MOGS

World of Warcraft Patch 4.3

There are some interesting changes coming to WOW in Patch 4.3.  First of all, the Deathwing raid instance will finally be added! For those who enjoy 5 man instances, there will be new 5 man dungeons added in this patch as well.  Also, a transmogrifier NPC will be added that allows you to change the look of any piece of gear you are wearing. Lastly, Void storage is being added which allows you to store old armor sets, so you can keep free space in your bank for your more important items.

The Deathwing raid will be the last raid of the expansion.  As to be expected, the fight against Deathwing will have numerous phases. It is rumored that in one of these phases, you will even ride on Deathwing’s back!  This is the encounter that everyone has been waiting for, so it will be great to see how Blizzard finally implements it.

There will be three new 5 man instances added, one of which will be in the Caverns of Time.  The best part about these new instances, is that they will not include any recycled content.   Each instance will have a brand new direction, design, and visual look.  Hopefully this will carry over to the encounters as well, and we will see some original boss fights.

Next, Transmogrification is one of the big additions being made to WOW.  It will let you change the visual look of your gear, while keeping its stats.  Now, you will be able to retain the look of your favorite armor set.  With 12 tiers of armor, most players probably already have a favorite set picked out for their toon. You will not be able to change into another armor type, or class armor set however.

Furthermore, Void Storage is the answer to those with overloaded banks. It is a storage method that is specially designed for old armor sets, unique quest rewards, and other items you want to keep, but have trouble making space in your bank for. There will be a small fee for each item deposited or withdrawn from storage.  A search feature will be included too, so you can easily find what your looking for among your myriad of collectibles.

-Jake

Anonymous Wants To Destroy Facebook

Anonymous, the shady-yet-principled hacktivist group that has previously hacked into Iran’s government emails, the Pentagon, possibly the IMF, News Corp, Anders Breivik’s Twitter account, and much more, has a new target in its crosshairs: Facebook. The hackers have set the date for Facebook’s demise as November 5, 2011. The reason? Ironically, they’re worried about privacy. Full text of their press release after the jump.

DATE: November 5, 2011.

TARGET: https://facebook.com

Press:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/OP_Facebook
http://piratepad.net/YCPcpwrl09
Irc.Anonops.Li #OpFaceBook
Message:

Attention citizens of the world,

We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.

Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.

Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family. http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iph….

You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.

The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.

Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.

This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.

We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

“Kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy” — doesn’t that sound strange, coming from people who routinely steal private information as they please? But this echoes the manifesto of a related group, LulzSec, whose nihilistic perspective on the state of the Internet kind of made sense. An excerpt:

Do you think every hacker announces everything they’ve hacked? We certainly haven’t, and we’re damn sure others are playing the silent game. Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your Skype accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn’t silently sitting inside all of these right now, sniping out individual people, or perhaps selling them off? You are a peon to these people. A toy. A string of characters with a value.This is what you should be fearful of, not us releasing things publicly, but the fact that someone hasn’t released something publicly.

Will Anonymous be able to successfully lay waste to Mark Zuckerberg’s fortress? This is set to be the Internet showdown of the year.

I cant wait to see what happens. It’s going to be interesting.

EVE Online:Incarna

The newest update/upgrade  to EVE online is Incarna. It allows you to leave your ship while you are docked in a station. I haven’t been able to play yet but I hear it’s pretty cool. Here is some information I got from the Evelopedia.

Incarna (Also known as Ambulation or Walking in Stations) is an expansion for Eve Online which introduces the ability for pilots to step out of their pods and explore the Space Stations throughout the galaxy. Walking in stations was first announced in 2006 [1]. The title Incarna was given as the official patch name during the 2009 Fanfest, as part of an update revealing the release to be sometime in 2010. The expansion will be released in stages, the first of which was on 21st of June 2011.

Game Design

The expansion is initially going to be relatively bare-bones, due to the nature of the challenges of creating the technology and creating game play that does not encroach on the methods people play Eve Online today.

A Tactical Map is a major feature being planned for the expansion. [3]

On release, the primary content will be the ability to run shops inside of stations, ranging from Plastic Surgeons to Fashion Outlets. Players will also be able to set up corporate offices where they can hold meetings and introduce recruits. Player scripted NPCs will deliver dialogue to people looking for information.

Mini Games are an expected feature of the Walking in Stations expansion, with a thread on the Eve Online forums taking player suggestions for games to include. Gambling is one of the primary functions that is planned for inclusion, with the ability to place anything from ISK to Ships in a wager.

Custom, player made clothing is another major feature. It will be possible for anyone to have a custom made uniform or outfit, but to prevent “visual griefing,” the color palette is being kept subdued and realistic. CCP has also hired fashion designers to aid in the development of clothing and fabrics within the Walking in Stations expansion.

Locations

Players will be able to ambulate inside of Space Stations, the offices, and the ships located within them. In addition, the captain’s quarters of a ship will also be a visitable location where the player can decorate and furnish their quarters to some degree.

Art Direction

The design and art for the Walking in Stations expansion, much like the rest of Eve Online, pushes for grittiness, functionality, and a grim reality. The player visible areas of the space stations will be expansive, with a lot of space to visit. Since there will not be running in Ambulation, special accelerated walkways will be provided to allow faster transport from place to place.

Graphics Technology

Incarna will make use of a radiosity based lighting system licensed from Geometrics. This gives Incarna a softer, warmer look when compared with Eve. As described at the CCP Presents! panel at Fanfest 2009[4]:

SWG Closing December 15th 2011

SO SWG IS CLOSING!! I hate to say it and its really sad. I went to bed one night and woke up to the forums being offline, normal for SOE sometimes. After the forums came back up this is what I found. on 06/24/2011 12:46:08 this was posted on the official SWG forums.

Final Fantasy XI Walk of Echoes Battlefield Adjustments

With Final Final Fantasy XI’s next big version update, The Walk of Echoes Battlefields are in store for some changes. The goal behind these changes is to make gear more accessible to everyone. No longer will you need to be over a certain level to qualify for extra spoils, and the coin drop rate has been increased.

Moreover, high tier battlefields will be added to make things more challenging for veterans. Along with the new battlefields, new rewards have also been added. Below is a full list of all the changes.

General:
The no-reservation system will be preserved.
The once-per-Vana’diel-day entry restriction will be preserved.
All PCs in a single battlefield will form an allied group, similar to Campaign battles.
The spawn delay for subsequent waves of monsters in each walk will be reduced.
The cutscene displayed upon receiving Kupofried’s medallion will appear only once.
New upper-tier walks will be added.

Evaluation and Rewards:
Evaluation conditions will be revised.
The system providing exclusive rewards to only the highest-rated participants will be changed to one in which all characters rated above a certain level will qualify for extra spoils.
Monster item drops and lottable spoils will be abolished.
New rewards will be added.
Coin drop rate will be increased.

Difficulty Adjustments:
The linked enmity system will be revised.
Characters who remain KO’d for 30 seconds will automatically receive a Raise effect.
A possible time limit extension to 60 minutes is under consideration.

On a side note FFXI’s producer Hiromichi Tanaka mentioned that Square Enix is considering porting the game to the Playstation Vita. The Vita is Sony’s new hand held gaming console, with PS3 quality graphics. With dual analog sticks, two touchscreens, and 3G, it will be interesting to see this plan come to fruition. The touchscreens might be utilized for a keyboard, the right analog stick for solid camera control, and with 3G you could play virtually anywhere. Hopefully we will see it happen!

-Jake

Infinity : The Entire Galaxy at Your Fingertips

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eREddMjt4&feature=player_embedded&fmt=22

I recently stumbled upon an mmo that has been in working progress for a couple of years now: Infinity.  It’s still a work in progress and has been since 2006. Created by third party developer I-Novae the demos that are up for viewing are nothing short of jaw-dropping.  I-Novae is taking the universe concept to the infinity and beyond….literally.

Infinity uses a procedural programming technique that allows the game engine to generate objects within game space on-the-fly, in real-time and on request, rather than manually building everything beforehand. This creates a massive universe  that everyone on the server can view and is ever expanding and shared by all. This game is going to be the largest scaled MMO to date, hopefully it isn’t too large where the population is diluted and players are difficult to find. However I-Novae mentioned that warp drives and jump-gate like stations will be set up to help traverse the universe.

Like Eve, Infinity will be based on a strong player community. You can command a single ship in a fight or become a military general and command an attack on a base, and mine for ores by yourself or control a corporate empire, all on the same character. Also your character will play while you aren’t at the computer. So docking in a safe location or mining in a secluded field will be of your best intentions.

Unlike Eve, Infinity is a twitched based MMO. It seems that it is joining the ranks of AoC, and TERA, aiming to see how the twitched based combat will fair for space exploration. Honestly I think this is the best decision they could have made. Space fights tend to be the most fun played full twitched based, where  a joystick and throttle can be set up. Where out-maneuvering an opponent and catching him off guard in a dog fight gets you the kill rather than hitting the correct button combo at the right time.

One cool thing the main page did offer is that you can go through the past developments they’ve done through since 06 and watch the progress of the game in blog/video form. I’m very excited to see this game’s development and completion. Although with a new developer it’s hard to get an exact timeframe on things but they’re hoping for Alpha and Beta testing to appear within the next year or two. Check back for updates on their twitter account or their occasional blog at; http://www.infinity-universe.com/

I hope to see this game in my game collection the moment it releases.

-Jon

Mogs.com

Star Wars Pre-Orders are here!

SWTOR Collector's Edition

The last couple of days have brought upon some new SWTOR news with comic-con out and about. Pre-orders for the game are now available! But there’s a new catch to this preorder.  Bioware is putting you in a queue for digital pre-orders and we are theorycrafting that there’s a chance that with this queue that a select few will get an early release of the game. Currently there’s three ways to preorder the game.

There’s the normal preorder for $60 that includes a free month of game time and a Color Stone that allows you to change the color of your lightsaber and blaster bolts.  An extra $20, bringing the total to $80 will net you the Digital Deluxe preorder edition that includes the above along with several in game items.

• Flare gun: Fire flares into the air

• Training droid: Hovers at your side for combat assistance

• HoloDancer: Project your own holographic dancer
• HoloCam: Keep visual records of in-game adventures

• STAP: Sleek and unique in-game vehicle

• Exclusive Mouse Droid: Spunky droid to join your adventures
• Exclusive Collector’s Edition store: Unique in-game vendor with a dynamic assortment of items

Then the is the pricey $150 preorder that will net you all of those in game items along with:

• Exclusive Gentle Giant Darth Malgus statue

• Game disks collectible metal case

• The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural as annotated by Satele Shan

• The Old Republic galaxy map
• Custom Security Authentication Key
• Music of Star Wars: The Old Republic CD
• High-quality Collector’s Edition box

If you have a hole burning in your pocket an your huge into SWTOR and want that $150 collector’s edition preorder, I’m sorry to say that so far it seems they are sold out everywhere. Hoping that they make some more statues and reopen the preorder for everyone else to dip into the package. I’m personally looking at the normal pre-order and ganna hope that the rumors of an early release are true! See you in the Star Wars Universe.

Questions or comments? E-mail me at Jon@mogs.com

-Jon

Mogs.com

MMO Board Games Part 1

Even though video games may take a majority of my game time, I have to admit I’m a tabletop gamer at heart. Many of our MMO’s have crossed the virtual platforms to  the tabletop to reach out to gamers of all genres.  I’m going to explore the two largest MMO/table top game combinations today, and will be back to visit others later.

World of Warcraft was the first game to bridge this gap. With the MMO releasing in 2004, they followed it up with the board game a year later in 2005. The game boasts over 1000 separate plastic pieces and cards and takes up a considerable amount of table space. I personally own the game, and have yet to get through an entire game due to it’s length and dedication. This board game is not for the casual gamer. With a rule book that will take approximately  30min -1 hr, to explain to the full group and insure everyone knows the rules and a 2-4 full playtime this game is not a short one. It’s pretty much as close to playing WoW in a board game setting without turning it into D&D.  Fantasy Flight did a good job making it so you can do just about anything in the game sans battlegrounds and instances (there is an instance in the Burning Crusade Expansion). A couple of small complaints towards the game include long downtime during other player’s turns, and  the general lack of pvp (you really gotta chase someone down). The game is based around leveling up a character, completing quests, gaining gear, then either defeating the opposing faction or defeating an end boss. Even with it’s flaws the game has high replay ability due to it’s complexity and the urge to want to conquer it with a bunch of friends that all know the rules. I recommend this game to the hardcore gamers that are looking for a board game twist on their WoW travels.

World of Warcraft also breached the tabletop genre with their own World of Warcraft trading card game. This card game plays very similar to Magic: the Gathering, except much more streamlined. Each deck is based around any of the Faction/Race/Class/Specilizations in World of Warcraft. This allows for an extremely large number of different deck combinations, along with each class/specialization being able to play variations of a “control” deck or an “aggressive” deck.  I personally played Magic for several years then the WoW tcg for the first couple of blocks and I was blown away by how well the WoW tcg plays (Planeswalkers have nothing on Hero cards). I highly recommend the WoW tcg to any Magic players for they tackled many of the problems that Magic had; including keeping resources manageable, the formats diverse, combat is streamlined (multiple combat phases) and damage carries on between turns. While Magic may have their top 2-3 decks in a tournament WoW tends to have almost a new top 4-6 class/specialization combinations every expansion that works out. Deck strategies range from massing with many allies (creatures), controlling the board with spells, to even gearing up your hero character in full epics and whacking at enemies with your big sword, and everything in between.  Games are very easy to pick up and play for new card gamers, while deckbuilding strategies are expansive enough to keep even the most hardy card floppers scribbling down decklists. I can recommend the card game to all card floppers, WoW players or not.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, was the second game to bridge this gap. However in the complete opposite way that WoW bridged it. Warhammer originated as a tabletop figure based game and then joined the ranks of the MMO world in 2008. For those not familiar with the Warhammer board game, I highly recommend you go to your local game store and check out a  couple of codex’s (rulebooks) just for the figure’s paint job alone. Warhammer is a complex figure game with large 50-150 piece armies each individually hand painted by yourself or a local artist where you pit your army against an opponent(s). Armies price range can be anywhere from $150-400 depending on the pieces/paint job, however that one army will last you years (or until rules change and some units get nerfed). Game scenarios are very expansive and can be set up from anything from finish off the opposing army, to capture the corner, capture the base, or holding strategic points. Games are played with using a ruler to move your pieces and then using dice to determine the outcome of battle. Each faction’s army has its own individual codex that you need to keep at hand to insure your units have the correct stats and abilities. Games can range anywhere from 30min -1 hour depending on the campaign. The battlefields that they play on can be as beautiful as the painted armies themselves. Generally the terrain is hand crafted and is themed to the setting.  It is an expensive hobby in it’s own, but quite the unique tabletop experience for those looking for a tabletop game that tests your skills at commanding a large army and using the terrain to your advantage.

Stop by your local game shops and check out the table top counterparts to your favorite MMO. I’ll be back next week covering a couple more MMO’s that explored the realms of tabletop gaming.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments! Jon@mogs.com

-Jon

mogs.com

The Positive Affects of Gaming

Jane McGonigal, an author and game designer, recently wrote an article titled “Video Games: An Hour A Day Is Key To Success In Life”. Here is a link to the article,http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-mcgonigal/video-games_b_823208.html. I am going to discuss the best parts of her article, and elaborate on the points she makes with my own.

Jane points out that recent scientific research trends have shown that gaming is one of the most productive ways we can spend our time. This is because “games do a better job than ordinary life of provoking our most powerful positive emotions — like curiosity, optimism, pride, and a desire to join forces with others to achieve something extraordinary.”

Moreover, the unique medium of MMORPG’s (and other similar online games) provides a sort of proving ground for people to test and develop their mental and social skills. You can really learn what motivates an individual by gaming competitively online with them. Games have strict rules, risk-reward scenarios, and highs and lows. Together, you must trudging through the lows, seek to reach the highs, all while adhering to the game’s rule set. Experiencing all this with your fellow gamers is what the core of the online gaming experience is all about, albeit may be masked by fanciful graphics and the desire for epic loots.

Jane says that games “are a particularly effective way to bond with our friends and family — strengthening our real-life and online social networks in ways that no other kind of social interaction can.” A study mentioned in the article showed that “just 90 seconds of playing a game like World of Warcraft – where you have a powerful avatar – can boost the confidence of colleges students so much that for up to 24 hours later, they’re more likely to be successful taking a test at school… and more outgoing in real-world social situations.”

The key is to recognize where you can utilize skills in the real world that you have learned and developed while gaming. For example, doing 3v3 Arenas in WOW helps to develop your communication skills, your ability to adapt to the situation at hand and improvise strategies on the fly, and ultimately, your ability to make your group of three think and function as a single unit. All of the aforementioned skills you are honing can be used to help you succeed at school or a job.

The “U.S. Army Mental Health Assessment Team shows that playing games up to 21 hours a week can produce positive impacts on your health and happiness. Gaming for 28+ hours a week can put you at risk ll be at risk for negative impacts — like depression and social anxiety.” So tread that fine line carefully, and do not forget to get your gaming in for the week!

Jake@mogs.com

TERA, the twitch based MMO

-Jon

Mogs.com