Benie's Games Blog

Illidan statue for sale
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/news/20353390/prepare-to-bring-illidan-home
Blizzard has unveiled a 24 inch model of Illidan captured in Polynesian. The model looks amazing. Truly amazing.
The model will go on sale starting November 3rd. There is no price tag at this time,… yet they still urge players to go to the Blizzard Gear Store(once it goes on sale) to pick one up due to supplies being very limited. This is part of their BlizzCon Early Access Sale.
Tell me this isn’t fishy. And I bet it’s going to be every bit $50-100+ once it does go on sale. “Let’s get that lost subscription money back!!”

“Legion” music video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLCs2RKmqs
Well, this is..embarrassing to say the least. BlizzCon’s cosplay rock band, ‘Songhammer’, did a song about the expansion (simply titled ‘Legion’).
I wanted the first 30 seconds in, and it was cringeworthy. The actors had “kill me now” faces. And it just felt like an embarrassment to Rock and Roll.
Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to listen to ACDC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ to get this trash out of my head. 😛

SoO soloable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8JdbVbhxc
Possibly the best news of the night(and maybe of the entire month of November). Bellular has discovered through another one of Patch 7.1’s undocumented changes, that the Siege of Orgrimmar is now soloable!
I’ve been trying to solo MoP’s raids. It was like 50/50. 50% of the time I didn’t get the mechanics until later on, and 50% of the time I managed to complete with no issues. And with the final raid for MoP now soloable, I can do them all.
Though there is a boss that a few players feel either it’s just not possible to solo or it takes way too much time to be worth it. And that’s this ‘Immerseus’ boss. Something about he has this one stage that a bunch of damage and healing slimes show up. And you got to get them down ASAP.
The reason that made this dungeon unsoloable, is a boss named ‘Galakras’. Apparently now you can take out his dragon allies without needing two or more players to complete the encounter.
I will try to solo SoO on the day before BlizzCon (the 3rd). This day is also when I buy a ticket. And probably by then, the ‘bells and whistles’ for paying them $40 to watch a two-day stream will likely come out.

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And that’s all the news I have for you tonight! Thanks for reading and keep sending me your emails. The next time I do WoW news will likely be covering BlizzCon’s WoW sections.
But there is one last thing I have to discuss. I feel BlizzCon is going to be my ‘stay or go’ moment for WoW. What I saw from today’s stream of Az, he had this “I just don’t care what Blizzard does anymore” attitude; even said “if that makes you happy then good” of someone telling him that he got a Legendary.
He has that attitude that I had with WoD. But instead of being weary of trying new games, he wants to focus on moving forward.
I envy him, and I wish I could have that attitude. But something keeps me sticking with WoW. I guess Blizzard hasn’t made me mad enough to warrant me to “fuck this, I’m done”. But it’s not like that ‘I enjoy the abuse’.

Been going over your emails, good and bad I’ll read them all. Though I prefer more constructive criticism. Such as one saying to not try to be like Heelz and just be myself when it comes to posting.
Well, I just don’t like how I do it. I don’t want to just get to the point and then have nothing to say except “that’s cool” or “that’s a thing”. I want to try a professional approach, as most game news authors do it. They start off slow (such as talking about the genre in general or a place) and then work up to the ‘big climatic end’ which is the point.

There’s also been emails asking me a ‘really simple’ question, of why don’t I just quit WoW like Heelz did if I dislike it this much. And this is coming from the second and 3rd things I said in my time gating post.

And my answer is… well… I don’t want to feel that “it’s my fault” I’m quitting. Heelz had a pretty convincing reason, even though I tried to contradict it by saying “I keep praying they’ll change”. I do still support his decision, but I’m not using it as mine. I want my decision to be .. well, decided for me.
I want it decided for me by a game, or by something Blizzard does that is literally the same or worse than WoD and nearly all of their subscribers drop.

By leaving because “but BLIZZ… I don’t WANNA do your Mythics!!” feels childish and wrong. Even saying it as an example, is just.. no. I don’t want to leave because of “I don’t wanna”. I want to leave with dignity. I want to feel like I made the right decision (like Heelz). I don’t want ANY feeling of remorse.
Of course there’s the “if you’re not happy, why play” saying. Again, I don’t want to quit because I’m not happy. I don’t want to quit due to being a spoiled brat. I’ve played the game for so.. so long. If I had joined WoW at a much later date and saw this content, I wouldn’t feel like I’m leaving good memories I had with the game.

Back in WoD, I was fueled with anger. Here, I’m fueled with a feeling of unsure. As I said before, I want to do this content.. but I also want it to be reasonable. I don’t wish to do 80 dungeons to complete a quest.
Another thing, is if I feel I leave, I’m going to kick myself in the ass if something happens that is in my favor. Sure, I could just ‘take a break’ in this instance (by unsubbing and waiting). Yet it’s not as simple as “you can come back anytime”. Not when I get a monthly check and have it my only source of income for the entire month.
I can only come back on a specific day, to know that I’ll be able to afford the next month. And I like having bills come out early in the month (when I have the most money available to pay them).
Right here, is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Note the number of players in the thread that are downvoted. Yet their responses…their responses are why I just can’t leave. That “there’s always another way around” feeling to most problems of Blizzard. Even I could just drop my fake Guild and go with an actual casual Guild, and maybe they could help me do these Mythics (so I can do what I want).

See, Heelz has already done everything. Yet he feels it’s just the same ole thing over and over and he’s bored with it. I have not. There is still lots to do. It’s only a matter of just..doing it. But I feel it’s just not worth the effort.

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So where does this leave me? Sitting on my ass trying to sleep my life away (and wondering how to bash my head into the wall repeatably and make it not hurt/put me in a coma), because I’m too bummed out to get myself to try any new games (unlike Heelz). Hence…why I haven’t been doing my job.
I still have that untrusting feeling of all games(no matter what genre). It hasn’t died since I had left WoD. That feeling of spending money and being utterly disappointed. Yeah. That thing I don’t want to happen– ever.
Of course you can say “EA does the same thing!!”, but EA never really bugged me until the Dead Space series (Dead Space 3) of removing the save points for waypoints (and also taking over the The Sims series with the utter stupidity of The Sims 4). And of course, who can get over that “O.O …well, Earth’s boned” cliffhanger of the DLC (that never got continued on).

Yes, EA shitted on awesome titles. They’ve been doing it for decades — that’s nothing new (and LOTS of people don’t like them because of it). But that’s the thing… they never developed these games. Blizzard, developed AND released their own games (and now has a pretty sizable collection.. yes, there are other games they made besides WoW).
See the difference here? EA has a HUMONGOUS base of people who hate them. Blizzard? ..A small fraction. However, that fraction is slowly increasing with every questionable design choice they make.

Once again, I honestly wish Blizzard would just stop trying with WoW, shut down the servers, and just stick with their more successful titles (Diablo 3/Overwatch/Hearthstone/and the Starcraft series). I would even congratulate them for doing the right thing (especially if they say “we realize this was supposed to be for the players, and we didn’t live up to this promise”).

I keep hoping Heelz shows games that I would be interested enough to just go on and break this untrusting barrier and go for it. I actually feel he could. This is why I’m going to be more active in his streams (something I never did).

Happy Halloween, readers! Have I a few treats for you, guaranteed not to rot your teeth or give you diabetes.

And the first treat I have for you, is reviews will be coming back to this blog in a few days after BlizzCon 2016 (November 7th, the day after Daylight Savings Time ends). I apologize that I haven’t been doing my job, but that’s going to change.
Plus, it’ll be better with five games to show off for you guys next month!
Also, some of you said I should have a Review-only blog for these. I’ve debated over it, but decided the Games blog is still proper for that(since it’s about a game). But I do get the concerns of not being able to go back and read some of my old reviews.
I’ve thought of having a page on the website that you can do this, but that would require magic scripting to look for keywords in my posts, and put the links into that page.
I’ll try to think of something about that. Maybe I’ll just go with the review-only blog. Don’t know right now. I’ll keep you posted through emails. 🙂

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With this said, I (well Heelz) has a treat for you. He has done his first video since his decision to stop doing WoW videos, of a full (spoiler-free) review of Titanfall 2 (seen here). And I feel he did a pretty good job, even though I’ve never played the original Titanfall (because unlike him, I’m no fan of Multiplayer games(as I cannot really give a good review when there’s so much going on)).
What got me is there’s now support for the PS4. So… maybe if Sony eventually puts the game on PS+, I might consider reviewing it. Oh yeah, the game is also for PC. So if you don’t wish to be a ‘console peasant’ and join the almighty PC Master Race, there’s that option.
(Honestly, the game looks good on the PS4, and it’s amazing of holding a smooth as butter 60FPS)

EDIT: JUST IN… Az’s doing a LIVE Stream of the PS4 version of Titanfall 2’s Multiplayer. Go here to check out the teaser, and here to check out the live stream and give this man some love (and subscribe if you can)!

During the stream, he’s stated that he’s unsubscribed all of his WoW accounts. So, he’s done. He also responded to two of my replies(which is awesome). Also, he’s planning to stream Skyrim: Special Edition tomorrow(November 1st) at 7pm his time(4pm EDT) (which is free on Steam for people who already own the original game). Though some in the stream are saying the special edition is buggy.
–Stream has now ended as of 6:30pm EDT, you can rewatch the stream here—

A few days ago, new threads on the General Discussion forum started showing up about what Blizzard has chosen as the artist for BlizzCon’s closing ceremony. Most of the responses have been negative, “he was funny when I was a teenager” to “is Blizzard trying to ruin themselves”.
To ones who don’t know who he is, Weird Al has grown in popularity due to doing parodies of popular songs, such as ‘Just Eat It’; being a parody of Micheal Jackson’s ‘Just Beat It’ (and ‘Fat’ being a parody of the same artist’s ‘Bad’) just to name a few.

Interesting choice, Blizzard. Though I would had gone with something like Imagine Dragons, but.. just my personal opinion. I still like Weird Al, but I like that other band more (not because it has the word “dragon” in it, but because their music is pretty good).
I hope he does a WoW Parody (though I don’t know what of that he could use). And it will be cool to see him in real life, singing.
Definitely worth buying a ticket and have some mandatory fun.

Since Heelz unfortunately no longer is doing videos on WoW (again, I respect his decision), I’ve decided to do a blog post on time gating as a whole and try to be as in-depth as he gets in his videos (but from my POV). And hopefully this’ll be the last post that isn’t future patch notes or related to BlizzCon.

So I’ve been lurking in the General Discussion forum, looking at all the fine threads (occasionally posting what’s on my mind and loving the number of dislikes I get).
There’s been a few repeating threads that have come up and died by being buried in the thousands of pages. One of these is the request for Mythics to be part of the Group Finder tool.
I can see the argument on both sides of this pretty clearly, and agree with both. On one hand, people that do these premade groups are able of figuring out who’s a *bad*(players who don’t know and/or refuse to know the fights). And on the other, it’ll be more convenient for more people like myself who do these groups, to have it more automated.
I personally never had an issue with *bads* of the three Mythics I cleared by setting up a premade, but it’s just such a hassle trying to find players that aren’t “is this Mythic+?” when I clearly state it’s for regular Mythic.
The reason why I say this first thing about LFGs having Mythic as an option, is it ties with the 3rd paragraph.

Another theme is people who don’t understand why casuals are even bitching for not being able to do Karazan in Mythic. And no matter how the two sides try to counter eachother, it ends at a stalemate. And this causes more threads to pop up, and the process begins anew.

Finally, there are people (like myself) who feel the 80 Mythics to complete a single quest(getting 80 prisms to get Illidan’s soul away from Sargaras) is way…way too much work for a pair of 855 ilvl boots(which is pretty much a pat on the back). This alone… WTF Blizz?
Though it’s pretty obvious that all of this that I have said, has to do with their “master plan” of delaying content on players as much as they can, to get more content in. But why? Why do they think they have to do this? Is it because they don’t have enough content? …Is it because they have ran out of ideas since Cata?

There’s got to be more to this. I personally feel this is a “scheme to keep us subscribed” as I said in the post below this. Yet clearly not everyone is seeing it (as they aren’t on GD and talking).
Now don’t get me wrong – Legion was a HUGE step in the right direction for WoW (since WoD at least) – but it just .. isn’t enough in some places. Or maybe perhaps too much.
This ‘desire’ to delay content, could be why players are being “forced” to do Mythic-only content in order to complete endgame questing. Or it could be a move to make WoW more of an MMO than ever before.

It could even be the answer of why there’s hardly any rep gear as previous expansions (with it mainly coming from World Quests). Even this BS requirement of getting a Falcosaur mount. Everything was designed, to delay.
However, it doesn’t explain why they released 7.1 in less than two months since its release. I think it could be because of BlizzCon, or the fact Halloween is just around the corner.

Whatever the reason is, I find this doesn’t suit well for the future of the World of Warcraft. And I’m going to say it here. In 7.2 and so on, if they continue to go this path, I will unsub and possibly never cover news of WoW in the future of this website.
Now before you react, it’s not because I refuse to do it (like I originally did dungeons as I was leveling up and in early endgame). Folks, I WANT to do this content. I really do. But I also want it to be reasonable that anyone, even casuals, can enjoy. No more of this Mythic-only bullshit. They are being ridiculous here. Again, maybe it’s the fact they’re doing it to keep content relevant.

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That’s just my two cents. Let me know what you guys think by shooting me some emails. Also let me know if I did a good or a horrible job of trying to be as in-depth as Heelz was when he did WoW videos.
FYI, I’m not trying to replace him. I just want to be as good as he is when it comes to explaining things like this.

Time for a Benies-Blogs.com News ALERT!! As usual, this is a very important post that I MUST share.

So the news I have to share with you all today, is quite saddening. In a nearly 20 minute video (here) of him explaining to his family that he’s made this firm decision (though in my personal opinion… “Heelz. Dude. Get to the point, please!”), he’s decided that he’s uninterested in doing WoW videos.
Starting a week from now, he’s going to be playing and reviewing new games (something I still haven’t done and I am sorry). Depending on how his fans react, may or may not just have him shutting down his channel altogether.
Let’s not let that happen, and support this guy. Alright? He uses Youtube to put food on the table. Do you want him to starve (and no, I’m not joking)?

I wasn’t around for his first video back in 2012 (around the days of Cata). I didn’t start watching his videos until around MoP. But in that short time, I support his decision 100% and will stick with him.
Yes, there was this one instance I unsusubbed for some time due to him being another one of those “Garrisons are killing the MMO experience” people. But since I came back to Legion, I resubbed.

I will always enjoy his snarky “Blizzard YOU DUN FUCKED UP!!!” attitude so much. He literally had the same attitude as I did. And his news (his “AZCHAT”s and his “EMERGENCY AZ” videos), as you guys know, I used quite frequently to give youall my opinion in here of his videos.
I do question why he feels he should even consider trusting other genres (let alone play their games) due to what Blizzard has done since WoD. This is why I’m curious enough to stick with him.

I actually hope he would encourage me to finally ‘break my chains’ of WoW and get into another game that I will play for hours and enjoy. In ways, I still think about Destiny and wish I could had played longer (and not had put it on the shelf for so long).

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Just FYI, this won’t stop me from talking about WoW when I feel I need to. Though it seems I’m going to have to get my news from another source (who shares a similar attitude as Heelz). Or even dig into the game and do my own in-depth articles as he does.