World warcraft cataclysm

All dressed up with nowhere to go. With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm less than three weeks away, a part of me is itching to get my main back into the game, which explains why I fixed up her talents post-4.0.1 and even took the time to do a re-gem or two. But I’m afraid the motivation just isn’t there. My guildmates keep trying to make me run heroics with them, but quite honestly, the idea of plodding through the same damn dungeons over and over again has lost its appeal a long time ago. I see zero point in putting myself through the instance grind now, especially with the expansion threatening to make all the current loot trivial by the end of the year. Loathe to let my poor druid gather dust again, however, I resolved to find myself a nice time sink to keep her active. Lucky for me, WoW is full of those, least of all the hundreds of ideas floating around concerning what to do before Cataclysm. Not surprisingly, anything to do with Zul’Gurub ranks pretty high in … [Read more...] about My Pre-Cataclysm To-Do List #1: Hero Of The Zandalar Tribe

This is the full version of entries that have been published in the last week! I just thought it might be nicer to have everything in one huge entry instead of in separate ones (either way: You can find all entries in the category labelled “rift vs. lotro vs. wow” on the right). The topic I wrote some time ago about “Rift vs. LotRO” is still getting readers almost every day. Unfortunately, it is probably not the kind of topic they were looking for. So, since I’ve played both games (at least for a little while), I thought I would make an elaborate posting about those games. I’m also going to throw in World of Warcraft because, apart from playing it as well, the big majority of MMO gamers have played the game or know something about the game, at least. :) (After starting to write this, I realised how long this entry would be in the end and decided to split it into different topics to be posted separately. So expect a posting every day for the next few … [Read more...] about Rift vs. LotRO vs. World of Warcraft – a closer look at all three MMOs (all entries in one)

Part 1: How much do the games cost and which extra security against hacked accounts do they offer? Part 2: What can I play (races and classes?) Today’s topic: What does the game look like? Keep in mind that World of Warcraft has a very different graphic style and was released back in 2004. Lotro was released in 2007. Rift is the newest of those three and was just released this spring (March 1, 2011 in the USA to be more precise). Do not expect high-end graphics. Although you should never really expect those when you are looking at MMOs. First of all, it takes much longer to develop those games than “simple” offline games. Second, there should be some kind of emphasis on the “massive” in MMORPG. So, of course, the graphics should scale down somewhat so a lot of players can actually play the game without having to buy a new PC. WoW does it very well, apparently, and you can play the game even on a very old PC. My latop, which only uses onboard graphics, can … [Read more...] about Rift vs. LotRO vs. World of Warcraft – a closer look at all three MMOs (Part 3)

As the month of November approached, I got to reminiscing about BlizzCon. For those of us that loved World of Warcraft and used to play it, the yearly BlizzCon event held by Blizzard was an obligatory annual MMORPG pilgrimage. Even long after I stopped playing, I would pay the $40 for the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket just to see the Blizzard artists and designers talk about their craft and a genre I love. This year I was seriously contemplating purchasing the BlizzCon 2016 PPV event dubbed by Blizzard as a cerebration of epic games and an epic community. But after reading reports that many of the World of Warcraft panels would not be live-streamed, I declined. After watching the opening ceremony and some of the panels on YouTube I am glad I didn’t waste my money. The BlizzCon that I was hoping would rekindle my passion for WoW wasn’t the BlizzCon I remembered. In the early days of BlizzCon, the fare was mostly about WoW. But the BlizzCon of today is all about e-sports and the … [Read more...] about World of Warcraft’s Diminishing Presence at BlizzCon 2016

This week Tom Chilton revealed that he is leaving the Blizzard World of Warcraft dev team. Apparently he is moving to another dev team within Blizzard and working on an unannounced project. If you love MMORPGs and WoW his departure is cause for celebration.  As Game Director for WoW since the poorly received Cataclysm expansion, he has presided over the decline of this once great MMORPG which once boasted 12.5 million world wide subscribers in it’s heyday after the release of their Wrath of the Lich King, to 5.5 million subscribers well after the release of Warlords of Dreanor. With such an abysmal track record that undeniably lost millions of dollars for Blizzard, he should have been fired or transferred long ago. Many WoW fans will remember his flippant answers and smug smirks during his many BlizzCon appearances. After years of observation, I have come to believe that Tom never understood nor cared about the deeper aspects of fantasy virtual worlds. He had no real … [Read more...] about My Thoughts on Tom Chilton Leaving the World of Warcraft Dev Team