Entries in ensidia (6)
Project Lore Audio Podcast 2: Dave Edition
Heartbourne on Monday, February 8, 2010 - 3 Comments Tags: dave, ensidia, project lore audio podcast In our second edition of the currently unnamed experimental Project Lore audio podcast, Pixiestixy, Itzkoopa, and Amatera discussed a range of topics, such as the Ensidia ban, world first Arthas kill, auction house anywhere, and other WoW and MMO topics. Grab the mp3 or Subscribe with RSS!
The Curious Case of High-End Raiding Guilds
Amatera on Friday, July 3, 2009 - 17 Comments Tags: The Wizard, billy mitchell, blizzard, boss kill, competition, counterstrike, digital athletics, ensidia, espn 2, exodus, fred savage, guilds, hidden warp zone, king of kong, mlg, professional gamers, professional gaming, progression, quake, raiding, steve wiebe, twin galaxies, walter day, world firsts
[caption id="attachment_4468" align="alignright" width="186" caption="Ensidia"]
[/caption]
Their existence is of no surprise, coming from humanity's need to define a "best." From the minute we are born, we start building hierarchies and classifications, sliding different people, organizations, and things into them like blocks in a pyramid. Quite simply, given anything, there are those individuals that will seek ways to be, make, or facilitate a standard. High-end raiding guilds just represent the capstone of the WoW universe.
I don't think it matters whether or not a particular goal is worthy, merely that it exists to be conquered. But what of it, then? How do we measure the importance of a world first kill? As a long-time gameplayer myself (and I'd pretty much have to be, if I were blogging for Project Lore!), I'm not about to call it a waste of time, but it feels to me as though there's something that needs to be sorted out when your "win" seems to consist of nothing more than learning and executing a set pattern.
If that were truly it, then we'd all be able to do it given enough time. No, you need skill, mental and physical dexterity. A quality rig and decent connection doesn't hurt, either. There's little doubt that your average high-end raider is playing at a completely different level than you are. And as many of these top-tier progression guilds are also home to rock star PvP teams, you certainly can't knock their expertise.
I suppose my concern arrives at the point of content, and what is being "conquered" in WoW. Most of those old Twin Galaxies records are endurance trials. Arcade games have a history of running indefinitely (or at least as long as the programming let them), allowing your average record attemptee to play and rack up points until they run out of steam. On the contrary, a world first in Warcraft amounts to a race to see who can reach a benchmark first. But once it's accomplished, that's it.
As it is, everybody gets to sit on their hands until the next dungeon comes out. So perhaps it is the mere nature of the competition that makes it seem so fruitless on the surface. What can be done to remedy this? I'm not entirely sure, but the measurement likely needs to be changed. Currently, MMO-Champion keeps a log of world firsts called the Hall of Fame, which records only the time, date, and guild associated with an initial kill.
We could go the route of cataloging reams of personal data (things such as DPS, healing effectiveness, and so on), but that almost seems too complex. Personally, I'm a fan of the speed-run, something that's been a stock measurement of finite-end video games for awhile now. You can find loads of them all over Youtube and other video sites, covering everything from Super Mario Bros. to Final Fantasy. It's a convenient mark of efficiency that's even started to creep its way into the World of Warcraft. A few enterprising individuals realized that they could still squeeze some fun out of Naxxramas before the release of 3.1 by completing it as fast as possible. Watching them, I was amazed at how the players handled certain encounters or deftly side-stepped trash mobs in ways that I hadn't conceived of before.
The downside of speed-runs is that they're ultimately susceptible to the same foul play as world firsts, by means of taking advantage of bugs and glitches to achieve faster times, but they do offer a wider range of accomplishments to be had. But whatever measurement might ultimately be employed down the road (and it will have to be as the field of eligible guilds expands), there's still the issue of competitive progression on the WoW playerbase.
Having browsed forums, fansites, and in-game chat, I've seen everything from cheerleading to vitriol. Whether you hate them or love them, there's little doubt that these guilds are community touchstones. Even Project Lore's own iTZKooPA claims to "live through them vicariously." While I lean just a tad towards the critical side, I've caught myself referencing the timing of world firsts as standards by which to judge the difficulty of the content.
Stepping back for a moment, common sense sets in, and I realize that talent is a greater factor in these accomplishments than a lack of complexity, but that sort of mindset is dangerous for content developers. Namely, Blizzard. Perception, especially when combined with the mob mentality of the internet, can quickly and easily trump the reality of things. If the community sees a difficult boss kill achieved within the first few days of a dungeon's release, they're going to start questioning whether or not Blizzard's given them their money's worth, and that seems to be one of the major problems they've run into with providing content in Wrath.
On the other hand, top guilds can be a huge boon for the game's popularity. After all, how pervasive would most professional sports be without the cult of personality? All the pomp and circumstance associated with teams and players does amount to something. As the proletariat of Azeroth, guilds like Ensidia, Exodus, or Premonition give us rare insight into the inner workings of upper-level game mechanics. They might even inspire us to play better or to become something ourselves, just like little Jimmy did in "The Wizard." *cue Stan Bush*
The controversy associated with high-end raiding guilds, however, will not go away, and it may even metastisize as more and more join them at the pinnacle. I'm honestly not sure what to make of Exodus' response to their own banning. Their complaints, citing past game explotation by rivals, may stink of butthurt, but are nonetheless valid. The blatant flag-waving, though, whether or not its tongue-in-check, leaves a real nasty taste in my mouth.
If this is a sign of things to come, I'm not sure I like it, and it's most certainly not something that Blizzard, a company founded on fair play and a commitment to quality, would want to be associated with.
To close out this post, I'd like to emphasize that despite some of my skepticism concerning the phenomena of high-end raiding and competitive progression, a lot of the guys and gals involved are ultimately classy and well-respected players. They've mastered elements of the game I can only hope to one day in the distant future and consistently proven their dedication to a product that many have waned on out of sheer frustration. Their knowledge and input may just make World of Warcraft a more fun and interesting game to play.
But my concern remains. After years of observing (and in some cases, even help running) gaming competitions, I'm all too familiar with the complications and inconsistencies that can arise. Organizations like MLG are doing their best to create a standard set of rules which we can all play by (though I don't believe they currently cover the brand of achievements I've talked about here), and if "professional gamers" are seeking to live up to the first part of that title and gain more mainstream acceptance, it is in their best interest to follow them. "Another lengthy post by Amatera, right? What is this guy thinking?! This is a blog! Posts are supposed to be bite-sized and easily digestible!" Well, I'm sorry for making you all sit through my verbal torture, but I hope you've enjoyed what you read, and I'm especially interested to hear what you all have to say about this topic. It's one that I think rarely gets taken seriously, but has the potential to explode in the future. What do you think of the existence of high-end, competitive raiding guilds, and what kind of effect do they have on the community? Do you believe that their accomplishments have honestly influenced WoW's development over time, or is the whole affair of world firsts completely pointless? Readers, the floor is yours.
Exodus Suspended, Oh My!
iTZKooPA on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 26 Comments Tags: 72 hour suspension, ban hammer, banned, bugs, cheating, ensidia, exodus, exploits, guild fighting, hotfixes, old god, suspended, temp ban, world first, yogg-saron 
In our many attempts at trying to figure out a way to defeat Yogg zero watcher, we found a way to use bugged game mechanics to make phase 3 easier in zero watcher then one watcher. The bug is when someone is left inside the brain room of Yogg-Saron, they can still get aggro on the adds that spawn in phase 3. That means if you have someone getting healing aggro in the brain room, they will get aggro on the adds, which cause them to evade in place and allows for all of your raids dps to be focused on Yogg. We discovered this mechanic on a wipe, and decided to see if we could actually get it to work. The first attempt after that wipe, we realized it worked, and went with it and killed it on that attempt. We also filed a formal bug report on Blizzard's website.Blizzard's EULA clearly states that using an exploit to gain an unfair advantage is against the rules. Exodus doesn't deny that they exploited, or complain about the temporary ban, at least not directly. Nope, Exodus cries foul of favoritism by Blizzard amongst the hardcore raiding guilds. The team alleges that Ensidia and Nihilum have used "clever game mechanics" before, even citing a few Ulduar examples, but haven't been meet by the same backlash from other hardcore guilds, or, and more importantly, Blizzard. At the moment the team is riding out a 72 hour ban and it makes me wonder who at Blizzard makes these decisions. It's obvious that the issues are handled case by case, so does that mean there is a higher up who oversees the GMs? Or is it at the discretion of a server's lead GM? Any readers have that much insight? The guild mud slinging really brings me back though. In the vanilla days of World of Warcraft, whenever a new first kill was announced on Magtheridon (US) everyone would respond that "Feared killed Onyxia first." The quip was due to a long standing debate between who killed the dastardly dragon first, Horde or Alliance. I don't see it anymore so it must have died during The Burning Crusade's heyday, as that is when the old guild disappeared. Slap on the wrist and name calling aside, claiming that you have the right to exploit because the fight is unbeatable is an incredibly lame justification. In case you are wondering, the exploit has already been hotfixed. What's more interesting to you, the temp ban or the possibility of unequal treatment?
Algalon Goes Down!
Bastosa on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 - 19 Comments Tags: Ulduar, algalon, bastosa, ensidia, loot, raiding, starcaller, world first
When Ulduar first hit I made a post asking when we all thought Algalon the Observer (the true final boss of Ulduar) would go down. Well it appears that Ensidia has answered my questions, well, at least for 10 mans.
The super guild announced on their web site that one of their 10-man teams had finally downed him (and also buried a note that another had completed world first Alone In The Darkness).
While I know it will be quite a while before I get to wear the Starcaller title, it is very exciting to hear their impressions of the fight. They of course comment on the added challenge of the one hour timer, but they also claim it is “not quite as hard as Blizzard made it out to be.” I’m taking that with a grain of salt because I imagine their idea of difficult is quite a bit different than mine!
For those that are interested they also provide a link for the loot they obtained as well as some screenshots of the quest chain. They promise video is on the way in short order.
It is encouraging to me to see it took them as long as it did, because in Ensidia time, this took a while! After all they certainly didn’t waste anytime getting world first Yogg, or any other world first for that matter!
So now the only question is how long until we see Algalon-25 go down? Or how about some of the Algalon hard modes? It pretty clear Blizzard intends to keep us all busy for a while.
If you want to keep track of the world first Algalon-25 progress for yourself I recommend you keep an eye on Ensidia’s site… I have a feeling that the news will break there!How Long Until Algalon Goes Down?
Bastosa on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 14 Comments Tags: 3.1, Ulduar, algalon, ensidia, hard mode, raiding
Despite the fact that Ulduar is much more difficult that the previous tier of content, there are many guilds that are tearing through it! I mentioned in my last post that Ensidia had downed Yogg-Saron and since then many more have followed. While Yogg is technically the last boss in Ulduar, there is one more challenge lying in there for the truly dedicated raider.
Algalon is the special hard mode only boss that you can only face after defeating the he Assembly of Iron, Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron hard modes.
With the news that guilds have started to actually see this fight, and then the following blue post that you can only attempt this boss for one hour PER WEEK, it begs the question. How long until we see this guy go down?
While I was fairly sure we would see him downed by one of the “professional” raiding guilds this week, now I am not so sure. Remember after all, this guy “feeds on your tears” and is not supposed to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Additionally one hour seems like a ridiculously short window, I imagine it will take some top guilds weeks to learn the fight alone.
Part of me always figured that part of the reason the top guilds could down bosses so fast is because the sheer number of hours they are able to put into an encounter. Now there is a limitation.
Furthermore, what does this mean for the rest of us?? I know my guild spent over 10 hours on Mimiron alone this week (phase 4 is absolutely insane). I am really having a hard time imagining us downing this guy who, presumably is harder, in that short of a window.
I really cannot wait to see how this all shakes out, and will be incredibly impressed with whoever manages world first. This is an interesting move for Blizzard, can’t say I’m sure how I feel about it yet.
What I Expected and Didn't Expect In Patch 3.1
iTZKooPA on Thursday, April 16, 2009 - 27 Comments Tags: Ulduar, ensidia, patch notes, patch v3.1, secrets of ulduar, tom chilton, unexpected changes, yogg-saron dead, yogg-saron first kill 
Almost 48 hours since the release of Patch 3.1 and there are still many, many issues to be ironed out. Players across the greater Internet are reporting numerous snags that are consistent with all of Blizzard's content patches. Dead or laggy servers, extended extended maintenance, busted spells, broken talents, castrated add-ons, un-updated add-ons interfering with general WoW play, disconnected instance servers, the works. As Ivnication stated in the Secrets of Ulduar post, even if Blizzard had a perfect patch, it'd be unlikely that we would have been able to raid efficiently on Wednesday, let alone Tuesday, due to the massive amount of changes.
As it stands now, I have let the issue go by the wayside. Better to shrug it off than pull my hair out while screaming about my paying customer status. During the intermittent server problems I spent most of my time leveling my priest's professions and, preparing her for her incoming second spec. Since I wasn't doing anything of consequence, I allowed my eyes and mind to roam and came across a collection of unexpected things. First and foremost, Magtheridon was playable by late Tuesday evening. Being an original server, I expected it to be utterly destroyed by its high population, so I was taken aback by its playability.
I did my best to keep up on the patch notes and all the upcoming stuff in Wrath's first content patch, but a lot of small tweaks managed to slip by me. It takes enough time to digest the class changes, let alone all of the other stuff listed in the patch notes. It wasn't until I was a few hours into the patch that I began noticing just how many things I missed.
-
There are a ton of new icons for various spells and talents including Devouring Plague, Cleanse Spirit, Riptide and many others. Even the Essence of Wintergrasp icon has been overhauled with new art.
-
Along with the addition of maps for the dungeons, Blizzard overhauled the minimap. Our personal guide is far more detailed and allow us to zoom out further than before. A fantastic surprise addition for me.
-
You no longer need to be near a Lexicon of Power to apply a Glyph. Does that change make the Lexicons completely useless, or do Inscriptors need them for something specific? I haven't rolled one yet so I am not certain. Speaking of Glyphs, how did the old Supply and Demand scale work on your servers? Prices on Magtheridon are up over 200%.
- New music courtesy of Ulduar and the Argent Tournament!
-
"Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!" (emphasis added). That bit from the patch notes just made me laugh, even though I see the bold as a possible slight against the hardcore RPers. Apparently we are all Survivorman. Now I can make my first campfire.