iFyoUDeathKnight Trailer

by Oozo


By far, the Death Knight has been the most dominating class I've played in 70 AV. This had led to many 1vN clips, many of which are 1v4s or 1v5s. Also, I've had some crazy kill chains up to 8 to 10 people back-to-back.

Now, the question is: how do I present this material?

I could go documentary style similar to my Warhammer Choppa movies with added commentary. Or I could go for editting and pure entertainment value. Either way I want to give the viewer some way of understanding what happened and how my enviroment affects the decisions I make. In this trailer I am going for editting, but also do some slowmos and zooms to help the view follow the action, particularly for those who only watch movies via streams. Without zooming, stream-viewers would miss so much of what is happening.

But, does trying to accomodate both types of viewers lead to overall failure? I could go for a movie that is a mixture of what I do in this trailer but also uneditted footage with commentary. This might be the best approach. Otherwise, I fear most viewers would miss the little things I do that help me win these 1v5s. It's not facerolling. There is a lot of thought put into my actions here. But, how should I convey that without coming across as a pretentious ass?

Wait. I am a pretentious ass. Ah, nevermind then.

You can get a fullsize download at Warcraft Movies. Don't forget to rate! (even if you think it sucks)

Allods Grounded for Bad Behavior. Back to WoW Again

by Oozo

Taugrim and Keen have covered the Allods cash shop fiasco in its entirety. I'll just say that once I lose trust in something (or someone) they have almost zero chance of getting me back. However, I'll still keep an eye on the game in case a miracle occurs.

As far as the positives for Allods for me? The game is very pretty and runs extremely well on my machine. I never dropped below 30 FPS while recording with FRAPS. No other game has performed that well under FRAPS for me. It would have been a pleasure making Allods movies. Also, the character development system intrigues me.

Besides the cash shop, there were other significant negatives for me. The character development system is intriguing, but also slow. It takes a good bit of time before your character "progresses" by picking up new abilities. So, you have to spend a lot of time using the same abilities over and over and over and over. That's not so bad at upper levels where you have many abilities to learn and explore synergies. However, it's not good at low levels where you only have a few abilities. Tedium set in pretty fast for me.

Another thing I did not like was melee movement. It felt clunky to me. Then again, pretty much anything is going to feel clunky when you are coming directly from playing WoW. It took me a long time to get used to the clunkiness of Warhammer. So, that is something I might have gotten used to over time. One thing I would never get used to is one of the Scout abilities. It causes you to vanish and appear behind or at the side of your target. Unfortunately, it also drops mouse look when you use it. I use my mouse for circle strafing. Using that ability takes you out of strafe mode. You actually have to release the mouse button and then hold it down again to continue strafing. By that time your movement has been compromised.

If I was to play Allods, I'd probably play a caster.

For now, I'm back to playing WoW. This time I'm checking out the Death Knight. It's easily the most powerful of my twink projects so far. Even surpassing the rogue who had quite a bit of arena gear. 1v3s are common and 1v4+s are doable in the 69-70 range. I've thrown up a clip as a preview. There are a few things I still need to fix with the editting, but it gives a pretty good idea what the DK is capable of in the 61-70 AV.

edit: Clip removed as I've added a legit trailer for the movie.

Allods Online (pregame thoughts)

by Oozo


As mentioned in the previous post, this game shows promise based upon community reviews and youtube clips. There is no doubt that it borrows heavily from WoW, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. WoW runs very smoothly and has many player friendly features.

Where WoW fails for me is in longterm PvP. I've had a lot of fun playing different toons in the 70ish brackets. Why? Because I know that my gear relative to other players is not hampering me or a disadvantage in any way. When I die, I have no excuses. If someone beats me 1v1 at that level, it's because I got outplayed.

What do I have to look forward to if I level to 80? Months and months of grinding PvE and PvP just to be competitive (but still be at a disadvantage to many players due to gear). There just doesn't seem to be much of an incentive for me to reach level 80 in WoW, which is why I have considered it a stopgap. I'm only playing it because that is where most of my friends are. I don't see longterm potential in WoW for a player with my RL responsibilities and my playstyle.

So, if there is a "WoW-clone" which doesn't have these flaws (as I see them) then I'm going to be interested. Allods has a PvP system based on gaining "glory" (cough-honor) on a weekly system. It sounds a bit like, oh - I don't know... WoW's original PvP system. The game should have World PvP, but it won't be forced. If you PvP flag, then you will gain exp at 110% rate. If you don't PvP flag, then you will gain exp at 90% rate. This can work well as long as the game population is high enough to sustain it. All you need are a few people to PvP flag. When, not if, they get attacked some of their faction will flag to attack the attackers. Next thing you know, the zone is full of flagged people.

This is how Tarren Mill and Southshore became PvP hubs even on PvE servers. Except with Allods system there will be more incentive to actually flag to begin with.

One of the things that killed WoW for me was the move to cross-server battlegrounds. To me, server community is a main draw for MMORPGs. The move to cross-server battlegrounds destroyed server community overnight. I'm not sure what system Allods has in mind here, but it is my hope that they keep most (if not all) PvP local.

The main concern that most have with Allods is that it is a F2P game and thus must generate income via an online cash shop. People are concerned that you will be able to pay RL cash to win or gain unfair advantages. My gut reaction to cash shops is /ew. However, for the most part the nonF2P games already have built in unfair advantages given to those who have more time to play the games. Or for those more willing to be in a guild full of asshats just because they can clear certain content. For the record, I hate asshats and no amount of phat lewt can overcome that particular distaste.

I gave some more thoughts on the cash shop on Taugrim's blog:

My main concern is being able to remain competitive in PvP. My guess is
that it would be easier to remain competitive via cash shop than it would for a
WoW-type system which requires a horrible PvP gear grind, in which the rich get
richer and those with more free time have a huge advantage.

The question is, how much money has to be spent to remain competitive?
Well, if it’s under the amount you spend on a typical subscription to a game
like WoW it would actually be a better system for people who treat PvP seriously
but have RL responsiblities which force their playtime to be more
“casual”.

Here is a talent calculator to get an idea of what kinds of skills and roles are available.

The following video (not by me) gives a good idea of the graphics, animation, and gameplay for AO:



Another vid from the same player (good quality in HD expanded view)



Astral spaceship

Update

by Oozo


I've been very busy with work starting back up in early January, but should be having a bit more free time to work on some projects. There is a fullsize download of my last movie available at warcraftmovies if you have a membership. It went through the listings so fast it didn't get many views, which is probably a good thing. As views for me in the warcraft community = flames. ;)

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=135705

When I have had time, I've been messing around with a Death Knight in WoW. It's extremely powerful in PvE. Soloing elites that outlevel me is nice, I guess. :/

A couple of days ago I learned of a game I had never heard of before via Taugrim's blog. The game is called Allods Online and it's a F2P game. I typically totally ignore F2P games, which is most likely why this game never made it onto my radar screen. However, there are some good reviews from what I consider to be reliable sources and the youtube clips I've seen of it's gameplay do show promise.

The open beta for the game starts on 2/16. I've already downloaded the client and will be checking it out. More thoughts on the game incoming.

Centurion Xö

by Oozo

The full movie is up on Youtube and will be up on Warcraft movies soon. I'm curious to see what the comments will be. I suspect that there will be a number of flames, just because... well, it's me. I also suspect that there will be negative comments on the number of green cons squished in this movie. :)

As stated in the intro, I outgeared most people in the AVs that I did. I tried to compensate for that by singling out the alliance twinks and putting myself into some crazy 1vN situations. Unfortunately, the alliance twinks didn't present much of a challenge in 1v1 situations. The warrior with the Brutal 2Her used none of the tricks an experienced warrior would use (how did he get that weapon?) and the perma-twink warlock trinketed my, erm... nothing and then shadowfuried straight into my cloak of shadows. They no doubt had a macro that did trinket-->shadowfury. Which would work against the standard rogue vanilla opener cheapshot-->kidneyshot. Not so hot against against cheapshot-->cloak of shadows-->kidney shot. That's the danger of letting your macros play too much of the game for you.

Of course, the best players don't make these kinds of mistakes. Then again, you aren't going to find the best players doing 70AV. Myself included.

Now, back to the green cons. I will probably get flamed for this, but the thing is... gear > level. I have clips doing 70-79 WSG with this rogue, but decided to exclude them for consistency and length (damn that 10 minute restriction on Youtube videos.) To atone for the sins of this movie I might be persuaded to do a followup with me being the green con, if there is interest.

And again, always remember: i hope u enjoy this movie as much as i enjoyed making it! and be nice! this is my first ever pvp movie. also im a girl irl lol!!!

Gear and Centurion Xö

by Oozo


One thing I've come to realize in my return is that gear really does matter. Yes, that's my tongue you see in my cheek. I find it curious (not really) that many people, who claim to seek competition, fight so hard to keep others from getting equivalent gear. On one hand, they say BGs are boring because of all the undergeared opponents and on the other hand they say those people don't deserve gear because they are all "bads." They seem to lack the self-awareness to recognize the logical dissonance of their position.

Why should they care if the "bads" have the same gear as they do? I mean, they are bad, right? A good player with great gear beats a bad player with great gear, so why the dire concern?

In Beta, Blizzard stated that there would be PvP areas in the game with special rewards. They said that those rewards would be no better than items you could get through other aspects of the game, but that they would have special, cooler looking models. And, that is exactly how it should have been.

People who excel at PvP should be rewarded the most badass looking gear in the game for the bragging rights. They should not be given a huge gear advantage over the people that they already crush. And to those who bitch about not having enough geared opponents while at the same time arguing that those opponents should not have gear? You fail, IRL. And, that is much worse than failing in-game. Because that kind of fail stays with you no matter where you go or what you do.

I've taken some of the feedback from the Iwl short movie and applied it to the following short preview. I've moved the player health to the bottom center of the screen and removed the opponent health, since you can track their health via nameplates. I couldn't do anything to fix the buff/debuffs issue and the SCT feedback can get really obnoxious when you are doing 1v5s. ;P

So, I'll have to work on fixing that as well.

Iwl Reborn

by Oozo


With time off during the winter break, I have decided to invest some time to learn some new tricks using Sony Vegas to make movies. You can probably tell that I generally don't like the UI taking up a lot of screen space. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, I personally don't like cluttered UIs from an aesthetic viewpoint and I think they can distract from the action and movement of the clips. Second, by zooming in it makes it easier for those who only watch streams to see what is going on better.

That was the idea behind the massively flamed "Oozo Lives" experiment.

The main reason that movie failed, IMO, is that it left the viewer detached and not understanding what was happening in the movie. They couldn't see my health and they often times completely missed key events in the movie (through no fault of their own). For example, I got flamed for missing a kick on some warlock. The thing is, I didn't miss the kick. I nailed it. It just so happens that the warlock was wearing a battlegear set that gave them a chance to resist interrupts and that is exactly what happened. You could see that in my combat log, but the viewer couldn't see it because I had (naively) cropped it out.

And, of course, people will latch on to those kinds of things like a bulldog (you see the same thing in politics) to discredit and defame even when they are completely wrong. Not that they would care even if they did know that they were wrong. But, I suppose that the ever-increasing decay of our society's morality is a story for another day.

In Moozo's movie, I made a compromise by zooming in but leaving the combat log in place so people could doublecheck to see exactly how badly I was playing. But, character health and abilities used could still be hard to track. I play at a high resolution, so they are hard to see at times on a youtube stream.

Iwl's movie is meant to correct that. Check it out and feel free to give positive/negative feedback on the presentation of content.

Moozo - 68-70 Feral Druid PvP (w/ special introduction by Matt Damon)

by Matt Damon

Okay. First thing we need to clear up is that I am bipolar with a touch of multiple personality order as well. My name is Matt Damon and I serve as an impartial observer to Harmony and Grimshank who are two of my many multiple personalities.

Harmony usually plays a Holy Priest and wants everyone to love her mangina. Grimshank typically plays a rogue and really doesn't give a flying fuck what you think. We've, I mean, I have been having a hard time coming up with an introduction for this movie.

Harmony and Grimshank have both come up with suggestions. You can choose whichever one you like most.

Harmony:

Hi guys!

This is my first ever pvp movie. I just did it for the lolz not to show massive skills or anything like that. And this is my first time using fraps and vegas to do a movie so please don't be mean lol.

I've been gone from the game for a loooooooooooong time and I'm just coming back. Having fun relearning things and the druid is so much fun! So, take it easy on me hehe. I just put this together for a few of my friends. They are the bestest! But maybe it will entertain you too! Everything was frapsed in one day so I didn't take this too seriously lol.

If you all like it I'll put up a fullsize HQ version up somewhere!!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun making it!! Oh, and I'm a girl. So be nice!

hehe.

Grimshank:

Heh, What a pussy.

The movie you are about to witness contains some of the highest levels of PvP ever recorded. All opponents within can be said to be nothing but the best of the best.

Just kidding. All of these people are noobs. But then again, to me, everyone is a noob. And, noobs can't beat me.

Frankly, I hate making movies. It's a boring and tedious task, but people keep pestering me and asking "When are you going to make another movie? When are you going to make another movie? Waaaaaaah!" And then I remember and say to myself... It's not about them, it's about you... it's about you.

Let's get one thing straight. I could fucking care less if this movie entertains you. Am I getting paid to make this fucking shit for you? Hell no. Is it about the music? Heh, no. Even though the music in this movie is vastly superior to the stupid crap you listen to, it's not about the music.

No, this movie is about one thing, and one thing only. Inflating my already enormously huge e-cawk.

And don't even get me started on Arena. It's nothing but a bunch of prancing faggots running around covering up for each others' mistakes and touching each other's asses. The real measure of one's skill in PvP is solo PvP. How do you do without a support net to catch you when you fall, prissyboy?

I'd have 2700+ ratings in all brackets if my friends didn't suck so much. They are all a bunch of mouth-breathing mouse-clicking retards. But hey, they are my friends, and I stick by my friends. Even if they do hold me back. Bunch of fucking losers.

I'd make a HQ version of the movie so it would be easier to see what's going on, but it really wouldn't matter because you wouldn't understand the complicated manuevers I'm pulling off in the movie anyway.

Get bent.

If the embedded players are running slowly, try clicking on them to go to the main youtube page. This sometimes helps.

Moozo

by Oozo


Coming back to play WoW after nearly 2 years away means there is a lot to relearn. These are some clips from my feral druid mostly in the 58-60 level range.

At this level many people complain about the death knights being OP. Of course, it's not the class that is OP it is their relative gear that makes them that way. They get good starting gear for free. However, the tables are quickly turned when you get gear to match.

There are a few "tricks" shown in here. Feral charge in cat is great, but it puts you behind your target forcing you to root. If you have a specific target in mind, you can charge an enemy in front of them and then target back to pounce. And, of course, the old drop flag and pick back up to avoid getting opened on by a stealther.

My 68-70 feral druid movie is rendered and in the process of being uploaded. Due to a gear advantage over most players it will have several 1v3+.

Because in World of Warcraft, gear matters. Too much.

Warhammer Farewell Movie

by Oozo


I had a great time in Warhammer. It was, by far, the best PvP community I've played in. People were, for the most part, much more mature than in other games. People understood the meaning of the word respect and appreciated those who played for the challenge and competition rather than just playing to win.

This movie captures some of the closer fights I had that did not make it into other movies.

The main difference between WAR PvP and WOW PvP is the pace of the fights. Things are much slower in WAR. There really isn't much in the way of "quick reflex" skills needed for the game. There are a few situations, knockdown on spell casts but there just aren't that many quick skill reactions involved in the game. Sorry, but that is truth. The positive thing about WAR is that it does take some time to kill someone, so you actually have a chance to execute strategy before you get CCd and instagibbed as happens in WOW quite often.

In order to execute strategy in WOW, you must have survivability via talent build AND gear. Gear is absolutely essential to actually *play* your character as it should be played in WOW. That was not the case in WAR where the gear gap was much more lenient to the undergeared.

The first thing I noticed coming back to WOW was how fast the PvP was compared to WAR. You really need to think and react fast to changing situations. WOW PvP takes more skill. Unfortunately, gear differentials ruin it's overall balance.

Perhaps, someday, somewhere, some game will get it completely right.

WOW Feral Druid PvP movies INC, but for now my WAR farewell movie: