World of Warcraft: How Has WOW Changed My Life?

Thanks to WOW Insider for leading me to this blog posting and the friendly folks over at Blog Azeroth.  WOW changed my life quite dramatically, I went from a non-gamer to a gamer on my own terms.

The Beginning

We meet, fell in love, and got married rather late in life, late 30’s.  I wasn’t a gamer by any definition.  I played Pac Man way back when but that’s pretty much it.  I, however, married a gamer.  In fact, shortly after we got married (less than a month to be precise), WOW was released.  I didn’t understand what he was doing in the basement for hours on end and I certainly couldn’t understand why those people and a “raid” was more important than me, the new wife.  I slowly gave up trying to understand and gave up trying to pry him away from the computer.

The Middle

Four years later, we’ve moved to Arizona and I’ve retired.  My brilliant hubby decides to buy me a copy of Guild Wars with my new laptop.  I was bored with Oblivion after hundreds of hours spent in Tamriel.  I had no clue what I was doing in Guild Wars and he hated it but I stuck with it for a couple of months.  And then on the sly on night when I couldn’t sleep, I downloaded the trial of WOW.  I created a Gnome Mage and I died A LOT.  Seriously, I sucked horribly.  I remember getting a recipe for Beer Basted Boar Ribs and thought it was super important. 

Didn’t take hubby long to catch on that I had stayed up all night playing WOW.  The next day I had my very own copy, he reactivated his subscription, and Refer-A-Friend active and thus began my adventures in Azeroth with hubby.  I rolled a Night Elf Hunter named Penelopa.  Looking back, I don’t know how we didn’t spend more time corpse running.  I had no clue about threat, shinnies were uber attractive, and I was terrified of PvP and dungeons. 

Today

We both play other games.  WOW is in my rotation frequently.  In fact, I just reactivated my subscription this week.  About a week and a half ago I saw a picture of the new druid travel form and it peaked my interest.  A little poking here, a little dabbling there and wouldn’t you know it I’ve got the WOW bug again.

My game play has improved dramatically since 2008.  I know what I’m comfortable playing and I know when I need a WOW break.  I may not love our server, but it is the server hubby has played on since 2004.  He hasn’t re-subscribed this time and I’m fine with that.  He’s happy when I’m happy and right now, playing WOW makes me happy.  I’m leveling my “baby” toons and looking forward to the release of Patch 5.0.4.

So, WOW changed my life, and hubby’s by extension, when it turned me into a gamer.  I play other MMO’s but WOW was my first true MMO and thus has a special place in the memory bank.

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World Of Warcraft: All Races Playable in Patch 5.0.4

Just announced, with Patch 5.0.4 all races, regardless of what expansion you own or don’t own, will be playable.  Pandarians will be available upon release of the expansion on September 25, 2012. 

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Opening Cinematic

Here ya go folks … enjoy!

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TSW: Issue 2 Digging Depper

Funcom’s, The Secret World, has released Issue 2L Digging Deeper which is the August 2012 update to the game.  This update includes:

• a new weapon with skills and abilities: it’s a rocket launcher
• the introduction of plastic surgery and barber shop
• nightmare mode dungeons

Sad thing is, I like the artwork more than I am even remotely excited for the game. 

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Rift: Patch 1.10 Announcement

Rift announced (here and here) this morning the changes that will be forthcoming in the last pre-expansion patch:

• Open world groups/public groups
• Cross Faction Trade
• Looking for Dungeon Tool
• Entering a Dungeon/Raid
• Instant Adventure
• Weddings
• Chat (channels & tells including cross shard)
• Quest sharing
• Guilds
• Mail
• Friends List & Ignore
• Chronicles
• PvP stat normalization
• Group Queuing for Conquest/Warfronts

There will be some restrictions placed on PvP shards when the above changes go live.  The changes are very similar to Everquest2 which in it’s own right, is a highly successful game with a very loyal following.  However, this can also be seen as an attempt to consolidate factions because of low player population numbers.

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WOW: Pre-Mists of Pandaria Patch 5.0.4

Just announced this morning, the last patch prior to the release of the Mists of Pandaria will go live on 28 August 2012.  The expansion released on 25 September 2012.   Patch 5.0.4 notes can be found here.

Takralus

Please be aware that with the release of the pre-expansion 5.0.4 patch on Wednesday, August 29 [August 28 for the US], all raid lockouts will be reset. This means that you will not be able to extend a raid lockout beyond the week before the patch release.

source

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WOW: History of Pandaria

As we know, WOW isn’t a game we regularly play anymore but that doesn’t mean we ignore it completely either.  This video found over at WOW Insider is a very helpful primer on the history of Pandaria.

The expansion releases in a little over a month on September 25th and the pre-expansion patch is ready for background download now.  Admittedly there are a couple of things that have me interested, new druid travel form springs to mind immediately, but I can see shelling out $40 bucks for an expansion based on how horrible the last expansion experience was.  I haven’t seen anywhere near enough new things that interest us to justify the cost of the expansion and another month of game time.  Do I think it’s likely we will play it at some point?  Most likely yes, but HIGHLY unlikely it will be on release day.

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Rift: Coming Soon the Storm Legion Battlemage Soul

Video begins at 12:30

Yesterday the mage development team of Rift partnered with mmorpg.com to reveal the new soul for the mage in the upcoming Storm Legion expansion.  The new soul is called Harbinger and is a melee dps soul.  There is development gameplay footage contained in the video as well as various answers on other mage soul callings.  Harbingers will still wear cloth and utilize staves, but magically those staves are transformed into a choice of three two-handed weapons depending on the role you are fulfilling.  The gameplay almost exclusively shows that scythe in combat but the claymore was also shown.  There will be a two-hand axe as well but the artwork for that weapon is not ready for reveal.

No other amazing surprises come from the video.  The next soul will be revealed in about a month and no hint at which soul that would be unfortunately.

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Guild Wars 2: Signature Generator

Looking forward to the release of Guild Wars 2 this month?  Get ready with the just released Guild Wars 2 signature generator.  Customize your signature with a variety of graphics, mottos, and backgrounds.    Who knows what other small tidbits the team at ArenaNet has waiting?

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LOTRO: Riders of Rohan Developer Blogs

Leading up to the release of the Riders of Rohan expansion next month, September 5, 2012, the developers have released several blogs detailing upcoming changes to the game.

• Guardian Blog
• Champion Blog
• Captain Blog
• Burglar Blog

And finally, this just released the developer diary on customizable war steeds!

Customize your appearance and skills

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Vanguard: Freemium Launches Early

In a surprise move, Sony Online released Vanguard as a Free-to-Play one week earlier than expected.  As with other SOE games, there is a subscription models which unlocks all the items which are locked on free accounts but can be purchased with station cash.  We haven’t played Vanguard in the past but might give it a try if we burn out on one of the other games.

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Tera: Free 7 Day Trial made me want to punch things

We played the Tera beta prior to release and hated it, in fact within ten minutes of landing on that starter island mess we logged out and deleted the game from our hard drives.  This week we both received e-mails offering us a 7 day trial and a trial code.  I will say that the trial code they sent both of us in e-mail was invalid, as was the link, and was for Europe and not North America.  I decided to see if we were too hasty perhaps.  Short and quick answer in NO!

Character creation isn’t bad, which is the highlight of the whole experience for me.  You land on newbie island level 20, you do some stuff I couldn’t be bothered to read or absorb because it was BORING.  And then suddenly you land in a new zone as a level 1.  HUH WHAT?  By now you’ve come to realize that the controls and user interface is so clunky and aggravating that it makes you want to punch someone.  Combat isn’t fast paced or fun, rather it is disconnected and at no point did my character feel threatened or vulnerable. 

Really?  You can only sell 8 items, that’s right 8 items!, at a time to a merchant.  See that horrible middle bar cluttering the bottom center of my screen, it comes up EVERY time you interact with a NPC and in order to resume your adventure you have to clear that interface from the screen.  Want to know what those buffs are you just got from gathering are?  I’m sorry you can’t mouse over them without bringing up that center bar first.  If you are like me and prefer to move with a mouse then Tera will make you cry tears of frustration.  I was able to keybind movement to the mouse but it was not easy to figure out.  Camera angles are wonky, NPCs randomly zoom in and out when you first speak to them, and there is no story at all.

Yeah, I know it “all” changes when you get to this zone or whatever it’s defenders might try and claim.  But the reality is that in today’s saturated gaming market, Tera cannot compete with other subscription games and is hands down far worse than many free to play games.  There is no originality at all in Tera.  It looks like a rip-off of Guild Wars and Lineage from NCSoft.  It has far less polish than it’s development cycle would have suggested it would have.  And their cash shop is EXPENSIVE in comparison with the competition.

I won’t be upgrading my trial to a subscription.  I certainly won’t be laying out money for the digital copy of the game.  I can safely say that when Tera transitions over to free to play, and I have no doubt that will happen sooner rather than later, we won’t be tempted.

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Rift PvP

I decided to dip my toes into the PvP pool this morning while playing Rift.  I was hoping to find another Alterac Valley style game, I didn’t, but what I did find was great fun.  I decided to bring my level 14 Necro/Warlock and much to my amazement she did amazingly well in PvP.  There are two maps available between level 10-19, Library of the Runemasters and Black Garden.  I died far less often than I thought I might and ended up with a respectable 130 plus kills in the couple of matches I played.  The leveling rate is slower but I don’t mind that.  I had a heck of a lot of fun and will be going back to explore much more of the PvP Rift offers.

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Rift: Defiant at Last

We have switched factions to Defiant and are pleased.  I am puzzled about something and haven’t quite figured out the answer for myself yet, why didn’t Rift crush WOW?  There are enough similarities that WOW players would feel comfortable instantly, the gameplay is dynamic, there are more than enough ways to level without traditional questing, and there is the proverbial “endgame”.  I haven’t figured out the answer to the question yet.

My highest character so far is level 20 and I’m having a blast.  Now we all know I love questing, well written quests keep me subscribed to a game for years.  However in Rift, it isn’t the quests (don’t get me wrong they are there and okay) it’s the dynamic alternative methods of leveling I’m loving. 

Instant Adventures are truly a brilliant concept and why more developers haven’t latched onto this idea baffles me.  The ability to “quest” with a random group of strangers, auto-mentored to adjust your level to the group, level appropriate rewards, and still have time to gather materials is so well done.  Instant Adventure is the way my cleric and mage characters will be leveling early on. 

Rifts are also another fantastic way to level, and level quickly.  After yesterday’s emergency hotfix, Freemarch erupted into a zone wide, huge rift and my ranger quickly went from level 13 to level 17.  it was a blast running around in a raid group and contributing to kills which otherwise would have killed me in one shot.  This is what I always thought raiding would be like if I’m honest.  Fast paced, dynamic, spontaneous, and free form, not the country and western line dance that “end game” raids are designed to be. 

My huge recommendation for new players, get a mount as early as possible.  It will make life much, much easier while participating in rift events and instant adventures. 

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The Secret World: Unleashed

As promised, Funcom released the first monthly update to The Secret World, entitled Unleashed.  Patch notes can be found here, and brief highlights include:

• Chat bugs resolved
• Implementation of the marketplace
• Characters can no longer be made nude
• Two new nightmare mode instances

We haven’t logged in to test out the patch.  I will admit that right now, neither of us is all that interested or excited about clunky combat despite how good the story might be.  Doesn’t mean we are never logging back in, but for the foreseeable future we are content elsewhere.

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