Tag: World of Warcraft

Categories
For the Geeks

4,606 Hours 46 Minutes Of Played Time In The Span Of 6 Years

Say on average, a movie lasts around two hours.  I could have watched more than 2,000 movies over six years, in addition to the many I have already watched.  Or say if I spend eight to twelve hours reading a page-turner, I could have read around 450 extra books.  Instead, I have poured my 4,606 hours into a massively online game (11 million subscribers), paid around US$1,000 over a period of six years, got lost into the void of fantasy, and then back to the real world, with some good memories to cheer about, some broken memories to cry onto.

In less than 24 hours, something cataclysmic will happen to the world that has devoured a fair bit of my time, a little bit of Cynthia’s time (relatively speaking).  The old world will be destroyed.  A new dawn is upon us.  This online game may have well been inspired by the recent movies featured with the theme of Armageddon, I do not know.  Global warming, perhaps.  Looking at the trailer, I am excited; Cynthia is excited; my buddy Mark is also excited.  My enthusiasm hits them like the rising ocean that hits the shore in this video I share, the raging sea that destroys cities (the image above is taken at Menethil Harbor a week ago, which is now flooded as cataclysm draws close).

A heavy heart, indeed I have one.  My intimate knowledge, my fond memory of the so-called old world, will all be gone shortly.  Looking back, so much has changed over the years – the social dynamic, the game mechanic, the countless improvements, and the relentless expansion of game contents – what is left in the old world may well be a form, an empty shell that is screaming for a renewal.  To that extend, I prefer the game expansion to be named “Cataclysm” instead of “World of Warcraft 2.0”.

Of the ten characters I have, the one I play the most  is the one that I have clocked in 1,515 played hours.  In the World of Warcraft, It is never too late to do something in that infinite long list of to-do’s.  So tonight, to commemorate the eve of cataclysm, I have weaved a flying carpet for my most senior character (see image below).  What is taking me so long?  Never get round to, I guess.  Too many other better things to do, for sure.

Categories
Diary Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Celebrated Christmas Eve With Avatar, An Impromptu Dinner Party, And A Midnight Mass

A Merry Christmas to my readers.  ¡Feliz Navidad!

While we were queuing to enter the AMK Hub car park, out of nowhere, Cynthia asked what do people really mean when they say Merry Christmas to one another.  Good question.  I wonder how many of us genuinely ponder upon the good news of the birth of a savior – God in the flesh of a man – when delivering or upon receiving such a wish.

*     *     Ø     *     *

I have a theory.  I think “Avatar” has some borrowed ideas from the game “World of Warcraft”.  No spoilers here of course.  And I bury my theory at the bottom of this entry.

*     *     I     *     *

The question is not whether you should watch “Avatar” or give it a miss.  It is an experience not to be missed.  If ticket price was to be pegged with the movie budget and if you are happy to pay S$10 for “He’s Just Not That Into You”, watching “Avatar” would have cost you S$100.  So, what motivates the filmmakers to pour in $240 million – a budget is closed to what it took to create the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy – to make a movie?  I suppose pushing the film boundary with new technology (and hence money) so as to give the audience a never-seen-before experience often pays off.  I remember how the first installment of “Lord of the Rings” wowed me to the core.  And somehow, the next two installments did not seem to be as visually stimulating as the first one.

Now, the question is: Should you watch “Avatar” on 3D or not?  We picked the 3D version.  It was an unique experience.  It works especially well with computer generated imaginary.  It makes sense when you think about it.  For real life objects, the 3D effect has already been take care of by the field of depth.  Objects in the background are often blurred out.  Using the current 3D technology on real life objects as seen in the film tends to make the image less sharp with washed down color, though it is without a doubt a wow factor to see a gun or grass bushes popping out of the screen – however blurry it seems.  The same effect on the computer generated imaginary is absolutely stunning.  Personally, I find the 3D goggles occasionally gave me a faint headache.  It is like the discomfort I experience when an object is placed very close to that one point between my eyes.  Cynthia finds the goggles keep slipping down and of course, you can wear the 3D goggles on top of your spectacles.  Also, if I am to watch another 3D movie, I would bring along a cloth wiper to clean the goggles.

Back to the question.  3D format is for an unique cinematic experience and the non-3D format is for the visual effect in its full glory.  Either way, you can’t be wrong.

After watching “Avatar”, I asked myself: What moves me a great deal when watching “Avatar” or “Bodyguards and Assassins“?  I think it is bravery against formidable adversary.

*     *     II     *     *

Just before we entered into the movie theatre, my sister texted me and asked if we wanted to catch up in the evening.  Did I have plan on the Christmas Eve?  A Christmas Mass and my ‘date’ with Mark to show him how to joust in the World of Warcraft.  I guess jousting would have to wait (sorry Mark!).

After the movie, TK asked what’s-for-dinner.  Good question.  In this two weeks holiday of ours, Cynthia and I have hardly put our heads together for any planning.  So, why not invite our good buddy and my sister and her hubby for a home cook dinner?  One minor logistic challenge though: we don’t have meat in our refrigerator ever since we have become vegetarians.  TK volunteered to buy roasted duck and we boosted our menu to a 4-course meal: green salad, soup, pasta with roasted duck, and our dessert was a birthday cake for TK.  So few stones, so many birds!

We had a lovely time.  And it is good to spend Christmas Eve with family and friends.

*     *     III     *     *

We did not plan to attend the Midnight Mass for we planned to attend one of the earlier slots.  Personally I prefer the one at midnight.  It appears to be more authentic.  Cynthia feels that Midnight Mass is a bit too late.  It is true.  The calling of my bed or the comfort of my home was hard to ignore especially when the Mass has passed the 1 am mark.

We arrived at the Church before 11 pm.  Seats are hard to come by on Christmas.  11.30 pm the choir started singing the Christmas songs.  Surprisingly, the quality of the choir this year was really good, at Christ the King.  Even the priest commented that how nice if we are to have this level of standard for our Sunday Masses.  The Church was full, our priest was exceptionally energetic, and the congregation was in high spirit.  Personally, I would like to thank those who have made this Midnight Mass such a memorable experience.  I think the nonstop rounds of applause said it all.

*     *     IV     *     *

I think this section may not make me the most popular guy in the planet, as everyone loves “Avatar”.  While watching the show, I could not help but to associate some of the scenes to an online game that I live and breath for 5 years.  If you have not watched “Avatar”, the following slideshow probably would not make sense to you (and it certainly would not spoil your “Avatar” enjoyment if you see it either).  It is hard to explain in words so I took my avatar in World of Warcraft, traveled around the world, and took some screenshots for illustration’s sake.

Categories
For the Geeks

Let Them Come, For Frostmourne Hungers

The new patch 3.3 from WoW

Let’s keep it real.  Who am I – a regular dude who has a full time job with little time to invest in character development and elite raider networking – to dream of defeating the Lich King?  I reckon it would be a lot easier for me to get the S$1,288 life size legendary sword Frostmourne than the one in the game.  Fulfilling the fantasy of getting up close and personal with the Lich King in his dungeon aside, the new patch 3.3 has a lot more to offer.  Top of my list: the new Dungeon Finder.  The 5 icons below from left to right indicate if the roles of the tank (i.e. damage taker), the healer, and the three damage dealers have been filled.  In the case below, the game was still finding a tank for us.

Assembling a group of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 damage dealers now is a breeze

I think I can speak on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the World of Warcraft.  Two things suck being an Asian player in an American server (or we refer it as ‘realm’).  First, servers are down for maintenance on Tuesdays, off-peak hours in America but prime time evening hours in Asia.  8 to 10 hours, often to be.  Second, assembling a group of 5 to venture into a dungeon during Asian prime time used to be hard because most of the players are still sleeping (the Americans) or have gone to bed (the Australians).  Cynthia and I could spend 1 to 2 hours spamming the looking-for-group channel and we could end up going to bed not visiting any dungeon at all.  I reckon most players simply level their characters through questing.  But questing day in day out could drive us mad.  When we heard that the new Dungeon Finder is out, we were dying to give it a shot.

The new x-realm Dungeon Finder

Seriously, what took Blizzard so long to implement the idea of pulling players from different realms into a group for dungeons?  Especially for some of us who have such difficulty in looking for players for dungeon outings, any dungeon outing.  It turns out that to make this idea works is a pretty complicated matter not only from the technology point of view.  Here are our observations.

  • Finding a random group for a random dungeon seems fast.  At times within minutes.  That is great.  As expected, healer and tank remain as the hardest to come by.  Everyone wants to be a hero, to kill something.  No one seems to enjoy taking a beating or keeping people alive!
  • Exiting a cross-realm dungeon brings us back to the exact location of where we were prior to joining the dungeon.  Imagine being able to continue questing right after visiting a dungeon.  Also, once outside the dungeon, we can teleport back into it at any time.  That enables some of us to stock up reagents, poison, and to repair our gears.  Very nice!
  • There are rewards to be earned.  Did I mention a random rare pet Perky Pug that may drop?  There is also an extra buff that makes your random pick-up group (PUG) stronger.  But hey, if the group sucks, not even those 5% extra of this-and-that can save us.
  • Some players do suck.  Maybe Cynthia and I too suck.  Since now that we cannot ‘interview’ our team members prior to them joining our group like I used to (cross-realm conversations are normally not possible), we have to rely on luck to get the players who know at minimal how to play their class.  And more often than not, luck was not on our side.
  • OK.  That may be due to the fact that everyone are still trying to get used to the new interface that comes with the new patch (that new camera!), trying to cope with the absence of outdated mods (I miss my damage meter).
  • And / or because many players who have not had a chance to experience dungeons regularly have no idea what they should do inside a dungeon.  Now they can.  But skills are not built overnight.  I hope in time to come, players do get better.
  • Because of that, many players deserted our group and we constantly needed to go back to the queue and look for replacements.  Fortunately, the wait was not long, although I can’t say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  Deserting a group should be discouraged or further penalized by the current 15 minutes ban before re-joining the queue.  What happens to patience and mentorship, friendship building and peace?

Nexus, completed via Dungeon Finder

We did complete one dungeon, after numerous change in players and dungeons.  We could have finished a higher level dungeon had the server not needed a restart (we nearly completed Azjol-Nerub in 15 minutes!).  I think more fine tuning of Dungeon Finder is certainly needed.  And I trust Blizzard on that.  Below is a trailer for this new patch 3.3.

Update: On the next day, Cynthia and I took our characters to yet another random dungeon after spending an entire morning researching on how to play better (this link is no joke).  That random dungeon was tough!  But we had a good group.  Nobody dropped out (thank God!).  It was worth the wait (about 20 minutes to assemble the group).

Ah ha! Another complete. This time is the dungeon OK.

Categories
For the Geeks Game Reviews

Almost 5 Years – A World Of Warcraft’s 5th Anniversary Inspired Post

A typical WoW screenshot in action

Yes, what you see here is a typical screenshot Cynthia and I see when we play an online game together, a massive one that players from different parts of the world gathered online.  Looks complicated but it is like driving.  After a while, it is second nature.

It’s been 5 years since World of Warcraft was launched.  Nov 23 was the date.  Wow!  Think about the subscription fees I have paid.  US$12.99 per month to be exact.  I have been their faithful subscriber since Feb 2005, when the game finally arrived in Singapore.

I am not disillusioned.  I know what is real, what is not.  There was a period of time when concerning family and friends tried their best to keep me in check, against game addiction.  I suppose if one spends too much time on something, not able to find time to do something else with someone else, collective wisdom would say: that’s no good.  And if one spends too much time on something that majority of people do not understand, collective wisdom would say: that’s even worse.  How about if one spends too much time on something that majority of people understand (or think they do), what would collective wisdom say?  Here are my thoughts.

  1. Most of us have a letter of employment that says we are paid from 9 to 5.  But yet some of us pour in more hours for no tangible outcome.
  2. Most of us are convinced that we build useful skills as our career progresses.  But how useful are these skills as time goes by?
  3. Most of us have our eyes on promotion, having a new title.  But what does the title really mean outside your office?
  4. Some of us claim that never mind the long hours because we have fun at work.  How much of those juicy war stories really mean anything to someone who is not of your work domain?

What I am trying to say is that, you too are in your own world.  Everybody does.  We all have our passion and obsession, in different forms.

*     *     *     *     *

That dragon, earned it with blood and tears.

In celebrating the 5th anniversary of this one great game, fans are recounting and sharing their World of Warcraft moments online.  Hence, this post.

All Levels Begin With Number 1 (Before Death Knights Ruined It All)

The very first moment logging into the game was magical.  I was an elf.  My buddy Mark was too an elf.  Every moment in the game was new, and breathtaking.  How many of us in reality can look through the routines and find something fresh, and exciting?  Like every moment is a moment of discovery?  That mysterious forest; those spiders that killed me again and again.  Ah, good old level-lowbie.

Our Town Is Attacked Again (And Then Honor System Came And Vanquished It All)

In the good old days, opposing fractions often raged war against each other’s towns.  The first time I participated one was exhilarating.  Opposing fractions would form a long line facing each other, stayed out of each other’s attack range (much like the movies of the ancient wars), waiting for the number to gather.  Reinforcement flew in as news traveled fast.  Lots of taunting and luring to start the battle.  At a critical moment, someone would rally a group and march into the enemy line.  And then, the battle began involving easily more than 50 players.

As the attack progressed, it often broke into smaller battles amongst small groups (has anyone played the ‘egg and flour’ war in say birthday parties?).  I once thought that I was safe hiding behind a tree resting.  In the next moment, I saw 5 or 10 of them in front of me out of nowhere.  Uh oh.

The side effect of these unintended episodes was that not only did players take down other players, but they also took down the guards, the pheasants inside the town, basically halted all kinds of questing for those who wished to stay out of conflict.  So, the creator of the game has decided to take the battle out and into designated areas.  I miss those large scale town raiding.  Or as a matter of fact, being raided was just as fun.

General Drakkisath (In The Good Old UBRS)

The first time tackling the dungeon in a group of 15 online players was, as I remember, nerve-wrecking.  Raid leader’s commands were streaming through the chat window in the form of text.  Everyone followed order, for every maneuver inside the dungeon.  Flawless execution like an orchestra that all musicians play a different instrument, but the same song.  The quality of leadership and the bravery of the group was inspiring.  Although in much later, I too led groups to tackle different dungeons, although as time goes by there are newer and more complicated dungeons, I still hold dear to my first memory of the dungeon UBRS.

No, we didn’t kite General Drakkisath during my first encounter.  That strategy was derived much later, I think.

It Is Level 1 To 60, Or 70 Once Again (For The Horde!)

By the time Cynthia joined me, it was 2007.  First expansion of the game was out and she was attracted to the beauty of the new race blood elf, curious about what got me so into the game (I remember we had a bet or something).  To someone who has 8 level 60 characters back then, it is all the way from the beginning again.

Interestingly, Cynthia is my antidote to game addiction.  Because of character progression, there is little point in getting ahead of each other.  We complete quests together, visit dungeons together, and play the game together till today.  If she doesn’t play, I don’t play.  Simple as that.

Self-Actualization (For Now Before Expansion #3 Arrives)

2009 is an interesting year.  The game has evolved in a way that it is now much easier to attain “self-actualization”, even for the casual players.  Cynthia and I are now able to work towards improving our characters beyond the level cap tackling dungeons in heroic mode side-by-side with the serious players (or raiders).  We are exalted in major factions riding dragons (see picture above) and collecting exotic pets, collecting in-game titles.  We have a good pile of gold coins stashed up somewhere.  In short, all that we have ever wanted – given the real life constraints we have – we have.  These days, we rarely play, maybe a couple of times a week.

And when expansion #3 arrives, it will be all the way from level 1 once again …

Oh yes, happy birthday WoW.

External Link: World of Warcraft Anniversary Site

Categories
Book Reviews Fiction

World of Warcraft: Arthas, Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden – A Book Review & More

ARTHAS !!

“Our party has defeated the waves of undeads, in the city of Stratholme.  Aiding Prince Arthas Menethil for his goal to defeat the powerful demon Mal’Ganis, we entered the town hall, greeted by groups of dragons in human form.  We hacked our way deep into Stratholme, blood and sweat and fallen bodies of the undeads, and of the dragons.  Colors of magic engulfed our party, of offense to our enemies, and of healing to us.

Then the unthinkable happened.  One of the dragons took its eyes off our warrior and attacked our undead warlock, with full force.  Didn’t stand a chance, our companion fell.  Dead.  Maybe our undead priest tried too desperately to reverse the inevitable of our party’s first death, our orc warrior did not get the healing in time, and he too fell onto the ground, dead.

Without our warrior, it looked as though our mission was doomed.  Our blood elf warlock metamorphosed into his demon form, attempted to hold off the dragons for as long as he could, but did not last long.  And soon, our healer was dead too.  I snapped into action, with heightened reflex.  I was a blood elf rogue, carrying a poisonous mace on my right hand and a dagger on my left.  My party in ghost spirit watching, as I fought side by side with Arthas.  Just me, and him.  Don’t let Arthas die, they all screamed.  I was in killing spree, ditching out as much damage as possible.  At the very crucial moment, we won.  Arthas continued moving forward as I quickly rested and bandaged myself.  We only had time to resurrect three of us, hardly had time to get prepared, and the big demon Chrono-Lord Epoch spawned out of nowhere, charging towards us.  A voice ascended from hell and said: Prince Arthas Menethil, on this day, a powerful darkness has taken hold of your soul.  The death you are destined to visit upon others will this day be your own.” – My personal journal of one of our visits to the heroic dungeon Culling of Stratholme.

Many friends ask: How can you play an online game for more than four years?  It is hard to explain.  In fact, I have given up explaining long time ago.  The analogy as such: Regularly, you and your friend arrive at a court, spend an hour or two to play a game bounded by a certain set of rules.  And in every other days, you do something else, other than basketball.  How can you play basketball or football for years?  Same type of courts, some set of rules, and at times, same group of friends.  The answer could be as simple as what has been illustrated in the first three paragraphs of this entry.  It is not the rules of the game that makes a game special.  It is those memorable moments you take part to create within a game that makes you want to do it again, and again.  I did not write the above story.  It was a journal of one of our venture into a dungeon (in heroic mode) with five online players.  Some days, we blast through the dungeon.  Some days, the same reward is much hard earned.

Of all the many game aspects, I respect the role-playing gamers the most.  Not only do they act in character while playing the online game, they write too.  Check out the role-playing forum if you have time, for an eye-opening experience.  These people are skilled writers, brilliant storytellers.  Of the thousands of fan-based lore writers, some have made it to publish books that are endorsed by the brand World of Warcraft.  No easy feat indeed.  At the back of “Arthas: Rise of the Lich King” for instance, there is a long section of “Further Reading” listing the relevant publications out there.  There is as though an unwritten rule that all the storytellers have to create stories that not only gel with the overall lore laid down by Blizzard (the creator of the Warcraft franchise), but also gel with what have been published in the past.

This book – written by Christie Golden – accounts for the story of Prince Arthas Menethil from young, his romance with Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the trial he faced, and into the dark power he turned his back away from his alliance and has become the Lich King.  It is a familiar story for those who have been soaked in the lore of Warcraft for years.  Familiar names, familiar places, even some of the dialogues – a faithful account of events.  This book is timely as “Rise of the Lich King” is our current game expansion.  For those who may be new to the lore (like Cynthia and to some extend, I, as for some reasons, I have not started on the Warcraft III Expansion pack), “Arthas” is a good book to read.  Christie Golden has portrayed Arthas’s transformation well, a character whom I have developed feelings towards.

In a way, I agree with some of the readers that the later part of the book may appear to be too much of a rush (containing too many events) in contrary to the initial part that focuses more onto the character development.  Maybe an expanded section to account for the epic battles would be welcome by many.  Cynthia has read it and calls it a children book (what happens to all the killing and the implied sex?!).  As for me, for days, I was locked inside this world of Arthas, even as I was on the plane returning from my previous holiday location.

Categories
For the Geeks

In the World of MMORPG, One Game Rules Them All – World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King

God knows how many hours some of the avid gamers have queued for the 1pm launch party.  It wasn’t so much of a party per se and when I was a few blocks away from my destination, minutes before the gate at SAFRA Town Club opened, a random group of lovely ladies right beside me crossing the same street, one of them started, “Look at the queue!  Something free is it?”  Another one replied, “No idea leh.  Maybe free food?”  And they continued speculating the obvious.  I really wanted to turn around and say, “That is for the launch party of the new World of Warcraft expansion”.  But I held my tongue.  Because they would have stared at me as though I was from another planet.

Like the way you stare at me now.

Just how big is this online gaming business?  It is huge.  At minimal, each gamer pays S$20 a month subscription fees to Blizzard, the company that created World of Warcraft.  And at this very moment, there are 11 million active subscribers worldwide.  That is a S$2.64 billion annual revenue.  But that is not all.  Whenever they release an expansion pack, assuming that all who are actively playing the game will get one, that is a S$770 million additional revenue within a very short time.  World of Warcraft enjoys a commercial success unseen of in its gaming domain, not to forget to mention the growth of player base.  On the flip side, it is also featured from time to time in the world news due to its negative social impact.  As for me, I joined the game in 2004 and am now a casual player.  Cynthia has recently joined me in the worldwide phenomenon too.

So tell me, in the world of massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG), which game is king?

Random Observations:

  1. The event organizer needs to get some hot young girls as helpers next year.  Though all geeks love Lara Croft, we do prefer real life beings at times.
  2. Walking up 8 flights of stairs just to get the game is very un-gamer friendly.  The (rather plumb) foreigner in front of us was panting hard and complained to me, “We are gamers.  We don’t exercise.  How can they do this to us?”  Uh-huh.
  3. Maybe it is a little bit of truth that when people see you carrying a huge camera, people immediately think that you are a pro and/or you are from the media.  When I talked to the staff, they were very friendly to me.  Did you know that estimated market size for the new expansion in Singapore is 30,000?
  4. When I told my buddy Mark that the queue was too long, he joked that I should tell them that I am an avid blogger and jump the queue.  Now, that would draw lots of aggro that is more than I could handle (note: aggro means that if you piss off someone in the game, you will get an attack!).  Mark, please come back to the game.  We need you!