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Blood Sport: Is WoW turning into a PvP game?
V'Ming - who thinks that gnome warlocks are travesties of nature and need to be KOSed - shares thoughts and ideas on becoming deadlier at the Arenas. He also dabbles in the dark arts in Blood Pact.Looking at some of the upcoming class changes in patch 2.4, I can't help but feel that many of them are driven by PvP - particularly Arena - issues. Blizzard is undoubtedly trying to level the playing field for the classes before the 3v3 Arena Tournament, tentatively set to begin in April. That's a very short time to iron out problems and further imbalances that the patch will bring.A design philosophy that Blizzard has insisted on from the beginning is that each class should play similarly in both PvP and PvP. Tom Chilton (Lead Designer, or Kalgan) said at last year's Blizzcon that the game "shouldn't have significantly different rules for spells in PvP vs PvE.""Slower" water in Arenas is the latest change that depart from this philosophy, in addition to PvP-only diminishing returns, and PvP-oriented stats like Resilience and Spell Penetration. However, since many class changes apply to both PvP and PvE, PvE players seem to be "dragged" along by changes meant to tune their classes' PvP performance. Shamans and druids seem to be most affected this patch with changes to Nature's Swiftness, Elemental Mastery, Call of Thunder for shamans, and Lifebloom for druids.
Blizzard announces a 3v3 arena tournament
Blizzard announced today that they will be hosting a 3v3 Tourney beginning in April with international qualifiers and some pretty hefty cash prizes at the end. After paying an entrance fee, teams will compete in qualifying tournaments with other teams from their region for cash prizes totaling $27,000 before proceeding to the global championship, where the grand prize will be $75,000. The twist is that this tournament will take place on dedicated servers in which participants will play with pre-made level 70 characters. You can read the FAQ here.It sounds like this Tournament will be something that PvP Enthusiasts will want to watch with interest. The entrance fee should ensure that most of the field is made of dedicated players, or at least players who are somewhat sure of their ability, and the establishment of pre-made characters to ensure a "level" playing field should definitely lead to some exciting matches in which we'll see how differences in skill can make or break an arena match. However, It may also bring to light class and talent discrepancies as we watch which team make-ups rise to the top and which fall. Since we already know that additional class changes will be coming to 2.4.0, we certainly have to wonder if Blizzard will try to make some last minute class adjustments to this patch in preparation for this tournament, or if they'll use data from this tournament in making further decisions on class balance. But either way, if you fancy yourself to be pretty decent at 3v3 Arena play and think you're willing to part with a bit of money to try and win a lot MORE money, it sounds like you'll want to keep an eye out for the sign-ups for this.
Pro gaming tournament sets sights on U.S.
The news that the World Cyber Games is headed for Seattle in 2007 goes hand-in-hand with this recent announcement of a new U.S. office for the WCG. Headed up by Michael Arzt, the office serves to show quite how much faith pro gaming leagues like the WCG have in the American market.While professional gaming as a career is mostly associated with Eastern countries, especially Korea, it's been rising in profile in the West recently. As well as the World Cyber Games, the Major League Gaming (MLG) and Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) tournaments are going strong--if you've got the skill and the dedication, there's some serious money to be won in gaming nowadays.
Changes afoot in pro gaming leagues
It's all go on the pro gaming scene this week, with two announcements from different leagues revealing what's in store for professional gamers and wannabes.Firstly, the company behind the MLG console league, Major League Gaming, Inc., announced it had secured first-round venture capital funding to the tune of $10 million--the console side of pro gaming sees fewer competitors than PC gaming, and this funding will help MLG's goal of becoming a serious sports circuit.Over at the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), however, a partnership is on the cards. This year's CPL World Tour has been cancelled; instead, MLG are teaming up with Games Media Properties to offer a World Series of Video Games. The prize money for the CPL Summer tournament has been halved as a result, and CPL's Angel Munoz hints at a stronger console focus than we've previously seen.The common thread behind both of these announcements is a shift towards more credibility, more television focus and more console gaming--pro gaming is maturing into a sport in its own right.
Pro gaming more attractive than pro tennis
A Scottish gamer has traded in his racquet for a railgun, with a change of career from professional tennis player to pro gamer. David Kinnaird, a new recruit for UK pro gaming team 4Kings, comments in this BBC article that "pro-gaming is bigger than tennis in a way" thanks to the sponsors involved.Whether David's decision was a wise one will become clear in time, but comparing professional gaming to traditional sports throws up interesting parallels. The abundance of sponsors available to the top players, the hours of training and the fact that many people see it as just a hobby are all common factors, yet people are more likely to take tennis players seriously than those who play computer games all day. This could be thanks to the accessibility of games -- anyone can pick up a racket, but quickly realise they have no skill, whereas video games are designed so that the player eventually wins.
