I...I have nothing to say negatively about this so I'm very pleased to finally have a good thing to talk about.
The good people over at Blizzard clearly were able to listen to the concerns of players very well and have finally brought upon us one of the ideas most requested as far as questing is concerned. No longer are we going to have to pick and choose what we have to miss out on just because we are interested in more than what the current 25 cap allows us. As it stands for me, I'm a Tol Barad, Molten Front, Argent Tournament, and Ogri'la rep fan but I'd be taking Molten Front every time and I suppose I could have done Ogri'la to fill in some of what was left but the limit gave me the feeling (even though it's somewhat nonsensical) that if you do one thing, why *bother* doing anything else? Again, doesn't really make sense, since getting something out of a secondary grind is better than nothing but it's just the way I felt.
With this change, I can finally just go crazy on everything I want. I already have all I want from the Netherwing and Sha'tari Skyguard so fortunately I'm not going to overexert myself on quests (read: that aren't MoP quests, at least). I'm actually almost done Molten Front and Tol Barad is only going to continue until I have the wolf mount (have had the drake forever and recently got the gull before I went into Molten Front stuff again). Heck, Ogri'la and the Argent Tournament are really the only long-term dailies to really bother with based solely on that they are so slow to do anything with (and I hate playing Simon because my memory isn't that good), though the latter I only need a few more mounts from (the ones that cost 100 marks each), the pony bridle for my squire (what? I thought that's what my Argent Gruntling *was*!). Also, pets to sell are certainly something I'll finally get into though many others have already been doing so.
There is one thing, though, that worries some people about this. They feel that it will be a case of quantity over quality for their questing experience as far as the new dailies are concerned for when MoP is released. I can see where they come from and don't want to mindlessly repeat the same tasks with a Pandaren look slapped on.
Though I am not in the MoP beta, because Blizzard implemented this daily cap change I am confident that the level 90 content for dailies (maybe a few 86 to 89 ones, as well?) will also actually make our dailies more interesting so it is just not more of the same things we are used to: kill x creatures, collect x items, turn in x progression marks. Sure, I outright *expect* a fair number of them to be these tried and true processes, but nothing BUT them? Not a chance.
In an MMO there are certainly limits to what can be done for objectives but I find that there are more creative people than what we really give the human race credit for. Heck, a mere *small* example of what could be done is mimic a quest like the one in the Molten Front where you must go around the rune-filled cave and disrupt the summoning ritual for the elemental reinforcements. Running around getting chased by mobs which then disappear as long as you click a rune when said mobs are close enough to you? It's a nice take on quests involving mobs without killing them in the traditional fashion.
I understand not all share my perspective in this matter and are fairly jaded to any potential for hope in this regard but keeping an open mind, even if not continuing one's subscription, it wouldn't hurt to at least occasionally read about the MoP experience. If you find that you are bored and WoW is actually making a few changes in the direction you feel is to be expected of such a massively popular game, then you can judge it to be a game worth coming back to.
If not, feel free to join the naysayers who predict WoW's demise whenever so much as a free-to-play browser game comes out. I won't judge you on that. I'll be annoyed, yes, but judge? No, I'd rather just play my awesome unlimited daily quest game.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Friday, 18 May 2012
Auction House Annoyances
Been a while since my last post and I don't believe anyone but myself is reading this (and I'm only re-reading it when posted to more easily find mistakes I've made whilst typing) but here I go again with a new post (finally).
The auction house is a very tiresome and, as far as I'm concerned, outdated.
You have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of players trying to sell what is essentially the same crap to each other. Some use the Auction House Key (or whatever that stupid tool is), to addons, to just making educated guesses and simple math to determine prices.
I fit into that last category. I hate most addons. In fact, I run not even DBM right now (why bother? when others have it, it tells even those who don't have it what is going on, so only timer bars would be extra for me and I never look at those ANYWAY due to trying to pay attention what is happening to my characters).
Why? Why would I hate things that make players' experiences easier and less stressful? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about if other people use them (except anything that tells you about rare spawns active in an area as well as telling you what the opposite team in PvP consists of, that's blatant cheating since otherwise you would have to, oh, I don't know...actually *look* for said spawns and see for yourself whether or not they were active as well as keep track of each individual player opposite of you in PvP to determine classes and how many of them there are).
Sorry, getting back to addons here, it's just that I, personally, don't like automation to such extents. I think for myself and, besides, I hate all this one copper/silver/gold/percent undercutting crap. I list things super high if I want to see if anyone rich will bite when I list something really rare and unique, moderate/average when I just want to sell things that are commonly used and is not unusual to ask a given price for, and low when the listings have few uses, easier than most things to get, awkward because its something not usually considered worth putting up for auction, etc. It's simple.
Like I mentioned earlier, I feel the auction house is outdated. It has been suggested countless times before I ever looked into it but it is certainly worth repeating: give people the tools to just make public listings of what items they want and how much they are willing to pay for them. If someone feels it is worth their time, they will answer their ad and sell the desired items. Both parties leave happy and there is no competition with other players other than the simple "who can do it first?"
By all means, keep the standard auction house as it is but just add the above to it, is all. Or make a separate NPC for that, I don't care. Just do it.
Another thing that could be added is merely a play on the recently discussed Black Market Auction House on the MoP beta. Currently, it is filled with rare and/or outright removed items from the game.
Want Ashes of Al'ar? Okay, just be willing to compete with the insanely rich who won't give it a second thought about buying it. I am, but I am pretty dependent on investments paying off in MoP that I've saved up for literally several years to sell at a higher price. That's right. YEARS.
Well, anywhoo, for expanding on this idea is to create a relatively small (read: high but not so high as for it to truly rival the current system) population of fictional sellers of whom you can buy your basic bread & butter items from (herbs, ore, cloth, etc.) with a dash of more out-of-the-way items if farming to get that nice but annoyingly-costed profession item done. Stuff like that.
Buying them would maybe be a bit awkward because it would need some way of scanning the current auction house for what is reasonable prices and posting around that average, if not a smidge lower. The best part of that end of it is because it's not open to manipulation as much as you would think. No one in their right mind is going to "trick" the NPC auction house into posting low enough prices that they could just score some great deals on the same items because everyone *else* would just buy up the far greater amount of cheaper items from the person doing the manipulating. It's far too risky unless you're on some sickenly dead server in which case it would likely be pointless to do this manipulation in the first place.
So, essentially, it would be the ultimate gold dump. Sure, big-ticket items are a good draw to drain humongous portions of gold all at once but they would likely not sell often. What is needed is to use this idea and make auctions that will be *consistently* bought out at a reasonably fast pace.
It wouldn't really hurt those who farm out items for a decent living, as well, since they would always have far more materials than offered in the alternate auction house.
So, in conclusion, I feel that with the described actions above, the basic idea of buying and selling would make the game a lot healthier and impact the economy in such a way as to balance around the general level of wealth Blizzard wishes was "normal".
Then again...they *did* keep raising the gold cap. Those buggers! They're just toying with us now. March on Blizzard's headquarters and give them all a good, swift kick in the rear!
Okay, but in all seriousness, have a good one, all!
The auction house is a very tiresome and, as far as I'm concerned, outdated.
You have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of players trying to sell what is essentially the same crap to each other. Some use the Auction House Key (or whatever that stupid tool is), to addons, to just making educated guesses and simple math to determine prices.
I fit into that last category. I hate most addons. In fact, I run not even DBM right now (why bother? when others have it, it tells even those who don't have it what is going on, so only timer bars would be extra for me and I never look at those ANYWAY due to trying to pay attention what is happening to my characters).
Why? Why would I hate things that make players' experiences easier and less stressful? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about if other people use them (except anything that tells you about rare spawns active in an area as well as telling you what the opposite team in PvP consists of, that's blatant cheating since otherwise you would have to, oh, I don't know...actually *look* for said spawns and see for yourself whether or not they were active as well as keep track of each individual player opposite of you in PvP to determine classes and how many of them there are).
Sorry, getting back to addons here, it's just that I, personally, don't like automation to such extents. I think for myself and, besides, I hate all this one copper/silver/gold/percent undercutting crap. I list things super high if I want to see if anyone rich will bite when I list something really rare and unique, moderate/average when I just want to sell things that are commonly used and is not unusual to ask a given price for, and low when the listings have few uses, easier than most things to get, awkward because its something not usually considered worth putting up for auction, etc. It's simple.
Like I mentioned earlier, I feel the auction house is outdated. It has been suggested countless times before I ever looked into it but it is certainly worth repeating: give people the tools to just make public listings of what items they want and how much they are willing to pay for them. If someone feels it is worth their time, they will answer their ad and sell the desired items. Both parties leave happy and there is no competition with other players other than the simple "who can do it first?"
By all means, keep the standard auction house as it is but just add the above to it, is all. Or make a separate NPC for that, I don't care. Just do it.
Another thing that could be added is merely a play on the recently discussed Black Market Auction House on the MoP beta. Currently, it is filled with rare and/or outright removed items from the game.
Want Ashes of Al'ar? Okay, just be willing to compete with the insanely rich who won't give it a second thought about buying it. I am, but I am pretty dependent on investments paying off in MoP that I've saved up for literally several years to sell at a higher price. That's right. YEARS.
Well, anywhoo, for expanding on this idea is to create a relatively small (read: high but not so high as for it to truly rival the current system) population of fictional sellers of whom you can buy your basic bread & butter items from (herbs, ore, cloth, etc.) with a dash of more out-of-the-way items if farming to get that nice but annoyingly-costed profession item done. Stuff like that.
Buying them would maybe be a bit awkward because it would need some way of scanning the current auction house for what is reasonable prices and posting around that average, if not a smidge lower. The best part of that end of it is because it's not open to manipulation as much as you would think. No one in their right mind is going to "trick" the NPC auction house into posting low enough prices that they could just score some great deals on the same items because everyone *else* would just buy up the far greater amount of cheaper items from the person doing the manipulating. It's far too risky unless you're on some sickenly dead server in which case it would likely be pointless to do this manipulation in the first place.
So, essentially, it would be the ultimate gold dump. Sure, big-ticket items are a good draw to drain humongous portions of gold all at once but they would likely not sell often. What is needed is to use this idea and make auctions that will be *consistently* bought out at a reasonably fast pace.
It wouldn't really hurt those who farm out items for a decent living, as well, since they would always have far more materials than offered in the alternate auction house.
So, in conclusion, I feel that with the described actions above, the basic idea of buying and selling would make the game a lot healthier and impact the economy in such a way as to balance around the general level of wealth Blizzard wishes was "normal".
Then again...they *did* keep raising the gold cap. Those buggers! They're just toying with us now. March on Blizzard's headquarters and give them all a good, swift kick in the rear!
Okay, but in all seriousness, have a good one, all!
Friday, 20 April 2012
Starting Off: I Hate Min/Max
Hello, again!
I'd like to start small and express my distaste for the specific group of people whose class/spec choices aren't what they're playing because they *want* to but rather because they will jump on the bandwagon of whatever seems like it's the best of the best at a given time and —this is the best part—they decide to put everyone else down for not doing the same, bragging and holding whatever arbitrary standard they've come up with at the time over everyone.
Okay, I understand that it's their money, their time, their choice. However, when they cross the line into harassing others for playing what they wanted instead of just blindly going with the "xclass/xspec does xdamage/healing/mitigation more than xclasses/specs", they can go jump in a lake.
On my mage, not my first class but certainly my favourite, I have always been fire. What's that? Arcane is the leader in these specific scenarios for this current tier? Don't give a flying [insert expletive of choice here]. I won't go into PvP because I'm sure many people have many situations they can go and do something other than the standard obvious choice for their own characters. Besides, I really don't like PvP on my mage. My blood death knight (different server), sure, since I don't have to change from my tanking spec. Otherwise...eh, shaky ground, at best.
Anywhoo, it's my attitude towards this that makes me feel exceptionally lucky to be in the guild that I am. After all, we sure as heck don't run with a min/max setup. Why would we? We play what we like and base our raid group around that. It's not like we're going for any world/server firsts or anything so, really, what is the gosh darn problem? We just simply make it work.
If everyone played as though you didn't have any choice whatsoever, filling whatever role in whatever manner that was most efficient, then why would there be any different specs at all? Why not have Blizzard just make everyone one class with the exact same spells/abilities, the same rotation priority, etc? It goes on and on forever.
We all know *why* that doesn't happen: because most (read: not all) people like choice. If not for choice, the gaming industry wouldn't be compelled to improve their products because we'd be content with what we have and never bother thinking about ways to improve one's experience. Forcing the industry to be creative, to push the boundaries of what it capable of being implemented is what drives production quality up.
Admittedly, though, there's a flip side to that. As things become more and more innovative, the industry is going to lose steam at some point and probably has a few times already before gaining their second wind. With all these new things that are introduced, we eventually take some things for granted. Also, we begin to set our standards higher and higher, to the point where we get outraged that some thing or another couldn't live up to our ever-growing demands.
Now, how many times can you recall in, say, the last 5 years that the industry, as described above, lost steam and couldn't make a successful product because all they could make was simply "more of the same". How many people got so ticked off at those points and made the most ridiculous fuss you've ever heard (at the time, that is)? Yeah...those weren't pretty.
I mean, heck, you can see it even recently with the whole Mass Effect 3 ending nonsense.
Brace yourself, I'm going to go on a rant here that's pretty off from the rest of what I'm talking about, so please bear through it or skip to the end.
SPOILER ALERT AHEAD! DO NOT READ PAST IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED MASS EFFECT 3! CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN RISK! DO NOT GET ANGRY WITH ME BECAUSE YOU HAD FAIR WARNING!
We're clear? Okay, read on.
I watched a friend play through and choose the ending with the destroyal (deactivation? I honestly forget) of all AI, with the inclusion of destroying the mass effect relays in the process. I wanted to see the ending with controlling the Reapers but y'know, I can just suck it up, now can't I? =P
Anywhoo, so Shepard sacrifices him/herself to do that. The Reapers, Geth, and all other such things are no longer a threat. Additionally, Joker is, for some reason, going through a relay at the time (not participating in the battle or did EDI detect the pulse? never explained) and the EMP burst catches up with the Normandy. The ship is struck down and an emergency crash landing must be made on the nearest planet. It's presumed all of the crew happens to be on it at the time but upon opening the door, only Joker, Tali and Garrus step out onto a lush planet and...boom. Credits. After said credits, an older man (Joker? we have absolutely no freaking idea) is talking to his granddaughter and basically it's implied he told her the story of basically the whole plotline. Something about her wondering about the rest of the vastness of space and being told that there are countless other planets, blah blah blah and she wants to hear another story about Shepard.
How is that a bad ending? Yes, you don't know what happens to everyone ELSE but frankly, if this was a novel, it'd be a brilliant ending. Apparently, in a video game it's crap that never deserved to see the light of day and whoever collaberated to agree on it as an ending to the entire series deserve nothing more than a slow, painful death.
Where do these people come from? My goodness gracious, how are *those* people not committed to some sort of asylum? How does any rational human being get so wound up over the ending of a video game that death threats or wishes to that effect are being spewed from every corner of the internet?
Yeesh.
OKAY, SPOILER ALERT HAS PASSED! YOU MAY CONTINUE ON NOT BEING TOLD ANYTHING YOU MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED!
So, as you may have concluded, I truly hate to be judged on personal preferences nor do I respect any sort of oppression of the same fashion upon others. I don't go to Dairy Queen and berate people who choose not to get their cones dipped just because I think the chocolate dipping is better in addition to the fact that you TECHNICALLY get a little more product for the same cost. I don't go harassing others based on what colour of clothing they wear because it isn't as drawing to the eye as a different colour that I might be wearing to allow a more obvious impact on being noticed, etc. I could go on and on but hopefully you get the point.
The class/spec choice issue is JUST as ridiculous as the examples described above.
I don't really know how to end this with a clean wrap-up so I'll just leave it here.
Thank you for your time and hopefully my first *real* post wasn't absolutely horrible.
I'd like to start small and express my distaste for the specific group of people whose class/spec choices aren't what they're playing because they *want* to but rather because they will jump on the bandwagon of whatever seems like it's the best of the best at a given time and —this is the best part—they decide to put everyone else down for not doing the same, bragging and holding whatever arbitrary standard they've come up with at the time over everyone.
Okay, I understand that it's their money, their time, their choice. However, when they cross the line into harassing others for playing what they wanted instead of just blindly going with the "xclass/xspec does xdamage/healing/mitigation more than xclasses/specs", they can go jump in a lake.
On my mage, not my first class but certainly my favourite, I have always been fire. What's that? Arcane is the leader in these specific scenarios for this current tier? Don't give a flying [insert expletive of choice here]. I won't go into PvP because I'm sure many people have many situations they can go and do something other than the standard obvious choice for their own characters. Besides, I really don't like PvP on my mage. My blood death knight (different server), sure, since I don't have to change from my tanking spec. Otherwise...eh, shaky ground, at best.
Anywhoo, it's my attitude towards this that makes me feel exceptionally lucky to be in the guild that I am. After all, we sure as heck don't run with a min/max setup. Why would we? We play what we like and base our raid group around that. It's not like we're going for any world/server firsts or anything so, really, what is the gosh darn problem? We just simply make it work.
If everyone played as though you didn't have any choice whatsoever, filling whatever role in whatever manner that was most efficient, then why would there be any different specs at all? Why not have Blizzard just make everyone one class with the exact same spells/abilities, the same rotation priority, etc? It goes on and on forever.
We all know *why* that doesn't happen: because most (read: not all) people like choice. If not for choice, the gaming industry wouldn't be compelled to improve their products because we'd be content with what we have and never bother thinking about ways to improve one's experience. Forcing the industry to be creative, to push the boundaries of what it capable of being implemented is what drives production quality up.
Admittedly, though, there's a flip side to that. As things become more and more innovative, the industry is going to lose steam at some point and probably has a few times already before gaining their second wind. With all these new things that are introduced, we eventually take some things for granted. Also, we begin to set our standards higher and higher, to the point where we get outraged that some thing or another couldn't live up to our ever-growing demands.
Now, how many times can you recall in, say, the last 5 years that the industry, as described above, lost steam and couldn't make a successful product because all they could make was simply "more of the same". How many people got so ticked off at those points and made the most ridiculous fuss you've ever heard (at the time, that is)? Yeah...those weren't pretty.
I mean, heck, you can see it even recently with the whole Mass Effect 3 ending nonsense.
Brace yourself, I'm going to go on a rant here that's pretty off from the rest of what I'm talking about, so please bear through it or skip to the end.
SPOILER ALERT AHEAD! DO NOT READ PAST IF YOU HAVEN'T COMPLETED MASS EFFECT 3! CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN RISK! DO NOT GET ANGRY WITH ME BECAUSE YOU HAD FAIR WARNING!
We're clear? Okay, read on.
I watched a friend play through and choose the ending with the destroyal (deactivation? I honestly forget) of all AI, with the inclusion of destroying the mass effect relays in the process. I wanted to see the ending with controlling the Reapers but y'know, I can just suck it up, now can't I? =P
Anywhoo, so Shepard sacrifices him/herself to do that. The Reapers, Geth, and all other such things are no longer a threat. Additionally, Joker is, for some reason, going through a relay at the time (not participating in the battle or did EDI detect the pulse? never explained) and the EMP burst catches up with the Normandy. The ship is struck down and an emergency crash landing must be made on the nearest planet. It's presumed all of the crew happens to be on it at the time but upon opening the door, only Joker, Tali and Garrus step out onto a lush planet and...boom. Credits. After said credits, an older man (Joker? we have absolutely no freaking idea) is talking to his granddaughter and basically it's implied he told her the story of basically the whole plotline. Something about her wondering about the rest of the vastness of space and being told that there are countless other planets, blah blah blah and she wants to hear another story about Shepard.
How is that a bad ending? Yes, you don't know what happens to everyone ELSE but frankly, if this was a novel, it'd be a brilliant ending. Apparently, in a video game it's crap that never deserved to see the light of day and whoever collaberated to agree on it as an ending to the entire series deserve nothing more than a slow, painful death.
Where do these people come from? My goodness gracious, how are *those* people not committed to some sort of asylum? How does any rational human being get so wound up over the ending of a video game that death threats or wishes to that effect are being spewed from every corner of the internet?
Yeesh.
OKAY, SPOILER ALERT HAS PASSED! YOU MAY CONTINUE ON NOT BEING TOLD ANYTHING YOU MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED!
So, as you may have concluded, I truly hate to be judged on personal preferences nor do I respect any sort of oppression of the same fashion upon others. I don't go to Dairy Queen and berate people who choose not to get their cones dipped just because I think the chocolate dipping is better in addition to the fact that you TECHNICALLY get a little more product for the same cost. I don't go harassing others based on what colour of clothing they wear because it isn't as drawing to the eye as a different colour that I might be wearing to allow a more obvious impact on being noticed, etc. I could go on and on but hopefully you get the point.
The class/spec choice issue is JUST as ridiculous as the examples described above.
I don't really know how to end this with a clean wrap-up so I'll just leave it here.
Thank you for your time and hopefully my first *real* post wasn't absolutely horrible.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Introduction: Welcome!
Hello!
I am your host, The Annoyed Mage.
I am an avid World of Warcraft player and ideas keep striking me in as to what I would love writing about in regards to the game but, sadly, always come up with topics based off of annoyances. I really am striving to look at good things and comment on them, as well, but after 7 years of playing World of Warcraft, much of (read: not all) of my sense of innocent wonder and amazement of this massively popular game has descended into many complaints about some of the people who play it, with much sighing involved.
I apologize in advance for my less-than-fabulous attitude; I just notice far too many things because I am so analytical. Do I claim that I'd be able to give unbiased arguments with a fully rounded out discussion of exactly why I think the way I do? You haven't known me very long, have you? Oh, wait...yeah, you've known me for about 2 minutes, so fair enough.
In all seriousness, I'd like to get back to what my objective is for this blog. I want to be able to post my thoughts in an atmosphere that is not toxic and demeaning such as the official WoW forums. If I happen to give off any vibe that makes you feel as though I came straight from there, please let me know. I may be pretty annoyed, angry, confused, and believing there is no hope for a large amount of people to have any sense of decency in the slightest but I dare not let any of THAT nonsense become prevalent in the way I do things right here.
Seriously, let me know, okay?
So, to wrap up my little introduction: I'm not as positive as I'd like to be, I'll be commenting on things that annoy me more than anything, I will *try* to put in the occasional thing that's on a more positive note, I'm doing this to release my thoughts that won't be so horrendously pounced upon by the jackals of the official WoW forums, and if you feel as uncomfortable here as you do the forums (even though I'm only posting intial topics and not arguing things back and forth) please let me know so I can correct myself for future posts.
Yeah, yeah, I don't really do short-versions of many things but OH WELL.
Anywhoo, with that, welcome to 'The Annoyed Mage'.
I am your host, The Annoyed Mage.
I am an avid World of Warcraft player and ideas keep striking me in as to what I would love writing about in regards to the game but, sadly, always come up with topics based off of annoyances. I really am striving to look at good things and comment on them, as well, but after 7 years of playing World of Warcraft, much of (read: not all) of my sense of innocent wonder and amazement of this massively popular game has descended into many complaints about some of the people who play it, with much sighing involved.
I apologize in advance for my less-than-fabulous attitude; I just notice far too many things because I am so analytical. Do I claim that I'd be able to give unbiased arguments with a fully rounded out discussion of exactly why I think the way I do? You haven't known me very long, have you? Oh, wait...yeah, you've known me for about 2 minutes, so fair enough.
In all seriousness, I'd like to get back to what my objective is for this blog. I want to be able to post my thoughts in an atmosphere that is not toxic and demeaning such as the official WoW forums. If I happen to give off any vibe that makes you feel as though I came straight from there, please let me know. I may be pretty annoyed, angry, confused, and believing there is no hope for a large amount of people to have any sense of decency in the slightest but I dare not let any of THAT nonsense become prevalent in the way I do things right here.
Seriously, let me know, okay?
So, to wrap up my little introduction: I'm not as positive as I'd like to be, I'll be commenting on things that annoy me more than anything, I will *try* to put in the occasional thing that's on a more positive note, I'm doing this to release my thoughts that won't be so horrendously pounced upon by the jackals of the official WoW forums, and if you feel as uncomfortable here as you do the forums (even though I'm only posting intial topics and not arguing things back and forth) please let me know so I can correct myself for future posts.
Yeah, yeah, I don't really do short-versions of many things but OH WELL.
Anywhoo, with that, welcome to 'The Annoyed Mage'.
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