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Thank you, Amazon, fom sparing me from lines with your discount pre-ordering. This should be waiting for me when I get home tonight:
For the World of Warcraft players out there, this player here named Lume wrote an angry piece here about the zombie invasion of the past week that got picked up by big Warcraft blogs like WoW Insider (yes, the game IS that big that it has lots of dedicated news media–tens of millions of players!). Lume said,
Do we really want to give so much power to people like this? Especially on a PvE ruleset? I sure hope not. Notice how he tries to berate me for killing him by justifying that the event is for killing people. “y u kill me fagg” definitely reeks of maturity and social validity. I’m only doing what a lot of people would do on a PvP server when someone griefs and camps lowbies. There are repercussions for being a dick!
What’s more, there doesn’t seem to be any purpose to becoming a zombie other than to kill and infect other players and NPC’s. If there was actually a quest to perform as a zombie, and if lowbies could actually defend themselves, I’d be a whole lot more forgiving and inclined to view the event in a positive light. I definitely think it has its place as a fundamental concept. But the specifics are broken.
The short version of what happened in-game, is that these multi-player games often have persistent universes that rarely change significantly in-game. They get expanded, or grown periodically with new content (new characters, new areas and places, new “quests” and things to do). World of Warcraft is unique in that it’s a shared universe (think Star Wars, between the films, novels, comics, etc.) that began with the original Warcraft video game in the 1990s. The story has progressed forward, and one of the “big moments” in the Warcraft game story was when one of the biggest heroes in the game world, a certain Prince and Knight of All Things Good And Holy, basically totally lost his shit in the face of a massive Zombie Apocalypse happening in his homeland (its much more involved and complex than that, of course).
This now growing crazy Prince, like Darth Vader–although this story actually predates Star Wars Episode 3–ends up giving into the Zombie Dark Side, and aligns with/becomes the supernatural force that was making all the people in his homeland die and rise up to eat their neighbors. The Good Prince killed his father and left the world, and became the Lich King. Hence why the second for-sale World of Warcraft expansion ever, due out November 13th this year, is called Wrath of the Lich King. The new king of all the very nasty undead fled to lick his wounds way back in the Warcraft III video game, in 2003, and is now back to, well, kill all life on the world.
The in-game Zombie Apocalypse event was basically the story-driven warning shot. It felt like a nice, simple analogy to what happened to the United States (although that could be my reading into it too much) back in 2001 with our being attacked. The Lich King expansion will show the retaliatory war on the undead, at long last. This event, that the guy is so mad about (and a LOT of people in-game were very upset about it) was simple: the Lich King baddie took out the various nations before with a plague that killed you, and made you a flesh-eating living dead monster. Story-wise it ran it’s course swiftly, and was a highly transmissible magical disease. Five years later in-game, they came back with an even more virulent version this week. The trick, though, was that they made it so that PLAYERS had the opportunity to play the bad guys this time. A neat twist–I was a zombie, running around, eating people, and spreading plague. I loved it, and it was a hoot playing arguably the worst bad guys in the entire history of the game universe–in a Star Wars context, this is like getting to play evil Sith, dark Jedi, and just running around lightsabering everything in sight. It lasted just less than one week of real time. And boy oh boy, were people upset. People didn’t want to “participate”. People didn’t want to walk into some city, or town, or village, and immediately be set upon by dozens and dozens of zombies, all trying to eat them.
Well… duh. What exactly were all these people complaining about? It’s been a key component of the entire story mythology, in-game universe, and action for over FIVE years. Of course you’re going to have to deal with it when they do these once-in-a-lifetime special events. That’s the point–they’re advancing the story of their game in a major way, which has only happened in such a major way when they moved from the old Warcraft III game to World of Warcraft in 2004, when the Burning Crusade (the first major expansion, in 2006, came out–demons invaded the world then, zombies now), and now, when they get ready for their second big expansion in 2008. Heaven forbid–you had to run away in fear a couple times per day for less than a week because of a story-based event that they let players run. It wasn’t abuse or “griefing” if a player zombie bit you and you died (which, important safety tip for non-players: dying by zombie meant you became one yourself, which you could instantly abort out of to escape, causing you to lose perhaps a whopping 30-60 seconds of your time). It was exactly what happened in the story non-stop a couple years ago, and it was back for a special story event. Would it have been acceptable if they just had non-player controlled zombies swarm the cities by the hundreds, as if it were a George Romero film?
This is why some game players can’t have nice things. I’m glad I bit all of you.
I think I shall look into seeing if I can run Atari 2600 or Nesticle, or similar emulators, on my smartphone. I want to play this on the bus during my commute:
Want to hear Wil’s keynote that I mentioned he did at PAX yesterday? Go here. How did it open? Ha!
“Thank you. My name is Wil Wheaton, and Jack Thompson can suck my balls. This keynote has been rated MA by the ESRB.”
Go listen! Andi also has pics of us and Wil up…
We had a great time at PAX today. Wil Wheaton delivered a killer keynote speech, that I mentioned here before. We got to chat with him briefly afterwards, and he took a picture of Andi’s three volumes of his books (we’d bought his new book from him at the show). I coined the phrase “Wheaton trifecta“. w00t!
The Penny Arcade Expo begins today in Seattle. See y’all there if you’re going; I’ll either be wearing a black t-shirt what just says BERLIN or a black t-shirt that says SYN on the front and ACK in the back.
Wil has a post up here about speaking at PAX (he’s the keynote). I want everyone that reads this if they’re at PAX, to give this man a standing ovation. Seriously. This guy is functionally one of our idols for a whole subset of geek culture. Why? Simple: When it was him up there, in that sweater, on The Next Generation, each and every single one of you–every one!–thought to yourself:
“That could be me…”
If you deny it, and you were around Wil’s age or slightly younger from when he did Star Trek, you’re a liar. Yes, you know you are. Support the guy that gave you that fleeting moment of joy when you were 10, or 13, or 16. This will be my first chance to see Wil (or anyone in person, from Next Generation, for that matter). They opened my eyes to the ideas of science fiction more than anyone else ever had before that. Yes, even more than George Lucas, who is technically science fantasy. Not only all that aside, but for the people like me, and you, Wil is one of us. There’s a reason why his first book was called Just A Geek.
We support our own. We don’t let them hang out to dry. Time for geek action. Standing ovation for Wil Wheaton, Seattle. Standing ovation.
Tonight, our friend Jakob flies into town, and tomorrow, Rebo does, for the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle. That means in two days I’ll be making two trips down I-5 to SeaTac airport and then two more as they fly out on Sunday and Monday. People from work have been staying home and and working remotely because of the massive I-5 construction. This’ll be my first foray into it. Wish me luck…
Only 12 more days till the Penny Arcade Expo in downtown Seattle starts! We’ve got friends coming in from a couple parts of the country, I’m on vacation most of the time, and I’m totally jazzed for it. Wil Wheaton is the keynote speaker this year. Anyone reading this going?
Warning: this is really geeky.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ov_0dfQve3o
Really well done, check it out. Someone hacked up cinematics from all the games from the first edition of Warcraft III, up through World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, scored to music from various Blizzard games. Did you know that Legendary Pictures is also now in pre-pre development of a Warcraft trilogy of theatrical films? Nevermind that it would be a series of films based on a game; the mythology is actually extremely well developed, and could make for a very good and fun set of films.
Film one: Jaina, Thrall, and Prince Arthas lead their people to stave off the threat of the Burning Legion. I like the Legion least, so lets get them out of the way first. Short version for those who don’t care: demonic alien invasion of the world. One note, “Hi! Sorry for the mess, here to enslave or destroy y’all!”, but might as well open with a bang to ensure the sequels get made. Jaina/Thrall/Arthas love triangle for the ladies, play up the Beauty and the Beast angle between Jaina and Thrall. Screw Gorana, Khadgar, and the Dark Portal, the other big core bit of the Warcraft mythology. This story would be better. End the film with the remaining/departing demons leaving behind a nasty surprise in the North, in the form of a gentle plague…
Film one idiots version: Big SFX, big explosions, big fights, forbidden love. Think Lord of the Rings with swords, magic, and demons. Oh, wait…
Film two: darker, way more downbeat film. World rebuilds from the great war, but things are getting worse, and the plague is spreading–even worse, something is controlling the hell out of the plague, and the people who die come back as zombies and undead to join in a new army that’s trying to wipe out everything in the world. Who dunnit? This guy: the Lich King. Jaina and Thrall lead the armies of their people, to hold off the invasion and the endlessly growing army of undead, moving closer and closer to that forbidden Orc/Human loving! But… Jaina holds out hope for poor Arthas, who loves her, and has gone north to find the plague source! Except he’s going loopy as shit, because of … well, all the insane crap he’s seeing, and the Lich King getting into his head psychic-style. When Arthas finds the source of the plague, in a little old village and keep, he can do the right thing versus the easy thing. He goes easy, and orders everyone slaughtered. Things go bad, and half-bent, and–oh noes!–Arthas finds the Lich King, and takes up his sword, to slay him. Oops. Cursed sword, evil Excalibur. Lich King, who was quite dead and trapped, is freed, Arthas becomes the reborn Lich King. The south is about to be overrun George Romero style. Thrall and Jaina are about to make whoopee as doom approaches. Remember the end of the Two Towers film, with Gandalf arriving to save Helm’s Deep? Arthas arrives to “save the day”. Except he kills his dad the King, and reveals himself–oh snap! And thank you, come again in the third installment.
Film two idiots version: Tragedy, more forbidden love (maybe under the shirt!) and lots of zombies.
Film two extra idiots version: ZOMBIES!
Film three: Shit blows up. Forbidden love! Loss. Comic relief. Sad. Yay, the world is saved!
Film three idiots version: Shit blows up. Box office!
For the other game geeks in the house, Blizzard also announced the next WoW expansion, centering on the Lich King (and now I’ll never catch up, ever, since the level cap again raised to 80, alas) is coming.
Editorial note: Yes, I left off the elves. Screw the elves. They’re far too emo in the Warcraft universe anyway.
Found on Digg, a guide to the guides on the Internet of all the myriad ways you can recycle an NES game console into other uses and purposes. It’s pretty slick. The NES espresso machine has to be my favorite.
read more | digg story
Let’s say I’m asking… hypothetically. What are the best role-playing servers (non-PVP, only, if you please)?
Tell me the favorite few of the PC games you play, and why they’re so awesome that I should check them out. I don’t wanna hear about World of Warcraft–I doubt I’ll ever want to play that again, and I already have City of Heroes/Villains. Whatcha got? I’m half-jonesing for something new on the side and am curious as to what everyone else is hot about. Don’t worry about genre (first person shooters vs. Empire-building type games, etc.)–just let me know what you like best and why!
…and why I only ever managed to play it for a week(ish) before I nearly drowned in my own bile.
On a related note, I predict that the forthcoming Marvel MMORPG being produced by Cryptic Studios, the producers of the hugely popular City of Heroes/City of Villains MMORPG, will be a bad thing for the legions of COH/V players. Why? Let’s assume that the Marvel game will be a success, and well made. Knowing Cryptic’s skill–the COH/V games frankly are amazingly fun and immersive MMOs that barely feel like MMOs (none of that horrific unclean feeling you get from playing World of Warcraft)–the Marvel game will be very good. If it’s a rousing success, which is quite likely, it won’t be long before production begins on a DC Universe MMORPG as well. Let’s say that the DCU game is at least half as good as the Marvel one. We’ll have three quality superhero MMORPGs.
As my friend Chad put it,
“I don’t think it’ll hurt CoH, I think it’ll outright kill it. My hope is Cryptic will take what they learned making the city of games and make the Marvel game even better. I don’t have high hopes for the DC one, even though I’m a big DC fan, due to Sony’s involvement. They have a great track record of screwing things up.”
Sony did bone up Star Wars Galaxies pretty good, but lots of people are playing that still. COH/V has (the last time I looked at the NCSoft public financial disclosures–they own COH/V) somewhere north of 250,000+ monthly subscribers. How many would defect for a great Marvel game and a so-so or better DCU game? A hell of a lot, that’s how many. I love playing City of Heroes (the villain side, not so much, but that’s just personal taste). But what will happen to the game I love if half the population bolts for greener, more desired pastures? Personally… the idea of the Marvel game in particular sounds nice. Would you rather play and spend your time in Metropolis, the Avengers/Spider-Man New York City, or a fictional urban city in Rhode Island populated by characters that only exist in the in-game environment of Cryptic’s game? No brainer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdAz4q7sRls
Now I want an Xbox 360…
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/adnd3/message/1836
Something I posted on the Internets in 1999… yes, I’m a nerd.
First, yes, I broke down and bought it at last. Amazon should have it out in a day or so.
For those who have played/do play World of Warcraft, how do the RP “rules” work on those servers? I’ve heard you can’t talk out of character at all in “broadcast” type channels at all, first off, but I’m curious as to how tightly woven you have to fit your character, speech, etc. into their setting. What can any of you tell me? I’m used to City of Heroes/Villains style RP, where there are no rules, and it’s kind of anything goes.
If you guys wouldn’t mind x-posting this request here: http://rootology.livejournal.com/232562.html
I will love you all long time. In a dirty way. Seriously.
One of my IRL friends is looking to score a copy in some form of “Zelda’s Adventure” for Phillips CD-I. I’ve exhaused my Google-Fu. If you know of anyone, anywhere, that has access to this or any other leads for this, I would be greatful. Rarely this will pop up on EBay, I’ve been told, but for absurd prices on the scale of $150+. Any help would be awesome. Download or inexpensive IRL purchase source would be grand. Thanks, e-pals!
Or else, heh. This is a slowish video download; set it going, pause it, then watch it. It’s worth it.
I was thinking of getting a set for gaming/working to music late at night, plus for VoIP/teamspeak. What brand and model do you use? How do you like it? USB or jacking right into the sound ports? I have no idea what’s good; this seems nice but a bit pricey. A headset I can comfortably use for hours on end would be good.
