Mathew McCurley
Articles by Mathew McCurley
Review: SteelSeries Diablo 3 headset shines
There is a lot to like about SteelSeries' Diablo III headset, giving players a solidly built peripheral that sit snugly on the ears and provide strong sound. I'm the kind of gamer who never wants to take off his headset because of the activity going on around me -- it's one of the only ways to get any semblance of peace and quiet. In addition, voice chat and Mumble have become hangout tools rather than just gaming features, making a good, durable microphone that much more important. This isn't the first time I've tried out this particular offering from SteelSeries. When I went to BlizzCon 2011 and stopped by the SteelSeries booth, the representatives wanted me to try it on immediately. Something about ear cups and weight displacement, I don't know. There was a lot going on. To be honest, the biggest factor in choosing a headset for me is whether or not I can wear the thing for, like, eight hours straight. So, that's what I did. For you.
Mat McCurley says goodbye to WoW Insider
Well, here we go. This is my last day at WoW Insider, after two and a half years of writing, podcasting, and interacting with one of the greatest communities online. Having the opportunity to write for you and with these wonderful people has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I started playing World of Warcraft back in May of 2004 during the closed beta test. My time and tenure in Star Wars: Galaxies was winding down, and Dark Age of Camelot was far in the rearview mirror. None of us knew what World of Warcraft would become or how much the game would influence some of our lives. For me, World of Warcraft represents time, effort, passion, and drive; when every other option available was lacking, uninteresting, or just wrong, I wrote about my passion. I'll never stop playing because I see no reason to stop.
The Lawbringer: My final thoughts on Blizzard
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. There is a lot to be said about Blizzard, the scrappy little company founded more than 20 years ago because hey, why not? A bunch of guys liked video games, graduated from UCLA, and borrowed money from their grandmas. Eventually, Blizzard became the game company we know today, a powerhouse in the industry with no signs of slowing down. World of Warcraft is resting comfortably at around 10 million players, StarCraft is still a national sport in Korea, and Diablo III has pierced the hearts of gamers who would have never picked up a click-and-slash. Today is my last day at WoW Insider, and you've probably already read the sappy goodbye [Editor's Note: Actually, it'll be up at 8pm EDT]. Whatever. We've still got columns to write, people. For my last Lawbringer, I want to share with you a little bit about what made this column special to me and why your support turned this column from an idea into something widely read, as well as my hopes for Blizzard in the future. I cannot thank you all enough for letting me have my soapbox and a place to rant.
Addon Spotlight Alternatives: Buffs and debuffs
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Tracking buffs and debuffs is a time-honored tradition amongst raiders and non-raiders alike. We've been watching for poisons, debuffs, debilitating magic, and disables since the beginning of WoW. Being able to quickly react to your own debuffs, whether you're the Living Bomb or you have a snobold on your back, is what separates the best players from the rest. We will be exploring the traditional type of buff and debuff display this week on Addon Spotlight, shedding some light on some old favorites, addons that have passed on, and distant favorites making a resurgence. Buffs and debuffs have also held a crucial spot on my own interface for years, right above my own status bar. As a tank, debuff tracking has always been a priority.
WoW Summer Challenges offer some raid night suggestions
Now here's something pretty cool from the World of Warcraft community team: Blizzard is promoting the WoW Summer Challenge, a weekly series with suggestions for an old raid to run with friends for lore and history, notable drops, transmog gear, and more. There is even an associated forum thread to plan activities or share thoughts on any given week's challenge. This week's challenge tasks you and your friends with hitting up AQ-40. WoW's focus from here on out needs to be subscriber retention and engaging its players. The two go hand in hand, and the more Blizzard can do to involve the community, the better. These Summer Challenges are a great way to give a little structure to an otherwise unstructured experience. Blizzard has even included links to Wowhead's excellent transmog set viewer so you know what drops you're looking for. It's good to see Blizzard recognizing Perculia's hard work. Blizzard's full announcement is below.
WoW TCG: Tomb of the Forgotten sneak peek
With the introduction of monster races to the WoW Trading Card Game, all sorts of creepy creatures have been coming out of the woodwork to do battle. Murlocs have been well represented so far in the last two TCG expansions, so it's nice to see Nargle here get some heroic art and abilities. Tomb of the Forgotten, the final block in the Aftermath set, will launch on June 12. Nargle interacts with other murlocs from the previous sets, allowing you to build interesting, murloc-infused decks that stack lots of cool bonuses. Hit the jump for a full shot of his new card. The monster races have brought a lot of new depth and range for Cryptozoic to grow the game and even incorporate some of the types of mechanics it has grown fond of over years and years of TCG building. You can check out all the new features and previews of Tomb of the Forgotten over at the Cryptozoic website and see if there are any Tomb of the Forgotten launch events happening near you.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Nomi, the cook's apprentice
Cooking has been (for lack of a better word) supercharged in Mists of Pandaria, splitting the profession into various "Ways" or styles of teaching. The Ways of the Grill, Oven, Pot, Steamer, Wok, and Brew all await your able hands to delight your senses. Since cooking, eating, and drinking are so important to the pandaren, Blizzard ratcheted up the potential for player involvement. Once you master all of the ways of Pandaria cooking, you will unlock your very own cook's companion, Nomi, with whom you can gain friendship reputation. El's Anglin' has a great preview of Nomi and his quests, which put you in the role of master, teaching your apprentice the same ways you learned. Each lesson Nomi must learn appears to take about a month of dailies, and as El points out, a lesson 1 implies lessons 2, 3, and so forth. When you do reach the end, however, there is an achievement called Now I Am the Master, which graduates you from student to expert status. Many have been speculating that achieving this feat might allow you to graduate your alts with cooking in order to prove your master chef status. Nomi is a very interesting new addition to the Mists of Pandaria beta. With such a huge revamp coming to the way we approach cooking, who knows what else is in store with regard to some of the other professions? It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Reader UI of the Week: Seeing Cassilan's screen
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Welcome to another exciting edition of Reader UI of the Week. Today's subject is going to divide readers into two camps -- people who can tolerate clutter and people who cannot. Over the years, I've come to gain a tolerance and understanding of clutter because, frankly, I understand the laziness inherent in all of us. There is always a moment just after you reach for the mouse, begin to scroll, and suddenly weigh the time it would take to complete this task against taking another excellent bite of your Little Bacon Burger from Five Guys. I'll tell you right now, I just took a delicious bite of burger. I do a disservice to people when I attribute clutter to laziness. That's not the case at all. In fact, I find that I work a little better in an environment where I have to actively find something amongst other things. There's a type of juxtaposition or patterning that presents itself; I know where Shockwave is because it's next to the icon for Revenge on my bar, etc. So what does this all have to do with clutter, UIs, and functionality? Enough, I'd say. Cassilan's UI has a direct and stated purpose -- see the game's screen. See the action, see the adventure, and see the character in full glory. At the same time, a suite of addons is activated to add necessary customization and features not present at default. We can discuss the minimap, which is admittedly a little rough around the edges, but every bump can be smoothed out.
Dress like Braggosh, your favorite orc warrior
I've always wanted to write a transmogrification article in the same vein as Dawn Moore and Anne Stickney, but I never could find the right theme that I wanted to tackle. As I kept trying to find a theme, it suddenly hit me -- no theme is needed! I'll just show you my two awesome transmog sets for my orc warrior, Braggosh. Who doesn't love Braggosh, the fiercest, most lovable orc warrior ever? No one, that's who! Both transmog outfits that I'm going to show you how to put together today are for plate wearers, and some of the set pieces, while warrior-specific, have alternate color versions available if you'd like to wear one of my cool sets.
Big Pineapple problems
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. Diablo III is a popular video game for the PC and Mac that sold a lot of copies and made a lot of people happy. Also, there was a lot of money. With great success comes great responsibility and cost, since the amount of success becomes proportional to the amount of crap to deal with to make the operation run smoothly. Being successful in the video game industry is not always what it's cracked up to be. This past week has shed some light on two very interesting Diablo-related news pieces, putting Blizzard and its blockbuster dungeon crawler at the heart of scandals, government raids, clever vendors, banned games, and more international intrigue. You'd think that this was all a James Bond plot, but for the presence of guys with fanny packs and an overabundance of Utilikilts.
The Queue: Mogu high five
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. If the Mogu on the Mists of Pandaria login screen don't high-five at the 20-minute mark, I will be severely disappointed. Pyro asked: Is there any time frame when Battle Tags will be open to all games on battle net? I really want to get into cross-realm raiding, but refuse to do RealID. While there is no official time frame on when BattleTags will get rolled out to other games and services, I hope that it happens sooner rather than later. The promise of having people find me via BattleTag is much, much better for me than giving out my email. It sits better with me, doesn't reek of privacy issues, and lets me have more friends and more options within my games as to what content is accessible to me. I'd like to hope that BattleTag integration happens before Mists of Pandaria launches and anticipate that it will be a part of the pre-patch patch that usually happens before the real patch hits retail -- you know, 4.3.455(RELEASE)(TEST)(NYI), etc. Maybe some systems changes, as well.
Addon Spotlight Alternatives: Cooldown bar timers
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. The Addon Spotlight Alternatives series continues with a look at cooldowns, timers, bars, and anything falling into the category of timing. Timing is a crucial factor in many of World of Warcraft's angles. You've got DPS rotations that can be made or broken based on the time between skill use. You've got tanks making split-second decisions on ability usage and timing -- what if you're only a few seconds away from a Shield Wall, but heroic Nefarian is about to use his thunder electro-whatever? Yeah, you have better been timing those cooldowns better, buddy. Cooldown and skill timing management are some of the game systems baked into the game to separate the better from the best, the true test for the most hardcore WoW players out there. People are still tackling Dragon Soul heroic content and succeeding because of good timing -- ask anyone about the gruesome slog that the Madness of Deathwing fight is on heroic. I did. I asked Rossi. He growled at me. We've established that timing is important, right? Good. Addons can greatly help you with the timing and cooldown tracking of your abilities because the game does a pretty poor job of it. That's not Blizzard's fault, either -- tracking your cooldowns in such an elaborate and specific way is not exactly what the game is designed to showcase to every player. This is all information we are willingly taking on in excess from what Blizzard is providing.
My Mists of Pandaria beta UI is almost perfect
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. This is exciting. The very first Reader UI of the Week from the Mists of Pandaria beta, and it gets to be my own. In fact, the UI that I've created in the beta is a bit of a dream team, fantasy UI that has been bouncing around in my head ever since World of Warcraft went live on the first day. You see, it's taken more than seven years for this feature to be developed and implemented in the game, and things will never be the same once the newest expansion launches. I've been waiting for the ability to move my player and unit frames for a long, long time. The upper-left location of the screen was never my favorite area to slap a health and mana bar. I've put up with it over the years and have changed the feature wherever and whenever possible, but betas are not usually addon-enabled until the later days. Until then, I must make do. These days, however, Mists of Pandaria looks to bring us some beautiful new changes to the user interface and my own sanity, giving me the ability to change some of the fundamental aspects of the player and target frames. With just two small movements and two quick options, the World of Warcraft default user interface moved leaps and bounds forward in the race to compete with my custom setup. And this fact makes me wonder if the UI will one day be seen as analogous to transmogrification, where Blizzard thinks that people can't handle one thing but actually crave the other.
The Queue: The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Shaving Mug
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. If you know me a tiny bit or follow my Twitter, you know that I'm sort of a nerd when it comes to shaving. Not content with the Mach 3 quad-blade whatever and desperate to save cash, I decided to search for something better. Like most young men of the internet age, I found mantic59 by way of a forum post or somesuch that lauded the benefits of traditional wet shaving and fragrant lathering, and my life changed forever. If you're interested, start here, and watch them all. Anyway, I've never considered myself a true shaving fan because the visceral reaction to my fandom was never profound. It was fun for me, sure, but the outward expression of the thing was just not there yet and it was my personal experience. However, when I saw Truefitt and Hill showing off their Jubilee Commemorative Shaving Mug for the Queen of England's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, I wanted it. I want it bad, and I'll do anything to get it. Then it hit me; I'm sure excited about a shaving mug. Could be a whole lot worse. So, men, I implore you. If you shave, shave like a man. I can give you no better, no more sagely, and no more important advice. You'll be better for it. Questions? ancientn00b asked: What happens if we enter a cross realm zone and someone is there with the same name? Will it be like in dungeons where their realm name is after their name? Also will we be able to join with them in a party to quest together?
The Lawbringer: Diablo sells lots, Blizzard dodges another bullet
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. Blizzard has been off to a pretty good start with Diablo III, selling who-cares-at-this-point millions of copies of the game people have been waiting over a decade to get their hands on. The craziest part about the whole thing is that it lived up to the hype -- a new Diablo game that felt like a Diablo game. Good for you, Blizzard! That's not what today's Lawbringer is about, no sir or ma'am. I've got a few topics I'd like to ramble on about today. You know those days in high school when the teacher was inbetween lesson plans and they just sort of rambled to you for that one day that they had set aside in case Federico didn't understand the "green light" symbolism in The Great Gatsby? That story happened, but I changed the names to make it more funny to the people who get the joke. Great way to start off this edition, right? Make the most inside-baseball column on WoW Insider get a little more in-jokey. Mat, you sure know how to hook 'em. No, wait, stay. I've got lots to say about Diablo III, the potential issues with the real money auction house, and my own thoughts on the cross-realm compromise and dodging the dreaded "merge." I think you'll have plenty to say in the comments after today's topics -- they are some of my favorites.
Blizzard's Versailles office adorned with infested Kerrigan statue
Blizzard headquarters in Irvine has been lording its orc statue over the other Blizzard foreign offices, smirking and laughing, reigning as king of the statues outside of game companies' buildings. A challenger has finally emerged at the Blizzard offices in Versailles, France -- an amazing sculpture of Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, from the StarCraft series. The statue looks awesome and there's plenty of pictures up on Blizzard's Facebook page. Check out the pictures and tell us what you think. Will the next statue be Diablo-related and feature the best angel ever, Tyrael? We can only hope.
Addon Spotlight: 3 addons you shouldn't forget for your alt
Each week, WoW Insider's Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Now is the perfect time to work on that alt you've been keeping locked away, sad and lonely for so long in his little alt box. You've got time now, right? Deathwing is long dead, and things are pretty chill. I even heard there's a new island out there to explore one of these days, most hopefully in July or August, which would be pretty cool. Ironically, when I'm leveling most of my alts from an early level, I don't enable most of my addons. What's the point? Group and raid content that requires any addons is far off in the future, the number of abilities I have at the time doesn't reflect the button matrices that I've built for level 85, and there is practically no similarity to playstyle. So I turn off my addons, save some very crucial ones. If you're looking to go addon-light for your next alt, I've got some addons that you're going to want to keep around because they make your life a thousand times easier. WoW's UI has gotten a lot better in recent years, but it still isn't perfect. These addons bring it a little closer to that perfection.
Reader UI of the Week: Enter the box with Oakdusa's raiding UI
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter. Functional isn't always beautiful. All of you should go out to your vehicles in your driveways or parking structures and look at the floor mats. I guarantee that your car is a wreck. If you've got kids, don't even get up from the seat; we've all been in your car. Functional, but not going to win any beauty contests. I'm featuring Oakdusa's UI because it made me incredibly nostalgic for the days of the original World of Warcraft and its eternal predecessor, EverQuest. The EQ user interface was this odd creation, living in the realm of "this sounds like a great idea on paper because people enjoy the comforts of realism in a fantasy world." What an MMO's UI fundamentally had to have was not defined yet, not in the modern setting, until World of Warcraft came along.
Mists of Pandaria: 'What has changed?' makes class changes more palatable
One of the sharpest double-edged swords in Blizzard's arsenal is the constant iteration to class and play design that comes with each World of Warcraft expansion. On the one hand, players like innovation and new mechanics and spells to keep their favorite class fresh. On the other hand, players could reject the changes as too severe or too different from the class they originally set out to play, as was the case with Alex Ziebart and myself with paladins in Cataclysm. It's a risky move to change up the core mechanics of a class, and the introduction of the "What's New" window helps streamline this occasionally daunting issue. New and old players alike will benefit greatly from the "What has changed?" tab. Simply open up your spellbook and click on the last tab at the bottom. You'll be greeted with a new screen giving you the run down on some of the biggest changes to your class coming in Mists of Pandaria.
The Queue: wumFWIPbloob
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. That's the sound that a resplendent chest makes when you open it in Diablo III. Seriously. Think about it. BKellyCS asked: I was discussing with some guildies this evening the "key points" in WoWs history (like personally feeling that Ulduar was the closest to raiding perfection with a variety of bosses, events, lore, layout, the hard mode switches etc) - what personally do you think the biggest opportunity Blizzard can take forward from Cataclysm is? What 'thing' do you think worked really well and reckon we'll see more of? What do you reckon they've learnt the most from and will endeavour to improve/never-EVER-let-that-happen-again?