All Things Gaming
Here’s a video of me getting the Wrecking Ball achievement on my 90 hunter. I cut out some of the slow parts from the battle ground and mixed it with some (hopefully legally used) music. I’ve gotten this once or twice on old characters before, but it’s still fun to see, particularly at max level. Check it out! Also, follow my youtube, cause.., why not? It doesn’t bite.
I’ve PVP’d on my hunter a bit in the past, but it’s always been just random battlegrounds or pretty casual arenas. Recently however, my friend Sixin has convinced me to start trying things a little more seriously. So I joined his PVP guild in a few rated battlegrounds. Well… it was awesome. We won several matches, lost very few, and I was near the top of the charts each time. I decided to move that character over to the guild and did some more with them (even landed on one of their rated teams). A handful more matches in and I find myself sitting at 1600 rating with the Stone Guard title and think maybe it’s time to take this a little more seriously. Then I started looking at where I can improve and found some horrible things. (more…)
People who know me well might be surprised by this, but sometimes I just run out of things to say. I want to get back into filling this blog with ideas and events, but what? We’re late into an expansion with the new one not even yet seen on the horizon. There’s just nothing new to report on. I even tried to venture to Blog Azeroth in hopes of partaking in their “Shared Topic” posts and found none currently up. I’m not sure if I caught it in an off time, the holidays and what not, or if their not doing that anymore. If anyone knows and reads this post, please let me know – it was a very cool site and idea center.
Recently I’ve been doing some live streaming and video making and that’s been pretty fun, (more…)
For those who aren’t in the loop, there are a number of WoW players (and other games, for that matter) who stream their play online. Similar to making an epic PVP video or content guide, except it’s live, unscripted and could end up awesome or making you look like a total noob. I’ve decided that I may as well join the fray and see if any people are bored enough to check out my streams and posted videos on TwitchTV.
You can find my live stream at http://www.twitch.tv/sharden0 if I’m on and past streams at http://www.twitch.tv/alternateimage/profile/pastBroadcasts. So far I’m still working on getting everything together, so if the audio or video quality isn’t quite up to par yet – don’t give up hope, you may still get to see my badness (or awesomeness) soon enough. I’ll be streaming WoW PVP, maybe raids and random shenanigans. Also, Battlefield 4, League of Legends, and probably some other things.
Oh and speaking of streams, a good friend of mine also has a new channel. Check out for http://www.twitch.tv/vinid87 for similar streams and videos.
*twitch links updated*
Blizzard has really been doing an awesome job this expansion bringing us consistent, frequent, and meaningful patches. Upcoming patch 5.3 appears to be no exception so far. While, there are a lot of strange data mining discoveries so far (such as a spell for a third talent specialization) the biggest changes I’m seeing are to PVP. First off… hunters – gone! Second, resilience is being removed from gear. Finally, PVP will now feature gear scaling similar to challenge modes. Okay, so only two of those things is true. Follow after the break to see which and also the rest of the patch notes relating to PVP.
I’ve always found there to be something wrong with a lack of consequences for any given action. In the real world there are plenty of repercussions for bad decisions and failure. If you gamble and lose, you lose money and possibly go into debt or face other personal problems. You wouldn’t likely run in the middle of a gang shootout or busy intersection without good cause. In traditional video games, dying usually means reverting to the last saved location, but in multiplayer online games, there are varying and often insignificant consequences. Game developers have a tough job of balancing the feeling of risk with keeping the game fun.
There was a poker application on myspace that I played for a little while. There was “chips” that you could bet and collect but had no real dollar value attached. Most players played in a similar fashion to how a realistic game would go. You don’t bet big unless you have a good hand or really think you can bluff your way through. Ocassionally though, a player would join a table that would simply max bet every hand. Complete disregard for the normal consequences of betting all your money. Unless they were challenged and lost quickly, it would pretty much ruin any table. Other players would fold, leave, or sometimes call the bet and be taken out completely in one fell swoop. Of course, there is a chance someone feels ballsy and goes all-in, but not every hand or that commonly. The realism and fun of the game was hurt because losing the chips meant nothing, a player could log back in or re-install the app and be good to go yet again. In other types of multiplayer games, specifically WoW, the lack of penalties for dying or losing sometimes can hinder the behavior and strategy of some of the players. (more…)