Warhammer Alliance Podcast Episode 16: Fight On The Patch Thing

[PhoenixRed]

Episode 16 is in the can, and we've got another heaping helping of WAR discussion for you!

Your hosts for this podcast are: Frank, Martin, Kristen, and Perle from Fight On The Flag.

Introduction (5 minutes)

• Intros via poll question: "What was your first memorable gaming experience [that you can remember]?", featuring ET: The Extraterrestrial video game.
• New host introduction

(Revamped) Community Hot Topic (15 minutes)

• Featuring discussion from the community on Patch 1.3.0b and 1.3.1 (thanks to Dwarflord, Magrik, Sela, and Negatempest for their comments!

Scenario Strategy and Slipups (5 minutes)

• Featuring Mourkain Temple, and the beloved thing.

Dev Post Blender (10 minutes)

• Featuring: Gaarawarr Gabs' Interview with Nate Levy - Part 1 and Part 2

Total length: 41:44 minutes

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[Yuknid]

I really enjoy the podcasts. Keep them coming. Thanks for the effort.

[Bainshie]

lol, so that's what I was doing wrong. Get the shiny thing!

[Fgmenth]

Thanks for another great podcast! About people going ape-doodoo when they get the Mourkain thingee, I think a lot of people are under the impression that the only way to score extra points with the thingee is to personally kill as many people as possible, so they go berserk. Always funny as hell to see that. It's kind of like a real life leeroy jenkins moment...

A question for Perle... so having run with both realms do you think the supposedly great class imbalance in favor of order is at all real or mainly a bunch of hot air? If it's hot air, what do you think explains the order dominance on most/all servers? Are we destro players just whiney babies who need to suck it up and organize, ?

[Perle]

Originally Posted by Fgmenth

A question for Perle... so having run with both realms do you think the supposedly great class imbalance in favor of order is at all real or mainly a bunch of hot air? If it's hot air, what do you think explains the order dominance on most/all servers? Are we destro players just whiney babies who need to suck it up and organize, ?

I hesitate to answer this because most of my guild is outfitted in Conquerer/Sentinel at best. Only a few of us have more than one Darkpromise piece, and one of us has nearly full Invader.

It is very difficult to compare these characters, which we began leveling in earnest a little more than a month ago, to those we left behind on Gorfang. I had a full DP RR71 Archmage, for instance, and nearly everyone else in the guild had equivalent gear and RR.

That said, I do not think the disparities are that great. Last night my guild took on several members of the best (or so I am told) Order BW bomb guild on the server with few deaths. It ended with them giving up and us panting and cheering because the fight was so awesome and fun.

Then why is Order dominating most servers?

I have a theory.

Destruction has far fewer options for female gamers than Order. If you are going to get your wife or girlfriend to play the game, which realm will she choose? I don't know about you, but I like the Order because I wanted to play a healer that either a) was a girl and b) did not have bad posture. Order has two healers that fit this bill (AM and WP) while Destruction has only one. Destruction also has an entire race without any female option at all, and the only female tank you can play (Blackguard) sucks so bad that few people even dare to roll one.

Maybe some women aren't this shallow (I know I am), but for years the fact that Horde didn't have good-looking females was blamed in part for the reason so many more players chose Alliance in Warcraft. I also know a large number of men who want to play female avatars.

Fully half of the Destruction's playable classes do not have a female option.

Here is a list just in case you wanted to see it written out:

Destruction classes without females:
Chosen
Marauder
Shaman
Black Orc
Squig Herder
Choppa

Destro classes without males:
Witch Elf

Order classes without females:
Slayer

Order classes without males:
They all have males

In part this is Game Workshop's doing because they want to be true to their game's vision (I don't blame them).

I am not sure what the demographics of our player base would show. How many RL women play this game? I would argue that more play this game than any MMORPG before it, at least that's my experience. Many guild leaders officers I have run into are women. They also tend to be the ones who care about smoothing over conflicts and helping everyone have fun (in my experience).

Maybe my reasoning is flawed, but that's the general feeling I get.

I have a few more ideas but I've run out of time for now.

[Inquisitor]

Originally Posted by Perle

Destruction classes without females:
Chosen
Marauder
Shaman
Black Orc
Squig Herder
Choppa


In part this is Game Workshop's doing because they want to be true to their game's vision (I don't blame them).

.

As for the Orcs not having females.. well they don't have females. They reproduce through spores. But yes, this is just GW wanting to stay true to the lore.


Now for the 5 year olds playing soccer.. thats not just mourkain temple, thats WAR. Sad, but true! :P

[Maskerad]

Mourkain Temple has a lot of fun strategic possibilities. Why didn't they mention putting RDPS over the bridge-that-is-really-hard-to-jump-over? Why didn't they mention welfs/whunters running around the back smooshin' healers? Pah. Do they even play?

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Maskerad

Mourkain Temple has a lot of fun strategic possibilities. Why didn't they mention putting RDPS over the bridge-that-is-really-hard-to-jump-over? Why didn't they mention welfs/whunters running around the back smooshin' healers? Pah. Do they even play?

Uh, yes, yes we do.

The reality is, very few people actually employ the strategies you mention. There are plenty of possibilities - but not many want to deal with them. That's just the way it is.

[Perle]

Mourkain Temple has a lot of fun strategic possibilities. Why didn't they mention putting RDPS over the bridge-that-is-really-hard-to-jump-over? Why didn't they mention welfs/whunters running around the back smooshin' healers? Pah. Do they even play?

Because if we talked about every possibility the podcast would've been much longer. That's what this thread is for right?

[PhoenixRed]

Originally Posted by Perle

Because if we talked about every possibility the podcast would've been much longer. That's what this thread is for right?

That reminded me that I cut out a good 10 minutes of the discussion, as well. Listening to the uncut version there is talk of running around to the sides and killing the dude with the thing. But, as Perle said, I cut for length.

[nroberts]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Uh, yes, yes we do.

The reality is, very few people actually employ the strategies you mention. There are plenty of possibilities - but not many want to deal with them. That's just the way it is.

Really? I just rolled a WE and coming around back in Mourkain was like the very first thing I did. Even if I fail I manage to draw Order's front back a few yards. Hard to believe other players don't come upon this strategy.

[Maskerad]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRed

Uh, yes, yes we do.

The reality is, very few people actually employ the strategies you mention. There are plenty of possibilities - but not many want to deal with them. That's just the way it is.

Yarp, might be true, but I thought that kinda was what podcasts where for? Mentioning that would make it much more interesting, imo. Aaaand you made Mourkain Temple seem like a boring scenario, which is simply not true (especially if you apply these tactics :P)
Didn't want to make you seem like bad people or anything, i love podcasts, but that just made me a bit sad.

Originally Posted by Perle

Because if we talked about every possibility the podcast would've been much longer. That's what this thread is for right?

But long podcasts are fu-hun!

[rollen]

Originally Posted by Perle

Destruction classes without females:
Chosen
Marauder
Shaman
Black Orc
Squig Herder
Choppa

Destro classes without males:
Witch Elf

Order classes without females:
Slayer

Order classes without males:
They all have males

I can argue with this whole gender thing because in the release of the game Destruction was the biggest popular faction for a looong practically more then half of the year. I doubt gender has anything to do with the mi, maybe a SMALL percentage but not the largest percentage that it will make a server unbalanced. It's all about realm morale, if one realm has a bunch of whiners who are losing then you will obviously get the people who wanna get a easy go and play the winning side.

A huge deciding factor is people not wanting to play classes that aren't at their full potential and I believe that Destro is really feeling that more often then Order. So you got people upset about their classes, upset about people leaving, guilds who once were great made switched and many many many other factors come in to play and gender is just one of the very low deciding factors.

*sigh* this issue about genders keeps coming up more and more and its pretty lame that no matter how much I want to defend my poor greenskins from wearing a skirt. I feel its gonna happen soon and hopefully Warhammer 40k Online will be announced by then.

P.S :P Hi Perle long time no see! Miss the weekend keep battles

[Perle]

Whoa Eckehart!

I'm not saying greenskins should wear skirts. It's just my take on the issue. I agree that people also don't want to play a weak class or a weak realm.