Shiny Cinema

I still enjoy loading up World of Warcraft, turning up the volume on my speakers, and clicking on the cinematic button. I reckon the opening cinematic is one of the best that I’ve seen. Really gets my green skin all a-quiver. Blizzard have a history of fine cinematics in their games, both Diablo 2 and Starcraft had great opening movies.

(I also have to include the Total Annihilation opening cinematic as one of my favorites, even if it wasn’t done by Blizz.)

So, it’s good to see that Blizzard will be continuing their fine tradition of cinematic masterpieces in the Burning Crusade expansion.

In the words of Drysc, It’s Shiny.

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Clarifying Patch Confusion

There is some more info on the forums regarding the pre-expansion patch. Obviously the previous comments about the patch had been confusing some people, so Eyonix has posted to try and clear things up once and for all.

We plan to release a content patch before the end of the year.

This patch will include the new Honor system and talents, among other things (additional details to come).

This patch will likely not be tagged as 1.13, however, we’ve not yet revealed a version # or patch name. Please be patient, as these details will also be available soon.

This patch was originally slated to release just before the game launched, however, due to the delay a larger gap exists between the two.

We are not Game Masters.

Those who wish to will always find fault with our messaging, despite the message itself. That is why some, rather than the no one you proclaim will often dismiss our credibility. Most players aren’t out to get us, or anyone else. At least that’s what I hang on to everyday…

We do not provide release dates for patch content, as it’s disappointing to many when unforeseen problems prevent us from delivering. Again, we do plan to release sometime before the year ends.

Pretty much what has previously been said, with the exception of stating that the patch should be released this year. I still reckon it will be before Christmas.

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WoW Pre-Expansion Patch on the way

I was just looking through the WoW forums and noticed this post by Drysc.

It was discussed in limited amounts last week, and has at least been hinted at here and there. We will be releasing a content patch before the release of the expansion which will include many of the ‘game-wide’ features that are not specific to Outland, the new dungeons or zones, or level 70 restricted content (aka the stuff everyone is getting anyway). An exact list has yet to be revealed as we’re still working to see what exactly can be included, but all of the class/talent changes are confirmed, as well as the new honor system.

So it looks like there is going to be a patch release prior to The Burning Crusade expansion after all. From what I’d been reading, it was a sort of ‘on again, off again’ sort of thing. But at least here we have confirmation that there is going to be a patch, and some idea of what that patch will contain.

Obviously the dungeons, Outland, and probably the starting areas won’t be accessible prior to the patch. What is going to be in is this patch is the class and talent changes, and importantly, the new honor system. I haven’t really looked into the new honor system yet, but from what I understand the old concept of dishonorable kills will be removed.

Absolutely wonderful. If I had a dollar for every time that I’ve heard guildies ask if anyone was interested in raiding an Alliance town, I’d have enough for at least a months subscription. When I hear this question, it’s usually met by silence, or by the response that the responder would raid but doesn’t want to screw up their pvp rank.

If these honor changes fix that problem, we might find ourselves able to engage in raids on enemy territory without worrying about someone killing a civilian and messing up those hours of pvp honor grinding. Even better getting it sooner, rather than waiting another two months for the expansion.

There is currently no release date for this patch, Drysc did state in the same post that Blizzards policy is not to provide schedules or release dates for patches, but that is it safe to say it will be before the expansion is released. My bet is that it’s likely just before Christmas to give players something to play with over the holidays.

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You know you are playing too much World of Warcraft when - part 3

1. You wonder if road rage will help you beat the traffic lights.

2. You visit the zoo and think that the polar bear would make a good tanking pet.

3. You try and set your PvP flag when you see a garden gnome.

4. You wind down the window and yell “For the Horde!” when passing a field of cattle.

5. You wonder how fast that can of soda will restore your mana.

6. You say grats when the microwave finishes cooking the meal.

7. You keep an eye out for Murlocs when walking along the beach with your date.

8. You tell your friend that you will pst them with a slash invite for the party.

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The Short Straw

At the beginning of the year I was playing World of Warcraft on the Windrunner server in an Alliance guild. I was having a lot of fun, the guildies were great people, and the guild was a decent friendly environment. There were a few other Aussies in the guild, but unfortunately not that many. So consequently, it was really hard to get a guild group together in the evenings, an evening raid was nigh on impossible, as was any chance of doing a BG.

Then at the beginning of the year a difficult decision was made by a few of the Aussies to come across to an Oceanic server in order to be able to do some of the things that we were unable to do on the American server. For something different, we decided to swap sides and play Horde, thus my friends Leper and Solese, and I started our characters on Khaz’goroth. We also decided to form a small guild and got the requisite number of sign ups, and The Ministry of Offence was born. Since I registered the guild, I became the Warlord (Guild Master.)

A couple of months later work, and some personal projects were taking a lot of my time, and I handed over the leadership to Leper. Leper and Solese did a marvelous job with the guild, recruiting good people, and eventually getting our membership to just over 200 accounts. (Since then the number had dropped a little, with people leaving for other guilds, and with a bunch of members departing to form their own guild.) They got us into the end game raids with alliances with other guilds, and made sure it all ran as smoothly as possible.

The other day though tragedy struck with a death in the family, and my friends made a decision to reevaluate some of their priorities and take a six month break from World of Warcraft. I sincerly wish them well in their decision and hope that whatever path they go down works out for them. They have the support of all the officers and members of the Ministry on this, and know that they can pop in on the forums (or in game) at anytime and they will be welcome.

In the meantime it was decided by the officers that we should have a new Warlord. Maybe I should have insisted on a /roll instead of a vote, but by the time the meeting was over I was the new guild master. So here I am holding the short straw. I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed by this turn of events. It did happen pretty quickly. Just like life I guess. It can sneak up on you and whack you over the noggin by a two by four. Since the event though I feel good about this. I’ve got a lot to learn, and a new challenge. This should be fun.

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Burning Crusade is more Knowledgable

Blizzard has announced that The Burning Crusade expansion is going to provide an in-game knowledge base. This is being touted as an easy to use information resource will contain extensive details pertaining to all areas of World of Warcraft. It appears to have been recently released in the beta, and is accessible by clicking the red question mark icon at the bottom of the screen.

I wonder how this will affect sites like Thottbot and Allakhazam that provide this service already?

Somehow, unless they are going to give quest help and provide the level of service that these sites already provide, I don’t think there will be too much of an effect there. But it does seem a little odd that Blizzard is looking at providing the sort of service traditionally provided by community web sites. Is this the beginnings of an move to cut the little guys out of the game information service?

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Beefed Up Blood Elves

According to a post on the official World of Warcraft forums, and some pictures from The Burning Crusade expansion here, Blizzard have made a few changes to the male Blood Elf models. These changes have altered the appearance to beef them up to make them look stronger and more menacing as befits a Horde character.

To be honest, even beefed up, the Blood Elves don’t look at all menacing and Hordish.

One of the reasons that I chose a Horde character, and why I really like the Orcs, is that they aren’t pretty. They’re tough, they’ve been used by evil and have redeemed themselves. They’re fighters, survivors, they have scars, and really big teeth.

Aside from the Dwarves, all of the Horde races have a huge amount more character than the Alliance races. Humans are pretty bland, the Night Elves staid and boring, and the less said about the Gnomes, the better.

Horde society seems to be more oriented towards honor, except for the Forsaken who seem to be more focussed on revenge.

The Blood Elves on the other hand, are pretty. Granted, they’ve had a troubled history, but no more than any other race on Azeroth. It will be interesting to see how their story fits in with the Hordes story, but honestly, I would have preferred the Blood Elves to be Alliance. It just seems to fit better, and in some ways would have given Alliance some character.

Ogres fit so much better with the Horde Warcraft universe. The RTS games allow the use of Ogres as units, revealing the alliance between the Horde and Ogre-kind. They’re big and ugly, some are dumb, and they have so much more character. I’d have loved to be able to create a two-headed Ogre mage. That would be exceptionally cool. Here’s hoping for Ogres in a future expansion.

But we have Blood Elves. I think Blizzard have seen the light a little by beefing up the Belfs. Let’s not stop there. Make them more menacing, beefier. Make them darker, less shiny, more character. Considering how they’re supposed to be ‘bad’ let’s make them look bad. And don’t stop at the males, bad up the females too.

The Horde don’t need a bland pretty race running around.

Related Posts

Uglify the Blood Elves, Blizzard

I’m too Ugly for this Blood Elf

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A few tweaks

You might notice a few little extras on the site.

I’ve been doing some research into Wordpress add-ons, Wordpress is the blogging software I use, and have selected some to help me enhance the site.

The most obvious is the big ugly yellow button at the beginning of each post. This button invites you to Digg my post, which submits the article to Digg which is a social networking site. This puts my post up in front of the Digg community, and lets them vote on its value. I’d appreciate a Digg if you like the article.

Another feature that I have added is a Contact page. This will allow you to send an email to me. No spam please. I honestly don’t know why spammers bother, it all gets deleted. But I am happy to have a conversation, or to listen to any of your ideas.

The last feature that I added is a post rating add-in. If you look at the end of this post, you should see five little stars. Move the mouse over the stars to the star you think the post is worth, should always be the fifth star btw (j/k), and click on it. That will set the value to between 1 and 5 stars.

There are a few other add-ins that I am looking for, and I’ll install them when I get a bit more info. In the meantime, if you have any ideas for my site, leave a comment, or use the contact form. Cheers.

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Sci-Fi Channel in Australia

Not exactly World of Warcraft related, but exciting nonetheless.

I was just flicking through Foxtel (Australia’s major cable TV provider) and came across a promo for the Sci-Fi channel which goes live on the 1st of December, 2006. I’m stoked!

Unfortunately, Australian free to air TV providers have royally screwed science fiction fans for years. Showing one or two episodes and then three weeks of repeats. Or worse, taking a show of the air for two weeks of over 90’s Lithuanian figure skating, and then forgetting to put the show back on TV. The best sci-fi of course is shown late at night, usually 11:00pm or later.

A few years ago I went to live in the US for work. The company I worked for had a deal with a big US company and I got the chance to live in the US for two and a half years. When I came home, one of the things that I sure missed was the ease of getting my sci-fi on the tube. I was a regular view of Sci-Fi Friday with all the SG1/Atlantis series, and Battlestar Galactica, as well as channels like G4/Tech-TV and the like. Foxtel shows some sci-fi, mostly various versions of Star Trek, and the odd movie, but not enough to keep me happy. At least they don’t screw with the programming.

It’s yet to be seen if we’ll get all the shows they get in the US, since there may be some programming deals out there to be satisfied, but here’s hoping.

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Burning Crusade Delayed

It’s official. In an earlier post I wrote that I didn’t believe the rumors that The Burning Crusade expansion will be delayed. Perhaps I should have because Blizzard have just announced that the expansion will be delayed until January 2007.

I’m a little disappointed because I was hoping to spend a bit of time exploring the Outlands over the Christmas break, but I would prefer a more stable and bug free experience. Over the last few days, since I wrote the first post, I’ve seen a number of reports of broken or buggy quests, amongst other things. Hopefully when the expansion is finally released, there will be a nice shiny experience waiting for us all.

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