Penny Arcade

The Canvas Curse (and its attendant rainbow conveyances) was a welcome addition, because we’re stumbling parched through that desiccated wasteland that always follows E3.  That’s part of the reason I (and the clamoring nation, I presume) are hot for this Battlefield 2 demo that’s supposed to hit today - with what, exactly, does it compete for our enthusiasm?

That’s the mindset I was in when I hit the queue for the smaller of the two Battlegrounds, Warsong Gulch.  Resolute, I steeled myself for the coming grind.  I said that I would go in and check these things out, and I did it because I told you I would, but I had a hunch that my time in World of Warcraft had come to a close.  I’ve been playing the game since beta, and I was starting to come to and wonder what games had hit retail during my long coma in Azeroth. 

If you’re curious, it’s basically a Goddamn triumph.  Now, the way one currently accesses the Battlegrounds themselves - by running from hell to breakfast in areas you swore off twenty levels ago - I don’t feel like that’s a complete feature.  I have fancy ideas that might help it, but I’ve done a lot of backseat driving here lately and I can’t imagine how annoying that must be.  Simply let it be known that the current way is workable but not strictly necessary, and mainly just adds a level of frustration to something that is a lot of fun otherwise.   

I play a lot of games in the massive genre, but I am typically in it for the crafting and largely social “player versus enemy” activity.  I don’t go on the “raidz0r,” and consensual PvP in the absence of some constructive purpose is rarely, if ever, my thing.  I almost never hit the level cap, because for the game I’m playing - the specific subset of functionality I actually put to use - gaining levels isn’t really a win condition.  Battlegrounds actually gives me a reason to do that stuff.  I want to be a terrifying sight when they enter the flag chamber.  I want them to think that maybe they didn’t bring enough guys.

So we’re wry in the strip, but in truth it’s exhilarating - Capture The Flag is a mode that gets tossed in everywhere, and it’s hard to enumerate precisely how many flags I have captured or returned in my gaming career.  When you see the this many characters and their overlapping capabilities managing the environment, it absolutely makes sense - and it’s a context where a skilled hunter can easily claim MVP.  When I’m charging across the field on my expensive ram after a flag carrier, it’s not hard to imagine a player looking down at the map from overhead.  The map itself is fairly small, but captures Warcraft perfectly.  You can look out from your verdant Night Elven domain and see the the ramshackle Horde encampment, and seeing it, know fear.  I’ll remember to grab a shot of that vista next time I’m in.  Understand that I’m talking about the lesser of the two maps - Alterac Valley is apparently a new type of game experience altogether.  You need level 51 to enter it though, which will be this weekend’s magnificent endeavor.   

There was really kind of a hole in the game before, as regards a player like myself for whom the highest levels of play held no intrinsic allure.  I’m looking at this Game of the Year award now, resting my hand on it with affection, looking at it in the light.  How it gleams!  I think that we’re very near a verdict.

(CW)TB out.

hold on:  it’s just beginning

ConfigSys.Boy, whose experince is greater than my own in these matters, would like to append the following.

One additional note in regards to Battlegrounds since you seem to be at least marginally onboard with what the hip kids are playing nowadays.  Alterac Valley is not 51-60.  I know they say it is, and yes they’ll let you in at 51, but it’s sort of like how we let people drive when they’re sixteen but we don’t put them behind the wheels of semi trucks or bulldozers or any other form of vehicle that actually does something USEFUL until they’re 25.  You can get in there and motor around, but if you actually want to help the team, carry some weight, and not get fed to the Horde’s Frostwolf mounts you’ll need to be 55.  All those accessory quests that advance your team’s position and what not tend to involve killing crowds of 52-55 Elite mobs in the process of say capturing that mine, or smiting those trolls, and thats usually not something a lvl51 enjoys all that much, even if he is a (fucking) Hunter.

Also - be prepared to remember why you both loved and hated pick up games in Tribes 2.  All the standard frustrations of pick up servers for strategy oriented FPSes are alive and well in Alterac Valley. That doesn’t make it any less cool that they managed to transplant that sort of experience into an MMO, but it does remind you why you played till 5 AM some nights and hung it up early on others.

He brings up Tribes because that’s sort of our thing - but the frustrations he’s talking about are real, and they aren’t any less real in CTF.  We got into a couple rounds last night where the teams were virtually identical because we got in the queue immediately after our crushing defeat.  They had no less than three extremely devious shadow priests who enabled their Tauren allies in the achievement of legendary exploits.  I’ve had a couple trancendent experiences that are a comfort to recall during more grim encounters.   

(CW)TB

Varsity over at EvilAvatar has few download options for getting the demo, if you haven’t already.  I started at a healthy hundred and twenty k or so from Gamespot, but by the next time I looked it said I could expect the demo around lunchtime on Tuesday.

(CW)TB

They eventually came to an agreement, the specifics of which are covered in the article I’m about to link you to.  But it’s starting to look like the information we received initially - that actors wanted recurring percentages of profits, or something to that effect - isn’t exactly correct.

(CW)TB

Penny Arcade readers have always known, but it’s nice to have independent verification.

(CW)TB

I had to wait two hours and forty-five minutes but I was finally able to get into the Alterac Battlegrounds the other night. I was having a blast with CTF but Alterac is an entirely different experience and just as fun.

When Kara and I popped in the sides were pretty even and the first thing we did was join a team determined to claim the nearest gold mine. The place was full of elite troggs and it took quite a bit of work on the part of our six man group to clean it out. Once we had killed their leader our peons started marching in to help us take care of any stragglers. Then they went right to work their picks. It was really cool to see and totally made you feel like the work you were doing was important.

We made our way to the front lines but honestly we had no business being there. I’m only level 53 right now and that makes me essentially worthless. Angry looks form the Horde NPC’s dropped me like a sack of bricks and sent me back to the nearest graveyard. The lag around the front lines was pretty intense although not as severe as the raids I had gone on before leaving the game. It was certainly playable but obviously not as smooth as the game you get in the significantly smaller Warsong BG.

We fell back and tried to pick off anyone we saw by themselves and that proved much more effective. We could have stayed in there for hours but we had already waited almost three just to get in. It’s frustrating because if I have three hours in a night that I can devote to WOW I’d rather do it in BG than waiting in line. Plenty of people mail me and tell me that on their server there’s no wait or maybe I should have picked Horde but that doesn’t help me. It’s like telling a guy in a wheelchair that your legs work just fine and what’s his problem? I’m stuck on Cenarius with its 70% alliance population and there’s not much I can do about it at this point. My friends are there, my guild is there and I just don’t have the energy to run another character up to 60. I’m glad the game works better for you but I’m stuck where I am. Right now it’s not too bad because while I’m waiting I can work towards level 60. Once I hit that cap I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do.

For right now at least I’ll be spending the weekend leveling and waiting. I am officially re-hooked on the WOW and it’s all because of BG. I just wanted to say good work to the people over at Blizzard. Just when I thought I was out, you pull me back in. Sons of bitches.

-Gabe out :o: