Confusing tooltips

Reminiscing about the times when I didn't know so much about the game (that I tell myself that I do now) and most things actually were rather tricky made me think about some rather funny errors I've made when trying to learn different classes and skills. Now we have to jump far back into my wow-gaming history, but this still happens to new players around me.

Before you know how the devs at Blizzard generally think when they design something, trying to understand a skill solely based on its tooltip can lead to funny misunderstandings on how a skill actually works. Anyone who's ever played a TCG, like Magic the Gathering, knows about the quarrels that can ensue due to people understanding tooltips differently. Only in WoW one doesn't have to wait long to find out how Blizzard meant it to work.

I remember really far back, I think this might've even been my first char ever. That too was an undead priest, although not the same as I now play as a main. Back then the tooltip of Fade said something like "Will temporarily make you fade out, making the enemy less likely to attack you". You may call me an imbecile (I dare you), but I interpreted this as working like Mind Soothe does, ergo out of combat if I wanted to. I thought it would work like a semi-stealth, meaning I could get a little closer to mobs than otherwise before they would attack me. I had to find out the hard way that Fade didn't work anything like that, and when I eventually turned level 20 and got Mind Soothe I realized there had to be a difference between the skills. Fade clearly didn't do what Mind Soothe was doing. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had trouble understanding the Fade tooltip since it has been changed and nowadays reads "Fade out, temporarily reducing all your threat for 10 sec". Hopefully newbie priests won't have to be as confused and dead as I turned out to be because of this mistake.

But I am not alone. Love told me he once encountered a rogue who used Feint in solo-pve (and it feels like I've told you about this already) because he "noticed a difference". The tooltip of Feint reads "(...) lowering your threat by a small amount, making the enemy less likely to attack you". Anyone who knows anything about WoW quickly understands what this is all about. But imagine someone completely new to the WoW-terminology? How would they understand it? This rogue had apparently understood it to mean that the enemy would be less likely to get a hit on him. Feint would in WoW-terms lower the mobs hit chance on him. And I understand the confusion. Threat really isn't anything about "likelyhoods" at all, so using this kind of wording could make you think it's about something else, like "likelyhood to attack" = "chance to hit".

When inspecting one of my guilds warrior tanks the other day I noticed that he hadn't specced into Last Stand. If you're only into doing heroics I understand if you don't feel the necessity for that talent, but this guy tanks us all the way to Lich King. I'd say Last Stand is a crucial talent if you're into endgame raid tanking and I told him so. He explained to me he didn't like it because he felt it "hard to use". I didn't understand that argument at all, at first. Just use it when you would otherwise use Shield Wall, I said. Combine it with Enraged Regen for extra awesomeness. He asked me why Last Stand would affect Enraged Regen and I explained that since Last Stand increases max hp, and Enraged is affected by max hp these two synch well together. My guildie was confused. Increases max hp? The tooltip doesn't state that at all. It says "(...) temporarily grants you 30% of your maximum health for 20 seconds, after the effect expires the health is lost". Reading it like that my guildie had understood it to work like a big pot. 15000 hp if you're around 50k, so a damn nice pot of course. But he felt that a temporary pot wouldn't be very usable, the situations in which it could be used safely too extreme, since the hp is lost afterwards. And I understand him, what you're after is really the hp -and- the increased max hp, something the tooltip fails to mention in a clear way.

There are many examples like this. Sometimes people just fail to read the tooltip properly, like all those shadowpriests out there that didn't read that Mind Sear doesn't affect the current target, and the like. But sometimes one has to admit that you really tried to understand a tooltip but it just doesn't really tell you the whole truth.

Can you think of any more examples of misleading tooltips?

The Akinator

Yet another small tip to keep you occupied (I find these all over now that my account is shut down) for a while. A guildie of mine posted about this on our forums and it's hilarious really. I'm talking about Akinator the Genius. He is a web-based "I'm thinking of..."-game where he asks you to correctly answer an amount of yes and no questions so that he can guess what character you are thinking of. Although the principle behind this game is really simple, it's still rather fun to sit and try to come up with character the Akinator won't be able to guess. He is rather good!

This method is the same applied by people who claim to be able to read minds and/or communicate with the dead and the like. It's simply really good guessing, based on facts you probably don't even know you've given them. Or in the Akinators case, good programming. So check it out and kill some time when it rains!

I remember when Loken was difficult

Finding a moment with nothing to do (and hijacking a computer from a friend) I thought I'd share a small anecdote.

I remember some year ago, when Wotlk had just come out. I think dinged 80 some two months or so after the release. No that sounds like much... I can't check it out at the moment, since my account is still down but it doesn't really matter. The point is that I had just dinged 80 on my priest and epics where still way off and something you could only get in Naxxramas. My gear was pretty good, at least with those standards back then, a nice mix and match of blues from different instances, like most newly dinged 80 still have today (but quickly swap).

Me and some friends, who had been grinding alot of heroics already, were going to do HoL hc. And how I dreaded that instance. Finally getting to the last boss, Loken, we actually had to apply a tactic (!) to make it. Back then I used a mouse that was getting old and it had the bad habit of screwing (literally) around, making the screen spin wildly and completely impossible to click anything, or run anywhere for about a second.

When doing Loken we decided we had to run from his nova, because healing it through would be too difficult. Just healing his continous pulse and tank damage was tricky. Running from his nova was sweaty, since the player damage was so low back then he got to do it several times and running and healing and positioning was close to fighting a raid boss.

We had already wiped a couple of times because people had failed to move from the nova and been one shot, and now he was loading up to do it again. I had a bunch to keep track off, keeping everyone alive and now I had to turn and run in the right direction. So I start running and my mouse starts spinning around like crazy making it impossible to get anywhere. I get nova'd and die instantly. I was so angry at that mouse! fortunately neough Loken was low on hp and with a last effort and some off healing from some dps the rest of the group manages to get him down without me.

Thinking back I remember that fight to be really tough and like mentioned nearly as difficult as some easier raid bosses. Comparing that with today, when no one would ever think of moving from the nova (no one would be one shot anymore) and killing Loken just after he gets his firts nova done (instead of three or something), makes you think about how much better our characters have become without the rest of the game keeping up. I have mentioned this before, and the debate about the inflation-problem that all the epics we have in the game today bring is going hot on the forums as you read this. Apparently there are now more Epics than Rare items in the game...

I'm not saying this has to be a bad thing, looking at how tricky some instances were back in BC even with really good gear (like MGT) and even worse back in Vanilla (like Strat) tells me that there has to be a good inbetween where everyone has to put in an effort but not so much so that every instance becomes like a small raid. The difficulties I had healing some of the heroics at the beginning of wotlk still felt well balanced. You needed to know what you were doing, you couldn't go afk and every person in the party made a difference.

What could be done to get around this "inflation" problem? New, more difficult instances? Perhaps, the ICC instances are slightly more difficult than the older wotlk instances. This is also something they tried in BC. Another solution could be to increase the difficulty of the instances based on the average ilvl of the gear that characters in the group are wearing. It could turn out to be an interesting solution, but I can see problems with it too. Maybe people have really nice gear but suck at playing, they would have really difficult instances which they couldn't handle. Or maybe people would keep a special "low-ilvl" instance gear just to get an easy instance when they enter and then switch to better gear once they're inside. People are lazy. I often think people generally prefer really easy and effortless epics over having to bust their asses for them every day. And I definitely understand that.

It's just interesting to think about the huge difference between now and back then. I'd really say even more about this, but can't sit here for too long ^^ I might continue in some other post later on, if I remember to.

Do you remember any particular wotlk-encounter that you had troubles with, before all the epics came and stole the show?

The small details...

There are many components that weigh in to make a character feel just right. In WoW, just as in many rpgs nowadays, there are plenty of possibilities to customize your char, and those choices make a difference of course. The name and visuals of your character will determine the way you feel about it. But visuals also mean the characters animations and the animations of how it performs different skills. I have noticed that these factors also play a huge role for how, I at least, will feel about my character.

Take skills for example. Some skills are fun to execute simply because they have the right "oomph" about them. I like the splatty sound of a Deep Wounds proc for instance (does that make me weird?). I like the way Frostbolts feel, you really get the feeling of impact when those hit. I like the sound Mangle makes, it feels really mangly (no that's not a word). Like it hurts.

And some races definitely execute skills cooler than others do. Have you ever played a troll female warrior? I have never seen anything lamer. A close second would be a tauren female melee class. They feel... stumped. Retarded. Boring. There isn't any action on the screen when you execute a skill as a female tauren (both melee and casting) or female troll melee (I do like female troll casters though). Female taurens wave their hands some, that isn't cool. I want some commitment to whats happening! Tauren males for instance, they have really good cast emotes. You can see how their entire bodies are involved in the cast. Meleeing with a tauren male however feels like steering a fridge. Some like that, I am not so sure about how I feel about it.

I really like the way female night elfs fight. Not casting so much, but meleeing they do really well. Undeads have great emotes both for females and males, casting and melee.

I could go on like this all evening, but the point is even these seemingly small things really make a huge difference. At least to me they do. For example, I had rolled a female tauren shaman for some reason. At level 80, doing raids and instances more and more, I realized I really disliked the way she felt to play. I have a policy never to pay for anything in WoW with real money, except the monthly fee. I usually think that is enough and anything else is just extra that I don't really need. But I actually paid to change that shaman from female tauren to male tauren, and I don't regret that one second. The char immediately went from a char I didn't enjoy to play to one of my favorite characters. Just by switching model on it. When doing Ulduar the other day with my shaman someone asked me why I had chosen a male model, and not a female, since I am female myself. And I simply said "I paid to get rid of the female model, because it really annoyed me".

I know Love isn't too fond of playing a male tauren. Honestly I don't know why because he's mostly shapeshifted anyway. My druid is female tauren too but I don't mind because I don't have to look at her slightly stupid expression if I don't want to. He told me that the feeling of playing the "bulky" character doesn't fit him and he'll probably switch it to some other race as soon as he can (without having to switch faction). The druid of his mind doesn't suit what he sees on the screen.

One problem might be that the game doesn't differ in game mechanics between genders or races, although we feel or want them to. We get the feeling that gnomes are obstinate, dwarves are calm, taurens are bulky, night elves are sneaky and so on. And "bulky" generally means big and slow but therefore also extra strong. But without a difference in game mechanics playing a tauren just feels big and slow, and no extra strong. We might feel like it ought to be there, but it aint. And all this varies from person to person of course. What one person dislikes another person loves about a race or gender.

I wonder if these factors also play in to the fact that some race/sex combinations are greatly overrepresented. There are way more female night elfs than female dwarves. And way more female belfs than female trolls. I suppose the available classes to each race play a part too (people choose tauren/night elf because they're the only ones who can be druids as of yet, for example), but I don't think that's the whole picture. Guys who prefer female chars over male often say they prefer to look at a female ass all day than a male ass, and there is a point to it.

We are supposed to sympathize with that bunch of pixels on the screen. We're going to spend a whole lot of time with them (probably), so how they do what they do will matter alot in the end. We want it to feel in a way that suits us, so that we can identify ourselves with our character. That is sort of what rpging is really all about, even if you never touch roleplaying otherwise.

This doesn't just apply to a game like WoW, but any game that acquires us to accept a persona. I don't know anyone who liked Tidus in ffX for example because no one could identify with his extremely annoying personality (not to mention english voice actor). And I never liked the Naruto series because I felt that the main character, Naruto, was mostly a whiny wimp (and I'm totally not a whiny wimp). And I always hated Tifa in FFVII, not only because she looks like a freak, but because I thought she fought in a boring way. I absolutely adore Vincent Valentine however because he has without a doubt the coolest fight style (and he is totally cool in any other way too).

I think we have to be able to accept that the character could be us, in some remote way, for us to be able to enjoy to play it. That means we not only want them to look a special way and maybe have a certain name, but also do things in the right way. A way that suits us.

Are there any skills or races in WoW you like more than others? Or certain people in other games, for these kind of reasons?

Now I'm off again so my posting will continue to be rather sporadic for a couple of weeks. Have a nice midsummers festival!

Good WoW-netiquette

I'm back at home after a quick visit at my grandpas, but will be off again in a day or so. Visiting my grandpa made me think about something that might or might not be an important part of WoW. My grandpa belongs to one of those people who doesn't know how to start a computer, and says that any efforts to try to teach him is "time wasted". So I didn't exactly discuss the complicated aspects of WoW with him. I did however discuss the importance (or un-importance) of having a good etiquette when interacting with people, both those you know and those you don't know.

We had a big argument about the necessity of etiquette. Whereas he believes you should always have good etiquette no matter what, I believe it is only necessary for two reasons - practical and respectful ones (also known as restecpa). I believe that if a form of etiquette disappears from general knowledge, it is because no one thought it was needed to know anymore. A sort of "survival of the fittest" that also applies to forms of behavior. Maybe pulling the chair out for a lady has been practical, because her oversized dress was in the way for her to do it herself. Since most women don't run around in oversized dresses anymore (and some guys might) the need for this sort of etiquette to be questioned and changed has risen. Lighting a womans cigarette might've been useful when she wasn't allowed (?) to carry her own lighter. Nowadays women often carry more stuff around than many men do, so maybe it is time for women to light mens cigarettes (or rather not smoke at all ;)).

The issue with internet etiquette, or netiquette as it is sometimes called, has been discussed many times in various forms. And it made me wonder, do we have a certain form of netiquette in WoW? And is it necessary? Note that there is a difference between etiquette and moral/ethical behavior. I have already discussed some about immoral behavior in WoW, but etiquette is really more about what could count as "unecessary behavior", but that might still add something to the whole because it is respectful and/or practical.

With the implementation of the lfg-tool it seems that if it was ever needed with good netiquette, it might be now that we are thrown together with a bunch of strangers with whom we hope to work well together and maybe even have a good time. Personally I always start out saying "hi" and I have macro'd a "thanks for the group, bye bye :)" to use before I leave the group. I do think it makes a difference. I'm even naïve enough to think that being nice will make me seem like a real person to whoever else is in the group, and that might avoid some douchebagness from their side. If we have a good time together, maybe they won't ninja-need on some item in the end or engage in other annoying behavior.

But maybe it depends on the person really. I know alot of really nice people who just aren't especially talkative, but quite professional nonetheless. They might not be very personal or polite, but they'll get the job done. They just don't belong to the "smiley-squad". So does greeting, thanking and gratsing really matter in the end? Like I said, I like it. It makes me happy when I've got some happy, talkative chap in the group who rather makes something turn into fun than bashing. Making mistakes doesn't seem like such a problem if people go "ow well, shit happens sometimes!" rather than "wtf are u doing noob?". I've talked about it before, but it feels like keeping a good mood makes people want to do their best. And this varies from situation to situation of course. Sometimes you need people to be serious and to not just make fun of a wipe. But maybe there is a nice inbetween. There is no need to be rude in any situation. This doesn't differ from real life at all, although I know some people don't agree with me on this.

But we also have the netiquette that's really mostly based on practical reasons. For example don't pull unless you're the tank, or unless you happen to have gear enough to count as a tank. It will just make things so much more annoying for everyone involved, except you perhaps. Don't spam in trade, because that will make it harder for anyone else to get their message across, and ultimately people will just ignore you anyway. So it's really just a lose-lose situation (and yet so many people do it, it makes you wonder...).

Being nice is about practical reasons too actually. If you keep everyone happy, even when things don't work so well, it will probably make things run smoother in the end. This is especially true in raids. Or when trying to keep the tank from leaving by smoothing out some dilemma. Keeping people happy will get you what you want, so keeping good netiquette is ultimately mutually beneficial (and therefore egotistical as everything else, right?).

And we all know that a rightly (or wrongly) placed smiley makes all the difference in how a sentence might be interpreted by its receiver. Saying something with or without a smiley might make the difference between a fight and a laugh. So perhaps the use of smileys is part of good netiquette as well? If we don't use them in a proper way (not too much either of course), how can we expect our fellow WoW'ers to get our point in the way we like? Using too many means they'll lose their effect and no one will take them serious, using too few, or the wrong ones might people think you mean something completely else. Is it our business to use our smileys the proper way, or is it up to everyone else to understand how you use them?

It is also considered polite to: Help people who are dying while questing, not steal what someone has fought for (veins, chests) and to share quests mobs/items. Why? Because you hope they'll do it for if it was reversed. If you don't follow this kind of etiquette, you can't expect anyone to care when someone does the same to you.

Like I tried to point out at the start, the whole point of netiquette, and etiquette overall, isn't that they're needed per se, like skills or gear, we simply use it because we want to show respect for whoever is on the other side of the screen and by doing that gain something for ourselves. And in my opinion it does make a difference.

What do you think is good WoW-netiquette? And is it necessary?