Will Warlord's of Draenor Matter?

So, the expansion has been over for a little while now.

      We have trounced the Warlords fairly quickly and the threat has ended.  For all intents and purposes our time in the alternate universe Draenor is at an end.  But other than putting down and army that was going to invade out world what does this expansion matter in the coming narrative?  Why, two expansions from now are we going to feel like this expansion mattered.

      The other expansions had big endings that mattered.  In Burning Crusaide we found the Sons of Lothar who had been stranded for years, rediscovered the orcs home world and defeated Illidan.  Because this was also in our timeline characters from Outland are able to travel to our world and back so we get to see characters again, and at the end of the expansion we had stopped the Legion for coming into our world via the Sunwell.  With the Sunwell restored the Blood elves found some hope to beat their magic addiction, and the Draenei where secured at part of the Alliance.

      In Wrath of the Lich King we all banded together to defeat Arthas.  Their is a reason this is a lot of people's favorite expansion, including my own.  We ended (for now) the undead threat of the scourge which had been looming since Warcraft III.  Garrosh was introduced as a general for the horde and it was the first time that Raiding felt more open to people.  Once again characters from this expansion have popped up and made it feel relevant as we go forth.  There is a reason that is part of my theme....

     Cataclysm brought a lot of change.  As much as people complained about this expansion it did a lot for us.  The leveling experience and old world was vastly improved.  Death wing appeared and everyone was excited the first time they got the achievement for him flying overhead and burning you to death.  Garrosh became warchief of the Horde, and we felt like we saved Azeroth when we finally took Deathwing down.  Goblins and Worgen where great additions as well.  Once again as we go forth characters from places we discovered re-appear and matter.

     Pandaria is probably my second favorite expansion.  The storytelling side of Blizzard excelled here and we where drawn into this unknown continent and both the Alliance and Horde had to take a hard look at what their actions caused to a peaceful people.  At the end of this expansion, when Garrosh took power a step too far, and we had to remove him it drastically changed the face of the Horde.  It also showed us that Blizzard was not afraid to shake up the power dynamics of the factions.  Once again, with the pandarian there are several characters here that I feel will keep popping up and the changes this expansion brought will be lasting.

     So now we come to Warlords of Draenor.  I'm going to get my first complaint out right away.  Nothing we did will matter other than stopping the army coming to invade us.  Garrosh has lost power and his death really doesn't change much.  He was more a device to get us into this alternate universe.  Had he been executed for his crimes it wouldn't have made much difference.  Everyone we went back and killed or fought in this alternate Draenor, other than maybe having a large butterfly effect on their universe it won't do anything to our timeline.  As a matter of fact, if we had just found a way to close the Dark Portal on our side, (I find it convenient that we couldn't, but it took a short suicide mission to destroy it on the other side) We would have been better off.  We wouldn't have lost any soldiers, and we would have saved Azeroth quickly.

     I'll give you that Legion is started because of Gul'dan being taken by the legion and used as an agent, but that could have been any agent in our world doing this.  The only reason that it matters Gul'dan is the one to do it is because we know his name.  Other than Gul'dan though there is no reason for us to see Alternate Draenor characters again,  Their world is saved.  Their timeline is wrecked but there is no reason for them to come to our Azeroth when there is so much to rebuild in their world.  It would have been a lot more relevant if we had lost over there, the Legion had started to destroy the world and we had mass evacuated all the orcs and Draenei we could save.  Then there would be a lasting impact.  Right now, it's just that story where we played with time travel.

    Don't get me started on the fact that in the ending cinematic Grommash  is treated like he didn't just try to commit mass genocide and invade our world.

      There is a lot of good that will come from Warlords.  The garrison idea if improved so that we don't avoid the world was fantastic. (Guild housing please Blizzard) The leveling experience was great.  End game, O.k..  I'm kinda of tired of fighting orcs right now.  The new tiered raiding experience I think is great, and I love the flexibility of the raid system.  There is a lot of good mechanics and story there to remember.

     There are characters I'm going to remember like Yrel who made the whole Alliance leveling experience feel important.  Meeting Thrall's parents Draka and Durotan was memorable, though I feel they failed to make as big an impact as they could of.  (I wish Thrall had revealed to them his relation at the end but if he did I missed it completely)  Seeing Cho'gall again was interesting though most of us missed the end of his story.  (Story being gated for hardcore raiders is not cool, stop it Blizzard)

      But as far as lasting impact, I think this will be one of the expansions that will be remembered, as not really mattering.

Lag.

I Love Good Community Stories.

They give me happy feels.

     So, I have the opportunity to work with one or two other Wow nerds at work.  Some are Horde, some are loved.  Just kidding they are all loved but one of them was talking about the trade chat on their main server the other day, and it made me happy.

    Apparently someone got in trade and shared they were feeling suicidal.  

    Now, I know what you all are saying.  Not trade chat! (we of course are not talking about the Wow commentator Trade Chat, but the actual community chat service in main cities, for those non-Wow acquainted)  The cesspool of negative thoughts, Thunderfury and other such horrid eye-wrenching commentary that makes the T for teen into a hard M some nights.  I know, that most of you at the thought of someone mentioning this in the trade chat forum may have your gut clench and your heart stop.  Just not the place for any positive discourse in most situations!

    But instead of doing what trade chat normally does, according to this co-worker of mine, people started voicing support.  Several folks jumped into trade and started talking to this troubled person and trying to help them out and give them some good vibes.  Now, let's admit as a virtual community sometimes there is only so much support we are capable of giving, but at time any support is better than no support.  

    So, first thing first.  Big shout out to the community on the Skywall server Horde side.  I would hope that any server would have a good community that would lift someone up in need, but I wouldn't put money on it.  Anytime people talk about the toxic community in MMOs or any other type of online game, it's folks like you who put them in their place.  Because at the end of the day we are all one big community.

      This also makes me think about the few times I comment in trade chat.  I will be honest, I normally avoid it.  I try to keep the few comments I make positive and happy, but I know there are times I feed the negativity that seems to rule the trade chat forums.  So, I ask myself, if some one on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream server (Or on Aerie Peak if I'm on Trisham or Pyrestone in CTR)  jumped in trade chat and shared having such issues, would I try to build them up? Or would I go my way and not even think of sending some positives their way.

    I honestly can't think of an instance where I have been in that position in trade chat, but I hope I would at the least drop a kind word.  We need more kind hearts in this world who are willing to lift spirits when they need it.  If we all where to stop and say one kind thing when those around us are feeling troubled, whether it's suicidal thoughts, or simply a bad day, this world would be a much better place.

As would the World of Warcraft.

Lag.

Hail Ashbringer.

So... I did the retribution paladin's artifact quest.

     The artifact quests themselves seem fairly short and to the point.  I think I could have done both the Demon Hunters, and the Paladin's in about 15 to 20 minutes with little trouble.  My guess is the rest of the quests are going to be similar, but I look forward to doing a few more to see if I'm correct.

     It's kind of cool to be wielding Ashbringer.  This is a sword that has been in Wow since vanilla. (Might have been in the RTS games, but I only played Warcraft 3 and I don't remember it in there.)  I know there was a corrupted Ashbringer in the original Naxxaramas.  I never played, but I have heard the stories.  I believe there was a quest in the Eastern Plaguelands which was created around the idea of reclaiming and purifying the Ashbringer, but I have never had the pleasure to do it.

     Here comes my qualms.  There is an obvious price for the right to wield the Ashbringer.  I had heard the price hinted at, but seeing is believing and I am not happy with the circumstances.  It has also been said that some of the other weapons will be obtained in a similar manner.  With some of the weapons that will be wielded the overall price in potential stories down the line baffles me.

     Yes, I'm trying to be a little vague here.  While the price is easily guessed I want to avoid all out spoilers for any who want to find out for themselves when they play this content.  If you want to know what happens look it up.  Plenty of other folks have spoiled it.  It's a quick google search away.

     Needless to say, that the Azeroth we are fighting for might be a very different place if even a third of the Artifact weapons we are gaining comes with such a price.  While change brings potential, too much change at once makes me worry.  If you shake up your player base too much you risk losing a few folks.   This might shake up the face of the Horde and Alliance as much as Catalysm and Siege of Ogrimmar did.  If not more.

      My other worry, is that if these quests have as much bearing on the future of Azeroth as this one did, than I think they should be longer.  More epic in scope.  15-20 minutes is fine.  But I could see a bit longer since this is a quest you only do once for each weapon.  With the possible future repercussions I think that more time might be worth spending on each of these.  Of course, if we have to get three weapons each if we use all our specs, (four for druids) 15-20 minutes might be just right.

     So, I am looking forward to doing a few more artifact weapon quests.  But I am hesitant about where they will lead in terms of story.  I keep mentioning price.

     What will be the price of this expansion.

I'm in the Legion.

So, I got an invite into the Legion Alpha.

    So far, I've been enjoying it.   Of course the first thing I did was roll a Demon Hunter to take a spin at how the class feels.  I love this class.

    The double jump is fantastic.  Pair that with the ability to sprout wings and glide it's fun just to hop around as needed.  I'm going to call it now.  Blizzard is going to get hit with a top of people complaining about the Demon Hunter's double jump being an unfair advantage yada, yada.  Of course, this will make Blizzard go one of two directions.  They will either get rid of the double jump, or give everyone a double jump.  I just hope the glide part stays unique.  Anyone who wants to be able to glide can use toys or become an engineer.

     Battle wise they feel O.k.  The mechanics feel fun, but I don't feel it's completely unique.  The building and release of a resource isn't something new, but the animations look cool.  The double glaves as a weapon feel nice and manages not to look clunky, even though that was a distinct possibility.

      The Demon hunter starting zone was fun as well.  It was lovely with demons and a unique mount.  I'm not going to spoil much in the way of story, but it was nice to see that not all elements of demon hunters where Illidan yes men and women.  There are several names of the demon hunters that you will recognize, and you will continue to see those names through the entire beginning area and on until you get your class hall.  I hope Blizzard does something so that moving beyond this expansion the familiar names are not lost.  If the class hall moves on to the next expansion, or is revitalized it would be nice to continue to fight with the same army of people.

      I don't know if I'm going to play much further, but I am planning on fiddling with some of the other starting experiences.  I really don't like spoiling an expansion for myself, or doing so much that the expansion doesn't feel new and shiny when I play it.  However, I do like to do a little spelunking and poking about.  What I do play with, I will report on and let people know, without spoiling anything as much as possible.

     That is my week. I'm going to try and log on a little more, give my friend Aaron a little more support if I have time for it.  He needs some training so he's not a noob by Legion dang it.  School does eat up a lot of my time, along with work with has had me working a little later than normal lately.  Starting to feel the burn there, but there isn't much I can do about it.  Between school and work i'm not home about 4 nights a week now, that is a lot more than I was missing at home a couple months ago.  I'm alright with this for now, but if it doesn't change when I get back to my IT classes I may have to shift something.

See you all soon.
Lag

Wow on the resume

So, I had an oral presentation to give in my current class.

   My Quick World of Warcraft update, is that I still haven't had much chance to be on lately, but I'm managing to long on a bit more.  I'm working on a new alt on Arrie Peak along with getting my other toons up to 100 in preparation for Legion in a few months.  I'm excited.  My demon Hunter calls....

    As for my presentation....   Here it is!

     I know that's a little foggy, so I'm working on getting power point that goes with it added.

     So, here it was.  At DATC (Davis Applied Technology Center) in Kaysville, Utah where in my Workplace Relations class I had to give an oral presentation.  What did I choose? Why I chose whether gaming was ever relevant on a resume.

      To be honest, I had fun with this, and I'm sad the power point didn't show up well on the video. I received full credit for the project itself, and I was happy with the result.  I won't lie that I was a little disappointed with the response I got from all the companies I emailed, but sometimes you just lose some.  There is a chance some may still email me, and if they do I will add it on here.

      This is my first time using power point as well.  So, please don't mock me if it's not a great theme, I did my best and I felt it turned out all right.  I also had my daughter to coach me and that helped out.
It's sad when in school they are teaching your kids stuff like this, that they never bothered with when we were kids.

      At this point I'm guessing mid-summer for Legion.  I think they want to beat the release date they have given by a good margin.  Hopefully we will see them step past the Alpha pretty soon, and then we can look at Beta.  Once we hit that point I am feeling it will go quicker than normal this cycle.
   
     If it doesn't Blizzard is looking at well over a year of Hellfire Citadel, and this year is going to feel even longer than the year of ICC, or Siege of Ogrimmar with how quick the content was shucked out this expansion.  But I've given my opinion on this before.  Feel free to give yours,

Lag.

It's a Brand New Day.

You may have not seen me online lately.

     Yes it's snowy and foggy here in Utah.  Wonderfully so.  Can't say much for the inversion though, that stuff sucks

     For the last couple of weeks holidays, getting my computer fixed etc... have kept me offline.  I have now been able to hop on a couple of times, in hopes of getting the holiday mount from the Winter's Veil Dailies in the garrison.  So far no dice, but I've only been able to try for a few days, and I believe I just tried for my last.

     But here we are in a new year.  The force has awakened, and most of us have set resolutions that will last for another week or two.  (Don't worry, I haven't set any to break) I am now looking forward to what this year will bring.

     School for me will probably be going until the end of this year.  Assuming I bust my butt and get all my coursework up to Network Administrator done at DATC I will probably still have some work to do at Weber College to get my Associates.  This means that I don't foresee a time this year I'm not dealing with school work.  I also have been trying (unsuccessfully) to get back to writing and editing because I would like to have my book ready to submit to different agents/publishers here in a few months.  I need to stop putting it off and put the work in.  If I get published I will be screaming it here as well.

     This means for World of Warcraft my time will continue to be a lot more limited than it has been in the past.  For now while we are in the slog between expansions that is OK.  I'm taking a little time to teach my friend who has just subscribed but otherwise haven't been on much.  I'm not going to take a 100% break from game, but for now it's definitely on the sideline.

     When Legion drops I'm not sure how this is going to effect things.  Normally at the beginning of an expansion most of our raid team comes back and we get running within a few weeks.  I am hoping this is the case again.  I have asked people if different raid days would help etc... but at this point have gotten little feedback so I plan on keeping things to weekends.  I am looking forward to introducing my friend to raiding and building up a couple of resources who have been kind of sidelined at this point.  I am playing with the idea of swapping to demon hunter, but have a hard time thinking of setting Lag aside as he has been my main for most of Wow since Wrath.

But here is the thing.

     If raiding doesn't start up with folks coming back again, I'm not sure I have it in my heart to rebuild things.  I have been working with the ups and downs for several expansions now and part of me is just tired.  I want to raid.  I want to be there for the team and I will feel some guilt if I just let go, but at the same time fighting people to show up is getting old.  This is still several months away, but it is on my mind.

    Of course, I could pull a 180 on this by the time Legion drops with the excitement of a new expansion and shiny new stuff, but right now this is where I am at.  It was made pretty apparent that if I step out, raiding will probably fade away from our guild and I don't want to be the cause of that.  At the same time, I'm not the only one responsible and I need to start seeing it as that.  If folks don't want to show up, or put the effort in this expansion might be the one where I give up raid leading and whatever happens happens.  I will keep on playing, and keep being involved with folks, but if this next expansion is as much of a  fight as Warlords has been I'm done.

    But, it's early yet to be negative.  Folks will come back.  Some will be looking for a guild and we have some good guild recruiters waiting to pull folks in.  We may get a shiny new/changed raid team and start blowing stuff up and laughing maniacally.  This as with every expansion has the potential to be the best expansion for our guild, Fear Itself, on Zangarmarsh.

Lag

Can You Avoid the Cookie Cutter Build?

It's always been there, in one form or another.

      There was an article released recently that was very interesting on Blizzardwatch.com. It's How cookie cutter builds discourage player customization.  It's a good read going into how player perceptions effect the choices that players overall make.  Give it a read, I'll wait.

      For those who have played World of Warcraft for a long while, you remember Talent trees.  Instead of one defined spec, you could take points in all three moving up as you leveled.  In order to take full advantage of a spec, you had to put a large amount of your talent points into it, but by picking and choosing different abilities in different trees you could make some very interesting choices.

     In theory this meant that folks could have some very customized options in their characters.  You could stick to the bottom half/third of all three specs at one point and never advance to end talents.  Or you could take your fire mage and then give him a bunch of power in frost once you topped off the fire tree.  This should have lead to a bunch of differently balanced characters doing really cool things.  Instead once some number runner figured out what talent point configuration put out the top DPS in the trees the community would all start to adopt that talent point spread.  If you wanted to be taken seriously pugging raids or finding a team you had to be running the popular choices.

     What should have been customization was in fact an illusion.

      As time went on Blizzard started putting constraints on the trees.  The first was that you had to put X amount of points into a specific spec before adding points to a different spec.  Then the trees got pruned and simplified taking out pointless choices, like add X damage to ability B.  Things that they knew everyone in the talent tree would take.  Then eventually the talent tree got the boot out the window and we were given essentially what we have now.  The talents tab.

     By simplifying the system and giving choices that where meaningful when it came to the feeling of game play Blizzard wanted to get rid of the cookie cutter build.  I would say they have been mildly successful, but overall people still depend on which choices are rated the best, or are the most popular.  There are some good options with choice, but most people stick with the popular track.

      I will admit I'm in that pack.  When I level a character I haven't picked up for a year or so, and decide to make that jump to level 100 I normally go to Icy-Veins.com and see what talent choices are rated the best, and which ones I can choose without a DPS loss etc...  I even do this for characters I know will probably not even make LFR.  While the idea of switching and testing different talent choices sounds fun,  a part of me just wants to make sure I'm doing things "right."  This is the part that often wins.

    I guess the question then becomes, is it possible to escape the cookie cutter build?  In legion we will be able to run all three specs and if I read correctly won't need to spend points to switch talents.  I think part of the goal has been for people to swap abilities for different fights, but I find myself only doing this in the rarest of circumstances.  Apparently you won't need a resource to do this swap next expansion which is probably another step in the right direction, but I still think folks are going to mostly follow the crowd.

    This makes the question what can you do to make your game play feel customized?  If talents are just another illusion of choice does it really matter if Blizzard includes this mechanic rather then just giving you the abilities to use as needed?  Is there anyway to beat this Illusion of choice and make it meaningful to game play?  Obviously if the talents had to do with things non-combat related (mount speed, character's dance etc...) then it feels like choice, but it doesn't matter in the over all scheme of things.  How do you all feel about it?

Lag.