Blizzcon is over! 3.22 now approaching!

So Blizzcon is over, most of what was leaked about the expansion ended up being true, although if you ask the lore nerds, they'll say that Blizz stole their ideas or the leaks were dead wrong. /rolleyes

To be honest I was surprised at the fact Worgen were actually getting an ability that allowed them to change from human to Worgen at will, with no bonuses. I was mildly shocked. Simply because I never expected Blizzard to do something that was almost completely for RP and Lore reasons and nothing else.

Coming up with the new patch is a revamped level 80 Onyxia Raid, which should be fun, and starts us off on the road to Cataclysm, with mostly revamped old content instead of new shiny content.

Some people might say that because its not new content its a waste of money and not worth it, but to me it shows that Blizz actually recognises that the Old World needs a spit and polish to compete in the current MMO marketplace. It also comes to light that Blizz can always think up a reason to either do one thing, and then change their minds and think up a perfectly reasonable reason to the opposite.

My Mage has been at level 80 for some time now. I've slowly been working away at increasing my guild rank in order to access some of the higher tiered raids on offer at the moment. But at the moment I'm stuck doing runs of Nax 25 with my guild, which is actually not so bad since I haven't been in there in about 3-4 months or so now.

What started off as a side project has now expanded, I now have 86 minipets and 65 Mounts ATM. My favourites at the moment is my Ravasaur Hatchling and my Ammen Vale Lashling.

I have to say though that despite all the whining and predictions of doom, patch 3.2 has been quite healthy for the game. It kinda gives me a bit of the BC vibe, except much, much easier lol

Enough ranting for now, I should post more often to avoid the wall of textyness.

Dur MMO-Champion was trolled by SA Forums?!

So, I'm sure most of you by now have heard the news about the new WoW expansion leak and are, like many people, wondering if its true, and what it means for WoW in the future?

In my honest opinion I think that it's true. Why? Because if it was a fake leak, and just a red herring, it would probably be a let down for a lot of people. Secondly, it's probably the best idea Blizzard have ever had for WoW, I mean it just makes sense on a marketing point of view and a business point of view.

For example, you have a large amount of game content that is going completely unused by the general playerbase for the moment. Why not put a lot of those old art assets to good use? You have entire zones that can be reworked, flight will now be allowable in the old world, update the older questlines to reflect how far Blizzard has come with the game.

And at the same time you are encouraging new and old players to join to see if the game from 1-60 has improved, possibly gaining even more customers. So I think it's simply a great idea, and basically the only option they had considering the next gen MMO's such as Champions, APB, and Star Wars are boasting far more interesting gaming systems from day one, while WoW still had its 2004 Lvl 1-60 grind.

Another point is, previous WoW creator interviews have backed up what the leak is saying: "Garrosh will be the new leader of the Horde and Thrall will leave"? That reflects a comment I recall hearing during a WoW interview, with the creators wishing for an end to the peace that seemed to exist between Alliance and Horde, and wishing for Thrall to disappear from the scene.

Community Managers on the WoW forums have repeatedly stated they would be interested in revisiting the Old World of Azeroth over the past year, never hinting that they are working on it, nor that they had no plans to do it. Many lore buffs have already figured that Maelstrom and the Emerald dream will probably be the focus of the next expansion. Even Goblin and Worgen have been confirmed by several sources over the past few weeks.

Anyone who has read MMO-Champion before knows that the Webmaster does not simply post random rumours, and he has already stated that his information has been confirmed by several separate anonymous sources.

So if you are still not convinced by this, then I would simply say to you that I would like to hear what you have to say about it this time, next week. :)

Stuff you prolly didn't want to know.

OK this is Random, remember Battle of the Planets? Well Capcom has a new fighting game which is basically Japan's answer to Marvel vs Capcom: Tatsunoku vs Capcom!

What the hell is Tatsunoko do you ask? Just one of the oldest animation companies in Japan that have certain characters that are considered 'classics' by the older Japanese crowd. How can you lose? Gotta love the poster though.


Oh yeah, I like to draw, I want to get into Uni to do something artsy, but I just end up drawing big boobs most of the time! I don't know if its good or bad?


Also I occassionally head to 4chan for some mischief. Here's my House trolling with a game screenshot thats actually an Oekaki I did.

And like everyone else who is on the internet for more than an hour a day, I try to get as many funny/nostalgic/sexy/naked/bad taste pictures I can get my hands on for possible reposting in the future. Perhaps all in the same one picture.


That was productive! :P

3.2 Hits! And Strangewayes moves servers!

Time for a new Update! I've been back on my Mage in the past week finally reaching the goal of 75 minipets! I also decided to switch from my old Skinning/Tailoring professions over to Alchemy/Herbalism. It took a few days to grind up but I am very happy with my self heal DoT I have available for myself, as well as the Endless Mana/Health/Flask I have with me now. It makes things quite helpful while speed running instances or fighting in Battlegrounds!

As for the 3.2 patch itself, I thought it was quite interesting to tell you the truth, on one hand you have all this new exciting content to go through, but on the other hand you see Blizz has made the whole system of how character can gear once they hit 80 completely streamlined.

Simply put, back before 3.2, once you hit level 80, you were to run Heroics in order to gain your item level 200 gear in order to be considered viable for Naxxramas, the first Raid instance of Wrath of the Lich King. With Heroics now dropping Emblems of Conquest, and the new Normal 5-man having ALL Item Level 200 Purple gear dropping, the entire progression line for WOTLK is turned on its head.

New 80's will now be immediately start gearing for Ulduar and the new 3.2 Raid Instance. Possibly being able to skip Naxxramas altogether! On one hand it's good, but on the other, it just starts to reek of patch 3.1 when Blizz was constantly nerfing Ulduar til people could get through it, the progression loses it's value because you think that if you wait long enough you could just get the top level gear eventually mailed to your inbox.

But enough about that rant. Strangewayes(my Mage) has moved from a PVP to a PVE server, and I must say I am pleasantly surprised, I never realised how much World PVP ganking erodes players basic Instance skills. After doing several PuG's I have found almost all players have a decent understanding of their class in instance situations; something that was poorly lacking on my old server. But perhaps I am just having a run of good luck at the moment. The guild I've joined is very supportive and I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with them and this new "Casual Friendly" version of WoW Blizz is going for.

Fearing the Endgame.

I caved in today and decided to go back to my Mage, after levelling my Lock up to 74. I realised as I approached 80, just how much work I had put into the Mage at endgame in Wrath. Due to the introduction of achievements, my Mage has 74 mini-pets, and something like 64 mounts ATM. Some of those mounts and pets took quite an amount of time and in-game gold to obtain.

Additionally, I realised that my Warlock would likely not get into too many groups, simply due to things like having weak gear, having no achievements to allow entry into PuG runs, and being DPS meaning that I will be competing with others better geared and with better achievements.

Plus with the new 3.2 patch fast approaching, I'll be having a lot of trouble actually trying to play my Warlock through the endgame content, especially content I have already done on my Mage almost hundreds of times.

So in retrospect, even though Blizzard is trying to encourage people to roll new characters with the Heirloom items and experience boosts, I find that unless you are a chronic reroller, or are planning to make a character simply for gathering at 80, the reasons for trying to roll a new character are rather few.

SF4 - First Impressions.

Today I headed into the city to get myself out of the house, and while I was out I decided to take a look at SF4. I had only played it at JB Hi-Fi previously using a controller and playing alone, so this would be my first time on Arcade sticks against human opponents.

The first thing that stuck me was how similar to SF4 was to Super Turbo and the EX series. I suspect that players who are more accustomed to Alpha and SF3, will have more problems than other Street Fighter players. The game is very ST in it's hit boxes, timing, links play a massive role, 'safe' pokes, etc...

Which is why I wonder; old school ST players that hold positions of influence in Capcom USA and other places, did they guide the game to it's current finished product? It's been no secret that many of the high ranking ST players in America viewed SF3 with disdain, calling it things like a random turtle fest.

I just feel a little bitter at the point that ST players will probably get more out of this game than other players, simply because they can get more wins in the game with old ST tactics while they perfect the new systems that were introduced with SF4.

Basically, I don't think I am going back to the arcade any time soon to play SF4. If I want to at least get my moneys worth, I'd practice my skills up on the home console version first. Then at least I could get a chance at some decent gameplay time for my money investment.

Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike aka - "Back in my Day"

I've been playing Street Fighter III since 2003, and I don't think I will ever stop playing it in some form. When I first started playing the game, it did not feel like the other fighter which I was playing at the time, which made the game hard for me to get into.

Six years and several tournaments later though, I find the game to be still fun and interesting, the dash, super jump, and parry mechanics make new strategies and tactics always interesting to try out on other players. Other fighters I've played have dropped by the wayside as I've always come back to SF3.

Of course the game has its balance issues, like any other fighter. But the fact that it still has an important spot on the SBO roster after all these years shows that it is a loved and solid fighter that is now considered a classic. Players fly from all over the world to attend the tournament in Japan, which is considered by most to be the world championships of fighting games of many kinds.

Also, its always fun to hear about the qualifiers on Shoryuken.com, and hear which top players are teaming with who for the 3-on-3 battles towards the finals crown. There are no longer people at the tournament texting to others in front of their computers, who relay the winners and losers to a group of hardcore fans in the IRC channel. Now we can see some of the matches played on youtube, and the DVD's of the main events can be bought online.

Seven to Eight years ago, people would have killed to get their hands on the footage of top players, it was simply never seen. Not that many people had portable cameras or video cards capable of proper editing. The tapes you could find were just poor VHS copies.

We've come a long way from 1990, where the kids down at the bowling alley arcade whispered of an unbeatable Guile player who only came in on thursdays.