Foreshadowing Part 2

I've been kicking this thought around in my head ever since Blizzcon 2011 and I've decided now is the time to share it with all of you.  If any of you had a chance to watch the opening ceremonies, whether in person or online, you probably recall the Mists of Pandaria announcement.  It was followed with a hint that the final raid would be a raid on Orgrimmar to take down Garrosh.  Here's the thing that has bothered me since then: Chris Metzen never actually said we were going to kill Garrosh.  He said we were going to lay siege to Orgrimmar and remove the mantle of warchief, but nothing was ever said about killing him.  

What could this mean?  All right, its "wild speculation" time.  A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on what I think the next expansion is going to be (you can read that here); however, I only covered the Alliance side.  What will the Horde be doing while we are reuniting with Alleria and Turalyon?  There are a few ways this could play out, so bare with me.  Everything will begin with the final raid of Mists of Pandaria.  

The fight itself, between us and Garrosh, will also involve Malkorok in some way.  For those who don't know, Malkorok is a blackrock orc who now acts as Garrosh's bodyguard and is the leader of the Korkron.  I don't know what route Blizzard would take on this, but here's how I see it.  I'm picturing this in his throne room, but I wouldn't doubt it happens elsewhere (mainly for lack of space).  We will storm in and in front of us will be Malkorok and Garrosh will be behind him.  The fight is us battling down Malkorok while Garrosh stays immune.  We get Malkorok down, he becomes immune (to recuperate) and Garrosh becomes "active."  We DPS a bit on Garrosh until Malkorok is back up to full, at which point Garrosh becomes immune again.  We will do this "back and forth dance" until Garrosh reaches a certain percentage.  I like the idea of 5%, so that's what I'm going with.  Malkorok then gets a burst of strength and tries to finish us off OR he calls in some of the Korkron to distract us.  I hate to break it to you all, but here's the point I'm finally going to get at: Garrosh escapes!!

Where's he going to go? The Korkron will still be loyal to him, so they will be his much needed ally throughout this ordeal.  He is going to head back home to Draenor, which puts the Horde back in the Outlands with the Alliance who are searching or have found Alleria and Turalyon.  

As for the new warchief, I'm going to give it to Lorthremar, and here is why.  I've already mentioned that the Alliance will be getting a new major city with Danath Trollbane retaking Stromgarde.  This means the Horde will also be obtaining a new major city.  Upon thinking it through, I love the idea of Vol'jin and the trolls building their own major city elsewhere.  Where?  I do not know yet, I like to think Hinterlands area so that it's right close to Arathi Highlands and Stromgarde.  Having the two cities so close together will help bring the open world PvP back to the game.  Putting aside the cities idea, Lorthremar has made some huge character progressions within the latest books and patches.  There is no way he will be going back to being the leader no one has heard of.  Who do you think should be the next warchief?  Debate it out in the comments below.

All right, let's go back over to Garrosh hiding out in the Outlands.  I saw an amazing post on the forums, I cannot find it anymore so I cannot credit you (sorry), that talked about a theory on what is "driving" Garrosh.  If anyone knows their lore, you may recall that Garrosh's father Grom helped free the orcs from the demon blood by slaying Mannoroth the Destructor.  Garrosh was never comfortable with being the "son of Grom Hellscream who accomplished so much."  I believe it was in the book "The Shattering" where Thrall pulled Garrosh aside and had to explain to him that, "yes your dad was great and amazing and did all these wonderful things for the orcs, but now is your time to do the same."  As a tribute to his father, Garrosh turned the bones of Mannoroth into a set of shoulders that he wears.  It is these bones that are fuelling his anger and driving him to war with the world, whether through whispers or whatever.  The skull of Gul'din did similar things to Ner'zhul and Illidan.  We need to defeat Garrosh before he tries to summon the Burning Legion, can we do it?

That's it for me, if you have any questions or comments please leave them below.  If you want to stay updated on what I'm doing and when I'm posting things then you should follow me on twitter @akadarcee and on facebook.  Thanks for reading.

Method Wins the Race To World First

The headline says it all, the race to world first is over with Method taking down Heroic Ra-Den yesterday.  Blatty posted on his facebook page:

It's over. We'd predicted that we would get him this week, and after two pulls it was done. We are now the only people in the world to have killed the last boss of tier 15.

Congratulations, it was a hell of a race!!  Patch 5.2 dropped March 5th and the passed few raids the world first race seemed to only last a week.  If this was something you followed, did you find it to be much more exciting having it play out for a month or do you prefer it to be short and sweet?  

I loved how long this took, it was suspenseful especially with the "secret" boss, Ra-Den, at the end.  

Things took a small twist April 8th when a Chinese guild, 七 煌, took Ra-Den down (I say small twist because Asian Guilds are part of a completely different World First race due to how there gear works and so on).  They announced that this was not a legitimate kill, as there were tons of bugs and glitches in the fight and they reported all this to Blizzard.  From the way it sounded, they were able to tune the fight down to the 10 man version, but were still able to use their 25 players.  On top of that, they found that if they did not kill two of Ra-Den's adds and just kited the boss away from them he did not soak up his special abilities and ended up being extremely easy to kill.

A day or so later, a Paragon member, Devai, had his account banned mid battle for "exploiting the economy."  His ban was quickly lifted once he began his inquirers.  

So, tell me what you think, was this an epic World First Race??  Did you care??  Let me know in the comments below and as always stayed tuned for new articles, reviews, and my super awesome new project I'm working on.  Follow me on twitter @akadarcee, facebook, and twitch.  Catch you all later.  

Gaming News for April 12th...'ish....

League of Legends vs. Dota 2

I'm going to kick this off right now with League of Legends vs. Dota 2.  Now if you follow at least one of these games, you probably heard the news/controversy involving GamesIndustry.  Basically, what happened was GamesIndustry posted that Dota 2 had surpassed League of Legends as most "core" PC title... in the west.  

"GamesIndustry reports that Valve’s Dota 2 is the most played “core” PC title according to the DFC Intelligence report; the report combines data from multiple sources through its PC game Meter service, which includes real-time stats from Xfire’s 23 million users. The top three most played games were Dota 2, league of Legends and in third place World of Warcraft, although the free-to-play MOBA’s numbers far surpassed that of Blizzard’s subscription based MMO."

As you would expect Riot, along with the League of Legends' players and fans, exploded and for good reason.  There was no way that Dota 2, a game still technically in beta, could be beating League of Legends in most played game.  I don't even play these two games and I cried "B.S." after reading it.  Well, as was expected, this wasn't entirely true.  We're not entirely certain what part of Xfire GamesIndustry was looking at, but the list shows League of Legends in first and Dota 2 down in sixth.  

GamesIndustry than retracted their original statement and analyst David Cole responded with:

“We have this service that tracks usage of PC games. League of Legends is always on top by a huge margin, an order of magnitude. The only time anything came close was the launch of Diablo III, but just for a short time. Dota 2 showed a huge bump in usage; first product to do that well in a long time,” 

“The thing is globally [League of Legends] is still much bigger because we don’t track Asia and many of the small markets they have penetrated. Our tracking is only key Western markets. China alone counts for way more usage of [League of Legends] than the rest of the world, so that is the major footnote we have been telling everyone,” he added. “The main news to me was that Dota 2 has been a huge success.”

What do you think?  Do you feel that at one point Dota 2 will be pass League of Legends as most played "core" PC title?  My only question is, "when is it coming out of beta!?!?!?!"  However, I choose to not discuss that today because I will fill this post with angry rants and there's a better time and place for that.

Camelot Unchained

There's been a flood of "new" game ideas that have been getting their funding from kickstarter.  Among those games is Mark Jacobs: Camelot Unchained.  What makes this game special when compared to other MMO's?  Camelot Unchained will have no PVE content.  This includes no PVE levelling or loot drops.  Basically, it's considered to be an RVR or Realm versus Realm.  Players will have to craft the world, building camps and cities, sharing resources with their competition.  Here's a big question, Subscription or free-to-play??  This surprised me, it will be subscription based.  Basically, they're saying that they are looking for a certain type of player and having a sub will give these specific players the type of game they are wanting.  But, with so many sub based games failing and having to adopt a free-to-play system I would  personally be a bit worried to bring a game I've been working on and attach a subscription to it.  In a recent interview, Mark Jacobs said:

"We don't need one million subs to make money," he said. "If we get 50K paying subscribers a month it will justify the $5 million development budget." 

Is Camelot Unchained a title that interests you at all??  I love the idea of having to build my world up right from the start; however, I'm not much of a PVP gamer and definitely would not pay a subscription for it.  Therefore, I am not that "certain type of player" they are looking for... the system works.  Tell me your thoughts in the comments below.

Violence & Video Games

This topic seems to never want to rest...  It has come up again, this time by California Senator, Dianne Feinstein.  She stated: 

"I think the really violent video game becomes a kind of simulator to practise on. And it enables the individual to become much more familiar with that depiction of death and blood." 

Really!?!?!?!  Here's a thought, how about doing a little research into it?? <Gasp>  I know, its a crazy concept!!  If the only information you are going off of is that the Sandy Hook shooter played violent video games, than I'm going to respond back with "parents who have weapons in their houses breed killers."  Hmmmm.... sounds just as ridiculous, doesn't it??  What do you guys think, debate it out in the comments below.

But, wait I'm not done yet.  She later goes on to say that violent video games play a very negative role in young people and if video game companies continue to make these violent games congress may intervene.  All right, while I do see her point (to a small degree), I feel I need to bring up game ratings.  A game has a rating for a reason.  I don't know what it's like in all stores, but if you try and purchase a game here at our store and you don't meet that rating, they won't sell you the game.  In order for these under-aged kids to get their hands on these games, their parents have to buy them.  Who are you to decide what a parent feels is OK for their kids?? I have a five year old... do I let him play violent shooting games?  No!!  Will he get to at one point??  Guess what!!  I will decide that when the time comes, not you.

Betas

Let's simmer down on the anger for a second and chat about betas.  Elder Scrolls Online released a bunch more beta invites.  If you happened to sign up for beta, check your email, you may be among the lucky few.... that does not include myself <sigh>.

Neverwinter has gone into another beta weekend, starting today.  They have released a new class, Great Weapon Fighter and are introducing their crafting system.  If you are in the closed beta, definitely go give that a try.  If you are among the unlucky few who have not received a beta invite, do not worry!!  Open beta is set to begin April 30th.  

Wildstar's first closed beta has begun (the previous betas were for press only).  You can still sign up here.  I did not get in, but I've been scanning my email every day with my fingers crossed.

Which of these games appeals the most to you??  Any other games you've been waiting patiently (or impatiently) for??

Eve News Can Be The Best News EVER

I seriously love Eve news.  While everything so far has been about the games in general, Eve news tends to be random crap that happens in the game.  Like this story, for instance.  April 10th, the CEO of Space Monkey's Alliance, aka Alisonia, robbed from his own people.  What did he get:  Approximately 400 Billion ISK.  In a letter, Alisonia wrote: 

I was spending needless hours on something that was pointing SMA into the direction of NOWHERE [so...] Tonight I stole about 220B+ worth of assets, this on top of what I had already taken. The total comes to around 440B in assets.

...after about a year and a half this idea came to me to steal as much in assets as I could. At first I only stole small amounts of assets to test the waters. Eventually leading to stealing Tech, capital ships and more. If I had to guess 200Bish since I started. I want to go through my logs and figure it maybe more. I mean why steal it in a bulk (one-time) when you can milk the cow.

Space Monkey's Alliance released a statement about the theft:

Spacemonkey's Alliance [SMA] is confirming today that one of it's Alliance Directors and a real-life friend of the brothers that run SMA executed a plan to rip off the alliance.  Alisonia spent more than a year growing SMA and, for all appearances, executed a long planned theft.  

A few months ago he was promoted to Director for his service providing not only IT but in-game help without ever asking for compensation or a position.  This was a betrayal of trust, not of data or pixels.  We have been told that he will be quitting EVE and that he "wanted to go out with a bang."

As of today, the amount stolen has gone up to approximately 600 billion ISK.  You can correct me if I'm wrong, I don't play EVE, so I'm just going off of what other people are saying. 600 Billion ISK is approximately 22, 253.70 USD.  So... now that he's quit playing the game, all that money is just sitting there untouched.  It's just amazing, I love reading about this game!!

Well... that's it for me.  As always thank you for reading.  If you want to stay updated on the random things I do, you can follow me on twitter: @akadarcee, send me a like on facebook, and subscribe to me on twitch.  If you have anything you want me to cover or add in, feel free to let me know.  I have a super, amazing, and awesome new project I'm working on, so I will definitely be keeping you posted about that.  Catch you all later.

LFR Part 2: The Other Players

Hey everyone, today I'm going to continue my ramble on the LFR and chat to you about the other twenty-four players.  If you haven't read part 1 yet on the loot system, you can do so here.  Dealing with the other players is the #1 thing I cannot stand about the LFR.  In the end, there aren't too many fixes that Blizzard can do to make this better, but we'll take a look at it anyways.  

I'm going to start with the elitists.  These are the players that think they are the best in the group.  They belittle everyone who cannot "keep up" with them,  the tanks are never doing a good enough job, and they are the first to point out if anyone makes a mistake.  Most of the time I can handle this type of player, but sometimes it just makes the experience go by much better if you put them on ignore.  You won't have to listen to them ranting about how awful you are and you will never get grouped with them again.  It's a win/ win.  What people need to understand is that not everyone is as geared as they are.  It's actually a really simple concept.

What can be done??  As I said before, there really aren't too many fixes for something like this beyond putting the player on ignore.  I'm not entirely certain why more people don't use that system.  It works and it's extremely funny to watch the one sided conversation between the rest of the raid and the guy you cannot see posting.  If the player is being exceptionally rude than right click on their portrait and hit the report button.  Blizzard does look at it and they make the call on if it was bannable, suspendable, or if you are just being a whiny baby.  It really doesn't hurt to use it.  If you have a fix for this problem, I would love to hear it, feel free to leave it in the comments below.

  

Next up is the bad players.  There are several different types of bad players, so I'll try and get them all in here for you.  I'll start with the people that I really can't stand: "I've never been here before!!"  Don't be this guy!!  Here's a tip for you people, if you are about to enter a LFR that you have never been to before please familiarise yourself with the mechanics.  It's really not hard, in fact you don't even have to tab out to do so.  Blizzard put in a dungeon journal for a reason and they even simplified it for you by adding little symbols to things that you may need to know about.  If you are a tank, there are little shields next to some of the abilities.  This means tank alert and you should probably read that one.  Healers, there is a little healing symbol (the plus sign) which means healing alert, in short this ability does loads of damage and you need to watch for it.  I suggest with healers, open up each ability and see if any of the sub abilities need to watched out for as well.  The skull and cross-bones stands for deadly, something you should probably read about.  Exclamation Mark (!) stands for important, again you should probably look at that one.  Quickly skim through these and you're good to go.  I will be doing an entire article on how to properly use the dungeon journal sometime next week.

If this is still too hard for you to figure out, than you are the perfect candidate for add-ons.  Go check out the forums and do a little research to find the add-on that is right for you.  I am a full supporter of add-ons, I use deadly boss mods to remind me that certain abilities are being cast.  In short, you gain that extra bit of raid awareness that you never had.  Tell us what add-ons you use for raiding in the comments below.  

The next type of "bad player" would be the players that aren't contributing to the fight.  I'm not talking about the ones that are doing their full rotation but just aren't putting out the numbers as everyone else is.  I'm talking about the people who could be doing well, but stand there and let everyone else take care of the fight.     While it would be nice to have Blizzard add in some sort of system where players like that don't get loot, right now all we can do is vote kick them once the fight is done.  

If there are enough of these bad players that you are wiping on boss fights, do not worry.  Don't jump ship just yet.  Blizzard added in the determination buff.  If you've been putting in an effort on the boss, but you wiped due to lack of dps or whatever you will gain this buff.  This buff increases your damage dealt, your health, and healing received by 5% and it stacks 10 times.  The first thing you're probably thinking is "people are going to abuse that."  Here's the thing, in order for you to get the buff after wiping you need to have been fighting the boss for a certain amount of time.  This shows that you were putting in the effort, but just didn't have the right group makeup to complete it.  I have yet to have a person insist on wiping it to get the buff, but I have seen forum posts complaining about it happening.  Here's the thing, you might as well just finish the boss up instead of wiping it to get the extra 5%.  You're not saving time, you're being an idiot.  

When I say don't jump ship, I really mean it.  Eventually that buff will stack up to an appropriate level for you to complete it.  Would you rather wipe three times and get the boss down, or wipe once and leave, only to have a 46 minute queue and be placed at the beginning of the raid again with a group that probably knows less about it than the one you just came from.  The most I've had this buff stack to is four.  This was on the first week this raid was released, so people were still learning the mechanics.  After the fourth try we knew the mechanics and had the extra 20% to get us by.  It really wasn't that bad.

I don't want to just single out the dps, but seriously there's 2 tanks, 6 healers, and 17 dps... so it's a bit hard to not single you out.  All right, dps you are important to the fight too.  If you are not fighting the adds like you are supposed to, you are going to cause a wipe.  Do not assume the others will do it for you, attack the adds.  Here's another thing,  don't pull for the tank!!!  Usually, there's a reason we are waiting to pull or a reason we are going at a certain pace.  If you wanted to set the pace, than you need to re-roll a tank.  Here's a great example from the LFR I just completed.  We downed the first boss and both our tanks left, so now we're waiting for new ones.  We have an impatient mage who doesn't understand why we're all waiting so he goes ahead and pulls the next mob and we wipe.  Now he's going on and on about how he didn't know we didn't have any tanks, but in short, you are not a tank so you do not pull.  

Here's another thing to watch out for.  If you have an ability that can be raid wiping or just irritating make sure you do not have it on.  Here's some examples: retribution paladins with righteous fury on, hunters with aspect of the pack on, hunters with their pet's taunt on, shamans and their earth elemental... these are all a few examples of irritating things that make the make the rest of the raid's jobs harder and more irritating.  Nothing sucks more than a death knight popping his army of the dead on a boss with a vicious frontal attack.  Suddenly the boss is flipping around this way and that and spraying the entire raid with nastiness.  FYI: you want to use your army of the dead get the "glyph of army of the dead."  In short, your ghouls no longer taunt the target and it's a minor glyph... problem solved.

I have probably missed a ton of info, so please feel free to point it out to me and I'll update this.  The only thing I have left to say about dealing with other players is don't bring attention to yourself.  Don't come into the group and say, "hey guys, I've never been her before.  Any tips?"  Chat away with other players, but don't let on that you don't know what you're doing.  That's how you bring on the attention of the elitists, and they will make your LFR experience a bad one.  If you are a tank, please at least half know the fights.  Your queue may be instant but the rest of us tend to have to wait anywhere from 30-50 minutes for our queue to pop. It's no fun to finally get in and have the tank or tanks not know what they're doing, especially when it's so easy to figure it out.  

That's it for this week, as always feel free to leave a comment below.  Also, because I don't exactly post on a schedule, if you want to know when I post new articles you need to follow me on twitter @akadarcee or send me a like on facebook.  You can also subscribe to my twitch .  I'll catch you all later.

LFR & Loot

I thought today I would ramble a little about the LFR in Warcraft.  Basically, if you don't know what the LFR is, it's a "looking for raid" tool that pairs you up with twenty four of the biggest nubs in the game and allows you to complete easier modes of the raids.  In these dumbed down raids you have the chance at acquiring lower item level gear.  Players have a "love/hate" relationship with it.  Many feel it is a useful system that gives you another way to gear up for "real" raids.  While others just love to complain about it.  What's there to complain about??  This may take a while...

Part 1: Let's Discuss How Loot Works

The LFR made its first appearance in Cataclysm for the Dragon Soul raid; dividing the raid into two separate parts.  When this feature came out, it still used the Need/Greed/Pass system for loot; however, you were restricted on some of the items you could roll on.  Some of the restrictions ended up being a little funky, and certain classes were able to roll on things they had no right in rolling on.  With that being said, that wasn't the most frustrating part of this loot system.  What had begun to happen was certain players were needing on gear they already had.  Upon winning this gear they would announce to your raid that they would be willing to trade it for the piece that they were in there for.  For example you've been running these raids for weeks now trying to get your tier shoulders to even drop, and when they finally do Player X needs on them and wins them.  Upon inspecting him, you see that he already has those shoulders (usually the "normal" raid version).  Player X announces to the raid that he will trade those shoulders he won for the tier chest... if it drops.  This was ridiculously frustrating!!

The next problem with this loot system was winning something while playing an "under-performing" character.  I'm sure all of us who run alts have that one character that you're just not that pro at.  By the end of Cataclysm I had seventeen level 85's; ten of which I played quite often.  Three of them I was pro on, four of them I was average, and 3 of them I should have just deleted and re-rolled.  I'm going to use my warrior, Tadaka, as the example here.  Tadaka was one of my average toons.  I wasn't great on her, but I managed.  Never top of the meters, but never bottom.  However, the minute she won anything, it would announce it in chat and the entire raid would rage.  I was booted from a ridiculous amount of raids because I was considered an "under-performing" toon that was winning all the gear.

So, how did Blizzard fix this?  Now, when we down a boss, a few lucky individuals are rewarded a piece of gear for the spec they are currently playing in.  The rest of us win a bag.  At the beginning of Mists of Pandaria that bag only contained gold; however, as of patch 5.2 it now has a chance at also containing a piece of gear, motes or spirits of harmony, flasks or potions, pets or mounts, lesser charms of good fortune, greater charms of good fortune, or a rune of fate.  On top of that loot being rewarded you can use your greater charms of good fortune or your runes of fate for an additional chance at loot... or gold.  This system is frustrating for people because they feel like they're downing these bosses and not getting anything from it.  It doesn't announce in chat that anyone got anything, and many people go weeks and weeks without winning a single piece of gear.  I keep telling myself at least I'm not losing it to some "jack-ass" who's needed on my gear while having better.

Again, how is Blizzard fixing this?  Patch notes for 5.3 were released a week ago and it stated that those of us with our "unlucky" streaks will soon be protected.  The more times we use our coins or runes for the extra gear chance and lose will give us an increased chance to win something.  This is one of the changes I've been waiting for.  By the end of patch 5.1 I had stopped acquiring my greater charms of good fortune because it was a complete waste of time.  My extra rolls were rewarding me nothing but gold.  In patch 5.2, Blizzard upped the drop chance of gear in Mogu'Shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Springs, so I began collecting my charms again.  As for runes of fate, I could care less at this point.  If I manage to get my three for the week, than good for me, but I'm not going out of my way to do so.

Now lets discuss winning gear for an offspec.  Even back in cataclysm it was tough to win offspec items in the LFR without being in that spec.  It's become a little fuzzy, but I believe the way the loot system worked was certain gear items were restricted to certain specs, but it was vague.  So, say you play a holy paladin.  Holy paladins can use intellect shields, so this meant that all holy paladins can need on all shields.  A tank shield drops, the holy paladin can take it which was incredibly frustrating for many classes.

Your catching on to the trend, right?? How did Blizzard fix it?  When they took away the option to roll need/greed/pass on the items and replaced them with the possible loot/most likely a bag of gold system, they made it so that the piece of gear you may win can only be used by your spec.  Now what this has done is made people come into the raid in the "wrong" spec so that they can get the gear they want.  We end up with DPS specced as tanks and even healers specced as DPS... it's a mess.

How will Blizzard fix this?  Hooray for Patch 5.3, am I right??  I can now check a box (I believe) that says I'm DPS'ing, but am rolling for tank gear.  Finally, I have a reason to be running through Mogu'Shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Springs again.

So, the next time you feel the need to complain about loot in LFR, just take a look back at the way things used to be and breathe a sigh of relief.  It may be hard to believe at times, but the system is far better than what it was and is improving as we go along.  If you have an idea on how to improve the loot system or any other feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.  Next week, I'll be discussing the other players and how to deal with them.  Don't forget to follow me on twitter @akadarcee and on Facebook.  You can also subscribe to my Twitch so you can always catch my livestreams.  If you have an idea for an article, news story, or want me to try out a game for a review please let me know.  Thanks for reading and I'll catch you all next time.

Foreshadowing?

I saw something I had never seen, as of yet, while I was logging into Warcraft.  I was waiting on the loading screen and glanced down at the little blurb underneath the loading screen art.  Usually, I read something along the lines of "Don't stand in fire" or some other random piece of advice.  Today I read, "Tip: Nobody has seen Alleria and Turalyon in years.  I'm staring at this and getting myself far more excited than I should.  

First of all, how is this a tip?  Usually a Warcraft tip is along the lines of "Companion pets are account-wide. If one of your character has a pet, all your characters can use that pet."  You know what I think, this is more foreshadowing than a normal game tip.  They are leaving us trails of hints and clues to what the upcoming expansion will be. 

I had originally thought we were going to have another Burning Legion expansion, along the way we would stumble across Alleria and Turalyon.  But here's what I'm thinking now.

We are not ready for another Burning Legion expansion.  We are not ready for Sargeras, so I'm pushing that aside.  I have a few different scenarios for how this is going to play out, all of which involve the old "dark portal" crew.  

Several possible scenarios can unfold for Danath Trollbane.  He is currently sitting in Honor Hold as we speak in the same loop with Alleria and Turalyon's son, Arator the Redeemer.  Scenario #1: Danath and "little Arator" (who's not so little anymore) set out on an expedition to find Alleria and Turalyon.  This may lead us to new zones in the Outlands.  Scenario #2:  Danath Trollbane takes back Stromgarde giving the Alliance another major city (a matching Horde city will also pop up somewhere in the world).  Scenario #3:  This one I've been wondering about for quite some time.  When Deathwing ransacked Stormwind, one statue fell over.  It was the statue of Danath Trollbane.  I always considered this to be an omen and Danath is going to die somehow.  Whether its in scenario 1, 2, or elsewhere.  I know that the statue has been fixed, but I still think of this as an omen.

Khadgar is currently located in Shattrath.  I don't think he's going to return to Dalaran and be with the Kirin Tor, but he will be their representative in the Outlands.  If anyone has read any of the Warcraft books, you probably came across this juicy little fact.  Khadgar witnessed or dreamt his own death.  He knows that he dies beneath a sky of orange.  When he first stepped through the Dark Portal he realised that the Draenor sky was the sky he saw in his vision.  There really aren't too many scenarios for Khadgar.  If Danath and Arator go off in search of Turalyon and Alleria, he is coming along.  We may or may not see his death yet.

Kurdran Wildhammer has jumped around a fair bit, so its hard to say if he would make his return.  He was in Shadowmoon Valley at the Wildhammer Stronghold, but during Cataclysm moved to Victor's Point in the Twilight Highlands.  If he is involved in the future expansion in any way, he's probably the one who's going to come across the information of their whereabouts.  

Originally, I had thought that we would be battling the Burning Legion in the same expansion, but after pondering it awhile I really think that having Turalyon and Alleria back before this happens would make things so much better.  Having an expansion where we find these heroes again would be fantastic, but what would the horde do??  I have my own prediction for this, but first I want to know what you think?  Let me know in the comments below.

As always I hope you enjoyed this piece of random ramblings.  If you would like, follow me on twitter @akadarcee and send me a like on facebook: here.  These are the two places that are updated with everything I do, whether its streaming on twitch or posting on youtube.  It would also help to subscribe to both of those as well.  If you have any questions that you would like me to cover feel free to send them in via facebook, twitter, or email (akadarcee@gmail.com).  Catch you guys later.

Gaming News!!

I'm really not going to keep to any kind of schedule, but I would like to start posting a weekly mash-up of interesting news worthy stories.  So... here we go.

Another SWTOR Server Merger

Only this time the Asian servers are merging with the American servers.  Bioware community manager, Eric Musco stated that the decision was guided by community feedback. "One common theme from suggestions, which we heard clearly, is that everyone wants the opportunity to play on higher populated servers.  With this in mind, we have evaluated all the options and determined that the best solution, that will offer the best long term play experience, is to merge the APAC servers with higher populated North American Servers."  No date has been announced for when the merge will happen.  

Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada Is Stepping Down

Remember those days where a new title was announced and you knew it was going to be good because you saw the name Square-Enix.  Well things have very much changed in the last few years, with the problems that Final Fantasy XIV brought them and how Tomb Raider and Hitman: Absolution did not meet their sales "expectations."  Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada is stepping down after thirteen years with the company.    So what's next for Square Enix?  Twelve year Square Enix employee, Yosuke Matsuda, will be taking his place and hopefully the company will be getting an over-haul.

 Counter-Strike Map Resembles A BC School

It's the same story.  We have a massive tragedy and the finger pointing begins.  If its not guns then it must be video games.  But, I'm choosing to not debate this , instead I'm going to tell you about a counter-strike map that was made resembling Port Moody Secondary School in British Columbia, Canada.  While there are no students or teachers being killed it still feels a little wrong to me.  I don't know if its because the map looks so close to the actual school or if its because the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting is still fresh in my mind.  The map's developer has stated that he was working on this project before the December 14th incident and that there are dozens of counter-strike maps that are other schools.   "Port Moody Secondary is a great school. We certainly did not single it out for malicious reasons. . . . Its architecture and design is rather ideal for the game’s tactics,” the developer says.   During a time where violent video games are again being questioned, something like this feels like its just "fanning the flames."  I want to know what you think, debate it out in the comments below.

PAX East Highlights

PAX East was this week, March 22nd - 24th, and there were tons of announcements and highlights.  While I didn't get to go (stupid passports), here's some of the announcements that excited me.  Bioware announced that they are making a new fictional universe.   What do we know about it?  Very little, actually.  I'll try and keep you posted as more news surfaces.  Diablo 3 is coming to PS3 & PS4.  Most everyone had already heard that, but there we go it's been announced.  I personally found Diablo 3 fun, but boring at the same time.  I beat it once and never played it again.  The idea, however, of being able to sit on the couch and play it with four of my console gaming friends is kind of intriguing.   Blizzard announced their secret project that was not a sequel, expansion, or the rumoured Titan project.  While I was really hoping to see Blizzard All Stars, the announcement they made was just as exciting.  It's almost what I call a "guilty pleasure" game.  You will be able to play the Warcraft trading cards game on your PC, Mac, and iPad.  I will be doing a full write up of everything we know on this because there is just too much for right here.  Capcom, I think, surprised everyone by announcing the return of... Ducktales!!  While similar to the Nintendo version, you are Scrooge McDuck and you are working your way around the world treasure hunting.  My son is going to play the crap out of this game!!  Again, I will keep you posted as more information surfaces.

That's it for this week.  If you have any comments please leave them below.  Don't forget to follow me on twitter @akadarcee.  I've slowly begun to stream a little more over at twitch.tv/akadarcee and some of highlights are being uploaded to youtube.com/akadarcee, so don't forget to subscribe to those.  I just, just made a facebook page, which is pretty empty right now, so head over there and give me a like facebook.com/akadarcee.  I also really appreciate it if you have a story you want me to cover.  Get a hold of me on twitter, facebook, or send me an email akadarcee@gmail.com.  Thanks for reading guys!!