Heads on pikes and salt the earth

Instanced battlegrounds have never been a feature I liked in games - I am more of an open world PvPer. Being thrown into an instance with some random guys to face some other random guys in a sort of sport that doesn’t always have the killing of the other team as a goal has never really sparked any interest in me. In World of Warcraft I played it because it was the only way to get "honor", so that you could buy that new shiny breastplate you had seen other people strutting around in. In Age of Conan I think I did one game before I decided it was nothing for me.

The goal is not always about killing the other team or something as simple. You need to capture a flag, or hold locations to gain "resources", or something other silly thing. The only way you could associate this with a war is if you beat someone to death with the battleground's rulebook. Rules, pah! If we played Alterac Valley on my terms, I would crush the alliance base, put the leader’s heads on pikes, and salt the earth so nothing could ever live there again. Then we would never have to fight that battle again.

I know that doing Scenarios will somewhat aid the overall war in Warhammer Online, but it feels too disconnected from the real fighting. It feels like entering a tavern and having a brawl with some enemy soldiers when a huge battle that will decide the fate of the war is taking place a mile away. Of course this is all feeling I get from reading about the game, I have not actually played it, and I hope the game can prove me wrong.

WAR has a huge world that is like a gigantic battleground. You got keeps, fortresses, capitals and slaughter plenty of innocent civilians PvEers that try to farm in peace. Why do you even need Scenarios? Is it not just another thing put into the game to draw players away from WoW, because the only PvP those people know is the one they get in battlegrounds?

Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

- Cato the Elder

Sunshine, polar bears and hype

In which our hero shamelessly expand his blog with a filler post

No NDA drop combined with me not yet having received a beta invite make me a sad puppy fearsome lion. Hopefully the Open Beta is just around the corner - surely there can't be more than a few weeks left now. I'm a bit jealous to all the bloggers already in beta who will release tons of quality information they have been gathering and polishing for weeks the moment the NDA drops.

The sun continue to pound its hammer on my location, I'm almost wishing I would move north... but more north and I will end up at the North Pole. And I'm allergic to polar bears.
This time of year I recognize the laptop for what it is: the best invention since sliced bread. I have been sitting in the shade, sipping ice cold cider and working on a new layout for my blog. I know it wasn't long since I did the current, but that's who I am. Can never be content for more than a month.

The Warhammer hype is being worked up good now. When the NDA drops and Open Beta beings it will just explode, and people will take place on either side of the WoW vs WAR line, shouting features at each other. Personally, I don't see it as a war. Both games are directed to a certain type of player; WAR to the PvPers, and WoW to the PvEers. I don't think anyone will be able to look at WAR's PvP features and be able to compare it to WoW's, it's just worlds apart. WAR's PvE features remain to be seen, but hopefully it's not too extensive.

Where will WAR place itself in the MMORPG scene if you ask me?

Achievements - grinding?

World of Warcraft database site Wowhead have a complete list of the Achievements that players will be able to compete in Wrath of the Lich King – the game that will be competing with WAR for best MMO ’08. Both sides claim they don't compete with the other, but I know a Cold War when I see one. We only need ninjas moving in the night, assassinating developers for the rivaling companies now.

Normally I don't mind database sites, they are invaluable when you need to find that small sand-colored quest item somewhere in the desert. But showing what exactly you need to do to complete these achievements? Sounds a bit like cheating. Or a good move from Blizzard. The list of time-consuming things in WoW is impressive now. They got leveling, gearing up, reputations, raids, honor system, crafting, arena… and probably fifteen other things that I forgot. Achievements had the prospect of being a nice touch and bonus to your ordinary things – I imagined it to be like WAR's Tome of Knowledge.

Instead we have this list of stuff you can do and get rewards for. It will be a goal instead of a bonus reward. Kill the last boss in a 10 man raid instance with one player less? It could have been something that popped up on their screen when they did, something that they didn't expect. Now instead it will be standing in front of them, teasing them to complete it, making another time-consuming shore.

I prefer WAR's way of achievements, their Tome of Knowledge. I don’t want to know I get the title Rabbit Slayer if I slay 5000 bunnies, and I certainly won’t count them. It will just be something I do, and it might pop into my face, and my day will be Done.

PvP and what it's all about

I was thinking of writing a bit about something that lies close to me heart in gaming: PvP. Non playing characters (NPC) serve a purpose in that they populate worlds and serve as grind material (pigs) for real players. If we explore a world we want the towns to be crowded and full of life, and real players just can't be bothered with standing around there, directing new players to the nearest trader all day long. While killing a NPC can feel rewarding the first hundred times, you will start to lose the sense of pride by defeating them sooner or later. Defeating another player is an entirely different matter.

Real players can do anything; they are not limited by AI options. I can't exactly put my finger on why PvP gives such a rush of adrenaline. Maybe it’s the sense of having outsmarted/outskilled another player. Or it’s the feeling that somewhere, someone is screaming at their screen, cursing your name. Did I mention I love to play healing classes? Nothing gives me such joy than healing up someone's target from almost dead to alive and kicking in front of them. The imagined fury on the opposite players face almost outweighs the imagined thankfulness on the one I saved. Maybe thankfulness is a bit too much, it’s probably more like a nod of appreciation, an acknowledgement that I exist and not doing damage or something other stupid things that healers are forbidden to do.

Random PvP encounters when travelling a world can be fun, but there has to be a meaning behind it. I think anyone who has played in a PvP zone can agree that being killed by an enemy player when battling a NPC is frustrating. If there isn’t any motivation, then the one ganking is just being a jerk by ruining your play. Then there is always the problem with people killing players that are much lower level than themselves. WAR offer the most interesting solution I must say: turning anyone who enters a low level PvP zone into a chicken, too weak to fight anyone. It’s such a stupid, charming way that it just has to work.

It took me a while to recognize that PvP was something I enjoyed the most in World of Warcraft. Some of my fondest memories are not when we defeated Lady Vashj or some other major boss – although they are in the top. It’s when some casual questing in a zone turn into a PvP war. They kill you, you kill them, they bring friends, you bring friends… and it ends with everyone in the zone engaged in conflict over something so trivial that none can remember it.

What I have always felt was missing from my PvP experiences is the sense of being part of a bigger cause. My random victories in the jungle didn’t aid my race/faction at all. I was very excited when I read about the WoW’s Burning Crusade expansion and how there would be a town that could be captured by anyone. That Halaa now lies deserted by all players should be proof enough that Blizzard missed the point completely.

The motivation to get people into PvP is not hard to create. You can either create a system that rewards killing other people, or you can let the player be part of a greater cause, like a faction or race. Or even better: do both.

World of Warcraft didn't have any of those in the beginning, and people – me among them – still gathered on the dangerous grounds between Southshore and Tarren Mill to wage endless war. Later came their Honor system and Battlegrounds, but it became more about points and rewards that turned it into the sport it is today. I mean, people don’t care who they are fighting as long as they get their rewards; in Arena they even fight people of the same faction, and they don’t mind.

Rick from /random tell me what I am really looking for when he explains the gameplay of Dark Age of Camelot. And all the good stuff from that game will be inserted into WAR, together with all the other stuff that Mythic come up with. It can only be better. I can’t wait.

I will kill for a beta spot.

...and something even worse

Barely had the ink dried on my last post about real life references in game, when WoW Insider found something even more horrible.

How can you justify that in a fantasy world? Can we even call it fantasy any longer? Gnomes and dwarves in World of Warcraft have always had more than a little futuristic engineering skill, sporting vehicles such as airplanes, mechanical gnome mounts and even tanks. Where does the line go? It's just a small step away from laser pistols and lightsabers.

Warhammer's world also sport a neat array of technology in cannons, guns and pistols; but from what I know, it doesn't take it longer than that. Hopefully.

Real world references

Movies, games, celebrities and other popular culture; World of Warcraft is full of real world references in the game. It removes the sense of being in another world that fantasy games is all about, but it also add plenty of humour. Most of Blizzard's games have Easter eggs that refer to their other games, so I guess they don't take as much damage as other games - people who play expect to see them.

For WAR, I would prefer if they didn't include any; I like the feeling of exploring another world, and real life references just ruin it. There are other ways to bring humour into the world.

Guild goes to Scotland, survivor tell the story

The third annual Tribe LAN has been completed, and all the participants try to recover best they can - it's only a year left until the next one. The previous two meetings was held in Sweden, but this time we invaded Scotland, just like in Braveheart. And we got totally crushed, also just like in Braveheart.

You travel all the way to Scotland and you buy American whisky...

- Heard more than once when a bottle of JD's was sighted.

We from Sweden gathered at the airport and had a few beer as we were waiting for the rest of the people, and then we had some more when they arrived, and some even more with the food (pay more, get less). After that we felt we had to stop, since we didn't know how drunk you had to be to not get on a airplane.

It's fun to see the faces behind the voices, and some can really surprise you as you get your inner pictures and expectations listening to their voice for years. You can have a imagine of some seven feet giant who wrestle with bears for a living and have arms as thick as your thighs, and see some tiny thing that could be your ten year younger brother half starved to death. Or the other way around. Imagination can do funny things.

During the entire LAN we didn't play that much WoW, we were busy doing other things. I can't recall what exactly. Drinking was probably one of them.
We did two groups speed running Karazhan against each other (which my group won of course, protection paladins for teh win) on the first day. I barely remember something about us doing Blackwing Lair late one night. I think we only were around 15 people and we had really fun running around in chaos on Razorgore. When we finally managed to destroy all the eggs and had Razorgore in tank and spank, the encounter bugged a bit and we had orcs respawning again. But down he went, and we barely had time to loot before we wiped on the orcs that piled up. Vaelastrasz would probably also have fallen if we didn't ninja pull him five times as we were positioning.

Other than WoW there was everything that could be expected when our guild comes together. We had drinking, singing, some drama, and plenty of laughter. A tank and a priest had a fight with toothpaste which led to some awkward moments when the cleaning personal showed up on the last day and wondered why there were toothpaste all over the walls.

This was the third annual guild meeting and it was the best so far. What is funny is that every guild meeting we play less and less WoW, next time we probably wont play any WoW at all. Location for the next meeting is under discussion, with Netherlands and Czech Republic as options.

At the writing of this post, no pictures or video have been released on the interwebs. I will see if I can post some harmless pictures when they do. If your looking for the real, hardcore stuff you probably have to be a member of Tribe and confirm that your age is above 16 18 20.

Picking your class

As much as I hate to push the nice picture in he last post down, I am restless as I wait for the ride to the airport.

I'm not in a WAR beta (grumble, whine, sob) and I have not played the game and experienced the different classes. The CE is sold out everywhere (no I'm not paying 500% higher than original price, f* you greedy stores!) so I will likely not see any closed or open beta, and no Early Access either. Damnit, you are going to steal all my favourite names, I know it!

So when it comes to picking the class I want to spend my time with, level, pvp, have babies with, and reach the highest level, I really have no clue. Or well I have some interesting ones but no final candidates. How do I pick a class?

When I first started become interested in World of Warcraft I spent hours and hours reading the information on the class description page. You know, the page that stated all the funny facts like mages would be #1 dps and paladins was some kind of holy warrior who hit stuff with big hammers. When I ran around in my retribution gear on my level 70 paladin I sometimes laughed at that. You know the kind of hysterical laugh that turns into crying on bad TV shows? I absorbed every word on those pages, trying to decide what class to play; and I was in a hurry, the last beta would start in a week.

Druid sounded really fun as they could transform into a animal, but I interpreted the "entertain your friends" a little to hard; I wanted a useful class! Warlock was a top candidate with it's dark evil magic and able to summon demons. I wanted to look cool, like some plate armor. Wait, what's this? Plate, Blessings, hitting stuff with big hammers and able to heal? So I picked a paladin.

Yea I know, I was disillusioned by the fancy description. You can stop laughing now. In fact I levelled him all the way up to 40 or something, hammering stuff, and didn't feel like the description was wrong. I said stop laughing.

When creating characters for various games over the years I have discovered I have some requirements. The class that fills most of my various points usually end up being my main character.

• I hate sneaking or having a too big advantage, I like fair fights, preferably started by a clear challenge. Pistols at dawn!
  
• I like armor and shields. Not the kind of fancy crap that would be useless in a real fight, but the sturdy, solid, real stuff that's practical. No tower shields. Just no. Have you seen the size of those things?
  
• I like magic in limited amounts. I guess it's the shiny effects I like about it, because throwing fireballs over large distances fall a bit into the unfair category in my world. Healing or buffing is fine.
• I like serving a unique role that support my friends. I want to feel needed, that I make a difference in the greater fight rather than being Generic Warrior 3418.
• I like being the underdog. Bad odds just make you look better if you win, and if you lose... well it was unfair after all. Shouting war cries and valiantly (but stupidly) rushing to your death with swords raised. No surrender. Damn, way too much RP in that sentence.
  

So what kind of WAR class am I? I have already decided to play Destruction, so Warrior Priest goes out of the window. Which is a shame, because it sounds really fun - what the paladin should have been. I am considering playing a healing class, since they seem so different from the usual WoW healers. But I'm still suffering from healer burnout so I will have to play them first before I decide one of them.

Being a tank is one idea. You get the armor, shields, and you feel useful. However I know that playing a tank (and even more a main tank) is a commitment that require some serious dedication as your guild will depend on you. I want to have a more casual approach to WAR (you have my permission to throw that in my face in a year) where I strive to enjoy myself more than try to be the best. I know WAR is a PvP game, but I don't plan to do PvP all the time. And after experiencing a tank's usefulness in PvP in WoW I will require even more conviction than healers if I were to pick one.

Or I might just break a few of my usual requirements and play a DPS class. Most interesting is the Sorceress, but I have never enjoyed glass cannons.

So what are my interested classes? This is my list as of July. I will see if it has changed next month when new information has trickled out.

1. Disciple of Khaine - Healer that hit stuff with blades and wear cool armor.
   
2. Shaman - Healer that cast magic and Waaagh! around him.
   
3. Sorceress - Pure caster with dark magic and sexy look.
   
4. Black Guard - Tank that we don't know anything about, but he looks cool!
5. Chosen - Tank with badass armor and big axes.
   

As you might see I have 2 healers, 2 tanks and 1 ranged on my list. No melee dps at all.

Am I the only one making a list or have the rest of you already decided on a main class?

Talk around the water cooler

WAR guild beta incoming!
Warhammer Alliance reports that beta invites for guilds in EU will arrive within a month.

Free month ended for AoC - stay or cancel?
The free month of Age of Conan has ended, and now it will be revealed if the game have hooked the players, now that they have to pay for subscriptions. Funcom have not spared on the champagne as the game have been very popular and broken a few sales record. In box sales that is. For MMO's it's the constantly paying subscribers that matter.

Massively asks "has AoC has earned your money for another month?", and got some mixed responses, but the "cancelled" people seem to be in favour. Most people who announce they will stay put a lot of faith in improvements. I cancelled a long time ago, and didn't activate my account when the free month ran out. I have not closed the door on the game entirely however, I might try it out in a month or two.

Dancing, in WAR?!
First they say there won't be /dance in WAR, but when we see a list of emotes, what do we see? /dance! Well, actually what it does is saying"[player] refuses to dance", so that's ok. And a future favourite emote: /waaagh

Blizzard will announce a new game? Woot!
While Ron Pardo couldn't answer the rumours of a Diablo 3 during a keynote speech at GDC in Paris, he more than hinted when he said the following:

So you want me to announce the game before our announcement? No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people there [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it - but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement.

From WoW Insider.

What WAR is all about - video
A new video featuring Jeff and Paul talking about what make WAR special, and some really nice quality ingame footage. Embedded below. Thanks Keen and Graev for the find.



Meanwhile in another part of the world...
And around the writer's personal water cooler, the talk is all about my preparations for my three day meeting in Scotland with my WoW guild (third annual) next week. So much whiskey to consume, so little time. It will be awesome.

Currency of WAR

A interesting discussion began on Warhammer Alliance today, questioning the coinage of WAR. A video showed what looked to be the classic gold/silver/copper system, but was countered with a quote from a attender at a event stating that

"Money is copper silver brass"

So apparently gold is replaced by brass. Outrageous as it might seem, that could be valid because - as a poster pointed out - in history various metals have been used as coinage, depending on access to the metal and what people accept as valuable.

Another poster countered with the statement that in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), the currency is 1 Gold Crown = 20 Silver Shillings = 240 Brass Pennies (which is similar to the old British Pound system). From there the discussion take on even more kinds of currencies, even orc teeth!

Back when I started playing World of Warcraft I didn't like the way it made silver and copper obsolete after a few levels, and entirely started to focus on gold. If something was worth less than a gold, you didn't really have to hesitate much, just went ahead and bought it. The value for gold decreased fast near the end of my play time, when the daily quests where fast, easy, and awarded large amounts of gold.

I got a pleasant surprise when I switched to Age of Conan where instead of the regular three coin types there was four: tin, copper, silver and gold. By the time you got past the starting area you had a few coppers, for which you could buy a entire set of armor, bought with tin. From that you had to struggle to earn your precious silver coin, and gold felt like a lifetime away. Which it was. By the time I hit level 40 and was eligible to buy a horde, I had no way near the required few gold coins. While in a sense that was bad, as run a lot, it was also good as you started caring about the small coins; if you ever wanted to get that horse, you had to think about how much you spent.

Gold are supposed to be valuable, and the only way it can become valuable in a game is if it's rare. Once you get hordes of gold you stop seeing it as a valuable thing. I can look back at my current campaign in Dungeons & Dragons with my friends, where our Dungeon Master gave us hundreds of gold right from the start, and thousands later. So when we got a mission with a reward of thousands of gold I didn't feel interested, as the reward felt small in my eyes, even thought it was considered huge in the world we played.

Recently I tried the free trial of EVE Online. I was bored and looked for something to spend my time on until better titles came out. I hadn't felt that much intrigued by the sci-fi theme, but the feeling I got when watching videos and reading the news about how corporations joined another in a alliance and raided a system of another corporation, in much the same was a news reporter can announce that a country in Africa had crossed the border and raided a city in a nearby country, dazzled my mind. Epic was the word that came close to my mind. I could write more of what I felt about it, but the topic of the post is currency, so I will skip to that part.

When you started the game you had the smallest of ships, and as you played for a time you could afford larger and larger ships, the price for those biggest in the class you were skilled to have never really being more than half a million. Then you start browsing bigger ships in the Market, seeing what is to come, and see the really huge ship designed for battle going for hundreds of millions. It's then you start feeling small and wondering how the h3ll you can assemble those vast amounts. That's a road block for players, looking up to the top of the ladder.

Me, I started researching in how players are actually supposed to get there, but others might just throw in the towel and say "can't bother!". I almost felt that way when I played the AoC beta and realised how much gold you needed for a mount compared to how much I had. Unless you know that you get more money as you progress, staring up that ladder can really be discouraging.

I look forward to what WAR has in store for it's economy, everything from coins and mounts to trading and crafting.

The Ways of Podcasting

Why the h3ll do we like listening to ordinary people rambling about stuff? Isn't that what the local radio is for? What make podcasting so interesting, why is it so damn popular, and when are we actually supposed to listen to it? I don't do podcasts, and never had, but I have listened to plenty of them and was thinking of viewing all the different kind of ways a podcast can be done.

I started listening to podcasts not that long ago, I think it's just been a few years now. One of the members in my WoW guild was a official "announcer" of WoW Radio - meaning he was responsible to announce when new podcast became live in chat channels, in a very professional manner. Spamming a macro with yelling is not good publicity. And of course he would harass his own guild even more, so I gave it a go.

First show I started listening to was Blue Plz, where a British guy named TotalBiscuit would ramble about everything in WoW, in a serious and lively manner. I got pretty much hooked right from the start, and began listening to the other shows that was at WoW Radio.

Listening to a podcast are pretty much the same as listening to your local radio station, except people discuss things that you find interesting, and it's done by amateurs. Quality can range from pure crap to "holy shit, why don't these people have their own TV show?", and it become more common every day thanks to the ease in which it can be made and distributed.

When to listen to them?
Listening to a podcast while doing something simple that require zero brain activity (*cough* grinding *cough*) is very soothing, and can easily make hours fly by. I began he habit of listening to the latest of my favourite podcast and spend the following hours grinding away with a character in WoW. Even if I considered to be finished with the grinding session, I kept going just to have something to do while listening to it. Music in all it's glory, listening to someone speaking about things you are interested in make you direct your focus and leave just enough left to do something you have done hundred of times. Sent in the pet, shoot, loot, run to next mob, repeat. I would love to see a study of the brain activity during a grinding session in WoW. Would probably teach scientist a thing or two.

So what times do I listen to podcasts? Load them into your mp3 player and...

• When grinding, or playing any game that don't require me to use the brain
• When doing the laundry or cleaning
• When walking from point X to Y or go shopping
  
• When working at the gym
• When taking the bus/train
  

I have a friend who like listening to podcasts when he's in a bed going to sleep. I tried it but it felt wrong on so many levels. Bedtime are for books! It's not like you do something anyway, open the book instead!

Also, one big warning for when not to do it. Don't do it on the way to a party! You will just lose your expensive mp3 player and have to go back to reading books on trains! /grumble

One vs Many Hosts
Blue Plz was a single host show, so the argument was pretty one-sided, most arguments will be with people who send you emails. While listening to someone bringing forth good arguments and discussing serious matters, in the end what we want is fun, and for something to be fun you need to have more than one host. They can argue against you, bring up their own topics and views, or you can just make fun of each other.

So I stumbled upon Octale and Hordak vs The World, also them on WoW Radio, and was instantly amazed by how much more fun a podcast become as you add another person to the mix. Octale and Hordak have a fantastic chemistry and they are truly awesome hosts. To this day, I see Octale and Hordac as the best damn podcasters so far. They can take the smallest of topics and rant about it for hours, and entertain each other and the listeners while doing it, their mailbox is a never-ending ammo pouch of topics. In fact, they did a 12 hour podcast-marathon live called Rantathon 2008, and the fact that they ranted during the entire time show how good they are at... er, ranting. And that brings us to another aspect...

Organized vs Improvised
I guess this depends on what the listener is looking for. For serious analysis the organized type is the way to go. And if the listener just want to to be entertained and not strain the brain cells unnecessary, improvised is the thing for you. Of course there can be different levels of keeping things organized; you can have a big document with all the points already decided, and hosts are not allowed to wander too far off, or it could be that you just have a few points written on a paper and the hosts are free to wander a bit from the subject.

The WoW Insider Show (also that on WoW Radio) are extremely organized, and consist of three or four people discussing pre-determined topics, but they are held closely in check by the host leader (Mike Schramm), so jokes or off topic ramblings are kept to a minimum. This make it quite dull, as Turpster - one of the hosts - are very funny but seldom get to use that ability. Or when he does, I can almost see Mike Schramm's silent fuming.

Octale and Hordak are improvising all the time, taking topics at random from their mailbox and exploring them, and can wander far away from even those subjects. They have no rules, and talk about whatever falls into their heads and they find fun.

Both kind of shows can be entertaining, however the show become more alive if it is improvised, too organized can become very quite dull sometimes, even if it's interesting stuff. Just like holding a presentation become more interesting if you read from memory and not straight off a paper.

Live vs Edited
When I fist became interested in podcasts, I listened to most on WoW Radio live. Only if I missed a show did I download it from the archive, and many had strange times for me. Timezones can be such a nuisance. And thats a thing against live right there, people who listen to your podcast can live all over the world, and whatever time you set there will always be some who it doesn't suit.

Listening live to a show can be quite different from a recorded and edited one, and most of the times the edited one is always better. Technical difficulties always appear, and getting a few people together talking for some hours is not as easy as it sounds.

WoW Radio has a strong community, and that community is most visible during live shows when people join the IRC chat channel and discuss the show they are listening to. The hosts that are live are also in the chat and can comment on things they read there while on the air. Listener interaction is important to a podcast, and that doesn't have to be limited to emails. People like to hear their names mentioned on the air, it make them feel important, don't ask me why.

Podcasts? What podcasts?
And to round it up, I might as well post a list of podcasts I'm listening to right now.

Octale and Hordak vs The World

Octale and Hordak make the world unsafe. About anything and everything.

WoW Insider Show

Bloggers from WoW Insider join together with WoW Radio discussing everything about WoW.

TBs Show about Video-games

TotalBiscuit ramble about video-games in general.

ChaosCast

Newly started about Warhammer by Keen and Graev, The Greenskin and Waaagh!

Dungeons & Dragons Podcast

About D&D with insight, interviews and lately Penny Arcade & PvP's adventure in 4th edition.

Time is precious, but if you know a good podcast then poke me about it, I love to listen to new stuff!

Turpster Will Die

As I wrote yesterday, today Turpster, shadow priest and WoW Radio podcaster, experienced both extreme pain and extreme joy. Me and 200 other dwarves and gnomes of level 1 to 6, joined together in several raid groups and killed him raid boss style. He had several abilities such as Holy Nova, Shadowfiend and the feared Six Demon Bag, but they proved no match for our great coordination, even greater numbers, and a close graveyard.

I logged in to started the wait around 20:45, and already there was 20-30 people there.

Left picture is at 21:17, where we practised some coordination.
Right picture is at 22:17, and there were gnomes and dwarves as far as the eye could see.

We had a few horde visitors, that just couldn't resist the temptation that only fifty PvP flagged level 6 gnomes standing in a group can make.

Below is at 22:45 and we started gathering at the cave which Turpster would appear in. A few horde players valiantly defended the entrance, but were defeated by simple zerging.

After we killed him in the cave (I was corpse running at the time so didn't get any screenshots or recording of it), the raid and Turpster started running towards Ironforge. After Turpster had died at the entrance, there was much confusion as the raid moves to the Tram. Half the raid used the Tram and went to Stormwind and Elwynn, as there was reports he was going to spawn there. However he spawned in the Tram by his corpse, used the staff of Vargoth and dinged the awaited level 70.
Picture to the right is at 23:37, after word got out that Turpster had dinged.
As there was much confusion, many people didn't see the awaited event, me among them, so I have some complaints of the coordination of the entire event. Also many horde showed up at the cave, wiping the raid several times as they tried to move in, which was a bit frustrating.

During the entire event I had plenty of experience for Penny Arcade's Internet Fuckwad Theory, as people were yelling at everyone and everything constantly. People who complained about the yelling or pointing out that the server was, in fact, a role-playing server got even more yelled at. My sincere apologizes to the Sporeggar community.

All in all, it was a fun event although a bit ruined by lack of coordination, ganking hordes, and stupid attention-seeking people. The beta test the day before was probably more fun as a boss fight, but the event with hundreds of hundreds of gnomes was awesome. The guild Turpies had at the end of the day 224 members.

I recorded parts of the evening, however I didn't get the actual moment that Turpster died (or well I thought I did, but when I looked in my Fraps folder I was proven otherwise). Edited in few hours, it's not a masterpiece, but I think it captured the spirit of the event. Enjoy.

Download link

Turpster Must Die

What will I be doing on Saturday? I will be killing Turpster. What is Turpster? Turpster is a level 69 undead shadow priest, and a member of WoW Radio.

He need a proper way to ding 70. How? A raid of dwarves and gnomes of level 1-6 will draw up tactics and on this Saturday June 14th, after the LIVE WoW Insider Show (3:30pm EST/8:30pm GMT), join forces and take this raid boss down. After that, he will summon Archmage Vargoth, deliver a quest and ding 70! If that ain't a epic way to do it, there is none.

What does Turpster do? Here is a description of his first phase:

Turpster starts off this phase with full mana (6K) and full health (10K) and 2541 Armor. In this phase his attacks will deal moderate damage that will need to be healed if you are hoping to last the fight without having to make several runs from the graveyard. Every 45 seconds he will cast 5 Holy Novas, most characters can take between 2 and 3 novas before dying so you will have to move outside the 10 yard range and grab a few heals. To mix things up he will use his Six Demon Bag which can one shot most characters with frost bolts, shadow bolts, chain lightning or fireballs. It also has the potential to polymorph or leave you trapped within a raging cyclone. The worst is saved for last, as it could also raise a Felhunter which lasts for 30 seconds and will wipe most raid groups if it is not focused upon and taken out sooner rather than later.

For a full list of his abilities and phases, read more on the thread.

Interested? Create a gnome/dwarf on Sporeggar EU (RP PvP) and join us on Saturday. If you don't have a EU account, or no WoW at all, you can use the free trial. Read the thread for instructions.

I said I wouldn't go back to WoW. I wouldn't go back to raiding. And not go back to healing. Seems I was wrong on all points. Say hi to my level 6 dwarf priest, Rhegis of the guild Turpies!

I participated in a Turpster Beta a hour ago, where we joined up in a raid and tested the fight several times, balancing things. Much where learned, for example that max rank Holy Nove will insta kill all level 6 in melee. We also had some add handling practice to do when Stormtamer, a level 19 tauren bear came and mauled a few gnomes. See screenshots of the test.

Tactics and boss abilities can change! Anything could happen tomorrow!

A End and a Beginning

I recently quit World of Warcraft, and started a new career in Age of Conan. Why?

I started playing in the open beta back in '04. I rolled a paladin and managed to level him to 41 or something before beta closed and we were pushed into retail. That means my first and last characters were paladins, which I find fitting. I have always been drawn to the holy warriors in games. Not that "holy warrior" is no way near a proper description for WoW's paladin.

Over the years since the game launched I have been playing almost non-stop. No farewell posts and staying away from the game until the addiction fever kicked in. I have levelled five characters to 60 (priest, hunter, druid, rogue, warrior) and two characters to 70 (paladin and hunter). That's quite many characters, considering some can play for years with the same. I enjoy the feeling of starting from scratch too much, I have the same problem in most games that include character progression. I don't even want to start talking about my time with Baldur's Gate.

I'm in the perfect guild, which I have been in for soon three years. I also did the website for the guild, design and coding, take a look. Everyone is friendly and mature (in a sense). The average age is quite high, probably somewhere around 25-30 if we ever bothered to check. I started in it with my warrior, then switched to paladin when Burning Crusade was released. And a level 70 hunter alt also in the same guild.
I was class leader for the paladins and officer, so quitting was not something to be done lightly. But raiding has become so mind-numbingly boring, healing on trash in Mount Hyjal and Black Temple is not as exciting as I was thinking before I entered those places.

Then Age of Conan was released, and as I had played the closed beta and experienced the game for a while, I did the easiest thing a gamer addict can do: switch game! My plate and shield wearing paladin in World of Warcraft is now a plate and shield wearing guardian in Age of Conan.
Wrath of the Lich King seems promising, but I will remain cool until I see what they plan to do with the game and paladins if I will ever officially return to WoW. I have play time for another month, so I might pop in and see how it feels.
And then there is Warhammer. The more I read and see about it, the more I want to play it. The guys and girls that is making it really have a Vision (unlike, for example, Age of Conan - they just did a MMO), and I can't wait to experience it.

My guardian is named Leto and is currently playing on EU Soulstorm (PvP). Wave if you see him, or you might find yourself face down in the mud with a red mark the size of my shield in your face.