[1.Local]: The dead ponies edition

More nails in the dumber box
Who'd have thought an off-hand comment from a movie star about video games would inspire so much ire? The Ryan Reynolds comments just keep coming. Two weeks ago, [1.Local] spotted Gessilia's comment about Reynolds' grouchy comment about video games ("I don't really play video games. Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?"). "He's probably just grumpy because the cover made him look dumber than a box of nails," she commented. "Come on, that expression totally screams 'Which end do I put this in again?'"

The real zinger about this post came a week later. Reader Grim surmised that Reynolds' lack of enthusiasm for gaming may have something to do with his real-life skillset: "Ryan Reynolds would hate the idea of dual-boxing. He's only capable of playing one character."

Ba-dum-TISH!

A leveling server just for leveling
The idea of a server designed especially for players moving through early game content sparked quite a bit of conversation from readers this week, including this novel idea from styopa: "Instead, how about a 'treadmill' server? Every day your 'toon is on that server, you lose 0.3% of your total XP accumulated to date. So (very roughly speaking) you'd lose a level about every week.

"Now, suddenly you need to keep your skills very fresh or you slide backwards. PvP players would have to 'leave XP on' to stay in bracket. On that server, if you met an 80, you KNOW they are a regular, consistent, constant player instead of someone's umpteenth multitoon that they may not have played in months."

Styopa sounds like a player who'd enjoy EverQuest-style XP loss upon death ... Now there's a way to keep you busy at level 80!

Is WoW too complex?
Shardrell makes a great case to support the theory that end-game stats make WoW too complex: "I personally think that the current gear system is too complex, with consequences for new and veteran players alike. Being able to micromanage the 'extra stats' like Hit, Crit, Haste, Mp5 and ArPen make a big difference in your character's effectiveness. However, there is no in-game information to guide players in making these choices.

"I shouldn't have to browse through out-of-game forums to figure out what my Hit cap is (or even what a Hit cap is in the first place). I shouldn't need to use Recount to get an idea of whether a new piece of loot is an improvement for my character.

"I think the whole system is blowing up in Blizzard's face, too. They're trying to reduce the amount of work they need to do and the amount of 'useless' loot that drops by making multiple specs/classes want the same loot. Problem is, every class and spec wants different amounts of these 'extra stats,' so whoever isn't getting the stat mix that works best for their spec gets cranky. So Blizzard tweaks the talent trees and class abilities so that players are happier with their equipment. So players get confused and have to re-learn things every patch, except again there is very little in-game guidance to help players figure out what kind of re-gearing to do.

"I mean, I play a Rogue, which is one of the simpler classes to gear for. But it took me months after I hit 80 to try to figure out how much +Hit to try to get, because I couldn't get a clear answer beyond 'Uh, Hit is less important than it used to be but still important; you have three Hit caps ... I dunno, make sure you hit the yellow one.' If I didn't read out-of-game websites, I wouldn't know that Haste rating (which looks like it should be good for Rogues) isn't the best thing to stack or that ArPen starts to become more and more useful at higher gear levels. Every patch, I find myself poring over websites to make sure that I'm not accidentally making choices that will cause my DPS to plummet.

"The whole thing makes me nostalgic for the days when I said yes to gear with high Agility and no to gear that was obviously designed for bears, not me. Why should I need to read so much information out-of-game in order to effectively gear up? The whole system has become too complex and ever-changing."

A case for more in-game explanations? What do you think, gang?

Doing faction change the right way
The ability to change factions – you either love the idea, or you hate it. Or if you're Kaid, you find a way to mock it: "I don't think that Blizz will tie faction change into a betrayal quest. But if they did, here's an idea for a story...

"Alliance version:

"You wave your credit card at Blizzard. Shortly after, your 'toon receives a mail telling them to meet a Cenarion agent at a secret location. The Cenarion agent provides convincing evidence that a major leader Alliance-side has gone mad and is going to set off events that will have disastrous consequences for both sides. Your 'toon is sent to assassinate the leader but is told that this action will be looked on with disfavour by the rest of the Alliance.

"Fortunately, Forsaken technology has come up with a bit of cleverness whereby after you've done the deed, your soul can be transplanted into the body of a newly dead Horde person (your own body will be left in a vat in case some time in the future, after a set cooldown period, you choose to return).

"The Cenarion person transports you to your victim who turns out to be ... Fandral Staghelm! Hurrah! This alone was worth the credit card bill!

"Horde version:

"The Horde-side is a similar story, except in this case, the Forsaken technology turns you into an Alliance character first, as a deep cover operation. You still get to kill Fandral Staghelm because ... well, who needs a reason?"

We're so there.

Druids, cows and dead ponies, too
We promised you ponies this week – and we're going to deliver. Ponies and ... other four-legged creatures.

The topic in question: does an NPC conversation in Patch 3.2 reveal new possibilities for Druids? New magics? New classes?

Jingo: "The first Tauren Paladin" ... oh god

Winterhoof: more accurately, "holy cow"

JKWood: THIS ^^ I'd be thrilled to see Tauren paladins just for the chance to yell this in a battleground.

Aramis: LOL!!!!! "holy cow" ... Classic. I laughed really hard with this one.

The puns kept moo-ving in ...

Syme: This could be something very big. After all, Ghostcrawler promised us Aponi ...

So much speculation, so many opportunities for bad puns ... Should Druids hold their collective breath in hope of the elusive "Aponi" -- or are we simply beating a dead horse?