Underneath the Patch Day Tree..
I can still remember. The anticipation. The joy. The happiness. I also remember the constant waiting, the complaints afterwards, and the disappointment.
Christmas?
Nah, I’m talking about patch day.
It’s that once in a while refresh of our second lives that we know is coming, but don’t know when it is coming. I’ll admit, I was one of those crazy people that grew a smile on their face when I heard that WoW patch 1.11 was coming today. It’s ironic, though, since I’ll not be able to partake of it for at least 8 more days, with the DSL not yet installed in the new house.
I’m trying to recall my first Patch Day. I guess it’d have had to have been Ultima Online. Ah, UO, the first REAL MMORPG. Sure others proceeded it, but it was the first one to scale up into the hundreds of thousands of users. I remember upgrading my girlfriend’s(now wifes’s) computer from a Pentium 120 to a Pentium 200, and from 16mb RAM to 64mb RAM, just to play it. I was up with a character the first week it came out, and it was marvelous. The color, the size, other real people alongside you. Not long after that I remember learning what a PK is, and not to follow one into the woods. Probably the most significant patch I can remember in UO wasn’t a patch, but an expansion, opening a whole new land with the Second Age expansion. UO wasn’t really set up to patch much, I guess, just add expansions.
Then, I remember standing in the games section at CompUSA, holding both Asheron’s Call and Everquest in my hand, trying to decide which one to get. Of course, I rationalized that AC was Microsoft, and of course they’d have the better game. Many of you may laugh, but I think I may still have been right in many ways. EQ went on to be the juggernaut, but I don’t regret a minute I spent in AC. It was a unique setting, with beautiful vistas(for the time). It had a tight, if small community, and was perfect for my playing style, which is more solo oriented. I can’t remember a big AC patch, but I do remember that they were the first ones that I noticed doing a monthly “event” patch. It often times also had a World Event attached to it, such as an invasion, weather, or holidays.
Then, the saddest point of my MMORPG life, the release of Asheron’s Call 2. I so wanted this game to work. I upgraded RAM, Processor, and graphics just to get ready for this game. I went out the day it was released and bought it. I hurried to install it, and then logged in. Wow, awesome graphics, good character models, good skill system. But, where is everybody? Very few people even played the game. Combine that with the fact that there were no in game vendors(you could convert stuff to gold by yourself) and the game was the most lonely MMORPG ever. One cool thing about it though, was patch day. Every patch was a monthly event, and, when you downloaded it. It had a CGI movie attached to it that played when you logged in. That was an awesome idea, and one World of Warcraft should really consider, as they have the best cutscenes in the industry.
After AC2 I took a break from MMORPGs, my confidence shattered. Then, again, I stood in the games aisle holding two games in my hands. World of Warcraft and Everquest2. Of course, I remembered my error last time and, of course, picked up EQ2. LOL. Now don’t get me wrong. EQ2 is a great game, it just isn’t WoW. I played EQ2 for almost a year, until they super nerfed my Guardian(logic states that a big guy in the best in-game armor should be able to tank, right? Nope, EQ2 found it logical that the naked monk can tank better). That nerf was in a patch. Also in a subsequent patch was a graphical error that would crash my ATI card to desktop for no particular reason. Sony said it was ATI’s fault, ATI said is was Sony’s fault. It didn’t really matter whose fault it was, it just made me quit the game after three months of frustration with the whole thing.
Which brings me to World of Warcraft. So far so good, I would say. I’ve been playing since October, and I love it. The patches are not monthly, they are very, very important. They fix things, add things, and generally make Azeroth a better place to live. So, in a lot of ways they are like little Christmases. I little joy, a little sorrow, and a lot to look forward to…
What’s underneath your Patch tree today, Shamans and Mages?
Christmas?
Nah, I’m talking about patch day.
It’s that once in a while refresh of our second lives that we know is coming, but don’t know when it is coming. I’ll admit, I was one of those crazy people that grew a smile on their face when I heard that WoW patch 1.11 was coming today. It’s ironic, though, since I’ll not be able to partake of it for at least 8 more days, with the DSL not yet installed in the new house.
I’m trying to recall my first Patch Day. I guess it’d have had to have been Ultima Online. Ah, UO, the first REAL MMORPG. Sure others proceeded it, but it was the first one to scale up into the hundreds of thousands of users. I remember upgrading my girlfriend’s(now wifes’s) computer from a Pentium 120 to a Pentium 200, and from 16mb RAM to 64mb RAM, just to play it. I was up with a character the first week it came out, and it was marvelous. The color, the size, other real people alongside you. Not long after that I remember learning what a PK is, and not to follow one into the woods. Probably the most significant patch I can remember in UO wasn’t a patch, but an expansion, opening a whole new land with the Second Age expansion. UO wasn’t really set up to patch much, I guess, just add expansions.
Then, I remember standing in the games section at CompUSA, holding both Asheron’s Call and Everquest in my hand, trying to decide which one to get. Of course, I rationalized that AC was Microsoft, and of course they’d have the better game. Many of you may laugh, but I think I may still have been right in many ways. EQ went on to be the juggernaut, but I don’t regret a minute I spent in AC. It was a unique setting, with beautiful vistas(for the time). It had a tight, if small community, and was perfect for my playing style, which is more solo oriented. I can’t remember a big AC patch, but I do remember that they were the first ones that I noticed doing a monthly “event” patch. It often times also had a World Event attached to it, such as an invasion, weather, or holidays.
Then, the saddest point of my MMORPG life, the release of Asheron’s Call 2. I so wanted this game to work. I upgraded RAM, Processor, and graphics just to get ready for this game. I went out the day it was released and bought it. I hurried to install it, and then logged in. Wow, awesome graphics, good character models, good skill system. But, where is everybody? Very few people even played the game. Combine that with the fact that there were no in game vendors(you could convert stuff to gold by yourself) and the game was the most lonely MMORPG ever. One cool thing about it though, was patch day. Every patch was a monthly event, and, when you downloaded it. It had a CGI movie attached to it that played when you logged in. That was an awesome idea, and one World of Warcraft should really consider, as they have the best cutscenes in the industry.
After AC2 I took a break from MMORPGs, my confidence shattered. Then, again, I stood in the games aisle holding two games in my hands. World of Warcraft and Everquest2. Of course, I remembered my error last time and, of course, picked up EQ2. LOL. Now don’t get me wrong. EQ2 is a great game, it just isn’t WoW. I played EQ2 for almost a year, until they super nerfed my Guardian(logic states that a big guy in the best in-game armor should be able to tank, right? Nope, EQ2 found it logical that the naked monk can tank better). That nerf was in a patch. Also in a subsequent patch was a graphical error that would crash my ATI card to desktop for no particular reason. Sony said it was ATI’s fault, ATI said is was Sony’s fault. It didn’t really matter whose fault it was, it just made me quit the game after three months of frustration with the whole thing.
Which brings me to World of Warcraft. So far so good, I would say. I’ve been playing since October, and I love it. The patches are not monthly, they are very, very important. They fix things, add things, and generally make Azeroth a better place to live. So, in a lot of ways they are like little Christmases. I little joy, a little sorrow, and a lot to look forward to…
What’s underneath your Patch tree today, Shamans and Mages?
posted by Unknown at 8:29 AM
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