The long awaited Wrath of the Lich King is here! By long awaited, really, I mean, I waited a long time to get patch after patch of the next expansion to Blizzards best of MMORPG. Although I don’t know the architecture to creating the patches, it seems so dated in methodology. Why must I download 5GB of patches when one can just supply me with an option to pull everything.
The initial download was roughly 1.8GB for what I assume would be “the DVD” you’d be buying in the store. Once I install that baseline it requires another roughly 1.2GB “update” before you can launch the application. Once you launch the WoW executable it must download another 500MB or so of patch data followed by another 100MB of patch data followed by another 500MB of patch data. Then, and only then, can you login and start playing!
My first option was to use the character I transferred over from Scarlet Crusade and jump into the world. Wishfully thinking, I also migrated over my addons to see what would work. After receiving more errors than I can explain I logged out and disabled all the addons. We’ll wait on those.

Within seconds I noticed the date in the top corner, it seems WoW has evolved over the years from a black vortex of time suckage to something a bit more user friendly. An older patch included a clock on the map so you know how many hours you’ve got before the sunrises, allowing you to sneak in a few hours of sleep before work. Now, they’ve included a calendar so you will know just how many days you’ve been up without food or drink. I kid.
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@Exbox One and Paystation 4
The Chinese have a very different understanding of what copyright infringement is. At university I was genuinely laughed at for having physical UMD disk games for the PSP by my Chinese course mates. Apparently in Hong Kong you can purchase an already cracked system and download the games online. As lucrative as the Chinese industry is, I don’t think Sony and Microsoft can ever crack it, regardless of the legal status of gaming in the country. Piracy will kill any profits they hope to make. The only games that can survive in China are Freemium games, which offer online transactions for additional content.
@Street Fighter 5 BETA be worth it (sorry my pun game is so weak)
I was never really a fan of the Street Fighter series. Like Jonah, I found it too technical. My biggest problem with the series was its poor storytelling. That’s why I grew up playing Mortal Kombat, with its accessible lore and buckets of ketchup. I was surprised to hear that SFV will be exclusive to PS4. Sony must be paying Capcom a lot of money to keep it that way. Ironically, while skipping Microsoft Xbox One, Capcom is bringing SFV to Microsoft PC,meaning that I can still enjoy the series as long as I overclock my system and get a diamond fiber connection.
@Pee-sports
I still can’t believe that e-sports actually exists. At least don’t call it sport. Comparing Usain Bolt to some spotty snotty teen who calls himself DeathLordOverkill745 is just laughable. Nonetheless, e-sports is difficult to ignore. Its raising the profile of gaming, and often in a negative way. Maybe some proper regulation will do it some good.
@QOTW
I can’t think of an expansion pack that I actually enjoyed. I don’t tend to buy expansion packs on their own. I get them with GOTY edition or in a bundle, so for me they become just a part of the game. The only recent ones I can think of were Dawnguard and Dragonborn for TES5, but all they did was throw extra content at my already overpowered Dark Elf.
I believe that a good expansion pack must provide you with a new gameplay mechanic, that lets you enjoy the game in a new way. Its what distinguishes an expansion pack from DLC. Throwing more of the same at you after you already completed 10 hours of a game is not worth the money. The expansion must also feel like an addition to the game; not something that was supposed to be there in the first place.