Countdown to Warlords of Draenor (7 week update/44 weeks to go)

 

Not much progress these past couple of weeks. Down to only 128 more days of Orgrimmar Jewelcrafting quests left.

Important Stuff to do:

● Get Holy Item Level to over 553 (522 525/553)
● Do Siege of Orgrimmar (Wing 1 of 4 completed)

● Finish Legendary Cloak Quest line (Chapter 2 of 5 completed)
● Proving Grounds: Proving Yourself: Gold Healer

 

Old Raid Stuff to do:

● Finish Shadowmourn Quest line (Shadowfrost Shards: 0/50)
● Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) (15/17)
● Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (13/24)

● Get all Classic Raid Pet Drops (9/12)

● Get all Burning Crusade Raid Pet Drops (2/10)

● Get all Raid Reps (0/3) (Hydraxian Waterlords; Avengers of Hyjal; Shado-Pan Assault)

Misc Stuff to do:

● Get all Pristine Archaeology (10/28)

● Do [The Longest Day] Achievement

● Get all Argent Tournament Mounts (7/15) (900 Tokens)
● Nat Pagle Friendship to Best Friends (6/64 hand-ins done)
 

Jewelcrafting Recipe Collection:

● 10 Burning Crusade Recipes - 1 Aldor, 6 Sunwell, 2 World Drop, 1 Dungeon Drop

● 32 Cataclysm - 2 World Drop; 58 Vendor (128 Cata Tokens)

9 Rares =  27 Tokens; 11 Epics = 44 Tokens; 3 Meta = 12 Tokens; 9 Rings/Necks = 45 Tokens
● 2 Pandaria Recipes - (from Serpent's Heart or Ancient Guo-Lai Cache).

Countdown to Warlords of Draenor (4 week update/47 weeks to go)

 

I saw half of wing 2 of Siege of Orgrimmar with the guild flex group. However little progress this week on raising my item level. I even forgot to hit need on a healing trinket that would have been an upgrade. On the good news I finished off Darkmoon Faire mounts and made some reasonable progress with the Shadowmourn Quest.

 

Important Stuff to do:

● Get Holy Item Level to over 553 (520 522/553)
● Do Siege of Orgrimmar (Wing 1 or 4 completed)

● Finish Legendary Cloak Quest line (Chapter 2 of 5)
● Proving Grounds: Proving Yourself: Gold Healer

 

Old Raid Stuff to do:

● Finish Shadowmourn Quest line (Shadowfrost Shards: 0/50)
● Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) (14 15/17)
● Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (13/24)

● Get all Classic Raid Pet Drops (7 9/12)

● Get all Burning Crusade Raid Pet Drops (2/10)

● Get all Raid Reps (0/3) (Hydraxian Waterlords; Avengers of Hyjal; Shado-Pan Assault)

Misc Stuff to do:

● Get all Pristine Archaeology (10/28)

● Do [The Longest Day] Achievement

● Get all Darkmoon Mounts (1 2/2) (Complete)

● Get all Argent Tournament Mounts (7/15) (900 Tokens)
● Nat Pagle Friendship to Best Friends (6/64 hand-ins done)

 

Jewelcrafting Recipe Collection:

● 10 Burning Crusade Recipes - 1 Aldor, 6 Sunwell, 3 2 World Drop, 1 Dungeon Drop

● 39 Cataclysm - 2 World Drop; 58 Vendor (143 Cata Tokens)

18 14 Rares =  42 Tokens; 11 Epics = 44 Tokens; 3 Meta = 12 Tokens; 9 Rings/Necks = 45 Tokens
● 2 Pandaria Recipes - (from Serpent's Heart or Ancient Guo-Lai Cache).

Long Road to Shadowmourne... (Part 4)

One year, 10 months and sixteen days and one expansion ago I spoke of obtaining the quest Unholy Infusion in my post Long Road to Shadowmourne... (Part 3).

The quest was simple. Use the Abomination Potion while fighting Professor Putricide in 25 man mode then save up 100 energy to use the Infuse Shadow's Edge ability. Also have Shadow's Edge equipped at the same time.

I was in a guild group getting guild achievements in the instance. I was with Hunterfaith, Xynzelle, Voros, Evea, Jezael, and Yig,  I wanted to do my quest but we were also after Nausea, Heartburn, Indigestion... (25 player). Which meant while I was the Abomination I couldn't use the Regurgitated Ooze ability. We have Mists of Pandaria DPS now and this wasn't a problem.

I handed in Unholy Infusion. My next quest was Blood Infusion.

Blood Infusion is the quest where you have to become a vampire and bite three people during the Queen Lana'thel fight while having Shadow's Edge equipped. Something we couldn't do during this run. The problem everyone you bite will turn into a vampire. If they don't bite someone they will be mind controlled. So for me to bite 3 people, even if I was the first bitten, would mean we would need twelve people at least.

20 days later was in a group with Azadelta, Lushen, Owl (Exray). The four of us were able to get it done on 25 man heroic. I make sure to have Shadow's Edge equipped before we start.

Stage One: I rush in towards Queen Lana'thel with Owl while Aza and Lushen stand back. I get Blood Mirror. However Lushen is bitten, not me. Aza runs in and gets blood mirror and I stand near Lushen.

Stage Two: Sixty Seconds in, Lushen turns into a vampire and bites me. I need to wait sixty seconds to bite my first person for the quest. Lushen uses Ra'sha's Sacrificial Dagger so he dies and doesn't bite anyone else (if you don't bite someone every 60 seconds you will get mind controlled). We are down to myself and two others and I need to bite three.

Stage Three: After Sixty Seconds I can bite my first person. I bite Azadelta. Aza uses his own Ra'sha's Sacrificial Dagger so he isn't turned into a vampire like Lushen. Aza then uses a soulstone to get back up without the rebuff and at no risk of being mind controlled.

Stage Four: Another 60 seconds pass and I bite my second person. Aza again. This time Lushen uses Rebirth on Aza to get Aza back up again.

Stage Five: 60 seconds later I bite Aza for the third and final time. We then nuke the boss Queen Lana'thel before either Aza or myself have to bite anyone else. Quest Complete.

The next quest is Frost Infusion. I need Sindragosa to frost breath me four times. In my holy gear and Shadow's Edge, I cast Righteous Fury to tank the dragon. I am able to keep threat and after an Air Phase, I take the fourth frost breaths. After some damage the undead dragon is slain.

 

Next up is The Splintered Throne.

I will have to farm bosses in 25-man for 50 Shadowfrost Shard. This will take a few trips.

Countdown to Warlords of Draenor (2 week update/49 weeks to go)

 

There has been a little progress on my goals since my last post. Most significantly is the Proving Grounds Healing Silver Rank and finishing the Wrath of the Lich King Jewelcrafting Dallies.

 

Important Stuff to do:

● Get Holy Item Level to over 553 (515 520/553)
● Do Siege of Orgrimmar (Wing 1 or 4 completed)

● Finish Legendary Cloak Quest line (Chapter 2 of 5)
● Proving Grounds: Proving Yourself: Silver Healer
● Proving Grounds: Proving Yourself: Gold Healer

 

Old Raid Stuff to do:

● Finish Shadowmourn Quest line
● Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) (5 14/17)
● Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (6 13/24)

● Get all Classic Raid Pet Drops (7/12)

● Get all Burning Crusade Raid Pet Drops (2/10)

● Get all Raid Reps (0/3) (Hydraxian Waterlords; Avengers of Hyjal; Shado-Pan Assault)

Misc Stuff to do:

● Get all Pristine Archaeology (10/28)

● Do [The Longest Day] Achievement
● Get all Darkmoon Mounts (1/2) (56/180 Tickets) - Swift Forrest Strider

● Get all Argent Tournament Mounts (7/15) (900 Tokens)
● Nat Pagle Friendship to Best Friends (6/64 hand-ins done)

 

Jewelcrafting Recipe Collection:

● 11 Burning Crusade Recipes - 1 Aldor, 6 Sunwell, 3 World Drop, 1 Dungeon Drop

● 0 Wrath of the Lich King (Complete)

● 43 Cataclysm - 2 World Drop; 58 Vendor (155 Cata Tokens)

-23 18 Rares =  54 Tokens; 11 Epics = 44 Tokens; 3 Meta = 12 Tokens; 9 Rings/Necks = 45 Tokens
● 2 Mists of Pandaria Recipes - (from Serpent's Heart or Ancient Guo-Lai Cache).

All JC Recipies done for Wrath of Lich King

After 354 interrupted days, I have finished my Dalaran Jewelcrafting Dallies.

No more will I collect [Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token]!

No in game achievement. Just a personal victory over the insane daily model for disturbing JC recipes.

Now to continue for the next 150+ days to finish off Orgrimmar JC patterns.

Amber Primordial Direhorn

 

Farming Zandalari Warbringer with Xyn and finally I have a Reins of the Amber Primordial Direhorn drop for me!

 

Draenor: The Red World

 

Draenor. As seen back in Warcraft 2's Expansion Pack "Beyond The Dark Portal".

Era: 8 years after the events of Warcraft 1

 

 

The destroyed Draenor, now called Outland, as seen in World of Warcrafts's Expansion Pack "Burning Crusade".

Era: 26 years after the events of Warcraft 1.

 

The Draenor from another timeline, as seen in the future World of Warcrafts's Expansion Pack "Warlords of Draenor".

Era: This version of the world was created when Garrosh travelled back in time to at least one year before the events of Warcraft 1.

 

I am going to compare parts of the map I found interesting costal comparisons, beyond the obvious vanishing of Zangarmarsh and Nagrand moving north.

 

The Devouring Sea:

 

 

The West end of the WoD Bay matches the WC2 Bay far more than it did in BC's version. However The north shore in the WoD version goes further east than in the WC2 version.

 

Deathwing's Lair:

Deathwing's Lair wasn't in Burning Crusade. If it had been it would have been East of Hellfire Peninsula  & The Dark Portal.

 

Netherwing Ledge served much of the purpose that this island would have served, but it was south of Shadowmoon Valley, not North.

 

There is an island in the spot of Netherwing Ledge in Warlords of Draenor, but it looks very different to Netherwing Ledge. This could be because Deathwing never made it to outland and didn't use his Volcanic Earth Powers to raise up the second mountain, making the island much larger.

 

Warsong Clan Island

 

 

During Warcraft 2, the Warsong Clan occupy and Island North West of Deathwing's Lair and North East off Hellfire Peninsula. This island was not in Burning Crusade and was probably destroyed when the world exploded.

 

I don't know what the island was called before the Warsong Clan occupied it during the Second War, so I'll just keep calling it the 'Warsong Clan Island'. Nagrand is the home of the Warsong Clan according to Burning Crusade and you can see they have territory on the mainland in the WC2 map as well.


EDIT: I have discovered I was wrong. Kamalia pointed out in the comments below that the WoD island I thought was 'Warsong Clan Island' is actually Ashran. According to the wowpedia article on Ashran, it is the island where Deathwing's Lair was. The result is that in WoD, 'Warsong Clan Island' vanished and Deathwing's Lair is in it's old spot.

Glory of the Cataclysm Raider

 

A group from Frostwolves went into Throne of the Four Winds and Blackwing Descent on Heroic to kill the bosses. No group snapshot this time, but Hunterfaith, Kyjenn, Voros, Evea and Punchynok were there.

 

After Blackwing Descent we did some Wrath Raids, including The Ruby Sanctum where I got my Twilight Destroyer achieves.

Pandaria Dungeon Hero

 

I hadn't done three of the Mists of Pandaria Heroics so I queued up and did them. The DPS output the PUG members were giving was very impressive and the fights didn't last long at all.

 

I couldn't say how Where's My Air Support? was done, I was just focused on healing during the event.

15k Achievement Points

 

Just noticed that I am over 15,000 Achievement Points now!

 

The achievements Once Bitten, Twice Shy (10 player) and the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher  from Monday pushed me over.

Game Dev Tycoon - Burning Crusade

 

 This is something I didn't get around to posting until now. The ending to my Game Dev Tycoon game where I made World of Warcraft.

 

After the Thrall and Jaina's Painting Adventure for the Nintendo DS fiasco, subscriptions of World of Warcraft MMO were at an all time low (1.5 million subscribers, nearly half the number at launch).

 

After Painting Adventure was released, the team were given some training then rest. Once back from vacation work started on an expansion for World of Warcraft called Burning Crusade. After a year the game was finished and it was released. The staff assignments for making the expansion were identical to the settings used during classic WoW.

 

 

Burning Crusade got a 9.0, not a 10, but that would do. It boosted subscribers up to an all time high of 3.8 Million.

 

The team were given vacations and training over the next year. The next expansion would be Wrath of the Lich King and it had to be better. After the team was back from their vacation and training, work began on Wrath.

 

Then I went bankrupt.

 

 

Then Zynga purchased my company and IPs. Now that is just rubbing salt into the wound!

 

So what when wrong? Costs of keeping WoW online and costs making the expansions exceeded the income I was making from subscriptions.

 

Subscriptions were down because I think the two year development cycle seemed too long and the fans grew disinterested with the game.

 

 

 Unlike real-world WoW, you can't have two teams, one doing patches during an expansion and the other team developing the next expansion. You got one team with no patches to add content, only expansions  So that means I need to release expansions at a much quicker rate.

 

The first year of the cycle was just training with a vacation at the start and the end. The training was so that Wrath of the Lich King would be an improvement over Burning Crusade. The vacation was to give the team a rest after making Burning Crusade then a rest to be ready to make Wrath.

The second year was supposed to be 50% Development. 50% QA.  That is the game would be made in the first six months then the bugs would be fixed in the other six months. Then the game would launch bug free.

 

I went bankrupt during QA. Active subscribers were down to 1.57 million people at that time.

 

So what did I learn?

1- Cut back on training and QA so the development cycle is only a year. So maybe 2.5% Vacation, 50% Development, 40% QA, and 7.5% Training.

 

2 - Don't make a Warcraft Themed Painting Adventure game for the Nintendo DS.

 

1 - Be willing to pull the plug on an unprofitable game haemorrhaging money, killing a company that used to have a billion dollars.

 

 Complete Simulated History:

 

Simulated World of Warcraft Started = Y50 M11 W4

E3 - 2,47 million visitors

Simulated World of Warcraft Released = Y51 M11 W3

Average Score = 10/10 

 

WoW Year 1: Game Year 52

Simulated Q1: 2.76 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 2.10 Million Subscribers

Painting Adventure Started = Y52 M6 W4

Simulated Q3: 2.67 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q4: 2.27 Million Subscribers

Painting Adventure Released = Y52 M11 W4

Average Score: 4/10

 

WoW Year 2: Game Year 53

Simulated Q1: 1.50 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 1.47 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 2.33 Million Subscribers

Simulated Burning Crusade Started = Y53 M9 W4

Simulated Q4: 2.27 Million Subscribers

 

WoW Year 3: Game Year 54

Simulated Q1: 2.03 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 1.47 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 1.17 Million Subscribers

Simulated Burning Crusade Release = Y54 M9 W3

Average Score = 9/10 

Simulated Q4: 2.80 Million Subscribers

 

WoW Year 4: Game Year 55

Simulated Q1: 3.80 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 2.97 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 2.90 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q4: 2.47 Million Subscribers

Simulated Wrath of the Lich King Started = Y55 M12 W1

 

WoW Year 5: Game Year 56

Simulated Q1: 1.53 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 1.57 Million Subscribers

BANKRUPT - Y56 M8 W1

Scheduled Wrath of the Lich King Release = Y54 M11 W4

 

The real world World of Warcraft information can be found at statista.

In real WoW's 5th year (2009) in Q2 they had 12 million subscribers.

 

Winner: Real World version of World of Warcraft.

Loser: Simulated version of World of Warcraft.

Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 player)

 

Back in January I did most of the achievements for the Glory of the Icecrown Raider (10 player) meta. The last one I needed was Once Bitten, Twice Shy (10 player).  I never could be the Vampire. 

 

Today I went into Icecrown with an agenda: To get the last achievement Once Bitten, Twice Shy (10 player) and the Bloodbathed Frostbrood Vanquisher!

 

With Azadelta's help we made it to Blood-Queen Lana'thel, I became a vampire. After killing the boss I gained the achievement!

 

Countdown to Warlords of Draenor (51 weeks to go)

 

With Warlords of Draenor announced, it is time for me to get my bucket list of things to do before the new expansion. Nothing like a deadline to motivate someone!Here is a list of things I will be doing for the last half of the Mists of Pandaria Expansion!

 

Important Stuff to do:

● Get Holy Item Level to over 553 (515/553)
● Do Siege of Orgrimmar (Wing 1 or 4 completed)
● Get Holy Spec Shield instead of Holy Spec Offhand (Complete)
● Finish Legendary Cloak Quest line (Chapter 2 of 5)

● Proving Grounds: Proving Yourself: Silver Healer

 

Old Raid Stuff to do:

● Finish Shadowmourn Quest line
● Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) (5/17)
● Glory of the Cataclysm Raider (6/24)

● Get all Classic Raid Pet Drops (7/12)

● Get all Burning Crusade Raid Pet Drops (2/10)

● Get all Raid Reps (0/3) (Hydraxian Waterlords; Avengers of Hyjal; Shado-Pan Assault)

Misc Stuff to do:

● Get all Pristine Archaeology (10/28)

● Do [The Longest Day] Achievement
● Get all Darkmoon Mounts (1/2) (56/180 Tickets) - Swift Forrest Strider

● Get all Argent Tournament Mounts (7/15) (900 Tokens)
● Nat Pagle Friendship to Best Friends (6/64 hand-ins done)

Jewelcrafting Recipe Collection:

● 11 Burning Crusade Recipes - 1 Aldor, 6 Sunwell, 3 World Drop, 1 Dungeon Drop

● 4 Wrath of the Lich King - 4 Vendor (16 Wrath Tokens)

● 65 Cataclysm - 2 World Drop; 58 Vendor (170 Cata Tokens)

-23 Rares = 69 Tokens; 11 Epics = 44 Tokens; 3 Meta = 12 Tokens; 9 Rings/Necks = 45 Tokens;
● 2 Mists of Pandaria Recipes - (from Serpent's Heart or Ancient Guo-Lai Cache).

Mini Contest for Mini Monk Winner

There were three Haikus entries in the contest. There were all good, but there can only be one winner!

Write a haiku about how awesome Garrosh Hellscream is!

I am the Warchief!
Hellscream's eyes are upon you -
Show them no mercy
- Navi

Son of Blademaster
Forever In Thrall's shadow
History will judge...
- Xyn

Mag'hari Orc, strong
A warrior, proud, Warchief
Victory or death
- Luxy

The winner is Xyn.

Xyn's haiku may not glorify Garrosh Hellscream, but it doesn't denounce him either. I feel it has the strongest imagery of the three.

Mini Contest for Mini Monk

 

I gained a Pandaren Monk Pet code inside a graphics card box. Since I already have this pet, I thought a quick giveaway of this extra pet is in order.

 

The contest? Write a haiku about how awesome Garrosh Hellscream is!

 

Best Haiku in the comments gets the pet code to do whatever they want with it.

 

Deadline in a week. Have fun.

Edit: I think the code may be restricted to US and Oceanic servers.

Birthday Comic Gift!

Luxypie, co-creator of The Faily Frostwolf gave me this awesome birthday comic with cake! But server maintenance got in the way!

 

In the top panel left to right: Xym, Azadelta, Faithy, Navi, Luxy

Bottom panel: McTacky & some peeps

 

Thanks Luxypie! That TARDIS cake looks great! Sorry I wasn't there!

Game Dev Tycoon - Thrall and Jaina's Painting Adventure

WoW Started = Y50 M11 W4

WoW Release = Y51 M11 W3

WoW Average Score = 10/10 

 

WoW Year 1: Game Year 52

Simulated Q1: 2.76 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 2.10 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 2.67 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q4: 2.27 Million Subscribers

 

Real World Year 1: 2005

Real Life Q1: 1.5 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q2: 3.5 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q3: 4.0 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q4: 5.5 Million Subscribers

 

By the end of the first year I had half the numbers of the real world version of WoW.

 

For the 1 year anniversary of World of Warcraft I decided make Thrall and Jaina's Painting Adventure for the Nintendo DS.

 

Painting Adventure Started = Y52 M6 W4

Painting Adventure Released = Y52 M11 W4

 

"Gol'Kosh! The Burning Legion has drained all the colours!" said Thrall.

"We need to go on an Adventure. A Painting Adventure!" said Jaina.

 

It was a Fantasy Casual Adventure game using the stylus to use Shaman and Mage spells to return the colours to the world. So not quite the same as de Blob.

 

 

The critics didn't like Thrall and Jaina's Painting Adventure.

Average Score: 4/10!

 

I still managed to sell 1.8 million copies of the game before it was taken off the market.

 

In the real world: Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans for the PC was started after Warcraft II was finished, but cancelled before completion. Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans was not a painting adventure, but a point and click adventure.

 

WoW Year 2: Game Year 53

Simulated Q1: 1.50 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 1.47 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 2.33 Million Subscribers

Simulated Burning Crusade Started = Y53 M9 W4

Simulated Q4: 2.27 Million Subscribers

 

WoW Year 3: Game Year 54

Simulated Q1: 2.03 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q2: 1.47 Million Subscribers

Simulated Q3: 1.17 Million Subscribers

Simulated Burning Crusade Release = Y54 M9 W3

 

Real World Year 2: 2006

Real Life Q1: 6.0 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q2: 6.5 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q3: 7.0 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q4: 8.0 Million Subscribers

 

Real World Year 3: 2007

Burning Crusade Release = January 16, 2007

Real Life Q1: 8.5 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q2: 9.0 Million Subscribers

Real Life Q3: 9.3 Million Subscribers 

I was 4x behind at the end of the second year. Over 8x at the end of Q3 in the third year. Things were looking bad!

 

So next time, the critics and fans react to Burning Crusade's release!

Game Dev Tycoon - World of Warcraft Classic

 

I've been playing Game Dev Tycoon a lot recently. Game Dev Tycoon is a business simulation of running a game developer. In this game I was very late in getting a R&D Lab and had just unlocked the ability to make MMO Games. So I would try to make World of Warcraft and it's expansions for some fun. See if I can meet the real world sales of the game and be able to afford to keep the MMO running.

 

The first stage is to define the game concept. A Fantasy MMO RPG for the PC as you can see here with a bespoke game engine called World of Warcraft. The size of the game was set to AAA and the target audience was set to Everyone. I hit Start Development in Week 4, November Year 50.

 

 

Now we enter Development Stage 1 of World of Warcraft. This is the first of the three trinities to be balanced. How much time to spend in development in-between the Game Engine, Gameplay and the Story/Quests?

 

I ended up doing a 15/35/50 split here. Story and Quests given the most time and Gameplay given substantial time as well. Engine wasn't ignored but wasn't as important time wise as the others.

 

All the programmer team leaders I assigned to each task are specialists in these tasks already.

 

 

Development Stage 2 of World of Warcraft. We are 3 Months 3 Weeks into the project here. This second trinity is to balance the time spent working on Dialogue or Level Design or Artificial Intelligence.

 

50/35/15 split again in-between the tasks. Dialogue and Level Design given priority over AI. I guess if I wanted the boss fighters to be harder and world mobs to react more cleverly I'd have to bump up time given towards AI Development.

 

My AI Specialist here is actually assigned to Dialogues since I do not have a Dialogue Specialist. The Game Engine specialist is allocated the AI task instead. All the programmer team leaders I assigned to each task are specialists in these tasks already. The Level Design Specialist is assigned to Level Design.

 

 

The last trinity to balance in Development Stage 3. 5 Months 3 Weeks into the project now. This trinity is balancing the time spent on World Design, Graphics and Sound.

 

The split here is 50/25/25. World Design taking half the time, Graphics a Quarters of the time and Sound the other Quarter. This is the World of Warcraft, not the Featureless Plain of Warcraft. World Design is always the top dog.

 

I had considered pumping up the graphics here and reducing the sound. Many people play WoW with the sound off. However Warcraft does feature an Orchestral soundtrack in the real world as well as in my simulation. Playing WoW with the game sounds and music on is a very visceral experience that cannot be downplayed.

 

Finally McTacky is assigned to a Task, his speciality of World Design. My Graphics Specialist is given Graphics and Sound here since I do not have a Sound Specialist.

 

During Development Stage 3 I show the world at G3 my version of World of Warcraft. 2.4 Million People visit the booth. (Since the real world E3 had only 70,000 people attend in 2005, it seems fictional E3 has a much higher attendance.)

 

The money spent to attend G3 was not a waste. Hype was boosted from 350 rating to 700 rating. Meaning double the people are now anticipating the game.

 

 

Week Four of June Year 51, Six Months after the project was started, World of Warcraft is completed. Just hitting finish will release the game to the public. Except there is one problem. There are 786 Bugs! To get rid of those bugs months of alpha and beta testing will be required.

 

 

Week 4 October Year 51. The last bug is removed from the game. Four months were spent on getting rid of those bugs. The game is now ready to ship.

 

The game ships 3rd Week of November Year 51. A full year after development began. The game itself cost $63.2 million to make with $61.5 million spent on operating costs. Total of

 

But is the game any good?

 

 

Critics! Game Reviews! They will do two things.

 

First: Score your game out of 10. Unlike the real world, 5 is an average score, not 7.

 

Second: Feedback. Most of the time the feedback is useless statements like 'bad' or 'good'. Sometimes the feedback will tell you if you focus in the wrong areas.

 

The reviews and hype influence sales.

 

 

 

World of Warcraft just earned me the Perfect Game achievement. Wow! In my 50 years of simulated game development, this is my first game to get a perfect score of four 10s.

 

Now lets see how the first half year of sales goes:

 

Each Bar is a week. Every 4 Green Bars together are monthly subscriber numbers. Red are the maintenance costs.

Real Life Quarter 1: 1.5 Million Subscribers

Simulated Quarter 1: 2.76 Million Subscribers

 

Real Life Quarter 2: 3.5 Million Subscribers

Simulated Quarter 2: 2.1 Million Subscribers

 

I am barely in the black at 3 months of sales. I calculate that grand total costs are at $144.5 million. Simulated World of Warcraft sales have made $150.2 million.

 

At six months costs are at $170.3 million.

Sales have made $262.8 Million.

$92.5 Million is an amazing profit, but subscriber numbers are down and are in a downward trend.

 

Like everyone else who tried to complete with World of Warcraft, after Six Months I am yesterday's news.

 

Next time. After my team gets back from vacation, we work on the Burning Crusade Expansion, shill some more at E3 and try to get those subscriber numbers up again!