How much is too much?

I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I wanted to get an update in before I let too much time pass and no one read the blog anymore. Anyways, I started wondering today, do I have a problem? About a month-and-a-half ago, I had a job interview for a subtance abuse counselor position. One of the questions was "What do you think the most important part of the 12-step recovery program is?" Okay, so with my new B.A. degree in Psychology in hand, I absolutely blew the question. I couldn't remember the 12-step addiction recovery steps and fumbled my through with some jibberish. Needless to say, I didn't get the job; however, I went home and looked at the 12-step recovery program. The first step is the most important, of course, because it is "Admit to yourself that you have a problem." You can't begin to recover if you don't believe you have a problem. Anyway, so enough of the psycho-babble for now, I started to wonder today as I was counting my characters in World of Warcraft, and the numerous other games that I play, if I really do have a problem. The number of characters shown over at http://combatengineers.enjin.com/profile/828566/characters/index/page/1only shows you my guilded characters within World of Warcraft. I'm working on adding my Rift characters there (I think there's around 5 there) and also my City of Heroes characters (somewhere around 15 or 20 total characters there). My Everquest 2 (4 or 5), Vanguard (1), and DC Universe Online characters (2) are not listed either. And that's just the MMOs. I also play numerous XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 games and dabble around on a 3DS every now then. Granted most of my game playing time is devoted to World of Warcraft, EQ2, and NCAA Football 2012 but I do play the other games now and then. So, I may have a problem. But then again, I do not think it's a bad one either, and it's definitely not a mental illness (A mental illness has to cause a negative effect on my normal daily activities, and I am very capable of fulfilling my daily activities and do not neglect my children in favor of gametime ;-) ). Some studies have shown that games can improve brain function, and I can definitely use some improved brain function. Everyone has a hobby, and everyone has different ways of having fun. So my hobby is gaming and I just happen to have fun when I sit down at a computer (or a console), log into vent, and play games with people that I get along with very well. And if you've got a problem with that, I've got two words for you.....

Regular RPGs just don't do it anymore (or am I a cheater?)

Okay, so I know it's been a little bit since my last post, but alas, I'm still here. I've been a bit down lately to post anything, as my Learn 2 Play WoW (weplaywow.com) experiment didn't turn out as well as I thought (apparently there are not many people out there that want to play World of Warcraft and just don't know how as I had originally thought, although I do have a good amount of fans on our Facebook page). The website is still up and we're still accepting purchases and giving classes if needed; however, no one has bit yet (Yes, I'm probably the only business owner to ever admit this, but I think that's one of my key traits: I'm able to admit when I don't succeed at something and either try harder and figure out what I did wrong or why something doesn't work).

Ah, enough of the self-pity and onto the real meat of this post. I realized something the other day as I was demoing D & D: Dragondale on the XBOX 360. I didn't get very far before I became bored. The same thing happened with Demon Souls on the PS3 (an interesting concept, but I was only able to play until I died, and then it became very irritating trying to resurrect...). I thought back to The Elder Scrolls series that I have played since Morrowind. I only made it through the stories of those games because I (scoff) cheated. Yes, I admit when things got frustrating (which on Oblivion set to Easy mode wasn't often, but hey it did happen), I either looked up the cheat codes for God mode or looked up the walkthrough to find the answer. Then I thought about something. I never cheated in City of Heroes to get to 50 (you couldn't or if you did, you got banned, etc, etc, etc). But it did get frustrating at times, but my friends in-game helped me, as well as my wife because she played as well. Then I thought to how I had become bored with City of Heroes and moved onto World of Warcraft, and sigh, I cheated. I use Dugi's guides... and before those I used Jame's tour guides... (note, not necessarily cheating, but walkthroughs essentially telling you how to do everything). Am I addicted to getting to the end as fast as I can or am I even cheating at WoW, or did CoH just become boring at the end when all of my friends, and my wife, had moved on pretty much. I admit, we have regular groups that run Dungeons in World of Warcraft and that is one of the reasons I stay. I'm now playing Rift occasionally, especially with their version of a dungeon finder implemented (okay, I love my Bard in these dungeon groups! Don't have to dedicate healing, and I play music to buff and deal damage!). Okay, geekfest over here. Let me know in the comment section here. Am I addicted to cheating or have the single-player RPGs just lost their flair compared to MMORPGs, or am I even cheating at all on World of Warcraft?

City of Heroes Going F2P?

So, my good friend, Steady over at Steady's Gaming Blog, let me know that City of Heroes was going Free to Play in the upcoming issue 21. City of Heroes was the first MMORPG that I had invested enough time to get a character to the level cap. Don't get my wrong, my first MMORPG that I played was Everquest Online Adventures on the Playstation 2, but I never got to the level cap there or any subsequent MMO (Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, Everquest II, etc). until I found CoH. At around level 5, my wife and I found a home with the Moonbase Gamma supergroup, which eventually evolved into the Combat Engineers gaming community, that I'm still a part of today (yes, I know, those people are crazy for keeping me this long!).

Anyways, I later started playing World of Warcraft, got addicted, and moved more away from CoH, and devoted most of my game time towards World of Warcraft (yeah, like that's worked. I still try every game known to man, and I still keep coming back to WoW). So, to make a long story short, I may come back to City of Heroes, depending on what content is being offered for free. I don't think I'm willing to pay another monthly subscription (with Rift, WoW, and now Gods and Heroes [see next blog post, coming soon]), but if I can still play my level 50 and access new stuff, finish off certain badges, etc, and maybe level a new character as well, I may be coming back.

Now, as with Steady, I share his concerns. Will this new F2P model ruin the game with an influx of new people farming characters to the level cap, without learning to play their character, and then attempting to play the end-game and ruin PUG groups in the game completely (they're already dreadful enough as it is)? The game already has a problem with paying subscribers farming their toons to level cap and then attempting the end-game content without knowing how to play their character (hence the current state of most PUG groups). Don't twist my words here, I'm not against farming levels completely, and I've taken part in and benefitted from the practice as well. However, a person that farms a character from level 1 to the level cap without learning how to play said character should not then attempt to jump into any end game content. Learn to play the character. Run some of those missions you missed along the way, learn about the powers that you have and when you should use each one. Find out with enhancements work best with your character. Find some friends and run some task forces and once you feel like that character is your in-game persona that you know like the back of your hand, then maybe dabble in the end-game content. Hopefully, these new F2P players will grasp that concept, but if it's anything like some of the current subscribers, it's kind of doubtful. Granted, I can still play with my current Supergroup, but most of the people that used to play it actively, have moved on to another game as well (usually WoW).

-Ashton

It's Friday! Welcome to Weplaywow.com!

Okay, so in keeping with my promise to give you all the answer to the "something big" that was coming Friday, here it is. It's 12:41 am where I live, so it's Friday. Lately, I've been trying to recruit some of my friends and family into playing World of Warcraft with me (consider it a real-life recruiting for the in-game world type of thing). Yes, I know, I play games way too much, but I just want to spread the addic...ahem...joy.

Anyways, onto the point of this halibaloo. I would usually get my family members to play for maybe 5-10 minutes at the most before they would say that they didn't understand the game at all. I left it at that for a while until one family member said that they would like to play the game more, but they just didn't understand it and became easily frustrated. I asked around to the other people, and I kept getting the same response. The in-game WoW tutorial just wasn't cutting it for these people and they were becoming frustrated and giving up on the game very quickly, although they enjoyed the possibilities that the game could bring.

So, after several months of research, work, and monkeys (don't ask, there is just always monkeys involved in everything), We Play Wow was developed. It is the most in-depth beginner's guide (well, actually guides) and one-on-one help available. Actually, there isn't anything else like it. Trust me, I looked and looked and even the monkeys couldn't find anything.

"Wait", you ask, "You're asking us to pay you to teach us how to play World of Warcraft?" No, I'm not, actually. Here is what my program will provide you. All of the programs include the following: a beginner's guide to GameSpeak, a customized (yes, I personalize each one of these things) guide to World of Warcraft developed specifically for you (I e-mail you and you e-mail me letting me know what it is you are wanting to learn and I then create a guide specifically tailored to your needs every single time), bi-weekly to tri-weekly meetings (some would call these classes, but I would hardly call playing WoW school), and basically just about anything else that you could ask for this type of program. Trust me, if you e-mail me with a question, I will answer it (and no, I won't charge you extra money to answer your questions, all that's included).

This product isn't for everyone. Actually, it's not for people that already play World of Warcraft. It's for those people who want to play, but having a hard time understanding the game. I taught my own mother (who was one of the ones who could only play for 5 minutes before quitting) using this course and she is no longer a 5 minute wonder. I know there's going to be jerks out there saying "Everyone can play WoW. It's so easy." No, my friend, it's not. Not for people whose last video game was Pac-Man or Tetris (both very awesome classics in my opinion. And trust me, the in-game community for the most part, is less than stellar in their empathy and helping attitudes (spend 10 minutes in trade chat and you'll see what I mean).

I'm not charging you for doing stuff that World of Warcraft is already doing, the extremely low fees that I do have are for the time investment that I personally make for every individual person. You're not sitting with millions of people watching a recorded webinar. You're actually talking with a real, live person, one-on-one, and working together in-game as well. No, I'm not charging you to play the game with me (trust me, I'm not that desperate for a social life), again, the extremely low fees cover the cost that I incur for the services that I provide (the guides, creating accounts on World of Warcraft, the ventrilo voice-chat server, etc).

Again, this product is not for everyone. But if any of what I said applied to you and you want to get started playing World of Warcraft and actually enjoying it, head over to www.weplaywow.com and check out what we have available.

-Ashton

Levelling up in World of Warcraft

Okay, I levelled my Worgen to level 60 (no, it's not the level cap, but it's still pretty high) within two weeks of the Cataclysm release date. I know it's not a hardcore feat like doing it in 24-48 hours, but for the casual gamers, this is more than ideal. Everybody continues to ask me how I did it. Well, I spent a lot of time playing (before work, after work, and when I should have been sleeping) for one. But I had some help. There's a guide out there (well, several actually) that helped me find the quests that I needed to level up in the most efficient way possible. My wife and I started playing are Worgens at around the same time and we had devoted similar time to them. I used the guide and she didn't. Results? She's only at level 20.... She continues to ask me why mine levelled up faster. It was simple, I wasn't spending too much time running around and getting and turning in all the quests and then going to the same area and basically killing the same mobs that she was. This guide gives you the most efficient way to pick up the quests and then turn them in, so you're not basically repeating yourself over and over again and you level up much quicker. There are also other guides available that help with professions, achievements, and dailies. There is a purchase price for the guide, but for the quality of these guides, the price can't be beat. Yes, there are other free addons out there that help with levelling, but none are quicker or better than this one. I also guarantee that there is no virus or tracking software with the guide. Click the link below to head to the guide's website.

Ultimate WoW Guide!

Disc or Holy: Which is better?

Okay, so I was playing in a random group in a World of Warcraft dungeon (I can't remember which one, though) and as many PUGs do, this one broke down into an argument about which spec is better. The topic of discussion was Discipline specc'd priests and Holy specc'd priests and which ones were better for healing dungeons and raids. Our priest, who was specc'd Discipline, of course argued for the cause of Discipline heals. Awesome mana regen rate and heals were great he argued. Another member of our team who had a level 85 priest on another server (don't we all, now), countered that Blizzard had nerf'd the Penance spell hard in the last patch and now Holy was the L337 spec. I didn't get involved in the argument at the time, because I simply just wanted to finish the dungeon and get credit for it without having to wait in the queue line again and start all over. I do have a level 32 priest, and I realize that it doesn't really matter until end game what I think about the spec, but I simply do like the Discipline class better than Holy. Penance still works really well in my opinion and the mana regen is definitely awesome. Plus I can solo through my quests instead of feeling really squishy as I did in Holy form. So I think it's a good levelling build, but is it good for end-game? I don't know, I have heard of raids where they didn't want a priest healer unless they were specc'd Disc. I have also heard of raids who didn't want a priest healer at all, so I have heard all sides of the argument. It may just be a player preference and how good a person is at playing their class. Let me know what you think in the comments section!