World of Warcraft

[MCU]

Level 25.

[Davkaus]

Sometimes, I wonder what's so special about Blizzard, especially with constant whining about how Activision (more specifically, Kotick), is turning them into just another games company. Then I see something like this, and know that they're wrong.

Someone moaned on the official forums that one of the zones in the Cata expansion (the Maelstrom) isn't "epic enough".

A developer read it, and agreed.

After reading this post I called for a meeting with TOP TOP MEN (that's two tops) in order to figure out a solution to the problem at hand. Frankly, I think we hit a home run. The next 4.0 build (or the one after) should have a Maelstrom that's between 10 - 50x more epic than what currently exists.

Buckle yourselves into your computer chairs or face being blown away!

The result? An undead patrolling the area and playing the guitar, whilst riding a dinosaur, which is equipping a lasor, and riding a shark. And the shark is called Epicus Maximumus. I love you Blizzard.

[The_Rev]

Blizzard have a history of stuff like that. Fair play to em too.

As for the Activision thing, as far as I am aware Bobby Kotik has nothing to do with Blizzard. Blizzard were owned by the French media giant Vivendi. Vivendi merged with Activision with Vivendi being the senior partner in the deal (52%-48%) and from that Activision-Blizzard were formed. Its mostly a branding exercise as far as I am aware. Obviously things like distribution networks and other clerical shit would be pooled, and new people would be coming in with new ideas on how to generate revenue, but Blizzard as a studio get left well alone, mostly on the grounds that they make more than $150,000,000 a month from World of Warcraft alone.

[The_Rev]

What the hell?

[MCU]

Level 30.

[MCU]

Level 35.

[Risso]

The result? An undead patrolling the area and playing the guitar, whilst riding a dinosaur, which is equipping a lasor, and riding a shark. And the shark is called Epicus Maximumus. I love you Blizzard.

Pah, I'd one shot that.

[MCU]

Level 40 and still going!

[limpid]

/ignore

[MCU]

/cry

[limpid]

/moo

[MCU]

Don't know how you guys leveled up back in the day when you got your first mount at 40, hearthstone per hour, Ret Pally's not as epic, no random dungeon.

/clap

[The_Rev]

And of course, leveling took much much longer in Vanilla. You got less XP per quest and kill, there were fewer quest hubs and flight paths, there were whole zones which were no go areas because of ganking. You didnt get any money from quest rewards either so getting the gold together for a mount was a big thing in itself (unless you were a Warlock ) but those were the things you played for then, a mount was a status symbol.

We did have world PvP though, you could go a week without doing a quest or instance and still have a fantastic time just fighting the Alliance.

[MCU]

Hey less of that, Alliance ftw!

I do honestly believe I wouldn't have managed that and I would have quit in no time. I've also noticed there's an automatic quest add on when you play now so I just stick to that. I heard in the ancient times it was co-ordinates. Jesus. It makes me wonder though how guys like you get as much credit as an average guy like me who's leveled to 40 in no time.

[The_Rev]

Its a completely different game now. It's nowhere near as much fun, you are running through empty zones and spending your time at the level cap in instances, in Vanilla you actually got to see the world in all its glory. You will get a taste of it in the first couple of months of Cataclysm, but it wont last as long.

[The_Rev]

Well me, TRL and Dan had an ally killing spree tonight, reckon we must have done over 20 between us! I can't describe to a non WoWer just how much it gets your heart racing, chasing some little Gnome ****, before unleashing a variety of shocks on him. As satisfying as it gets, although we did have a bit of trouble with a L30 Mage bastard and his hunter mate near Splintertree.

Just digging through the old posts again. This is when Risso, Dan and Tarj had been playing for a month or so and were in the mid twenties. That was the gold of the game imo.

[The_Rev]

Fantastic gaming last night, didnt really get anything in terms of XP or Cash, but more than made up for it in terms of fun. The Halloween special stuff is fantastic.

Big dragon attacked the city of Orgimmar. Bastard thing needed 310 skinning, and im 300.

There is now a big Wickerman burning outside of the Undercity too, for Halloween.

Of course, the Alliance want to see it too, but cant get close because of the 4 big guards protecting it (3 level 60 elites, and a level 55) so they have to stand a safe distance away. Unfortuantely, horrible bastards like me will be forced to come up and kill them.

And now im PvP flagged, cos i attacked the Priest, so its mate, a high level Paladin is being brave and trying to take me out. Im also feeling brave because of the guards surrounding me, but the Paladin runs through, has a swing, misses, and gets hit by the guards. He puts his big pussy bubble of invincibility up, and survives, the git.

Two minutes later, he came back for another go, but i was ready for him. As he came running through, i had my Succubus (the strange female demon who wears bondage gear if you dont know what i mean) seduce him, so he had to just stand there while the guards ran over and filled him in.

Comedy pumpkin in Undercity.

And there was loads of crazy stuff going on in Hillsbrad. Much more than usual. We had quests where we had to throw stink bombs into their camp, and put rotten eggs into the beer kegs inside of the pub in their camp. They were both level 60 quests, and i managed to complete the rotten eggs one. I didnt get any kind of XP for is (about 1500) and i had to spend over 1g reparing my armour, but it was worth it just for the laugh we had trying to get inside a base that must have been protected by about 50 alliance players, plus another 20 computer guards. Oh, and the reward i got for completing it?

Comedy costume.

Sion, you want to have a crack at this tonight. Its great fun.

October 2005, Level 43. Oddly, Hobojed is in these screenies, little would I know I would spend two years in a guild with him later!

[The_Rev]

Awesome grab of me and Nays storming Stormwind, an Ally city guarded by L55s. Needless to say, we died.

Stormwind main gates.

And the Voidwalker has been sacraficed, healthstone has been used, and the guards on the gate have been given a bit of a shimmy and the Horde are on their way into the city itself. Its not long before the guards get a kill though..

But once you are in, as long as you stay mounted and moving, you pretty much have the free run of the city. I found it easy to stay ahead of the guards, and rode around Stormwind for ages before i decided to try and find the Train Station.

See?

And now heading down towards the train station, trying to ride, find the station, and shout so that the Alliance in the city have a bit of [Gutterspeak] to hear. Got stuck on a bit of scenery, and the 10000 guards chasing caught up. RIP Nayson.

Luckily, persistance, and the fact that the corpse was right by the entry to the train station means a quick res and sprint means it was easy to get in. And once in, it was safe, the Deeprun Tram isnt guarded...

So i made myself comfortable, and had a look around. Who says you need to be a Rogue to feel safe in a hostile environment.

And in comes the 02:51 to Ironforge. I didnt have a ticket, but i guess that doesnt really matter when whoever sees me will try and kill me no matter what..

Huzzah!

The area around the station is quite safe. Surprising few Alliance around, so the cloth wearers aggro macro (for use in instances) was used, again, to give any Alliance some [Gutterspeak] to pick up on. Unfortunately, it pulled the guards, and as Ironforge can be a bit of a maze, a bloody good kicking ensued.

But Warlocks get a Soulstone for an instant res. So res i did, and up and into the city. Time to give the guards the same runaround as they got in Stormwind, and to head for the Alliance Auction House.

But all that was found was a dead end, a big skeleton, and another kicking. Oh well. Time to quit, i think..

November 2005

[Phumfeinz]

Yeah.

[The_Rev]

best gank and camp ever.

I killed him.

Sie killed him.

Then we kept him stunlocked/seduced/feared for ages and ages. Then Carrwyn killed him. I should have used the Infernal, but i didnt think.

December 2005.

Made me think of the ganking sprees me and Dan did with our engineering kits (what was that lazer called? Gnomish death ray?)

I have a load of videos of us on my old computer, but thats in bits in the attic, I must get it out. There are half a dozen of us either sapping or seducing some Night Elf bloke in Stranglethorn Vale before shooting him with the lazer at the the same time. There is another one of us crowd controlling a guy in Azshara for fully ten minutes before he managed to log out.