Posts with tag warcraft, world of warcraft

Gamasutra has an in-depth interview with several academics asking "Is there life after World of Warcraft?" Neils Clark suggests that the majority of of MMO players don't spread themselves out over multiple MMO games, but instead migrate like a flock of birds or a "gamer tribe".

I do think that the same chunk of players went from EQ to Galaxies to WoW with some dabbling in games like AO, DAOC and CoH inbetween. Obviously, Blizzard attracted about 8 million extra people to our "tribe", however, so I wonder if our tribe just got a lot bigger or if we are now just one tribe of many.

Clark interviews 5 academics about how gamers will move from WoW to other games and what what has made WoW the powerhouse that it is. The discussions of social networks, lures of new fantasies and the ramifications of a WoW collapse are very interesting.

Clark also says that he thinks WoW is the "king of the mountain" not because it is the best game out there but because it attracted the "right people". I say the "right people" are playing because it's currently the best game out there. What do you think?

Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.

This week, I am answering an email from Gabe in Venezuela:

Dear Robin,

I'm Gabe, and I come to you with a question about balance. I'm 17, live in Venezuela, study in an international school (that follows the format of an American High School) and am doing something called the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Needless to say, this Diploma is one of the most challenging high school diplomas in the world, taking up countless hours of homework a week, and not letting me enjoy my game. Don't get me wrong, I have my priorities straight, I know school comes first. All my fooling around is recreational, and strictly on weekends, so you could say I'm a fairly responsible person (at least in that aspect). What I don't want to happen is for my homework and school work to be my whole day. I enter school at 8:30 am, and leave at 3:30. After all this time of work and class, I come home to a pile of paper that I need to work on that lasts until 8:00 pm. Of course, as you can imagine, I'm exhausted by the time I'm done.

The Fires of Outland booster set for the TCG is now available which means we all have a shot at getting a pack that includes the Spectral Tiger Mount. This highly sought after loot card attracted almost 6000 entries for the WoW Insider contest where we gave one away. It also garnered $2000 on eBay.

So for the 5919 of you who didn't win one from us and for all of us who are not able or willing to pay thousands of dollars for one, all you have to do is buy Fires of Outland booster packs until you get your very own Spectral Tiger Mount.

Of course, some of you actually play the TCG for fun and Upper Deck Entertainment provides a handy tournament search tool for you to find a tournament near you.

Unfortunately, the Buy Now link on the Upper Deck Fires of Outland TCG page goes to a "not a valid item number" error page, but hopefully you'll be able to buy packs at the normal outlets soon. (Update: The Buy Now Link goes to a 24 pack.) Or you could increase your chances at getting a Spectral Tiger Mount by buying the packs 24 at a time from Amazon.

Will you be trying for a Spectral Tiger Mount? If so, do you want it to use or sell?

If you've been keeping up with the news here on WoW Insider, you already know the information that has been updated on the WoW Under Development page. But it's nice to see it in black and parchment.

Under Almost Ready, Blizzard lists the highlights of Patch 2.2: Voice Chat, Mac Movie Capture and the Improved Chat Interface. They also include a link to the current PTR Patch notes. These changes will be released in the next major patch, which unfortunately looks like it will be a while.

The Coming Soon section lists things that will be in upcoming patches, presumably before the expansion. They don't link to any further official info for this section, but I've provided links to WoW Insider details:

• Zul'Aman - A high-level 10-player instance located in the Ghostlands
• Guild Banks
• Sunwell Plateau - A high-level 25-player instance located north of Silvermoon City

The On the Horizon section is all about Wrath of the Lich King. The highlights they list are the new level cap, Inscription, Northrend, Death Knights and Character Customization. For more info, they link to the official WotLK website.

I was hoping for more official info on the Coming Soon topics -- and something more than just 3 items. I don't expect the expansion to be here for another year, so an official sneak preview of some more of the free goodies we're going to get in the meantime would be nice.

What are you most looking forward to being added to the game before the expansion? Or will nothing satisfy you except for new hairstyles, ten new levels and another continent?

Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.

This week, I am answering an email from Bonechiller:

Dear Robin,

I am a 15 year old that enjoys playing WoW in my free time. School starts for me in 6 days and my mom informed me today that I won't allowed to play WoW during the week. I play in a raiding guild and would like to raid Sunday-Tuesday (3 nights a week). I don't understand how. It is not fair, I have a 4.1 GPA and do not do drugs or drink. I also play in the marching band and on the school tennis team. She won't listen to anything that I have to say about this game, I mean, it is so much more productive than sitting there watching T.V. or starting at a wall. All she does is read the threads of the people whose lives have been ruined because of this game, about 1% of the game population. Is there anyway that I can convince her that it should not be a problem that I can play 15 hours a week? She just doesn't understand what this game has done for me socially, and it reduces my stress SO much. I just don't know anyway to make her understand or let me play, do you have any suggestions?( You are a mother, but you do play the game =))

~Bonechiller- 70 mage, Eitrigg US~

P.S.- I want her to read what you have to say, since you are a mother and can relate to her, in motherly ways)

Dear Bonechiller,

First of all, you're not going to want to hear this, but I applaud your mother for being an active parent and I can see her concerns about your active school/extracurricular schedule possibly being compromised by school night gaming. With patience and constructive communication, however, I think the two of you can come to a compromise that will make both of you happy.

Lagerosi asked on the general forums if The Frozen Throne was in fact the end of the war between the Alliance and the Horde. Jheric clarified our current faction status well:

What exists now is essentially a cold war, with the two factions fighting in proxy areas such as Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, much like the way the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would send weapons and 'advisers' to small countries in Africa and Asia.

With the transition from active warfare has come shifting allegiances, such as the Blood Elves joining the Horde after falling out with the Alliance (pretty much all the fault of one Alliance general), and Dalaran electing for neutrality.

BlizzCon attendees already know this, but Blizzard just officially announced the ability to pay for your WoW account with PayPal.

At BlizzCon, there was a PayPal booth where you could enter a contest to win one of 2 Segways, complete with helmet, if you switched your WoW account payment over to PayPal. Even if you didn't stop by the booth, the PayPal employees handed out many, many flyers.

I think this is a step forward to make it easier for some customers to pay for their online hobby. Of course, the easier it is to pay, the greater the chance customers will keep doing it. It's good business. And it didn't even take developers off of whatever content you are waiting for!

Is this good news for you? Will this make it easier for those of you currently using game time cards?

And, if you are one of the BlizzCon attendees who won a Segway, will you please send us action pictures?

Over the past few days, Slouken (Blizzard's UI Guy) has been going through Cogwheel's compilation of UI suggestions and giving definitive answers on some of them. Here are the items which aren't going to happen and some that are:

Declined

• Generic /sequence command
• Spell Queuing
• Vendor value without being at a vendor
• API to retrieve DND or AFK status message from another player
• Finer-grained action button enable/disable events with some logic moved C-side
• /stopcasting <optional spell name>
• /swapgroup <playerName> <playerName | subGroup>
• Some way to iterate over the pet spell lists of pets you're not currently using (client doesn't have this information)

More on what is coming in the next two patches after the jump.

Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.

First of all, I would like to apologize for my lack of column last week. I may be good at balancing real life with WoW, but I have yet to master balancing anything with illness. I'm feeling a lot better now and looking forward to a WoW date with my husband, after not having played for a week.

Are you snickering now? Do you think that virtual romantic outings are unforgivably geeky? Well, if you don't think playing a video game makes you a bit of a nerd, go argue it out with Gabe. Those of us who are comfortable in our geekiness will be here when you get back. Regardless of the dork factor, sharing any hobby is a great way to keep a relationship going, particularly when the hobby is as time consuming as WoW can be.

Today, we're talking about established couples, not couples that are just starting a relationship -- WoW dating is a different topic which I will discuss in a future column. I've already talked about getting a girlfriend/wife to play WoW, so this is for couples who already both play WoW. I'm also not saying that WoW dates should replace romantic dinners and other traditional togetherness activities. But having romantic "outings" in WoW are a fun, low-cost way to supplement the other things couples do to keep things interesting. Spend your quality time together any way you like, but it's best to take care of the fundamentals to get the most out of it:

Make an Appointment: Set aside a day and time beforehand and don't be late. You both will appreciate having something to look forward to and the convenience of being able to plan around the session. Do not "play it by ear". This will make the person who is ready first feel neglected waiting for the other person to become "available".

Zul'Aman, previewed yesterday at E3, has widely been reported as a "more casual" dungeon due to the fact that it won't require any lengthy key quest or attunement process and its shorter reset time. Tigole, however, has taken exception to the casual tag for Zul'Aman and has attempted to clarify the difficulty level of the dungeon. Says Tigole:

• Zul'Aman will be more difficult than Karazhan
• Zul'Aman will have better drops than Karazhan
• You'll probably need gear from Karazhan (or better) to succeed in Zul'Aman

And then he wishes us all the best of luck. Have fun storming the castle! (Though whether he's repeating the next two lines quietly to himself is up to question.)

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran.

This it the last in a series of features talking about How To Group With A Druid. I've already covered bear tanks, cat druids and Moonkin. Today, I will be exploring what Restoration druids bring to a 5 man group as well as what they don't do. If you feel I've left out any important points, be sure to leave a comment below! We love comments like healers love aggro control.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A RESTORATION DRUID

HEALING: Druids are built to be solid healers in both regular and heroic 5 man instances. They don't have to drop 40+ talent points to be good at it. Don't be surprised if you're druid healer is actually specced 31 points in Balance and 30 points in Restoration. That's more than enough for them to get you through alive.

On the other hand, don't be screaming for healing non-stop if you are not the main tank. It's your job to control your aggro, not the healers job to blow half his mana on non-tanks. I understand mistakes happen, wandering mobs appear out of nowhere, the MT gets overwhelmed and loses control of an add or two. But if the healer is dumping more healing on you than the MT for every encounter, you need to scale back your dps or talk to your tank about their taunt tactics.