Category: World of Warcraft

What’s in the water down in Irvine? We have ignored the signs for so long. It all began with that (presumably) Dwarf stuck in the outhouse in Searing Gorge. A predicament, but one easily solved by some mass murdering in the area. Proximity to poo: close.

Then Burning Crusade regaled us with the wonderful quest experience of having to dig through twenty bundles of gazelle crap in Nagrand to look for digested cherry seeds. Yum, amirite? Proximity to poo: touch. Unless you RP’d using a stick to sift through the things, which many a roleplayer has done, as I understand it.

Now come Northrend, I’ve taken part in two of these high-class adventuring quests. One in Borean Tundra where you not only have to administer (by way of tossing) a powerful laxative to some wolves so they can evacuate important microfilm fragments, which of course you have to sift through. Proximity to poo: touch. Again. Then in Grizzly Hills not only you eat a bunch of seeds, maliciously tempted by a yellow exclamation sign, but you then have to remove those seeds from the digestion equation by means of yet another laxative. This time one you must prepare and ingest yourself. Then you go to an outhouse, and in between aoe’s of mist and mini-earthquakes (I kid not) you emerge triumphant holding what laid hidden in your detritus: partially digested seed. Proximity to poo: touching. Touching your own poo, man. Far out.

Of course the seeds go back in the bucket for the next trusting soul to pick. It’s the cycle of life. And this is only at level 74 or so. What lies next? Is Kel’Thuzad, well, ‘blocked’? Gotta do something about that too? Do we find out about the Lich King’s irregularity? Is this what the plague was really all about?

One thing’s for sure, Blizzard sure loves shitty quests.

IRVINE, Calif. – November 4, 2004 – Blizzard Entertainment today announced that its eagerly awaited massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft will be in stores in North America on November 23, 2004. World of Warcraft will launch simultaneously in Australia and New Zealand, and is planned for release in Korea, Europe, and other countries throughout Asia shortly following. With a monthly subscription, players in these regions will soon be able to experience the epic adventure of the Warcraft series in an immersive and continually evolving online environment.

Make sure you log in today, there are birthday gifts!

– Ethic

I expected to hear more about Wrath of the Lich King. Maybe I am reading an odd assortment of blogs lately, but it seemed like a huge weekend of “First level 80s! Congrats! Losers! Meta-whining! Northrend and Death Knight first impressions,” followed by very light WoW blogging. Hypotheses:

• I am reading an odd assortment of blogs lately.
• CoW is still going strong, so I am hearing mostly Heavy Metal stuff. Alternately, some CoW bloggers are ending after the first paid month, so I am seeing that instead.
• Everyone posted everything during beta. Nothing left to say during live (also why the last raid was done in less than 3 days).
• Everyone is really enjoying it and playing.
• Everyone is killing boars in the Outlands, and so bored with nothing new to say.
• Everyone is already finished with the grind/bored and not playing.
• There are bears. Bears ate people.

: Zubon

Yes I know: many people, many explanations, not “everyone.” Assume the qualifiers.

A friend has been encouraging me to try WoW. I think he just wants a zebra. I was considering it until I realized what a ghost town the lower levels would be with the expansion pack coming out. Packing invitations for friends in the expansion box seemed silly even before this stuff.

Maybe in a few months, after the initial burst of leveling and raiding, but I see WoW catering to returning accounts from now through Boxing Day. There is not a place for new players. Well, there is, but it is a vast, lonely field at the end of a long queue.

: Zubon

Still digesting it all, slowly, but I can offer some quickies. Longer lasting impressions might follow at some point.

– Yes, Death Knights are cool.
– Some folks are complaining about itemization. This ain’t like Burning Crusade, where the greens you got in Hellfire were better than your epics from Naxx. From what I gather, 71-75 items are only slightly better, and in the vast majority of cases only sidegrades, assuming your character did a minimum of Karazhan, Magister’s Terrace or Outland instances. Blizzard smoothed out at least the first half of your Northrend journey in terms of gear. This has heavy raiders from BC slightly miffed, and it’s naturally bad news for them. However, it’s great news for…
– People who didn’t get to raid at all in BC, or… wait for it… wait for it…. people who rolled Death Knights, headed to Outland straight away and blazed to 68 riding on quest reward gear only (which is perfectly doable). By the time those lvl68 Death Knights set foot in Northrend, everyone else’s ‘sidegrades’ are actually huge upgrades for them. Blizzard can be shrewd like that sometimes.
– The Nexus is hands down one of the best-looking instances I’ve seen in years, and Utgarde Keep holds its own as well. It seems they really raised the bar for this one, visually at least.
– Just to be fair and balanced, I glanced at my wife playing in Azjol Nerub for all of 20 seconds and didn’t find it very aesthetically appealing at all. But I cannot judge from a 20 second glance. We’ll see. I have high hopes for Uldum, personally.
– If you’re about to head into Northrend, you really, really, really wanna take your time and take the boat from Menethil instead of the one from Stormwind. The one from Stormwind leaves you in Borean Tundra. The one from Menethil, in the Howling Fjord. Why? How do I wanna put it…

Borean Tundra: Pasta.
Howling Fjord: Pasta with a freshly made tomato, basil and mushroom soft sauce, topped with freshly-grated parmesan cheese. Served just at the right temperature, by a 10th generation family chef from Tuscany, who made the whole dish right before your eyes while you sipped the season’s red wine, in a delightful summer sunset, on the terrace at his private villa. Then his daughter appears, and she’s none other than Isabella Rossellini. She sits next to you, takes a sip of wine from your glass and smiles at you, saying how much she loves men who play MMOs, and how virile they seem.

It’s about that level of difference in the experience, give or take the beautiful female. It’s like they dropped the Northrend map and it hit the floor on the Borean Tundra side when it was young.

– All quest gear, depending on class and gear type, apparently shares the same bland models (well detailed bland models, though), and you’ll come across a lot of recolors. Bad mojo. I don’t know if this is intentional and the good looking gear is only found in instances or later on, or if there’s an upcoming patch to introduce some variety. Dunno. But it is a serious turn off.

More to follow at some point. Overall verdict so far (very early on): Thumbs up, with some reservations.

I installed WotLK for my wife and then watched the queue for her. 1600 people and 45 minutes later, I was staring at the character screen. What the heck, I thought I’d whip up a Death Knight to see what they put together before she came back downstairs.

Fun. Damn you Blizzard you know how to make this fun. I had a total and complete blast and finally logged out after a level and a half of pure joy. Even the quest to kill 100 guards was fun. And what is this fantastic new technology that you use to change the state of the landscape with the blink of an eye? I was dumbstruck. I just don’t know what to say other than way to go Blizzard! You really surprised me.

I had no intention of ever playing World of Warcraft again. Thanks a lot.

– Ethic