Category Archives: World of Warcraft

Gaming, Guild Wars 2, Minecraft, PC Gaming, Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft

Day/Night Cycles

I believe that games having a Day/Night cycle, that is, where the game changes from daytime to nighttime and back can aid greatly to a game’s immersion, double bonus points for adding lunar/solar cycles to it.

One of my primary criticisms of Star Wars: The Old Republic was the lack of day/night cycles. Now there is a decent reason for it missing, but I don’t know if I buy it. The main reason it is likely missing is that all the action happens on many different planets, and to be realistic, they would have to set different day/night cycles for each planet, but so what. So they need to add a few thousand more lines of code to customize the game engine and make it work, but it would have added greatly to the games immersion value. The lack of a day/night cycle and the way too many NPCs around had no names and did little to nothing but stand around are my two biggest gripes about an otherwise fun game.
Continue reading Day/Night Cycles →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

WoW Update

I haven’t played World of Warcraft for a while and let my account lapse for now due to financial issues. I decided that maintaining a Netflix account is better entertainment for the kids as there is lots of kids programming available on it. Once I have a new job and have some spare money, I’ll probably be back on it. For now my MMO playing will probably be via the free to play ones, either Lord of the Rings or Dungeons and Dragons… I wasn’t too impressed with Star Trek or Warhammer. Warhammer 40k I am still looking forward to. Plus I find myself playing Call of Duty: Black Ops and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 far more anyhow…

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

Initial thoughts on the WoW 4.0.1 PTR

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So Blizzard has made the World of Warcraft 4.0.1 patch available on the Public Test Realms (PTR). PTRs are used to test patches before they are released to the public at large.
While I copied one of my characters over, she hasn’t shown up yet (it says something like 3 or 4 days when I signed up for the copy). So I started a few new toons. A Night Elf Druid, a Draenei Hunter and a Troll Mage… my copied character will be a level 20 something Night Elf Druid as well.
The purpose of this PTR isn’t to test Cataclysm. That is what the beta test is for… hey Blizzard, still could use a beta key here :). The purpose of this test is to test the new talent trees, mechanics and the new improved UI. Basically this is the patch everyone gets shortly before Cata comes out… then another patch when it comes out that causes all the changes, though only those who buy Cata will get the new races and the higher level stuff… all beyond the point../ Continue reading Initial thoughts on the WoW 4.0.1 PTR →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

Want a Free Extended Trial to World of Warcraft?

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Dear friends and family, If you want to give World of Warcraft a try, let me know, I’ll send you a code that will upgrade the normal 10 day free trial to a 14 day free trial (how you get the client, via download or the $1.99 CD doesn’t matter). Then because you have that code we can quest together, gain experience points faster, and I can show you around the game world. (The CD has a 14 day free trial as well, but you will not gain the experience points three times as fast, and if you do the free 10 day code first you won’t be able to do the 14 day trial with double the experience points.) The client is free (if you download it) and you get 14 days to try it for free, you have nothing to loose but a little time (I would suggest that once you get the client, to let it patch overnight as that seems to be what it takes). Continue reading Want a Free Extended Trial to World of Warcraft? →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

Dear Blizzard, Why I Should Have a Cataclysm Beta Key

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My Dearest Blizzard, I hope this letter finds you well. This is a busy time for you. Tonight at midnight you release Starcraft II to the world (my son is a huge fan of Starcraft I)… and then starting this week hopefully, some of the fan sites will be giving out Beta keys for the World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm of which I of course want to be a part of. My favorite WoW podcast, The Instance, is giving one a day away for 25 days, WoWJuJu is giving some away, Ace3 is giving WoW addon authors a chance to get a key (I am alpha testing an addon that uses Ace3, but not an active developer myself). So I know you have lots going on. But I gotta ask for a favor if I may. I would like to have a key or two myself please.
Continue reading Dear Blizzard, Why I Should Have a Cataclysm Beta Key →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

Justifying the Expense of WoW

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Short of being rich, we all have to budget our money. Money has to be set aside for housing, utilities, automobile expenses (unless you are in a city and take a bus, in which case you still need to budget for the bus), clothing, personal care and of course food. Those of us with kids have to budget for diapers and all other child related expenses. Some people have profession related expenses. There is also a small budget for entertainment. That entertainment budget comes at the end as all the others are a bit more necessary. It can include books, going to the movies, DVDs/Blu-rays, TV, video games, renting movies/shows/games, board games, and a whole host of other stuff. For most of us, that entertainment budget is tight, for some of us it is very tight.
Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft isn’t free to play. You have to buy the game. As I write this, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest which includes the game, the first expansion and two strategy guides is $29.99, which is a steal since the game itself is $19.75, the expansion itself is $29.82 and the guides another $19 each. Then you will probably want the expansions (as I noted, the Battle Chest includes the first one for a few cent over the expansion itself), the second one, Wrath of the Lich King is another $29.99. They have a third expansion coming out called Cataclysm (available for pre-order for $39.99.
After you buy the game, install it, download all the patches (this is something that for us took overnight), setup an account and then you get to play the game for 30 days… after that you have a monthly fee. Continue reading Justifying the Expense of WoW →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

The Problem With the Cataclysm Talent Calculators Thus Far

I have looked at two or three talent calculators for Cataclysm thus far, and while they have the talents correct, you can spend them willy nilly, and one of the big changes coming to Cataclysm is that your first 31 points have to be spent in your first tree, so you have to choose wisely.
The calculators out so far let you spend a point or two in one tree, then spend more in another. To be accurate it should gray out the other trees until you have spent the 31 points. So all you people making talent calculators, get them up to spec. 🙂

Actually before I posted this, I see WoWHead has put their calculator up and it works exactly as it should. Well done.
I think this looks like a nice Balance Druid build…

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

I So Need to Roll a Goblin in Cataclysm

When Blizzard releases the Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcarft (or I get in the Beta…puppy dog eyes at Blizzard) I need to roll a Goblin. Yes, a Worgen Druid as well, but the Goblin zone looks to be a ton of fun. TotalHalibut, who did the vids I posted before has followed up his Goblin one with the second Goblin area. It looks to be a blast. I think I’ll roll a Fire Mage for that alt. Continue reading I So Need to Roll a Goblin in Cataclysm →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

Next Round of Cataclysm Beta Invites Going Out Soon

WwW.com is reporting that next round of Cataclysm beta invites are going out soon with the usual warning not to click any links in any email you get, to log into your Battle.net account and check for your self. Most of the emails that are phishing, install keyloggers, trojans, and the like look like official invites.
Here is Blizzard’s official take:
[bluepost]We hope to distribute additional invites to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta sometime this week, possibly as soon as late Tuesday or Wednesday. This is only an estimate, though, so the schedule may change and, as a result, invites could be distributed earlier or later than anticipated. Either way, we’ll work to keep you as updated as possible. :)[/bluepost]
For those who might be behind on the news… Blizzard is getting ready to release their next expansion for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Right now they are doing what is known as Beta testing, where they invite a select group of people to test their software. In this case the goal is to test the new client with a vast number of different computer systems so that they can work out any issues with it before they release the game, and to test the new races, class/race combos, talent systems, dungeons, quests, etc. While in beta, lots of things can be flaky or just not work. For example, last I heard the Worgen female wasn’t available for people to roll yet as they are still working out issues there.
Blizzard, if you are there. Please… pretty please… with sugar on top. Of course the email to this account isn’t what the email is for the account, so I guess that makes it a bit harder to say, oh sure, lets toss one to that blogger… 🙂
Continue reading Next Round of Cataclysm Beta Invites Going Out Soon →

Gaming, PC Gaming, World of Warcraft

New WoW Cataclysm Starting Zones

I have been playing a bit of the World of Warcraft and having a good time. I have started and abandoned a number of characters. Right now I have Ardaamis, a level 44 Dwarf Hunter, and Sthel, a level 25 Night Elf Druid. I probably would be near level 80 now if I would stop creating new alts and leveling them for a while then deleting them.
Anyhow, there is a new expansion coming out this fall called Cataclysm, and it looks to be pretty exciting. There will be two new races to play Worgen, a type of warewolf, and Goblins, which we have seen around and interacted with a lot, but are just now coming up as playable. Two of the races get their own starting zones (they have been sharing) Trolls and Gnomes. It is all pretty exciting. Right now the game is being Beta tested (I am not on the Beta yet… grrr….)
Somebody made some videos of how the starting zones look and played through them. They are after the break. They are about 30 minutes each, but are all cool.

Continue reading New WoW Cataclysm Starting Zones →