Latest Blog Posts - WowRiot

Late Happy Holidays, One Month For Free Contest Almost Over, The "Sexy" Santa Gallery

no.spam@gameriot.com (bilingue) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:05:21 -0500

Happy Holidays! A bit late but with the same intentions and emotions. Everybody is enjoying the Holidays and preparing to say goodbye to the year 2009. A naive at heart, I am looking forward 2010. There will be a lot of change in my life and God willing, our baby will be born around April.

Love or hate Steam, be sure to check out the their discounts for all different games on sale. Once again, I wish this New Year brings good health and blessings to everyone.

This is not the traditional Xmas tree found in many homes. Instead is made out of bottles. I would love to see that tree with all the lights on.

Hopefully nobody died while building the tree:

One Month Free Contest

Just a few more days to sign up for the contest. The winner will be selected the first week of January and you will have 1 week to claim your prize. If nobody claims it, another winner will be selected. I will be using the power of the RNG.

"Sexy" Santa Gallery

Here is a gallery of "Santa Cosplay". There is a NSFW gallery. Wink, Wink.

Yes you are right, some of them are not that sexy. That's why it's "sexy". The NSFW gallery looked somewhat better and these images were very easy to find.

I know you guys can do better than me. Post sexier images.

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE

no.spam@gameriot.com (samhehelol) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:12:33 -0500

Hey Nerds,

My friend wants to play World of Wolves with me but I quit in Season 5 as Paladin/DeathKnight was a buggering nuisance. Is Stormscale still the best PVP server? What classes are overpowered? Is the game still an aggrivating semen stain on the trousers of dissapointment?

Don't be invalids, give me great answers and I'll reward you with some bestiality loli.

XxXxX

Rank 1 pushes turn you all into raging idiots; do you even enjoy Arena anymore?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Draek) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:53:41 -0500

This goes out to nerd ragers, trolls and kids who spend hours and hours each week whining about X spec/class comp.

Do any of you even enjoy WoW anymore?

Last season was my first time ever contending for rank 1 (I was a mediocre PvPer in BC), and I'd never considered just how intense and stressful the push for rank 1 could be. It may come as a surprise, but I am not a nerd rager; in fact, I don't really have the energy to confront people in this game anymore. Arguing on the internet is a huge waste of time, and while I'll unhesitatingly replace people on arena teams, I can't be bothered to yell at them anymore.

I wish everyone felt that way.

I was lucky last season, to play with two very level-headed PvPers who already had Deadly Gladiator titles (which probably contributed to them remaining calm during the grind). We missed it by two rating, but what I remember most from that grind is that no one ever freaked out when we lost a game on that fateful Monday night.

This season is a whole different story. Being an overpowered, overgeared PvE whoring juggernaut, I'm forced to wade through the chest-high river of tears that playing against me seemingly causes--even though I'm reputedly "terrible" and, as every Envenom Rogue/caster team is happy to demonstrate, I'm hardly an unkillable leviathan.

But Christ do people continue to cry. As I've mentioned before, I feel like most of the complaints are based in theorycrafted scenarios that don't actually occur; or people simply forget the limitations that are imposed on Prot. Yeah, I can spell reflect without incurring a DPS loss; but what does it matter when I can't do it while Kidney Shotted? I still eat the fatal CB/Conflag combo, I just happened to reflect some random curse a few seconds before I explode.

I'm not denying that Prot is amazing, but the community reaction to the spec does seem hyperbolic and infectious. People who I held a lot of respect for in Season 6, like Menismyforte and Emcl/Emlb, suddenly transformed into my worst enemies, relentlessly trolling me on every forum available to them as if it were their job. This is probably the best place to let you guys know that I don't read the comments on this website, and I've also given up on the Battlegroup AJ forums as a lost cause. Most of your trolling reaches me second-hand and elicits nothing but an amused grin.

An amused grin that rarely fades, because I'm rank one and you're not.

The rank 1 grind turns you all into raging idiots.

As I mentioned last week, we picked up a new Druid in our 3s. Queueing up when you're 150 points ahead of the rank 2 team can be risky; one point wins and 22 point losses as a high profile team can be a pretty awful thing for both morale and team rating (which are often related). It's a lot like treading water over an ocean of sharks, and by sharks I mean kids that are overjoyed to post their victory screenshots as if they were holding our severed heads for all to see.

I'm not going to get into how/why we lost some games here (let's just say offensive dispel+rusty players+druid healers+envenom rogues=sad faces); because what's more interesting is how furious kids can get over this game. After a couple 20 point losses to RNG, Ring of Valor and simple bad play, our previously high-flying morale was in the gutter, and our first night of PR grinding for Swarms ended up with someone rage logging.

Our team is not the only one to let the rank one obsession get to them. I mentioned Menismyforte and Emlb for two reasons, both of which are germane to this discussion.

First, I liked both of those guys and had many friendly exchanges with them last season.
Second, they've both turned into monstrous hypocritical douches over rank one titles.

* http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Mannoroth&n=Menismyforte

Profile Unavailable

This guy was a staple of Ruin and a great Shadow Priest to play against, yet somewhere along the way he realized he was not going to succeed on Ruin and decided to transfer to some obscure Battlegroup for Relentless Gladiator. Bye bro :/ Too bad SP/Rogue/Healer is a top 3s comp now, I'm sure you guys could've given us a run for our money.

Then I got this PM, when I was recruiting a Warlock for my extremely retarded Afflock/Surv Hunter/Prot War/Disc Priest/Resto Druid 5s team. (We are now almost 2700 despite not having two major staples of 5s: BoP and Bloodlust).

Again, Emlb, you're a great Shaman; but you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either I'm the worst player alive and you hope I die a horrible death, or you want to ride on my broad and overpowered shoulders on the way to Relentless Glad.

It's one or the other.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is...

You're all hypocrites.

DK/Paladin was OP in Season 5. Melee cleaves were OP in season 6. Wizard cleaves, Envenom PMR, RLS, Prot Warriors, Prot Paladins, Feral druids and god knows what else are OP in season 7. We play what we think is best with the best people we can find; we don't pull punches or hold back out of some sense of fairness, and we rarely feel bad about it, either. Blizzard sucks at balancing their game. I'll go back to Arms when this game's retarded damage is toned down. I don't enjoy turtling up on a character with no mobility and bad EVERYTHING when I'm playing Arms, and I don't enjoy gibbing someone in 6 seconds with a charge MS Bladestorm.

Then again, even Prot isn't enough anymore, though I'm starting to think my team comp is the cause of that (we don't have a way to peel Evasioned Rogues, and we're dead before the second Evasion runs out). With 707 resilience while sitting in defensive stance, running every cooldown available and stopping every hard cast possible, it is not enough.

I promised some spoilers on how to kill Prot Warriors last week, so here you go.

Run Rogue/Caster/Healer and tear us apart. We have no second wind or blood craze, which can shave a good 4-5k off a stun kill combo. We have less resilience. We get raped just as hard without a shield on--Dismantle is amazing. We can't stun, snare or disarm an Evasion/Sprinting Rogue. Combine the two and you will take zero damage. Do it at the end of a stun lock and you now have almost 30 free seconds BEFORE PREP to wail on us; as long as your partner CCs our partner, this will give you enough momentum to win the game.

Run a faceroll melee cleave and tear our healer apart. At least for a Prot/Hunter/healer combo, we are powerless to stop a dedicated melee cleave on our healer. I can safeguard every Bladestorm, disarm every cooldown, maintain demo shout and put out hilarious pressure, but it's never enough when our healer can't pillar kite because Hunter damage stops. Sure, you won't win every game, but even against the best teams ever, you'll still get 1/4 lucky wins just by trashing our healer despite our best efforts to stop you. Don't forget: all you need to do is random Ring of Valor and you can collect your 22 points!

Run a wizard cleave and burst down.. well, anyone. Yeah, this comp is still amazing. Sure, Prot warriors might do triple your damage at the end of the game, but it's not bursty enough that you can't react with cooldowns and prolong your defeat. That's not the case for a wizard cleave, though! All you have to do is Deep Freeze and line up a nuke combo and you can profit! Remember, no one can spell reflect while stunned. Just yesterday I watched my Hunter die ~10 seconds into the game (Ring of Valor, as always) to Shadow Priest/Frost Mage. I TRINKETED THE DEEP FREEZE BUT I WAS DISARMED AND COULDNT DETERRENCE + EVERYONE ELSE WAS CCED BY FREEZE FEAR CYCLONE SHEEP JESUS'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN RAGGHHH.

In fact, most teams have a very strong chance of winning against most Prot Warriors, as my infinite number of copycats who spam my AJ inbox and in-game mailbox and tell windows are evidence of. There are what, 10 high rated Prot Warriors now? 20? A drop in the bucket, and hardly worth the massive walls of text that they've generated.

One final thought for the day. No matter who you are, unless you're a crowd favorite like Pookz or Veex, there will be an army of kids, motivated by everything from jealousy to spite, who will proclaim your rank 1 title to be meaningless. Why is that? Well, every season has some kind of imbalance. Gladiators that exploit that imbalance will take rank one.

And they will be hated for it, until people learn to CALM THE HELL DOWN, ITS JUST A GAME.

Until then, we'll take your abuse with a knowing smile.

2010: The Year of Legendary Game Drops

no.spam@gameriot.com (Gengar) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:40:29 -0500

It's almost New Years and as soon as that ball hits the bottom of its pole one of the greatest years for gaming will begin. Almost every big title that had a planned December release pushed themselves into 2010, which left the holiday a little bland as far as games go. Some of the big games we did have were Dragon Age: Origins, Modern Warfare 2, New Super Mario Bros, L4D2, Halo: ODST, and Uncharted 2, but that is nothing compared to what 2010 holds for us. (Warning: This is a long post due to trailers I had added. I will try to keep discussions short considering this is for information purposes only)

And So The Legend Begins...

We of course must first start with the big hit for most of us, World of Warcraft Cataclysm. There is no official release date, but we do know the expansion will be hitting in 2010. I am putting my money on around June/July, but some are saying as early as March/April. Once Cataclysm hits the game will completely change, though it's yet to be seen if it's for the better. Recently MMO-Champion re-reviewed changes that Cataclysm is bringing in. You might want to read up on it considering they are pretty huge changes.

Here is the Trailer we were introduced to back in August:

Starcraft II:

The long awaited sequel to Starcraft was supposed to hit around this time this year, however, the date was pushed back to the first half of 2010 back in August. If I had to guess I would say around April or May for Starcraft 2. As long as we don't see the game pushed back again to some time in 2011, this game could definitely grab game of the year for 2010.

Mass Effect 2:

This has been a long awaited title for me. I loved the first Mass Effect and have just finished a recent play through once again. Bioware just delivered DA:O to us and you can count on them bringing a bigger and better game this time around. Bioware has really gone all out with ME:2 stating, "The choices in the game really matter this time. For instance, Shepard can die, literally die from some choices you make." This does not mean the game ends however, as they go on to say, "Your other team mates pick up where Shepard left and continue to the story without him." They also have hinted that there will be no such thing as "Oh **** wrong choice" moments as they have made it to where your choices are final, each and every one of them. The best news is you don't have to wait that long! The release date for Mass Effect 2 is US: 01/26/10 and EU: 01/29/10

Bioshock 2:

The original Bioshock was a huge hit when it was released, though it should be noted that it came out during a time of hardly any good games. Nevertheless, Bioshock 2 promises to be just as good as the first game, if not better. This time around we will be playing as a Big Daddy who runs around Rapture helping his little sisters find angels. It looks like this time we will be fighting a very fast and agile Big Daddy who I believe is actually the Big Sister the Little Sisters warn you about as you progress through the game. Release date is US and EU: 02/09/10

Halo: Reach

Halo: Reach brings back the great Master Cheif, but also brings in new Spartan Soliders we have yet to see. If you have read the novels you will most likely already know what happens in the games and the fellow spartans of Master Cheif. The release date for Halo: Reach is Q4 2010 Multiplayer beta is set for Summer 2010 and an invite can be found in any copy of Halo: ODST.

Super Mario Galaxy 2:

A game in which was a huge come back for Mario will have it's sequel coming out in 2010, and it's looking even better than the first. Many were sceptical about MG when it first came out, but after grabing the Wii Remote and playing it for the first time you realized just how great of a game it was, and couldn't stop playing it until the guys at gamestop told you to let the line of people behind you have their turn. Mario Galaxy 2 has an expected US release date of 02/11/10 and shortly after will be released in EU

(Trailer Found Here: Caused Errors In Formatting)

Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold:

Most of you reading will remember the days you played pokemon until your eyes bled, and I would also say most of us started falling off of the pokemon scene around the time Pokemon Gold and Silver came out. I myself broke off after Crystal hit and only recently (within the past year) have got back into the games. I have played the Japanese versions of the game and have to say, they are truely marvelous. They have a new feature that will have your first listed pokemon follow you around outside of its pokeball just like Pikachu did in Pokemon Yellow. Release date for US: 03/14/10 EU: TBA (most likely a week after or less)

Final Fantasy XIII

The 13th edition to a game series that is possibly the most popular IP in gaming known to man. This long awaited title will be using the Active Time Battle System and have seamless transitions between real-time gameplay and in-game cinematics. The game is absolutely gorgeous and could also snag game of the year. This time around Final Fantasy will be on the PS3 as well as the Xbox 360. I know I can't wait to get my hands on this game. The release date for FFXIII will be for US and EU: 03/09/10

God of War III

God of War III starts right where God of War II ended, but honestly who cares about the story it's just so damn fun to play as Kratos that everything else seems like an interference. Ok, so yeah the story is pretty good, but you know what I meant. This will be a PS3 exclusive as always, and will no doubt be a great game to rub in the faces of all your 360 friends. The release date for GoW3 will be for both US and EU: March 2010.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMO set in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game world. This is a highly aticipated game that has receieved great reviews by those who have play tested, but still have sceptics who believe the game will not live up to its expectations and become another Star Wars Galaxies. The game seems quite promising and has many features that other MMOs do not offer. One of these features will be voice actors. The entire game, every quest, every guard, every merchant, every person in the game will have voice acting, which is an amazing feat accomplished by Bioware. It is still yet to be seen just how great this game will be, so for now let us keep our eyes on it and not get our hopes up too high. Release date for both US and EU is expected for sometime in 2010.

Titles Not Mentioned Just Cause TL;DR Will Kick In

Fable 3 - Q4 2010
Star Trek Online - 02/02/10
Super Street Fighter IV - Q2 2010
Global Agenda - 02/01/10
Dead Space 2 - 12/31/10
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - 05/25/10
Splinter Cell: Conviction - 02/23/10
Grand Turismo - Q3 2010
Heavy Rain - 02/16/2010
Dante's Inferno - 02/09/2010

One thing is for sure, this coming year will be one hell of a year for gaming. Start saving every nickel and penny you have and hope to God the economy picks up and you get a raise, because you're going to need it for all these amazing games.

Big changes: tons of stats being removed and changed in WoW, hunters no longer use mana

no.spam@gameriot.com (gamebynight) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:45:51 -0500

Before I go on, take a minute and have a look at this.

Coming in Cataclysm, Blizzard has plans to remove a relative crap-ton of stats from the game. When I first read this, I was pretty shocked. I mean, there's a lot happening here, without even considering that hunters won't have mana anymore and warlocks won't need soul shards for more than a single ability. Like I said, big changes.

Looking just at the stats though, I don't think it's that bad of an idea.

Take the changes that effect casters. Spell Power is now intellect and MP5 spirit. Honestly, I find this change to be far more intuitive than what's in place now. If we go back in time a ways, we'll find that spell power actually was intellect. If you had a lot of int, you were going to be a better mage. Period. Spirit isn't so cut and dry, but the sentiment remains the same.

As long as the transfer doesn't shortchange casters, this is a welcome change. Even though simplifications usually bother me, in this case, we're still at the level of the classic RPG, so it's all good. It's like, the game was complex because it was an MMO and not an RPG like those before it. Now, it's moving in line with the classics of the genre. To me, this feels more like trimming the fat than any kind of nerf.

The changes to the primary tanking stats, however, are a nerf... to a certain kind of player. When I played a tank in BC WoW (a poor one, admittedly), I did a lot of reading. Warriors especially swim in numbers. There's a lot more balancing and perfecting armor sets than most other roles. Once this change goes in, there will be a lot less of that theorycrafting. The number crunchers won't like this simplification.

Now, being the noob that I am, would like to say that I welcome these changes too with open arms. Not because I want anyone's game nerfed, but because I think all that tweaking and perfecting makes tanking a lot less appealing to new players. Hell, it makes it less appealing to old players too.

Most people don't want to have ten extra things to worry about when, simply put, it can be someone else's problem. Hence, our lack of tanks. These changes remove one of the biggest barriers to the role. It might simplify things but, really, if it was keeping people away from tanking, something probably needed to be done.

One of my guildies commented that the stat changes are another step towards homogenizing the classes. Maybe, but I don't think so.

Since hunters won't be using mana anymore, you don't have to worry about them rolling on caster items. That means that healers and casters will be competing for roles, along with the various tanks. It doesn't sound much different from the current system.

Speaking of the class changes, I don't really mind either of them. Hunters will now be focusing on “focus,” which will work similar to rage. Ammo will also be equipped able which means “set it and forget it.” No more having to buy tons of ammo.

Warlocks will automatically get three soul shards per kill and only have one ability that uses them. I don't see much need for this, since soul shards were easily acquirable and provided an interesting mechanic. Without having to soul drain, however, they won't need to take a DPS hit when they run out and need to replenish.

Overall, these updates will have an impact on how we plan out and gear up our characters. How much, though, we'll have to wait and see. I, personally, don't mind a bit. Players coming n will be able to connect spell damage with intellect, and if that's not intuitive, well... blame Gary Gygax.

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Never Lose Faith In RMP, The Decline of Wizard Cleave, A Controlz Christmas, and the End of Season Slump

no.spam@gameriot.com (itsperplex) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:34:27 -0500

Never Lose Faith in RMP

A while back my first RMP fell apart due to a huge point tank to wizard cleaves. I switched over to Druid/Mage/Lock, a comp I wrote about in a previous blog, and ended up having a good amount of success. After about of week playing though, the Warlock on the team went inactive. I put up an advertisement on Arenajunkies and was contacted later that day by a priest and rogue looking for a mage. Not long after, they transferred to Rivendare and we started playing.

While I had once doubted RMP’s dominance due to chain-queing into Wizard Cleaves, my faith in the comp was quickly renewed after playing with my new teammates. We rode a 75 percent win ratio all the way to 2400 mmr, and plan to push our ratings higher this week. RMP can be a very tricky comp to play properly, and unfortunately, like most Wotlk setups, it has become more of a “bursty” setup. It needs to be played much more offensively than it did in TBC if you want to succeed. Here’s some strategies for those of you struggling to break those first 2 pages that seem to be plagued by cheesy comps.

Useful Tips for Beating Cheesy Comps

-BM Hunters are extremely easy to kill after Bestial Wrath is down. Most comps with a BM hunter will focus the mage. Ice block the duration of Bestial Wrath, thus allowing your rogue to save his dismantle. When BW is over, have your priest fear the hunter and go for a sheep on the opposing teams healer. Your rogue should vanish onto a feared hunter as you (mage) are casting a frostbolt. The hunter will generally trinket somewhere in the cheap/kidney, it’s important to dismantle him immediately – this prevents him from deterrencing, and allows you to finish him off easily.

-A Warrior under pressure has two options, die or play defensively. When you force a warrior to go sword and board, his damage output is severely lowered. He loses a lot of offensive power by going into defensive stance, and this often prevents him from getting a kill.

-The majority of a Resto Druids healing power comes from his HoT application. Blanket silencing a druid after a fear is usually much more effective than saving it for when he hardcasts. Bouncing between targets based on who is and who isn’t HoTed will also oom a Druid extremely fast. Take advantage of this when fighting druid outlast comps (druid/affliction lock/caster). Druids are also often forced into taking a somewhat offensive role when going for kills (landing cyclones, bashes, etc.). If you see a druid casting cyclone on your focus, call a switch to him and CS his cyclone. You now have a druid in caster form locked out of his healing tree. This makes for a very easy kill.

-Having Bloodlust or Heroism up on yourself makes CC’ing and dealing damage much easier, and helps you take control of a game. Pets have no trash buffs, so when you see a shaman pop bloodlust, instantly target any pets the opposing teams have and spellsteal bloodlust (this is often the only buff they’ll have).

The Decline of Wizard Cleave

While the recent nerfs to Destruction Warlocks and the Elemental 4piece Tier 9 set bonus were reasonably small, they seem to have seriously reduced the number of wizard cleave comps queing every night. These double caster variants were the main reason for my frustration in playing RMP, and since they have become less common, RMP has room to shine once again. While the first 2 pages of my battlegroup are still riddled with comps such as Prot Warrior/Marks Hunter/Resto Druid, Ret Paladin/ BM Hunter/ Resto Shaman, and Ret/ Mage/ Resto shaman, I feel that achieving Gladiator as RMP will no longer be as frustrating as it once was with all the wizard cleaves.

I don’t fully understand why people seem to have abandoned wizard cleave, none of its crowd control DRs were changed, and when I played the comp, we killed people with plenty of time left on our CC’s. A slight “burst” reduction on conflag and lava burst shouldn’t have too large an effect, but often times, just the way of thinking “my comp has been nerfed” is enough to make someone not want to play it anymore.

A Gamer’s Christmas

For christmas this year, I got Left4Dead2, A Seinheiser pc350 Headset, and a nice desk to replace my old one. I'm really excited to try out the headset as I currently just use a desk mic and my speakers.

I'm also an avid Xbox Live player, PM me your gamertag and we'll play sometime

What did you guys get for Christmas? Any good gaming loot? Let me know in the comments

The End of Season Slump

Right now, season 7 is at a point where it isn’t quite time for the gladiator push, but people have stopped queing actively. A lot of players (including myself) have started some casual PvE. For those of you who haven’t already, be sure to get yourself into some 10 man Icc Reputation farming groups. For just a couple hours of farming every night, you can land yourself an ilvl 277 ring . This ring comes complete with a socket and a very nice chance on hit proc. There is a well itemized ring for every class/spec except warriors, but hey, warriors are pretty well off with an easily attainable armor pen trinket like this one.

Sorry for the shorter than usual blog, I was at my families and it was pretty hectic so I didn’t have much time to write. I hope everyone had a good time during the holidays.

~Controlz

Myths, Stereotypes, and Perception of the Elusive Girl Gamer; It's Not Easy Being a Hot Girl

no.spam@gameriot.com (Garakskull) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:46:18 -0500

Myths, Stereotypes, and Perception of the Elusive Girl Gamer

The Stereotypes

Every female gamer could be slotted into a “girl gamer” stereotype from time to time. I know that I have been guilty of perpetuating both, “I’m a chick but I’ll kick your ass,” and the, “sexy female who loves games as much as any guy,” stereotypes during my WOW career. I have even played with portraying some of the stereotypes while I’ve been writing for WOM, who remembers the cosplay article? Just the promise of boobs gets attention.

Ladies, it isn’t all about us

The same can be attributed to male players. While the stereotypes of female players are fun, I got a lot more enjoyment reading this male stereotype list. I have known guys that I could slot into each of these categories. Perhaps my favorite was the Smart Ass Gutter Punk, of which I could slot quite a few people I've known over the years.

A Gender Role Study to End All Gender Role Studies

There was a study released recently by Dmitri Williams (not to be confused with Demetri Martin) that caught my attention. The subjects of the study were male and female gamers who played Everquest II. While EQ II is no WOW, the fact that a large-scale study was done on MMO players is interesting, particularly because of the results.

The basics of the study were that a large group of players were voluntarily subjected to a questionnaire and then observed over a period of one year to determine game play habits. The ratio of the males to females was approximately 80% male and 20% female. There were many interesting aspects of the study, but the ones I will talk about are regarding the differences in male and female players.

According to the authors of the study, the “hardcore” female players actually played more than their male counterparts and underestimated how much they played more than males. The females also reported themselves as having better exercise habits and better health. Both males and females both reported the same satisfaction regarding their playtime in EQ II. One other thing that was interesting was the findings regarding sexual preferences. According to Williams, “Females were also much more likely to be bisexual, at a rate several times that of the national average.”

It was no surprise when I read the motivating factors related to gender roles and game play. Unsurprisingly, males are motivated by achievement and females are motivated by social reasons, among other things. It is also not surprising that females often play with their male partners.

So what does this all mean?

Besides the revelation that females spend more time playing MMOs than males, the truth is that if you’ve played WOW for a while, you would have noticed similar trends. I haven’t known many aggressive female players, in fact, the few that I have personally known (who got anywhere in PVP/arena) all happened to be healers. Most played priests, paladins, and druids with few exceptions. I have yet to personally meet another female shaman (let alone one who plays a male orc), although I’m sure they exist, somewhere. The only females that I know who play traditional DPS classes all stick to PVE or just do arena for points each week.

Also, most of the women I do know who play WOW wind up being tied socially to the game. I have been guilty of finding myself telling people about friends that I’ve made on WOW even now. The truth is, some of the people I’ve met through the WOW community have become a part of my daily life. One person, in particular, was a great romance for me. I will assure you, it was the stuff of server scandal and legend. Perhaps the most lasting social thing for me was the role of advice giver. I have spent so many hours lounging about in WOW talking to guys about women, sex, relationships, and family problems. I have heard it all, too.

It’s Hard Being a Hot Girl

Honestly, when it comes to being a female and playing games, it’s really no different than a male playing games. Sure, you can use your sexual appeal to your advantage in a MMO from time to time, but that’s life. Men and women do that on a daily basis in all aspects of life. I never give much thought to sexual appeal when I’m playing in BG’s or arena. The only time it really comes up is in vent, or the first time a player realizes I am a girl (unless I force the issue).

In fact, for the whole of vanilla and half of TBC, I never let on that I was a female. I wasn’t trying to dupe anyone, I just never thought about it. I even rerolled a male toon because for the whole five minutes my friends played Alliance, I had a NE female (a druid, cliché as it was). After being asked about four hundred times, “are you a chick IRL?” I convinced my friends we should play as Horde and I rolled my shaman. Sure, some people eventually figured out I was female, mostly guild mates, but it only came out for real when I started doing competitive arena and was forced to use vent on a regular basis. After that, I ran in a close-knit PVP circle and everyone knew. I actually found it to be a huge disadvantage from time to time because people assumed one of two things: First, I was letting my boyfriend play my arena matches, or second, that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with “good” players because I was a female.

After a while, I found that it was more fun to play the “girl” in vent and that it could get me places. I eventually met, quite randomly, one of the best warlocks in my BG. From day one, we had a blast playing together. It turned out that we were both huge teases and there’s a certain tree in AV that should have our initials carved on it. (But that’s a story for another day…) That was during the peak of my fun with WOW, and honestly, the dynamics of flirting before arena matches probably enhanced the game more than it should have.

My Future Here at WOM

The truth is that I have no illusions as to why I am writing for WOM. I have never claimed that I was anything close to a professional level arena player, or that I’m comparable to the unrealistically hot females that most men imagine in their lap (NSFW example) as they fap away into oblivion. What I am here to do is talk about the game and related topics from a casual perspective. This means that my blogs are going to be varied and will stray from the typical WOM “this combo is…” and “this class/spec is…” content.

I will leave you all this week with wishes for a great New Year’s Eve and luck with your New Year’s resolutions. I hope that for some, it is to play less, enjoy life more, and get out of the house; for others, keep on with the grind. Last, but not least, here’s hoping for Starcraft 2 beta keys!

Top Three Movies of 2009!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Rokman) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:04:59 -0500

How to fix in-game events

no.spam@gameriot.com (gamebynight) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:02:34 -0500

Or, “Why in-game events don’t do it for me.” Enjoy!

I’m not one of these guys that rails against in-game events. But, really, they don’t do much for me. Granted, I’ll usually poke my nose around and see what’s going on, but after a quest or two, and sometimes less, I’m out. Usually, I don’t bother looking back again.

This whole topic comes to the forefront of my mind now more than ever, as our games are inundated with their “Not Christmas” Christmas events. WoW has the Feast of Winter’s Veil, LotRO the Yule Festival, and Fallen Earth is celebrating its first First Night. Each of these option gives players some quests, a couple of activities, and maybe some little extra to send them on their way. Plus, the events mean new (or slightly less seen) content, and we all love that.

So what’s the matter? My issue, and I’d bet a lot of other players who feel the same, stems from these three suggestions I have for MMO companies wanting to incorporate a live event into their game.

Be Bite Sized

This is huge. When I’m logging in, I usually have a goal. That’s the nature of the beast. I don’t want to have to set my goals to the side for a day, or even an hour, to ride a horse, find a cookie, or trick-or-treat. There are exceptions, but a good rule of thumb is to give me options to experience pieces of your event and get a good feel for it in an in-and-out fashion.

Don’t make the festival compete with my main goal. It won’t win. Make it something I can do in my downtime, or before I head out, and I’m a lot more likely to take part in the fun.

Be Unique

Another biggie. The event has to offer something that I can’t find in my normal questing/dungeon running routine. Maybe it’s a unique activity with a new mechanic. Maybe it’s some big (or at least actively progressing) story event. If I can see the same thing elsewhere, I need a reward, quick and easy, otherwise, where’s the draw?

On that same token, adding new things each year is always good. If it’s fun enough for me to want to join in the first time, I’ll probably be there again the next year. But, if there’s something new and exciting on top of what I enjoy, I’ll for sure be there the next year.

Be Rewarding, Without Being Demanding

This ties in with my first suggestion. Don’t make your event compete with the main game. The bulk of an MMO is made to give the player a rewarding experience. To win out against the actual game, the event has to give a unique reward, while also requiring less from the player.

Sound backwards? It is, if we’re talking about the normal MMO. Here’s how I see it, these events are like clouds: light, fluffy, and gone before you know it. Players like getting rewards, so give them to them without making players jump through a bunch of hoops. That’s what the main game is for. If players want to do more, make sure they’re getting something extra without making the average joe feel shortchanged.

Take WoW’s Winter Veil, for example. This is by far my favorite in-game holiday because, on Christmas Day, I know I’ll be logging in to a couple of lighthearted presents, and probably a fun vanity pet. I like that. It makes the event optional, while still including everyone. Likewise, the people who want to do more get better rewards for it. That’s the way to endear the majority of players to an event.

—

The main reason why most of they don’t hit home with me is because they ask too much. The unique-fun-reward factor has to be dialed up to get the community stirring, so I know it’s worth my time to even travel out there. Once I’m there, I need a quick hook to get me in, and quick fun to keep me going. Delivery quests aren’t it unless there’s an immediate rainbow at the end of the tunnel (Rainbow? Light? Weasel?). And that rainbow needs to be bright. No +2% chance to parry cookies please.

Overall, I love that so many games put on these little events. They’re all just “extra” and anytime a company does that, I see them going above and beyond what they really need to do. That’s awesome and, a lot of times, I think I can see a little bit of the developer’s love for the game shine through. You can tell they have fun putting these things together and that feeling makes it all the better.

Whether or not I take part in all of them, I hope developers keep cranking these events out for years to come. They’re worth the time and certainly worth the smiles.

Until next time!

Visit Game by Night

BG9 Slows Down - Everyone Slaying Dragons?, MLG Orlando Allstar Tournament,

no.spam@gameriot.com (FHazael) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 01:27:32 -0500

As Zilea wrote about recently, there has been a pretty big lull in BG9 PvP lately... as tons of people have been busy. Whether it was finals, time with friends, or various Christmas / Holiday activities it seems like a lot of the best players have been very inactive lately. Traditionally PvPers would simply find new teammates to play 3v3 with, mess around in smaller brackets or simply play another game during times like these but it seems with the latest patch there's an altogether different solution for passing the time.

Ever since the most recent patch which added cross server heroics it seems like everyone has been spending their spare time slaying dragons. Just within my little team for MLG Orlando it seems pretty much everyone has been spending their spare time doing just that, as I really haven't been around to practice at all lately. Pookz is raiding on two mages, Kollektiv is still actively raiding with Deus Vox, Realz is raiding, Tenderloin is doing it on his Paladin, and I've been doing tons of random heroics on my Warrior. With the random heroic queue if you enter as a Tank you literally always get an instant group, and are able to get plenty of great gear from the badges as well as a legitimately fun way to PvE and pass the time. All the work is taken out of finding groups for heroics and it really seems to have rekindled interest for PvE in general as anyone can (with some time and effort) get gear good enough to do the new raids in relatively short order.

With one fell swoop heroics went from being completely obsolete to being something that practically everyone is doing. I've never seen anywhere near the amount of pug runs from everything to Naxx to Icecrown, and it really does make it easy to find something to do in order to pass some time and have a bit of fun. Traditionally to practice for a tournament and do 3v3 you have to play in the evenings, and likely quite late at night if you're East Coast as I am since the majority of players are West Coast. It makes any time you feel like playing during the mornings or afternoon feel pretty useless as there's little to no chance of finding a legitimate team to queue / practice against. Now regardless of when you login you're able to quickly find a group and feel like you're accomplishing something right away. It's instant PvE gratification and although I'm sure tons of people hate how easy it makes it for casual players to gear up, I have to say I love it and definitely think it's an amazing addition to the game.

The other huge reason for PvPers doing so much PvE is obviously the Ashen Verdict reputation rings which anyone can rep farm with relative ease. I haven't begun to do so yet, but I will likely feel close to obligated as it seems so many people are doing it and the rings (which you can see HERE) are completely out of this world with amazing stats and procs that simply put them over the top. I really think that Blizzard had done a great job of minimizing the need for PvE gear in arena recently as you saw more and more top players using exclusively PvP gear. Obviously there are tons of exceptions to the rule as even now there are certain classes, specs or individuals who still abuse all that PvE gear has to offer. I still just don't find myself noticing it nearly as much as I used to though which really is great because they have such high item level PvP gear which really closed the gap between players with access to everything PvE, and players who were using exclusively PvP stuff. Sadly I think that with Icecrown it's back to the ways of old, because although I'm sure the new seasons gear will have stellar item levels and be on par in that category I just don't see it stacking up when compared with some of the ridiculous procs available on Icecrown gear.

The ring is the first in a list of many things that will be a big advantage in arena for any player to obtain. Trinkets always have been, and always will be at the top of that list as there as things like Solace of the Defeated simply dont' have anything that comes close to being a PvP equivilant and can really be game changers. That said, the need for PvE weapons in general has been greatly diminished since season five as the item levels on t2 weapons were raised in s6 to equal that of the best PvE equivilants. However with the new Icecrown raids, some of the procs available on weapons are absolutely ridiculous and will once again give players what can sometimes be a disgusting advantage in arena.

Case in point - the heroic version of Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter, a weapon which will likely be the same dps as next seasons t2 PvP 2h weapon should in an ideal world be its equal in most ways (although it's fair to expect the added benefit of some offensive stats since you have no resilience on it). It however has a life steal proc for ~2500 damage with no internal cooldown which is shadow damage so obviously has added benefit against high armor targets for a melee class and which heals you. Imagine that fun that will be had when a Warrior Bladestorms you and gets a few procs from that weapon during the Bladestorm - it can turn something which is already very difficult to survive into something which is altogether impossible to. I also wouldn't be surprised to see even the healing from the weapon making a big difference especially against a team like shadowcleave who has no real healing debuff. It's hardly the only weapon like this though as there is a dagger which gives you increased energy regen (imagine a rogue with those of these proccing constantly in PvP), a healing mace which gives a Wild Growth type HoT from a proc, as well as other things of this sort.

When Shadowmourne's stats were public there was definitely a huge portion of players who were worried about the strength of its proc in PvP so Blizzard responded by taking that proc out of arena. Would they consider doing the same with the legendary healer mace and these other Icecrown weapons? It might be a great step in the right direction that the Blizzard balance team could take to further close the gap between PvE and PvP exclusive players, but it's hard to know if they will choose to take that path or not just yet. We'll likely have to wait and see next season if anything is changed or if PvPers are to be sucked back into raiding full time in order to not be at a disadvantage gear wise in arena.

As Pookz mentioned in his most recent blog there is to be an All Star tournament at MLG Orlando... where they have captains who choose their teams and have mixed rosters for the event. Players will battle it out with their pick up teams for $1000 which should be entertaining for viewers as well as a great way for players to warm up the day before the tournament. I'm definitely excited for it, although my hopes aren't all that high as far as winning it simply because since I will likely be stuck playing with a Priest. Priest / Warlock teams can be alright but they really haven't been popular since season 1 / 2 simply because they have no poison cleanse and a Warlock requires so much healing / support. The Priest often is unable to play the offensive role for which they've become known for doing in RMP when paired with a Warlock, and as far as pure healing output a Priest really doesn't compare with the other healers for playing with a Warlock.

There's no Deathknights at the tournament so Shadowcleave isn't really an option, so I'll likely end up running some sort of Wizardcleave or Priest / Lock / Rogue or Hunter. I think that Paladin / Warlock / Hunter seems pretty strong, but I'm unsure if Priest would have the same strength for the reasons listed above and we couldn't do Pally / Hunter as Toez / Twix are on the same team and cannot play together. Anyway, it's not all that important as it should be a blast regardless, but it would still be nice to get on a team which has a chance at at winning, as that definitely makes things a lot more fun. I definitely see RMP as having a strong chance of winning it as you could mix and match some pretty strong RMP teams with the players available, and everyone who could play the setup has experience with it including Toez, Pookz and Realz (who aren't running it for the real tournament).

On an unrelated note I hope everyone is having some great holidays... I have thoroughly enjoyed mine as it's always great having all your old friends in town as well as spending time with family. My holidays are always pretty jam packed with all kinds of family / friend events so it's a nice change from the norm. There was nothing I really wanted for Christmas, but I got some nice clothes and random things anyway so I was pretty pleased as far as that went and the gifts I gave were all well received which is satisfying. I hope all WoM readers had an equally enjoyable Christmas, and will have a safe / happy New Years as well! If you have any fun stories or got any insane presents this year be sure to drop a comment about it.

Until next week...

What gaming-loot did you get for Christmas?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:05:34 -0500

Image via pocket-lint

Christmas day is officially over so it is time to cover the spoils. I used to love all the gaming crap I would get on Christmas days from the Atari 2600, the NES, a Genesis, Nintendo 64 to the Playstation 1. I can remember them all vividly. It was sometime before the Playstation 2 that I started buying my own gaming related goods and Christmas became less about "what I got" and more about what I was getting everyone else.

But that doesn't mean I forgot those awesome mornings of waking up to a new console under the tree, or out on the front porch as a massive "surprise" that Santa left on his way out. I am kind of spoiled now on the gaming front thanks to work so I generally don't get many for Christmas anymore. The last one I landed was Mario Galaxy from my pops two years ago. I did get a gift card that I could use for a game but to be honest I have too many to play right now as it is.

While I may not be rocking any new games today I figure I can live vicariously through you folks here on Gameriot so let me hear it; what games, systems and accessories did you get for Christmas?

And if you want to mention your other goodies feel free.

Merry Christmas from L4D2's Midnight Riders

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:47:37 -0500

I am about to crash out after a night of wrapping gifts and and crushing helpless enemies with my Soldier's Direct Hit but I figured I would pass a little bit more Christmas cheer your way courtesy of Valve, Left 4 Dead 2 and the Midnight Riders, rock on!

Hopefully you all get some nice games, hookers and pajamas with images of hookers and games on them. I don't think my one Christmas wish will happen but hopefully the rest of you are in luck.

Later Gameriot

Oh and here is one more present courtesy of Egotastic, I can't leave you guys hanging:

Merry Christmas from Eurospective!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Lyuze) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 02:16:21 -0500

Merry Christmas from Eurospective.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas day and you get everything you want.

P.S. Shader has specifically requested to not be a part of this blog as he hates Christmas, even as we speak he's trying to Shadowstep it away (good luck).

Eviscerate X: An Early Christmas Gift To Rogue Community, Happy Holiday To All WOM Readers!

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 01:39:21 -0500

9 movies, the longest rogue PVP movie series to date, it is clear the latest Eviscerate X will end up becoming Akrios's greatest work, as he poured everything he has into this labor of love. The man went all out here with 1.5 GB, 45 minute's worth of footages collected from season 5 to season 7, and he threw every type of PVP footage you can possibly ask for in there with one glaring exception, no arena footages!

I can watch the Button Basher vs Checksix series at Anaheim over and over again if someone can pass me a high quality video link, but 99% of the arena footages in PVP videos are trash because the author doesn't know how to pick good footages and let's face it, it is hard to find an arena team as pretty as Button Bashers in all of WOW (and even harder to find a better "villain" than Checksix's beast cleave).

Back on topic, Akrios did a great job mixing up the locations. From Ironforge/Stormwind ganks to world PVP in WOTLK farming areas to BGs, he did every location in small doses and mixed them up with great duels against four furious gladiators in addition to half a dozen rank 1's from previous seasons. Even Unmercey made a guest appearance here (although he looks mortal when he is not the one doing the editing) and Akrios gave him a much better treatment than say, a typical Neilyo movie. Akrios showed plenty of losses and handpicked the closest duels where win or lose, the man standing will be at 5% or lower. I also didn't notice any glaring mistakes in the fights, making his duels quite a bit more authentic to watch than Curse 3.

The Gforce 4 style, cinematic intros for his opponents are absolutely fantastic and he did duels at all sort of exotic locations. Between Unmercey 7, Gforce 4, Curse 3 and Eviscerate 10, it is clear you can't just throw together a week's worth of footages together anymore. New authors really have to put in a ton of effort to make a strong impression, and the amount of editing that went into those mega releases set the barrier extremely high. You either have to be a pro with Sony Vegas or you have to find someone who can do this for you.

Unfortunately the video is way too long (what is up with the fetish for rogue vs rogue duels?) and it doesn't help the entire sound track seems to be a Metallica album. 3.3 is also out and some of the fights feel outdated. I still believe Akrios needs to put together a serious team with the talent pool he has access to in BG9. Looking at the amount of work he put into this video, the sharingan still sees fire in him. Fire of passion and desire to be considered an elite rogue with the likes of Reckful-kun. His first attempt with Furious Gladiator Euneek went ok but the rogue/ret/priest comp is just too limiting. Deadly/envenom should open up the rogue class to more options and hopefully he will rebuild his career.

Happy Holiday To All WOM Readers!

Well it has been an uphill battle all year against the recession, hopefully 2010 will be better! I wonder what everyone got for Christmas and I will share mine. Thanks to Chinese tradition we received a lot of red envelopes for the birth of our daughter from both families. I will be the only income for a while (and thankfully with my day job getting better, WOM is kind of like the 1.4 dagger in a 44/2/25 deadly/envenom spec now, before it was more like the 1.8 offhand in 41/5/25) until Estel feels our daughter is old enough for nanny/day care's. We also plan to upgrade our coop apartment into a bigger place in a nicer school district in a couple of years.

As a result we tried to take advantage of all the discount stores around us:

Ming: Hugo Boss suit From American Place ($200)
Estel: Linden Street Curtain/Drape Set From JCPenney ($90)
Our Daughter: Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo from Amazon ($75)
Estel's Mother: DKNY Leather Hand Bag From Century 21 ($95)
Estel's Father: Philips Norelco 8240XL From Costco ($75)
Ming's Mother: Citrine earring from JCPenney ($90)
Ming's Father: Yankee baseball hat + PC memory upgrade ($30)

Hope every reader of WOM got something nice for Christmas! If you didn't here is a Christmas card from Ming & Estel, happy holidays!

Estel did all the photo editing/retouching, if you are interested in her service please visit her web site at: http://www.heleneworkshop.com/

Merry Christmas!

no.spam@gameriot.com (FHazael) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:33:38 -0500

Merry Christmas from World of Ming!

Since there is literally nothing to write about in the World of Warcraft, and it's Christmas Eve you get this fantastic Christmas tree in place of a blog.

Happy Holidays!

Love, Azael
xoxo

Slapnuts' Top Five: Game of the Year Edition

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:52:53 -0500

Last call is here for the gang of 2009 games and it is time to recognize the very finest gaming had to offer this year. This week's edition of "Slapnuts' Top Five" focuses the games of the year. My choices of course and not necessarily yours, hey, you can't all be right. I played a ton of games this year, quite possibly more than I had any year in the past. There were a couple big titles I still need to spend some time with but I feel I can call these the best games of the year with few qualms.

I listed some of my thoughts on such a lofty "title" a couple of weeks back. I've gone back and played everything in my library that I felt could be a worthy contender and feel I have some fresh outlooks on my favorites of this year. The top two were my biggest struggle as I felt the other three fell in to place quite well. One and two are definitely leaders of the pack this year if you ask me. The only negative about this list as that four of the top five came out within almost a month of each other. If only some of these titles could have been spread out among the rather otherwise dull year.

There are a lot of sequels and follow-ups this year with very few original ideas. That isn't necessarily a bad thing with as good as these games but just something to keep in mind. With their success we could see less and less risk taking with new properties.

Without further delay it is on with the list.

5. Super Mario Bros. Wii

I realize a lot of you haven't played this considering the Wii-hate of our widely PC-loving audience but let me assure if you own a Wii this is a must buy. Without a doubt this is the best game on the Wii all year. I wrote my "ode to Mario" and this game even before having a chance to play it. The game lived up to all my expectations even if its "more and better" theme was a common occurrence among this year's best games. The Mario-love may stem from some nostalgia but this game certainly stands on its own right as one of the classics.

On the technical level the game really delivered. SMB Wii offered, for the first time, four-player-at-once multiplayer and it is a complete riot. Add a touch of modern physics, four friends and the insanity that is tons of new Mario levels and you get the most fun I have had on the Wii yet. New toys like the Penguin Suit, the Ice Flower and the Propeller Suit offer new spins on old classic concepts. Give this game a chance and you just might have renewed faith in Nintendo.

4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

In my review I noted that Modern Warfare 2 wasn't perfect but after a month plus of playing it I am still having a damn good time. Amid all the hype and beyond all the controversy lies a great game that still offers new experiences daily. This game isn't going to dethrone TF2 as my favorite FPS any time soon but at the moment it is my current flavor of choice.

The single-player may not rival Half-Life when it comes to storytelling but it does offer the over-the-top action of your typical summer blockbuster; think Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay; maximum action in overdrive. The game wouldn't win any awards based on this alone but it does offer a great multiplayer. This aspect wasn't without its flaws but Infinity Ward has done a great job on the patch front making constant improvements. I may be annoyed playing this with analog sticks but this is only a testament to how much fun I have had weathering the storm without my trusty G9. As long as IW continues with the fixes and the talked about map packs roll in I suspect this continue to find a dusty home on my shelf.

3. Left 4 Dead 2

The zombies returned for another dose of mayhem during our trek across a mass-infected southern U.S.A. This time around Valve delivered a sequel worth in both name and value. I haven't spent as much time with this game as I would have liked thanks to many of the other games on this list but I still love it.

The melee weapons aren't necessarily my strategy of preference but there is no doubt about the satisfaction that comes from chopping off zombie heads or running a chainsaw through undead abdomen. I think my favorite aspect of the sequel that really steps up the game this time around is the added depth to multiplayer. The new special infected are real game-changers and add balance to modes that lacked it in the first go around. That seems to be the main bullet point for L4D2, Valve took everything we loved about the first game and made improvements virtually guaranteeing a better game. With the promise of DLC and Valve making this their zombie "platform" I fully expect this to be the Team Fortress 2 of the zombie-FPS world.

The first runner-up is...

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

Rocksteady nailed the Batman franchise like Sasha Grey in a DP scene. This is the best outing in the history of Batman games. Rocksteady's attention to detail was nearly perfect. I've been a fan of Batman comics for ages, even before the movies and TV series. I think the best part of Arkham is how faithful the game is to Batman's world. No it doesn't read straight from the comics and it isn't a rehashed episode of the cartoon or movies but it stands as it is own story like a Batman Elseworlds tale and it "fits" in to the Batman mythos. Sure they could have cashed in and made some filler-story after The Dark Knight and mailed this game in like most games based on other media but they took the difficult road and it paid off.

This is surely the best new franchise of the year. Every other game on this list is a sequel or follow-up and this fact was one of the reasons I considering bumping this to number one thanks to the originality aspect. The detective mode was awesome and it really give helped put you in the boots of the "world's greatest detective", albeit sometimes too awesome as you may have found yourself missing out on some of the amazing visuals around Arkham Island. Combat had more depth than your typical "beat'um up" like the haters tried pegging it as early on. From the toys, to the melee attacks, to the combos and mixing it all up in a devastating ballet-of-death; this game delivered. I haven't even covered the solid plot or the awesome voice-work provided by The Animated Series' Mark Hamil, Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin.

And the winner is...

Sorry for the second page, but I didn't want to spoil it.

1. Uncharted 2

Nathan Drake stormed in to 2009 with guns blazing and never looked back giving Sony a new icon on the Playstation. If you own a Playstation 3 and like playing these bundle of joys we call games then this is a must buy. The first Uncharted was a solid game and the sequel is not only the best return to any franchise this year but it lands my game of the year (see review here).

This isn't an Oscar-winning movie put down in pixels but it is the best blockbuster of the year. Other games have tried to capture that "movie feel" but Uncharted 2 snagged it with a bear trap and gnawed at the leg of cinematic experience. The characters aren't going to take home awards for any sort of profound portrayals but the voice acting was second only to Batman.

Batman may offer the better plot but Drake offers a complete experience overall on both the single-player and multiplayer aspects. I was impressed with Naughty Dog's foray in to multiplayer as it is much better than expected. Playing as Drake is a pleasure in a world loaded with incredible visuals, squads of opposition and platforming segments that would make Lara Croft cry. Uncharted 2 put Drake on the level of Kratos when it comes iconic Sony franchises and suspect this is a series that will be around for some time. In the year of the "PS3 turn around" Uncharted 2 led the charge and made its mark as the best game of 2009.

Feel free to offer up your complaints, suggestions and your own personal lists. Be sure to tune in next week for 2010's most anticipated games as well.

Revealed Roster, All Star Tourney Woo, RMP with the gaz, PvE Pookz, coL fourth?, my dream shoutcaster

no.spam@gameriot.com (Pookz) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:54:58 -0500

Revealed Roster

So yeah I tried to be mysterious last week with that sick paint picture of the other two players on my MLG Orlando roster. The two other players, besides me and Azael, are going to be former teammate Realz, and former guildmate Kollektiv. Kollektiv and I used to raid together in Epic during the days of Naxxramas at level 60, and his PvP video “Ragdolled” actually was one of the things that started my interest in WoW arena. And obviously I used to play RMP with Realz playing priest under SK Gaming. Look for us to be playing wizard cleave, RLS, Shadow Priest Mage Shaman, SMR, Priest Elemental Shaman Mage, Enhancement Shaman Priest Mage, Rogue Enhancement Shaman Lock, and Shadow Priest Warlock Shaman. We guarantee to display all of the above comps in Orlando. Oh and also my former rogue Enforcer is going to attend the event, so he'll be hanging around if anyone was planning on getting their teeth knocked out.

All Star Tournament

Speaking of Orlando, something interesting is happening at the event called an Allstar Tournament. The schedule is posted here: http://www.gotfrag.com/wow/story/44765/ but basically the Allstar Tournament is every team healer becomes a captain and they choose two other players to form a team, like dodge ball, for one thousand dollars prize money. The captain is not allowed to choose any of their own teammates. This tournament is separate and in addition to the normal round robin tournament that is going to be on Sunday. How will the Koreans adapt to this with the language barrier? The only player from Buttonbashers who speaks English is Orange. I really want to be paired with Sodah and Hyren for the Allstar Tournament I don't need Hyren to speak English a mage's synergy with their rogue comes from the heart, believe it!, please pick me Sodah. I do know that Reckful has been practicing his Korean lately as he apparently yells CHIKA CHIKA when he's about to get a kill. I wonder if Sodah yells KUO KUO for Pain Supression.. Anyway, who do you guys think will be first and last pick? And who do you think the best Allstar team would be? I say Orangemarma is the first pick and Twixz last since no one wants a BM hunter without the enhancement Shaman, it's like peanut butter without jelly, cereal without milk, Azael without gunnar glasses, wait was he wearing them in Edmonton?

RMP with Sargaz OH NO!

This week has been pretty different for me in terms of WoW since not only did I start to PvE but I also started playing RMP with Sargaz again with Verty. Playing with Sargaz is an experience I long missed ever since I transferred to Cho'gal and then Blackrock. Sargaz's chameleon type playstyle, we call it, enables him to swap between the worst rogue to ever step in arena, one game, to the best rogue I've ever played with another game. Usually the “best” of Sargaz's antics begin with “f it I'm just gonna...” for example, “f it I'm just gonna run in” you look and Sargaz is on a motorcycle charging in to the other team. It's always fun playing with Sargaz as long as I don't forget to not take it seriously. We did actually have some decently seriously skirmishes with me Verty Sargaz against a double healer warrior team and also a TSG team. The TSG was a brand new team and the double healer warrior was a pug with Caylee Arcan and a Paladin. The TSG was my friend Bothi, his paladin and Lytae a deathknight. I really liked playing RMP against both of these match ups since I hadn't played RMP in a while.

Against the double healer warrior team we would basically either sap paladin or priest and get on the other healer. So sap priest go paladin, sheep priest out of sap two times then fear priest while the warrior is stuck in a nova and the paladin usually has to bubble this opener. Playing this setup was really just about landing my spells when I knew they couldn't effectively get dispelled. For example, the priest is sapped the paladin is stunned so the warrior eats a full nova. Two dispellers can really cause a mage trouble since cross dispelling is a huge disadvantage.

Against the TSG team I used some of my old tactics as SK.US as most of the time we opened pally blinded warrior and sheeped deathknight. If the warrior trinketed blind we either sheeped him or swapped him depending on the paladin's HP. In this matchup I really noticed a difference between experienced deathknights and not so good ones. The deathknight we were playing against was definitely lacking knowledge as there was really not much control coming out of the TSG team. A good deathknight is quick to AMZ the opener, usually keeps chains of ice on the rogue, deathgrips the priest on top of the warrior and of course stragulates the priest. The deathknight seemed almost lost most of the games as he would usually deathgrip me just as an interrupt, get full shackled, get sapped and be solo DPSing my priest while the warrior was either being killed or ccd. Priest can survive a 1v1 against a deathknight, but not a warrior. This is especially the case on TR as we found before that whenever the warrior connects with Realz it's a problem. I like opening paladin, especially if he runs straight in, because it prevents some of the early dispels on initial snares. We did really well against both teams and I realized that Sargaz only plays well in skirmishes and after eating chocolate..

PvE

I've been raiding in Vicious Cycle which houses players such as Glick, Realz, MLG admin Trance, Flexx and other fairly known players. The ring gained from exalted The Ashen Verdict reputation is going to be great in arena and I also wanted to check out the new zone. Unfortunately everything seems extremely easy since the hardmore isn't released yet, but the loot is still amazing in normal mode. Even people that aren't in raiding guilds are doing the rep farm groups to obtain the ring for pvp. The random dungeon queue is a great feature and can be quite funny if you get The Occulus. Verty and I queued up and got Occulus so Verty decided to mount up on his three person mammoth and see how many people he could jump off the side of the zone. He probably dropped over 10 people and the best part was that a deathknight and a ret paladin managed to kill most of the stupid bosses while we were griefing people.

Sneaky Snutz

It seems as if sneaky Snutz has weaseled his way in to the roster of complexity and apparently he'll be going as a fourth. Will we be seeing two wizard cleaves in Orlando or are they planning on running rogue warlock priest? Snutz is a very strong player and is known to literally fake every single counterspell, spelllock, or wind shock ever done to him. He also wasn't too impressed with Inflame as we saw in Yiska's interview. I know Reckful had some strong plans for this event after Edmonton and he really wants to do well. I hope Snutz can bring them success like he brought his shadowcleave team. RMP seems to be greatly nerfed after the WOTF change so I wouldn't be surprised if they did run this. I guess BB will show us the real potential of RMP post patch in Orlando.

Dream Shoutcaster

Skip to around 3 minutes or so..

Merry Holidays

Epic Drop 12/23/09: Merry Christmas! Butt sniffing, Burned boy doing better, Get money from Comcast, Wtf leg, Hollywood doing fine, Big ass dog

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:24:48 -0500

Via Lusi:

Merry preemptive Christmas everyone. After my "Top Five Games of the Year" tonight the GR Blog will be on a holiday vacation until Monday unless I get really bored or the drunken-motivation to type up an Epic Drop come over the weekend. The good news is you won't be shorted on Miss Wilde as she is stopping in early for Wilde Wednesday! +1

I don't know about you folks but I tend to try and stay from random ***** when I am out in public, it probably wouldn't give a good impression off you went around sniffing people's ***** in a grocery store like this guy in the U.K. Youtube vid here. I've heard of some weird fetishes thanks to the internet but this public butt-sniffing is a new one.

The teen that suffered burns over 65% of his body thanks to the group of kids that poured gas on him and lit him on fire is now out of the hospital. Michael Brewer is alive but still in pretty rough shape after the quick response of rushing to nearby pool and jumping in saving his life. All the teens are charged with one count of attempted murder and all have plead not guilty. Anyone of them that poured gas or the one that lit him up should get more than 30 years of prison, lucky them.

Olivia may be my hottest girl in the world but she does have her moments. Next week brings a new Friday girl, Brooke Burke anyone?

Comcast might be sending some money your way thanks to their P2P blocking issues of the past couple of years. The 16 million dollars class-action lawsuit could net you a whopping, wait for it, $16. Great, that should cover a ton of my cable bill. Nice slap on the wrist there, this should surly keep them in line on the net neutrality front.

I've seen some big dogs before but this one takes the cake. 7 feet long and 42 inches tall from paw to shoulder this dog is a beast. It may just be enough to get Zilea to switch from dogs to cats? The dog gets its own queen size bed and eats 110 pounds of food a month. Wow...

I know there are more gruesome leg breaks out there, especially from MMA, but you don't see something like this in a basketball game that often. Check out this footage of Texas A&M guard Derrick Roland doing his best Gumby impression. (Thanks Proto)

When Hollywood attempts to make you feel bad about piracy just remember this article. They are set for a all-time record year this year with a projected total box office of 10 billion dollars. Gaming may not be recession proof but maybe the movie business is? Just know that those of you who supported movies like New Moon made this day happen. Congratulations!

Repo Men, featuring Jude Law and Forrest Whitaker. This is Red Band and probably NSFW. Cant say I didn't see the "twist" coming before watching it but it might be alright.

Props to this guy for the balls but I don't think his plan was all that well sought out. I'm sure no one would have seen him walk out with that big-ass bag...

Be safe in your holiday travels, yes, even you Smokee!

Staying Focused and Addressing Clutter: Two Problems, One Solution?

no.spam@gameriot.com (kjado) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:04:30 -0500

As we began to discover last week, just because something is outside of our direct line-of-sight doesn't necessarily mean it isn't seen or understood. Our ultimate goal is to create a usable, intuitive, and efficient interface, and in order to do this we'll have to make use of our understanding of vision and perception. We've seen that crisp, high-resolution vision is only available in a relatively small portion of our field-of-view, so by optimizing certain screen elements to better utilize our peripheral vision we can reduce the need for our eyes to bounce around and read everything.

Revisiting the List

In some of my recent articles I made a priority list of interface elements and then tried to directly translate it into a UI. The result felt like an improvement in terms of efficiency, but a by-product of moving things closer to the middle of the screen was the realization that it's easy to overdo it and make things cluttered. Rearranging the interface was a good first step, but it still felt kind of clunky. While the elements were closer to the focal point, our eyes still had to move a lot to understand them (albeit significantly less than before).

With what we now know about the way our eyes work, let's revisit the priority list. I don't think the actual ordering of the list should change; I'm still happy with it. However, we can take a look at some of the items on the list and categorize them a bit differently. The interest now shifts to identifying which elements require precise, foveal vision to understand, and in turn which ones maintain usefulness outside of it.

After a quick run-through, these are the items I felt required direct focus: player debuffs, party/raid frames (for healers), aura gain/fade text, target cast bar, target buffs/debuffs, player buffs, and the minimap. On the other hand, that leaves these items that don't require direct focus: player/target frames (health/power bars), player cast bar, combat damage text, action bars, and party/raid frames (for non-healers). Some of these choices may be arguable, so I'll try to give some quick reasoning, but I think it will become obvious that there is a pattern at play.

It's noticeable that anything with an icon was included in the first category (for buffs and debuffs). Some icons in the game are very distinguishable, but also some can be confused with others, and as such I felt that they really need to be "read" in order to be understood. In addition to icons, valuable textual information requires focus for comprehension. Items that contain this sort of data include the party/raid frames for healers (sometimes an arbitrary health bar isn't enough to make a decision), aura gains/fades, and the target cast bar (same reason; what is being cast is often more important than how far along it is).

There's a common theme for the imprecise focus elements, too: while each presents meaningful data, a large chunk of the time they are used merely as feedback mechanisms, or means of informing the player of their interactions with the game world. The player's cast bar is a perfect example of this, as the name of the ability is largely irrelevant (assuming the player isn't hitting buttons completely at random), so the progress bar becomes the defining piece of the whole interface item. The player and target health and power indicators share a similar fate, and the meaningful values the bars represent only become pertinent in certain occasions.

Combat damage text and action bars, items with characteristics that would normally place them in the precise focus category, have instead found themselves labeled as imprecise. While comprised mostly of text (and sometimes icons), combat damage is rarely read line-by-line as it flies by on the screen. And in the case of action bars, even though it can be handy to keep them visible, they really shouldn't be looked at too often during a fight.

Food for Thought

We're familiar with the elements above, but what can we do differently to optimize the way we use them? Concerns of information access and focus extend outside the realm of computer screens, and in some cases actually predate modern computers themselves. There's a niche of addons that attempt to address our issues, and the idea itself has its roots in something much different than computer games.

HUD from an F/A-18C airplane. Image from Wikipedia.

Though most players don't use them in World of Warcraft, I'm sure plenty are familiar with the concept of a Head-Up Display, or HUD. The idea itself was originally used in fighter planes, and the first implementation of an overlaid display was a simple attempt to help improve the accuracy of gunners. This was soon expanded upon and other features were introduced for reasons that echo those of our priority list we created a few posts back. The goal was to keep the pilot's head up instead of down looking at instruments, and there-in losing focus of the surroundings.

How can this help us though? The HUD concept can provide us a bit of slack when it comes to implementing our original list. Elements from above that we identified as feedback mechanisms can be pushed out of the middle of the screen without sacrificing too much information, and the potential benefits in terms of efficiency are huge.

There are some considerations that we'll have to address, of course. The HUD from an airplane will be vastly different from a HUD we create for our character, so answering questions about the position, size, orientation, shape, and grouping of the elements will be important. Until we are ready to do that, it will be helpful to explore our options and try to learn from what others have done so far. Vranx has a list of some of the popular HUD addons to choose from, and the UI forums over at Elitist Jerks (among other sites) is a great place to see people showing off their new interfaces.

BG9 Burnout? Account Sharing, Merry Christmas And Be Thankful You Don't Live In Cuba

no.spam@gameriot.com (Zilea) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:42:24 -0500

BG9 Burnout?

The usually competitive and active BG9 has had a slump ever since the end of ESL Edmonton the past weekend with few if any high rated teams playing. It even seemed like all of them took so much of a break that they did not even play their 10 games for points. As such, my own team took a break as we all know the pain and suffering of sitting through 3+ minute queues just to get the obscure team that squeezes a win out of you, costing you 23 points and leading to agonizing over the rating drop.

It obviously isn't just that there was a recent tournament that has led to an inactive BG9 but also the fact the holidays are here and a lot of people are starting to head home to be with their families. Still, we've seen it before where tournaments occur and the ladder stagnates as everybody wants to get away from the gear for several weeks.

I will say at this juncture that I am extremely proud that I am playing on BG9 and not on those reject battlegroups with terrible team lineups getting rank 1. I'm on the BG with all the competitive, sponsored teams and I feel accomplished (sort of). Obviously I don't want to denigrate the efforts of those on other battlegroups (even though I am), but I want more people to come to BG9 so that it can maybe spice up the currently sagging arena scene.

In summary, BG9 3v3 competition has slowed down. Let's get more people to transfer over to make it more active.

Now I think I should talk a little bit about those that feel very different to my philosophy. Although there are a lot of players who have left their own BGs to come to BG9 to experience the higher caliber competition, there are those who have actually fled BG9 to go to an easier BG to obtain rank 1 titles. Truthfully, I thought the days of this were long gone as the value of titles diminishes significantly when you get them from terrible BGs like Emberstorm or Retalliation, which are notorious for harboring the worst players in competitive arena scene.

One player, who I documented in a previous blog a while back, did just that. He went from a third or fourth page player in 2v2 on BG9 to a rank 2 position on BG Emberstorm. Let's face it, folks, if you are getting a 92% win ratio in 2v2 as paladin/warlock, there is something wrong with your battlegroup.

Account sharing continues

I've been thinking long and hard over the past several days whether or not I should publish a list of players that I have discovered have been engaged in account sharing. The decision not to post the list has much to do with the revelation that Blizzard employees actually read WOM, and publishing a list of account sharers would almost certainly leads to account bans within a few days, even hours. As tough as it is to believe, sometimes I do want to improve my reputation (although I have the prerogative to change this agreement at any time).

It's a real shock to me that people are still doing this as I've learned that Blizzard has been increasing resources to stop these actions. Moreover, being caught once for account sharing actually leads to your account being flagged, so if you think waiting a few months will keep you safe, think again. Blizzard is watching you.

Because of all of this, I actually turned down an offer to do a gladiator team for 20,000 gold. Sure, it sounds great to just do a gladiator team in a few hours, but at what cost? Getting their characters' gear stripped, team reset (along with your own), and account bans for everyone? Worst case scenario, you would have to return the money/gold you get for doing the team.

All in all, a lot of the people that were previously punished have learned their lesson and have ceased to engage in the acts. However, there are still a lot of high ranked players who, although not as highly recognized, are still participating in these illicit actions (including some of my former guild mates!).

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is enjoying their vacation break like I am (kind of). It is a great time to meet up with your loved ones and to spend some quality family time with them.

This holiday season I want everyone to appreciate everything they have and I want to spend some time to reflect on Bodi's latest blog. After reading it, you should all be happy of where you are in this world because there are some people who are struggling and living foot to mouth every day of their lives.

I was one of those people that made fun of Serennia and, although it is sometimes humorous, I can really empathize with how poorly he is living. Imagine if you had literally no money. Imagine if you had few friends to count on. Imagine if you had no family. Imagine if you were homeless. There are people like that who aren't even bad people that are just trying to survive. It really makes you think twice about the type of country we live in. We should be so grateful for everything we have because there are people who still have nothing. Not just in other countries, but even in our own. It just breaks my heart that there isn't more our society could do as a whole to help these people out. If I was a billionaire I would invest an enormous amount of money to making sure we clean up our country of what I call the disease of homelessness. And then after that if I could I would help out the rest of the world.

More importantly, spend this Christmas thanking to the gods that you don't live in Cuba, where the following exists:

"A special permit is required for using the Internet in Cuba. Internet access is controlled and e-mail is monitored.

Two kinds of online connections are offered in Cuban Internet cafes: a "national" one that is restricted to use an e-mail service operated by the government, and an "international" one that give access to the entire Internet. The population is restricted to the first one, which costs 1.20 euros an hour. Most can't even afford the 4 euros an hour needed to browse the Internet; as this is approximately a third of the average monthly wage. To use a computer, Cubans have to give their name and address - and if they write dissent keywords, a popup appears that the document has been blocked for "state security" reasons, and the word processor or browser is automatically closed." - Wikipedia

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure those kind of restrictions would prevent me from websurfing and playing World of Warcraft. How have the people of Cuba not overrun that toilet of a country yet?

On a final note, my friends nagged me so much about watching Super Mario Brothers (the 1990s film) because it was supposedly so good, and good sweet heavens. I thought I was tricked into watching it because they were so sincere about it. After reading the reviews on RottenTomatoes (which gave it a whopping 11% rating), I understood why I didn't like it at all. Not even one "mamma mia" line in the entire film. What a joke.

Merry Christmas.

The WoW Community Is Holding A Finger Above The Red Button

no.spam@gameriot.com (Gengar) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:31:44 -0500

The Community and Their Process of Destruction

Blizzard has developed a game for all of us to play that we all love and enjoy. We all have our ideas of how the game should be and what should be added, but at the end of the day it is left to Blizzard to decide this. However, lately the community has been standing at the front door of Blizzard HQ with pitch forks, torches, and demanding response. Some other sites have discussed this issue as well, and I feel it needs to be discussed here as well. Some of you may have not been following this current horror flick that is the forums, so I'll do a quick explanation of what's been going on.

The majority of the community are happy with the direction Blizzard is taking the game and realize what it takes to make a game as immense and diverse as WoW. They realize that at the end of the day they live on Earth and they are only avatars in a virtual world when on WoW. On the other hand, we have a small minority of players who do not see these views, which are increasing the volume of their voice within our community. This minority complain about issues within class balance, the issue of the difficulty within the game being to easy, and the catering of casuals becoming a strong movement within Blizzard's plans for the game, just to name a few. While these are outstanding issues and they should be addressed they are pushing us closer and closer to destruction by Blizzard.

The minority within our community has gone on a full rampage within the past couple of weeks and are blackening our name with the nation of Blizzard. It would seem impending war will break out soon, and trust me, those who side with Blizzard will win. An example of the current battles playing out can be found in a few posts on the forums. One of these posts can be found HERE and will show you just how severe this issue is becoming. This post has now been closed due to the outrageous post a few players began and gathered a small bandwagon to push on with their march.

Being Punished For The Actions of Others

The teacher has to leave the classroom for a few minutes and asks for the class to please be quiet and work on their assignment. As she leaves the room a small group of kids decide to start talking and yelling, and also gather a few other kids to do the same. You watch them telling them "shhh" over and over, but all they do is laugh at you. The teacher returns and immediately punishes the whole class by adding homework or canceling recess.

We all have experienced this is some form or fashion in the past and we all felt thoroughly annoyed with those who caused us to be punished, possibly punishing them further in someway later. In the community of WoW, however, it is rare for us to ever see anyone stand up against a troll and the general consensus is to just ignore them. Why do we do this? Is it the thought they if you ignore it, it goes away? Applied to real life situations the process of ignoring something, usually only makes it worse and I feel that is the case within our current situation as well.

If we do not begin standing up to these trolls or push Blizzard to appoint regulators for the forums I feel we will soon see a decline of activity on the forums from Ghostcrawler and the others around him. He has already left once (Ghostcrawler Takes a Break) don't think he won't do it again. I just don't think people understand what they have right now. They have designers of the game actually talking and listening to the players of the world and attempting to implement content based upon our views and ideas. It has never been documented that they actually have implemented something that we have asked for, but I know plenty of people who find things in patch notes that they have been asking for, for ages.

Death to the Trolls!

Dead Troll

So, how do we solve this you ask? Well, it's up to us and maybe a little help from Blizzard. Be aware that these changes need to happen now if we are to save ourselves from destruction.

Number one issue right now: STOP EGGING THEM ON!!! In other words, when a person comes along and yells "OMG GC NERF ME AGAIN!!! WTF /QUIT!!!!" do not, I repeat do not go along with them. However cute/funny it may seem to you, it is not going to have a nice outcome. I really don't think you go to your favorite restaurant, get you usual food, find that it doesn't taste right, and then precede to flip the table over and yell "THIS FOOD IS TERRIBLE!! WTF!!!!!". It's inappropriate and it's going to get you kicked out (Blizzard will kick you out just like a manager would). Now, let's see it from the other side. If we instead make several posts telling him he has no idea what he's talking about and needs to shut up and be civilized, he will feel shameful for what he's done and shut up. Blizzard in turn will be happy with our actions and discuss with us the details and plans they have for us involving the game.

Now, we will also need help from Blizzard, so if you are listening Blizzard please make these changes. Blizzard needs to hire people to run through the forums and there job is nothing more than policing all posts and taking action when needed. This would show the vocal minority that they what they are doing will not go unpunished and in turn it would show that Blizzard does support their designers and people can no longer say "GC banned me cause I proved him wrong!". We have to realize we are not in charge of making this game, but rather we are the people speaking to our government, so to speak, to make changes we would enjoy.

If this is done we will be able to go back to discussing topics with Ghostcrawler that involve the game rather than discussing why GC won't be talking with us due to our tomato throwing. Just realize if it continues the way it is, we can pretty much forget ever influencing the game in anyway what so ever and will most likely never get to discuss the changed with the developers again.

The internet is the place of flaming and trolls, we all know this, but while they may enjoy yelling at people for senseless garbage, most of us could careless about what they have to say. The point of this whole spill is that we need to step up to the plate, stop being quiet, and begin changing the way our minority of players are acting through shaming them and pushing them into corners where they cannot escape. I have seen many of you here stand up against trolls here, so I know it's possible, we just need to get the rest of us to do the same. It's time for us to have a voice and not stand in the corner while the rest of the class gets us in trouble with the teacher.

Christmas Time In Gengar's Pokeball

I thought I'd add a little bit about my plans for Christmas, since I've see many others adding a small bit about theirs. During my Christmas I will be here at home spending time with my girlfriend and family and playing lots of games with friends. Currently I'm about to down a few Blue Moon beers and watch a movie with some friends and then play some Wii bowling (these friends aren't into L4D2 and MW2 ) Hopefully I can take this break to get my new arena team up to 2k, but that is still yet to be seen. I am currently playing D/L/DK and it is going quite well. We are currently at 1214 on our second night and still climbing.

Anyways, I hope all of you have a great holiday and I'll be back in with a new post next week! Remember to +1 if you liked the post and leave your comments/thoughts below!

Epic Drop 12/22/09: Foreclosure mistake, Kick-Ass, Techie burglarized, How awesome is Detroit? Smoking ban, best sports writing

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:12:06 -0500

Short and sweet intro for today's discussion as we need to get right to the ass kicking. +1 for random hot coeds.

Every clip I see of Kick-Ass gets me fired up. My only complaint about this footage is the "reload trick" though it still fits the comic's vibe even if it isn't all that realistic.

This Las Vegas-based woman came home to find her condo with the locks changed. A note was left that told her it was accident and they would take care of it. Shortly there after she came home again to find a man walking in to place and it completely empty. They foreclosed on the wrong address, it was supposed to be her neighbor and everything in her place was taken to the dump. They offered her $5,000 for all her losses and she wants $200,000. There is even more controversy however as lawyers for the realtor are trying to say there wasn't hardly anything in the place and her pictures are false. If her claims are legit then 200k for all her loses doesn't seem unreasonable at all.

Steven Crowder takes an interesting look at the ****-hole of Michigan, aka The D, aka Detroit. I think there are more things at play than the unions and shoddy political policy but its an interesting look at the city that has fallen so far.

I don't show enough rear around here. Kerry D from COED Magazine.

Burglars picked the wrong house to rob in Massachusetts recently. An urgent text was sent to the home-owners phone after his motion detector and surveillance camera tied in with his computer detected intruders in the household. The home owner called the police and they crooks were caught in the act on the job and there is video of the whole incident. I've seen setups like this before with a computer but the "text to owner" is a new spin, I'm impressed. Can't always be at home with the shotgun close buy. ;-]

Balloon Boy's family is facing fines upwards of $42,000 from local, state and federal agencies for their missing-son hoax this past fall. Their attorney is fighting the bill noting the family wants to see receipts. Of course the family doesn't have that kind or they probably wouldn't have resulted to such a stunt to get a reality TV show. Irony...

Michigan has finally passed a smoking ban joining some 38 other states and stepping in to the modern era. People are already complaining about losing their "rights" which is absurdly amusing when you consider second-hand smoke. It won't go in to effect until May but here is to hoping some of my favorite bars take initiative and move on this sooner.

Ben Cohen at DeadSpin takes a look at his personal choices for "The Best Best American Sports Writing of the Decade". Ben covers some of the best written and profound stories of the past 10 years and no Tiger Woods doesn't make the list so you can enjoy reading some of these without any of that nonsense.

I made my Fantasy Football finals this week crushing my opponent that had beat me both times this year by a good 40 pts and that was with the mistake of playing Favre over Rivers. Interestingly enough I play my ex-girlfriend in the championship much to the chagrin of my current girlfriend. The good news is I fully expect to win and Favre and his December failures will probably be on the bench, even though he is playing my horrible Bears.

The music is terrible, you might want to watch this on mute. Sol sent it it my way and these hardcore pull-ups are absolutely crazy:

An Interview with Vir, part 1

no.spam@gameriot.com (ARCTURAS) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:59:15 -0500

Gameriot has profiled many prominent players, yet a distinguished figure in the gameriot and WoW community has not been questioned. His origins the subject of speculation. His motives unexplored.

His name is Vir.

Although difficult to find, I have finally yielded information about the elusive Vir, straight from his very mouth. Here is the recountal.

So Vir. Why don't you start off by telling us your name, age, class you play, where you live, height, weight, social security number, bank account info, and etc.

Wow, this sounds like the first date I had with my wife. I live in a nice neigborhood in Northern NJ. I'm 5'11 and jacked like Scott Steiner. I don't have a bank account, I just convert all of my money to gold and silver bars and keep them in my basement.

When you played, what was your favorite thing to do in WoW?

Finding new and original ways to grief people. Like blogging on gameriot.

So you started blogging on Gameriot just to grief people?

Pretty much. Fergie from Dethecus thought it would be funny if I won instead of one of the BG9 kids. It's been a pretty fun ride.

What Vir looks like in-game.

If you could replace anyone's job at Gameriot, who would you replace?

Well, we could just replace slapnuts with an RSS feed from Digg, Slashdot and kotuku. Just kidding slappy, you're the only blogger here I actually read regularly.
I'd probably replace one of the programmers, and fix everything in six days and on the seventh day I'd rest.

Aside from SLAYING HORDE SCUM, what else do you enjoy to do in your free time?

Well I used to like to **** *****es, but since I'm married that pass time is pretty much done. Now I just workout, play basketball and tennis once in awhile and I'm learning how to cook. I also read a lot. I'm trying to cut down on that because we've got too many books here. Lately I've been trying to come up with new places to wear my hitler t-shirt to offend the maximum amount of people.

What Vir probably looks like IRL.

Do you follow the WoW e-sport scene?

No.

Is there any professional WoW e-athlete or celebrity you don't laugh at?

I don't laugh at Arcturas because he might show up at my house and try to kill me. I laugh at pretty much everyone else.

If you could have any item from WoW in the real world, which item would you choose?

Gnomish x-ray goggles!

Vir, probing the skies, waiting for his next victim.

What were your thoughts on the state of the game when you left playing it?

I think with the 3.2 patch every Paladin became exactly as skilled as every other paladin.

If I kill you, do I become you?

Yes.

More questions and more to come, later.

LyuzeNewz: No News. X-Factor, A British Christmas, The Unwritten rules of dueling and Zilea: Why won't you be my friend of FaceBook?

no.spam@gameriot.com (Lyuze) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:44:25 -0500

It's been a week of doing nothing for Lyuze. I haven't had the energy to do anything in World of Warcraft and have instead found myself watching a mediocre anime series called To Aru No Majutsu No Index.

In the world of Sam (see what I did there?) it's been somewhat more active. I'm done with college for Christmas and New Year which felt good and Britain has been gifted with some snow (and you all know how we Brits LOVE discussing the weather). On Monday I took my little brothers (aged 3 and 6) sledging for about 2 hours until they got too cold to go on.

What's wrong with X-Factor.

1) X-Factor is essentially a televised karaoke contest. Call me crazy, but the joy of karaoke isn't when people are good but when people are really bad. Do you really want to hear someone sing Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah well but not quite as good as Leonard himself? No you want to hear someone murder Lady Gaga - Pokerface. So the fact that only the first couple of weeks of X-Factor are watchable for people with any musical knowledge is wank but the masses love it. Not only that but we all know that a good voice is only one part of being a good musical act, just look at Bob Dylan (yes I know Bob Dylan is blues but my point still stands).

2) Not a single good track has ever been produced by one of these shows. I mean this is a sign of something isn't it? You could say that no good Pop music has come out of this decade but what about artists like Lily Allen, Kate Nash and Mr Hudson. I mean I could go back and talk about breathtaking songs like Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart or Depeche Mode - Black Celebration which are, in every sense, Pop Music. X-Factor stop putting out sterile ****ty music, you're giving an amazing genre an even worse name than it already has.

3) The show gives you the idea that the only thing you need to be a good Popstar is a good voice. You need a lot more than that: A hole to fill, an unique image, clever lyrics, a hook and so many other things.

I could go on and on but I'm not a broken record.

Thankfully this week the British people stood up and said "NO MORE!".

A FaceBook campaign was started to stop X-Factor's crusade of stealing the British Christmas no 1 every year. The idea is simple: Get everyone in the country who enjoys good music to buy one single and achieve the number one slot. The song is Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of (I think Radiohead - Anyone Can Play Guitar would have been more suitable but oh well) because of the complete opposite it is to the usual coffee table song X-Factor has released and it contains the line "**** you I wont buy do what you tell me." The campaign was a success Rage Against the Machine are the current number 1 artists.

This is a big event in music, despite it being filled with holes like Rage Against the Machine and Joe McElderry (X Factor 2009 winner) both on Sony BMG, and a victory for good music. What's the future of these reality karaoke shows? Is there one now that they can't launch a number one Artist? Only time will tell, all I know is my £1 was money well spent.

More optional info.

Let's get on with some WoW content shall we?

The Unwritten Rules of Dueling Written Down.

1) Any cooldown ability that can be used in Arena can be used in a duel. Preparation, Cold Snap, Divine Shield, Retalation and etc. are all okay. Lay on Hands, Army of the Dead and etc. are not okay however. People invest these talent points into these skills and should be able to use them.

2) A duel is meaningless and fun. You can not proclaim that someone is bad (or that you are better than them) at the game because you beat them in a duel. You can, of course, enjoy your victory but you have to remember that duels are essentially practice and a bit of fun. They don't count for **** outside of dueling.

3) You can not try to hard to win a duel. It's perfectly acceptable to come up with a weird spec or re-gem your character in order to win a duel because no one cares about the result.

4) If you challenge someone to a duel and they refuse then don't challenge them again. If someone doesn't want to duel you they don't have to, simple as that.

5) Don't go AFK in a dueling place. Its annoying when you challenge someone to a duel and then they turn out to be AFK and you have to wait a minute before you can challenge someone else.

EDIT: I have been informed that my info is wrong but the rule still applies, go afk in the bank like every other normal person.

6) Be a good winner. If you win a duel congratulate someone on something they did, comment on how it was close or if you can't be arsed with that simply say nothing. It's pathetic to rub it in someone's face (unless they deserve it) because at the end of the day it doesn't matter for ****.

7) Be a good loser. When you lose don't give some bull**** excuse like 'lag' or 'mouse batteries ran out' etc. You lost, face it and you shouldn't really be dueling with these kinds of issues. Challenge them again when you're ready if you want to prove it was a fluke and remember no one gives a **** about duels. Try saying something like "good duel" etc.

If someone is lower level than you don't challenge them. No one cares if you one shot a level 60 player, any moron can do that.

9) Have fun. Remember duels are a bit of fun and no one cares.

A British Christmas.

Yiska recently discussed what Christmas is like in his household and to Christmas up my blog a bit (as this is my Christmas blog) I thought perhaps my European and American readers might enjoy the run down of a truly British Christmas.

Christmas Eve isn't a special night at all really. Mostly it's a chance to see the family members that have come a long way to see you. No presents are opened and there is no special meal, TV is pretty good. This year I'm going out on the town with some mates so I'll be spending Christmas Day pretty hungover.

Christmas Day is the big day. Everyone is up and downstairs to open up their stockings. A stocking is generally a sock filled with little gifts that are meant to be from Santa. My family's stockings generally always contain:

1 x tangerine.
1 x walnut.
1 x packet of 'Grow Your Own Sea Monkeys'.
1 x notepad (for thank you letter purposes).
1 x pack of pens.
3 x pairs of socks.
3 x pairs of pants.
4 x random gifts. This includes (but is not limited to): Mugs, Ties and generally other things that you simply can never have enough of.

My Mother has been up since 6am making the dinner (why the hell would you do that?) and is in an 'interesting' mood and as Yiska said you have to stay the hell out of her way. You also have to remember the day is not about you but about my two little brothers (aged 3 and 6). Everyone sits down for a light breakfast (I normally have Coco Pops) because appetites must be saved for Christmas Dinner. After breakfast everyone (except my Mother) goes on the big family walk to somewhere to work up more of an appetite. By the time you make it back it's about 1 in the afternoon. Thankfully Christmas dinner is on the table for 1:30 and everyone goes mental.

Who's eating the meal? My Grandparents, their 3 three daughters (and partners) and all of their kids. This means there's about 20 something people. Thankfully my Mum has done about 20 different roasts and all the trimmings for each one (even the Cranberry sauce).

I then make the trip to my Dad's sister's house to eat yet another Christmas dinner (the 40min walk burns off all the food I ate, it's cool). Then, after another 40min walk back, I eat Christmas pudding with my Mum and family (don't ask why it's always so far after Christmas dinner).

After (and only after) the whole kitchen has been cleaned and there isn't a dirty plate to worry about can we start opening up presents. This is generally an every man for himself affair and is a lot of fun.

Merry Christmas all Eurospective readers.

Here are two Christmas hotties to keep you happy (let me know who you think is hotter in the comments).

Here's the gift from me by the way:

Don't forget about the Eurospective contest and that you can contact me for whatever reason.

Chimera Shot - Scorpid Sting: The Most Poorly Designed Ability Concept WoW has Ever Seen.

no.spam@gameriot.com (Levidian) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:38:54 -0500

Hunters have come a long way and I along with many others have worked bring to light aspects of the class that are imbalanced from viper sting nerfs, to aimed shot buffs and to help the class evolve into a competitive PvP platform. I challenge anyone to argue that the hunter of today is worse off in regards to being a balanced class than any time in the past. There is however still room for improvement with hunters as there is with every class in the game. Today I want to highlight one broken aspect of the class that has existed since WotLK's inception.

Chimera Shot - Scorpid Sting... oh how I loathe thee.

     You might be thinking "Levidian why are you *****ing about hunters having a disarm?". I would have to counter with the thought can you really consider something an aspect of the class when the use of the ability is more detrimental to your success then helpful in a vast majority of situations? A comparison would be like if 80% of the time when you used disarm it would disarm you instead of your target. There should always be some chance of error when using an ability... did I use it at the wrong time? Did I waste that cool down? Should I have used ability_01 instead? These questions apply to Scorpid Sting Chimera disarms but there is so much more that makes the ability questionable to even THINK about using. It's so bad and pointless to use that it will lose you more games trying to use it than even remotely help.

Poisons:

     The first issue with scorpid sting is your precursor to Chimera shot can be cured. Okay cool Lev a lot of classes have abilities that can be dispelled/cured. You're right but it's a POISON the only non control affliction that can be totem cured and CoT(cure over time) cured. There's more coming so just let this simmer as one of the downsides.

GCDs:

     Now lets talk about the GCD/Time payment a hunter has to deal with to utilize the ability. The first global is the Scorpid sting application (which also removes other stings mana drain/damage) and the second global is the Chimera shot itself both of which have travel times. That's at the minimum a combined 3.0 seconds of time/globals used to utilize the disarm. You can arguably also consider the reapplication of serpent sting needed for your next Chimera shot as an added cost pushing the investment to 4.5 seconds and 3 globals. How long does the disarm last in PVP? 5 seconds hmmm what's wrong with this picture. I spend 4.5 seconds to disarm someone for 5 seconds? Fair and balanced/working as intended right? /smirk

Damage:

     Not only does disarming as a hunter have a considerable time trade off with poison weaknesses it also has a significant damage trade off. We have to utilize Chimera shot (our hardest hitting attack) to disarm. This means not only are we susceptible to poison weaknesses and GCD issues we also have to give up a significant amount of our damage/burst/offensive pressure or whatever you call it to attempt to utilize the attack.

     The real hilarious part about this is all things considered it's actually DETREMENTAL to to try to disarm someone in almost every scenario and it actually HURTS your team to pull off the disarm even if it's executed perfectly. One example would be TSG melee rushing your healer. You have a couple options here, scatter, try to force defensive with damage, disarm, trap, etc. There is no conceivable scenario where disarming a MELEE attacking someone on your team on the initial rush would be more beneficial than anything else you can do. I know this because I've tried it. All it does is diminish your pressure, waste a ton of time, and give the enemy healer a window to top everyone on his team off. In defense of all this looming evidence for imbalance I have used the disarm effectively on a few select occasions when the fight goes 3v2 and the other team has a melee up. I've disarmed in an effort to keep a counter kill from happening when scatter was down and they weren't threatened by low life. In other words sometimes a blind squirrel will find a nut with this ability but it's damn rare extremely expensive in both mana and time and utterly pointless to use in all but the most rare and most specific situations. Not bad for a 51 point talent effect am I right?

Now it's time for everyone's favorite part...

Arm Chair Developing:

     What needs done oh great Armchair developing hunter hero? Well I'll tell you. Simply put Scoprid sting needs removed from Chimera shot and changed into it's own self reliant 1 minute CD ability.

Scorpid Sting
1 Minute cool down
11% of base mana 5-35 yard range
Instant cast
Requires Ranged Weapon (no counter disarms)
Stings the target, reducing chance to hit with melee and ranged attacks by 3% for 20 sec as well as disarming the target for 10 seconds(5 with reduction).
Only one Sting per Hunter can be active on any one target.

What this will do is give hunters a viable disarm (just like rogues/warriors), provide it to every hunter as a base(just like rogues/warriors) and allow us to utilize an ability we have every right to have w/o massive expensive stipulations to its use.

Some would argue that this would make it better than other classes disarms and I would argue that it would be situationally better/worse at the same time depending on how it's used and what counters the enemy has against it. For example the actual disarm effect is nature and is considered a spell. While it can't be cured via totems/abolish poison it can be removed with abilities like Clos, Stoneform, or anything that removes nature/spell effects from the target. It would also be able to be grounded (as it is now, the Scorpid sting applies but the disarm effect itself [a secondary spell effect] can be grounded, it could also be negated if a warrior has spell reflect up, and unable to be applied through anti-magic shell... just to highlight some of what I'm talking about.

Over all this change would be extremely advantageous to apply to the hunter class to further balance and promote class evolution while reducing clunky poorly designed mechanics. I hope Blizzard development/design teams understand this issue and work to improve it as it has been a lingering problem since the beginning of the expansion.

I wish everyone a great holiday break and a merry Christmas.

I can't help but feel Eurospective is doing it wrong. Damn Draek sucks.

no.spam@gameriot.com (IRTROLL) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:10:27 -0500

Let's take a look at the current writers of Eurospective...

Yiska - German Ret Paladin who plays on Cyclone at 2.2k+. Pretty much Europe's answer to Ming.

AlcaX - Mediocrely succesful LAN Mage on Cyclone. Awful writer and does this guy even blog anymore? Has no place on Eurospective.

Daisyduke - Has never blogged.

Gengar - American guy who doesn't really write about PvP, what the hell is he doing here...

itsperplex - American Mage, again nationality means he simply shouldn't be here before we even think about his blogs.

Lacanoz - If he was female he'd rock but he isn't. Rofl at saying WotLK is more skilled than BC by the way.

Lyuze - 17 year old white boy wannabeBodi (and who wants to be Bodi lol).

Nomennescio - Did anyone even read this guys PvE blogs?

Shader - Grammar dude, no problems with him though I'm getting a little tired of his game with Yiska.

Slappywag - Awesome writer and all but AMERICAN. Seriously Yiska this is a European blog hire European writers.

Tehsues - His only blog was good content wise but garbage writing.

Thorkin - Priest of the Amazing aAa, doesn't blog.

syeren - Live blogger and Hydra video poster, bit of a douche.

I can't help but feel that Eurospective has the wrong approach to its writers. Surely Yiska should be trying to get Pro European players to write blogs. Imagine if Hydra/Kallimist/Another/Azox/Inflame/Flyn/Krymu/Akrios/Chrille and etc. wrote for the blog? Think of the traffic and how the content would be MUCH better?

Heres how I think the Eurospective rota should play out:

Yiska (Ming).
Lyuze (Eurospective needs a Bodi as much as I hate both of them).
Hydramist (alternate blogging weeks).
Trig/Flyn.
Azox/Souler (PvP healing from a good player and it'd bring in a lot of hate).
Anotherflame (work the same way Hydramist works).
Cherez/Paperkat (of course they'd have to be playing the game).

Of course that's all talking in an ideal world. I doubt Yiska could really give these guys an incentive to write but imagine it, it'd be epic.

The other Eurospective writers could make their own blog called 'leeching off each others traffic'.

Furious Gladiator Veilroze Makes A Statement With Warrior/Mage/Priest, The Future of WOM and WOW As An E-Sport

no.spam@gameriot.com (Ming) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:16:08 -0500

I have followed Furious Gladiator Veilroze since season 5, when my RMP battled his for the very last gladiator spots in Stormstrike. We won the battle but there was no question on my mind that he was destined for greatness. How times have changed as Veilroze went on to finish rank 1 in Stormstrike in season 6, while I missed the gladiator cut off by 20 points.

Veilroze transferred to BG9 in season 7 and chose to stay alliance over horde, which left him with a much smaller talent pool to work with than say, horde on Blackrock. He would spend first half of season 7 with mediocre ratings, earning the unfair label of "furious gladiator from another BG is just 2200 in BG9". He did not have the right pieces and could not compete at the highest level as alliance RMP, which forced him to get creative with his set-up.

Behold: Warrior/Mage/Priest

Today, Veilroze is the second highest rated mage on the prestigious SK-100, and top 5 in 3v3 on BG9. Veilroze was able to pick up Vengeful Gladiator Giantz and hit 2700+ very easily. Having fought lesser warrior/mage/priest's in my own BG, I already feel a ton of pressure against them. Compared to even the new deadly/envenom rogue of 3.3, warrior brings superior survivability, damage and VASTLY superior mobility. Here is what Veilroze said about WMP (not to be confused with Windows Media Player):

Advantage over RMP:

First, warrior survivability is often superior to that of rogues. You no longer have to worry about your rogue getting knocked out of stealth or getting gibbed in 1sec flat. Spell reflect and the health increase go a long way. The only time warrior's survivability seems inferior is when stuns are chained with disarms.

Second, charge/intercept/intervene and the dispel power of priests gives warriors insane mobility without cooldown spamming. Warrior melee uptime is pretty ridiculous so long as your priest can dodge CC and dispel well. Charge and Intercept allow for instant swaps.

Third, Warriors fair better versus wizard cleave and (most) warlock teams. Warriors can absolutely wreck warlocks and even mages with the double magic dispel support of a priest. With 3.3, bladestorm basically auto-kills water elementals and felhunters if used right - it's quite broken. - Veilroze

Disadvantages over RMP:

The trade-off is increased susceptibility to teams that can train your priest because warriors don't have quite the peeling power rogues do. Counters include Beast Cleave, RMP, Affliction/Envenom RLS, and arguably TSG. Regarding TSG, it's much harder without the peeling power of a rogue. We win 75% of the time but almost every game our priest nearly dies, and I can easily see a lesser Warrior Mage Priest losing nearly every time. - Veilroze

From My Own Experience vs WMP:

I played rogue cleave all season. Against RMP we lose when I run out of cooldowns, my priest gets CCed and I go down in a stun lock. Against WMP, while it seems like I have better melee up time on the priest initially, a good WMP can often gib me in a single charge/intercept stun + shatter. The damage is just much much higher although with sweeping strike + blade storm nerf it may be a little more manageable now than before.

The learning curve may be higher than RMP as every team will train your priest. However it is very rewarding when played correctly, as Veilroze's WMP is now higher in rating than any RMP in BG9.

The Anti-Rogue Crusade Continues:

On another note, we also replaced the rogue's spot in its flagship 5s comp, RMPLS, with a boomkin. After playing both, the comp is unquestionably better with a boomkin. We've had great success with it and have the best win record on BG9 (95%!). - Veilroze

It will be up to shadow dance hero Reckful to stop this threat to the rogue community, as they are 3rd in BG9 5v5, running the classic RMPLS euro-comp with a win rates 88%. Can Reckful and company stop the boomkin wizard cleave?

The Future of WOM and WOW As An E-Sport

With Vir's excellent Jasi interview 1 and 2, I feel compelled to discuss the topic. The one thing any WOM writer will tell you is I am actually a man of fairness and integrity when it comes to business practices. There are very few sites out there that will take a writer with almost no background whatsoever, put them on a high traffic blog and start paying them from day one. That is exactly what WOM has been doing since its shift to Gameriot. I also don't slash people from the roster as soon as they under perform, they are given a LOT of time to improve.

Having said that, this doesn't mean running WOM is without its challenges. WOM, like just most businesses in America, took serious hits in overall income/budget during this recession. Yes, I am aware this is a tiny venture in the grand scheme of things, but I try to take every project seriously. You may laugh but if Ray Kroc didn't take flipping burgers seriously, there wouldn't be a McDonald empire today. He went through paper-cup salesman, pianist, jazz musician, band member and many more ventures before hitting his mark at age 52. Not every project has the potential to make it to the finish line, but you take it serious so you can learn your jutsus along the way. The Naruto spirit to never give up on your dreams! Believe it!

Ultimately, Jasi's departure has as much to do with making the site work financially as his departure from the game and his disagreement on the future of WOM. The month when I brought on three fresh writers (Zilea, Bodi, and Anna), with the aid of two live tournaments in one month, we saw a 30% jump in traffic and an all time high. Unfortunately, the month also coincided with one of our worst ad sales ever, and eventually led to a significant cut in WOM budget soon after. Thankfully, I managed to work things out so I didn't have to slash the rate of existing writers, for now.

There are a lot of ways we can increase site traffic, but in the end it is extremely difficult to monetize it at same time. For example, I have always wanted to run a live tournament stream right here on Gameriot as it is guaranteed traffic, but looking at the WSVG numbers, it is just impossible to make it work financially. This is why you will never, ever see me blame Gotfrag for its stream quality or their attempt to make a few extra bucks with HD. Even Youtube is not profitable yet with their business model (although of course, the founders are not complaining), streaming is expensive!

The way I see it, the biggest challenge of WOW as an e-sport has absolutely nothing to do with game balance and whether WOW's skill cap is high enough. It has everything to do with the business model and neither MLG nor ESL has what it takes to unleash WOW's full potential. As WOW's subscriber base peaks, stagnates and declines (WOW China is a HUGE hit that I am not sure if Blizzard can truly recover from), everyone associated with WOW will suffer, that includes WOM.

A Sport/Profession's Appeal Has Nothing To Do With The Skills Involved, It Has Everything To Do With Its Income Bracket

Rocket scientists don't make anywhere near as much as investment bankers, and WOW doesn't have to be anywhere near the most skilled PVP game to be the most successful e-sport. And Blizzard, the creator of WOW, is the only company with the resources to make it happen.

Using WOW America as the prototype, permanent tournament server with bi-monthly seasons at $10 buy-in, assuming 25000 players sign up (some will do it just to experience different classes), that is $250K. Online ladder with top 8 locked into a season end best-of-7 NBA playoffs style tournament, with live streams/video recordings for all to see, top team takes home $75K, second team takes home $25K, use $100K to cover tournament server, live stream cost and administrative expenses, and you should still have a $50K profit. $600K a year is equivalent of 5000 subscribers, not a lot of money, but you raise the profile of the game so much more. For the chance of winning $150K a year from Blizzard alone (more opportunities with MLG, ESL, etc) plus endorsements, I am sure you will see high profile CS/Quake/WC3 players jump ship.

Less/more sign ups than anticipated? No problem, 40% of the sign-ups used as jack pot, 40% for expenses, 20% net profit, it is perfectly scalable. Instead of a tiny pool of players playing for 5K per person every couple of months, ANYONE can win a much bigger pool of money from the online tournament, this will be a HUGE success that can simply snowballs itself, and more importantly, completely self-sustainable.

No overhead whatsoever like the LAN tournaments (except possibly the Blizzcon which should continue), do they honestly believe seeing the faces behind the game is anywhere near as important as allowing ANYONE to have a chance at the jack pot if they play hard? It is almost 2010 and why can't you do studio interviews remotely? Security is hardly an issue with tournament specific client/UI. We transact billions of dollars with Paypal now, it is not that difficult to prevent players from using hacks in an online game when you can afford to pay your admins.

Blizzard still has time to do this. Unfortunately if there is one thing I learned about corporate America, is that as your company grows, the decision makers are those who can survive the politics and win the faction wars, not necessarily ones who are truly passionate about the business. Maybe the person running WOW e-sport has an agenda against the game because of his internal politics (you will be surprised how many managers from big companies are assigned to products they have no clue about), maybe he is biased with his experience from "more skilled" games which prevents him from seeing the gold mine he is sitting on, maybe he has a ton of other responsibilities that WOW as an e-sport ranks last in his queue. Seriously, it doesn't take a lot of resources to do this correctly, as fans of the game, we can only hope Blizzard will put a real entrepreneur at the helm of WOW E-Sports before it is too late.

P.S. Speaking of balance, I actually like Blizzard's Marvel vs Capcom 2 way of balance nowadays. When every class has something to be complained about, it is a balanced game! The SK-100 3v3 ladder has never been more diverse. The top 8 comps only take up 45% of the overall standings! Even the number of wizard cleave teams declined significantly despite what I thought to be insignificant changes.

A game like this will never be 100% balanced, but with permanent tournament realm in the model I proposed, professional players can and should pick up new classes as they go. Even Daigo didn't pick Ryu in Street Fighter 3: 3S!

Epic Drop 12/21/09: Mother kills baby scot-free, Shoes > kisses, Auschwitz sign found, Sheriff Joe wins, Avatar does well

no.spam@gameriot.com (Slapnuts) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:11:27 -0500

You me and the Epic Drop are back for a partial week of week of discussions and holiday goodness. There won't be a Drop Thursday or Friday for the holiday but Olivia will either be back Wed. or Sat. to wrap up her month of December. She seems to get a mixed reaction so I just may pick January myself. +1 for the greatest Phantom Menace review ever

This first story is completely disgusting. A 20-year-old woman killed her baby shortly after giving birth to it in her own home. The only catch? She won't be murder, with anything it seems, as the baby was still attached by its umbilical cord and still in the placenta. According to some loophole in Virginia law this is somehow consider, more or less, an abortion and not murder. I don't care about your stance on abortion but I don't see how anyone can not see the complete wrong in this. Someone like this shouldn't be allowed to ever have the chance to carry another child...

If you guys think you made a good impression with a current or past lady friend with her first kiss you may be in for a rude awakening. It seems women are more likely to remember the first pair of shoes they bought than their first kiss. I just asked my girlfriend, and she seems to be the exception to the rule. Out of a study of a 1,000, 92% remembered the first shoes they bought vs. less than 2/3rds remembering the first guy they kissed. I think we need to step our game gentlemen.

Olivia is back again for like the third time in two weeks. If you don't like these new pics then too damn bad!

The sign at the gate of Auschwitz was stolen last week and has already been recovered albeit in three different pieces. The sign, stating "work sets you free" was stolen late last Friday; seemingly right under guards noses. Police somehow tracked it down to a gang that was going to try and sell it and five guys between the ages of 25 and 39 were detained in Northern Poland for questioning. I'd make a, "put them to work joke", but that probably isn't very tasteful.

A teacher that did house calls to teach sick children was fired in the U.K. for offering to pray for the sick student. She asked the student if she could pray for her and her family and the child's mother noted they weren't believers so the teacher didn't pray. This was enough to get her fired. I'm big on that whole "not pushing religion on others" but I don't really see this falling in to that scenario here.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is back in the news winning yet another case against those that try to take him down a peg. The highly popular sheriff, who very well may run for Arizona governor, had to fend off another lawsuit from an inmate who was trying to force the removal of Joe's Christmas music being played in the prison he runs. Sheriff Joe insists the music is both multicultural and diverse and he will continue to spread "Christmas cheer" with his music after a judge denied an inmates claim that it was a violation of his civil rights. Human rights in prison are one thing but *****ing about music is not a civil right that should ever be a concern for prisoners.

So Avatar seems to be solid success so far but it still has a ways to recoup its massive budget. Reviews were good and it did good numbers in the box office to the tune of 232 million world-wide, it actually did better outside of the U.S. its first weekend which is a bit unusual for our big domestic blockbusters. I was going to write a review until some editorial work for some other sites landed in my lap. I enjoyed it, it was a good movie, but not great. I'll probably buy it on Blu-ray eventually but a few things irked me like the rush to get to get to Pandora and no Earth shown so we have no sympathy for how things are back home. We don't identify well with Sully's issues or lack of legs, almost immediately he is running around in his Avatar. The characters were pretty stereotypical and one dimensional and the story was pretty paint-by-numbers. It was still fun and enjoyable but it wasn't all it was hyped up to be.

What is the catalyst for the Toy Story 3 story? Check it out here:

And this is simply awesome... Turn up the bass for the full effect

Hey guys lets play some games, Street Fighter 4 Tournament

no.spam@gameriot.com (sikraeli) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:36:38 -0500

hey there

I'm sure [i hope*] alot of you guys play more than just exclusively wow. With that in mind, I'm making this blog with the goal of bringing together the community to play more games with each other.

First off, if you play any Steam games, http://steamcommunity.com/groups/gameriotdotcom is the official Gameriot group. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/bg9 is the BG9 group.

Beyond that though, I'm more interested in getting players together for tournaments for certain games. Games that come to mind include Starcraft, Warcraft 3, dawn of war 2, Street Fighter 4/Third Strike, Guilty Gear Reload, and hopefully if response is strong enough more team based games such as l4d2 versus, hon/dota, cs1.6/css, & tf2.

In addition to this I'll probably try to keep a running list of PSN/XBL ids on either a topic in the GR forum or another blog post.

With all that being said, I'm now accepting signups for the Gameriot Street Fighter 4 Tournament.

Sign-up page: http://challonge.com/tournament/signup/2yqn3etz

If you don't have Street Fighter 4 it's only 40$ on steam and will undoubtedly be on sale after Christmas as part of the Steam sale. Alternatively you could get it through other means but if you do that you're a huge queer making sure super street fighter 4 won't get a PC release anytime soon (and if you do go that route consider investing the saved money in a fight stick http://www.amazon.com/PS3-Fighting-Stick-3-Playstation/dp/B000MWE3BI ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16879216096&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-PS3+Accessories-_-MADCATZ-_-79216096 if you arent poor ))

The tournament will be double elimination format and the fine details will be sorted out as time goes by. If response is well enough I'll probably foot the bill for a nice prize too. So sign up queers

not much else to be said really, if youre a neckbeard who plays exclusively wow and refuses to touch anything else consider playing other games they will probably help a ****ton with your apm/reflexes seeing as how wow is pretty lax in both; add me on steam if you wanna play any steam game/2dfighter http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197982355264

Movie Monday Review - Avatar

no.spam@gameriot.com (EnglishGentleman) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:46:22 -0500

Avatar

(scroll down to the 4th paragraph if you suffer from Too Long;Didn't Read syndrome, also known as TL;DR)

At the 70th annual Academy Awards director James Cameron proclaimed himself the king of the world after taking home the Oscar for best director. He was innocently quoting the movie he had won for, Titanic, but a lot of people took it with a grain of salt. That moment almost sums up the career of James Cameron, no matter what he does, whatever he produces turns to gold.

After creating arguably two of the best sequels in movie history (Aliens and Terminator 2) and raking in enough cash to retire for two lifetimes, James Cameron decided to take a break. Titanic would be the last feature film he released for a decade. Instead of making big budget Hollywood pictures he decided to take a dive and use some of the underwater filming technology he had developed for Titanic to create documentaries like Ghosts of the Abyss. While a very good movie in its own right, I always wanted the old Cameron back. But fortunately, while swimming with the fishes James Cameron was working on his next big film. He called it Avatar, and claimed it would revolutionize movies as we knew them. 3D imaging and eye popping visuals were all promised for the movie, unfortunately this was the late 90s, and none of that technology existed. So instead of working on the movie and getting a product he would be unhappy with, Cameron decided to hype the living hell out of it. You could not find an interview with James Cameron during his decade long hiatus where he was not talking about Avatar. Thus, the movie became one of the most hyped movies of all time, a thing of legend. I almost started to doubt it would ever be made, but a couple of years back Cameron announced he was going to begin production on the movie, we all just had to wait some more.

But enough with the history lesson, you didn't click on this because you wanted to listen to me go on and on about the life and career of James Cameron. You probably clicked the article because you saw some hot alien action on the banner and couldn't fight your primal urge to investigate anything flashing you a pair of breasts. Or perhaps you came to know what exactly I thought about Avatar. Either way, I thank you for reading. Especially those of you who read the first three paragraphs, boy if I could only tell you how ahead in life you are compared to the people who will never get the oportunity to read this sentence. To reward you for your awesomeness, here are a couple of awesome animal facts. Did you know that a penguin can jump 6 feet in the air? A bear can run at speeds of 30 miles per hour? Elephants are the only animal that can't jump? The strongest animal in the world is the rhinorcerous beetle, it can lift 859 times its own weight? But I digress, on to the review shall we?

In Avatar we follow the story of ex-marine Jake Sully, wheelchair bound because of injuries suffered while in the line of duty. The movie opens and we learn that Jake's scientist twin brother has passed away, and because he shares the same DNA as his brother Jake is asked to take over his position as "Avatar Pilot" on the moon planet of Pandora. Pandora is known as "one of the most hostile regions on the planet" and as the badass Colonel played by Cristopher Lang puts it "there isn't a thing that walks, talks, or crawls on Pandora that doesn't want to kill you". The human's have set up camp in Pandora to mine a prescious mineral native to the planet known as "unobtanium". Unfortunately a tribe of the indeginous species known as the Na'vi are sitting atop the richest deposit on Pandora. Because the humans cannot breathe the toxic air they create controllable Na'vi known as Avatars to try and persuade these 10 foot tall nature lovers to move else where.

Not since the Lord of the Rings trilogy has a writer created such an immense and immersive world as Pandora. If I were to describe the setting of this movie in one word, it would be epic. In fact, I would use the word epic to describe this whole movie. There is not one minute that doesn't show evidence of the maticulous hard work and creativity Cameron and his crew are known for.

Visually this is the best movie I have ever seen. James Cameron truly has brought movie making to a whole new level. 60% of the movie is made up of computer generated images (CGI) but you would never know. The level of special effects is so advanced you almost believe the film crew traveled to Pandora to shoot. The 3D in Avatar is just perfect. I have seen many movies in the past that contained scenes that made you think "I bet he just put that in to make use of the 3D", you know the jump sequences where the snake jumps out at the audience without any context to the rest of the movie. But I found the 3D in Avatar to be very tasteful and well done. Instead of creating jump sequences or shooting things out at the audience 3D was used to give the movie depth, and perspective. You really felt like you were there.

The plot unfortunately takes a back seat to the stunning visuals, but James Cameron has never been known for his writing. There are a few inconsistencies here and there and the main story is something we've seen before, but you learn to forget about all of little issues because of the epic scope of the rest of the movie.

Avatar is the most fun at the movies I have had in a very long time. Sure the intense critics who liken watching Citizen Kane to a good time may not be able to see the good in this movie, but for the rest of us it is fun, intense, and amazing. Definitely worth the extra buck or two for 3D, and if you have the chance, go see it in IMAX.