Gaming Signal: February 2007 Archives

Wednesday February 28, 2007

Changes?

Hi, it's me Tim from GamingSignal and many have noticed a lack of content from us for a couple weeks, and I am here to inform you that we are still around. Just busy much like everyone else is. We are going to be making a few minor changes to the site and hopefully they will be well recieved. If you read from the RSS feed, we thank you for your subscription and hope that you take some time to visit and leave us a comment.

Some changes that I have made today were intended to line up better with SFSignal. Of note, the news feeds and Meta-Signal areas have been slightly updated. I have also removed the poll (sorry for those voting) due to my lack of ability to keep up with it and in the hopes of replacing it with the code John has implemented on SFSignal. I have also removed the Quote which I felt did not offer us anything here, and Finally I moved our Gamer tags up to the top of the right hand column.

So, I hope my minor changes are not too shocking for folks and remember we are not dead yet so no carting our carcass out into the yard. Also, no - you cannot have our stuff.

Tuesday February 13, 2007

Me And My Wii

So last Sunday, on my way home from picking up donuts and coffee, I noticed there was a line in front of our local Target. This was just before 8am and I knew what that line meant, Wiis were in stock. So I stopped and got in line. I was number 9. Mind you, the #2 person in line had been there since 6:45 am. Crazy. Anyway, after consulting with the wife, I decided to go ahead and get a Wii. The Target guy was reluctant to tell me exactly how many Wiis he had in stock, but that I would definitely get one. So I did. (The potential for using this as a tax write off is an appealing, and giggle inducing, bonus).

First, the setup was very easy. Not having component outputs kept me from having to make a tough choice as to where to put it. The Wii will output 480p at 16:9, and, for what it is, it looks nice. Another interesting thing which I didn't know, is that the Wii has a sensor bar that you must place either above or below the TV to allow the Wii to sense the Wiimote. Not a big deal, just unexpected. One big plus for the Wii, it has wireless networking built in. Sweet! Two clicks and it was connected to my network and downloading stuff off the net. Are you listening Microsoft?

The Wiimote itself is kinda cool. You get the Wiimote and a nunchuk with the Wii as well as Wii Sports. I didn't buy any other games yet, so we've only played the Sports titles. As far as gaming goes, the Sports disc is mediocre at best. It's like Nintendo threw together a few tech demos and released them. Tennis and Baseball are incomplete games. Bowling is quite fun, as is Boxing. Golf is hard. Even though the games aren't stellar, using the Wiimote is a blast, and I can see the appeal Nintendo is talking about. It's just plain fun to get up and move around while playing. Although my right shoulder hurts still from all that boxing.

So, all in all, with the new games coming out (Wii Play, Mario Party), I'd say the Wii is a decent buy, especially if you have kids and want something with more appeal beyond shooters or adventure games. But realize that the Wii catalog of games is still rather limited.

Monday February 12, 2007

WoW: Droods r 4 fite!

At the risk of turning this site into WowSignal (hmm, might get more hits that way) I thought I'd share with the group my experience of playing a Druid in World of Warcraft, especially recently.

The summary is - in the attempt to create a hybrid character that actually works well, I fear Blizzard has created a character that can do too much. I really like my character and certainly don't want to encourage a beating by the nerf bat, but I can be honest and say that so far, this class as it is now lends itself to doing things I'm not sure the game intended.

I've always been partial to pet classes when I play online games because they generally offer lots of things to do. My first MMO was Ultima Online but I was weaned on Everquest and many of my notions on how these games works hearkens back to my time there (which is largely safe since Verant set the approach followed by almost every game since.) What that has taught me is that there are often classes that seem to end up with little to do during combat - warriors and rogues often just standard there and hit a preset collection of keys over and over again. Sure, you have to have good situational awareness and be ready for surprises, but I remember tales of Everquest warriors who would literally leave the keyboard during a long fight. Luckily World of Warcraft isn't that dull - the fights are shorter and there are things to do during a fight for nearly every class. But the fact remains that some are simpler than others, and I like a bit of a challenge. I played a bard and a necromancer in EQ, if that explains anything.

So when I first started World of Warcraft (thanks to my friends raving about it), I went for a human Warlock because it seemed like I could dish out a lot of damage while controlling a pet, and since my friends were already Hunters I figured we could use variety. That worked great, until I got to 60 and found our guild was always looking for healers - either Priests or Druids - and often had too many damage dealers (too many hunters usually.) As a result, I decided to level up a Druid with the purpose of providing the group with an alternative healer when trying to go through the 20- or 40-man dungeons. But a funny thing happened - I've never healed at all, instead of I've done pretty much everything except heal.

Druids are a hybrid class, which means instead of having a role to themselves, they take what they do from other classes. Usually a hybrid is based on 2 classes - Paladins being the best known hybrids because they take cues from both fighters and healers. However in WoW, Druids take cues from four classes. And if you think this makes it hard to balance, you're right. A Druid in cat form has elements from the rogue - stealth and the ability to deal out a large amount of burst damage. In bear form the Druid takes elements from the warrior - with high armor and hit points couple with the ability to hold the attention of creatures while the primary damage dealers kill it. A Druid can also heal - not as well as a Priest by default, but if you add in the enhancements from specializing in healing and they become very capable healers (and since they wear leather armor, they can take a few more hits than a priest can.) And finally, a Druid can deal spell damage - if you specialize in it, a Druid in Moonkin form can deal as much pure damage as many Mages.

The problem is that in balancing the needs of players, Blizzard has had to make each of these roles almost as good as the pure class the role comes from. That's because players have decided to specialize and complain when they aren't as effective as the pure class. Healing (Restoration focused) Druids complained that they couldn't keep a 5-man group alive as well as a priest, and Blizzard agreed and make this possible. Moonkin Druids (those specializing in the Balance set of talents) felt they were an 'also ran' in terms of magical damage and again Blizzard agreed and gave them the tools to be on par with other classes. And finally the Feral Druids felt they couldn't compete with Warriors as tanks and in answer, Blizzard has made this possible. But the question has to be asked - is this right? Should the hybrid be as good as the pure class? I'm not so sure - the fact that I can heal and tank seems like an unfair advantage compared to a Warrior who can't heal. Mages can't heal either, and a Moonkin focused Druid has a crazy high armor and can deal out huge amounts of damage - and again this doesn't seem fair.

As an example, my Druid now has 18,600 armor in Bear form, and 1600 action points with a 28% critical hit chance in cat form. Oh, and if I'm in trouble, I can stun or root the mob, back off and heal, then get back into the fight. Does this seem right?