Also on the radar is World of Warcraft. On top of it completely owning our lives, the details of a far-from-insignificant update have been announced. I speak of none other than the full-on implementation of PvP. The preview on the official site reveals a good deal of info about one of the premier "battleground"-style zones: Alterac Valley. It'll be expressly designed for PvP gameplay, with strategically-placed bases (functioning as full-featured settlements, with merchants, quest-givers, etc.), conquerable graveyards, and, of course, a blood-spattered battleground nestled in its center.
That last element, from what I read, will be reserved for the highest-crop of players. Lower levels intent on aiding their side's cause can do so by completing quests around the zones. Doing so will presumably sway quests in the favor of their side indirectly, while, in all likelihood, putting them in direct contact with their enemies; anyone who's entered a contested zone on a PvP server knows that any contact with the opposing faction will most likely end in bloodshed. There's a whole bunch more info in Blizzard's preview, all of which sounds really, really cool. Certain elements of the PvP rewards system were hinted at (peep the dope-looking mounted orc decked out in the crazy armor on the top corner of the page), as was the implementation of the honor system -- Ashenvale gankers, your days are numbered! Anyway, I can't wait. Hopefully, I'll be high enough to hold it down on the battlefields by the time it comes out, rather than running fetch-quests while the big boys (and girls) go at it. I gotta get back to the grind.
Allakhazam: are you mad at it?
Speaking of grinding, there's a topic that's been on my mind of late. Tell me what you think: does referencing the multitude of materials available for online games both on and off the web compromise the experience at all? Like, if you're playing the game of your choice on your desktop PC, and have Allakhazam open on your laptop next to it, are you cheating? Or, at the very least, robbing yourself of the "whole" experience? What about a printed strategy guide? If you have one at arm's reach as you play, are you ripping yourself off? I'm curious as to how many of you play like this (the majority, I'm guessing), and how many actively avoid any such "spoilers."
If you ask me, "spoiler" is a bit of a misnomer. To the majority of these games, plot is secondary, and when you're actively advancing the plot -- by completing missions and such -- the narrative tidbits that you'll garner are, at most, tertiary, to the "real" rewards: loot, experience, and such. That being the case, what is compromised when you don't go at it naturally? If anything, it's probably the satisfaction of solving these problems on your own, without any sort of outside help. This, I would agree, would be a valid motive, were the quests in MMOs designed as cohesively as the ones in single-player games. But that's not quite the truth. The best games of this type have quests that one could solve without outside help, yes, but these are among the most simple: "kill X amount of monster Y," or "travel to settlement Y and talk to resident Z." Once they get more complicated than this, your only recourse is other players, and, of course, outside resources.
