February 24th, 2007
Game over, like said, Illidan down, no new content yet.
Luckily 2.4 isn't too far away anymore, and there will be a lot of new content in it.
But let's cut to the point - Blizzard still has the magic in their hands, and they're using it right.
After the initial dissappointments in last.. november I think it was, when we had our first proper tries on Illidan, we didn't get him down. Too big portion of the guild went on vacations or just quit, so we had to start recruiting - then christmas came, more vacations, and after christmas break again more people had left, so again we needed more new recruits. Needless to say, new recruits aren't quite as good as the old folks, so we went on painful road of training them to suit our needs.
Today, it finally paid off, Illidan dead.
And the magic Blizz still has, I mentioned earlier?
Well, the kill, and the few moments before it, were just as ecstatic as the first big boss kills ages ago, Onyxia, Ragnaros, Nefarian - Illidan felt just the same!
I do admit that for example Vashj didn't have the same feeling to it, but luckily that's an exception to the rest.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What happened to the gaming World (of Warcraft)?
Damn, missed one when posting these old blog entries, so this isn't in the right place date wise, sorry for that.
October 10th, 2007
World of Warcraft - it would be hard to find someone who hasn't heard from it.
In November 23. 2004 - the 10th Anniversary of Warcraft franchise - World of Warcraft, a eagerly waited MMORPG to rule them all was released, few months later it was unleashed for europeans as well. Those two releases have changed the world of many, including mine.
The game has consumed lives, marriages, relationships, I've witnessed it all even though not for myself, but for people I know.
The game is a drug - it's more addictive than heroin for many - one might ask why?
Why does the endless quest for glory and more shiny epix lure people to play endless hours of the same, repeating instances, quests, mobs, over and over again?
What did WoW do that others didn't, why did it became so succesful?
It made it easy to start. You don't need to be expert with computers or computer games of any sort to get hang of it, but still, for the people who play more, it's hard to master, there's always something improve in your own gameplay, more places to discover (thanks to constantly growing world, getting new instances in patches etc)
But that's only a small part of it - the biggest draft in the game is the social side - many times I see myself and others logging in just to chat, somehow it's more fun in WoW than it would be over IRC or MSN or something similar to those.
The bonding between long time guildmates, gone from getting your very first kill on Lucifron in Molten Core to killing Illidan at Black Temple is a strong emotional bond, it shouldn't be looked down compared to "real friendship" as some call the relations in "real life" - I see it different, I see them just as much as my friends as the people I am with in the "real life" even if I can't see them face to face (excluding meetings people arrange, and those few living near enough to meet every now and then or more often).
People might think of it as "meh", they're just people writing over net, who cares? Well, the people doing it care - spending endless hours with 39 (or 24 later in BC) others in a raiding instance practising new bosses will make you know others no matter if you want it or not.
Many times it's also easier to speak of some things online, seemingly anonymous even if the other would know you in person aswell. I'm especially thankful to the two "long distance friendships" I've built during my years of playing, one living in Sweden and other in Norway - those two, even though I've never met them (hoping I will sooner or later, though, we might get a meet up at some festival for example, they're QUITE close after all), mean a lot more to me than many I know in person, I've talked with both of them in WoW, in phone, over MSN etc from everything between the ground and sky, they know me better than most, I know, or at least believe I know, them quite well too.
But, this has all been a bit off the topic I was thinking when I started writing this.
What did World of Warcraft do to the gaming World (of Warcrat)?
Well, that question has to be answered of course by each of us to ourselves - but to me, it changed it for good.
Before I played many, many single player games over and over finding new stuff etc - now I just rush through the few I even bother trying, only putting serious time to the few gems in the pile of what I now see as junk. Many new games are now in my eyes just nice tech demos, but that's it.
I have the normal urge to upgrade every now and then, but I'm not making any real effort towards it, I'll upgrade when I have the money if I feel like it, I won't start saving for it or anything - my computer runs WoW fine, and that's enough for me as of right now. Without WoW, I would have for sure upgraded now once, if not twice since getting my current rig - just to run all the newest titles at maxed out candies and good framerates.
For me, even though I have to pay ~13€ per month to play WoW - it's clearly worth it. I've bought less games since, and saved money on not upgrading my computer so often - and built several friendships, which can't be measured in money.
October 10th, 2007
World of Warcraft - it would be hard to find someone who hasn't heard from it.
In November 23. 2004 - the 10th Anniversary of Warcraft franchise - World of Warcraft, a eagerly waited MMORPG to rule them all was released, few months later it was unleashed for europeans as well. Those two releases have changed the world of many, including mine.
The game has consumed lives, marriages, relationships, I've witnessed it all even though not for myself, but for people I know.
The game is a drug - it's more addictive than heroin for many - one might ask why?
Why does the endless quest for glory and more shiny epix lure people to play endless hours of the same, repeating instances, quests, mobs, over and over again?
What did WoW do that others didn't, why did it became so succesful?
It made it easy to start. You don't need to be expert with computers or computer games of any sort to get hang of it, but still, for the people who play more, it's hard to master, there's always something improve in your own gameplay, more places to discover (thanks to constantly growing world, getting new instances in patches etc)
But that's only a small part of it - the biggest draft in the game is the social side - many times I see myself and others logging in just to chat, somehow it's more fun in WoW than it would be over IRC or MSN or something similar to those.
The bonding between long time guildmates, gone from getting your very first kill on Lucifron in Molten Core to killing Illidan at Black Temple is a strong emotional bond, it shouldn't be looked down compared to "real friendship" as some call the relations in "real life" - I see it different, I see them just as much as my friends as the people I am with in the "real life" even if I can't see them face to face (excluding meetings people arrange, and those few living near enough to meet every now and then or more often).
People might think of it as "meh", they're just people writing over net, who cares? Well, the people doing it care - spending endless hours with 39 (or 24 later in BC) others in a raiding instance practising new bosses will make you know others no matter if you want it or not.
Many times it's also easier to speak of some things online, seemingly anonymous even if the other would know you in person aswell. I'm especially thankful to the two "long distance friendships" I've built during my years of playing, one living in Sweden and other in Norway - those two, even though I've never met them (hoping I will sooner or later, though, we might get a meet up at some festival for example, they're QUITE close after all), mean a lot more to me than many I know in person, I've talked with both of them in WoW, in phone, over MSN etc from everything between the ground and sky, they know me better than most, I know, or at least believe I know, them quite well too.
But, this has all been a bit off the topic I was thinking when I started writing this.
What did World of Warcraft do to the gaming World (of Warcrat)?
Well, that question has to be answered of course by each of us to ourselves - but to me, it changed it for good.
Before I played many, many single player games over and over finding new stuff etc - now I just rush through the few I even bother trying, only putting serious time to the few gems in the pile of what I now see as junk. Many new games are now in my eyes just nice tech demos, but that's it.
I have the normal urge to upgrade every now and then, but I'm not making any real effort towards it, I'll upgrade when I have the money if I feel like it, I won't start saving for it or anything - my computer runs WoW fine, and that's enough for me as of right now. Without WoW, I would have for sure upgraded now once, if not twice since getting my current rig - just to run all the newest titles at maxed out candies and good framerates.
For me, even though I have to pay ~13€ per month to play WoW - it's clearly worth it. I've bought less games since, and saved money on not upgrading my computer so often - and built several friendships, which can't be measured in money.
Upgrading is always fun... but!
January 6th, 2008
Helping my brother upgrade his oooold machine, which started from Athlon 1200MHz and evolved through used parts, mostly from me, from AXP 2500+ to up-to-date machine this christmas was fun, now he has Q6600, HD3850 and so on - and due my uncle getting impatient on getting a new machine to play some rally games, I got to upgrade my own
machine now too, couple months earlier than the original plans.
So here we go, Q6600 G0, Abit IP35, 2x2GB DDR800, Radeon HD3850 512MB with damn fine cooler, ready to rock the world!
But - what world is that, really? I installed Crysis only to find that it's not tempting me, not atm anyway, not anymore than the demo did, I'll play it through eventually, I paid for it after all.. WoW ran fine before too, guess it runs a bit better now, but nothing too drastic there.. UT3 had noticeable increase, at least, but it's only to relax now and then with some mindless shooting around online..
I'm seriously wondering now, was it worth it for me? Honestly atm it feels like that the biggest winners were really my uncle and my girflfriend - gf got my old A64 X2 3800+ @ 2.7GHz, X1800XL, 2GB DDR, uncle got her old AXP 2700+, X1600 Pro, 1GB DDR, more than enough for his old rally games.
I got the fanciest system, but don't really know where to put the new found power of it atm.
Helping my brother upgrade his oooold machine, which started from Athlon 1200MHz and evolved through used parts, mostly from me, from AXP 2500+ to up-to-date machine this christmas was fun, now he has Q6600, HD3850 and so on - and due my uncle getting impatient on getting a new machine to play some rally games, I got to upgrade my own
machine now too, couple months earlier than the original plans.
So here we go, Q6600 G0, Abit IP35, 2x2GB DDR800, Radeon HD3850 512MB with damn fine cooler, ready to rock the world!
But - what world is that, really? I installed Crysis only to find that it's not tempting me, not atm anyway, not anymore than the demo did, I'll play it through eventually, I paid for it after all.. WoW ran fine before too, guess it runs a bit better now, but nothing too drastic there.. UT3 had noticeable increase, at least, but it's only to relax now and then with some mindless shooting around online..
I'm seriously wondering now, was it worth it for me? Honestly atm it feels like that the biggest winners were really my uncle and my girflfriend - gf got my old A64 X2 3800+ @ 2.7GHz, X1800XL, 2GB DDR, uncle got her old AXP 2700+, X1600 Pro, 1GB DDR, more than enough for his old rally games.
I got the fanciest system, but don't really know where to put the new found power of it atm.
New recruits, uh oh
December 3rd, 2007
We had some people getting almost nervous breakdowns on our Illidan attempts, so it's better they moved to at least a vacation, if not completely off the WoW.
So there we were, not enough players to raid, raid break, here we come.
Luckily for those who still wanted to raid, it only lasted for less than a week, skipping some, 3 raids or so, until we got enough new recruitments.
We have now 9 new players in the guild, I think, we had to "waste" couple days clearing SSC & TK for their Hyjal / BT attunements, but after that, the progress has been damn good, I seriously wouldn't have believed that we would be, only on the 2nd week with the new recruits, going for Illidan again.
Fresh blood seems to have really spiced some things up for us, sure, their gear isn't as good as those who left, but that doesn't seem to slow us down too much, they've learned the encounters quite quickly even though we've had some frustrating moments with couple bosses just not going down as they should, but nevertheless, they went down.
What's the point of this? I don't know - maybe the lesson that you really need to quit in time so you won't get those nervous breakdowns, or maybe that you shouldn't be afraid as a guild to get new recruits even if it would require you to waste that day or two in SSC & TK for their attunements.
We had some people getting almost nervous breakdowns on our Illidan attempts, so it's better they moved to at least a vacation, if not completely off the WoW.
So there we were, not enough players to raid, raid break, here we come.
Luckily for those who still wanted to raid, it only lasted for less than a week, skipping some, 3 raids or so, until we got enough new recruitments.
We have now 9 new players in the guild, I think, we had to "waste" couple days clearing SSC & TK for their Hyjal / BT attunements, but after that, the progress has been damn good, I seriously wouldn't have believed that we would be, only on the 2nd week with the new recruits, going for Illidan again.
Fresh blood seems to have really spiced some things up for us, sure, their gear isn't as good as those who left, but that doesn't seem to slow us down too much, they've learned the encounters quite quickly even though we've had some frustrating moments with couple bosses just not going down as they should, but nevertheless, they went down.
What's the point of this? I don't know - maybe the lesson that you really need to quit in time so you won't get those nervous breakdowns, or maybe that you shouldn't be afraid as a guild to get new recruits even if it would require you to waste that day or two in SSC & TK for their attunements.
3-way SLI, CrossFireX... but something's missing
November 11th, 2007
nVidia is introducing 3-way SLI - that's up to 6 slots space taken.
AMD / ATI introduced CrossFireX - that's up to 8 slots space taken.
Now, I do realize that both of these have tremendous horsepower in them, but at what cost?
No, I'm not talking about powerbills. I'm talking about your PCs functionality.
How many of you have a motherboard with over 6 slots space for add-in cards, let alone 8? I don't, that's for sure.
Let's say I would like to go and get myself 3-way SLI or CrossFire X system - where does AMD and nVidia think I'll put my soundcard to? No, integrated is not enough for me, excluding perhaps ATI's on the gfx cards, but even then that's only for watching videos if I had a amplifier that supported HDMI, which I don't, so it's useless for me. Where do they think I'll put my TV receiver card? And NICs and other possible cards I could have.
Now, by using HD3850's or 8800GT's you could somewhat get by this, since they only have single slot coolers by default, but if I didn't put my computer in a freezer, I'm quite sure 3 tightly packed 8800GT's might actually just start melting through the mobo with all the heat coming from other sources too.
But seriously - both of the platforms sound great, but they forgot one little problem - there's no room for other add-in cards.
We need bigger motherboard, or we need alternative solutions, 3870 X2 is one, of course, but that wouldn't probably fit all the cases (though, it shouldn't be longer than 8800 Ultra so I guess it's still manageable)
nVidia is introducing 3-way SLI - that's up to 6 slots space taken.
AMD / ATI introduced CrossFireX - that's up to 8 slots space taken.
Now, I do realize that both of these have tremendous horsepower in them, but at what cost?
No, I'm not talking about powerbills. I'm talking about your PCs functionality.
How many of you have a motherboard with over 6 slots space for add-in cards, let alone 8? I don't, that's for sure.
Let's say I would like to go and get myself 3-way SLI or CrossFire X system - where does AMD and nVidia think I'll put my soundcard to? No, integrated is not enough for me, excluding perhaps ATI's on the gfx cards, but even then that's only for watching videos if I had a amplifier that supported HDMI, which I don't, so it's useless for me. Where do they think I'll put my TV receiver card? And NICs and other possible cards I could have.
Now, by using HD3850's or 8800GT's you could somewhat get by this, since they only have single slot coolers by default, but if I didn't put my computer in a freezer, I'm quite sure 3 tightly packed 8800GT's might actually just start melting through the mobo with all the heat coming from other sources too.
But seriously - both of the platforms sound great, but they forgot one little problem - there's no room for other add-in cards.
We need bigger motherboard, or we need alternative solutions, 3870 X2 is one, of course, but that wouldn't probably fit all the cases (though, it shouldn't be longer than 8800 Ultra so I guess it's still manageable)
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