Why Am I Buying The Burning Crusade?

A couple of friends have asked me if I have BC pre-ordered or if I plan to make my usual Tuesday trip to Fry’s to pick it up next week.

I had generally assumed that I would do the latter, but now I am wondering about it.

What does The Burning Crusade have for me?

I have no level 60 characters.  My highest level character is 42, so none of the content in the Outlands will be available to me any time soon.

I really should not make any more alts.  I have a drain clog of characters in the level 35-42 range, so making more is probably not a great plan. Thus I have no motivation to roll up a Dranei shaman or a Blood Elf paladin.

There will be some new low level areas to go with the new races, but my characters are already at the point where all lanes merge into Stranglethorn Vale.

I have already pissed away enough gold chasing trade skills, so I am not going to run after jewel crafting. (I have not been hoarding gem drops for the last few months anyway.)

So, aside from giving Blizzard a sales boost of one, I am not sure why I should be in a hurry to buy the expansion next Tuesday.

Is there something I am forgetting?  Is there something for me in The Burning Crusade?  Is there something I need to have on January 16th?

Vanguard’s Fatal Character Flaw

I have found the biggest flaw in the whole Vanguard character creation process yet.  This is huge.  This will be a deal killer for many potential players.

After some effort I have pretty much decided that you cannot make a hot looking female character.

I have been able to create a wide variety of female characters, but never one that was very pleasing to the eye, much less a knock out.

I can make an average looking female character.  I can make an ugly caricature of a female character.  I can make an emaciated Eastern European runway model.  I can make a sturdy Bauernhofmächen, complete with Dolly Parton chest proportions. (You can put those on the runway model too, but it is scary.)

But none of them are pleasing to the eye.  They all look vaguely like they should be in a column of refugees.  If this were an MMO set it a displaced person’s camp in 1946 Europe, the models would be fine.  But none of them are very Heroic.

Now, this all sounds very sexist, and it is.  But I do not think that Guild Wars could have moved 3 million boxes with character models that looked like this.  (I would be interested to know how many people bought Guild Wars and the expansions because of the promise of a new, hot female archtype in every box?)

Of course, I could be wrong.  You might be able to make a hot female avatar in Vanguard.  Nobody ever uses my name and the words “artistic talent” in the same sentence without the words “has no” in front of them.  Perhaps my hamfisted efforts to create an appealing female avatar do not adequately represent the Vanguard character creation tool.

So I challenge any reader to send me a screen shot of a female player character that could be considered “hot.”

In the mean time, since there could be months to go before Vanguard gets to release, I hope that the character creation tool is one of the areas that they have on the “To Be Polished” list.