Echos of Doom Is Alive!

Although we reported the latest 3.0.2 World of Warcraft patch Live yesterday, we weren’t considering the sheer amount of gamers that would be jumping on to try all the new content. Honestly, the realms were up and down for hours – more down than up for our realm.

This update is absolutely huge and game changing. This is probably one of the largest updates since Burning Crusade in changes, updates and additions to the game play. Map changes, talent updates, game balancing and entirely new additions and a profession to boot.

We found ourselves spending a lot of time on the talent tree because this wasn’t a simple re-balance but a restructure of many character talents. Not to mention hunters pets getting their own talent trees. We tried to get our talents distributed and tested but the realm would go offline. Apparently, it’s been all smooth sailing today so hopefully gamers can actually… game.

Of course, the world is reacting to adjustments to the new profession. Because it relies on herbalism you may notice peacebloom and other basic materials sky rocketing to 12 gold in price, for what should typically be a few silvers. The “free market economy” is out of control with the changes, hopefully some of these will die down as gamers settle into their new profession.

Next, find 3.0.2 addon updates for everything we were used to. That’s a long road ahead.

0 thoughts on “Echos of Doom Is Alive!”

  1. “Apparently, it’s been all smooth sailing today so hopefully gamers can actually… game.”

    Apparently you’ve either been asleep all OR are fortunate enough to be on one of the few servers that hasn’t been having continuos “world server down” problems all day.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Sierra’s Franchise Titles Fade Into HistorySierra’s Franchise Titles Fade Into History

One of the great downfalls of an acquisition or merger, in the game industry, is the loss of great franchise titles. Sierra, or Sierra Online, once stood on its own as a company with great gaming titles but later fell into the depths of Hades under many different company names.

Sierra’s last stop on the acquisition highway was Vivendi, years after much of Sierra’s steam had slowed. Now, they’re part of Activision Blizzard so we had high hopes they’d find a great use for some of the old Sierra properties long since collecting dust. Space Quest, Kings Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and especially Gabrielle Knight were some of our favorites, but times have changed.

“We are retaining only those franchises that are a strong fit with our long-term strategy including Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro, as well as Prototype and a second game that has not yet been announced. We will not publish any other titles that previously were part of the Vivendi Games portfolio and we are currently reviewing our options regarding those titles,” says Activision Blizzard (joystiq)

This is unfortunate news, Activision Blizzard now has a large set of franchises on their hands, many of which have collected dust for years. Those dust collecting franchises could rise from the dead and reinvigorate their old fan base… or be dropped to the earth as unwanted scrapes after a big hunt with the vultures awaiting their take (sorry, too much watching of Animal Planet)

A reworked Kings Quest or Gabriel Knight could have seriously awesome potential in this time and age, imagine a dark comedy version of Gabriel Knight or a huge scaled world in King Quest using todays graphic engines. Although, these titles could also go the way Atari has gone and taken a well remembered franchise and made mud of its great name (*cough* Alone in the Dark).

Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know the distance an old franchise could go in this new world. We’ll have to pull out an old copy of our prized posessions and remember just how great they once where.

Episode 312: Dare You To Press the ButtonEpisode 312: Dare You To Press the Button

This week’s episode is the final episode before E3, and next week, an outtakes episode filled with Dr. Who and Game of Thrones discussion will run. After that, we’ll have some serious E3 2013 discussion, especially about what happens with Microsoft and Sony in particular.

No Gaming Flashback, but news includes:

  • Pachter predicts $349 for PS4, $399 for Xbox One
  • World of Warcraft movie ‘begins shooting‘ in Q1 2014
  • Robert Bowling’s Robotoki raided by LAPD, mistake COD figure as armed intruder
  • Documentary seeks to unearth 3.5M E.T. cartridges from landfill
  • Oculus Rift developer Andrew Scott Reisse, 33, killed as bystander in police chase
  • Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter fundraising struggling

All that and Listener Feedback.

Game Publishers Hate RiskGame Publishers Hate Risk

It’s clear publishers like Electronic Arts hate to take risks on video games. They’re not alone in their opinion, look how many sequels we’ve got for the holidays compared to new creative titles like Little Big Planet, or how publishers push out sequels to hot titles until we can’t take it anymore; how many Guitar Hero titles will arrive before we scream “enough!”?

Speaking to rocking music, Electronic Arts may pass on the chance to pickup Brütal Legend, a title originally being published by Vivendi Games prior to the Activision Blizzard merger. The title was left without a home when the merger was complete along with other dropped titles.

Why would EA not take the chance with the game? Risk factor. Brütal Legend is a game title developed by Double Fine Productions and has been designed by Tim Schafer, with past games like Monkey Island, NES’s Maniac Mansion and the fantastic title Full Throttle. With such sweet titles under his belt, why wouldn’t a game designed by Tim Schafer be a hot commodity in the market?

The game brings music and action adventure together in a creative twist. No, it’s not Rock Band and it’s not Guitar Hero, thus, MTV and Activision don’t care about it. However, the game plot and storyline are music related and, supposedly, the main character is voiced by Jack Black, vocalist of Tenacious D and popular actor (School of Rock anyone!?)

Creator Tim Schafer has said that roadies have long fascinated him. Schafer originally thought of the game’s title over fifteen years ago. “I was riding a bus, thinking about a game that would be the complete opposite of what we were working on, The Secret of Monkey Island. And Brütal Legend leapt into my head. (wikipedia)

It appears a series of publishers have walked away from Brütal Legend without much hesitation. “I have seen it,” EA CEO John Riccitiello told Gamasutra. “I am well aware of what the game is. It’s a very significant creative risk.” (joystiq)

Where would the game be without significant creative risks? In many ways, World of Warcraft was a risk… it’s only got 9 million or more players.