Thalen

#Blaugust Day 8: Legion

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So the news that everyone who’s still playing or at least following World of Warcraft was revealed a couple days ago. The new expansion will be titled Legion, and will presumably be chock-ful-o-demons. I don’t think this came as much of a surprise to anyone; it’s been clear for a while that the player base has tired of orcs, orcs, and more orcs and the Burning Legion are the go-to bad guys that haven’t been focused on in a while.

Sargeras
He’s still out there

(As an aside, I considered doing a joke post where I pretended to misunderstand all the talk about Legion as being about the X-Men character. Really though, I think I have one reader who would find it hilarious, a few more who would actually get the joke, and everyone else would just be confused. I still may write something about that character in the future though, because he’s amazing.)

I think the hair is his secondary mutation
It’s been interesting watching the reaction. It seems pretty muted on the whole, but that may just be because of the section of the Internet I hang out in. Most of my gaming friends aren’t playing WoW anymore either, so I think for a lot of them their interest is just a matter of curiosity and nostalgia. I’m sure if the excitement is higher than I think and subscription numbers go back up or even level off, Activision/Blizzard will let us know.

On the whole, I think this mostly just drives home to me that my time with WoW is truly done. I played for 9 years and enjoyed it for most of that time, but after nearly 2 years out I don’t really feel any desire to log back in. I don’t hate the game, and I have no desire for it to get shut down or anything like that. The World of Warcraft has moved on without me, and I without it. And really, that’s a good thing.

#Blaugust Day 7: Endings

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All Bette's stories have happy endings. That's because she knows when to stop. She's realized the real problem with stories -- if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death. - Sandman #6 - Neil Gaiman
I've been thinking about endings recently. About how much we dread and resist them, but how joyous and cathartic they can be when they finally come. At least they can when handled well. A bad ending can retroactively taint everything that came before and turn something you enjoyed into something to be forgotten or even actively railed against. The way something ends is the last impression it makes, and often becomes the most powerful.

So much of what separates a good ending from a bad one is timing; leaving before the welcome is overstayed. It's more complex than that of course; even a well-timed end can fall flat if badly handled, but dragging things out too long seems to be the surest way to ensure a bad end.

Also, not bringing a friend
MMOs by their nature are not good at ending. They're created with the intent of continuing on as long as possible. When they do end, it's often after a decline in studio support that leads to a sort of stumbling half-life leading up to the end. Is it any wonder that so many players, when they do finally cut ties with a game, seem to be filled with hatred for the game they presumably once enjoyed? When the end did come for them, it had taken too long and was no longer satisfying.

It falls to the players to ensure a good end in these situations, by accepting when the time has come. Don't fall into the trap of forcing yourself to keep going when a game is no longer entertaining. Be willing to accept when the time to move on has come. That way, at least the memories can still be pleasant. And you might even decide to return at a later date. After all, the other thing about endings is that the best ones always leave you wanting more.

#Blaugust Day 7: Endings

by

All Bette’s stories have happy endings. That’s because she knows when to stop. She’s realized the real problem with stories — if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death. – Sandman #6 – Neil Gaiman

I’ve been thinking about endings recently. About how much we dread and resist them, but how joyous and cathartic they can be when they finally come. At least they can when handled well. A bad ending can retroactively taint everything that came before and turn something you enjoyed into something to be forgotten or even actively railed against. The way something ends is the last impression it makes, and often becomes the most powerful.

So much of what separates a good ending from a bad one is timing; leaving before the welcome is overstayed. It’s more complex than that of course; even a well-timed end can fall flat if badly handled, but dragging things out too long seems to be the surest way to ensure a bad end.

Also, not bringing a friend

MMOs by their nature are not good at ending. They’re created with the intent of continuing on as long as possible. When they do end, it’s often after a decline in studio support that leads to a sort of stumbling half-life leading up to the end. Is it any wonder that so many players, when they do finally cut ties with a game, seem to be filled with hatred for the game they presumably once enjoyed? When the end did come for them, it had taken too long and was no longer satisfying.

It falls to the players to ensure a good end in these situations, by accepting when the time has come. Don’t fall into the trap of forcing yourself to keep going when a game is no longer entertaining. Be willing to accept when the time to move on has come. That way, at least the memories can still be pleasant. And you might even decide to return at a later date. After all, the other thing about endings is that the best ones always leave you wanting more.

#Blaugust Day 6: Magic Duels: Tromple Not Included

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I've been somewhat interested in the new free-to-play online Magic: The Gathering game, Magic Duels, since I heard that a) it had come out and b) it wasn't blatantly horrible or absurdly monetized. Wizards of the Coast hasn't had the best track record with online versions of Magic, or really with anything online ever.  Still waiting on those digital tools for D&D 5th Edition guys!

I decided to check it out a couple weeks ago when I first heard it was out, but discovered it wasn't out on PC, just iOS. I am not one of the chosen of the Cult of Jobs, so I moved on and kept an ear out for the PC release. Last week I learned that it had been released on Steam.  I ended up downloading it while we were recording the most recent Aggrochat, and opened it up Sunday. Sadly, horrible connection issues meant it kept crashing in the middle of games or losing connection entirely. Since playing offline would mean not earning any currency for my games, I gave it a miss and played Marvel Heroes instead.

Yesterday, I decided to try again. Apparently the connection issues have been even worse the past few days with servers being entirely down for large swaths of time. By the evening however, things were working smoothly and I was able to play through the first bit of story and get access to my initial cards for duels.

Once the connection issues were out of the way, the game worked very well. Menu items are highlighted to direct you to where you should go next to learn your way around, and the first story campaign introduces the basic concepts, spell types, and abilities as you go along. I had seen someone claim (I don't recall where now) that the concept of the stack wasn't included in this game, and that there were no instants.  I'm happy to report that that is not the case; I have to assume that they just didn't play far enough in for instants to be introduced. Most of the decks I tried out in AI duels were green / something and the pleasure of turning a 2/1 weenie into a 7/6 trampler is alive and well.

Admittedly, I was gilding the lily a bit when I did it
Currency seems fairly reasonable to earn; it takes 150 coins to buy a 6 card booster, and you get 5, 10, or 15 from an AI duel depending on difficulty level or 20 from a player duel. There are also quests given each day; each of yesterday's involved winning 2 or 4 duels with particular deck colors and was worth 40 coins. Sadly you don't earn any coins from playing friends, but win-trading is a thing, so I'm not surprised.

In the end, I was impressed.  Magic Duels is a solid online version of Magic (assuming the servers don't fall over again) that you can play for free.  If you decide to check it out, feel free to friend me on Steam so we can duel!