Bel's Blog Bonanza - Blizzard's Flying Backpedal .

Hey folks and welcome to Bel’s Blog Bonanza, a bi-weekly feature here on MMOGames where I attempt to highlight some of the more interesting topics currently cycling through the gaming blogosphere. One of my favorite aspects of writing about games, is the interactions I have with other bloggers. In this column, it is my goal to highlight some of the individuals in this community and present their interesting take on current issues. Let us dispense with the introduction and get to the awesome.

 

Blizzard Gives Flight Through Meta-Achievement

This week there is one topic that everyone seems to have an opinion on.  After months of stating that we would not have flight in Draenor, Blizzard has announced a compromise of sorts through the introduction of a length meta-achievement.  This achievement will enter the game in a post 6.2 patch and allow you to unlock flight for all of your level 90+ characters upon entering Draenor.  After months of battle over this topic, you can imagine the blogging community has some extremely varied stances.  This is potentially one of the longest lists of blog posts for any Bonanza topic so far, but I felt it was key to give a full picture of just how this is effecting the community.

• The Daily Frostwolf – We can fly in Draenor soon-ish!
• Grimoires of Supremacy – Draenor Pathfinder: EARN Your Happy Ending!
• The Grumpy Elf – Guide to Flying in Draenor
• The Casual Noob – Fear of Flying
• Tales of the Aggronaut – Tiny Bel, Tiny Enteprise, Tiny Cid
• Rambling thoughts on WoW – On Flying and the Effort to Get it
• Parallel Context – The Return of Attunements Sort Of
• Kill Ten Rats – Flying Into Cheat Mode
• In An Age – A Flight Far Enough
• Hired Goons – Blizzard Didn’t Cave on Flying Because of Forum Whining
• Bio Break – Flying in World of Warcraft is Back On
• Blessing of Kings – The Flight Compromise
• Aspect of the Hare – Flying’s Triumphant Return
• Alternative Chat – The Only Way is Up
• The Ancient Gaming Noob – Fine You Can Fly But Only After You Hit an Arbitrary Content Threshold
• Tobold’s Blog – How to Become Draenor Pathfinder
• The Grumpy Elf – Forget 6.2, When is 6.2.x Coming Out

Progression Servers for Everquest II

For years now Everquest has offered a series of progression locked servers that give players that “old world” gaming experience of working their way through all of the expansions again.  Similarly players from Everquest II have long clamored for this same sort of opportunity, and in news this week it seems like they are getting their wish.  In a forum post they outlined the concept of the time locked server and how it will relate to EQ2 content.  Not surprisingly we are starting to see a bit of chatter from within the blogosphere about these events.

• Daybreak Forum Thread
• The Ancient Gaming Noob – What Special Server Type for Everquest II Then
• Inventory Full – Back to the Old House: EQ2, Everquest

Four Job Fiesta Season

This item is going to take a turn in a slightly different direction than we normally cover during the bonanza.  One of the awesome things about the internet is to take what would normally be a single player solitary experience, and turn it into a multiplayer event.  Few items classify as clearly in this category as the Four Job Fiesta.  For the uninitiated, the Four Job Fiesta is a twitter and web based event that asks players to play the classic Final Fantasy V game to help the charity Extra Life.  The twist is that through twitter players are assigned a somewhat random combination of jobs to complete the game and post their progress.  For blogger Ashgar, this has become a yearly obsession, and in his post outlines the basics of this extremely awesome charity event.  While playing a single player game, the interaction of the community makes this every bit of a thriving multiplayer experience.

• Ash’s Adventures – On Getting the Party Started

Outsourcing Content to Players

One of the more interesting posts from this week come from J3w3l of Healing the Masses.  In it she talks about the current practice of Daybreak essentially outsourcing content development to the players of Landmark.  Initially this seemed like a neat way for players to leave their mark on a brand new game world.  However as the process has continued it seems like the developers are asking for ever more specific content items to be built, with extremely narrow requirements.  The post is well worth the read, and I would be curious to hear what the take of our readers.  Is Daybreak simply outsourcing content development that would have traditionally been built by an artist, or are they opening the door for players to participate in the process?  The piece poses some extremely interesting questions.

• Healing the Masses – Developing Disdain for Daybreak

Farewell to Newbie Blogger Initiative 2015

Finally we bid a fond farewell to the 2015 Newbie Blogger Initiative.  This week the final event of the NBI came to a close as Murf of Murf Versus posted the winners of the Screenshot Safari.  The initial contest was divided up into several categories:  Selfies, Landscape, Epic Achievement, Heroes or Villains, Scariest Place, and High Fantasy.  However in the end Murf added a series of special categories as well including:  Best of NBI Class of 2015, Best Single Attempt, Best LOTRO Screenshot, and Best Non-MMO Screenshot.  All of the finalists were extremely awesome screenshots, but I feel like the winners each represented their categories extremely well.  While we close this chapter of the Newbie Blogger Initiative, we also look forward to seeing what the 2016 initiative brings.

• Murf Versus – Newbie Blogger Initiative 2015 Safari – Announcing the Winners