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Dev Watercooler: Content for the casual 85
The newest Dev Watercooler column gives King Crab a break and instead lets us peek into the mind of Dave "Fargo" Kosak, lead quest designer for World of Warcraft. You might remember Fargo from Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth and GameSpy days. Fargo's Dev Watercooler is all about experiencing World of Warcraft as a non-raider and what Blizzard's expectations are for level 85s who aren't bashing down Ragnaros' door. One of the weirdest statements that I have to make to many people who are new to the MMO genre is that "the game begins at 85." While we know that isn't factually correct, since there are 85 levels of content previous to hitting the magic number, it still makes sense from a "never-ending world" point of view. There is no end, so the game begins at the "current" end. Fargo makes the case that all players are entitled to an epic storyline, engaging content, and a feeling of continual power growth. The new patch 4.2 Firelands daily quest hubs in the Molten Front and the Regrowth are tailor-made to hit these points and provide a personal, continuing experience for players who don't participate in the raid game. With dailies being randomized and your personal tree growing at your own pace, players are rewarded based on their efforts alone. Personally, I like this direction for solo questing experiences. The Molten Front and the Regrowth seem like better, more advanced, and more evolved versions of the reputation grinds we were previously chugging away at to open up gear and other rewards, but with less of a "watch a bar go up" mentality. Here, we have engaging choices and rotating sets of random tasks that keep us coming back for more, all the while physically changing the world around us. Now we just need to care about the cause. I think Firelands is going to push us a good way forward in that regard. Check out Fargo's first contribution to the Dev Watercooler series, after the jump.
"Flintlocke" creator moving to Blizzard
Readers Geamo, Dice, and Leethax have written to let us know that Dave "Fargo" Kosak, co-founder of Gamespy and creator of the wildly popular "Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth" and its Horde follow-up "Flintlocke vs. The Horde" is leaving for...Blizzard! In his farewell message on Gamespy he says he'll be creating content for Blizzard games and World of Warcraft specifically (so be on the lookout, as he writes, for "quest instructions (shouted) at you in a very loud, very poor Scottish accent"). Kosak has been responsible for hearthstones being memorably described as "the chickenrock," an explanation of aggro mechanics, The Five Stages of Warcraft, and the ultimate goblin-engineered weapon (which you can find in Area 52). Unfortunately, it looks like he's not going to be able to continue the "Flintlocke" comics while at Blizzard (whether for time-related or legal reasons, I'm not sure), so that's kind of a downer. The current Horde comic has already been planned all the way to its end, which will occur at some point in late April. I was disappointed to read this -- I love Flintlocke, and the Horde storyline is amazing ("What kind of combat skills you got on that thing?" "Probably flee and mate") -- but I expect we'll be seeing some of Kosak's influence ingame.Congratulations, Mr. Kosak, and from all of us here at WoW Insider, good luck!
Sunday Morning Funnies: Shover of kids
Our list of WoW-related web comics this week is longer than usual, and includes a Penny Arcade comic strip that had the WoW Insider staff cracking up. Humor Penny Arcade shows us The Diplomatic Route. Mijikai, Shover of Kids petitions Blizzard on Dark Legacy Comics. There are Limits to My Maturity, GU Comics. Raid, NoObz. A long battle was fought and won on Sluggy Freelance. As a bit of a tribute to Flintlocke and his return, on The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf, it's a showdown, with Disgraph vs. The Flintlocke. Humor with a storyline From The Adventures of Blanc comes Skinning Training. Emissary - page 3. The characters of LFG meet up with Rojave. Noobcow and the Obligatory Mount, from Manic Graffiti. Answers and Questions from The Road to BlizzCon. He Breaks on Damage, Teh Gladiators. This one features Thrall. Flintlocke vs. The Horde presents Orc's Best Friend.
Sunday Morning Funnies: Show us your tix!
It's Sunday morning and there are funnies to be had. From the beginning of manhood to alternative fuel sources, to pre-expansion doldrums, you should find something amusing in this week's lot.Newbies New to the list this week is Flintlocke vs. The Horde, Episode 1: A Horde of Many Colors. Humor Dark Legacy is back this week with Beat It. Extra Life presents the Modern Hobo. NoObz calls for a bit of realism (sort of). RP in battlegrounds - Ding! Some corpse camping adventures on Sluggy Freelance. Running on Moon Fuel from The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf. Humor on a storyline Check out page two of Emissary. The characters of LFG travel to a large city. Manic Graffiti is starting a storyline involving a death knight murloc. It is not to be missed. From The Road to BlizzCon comes Miss Understood. Eagle-Eye Strikes Again on Teh Gladiators.
Flintlocke returns, now with more Horde
Fan favorite webcomic Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth is back in business after a far-too-long hiatus. Sort of. The GameSpy hosted webcomic is back in sequel form, entitled Flintlocke vs. The Horde. With a plan to release five panels/pages each week from the original Flintlocke author Dave Kosak, I'm pretty excited about it. Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth was by far one of my favorite WoW comics when it was still running.Flintlocke vs. The Horde actually has no Flintlocke in sight yet. It's told from the point of view of the Horde rather than our old pals from the previous series. We'll see them eventually, I'm sure. So far the comic has gotten some laughs out of me, but it's been a little too heavy on the stoner humor. Don't get me wrong, stoner humor can be hilarious, but it usually works better as a support joke rather than the punchline. That's just my thoughts on it, though. Regardless, I've bookmarked this comic to see where it goes and I recommend at least giving it a look.[ Thanks, Bryn! ]
The Scout Report
I can't be the only one who misses Flintlocke dearly. I have been waiting for a while for something akin to its witty writing and easy to follow screenshot-esque format to come along. Well, with The Scout Report I am happy to say that we may just have a contender. This webcomic is just getting going, but I certainly enjoyed what is up so far. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about my little Dorna ending up a shoplifter, but I can tell you there is definite funny within. Clever use of game mechanics indeed. Check out the comic and see what you think. What other exploits would you like to see as they continue their journey through Children's Week? [via Swath]
Flintlocke is dead. Long live Flintlocke!
Unfamiliar with Gamespy's popular World of Warcraft comic Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth? Have you been living under a rock? Even Blizzard made note of the popular comic, adding an item to the Burning Crusade referencing the unlikely hero of the series, Flintlocke. Fortunately, you can dive in to the comic's archives and enjoy it at any time. (I think my favorite episode is Ogre Killing in 56 Simple Steps.) Unfortunately, Gamespy has recently killed off the comic, citing an inability to find a new artist.So after two years (on and off), Flintlocke's adventures have ended. Well, at least we'll always have the memories...[Via gamebunny]
Flintlocke's back, and other WoW comics
After almost a month with nothing (the creators must have been working their way up to 70), one of my favorite WoW comics has finally returned-- Gamespy's Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth is back for Series II, albeit with only a few panels.And while we're at it, Flintlocke isn't the only show in town, although it is a show that I really like. If you've never seen the Heroes of WoW series, it's definitely a good read (it's originally a German comic, actually). Looking for Group has been seeing a gain in popularity lately, and it definitely looks great, too.And no discussion of WoW comics is complete without a mention to Dark Legacy comics, also a terrific comic series based in the world of Azeroth. Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head-- know any more to recommend?
