Blizzard Entertainment are well known in the gaming world as an extremely successful gaming company. They have 3 series of games that are still selling well even after an entire decade. World of Warcraft is one of their most played games these days, being a very vast MMO with some wonderful aspects and a continually expanding world.
I have made mention in the past about wanting to play Starcraft II, one of their planned releases within the next 6 months (Which may ruin any New Years Resolutions I may secretly have this year). I've been keeping track of their efforts and one thing that stuck with me is the login system.
One thing that each of the games have in common is their networking server: Battle.Net. A server system that allows players to connect to other players easily and also update their game if need be. Blizzard have taken the system to another level now and have made plans for Battle.net to become a Social Network, allowing someone playing a Starcraft II campaign to talk to someone playing a World of Warcraft PVP match, who is also talking to a Diablo III player who is taking on a boss with a few friends.
You can also just take it to the web and create and upload Starcraft II maps for everyone to rate and enjoy. Screenshots from your favourite moments in World of Warcraft or Diablo III can be tossed up and attributed to your account, which will say what game you're playing at the time so they could join you then and there.
World of Warcraft has already begun the implementation by connecting your WoW account to a Battle.net account, now allowing "Cross-realm, cross-faction and cross-game chat". Starcraft II benefits alot from it because not only can you easily set up multiplayer matches, you can also organise multiplayer campaigns!
So Gaming as a Social Network? Players can log into Battle.net and check out peoples profiles and say to themselves “Wow, look at the scores on that player” or “Love the kit on that warrior”. The only recurring pattern between accounts is that every third or fourth player will have a naked Night Elf or Blood Elf that they use to /dance on the fountain outside the Stormwind Bank.
Always with the fucking Elves. Is nothing sacred these days?
It isn't exactly a novel idea, what with Steam being around for enough years, but it's still a nifty little aspect for the millions of Blizzard gamers, as I'll call them now, to keep in contact with others. When there's need for a dungeon to be raided in World of Warcraft while someone else is playing Starcraft, you can ask them to join up without having to go through various different other sources, like Facebook or even picking up the telephone, or even just hoping that they might get a telepathic message saying “I should play Wow and join such-and-such on a dungeon raid of Dead Mines...”
So recently I have been tempted to get back into World of Warcraft. While it may be a rather repetitive game, it is still entertaining. Dungeon diving is really entertaining, especially if you're a Warrior. The role of a Warrior is generally to keep the attention of the opponents. If it's one opponent it's very easy, generally. Not always, considering that single target would probably be a boss who has a large variety of special abilities that will constantly change the course of the fight.
But up until that point, you have to deal with massive hordes of minions that will overwhelm you unless your party works properly to keep you alive while you keep everyone's attention, keep up threat as it's termed, and other classes deal the majority of damage to the minions. Always note: Keep threat off of your healer.
It's fun. A close combat class designed for DPS (Damage per second, for those playing at home), like a Retribution Paladin or a Rogue in general or a Fury Warrior or a Feral Druid, receive a lot of fun since they're a primary source of damage, while keeping themselves alive through the hope of “I'm being ignored, but I'm still shoving this pointy/hammery bit up your bum.”
Returning to World of Warcraft is tempting though since Jubs is playing at the moment and he wants someone competent enough to understand and do their job correctly, and a warrior is something that he won't knock back. All I'll have to do is change my race and faction (Going from Orc to... Draenai I reckon) and start playing with him.
The downside is that with World of Warcraft, I tend to get really into it for a little while and then drop it and don't pick it back up for a very long while. Last time I played was the middle of last year, and then the Xmas before that for a solid week (I was on holidays too).
The other problem that presents itself is my social plan. Tuesday nights I go to Fastbreak to play games; Thursday nights I go to Humphs to play games with Kel and Co.; Friday nights I go to Dungeons and Dragons with my mates; Sundays I'm usually busy with going to Monsterpocalypse tournaments or going to the movies with Mum; Otherwise there's talking with Jen about our writing, throwing back and forth ideas and thoughts. Then there's always the Online Blokenstein Bloodbowl League that Kel and Co. are tempting to start again which I've been invited to join. Then there's my New Years Resolution of doing my 75pt Man of War Army.
With so much to do, the majority of which is difficult to mix with World of Warcraft, I think I might stay out of it for now. I'll probably give it a good crack when Cataclysm comes out, which is thankfully a long way off from being released. Shit, Starcraft II is going to take up what spare time I have when it gets released!
The next 8 months are going to be entertaining. Sorry to Jubs who won't receive my competency.
