Project Lore

Kil'jaeden The Beautiful One Will Feel My Daggers! I play a lot of video games.  Since 2008 rolled into 2009 I have conquered worlds, become a demigod, twisted my brain, shot an ostentatious amount of bullets, dismembered countless meatsacks, heard more four letters words than I care to admit and even created an army of plants to defend against zombies.  Dozens of titles have fallen before me, and I plan on completing dozens more.  Even though I play like a fiend - much to the chagrin of TV and movie advertisers - I still miss my fair share of video games.  Metal Gears, God of Wars, Zelda, Halos, Final Fantasies (still not final!), even Mario; I've missed one or more titles in today's most popular franchises. What does this have to do with World of Warcraft you ask?  Well, like many of the commentators on yesterday's post, I have missed my fair share of raid content.  Although my break from WoW during The Burning Crusade's days was short lived, it put me far enough behind the raiding curve (and the finding a good guild curve) that I couldn't catch up in time.  Karazhan was the only raid to feel my wrath (sorry). With this sad fact in my mind I have decided to do what I do with my other video games, head back into my library of plastic and visit what I missed in my spare time.  From here on out this brand spanking new column, Deleting Old Content, will chronicle my travels to content that many of you have played to death.  I won't be running it level appropriate, so I won't acquire the same insight the Questing series possesses.  Nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see how this old, old school raider reacts to TBC's content. Of course I am under the gun of Cataclysm's impending release so I better get to work (not because it'll be deleted, but because I'll be busy with that new content)! </sarcasm>  If anyone is on the correct side of Magtheridon-US (For the Alliance!) and wants to join me in some Illidan, Gruul and Kil'jaeden destruction feel free to shoot Solidsamm an in-game mail.  Now for the magic words, free achievements! This should be enlightening. /me packs for Penny Arcade Expo.

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If you look back at my blogs since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King and compare them to my collection of thoughts from the The Burning Crusade days, you may notice a trend.  During Illidan's and later Kael'thas' respected reigns my posts were more often focused on news and game updates, rather than discussions and dissections about our favorite MMORPG.  The reason for this is quite simple really, I wasn't participating in World of Warcraft as much then as I am now.  For the longest time I couldn't pinpoint the exact reason for is.  It had nothing to do with why I quit WoW in the first place, and I still followed the lore almost as closely as I do now, yet, I was hardly ever pulled into the game. It took me a few months of play, up and downs and a new guild, but I had an epiphany while biking around Philadelphia the other night.  The reason I am more drawn to WoW now is that I don't feel left behind.  Thanks to the new expansion Solidsamm was put on a level playing field with every buddy else.  No longer was I three tiers of gear behind, thousands of rep in the hole or penniless because I hadn't been doing dailies for over a year.  Solidsamm was on equal footing, grinding his way to level 80 with the majority of players and entering the same raids that many other toons ran on a weekly basis.  Sure, he still hasn't seen Ulduar yet, but it's only been available for a few weeks. The irony here is that this ability to catch up was one of the reason I was annoyed with the first expansion.  TBC's opening quest rewards were good enough to replace some of the AQ40/Naxxramas gear that players - including myself - had spent months collecting.  As a hardcore raider I felt that all the time I had put into the game would be tarnished since a player with less than a third of my playtime could now be as geared as I.  How naive I was. It was odd being on the exact opposite end of the spectrum for the second expansion, but it made me realize that the changes are necessary if the game is to grow at all.  That being said, I would argue that the replacement rate of The Burning Crusade's gear wasn't nearly as drastic as vanilla WoW, which was a very smart move by Blizzard. Now that we are almost 6 months from Wrath of the Lich King's release, how is it treating you?  Are you enjoying it more than The Burning Crusade or is it pretty much the same to you?  Personally I think the questing is far better than TBC, but itemization at the high end (normal vs. heroic vs. hard mode loot) seems to be a bit screwed up.  What is your take?

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There was another topic I almost addressed in yesterday's post on World of Warcraft and other games (they do exist!). I chose not to discuss it because it is a wholly other topic, deserving of its own post. Also, it would have derailed the main point of the post, seeing what you guys are playing, and how you fit it into your MMO regiment.

So here it is folks. I once stopped playing World of Warcraft. No, no. It wasn't one of those times where your friend throws a hissy-fit and quits, only to return a week later. I was gone for awhile, and I went cold turkey to top it off. This was actually around the same timeframe that I quit, just before an expansion.

There are a handful of reasons behind my decision, but the main issue was that I felt Blizzard Entertainment was double dipping. I had no issue paying for a subscription fee, but that, coupled with planned yearly expansions – that cost $39.99 – kind of pissed me off. I knew that the double dipping was the norm of Western MMOs, but that didn't mean I had to like it. So there I was, just a month before The Burning Crusade was set to drop, still raiding Naxxaramas, and I let my account expire.  At the time, I would have been happy with paying $20 a month, so long as they kept releasing the awesome content patches semi-regularly.

My main reason was clearly a fiscal concern. The other reasons, not so much. My number two would be that I was constantly upset at missing all those classic games I mentioned. Then there was my concern with the upcoming content. I just wasn't excited about what The Burning Crusade had to offer. The feature set seemed too underwhelming to me, two new races, umm, okay, whatever. Swapping Paladins and Shamans? Sorry, but sounds like they just got fed up trying to balance the classes. Spaceships??? Add to that a collapsing guild, changes in the raid structure and a host of small issues and I had enough reasons to bail.

I never lost touch with the community, and frequently conversed with my Rogue buddies while I was away. A few tried to suck me back in, and luckily, they finally did. Months went by, but I was finally pulled back into Warcrack and was happy to return. Even if things weren't the same. TBC turned out to be a lot better than I anticipated (I thought it was going to suck...), with my favorite feature being short and sweet 5-man content mixed in with more epic stuff.

No worries about me ditching this time though. Blizzard has me on the edge of my seat waiting for Wrath of the Lich King. Arthas, you are not prepared!

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Wrath of the Lich King has me far more excited than The Burning Crusade ever did. I don't know what it was about TBC that turned me off so much, because I was interested in what it had to offer. I was in TBC's beta, but I didn't burn myself out in it. In fact, that is where I realized that I wasn't as intrigued by The Burning Crusade as much as I was for World of Warcraft. I bought the first expansion regardless, hoping that Blizzard would manage to wow me in some way. I don't believe TBC struck me as much as vanilla WoW, but the expansion – and the community - managed to keep me entertained for the past 21 months and counting. Thankfully, WotLK seems like it will do more than just hold on to me.  With exciting features like these, how could it fail?

• Questing & Exploration – I love exploring these digital worlds that we spend so much of our time in and the new quests should make it that much more enjoyable.  To top it off, the lands are full of unseen monsters living in harsh conditions.
• Phasing – Phasing is the new black. The idea of phasing is to allow players to have their own unique world. Did you manage to do an escort quest and your buddy didn't? Well, to you, the person you escorted may appear in the nearby town, while for your buddy, he is still held captive by the forces of the scourge.  Same game, but appearing to each player in its own special way.
• Stormwind Harbor – Stormwind is getting a large addition that will gradually be introduced to the Human stronghold.  For the aesthetics alone, it is nice to see the major cities change over time.
• Naxxaramas – My hardore raiding days ended with Naxxaramas 40-man. No guild on my main server managed to clear it before TBC went live, although we were the closest. I can't wait to dance tackle it again, only this time at level 80.
• New talents & Level 80 – The idea of dual specs are interesting and so are all the new talents, for all classes.
• World PvP – World PvP and Battlegrounds are to make a comeback in Wrath. Arenas with environmental hazards are all well and good, but Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of The Ancients are where it is at for me.
• Enchanting Changes - Being able to sell and purchase Enchants on the Auction House = priceless.
• Death Knights – Forget about new races, that is old hat. Yea, we will have new racial abilities, but what could be more exciting than the first Hero class? I won't be leveling a Death Knight right away, but I will definitely take one for a spin due to the quest chains and lore associated with starting one.
• Lore – This is actually the number one thing I am waiting for. Wrath of the Lich King promises to have some killer lore.  With the introduction of the new Death Knight class, new quests, the lead up to Icecrown Glacier and the battle against the Lich King/Arthas, how could it not be awesome? I guarantee you that there will be one quest chain in the game that will blow you away. KooPA's are known for their truthiness...and walking off cliffs.

There is tons more to Wrath of the Lich King than what I have listed, another reason that I can't wait to jump in on November 13th. What has you all in a tither?

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