What the Fuck Happened in Nov '04 to March '05, Man?

12.23.05
Simon Says - Santa Style

I've seen some pretty intuitive flash games and such, but this one has amused me enough to share. You can Tell Santa what to do. Granted, he doesn't do EVERYTHING, but what he can do is pretty neat. Here are some commands to try :

trash the place
sit down
knock over the sign
karate
elf
beat the elf
elf strip
strip
fart
puke
dance
drink milk
drink beer
give me a present
spank
moon walk
splits

And a lot more - play around with it and share your favorites in the WTFMan Forums. Merry Christmas.

EDIT : This was a temporary site and is no longer functioning. You missed it. =(

11.16.05
Wendy's AirTran Promotion

I'm a big fan of free. I've sadly accumulated a good amount of debt over the past couple of years, but I still make a point of traveling as much as possible. So, when I went to Wendy's on a lunch run the other day and saw their new promotion I was pretty excited. If you collect proof of purchases from 64 cups (medium or large) you get a free roundtrip flight on AirTran. Now, I understand that 64 drinks isn't exactly free, but then again it's not like you're buying empty cups. Plus, 64 drinks costs about $70 which is damn sure cheaper than flights to a lot of places AirTran goes.

Now, with that in mind, I did a search on Ebay for auctions just to see what is out there. I figured people might be selling them for $20-50 for 64, but they're selling them for up to and over $100. And these have bids on them! You gotta be kidding me. You can go to Wendy's yourself, buy 64 drinks (by Feb 2006), save yourself $30 bucks AND get the beverages.

People are fucking stupid. I'd sooner dumpster dive at Wendy's for cups. Hmmm... ;)

11.12.05
Warcraft - Arathi Basin

I've found myself enjoying the organized pvp battlegrounds here over the past few months. Unfortunately, the BGs have all but destroyed world pvp which sucks a little bit, but since I'm still finding fun and killing people I won't complain too much. In an ideal world, I think that raids on opposing faction cities should give massive honor while other real world fights should have a significantly higher reward as well.

Anyhow... I've been playing Arathi Basin a lot recently which is sort of like Domination in the UT2k series where you must take over and hold locations to win. It takes decent communication and actual skill to win the 15vs15 matches which is both good and bad at the same time. Good as I like it when it takes skill to win. Bad that most groups are clueless on communicating effectively. But then again, if you're bad at it you should lose.

There are basically three reasons to do the more structures battlegrounds. 1> Faster honor, which means faster/higher pvp rank, 2> Reputation and 3> the obvious - guaranteed pvp without having to go looking for someone.

The last option is what attracts me since I'm max level and the places to find people are where they're leveling, which means all I would find are people lower level than me which just is not exciting.

People are complaining about how slow the reputation is in AB. Well, I did some number crunching on what it would take to get to the max rep level (exalted) if you won every single fight you got into. This was my post on the official forums :

Here's the numbers :
110 rep per win (60 during game, 50 for turn-in)
42000 rep to exalted
382 wins from start to exalted
On my server, avg queue time is from 10-30 minutes and avg game time is 20-30 min. So, taking an avg of 45 minutes per game both waiting and playing that gives us a grand total of :
17190 minutes or 286.5 hours or 11.93 days of SOLID dedication to AB.
And that's assuming you WIN EVERY GAME YOU PLAY. Asinine? Obviously.
PS - Keep in mind that pre-1.8 patch you got 150 rep per win which would get you to exalted in about 280 wins (or 8.75 days on my server)

As I mentioned, I enjoy AB anyhow so I don't have any problem with it taking that long to get to the uber reward items you get from the exalted reputation. However, I did want to acknowledge the huge time-sink that Blizzard has created. I guess Bliz has come up with a way to get us to pay our $15 a month over and over just trying to get to items... just to keep on a level playing field with others doing the same thing.

Brilliant. Prickish, but brilliant.

Oh well... I'd play AB even if I was already exalted. I have done my fair share of looking for targets in my 8 years of being a pk in various games and I'm happy to be able to find targets at my character level anytime.

11.07.05
Speak the Fucking Language

Let me start off this story by saying this. I have no problem with people of any race being here in my beloved country. One of the things I DO have a problem with is outlined below.

One morning last week I went to McDonalds to pick up breakfast for myself and 5 co-workers. Nothing fancy, just a few bicsuits, mcgriddles and a coffee. The process turned into a fucking nightmare when the inept woman behind the counter was struggling to speak and worse, understand, English. She was hispanic which is of course fine, but when she can't understand simple things like "no cheese" or "20oz coffee" there will be a bit of aggrivation.

So, we make it through the pain of ordering and we come to paying. The total was $11.66. Since I had a $20 and some ones, I hand her $22 expecting $10 and change back. Cash drawer opens and I see "Change $0.34" displayed on the register. You gotta be kidding me... so I pipe up "I gave you a $20 bill" and she freezes, looking completely confused. She calls over the manager and starts speaking to her in Spanish. We go back and forth with me plainly pointing to the receipt which shows I paid $12 when I paid $22. So, she hands me a $10 bill and walks off. "And my 34 cents?" So she comes back over and hands me a quarter and a nickel. At this point I'm just so over it I just figure... close enough. But I'm aggrivated because both of these women's ignorance almost cost me $10. That's unacceptable.

Now I'm standing there a little frustrated but semi-patiently awaiting my food and expecting it to be completely wrong. The woman behind me (who was black, if that matters) places her order and thanks the counter girl in Spanish and adds in English "not everyone is so ignorant to only know one language" referring of course to me. Now, I'm fucking pissed.

I rail into this dumb cunt telling her that if the girl behind the counter could speak two languages, I wouldn't have a problem either - so long as one of them was English! Now just about everyone in the place are bitching at each other - most on my side agreeing with my comment that this is the USA and since the dominant language is English, that the customer shouldn't have to be bi-lingual just to place an order. Naturally, the previously mentioned woman was steadfast in her position - mired in her ignorance.

Fucking shit. What's so hard to understand. If your menu is in English, then your employees should be able to speak the language! Come to my country, I will happily share it and wish you all sorts of joyous success here. However, if I have to interact with you where I am the customer, I by god expect you to be able to speak the language.

If you can't, then get the fuck out.

10.20.05
Today, Was a Good Day

Good thing about today #1:
Ok so this morning I planned on having a really shitty day. My soon to be ex-wife and I had a court date this morning to address interim alimony and child support while my divorce is being finished. Best of all, she only wants $10,000 to cover attorney fees and $5800 a month for alimony/support and guess what, the first referee we saw last week actually said OK and agreed to reccomend that amount to the judge... WTF?? Now I'm not saying what OJ Simpson, Scott Peterson and Robert Blake did was ok, but at least I now understand their motivation...

Luckily, my attorney rocks (he handled Kim Mathers divorce case from Eminem) and got the case kicked and a new referee assigned and guess what? This time around they only reccomended $2500 a month in support, less than half of what she wanted. Sure that sucks too, but a $2500 check sucks a lot less to write than a $5800 one. Eat that beeyotch.

Good thing about today #2:
On the way home a cop got me for speeding, 70 in a 45 so I just knew I was fucked. After sitting on the side of the road for 20 mins the cop finally came to my car and said "listen man today is your lucky day, My ticket book is empty and I cant get another squad car out here to write you up, so im gonna let you off with a warning." And guess what? Just as I pulled back onto the road, up pulled the other squad car he had called, about 30 seconds too late. Needless to say, I didnt turn around. Boo-fucking-yah.

Good thing about today #3:
This very hot black stripper I was spitting game at last week called me this afternoon and asked me to stop by the club when she got off, said she wanted to go out with me tonight. Ohh hell yes!

Good thing about today #4:
Me and my buddy Jose arrive at the club at 7pm to pick her up (day shift girl) and not only does she leave with me, she gets her other caramel complected, sexy-as-hell 5'11 stripper friend with the most amazing ass ever to come with us because she thought my man was cute. And we didnt even ask her to. Praise Jesus!

Good thing about today #5:
Jose gets a call and has to split, so here I sit at my place with these two lovely ladies. We decide fuck it, lets go to a titty bar and spectate. Of course the girls see nothing but white girls at their surburban locale titty bar they work at, so they want to see some other sisters shaking their asses. Next thing you know we end up at this skanky bar in Detroit, and of course the girls go crazy. Here I sit, the only white guy in the club in this overstuffed booth with the two strippers I brought in, surrounded by 6 other beautiful sisters who worked at that club whom my girls were groping and getting dances from.

Luckily, the lone white boy with more money than sense apparently isnt too uncommon there, so everyone was very cool and a good time was had by all. Alcohol, thongs and boobies are indeed the stuff dreams are made of.

Good thing about today #6:
So finally my two female companions and I leave the bar, very very drunk, and relatively high... Damn stripper temptress talked me into doing a couple lines of blow with her, which I hadnt done in like 15 years. At this point i'm feeling no pain. One of the girls pukes, but I manage to get my Mercedes pulled over on the side of the road just in time for her to open the door and hurl... she even managed to get all of it outside, and none in the Benz... Awesome.

So back to my place, where unfortunately one of the girls is wasted, and pretty much passes out on the couch. The other one (and fortunately hotter one) was all in for some freak-nastiness. That was at like 2:45 am... as I write this it is 4:30 am, and I just got back from dropping the girls off. Needless to say I did very bad things to her for about and hour and a half. And just for shits and giggles, I even did a couple lines of blow off her tits just because I never did that before... I feel so Hollywood now.

And in conclusion...
I'd go to sleep, but this fucking powder has me wired. Remind me to wait at least another 15 years before fucking with this shit again... what the hell was I thinking? I know I'm gonna suffer for this in a few hours when its time to take my ass to the office, but for now I feel like a God among mortals... Kneel before Zod I say!... Now if I can only make it to bed before puking my guts out, today will of been a good day indeed. -Greybeard

10.06.05
Amusing Links

Couple of sites I've been referred to recently that I think are interesting enough to link :

This site tracks a guy built who's project was to "create a fully-automated sentry gun, capable of picking out a human target and accurately tracking and shooting him or her in the heart". Granted, the weapon he built is only a BB gun, but the possibilities are a little scary. The video at the bottom of the page where he tests his invention on his little brother is quite funny.

Now, I've heard of people getting "foiled", but I have never seen someone foiled so WELL as was done by this guy. The detail the guy got shows he spent seriously way too much time doing this, but by god he sure as hell did it right. I'd love to do that to a co-worker of mine... I'm just not that patient.

I really need to work on a post from my Ohio trip to Joe's in July and the JoV Vegas gathering in August. I'm ashamed that it's taking me this long. I'm normally pretty lazy, but that's excessive even for me. =(

I'll see if I can motivate myself since I know you all are sitting on the edge of your seat waiting.

10.04.05
Serenity (Spoilers)

There will be spoilers in this, so if you have not seen the movie yet please do not read further. Consider yourself warned.

I have loved the Firefly series since a friend of mine turned me onto the DVD set last year. The show was sadly a very short lived series thanks to Fox completely fucking up the show and then wondering why people weren't watching it. They showed episodes all out of order even going so far as to show the "pilot" show with all the setup and backstory months into the run. It makes me sorta glad that I missed it on TV because I'm sure I would have been aggrivated by broken plot lines and such that I'm sure brought about the lack of viewership that led to the show being cancelled on its first season.

However, having watched the 4 disc DVD series about 10 times, I am definitely a fan. The dry humor, the comedic timing, the cast, and hell even the accuracy about "how space really is" (no sound in external space shots aside from background music, tight living conditions, etc) all just struck a chord with me.

With all that in mind, it's no wonder that I was at Serenity the premier night and several people who I'd turned onto the show joined me. The movie lived up to my expectations and then some (and that's saying something as I was looking forward to this much more than any other movie this year). The story was great for the big screen and the eye candy was everywhere. Extraordinarily well done.

There was a problem though. And this is where spoilers come in, so I implore you to not read further if you haven't seen the movie. It really is quite good and you should go see it if you haven't and I don't like ruining shit for people. LAST SPOILER WARNING... STOP HERE.

Ok, now that that's out of the way... I can't believe Wash died. As I was sitting there I couldn't believe it and actually said aloud "did they just kill off Wash?!" I can understand Shepherd Book dying because it effectively did two things. First, it shut down people's anticipation of "the missing backstory" which obviously was not forthcoming. I wanted to know it as bad as the next guy, but at least there's little doubt that we'll just simply never know now. Secondly, it advanced the plot. Wash though... man that one confused me.

It was so sudden, so unncessary and didn't get enough "sink in" time since there was such a rush for the others to get to safety and such. I mean, the reason that this film exists is that the diehard fans petitioned for it, supported the show after-the-fact by buying the DVDs, starting up fanclubs, and such. And our cherished 9 person crew... basically a family on the show... gets ripped apart with not one but two deaths. That sucks.

Thankfully, the movie overall was excellent and so very well done that the deaths are forgiveable, but still I was very disappointed to see Joss Whedon take the "I have to kill off a main character or two to show people I know drama" road that people say he's done in Buffy and Angel (although I'm taking that as fact from other sources as I've never watched either show). Oh well, still very much worth seeing and I'll end up going and seeing it again no doubt.

Two hesitant thumbs up, but hesitant only because I liked the Wash character so much.

09.21.05
Disease in WoW

Looks like Blizzard's most recent patch has added a new element they weren't expecting. Apparently the new instance has a boss that puts a disease on chars that can be passed to other players. Well, now players are leaving the instance with the debuff still on and mass infecting the server. I haven't seen anything like this on Bleeding Hollow, but god that is funny as hell if it's true.

Good stuff.

08.14.05

Two posts in one day? woot!

Yes yes, keep the applause down to a dull roar, my head is killing me. I can probably say that in contrast to Rich, my RL as of late has been about as good as it gets and has been the source of many a good story... I just have been too damn lazy to post any of them and besides, how many stories can you tell about banging a pair of vietnamese twins before even they get old? This spring my wife and I of 10 years called it quits, and I have made the stunning transformation into quite the man-whore. I can proudly say I have seen more ass this summer than a Times Square toilet seat. Even Tucker Max would be proud of me.

It's amazing what a little bit of time in the gym, a fat wallet, a good line of bullshit and a Cialis prescription can accomplish. And yes, even if you can naturally produce hard-ons that you could cut glass with, you dont even want to think about trying to fuck 4 strippers simultaniously at 5 am in the morning after drinking a fifth of Grey Goose vodka without a little bit of pharmaceutical assistance... take it from me, I know. - Greybeard

Lack of Posts

Someone emailed me regarding our infrequent posts. I was typing up a response to him addressing his comments and the suggestion that we bring on another poster and figured that one or two of you may be thinking the same thing. So, here are my thoughts :

The site has been in a downward spiral as far as posting frequency goes for several years. Viewership is down -- the less we post, the less people visit, the less reason there is to post, etc. Back on the JoV site I used to post up to 4 times a day... now if I post that much a month it's a noteworthy event. I guess it's the fact that UO was so original and brand new never-happened-before stuff came up every day. We were so passionate about the game and there was a neverending amount of stuff to talk about. Not to mention that OSI gave us plenty of things to bitch about.

Plus, since it was the only game in town, we had a ton of readers who were looking for humor related to the game they were (like us) obsessed with. The games nowadays while probably played more even by the average player, has so much coverage and every tom dick and harry having a website... basically, everything has been done and said. So it's hard to talk about something in game without people yawning and saying "well yeah I did that a year ago".

That leaves RL which honestly very few people give a shit about. It's not their life, I'm certainly no one to be idolized and my college/bouncing years for damn sure had more interesting stories than what's going on in my life now. Granted, I'm happier now, but the stories are less interesting to others.

That brings us back to the problem referenced before (in this post and others). The readers and even the WTFMen themselves are not all in one game anymore. Hell, most aren't even gaming at all. So, what do you post about that doesn't just make WTFMan "just another blog". Good question... I don't know.

What's the fix? New posters? Well, the problem with that is that we've tried that. Remember Azile? Aztek? Azaroth? Every poster starts off strong, but quickly slides into what appears to be the Standard Operating Proceedure for WTFMan.com. Even our very good friend who's joined us recently, Dr. Twister, has shown that.

Not sure exactly what can be done. I will never give up WTFMan so long as I breathe. Hell, the WTFMan logo is the only thing I have ever considered getting a tattoo of. My dedication is apparent I hope, but my motivation falls somewhat short in forcing myself to come up with an update. Back in the day it was "OMG I have to post this" about 10 times a day. Now I have to make myself come up with something.

I genuinely am trying to get back into posting more frequently. Then again, I've tried several times. Grey stopped playing WoW so I do't know what he's up to. Hell, I don't even think Ron owns a computer anymore. Joe is gaming and has a computer, but I guess he's just more lazy than the rest of us. So, that basically leaves the only semi-active Twist and I. Time will tell what will happen, but for now... it is what it is.

07.18.05
Same Definition of Slow

Two months of no posting. That may be a record for us at WTFMan. Maybe not though... we are pretty damn lazy.

Couple of noteworthy things going on with me. First off for you former/current Joy of Villainy members who only read the frontpage, the Las Vegas gathering is a scant 3 weeks away. The dates are Aug8-14th and we will be doing all the usual stuff including making good use of Aaron's lakehouse/speedboat/seadoos. Mucho fun. Please do RSVP if you plan to attend.

I haven't been posting much thanks to being a little busy irl (and in WoW). Those of you who know me will be shocked to hear that I have dropped all of the women in my life save my girlfriend of 4 months who is now living with me. No more dating multiple women at once.... first time in 17 years. Yes, she keeps me THAT happy. Actually, I guess those of you who know me well may take the end of my bachelorhood as the seventh sign of the apocalypse or just simply bullshit due to it being so unlikely to ever happen, but I assure you this is both true and a good thing. Richard = Happy.

Anyhow, back onto things the average reader might give a shit about. I've been playing WoW on the pvp server for the past couple of months, so contrary from my previous postings I am back at it. I still seriously think the WoW pvp is badly flawed, but it's the best thing out there and plus my GF loves it. It's basically impossible to top having a gamer girlfriend btw. =)

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I have a couple more posts planned soon including a recap of my trip to see Joe in Ohio last weekend. Cedar Point Take 2, I guess. For now, feel free to look over a couple of interesting Top 50 links I found somewhat recently :

The 50 Most Important Games Ever Made

50 Reasons for the Fair Tax Plan (Don't know if I've mentioned this much but I WANT THIS)

I'll try not to let it get to 2 more months before I post again. ;)

Too long but wtf?

Damn has it been 2 months since we had a post - not to draw attention to the date, but here's a great one for those currently playing WoW which made me say what the...

It never ceases to amaze me the types of bugs that pop up in these games. More recently so, I've heard of numerous exploitable bugs in WoW that make me wonder what's going on at Blizzard now adays. Things are suppose to get better, not get progressively worse. Hope it all shapes up soon.

05.13.05
New Definition of Fast

About 15 years ago I used to be part owner of a small motorcycle racing team. My first car had close to 500hp and could hop its front tires over a coke can. I've been over 120mph more times than the average person has been over 70. Basically what I'm saying is that I have a fair idea of what fast is.

There are still times when I see something so outrageously fast that I just sit there with my mouth open like an idiot. Watching this video of the ShockWave Jet Truck was one of such moments. That is indeed a semi truck with THREE jet engines on it. You can see all the stats on their homepage and what an impressive list of stats it is.

Now that's what I call fast.

05.12.05
WoW PvP

I have been playing WoW only on a carebear server as Alliance just to game with my girlfriend and experience that faction a bit since I'd only played Horde before. My girlfriend asked me today if they fixed the Honor System would I go back to the pvp server. I initially said I was unsure, but after thinking about it the answer is "no". The bigger issue is something I briefly touched on when I posted about the pvp problems back in April.

The problem is that pvp is too character dependant and player skill cannot overcome much character advantage. For example, in Asheron's Call if I'm a lvl 100 and I get jumped by a lvl 130 and his lvl 110 friend, I still consider my odds of winning above average just because I'm a good player. Now, conversely, in World of Warcraft if I'm on a lvl 45 and I'm jumped by a lvl 40 and his lvl 35 friend, I'm most likely dead unless they are seriously clueless. If they're my level or higher... it pretty much doesn't matter how clueless they are.

So, in effect, the character can only do so much, no matter how good the player is which makes player skill a very minor part of the "who wins" equation. That's pretty boring to me.

Now, 1on1 and close to the same level, then skill definitely comes into play, but that's about the only time. And let's be honest, how often does that happen in WoW? Infrequently.

05.11.05
Race Issues?

No, sadly I'm not talking about World of Warcraft races. I'm talking about rl here...

Recently I read a couple of quotes from some notable African Americans that sorta bothers me. Will Smith is referring to the actor, so if you don't know who he is, you're a moron. Richard Williams is the father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, also has three stepdaughters -- one is an actress and singer, one is a lawyer, and one, now deceased, attended medical school. Here are the quotes :

"I firmly believe that it is quite highly possible that the AIDS virus is the result of genetic warfare testing." - Will Smith
"In America black people doesn't really have an opportunity at nothin'. It's kinda bad bein' black in America." - Richard Williams

That just amazes me. Will Smith suggesting that AIDS is an intentional attack against blacks and Richard Williams who has had a family FILLED with success stories says that they have no opportunities. What in the fuck is going on in these people's heads? *sighs*

Are these comments reverse racism? Ignorance? Right on the money? What do you think?

05.05.05
Simulating Terror

I happened upon an interesting story posted yesterday on Terra Nova titled Simulating Terror. In short, it starts off with the notion of building a video game network to help simulate potential terror attacks. The conversation then moves to instead of building a network from scratch, take a look at a network already in place. This being the "griefers" of multiplayer games.

A quote in part states how griefers "always figure out how to get by every little loophole, they hide in the cracks, they respond very fast to whatever new policies you put in place. It is like the perfect simulator for a terrorist organization."

At face value, it actually is an interesting read, until one guy tosses up this comment.

"Dr. Twister seemed to be, in his own mind, an idealogue pushing for a reformation of Ultima Online through terrorism. The logic went that if one broke the game with game breaking bugs, they'll be fixed. There were all the usual religious schisms, shifts, reinterpretations of doctrine, that one would expect from any idealogical group."

Reflecting back on the old days, he might be right. I give no apologies to my techniques, but the concept of forming a cult group may be going a bit far. Either way, those who still do not want to admit facts, the courses of action did change the industry.

So, if this same philosophy can potential shed some light on how a terrorist network may operate, then lets study it. But can we honestly hope to discover some potential ground breaking data from studying MMOG griefers? That might be one study I wouldn't mind paying a few tax dollars for. - Discuss.

WTF PvP Strategies

A few days ago I made note I was hit by a hunter for a 2200dmg crit shot and requested for a way my lowly Warlock could ever dream of that type of damage. I was forwarded a link to a video clip (sorry it's fileplanet) which shows a Warlock doing impressive damage. I mean impressive in that he takes out a lvl 60 hunter in 3 hits. Impressive in that he takes on 2 and in once scene 3 guys at once and wins. Unfortunately, his UI has been customized to Korean or Japanese and I can't read what the combat log is showing. I can see the buttons being pressed, but it's definitely a strategy to investigate closer. Discuss

- Dr.Twister

Freaky Cinco

5-5-5 - Happy Cinco de Mayo for those who are celebrating!

05.02.05
Rogues Can't PvP

I don't know what WTF's viewership is now adays, but if you are reading this, play WoW and play a Rogue, odds are, you don't know how to PvP. I apologize to those who do understand the concept of legit PvP, but for all of you who stealth behind someone, wait until they have no health and then back stab crit and run away is a coward and you don't know a thing about PvP. I dare any of you to come find me and offer me a duel 1 on 1. (DrTwister on Bleeding Hollow). Problem is, none of the alliance can actually communicate with me (see below). Better yet, I guess I'll just pump up my rogue so I can do the same thing.

In another related note - PLEASE LET ME SMACK TALK! I absolutely hate the fact I can't talk to the other faction. I'd love to be able to tell the above-said rogue he sucks and to go learn how to PvP. Heck, I'd love to be able to tell anyone they suck and to challenge them to a real challenge. It's my opinion, the addition to communicating across factions brings so much to the community inside the game and improves PvP game play significantly.

Do you miss smack talking?
- Dr.Twister

04.28.05
Three WTF Moments

On my way into work today I saw three things that actually made me "wtf" aloud.

1> Listening to the radio and a commercial comes on. It begins something to the effect of "ever want to get something free? Absolutely free?" It then says "Just buy 3 tires and get the fourth one free!". wtf... that's not free. That's you jacking up the prices of the other three to cover the price of the fourth. Or worse, that's you ALWAYS overcharging and finally giving a break to only semi-rape the customer when sales are low. If I have to spend money, it's not "free"... that's sorta the definition of free, jackass.

2> Then the weather report comes on. "The high today will be around 72, the low near 50... current temp is 43." What in the fuck. How can the low for today be HIGHER than the current temperature? That doesn't make the smallest bit of sense.

3> Finally, yet another idiot driver that defied any normal driving logic. I'm next to this guy and the light ahead turns red. I stop at the line and he stops past the line, past the crosswalk and almost into the intersection. Obviously, just not paying attention. I let it slide and chalk it up to standard stupidity. The light changes and we start moving. I notice as I'm passing him that he is accelerating, but with his brakes on. Wtf... people are still too dumb to realize they shouldn't drive with both feet on an automatic?

I guess what it comes down to is that I hate people because most are a waste of skin and air. I'm definitely not a people person.

- Nighthawk

04.26.05
WoW < 1 Year Old

It might seem amazing to some of you out there, but for once, I can't really complain about the current state of WoW or the new Honor System. Yea yea, mark this day down in history, but I have to admit, the recent patch didn't phase me in one bit on the negative side.

I also want to say, I might disagree with NH in part, but some of his points regarding the overall game experience are extremely valid. I just want to look at this from a different angle. Let's break a few things down.

First, the people who are complaining about WoW's Honor System have never played an MMOG. Again, ignore the valid game play mechanics NH mentioned below, but the fact is, anyone who sat through the "Virtue System" in Ultima Online, and how those changes completely destroyed the game we knew back then, can not honestly complain about what Blizzard is doing. We could be in much worse shape.

At the root of the recent changes in WoW is nothing more than the exact same game we have been playing for the last several months with the addition of tracking. The downside is that with tracking, everyone feels they need to go out and kill just for the sake of getting higher on the ladder system. But again, nothing has changed in terms of game play. Large groups could still go out and slaughter a few soloers, but before now, it wasn't calculated.

I'm all for tracking. Believe me, this is something I have been looking for in an MMOG for a LONG time. EQ2 finally accomplished it with a ranking / ladder board for non-PvP related items. The point of a good ladder system, especially in MMOG's, which no one has figured out yet, is how do you build a sense of ownership within the game community while building a way to also identify status. Whether by winning claim to the land or showing a status symbol on your name, the point is gamers are looking for status... who is the best. I still wish one side or the other could win ownership of the contested areas.... (I guess Battlegrounds will fix this). These are good philosophies to have, it's how we get there which is the bigger question.

The fact is, no other game, and especially no other game company has gone this far in trying to make the best game possible. The game is less than a year old and we have already seen significant changes that continually improve the game. I can only expect to see more. I see Blizzard actively requesting feedback and then taking the feedback into consideration. Do you remember a time when OSI wanted to make changes to something and they did it a month later? Let alone add new features like Necromancy? I was shocked when Blizzard released the Honor System patch, not because it was bad, because I have grown to expect 6 month turn-around times on promises to the public. Blizzard is averaging a new release every 3-4 weeks with major changes.

Which leads into what Nighthawk states below. Let's fix the mechanics.

Yes, there needs to be a penalty for killing a grey. Please NO "Murder Counts", but something doesn't appear to be working correctly. My understanding is if you have any participation in killing a grey, you receive a dishonorable kill point which goes against your total rank. This is definitely not the case and needs to be enforced more dramatically to work properly.
Not only is group credit a pain, imagine Raid credit. A group of 40 cruising around ganking and you get points just for tagging along. Not good at all. Heck, you can even get honor points while being AFK as long as you are still close enough and in the Raid. Nice for rogues who want to stay near the action while in stealth and needs to go afk for 30 minutes.
Running through players you are engaged in battle must stop. Rogues, Warriors, etc have a huge advantage over spell casters.
More balance is still needed, and more skill potential most be taken into consideration for PvP action. NH is right... we are very good PvPers. We should be able to take out at least 2 - 3 players or hold our own to higher level players. Maybe the game is too well balanced in this regards, but I do hate the fact that certain classes have significant advantages over others... like the 2200xp Crit shot from a Hunter... can a warlock ever even imagine having a spell with that damage potential?

If I have learned one thing from playing these games it's that they can not be fixed on Beta or Test servers. Sure, they may find big issues... but the true exploitable, small, hidden problems will never be found until the mass starts playing them. Something as obvious as Zerg-festing probably went unnoticed during development, but I have amazingly calm assurance Blizzard will find a way to fix it. The Honor System is step 1... I'll be hopeful for step 2 then 3.

Your thoughts?
- Dr.Twister

04.22.05
WoW = Zerg Fest

Thanks to the most recent patch by Blizzard, mass raiding is at an all-time high. And I mean that compare to every MMORPG I've ever played. Within this patch is something laughingly called the "PvP Honor System". The basic premise of the patch is that you can get item rewards for raising your pvp rank. Concept sounds good since it encourages pvp, but there are a couple of problems :

1> No penalty for killing people levels below you. "Honor System", eh? Granted, it doesn't reward you, but without penalties it encourages indiscriminate killing. I'm fine by that to a point as I'm all for killing any and all people, but I don't go out an intentionally hunt peons since it's not very satisfying and takes no skill.

2> Everyone in a group where a member gets an honorable kill gets credit for it. As a matter of fact, you can even get a group bonus for your kills. So, the goal of groups is just to kill any player (no matter the level) just in case it gives honor kill credit for someone in the group. This is the kicker and I'll explain why.

People are now going around in huge groups killing everything in sight. No skill involved, just 20-on-1 slaughtering. I've been told it's become impossible to level at the 55+ leveling spots because of so many different groups swinging by the hotspots looking for solo levelers. The opposing faction aren't gathering together to combat these groups because it's easier to do the same thing to the opposing soloers than face other groups. So, now you have an endless cycle of groups vs soloers. Mmmmm skill! I don't enjoy being on either side of that - grouper nor soloer.

Not to mention the fact that WoW is pretty damn limiting in the skill-overcoming-numbers aspect. In UO, AC and in PS I could as a soloer take on small groups. Granted, I wouldn't always win, but I could at least put up a good fight since I do have a fair bit of skill (not blowing my own horn here, just making a point). In WoW, unless I substantially out-level my targets, taking on more than 1 person is very difficult. Taking on more than 2 people my level or higher is virtually impossible.

One other annoying thing that WoW has that none of the other games I've played has is that you can just run through any other player. All someone has to do is run through you to get behind you which forces you to turn around to continue fighting... just to be run through again. Granted, it's really not a huge deal compared to the group vs solo stuff the most recent patch introduced, but it does yet again take a bit of strategy and skill out of the game.

Dunno... I think I'm about done with WoW as it's "pvp" is really disappointing overall. I wish Asheron's Call would open a new pvp server with a hard level cap. :/

I guess I'll ponder on it and give WoW one more weekend before canceling my accounts. Probably back to Planetside for me.