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Cooking for the holidays
Artwair complains over on the forums that there is cooking required for the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement (that some of you have done -- grats! -- and others of you are deciding to do in the next year), saying that something as significant as leveling up Cooking all the way shouldn't be required for what is basically an optional achievement. But Kisirani replies with as good an answer as you'll find: the achievement is designed to send you all over the world, including to some professions and abilities that you wouldn't be leveling otherwise. Especially because the achievement is optional, it's not out-of-place to ask for some cooking to happen. And I'll add that cooking is worth leveling anyway -- not only does it get you some nice buffs, let you use up some of the trash collecting in you bags, and hook up your guild or raid with some excellent items, but it's pretty easy to do, especially if you do it with fishing (which is also very useful by itself).While she's at it, Kisirani also provides a nice tease at Pilgrim's Bounty, which isn't a part of the big meta-achievement anyway, but will have some extra recipes to find and cook, as well as a new Thanksgiving-style celebration (two words: "Turkey shooter"). Can't wait to see it.
Video: Cooler Master's Storm Sentinel 5,000 DPI gaming mouse with OLED display
Cooler Master's first gaming mouse prototype looks to be well on the way to epic. The 8-button mouse for right-handers features seven-color lighting effects from the top- and front-sides, an OLED display where you can independently dial-in your preferred X-and Y-axis DPI (5,000 max), a twin-laser sensor, and up to five user-programmable profiles. The CM Storm Sentinel Advanced gaming mouse will be on display at Computex next week before making its way to retail later this year. Check the video overview after the break.
Ulduar vehicles will scale with gear
Here's a little consolation to those of you, like Eliah, concerned about the Ulduar vehicle fights: Unlike some of the other vehicle fights in the game already, Daelo says on the forums that the vehicles in the next raid will actually scale with gear. He says someone in blues will have a much harder time in the vehicles than someone kitted out in Naxx gear.Personally, I've only done Oculus, but I do agree with Eliah that putting us in vehicles takes away a lot of the achievement we've gained by leveling and questing -- it's not fun to fail on a boss just because you're trying to deal with a whole new set of abilities you've had no control over until you jumped in the driver's seat. But the fact that the Ulduar vehicles will scale helps a little bit -- players were concerned that every time you went in there, it'd be the same fight, but with new gear that should change. And obviously Blizzard has heard the concerns about the Oculus, so you'd have to hope they wouldn't make the same mistake twice.Elsewhere on the forums, Zarhym promises, comically, that we'll all enjoy this (and that we'll forget to post how much we enjoy it on the forums afterwards). He says that the fight is different from anything else we've done in the World of Warcraft, and that when all is said and blown up, it'll be an epic encounter. We'll see.Need more news about Ulduar? We've got updates, previews, speculation, and everything else you need to know about the next big raid coming in patch 3.1. If the Titans are hiding it up there, we'll tell you about it here.
Larger default backpack "very possible" in the future
Just about everyone playing World of Warcraft will be happy to hear this news: Eyonix says that it's 'very possible' that we'll be able to get our hands on a bigger backpack at some point in the future. Though the cynic in me says that 'very possible it'll happen eventually' is just a more positive way of saying 'we have no plans for that at this time,' I'll force myself to stay optimistic on this one.I've sort of grown out of whining about the little itty bitty default backpack simply because it's been there forever, but I'll be absolutely stoked if they ever let it scale or let you replace it with a bigger bag. Eyonix says that we should be proud of our trusty 16 slot, and I suppose that's sort of true. It's been with me through Molten Core and Ahn'Qiraj, through Naxxramas and the Black Temple and all of that jazz, but to be honest? It's getting kind of gross. It has developed a stench. I think it's been coated in slime and ichor a few too many times. If I could finally toss it out, that would be just great.
Breakfast Topic: Will work for Blizz
I've often thought I'd do just about anything to work at Blizzard. I mean, with offices that look like this, working on one of your favorite games - who wouldn't? But then I think about my many years spent in the trenches as both rep and management at various IT/Internet jobs, and I'm no longer sure that I'd do anything to work there. You see, the one group I don't envy are those on the front lines of customer service. Much like the story from Thursday in which we learned about a rep having to deal with a kid and his suicide threat when he ostensibly didn't get what he wanted, CSRs, GMs and CMs deal with very frustrating situations every day. But there again, it is Blizzard, and I'd be lying if I said most people I know wouldn't give their [insert requisite body part] to work there, just to experience the culture and be part of the company that makes some truly awesome games. The sheer coolness of the company and a lot of their outward facing policies seems like being part of that team would more than make up for any abuse you might get as a trade-off. How about you? Would you be willing to step onto the front lines, taking every nasty, mean comment you're dealt with a smile - or carefully constructed snark? Would you be willing to work at Blizzard on the front lines? Or is that a bit too much of a figurative bulls-eye than you'd want painted on yourself?
WoW Insider's new writer comes in from the Blizzard
Our big sister site WoW Insider has always been hella fun to read, but this week they got some serious new assistance in the form of an ex-Blizzard Community Manager. Michael "Belfaire" Sacco (his icon was a Talbuk) has moved on from World of Warcraft CMing, and is now offering up his knowledge and expertise to our favorite WoW-focused website.He kicks off his time with the team over there by highlighting a great new change coming to World of Warcraft mounts. After Patch 3.0.8 hits the live servers, there will no longer be any racial restrictions for mounts on either the Alliance or Horde factions. That is to say, the Tauren will be able to ride any Horde-faction mount they want, and even the biggest Human will enjoy the experience of riding a Gnomish Mechano-strider. Check out the full PTR 3.0.8 Patch notes over on WoW Insider, and stay tuned over there for more of Mr. Sacco's insights!
Rumor: Warhammer Online to open official forums in 2009
Somewhere, somehow, William Shatner and Roseanne Barr are singing a duet. That appears to be the implication of a highly unexpected rumor reported on the Warhammer Alliance forum. Apparently, Warhammer Online will soon be launching company-sanctioned official forums. Back in March of this year, Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs went on a ranting rampage about the very concept of official forums. In that whole discussion, he at one point stated he'd rather hear the two above celebrities slam out a duet together than bear the thought of official forums. His statements came during a period were other companies were making similar announcements, and some companies with official forums were even thinking of shutting theirs down. So this (at this point) rumor as offered by Warhammer Alliance is something of a surprise. Forum admin Garthilk states this comes from "unofficial people in and out of Mythic, as well as inside EA, all tell[ing us] the same thing." He goes on to say that, if true, this will be a boon for the unofficial fan community. It will take pressure off of their taxed volunteer resources and allow them to better serve the community. We'll watch for an official response from Mythic, as well as further developments on this story.[Via Broken Toys]
Mage class not being removed at this time
In a startling announcement, European CM Vaneras has confirmed that Blizzard has no plans to remove the Mage class from the game. "Current plans," the CM later clarified. "Please remember that the expansion is still in the middle of extensive beta testing, and many aspects of the game are being balanced. If we find that a crappy talent or class is not working, we will remove it."The statement was met with mixed reactions among the playerbase, as many have agitated for an existing class to be cannibalized and its sweet innards redistributed in order to preserve raid balance in Wrath of the Lich King. Other, less pointless ranged DPS classes saw much debate concerning the issue. While Hunters could regrettably not be reached for comment as it was dinnertime and Mom was calling, the Warlock community, found at their collective den of iniquity, replied, "Nerfing us is not the answer. Buff other classes." When asked about Mages, they thought for a moment and said, "Classes worth buffing."WoW Insider has thus far been unable to confirm with a developer that Mages will indeed remain in the game through patch 3.02. Reached at his office late Tuesday afternoon, Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan responded, "The what class?"Disclaimer: the author of this post may possibly be bored and prone to making things up about expansion hysteria.
Authenticator failure revisited, Blizzard responds
We created a lot of waves with this post about Blizzard's Authenticator key allegedly failing -- as you know if you've been listening to the podcast, lots of people have emailed us with their own input on the situation, alternately thanking us for making it known that the Authenticator wasn't 100% secure, and lambasting us for being "ignorant" about how Blizzard's security token works. At the base of the story, there are two things we know are true: that someone was using the Authenticator on their account, and then was subsequently hacked. For that reason, we've stood by the "Authenticator fails" story -- while having an Authenticator on your account is a helpful line of defense, it, like all other computer security measures, isn't a 100% guarantee against getting hacked.Most people agree on that. Where opinions differ are in how the account was hacked -- originally, we and a few other sources speculated that the Authenticator had been somehow removed from the account in question. But now Belfaire has responded (we believe to the incident in question, though a link to our story was removed from the original post), and says that as far as he can tell, the Authenticator was not removed from the account. In fact, after the password was changed back, the Authenticator's serial key was asked for and given, so the Authenticator remained attached to the account the whole time.Of course, that just leaves the most important question: how did the account get hacked? We've heard all kinds of various insights as to how the Authenticator works (it only lasts for 60 seconds, supposedly each key can only be used once, so there's no way a keylogger could nab the Authenticator code and reuse it), but the fact remains that the person we're talking about was using the key, and still got hacked. One hack out of all the Authenticators sold so far is a terrific record, and could prove that, statistically, an Authenticator is good as 100% security. But the fact remains that this person got hacked while using the key (however it was done), and if security can be broken once, it will be broken again.
EQII gets a new Community Manager
Just a bit over a month ago, SOE introduced EverQuest II fans to a new Community Manager by the name of Amnerys, and this week another CM will join the team. Christie Renzetti (or "Kiara"), formerly of Ten Ton Hammer and Allakhazam, will now be looking after the EQII community along with Amnerys, Gnobrin and Grimwell.Having started playing EverQuest in 1999, and EQII since its beta, Kiara is certainly qualified to be representing the interests of Norrathians. She has also been very active on the community forums, something which she enjoys and is now lucky enough to be paid for. You can find out more about Kiara and her love of Dark Elves, and add your own personal greeting, at her welcome thread on the official forums.
Neth lays down answers on Wrath release, leaks
Nethaera was in an answering mood this weekend -- she opened up a few cans on all kinds of player questions, and clarified a few answers we weren't so thrilled with before. The biggest question, of course, was the release date for Wrath, and rather than just giving the usual "soon" answer, Neth actually made sure to say that Blizzard has definitely not finished the game yet.She also gave a much better answer about why Blizzard is opposed to the leaking of talent data from the game. Before, all we heard was that leaking the data was "extremely offensive and inappropriate" (that comment's been deleted from the forums, actually). And this time around, Neth is much more reasonable -- the reason they don't want data leaked is because they want players to theorycraft from gameplay, not from talent data. Of course, that still doesn't mean hearing about the data earlier is a bad thing, for the players or devs, but she has a point -- reading talent data isn't the same as playing the class.Other than that, the questions aren't too great. People ask if Blizzard is going to do anything original, and of course they are -- Blizzard's great ideas don't come out any sooner than "when they're ready," but when they do, they're almost always groundbreaking and fun. It's completely understandable that Wrath is taking their focus, and while yes, the waiting is always the hardest part, Blizzard has never shown us that the wait for their games is anything less than worth it.
Forum post of the day: Ride your pony
I had to look twice at the 2.4.3 patch notes before I could bring myself to believe that the developers are planning on reducing the level requirement for ponying up. It makes a lot of sense, as we ramp up toward Wrath of the Lich King, it will progressively longer to reach the endgame, especially for new characters and particularly new players. The change makes sense to me, and I'm looking forward to Desolace being a less crummy place to level alts. No, you won't get a refund on previously purchased mounts, but nobody got refunds when the cost of the level 60 riding skill decreased either. The community seems to be having primarily positive reactions to the news that basic mounts will be purchasable by characters at level 30. Ithnnin of Scarlet Crusade (posting on a level 40) feels that this change is an added insult to the game. He feels that Blizzard has spent too much energy catering to a "small new audience." He feels that the changes to make leveling easier have a negative effect on the accomplishments of those who when through the process when it was more difficult.
Even the GMs are no strangers to love
I've had my fun with rick rolling before. But Rastley and GM Khadarish took it to a new level when Rastley managed to rick roll a GM, all while getting a few gold spammers taken care of. The original screenshot of this was posted on the Customer Service forums, with various CMs and GMs sounding in. Belfaire even comes on to authenticate the conversation.I really enjoy it when the Blizzard staff interacts with the fan base like this. We've even been lucky enough to get whisked away for some special face time. I think it shows that behind the corporate face they have to put on, they're really just people too – and like a joke now and then. I wouldn't recommend doing this however, since you might catch a GM that doesn't think it's funny – but since it worked in this case, it's golden.Check out after the break for the full screenshots. Pretty funny stuff.
Nethaera's smack down
Nehthaera today wanted to let a lot of the naysayers out there know a thing or two about their April Fool's jokes and the issues with the servers. She tells us the obvious, more or less: the people who do the April Fool's work are completely separate from the people that do the server and development work.So these elaborate and well done jokes have exactly zero impact on the servers. They don't have anything to do with maintenance, with patch 2.4, or with Wrath of the Lich King (well, unless you actually believe there'll be a bard class). This means they could have done nothing for April Fool's, and things still would have been as difficult as they were yesterday.I want to give Nethaera two thumbs up for her post. I really enjoy it lately when GMs and CMs lay the smack down about issues like this, especially to whiney forum posters.
How many 70s does Eyonix have?
Surprisingly, US CM Eyonix has dropped in on a thread titled "How many 70s do you have?" I'm surprised because I wouldn't think it would necessarily be in a CM's best interest for people to know what classes they play, as a common perception in the community is that if you don't have a level 70 <insert class here> you obviously know nothing about the class and should stop talking. Anyway, here's the four classes that the whelpling has gotten to the level cap (in the order he put them in): Shaman Priest Druid Paladin
Patch 2.4 known issues
More 2.4 news for all of you to consume.Our friendly master of the PTR forums, Hortus, has posted a list of known issues on the PTR. I'm sure the list will grow longer, but in brief here are some major points: Watch out for corruption of your World of Warcraft files if you use a Mac! This is a major issue for some people. Indeed yours truly would have been up the creek if I used my Mac's firewall feature (I've got a Linux firewall instead). All you Mac users: please, be careful! When you rename a Hunter pet you get disconnected. The Hunter ability Auto Shot can get locked out if you use an instant ability after Steady Shot. Looting Bind on Pickup items isn't working right. So watch out if you're starting to raid. Shattrath wasn't copied over correctly. Many NPCs (besides those listed in the blue post) are missing. Blues also have posted an update of sorts on the character copy queues. They've said we're all going to have to wait a couple days to get our characters copied over if they're not already. At least some news is better than no news.WoW Insider is your source for all the patch 2.4 news! Check back with us often for the latest.
The Daily Grind: To forum, or not to forum?
It seems like no matter where you go on this World Wild Web, you can't help but stumble across all manner of trolls. Out of game, you can hear the echoes of "qq moar nub" as they rampage around. Indeed, this is why we suspect some games are loath to spend man-hours creating and manning forums, such as Tabula Rasa's stance on them. As routinely surfing forums on the lookout for news is part of our job, we can't help but notice that some companies do a fantastic job of keeping their forums under control, such as the CoX team. Other forums such as the WoW official forums are an absolute epidemic of trolls that seem to be far more pronounced than just about anywhere else. Now while we would definitely agree that the WoW forums undoubtedly suffer from more trolls due to sheer population density in comparison to other titles, we can't help but wonder... What would it be like if game companies opted to move all official forums to player-run and maintained setups and just popped in like Tabula Rasa has? Would it make more sense to do so and let the communities police themselves? Some of the player-run forums we read, such as different EQ, EQ2, and even WoW resources, seem to do a very good job of policing themselves and keeping the trolls to a minimum. There also isn't backlash into the games overall as they're completely separate. If you do something stupid on a player-run forum, you simply get banned more often than not. The trolls can't argue that they're a paying subscriber and deserve special treatment. (Not that it tends to hold a lot of weight on the WoW forums when you throw that around after a CM has gotten to you.) There are also generally lots of folks who will volunteer time just from the sheer love of the game, getting nothing in return save for a troll-free environment in which to talk about their favorite games. So this morning we ask you. Is it better to let the players run the forums, or the game companies? Do you think that player-run forums tend to be, on the whole, better than official forums, or do you really think it depends on the title involved? Are there any benefits you see with one over the other, or does it all perhaps just come down to a question of official forums needing more staff to deal with the trolls in their communities?
Ghost Wolf taming is here to stay
If you listened to our podcast on Saturday (which was heard on the new 24-hour WoW Radio), you heard us chatting about taming the Ghost Wolf, a neat little trick that Hunters (like our own Matthew Rossi's wife) have discovered to let them tame a very rare, very special pet. I personally made my opinion known on the show: that this was a great little reward for level 70 players willing to put the time and effort in to get the pet, and that Blizzard should definitely leave this as is, intended or not.And now, the great Mania points us to this forum post by EU Blue Issuntril, who confirms that even though the taming wasn't actually intended, Blizzard doesn't have plans to address the issue-- Ghost Wolves are here to stay.Great news for Hunters willing to go the extra mile for a cool pet (and for Hunters who have already done so-- would definitely be lame to log in after all of that work and find your spectral pet missing). Kudos to Blizz for letting the Ghost Wolves run free.
L2p Paladin with Eyonix
Earlier today, Eyonix created a rather unique thread on the official WoW Paladin forum. He made it clear that he wasn't asking for feedback to give to the developers on the class, but rather that the questions would come from him as a player of the game. Apparently he made a Paladin alt a couple of weeks ago and is seeking advice regarding the best leveling strategy.Threads like this pop up in the class forums quite commonly. When faced with the grind from level one to seventy, players often turn to the more experienced members of their class for advice on talent builds and leveling strategies. Of course, those players are not also community managers, posting with the hallowed blue text.As you can imagine, the thread is already quite long and only promises to grow longer since Eyonix has mentioned that he'll be keeping it updated through the week with new questions. It's interesting to see a Blizzard employee posting his talent spec and asking typical player questions and there is actually a lot of good advice on playing the class. Head on over to the Paladin forum to check out the thread yourself and L2p Paladin along with Eyonix.
LotRO in-game help demands extra login credentials
Reports are coming in on the award-winning Lord of the Rings Online's official forums that players are being prompted to enter their username and password when trying to use the in-game help facility. This thread contains posts from some people worried about security issues, some saying that in-game help has always asked you to login, and others disagreeing with them.It is all cleared up, however, on the second page, when Turbine's Community Manager makes a post confirming that it should not be happening. The quote from CM Patience: "it's definitely borked, and we'll get it fixed as quickly as possible". So if you're worried about entering your login details twice, hopefully there will be a fix going live soon. Just add the name of that annoying gold spammer to your list, and start a voodoo ritual fire the whole thing off when the issue is resolved.
