Kill Ten Rats

One of the pleasant suprises that came in my Collector’s Edition copy of World of Warcraft was the soundtrack CD. The music is so good that I have been listening to it in my car since the day I got it.

I finally tracked down the Lead Composer of the music (Jason Hayes), and it turns out he has been doing music for Blizzard for something like 7 years. He has gone out on his own now and started his own business. I wish him well. He has announced that he’ll be releasing a CD with all new original music, so I will be watching his site for the announcement. Until then, I’ll leave you with the lyrics of “A Call To Arms”.

Gloria
Honorifice
Pralium Facio
Animus
Gradior Quo
Prodo,

In Excelsis
Precedo
Bellator
Decerte
Adversa
Incurro
Invadoria

Desideratus Fatum!
Desideratus Bellum!

I’m really enjoying my two characters in World of Warcraft. I have a Rogue and a Shaman. They are both very fun for me. The last time I had this much fun with a character was the original Feral Intendant in Asheron’s Call 2. Turbine screwed them up. I really hope that Blizzard leaves my two favorites alone. Sure I can see some small changes, but if they redesign the way the class works like Turbine did to the FI, I’ll puke.

The level cap in World of Warcraft is currently set at 60. I have no idea if they intend to raise it any more, but they did raise it several times during beta if that is any indication.

Anyway, a few people have reached level 60 now. What is that, 2 or 3 weeks? It remains to be seen if that is good or bad for the game as far as retention goes.

For me, it is good as I know I will be able to progress in the game at my own slow pace. But I have to wonder if the “end game” is fun enough to keep people around. Talking to the people I know that have been at 60 during beta all say that it is more than fun enough.

Blizzard has been beating around the bush about something called Hero Levels. I assume that will start at 60 and may provide some alternate advancement. Memories of AC2 burn into my brain. We’ll see.

Blizzard does good:

We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked.

Here are a few tips for World of Warcraft that I have found to be helpful and yet not so obvious:

1. “Num Lock” triggers autorun.
2. Quick looting: shift-right click to autoloot everything from a corpse.
3. Quick mining/harvesting: shift-right click to mine/harvest a node AND auto-loot it.
4. More info: hitting the “V” key will bring up names and health bars above all NPCs and mobs.
5. Bag management: shift-B opens up all bags for easy access.
6. Taking screenshots: alt-Z switches off the UI to make them look nice.
7. Managing stacks: shift-left click on a stack, enter the number, click on an open spot in your bag.
8. Check out the alternative interfaces available such as Cosmos and CTMod.

Oh, and let these take your breath away for a small moment in time.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, players continued to buy World of Warcraft in record numbers, with a total of over 350,000 copies of the game selling through. Blizzard Entertainment and its retail partners expect the remaining supplies of World of Warcraft to sell out soon. Blizzard is currently evaluating its ability to ship additional games to retailers, given the unexpectedly high demand on the servers. The company continues to increase server capacity to accommodate the growing number of players connecting to the game. As the additional servers are brought online and proven stable, additional copies of World of Warcraft will be made available at retail. Blizzard will announce the availability of those additional games as soon as they are on shelves.