Analyzing Gaming: Yes, Another WoW Article

You asked for a Gaming article, and now you've got it. I'm sure there are many blogs out there talking about WoW right now, and even some that specialize in it. However, I did feel the need to talk about it here a little bit. So, stop QQing and start reading.



As any WoW player knows, 4.0 is just around the corner. In fact, It'll probably be here on the 5th. That's next week. I've played around with it on the PTR and I must say, a lot of it is totally unfinished still...



I play a paladin. A ret paladin, to be exact. And I'm way past the point of caring about what the hell happens to my class. Every single major content patch, without fail, has dramatically changed how Ret plays. In 4.0, they aren't just changing ret, but every Paladin spec by adding in this Holy Power system. Now, I do give Blizzard a bit of credit here, because I actually do really like how the system was implemented. It feels like the rogue combo point system, and that's okay.

But Holy Power is probably one of the only good additions to ret. Well, that and the new interrupt. Ret's rotation right now is ridiculous. You basically have less spells to click now than before. Your rotation is (pretty much) CS > TV, with some fillers here and there. They wanted to make the rotation more complex, and they failed horribly.

Another thing they did was completely strip Ret of nearly every single defensive ability that it had. Ret no longer has an instant-cast Flash of Light. Instead, we have Word of Glory, which consumes all of our Holy Power to heal you for a very minor amount. This would be fine, if 50% of our damage didn't come from proper utilizing of Holy Power. Not to mention the fact that we can no longer cleanse magic, and that bubble only lasts 8 seconds. Tell me, why is an 8 second immunity that we only deal 50% damage through still on a five minute cooldown? We can't even heal in it anymore without completely draining all of our mana.



Finally, I wanted to talk about the absolutely ridiculous queue system coming in Cataclysm. For those that don't know, this system will pretty much screw your DPS if you're anything but a mage. If you button mash, like most good players do, you will be locked in to whatever ability you click while the GCD is on cooldown. That means, no changing your spell choice after you click on it. Ever.

There is a huge thread on it here:
First Capped Thread
Second Thread

So, that's my WoW rant for the day. What about you? Are you excited for 4.0 and Cata? What sever do you play on? Do you have no idea what WoW is? Do tell!

Analyzing Gaming: Convenience of Buying Online

We've come a long way from going to stores such as Blockbuster for game rentals. These days, you don't even need to leave your house to rent games. We've got services like Gamefly that let you rent video games online.



We've also got a ton of sites that let you buy games online. The full version of almost any game you want downloaded right to your PC. Now that's awesome. I've personally used Direct2Drive a lot. I believe it was one of the first websites to start selling digital downloads for games, and was one of the only places that let you buy PC games online for quite some time.



And of course, let's not forget about STEAM. That is one powerhouse of gaming that won't be slowing down any time soon. You can buy PC games online, directly from the STEAM browser. They've got an insane collection of some of the most popular games released. I've even heard of a certain game designer looking to expand into STEAM.



So, what do you think about buying games online? Do you think it takes away from the social aspect of buying a physical copy? What do you prefer?