Monthly Archives: June 2010

Will WoW ever be F2P?

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Recent developments in the MMO industry have led some to believe that World of Warcraft will one day indeed become free-to-play.  The addition of micro-transactions in the form of the Blizzard Pet Store as well as several notable games such as Lord of the Rings Online switching to the free-to-play model have stoked the embers of the discussion.

Are micro-transactions like the Pandaren Monk pet the future of Warcraft?

A recent news story on pcgamer.com features some quotes from WoW lead designer Tom Chilton who even goes as far as saying that, “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”  These are some strong words from someone in the know and they lend credibility to the WoW free-to-play prophets.

I’ve personally had several discussions with a somewhat deranged individual who claimed that WoW would become free-to-play eventually.  Generally I would scoff at him and call him crazy but I may have to eat my words, although it does seem that Chilton and the rest of the Blizzard team realize that this is not an option for the near future.  With Cataclysm around the corner, the Warcraft well is far from dry and so far the nature of the free-to-play model has been a way to stay competitive.  World of Warcraft is still beyond competitive.

The implementation of the micro-transaction free-to-play model is a scary proposition to me personally.  One thing that makes WoW so wonderful is the fact that everyone starts at the same ground level and what you do from there is what sets you apart from the rest of the players.  If there were a division on what content was available based upon the amount of money a player was willing to spend then I believe many players would step away from the game.  However, if the micro-transactions were limited to aesthetic items and novelties then I do believe that WoW could stay profitable if the day comes when it is not the undisputed subscriber king of the MMO landscape.

It’s always going to be tricky to change the way a game is distributed so drastically but if Blizzard has proved anything over the lifetime of World of Warcraft it is that they are thoughtful and deliberate about making these sorts of decisions and I expect that will not change anytime soon.

What do you guys think?  Post some comments and share your opinions.

Just What Is A CHOC?

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Blizzard announced today that they will be hosting a charity event on the eve of Blizzcon this year, on October 21 at the Hilton Anaheim hotel.  In addition to scoring you a pass to Blizzcon, the $500 per-person donation gets you a nice meal, the opportunity to rub elbows with Blizzard’s illuminati, a signed work of art, and a tax deduction, since the proceeds benefit the CHOC Children’s Foundation.  In response to this announcement, millions of people who want to go to Blizzcon have asked what CHOC is.

It’s short for Children’s Hospital of Orange County.  CHOC is the 18th busiest children’s hospital in the United States, and just a few miles up I-5 from Blizzard’s headquarters.  Founded in 1964, CHOC now serves the unique needs of over 200,000 children per year in their hospital, mission hospital, and numerous clinics and outreach programs.  Here are some facts about CHOC that we find very cool:

  • CHOC enrolls the highest number of children in insurance programs in the state of California.
  • CHOC surgeons were the first in the world to successfully complete a pulmonary resection in a child using a robotic system.
  • CHOC has the nation’s first and only American Diabetes Association-certified pediatric diabetes program.
  • CHOC conducted the nation’s first balloon dilation of a cardiac lesion, now a routine cardiac procedure.

Blizzard expects to sell out a limited number of tickets to this event, so if you want to participate, set a reminder for July 13.  That is the day that tickets go on sale on the Blizzcon website, and Blizzard intends to close the sale if they have not sold out within two days.

Quick Look at the Last Raid of Wrath – The Ruby Sanctum

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It’s all over the internet.  The buzz is almost as deafening as the vuvuzela.  The release of the last raid instance in Wrath of the Lich King, the Ruby Sanctum, is ever so close.  Let’s take a quick peak at some of the things that we do know about the Ruby Sanctum from the perspective of someone who has not been on the PTR.

Baltharus the Warborn

The first thing that caught my eye about the Sanctum is the inclusion of three sub-bosses Savianna Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn and General Zarithrian.  At first I assumed there would be an activated hard mode a la Obsidian Sanctum but that is not the case.  I admit I’m somewhat disappointed since I am a fan of the activated hard mode.  Each of these bosses will drop a frost emblem and have some interesting mechanics that I won’t spoil here.

Halion, the main boss of the Ruby Sanctum

The main battle of the Ruby Sanctum is with Halion.  According to much of the information available, Halion is not the most complicated fight a raid team will find in Northrend but does require some teamwork and strategy.  Again, I won’t spoil the mechanics here because if you’re at all like me you enjoy entering new fights with a bit of ignorance.  Did the player base want an extremely hard experience in the final stage of WotLK raiding?  I can’t say since everyone differs in preference but I will say that for a one-off raid instance it looks like Blizzard has a firm idea of how they prefer to tune these encounters, and that is generally less difficult than the full-fledged, 10+ boss instances.

Lastly, let’s talk gear.  It’s important since these are the purples you will wear until Cataclysm when you start to get those “epic greens”.  You will not be replacing everything you have gotten out of Icecrown Citadel but you can patch some holes in your gear.  There is a little something for everyone and the iLevels are equivalent to those that you find on Lich King gear.

Overall the Ruby Sanctum does what it sets out to do.  It begins the story arc towards Cataclysm as well as give players a little something to hold them over while they wait.  Let’s face it, we’ve been in ICC for the past 6 months and some people are starting to get a bit weary of the fights and this will give those players something to do in the meantime.

Post a comment with your views of the upcoming Ruby Sanctum and you will be entered to win a DVD from the German Medieval Martial Arts series entitled “German Medieval Marital Arts:  The Poleaxe“.  What could be better than that?  A winner will be selected at random.

Some quick links to Ruby Sanctum info:

The Instance #194 – Plate, Plate, Plate

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Big News Of The Week

It Just Got Real

Blizzard implemented World Of Warcraft version 3.3.5 this week, laying the groundwork for the opening of the Ruby Sanctum dungeon – but not yet making that raid instance available to players – and suddenly and irrevocably changing the nature of the game and every game Blizzard produces from now on… with the new Blizzard Real_ID system. What seemed like a trifle throughout the discussion of it over the last few months has generated more talk and debate this week than anything we’ve seen in a long time. Of course, it’s designed to generate talk, since it’s a communications system.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Is There A New Trio For The Win?
For years in 3v3 arena PvP in WoW, the trio of choice has been Rogue, Mage and Priest. The combination of the rogue’s ability to surprise attack with overwhelming stuns and damage, while the priest and mage focus all crowd control on keeping their focus target from being healed… has reigned supreme. That is, until this years’ Arena Tournament, which concluded open play this week.


Don’t Miss The Midsummer Fire Festival!
Even if you completed every quest and every achievement attached to the Midsummer Fire Festival last year, a lot of it has reset for you for this year, and we’re halfway through its’ two week duration, so there’s no time to lose.

Town Cryer

Liam G. writes: I am graduating in about a week and am also in a raiding guild. I have missed many raids lately due to RL schedule conflicts and my raid group says that if i do not show up for the next raid then i will be kicked from the guild but i have graduation that night. I could skip the Dance afterward and raid but it would disappoint my RL friends.

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Step right up and get your heirlooms!

This is the seventh in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

You might have thought we’d save this one for last, since purchasing heirloom items will only take a few minutes of your time, but the fact is that heirlooms are relatively expensive. They run between 40 and 65 dungeon badges each, or between 60 and 95 Champion’s Seals from the Argent Tournament each, so it’s going to take some time to acquire, say, five of them for your up and coming hunter.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance #193 – Remember The Path Of The Titans

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Big News Of The Week

C’est La Vie, That’s Just The Way It Goes

Like many possible changes to the game that have never reached full implementation, Blizzard announced last week that two of their proposed changes to the game with the Cataclysm expansion have met the cutting room floor. Specifically, linear guild talents and the Path of the Titans. For various reasons, Blizzard has decided to dismiss them from Cataclysm, and said so, and was met with a lot of… feedback… as a result.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Some Glyphs Are Too Small, And Some Are Too Big

At the Blizzard press conference last week, they announced the concept of “medium glyphs”, by which a third tier of glyphs may give you many more options in Cataclysm. Furthermore, Blizzard proposed a couple of *very* interesting changes: a list of all the glyphs you have to choose from in your UI, and glyphs that stick around for you once you’ve acquired them.

The Guild Talents Thing Isn’t All Bad News

Tom Chilton asked some very difficult questions about guild talents as Blizzard announced the scrapping of such. We don’t have a direct quote, but it was a series of questions that explained why guild talents were problematic. Can only the guild leader pick the talents? Do you allow guilds to re-spec? Who pays for it? How do you give all the players in the guild a sense of being involved? This gave way to his demonstration of a better plan: guild leveling.

Town Cryer

We love good calls!

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

It’s Red And You Sit On It

This is the sixth in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm. Be a hero! Be able to prove it! Finish the achievement “Glory Of The Hero“!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance #192 – I’m Just Going To Call It Kalimuhdor. Deal With It.

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Big News Of The Week

Blizzard Sells Out Tickets For Blizzcon, So They’re Available Everywhere

Last week in two rapid-fire sales events, Blizzard sold tens of thousands of tickets to Blizzcon 2010 in October. The tickets were in such high demand by potential attendees and, more likely, speculators, that they can properly be considered to have sold out in 5 to 10 seconds after each sale was started. Such is the way of things nowadays. But the tickets are temporarily transferable, so speculators have flooded the web with offers.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard Gives Us A Peek At Some Talent Trees

Four of the ten classes got a preview this week, as Blizzard put out prospective talent trees for the post-Cataclysm druid, shaman, rogue and priest.

There’s A New Starcraft 2 Commercial

It just debuted during the NBA Finals basketball game, and has subsequently been posted here. According to Blizzard, The thirty-second spot features voice-overs from two iconic characters in StarCraft II, and is cut from the pre-rendered cinematic sequences found throughout the game.

Town Cryer

Samuel writes: Scott and Randy if you guys are such good friends why do you guys not raid with each other?

Dominic D. writes: I visited http://www.auctioneeraddon.com/ today to see a front page post indicating that the administrator is in danger of not being able to host his website anymore due to financial concerns. He is calling for donations and sponsorships to help keep it alive, citing that his server bills are $800/month. I just wanted to drop a line to your show, because I feel that Auctioneer is the best addon anyone can have, and I don’t want to see it go away.

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

You Want Me To Do What?

This is the fifth in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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The Instance #191 – The Ruby Sanctum Has No Eye

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Big News Of The Week

WoW Is Back On Deck

Blizzard’s spin-off company Cryptozoic released their first set in the WoW Trading Card Game this week, and it’s called Wrathgate.  You can read all about it in three parts here, here and here.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

It’s The Eve Of Ruby Sanctum

Public Test Realm testers have been looking at the quickly forthcoming Ruby Sanctum patch to World Of Warcraft. The Ruby Sanctum is the gathering place for the red dragonflight, and it’s about to be attacked by the black dragonflight in their nefarious plot to enable Deathwing’s return.

Town Cryer

Andy from London writes: Do you guys think that Blizzard should really change the DK starting level to 65? The DK starting zone was amazingly fun with lots of set-pieces and backstory to explain how you became free of the Lich King. However there is a big sense of disconnect from this story when you step into Outland to fight Illidan, which makes absolutely no sense for a Death Knight to do. Wouldn’t it be better to finish the DK starting area at level 68 instead of level 58?

Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week

Round Round Get Around, You Get Around

This is the fourth in our limited series, where we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to Down To The Wire, DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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