Have you ever looked at something new on the auction house and thought "Who would pay a thousand gold for that," only to find that months later the item has skyrocketed in price and you missed a golden opportunity to pick it up on the cheap? Activision kingpin Bobby Kotick might make the same analogy. If he played video games, I mean.
The Escapist clued us in to this little story: back in 1995, Kotick was eating lunch with some folks from Davidson & Associates, and they told him that they had just bought up-and-coming software developer Blizzard Entertainment for the tidy sum of seven million dollars -- a number that a baffled Kotick believed to be ridiculous. At the time, Blizzard's claim to fame was Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans, and ... that's pretty much it, save for a few one-off games like Blackthorne and The Lost Vikings. Kotick called them nothing more than a "contract developer" and remarked that they weren't worth seven million bucks.
Of course, later that year, Blizzard released Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, which catapulted them into gaming history forever. Thirteen years later, in 2008, Kotick (and Activision) paid seven billion dollars to acquire Blizzard. For those not into mathematics, that's one thousand times more than what Davidson & Associates paid.
Well, he was right about one thing. They definitely weren't worth seven million bucks. He just didn't know how right he was at the time.
Jan 22, 2010
Bobby Kotick didn't think Blizzard was worth $7 million in '96
WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03
WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03
It's been a while since we've looked at the wonderful series, I'm MT. The series has obviously progressed pretty well, and the characters continue to be heartfelt and adorable. The animation style is still fun to watch, and our hero now seems to have levelled up into the twenties.
The opening segment for I am MT - Season2 - EP03 is absolutely fantastic. The call out to the Super Mario games is an inspired choice, since it calls out to the roots of gamers everywhere. I even found the final gag to be pretty amusing, since it still exemplifies the slapstick humor of the main character.
Watching the video, I was pleased to see the new, wide variety of characters that have been added to the show. There's a new troll, of course, but you also get to see the author's interpretation of the Alliance as well. I am MT - Season 2 - EP03 is a fairly long movie, clocking in at about a half hour. But if you've got the time to check it out, I think you'll find it worth it.
Click here to see it for yourself. WoW Moviewatch: I'm MT - Season 2 - EP03
Jan 17, 2010
WoW, Casually: Instance leveling guide
More importantly, dungeons are fun. In order to research this guide, I dusted off a level 18 paladin I hadn't played for at least 2 years. I picked up skills that were new since the last time she trained, redid her talents and tested the Dungeon Finder waters. It was an absolute blast running through Deadmines with an appropriately leveled group. I've also had a great time leveling a priest in her 30s and a mage in her 60s using the Dungeon Finder. If you too want to try some instance leveling (and I bet most of you already have), here are some tips to make the most of it:
Set aside uninterrupted playtime
The great thing about soloing is that you never have to worry about interruptions bothering anyone else but you. And if you have close friends or understanding guildies, you can usually impose on them with non-emergency AFKs as needed. But if you're going to PUG it up using Dungeon Finder, you should make arrangements to only be interrupted if absolutely necessary. Captain Obvious says it's inconsiderate to do otherwise. If you're a parent, I find that after bedtime is great.
Primetime is Dungeontime
If you wait until your server is quiet to queue up, you'll probably find your options limited and the queues long. So I highly recommend recording your favorite shows so that you can dungeon crawl when everyone else is.
Plan to spend around an hour
In general, old world instances are much longer than the 5 mans we run in Northrend. Of course, there are exceptions such as Scarlet Monastery Graveyard, which is an easy 15 minute run. Also, you may end up in a dungeon in which your whole group is unfamiliar and/or can't remember. And there's a lot to be said for enjoying the scenery instead of just rushing through.
Be a healer or tank
If you really don't like playing either role, don't take this advice. Playing WoW should be fun. However, if you do enjoy being a meatshield or playing whack-a-mole, then you will find your waiting time much more reasonable than queueing as DPS -- possibly even as instantaneous as it is at 80. Of course, some people queue as tank and then expect someone else to actually do the work. That's just stupid, since runs only go smoothly if everyone performs their role correctly. But I'm sure you all know that. Also, make sure you understand the basics of your class in your chosen role and have the appropriate gear for it at that level.
Get the quests
I have solo or duo leveled most of my characters previous to Patch 3.3 and therefore am used to just dropping the quests requiring instances. But now I seek them out. The quest rewards for dungeon quests are often better than the drops inside and are usually better than nondungeon quest rewards. And, of course, there is the nice chunk of XP you get for turning in quests. Picking up quests isn't always possible for every dungeon, particularly for the ones that are located in enemy cities. And some are hard to find. The really nice PUGgers share their quests at the beginning of dungeon runs... if they have a chance before the tank starts pulling.
Prepare your bags
Visit your bank, shop at vendors, mail to your bank alt and otherwise empty your bags of everything you don't need for the run. Then make sure you stock up on food, drink, bandages, potions, reagents and anything else you will need for a run or two. Make sure to repair and restock inbetween queuing. You can only trade conjured items across realms, so your groupies won't be able to help you if you're missing required items and you don't have a mage.
Start young
You can start using the Dungeon Finder tool at level 15. I don't know if I'd recommend starting that early -- level 18 might make the dungeons go a bit easier. When you sign up for a random dungeon, you will be put in a group of similarly leveled people in an appropriate instance.
Stay till the end
Defeating the main boss for the dungeon will give you achievements, great gear drops and most importantly, an XP bonus and The Satchel of Helpful Goods. Unlike the heroic dailies at max level where the best goodies only drop once a day, the satchel will drop every time you complete a random dungeon while leveling. The satchel contains sweet, delicious gear that is usually better than anything else you can get at your level. Even at lower levels, you get a pretty blue item to drape on your bod.
Don't stay till the end
The satchel and valuable playtime is not worth it if you're stuck with jerks and/or idiots. The players blaming everyone else for wipes are usually the ones who are causing them. And the ones who are ridiculously rude from the outset will not improve during the run. You'll enjoy your play session much more if you are questing while working off the Dungeon Debuff than if you are putting up with That Guy. I once stuck with a run where the "leader" made a rape comment in the first few seconds of my zoning in. Dumb move. I should have put him on ignore and scarpered. The funsuckers only win if you let them, so degroup from the jerks and don't look back.
Need everything you want
I know not everyone agrees with me on this, but it really reduces your stress and makes the runs go faster. In the lower levels, classes can need on armor that is lower than theirs. So hunters can need on cloth -- that they'll never use. And some of them will. If you are there at the beginning of the run, suggest a Need Everything loot system for speed purposes. If you aren't there at the beginning or forget to communicate, I recommend you make a quick gear comparison by holding down the shift key while you mouseover the dropped loot. Then Need it if it's an upgrade. Need every pattern for your professions too. If something drops that you can use and will equip right away, but you don't win it, just ask if the winner will wear it. You can trade dropped gear from the current instance and conjured items across realms but nothing else. To reduce drama, equip new gear right away.
Don't degroup from good groups
If you still have time in your play session and your group was a good one, don't degroup at the end. Speak up quickly and suggest requeueing together. You'll still get the satchel at the end because the group began as random. The only problem is when one of you outlevels the others, then the leader won't be able to requeue until the higher level leaves.
Have fun!
If you are stuck in a level where you get the same dungeon over and over along with everyone else you are PUGging with then the runs are going to be speedy blurs. But if it's your first time in a dungeon on your current character, announce that at the beginning. It shouldn't be difficult to find others who are willing to take it slow-ish to really enjoy the experience. My PUG and I had a blast in Deadmines even though we wiped a couple times and we got lost running back. A couple impatient DPSers dropped group because we weren't speedy enough, but they were instantly replaced. (That's another reason being a tank or healer is best.)
When you spend an evening playing with the Dungeon Finder Tool, you are going to find that the leveling will be fast and furious. You may even want to macro a "Grats" emote for all the groupies who are dinging with you. Also, the Gearscore/Recount elitism that happens at endgame is nonexistent while leveling, making the whole experience more relaxing. (It seems that many of you have found that the elitism is still going on in leveling instances. How disappointing.) And at the end of the session, you'll find your more advanced character sporting sweet new armor, weapons and a bulging pocket of gold. Now go forth and dungeon crawl!
The Frozen Throne is now in Icecrown (sort of)
We took notice of this in an earlier edition of the Queue, but I thought this little bit of news merited its own article for the benefit of lore junkies, raid leaders, or anyone who just might have missed it. After being asked a question over where Angrathar was really located in the larger Icecrown raid complex, I flew out to no-man's-land of southern Icecrown/northwestern Dragonblight and tried to get a good handle on the architecture. While doing so, I noticed a new and extremely tall spire nestled in the mountain range past the Wrath Gate and flew over to investigate. At the top of a saronite spire is huge chunk of misty ice capped by a flat surface with a black design vaguely reminiscent of the one on the Lordaeron throne room (although for all I know this is entirely unintended). From above, it bears a startling resemblance to an image datamined by Boubouille some time ago that was guessed to be the location of the eventual fight with the Lich King -- and I think this exterior "set" could be quite useful for any raid attempting to work on positioning once details of the fight become known. Curiously enough, the Throne itself doesn't appear to be present in-game at the moment, but that might change soon.
Beware of WoW Armory phishing scams
First things first: the correct address for the WoW Armory is wowarmory.com. Bookmark it. Memorize it. But don't ever, ever search for it again. We've talked before about how misspelling searches can get you into trouble. But even if you spell WoW Armory correctly when Googling, the first sponsored site that shows up is a phishing site -- and it's a really good one.
Update 1:10pm: Google seems to have removed the site from their sponsored listing in the short time since I wrote this post. Kudos! Nonetheless, there are and will be more sites using the same technique, so the warning remains valid.
Do not go to the following site: armory-worldofwarcnaft.com/wowarmory/, it is evil. Notice the n in warcnaft? You may not when you are clicking on it in your search page or when it shows up in your address bar. And that's what they are counting on. Because the rest of the site looks authentic. When you type in what you want to search for, you get asked for your Battle.net info. Then, no matter what you type in, it gives you a password error. (I typed in profanity. It was fun.) They have stolen all of the elements of the actual Blizzard pages, so that if you want your login page in other languages, just a click of the button will get you there. But don't. It's evil.
So let's say you do fall for this (many people are) and you don't have an authenticator... The next time you log into WoW, there will be an authenticator on your account. You'll have to call up Blizzard Support, convince them you are you, and work with them to get your account back. And the whole time you're doing it, someone is fondling your characters, hocking your bank contents and disenchanting your gear. They may even use your good name to scam someone else.
Please double check where you are anytime a site asks you for your account information. These social engineers are clever, so your safest best is not to search at all for official WoW pages. Just go to WorldofWarcraft.com and navigate to where you need to go.
And please, please, please get an authenticator, either in keyfob form or via your mobile. The pet is adorable and the added layer of security is relaxing. Don't wait for the possibility of them shipping with Cataclysm. Get one now and play in safety.
[Thanks to all those who sent this in.]
Better pet scaling promised in Cataclysm
Hunters and warlocks were given something to look forward to during the Blizzard developer chat on twitter this evening. The question was asked: "You mentioned pet scaling being added for patch 3.3 but due to time constraints, was delayed. Will this be in the next patch?" This is something that has been mentioned throughout the course of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and hasn't been implemented yet. The reason? It is a fairly complicated procedure.
We'll try to do what we can. Technically it's just more challenging than you might think. For Cataclysm, we have on our list that 100% of stats scale. If they don't then certain stats just won't be as valuable for pet classes. At the very least, we can do stuff like convert your X into damage for the pet so every stat is valuable. Getting everyone to scale with every stat better is a major goal for the class team for Cataclysm.
With hunters, warlocks, and unholy death knights, there are a lot of talents and glyphs that affect the scaling of stats to your pet. If you allow certain stats to scale too well, you suddenly unbalance the class. If the stat scales poorly, then the class falls in the other direction. Every talent and ability that taps into these has to be checked to make sure it doesn't throw things out of whack. Considerations on diminishing returns on certain stats scaling would also need to be checked. Overall, there is a lot of number crunching and statistical analysis involved in trying to find the right balance between all of the knobs that they need to adjust. However, the frustration of out-gearing your pet will hopefully be behind us either in an upcoming patch or (more realistically) when Cataclysm hits.
