Sincerely, Person with a Ph.D. in EE who has worked with hardware development for 15 years who hates the fact that untrained monkey's working in their garages have come up with more cool stuff than he ever will.
Fixed that for you.
Its a good game. I've been playing since the day it launched, but took a couple six to nine month breaks.
My fiancée totally got hooked on auctioning and crafting and playing as a healer while I like to gather and do 5 mans with either a warrior or warlock.
Precisely. I played the original Vanilla beta and then picked up the game about a month or so after launch and have had an active account since. I've taken plenty of breaks, weeks, months - whatever - but I come back. It's great for when I need a distraction and nothing else will do.
I would like to see them make crafting both more reasonable (in terms of mats - some things are insane) as well as usability. The best gear in the game continues to be what drops at end-level content; however, crafted gear should come at least a close 2nd or 3rd, but often times doesn't.
Blizzard has had some crap QA issues before, but 4.0.1 was one of their most atrocious releases to the point that they said some of the Mage glyph bugs just simply can't be fixed right now and that they had to just deal with it. How does crap like that get by their QA? We're not talking about some arcane feature with a small bug, we're talking about a major component of the system that is totally broken.
I think you really see it in the patch notes, which tend to contain about 1/10th of the actual changes made in a given patch. For example 4.0.1 includes a ton of new UI features such as graphical elements used to alert the user that a special ability is ready to be used. However nothing was ever disclosed about it nor were players given a chance to learn what each graphical identity means when its displayed. It becomes trial and error. Watch for the new graphic to appear, now look at your list of buffs to see if there's some new, temp buff there. Wait for it to go away and see if the graphic goes away as well. That's a lot of tedious crap to deal with, especially when you're in the middle of a boss fight.
I wonder if this guy's approach to development by keeping development teams small is responsible for the poor quality of both documentation and product.
Considering there's at least one more major patch (4.0.3 - The Sundering) before Cataclysm is released, I can see their point of view. The Beta servers are currently running post-Cata patches (obviously) and the Mage Glyph issues doesn't exist there - which would indicate it's been fixed, just not released yet.
I don't like him either. He's more lawyer than marine biologist, he does anything he wants and justifies it (I know it's funny when I say it too) but frankly there's nothing I hate more than running around in circles and WoW is doing exactly that.
Ruler of a game that has no idea what it wants to be.
Well, when you have the title "Lead Systems Designer " you kinda get to do those things. And 12 Million people agree with him. And considering that ACTV's stock price is based over 50% solely on WoW, even though Activision-Blizzard have many other titles would suggest that most people disagree with you.
I personally have no doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. But I wouldn't go back in time to see it, as I just as equally believe in eternal life for the elect (I'll be spending forever in heaven anyway). I'd go back and invest in some Cisco, Google, Apple and WebVillage stock. =)
It disgusts me to see you pat yourself on the back about how you're one of the chosen elect that's going to heaven when you'd choose personal wealth over the possibility of setting right some past wrong.
You could save a life from assassination or disease. You could warn the victims of a natural disaster. You could stop a war before it starts. You could save the name of a good man wrongly slandered. You could even try to save the soul of someone who fell from grace.
But no. You'd rather use that power for your own selfish gain. Maybe you should instead ponder whether or not it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, and why Jesus once said that.
Thank you Valdrax, for proving that there are others who get this. I'm not arrogant enough to believe I was the only one - far from it - but you rarely encounter them. So thanks.
I'm suspecting Cataclysm is going to be a commercially disappointing expansion for WoW. I've been a WoW player since the original, and I'm not getting Cata. In fact, my subscription expires in a couple of days and I have no plans to renew.
Cataclysm has some major issues that are going to interfere with its commercial success. Healing specs are being nerfed very hard, to the point that playing a healer in PvE is not going to be fun for many players, and playing a healer in PvP will be even worse. Expect many players with healing mains to bail out. The PvE content is being made more difficult. While that may make the hardcore fringe happy, for the typical WoW player it only adds frustration. And remember, most of these player never finished the normal mode PvE content in WotLK; even that was too hard for them. The popular random LFD feature is going to be a wasteland.
Tremendous changes, larger than in any previous expansion, are being made to all classes and specs. It is unlikely these will be balanced adequately until well into the expansion, if then.
It doesn't take many defections from your circle of close in-game friends before you begin to question why you're still playing the game. When the stuff really hits the fan in after the next several months, SW:tOR will be coming along to snatch up the disgruntled.
If Cataclysm lives up to its name, I expect ATVI stock to take a considerable hit.
So, since I've been leveling toons from 1 to 65 and 70 at this point during my Beta Testing, I feel entitled to say this: Bullsh!t
I keep hearing these whining comments from people who are fundamentally incapable of adapting - get over yourselves. It's not your game - it's Blizzard's, and they have every right to do what they want.
That said, I've enjoyed Cataclysm immensely - the changes are pretty damn cool to the game world, and it's very interesting to see new takes on old quests and events. The Class changes are going to take some getting used to - I hated playing my toons I copied over or the pre-mades.
However, once I started a new toon from scratch and played through the leveling process and re-learned from the ground up, I was able to go back to those copies and pre-mades and kick ass. It's something I'm going to be recommending to everyone I know who plays - I think it'll help. Don't have to level one from scratch all the way - just 10 levels or so, which only takes about 1.5-2hrs.
Real ID lost me. I don't play online games so I can be stalked and harassed, and by failing to make privacy and security a priority from the start, you ruined any chance I'd trust you to handle it right,.
So I won't give you money.
I'm sure you miss me.
Don't pay much attention, do ya? Real ID isn't required, period, just a Battle.net login, which isn't the same thing. You don't have to share your Battle.Net login with anyone, thus they can't find you unless you willingly give it out - Blizzard is putting the responsibility for your safety and privacy in your hands, where it belongs.
Blizzard gains about 20 new customers for every one that quits - so, please, continue to quit - my stock price keeps going up.
I started with MUDs, moved on to Meridian 59, Ultima Online, Everquest, etc...I absolutely LOVED my time spent with MMOs, especially WoW (closed and open betas, continued until about 1.5 years after launch), but the genre got boring for me. Not even The Old Republic can get me excited about an MMO.
I still find it surprising when I hear so many people are still playing WoW. Anyone on here still playing since launch? What's kept you with it all this time? Gameplay, community, what?
Been playing since early 2005. Blizz has managed to keep it interesting, despite some missteps. About time for the old world revamp though. Bring on the Cataclysm!
As a Beta Tester, I gotta tell you - the water effects ALONE are worth the 4.0 patch. So much has changed, yet alot is still the same, or just slightly different - but it feels like a new game, truly.
WOW is just a game
So? My daughter was born almost 59 years to the minute of the D-Day Invasion...
And, actually, it could be viewed as somewhat appropriate - Cataclysm is an upheaval for Azeroth in so many ways; much like the attack on Pearl Harbor was an upheaval both for America as a nation as well as the rest of the world.
"Regime change isn't very effective when you have the Keystone Kops trying to carry it out for you."
Regime change isn't going to happen due to a few protesting students, and the mullocracy can choose to kill them off if they threaten Islamic control of government.
The people who want to change Iran will have to display a greater will to power than the Islamocracy. That's a very tough act to follow. It would require a Maoist level of ruthlessness, not the trifling discontent of a few young people.
Precisely. As much as I want to shoot myself in the face for saying this, those "young people" would have a better chance if they read Mao's Little Red Book and took it to heart than doing what they're doing.
A wise man once said that 99% of Statistics are made up on the spot...
Hrmm. I always thought it was 87%
Well another one said it was 54.9834%, but they all claim to be experts, so who really knows?
We all live our lives as we wish to live them, and realize that statistics are incredibly important to making the world a better, easier place to live in. Sure, they can be wrong sometimes, but I would imagine the general public trusts them a lot less than they should actually be trusted. I mean, global warming is like 99.99999% true, same with evolution, but we still have people who don't have a clue and doubt blatant facts because they don't understand things like the specific heat capacity of water, or that evolution isn't globs of crap off the ground suddenly turning into animals and people.
Sure, the numbers can sometimes be wrong, but they are not wrong 75% of the time. Not even 50% or 25%, but less. And yes, sometimes we are further off, but it is rare. Should we really ignore important numbers because their is a small chance they are wrong? I am not saying anyone should change everything about their lives due to a single number, but common, this is a bit crazy. I am not trying to be debatative here, just saying hey, it is what it is.
A wise man once said that 99% of Statistics are made up on the spot...
Tell you what... You think this is a brilliant way to make money? Open your own bank. It's actually legal (and relatively easy) in this country. It's a good time to open a small bank, too - people are sick of the big banks. Find a backer and let them know that there's this underserved banking market out there. I'm sure you'll find plenty of takers if the idea is a good one.
But, in general, the main reason a banking service isn't offered to you is because the service isn't profitable enough to offer it to the market you're part of.
I would second this. Seriously, if someone were to start a geek-friendly bank, with reasonable terms, I would seriously consider using it, and I've got quite a few friends who would as well.
The issue, as mentioned, is finding a backer. To open a bank, you have to have a certain amount of cash on-hand, and that's where the sticking point comes for most of us, otherwise we'd all open banks.
[the murdoch media like to call this the coalition of the defeated but aslong as i get my electoral reform i don't give a shit]
Looks like what we really need then is a hanged Murdoch rather than a hanged Parliament. If you guys could take care of that, we in the US would be ever so grateful.
^^ + this
He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him. -- Bion
