"Once I Think I'm Out, They Pull Me Back In!" (Editorial) from 2007

This editorial from Mr. Nash dates back to 2007 and recounts his year away from World of WarCraft. With all the MMO's that have come and gone during the intervening years, it's still a little mind-boggling to think that WoW is still going strong. Maybe it doesn't post the same kind of numbers that it once did, but WoW probably still has many, many years left in the tank.

The Warcraft Movie Trailer Looks Pretty Bad

The trailer for the Warcraft movie came out the other day, and I have to say that it didn't impress. Right from the opening visuals, the thing dripped of fantasy cliche as it showed one sweeping vista after the next, orcs that looked kinda flabby, and humans that had armor made out of plastic. Then it gets even worse, we have to listen to some of the dialogue. As it stands, I'm not sure how many people are going to line up and see what is starting to look like a two hour cut scene. Maybe some of the super diehard fans will go watch it, but this is something that probably should have come out five years ago when the franchise was at the height of its popularity.

Looking at the motifs, the movie comes off as a paint by numbers approach to fantasy in the trailer. If anything, it felt like it was aping Lord of the Rings a little too much. Granted, fantasy, and especially fantasy video games, have been doing this for years, but watching how it is approached in the trailer brings it into sharp focus. There was nothing really striking about the places that they were showing, even if they were hinting at major cities of Azeroth in it. I was just left feeling like I'd been drawn through a montage of very traditional fantasy locales and had a lot of trouble mustering any interest in them.

Even worse is that the visuals seem off. The orcs, while huge, had a strangely doughy look to them as if there was an unusually thick layer of fat and flesh covering their muscles. Meanwhile, the scenes of humans were far from impressive and I was left wondering if the studio was going cheap on the armor because it all looked like it was made from plastic. The whole time I watched the trailer, the more grating it was to look at all of this. It also got me wondering why they couldn't just make a CG movie instead of going the live action route. The cinematics that have come along for each expansion for World of Warcraft have been very good, especially for the last couple. I would have been fine if the movie looked like that. Maybe it would have been expensive and time consuming to do, but it would look far better than what we have now.

I'm also wondering how much they're going to try to squeeze into a single movie because the trailer sure seemed to be trying to cram a lot of people, places, and events into it. The whole thing could turn into a confusing onslaught of lore that doesn't get very well explained. Moreover, the dialogue feels really bad. Granted it has always been bad in the games. I only find Warcraft's lore tolerable if I consume it via Wiki articles. Having to sit through actual cutscenes and listen to the characters talk has been a consistent exercise in patience as it has been one cliche after the next with really corny lines for everyone. Now it would seem that this is being brought straight into the movie, which could make any time someone talks in it pretty darn cringe worthy.

As it stands, I'm thoroughly unimpressed with what I've seen of the Warcraft movie judging by the trailer. This is supposed to be making a first impression, and right now that impression is to stay far away from this thing. Part of me really does wonder if this will turn into Blizzard's Spirits Within, and expensive, over-hyped disaster.

So, WoW's Next Expansion is Bringing Back the Burning Legion

Looking back, Warlords of Draenor really wasn't a bright spot in the history of World of Warcraft. From the standpoint of subscription numbers alone, the game certainly took a pounding. When it launched, things were looking rosy, but only recently we've learned that those numbers have tanked, and are only a bit over 5 million now. To put that in perspective, WoW hasn't seen its subscriber rate that low since Vanilla. That's eight years ago.

The lore looked alright from my perspective, as I've always been a fan of the Outlands. It was basically an alternate timeline remake of a lot of people's favorite zones from the Burning Crusade. What's not to like about that? Just about every other aspect of the game, it would seem. Lots of dungeons with baddies many didn't seem to care about, the orc leaders didn't impress as much as was hoped, and the whole garrison system did tend to trivialize aspects of the game to the point where people had to ask themselves why they were playing, and it would seem many found the answer to said question given the drop in subs.

Demon Hunter hero class announced

So here we are now with the newest expansion announced, and very quickly at that with Legion. By the looks of things, Blizzard took note of a lot of what they did wrong with WoD and are trying to steer the game away from that. Firstly, they're bringing the biggest of the big bad in the Warcraft universe back with the Burning Legion. I don't think we'll see Sargeras or anything. That would be like fighting the devil, and as strong as characters are made out to be in this game, it's always felt like Blizzard has wanted to keep him just out of reach of players. That doesn't mean we can't smack his armies and lieutenants around, though.

It does open the door for some fun lore with these guys on the scene, and to thicken the plot a bit more we still have Gul'dan running around and we're in a universe where Illidan is still alive, so we'll get to kill him again by the looks of things. So, we'll have some exciting bosses to actually look forward to here. I don't know if Illidan will have a new Black Temple, but it's just nice to see everyone's favorite demon hunter make a return. It does make me wonder if they can find a way to bring back Kael'thas once more just so we can kill him once more for old time's sake. Whatever the case, we're getting a central figure from Warcraft lore once again with Illidan, and even some yet untouched folks like Azshara making an appearance. So, Blizzard seems to be trying to go back to really big name characters that the fanbase cares about.

In terms of gameplay, it looks like the game is trying to make classes feel unique again, at least to some extent. For years, now, there has been a gradual homogenization of the classes in WoW. From giving more and more healers a battle rez, to making tanks feel more and more alike, to giving mages their own Bloodlust there has been a steady shift in classes to make them feel more and more alike. Blizzard's mantra during this time was to, "Bring the player, not the class" which was largely to help prevent certain classes from being sidelined as the meta shifted, but at the same time it also made them feel a lot less special. With the introduction of class halls and artifact weapons, it seems as though they're trying to make classes at least somewhat unique again. I don't know to what extent this will be, and how much players will go along with it (for all we know, everyone may just check online for what the "best" builds are and copy them anyway, eliminating much of the potential uniqueness), but at least it's a step away from the rampant homogeneity that has become prevalent in the game.

Illidan is back!

While we're on the topic of classes, we'll also be seeing the introduction of a new hero class, the demon hunter. So, just as the death knight allowed us to run around and be little Arthuses, now we can run around and be little Illidans. The class will be limited to night and blood elves, so it won't be like so many other classes where just about anyone can do it. There'll also be a number of special aesthetic choices for them like having horns and tattoos, or none if you prefer. It will have two specs to choose from where one is DPS and the other is tank. You'll even be able to double jump with the class, which could be interesting. I'm curious how they can make this meaningful while playing, and not just something for billy goating while exploring areas. In any case, demon hunter actually strikes me as an exciting class to play as.

There's other stuff getting tossed in as well, like a new zone (with Dalaran as a neutral central hub!), increased level cap, and a change to the honor system, but really, the big selling points are the return of the Burning Legion, Illidan, demon hunter class, and the possibility of classes becoming somewhat unique again. Will this be enough to repair any of the losses that WoD suffered? I don't know, but I do think it will certainly get fans to keep an eye on things rather than simply dismiss the expansion out of hand.

News: World of Warcraft Loses 1.3 Million Subscribers

Activision Blizzard recently announced their most recent financials, and one of the more interesting things to stand out in this onslaught of very big numbers was that one of their most important games, World of Warcraft, has shed 1.3 million subscribers. That brings the game's subscription base down to a "paltry" 8.3 million people.

Reasons given for this decline include free to play games starting to become a major competitor, especially in Asia, as well as content not coming out quick enough to satisfy players. These are certainly plausible, but there could be plenty of other reasons as well. People who got the free one year subscription for pre-ordering Diablo 3 are likely seeing their free subscriptions expiring and taking the opportunity to leave the game. Also, the game is just getting old. It wasn't going to be a 10 million+ subscriber juggernaut forever. Frankly, I'm surprised it still has as many subscribers as it does all these years later.

Interview: Pamela Horton (Miss October 2012)

There seems to be a tendency exhibited by the hardcore gaming crowd to be immediately suspicious of any gorgeous woman -- or any woman, for that matter -- who might be into games. Is she being genuine? Or did she like Space Invaders back in the day? And her boyfriend likes Call of Duty? If anyone was going to be heaped with suspicion it would be Pamela Horton (a.k.a. Miss October 2012) who has been tagged as "Every gamer guy's dream!" The thing is, she's not pulling a fast one. She really is a gamer and there's documented proof!

What is your biggest claim to fame other than being Miss October?

I’m an artist, I love music, I love learning. There’s more than meets the eye. I’m not your average girl; I’m not materialistic in any way. I don’t know how to do my hair, I don’t know how to do my make-up. I wear jeans and a t-shirt on regular basis.

You've been touted as "Every gamer guy's dream!" So how do you answer to critics that say, “Well she’s a Playmate that must mean she’s a poser when it comes to video games. She’s not really into it. She likes to play Pac-Man and that’s about it!”

No, no! [laughs]

The Weekly Checkpoint 19

Welcome to the weekend everyone!  It's time to round-up this past week's gaming news, and this time we're taking a look at EA's decision to sue Zynga, as well as Electronic Arts reporting that they're making more money from their PC games than PS3 currently, SWtoR will be going free to play this Fall, WoW lost 1.1 million subscribers in the last three months, Sony is still having money problems, Namco had a very lucrative Q1, and Bethesda has announced some of the actors who will be lending their voices to Dishonored.