Unheeded Warning Indeed!

The downside of raiding late at night is that sometimes you just don’t pay as much attention as you should. Like me, buying a trinket for 2k that had a lot AGI and a weapon damage increase proc for my Hunter. Sounds sweet right?

Not as sweet as I thought.

See the item description: Unheeded Warning. One key word there makes the trinket practically garbage for a Hunter.

Do you see it?

I’ll give you a hint, it starts with “M” and ends with “ELEE”.

Yeah, so the weapon damage increase proc increases white damage but only if you use melee attacks. Which, as a Hunter, I don’t… unless I’m doing it wrong. I could have sworn it said ‘physical’ instead of ‘melee’.

At least it has lots of AGI on it.

/cry

 

It’s Not Me, It’s You…

Oh wait, it’s the other way around isn’t it?

Two things; Rift and Bloggers.

I took a look at how much free time was left on my Rift account yesterday and saw that my billing hadn’t kicked in yet and I was still on my ‘free month’. If you signed up for the head start, then you probably have about five days left of the free time (from the time of this posting).

Realizing my six month subscription didn’t kick in yet, I cancelled.

It’s not a bad game, I just don’t have a lot of time for it right now. Admittedly, it doesn’t require a lot of time. I’ve barely played and I’m three zones in and over half way to the level cap with no sight of things slowing down.

It was a nice little distraction and I think the game could do well enough if it can retain people.

I’m already getting that from WoW.

The ad campaign for Rift is true, it isn’t Azeroth – it looks prettier, with more updated graphics and effects, but it still plays like WoW.

One thing I did learn from Rift?

I figured out a better keybind scheme for my WoW Rogue.

 

On to item two. Bloggers.

It seems a number of bloggers are disappearing or giving up on blogging. Again, it’s you. You somehow let your blog become their blog. You started trying to cater to your audience and appease them (be it by giving them content they wanted or by ensuring you answered them in the comments as much as possible). In that way you lost sight of the hobby that blogging is supposed to be.

It became a job.

How do you fix it?

Blog for you. Don’t blog for WoW or Rift or WAR or for any one specific item. Ultimately, people read your blog because they liked (or were entertained by) what you had to say however you said it.

Accept that it’s your blog and what you put up there reflects your thoughts or what you want people to think you’re thinking. (That’s always a fun one.)

Blog because you want to, not because you feel you owe it to your readers.

Rogers and WoW

Lum the Mad over at Broken Toys posted something I recently heard about on the radio (this morning actually).

I’m Rogers customer and can’t complain about them now. If you asked me about eight years ago, I probably wouldn’t have been as pleased with them.

I was aware of their policy of throttling bitTorrent type downloads and have no issue with it. Short of Blizzard’s WoW patcher, I have yet to see bitTorrent used for something that was legal. I also have yet to see anyone in the Security business agree that it’s a good and safe means.

I’m guessing a lot of people (I didn’t say, “all”) complaining about Rogers have issue with it because they use their net connection for downloading TV shows, movies, or software – likely not legally.

About the only place this really impacts you is during patching or while downloading content during play – this is something I’ve done and it doesn’t seem to cause any issues for me. Maybe I’m lucky.

Paul!

Win.

Not only did the movie have a great name, but Seth Rogen was the voice. That’s a big deal because I don’t really like Seth Rogen, but he was perfect for this role… where I didn’t have to see him.

Hilarious.

I knew it was going to be good when it started with someone’s dog getting squished.

Not that I hate dogs, I love dogs, not in that way, but I do love dogs. It’s just the right, “OMG” kind of humor to open a movie. For the most part it continued through the movie, though it wasn’t only shock humor. Lots of slapstick mixed in and references to popular science fiction.

Funny.

Not for kids because there was a bit of swearing in there. And if you’re a humorless, die-hard Christian then you might not want to see it.

Good stuff.

Go see it.

Several times.

Okay, maybe just once, but definitely buy it on Blu-Ray… or DVD.

 

Coin Lock

Good on you, Trion.

Blizzard does something similar (if you don’t have an authenticator) only they don’t even let you log in until you address an email they send your registered email address. I like Coin Lock better.

Coin Lock

Users will be coin locked if they log in from a new or different location or computer. When their account is coin locked, they will be sent an email to the address that they have on their account (their login email) with a code to enter into the game.

Users will see the Coin Locked icon in the spot where their tutorial button shows up. Deactivating the tutorial tips will not turn off the Coin Locked button.

While in a Coin Locked status, users will have the following limitations:

• No access to the auction house
• No ability to SEND mail. Users can still receive and view mail as well as remove items from mail
• No ability to SELL to vendors. Users can still purchase items from vendors
• No ability to salvage, runebreak or destroy items
• No ability to trade
• Users can continue to play and gain coin and items, but cannot get rid of them.

 

If you are Coin Locked, simply click on the Coin Locked icon and enter the code found in your email from Trion.

You will only have to enter the code once for each computer at a given location. If you play from multiple locations, or on multiple computers, you will have to enter your code the first time you log in from each new location or computer.

If you log in and your account is coin locked, check your email! Someone may have logged in from another location with your account.

If you do not receive the email, please click on the Coin Locked icon and click the “Resend” button to have the email resent to you.

If you cannot access your email or you are otherwise unable to change your Coin Locked status, please contact Customer Service.

Remember! Security features work best when you have different passwords for the RIFT website, fan sites, each online game you play and your email!

That last bit is important. If your email address password is the same as the one for your Rift game and someone has hacked it? Heh. Your fault. Also consider where else you might use that address or password.

Still, it’d be nice if games didn’t make you use an email address as an account name. I’ve ranted about this before though.

The Customer is Always Right!

Except when they’re wrong. And we’re wrong a lot.

Why?

Most of the time, we consumers have no clue what we want. Oh sure, if it’s a matter of color, we know, “I like blue.” Well, most of the time. Women (and some men… who are overly feminine) sometimes pander back and forth about colors or designs on things. What they really want is attention and approval, even if it’s not blatantly obvious to them.

Why do you think your significant other gets upset if you reply with an uninterested, “mmmhmm,” when they ask you if you like how something looks on them? Attention and approval. Don’t believe me? Try the extreme ends of approving or disliking the item they’re trying out sometime. One extreme will probably get you laid while the other will definitely get you in trouble – I’ll let you figure out which is which.

Take WoW for example. People have been bitching forever that it’s too easy. Blizzard changes that with Cataclysm and people start complaining it’s too hard, complicated, convoluted, etc. and then jump over to Rift which is a lot alike WoW (you’re an idiot if you think otherwise – blind idiot) only much easier.

People liked WoW much like they paying for overpriced coffee at Starbucks. It’s decent coffee and on top of the coffee you get bitching about the price as something to do. People liked bitching about how easy things were. They liked being able to push the envelopes and then poo-poo their friends’ accomplishments citing their own ridiculous exploits. It makes them feel better about themselves.

And Blizzard took that away.

So let’s all go play Rift.

Settlers the MMO?

Imagine a MMO where you collect a guild of people and settle a hostile area. You have classes or professions that could be useful in building a village or town or, eventually, a city.

As you build, the wider the area you can build on grows – think of it like the ‘creep’ from Starcraft (the first one). This building area would be locked down to your guild – no one else could build on it but your people. I’m still thinking about how it would be MMO vs. a multiplayer game or server based game like Minecraft can be – maybe that is all it is.

Areas built outside of your ‘guild’ area are considered neutral and unprotected but also impede growth of guilds through that area as it reserves the spot and a small area around it. That could lead to guilds negotiating with the owner to hand over ownership or squashing it.

How’d you handle people trying to attack the town when no one is around? I’m having a hard time thinking of this one. Do you have artificial non-combat times? Allow the owners to set a time that the attack window is open sort of like what Global Agenda does? I think there would have to be a number of windows or a certain amount of time open per day or week. If it’s not scheduled, then it gets lumped at the end or something?

You could sort of do that with Minecraft – it has elements of survival in it, but then everyone can do everything and almost everything. It’d need a more refined crafting system that would let you build set items/structures. I suppose it’d be like Vanguard’s crafting results (though not necessarily the system – maybe).

Also, you’d want less random critters – you’d want some, but you’d also want some invasions or raiders attacking from time to time. You’d want them to have towns as well, towns or villages or caves or something you could clobber and prevent future attacks.

PVP, again, would have to be carefully controlled. Maybe semi-open out in the wilderness? Perhaps have a guardsman class that could kill or ban the player from the city area – making it so they cannot get into the town or guild area by normal means? Or perhaps flagged as a criminal and obvious to all occupants?

Just some ideas…

196

That’s the number of TNT blocks required to (effectively) lock up my Minecraft client and cause issues connecting to the server. 64 didn’t do it and neither did 128 so I tried 196 – that did it.

Oddly enough, my son was not too far away and he wasn’t impacted at all. I’m guessing he was in another chunk (section of the map) that wasn’t impacted by one of the 196 blown up areas.

I think next time I’ll create a longer fuse and not connect it to the leader TNT until I’m pretty sure the redstone dust is inactive.

I ended up doing away with that map and starting another one.

The Man?

Is it just me or does it seem like Blizzard is getting to be too big for it’s own good?

I stole some time away from other things to play a little StarCraft II (I hadn’t played it since the summer of last year) and I was immediately reminded of how little the actual play has changed – not since the summer, but since the original release.

I played  a little vs. AI and found myself going the same route and using the same units I did back in SC. Turtle-spread-turtle-spread-dominate with end units.

It was amusing, but not really satisfying. Admittedly, I did enjoy the single player campaign and could probably play through that again since it has limits on what’s available to you. Still, it seemed like it was short overall and missing serious content for Zerg and Protoss.

A lot of games seem to be doing this.

I don’t like it.

Starcraft aside, I just read through a blog post by Ghostcrawler. I didn’t come away with a warm and phuzzy feeling. It almost felt like I Was being patronized. Like I was reading the common drivel issued from talking heads trained to talk to the public.

I don’t know how many people watch hockey, but interviews with the players are usually the same questions with the same answers. I’m getting that feeling from what’s being said.

“Tell me something I don’t know, especially if you’re going to talk to me like I’m six years old.”

Despite Papa Ghostcrawler’s rambling, I did have an amusing time with WoW on the weekend. I played through the Worgen starting area with LBO and had quite a bit of fun doing so. He wanted to switch over to his Paladin (level 71 now) for a bit so I puttered around with him helping him out there. My sister even popped on and followed around helping out – which LBO loved.

I didn’t really log on as Kremus since I don’t feel there is much left I want to do with him short of raiding. I logged on as Smaken and did a bit of questing and reminiscing about all the achievements I got on Smaken; the mounts, the companion pets, the exalted reps, the raids and all the PVP stuff. I then looked forward to what was available in Cataclysm.

Not a whole lot.

I can’t help but feel Blizzard made a mistake by not releasing enough content to do. Not just levels, but rewards and things to look forward to. Most of the content changes and effort gone into the game are at the lower levels – things I’ve already been through (at least six or more times).

So far the best times I’ve had with this expansion have come from leveling. Dungeons were fun for a bit, but now they’re just something to do for Valor Points.

What were they thinking?

And where the heck is Diablo III? I need some mindless clicking that results in gory splattering (DA2 has some ‘mind’ involved).

Goblin Fun!

The LBO found his authenticator after we sorted out the basement so he immediately wanted me to reactivate his account. I did so and also tacked on the Cataclysm expansion and later in the day also transfered his level 70 Paladin over to Stormrage.

Blizzard’s making a killing off me…

He fiddled around on his Paladin a bit but wanted me to play with him and I don’t have a character in the 70 range – they’re all 80-85. He decided it’d be good to try out the Goblin race.. because they were green and looked cool. So we made a pair of goblins (on some ‘new players recommended’ PVE server); he went Hunter and I went Shaman.

That start was a lot of fun, though I think it’s shorter than the Worgen one or maybe I haven’t really played enough of the Worgen one to determine that. I think was about level 13 when I was done with the Goblin start area and got dumped off into Ogrimmar.

We haven’t been back to play them since. Instead he’s been questing in Coldara area. I was pretty impressed that he was getting most of the quests sorted out on his own, without much help from me. I did help him through the Nexus, twice. It’s pretty easy to run through regular Nexus as a level 85 Blood DK. I was surprised his Paladin didn’t get killed at all.

He also created a DK (I think that’s about his fifth or sixth DK) so I helped him through the starting area. He’s set up in TBC’s Hellfire Peninsula but keeps popping back over to the old world because he wants to make cash by killing stuff in STV.

I transfered my Druid over who is level 60 so a suitable level to accompany his DK.

You’re welcome Blizzard.

I don’t know if anyone was thinking I was leaving WoW, but I’m not. This should be a clear indication of that.