The new Horde
16 years ago
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Apparently, I smell nice. (Spacial phenomena)
I've always been a fan of the 'personal space bubble.' Everyone has one. It's that area of space that you feel most comfortable in, and uncomfortable when anyone unwanted invades it. Everyone's personal bubble is slightly different, but I can safely say that very few people enjoy having someone stand right in their face when they're talking to them.
Imagine if society worked that way? Breath-mint and chewing gum sales would skyrocket. You could read more about someone through their complexion than their clothes. Eye colour would be a sign of station and rank.
Oh dear, I think I strayed a bit too close to reality there. Moving quickly along, before someone invokes Godwin's Law.
In any case, I find that even in multiplayer games, real world habits invade fantasy, and people have that same personal bubble around them. Just try herding a group of 25 people into a small cubby - it doesn't work. The logistics are fine; after all, avatars can stack on top of each other unlike real human beings, but people are resistant to the idea. Eventually one person scoots forward to exert his own personal space. Another person sees it, does the same, and before you know it, the raid leader is yelling for everyone to get their asses back into the gods damned cubby hole.
By the way, this whole process takes roughly four seconds to complete, and cycles indefinetly.
Lately, I've found that my fishing pole acts as a gigantic neon sign that says - "I no longer have any personal space. Please avatar hump me." For the life of me I can not figure this out. It doesn't matter where, though I find Wintergrasp is probably the most common place to find these peculiar brand of leech. The brand of fishing pole doesn't matter, though the basic pole tends to attract /laughs from the leeches. Open water, fish nodes, floating wreckage - all the same result.
Try it for yourself. Find yourself a secluded spot all to yourself, where you can fish in harmony without anyone else's bobber confusing theirs for yours. I damn well promise you that within 20 seconds of pulling out your fishing pole, a minimum of two other people will suddenly show up and fish right next to you, even though there's a gigantic zone full of other water areas that they can go fish at.
Aggravating.
As if that wasn't bad enough, though, I've witnessed at least one leech gain sentience of their actions. I was fishing in Wintergrasp, simply doing the daily. I walked a significant distance away from the Horde camp where you arrive from, and no other fishermen were near me. 10 seconds into my first cast, a solitary leech found me. My normal response is to move away from the leech and hope they find a new victim. Often times the leech will grow bored and move on to other functions... but this leech was persistant.
I moved away. He followed.
I moved again, further into dangerous territory known to house Alliance patrols. The leech stuck with me.
This both intruiged and aggravated me. I had to know why he was set on fishing right next to me. His response - "i dunno. u smell nice?"
Fishermen... I implore you! Stop using those Old Spices on each other! The only conclusion I can surmise so far is that it is somehow attracting the leeches to us, even long after the effect has dissipated.
It's to the point that I'm going to break a promise I made to myself. I'm going to buy a toy train set, and use it to scare away the leeches. And, if that doesn't work, I'm not above farming a Piccolo of the Flaming Fire. Let's see the leeches fish through that.
Imagine if society worked that way? Breath-mint and chewing gum sales would skyrocket. You could read more about someone through their complexion than their clothes. Eye colour would be a sign of station and rank.
Oh dear, I think I strayed a bit too close to reality there. Moving quickly along, before someone invokes Godwin's Law.
In any case, I find that even in multiplayer games, real world habits invade fantasy, and people have that same personal bubble around them. Just try herding a group of 25 people into a small cubby - it doesn't work. The logistics are fine; after all, avatars can stack on top of each other unlike real human beings, but people are resistant to the idea. Eventually one person scoots forward to exert his own personal space. Another person sees it, does the same, and before you know it, the raid leader is yelling for everyone to get their asses back into the gods damned cubby hole.
By the way, this whole process takes roughly four seconds to complete, and cycles indefinetly.
Lately, I've found that my fishing pole acts as a gigantic neon sign that says - "I no longer have any personal space. Please avatar hump me." For the life of me I can not figure this out. It doesn't matter where, though I find Wintergrasp is probably the most common place to find these peculiar brand of leech. The brand of fishing pole doesn't matter, though the basic pole tends to attract /laughs from the leeches. Open water, fish nodes, floating wreckage - all the same result.
Try it for yourself. Find yourself a secluded spot all to yourself, where you can fish in harmony without anyone else's bobber confusing theirs for yours. I damn well promise you that within 20 seconds of pulling out your fishing pole, a minimum of two other people will suddenly show up and fish right next to you, even though there's a gigantic zone full of other water areas that they can go fish at.
Aggravating.
As if that wasn't bad enough, though, I've witnessed at least one leech gain sentience of their actions. I was fishing in Wintergrasp, simply doing the daily. I walked a significant distance away from the Horde camp where you arrive from, and no other fishermen were near me. 10 seconds into my first cast, a solitary leech found me. My normal response is to move away from the leech and hope they find a new victim. Often times the leech will grow bored and move on to other functions... but this leech was persistant.
I moved away. He followed.
I moved again, further into dangerous territory known to house Alliance patrols. The leech stuck with me.
This both intruiged and aggravated me. I had to know why he was set on fishing right next to me. His response - "i dunno. u smell nice?"
Fishermen... I implore you! Stop using those Old Spices on each other! The only conclusion I can surmise so far is that it is somehow attracting the leeches to us, even long after the effect has dissipated.
It's to the point that I'm going to break a promise I made to myself. I'm going to buy a toy train set, and use it to scare away the leeches. And, if that doesn't work, I'm not above farming a Piccolo of the Flaming Fire. Let's see the leeches fish through that.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Arthas: Evil, or just lonely?
A friend of mine mentioned that he noticed that there was a lot of talking done in Wrath of the Lich King. This is to be expected, as Blizzard is trying to push more lore into the game to keep things fresh and interesting. However, it got me to thinking...
For the harbringer of evil, Arthas sure does talk a lot. I mean... A LOT.
It starts in the Culling of Stratholme. Okay, so this is technically before he's the Lich King, but already on his downward spiral and it sets a baseline for his expositional habits. Granted, some of the talking is done by his cohorts, but the bulk of the dialogue is Arthas'. The player has to suffer through a long cut scene just to start the event, as well as listen to him yammer on as you kill off minions of Mal'ganis and agens of the Infinite Dragonflight.
There's also a quest line on the Alliance side that recreates the Warcraft III scene with Arthas drawing Frostmourne and killing Muradin. I recall him being Chatty-Cathy in that scene as well, basically telling Muradin to shove his advice up his dwarven... ahem.
From this point, we see Arthas after he's become the Lich King. Yet, for all his bad ass armour and dour demeanour, he's still as talkative as ever. In the Wrathgate scene, we see him have a nice long conversation with the champions of the Alliance and Horde. Eventually the Forsaken traitors show up and ruin his monologue, forcing Arthas to flee the scene, but not before he gets a few last words in, of course!
The Lich King makes an appearance at the end of Drak'tharon keep. There, he compliments Drakuru for duping you into helping the evil cause, and promises more power, and yadda this, yadda that. It's all very touching, and of course, like all Evil Villians, the Lich King spares your life. Because you have potential.
Further in the Drakuru storyline, you meet up with him again in Zul'drak. At the very end, you face off against Drakuru, and just before you kill him, he summons Arthas for help. The Lich King, in a long monolugue, deems Drakuru a failure and destroys him. You'd think he'd finish the job by also destroying you, but he spares your life... yup, you guessed it, citing your potential.
In Utgard Pinnacle, the first boss, Svala Sorrowgrave, is interrupted talking to the Lich King by the party. Well, I shouldn't interrupted, because they continue their conversation while your party bounce around the room like dipshits waiting for the event to start. Which takes forever, because Arthas talks forever. Again, the same promises; more power, destruction of her enemies, yadda this, yadda that. Of course, Arthas knows Svala will fail. She's only the first boss of the dungeon, and you have potential.
Last example I can think of... Icecrown, a five man group quest where you challenege Overthane Balargarde on top of a citadel. Halfway through the fight, the Lich King makes an appearance. Again, he throws out a couple lines, strikes down your helper (but not you!), then merrily watches as you slaughter one of his greatest champions. Afterwards, he gives you an open invitation to Icecrown Citadel. Why? Well, because you have potential, of course!
So what's my point? Arthas isn't some brooding dark lord, bringer of despair and chaos. He's just... well, lonely! It gets boring sitting up on a throne all day and night that freezes your ass. Even thick, bad ass armour can't get a chill like that out. Really, he just wants a friend. It's why he keeps raising all his minions; he's simply looking for a companion. Hunters tame pets, engineers build robots, and Arthas raises the dead.
But... it's not working. They keep rotting away, or getting killed off by intrepid adventurers. So I think he's playing the long con - Arthas sees the player as his next buddy. That's why he keeps sparing your life, even though he could easily snuff it in an instant. He wants you to see that he's really not such a bad monster after all... just, misunderstood. He only wanted to do what was right for Lordaeron. In doing so, all his friends and family abandoned him, and now he's trying to fill that void with the player(s).
Mark my words, the boss fight with Arthas will have a Friendship! finisher move, much like Mortal Kombat 2.
For the harbringer of evil, Arthas sure does talk a lot. I mean... A LOT.
It starts in the Culling of Stratholme. Okay, so this is technically before he's the Lich King, but already on his downward spiral and it sets a baseline for his expositional habits. Granted, some of the talking is done by his cohorts, but the bulk of the dialogue is Arthas'. The player has to suffer through a long cut scene just to start the event, as well as listen to him yammer on as you kill off minions of Mal'ganis and agens of the Infinite Dragonflight.
There's also a quest line on the Alliance side that recreates the Warcraft III scene with Arthas drawing Frostmourne and killing Muradin. I recall him being Chatty-Cathy in that scene as well, basically telling Muradin to shove his advice up his dwarven... ahem.
From this point, we see Arthas after he's become the Lich King. Yet, for all his bad ass armour and dour demeanour, he's still as talkative as ever. In the Wrathgate scene, we see him have a nice long conversation with the champions of the Alliance and Horde. Eventually the Forsaken traitors show up and ruin his monologue, forcing Arthas to flee the scene, but not before he gets a few last words in, of course!
The Lich King makes an appearance at the end of Drak'tharon keep. There, he compliments Drakuru for duping you into helping the evil cause, and promises more power, and yadda this, yadda that. It's all very touching, and of course, like all Evil Villians, the Lich King spares your life. Because you have potential.
Further in the Drakuru storyline, you meet up with him again in Zul'drak. At the very end, you face off against Drakuru, and just before you kill him, he summons Arthas for help. The Lich King, in a long monolugue, deems Drakuru a failure and destroys him. You'd think he'd finish the job by also destroying you, but he spares your life... yup, you guessed it, citing your potential.
In Utgard Pinnacle, the first boss, Svala Sorrowgrave, is interrupted talking to the Lich King by the party. Well, I shouldn't interrupted, because they continue their conversation while your party bounce around the room like dipshits waiting for the event to start. Which takes forever, because Arthas talks forever. Again, the same promises; more power, destruction of her enemies, yadda this, yadda that. Of course, Arthas knows Svala will fail. She's only the first boss of the dungeon, and you have potential.
Last example I can think of... Icecrown, a five man group quest where you challenege Overthane Balargarde on top of a citadel. Halfway through the fight, the Lich King makes an appearance. Again, he throws out a couple lines, strikes down your helper (but not you!), then merrily watches as you slaughter one of his greatest champions. Afterwards, he gives you an open invitation to Icecrown Citadel. Why? Well, because you have potential, of course!
So what's my point? Arthas isn't some brooding dark lord, bringer of despair and chaos. He's just... well, lonely! It gets boring sitting up on a throne all day and night that freezes your ass. Even thick, bad ass armour can't get a chill like that out. Really, he just wants a friend. It's why he keeps raising all his minions; he's simply looking for a companion. Hunters tame pets, engineers build robots, and Arthas raises the dead.
But... it's not working. They keep rotting away, or getting killed off by intrepid adventurers. So I think he's playing the long con - Arthas sees the player as his next buddy. That's why he keeps sparing your life, even though he could easily snuff it in an instant. He wants you to see that he's really not such a bad monster after all... just, misunderstood. He only wanted to do what was right for Lordaeron. In doing so, all his friends and family abandoned him, and now he's trying to fill that void with the player(s).
Mark my words, the boss fight with Arthas will have a Friendship! finisher move, much like Mortal Kombat 2.
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