Posted by Spooner | 4 Comments

Cataclysm Stat & System Changes Revealed

The changes to in game mechanics and stats has finally been revealed to us via a forum post earlier today. It’s nothing new or shocking that I’m overly excited at these changes. The core of the combat in this game is fine for an MMO, it still has a simple yet artful sense to it that allows pretty much anybody the opportunity to master it. It doesn’t try to be a fighting game or an FPS, it’s just an MMO and I appreciate that. The one thing that has always bothered me since the game came out was that I was typically forced to validate my judgment (of which I based on common sense, reading tooltips, and being a good gamer) to my peers through the use of a 3rd party website or think tank.

In other words, if I didn’t have Elitist Jerks or some other arbitrary gear score bullshit say what I was doing was uniform, I wouldn’t get into pugs or raids. In Cataclysm, they’re going to simplify the stats to a degree allowing gear upgrades to be more fun and less “oh shit I need more hit but not crit I’m capped for that already but I need more armor-pen so I should pass on this awesome new drop that looks cool and seems fun with the chance on hit…” and so forth.

Here’s the announcement…

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Posted by Spooner | 2 Comments

If something is fun then it must be bad…

Gamers seem to follow the mob mentality more than most sub-groups in modern society. You could do (and I’m sure there are) a case study on how gamers innately become instant followers when thrust into a large group similar to how prey animals panic and stampede when there’s danger or in this case – change.

The anonymity in these games we play online usually end up drawing the majority of folks into the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory which I’ve spoken about in the past many times. That’s when you take a completely normal, well adjusted, and otherwise happy person and place them on the web where they answer to no higher power, and they instantly start acting out like utter jackasses.

Anyway this post is talking about a different phenomenon I have seen since as far back as I can remember and only until now did I bother to talk about. I call this condition, Massive Multiplayer Online Polymorph Epidema or MMOPE for short. People with MMOPE aren’t necessarily stupid, but they follow blindly as to whatever the general consensus is; kind of like sheep on their way to get slaughtered or raped by some farmer in Montana.

People bitch about Blizzard selling vanity pets? Then it must be this evil thing and now it’s the MMOPEr’s job to bandwagon that cause. The price is outrageous and the world is unfair and fucking horrible!

There are tons of Death Knights or Hunters in the game? It can’t possibly be that the classes are fun and engaging to play – it has to be because DKs and Hunters are for idiots and babies and 12 year olds that can’t play a real class to the end cap.

Everybody is using the M4 and they’re able to deal massive damage accurately from a great distance with a near endless magazine capacity? That’s nonsense they’re a bunch of noob pussies that can’t use a cumbersome and otherwise inferior weapon to achieve great scores.

Look around your realm forums, fansites and other forums, and really observe the typical conversation. If something is genuinely good or fun, jealous no-life assholes will do everything in their power to try and knock it down in order to validate and justify their own personal accomplishments. That’s what the core of the Hardcore vs Casual Debate stems from. That sense of entitlement and that overwhelming desire to put as big a gap as possible between you and the pack.

Congratulations. You’re a douchebag.

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Posted by Spooner | 12 Comments

Spooner’s Quote of the Day: Bad Players

So I’m bored, and since I shaved my head yesterday out of boredom and have nothing else constructive to do other than post up some news and watch cartoons while I wait for the servers, I thought I’d share little golden nuggets of wisdom from around the net. You bastards probably won’t post comments because people are somehow terrified when they have to put in an email address (either that or illiteracy and mass retardation are more prevalent than first anticipated), but that’s ok I get just as much enjoyment otherwise. So here goes.

Saying “everybody plays different” is just an excuse for people to play their classes poorly either with bad gear and stat optimization, bad talent point placement, or just plain bad gameplay via rotation or ability use. Min/maxing aside, there’s a certain way that classes are meant to be played. Being diverse is all fine and good but the bottom line is there are very few avenues to follow where you are reaching your potential in a given role. Anything less than your best is pretty much pointless.

Perfect examples are hunters with strength and expertise, ret paladins with agiliy gems or crit gems or anything other than strength (outside of meta activation), and warlocks with mp5. Now I personally don’t agree 100% with the conclusion that people not being the best they can be is garbage, everybody learns and gets better, that’s the point of raiding.

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