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Peep drops from Kael'thas
Most of you have probably seen the news that Peep, the super-rare epic flying phoenix mount pictured above, was first given to Ezra. Last night, Method, of A-Sylvanas (Eu), got the world-first drop of The Ashes of Al'ar, the item that summons Peep. This was on their guild's first kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of The Eye. I don't think there are enough kills of Kael'thas that we have any idea what the drop rate of the Ashes is, but if it's anything like the Deathcharger's Reins (from Baron Rivendare) or the Fiery Warhorse's Reins (from Attumen), expect it to be significantly less than one percent. By the way, how do we abbreviate "Kael'thas"? I would go with KT, except Kel'Thuzad has that one already. Perhaps just "Kael"? It's a bit of a surprsie to me that he would drop this; for some reason it doesn't seem quite "serious" enough for him. I had previously hypothesized that Peep might drop from the boss Al'ar, the Phoenix God, but that does not seem to be the case. Anyway, grats, Method![via MMO-Champion]
Nihilum downs Al'ar [update: loot]
Congrats guys! Nihilum, of H-Magtheridon-Eu, have defeated as far as I know the first boss second boss to go down in the Eye (the 25-man raid wing of Tempest Keep), Al'ar (the Phoenix God). This is a world-first. However, he bugged out by being killed by DoTs in the air, and so they didn't get any loot. Sad, sad times. Any readers been in the Eye yet?Edit: looks like they got their loot after all, presumably after contacting a GM. Here it is:[thanks, Delilah]
Raid hotfixes and 2.1 PTR ETA
Some of the changes from 2.1 are going in early. Specifically, Tigole announced that they are hotfixing some raid things:Because 2.1.0 is not yet on the PTR's (we're hoping by tomorrow or early next week), we're going to hotfix the base creature respawn in Serpentshrine and TK Raid to be 2 hours. We're also going to fix the bug that's causing the creatures to respawn after the boss for the corresponding section has been killed. These aren't all of the changes that we have for 2.1.0, just two of the ones that we will be able to hotfix. There are more changes coming in 2.1.0 that include creature tuning, better loot etc... Some examples: Lots of the creatures have fewer hitpoints Lots of the creatures are no longer immune to CC (The female naga in SSC can be poly'd, Skeletal Ushers in KZ can be shackled) Lots of bug fixesThe most interesting bit in this post, though, to my eye, is "Because 2.1.0 is not yet on the PTR's (we're hoping by tomorrow or early next week)." See? PTR next week! What'd I tell ya. Of course, now that he's said this, if we don't get a PTR by Wednesday the forums are going to explode in a fit of angst, which is why Blizz never gives ETAs. I hope they can meet their target on this one, since 2.1 looks like it will be a fun patch for most parts of the game. Once the patch hits PTRs it'll be at least a week or two before it goes live.Pictured above, by the way, is Al'ar the Phoenix God, a boss in the Eye (the 25-man "TK Raid" referred to by Tigole) who is suspected to drop a 310% speed flying mount called "Peep the Phoenix Mount."
Griefing and self-governance in online games
The Guardian has produced an excellent column that addresses the problem of "griefers", people that abuse, team-kill and cheat other players of online games, particularly MMOs. Griefing has always been a problem where real players compete against their peers, although with massively multiplayer online games the problem has become much more serious. Earning a battleship in Eve Online or crafting a special item in World of Warcraft can take weeks if not months of game time. On top of that, the recent trend for people to sell items on auction sites like eBay has meant that rare online items have a monetary value.The article cites several high profile situations where griefers have bent moral codes with the Guiding Hand Social Club's ruination of Ubiqua Seraph in Eve Online and the funeral crash in WoW being the two main examples. Solutions that companies have come up with to limit these types of situations from happening are also looked at with the Xbox Live points system and strong community measures (like guilds and friend lists) being top on the list of letting players self-govern the problem. Effective community governance is essential if companies want to keep players inside the game and so that the owners don't have to resort to more drastic measures, like Blizzard does with its periodic account banning binges.Update: fixed a couple of minor grammatical errors.
