Ragnar’s Realms

Today,  

Filed under: Economy, Breakfast topics

A couple of days ago, I did something that I never, ever do in WoW. I ran past someone fighting a mob and took a ore deposit. Why did I commit this evil deed? Because the other player was a female troll hunter with a letter-salad name and a pet named “Cat” — in other words, someone I strongly suspected of being a gold farmer.

After she said “lol” and ran away, I got to thinking about gold farmers. This led to today’s two-part breakfast topic: How do you tell a gold farmer, and what do you do about them when you find them?

I have a sort of mental checklist for suspected gold farmers:

• Hunter
• Female
• Blood elf/night elf/troll
• Cat named “Cat”/Boar named “Boar”
• Beast Mastery in the Armory
• Only profession is skinning
• Inappropriate gear/Appropriate gear that is all BOEs
• Random name
• Will never go away when you attack and will never beat you in a fight

I usually don’t do anything about them unless they’re farming the stuff I need, in which case I’ll report them. I’ll also grab mines and other nodes from beneath their feet. How do you tell a gold farmer apart, and what do you do when you find one?

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade

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Today,  Adolescents who play violent video games may become increasingly aggressive over time, a new study of Japanese and U.S. teens suggests.
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Filed under: Podcasts

This week’s all about dedication. Ludwig records a show despite the constant threat of lion attack. What’s that? Dedication. Justin’s there even though a tree fell through his ceiling less than 48 hours ago, and you know what that translates to? Dedication. Chris manages to be nice to a listener he disagrees with, and we don’t even need to tell you what that translates to (spoiler alert: dedication).

Not to mention that, as always, you’ll need no small amount of dedication to make it to the end. Big thanks to Max Paolucci for the nutty image.

Get the podcast:
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[MP3] Download the MP3 directly

Hosts: Chris Grant, Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy

Music: “Get Ready for Love” by Nick Cave, “Red Eye” by Ben Kweller

For fans: Joystiq Podcast Facebook group

See all of this week’s links after the jump.

Continue reading Joystiq Podcast 085 - Dedication edition

Joystiq Podcast 085 - Dedication edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: News, Fallout 3

Xbox360Achievements has discovered the entire list of achievements for Fallout 3. There are a total of 50 achievements rounding out at the usual 1000 points. Most of them are fairly simple, awarded for completing certain chapters in the game. Bo-ring, right? Others are awarded for reaching a certain character level with a certain kind of karma, be it good, neutral, or bad. Then there are the skill based achievements awarded for hacking, picking locks, etc. Our absolute favorite, though, has to be Psychotic Prankster which is awarded for “Placed a grenade or mine while pickpocketing.” We’re guessing that one probably leads to bad karma.

Hit the source link for the full list of Fallout 3 achievements

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Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Fan stuff, Rock Band 2

As the story goes, after releasing Rock Band to Europe (which was about a year after its North American release), the gaming community slammed Harmonix with criticism regarding the unnaturally high price of the game bundle. Some felt Harmonix was being greedy, a label they admittedly denied by blaming the high bundle cost on European import taxes and distribution. We guess those same taxes and distribution fees affect bandanas from the UK. Who knew?

[Thanks, RK1 FaMiCuS]

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Filed under: Machinima, WoW Moviewatch

If you haven’t done a 40-man on Naxxramas yet, you’d better hurry. As we wrote in August, Blizzard plans to move the dungeon up north to make it WotLK entry-level raiding content. However, if you’re still quite a bit away from getting there, you can check out one of Baron Soosdon’s latest offerings, Destination Naxxramas.

Pre-TBC, Soosdon had never had a chance to visit Naxxramas, so when a raid was arranged on his server, Twilight’s Hammer EU, he jumped at it. The result is an action-packed artistic gameplay video, with a heavy soundtrack, that shows off the highlights of this dungeon of yesteryear. Be sure to watch it until the end for a special message …

[Via Warcraftmovies.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch …

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Today,  

Filed under: Business

At this very moment in the town of Couer d’Couers, Ned, the pie maker, with the gift to bring the dead back to life for a short time (without consequences) stood over the body of Atari. The facts are these: The company of Atari was 35 years, 16 weeks, 4 hours and 9 minutes old. After already posting a $70 million loss in the last fiscal year, firing most of its board, borrowing $10 million and now reporting a $12 million loss for Q1, it was believed Atari had finally expired. But, just as the pie maker was about to touch the body — to bring it back to life ever so briefly — and ask where Atari stashed the will revealing its alleged secret fortune, a wholly unexpected thing happened. Atari popped up from the table and exclaimed, “I’m not dead yet!” And so, the startled pie maker left the morgue still trying to catch his breath, knowing he’d return soon enough.

Atari finally filed their delayed financial report for the quarter ending June 30 and laid out the bad news that they’re down another $12 million. The company already sold most of its franchises like Stuntman and Driver; they’re also in a dispute about potentially losing their Dragon Ball Z license as well. According to the quarterly report Atari states “substantial doubt about [their] ability to continue as a going concern.”

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Today,  

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Events, News items, PvP, Battlegrounds

Despite the extensive problems and human violations rights perpetuated by the Chinese government, some in service of the Olympic games themselves, most of the world seems to content to settle in and watch the Beijing Olympics one way or another. Apparently, that attitude has spread to Blizzard itself.

Currently on the European and Chinese servers, there are NPCs at each major Battlemaster area in the capital cities who proclaim that Battlegrounds are hosting some type of “Spirit of Competition.”

For simply participating in a battleground, you are sent a Competitor’s Tabard, which features 4 multi-colored rings on a white background, a clear reference to the Olympics itself. If you win a battleground during this time period, you may also have a chance at receiving a gold medal which summons a spirit of competition, which looks like a small Chinese dragon according to tipster Ichthallus.

This competition does not appear to be live on the US Servers, nor has anyone from Blizzard spoken up to reveal if it ever will be as of this writing. We’ll have to watch and see what happens. As Blizzard does not appear to be an official Olympic partner, there is some concern from some quarters that this could simply be a copyright issue. It’s also possible that this was meant to be a Chinese servers only event, and it only accidentally got onto the EU servers.

Thanks to everyone who sent us tips on this!

EDIT: Belfaire has confirmed that this event will be coming to US and Oceanic servers starting at Midnight server time. Thanks to those who let us know in the comments!

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Today,  

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Business

What’s Santa putting in developer stockings this year? Unemployment, apparently. Following earlier rumors of a 50-percent cut in staff at Factor 5, internet murmuring now suggests that the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer has closed its doors completely. According to an alleged forum post by IGN’s Matt Casamassina, which in turn cites an “inside source,” today marked the end of Factor 5’s operations. It seems the infamous Brash bailout had more severe repercussions than we previously suspected.

Joystiq has contacted relevant parties in order to obtain more concrete information — as well as more concrete. With all these depressing stories, we’re going to need a dam to hold all these tears.

[Via NeoGAF]

Rumor: Factor 5 shuts down originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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