Project Lore

I'm late to the show with this one, I know.  Get over it, because I couldn't resist picking up The Ultimate Edition (because it's so Ultimate) of the manga after reading through the available four volumes of Warcraft: Legends.  After all, if the success of The Sunwell Trilogy allowed Blizzard/Tokyopop to make another series, it couldn't have been bad.  Right?  With high hopes (and a bad current book) I took a deep breath and purchased yet another piece of literature from scribe Richard Knaak and his first effort with artist Jae-Hwan Kim. Tokyopop's collection of all three mangas, Dragon Hunt, Shadows of Ice, Ghostlands, into a single hardcover edition made quite an impression on me.  The Ultimate Edition (is there a 'The Not-So-Ultimate Edition'?) binds all of the installments together in what is best described as a tome.  If I didn't know better the imposing size of collected works would have lead me to believe that a year long read was about to begin.  Tokyopop's craftsmanship doesn't stop at the physical construction and presentation of the literature either.  Included in the non-purist edition is a new, eight-page color prologue of the Sunwell's creation, a fantastic abridged history of WoW, an art gallery, developmental drawings and an afterword by the loremaster himself, Chris Metzen.  Ironically there is also an advertisement for the next manga trilogy from Knaak/Kim, Dragons Of Outland.  It'll be here in 2008...wait a minute. Spoilers Ahead! Dragon Hunt:  The first of the three partitions is the most boring, although it isn't a bad thing to be honest.  Like most of the manga (and literature) I have read, the opening of the Knaak's story is full of character introduction, development and backstory.  More than half of Dragon Hunt is dedicated to various introductions, some minor characters included, but the author slipped in subtle, yet important, details during the opening.  The front loading of characters distracted me from the story somewhat, but Knaak's writing style (and Kim's focused art) makes it hard to miss the really important points, like Tyrygosa's first appearance and the destruction of Tarren Mill.  The unorganized opening didn't instill high expectations for the rest of the trilogy. Shadows of Ice:  Thanks to the abrupt ending of Dragon Hunt, Shadows of Ice starts off with a bang.  With all of the main characters introduced, Knaak ramps up the action and creates a sense of urgency in book two.  We're shown dragon battles, betrayal, a Scourge officer (I guess they aren't entirely mindless), and enough action to allow Kim to show off his artistic prowess. Shadows of Ice is where we meet Trag Highmountain, the star of Knaak's Legends storyline, and his master that betrayed the betrayer, Baron Mordis.  The pair are the main antagonists of this section and drive the story forward in a few interesting ways.  If you're looking for action, this subset of the trilogy is the book you want to pour over.  The flip side is that Knaak's storyarc takes a backseat to the battle sequences. Ghostlands:  The entire first chapter of Ghostlands is dedicated to further character development.  It's taken some time but we are finally given details on Jorad Mace's past, which by a second hand account, details some aspects of the mysterious Borel and how the shadowed figure is tied to the storyarc.  Unfortunately Mace's story is fairly uninspired.  Up till now I had been waiting for something epic from him, but he ended up being a relatively underdeveloped main character.  Lor'themar and Sylvanas are given about the same development in the section and they are already known figures.  The aptly titled chapter, after all nothing is left around the old Sunwell, is a well-balanced combination of action and story telling.   The unusual cast of characters teaming up in the ending chapters to take on the empowered Dar'Khan was a nice touch.  The only real knock against Ghostlands is that Kim's art got a little to anime-y for me in some scenes, hardly a showstopping flub. I know I have beaten Knaak's work pretty badly in various lore-focused posts, but this time I will give him a pass.  The characters he created, Trag, Aveena, or fleshed out, Kalec, Tyri, Dar'Khan happen to be part of the best work he's done in the Warcraft universe.  I just wish he didn't tie it all back to Korialstrasz again.  At least we have a Rhonin-less adventure on our hands.  Last but not least was the (semi) non-combat pet of Aveena's, Raac.  As cheesy the wind serpent was, I loved the bastard. Spoilers Done. The tome's own elegance, if not for Knaak's best action and character work to date, is worthy of any lore nuts' shelf space.  And yes, the book is impressive enough to be put on your shelf.  Right next to that Frostmourne. If you are wonder about Dragons of Outland, the trilogy set during The Burning Crusade's timeframe, it is now scheduled for a Fall 2009 release.  Hopefully Wrath of the Lich King's manga (I'm assuming it is being planned) will be released in a more timely fashion.

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Activision Blizzard CEO Robert "Bobby" Kotick on Thursday said he is "optimistic" about the future of the game industry as "a very low cost form of entertainment, if you look at the dollar-cost-per-hour." CNBC interviewed Kotick, who was in Sun Valley, Idaho, for the relatively secretive annual Allen & Company media mogul conference. Here's what he had to say about Activision Blizzard stocks performing above expectations in a down economy:

While Kotick does not speak specifically about WoW, there were some pretty interesting aspects to the interview that I wanted to elaborate on a bit because they can be applied to our favorite MMORPG. The journalist interviewing Kotick first points out that Activision Blizzard (and Electronic Arts) stocks were performing well Thursday. That's just a snapshot in time showing the trading levels at that point in the day, but if you look at the levels over the past six months or so, you'll see that the values have been rising steadily. Not surprisingly, the stock market apparently was on the minds of many Thursday who attended a panel on the economy at the conference. Although not an expert on the economy, Kotick pointed out that the availability of new hardware and the diversity of gaming experiences combine as a way to satisfy a lot of different entertainment needs all in one punch. As Kotick puts it, "While I'm relatively pessimistic about the economy, I'm very optimistic about the ability for video games to satisfy entertainment needs of consumers." And since we've been talking a bit about the future of WoW lately, I also found it interesting that Kotick said he's been looking at his expectations for Activision Blizzard over the next 5 to 10 years. He said that increasing production values, more effective in-game social interactions and the physical aspects of gaming "are really great catalysts for expansion of our audience; and we're still in the early days of markets like Western Europe, (and) in China." So perhaps WoW (or the next MMO) will be more of a world-wide audience? It seems that Kotick is hinting at that thought, which seems like smart business to me (more subscribers = more $$). Also along the idea of more money, Kotick said that lower the price of hardware, "the more consumers will be willing to purchase (it)." Makes perfect sense to me. Of course, a PC is a pretty hefty pricetag for someone just to play a game. But one would assume most people would have their computer for other uses, as well. What does everyone else make of this interview? Can you think of any other ways in which Kotick's ideas may be applied to WoW or the future of other Activision Blizzard MMOs, or do you think his points were too general to draw any real conclusions?

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Dorkins continues his rep grind with the Kights of the Ebon Blade. Today he sets a few roofs on fire with a little help from Juggy. Find out how in this episode of Project Lore.

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I'm not much of a PvPer. Sure, I play on a PvP realm. I hate the Horde (or Alliance, depending on which character I'm playing). I dabbled in battlegrounds. But in MMOs in general, I have never really gotten into the Player vs Player aspects of the game as much as I have the PvE ones. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had the chance to step into the arena for a few games each week and I can confirm that I am not an elite player in those situations. Both in the 2v2 bracket and the 5v5 bracket, my teams have lost more games than we've won. So we need to get some more practice. That is beside the point, however. The past few weeks have given me a lot of useful experience as a healer (my chosen arena spec) as well as a lot of good times. The times we have won, though, have been a lot of fun. Even some of the losses were entertaining. And ultimately that's the point of WoW - to have fun. After participating in a few arena matches, I feel like I've been missing out on a huge opportunity for fun in World of Warcraft just because I was afraid I might be bad. Well, I am bad. At least, I'm not as good as I wish I was. That's OK though, because with each match, I feel like I am getting better. I find problems with my game like focusing too much on what opponents are doing and not being aware of my teammates enough. That's a lot different from DPSing in most boss fights where maximizing DPS and staying out of fire/void zones/clouds is all I need to worry about. Of course, I have spent a lot more time facing bosses than I have in arenas, so it all feels like second nature now. I used to avoid world events. Now I go out of my way to complete them. I used to rarely raid. Now I love fighting those skull level enemies. I was wary of stepping foot into arenas. Now I look forward to the virtual beat downs. Of course, all of those achievement points waiting for me to earn don't hurt. I wonder what other fun activities I've been missing out on in Azeroth. Any tips on where I should look next?

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Blizzard is known for pulling random, often unrequested, features out of the collective brain trust and adding them to an upcoming patch without warning.  Normally people cheer for additions to the default setup.  Some of the features just don't cut it, falling way short of the robustness offered by the many add-ons already available.  Other changes are entirely unobtainable outside of Blizzard's doing.  Case in point, the changes to Raid Info in Secrets of Ulduar.  The change in code enabled players to accept or deny a raid lockout for various reasons.  If something wasn't right, then we'd be able to abort that cleared instance or one that started ages ago unbeknownst to us.  Without a doubt a useful addition which has made everyone's instancing less cumbersome. Following the same RaidID logic, Blizzard confirmed this week that Call of the Crusade will give players the ability to extend your raid lockout period.  No longer will you have to give up on an instance with just Kel'Thuzad up, or clear the beginning of Ulduar just to make further attempts on Yogg-Saron.  Instead members of a raid or party can chose, individually, to continue the instance at a later date by extending the lockout timer for another session (seven days for most raids, another day for heroics).  The lockout timer can be extended indefinitely.  Worried that you'll extend your lockout timer only to fail at completing your goal?  Fear not, Blizzard will allow players to drop the extended instance so long as nothing of substance was completed since its extension. Why would Blizzard do this you ask?  Eyonix has your basic sure-to-upset-the-hardcore answer.  "This new option is being added as a means to allow parties and raids to progress through an instance at their chosen pace". Initially I was annoyed with the announcement.  Not only did it seem to be a pointless waste of development time, but it removes one of the reasons for a lockout period to exist.  I got over those issues though.  The development time spent on the change is nothing in the long run, perhaps a week's worth of work for a programmer and some QA personal.  And the lockouts exist mainly to keep people from getting too much loot in a week, not as a race against the (long) clock.  In the end both casual and hardcore guilds will benefit from the change, and it is doubtful that the gear gap between the teams will shrink with the added feature.  Leave that up to the emblem changes. Time well spent or is this going to be a rarely used feature like in-game voice chat?  Another win for casual raiders and a strike for the hardcore?  As an added, perhaps unintended, bonus we'll be able to gear up our alts by taking over older, partially cleared (all hard modes downed) instances and cleaning up any remaining easy bosses.  That can't be bad right? For more details, check the latest official PTR notes.

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You now can add another significant mount change to the ones already announced for Patch 3.2. Earlier this week, Wow.com discovered a nifty new item on the Public Test Realm. The Tome of Cold Weather Flight, a bind to account item, teaches Cold Weather Flying at level 68. Blue poster Zarhym confirmed the upcoming addition in a thread that linked to the post, and he also elaborated a bit on how the tome will work:

Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process. Please note this feature is not yet in the newest version of the public test realm patch notes updated today. The item and its functionality are subject to change during the testing process.

So this clears up one thing: You only will be able to get the Tome of Cold Weather Flying once you've already gotten at least one character to level 80. This is something I can get behind, knowing that players will (hopefully) be able to fully appreciate all the wonderful lore in the Northrend area before plowing through the content as quickly as you'll be able to on a flying mount. In subsequent posts, Zarhym responded to questions about whether an alt would still have to buy the flying skill if they have a tome:

You just have to buy the tome. The cost for the player is the same. It just means if you have an alt and can afford it, you can get yourself flying in Northrend by level 68. ...The tome costs 1,000 gold. It is not meant to bypass the cost of the training, but only to allow for level 80 players with alts the ability to fly in Northrend once they arrive at level 68. It's a small perk for those who have reached level 80 and like leveling new races or classes. :)

I still have a couple of questions that I haven't seen answered, and likely won't be answered until we see how it works when Patch 3.2 goes live to all realms (things may change by then anyways, since the PTR is subject to change). Mostly - if this is BtA, but a players has level 80 characters of both factions, are they required to choose only one faction to use this new ability (since it only can be sent to players on same realm, same faction)? Or, since the tome is consumed when used, perhaps that means that we'll be able to buy the item multiple times, but only have one active at any one time? It'll be interesting to see how this one unfolds. I've heard a lot of complaints from players about what they see as nerfs to a lot of the WoW content coming in 3.2. So what do you guys think - would you consider this a nerf, or does the fact that you have to have a level 80 to get the tome help negate that? Personally, I'm a long distance away from having an alt to level 68. But I'd be all for taking advantage of the change once that time comes.

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It's been awhile I know. Work here at Project Lore sometimes goes through really long periods where I need to do a lot of stuff in a short period of time. I end up working late a lot and hardly have time to raid let alone blog about the life lessons I have learned from WoW. The long hours and short personal time makes it a real challenge to stay focused on those little goals one sets for themselves. The goals we set everyday like exercising or getting outside in the sun or eating healthy. Of course there are always choices but some seems to go into autopilot when everything else in life gets very hectic. The key to changing the autonomic autopilot method of living life is to set patterns early that are extremely beneficial to yourself, easy to do and can easily be reverted to when other things in your life require more attention. For example, this WoW life lesson is an example of just how you can do this. In the game of WoW, you probably know that there is a secondary profession called Cooking. I'm a big fan of it for two main reasons: 1. You can make your own buff food 2. You can sell your buff food on the AH Being a mage, I can conjure food whenever I want. But the best buff foods takes skill to craft, the skill of someone who's studied hundreds of recipes and made thousands of meals. And the best of the best buff food is always made by yourself. Why? It's cheaper to make, as reliable as the mats you have and takes less time than going to the Auction House or guild bank. And if you do it daily it becomes an autonomic routine that perpetuates itself to the point it would seem unusual not to do it. Y0u eat the food you need, bank the rest or sell the extra on the AH. Simple, easy and affordable... possibly even profitable. In game there are only two recipes that SaintGermain is missing. One will be gotten very soon. The other is for another class of people. And in all my cooking in game, I have saved money, made money and created a routine that is beneficial to me. The same is true for real life. Take a look at how much you spend each day eating out or buying prepared food. When my life gets crazy with work and I forget my cooking routine, I end up spending almost $20 a day for breakfast and lunch. If I stay to my routine of cooking for myself, I spend a fraction of that. Seriously, a fraction. For example, I make sushi. Here in LA it's a huge section of the the culinary cuisine offered around town. An eight (8) piece California roll can cost almost $16 in some of the fancy places. For $35 - 40 dollars, I can make almost ninety (90) pieces of the same California roll. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the savings there. So learn how to cook, in game and in real life. You'll save cash and gold, and have enough food to last for weeks.

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Healer? Tank? Bueller? DPS? The little guild I call home is still struggling to recover from the quarterly event known as the Summer.  The hiccup in raiding, filling and scheduling, has caused me to focus my efforts on things outside of Naxxramas domination and Ulduar subjugation.  First and foremost is the leveling of one Holy/Shadow Priest that is to become an end-game healer.  This of course assumes that I don't suck at healing in a raid setting.  Another bulk of time, I am talking about a 60/40 ratio here, has been spent on my favorite past time, farming the Auction House.  With my trusty Auctioneer equipped, I have begun to refill my coffers that were plundered for recent purchases. Over the last few weeks of datamining I have come across what I believe is an undeniable trend, a drastic reduction in key supplies.  Frost Lotus, Abyss Crystal, even Deviate Fish are barely available on my realm, relatively speaking.  Following the good old supply and demand model, what items are available are made so at drastically increased prices.  For producers and investors of the market this is a good thing, while for a consumer this is a bad thing.  Upon discovery of the trend I dug further.  According to my collection of anecdotal data, the changes are for numerous items, items that span the gauntlet of locales, from Mageweave to Knothide Leather, not just top end consumables used by raiders. The question at hand is what is causing the fluctuations?  Is it normal changes in the market?  Unlikely.  Could it be a wealthier investor than myself cornering whole swaths of Azerothian goodies?  Doubtful, it'd need to be on the scale of organized crime (Defias) to have such an impact.  Or, like I suggest in the title, is my realm (Magtheridon-North America) emptier than normal?  If that is the case then it would explain the depressed amount of supplies, and why they are coming in at higher prices.  Coupled with the numerous responses of guild trouble in a previous thread, I believe we have some credible evidence that our home away from home is a little less cozy, and far more expensive, than we are fond of. This is where you readers come in.  To make any kind of overarching statement about WoW's economy we need more information.  Do your realms feel underpopulated?  Are commonly used consumables being placed on the market for far higher than normal prices?  Are you still logging in as normal, or has Summer sucked you away along with the unrelated loss of six million other players? And yes, the issues are completely unrelated.  Blizzard's troubles in China have no effect on the gold farming market.  Those players need the localized version (read North American/European) of the game to play on the same server as us.  So the lack of Wrath in China doesn't make an impact on our supply levels.

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Dorkins continues his rep grind with the Kights of the Ebon Blade. Today he leaves his mark with a little help from Juggy. Find out how in this episode of Project Lore.

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It pains me to say it, but after several months of dutifully raiding Ulduar, one of the coolest aspects of the dungeon just isn't the bee's knees anymore. I'm talking about the Iron Concourse, that long stretch of dark iron dwarf-infested land that sits between your raid and Flame Leviathan each and every time you start a new lockout period. In the previews leading up to the dungeon's release, nothing could've sounded more epic: you and your buddies jump into some high-powered engines of destruction as your tear across the map, laying waste to the gate-keepers of Ulduar and anything else that might be unlucky enough to sit in your path. And it was fun... the first few times. The scale was huge, the concept above and beyond what you'd normally find in a dungeon, and the on-going narration from Brann Bronzebeard was a real atmospheric treat. Blizzard could do with fixing the ramp bugs while they're at it! But now, just as soon as I first jump into a vehicle at the start of the event, I can't help but count down the time until the whole affair is over. Once the majesty fades, the Iron Concourse is nothing more than a terribly easy, drawn-out trash-clearing exercise of the worst kind. Ten to fifteen minutes of demolishing towers is enough to kill my raiding buzz. I've rallied against nerfs to Ulduar in the past, but now I'm putting out the call: nerf the Iron Concourse! Despite the negative connotations the word has come to be associated with over the years, it's not always such a bad thing. The way I see it, there are two ways to "nerf" something: to make it easier or to make it more convenient. Blizzard's been doing a lot of both lately, and while I'm not a fan of the changes they've made to a lot of the bosses in Ulduar, I would welcome just about any remedy to ease the pain of having to clear this area. What can they do? They can't very well make the vehicles any stronger or faster without having to retune the Flame Leviathan encounter, and it may just make clearing more of an ordeal to make it any more difficult. Likely, the easiest thing to do is simply make the enemies weaker (and get rid of those damnable helicopters!). As it is right now, the iron dwarf gnats that stream out of the storm towers right now can be easily dealt with, but the bigger mobs act as nothing more than huge damage sponges. Unless you're running into the dungeon with a bunch of people who have sub-200 item level gear, the Iron Concourse just doesn't pose much of a challenge. And if you're doing that, you probably just shouldn't be in Ulduar anyway. What do you think, guys and gals? Has the Iron Concourse event become as rote and annoying for you as it has for me? I'm always hesitant to suggest things that make the game too convenient for players (let's face it, you've got to put some effort in), but when you're forced to engage in an encounter like this with no tangible rewards for doing so, maybe it would be better to just get it over with as soon as possible. Hey, we've all dealt with worse trash, but at least you might get some gold or the occasional drop out of it. Are there any other parts of Ulduar you feel the same way about?

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