Hey I love action figures as much as the next person.  I’ve got boxes full of various action figures from my favorite comics, cartoons, etc.  I’ve also have fantasy miniatures of both the metal and plastic variety, so I get it.  But I was still a bit taken aback to see this latest WoW related idea pop up on the net.

Apparently this company will take a screenshot of your character (or video possibly) in any gear you want to put them in (so pull out all those cool epics and legendary items sitting in your bank that suck for stats but look cool).  They will then use sophisticated ninja magic to render the character and ultimately make a miniature of your figure.  It then lands on your doorstep in a glass dome a week or two later.

Is the figure plastic?  Metal?  How large?  What’s the cost?  Great questions gang - but you can’t know until December 11, the magic date when the site officially goes live for business.  I’ll have to admit it sounds intriguing and I’ll probably look at further information once it’s available.  I definitely wouldn’t mind having my Tauren Shaman, Khardamon, as a nice figurine in my collection.  And if they do quality work, I could see that potentially being huge as people want a keepsake from their WoW days, and of their favorite characters, in a more tangible form.

Of course it could also be a total disaster and completely bomb.  Only time will tell.  Now I’m off to make sure my hermetically sealed action figures are all safety tucked away.

Share This

World of Warcraft.  Whose older brother’s cousin’s mom’s grandkid hasn’t played this game by now?  Well, three years ago none of us had played it.  We only had the success and fun of the original Warcraft franchise to get us excited about the promise of an MMO set in the world of Azeroth.  Three years, nine million subscribers, and almost two years of my free time later, WoW is still going strong.  In celebration, Blizzard will be running a series of contests and giveaways over the next few weeks.

It’s been three years since players first entered World of Warcraft and took up their roles in shaping its history. In that time, friendships have been formed; wars have been waged; and through incredible feats of coordination and perseverance, some unimaginably powerful beings have been vanquished. To celebrate the third anniversary of the game’s North American launch and to show our gratitude for the ongoing support, enthusiasm, and dedication of its thriving community, we’ll be giving away several prizes over the next three weeks:

• During the week of November 26, we’ll award 10 J!nx gift certificates valued at $100.00 each.
• During the week of December 3, we’ll give away 20 sets of four World of Warcraft action figures.
• During the week of December 10, we’ll provide 5 lucky players with an Apple iPod Touch and a two-year World of Warcraft subscription.

Happy birthday big guy. 

Share This

If you’re like me, you probably have a closet, a drawer, a box, or some basement cubby that is a shrine to all things geek.  For me, it’s always been a closet, usually in my third bedroom (which somehow mysteriously always becomes my game room).  When its doors creak open, light spills forth, trumpets sound and the voices of a thousand angels rise in song.  O.k…so maybe that’s the light from the lone lightbulb and the trumpets are really hinges in need of WD-40, but you get the picture.

Contained within this holy-of-gaming-holies are board games galore, cards games from the past and present, posters, banners, computer game boxes from the last 20 years, comic boxes piled up, my Dreamblade collection, and last but not least, a lot of action figures.  I’ve tended to collect action figures at various points in my past, most notably anything having to do with Venom who I’ve obsessed about since around 1993 or so.  Over the years, I’ve at times branched out to Spawn figures, and even have some Warcraft figures from years ago.

I thought my action figure buying days were done, but it seems that World of Warcraft is invading this part of my life as well.  A new line of WoW action figures has hit store shelves from DC Unlimited and man, do they look great!!  As someone who played WoW for almost two years and who loves quality action figures (especially fantasy), I think these are going to be adorning my closet shelves in the near future.

Now if I could only decide on whether or not to get the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe figures…

Share This

As seen over at Slashdot, World of Warcraft continues to invade every area of life.  It will now be reaching out it’s tentacles into the world of comics, a world that many of us love.  Apparently the MTV Multiplayer blog has an exclusive first look at the comic where they reveal the first 5 pages or so of the artwork.  The comic will stay pretty true to the MMO and actually delve into some of the lore and mystery of the gameworld:

Simonson said the comic will be “very much tied to the lore and to the ‘Warcraft’ history.” “If you’re a longtime player, I think the comic is a revelation about some of the mysteries,” he explained. “There are mysteries from the past that have never been totally addressed within the game, or at least we’re able to address them in the comic in a way that the game hasn’t been able to.” He also said that he tried to write the comic so that it appeases “Warcraft” fans as well as newcomers. “There will be stuff in the comic that has not been in the game, and yet it’s derived, quite directly, from the game itself. If you know ‘Warcraft,’ I’m hoping it will be really cool to find this stuff out,” Simonson reiterated. “At the same time, as complex as the world is, if you haven’t really played the game, you’ll learn as much as you need to know to enjoy the story on its own level. So in that sense the story has kind of a two-fold approach I’m hoping will work out.”

I’ve always been a big comic fan, so I actually might take a look at these when they hit store shelves.  Having played the MMO for two years, I hope I would connect with the story in the comic as well. 

Next up:  WoW strollers and toaster ovens.

Share This

The SUWT podcast always provides interesting discussion and great viewpoints on issues that matter to MMO players.  Episode #9 was no exception and provided some food for thought for me.  In this episode one of the issues tackled concerned the social (and anti-social) nature of MMOs these days.  The points raised struck home with me as I thought about the nature of solo vs. group play in MMOs today, and how “social” MMOs really are when people refuse to group (or are elitist about it). 

Brent made a great point in that segment about WoW’s influence on how people perceive grouping and socializing in MMOs today.  The influence has been so great he states, that it’s actually recalibrated players expectations when it comes to grouping (or not) in an MMO.  When I think back to my two years in WoW, I certainly can see where Brent is coming from.  WoW is arguably the most solo-friendly MMO out there.  You can solo to max level without ever grouping if you so desire.  The negative effect of this however is that you wind up with people that may not know how to group effectivly in that game, should they be asked to 5-man or raid.  You also lose the element of helping others, sharing an experience, achieving a group goal and working as a team.  If everyone is empowered to run off in different directions and solo to 70, why group at all? 

Does there need to be some ability to solo in an MMO - absolutely.  There are times when you don’t want to group for whatever reason, you may be time restricted, or you may need to go afk often or at a moment’s notice due to RL.  So I don’t think soloers should be left out in the cold.  But has the pendulum swung too far in favor of “solo friendly” play, to the point where grouping seems pointless?  Obviously, if you want to raid on any level in WoW you’re going to have to group.  But if people have solo’d to 70, never really interacting with and using their skills in a group or raid setting, chances are they may be pretty poor at it when the time comes.  Generalization alert!

What’s lost when you have too much solo play?  When people don’t group, don’t randomly help others, but just run off and do their own thing?  The very spirit behind these games dies a little bit imo.  As Brent recalled on the show, EQ was a game where you needed to group early and often to really even survive, much less progress, in the gameworld.  Grouping was really almost required to get anywhere, and that forced you to learn, develop and use skillsets that were team focused.  People randomly helped each other in EQ when they didn’t have too, veterans taught newbies, and you felt like you were part of a real community of players that interacted with each other.  In addition, as Troy mentioned in the same segment, the internet spoiler sites that we have today really weren’t around in those early days.  You couldn’t just ignore other players and go look up everything on the web.  You had to actually talk to other players, ask questions, ask for help, and group up to go get things done.  I can’t tell you how many great people I met through that game due to the sole fact that I pretty much had to group. 

I think people are social in WoW - but it’s more of a glorified chat-room social as opposed to being social because of the game, and due to game mechanics.  WoW, more than any other MMO I’ve played, suffers from the syndrome of “we’re all playing a massive multiplayer game, alone!”.  I was fortunate to be in a great guild while I played WoW and did a lot of grouping and raiding, but I was aiming to have that experience.  But in general, WoW is in stark contrast to older MMOs like EQ.  It makes me wonder what will happen in future MMOs like TR, PoTBS, and even Warhammer.  I just hope the next time I yell “LFG!!”, that someone will answer and join me.

Share This

As we know, Blizzard is integrating voicechat functionality directly into WoW so that players no longer have to use systems like Ventrillo and Teamspeak.  And while the reviews aren’t all rosy, the system does seem to deliver what Blizzard said it would, and it works well enough that it’s a viable option for those not wanting to spend on hosting services.

So will people actually use it?  That’s the big question, and one that WoW Insider decided to poll its readers on:

Well there you go. I’d like to say that I called it (although I did say that voice chat would find a place in a lot of PUGgers’ hearts), but I was surprised to see that 70% of you readers expect to use Blizzard’s new voice chat feature coming in 2.2. Personally, I’d rather stick to Teamspeak (and I’m guessing my guild will do just that). And I know, from the comments yesterday, that there are lots of people out there who just don’t want to get involved in voice chat, whether there’s an ingame system or not.

But clearly Blizzard was right to put the time in– there is a good majority of players ready to plug a mic in and start speaking to each other. Very interesting.

Just another example of developers continuing to integrate voicechat as a foundational system and apparently, one that players want to use.  I promise this is my last post on voicechat for awhile!

Share This

Click.  Watch.  Laugh….again.  I watched this video when it originally hit the internet, but had not watched it in over a year probably.  It cracked me up once again.  Oh…to have actually been on their vent that night would have been priceless. 

Some of the funniest memories I have from MMOs are the times when someone (maybe even me!) messed up in a dungeon or on a raid, and things just go to hell in a handbasket.  Throw in voice chat and things can get funny pretty quick.  Just make sure you are playing with folks who knew you very well and have a good sense of humor. 

Share This

Se7en Samurai has a post up worth checking out on some new details regarding the WoW movie project.  I don’t play WoW any longer, but the movie has me pretty stoked, especially given the fact that Legendary is producing and the budget is hefty.  Go check it out, and I’ll see you in theaters in 2009.  For the Horde!!

Share This