Metro Gamer is Still Alive

Still alive, yo.

Oh no, not yet dead. Just dormant; maybe a bit undead now that I think about it.  Now that I’ve got a few free hours, I think it’s time I updated and spruced things up a bit here.

What happened to me, anyway?

Work has been an unforgiving mistress. A couple of promotions later and I have more responsibilities than ever, plus taking a college degree online for credits. Enriching one’s self is always a good thing, even if it meant leaving a blog on the sidelines for a while. Shit was SO cash, y’know?

I’m busy being metro, as always. I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life — yet. I have a ways to go before the six pack. Determination and encouragement from my personal trainer really got me jacked on working out.

Of course, you can’t have Metro Gamer without games. I’ve been playing World of Warcraft. Quite a bit, to tell you the truth. I dropped my Undead Warlock and started a Blood Elf Paladin.

Hey, don’t judge. Blood elves are the only good-looking horde race after all.

Even with my extremely casual playing time, I’ve managed to bring him up to 79. 79 brah! He’s only a few bubbles shy of 80. I really feel like dinging 80 tonight but it’s a maintenance Tuesday, so meh.

A lot has happened – maybe I’ll let you guys know more as we go.

Tank and Spank

WAR Teamplay Tidbits

Tidbit #2: Facing tough opposition? No worries, your countless Bastion Stair runs will serve you well in this situation.

When you’re out with friends and looking to hook up, you’re bound to run into a group of the opposite sex. Like any PUG or premade, groups in real life are made up of a mixture of classes. You’ve got promiscuous Witch Elves, demure Sorceresses, slightly weird Magi and of course, the Greenskin Cockblocker(tm) careers. What’s a bro gotta do?

Pull Cockblocker aggro and engage the chicks.

Designate someone from the group to tank the orcish women while the rest of the group engages the squishies. Mmm, squishie in more than one way. The tank must have lots of stamina, unparalleled endurance and utmost tolerance for drink-spilling, noisy mates. Designated tankers are true heroes – full of confidence and charm. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain – be cool and impress the ladies with your pointy hats.

WAR Teamplay Tidbits was inspired by the Herald’s original WAR Teamplay Guide. See Teamplay Tidbit 1.

Fire in the Disco

WAR Teamplay Tidbits

WAR is everywhere. It is unforgiving. The weak shall perish and only those who work together will survive.

At least, that’s what the Mythic WAR Teamplay guide says. And wise words they are. In fact, you can use WAR teamplay philosophies in real life. Why, for example, at the club:

Don't be a showoff.

Sure, you might be the hot shiznats on the dance floor but you just might attract unwanted attention. While your buds are busy chatting up other people, you’ll be taking heavy fire from some unsavory babes. Just think of your wallet and your sexual health afterwards.

Also, don’t be a wallflower like the Shadow Warrior. Never a good time.

The WAR Community Promotion Initiative

Now that’s a mouthful. The WAR Community Promotion Initiative (WCPI) is a program started by the awesome people at Warhammer Alliance. The concept is simple – become a part of the intiative, promote other members of the initiative and get promoted by others in the initiative. It’s an excellent way to discover other sites, blogs, and people in the WAR community while making yourself known at the same time. A symbiotic relationship between the internet and the community, man and machine, tentacle and orifice… wait.

---

Why don’t we kick things off with something a little closer to home? Enter the Casual Community WAR Experiment. It involves a hapless PhoenixRed rolling a character and playing it purely on the whim and opinions of the WHA community. From the character’s race, career, playing time and play style – you determine how Fergalicious Fergsilirlis lives his life in WAR.

The people have spoken and they have decreed that Fergie should be played not more than an hour a day… Wow, that’s 5 hours more than what I log.

So far, Fergie’s been in the service for 7 hours and most of his screenshots were face first on the floor.

Not a good sign.

People in Skull Throne also didn’t want much to do with Fergie. Unless if it involved short shorts. Is this the sorry state that Archmages are in? Will they be doomed to a life of ridicule and bath robes? What will happen to Fergie? Keep tabs on the Casual Community WAR Experiment and find out.

---

Drop by the WHA and read more about the WCPI.

10 Warhammer Online Pet Peeves

It’s meme week at Metro Gamer. I love memes.

I also love being lazy.

A certain Wide Eyed Newb took down 10 of his pet peeves for Warhammer Online. Stuff that you can live with but can’t help but ignore.

Kinda like that annoying guy at work, an itch on your back that you can’t reach, stubborn bangs on a bad hair day or acute bronchitis.

Waaagh, being the forefront of WAR bloggery and general foofery, has some of Syp’s peeves and anti-peeves. So begins the bandwagon-jumping!

10 WAR Pet Peeves

1. The WAR Client. Because alienating low-end PC users is capitalist! Actually, I just want to be able to play without having to upgrade worth an arm and a leg. Also, getting the jump on an unsuspecting Witch Elf and having your laptop just freeze just gets on my nerves.

2. “In-between Zones.” Don’t you just hate it when T2 open RvR happens just in the middle of Ostland and Troll Country? A dead pause, you zone and suddenly everyone’s gone. Oh, they’re back on the other side! Partially related to #1.

3. The UI. When I set my UI in a certain way, it means I want it saved that way. When I start editing it, don’t show stuff I already hid and don’t put it back in the default place.

4. Unreadable Nameplates. Zoom out and the text for names, guilds and titles just turn to unreadable garbage.

5. Career Whiners. I hope we don’t get to the point where every career is at Archmage effectiveness. Nerf this! Nerf that! My class is inferior to yours, you should be nerfed! I saw a video of class xx dominate xx number of players, OP! Burn them at the stake!

6. Black Orcs. They. Just. Won’t. DIE.

7. Scenarios at off-peak times. Or rather, the lack of it. I haven’t gotten into a scenario in roughly two weeks. Is Ironclaw dead? One good scenario would’ve knocked some of my Night of Murder tasks out of the park but I never saw one pop at all.

8. Fall Damage. Everyone in WAR can shrug off getting burned, chopped, sliced, bludgeoned, smashed, seared, bitten and clawed but falling 10-15 feet is a death wish. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for all the places with cliffs and ledges that litter scenarios and BOs.

9. Getting Steamrolled in Khaine’s Embrace. The forces of Destruction have captured Dance of Swords. The forces of Destruction have captured Death’s Charge. The forces of Destruction brings forth Khaine’s Wrath. The forces of Destruction have captured Dance of Swords. The forces of Destruction have captured Death’s Charge. The forces of Destruction brings forth Khaine’s Wrath. The forces of Destruction have captured Dance of Swords. The forces of Destruction have captured Death’s Charge. The forces of Destruction brings forth Khaine’s Wrath. The forces of Destruction have captured Dance of Swords. The forces of Destruction have captured Death’s Charge. The forces of Destruction brings forth Khaine’s Wrath.

10. Logging in 15 minutes before Oceanic maintenance. Oh wow, I got home early. Time for some Wa-FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF.

I wonder how many run-on sentences I left in this post.

Warhammer Online Seven Favorites

After a particularly sickly week, I’m back in the real life grind.  After checking a few emails and selling my soul to the devil that is promotional blogging, here I am catching up on WAR news and blogs. A mountain of updates, to say the least.

So what do I do? Jump on the bandwagon on a Monday, of course! Memes are like fresh ammo for the blank mind. Instead of copy pasting patch notes and interviews, Syp wants to know what you like about WAR. Your Seven Favorites, to be exact.

• Favorite Zone – I’ve no idea what T3 and T4 look like, and the majority of my WAR career has been in the Empire. Troll Country takes my cake because it’s the first time you get dangerously close with the enemy, Chaos warcamps just a few stone throws away. Hiding behind trees, huge PQs and watching out for roaming warbands – the intensity just ramps up from T1.
• Favorite Race – Empire or Elf, only because they look like they take showers… sometimes.
• Favorite Career – Warrior Priest. I don’t have to explain, right?
• Favorite WAR Feature – Friendly Targeting! No more juggling between healing and enemy targets, you get one for each. As a WP, you can set and forget as you go melee healing-crazy.
• Favorite Skill – Rampaging Siphon is a blast to use in the thick of battle. Watching green numbers fly by as you deal a chunk of damage never gets old.
• Favorite Scenario – Phoenix Gate because of how conflict is inevitable. And maybe because it’s also where I get the highest numbers.
• Favorite Live Event – I find myself favoring Heavy Metal the most because of the innovative scenario which I got to run a few times.

This list isn’t much of a ‘favorites’ because… it’s all that I’ve ever done, really.

By the way, if you haven’t checked Portraits of WAR yet, go do it now. The author draws using inspiration from Games Workshop and Warhammer. Here is one example:

Endings and Beginnings