Matt Uleman brought us all some of the best music that has ever graced World of Warcraft before or since the release of The Burning Crusade.  Peter Mcconnell wrote the song “Average Brown Wookie” – the theme that kicks in at 40 seconds is the sort of thing that belongs on stage with the gents from Average White Band and Pick Up Pieces (especially at 2:12 into the song).

The music of people like Mark Griskey, Gordy Haab, Lennie Moore, Will Roget who composed the music for Star Wars the Old Republic (see Gamespot Interview below) immerse that player and evoke emotions like never before.  It has us all turning up the music on the game again.

 In the end, I think one of the composers, Will Roget, said it best…

“It’s more about the experience, the emotiont that I want the players to feel, that the setting will give them.” – Will Roget, composer, Star Wars the Old Republic

By now most of you have seen the new Chuck Norris commercial for World of Warcraft (WoW) – and if you haven’t you have now.  No doubt inspired by the many Chuck Norris jokes that were once the mainstay of Barrens chat it will likely rekindle them all.   The commercial also rekindles memories of the year and a half I lived in Asia (courtesy of the U.S. military) – after a year and a half I actually missed commercials.   On Armed Forces Radio and Television (the only English speaking channel at the time) the only commercials they briefly had where of the “be all you can be” type; which was a bit odd since everyone watching was already in the military or a military contractor.  Even though the commercials were a constant source of irritation stateside, blaring at twice the volume of the show you are watching, I missed them when they were gone.

I find myself feeling the same way  about Barrens chat.

Once the source of constant patter and many a befuddled player trying to find Mankrik’s wife it is sadly quiet when I journey through those realms these days.  Believe it or not I miss the inane banter and the constant attacks on the Crossroads.  Maybe this commercial will bring back fond (or at least aggravating)  memories for other veteran  players.  And while the commerical explains that there are ten million people in World of Warcraft because Chuck Norris allows them to live I find myself thinking one thing…

Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups he pushes the world down.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

“The only reason Zynga exists is because people like EA, people like Blizzard, failed to step in…And so I think that the challenge for Blizzard, when you are that good, when you’re making that much money, when you’re that much on top of your game, in the current era, it’s actually fairly difficult to spend money towards things that seem to not be as profitable, that people don’t understand as well and that you don’t imagine could possibly beat how well you’re doing at the top of your game in the current era.” – Richard Garriott, Richard Garriott: Blizzard will have to contend with the new Zynga’s of the World, Industry Gamers

 Well it seems that if the Zyngas of the world will be the contender that brings World of Warcraft to its virtual knees it won’t actually be Zynga.  In an article over at Escapist Magzine.com  entitled “Zynga’s Profits Continue To Drop” Mike Thompson net profits were down from last year by almost 54 percent.   The point is, no matter what part of the profit and loss statement you put the most emphasis on, what matters the most is the line that says “net profit and loss before depreciation” – and in Zynga’s case a large part of the operating expenses these days seem be in Lawyers fees .

If Blizzard has anything at all to fear it’s attrition as players seem to be dropping out these days  faster than the freshman year engineering classes.  While Blizzard still has more subscribers than Switzerland has citizens Mike Morhaime (co-founder and CEO of Blizzard) who always seems to be in the right place at the right time is busy working on the next 800 pound gorilla (codenamed Titan as we are all aware). 

In the end, it appears that Richard Garriott won’t even be right for all the wrong reasons and Rob Pardo is still “THE MAN.”

See you online (for show 97 being edited now)

Julie Whitefeather

“The only reason Zynga exists is because people like EA, people like Blizzard, failed to step in…And so I think that the challenge for Blizzard, when you are that good, when you’re making that much money, when you’re that much on top of your game, in the current era, it’s actually fairly difficult to spend money towards things that seem to not be as profitable, that people don’t understand as well and that you don’t imagine could possibly beat how well you’re doing at the top of your game in the current era.” – Richard Garriott, Richard Garriott: Blizzard will have to contend with the new Zynga’s of the World, Industry Gamers

Richard Garriott is right… probably (Source).  And even if he isn’t the man has made so much money in the same industry that is currently laying off people faster than you can say “laying off people” that the industry some part of the industry may listen to him. After all, like Tevye singing “If I were a rich man” in Fiddler on the roof, when your rich people think you really know. On the other hand I heard the Bobby Kotick described as a clown shoed asshat and he is probably pulling in a lot more cash than I am.   So in the end analysis the “golden rule” – you know, the one that claims “whoever has the gold makes the rules” – isn’t necessarily true.  After all, I have met a few people with healthy amounts of cash that have their head so far up their posterior they could whistle through their belly buttons.

Still, I think Richard Garriot may be right.

On the other hand I think Keen’s observation of Dr. Richard Bartle is so far off base it isn’t even in the same town let alone the same ball park. Mostly I attribute it to not taking the time to listen to what Doctor Bartle has to say – the same unenlightened attitude I slipped into and for which I apologized to the good Doctor on the air.  And hey Keen, you will get your chance to have a good long listen to Doctor Bartle on show 100 in the coming weeks.

But as I said the first Richard, Richard Garriott, is probably right…

…but I don’t think the results are what he things they will be.  After all, this is the same man who described World of Warcraft (WoW) as “a system of inventory management”.  While he meant it with a bit of disdain, Blizzard said “yep, yep” and continued making so much money with that system it would take a team of Sherpa guides a week to reach the summit.

The right place at the right time.

That big pile of money that Blizzard made doesn’t necessarily mean they are right, it just proves they were at the right place at the right time .  When Paul Barnett was on our show he called them a “fluke of nature”.  Personally, I just think what it means is that Michael Morhaime has a sense of timing that would have made Fred Astaire green with envy. While it may be true that Blizzard didn’t step into the world of “virtual –villes” there is probably I doubt it will ever prove to be as disadvantageous as Mr. Garriott thinks it will.  Zynga was simply in the right place at the right time.  However, unlike Blizzard, I doubt Zynga’s continued success is the result of anything more than a matter of throwing enough crap only to find that some of it will eventually stick. If Blizzard will have to contend with any up and comers in the future there is very little chance that challenge will come from the Zyngas of the World (or the Portalariums for that matter).  Blizzard has expended a great deal of time making Wow more accessible to people who don’t want to make a full time career of playing a game.  While some portion of veteran gamers may see this as “dumbing down” a game, it is simply a matter of doing what Blizzard does best – appealing to ever wider audiences.

And while there are a good many of veteran WoW players out there who swear they will close down their account forever because of anthropomorphic panda people, there will probably be 4 people who love Po the Kung Fu panda out their waiting to take your place.  And as Hasbro found out long ago with Nerf, Panda’s too can be serious business.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Greed makes people do funny things.  What is more, the more money people have the more they seem to need – especially if the cash flow starts to falter.  Greed for money makes a cocaine addiction look like a hankering for peanut butter banana sandwiches. 

So we can only imagine the stress that occurrs when the proverbial 800 pound Blizzard gorilla steps on a scale and finds it is losing weight faster than a teenage girl trying to fit into a prom dress -  The free 2 play banners up to level 20  banners fly up all over the place.   Next Blizzard finally tries to beat gold sellers (that bane of all virtual universes) by trying to beat them at their own game , demanding a piece of the action.

The details that came out of Blizzcon this year still leave some of us here at NPNM scratching our collective heads in wonderment. As General George Patton could have told you (or at least George C. Scott) all glory is fleeting.  When Paul Barnett was on the NPNM show he described the phenomenal success of World of Warcraft (Wow) as a “fluke”.

As for the changes, I can certainly live with the elimination of talent trees.  Not only  is balancing talent trees an impossible task, no matter who tries it,  but I am so sick of the most desireable spec for a given task I could puke on my shoes. Is the ranged slot going away?  I am sure my hunter will miss the stat stick on her back. After all, as all Wow hunters know they are a melee class right? (/sarcasm)

But having seen Jack Black as a Kung fu panda puts a whole new light on Wows Panderan race and it isn’t a pretty one.

Had I not seen the movie I would still cast a sideways glance at the new race – and yes, whenever I see the World Wildlive Fund panda sticker I can’t help thinking about wrestling Pandas.

So what’s the  problem?

That is the very question that Fran asked me when I told her about the Pandarens finally making their way to the forefront of WoW. 

“Don’t you have Kung Fu Pandaren monk as a pet?”

“Well yes, but that’s different.”

“Doesn’t Wow already have talking walruses?”

“Oh yes…the Wilfred Brimley people.”

“So what’s the problem – I think it’s great!”

Well I guess there isn’t one, just so long as they aren’t a playable race….oops.   Still, we already see talking cow people strolling through Ogrimar and werewolves stalking through Stormwind.   Perhaps Blizzard, unlike CCP who doesn’t seem to give a rats ass about new players, is trying to bring in fresh new and very young blood to the game. But every time I see a Pandaren I think about Jack Black and Kung Fu pandas.  It’s just inevitable.  It’s like telling someone not to think about pink rhinos – that’s the first image that pops into your head.

Will this outrage hordes of horde players?  Will this drive the dwarven race back into their dens?  Whether or not it does doesn’t matter. After all, Wow was hemoraging players long before playable Pandarens were announced.

Will we cancel our accounts?  We already canceled one of them and it had nothing to do with anthropomorphic pandas.  Will we cancel our single remaining Wow account?  The jury is still out.  If we don’t I can tell you one thing for sure – we refuse to name our Pandaren monk Po.

We won’t be able to – there will already be thousands of iterations of the name by the time we log on.

A difficult balance

“PVE…Still, we see Survival hunters and Unholy DKs on top of a lot of single target fights. Arcane, Marksman, and Beastmaster damage is too low.” – Ghostcrawler, Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft

The lead in quote by Ghostcrawler is an excerpt from the changes we can expect to see now that many of the players have started to hit level 85 in Cataclysm.  Mind you I expect the balance of power in player vs. player (at least the way Blizzard does it) to be precarious at best, involving decision that would put the Wisdom of Solmon to the test – not to with Player vs. Environment. 

The first thing that any survival hunter will  say to themselves is “oh boy here comes the nerfbat.”

The time was, when my beastmaster hunter was the top of the damage charts.  But to quote Auntie Entity from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, “Today the cock of the walk tommorow a featherduster.” My initial thought when I read the quote above was to assume that Blizzard would beat down the survival hunters rather than boost the beastmaster and marksman hunters.  Later in the same missive by Ghostcrawler I see that might not be the case: 

“As part of the Marks and Beastmaster buffs, we’re buffing Aimed Shot, Kill Shot, Chimera Shot, and Kill Command.” – Ghostcrawler

The flip side of this particular coin is, of course, the most famous wine of all…the “whine” we see in the forums whenever such a missive hits the streets if the global village.  If everyone had their way Azeroth would soon see the damage equivalent of a wage/price spiral spinning out of control until inflated ability to do DPS would find players one shotting anything the game can throw at them.  Still, while I do see the need for balance in pvp. After all, nobody plays to lose all the time (baring mitigating circumstances when it was the easiest way to accumulate “honor”) and the battlegrounds would soon become deserted.  But why so much concern about who does the most damage in pve?  Initially the reason given for boosting survival hunters and nerfing beastmaster hunters was that no one was playing a survival hunter – obviously Blizzard seems to have overbalanced the scales a bit.

One of the big concerns that Blizzard voiced just prior to the release of Cataclysm was the ever increasing occurance of cookie-cutter talent builds.  Yet the reduction to 31 point talent builds doesn’t seem to have done much to improve that.  In fact with fewer choices left to each player it seems that “cookie cutter” talent builds will become even more prevalent. On the whole where PvE is concerned, Blizzard seems far too concerned over what they consider a proper mix of the number of players who play each class.  If they were concerned over players being able to play what they want, rather than what they have to in order to be able to get invited to a raid they seem to have accomplished just the opposite.

On the whole a reputation of any sort, even that of a character class, dies hard. When I play my sword and board warrior I still get whispers saying “Can you tank for us?” when a perfectly good druid tank or paladin tank is available.  Yet when I play my hunter it is much like being the last person chosen when playing sports in grade school…”I guess I will have to take the hunter”. A twist of an old adage would be in order at this point when you consider class balance…You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but the only thing you can do all the time when you try and balance classes is piss off everyone. 

The whole thing reminds me of a report I once saw on ABC news not long ago reporting that new studies have show, contrary to both popular opinion and previous studies that drinking coffee is actually good for you.  Mind you they might not be consider the average coffee drinker to the someone like me who drinks a liter of coffee when I am at work.  What struck me was what the reporter said at the end – if you wait long enough, eventually a study will show that what you like to do is good for you.  The same seems to hold true in World of Warcraft. If you wait long enough, even if  you are a feather duster, eventually you will come out on top again – or reasonable close to it.

Before we go I just wanted to thank Massively for the mention of our blog on their website.  Even though we are 11 on a scale of 1 to 10 at least we are the running – thanks Massively.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

See you online (on the Proudmoore Server)

Julie and Fran

Cut Away Scenes Discussed – The end of the World as We know it

Cutaway Scenes Discussed – Sylvanis really is a bitch

Articles Discussed:

The End of the World as we know it

Beat Zombies Vs. Plants in WoW

EQ2 Resources Cited by Saylah:

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq2/calendar.php

http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/category:eq2_live_events

http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/Frostfell_(EQ2_Live_Event)

http://eq2decorators.com/

Mom had an expression – promise someone the moon and they will want the sun and the stars to go with it.  When Paul Barnett was a guest on our show he reiterated a number of problems he had to deal with, one of the chief among them is telling the public what is in development.  As he related it, it seems that when a developer says he or she “is working on it” (whatever feature “it” may be) many players will interpret this as “it will be out next Thursday”. Taken together both statements leave me wondering if that smell in the background isn’t spoiled player.

A year or so ago Dr. Richard Bartle (Hi Doctor!) opened a stadium sized can of worms by telling the world, that given the chance he would close World of Warcraft (see inset below). It is a testament to his influence that it caused such a stir – had it been just about anyone else who said it the reaction would probably have been “so what?”

If you could take over control of one major MMORPG – which would you choose and what would you do with it? I’d take over World of Warcraft and I’d close it. I just want better virtual worlds. Sacrificing one of the best so its players have to seek out alternatives would be a sure-fire way to ensure that unknown gems got the chance they deserved, and that new games were developed to push back the boundaries. Er, I would get to do this anonymously, wouldn’t I? – Dr. Richard Bartle

If it is not patently obvious given the events of the last year, devotees of the mmo are a fickle lot.  Trying to track the market behavior of the many and varied walks of life from whence come players any more would be like trying to chart the movement of a room full of hyperactive 2 year olds after a liberal application of caffeine.  Three years ago if you had told the average developer that so many publishers will be so willing to hop on the free-to-play bandwagon that the axles might break they  would tell you to lay down until the feeling went away.  If Dr. Bartle had made his famous (or should I say infamous) statement now, chances are a number of people would agree with him, searching for alternatives themselves.

“Even though World of Warcraft’s latest expansion Cataclysm is just a few weeks away, I can’t say that I am overly excited about it really. Yes, I played with some of the stuff in the BETA. I watched a lot of the BETA coverage on YouTube and around the internet. I have also been reading the stuff on the Blizzard web site and I even bought virtual access to Blizzcon. It’s all just “Meh” to me at this point.” – R.W. Harper, Looking forward to something other than WoW

On the surface of the issue is the impact of the bottom line – investors, ever more cautious in an economy that is still floundering, see the profit margin produced by Activision/Blizzard and no doubt expect similar results, expecting net profit before depreciation that rivals the gross national product of Switzerland.  Aside from the fact that WoW has a player base that rivals the population of Switzerland (an oft debated and perhaps dubious fact) one can hardly blame investors considering the average triple-A mmo amounts to a fifty million dollar crap shoot.

Hard Core  Encore

The problem with anything that is critical and financial success in any field of endeavor is answering the question “What do you do for an encore?”  The music field is full of one hit wonders.  The performing arts are rife with performances and performers alike that briefly outshine the sun and then burn out. My old prof’ used to call this a flash in the pan.

“The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you’re the Prodigal Son; you’re quite a prize!” – Joe Turkell as “Tyrell” in Blade Runner

Success can sometimes be its own worst enemy, often causing those that produce the success to buy off on their own P.R./publicity.   I remember being shocked that I was invited to the closed Cataclysm beta that did not include a non-disclosure agreement.  The freedom with which Activision/Blizzard doled out details of the future of Azeroth may have produced an avalanche of free publicity, but it also knocked the mystery inherent in the release of a new expansion out of the ballpark and into the next state.  Grandmother put it this way when it came to revealing too much too soon (o.k. so in her case it had more to do with low cleavage than anything else) “Better to leave a bit of mystery”.

Ante up.

While Activision/Blizzard may have left little mystery in their next expansion there is also little doubt that they are cock sure of themselves (and by “cock” I mean rooster of course).  They are certain that we will all “Ante up” in the game of chance that is the release of any triple-A mmo – and they are probably right.  When a sequel to a successful movie hits the theaters, even if it is garbage it will still produce a return by trading on its reputation. And let’s not kid ourselves here, the success of WoW may be a fluke but even if just a small portion of their player base is receptive to their marketing the expansion will still be a financial success.  

Mind you, as our regular listeners and readers will know, the developers at Blizzard have done a splendid job of accomplishing old tasks new ways – typical of which is instead of being told simply to “report to the Crossroads in the Barrens” players must ride shotgun for a caravan between the Durotar border and the Crossroads.  Still, as much fun as it was to get access to the content ahead of time I can’t help but wonder if grandmother wasn’t right about the mystery.   In the end there may be myriad reasons for the “meh” reactions by some current and former players.   While I can’t speak for the entire NPNM team I can at least give you my take and that is I don’t see such attitudes as anti-Warcraft so much as pro-alternative, hoping fresh ideas from myriad minds will grow.

In the end, let’s hope that the next time Activision/Blizzard comes out with a product that they don’t show so much cleavage for all our sakes, and leave a little for mystery.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. – R.E.M.

The world over there is at least 12 million people to whom the words patch 4.03a has a great meaning – that is the day that Azeroth as we know it changed in a very large way.  As unlikely as it may seem not everyone noticed, and certainly not everyone was happy about it.  Among those who hadn’t noticed (not having left Northrend for some appreciable time) what usually drew grabbed their attention was the sudden lack of portals in Dalaran, effectively isolating the city of the Kirin-Tor.   For those who took some convincing among horde players all it took was a brisk walk through the bustling city Ogrimar (below).   Garrosh Hellscream may be a bloodthirsty warmonger, and the immediate cause of the death of Cairne Bloodhoof  but it’s hard not to like what he has done with the place.

Still, things are a bit different for the Alliance.   If you stroll through Stormwind the only apparent change is the remodeling that Deathwing has done with their docks (much of which lies in ruins).  The only change in Ironforge was a few additions to the Great Forge – oh and Magni Bronzebeard managed to turn himself into a pillar of diamond. [Aside to any dwarven players – if anyone ever offers you the opportunity to be one with nature run away…fast.] So it’s not surprising that there are a few grumblings among Alliance players who feel they got the proverbial short end of the stick.  

Oh yes, the Alliance did indeed get a new race, albeit a fur bearing one.  While furry friends are something we horde players are used to (we are proud of our Tauren members) there is little doubt that many an Alliance player told themselves “First players with hooves, now fur…what next?”  Judging from beta however, I am sure that there are at least a few die hard allies out there who realize how cool werewolves are (oops, I mean Worgen). Blizzard has done a great job establishing a Victorian atmosphere in the Worgen starting area, even if the player does get unceremoniously dumped on the doorstep of Teldrasil at the end.

But now that I re-read the paragraphs above I think that it is just possible that the Blizzard Devs do love horde best and you humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves have been short-sheeted.

So Thrall is dead?

Not a bit of it. I hear this question quite often.  Here is the short version: Thrall wanted to find out why the elements are ticked off so he departed for Nagrand in Outlands to find out, leaving Garrosh Hellscream in charge.  Cairne Bloodhoof is mislead into believing that Garrosh Hellscream ordered the death of druids murdered by Twilights Hammer.  Garrosh accepts but changes the terms of the duel – it is now to the death. Magatha Grimtotem, whose tribe never joined the Horde, poisons the blade Garrosh used in the duel and Cairne dies, leaving his son Baine in charge of the Tauren.

What’s wrong with Deathwing?

Why is Deathwing so ticked off? Short version – he’s nuts.  Before anyone tacked “The Destroyer” on his name he was Neltharion, leader of the Black Dragon Flight, one of the great aspects charged with watching over Azeroth. Enter “The Old Gods” – a nebulous group of wacked out beings who got kicked to the ethereal curb by The Titans and have been ticked off at the universe ever since. Then came the day that Deathwing started hearing things in the form of voices belonging to the self styled old gods.  They dangled the carrot of ultimate power in front of him and the big black dragon bit at the bait, hook, line and sinker. In this particular case the carrot took the shape of something called “The Demon Soul” (originally The Demon Soul).  Deathwing used his marvelous toy to defeat the invasion of Azeroth by demons known as “The Burning Legion”. The problem was he didn’t stop there, and reigned down death and destruction willy-nilly. As history has shown, no matter who the evil despot may be whatever goes up must come down. And so came the time when the remaining dragon aspects, Malygos, Ysera, Nozdormu, and Alexstrasza handed Deathwing his butt, but only after wearing it around as a hat for awhile.

When Deathwing had his favorite toy stolen from him, an object called The Demon Soul, he said that if he couldn’t play with his toys no one could and he vowed to reign down destruction upon Azeroth. For a long time he hid away, sulking in the corner of a place called Deepholm. Now he’s back with a vengeance.  Still, for all the destruction Deathwing has reigned down upon the face of Azeroth, you would think we would see more of him (The Blizzard Blues said we would). 

Design by Deathwing.

There is an old expression that says “When my ship came in I was at the train station.”  This time when my ship came in it was docked at a big recreation area created by Deathwing. What used to be the arid, barren region known as Thousand Needles and Shimmering flats is now a deep loch that even the most stalwart dwarf would be proud to call home.  When you first come to Thousand Needles you will find the evil Grimtotem Tribe battling the rest of the Tauren. Still, that doesn’t stop Tauren Hospitality and a nearby Tauren brave offers to give you a ride to the Goblin Speedbarge that is the central feature of what is now known as The Shimming Deeps. 

The goblins of the barge (with a few hostile gnomes in tow) will put you to work right off, handing you your own diving helm and fins (which you get to keep for use anytime you are in the area).  One of the first items of business is a little salvage work diving for spare parts, along the way rescuing a goblin stuck in a submersed outhouse.   The fruit of your effort is your very own boat (above0.  But nothing comes for free, especially when it comes from a goblin.  Before you get to keep your boat you must first put it to use putting out fires on the speed barge, sinking pirates, and destroying cannons.

One of the many direct effects of Deathwings rampage is the destruction of the homeland of the Bilgewater Goblins (which occurs when you are in the goblin starting area) – bringing the goblins to settle in Bilgewater (above) just off the coast of Azshara.  As those in the know are aware you can’t keep a good goblin down and it doesn’t take them long to transform the face of Azshara, starting with public transportation by rocket on a road that runs through the zone. (below)

Still, there are some places where Deathwing just made a mess of things, and our guess is that he is none too happy with Night Elves, considering the mess he made of Darkshore (below).

Visitors to what is left of the area will find a mighty whirlwind at its center with none other than Malfurion Stormrage at its base.  Another new resident is Apothecary Furrows (below).

Apothecary Furrows can be found in a cave at the top of a waterfall in the northern part of the zone (above).  Head into the cave, down the ramp and turn left.  At the pack of the room you will find the apothecary who, for a low, low price of 30 silver, will sell you your own pet tree called Withers. Keep Withers out of water long enough and he will shrink.  Bring him near water and he will grow again.

Brazie The Botanist.

One of the most popular additions has nothing to do with Cataclysm.  Venture to the Eastern Kingdoms to a small farm just south of where Dalaran used to be owned by a goblin named Brazie and you will find a goblin with a popular quest based on Popcap’s Plant’s versus Zombies.  The task set to you by Brazie is to keep his sunflowers safe from invading zombies.  You will find yourself with the overhead view of his flower field (see below).

Planting the sunflowers will provide the solar power needed to plant the spitting plants and stranglevines that will defend Brazie from the invading zombies.  The first two stages are not that difficult to master.  It is not until the third phase entitled Lawn of the Dead (a delightful play on Dawn of the Dead) where things get difficult.  This is when the zombie invasion starts in earnest and where many players falter.   One source that has been of great help to the NPNM team in defeating the zombies and winning the day can be found here. The main object of the quest here is (aside from some gold and nice items) is a Singing Flower pet.   The flower pet is cute, but in a zombie teletubbie sort of way.

With the redesign of classic landscape, new character classes available (trolls can now be warlocks and druids),  and more new quests than even the greatest of the great power levelers out there can possibly complete between now and December 7^th Blizzard has given us plenty to do before the official release of Cataclysm.  As for the NPNM team we have our collectors editions ordered via overnight express delivery.  In the mean time we have our singing flowers in hand and are leveling up our new troll characters.  After all, as we have always said, once you roll troll you never re-roll.

…except of course, to roll another troll

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

Every now and then we each forget something as we go through our lives (well mostof us do – the rest of the people are simply lyingabout it).  So its hardly surprising that the devs at Blizzard forget a thing or two in the crunch just before the release of a major expansion).

But that’s not what if feels like when you are in the midst of an “oh noes!” moment.

Sometimes what we think was something that was overlooked was simply done to try and force a particular player interaction with the game.  This is usually a risky proposition at best – as the artists formerly known as Mythic can attest to.   Trying to get the players out into the RvR lakes  whether by hook or by crook not only didn’t work out so well it totally ignores emergentgameplay. The currentlack of a portal of anysort (going eitherway) between Dalaran and major cites (whether Horde or Alliance) has left many a player fuming.  Our first thought here at NPNM was that it was simply to encourage players to make places like Ogrimar, which has undergone such a radical change, their new home.   After we thought about it for awhile we simply assumed that someone on the Blizzard development team must like mages because they are raking in the gold porting players around places (at least those players who don’t have generous guildies to do the job).

The next What The heck moment we have seen is the lack of any sort of boat between Darkshores and Teldrassil.   Now this isn’t a problem at all if you happen to be a member of the Alliance.  All that means is you simply have to hop on a hippogriff and take the next flight across the depths of the great sea.  But what about if you happen to be a member of the Horde trying to finish the pilgrims peril achievement to get your plump turkey pet during the Thanksgiving holiday season?  Ah there, as the immortal bard once wrote, lays the rub. 

Between the two zones lays a deep void known as a fatigue zone.   What this means to all non-wow players is that if you try and swim across the zone a bar will show at the top of your screen with the label “fatigue”.  The longer you stay in this zone, smaller the bar gets – and when it is gone your character is deader than the proverbial doornail.   This makes it effectively impossible to swim across such zones; but you can water walk across them.   The problem being that unless you happen to be a shaman, death knight, or otherwise able to obtain a water walking potion you are simply S.O.L. as grandmother used to say.

Ah but it doesn’t end there.

Horde pilgrims face another peril in the completion of their achievement to win the pilgrim title and the plump pet.  Those of you who have wandered around the major cities of Azeroth have no doubt noticed that Gamon isn’t the only NPC that is alot tougher than he used to be.  The city guards now pack a punch that is simply too tough for any player to be able to take at this point in the game.  Unfortunately, not only does this make the Ironforge City Guards a plateful of tough cookies, they are presently surrounding the bountiful tables just outside their home city.  This will prove a great difficulty to those members of the horde who must take a seat at said table wearing their Thanksgiving best.  At this point the city guards have an aggro radius about the size of a major deciduous forest. This means that the lag time between when you rez in front of the desired chair (and make no mistake you WILL be rezing as the guards will kill your character before you can get close to the chair) is about one second.   Normally this might have made taking a seat at the bountiful table in front of Ironforge impossible, short of planning a city raid. 

Fortunately we have a guildie who figured out the solution – and if you want to know what it is just leave us a message here and we will be happy to share it with you.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather