It's discrimination if you don't want cancer...

[thistlechaser]

The county I live in is going to start to license stores that want to sell tobacco. $400 for the license, then $200 per year after that. The funds will be used to help keep minors from having access to tobacco.

The morning news did interviews with stores selling cigarettes. One said "This is discrimination! We're a minority! This is a hate crime!"

Persecution, ur doin it wrong.

---

Also, a small MMO note. I realized something, WoW is mirroring FFXI when it comes to expansions. Both had their best one (FFXI's ToAU, WoW's WotLK), followed by one that changed the world (WotG, Cata). FFXI's went back in time to a war-destroyed world, WoW's went forward in time to a dragon-destroyed world.

I bet I was the only player sad to see the new login screen this morning. Come back, Arthas! You're much sexier than a silly dragon with an ugly jaw and an annoying voice!

It's really hard to take Deathwing seriously as a bad guy. He looks silly. He sounds like a whiny kid. Maybe once we kill him, the Lich King can raise him as a cool frost wyrm. :P

Comments

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Having played WoW for about 4 years now I can definitely say that the trend has been for constant improvement, though the road has definitely been bumpy along the way sometimes!

I'm sort of 'meh' about the Shattering, but I'm looking forward to new questing and leveling stuff -- and I'm not keen on leveling in general, so that says something. :)

I'd say just give it some time, see what you think. :)

And yes, you're the only one! I hated the Wrath logon screen after the first couple logins. I even downloaded a mod that shut that damn dragon up! Sindragosa's roar is so annoying, but that's fitting since the ICC encounter with her has the most annoying voice acting in the game. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oops! I love her roar, I love the whole Wrath loading screen! I've not seen her in ICC though, so I missed out on the bad voice acting!

If nothing else, 4.0.3a should improve my AH markets! MMMM! Must Make More Money!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Each to their own, my friend. :)

Trust me, her voice acting was HORRID. I'd have rather had spikes driven into my ears. Twice. Rusty spikes covered in live fire ants. :) (Fortunately I could just mute that encounter!)

Yeah, the AH is going to be insane and getting worse with Cata. Gatherers are going to make HUGE coin the first couple weeks of the expansion.

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Also -- here's an addon you might want:
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info18376-Login2CustomLoginFrames.html

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to take Deathwing seriously as a bad guy.

Arthas was a big ham. When asked if we would encounter Deathwing like we did Arthas, Chris Metzen said "You'll see him but it won't be as cartoony and over the top as Arthas. Basically every time you see Deathwing he'll kill you.Hey, his name ain't Socialwing."

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

Watch as your pathetic magic BETRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS YOU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jInIBx65tfU&feature=related).

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Yes.

That line, repeated over and over and over and over and over -- gets old about the first time you hear it, and repugnant from then on. :)

[pomr.livejournal.com]

His twin brother was originally slated to visit the Blood Elves and Draenei, but WarmFuzzyWing didn't make the cut to live. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so he's just an evil brat! No talking, no chance to reason or make any deals, you see him and BOOM! You're dead.

Think of it like RPing or writing a story: There is no black and white. All good or all evil characters are boring.

(I'm not being 100% serious about this. I do think he's a much, much, much lesser bad guy, but I'm sure he'll fill the role on WoW well enough.)

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I can't take deathwing seriously for some reason either. Maybe it's just the convenience of the whole thing. It's probably the same reason I've had a hard time placing someone as the bad guy in WotG. I mean, he just decides to come up with the intent to destroy everything, so he bursts forth and starts fucking shit up. Which does what? Makes the zones changes, some new harder zones show up to help us level, and introduces 2 new races that can help to beat him. Then what does he do? Goes and chills out in his secret lair and waits for us to go get him.

Deathwing needs to get his hands on the evil overlords list (http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html) I think... World destruction, you're doing it wrong!

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

You have to remember though that, like Arthas, Deathwing used to be a good guy. And like Arthas, insanity overtook him. Unlike Arthas, Deathwing has had thousands of years of insanity. He got epically pwned during the Second War, which necessitated him getting metal plates grafted to his body to keep him from imploding.

You'd be mildly pissed too. ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just the convenience of the whole thing.

I think that's a big part of it. He's not a good plot element, but he's a good WoW element.

Then what does he do? Goes and chills out in his secret lair and waits for us to go get him.

He's a bad character, but a good WoW character. *points at my reply to Achi* He's all evil. He's got no grey, it's just a black/white thing. That's boring. Lich King? Not black/white, thus a lot more interesting. (Though it took us time to find that out, didn't it? Maybe it'll turn out that Deathwing is actually a kitten deep down inside!)

[sailor-arashi.livejournal.com]

How can you call any WoW character whiny after Illidan whined all the way through the TBC cinematic? :D Illidan is the end-all-be-all of whiny, everyone else is just a little melodramatic in comparison.

Deathwing is just a little emo. You'd be emo too if your jaw fell off, I bet!

Also, seconding the "Syndragosa is so freaking obnoxious" statements. She makes you want to kill her just by talking, which I guess is good, 'cause that's why you're there after all.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Okay, that's kinda bad.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I have a good excuse! TBC was mostly before my time. :D I played a little then, but just a month once a year or so -- WoW was my MMO vacation spot when FFXI got to be too much.

Deathwing is just a little emo. You'd be emo too if your jaw fell off, I bet!

The whole opening video bugged me. So there's this big dragon, getting armor put onto himself. Okay, it hurts. And so he's whining about it hurting and his pain is going to destroy the world and blah blah blah. WELL, MISTER DRAGON, HOW ABOUT YOU DON'T GET THE ARMOR PUT ON, THEN IT WON'T HURT! Stupid dragon.

A man goes to the doctor. "Doctor! Doctor! It hurts when I do this!" Man punches himself in the face.

Doctor says, "Well, stop doing that!"

[sailor-arashi.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the final result of all the Lich King quests in Icecrown that, no, he actually was just all evil? I seem to recall doing any number of quests where attempts to find any good left in him turned up negative.

Even the whole "Without Arthas the Scourge is more dangerous" resolution to the whole thing is more "Arthas is obsessed with being a king, and is thus organizing the Scourge in a way that actually makes them LESS effective rather than just setting them loose to eat everyone."

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh my! LOVE

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

There's samples of a ton of the female voices from WoW in there. ;) I recognize some of them, such as Blood Queen Lana'thel and the chick from Nexus. But the "Watch as your pathetic magic betrays you!" is definitely Sindy. =P

[sailor-arashi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's all in the backstory. Without the armor he is unable to hold physical form or something like that. Plus he's totally a cutter. He's basically the god-avatar of the planet's physical existence, which is why him being in pain causes earthquakes and stuff. The other Dragon Aspects messed him up bad in the backstory, so he has to have mystic armor bolted to him to contain his crazy-awesome powers.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I did all the quests... and if I did, I probably didn't read them! D: (I rarely, rarely read the quest text.)

If "Arthas is obsessed with being a king, and is thus organizing the Scourge in a way that actually makes them LESS effective rather than just setting them loose to eat everyone." is correct, I still have a lot less issue with it than with Deathwing. At least Arthas has a reason for doing it, a relatable desire for power. Deathwing is boring. "Ho hum hum, I think I'll destroy the world today. Tomorrow we can go out for burgers!" :P

Maybe I'm missing something. Does Deathwing have a reason for wanting to destroy the world? (Is he able to reason at all?)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I cheated and searched for a video of just Sindy's voice acting. :)

[sailor-arashi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, his lair was deep in the earth, being the Earth Aspect after all. Unfortunately that's also where the Elder Gods were all trapped, so they whispered to him till he went bonkers.

He's got more depth in the novels, basically. The Deathwing that shows up in WoW is basically the "Last Stand of Deathwing" version, just like the Illidan and Arthas who showed up in the previous two expansions were the last extremes of their characters who previously had more depth in the RTS games and novels.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Without the armor he is unable to hold physical form or something like that.

Oh huh! Okay, then there's reason for it, good!

Where'd you read this backstory? From the Cata book?

[pomr.livejournal.com]

It doesn't quite yet allow you to pic which login screen to use, but he's working on that. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ahh, huh! Interesting. And I seem to remember hearing that people killing (some bosses) basically caused this. The bosses were actually other gods, or some such.

SILLY GODS, STOP HOLDING GEAR THAT PEOPLE WANT AND THEY WON'T KILL YOU! You'd think gods would be smart enough to figure that out. ;)