Tag: Blizzard Entertainment

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For the Geeks

Are You Ready To Tank Deathwing, Version LFR?

Quite recently, Blizzard the creator of World of Warcraft has done something rather innovative to a 7 years old online game.  They put together a mechanism to automatically matchmaking 25 random players from around the world to form a raid to slay dragons and more.  This is a five times expansion of the existing 5-man party assembler.  Traditionally, large scale raiding requires solid dedication of time, effort, sacrifices, and good networking skill.  And it is handsomely rewarded within the game with a deep scene of achievement.  Late last year, first time in Blizzard’s history, this aspect of the game has been opened up to the casual players.  That includes Cynthia and I and some of our friends who now have the opportunity to see a part of the game that was used to be exclusive to only 2% of the player base.  Now, any Tonk, Hick, and Sally can raid Deathwing – the final villain of this Cataclysm expansion – in a specially tune down version that is less demanding.  OK.  Deathwing may not be that elite in this LFR (looking for raid) setting.  But it is the same not so sexy back we parachute onto (see picture above), elite or not!  I often think that asking 25 strangers who may not have worked together before and to play a 90 minutes game is quite a feat – for Blizzard and for us.

Previously, I talked about the three roles that one can choose within the game.  Similar to a football match, the melee players are like the strikers, always up close and personal with the goal.  Mid fielders are like the casters throwing spells from the back.  Both are constantly attacking.  Healers in the game are like the defenders in a football field.  Finally, goalkeeper is like a tank role in World of Warcraft.  You don’t need many.  One tank is required for a 5-man party.  Two tanks are required for a 25-man party.  Of these few roles, I enjoy tanking the most, partly due to its huge responsibility and the demand of a low margin of error.  After all, you may have a few strikers by your side to pick up the slack when you miss the kick.  When a goalkeeper misses the ball, the opposite scores.

After weeks of trying out the different roles in Dragon Soul (LFR), I have put together a tanking guide to help fellow tanks who are new to raiding.  Unless there is a popular demand, I probably would not put up a guide for the other two roles.  Because they are rather straightforward compares to tanking.

  • Click here to read more.
Categories
For the Geeks

Deathwing Must Die (And He Did, A Few Good Times)

A choir.  I shall use a choir to illustrate what raiding in an online gaming environment is like.

In any given choir, think Christmas Caroling if you may, there is usually one organist or a few guitarists who set the key and pace of the performance.  The music draws attention but it alone does not entertain.  We need the singers to sing the melody.  And we need a few dedicated singers to sing the harmony.  The audience seldom hums along with the music or sings along with the harmony.  The audience sings along with the melody.  Melody is at the forefront of the entertainment deliverance.  Having said so, all three elements must co-exist in order to give forth one spectacular performance.

” They say things look different when you are dead.  After my demise, I looked back upon my twenty odd fellow raiders, who fought alongside with the dragons on the island, who one by one got killed by the bits and pieces of Deathwing (the red blob on the right).  It was a lost battle.  Time for another attempt.”

Raiding in a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) works similarly to how a choir operates.  25 players are organized into a team to fulfill a set of objectives in accordance with the lore.  One year ago, Blizzard has released a new expansion for World of Warcraft.  A year after Cataclysm, the story has finally come to a conclusion when we have the opportunity to face the ultimate villain of this expansion – Deathwing.  We have visited the future and changed it.  We have visited the past and changed it.  Armed with the artifact that may be the key in defeating the dragon Deathwing, we have escorted Thrall – our hero – to Wyrmrest Temple ready to have one final showdown with the villain and his waves of armed forces.  It is dramatic.  It is a lengthy expedition.  And it is an epic battle that leads to an orgasmic ending.  An ending that most of us has to experience again and again till the Pandas come home.

“Kalecgos has become a new Aspect for the Blue Dragonflight.  He made a rare visit to one of our capitals, in Matrix style.”

Players in a 25-man raid setting are required to fulfill one of the three roles – tank, damage, or heal.  Tank, to me, is like an organist in a choir.  They are there to set the pace of the encounters and to hold the enemies at bay.  The music continues so long as the organist keeps on playing.  Similarly, in a raid, when the tanks die, it often means that the encounter would come to a premature end.  That is, failure.  We don’t need many to play a tank role.  Two is sufficient in a 25-man raid.  It is a role with a huge responsibility.  It is also a role that I personally enjoy.

Then we have the heal role to replenish the team and neutralize the incoming damage.  In a military context, heal is like the armed forces multiplier, the ones who refuel the planes or replenish the bombs.  Heal is a support unit, much like the harmony singers in a choir.  We need a sizable heal.  And we need six in a 25-man raid.

Obvious as it sounds, those who take the damage role are responsible to lay damage to the enemy front.  They are like the melody singers who feeds on the music and the harmony.  In a raiding environment, they delivery the offensive blow to our enemies.  We need tons of players to play this role.  Seventeen to be exact.

“25 of us looks tiny compare to Deathwing.  Are you ready?”

In the past, raids in World of Warcraft (or other MMO games I suppose) are organized manually.  You need to put in heaps of commitment, get yourselves into a local community, stick to a timetable set by the majority, and you must have this mentality that each failure is one step closer to success.  One Korean guild attempted one particular encounter 300 times that eventually earned them the World First achievement in defeating Deathwing, heroically.  Proper raiding is no easy feat.

In reality, as recently revealed, only 2% of subscribers got to see the raiding contents.  Blizzard – the creator of World of Warcraft – has done something innovative in a recent patch.  They have created a LFR (Looking for Raid) tool to automatically assemble a raid group of 25 players across the servers.  To compensate the fact that these 25 players do not know each other and have not worked with one another, the encounters (and rewards) are specially tuned down to be more causal friendly.  All of a sudden, many get to experience end game contents, including Cynthia and I.

“[I suppose] Once Deathwing is heroically defeated in a realm (or server), a piece of him is displayed within the capital city to serve as a reminder that while many may falter, the ultimate villain has to be defeated at all cost.”

The LFR tool, wonderful as it seems, is not without its share of criticism.  Elitists bundle up and attack the tool on the ground that some  game contents have to be reserved for the cream of the crop.  Some need to feel special and to serve as an inspiration for many to follow.  While this has some philosophical merits, in an environment whereby every player pays the same subscription fees, there is little incentive to nurture elitism, especially with a 7-year old game that may have passed its peak.  Another criticism is that not all these 25 random players contribute at a similar level.  Do they deserve the reward?  Do they even deserve to be there to experience the story in the first place?  This leads back to my analogy.

Cynthia, my mother, and I have attended the Midnight Mass on Christmas.  Before the Mass, the choir was singing the Christmas Carols.  I observed that not every singer sang with full bodied vocal and devotion.  Some went off key.  It was as though some were there more for participation’s sake.  If it was a caroling competition, this choir would have been out.  But it was not a competition.  Participation is rewarded instead of performance.  I shared my observation with Cynthia and she could immediately relate.  It is OK to have some under-perform in LFR.  So long as we don’t have too many party fillers that makes it impossible to raid.

PS. Join us at Draenor server today!  You can play for free, for the first 20 levels at least.  Our guild has a presence in Alliance, as well as in Horde.

Categories
For the Geeks

Diablo III Beta – Part 1: First Impression

I am grateful, to say the least, when I received a beta key from Asiasoft, the new distributor of Blizzard Entertainment games in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.  Thank you Asiasoft!  I tried to ask when the Collector’s Edition of Diablo III will arrive in Singapore and they said Soon™.  It’s OK.  I am a patience man.  I have been anticipating this game since 2008 when Blizzard first put up a site for Diablo III.  Apparently, I was too optimistic back then to think that the wait was over.  The wait is still going on.

For this beta testing (patch 5), we are free to choose any of the five available classes and play through one satisfying mission.  I picked a female monk because she is likely to be the hottest character in Diablo.  Besides, in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, a new monk class will be introduced.  I am all hyped up for the year of the monks.

“Picture speaks a 1,000 words”

I have played Diablo II.  That was back in 2000.  If you love Diablo II, it is without a doubt that you would love this sequel.  The familiarity is overwhelming.  But yet, there are enough improvements to impress.  It  is like Starcraft II.  The game still plays like the original version, despite the fact that so much have changed in a positive way.

Diablo III is a third person role play game.  Interaction with in-game characters (or non-player classes) are fully voice animated.  There is no need to read the quest texts.  You can engage a two-way conversation with humans you see (in the Universe of Diablo, non-humans are bad).  Or as you get closer to people, you may overhear a conversation.  Now that we are on the topic of music and sound, the soundtrack matches with the mood of the game too.  You can always make out if there is danger ahead, or an upcoming plot to be revealed as the music transits to a new theme.  If you pay attention, you can always hear something luring in the background you even them.  Fortunately, at a low level, these monsters are quite a push over.  These ‘warning’ messages build up my anticipation rather than fear.

“It is often peace in town”

For the first 10 levels, I can practically play it through using only two mouse buttons.  I enjoy the simplicity.  Left click anywhere on the ground moves the character.  At a low level, I can map two abilities to the two mouse buttons.  At the highest level, the number of abilities I can bring to the battlefield is six out of a total of twenty.  Hence, all we really need is two mouse buttons and a keypad of one to four.

You may say: This really seems too easy!  Quite rightly so.  It appears to me that deep within the core of Diablo is still pretty much a hack-and-slash type of game.  However, because the different combinations of abilities we have, the play style can be different.  For example, I can pick a main ability (as a monk), to hit the enemies from afar.  More like a combo style as in each subsequent hit increases the distance required of the next attack.  And as for the ability that consumes my monk’s resource – spirit – I could pick an area of effect by knocking back the enemies, keeping them close but not that close.  Or even a decoy that has an area of effect explosion after a few good seconds of taunting the enemies onto it.  For the third ability, I could pick a buff or mantras that increases the chance of dodge for my party and I.  And if balanced type of combat is not your cup of tea, you could mix the combinations and go for a more offensive approach.

Since Diablo III is a co-op type of game capable of putting four players into a single party, it will come a time whereby you would want to pick abilities or classes that compliment each other.  That is when the complexity kicks in, I suppose.

“Choose wisely!”

I will not be able to cover all aspects of Diablo III Beta in one post.  I intend to share with you more as I dive deeper into the beta testing.  One last topic I would like to cover is crafting.  Looting and crafting is a main feature of the Diablo franchise.  I can’t exactly recall the inventory management system of Diablo II.  But I suspect it is somewhat like you loot and loot and eventually your inventory is full.  You then have to open a portal, return to your home town, clear some space in your inventory, and then return to where you were via a portal.  Diablo III has that facility too.  But it also allows you to savage your unwanted loots on the fly into components that stack.  And then you can use these components to craft items.  Simply put, if the god of RNG (random number generator) hates you, you still have a good chance to get what you want.

I have put up a small photo album in Google+.  You can view the screenshot here.  Patch 6 is out this morning.  Stay tuned for more sharing!

 “So I crafted a pair of fist items for my monk (who is now vanished as the new patch arrives)”

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Game Reviews

Does The Single-player Aspect of StarCraft II Worth Your US$59.99?

I am not that into multi-player, as far as real time strategy games are concerned.  Even if purchasing directly from Blizzard Store means spending less, Starcraft II does cost more than the average PC games today.  So, is the money well spent?

Many friends asked me: Does Starcraft II play the same way as the original game that is 12 years older, merely as a graphic update?  For a start, this sequel does play like the old game.  But in a good way.  Playing Starcraft II is like cycling.  Once you are on a bicycle, even if you have not cycled for donkey number of years, when you start paddling, it is the good old feeling once again.  If you are new to the game, there are in-game tutorial videos to guide you through.  There are also an in-game reference guide listing of all the units, what their strength and weakness are.  If you have played the original game 12 years ago, in no time, you would start labeling your units and structures, issuing build and kill orders, and building up the defence and a balanced troop – much like a second nature to you.

To say that Starcraft II plays merely like the old game in all aspects is grossly a misconception.  There is a robust achievement system that encourage you to replay each mission with a harder setting or harder goals that are clearly defined .  In turn, achievement scores are earned.  I like this aspect a lot because getting through the plot is rather easy.  Playing a beautiful game is not.  While the achievement score means little other than an overall sense of satisfaction, there are mission credits that you can spent on permanently upgrading your units and structures and hiring mercenaries to fight with you.  There are also Zerg and Protoss research points for you to unlock useful abilities.  Abilities that require you to carefully decide based on the trade offs.  If you are not that into micromanagement for instance, go for passive benefits.

Starcraft II is an accessible game (which reminds me of World of Warcraft).  On normal setting, most of the campaigns are forgiving, except the time critical ones that may require you to up your thinking and execution speed.  There are often main objectives that you must achieve in order to progress.  And there are bonus objectives that are rewarding, but not a must to complete.  If normal setting is too hard for you, you can lower it to casual.  And if normal mode is too easy for you, there is a hard mode.  And there is a brutal mode too.  Completing the entire game in brutal mode will earn you a Sarah Kerrigan online portrait (and a lot of respect from the Starcraft gamers).

There are often multiple strategies that can lead to victory.  Each campaign showcases a new unit.  I must say, I only get to use that new unit a lot on that particular campaign.  Thereafter, I usually stick with what works best for me.  In my case, air domination.  I do at times feel bad that there are so many units that I don’t get to use besides that one campaign when they were introduced.  Perhaps single-player campaigns are training ground to the multi-player games?

Another point to note is that there are rare occasions that you may make a plot related decision that opens up a new mission while closing off another.  But fear not, you get to play these alternative missions after you beat the game.  Instead of progressing the plot in a linear manner like the original Starcraft, you get to take on different mission chains in the order you prefer.  Having said that, you must complete each chain before you can head for the final plot.  In that sense, the plot is still linear.  Just that you get to – most of the time – choose which mission comes first.

It is true that majority of the time you play as a Terran.  Starcraft II is in no way lesser than the original game in terms of the number of missions.  I enjoy the deeper story and character development.  On that note, I can understand why some may wish that the story develops in parallel with the other two races – Zerg and Protoss.

I in particularly enjoy watching the cut-scenes prior and after each mission.  Good story development remains as the strength of the Starcraft franchise.  The cinematic clips are beautiful.  And you get to watch them again and again once you have unlocked them.  The music is beautiful too.  There is a jukebox and it plays some Western music as well as rock music in the 70s (I think … and my favorite track is “Raw Power”).  There is much humor in the game.  I like that anything-but-unbiased UNN news broadcast a lot.

Depending on how good you are with this genre, total play time may vary.  I am not so good at real time strategy games.  I reckon I may have spent about 20 to 30 hours to complete the game in normal mode including reloading the mission in order to try another strategy.  Now that I have completed the game, I may spend some time to collect the missing achievement points on normal mode.  Unsure if I would try the hard and brutal mode but if you do, be prepared to put aside more time and effort.

Does the game worth my US$59.99?  Without a doubt.

Categories
For the Geeks

Starcraft II Local Retail Copy S$109 Vs US Digital Download US$59.99

Take today’s exchange rate as an example.  1 US dollar is just below 1.36 Singapore dollar.  You can do the maths and work out how much more gamers in Singapore are paying for a local copy of Starcraft II (35% extra).  I have pre-downloaded my US version directly days before the game was launched and have paid US$59.99 this morning instead of S$109.  And this is the first installment out of three.  No way I am going to get ripped off three times in a row.

Are you?

Note: You must select the US version before you begin the download. See screenshots at below.

When I first log into us.battle.net, my region is always being default to Asia. You can change it to US North America (note: Do not visit the SEA Battle.net website).

As you can see, although I am from Asia, I own a US copy.

When I first heard that Starcraft II costs S$109, I said no way.  It is selling at Amazon.com for US$59.99 (S$81).  That is a rip off.  Besides, no PC games cost that much so far in Singapore.  There is indeed another way.  Days before the July 27 launch, Starcraft II was opened for pre-download directly from Blizzard’s online store.  It took me around 7 hours to download the 7 GB game client via SingTel broadband (one reported that it would take 72 days on a StarHub network).  Blizzard has kept mummed on the price of the digital copy prior to the launch.  After the digital copy was launched on July 27 (10 am PDT), I have purchased the game key at US$59.99.

I suppose there are pros and cons of not getting a local copy.  Here is a laundry list for your consideration.

  • Digital copy does not come with a box.  I am OK not to have a box.  It takes up space and I am used to purchasing digital copies online via Steam.  If I was willing to pay more for a box, I would have imported the Collector’s Edition instead.  Besides, I am reducing the carbon footprint of PC gaming.  Good, yes?
  • US digital copy only allows you to play with the gamers within North America.  And I suppose there is a higher latency compares to logging directly onto the Singapore server.  As for me, I seldom choose the multi-player option.  I buy Starcraft II for the campaigns.  If I do want to experience playing with others, I still can.  And if I want to play with someone who has bought the Southeast Asia version, I still can.  It is because SEA gamers, as of now, are allowed to log into the US server (but not the other way round).  Why would I want to pay extra?
  • Some say support the local industry and give IAHGames the support.  I remember how they screwed up the hosting of Hellgate:London couple of years ago.  Be it as their fault or not, gamers don’t forget.  I still have the bitter taste.  If the local copy of Starcraft II was to cost the same as in America, I would not mind getting one.  Paying so much more to support a company that has failed me before?  I think not.  Some say we should be glad that Blizzard Entertainment has set up an office in Singapore and helped training the folks in IAHGames.  I have played Blizzard’s World of Warcraft on a US server for years with zero local support.  Besides the Tuesday server maintenance that happens during our prime time, I have no complain.  Donating money to IAHGames?  I think not.  But if they manage to build up a good reputation through the hosting of Battle.Net, I may re-evaluate the situation when Diablo III comes.

If you are still uncertain if Starcraft II is for you, read the game review here as I have completed the game.  Meanwhile, here is a fantastic trailer.  See it for yourself.

Categories
For the Geeks

It is Diablo III – So the Wait is Over?

I seldom blog about video gaming but this one is big.  The Diablo franchise has a new installment, and from one video I have watched, it’s a quantum leap.  The graphic is jaw dropping and we can now realistically interact with the environment such as the collapse of the structures as we battle.  The control for the battle seems engaging.  Check out one boss fight and I bet you have not quit seen something of that scale before.

I always try to seek a balance when I blog, a little something for everybody.  From the business point of view, Blizzard Entertainment – a division of French Vivendi Games – is one gaming company that I admire deeply.  Why?  They don’t have many games and they only have three major franchises – Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo.  They are not inventive but they enhance and implement the genre so well that all that they create are legendary, a huge gap for the rest of the companies to close.  Starcraft is a 10 years old game and it is still played today.  Recently, it is announced that Starcraft II is on its way.  Warcraft has gone through a cycle of 3 installments and the MMORPG spin off (massively multi-player online role playing game) is a worldwide success taking the genre to a height that never has seen before.  10 million worldwide subscribers (Cynthia and I included) and it is a four years old game still going strong.

Another great thing I admire about Blizzard Entertainment is that unlike other gaming companies that are pressurized to release games even when the games are not ready for the shelves, Blizzard has the reputation of non-committing release dates.  They will only release the games when they are ready.  On top of that, they are not hesitate to can a project (like the venturing into the console gaming platform) if it doesn’t turn out right.

There is a pending merge of Vivendi Games (1 billion in revenue) with yet another giant Activision (3 billion in revenue) and the new entity is going to be called Activision Blizzard Inc.  Now, I do want to own some of their shares.

Below is the cinematic teaser and if you like what you see, don’t miss the video that demonstrates the actual game play (click here and then click onto “Play Gameplay Vidoe” on the right).