Yearly Archives: 2014

There Is No “One True MMO” + Warlords of Draenor Cinematic and Release Date

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If you spend any time in the MMO community, you’ll know there’s a tremendous amount of bitterness and cynicism to be found among players. Part of this is undoubtedly just down to the usual Internet crankiness, but a lot of the negativity springs from the fact that people are seemingly waiting for a “one true MMO.”

A space mission in WildStarCall it a WoW killer or whatever you want, but people are constantly waiting for that perfect game that will be all things to all people and dominate the genre. And of course, such a game never comes, leading to an unending cycle of disappointment.

In my latest article for WhatMMO, I speculate on the origins of this desire for the perfect game, and the toxic effect it has on both players and developers alike.

Warlords of Draenor cinematic, release date, and Lords of War animated series:

Blizzard has just wrapped up their Warlords of Draenor livestream.

It was really a lot longer than it needed to be, featuring a lot of recaps and interviews on things we already knew about the expansion, as if they were announcing it all over again. It seemed like an attempt to reclaim some of the momentum they lost after last year’s BlizzCon.

But eventually, they did get to the good stuff.

They began with the first installment of a new animated series in the style of the Burdens of Shaohao. This one, Lords of War, spotlights some of the more prominent warlords of Draenor.

It’s pretty good, I have to say. Framing it with Varian and his flashbacks to the horrors he witnessed as a child was a good idea, and the whole thing is very badass and Warcrafty.

Then there’s the cinematic itself.

Despite my ambivalence (to put it kindly) towards Warlords of Draenor, I have to admit this is pretty cool. Definitely a step-up from the extremely disappointing Mists of Pandaria intro. Seeing Grom confront Mannoroth again, albeit in a totally different time and setting, and all of the throwbacks to Warcraft III were definitely nerdgasm moments.

My one complaint is that they don’t appear to have brought back the Warcraft III voice actor for Grom Hellscream, and I’m not sure I like the new guy right now. Doesn’t seem to have quite the same gravitas as his predecessor.

On the other hand, Gul’dan sounds amazing. Captured his character so perfectly.

The cinematic concluded with the release date: November 13, 2014.

Oh, that’s bad.

We were all expecting a mid-October release, and even that would have been shockingly late by anyone’s standards. Now we’re looking at an utterly unprecedented fourteen month content drought.

That’s insane. That would be unforgivable in any game. For it to happen in a subscription game, and one as successful as World of Warcraft, with an expansion as small as Warlords of Draenor… it’s madness.

A screenshot of Telador in World of Warcraft: Warlords of DraenorWe’ll likely never know what, but something clearly went badly wrong during the development of this expansion. This is a disaster.

I may not be terribly enthused with WoD, but even I’m ready for it to come out by now. The game needs new content — any new content. If nothing else, I want to get to level 100 so I can start soloing Cataclysm raids.

And I must admit, I’m warming to the idea of WoD a little. I still don’t like it, and there’s a long list of things I’d rather have for an expansion, but it seems like it’s meant to be more of a Mirror Universe-style tangent than a total rewriting of WoW lore, so that’s a bit more palatable. And some of the new zones look pretty cool.

That release date will also give people only a handful of days to reach max level in time for the ten year anniversary event. Not good.

Well, the upside of my extremely low interest level in WoD is that it doesn’t bother me overmuch if it’s absurdly late. And this means I’ll get to do Hallows End this year.

What say you, dear reader? Are the cinematic and Lords of War to your taste? Does the release date have you angered? Share your thoughts.

Review: Defiance, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”

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Things seem to be getting rather intense on this show all of a sudden.

A promotional image for Defiance“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” has several big reveals, all tied in with a race against the clock to stop a devastating terrorist attack.

The Earth Republic learns the Votanis Collective plans to activate a dirty bomb in New York, potentially killing thousands of civilians. Their only potential source of information on the attack is an Irathient prostitute from the Need/Want, who doubles as a Collective spy. The race is on to get the information from him before the attack can take place.

But of course, it’s not that simple. Amanda receives a call informing her that — perhaps not surprisingly — Kenya is alive after all, and the Collective is holding her hostage in an attempt to coerce Amanda into releasing the Irathient spy before he breaks.

The spy’s capture also has dire ramifications for Datak Tarr, who had been meeting with him in order to smuggle weapons from the Votanis Collective in the hopes of overthrowing the E-Rep.

At Nolan’s direction, Irisa ventures into the wilderness to search for Kenya and her captors, but she is once again overtaken by visions. They drive her deeper into the wilds, and closer to her mysterious destiny.

The town of DefianceI never really formed a strong opinion of Kenya, so just as her “death” provoked no strong reaction from me, neither does her return. I guess it will make Stahma squirm? That could be interesting.

There’s a lot more to “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” than Kenya’s return, though.

This represents the most aggressive action — really the only significant action — we have seen from the Votanis Collective to date. We knew the Collective and the Earth Republic weren’t exactly chums, and I always suspected the Collective wasn’t any more pleasant than the Republic, but planning to nuke New York… that’s ballsy, to put it mildly.

This could constitute an act of war. Even if it doesn’t lead to immediate aggression between the two sides, it certainly makes clear the Collective’s intentions going forward. They have clearly shown that the world is not big enough for both humans and Votans — at least in their opinion.

Frankly, it doesn’t seem entirely wise of the Collective. By making the first move, they invite attack by the Earth Republic. They potentially give the E-Rep an excuse to exercise their full military might against them, and it gives the E-Rep cause a lot more legitimacy.

I almost wonder if this was the action of the Collective leadership, or some rogue element within their ranks. It would hardly be the first time something like that has happened.

Battling a Dark Matter mech during a major Arkfall in DefianceSpeaking of which, it did strike me during the episode that Kenya’s captor sounded an awful lot like Nim Shondu.

Of course, it’s probably not him. For a lot of good reasons, not the least of which being the fact that he did die a while ago.

Then again, this would hardly be the first time Nim turned out to be less dead than was widely believed, and setting off a dirty bomb in the middle of a crowded human city is exactly the sort of plan he would concoct.

I am most likely barking up the wrong tree. But it’s an intriguing thought, and imagining the possibilities is the fun of tinfoil hat theories. In the end, it hardly matters if you’re right or not.

All musings on the identity of Kenya’s captor aside, though, I think Irisa’s story might just have been the most interesting part of the episode. Whatever plan “Irzu” has for her seems to be coming to fruition.

And finally we have gotten a hint as to what the true purpose behind her actions is. It may only be one word, but it’s a word with some pretty powerful implications.

Something big is coming. This much is clear.

It’s also interesting to note that it seems as though none of Irisa’s victims have been human. I’ve seen Irathients, Castithans, Indogenes, Liberata, and I think I even saw a Sensoth, but no humans.

Hmm…

Taken all in all, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” does a great job of advancing several plots at once without feeling scattered, and I don’t think I can muster any complaints.

Overall rating: 8.1/10