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World of Warcraft Launches
The last major MMOG launch of the year hits retail stores today. World of Warcraft finally goes live after years of debate, development, and a more than six month Beta test. The usual suspects have details on the game, with Gamespot already having details on upcoming content and Gamespy laying out personal experiences from the test and interviews with the developers.
World Of Warcraft HAH
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Thou hast besquirted me, O leotarded one.
If you just have to play, donate as much as you spend . That's what we're doing at my house...
www.topmudsites.com is a good place to start. If you like MMORPG's, and you enjoy a more literate, deeper, and more immersive game playing experience, MUDs could be for you.
I'm going to pay the $12.99 a month (in 6-month blocks) for World of Warcraft. I played for almost 6 months in the closed beta. I thought MMORPGs were sucky and expensive. Now I look back at how much time I spent and how much entertainment value was in that time.
What interests me is a thought I had. "Cancel cable to play WoW.". This lead into the idea of just downloading the shows I like from BitTorrent. Yes, it's illegal for now, but it's not always going to be.
I think we'll start to see more of a choice in what we consider entertainment. I'd rather have streaming "on-demand" shows at 99 cents per hour's viewing than paying $40 a month for cable.
If I watch an hour an evening (which I don't do, but let's just say) of TV, that's still only $30 a month, saving me money off my cable bill. Say I like 3 shows, each on once a week, add in a movie or two on the weekends. That's still under $20 a month for on-demand entertainment. Plus, I can watch it when I'm not playing WoW.
Yeah, a bit scatterbrained, I'll admit. But if I'm representative of the 18-49 demographic, then others must be having this desire/thought. The iTunes music store seems to be working, so where's my NBC TV shop? or my HBOnline? Keep your TiVo, especially with the new "ads while you skip ads" system. I'll pay for my content to get it commercial free.
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
I just wish valve would have had a six-month-plus beta testing period for Counter Strike:Source. That game is IMO stll barely beta software IMO. It doesn't seem like Valve even put much into the game. Half Life 2, from what I've read (I don't like Half Life. I'm a major Counter Strike aficianado though) half life 2 is totally revamped with different weapons, and cool stuff like the ability to pick up random objects and hurl them at bad guys.
Honestly CS as a game does not need much fundamental changes. The weapons are already great and they don't need to introduce more. They did add sound-impairment effects to the flash grenade. But the nature of CS just makes me wish they made it even more realistic. I don't think my suggestions would honestly make it "too" realistic and no longer fun as a game:
1. They should add sound-impairment effects (ringing "ears") to the HE grenade based on the proximity of explosion, as they did to the flash grenade. If an explosive goes off within 30 yards of you, it might not kill or maim, but I'm almost certain it would have a somewhat brief effect on your hearing, possibly sight if you looked into the explosion.
2. If an HE grenade goes off near you in a way which isn't fatal, it should knock your aim off. Like just randomly through your crosshair in a certain direction based on how close you are to the grenade and what directino the explosion was from. You would have to be awfully close for this effect to take place, but I think it's something to think about. Even if the explosion didn't do this in real life, no soldier is able to have an explosion next to them and still maintain the same accuracy on a target. I guess this really might be an overkill improvement though. I mean when you play CS and see/hear an incoming HE, you do haul ass which is realistic. Except noobs stand there. But yeah its just my thoughts on a possible new feature to the game.
3. I don't know if any games already do this, but I think besides damage factors, different things should happen based on the round/location of the injury in CS. For example if you get shot in the arm 1 or 2 times, perhaps your character would be forced to drop his weapon and use pistol/nades only. They could actually make the view using the players alternative hand. I don't think anyone shot in the arm could effectively use an AWP with the same accuracy, or even and mp5 for that matter. Also if you are shot in the legs, I think your speed should be effected. I don't think they need to make it so realistic that you might actually fall down, but honestly they should add this feature. Perhaps they could make the player models animate with a "limp" of some sorts.
4. Headshots should be instant kills regardless of the weapon, except with kevlar. With kevlar hs should be incredibly weaker. If a bullet can't go through kevlar, it can't go through kevlar, and a whole USP clip in the dome isn't going to increasing the punctuating effects of the round/weapon. I think a small amount of damage should be taken from kevlared-hs's, but basically a less chance of instant hs kills. I think rifles are a different story, since most rifles don't even notice kevlar.
5. The smoke is not really realistic enough. Valve needs to see footage of real smoke grenades and look at how they spread based on wind factors. Also smoke should be noticibly thicker etc.. based on indoor factors.
6. I am so glad source removes sheild. Their is nothing realistic about an unpenatrable sheild that looks like its solid iron weighing 300 pounds, yet a man can fire a weapon while weilding it running at full speed. The sheild was a good concept, but after playing with it I think a lot of CS'ers realized that it really had no strategic value in the game. CS is mostly about teamwork and player positioning/team waypoints than it is about strategic use of equiptment, opposed to games like rainbow six, where when you need a sniper you REALLY need a sniper, and can't wing it with an AK or something. And yes, AWP IS a great sniper that doe