A Day and a Half back in WoW

Took me a morning to dowload the client and apply all the patches.

I've been out of the game for right around two years. What's the very first thing I do after two years away? I start writing a mod that will never be useful enough for anyone else to ever see. I'm such a nerd.

It was weird to see Shattrath empty. Really weird to load the Stormwind map and see the Harbor on there (still haven't gone there yet). Cool to see what a Gnome Death Knight looks like.

Didn't see any old friends around, but my real "friends" in WoW were people I played with for six months ... four years ago. They probably don't even remember me anymore, I barely remember them. This fall I have a college reunion and I'd like to see one of my old friends, but it's the same thing -- we were friends for four years ten years ago and haven't talked much since, not sure he'd even know who I was.

I haven't seen any of the new content yet (unless the map of Stormwind counts) but I've already seen the weirdest thing, and I'd say it's the most fundamental change in the game since launch, possibly tied only with the 40 to 25 man raid switch.

One plus one equals two, and hearthstones have a 60 minute cooldown. I've kept up with patch notes but I have no idea when it went down to 30 minutes. Most fundamental change to anything in the game since launch, in my eyes. Wow.

They say you can't go back

To whatever extent this is true, it is because of the incredibly long download times.

Yes, I've decided to play WoW again. Anybody have a suggestion for an Alliance PvE server?

What I really think about Blizzard's new IP

Blizzard has developed IP's but they've never really created their own in recent memory. Warcraft was similar to Warhammer, Starcraft similar to Warhammer 40k, and Diablo was mostly developed before Blizzard North became Blizzard North.

Obviously Blizzard has developed the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo universes pretty thoroughly, but we haven't seen a really original Bliz IP in quite a while and I'm pretty curious about what they'll do.

To wonder what Blizzard will create means wondering why they are creating a new IP in the first place.

It seems likely that the gameplay is driving the need for a new IP. If you were making a strategy MMO you could base it on Starcraft. If you were making an action MMO you could base it on Diablo. Or Starcraft. In fact, almost any recognizable genre on the MMO plane -- from space sim, to shooting, to strategy, or to a new RPG -- could be done pretty well with an existing property. This would save a ton of work developing a world and develop instant enthusiasm for the game. But Blizzard isn't going that way.

What kinds of games would require a brand new IP? A game targeted at kids would need a new IP. There are too many disturbing things in the existing IP's to paper over.

There is certainly no analog for a collectible game in the Blizzard universes. Maybe they want to go the Free 2 Play route. Maybe they want to make a collectible game for kids.

Or perhaps they are just sick of the same IP's, or maybe they want a fourth IP to exploit (I use exploit in a good way).

What worries me a little is I only accept two "good" fantasy/sf settings : space sci-fi and steampunk fantasy. Blizzard has already done both of those. So what do they need from a new IP?

I will make two predictions about Blizzard's IP : first that people will be generally underwhelmed by the initial announcement, and then gradually warm to the thing, whatever it may be.

Five Possibilities for Blizzard's New IP

It's slightly more official this week : Blizzard's next MMORPG is based on a "totally new" IP. This naturally leads to speculation : what is this "new" IP? After some careful research, I believe I've narrowed the new IP down to five different possibilities :

1. Starcraft Fleet Gothic : Massive warships of the Starcraft races duke it out in outer space.
2. Bauble : A fantasy board game in which players vie to control a powerful magical bauble.
3. Warcraft Bowl : Football with characters from the Warcraft universe. Finally a real "fantasy" football!
4. Diablo Hive Wars : Players control gangs in the newly discovered Hive Cities of the Diablo universe.
5. Question Asker : A roleplaying game set in the Starcraft universe, players must hunt down heretics and usurpers of Arcturus Mengsk.

I can't wait!

Is there room for controversial games?

I'm a little behind on the whole news cycle thing, but Konami dropped Six Days In Fallujah, and Internet Controversy Happened.

Personally, I never understood why Konami intended to publish the game in the first place. It was going to be controversial, and people were going to get upset. And it's not like Insomniac accidentally crossing the crazy bishop of an empty church -- the conflict is forseeable and you're going to upset the families of soldiers and marines who died in battle.

I've seen some of the gaming media respond that some veterans think it is ok, but that doesn't really fly. It's like in game support forums where some users talk about the game not working, while others respond indignantly that the game works perfectly. It's not really a voting matter -- if some people are upset they are upset, and the votes of the unoffended aren't going to change things.

Should games be controversial? I don't know, but I hope not. I've largely sworn off television and movies lately because I can't stand all the little political jabs. I remember watching an SNL skit about a controversial subject and it was clear the goal of the skit was not humor -- it was to run down a one-sided list of talking points on this subject and squeeze a joke in when possible. The joke squeezing seemed halfhearted, and I was so disgusted I swore off SNL. I haven't seen an episode in four or five years.

At some point a conscious decision was made that politics was more important than humor, and I worry that the same thing will happen to games. "Hey, this mechanic really sucks, can we fix it?" "No, if that part of the game worked it would ruin our political message." And then I get stuck playing sucky games that care more about preaching to me than giving me a good gaming experience.

Miner Dig Deep is Awesome

I was reading about community games the other day. If you haven't heard of them before, Microsoft added a neat feature that allows independent developers and hobbyists to sell games on the 360. The games aren't in with the "Arcade" games, they are in a separate section called "Community Games."

It's a lot of cruft. But I've actually stumbled upon and purchased two good games in the past two or three weeks. The first is called CarneyVale: Showtime, and it is weird. You have a dummy, and you can kind of move it around, but mostly you can grab him with weird spinning claws and then flip him around to do stunts and pop balloons and make it to the end of the level. You should watch this video:



I found that one just flipping through the service, at 400 points (five bucks) it was a pretty good find.

Then a few days ago I was reading about community games on the XNA forums and came across http://xblcg.info/. Users at the site gave the highest rating to "Miner Dig Deep".

I tried out the demo and after about five minutes of playing I shelled out 200 points ($2.50) for the game, and now both my wife and I are addicted. You dig a mine, find resources, sell them, and then spend the money to upgrade your equipment or to buy equipment for the mine (like ladders and elevators). I highly recommend it.