Author Archives: Donny Rokk
Time Management
What the Hell? Seriously? What am I doing with my life when I’ve capped out the number of characters I can make on an entire World of Warcraft account! Sure I’ve got an entire server full of toons making gold so I can continue to play for free. Sure I’ve got a bunch of toons here and there.
I don’t even have that much playtime. Why have so many toons?
I’m sure this isn’t a big deal for most people, and it’s probably a different kind of issue for others. But for me, seeing that message was like a red flag. I play casually, so that message was a little friendly reminder that there are so many hours in a day, and I don’t want to waste the precious few WoW-hours I have just dabbling here and there. That’s for people with disposable time. Folks that have the luxury to sit around for hours a day, staring at their monitor, texting or chatting with other folks in a video game.
I have my routine. Log in, run through my horde server to get my gold, and maybe do work with one or two characters. Now it looks like I need to go through the server list and put some of these lowbie toons in the crosshairs. I’m going to want to make a Demon Hunter, maybe a couple of them, who knows. So it’s time to take my game time back by putting some of these soft lowbies in the crosshairs and pull the trigger.
Have you maxed out the number of characters on your World of Warcraft account? On a server?
Warcraft Trailer 2
The second trailer for Warcraft was released earlier this week, this time with more dubstep. Thank goodness. I knew something was missing, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Turns out it was techno-tunes.
But music or not, the question is – did it work? Did this trailer generate more interest in the movie than the first trailer did? Time will tell, but from the reviews I’ve been seeing, the answer seems to be a non-emphatic shrug.
For WoW fans, the reaction ranged from “OMG LOVE” to “WTF!” In other words, typical WoW players reaction to anything Blizzard does. For non-players, ie the general movie-going crowd, I don’t think they’re exactly chomping at the bit to check this out. Even if Blizzard sweetens the deal by giving away free gametime (as is rumored but highly unlikely), I don’t see these trailers drawing in people who are unfamiliar with the story.
I’m a WoW player, so maybe I’m trying to be more forgiving. But I’m not a lore guy, not by any stretch of the imagination, so I’m not hip to the nuances that might be on display in the trailer. I am, however, a movie fan. And as a movie fan, I look at this trailer and see “that dude from the Vikings tv show(?)” walking around in what looks like impractical costume armor, fighting the CGI offspring of Hulk and Van Helsing’s Mister Hyde.
Will Warcraft be a success? I’ll say this – if the $100 Million budget is accurate, then worldwide I’ll predict it’ll probably make its money back. Normally the rule of thumb is to double the budget to account for marketing, but Warcraft will bank on WoW players to spread the word online and everywhere else. They should be able to keep the numbers on the more conservative side.
But the players won’t be able to carry this movie themselves. Warcraft needs the public to want to see it. And I don’t think that’s too likely to happen.
As a player, I hope I’m wrong.
Warcraft will be in theaters June 10, 2016.
Rokk Talk 