Author: Ravious

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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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LOTRO Vol. 3 Starts in Dunland?

The collective on the Lord of the Rings Online forums has found a rather interesting tidbit.  The official interactive map shows some new “in-game” geography approximately where Dunland could be.  The area is just to the left of the Waterworks, and if you flip from Terrain to Parchment, you will see the region-in-question disappear.  If you scroll in enough you can see rez-circles and a town.  Looks like Volume 3 might be pushing through the Gap of Rohan.  My guess is Rohan will be in the next buyable expansion, and Isengard will be the culmination of Volume 3.

–Ravious
break on through, to the other side

Guild Wars Costume Contest

ArenaNet generously decided to spread some holiday cheer to our little rat-killing corner of the internet, and they have given us two Costume keys to give away to you!  To enter, it’s simple: spread some holiday cheer yourself by commenting (with a valid email so we can contact you) in this thread with a limerick.  I’ll provide a madlib-like template below and a sample, but you can definitely make your own rhyme to enter.

The contest will end December 22, midnight EST, and then I’ll randomly choose two winners.  Please let me know in your comment which costume you prefer.

The Grenth and Dwayna costumes allow players to dress their characters in style this season. These two costumes fit into new costume slots on your character portrait and can be worn over existing armor.  They work like the festival hats we know and love, and can be made and worn for any character by a Costume Maker NPC once the costumes are unlocked for your account.  Check out the nifty FAQ for more info.

Template
There once was a god [verb] [non-verb word].
Who [string of clever words with one that rhymes with the non-verb word].
In my new threads, I followed;
to go kill some Rot Wallows.
And [another string of clever words with the end rhyming with the non-verb word.

Sample
There once was a god giving away white clothes.
Who gave me a new costume and Cheetos.
In my new threads, I followed;
to go kill some Rot Wallows.
And she left me with orange hand prints on my clothes.

Good Luck!

EDIT: Congratulations to Yarrnath and Fraxis!  Please check your inboxes and email me if you have a problem.

A Guild Wars Wintersday Plus

The annual Guild Wars Wintersday has arrived.  We get the usual, awesome tidings of newly balanced PvP snowball fights (complete with hidden rocks and yellow snow), grentchs stealing gifts from the poor war-torn children of Tyria right in town, and fun PvE quests.  This all leads up to the finale between Dwayna, goddess of good holiday cheer, and Grenth, who would destroy it to determine what hats we can wear in the coming year.  And, we all know how important hats are.

Continue reading A Guild Wars Wintersday Plus

Interview with Undead Labs’ Jeff Strain

Jeff Strain over at the brand, new Undead Labs game studio took time out of his busy plane-hopping, zombie-stomping schedule to answer a few questions on the studio’s newly announced zombie console MMO.  (My real name is Zach so don’t be confused, but also don’t go spreading it around in case nasty lawyerssess finds me.)  Read on after the break to hear everything from velociraptors, the “MMO” term, and a debatably good place to hole up against a horde of zombies.

Continue reading Interview with Undead Labs’ Jeff Strain

Clearings in the Lonely Woods

There is a stark contrast between playstyles of many an MMO waiting on an expansion and just receiving the expansion.  The new expansion brings a new journey through many zones and quest chains, and as unfortunate as it is, many people experience the journey at a hugely varied pace.  Real life, and other games, have limited my game time Lord of the Rings Online with experiencing the new expanded content in Siege of Mirkwood.  As it is, almost everybody in my kinship is well ahead of me.  The woods can be much gloomier when only strange creatures and strangers abound.

Yet, Turbine has done a great job (as far as I’ve experienced) with the content concentration.  In the Mirk-Eaves, the quests send players at about three quests per chunk to specific geographical locations.  At the locations, I’ve found there is about 10-20 minutes of gameplay from doing everything from destroying orc weapon stashes, staking out bosses, and everyone’s favorite: killing boars for boar meat.  If a player does it right by picking up all three or so quests at once, then everybody at the geographical location will be doing approximately the same thing. 

Continue reading Clearings in the Lonely Woods

Feature is a Word, Like Love

25968When I started reading about the new grouping feature in World of Warcraft, I was blown away.  Here, I thought that Turbine had triumphed in the slaying of “activation energy” to play the vanilla MMO with skirmishes, and Blizzard possibly one-ups them.  It’s a tough call to actually announce a winner. While the goal of both skirmishes and the random grouping feature in World of Warcraft is to decrease the time spent not playing.  They attack it in very separate ways.  Skirmishes are content.  Random grouping is a feature.

Continue reading Feature is a Word, Like Love

The Persistence of Reputation

Online communities often times face the compounded problems of prejudice, anonymity, audience, and perceived slight.  I like to think that our haven of MMO communities is a protective sea fortress in the sea of pejorative online calamity.  We are anonymous to a degree.  I might be a quasi-intelligent lesser primate for all you know.  I drop hints, here and there, about my life, but as far as you know I am building an artificial persona to lead you astray, dear reader.  Still, my posts and name have persistence.  You know me.

The same is true in our gaming genre built on communal interaction.  We might be “IRL” anonymous, but we really aren’t in an MMO.  We are just known by different names. Continue reading The Persistence of Reputation