Month: May 2011

PC Gaming Is Dead

Posted on by Gazimoff

Looking at the PC section of my local video games store is a depressing sight. The shelves that were once pride of place are now consigned to the back, flanked by preowned console games. The content of these shelves isn’t much better – it’s full of “safe” titles. Sequels, sure-fire hits and money spinners.

When did the PC lose its lustre and sparkle? When did it become the third choice for developers? Why are only a few genres – strategy and MMO – still PC centric?

But most importantly, if anyone can make games for the PC then when did it become so boring?
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The Best Warcraft Smartphone

Posted on by Gazimoff

We’ve all been there, pouring over the various websites looking at glitzy marvels of glass, metal and plastic. But how do you decide which one is best? More importantly, how do you decide which is the best one for Warcraft?

There’s two main smartphone camps to consider: Apple’s iPhone on the one hand or an Android based device from a huge range of suppliers. Apple only make a handful of different iPhone models, making  choosing one fairly straightforward. By contrast Android is heavily fragmented, which is a fancy way of saying there’s loads of different phones which are all slightly different.

There are a few non-contenders. Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7, the Palm/HP WebOS platform and RIM’s Blackberry all miss out on Blizzard’s Warcraft apps. As a result I’ve not included them here.

To make the comparison a bit simpler I’ve used a flagship device for each camp. For Apple I’m using the iPhone 4, while Android is represented by the brand new Samsung Galaxy S 2.

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What Is Hardcore?

Posted on by Gazimoff

Just what is a hardcore guild anyway? And how do you define a hardcore player? This has been a pretty big question for me and the guild I’m in. Ask around and you’ll probably get a different answer from every person. It’s one of those hard-to-define attribute that means different things to different people.

In my own mind, hardcore is raiding six nights a week, farming for flasks and food when you’re not raiding, sitting standby outside instances in-case someone’s internet goes down and letting the GM have you on speed-dial in case he needs to pull you in for the night. It’s about progress and performance, where being server first is everything and where players live or die by their World of Logs parses.

Casual is where I see myself at currently, in a guild where fun is more important than progress and attendance is a mere two nights out of three. It’s something I’ve grown comfortable in, like the grizzled veteran who still likes to show what he can do occasionally (read: pull aggro, make sarcastic comments). It’s this comfort that got disrupted a little when the Guild Master decides to convene a Guild Meeting to discuss The Rules.

I’ll be honest with you, I’m not a huge fan of blogging about my guild, especially when it’s about the more rocky moments. I don’t want to antagonise or make things worse. After all, if you’ve raided with a bunch of people for a while it’s better to work things out than throw it all in, right?

Fear not though, for this tale is not without a happy ending!

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The Merits of Old Content

Posted on by Gazimoff

One of the discussions I hear popping up every so often is about old content. It’s a bit of a shame that every time a new tier of raiding comes out that the old tier gets abandoned, gathering dust and cobwebs. The Justice and Valour point system means that new raiders can skip old content completely, using heroic instances to buy raid gear and get into the current stuff.

Content from old expansions is even less less used unless there’s a mount or a legendary weapon that can be farmed from it. Molten Core is still useful for people wanting Thunderfury, but it’s not exactly a popular destination.

So what can you use old content for? Aside from mounts and legendaries, there’s a stack of achievements just waiting to be picked up. With the new guild achievement system there’s some easy points there for people that can get their guilds organised. Plus since most content can be zerged it’s a bit of fun, especially if you’re doing 25-man dungeons with ten people.

It also allows the veterans to give a bit of a history lesson on old raids…

How about you? What do you use old raids and content for? Are you hunting for all the guild achievements? Or do you something else to let off steam as a guild?

Mages and Patch 4.2

Posted on by Gazimoff

A lot of us have been in a kind of holding pattern since 4.1 came out. Some of us have been focused on mopping up the current tier of raiding, like a roast dinner with lashings of gravy that you just need a bit of bread to polish off. Others have been filling a few gaps here and there with the troll content, using the new epics to fill a couple of gaps in our gear.

Patch 4.2 is approaching. With it comes the new Firelands raiding and questing zone, the new Mage legendary staff, a new tier of armour (and a new round of sympathy for Priests) and a truckload of other stuff besides. Putting the new juicy content to one side though, there’s the inevitable class changes as well. It’s early days so far and there’s a promise of more to come, but Mages are already tasting both sides of the nerfbat.

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Warcraft, Rift and Fun

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’m not sure if I announced this anywhere, but back in March I took a month long holiday from Warcraft to play Rift. I felt a little jaded from the game and needed to take a break, much like I occasionally take time off from my real-life job. I think its a healthy thing to do, plus it gives me the chance to look at other games on the market.

Like many people at the moment, I find myself looking at Rift and questioning my subscription. Some people I know have quit the game completely, while others like me are keeping a subscription going to both games.

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Sony MMOs: An Uncertain Future

Posted on by Gazimoff

The last two weeks have been a difficult time for Sony. The PlayStation Network has suffered some two weeks of downtime, initially thought to be some form of emergency system maintenance. The followed the announcement that the Network had been hacked, exposing the personal details and passwords of some 77 million gamers and users of the Qriocity streaming service.

More recently it was announced that Sony Online Entertainment had also been hacked, with the details of nearly 25 million players of games like EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies and Vanguard being stolen. All SoE MMO games are currently offline and are likely to remain so until additional security is implemented.

For Sony the next few months will be a hard slog for them as they attempt to win back the trust of their customers. While offers of compensation or free game time will help to placate some, it’s Sony’s future customers that are going to be the hardest to win over. A rough Twitter poll broke players down into roughly three camps.

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