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I was in Gamestop over the weekend browsing to pass the time while my wife and mother were off on a shopping expedition when I noticed something curious on the tiny three foot section of shelving they’d relegated all the PC games to. A printed and bound World of Warcraft strategy guide. Sitting there in book form.

I couldn’t resist having a look at this strange creature. It looked like it came out around the same time as Wrath of the Lich, so it at least had a small advantage over the last Warcraft strategy guide that I saw in Gamestop a few years before that covered information from the original Warcraft launch when Burning Crusade had been on the shelves for a few months. But anyone who has played Warcraft for any amount of time could tell you that this guide was going to be next to worthless for anyone who was looking to get into the game in a Patch 3.3.3 world.

I really have to applaud the huge balls that it takes for the publisher to put out such a blatant cash grab. And I sit in stunned and horrified admiration of Gamestop, a company that will truly stop at nothing to squeeze any penny out of its customers no matter how far they have to bend said customer over their counter to make that sale.

I can just imagine some gamer’s grandmother or significant other going into Gamestop to try and get something that their gamer SO would like, and don’t they spend a lot of time playing that Warcraft thingy on the computer? Or a new gamer who wants to try out this World of Warcraft thing that they’ve heard all of their friends talking about. They walk in, see this guide, and think that their prayers have been answered, only to be disappointed when it turns out that they’ve bought the gaming equivalent of a phonebook.

So please, don’t let your friends buy these books. Here’s a list of sites that you should go to that provide information in real time about the game that is far more comprehensive than any strategy guide author could ever hope to be.

1. WoW Head
2. Thottbot
3. WoWWiki
4. WoW Insider

Remember, friends don’t let friends buy useless strategy guides.

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I’m guessing there are a lot of people out there who are finding the same deal I did with the Asus G72 laptop for sale over at Best Buy and wondering how it performs. Ever since I put that post up I’ve had people coming to the site looking for reviews.

I’m not going to get too far into technical details here. Suffice it to say that the Nvidia GX 260M that the G72 sports is more than enough to beat World of Warcraft into the ground. Here’s a sampling of average FPS that I’ve been getting. This is far from scientific, consisting more of me glancing at the performance tab from time to time.

All of these were done with everything turned up to the maximum. I didn’t use any of the built-in overclocking functions on the laptop either. Obviously you’ll get a performance increase if you turn a few things down, but the G72 does such a good job of rendering on Ultra that there’s really no need.

• Dalaran: 20FPS on initial load. ~40-50FPS any other time.
• Wintergrasp: 40-60FPS. Tends to drop down to 20ish right at the end of a WG battle, but that’s server lag and not something the laptop can fix.
• Alterac Valley: ~50FPS constant.
• Vanilla WoW: 60+ constant.
• Burning Crusade: 60+ constant.
• Lich King: 60+ constant.

I will give the caveat that I haven’t run any dungeons since getting the new computer. I’ve always been more of a PvPer. But given the performance in lagtastic areas like Wintergrasp I have no doubt that it should be able to handle the newer 25-man content without any trouble.

Hope that helps everyone who is looking for more information on the G72!

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Imagine that I’m a huge fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (I know, huge stretch of the imagination there). Now imagine that I decided I was unhappy with the way the series ended and decided to publish my own sequel that I’d been working on for the past decade or so that neatly wraps up the series in the name of fans everywhere. And imagine that I did all of this without the permission of the Tolkien estate.

Now the Tolkiens have shown themselves to be perfectly willing to pick over the dessicated carcass of J.R.R.’s voluminous notes to make a quick buck on so-called unpublished masterpieces, but chances are if I tried to do something like that you’d find me getting my ass sued off faster than you could say “Holy torts Batman!” And the Tolkien estate would be well within their rights to sue me into the ground and make sure that my fan masterpiece never saw the light of day.

So why is it that the Internet gets upset when Activision, who recently acquired the rights to former gaming giant Sierra’s properties, decides that they’re going to flex some legal muscle and stop a fan project to make an unofficial sequel to the King’s Quest series?

Here’s just a small sample of the fine Internet lawyering going on in the Joystiq post:

Activision isn’t supporting indie developers!

Well, no. This is not a case of independent developers versus the evil corporate machine. This is a case of a group of fans using someone else’s intellectual property in a game that they are developing in violation of even the most generous interpretation of our oft draconian copyright laws.

Activision couldn’t lose money from this project!

How do you figure? Activision has no plans for the moment for making a new King’s Quest game, but if they ever did decide to exercise the right to use their intellectual property then this game would be in direct competition. It’s a hypothetical situation where they are losing potential money, but copyright law is designed to protect IP holders’ hypothetical potential money.

Companies like Valve support independent developers!

The guys who made Counterstrike weren’t make Half Life 2. Early DOOM 2 modders weren’t making DOOM 3 with the engine. There is a major difference between developers who release map creation utilities and a team that is coding a direct sequel to a series from the ground up.

There’s no way anyone could confuse a fan game for a legitimate professional release!

Never underestimate the power of idiots and assholes on the Internet. The fact that I’m forced to make this post at all should automatically invalidate this argument.

So it sucks for the people who spent the last eight years of their lives putting together this game. It sucks for the community that grew up around this project. It sucks for the retro fans who just wanted a chance to revisit one of their favorite abandoned game franchises.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Activision is acting perfectly within their rights here. Fan fiction and fan projects like this are a violation of copyright. They always have been, and they always will be within our lifetime unless there’s a major overhaul of existing copyright law. And yet we get the same annoying people crawling out of the woodwork complaining about their rights being violated every time one of these projects is crushed under the cold and uncaring heel of some bigwig corporate attorney.

How many cease and desist orders will it take for these people to realize that it’s the fan projects that are the problem, and not the lawyers?

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I logged into Star Trek Online for the first time two nights back and made my way through the first set of missions.

The introductory mission featuring combat with the Borg felt almost deceptively easy, but understandably so. Given a choice between an easy introductory tutorial and a trial by fire for new players it’s easy to see why Cryptic opted for the gentle introduction. The novelty if space combat and the fun of blasting Borg with a phaser more than made up for the lack of difficulty, but a small part of me worried about the rest of the game being a similar cakewalk.

That worry grew as I went out on the first real mission in the game. It was a simple exploration mission straight out of an episode of Star Trek or the mission log of an old Wing Commander game. Starfleet sent me to visit four star systems and check for any trouble.

The first system I visited involved escorting a damaged mining vessel back to its base. The second involved beaming down to a planet and solving some dispute on a diplomacy mission, which translates to walking around and talking to a few characters.

That’s all talking and no killing, for those of you keeping score at home. That mission was a definite and pleasant surprise given the MMO trappings and speaks volumes to me concerning the great potential offered in the game if they keep doing more Star Trek-feeling things like that instead of opting for a generic MMO with Star Trek graphics. But it was still incredibly easy to complete given the lack of talking.

The third mission was where things started getting interesting. I entered a star system to discover it had been taken over by Orion pilots or some such nonsense, and Starfleet wanted me to introduce them to Federation space on the business end of a phaser and some photon torpedoes. Easy enough, right?

Except that I found myself being bombarded by neverending waves of escort ships and battlecruisers that were really giving my poor little ship a pounding. I was able to defeat the first group of escorts easily enough and outrun the battlecruiser so that I could move in to destroy the shipping platform that was the real objective of the mission, but by the time I got around to destroying the platforms a second fleet had closed in on my ship. And when I turned around I was maneuvering straight into the waiting crosshairs of that first battlecruiser that I’d escaped from.

There’s no death penalty in the game at this point, but simple gamer’s stubbornness left me beating a retreat for open space to retry the mission the next day. I was also happy that there was at least a small difficulty curve and something to provide a challenge so early in the main body of the game.

Then I tried the mission again the next day and realized that the three battlegroups were in there because I’d joined the instance with two other players who had just warped out. The second time I tried completing the mission was with a group that didn’t leave immediately, and we were able to mop the system up with little effort and breeze through the quest in about ten minutes. And as I thought about this it dawned on me that the night before I’d managed to destroy half of a battlegroup that was intended to be fought off by two or three players all by my lonesome.

Star Trek Online is a blast to play, but these experiences don’t leave me with much confidence about the difficulty curve in the early game. Only time and more playing will show if things improve at all.

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Note: If you’re coming to this page looking for information about the performance of the G72 in World of Warcraft then this second post dealing with that in particular might be of interest.

It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the passing of my old Dell Inspiron laptop that I purchased back in 2007 to get me through grad school. The little guy still works fine for the most part aside from taking a little longer to load now than he did back when he was new, but the old adage of “Groves giveth and Gates taketh away” continues to affect the computer market.

The main problem was the graphics card. The little 128MB workhorse that came with my Inspiron was more than enough to play World of Warcraft, the only game I was playing at the time, but in the two and a half intervening years I’ve gone from being able to run WoW on maximum settings to barely ticking by with everything turned down. I’ve also been wanting to try out Star Trek Online and the graphics card was the one weak link when I ran a stress test to see if my old computer could handle it.

After a bit of searching and consulting with my brother (who spends far more time researching graphics cards than I would ever care to) I decided on an Asus G72 from Best Buy. The price was just right at $999. The G72 only has a dual core processor, but it’s a high end dual core with a screaming clock speed. Right now it seems that few games and programs are designed to utilize dual core let alone quad core, and I think that at this point it’s still a better choice to get a faster clock speed on a dual core than to saddle yourself with a slower clock speed and smaller front side bus on an equivalent quad.

And the graphics card, the GX260M, is a kickass little card for what I paid for the system. I could go on about onboard memory, clock speed, and all that technical stuff, but at the end of the day I’m able to run Warcraft and Star Trek Online at 1600×900 resolution with all of the settings turned up to the maximum and a steady 50-60FPS in heavily populated areas and battlegrounds.

Being able to see Dalaran from atop Icecrown Citadel is something I was never able to do on my old machine, and looking to the other side of Arathi Basin and seeing the fighting clearly on that side isn’t something that I’ve seen since my old desktop gaming machine went belly up a couple years back.

So now that I have a laptop capable of handline Star Trek Online you can expect some coverage of that game to go along with the World of Warcraft coverage that you already enjoy. But more on that in another post dedicated to the game.

And in the meantime, if you’re looking for a decent gaming laptop for the price then the G72 is a nice little deal right now. I get the impression that Best Buy might be lowering the price to clear it out and make way for a new quad-core model, but I haven’t found anything concrete on that. Either way, it’s still an excellent little gaming machine for that price.

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1. Shard in Cata: “They are all for damage.”

Ghostcrawler says: A more accurate quote probably would have been “They are all for combat.”

We are still working out what exactly you can blow a shard on. Some of the in combat but not damage abilities, such as the Fel Dom example from Blizzcon, are still on the table.

2. 3.3 Scourge Strike was a failure.

Ghostcrawler says: We don’t like melee strikes hitting for straight magical damage. We went through a lot of similar balance issues when Ret hit for so much Holy damage and to a lesser extent with Frost DKs.

I agree we have some confusing tooltips, but I don’t agree that Scourge Strike is one of them. It’s a weapon attack that hits for physical damage. If there are diseases on the target, it adds some Shadow damage too. Doesn’t seem that complicated.

And if you want to read a longer explanation click through here for a post where Ghostcrawler elaborates more.

3. Is threat fun?

If threat wasn’t a factor then it would make tanking boring. If they buffed AoE tanking then it would also be no fun. Basically Ghostcrawler thinks that tanks are good where they are and that threat isn’t much of an issue with most tanks. If you want to get in on the discussion then click through.

4. Cataclysm Stat & System Changes

Remember all those stat changes they’ve been promising in time for Cataclysm? Well they’ve finally released specifics. Click through to have a read!

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No.

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1. Please increase Baron Rivendares mount drop

This isn’t going to happen. And why would you want a boring old ground mount when Cataclysm is going to open up the old world to flyers?

2. Have you ever let someone die in WoW?

This is an interesting question. The blue in this case has let someone get to low health to  get a point across but never let them die. I’ve been known to let DPS die if they’re repeatedly pulling aggro in a fight. I find that sometimes it’s just easier to complete a fight without worrying about healing bad DPS. Most times the rest of the group is good enough that four manning something isn’t a big deal. I’ve never done much in the way of raiding, though, and it’s likely a whole different mechanic when you’re in a 10-man or a 25-man.

3. Not understanding the Cata goals and idea

This is a continuation of a thread that I covered in the last edition of the Morning Blues. There’s a lot going on in this one, so I’m just going to give quick summaries that you can click through and read if you’d like.

1. Ghostcrawler discusses overgeared guilds zerging endgame content and complaining about difficulty.
2. Ghostcrawler discusses shortfalls of the Arena in BC and how it’s been adjusted since.
3. Ghostcrawler on rated battlegrounds and the difference between Arena and raiding.
4. Ghostcrawler on player frustration leading to a lingering dislike of the Arena.
5. Blizzard isn’t getting many complaints about the new PvE system aside from PvPers who feel they have to gear up via Dungeon Finder.
6. On the challenge level of 5-mans vs. 25-man raids.
7. On the difficulty level of various end-of-expansion raids.
8. Ghostcrawler on rated battlegrounds, PvE progression, and the role of PvP gear in PvE.

4. 2010 Blizzcon?

Anything that you’ve heard about Blizzcon isn’t true. Blizzard will announce it when they’re ready.

5. Epic Flying — Is it still useful these days?

I always buy epic flying for my characters as soon as they hit 70 and are able to get it. But I have a lot more money floating around my account than most people seem to have. I still think that the difference between regular end epic flying is like night and day even with the speed increases, and it made leveling my priest a breeze.

6. BC = Burning Legion, Wotlk= Scourge, Cata=

You heard it here first folks:

Bornakk says: The ultimate enemy who can never truly be defeated… murlocs.

I, for one, welcome our new Murloc overlords. Mrrrglegrrrrgle!

7. TBC, WOTLK, Origional Realms

Not happening. Stop asking.

8. WSG experts: we want your tactics!

An interesting and potentially educational thread if you’re interested in battlegrounds at all.

9. #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter 2/26

A transcript of the developer chat they had on Twitter last Friday. Click through and give it a read!

10. Why nerf Battleground xp?

Battleground experience isn’t being nerfed. The amount of honor gained from battleground kills is being doubled and the amount of experience is being cut by 50%. If you passed elementary math then you’ll realize that this results in no net change whatsoever in the amount of experience gained. Blizz doesn’t want to double experience and honor.

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There’s just something about hot gaming girls giving away those Starcraft 2 beta keys this week. You’ll recall that yesterday I posted a link to a contest being run by Ladies of Leet that just requires joining their Facebook fan page to be entered.

Well then late yesterday evening Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla (and other nerdy ventures too numerous to mention) announced that she was also giving away an extra beta key that she had sitting around the house. All you have to do to enter this contest is become a fan on her Facebook page.

So click over and give these ladies some Facebook love, and if you’re lucky they just might love you right back (with a Starcraft 2 beta key).

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1. PTR is it gonna be offline all day?

PTR is back up.

2. Rolling NEED on Frozen Orbs

My philosophy when running dungeons has always been that if you Need something you roll Need on it. I never gave much thought to Needing on something that’s really nothing more than a glorified crafting reagent. Every group that I’ve ever ran with rolled Greed for the Frozen Orbs.

I do take issue with the OP when he says the following:

Woozley says: I actually do need them for my blacksmithing. I dont think I should have to explain the reasons why to everyone I meet.

I don’t think that he Needs the Frozen Orb any more than I Need the 15-20g that I get for selling it on the Auction House. No one absolutely “needs” a crafting reagent in the same sense that they “need” a gear upgrade with a higher iLevel than whatever they’re wearing now. You can’t go to the Auction House and buy a better piece of gear. You can go to the AH and buy as many Frozen Orbs as your heart desires or the market will sustain. So in that sense I think that everyone should roll Greed for items like Frozen Orbs ore other crafting reagents because ultimately it comes down to a money conversion.

Having said that, it’d probably be a good idea to start rolling Greed on Frozen Orbs. The new changes they’ve announced which will allow players to exchange the orbs for reagents in various professions means that the group of players who “needs” a Frozen Orb just got a lot bigger.

3. New LFD Stats

I’m still not sure what Blizzard plans on doing with all the statistics they’re starting to keep about player behavior using the random dungeon finder. I have a feeling that it’s just a small prod to try and stop players from being total asshats in the dungeon finder without actually taking any real action.

But Zarhym does helpfully remind us that Blizzard is always watching:

Zarhym says: You know we have access to all of your character data given that you’re connecting to our realms to play the game right; and surely that the reason game masters are able to verify so many different events or chat which took place in the game is because we have detailed logs of nearly everything that happens?

4. Please clarify this DK note (IIT)

Copying and pasting the man on this one:

Ghostcrawler says: You put 5 points in Icy Talons. While fighting (and applying Frost Fever), you swing 20% faster. If you have talented Windfury Totem on you, you swing a total of 40% faster.

You now put a 6th point in Improved Icy Talons as well. You have a passive personal 25% haste at all times. When you engage in combat and apply Frost Fever, you now have 45% melee haste. If you have Windfury also, you still only have 45% haste since Windfury and Improved Icy Talons are exclusive.

This is basically a 20% haste buff to any DK who has Icy Talons and Improved Icy Talons.

5. Healing stresses me

Ghostcrawler stresses that healing stress can be avoided if the healer in question stresses damage mitigation over keeping everyone at 100% all the time. Basically the thread is a healing 101 course for someone who can’t take the pressure.

6. Am I the only 1 “questing” to level up?

This is a timely post considering how popular the Dungeon Finder has become. I didn’t have any characters below 70 when Dungeon Finder launched and as such I’m not familiar with how the lower levels are affected by this new mechanic. I’ve seen players complaining about problems such as being stuck in dungeons that were just a little too high or being unhappy with being forced to run dungeons built under the old school vanilla WoW design philosophy, so I imagine there are still quite a few people out there questing.

7. Developer Chat on Twitter

Blizzard will be holding a developer chat today at 5:00 p.m. PST via Twitter. Follow @Warcraft to take part.

8. Request for Cataclysm: Coherent Philosophy

Ghostcrawler stops by to leave multiple posts regarding cataclysm here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

9. No WoW game account associated w/ Bnet

This one is interesting. If you didn’t have your account associated with Battle.net at the point where Blizzard took their account snapshots for PTR eligibility then you won’t be able to log into the PTR and test 3.3.3.

10. We Love You

A nice picture of the Blizzard community management team.

11. [Bug] Loggin In With Battlenet Accounts

If you have more than one account associated with one Battle.net e-mail address and you’re having trouble logging onto the PTR then they have workaround instructions in this thread.

12. Does the ban-counter ever decay?

The OP wants to know if Blizzard keeps track of their bans with some sort of automated system that gives them more credit time if they’ve been good for awhile. Blizzard doesn’t do this. Instead they keep tabs on a player’s behavior and make judgment calls based on that history when it comes time to discipline.

13. @people saying “priests are fine”

This is another long one with Ghostcrawler making multiple posts regarding priests.

1. Discussing PoM and CoH.
2. Holy healing, PoM, gear upgrades in Cataclysm, and AE healing.
3. On combining Holy and Disc priests in a dungeon run.
4. Briefly comparing mana efficiency between classes in raids.
5. Talents that might be dropped in Cataclysm.
6. Paladins’ role in healing, PoH, and why Ghostcrawler must maintain his secret identity.

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