I'm making an MMO.

Yep.

I'm making an MMO.

Right now I've gotten a little team together online and we're plugging away at an alpha.  It's 2D, it's goofy and fun, and it has the best goblin death sounds ever created.  Also some epic programmer art.

So what's the plan?  Start small, keep it fun, let the world build off itself as we go.  This definitely isn't a "WoW-killer".  Hell, it's not even a Maple Story killer.  It's just a fun little world in the making that has potential to grow later on.  With a solid base this could certainly go places down the road.

Why am I doing this?  I need a job (I'm a programmer) and the economy sucks.  Worst case scenario, I turn this into a great portfolio piece for later.  Best case?  Maybe this can turn into something bigger.  I seem to have a wonderful knack for running things, after all.

http://www.evertras-studios.com

Fear our terrible forums.  There won't be much there for a while, and beta is easily half a year away at best, but feel free to check it out.

I seem to have this uncanny knack for saying I'm working on a movie, then frapsing a few things before getting distracted by shiny objects near my monitor.  Then I go and do something stupid like make an enhancement shaman named Zasi on Steamwheedle Cartel.

The weird thing is I keep getting e-mails about the whole video thing.  I apparently have made a lasting impression for plenty of people.  Flattering for sure.  I also keep saying I'm going to make another, but for some reason the little sparks haven't quite caught fire like they used to.

Ironically I had a bunch of fire clips from BC I could've made ISAP3 with, and I'll probably toss them in because some of them are pretty damned funny (spell steal pally wings + double fireball crits on a sheep = winnar), but I just didn't really have the motivation to create a full blown movie on a production scale that I'd be proud of.  Still trying to spark it again, I might hunker down soon and just try to force it to start up with some enhancement BG shenanigans.

Enhancement is an interesting beast.  It's certainly VERY different from playing a mage in nearly every possible way.  It also is apparent that it could really use a good kick in the proverbial pants from the devs when it comes to PvP.  I'm starting to feel more confident now, but wow I feel kinda gimp sometimes.  Still, I'm sticking to my own advice.  It's me, not the class.  I need to make it work.  On the bright side, priests/warlocks are like overly ripe grapefruits being tossed into a woodchipper for me now.  Revenge is sweet.  Tremor Totem is sweeter.

As for where mages are today in my eyes... that's for another post.  I'll sum it up quick, though, I just don't find them as fun as I used to in BC, and I think Nevertras will be sitting at 70 for quite some time.  I'm not even sure if it's the class itself now, I think maybe I just needed something new.

Also, wow it's late. q.q

My WoW account doesn't actually end until the 18th or so, so I've been randomly dabbling in PvP with my mage and my warlock. I realized I missed it. No more arenas for a while, and if I do arenas it'll probably be with my warlock, but fire in BGs is FUN.

Age of Conan is a solid game, and I certainly am still playing it. However, like any new MMO, it has its growing pains, especially with end game content. I'm only 64 on my priest, and I'm already starting to run dry on quests. The whole system they have set up is great, but it just needs a LOT of polish still. I'll keep up the priest and enjoy watching it evolve.

In the meantime, though, burning things is getting oddly addicting. I guess I have a problem. On the bright side, I've been Frapsing a lot lately, and I'm really getting the itch for another movie. A fire movie. Sigh.

I keep trying to get out, but they keep pulling me back in... I guess I'll just have to make another movie. :(

So I've gotten my Priest of Mitra up to 22 now, with my barbarian friend at 22 as well. We've done literally everything together so far aside from a few solo things at the very beginning. We mutually decided wrecking stuff together was way more fun so we skipped the rest of the single player quest.

So far I'm finding things interesting every fight. Positioning and spell selection are varied and require some fast thinking. Jump back, run a little circle around the Barbarian to group up everything, Wave of Life to get a HoT on us and activate my feat that gives me bonus damage for the next few spells, Cleansing Fire, Smite the one at highest health, Rebuke that straggler, Cleansing Fire again, Repulse if things are getting crazy, Radiance if we're getting hurt too badly...

I'm still deeply in love with the healing system. Primary heals are HoTs, and you have a single direct heal that's on a 30 second timer, and a 60 second debuff gets placed on anyone hit by it that won't let them get it again until a minute passes. It turns direct heals into true "oh crap" buttons, and makes healing more a study of keeping HoTs up while nuking in between. There are no targetted heals. Health bars are therefore merely an indication of in what direction the next heal should go rather than something to click on. The difference sounds subtle on paper, but in practice it makes the game SO much more immersive as you're running around using your AoE cone heal on people that need it rather than scanning through health bars and clicking Flash Heal.

As for the rest of the game, the difference between the Release version and the Beta version is rather drastic. Release runs much, much smoother, with hideously fast load times. A lot of stuff has been polished up. Icons have been redone in some places to stand out better, animations for everything are in (the rest animation is just classy, you bend over a bit with your hands on your knees and pant for breath), and my frame rate has gotten even smoother.

With 16x AA, everything set to max, and a solid draw distance, I'm staying above 30 easy in nearly all situations, and the game looks drop dead gorgeous. VERY detailed textures, spell effects that each are unique and flashy in their own way (without being overdone), volumetric lighting coming down through the trees, bump maps... I can't really describe how beautiful the game is.

Now, a lot of people would say "Gameplay > graphics", and I agree with that. However, solid graphics like these add an amazing sense of immersion that gameplay alone cannot. Gameplay PLUS graphics > gameplay alone. :D

I could ramble on and on about the game, so I'll ask this instead. What do you guys want to hear about it specifically? I'd love to answer questions or discuss various topics, but I don't want to be talking to myself here. :)

So I cancelled my WoW account. I've done it once before, and I ended up coming back once things were fun again, but right now I'm just not enjoying it anymore. It's nothing against the game, really, I've had a lot of fun with it and I wish it continued success.

I'm always fascinated with the angry posts in this regard. The whole "F U BLIZZARD I CANCEL", as if one bad thing has suddenly completely negated all the fun they had with the game beforehand. Ah well.

I tried out the Age of Conan beta on a whim. Before this I had rather large reservations involving any other MMO out there, so I wasn't expecting much. What I got, however, was a shock to the gaming system of my mind. I was having FUN with it! The combat, the casting, the healing, the graphics, the world... it all combines rather nicely.

I don't think it'll dethrone WoW. Then again, I can't really imagine ANYthing that will dethrone WoW. However, I do think it'll be a fair success, and I don't care if I'm playing the most popular game or not... I want to be playing what I enjoy, not what everyone else likes.

So why am I going to Age of Conan? Oh, where to start...

How about combat?

There is no auto attack in AoC. None at all. Every attack requires a button press, and even then there's no "attack" button. There's left attack, middle attack, and right attack in melee. There's also a shielding system, where you (and your opponents) basically defend one side more than others. If your opponent is protecting his right side but leaving his left open, for example, you want to use attacks that hit him in the left. Simple for normal attacks, though that in itself is surprisingly enjoyable compared to just sitting there and watching auto-attack.

Then there's the combo system. Basically you hit the combo you want to perform, then hit the followup attacks to it. For example, my Herald of Xotli has a combo called Molten Steel Slash. To perform it, I hit the Molten Steel Slash button, then do a left attack, then a middle attack, then that triggers the actual move. The opponent's defenses will dictate how much damage the combo does, depending on what the final swing to activate it is. So if they're leaving a certain side open, you want to use a combo that attacks that point. Conversely, as people get more knowledgeable about all the classes, they'll put up their defenses to try and deflect the most powerful combos of the class they're facing, if they want to get that fancy.

There's also no targeting system for melee attacks. You run up at things, you smack them. This also means if you line things up right, you can send your sword sweeping through multiple enemies at once.

Healing works in another fun way. There's no select target, cast Flash Heal, rinse, repeat 498534 times. The vast majority of healing is on a HoT system. My Priest of Mitra has an AoE HoT that heals ALL friendly targets within a rather large radius. It's completely regardless of what group you're in. Yay for making sense! The HoT is powerful, but needs to be applied early. You also get a cone-shaped heal, which again will heal everything friendly. Keeping both up in PvP is an adventure to say the least. The PoM also gets one direct heal (by level 20 at least), which is an AoE flash heal essentially. It causes a debuff that makes any target healed by it unable to be healed by it again for 30 seconds, regardless of the source. Basically it's an "oh crap" button.

Healing like this has a huge impact on gameplay. There's no "Ok he's almost d- oh wow that one heal got him back to full, back to square 1" in PvP. This in itself makes me VERY VERY happy. As far as I know, there are no Mortal Strike effects, so healing is an equal threat against any class, rather than being gimped against a few while being extremely powerful against others.

It's also just plain FUN to be a healer now. While you'll glance at bars, you're far more concerned with your positioning to get the most amount of people affected by your cone heal possible, keeping up your big AOE HoT, knowing when to toss in the AoE flash heal (named Radiance for the priest btw), and then filling in the rest of the time nuking. That's right, healers are actually required to nuke to be at their full effectiveness. The Priest's Lance of Mitra (through talents) will deal damage to a line of targets and heal anyone around the targets damaged. Nuking with it means you're healing as well. Talents also focus a lot on giving you bonus damage or bonus healing when you heal or nuke, respectively. The entire game HIGHLY encourages healing-centric priests to nuke, and nuking-centric priests to heal for maximum effectiveness. The Bear Shaman, for example, triggers its AoE HoT by going into melee. No paladin in full plate sitting in the back lines. Brilliant!

Then there's the stealth system. It currently needs a bit of tweaking, but as it stands all classes can stealth. The rogue archetype does it far better than everyone else, but priests and mages and even soldiers are able to hide effectively if they spend enough skill points to do it.

Talent trees offer a VERY wide range of options, and make a bunch of subtle changes that have a large impact. For example, here's a priest build I was fooling around with: Talent Tree

Take a look at all the various talents in there. It was actually difficult to choose, and I could see a ton of different ways I could go for other builds.

Each class has access to its archetype's "support" tree, and two trees specific to the class. The support tree for the class tends to have things useful to that archetype. A rogue archetype class has access to better stealth, aggro reduction, and increased damage. The priest and mage trees have mana regen talents, and healing/damage buffs among other things. The two class-specific trees also complement each other for quite a few classes, opening up more options and encouraging diversity.

Collision between players adds a whole new element to PvP. As a healer, I could often run behind my group, and people would actually have trouble getting to me. Or I could stand between someone trying to get to an ally that was hurt and delay them long enough for the HoTs to heal them up.

CC? There's not much, and that is very refreshing. There are knockbacks and knockdowns, short duration stuns, some roots, etc. However, they're all on long cooldowns, and most classes only have one form of CC. There are no spell interrupts. In fact, spells aren't interrupted by damage at all when you spend skill points on concentration. A caster getting attacked can actually get spells off, whether it's heals or damage. Yay! Combat so far seems to be a lot more centered around damage, well-timed CCs, and smart healing. A great balance overall between the three aspects.

Anyway, this is turning into a ramble. The game certainly has its flaws, though I've enjoyed the beta a ton and can't wait for the game to launch next week.

(another random rant ahead, this one much more personal and serious, you've been warned)

I just finished reading Brave New World by Huxley. Great book. I've been a huge proponent of the whole "think for yourself" idea in my videos, and I absolutely wish people would follow that in the real world as well. The mechanical mantras so often repeated in Huxley's dis/utopia was downright frightening. Really, there's nothing more frustrating for me than being unable to get through to someone with reason due to being faced with blind devotion to an ideal. Fanaticism of ANY sort scares me.

After reading the book, I read in the afterword that Huxley had issues reading due to his eyesight. The irony of being a very successful writer yet being nearly unable to read is astounding. Of course, Beethoven became deaf, yet continued to compose incredible music. It kind of got me thinking about my own situation, though I'd certainly not put simple video game vids up to par with a classical music genius or a literary mastermind. Still, I think everyone can make a connection like this if they look deep enough.

As I mentioned before here, I've been diagnosed with major depression. For those that haven't had experience with this, let me tell you that it's far, far different than being "down" or "sad". It's laying in bed for weeks, only getting up for a meal a day at most. It's thinking that the best thing for you to do is close your eyes and never wake up. It's feeling physically numb, mentally numb, emotionally numb. It's the incapability to see anything but a vast pit of darkness that you're lost in. It's wanting to feel pain because it's the only thing you damned well CAN feel. There's a million things to do, and a million more to do tomorrow, but you don't do any of them. Why? Because something bad happened? Nope, life is great at the time. And that just makes it worse, because you feel like you're wasting a life that someone else deserves more. You feel horrible because you're not worthy. You're not worth it. This endless disgusting cycle remains unbroken, spiraling you down even deeper than you thought possible until you suddenly laugh and then cry for hours. FINALLY you think that maybe things shouldn't be like this, and maybe you should get help, but it's already destroyed a part of your life you may never get back.

All because a few chemicals in your brain aren't like they should be.

Yet here I am getting e-mails and messages left and right thanking me for inspiring people and making them laugh and be entertained. I've even had a few people say they've even gotten a bit lighter of a view on life itself for one reason or another, and while that wasn't my main purpose, it brings me great joy to hear it.

I've since gotten on medication that has helped more than I can describe in words. I feel like myself again, a real human being. Occasionally when I miss a dose or two I can feel the darkness creeping in, but that just spurs me to get back on track again.

So why am I writing all this here? To emo about it? Well, that's what blogs are for, or so I hear, but there's another purpose. Stay with me here.

"Never give up!" I say that a lot. "Don't blame yourself, but think of what you can fix." "Be a good loser and a good winner, it's the fight that counts." "Have fun with it." "Keep perspective."

Really, these are all things I've learned the very hard way. I seem to have a knack for always needing to learn the hard way. Maybe I'll learn the hard way not to do that. :P

Regardless, these are lessons that extend far beyond a simple video game. "Never give up!" "Don't blame yourself, but think of what you can fix." "Be a good loser and a good winner, it's the fight that counts." "Have fun with it." "Keep perspective." Can you honestly not see situations in your own life where these are applicable? I sure as hell can, and I try to apply them as much as possible.

I've seen the dark side of my own mind. The dark, dark side. I don't ever want to see it again. Now for a fun question. Would I change it if I could? Never go through all that?

Hell no.

I am who I am because of what I've been through and what I've learned from it. Life has peaks and valleys. The lower the valleys, the higher the mountains seem. I think I can honestly enjoy happiness more and truly appreciate what I've been given because of what I've went through.

Some people say "God works in mysterious ways." Others say "Everything happens for a reason." I'm not so convinced on either. My own philosophy on this is that bad stuff just happens. There's no getting around it. It's what you do with it that counts. When I dropped out of college due to depression and recovered a bit afterwards, I ended up taking a job at Vicarious Visions. That job lasted two years, and was an incredible experience that basically set me up in the industry for life (or so I hope). Then they told me I couldn't have a full time job without a full degree, and I was pretty crushed by that. Did I give up? Not a chance. Instead, I'm taking the opportunity to move out west into a climate that isn't negative 398423 and covered in snow, working my way out to my eventual goal after I graduate: California and Blizzard itself.

Even if I don't end up where I'm aiming right now, I'm 100% confident that I'll be happy wherever I end up in one way or another. I'm fully expecting bad things to happen in the future, but I'm also fully expecting good things to happen too that arise from opportunities created from the very things I deemed "bad'. I may have gone through mental hell and back, but that created an opportunity to work for the gaming industry. I took it, and looking back I'm happy I did.

Everything both good and bad creates new opportunities. Don't mope about a bad situation. See what opportunities have arisen for you and take them!

(warning: EXTREME random ranting ahead, this is being typed on the spot as I muse about it)

ISAP2 is done! Brb, ice skating around hell a few hours.

Ok, back. That was fun.

So yeah, the vid's done, and it's uploading right now. Given the original's popularity, I'm a little nervous about how this will go over. Have expectations gone through the roof? I feel like I can't even control that anymore. Ah well.

I'm not entirely happy with the actual visual quality of the vid, and it was an enormous pain to work on my old computer that's on its last feeble legs. And that brings me to the fun part...

So what's next?

ISAP3? I dunno. I have a bunch of new toys on my new computer, and now that I have a 1 terabyte drive and hardware that lets me fraps at 60 fps at full resolution, I feel like I have some breathing room. Maybe I'll do a "real" PvP video, though I still think that'll turn out as "just another mage vid". I'd like to try something more unique and experimental, though what that means exactly I'm not sure.

One thing I've been tossing around in my head is a sort of "I Suck at PvP Videos". There's a ton of movies out there, and I've seen more than I care to admit to. I've seen great vids, good vids, average vids, and vids that made me cry for humanity in their creation. I figure a basic "Here's what you can do to make your vid stand out and be enjoyable to the average viewer" would be fun to do, and I could get a chance to play with my fancy new editing tools as well.

A big question is "What do people want to see?" The short answer is that I seem to have hit on a solid piece of content that people want access to. I've seen a definite rise in "commentary" in vids, which is cool, and it's been well received all around.

The first PvP videos to arise were generally what most people would call "crit vids". Basically, "here's my character wrecking people with big numbers over and over." Let's be honest, the first one you saw was probably pretty damned fun. Hell, I still enjoy a "crit vid" from time to time when it's well done. They all generally followed the following formula:

Step 1: Dramatic shot of character walking and sheathing/unsheathing weapons Step 2: Heavy metal music with screaming Step 3: Clip after clip of things dieing to big numbers Step 4: Credits

A lot of vids today seem to follow that formula still, which is kind of disheartening. It was fun at first, sure, but when I see a rogue walking along somewhere going "HAY LOOK AT MY WEAPONS" in their 3 minute intro showing the same thing, I'm rolling my eyes and either closing the vid or clicking ahead to see some actual PvP.

I can only really think of one video that's followed that formula that people still remember today, and that would be Gegon. He basically blew the crap out of people with trinkets/AP, but he did it so stylishly that you can't help but grin at it. Pretty much everyone else has fallen away into WoW history.

Then there's editing, and the dreaded "overediting". If you haven't seen the Unknown series, go watch it now. It's a supreme example of "overediting" that actually works. The editing flows with the music, the images are suitably abstract and removed from normal WoW that they're interesting and sometimes a bit creepy, and the action just plain fits. If you simply put all the PvP clips side by side, "Unknown" would be more than its title. It's really the incredible editing this guy did that made them classics.

Finally, there's raw skill. This in itself doesn't sell a video in the slightest. Sure, you might be a "cult hit" among the more skilled mages that look for these things, but the average viewer can't really appreciate a focus CS on a heal while throwing a grenade at a resto shaman running up to clinch a kill unless you show it to them. For example, Affix is a solid mage. His 3v3 vid is a great example of how coordinated CC can absolutely wreck an opposing team. However, if you don't know what's going on, you just kind of sit there and go "Oh, they won. Yay." There were not many downloads, though it was a solid show of skill for sure.

Every PvP video tends to be a combination of these three aspects in my experience. There's Domination, Presentation, and Skill.

Gegon excelled in Domination and did well with Presentation, though (with zero insult to him) the vids generally weren't about his personal skill.

Unknown excelled in Presentation and Domination, though again had issues with skill.

Affix excelled in Skill, had some solid Domination, but lacked Presentation.

Then there's people that combine it all, like Vurtne. This is a very touchy subject for a lot of people. For example, if you want a 20 page thread on the mage forums, just post "Vurtne: Sucks or mage god?" Personally, I think he's a damned good mage, and he made damned good movies. The Vurtne phenomenon is really a combination of solid "holy crap he just wrecked that guy" clips interspersed with "Wow that was plain cool/funny/enjoyable to watch" combined with a copious amount of "wtf how did he juggle 4 people like that and come out on top".

I've heard before that people "should" like something and are disgusted with the top PvP movies because there's someone "better". Well, sure, that's true. But there's really nothing of what people "should" like, it's what they DO like. Maybe you think people SHOULD enjoy a display of pure skill, but that's irrelevant. If there's no Presentation to go with it, the average viewer won't appreciate it. And hell, we ALL like seeing someone get completely wrecked from time to time. If you don't you're a liar. Extremely close matchups are exciting, but just like if every match was completely one sided, every single match being extremely close can be just as bad sometimes.

I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this or what I even just said, so I'm gonna stop here. Hopefully something coherent came out of it.

Anyway, ISAP2 is soon. ;)

I have Slow.

Ok, you can stop laughing now.

Seriously.

STOPPIT

I'm about to do some arenas with it.

SRSLY GUYS STOP LAUGHING

So why do I have Slow? I'm currently a 45/16/0 build due to getting an itch for something new, and for another reason.

Everyone has their own playstyle, whether it's active, passive, offensive, or defensive. This is fine, but the problem arises when you get TOO stuck in your own little world. For example, I tend to play very defensively. While this often works out all right, sometimes I end up going the whole fight just running around like an idiot trying to stay alive when I should be actually trying to kill the damn opponent.

Respecs into something completely different shake you up and make you rethink your strategies. I sometimes spec into a completely offensive playstyle just to make myself leave my comfort zone and play better overall.

Try this out with your own character sometime if you find yourself stuck in a rut. Shake up your gaming and you'll improve your "favorite" spec by stretching out your legs a bit and seeing what your class is capable of.

It appears we have made a ripple. Time for some EvE action, I've always wanted a good rivalry. I guess I'll have to settle for this guy though. ;)

When, ever, in the history of anything I've ever said in my entire life, have I said I'm trying to appeal to the top players?

I state flat out that I'm an average mage making movies for the average player. Is there something bad about this? Does this bother you? Rub you the wrong way that I've succeeded in doing so?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic

I really have no idea what the bejeezus you attempted to say there. Let's try this.

Category A: I am a bad player and I learn from bad videos
Category B: I am a good player and I learn from good videos
Category C: I am an excellent player and I analyze every video to its fullest

Hmm. "Judging by my videos", they analyze themselves and encourage others to analyze them so I suppose they fall under category C. "Judging by my forum posts", I like cats. As for the blog posts, that was just me thinking you were an idiot. So I guess C gets the most votes by your system, though I'd put myself under B anyway.

Make more posts imo, this is fun. :D

http://www.gameriot.com/blogs/Exitec-.../The-E-Ego/

A quote from the end:

Honestly, this made me laugh. Where to begin...

Apparently the sole criteria of a good movie is to show skill. Everyone that watches PvP videos MUST without exception rate ONLY on the skill of the player. Nevermind if the movie is boring as hell, or if it's the same rehash done fifty times before. Oh no. It can't possibly be for entertainment or any other purpose. Shame on you all for rating my video on something other than skill. SHAME! >:O

Apparently the only reason to duel is for bragging rights. Hmm. I guess I've been going about it wrong the entire time. I mean, I can't duel for fun anymore? I can't say "good fight!" after beating an epixed out SL lock and leave it at that? I guess have to yell it to the heavens, spread it around in guild chat, make forum posts, and take screenshots. I'll remember to do that next time.

As a serious note, I'd like to reiterate why I keep saying I'm an average mage. Modesty aside, I think I'm pretty decent, but I know I'm far from the best. I don't say this to avoid critique, I say this because I want people to know that the stuff I do in my videos is stuff they can do themselves.

As another serious note, the reason I made this post was only partially to share the good fun that is that blog post. The other part was for a few musings on PvP videos.

What makes a "good" PvP video? I think a lot of people forget who they're making the videos for, and are absolutely floored when an "inferior" video containing cat pictures and silly alt skits does better than a technically skilled player showcasing difficult fights with death metal back to back to back... to back... to back...

For those of you making PvP videos, remember your audience! You're making this video for other people, not yourself. Other people don't want to see the same thing for 20-30 minutes. Put some variety in there! It's kind of like being left alone in the candy store. Sure, chocolate covered pretzels are good... but if you stuff your face with them for the next half hour, I guarantee they're not going to be as good as you thought they were by the end.

Not only variety, but make it something that the average WoW player can appreciate. Vurtne was a master of this, taking on tons of opponents with flashy moves. A heated debate on the mage forums is often revolving around Vurtne's skill. Honestly, that kinda misses the point. The man makes damned, damned good movies that are flat out fun to watch (and he's a damned good mage to boot).

On the other hand, let's take Pigvomit's 2v1 arena movie. Awesome skill shown, and it ends up with a 4.2 rating and about 25k downloads. For a lot of people, it just wasn't an entertaining movie. That doesn't make it a BAD movie (and Pigvomit certainly hasn't complained like certain mages COUGHEXITECCOUGH), and I personally definitely enjoyed it and would love to see more, but it was made for a smaller audience. It's not a movie for the masses, and while there's nothing wrong with that, it'd be silly to expect it to take off and go platinum with 5's.

And now for the big question...

Could Vurtne beat Pigvomit?

...

Who cares? ;)

I'm currently sitting here with Vegas open with I Suck At PvP 2, and I've got about 12 minutes completed. It's been very slow going out of sheer laziness, or more to the point sheer unwillingness to get done what I want to get done. I guess I've got a bit of burnout.

Honestly, I want to make each movie I work on better than the last, and in a way that's starting to screw me over. I'm proud of what I've done so far, and honestly think it's a step above the last one in nearly every way (editing and the fights themselves), but ugh I dread going any further as it's just becoming a pain to edit. I kinda wish I could just say "make it like this" and it'd magically be done the way I want it.

It's kind of amusing to me that hours upon hours upon hours of work can result in one minute of completed footage. On the other hand, if that minute's being watched hundreds of thousands of times, that would make it worth it, right?

I don't really know why I'm posting this, I just need to vent in public and a blog seems like the place for emo ramblings. :D

Whine whine, moan moan, ok I'm done. Back to work.

...maybe after lunch.

My Ideas for WotLK Mage Talents

I tried to make all three trees viable for PvP and PvE, focusing on utility for Arcane, damage/crits for Fire, and debuffs for Frost. I also fixed some "useless" talents such as Arcane Fortitude, Wand Spec, Frozen Core, Improved Flamestrike, etc. I purposely made some of the deeper talents very raid friendly so there's incentive to bring any spec of mage to a raid, and I added some survivability/escape tools for arcane and frost to make them more desirable in arenas.

I made Improved Fireball affect Pyroblast to 4 seconds, and added a 15 second cooldown to Pyro. I think this will let it be used in a fire rotation in raids, and allow it to be actually usable in PvP without PoM.

I swapped Improved Counterspell from a % chance to a duration increase with each point. I hate the 50% chance thing, so 1 point makes it silence for 2 seconds. Not a major change, but fixes a pet peeve.

Molten Fury now applies over a wider range of health (50% and under), but gives a smaller bonus. Overall it's a touch more damage and comes into play in more fights.

I tweaked a bunch of other stuff as well, so take a look and let me know what you all think!

(Part 2 of the ISAD Post Mortem coming later for the 3 of you interested, but this is something I've had on my mind for a long time and really wanted to share)

Life and WoW

I've heard from a few people that I "take this stuff too seriously". Nah. I have fun with digging into things so deeply, but there's also more to it than that.

What's the difference between a game and an actual important life decision? Really, it's just perspective. This doesn't mean that life is just a game, or that games are important life decisions, but let's take a look at a few parallels between WoW and life.

Work In Equals Reward Out

I put a lot of effort (...ok, time invested) into getting the gear I have today. Work in equals work out. If I work towards a goal, the more work I put into it the better the reward. If didn't go into Kara, I wouldn't have my pants. If I didn't work on arena and do my best to help our rating, I wouldn't have all the arena pieces I have now. If I didn't spend some time trying to figure out the best way to get gold (and actually going out and getting it), I wouldn't have the enchants and spellthreads and what have you. If I didn't work on my Sha'tar rep, I wouldn't have my helm enchant and trinket.

Right now I'm still working on arena gear (shoulders in 2 weeks, wand the week after if all goes well), and my Icon of the Silver Crescent (two more mech runs!). I'm still putting in the effort because I'll get the reward.

So how does this apply to life? That should be ridiculously obvious. The more work you put into your job, the more you're rewarded (bonuses, raises, general good standing).

Something I don't think many people at all know about me is that I worked as a game developer for two years (and am currently trying to finish college so I can get back to that). Let me share a quick story.

I started out in QA. I was the guy that tried to find all the bugs (and in the process, gained a LOT more respect for the developers and lenience for those bugs that got through, good god you should see an unfinished game). There was a coworker that sat next to me on the same project.

Throughout the life of the project, this coworker was constantly on the WoW forums (oh the irony). He rarely did any actual work. Why they allowed his computer to access the WoW forums after the first few days is beyond me.

Regardless, while I admit I certainly visited the forums myself from time to time, I was for the most part diligently working away at finding and recording bugs. I eventually became a mini-legend in the company for being "the hardcore gamer" that would tackle any level the developers threw at me because I learned so much about the game and how it works. 8+ hours a day will do that to you. I say I'm an average player in WoW, but I will without humbleness say I was damned amazing at X-men Legends II for PSP. I played their toughest missions with only one character at a time (you're supposed to have four), that sort of thing. I ended up finding a bug that let you one shot the final boss, which was fun as hell (and you can still do it because it was a design flaw that was essentially unfixable) and basically ensured I was the "MVP QA tester".

Of course, my final goal wasn't QA. I was a programmer at heart, having been doing it in one form or another since I was four (yes, I'm serious). Near the end of the project I started talking to my manager and some of the senior programmers about possibly getting a chance, and I went through some interviews with a kind of "we'll see" feeling.

One night before the final build was due, a bug came in from Activision's QA that involved beating the game followed by a horrible, horrible hard crash. I was elected to do a full run through of the game in one night (starting at around 8 PM) to see what was going on. That night I think I had like a 12 pack of Mountain Dew to keep me alert, and at around 2 AM or so I collapsed on my desk triumphantly, having beaten the game and discovered that the bug did not exist on the latest build for whatever reason.

After the project was over, I was offered a programming position, with my effort in QA being cited as a trait they were looking for. I continued the trend, and have been repeatedly asked if I'll be coming back once I finish my degree.

As for my WoW forum browsing compatriot, I never saw him again.

Work in equals reward.

One Step at a Time

When I hit the 50s or so with Evertras, 60 only seemed farther away than ever even though I had gotten so close. Thanks to some coaxing from Asheni, I slowly crawled my way there. The big irony of it all was that because it seemed so far to go, I barely made any effort to get there.

Farming for my epic mount at 60 was similar, though I had begun to steel myself. I told myself I would just gun right through it, and after a painful week I was riding a purple skeletal warhorse around.

By the time BC came out, I had begun to figure something out. All this "difficult stuff" was attainable just fine if I only made the effort to get there. For the 60 to 70 grind, I took a new approach. I didn't look at 70 as my final goal, I looked at each half of a level as my final goal. Every time I reached another half of a level, I'd look at the next, and the next, and so on until suddenly I was 70.

I saw people in amazing gear, and instead of whining and moaning to myself that I could never get that, I instead just started working towards it. I didn't look at being fully kitted out in PvP gear as my final goal once more, I took it one piece at a time. Now I'm almost fully in PvP epics.

Scryer rep was the same too. I told myself I'd get a few thousand rep per night, and used that as my goal instead of "get exalted". Some nights I'd get a bit more, some a bit less, but the overall grind was fairly painless and I enjoy the rewards it got me (nice money, too).

I'm now working on my epic flying mount. I have about 500g, and I don't think I'll have the 5k for a long time yet, but I know that if I just keep slowly saving up, I'll get it.

So what does this have to do with life? Time for another quick story (don't worry, I actually mean "quick" this time).

In a sense I'm a bit of a college dropout, or at least I was. I got a year and a half completed before I dropped out and went to go work. I'd like to say I was getting bored or that it was too easy, but in all honesty, I was getting overwhelmed, just like with Evertras in the 50s. Here I was, so close to the end, and I quit! There was a lot I could've learned, and if I had stayed with it I might be working full time over at VV rather than as a contract employee.

WoW actually has taught me a VERY valuable lesson. I can do what I set my mind to, no matter how long it takes, and what seems unattainable is actually very simple if I just take it a step at a time and stop trying to only look at the end. I'm now back in college and planning to finish it without any problems now.

I just have to take it one step at a time.

Stop and Smell the Roses

This is pretty related to the above bit, but I think it bears explaining. Sometimes I have a habit of fixing my sights on the final goal, and never realize what I'm doing in the moment. When I was in the 50s with Evertras, I was ignoring all the places I was exploring, all the quests I was completing for the first time, the specs I was toying with, and so on.

When I focused on getting to 60, I hated playing. Everything I did felt boring, tedious, and annoying.

When I instead focused on the moment, how I was going to kill the next monster, see what kind of combos I could line up, see what spells I could use differently, see how many I could take on at once, that was when the game was fun again. I wasn't getting to 60 any slower, but I was having a hell of a lot more fun with it.

When I level alts I admit I use a guide... but as I go along, I play these little games with myself. How can I grind absolutely most efficiently with my warlock spells? What's the fastest time I can kill something in?

Then there's the world itself. Why are these dragon whelps here? What do they do all day? What's this cult about? What brought them out here? Keep a little flavor in your gameplay!

So what does this have to do with life? I hope this one's obvious too.

Enjoy it! Enjoy the moment, don't dread what may come to pass. For example, back in middle school I used to HATE August. I still had time off, but I knew school was looming, and I groaned at the thought of going back. What I should have been doing instead is enjoying the free time I had left instead of keeping my mind on what wasn't happening right then.

For example, I'm not looking forward to going through a bejeezus ton of messy paperwork trying to fix up my transfer credits with a professor's help, but am I doing that right now? Of course not. I'm sitting here watching Adult Swim and typing into this blog, sitting in a rather comfortable chair in my apartment. Why should I worry about something that isn't happening right now and that I can't affect until it arrives?

Back at my old college, I made this mistake. Instead of enjoying the moment, college life, and focusing on my classes, I kept trying to look ahead.

Thanks in part to WoW, I've now learned that instead of looking ahead all the time, I should look at where I am right now. What's ahead will get here when it's good and ready.

Holy crap you read this far

I commend you on your patience and worry about the amount of free time you must have, but I hope that was interesting. I'd also like to stress this isn't just WoW that I'm learning from, but it's games in general. I just like to use WoW as a reference here. If people are curious I'll write up some more parallels I've found for myself, but I think that's quite long enough for all but the most obsessive readers for one post. ;)

WARNING: This is going to be a rather serious look at stuff, so don't expect LOLCATS or anything. But if you're interested in my thought process on my original I Suck At Dueling movie, read on!

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=38934

So how did this mess all start?

To be honest, I didn't originally start out thinking to myself "I'm going to create a detailed instructional video". The whole thing really started when I saw an Albis movie a long time ago, and during one warlock fight he detailed his thoughts (somewhat scarcely), and I thought that was just the coolest thing.

You see, I love strategies and mechanics in games, and seeing what other people have come up with. I also play Magic: The Gathering (or used to before I moved, WTB people near me), and seeing all the decks and interactions made me keep coming back for more.

So when I see someone detailing their thoughts in a movie, it becomes a lot more to me than simply "hit frostbolt, win". I figured I wasn't alone, so I set out to create a movie that was entirely like this.

Of course, it turned out to be more instructional very quickly. At the time I was getting very disenchanted with the mage forums. There was so much whining! "Our class is awful!" "A warlock can mash their face on the keyboard and beat me!" Ugh. When something is going wrong, I don't like to whine, I like to do something about it. So in this case, instead of whining about the whining, I set out to change people's minds so hopefully they could have some fun again. The idea of subtitling my thought process combined naturally with this goal.

I Suck At Editing

I had just recently come fresh off "I Suck At Maging", which was a complete travesty (that I will rip apart in another post another time when I'm feeling brave). My editing skills were nil, as I had just recently started using Vegas. All I did for this movie was basically slap some text on the bottom of the screen. Sadly, the contrast between the text and my UI was horrible, making reading difficult. This was one lesson I learned quickly after releasing it, and something I fixed in later movies by adding a black background over the text.

It's kind of interesting to see how a general feel was established in this movie. There's text at the bottom of the screen, there's big walls of text interspersed when I need to cover something more elaborate, and, of course, appropriate cat pictures. This formula doesn't really change all that much throughout the I Suck At Dueling series, which is kind of unfortunate. I ended up breaking this little mold with I Suck At PvP, when I finally started listening to certain criticisms about the text being hard to read and such.

One thing I was really happy with in this movie was how the music went with the action. It had a great "flow", something I tried to keep up in later movies. Transitions and moves seemed to go nicely with the beat. Honestly, I sometimes wonder how this happens, as a lot of it isn't intentional. I'd nudge around timing slightly in some spots, but for the most part I'd just watch the movie over and go "Wow... that lined up nicely". My computer is haunted apparently.

Speaking of music, I totally missed out on providing a music list at the end. Whoops. I'd later discover that most people don't seem to read it though anyway. :(

My intro was also pretty weak from an editing standpoint, but I don't think it looked too horrible. That's something I definitely ended up experimenting with more later on, and I think I've improved as time goes on in that department.

The whole "/duel" ending was set here too. The idea of it was to try and get people to get out there and try it themselves. This wasn't just an end of a movie, it was a transition from seeing the movie to logging into WoW. Duel some people! Try new stuff! Get out there and have fun! People seemed to get the intended feeling from it from those that I asked, so I stuck with it for future movies.

Overall I wasn't exceptionally happy with my editing, but for just starting out really I think I did all right. It was a great learning experience and the feedback I got showed me what I needed to work on. The big target was making the text more readable, which I fixed in the next movie.

I'm going to wrap up Part 1 here, in Part 2 I'm going to take a look at my actual playing in the movie.

Just some random musings... what should I use this for? It's a place where I can jot down thoughts, but it can't really be used as a reference (that's what the site's for, after all). However, what this place has that the site doesn't have is room for comments! Of course, I'd like to have a place for comments on the site, but I guess that's part of the whole "Get a real site you idiot" bit.

Still, I can at least use this place for semi-discussion and easily accessible feedback. So let's start now and do a little experiment to see A) what you guys want and B) if there's enough people reading this to respond to make asking for feedback here even worth it.

For the three of you probably reading this, what would you like to see here?

So I guess I should use this thing. Would be kind of a nice place to jot down some notes.

I found a nice add-on that I've yet to actually try, but from what it says it'll let you click on a player's name in a frame and sheep them in arenas. It's called Gladiator, and can be found at http://files.wowace.com/ . I'd post a link for Curse, but I couldn't find it on here. :(

I've left my current 3v3 team due to the fact that I'd rather have our rogue be able to play it more often and get points (he doesn't have a 5v5), and I'll probably be joining a friend's for fun. This means that 3v3 footage is nonexistant and will stay that way for a while.

The good news is our 5v5 seems to have finally "clicked". We went on a streak last night and got ourselves to 1899 doing just fine against equal rating teams. I've got some nice footage, ans my next movie will probably be "I Suck At 5v5" or similar. I'm slowly starting to turn into a CC bot with our setup, but honestly I kinda like the role. Trying to juggle both was annoying.

My site (ma.sword.googlepages.com) is coming along pretty nicely now. Still a lot of work left to do, but it's shaping up to be actually useful. I may think about moving it to a "real" domain at some point, but eh. I want to at least flesh it out first.

This is only a test. If this had been a real post, it would contain a cat picture.