So a while back, Tom Chilton talked about turning WoW into a "viable Esports platform" in an interview with Gamespy, and lots of players did not take it well. Some time later, the fire has still not died down. Darqchild of the Perenolde server posted another complaint about this the other day, expressing a belief that the creation of a 2nd rule set and the domination of the esports concept had already gone with the implementation of a Tournament server.
Posts with tag bornakk
Bornakk speaks on the whole esports thing
Children's Week in Wrath
With The Burning Crusade, Children's Week was given a new tier of quests, based in Outland. Either this year or the last, I'm sure most of you have done these quests. Rather than replacing the old ones, it was simply an addition to the holiday.If Children's Week receives the same treatment in Wrath, I'm itching to see what the rewards will be, or who(what?) we'll be escorting. The rewards in TBC were based off of the new content, so I have my doubts we'll have any accurate guesses for Wrath's installment at this point, but wrong guesses are still fun to make. Penguins? Walruses? Baby Bornakks?
And what will we be escorting? A baby Tuskarr? A baby Nerubian? Who knows! Like I said, I doubt we can make any accurate guesses at this point in Wrath's development, but it's still fun to think about.
Arena Tournament Update
At the completion of the first f four weeks in the qualifying period, the $200,000 3v3 arena tournament is in full swing, and the field is heating up. The leader board is now topped by teams around a 2,000 rating. This slight drop in ratings indicates stiff competition among top contenders. Slash Bark currently holds the top position with a 2,056. Next comes Rogue-Mage-Priest powerhouse Let's Be Friends sporting a rating of 2,003. Jacked as F, a team whose name accurately describes the state of the Arena Tournament Armory page, holds third place with a rating of 1,998. At this point it's (almost) anybody's game. That is, if the Armory is giving reliable information.
Bornakk recently provided some news on the official forums that may be of interest to Arena combatants. While not giving a release date for Patch 2.4.2, he indicated that the patch will affect the Tournament realms when it goes live. Buffs, nerfs and item changes may have an impact on composition and strategy. He also announced that there are currently no plans to add the Stormherald to the tournament server, as "We haven't added any items that require a profession to use them." (Unless you count Heavy Netherweave Banadages and ring enchantments.) He said that such items may be added in the future. Original poster, Zanyu of Malfurion, believes that adding this item would balance out the presence of Rogues and Warriors in the Tournament. I see it as very unlikely that a change would be made while the tournament is active.
Tuesday April 29th maintenance
...and Bornakk looked upon the World (of Warcraft) in its seventh day and said: "Let there be maintenance." And so it was.Bornakk posted on the General Discussion Forums this afternoon that there will be maintenance tomorrow on all realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Additionally, the forums themselves will be undergoing maintenance from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 8:00 a.m. PDT. You will not be able to log in to the forums, but you will be able to read them.
Patch 2.4.2 was announced last week and is on the PTR right now. However, it is unlikely that the patch will come tomorrow. The PTR phase of minor patches almost always lasts two weeks. Of course with that said, I'm sure I'll be eating my words tomorrow as 2.4.2 goes live. We'll all just have to stay tuned and find out!
Bornakk posts on Death Knight level and creation
Bornakk has clarified some information about the Death Knight class today. The two key pieces of information he tells us are:- Death Knights will start at a level less than 70, but Blizzard wants them to be able to get into Northrend "a little faster".
- Converting a preexisting character to a Death Knight has been ruled out.
Bornakk also waxes philosophical about the decision to not have a character convert into a Death Knight. He says that "Leveling a character just to throw it away doesn't really fit [fun game play] very well." He also expects that Death Knights will "find their way" into raid groups just as the Paladins and Shamans did on the Horde and Alliance with the release of Burning Crusade.
While this news on the Death Knight is really just clarification of some previously released information, it does provide a good insight into what Blizzard is thinking about the class. WoW Insider will have all the latest on the Death Knight and Wrath of the Lich King, so stay tuned!
Dungeon depth in the past, present and future
Bornakk chimes in to say that The Burning Crusade dungeon design was heavily influenced by player feedback, wishing for more Scarlet Monastery-esque dungeons. I can see that, and to an extent, I agree with that, too. Scarlet Monastery, while shorter and more linear, was also pretty cool.
Personally, I don't think that it really comes down to one or the other. Take Dire Maul, for instance. Each wing could be tackled in a straightforward, linear fashion. However, each of them also had alternative routes, and some of them even had alternative ways of defeating them. For example, Tribute Runs in Dire Maul: North. Plus, they were even connected via the library. If you really want to, you could go from one wing to the other without any loading screen.
Continue reading Dungeon depth in the past, present and future
Free character transfers for April 18th
Bornakk announced today that free character transfers are available for the following realms:- Illidan
- Mal'Ganis
- Sargeras
- Tichondruis
- Warsong
- Azshara
- Maiev
WoW Insider will always keep you up-to-date on the latest realm news, so stay tuned!
Bornakk hints that Tier 3 might be removed from the game
With solid confirmation that Naxx will be "floating" off to Northrend (and not exist in two places at once) also comes a strong hint by Bornakk that they will be removing the ability to get Tier-3 armor pieces along with the rest of the current Naxx loot. Bornakk says that "For players who want the look and the stats of tier 3 armor at level 80, hopefully they are already farming the dungeon for them." This is a very strong indication that post WotLK, the current Tier 3 gear will be no longer available.Before today it has been pure speculation that this removal of loot would or would not happen. The only time that the WoW Insider staff can think of this happening before (save for the holiday and special events) is with a few old mount models getting changed. And that is nothing compared to entire loot tables being removed from the game. Note that the changes in patch 2.3 to old world loot were just that – changes, not removal.
In many ways this removal does make since, given that the armor models will be reused in Wrath of the Lich King's version of Naxx. While there is similar looking and colored gear floating around WoW, none of it is really twenty levels apart and powerful each in their own right.
However with that said, the removal of items from the game like this stirs a mixed reaction in me.
Continue reading Bornakk hints that Tier 3 might be removed from the game
Gear transition between BC and WoTLK should be smoother, says Bornakk
We've known for a while that we've been getting a gear reset in WoTLK, and just this morning, we've discussed and speculated on how it will affect people as they transition into the 70-80 game, especially alt-o-holics. Here's some news that should strike a lot of people as good: Bornakk confirmed in a thread yesterday that we really won't be seeing quite as large a gear gap in the jump from Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King as we did in the past: No more doubling of stamina values this time, guys.
This should be good news for raiders who feel like their epics don't mean that much anymore (although to be honest, I was using a few of my BWL and AQ40 drops well into my late 60s, so I don't think the gear reset was that bad after all). If the gear jump isn't that bad, your shiny new epics should still work pretty well. Heck, same goes for badge runners. I've suspected for a while that the new Badge of Justice gear was meant to be a partial preliminary gear rest ahead of time, and I'd bet this more or less confirms it: If there's not going to be as much as a jump, these Tameless Breeches might last my druid longer than one might think.
I think it's definitely a good middle road to take. We'll get a gear reset so alt-o-holics and casuals can jump right into the Howling Fjord, but the gap won't be quite as great, meaning that raiders and badge gear savers won't need to feel like they're watching months of work go down the drain when that first level 71 green drops.
Don't expect PvE to PvP transfers anytime soon
One of the larger complaints about the ability to transfer servers is the lack of PvE to PvP transfers. You can transfer your character from a PvP server to a PvE server, but not the other way around. Some folks see this as discriminating against the PvP servers, while others see it as a good thing.Blizzard is firmly on the side of those that see it as good. In a recent blue post Bornakk has came out and said that while the option is there, they have no plans to allow it. Apparently this has "been on the table" for the past two years.
Personally, I'm glad they won't be allowing this. The ability to transfer from PvP to PvE makes sense since you won't be disrupting the gearing balance. But think about what would happen if you could transfer from a PvE to a PvP server. Everyone would level their characters on a PvE server, and then transfer them to a PvP server at 70. This would make it nearly impossible to get a group or have any pre-70 game play on the PvP server. I know some of you are going to say that it already is impossible, but it would just become more difficult. So I'm with Blizzard on this one.
What do you think? Is it a good policy, or should Blizzard change their ways?
Arena tournament practice phase extended
Bornakk posted yesterday to let us know that the arena tournament practice phase has been extended until April 22nd. The practice phase is the part where you can get on with your team and learn how to play on the server, devise strategies, and generally get things sorted out before heading into the competition phase. During the competition phase, every win and loss with count for something, and will go towards you possible winning the area tournament!Bornakk also has a blue post about the exact dates and rules of the tournament for each phase.
Of course, stay tuned to WoW Insider. We'll be carrying tournament news as it happens.
Making Molten Core for consoles into a real game
Bornakk posted a poll on the forums the other day asking what everyone's favorite April Fool's joke from Blizzard was, and surprisingly (to me, anyway -- I thought Tauren Marines would win for sure), the Molten Core Atari game is winning. There's no question that the bears joke was great (it does make sense), but I thought the game looked a little boring. Blizzard fans disagree, however -- people like the pixelated versions of the old MC bosses.Which brings us to the question of whether Blizzard could actually do this. Boffo says he'd shell out $10 to play this game, while other people say they'd spend as much as $30 to actually see it on retail shelves (or, more likely, as a download). The game looks like a version of Asteroids more than anything, and the trailer (on purpose, probably) don't really make it clear what the rules are. But it looks simple enough to put together -- maybe a weekend's work by a dedicated coder with some MC runs under his or her belt.
Instead of a release, though, it'd be more fun to see this implemented as a minigame somewhere. We already know that Blizzard is planning to do some mobile work, so maybe they could release this as a fun distraction for the iPhone while planning something bigger. Incorporating it into the main WoW game somewhere would be a fun possibility as well. I can't think of any other time when a Blizzard 4/1 joke actually made it into real life (Two-headed ogres aren't actually playable yet), but they might as well start here, right?
Server downtime troubles continue [Updated]
In yet another sure sign that we're all ready for the refreshing changes that Sanrio will bring to the online gaming world, Extended Maintenance continues. Right now, Bornakk's telling us that we'll have to wait until 2pm PDT for the realms to be bought back online. The Realm Status page reveals that a few realms have come back up, but it remains to be seen if they're stable. We'll keep an eye out for you and tell you what WoW's up to. Hopefully we'll be back on the flipside in 15 minutes or so.
Of course, we all know that WoW is just filling that empty void in our souls that will only be truly healed when Hello Kitty Online is finally released, or at least put in Open Beta.
Update: While a few more servers are up, almost none of them are anything close to stable, and many servers remain down. Bornakk is currently promising another update at 3:00 PDT.
Update 2: It looks like at 4:40 PDT, all realms are up and ready for play again.
Drysc on Blizzard customer service
We are all rather critical of Blizzard at times. After all, many of us spend an inordinate amount of time in the game; especially the WoW Insider staff on patch days. We expect things to work in a certain type of way, and we expect that when we encounter a problem, things will be solved ASAP.Nothing is wrong with these expectations we have, and indeed we should have them. After all, we want this game to be the best game possible. For many folks it's the only one they'll play. The happiness and smooth sailing in game is principally the responsibility of the customer service department at Blizzard. They're the ones to fix our issues when something goes wrong.
Drysc, one of the most visible community managers, made a wonderful post earlier this week on exactly what happens in Blizzard's support services. The full post and response are worth taking a second to read. The bullet points of his posts are as follows:
Rolling Restarts for Friday, March 28th
Hold onto the your wigs and keys, everyone, we're not quite done Ironing out the kinks from 2.4 yet. Bornakk's announced yet another run of rolling restarts, this time starting at 5 am PDT on Friday, March 28th. Each realm will be down for 15 minutes, and the entire process should take about an hour. The last round of restarts, as you recall, became a bit more complicated, but we'll see how they do this time. Either way, expect a bit of bumpiness if early morning on the US pacific coast is your usual play time. Bornakk doesn't mention if any hotfixes will be applied during the downtime, but we'll be checking to see if anything's different on the other side.
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