up in a mix of hope, dreams, and no small amount of nostalgia.  Such is the nature of visions.

So the answer to that is pretty specific to individuals.  Do you want to play an alternate reality version of WoW?  I get if you don’t.  There are so many other titles out there to play.  Too many.  I’ve felt the pressure of choosing this month with the launches and updates so far, and now we have this!?!?

Potshot, Ula, and I watched BlizzCon… not together, but were watching it in parallel and chatting on Discord, registering our reactions and comments.  We watched ALL the WoW Forever panels.  I am glad we did.  Personally, I felt like I *got* it after the first deep dive.  But then the next panel gave me some new perspective.  It was quite a ride.

In the end, come Sunday afternoon, when we things had wrapped up, we made the decision that we were going to go for it.  We were going to try and get the group back together.  The three of us were on board right away and Bung, who has been having a busy summer so hasn’t been playing with us for a while, declared he was up for it as well.

That gives us a group of four… which is something we have managed to work with before.  We did all of Blackrock Depths in WoW Classic, which added up to a dozen runs, with just a group of four. (Oh man, I do hope they do some dungeons like that in WoW Forever.  We don’t need any more linear, 15 minutes or bust, Dungeon Finder tuned instances.)  So four could work.

But there is also Earl from the original group, who was with us for a while during original WoW Classic, until he was stranded in Japan during Covid.  And Meclin is about and on our Discord server and played a bit of retail with us when we were trying out WoW Midnight.

And, of course, going all in, we bought the cash elf DLC… and not just the basic $30 version to get ourselves name reservations.  We went in on the $60 version for more fluff… including the original WoW Collector’s Edition pets… and guaranteed beta access.

Beta access?  That is a hazard.  That could lead to a quick burnout.

On the other hand, Blizz has been pretty good at limiting beta to make sure you don’t burn out right away.  I remember the WoW Classic beta and writing a post about two weeks before launch moaning about how all I wanted to do was play WoW Classic.

Beta started on Thursday, but I am writing this before that moment.  This is the final, untainted by the reality of the game, view of the situation.  We’ll see how well it holds up.  I am sure I will have opinions next week.

• Nintendo Tariff Refund Sale
  • Aftermath – Nintendo Will Give Buyers A 30% Off Sale, But No Tariff Relief Money
  • IGN – You Get Your Tariff Money Back… If You Give Them More Money
  • Yahoo Tech – Nintendo Customer Appreciation Sale Draws Heavy Criticism From Everyone

Nintendo won their lawsuit against the government, getting back $300 million in tariffs unlawfully imposed by the Trump administration and they want to celebrate the win by… having a 30% off sale.

Nintendo Sale Time

This has upset some people because, as has been pointed out ceaselessly to our dumb president, the end users are the one who usually end up paying for tariffs.

Nintendo says that they actually ate most of the tariff costs so that consumers did not pay into that, even if prices on some things went up.  The question is really why they went up.  Given that the price of hardware has been going up pretty much constantly due to AI data center binge buying, if Switch 2 prices went up that was mostly likely the cause.

So I am not salty about not getting a refund.  I bought a Switch 2 before the price went up, so I wouldn’t get a refund anyway.  And who actually expects companies to pass that sort of thing on to customers these days.  There are a few who will, but most will just grab the money and not let go.  That is how Wall Street demands they act.  So getting mad about that… well, there are a lot of other things more pressing.

I am, however, a bit miffed at the stuff Nintendo has put on sale.  Sure, if you need a new pair of Joy-Con controllers, those are 30% off.  Nice.  And I am mildly tempted by the Switch Pro controller or a backup AC adapter… though a third party adapter is less than half the sale price.

But most of the stuff on sale… is the kind of slow sellers that should be in the bargain bin in any case.  Or maybe I don’t understand the appeal of all those Amiibo figures.  Certainly the software they have chosen to discount, and I am on the lookout for something to play on my Switch 2 besides Stardew Valley, is all pretty unexciting.  Do I want the Switch remake of a Wii game I bought in 2007?

This is the problem with digital game sales.  When inventory doesn’t take up space there isn’t as much incentive to mark it down to get it off the shelf and out the door.

• Monsters & Memories Early Access October 1
  • M&M – The Early Access Overview
  • M&M – The Early Access FAQ

The long peculating Monsters & Memories project will be entering early access at the start of October.

Monsters & Memories

I took a quick look at the game back in March… that was as much a vibe check as anything… and if you are looking for something that has the feel of early EverQuest but is a modern, supported game, then M&M is a solid choice.

And it is going into early access as a much more complete title than some space sandbox titles one could mention.  It was pretty solid back in March and is no doubt more so now.

It really isn’t my vibe at the moment, though I could certainly sense what it had going for it.  Also, I have too many things on my plate right now.  But I would feel fine recommending it for what it is.

• Squadron 42 Delayed until 2027 or Beyond
  • Massively OP – Squadron 42 has been delayed into 2027

Did I mention this already?  Of course I did, because I picked it to troll people into a bidding war over getting it as a counter pick in Fantasy Critic League.

Squadron 42 – Launches 2026

I just want to bring this up one more time, not because the launch has been pushed off so many times that it is practically a bit, nor because I also don’t believe that it will ship whenever in 2027, as Chris Roberts is now claiming is the time.  I don’t even want to say “I told you so” because it failing to ship was one of my New Years predictions. (10 points for Hufflepuff!)

No, I want to bring it up to point out that there are exactly zero consequences for not shipping Squadron 42.  There are no consequences for any promise he breaks or date he pushes yet again, because people keep throwing money at him.  The business model has never been about making a video game.  It has always been selling a dream.  A live service dream where there is a clunky, alpha quality video game attached, but it is the dream people are supporting.

And it has made Chris Roberts a rich man.

I am left wondering if choosing “42” was a joke or a taunt, being the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything… but we don’t know the question.  Also, somebody said recently that nobody under 40 understands a Douglas Adams reference anymore, so that one is for the olds.

• EVE Vanguard Paid Alpha on Steam November 10th
  • CCP/Fenris – EVE Vanguard Alpha Arrives 10 November
  • Steam – EVE Vanguard Store Page

Speaking of space games where the company is planning to charge players to pay for alpha level quality, we have another first person derivative title looking to embarrass itself.  Yes CCP/Fenris is going to go to Steam for paid alpha early access.

[Correction: The paid alpha will be through the launcher.  The Steam early access has a target of Q3 2027.  This popped at the last minute and I conflated the two events in my haste.  The editorial staff regrets the error almost as much as we regret the product mentioned.]

EVE Vanguard – Alpha Coming Soon

Yes, my opinion on this whole venture is sour.  I have noted in the past that, in over a decade, the company has yet to demonstrate that it has what it takes to make a viable, profitable, fun first person shooter.

But now the rubber will meet the road.  If you had to pick one for long term success, would it be Squadron 42 or EVE Vanguard?  Our would you be asking why you can’t bet against both?

• RuneScape Dragonwilds Exits Early Access
  • Jagex – Dragonwilds 1.0 Release is now live!

Well, that was quick… relative to Valheim at least.  Just 17 months, from April 2025 to September 2026, and RuneScape Dragonwilds officially launched.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds

I mention this title because I bought it during the Steam Winter Sale last year and then put it on my possibilities list for 2026.  And I even played it… for 39 minutes.  That was a test to see what potential it might have for the group.  But then Planet Crafter came up and Stardew Valley and now WoW Forever, so it feels like it is not going to make the cut this year.

But when its time comes, it will be a full fledged release title to play… or just another one of those in my Steam backlog if its time does not come.  (Also, don’t put your console into sleep mode while logged in and playing.)

• Outbound Wildlife Update Coming
  • Steam – Outbound Store Page
  • Steam – Outbound Fishing Update
  • Steam – Outbound Wildlife Update News

Outbound, the cozy camper van simulator that Potshot and I tried a while back and which launched to pretty modest reviews back in May… Bhagpuss regrets that particular pick in Fantasy Critic League I am sure… has not been daunted by its slow start and is continuing to put our updates.

There was a fishing update back in June, and coming up is an update to add wildlife to the game.

Outbound – Wildlife Update

While there isn’t a launch date yet, there is a teaser trailer and some basic info about the plan available.  The Steam reviews are “Mostly Positive: at this point, with the downsides being that there isn’t a lot there yet and that they made “finishing” the game somewhat grindy, no doubt to make it feel like there was more game there than there actually was.  I didn’t buy it at launch, but it might be something worthwhile if it pops up on a Steam sale.

Or maybe it is something for the Switch 2.  We’ll see.

• The NEW Dune: Awakening comes with 1.5 Next Week
  • Funcom – The New Dune: Awakening Is Here

Funcom is coming to town next week, on the 22nd, with their big 1.5 update.  It will be here soon… unless you own the Ultimate Edition, in which case you somehow get early access to the update.  I don’t know.  That’s just what they said.

Dune from another era… I was too lazy at this point to upload their logo

At the top of the list is a new, fully fleshed out, single player mode.  The desert of Arakkis is a crucible already without having to deal with dickheads griefing you with ornithopter exploits while you’re trying to keep an eye out for worm sign.

Also coming is the expected console support, so the game will be available for PlayStation 5 and XBox One, as well as being certified for Steam Deck and an option for GeForce Now.

No word on the Switch 2, but Nintendo’s little walled garden isn’t for everybody.

There is also a metric ton of other updates in the update linked here, so many that I can’t even get a handle on what they all mean.

I own this game, having bought it at a Steam sale at some point after launch, and played it just just long enough to create an account to link to Twitch so I could collect drops for it.  But I have yet to actually jump in with both feet… and with all the other stuff I am playing now I am not sure when that will happen.  Yet another idle title in my Steam library.

• EverQuest Legends – Rulers of Kunark
  • Daybreak – EverQuest Legends Producer’s Letter
  • Chasing Dings – Kunark News!

I have such a post backlog at the moment that I am just throwing everything in here.  Normally I might take time to dissect something about new content for EverQuest Legends, but not this week!

EverQuest Legends

I read some worries about what happens when EQL runs out of content, which seems an odd thing to say like just two months after it went live.  Do we consume content that fast?  Can we savor nothing slowly?

But Game Jawn has you covered I guess, because in the producer’s letter they are talking about an update, a new expansion to put on top of what is already there.  However, since EQL is its own timeline now, you will not be going to your father’s Kunark.  No, the next stop will the the Rulers of Kunark which will see “factions battling at the peak of their power” on the continent.

The update will also increase the level cap to 55 and add aliases, collections, an Auction Houses, and “much more!”  This will be worth exploring when there are more detail for sure.  Also, I have no time to play EQL with everything else on my plate.

• LOTRO Subscription Price Increases Land October 14th
  • LOTRO – VIP Membership Price Adjustment
  • TAGN – A Subscription Price Increase for LOTRO
  • TAGN – A Brief Survey of MMORPG Subscription Prices in 2026

Remember back in June when LOTRO mentioned they were going to “adjust” subscription prices?  Yeah, I forgot too, but I wrote a couple of posts about it, which I have linked with the bullet points as a reminder… more for me than you, but the survey of subscription pricing still seems relevant.

Lord of the Rings Online

On the one hand, to be fair to the team, they are not raising the base subscription price.  They are just reducing the discount being offered on the three and six and twelve month plans.

Here is the price increase in US dollars.

The change also only applied immediately to new subscribers. Anybody currently on a multi-month plan will be grandfathered into their old plan until the next billing period after December 31, 2027.

So it isn’t at all like when CCP raised the base subscription price for EVE Online to $20 a month.

On the other hand, while the increases mostly put them in line with other MMORPG subscriptions, hitting the long term subscription plans is also hitting their most loyal base of users.  Somebody who commits to your game is a special snowflake who should be nurtured.  Or, to put it another way, anything that makes your subscribers question your pricing has the potential to make them unsubscribe.

I would have, for example, kept paying Zwift $15 a month without much thought.  But raising that to $20 a month made me think about what I was really getting and unsubscribe.

So it is not obviously correct that raising the price will get them more money.  It probably will.  Anybody subscribing for 12 months is also deeply invested in the game, so they will most likely just eat the upcharge and move on.

None of which applies to me because I bought a lifetime subscription back in 2007 and they can’t raise the price on past transactions… I mean, I bet they could try, but that wouldn’t end well.

• Ship of Heroes Sails into the Sunset September 22nd
  • Ship of Heroes – Closing Announcement (archived)
  • Massively OP – Ship of Heroes will officially sunset on September 22
  • Massively OP – Would Ship of Heroes have succeeded if Homecoming didn’t happen?

Ship of Heroes will soon be no more.

I feel like I was a bit on the excessive side of snarky in my post back when Ship of Heroes released last year, though I stand by what I said.  The devs launched with unreasonable expectations when it came to pricing; buy the game and pay a subscription was a plan viable in 2005, but not in 2025.

I see no ship, only heroes

I did come back with some potential options for the title in a second post, back when the devs were determined to stay the course, but I fear that fate was against them.

In the end, what seemed like a good idea back in 2012, to jump into and try to fill the gap left by the closure of City of Heroes, did not remain so in 2025.  The whole video game market has shifted.  In 2012 there were 303 new titles launched on Steam.  In 2025 there were 21,299 titles spamming the site, or nearly 60 a day.

Who can find anything in that mess unless it has an advertising budget and some stellar reviews?

That said, I suspect the fact, while they were working on Ship of Heroes, City of Heroes reemerged as Homecoming: City of Heroes, was the real death knell for the game.

Somehow NCsoft relented

The title they aimed to replace was back and available before they could launch.

Or that is one theory of the case.  There were some comments on that second MOP article that felt it never had a chance.  But we’ll never know for sure.

So it goes.