Author: Gazimoff

The Lament of Lost Adventures

Posted on by Gazimoff

Buried in both Greek and Roman mythology is the tale of a lone hero facing impossible odds in order to complete twelve incredible tasks. The tale of the Labours of Hercules is of truly epic proportions, describing how a single man is battered by fate and fortune, toiling to redeem himself only to be struck down. It’s a raw and deep story that’s much more than any TV series or animated movie could hope to achieve.

Such fantasy tales have been around for thousands of years. Our culture and history is filled with great people achieving great things on behalf of other people. It’s why it makes such a rich seam for game developers to dig into – there’s a vast amount of scenarios and encounters just waiting to be retooled.

While the questing back in the Vanilla days of Warcraft had some truly memorable trials, I’m beginning to feel that a subtle shift has occurred. Tales seem to be less about the journey they take you on, instead focusing on a series of moments. Tasks seem to be less Herculean and more run-of-the-mill, as if it’s something that’s expected instead of something monumental. In order to explain further, cast your mind back five years to the earliest days of the game.

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The Optional Extras

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We often think of choice as being a good thing. Go to any chocolate shop and you’re greeted with a range of options to choose from, all of them tempting. Then again, being free from choice is also a wonderful thing –buying chocolates by the box is much more popular than just choosing a couple of favourites. But what happens when you take this concept out of the chocolate shop and into the world of MMOs?

Concern recently emerged that anyone buying the digital download version of Cataclysm would miss out on any of the in-game cinematics. The issue was quickly resolved, with a note that the downloader would be updated to include all previous and future cinematics and cutscenes. While interesting on its own, the incident also served to highlight a recent interview in Game Informer. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick mentioned that there is the possibility of selling cutscenes as a separate product, like a DVD or similar in the same way that soundtrack CDs are produced.

Unfortunately the two stories managed to get jumbled together. Speculation was rife that those who bought the digital download would somehow miss out, or that they’d have to pay extra to download the cutscenes as well. Both of these turned out not to be the case, but they do raise some interesting questions.

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The Back Seat Guild Leader

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Ever get the feeling that you’re standing at a crossroads, looking down at the various prongs of a Morton’s Fork? It’s a position that an increasing number of players are finding themselves in during the run up to Cataclysm, and I don’t think I’m an exception to that. And like many people, my thoughts at the moment run to guilds, friends and forward planning.

Like all decisions of this ilk, it’s long and complicated and involved. So rather than doing my usual stint of dispensing advice, I’ve decided to post this to solicit some instead. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this conundrum – maybe you can help me work out how to tackle it or have experiences of your own that can help.

Anyhow, pull up a chair. This may take some time…

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Ratings and Mage 4.0

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Back in Wrath, mages were driven by a small number of key stats. Spellpower and Haste Rating were key, with Crit Rating coming a distant third for all specs except Fire. Bringing up the rear were Spirit and Intellect, with the former being useful for Molten Armor and the latter supporting a larger mana pool.

Flip over to 4.0 and the landscape of useful stats has changed. Spellpower and Spirit are largely eliminated, while Mastery has crept in as an elusive new stat. Intellect and Stamina are still present, but they work in new ways and provide new benefits. All this presents a new challenge to players looking to maximise the potential of their gear.

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Where Did The Obscurecast Go?

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It’s been a quiet week on the pages of Mana Obscura. There’s normally an update here at least twice a week, but the last post was nearly ten days ago. Ten days. That’s over a week, in case you’re counting.

So what’s been happening to keep me away from blogging for the last ten days? Well, a number of projects have been in the works which have been eating up my time. The first (and possibly the biggest) one is that The Obscurecast has moved to a new home. Feel free to check it out at it’s new location, subscribe to the feed and share your thoughts. All the original episodes will still be on both sites to preserve links, but all new episodes will only be on the new site. If you haven’t checked it out, there’s two more waiting for you to download!

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The Mage 4.0 Compendium

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The game of Warcraft is changing. In the next few weeks the first of a series of patches will be pushed to the live severs. The first of these patches (4.0.1) will bring with it the core changes to all classes, as well as various UI and interface changes.

This guide to the key mage changes is intended to smooth your way into 4.0 and beyond, including making your first steps into Cataclysm. It should also help you with being able to raid during the two months before the expansion is released.

There are however a couple of key things that aren’t covered as part of this guide.

  • This isn’t designed for minmaxers. There’s not been a huge amount of numerical analysis so far on optimal builds and glyphs. As these optimisations come out I’ll ensure the guide is updated.
  • I haven’t included looking at the new racial abilities. I’m not convinced that they’ve been finalised, but I’m not expecting people to swap racials until 85 raiding kicks off.
  • I’m also not covering rotation changes. For the most part things are still the same, although Frost has gone through more significant alterations. Arcane and Fire mages used to Missile Barrage/Hot Streak procs should find things largely unchanged
  • Although there may be some usefulness for PvP mages here, I’m going to focus on PvE for most of this guide.

We’re all learning a lot as we work through the class changes, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try out radical ideas. Share any interesting findings you get with other mages by posting about it on the Mage forums.

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A Socially Aware Warcraft?

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When I think of MMOs, I generally think of games that are rick in social interaction. Alongside the gigantic world and the rich environments are dedicated tools specifically designed to help players interact with each other.

But although Warcraft has developed socially with the inclusion of Real ID and Facebook integration, it’s mainly designed to connect networks together. And while the new Guild Management interfaces provide even greater control, they only enhance the existing social experiences. The in-game Calendar has helped, but only as far as co-ordinating events.

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Authenticators: Busting the Myths

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There’s been a lot of talk about the Blizzard Authenticator recently. Some people are firm advocates who feel they are a magic bullet for account security. Others believe they’re a waste of money or a pointless inconvenience. Still more think that an Authenticator is only for those people who don’t practice safe computer hygiene.

All of these opinions are wrong and I’m going to explain why.

A Small Exercise

I want to start off by asking you to think about your Warcraft account. Go in-game on your main and type /played, then make a note of how many hours you’ve clocked up. Do the same for any of your major alts. Multiply this by the hourly rate that you’d normally be paid, or expect to be paid if you were working.  You could have spent that time earning money, or learning a new skill. Instead, you and I choose to spend our precious spare time in-game. That time is worth something.

Next, have a look at your subscription. Work our how many months of subscription you’ve paid and how much you forked out for the game and its expansions. Again, this is probably a fairly big number.

So we have a figure for how much you’ve spent on the game, and a rough idea of the value of the time you’ve spent playing. Now you could add them together and come up with a number for the total value of your Warcraft account, based on the time and money you’ve poured into it. I’m not going to ask you to do that. Just keep the figures in mind.

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Becoming a Better Barker

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I’m probably what you’d call a semi-casual auctioneer. I have a dedicated bank alt and a clutch of addons to help me sell stuff. I tend to avoid risk though – I deal in raw materials, BoE blue gear and items that I can flip easily. I don’t spend much time on it, but likewise I don’t make big profits from it.

Over the last few days I’ve been hit hard from firesales. People are converting the last few badges they have to gems or Primordial Saronite to sell for whatever they can. Prices (and profits) on most materials are plunging as supply far outstrips demand.

Craftables are also a source of anxiety. Get it right and you’re in the money. Get it wrong and you’ve wasted time, effort and materials on something that won’t sell. And right now, it feels like most markets are seizing up. While the smart players are cleaning out their bucket lists and putting down plans, there’s a lot of “wait and see” stagnation.

Right now, the real growth area for me is in barking. By that I don’t mean barking at the moon, I mean having a little advert for my crafting skills that I can paste in the trade channel when I’m not doing anything. Depending on the time of day, it can net me a few hundred gold an hour of pure profit. There are some great secrets to barking that I’ve learned in order to get the best results.

The Meta-Cataclysm

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It feels like Cataclysm has become a euphemism for change. My favourite TV show just cataclysm’d. My car needs an oil cataclysm. “Cataclysm I can believe in”. You get the idea.

It’s no surprise then to see the Web of Warcraft go through it’s own mini-cataclysm. WoW.com has gone back to being called WoW Insider, and has moved to a new address under the Joystiq brand. Although it’s a strange move at first glance (wow.com is a great domain name), it makes sense in other ways. Readers will be more likely to check out the rest of the Joystiq site for the rest of their gaming needs, the site gets more page impressions and generates more revenue.

It also means there’s a chance for cross-pollination. The talented writers at WoW Insider might have more of a chance to create content for the wider Joystiq site. This helps them move from Warcraft journalism through to videogame journalism, and possibly even to the wider entertainment scene. This can only be a great thing.

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