Project Lore

Guild Chat is a regular column where we sit down with notable (real life) figures in the WoW world. Leave a comment or send a tweet to @Heartbourne with people you would like to see in future interviews. Thanks for taking this opportunity to talk to us. Can you give us a brief introduction to Wowathon and introduce yourselves? No problem. We're the WoWathon team. We're a team of college students from southern California who were inspired by Mario Marathon's nearly $30,000 raised by Child's Play and decided to do the same with World of Warcraft. We figured that with as many people in the WoW community along with the ability for people to roll toons and level alongside us, it would be a fun experience that would hopefully bring all us gamers together for a good cause. The core marathoning team and founding members consist of Jacob Reynolds, Alex Guerrera, and Kelly Mayfield. We of course have to extend recognition to Alan "Charlie" Joyce for reading patch notes for eveyone during server downtime and Janet Oshiro, Elyse Lemoine, and Elizabeth McTigue for keeping us alive and functioning. What is Child's Play? Child's Play is a charity made by and for gamers. They work with hospitals around the world to fulfill movie, book, toy, and video game wishlists of kids stuck in hospitals during the holidays. It was founded back in the early 2000's by the creators of Penny Arcade and has since then become the largest gaming charity in the world. Is this your first time doing video streaming? How do you have it setup? Yes, this is the first time we've done streaming video. We have to dedicate a lot of the set-up ingenuity to Mario Marathon; we relied heavily on their FAQ on how to run a marathon and we really couldn't have done it without them. We are set up with two computers: Kelly's desktop PC and Jacob's Macbook Pro. On the PC we have a program called Screencamera capturing the webcam and desktop simultaneously with picture-in-picture. On the Mac, we're using a program called Camtwist to capture the desktop live. We're broadcasting from two ustream accounts: the WoWathon account being streamed from the PC and we're using the cohost feature to add the Mac stream from another ustream account. From our main account, we've added text and information manually. How did you all meet? Did you first meet in real life or in WoW? We all met back when we were in middle or high school for the most part. Kelly and EB have been best friends since childhood and Jacob used to be beat up by Janet in elementary school. Jacob and Kelly became friends over middle school and Dance Dance Revolution, and Alex moved to California during high school. Are you avid raiders? What do you normally do with your WoW gametime? We don't raid, but we're chronic WoW players. Kelly is an alt-aholic and usually quits playing WoW once she gets whatever current toon she's playing to 6 levels under the current level cap (except for the 4 months she was 60). Jacob hasn't stopped playing since Kelly got him addicted back in 2005. Alex has been going back and forth between WoW and Guild Wars since the summer of 2008. Right now, we're still leveling to 80. We're not too hardcore; in fact we're pretty painfully casual. How did you manage food for this? Lots of pizza and ramen? Costco and the wonderful charity of Janet, Elyse, Jin, Scott, Elizabeth, and even our landlord dropped off some white beans and rice. We've had people cooking for us since the very beginning, but other than that, it's been an occasional ramen. We've been drinking lots of Dr. Pepper, coffee, and Bawlz. Thank god for caffeine. Your original goal was $2,000 and you are now looking at getting as much as $5,000 raised for Child's Play. Are you surprised with the generosity? Some of us are surprised. Jacob and Elizabeth weren't surprised at all, but Kelly was definitely prepared for a failed marathon (expecting to maybe raise $500). Regardless, we're very thankful of the outpouring of donations and support that has been sent our way. We really have to say that the success is largely because of the people that have come to chat and publicize our event. Are you using any heirlooms, refer-a-friend, or other XP bonuses? We're not using any experience boosting bonuses. Our accounts aren't recruit-a-friend linked nor are we using heirloom items. Just blood, sweat, and tears for us. Do you think leveling has become too easy? After playing through for about 68 hours before our servers went down, we think that leveling is pretty fair. We're thankful that the new patch has brought the mount levels down just because it'll make it a lot easier for us to marathon. But, as of right now, we're level 42, so perhaps you should ask us again in a couple of days. Maybe then we'll feel that leveling should be made easier XD Do you have plans to do anything like this again? Tentatively, we're beginning to plan rolling on the Horde side of a PVP server. The idea that there would be a walking battleground surrounding us constantly sounds pretty epic. But the plans are still up in the air, so who knows? Thanks for talking with us! No problem!

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As we've said before, we are on a bit of a hiatus from making videos. So, to help hold you over we wanted to remind you of all of our past episodes that we have, including some of our favorites. This week we'll bring back the Deadmines episodes that were not only a blast, but also spawned the infamous "Tigers can't use bridges" saying that so many people loved. If you just can't get enough of Project Lore be sure to check out our huge archive of previous episodes and follow our Twitter for the latest updates!

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Just now, Blizzard's official Call of the Crusade page was updated to include the Patch 3.2 Trailer along with a summary of what the latest content patch brings to World of Warcraft. The trailer shows brief clips of a bunch of different boss encounters in both the 5-man instance and the new raid instance. Unfortunately, it doesn't include nearly as much lore or even any dialogue like the Patch 3.1 Secrets of Ulduar Trailer did. I suppose it is at least a bone thrown our way in order to hold us off for just a couple more hours before the realms come up, but I wish there was that little bit of back story besides, "The Argent Crusade calls and the players answer." It may have just been a last minute highlight reel from the PTR to appeal to those who wanted a trailer for 3.2, but given the quality of both Wrathgate and the 3.1 trailer, I am pretty disappointed. Other than the trailer, there's also a nice desktop background available for download to show off the latest and greatest content in WoW. What are your thoughts on the short video that Blizzard published?

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This morning while trying to login (fruitlessly, of course), I ran into a small error that seems to be pretty common. The WoW Launcher would download Patch 3.2, but would then give an error, "Failure to Apply Patch," or "Unable to Apply Patch." After trying the repair utility, a quick search reveals the steps to fix the problem:

• Go to the folder where WoW is installed. I find the easiest way to get there is simply right clicking the shortcut I use to launch WoW and choosing "Open File Location"
• Right Click on Launcher.exe
• Choose Run as Administrator
• If a UAC window pops up, choose continue
• Let the patching commence

I know this issue caused me some frustration during the time we are all waiting for the latest version of WoW to become active, so I hope this helps you out! Anyone else have any issues or solutions for the newest patch?

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There's a crapload of stuff to do in this upcoming patch.  Thanks to Blizzard's shift in patch design, from just high end content to a solid mix of content for all player types, the Call of the Crusade patch has my head spinning.  I hope you have a grasp on the content thanks to our extensive coverage, but that doesn't mean you have a plan for tonight.  I love content, so my plan is already in the works. I'm a realist.  I will be shocked, stunned, stupefied if the servers come up on time.  Let alone coming up and being stable enough to raid, heroic get anything of substance done.  My pessimistic outlook on patching doesn't mean I won't be logging in though.  You damn well better believe I will be spamming the servers next to each and everyone of you.  Downloading the patch is of the utmost importance, but I haven't seen it available anywhere as of the time of this writing.  The first order of business that we should all take care of upon logging in is following Heartbourne's advice, and dumping the old and busted emblems for some new hotness.  With a purse full of Emblems of Conquest I will be able to pick up a few minor upgrades before venturing into the new 5-man and old heroics.  Then Solidsamm will revisit his old stomping ground of the Argent Tournament.  He's heard through the grapevine that there's a lot more to do up there these days.  Not to mention that the Black Knight has been heard calling him out. My little stabbing machine can receive his fair share of upgrades from Conquest and Triumph badges, but its Solidsagart who can benefit the most.  I'll surely get called into heroics and raids during the week, but my main focus is going to be on the priest.  I'd be absolutely stupid to not hit level 80 on my healer ASAP.  With everyone and their brother once again running heroics it'll be incredibly easy to find groups, and fairly easy to collect badges for her.  Much to the hardcore playerbase's chagrin, she'll be geared out the wazoo in no time.  She'll just have to wait until Solidsamm conquers the new 5-man dungeon. Those are the basic starting points for me.  What are you going to do as soon as the servers return to a stable state?  Return to the Argent Tournament grounds for the new dailies and easy money?  Continue working on your pile of Champion's Seals for the mounts and pets?  Go Raptor hunting?  Or are you going to just dive right into one of the four levels of the Argent Coliseum's raid content? As with all patches, I will be rapidly filling my coffers thanks to all the needed materials I have been hording for weeks.  Gnomes love gold almost as much as Goblins.

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With patch 3.2 on the horizon, this will be the last post in the Preparing for Patch 3.2 series. Be sure to check out the posts on Tradeskills and Battlegrounds as well! One thing you should be aware of in patch 3.2 is that all dungeons and raids outside of the Crusader's Coliseum will be dropping Emblems of Conquest. You can buy Emblems of Valor at the cost of 1 Emblem of Conquest, and you can buy Emblems of Heroism at the cost of 1 Emblem of Valor. Emblems of Heroism will still be useful for a variety of things, such as epic gems, heirlooms, and mounts. Emblems of Valor will not be useful; they already buy hardly anything useful. I suggest that if you have any leftover Emblems of Valor or Emblems of Heroism, you start looking saving these for epic gems if you need some cash or other non-gear rewards. Emblems of Conques will be easy to come by, and that sweet BoE bracer you get will not only be easily replaceable in patch 3.2, but also worthless. Who would drop hundreds of gold on gear when you can do a couple dozen heroics or a Naxxramas run in a few hours and get something much better? If you need to gear up for patch 3.2, my suggestion is simple: wait! The patch will be upon us any day now and with Emblems of Conquest being so easily accessible, crafted and BoE gear will bottom out in price, and if you are willing to put in some time, Ulduar 25 level gear will be yours from heroics. In addition to Emblems of Heroism and Valor no longer being accessible, the achievements associated with looting lots of them will be removed and likely made Feats of Strength. If you are a few Emblems away from any of the Emblem-related achievements, go grab them now, before it's too late! What are you doing with your excess emblems, and what is your gear situation for patch 3.2?

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In a move that makes scammers and gold farmers cry in agony, patch 3.2 will make all of the mounts obtained by from the Warcraft trading card game, such as the immensely popular Spectral Tiger Mount, will no longer be bind on pickup. However, instead of unlocking the ability to buy the mount and still have to shill out the gold, you receive the mount upon entering the code. Any mounts bought before patch 3.2 will still be bound to their owners, but any codes exchanged after 3.2 will instead just give you the now BoE (actually, bind on use) mount. Additionally, the vendor will be disabled in patch 3.2, so if you redeemed the code but did not purchase your mount, you should do that right away. This was done to prevent a scam that has been increasing in popularity, where people advertise the in-game sale of their TCG mounts for gold in trade chat. Once they have a buyer, they send them an email with a fake code and a link to the site to enter it. Except, they actually link to a phishing site and steal victim's account information. Its strange that Blizzard supports the in-game trade of these items, as the cards have real world value because of their implications in the game. It provides a link between real world value and in game gold. For example, a person could pay top dollar for these loot cards and then sell the mounts in game for insane amounts of gold, thereby effectively exchanging dollars for gold. On the other hard, this may make the mounts more accessible. If you ever wanted one of these rare mounts and are among the richest players in the game, you may be able to finally get your hands on one:

• Spectral Tiger
• Swift Spectral Tiger
• X-51 Nether-Rocket
• X-51 Nether-Rocket X-TREME
• Big Battle Bear
• Magic Rooster Egg

Other cards, like the Fishing Chair or Path of Cenarius, are unaffected. The Riding Turtle was strangely not listed by Bornakk, and its fate remains uncertain. Do you have any of these, and do you plan to get any?

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It Takes Longer To Find All The Weapons Than To Level The Skill Love it or hate it, Blizzard has been changing the leveling aspects of World of Warcraft with each additional expansion.  As the level cap continues to be raised, the developers feel that blasting players through levels is a reasonable solution.  Sure, the slow to level players, and highly casual alt creators may feel a sense of abandonment, but according to Blizzard, the game begins at max level.  With increased XP gains from questing and grinding, lower level access to mounts and cheaper training costs and Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, leveling has become nothing more than a quick chore.  So why is it that we still bother with Weapon Skill? From what I can tell Weapon Skill was part of the combat calculations for two reasons.  Mainly to limit a players ability to take on much higher level mobs than themselves.  Perhaps your skill would let you drop a beast 10 levels higher than you, but all the dodges, glancing blows and misses from your puny weapon skill (still hardcapped at 5*level) negated your epeen.  The second attribute is to please our incessant need to see our character "progressing".  Even though we'd only see an increase of five in between levels, the great driving force of rising statistics kept many of us cracking skulls. Now, at level 80, the statistic is completely meaningless.  Yes, it does impact your DPS when you aren't capped, but does anyone not have max weapon skill with their weapon of choice?  If you grab a new weapon of a skill you aren't proficient in you can have that skill capped within the hour.  The incoming influx of axe wielding rogues are a perfect example.  So what's the point?  Why is it that we have to bother with a relic from vanilla WoW that has ultimately lost its purpose to Expertise?  Is it hanging around for archaeological reasons and the achievement? Unfortunately, we can't completely abandon the system since its main purpose is still in use.  But it'd be nice if Blizzard made it an actual task to accomplish, rather than a challenge to find an elite mob to swing away at.  Of course having to invest additional time into a pointless statistic, repeatedly no less, wouldn't make much sense either.  Make it so once one class of weapons (melee and ranged) is leveled they all would be?  That wouldn't please the RPers out there.  How about giving the statistic back some of its stats that Expertise now possess?  That would require additional dev time and rebalancing for no actual change.  Hmm. The state of Weapon Skill is a sticky situation.  Ultimately, its pointlessness for 'when the game begins' just bothers me, and frankly, reeks of a poorly planned change to a former core mechanic.

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Project Lore delves deeper into The Deadmines on their Horde toons. After a few mobs and some phat lootz, they come face to buzzsaw with Sneed. What will happen? Find out in this episdoe of Project Lore. Please help Projet Lore win a Streamy by voting every day at http://vote.streamys.org/!

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As I get closer and closer to level 80 (no, I'm still not there yet. But that's another story...), I've been thinking a bit about my end goals for Locomomo. They started out vague, long ago when I rejoiced at finding a piece of gear that was one measly armor point higher than what I already had equipped. Back then, I could only dream of what my toon someday would become. And as I've leveled and discovered through experience my play preferences for my class, those goals have solidified quite a bit. What I know so far: I like being sneaky, as a proper rogue should. But even moreso, I like dealing the DPS. One of my primary motivations for leveling is the fact that I want to start raiding with my guild. I'll have to start small to get some better gear, I'm sure. Then hopefully after not too long try out some heroics and get down my raiding rotations. I know, they're still pretty general goals, but it's something to look forward to. And while looking forward, I realized that really, the best way for me to play is to have smaller goals along the way. It seems I'm always playing toward something - trying to reach the next level, and the next and the next; aiming to get my stats up; completing enough quests in an area to get the related achievement and moving on to another zone. Each little step leads to another and another. Blizzard knows how to keep its players motivated. But there have been times when I've found myself a bit puzzled at what to do next. For the most part, leveling is self-explanatory. Just go to an area for your level, click on the NPCs with yellow exclamations points, and go kill things. But sometimes there's the issue of having too much to do. Do you level in zone x or zone y? Do you focus on your professions or continue leveling? Ultimately, there's a million decisions we must make in game, and each one will lead to a different experience. Of course, once you're a more experienced player, it becomes easier to picture your future characters. You know what equipment, skills and talents are out there; you have conquered the zones; and you have played either with or against other high-level characters that you can use for inspiration for what you one day will become. And once you reach 80, there's still all the end-game content. I know a lot of players find it a bit harder to keep playing once they reach a certain point and no longer have those little steps to motivate them along. But I think I'm a very long way from reaching that point. I've got dungeons to explore, enemy cities to sneak into, equipment to be had, achievements galore to earn, and only so much time to play. The future Locomomo, as I picture her, will be awesome. But it's the journey getting there that I'm looking forward to. In your own gaming experiences, what drives you to keep playing? Is there any specific goal you're currently playing to? Do you picture what you hope your future toon will be, or let that picture shape itself as you go?

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