Prepatch feelings.

So, by now most of you have jumped on to try out your characters.

     I have taken a couple weeks to post this, because I've been mulling over what to say.  I want to give some bright insights you haven't heard anywhere else along with infusing you with the fervor and excite which comes when we are looking a new expansion in the face.   I want to thrill you with words and make you want to log in this very moment to see what everyone else is experiencing.

     In my heart I can't.

     The state of the game is fine, don't get me wrong.  I have been moving from character to character trying out some of the specs.  Some like my Ret Paladin just doesn't feel right to me.  Which if funny because I would argue my Retadin got changed very little.  Survival hunter feels more fun that I would have though, my elemental shaman just feels under-powered to me.  And on and on it goes.

     I guess I was expecting more early on.  We got built up to this pre-patch event etc, and I got a little bit of bone with bits of meat on it.  The main coarse is still waiting.  The only opinion I can give right now is that things are not where they need to be yet. They have given us a taste of what is up and coming, but I am not comfortable giving any type of judgement yet.

     I was honestly hoping they would start the pre-patch shenanigans today, a week before we get demon hunters.  Alas as far as I know nothing happened.  I haven't seen any news of it in my feeds or on Blizzardwatch, and the DDoS attacks are keeping me from being able to log in to see for myself.  I guess I thought it would be nice if everyone could focus on the pre-patch event, and then on Demon Hunters rather than balancing time between the two.

     The other thing I can speak to is I am in the Facebook streaming beta from Blizzard.  I can stream any of the games I choose to play in Blizzard's list.  Be it Diablo III, Heroes of the Storm, or World of Warcraft.  So far I'm underwhelmed with this product, but as it is, it is the beta.

     The problems I have seen is freezing while recording (to be honest that is more my computers fault then Blizzards) When you are no longer live on Facebook the recording seem clipped and short. Normally it stops after about five minutes, and half of that is video that is fast forwarded/sped up.   I also would love a way to link the recordings here at the bottom of my blog post, because that would be cool.  I would honestly love to record my blog live, verbally while playing so people could choose to click and listen while I am using this technology.  It has a long way to go.

     I still don't think the intention is to take on Twitch.  I just don't see the earning potential or the focus that would be needed towards a particular group of individuals.  I am not seeing anything in the interface that is comparable and I feel that if such things are implemented, they may not fit into Blizzard's vision of this product. Once again, it's Beta so we don't know what is going to happen down the line.

     So, am I being a wet blanket?  Is there something amazing that has come out that I have missed?  Or am I spot on, and are you gritting at the teeth for some real new content to play?  What is your opinion so far?

Lag

   

World of Warcraft Streaming on Facebook.

So, Blizzard is talking about doing a streaming service with Facebook attached to your Wow account.

    This to me brings up some interesting questions.  Both Convert to Raid and The Blue Recluse have discussed this a little, and both had some great points.  Some of which I will repeat a little here, others of which I am curious about.

     The first of which is the discussion over whether this will be competition with Twitch T.V.  It's possible I suppose, but I don't see it unless both Blizzard and Facebook not only incorporate a full interface so people can interact with those streaming, but so that users can monetize their streams as well.   I can tell you from trying to set up a twitch stream once or twice, that it involves third party software and playing around an looking up different settings.  At the end of the day I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.  I'm not divorced from the idea of doing some sort of streaming someday, but I'm not going to be doing it with Twitch, or my current set up, or both.  Youtube still interests me....

     I am not sure Blizzard intends this to be a competitor to Twitch.  I think i'ts more likely it is going to be along the same lines of the Twitter service.  Something in the Wow interface that a player can turn on, or off that will do a small stream in the same manner of the "Live" feature that Facebook just added.  Not something for money, but something for the casual gamer to say he, look friends at what I'm doing with a simple click/option in the interface.

     Either way this is brilliant on Blizzard's part.  Think about all the people who are on Facebook stopping to watch for a few moments while their friends are playing the game.  This will put game play in front of millions of peoples eyes and bring attention to Azeroth.  Folks will see what the game looks like, and more over, they will see people enjoying playing the game.  Let's be honest, you aren't going to stream to Facebook just to show off your Talbuck hooves gathering skills.

     Or maybe people would.  That might be a drawback to this.  A casual observer might click on his friends stream and see how beautiful our World of Warcraft looks.  They might watch and enjoy the scenery as their friend walks around killing monsters and gathering items.  Then it might occur to them, "This world is cool looking, but Tommy here has spent the last fifteen minutes killing ghosts for essences?"  That might be a little strange to some people.

     I'm also curious about voice over.  If I record/stream myself playing I am going to want to be able to do an audio track people can listen to.  (I've been debating doing this with my blog) Am I going to have to use Blizzard's internal voice chat/program.  I know it's gotten better with Overwatch and the new focus on team game play, but I still remember Blizzard announcing in game voice chat, and how well that worked.  If they do this, I'm going to want a plug in for Ventrillo, Mumble, and whatever else voice program I might want to use.  Either that, or I will need to see some good proving of their voice integration.

    What do you all think of this?  What are your hopes and dreams tied into Facebook integration in World of Warcraft?  Is this something you will use?  Do you care about this?  Are you worried for any reason?  Feel free to drop an opinion.

    I also recommend listening to the last "The Blue Recluse," and or "Convert to Raid" podcasts.  Both discuss this a bit as mentioned above.

Lag