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

   

Tomorrow, we begin again.

It's official, there are no more mooses in Hellfire Citadel.

      That is right folks, tomorrow is the day that we get to relearn everything.  7.0 will be dropping, for those counting this is the 7th iteration of the game.  Not counting major changes that mid-expansion that is.  This time the focus is on class fantasy.  They have taken the essence of each class and tried to distill it into each of the specs.  I will be honest, I have been lazy about playing on the test realm so all I can really say, is hop on and see how your class works.  The people playing on the PTR have been doing a lot of class switching.  This is going to be the expansion where a lot of people change their main character is the feeling right now.

      Demon Hunters are coming, but not yet.  They will not be available until the last week or two before Legion drops on Aug. 30th.  So, you have to put your warglaves on the shelf a little longer.

     New transmog system will be out.  This means my end of expansion bag and bank cleaning is coming.  No longer will you have to have an item in your bank or void storage to use it for transmog, if you have picked it up on a character that could transmog it, it will be recorded, and then you can vendor that item for gold.  My only question is, doesn't this make void storage pointless? Unless they use it as a second bank for everything, I think it does.

      If you are not started, you won't be able to start your legendary quest for your ring after tomorrow.  As a matter of fact, if you aren't to part II of the quest line it will disappear from your quest log completely.  If you are in the latter part of the quest, you will need to finish it by August 30th, or the quest will be gone completely.

      I know everyone is excited for the demon invasion, however, like Demon Hunters, this event will not be happening immediately.  Instead we will be given a few weeks to get the feel of our characters down.  I feel this is for the best, as much as I would love a long drawn out invasion that progressed week by week, this is going to give us the opportunity to get our feet wet and figure out what we are doing before fel fire starts raining down from the sky.

      There is much more.  If you go to battlenet.com you can go look it up.  So get in there tomorrow, figure things out, and let's get ready to kill some demons.

     If you are in Fear Itself, start watching your calendars for Monday and Tuesday nights.  I will start getting get together's together soon so we can start hitting things together again.  It's time to work our way into a new expansion.

Lag.

Did Warlord's Break Professions.

I’ve been thinking about professions a lot.

                Warlords was not kind to professions.  Everything was made so readily available by garrisons, that for the most point it felt pointless to have any gathering professions, let alone any making professions.  You could upgrade a few select items for yourself or others with a lot of work, but for the most part, it felt pretty useless to be a blacksmith etc… after a point.

                With Legion it sounds like we are taking a step back to the old way of doing things, with a few improvements.  You will have your blacksmiths, doing all the blacksmith work.  Jewel crafters doing all the gems and so on.  The improved part is that if you are not at level with Legion professions, you will still be able to make the items.  This means you won’t have to slog through all making all the Vanilla Wow recipes on up before you can make current gear.

                I look forward to this.  I miss professions feeling meaningful, rather that something you might do so that you can make one or more extra items that through hard work will be comparable to that next drop you get in a dungeon.  I know I’m kind of looking back at things through rose colored glasses on this.  I remember grinding to make a couple of items to get my ilevel up and ready to raid, just to replace them a week or two later.

                However I also wonder how many people are looking forward to going back to the old way?  I remember flying around Uldum for hours grinding ore so I could work on Engineering and Blacksmithing items.  Now because of my garrison, I don’t remember that last time I went grinding for ore.  Well, it’s been a couple of months, but it was in Pandaria to make Sky Golem mount to sell.  I still do that on occasion, but that is a gold earning thing, not a current need gear that works right now thing.  As far as current engineering work, I do the same thing I have done since the beginning of Warlords, I pop out a Blingtron 5000

                Now, since we have not had to do much gathering, are people going to be willing to hope back into that again?  How about professions when it comes to making stuff.  Are people going to have the drive to bang out a bunch of items after it just felt useless?  Or is everyone else’s experience different than mine, where people making a lot of items with professions and making it feel worthwhile?  I am honestly curious.  How is this going to affect people’s feelings going into Legion?  Am I just crazy to be having these thought?

What do you think, are you ready to hop back into professions come Legion?

Lag

               

                

My Warcraft Movie Review.

O.k., I admit I am late to the party on this one.

    I have finally seen the Warcraft movie, and as with every other Blizzard fanboy and World of Warcraft fan this is the movie I have wanted for years and years.  So, the question is, how did it hold up to my expectations.

    For the most part yes.  I thought the story was good, though it felt rushed at parts.  The characters were great, and the special effects were fantastic.

    I would love to start with the special effects.  The orcs look real.  This is not just fan service, or me being a part of the crowd on this.  It is fantastic the different facial expressions, movement, and emotions the orcs are able to convey.  This is one of those cases where there are scenes where you question how much is practical effects, and how much is CGI.  When the orcs share the screen with humans they look like they belong there and you don’t feel like they are face at all.  All the orcs look distinct and different and even though they aren’t part of the “cast” some of the orcs we know make cameos.  Kargath Bladefist is seen in the background, so is Grommash Hellscream. There are members of the Laughing Skull clan, and other tribes you have seen playing around Azeroth and Outland and it’s fantastic that it is not just a bunch green figures that look the same.

     The story was good with a few difference from the Lore. (I may have some spoilers below)  I thought it flowed pretty smooth for the most part, and was easy enough to follow.  For a non-wow person it might be a little tougher, but I still think the story should be easy enough to follow.  It has been said that about forty minutes of screen time cut from this movie, and it shows here and there where it feels there is a sharp cut in the flow of the show.  I feel there were some critical moments and scenes that were cut to keep the story to the two hour mark, and I hope there is a director’s cut on the horizon so we can see what was taken out.

     I liked the characters well enough.  I had some issues with Khadgar at first, but grew to like him as the story progressed.  Duratan is fantastic and eats up the screen whenever he is on.  Garona has a heartbreaking character arc and the character is used very well.  Lothar is great, and I liked King Lane well enough.  Medivh is very good and Ogrim Doomhammer and Blackhand are both very well done. I did think Gul’dan was a little one note-evil, but that fits his character. 

     My biggest problem there was that some of these characters didn’t have enough screen time to make you care enough about them. Ogrim Doomhammer should have had a few more moments, Callum, Lothar’s son is hard to care about as his character is not well developed, and the list goes one the less important any character is to the overall arc.

Here is where I start with SPOILERS… so if you don’t like SPOILERS… Don’t read further.  I won’t feel bad if you do.

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     The changes to the story I thought were great.  The biggest change I felt was Garona’s arc.  The changes were subtle, but worked well.  Instead of being half-draenei/half-orc she is half human in this story.  The movie strongly suggests she is actually Medivh’s daughter (sorry Medan, you won’t exist in the movie cannon) On Blizzardwatch podcast I’m pretty sure they said that in the novelization of the movie that relationship is confirmed.  The other big change to her arc is that instead of killing King Lane because she was Mind Controlled, she killed him because she was given a choice.  And the outcome of that is beautiful and heart wrenching and made me tear up a little.  Everything the character builds in the movie is destroyed as she makes the right choice.

      The other big change I can think of off the top of my head is the Khadgar isn’t cursed with old age when he takes out Medivh when Medivh is possessed by Sargeris. It does not go into the explanation of Medivh always having been possessed from his birth because of reasons I don’t want to go into here, and I’m actually glad the movie didn’t.  That would have been wasted screen time I think for a more general audience.  It doesn’t even name the demon he is possessed by.

     Of course, Lothar Kills Blackhand (Doomhammer did in the cannon) Durotan is killed by Gul’dan to great purpose, which is a better change from the original story, and so on.  I am happy with the changes made because they all made sense.

      Now, the one thing I didn’t like was because of the time constraints was the lack of character development. The big sore spot with this was Callun? Callum? Lothar’s son.  When he gets killed we are supposed to care, even though the movie didn’t have time to build that relationship and give us time to develop any attachment to him.  Instead we had two or three quick scenes that seemed forced into the movie just so we know who he is.  I don’t think Lothar’s performance is why we feel nothing, I think we didn’t have time to develop any feelings to be hurt here.

     So, if I were to rate this movie, it would be four to four and a half stars.  It does what it accomplishes, it’s a fun thrill ride with wonderful special effects that makes you want to run back to the theater to see it again.  I wouldn’t put it on as high a pedestal as Captain America: Civil War or Winter Soldier, and it is not going into my top ten movies of all time by any stretch. (Do a director’s cut that lets me change that please) But I recommend it for a good couple hours of fun.

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

The Warcraft Movie Vs. The Critics

Yes, i'm going there.

    So, I wanted to stay out of the conversation on this.  It seems to me we are being punched in the gut by people telling us critics are stupid, jaded, and don't know what they are talking about when it comes to movies.  Warcraft has really been a focus of attention for this with rottontomatoes showing the critics score of the movie at 27% positive, and the audience score at 83% positive.  That is quite the divide.

    There are many people who look at this and immediately go to the thought that critics don't know what they are talking about.  I'm going to argue, that with this movie it might be a little true, but that if critics had no clue what they were doing they wouldn't have jobs.  Newspapers, radio shows, and TV shows would not pay them to go to movies and give us reviews.

    The other movie this year that had a lot of critical backlash was Batman Vs. Superman. (Rotten tomatoes Critics 27% Audience 66%) and that was a movie I enjoyed. To be fair, it by far wasn't a perfect movie and there were several things that drove me crazy (dream sequences, not enough Wonder Woman, and "Martha!") but I liked it.  There was enough good in it that I can honestly say I liked the movie but if I had to give an honest review, it would have been 2.5 out of 5 stars just built upon the problems in the movie that I know would bug other people.  The review didn't mean I didn't like it, it would mean that I knew it was a very flawed movie and that I expected a lot of folks would have an issue with that.  So let's go back to Warcraft.

     Right now the audience is loving it, despite the critics not rating it very well.  Some of the critics are very obviously not rating it fairly or making bad comparisons.  (On the Instance, Scott Johnson mentioned a critic who called it "This generations Battlefield Earth." As if there was similar hype to this movie as there was for John Travolta's crap fest which was a big deal for other reasons.)  Guess what, I bet you if you go into the theater expecting a Shakespearean production you're going to hate this movie as well.

    This movie is what it is.  I haven't seen it yet, and hope to in the next couple of weeks, but if it's anything other than a popcorn flick where I leave a bit of my mind behind and enjoy all the references to the game I play it's not what I'm expecting.  I am not expecting any Oscar worthy performances or a narrative that shapes the movie genre.  I am not expecting hours of character development and nuanced performances.

    I am expecting to go see a movie where a big CGI orc picks up a horse and chucks it at somebody.  If I see orcs and humans beating the crap out of each other backed by a decent story, I'll be happy.  Why? I'm tempering my expectations accordingly.

    I'm also going to say that the critics here may not be in the wrong for the most part.  For your average chick flick, drama, thriller, movie fan this movie might not be for them.  The critics job is to warn people away from this movie who might not enjoy it, they are doing that.  Let's be honest, us folks who are the target audience are going to go in excited and happy.  Take the critics reviews with a grain of salt, understand they speak for the movie audience as a whole, not just our Warcraft playing, orc loving demographic.

 

   If you want to see this movie, go see it.  You may love it. If you bring your non-fantasy loving girl friend, or boy friend they will probably hate it.  Let's all just go to the movies and have a good time.

Lag


While you see adds on my sight, I do not at this time make any significant revenue from these writings.  If you would like to support this hobby of mine, feel free to buy one of my short stories on Ben Marble at Amazon.com  for $0.99. If not, I will keep writing anyway so no pressure.

Any Given Tuesday.

It's getting close to that time.

    The patch could drop any week now.  I know we say that every time about now, but every week we are one step closer.  I fully expect we will have at least a month to play with the pre-patch event, as that seems to have been a trend with the expansions that had a pre-patch event (I'm glaring at you Pandaria)

    That means, if you want your Moose from Hellfire Citadel, you have a very limited amount of time to do so.  Once the patch drops, that mount is gone.  If you wanted to level X character up to 100 before the shenanigans begin, you need to get it done quickly.

    The Legion is coming.

     If your like me you are frothing at the mouth to see what Blizzard does with this.  I'm expecting a lot of changes and updates to lore.  I as always, am hoping this new expansion will resonate with players as much as Wrath of the Lich King did.  I think Blizzard needs another expansion that just nails it like wrath did.  There is a reason it was most every bodies (whom I talk to anyway) favorite expansion.  It does have the promise.

     Icon character driving the story forward (Illidan, check) A real threat to our Azeroth (Check again) and a feeling that our actions will have an effect on our world going forward (Sorry Warlords, Check).  An enemy that is both familiar, but has some new aspects to it. (Check it baby).

     Now all we need to do is hope the story and game play lives up to the hype.  I have no illusions that we are ever going to see twelve million players in this game again like we did in Wrath.  It would be nice, but the possibilities are just not there at the moment.  I won't say it's impossible either.  No one expected the player base to jump back up to ten million at the beginning of Warlords, but we all know that didn't last very long.  What does that mean though?

    It means that the fans are there.  It means there are enough players hoping for an experience that can pull them back into the game again like it used to.  I myself would love something that made me feel like I had to log in every day, for at least a few minutes, to see what was going on.  On the other hand I don't really have that time at the moment either.  That pull though, I would love to feel it again.

     So, ten million, twelve million players, not probable, yes.  Impossible?  I don't believe anything is impossible if done right.  I don't see it happening, but I would love to be proved wrong.  I'm pretty sure Blizzard doesn't expect those numbers again, but they would be happily surprised if they happened.

    Grab your swords and staffs, Legion is coming.  It is less than two months away and will be upon us before we know it.  Lets kill some Legion.

Lag.