Power Word: Boost: Should We be Able to Buy 90s?

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know by now that in Warlords of Draenor we are going to get a free boost to level 90 for one character. You also might have heard that Blizzard is possibly going to sell level 90 characters. You can find the details about this here in the post "Scouting Report". Before I touch on the main topic there, I think that Blizzard giving us the free boost as soon as WoD is pre-purchased is a really good idea. It will give people time to have a play around with the new character, get professions leveled up, earn some achievements and just generally have some time to get used to whatever class they boost.

So, on to the elephant in the room. Blizzard is thinking of (and will be testing) offering players the option to boost a character to level 90 for a charge, essentially giving us a legal way to purchase characters. As with anything involving players buying items, this has sparked a lot of debate and controversy over what people are seeing as Blizzard selling power. I have to admit, I am definitely on the side of those who want to be able to buy 90s, however I can understand why people don't like it.

From what I can tell the major arguments against buying 90's are as follows:

1. Blizzard is just doing it to make more money.
2. I had to level all of my characters, so new people should too.
3. The new characters will flood LFR/PVP and it will be every ragers worst nightmare.
4. All of the old content will be ignored and those who want to level new characters will struggle to find dungeon groups.

Of all of those, there is one that I find to be a reasonable argument, and that's number 4. Yes it will make traditional leveling harder, as finding dungeon groups could take a longer time. However with our new connected realms and the fact that a boost costs money, hopefully this won't affect traditional leveling too much. This is the argument that almost made me agree that we shouldn't buy these characters.

The first argument is the standard response whenever Blizzard adds something for real money to sell. My standard response to that is, of course they are trying to make more money. That is the point of a business. If you don't want to purchase something, you are not forced to. The second argument is equally as asinine. If you honestly think that just because you had to level all of your characters to level 90, everyone else should have to as well, you are selfish. Not everyone has the time to level a second or third character. The third argument does make sense to me in a small way, but my response is that people who are going to learn to play their class will do so and those who aren't, won't. I will usually take the time to learn a good rotation for the class I am playing, ask questions about the fight and try to learn what I need to be doing. Does every single new player do that? Obviously not (or there wouldn't be the rage out there about it). But these people will be max level soon anyway, so it does nothing but delay it. And in my opinion most people do actually want to learn the fights, they just don't want to be grilled by some asshole for not knowing what to do if they ask.

So why do I think boosts are a good idea? There are a few reasons, but the main one involves the new player experience. In my experience, most people trying out WoW for the first time now are doing so because a friend convinced them to do so. I tried out WoW because I had watched some videos of people soloing old raid content, and thought that looked like fun. When I started I knew one person who played and he introduced me to another person who played. Despite this I leveled mostly on my own. I hit Outland and almost stopped playing because of the grind in quests there. Now this didn't stop me, and obviously I am still playing the game. However, about 2 months ago however I got a friend of mine to try out WoW.

I actually made my Shaman to level with him as he wanted to play Alliance side. We played together until around level 40, at which point he started to play a lot without me and out leveled me. He hit Outlands on his own, and basically stopped playing. His level 65 character has not moved since then. Now I'm not saying that he would definitely still be playing if he had the boost to 90, but I honestly believe that there would be a bigger chance.

WoW is mostly all about the endgame. I had heard the saying, "WoW doesn't start until max level" before I even started playing. In a game that is so geared toward endgame content, having to slog through 90 levels to get there is really hard. Now imagine that you invite a friend, he gets his boost to 90 and is immediately at the endgame with you, or when WoD drops only has 10 levels of the most current, interesting and best content to do. That is going to help with new player retention and help friends play together faster.

The other reason is that for those people who have already leveled a few characters, the content has been played out. It is a matter of rote that they do it, just another step to get to what they actually want to do. Some of the content is fantastic and zones such as Felwood, Nagrand and Tanaris will always be fond memories for me. But the vast majority of it is just a means to an end, and that end is getting to max level to actually start playing the game.

Hopefully, Blizzard do end up implementing the boosts to 90 in such a way that you do end up having to play a death knight style starting zone where you get taught a little about your class and a rough idea of how to play it in PVE situations. I feel this will benefit those people who will get dropped into WoD with no prior experience of WoW, or those who have only played a couple of classes like myself to get a grip on the game and the class they boost.

With all that said however, it's time for me to get back to gearing up. As always folks,

GAME ON!

Trigger a Frost Trap and Chill Out: Why are People So Angry?

So I was listening to the latest episode of the The Instance podcast (Episode #354 - find it here at theinstance.net), and right at the very start of the show a short sound clip was played of a call they had received from a very angry person. Seriously, go and just click play on the episode there and listen to the first 15 seconds of it...

Back? Cool.

Now if you were even remotely like me, you laughed your ass off at that guy and frankly he deserved it. The hosts, Scott, Dills and Turpster clearly weren't affected by it negatively and they constantly mention how they get emails about including non WoW related content on the podcast (for example the recent inclusion of Hearthstone talk). But think about that call. While the guy calling in clearly deserves to get laughed off, he was so angry that something unrelated to WoW was included in the show, that he took the time to call the show, rather than just unsubbing from it and moving on with his life.

As a new player to WoW (I started in June last year), I've noticed that there is a lot of negativity in the community. I'm sure that it's not the prevailing attitude of the game, as the vast majority of the people I talk and interact with in the game are really positive people. They are encouraging, happy to teach a new player the ropes and just generally chat with you. That being said however, in almost every LFR group there is that one guy who just rages at people for not "knowing how to play." All across the forums, reddit and twitter there are people throwing rage at devs, new players and just everyone in general.

This doesn't just relate to WoW either. Moba games such as DoTA and LoL have some of the most toxic communities of any game I have ever encountered. Visiting almost any FPS game is bound to have someone tell you all about the sexual relations they had with your mother last night. Why? Why do we as a gaming community tear ourselves apart? Why does every single disagreement about something have to result in people throwing crap at each other verbally?

I'm not saying that we all need to get along one hundred percent of the time. In any group of people, no matter how small or large, disagreements are bound to happen. I personally dislike PVP in WoW and think that it is a complete waste of time. But I don't ever feel the need to write, or even call, Scott about the fact that Dills spent 5 minutes talking about PVP because I am (generally) a sane, well balanced individual who enjoys hearing the opinions of others in all areas. Part of the reason I write this blog is to get involved in whatever gaming community I am involved in by putting an opinion out there. I post on reddit, and used to post on the forums for both Eve and WoW until the people there put me off so much I had to stop. I recently unsubbed from Eve Online, a game that had been with me for 7 years of my life, because the most vocal people were completely opposite to the close knit community I had known when I first started playing.

To end this, I feel that I am extremely lucky in WoW to have found the group of people that I have. I would like to take the time to thank you if you have been a part of that experience for me. Tainted, Slash, Gobspitt, Natta, Dracmor, Whalebit and countless others. All of you have made WoW fun for me, as you take the time to actually be human and hold a conversation, to tell me what I can do better without the swearing and anger that I find if I ask in an LFR.

I would also like to give a massive shout out to the guys at The Instance. Part of the reason that I love the show is the fact that you guys are so obviously friends, and that even if you have a disagreement on air (and I don't remember any major ones at all in the short time I've been listening) you are able to just keep on keeping on. The friendly banter both on and off the topic of this game we love has and will keep me listening to you guys for as long as you keep doing the show, regardless of if I keep playing the game or not.

But for now, remember that you can always dislike something without reverting to rage. Good luck and as always...

GAME ON!

Gearing Up and Getting Down With BoB

Whoa it's been over a month since I wrote here, and that ain't right. So for my first post of 2014, I'm going to talk all about whats been going on. I've been trying really hard to gear up my hunter in WoW. I'm currently sitting at 518 ilevel, with most of it coming from Timeless Isle and SoO LFR. You could say I'm well and truly playing WoW full time now, with a little bit of time going into Hearthstone. Why?

I've joined a really awesome guild. After my previous guild was forcibly closed by Blizzard (although I still have a character in the Guild for memories sake), I randomly sent some requests to a couple of guilds. The first one to reply was Barbarians of Blood, or as I call them BoB. I find it amusing that as a  reformed Eve player, my new group shares the same name with a corp from the biggest war in Eve's history. As a social guild, they don't put the pressure on you that a more hardcore guild would, but they are still interested in progressing through the content. It's been a lot of fun so far, and I have been really enjoying WoW again because of it.

My shaman is also level 90 now, but he is no longer alliance. I faction changed him around level 75, and used the race change so he could be a Pandaren. Since getting him to level 90, I have realised that I really do enjoy the way the hunter plays at max level, especially in solo situations. In raids, I do feel that my hunter lacks utility for aiding the rest of the raid, but the damage that I provide kind of negates the need for it. Using traps for controlling adds has probably been the biggest thing I've learnt about.

With Warlords possibly offering additional paid boosts to 90, I may be tempted to get more characters to max level in WoD as I can skip the earlier content, particularly Outlands. It's strange, because some of my favorite lore is based in Outlands (particularly Illidan's ending), but I cannot stand the questing there. As the oldest content currently available, it shows just how far Blizzard has come with Mists having some of the best leveling content in my opinion. I'm excited for WoD to see just how much further they can take that questing content.

Finally, AGDQ 2014 went off recently, reaching over $1 million in donations this year. As always, keep an eye out on YouTube for the vods of the event if you didn't get to watch live. Speedrunning seems to be taking off in a big way, and I'm super excited for SGDQ 2014 now.

As always folks,

GAME ON!

Random Ramblings #8

You thought it was gone didn't you? You honestly thought that I'd forgotten about them. Well folks... THE RANDOM RAMBLINGS ARE BACK! This week I talk betas, Warframe and a WoW update.

Beta Updates

Since the last post about Hearthstone there has been no actual posts from Blizzard regarding an exact date for the open beta, unfortunate news for those out there who are still without a key to the closed beta. There is some speculation that it will drop later this month as announced at Blizzcon, but I still hold some reservations about this. There are still some stability issues in the game (I have have several lockups for a minute or so and the occasional crash to desktop).

I also finally got a key for DC's Infinite Crisis, their take on the MOBA scene. I'm sure it will be fun, but will reserve judgement when I see how it compares to the other more established games such as LoL or DotA2. Actually judging it is going to be hard... I'm a huge DC fan (Batman and Green Arrow are my two favorite comic heroes), and seeing past my bias could be a little hard. Needless to say you can expect some words here when I have spent some time playing it.

Warframe

I've been playing Warframe a little lately. Messing around in the game is a lot of fun, especially speedrunning it. It's almost like they made the game to run fast. You have a lot of mobility, some parkour inspired skills and are basically a super soldier. Knowing the weaknesses of the various enemies helps too as some are super weak close up, while others require a more ranged approach. It features drop in and out co-op, with some areas basically requiring you to have two people or be really blinged out with weapons. If you like third person shooters at all, give it a go. It's free to play, and doesn't really seem pay to win.

WoW Update

When I last wrote about WoW, I lamented that I didn't have a lot of time to dedicate to the game at the moment. That's changed a little with work getting a little quieter. I've been leveling a Draenei Shaman, and have to say they deal a bunch more damage than Hunters, but have the disadvantage of needing to take hits in solo situations. Its taken me a little over two weeks to hit level 70 (played time of 1 day 23 hours). Playing Alliance side is... interesting. I really don't like the story as much on the Alliance side, but it is completely different to the Horde leveling in most cases. I'm sure as I get more into the Cata and Mists content that will change though. All in all, the last twoish weeks in WoW have been fun, and getting a high level shaman out of it will be a great reward, even if I do end up having to faction change him down the track.

And that concludes the Random Ramblings. Stay tuned as I get more time over the holiday break to play things and then write about them!

As always,

GAME ON!

Spell Mage Hearthstone Deck

I thought I'd take some time to go through a deck I've been playing with in Hearthstone that I've found very successful. In card games I've always preferred control decks that remove the enemy minions and then use powerful minions or spells to deal the damage. This deck is built around that and has won around 70% of games. The list is as follows:

2 x Arcane Missiles
2 x Arcane Explosion
1 x Frost Nova
1 x Amani Berserker
1 x Ironbeak Owl
1 x Kobold Geomancer
2 x Dalaran Mage
2 x Ironfur Grizzly
2 x Fireball
2 x Polymorph
2 x Chillwind Yeti
1 x Azure Drake
1 x Booty Bay Bodyguard
2 x Darkscale Healer
2 x Archmage
1 x Gelbin Mekkatorque
1 x Lord of the Arena
2 x Flamestrike
1 x Deathwing
1 x Sea Giant

There are several things that are completely optional. First is the two legendary cards in the deck. Gelbin Mekkatorque and Deathwing are the only two legendary cards I have, and I am considering taking Mekkatorque out as he can help the enemy as well as you with his random inventions. Deathwing can be swapped for another heavy hitter, but I like the removal he provides.

My basic strategy depends on the first hand I am dealt. Ideally you want either Arcane Missiles or Arcane Explosions and the Kobold Geomancer. Should you not get that however, any small minions that can be used to delay play (Ironfur Grizzlys are particularly good). Then it is simply a matter of surviving until you have enough spell damage to use Fireballs to damage the enemy hero or throw the Sea Giant or Deathwing out to swing for fatal.

As an example of just how effective this deck is at the moment, I faced a hunter who was using the Chanman style of play (small creatures being buffed by Unleash the Hounds). Fortunately I was able to use my Booty Bay Bodyguard and Lord of the Arena minions to stay alive for another turn. I top decked my Sea Giant who ended up only costing 2 mana due to all the minions on the board. Throwing him out, I then used Flamestrike to clear the board and win the game on the next turn.

Most games end up going somewhat along this path, with you holding on with less than 10 health (my craziest game I was matched up against another mage and won with 2 health), and swinging for fatal with either the Sea Giant, Deathwing or a Fireball.

Hopefully when the open beta comes around, this will help you to win some games.

As always,

GAME ON!

The Bottom Line: a Tetris life update.

Wow, it's been a crazy few months for me in my real life. I work a seasonal job in reticulation and this summer has started hard and fast for us. This has resulted in two things. First, I am working weekends. I get a day off through the week, and I use that to catch up on what I would normally do on the weekend. Second, I am extremely behind on my gaming.

Hearthstone's beta has been a godsend, allowing me to play a couple of games for sessions of ten to thirty minutes at a time as I have the chance. Minecraft has taken up the bulk of my remaining gaming time, with myself and a friend playing our creative world and building some sweet structures for some fun. Any other time has been spent playing a few games I've picked up from the Humble Bundles that recently came up - LoTR: War in the North and F.E.A.R.

F.E.A.R has always been one of those games that I have wanted to play, but never got the chance. It came out around the same time as Battlefield 2 and that game dominated my gaming at the time. The game has aged well, with the gameplay holding up too. War in the North is fun, if a little flawed. There could have been so much more done with the game, but it seems like most licensed games they either ran out of time or money had to drop some features.

I haven't logged into Eve at all. Ever since the Somer fiasco I just haven't wanted to deal with the entitled idiots in game who have ruined it a little for me. WoW isn't much better, with the player base complaining about the announcement that they might delay flying for Warlords of Draenor. I wish people were less aggressive about their complaining.

Hopefully soon, I can pick up a copy of X Rebirth. There are no fancy words I can use to describe just how excited I am for that game, but I need to have a sizable chuck of time to dedicate to it, and I just don't have the time right now. I've described X to my friends as Eve Offline, with joystick controls. It's not entirely accurate, but it does convey the general idea of X as a game.

As always ladies and gents,

GAME ON! Especially when you actually can GAME ON!

Hearthstone

Wow. That's all I can say about Hearthstone. No really, this post is over, go away.

Still here hey? Ok, I suppose I should write some more about it. First of all, I would like to give a massive shout out to Garret, Dills and Jocelyn from the Angry Chicken Podcast for the beta key. Not only did they do a give away with over 100 keys (102 to be precise), they also have, in my opinion, the best Hearthstone podcast around right now. You can find it here, or if you can catch it live, here.

On to Hearthstone. I wasn't kidding when I said wow describes it perfectly. For a beta game it is insanely polished and everything just oozes quality. I did have some issues when I first installed the game, but it seems like that is a server side issue that Blizzard is aware of and working on. Once you get to start playing, the game drops you straight into a series of training matches, ending with you fighting against Illidan.

When the training is finished there are a few things that should be done immediately. First, unlock every class. That will grant you access to the arena, some gold, and much needed levels. Once you have done that, have a go at getting one class to level 10 for more gold and free cards. After that go forth and build your decks.

I have some experience with Magic The Gathering, and most people will compare the two for obvious reasons. There are those out there who have said that the game is a simplified version of MTG. I can see where they come from with that argument, but have to disagree. Hearthstone is different enough that I don't feel like I am playing MTG, but rather a completely new card game. The hero powers and mana crystals add to the game and help to streamline the experience. The lack of instant cards scare me a little bit, as I tended to play a lot of them in Magic, but those are something that could be added down the track if required (and to be clear I don't think they are at this stage).

Blizzard have done a fantastic job of making a simple enough experience that anyone could pick it up and have fun, but also making the game deep and complex enough to interest existing card game players. It's still in closed beta at this point, but at BlizzCon they announced that open beta could be expected in December (although perhaps later because Blizzard). If you do get into the closed beta, expect there to be some bugs and server issues. If you don't, fear not. You will get to play this game soon.

As always folks,

GAME ON!