Category: WoW

We’ll Always Have Orgrimmar.

I have no pride, I have no shame…and I’m not above pimping for Blizzard Entertainment every so often if the price is right. So, as my MMORPG of choice is trying to build out its network prior to the coming expansion, and are now offering various goodies to veteran and signee to do so, send me a note if anyone’s thinking of taking the World of Warcraft plunge. On the upside, it’s relatively cheap and addictive entertainment. On the downside, did I mention it was addictive? Don’t say I didn’t warn you if your life takes an Aqua Vita turn.

When they came for my rogue, I said nothing.

“The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world.” The Director of National Intelligence announces a project to uncover terrorists in World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs. It seems the US government has finally awakened to the catastrophic dangers posed by Bin Laden’s vast army of h4x0rs and ninjas. (Via Yglesias, where the game-savvy commenters are already having a good deal of fun with it.)

The Devil You Know.

“We have company.” Big Red, Selma, Pa Bluth, Abe Sapien, & co are back fighting Cthulhuian monstrosities (and what look to be Warcraft blood elves) in the new trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I said of the first one that del Toro deserves another chance to tell a crackling Hellboy story without being burdened with all the origin stuff. So, hopefully, this’ll be more fun from the word go.

WoW, here we go again.

Whoosh! That giant sucking sound you’ll hear in a few months is the free time, productivity, and normal sleep cycles of 9 million people around the world suddenly being consumed within the vortex of another ten-level grind…Blizzard announces Wrath of the Lich King, a forthcoming second expansion pack (a la Burning Crusades) to their popular and addictive MMORPG. [If you’re not a WoW player, just skip over the rest of this entry — it won’t make any sense.] Right now, my guild is done with Kara, has SSC essentially on farm, and is now plugging through the Eye (Void Reaver on farm, Al’ar recently down, Solarian and Kael’thas to come.) (As for my own character, I’m pretty well-geared these days — all of Tier 4, starting Tier 5 — and still reference EJ’s handy rogue spreadsheet whenever a possible upgrade falls.) So I expect we’ll be getting bored with Mt. Hyjal and the Black Temple at right around the time the new continent of Northrend drops. Well-played, Blizzard.

Is This Thing On?

Hey all. So, quiet around GitM of late, sorry about that. Chalk it up to dissertation fellowship deadline season, that insomnia-in-a-box known as Burning Crusades (ding 70), wintertime anomie, or any or all of the above. But hopefully I’ll be better about posting around here this month. I’ll try, in any case.

LFG UBRS Scholo Mara Strat?!?

A pause for breath: One short week before The Burning Crusade starts consuming my non-dissertating/blogging moments and late-night hours anew, I’ve made it to level 60 on the ridiculously addictive World of Warcraft (with an undead rogue by the name of JackLowry, in case you were interested.) I tried Second Life around the same time back in November and didn’t really get into it, but, oh my, WoW is gaming crack, the most virulent stuff I’ve experienced since Civ4. If you haven’t tried it, be warned.

You are entering a world of pain.

“Teamwork and competition do make the game much more fun, but everybody’s stuck in the same grind. With little at stake, your quests feel less like Frodo and Sam’s trip to Mordor than a night shift at Hardee’s. Every new level brings more of the same, and fatigue sets in the 10th time you’ve run through the same high-level dungeon, or when you’re trying to crack level 38 but can’t bring yourself to kill another goddamn swamp jaguar.” Also in Slate, Chris Dahlen calls out World of Warcraft (while, unlike too many contrarian Slate pieces, offering valuable suggestions for improvement.) I only recently tried out (re: binged on) WoW for the first time — I’m at Level 29 and climbing — and he’s got a point. The game is good, addictive fun, but I do wish there was more Infocom-style problem solving involved and less repetitive point-and-click pixel-bashing.

Warehouses of Warcraft.

“‘We’re like a stock exchange. You can buy and sell with us,’ says Alan Qiu, a founder of the Shanghai-based Ucdao.com. ‘We farm out the different jobs. Some people say, “I want to get from Level 1 to 60,” so we find someone to do that.'” Via a friend in the program, the NYT examines Chinese online gaming factories. “Most of the players here actually make less than a quarter an hour, but they often get room, board and free computer game play in these ‘virtual sweatshops.’“