Guild Wars

One rarely notices them, but there are in fact several other big mmorpgs out there. Have you ever tried one? I have tried two of them, Guild Wars and Warhammer Online, both on 10 day trials. It was some time ago (Guild Wars about a year and Warhammer Online about half a year), and the games have probably changed considerably since then just as WoW has. But you still get the essence of the game when trying them out, or at least I hope I do since that's the whole idea of a 10 day trial isn't it? To give people a general idea about what a game is about so they can decide whether they want to spend 40 hours a week playing it? I always try to think that I shouldn't compare other mmorpgs to WoW, because it's not really fair. WoW has been out on the market for far longer than GW and WO and has had more time to fine tune through trial and error, but it's hard not to in reality. Since I have played WoW so much, I will inevitably think about everything I do in another mmorpgs through the eyes of a long time WoW player. I'm only human after all. So what did I think?

Guild Wars
My first horror filled insight about this game was that you can't jump in GW. Seriously! I read that they're going to release a GW2 in which you can jump, but this still means my very first impression with GW wasn't overly positive. It might sound like a small thing, but it really bothered me. It gives the game a 2-dimensional feel, like you're stuck to the ground. You might as well be a rock in the sand, you don't really get the feeling you're a "living" object with free choice to move around, and I didn't think it suited the game. Maybe it's a habit thing, and if GW is designed around not being able to jump (and I am sure it is), this doesn't have to be an issue, just one of those "I'm used to being able to do this and I want to whine about it"-problem. And on the bright side you automatically get rid of all the idiots who spam jump around when waiting for something in a group.

One thing I knew about GW before playing it, from watching a friend who played it some, and really liked about it when I played, is the possibilty to do just about anything you like with your UI. Unlike WoW, which has the worst and most rigid UI ever, GW gives the player nearly free hands to move bars and windows around as you like to fit ones play style. Lovely! More game developers should think about implementing these kind of choices into their game. It seems like they (Blizzard) don't think about the fact that we're supposed to spend a whole lot of time looking at that screen, and most of us want to customize it to our liking. The UI is part of the game, although Blizzard doesn't treat it like that.

The graphics of GW have always been better than those of WoW. Blizzard has played it safe by having a slightly cartoonish look, it is easier to hide bad graphics that way (and boy are they bad at some places). The emotes, motions and spell effects looked cool enough and I really have nothing bad to say about the graphics overall. As a WoW player I am used to the world and the monsters that inhabit it to look a certain way, which meant I had more trouble locating stuff in GW. The eyes adapt to a certain way of scanning the surroundings I suppose, which of course didn't work the same way for GW. But that was just a problem about me having to become used to the graphics of GW instead, and not a problem of the game.

I did miss the possibility to choose a race other than human though. I like being able to play some sort of "monster", or at least something that doesn't feel so plain all the time. In all honesty I only played one class, some sort of caster, and I can't say much about the diversity in professions and classes. In games like Diablo playing only human heros isn't anything you think about, and I am sure it doesn't have to be a problem in a game like GW either.

One thing about Gw that was a major problem for me before I started out, and that I didn't get a chance to try out (see below) was the game design choice not to let player play by themselves outside of cities. This means you always have to be in a group, either with other players or with npc's. It's an interesting design choice, no question about it. Like I said I didn't get to try it so I can't say it doesn't work well, it probably does. But being forced to play in a group doesn't sound like something for me. I don't like any kind of game mechanics to be force like that unless it is supposed to be an outright multi-player game. But that isn't so since you can use an all npc group, which sort of removes the feeling of being multi-player. The point seems to be that you can't do stuff alone.

As in WoW, you start out playing a secluded area, set up for you to understand the game properly before you get thrown out into the real thing. This worked well and I had no trouble until I got out of this place. Or rather was supposed to get out of this place. I ran around like stupid trying to find the nect place to go, but I just couldn't. I asked around in chat, but just as no one really cares much about nubs in WoW, no one cared much about me in GW. I asked every npc I could see, ran to every corner of the map, but I seriously didn't know what to do next. After a while of running around I just gave up. It's not supposed to be that difficult to get going with the game! I'm not slow (or so I think) and I have at least some experience with games of this kind. Maybe the solution was dead obvious, but they lost my interest anyway.

I realize I probably didn't give GW the chance it deserved, and maybe I was just unlucky or too stupid to get into the game properly. On the other hand I think that a game only has so long to impress me and the competition is fierce. Somehow I think GW had to do better than it had, and eventhough one should never say never, I probably won't become a GW player. I might give it another try, or GW2 if that turns up (maybe it has already?), but overall I felt that GW wasn't a bad game but it wasn't my kind of game.

If you read this and happen to know alot more about GW than me and notice some mistakes please just tell me. In any case what I've written here is the impression the game has made on me, so even if some things are wrong that's still the idea I got from playing it. But I'd also love it if I am completely mistaken and GW happens to be an awesome game (more awesome games for the people), in which case I have to try it again of course!
Next time, which might be tomorrow, I'll talk about my impressions on Warhammer Online!

Have you tried GW? What did you think of it?

Bosses to love

Have you ever read the diary of Archavon? It is just outside the raid portal on the floor. You'd have to be a stone not to be affected by that lovely thing. Seriously, Blizzard sure know how to play them heart strings. Every time someone proposes to to kill him I think about that diary. Archavon isn't just a pile of graphics anymore. Obviously he has feelings, I can read about them right there in his "secret" diary! Maybe he's even got a soul...

Archavon isn't the only npc I have special feelings for. Blizzard have gone through alot of work to make us have some feelings for at least most of the bosses in the game. They've got their little speeches and emotes, so that they're not just loot givers but a little more real to us (it doesn't seem to work more than the first time you kill them though). And some bosses are so charming that I'm having a hard time killing them.

One of my favorites is Skum. You know, the thunderlizard standing around in Wailing Caverns? He just stands around, minding his own business, when a party of people barges in and kills him. What has he done to anyone anyway? He even tries to flee which just is so sad. He is in fact one of the few bosses in the game that isn't evil in some way. We don't actually have a good reason to kill him, he just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I always try to avoid killing him, but the rest of my group rarely agrees with me. They just see the blues, and not the thunderlizard behind them.

Other bosses I like include most Abomination Bosses, like Patchwerk, Ramstein and Meathook. Mostly because they, just like Skum, don't really seem to know what the heck is going on. They probably don't know that they're part of some necromancers evil scheme. They just came into existance, thought they were having a great time playing with their toys when suddenly a bunch of people comes and ruins all the fun. Poor guys, I feel for you. Abominations need love too, just look at Frankensteins monster.

Love likes the Eck guy (thing?), also for these reasons. He just comes out of nowhere and probably thinks "what the heck are these guys doing here, ah well I'll try to eat them while I have the chance", and then he gets his ass kicked. But he's not evil either. Yet another guy (thing?) in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's no fun in killing these poor, slightly stupid bosses is there? I just feel kinda sorry for them.

These bosses are special to me in the "I don't want to kill them because they're so cute" kind of way. But then I love other bosses for other reasons of course. Like because they're so cool or fun. Maybe that's for another post.

Are me and Love exceptions, or are these doofus bosses really extra lovable? Do you have any favorite boss, and for what reason?

I'm working all day tomorrow (like seriously all day, 7am sunday until 10 am monday), so won't have time to make a post unfortunately!

A-o-R: Auditor

Auditor
Category - Money mod
Necessity Level - Low
Class/Role - Any

There are some addons I've used for such a long time I forget what they do. Auditor is such an addon, so I had to ask Love. It's always just been around, sitting in the corner (or on my Chocolate Bar more recently), doing its thing so smoothly I even forgot it was doing it. It's funny when you get so used to some features you think they're actually part of the game and then you freak when you happen to play on some friends computer without addons.

It doesn't really do anything necessary, it's more one of those neat to have addons. Auditor will give you a better overview of your cash flow, showing for instance where your money is coming from and going to. It will also show you how much money you have on alts and how much you've earned or spent this week (or another time frame) and on what. (Image borrowed from Curse.com)

If you're one of them AH-nerds, constantly sitting around trying to make a buck, being able to keep an eagle eye on earnings and outgoings is quite nice. I use it mainly to keep track on how much money I have on alts, but considering I have another addon that does that as well... Well, Auditor does it in a really easy-to-view way and since it doesn't take much space I might as well keep it around, like I have all this time.

Auditor can get really specific, showing you for instance how much money you spent the last week/day/lifetime etc on stuff like repairs, vendors, AH etc. You can choose to look at a specific character, realm or overall. So if you're one of those people who love addons because they help you keep track on everything, then this is definitely for you. There is even an option called "Absurd Detail" and that is really what this addon is all about. There are really no drawbacks about this addon, if you want to know everything about your money flows, this will do it for you. And then of course if you're not so interested in that then there's no need for you to use an addon like this. It won't make you a better player, it might however save you some time when you're trying to buy something expensive on your alt and are unsure about if they can afford it or if you have to send them some money.

It hasn't been updated for quite a while, but still works well for me. I only use it very little though. The creator also tells us that Spicy Meatballs is part of the "new features", can't miss out on that can we!
And you can find it here.

WoW memes

Since I've been reading alot on KnowYourMeme lately, and since I find the whole occurrence of memes really fascinating, I started thinking about WoW-memes. I've played on several different servers, and some things just seem to come back whether you like them or not. Personally I enjoy most memes, like I said I think the whole thing about memes is kinda cool. You take something, anything and with enough people tagging along you've got a meme. The creative potential hidden in these things is enormous. Imagine if you could have all those people work collectively on something useful? Well you have stuff like Wikipedia, and other open source material/programs. Not to mention all the bloggers, spending hours on their thing for no pay other than some recognition from the readers now and then.

But memes are different. They're awesome because they're not useful. Because they're more like work of art really, and why do people spend so much time with them? Anyone using the internet any amount of time must've seen some kind of meme by now. They're like fashion fads, only with digital work instead. And since anything can turn into a meme it means anyone can work with a meme as well, making anyone a creator and contributor of art.

Memes will come to any digital area for these reasons. Like with "Leeroy Jenkins" that I also mentioned yesterday, they distinguish us from others. By being part of the people who know what Leeroy is all about we mark ourselves. We tell everyone who understand something about us, and we tell everyone who don't understand something about us too. Internet memes are more general, but people who don't know about "Over 9000", "Lolcats", "All your base are belong to us" and other well known memes are seen as bad internet users.

And the same goes for WoW. Even this place has memes, and these memes are very specific. They don't spread outside the WoW-area much, in fact only Leeroy has to some extent (as far as I know), mostly probably because it can be seen without actually playing the game. But there are other memes in WoW that you stumble across constantly. So let's look at some of them.

Dirge
The "Dirge"-meme is about spam-linking the weapon Dirge into a chat, preferrably trade chat since that reaches the most people. I have no idea how this became a meme, my guess would be that Dirge was one of the best weapons in the game at the time and alot of people wanted it crafted. Spam-linking it became a pun or mockery of all the "serious" people spam-linking it to get it crafted. Like mocking a child who wants something and can't stop whining about it. Although mockery always is amusing to some extent, this meme soon got a life of its own and got mainly as spammy as the ones it was supposed to mock, which isn't as amusing. I saw this meme as late as some days ago in trade chat, but it has died down considerably since its glory days and there are usually great intervals between each occurrance.

Anal
A lovely name for a meme, the Anal-meme is about linking the word "anal" with some achievement or skill for a witty combination of words, such as "Anal Hamstring", "Anal Charge" or "Anal Conflagration". This meme was probably created out of a combination of the implementation of being able to link skills in chat windows, and the prepubertal humor of anything that has to do with the rectum. Since the word "anal" is funny in itself, the reasoning goes, it makes any word it is combined with funny too, and people were competing about finding the best combinations. Since prepubertal humor is either hilarious or damn annoying, depending on what kind of person you happen to be, people either loved ot hated this meme. I for one, loved it and even participated in it to some small extent (you may hate me all you like). I'm one of those people who can laugh out loud for almost any "anal"-combination out there, so I am sad to say that this meme has died out pretty much since its prime times. I haven't seen it around for some time now, but I know it reflowers now and then in trade chat when someone is bored. It usually encourages a few followers.

These are the two biggest memes I can think of that are from the WoW-world. There are also other common memes that you can see frequently in trade chat, but they come from the outside, like "over 9000". Not many, so maybe it's time to create another WoW-meme?

WoW and real life

I love coincidences. Just some days after I had the thought about doing this post, a big swedish news paper writes an article about this very subject. It was about how playing WoW can make people into better leaders. Having worked on McDonalds used to be a good merit, but now apparently having played alot of WoW also counts as one (good for me, because I have played alot). Among some people. And only if you were a guild leader/raid leader.

That's not entirely what I'm after here though. I don't mean how playing a game could be beneficial for you in real life on a big scale, but how playing a game alot could affect your everyday real life doings in any way really. Playing a game could make you aware of totally new things around you. Playing something like Assassin's Creed or Prince of Persia might make you look at walls and the like in a new way. Games can also make you experience things in real life you normally wouldn't.

Any game will do this. I remember after a particularly intensive period of playing Mario Kart 64, I could see that weapon browsing square in the corner of my eye all the time, even when I wasn't playing. Maybe I am crazy, but I am quite sure that anyone has experienced things like this after an intense period of playing some game.

Even WoW does this. After some pvping I reacted to anyone wearing red hed caps outside for example and tried to hide behind trees. My brother who plays a rogue, and always has, has had the urge to use vanish in some situations. After alot of herbing I think I see herbs in every corner. Also when I was picking alot of junxboxes this same thing happened to me. Some things turn into unconscious reflexes, some things are more thought through yet very unrealistic. Like wanting to use a portal instead of having to walk somewhere (damn do I wish I could do that sometimes).

It's interesting though, considering how much time I play WoW, I am not that affected by it when not playing. Of course I spend alot of time thinking about things in WoW, like this blog and what to write and about raids I'm going to do and the like (this qualified as being addicted some years ago). But less on an unconscious level than with many other games I've played. None of which I have spent as much time with as WoW. Maybe some games affect you more than others. Or maybe you're more affected when you're young than old. Or maybe I have played WoW so much it has become a part of me, and I can't even notice the way it affects be outside playing anymore XD.

I do notice it in the way I talk though. I don't go around saying things like "lol" but there are definitely terms I use that come from WoW. Like screaming "Leeeroy!" before doing something stupid. Or saying "kek". Stuff a non-player wouldn't understand at all.

This instance with the red cap people was long ago. I can't remember anything special that has happened to me lately that I feel is due to me playing WoW. Except me dreaming about WoW occasionally of course. Not as often as you'd think however, and then we're back to my theory about WoW being too ordinary. My brain has sorted it under "everyday things, nonimportant" by now probably. I usually dream about things that trouble me, and WoW rarely troubles me. If it did I probably wouldn't play it.

Have you noticed any way that your playing WoW affects you in your everyday life?