Project Lore

Never before has a deep, demanding voice booming angrily at me through Ventrilo made me laugh so hysterically. But Samuel L. Jackson, of all people, stating in that signature big, bad voice of his, "THAT'S A 50 DKP MINUS!"... well, it's just too much for this girl to take without exploding into laughter.

No, I'm not buddies with the actual Samuel L. Jackson (although, I did take my picture with his life-size wax statue while I was in L.A. for BlizzCon... does that count?!) His interaction with my raid group actually came through a nifty little iPhone app that one of my guildies decided to share with the rest of us.

On the surface, iSamJackson isn't much different from other apps that allow you to interact with celebrity voices at the touch of the button. You pay a $2.99 download fee for either a "clean" or explicit version of the app, and in return get a collection of more than 150 Sam Jackson quotes delivered with his stylish swagger. But the best part is yet to come. The app also has two optional quote packs (for an additional $.99 each) -- Sports and "MMO pwnership." I'm sure you can guess which one makes it relevant to this blog!

Jackson takes inspiration for several of his quotes in the MMO pack from the infamous Onyxia wipe animation. So, while our raid leader quickly reviewed strategy for taking down Lord Marrowgar the other night, Samuel L. Jackson chimed in: "Do I really have to tell you NOT to stand in the fire?" (FYI - I'm paraphrasing these from memory). That got our attention, and the quotes kept rolling. "That's a 50 DKP minus!" And when we wiped while bringing down Deathbringer Saurfang because of some ranged coordination issues, Sam declared: "You know, up until the part where we all died, I thought it was going pretty good!" It kept our raid group in high spirits and laughing along with Jackson all night.

So would I personally buy the app? Absolutely -- if one of my guildies didn't already have it for everyone's amusement. It has definitely brought a lot of fun to the group, but I also wonder when the novelty will wear off. Perhaps if I still find it 100 percent funny a couple months down the road, I'll get it for myself, too. What would be GREAT is if, somehow, someone made the MMO-relevant quotes into a WoW addon.

Has anyone else encountered iSamJackson? What are your own impressions?

ProjectLorians were busy providing an assortment of original content the last few days and missed a few tidbits of news.  I figure that the mantra of "better late than never" applies, since we want to keep everyone well informed.  Or we could cope out and just say we were really checking our facts, thrice over.

According to a screenshot from the Enigma raiding guild on NA-Deathwing, the Lick King's last defenses will be accessible on February 2 (or February 3 for EU).  The Frostwing Halls houses two unknown bosses, Sister Svalna and Valithria Dreamwalker, and Sindragosa, the original frost wyrm.  Valithria, a captured green dragon, is going to be an interesting encounter.  Especially to those with fond memories of Dungeons and Dragons' combat variations.  Sindragosa is part of the lockout counter, along with Putricide, Lana'thel and the Lich King himself.

My guild is still stuck on Professor Putricide, and has not even attempted any of the Crimson Hall bosses (something I have disagreed with).  It's fairly obvious that we are falling behind, so I doubt Solidsamm will be seeing Sindragosa any time soon.

In other news, Solidsamm will be seeing a new non-combat pet shortly.  According to various sources, a Competitor's Souvenir has been added to the North American servers.  Unfortunately, no visual imagery or animations have been datamined as of press.  If you were around for the Summer Olympic games two years ago, you'll likely remember the Spirit of Competition vanity pet that was randomly awarded for participating in Battlegrounds.  It's worth noting that the tabard from the last olympics was called the Competitor's Tabard.  Either way, the closely named Competitor's Souvenir will likely be obtainable once the 2010 Winter Olympic games kick off on February 12.

Protip is short video series with various tips and guides. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne or subscribe in iTunes for notifications of new videos!

 

Today on Protip, I get the Minesweeper achievement. Its short and sweet! What do you want to see in future Protips? Tweet me @Heartbourne.

Protip is short video series with various tips and guides. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne or subscribe in iTunes for notifications of new videos!

On this edition of Protip, we do what Dorkins could not - get the Rapid Defense achievement. To be fair, the timer was a minute shorter when he did it. If you haven't seen Dorkins do this quest, make sure to check it out.



They're two of the signature moves of rogues and hunters: Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection. Both allow the two classes to dps straight out at the start of a boss fight without pulling aggro, and in fact can also help a tank build up their threat levels quickly from the start. But I had never seen a fight won solely because of the tactics of these two moves until last week.

My raid group had gotten through Lord Marrowgar in Icecrown Citadel, but hadn't quite reached the Gunship Battle shenanigans that I already happily told you about. Which left us taking on Lady Deathwhisper, and things were going great -- the Adherents and Fanatics were going down fine with the help of our two tanks, the deformed ones were getting kited around to avoid their hard hits, and the boss' mana shield was getting hacked down steadily.

Then right as we were finishing off the last of the mana shield, somehow one of our tanks died. With no battle rez in sight, we assumed that the attempt would be a wipe because usually two tanks are absolutely necessary for the second phase of this boss. She has a nasty, stacking debuff that essentially makes a tank lose the ability to generate threat, so the two tanks taunt off each other, ensuring that at least one tank is holding aggro.

Time to improvise.

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Let's just get the objective of the post out of the way in the first sentence.  Okay, fine, the second.  Crap.  *deep breath* Give the upcoming World of Warcraft movie a chance.

I understand why gamers are pessimistic about video game movies.  After all, our wallets have been hit by the likes of BloodRayne, House of the Dead and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.  Granted, those are all from the same tax-abusing director, but Street Fighter and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li would also like to lend their credibility to the topic.  There are some "gems" though, Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat, to name two.  We're still a ways off from the World of Warcraft picture, and we know very little (a nice recap of what we do know here), but it's certainly shaping up to be a quality piece of entertainment.  Not some schlock, money in the bank scheme.

Here's why:
Sam Raimi - Raimi is the mastermind of the cult Evil Dead series.  Originally, the series was all about horror and suspense, before it restructured itself as a tongue-in-cheek mockery.  In either form, the trilogy is much loved and appreciated.  More recently he's been in charge of the Spider-man franchise, which has tailed off in quality with later entries.  Surely it was a reason for Raimi walking away from Spider-man 4.

Raimi also has Darkman and Drag Me To Hell under his belt, and has even dabbled in fantasy as an executive producer on Hercules and Xena.  The presence of Hercules and Xena in his repertoire is more important than you may realize.  Rumors indicate that the film may be made in New Zealand (where the shows were done) and he's stated that he wants to stick to the content that makes Warcraft so popular, the lore and lands.  Both settings that are familiar to the fantasy-based TV shows.

Robert Rodat:  You've probably never heard of him, I hadn't, but Rodat is responsible for the action behind Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, and is reportedly in the middle of scripting the Warcraft film.  He should be plenty capable of putting the war in Warcraft.

Legendary Pictures - Legendary burst on to the movie scene with Batman Begins and hasn't really let up since.  Not everything the company has done is good (Superman Returns), but Beerfest, 300, The Dark Knight, Watchmen, The Hangover, Where the Wild Things Are and Ninja Assassin have shown that the company can take original and long-standing ideas and turn them into blockbusters.

Blizzard Entertainment - Blizzard is incredibly possessive of the company's intellectual property, especially the one pulling in $1 billion a year.  Nothing gets released with the company's logo on it without complete an udder agreement by the suits.  That's the very reason that the official WoW magazine has been delayed so much.  Blizzard wouldn't release it until it was spit shine perfect.

If Blizzard allows Activision to do a game based upon the movie, see Street Fighter: The Movie (the game), then it's time to worry.

Of course, don't get yourself over-hyped about the movie either.  It's a long way off and, again, this is a Blizzard Entertainment project.  It'll be out "soon."

WoWFlix is a column featuring videos from around the web related to World of Warcraft. If you find something you’d like to be featured, leave a comment or send a tweet to @Heartbourne. This video is an amazing parody of a song by 3OH!3. The lyrics are ingenious and its about rogues. The play on "don't trust a ho" is clever and works really well. What more could you want from a WoW music video? Unlike most WoW videos, the vocals are spot on. The post-processing on it is at just the right level. I have to give a lot of props to the creators of this song and video for doing such a great job. Theandrin and Bulltastic covered the vocals while Candidá and Theandrin worked their machinima magic with the Rise of Dawn guild on Khaz'Goroth. The singers sound authentic to the sound of 3OH!3. If you aren't familiar with 3OH!3 or their song "Don't Trust Me", you might want to check it out to understand why this video is so amazing: Grab the mp3 for yourself and check out the lyrics: Black dress with a knife underneath She's got the breath of her last fish feast on her teeth And she's got pride (pride) and she's got greed She spends all her free time hanging out in BGs P-P-P Poison - instant or deadly While you're still busy casting - she's already won T-Tauren boyfriend because you know she likes beef Look out she wants to group again, bet she'll need a rez again [ - Chorus -] She wants to sap you woh-oh she wants to stab you woh-oh she'll never heal you woh-oh woh-oh oh oh Don't trust a rogue never trust a rogue don't trust a rogue don't trust me Running Naxxs, yeah she used to a lot Now she doesn't need the loot 'cos Widow's Fury just dropped And that lockbox that you want her to pick Don't even go there if you're not gonna tip V-V-V Vanish, no one know's where she's at. Before you turn around you'll feel her knife in your back And the best is (best is) She's got the tricks of the trade Fan of Knives - Adrenalin rush - yeah she's got you made [ - Chorus - ] [ - Zaraeus' breakdown -] Shush girl - shut your lips Open up my lockbox and don't ask for no tips

This morning blue poster Bornakk announced the first of what could be several fixes to the PvP system. Resilience will soon be getting double its regular buff, which he states would decrease the damage taken from other players by up to 10 or 20 percent. Here's the exact wording of the announcement:

"We are currently in the process of applying a hotfix to buff resilience. While some modifications may be made, we intend to have this buff in effect for the remainder of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The change will double the value of resilience in reducing damage done by players.

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Episode 125 of the WoWInsider show is now available for download. For those of you who missed the show, myself (Heartbourne) and DJTyrant were on the show to discuss WoW news and Project Lore. Here are some of the topics we covered:

• Tauren Paladins: are Tauren overpowered enough?
• Guild progression system in Cataclysm
• Possible raiding opportunities after ICC
• Could we see another war effort a la Ahn'Qiraj?
• What we are up to on Project Lore
• Armory Update and phishing attacks
• WoW Twitter Dev Chat Q&A discussion
• Vehicle combat

Head over to WoW.com to subscribe to the WoWInsider show on iTunes or to download the mp3 of this show.