internet-dragons
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Enjoying the spoils of progress
I enjoy a lot of aspects of World of Warcraft, and one of those aspects is the actual playing of the game. I like combat, whether I am tanking or DPS, the active working through of encounters and even the unfolding of trash pulls. I like learning what new mechanics do, how fights unfold and how they can be successfully completed. I love all of that -- but what I also love is the period after mastering content. I shamelessly admit it here. I love when content goes on farm. I was ecstatic as Firelands went from hard to easy. I love feeling my gear improve, seeing my DPS or health go up, looking at my avoidance and mitigation and realizing that yes, I actually can get passive unhittable just through gear. (I'll miss that when the two-roll combat system comes out.) I like going back, months down the road, and tearing Baleroc in half like wet tissue paper. Remember me? Part of this is simply because I like WoW best when I'm killing stuff. I don't like to sit idle in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, and I'm not terribly moved to stand around hawking my crafting wares or playing the Auction House. These are fine activities, to be sure, but they're most certainly not what I like to do in the game. No, the reason I played seven years ago is the reason I play now, because I like to hit things in the face with the largest possible things I can. And taking their stuff -- I mustn't forget how much I like taking their stuff.
Vindictus brings out a dragon with accompanying ink
In any fantasy game, downing a dragon is what you want. Sure, there might be other monsters that are technically stronger, but nothing else has quite the feel of straight-up slaying a dragon. Nexon realizes this, which is why the strongest foe in Vindictus' latest game update, is the massive dragon Elchulus. Players will need to have quite the team to bring down this massive foe, as a full raid of 24 characters at level 40 are required to slay the beast. The update also adds a lower-level raid for levels 20 and 30 as well as some brand-new tattoos to help signify your battle against the scaly menace. You can buy new tattoos, or you can face off against the new bosses and have a chance at winning one for free. Not quite convinced? Then take a look at the dragon in action just past the break, and see if you don't have a sudden urge to put a flying lizard in its place.
The Daily Grind: Why don't you like PvE?
You might know that it's not real. You might be reminding yourself that all you're fighting are lines of computer code sitting on a server somewhere with no connection to a real heroic struggle. But if you're even remotely a fan of fantasy, when you find yourself drawing your weapon of choice against a dragon, you can't help but identify with a long-held tradition. There's a reason many players will judge a game solely on its PvE -- while PvP is all about balance and mechanics, PvE is all about showing you something new and amazing. But we come here to bury PvE, not praise it. Maybe you get annoyed, from time to time, at the thought that all you're really doing is dancing according to a known pattern in tune with computer code. Maybe you don't like realizing that all of your accomplishments will be reset along a set pattern. Or maybe you're just not a fan of fighting internet dragons when you could fight real opponents sitting behind a keyboard. Whatever your reason, tell us -- why don't you like PvE? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: What do you think about travel in MMOs?
If you never played Final Fantasy XI, you missed the singular joy of trying to catch a connecting flight in a video game if you wanted to go from, say, San d'Oria to Kazham. And sometimes you missed the flight and had to sit and wait for the airship to come land again. World of Warcraft might have eliminated that issue, but Alliance players still have nightmares about arriving in Darnassus and flying across an entire continent just to go through a single dungeon run. Compare and contrast travel in Guild Wars, a game in which you scroll around the map, click where you want to go, and port there with no fuss. On the one hand, there's something to be said for keeping travel an inconvenience, as it helps contribute to the feeling that the game world is huge and difficult to get around in. On the other hand, there's no reason in the world why a video game needs to be made that obnoxious and difficult to navigate -- you're not trying to chart a course to India in the fifteenth century, you're trying to go kill internet dragons. So what do you think about travel times in MMOs? Do you like a big world that takes a while to traverse, or would you rather just take the lead from the map travel of Guild Wars? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
The Daily Quest: Shh, the internet dragon is sleeping
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. The internet can breathe again. Earlier today Blizzard announced that they will not be requiring real names to post on the official Blizzard forums, and the blogosphere in response breathed a huge sigh of relief. Here's a whole mess of thank-you's and other notes regarding the decision from various bloggers: The Pink Pigtail Inn asks if the wounds can be healed. Empowered Fire is pretty giddy about the results. Achtung Panzercow says "Yub Yub." That's Ewok for "We won." Geek Girl Diva has a short and sweet note to Blizzard. Lorehound asks what we learned from all of this. Warcraftic discusses the Warcraft community and communication. Mana Obscura gives us their thoughts on the power of the fans. HuskyStarcraft recorded a video response to the notice about the decision. Can we go back to just killing internet dragons now? I think so.
The Daily Quest: Let's kill internet dragons
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. Real ID this and that --the web has been full of people discussing the impact of Real ID and so-called "social networking" in regard to their favorite game. But let's take a step back from all the outrage today, take a deep breath and look at what's really important in World of Warcraft: Killing dragons. On the internet. Internet dragons. Let's check out some advice on better and more efficient killing of internet dragons, shall we? Slice and Dice has some tips for helping your raiders improve. Murloc Parliament discusses raid leading and control of mods. The Hunter's Mark talks about coaching new raiders. And on a different note, I Sheep Things hands out their very own Wrath Raid Awards.
