Author Archives: Abalieno

A proof of sense

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There’s a thread on Q23 discussing the possibility of Valve working on a mmorpg based on the world of Half-Life. Now what interests me isn’t directly that discussion but a comment that stusser wrote:

stusser:
Besides, valve is going in the exact opposite way. Half-life2 isn’t about immersing the player in the world. It’s about immersing the player in the narrative. That’s why they put so much work into facial gestures and movement, to aid the suspension of disbelief. It’s the kind of technology suited to handcrafted lovingly designed content meant to experienced at a discrete moment for maximum penetration, which certainly doesn’t describe a PSW.

My comment:

“In fact HL2 would be PvE.”

If you think about it and revert the perspective you could see what I mean. Instead of thinking whether Half-Life would be appropriate for a mmorpg or not, think from the perspective of the mmorpgs and the flaws or weaknesses of the PvE. Now go back to reread what susser wrote. Isn’t what he describes exactly what the PvE misses at this moment?

I think so.

This ties back with many things I wrote, my ideal separation between PvP and PvE (some references here and here) and all the other discussions about the instancing.

Another spin to the wheel

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It started as a “quick” reply on this thread to finish to include many notes and abservations that I was waiting to organize. This came out even too easily. I rarely can write this clearly and straight to the point. It doesn’t happen always that I can write without struggling with myself and what I want to say.

The main topic is the PvE in DAoC and the newbie experience. But it then joins a bunch of different topics that I’m discussing these days and that are all related.

I’m going to post this on F13 in a few hours, if you want to stop me, do it now :)

—

Doing the Champion quests should get you enough CL experience to reach CL3, assuming you do nothing else. As for the rest, I’d argue that unlike TOA, you absolutely do not need CL5 to be RvR-ready. It’s like the titles at RR11+, something nice as a reward once you get there, not something to “grind” to.

1- This ruins the content. At least assuming that for “champion quests” you mean the three chapters. Retaining these to do them at 50 to maximize the gain (since you can start to acquire the exp only at 50) makes the content even more dull than how it is already since the first chapter is tailored for level 30 and the second for level 40. Fighting a bunch of greys to accomplish very simple and linear tasks won’t be all that entertaining.

2- It’s not that the CLs are required for RvR, it’s just that in this case the reward isn’t really appropriate to the time required. In other words: not justified.

Now the points is: why was it changed (nerfed) at the end of the beta? From the comments, true or not, I heard that you received around a .4 for killing an enemy in solo. Which would still be an acceptable balance considering you would have the bar moving and the ten bubbles filling up at a decent pace. There are already the Realm Ranks to define that type of slow and exponential progress, there’s no reason to add another overlapping.

Since the Cs don’t really stack in power (the same assumption that was betrayed with ToA) their purpose is to broaden the class. Offer it some more minor tricks. This has the sole scope of making them more fun to play since one of the limits of the game is about having classes that are too strict and specialized. Hence it’s another of those parts of the game that you WANT to valorize, instead of keeping it away from the players.

The titles in RvR and the Ranks can be “achievement based”. Because that’s their direct and natural purpose and sense. But it’s not so good to retain the achievement based mechanic for the CLs. There’s nothing to achieve because they don’t offer anything that is worth pursuing. Instead they add some FUN to the classes that would be a good idea to hand out to the players for “cheap”. Like it already happens for the weapons.

What I mean is that there isn’t really a good reason to make it slow instead of more quick. You are just pushing back the fun.

And this goes further because it’s a patter Mythic is repeating. In September you nerfed the exp in the TDs. Why? Again there isn’t a good reason to do this and it just damaged the game some more.

Let’s put it in this way: our life is too short to waste time grinding repetitive and dull PvE content that doesn’t offer any challenge. That’s what the TDs are. So why a designer would want the players to spend MORE time there? Where is the gain? Where is the purpose? This problem is really at the basic level. In a game you can offer a grind only for those parts that are already representing a satisfying repetable content.

The RvR in DAoC is a great and perfect example of “satisfying repetable content”. The PvE is NOT.

This is why noone criticizes the Realm Ranks *grind* and why there are players that always praise it above what WoW implemented. The grind here is appropriate. It doesn’t ruin the game. It valorizes it. But it’s completely different when you reapply grindy mechanics to the PvE (both as exp grind and money grind). ALL KINDS OF GRINDS aren’t fun in a dull, repetitive PvE. And there isn’t a single decent reason why you would find acceptable and useful to TRAP the players in a cavern for days. It follows the same unjustified and unfun design trend that we have criticized for all these years. It’s masochistic.

Players complain because this is logically wrong.

So, again, why the exp in the TDs was nerfed? The only reason I can imagine is to rebalance the experience gained there in relation with the rest of the game. In fact there’s that “triad” that I already commented and that is the reason why I was against AlteredOne proposed changes:
1) In TDs you quickly gain money and exp / but not loot
2) In the instanced dungeons you can “quickly” gain Aurulite, hence items / but the exp is crap
3) The quick task quests around the non-instanced zones give you easier *soloable* and short tasks that give you medium money and exp

Schematizing:
1) ++money ++exp –loot
2) –money –exp ++loot
3) +exp +money ++easy to solo

The first patter was by far the most efficient. In fact with the money you can also go buy equipment and even aurulite. This is why the only reason I found to the nerf to the exp in TDs is about rebalancing those patterns. But this doesn’t justify it. We still lack the satisfying repetable content and these patterns were rebalanced in the WRONG direction. It was the other two patterns that needed to be brought in line with the TDs and not the other way around.

But there’s even another point to consider. Why the hell we would need three different patterns? The PvE is the same in all three. It doesn’t offer anything different:

You have so many different possibilities just with Catacombs. You can level by taking these solo mini-quests in the new zones, you can farm aurulite in the new instances or the instances of the classic dungeons, or you can do task dungeons to farm directly the experience at an insane rate. But, no matter what you choose, the experience (of the player) is completely MISSING. You can trade between voids. Between empty experiences that are there just as excuses (and excusing what exactly?).

This is why I believe that DAoC would need a *consolidation* of its PvE and not a further fragmentation as it happened. Of course, it would benefit from a fragmentation of the PvE intended as: different types of challenge and patterns presented. Different qualities and something that could be actually involving. But what DAoC diversificates is not the actual PvE (which is dull and repetitive in every case) but the rewards. The reward is the only difference setting apart the three patterns. And it is obvious how this isn’t positive for a game that definitely doesn’t need a grind applied to this type of content, in particular when the fragmentation of the PvE is furtherly made worse by the population problems and the isolation of the players through the instanced content.

We already know that instancing has both good and bad consequences. This is even worse in a game with population problems (in particular at the lower levels, where the newbies need reasons to have fun and get involved) and with this fragmentation of the PvE that has no good effects or logical justifications.

This is why it’s always not so trivial to analyze all these parts and why it’s not possible to just claim a bonus to the exp or something similar. All these things delve deeper. Why the hell we cannot have a place where we can get good money, good exp and even good equipment? What are the valid reasons that brought to the fragmentation of patterns I illustrated above? I don’t know any. What I know is that the great majority of the players are grinding the TDs DEFINITELY NOT because they are having fun. But just because they are the most efficient pattern offered. They don’t enjoy the content. They ENDURE it. And this isn’t acceptable in an environment where you are supposed to have… fun. An environment that is supposed to valorize its qualities and not its problems.

Now I hope my point is clear: the existence of the TDs in the game is completely unjustified. So it makes sense to remove them since they damage the game. Now think to what could happen if Mythic would announce the removal of the TDs. The players would RAGE. And here’s another important point. The players wouldn’t be angry because you remove something fun from the game, but because you remove a viable, consolidated and optimal pattern that they *absolutely need*. It’s their pattern of choice. The “fun” and the optimized pattern must be kept separate. They aren’t the same entity. The players are merely choosing the “less worst” pattern they have available to endure the PvE treadmill and reach the endgame, that, contrarily to WoW, is that part of the game that still justifies a subscription fee. How could we “valorize” the PvE instead of balancing the “less worst” patterns as it happened till now?

Imho the TDs must be completely eradicated. That’s the very first step. They never made sense both from the player’s perspective and the design. They are unjustified and just damage the game. They only “dissimulate” a value by offering the best pattern available. But that value is solely functional and totally inappropriate.

The second step, also following the line of thoughts above, is about moving the “TDs mechanics” (go to taskmaster and take the two-types missions, the “clear dungeon” should be just removed) WITHIN the Instanced Dungeons where you farm aurulite. Because there isn’t a valid reason to keep the “reward” patterns separate. There are no advantages. This would instead encourage the players to focus on something more varied. The IDs offer a more refreshing experience than the TDs and they are naturally suitable to inherit their role. We remove the TDs and carry over their functional role to the IDs where the players would benefit from a more rewarding and complete experience:

a) Players will hunt everything they need: money, exp and equipment. Also helping them to be “viable” for the RvR BattleGrounds.
b) The experience will be more varied and refreshing: the IDs offer more varied environments and challenges.
c) This would consolidate the “game space”, encouraging the players to gather and group.

While ToA exhibited a blatantly flawed design under everyone’s eyes, Catacombs still brought new mistakes that are also damaging the game, just in a more subtle and less apparent way. Which doesn’t make those mistakes any less significant.

I think that what I wrote here is a demonstration of why we cannot compile a personal wish list and expect to do something positive to the game. Things are complex and need an involved discussion where the arguments can be delved and explained. This isn’t a conclusion even if I provided my own. This is instead a possible start to confront those ideas, contribute to shape new ones and avoid to repeat the past mistakes.

Down in Flames

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Things seem to return cyclically.

Exactly one year ago I went in a research to read more about the drama I completely missed. Those three posts I archived were what I considered “significant”. In fact one of the purposes of this website is to preserve a “memory”, to retain something from the past so that the discussions can have a sense and don’t have to be repeated over and over like some kind of ritual that doesn’t bring anywhere. It’s in fact when you have an history that you can look forward and expect something new and different.

But, besides this digression, there’s this topic that keeps coming up. The reason why I wrote about it a year ago was because a totally random article on Lum’s blog degenerated in a flame and was finally completely removed. Of course this tickled my curiosity and, as it always happens, reading old articles and forums threads is even more interesting today than it was at that time. For me it’s indispensable to know what came before me, even more so because I arrived too late, when everything was already crumbling. Basically I missed the best and now I feel the need to understand what happened because I think it’s important for me. It’s that piece of “history” that I miss.

It’s not that I don’t have already my point of view and what I’m going to read won’t probably change my ideas. But it helps me to put things into perspective and it’s always funny to go back and reread what I wrote at that time (here and, in particular here). Beside a few obscure points that I cannot understand anymore (I really don’t have a clue about what I meant about the two conflicts of interest) all the rest is still rather coherent with what I think today. The comments I wrote on Lum’s (new) revival and that I’ll archive here below will confirm this.

There are also some funny coincidences that correspond with this whole cyclic thing. In fact just a couple of weeks ago Coke reappeared on this same site and I even got an half-flamed e-mail from D One for reasons I didn’t really understand. All this happened before the revival started and it still made me check their forum because I remember that one year ago I registered there for the purpose to convince them to write again. I couldn’t find those threads (there were some discussions around October 04 that are now gone and replaced by some brand new silly flames) but I stumbled on the same rant (on page 5) that was then pasted in the recent revival. As time passes I find more and more unjustified their hatred against Lum, but, still, I’d like to hear again their point of view on things. Because, even if I can have a completely different opinion, I think that more voices are always good for the community. This is why I’m always happy when new blogs appear (without the blogs and the forums I would have nothing to say) and why not so much when the community splits.

And, to conclude the cycle, thisisnotacommunity.org is back, sort of. Even if D One reminds me the prophecy from Glitchless: “As sure as the sun will rise…”

With the new revival (also discussed here, while on F13 are busy on more interesting and serious topics) I discovered brand new sources that help to see what went on under different points of view. There’s a recap written by Musashi (the pictures offer more insight and are more interesting than what he wrote) which seems the “authorized version” and the one that should take Lum’s defence and another, still mild, on answers.com that originated the rant and the following revival.

Following here the comments I wrote on BrokenToys and that explain my own “distorted” point of view. The conclusion is brand new and also poking some fun at Sanya who accused me.

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When people fondly remember (or curse) LtM, most seem to forget that while we had zero problem pointing out that the Emperor was butt-arsed naked, we also noted when things were done RIGHT.

This is exactly what I think as well.

As I wrote on Corpnews it’s *undeniable* that LtM had a strong weight on the success of DAoC in the same way it used to make the difference and become a precious playground that will remain unparalleled just *forever*.

Mythic leeched LtM and they capitalized on it. They used positively the comments to build and adjust their game. And if the game, nowadays, is still good, I believe, it’s thanks to that sort of mindstorming process and chaotic creativity that was LtM back then. It was a laboratory on its own and Mythic took everything from it. The creativity, the vitality and the hype.

There were huge conflicts of interest, but everywhere, not just about Lum. And were those conflict of interest to make things different and make them *matter*. It was an open laboratory where everyone contributed in his own way.

Today all that is lost and not anymore recoverable. The shared passion for the genre is gone. The player base has been dumbed down and “educated”. Now we just squeal from screenshots. That’s how I get 600 visitors on the site at once. The direct involvement is gone forever, the game companies have chosen to detach themselves from their community because they felt threatened when that contact was instead what made them move in the first place.

Now it’s all muffled down, deliberately. And all those coincidences that brought to the LtM phenomenon won’t probably happen again.

—
My point is: I’ve read a whole lot about what happened back then. That rant site, Musashi’s version, the “answers” page, forums threads, Coke’s posts and so on.

I’ve yet to see all of them disagreeing on something concrete. I didn’t really find divergent versions.

What I saw, instead, is just the same meltdown seen through a lens. Some parts are made bigger, some parts smaller till the point they are omitted. But it all comes down to opinions and how people perceived all that happened in their particular way.

If Musashi’s version is the “authorized” version, I didn’t really find any huge differences to what was written in that silly rant page that originated this thread. Just a different (and partial) point of view. As are different (and distorted) the comments I wrote here above.

Again I should repeat that I NEVER heard of LtM and DAoC before they melted *together* as an unique topic. Here in Italy people started to talk DAoC ALONG with LtM. They talked DAoC BECAUSE of LtM. I believe that what made the site great is what killed it. The community. It’s about that idea of the laboratory I explained above and that saw everyone in a open confrontation. And this (my) perspective is completely different from Musashi’s one because he says that it’s instead the community that ruined the site and that all he wanted to read was Lum and exclusively for his own special and absolutely irreplaceable (this is why, despite the number of website has gone up, we have NOTHING that is even vaguely near to what LtM was) talents: “Lum was a funny writer, insightful, vitriolic, literate, and interesting to read”.

Lum’s talent is unquestionable and he worked as a catalyzer that built something that went overboard. Of course Lum didn’t like this and people who were on Lum’s side also didn’t like it. But from *my own* personal perspective and opinion what happened at the end, the vibrant community that existed for a brief moment before things started to wreck, is the most important point that *made the difference*, and the reason why we STILL talk about it. Both inside and outside this niche community.

What happened back then had an impact beyond Lum and beyond the boundaries of the happenings of a group of passionate players. This is why I use to quote GBob and his line on what LtM was: “Lum the Mad was riding high with his web site, forcing game companies to engage the player base in a real dialog.”

See? It started because Lum’s writing skills and talent (and passion). But it’s where it brought to matter today. Because Lum’s writing skills (and the mock-up things, Katrina’s stuff is another perfect example) still exist, no matter what he writes about. He is publishing a book, in fact. But what we care about is still the little inner world of the mmorpgs and the impact that LtM had back then and that we still feel strong today.

And that Lum definitely didn’t achieve by himself.

—
My conclusion should be already rather clear. LtM created a controversy. And this controversy fueled DAoC in both a good and bad way. In a moment where both were absolutely needed to keep the game at the center of the attention. This is why Mythic “used up” the community and leeched it till nothing was left. And this is also why not only I believe that they did something legitimate, but also something that I would still like to see today. Because, as I wrote at times, it’s the conflict of interest that makes things matter and become interesting. Without that commitment we just finish to become politically correct and lose track of what actually matters (I agree with the rant site on this point).

This is why I would like the developers discuss THEIR OWN GAME and not some other generic topic and this is why what matters is the actual confrontation and not a “wish list” where everyone posts his own idea completely isolated from the rest and directly avoiding the actual discussion about what is going on. We discuss to agree, disagree and form opinions.

Everything is good but what we really miss is the synthesis. We are right now too fragmented and isolated. Everyone speaks about his own thing on his own blog or forum post. But there isn’t anymore a synthesis and an actual confrontation that can matter and shape what will happen next.

This is my distorted point of view. This is why I think that what is holding Mythic is the indifference. This is also why I don’t really like how things are shaping up. And, finally, this is the reason why my site doesn’t replace my presence on the forums, from the niche communities to the “cesspits” (WoW’s general boards, the Vault, FoH etc..).

What is sure is that I’ll never try or even think to emulate what Lum did. Simply because I lack the charisma and because my voice is just my own and not other people’s voice. I don’t like to pretend to be someone I am not.

It’s like if you have to run all you run all your life to demonstrate everyone you are not who you are. Even if you intimately know how false it is.

People change and yet they remain the same. I believe that you obtain the best result when you don’t fight with yourself to be something else you’ll never be. In fact I liked that entry on the Herald.

Btw, now that I know that “LoH” is Lum’s wife, I wonder if she wouldn’t make a better ranter than himself.. ;)

And a last quote that will allow me to add one note I wrote down and that I forgot to merge with what I wrote above:

Mox:
Whenever I think “Things were much better X years ago” I immediately think “That’s what my father would say. Am I him yet?”

Now it’s all lost and we have to cry? No because what was written at the time is still precious. This is why we have blogs. To build upon things. To remember, to think. To not just let things glide by.

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Just because I wasn’t done

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For the recap I’ll send you here.

I was finally able to read even the first part of the preview, so here’s a few more details that were missing from my other reports:

– The whole expansion will be centered around the Outlands, Medivh and the Dark Portal to make the main storyline progress.

– Background: Sargeras, the Titan representing the “evil” in the game, still wants to destroy the universe. His last plan is to ignore Azeroth, where he ecountered an unexpected resistence, to focus on the Outland. The realm with the remains of the planet of Dreanor, homeland of the orcs. What is left of this place grants access to the Twisting Nether, a portal that can be used to access every other plane of the existence. Here is where the battle between the forces of Azeroth and the demonic forces of Sargeras and his two lieutenants, Archimonde and Kil’Jaeden, will take place.

– The orcs were brought on Azeroth by Medivh through the Dark Portal. Still through the same portal the humans invaded Dreanor and damaged the portal, producing devastations on both sides. Destroying Dreanor from one and creating the Blasted Lands from the other.

– Through the Caverns of Time (located in Tanaris) the players will be able to see the zone surrounding the portal before the disaster and, in particular reenact the invasion of the orcs through the portal. The Caverns of Time are the place where the bronze dragons lead by Nordozmu “supervise” the flow of time.

– The Caverns of Time will allow the players to reenact three events. The invasion of the orcs as written above, the release of Thrall from enslavement and the battle of Mount Hyal, where the humans, orc and elves defeated Arthas and his army.

– The Deadwind Pass zone should get a restyle with the new year to be ready for the release of the expansion and the Kharazan instance.

– At least these two big instances are confirmed. Kharazan and the Caverns of Time.

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“MMO sequels are dumb”

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Enough of WoW. I go back to my own logorrheic and foolish commentary noone is interested about. Shoo.

While my site slowly returns to normality, I noticed on my RSS page an entry on Darniaq’s blog with an amusing title: “EQ1 Expansion outsells EQ2s”.

We build sequels because we stupidly think that these *worlds* (because we are creating worlds, not games) have life cycles and need to be replaced as it happens with every other “goods”. This news is another stab to one of those popular commonplaces.

Years of development and an insane amount of money invested into a new project that is now even less successful than the product that it was supposed to *replace*. Money and resources that were CUT from EQ to move them on EQ2. The same HUGE mistake that every other company is stupidly making sooner or later.

Of course it’s too early speak. EQ2 devs are slowly but steadily doing a rather good work and all these efforts could probably bring to a surpass once EQ is more and more left behind and developed in a “flat” direction that isn’t aimed to keep the game fresh and accessible. But this “overtake” is not something that SOE anticipated by looking forward and planning ahead. This is something that they decided and obtained. Something they chose (but I would be so interested to hear their expectations and marketing projections).

I just wonder what could have happened if SOE put all the resources that went into EQ2 to consolidate EQ and make it the best product (and world) out there. Building on top of what was being worked till that moment and reinvesting on the strengths to reinvigorate them even more. Probably even the community could have benefited of a focus instead of being shattered and directly encouraged to move toward brand new worlds (WoW).

Either way, we’ll never know. But I surely have my own opinion.

EDIT: Scott Hartsman commented elsewhere:

It’s an interesting topic, for sure. One other random thing to throw in the mix.

EQ2 has a proportionally larger number of overseas customers who wouldn’t show up in the US NPD numbers. (At least, I don’t believe they would. Fortunately, that’s not my thing. I just make games.)

So many that we adjusted our main US patch schedule to better accomodate the play times of one group (For Asia/AUS/NZ), and more in the other direction to where they really needed to be given their own patchers and downtime schedule. (UK/DE/FR).

Personally, I’d like to see the total numbers for all of those titles that included all locales and downloadable purchases, then watch the discussion.

Until then, good luck, and may the best conjecture win!

– Scott

Come and see a leak of epic proportions (and my website go *boom*)

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Part 4 of 4 (1 – 2 – 3)

BLEEDING EDGE EDIT OF THE VERY LAST SECOND:

1- The feature list I anticipated here is 100% confirmed. All the other fancy leaks you see elsewhere are, instead, FAKE (believe me or not. In a week you’ll see I was right as always).

2- I’m going to edit that post in the next minutes to add lots of more insight infos I got (thanks interweb).

At least if the stress or the cops don’t get me.

—
It’s all here.

I’m franctically backupping things but I’ll hardly host that here or I’ll go overboard with the bandwidth in two days.

Anyway, if the links go down I’ll find mirrors. The interweb is big.

In the meantime I received my Vanguard beta application invite.

Have a funny leaky day.

EDIT: As explained the screenshots have been removed from this server. The original description was:
“includes more Blood Elves/SunstriderIsle screenshots, Karazhan and Black Morass Dark Portal”

EDIT2: Noone remembers but these new leaks confirm some five months old leaks. Anticipating news is fun and exciting.

EDIT3: First mirror went boom. I’m trying to host the file locally. Expect this own site to explode as well soon (or my bandwidth to go through the roof).

Last minute edit: The expansion feature list I translated here is almost certainly confirmed. The reader who wrote the summary posted on the forum a real photo showing the cover of the magazine. The informations were also confirmed by different sources.

CENSORSHIP HERE WE COME! I just received a fancy phone call from Vivendi asking me to remove the screenshots. The guy who contacted me was actually rather confused and I had to explain that I just collected and organized what I found. Anyway, Blizzard is RAGING and willingly to persecute everyone. The screenshots go down here.

But you are silly if you think you can stop the internet. Even if you have Blizzard’s money and believe you rule this world.

In the Q23 thread the images were thumbnailed and saved on imageshack. The original source seems also still active.

I wish I could still host everything here but I cannot afford the risk to go overboard just because I love mmorpgs and share informations.

Threaten for the win. Blizzard, you won a badge today.

EDIT4: Blizzcon is a thing of the past, so I restore the screenshots I was ‘asked’ to remove:




 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

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More fancy rumors from the leaky expansion

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Part 3 of 4 (1 – 2 – 4)

Here’s your rumors.

To begin with, Jeff Green’s post confirming the two new races in the expansion has been deleted. For reference I’ll mirror it here:

Yay! I can almost start talking about it. Yeah, sorry, that was a bit of a tease, wasn’t it? Well, the issue is due out in about two weeks. Blizzard would probably rip me a new one, and, even worse, disable my WoW account, if I started leaking information here. The only other person who knows anything is my daughter, who also plays WoW and can’t keep a secret. So, if you can figure out which of the millions of players she is online and hit her up, I’m sure she’s spill. :)

I got to see pretty much everything—except for whatever the new race for the Alliance will be. That one they’re either keeping a secret or, more quite possibly, haven’t figured out themselves yet. But everything else I know. And while, like I said, I can’t spill details yet, I can tell you it is *huge*–tons of new content for all levels. It definitely got me motivated to get Eggbert, my gnome warlock, up to 60 ASAP. So I have many nights of serious “work” ahead of me. Yay!

So, as soon as Blizzard gives me the okay, I will replace my desktop picture with our December cover, which pictures an awesome painting from one of the Blizzard artist’s of the new Horde race. I hate being a tease (well, okay, it’s a little fun), but I just can’t tell ya yet. But soon!

Here is, instead, the translation of the *official* explanation about the “leaked” cover of the magazine announcing the level cap to 70:

“During Monday, 17 October we have closed various topics about World of Warcraft. The cover of the upcoming “The Games Machine” in the preview section of this site was also modified. This happened to comply our agreement with Blizzard Entertainment. The omission isn’t representing the desire to censor or disinform, but just the respect of the set date to disclose informations. What happened won’t compromise the content of the next issue of “The Game Machine” that will be regularly out next week.”

Therefore we ask “The Game Machine” readers and the community of this forum to patently wait a few more days.

Thanks.”

Which basically means (my english is broken but my italian is not) that the cover of the magazine with the title of the expansion (The Burning Crusade) and the catchphrase hinting the cap to 70 were, indeed, reliable.

Again on the forum of the magazine some readers are claiming to own a copy of the preview and wrote down some of the features (and here we have an high probability of fake, but, still, they could make sense):

—
New region:
Outlands

New Instances:
Kharazan – Inside Medivh’s tower in the Deadwing Pass zone (5-man instance evolving into raid)

Caverns of Time in Tanaris (unusual place where the players will be able to move back and forth in time to reenact the main events of the history of Warcraft)

Level cap raised to lvl 70 – There will be repetable quests to gain access to a flying epic mount usable only in the Outlands.

New profession: Jewelcrafting, it will be possible to create gems to apply to weapons and armors and add effects. Other professions will be able to craft objects with embedded slots for these gems.

New races:
Horde – Blood Elves with a new starting zone north of Eastern Plaguelands and a new dungeon.
Alliance – Undisclosed

Battlegrounds shared between servers.

Atmospherical effects.

Release: Not before May 2006.

—
The new region isn’t Northrend but the Outlands, with the remains of the planet Dreanor, the world of the first orcs. The remains of this planet float in the air, this is why it will be formed like separated “isles”.

Same for Tanaris. There will be a brand new instance working like a temporal breach that will allow the players to time travel (hence the name: Caverns of Time) and reenact past events. The war at mount Hyal is one.

The level 70 is real, but no hero classes.

The new race for the horde is the blood elf. The racial traits will be a “Mana Tap” to slowly leech the mana of the target (it will be applicable more than once like the Sunder Armor) and that will then directly load the second trait: “Arcane Torment (or Torrent)” which will work like an area silence. The starting zone will probably be near Quel’thalas.

The Alliance race is still not available but it seems it will be Pandarens.

The new profession will be Jewelcrafting that works in a similar way to how the gems worked in Diablo 2.

And btw, the main boss will be Illidian.

—
Finally, yet another creation screen appeared on the internet (LOL!).

Some of what is written here is true. Some isn’t. It’s like a game. Enjoy.

—
As anticipated in the other article, here more juicy details:

Excerpt:

Now, instead, what will be a surprise: the maximum level for the characters will be upped to 70. As he heard about this, ToSo (an editor) started immediately to weep that he wanted back the all exp he wasted doing quests when already 60 (“and of course! I’m not going to clean cat ass forever!” -ToSo), so if you had the same reaction you are going to take it in the booty. Although the Hero classes haven’t been announced (Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design, said: “if we screw the hero classes we risk to fuck up the whole game”) Blizzard didn’t deny they’ll be in the expansion but also didn’t promise it. So we cannot really say much more.

– The new Alliance race WON’T be revealed at BlizzCon and there are more than just rumors confirming it will be the Pandarens.

– Kharazan should be playable at BlizzCon but it’s still undefined how it will be shaped out (could probably start as a 5-man with a second part for a raid of 20 or 40 players).

– The Blood Elves will be Mages, Warlocks and Warriors but it’s undecided if either hunters or rogues.

– Their starting zone will be Quel’Thalas (what is left of it), north of the Eastern Plaguelands and with a three-zones valley inbetween (Eversong Woods with the capital Silvermoon, Ghostland and a troll themed zone called Zul’Aman).

– About the live content, the opening of Silithus will be introduced by a live event that will require the collaboration of everyone and that will only happen once for each server. Behind the gates there will be a open zone tailored for 20 players (defined by Blizzard “casual hardcore”) with a temple at the center with an instance that will be the biggest to date (two-three times Molten Core). The players will also get access to special mounts (insects) that will be only usable in the dungeon.

– The Outlands will be divided into differently themed regions (like the rock valleys of the Hellfire Peninsula and the luxuriant forests of Zanga Marsh, part of what is left of Dreanor). While within Shadowmoon Valley there will be the Black Temple with the Illidian guy.

– The flying mount will be for level 70 players and after an epic quest chain. But only usable in the Outlands (floating isles).

– No new engine changes or features. The Blood Elves models seem to use 20% more polygons. Blizzard is also sperimenting with Specular Environmental Mapping.

– The atmospherical effects should arrive soon(TM) as a live patch.

– Also, by the time the expansion is out, the BGs should be finally linked between the servers to kill the queues.

—

Hopefully last edit ever:
I refused to make public my translation of the expansion preview, this is why I gathered only this sort of feature list. But if you want to read a more fluent translation of the article you can look here. Besides a few minor imprecisations and omissions it’s a decent translation of the whole thing (I could read only 80% of it, myself, so there are parts missing here).

—
Last update as explained here (I also slightly edited some details above to avoid contradictions):

– The whole expansion will be centered around the Outlands, Medivh and the Dark Portal to make the main storyline progress.

– Background: Sargeras, the Titan representing the “evil” in the game, still wants to destroy the universe. His last plan is to ignore Azeroth, where he ecountered an unexpected resistence, to focus on the Outland. The realm with the remains of the planet of Dreanor, homeland of the orcs. What is left of this place grants access to the Twisting Nether, a portal that can be used to access every other plane of the existence. Here is where the battle between the forces of Azeroth and the demonic forces of Sargeras and his two lieutenants, Archimonde and Kil’Jaeden, will take place.

– The orcs were brought on Azeroth by Medivh through the Dark Portal. Still through the same portal the humans invaded Dreanor and damaged the portal, producing devastations on both sides. Destroying Dreanor from one and creating the Blasted Lands from the other.

– Through the Caverns of Time (located in Tanaris) the players will be able to see the zone surrounding the portal before the disaster and, in particular reenact the invasion of the orcs through the portal. The Caverns of Time are the place where the bronze dragons lead by Nordozmu “supervise” the flow of time.

– The Caverns of Time will allow the players to reenact three events. The invasion of the orcs as written above, the release of Thrall from enslavement and the battle of Mount Hyal, where the humans, orc and elves defeated Arthas and his army.

– The Deadwind Pass zone should get a restyle with the new year to be ready for the release of the expansion and the Kharazan instance.

– At least these two big instances are confirmed. Kharazan and the Caverns of Time.

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WoW level cap to 70

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Part 1 of 4 (2 – 3 – 4)

I get italian news from the interweb.

THE BURNING CRUSADE.

The correct translation of the diciture is: “Blizzard surprises everyone by bringing us to level 70!”

Or something like that. Now it’s 22.30 here, but you can be sure I’ll go out early tomorrow and find out what I can. If there’s something juicy I could try to scan it. I’m not sure whether the magazine is out or not, though.

Anyway, that’s the most important PC game magazine we have here and it is surely reliable.

It’s also sad that Blizzard couldn’t think anything else than just to rise the level cap. How innovative.

EDIT: It seem the scan was posted on the official site and is now removed. It’s not sure whether a fake or deleted on Blizzard request. The moderators on the forum of the magazine are closing all the threads about the episode and asking everyone to understand that the situation isn’t simple and they cannot comment further.

Official comment from the editor of the magazine: at this point it’s advisable a general “no comment”. Do it for me, please! (and thanks)

They have always previewed the cover and summary long before the magazine is out. I believe they just didn’t anticipate what was going to happen in this special case and now they are in trouble.

And, since we are talking about rumors, there’s a screenshot hinting that the new horde race will be the “blood elves”. That the expansion will have two new races, one for each faction, was somewhat confirmed here.

Worldofwar also commented this “leak” and added more details about the title:

A little more on the Burning Crusade name. This trademark was registered by Blizzard back on 3 May of this year under ‘computer software’. At the time speculation tied it to a WoW expansion after discovering mention of the name on Blizzard’s page about Sargeras, champion of the Titans, specifically this bit:

“Once Sargeras saw that his armies were amassed and ready to follow his every command, he launched his raging forces into the vastness of the Great Dark. He referred to his growing army as the Burning Legion. To this date, it is still unclear how many worlds they consumed and burned on their unholy Burning Crusade across the universe.”

And finally a screenshot with what seems a Blood Elves town:

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“Please take care of me”

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There’s an article at TerraNova written by the newly acquired Mia Consalvo and describing the different way to play FFXI between american and japanese players.

I like how she writes, the article is free of all the usual weight and unpractical references and reasonings typical at TerraNova. It’s an easy and interesting read and I really do not miss the lack of academic attitude in this case.

I also like the polite and cutesy behaviours of the japanese players :) Maybe those are just conventions but I think they ultimately help to have respect and consideration for the other. I wish there was more cultural interchange even on other mmorpgs. Nothing is more enriching than that and we would also have an occasion to teach some positive lessons instead of the usual selfish interest and personal greed.

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