WoW Moviewatch: Dynamic Action Team Ep. 3: Fitting In
by Michael Gray 
Mar 22nd 2012 at 6:00PM
The plot goes like this: Three characters from TF2 get trapped in the World of Warcraft. Hijinks ensue as they get accustomed to Azeroth, and even more hijinks take place when they try to get away. The video is an amusing little romp through the world of gaming culture. Thanks for the reminder, Drakkenfyre!
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Drakkenfyre Mar 22nd 2012 6:12PM
TF3, huh?
I was thinking about submitting this as a replay after I commented about it in the article the other day. Glad to see it made it here anyway.
A little technical information. The reason the lip-syncing is so good is because Valve built in a lip-syncing ability into TF2. The game supports the use of selecting phonetics to move the mouths to match dialogue. They did this specifically for machinima (the game itself uses the same system for the classes speech, but they didn't have to allow players access to this system.) It requires you to match the phonetics to the mouth movements, it's not quite as simple as talking into a mic, but it's produced incredibly good detail in machinimas.
monotype Mar 22nd 2012 8:02PM
...oh man, that's frakking awesome. Huge kudos to Valve for thinking to implement that feature!
RetPallyJil Mar 22nd 2012 6:21PM
I'm not sure why Mr. Lab Coat didn't fit in with the Horde, what with all that clear-cutting he was doing ...
Drakkenfyre Mar 22nd 2012 6:50PM
Your reference to the Medic as "Mr. Lab Coat" means you are probably not familiar with the classes.
So I must link this video.
(And incidentally explains what the hell happens before the end up there if anyone isn't familiar with TF2.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc
Mattwo Mar 22nd 2012 7:52PM
Yea, that video does explain the medic, but not the heavy's sandviches in this series.
It also came out WAY later than this series
Jamie Mar 22nd 2012 8:11PM
@Drakkenfyre:
These videos are amazing!!! Is the game anything like the humour shown in the "Meet The..." videos?
Despite being aware of TF and it's recent F2P, I've ignored it as I don't really enjoy PC gaming aside from WoW.
RetPallyJil Mar 22nd 2012 9:03PM
I've never played tf. I'm not particularly interested in trying it. Just making an observation,
Drakkenfyre Mar 22nd 2012 9:55PM
Jamie, yes. In fact, those videos are done in the game engine, but with all details turned to max, and some custom, hand-animated things like some poses. Game is full of humor. Unfortunately, Valve has taken a turn down the "paid DLC" route, but 99% of the things in the game can be aquired for free. But you don't need anything to just play. Playing and doing achievements will unlock a crapton of things.
Matt, I meant it helped people understand what the Uber was. And yes, the video does predate the Sandvich.
Jill, I was just playing around. I found your comment funny. It was also a way to sneak in another great TF2 video.
Cyno01 Mar 23rd 2012 9:56AM
@ Drakkenfyre, Vanity items /= DLC. Plus none of the stuff they sell really impacts gameplay. I find all the tf2 weapons to be pretty balanced.
And at least almost everything has a chance to drop in game for free, or is able to be crafted, that's better than the pet store and TCG.
Drakkenfyre Mar 23rd 2012 11:26AM
I am not going to go in-depth about this, because this isn't the place for it, but here's what Valve has done.
They used to say paid DLC was wrong, essentially (I just made a post about this on Joystiq) and how by supporting their games such as TF2 long after release, they still make money, gain new customers, and retain old ones.
They have now gone 100% into the same tactics some companies like EA and Ubisoft uses. They load up tons of stupid items that should be an option in another game. They don't even do half the work anymore. They use items submitted from players, give them stats, and stick them in the game. These items half the time are buggy (some still don't have reload animations. Check out the lack of trigger animation on the latest needle gun for the Medic, his fingers go thru the trigger. Other items have funky animations or positions) or are unbalanced for awhile. These items go for $10-$20 in the store. You can wait for them to drop (which may or may not be awhile, they had said items have different droprates and they can change them) or wait awhile for them to be craftable, and use so many materials you want to purchase it instead. The drop system limits you to 12 items per week. 24 if you haven't had any the previous week. It takes two items to make a single scrap metal. three scraps to make a reclaimed metal, and three reclaimed metals to make a refined metal. Then take one of these items, and put a 5 refined metal requirement on it, in addition to at least one, sometimes two other specific items. You might have an item requiring 5 refined metal, a weapon which requires 4 refined metal itself, and another item that requires 5 refined metal, all to make a single weapon instead of spending $20 on it in the store. You will want to buy the item instead of crafting it.
They introduced the crate system which is essentially a scam. You get a box that has items, but you have to pay $2.50 to open it. And the most desirable items only drop in crates. If loot dropped in WoW, and you had to pay money to open it, people would scream. A year after the whole microtransaction system was introduced, they said they had made more money in that time than TF2 had made in sales since it's launch (about three years prior.)
Portal 2 was launched with $90 of day 1 paid DLC. They charged for things like high-fiving in co-op. You want to dance in co-op? Pay $2. You want to change the color of your robot? Pay $2. You want to do another silly animation in co-op? Another $2.
It costs $4 to laugh at someone in TF2.
And people have just found info on paid DLC in DOTA2. Apparantly the game will let people report other players for beiing poor sports. This system can flag people, and place them in a "low-priority queue", so it takes longer for them to get in. And they are going to sell an item which will let people get out of this queue. So you have a system which is supposed to be designed to help the community, but you are going to be making money off of it, and potentially destroying it's entire purpose.
"It's just vanity stuff", that's not an excuse anymore. The more people pay for this stuff, the worse it's going to get, and you end up paying 5 times the retail price for everything. I remember when i wanted to change the color of my character in a fighting game, for example, I could press up or down. If I wanted to use a special outfit, item, or whatever in another game, it might be locked behind an achievement.
Valve went from an standout, customer-first company to a "let's milk the hell out of every player" company, with tactics that rival EA, Ubisoft, and others for sheer gall in the items they offer for money and greed.
cyno01 Mar 24th 2012 4:29AM
Wow, that is an immense level of butthurt, you must really hate the WoW TCG and pet store then too...
Again, Vanity Items /= DLC.
I have every obtainable weapon and every single cosmetic set piece in TF2. Ive spent exactly $5 for a backpack expander to fit all this stuff i didnt pay for and not a penny more.
Drakkenfyre Mar 27th 2012 12:47AM
Companies like EA consider vanity items DLC. Hell, the term itself doesn't even apply to most of that stuff, it's on the disc. Yet it's still called DLC.
When a company formally DENOUNCES paid DLC as bad for the industry, then in just 3 years since that statement was made supports it so fully that they are charging for simple things like animation, that's a serious turnaround.
Yes, you can get 95% of the items, with massive amounts of time. The material cost for those items are intentionally set high to frustrate you into buying it. And paying $20 for a virtual hat? Really? Are you defending that stuff? How about $100 for a virtual wedding ring? The fact that with waiting you might get your item long after it's old (the math is above) does not excuse the fact that they have gone absolutely insane with their prices. When an update comes out and they offer a "special bundle" for $100, or they encourage players to spend $25 to increase the rank on a vanity item (and it has like 10 ranks) it's pure greed, and nothing else. How about charging you $5 to change an image on a sign? Placing the most desirable items in crates only?
No, I don't particularly care for the mount store. The TCG is fine. But I don't see your loot dropping after a raid boss, and Blizzard popping up a box saying "Pay us $2.50 to unlock this for a random item.", or saying you might have the option to wait 2 months, and use every drop in the meantime to craft that loot from the drop in the raid.
Valve has gone insane with their DLC prices, and it's probably just going to get worse.
As for your "vanity item does not = DLC", when you introduce a new weapon, with abilities not seen in the game so far, that's not a vanity item. And it seems like half of these weapons are overpowered to begin with, and when they finally fix them, people accuse Valve of intentionally doing it so people will be eager to purchase it quicker.
Mattwo Mar 22nd 2012 7:53PM
I still wish this series had a proper ending....
noob Mar 22nd 2012 10:41PM
What game did they end up in? It didn't look familiar.
Drakkenfyre Mar 22nd 2012 11:57PM
Spore.
Famed for being able to create almost any alien species you like, and the rest of the game sucks (according to most reviews.)
seksivitez Mar 22nd 2012 11:03PM
TF2 and WoW! My favorite 2 online games of all time. Long time map maker from the Team Fortress Classic days.
malaika Mar 23rd 2012 12:03AM
You may enjoy the new payload map in Mists then. Must poosh little kart!