cot
Latest
Mass Murder 101: How to be a hero
It's a fact that the majority of what we do in World of Warcraft is kill things. Nearly all the supplementary activities we engage in, from shopping to crafting, are all basically to help us improve the effectiveness of our violent capabilities. Many players have noted that if WoW were at all real, then nearly every one of our characters would be considered a genocidal maniac for all the people and creatures we have killed, and yet we view ourselves as heroes.The idea is, of course, that most of the lives we take are really evil anyway, so we're actually doing the real good guys a favor. We kill tons of demons, ghosts, zombies, dragonkin, giants, and rabid beasts -- even most of the humanoids we kill are bandits or wicked cultists of one sort or another. This way we do lots of killing, but still feel as though we are heroes.There are some situations in the game, however, that turn things around for us, in which our character is not the hero. While there are some higher-level instances such as the Black Morass, or the new Caverns of Time: Stratholme, in which one could argue either way whether what we're doing is good or evil, most of situations in which you are clearly the bad guy, as far as I am aware, have to do with the undead, and to a lesser extent the blood elves as well. Of course, you can argue that in general, undead are just misunderstood, and the blood elves are just tragically misled, but as in the case of quests in Hillsbrad that ask you to go slaughter human farmers, or help develop a new plague, there's really no denying that your character is doing something "morally wrong."
Around Azeroth: Just inside the Caverns of Time
An elaborate sand clock, a brilliantly colored sky (is that lightning?), dragon overhead... yep, this couldn't be anywhere but the Caverns of Time! Thorion of Hydraxis sends in this iconic shot taken of the sand clock just inside the Caverns of Time in Tanaris -- an excellent addition to the collection of anyone playing the "gotta catch 'em all" game with our Azeroth screenshots.Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
Slaughtering? No, it's just burning down houses (with people inside?)
When I first heard about the new Caverns of Time instance coming up in Wrath of the Lich King, where we go about helping the pre-lich king Arthas as he tries to "purify" the city of Stratholme, I heard other people jumping for joy, while I was feeling a bit of dread. When I played through that stage of Warcraft III, I remember that Arthas was already going down the proverbial moral hill, being ruthlessly indiscriminate as to whether the citizens had actually become undead or not. He didn't have much interest in helping them -- even if help was impossible, he didn't have any sympathy or hesitation in his slaughter.I understood that part in the game to show how he was already beginning to fall even before he went to Northrend and picked up Frostmourne. I was pressing the buttons that killed those digital Stratholmians, but I also knew that I was just advancing the plot of a story, even if I didn't approve of the action. If the same scene appears in the Caverns of Time however, then this is not, in my mind, merely advancing the plot. This is my character taking part in activities that I myself would never condone. Slaughtering almost-but-not-yet-undead families feels a little too close to home to me. "They're doomed anyway so might as well slash them to ribbons?" That inhuman attitude is sometimes used in real life to do horrible things, and it's quite chilling.Well, Blizzard CM Bornakk would disagree with me: "Slaughtering is a strong word," he says, "maybe it would be better to say that you are aiding the pround Prince Arthas in Straholme [sic] as he uses his divine Paladin powers to purify the streets of vile evil undead creatures ... and burns down houses." Well, I'm glad not to be hacking defenseless mothers, fathers and children apart myself, but burning down their homes is a serious thing, particularly if the houses to be burned are supposed to have these not-yet-undead families inside of them. For Arthas to do that in the story of his corruption is one thing, but for my character to help him is totally different.Now, admittedly you could argue that one of the existing CoT instances has us helping Medivh open a portal for orcs to come and rampage lots and lots of people, and yes technically that's an evil thing to do. But there's a big step between opening fantasy portals and burning down houses that are supposed to have families inside them. Does anyone else see a problem here? [Also, as a side note, the thread in which Bornakk tells us that slaughtering is a strong word actually begins with a really funny idea for another CoT instance, "Back to the Future," which is worth checking out.]
Tigole speaks in Leipzig
The Leipzig Games Convention in Germany kicked off today, and of course Blizzard is there in force. Games mag buffed.de got a good interview in with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan, and MMO-Champion was good enough to get an English translation up in short order. As you might expect, topics covered were WotLK-centric. Here are some of my favorite tidbits: There will be a new "Old Stratholme" instance in the Caverns of Time, which will be a level 80 5-man: Warcraft 3 players however know Stratholme from a singleplayer mission, in which Arthas travels to the city and sets all buildings on fire, kills the citizens and fights Mal'Ganis. In Wrath of the Lich King you fight at Prince Arthas' side, by travelling through the Caverns of Time. We are giving you the opportunity of meeting Arthas at a time at which he was not a great villain yet. You are "cleaning" Stratholme and igniting buildings! Apparently you won't need level 80 after all to get a Death Knight, as this would just create an even more intense rush to 80, and people wouldn't be properly enjoying the content. Instead the required level might be 55–60. Additionally, Tigole said upon reaching the required level, "Then you create your Death Knight and face some challenges. If you have mastered them, you will get your Death Knight." This implies to me that the unlocking quests will not be done on your main, but on your new DK, and they need to be completed in order to take the new character any farther. Future hero classes could be Demon Hunter, Arch Mage, and Blademaster. However, they seem to be sticking with the "one hero class in WotLK, maybe more later" mentality. I'm especially pleased about 80 not being the required level for DKs; that opens the possibility of making your DK in order to experience the WotLK content. On the other hand, that might not be such a hot idea, since you might see a dearth of other classes in the WotLK instance groups. Head over to MMO-Champion for the full translation. If you speak German, the original is at buffed.de.
Blue Notes: Seduction, Pet Health, and Old Hillsbrad
Crowd control is an important part of the BC instances, especially heroics, more so than it was in the old world. Polymorph, sap, banish, and shackle all play their part, but up till now Seduce has not been very usable in Heroic-mode instances. Set for a change, this is. Thus spake Tigole:In an upcoming content patch (2.1.0) Warlocks will be able to use their succubus to seduce many humanoid creatures which are currently immune to charm effects.To clarify, the creatures do too much damage to allow them to be charmed (whether it be by a priest or by an engineer). Seducing them does not threaten the balance of the dungeon. This will mostly effect heroics. And it only makes things able to be seduced -- it doesn't make anything immune to mind control that was previously charmable. It's not a nerf for priests. It's a bonus for Warlocks.That makes some sense of why these mobs were no-seduce, too. And, as a healer, if there's one thing I love more than mana, it's crowd control.
