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WoW Rookie: What is a patch?
Here at WoW Insider, we've had extensive coverage of changes and updates that are being tested for the release of patch 2.4. It occurred to me that many of our newer players may not know what patching is all about. Blizzard regularly releases updates to World of Warcraft to add new content, fix problems, and otherwise improve the game. The game has evolved considerably throughout since its launch over 3 years ago. Many quests, instances, battlegrounds, events, items, and tools have been added through various patches. Clicking through the historical patch notes can be a source of nostalgia for many players.
NY Times examines changes in the gamer market
The New York Times has taken a look at the NPD's list of top ten selling games in 2007, which shows mass-market games mixed in with games designed for the "young-male audience." As the industry matures and becomes more popular, the "hard-core gamers" and "old-school critics" are becoming just one small part of a very large $18 billion pie.The NY Times makes its case by observing the absence of critically hailed single-player experiences (like BioShock or Mass Effect) from the top ten, now filled with accessible multiplayer games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. In fact, nine out of the top ten games actually have a multiplayer component (Assassin's Creed is the black sheep). The NYT concludes that people want "human contact in their entertainment" and gaming's mass acceptance comes from being able to have others join in the fun.A reasonable conclusion, albeit one that oversimplifies matters. While the social elements of most of these games certainly form part of the appeal, the top-selling games also offered compelling solo components. Why choose between single and social gaming when you can have both?[Thanks, Farseer]
The more things change, the more they stay the same
Geldon Yetichsky, of the blog Digitally Staving off Boredom, wrote an interesting piece about why he canceled his City of Heroes account. He contends that CoH is lacking one important thing: Nothing really changes. Aside from a few pieces of dynamic content like Recluse's Victory, Safeguard Missions, and the Rikti invasions, nothing ever permanently changes the game world.CoH is (almost 4 years later) still one of my favorite games, and the MMO that brought me around to actually liking the genre. As much as I hate to admit it... he has a point. No matter how many times you lay the smack down on the bad guys, or rescue a damsel in distress... none of it has a lasting impact. The bad guys continually respawn and the same seemingly hapless citizens always need to be rescued.What he wants to see is a game world so full of life that it actually disrupts and inconveniences players. A game world that is more like real life, where actions have real consequences and where change is an everyday occurrence. As Geldon says: change and consequence may be inconvenient, but without, there can be no real meaning of player's actions in a virtual world. I couldn't agree more. He offers EVE Online and 10Six as exceptions, but there is another.Tabula Rasa has ongoing, contested battlefield control points, and the Bane unceasingly fight to take control of them. These dynamic, world-altering areas are at times completely inaccessible. They're important because they not only house teleporters, hospitals, supply depots, but also mission NPCs. Additionally, you can earn tokens for defending and taking back these CPs. Participating in these skirmishes really gets the blood pumping and what you do has a direct impact on the game world. All in all... it's something we need to see more of within the genre.
Breakfast Topic: Defecting from the Horde
I've often heard of Alliance players who get fed up with their fellow teammates for whatever reason, and decide to defect to the Horde. Perhaps they say the Alliance complains too much or seems too crowded, or even seems "less mature" somehow. But we've talked about that quite a lot already, and Horde players often say they have just as many maturity problems as Alliance has.Yet I was still surprised to discover that one of my relatively new friends had actually defected from the Horde to the Alliance. As a roleplayer, apparently he felt that the Horde roleplayers kept on rehashing the same roleplay material, about death, trollish accents, and "strength and honor." I admit that my experience with my Horde hasn't been so in-depth, but so far I'm thoroughly enjoying my Horde characters, and I haven't had the same problem at all. In fact, it's my (limited) experience that Horde tend to complain least about their faction, in the same way that warlocks complain least about their class, though not at all with the same consistency. Have you or someone you've known ever left the Horde and made new Alliance main characters? If so, why?
The more things change...
Most of us have heard by now that the next expansion will bring the ability to change your appearance somewhat, and some people out there may be thinking "What was I thinking when I created my character, Uglybub? Finally, with Wrath of the Lich King, I will at last be able to get rid of this electrfied hair and frowny face! Then I'll change his name to PrettySmoochCakeLove too!" As much as we might love to dream, it's not yet clear how much of your character's appearance you'll be able to change. Should Blizzard enable you to change everything about your character's appearance any time you might wish to?According to Blizzard's current thinking, you will be able to go to the local barbershop and have your hairstyle changed -- probably facial hair and earrings too. You will be able to go to the local dance studio -- yes that's right, a Dance Studio in the World of Warcraft -- and learn new dances. But the devs believe that plastic surgeons just haven't caught on in Azeroth or Outland yet. "Plastic surgeons?" You cry out, "Who said anything about plastic surgeons? I just want to be able to change my facial expression! What's the big deal?" And yes, of course you are right, but your facial expression is tied to eyecolor, nose shape, and everything else about your face. Those things shouldn't be changeable ... or should they?Is Blizzard right or wrong on this issue? Now that we've got name changes and we're getting hairstyle changes, it's got me wondering, where do you draw the line? Redoing your hair, or turning that frown upside down is one thing, but going from dark skin and brown eyes to pale skin and blue eyes (with lots of wrinkles) makes your character look like someone else altogether. Is infinite customizability something we really want? Does a certain degree of consistency offer any other advantages?
Hacking a CoinStar machine to bypass transaction fees
We've seen a number of somewhat innocent (and equally wily) hacks that save the little man a dime or two, but never quite so literally as this one. CoinStar machines -- best known for charging a whopping nine percent or so for the convenience of counting our coins for us -- have apparently been outsmarted, making the green machine convert your coins to dollars gratis (without going through the process of getting a gift card). Hit the read link to find out more.[Thanks, Joe]Update: Upon reflection, we probably shouldn't go into the gory details of how its done -- but it's nothing so mind-blowing (except for its potential illegality -- you wouldn't tamper with an ATM, would you? This ain't much different.). Or you can, you know, do the right thing and just take an Amazon gift cert and not have to live a look-over-your-shoulder kind of lifestyle.
PTR Notes: Rogue's Blind change changed back
From the "some-of-the-people-happy-all-of-the-time file," you may have noticed a fun little change under the Rogue notes in patch 2.2: "Blind duration reduced to 8 seconds, cooldown reduced to 1 minute, Blinding Powder is no longer required to use." Blind with only a minute cooldown? With no reagent cost? Sounds good to my PvP Undead Rogue.But most people didn't like the sound of spending all that time disoriented, so this weekend, the forums opened up with the QQ rain. Even some Rogues agreed that they didn't use Blind that often, and that the reagent costs didn't bother them that much (I know I always have tons of it from pickpocketing-- it's the Flash Powder that I never have enough of). And yet when Neth announced that the change that was in the patch notes hadn't actually been implemented on the PTR (here are the new official patch notes, sans Blind changes), the whole situation flipped-- Rogues decided that they did want the Blind change, and other classes cheered that a change they weren't sure would affect them negatively had ever existed in the first place.Should Blind be changed? I tend to agree with most people's opinions-- it works right now, so why bother with it? But all the outrage and the flip-flopping on the PTR (a place that is supposed to be full of experimentation) just brings up the point I made on the last PTR: have a little patience, people. The PTRs are a place to test ideas on a massive scale, and since this change never actually appeared on the PTRs, all the commentary on it actually came from people who'd never actually played with it in the first place.
Breakfast Topic: Would you change your race?
The other night we finished the Path of Conquest quest chain in Shadowmoon, and I found myself running around blasting Colossi as a Blood Elf. It was fascinating to see what I would look like if I had rerolled my character, something I consider on and off just for fun. Often times we get a chance to respec our talents. What if we could respec our race? If there was a free chance to reselect your character's race, would you choose differently? I know despite the faction shift the Blood Elf race is looking very tempting after playing a human for so long.
When it comes to nerfs, maybe change is good
Here's a fascinating post over on Terra Nova. Joshua Fairfield has been playing a lot of Arena PvP, and he suspects something very interesting: that the developers might not be trying for equilibrium in PvP at all. They may actually be trying for imbalance.Our assumption, he says, is that with every nerf and/or buff, the developers are trying to reach a nirvana of balance-- a game where every class has an equal chance to win when all of their abilities are used correctly. Keep in mind that the "chance to win" could only involve a percentage of the time-- Blizzard has already stated that they're working for a "rock, paper, scissors" solution, where rogues beat casters but warriors beat rogues, and so on. But we've assumed that the main goal is a balance, where as long as every class is played well, every class will win a certain percentage of the time.But Fairfield suggests the opposite-- that "games that seek permanent engagement by communities," i.e. MMORPGs like WoW, are actually working against equilibrium, and fighting to keep things constantly interesting. Mages are winning because of Pyroblast's high damage? Nerf it to make Mages use other spells. Warriors are being kited around? Give them a way out of it, so other classes have to learn new strategies.That's a wacky way of looking at game design, but it works for games like WoW because we're already expecting the rules to constantly change. Chess has an established balance-- rook moves a certain way, queen moves another way, and every game they will always move those ways. But WoW is dependent on the rules changing every patch-- if players maxed out their characters and learned all possible strategies, they'd quit paying the monthly fee. So in that strange sense, Blizzard should be happy when lots of players cry foul over a nerf-- the more players they affect with a change, the more they can keep interested. "Any change disrupts the current equilibrium," and forces players to figure out new ways to win.
Darkness renamed Midnight [update 1]
Accordingly to all reputable sources, the game-formerly-known-as-Darkness is, at the very least, still a year off from release. The survival-horror project, one of Crossbeam Studio's trifecta of titles (Orb, Thorn, and Darkness), had to be renamed due to copyright conflicts with The Darkness, a title by 2k Games. Thus, Crossbeam Studios has announced an official name change of Darkness to Midnight. Still awesome. Name changes are fine and dandy, but someone needs to let Sega know that Wildfire is still way cooler than Secret Rings.[Update 1: Silly us ... we confused Sadness with Darkness. Fixed.]
My goodness, that's pretty
We've seen some Wiimote mods before, but certainly none were quite as aesthetically pleasing as this. Not only has the modder-in-question placed a bright LED behind the transparent A button, but he actually changes the color of both the button and the lower LED based on player position. This mod is apparently quite difficult to pull off, but if you've any electrical savvy in your body, we all think you owe it to your Wiimote to at least take a look at how it's done.It's so pretty.[via 4cr]
PSA: How to change your Wii-mote volume
If you don't believe in the use of instruction manuals -- and lord knows we don't -- than you too may have been confused on how to change the volume on your Wii-mote. Yes, it actually can be lowered to avoid that tinny noise that is driving gamers mad ... especially during Zelda.To change the volume, hit the home button on your Wii-mote and then select the controller you are using from the lower-third of the screen. Voila! A volume screen is clearly displayed so you can adjust that shrieking banshee noise to your heart's content.
French 'DRM interoperability' law reverses stance, no longer forces Apple to open iTMS
Portions of France's copyright law that initially were going to force Apple to open the iTMS + iPod economy for interoperability have now been ruled as unconstitutional. In fact, these provisions have taken almost a complete 180, and they now provide for fining anyone who is caught reverse-engineering DRM in the name of interoperability. Going even further, small fines of 150 euros ($191) for uploading music and 38 euros ($48.50) for downloading it have been replace by steep criminal charges and multiple years of prison time, as well as fines of 500,000 euros ($638,200) - at least that's better than the 'up to $150,000/song' that we have here in the U.S.Whether you consider this a win or a loss for the digital music industry, let's try to keep any resulting discussion civilized boys and girls.[via CNET]
Bored with Mail.app's icon? Roll your own
Are you getting tired of other good icons? Hawk Wings, obsessed with all things Mail.app, has tracked down a Photoshop template for creating your own Mail.app icon. Courtesy of John Godfrey, this Photoshop template contains instructions for inserting your own images into a Mail.app icon, and Tim Gaden also recommends rotating your inserted image to 11.2 degrees counter-clockwise, as well as using an 85 x 90 size to get just the right fit.But, "how do I turn an image into a Mail.app icon?" you ask. Hawk Wings has a solution for that step too: img2icns is a Universal Binary freeware app that can convert JPEGs, PNGs, TIFs and GIFs to the ICNS format, ripe for using a previous (and simple) TUAW Tip for replacing Mail.app's icon with your much more exciting new creation.
No price change coming soon, says Microsoft
Not that the current prices are that bad, but seeing the cost of the 360 drop even more could potentially solidify the rest of the market for Microsoft come November.That's what a lot of people have been saying, at least. But Chris Lewis from Microsoft has said that such a drop won't take place. "We have no plans to make any price adjustment. ... we have a great value proposition." No argument there. Cheap gamers may have been holding out for a price cut, but anyone who really wanted a 360 would have already invested by now. If you're one of those thrifty people though, you may as well go ahead and bite the bullet because it doesn't look like Microsoft will be offering the console for any cheaper than it already is any time soon.
