Thank you. I look forward to that one as well.  I will stick with the spec I have until I gain the proper gear.

Putting it that way I can understand why you didn't go with fort.  Makes perfect sense.

I play a priest and shadow spec is my favorite. My second spec is Holy but I rarely ever play it. My spec currently is your second 13/0/58. I do raid and find the VS very useful. My dps is not where I want it to be yet but gear has greatly improved that. I haven't been playing for as long as you as I got stuck playing DK/tank due to the guild I was in needing a tank and at the time I was playing around with the DK.  Which has fell by the wayside as I returned to the Priest which I have always loved playing.

Your article is really great for someone just starting with a Priest/Shadow. I began with the first spec you showed and it is true the VE has saved me a few times. I was actually shaky about dropping it for VS but with better gear and more xp with my priest and a very helpful GL I gave it a try and have not been sorry.  It is also true in the beginning you tend to watch your timers a bit too much but as you learn you learn not to.  Moving in a fight is not near as much of problem for us as it is for a Mage. Most of the spells a Mage uses have a cast time so that means they need to be still where as we SP can cast our dots while moving and continue keeping dps up some. Sure it will not be as high as it would standing still but still there. 

I can see where the last spec would be great but I think I need to work on getting my dps consistent before I give it a go.

The only glyph I use different is instead of the sp I went with the fort one. 

There is couple of things you mentioned in using to help dps that I am going to work at getting more in my rotation to bring my dps up.

I loved this article and look forward to the next. I do hope you give some ideas on rotation of spells as I know that is also a big part of good dps.

Thanks

I don't PvP much in part because to really have a chance at survial you really need a lot of resil which means I would need to get yet another set of gear.  I haven't finished getting my os of Holy gear yet. ;)

Originally posted by dterry

I'll probably get flamed for this but....

 

1.) No trading between characters/accounts at all. You sell or give your item (acquired by crafting or looting) to an NPC or an NPC auction house and they resell it to another player at a fixed rate(or variable based on in game availablity of the item at the time of sale) - and then send you back the money.

2.) Force antivirus on the client - same as business VPN solutions - if your not running AV or it is not up to date,  then you fail the logon.

3.) Run your own scan after the AV check - looking for keyloggers or IP/MAC spoofing software on the client. - Do this in the open - not hiding it from the client.

4.) Ban people caught in RMT based on IP/MAC/credit card information.

5.) Enforce password complexity.

 

For starters...

Back when Blizz Con was going on many accounts got hacked. The guild I was in the GL and one of the officers got hacked as well as the GL's gf's acct. .  Bliz was swamped with tickets, emails and phone calls during that time. Most of the stuff for the guild bank and the other toons was restored but they did not ban the gf's acct. instead they monitored it. Getting info that was needed to get to the one that had hacked the accounts. I know the stuff from the guild was taken by diff toons on each of these accounts and then disbursed of.  They finally restored the gf's toon returning it to her. But as someone has said yea sometimes they do that. 

No one could stop the hacker by changing access to the guild bank as the GL was the only one that could change that and that account was hacked. Only the GL and his toons were allowed total access to all the tabs and the officer that was hacked was allowed access to all but one tab, so not much could be done. Even though there were many reports about others that were hacked Bliz said they could do nothing until the owner of the account reported it. I find this rather stupid because we knew some of the peeps were gone on vacation or to Blizz Con and were not accessing their accounts. When sent a tell the tells were ignored never responding to them. I mean if they had banned the accounts then when the owner got back they could have taken care of things but no they did nothing until  the owner contacted them.  This has over the years happened many times. I just don't understand why when they get many tickets or calls saying someones account is being hacked they can't at the very least  ban it until the owner of the account calls. No they were not monitoring the accounts either since the owner was not available to complain. So by the time the owner returned the dmg was done and the hacker was long gone.

Trust me hackers aren't scared off either as many of us sent tells saying we knew they were hacking the account and had been reported. Why should they be? I mean they know nothing is going to happen until the owner reports it. Does make you wonder though if they maybe knew the owner through playing the game or maybe even msgs posted on a board. I mean when peeps are going to something like Blizz  Con they tend to chat/brag freely about it. I don't know but I know that was a really bad weekend with hackers.

I don't know if there is any solid way to stop the farmers. I mean they seem to have more ways to get around things. WoW has put in the thing being able to report them but I really don't know if that is even followed through with or is just something so we can say we are reporting them. When it is a level one and by the time you report and do a /who they have logged.  Now there was one not long ago that was on a high lvl char spamming for a good hour but there again like has been mentioned it was prob a hacked account and they didn't care or someone that was really brainless doing it maybe for some gold. Who knows?

I am sure there are things that could be done that would really put a hurting on those farmers, but I am also sure they would find a way around it in time. Maybe the best solution is to just not indulge in their services or buy their gold or items. I have noticed it seems they are spamming items in trade chat now and when you send a tell to find out how much for an item(thinking it is someone besides a farmer selling) you get a reply back sending you to a website to buy gold and items. hmm is there no end to what they will do? When this happens I do a report and gone on my way. I don't want to support them but makes me wonder if I may have purchased something through trade or the AH that was one of the evil ones. Yes to me they are evil.

The whole thing in a nutshell as I see it when it comes to beta testing, it is only as useful as those doing the testing.

If you have a bunch of testers that have no clue about gaming as a whole and what they are looking for or at or a bunch of kids that just want to play before anyone else then no it is not useful and is a waste of time for the devs and staff.

If it is people that realize it is beta and don't put the game down and report their findings and even their suggestions then by all means it is going to be useful.

Then if the team and devs working on the game listen and do what is needed and even take suggestions into consideration then the whole process can be useful. Realistically  all suggestions and ideas may not be able to be put in but maybe if the team is listening it might at a later time. I myself have done some beta testing and I go in with the thought this is beta and I expect to find problems and bugs. As a tester I report what I find and if it is something I am not sure of then I put it down to find out.  It is really annoying to hear peeps in general chat complaining because things don't work right and comment the game is not any good.. of course they don't work right that is why it is called BETA. /shakes head       /face palm

Some very good points made in your article. It is true f2p do seem to update and add things much quicker and the point made is good. There is a lot of f2p games out there and seems more arriving regularly. So yes the market is a tough one.

I have tried a few of them and I have noticed things seems to move at a much faster pace when it comes to updates and new things. They are not without problems but it sure seems they get them cleaned up a lot quicker than the subscription games do.

It is a whole lot easier to change a game when you are not spending so much in the playing and expansions.

If memory serves me correctly EQ started selling Plat to eliminate the farmers. So yea anything is possible. My big question there is though doesn't that effect the economy they all seem to scream about?

I mean if you log on one day and find you are missing a large amount of the hard earned gold you have earned and put in a ticket and they say we see you had and earned and did not spend it. We don't know what happened to it but we can't give it back because it would hurt the economy. Then doesn't selling gold or plat do the same thing? Oh wait I think I have it "if we sell it it does not hurt the economy because we are making money (RL) off it". 

So yea if it puts money in their pockets then I would say we can expect about anything as being possible. So for anyone who thinks it is unfair or doesn't have the funds to get it oh well tuff.

Originally posted by Frobner

I would like to point one or two things out when it comes to devs and nerfing.

 

Nerfing is ok - as long as its done professionally.  And it has to be consistent - both over time and over classes.

 

Lets take an example of the big guy.  WOW.

Many players are aware that some classes have turned up to be "overpowered" and BLizzard has gone hard in with the nerfing bat.  WOTLK hit DKs and Palas pretty hard.  But that does not tell all the story. 

First off - Who didn't know that a Class that would have both tankinga and high damage in all 3 specs would be overpowered ?  All but BLizzard right ?   And who didn't know that a high dps spec with healing abilty would be overpowered ? Yes - again .. all but Blizzard it seems.

But ... The thing is - it was overpowered in ONE part of the game - that is PVP .   And for that the PVE players that played these classes were paying big time.  This has happened time and time again with WOW.

The other issue is that very often - things are nerfed very suddenly... while other things... when needing the oposite direction - are not dealt with for months -or even years. 

Again - good example of this would be Ret paladins who were, like the devs put it - thought off as lvling spec in TBC - and patch after patch after patch - nothing was done to correct multiple issues that came up.  It directly showed the lack of intrest the developers were showing in their own game design.

But then came WOTLK and things turned 180°.   Even without testing - nerfs were thrown in regularly on Ret palas to balance PVP (and again without thinking of PVE) - or even off other pala specs that got hit even harder cause of the changes..

IN the previous expansion- alot of classes had been hugely overrepresented in PVP for entire duration of TBC - like druids who dominated the Arena healing without anything beeing done to balance it. 

Now... I played alot of classes in WOW - so I can compare the treatment and how the lack of intrest from the developers were really obvious when it was time to act on buffing - but did it in a flash when it needed a nerf - without testing and seeing the effects of other part of the game.  And thats only one class and one spec that has taken the full swing.  

Thats not how things should be done - and it came to the point where I desided a game that had such development team  - does not deserve my sub. 

I think you hit some very good points. First it is unrealistic to buff up other classes as that would take a great deal more time to do than to nerf one or even two. 

On the other hand the truth is or appears to be that the nerfs in WoW are more toward PvP and not PvE. Therefore if you don't PvP or do so very little and don't have good PvP gear then you are going to die and be an easy target for one who does PvP.  So those that PvE get nothing and in some cases neither do the those that PvP.  Of course obtaining even fair PvP gear any more would mean PvPing regular and in all aspects of it.

With all this in mind I sure don't see them going in and bringing all of the Alliance classes up to equal standard so that PvP would be more balanced. I don't understand it maybe they like it one sided and maybe .... I don't know to me just seems unfair. But at the same time it is very important to know and play your class well either way. Taking time to try out different specs and rotation finding what suits you and your style of play.

I had mentioned the Pally which is up and coming and the DK which was recently done. Truely the Druid hasn't been hit all that hard and neither has the Shaman.  Rogues were said to have as well as the warlock but with the constant stun locks of a rogue till you die or are near death and the fears that seem to go on forever I don't see where they have done much in that area IMO. 

It is good if you have chosen a little gnome for a tank and find that it is a huge mistake after obtaining level 80 and you can't see what you should. To change to a bit larger race that makes it better for you to be a tank.  /shrug  or you could just eat deviate fish and save your money. ;)

Many reasons peeps would want to change race I suppose but $25 is rather steep IMO to pay to change your race. Many want to give Horde/Alliance a try and can do so then go back after a given period if they don't like it. There is a cost other than the money though in changing so I caution you too look at the whole picture before leaping.

I have noticed through the past months that there has many of the hard core raiding guilds falling apart or splitting into two sometimes three different guilds.  There has been of the more casual guilds that do relatively nothing but guest and dailies and sometimes maybe a small raid or two that have fallen as well.

It is hard to run a guild and I agree an important factor is having the rules and goals out there in front. That way anyone joining or thinking about joining can see what the guild is all about right up front. Then they know if it is what they want or not.  There are so many different types of guilds: raiding, casual raiding, hard-core raiding, social, casual, the list goes on. The problem lies in what someone interprets as any of these meanings and the meanings are not as set as one would think.

For example I am in a casual raiding guild. We raid three times a week and we progress doing so. But for some they might think casual raiding means less than that. So you can see what I am getting at. That being said it is important to have it clear and written up front just what your guild means by whatever it is recruiting for. I tend to stay away from a guild that just runs around throwing invites to any player they see without a guild tag. If you can't talk to me about your guild then I am going to decline.

I have noticed though that a casual raiding guild will outlast a hard-core one if it is raiding and progressing and is run by peeps that know what they are doing and don't scream and yell at the members. If they do what is said they will do for everyone and not have a set of rules for one and a different for others.

As for the cliques; there are cliques in every guild. There are in the one I am in now but not to the point to of being totaly unfair. It is just that they have been playing together for years and know each other outside the game as well or many do. They do small raids for achiements together and such but I am hoping once they have finished theirs they will take the time to include others. That being said I have been in guilds where the officers don't mix with the other  membes and stay in a different chat on vent except during raids. That is a poor run guild at best.

Well I have been playing WoW since like a month after its release. I began on an Aussie server as I began with the trial and that was the server I was put on. Living on the east coast -US made it hard to find groups, raid or enjoy any of the content. My husband is disabled so he could get up at 3 or 4am to raid and enjoy all that the game had to offer. I had to get up and go to work and when my time to play came I had nothing to do but quest until it required a group. My interest quickly began to fade. Then BC came out and I had alts of various levels but my main I took my time leveling because for me it was pointless.  I was in the guild with my hubby and there was great peeps there but I didn't get to spend a lot of time socially either because of my play time difference.  Finally I was to the point of just quitting and was playing other games that I could enjoy and do things more on my time frame.

We transferred to a US server which my husband was also getting burned out from the time he had to get up and was pretty much sleeping when the family was doing our thing. Our son also plays I might add. Once we made the transfer I was able to start raiding and have been having a blast.  We don't raid every night but enough to make it fun and I have seen so much content now in Wrath and am going back through the old worlds for the achievements.

Still at the same time with things in real life and all I find that on nights there are no raids I many times don't care to do anything. I chill out. Do my dailies maybe I will work on one of my alts maybe just log out and watch TV or read a book. I look forward to the next expansion because it sounds as if there is going to be many changes in the world. I also want to get the old world dungeons done because I am not sure how the new content is going to affect them.

There is many reasons for burnout and many reasons for people getting bored with the game. I have to admit having a personal message and something really special after being away is a nice idea. Casual gamers might not care much about it but many would love that personal touch. That tells you we care about what you did and are glad to have you back.

I look forward to your next article on alts. I am sure you will see many replys on that. :)

The nerf bat swings and much as we don't like it will continue to swing. Sometimes mind you I say sometimes it is needed but  many times it takes a once wanted and useful class and makes it blah we don't want you in our group anymore.

Example: WoW Death Knights. People complained that this class was OP. It was a Hero Class it was truly supposed to be a bit on the OP side.  After the nerf a class that could tank/dps has become a class that is hard to get into raids or groups and if you were a tank forget it because you struggled with issues before because your HP's were not going to match that of a Pally or Warrior tank which made it harder on the healers. But they still had a place and the good ones could still find tanking spots. Now since the mighty NERF BAT  has been swung the tables have turned and if you say you are a DK/Tank they don't need you. Granted I believe one of their big mistakes was starting this class at level 55. Too easy to play it and have a 80 in no time. Believe me there are way too many DK's and far too many that have not taken the time and effort to learn the class. 

From what I am reading and hearing the Pally is about to get the NERF BAT. In many ways I would agree that the Pally in WoW is OP but just like the DK or the Warlock before them or the Mage before them. (The list goes on) If you over swing that BAT then you are going to have another class like the DK that no one wants anymore. The Pally is probably over due to have some tone down. Be careful with that NERF BAT.

I suppose in thinking about it that many Dev's don't go home and play the game they work on all day. However, I would guess that during the day while at work they are on that game. (Hopefully) Okay they may not be playing it like a player would and grouping and raiding like a player but at the same time they should be doing some of this in order to get a real feel for the game and what is going on.

With that being said maybe the Dev's don't go home and play WoW and maybe they don't have a preferred race choice but if they are paying attention they have to realize that between the Horde and Alliance there is some big things that give the Horde advantages in PvP and make the Alliance less of a PvP success. The racial in the Horde are much better and useful for PvP while the Alliance racial are for the most part pretty useless in PvP.  I also have found that many of the staff and members of the team play Horde.  So that leads me to believe that they like it like that. Where is the balance there and why has the NERF BAT not struck and fixed things to make them more balanced where PvP is concerned. Maybe if it was then PvP would rise a bit for those who don't find it balanced nor fair. I mean they put an ugly race on Alliance and a pretty one on Horde to try and balance it up a bit with kids because kids are not real inclined to play an ugly toon. Not sure it worked all that well.

So yeah I think swinging the NERF BAT should have a real explanation and not an evasive one. I also think you need to be careful and not go from one extreme to the other.

Customer Service = CS  Customer Support=CS    Customer Satisfaction = CS  

There meaning are not completely alike but the end result is Customer Satisfaction.

Customer Support in the game is there to help with problems they can and if it is something they are unable to help with then they escalate it up. But at the same time in this area or any other if you handle the customer(player) poorly then your end result of Customer Satisfaction is going to fail. This does not mean give the customer what they ask for because that is just simply not possible every time. But deal with them in a polite manner and answer the questions that you can. They can not tell you how a quest or something is supposed to be done nor where to go for it. But even then there is a polite and nice way to say this.

Support in the game is to look at and take care of what is within their ability to do and report if it is a bug or possible game issue and do so in a polite manner.  Thus sometimes they are the first link in the chain of Customer Service. Because the ticket in the game is where it usually begins, usually not always. If you are in game though and xx does not do or give what it was supposed to the first step is the "mighty ticket".

Originally posted by Par`a`dox

Sounds like the writer is mistaken for what Customer Service actually *is* in the Game industry. 

The whole article is talking about the communication of the entire company, and is then calling out a small division of that company on it?   You're kidding right?

 

This article is not about customer service.  It is about the lack of communication between the developers and the players.  Customer service (Game Masters) in the game industry are people who help players who get stuck, answer questions, help players who experience a bug, are being harrassed, can't log in, or are affected by some other system error/malfunction.

You do realize he's pointing out a change that the *DEVELOPERS *  made in his article and then getting frustrated with Customer Service about something the developers did?.  You do know that Customer Service Reps are not devs right?  They have no input or say about game mechanics, changes to the game, what manuals go out or how the developers communicate to the players?  They have no control over anything else that comes out of the DEVELOPMENT department (including communication), because they are the CUSTOMER SERVICE department, not devs.

Now, nearly every time that I've gone to customer service regarding an issue, (even when the devs dropped the ball) I have had no problems with them, even when asking general knowledge questions. (Excluding the CSR's that don't know the game, of course.  There's no fix or excuse for that.  )

I can only imagine that the majority of people have a skewed and inaccuate view of what the game industry Customer Service is there for.  For instance, quest Y  states that you are going to get reward A when you complete it.  Now you complete it, and it give you Reward B.  Clearly that requires in game assistance from the company since the quest didn't do what it is intended to do. 

Sure if you have a question, I'm sure they'll do their best to help answer it (they always have for me), but from what  I've been told regarding how players communicate to customer service, it sounds like the bad communication deos not rest on the Company most of the time.  Instead it is a self entitled player, who doesn't know how the game is intended to work and makes demands; not asks; not "wants more info on the situation", and never, ever considers the possibility that the problem isnt the game, but rests between the keyboard and the chair.

Again, this article has nothing to do with Customer Service in the game industy, and is actually complaining about the other depatments in a game company.  Game industry customer service, is in-game help, and is not like the rest of the world's customer service.  They are not Devlopment, Community Relations, Marketing, or any other department you can think of, they're in game help, Game Masters.

Apparently you are missing a lot here and in CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Customer Service in any business whether it is gaming or not and whether it is in the game(Game Master) or at the office is Customer Service. IF you can not communicate and speak to a paying customer accordingly and with knowledge then it is poor customer service. PERIOD!

This article is not about anything but the lack of and asking others to post their experiences with CS.  Believe me when it comes to gaming there is a LACK of Customer Service. In game and out.

Anytime you have a problem and you make a call or summit a ticket and you get a evasive answer or an answer that is cloned then that is not good CS.

WoW for one is bad about tickets. You put one in and it may sit up there for days before getting answered. It can also disappear without you ever getting a responds at all. Then if you are lucky enough to be on and you reply within 10 secs. of the GM's respond then you get to hopefully get some kind of answer if not you get an in game mail saying they could not reach you and an e-mail with a clone letter that is sent for just about every problem.

Yes there are different areas of CS in gaming no one said there wasn't but a GM is just as much CS as when you call or e-mail the company itself. They may not have an answer nor a solution but the way they speak and deal with a player has just as much impact on the company/game as those in the office.

Sad news to say the least. Have to wonder how many more will fall before the economy is back on the mend. So many already without jobs and it seems more being added by the day.

We may never know what was being worked on either.

I have had some good and bad CS experiences in both f2p and subscription.  I played EQ for 5 plus years and have to say my experience with them in the CS  area was extremely poor.

I played Archlord and overall enjoyed it then they put in a patch and going to their forums after not being able to log into to the game and getting errors msgs. in a different language. It seems that there were post upon post with the same problem and the solutions were not working. After over a month I gave up for some time even trying. Tried again at a later time and was able to log in. Then another patch and poof same issue with the same responds. I just uninstalled the game and said not worth it. Never did get a solid answer as to how to fix it or anything from the CS department. Then this year I saw where it was no longer available to the US. hmm I thought.

I have found in WoW the game I am currently playing as was the "solution" in EQ as well. Delete this file and that file and remove all add ons. Poof it should work. Then when it doesn't and you put in another ticket that you never talk to a GM but get a responds in the game mail and e-mail it is once again the same thing.  EQ was famous for blaming your router, your computer, your connections or a list to things that never seem to be their fault. WoW blames add-ons or file and loss. Could not be that they might have issues.  You learn a pattern and you see it says you did but it is not in your spell book ..the game ate it but it is files and add-ons.

My good experiences are few my bad are up there. I try not to deal with CS but sometimes you have too. They just plain seem to forget that the players are the reason the game is making money and without those players where would they be. Then you send a CS servey out and I am fairly sure they don't like my replies. I am more indepth with my reply than they were in their so called help.

For me it is they type game it is. The cost of course.

Is it fun or just too hard to learn? There was one game I tried once that was really a fun game. Nice graphics and such but you could not use arrow or wasd to move. It was click, click, and more click. If I wanted click I would play Diablo/Diablo2. Other than that it was really a nice game but it was not set up to use those features at all. Thus I bid the game goodbye. Forgive me for those that like to click. I am not one of those. It is funny what will turn someone away from a game.

 Graphics are nice but a game can have fair graphics and still over a lot of fun things that make up for the lack of. Crafting and questing is another thing I look at. I am still in search of useful crafting in the type game I like.  I am not into the Sci-Fi games so it is not likely I would even play them.

Story line and quest. Quests are or can be fun. They can also be pointless with poor rewards.  Many times quest can give you a feel for how much thought and planning was put into a game.  Quests should be fun but should pull you into the story and lore of the game. Advance you forward, be rewarding and not be too long or difficult. 

I have found that many games after reaching a certain level you will pretty much need a group. If this is the case and groups are hard to come by this will turn me away. I spent many hours in EQ trying to get a group to complete this quest or that quest. NO FUN and a waste of my time and money. I played EQ for many years and this did not get any better, only worse. There was no class if you just plain didn't have time to spend on raiding and waiting hours to get a group that you could at least solo through some questing content after a certain. The game was designed and dependent on groups. Some classes needed groups sooner the Cleric and Enchanter come to mind as I played both.  A warrior leveled faster but was dependent on at least a healer type. At least in WoW you can solo content and progress forward without being group dependent. Groups are also easier to find. Finding groups can also depend on server time and area most on the server are based in. This does not mean where the server is based but what part of the country or world. If this info is not easy to find you can end up on a server that brings you total displeasure.

People that work do not want to spend their precious limited time looking for groups so they can play and have fun so if your friends don't play you want or I do a game that I can meet need friends. I think many of us enjoy the social part of a game as well.

Going back to crafting, it seems most games put the crafting in to give players something to do to reduce boredom maybe. /shrug  But if you spend all that time and cost for a crafting skill it would be really nice to be able to get your money back at least. This is rarely ever the case and in most case you just sell the item for little to nothing because no one wants it. Very sad but this could be another story to take on. ;)

WoW is a great game. Yes there is much room to improve and grow for years to come. The trick is keeping you base fans around as this happens. People get bored quick it seems some quicker than others.

I know some that have left the game to go try the new kid on the block "Aion". Some will be back some won't. Aion becomes PvP after a certain level. It is not a choice it is a fact. For those that like open PvP then they will stick with it if they like the game. I understand it has a drawing effect like EQ and WoW from the start. WoW has become boring for many of its base and long term fans. Outside of raiding there is the dailies that many get tired of  and farming; which many get tired of as well.

As for WoW's graphics. No they may not be as real as some may be used to. But if it was required for everyone to have costly graphic cards to play the game then I am sure the player base would diminish. Not everyone can afford those top gaming computers. Thus you can set settings to fit your system. Nice touch I think since I recently had issues with my graphic card and if I had not been able to lower all those setting I would not have been able to play until I could get a new card. It may have been a drag but I could still play.  This is much different than EQ was when I played it. EQ required and update to your graphic card and computer pretty much with each expansion they released or you couldn't even play. Then there was the problem of having one that was compatable with the game. It would not run well or at all with many cards out there. This made the game just far too costly to continue with for many.

My big fear with WoW is the PvP it seems to be aiming at. I am not a big PvP fan. Don't get me wrong I don't mind PvPing from time to time, my choice of course. If I wanted to PvP all the time then I would play on a PVP server not a PVE one. I want that choice to be mine. However, since the need for arena points as well as other BG points I have not been so inclined to PvP much. It was my soul means of gearing my hunter when I was unable to raid and to get better gear I did BG's and very little arena.. I have not even cared to PvP since I have to have arena points to get the better gear. I hate arena and find it more of a stress factor than fun. Even back then when I did do it some the matches were not balanced with people around the same gear level and score. Many times were faced toons with superior gear to ours.   That was a lost battle from the beginning.  Like I said I have not ventured there since the changes. Not worth my time nor my nerves. The game should be fun not stressful.

There is no way Bliz is going to make everyone happy. That is a fact. Changes can cost them accounts or it can win them accounts. Either way there is never going to be a time when everyone is going to be happy. It seems so far Bliz has found something that keeps both sides happy or unhappy. Even some that are bored and tired of the same rinse and repeat. Just like the stupid drops on the World Events bosses. I am sure there is a mount out there somewhere from the HH and the Brew guy but rare is not the correct use of the drop rate. It should say supper/extremely rare.  Just like many of the other drops within the game.

Originally posted by Vetali Thanks for your comments,

@Gikku: All good questions. The codec that we use for the voice is ultrawideband, so the audio quality is somewhere between FM radio and CDs. Of course, your network conditions will affect the moment to moment audio experience. The plugin and the service behind it is made by Vivox (www.vivox.com), the company that builds voice services for SOE, EVE Online, Second Life and many more. So there's a big reputation behind it. There is absolutely no keylogging or other dubious stuff going on here. The plugin is not grabbing any user data. It's using an Armory lookup to populate the Pug table (thus the initial popup). We absolutely need to write a doc on the plugin, how it works, what ports it uses, etc.

Matthew Bellows
Vetali on Moonrunner
Vivox

I am sorry it was just a responds to the last line of  your reply  to me. Maybe I misunderstood it or took it wrong. It sounds like it is saying there is a need to write something making it clearer to people how it works and where/where not the information is coming from.

Either way I am interested in knowing how your testing goes because if it works out it would be very useful and with the coming of cross server grouping this would really open things up for groups and even pug raids. :) I know in theroy that is what WoW is aiming for but we all know that just making it available is not going to make it work like they are hoping.

Some very good ideas. Also some that I am sure would not work as intended.

Atlantica offers a mentoring system which benefits the mentor and the mentee.  That has been the first game I have seen this type of system. Mind you I am saying it is the first for me. I found it nice and players are always willing to help with advancing crafting and other players as they are rewarded for doing so. This is something I think many could work into their system if they chose to and maybe would help reduce the "I" "Me" factor a bit.

I know that I for one in WoW have alts. My main nor my alts have experienced  much of the old world content. Why? Because there just isn't anyone willing to do them. Yea some of the instances and dungeons you can find groups for simply because of the badges. However, with all the changes in badges that is not as possible anymore. It would be nice to be able to go through the old content and get the Achievements for it but I find it harder and harder as the new content comes in. 

With the next expansion and total change in the world I have to wonder if any of that old content will still be available to even get those achievements.  All of us want to improve our toons and many of us want to obtain the Achievements. But like you have said it is hard when no one wants to take the time.

Yes you can pay  a sum to get a high level to run you through, but there is much of the old content that still isn't possible without a group. If most of the group is highest level and there is just you maybe it will work. But the big problem is finding those high levels to take the time to do this. Many don't worry about it with their alts. I unfortunately was unable to see all that content with my main so leveling solo was what I did with  a group here and there when I had to.  In my situation my toons are the highest lvl so it is finding others to join. I am in a good guild but most could care less about the old world content. Many experienced as they leveled which I was not able to do.

I for one would love to see something put in that would help those new and old to the game be able to achieve what was intended for the game.

All I can say is I agree fully. Well put.

I honestly am not sure anyone can produce a game that is innovative or ground breaking anymore. Somewhere I am sure someone could find something like it just maybe they have improved on it but it is not new.