So I want to finish up with discussing "raiding"

Last time I glossed over what raiding exactly is, so for this post I will discuss in further detail what raiding is REALLY like

There are different levels to raid dungeons--they vary from tier 4 (4 because WoW has expansion out...used to be from tier 1-3 pre-expansion) to tier 6. Basically Tier 4 dungeons are novice-friendly dungeons that any guild can participate in. Tier 6, as you probably would've guessed, are only for HARDCORE (hardcore as in its for guilds who has members that raid ~5-6 hours at least 4 days a week) guilds which have already gotten all the necessary loot from tier 4-5 dungeons.

This leads to an interesting competition amongst guilds to see who can kill the top bosses fastest...this site is often used to keep track of guilds' progression. Players that raid (often called RAIDERS) often know top guilds' names. They can often keep track of top guilds' progression because popular wow sites, such as THIS and THIS are filled with news relating to other guilds accomplishments and updates to WoW

SIDENOTE: Recently, there was a huge patch to the game (huge as it was ~300MB) that included a brand-new tier 6 dungeon, so right now there's a competition amongst world's best guilds to see who can claim the title of "First to kill the hardest boss in game." Wow news sites, consequently, are keeping track of the race.


Of course, because WoW is such a social game, there are GUILD DRAMAS...the most notorious one is from another top guild, DEATH AND TAXES (their website found HERE)
What happened is...A girl raider from DnT (who shall now be referred to as Jill) and another member from DnT (who shall be referred to as Jack) were real life couples, but they had some rough fights and ended up breaking up. Jill wanted to exact revenge on Jack, so she found another DnT member (who will now be referred to as Daniel) and invited him over to live with her. Daniel ended up moving in with Jill and started having a very very sexual affair.

Sidenote: Daniel and Jack have been friends for years

Eventually the news got out and entire DnT crew felt like something had to be done. They somehow procured very graphic photos of Daniel and Jill (and we're talking about rated X stuff) and posted them all over their site and disseminated it all over official WoW forums, calling Jill names like S***, W****, etc etc etc. The scandal got so big that even I, who never really dig into guild drama stuff, ended up hearing about it on MY guild forums.

Without going into details, my guild also had some dramas in the past--guild member who seriously cried due to raiding...members quitting the game...angry guild members over stupid fights that could've been prevented...the list goes on

Despite all this, I still find raiding enjoyable...sense of killing tier 6 bosses (that many WoW players only dream of) and just having fun with your guildies is fun :)





I think I covered raiding pretty thoroughly, so I'll close with some more social aspect of WoW




One of the funnier things that WoW players do in WoW is trying to come up with character names or guild names
Some of funnier guild names
Warning: Some names are very explicit or racist, so gloss over this section if you can't handle it


POSSIBLY OFFENSIVE GUILD NAMES
Naga stole my bike (Sidenote: There's a race called the NAGAS in Warcraft lore, link found here)
Rosa Parks stole my seat
Halaa at a Naga (Sidenote: There's an area called Halaa in WoW)
Sapped girls can't say no
Rogues do it from behind
Ghouls gone wild
Your mom is my mount
Two Dollar Hordes (Sidenote: There are two nations, the Alliance and the Horde, in the game)




NON-OFFENSIVE
Gnomeland security (Sidenote: There is a race called Gnomes, link found HERE)
Hello kitty assassins
OMG lazer gun PEW PEW PEW
Gnome Punting Champions
Hanging with my Gnomies
Beep beep i'm a jeep
CtrlAltElite
I m Godzilla U R Japan



I think you get the gist :)



There are some silly threads on WoW forums...like
Example 1
Example 2



Basically, WoW has its share of SERIOUS, HARDCORE gamers and casuals who just want to mess around and act silly....and not all WoW players are social losers! heh :)


I hope I helped to overcome some of stereotypes of gamers with my blogs...I personally find games to be appealing because I can just relax and home and play whenever I want while being able to socialize with my real-life friends and game friends. If I get tired of being stuck home, I can opt to call my friends to go out to hang out.

I don't really know what I want to discuss in my next blog post, but look forward to it!

I thought it'd be pretty nice to talk briefly about one of the most anticipated new game rather than me trying to educate on games...


Recently, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl came out...super smash series has been one of the most popular fighting game (aka multiplayer) franchise that Nintendo owned...so when Nintendo announced that the newest SSB will have online capabilities, the anticipation was HIGH...basically, ALL of my friends (and guild buddies) who had Nintendo Wii bought it and played. The great thing about the game was that guildies were posting their online IDs on our forums and started to play with each other while utilizing Ventrilo, which is voice chatting program we use for raiding and such. I'm also contemplating on purchasing Nintendo Wii (along with SSBB), but we'll see how that pans out...

Wikipedia link: here

Video Review and in-game footage



If I hear about more interesting new games, I'll post about it...but for now, good night :)

There as many aspects of the game that can be studied, but there are two that stands out the most: PvP (Player vs. player, where players fight each other) and PvE (Player vs. environment, which is what raiding is all about)




So what exactly is raiding? As mentioned briefly in previous blogs, raiding is when numerous players participate in a gigantic group endeavor to defeat a boss and collect epic loots... in the early days, a raid party consisted of 40 people, but Blizzard (creator of WoW) decided that 40 people was too huge of a raid party and reduced the # to 25. Now how does the whole raiding environment work for modern world?

Modern world is basically characterized by social networking, such as Myspace and Facebook. What raiding does is basically incorporating social networking with other WoW players and giving them a group endeavor to participate in



Let me explain



Raiding is actually a very time consuming activity...you have to have adequate gear just to participate (meaning before you can even think about raiding, you have to collect loots from pre-raid dungeons). Also, you have to spend a lot of in-game money on buying potions, materials for gear, gear repair money, etc. Basically, you have to prepare and "farm up" (game lingo) for raiding before raids can happen

After players are prepared for raiding, there's the actual process of aggregating for raids...remember, raiding is a big joint effort, meaning group meeting times and dates must be set before raids can start. My WoW guild, for instance, has raid times on tuesday/thursday/sunday at ~7p.m., meaning all participants usually log on prior to 7 and meet at a designated place in game. Once everyone's present, raid members will venture into raid dungeons and proceed to try to defeat bosses for better loots.


This all may sound really dumb and dull, but human beings naturally have the drive to attain more...remember, the more you raid, the better gear you can accumulate. Also, raiding is a fun environment--raid members would usually joke around and horseplay (while trying to seriously defeat the bosses)




These are some excerpts from my raid outings...and the wordings aren't exact, but you get the gist
warning: contains crude language


Sidenote: Our raid leader, whose WoW name is Jimjones (nicknamed JJ...Raid leaders are usually guild leaders who organize raiding events) is currently still stuck with an inferior cloak called "Cloak of the Inciter" found here.

Member 1: Cloak of the inciter? More like C*** of the inciter...
Member 2: Yeah...you seriously need to get a better cloak JJ...that C***'s been hanging behind your back for too long...it's pretty homosexual
Member 3: C***blocked!!
JJ: :(


Member 1: HAVE YOU BEEN NAUGHTY TODAY!?
Member 1: ...crap, mistell (message sent to wrong chatbox)
Various members in raid: WTF...o_o;;

Member 1: *starts playing Spongebob Squarepants theme music on audio chat program*

Sadly I don't remember some of the funnier moments but you get the gist

Wow raiding environment popular enough such that players sometimes produce videos (which are anywhere from 200MB to 700MB), showcasing their achievements (most popular WoW video hosting site being this one)...there are other funny WoW related videos...here are some of them

Credit to animpinabox



"Mario theme in World of Warcraft"
Credit to Lososak


Movie "300" parody
Credit to ondskab100


And the infamous LEEROY JENKINS video that so many WoW players know....
basically, the premise of the movie is...a guild is in some raid dungeon...there's a player named Leeroy who was AFK (Away from Keyboard) while guild leader was explaining what to do in an upcoming room, full of baby dragons...and...well...things go wrong
Warning: Minor cursing found in the video, but nothing really excessive


Basically there's a HUGE variety of wow-themed videos out there...you just have to look at the right places...


Even South Park had a crack at parodying WoW
Credit to Randumbjunk
Warning: if you're not fan of South Park and its crude humor, don't watch
Video found here


Soo...basically to sum it up...raiding is a social experience for gamers



Many guilds actually like to show off their accomplishments via websites...my guild is no exception
Guild website
We also have forum set up such that guild members can talk about anything, from real life events to game related issues to raid scheduling...I guess because of this, I prefer forum social system rather than...say...facebook

I didn't really have chance to discuss PvP environment of the game, so I'll probably discuss that next time...

I was growing out of console games by the time PS3 and XBox 360 came out; I had started playing computer games like Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft III and had fallen in love with online games. However, it's still noteworthy to point out how the game trends have changed since the days of Nintendo and Mario

For instance, cel-shaded games have started to pick up popularity. Basically, what cel-shaded graphics meant that the games resembled Anime (I guess the popularity was simply a reflection of growing popularity of Anime in U.S.)

Here are few screenshots of some of cel-shaded games from various consoles







note: I intentionally included few screenshots from Zelda/Mario games to show how even such iconic games flirted with cel-shaded graphics

Not only were cel-shaded games were becoming popular, but multiplayer games were also becoming very popular as well, such as Halo and Guitar Heroes. Whenever I go to visit my good buddy in Malibu, we usually play his Nintendo Wii and some other multiplayer games (like Guitar Heroes and Halo hehe) because they offer good fun for group of people. Also, console gaming started to get into online market (Dreamcast was the first console to flirt with online gaming, but not many games offered to utilize its online capabilities...I remember I played this RPG called Phantasy Star Online, which had online capabilities, and loved it...but Dreamcast had died out before any real potentials were explored) with Xbox and its Xbox Live service...now, it's becoming more prominent with PS3 and Xbox 360



The biggest appeal with online games is that you could now play with people from all over the globe. To me, however, consoles games still couldn't match computer online games; my friends played online computer games rather than console games, so I started to play with them.

I personally think that Starcraft really started the whole computer online game revolution...for those that don't know, Starcraft is an online strategy game developed by Blizzard and became a HUGE (and I really do mean HUGE) success.

sidenote: the Blizzard games that I mentioned before, including Diablo and Warcraft, are all online games

Eventually, Blizzard got into MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG) market with World of Warcraft . Unlike many online games where online play is free, MMORPGs are usually pay to play (usually monthly fee of $10~$20) RPGs. Why do they have to be pay-to-play? It's because maintaining huge game servers are costly and with steady inflow of revenue, game companies can constantly add new content and offer better in-game services. What World of Warcraft is that it uses the lore and world already established by Warcraft games and turn that into an MMORPG experience. This worked because
1) Blizzard had developed a reputation for publishing high-quality games--basically, any games they published were going to be a commercial success
2) Blizzard had already established a fanbase of Warcraft players, so they were already guaranteed to buy World of Warcraft
3) They were reaching out to MMORPG fanbase, which they've never done before...before WoW came out, the only real MMORPG out there was Everquest...I tried EQ briefly and stopped playing within an hour because it was really horrid...at its peak, EQ had around ~200,000 subscriptions...to give you an idea, WoW currently has 10million subscriptions and the #s are still increasing

Why are MMORPGs so appealing? Simple--it taps into basic human need for social interaction and success/progression. As mentioned before, WoW already had its world established around Warcraft universe--there were heroes to revel and villains to be defeated (which goes well with the whole human need to succeed and progress). Basically, players would join in-game guilds and sometimes participate in raids (which is usually a guild-wide endeavor of 40, 25 or 10 people (which depended on raid dungeon) to defeat bosses and collect better loots) or just choose to stay hang out with guild members.

On the next blog post, I'll explain in more detail about the whole raiding environment and other aspects of WoW

Here is a link to a blogging site by and for WoW players: WoW Insider