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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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I Love My New Headset

How good is my new headset? I bought it in the afternoon, and that afternoon we went back to get one for my wife. Excellent sound quality, both input and output, with comfortable ear pads that muffle outside sounds. It uses a USB input, which is great for those of us who have not bought fancy sound cards. Plus, we can use them on any computer, and we are going to test Karaoke Revolution on the PS2.

I recommend the Logitech ClearChat Pro USB. Cheaper than a good sound card, and the guys on Teamspeak are no longer giving me crap about how low my voice is. Mute and volume control are on the earpiece, so you get to feel all sci fi as you control things by tapping your ear.

: Zubon

Recent Searches

Previously

It’s that time again. Maybe everything else I write is nonsense that no one reads, but our results show that you love to see how people get here. So do we!

This time, I am skipping questions covered previously. Yes, people are still looking for Istvaan Shogaatsu, sharding purples, and tips about Dungeon Runners and The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢. I will not distract them from the proper threads.

Before we hide potentially naughty bits beneath the break, I will note that someone must be messing with us on the whole “atitd cybercat” issue. We get about 5 hits a day for that, all from returning users. I am beginning to suspect my fellow rathunters, who know how this question torments me.

Continue reading Recent Searches

Issue 11: New Badges and Titles

City of Heroes Issue 11 will have over 70 new badges. I have already apologized to my wife, who will miss me.

You can set the name of any badge as your title. Now you can proclaim to all that you are Anemic or Inhibited. Are you a Lemming? Have a fondness for Singled Out or Missionary? (“Temerarious” means “rashly daring.” Way to pull out the thesaurus, guys.)

: Zubon

Fantasy Art

One of my favorite artists/illustrators is Wayne Reynolds. He has been doing a lot of work for Wizards of the Coast and Paizo Publishing, including the main art for Eberron and Pathfinder. Have a link to a bio, a bibliography, and two small galleries (the first is larger), along with wallpapers and larger images. You can also find his stuff scattered throughout the Wizards of the Coast galleries, not always listed by name. I can’t find a good single place for his stuff, and not all of it is online (like some nice ones from Dragon that made it into the Compendium book, which does not have a gallery that I could find).

Flipping through the Wizards archives reminds me that Sam Wood has also done a lot of great art for this generation of Dungeons and Dragons. If you have a favorite piece from D&D 3rd Edition, it is probably from one of those two or Todd Lockwood. Anyone know of any games that are tapping these folks?

: Zubon

Chewing Through Content

In terms of creating new content, the players I want are achievers and socializers. They are the easiest to satisfy.

Killers

Maybe I should want killers. Many seem to prefer no updates at all. All the new PvE content in the world is useless to them, unless there is something new to harvest that could be of PK use, in which case they will condescend to suffer through a bit in order to get back to the real game.

Continue reading Chewing Through Content

An Update on our LOLfuture

I mentioned last time that we were on our way to lolpocalypse. The harbinger has arrived: lolthulhu. There is hope, though. Perhaps the path through The LOLcat Wasteland will instead lead to LOLsingularity. That may or may not be a good thing.

: Zubon

Hat tips to Daily Illuminator, Prettier Than Napoleon, and Language Log. Personally I prefer lolPrufrock:

i can has backpart? i can has peach?
im in ur white flannel trousers walkin on ur beach
have heard mermaids singing each in each

i do not think they say o hai to me.

Information Overload

Leukos comments:

for someone completely new to MMORPGs, picking up the game and getting through all the new customizations is a bigger issue. I have many first time players in my guild, and as they leveled up there was a clear knowledge gap apparent between what they knew from learning in game, and what I knew from my outside reading even about classes I had never played. Increasingly complex customizations are required to be successful in the game, especially if you are looking at the pvp game.

I have no idea how a casual City of Heroes player would know to look for all the task forces or hidden contacts. As an experienced gamer, I no longer expect the game to guide me much beyond a basic tutorial, and I do not trust the tutorial to guide me towards good decisions because of the gap between the designers’ original vision and what is actually effective in the game.

In our guild, you ask Adam or I about rules specifics, and you ask whoever specializes in that class for guidance on big decisions. If you are not tapped into the information network, how very lost are you?

: Zubon

Scaring Pickup Groups

Most of us have had bad experiences with pickup groups. My supergroup’s unintentional habit is giving pickup groupmates really terrifying (but rewarding) experiences.

We got our first level-capped characters back before ED, before aggro and target caps. Back then, you herded an entire map and blew it up at once. We knew we were doing it right when everyone simultaneously got graphics error pop-ups because the game could not register that many explosions. We still do this to the extent that we can, fighting as much of the map as possible at once. It saves us the bother of running around, and we win consistently.

When you join our group, we don’t say much. We are all on Teamspeak. We might give you a bit of warning, but we don’t really think about it. We’re used to this. You will be told “stay here,” and off runs someone to pull.

And then someone else. And maybe another. And then someone snipes from the group. And by “pull,” we mean “pull an entire group,” not pull one target. Amidst the ghostly silence, people come bouncing back, followed by an angry horde of werewolves, robots, and fascist vampires. They are following our pullers, so if you peek your head around that corner, they are all heading straight at your face, shooting plasma bolts. Welcome to the team!

Wailers wailers everywhere

: Zubon

NCSoft Buys “City Of” Franchise

According to the press release, NCSoft has acquired 100% of the rights to the CoX franchise from Cryptic. According to Ex Libris, one of the CoH forum moderators, the CoX dev team are now working as NCSoft employees. There are several more press releases linked off of that one, including one that mention soon-to-be-announced expansions and sequels.