The Daily Quest: How to fail the Trial
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 20th 2009 at 6:00PM
- Fel Fire is a new warlock blog that just started up recently, and they've already got a good overview of the Auction House up.
- Larisa at the Pink Pigtail Inn is definitely one of those who doesn't think that Mr. T represents her game.
- Pwnwear examines the issue of tank numbers and balance in game design.
- Too successful in Trial of the Grand Crusader? Let Caer Morrighan help you out with a few surefire ways to fail the instance.
- PC Games Hardware nabbed a shiny new Radeon HD 5970 video card, and they ran benchmarks with World of Warcraft, among other games. 76 FPS? Yes please.
Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Guilds, The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KJP Nov 20th 2009 6:55PM
I think maybe you misunderstood the point of the Caer Morrigan article. It's not a tongue-in-cheek article about being "less successful", i.e. how people screw up. It's about how, when the attempt becomes clearly doomed (too many or the wrong people die), to quickly reset the fight and get onto the next attempt with as little time wasted as possible.
WoWie Zowie Nov 20th 2009 7:42PM
+1
sfbuck415 Nov 20th 2009 7:09PM
I agree with Larisa. What I was thinking when I saw that Mr T video, she totally nailed it. The guy was old 20 years ago. After you see a celebrity star in a Sunday morning catroon you don't ever need to see him again(look it up on YouTube).
For Blizzard to use this guy in an advertising campaign he must have come so cheap they couldn't pass it up.
Volaro Nov 20th 2009 7:25PM
Mr. T is a silly guy, and for his roles in the A Team and Rocky 3, people like him. He's an easily recognizable guy that a lot of people grew up watching, plus he gave us PSAs.
Its the same with Will Shatner. ...Minus the whole PSA thing.
Hairfish Nov 20th 2009 7:27PM
I'm no Mr. T fan, but I'll take him over Ozzie Osborne any day. I've stopped telling anyone I play WoW, because they inevitably say, "Oh yeah, I've seen Ozzie Osborne's commercials for that... Ew, YOU play that game??"
Falcon6 Nov 20th 2009 11:18PM
Part of what makes WoW great to me is the pop culture references. They could use the current, the hip, the happening...they can also go with what was cool a while back, simply playing off nostalgia. The commercial kind of gives me the feeling that WoW isn't some serious issue where number crunching is king or that, to be successful in the game, you have to spend hours upon hours playing it. WoW is, above all else, a game that's there to be fun and show the fun little things in the game.
And the Night Elf Mohawk is there to be fun. It's nothing huge, and it's not something that will make your game experience less enjoyable. [see: zombie event. It was made for fun and it was fun, but a lot of people got upset about how the auction house would be camped by zombies.] It's just there as a little bit of flavor for the world: a shouting night elf with a mohawk lectures you on respectin' yer mamma while outfitting you with a mask to show you're good wit' the kids.
Larisa doesn't particularly like the commercial. And that's fine. Lord knows I detest the Mac v. PC ads, but I still have my iPod because I loves it, and I'd still get a Macbook if money permits. Fun, like the opinion of the commercials, is subjective. People have differing opinions on the matter, and what they find fun. Kind of what makes WoW great, too. So much to do for the different playstyles. I think Blizzard knows that the commercial can be hit-or-miss for some people, and they just took the chance.
In the end, though, I do agree on one thing: Blizzard totally should make commercials with Cranius. If they did so, I would love them forever. Verbally and metaphorically.
Super Guest Man 9000 Nov 21st 2009 5:06AM
They're suppose to be humorous, people be too serious yo!
swampsquatch Nov 21st 2009 9:47AM
My response to The Pink Pigtail article:
Obviously, a 40 year old European isn't likely to find the humor in Mr. T. Or Chuck Norris. Or any of the other people that Americans can both enjoy and make the butt of every joke. I honestly don't have any idea how, even being an over 40 year old European, you don't know who Mr. T is considering he was a big star 20-30 years ago.
In game, anyone that complains about the grenades, takes the game too seriously and doesn't have a clue about Blizzard's modus operandi.
But actually complaining about the advertising because you (obviously not even being the demographic it was targeted too) doesn't "get" it? Absurd.
So no, nothing "went wrong with the new marketing video for WoW." If Mr. T wasn't funny or people didn't connect with him, I wonder why, when the ORIGINAL Mr. T promoting WoW commercial came out, EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHERS were laughing about "Night Elf Mohawks."
Some people don't take the game, or it's advertising, too seriously and appreciate and laugh at the commercial. There probably is "better ways to capture and communicate the soul of WoW." However, Mr. T DOESN'T fail at doing it, miserably. Maybe he fails, for you, miserably. Maybe he even fails for all of Europe, miserably. In America, people are laughing about it.
You missed the joke. Move on.
Zombiemold Nov 20th 2009 11:18PM
Thanks for the feature! I appreciate it. Hope I can get all the warlocks to come my way :D
VegetaPrime Nov 21st 2009 7:19AM
Larisa obviously missed the memo about not taking everything too seriously. A 30 second spot featuring a guy that is easily identifiable to the majority of TV watching people is not meant to be some deep reflection on the game and lore behind WoW. Right in her article she mentions she doesn't watch much TV with commercials, has no idea who Mr T is (The voice and mannerisms have always been his shtick) , and has admitted anti-social tendencies so , on this matter at least, her commentary is as irrelevant as the commercial is irreverent.
swampsquatch Nov 21st 2009 9:54AM
lmao /agree
Amaxe Nov 21st 2009 11:07AM
Well, I think there is funny and there is just silly. The Mr. T grenade falls into the second category. People who know the nostalgia for the A-Team and others, *might* be amused. People who didn't but think the silliness of it is a change also might be amused.
But then there are those of us who think "OK, this is kind of lame." Now don't get me wrong. I loved the stupid pun quest titles in TBC and WOLK. I chuckled at the name puns, and the humorous descriptions of the items. If Blizzard wants to keep doing that, and doesn't cross the line into what I find offensive, I say "Go for it"
I guess the point I am getting at is that if something is widespread, but doesn't amuse us personally, it will get annoying. That doesn't mean others with a different view are wrong. It just means that there are people with different views of what WoW should be, and when WoW goes in a different direction from what one thinks is good, it's natural that people will complain about it.
I liked Larissa's article and it said things I agree with, but I understand that her view and mine are not the views of all WoW players.
I just hope that those who liked this are in the minority ;-P
Elleiras Nov 22nd 2009 12:49PM
I feel compelled to point out that this new "Fel Fire" has nothing to do with the original Fel Fire, which is my warlock blog at Wordpress.com. I've since moved to a new and considerably less "lockly" domain, but search engine hits (not to mention old WoW Insider links!
Elleiras Nov 22nd 2009 1:38PM
(con't from above -- apparently, WoW.com didn't appreciate my less-than-three!)
... (not to mention WoW Insider links!) still generate a fair amount of traffic to my Fel Fire. I am very disappointed that someone decided to co-opt the name.
Gravity Nov 21st 2009 4:02PM
Thanks for the mention, and I genuinely hope we can see a 3-tank minimum in 25-man raids in the future.