Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 71

Retro Review: Continuum Season Two, Episodes 1-5

My binge watch of Continuum continues. The first season is now behind us, and it’s on to season two.

You know the drill by now: truncated reviews and more than a few spoilers.

“Second Chances”:

The first episode of Continuum’s second season takes place a week after the events of “Endtimes.” Kiera has gone a little rogue following the blast, Alec appears to have had a minor breakdown after reading the message from his future self, and Sonya has succeeded in her coup of Liber8 — though her authority doesn’t seem absolute.

Things get moving again when the mayor of Vancouver is assassinated in broad daylight. Kiera has to get back into the saddle to investigate Liber8’s connection to the crime.

The thing I found odd about this episode is that it feels like much more than a week has passed. Many characters have visibly aged, and almost all of them have changed their look in some way.

I know there was actually a gap of likely several months to a year or more between filming the first season and the second, but they could have done a better job disguising the fact. Would it have been so hard to give Carlos the same haircut?

Even a lot of the characters’ personalities feel as if they’ve grown and evolved more than a week can account for.

The reveal of future Alec’s message was also a bit of an anticlimax after so much build-up. We still don’t know why he did what he did, or why Kiera was involved, or what present Alec is supposed to do…

With that being said, the investigation into the mayor’s death was pretty entertaining, and on the whole, this was a decent episode. I just expected better.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

“Split Second”:

The season two premiere may have left me a little underwhelmed, but it didn’t take long for them to get back into the swing of things.

“Split Second” focuses on an attempt to transfer Travis between prisons after he proves disruptive (to put it mildly) in the general prison population. But a simple prisoner transfer turns out to be anything but.

Meanwhile, Kellogg and Alec cross paths for the first time. Awesome ensues.

As I’ve come to expect from Continuum, there was no shortage of action and excitement in this episode. The chase through the wilderness was amazingly lavish and well-executed for a TV show, let alone a Canadian one.

It was also a bit less straight forward than Continuum usually is — in a good way. “Split Second” had quite a few twists, and it kept me guessing a fair bit.

I very much like the possibilities presented by this episode going forward. Everything seems to be falling to chaos in an interesting way. Kiera and Gardner are both trying to convince everyone the other is a Liber8 spy, and Liber8 has been split down the middle between the somewhat crazy terrorists, and the really crazy terrorists.

While I don’t expect this to happen soon, I think this could open the door to Sonya and Lucas winding up on Kiera’s side, or at least in a semi-neutral status a la Kellogg. Of all the people in Liber8, Sonya seems the most pure of intention. She’s a true believer in the cause, whereas Travis and Garza come across as psychopaths who hide behind ideals to justify their brutality.

And seriously, the subplot with Kellogg and Alec was brilliant.

Overall rating: 8.1/10

“Second Thoughts”:

It’s still early going, but so far I’m starting to feel like the second season of Continuum may be an improvement over the first.

“Second Thoughts” has all the fast pacing and intensity I expect from Continuum, but it’s not quite so straight forward. It’s quite a complicated plot with a lot going on, and some pretty crazy revelations.

The main plot of the episode deals with the escalating conflict between Travis and Sonya. They have made tools of Vancouver’s criminal underground, sparking a gang war that quickly sees the body count climbing. Sonya has bought their loyalty with a drug from the future, Flash, that allows people to relive memories with perfect clarity,* causing yet more chaos.

*(Reminds me…)

Alec continues to struggle to find his path after the revelations from the future. He is tempted by both Kellogg’s offer, and by what Flash offers.

And as if all that wasn’t interesting enough, Jason is back and filled with paranoia that the Freelancers are after him.

Pretty much the whole episode was great, really. I enjoyed seeing Sonya’s character finally get some serious development. My read on her as a misguided idealist seems to have been accurate. Unfortunately, I don’t think her ideals are going to end well for her.

News of the Freelancers is welcome, even if we didn’t learn much.

Alec’s plot might have been the most interesting, though. Jason is his father? Wow, did not see that coming.

Also, I was quite glad to see Magda Apanowicz again, even if she hasn’t had any dialogue yet. She’s a very talented actress, and I’m sure her presence can only enrich this show.

She looks surprisingly good with red hair.

My one complaint would be that it seemed a bit weird to only now be learning about Kiera’s junkie sister. That seems like the sort of thing that should have come up before now.

Overall rating: 8/10

“Second Skin”:

This episode features Kiera learning of another traveler from her own time: Her partner on the future police force. But she was thrown back much further in time, to the 1970s, and is now an old woman suffering from dementia.

Their reunion stirs up a great deal of emotion for Kiera, but she has little time to dwell on her memories. Her partner’s combat suit was sold at a garage sale by her son, who knew nothing of its power. Kiera and both factions of Liber8 rush to find it, but it has already been put to use by its new owner: a random nerd who got it for sci-fi themed wedding. Once he figures out that the suit makes him nearly indestructible, he does what any self-respecting nerd would in that situation: He decides to become a super hero.

Of course, chaos ensues.

“Second Skin” doesn’t do a huge amount to advance the main plot, and it isn’t on the same level of quality as the previous two episodes, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It had lots of excitement, and a decent emotional punch, too.

If I had one complaint, I would have liked a clearer resolution to the story of the poor shmuck who found the suit. I was actually rather enjoying see his arc unfold. For just a minor bit character, they managed to make him feel pretty fleshed out.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

“Second Opinion”:

Kiera is having a bad day. It’s her son’s birthday… or at least it will be, several decades into the future. This makes her sense of loss over being separated from her family cut much more keenly than usual. To make matters worse, the chief of police is fired, and the entire department find itself being investigated under suspicion of housing a Liber8 mole.

It’s all too much for Kiera, who goes off the deep end a little bit. Aside from putting her under even more scrutiny than she already was, this triggers an emergency psychiatric treatment program hidden in her software — played by Alessandro Juliani, AKA Felix Gaeta on Battlestar Galactica. If it can’t be satisfied of her mental health in an hour, it will erase her memories.

If you’ve ever wrestled with an automated phone directory, you have an idea of how well an automated shrink works.

The problem with this episode is that it focuses almost entirely on Kiera’s internal struggles, and Rachel Nichols just doesn’t have the acting chops for it. She’s good at playing the superhero; she does cool, confident, and smug very well. What she isn’t so good at is coming across as a three-dimensional human being, and “Second Opinion” is an episode devoted almost entirely to humanizing Kiera.

It was also a bit distracting that Kiera apparently hasn’t grasped that because she’s in the past, her son isn’t necessarily missing her. If she ever does find a way back, she could, theoretically, reappear in the future mere moments after she left. So all her hand-wringing over how he must go to bed every night wondering what happened to her doesn’t really have the impact it was probably meant to.

To be fair, Kiera’s grief over being cut off from her family is something that needed to be addressed sooner or later. It is an important part of her character. But it’s just not a story that plays to Continuum’s strengths, and prior to now, Continuum has been very good about sticking to what it does well and not wasting time on anything else.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: Continuum, review, sci-fi, TV

The World Spectrum Featured on Space Gypsies

The good people behind Space Gypsies, a site built by and for self-identified fangirls, have kindly given me the opportunity to do a guest post on my trilogy of science fantasy epics, The World Spectrum.

If you haven’t been following the World Spectrum series up until now, this is a great way to get a quick rundown on what it’s all about.

The World Spectrum: One Woman Fights for Humanity’s Freedom

While you’re there, you might want to consider adding Space Gypsies to your bookmarks. It’s a pretty broad offering of all things geeky and nerdtacular, and it seems to have some pretty good writers on staff.

Also, please remember that I will soon begin serializing the first World Spectrum novel, Rage of the Old Gods, on this blog for free!

I’d like to publicly offer my thanks to Becca and the Space Gypsies team for this opportunity.

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

Review: Defiance, “Painted From Memory”

Will the real Kenya Rosewater please stand up?

“Painted From Memory” deals almost exclusively with Kenya’s return to Defiance, but what starts out as a joyous reunion quickly takes a darker turn as more and more questions pop up surrounding her sudden reappearance. Kenya has odd gaps in her memory, and what she does remember is ominous: A laboratory where she is the test subject.

Nolan attempts to find the truth, while Doc Yewll and the returned Mayor Pottinger are a bit less eager to solve the mystery. Stahma is a panic, desperate to keep her attempt to murder Kenya secret, and Amanda willfully ignores any signs that things aren’t fine, choosing only to enjoy her sister’s return.

But the Rosewaters aren’t the only ones having a family reunion. Quentin McCawley finally reappears in Defiance, a much changed man.

I’m a little unsure how to rate this episode. It feels like a bit of a tangent to the main story, and considering how Defiance generally splits its attention between many different arcs, it feels very strange to have virtually the entire episode focused on Kenya. It feels a little thin — a snack, not a meal.

It came close to a lot of big reveals — things that could radically change the relationships between the characters and the ongoing arc of the show. But it managed to avoid all of them. All secrets remain secret — to the characters, if not to the viewers. Feels a bit like wasted potential.

On the other hand, it was a fairly entertaining episode. The hour flew by in no time at all.

Stahma, and her desperation to keep Kenya’s murder a secret, was probably the highlight. She’s such an ice queen most of the time. It was quite fun to see all that flawless Castithan poise ripped away and her completely losing her shtako.

I’m also quite enjoying how her relationship with Datak has evolved now that they’re on more equal footing. I reckon if those two could ever overcome their differences and actually work together well, as equals, they could probably rule the world.

Although I’m not the biggest fan of Kenya’s character, I also quite liked how they showed off her relationship with Amanda. You could see their closeness, and their love for each other, as well as a certain friction and good-natured squabbling one would expect from siblings. I may not be an expert, being an only child myself, but to me, it seemed very authentic.

It occurs to me that, given the ending, Kenya is likely to show up in Defiance the game soon. Perhaps I’ll dust off my account to see what her missions are like, assuming I’m right. Let’s hope she doesn’t have too much of a negative association with Castithan women… (:P)

All in all, “Painted From Memory” was a well-executed and enjoyable episode, but I don’t expect it’s one that will prove very memorable in the long run — no pun intended. It doesn’t really mean enough to the long-term story, and it was too narrow in focus.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

There Is No “One True MMO” + Warlords of Draenor Cinematic and Release Date

If you spend any time in the MMO community, you’ll know there’s a tremendous amount of bitterness and cynicism to be found among players. Part of this is undoubtedly just down to the usual Internet crankiness, but a lot of the negativity springs from the fact that people are seemingly waiting for a “one true MMO.”

Call it a WoW killer or whatever you want, but people are constantly waiting for that perfect game that will be all things to all people and dominate the genre. And of course, such a game never comes, leading to an unending cycle of disappointment.

In my latest article for WhatMMO, I speculate on the origins of this desire for the perfect game, and the toxic effect it has on both players and developers alike.

Warlords of Draenor cinematic, release date, and Lords of War animated series:

Blizzard has just wrapped up their Warlords of Draenor livestream.

It was really a lot longer than it needed to be, featuring a lot of recaps and interviews on things we already knew about the expansion, as if they were announcing it all over again. It seemed like an attempt to reclaim some of the momentum they lost after last year’s BlizzCon.

But eventually, they did get to the good stuff.

They began with the first installment of a new animated series in the style of the Burdens of Shaohao. This one, Lords of War, spotlights some of the more prominent warlords of Draenor.

It’s pretty good, I have to say. Framing it with Varian and his flashbacks to the horrors he witnessed as a child was a good idea, and the whole thing is very badass and Warcrafty.

Then there’s the cinematic itself.

Despite my ambivalence (to put it kindly) towards Warlords of Draenor, I have to admit this is pretty cool. Definitely a step-up from the extremely disappointing Mists of Pandaria intro. Seeing Grom confront Mannoroth again, albeit in a totally different time and setting, and all of the throwbacks to Warcraft III were definitely nerdgasm moments.

My one complaint is that they don’t appear to have brought back the Warcraft III voice actor for Grom Hellscream, and I’m not sure I like the new guy right now. Doesn’t seem to have quite the same gravitas as his predecessor.

On the other hand, Gul’dan sounds amazing. Captured his character so perfectly.

The cinematic concluded with the release date: November 13, 2014.

Oh, that’s bad.

We were all expecting a mid-October release, and even that would have been shockingly late by anyone’s standards. Now we’re looking at an utterly unprecedented fourteen month content drought.

That’s insane. That would be unforgivable in any game. For it to happen in a subscription game, and one as successful as World of Warcraft, with an expansion as small as Warlords of Draenor… it’s madness.

We’ll likely never know what, but something clearly went badly wrong during the development of this expansion. This is a disaster.

I may not be terribly enthused with WoD, but even I’m ready for it to come out by now. The game needs new content — any new content. If nothing else, I want to get to level 100 so I can start soloing Cataclysm raids.

And I must admit, I’m warming to the idea of WoD a little. I still don’t like it, and there’s a long list of things I’d rather have for an expansion, but it seems like it’s meant to be more of a Mirror Universe-style tangent than a total rewriting of WoW lore, so that’s a bit more palatable. And some of the new zones look pretty cool.

That release date will also give people only a handful of days to reach max level in time for the ten year anniversary event. Not good.

Well, the upside of my extremely low interest level in WoD is that it doesn’t bother me overmuch if it’s absurdly late. And this means I’ll get to do Hallows End this year.

What say you, dear reader? Are the cinematic and Lords of War to your taste? Does the release date have you angered? Share your thoughts.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft, writing

Review: Defiance, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”

Things seem to be getting rather intense on this show all of a sudden.

“Slouching Towards Bethlehem” has several big reveals, all tied in with a race against the clock to stop a devastating terrorist attack.

The Earth Republic learns the Votanis Collective plans to activate a dirty bomb in New York, potentially killing thousands of civilians. Their only potential source of information on the attack is an Irathient prostitute from the Need/Want, who doubles as a Collective spy. The race is on to get the information from him before the attack can take place.

But of course, it’s not that simple. Amanda receives a call informing her that — perhaps not surprisingly — Kenya is alive after all, and the Collective is holding her hostage in an attempt to coerce Amanda into releasing the Irathient spy before he breaks.

The spy’s capture also has dire ramifications for Datak Tarr, who had been meeting with him in order to smuggle weapons from the Votanis Collective in the hopes of overthrowing the E-Rep.

At Nolan’s direction, Irisa ventures into the wilderness to search for Kenya and her captors, but she is once again overtaken by visions. They drive her deeper into the wilds, and closer to her mysterious destiny.

I never really formed a strong opinion of Kenya, so just as her “death” provoked no strong reaction from me, neither does her return. I guess it will make Stahma squirm? That could be interesting.

There’s a lot more to “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” than Kenya’s return, though.

This represents the most aggressive action — really the only significant action — we have seen from the Votanis Collective to date. We knew the Collective and the Earth Republic weren’t exactly chums, and I always suspected the Collective wasn’t any more pleasant than the Republic, but planning to nuke New York… that’s ballsy, to put it mildly.

This could constitute an act of war. Even if it doesn’t lead to immediate aggression between the two sides, it certainly makes clear the Collective’s intentions going forward. They have clearly shown that the world is not big enough for both humans and Votans — at least in their opinion.

Frankly, it doesn’t seem entirely wise of the Collective. By making the first move, they invite attack by the Earth Republic. They potentially give the E-Rep an excuse to exercise their full military might against them, and it gives the E-Rep cause a lot more legitimacy.

I almost wonder if this was the action of the Collective leadership, or some rogue element within their ranks. It would hardly be the first time something like that has happened.

Speaking of which, it did strike me during the episode that Kenya’s captor sounded an awful lot like Nim Shondu.

Of course, it’s probably not him. For a lot of good reasons, not the least of which being the fact that he did die a while ago.

Then again, this would hardly be the first time Nim turned out to be less dead than was widely believed, and setting off a dirty bomb in the middle of a crowded human city is exactly the sort of plan he would concoct.

I am most likely barking up the wrong tree. But it’s an intriguing thought, and imagining the possibilities is the fun of tinfoil hat theories. In the end, it hardly matters if you’re right or not.

All musings on the identity of Kenya’s captor aside, though, I think Irisa’s story might just have been the most interesting part of the episode. Whatever plan “Irzu” has for her seems to be coming to fruition.

And finally we have gotten a hint as to what the true purpose behind her actions is. It may only be one word, but it’s a word with some pretty powerful implications.

Something big is coming. This much is clear.

It’s also interesting to note that it seems as though none of Irisa’s victims have been human. I’ve seen Irathients, Castithans, Indogenes, Liberata, and I think I even saw a Sensoth, but no humans.

Hmm…

Taken all in all, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” does a great job of advancing several plots at once without feeling scattered, and I don’t think I can muster any complaints.

Overall rating: 8.1/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

Coming Soon: Read Rage of the Old Gods for Free

I’m proud of the work I put into the World Spectrum novels, and I want as many people as possible to be able to read and enjoy them. To that end, I am pleased to announce you will soon have the opportunity to read the entire first novel, Rage of the Old Gods, for free.

In the coming weeks, I will begin posting chapters to read for free on this blog and the official World Spectrum site. A new chapter will be posted every couple of weeks, and eventually, you will have the chance to read the entire book without paying a cent.

However, you will still have the option to purchase the complete ebook from Smashwords and several other retailers if you are enjoying the story and want to read the rest sooner rather than later, if you want to own a copy for yourself, or if you wish to support me as an author so I can keep writing these things.

Also, please keep in mind that I am still offering free copies in exchange for reviews.

I hope you will enjoy the book!

————–

Humanity was not born free.

Long ago, humans were slaves to the Old Gods. They rebelled, overthrowing the Gods and establishing their own societies, but peace did not last. Humanity slaughters itself in petty wars.

Now, an army of war Automatons threatens to destroy the land of Eastenhold. To save her people, a young woman named Leha travels to the to the lost worlds of Tyzu and Sy’om, whose alien powers defeated the Old Gods in ancient times.

But there is worse to come. The wars of humankind only hasten the Old Gods’ return, and even Leha’s newfound powers may not be enough to save her people from the Gods’ fury, or from the hatred in their own hearts.

Filed under: My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, publishing, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum

WoW’s Subscriber Losses: Why Both the Haters and the Apologists Are Right

Well, here we are again. Blizzard has done their quarterly conference call and announced a massive drop in World of Warcraft’s subscription numbers. This time, it lost 800,000 subscribers, taking it down to 6.8 million subs globally.

Whenever this happens, everyone seems to divide themselves into one of two camps. One side does their best Chicken Little impressions, screaming “WoW is dying” from the rooftops. Others are quick to point out that this is still vastly more players than any other subscription MMO can boast, and they do their very best to make it seem as if everything is fine and dandy in Blizzard land.

They’re both right, and they’re both wrong.

The middle ground:

It is true that WoW is still one of the most successful MMOs on the market. It rakes in money hand over fist, and it has more subscribers than most MMO developers can dream of, even after recent losses.

WoW is only dying in the sense we all are. It’s in a state of slow decline that will eventually result in its demise. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon. The game is still very healthy, and we’re probably at least a decade away from it being at any serious risk of closure.

So in that sense, those who try to make these subscriber losses seem like no big deal are right. WoW is still an extremely successful game by absolutely any standard.

But that doesn’t mean losing so many subscriptions isn’t a big deal. They lost nearly a million players in three months. That’s a huge blow no matter how you choose to spin it.

More importantly, this is part of a trend that has been going on for years and shows no signs of letting up. WoW now has barely more than half the population it had at its peak. The last time it had this few subscribers, Burning Crusade hadn’t even been released yet.

It cannot be denied that these are major losses, and Blizzard would be incredibly foolish not to be concerned by them. So in that sense, the Chicken Littles do have a point. WoW may not be at any imminent risk of collapse, but it is taking a pretty brutal beating.

I hear a lot of people saying that WoW is still making “enough” money. And that’s quite true. It’s also completely irrelevant.

WoW continues to enjoy massive profits — they’re making more money than ever thanks to the ever-expanding cash shop and their account services. But imagine how much more they would be making with today’s cash shop and account services as well as the twelve million subscribers they had in Wrath of the Lich King.

There’s no such thing as “enough” money to a publicly traded corporation. That’s not how capitalism works. They always want to be making as much money as they possibly can. Even if they’re making up the profits in other ways, losing subscribers is still costing them money. That’s bad.

As usual, the Internet fails to realize there’s a middle ground between the most extreme arguments. WoW is still popular, but it’s far less popular than it was.

So that brings us to the important question here: What is Blizzard going to do about these losses?

The consequences:

The discussion over subscriber losses would be largely academic, but inevitably, Blizzard must take action to combat these losses. And that’s why we should be concerned. Not because WoW is at any risk of imminent death, but because as the losses grow more severe, so too must their efforts to stem the tide of lost money.

We’ve already seen their solutions to the lost subscribers to date: They’ve simply tried to milk more money from the remaining players. It may be my imagination, but it seems the rate at which they’ve put out more mounts and pets for the cash shop has been increasing as of late. It’s sure not slowing down.

I don’t think anyone is particularly happy with this direction. At best, people tolerate it. I’m someone who prefers free to play and buy to play games, so I’m no stranger to cash shops, but I view micro-transactions as the lesser of two evils when compared with a mandatory subscription. I don’t actually enjoy them. I certainly don’t want a worst of both worlds game that requires a sub to play and pushes me towards the cash shop at every opportunity, which does seem to be where WoW is gradually heading.

The need for continued revenue also impacts game design in a negative way. We’re all familiar with the ungodly daily grind during the first half of Mists of Pandaria, and I find it impossible to believe this was anything but a cash grab. Did anyone really think that spending a month grinding Golden Lotus reputation so you could spend a month grinding August Celestials reputation was good gameplay?

No, it was just an attempt to keep people subscribed longer.

I’m already hearing hints of similar things from Warlords of Draenor. Apparently a major feature of the endgame is story quests… that can only be completed once a week.

How much you want to bet none of the story arcs can be completed in less than a month?

Again, gating like this is nothing but a naked cash grab, at the expense of good gameplay. We can never know for sure why so many people are leaving the game, but for my part, I find forced tedium like this is one of the things driving me away from the game. It’s no less annoying and no less transparent than the way Neverwinter spams the entire server when someone gets a fancy mount from a lockbox.

WoW is now nearly as aggressive in its monetization as many of the greedier free to play games, but without the advantages of a low barrier to entry or being able to control how much you spend. At least in free to play games, you have the choice: pay, or grind. In WoW, you have to do both.

On the other hand, as the hemorrhaging of subscribers continues, it becomes increasingly likely that Blizzard will take radical action to stem the bleeding. That could be very bad, but it could also be very good.

Of course, the possibility of WoW dropping the mandatory subscription is always on the table. This is what I hope for, and I do consider it an inevitability. The only question is when.

I could very well be wrong, but my prediction remains that WoW will become free to play or buy to play beginning with the expansion after Warlords of Draenor.

It’s important to remember that F2P/B2P isn’t necessarily the option of last resort any more. All that needs to happen is for someone at Blizzard to determine they’d make more by dropping the sub, which may not be that far off considering how the game is already leaning more and more on cash shop revenue.

Dropping the sub isn’t the only radical change they could make, though. They could also reexamine their model for delivering new content, because right now it seems like their current strategy isn’t working.

For three expansions in a row now, they have gone roughly a year without new content. Each time, they’ve sworn to do better next time. Each time, they’ve failed. Assuming rumours of an October release are true (and I certainly don’t think it will come any sooner), Warlords of Draenor will arrive after the longest content drought in WoW’s history. That’s despite the fact WoD is a very conservative expansion that has far less to offer than those before it.

Most would agree that this most recent loss of subscribers is probably due to the months upon months without new content. Everyone would agree that there is no excuse to go that long without an update in a game that charges a monthly subscription just to play, especially considering that most other MMOs on the market do not charge a mandatory subscription and offer new content at a higher rate.

The Secret World, for instance, has a fraction of a fraction of WoW’s money and resources, but its longest content drought to date was only six months — and that’s if we don’t count an all new holiday event in the interim.

Hell, Guild Wars 2 updates every two weeks.

I don’t what’s going on behind the scenes at Blizzard, but it’s clear their current strategy for expansion releases is broken. I think it’s time to ask whether they should just stop releasing full expansion packs altogether.

Instead, they could just keep releasing more and more content patches. Smaller updates more often. Similar to the strategy used for Mists of Pandaria’s content patches, but on a larger scale.

* * *

Those are just some ideas for how Blizzard can stop the bleeding. I’m sure there are others I haven’t thought of. But we know they have to do something, and whatever they decide could make or break the game.

That’s what we should be worried about. That’s why these subscriber losses are a relevant concern. WoW isn’t dying, but it does need a course correction, and what direction Blizzard chooses will have a dramatic impact on all of us who enjoy World of Warcraft.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, newbs, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Defiance, “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes”

This is kind of an odd episode.

“If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” is a complicated episode with a lot going on. It begins with tragedy befalling the Tarr household as one of their most beloved servants is found brutally murdered. Suspicion falls on Datak, but for once, he actually is innocent, and he and Stahma put aside their differences to find the perpetrator and treat them to all the lavish brutality of Castithan justice.

Rynn returns to Defiance alongside what is apparently the world’s only Jewish Irathient, and Irisa is shocked to discover he bears an uncanny resemblance to the man from her visions.

And finally, Christie continues her experiments with cross-species cross-dressing, threatening her marriage with Alak.

The strange thing about this episode is that all these totally disparate plots interconnect and bounce off each other.

On the one hand, it gives the plot a certain elegance, as all the threads feed off the same plot points. It’s really quite clever.

On the other hand, it feels very odd that the intersection of these plots doesn’t really make any difference. That is, none of the plots affect each other, despite crossing paths several times.

For the most part, the different stories are entertaining, at least. I was quite glad to see the mystery of Irisa’s destiny advancing again, though really we’re only left we’ve even more questions. I must confess that I am getting a little impatient to finally get some indication of what in Irzu’s name is actually going on.

Datak’s hunt for his servant’s killer was probably the highlight of the episode, perhaps not surprisingly. It was very bizarre to see him, Stahma, and Rafe all on the same side for what is probably the first and last time, but also quite entertaining.

I didn’t really care for Alak and Christie’s plot, though. Unfortunately, Alak’s sudden transition to someone interesting seems to have been rendered moot, and he’s now once again as dull as he was in the first season. And Christie has never been interesting.

I will say that I think Christie is probably better off without him. Alak is pretty decent by Castithan standards, but even so, I wouldn’t wish being a Castithan’s wife on anyone. Alak may not be anywhere near the monster his father is, but he’s still a product of his culture, however tempered by growing up on Earth he may be, and he’s mostly only ever been a jerk to Christie.

There were some smaller details of “If You Could See Her Through My Eyes” that I enjoyed. The Earth Republic chancellor has turned out to be a far more interesting and nuanced character than I expected.

That happens a lot on this show. I should really stop assuming that any character is truly one-dimensional, or that I have anyone figured out based on first impressions. There are some shows where those would be safe bets, but Defiance is not one of them.

Also, while she didn’t play a major role in the story, we did see a fair bit of Doc Yewll, and that is always, always a good thing.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

What I Still Like About WoW

Yes, it finally happened.

After being away for the lion’s share of a year — by far my longest break to date — I have finally reactivated my subscription for World of Warcraft. I’ve always had a tempestuous relationship with this game, and the last year or two has seen me spend more time than ever on the “hate” side of the love/hate divide, but there are still things that keep me coming back.

I thought I’d try to be positive for once and list off some of the key reasons I keep slinking back, despite all my bellyaching. This probably isn’t a definitive list, but it’s the big things that stood out for me during this particular return.

You will never run out of things to do. Ever

To say WoW is a big game would be a bit like saying the sun is kind of warm. WoW is staggeringly, overwhelming enormous, to the point where it’s nearly impossible to ever find yourself with nothing to do.

WoW has been running for nearly ten years now, and its development is based on a “quantity over quality” philosophy. That can have its downsides, but it does equal a game overflowing with pretty much every kind of content under the sun. Even if you hate 50% of everything in WoW, the remaining half will still offer thousands of hours of gameplay.

Every MMO can keep you busy almost indefinitely if you delve deeply into every single thing it offers, but most people won’t find every style of play appealing — dungeon heroes may not be into PvP or grinding out quests, for instance. WoW is unique because it can keep you occupied pretty much forever even if you ignore large sections of it.

I’ve never done a pet battle, I have no interest in raiding outside of LFR, and I can only handle PvP in very small doses, but I can find no end of entertainment in leveling alts, running dungeons and scenarios, soloing old raids, or exploring for the Hell of it.

Accessible group content

MMOs are social games. Group content will always be their heart and soul. Despite that, I’m shocked by how little effort many games put into making group content easy to get into.

For all my love for The Secret World, for all that it is very nearly my perfect MMO, it really falls flat in this area. Not having an automated group finder in this day and age is downright embarrassing, and trying to find groups is like pulling teeth.

To make matters worse, there are no significant rewards for repeating any dungeons below the nightmare level, so while there are technically three difficulty settings for TSW’s dungeons, in practice you’re out of luck if you don’t want OMGWTFBBQ hard content where everything one-shots you.

WoW used to struggle in this regard, too, but after several years, they’ve reached a point where pretty much all group content is easily accessible. The dungeon and raid finders ensure all group content can be played by anyone, regardless of group role, in-game social connections (or lack thereof), play schedule, or any other issues.

Even those with strong guilds and many in-game friends can benefit from conveniences like these. If your regular tank is sick, you don’t need to spend an hour begging in Trade chat before commencing your guild dungeon runs.

WoW also offers a wide variety of difficulty levels for its group content, all with compelling rewards, so pretty much everyone can experience it at a level they feel comfortable with. I am a bit worried that the “compelling rewards” part is being stripped away in Warlords of Draenor… but that’s an issue for another day.

I may be mainly a soloist, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also enjoy group content. While I’m lukewarm on the social aspect, group content adds another dynamic to combat and opens up new roles and play styles. You can’t be a healer or a tank while soloing.

If there’s one thing I miss about WoW when I’m playing TSW, it’s being able to jump into a dungeon whenever I want. I put a lot of effort into building healing and tanking sets for my characters, but I almost never get to put them to use because I don’t want to spend forever waiting for a group only to wipe two dozen times on nightmare Machine Tyrant.

History

There are two sides to this.

One is the fictional history built around the world of Azeroth. As you all know by now, I’m a big lore nerd, and I love the sheer depth and breadth of Warcraft’s history.

Something that greatly appeals to me is when a fictional universe grows to the point where it’s not just a setting for one story, but a living, breathing tapestry of history and culture. I’m willing to overlook a lot of story-telling faults for a franchise that can provide me with that level of depth. Hence why I got so into Star Trek, despite my many issues with it.

The story of Warcraft is much like the content. There’s just so much of it that you’re bound to find something to appreciate in the whole vast web. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you can’t find something to appreciate in WoW lore, you’re just not looking hard enough.

So I may not like some of Blizzard’s stumbles — like what they did to Illidan and Kael’thas, or the direction of WoD’s plot — but I can look past those things to focus on how awesome the Lich King’s story was, or how creepy the Old Gods are, or how deep Varian is as a character.

The other side is my personal history with the game.

I’ve played WoW for a very long time. About five or six years now — I believe I joined around the time Secrets of Ulduar launched. Now, to people who started playing when the game was first released, or even in Burning Crusade, I’m still an unwelcome Johnny-come-lately, but in real world terms, that’s an insanely long time to be playing a single game.

After so long, it’s hard to leave a game behind. It becomes part of your life. It may disappoint you, you may spend all your time looking back on the “good old days” with rose-coloured glasses, but you just keep rolling with it. Good and bad, whatever comes.

A few days ago, I went to Northshire on my rogue. My mind flashed back to the day I created her, all those years ago, and I was just overwhelmed by memories of how far that character has come and all the things she’s done.

It’s very strange to think of, and a little amazing.

Of course, part of me wonders if I’m just describing Stockholm Syndrome here.

On another note…

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly state that my colleague over at WoW Misadventures is a fairly nice person. She took the time to make a bunch of level one alts on my servers to help me manage my one-man guilds. All my alts are now invited to the Horde guild, and I was also able to start up a personal guild on the Alliance side: .

Seriously, the guild invite spam in that game is out of control now. I must have gotten a dozen different unsolicited invites across all my unguilded characters just in the first day. Madness, I tell you!

Also, one advantage of starting your own guild is that you can design the tabard to match your transmog set.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Defiance, “This Woman’s Work”

Normally, Defiance is a show whose sci-fi aspects are somewhat in the background. At its core, Defiance is a political and interpersonal drama. The sci-fi elements usually serve only to add spice through the way alien cultures and advanced technology influence the politics.

However, “This Woman’s Work” bucks the trend a little bit and puts the science fiction front and centre.

This episode sees a major Arkfall not far from Defiance. Mayor Pottinger and Nolan ride out to investigate, Nolan having been told that the Ark contains a powerful energy source.

Well, that much was true, in a sense. In actuality, the ship is a transport for the Gulanee, the rarest and most alien of the Votan races. Previously, the Gulanee had only appeared in the game, and then only with extreme rarity.

The Gulanee are a race of pure energy. They are extremely powerful, possessing the ability to channel lethal bolts of energy as naturally as a human throws a punch. However, their alien nature means they must be contained within mechanical suits to withstand Earth’s environment.

The trouble comes when they discover that one of the Gulanee has awoken from stasis. It’s been asleep since before the Ark fleet was destroyed, and it has no idea the war is over. Therefore, it sees humans as enemies to be killed on site.

As you might imagine, this puts Nolan and Pottinger in rather awkward position.

Meanwhile, Irisa continues her forced crusade for Irzu, Stahma receives backlash for her defiance of a woman’s traditional role in Castithan society, and Tommy still can’t catch a break.

After some slower episodes, “This Woman’s Work” is quick in its pacing and almost overcrowded with different plot threads. It’s an improvement, but there are still some weak points.

I find myself with mixed feelings on the main plot involving the renegade Gulanee. On the one hand, it was awesome to finally see the last of the Votan races in action, and the Gulanee itself was very well done. It was visually spectacular, and they did a brilliant job of making it seem very alien, and very dangerous. I am once again struck by how much Defiance’s production values seem to have improved since the first season.

But… we didn’t really learn anything. After knowing nothing of the Gulanee for so long, I was hoping we would learn something about them as a people or how they fit into Votan culture. It would have been fascinating to see how such an alien race views the world and current events.

But when you get down to it, the Gulanee could have been replaced with any other sci-fi monster — an unusually deadly Hellbug, say — and it wouldn’t have changed the plot at all.

Ultimately, I think the subplots may have held more merit.

It was nice to see Irisa’s story pick up again, even if it didn’t advance all that much. She does have a confidante now, and it was interesting to see how resigned to her fate she’s become. A sad, beaten Irisa is not something I’m used to seeing, and it was good to have some variety in her characterization beyond the usual “scream/cry/stab.”

Stahma may have been the highlight, though. I’m really starting to enjoy how her character has evolved this season.

In the first season, Stahma was rather scattered. At first, I thought she was complicated, but by the end, I had come to the conclusion the writers just didn’t know what they wanted to do with her.

They seem to have made up their mind.

This season has seen Stahma become a force to be reckoned with in her own right, even eclipsing her now-estranged husband, and “This Woman’s Work” continues that.

Stahma’s rise to power has set tongues wagging. In particular, the Castithan church is offended by her defiance (hurr hurr) of her husband, flying in the face of Castithan tradition and Rayetso’s will. Stahma must find a way to deal with their opposition lest it crush her family’s business and put her on the shaming rack.

I won’t spoil things too much, but suffice it to say you probably shouldn’t get on Stahma’s bad side.

“This Woman’s Work” is a bit of a mixed bag, but there’s so much going on you’re bound to appreciate at least some of it, and for my part, I found the good greatly outweighed the bad.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV