nethaera
Latest
No more LFG channel... at least officially
Just a follow up to David's LFG post yesterday. My suggestion for the disappointing LFG system in place after the patch was for Blizzard to leave the system in place and also reinstate the LFG channel-- players who want to use the LFG system can then do so, and players who want to LFG the old fashioned (and messier, and more annoying, and yet more effective) way can do so as well.Blizzard, however, disagrees. Neth says clearly that the devs are standing behind the new system, and that no matter how much players ask for it, the old LFG channel ain't coming back. In fact, she even asks that players who don't want to use the LFG system use it anyway and give feedback on how to make it better. I'm not sure that's going to happen-- it's Blizzard's responsibility to get creative about solutions, not the players'. But in the meantime, lots of players have gotten creative anyway, and if you "/join lookingforgroup" on almost any server, you'll find a close enough approximation of what the LFG channel used to be. Until Blizzard fixes their interface and actually gets something in place that finds me the group I want doing exactly what I want, you can meet me there.
Burning Crusade release date confirmed
The push back to a January release was disappointing to say the least. And many forum posters have been speculating -- if it were pushed back once, couldn't it be pushed back again? Well, Nethaera says no. Replying to a post citing a January 16the release date (via a European press release), Nethaera says, "This is a solid date. It will not be pushed back." Considering Blizzard's usual reluctance to say anything concrete, I tend to believe them when they do. (Naivete, perhaps.)[Thanks, Yz and Tom!]
Win a new computer! By doing what again?
Is it just me, or is this new Blizzard contest to give away a hot gaming computer being carried out a little awkwardly? Don't get me wrong, I think being given a chance to win a sweet rig is great, but I need a little bit more than a paragraph of RP and a vague "We're looking for players to complete more than 25 quests in 5 weeks" to go on. Are those just quests in game? Are they being tracked automatically? Do I have to sign up anywhere else?For now, the answers to those questions seem like Yes, Yes, and No. Neth is answering questions as fast as she can, but it's still a little confusing. Bottom line seems to be just keep questing (any level, repeatable are OK, must all be on one character), and Blizzard will let you know if you've won. Twenty five quests doesn't seem that hard to finish in 5 weeks (especially if you just roll a Horde and go to the Barrens, there's about eleventy zillion quests there), but then again, maybe the devs (working hard on BC, of course) just got a computer to give away and wanted to come up with the easiest, non-stress way to do it. "What? Computer? Fine, just tell the players to earn XP, and give it to someone who does."A few players are also raising concerns that the whole thing is just a ploy to sell their information to Dell, but the CMs are shrugging off any suggestions that this is anything but what it seems to be. Every contest has fine print, guys, and there's also plenty of it on the agreement you "sign" after every patch. If Blizzard wanted to sell your information, I'm guessing they'd have done it by now.
Meermio'l M'urgeglle Murnuglugrglee ("Spiffy Murloc Translator")
Yesterday Mulgrim on Khadgar sent a very nice letter to the Murlocs inviting them (pretty smoothly, I might add) to join the Horde and fight the evil Alliance. Nethaera (that Blue joker) made a joke that she couldn't wait to see a Murloc to English (and vice versa) translator.So of course Dark Legion on Chogall posted one today. Through the magic of "an Orb of Deception, a dozen Thorium Widgets and 2 gnomish engineers," they have finally broken the linguistic gap between those speaking English and our fishy, gurgling friends. In the words of the great Murloc Chieftain, "Mmuuuuil gurrrlle meerwembo'l gurrugl im'chule weutinl, gurrrlle werlgnuglinl mutermil im'chule mutrrglee meerugrlle." You can even go the other way, too, so if you haven't yet memorized Murloc (the language apparently has the same name as the race), you could put that back in and it would tell you what the Chief said in English.And I'm not sure about this (very not sure), but I bet we could even use this to figure out what the Murlocs are saying ingame! One question, though: Is "Aggugguauguguugh" spelled with six Us or seven?
