MBP+WoW=Good
My new MacBook Pro delivered large this evening, pushing WoW graphics upwards of 30FPS with full native resolution of 1440x900 and all the graphical accouterments maxed out, including draw distance, terrain complexity, full-screen bloom, etc.
Sweet.
Posted on April 23, 2006 at 12:47 am
|
Game stuff on my Main Blog
Since I haven't posted to this IMG blog in a while, I thought I would update you on some of the recent game-related posts I've made to my main blog, www.utopos.net.
China Upholds Virtual Property Rights
They were playing Mario not Bomberman
Nobel Gaming
My new favorite game
Posted on April 16, 2006 at 9:39 pm
|
| Civ3 Complete |
 |
Recently posted the IMG review of Civ3 Complete.
Posted on April 16, 2006 at 9:35 pm
|
| N-Ball |
 |
Recently posted the IMG review of N-Ball.
Posted on April 16, 2006 at 9:34 pm
|
WoW Controversy #1: Pristine Hide of the Beast
In what is going to be a semi-regular column in this blog, I want to weigh-in on inescapable and seemingly unresolvable controversies that exist in World of Warcraft. For this first entry, let's get the skinny on an epic piece of leather, the Pristine Hide of the Beast.
What is it?
The Pristine Hide of the Beast is a piece of leather that can only be harvested by 300-level skinners. It is a very rare epic drop that has been known to sell for hundreds of gold at auction. The only place The Hide can be harvested is from The Beast, a tough boss deep in the Blackrock Spire instance.
What is the Controversy?
There are a few quests and recipes that make use of The Hide, turning it into a variety of epic equipment. But it takes a skinner to actually harvest the The Bests's hairy arse. Non-skinners argue that in the rare case The Hide is skinned, they have a right to roll on it against the skinner who got it.
What are the arguments?
Non-skinners generally make three arguments: (1) like any other rare or epic equipment drop, need should come before greed. Because they "need" The Hide to complete their quest or recipe, they have a right to roll on it; (2) beause it is so rare and valuable, yet not particular to any one class, everyone should have the chance to roll on it; (3) because it takes a group of players to defeat The Beast, everyone is entitled to roll on the ensuing loot.
Skinners generally make the argument that they have a right to The Hide from the "sweat equity" they put into the skinning profession to cap at level 300. "Without me", they say, "you'd have no hide". By extension, they point out that no other profession is expected to give away their harvested resources for free, regardless of how rare it is.
What's my take?
I can speak on this issue as a person who has existed on both sides of the fence as I was a 300 level skinner before subsedquently switching to alchemy/herbalism. At one time or another, I have also practiced all the other crafting and harvesting professions.
My feeling is that non-skinners who want the right to roll on the hide are really just speaking from the perspective of greed, and breaking all the normal conventions of loot and resource harvesting to make their case.
In any other example of resource harvesting, the person who does the harvesting derives the reward for doing so. This is the case not only with ingredients that constitute consumable and crafted items, but also for quest rewards. For example, i can't make myself the "inlaid mithril cylinder" needed to finish a quest in Un'Goro, so I buy it off the AH. No one has a problem with the way this works normally, and in fact, such interdependence of the professions is a cornerstone of the WoW economy. It is, in other words, a fundamental "rule" or "law" that defines one aspect of the gameplay.
Why should it be any different for this one particular piece of hide just because it is more rare? The fact is that a skinner is needed as an intermediary between the hide and the person who wants to use it for something. Period. Non-skinners who want to roll on the hide really just want to take a shortcut: they want their epic quest reward or recipe ingredient, but they don't want to have to pay for it. If Blizzard thought this was an example of broken gameplay, that such a "shortcut" to The Hide should exist, they would fix it by changing the way The Hide can be achieved. In effect, non-skinners attempt to replace this "rule" or "law" of the game with a mere convention or belief that they have an entitlement. But this entitlement doesn't actually exist.
In the end, I can't escape the feeling that non-skinners who argue they have as much a right to the hide seem to use the same kinds of twisted logic as Gollum does to justify his desire for The One Ring. And that, as we all know, is a desire that comes from a bad place.
Posted on August 7, 2005 at 9:34 am
|
| Browse Archives: 11 Entries |
 - 1 2 3 -  |
|
|
|
 |
| Games Playing: |
flOw
N-Ball
Escape Velocity: Nova
Ultratron
Advance Wars: DS
MarioKart DS
TubeTwist
|
| |
| Reviews: |
• Civ3 Complete
4/16/2006
• N-Ball
4/16/2006
• Luxor
7/15/2005
• Ultratron
7/15/2005
• Jammin' Racers
7/15/2005
|
| 1 2 |
| |
| System Details: |
OS: 10.4
CPU Speed: 2.0 - 2.9 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Display: Apple Flat Panel
HD Space: 81 - 120 GB
CD: Generic 52x
DVD: SuperDrive
Details: MacBook Pro -- Teh Sexay! |
| |
| IMG Participation: |
| User Reviews: 3 |
| Polls Voted: 3 |
| |
| Blog Stats: |
| Entries: 11 |
| Reviews: 6 |
| Comments: 171 |
| Visits: 80108 |
| |
|
