David Nelson

PC Gaming By David Nelson

Breakfast Topic: Hand of Ragnaros is a druid weapon

I have seen reports of druids winning the Hand of Ragnaros before. I seem to recall one raidleader handing off the Eye of Sulfuras to his druid girlfriend, but I could be wrong. Hey, it isn't like I committed the brilliant forum thread to memory. Well, now we have another report of a druid snagging the HoR, this time it's Napier, a druid from the Greymane server. As you can imagine, this thread is dominated by folks either calling Napier the most selfish player in the history of MMORPGs or defending his right to spend his DKP as he sees fit. And yes, Napier has a long-winded response to the haters, which contains his rationale for spending his DKP on the mace. All in all, a typical forum thread, but there are aspects to it which raise some interesting questions...Shouldn't any DKP system have some kind of priority list or mechanism which prevents warriors from bidding on a caster staff or a druid from, I don't know, snagging a legendary mace which serves him no purpose whatsoever? I have never been in a guild that employed a straight DKP system which didn't make allowances for class needs. There is no way, for example, a hunter could bid on leather, simply because he could wear it. Is a druid with the HoR the absolute worst example of misguided DKP use? Or have you seen worse? Does your guild restrict rolling on certain items to particular classes? Or is it a free-for-all? And at this point, so close to the expansion release, does it matter who gets what? I mean, we will be upgrading everything very, very soon.

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Breakfast Topic: How to fix the official forums

The WoW.com forums occasionally provide some insight or humor, but for the most part are a cesspool of stupid comments, flaming and ridiculous antics. This is really unfortunate, as while there are a ton of good World of Warcraft community sites out on the net, the WoW.com forums are the most visible and almost certainly the most visited. The forums could really be a place for good discussion...if only they weren't nearly useless in their current form.My question for you folks is this: Is there any way possible to make the WoW.com forums a useful community building tool? Or is it simply a lost cause? There are some other gaming sites that manage to keep some semblance of order and usefulness...Cheap Ass Gamer and NeoGAF come to mind (albeit on a smaller scale), so it can be done. But how can Blizzard to do it on the scale of the WoW.com forums? Is it an impossible task? Or something that simply requires more community policing and stricter moderation? Any examples of well run WoW forums out there?

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Gaming By David Nelson

A couple holiday goodies from Blizzard

Blizzard has given us a couple holiday gifts, and both are pretty darn cool. First, Blizzard brings us some holiday-inspired WoW themed wallpaper to bring the festivities to our desktops. A blood elf kid trying to kill the the gnome baby with her missile boots? I am liking these blood elves more and more each day! Blizzard has a hilarious new holiday skit available for download, in which a classy blood elf and his murloc producer tryout new voice talent for the Burning Crusade. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to spoil it for you. However, I will admit, the troll towards the beginning had me laughing out loud. You can download The Night Before Wintervale in the mp3 format here.

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

Breakfast Topic: WoW as a holiday gift

I have one of THOSE friends. You know the type. He loves videogames. Has a 360 and Wii, plays a ton of games on his PC and is the very definition of a hardcore gamer. He really enjoyed Warcraft III and Starcraft. He played Diablo II until his mouse broke. However, there is one issue with this guy...he absolutely refuses to buy World of Warcraft. He won't even download the demo. He tried Everquest once, hated it, and swore he would never play one of those MMORPGs again. He had the same attitude about Diablo II, thinking it to be too "nerdy" for him. But once he finally broke down and bought it he played for months on end. I am 100% confident that if I bought him World of Warcraft and a two-month gamecard, he would eventually, at the very least, give the game a try. And I just know he'll like it. Then I'd have my friend to adventure with in Azeroth. Or maybe I should just let him be and not expose him to the WoW addiction. Hah. So, my question for you guys...should I pick this up for him or not? Is WoW a good holiday gift? Have you ever given WoW as a gift?

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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By David Nelson

Breakfast Club: All good things...

We wrap up our look at the best Breakfast Topics of the year with four topics that don't really fit into any particular theme, but were fun anyway! Everyone likes to complain. Don't believe me? Check out the forums sometime! Elizabeth tapped into our natural desire to whine with her question...what's the biggest problem with World of Warcraft today? What was the number one problem according to the comment crew? Other players. Why doesn't every spider have legs? Why is that bear carrying around a shotgun? That makes no sense! In reading through the comments, Threadrick asks the question I have often wondered...where do mounts go when you aren't riding them? With the Burning Crusade right around the corner, I began to wonder what would happen to Blackwing Lair and Naxx. Apparently so did a lot of you folks, as we got a ton of comments regarding the fate of endgame instances come the expansion release. While some players felt they would instantly become ghost towns, others hoped Blizzard would rebalance the encounters and the loot tables to make them viable again. Here's hoping it's the latter. You just know when you start an instance and you have your priest rolling need on leather, it's going to be a long night. Sometimes, you just know your group is doomed. For being a topic full of humor, the best response was a serious one from Hugh "Nomad" Hancock, who claims he knows a group is doomed when he notices the people he is adventuring with are rude jerks. I find this to be true nearly all the time. The more rude the group, the less likely it is we ever finish. Well, that's it for 2006. We've had some great discussions about PvP, buying gold, classes and guilds. And I imagine in 2007 we'll be talking a good bit about the Burning Crusade, and hopefully start hearing rumblings of a new expansion on the horizon!

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News By David Nelson

No maintenance this Tuesday

There will be no regular Tuesday maintenance this week. That would be Tuesday, December 26th for you calendar impaired folks. Is this a late Christmas present from Blizzard? Well...sort of. According to Drysc, the retrofits they have been doing to server hardware over the past year have made it possible to go longer than one week in between maintenance periods. Good news! For those of you behind a firewall at work, here is Drysc's post in it's entirety:"Since the game's release, one of our most important service goals has been to reduce the amount of time realms are down for weekly realm maintenance. The various hardware upgrades and retrofits we've done over the past year have put us in a position to begin testing the ability to go longer than a week between maintenance periods. In the upcoming weeks, we will be testing the effect of a live maintenance, where regular maintenance tasks are run during off-peak with realms live. On Tuesday, December 26 there will be no scheduled downtime for weekly maintenance. We will perform all necessary maintenance tasks while the realms are live. We are anticipating the possibility that we may need to perform rolling restarts off-peak if we find that a realm restart is necessary; however the downtime for each realm would be less than 10 minutes if it was required."It would be really nice if this holds and we can make the Tuesday downtime a thing of the past.

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

Forum Post of the Day: Twas the Night Before BC

I read a lot of bad attempts at being clever in the forums. I see tons and tons of bad PvP videos. It is a pretty rare event when I am impressed by anything that is posted in the WoW.com forums. But this poem written by Scrann from the Earthen Ring server is really, really impressive. He takes Twas the Night Before Christmas, puts a World of Warcraft spin on it and it works perfectly. For those of you behind firewalls at work, I have included the entire text of the poem below and after the jump. Enjoy! Twas the night before BC, and in World of Warcraft Not a creature would /stir, /sing, /dance, /silly, or /laugh The servers were hung, all instancing ceased In hopes the expansion would soon be released The children were nustled all snug in their beds (Only orcs; no young tauren, trolls, or undeads) And I, in my warlord's gear, from PvP Had just trekked to the inn for some rested XP When out by the bank there arose such dissent I wondered if Blizzard started a world event I went into cat form, to ensure my good health If demons were invading, I was gonna be stealthed

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Gaming By David Nelson

Breakfast Club: The art of ganking

This week we are reviewing some of the more interesting Breakfast Topics of 2006. And what roundup of Breakfast Topics would be complete without discussing everyone's favorite WoW activity: ganking! Last October I posed the question...carebear or ruthless ganker? I learned several things from the comments: First off, just because you frown on ganking and corpse camping doesn't mean you are a carebear. However, if you really enjoy ganking and corpse camping, it is probably safe to say that you are ruthless. Quite a few folks really, really enjoy the ganking aspect of a PvP server. Both on the giving and receiving end. I can see this point completely. I enjoy ganking the occasional Night Elf, and I enjoy leveling in contested areas knowing something very bad could happen at any point. Vlad put it best when he said "hey, it happened to me so I'm going to make sure it happens to everyone." That might be the truest statement ever made in regards to PvP servers. I got relentlessly ganked by 60s during my 30s. So when I hit 60? I killed everything I could. Heck, one of those 34s I am ganking might be the alt of one of the 60s who caused me so much grief in the Hinterlands way back when. I never camped, but every gnome on my server was killed on sight. And lastly, some wise words from Roseroyce04: "Do not EVER gank (cross faction duels don't count) someone unless you're confident you're going to win. Because if you fail, you will suffer." How true is that? If you attempt to gank someone while they are at half health and engaged with a mob, and you fail? Um...prepare to be camped my friend. And beyond just the good times of ganking, or not ganking, we also discussed what is okay in a duel. Are potions alright? Oh yes...I almost forgot the new PvP system! Have any new insight or thoughts on any of these topics? If so, please share!

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

WoW Blog Roundup: Holiday edition

What brings holiday cheer all year round? How about the WoW community? For sure! The Escapist brings us an excellent article by Michael Zenke in which he describes his disappointment upon returning to World of Warcraft for the holidays. His sad tale is complete with a lack of holiday spirit as well as a guild that has been blown to pieces. Merry Christmas! Mommy, what is that tiger doing to that reindeer? Maybe you don't want to know. AgentMichi from WoW_Ladies has some amusing screenshots of some great World of Warcraft graphical bugs. Not Addicted has some shopping tips for those of us looking for a last-second present. No, not from Target or Macy's, rather, from the fine stores inside Azeroth. How about some goggles for dear Aunt Trudy? Finally, Tobold gives us an early gift with his outlook on World of Warcraft in 2007. Not really so much from a gameplay standpoint, but rather from a business and subscriber point of view. As usual, Tobold makes some good points, and contends that 2007 will be WoW's peak year, and while it will still be millions of members strong, 2007 might be the summit of Warcraft's popularity. If you see an interesting blog post, let us know!

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News By David Nelson

Breakfast Club: Gold buying is naughty

We have had a lot of Breakfast Topics over the course of the past year. Some subjects are more popular than others. Some topics only appeal to certain classes. Some only to PVP junkies or the Naxx raiding crew. And then some topics completely explode and become the most commented on Breakfast Topic thread of the year. Gold buying and you is the topic that inspired more comments, and more arguments, than any post this year. It started innocently enough. One of my guildies mentioned he had bought gold, was promptly tossed from my guild, and I wrote a post about it. You guys took it from there. There seemed to be three camps of folks in the comment thread... People who don't condone gold buying under any circumstance. Shadowbrand hopes that those that buy gold get "ganked until the end of time." Pretty harsh! They blame the overpriced economy on gold farmers, and ultimately on the gold buyers. Gold buying is bad! Another, more neutral group, that while they don't buy gold, can see why someone might. Lykaon makes the point that gold farming equals time and time equals money. He thinks gold is easy to get, so he doesn't buy any, but he could see the rationale behind those that do. If you don't have the time to farm it, why not buy it? A rather vocal minority who believe that buying gold is just fine, and that everyone else is on the wrong page on this issue. Forsaken points out that he has bought plenty of gold, and having a wife and kids makes it too time consuming to spend hours and hours mindlessly farming. So there you have it. If you haven't read the comments in the gold buying Breakfast Topic, you really should. A lot of our readers went out of their way with some really excellent comments. Of course, some of the conversations get a little heated, but hey, it's still fun to read! And if you have any new opinions on gold buying, by all means, leave your comments right here!

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Gaming By David Nelson

Three hundred days played

I honestly don't know how many days played I have across all my toons. Maybe around 130 or so? Probably more than that, and definitely more than I'd care to admit over dinner with my family next week. But certainly less than 200. And absolutely nowhere near 300. According to this thread, Stian, from the Destromath realm, has over 300 days played. The odd thing is, it took him a little over 40 days to reach level 60. That seems like a long time for the 1-60 grind. Maybe he spent a lot of time camping the Auction House while at work which contributed to his long days played to 60, and his rather notable days played. As you can imagine, the forum trolls were less than kind: Monkyman from Uldum claims that Stian pulled a Homer Simpson and had one of those little bobbing bird things hitting his keyboard to keep the toon logged into the game 24-7. Plenty of folks declared Stian to have absolutely no life. This response should be in the Forum Trolling for Beginners handbook. Another smaller group then defended him against the "haters". This response would be in the Advanced Forum Trolling 101 textbook. Many folks noticed that he has nine ranks of starfire on his hotbar. Finally, Taranis from Cho'Gall breaks out the South Park staple "How can you kill, that which has no life?" I am not the kind of guy to judge, afterall, I write for a WoW blog, but 300 days played just seems excessive. Maybe he spent a lot of time AFK, or camps the auction house. I just can't believe he physically sat at his keyboard and played one character for 300 days over the course of two years. What do you guys think? Did he pad his days played? And if he did, why in the world would he want to do that? Or is he simply the poster child for WoW addicts everywhere?

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Breakfast Club: Class in session

We enjoyed talking about guilds, no doubt. But what kind of Breakfast Topic did we enjoy chatting about more than any other in 2006? Classes. Have you heard about the Burning Crusade expansion? Hah. Anyway, Elizabeth wonders what class you folks will be playing come the expansion. I am working on a rogue and a pally, but I might just start a warrior come January 16th. Heck...who am I kidding? I can't give up my super-overpowered warlock! We have been playing the same nine classes for darn near two years. Wouldn't it be nice to have some new classes to play? I liked the idea of a battlemage, while necromancer and bard were some of the favorite choices of the comment crew. Which class is the the easiest? Hunter? Warlock? Well, Elizabeth says hunter. I had an easy time with my warlock. Comment crew agreed with Elizabeth. Beyond how easy a class is to level, or how powerful it is, the question is simply...which class is the most fun to play? I really, really enjoyed my priest way back when, and I am really liking my rogue right now. I'd say warlock, but you are probably sick of hearing me talk about my damn warlock. Everyone remembers their first. First class that is. Mine was a rogue, which I retired, but have recently revisited. Good times! Finally, every class got a review. Some liked theirs more than others. As a priest when they were reviewed, I was initially happy. Then not so much. And hey, if you have changed your opinion, or you weren't a regular when these topics were discussed, feel free to chime in! Any ideas for fun new classes? How about some new insight on your class review?

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Gaming By David Nelson

The snowball griefing era has come to a close

And what a glorious era it was! Tigole has announced that Blizzard has applied a hotfix which will accomplish the following: Regular snowballs will no longer knockdown groupmates in the battlegrounds. Why? Well, with forced grouping, Blizzard doesn't want you to get stuck with a team-hating type who will constantly knock you on your butt via a well-placed snowball. Hardpacked snowballs may now only be used against the enemy. This should hopefully stop the griefing, which was apparently pretty annoying for those trying to rack up some honor. I can't think of many people being too unhappy with these changes, unless they enjoyed the thrill of annoying their teammates. Actually, there is quite the spirited discussion in the hotfix thread in the forums, as some folks will dearly miss those snowballs.

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Gaming By David Nelson

Forum Post of the Day: Westfall

This forum thread isn't particularly long, but it is actually useful, and prompts some additional thought and discussion. Imagine that! The original poster, Revelatia from Demon Soul, complains that he/she is ready for Westfall too soon after running out of quests in Elwynn. Level 9 questing in Westfall? Not much fun. To my surprise, instead of incredibly stupid responses and sarcastic "NOOB!" replies, Revelatia spurs a good conversation on Alliance-side low-level questing. Even Drysc gets in on the action. Some of the replies include... Bouncing back and forth between other starting areas. I do this a lot myself. I do all the low-level quests in Loch Modan, roll into Westfall around level 13 and then quest and grind myself all the way up to level 17 or so before I start looking for new adventure. Make sure you do ALL the quests in Elwynn. This includes the farm quests in the South and the logging camp quests in the East. You could do some of the higher-level quests in Dun Morogh. I have to admit, I tend to avoid Dun Morogh. Too much running in my opinion. It's always nice to get a forum thread that is constructive and not overrun with lame replies. And this one is useful as well! Win-win.

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Gaming By David Nelson

Breakfast Club: We love guilds

After an entire year of Breakfast topic posts, thousands of comments and some spirited conversations, we thought it would be a good idea to round up the best of the best Breakfast Topics for your perusal this week as you pretend to work and watch the clock. While there has been no shortage of interesting subjects and comments, my favorite Breakfast Topics usually revolve around the social aspects of WoW. And what brings us all together with a group of like minded folks? Guilds! Guild names are sometimes a point of pride, sometimes aim to make a statement, and are sometimes just funny. This Breakfast Topic brought the more amusing guild names of the year to the forefront. Some of my favorites from the comments include: Newb Orc Gankees, Holy Gnoman Empire and Sez Pull My Finger. And when guilds aren't going for a funny name, or a creative name, they go for the always popular generic, over-used name. Heroes of the Alliance? Knights of the Alliance? Champions of the Horde? Hmmm...they really went out of their way there, didn't they? I can't complain, as I was in Lethal Alliance for a good long while, and if that isn't generic, I don't know what is. Finally, when people aren't trying to name their guilds, they are thinking about joining one. How exactly does one go about doing that? Some of the comments from our readers really lay out some good strategies for finding the perfect home. And hey...this is a Breakfast Topic in itself! So feel free to let us know any recent good guild names, totally over-used trash or some helpful guild-hunting tips!

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

WoW Rookie: Soulstone and you

As a priest, pally or possibly a lower level shaman, you are often bestowed with the responsibility of a soulstone, giving you the ability to self-rez. And as we all learned from Uncle Ben in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. If you have never had the chance to be on the receiving end of a soulstone, it is easy to make a rookie mistake. While it is by no means complex, there are certain do's and don'ts that aren't always obvious. With that in mind, here are some things to remember if you are given a soulstone... If you are new to the soulstone business, odds are your warlock is too. If you have never played a warlock, you might assume that when a soulstone expires some kind of elaborate fireworks display appears in the warlock's UI, informing them that the group is screwed if they wipe if he doesn't conjure another stone. Without a proper mod, this is not the case. Odds are your new level 21 warlock friend doesn't have the fancy mod. So pay attention to your soulstone, and when you see it expire, or a minute or two before it expires, let your warlock know in party chat or in a /whisper. Your lock will usually appreciate it.

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Gaming By David Nelson

The art of switching your main

Switching your main is easy enough if you are in a very casual guild, or not in a guild at all. You simply say to yourself..."Hey! I want to be a rogue now." No problem! You're a rogue! How about when you are in a raiding guild, or a hardcore pvp guild, and you have been raiding with your mage and you want to start raiding with your rogue? And you want to roll on loot? Problem! Or at least there has been in every raiding guild I have been in. Why? Well, the reason most commonly given is that you spent the last few months raiding and equipping that mage, and it would be unfair to retire the mage and start over as a rogue. After all, the guild has equipped that mage, and all that loot would be wasted. I totally get that point of view, and it is a reasonable one. I mean, if you let one person change their class, what if everyone does? That would really kill progression. However, some of the folks who want to change mains see it a different way. They want to change because they are bored, and isn't playing a game supposed to be about the fun? And from another point of view, you are running the risk of losing the mage-wannabe-rogue if he gets fed up and rerolls on another server. If a player is fun to have around and not a drama queen, why not give into their wishes? Is it worth losing a good player over 4 pieces of tier 2 gear? I can really see both sides of the issue. With that said, I have never been in a raiding guild that allowed someone to switch their main under any circumstance, and in talking to some of my friends today, neither have they. Once you roll on that first piece of BWL or MC loot, you are essentially committing to your character for the rest of your tenure with the guild. And another thought, with The Burning Crusade right around the corner, wouldn't now be a perfect time to allow folks to switch mains if they so wish? By the time everyone regroups at level 70 to start endgame raiding, most, if not all, of your current gear is going to be replaced. That means, provided the guild has a good balance of classes, that the switching of the main is not hurting the guild or "wasting gear." Of course, you'd have some folks raiding with new classes, and there would be a learning curve with that, but that is to be expected. And with all the new talents, spells and encounters, there would be a learning curve anyway.So what do you guys think? Do any raiding guilds allow the switching of mains? And if they do, how is it handled? Finally, is the expansion release the perfect time to switch classes without a penalty?

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News By David Nelson

Breakfast Topic: You didn't know that?

This past April, I had been playing World of Warcraft for one and a half years. I had all the latest add-ons, knew the math behind all the stats for my characters, participated in plenty of online discussions, was an officer in a BWL guild and was basically a WoW dork to the extreme. Then on one April afternoon I was playing WoW at my friends house and went to loot a corpse. I right clicked on the corpse, the window popped up, and I clicked on the silver and cloth, then moved onto the next mob.My friend looked at me like I was a moron, and asked..."Um, don't you shift-click?". I said no. He laughed. Then he told me that when you loot a mob, if you hold down the shift key, you will auto-loot and save yourself a little time. And I have been shift-clicking ever since. And to this day I don't know how I played for 18 months with that little bit of information alluding me.What about you guys? Anything in World of Warcraft that you discovered way, way after you should have?

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Breakfast Topic: Bad Guys?

When I first started playing Warcraft games, way back in high school, I always chose the humans in multiplayer. Why? Well, I was a pretty straight laced fellow, and the humans were the good guys! The orcs were terrible, evil folks who allied themselves with the equally as nasty trolls. And ogres. Why would I want to associate myself with that? Then after Warcraft III hit, the line was completely blurred between the good and bad. The orcs didn't seem so terrible, and boy, those humans sure did screw things up. The storyline in World of Warcraft has really done nothing to change that blurred line. Which leads me to my question for you folks...is there any true villain race or faction in WoW? Sure, the Undead seem kind of creepy, and they send you off on some truly questionable quests, but they are counterbalanced by the Tauren, who I think may be the most virtuous race in the game. And for some reason, don't the humans seem a little shady? Onyxia fools them and hangs out in their capital city and, in all honesty, I think they stuck it to Van Cleef. Come the expansion...what about the Blood Elves? They surely don't seem as nice and docile as their Night Elf cousins. So what do you guys think? Which WoW race is the most evil? Which one the most noble?

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

Some weekend WoW humor

After a week of bugs and endless forum whining, I think we could all use a little funny...Today we salute you, Mr. Suddenly Has To Go Right After a Wipe Guy. Soapygirl over at WoW_Ladies has a hilarious post from her raid leader about people who bail on raids early. It is in the style of those "Real Men of Genius" beer commercials, and it is one of the funnier things I have seen in a good while. If I was creative at all I'd try one of my own, but I'm not, so I'll spare you the lameness.If you are looking to quit a guild, or WoW itself, you could do it the classy way. Or you could do it the Not Addicted way. Quickly spending all your DKP to maximize your loot to sell on Ebay? Good idea! Long, boring, self-serving WoW farewell letter in the forums? The more flame-worthy, the better! As with most Not Addicted material, there is some truth in the humor, and some realistic suggestions for ending your WoW career with bang while not annoying your entire server. Bonus! If you see a funny World of Warcraft blog post or forum entry, let us know!

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

Burning Crusade opening cinematic

I don't usually watch videogame award shows on TV, but I think I'll be making an exception for the Spike TV VGA show on December 13th. Why? Well, they are going to be showing the opening cinematic for the Burning Crusade! What could be better than that? How about a sneak preview right here and now?One of the folks who attended the award show taped the presentation with what appears to be his her camcorder. You can see the opening cinematic on the big movie-like screen, clearly hear the voice-overs and the music. Yes, it has the quality of that copy of Spiderman 2 you bought from the vendor in New York City, but it is still plenty worth watching. And we get the full treatment Wednesday night![Thanks to lilfuzz6 for throwing this on YouTube]

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PC Gaming By David Nelson

Breakfast Topic: Does 2.0.1 Indicate the Expansion Might Not Be Ready?

Well, this patch launch has not been smooth, even by the rather meager standards of the patches that have come before it. The downtime hasn't been horrible, but some promised features are not working as intended, and there have been bugs, bugs and more bugs.Being the natural pessimist that I am, it got me thinking...if this is what was "ready" from The Burning Crusade expansion, um...what kind of shape is that expansion in? Will it possibly be ready for it's January 16th debut? Now, as I understand it, this patch contains basically the backbone of the expansion, so maybe this is really the hard part, and adding The Burning Crusade will not be nearly as traumatic. But, as I have mentioned before, I know nothing about producing software. With that said, my belief that the Burning Crusade is definitely hitting on January 16th has gone from no doubt (which was probably naive in the first place) to something a bit less sure. So what do you guys think? Is this patch a harbinger of things to come? Either a messy expansion release or a possible delay? Or am I reading too much into 2.0.1?

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Gaming By David Nelson

Blizzard to offer compensation for patch issues

Blizzard recently announced that they will be giving players a 24 hour time extension on all active accounts to make up for the difficulties of the past few days. Good news!Now I know a lot of folks fall into the camp of "Well, it's fifty cents...who cares?" And really, if I think about it, I don't care about fifty cents either. You can't even buy a candy bar or a cup of coffee for that anymore. But, for me anyway, it is more the act of them admitting there was an error and trying to correct it in a manner that costs themselves money. They are basically forking over a days revenue, which is no small thing. While I'd prefer for them to keep my fifty cents and provide a patch that worked 100% of the time, it is nice they are admitting their problems. Does this make any of you guys a little less annoyed? Or does it simply not matter and you only want to see a fully functioning game?

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Gaming By David Nelson

Something that is working as intended in the new patch

The wrong stuff is dropping in raids. The LFG system is hated by many, loved by some. There are 201 problems with 2.0.1. The servers haven't really been stable. The arenas are nowhere to be found.Yes, if you want to find the negative in 2.0.1, you can find it. But thanks to a reminder from one of our fine readers, I am going to focus for a minute on something about this patch that is actually working and I am pretty darn happy about. We can now have 25 quests in our logs! I can't tell you how many times, especially in the 40-60 area, that I have a completely jammed quest log. With so many quests requiring travel, stacking the quests for efficiency became a pain. This allows more quest stacking, and stops the dropping of quests you'd like to complete, but need to abandon to free up some space. Until you hit 25 quests that is. Come to think of it, why not expand it to 30? So during this week of some disappointment and lack of quality game time, it is good to know something is working as intended. So go and fill up your quest logs![Thanks Rocklands!]

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Gaming By David Nelson

New LFG system

So...it has been a couple of days, and I still don't know if I like the new LFG system. Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate that Blizzard is giving the idea a shot, but I still have some problems with it. I think some of my problems stem from the feeling (correctly or not) that I have "lost control" of the situation. Instead of occasionally throwing up my "DM LF2M" message in a channel, I am sitting there waiting, with no response. As you'd imagine, the forum folks have some complaints. Some of the more common gripes: The system counts paladins, druids and warriors as tanks, and shamans, paladins, priests and druids as healers. Now this system would work OK if you end up with a rogue, hunter, druid, shammy and mage, provided everyone is specced for their task. But if the druid is a moonkin and the shammy is dual wielding? That could be a problem. You can't look for more than three instances at a time. If someone is a new level 60, and would happily hit Dire Maul, Scholo, Strat or LBRS, they can't let this preference be known. Not enough people are using it. I know it has only been online for a couple days, but I have run into this problem myself. Some forum folks are claiming that the system itself is too difficult for people to use, which is keeping players away, but it seems pretty straightforward to me. The level restrictions seem a tad off. For example, some players were complaining about a level 40 being able to LFG for Mara. The lack of support for things like PVP raids. When you are on an alt, you can't search for groups for your main. You can't find people looking for Scholo if you are on your level 33. I don't agree with all of these complaints, and some of them seem downright petty, but those are the most common I have seen. Now, granted, a lot of these problems could be solved by shooting someone a tell, but I am getting the impression that a lot of players were expecting the new LFG to be an all-in-one solution, which it isn't. With the way people are using LFG now, it is functioning more like a transportable meeting stone, which is fine, but I guess some people were expecting a lot more. What do you guys think? Have you made use of the channel? Any suggestions on improvements?

By David Nelson Read More