LoreHound Crier: Week 7/13 At a Glance

Posted on Jul 13, 2012

It’s been a busy week! The Secret World continues to keep me entertained, as can no doubt be seen in all the blurbs I put up about it. Next week I’ll be putting up the second and final section of my review, as well as starting a weekly TSW-related article. I’ve flopped around on it

Diablo III Real Money Auction House: Analysis of Fees, Market Forces, and Strategy, Part 3

Posted on May 24, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Last time, we looked at some of the pricing implications of the Diablo 3 auction house fee structure and why Blizzard implemented these fees. This time, we’ll propose some other fee systems and consider some economic ideas that have relevance to the Diablo 3 auction house. One of the basic

Diablo III Real Money Auction House: Analysis of Fees, Market Forces, and Strategy, Part 2

Posted on May 14, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Last time, we looked at how the fees for the different auction houses will affect trading in Diablo 3. Today, I’d like to look at it from Blizzard’s perspective and understand how the company selected the fee structure, what it will be paying attention to, and how

Diablo III Real Money Auction House: Analysis of Fees, Market Forces, and Strategy, Part 1

Posted on May 10, 2012

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 On May 15th at 3 A.M. PDT, the heavens will tremble and Diablo 3 will be live. Players will be able to scour Sanctuary for gold and epic loot and trade it on the in-game gold-based auction house immediately, and a week later, the real money auction house will

World of Warcraft Holds Steady at 10.2 Million Subscribers

Posted on May 09, 2012

Activision Blizzard revealed today their first quarter 2012 financial results showing that World of Warcraft lost approximation zero subscribers during the first quarter, maintaining their 10.2 million player-base. This marks the first time in over a year that WoW has not lost subscribers since the decline began in the fourth quarter of 2010. Since then the game has lost 1.8

Pandaren /Dance Revealed on Beta Servers

Posted on May 09, 2012

The dapper Boubille of MMO-Champion has uncovered and revealed the new /dances coming in the new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. The female dance is, without question, the Caramelldansen. If you’ve ever seen any anime series, you’ll probably recognize the dance. After the jump you can find both female and male version of the dance

What’s Behind Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Decline?

Posted on May 07, 2012

Earlier today, Electronic Arts had its stuffy quarterly report. The number, fact, and strategy filled report was of little interest to most MMO gamers until the mention of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Following the recent trend of LoreHound coverage, the mention wasn’t good. According to the publisher, TOR lost 24% of its subscribers, shedding

Elder Scrolls Fans Grumble at MMO Announcment…Really?

Posted on May 04, 2012

Yesterday, ZeniMax announced that the many rumors of an Elder Scrolls MMO were true, and officially announced The Elder Scrolls Online, only to be met with fan backlash. The main reason being, that fans believe that Bethesda will be less likely to release another single-player Elder Scroll game, since they do not want to compete with themselves.

Diablo 3 Open Beta Stress Test This Weekend

Posted on Apr 20, 2012

Haven’t gotten your Diablo 3 beta invite yet? Consider downloading the client anyway, as this weekend, all existing and new Battle.net members can login to the Diablo 3 beta. That means everyone that’s willing to sign up for Battle.net The beta will be open to everyone from April 20th (Friday) at 12:01 PM PDT to 10:00 AM

Blizzard Back in Hot-Water over Mist of Pandaria Beta Invites

Posted on Mar 23, 2012

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