Archive for February 21st, 2008
Wrath of the Lich King Release Date Thoughts
Comments(8)I just got a chance to read Cameron’s post about this, and I got to thinking everything through a little bit. Here are a few things that have helped me through my prediction, which I will get to later:
Patch 2.4
I am assuming that patch 2.4 is going to be released in 3-4 weeks, which means mid-to-late March. I am going to further assume that it will take about a month for each server to fully unlock everything on Sunwell Isle, meaning mid-to-late April. Add another three months or so for all of the players to satisfy themselves on the new content, and allow at least the top 1,000 guilds or so a good shot at Kil’Jaeden. This leaves us at the Blizzard Invitational held in Paris in late June, where a playable version of WotLK will be available.
AoC and WAR
Both of these games are set to have a release date which will likely come between May and June. Both games are experiencing much hype from potential players. Blizzard isn’t likely to release their product soon after these games have been released, which means that they will either want to release prior to these games launching or they will do so several months after.
Beta
Blizzard has stated that they are unsure whether they will require a closed beta for this expansion, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think they do. I think they know enough about their game and aren’t making enough changes that it would require a beta to take place. This will cut down significantly on the development time.
With all of this said, it all depends on a couple of things. How far along are they in the process now? If they are touting a playable version of the expansion in late June, does this mean that they will have a finished product, and they are pulling a PR stunt to make it sound like it will be “closed to finished” or does that mean it will be close enough to show players while still taking several months to work out the kinks and give players time to try out AoC and WAR, only to decide they would rather play the expansion come September or October? These thoughts coupled with Blizzard’s notorious track record of pushing back the release dates on their products makes it all a shot in the dark, but if I had to make a prediction, I’d have to say… September.
~Kanthalos
*Obviously WAR’s release date got pushed back. So far back, in fact, that I don’t think it changes anything about this prediction other than the fact that WotLK will be released sooner than WAR.
Raid Attendance and Hydross
Comments(0)Lately my guild has been having a bit of a raid attendance issue, which has caused a few problems. Two of our oldest members (one an officer) have both been removed from the guild because they’ve chosen to raid Karazhan on other servers with different guilds during our scheduled raids. While I was initially frustrated with this decision, I understood why it was done, especially in the case of the officer. Even though they weren’t the sole reason we were unable to get a few raids going over the past few days, it certainly didn’t help. Furthermore, if they’ve made a serious commitment to the guild and they don’t show up when they’re needed, that shouldn’t be taken lightly. While a demotion was a possible solution, it seems pretty clear that their devotion has shifted more towards the other guild and away from ours, so do they deserve to remain in the guild? That was up to the GM and the remaining officers, and whether they made the right or wrong decision, they chose to remove them.
In any case, we were able to raid the last two nights, and Hydross is on the schedule tonight. After the practice we’ve had in our past two attempts, I am fairly certain we’ll be able to succeed tonight. I really want to get on continue our progression that has seen Gruul, Halazzi, Jan’Alai, Void Reaver, and The Lurker Below taken down over the past month and a half. My goal (although I’m not the one setting goals, hehe) is to have Hydross, High Astromancer Solarian, and Morogrim Tidewalker (and possibly Fathom-Lord Karathress) disposed of by the end of March. Magtheridon is getting a nerf with patch 2.4, so we will likely take care of him as well. I’ll have more news on this as it comes 
Wish us luck tonight.
~Kanthalos
A bit on Age of Conan
Comments(0)I just listened to the podcast Brent posted which got me looking into AoC a bit more, and I must say I’m getting excited. After doing a little bit of digging on their website, I saw this:
“Player guilds can fight for the right to control large battlekeeps. Once captured, players will have to defend their property against the ruthless attacks of other players, driven by both greed and envy. At the same time players can also build entire cities outside the Border Kingdom, which other players can not attack! You must however be prepared to defend them from sieges brought on by computer-controlled enemies hiving next to your city.”This is something that I’ve been waiting for and describing for quite a while. I’ve always wanted to have guild-run outposts or towns that needed to be guarded and could be captured. This system offers the best of both worlds really. You and your guild (or perhaps an alliance of guilds) can vie for control of either the bigger, more powerful battlekeeps. In this case, you have to defend it from other players. If you aren’t looking for quite as much of a challenge, you can always build towns or cities and remain safe from players, but risk attack from (what I would imagine to be somewhat weaker and easier) NPC combatants. Also, from what I understand, these fortifications players built are entirely destructible which allows guilds to become far more invested in protecting their investment (be it time or money, or likely both.)
This coupled with the seemingly revolutionary combat being implemented in Conan, I can’t help but feel a twinge of anticipation and excitement. That said, I’m not sold on the style (the mature theme) of the game yet. That’s not to say that I won’t play it because of that, but more to say that if I’m not convinced of its necessity, it will be tough for me to enjoy playing this game. I haven’t done much research on Warhammer so I’m not sure whether they are implementing a system similar to this, but seeing as that game seems to be equally or even more geared towards PvP (or RvR if you will,) I’m curious to see how they stack up in this respect. It might come down to a few minor or major differences in the two that help players decide which is their game of choice.
~Kanthalos
