Some Ponderables

In addition to having an earworm from this:

I was really little when this show first aired.  

And yes, Wonder Dog's behavior was modeled after Scooby Doo.

I've had a bunch of nonsensical MMO oriented thoughts that I can't get rid of.  Therefore, I give you some MMO Ponderables:

• Do Draenei get sunburn, and if so do they end up looking like Eredar?
• Why do Sindorei --who often have names invoking their love of daylight-- seem to never get tan?
• With all the radiation surrounding Gnomeregan, why don't more of the Gnomes turn into mini-Hulks?
• How can some of the Imperial NPCs --the regular populace-- tell you that they're loyal servants of the Empire without breaking down into laughter?
• In Guild Wars 2, when you aggro an enemy bandit they say "Ha! You're kidding, right?"  Why don't they say as they die "I guess you weren't kidding..."
• When I see a quest giver in Neverwinter talk, why is it like watching a dubbed martial arts movie?
• Why do Gnome NPCs say "Daylight's burning!"  Shouldn't the Kaldorei say that?
• Given all of the terror that NPC necromancers generate in Age of Conan, why do the inhabitants of the cities never bat an eyelash when a PC necromancer walks by with a bunch of undead trailing in their wake?
• Why are Warlocks a playable class in WoW, anyway?  Aren't they supposed to be the bad guys?
• Why is the scenery so great in LOTRO, but the toon graphics so... blah?
• Is "multiplicity" Garrosh's super power?  After all, he's in Orgrimmar, he's in Borean Tundra, he's in Nagrand, and oh look he's over at the Argent Tournament Grounds and at Silverpine Forest...
• "Evil will always triumph because Good is dumb," says Dark Helmet.  Well.... let me introduce you to Darth Malgus....
• What do jawas/sandpeople look like underneath those robes, anyway?  On second thought, maybe I don't want to know; it could be Gargamel and the Smurfs.
• What sort of birth control do they use on those Bioware games?  Sure seems like you'd expect a lot more kids around than what you see in game.
• Why is it that the younger a player is, the louder they feel they have to be in BG chat?  It's not a perfect correlation, but it sure seems that way at times.
• How can kindergartners sit in "circle time" without any trouble at all, but a bunch of BG players can't stand within a circle in Silvershard Mines?
• Why do the WoW male human toons all look like they've got gas?

"Who Gives a @#$% About the Refinery, Anyway?"

It's been kind of a strange week in my neck of the woods.

I gained a few more streaks of gray in my beard, mainly due to taking my oldest out shopping for Homecoming dresses.  (I'm not sure I'm ready for her to go to formal dances just yet, but she is in high school* now...)

And I also gained a few more patches of gray dealing with random BGs, as well.  This post is dedicated to those numerous runs, trying to eek out enough Conquest points to get another piece of Grievous gear.

***

Signs Your Random Battleground Isn't Going to Go Well

• The toon with the highest health is a Rogue.
• You check out the list of toons in the BG and discover you have no healers.
• The other side has a premade and your side is already arguing over strategy.
• Nobody stays back on defense in Alterac Valley.
• Your entire team runs to the mid in Eye of the Storm.
• You're Alliance and you port into Strand of the Ancients.  (Nuff said.)
• The BG starts and half of your team is AFK.
• Nobody targets the enemy healers.
• Nobody stays back to defend the Farm/Stables during the initial rush.
• In a 10 or 15 player game, 5 or more of your players are Rogues.
• A player ports in and declares "You all suck but I'm here, so we'll win."  (Never tempt people to throw a game just to spite you.)

Oh, and the title quote?  That came from an Isle of Conquest game wherein a few of us were talking back and forth about capturing and recapturing the Quarry and Refinery.  The Warrior who said that also was bitching about the fact that the Horde was ahead of us in breaking down the gates, and he didn't make the correlation between the Horde having both the Quarry and Refinery and being 30% closer to breaking down the gate...



*For those not familiar with the U.S. educational system, high school or secondary education is Grades 9 through 12, roughly age 14/15 through 18.  Attending a college/university is technically optional, but highly encouraged.

My My.... Look at the Time!

This past Sunday, PC passed its fourth anniversary.

I knew that it was some time in September, because I'd only been playing a month when Deftig suggested that we start a blog, but I'd not realized our first post was at the end of September.

Deftig did a lot of the heavy lifting to get the site ready.  He'd selected Blogger over other options --my lone advice was to make it easy to modify-- and had prepped the site for publication.  We selected the name Parallel Context over the course of an afternoon whereas he and I would trade name ideas and he'd go out and see if it was available.  We ended up with Parallel Context simply because it was the first blog name that was free, not due to any clever desire to have our initials as PC.

Even though he hasn't posted in a while, the site still bears Deftig's fingerprints in layout and format.  I've done some mild tweaking over the years, but I've not felt the need to change things very much.*

Our first full year had a lot more posts than subsequent years.  Part of that was two --occasionally three-- people posting, but part of that was that I could post that much:  the kids were smaller and we weren't involved with (what often seems like) 50 million after school activities.  As time has gone on and my life has gotten busier, my posting has dropped to a more sustainable 1-2 times a week.

What has changed the most over the years, however, is the MMO blogging landscape.

When I read Righteous Orbs, the Pink Pigtail Inn, or Welcome to Spinksville!, I felt like I was at the watering hole for a lot of MMO bloggers.  All three posted often and engendered lively discussion, and the first two had enormous blogrolls.***  When Tam of Righteous Orbs dropped by and commented on a post of mine, it felt like a rock star saying hello.  And when Larisa of PPI added our blog to her blogroll, I felt that we'd finally arrived.

But the voices have gone silent.

Righteous Orbs and PPI closed up shop a few years ago, and Spinks has slowed her output tremendously over the past year.  (As of this writing, she hasn't posted in over two months.)  While the gigantic blogroll lives on with Rades' Orcish Army Knife, even the MMO Melting Pot is scaling back operations while Hugh takes a detour into his love of filmmaking.

***

Things have changed, yet people are still out there, writing away.  And so are we.

I don't see PC going away any time soon, and given my tendency to poke my nose into just about any MMO that strikes me as interesting, I'll have plenty of topics to write about.

Staying true to my Midwestern roots, I'm not going to turn PC into something it's not.  We're not exactly a backwater, but we're not trendy, either.  And that suits me fine.

/raises coffee

Here's to another four years!




*If I ever can get my WoW screenshot to work properly I'll get the title pic updated, however.  We're a bit behind the times.

**Yeah, like that never stopped me before.

***Spinks' blogroll is smaller, but for a former developer I find it very interesting reading.

Good To See You Back Again, NBI

It's good to see the Newbie Blogger Initiative make a reappearance.

Contrary to what some may believe, you can never have enough bloggers out there.  The blogosphere is in a constant state of flux as new blogs replace those that have gone silent, and in MMOs especially an infusion of new blood is always welcome.

Why  "MMO's especially"?  Because it seems that MMO blogs are on a downward spiral, with some long standing blogs going silent or taking extended leaves of absence.  We need new voices, new perspectives to step in and be heard.

Yes, it can be hard at times when you check your blog and see a big fat zero next to comments.  I'm not going to lie and say that it never bothered me, because it did, even when I knew that practically nobody was aware of this new blog of ours.  And when the search term that most frequently brings someone to your site is "retardin desensitizing cream", it can be pretty damn depressing.*  Blogging is definitely not for those who crave attention.  However, blogging is for people who like to write, have an opinion, and want to spend some time putting that opinion out there.

This is not the immediacy of Twitter.  Neither is it as voyeuristic as Facebook or LinkedIn or G+.  But blogging does provide a creative outlet to those who want it, and the best part is that your opinions can't be shouted down on your own blog.

And when you get that first real comment, the feeling is priceless.




*I'm sure that just by mentioning this name we'll get yet another wave of searches heading our way.  That's what I get for my one post way back in 2010 (or so) about the subset of Ret Spec Paladins derisively called Retardins.

Biddy-Biddy-Biddy... What's up, Buck?

Whatever gives someone the idea that botting is a good thing?

That question began turning over in my head the other day when I was in an Isle of Conquest battle.  As usual, I darted over and grabbed the Quarry, hanging around until the Alliance captured it and made serious inroads on blasting into the Horde keep.*  I then noticed that the Alliance grabbed the Docks, Hangar, and Workshop in short order.

"WTH is the Horde doing?" I asked in BG chat.  "Are they turtling?"

"No," replied a druid.  "They're all bots fighting in mid outside their gate."

"We've got a ton of them on our side too," a pally added.

I crept up to the Hangar and perched on a ledge to watch.  Sure enough, toons were emerging from the Horde Keep in a steady stream into a huge melee about halfway between the front gate and the Workshop. Nobody was even close to the Workshop or even bothering to go around to the Workshop or Hangar.

Okay, I'd been known to fixate on a fight in a BG before, but when the gates were breached into the Horde Keep, I ran in and found.....  Horde players rezzing and making a beeline for the front gate's portal.

Nobody bothered to try and defend the keep.

It was quite surreal, seeing a Lock and a Priest --both with over 440k health (I checked)-- run right by me and straight for the brawl outside.  Typically everybody on the other side gangs up on the Rogue if he's visible, so I was shocked when I wasn't stunned and feared all over the courtyard.

But why set yourself up as a bot?  Why run the risk of having your account suspended** for a few Honor Points?

Near as I can figure, there's three reasons why.  Feel free to add your own or dispute as you see fit:

• Keeping up with the Joneses.  There are players that, due to time crunch or whatnot, feel that they can't spend enough time grinding for gear as they should, so they decide to run a bot program to get the points needed to buy the gear.  The problem with that is the more bots there are on a team, the lesser chance you have of actually winning the BG.  If you've got a full Honor set already --and it's only a week or so's worth of running AV to get the points for a full set-- why bother botting when you need to actually win the BG (or Arena or Rated) to get the Conquest points?
• Beating the System.  Similar to the first reason, but instead of attempting to gear up due to lack of time, botting is done not only for gear but to give the MMO's devs the middle finger.  The "I'm so clever that I found a way to beat your shitty grinding game and get the points I deserve!" attitude isn't too far off the big ego driven attitude found in BGs, so I can easily believe this motivation.
• Boosting a Hacked Account.  Someone comes along and hacks into an MMO account, but the toons aren't completely up to spec to be useful for the hacker.  Therefore, they set up a bot to get them the necessary points/gear/mats/whatever.  This is the one that bothers me the most, because when I see such blatant examples of botting, all I can think of is that's some poor person's hacked account.

There are days when it sure seems tempting to login, set up a bot, and then go take care of errands for the day.  Or maybe set up a bot to run overnight along with any backups/AV scans that have to be done on the computer.  The "no effort and big return" carrot and stick is very powerful, and with botting software steadily becoming more sophisticated there's plenty of pressure on MMO admins to flush out bots and keep the peace.

Plus it'd be nice to not have about half of your team run straight to the mid in EoS and park there for the entire game.

***

In case you've not tried it or haven't purchased it yet, another Free Weekend in Guild Wars 2 started today.

And to answer your question, yes, I've already logged in.  My Thief is still there, and still getting killed off when he attacks enemies two levels higher than himself.  I've gotten too many bad habits on easier MMOs these days....





*So few people even think of capturing the Quarry --or the Mines in AV-- that I've kind of taken that on as part of my job.  It's a small thing, really, but can be vitally important in a fight that devolves into a war of attrition.  I find that the team that does the small things well will typically end up winning in the end.

**It used to be that way, anyway.  I'm not so sure now if you can be suspended for botting, because it seems so prevalent.

They Keep Dragging Me Back In, Part Whatever

In between running BGs on WoW, poking around Makeb (finally!) on SWTOR, and some occasional forays into other MMOs, I felt a strange tug.

Perhaps it was me passing by a bunch of In Nomine RPG books when I was at one of our local game stores.  Perhaps it was watching the Doctor Who episode The Angels Take Manhattan with the kids. Perhaps it was me watching Illidan's "You are not prepared!" sequence on the BC trailer.  But whatever the reason why, I had a sudden hankering to see this again:

Nothing like a pair of wings to attract attention

Yeah, I know.  You'd think that after I said Aion wasn't for me that would have been the end of it, but like White Castle hamburgers, I got a sudden craving to login to the game again.

Instead of using my Elyos "light side" character, I created a "dark side" Asmodian just to see what that looked like.  To say that they appeared akin to darker reflections of Elyos is pretty accurate, plus they have a furry, almost tail-like growth on their backs.  "Oh great, they're "Furry Angels", I muttered and left it at that.

The Asian MMO nature of Aion means that you get creatures with names like "Sparkie" out there, but that isn't different than the Elyos side out there.  The major difference between factions is illustrated from the beginning questlines:  on the Elyos side you're defending communities from raiders, while on the Asmodian side you are the raiders.

Gold spammers were in full force in the chat areas, which once again rendered them practically useless.  This makes me wonder whether NCSoft actually encourages gold spammers, given how effective ArenaNet, Bioware, and even Blizzard have been at gold spam reduction.

I will freely admit that the best part of the game is the graphics, but still the immersion is ruined by the Nintendo factor:  the goofy enemy names, the tendency of some players to use mushroom heads instead of realistic looking designs, and the obvious JRPG nature of the female toons' graphics.

Part of the Aion v4.0 "Dark Betrayal" promotion pics.
A long time ago, I once had an apartment neighbor who wore leather outfits
like the woman on the right.  She was not one to be trifled with.

In the illustration above, the woman on the left makes me vaguely uncomfortable.  I don't know how such images are perceived in Asia, but over here she leaves the impression of a 12-13 year old dressed up in a sexualized outfit.  This creeped me out, given that I have kids in that age range.  I simply don't see the need to go there.  As much as some people complain about the Dragon Aspects' bikini looks, at least they dress like adults.  (And the Aspects give you the sort of look that says "if you piss us off, you're breakfast."  You don't get that in Aion.)

Aion is popular enough, given the number of toons online, but I wish it would take itself more seriously.

Oh, and I wish it would make the mouse selections the same as on (almost) all other MMOs.  Why decide to do things differently when all you did was kinda-sorta reverse some of the mouse functions?

I suppose I should be happy that Aion hasn't enraptured me, because the last thing I need is another MMO to split my time.  But man, Aion just feels so close to something I'd like, it's a shame that it doesn't.

A Miss in the Pattern

I find it interesting that we're on the last raid patch of Mists of Pandaria but we still don't know about the next expac.  Consider the following:

• Wrath was announced in August 2007, before the Sunwell and Zul'Aman raids dropped.
• Cataclysm was announced in August 2009, before the Icecrown raid dropped.
• Mists was announced in October 2011, before the Deathwing raid dropped.
• And now we have the Siege of Orgrimmar dropping, but no expac announcement as of this date.*

I presume that Blizz is waiting for BlizzCon to make the announcement on the next expac, but given that Blizzard likes to follow patterns, this isn't a good sign.

Unless, of course, the Siege of Orgrimmar isn't the last patch in the Mists saga.

If 5.4 is the last Mists patch, then Blizzard might be setting themselves up for a big problem:  a huge length of time where nothing is going on in-game.  Last time, Blizzard softened the blow to subscriptions by creating the annual pass, which included access to Diablo III.  What will Blizzard do this time?

1. Move up any release date to Q1 or Q2 of 2014.  This is the most likely solution, given that any expac Blizz is working on has been done in secret.  However, after the long lead in to Mists, including the massive beta, any push to release so early will be seen by some pundits as a sign of desperation on Blizzard's part.
2. Introduce a bridge raid (or two).  This is IMHO the second most likely solution.  The only thing that keeps this from being the most likely solution is the lukewarm reception the last bridge raid (Ruby Sanctum) received.  Blizzard would need to devote a lot of time to these raids, which would impact any release of the next expac.
3. Take WoW F2P.  An intriguing possibility, but one that I have to question in its soundness.  Blizzard makes a lot of money on WoW subscriptions, and taking WoW F2P would mean that they'd have to either eat that money or make up for it in other ways.  They'd have to severely restrict access to endgame content if they wanted to keep subs up, because WoW's model is based upon "the game starting at max level".  That would be at best a temporary fix, but an intriguing one nonetheless.
4. Announce Titan.  This is possible, but given the "back to the drawing board" announcement in August, I suspect this is the least likely of all options.

Anyway, this is pure speculation until the announcement comes at BlizzCon.




*Ha!  "By the powers of Murphy, I summon the expac announcement!"