Ragnar’s Realms

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Guilds, Raiding, Ask WoW Insider

Welcome to today’s edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery — now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week Matt writes in:

Good afternoon to all the staff at Wow Insider. My name is Matt, early 20’s, and am having a problem making new friends on a new server.

I recently Paid Character Transfer’d to Xavius EU from Balnazzar EU, and as they were looking for a hunter for Black Temple I was recruited to a guild without an application. Although this goes against popular opinion from a few of the people on my old server, I believe that creating an application provides a formal introduction of both yourself as a character and a person. I went from raid leading and being an important member of a T5 clearing guild to a new recruit and trial member in a T6 almost-cleared guild. The step down has been difficult for me to take, and the feeling of not being able to make decisions has shell-shocked me a little bit.

My issue is, how does one go about creating new friendships and relationships on a completely new server and with a guild that contains no-one you know? Balnazzar had a thriving IRC channel, shared in-game chat channel between members of varying guilds, and a fantastic Wow Europe realm forum - Xavius doesn’t seem to have any of these: the IRC channel is unfriendly and quiet, no shared channel and the realm forum is full of useless troll posts. The guild seem to forget that I’ve pretty much got no-one to speak to on the new server, and I’ve spent more time on my other two 70’s on Balnazzar than my hunter. Raids are fantastic, and I know that if I was accepted into the more social aspect of the guild I’d enjoy it a lot more than I currently am, but if the situation doesn’t change I will probably look elsewhere, which is a shame because the new guild is a really solid, well structured and mostly friendly place to be.

Azuredream
70 Draenei Hunter

Xavius

Slothie
70 Draenei Paladin
Mithranda
70 Gnome Mage

Balnazzar

Continue reading Ask WoW Insider: Making friends on a new server

Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

On Monday, Nintendo launches WiiWare, a service that allows gamers to download games straight to their Wiis. Are the growing number of games-on-demand services and the sometimes unusual bite-sized games they offer the wave of the future? Indie developers — and big console makers — are betting on it.

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: News, Fan stuff

While it isn’t strictly news about the game itself, the so called Castle Crashers Super Survey is being held by the guys over at The Behemoth and contains a whole host of different metrics on which they would like their audience’s feedback. The questions cover everything from your favorite blogs (wink nudge) to your systems and your digital distribution purchasing habits.

Of course there’s really no way to know exactly what this survey is in regards to. But now that development on Castle Crashers has wrapped up, The Behemoth is probably looking towards its next project and could be using this data to help them figure out exactly what direction to head. It seems likely, given Dan Paladin’s art style, that their work will continue on XBLA, but their games have seen retail release before and they could be looking to expand the range of services on which their content is available (they do mention Steam after all, and do ask whether or not your consoles are online).

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

---

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Galleries

Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Culture, Business

The Entertainment Software Association Foundation has announced the start of a new undergraduate scholarship program aimed at women and minority applicants who are looking to get into the games industry. Up to fifteen scholarships for $3,000 USD will be awarded, making for a grand total of $45,000 to be given away by the Foundation each year.

The scholarship applies only to full-time undergraduate students during the 2008-09 school year, and is targeted toward women and minority students who intend on entering the games industry. News of this scholarship closely follows the announcement of the second year of Penny Arcade’s own scholarship, which awards $10,000 to a single student each year. The deadline for the ESA scholarship is May 15. More details can be found here.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Raiding, Bosses, Two Bosses Enter

Another week is upon us, which means another edition of Two Bosses Enter, our weekly deathmatch series, has come to a close. This week, Princess Huhuran overwhelmed Lady Vashj with 56% of the total vote. (Hmm… Vashj must have forgotten her nature resist set.) Though you might not think an oversized wasp could defeat a powerful Naga like Vashj, you’ve clearly never tangled with this particular insect: don’t discount this bug’s prowess (and nasty nature damage). Full details below:

Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: News

Customers who’ve been promised a free EA game due to the delay in shipments of replacement Rock Band guitars have now received another email. One that makes good on the free game offer.

An email (which can be viewed after the break) is now reaching delayed guitar customers that allows them to cash out on the free game offer. The games being offered include EA’s large library of sports games (NHL 08, FIFA 08, NBA Live 08, etc.) and others including skate, The Simpsons Game and Medal of Honor: Airborne. Noticably absent from their list is the super sexy The Orange Box, but we guess beggers can’t be choosers. Anyhoo, customers have until January 11th to make a selection and EA promises to ship ‘em out as quick as possible free of charge. So, if you’ve been inovolved in the Rock Band replacement struggle, keep an eye out for your special email. A free game will be yours.

[Thanks, dubbalubagis]

Xbox 360 Games Being Offered:
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
FIFA Soccer 08
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Medal of Honor: Airborne
NASCAR 08
NBA Live 08
Need For Speed: ProStreet
NHL 08
Rock Band
Skate
The Simpsons Game
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08

Email From EA:
Greetings Rocker,

We know you’ve experienced some longer than expected delays in the replacement of your guitar and we hope that has been resolved to your satisfaction.

The holidays are here and as promised, the Rock Band Team would like to thank you for hanging in there with us through this busy season by giving you a special gift … a FREE EA Game!

The link below will take you to a web page where you can choose from a list of EA Games. YOU MUST REQUEST YOUR FREE EA GAME BY JANUARY 11, 2008! The sooner you make your request, the sooner you’ll receive your FREE EA Game. Your selection will be sent to the same address where you received your replacement guitar, free of charge!

FREE EA Game Form

Thank you again for your patience and understanding during this process. All of us on the Rock Band Team wish you and your family the very best this holiday season.

Sincerely,

The Rock Band Team at Harmonix, MTV and EA

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

Well, here you are again, about to turn over the last page of the calendar, all too cognizant of the fact that an ugly cardboard backing awaits you. Perhaps it’ll even bear a yellowed price sticker highlighting how much you overpaid for the Official Best of Midway calendar. Really, you ought to know better than buying one that starts at December!

Though there’s still one purely metaphorical and thus environmentally promiscuous page left for 2007 sales in Japan (these are last week’s sales, remember), it’ll be 2008 by the time you get to read about them. Now, we don’t want you walking into the spectacular annual finale without a bit of preparation, so we’ve poured over the entire year’s sales charts to establish and highlight 2007’s most prominent trends. You’ll find a detailed and nuanced report after the break.

- DS Lite: 279,551 57,419 (25.85%)
- Wii: 232,907 62,349 (36.56%)
- PSP: 171,804 12,806 (6.94%)
- PS3: 58,167 5,553 (8.71%)
- PS2: 20,391 2,366 (13.13%)
- Xbox 360: 7,908 653 (7.63%)
- GBA SP: 54 49 (47.57%)
- Game Boy Micro: 42 14 (50.00%)
- Gamecube: 31 1 (3.13%)
- DS Phat: 12 — 0 (0.00%)
- GBA: 4 5 (55.56%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The heavily analyzed archives

Continue reading Japanese hardware sales, Dec. 17 - Dec. 23: Incoming new year edition

Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, Virtual selves, Humor, About the Bloggers

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.

What do you do for WoW Insider?
I first started writing for WoW Insider way back in August of aught-six, and my first post on the site wasn’t even actually about World of Warcraft. A few months (and many posts) after that, I was invited to co-lead the blog with Elizabeth Harper, and nowadays (many, many posts later) I work alongside Dan O’Halloran in running the whole site and coordinating all of our talented writers, as well as posting news I find whenever possible. I’ve also done quite a few of the podcasts.

What’s your main right now?
My main main is Shamanic, a level 70 resto Orc shaman on Thunderhorn (Horde-side). I also have a level 68 Undead rogue there named Punishment (best rogue name evar), and lately I’ve been playing a level 61 Night Elf hunter on Cenarius (who needs a guild, by the way). I’ve also got quite a few alts floating around, including a level 60 gnome warrior, a shadow priest who’s about 50, a blood elf hunter around 30, another undead warrior around 30, and maybe twenty or so alts below that. A couple of them are, yes, paladins, but I’ve never been able to play them past about 25, and I’ve never gotten a warlock past about 15 for some reason. No idea why.

Lots more (maybe too much more) after the break.

Continue reading About the Bloggers: Mike Schramm

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Sequels are pretty much inevitable these days. If a video game manages to have any kind of success at all, chances are it will get a follow-up as soon as possible. But it’s hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice, and many sequels fail to live up to the original.

(Link)