Heritage of bad design

Look, I wanted to have a great time in 8.3. I wanted to really like it, I wanted to be able to judge it as a last-gasp successful effort to save Battle for Azeroth from going down as one of the worst expansions ever. I wanted to get into what seemed like a dizzying array …

Already ground down

Last night — on the third day of a huge new patch — I logged on with a feeling not of anticipation but of resigned weariness. It occurred to me that maybe Mr. Game Director Hazzikostas is actually right when he brays about all the choices in the game — each night now I have …

Ascendancy of chaos

How was your patch day? Other than one stray server disconnect and a couple of addons not working properly, the technical aspects of the patch rollout seemed highly efficient and successful. So kudos to the Blizz tech team, they — at least so far — have done a great job. But the designers? Not so …

Bored and surprised

The next time I post something, we will be on the other side of Patch 8.3, “Visions of Yet-Another-Pretentious-Apostrophe-Name”. I think I am looking forward to parts of it. Kind of. Mostly the fact is I am bored with the current game and looking for at least one or two new pieces of fun content. …

Notes on the notes

Well, finally we have a comprehensive set of patch notes for 8.3, which goes live at the next reset. As is usual with major patches, this one seems overwhelming, although within a few days most of us will become comfortable with what now seem to be unfathomable intricacies. (Interestingly, Blizz has apparently abandoned the usual …

Fine whine

I grew up in Minnesota, a place where not only are there four defined seasons, but each one slams into you like a locomotive. You absolutely know when it’s winter, spring, summer, fall — none of this namby-pamby “seems to be getting a little warmer/colder” stuff. I moved away many years ago, but I remain …

2020 — Gear gets worse and worse

Well, I’m back, and I am grumpy. I had a fantastic break, don’t get me wrong — it was everything Christmas season should be, with lots of good company and good will and good food. I even got to raise a glass with some of my old brothers and sisters in arms, and we laughed …