Game Based Movies - Why the Warcraft Movie Will Likely Suck.

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This weekend, one of my favorite games had its movie adaptation released.  The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is probably in my top 10 action platformers of all time.  Will I go see the movie?  Probably not.  Why you ask?  Continued disappointment would be my main reason.  

I remember the first video game based movie I have ever seen.  It was the Super Mario Brothers movie.  As a kid, I thought it was okay.  Now, thinking about it, it was absolutely terrible.  From there, I remember Dungeons and Dragons, which also sucked.  Street Fighter was equally terrible.  The only one that was even tolerable was Mortal Kombat.  And that was only the first one.  After those, I promised to avoid video game movies.

This is a similar problem that comic movies had.  Everybody remember the terrible Batman and Robin.  That movie was worse than terrible, it was an abortion.  However, directors came along like Sam Raimi and Christopher Nolan, and brought a seriousness back to comic book movies which made them pretty good to watch.  The Dark Knight is probably the best example of that.  Now, this renissance has lead to less mainstream comics being made into movies.  Who knew that Kick-Ass was a comic book before it became a movie?  I didn't until I did some research.  How about The Losers?  I have not heard of that one either.

Well, Sam Raimi is now turning his attention to the Warcraft series.  You would think with a great director that this movie would have a chance.  However, I have a few reasons to think that this movie will not be great at all.  Here are some of my thoughts on it.

1) It is difficult to capture the essence of an MMORPG - What makes an MMORPG great is not usually the story, it is playing with other people to beat challanges and raids.  I don't care how good the movie is, Sam Raimi can never capture the joy I had when I killed the Lich King for the first time.  And what I know of the Arthas story is really good.  But the movie can never capture what I enjoy about the game.  I think you will find a lot of people who feel that way.  I think this is a general feeling about game based movies.

2) Video game writing is way behind comic writing - You can have a movie script that carries you through hundreds of emotions.  Now, games are getting better in that respect.  I'm playing through Heavy Rain and that game is the closest I have felt to those emotions in a game.  What makes games great is the interactivity and is usually less based on the story.  Did you play Bioshock for the story? More than likely, no.  You played because of the cool mechanics of having extra awesome powers.  Having a good story was a cherry on top of the ice cream.  Does anybody play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the story.  No, they play it for the incredible mutiplayer. (Also, if they made a movie based on the multiplayer of that game, it would be the most vulgar movie ever and would probably get rated NC-17.)

For just a comparison, go read The Watchmen comic.  That comic will take you through every possible emotion before you get to the end.  There has not been a game that has made me feel that.  Gamers play games because they are fun.  Until movies can incorporate the fun of games into movies, it will be almost impossible to make a good video game based movie.

3) They have no incentive to make a great movie -  This is my biggest concern about the Warcraft movie.  The current World of Warcraft base is around 11 million.  Now, let us say that even only 40% of the installed base goes see the movie.  This would be 4.4 million seeing the movie opening weekend.  Take $10 per ticket and you are talking about a 44 million dollar opening weekend.  Now take into account people who are children whose parents will go see the movie.  I think you could reasonably be talking about a gurantteed 100 million dollar opening weekend.  They could put out a movie with Thrall and the Lich King becoming friends and killing all of Azeroth until the gnomes take over and it would be a financial success.  Sam Raimi could put a turd on a movie screen with the WoW logo and it would make the same amount of money.  This is true for any game based movie.  Even the upcoming Bioshock movie.  It even has a decent story to start off with.  A lot of people who are fans of the original game will go see the movie.  When you have such a large installed base as gamers, you have no reason to make the movie great. 

Need proof of this. Look no further than Uwe Boll.  He has never made a great movie.  Never.  However, he is a genius.  Not for what he puts on the screen, but his thinking behind movies.  Start with something that has a large fan base and try to get people to pay for it.  And he has made millions doing this.

Although I'm a negative nancy when it comes to movie based games, I do have one hope for the Warcraft movie.  If Blizzard holds Raimi to as high a standard as they do themselves, the movie could be good.  Every time Blizzard puts out a new cinemetic, it is incredible.  If they take that much care of their franchise, the movie stands a chance.  Maybe.

Remote AH App Beta - A Raider's Perspective

The economy of WoW is something that has never really interested me.  I am a raider and pretty much only have time for that.  I go and buy enchants or gems on the AH.  Maybe put a vanity pet on the neutral AH from the Argent Tourney once I get the needed Champion Seals.  I have only bought one epic (Thank you to whoever put The Bracers of Swift Death for my tank set on the AH for the cheap price of 2k.) from the AH. 

Now that my mage is level 80 and is doing professions that can have a lot more interaction with the AH (Enchanting and Tailoring), I have started looking a little closer at those things.  What day is the best day to put up enchants? (I'm hoping Tuesday with raiders.)  Should I put up extra mats on the AH or put them on vellum for enchants?  However, I'm also very lazy when it comes to these things.  I use Auctioneer to run my AH processes in game.  I like a lot of the features including looking at not just your server prices, but looking at across all servers as well as scanning other auctions to help you price your items.

This brings me to the new remote AH app beta for the IPhone.  I personally don't have an IPhone, but I do have an IPad and I can run it on that.  My initial impression was kind of lackluster.  The graphical interface was not overly great. (Albeit, on my IPad, it is blown up to 2x the size to fit on the IPad, so I think it is more of the IPad's fault.) Yes, I could see my auctions and could even get my auction mail and send it to my character.  However, the more I played with it, the more I saw the awesomeness of this app.  This has a lot of the features of the Auctioneer add on built right in.  Want to see what your item is going for currently on the AH to determine your price, it is right on the screen where you set your price.  Want to browse all the auctions for an item at a good price, you can do that as well.  While it won't tell you prices between servers, even seeing that information in an out of game format is incredible.

However, I do have some general complaints about this app as well.  First, it is not easy to switch between characters.  With two level 80s and 3 others above level 60, I would like to easily switch between characters to see all their auctions.  I actually have not even found a good way to do that yet.  Second, the limit is really low for a beta.  25 transactions is enough to pull your AH mail and maybe put 10 more things back on the AH.  In the live version, this will be a non-issue, but it is still annoying.  Third complaint is the format.  Blizzard, please come out with an IPad version for all of your apps, including this one, please.  The final and biggest complaint is the price.  If it was a flat fee of five to ten dollars, I would go for that.  However, charging $3 per MONTH for these actions make it a little questionable.  Does it really take me that long to do my AH stuff in game to warrant paying an additional $3 per month to Blizzard for access out of the game?  I don't carry my IPad everywhere and my work doesn't allow me to get on to the armory website.  My instinct says no.  However, it would be incredibly convenient to have this especially if I get an IPhone sooner rather than later.

So overall, it is not a bad app, but I don't know how many people would buy in to it, especially at a monthly price.  Of course, who thought that Blizzard would make over two million dollars selling mounts.  Once people start having to pay for it, we will see what the demand is for this app.             

A PUG's Guide to Joining Guild Raids

We have had it happen all the time or another. You get in a raid and learn that it is a guild run and they need to fill some of the spots.  We had that happen last night.  We couldn't get a guild run of ICC 25 man due to sign outs and so we PUGed a few spots in the raid.  While I'm happy to have you in our guild run, there are a few rules that I think PUGs should live by if they are filling out the spots in the raid.  I call it a PUG's Guide to Joining Guild Raids.

1) Get In Vent - Nothing annoys me more than being in a raid and not having everybody in vent. Some raids I don't care about.  ToC 25 man can be done with nobody in vent.  It is not that difficult.  Same thing for VoA, OS, and Malygos.  However, if we are going to Ulduar or ICC, everybody should be in vent.  It is just common courtesy.  Even with some of the raids that I mentioned, if the raid leader says for people to get in vent, you get in vent.

2) Come Prepared - While asking for flask maybe too much to ask for some PUGs, you should at least come with reagents for your buffs.  While I don't mind doing it, it gets annoying for another person in the same class to ask me to buff because they forgot their reagents.  Not only come with reagents, but come prepared by knowing the fights.  While I don't expect you to know my guild's strategy for fights,  you should know the general mechanics.

3) Guild Run = Guild Strategy and Guild Loot Rules - My guild has tested methods for each boss fight in ICC with the exception of LK, which is our progression. (But let's be honest, how many guilds are gonna bring PUGs to LK)  We have downed every boss in ICC except LK.  I don't care if your guild stacks up all in the center for Saurfang.  You are in a guild run so you go by our strategy.  If you don't like it, leave.  We can easily find another person to replace you.  Same thing for loot.  If we say one MS, one OS, and one token per run, that is the rules.  If nobody wants something, you may have a chance to get it.  I got the Sack of Wonder last night for my tank set because nobody wanted it.

4) Keep Your Mouth Shut (Or Your Fingers Away From Raid Chat) - I don't care if you think that the slime kiter in Rotface should always be a paladin or a DK.  Our druid tank has kited the slimes more times than you can imagine.  Think of guild runs as going to a person's house for dinner.  You may think the painting on the wall is incredibly ugly, but you are in no place to criticize it in front of them.  Say it is nice and shut your mouth.

5) Wiping Does Not Equal Raid is Done - Do you not want to come back and raid with us ever again as a PUG?  Leave after the first wipe.  I dare you. PUGs by nature are not always the best raiders.   Why would I make that statement?  Because if they were good raiders, they would be in a guild that raids ICC and they wouldn't be hoping for some guild to take them along out of necessity.  Some are in 10 man guilds which is understandable.  As a general rule, I give a PUG raid 5 wipes or until the group disbands.  And that is 5 wipes without downing a boss.  If you can't get Northrend Beasts down in 5 wipes in normal ToC, you probably aren't going to get too far.  If we can get  the first boss down, I will usually stay until the end of the group disbands.  Maybe I have more patience than others, but I think leaving after one wipe is kind of tasteless.

6) Shut Up About Gearscore - I don't care if you think my Gearscore is too low.  Let me give you an example.  Last week, we did a guild run of 25 man ToC.  I asked to come on my mage, which had just hit 80 so I was not geared yet.  One of the PUG retribution paladins complained that my Gearscore was too low after the first wipe.  The problem is I did almost as much DPS as he did even with a substantially lower Gearscore.  I brought this up to him and he promptly shut up about it.  In addition, this retribution pally died every single fight while I was alive for all the fights when we beat them.  You complain about my Gearscore and I will just embarrass you, if need be, to the whole raid.

7) General Manners Go A Long Way - All these are things that annoy me to no end, but you want to know how to really get me angry at you.  Make a racist, sexist, or other inappropriate remark.  An example from last night was our druid tank was trying to get everybody ready to pull.  She is a female and is incredibly nice from my interactions over vent.  One of the asshole PUGs decided to make a comment along the following lines: "Shouldn't you be in the kitchen cooking dinner."   Now the other raid leader called him out on it immediately, which I'm grateful for.  However, there is no place for this in any raid.  Especially if you are a PUG in the raid.  It is one thing for guild members to joke around because we know who is joking and who is not.  However, if you are in our vent and make a comment like that, that would be an almost immediate kick from me if I was the raid leader.  The other thing is when a PUG member puts in all caps that they need a certain buff.    We are getting the buffs we can.  And if you still need a buff, just say it normally in raid chat.  No reason to yell in chat or on vent that you need a buff.

I don't like to quote other WoW people, but there is somebody at the end of The Instance podcast called Mr. Manners.  He has some of the best advice I have heard on how to handle yourself politely, like a human being should.  I would recommend some PUGs going to listen to that.

8) Do Not Post Damage Meters Unless Asked - Sometimes, especially when you are PUGing people, you may have a legitimate DPS issue that needs to be addressed.  The raid leaders are running meters just like you.  There is no reason for you to post them.  If the raid leader wants to post them, they will.  Otherwise, don't show off. 

9) If You Are Asked to Leave, Leave Quietly - Sometimes, guilds overestimates a PUG's ability to perform.  If we have a guild member who comes on in that time who we know can do more DPS, healing, or can tank better, don't be offended if we ask you to leave.  Don't go to trade chat and complain because it only makes you look bad.  Thank them for their time and for taking you and leave it at that.

10) If You Have A Question, Ask - There is no such thing as stupid questions, only stupid wipes.  If you are not certain about something, I would rather you ask the question up front versus causing a wipe to the raid with what you think is correct.  If you have questions about strategy, loot, etc., just ask.  It can't hurt to ask to clarify something.   

A Multi-Boxer's Plea to Blizzard

I was looking at MMO Champion and I saw a blue post comment that kind of ticked me off just a little bit.  Here is the quote:

Multi-Boxing

There's no support for multi-boxing on our end. We tolerate it. For now.

Wait, so Blizzard is saying they don't want people to pay for multiple subscriptions at a time.  I understand not putting anything in the UI themselves that would help multi-boxers, but saying that you "tolerate" it, for "now".  In a company that is okay with people spending $25 for a horse or paying $3 per month for an AH app (which I will talk about this more in a later post, but it is awesome), they are not okay with people paying $30 or more per month for multiple accounts.  Yes, I can see some of the disadvantages.  (The person on the Bloodlust battlegroup who multi-boxes 5 shaman in Alterac Valley, I hate you with a passion.)  But I see a lot more advantages than disadvantages.

When leveling my mage and my hunter, I used RAF and multi-boxed my way to level 60.  Did it hurt anybody?  No.  Did I break the game in any way whatsoever?  No.  I currently do not have multiple accounts myself currently, but that is not saying that I will not want to level a paladin/shaman combo soon through RAF for the rocket.

I'm not a person who says I will leave the game for a certain reason.  It would take something terrible for me to say I quit this game. (Like buying weapons or armor with real money)  However, I have a feeling you are going to see the number of subscribers drop if Blizzard outlaws multi-boxing.  Not that they would actually lose players, but how many players have multiple accounts from multi-boxing.  I think it happens more than you think.  And I think it happens more than Blizzard thinks too.

So I'm begging Blizzard, please do not outlaw multi-boxing in WoW.  It is not something that breaks the game and it is more money for you.  Multi-boxing is a win-win.  Plus, you can take that money and make the AH app cheaper per month.

Dungeons and Cataclysm - Return to Awesomeness

This past weekend, I was running Stratholme on my mage solo to try and farm Runecloth for tailoring.  It was the first time I had run it on my mage, which even at level 80 was difficult.  While most other dungeons, I could arcane explosion my way through the instance, Stratholme was different.  It actually presented a challenge for my little under geared gnome mage.  I'm sure I could come back on my druid tank and wreck some stuff in there and clear very quickly, but it took some actual strategy on my mage.  It was also fun to see the differences between Culling of Stratholme and the actual Stratholme instance.  Thinking back to how it was once a vibrant city a lot like Stormwind and now it is a wreck.

It was also fun having a lot of bosses in a 5 man.  This goes to what we have heard about the Halls of Origination in Cataclysm.  It is a seven boss 5 man dungeon.  Originally, I was not very wild about that idea of having that big of a 5 man.  However, going back and running Zul'farak and Stratholme while farming cloth made me realize that those dungeons are just awesome.  Are the bosses hard?  No, not really.  It is mostly tank and spank fights.  However, I don't think people run 5 mans for the incredible strategy behind the boss fights.  That is what raiding is for.  Yes, there are some creative ones, like the guy who tosses boulders in Pit of Saron or Eadric the Pure in Trial of the Champion where you have to turn around.  However, having a fight where you just have to hold off hordes of trolls with some prisoners only to have the prisoners turn on you after all is said and done is kind of awesome.

Even in Burning Crusade, you had to think about every single pull.  Remember Magister's Terrace.  If you do what you do now in 5 mans in Magister's Terrace, you were dead.  By the end of Stratholme, I was thinking about every arcane blast I was shooting and not using arcane explosion at all.  Especially during the gauntlet.  I remember the times I have run the Zangarmarsh 5 mans on my druid and pulled when a patrol was coming.  That usually meant a wipe in that instance.

Please don't think I'm degrading current 5 mans.  There are a lot of fun stuff in the current 5 mans.  I appreciate the lack of trash in the current 5 mans.  I appreciate that the bosses have a little more complexity than in past 5 mans.  Overall, it seems the bosses became a little more complicated and trash became a little less complicated.

In Cataclysm, I hope they keep the bosses about where they are now and make the trash a little harder.  While I like AOEing trash, I would like to get back to some of that strategy that was involved in 5 mans where you had to think about kill order, CCing, etc.

What are some of the things you are hoping for 5 mans from Cataclysm?  Do you think they should get back to some of the complication from the original and BC?  Do you think they should keep the Wrath model of 5 mans?   

Recommendations for the New WoW Player

Everybody remembers that first time they logged on to WoW.  Not knowing what to expect and what would happen next.  All you know is that somebody is standing in front of you with a giant yellow exclamation mark over their head.  You're not even certain how to talk to them, but you know you have to.  It is the first steps, but it is very important first steps.

So when you have a new WoW player, what are some of the things they should know about it going in?  Here is a short list of things that I would recommend.

1)  Questhelper - I know a lot of people will disagree here, but it is easy to get lost in the beginning.  I would recommend getting Questhelper right up front or some equivalent.  Even use the in game questing guide.  I don't prefer it over Questhelper, but it works.  It will help guide them where to go.  And they can still read the quest text and get the story that is occurring at each part.

2) Run Instances as Soon as Possible - With the LFG tool, you can start running instances as low as level 13.  Instances and raids are part of the fun of the game for me, so I would recommend a player to try it.  I would also tell them to only join as DPS until they get a hang of instances.  There are enough people running alts that will want to join as tanks and heals.  Plus it allows you to learn the mechanics of instances as well.

3) Play Your First Race/Class Up to Level 20 - By level 20, you are starting to get an idea of what your class can do.  It is not at its full potential, but you have a general idea.  And if you don't like it, it is not like 20 levels is difficult to get back to so you can reroll a new class.  I would actually play any character up to level 20 to at least to get a hang of it.  I played a priest with a recruit a friend account with a friend of mine and tried to play as holy.  I didn't enjoy it and ended up canceling my recruit a friend account.  Of course, that goes back to my aversion to healing.

4) Start Professions Early - When you are on your 3rd alt you are working on, it tends to become a little easier to power level professions so it can be avoided.  However, with a player that is first starting off, I would tell them to start early with professions.  That way, they can use the mats they have along the way.  And with tailoring, blacksmithing, and leatherworking, they can actually make usable gear early.

5) Try Different Areas - Even staying in one area for a long time can make it where you start getting more difficult quest than your level.  Always try different areas.  Just because Westfall quest have become more difficult, it doesn't mean you can't go somewhere else to quest.

6) Try PvPing - The way I look at the game, there are two major sides.  One side enjoys the raiding/instancing/questing side of WoW.  The other side enjoys the competition of PvP.  If you are getting in the late teens and finding the instances and questing aren't doing it for you, try PvP and see if you like just killing other players.

I'm sure there are some other things, including doing your class quest, get to a major city, play around with the AH, etc.  but these would be some of my starter recommendations on what to do in WoW.  I'm sure there are a lot of others that you could come up with as well.  Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Hit and Gear for Moonkins - Tit for Tat

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I always try to have my gear list in front of me for whatever role I'm playing.  Now that I have an IPad, this is even easier.  I like to give props to the gear list that I currently use and really like.  For moonkins, I recommend Grey Matter's list, which can be found here.  When tanking, I really like Think Tank's list, which can be found here.  Yes, I do also use programs like Rawr to look at my particular situation, but I am also not a math person so I appreciate the fact that some people can look at the gear and say what is better.  I'm still looking for a good arcane mage gear list, so if you have any recommendations, feel free to post them in the comments.

Now, with tanking, it is incredibly easy to be hit capped.  Not that it is really needed since we do a lot of actions very quickly, but since bears use rouge gear for tanking, it tends to have a lot of hit on it.  It also helps with threat generation.  However, with moonkins and mages, hit becomes a bigger issue.  It is their number one stat that must always be maintained and a requirement to be capped.  The difference in DPS between a hit capped and a non-hit capped moonkin is drastic. 

Some of the recommendations that I see from both moonkins and mages say they depend on other people to be hit capped.  While I'm not saying this is necessarily wrong, it doesn't feel right for me.  Sure, I have a Draenai and a shadow priest in my 25 mans that would make it very easy to be hit capped, but what about 10 mans or even 5 mans.  I want to know that I'm not dependent on another person for my damage to matter.  Plus, I don't want to be the person to say that I have to have a Draenai in my group for me to be able to DPS. And yes, I know I get buffs from other classes that increase spellpower, crit, or haste.  But I want to know that I could do the damage needed without them.  Those help to improve it.

This is where the value of gear list and what I value come into contrast.  Let me give an example with my moonkin.  I had the Crushing Coldwraith Belt on my moonkin gear and I was using the Shard of the Crystal Heart as one of my trinkets, since it has hit.  However, I had a decision to make with hit.  I could definitely get a better trinket than Shard of the Crystal Heart in ICC 25, however, this means that I would not be hit capped.  I tried to use the Maghia's Misguided Quill, but when I used it, I found that my DPS was not getting better.  So this lead to a decision.  I decided to not use the Crushing Coldwraith Belt anymore, get the T10 legs plus the Belt of Omission so that when a better trinket, like Dislodged Foreign Object dropped, I could trade the Shard of the Crystal Heart for it and be hit capped without gems or enchants.  Is the Belt of Omission the best in slot for moonkins? Not even close.  Is it the best for me?  Yes, because I can use a better trinket than a 245 haste/hit trinket.

This is why it is important to look at your situation.  I was looking at a mage list of just the best in slot gear.  It ended up with a hit rating in the 220s, not even close to being hit capped.  They argued that with other buffs from other classes, you would be hit capped.  I would much rather trade a BiS piece for a lesser piece if it means that I'm not dependent on another person for damage output.

I would love your thoughts on gearing for your class.  Is my fear of being dependent on other people for my hit rating completely insane or do you feel it is well founded?  I would love your opinion on this.