Obiter

The problem with the original article, of course, is that it is a "self-selected survey." It asks if current players are happy with the expansion when, in fact, only players happy with the expansion are still playing it.

I am not still playing WoW and I can tell you exactly why.

WotLK didn't really seem to offer me much in the way of new gameplay. And if it did change or add something so as to be fundamentally new (better world PvP? more combat vehicles?) it stuck it at level 80 when unfortunately the same-old same-old grind killed me at level 76.

It's quite funny actually that I came across this exact article this evening. This is my first look at WoWInsider since I quit WotLK two months ago and I came here to see if anything was new. Instead I find an article defending the status quo. Hilarious.

Just to clear up one possible misperception arising from this story.

In some jurisdictions, when someone is determined to be a treat to themselves or others because of mental illness, police may exercise the power to take the person to a facility for a mental health assessment. This is for their safety and for the safety of the public.

However, it should not be confused with criminality whatsoever. It is really just something of a "secure ambulance" service. In my state, the law doesn't even say "arrest" or "detain", merely "transport to a place of assessment." And certainly the person is not given a criminal record of any kind when transported for psychiatric assessment.

That said, what probably happened in this example is that the kid was really just making idle threats that ultimately triggered a police response that was not necessary. So yes, police in that case may issue a charge of "disturbing the peace" or "uttering threats" or whatever.

"Scattered Shots is a bit short today, on account of its author currently visiting the Holy Land."

YOU ARE VISITING BLIZZARD HQ?!?!

I got one of the 1 in a 100 chance fishing quest rewards, but unfortunately it was the (non-equipable) Mithril Shaving Razor. :P

Do Not Want.

I haven't seen that much pointless chest beating since the last time I hunted Mistvale gorillas in Stranglethorn.

That "insurmountability" is exactly how everyone used to describe EverQuest. Even on the eve of WoWs release there were a lot of people doubting it could dethrone the then-king. And besides that, there are a couple of Korean MMOs (Lineage for one) that itself has millions of subscribers. To claim that WoW is the only major game in town is nuts.

Besides which, an MMO doesn't need 12 million subscribers to be successful or make money. I'll grant that no one can kill WoW, but it only takes one amazing new game to get a lot of people to shift gears.

As for the $500 million investment, that's like talking about going from 0 to 100. Even WoW started off with a smaller subscription base of a few hundred thousand and has gradually grown to 12 million. Successful MMOs pay for their own growth basically.

Blizz needs to revise their whole chat paradigm. As it is, everyone on my server uses "Trade" as the defacto global chat channel precisely because you can link stuff through it and because it works between the cities. All of which is fine except how all the trading is starting to get lost in the noise.

End-game could also include world PvP with a purpose. Like Haala, only with more complexity and for control of a truly meaningful city.

I got the EyeTV Hybrid last Christmas to use on my MacBook Pro CoreDuo 2.0GHz and definitely experienced gaming lag when I tried it with a couple of SNES games. Maybe the software has been updated since. When I tried it though I found the lag is fine if you are playing an RPG or strategy game, but it is totally debilitating for playing sometime with really nuanced movement or split-second timing like Super Mario World.

Otherwise, yeah, EyeTV a really handy little piece of hardware to have in your Mac toolbox because it is so versatile and can record any type of signal you throw at it. And if you don't have a cable or satellite TV subscription, I've found that the EyeTV also works really well with an antenna and can even pick up crystal-clear HD broadcasts if you live close enough to the source broadcast.

In my experience, sending a few guys to the flag right off the bat actually *helps* gain more towers (and ultimately a few flags too!) because it draws the opposing side into the mid-field and away from their towers. This ends up being both an aggressive and defensive move because the ride from the graveyard to the mid-field is much shorter than from one tower to another. Therefore, it is easy for a small group of players to continuously hold up a large opposing force while the remainder of the team goes off and captures the remaining towers with little resistance. And then once you've got three towers and are fighting for mid-control, the game is in the bag.