World of Warcraft
Wasn’t expecting this to be a difficult review. Having Played and loved the Beta of World of Warcraft already, I was expecting this to be easy. Play some more on the Euro servers, slap a 9/10 at the end and wander down the pub in time for a swift round before closing.
The problem was that I realised I wasn’t quite having the ball of a time I remembered. Something was amiss.
World of Warcraft’s runaway success is simultaneously one of the bigger PC gaming stories of the last twelve months, yet no surprise to anyone at all. One of the PC big-boy developers march onto the pitch, a company whose every game is clamoured for by their fanatical fanbases, to… commercial failure? As if. It’s clear that, unless they completely made some huge error of judgement, they’d sell more than a couple of copies to their kindly elderly aunts.
It’s interesting in another way. Up to this point, while having the larger publisher’s money behind them, massively-multiplayer games have primarily been developed by teams who have done nothing but MMOs. There are exceptions, but most MMOs have the stink of people who, on a general game design front, don’t quite know what they’re doing. Blizzard, more than almost anyone else who works primarily on the PC, know what they’re doing. To generalise, their expertise is in sheer polish and finesse. They don’t make the world’s most imaginative games… but they’ve got a solidity which is hard to reject. The idea of an MMO being made by people who know what they’re doing is especially attractive.
This is, essentially, World of Warcraft. It’s not, as some have claimed, a huge step forward from the Fantasy MMO template. It’s just the fantasy MMO template made accessible, made driven and made fun. It’s sold because it’s the old thing, but better.
However, it’s worth noting that while World of Warcraft is seven-league-boot-steps ahead of most of its competition in its genre, it noticeably lacks the absolute finesse of some of Blizzards other games. To choose some examples, take a couple of quirks from my inventory. I want to pick up a bag, which slots immediately into its own task-bar. I can’t, because my inventory is full. I have to drop an item (so destroying it) to make room to pick it up just for a second.
Here’s another: I get a few (and only a few) quests and the description differs from the actual task in subtle, yet profound ways. Like the directions are erroneous, so sending you in the wrong direction. Or that the mission-objectives work in a counter-intuitive way, like the one where I had to slaughter a number of minions and a boss. However, while slaughtering the minions was enough, I had to actually loot an item from the head man. With all the plain slaughtering, we forgot to get the item from the big chap. By the time we remembered, the corpse had gone, so we had to wait for the chap to respawn. That we had minutes of queuing for him first time was teeth-gratingly annoying.
These are incredibly minor problems, yes. That’s the point. In a Blizzard game, I’m not really used to even noticing incredibly minor problems. This shows exactly how big a challenge that they set themselves.
But why didn’t I notice these niggles in my previous trip? Last time, I arrived to the game after a stay at Everquest 2, so was overjoyed to finally be in a place that made more sense. This time, I’ve come from a month stint in City of Heroes. Now, City of Heroes is a very different game to World of Warcraft. It’s a more minor game, in terms of scope. While in World of Warcraft each of the characters and races have a different starting point which vividly renders the situation from their cod-Fantasy mythos, in City of Heroes all heroes start in the same place. While in World of Warcraft you get to develop trade skills, construct items and trade equipment, in City of Heroes you can do none of that, except the third in a cursory way. And there’s no chance of ending up in a spangly skin-tight jumpsuit in World of Warcraft.
However, within its small region of effort, City of Heroes gets many things right - things which World of Warcraft barely attempts, and their absence nags terribly. The step of acquiring power in World of Warcraft, while fast compared to most MMOs, still leaves you fairly useless until the late teens, at least. Instanced content, specifically created for your quests, only opens up in the same teen period, leading to overt competition for boss spawns, especially with the game’s initial crunch. Most early quests revolve simply around killing a set number of creatures of a certain type, then returning. While the game fiction in the briefings does its best to disguise its falsity, it eventually does grind you down. You’re never reduced to killing rats, for example, but sometimes you feel as if you may as well be. And, at lower levels especially, having a monster spawn next to you and immediately aggro when you’re already engaged in combat is the cause of most player deaths.
Most depressing for me is the teaming. I’m playing with twenty real life friends in my guild, but I’ve adventured with only one for a significant period when our quests crossed. Not that I haven’t been in parties - when I arrive at a place which looks too dangerous, I’ve arranged an ad hoc group which immediately disassembles once our task is done, due to underdeveloped mission sharing. While the higher level raids are all very nice, I come to an MMO to play with people. Without one or the other sacrificing doing their missions, I can’t. And with nothing analogous to City of Heroes’ Side-kicking, my friends who are more than five or so levels above or below me may as well be playing different games. It’s to its credit that you can Solo the majority of World of Warcraft. It’s to its deficit that, sometimes, you feel as if it actively wants you to.
We’ve been pretty down so far, haven’t we? Well, partly because the initial impression feature we wrote was so generally up. And partly because every World of Warcraft review has been a fountain, so I thought some notes of its failings may prove handy.
But this negativity can’t tarnish the game too much. Its achievements are simply undeniable.
To chose some of its most obvious… The world itself. Rather than a cutting edge engine, Blizzard has used basic technology but made it beautiful through design sense and talent. The slightly cartoon edge lends the world a sense of realness which more direct aping of realty can’t match. The land, rather than being divided into atmosphere-shattering load-zones, forms one smooth streaming landscape. Once you enter the world - barring trips to instanced areas - you’re lulled into a continuous fantasy world. Using one of the travelling mechanisms, such as getting a taxi ride between cities on the back of a fantastical monster, is one of the single most atmospheric things I’ve seen in any fantasy game, let alone an MMO. The expanse of the landscape, with so many different terrains and sights to see, makes it a perfect virtual tourist destination. In a game that’s about active exploration as much as knowing exactly where you’re going, this is important. What’s the point of finding something if it isn’t worth seeing, after all? World of Warcraft understands this.
Equally, the game mechanics are carefully constructed. Each of the different character classes is interestingly designed, with even a few quirks added to the most traditional of classes to make them feel different and present alternate challenges. To choose a contentious example, the Warrior having - essentially - an inversed energy bar to everyone else’s. Their Energy (or “Rage”) is gathered by hitting or being hit, and fades away when not in combat. While everyone else finds themselves exhausted towards the end of a bout, a Warrior who carefully manages their Rage is still potent and ready to insert axe into some ruffian’s head. It’s something a little different than expected. World of Warcraft is good at little differences.
That’s enough undeniable achievements for now. Where does that leave us?
Reviews are buyer’s guides. To MMOGs a review’s categorical nature - this mark is what this game deserves, forever - is pretty much an anathema. The mark you stick on something stays there forever, sitting on Metacritic and glowering at the world. But look at how much - say - Ultima Online changed over its existence. Is the mark reviewers gave then still valid? How about a year down the line? How about in one week when some inevitable technical problem reduced everyone’s pleasure to zilch?
In a reviewer’s seat, you can’t let these thoughts intrude upon your consciousness too much, because - basically - you’ll go mad if you do. I’m reviewing it as it would be if you went down the shops and bought a copy this second. In a couple of months, it’ll have improved considerably, if only due to the mass dynamics of players altering across the maps and servers a little better.
This is the greatest fantasy MMO in existence, the absolute state of the art in orc-bashing.
But the nagging feeling I can’t shake is that, for me, that’s not quite enough anymore.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
2007年3月31日星期六
2007年3月29日星期四
World of WarCraft (PC) The Patches
World of WarCraft (PC) The Patches
And what a start they had. Hundreds of thousands of people running to buy, what was going to be the biggest MMORPG in 2005. Blizzard even had to stop the sale of the game in Europe for about 2 weeks in order to create new servers and upgrade hardware and software to accommodate the very fast growing population of gamers that wanted to experience the life of Warcraft and heroism.
In this article I will go through the release patches and also tell you a little about the 1.11 patch scheduled to release in the first half of June.
At release there were not many end game dungeons to be played. Most people hadn’t even reached level 60 yet and due to the fact that the population was still growing, Blizzard felt the need to implement things for low level excitement first and foremost. The only really high end instances were the Burning cities of Stratholm where Arthas abandoned his paladin order to save his kingdom and his people and ultimately be its doom, the Black Rock Spire where the Blackrock orcs roam, Stratholme, the school of the burning blade cultists. As well there was the Molten Core, deep beneath the black rock spire where Ragnaros and his generals were building their power and enslaved dark iron dwarves to safeguard the entrance. But the biggest of all threats in the Azeroth at release was perhaps the broodmother of the black dragonflight, Onyxia, and her lair deep in the Wyrmbog in Dustwallow marsh.
As the gamers evolved, so has the game. In the first patch, Mauradon, the Centaur clan’s city was released, as well as the Gurubashi Arena where it is every man for itself. Minor changes like helm and cloak graphics were also implemented and the first of many yearly events, the feast of the Winter Veil was put into motion. With the 1.3 patch the forgotten High Elf city, and Home of Queen Azshara followers was released. Now inhabited by the scary, ogre clans and the wretched highbornes, it was called the Dire Maul. Meeting stones where put in front of every dungeon to help the gamers find a party to the various dungeons in the game, ui improvements and class improvements where also put in. UI improvements contained a quest tracker, 4 new action bars totaling up in 48 new slots and chat bubbles. Class improvements included a new spell for mages (mage armor), improvements for priests (Power Word: Shield could be cast on all raid members, not only party members), better regenerating for warriors (generate parry, dodge, block) and the cat form DPS of the druid got increased.
Two new outdoor raid bosses with mixed spawn time were also implemented. This was Azuregos, the blue dragon who guards the land of Azshara and Kazzak, a demon Lord of the Tainted Scar in the vile and treacherous Blasted Lands.
With the 1.4 patch, Blizzard went from PvE (Player versus Environment) to PvP (Player versus Player) and implemented the Honor system to award those who played for the PvP aspect of the game. Because of this, they also made the Gurubashi Arena event happen ever three hours. Due to the honor system, Blizzard also put in new armor and weapons to award the PvP’ers of the game. Another feature was the elemental Invasions of 4 different places in Azeroth. These were Winterspring, Silithius, Un’Goro Crater and Azshara.
1.5 brought the Battlegrounds to the table and a new spawn of guilds would soon emerge in its wake. Also new mid level (level 30-50) content was brought in and reputation quests for the different factions so that you could buy mounts from other races of your faction.
1.6 Implemented Lord Victor Nefarious, Also known as Nefarian, the Black Dragonflights Leader. He is in the highest towers of the Blackrock Spire and wages a war against Ragnaros the Firelord and the rest of the world, with the red dragons as his most hated foe. As this was the PvE content of the patch, more PvP content was put in with Battlemasters in the cities, who could teleport you to the various battlegrounds. Honor system improvements and more class improvements made this patch the biggest that had been implemented. On top of this, the Darkmoon Faire now started to regularly visit Elwynn forest and Mulgore and awarded tickets who again can be turned in for items later for the adventurers who helped them gather materials they need.
1.7 The Soulflayer and his enslaved followers were set to be rescued and killed. The League of Arathor and The Defilers were recruiting guards to help them get the resources out of Arathi Basin. Meanwhile, Baron Revilgaz of Booty Bay found anther way to make money. A fishing competition. A dressing room for the posh people of Azeroth was also put in. (Pink and green? I mean come on!) The start of the re-evaluation of the classes also began with the Hunter talent changes.
1.8 Something stirs in the Emerald Dream and four mighty green dragons emerged form the dream realm. And so four new outdoor raidbosses was implemented; Ysondre, Emeriss, Taerar and Lethon. Hallows End and the celebration of Halloween was also introduced to the yearly event calendar. Map changes were done to Silithius and Cenarion Hold grew forth to give adventurers new armor, recipes and the likes. The whole world also got more items and Zul’Gurub alone holds 120 of them. It was also the druid classes turn to get their talents change.
1.9 The bug patch. The war of the sand is yet again at hand and adventurers of both races must join together to open the gates of the ancient Qiraji city Ahn’Qiraj. The armor sets that drops from Onyxia, the whole of Blackwing Lair and Ragnaros the Firelord had their looks revised. Auction Houses was implemented in all the major cities and linked together. The Goblin Auction Hoses in Everlook, Booty Bay and Rathcet was also linked together Paladins got their talents redone.
1.10, and the arrival of weather effects in some of the areas of Azeroth. The upgrading quests of the armor sets from Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. It was also the Priests turn to get an upgrade.
1.11 is on the verge of being released. The content of it contains Naxxramas, a necropolis floating above the plaguelands in northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms and the seat of the Licc Kel’Thuzad. A whole new armor set is also put into the new dungeon. The shamans and mages will also get their talents changed.
As with all MMORPG’s and patches there will always be problems. Some bugs are resolved but others get through. Blizzard did something good about the patches. They opened test realms to catch most of the bugs before they were implemented, but some still managed to get through or aren’t resolved before release. The first patches contained little or no bugs, but the first patch with big problems was 1.7 and the latest patch 1.10 has been the worst.
The graphical changes to the ui and the implementation of the weather effects made a lot of people unable to play. A hot fix was implemented (1.10.1) and everything seemed to be right on track, but when an extra patch to remove a few bugs is put in, suddenly all the high end level dungeons weren’t playable at all. Random disconnects made guilds all over Europe (not sure about the US) cancel their raids for over a week.
The first five or six patches were evenly balanced with both PvE and PvP content, but as of late the patches have become a bit unbalanced. Nothing has been done with the PvP content in a long time. The talent changes have made the classes that haven’t got their talent changes yet seem in worse shape than the others.
The biggest problem with the latest patches is the imbalance between the new PvE content; Ahn’Qiraj, Naxxramas, upgrade of the Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire and the Emerald Dragons, and the vast nothingness of PvP content for the last 6 months. Hopefully the PvP’ers will just keep to their PvP guild and their continuous farming of the three battlegrounds to reach the highest PvP rank, 14.
Blizzard will keep adding patches which contains new content for as long as money permits it, and with the expansion coming and the software and hardware being upgraded, the future of World of Warcraft seems promising. But what happens when it is released is another matter. We must also hope that they will implement new content for the people who love PvP. The community also wants to get the patches more balanced so the different sides don’t have to wait 6 months for new content. It seems though that the PvP content will always get the short end of the stick though, but we will see.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
http://clearblogs.com/ggoldskywow
And what a start they had. Hundreds of thousands of people running to buy, what was going to be the biggest MMORPG in 2005. Blizzard even had to stop the sale of the game in Europe for about 2 weeks in order to create new servers and upgrade hardware and software to accommodate the very fast growing population of gamers that wanted to experience the life of Warcraft and heroism.
In this article I will go through the release patches and also tell you a little about the 1.11 patch scheduled to release in the first half of June.
At release there were not many end game dungeons to be played. Most people hadn’t even reached level 60 yet and due to the fact that the population was still growing, Blizzard felt the need to implement things for low level excitement first and foremost. The only really high end instances were the Burning cities of Stratholm where Arthas abandoned his paladin order to save his kingdom and his people and ultimately be its doom, the Black Rock Spire where the Blackrock orcs roam, Stratholme, the school of the burning blade cultists. As well there was the Molten Core, deep beneath the black rock spire where Ragnaros and his generals were building their power and enslaved dark iron dwarves to safeguard the entrance. But the biggest of all threats in the Azeroth at release was perhaps the broodmother of the black dragonflight, Onyxia, and her lair deep in the Wyrmbog in Dustwallow marsh.
As the gamers evolved, so has the game. In the first patch, Mauradon, the Centaur clan’s city was released, as well as the Gurubashi Arena where it is every man for itself. Minor changes like helm and cloak graphics were also implemented and the first of many yearly events, the feast of the Winter Veil was put into motion. With the 1.3 patch the forgotten High Elf city, and Home of Queen Azshara followers was released. Now inhabited by the scary, ogre clans and the wretched highbornes, it was called the Dire Maul. Meeting stones where put in front of every dungeon to help the gamers find a party to the various dungeons in the game, ui improvements and class improvements where also put in. UI improvements contained a quest tracker, 4 new action bars totaling up in 48 new slots and chat bubbles. Class improvements included a new spell for mages (mage armor), improvements for priests (Power Word: Shield could be cast on all raid members, not only party members), better regenerating for warriors (generate parry, dodge, block) and the cat form DPS of the druid got increased.
Two new outdoor raid bosses with mixed spawn time were also implemented. This was Azuregos, the blue dragon who guards the land of Azshara and Kazzak, a demon Lord of the Tainted Scar in the vile and treacherous Blasted Lands.
With the 1.4 patch, Blizzard went from PvE (Player versus Environment) to PvP (Player versus Player) and implemented the Honor system to award those who played for the PvP aspect of the game. Because of this, they also made the Gurubashi Arena event happen ever three hours. Due to the honor system, Blizzard also put in new armor and weapons to award the PvP’ers of the game. Another feature was the elemental Invasions of 4 different places in Azeroth. These were Winterspring, Silithius, Un’Goro Crater and Azshara.
1.5 brought the Battlegrounds to the table and a new spawn of guilds would soon emerge in its wake. Also new mid level (level 30-50) content was brought in and reputation quests for the different factions so that you could buy mounts from other races of your faction.
1.6 Implemented Lord Victor Nefarious, Also known as Nefarian, the Black Dragonflights Leader. He is in the highest towers of the Blackrock Spire and wages a war against Ragnaros the Firelord and the rest of the world, with the red dragons as his most hated foe. As this was the PvE content of the patch, more PvP content was put in with Battlemasters in the cities, who could teleport you to the various battlegrounds. Honor system improvements and more class improvements made this patch the biggest that had been implemented. On top of this, the Darkmoon Faire now started to regularly visit Elwynn forest and Mulgore and awarded tickets who again can be turned in for items later for the adventurers who helped them gather materials they need.
1.7 The Soulflayer and his enslaved followers were set to be rescued and killed. The League of Arathor and The Defilers were recruiting guards to help them get the resources out of Arathi Basin. Meanwhile, Baron Revilgaz of Booty Bay found anther way to make money. A fishing competition. A dressing room for the posh people of Azeroth was also put in. (Pink and green? I mean come on!) The start of the re-evaluation of the classes also began with the Hunter talent changes.
1.8 Something stirs in the Emerald Dream and four mighty green dragons emerged form the dream realm. And so four new outdoor raidbosses was implemented; Ysondre, Emeriss, Taerar and Lethon. Hallows End and the celebration of Halloween was also introduced to the yearly event calendar. Map changes were done to Silithius and Cenarion Hold grew forth to give adventurers new armor, recipes and the likes. The whole world also got more items and Zul’Gurub alone holds 120 of them. It was also the druid classes turn to get their talents change.
1.9 The bug patch. The war of the sand is yet again at hand and adventurers of both races must join together to open the gates of the ancient Qiraji city Ahn’Qiraj. The armor sets that drops from Onyxia, the whole of Blackwing Lair and Ragnaros the Firelord had their looks revised. Auction Houses was implemented in all the major cities and linked together. The Goblin Auction Hoses in Everlook, Booty Bay and Rathcet was also linked together Paladins got their talents redone.
1.10, and the arrival of weather effects in some of the areas of Azeroth. The upgrading quests of the armor sets from Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. It was also the Priests turn to get an upgrade.
1.11 is on the verge of being released. The content of it contains Naxxramas, a necropolis floating above the plaguelands in northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms and the seat of the Licc Kel’Thuzad. A whole new armor set is also put into the new dungeon. The shamans and mages will also get their talents changed.
As with all MMORPG’s and patches there will always be problems. Some bugs are resolved but others get through. Blizzard did something good about the patches. They opened test realms to catch most of the bugs before they were implemented, but some still managed to get through or aren’t resolved before release. The first patches contained little or no bugs, but the first patch with big problems was 1.7 and the latest patch 1.10 has been the worst.
The graphical changes to the ui and the implementation of the weather effects made a lot of people unable to play. A hot fix was implemented (1.10.1) and everything seemed to be right on track, but when an extra patch to remove a few bugs is put in, suddenly all the high end level dungeons weren’t playable at all. Random disconnects made guilds all over Europe (not sure about the US) cancel their raids for over a week.
The first five or six patches were evenly balanced with both PvE and PvP content, but as of late the patches have become a bit unbalanced. Nothing has been done with the PvP content in a long time. The talent changes have made the classes that haven’t got their talent changes yet seem in worse shape than the others.
The biggest problem with the latest patches is the imbalance between the new PvE content; Ahn’Qiraj, Naxxramas, upgrade of the Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire and the Emerald Dragons, and the vast nothingness of PvP content for the last 6 months. Hopefully the PvP’ers will just keep to their PvP guild and their continuous farming of the three battlegrounds to reach the highest PvP rank, 14.
Blizzard will keep adding patches which contains new content for as long as money permits it, and with the expansion coming and the software and hardware being upgraded, the future of World of Warcraft seems promising. But what happens when it is released is another matter. We must also hope that they will implement new content for the people who love PvP. The community also wants to get the patches more balanced so the different sides don’t have to wait 6 months for new content. It seems though that the PvP content will always get the short end of the stick though, but we will see.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
http://clearblogs.com/ggoldskywow
World of WarCraft (PC) The Patches
World of WarCraft (PC) The Patches
And what a start they had. Hundreds of thousands of people running to buy, what was going to be the biggest MMORPG in 2005. Blizzard even had to stop the sale of the game in Europe for about 2 weeks in order to create new servers and upgrade hardware and software to accommodate the very fast growing population of gamers that wanted to experience the life of Warcraft and heroism.
In this article I will go through the release patches and also tell you a little about the 1.11 patch scheduled to release in the first half of June.
At release there were not many end game dungeons to be played. Most people hadn’t even reached level 60 yet and due to the fact that the population was still growing, Blizzard felt the need to implement things for low level excitement first and foremost. The only really high end instances were the Burning cities of Stratholm where Arthas abandoned his paladin order to save his kingdom and his people and ultimately be its doom, the Black Rock Spire where the Blackrock orcs roam, Stratholme, the school of the burning blade cultists. As well there was the Molten Core, deep beneath the black rock spire where Ragnaros and his generals were building their power and enslaved dark iron dwarves to safeguard the entrance. But the biggest of all threats in the Azeroth at release was perhaps the broodmother of the black dragonflight, Onyxia, and her lair deep in the Wyrmbog in Dustwallow marsh.
As the gamers evolved, so has the game. In the first patch, Mauradon, the Centaur clan’s city was released, as well as the Gurubashi Arena where it is every man for itself. Minor changes like helm and cloak graphics were also implemented and the first of many yearly events, the feast of the Winter Veil was put into motion. With the 1.3 patch the forgotten High Elf city, and Home of Queen Azshara followers was released. Now inhabited by the scary, ogre clans and the wretched highbornes, it was called the Dire Maul. Meeting stones where put in front of every dungeon to help the gamers find a party to the various dungeons in the game, ui improvements and class improvements where also put in. UI improvements contained a quest tracker, 4 new action bars totaling up in 48 new slots and chat bubbles. Class improvements included a new spell for mages (mage armor), improvements for priests (Power Word: Shield could be cast on all raid members, not only party members), better regenerating for warriors (generate parry, dodge, block) and the cat form DPS of the druid got increased.
Two new outdoor raid bosses with mixed spawn time were also implemented. This was Azuregos, the blue dragon who guards the land of Azshara and Kazzak, a demon Lord of the Tainted Scar in the vile and treacherous Blasted Lands.
With the 1.4 patch, Blizzard went from PvE (Player versus Environment) to PvP (Player versus Player) and implemented the Honor system to award those who played for the PvP aspect of the game. Because of this, they also made the Gurubashi Arena event happen ever three hours. Due to the honor system, Blizzard also put in new armor and weapons to award the PvP’ers of the game. Another feature was the elemental Invasions of 4 different places in Azeroth. These were Winterspring, Silithius, Un’Goro Crater and Azshara.
1.5 brought the Battlegrounds to the table and a new spawn of guilds would soon emerge in its wake. Also new mid level (level 30-50) content was brought in and reputation quests for the different factions so that you could buy mounts from other races of your faction.
1.6 Implemented Lord Victor Nefarious, Also known as Nefarian, the Black Dragonflights Leader. He is in the highest towers of the Blackrock Spire and wages a war against Ragnaros the Firelord and the rest of the world, with the red dragons as his most hated foe. As this was the PvE content of the patch, more PvP content was put in with Battlemasters in the cities, who could teleport you to the various battlegrounds. Honor system improvements and more class improvements made this patch the biggest that had been implemented. On top of this, the Darkmoon Faire now started to regularly visit Elwynn forest and Mulgore and awarded tickets who again can be turned in for items later for the adventurers who helped them gather materials they need.
1.7 The Soulflayer and his enslaved followers were set to be rescued and killed. The League of Arathor and The Defilers were recruiting guards to help them get the resources out of Arathi Basin. Meanwhile, Baron Revilgaz of Booty Bay found anther way to make money. A fishing competition. A dressing room for the posh people of Azeroth was also put in. (Pink and green? I mean come on!) The start of the re-evaluation of the classes also began with the Hunter talent changes.
1.8 Something stirs in the Emerald Dream and four mighty green dragons emerged form the dream realm. And so four new outdoor raidbosses was implemented; Ysondre, Emeriss, Taerar and Lethon. Hallows End and the celebration of Halloween was also introduced to the yearly event calendar. Map changes were done to Silithius and Cenarion Hold grew forth to give adventurers new armor, recipes and the likes. The whole world also got more items and Zul’Gurub alone holds 120 of them. It was also the druid classes turn to get their talents change.
1.9 The bug patch. The war of the sand is yet again at hand and adventurers of both races must join together to open the gates of the ancient Qiraji city Ahn’Qiraj. The armor sets that drops from Onyxia, the whole of Blackwing Lair and Ragnaros the Firelord had their looks revised. Auction Houses was implemented in all the major cities and linked together. The Goblin Auction Hoses in Everlook, Booty Bay and Rathcet was also linked together Paladins got their talents redone.
1.10, and the arrival of weather effects in some of the areas of Azeroth. The upgrading quests of the armor sets from Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. It was also the Priests turn to get an upgrade.
1.11 is on the verge of being released. The content of it contains Naxxramas, a necropolis floating above the plaguelands in northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms and the seat of the Licc Kel’Thuzad. A whole new armor set is also put into the new dungeon. The shamans and mages will also get their talents changed.
As with all MMORPG’s and patches there will always be problems. Some bugs are resolved but others get through. Blizzard did something good about the patches. They opened test realms to catch most of the bugs before they were implemented, but some still managed to get through or aren’t resolved before release. The first patches contained little or no bugs, but the first patch with big problems was 1.7 and the latest patch 1.10 has been the worst.
The graphical changes to the ui and the implementation of the weather effects made a lot of people unable to play. A hot fix was implemented (1.10.1) and everything seemed to be right on track, but when an extra patch to remove a few bugs is put in, suddenly all the high end level dungeons weren’t playable at all. Random disconnects made guilds all over Europe (not sure about the US) cancel their raids for over a week.
The first five or six patches were evenly balanced with both PvE and PvP content, but as of late the patches have become a bit unbalanced. Nothing has been done with the PvP content in a long time. The talent changes have made the classes that haven’t got their talent changes yet seem in worse shape than the others.
The biggest problem with the latest patches is the imbalance between the new PvE content; Ahn’Qiraj, Naxxramas, upgrade of the Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire and the Emerald Dragons, and the vast nothingness of PvP content for the last 6 months. Hopefully the PvP’ers will just keep to their PvP guild and their continuous farming of the three battlegrounds to reach the highest PvP rank, 14.
Blizzard will keep adding patches which contains new content for as long as money permits it, and with the expansion coming and the software and hardware being upgraded, the future of World of Warcraft seems promising. But what happens when it is released is another matter. We must also hope that they will implement new content for the people who love PvP. The community also wants to get the patches more balanced so the different sides don’t have to wait 6 months for new content. It seems though that the PvP content will always get the short end of the stick though, but we will see.
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And what a start they had. Hundreds of thousands of people running to buy, what was going to be the biggest MMORPG in 2005. Blizzard even had to stop the sale of the game in Europe for about 2 weeks in order to create new servers and upgrade hardware and software to accommodate the very fast growing population of gamers that wanted to experience the life of Warcraft and heroism.
In this article I will go through the release patches and also tell you a little about the 1.11 patch scheduled to release in the first half of June.
At release there were not many end game dungeons to be played. Most people hadn’t even reached level 60 yet and due to the fact that the population was still growing, Blizzard felt the need to implement things for low level excitement first and foremost. The only really high end instances were the Burning cities of Stratholm where Arthas abandoned his paladin order to save his kingdom and his people and ultimately be its doom, the Black Rock Spire where the Blackrock orcs roam, Stratholme, the school of the burning blade cultists. As well there was the Molten Core, deep beneath the black rock spire where Ragnaros and his generals were building their power and enslaved dark iron dwarves to safeguard the entrance. But the biggest of all threats in the Azeroth at release was perhaps the broodmother of the black dragonflight, Onyxia, and her lair deep in the Wyrmbog in Dustwallow marsh.
As the gamers evolved, so has the game. In the first patch, Mauradon, the Centaur clan’s city was released, as well as the Gurubashi Arena where it is every man for itself. Minor changes like helm and cloak graphics were also implemented and the first of many yearly events, the feast of the Winter Veil was put into motion. With the 1.3 patch the forgotten High Elf city, and Home of Queen Azshara followers was released. Now inhabited by the scary, ogre clans and the wretched highbornes, it was called the Dire Maul. Meeting stones where put in front of every dungeon to help the gamers find a party to the various dungeons in the game, ui improvements and class improvements where also put in. UI improvements contained a quest tracker, 4 new action bars totaling up in 48 new slots and chat bubbles. Class improvements included a new spell for mages (mage armor), improvements for priests (Power Word: Shield could be cast on all raid members, not only party members), better regenerating for warriors (generate parry, dodge, block) and the cat form DPS of the druid got increased.
Two new outdoor raid bosses with mixed spawn time were also implemented. This was Azuregos, the blue dragon who guards the land of Azshara and Kazzak, a demon Lord of the Tainted Scar in the vile and treacherous Blasted Lands.
With the 1.4 patch, Blizzard went from PvE (Player versus Environment) to PvP (Player versus Player) and implemented the Honor system to award those who played for the PvP aspect of the game. Because of this, they also made the Gurubashi Arena event happen ever three hours. Due to the honor system, Blizzard also put in new armor and weapons to award the PvP’ers of the game. Another feature was the elemental Invasions of 4 different places in Azeroth. These were Winterspring, Silithius, Un’Goro Crater and Azshara.
1.5 brought the Battlegrounds to the table and a new spawn of guilds would soon emerge in its wake. Also new mid level (level 30-50) content was brought in and reputation quests for the different factions so that you could buy mounts from other races of your faction.
1.6 Implemented Lord Victor Nefarious, Also known as Nefarian, the Black Dragonflights Leader. He is in the highest towers of the Blackrock Spire and wages a war against Ragnaros the Firelord and the rest of the world, with the red dragons as his most hated foe. As this was the PvE content of the patch, more PvP content was put in with Battlemasters in the cities, who could teleport you to the various battlegrounds. Honor system improvements and more class improvements made this patch the biggest that had been implemented. On top of this, the Darkmoon Faire now started to regularly visit Elwynn forest and Mulgore and awarded tickets who again can be turned in for items later for the adventurers who helped them gather materials they need.
1.7 The Soulflayer and his enslaved followers were set to be rescued and killed. The League of Arathor and The Defilers were recruiting guards to help them get the resources out of Arathi Basin. Meanwhile, Baron Revilgaz of Booty Bay found anther way to make money. A fishing competition. A dressing room for the posh people of Azeroth was also put in. (Pink and green? I mean come on!) The start of the re-evaluation of the classes also began with the Hunter talent changes.
1.8 Something stirs in the Emerald Dream and four mighty green dragons emerged form the dream realm. And so four new outdoor raidbosses was implemented; Ysondre, Emeriss, Taerar and Lethon. Hallows End and the celebration of Halloween was also introduced to the yearly event calendar. Map changes were done to Silithius and Cenarion Hold grew forth to give adventurers new armor, recipes and the likes. The whole world also got more items and Zul’Gurub alone holds 120 of them. It was also the druid classes turn to get their talents change.
1.9 The bug patch. The war of the sand is yet again at hand and adventurers of both races must join together to open the gates of the ancient Qiraji city Ahn’Qiraj. The armor sets that drops from Onyxia, the whole of Blackwing Lair and Ragnaros the Firelord had their looks revised. Auction Houses was implemented in all the major cities and linked together. The Goblin Auction Hoses in Everlook, Booty Bay and Rathcet was also linked together Paladins got their talents redone.
1.10, and the arrival of weather effects in some of the areas of Azeroth. The upgrading quests of the armor sets from Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire. It was also the Priests turn to get an upgrade.
1.11 is on the verge of being released. The content of it contains Naxxramas, a necropolis floating above the plaguelands in northern part of the Eastern Kingdoms and the seat of the Licc Kel’Thuzad. A whole new armor set is also put into the new dungeon. The shamans and mages will also get their talents changed.
As with all MMORPG’s and patches there will always be problems. Some bugs are resolved but others get through. Blizzard did something good about the patches. They opened test realms to catch most of the bugs before they were implemented, but some still managed to get through or aren’t resolved before release. The first patches contained little or no bugs, but the first patch with big problems was 1.7 and the latest patch 1.10 has been the worst.
The graphical changes to the ui and the implementation of the weather effects made a lot of people unable to play. A hot fix was implemented (1.10.1) and everything seemed to be right on track, but when an extra patch to remove a few bugs is put in, suddenly all the high end level dungeons weren’t playable at all. Random disconnects made guilds all over Europe (not sure about the US) cancel their raids for over a week.
The first five or six patches were evenly balanced with both PvE and PvP content, but as of late the patches have become a bit unbalanced. Nothing has been done with the PvP content in a long time. The talent changes have made the classes that haven’t got their talent changes yet seem in worse shape than the others.
The biggest problem with the latest patches is the imbalance between the new PvE content; Ahn’Qiraj, Naxxramas, upgrade of the Stratholme, Scholomance and Blackrock Spire and the Emerald Dragons, and the vast nothingness of PvP content for the last 6 months. Hopefully the PvP’ers will just keep to their PvP guild and their continuous farming of the three battlegrounds to reach the highest PvP rank, 14.
Blizzard will keep adding patches which contains new content for as long as money permits it, and with the expansion coming and the software and hardware being upgraded, the future of World of Warcraft seems promising. But what happens when it is released is another matter. We must also hope that they will implement new content for the people who love PvP. The community also wants to get the patches more balanced so the different sides don’t have to wait 6 months for new content. It seems though that the PvP content will always get the short end of the stick though, but we will see.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
http://clearblogs.com/ggoldskywow
2007年3月28日星期三
New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
We just added a new wallpaper to our World of Warcraft wallpapers section. This wallpaper features some amazing artwork from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Head over to the Upper Deck Entertainment website now to learn more about the game, see more art, or even download some demo decks.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
http://clearblogs.com/ggoldskywow
We just added a new wallpaper to our World of Warcraft wallpapers section. This wallpaper features some amazing artwork from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Head over to the Upper Deck Entertainment website now to learn more about the game, see more art, or even download some demo decks.
http://ggoldskywow.blog.com/
http://ggoldskywow.42tales.com/
http://www.selectablog.com/ggoldskywow/
http://clearblogs.com/ggoldskywow
2007年3月26日星期一
cheap wow gold
If you want to buy a cheaper WOW gold or need a better powerleveling service,just log on http://www.ggoldsky.com/ ,and you can buy anything what you need.We serve a better price of gold , a high quality powerleveling service to you,and we will respond your questions as soon as possible.In our discount realm,all the golds in the servers have sufficient stock.And if you purchase here,we guarantee to deliver in 2~4 hours.Any question : www.ggoldsky.com.
Hurry up! Don’t let the chance fly!
Hurry up! Don’t let the chance fly!
2007年3月25日星期日
good tips for MMO games players:world of warcraft gold and power leveling
good tips for MMO games players:world of warcraft gold and power leveling
Such a policy,warcraft powerleveling Peters writes,world of warcraft powerleveling would be consistent with the powerleveling *** "oft-cited,power leveling seldom-read Geneva and Hague Conventions" and with the traditional rules of warfare.*** power leveling And it would indeed solve the problem of what to do with all those prisoners who probably can't warcraft power leveling be kept imprisoned forever,lineage 2 power leveling but are too dangerous to release.world of warcraft power leveling Prospectively, anyway. Isn't it time we gave our critics what they're asking for?city of heroes power leveling Let's solve the "unjust" imprisonment problem, once and for all.everquest power leveling No more Guantanamos! guild wars power leveling Every terrorist mission should be a suicide mission. With our help.lineage power leveling Few characters, I'm sure, ever leap off the side of Teldrassil. There's no reason to do it, no quest that calls for it, nothing to gain. But Blizzard Entertainment, the company that put together World of Warcraft, has made it possible, just in case someone like me should occasionally come along, for whom the experience of an MMOG is more than just killing and looting and leveling up, but also includes poking around, leaving the path of quests and enemies and exploring the boundaries of the game world and what's possible within it.
Such a policy,warcraft powerleveling Peters writes,world of warcraft powerleveling would be consistent with the powerleveling *** "oft-cited,power leveling seldom-read Geneva and Hague Conventions" and with the traditional rules of warfare.*** power leveling And it would indeed solve the problem of what to do with all those prisoners who probably can't warcraft power leveling be kept imprisoned forever,lineage 2 power leveling but are too dangerous to release.world of warcraft power leveling Prospectively, anyway. Isn't it time we gave our critics what they're asking for?city of heroes power leveling Let's solve the "unjust" imprisonment problem, once and for all.everquest power leveling No more Guantanamos! guild wars power leveling Every terrorist mission should be a suicide mission. With our help.lineage power leveling Few characters, I'm sure, ever leap off the side of Teldrassil. There's no reason to do it, no quest that calls for it, nothing to gain. But Blizzard Entertainment, the company that put together World of Warcraft, has made it possible, just in case someone like me should occasionally come along, for whom the experience of an MMOG is more than just killing and looting and leveling up, but also includes poking around, leaving the path of quests and enemies and exploring the boundaries of the game world and what's possible within it.
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