24 March 2012 | |
Mike
Today at Eve Fanfest, CCP announced that it would allow players to start purchasing real-world items with ISK earned in Eve Online.
CCP will make available 100 Nvidia GeForce GTX560 graphics cards for the price of 20 PLEX or about $299, if you bought the PLEX with real money. Eve accounts are limited to one graphics card, so if you happen to be an EvE billionare, you won’t be able to buy a bunch if you planned on reselling them.
This is quite a step for CCP to take, by allowing people to use an in-game currency to buy real-world items. Currently there’s a limited supply and only one item, but it’ll be interesting to see if CCP expands this in the future to including more items or even open up a full store if this proves to be a success.
23 March 2012 | |
Mike
It seem like every few months Blizzard does something that invokes the back-lash of its gaming community. This time it’s over the Mist of Pandaria beta invites that were promised to those who purchased the one year Annual-Pass subscription for World of Warcraft.
It seems Blizzard originally promised Annual Pass holders beta access as the time of launch, but have since updated their site to say that beta invites will be staggered.
In the top right, we have the original advertisement and to the left we have the new one. The original advertisement under the “When do I get Diablo III and other exclusive benefits?” clearly states, “beta acess will go live with the beta launch“.
For further proof, players have cited a video from Blizzcon 2011 where in the opening ceremony, President and co-founder of Blizzard, Mike Morhaine, states, “guaranteed access into the next World of Warcraft expansion beta when it goes live.”
Well there you have it, pretty solid proof that Blizzard did indeed promise Annual Pass holders beta access from day one and have since reneged on it. Whether or not that language was used in the Term of Service or contact has yet to be determined, but at the very least, from the images above, this constitutes as false advertising.
Perhaps Blizzard did not expect the Annual Pass to be as big of a success as it was and realized they could not possibly give beta access to that large amount of players, but that’s really no excuse.
We’ll keep you updated once Blizzard responds.
23 March 2012 | |
Mike
With Guild Wars 2 beta on the horizon, I can’t wait to get my hands on this game, specifically on the World vs World vs World PvP system. This is the first triple-A MMO game that I can remember in a loooong time that actually allows players to PvP exclusively from level one, all the way up to the cap, and is exactly what I plan to do.
No more boring quests; no killing rats; no deliveries, no linear story to follow and no random pointless NPCs to please. I won’t have any of it. The moment the first round of WvsWvsW beings, I will be exclusively battling it out against other players to help my server gain glory and power. With any luck, hopefully, I won’t have to touch the PvE part of the game ever. We’ll maybe not never, I don’t mind raids and high level dungeons so much, so I’ll probably dabble in those once I hit the cap.
My one worry about WvsW is the speed at which players level up. We all know PvE has lots of mechanics to gain XP with, but with GW2′s PvP, I’m really not quite sure. There needs to be a balance so that both level up at about the same speed, however that’s easier said than done. Some PvP players might decide to stay off the front-lines and instead help gather resources and craft, while others might exclusively fight. EXP distribution will be a large factor as to what players decide to spend their time doing and if there’s a large imbalance, it might end up crippling the first few rounds of WvsW until they get it right.
With that said, I have full confidence in ArenaNet and will be pre-ordering my copy on day one. See you on the battlefield.
23 March 2012 | |
Mike
Speaking with CVG, Blizzard COO Paul Sams confirmed that the fifth expansion to World of Warcraft is already in development.
I got the pitch from Chris Metzen of what they plan for 6.0 and I’m pretty geeked up about it. They already know what they’re going to be doing for multiple expansions ahead.
They have an idea – a general framework. They’re these lore creators. They’re the ones who drive what the world looks like today and what it’ll be like tomorrow and beyond.
Mr. Sams went on to say that he thinks the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansions is “going to breathe huge life” into WoW. However considering the initial uproar over the Pandas, I’d say that’s going to be a long shot.
It’s also not really a huge surprise that developement has already started on the next expansion, as Blizzard as been on a 18-24 month release schedule for each expansion so far. After all, these things do take time to make.
22 March 2012 | |
Mike
Blizzard went from opening up the beta sign-ups for Mist of Pandaria one day, to launching the beta the next. Very unexpected and out of character, but a pleasant surprise to all.
The gates to Pandaria opened up late last night and will allow players to experience the first 10 levels, during this first beta phase.
Invites are still being sent out, with Annual Pass holders at the front of the line, followed by everyone else. Good luck to everyone.
22 March 2012 | |
Mike
Today BioWare released a new developer video, giving us a glimpse of the new Legacy System in-game. The video mostly reiterates information we learned during the Guild Summit, but shows a lot more in-game footage of the system, the unique race combos that can be created and of course some of the legacy abilities that open up.
The Legacy System is part of the massive 1.2 update that is expected to be release sometime next month.
Check out the video below.
Continue Reading
21 March 2012 | |
Mike
In less than two hours from now, 4pm EST, the Wrath of Heroes servers will be open for the last test before open beta begins. The final test, dubbed The Open Beta prequel, will last from today until March 27th to 10am EST.
Only beta testers that have been invited so far will have access to this final test. This final round of testing includes updates to the in-game item-store, a new hero line-up, a new UI and rewards for beta testers.
It is unclear whether open beta will begin on March 28th or if there will be a gap inbetween, but we should know more before the end of this final test.
21 March 2012 | |
Mike
In an open letter to the gaming community and more directly, to Mass Effect 3 players, BioWare’s co-founder, Dr. Ray Muzyka, responded to players criticism over the ME3 ending.
In short, it was an mixed apology to the community, as well as defending the ME3 development team for what he considered to be one of their best products to date. The apology seemed genuine and it is sure to settle things down a bit in the community.
The big news out of the letter was that BioWare is working on a number of new game content, in addition to the DLCs that were already planned.
Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You’ll hear more on this in April.
This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.
In the end, it looks like players will get what they asked for, more clarity to the story. Whether the additional content will be free or not is yet unknown, so I guess we’ll find out in April.
