Project Lore

Earlier this month two new MMORPGs released, Global Agenda and Star Trek Online.  Both of them saw some hiccups early, and STO still has long queues, but things have settled down and stabilized for the most part.  Over five years ago World of Warcraft launched to a larger mess than either GA or STO.  It wasn't devastating by any means.  In fact, the problems were mostly due to the game's incredible popularity, which caused Blizzard to scramble to put dozens of additional servers online ASAP.  The subscription base has bloated over the 11 million mark forcing Blizzard to continue to add additional servers to the mix to compensate.  Fine and dandy, but what's been going on with the old servers.  The originals, the systems that were put together before the game was even released?  They've been upgraded, but has it been enough?

The past few weeks have been awful for the two servers I predominately play on.  Coincidentally, both server happen to be original.  Things have been so bad on Magtheridon this week that Tuesday and Wednesday were total loses for raiding.  Tuesday was marred by the extended maintenance, which is fine and understandable, but Magtheridon became Lagtheridon immediately after going online.  The entire world, instances and all, was totally unplayable.  A server restart didn't help, and I eventually gave up around 10:30 PM.  Wednesday followed with more of the same, but cleared up much earlier.  The damage had already been done, all the raiders gave up and logged before Magtheridon became stable, so nothing died.

I know my server is far from the only server to connect people to Azeroth, but from what I've heard around the blogosphere and official forums is that something is amidst.  Many people blame it on the new holiday and its mechanics.  Others point out that server instability is not a recent occurrence.

Whatever the reason, it seems that WoW players are giving Blizzard a pass on the issue.  That's partly because we've become somewhat accustom to the day-long hiccups.  I believe it's also because we play so much WoW that we can shrug off missing a day.  We just use the unexpected free time for other forms of entertainment or games.  It's old and busted to us now, not new hotness. 

Imagine if your brand new MMORPG was largely unplayable for two days just after its launch.  If WoW had released alongside STO and GA, that's exactly what would have occurred.  Can you imagine the nerd rage that would have hit the Internet? 

I know WoW's server farm is far more complex than STO or GA, but that doesn't give Blizzard a free pass.  After all, WoW is pulling in a billion dollars a year for Blizzard.  Yet, few players seem the least bit outraged.  I guess that's one of the advantages to having five years behind you?

<wuss>Squeal!</wuss>

<man>I wasn't so hot on the premium Auction House Armory idea, WoW gold, or the Blizzard Store pets that came late last year, but Blizzard's latest premium content has me excited.  Blizzard announced a new pair of store-only vanity pets, and this time they will come with a real-life counterpart.  When you purchase a new Wind Rider Cub or theGryphon Hatchling a plushie - that's a stuffed animal - will be delivered to your door as part of the purchase.  The pets are available to both factions.

Being a pet collecting addict - still no oozling - purchasing these pets is a no brainer.  I didn't break down for a monk or Lil' KT because $10 is steep sum for a virtual pet.  Once I heard a plushie came included the kid in me began to perform his hissy-fit ritual.  My inner child is already on his back, ready to kick and scream if my fiscally conservative brain denies him.

Blizzard has kept the price point and release date ("weeks ahead") hush hush, much like the premium Auction House content.  Expect the financial damage to be higher than the previous vanity items.  As soon as we hear of either we'll let you know. 

Right now I've gotta run and clear some space on the bed for these guys to camp.  Good thing these winged beasts are too cute for Ms. iTZKooPA to say no.  Why isn't it socially acceptable for a full grown man to have stuffed animals anyways?  Who made that crazy rule?  What if I need something to throw?!

Yes, I know that technically speaking Blizzard is selling the plushie, and not the pets, but come on.  We all know which item is really going to move the other. 

I'll just leave that last HTML tag open.

The absolute number one reason why I play World of Warcraft is for the universe.  I've always loved stories, from the "Slugger" baseball story my grandfather often recited to me as a child to Dune.  A good story has always roped me in, no matter its length.  WoW has come a long way in its story telling in these fives year, in design and execution.  Initially, the quests were spread all over the world, causing many players to abandon them halfway through the chain.  Blizzard, in the second and third go around, consolidated these chains to span single, or perhaps adjacent zones only, which lead to a rise in completion.

Storywise, Blizzard has recanted a lot of its previous lore, up to and including Wrath of the Lich King.  But the writers have expanded on previous ideas, or sneaked in other storylines as well.  Some of these were planned, Ulduar and Ahn'Qiraj, others, like Sunwell Plateau, were out of the necessity for additional content.

Metzen and his crew continue to intrigue me, but I have two main beefs with Blizzard's execution of storytelling in WoW, which actually extends to most MMOGs. The first idea, branching storylines, was lightly touched on in the Useless WoW Leaders post, and brought up a second time in ProjectLorians Super Happy Fun Hour: Dave Edition audio podcast.  Wrath of the Lich King was designed to focus on the Lich King, to throw us in his path on numerous occasions and cement him as the bad guy, and it achieved that.  Outside of a few Ulduar lore questlines in select zones there was little besides the Lich King or his forces.  What I'd like to see are more side missions like Bridenbrad's tale - hopefully without the real-life tragedy attached.  The questline is one of the most memorable in the game due to its excellent writing, and the use of known NPCs that we hadn't heard from lately.

The other issue that needs addressing is orphaned storylines.  These are the quest chains that start, but the story is never completed.  The tale of The Missing Diplomat and Ashbringer are the most famous, and they finally had their day.  There are many more epic tales that have been left dangling that I'd much prefer tackling than another "Kill 10 foozles" quest.  Even if I have to travel a little to do so.

I just found out that one of my guildmates passed away the other day after being diagnosed with Leukemia a few months ago.  To be entirely honest I barely knew the guy - he quit before Wrath was released - but the guild has a few people that knew him in real life, and a handful that have played video games with him for years.

Even though I barely knew the gentlemen I felt absolutely awful to hear the news.  I've experienced death in my life, so I understand the feeling of lose, the depression and the way losing someone close makes one feel so small.  It's impossible for one to express the appropriate sympathy and support via World of Warcraft, but all of us tried.  We gave our condolences via green letters, offered our support to the friends of the fallen and asked that they be passed on to his family.  We're even trying to organize a flower arrangement in his honor from the guild.  Although that may be incredibly odd for the non-WoW playing people at the services given the guild's name, Bonus Lizard.  Still we want to do something to show his family that'll he'll be greatly missed, even by people he's never actually met.

Has any ProjectLorian experienced anything like this?  I've heard of in-game funerals before - such as the one that broke out into world PvP - but don't think that's an option due to the account's security.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don't worry buddy, we'll get the Lich King.  You'll be missed.

It's that time of the year again, the week stretch where 80% of the WoW population tries to woo the other 20% with virtual candies, roses, affection, boss runs and poetry.  Oh, the poetry.  Love is in the Air started over the weekend, and I've already managed to grab one of the achievements.  Being the digital scrooge that I am I only actually care about two things Love is in the Air has to offer, Peddlefeet and Toxic Wasteling.

This year Peddlefeet is far easier to obtain.  Blizzard realized how god-awful-annoying it is to have achievement requirements based solely on the unfriendly RNG.  That means 2010's Peddlefeet, the goblin cupid, is purchasable with the reasonable sum of 40xLove Token.  It shouldn't take more than a day to farm for him.

The Toxic Wasteling, well that'll be another story entirely.  That little gremlin will require far more luck and time to acquire on average.  It is one of the random drops from the new Valentine's Day...I mean Love is in the Air boss, Apothecary Hummel.  The oozling is one of a few seasonal items that Hummel drops (I assume a Protip is coming soon for the fight). In additional to ilvl 226 necks we also have a rose for our mohawks, a gas mask, a sob-inducing item and an incredibly low shot at one of the coolest looking mounts in the game.

/me heads off to Shadowfang Keep.

I'm hunting Hummel mainly for the wasteling.  Just look at this tooltip description, "Do not feed toxic wasteling. Do not allow toxic wasteling to approach small animals. Do not touch, sniff, or even look at toxic wasteling for extended periods of time."  Sounds like it should be an interesting vanity pet.

I know some of you out there are nuts about seasonal events, so how much farther do you have until you get the meta achievement?  Anyone score the mount yet, or even see it drop?

P.S. Here's WoWHead's guide.



Patch 3.3's addition of the Dungeon Finder has been nothing short of a game changer.  There's been no single feature added to World of Warcraft in its illustrious five year run that has changed the daily lives of so many players.  People are using the tool to gear alts for raiding that would have never of been geared before, creating new characters to experience the early dungeons, reaping achievement after achievement from dungeons that were rarely seen before and soaking in, dissecting and analyzing dungeon participation on a whole new scale.

I've been a part of the revolution, using the Dungeon Finder on three characters (rogue, holy/shadow priest and frost mage) on almost a daily basis and I've noticed a few trends, some nice, some annoying and some design mistakes.

• Queue discrepancy - Everyone who's used the Dungeon Finder knows about the queue discrepancy.  If you're a healer or a tank you'll be placed in a group within five minutes, but more likely within one.  But DPS spots generally take between 10-15 minutes, at least a 200-300% increase even though there are three spots.  It's lopsided because of the population numbers; the ratio of DPS to tanks/healers is greater than 3:1.  This leads us to...
• "I'm special" complex - So you're a hot commodity.  Groups need you to complete their mission.  To some people that means they can abandon their team at a moment's notice.  Actually, it's usually no notice. My rogue has been left sitting in a half completed, DPS-filled run on numerous occasions because the tank or healer had had enough.  Because of their desirable nature they know that the next group is only a few moments away, so their far more likely to abandon the group than the DPS.  Those three are then left waiting in queue for another ten minutes.  For a tank/healer combo that just abandoned some other group.  A vicious cycle.
• Social dynamics - But it's unlikely we'll ever see those people again, or remember their slight against us if we do, so it's okay.  The greater anonymity of cross-faction play tends to promote childish acts at a higher frequency than normal.  But I have meet some fun, entertaining people during my runs.  Too bad there's no (easy) way I can keep up with them after the run is complete.  Despite the highs and lows of the WoW community, occasional clearing of throats and crickets remain the most common form of interaction that precipitates from the Dungeon Finder.
• Being carried dispute - Player X's DPS sucks, player Y went AFK for half the run and player Z is naked.  We've all half-assed it during a run here or there, and as long as the run is completed who the hell cares if someone, be it tank, healer or DPS, is carried?  As long as it isn't the tank and healer, or all the DPS being carried the job will get done.  It might take 3% longer, but the end result will be the same.
• Meters - Whether they are being pasted to complain about above, to extend your e-peen or put someone down, they suck.  And no one hates it more than your tank and healer. Once a meter is displayed all group play goes out the windows.  No more waiting for the tank to grab aggro,CCing or any group mechanics at all.  The DPS will crawl over their dead comrades in an attempt to top that meter, which means next to nothing nothing in a dungeon.
• Heroic to raid gap - Awesome, my alt is decked out in badge gear from head to toe.  I've got enchants and gems out the wazoo.  But I still can't get into most raids because of my non-badge gear.  They seem my mediocre non-welfare gear and realize that I can't link to any achievements forTotC or ICC.  Everyone chuckles at the thought of me starting a full Ulduar or Naxxramas run to fill those gaps.  My alt logs off and hopes theguildies finish their alts for alt night ASAP.
• Min/maxing - The idea that casual players are now min/maxing, not their stats but their time spent in an instance, is awesome to me.  The sheer volume of runs has lead to players of all shapes and sizes teaching each other small tricks to finishing a run as quickly as possible.  It reminds me of my childhood gaming; sitting in the playground sharing tips and tricks for beating The Legend of Zelda and Contra.  And those were the days.

That's three issues brought on by the community, two by design, and a pair of positives.  Can't blame Blizzard for all those problems.



Overlooked captures smaller news stories that didn't have the legs to stand on their own, or have just fallen through the cracks of the blogosphere.

Hey, we can't be everywhere all the time.

Incentives To Draw Players To Wear Maximum Gear Class

This inaugural post of Overlooked kicks off with something that has plagued the lesser gear wearers since the dawn of gear classes.  If you are sick of plate and mail wearers stealing your gear due to bad itemization, be rest assured that Blizzard is finally going to do something about it.  Come Cataclysm.

Bornakk states that Cataclysm (including its pre-launch patch) will offer incentives to players that stick with their correct gear class.  Unfortunately, the blue doesn't go into any detail, or even give an example of an incentive.  The information follows his previous warning that Cataclysm's stat overhaul will ruin those classes that have been picking up +Agility leather gear, such as DPS warriors, paladins and DKs.

Ghostcrawler follows up, adding "In most cases, a good piece will still be good for you. In the dps warrior, paladin and DK case, the now +Agility leather and mail you might be wearing will be bad for you. [But] if you plan to keep raiding after the conversion, that might be a problem."

Bottomline: Stop taking my gear!

Warcraft Movie Not Raimi's Next Flick

Apparently, I am the only one here at Project Lore that thinks the Warcraft movie has a shot at being good.  Not just "good for a video game movie," like Mortal Kombat or Resident Evil, but good in general.  Neither you readers, nor my fellow bloggers seem to hold much hope.

When Spider-man 4 melted down, resulting in a reboot of the franchise and dismissal of the entire cast, many people expected Raimi to get to work on the Warcraft project.  That won't be happening thanks to a movie called The Shadow, based on the old, 1930's old, radio show, stepping in the way.

Fear not, the Warcraft movie will be out "soon."

BlizzCon 2010 Returning To Anaheim In October?

WoW.com got tipped off that the Anaheim Convention Center, where most of the BlizzCons have been held so far, had added BlizzCon 2010 to its calender for October.  The convention was scheduled to happen from October 22-23, the normal Friday and Saturday routine.  'Was' being the keyword.

Since breaking the story the listing has come down, but the convention center assured WoW.com that the deal was "99.9% confirmed."  We've heard that one before.

First Nevada in July, now California in October.  Can we settle on Philadelphia in early September?  No?  I'll bring cake for everyone.

Awhile back WoW.com reported that Blizzard was having serious discussions about forcing players to use Authenticators.  The behind-closed-doors talks came about due to an increasing number of hacks on player accounts.  Furthermore, many of the compromised users claim to not have shared their passwords with anyone.  The recent Google Ads-based WoW Armory scam was probably the most prolific phishing attempt to date, and has become a prime example to the means people are going to for WoW accounts.

Being a business, Blizzard wants to do everything possible to keep our accounts secure.  Let's not kid ourselves, Blizzard isn't being entirely altruistic in its intentions.  The company has a reputation to hold, it has a service to run, which is only possible with happy users, and by increasing account security as high as possible the company would save a ton of money in support costs.  As it stands right now, the customer service lines can take upwards of an hour to get through to someone.  That's with some 2,500+ customer service personal.

The only thing stopping Blizzard from making Authenticators mandatory is us, the users.  Ever since the rumor started there's been a back-and-forth between users.  Despite an Authenticator offering the utmost security (no confirmed hacks) players are reluctant to apply them because of the hassle or the cost.  Even with the shipping fee now waved, many players are still finding reasons not to purchase the $6 item.

My suggestion to Blizzard is to kill two birds with one stone by giving players a monetary incentive to using the Authenticator.  Any account that has an Authenticator applied, be it mobile or actual, can get a reduction in their subscription fee.  I'm not talking half off, just a dollar.  In six months an actual Authenticator would pay for itself, and in 18 months players would essentially "earn" themselves a free month of play.  All while making Blizzard look good.

It's something us consumers would jump at, but Blizzard will only resort to it as a final solution (the Core Hound Pup being the first attempt). To me, a long-time paying customer, it'd be a nice olive branch.  After all, shouldn't Blizzard's savings be passed on to those that are make it possible?

By employing this tactic players wouldn't feel "forced" into using an Authenticator, so much as "rewarded" for it.



Thrall, Jaina, Varian, Sylvanas, Magni, these are all leaders that we hold some attachment to.  Wrath of the Lich King has brought new dynamics to the characters (and in some cases armor), shown new sides of their psyche, and reinforced others.  They are more than familiar characters to players thanks to trailers, quests, and in-game interactions, but that's only four of the ten leaders.  The rest, well they've faded into the limelight, retreated from the throws of war, usually the Third War, to live a life of relative peace.  Or Blizzard just hasn't bothered writing them into a storyline.

Ordered in relative uselessness, from least to most:

Cairne Bloodhoof - Cairne is the first good ole boy from the Third War.  Thanks to his veteran status he's seen as one of the wisest leaders of the Horde.  Like most wise people he takes an incredible amount of time to make a decision - we assume he's busy weighing all the complexities - which have put him at odds with quick-to-decide people like Garrosh. Cairne hasn't done much for players lately, but he's been grooming his son for eventual leadership.  An act that has many people wondering about his immediate future.  This reason alone keeps him somewhat relevant.

Tyrande Whisperwind - Her elfen complexion drew me to the Warcraft 3 box like you wouldn't believe, and later art only reaffirmed her sex symbol status in Warcraft lore (just don't look at her high school picture).  It should be no shock that brothers fought over her affection in their early years.  The love triangle between herself, Malfurion and Illidan was a driving force in Warcraft 3, one that went unrequited until Illidan's demise in The Burning Crusade.  Something she wasn't a part of.  The leader of the night elves hasn't been a major player in the lore since Malfurion became trapped in the Emerald Dream, which was before WoW was launched.  She's made cameos - the battle against Eranikus and a spot in the WoW comic - but nothing serious.  We may be stuck with emo Tyrande until the Emerald dream finally opens.

Vol'jin - As the leader of the most under-played race in the game it's not that surprising that the witchdoctor is underutilized.  Outside of a couple of quests and a cameo in the Battle for the Undercity, Vol'jin has been largely ignored by the writing staff.  It seems that his sole purpose is his little bromance with Thrall, the savior of him and his people during the Warcraft 3 campaign. 

Gelbin Mekkatorque - The exiled leader of the gnomes is easily the least useful racial leader in the game.  He has little background, had no known place in the earlier wars and continues to suck at fending off the Horde invaders.  He even allowed his once prosperous city to be usurped by Thermaplug thanks to his unwillingness to ask for aid from the nearby dwarves.  I guess it only makes sense that the most useless leader is the leader of the race with the least lore.  It's worth mentioning that we know more aboutThermaplug, Mekkatorque's former adviser, than the deposed leader himself.

I'm not suggesting that we simply kill off nostalgic cast members to get things moving, as LoreCrafted has, but something needs to be done.  These are the leaders of entire people, and yet Saurfang and Garrosh receive far more face time and global impact than the entire list.  I hope the reboot of WoW via Cataclysm gives these heroes a new drive.  Frankly, they've been without a storyline, central role or even a major side quest, for far too long. 

Could Velen and Lor'themar have been included in this list?  Possibly, but they were a large part of The Burning Crusade and have had some impact on the world since we headed to Northrend.  Those four, not so much.

Wishful Thinking is a column for the theorycrafting behind World of Warcraft.  No, not the number crunching madness perfected by the folks at ElitistJerks, but the features, abilities, and design ideas that the Project Lore writers conjure from their squishy pink stuff.

World of Warcraft has been available for more than five years now.  That amount of time has enabled me, someone who's never been into alts, to not only roll one, but two alternative characters to level 80.  Add my mule and then the Auction House character and I have a grand total of five characters with over 30 days played each (mostly idle time on the bank and AH toons).  My point is this, I log in and out of my characters a lot.  I am talking about five to ten times a day.  That's why I wish Blizzard would implement a /relog characterName command.

It's an incredibly simple request that would do nothing fancy.  You'd simply type /relog Goggins, or any other toon's name, and the game would log you out of your current avatar and into the requested one in a seamless step.  No need to hit the selection screen and double-click.  You'd go from logging out to logging in.  We'd still have the option to hit the character selection screen through the old /logout, or the initial login, but how often do we really need it?

I figure that every relog wastes anywhere between a few seconds to thirty seconds, depending which computer I am playing on.  Compile five to ten relogs at ten seconds a piece over the course of five years and there's a lot of lost time there.  It's a simple request that would save me, and likely many players, a large chunk of time in the log run.

Frankly, I can't see any downside or possible abuse to it.  Can you?