[1.Local]: The dead ponies edition
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.Some readers will undoubtedly consider a discussion of Alizee and the female Night Elf dance to be beating a dead horse – but that's not actually the topic that the title of this week's [1.Local] is referring to. The dead ponies come later. (Didn't Mama always tell you to save the sweet treats for last? Mmmm, crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle ...) This week, we start out with one lucky reader's story of the Night Elf dance -- wedding style.
Mike: My wife (who plays Warcraft quite a bit) learned this dance (the one in the video) so she could dance like this at our wedding. So we gave Alizee's music to the DJ, had him play it, and she danced like a Night Elf in front of everyone she's ever known. The neat part was that all her friends liked the dance style, so she was out there on the dance floor teaching all these other women how to dance like Alizee. My friends (who also play Warcraft) and I stood watching with our jaws on the floor. If you think one chick is hot while dancing like this, you should see five or six ...
DM7000: You're a lucky man ...
Tirrimas: Where would you like your Internet sent?
Mickthathick: Pics plx!
Sounds like a celebration to remember. Come on, Mike, we're all friends here – pics, please? Tips line, Attention: [1.Local] ...
| More nails in the dumber box Who'd have thought an off-hand comment from a movie star about video games would inspire so much ire? The Ryan Reynolds comments just keep coming. Two weeks ago, [1.Local] spotted Gessilia's comment about Reynolds' grouchy comment about video games ("I don't really play video games. Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?"). "He's probably just grumpy because the cover made him look dumber than a box of nails," she commented. "Come on, that expression totally screams 'Which end do I put this in again?'" The real zinger about this post came a week later. Reader Grim surmised that Reynolds' lack of enthusiasm for gaming may have something to do with his real-life skillset: "Ryan Reynolds would hate the idea of dual-boxing. He's only capable of playing one character." Ba-dum-TISH! |
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| A leveling server just for leveling The idea of a server designed especially for players moving through early game content sparked quite a bit of conversation from readers this week, including this novel idea from styopa: "Instead, how about a 'treadmill' server? Every day your 'toon is on that server, you lose 0.3% of your total XP accumulated to date. So (very roughly speaking) you'd lose a level about every week. "Now, suddenly you need to keep your skills very fresh or you slide backwards. PvP players would have to 'leave XP on' to stay in bracket. On that server, if you met an 80, you KNOW they are a regular, consistent, constant player instead of someone's umpteenth multitoon that they may not have played in months." Styopa sounds like a player who'd enjoy EverQuest-style XP loss upon death ... Now there's a way to keep you busy at level 80! |
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| Is WoW too complex? Shardrell makes a great case to support the theory that end-game stats make WoW too complex: "I personally think that the current gear system is too complex, with consequences for new and veteran players alike. Being able to micromanage the 'extra stats' like Hit, Crit, Haste, Mp5 and ArPen make a big difference in your character's effectiveness. However, there is no in-game information to guide players in making these choices. "I shouldn't have to browse through out-of-game forums to figure out what my Hit cap is (or even what a Hit cap is in the first place). I shouldn't need to use Recount to get an idea of whether a new piece of loot is an improvement for my character. "I think the whole system is blowing up in Blizzard's face, too. They're trying to reduce the amount of work they need to do and the amount of 'useless' loot that drops by making multiple specs/classes want the same loot. Problem is, every class and spec wants different amounts of these 'extra stats,' so whoever isn't getting the stat mix that works best for their spec gets cranky. So Blizzard tweaks the talent trees and class abilities so that players are happier with their equipment. So players get confused and have to re-learn things every patch, except again there is very little in-game guidance to help players figure out what kind of re-gearing to do. "I mean, I play a Rogue, which is one of the simpler classes to gear for. But it took me months after I hit 80 to try to figure out how much +Hit to try to get, because I couldn't get a clear answer beyond 'Uh, Hit is less important than it used to be but still important; you have three Hit caps ... I dunno, make sure you hit the yellow one.' If I didn't read out-of-game websites, I wouldn't know that Haste rating (which looks like it should be good for Rogues) isn't the best thing to stack or that ArPen starts to become more and more useful at higher gear levels. Every patch, I find myself poring over websites to make sure that I'm not accidentally making choices that will cause my DPS to plummet. "The whole thing makes me nostalgic for the days when I said yes to gear with high Agility and no to gear that was obviously designed for bears, not me. Why should I need to read so much information out-of-game in order to effectively gear up? The whole system has become too complex and ever-changing." A case for more in-game explanations? What do you think, gang? |
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| Doing faction change the right way The ability to change factions – you either love the idea, or you hate it. Or if you're Kaid, you find a way to mock it: "I don't think that Blizz will tie faction change into a betrayal quest. But if they did, here's an idea for a story... "Alliance version: "You wave your credit card at Blizzard. Shortly after, your 'toon receives a mail telling them to meet a Cenarion agent at a secret location. The Cenarion agent provides convincing evidence that a major leader Alliance-side has gone mad and is going to set off events that will have disastrous consequences for both sides. Your 'toon is sent to assassinate the leader but is told that this action will be looked on with disfavour by the rest of the Alliance. "Fortunately, Forsaken technology has come up with a bit of cleverness whereby after you've done the deed, your soul can be transplanted into the body of a newly dead Horde person (your own body will be left in a vat in case some time in the future, after a set cooldown period, you choose to return). "The Cenarion person transports you to your victim who turns out to be ... Fandral Staghelm! Hurrah! This alone was worth the credit card bill! "Horde version: "The Horde-side is a similar story, except in this case, the Forsaken technology turns you into an Alliance character first, as a deep cover operation. You still get to kill Fandral Staghelm because ... well, who needs a reason?" We're so there. |
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| Druids, cows and dead ponies, too We promised you ponies this week – and we're going to deliver. Ponies and ... other four-legged creatures. The topic in question: does an NPC conversation in Patch 3.2 reveal new possibilities for Druids? New magics? New classes? Jingo: "The first Tauren Paladin" ... oh god Winterhoof: more accurately, "holy cow" JKWood: THIS ^^ I'd be thrilled to see Tauren paladins just for the chance to yell this in a battleground. Aramis: LOL!!!!! "holy cow" ... Classic. I laughed really hard with this one. The puns kept moo-ving in ... Syme: This could be something very big. After all, Ghostcrawler promised us Aponi ... So much speculation, so many opportunities for bad puns ... Should Druids hold their collective breath in hope of the elusive "Aponi" -- or are we simply beating a dead horse? |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Humor, [1.Local]






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
badbuell Jul 5th 2009 8:15PM
The Tauren want mooooooo-re puns.
shkss Jul 6th 2009 2:38AM
yeah, go on, tell us an udder one
MusedMoose Jul 6th 2009 7:59AM
Well, we do plan to milk this for all it's worth.
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Jul 5th 2009 8:17PM
It's Gnomish tech (or Goblin mebbe), not Forsaken tech.
mirite?
Eternauta Jul 5th 2009 8:42PM
I think it's forsaken tech because it has a lot to do with necromancy and switching souls to dead bodies... creepy.
Jon Do Jul 6th 2009 4:16PM
Well, the Toshley's Station transporter malfunction turned me into everything from a shadow priest Tauren to a helpless chicken...
Cailleach Jul 5th 2009 8:49PM
Um.. three years ago now my internets nephew married his beloved, and we hauled it down to San Antonio to celebrate. Her VERY Catholic parents were just mystified when at least 8 of us started doing our respective racial dances, or, um.. yea, OK, in my case, the Moonkin Dance of Uberness.
This was followed later by a line dance version of the Zombie Dance from Thriller, but I digress.
Jagoex Jul 6th 2009 12:26AM
Ah, Alizee. Something is getting beaten, but it's not a dead horse.
jdogg795 Jul 6th 2009 1:03AM
That's my fantasy wife there! ;-)
originaltdiddy Jul 6th 2009 2:59AM
I don't get it, her dancing looks nothing like the night elf dance.
Kittens Jul 6th 2009 11:10AM
Check towards the end of the video Originaltdiddy :)
jdogg795 Jul 5th 2009 9:42PM
I would try to marry Alizee if she weren't already married with child... *tear*
Bubsa Jul 5th 2009 9:51PM
Alizee's married with a child?
Damn it, she's beautiful, but that still must be illegal surely?
jdogg795 Jul 5th 2009 11:11PM
Alizée Jacotey (French pronunciation: [a.li.ze]) (born August 21, 1984) is a French singer. Born in Ajaccio, Corsica, she goes by the stage name Alizée—the feminine form of alizé, the trade wind.[1] She was discovered by Mylène Farmer, following her winning performance in the talent show, Graines de Star,[2] in 1999. While collaborating with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, Alizée released two albums—both of which were hits inside and outside of France.
jdogg795 Jul 5th 2009 11:12PM
Alizée married fellow French singer Jérémy Chatelain, whom she met at the Eurobest awards function in 2003. They were married on November 6, 2003[citation needed] in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The couple had their first child on April 28, 2005—a girl they named Annily. She currently resides in Paris, France.
The Claw Jul 5th 2009 11:13PM
She's 25.. so, what, 10-12 years older than either of you? It would never work out.
jdogg795 Jul 6th 2009 1:02AM
Try again...I'm older than her by a year...
And for the record, if I were 15-17 talking about marriage and children...well; I don't think those are the things your typical 15-17 YO would think about! ;-)
stephen2553 Jul 5th 2009 10:19PM
Tauren pallies.....
Holycow
Udderthelightbringer
Tirionmoordring
Raresteak
Retrimootion
I could go on for ever but you get the idea
Eros Jul 5th 2009 11:56PM
As a Tauren i aprove.
Gimia Jul 5th 2009 10:34PM
If WoW becomes any less complex I have the feeling it'll go the way of SWG where you get two completely different combat "revamps" in under a year of time and in the end become something so easy you can do in your sleep... litterly.