When Rockstar North stated that they had no plans to release the fourth game in the epic Grand Theft Auto series on the PC, fans were outraged. How could Rockstar Games and Take Two allow this travesty to occur? A game series that debuted on the PC should surely be continued on the PC? Eventually, like every other developer, Rockstar conceeded and in early December, Rockstar North released Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC.

In it's first week, it debuted at number 7 on PC game sales. By its second week, it had dropped out of the top ten. The installation process was slow and tedious, requiring you to install the 14gb game, install two online services in the form of Games for Windows LIVE and Rockstar Games Social Club, configure both accounts with profile information, link your GFWL and RGSC accounts together, load the game, go through SecuROM authentification and then finally get into the game, only to have to log into GFWL in-game before you can play. Some people didn't get this far, with a significant amount of players stating that the game crashed before they got to the opening cinematic. Others said that when they did get in game, they were greated with broken graphics, low FPS and generally poor performance from the RAGE engine. A wide pattern emerged: installing and playing GTA IV on the PC is a total pain in the ass, especially if you are one of the significant portion of people who can't actually run and/or play the game afterward.

My system isn't poor. I have a fast dual core, 4gb DDR2 RAM and a 4870 all overclocked to get the best performance out of them without frying them. I can run Assassins Creed, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect on full settings without any noticable FPS drop or engine problems. Now, these may not have the top graphics out there, but they are comparable to GTA IV, so when I loaded GTA IV, I expected to have little problem with it. I tried to set my Texture Detail to high, only to find out that you needed a graphics card with at least 700mb video memory for the highest texture setting. I had to settle for medium. I set everything else to fairly respectable levels. I'm not a fool. I know what my machine is capable of outputting and I settled for just underneath the line of no return. Sadly, things didn't go quite according to plan so I had to drop draw distances for everything right down to 1 in order to suffer no FPS problem. On top of that, the game seemed to be suffering from persistent memory leaking of the most foul kind. One to two hours into the game and textures would start to load slowly as I drove over them. Cars would seemingly be chopped in half by big grey squares as I drove around the roads at medium to high speeds. For Joe Bloggs who isn't too obsessed with perfection, perhaps you will be able to look past these faults and happily game.

I chose to look past them for as long as I could.

And then the most unfortunate thing happened to me. And quite a few other people for that matter.

I was just about to do a mission for a gangster friend of mine when I noticed that the loading screen had been up for a rather long time. I waited... and waited... and nothing happened. So I thought it may have something to do with the memory leak. So I booted down my PC and powered it off at the wall to clear the RAM. I rebooted and reloaded GTA, went back to the mission loading screen, finger crossed. And I waited... and waited... and waited... and once again, nothing happened. Throughout, the game is littered with headscratching inconsistencies like this that make you wonder how they could have got it right in one place, or several places and then got it horribly wrong in another place. 

Now, I know what you are thinking: surely GTA IV is fun and has a brilliant story and brilliant characters. You would be totally correct to think this, as it does. If you want to read a review that goes on and on and on about how brilliant GTA IV is and how much we'd like to have sex and procreate with it if it had genitals, feel free to head on over to any of the mainstream reviewers, such as IGN, Gamespot, PC Gamer, PC Zone etc They all seem to have overlooked the blantantly obvious short comings. I wonder why that would be........... I'm not here to review. It is these reviewers that are lording Grand Theft Auto 4 as one of the greatest PC games ever to be released but... WHY? It's blantant short comings, performance issues, dependencies and DRM all make for one hell of a daunting initial experience with the title and the ongoing experience isn't perfect. To me, that takes away at least 1 out of 10. On top of that, the story is good but not brilliant. There are better story games out there. The only thing going for it is that it is the only half decent crime-based sandbox action game out there. What else do we have? The Godfather and Saints Row? LOLOLOLOLOLOL! 

Rockstar North have made a classic mess with Grand Theft Auto IV by releasing a game that clearly wasn't ready for release. GTA IV needed more time to be refined for the PC before it hit shelves. It needed less dependencies such as Games for Windows LIVE and Rockstar Games Social Club, both of which are stupid ideas. It needed to be rid of SecuROM, which proved its effectiveness with SPORE, which is now the most downloaded game of 2008. The fact that GTA IV has done so poorly on the PC sales front isn't too surprising. I wish I had asked my gf to get me Prince of Persia for Christmas now.

Rockstar will probably release a statement saying that piracy is responcible for the low sales, either directly or by proxy; they wouldn't have to but SecuROM on their games if naughty, spotty teenagers weren't stealing their IPs, which in turn would mean that more people would be buying the games, meaning that piracy is responcible no matter which way you come at it. They will then say that it is now too costly to release games on the PC and they will be going console exclusive, at which point Microsoft will wave the GFWL contract and say, "no you aren't."

Here's an idea: why don't you release a GOOD GAME ALL ROUND rather than putting out a good game with a steaming **** engine..? Or am I just mad?

Update:

The perpetual loading bug that has been effecting a large amount of players appears to be solvable by what a poster on the GTAForums called a, "simple reinstall." I hate to be a whiner... well no, I don't... but GTA IV has one of the most painful installation processes I have ever had to go through. It's hardly a, "simple reinstall." On top of that, Rockstar has, "cut to the chase," and stated that the problems most people are having are due to their systems being underspec, which isn't the case for me or my friends that have purchased the game and run into problems. In fact, I browsed several forums, to find that a large portion of the posters complaining about problems were well in spec for GTA IV. Talk about passing the buck. Rockstar have however stated that patches are incoming to fix not only the errors reported on initial release but also to fix the errors they create with the patch that was supposed to fix the errors reported on intial release.

I don't know who called IGN as being a product of the major game developers and publishers but if the PC Best of 2008 awards are anything to go by, IGN certainly aren't the premier neutral game reviewer they once were anymore.

For those of you too lazy to click, let me break this down for you. For the most part, the awards were pretty straight forward. Most of the awards - such as Best Action Game, Best Puzzle Game, Best Graphical Adventure Game, Best Music/Rhythm Game etc etc - were one horse races. World of Goo won Best Puzzle Game, shock horror. Best Persistent World Game went to Warhammer Online and God only knows why they couldn't call it the Best MMORPG. Best Action Game went to Grand Theft Suto 4, who's only real contendor was Assassins Creed, which wasn't that good. The winners in most of the categories were pretty obvious. 

There were a few awards that went to - frankly - the wrong titles and suggests to me that IGN aren't as neutral as they'd like us to believe.

The first travesty I was shocked by was the Best New IP Award. This year has seen lots of praise lavished on BioWare for bringing one of the most epic IPs to the console and PC in the form of Mass Effect. Closely influenced by games like Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect was a true epic when it came to story and game play. The dialogue between the main character and NPCs was beautifal and the development of the game universe was immense. They progression and discovery you could achieve with Mass Effect was second to none and reprisented another bold step by BioWare. The Mass Effect IP was first featured in 2007 on the Xbox 360, but wasn't featured on the PC until 2008. Now, you could argue that the Mass Effect IP wasn't new, but for the PC - which the awards I am talking about are for - it was and it was certainly a better IP than Sins of a Solar Empire. And even if we aren't going to count Mass Effect, there are far better IPs that have come about this year than Sins. World of Goo was far more original than the Sins IP. Left 4 Dead broguth more to the table. Now don't get me wrong, Sins is a good game but it isn't that good. Line it up against other Space RTS titles like Masters of Orion, Imperium Galactica, Galactic Civilizations and Homeworld and Sins is humbled at the bottom of the list.

The next travesty is that Sins goes on to win Most Innovative Design, which is arguable when you line it up agains Fallout 3, Spore and Left 4 Dead. Ok, Sins brought some late additions to an aged genre but it didn't do anything horrifically innovative, did it? 

The cherry on the cake is that Sins of a Solar Empire won PC Game of the Year, which should have gone to either Fallout 3, Mass Effect or Grand Theft Auto 4 in any reasonable non-biased line up. A lot of people have been shouting that Fallout 3, Mass Effect and GTA4 are ports from console games but that is of no consequence. They were released for the PC and they are all better than Sins, so despite the fact that the console saw them first, they should not have been discounted.

Needless to say, I'm a little disappointed with the awards this year, like I was last year. One thing that does come from the awards is that there is a distinct lack of good titles on the PC.

Now let's see what other reviewers have to say.

For my second part of what I hope is a neutral look at World of Warcraft, I'll start with the PvP system, which has gone from a diverse and well rounded player versus player experience, to somewhat of a grind over the course of the last year. One of the most controversial additions to the system is the requirement of Arena Points for Battleground items. This has angered a large portion of the community and - as far as I can see - it is understandable why. Previously, the Arena System and the Battleground System were largely entities of their own. The BG system provided a stepping stone into Arena by giving players low-end PvP gear, with the Arena System then providing higher end PvP gear. In Wrath, Blizzard have added an additional cost to Battleground gear in the form of Arena Points, meaning that the stepping stone that was the Battleground system has been greatly diminished. Frankly, the idea behind this decision is plain as day - Blizzard really don't want you getting more than 1 or 2 items per week from PvP, padding out your play time. By doing this, Blizzard ensure you pay them money for a larger portion of time. As well as that, it is discouraging to those people who would buy the aid of chinese farmers as the AP requirement has increased the cost of Battleground item farming. As far as the PvP system goes, I'm less than impressed.

The PvE raid content seems to have taken a hit with Wrath as well. Naxxaramas - an instance famous for being underplayed in vanilla WoW - was brought into Wrath as the entry level raid dungeon, presenting those who did not see the dungeon a chance to visit it. Sadly, within a matter of days of the game being released, the hardcore guild Ensidia (formerly Nihilum/SK-Gaming) cleared all of the raid content on offer. Many are worried that this is a reprisentation of what raid content in Wrath will be like. Blizzard have always been playing a balancing game with raid content. They want as many people to see it as possible, but they don't want it to be too easy. They try to hit the middle road but find that they often hit too high or too low. Naxx reprisents Blizzard arguably hitting to low but we can't judge raid content in Wrath on one of several dungeons. How raid content evolves will play out over the course of future content patches and Blizzard have promised that future dungeons will be less of a walk through and more challenging, with more stupidity checks - such as having to be in x positions at x time - to add a little difficulty. We'll have to wait and see I suppose.

Now, Wrath of the Lich King has been accused of plagirism when it comes to two content additions. These content additions should have been covered in the PvP section but I left them until now - Wintergrasp and the new battleground Strand of the Ancients. A few years ago, Mythic Entertainment announced that Warhammer Online would take advantage of siege warfare and shortly after that, Blizzard announced they would be adding it to WoW at some point in the future. Does this mean they stole the idea? No, not even vaguely. Wrath of the Lich King and Warhammer Online are very different games in this regard, and Warth manages to hold its own. The siege weapons in Wrath are fun to play with and really do add a whole new compelling layer to PvP. I myself have had great fun watching others use them and I think that as they evolve, they will become a widely used source of fun and entertainment. The new battleground is also good fun but sadly, I have only got chance to play 1 or 2 times, neither of which were won by Horde. Needless to say, these two content additions are a couple of shining stars in Wrath.

There are other additions that were added in patch 3.0, such as the Achievement System and Barbers that I shall touch on now. Firstly, the Achievement System is a fairly nice addition, although not too inventive. It is the same as every other Achievement System out there and hardly reprisents a large chunk of content. Aquiring points through Achievements is worrying as Blizzard will blatantly use these as some form of currency beyond buying vanity items. This has already been demonstrated by allowing players to acquire epic crafting patterns through achievements and whilst players have to get a specific achievement and still have to get the mats to make the items, this choice reprisents a step in the wrong direction. The barber shop is nothing more than a addition provided because of the growing demand from players to be able to change their appearance and once again, does not resprisent a massive chunk of content. It is no wonder then that both systems were added in a content patch, rather than the expansion itself.

The future for Wrath is the same as the future for TBC - more content. Sadly, World of Warcraft looks like it has been handed over to the second-line developers. What I mean by that is the latest additions to the game seem - for the most part - to be efforts to prolong your exposure and lengthen the time you need to play. Instead of coming up with compelling ways of getting you into more of the content or getting you to revisit old content, Blizzard have thrown in the Achievement System and made adjustments to existing concepts to make them go further. Wrath seems to have watered down a large chunk of the game and made things a lot more clear but a lot more lengthy. This has heightened my fear that future expansions won't add more compelling content. It is my belief that we are now starting to see WoW move into the MMOs equivalent to, "old age," where content becomes slow and tedious over compelling and enhancing. Perhaps I am wrong. We'll have to wait for the next expansion to turly know.

So what sort of score to I think Warth deserves? Well, it is a good game and it has some spark in it. That said, there are a lot of content additions that make me repulse at the way Blizzard is trying to lengthen the game by forcing me into things I don't really want to do. From a new players perspective, this won't matter as they have never experienced vanilla WoW. From an old timers point of view, Wrath reprisents a step in a good direction, but not really my direction.

I give World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King 80%. I don't think it is as strong as vanilla WoW or The Burning Crusade and Ifeel it may reprisent the steady decline for World of Warcraft.

Please note: there is much more to World of Warcraft and I only covered the content that stood out to me.

I've been reading through review after review after review that piles praise and medals on Blizzard Entertainment for their latest expansion to World of Warcraft - Warth of the Lich King. Sadly, I think that the age of the neutral review is well and truly over and entities like IGN, GameSpot and PCGamer are all in the pocket of the big corporations. 

What I am going to do here is hopefully provide you with a neutral and informative review that actually covers the truth, rather than fabrications of the truth.

Wrath of the Lich King adds a whole new continent to explore in the form of Northrend. For those of you not familiar with Warcraft lore, Northrend is the frozen wasteland that the Lich King has claimed as his kingdom and it is from here that his armies of Scourge launch their conquest on Azeroth. The Lich King wants one thing and one thing only: Death. Sadly for the Lich King, the Alliance and the Horde aren't willing to accept this version of the future and are now taking the fight to Northrend, pushing the Scourge back into thier own homeland.

The diversity that Northrend presents in the way of environments is quite impressive; frozen tundras, burning forests, expansive vistas and underground caverns to name but a few. Now, we are all aware that the graphics in World of Warcraft are not the best of the best. They never have been. That said, the environments and the art direction that Blizzard take with WoW don't require anything more than they already have. Of course, Blizzard have thrown in some improved textures, such as better snow and ice, just for the kicks. Sadly for anyone wanting a completely new and improved graphics engine, you won't find it here. There are some improvements but nothing major along the way. It's not just the new continent that Blizzard have spent time improving. Some spells and abilities have gone through the mill and come out looking rather impressive, although I'm a little disappointed that only a handful of spells have been improved visually. This is where Blizzard get thier first mark down from me: If you are going to spend your time improving the look of the spells and abilites, you should do all or none. It doesn't feel right having 2D crayon effects coupled with 3D glossy effects. 

Talking of spells and abilites, Blizzard have once again expanded the various talent trees in the game. Players can now take advantage of the 51-point talent trees which come with some rather epic abilites at thier end. Sadly, not all of them manage to find epicness and there are a couple that seem to have been thrown in as after-thoughts. Of course, new spells and abilites comes with new problems but for the most part, balance hasn't been comprimised too badly. Things aren't ideal but they could be a lot worse. Those of you who played vanilla WoW in the day when DoTs could crit will be pleased to know that this has been reintroduced in Wrath. Resilliance seems less of a boredom with this taken into account. You may be wondering why the spells and abilities section of this review isn't longer? Well, spells and abilites are spread across the now-10 classes and I don't play all 10 of them, so what you make of your own spells and abilites is up to you.

Moving on, we have the first of our hero classes - the Death Knight. Frankly, there is nothing heroic about the Death Knight. It is just another class. Granted, from level 55-58 you get one of the best quest lines ever to be made by Blizzard Entertainment, but this is short lived. The moment you step into Outland, the game returns to being a mindless quest grind through the 60s. Once you get to 70, the story starts to pick up again - as it does for everyone - but I was quite disappointed that Blizzard hadn't spread the evolution of the Death Knight over the first 15 levels, rather than piling it all in to two levels. Outland was underused as far as I can see. The mechanics of the Death Kight are very interesting and it does look like it could be quite an interesting class to play at 80, if not for the fact that all of its spells look better than every other class' in the game. Again with the inconsistency, just to remind you that WoW isn't real and never will be. Roll a Death Knight and you won't be bored, at least for a while. They are interesting and they are fun but they aren't what we were led to believe and they certainly aren't the heroic class I was expecting. It'll be interesting to see what Blizzard learns from thier first hero class.

The story in Wrath has improved greatly over the story in TBC. Blizzard decided to introduce the Lich King right form the start. You will find yourself running through seemingly generic quests and suddenly being presented with the Lich King himself, interfering and manipulating right across your journey to 80. He will always be only a whisper away... literally. He will even interupt boss fights and quest objectives just to be a grade A pain in the arse. The story really has improved and there is actually a reason to do things that you might not have done before, such as low level dungeons and grind quests. Take taht into account when you play as it is probably the most noticable addition to rath beyond the achievement system.

In the next part of the review, which I shall post later on, I shall cover the various forms of PvP, accusations of plagirism and what the future could hold for Wrath. I will also give you my final score for the new and "improved" World of Warcraft.

I am simply testing...

Hi there.

The Daily Quest was my own personal dream. Something that I wanted to build and nurture. In order to do this, I needed somewhere to start this dream and so I came to Curse.com, the only place I could think of. Over the course of a year, I built a close relationship with Curse. I worked closely with Kody, Zyuu and others to bring you what I thought was the best content a voluntary blog could get its hands on. I feel I did my best...

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and all of that I got the chance to talk to some big names, I got the chance to do a hell of a lot because of my dedication here at Curse. Hell, I got to go to the AoC launch party in Oslo! I really did have a good ride and it's a time I shall never forget.

So to everyone out there who reads The Daily Quest, I thank you. Maybe someday, The Daily Quest will return in one shape or another. At least, I hope it will.

Some of you are probably wondering where I’ve been. Perhaps I should rephrase that one. Let’s start again…

My ego won’t let me accept that you guys have been getting on with your lives without me. As such, I’m here to let you know all is well. You can go and buy that can of Red Bull you’ve been waiting for, for the past four weeks. I’ll still be here when you get back…

It’s been a long four weeks of waiting. On my behalf, I’ve been waiting for a few studios, guilds and organisations to get back to me about interviews, previews and other things to present you guys with but these people are hard at work. That doesn’t mean that things aren’t running along smoothly. It just means that things are slightly delayed.

If you live in the UK, you won’t be complaining as, “slightly delayed,” is our way of saying, “perfectly on time.”

Sadly, I don’t have anything to present you with this entry in The Daily Quest. What I am going to do however is share some of the things we have coming up in the coming weeks.

What’s coming for The Daily Quest?

Hands-on with Ideazon’s fabled Zboard and its Age of Conan Keyset.

I had hoped to bring you the hands on a couple of weeks ago but Ideazon are having some trouble getting the keyboard out of the US and into Europe. Despite this, I have pestered and pestered Ideazon and they are diligently trying to get said keyboard to me.

In short, this hands-on will appear in the next couple of weeks.

An Interview With: Mythos

We’ve all been looking for our definitive hack ‘n’ slash experience since we stopped playing Diablo 2 oh so many moons ago. With the announcement of Diablo 3 over and the gaming world settling down after almost wetting ourselves with anticipation, I’ve decided not to jump on the, “YAY! BLIZZARD!” bandwagon like the rest of the Internet. Instead, I’m heading to Seattle. Well, I’m not. An email is heading to Seattle, containing some rather funky questions. This one was supposed to be up last week but there was a hiccup (*cough* WWIs) that prevented this from happening, so hopefully it will be up before the end of this week.

Keep an eye out for that one in (hopefully) the next 7 days!

Mythos Preview

I delivered the Age of Conan First Impressions article just over a month ago. Now I’m moving on to other pastures in the form of a free, hack ‘n’ slash orientated MMORPG called Mythos. Developed by Flagships Seattle based team and originally used as a way to test network infrastructure for Hellgate: London, Mythos has quickly grown to be quite an eye catcher in the world of MMOs. As such, I’m going to be bringing you a preview of Mythos in the coming weeks.

Frankly. I can’t put it down and you’ll find out why soon!

An Interview With: A Guild

We’ve already interviewed A’a Netjer – a guild waiting to get there hands on CMEs debut MMO, Stargate Worlds. It went down like cake. Very good cake that isn’t a lie. In our next interview, we’ll be talking to a guild that has entered the world of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and taken it by storm!

Want to know who that guild is? You’ll have to come back and read the interview then won’t you?

10 Reasons Why the Internet Should have it’s own class in school!

Sure, we talk about why the Internet should be limited and blocked for younger children but we hardly ever come up with a simple solution that helps all problems – education! Education teaches about the pros and the cons and allows for the learner to make their minds up themselves.

I give you 10 reasons why the Internet should have it’s own class outside of IT in school! They are good reasons, if I do say so myself.

This is just a taster of what we have to come. I am constantly contacting development teams, guilds, community sites and more to get interviews and articles that the Curse community will want to read!

If you have any requests or ideas that you think would make a great addition to The Daily Quest, feel free to contact me at tdqinfo@googlemail.com or through the Curse messaging system. I try to respond to every message and email I get so don’t be shy! Also, keep those comments coming! Without your comments as suggestions, I don’t know if my offerings are right so if you have something to say, say it via the blog comment system!

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventure has been out now for roughly two weeks and it probably can't have gone better. AoCSource.com has also been around for a good while now and it has been received very well.

Being the first Age of Conan site to appear on the Curse Network, followed by ConanArmory.com, AoCSource.com offers news, forums and an entire community to be a part of. It's creation has been well received, offering limited moderation on PvP forums and a place for people to discuss things away from the official forums.

I sat down with Kevin Van Ness -- Content and Community Manager for the Curse Network -- and spoke to him about what makes AoCSource.com as well as the benefits of official and unofficial forums and asked him a little more about the limited moderation policy.

An Interview With: AoCSource.com

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourselves and what you do?

TDQ: Seeing as the interview is about an MMO fan site, could you tell us a little bit about your past in MMO gaming? How did you get into it? What MMO titles have you played?

TDQ: What drew you to Age of Conan? What aspects of the title stand out the most to you?

TDQ: What is involved with the creation of a fan site such as AoCSource? How much time and how many people go into the process?

TDQ: What has the initial reaction to AoCSource been like? Has it met your expectations and are there things you think you could have done better?

TDQ: There is a well known topic of debate that crops up now and again in the form of official forums versus unofficial forums. It’s safe to say that you feel unofficial forums have a place otherwise you would not provide them but I’m interested to know where you feel they fit and why?

TDQ: Again on the forum side of things, AoCSource offers limited moderation of the PvP forums and the FFA PvP server forums. Could you tell us a little about why you have decided to take this approach with these forums in particular?

TDQ: The Curse Network has another fan site with a similar layout and design to AoCSource in AionSource. Could you tell us why you settled for a similar design between the two sites?

TDQ: AoCSource is a young site and so I’m sure you have lots planned for it in the future. Could you tell us a little about your plans for AoCSource in the future?

TDQ: Last but not least, the token question: PvP or PvE and why?

Thanks to Kody for the Interview! Keep an eye out on TDQ for more interviews (and MUCH more content) over the next few weeks!

To say that Age of Conan had a good launch would in my opinion, be a bit of an understatement. Age of Conan has been live now for over a week and downtime has been few and far between. OK, so there have been a few hiccups along the way; there are bugs aplenty in game but you can't expect an MMO to launch with all the flavors.

For the last 3 years, Funcom have been waving their banner quite angrily when it comes to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. They really wanted to get our attention before the game launched and I can safely say that they achieved that. It is arguable that Age of Conan has had one of the best advertising and hype campaigns for an MMO to date. Age of Conan has topped the sales charts at multiple game retailers and has also become one of the fastest selling PC games in history so Funcom and Eidos must have done something right.

Sadly, mammoth sales and elaborate launch parties don't prove a game. That is up to the content within the game. As far as I am concerned, Age of Conan hasn't flopped like other more-recent entries into the MMO world.

First Impressions

There will be problems. That is the first and possibly the most important realization you have to come to when you log into a new MMO for the first time. Age of Conan is no different. There are problems and quite a few of them. What you make of them however will depend entirely upon how many times you have played an MMO from launch. I can't deny that Age of Conan has its host of problems but what I can say is that, out of any MMO I have played from launch, Age of Conan has to be one of the least problematic. 1 month ago, in closed beta, I was using one of the most bugged and problematic game clients for any game I have ever played. Age of Conan was resource hungry, crash happy and anything other than user friendly. This was 1 month from launch and as such, fears spread that Age of Conan just wouldn't be ready for launch. It really was a lag-tastic mess that required massive amounts of patching and server downtime. I really did worry. Thankfully, my worry was not needed and my fears were misplaced.

There were two main milestones for Funcom. The first was open beta to Early Access [EA] and aside from a few problems with people not liking the lack of EA keys, this went better than most expected. Then there was the mammoth task of getting from EA to retail release. This was the part that most worried about when it came to launch day. Yet again, Funcom proved themselves and saw in Age of Conan with what can only be described as one of the smoothest MMO launches in history. I've been playing the game now for a little over a week and I am impressed. There are bugs and there are problems but they are few and far between. The game runs like a charm and the game play isn't teeth grinding. This is exactly what you want from an MMO launch. Other development and publishing studios should be taking notes.

That said however, there are complaints. There are always complaints.

One thing that does stand out is the possibly-mad system requirements. In order to play Age of Conan without any issues you will need all the new Windows updates, a LOT of RAM and a pretty juicy graphics card. These requirements alone have annoyed a fair amount of gamers out there, who settled for budget systems primarily due to World of Warcraft not needing much in the way of horsepower. At the end of the day however, there are those of us who appreciate such high graphical standards. OK, so you may need to fork out a little to get your World of Warcraft-capable system up to Age of Conan standards but then, it isn't just Age of Conan you'll be upgrading for. World of Warcraft is old now and games coming out in the next 12 months aren't going to cater for 512mb of RAM and a single core processor. Despite what is being said about the system requirements by some, Age of Conan really does have some impressive graphics. If you can set things to high, you will notice it. I am impressed with how much attention was paid to detail in most places. Armor for example, has some intricate patterns displayed that rivals games like Oblivion in some cases. Funcom have gone to every corner to try to make this game look as realistic as possible whilst not compromising on game play. The only other MMO I can think of that almost pulled this off was Lord of the Rings Online. In my opinion, Age of Conan does it far better. There are a few graphical bugs that I have encountered, such as my hair cut randomly changing but for the most part, things are very impressive in the graphics camp.

So it launched well and its graphical standards are high but what about the content? What, if anything, does Age of Conan add to the already-bloated fantasy arm of MMO gaming? There are few major innovations in Age of Conan but then, why change a proven formula? That isn't to say there aren't changes. There are and they do redefine several widely accepted standards.

One of the more noticeable, “changes,” is who Age of Conan is aimed at. Age of Conan isn't aimed at kids by any stretch of the imagination. Overflowing with sexual innuendo, mature dialog and scantily clad NPCs, it is clear that Age of Conan attempts to appeal to those who like the more mature fantasy franchises out there. There's no happy-jolly feeling to Age of Conan that I can find. If you aren't brutally killing your old slave-master, your brutally killing mindless slaves. There's none of this, “go and get my kitty out of the tree,” malarkey and if there is, it is probably achieved by setting fire to said tree. Age of Conan is dark, brutal and quite effectively mature. Whilst Age of Conan has achieved much in this sense, the dialog is a letdown. It tries its hardest to be really, really interesting but I've found this to generally not be the case. OK, so Funcom have served us a decent portion of storytelling here but a lot of it is quite boring. A third of the time, I follow through with reading what the NPC is saying and I think about my choice of retort but at the end of the day, it is still just an accept quest button dressed up to look like something it really isn't. To make things worse, I have to click this button several times in several different formats before the quest actually enters my quest log. Another feature is the starting area of Age of Conan – Tortage - which includes single player introductory content. Funcom claim that there is 20+ hours of single player game play at the start of Age of Conan. This acts as a way of introducing players to the combat system, basic game play functions and also to make everyone feel important in their own little bubble right from the get go. By day, you can play with your friends and enemies but by night, you play on your own through a series of introductory quests. You can alternate between day and night by speaking to NPCs. Once you complete the single player content, you are sent away from Tortage to the Hyborian mainland, where you lose the ability to switch between mutli and single player content all together. You will now have to duke it out with everyone else on your server, just like in most other MMOs. One of the more noticeable deviations from the accepted fantasy MMO standard is the combat system. Players are given several directional attacks. To start with, you can attack from the left, the right and above. As you level up, you will unlock 3 more directional attacks. These attacks can then be used on their own or they can be strung together in a series of combinations which results in casting more powerful attacks. As well as this directional system for attacking, players and monsters have access to a directional shield system as well. Monsters (and players) can move 3 arrow-looking shields to different directions to provide more protection. For example, you could stack all of your shields on the left, providing you with a superior amount of damage reduction on your left side. This however, would leave your right and top sides undefended and these would in turn take more damage than if they were shielded. Personally, I think the shield system is rather untidy and may only server to bloat the game and confuse the player base. We shall have to wait and see. There are also fatalities. That is to say that every so often, a successful combo will result in the player pulling off a highly detailed, “finishing,” move that splatters blood all over your screen.

One thing that I must point out now before I continue; Age of Conan has one of the most ugly UIs I have ever used. Funcom set a high standard with the Age of Conan hype campaign that for the most part, the game itself keeps up with. Sadly, the home team is let down massively by the UI. Bloated, unfriendly and highly dysfunctional, I really don't know what the guys at Funcom were thinking when they implemented it. I'll give you an example. The Guild UI has to be the worst aspect of the entire UI. Firstly, you can't define your own ranks and you are restricted to selecting from a list of very limited predefined government types which give you access to a varying amount of ranks. You can't modify rank permissions or create your own ranks and this really does make you feel like Funcom is the Guild Master of your guild and you are just administrating the show in their absence. There is no stand alone roster. It's all combined into one horrific example of a social UI that lists your guild members and your friends in exactly the same list, differentiating them using color. It feels like someone has taken the initiative and tried to streamline the whole affair but failed miserably. They failed so badly in fact that the poor workmanship here stands out like a sore thumb. I'm told that a new UI is on its way and I sincerely hope this is the case as the current one just won't do at all.

Another let down is size. Age of Conan is small. When you compare it to games like Lord of the Rings Online, Worldof Warcraft, Eve and so on, you will probably be a little surprised at how small it actually is. On top of that, Funcom have decided to instance so much so that every 10 minutes, you will subjected to a loading screen. This wouldn't be a problem if loading times were fast but in a lot of cases, they aren't. You'll end up sitting there for minutes waiting for something as simple as an inn to load up. For an MMO with such a small offering in terms of landmass, you're left to wonder why so much is instanced. Perhaps that will change with time. You never know. Personally, I prefer an open landmass with limited instancing and I hope that Funcom explore this route in the future.

All in all, Age of Conan so far is a very good game. There are a few hiccups and a few problems here and there but on the grand scale of things, it is probably one of the smoothest on-launch experiences I have had with an MMO to date. To top that, it feels like a Conan game should feel. If Mr. Howard were alive now, I'm pretty sure he would be mightily impressed with what Funcom have done with his franchise. As a Conan fan myself, I am very impressed indeed. As for all the people out there saying that it isn't a World of Warcraft killer, you are right. I really don't think Age of Conan will lead to the demise of World of Warcraft at any point in the near or distant future. What I do think is that Funcom haven't designed a game geared towards this task. I don't think they ever intended Age of Conan to be a World of Warcraft killer.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a brilliant entry into the fantasy MMO world and is so far the best MMO I have played since vanilla World of Warcraft. Thumbs up to Funcom.

In recent years, MMO gaming has gone through a spout of growth on a massive level, not only in the world of nerds but right throughout popular culture. All around the world, people have latched on to the MMO phenomenon in various ways, shapes and form.

One such project is a web-series called, "The Guild." Produced, written and starring Felicia Day of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bring it on Again fame, The Guild really is one of those things you just can't miss.

The Guild follows the story of a group of players from a guild in an online game who take their relationship from the confines of the computer out into the open air, allowing all sorts of humorous encounters to occur. The characters are amazing; the stories humorous but what makes the guild so good is the simple fact that almost every MMO gamer out there can related to either one or many of the characters portrayed in the show.

The Guild is about to air it's final offering for the first season, taking it to its 10th show. With season 2 on the horizon and some of the guys running round doing live shows, things really are looking bright.

I decided to pester Felicia Day and Kim Evey -- star and producer respectfully -- to ask them what made and makes The Guild and what we are likely to see in the future, as well as getting their opinion on a few other things along the way.

The Daily Quest Interviews Felicia Day and Kim Evey -- The Guild!

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourselves?

TDQ: Seeing as The Guild is focused around an MMO Guild, have either of you played any MMOs before and if so, how addicted were you?

TDQ: So where did the idea for The Guild come from? How hard was it for you to take it from paper and actually get the actors, gear and money together to see it all to where it is now?

TDQ: I think a lot of people would be interested to know what the differences are between working on an independent web based series and a major TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

TDQ: The Guild is very tongue in cheek about the characters and the stereotypes it portrays and the way it deals with the issue of MMOGs but I'm interested to know what you actually think about MMOGs and their effect on society. Do you buy all of the reports that MMOGs promote violence and are bad for the community, promoting addiction for example, or do you think otherwise?

TDQ: The Guild is aimed at a potential audience in the 10s of millions due to the popularity of games like World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. Do you think these numbers show that there will be a place for shows like The Guild on main-stream television networks in the future or do you think that it will always be something for the niche?

TDQ: You are past your 9th episode and are moving on strongly. How has the reception been up till now? Has it all been good or have their been some pesky doom sayers who said it wouldn't work?

TDQ: What's it like standing behind the camera and producing The Guild? How much time do you have to invest in the process? Could you describe some of the stuff you do?

TDQ: Of course, every series has its gag real and The Guild is no different. What are your most memorable mistakes or pranks? Is there anything you look back at over the course of creating The Guild that makes you laugh?

TDQ: Are there any plans to bring The Guild to a format like straight-to-BluRay/DVD or newer formats such as downloadable media in the near future? Is it something fans can look forward to?

TDQ: What can we expect from The Guild over the coming episodes?

TDQ: Lastly, do you have room for a nerdy, long-haired, short, English blogger on your cast? Seriously. I've been told I do an excellent rendition of Star Wars…

At least I know I didn't lose my part because they didn't want me. They never said they didn't want me...

Thanks to Felicia and Kim from The Guild for the interview. Remember to keep an eye out on The Guild website for all the latest episodes and news from the guys!

Earlier this year, we interviewed Kevin Balentine – PR Manager at CME – about the upcoming MMO, Stargate Worlds. He told us a lot about the title, including bits about combat and crafting in the game and also shared with us some exclusive screen shots. What he didn't tell us is that behind the development team at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is a bustling community of people waiting and watch for Stargate Worlds to be released.

Not only is there a large crowd of people from all sorts of backgrounds contributing ideas and duking it out about the upcoming MMO, there is also a large group of guilds and clans – commands as they will be called in SGW – forming in preparation for the expected release of the MMO later this year.

One such group is the guys at the newly formed multi-gaming guild A'a Netjer. A'a Netjer is currently looking for people wanting to enter three upcoming MMOs – Age of Conan, Stargate Worlds and Earthrise – in order to form a multi-gaming family that has a wide spread over multiple titles. The leaders of A'a Netjer are veteran MMOers having played such titles as Star Wars Galaxies and they have decided to set up shop with this years generation of titles.

Currently, their largest section is their interests in Stargate Worlds and this is reflected by not only the posts on their own forums but also the amount of active members they have on the official SGW forums.

I decided to sit down with the leaders of A'a Netjer and ask them what they were expecting form the upcoming MMO as well as a little about themselves. After all, it's not often that the community get their pre-launch say.

The Daily Quest Interviews A'a Netjer

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourselves as individuals?

TDQ: When did the guild form? Where did its roots come from?

TDQ: Your aim is to be a multi-gaming guild, supporting upcoming MMORPGs. What made you decide to aim for several titles and not just an individual title?

TDQ: What made you chose Stargate Worlds as one of the titles you wanted in on?

TDQ: What are your aims, as a group of people, for SGW? Do you have a specific goal or are you playing it by ear until you get into the game?

TDQ: What elements of SGW are you most looking forward to? What specific elements that have been announced so far can't you wait to see?

TDQ: I personally am a little worried about how CME are going to handle personal time lines and maintain an expansive feel to the story as well as continuity. What elements are you dreading or, at least, a little worried about and why?

TDQ: What would you like to see added to the game before it hits release later this year?

TDQ: Lastly, if you could say one thing to CME right now, what would it be?

A'a Netjer look like they are resolved to see Stargate Worlds right through to release and beyond and hopefully, in a years time, we will see them going from strength to strength as one of the first guilds to enter the universe of Stargate Worlds.

You can visit A'a Netjer here where you can stake a look at the games they are entering as well as join up to their forums or to one of their sections.

Thanks A'a Netjer and hopefully you'll be back when SGW is out to tell us all what it is like!

Those of you who read TDQ often will know that we are on a never-ending mission to provide you with interviews from all aspects of the MMO world; from development teams to guilds and clans.

In our last interview, we spoke to the guys at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment about the upcoming MMORPG Stargate Worlds and they shared some interesting information into the workings of CME as well as what we can expect from the new MMO. Along with that, we got our hands on some really nice screenshots!

This time around, we decided to get in touch with one of the most popular World of Warcraft fan sites, World of Raids.

We spoke with the man behind the site, Teza, who’s been reporting World of Warcraft news on WoR as well as being at the forefront of raid content with the world famous raiding guild Meet Your Makers (formerly Curse). He kindly told us about the past and present along with what the future holds for World of Raids!

TDQ: Firstly, could you tell us a little about yourself?

TDQ: When did you decide to start World of Raids (WoR) and what made you want to do it?

TDQ: How hard was the initial development of the site? How long did it take you to get it live?

TDQ: Is it just you at WoR or do you have help to manage the site?

TDQ: Is the site easy to manage?

TDQ: How easy was it to expand the site? Where did you get your content ideas?

TDQ: When you started the site, did you expect it to be as much of a success as it has become?

TDQ: What's your most fond memory of your time with WoR? Is there anything that you look back at and laugh about?

TDQ: How does it feel to know that thousands of WoW players look to WoR for up-to-date information, community and other content rather than other sites?

TDQ: What can we expect for the future of WoR? Is the site going to stay the same or will there be new features coming in the future?

TDQ: Lastly, if you could give one piece of advice to someone setting up a fan site, what would it be?

I’d like to thank Teza on behalf of everyone at Curse.com for sharing his time with us to answer these questions!

Thank you Teza!

2008 promises to be a big year for the MMO space with Warhammer Online and Age of Conan storming the fantasy genre, but at the center of the science fiction arm of MMO gaming right now is a franchise that has sat with such science fiction classics as Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica.

In 2006, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment announced that they were working on an MMORPG to be based on the massively popular Stargate franchise. Stargate started many years ago with the original Stargate movie. This took Kurt Russel on an adventure to an alien planet where he decided that the best thing to do was escape. After this, a TV series was created and it promptly took the sci-fi world by storm. Stargate SG1 pitted humanity -- with its machine guns and green camo -- against the might of a highly sophisticated, laser wielding bunch of aliens who got their kicks from pretending to be Gods. SG1 ran for ten seasons, spawned an offshoot series called Stargate Atlantis -- now in its fourth season -- as well as two straight-to-DvD movies and 2008 will see the franchise enter into the MMO world with the aptly titled Stargate Worlds.

Stargate Worlds, which is being developed by industry new comers Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, will allow players to take control of a character in the Stargate universe. Players will be able to explore an ever-expanding galaxy of planets, spaceships and aliens all the while waging war as part of one of two player factions – the light side or the dark side.

We decided to go to Kevin Balentine -- PR Manager for Stargate Worlds -- with your questions, and he happily agreed to sit down and answer them. He also provided us with two exclusive screenshots for you to feast your eyes on!

Firstly, could you tell us a little basic information about Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment and how the project came about?

KB: The secret history of Stargate Worlds goes all the way back to 2002 when three game designers and fans of Stargate first approached MGM about creating an MMORPG based on the franchise. Three years later, the license was secured and Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment (CME) was formed.
Mesa, AZ businessman Gary Whiting jump started the company and began raising the capital necessary to get the company started and the game in development. Senior Vice President of Strategic Operations Joe Ybarra, a 25-year veteran of the video game industry, was the next member to join CME and he immediately set about building a world-class development team.

How much of the Big World suite of development tools have you employed in the process of designing Stargate Worlds?

KB: We’re using Big World as our back end and Unreal 3 as our front end. On the back end, we’re using the navigation path and the server monitoring tools from Big World, but none of their client side tools.

What kind of new possibilities does the Big World server infrastructure create for an MMO like Stargate Worlds?

KB: The main thing we get out of Big World, and Unreal 3, is time. By using established technology, we cut a lot of time off of the front end of game development that we can reinvest on the back end. The time we saved is being invested into tools for our content guys.
We’ve got a new tool that one guy jokingly calls the “Make Mission” button. Obviously it’s more complicated than that, but essentially it’s a tool that allows content to plug in mission elements. Tools like that allow writers to focus on the story and increase productivity. That’s just one of the ways that we are improving the way MMORPGs are built and reducing the time it takes to put the game on shelves.

Are you going to be releasing new content via periodic content patches that are free, such as new planets and environments?

KB: Absolutely. The Stargate franchise is so large and varied that we can keep building content for years and never reach the edge. We have an aggressive live team plan that will deliver regular updates including plenty of new content. Because of the way our game “map” is set up we can drop new content anywhere in the story.

How big will the Stargate universe be on release of Stargate Worlds? For example, will we be seeing hundreds of planets and environments or will the number of planets start smaller and be increased over time?</p>

KB: At launch, Stargate Worlds will have dozens of planets to visit with more added post-launch.

Stargate is based on the concept of exploration. That is, humanity exploring new planets and discovering new races. Will we see this kind of reactive content in Stargate Worlds? Will players directly affect the way the lore plays out or will it be more of a "follow the story" experience? For example, will player action be able to influence things like faction wars?

KB: Stargate Worlds is a story-based game. If you take a look at the 13-plus years of the two series, it’s been at its heart a search for technology that will save the Earth, or Atlantis, or wherever, from the threat of enslavement or destruction. That is the dynamic we want to capture through our storytelling.

There is currently a new Stargate TV series in production that will no doubt introduce new concepts and new races into the Stargate Universe. Can we expect to see any of the new ideas being introduced in the new series, in the game?

KB: Obviously this is something I can’t go into great detail about, but, we are in near constant communication with the guys at Bridge Studios and MGM about ways we can work together. We’ve had many discussions about items and events that appear on the show also appearing in game and vice versa. Robert Cooper, one of the show’s creators, has already pitched a movie to MGM that will feature an Op-Core character.

Will Stargate Worlds feature profession systems such as the ability to create weapons and armor for your character? If so, how will players attain high level items and gear from such a system?

KB: The details of the crafting system are in development even as I write this answer. I can tell you that our vision is for a system that’s easily accessible, effective and an integral part of the game’s economy.

Starships are another very big part of the Stargate series. Everything from the Replicator ships to Goa'uld motherships. Will players be able to travel around in ships and fly vehicles like Gliders or will travel be limited to the Stargate system?

KB: At launch, we are focusing on the core elements that give Stargate its unique Stargateyness. In our eyes, those elements are modern combat vs. science fiction weapons, exploring alien landscapes, encountering ancient cultures and saving the galaxy ... again! We’re not ruling out player-controlled vehicles for an expansion, but it won’t be part of the game at launch.

How is the Stargate Worlds team taking into account the failures and successes of previous Science Fiction MMO's? Are there any former or current titles you have looked at for inspiration?

KB: We all play video games at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment. Even our CEO Tim Jenson has a max-level character in World of Warcraft, so I think we’re well grounded in what’s been done in the genre before us. Obviously, we all see the success that Blizzard has achieved and we believe there are lessons to be learned there, but the lesson isn’t “make WoW with a Stargate skin.”
Now, when it comes specifically to science fiction MMOs, that’s a more interesting question. We’re following our competitors closely and frankly, we want them to succeed. It doesn’t do any good for the industry when high-profile titles fail to meet expectations. There have been too many games over the course of the last two years that have completely failed for us to ignore. We’ve got a group of smart, dedicated guys in our marketing department that analyze these launches in great detail to see what went right and what went wrong. We know what we have to do to succeed. We’re not depending on our license to carry our product. We are building a polished, fun game. We believe that’s the real key to success.

On release, what races will we be able to play as? Are there plans to make any other factions (i.e. Wraith, Ori, Replicator, etc.) available at release or via future patch content?

KB: Players will be able to choose from seven archetypes at launch: Archeologist, Scientist, Soldier, Commando, Jaffa, Asgard and Goa’uld. Five of the archetypes, Archeologist, Scientist, Soldier, Commando and Jaffa, are available on both the light side and the dark side. The Asgard are available on the light side and the Goa’uld on the dark side.
We will add other factions over time, some of them in content updates and some in expansions, but for now we’re focusing on our launch material.

In regard to the character classes, is there any possibility of the attainment of certain "prestige" or "hero" classes such as SGC General or Goa'uld System Lord proper?

KB: No. I see the archetypes we have in place as the hero classes.

With major franchise titles such as Star Trek Online and the speculation that Blizzard Entertainment may be working on a StarCraft MMO and BioWare may be working on a new Star Wars MMO, do you think that Stargate Worlds will be able to hold its own in the coming year? How will Stargate Worlds define itself from its main competitors?

KB: There’s one obvious answer that sets us apart from other genre games, and that’s the license. The fact is there aren’t many games, and no other MMOs that I’m aware of, that feature the same mix of modern combat vs. science fiction weapons and humor. If you’ve watched Stargate, you’ll recognize the elements that we have incorporated into the game and immediately feel like you’ve become the star of the show. If you haven’t watched Stargate, you’re going to experience an accessible MMORPG with a deep, tactical combat system and innovative non-combat game play featuring a variety of minigames and puzzles.

Will we be seeing a closed beta and if so, when can we expect to see it?

KB: Yes, we will have a closed beta, probably coming this summer followed by an open beta in the fall.</p>

Lastly, the question that is on everyone watching Stargate Worlds' mind is: Do you have a solid release date for Stargate Worlds?

KB: MMORPG development is a long series of deadlines and milestones that all have to be hit in order to hit your targets. The deadlines interact and intertwine with one another so extensively that missing one seemingly insignificant deadline can cause unforeseen problems far down the road. We believe we’re on track to hit a fourth quarter release this year. That’s what is on our calendar.
We don’t want to play the game of announcing a date, pushing it back with another date announcement and doing this over and over. When we feel that we have a solid date that won’t get pushed, we’ll announce it.

So as a guild, we've been cruising through BT and Hyjal. But this past week, we spent quite a bit of time at Reliquary of Souls (or as I like to think of it, Reliquary of Suck). For those of you not immediately familiar with this fight, allow me to briefly recap:

It's a 3 phase fight... in phase one, if you heal anyone who takes damage, the Reliquary is healed, ergo, avoid healing people. Not too bad since she/he/it doesn't hit that hard. In phase two, it's all about interrupt the Spirit Shock using a series of interruptions (rogue kicks ftw). And the third phase is just a speed burn since RoS does aoe dmg to the raid (shadow) that increases to the point each raid member is taking 3000-3500dmg per tick (in other words, beyond normal healing capabilities).

It's phase 3 that is giving us a run for our money. Our tanks are supremely geared for the first phase and the rogues have the interrupt rotation in pro-form, but the speed burn in phase 3 is just killing us. So here's how we're handling phase 3... one tank goes in, picks up aggro, the MT taunts (RoS target changes), Seethe is cast on the raid, Hunters execute their MD to the MT (we have 3 hunters), and then the raid opens full fire. In a perfect world, the taunt/MD portion takes under 10 secs. A few hiccups aside, we're getting the aggro onto the tank fast enough. But we're consistently wiping around 20%. We're holding off on cooldown burns until we're taking a bit more damage (b/c the more damage she/he/it does to us, the more we do to her, that's the effect of the shadow dmg aura).

Personally, I think we're just a tad undergeared. We have a few folks filing ranks that didn't farm SSC/TK. Shadow priests would be a huge help too. We were only using one and that is just not gonna cut it. So we're in a holding pattern right now... farm a few more Hearts of Darkness, build some more shadow gear, and keep pluggin' away.

So TDQ readers who have RoS on farm, share your thoughts! Any tips/tricks/ideas for helping get over the phase 3 bump?

And as a closing thought, our server is seeing many more guilds enter Hyjal/BT in recent weeks. I think it is great that more guilds and therefore more players are getting to experience this content. And some of these guilds have not spent much time in SSC/TK. Should be interesting to see how many are ready for the Sunwell patch.

Edit: Ok, so we cleared to RoS last night after the reset and took a shot at him. I'm beginning to think it's a healing issue. Specifically, Shadow Priests. The more damage they do, the more group healing that takes place. Combine that with the dmg buff that happens as phase 3 continues, that could really help keep us up. WTB 5 shadow priests for RoS...

Never in my three years of playing have I been into Theorcraft more than I am now. I guess it all started when I was playing the role of an MT in BWL. To a degree, a tank could get by (back then) by gathering the "warrior" gear and spamming a few buttons. Eventually, I visited TankSpot and started my education in "mitigation" vs "avoidance." For a while, I faithfully reshuffled my gear and focus into the "mitigation" camp. Whereas on my rogue, I didn't really pay much attention to theorycraft. Sure... I noticed he was suckin' on the DPS meter, but I kept stackin' Attack Power (ignoring hit and agility).

Now that my raiding warrior is on the shelf, I began to study my rogue under the Theorycraft Microscope. Before I go further, I must disclaim that Theorycraft is not for the "new" Azerothian Adventurer (at least, in my humble opinion). With Theorycraft, we're talking about squeezing the last bit of dps from your toon (i.e. 902dps to 904dps) and then having the awareness to notice if, in fact, the dps changes are being effective.

So tweak again and again I did with my trusty DPS Spreadsheets. And I was immediately pleased with the results. Tossed my hit rating into the low three hundreds and dropped my AP to 1800. Once again, I'm faithfully tearing it up on the DPS meter and feeling much better about my raid contribution.

On the progression front, we dropped Azalgor the other night. Melee is so gimped in that fight right now. We've gotta work out our system and spacing better so we can contribute for a longer portion of the fight. And our poor druid healers kept getting too close, grabbin' the reign of fire, and dieing. Oh well, it was a good Horde first for our server. We then rode to Archimonde. One of our fury warriors rode WAY too close to Archimonde, and everyone in the instance was instantly obliterated ("Hit for 942,211"! Not making that number up).

We also completed 3 of the 4 timed ZA events. Frankly, I think we would have gotten the 4th, but we had a problem with some folks who died on the way to the Dragonhawk boss. But wow, it's hard to get 3 and 4 done in 20+ minutes. Nevertheless, our 3 chest rewards were nice and were also another server first (Horde side that is).

BT is just being hampered by Shadow Resist gear at the moment. More Hearts of Darkness please. Which brings me to a question... why must we farm an instance to gather the mats we need for success in said instance? Oh well, too tired to rant about it today.

I was looking over the 2.4 Patch Notes. Some nice changes in store. I think the PvP honor changes are a definite bonus. No more waiting to spend points. And no more ranting about the fact my "estimated" honor was no where near my actual honor.

Since we're not done with BT, I'm lukewarm about Sunwell. I do enjoy content. But I want to finish the content in front of us first. There's some rumors running around my server that the attunements for Hyjal and BT will be waived once Sunwell pops. I guess Sunwell is supposed to be a major gear check and guilds will need Hyjal/BT gear to survive. This in turn means even our casual guilds need access to Tier 6.

What's Happening in WoW

We killed Kael on Sunday, yay! After the reset, we were able to kill him again which proves that we are now able to put Kael down on farm. After that, the special forces of Carnage decided to run into Mount Hyjal and help out Jaina. One wipe at around wave 7 before laying the smackdown on Rage Winterchill. Our healers had a tough time healing frostbolts and we're currently working on methods to counteract it.

For those that might be perplexed, Winterchill fires a frostbolt at a random player during the raid which impacts them ~4500+ damage and freezes them in place. Following that, there is a DoT applied to that player for 2500 per second.

Current solutions

Requirement of all players to obtain a PvP trinket by Tuesday

Here's some advice for players who employ DKP bidding in their loot distribution.

1. Bid high if you really want it
2. Do not bid in increments of 5

I found this lesson out the hard way the other night. I had the option to bid on a Verdant Sphere which gives you the option of picking an epic neckpiece of your choice. During round 1, I placed a bid for 35. It was revealed the highest was 45. During round 2, I placed a bid for 55 thinking that no one would go for it that high. Unfortunately, I lost the item to a Warlock who placed a bid for 56. I guess I'll need to do some more research and find me a neckpiece other then Lord Sanguinaar's Claim.

On the PvP front, my Shaman has acquired the Vengeful Gladiator's Mail Armor! That now brings me up to 2/5 S2 Resto and 3/5 Elemental. My goal is to become an Elemental Shaman in PvP. That seems to be what people want most these days. I've been thinking about what to socket them with. I'll most likely lean towards the Honor gems.

What's Happening with the Blog

I've decided to participate with a service called EntreCard. If you notice on the right side above my poll, there is a rectangular image. This service allows WoW bloggers to drop their business cards on to other blogs thereby getting traffic and raising awareness. As mentioned by TJ in her excellent summarization, the system is dominated by blogs that make money by telling other people how to make money blogging, there is no reason that it cannot be leveraged by the WoW blogging community. Why? Because you are able to approve or deny rights to blogs that wish to publicize on your blog. As such, I'm limiting blogs that show up under EntreCard to other WoW bloggers or gaming related blogs that have decided to use this service.

Latest Blog Posts

Here are the posts from this week:

• A Guest post from Trackhoof helped kick off the week. In it, he discusses the synergies between a Priest and a Hunter.
• Masato, a friend, helped create a Feral Druid gear guide for beginning bears that have just turned 70.
• For those interested in Blogging about WoW, I started off with a few posts on things to do to get started and things to know before you devote yourself to it.
• Are you having progression problems in your Guild? If you want a solution, take a look at my 3 Approaches to Guild Progression.
• Masturbate much? Here's 6 telltale signs that you're playing too much World of Warcraft.

20 Questions by Matticus

This week I had a chance to sit down with Kestrel of Kestrel's Aerie.

Past Hits

Past columns I have written that still hold true to this day.

• The 12 Hour Raid
• 5 Ways to Survive Alterac Valley
• Tanking and Healing Prince the Easy Way

Trends in the WoW Blogosphere

Patch Notes have been strategically leaked by various Blizzard reps. Here's a few community takes and responses to them.

Blog Spotlight

Banana Shoulders - Siha is a Guild Leader and a Holy Paladin. We've had a lot of conversations on the AIM Blogazeroth chatroom. She's also a mac enthusiast!

Matt likes: The Jewelcrafting Quick Reference Sheet. I even printed out a copy. Unfortunately, since I use a laser printer it's in black and white.

For those of you who care, I play on the European server, Bronzebeard. For those of you who were online last night, PvP probably wasn't the most fun thing as, for some of the night, there was no AV and then shortly after this, they took the rest of the battlegrounds down. That is when one of the best things since the release of The Burning Crusade happened to me.¦

Something must have bugged because everyone on Bronzebeard, both Alliance and Horde, who had queued for Arathi Basin when the cross-realm battlegrounds down, was shoved into the same AB together.

This won't mean much to many of you because, if you didn't play prior to the release of TBC, you won't have experienced old style PvP. Let me tell you about it.

Back before honour was introduced and cross-realm made battlegrounds readily available to the masses, PvP took time. A queue would last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. To give you an example, a typical AV used to last massive amounts of time. At one point, I logged on, joined AV and stayed in the AV for 13 hours. Things were so much more epic back then. The great thin was that you could really make a name for yourself based on how well you did. People on your server would begin to fear you.

Needless to say, cross-realm broke this feeling of epic-ness but it did bring obvious, easy-gear benefits.

So you get the idea. We were in AB - 15 Bronzebeard Horde Vs. 15 Bronzebeard Alliance. For the first time since the release of TBC, we would all get the chance to prove that our respective faction was the better of the two. This rare opportunity was not to be squandered.

Horde won. Like we always did back in the day. It was a comfortable win with little in the way of challenge. I say that like you aren't going to assume I'm bias towards my own faction.

I won't bore you with a rundown of the match but I shall quote Vortas, a rogue on my server, who sums up the game very well indeed.

The sad thing is that this one match reminded me of how much I do, indeed, miss vanilla WoW. Oh how I wish we could go back to the good old days where names mattered and battlegrounds felt like more than a grind… unless you were going for High Warlord but that would be another, far more gruesome story.

I wonder, what do you miss about vanilla WoW that TBC changed?

I've been playing WoW now for over 3 years and in that time I've experienced so much that the game now barely reprisents the game it was when Naxx, Eye of the Storm and Outland did not exist. In fact, the game is so different now that it feels like a sequel to what I remember more than a continuation of the same game.

I used to have lots of time to play the game. I worked 2 days a week in the local Somerfield and paid my way with the little money I got from that. I managed to keep myself going. I played WoW everyday of the week excluding the time I was in work and this went on for about a year and then I was thrust into reality quicker than I wanted to be.

With reality came responcibility. In many ways, this was a good thing and I've learned many lessons from this experience. I'm still learning and over the next 12 months, I'll be moving from a situation of low income + parents home to having an actual job and finding my way in life with my friends and family there to help me through it all. Sadly, its a moment we are all faced with at some point or another.

Due to this thrust into a world I had barely observed from the comfort of school, my spare time has become less and less. The things I used to enjoy doing sparingly have become activites that I must cram into the day before I sleep and World of Warcraft has finally got to that point. I'm at a level of play where by I no longer have the time to accomplish anything in the game.

Time = Gear and Gold

It's an observation that has been made time and time again. Time = Gear and Gold. In order to get to the high level of gear and in order to be able to afford things when you get there, you need time. I spoke to a few raiders on my server and they spend, on average, 4+ hours playing WoW a night. That's 20 hours in a working week. What is even more shocking was the amount of time they play at weekends - 7+ hours was the general responce. That's a whopping 34 hours on average a week!

Ok... ok... It isn't that shocking. I've been there, done that and got the t-shirt and I guess the stuff about not having enough time was untrue but what happens when you have experienced so much of everything that you feel like you don't have the time? This is a new one for me so help me out here...

I work from 9.00 - 5.00 on 5 days a week. I spend at least 20 hours a week with my friends. Add to that sleep and the other times it is not possible to play and I'm left with about 40 hours a week to cram in all of the other things I like to do here and there such as eating, reading, walking, watching films and movies, shopping, chatting and so on and so forth. Given that the people I spoke to about the game said they play for 34+ hours a week and I'm left with 40 after my general lifestyle is taken into account, discounting the things I do here and there, I'm left with a tiny 6 hours.

Even if I were willing to sacrifice my free time to mindlessly grind in World of Warcraft (which I am not) what would the state of my social life be?

I'd never really thought about it before but I can understand why people with long working hours and little time for anything else end up playing World of Warcraft and having no real life interaction with other people.

I'm left with one major problem however that I have no wish to address but I find myself having to do so...

To Play or Not To Play

We've verified that I require 34+ hours a week to get anywhere in the game and I've acknowledged that that commitment is not of interest to me. The one area of the game that interests me is PvP and PvP requires large amounts of time to progress in, I'm left with the above question. If I'm not going to progress at it and I'm not going to get anywhere because have neither the time nor the inclination to find the time, why bother to continue?

I could spend my time level other characters but why? There is no obvious benefit to doing so. I could turn to PvE but that arguably requires more time than PvP.

At the end of the day, this is a question I have to answer myself. There are obvious bonuses to playing World of Warcraft as I have met some very nice people through it. Sadly, you've had to put up with my presence on Curse.com because of the game :-P

I guess this begs the alternate question which isn't such an ultimatum:

What can you get up to? What in game stuff can you do if you have little time to play World of Warcraft?

So my Cursers - What can you do in World of Warcraft if you have little time?

What's Happening in WoW

I have a very ambitious goal in 2008. I want my Paladin to eventually become a force to be reckoned with. Last night, she's started taking the necessary steps to do it by going into Karazhan for the first time.

We're making progress! It's going slowly but surely. Carnage's finest got Kael down to 57%. On Sunday, nearly 6 hours will be allocated to him in the hopes we can finally polish him off. We'll see how that works out.

Oh and I killed Zul'Jin for the first time!

What's Happening with the Blog

If you're one of the few individuals who actually look at my Affiliates on the side, you'll notice I've partnered up with Jinx! They're a game clothing company. If you're interested in showing off your Geekiness, head over and check out their offerings.

My Blogroll has continued to plague me for quite some time. One of the measures I've taken is displaying a list of random blogs. You can find them on the side beneath the polls. I'm experimenting with the idea of having a "surprise" web link where it will take you to another blog on my list completely at random.

Latest Blog Posts

Here are the posts from this week:

• I've been having some issues in Arena. It's been mostly a Rogue/Mage/Priest problem.
• I took part in a PUG 25 main of SSC. Never again will that happen.
• The issue of a Discipline's Priest in end game is still an important question and here's what you said.
• If you have ever wondered what it's like healing in endgame, I offered a 20 second glimpse into a mind of a Priest with every action and every thought detailed and analyzed.
• Some of my readers have wondered how Protection Pallies can hit 18000+ health after buffs for Zul'Aman and I demonstrated how. I also showed a quick way to mentally calculate your own Stamina after raid buffs.
• Do you juggle your raid lineup? Are you doing it for the right reasons?
• Gold sellers are taking a different approach to advertising their services. They've started practicing commenting and trackbacking on blogs and here are my thoughts on the subject

20 Questions by Matticus

This week I had a chance to sit down with Phaelia of Resto4Life. While you're at it, if you're a resto druid check out her mammoth post on trinkets.

Past Hits

Past columns I have written that still hold true to this day.

• Preform Leaders Revealed: 6 Ways to Attract Players into your Organized BG Group
• Guest Post: Heroic Pugs are not Heroic
• WoW Struggles: Maintaining Reputation

Trends in the WoW Blogosphere

Blog Azeroth is a new community which virtually sprouted over night. It's an online forum where both veteran and new bloggers can go to share ideas and learn more from each other. If you're a blogger or if you've ever thought about blogging, Blog Azeroth is a great place to start interacting with some of your favourite bloggers (like me =D).

Blog Spotlight

4 Haelz - If I had a copper everytime I ran into a Druid blog, I would never have to worry about repairs again. She offers a fresh pair of eyes from the shape shifting professions although she is primarily a Resto Druid.

Matt likes: Encouraging Bad Habits with Good Healing

Three Druid Noob - Okay, this is the last Druid blog (this week anyway). He's an Australian blogger that has three (3) Druids with each one specced differently. He even has a few stories to share about his dualboxing (tri boxing now, I think). This begs the question of what's worse: Having 3 druids or having 3 healers?

Matt likes: Adventures in Dual Boxing

Critical QQ - This sharp, Troll Fire Mage certainly has a feisty approach to blogging. Euripedes has been on my reading list and blogroll for quite some time and I never show any mages any love.

Matt likes: Confessions of a Magi

So AV weekend has come and gone. It was a good weekend... despite the "boycott" that apparently has been taking place on the part of the Alliance. 35-minute queues, 20-minute game, 600 honor. And in between, I'm constantly getting rocked by premade EotS and AB teams. Racked up about 30k honor from my weekend of playing.

Those of you on Horde side, did you notice any of the following?

1) On Thursday/Friday, the whole Alliance team would zerg to the FW RH cap it, cap towers, and burn Drek. Since Horde doesn't usually play much D, this worked for a while. Horde spent most of their time name-calling and bitching instead of adjusting.

2) By Saturday morning the Horde are playing some D and the games slow down a bit. Some Alliance still try to zerg RH, but there aren't enough to make it a quick kill.

3) By Sunday evening, the initial Alliance O push is thwarted, the game collapses, and its almost like the old days with Alliance rolling backwards as Horde push right on into Drek.

So rack up the AV bonus honor I did. Unfortunately, my 3v3 was not so successful. We were up and down throughout the weekend. Almost 100 games played and only a 1568 rating. I'd say that's a fair indicator the team chemistry isn't there. Especially since we all sit above 300+ resilience. There's no doubt in my mind that some team combos just don't work. Not to mention the 400g I spent on respecs throughout the weekend to try and "spark" some competitive play. I think I'lll give the PMR setup a try. Rumor has it those teams are pretty successful. Now to find a good mage.

And the final item on today's rant, WoW and your significant other... hence the "Dr. Phil" tag in my subject line. My significant other is just not accepting of my WoW addiction. And let's face it, I don't do WoW in moderation. Those of us who raid know that *** never gets done on time... ever. In the past, I just chugged along and kept working with the team until the job was done. Nowadays, the GF is asking "when will you be done?" I say 30 minutes, some tard Warlock wipes us, and it's another hour gone by.

So my question to DQ readers... what types of arrangements do you have with your significant other when it comes to WoW? And no, she isn't going to play the game... ever.  :-(

Many years ago, Dynamix released Tribes. Tribes became one of the most recognised and critically praised FPS games in the world and spawned two sequels – Tribes 2 and Tribes: Vengeance. The former went down, yet again, as a breakthrough in the FPS genre. The latter got laughed off the Internet but that probably had something to do with Vivendi poison.

Recently, a team of developers who consist of many of the ex-Dynamix crew announced that they have been, are and will be working on a brand new Tri… erm… I mean FPS game that is, to the common onlooker, very much like Tribes. That game is Fallen Empire: Legions.

Now I personally have never played Tribes, Tribes 2 or that other game they did. I have it on good authority that Tribes and Tribes 2 are very good games (and we shall talk about how I have good authority later on). Needless to say, this is the only reason I am going to cover the development cycle of Legions.

That and the fact that it looks really, really good.

Why am I interested?

I’ve never really been a massive fan of FPS games. I did like Quake and I have played several UT titles but I’m not one for that sort of game-play. At least not on a level where I would keep a close eye on the genre. I’m more of an RPG man. Three years ago, I didn’t have regular Internet access so I was limited to games like Neverwinter Nights and this is where my RPG addiction came from. Now I play MMOGs, I have a more competitive opinion of things, preferring to kill real people than NPCs. My friends argued and argued with me and eventually convinced me that FPS games, like Tribes, are far, far better for this type of game-play than World of Warcraft, for example.

One of my friends played Tribes and Tribes 2 quite religiously. One of my other friends wrote quite a well-known mod for Tribes 2. The first friend went by the handle Shadowrage and the latter wrote Ninja Mod, which I am told was quite good. Some of you may recognise one of the two or both and when you have people of that capacity throwing propaganda in your face, your interest is going to peak. Of course, FE:L was announced and they instantly started up their War Machine against my love of MMOGs… again.

Now we have got the, “why is that guy on that site interested in that game,” part of things out of they way, its time to tell you a bit about the upcoming FPS.

GarageGames – Fallen Empire: Legions

Tribes 4: Le… I’ve really got to stop that. Let’s start again.

Fallen Empire: Legions is an Online-Only (aka AMMO (aka Almost MMO)) FPS being developed and distributed by GarageGames. It has been in the works for the last 2 years apparently and, in many respects, seems a lot like Tribes (again taken on good authority). It has some of the standard features of an FPS title and interestingly omits a lot of features in order to focus on better combat mechanics. The game will be distributed through GarageGames game portal – InstantAction. You won’t be able to buy a retail version from the shops or other sites and the game will not install to your hard disk. Instead, they are going RuneScape on your *** and it will all be played… through your web browser.

Firstly, GarageGames have specified that FE:L is not Tribes 4 or related to Tribes in any way, shape or form… just, “influenced, “ by it. Interestingly, they mention Tribes but no other FPS as an influence but claim there are others. I’m not linked with GarageGames so I’m going to use artistic rights here. What they mean is, “Fallen Empire: Legions is the spiritual successor to Tribes and Tribes 2 but not the filth they released for a third game. Sadly, we don’t own the Tribes license so we can’t call it Tribes 4 or whatever, so we had to come up with another title that had a word in it [Legions] that was similar to Tribes in its implication. We are also using an updated version of exactly the same engine we used on Tribes and most of us made Tribes and the original engine. It ISN’T Tribes 4.” That would have made much more sense. Anyhow, technicalities aside.

Legions is going to be a straight up FPS. I’m sure some of you will have seen the leaked test videos that have been flying around the Internet like Angry German Kid on Speed and these videos do feature a third person camera mode. Apparently, the game is being designed for a first person camera mode so no third person mode for you. There will be the usual array of weapons (but no word on whether there will be a disk-launcher). Sadly, there will be no vehicles or (it looks like) deployable stuff in the initial release with the team at GG claiming they want to get the core right before they add the diesel-powered tinsel. So effectively, the game will be limited… initially. Don’t be afraid however. If they have the technology behind the web-based game-play correct, there is massive potential for expansion. You could log off and an hour later, come back to find Optimus Prime riding round on a Shrike, spraying people in the face with hair spray – the possibilities are endless. What I mean by that weird yet beautiful analogy is that they could quit easily add vehicles to the game, as well as new maps, armour classes, weapons and a host of other interesting additions without the need for you to sit around for four or five hours waiting for a 6,000 GB patch to download and install itself.

Now, for those of you who are sitting around screaming at me to get to the only juicy bit I can think of – yes, there will be skiing. Not, however, as most of you who played Tribes, will remember it. Skiing in Tribes was a bug that never got fixed and in Tribes 2, it was simply left in with some minor alterations. Skiing in FE:L has been massively diversified. Firstly, it will be multi-directional; 6 different directions to be precise. Each direction will have a different speed. For example, you could go backwards and move far more slowly than you would forwards. Sadly, this is about all we know of skiing so far. There have been hints at fall damage as well. Also, momentum will decline if you don't have energy to keep nudging yourself forward. Water skiing is going to be there but it looks like if you go to slow, you'll go underwater. GG are keeping this card close to their chests at the moment.

Deployment

The game will not be released to the shops. There will be no CDs and there will be no installation time and patching time. Instead, GarageGames will be deploying the title through their online gaming portal - InstantAction.com. You will go to the site and buy the game but the game will never actually install itself on your PC. Instead, the game will be streamed to you through your web-browser. This has obvious advantages such as the ability to play it from any PC you can get access to InstantAction on (depending on the sys. reqs. of course).

This news is generating some concerns however. The most well known browser based game I can think of is Runescape and whilst it is stable, it isn't beautiful. GG claim that FE:L will be beautiful and will run perfectly on their streaming technology but I still have my doubts.

Time will tell.

So far, that's all there is to really talk about. It seems GarageGames have only revealed all of this due to the leak that occured from the stress tests and initial beta testing.

There is so much more I could discuss and I will but if I do it now, I’ll have nothing left to talk about on another day, so for now, I’m going to register for my beta access after reading this interview with GarageGames.

What's Happening in WoW

By the time this post goes out, I will have finished getting the necessary Sporregar rep to transmute Primal Earth to Water on my Paladin. No more spending gold to buy Primals to transmute Skyfire or Earthstorm diamonds!

Kael is still giving us a hard time. I've localized the problem down to the transition from Phase 3 to Phase 4 which has been the largest headache. All of us know our jobs and what to do. But there's a lot of stupid mistakes going around that by themselves are minor. When combined together though, the raid caves.

Thankfully, our GM has publicly called out some of these players to step up their game. Hopefully it will have a desired effect on Sunday.

What's Happening with the Blog

I'm still hard at work changing up my blogroll. I mentioned it before, but the blogroll will have it's own page. My intention is to set it in such a way where when it is loaded, there is a different blog spotlighted every time.

Technical problems, but nothing my gnomish engineers can't fix!

The hard part about blogging is finding interesting topics. It becomes much more difficult when the blogger intends to do a podcast. I am virtually committed to doing a podcast and I have some great ideas to explore. I might even go a step further and turn it into a video cast. We'll see. I've always had a passion for public speaking and giving presentations. I don't want to reveal too much for now. I don't like to make empty promises. It's a fairly monumental project in it's own right and I don't even have the technical knowhow on how to pull it off.

Haven't quite picked a name for it, so I'm going to tentatively refer to it as the Mattcast since saying World of Matticus Offical Podcast repeatedly would get old after a while.

Lots of learning and lots of reading to do in addition to my school work, that's for sure.

Latest Blog Posts

• Here are 4 Reasons Why I Rushed to 70. No doubt I'm a minority in this area.
• I wrote about Caster Weapon Swapper that helped Spellsurge users
• I had the opportunity to participate in the Chamber of Guilds discussion on Cliques
• After watching Guilds struggle through SSC and TK, I suggested an order for raid bosses to be tackled based on difficulty and convenience
• My class main polls have finished and Priests lead the way! Druids, it was truly a good game
• Then I ended the week with a look at 10 Personalities Every Guild Leader Need

Trends in the WoWosphere

There's been a large outcry over Blizzard's reversal in their stance of the ghost wolf pet (formerly a bug). Others don't see the big deal.

I don't have a hunter myself, so I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to lose the ability to tame it. Blizzard's decision ultimately cost them the subscription of a player-blogger.

Personally, I think it was a combination of things that made him quit.

Past Hits

Past articles that I've written that still hold true to this day.

• Calling the Wipe
• The Ill-Fated Group 2
• One Shotting Heroics: The Secret

Blog Spotlight

Light's Grace - It's a brand spankin' new WoW Blog! He's a Blood Elf Paladin (oh great, not another one). Kulrayk, the blogger, followed me on Twitter for some time and we've chatted for a little bit. Now he's decided to create his own blog! Go show him some support! It's tough to get a blog going from the start because you often question yourself and wonder if you have the motivation and dedication. All it takes is some readers.

With the weather being so crazy here in Nothern California, it's been tough to get my quality time with the WoW toons. My poor druid was tossin' back some brews in Ratchet's ye old watering hole for far too long. And my Shaman has no doubt slit her wrists watching absolutely nothing happen in Sun Rock. Poor toons... I need more hours in the day.

Speaking of obsession... two major ideas to report:

1) I am currently leveling 4 classes (Warlock, Shaman, Druid, Paladin). This will bring my collection of 70's to 9. I already have a Rogue, Mage, Hunter, Priest, and Warrior. Not to mention a NE Rogue at 64. Once I finish all the classes Horde side, I'll shift to the Alliance. With any luck, I'll have all the classes on both sides complete before the expansion.

So you're probably thinking, "Why?" I can only respond by saying that leveling all classes is now the only appealing part of this game to me. Running around at Max Level for the chance at marginal upgrades is boring to me. Ever since I quit raiding, I basically PvP on my Rogue for Season 3 gear and volunteer my Warrior for tanking duties with various guilds who need some 16k unbuffed loving.

I even made a guild just for my Army of Alts. It's so nice to have my own guild bank. It makes moving mats around almost too easy. However, Blizzard... damn you for making each guild tab in the bank so damn expensive.

As for the second idea, simply put... I want a Warcraft movie. A series of movies (a la LotR) that tells the story of Warcraft lore. I'm sure plans are out there somewhere. But it needs to be well done. I don't want a silly amount of CG or poor acting. Although not a huge fan of Hobbits, I really felt the LotR series was well made. The cinematography was fantastic, the music kicked ass, and the acting was really quite good. Yes, I will admit the 3-hour ending was a bit much and the Hobbit gay-porn romp was kinda funny.

I was struck with the idea as I tried to drift to sleep last night without having had a chance to log in. It just seems like a natural transition. And given the huge player base, I'm sure the movie would be a smash. Admittedly, most video-game base movies fail at life (Resident Evil, Doom *giggle*). But the lore of Warcraft is deep enough that you could make a real story without the typical "shoot'em up" plot usually found in these movies.

So TDQ readers, share your thoughts! Which do you enjoy more, leveling a toon or running around at max level? Warcraft movie. who's with me on this? I've got like $20 bucks I can contribute to the budget! Let's make it happen.

This has to be one of the most amusing stories that I've ever come across in my entire history of playing WoW. Doofy the Paladin was wrongfully ejected from his Heroic Shattered Halls run for no real reason just before Kargath.

In his words:

In protest over what just happened, I staged the first ever Shattered Halls Sit In. The priest and paladin then joined me in solidarity. I don’t know if they left on their own or were also removed by the rogue and huntard. Since bad stuff happens when you try to put a sixth person into a five man instance, I think it took them a bit to figure out what was going on. <p>Once they finally got a bit of a clue, the tells started: <p>“leave the instance” “get out” “u suck” “get the f*ck out of our instance” <p>The Sit In continued. I went afk for about 20 minutes and had dinner. While I was away, rogue stealthed back to the instance, aggroed the boss and then Vanished, killing me. <p>Here was their second fatal assumption, ladies and gentlemen. They thought that at some point, I would automatically release my spirit so they could zone in and steal the instance from me. While, yes, it’s true that you have six minutes to do so when you’re out in the world and you die, that is not the case in instances and has not been for some time.

But read the whole story from Doofy's perspective. I can not possibly hope to retell it in the way he did.

2007 is officially over and it is sad to see it go. We had some great times over the past 365 days with titles like Hellgate London and The Burning Crusade being released to the masses as well as some exciting announcement such as StarCraft 2 and the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games.

Sadly however, 2007 is gone and we are now challenged with 2008 which is promising to be one of the most fruitful years in gaming. There are so many things to look forward to and to hope for over the coming year.

StarCraft 2 Release

No release date has been confirmed at the moment but most believe that Blizzard will release their new RTS to the masses at some point in the next 365 days. We wait with baited breathe for the successor to (arguably) the single most successful RTS game ever to grace the world of gaming. The odd thing is that no one is expecting a flop. People have seen Blizzards logo and simply accepted that the game will be the best thing since sliced bread. Frankly, it's going to have to be. With StarCraft being a pro-sport in Korea, StarCraft 2 is going to have to live up to some major expectations if it is going to overshadow it's predecessor and that is not going to be an easy feat to pull off.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Again, Blizzard have not confirmed an official release date but many suspect that it will be a couple of months after patch 2.4 for the mammoth MMO goes live as Blizzard have not revealed any plans to patch under the 2.X line after that period. 2.4 is confirmed to bring the TBC story arc to an end and it is logical to assume that they next patch after that will begin the WotLK story arc in preparation for a Q2 launch. Wrath of the Lich King is promising more of the same as well as some interesting new additions such as Siege Warfare, non-optional PvP zones, new dances and haircuts and a new profession among other things, not to mention the addition of World of Warcrafts first Hero Class, the Death Knight. Wrath of the Lich King promises to be a content rich addition to the gaming world and what will be more interesting to see is how this expansion fairs in the way of record breaking sales. Can Blizzard smash Halo 3s newly set record or is the glint of WoW finally wearing thin?

The New Blizzard MMO Named?

One of the things on everyone's mind at the moment is the new Blizzard MMO. There are several things going through several parties minds. The first is whether the new MMO and Project Hydra are linked. Another is whether there will be a new single player (with limited multiplayer support) Diablo game. The last is what exactly this new MMO from Blizzard will be and how long the development process is going to last. We already know that the development is already quite far through just by observing the job postings on the Blizzard site. Will the title be Diablo based? An all out battle between the armies of Heaven and Hell is not a foreign concept as the end of D2: LoD left that open. StarCraft is another option for the game and with StarCraft 2 being released at some point in the next 12 months, Blizzard could be using the game to tidy up the single player lore so that it is more MMO friendly, much like they did with Warcraft 3. Then there is the new franchise speculation which, I personally don't see coming true. At least, not in the near future. No matter what it is, everyone is waiting on the edge of their seats to see what the developer of the Number 1 P2P MMO delivers next.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

There are some things that aren't Blizzard owned and this happens to be one of them. Next year will see an influx of big money franchises entering themselves in the MMO market in a way never before seen and Warhammer Online happens to be the first I'm going to talk about. Despite rumours and speculation as to the state of the game, WAR is certainly generating the most hype out of all none-Blizzard IPs in the MMO world at the moment. The first attempt to bring the Game Workshop table-top to the world of Internet gaming is set to be a glorious one and with over 500,000 beta sign ups at the moment, we can assume that lots of people are interested in the game. Sadly, Warhammer doesn't get clear sailing and still has one major battle to overcome before it will succeed - the battle against World of Warcraft. This isn't just going to be the same generic battle we've seen time and time again between new MMOs and the Blizzard machine. This promises to be a big one as Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft are very similar in their setting, context and lore. Blizzard admittedly borrowed heavily from Warhammer over the years so it will be interesting to see which of the two prevails. I know where my vote is. To spice things up a little, this will be the first time Activision Blizzard and EA will duke it out in the MMO market - things should get interesting.

Age of Conan

AoC is another title generating massive amounts of hype. With hands on previews popping up all over the place, it isn't hard to see why this game is looking like it could be a promising entry into the market. With an innovative single-player and MMO game engine and PvP being hailed all over the place, AoC should deliver some innovations along the way and whilst many are worried it will go in the direction of CoH/CoV, lots more are hoping it delivers something new instead of something reproduced. I'm personally looking forward to this title more than WAR or even WotLK and I sincerely hope that FunCom can pull it off.

Star Trek Online

The future of Perpetual and more importantly, Star Trek Online is a shaky subject at the moment with fans and observers worried that the début of the Star Trek franchise in the MMO market could be shelved or halted for a lengthy period of time. With a suspected release date around Christmas 2008 which runs neatly in line with the release date of the 11th Star Trek movie, people are worried this one will just keep getting pushed back. One in game screen shot has been released so far and Perpetual have kept very quiet about the development process and progress but they did release the screen shot to let everyone know that the game is well into development and is nearing beta stage. The Star Trek franchise has had a bit of a rough time over the past few years. Enterprise, the 5th series in the franchise, was cancelled due to poor viewing figures, making it the first series since TOS to be cancelled prematurely. The last three movies were slandered by critics who said that they were good Sci-Fi movies but not good Star Trek movies. A lot rides on Star Trek Online and Star Trek 11 as if they fail, we may see the silence of Star Trek for many, many years. Even if you aren't a fan, you will admit that is a bad thing.

Stargate Worlds

Ah now this is a funny one. Stargate is arguably the youngest sci-fi franchise out of the top 5 an dis competing with established titles such as Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica and still managing to hold its own. With the BigWorlds engine being used to bring the universe of Stargate to life and development nearing the beta phase, we should see the title at some point in the next 12 months, even if it is only open beta. There's not really much you can say about the game that hasn't already been said by someone, somewhere and all I want to know is if I can have my own mother ship.

All in all, there are some great games to look out for over the next 365 days. 2008 looks set to be a really hot year for MMO gaming and also looks set to see some

Role on 2008!