May
31
2008
All of you have awesome powers of deductive reasoning, so once you saw that you could neither comment nor read stories around 3pm Crecente Time today, you probably knew this was a major site problem and not some passive-aggressive ploy to see if you still cared about us.
We regret the major disruption to Kotaku today. It was noticed immediately and worked on diligently by Gawker Media staff for more than seven hours on a Saturday. We thank them for their hard work, we thank you for your patience, and your regularly scheduled Kotaku will return at 8 am on Sunday.
Original post by Owen Good
May
31
2008
Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Hybrid Theory, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.
Here on Hybrid Theory, we’ve done a lot of glorifying the group utility that Hybrids provide. It’s one of their strongest points, and the factor that could make or break their raid spot in a setting of pure recruitment. Recently, I discussed the direction this concept of utility is going with a few raidmates of mine, and some interesting points were made.
The synergy between classes in The Burning Crusade is powerful, but moving in a direction in which the classes and specs become too reliant on one another, or you have to decide which hybrid is more important to you than another hybrid in the same role. Some class/spec combinations simply can’t perform in a raid setting without a specific hybrid class alongside them. Some hybrid classes can’t perform without other hybrids in their group. This poses a problem for the pure classes, and even though we don’t know the exact details of the Death Knight, adding another class may only make things harder.
Continue reading Hybrid Theory: Is it too much?
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Original post by Alex Ziebart
May
31
2008
I admire the creativity of many World of Warcraft players. In a post in the Guild Relations Forum, Cathôde of Frostwolf, told a tale of Artimus, who single-handedly brought success to a struggling guild. The author acknowledges that it is a fictitious story, but it is a compelling read indeed. To get the complete story, you must read the first four posts in the thread.
This brief work of prose, entitled A Tale for Guild Leaders. Describes how Artimus, a Warrior newly indoctrinated to a guild used patience and common sense to help his guild become successful in both raiding and PvP. Even when some decisions forced the guild to take a step back, it came out better in the end. An example of Artimus’s wisdom is exemplified by a one-week suspension from raiding privileges from a young man struggling with his girlfriend:
Continue reading Forum Post of the Day: A tale for guild leaders
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Original post by Amanda Dean
May
31
2008
Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Contests, Events, in-game, Trading card games
As per usual the entry fee is 10 event passes, and tournament play is limited to U.S. residents. Each participant will receive three Legends of Norrath booster packs, a Vahlai Ka’izal, Hateful Schemer promotional card and his or her choice of either an EverQuest Familiar of Severilous or EverQuest II Flaming Skull loot card. The top 25 finishers in each event also win extra booster packs.
If you are interested in LoN but don’t want to dump a bunch of cash you can download the client and learn to play for free.
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Original post by Matt Warner
May
31
2008
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Ranking, Raiding
Today on the WoW Insider Show Mike Schramm, Turpster, Daniel Whitcomb, and BigBearButt were talking about the number of times the game has been beaten. This got me thinking, what exactly is that number? Off the top of his head Mike said 5 or 6 times, and I think that sounds about right. Let’s take a closer look though at how many times the game has been beaten, and who’s claimed the top spot.
Molten Core - The first end game instance. For a while this was truly the end game. The first guild that beat Ragnaros was Ascent on the Medivh server.
Blackwing Lair - Added in patch 1.6, it existed for a short time as the pinnacle of end game raiding. Drama of the Shattered Hand server was the first guild to kill Nefarian, the end boss of BWL.
Temple of Ahn’Qiraj - Added in patch 1.9, and was opened up after the server completed the opening of the gates of Ahn’Qiraj. C’Thun is the end boss of AQ 40, and was first killed by Nihilum.
Continue reading How many end games have there been?
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Original post by Adam Holisky
May
31
2008
Filed under: Podcasts, Culture, Guides, New titles
Every week, hardworking Massive gaming fans put their voices on the line to bring us news, opinions, and ‘critiques’ of their favorite games. Podcasts are a staple of many hobbies nowadays, and fans of online worlds are especially fortunate in this regard … there are a ton out there.
As such, every so often we’ll try to update you on the podcasting world. Keep your eyes on this space for links to your favorite MMO-commentary celebs. Good and bad, straight-man or blue-mouthed, they all have something to offer about this amazing style of gameplay.
Today we’d like to highlight a podcast that really needs no introduction. The late, lamented Games for Windows magazine had (in our opinion) probably the best podcast over at the 1up network. Though they’re now running the PC games site for 1up instead of a print mag, the show goes on. Regular hosts Jeff Green, Sean Molloy, Ryan Scott, and Shawn Elliot wax philosophic each week about PC gaming, nerd TV, comics, books, and occasionally MMOs. Well worth a listen even when our favorite genre isn’t on the table, it’s a part of 1up’s stable of generally great podcasts.
Continue reading MMOG Podcast Roundup: May 24th - May 31st
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Original post by Michael Zenke
May
31
2008
Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Lore
When The Lord of the Rings Online players think of the Chetwood, they usually think first of the Blackwold brigands. Most quests in the area are focused on that humanoid nuisance. But something far darker lurks in the Chetwood — Baugurch, the vicious warg who terrorizes the nightmares of lowbies everywhere! Err, okay, just lowbies in the Chetwood.
Baugurch is the subject of Turbine’s latest featured Lorebook article. Sure, this named mob is only level 15, but even the low level nasties have to have a history in LotRO. Plus, he’s elite, so it’s special. Apparently Baugurch originally hailed (or growled, one imagines) from Angmar. Our guess is that the Angmarrim kicked him out for being too low level.
If you’re from Europe, don’t forget; you can finally contribute to the Lorebook fun with your LotRO login and password.
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Original post by Samuel Axon
May
31
2008
Filed under: Guilds, Odds and ends
Many guilds out there have their recruitment posts up on both the realm forums and the global recruitment forums. One of the big keys to a recruitment post is to keep it up on the top of the forums so everyone sees it, and sees it before any other posts. This means that you and your guildies have to bump the post to the top of the list, and bump it quite often.
The global recruitment forums recently underwent an upgrade, where the forums were split into Alliance and Horde factions. This has helped a bit with the number of posts per day, and has thus lessened the number of required bumps a recruitment posts needs to keep it on the front page.
However, you still have to bump it quite a bit.
Continue reading Bumping your recruitment posts
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Original post by Adam Holisky
May
31
2008
Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan
Curse Gaming sent along word that they’ve got a project in the works that should be a boon to every Age of Conan player. Linked from the official AoC site, even, this web-based database appears to be an analog to the World of Warcraft Armory service for Funcom’s game. The current version of the website is very limited in functionality. At the moment it just features a Feat calculator for the game’s twelve classes. The Curse site hints at future additions, including an item database, maps, syndication tools (assumably for characters) and even a wishlist for future items. If you’re a player, make sure to keep your eyes on the site for those updates.
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Original post by Michael Zenke
May
31
2008
Filed under: PvP, Opinion, All Points Bulletin, Crime
All Points Bulletin is one of those games that fans of Grand Theft Auto have been wanting for years. Merely saying ‘want’ cannot convey the unbridled desire that a number of people have expressed for an urban crime game where you’re not completely isolated from other players. There is a certain person on the Massively team — blown away by GTA: San Andreas years ago — who would go to sleep with whispered prayers in the dark, that his deviant rampages could be shared online with his equally deviant friends around the world, day or night.
The allure of this type of game is strong, but equally strong is the likelihood of an overdose on pure chaos. One imagines a map full of amped up Criminals in desperate need of Ritalin, taking to the streets with RPG’s and flattening traffic jams in backward-firing tanks, countered by a legion of overzealous Enforcers dispensing ‘justice’ with reckless abandon. Therein lies the problem: Part of what makes GTA so successful is that as Tommy Vercetti, or C.K. (or any of the other questionable protagonists a player becomes in the legacy title), there’s no one else out there who’s as badass as you. But what happens when mobs of Criminals or Enforcers of your caliber are turned loose in the city? What if they’re even worse than you are? Welcome to the blender.
Continue reading All Points Bulletin: Can drop-in PvP succeed in the MMO space?
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Original post by James Egan
