See above custom intro video made for player Chinglish. It’s so epic. (more…)
Tag: wow
A Friendly, Beta-Invite PSA
I’ve been waiting patiently (I mean anxiously, angrily, cynically) for a beta invite into Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm, their new MOBA game, for quite some time. My several of my guild-mates have gotten invitations to that along with the recent World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor beta. But little ole me has been left to my own devices and release level games only. Then suddenly, my roommate announces his WoD beta invite! “Blast”, I think to myself, then congratulate him (I mean called him things that I shouldn’t repeat on here). But wait!
It was a phony!
And I saved him from clicking on the links in his email and doing who knows what to his computer and account. After reminding him to check his battle.net and Blizzard launcher directly… there was no WoD beta account ready.
So, a friendly reminder to all. If you think you have a beta invite for any of Blizzards games (or really any other emails of any sort) go to the source directly and don’t click on things in your email.
Warlords of Draenor Secondary Stat Changes
Easily among the aspects of Warlords of Draenor that I’m most excited about are the changes to stats. Not the item squish, mind you, that I still have some reservations about, but the secondary and new minor stats. As you’re likely aware, if you’re here reading an obscure gaming blogs WoW Post, several stats have been removed entirely. Dodge, parry, hit and expertise are gone. I’m very happy with the removal of hit and expertise. Those stats always felt so limiting. It was never a “boost” to reach their respective caps, just a pain when you didn’t and it always caused such touble in choosing gear. I’m a little more torn about dodge and parry. While I agree they weren’t very “fun” stats, they did provide a little something in making a tank feel like a tank and not just a dps with threat. I’m curious to see what tanking abilities and passives are added to make up for the loss of passive mitigation from the stats. The new stats, however, seem really fun. Follow after the break for a full list. (more…)
Blizzard Reacts to Wildstar Launch
Let’s face it: World of Warcraft is the standard to which other newly minted MMO’s are compared. It’s the elephant in every room in every competing developers office. Because, as we’ve no choice but admit, every other major MMO is competing with WoW. Sure, to some extent with each other as well, but the prize is the amazing subscriber numbers that Blizzard has been able to amass. While we’ve seemed to move on past the point where every significant launch is heralded as the ‘death knell of WoW’ (Aion, Rift, SWTOR, etc), there’s always still that cautious eye raised towards the king of the mountain. Will it be dethroned or will the latest challenger fail to even shake its lofty perch? Of course, even with its pet behemoth, Blizzard has to be concerned when a new contender arises. And they’d be fools to not take a few preemptive strikes… (more…)
Changes to the Blog
Those who come here regularly (or perhaps followed a fixed link from elsewhere on the interwebs) will notice that this site is no longer called “15 Minutes of WoW”. Well, fine, as of this writing the actual link is still that, but not the name or the function of the blog. For both the reasons of my declining interest in World of Warcraft (in no small part due to the long, long time until new content will be released) but also because of my desire to play and blog about other games, I’ve decided to make the change to a gaming blog as opposed to specifically focusing on Wow. A quick review of recent posts would show that the less than adequate Elder Scrolls Online has been a big topic recently and some Wildstar should be showing up in the near future. There may be layout changes and even an actual address change coming, so keep your eyes peeled.
The State of Things
I’m not going to lie. My hopes for ESO are incredibly high. I love the MMO concept; the persistent, massive world; the social environment inside a game, but I’m running out of something to play. I’m a long time World of Warcraft player and it’s a great game, but… Oh, it’s such a but. The game is old. And I don’t just mean that the graphics engine is primarily 10 years old (which, honestly does get to me occasionally). The game is tired. It’s worn out. We’re on episode two hundred and whatever of Dragon Ball Z and while we keep getting new bosses it’s all the same. The interface and features are the best – there’s no arguing that. No other MMO out there matches the quality-of-game improvements that have happened over the years. But you can only polish the same gem so much. It’s still the same. This is where WoW finds itself, it’s the most polished MMO (excluding graphics) but it’s lacking something new to drive interest. So, what else to turn to? TERA looks great but the only unique part (live action combat) feels more gimmicky than a feature. The Secret World has basically the coolest premise out there, but the simple -fun- of game play is so much lower. A friend of mine described Knights of the Old Republic game play as exactly like WoW from 5 years ago. But look… on the horizon is a game that promises to exceed all of them. (more…)