| A WoW idea for World of Warcraft raids
Mike Schramm, venerable World of Warcraft player and blogger, had an epiphany during a Shadow Labs run down: why can't raid instances conclude with a summary screen? Good question. After all, the battleground system already incorporates a summary screen after a good Faction bout.
Because the game is continuously in development, perhaps it won't hurt to nudge in a stat summary after pursuing and meeting (or failing) objectives in certain game modes, like raids, in the game. While mods like DamageMeter can display some statistics for players, information isn't distributed or available to everyone instantaneously.
It's nice to be able to go through a raid instance, fulfill objectives, and to spot the really hard-hitters and raid contributors at the end. It will make recruiting for 25-man raid groups easier, plus it will bring the really hardcore raid players together.
Louderback: Viacom Lawsuit Will Be Google's Waterloo
You think Viacom was wrong to sue YouTube. You think Viacom should have just sucked it up, let its content stay free on the video-sharing network, and enjoyed a spike in viewership. And you think Google is in the right here. You are so wrong. - Click here to read Lance Ulanoff's column about why Viacom's making a mistake by suing Google over YouTube. Let's look at your points one by one, and see why Viacom really had no choice but to sue Google, and why more suits are on the way. "Viacom is now burning bridges and building a billion-dollar wall around itself." Your assertion here, and you repeat it farther down, is that Viacom should "worry less about money" and more about setting its content free on YouTube and elsewhere, so Viacom can grow its audience.
A request for new Oceanic realms
There is this thread over at the WoW Forums that died due to a Community Manager response. No, it's not that kind of response. The thread actually died a very peaceful death, with the inquiry answered quickly, and painlessly. The story is that Donniz requested that Blizzard open a non transferable PvP, RP-PvP, or RP only oceanic realm.
Yes folks, a request for an Role-Play realm. Role-players rejoice. Of course as mentioned, the response was direct, and cutting. Blizzard Poster Tseric says: "We have no plans to open new realms at this time. It is always under consideration and we will let you know when we feel it is appropriate to open new realms."
Yes, we know Blizzard's got no plans at the moment, but the reason we're telling you about this short lived thread is this: How do you guys take to the idea of an RP only Oceanic realm? Do you think the demand would warrant it? Do you think Blizzard should consider it as a top priority? Please, let us know.
Aussie game charts: March 5-11
Final Fantasy XII continued its strong run in Australia this week, taking out the number one position in the latest game sales charts. The newest entry in the long-running role-playing series has now been in the top spot for two weeks in a row, holding off The Sims 2: Seasons, which scored second position, according to data trackers GfK Australia. Two new titles also cracked the overall top 10 this week. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for the Xbox 360 had the stronger debut, snaring fifth position. Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Nintendo Wii landed in ninth spot. Longtime top 10 entrant World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade looks to be slowly slipping out of the big leagues, falling to 10th this week after being fifth the previous week.
EverQuest Celebrates Eighth Anniversary
Before Blizzard Entertainment took over the top spot in the MMORPG universe with World of Warcraft and before Second Life became a media darling and found itself hosting embassies from Scandinavian nations, there was the game which started the MMORPG revolution: EverQuest. EverQuest is still around—reportedly boasting hundreds of thousands of active players—and will shortly be turning eight years old. To celebrate, Sony Online Entertainment is planning to release EverQuest The Anniversary Edition on April 23, 2007. The Anniversary Edition will contain all the content from every expansion pack ever released for EverQuest (including the most recent, The Buried Sea) for a low-ball price of jut $19.99. And, having been around for so long, EverQuest does carry a heck of a lot of content, including more than 375 game zones and 50,000 items.
WoW and other MMOs as English teaching tools
Dr. Edd Schneider, 12-year veteran attendee of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and associate professor at the State University of New York at Potsdam, recently gave a speech at the GDC about a topic we often take for granted. The talk was titled "English Speaking Players as In-Game Content."
What Dr. Schneider basically wants is to introduce international servers in Blizzard's World of Warcraft and other games like it. It is common that people could only play WoW and other online games on their own localized servers. He believes that international servers would be better for game makers and gamers. He also stressed that non-English speakers could be enticed to learn English if they play an MMO with or against English speakers.
Dr.Schneider said that "a lot of online games have gotten bad press where you get a couple of idiots in a chat room or in a guild that will say, 'Only perfect English.
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