No more brains.

This week ended the zombification of Azeroth. The cure has been found and the infection has been stymied. There was alot of debate about the invasion. From people turning uber fan boy for Blizzard to those who claim the infection has caused them to cancel their accounts. While I could go through the details of the new plague, this is going to be an opinion piece. I know I am prone to ranting. It's because I care passionately about the MMO's I play. I for one have long wanted a more dynamic enviorment within the persistent worlds I choose to inhabit. And the recent outrage at just such a dynamic world has got me to thinking again. I just heard a collective sigh from our listeners as they brace themselves, but I ask you to not fast forward the podcast, but listen with an open mind and think about what I am about to say.

The first real outcry I heard against the event was from a few Rper's on my server, claiming the event was ruining their scheduled RP events, with zombies attacking ( both player and NPC's ) their favorite hangouts in various towns and cities. I shook my head at this is disbelief. What a perfect opportunity to RP...missed. Then others expressed their concerns. They just wanted to level. They didn't want to take part in this event and how dare Blizzard ruin their gameplay with this event. I tried to explain to those that such things don't happen very often...almost never. And that this was the time to take part and enjoy so a year from now they could look back and reminisce on how great a time they had while the event was going on. There were some who threw themselves fully into the event. They found ways to spread the infection as best they could and complained when someone ran through killing off their perfect zombification of a town or a paladin threw cures to stop the spread.

Just when the event was hitting it's height and phase 5 threatened to turn every one into zombies, even those who disliked the event started getting into it. They had simply had enough. Large groups of players started forming "cleansing" raids and began pushing back the tide of the scourges new plague. when I saw this, I was happier with WoW than I have ever been in the past...happier at that moment than with any MMO I have ever played. I was rejoicing," Blizzard did it! They created an event that had players to re evaluate the game and take a stand against world changing threat. Finally a truly dynamic world!!!" Within the hour, the announcement came that the NPC's had found a cure and the plague would be over in a few hours. As news spread, the raids fell apart as it was going to end soon no matter what players id, the need was no longer there. I wanted to weep. Just when it was getting good, they pulled the plug.

Now Blizzard claims this was their plan all along. They had a very specific schedule, they said, and it had been met. I believe them, but god I wish they had approached this differently. Imagine if they had added a little bit of the AQ opening to this event. Sure, a cure can be found but the NPC's need herbs, cloth, leather, zombie parts, necrotic runes...whatever. Then give players a little argent dawn faction rep or even better, home faction rep, like 25 per turn in and get players moving to defeat the spread of the plague. Oh, and make the cure faction specific so the Alliance and Horde are racing to cure their side so they are immune while the other side is still infected.

Which leads me to my only complaint about the event: It just didn't last long enough or effect enough of the world. just as players were getting together to deal with the issue, it was over and that cooperation fell apart. Blizzard accomplished what to my direct experience was the first real dynamic world changing event in MMO history. yes, there was a plague in Horizons, but it didn't have the effects that this one did, though Horizons did give it a valiant effort at a dynamic world, they simply don't get enough credit for what they attempted with that game. But this new Scourge Plague was covered by both Fox News and Time magazine online. Think of it! An in game event covered by real world news as if it were an actual real world event, given the same seriousness and credence as a flood in some corner of the world you barely know the name of. This alone places me squarely in the Blizzard fanboy faction. We, folks, are simply not worthy. With the rumors and these are just rumors, I can find no confirmation on this, that the U.S. government actually paid for Blizzards data of the event to use as a model for tracking a biological weapon scenario added into the mix of uber cool scourge invasion fun facts and what we have here is a full blown conspiracy theory in the making and folks you just aren't going to get that from other games.

Spore update

Last week, I loaded up Spore to find all my game files had been corrupted. Needless to sat, this was a painful revelation. The Thare, my cell to space game, was gone. Though I was able to recoup my creations, I had to restart completely. I evolved my new race, the Lucardae, from cell to space and began my conquest again. Because of my previous failures with the Thare, I was able to move much more quickly with the Lucardae. I found the key to conquest was keeping all races allied with me, except the one I was currently at war with and my terraforming tools became my best weapons. Turning on my allies isn't very ethical but my desire to rule the galaxy cannot be denied. Unfortunately, terraforming takes a homeworld down to only three colonies, so I had to adapt my plans as taking an enemies homeworld intact creates an enormous amount of wealth.
I found Earth and colonized Ganymede within the Sol system. I plan to expand beyond there but I want the destroy Earth achievment without actually destoying Earth. This is easy enough to accomplish. I found that by saving the game prior to Earths destruction and then restarting at the save, gives me the achievement and an intact Earth as well.
The Grox have not yet been an issue. I have expanded to approximately 30 systems and though I have made contact with the Grox, they do not seem intent on attacking me. I am too busy isolating empires that exist only with my empires borders to bother with the core anyway. I plan to conquer an entire arm of the galaxy before taking on the Grox anyway.
The strategy at that point is to terraform a Grox planet to T1 and repeat the process as I approach the core. I do not plan on loading up on health regens and making a run on the core. I want to clear a path there and eventually crowd out the Grox completely. It's going to be a long process but it's my goal and one that I believe can be achieved. Most of the other people who express a desire to reach the core all seem to ignore the conquest over the Grox option, so it would seem to be my choice based simply on that.
The Lucardae are a Shaman race which gives me the return ticket superpower. I may try a completely militaristic and aggressive race next. I don't remember what the superpower is but I assume it will be compatible with a game of pure conquest. The Thare were very aggressive once they reached the space stage and I have encountered them in my current game. The game remembers their expansionist ways and is acting accordingly. While I have currently allied with them, I believe I will have to eradicate them soon or they will become too large for me to deal with in an efficient manner.