So the buzz on the Internet concerning widespread availability of the Nintendo Wii on 1/21 proved to be true. I picked mine up from the Gwinnett Circuit City this morning along with an extra Wii-mote/nunchuk combo and Zelda. My location had 25 units in stock and vouchers were handed out for all of them before the store opened at 10AM. The local Target didn’t have any, despite persistent rumors that Targets across the country were holding stock to be released today. Same goes for Wal-Mart. I didn’t try Best Buy.
Checking the weekly adverts, which are readily available at each store’s Web site, seems to offer some insight. Circuit City and Best Buy both claimed stock with per-store minimums. Target and Wal-Mart did not. Funny how that works, eh?
The SlickDeals PS3 & Wii Availability Forum offered up plenty of helpful information during my search, but I didn’t find any of the plethora of “trackers” to be very useful.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve given up on the World of Warcraft. At times, I found the game to be a supremely entertaining way to spend time with a small group of friends. But the closer I got to the lofty level 60 plateau, the more I became aware of the discontinuity between the early-to-mid game and the end game and the havoc it played with the game’s established social order. I played witness to a disconcerting exodus of experienced players from our small, tight-knit guild to the sprawling raid and PvP guilds.
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I’m skipping the April Fool’s shenanigans this year in favor of regular content. Here’s a quick summary of a what I’ve been up to recently.
I’ve cancelled my subscription to the World of Warcraft. Blizzard’s take on the MMO was a refreshing break from the pack in the beginning. Though the game opens strong and holds interest through hundreds of hours of play time, it loses momentum at the end game. I watched the disturbing spiral of a once-strong guild hemorrhaging members as players scrambled to stay interested with life after 60. I’ll add more on my experience later.
Barco sent me to Washington D.C. on business. It was only my second time in the capitol, though I expect another opportunity in the near future. A smooth demo Monday morning freed up time for sight-seeing Monday night. I enlisted the help of friend and local, Jane, who proved to be an excellent guide. (Many thanks!) Dinner at the Raku Asian diner in Bethesda and a comprehensive night-time tour of historic downtown rounded out a very pleasant evening.
With tax season in full gear, I decided to file electronically for the first time this year. For all the IRS, Intuit, and the like are preaching the benefits of e-filing, I wasn’t impressed with the experience. After the $30 fee to TurboTax and extra follow-up paperwork, I feel like conventional filing remains a better value.
Mom and Dad both celebrate birthdays within a week of each other in March, so I took the opportunity to pay them visit. I treated everyone to a nice dinner at a local favorite, La Bamba, in honor of the occasion. We also took time to renew old Cribbage fueds and discuss plans for a summer trip to Vancouver.
The fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, was released in late March. After a solid week with the game in hand, I’m confident that the game lives up to its pedigree. Bethesda has successfully enhanced and streamlined almost every facet of the game. Now, if they could only do something about those ugly faces in character generation.
That’s all for now. See you again soon.
After further meddling in Azeroth, I feel like I can make some broader statements about World of Warcraft.
Most of the quests are of the “hunt and gather” or “go kill someone” type. The upshot is that the game gives you a good excuse to go exploring the vast countryside. The land is filled with beasts of varying frequency and difficulty. In my experience, a single player cannot take on more than one or two monsters near his level at a time with much success.
The professions are where I really see potential in WoW. Characters progress in ability along two distinct axes. First, there’s the standard RPG model of experience and leveling. Second, there’s a skills system governing weapon skills and professional skills that is based on usage, similar to the Elder Scrolls games. Leveling will make your characters stronger, but it won’t make them unique. Along the way, characters gain additional skill points that can be used to learn new weapon skills or professional skills. And this is where players get to experiment and take characters down their own paths. Best of all, if you make a mistake choosing a skill, you can unlearn it and try a different one.
After spending a couple days with WoW, I’m really looking forward to a final release or an open beta, whichever comes first.
I got into the World of Warcraft Stress Test through some miracle of association. (Thanks Vance!) When I joined the game for the first time, I was hit with information overload. Vance joined me on this first romp through the Teldrassil, the starting town for the Night Elves, and he graciously helped bring me up to speed. I recall that it took a minute or two just to figure out how to send a message on the right channel (private vs. party vs. world). My initial impression is that the interface is not as immediately intuitive as I would like. Left-click selects things; right-click interacts with things; but movement is done through the keyboard, much like a shooter. It’s not bad so much as it’s different, at least from anything Blizzard has previously done. I felt like I was being dragged along through much of this initial experience. It wasn’t until later, when I had time on my own to experiment, that I began to feel comfortable in the game.
