Posts Tagged ‘win’

BlizzCon 2010 Liveblog: StarCraft II Secrets of the Masters

22 October 2010 | No Comments » | LHStaff

This is the transcript of Heartboune’s liveblog coverage of the StarCraft II Secrets of the Masters panel at BlizzCon 2010.

1:26 Heartbourne here, ready to begin delivering the latest from the “Starcraft 2: Secrets of the Masters” panel.

1:32 panel is starting now. people are clapping

1:33 “if you are top tier diamond, this panel isn’t for you”. LEAVING NOW

1:33 ooo they are going to talk about how the ladder works

1:34 they are going to give us “exclusive tips” that haven’t been revealed for how matchmaking system. its an “adaptive learning system”

1:35 as i’ve said before, it only uses win/losses and relative difficulty of opponents

1:36 “there is an internal rating that we use… that is a rolling average… to determine how we matchmake you”

1:36 the rating persists across seasons. it never wipes. “its really good for the players”

1:37 “it is not to be confused with your ladder points”

1:37 all ladders are individual internal ratings. other ratings are used for initial data but are quickly wiped

1:38 “you aren’t going to screw yourself by playing with your n00b friend”

1:39 “we do distribute the population per league – 20% per”. hmm, this does not match with the data on sc2ranks…

1:40 internal rating is used for matchmaking. the divisions and rankings themselves have no effect on matchmaking

1:41 “bonus pool is like rested XP in WoW – it WILL be cut off at some point in the season”

1:42 “about league promotions – we will only promote you when you are ready”

1:43 “we balance leagues and ladders on a constant basis.”

1:43 preview of stuff coming in coming months!

1:44 improving league icons!

1:44 Starcraft 2 League “icons” improving to show ranking on user profiles

1:45 improving detail page to showcase top 8 and make the pages more interesting and flashy Continue Reading

Become a Fan of Lore Hound on Facebook and Win Prizes

6 October 2010 | 3 Comments » | LHStaff

We, the Lore Hounds, have decided to jump in to this whole “social networking” thing with both feet.  Both feet entails a complete re-launch our Facebook page. As a bonus to those of you who decide to become fans this week, we’re going to be giving away some fancy prizes. Prizes like beta keys for some upcoming MMOGs, game-related comics and manga, Magic: The Gathering decks, and point cards for the DDO and LotRO stores. Even full games! So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Lore Hound Facebook Page and Like it!  Hurry, before it becomes the popular thing to do!

Also, as you may or may not have noticed, we’ve added the famous Like and Tweet buttons to each of our posts so that you can share your favorite Lore Hound articles more easily than ever. If you see something you like, just click your “social network” of choice and tell your kids, tell your wives, and tell your husbands too. Lastly, don’t forget that if you follow Lore Hound on Twitter, you’ll earn a chance to win that Celestial Steed!

But wait, there’s more!  We’ll love you forever and ever.  The loot wagon leaves on October 13.

No Nipples For You!

5 February 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

Ok, so the Age of Conan rating was just released today. M for Mature which means 18+. However, there are some stipulations by the ESRB board here in America that just astound me. No Nipples! I am allowed to decapitate, maim, slaughter, drink, fight, and pretty much have a good time with the ladies, but NO, I cannot see nipples. Seeing nipples will just ruin the rest of my life! I can go to war, buy cigarettes, and vote, but wait the ESRB is here to save me from nipples! Ok, end of sarcasm. My big question is “why only nipples?” An M rating from the ESRB is basically a NC-17 rating for the movies, which if I am not mistaken, allows full nudity. I think it is quite backwards. What do you think?

UPDATE: Apparently some bad information came out. Check this link for the updated information. Here is the basics:

-full blood
-full fatalities
-breasts with nipples
-not full nudity

Do not know how that bad info got out, but thankfully it has been corrected. Yay for nipples! Oh and I do not have the uncensored version of the above picture.  Perhaps I should change the name of the title to “Nipples for All?”

The Next Step for MMORPGs

15 January 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

 

Go to any MMORPG forum and you’ll see countless threads complaining about the state of MMORPGs today. Some of these complaints are valid while others are just whining, but it appears that a majority of MMO gamers think that the MMORPG scene has grown stale over the last few years. A slew of over hyped and under performing games in recent years are partially to blame as well as the industries “lets just copy World of Warcraft” mentality. Studios are desperately trying to mimic the success Blizzard has had with WOW and gamers are suffering for it.

Fury, Hellgate, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Tabula Rasa were all over hyped and in my opinion did not deliver, some more than others. I looking at you Fury and HellGate. It seems that the only “good” MMORPG was Lord of the Rings Online. I put it in quotes because even though I don’t consider the game to be good, it did win a few awards for MMORPG of the Year. How? Well, its not hard to win when you have no real competion. I was basically a watered down version of WOW set in the Middle Earth universe.

In 2008 we get to look forward to the next generation of MMORPG.  Age of Conan and Warhammer Online both arguably the most anticipated MMORPGs of the year promise to revolutionize the genre with new PvP and combat systems. Will that be enough for gamers, only time will tell.

So whats the next step for MMORPGs? What I’d like to see is a step away from the cookie cutter MMOs and an attempt to make a truly unique game. I think the next big thing in MMOs will be player driven storylines. Waiting for an expansion or content update will be a thing of the past. MMOs will be driven by the players themselves, with a website dedicated to the going ons of the game universe. Players will be the ones giving the quests, making the rules and creating the storylines. Guilds will start wars with other guilds not because there bored, but because they want more land and wealth. Your actions will not only effect your own character but all characters. You might log off one day in your town only to find out that it has been sacked by a rival guild and your guild has taken shelter in a cave. Top players will be listed as people of importance with special items as reward for killing them or perhaps to help protect them.

The options are endless, however I don’t think we’ll see a game like this anywhere in near future, although I am confident that this will be eventually where MMOs go.

Subscription by Subscription: October Edition

10 December 2007 | No Comments » | LHStaff

So, back in October, we wrote an article here on MMOCrunch.com about a new subscription tracking website, called VOIG. It’s actually a really neat website that gives you all sorts of neat graphs, and numbers showcasing which MMOG has the better foothold in the overall (world) market.

Now, there is no way for us to be 100% certain that this information is accurate. We have taken a couple months, since reporting it last October, to review the website and make sure they don’t update monthly with the same rehashed information. As far as we can tell, the website is on the level and is presenting as accurate information as they can. So, beginning now, each month we will be bringing you guys a new report starting with October 2007. Enjoy!

Top 5 Worldwide MMORPGs:

  1. World of Warcraft: 26.03%
  2. Second Life: 18.86%
  3. Guild Wars: 12.6%
  4. Knight Online: 11.9%
  5. Dofus: 9.73%

Notable games:

  • Lord of the Rings Online seems to have hit the 300k subs mark.
  • EVE Online has passed Everquest 2 in subscriptions. EVE has 195k compared to EQ2′s 185k.
  • Second Life has increased exponentially since June 2006, when it had about 300k members. Today it has 6.74 million. Of course its a free program, so you decide whether this is a win or not.
  • Entropia Universe (a free SciFi mmo) has surpassed Final Fantasy XI. Entropia has 632.92k subs compared to FFXI’s 500k.
  • Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has slowly begun to regain market share, increasing subs from 30k to 35k. Not great, but at least it’s growing right?

Interesting, interesting stuff. Apparently free games garner more subscriptions than pay2play games. Who knew? In any case, feel free to head on over to the website and sift through the data if you are interested. There is a lot to see and it is all very fascinating if you are into that sort of thing. Enjoy.

Check out the website HERE.