Tickled Pink: Onyxia Revisited

Larísa's take:

"You can't step into the same river twice."

This quota by the old Greek philosopher Heraclitus has haunted me through life. How many times hasn't it happened that I've wanted to return to something I enjoyed once upon a time - it could be a job, the company of a friend, a place I've visited? In some sort of wishful thinking and outburst of nostalgia, I've fooled myself for a second that it would be the same experience as it was the first time.

But then I've heard the soft whispering from the old man, reminding me that everything inevitably changes over time. The flood seemingly runs the same way as always. But the second time you step to it, the water that was there the first time has moved on somewhere else. It's not the same river, even though it maybe looks like it.

We can do things again that we've done before. We can re-read novels 20 years later, get back to our favorite restaurants and see the movie yet another time. But we must be prepared for another experience. If nothing else, we have changed in ourselves.

I came to think about this as I heard about the upcoming return of Onyxia. The opinions on it differ. Most reactions I've heard so far have been pretty negative.

"We've been there and done that. Why on earth would we like to do it again? Blizzard should use their resources to develop new content rather than to reheat the leftovers from yesterday. We deserve that as paying customers. "

Others on the other hand hope to enter the river once again and are excited, expecting that raiding somehow once again will feel as epic as it did in vanilla WoW. And considering the river mechanism, I'm afraid they're bound to get disappointed. No matter how much they'll revamp Onyxia and enhance not only stats and loot, but maybe also the visuals (at least I hope so, because frankly quite a lot of the vanilla WoW content looks rather plain and crappy if you compare it to WotLK) - they can't possibly create the same atmosphere. You who were around in the old days have too many years of raiding behind you, too many scars that you've earned wiping in Onyxia's lair to get that excited again, even if you'd like to.

I guess I could call myself lucky, being a TBC baby. Even though I've fought my way through the attunement and got my Drakfire Amulet (still in my bank deposit), I've only done this encounter in an overpowered manner, more or less as a joke, where it didn't matter much what I did as long as I stayed out of fire. This means that I can actually look forward to this raid encounter, which will be more or less new to me.

But no matter if you like the thought of a returning Onyxia or if you consider it rather pointless, we probably shouldn't work up ourselves too much about it. Think of it as a silly little bonus event to celebrate the anniversary, equivalent to the cute baby bear we got last year. It does not take away Blizzard's focus from developing Cataclysm and whatever is beyond that. The amount of PR about a phenomena doesn't necessarily reflect how important it is.

As long as we don't believe that the river is the same, we'll be fine.


Elnia's Perspective

I have been fortunate in my life to have traveled outside the USA numerous times. My advice to people about traveling is always the same, "Go. Just go." There is no right time to travel because every traveling experience you have is going to be a unique combination of who you are at the time and who the places and people you meet along the way are at that time. And whether it is you who are different or the place that is different the experiences are not fully repeatable.

The other thing that I have learned is that as big and huge as this planet is (and it is not a small world after all) no matter where you go someone will have been there before. It's like falling in love with someone who is married; if you are expecting virginity you are simply deluded. Virginity is the province of the inexperienced.

On of my pet sayings is that novelty is the rape of intuition. Being new and fresh and virginal is certainly attractive. On the other hand, a lust for perpetual virginity, perpetual novelty, perpetual freshness and youth seems to me a disordered view of life. Certainly there is a rush the first time new lovers see each other naked. But no one who has experienced the deep and penetrating satisfaction of a true emotional and mental intimacy built up over time would ever trade that for a series of perpetual infatuations. At least I wouldn't.

So I agree entirely with Larisa when she says you can't have the same experience twice. But why would you want to? Why is it that the second time or the third time around is by default going to be worse. Sometimes, I won't lie, it is worse; that happens. Yet I think it shows a poor mental attitude, a self defeating attitude, to simply assume that's going to be the case. Shouldn't it be, like when you have the right lover, experience makes it better. To me all the angst around recycled content in Warcraft smacks of a lust for endless virginity, a desire to plunder the muse of creative intuition for all it's worth and leave it bleeding and moaning in some drank alley.

And that's assuming that angst is even credible. There are a lot of trolls out there who will search out anything, no matter how small, just to bicker about it. They will find the negative in every situation. If it's recycled content then it's boring because it's not new; if it new then it's offensive because it's not traditional and violates the the lore, or their sense of identity, or whatever. Not only do these poor creatures collapse everything into a binomial, they collapse it into a negative one. Pity them.

Rather than prejudging the matter, we should give Blizzard a chance to show what they can do with a recycled Oynxia. I am more likely to accept negative criticism from someone after the fact if I know they had an open mind before the fact than someone rehashing the same criticism they been had going on about for the last year. At the end of the day, the only real measure of success is if the game designers produce an expereince that's interesting or fun to play; if they do that, no one will care if it's recycled or not.

Why I hope the melting iceberg will hold a bit longer

We’re living in the age of branding, where we not only build the brands of products, organizations or ideas, but also ourselves. Quite a creepy thought, but a fact, like it or not.

Now building a brand isn’t just something you do once for all, to live happily the rest of your life, harvesting the result of your investments. All brands and products have a lifecycle, even though non-marketing people don’t pay much attention to it.

According to a famous chart, used by market economists, The Boston Matrix, there is a certain pattern in how they go from upcoming stars to “milk cows”, which eventually will face an inevitable death and destruction. That will say: unless you put considerable effort into keeping them alive – through re-investment, re-positioning and tons of advertising.

How quickly a brand will go through all the stages in this lifcycle vary of course, depending on the market and the product category. Mind you, I’m not an economist myself, so this explanation of the matrix is probably questionable, this is not the whole truth, just the way I had it explained to me.

Counting the minutes
I’m bringing this up because I, with the rest of the WoW community, eagerly is waiting for the BlizzCon circus to break out. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend it, not even by the Internet broadcast. So I’ll have to do with whatever information is reported by WoW.com and other news sites. I’m sure they’ll do a great job, so I’m not worried that I’ll miss something.

I’m counting the minutes, because I have the feeling that Blizzard is facing a moment of truth. Will they once again be able to dominate the MMO-market, will they do the trick and not only deliver what we thought they would, but even more than that in the upcoming expansion, which is expected to be announced? Will they be able to amaze us and one more time revitalize the WoW concept, defying the fact that it – in a gaming context – is a very old and rapidly aging brand?

A melting iceberg?
A couple of years ago there was no question about it. Blizzard’s WoW concept was The Star on the MMO sky. They managed not only to gain the likening and respect from a somewhat picky core of the gaming community, but also to make it work commercially Even though they weren’t exactly in the frontline, even though they weren’t pushing the edges, they were unquestionably masters in combining things, picking the best ideas from other games and putting it together in a tasteful, easy-to-love and broad-approach combination. Perhaps you could call that inventive as well, it its own way.

But the world has changed and I’ve got a strong feeling that WoW isn’t quite the fix star as it used to be. The very thing that they feel a sudden urge to bring in Ozzy Osbourne ads, is a certain sign that the former cash cow needs some extra oxygen to keep breathing.

With the official movement of the leading creative staff from WoW to the future, secret MMO project, the community couldn’t draw any other conclusion but that it was the B-squad that remained in the building, with the instructions to keep the boat afloat as long as possible.

WoW vs Aion
There has been “Doom and gloom” prophecies about the upcoming mass Exodus of players more than once before. But now I think the arguing makes more sense than it did a year ago.

Spooner at Spooncraft wrote a post where he compared WoW and Aion, arguing that Aion is a part of the next generation of MMOs and that it’s probably about time to take the step over now. He bunches up WoW, EVE, LOTRO, AoC, War and City of Heroes, resembling them to a melting iceberg.

“These games have been around for a while, and they’re showing their age either through obsolete gameplay or graphics or just terrible management and community. “

And he suggests us to jump over to the new beautiful, solid and fresh looking iceberg which will last us at least 5 years before it starts to wear off. There you’ll find games like Aion, Champions Online, Final Fantasy XIV, SWTOR and the next generation MMO from Blizzard.

His concluding words probably express pretty well the views from players who are done with WoW:

“Remember in December of 2004 when you first installed the World of Warcraft and you felt like you were looking at the most beautiful and amazing game to date?
Addictive and exciting and full of mysteries you were yearning to uncover? Zones yet to explore, epic weapons and armor and vicious monsters and evil that had to be fought? It’s like that all over again. Aion feels like WoW used to.”

Why I hope for success
The funny thing is that all the ongoing picking at the current development team, all the moaning from the community and the general assumption that WoW is a dying game, has the reversed effect on me. Even though I don’t consider myself a “Blizzard fan boy” (I have no history with them whatsoever and have never touched any of their other games), I find myself sympathizing with the staff, wanting them to proof the critics wrong, showing the gaming world that they’re well prepared for another round in the match about the MMO-audience.

It’s just like watching an old athlete, making his last Olympics, defending his title one more time against the 15-year old upcoming stars. My heart bleeds for the old, scarred fighter.

How discouraging mustn’t it be to belong to a team that the community has classed as secondary? You’re one of the people left behind, with a game engine that is running obsolete according to the experts. (Not that I notice it at all, I have no idea what a game engine is. To me the game is as beautiful and stunning as ever. But what do I know?) Whatever they make up for the next expansion, they can expect a ton of criticism from those players who never seem to be content, no matter what they do.

I certainly don’t awe them. It is hard and unrewarding work to manage a brand which has been so strong, that you can’t possibly make it any stronger, trying to prevent it from getting weaker too quickly and too badly. I know, because I’ve done it myself in real life.

The countdown is on. In a few hours we may – or may not, if the speculations turn out to be wrong – get some official announcements about the next expansion.

My heart is with the B-squad, who in the current situation come out as underdogs, no matter of the glorious past of WoW. I hope you’ll step out from the shadows and show us that the lifespan of an MMO not necessarily is limited to five years. I want you to show that even if the iceberg slowly is melting, this brand is strong enough to float for at least another expansion and that we who decide to stay around will have quite a ride to look forward to.

Go, Blizzard, Go!

The Value of Violence

The fundamental tenant of economics is that money is both a medium of exchange and a store of value. In short, money is tool to exchange value between people. Economics recognizes that not everything in life can be monetized; economic models either implicitly assume an arbitrary value for such goods or explicitly dismiss them as externalities. Economics doesn't insist that monetary value is a perfect reflection of life priorities; it simply insists that monetary valuations are a useful tool for inquiry.

Valuing Patch 3.2

In the lead up to patch 3.2 several bloggers expressed their disappointment in what they felt was the poor value of the patch. Their position was that 3.2 represented a poor return on their monetary investment (subscription fees) compared to what they believed Blizzard could have done with their money. In all honesty, I thought this complaining was more a case of disappointed emotional expectations rather than a genuine effort to critique Blizzard's financial policies. As pointed out in this brief article at WoW.com, Blizzard's attitude toward patching the game has gone from one of having wild sex once every few months to what is effectively a perpetual cuddle. Undoubtedly this leaves some people unfulfilled.

These blog posts did serve a useful purpose, however, because they got me to thinking about how precisely one would evaluate the value added of patches and on-line gaming in general. Even if 3.2 is a failure in light of some individual subjective standard, that individual is still left with choosing from among a variety of entertainment alternatives. Since all the major MMOs effectively charge the same regular monthly-to-month subscription fee of $15, the relative value added comes down to whether you enjoy the content of one game more than another. But what about the value added of MMOs compared to other entertainment options.

Consuming Violence in America

Let us assume for the moment that, as I wrote in this post, Warcraft is essentially a game about violence. What is the relative value returned by an MMO in relation to other options people have to consume violence. After spending a few hours doing research on the internet, I came up with the table below.

Activity	Cost per Minute
World of Warcraft Subscription	$0.013
Tom Clancey Novel	$0.016
Major Release FPS Video Game	$0.017
Chuck Norris Video Rental	$0.048
First Run Action Movie	$0.071
One NHL Ticket	$0.276
One NFL Game	$0.400
One SEC College Football Game	$0.611
Ringside Boxing Ticket	$2.381
Ultimate Fighting Ticket	$66.667
Afganistian War	$50,692.339
Iraq War	$142,359.141

Regrettably, due to width restrictions with Blogger I cannot include the full table with complete calculations. Some of the underlying data used to produce the summary above can be challenged; my goal was to come up with what I think is a list of representative numbers that are valid relative to each of the other options. For example, I could find no official data on the length of an average Ultimate Fight match so I took the data from a blogger who based his opinion on his personal experience. His estimate was that an average fight lasted three minutes leading to a $66 average per minute. This number may not be precisely accurate but I am confident that it's not off by such an order of magnitude that it would disrupt its placement in the table.

One of the things that leaps out from this ranking is that MMOs in general are a fantastic entertainment bargain. Short of talking a walk in the park (free) or watching a sunset from the porch (also free) on-line games are the ultimate in cheap thrills. Their value is comparable to that of books and single-player games. One could fund an entire six-month subscription to a major MMO for the cost of attending one three-hour long NFL game.

Reality Revisted

Sometimes investigations lead you in unexpected directions. The more interesting thing about this ranking is that it clearly illustrates the fact that the more real the violence the more costly it is to consume; that is to say, the more value we place on it. By real here I mean the likelihood that the violence will result in actual physical harm to another human being. Pixel PvP costs you a penny a minute; physical PvP costs you up to $142,359 a minute. Indeed, we can even draw a distinction between soft violence (gaming, books, movies) all which fail to crack the 10 cents a minute barrier, semi-soft violence (sporting matches) which all fail to break the dollar per minute barrier, and hard violence (which is $2 a minute and up).

Here's the kicker. If there is no functional difference between reality and fantasy (a point I made here) then why is it that people spend their money as if there actually is. If money is a store of value then this ranking illustrates beyond dispute that people value what happens to their bodies much more than what happens to their minds. The only cogent explanation for why someone would pay $200 to watch men claw each other for three minutes is that somehow or another this player vs player violence is perceived as more real or authentic than the pixelated kind. Philosophers, poets, psychologists, and monks may believe that the mind is a terrible thing to waste but the ordinary man on the street--full pun intended--he isn't buying it. He perceives a difference between fantasy and reality and is willing to pay much more for one than the other.

The easy way out of this situation is to simply label such people materialists, or ignorant, or unenlightened. Such descriptors are not explanations. Addressing the question why some people draw distinctions where others do not is a topic much too lengthy to address at the tail end of a post. I do think the ranking, however, helps us to understand why some people see computer games as form of escapism; it's a defense mechanism. It's not enough to simply vote with their pocketbook, they need to actively denigrate others to stabilize themselves. If you think that saying the Iraq War is nothing but a cartoon graveyard is insulting to the survivors, think how that argument must feel to the people who planned and payed for it. Talk about a rip off; you payed a trillion dollars just to kill a bunch of pixels. That makes your teenager trade-chat troll look like the economic version of Albert Einstein. The distinction between fantasy and reality had better be a real distinction because if it is not some people are acting downright silly and, if I have the measure of such people aright, they are not going to take looking silly lightly; there is going to be hell to pay.

Playing with numbers thanks to Tim Howgego

A few days ago I asked myself in a post how many times a night Yogg-Saron is killed.

I still don't know the answer to that question, but at least I've got an idea about the opposite - how many characters that are killed by him every night.

On August 12 his guardians were responsible for 98 602 deaths on the European realms. If you divide this between approximately 100 European realms and suppose that the average raid has 17 players and does 7 wiping attempts at him, I would come to the conclusion that there are around 8 raids during a mid-week raiding night at each realm that manages to go as far as to Yogg-Saron. How many of those raids that will succeed is another issue. One or two perhaps?

So where did I get this figure about 98 602 deaths? Did I secretly "mine" some hidden files? Have I found myself an anonymous source leaking information to me? No. I got it from a dark and forgotten corner of the official website of Blizzard. (You'll find the US equivalence here.)

At the same site I can also see that the most created item in the game is a saronite bar, with about 2 millions of them made every night. That is probably needed though, since it's the second most sold item at AH, after infinite dust.

We've all got the feeling that emblems are raining over us these days and we're absolutely right; Emblems of Conquest is the most looted item together with frostweave cloth!

And even though many bloggers have testified about their complete lack of interest in jousting, and how completely out of place it is from a lore/RP perspective, it remains popular; the top list over the most popular quests is completely dominated by the Argent Tournament dailies.

This database managed to spellbind me for quite a while and I'm convinced that other bloggers can find input to blogposts if they check it out. The only thing I regret is that it's limited to six categories. I'm convinced that Blizzard has many other figures available; the question is only what they bother to share with us.

Tim Howgego
Now, I didn't find this well of statistics at the WoW website all by myself. Someone did it for me: Tim Howgego. Tim is something as unusual as a blogger who presents himself with his full name and a picture of himself. He looks like a schoolboy, but his innocent looks is just an illusion. He's got a brilliant mind. He presents himself, not so humble, as an "independent analyst, consultant, writer and thinker". And that is exactly what he is. He's far more than an ordinary blogger.

You say you've never heard of the guy? Well, actually you probably have. Tim is more known as the man behind the best source of information ever about fishing in WoW, El's Extreme Anglin'. Are you with me now?

In my opinion Tim Howgego has written some of the most interesting blogposts ever done about MMO-gaming. His analysis are very well thought out and always supported with notes about what sources and methods he has used. Still you won't find him in the blogroll of PPI for the simple reason that he is completely unreliable. He can write a brilliant post or two quickly after each other and then suddenly disappear, not posting a word for seven months. This makes a poor ground for a solid audience for his blog and he will inevitably fall for the two-months-without-an-upgrade limit I have put on my roll.

If it wasn't for the fact that Tim Howgego commented on my post yesterday I wouldn't have found out that he's currently actively blogging again and that he has written a few very interesting pieces this summer, which I sincerely advice you to read. So thank you for commenting Tim, not only that your comment was very well put, but also for letting me know that you're still around blogging.

It was in Tim's latest post, Where we fish, that I found the link to the Blizzard statistics. In this article he shows how much you can do with this kind of statistics if you combine it with creativity, game knowledge and an analytical mind. Read the post and you'll get the complete picture about the habits and thinking of the fishing people in Azeroth. I bet you'll be as charmed and intrigued as I was by this reading.

A few thoughts about the blurry WoW journalism

The last few days, the WoW community has been boiling with rumors and speculations about the next expansion. It's hardly a coincidence that it happens just a few days before BlizzCon. MMO-Champion has put their reputation as a very reliable source of information at stake. Soon enough we'll know if they were right.

Should we believe what has been said? No, according to Tobold, who has declared his skepticism, while Green Armadillo made an analysis that showed that this is a plausible development of the game.

If you ask me, I wouldn't be surprised if MMO-Champion was right. But this conclusion is based on my gut feeling and general trust for the source than on any solid proof that backs up the story.

Ethics discussion
There has also been a couple of interesting blogpost discussing the ethics of it. Matticus commented on the publishing about the new races at WoW.com a few days earlier. He defends the use of anonymous sources - after all you don't want to get people sacked.

Too Many Annas points out the difference between a personal blog and a news provider. People who break news that Blizzard may not want to get out are doing their job- it's standard practice in journalism - but it's not something Anna herself would do in her role as a blogger.

The new media landscape
When I read those posts I start wondering how I should label sources such as WoW.com and MMO-Champion. Are they really news providers in the same manner as my morning paper or a professional niche magazine about business, sports or literature? How does the staff work and what guidelines do they have for their work?

I have no idea and that's not special for those WoW sources; it's part of an ongoing trend in the media business. The borderline between journalism, infotainment, opinion and marketing has become blurred not to say erased. Anyone can call themselves a reporter these days and get an audience on the net, as big - or bigger than the major newspapers. For good and for bad.

Fossil old-school journalists like me are somewhat confused in the new media landscape. We were special, we were needed. We had ethical guidelines which we respected. We honored credibility, we looked for sources, evidence and above all an unbiased, independent perspective in everything we did. I don't say we always succeeded - that would be hypocrisy; we failed too from time to time. But since the competition wasn't as fierce as it is with the online publishing, where Deadline always is "Now", we had better opportunities to work through our stories, and check up the facts once again.

Critical thinking
But confused or not - there's no going back. We can't fight it. We must embrace the changes. What we can do though is to try to reach out to young media consumers as well as those new, self-appointed producers, and make them understand the value of critical thinking and independency, to always ask themselves if there's some interest hidden behind.

I for one must say that it puts me off a bit that so many blogs and websites which borrow manners from journalism (although they don't exactly claim that that's what they are) seem to be in cooperation with different all sorts of commercial companies. I don't mind that those semi- or all-out professional sites have ads to get an income, what I DO mind though is that there isn't a clear distinction between what is an ad and what is edited, journalistic material.

I don't know if someone running those sites is even remotely interested in what an old local newspaper reporter like me has to say. Probably not. But if you would ask me for advice I would say: try to keep the ads and the news articles clearly separated from each other so you always know what is what. A little bit stricter policy towards sponsors may hurt you economically initially, but I'm convinced that it will pay off in the long run. Your credibility should be as precious to you as your sponsors.

Anonymous sources
Now back to the issue about the anonymous sources. Is it good practice to use it or not? Well, if you ask the teachers I had at university so many years ago, they would argue quite much against it. Of course there was this myth about the "big scoop". Everyone wanted to become the new Watergate investigators. But at the same time, using anonymous sources, you easily become a victim of manipulation, bonding to people in charge, trying keep the good relations you build to them. You won't bite the hand that feed you. What we were taught was that anonymous sources could be used in exceptional cases (which I hardly think that the release of Cataclysm is to be honest), but that you always must find solid proof, documents and such, to back it up with. One anonymous source just isn't good enough.

If someone wants to look more into the pros and cons of the use of anonymous sources I recommend this article from American journalism review. It is a bit old, but the arguments are still valid.

A reader request
As by a chance I received a letter from a reader a few weeks ago. He knew about my background and suggested that I should make an "interesting post to compare news and news appetites for the real world and how it is similar or dissimilar to the microcosm of wow news.”

Well Tristan, I don't know if this post was what you had in mind. Probably not.

I had planned to write something about the different sorts of WoW news providers and how those easily could be divided into different departments, just like in any newspaper. There's a general news section, there are business news, the sports which deal with e-sports and Arena rating. There are comic strips. And a lot of lifestyle with instructive articles like "10 ways to become a better healer", similar to "10 ways to become a better lover". And of course tons of columnists, sharing their opinions on different sorts of things.

Maybe I'll write that post another time. This one about how a traditional journalistic thinking possibly could or should be applied to WoW news media felt more urgent. I'm not entirely sure that I managed to make all my thoughts on this come through. It is as if my mind is still processing the new media landscape, trying to understand what is happening and how the journalists of tomorrow will think and act - if there still are any around. So if I'm somewhat messy in this I ask you to forgive me. I'll probably come back to this topic in the future, hopefully a bit better sorted out.

And now I just can't wait to hear the official statements from BlizzCon...

Tickled Pink: the new races of Azeroth

The staff at PPI are pleased to offer to their customers a brand new feature at the Inn. Tickled Pink shall appear occasionally in these pages as a collaborative effort between the Innkeeper and the Bartender. One topic relating to the world of Azeroth is selected and Larisa and Elnia will both offer their views on that topic within the same post. We extend an invitation to our readers to let us know if they are or are not Tickled Pink in the comments.

Elnia's Perspective

The introduction of the new races is more important to me for what I hope it portends about other changes to the game not because I possess an overwhelming enthusiasm for specific new races introduced. Playing Alliance, I honestly don't have much interest in playing a Worgen. They are not visually appealing and when you have to look at a toon for hours at a time visual appeal is important. There will need to be enticing racial benefits in order to over come that visual barrier.

On the other hand, I'm going to play a goblin. If there is one thing that will entice me over to the Horde side it's playing a goblin. Which, I suspect, is one of Blizzard's goals; to get more people to play Horde. I definitely have an impish and rapscallion part to my character and the way goblins are portrayed in Azeroth has always appealed to that aspect of my personality. A goblin Rogue is a little creature after my own heart (and certainly after my pocketbook!)

My problem is that I don't really think goblins should be a playable class at all. I understand the lore argument but it's based on the false assumption that Azeroth as implemented in the game is a perfect reflection of lore and it's not. All the other three races introduced to the game were races that, up until their introduction, played on a small part in the life of the game. Goblins are different; they have a significant role in the game as NPCs. The major neutral cities of Taranis, Stranglethorn Vale, and the Barrens are all goblin cities. In terms of sheer numbers, there are probably more Goblin NPCs in the world than any other race except human. This will certainly be true after they get their own starting area. Maybe because I've only played Alliance, but I'm acculturated to looking at Goblins (which are everywhere) and thinking "friend" or at least, "not enemy." Changing that mindset will be difficult I think. More than anything else, I think the game will look unbalanced with so many Goblins (both PC and NPC) running about.

The introduction of Goblins, the Argent tournament, the ability to change factions, these three things make me wonder if the new expansion features a much reduced emphasis on the Horde vs Alliance conflict. Perhaps in the future the world will split up into competing home cities (much like feudal warlords). The only thing that actually still requires Horde vs Alliance is battlegrounds, and the Argent Tournament offers a model where even that could be displaced. I think that if the new classes are the major development in terms of game play mechanics in the next expansion I will be disappointed. So I'm curious to see what else Blizzard has in store.

Larísa's perspective

Was I really tickled by the news about the new races? Yes and no. To be honest I found the way that they first were broken – the discovery of the masks in the database and the following efforts to cover it up – much more interesting than the actual content of the news.

As a former journalist I kind of enjoy watching the race between the search dogs of the community, constantly browsing forums, putting clues together, and the public relations staff who try to keep some kind of control over the information that goes out.

The community obviously won this one, since someone had been careless. Or maybe the policies have changed a bit and they just don’t care that much anymore about what comes out in which order? Anyway – seeing it happen makes me giggle. I’m definitely tickled.

On the other hand, like Elnia, I’m not overly excited about the outlook of having access to two more races. Unlike a new class it doesn’t bring in any new aspect to the game – it’s just two new furs to put on and not a big deal. Surely they’ll come with new questing areas, but is that enough to make me roll another alt, just to get the privilege to watch the furry back of a worgen instead of a nightelf or a dwarf? I doubt it. Hey, I haven’t even come around to roll my new DK, which seems like a far more exciting thing to do, since it’s also a new class.

Besides – is it just me, but do you really think that a werewolf looking character really fits into the Alliance team? I’m sceptic. To me it has much more of horde connotations. Without having any deeper knowledge in the worgen lore, the looks of them makes me think of them as another people of outcasts – misunderstood and not considered “beautiful” in the normal sense, unless you get to know them a bit better.

And then we have the goblins. I don’t quite get it. Why would they suddenly go all-out horde? I’ve always seen them as mercenaries, - the Ferengies of Azeroth, loayal to nothing but their gold. It would have been natural if they had become the first flexible race that could go either horde or alliance, as you prefer. It doesn’t make sense to me that they suddenly would swear a permanent oath of faith to the horde. This said I would like to have a goblin of my own – in the only natural role I can see for it – as a banker. But that little pleasure will only be given to the horde players as it looks with the information we have at the moment.

All in all – I hope that the next piece of leaked news about Cataclysm will be more exciting than the one about races. When I’ll take the decision if I’ll stay for the next round, it won’t depend on the availability of another furry skin. There are other aspects that matter more: the amount of new content such as instances, cool questlines and a new hero class. It’s about overall feeling of the game, the look, quality and finish in the design of the new areas. It’s about how much effort they put into the development of game mechanisms and the features yet-to-be invented the equivalences of the phasing, the vehicle fights and the integrated short movies that came with WotLK. It’s about the general feeling that the game is still alive and breathing, that Blizzard cares about it and not only are cashing in the gold, while their heart and focus is turned somewhere else.

But what matters most of all is as always the players. For in the end it’s the players that build this game more than anything else. If there’s a mass exodus from the community, if my guildies move over to other games and I find myself all alone in the new Cataclysm world, there’s no worgen or goblin suit in the world that can make me want to stay there.

A few notes about what I’ve been up to

Yogg-Saron has died. Again. I wonder how many times he dies every night, if you add it up, every kill on the realms all over the world. Night after night after night. No wonder he looks like a jellyfish. Who wouldn’t?

The special thing about this kill last Tuesday though was that it was the first time that Larísa did it. And the first time that Adrenaline on EU-Stormrage did it in 25 man. A small step for WoWkind. But a big step for us.

I wouldn’t say that the step was huge though. It didn’t carry that enormous relief we felt when we eventually killed Archimonde last autumn. The joyous cries at vent were quite few and discrete. I guess we never had the opportunity to assemble enough of wipe nights to build up the right amount of frustration.

I think we all felt that it would have been even better if we had gotten the kill before the 3.2 patch. We lost the race against the nerf timer this time. It was a hard race to win in the middle of the summer vacation, with the lack of 25 man raids that comes with it. Given the opportunity, we would have been capable of killing him on the old terms.

All in all, nerfs or not, it was sweet to get it done, it was a good raid, where we went better and better with every attempt until the well deserved kill, and I definitely look forward now to do some more serious wiping on the hardmodes i Ulduar that will follow. We have the capacity of doing it. I know that.

New Computer
This night was special to me in another way as well: it was the first one where I tried out my new computer.

Yep. After all the trouble, ups and downs I’ve been through with my old PC, I finally decided that I was done with it, when it completely refused to start at all last Saturday. And once I settle my mind I tend to get things done quickly. A new one was ordered promptly from a local computer building firm, and to my own surprise I got it home and put it in order so quickly that I was able to raid just a couple of days later.

It was a new and different experience to be able to raid with a relaxed mind, not constantly fearing that the screen would freeze and the computer crash at the worst possible moment. I never realized this put such a tension on me before.

Now I’ve got a lot of things to learn and get used to. I can turn up my graphic settings and enjoy the scenery. I can start running addons like Recount, which I deserted ages ago to keep down the lag.

And I’ve also taken the step from a normal mouse to a gaming mouse. You know one with a pretty bizarre look and several extra buttons that you can bind to different spells. Woot! Yeah, I know, it’s probably quite normal for most PPI readers, but for me it’s a huge thing. It makes me feel like a naughty kid. Am I supposed to handle one of those things? A GAMING mouse! In my hand. Who could have thought this three years ago?

I’ve never thought about myself as a Gamer. But I guess I am. And actually a very happy one at the moment.

Yogg-Saron dead. Computer alive and working as intended. Next raid instance will contain 31 bosses. Could it really be any better?