World of Warcraft To Test Using Real Money to Buy Experience Buffs

By Bixyl Shuftan

While World of Warcraft players have been busy with the Battle of the Barrens and other places, earlier this month there was some news that Blizzard would be testing out something never done before in the game - allowing players to gain experience faster by using real money purchases.

The buying of game items, or "micro-transactions," are not new to gaming, or even to WoW. Some smaller Internet games such as Evony allow players to purchase a variety of buffs, better equipment, etc. As these purchases give the buyer an advantage over free players, they are sometimes called "Pay to Win" games. Larger MMOs have tended to avoid such offers, not wanting to give loyal players who've gamed a long time the impression someone can just buy their way to the top and avoid the time and hard work in getting there. Instead some, WoW included, offer the sale of items that do not affect gameplay, such as mounts and pets.

In Summer 2011, Eve Online players protested plans to allow the purchase of items that would affect gameplay, and eventually the company relented. "It's one thing to add non-game items and make money off that," one reader wrote, "It's another entirely to screw up the whole game mechanics so that veteran players who've worked a year to get where they are get bumped by some snotnosed kid who's using Daddy's credit card to buy his way to the top."

Earlier this month, Blizzard forum moderators admitted to plans to "exploring" options after it was discovered there were plans for items to be sold at an "in game store," such as an "Enduring Elixir of Wisdom" that gave a 100% experience boost. The store will reportedly be only on Asian servers at first, and the item is described as currently only on test servers and only available to players level 85 or more.

The response from the players was mostly negative, "The item itself is mostly harmless … the problem is that it opens doors to (the) 'Pay to Win' model. And we already pay the game and a monthy fee just to skip that." Some stated they would leave the game, or feared others would if the In Game Store was released. Some stated they wouldn't mind the option to level other characters this way once a player had brought one up to the maximum Level 90 anyway.

This comes soon after some less than happy news for World of Warcraft. In May, Blizzard stated they had lost more than a million players in the first three months of the year, from 9.6 million n January 2013 to 8.3 million in March. While most of the losses were from Asia (where the in-game store will be tested), some Western gamers left as well. This continues a long-term drop from it's peak of 12 million in 2010, and the company admitted further decline was likely, "we expect to have fewer subscribers at year end than we do today." The reasons for the drop, players were leaving for cheaper games, notably those playable on mobile devices. The video game industry, in addition to virtual words such as Second Life, has been facing increased competition from handhelds such as tablets, iPods, and others.

At the time, Blizzard stated they would be investing more in WoW, with more storylines and features. Since then, the Darkspear Rebellion was introduced. But that even the largest of MMOs would resort to "dabbling in the darkest gold-producing alchemy of them all" of microtransactions allowing those with deeper pockets an edge over conventional players, this could be taken as a sign that even the people behind World of Warcraft are wondering if it won't be long before they no longer dominate online gaming.

Sources: Gamasutra, BBC News, Rock Paper Shotgun, Blizzard Forums,

Bixyl Shuftan

Review of World of Warcraft's "Mists of Pandaria," Part Two

In Part One of the review, we discussed "Mists of Pandaria's: new race, the Pandaren, and the new continent of Pandaria. Besides the Pandaren and Pandaria, the new feature getting the most talk is the Pet Battle System. Here, all those non-combat pets players have been collecting over time can be put to use besides showing them. It's gotten a lot of comparisons to "Pokemon," which even Wowpedia admits.

To gain the ability, one visits a Battle Pet trainer. Only one character needs to do so as the ability is account bound rather than on one single character. One's pets start at Level one, and by challenging wild pets or another trainer's pets in duels, winning pet battles increases' ones pets experience and over time levels them. Like items, pets can be common, uncommon, or rare in quality, rares having higher stats.

Players can heal their pets once every ten minutes. They can also pay a stable master to heal them or a special battle pet bandage. There are some achievements and quests than can be done. One can also buy and sell pets at the auction house. Naturally rares sell for the most. 

Mounts have also become account bound, although characters can still use only those of their level or lower. And those of the opposing faction will be unavailable.

Another new feature is scenarios, which are much like instances, but are shorter "with progressive objectives and a story arc." Unlike regular instances, tanks and healers are described as not truly needed. One "WoW Insider" writer described them as much more ideal for warrior class characters than instances. The first one, Theramore's Fall, was made available a couple weeks before the release of "Mists of Pandaria," which gave the sense of the Horde and Alliance, already hostile to one another, getting closer to all out war. If this was a signal for "get ready for more player vs player," there were opportunities for it in two new battleground areas.

There's some fun new things in the game. One feature isn't so much new as brought back from WoW's beta days. While the game was still under development, druids in their travel form could carry a passenger. But this feature was cut before the game's release. The reason, Blizzard was a bit wary of juvenile wisecracks of guys "riding" female druids. But with some of the more suggestive jokes and flirts for the past couple expansions, a guy going about on a lady druid's travel form was mild in comparison. So the feature was brought back for "Mists of Pandaria", with the addition of a new glyph for druids. By now though, it's more of a neat feature than a practical move since back then it took a lot longer to get to level 40.

Players in Pandaria can also do a bit of farming. Unlike games such as Runescape, there is no farming skill. Instead, one can help a farmer at Sunsong Ranch in the Valley of the Four Winds, and he'll let you grow your own veggies. Quests allow one to gain favor with the farming faction, the Tillers, and the further one goes, the more plots that are available. Naturally it isn't always so simple to just plant and forget. Your crops may need watering, weeding, defending from critters trying to make lunch out of them, and "wild" crops will need to be wrestled (see picture). "Farmvile" certainly didn't involve defending pumpkins from Level 86 Swooping Planshawks. Successful harvests yield cooking ingredients for Zen Master level Cooking and other items such as herbs, enchanting materials, and even skins, minerals, and cloth.

One fun new gadget for engineers is the "Blingtron 4000," as well as fun for everyone else around it. When summoned, it hangs around for about ten minutes and gives a gift to anyone who talks to him. WoW Insider described the gifts as a variety of items from potions to items that help raise your skills, to "a steamy romance novel."

It's a little easier for those doing the archeology profession. Instead of three digs, one is able now to dig five times at an archeology site on a map before it fades. In Pandaria, Pandaren archeological finds can be crated and stacked in one single space in your backpacks and get you better reputation with the Lorewalkers.

With five new levels come some new moves and attacks. For the Hunter, one fun move is "Stampede" in which all of your pets attack the target at once, although each having only a quarter of it's offensive strength. 

One major difference between "Mists of Pandaria" and the two previous expansions is the lack of a single villain dominating the plot. "Wrath of the Lich King" got it's name from it's big bad boy. With "Cataclysm," it was Deathwing the dragon aspect that threatened to wreck the world. Here, no one bad guy dominates the field like they do, players dealing with a few separate bigger bosses as they go about Pandaria.

However, there will be one interesting villain that players will deal with later on after a major patch several months from now: Horde Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. In the plot, Thrall's replacement as the Horde's leader as he goes off to help the elements against Deathwing isn't the careful statesman he was. Instead of bargaining, Hellscream feels the Horde should simply take what it wants, and if it means war with the Alliance, so be it. Unlike Thrall, he feels only Orcs are deserving of the most honored roles in the Horde, and woe to anyone Orc or not who openly questions him. His plans to expel the Alliance from the continent of Kalimador change to outright genocide. More and more, Horde members are increasingly dissatisfied at his rule, and eventually rebellion will break out. In the upcoming Siege of Ogrimmar, both Alliance and Horde players help the Horde rebels to defeat Hellscream, whom as it turns out has been secretly been doing some abominable activities. There is only speculation as to who replaces him. Will Thrall return, or will the Horde see a third Warchief? Time will tell.

Considering World of Warcraft's size and fanbase, any news involving it is going to get conversation, and the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion has brought about no shortage of them. A number dismissed it from the beginning as little more than a "Kung-Fu Panda" joke because of the new race. Others however welcomed them, one girl saying, "They are just so CUTE!" Some PvP players do have a preference for this kind of character, feeling others will be embarrassed to be "pawned" by a cutsie character, "You just got your a** handed to you by a panda?!" The biggest complaint about the Pandaren I've heard is of them being a neutral race, though most can see why Blizzard made them available to both sides, some citing Horde fan complaints about the Worgens' Alliance status.

Of the Pet Battle System, many have dismissed that as well as "WoW meets Pokeman." Others find it an occasional interesting break from the routine of the game. Though few if any seem to be making it a major part of the game for the long haul. The new scenarios, however, have gotten praise.

Among the comments about the expansion was of the detail of Pandaria, very picturesque with it's towns' architecture and the wilderness. Some also commented the land seemed more "normal" than previous parts of Azeroth. Here, you're more likely to see NPC people going about their lives farming, mining, fishing, and otherwise living. You'll also see a lot more kids.

WoW players interested in the role-play aspects of their characters have expressed these kind of  Pandaren players have something of an interesting challenge. Not only do they have to come up with an explanation why they sided with Horde or Alliance, but as from a race that's been isolated, war-torn Azeroth that's had to deal all kinds of threats and challenges from The Plague, Goblin technology, all kinds of demons and monsters, and of course that the Alliance and Horde are perpetually at some level of conflict. A new reality entirely foreign to these characters, it could certainly warp the mindsets of these furry adventurers. Or perhaps they somehow remain laid back and curious at heart.

A number of people feel Blizzard did a better job with "Mists of Pandaria" than "Cataclysm." Among the people I know, the Sunweavers guild in WoW is active again, with players both rolling up Pandaren characters and exploring the new land. The response doesn't seem to be as great as Cataclysm, when the guild grew with new players happy to have Worgen characters, but it has brought life back to a guild that was seeing only minimal activity for the past few months.

It's been commented on that if "Mists of Pandaria" fails to keep World of Warcraft's numbers up, it will be the expansion that sees the biggest multiplayer online game begin to lose it's dominance. While it will still be number one for at least a few more years, if it continues to decline like it has, games like Star Wars the Old Republic will begin to have comparable numbers of players. For the short term however, "Mists" has been a success, with 2.7 million units sold in its first week and the total number of players past ten million again, up from 9.1 million in August. So at least for now Blizzard is unlikely to make any major changes, such as expanding it's free-to-play version beyond level 20. It's a safe bet this game will eventually be getting players who hadn't been born when it was first launched.

My personal opinion is "Mist of Pandaria" rates a four out of five. If you're a dedicated WoW player you'll most likely love it, especially if you're a panda fan. If you're not already playing, it may not hold your interest for more than a few months. As for yours truly, I'm keeping my subscription.

And that's it for now from Azeroth.


Sources: WoWpedia, Gamespot.com, WoWInsider,

Bixyl Shuftan

Review of World of Warcraft's "Mists of Pandaria," Part One

On September 25th, Blizzard's "World of Warcraft," the most popular of massive multiplayer online games, released it's fourth expansion "Mists of Pandaria." Anticipated for several months, the update promised a number of new features, notably the new continent of Pandaria and a new player race: the Pandaren.

The Pandaren were originally created as an April Fool's joke, but to Blizzard's surprise the response was a positive one. So they were included in the Warcraft III computer game. The Pandaren are of course panda-like, with females smaller than males and sporting earrings. They also have small tails, with female reds having longer ones. They have a few special features compared to other races. They take less damage from falls. They get double the " Well Fed" stat bonuses from food. They start off with a fifteen point bonus in Cooking. Their "Quaking Palm" can stun a target for a few seconds. And their rested experience bonus lasts twice as long. The latter can be quite helpful for players leveling up a character. Most player classes are available: Warrior, Rouge, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Hunter, and the newest one: the Monk. What truly distinguishes Pandaren from other player races is that they are the first "neutral" one. They don't start out as Alliance or Horde, but choose who to side with near the end of their introductory quests.

Saying the Pandaren background have a Chinese influence is stating the obvious, though this is nothing new with World of Warcraft races such as American Indians with Taruen and Victorian English with Worgen. The plot background describes their last emperor shrouding their lands with an "impenetrable mists" thousands of years ago to protect it from the calamities at the time other lands were facing. Some generations ago, some Pandaren explorers founded a colony on the back of an island-sized sea turtle and their descendants have wandered the ocean since. This is where new Pandaren characters begin. Pandaren and turtles go together in other ways, with Pandaren hunters starting off with a turtle as a combat pet, and their racial mount being the speedy Dragon Turtle.

Beginning Pandaren characters start off as training in a small village, then are sent on quests to help out the island, occasionally fighting hostile monkeys and rabbit-like denziens. A few quests are an obvious take on one popular Japanese anime. Around Level 10, one's character and his/her friends come across the source of the island's distress: an airship having crashed into the giant turtle's side. There, they meet up with members of the Alliance and Horde, fighting against naga which have been stirred up by the crash. Once the island has been saved, it's decided to send Pandaren out into "the broken world" to help out it's other peoples. One of the character's friends decides on going over to the Alliance, while another will head to the Horde. The player then decides which path lies before his/her character: Alliance or Horde. After meeting up with the new leader, the player is free on how to progress while his/her friend begins teaching those interested on the ways of the monk.

Blizzard advertises monks as being experts in unarmed combat that "draw their weapons for devastating finishing moves." This doesn't mean going in without a weapon in your slot. Monk characters should be armed as normal. Monks have both an energy bar, and another bar for "Chi" energy. Some energy attacks will build up Chi energy,  while other special attacks use it up. Besides staves (which mine started out with), these characters can use fist weapons, one handed axes, maces, and swords, and polearms. Monks can be of most races, Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and Draenei for the Alliance, Orcs, Tauren, Trolls, Forsaken, and Bloodelves for the Horde, and of course the Pandaren. Monks are limited to cloth and leather armor. Monks have three specializations: Windwalkers who concentrate on melee attacks, Mistweavers whom can heal, and Brewmasters whom can tank with their special moves like the "drunken masters" in some martial arts flicks.

Besides new races and new characters, players have some new territory to cover with their current ones. Level 85 characters upon entering their capital are given a mission. A ship carrying the Prince of Stormwind has run aground on a strange new land. Alliance characters are sent with a force to recover him and secure the land before the Horde does. Horde characters are sent with a force to get him and likewise secure the land before the Alliance. Once getting to Pandaria, both sides come to blows, and besides fighting one another are trying to win over the local Pandarens, as well as fighting the locals old foes whose attention has been aroused, as well as some dark spirits which have also been stirred up.

Characters will be unable to fly on personal mounts, until reaching level 90, the new top level in the game. Until then, there's the Pandaria kite transportation. There's also no mailboxes in the first few places you come across in the Jade Forest Zone, the entrance to Pandara. So saving loot such as player gear for the Auction House and skins & ores may be a problem at first. But if you look around the region, eventually you'll find a village with one. Deeper into the continent are some auction houses, including the Black Market Auction House with some items unavailable anywhere else. In the Black Market, items will be generated and listed by NPCs. There is no buyout price, only bidding.

Part Two of the "Mists of Pandaria" review will cover the Pet Battle System, and what some have been saying about the expansion. 

To read the second part, Click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eve Online’s Veteran Players Revolt Over “Monoclegate” Controversy

Among Science Fiction Massive Multiplayer Online games, the top-ranking one has been Eve Online. A ship vs ship combat game in which players organize into alliances, it has stood over most of the “Other than WoW” crowd. Recently however, some developments could put this status into question.

For most of Eve Online’s history, players never saw their game face. That’s because all the action was in space. For some time, there’s been talk of allowing players to walk about in their ships and space stations. On June 21, their “Incarna” update finally allowed it.

At SL8B, I had a chat with GoSpeed Racer, whom also plays Eve. She told me this update came with a catch. If you wanted to put accessories on your avatar, most clothes would cost the equivalent of $17.50 US dollars. More expensive is the monocle, which costs a $70. When I went to read more about it, I came across more news. News that was making veteran Eve players afraid and angry.

A document from the company behind Eve was leaked which revealed plans to allow purchases of ammo, ships, and other equipment, in addition to other things like faction standings. Why the fuss over these “microtransactions” as they were called. Eve is not a new game, but has been around for several years with a core of dedicated veteran players. And the company had promised for some time there would be no items affecting gameplay up for sale when microtransactions became an option. The message taken by many as the result of this leak was “We lied.”

Articles on Massivley stated that the company’s initial answer to the controversy did nothing to soothe player anger. The results were numerous protests in-game. One film of a protest showed “hundreds” of players firing on a space station. Not all Eve players share this opinion. Another Second Life friend who began playing Eve was unaware of the controversy when I mentioned it, and didn’t see what the fuss was about.

Massively’s “Eve Evolved” columnist was hopeful, but also worried that the company was willing to demolish the sense of community the game had in the name of short-term profits, “I don't want to look back on this weekend in years to come and say to people, ‘This was the day that EVE Online died.’ ”

Fortunetly, CCP realized the mess that had come about. An apology was issued for the tone of the initial response, and they went as far as to fly the game’s “Council of Stellar Management,” a group elected by the players to represent their views, to Iceland for a meeting. After some time to talk, the company issued a statement that their store “will be used for the sale of vanity items only. There are no plans, and have been no plans ... to introduce the sale of game breaking items or enhancements ...”

Responses to Massively’s article were mixed, the majority of those responding expressing some level of skepticism. Although some are willing to believe the company behind Eve Online, it seems the “Monoclegate” controversy has left a sour taste with some veteran players that will take time to fade.

Source: Massively, PC Gamer (picture from PC Gamer)

Bixyl Shuftan

*Addidtion* - GoSpeed has her own blog with her comments on the matter.