The Daily Quest: Forsooth and what not!
by Adam Holisky 
Jun 4th 2009 at 4:00PM
We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
- Etherjammer has an old but quite humorous look at BlizzCon etiquette. My favorite line: "Use spells such as Slow Fall and Levitate to go from one level of BlizzCon to another at your own risk, as players report that these spells have been unreliable at best in past BlizzCons." Why? Because some idiot jumped off the escalator half way up last year, and it caused quite a ruckus. Pardo was near the esclator talking with some folks, and he just looked and shook his head in a /facepalm manner.
- Activision-Blizzard is suing Double Fine over Brutal Legend.
- Guild halls and player housing. Love 'em or hate 'em, lots of people want them. The Hunter's Union has an interesting take on them.
- Casual Raid Leader has a great post about encouraging more oraganic and communicative raiding.
- Stoneybaby of Big Hit Box has a good review of how he got back into PvP, which would be useful for those of you looking to do the same.
Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Swampsquatch Jun 4th 2009 5:41PM
Brutal Legend looked so funny... I am torn between supporting Jack Black and defending WoW. However, it is ACTIVISION suing them and doesn't have much to do with Blizzard anyway beyond the merged name.
Janaa Jun 4th 2009 5:50PM
Unfortunately, Frosts ideas on a guild hall, while a nice fantasy, are largely unworkable and not at all in fitting with Blizzards game design. I wrote a nice indepth comment on his blog but he seems to have left it forever in "moderation". Oh well. First of all, the price and upkeep are not in keeping with Blizzards design philosophy. Blizzard is aware that 99% of guilds have less than 1k gold in the bank. With their moves in recent years strongly against exclusivity, a guild hall will never cost 20-50k from the outset. It would be free, for a basic, low-quality hall. Certainly large fees could be charged to upgrade it to the highest levels, as per the guild bank tabs, but the hall itself wouldn't be exclusive to wealthy guilds.
The upkeep cost, also, is not something Blizzard would ever do, for reasons too numerous to list. Likewise, the portals (to cities and instances) would not happen, neither would professions or class trainers. While it'd be nice to have everything you ever need in once place, Blizzard is not about to destroy 90% of the functionality of the cities. Drink, food and reagent vendors purchasable for guild halls, certainly would be possible though.
Of course, a guild hall would include a trophy hall, and would hopefully include a guild-meeting time.. Ie, the guild master (or responsible officers) could set a time each day (once a day) that all guild members get offered a free teleport to the guild hall (as per Battlegrounds summons). Guild meetings ahoy! This would certainly bring some social aspect back to it, especially if there were ways to "show off" stuff there. :) And as from my WHU post.. "A guild hall in Stormwind that roughly resembles a couple of rooms of the Stockades would be the free, beginner guild-hall. A canal-side guild hall? Several thousand gold. A guild hall with balconies overlooking Stormwind harbour and enjoying the sunsets of an evening.. prepare for the 20-50k you mentioned."
Janaa Jun 4th 2009 6:17PM
Actually, on reflection, perhaps my post has been left in moderation as I didn't worship him and say how amazing his genius was, like every other post that he's let pass through moderation. Its a shame when blog authors are so self-conscious and unconfident in themselves that they seek to silence any voice which doesn't completely agree with them. :(
Hrist Jun 4th 2009 11:02PM
I don't have a lot to comment on in regards to your differences with Frost on his guild hall ideas as you are more than entitled to your opinion but i do take issue with your reply to your own post.
Perhaps, if you read his blog, you'd find that not only are there NUMEROUS comments that disagree with Frost or flat out insult him (he took his first real troll comment as a badge of honour) he also has ENTIRE BLOG POSTS where he admits he screwed up after talking with people. Not everyone has the time to stare at a website with baited breath hoping for posts to approve. Maybe he was busy and couldn't approve your post right away? Take your internet martyrdom elsewhere.
Like I said, I don't give one whit that you have disagreements with Frost's dreams/ideas for guild houses (although if you Blizz has never put in upkeep in the game before - hello weapon and armour upkeep - or other gold sinks what game have you been playing?) but don't make asinine presumptions because your opinion isn't ready for the world to see in a timely enough manner to suit your ego.
Janaa Jun 5th 2009 2:47AM
Thank you for your valued opinion Hrist. Unlike your savage attack on me, I did indicate I was merely musing a possibility I was considering, upon reflection as I said. And I stand by my statement that it is a shame when blog authors react that way to negative comments. I didn't say he was intentionally doing anything of the sort, only that it was one possibility. I believe there's a chance you may be closely related to that blog, to react in such a vile manner to a mere preposition.
I do, wholeheartedly, apologise that the only context you were able to draw from any more my comments were negative ones. I promise to :) sprinkle my :) posts with smilie faces :) now on to indicate :) that I do not intend :) any malicous harm. :)
And the only reason I reached that conclusion of possibility was that following my post, over the course of four hours, a dozen posts praising the blog author were approved. Even comments as long as mine. Its ironic that only shortly after posting my above remarks, the comment on that blog was then approved - hours after waiting for moderation.
Before reacting so hastily in the future, consider there are other possibilites to what a person is thinking and saying than only the manner in which you take it at face value.
Martouf Jun 5th 2009 4:14AM
Okay I told myself not to react but sadly didn't work
First off I think internet message boards aren't always the best place for musing idea's since well it misses nuances. Reading a tone is very hard. Like you took the comment as savage and me as a normal complaint.
And now I'm going to do some musing myself. If you expect people to think hard whether or not you meant what they read at face value then maybe you can do the same with the blog author. Besides it was way off topic, just like this post.
On topic: I really hope one day we will get some guild housing it's the only feature from Guild Wars I really miss.
Yeng Jun 4th 2009 5:50PM
Man, all I can say is 'Fuck Activision', they are doing everything possible to try to prevent me from playing Brutal Legend, I've been waiting for this game for like 2 years now.
Trieclipse Jun 4th 2009 10:09PM
@ Big Red Box:
While I'm glad he's having fun PvP'ing, he's 564 in 2v2. Theoretically, that's as bad as a 2436 rating is good. Since 2400+ is pretty surely Gladiator, then the 564 would be among the 0.5% lowest rated teams.
But hey, atleast he's having fun, right?
jurandr Jun 4th 2009 11:56PM
# It is considered rude to kill the Critters that you may see around and outside Blizzcon, and doing so may be grounds for a permanent ban.
# Dueling is not permitted within Blizzcon. Although there are no mechanics that prevent it, doing so may be grounds for a permanent ban.
fun post :)
zweitblom Jun 5th 2009 1:18AM
"It's because they're producing great content for the community!" Now if they would just stop writing in light blue on a slightly darker blue background...
popor on eu-lightbringer Jun 5th 2009 3:44AM
Forsooth! I concot an elixir of courage.
popor on eu-lightbringer Jun 5th 2009 3:46AM
Forgot the link:
http://xkcd.com/593/
Frostheim Jun 5th 2009 11:26AM
Janaa: WHU comments are not moderated by default - you post, it goes live. For whatever reason your post pinged the spam filter and it held it for moderation (I think it was the word "cash" that got your held for moderation), something I didn't see until I checked my email (about 2 hours after your post), and I approved it at once.
I can understand, however, how you'd see other comments coming up and think that everything was held for moderation and approved one at a time.
As Hrist says, I don't censor comments, and if you'll notice several people who posted before you said similar things as what you said and all were allowed their voice :)
As a brief response to your points: as Hrist says, upkeep cost already exists in various forms in WoW. A guild hall would need to be functional as well as social -- why make something that appeals only to one subset of players? The cost I tossed out off the cuff isn't as expensive as you think: a guild of 20 could easily farm that up in a few days. The reason they don't have that money in the bank now is because they have no need or use for it. Thus the community building aspect :) And keep in mind that everyone can raid with the easy raids these days, and your raid drops can pay your (much smaller) upkeep costs.
Finally, as I explained in the article, the whole concept is to balance the cost such that no one can have everything. Your hall will never be all of Dalaran in one spot, and there'll still be plenty of reason to go to the other cities of the world.
It's all about balance. Balance between casual and raiding guilds. Large and small. Balance between social and functional. Balance between useful and useless. I think it can be done, and done well.