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Blizzard poster Bornakk has posted a clarification regarding the undocumented changes to Alterac Valley in patch 3.2.2 yesterday:

With the launch of patch 3.2.2 today there have been some changes to the Alterac Valley battleground and we wanted to clarify what exactly has been done.

Level 80 characters now have their own bracket and there is a separate bracket for characters that are levels 70 to 79. This change was originally planned for patch 3.3 but it was accidently applied to the current patch 3.2.2. As we had already intended to make this change so that players who are leveling play together and players who are at the level cap play together, we will be keeping the bracket setup this way, but the level of the bosses in the brackets below level 80 will be reduced to compensate.

The most interesting thing about Bornakk’s post is that the changes were “accidentally” applied. You really have to wonder what’s going on at Blizzard HQ when a major change like this, for good or bad, just slips into the game without a chance for testing, reaction, or commentary from the playerbase. A good number of players are understandably upset that AV is now a less viable leveling alternative to running the same tired old quests, and people at level 80 are miffed that there are now far fewer battles available in what was once the honor cash cow of the Battlegrounds system.

The changes to the brackets are probably for the best in the long run, but putting them in with no warning definitely wasn’t the way to implement it. I normally don’t have many bad things to say about Blizzard, but they really dropped the ball on this one.

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Eurogamer recently had a chat with Blizzard vice president of game design Rob Pardo where he revealed that development of Starcraft II was delayed by about a year in the early 00s as Blizzard focused its development muscle on World of Warcraft.

While this is hardly news at this point with World of Warcraft well into its fifth year and third expansion and Starcraft II finally slated for release later this year, it does give gamers a rare look at the inner workings and decision making process at Blizzard. In the past decade Blizzard has gained notoriety, respect, and frustration in equal measure from gamers and industry analysts for their willingness to delay games indefinitely or even cancel them in the name of getting everything just right.

Diverting resources also makes sense. While they probably had no idea that World of Warcraft would snowball into a cultural institution, Blizzard still had a good chunk of the gaming community frothing at the mouth waiting for a chance to try out WoW in the 2003-2004 runup to the game’s release. Focusing on the game that was announced, almost ready for retail, and highly anticipated makes more sense than working on a game that was nothing more than a pipe dream, albeit a pipe dream on many gamer’s wish list.

Ultimately I have yet to play a Bluzzard game that has suffered from their policy of cooking to perfection. If an extra year was what it took to get WoW and Starcraft II right then I’d say it was time well spent.

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The White House Correspondents dinner seems to be at its best when a Daily Show alum is headlining, and this year’s speech from John “I’m a PC” Hodgman doesn’t fail to disappoint.  Hodgman tests Obama’s geek credibility with references ranging from Star Trek to Dune and celebrates the man who very well could be America’s first openly nerd president:

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This may be the best t-shirt ever:

The shirt is available from Dutch Southern in Small to XXXL in men’s sizes and Large in women’s for $20.

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Bad news for potential DSi early adopters who don’t live in Japan. Nintendo has announced three new colors – pink, green, and blue – that will be released on March 20 in Japan. While new colors for a handheld system are hardly anything new from the big N, the fast turnaround this time around is surprising. And, in typical Nintendo fashion, no word yet on when or whether those colors will be hitting the U.S.

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The Battle.net forums and the Internet in general are abuzz this week about a blue post that finally gave some semi-concrete information regarding the release date for the much anticipated Starcraft 2.  And what’s the salacious piece of information that has Starcraft fans and the gaming media alike slavering about a supposedly concrete date?  Forum goers were treated to the Blizzardly Ambiguous statement that “unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year.”  This has led some news outlets to speculate that the game is already finished and Starcraft 2 is going to be Blizzard’s major release for this year.

I think that we should take a break for a moment from the breathless speculation to remember that this is Blizzard that we’re talking about.  This is a company that has grown famous over the years for their production delays.  Ask anyone who waited for Warcraft III, Warcraft Adventures, the Diablo II 3.0 patch, Starcraft Ghost, or, appropriately enough, Starcraft 2.  The end results are always nothing short of spectacular and the finished product makes each delay worth it, but the one lesson that we should always take away from Blizzard is that they publish games on therir own time schedule regardless of what fans and the gaming media want.

I saw a playable demo of Starcraft II at Gencon in 2007 that looked so perfect I was convinced the game would be ready to ship within the next year.  People have seen the same thing at Blizzcon for the past few years as well.  And despite all of this evidence of Starcraft II’s existence and almost-finished status Blizzard has still remained typically vague about any specific dates.  So to everyone out there who is squealing in girlish glee about the impending beta release of Starcraft II remember these wise words: “The next Blizzard blockbuster is always slated for release in the 4th quarter of 2000Never.”

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So, I had finally gotten my second rank up in Gears 2. Happy that I had gotten my second “skill arrow”, I proceeded to play another multiplayer match. Enter a game of Annex on Gridlock. Five of us versus a team of three — and the laggiest match I have ever been apart of. Unable to switch weapons, unable to run. Not touching anything on the controller proceeded to provoke my character into glitching into different spots all around where he should have been standing.

What to do? Can’t quit the match — quitting a match early is a severe penalty to your skill. So I stick with it, and the one player on the opposite team who wasn’t lagging (who was still beginner rank) walks away with 35 kills, 1 death. Here I am now, days later, and back to winning more matches and I still haven’t gotten back my second rank.

I hate you, Gears 2 Ranks.

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The former 1Up Show/ Gamevideos crew are finally in business. They’re under the new name Area 5, and their new show “Co-Op” is live. The first episode can be found on Youtube, and they would appreciate it if you subscribed to their channel.

With these guys back in action, it nicely fleshes out the gap in my routine that was previously filled by 1Up FM, LAN Party, and the 1Up show. It’s starting to feel like things in the industry are getting back to normal.

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I’ve had my eye on the copy of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen at the local used game store for over half a decade.  The series, and the SNES game that launched it in particular, is almost universally regarded as one of the best tactical strategy roleplaying games ever created.  Those reviews are like a siren song for a man who will spend hundreds of hours leveling and crafting the perfect party in any strategy RPG he comes across.  Unfortunately the rather steep pricetag, well over $100 for an SNES cart, has always been enough to break the spell.

Today brings both good news and bad news for gamers who never got a chance to play this classic when it came out and who couldn’t bring themselves to spend the ridiculous amounts of money required for the SNES cart.  The good news is that the ESRB has officially rated Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen for release on the Virtual Console, meaning that it will finally get a cheap re-release.  The bad news is that Nintendo’s Virtual Console is where Square sends franchises to die.

Perhaps there will be enough of a show of support for Ogre Battle that Square might reconsider and decide to re-make one of their more quirky and interesting old titles rather than blessing us with Final Fantasy remakes and re-releases ad-nauseum, but don’t hold out too much hope.

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Just like Rebel FM rising from the ashes of the 1Upocalypse over at Eat. Sleep. Game. the crew [formerly] of The 1Up Show are getting back together for a new project. You can read their message to all the fans and find out their future plans over at Talking Orange.

“…But, for now, we’re going to continue to make gaming “TV” that is free and take advantage of the new world of media. YouTube, Vimeo, blogging software, etc. That’s the way we consume our media, it’s the way you do and we’d be fools not to acknowledge it… When, you might ask? Next Friday. See? We told you: THIS IS NOT THE END.”

So there it is — another group of talent rising from the ashes, keeping a positive outlook on life and doing what they love.

Now if only I could sell them on “Insert Credits” as a new image..

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