Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

The MMO Times: Remember Theramore!!

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On September 21, 2012

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Issue 47

Welcome back, Gamers! We are on the brink of the next World of Warcraft expansion and ironically I found nothing really worth reporting about Mists of Pandaria this week. Of course by this point everyone pretty much knows what to expect. It will seem strange that we don’t have a Blizzcon this year, but everyone is going to be too entrenched into the expansion anyway.

This week Aion and SWTOR have made it back into the headlines and more news about The Secret World (especially if you have been waiting for a free trial). There is also more news about NCSoft’s efforts to bring Blade & Soul to the west and more content for DC Universe Online. I’ve also been hearing of more beta invites going out for MechWarrior Online, have you gotten yours? Read on and game on, friends!

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Theramore's Fall

WoW: The Theramore’s Fall Scenario

By

On September 18, 2012

In World of Warcraft

Theramore's FallThe week leading up to the launch of Blizzard’s fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria (MoP), players can participate in the first of the new scenarios. Scenario’s are a new mechanic introduced with this expansion that provide additional end game activities for players. The first scenario is called Theramore’s Fall and it went live this week. This scenario is also allegedly the pre-MoP “world event” that not only explains how Pandaria is found but the catalyst that reignites the feud between the Horde and Alliance. The night the scenario went active I grabbed my wife and my friend and we jumped in queue. This is what I think of the event from the perspective of a world event and from the perspective of the new scenario mechanic.

The Theramore “World Event”

In a word, I found the fall of Theramore world event “disappointing”. When you compare it to the zombie apocalypse (that introduced WotLK) and the earthquakes (that introduced Cataclysm), this one was extremely unimpressive. Even as I am typing this I am still hoping that there will be more to the pre-Mists world event then 15 minutes of countering assaults and the total destruction of Theramore.

I get that Blizzard wanted to show off their new scenario mechanic (which I will get to in a little bit) but I feel like they really dropped the ball. I feel like they could have done something to remind us every time we log in, until the expansion, that something terrible has happened. The scenario could still have been integrated into the event but I don’t think it should have been the only component of the event. I think they should have done more with Jaina since there was such a build up to the change in her persona.

Completing the world event the player is rewarded with a tabard or a mana bomb, some fireworks and a chance at ilevel 384 gear. It hardly feels like a world event at all.

The “Theramore’s Fall” Scenario

One of the new game mechanics Blizzard is introducing with Mists of Pandaria are called “Scenarios”. Basically its a group of 3 that has certain objectives to complete. My understanding is that every scenario will be designed in a way so any three people can participate regardless of class spec. You will not need “the holy trinity”, as I’ve heard it called, to complete the scenario. Its basically an instanced quest chain and it should only take 15-20 minutes to complete. You can only do the scenario by using the looking-for-group tool.

Aside from what I thought about the Theramore scenario as a world event, the scenario itself was a lot of fun. I really like the concept that I can just hop on and grab my wife and a friend and go knock something over and not have to spend all night doing it. I like that none of us have to play musical characters/specs so we have to make sure we have a tank/healer to be successful. It’s also nice, especially for alts, that you may be rewarded with a high level piece of gear. I don’t know what the plans are for rewards for the level 90 scenarios but I am interested to find out.

So far, my early impression is pretty positive for scenarios. I think its a pretty cool idea to add to improve the end-game experience. Honestly, I hope it is received well and perhaps other games will adopt the idea and perhaps even try to add their own tweak to it.

Biggs On: iPhone 5 Announcement

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On September 17, 2012

In Apple, Biggs On, Technology

I know I am about a week late to be posting a comment on Apple’s latest announcement but I had other things I was working on and other posts I wanted to finish first. Unless you are living under a rock you should be aware now that Apple has unveiled a new iPhone, the iPhone 5, and its already available for pre-order and it will start shipping this Friday (September 21st).

The Apple-haters were quick to proclaim how anti-climatic the announcement was and that expectations were shattered and thousands were left unimpressed (by the way, the iPhone 5 has broken AT&T sales records). Personally, the announcement met all of my expectations. I wasn’t really expecting the unveiling of some new technological feat, what else could they possibly do to a phone. It will be faster, more streamlined, and the camera is vastly improved; which is pretty much what I was expecting. It was a humble upgrade for an excellent device.

If you hadn’t heard enough about what to expect in the next iteration of iPhone, here are a few of the key features I was excited to see:

  • 18% thinner, 20% lighter (constructed entirely of glass and aluminium)
  • A 5th row of icons and a 16:9 aspect ratio
  • “ultrafast wireless” with LTE; wi-fi can now receive on 802.11n band
  • A6 chip (twice as fast as the A5)
  • 1080p FaceTime, panoramic pictures at 28 megapixels
  • Cameras use Sapphire lens (?)

These are just a couple of the upgraded features in the new iPhone so its just a fundamental feature set upgrade. I won’t be rushing out to buy the iPhone 5 and not because of alleged “lack luster” features but because my 4S is only a year old and I’m too cheap to try to buy a new phone every year. I will most likely wait until the next iteration (whether that is the 5S or the iPhone 6). I will admit though, if economics weren’t a factor, I probably would have already pre-ordered one.

Cheers.

The MMO Times: Before the Mists

By

On September 15, 2012

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

Issue 46

Greetings Gamers. This week was kind of a quiet week and I think its because most of the big news is already out there. We all know that the fourth World of Warcraft expansion is less than 10 days away and the first of their new Scenario’s starts on Tuesday with the razing of Theramore. Of course the other game that has been keeping people distracted is Guild Wars 2, which I haven’t tried yet but I might give it a whirl around the holidays.

This week in gaming news we mostly have updates coming down the line for SWTOR and The Secret World and more Panda teasers. NCSoft is bringing more games over to the Western continents and its a martial arts MMO which might interest some. Read on and game on, friends.

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We Will NEVER Forget!

By

On September 11, 2012

In General Cogitation

Eleven years ago today I was at Purdue. When the first tower was hit, I was asleep but the alarm had gone off and the radio station was reporting the events. I was very confused in my half-awake state. I walked out and turned the TV on just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It was so surreal I tried to make myself believe that I was watching an excerpt from a movie. I remember wishing that it wasn’t real.

The tone on campus all day was somber. I had four classes back-to-back that day and in 3 of them I had professors nearly in tears. Only one class actually went the full length, the rest the professor finished early.

Several years later I visited New York City and Ground Zero. I remember feeling choked up thinking about all of those that lost their lives when they were simply going about their work day. I remember looking around at the other faces of the people visiting the site and, as corny as this might sound, I felt inclined to hug them all.

Its unfortunate that tragedy has to strike to unite the country. Here we are, less then 60 days until the 2012 Presidential Election and still both parties are spending more time trying to tear the other guy down. Instead they should be telling the American people what they are going to do to continue to make our country great and how to keep us all safe so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. The American people should choose based on what the candidate stands for, not how much they insulted their opponent.

Despite the political differences I may have between my friends, I consider myself extremely fortunate to still call you all my friends and to still have you here to debate our beliefs. I may not always agree with you but I will never let our disagreements break us apart. My blessings to you and your families on this somber anniversary.

I will never forget that day, where I was, what I was feeling. I leave you with the words of Alan Jackson, “Where were you when the world stopped turning?”

To SSD or Not To SSD

By

On September 10, 2012

In General Cogitation, Technology

Since I received a laptop at work with an SSD (Solid State Drive), I have been considering the investment to install one in my home PC. I know that SSDs do not come cheaply so my conundrum is whether the investment is worth the return. I would be installing the SSD on my Quad-Core Windows 7 computer with 8 gig of RAM which I primarily use for gaming. I think the most noticeable improvement will be my boot time, currently it takes my computer nearly 5 minutes to boot (from clicking OK to logout, to fully logged in and loaded). It’s extremely annoying especially considering the tumultuous behavior of every version of Windows (ever!).

I have been talking to friends and co-workers to solicit their feedback as to their experiences and opinions of installing and using an SSD. I’ve heard that its pretty straight forward (i.e. if you can install a regular hard drive, then you can install an SSD). My current hard drive is 1 TB in size and I’m pretty sure I haven’t even used half the space yet but I would probably keep it in the system as non-SSD storage. I’ve had recommendations that I should install all my main programs on the SSD and perhaps use the non-SSD for cache and other temporary files to reduce the amount of space used up on the SSD.

Granted a 1 TB drive for temporary files seems to be a bit too much. My naiveté of SSDs had me thinking that it was only used for improving the speed that it takes for the OS to boot. I didn’t realize that its literally just another hard drive but has no moving parts. So part of the conundrum is what would I do with the 1 TB hard drive because it seems wasteful to use it for non-SSD storage. If I don’t use the 1 TB drive, then should I get something smaller to accompany the SSD (and give my Linux box a bit more space).

I have seen prices of solid state drives for $1+ per GB so you don’t see to many (if any) above 512 GB. If I end up having to spend that kind of cash I want to know that it was a good investment. I don’t want it to suddenly die on me three months later, I would expect it to last 2-3 years (assuming I don’t need more space). I want to be more then satisfied with the performance boost of how long it takes to boot and the overall performance of other programs (ex: WoW, SWTOR, OpenOffice, PaintShop Pro, etc). I don’t want to do it because “it’s what all the other geeks are doing”.

It really all comes down to the price and the ROI.

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