Project Lore

SK-Gaming announced yesterday that the guild is splitting up.  No, no, the guild isn't dieing by any means but splitting into two distinct guilds, a PvE and PvP guild.  First, let me hit you guys with some details. The organization actually started way back in 1997 with the Quake franchise.  Later, the team transitioned to Counterstrike, where they received most of their fame, and has lived on in all things competitive gaming since.  The company runs various teams for numerous games including Counterstrike, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft.  SK-Gaming has been a part of World of Warcraft for only a few months, since they teamed up with Curse shortly before the launch of Sunwell Plateau.  So, now you know some background on the team. The break-up is more than name only.  There will not be a SK-Gaming PvP guild and PvE guild.  Instead the teams will be completely separate, as the SK-Gaming brand wants to focus solely on e-Sports titles, of which they consider WoW's Arena ladder to be one of them. The decision speaks a lot for Blizzard's e-Sports hopes and the ability to manage two vastly diverse playing styles.  It should be pretty apparent that WoW is now an accepted e-Sports franchise.  I mean with millions of dollars in prize money being offered by various tournaments, how could you disagree?  It also should show just how drastically different the gear, playstyles, management and mindset need to be for players to be that hardcore in both aspects of WoW. For their part, the Curse/SK-Gaming PvE guild was the most dominate in Sunwell, with a combined five world first kills including Kil'jaeden.  So it isn't like the team wasn't working out.  They likely just did not feel comfortable surrounded by all the e-Sports guys, as it was reportedly their decision to leave.  There is also the issue with content generation.  How is a sponsored company like SK-Gaming supposed to keep people coming back after the newest PvE content is cleared?  There are things  they could do like training videos (we have that covered) or joke raiding videos, but that may not keep their members happy.  Perhaps that is why they have reformed under the new banner of “Put Your Name Here” and continue on with their previous benefactors, Curse Gaming and World of Raids. What does this mean for PvE?  Probably nothing.  Guilds, including the "splinter" PvE guild, will still race for world first kills, content will get cleared and then another dull period will ensue.  Same old, same old.  Life will go on, but as recocered hardcore raider, the changes interest me nonetheless.

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Hey, it's still Wednesday here in California. So, here's the newest Random Heroes Comic! This one has a dedication! From Bjorn and Ivar:

We would like to dedicate this week’s comic to our guild <Contingent> of Shattered Halls. One year has passed since the guild was formed, and we're still going at it strong. From Attumen to Illidan on one of the least populated servers of 2008, getting several alliance server first along the way. It's been an incredible ride so far, and I can't wait to see what shenanigans we get up to in Wrath.

If you haven't already, check out last week's Random Heroes comic or all of the Random Heores comics.

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The United States stock market has been more random than a raid against Gruul in recent weeks. Since the House shot down the proposed 700 billion dollar bailout bill – glad they did by the way – the market has become even more tumultuous.  The Dow Jones had a record decline of nearly 800 points after the bill's failure, followed by an increase the next day from short-selling. But analysts have found one market that seems to be a bit insulated from the crashing economy, video games.

It is no wonder why world renowned economists are claiming that Azeroth's economy is currently the strongest economy in the world. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke states that “Azeroth's economy is the strongest market that I have seen in years. Inflation is low and well managed by Blizzard, consumers are spending at incredible rates, and goods are being bought and sold within days of creation. The current market trends in Azeroth could not be more polar opposites to the rest of the world.”

Secretary of Treasury and guy who is incredibly sure of himself Henry Paulson believes that “The economy in Azeroth is fine. No problems there, of course I did say the same thing about the US economy recently. But, this time I mean it. Put all your gold in Goldman Bags, they will be just fine.”

Mad Money's Jim Cramer exclaims that “HOLY COW, I HAVEN'T SEEN AN ECONOMY THIS HEALTHY SINCE I BEGAN SHOUTING AND THROWING THINGS ON TV. THE MAINLAND OF AZEROTH IS RAKING IN THE DOUGH WITH THE TRADE DEFICIT HEAVILY IN THEIR FAVOR. IF YOU COULD BUY STOCK IN AZEROTH I WOULD RATE THEM ALL A “TRIPLE BUY,” BOOYAH!”

Need an opinion from a real person, someone you know? Well, Solidsamm of Magtheridon agrees with the eggheads. “I can't believe this market. It is ripe for the picking. The auction house is truly a buy-low, sell-high market right now. I picked up a few thousand Netherweave Cloth for just over 250g, transmuted it to Heavy Netherweave Bandages and vendored them for close to 400g. That is almost 150g in profit with no risk! And with Wrath of the Lich King coming soon, things can only get better!”

Editor's Note: Not all quotes are real.

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It seems like the entire world (of Warcraft) has gone into a bit of a holding pattern lately. Many people (myself included) have stopped raiding, we just heard about the arena points reset, so there is not a whole left for anyone to do other than count the days until November 13^th. While I am very much in the same boat, like hell I'm going to stop playing the game! So I have been trying to find a few activities to keeping me going. In the short term, I have been spending my days grinding the Kodo mount for Brewfest. I have over 200 kills and still have yet to see the thing drop, I'm beginning to suspect the cake is a lie. I imagine I will get it eventually, and if not, Brewfest will ultimately come to an end. Soon I will be looking for other alternatives. I have been trying to stay positive and look at this as a good excuse to catch up on those things I have always been meaning to do. I'm talking about all those projects I have always meant to get around to, but never did because I was busy raiding. Here is my list of things I think I will finally be able take a shot at:

Netherwing - I want to finally grind out the Netherwing Dailies, and get my nether drake. Although I must admit, with all the new mounts on the horizon, my desire here is waning a bit.

Fishing / Cooking - I have played around with the idea of leveling my fishing and cooking. It seems like a good way to make some cash and be able to make all that tasty raid food.  Problem is I hate fishing, so I guess this one is just a matter of how bored I get.

Farming Gold - The last thing I could even thing to do on my main is stockpile gold. Certainly not a bad approach, but I question what is going to happen to the WoW economy, and if this will pay off in the long run.

Alts - I have a Rogue that is closing in on 70 fast, and want to make her a priority. I have a few others sitting in 60 range that I may have time to get up there as well.

New Professions - With the prices on the AH falling through the floor (at least on Executus), this isn't a bad time to powerlevel a new profession on one of my alts, and I've always wanted to try Jewelcrafting. For some it may be a good time to push to 375 on your main.

Roll Horde - I've always wondered how the other half lives.

I'm sure there are lots of other worthy projects that would be worth taking on during this time. So tell me, what are you guys doing?  Have you come up with a productive way to spend your WoW time? Please don't tell me you are still raiding... I may become incredibly jealous.

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First things first, this post will contain some information that many players may consider spoilers.  The information presented later in this post will only be discovered by most players once Wrath of the Lich King goes live. So that is your warning. I actually haven't managed to get myself into the beta, despite my best efforts.  This is coming from someone who has been in the previous two closed-beta sessions, so I feel a bit left out now.  Thankfully, my closest World of Warcraft buddy did manage to snake his way into the beta and has kept me up to date on things I need to know.  Over the weekend he pointed me to the small image you see to the right.  As any WoW player knows, those little foot icons are flightpaths. The image only shows the horde friendly flightpaths, so you can safely assume that there are at least 50% more.  At first glance I thought this was an incredible amount of nodes for the island of Northrend.   That is until I compared the size of Northrend to Outland and the other major islands.  The small picture  does not do the new island justice since it is not to scale, but Northrend is probably two to three times the size of Outland.   For a more appropriate picture check out the upcoming World Map. But my original surprise at the amount of flightpaths still stands.  There are more nodes crammed into Northrend than either of the original islands.  What makes even less sense is that players will be able to us flying mounts in Northrend, so why the need for more nodes than before?  I guess the one saving grace is that Blizzard will not allow players to use flying mounts on the island instantly.  Therefore, players will still be forced to explore the island before taking to the skies. Oh and as proof of the island's size. the route selected in the picture – Dalaran to Borean Tundra – takes about five minutes to complete.  Just enough time to get some dual-gaming in.  Does anyone else feel that Blizzard is eroding exploration by making it so easy to get around?

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Tuesday morning has gotten me yet again. Another week goes by where I try to login to World of Warcraft before work and check on my Auction House stuff, do some general bank clean-up and perhaps have a few minutes for some quick dailies. But today is Tuesday, and that means that nothing can be done in Azeroth from the morning to mid-afternoon.  When I was a kid I hated Tuesdays because I had CCD after school, now I have a new, non-religious reason to hate them!

(Sidenote: I was going to define that term for you, but I actually do not remember what it means.  I do remember that the kids jokingly called it Catholic City Dump though.  Plus two internet points to anyone who knows what it really stands for!)

After wallowing in self-pity for a fews minutes I always try to find something else to do.  Before I head off to work I almost always get annoyed a second time. It isn't that I think Blizzard is trying to ruin my chances at epic flying mounts for my alts – I know that is exactly what they are doing – that annoys me, but the fact that I never remember it is Tuesday. Yes, yes, I know they put up the message on Monday night, but honestly, who remembers anything from the day before?

After snapping out of my depression I have a few things I tend to take care of during those long hours of waiting. Naturally, one has to check out the numerous WoW-related blogs like:

• WoWInsider
• MMO-Champion
• World of Raids

I would add ProjectLore here but I kinda work for them, so I see the stuff all the time. You guys should definitely make sure to check us out!

Then you have all the WoW-related comics:

• Shakes & Fidget
• Dark Legacy Comics
• Flintlocke
• Looking For Group

Finally, I move on to real life stuff like checking my email, my stocks (so depressing as of late), play with my four crazy ferrets, and play other video games. Then I try to login again...it never works.

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If you are anything like me, you want to get to level 80 as soon as possible. Sure I understand that some people would like to sit back, smell the roses, and enjoy all that Northrend has to offer. But for me, this game is all about the end game! I'll save the roses for my rogue alt. I want to start raiding as soon as possible, so myself and my fellow guildies have spent some time recently discussing the fastest way possible to get into Naxx. I don't want to do any stupid 48-hour marathon power-leveling or anything, but let's just say I won't be wasting any time. There are a few options, but the one I think we have settled on is pure instance grinding. Being a tank, this would be ideal. First of all, it prevents me from having to respec Ret, which is the last thing I want to do. It will also allow us to learn all the new class skills and abilities in a group setting, which will be valuable down the road.  I'm sure we will poke our heads out of the instance portals from time to time, grab a quest or two, and see what the countryside is about, but I think that the XP from the instances will get us where we want to go fast. Add on the quests that are in the instances themselves and we should be leveling in a hurry. In order to get this dialed in, we are wanting to put together a team of 5 people that will basically level as a unit, make sure we stay close in level, and just hit the 5-mans over and over until the final ding. I imagine it will take more than a couple  runs through each one before we are ready for the next,  but its not like we haven't run every heroic into the ground already. I doubt anyone will mind. I know there are others in the guild with the same plan, so hopefully it will be easy to hook up with one of the groups and go straight into the 10-man scene at 80. Now this is certainly not the only way, just my way. I know people that are going to quest from sun up to sun down. I even know a few that plan on filling their quest logs with 25 completed quests in SMV beforehand and hope to get a level or two off the turn ins when Wrath goes live. In the end I think it comes down to doing what you enjoy. I enjoy group play, so that is my route, what is yours?

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Alexis is back to wrap-up Project Lore and pals first four fights in Karazhan. You'll also get a viewer's question answered by Project Lore's favorite tank, Joshua.  Find out this and more in this week's community wrap-up.

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The Project Lore and pals fight there way to Maiden of Virtue in Karazhan. Will Maiden clean Project Lore's clock or will she fail to do her job?  Find out on this episode of Project Lore.

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Project Lore and pals drop in on Moroes in the middle of dinner in Karazhan. Will Moroes be a gracious host and allow Project Lore to pass or will this rogue try to serve Project Lore to his guests?  Find out on this episode of Project Lore. As Karazhan is a 10-man raid, the guys wrangled in five members of the Totally Rad Guild to help them out. Here are the armories for everyone involved: DrDark, Lylelovett, Goggins, Dorkins, Xenophontos, Manifesto, Talonni, Bastosa, Wyche, and Wilx. Everybody is ready for all of the bosses, so let's see how things go. Remember that our subscribe page has links for Project Lore all over the web. You can use our Episodes RSS feed or Twitter to find out when new episodes are out, and don't forget to join our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and MySpace. One more boss fight this week, tomorrow at Noon Pacific, and Alexis will wrap things up on Saturday at 3pm, so tune in!

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