Trion's accelerated expansion to Asia follows the unparalleled success of Rift since launching last March. As recently reported, the company saw more than a million active accounts in just four months and North American and European revenues of more than $100 million. Rift's swift success proves gamers are embracing original, high-quality new properties and rich, dynamic game experiences built from the ground up for the new generation of online gaming.

"Our collaboration with Shanda is a huge step for Western premium games in China and we are proud Trion is at the forefront, setting the standard once again," Lars Buttler, Founder and CEO, Trion Worlds, said. "The appetite for great, new original game experiences like Rift, that disrupt the existing paradigm of traditional gaming, is universal. Shanda, with proven track record of localizing and delivering content, is the best publisher for Trion to offer gamers in Mainland China an authentic Rift experience."

The Shanda partnership showcases Trion's commitment to a global premium online games business that defines the future of games. Today's announcement follows Trion's updates of a $85 million round of strategic growth equity financing, and the company's plans to launch an initiative which comprises both a consumer platform and a full-scale publishing and development platform, code-named Red Door, later this year.

Look at it! I said look at it! Are you looking? I said look at it! Okay, you're looking? (Oh, god I hope someone get's this reference). Joke aside, After ESA dropped their support for SOPA, I decided to subscribe to WoW (again), and try it out. And now I find myself leaving for all the same reasons... Again. Here are my reasons, and I'm sure the fanbois already have their teeth and claws out to rip me apart, but I don't care!

Reason one is because WoW has more than 10 million players (or so they say) subscribed and playing, and yet... It feels like I'm playing a single player RPG. Hell, you don't have to communicate with anyone, and most of the population loves it this way. Dungeon finder only made it worse in my opinion. I mean now you have this handy dandy tool that lets you just join with random people that you can do one dungeon with and never have too see their faces or even bother to communicate with them ever again. Simply put, I've never played an MMORPG with so many players that promotes such an anti-social setup.

Reason number two, will most likely have people wanting to call me ungrateful and wanting to throw rocks at me and other various objects that will hurt my soft flesh. But anyways! Reason number two is because to me World of Warcraft's world has simply gotten way too big. Sure some may argue that you can fly everywhere and not just in Outland now so easily with your handy-dandy mounts, and I would have to agree, but that's not really what I mean. WoW is littered with so much content that I find myself pondering why there are so many pointless quests that are there just sitting above NPC's heads... You know what I mean? Those quests that no one does because they are unneeded and serve no specific goal? Those kinds of quests are all over WoW, and some may not care but it really bugs the crap out of me.

My last reason is because I'm seeing a trend that with each new expansion WoW has gotten easier... and easier. To the point that getting to level 85 doesn't take months... Not even weeks. You can easily get a toon to level 60 in less than two weeks now, without even trying. I know because I've done it. It makes me wonder what you could do if you actually tried... And I am sorry to all the people this may make butt hurt... Cataclysm plain sucks. Peace out.

EA's CEO John Riccitiello says that "Two million people have purchased the game – from our retail partners and via direct digital downloads on our Origin system. This great launch makes Star Wars: The Old Republic the fastest growing subscription MMO in history." Some remarkable figures include over 2 million copies sold with 40% sold through Origin, 1.7 million active subscribers with 1 million peak concurrent users, and 4 hours' average session time during the first month.

Additional statistics revealed at the official site include:

Over 239 million in-game hours, or over 332,000 months and over 27,000 years of in-game time

Over 20 billion NPCs killed

Over 148 billion credits spent

The glorious launch and first few months have become history and EA and BioWare is looking at the future. In the Q&A session, EA tells that BioWare is working on a new game update which is larger than patch 1.1 and will release it in March. On the other hand, EA is going to increase SWTOR's marketing budget and will expand to global market. The game will come to Australia in March and detailed for individual Asian markets will be announced in the future.

SWTOR has cost EA a lot of money on license and marketing, and the game's profitability is always something that people will talk about. EA says at the Q&A that "at 500,000 subscribers, we'd break even. At a million, we'd be making a profit but nothing worth writing home about. As it scales up from there, we're talking about a nice profit. At this point with the successful launch, we can take the worst case scenarios off the table."

Developed by Noria and published by High 1 Entertainment in South Korea, Seven Core has conducted two rounds of CBT in South Korea in the latter half of 2011, and was well received by players thanks to its stable systems and colorful content. Subsequently, the game has been made available in different language versions, with the goal of entering such overseas markets as Europe, North America and Japan.

To enter the Japanese market, Noria first licensed Seven Core to Gala Japan through signing a publishing agreement, and then the Japanese official site of Seven Core was brought online where relevant game info and videos are available. Only one day after being unveiled, Seven Core was ranked as the most anticipated online game on the authoritative Japanese game portal 4Gamer.

According to Gala Japan, the Japanese version of Seven Core will start its commercial service in 2012 through its platform gPoato.jp, and a community, backstories and interaction and social systems will be tied into the platform in the future so that players can experience the gaming fun in advance.

Gala Japan will localize Seven Core in a detailed way according to Japanese players' habits and preferences, and will try efforts to release the game as soon as possible.

In addition to Japanese players, Seven Core also arose numerous European players' attention and curiosity at this year's Gamescom which is the largest game show in Europe. Seven Core has so far been licensed to Gala Networks Europe and Gala-Net, which will be the publishers for Seven Core in Europe and North America respectively. It is expected that Seven Core will be rolled out in these two markets in the first half of 2012 too.

I was planning on writing a full review for SWTOR, but Pherephassa did such a great write-up on her SWTOR reivew, that I figured I’d skip mine and get straight to my likes and gripes. I’ll give you a hint, it’s going to be mostly gripes.

Undoubtedly the best part of game is the journey to endgame, after all this is what BioWare does best. Having said that, as a MMORPG player I found myself beginning to skip dialog as early as the mid teen levels and before I hit level 30 I was skipping it all with the exception of the main storyline. Even that I began to partial skip or you can say fast forward by the time I hit the early 40′s.  It’s not that I didn’t find it interesting, I just wanted to get on with things.

As a player who has never seriously crafted before, I actually enjoyed the crafting system in SWTOR. I didn’t have to waste my time grinding it out looking for resources or spending hours killing the same mobs, however while I enjoyed the mechanic of crafting, the entire system is broken since only a few professions can actually make any money.

For one, crafting is way to easy and fast. One of the main reasons I never pursue crafting is because of how much time it takes to master. In SWTOR I hit the max in all three of my crew skills within 3 weeks without really trying. Now nothing is wrong with the system itself, they just need to make the crafting time much much longer. While it took me 3 weeks to master all my crew skills, if you take the actual crafting time, it was probably only 3-4 days.  It should take at least 1 month of “crew skill time” to master a skill.

Secondly, they need to make craftable items better, not the best, but close. There should only be a handful of items that are better then the best crafted items and those items should be harder to get. Right now you can spend a few days in PvP or grinding flashpoints and obtain some of the best gear out there making crafted gear worthless.

Moving on to PvP which we all know is broken across the board, from open PvP to the PvP planet Illum to Warzones, it’s a mess. While Warzones recently got a lot better with the separation of level 50 characters, they still need to introduce at least one more bracket to divide 1-49. Open PvP and Illum need a full overhaul to become worth while since  currently there’s zero reason to participate in open PvP and nearly none on Illum as you can obtain the same rewards from warzones at an unmatched rate.

That leaves Operations and Flashpoints. Flashpoints are instanced, so of course I hate them, but they’re fun the first one or two times you run them. Unfortunately if you want better gear and don’t like PvP you’ll be running them over and over and over.  I can’t comment on Operations since I still haven’t do one, but I’d image they’re the same thing with more people.

My favorite moment of the entire game was on Tatooine waiting on top of a sandcrawer with Empire and Republic players alike waiting for a balloon that would take us to a datacron on top of another sandcrawer. As the balloon approached tensions began to rise to see if anyone would attack. We all jumped on the balloon and as it began to pull away from the sandcrawler you could just sense something was about it happen and then it did. Someone attacked and all hell broke lose.  Lucky my faction (Empire) was able to push off all the Republic players and we floated away as they sat and cursed at us.

That’s was SWTOR and nearly all theme-park MMO are missing, there’s no surprises, no tension of not knowing what’s going to happen next . The only tension is knowing you have to run Black Talon 8 more times until you have enough point to get the item you want.

If you look at SWTOR as strictly a single-player RGP, then I’d say it’s a great game, but unfortunately for BioWare they made a MMORPG. With the exception of Flashpoints, I grouped exactly two times during my entire journey from level 1-50.  Now that I’m at 50, I’m stuck with either a broken PvP system, running Flashpoints and Ops all day or starting a new alt. No thanks.

It seems BioWare created a MMOPRG where their biggest replay value is in restarting with a new character and while many players will, not as many are willing to pay a monthly fee to play what is basically a co-op RPG.

In my mind SWTOR is a complete dud and failure in term of gameplay, but in a good way. This marks the end of the theme-park MMORPG shit-fest that has taken over the genre for the last decade.  If an IP like Star Wars cannot compete with WoW, no IP using a theme-park design can. The next great MMORPG might not be pure sandbox, but it sure as hell won’t be a theme-park either. I feel like this is the turning point in the industry and we’ll once again seen innovation in MMORPGs and I can’t wait.

“Sit down, lad. We've a few minutes before Varinia gets back. Welcome to the 3^rd Vanguards! I'll wager walking circles around Ostgarath's sweltering jungles wasn't what you pictured when they urged you to volunteer. Hah! They get everyone the same way. You either sweat your horns off here or freeze them off around Kaiator.

“Don't worry. We'll train you up proper. Varinia and I have been stationed here for two years now. She likes it because we can make it back to most of the festivals in Castanica and she can see her husband and daughter. Me? I like walking my own streets when we're on leave rather than Velika's dull alleys and lanes or Kaiator's grim...everything. Although, we went to Chebika one time—craziest holiday ever. I watched an elin archer drink an amani berserker under the table. Lost a whole pile of gold on that wager…

“A lot of castanics end up in the vanguards, so you’re in good company. Makes sense. We bore easily, hate garrison duty, and love a good fight as much as any aman. Our home's threatened on all sides, and there's no better defense than a good offense. I read that on a baraka scroll once, so it's got to be true.

“Anyway, we've always been fighters, but with the federation, it's different. We've got the resources to not only strike back when hurt, but work to prevent attacks. If it was just up to the shadow council in Castanica...

“Besides, it's not like it's dull duty. We've seen it all and survived to tell the tales. Probably why the centurion sent you to us. We patrol a different parcel each week. We walked the Jagged Coast last week, which is never dull duty. The Red Lash pirates control a great grotto and they've built themselves up a massive nest of vipers. We try to kill a few of their veterans—the better to scare off their newest recruits—whenever we're nearby.

“How? Oh, straight forward really. Varinia's an archer and I'm a warrior. I leap into the heart of things, slash and strike until everyone's right furious with me—and then Varinia sends them all back to the dream in a storm of magical bolts. We're a good pair. You're a sorcerer, but you'll probably pair up with a warrior and fight much the same. The blade draws the hate and the might does 'em right. It helps to be agile, and we are, but timing's the key. You've got to trust your partner, more than any two lovers ever will. I keep Varinia alive and she makes sure ol' Drusus here gets back to wenching and drinking.     

“There's beasts all around, and, yes, most of them want to eat your face off, but it's the thinking predators you've got to fear. Orcans won't win awards for poetry, but they make fire bombs that'll cook you quick enough.

Gulas are corpulent brutes, but they hit hard and are damned tough to kill. They're straight-forward, though. They want treasures or food. Nagas, on the other hand, want the same things, or they want to sacrifice you on some altar to Dagon. Hmph. Gods are bad news, every castanic knows that, and dead gods doubly so.

“Nagas mostly stick to Serpentis Isle, though the Kazuur Syndicate hires a few clawriders to smash captured ships to kindling. You'll want to avoid those. Blasted armored crabs the size of a tavern!

Still, nagas are predictability incarnate compared to those blasted arachnens. You've seen the drones all around here, but wait until you fight an ovolith. Spit poison, spew toxic clouds, stab at you with their legs, leaping attacks, or they'll just roll over you like a baker with a wad of dough. Can't ever tell what they'll do next. When we fight ovoliths, that's on Varinia. I'm too busy not dying to worry about actually killing those wretches. 

“It's important work. Lots of walking, loads of tedium, and, occasionally, terrifying minutes that never seem to end. Still, if you can prove yourself out here, your next post will be anywhere you want. A vanguard can get things done—and castanics? Hah! We get it done with style."

To celebrate this milestone, EA is thanking the community with the release of several special edition virtual items. Battlefield Heroes players can redeem the following promo code,EQ9M-TYYT-TXR3-5GU3, for 300 Battlefunds from today until January 17th, 2012; which can be used to purchase powerful in-game weapons, vanity items, widgets, and more. In Need for Speed World, from today until January 17th, 2012, players can redeem promo code, EWPD-3KGA-VBVF-9HYS, for 750 SpeedBoost that can be used towards the purchase of cool licensed cars, performance upgrades and a wide variety of aftermarket parts.

"Developing a community of 25 million players is a remarkable achievement. It is a testament to the explosive growth of the free-to-play market and a reflection of EA's commitment to spearheading the digital transformation. We plan to continue to innovate in the category, introduce new gameplay that delights players and keeps them coming back for more," said Sean Decker, Play4Free, Vice President. "For our teams, this is an incredibly exciting time to be making games as the audience continues to grow and diversify."

With regular content updates, rewards and giveaways, EA's Play4Free titles boast vibrant and active communities. Since the launch of Battlefield Heroes, over 8 billion bullets have been fired, with nearly 532 million in-game kills. In Need for Speed World, over 15 million races and 22 million pursuits are logged every month with gamers from 237 countries playing**.

This month, EA's Play4Free portfolio continues to buzz with activity and updates. Need for Speed World is releasing a series of new cars, starting with the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S that went live on January 10th. The month will continue to see an impressive rollout of vehicles from exotics to muscles to beloved classics. Battlefield Heroes has a fresh slate of clothing items and weapons launching in the coming weeks as well. In December, the Play4Free Studio, Phenomic, also announced their new, upcoming browser based MMO strategy title Command & ConquerTM Tiberium Alliances, which is now available in Closed Beta. Sign up for a chance to access the beta today athttp://alliances.commandandconquer.com.

For more information on EA's Play4Free titles, visit http://play4free.com.

Code expires January 17, 2012 at 12:00 AM GMT. One-time use code can be redeemed at www.battlefieldheroes.com/store/redeem. Requires access to Battlefield Heroes ("Product"), Internet connection, EA account and registration of Product. Code may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. May not be combined with any other offer, gift card, rebate or discount coupon. ?Retailers, distributors and employees of Electronic Arts Inc. and their agencies/affiliates are not eligible. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.? Limit one code per person.

Code expires January 17, 2012 at 12:00 AM GMT. One-time use code can be redeemed towards any item offered in the Need for Speed World Web Store, Boost Store and Safehouse. Requires access to Need for Speed World ("Product"), Internet connection, EA account and registration of Product. Code may not be substituted, exchanged, sold or redeemed for cash or other goods or services. May not be combined with any other offer, gift card, rebate or discount coupon. Retailers, distributors and employees of Electronic Arts Inc. and their agencies/affiliates are not eligible. Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law. Limit one code per person.

**According to Google Analytics: Countries as of January 10, 2012

Is that even possible?

Did I ever tell you I am a sucker for freebies? Well, I am the first one to tell you that I a must be on someone's marketing list. Ever hear the one - "The first one is free, the next one you pay for." They must have made that up with people like me in mind.

 

It has been a better of four years since I have logged into the World of Warcraft. In the anticipation of Blizzards next entry in the Diablo franchise I decided to get my Battle.net account in shape in case (fingers crossed) I might get a beta invite. Next thing I know an email from battle.net popped into my email offering me a free week of gametime. Free is for me, if it cost, get lost - Oh boy...they really had my attention! 

 

Downloading and updating went fast, smooth and without a hitch. I could actually have the game playable and not have to wait for the whole installation, it really felt like a pro operation from the start. It also made me smile a bit to finally log in a find my old tauren hunter sitting in Orgrimmar wearing what you might call "welfare epics." Orgrimmar was very different as I expected after 3 expansions and countless amounts of patched in content, with all the changes I felt as out of sorts today as I did as a level 1 noob in Thunder Bluff. But since Blizzard has made the game so user friendly ( and also have played countless clones ) it felt as if I was getting on the back of my old bike. It was time to get into the game and find out whats changed.

 

Blizzard has removed many of the things I remember from Vanilla Days and added so much more. The first thing I noticed and had upset me greatly was the fact that..

 

WHERE THE HELL IS MY RHOK'DELAR,

Longbow of the Ancient Keepers??!?!??!!?

 

 

I frantically looked through my bank and my bags, switching back and fourth then I went to the wiki and say in bright red: This item is no longer available within the game. What...the...Why would you....AARRGHH! The hunter epic quest was the quest that separated boys from men and I put a lot of work into getting that bow. If you are not familiar with it it began with a quest gotten from the Ancient Petrified Leaf which was dropped of a Molten Core 40 man raid boss. 50/50 chance of dropping. Spanning across 2 continents a hunter had to defeat 4 demons alone without pets or outside help. All were very tough at the time and were located out in the open in contested areas. I was on a mean pvp server, so had to deal with a ton of griefing as well. 

 

Oh, well. I have since gotten over it, but still not happy. It was something that separated this class from all the others. I was happy though when I found out that I didn't have to carry around bags full of arrows. So I sold off these 20 stacks of ice-tipped arrows and cleared some space up. Most everything else was intact, so I pulled out my other epic bow and went back to work

 

I found not only a dungeon finder, but a raid finder in my UI. And on the topic of UI, with all the modifications out there for WoW, the UI is the most customizable one I have ever used in any game. This made me happy. But back to the finder tools: I fiddled around with the DF and found myself in a dungeon of my level with 4 other people I didn't know from other servers who ran through the dungeon by doing these HUGE PULLS! I had to quickly get back into high-pressure dungeon mode and picked up my slack quick. 

 

One of the things I had noticed was...no one talked to each other. No hi, no bye. Just pull trash-pull trash-tank and spank boss-need/greed-leave party. I have to admit that on one hand, not having to spam chat for groups and wait for a priest is a good thing. Althought the interpersonal part of putting parties together and running a dungeon was a big part of the socialization system within MMORPG's, the dungeon finder has removed that. But it  has given me a chance to meet other people from other servers, but no one says anything. I they had the option built in to just search for the server, it might have been a little better, not its not.

 

Strike two.

 

Digging into the newer content I found my way into the Outland areas. While the world seems big, many of the areas feel extrememly small and are set up as mini quest hubs. Odd. I've only seen two enemy players the whole time who was much higher level than me, they both nodded and went on his way. I haven't been griefed once so far and haven't been in any local groups for questing either. What is going on here? I know that there are over 4,000 players on the server and there has to be someone else around my level. Asking around I found out the real truth is that there is a huge level gap now, everyone who is playing is a serious wow player, they are all 85 and progressing through the games hardest endgame content. Apart from the lack of socialization, I was recruited quickly by some guild in Org, and no one really speaks in guild chat either. All the serious raid guilds are not recruiting or the raid group is full or a combination of the two. 

 

Possible strike three, but I am still enjoying the game in spite of everything I just mentioned.

 

What really happened to WoW? Well, Blizzard has become so interested in satisfying the mainstream public needs in making this game so user friendly that they removed some core social elements from the game. Sadly, as the new WoW is sharp looking and the way they structured the new hunter abilities makes the class even more fun to use, it feels very shallow and arcade-like. There is no lacking in the vanity and aesthetics department though. As I was looking into all of the new variety of pets and mounts made my head spin. Then I discovered that most of the cooler stuff in the game comes from grinding rep until you have exalted status with a faction. That is another conversation entirely.

 

For now...

Play safe,

Inktomi

Stay awhile and listen...

We learned today that Diablo III would be coming to consoles. This wasn't a huge surprise for some, given that a rumored Diablo III console release has been circulating for some time now. Heck, Blizzard was pretty candid about their Diablo console plans going all the way back to last November, but it seems like no one wanted to believe them.

Blizzard community manager Micah "Bashiok" Whiple confirmed the long-running rumors today in response to a fan wondering about the game's console fate. Whiple simply responded, "Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project."

Well, guess that's it then! We still don't know what consoles the game will appear on or even when they would appear, but the news has still sparked tons of chatter on the interwebs.

Personally, I don't think it's a big deal. Blizzard actually has a pretty decent track record of translating their games to consoles, going all the way back to Starcraft 64, which was received surprisingly well. This is especially noteworthy since RTS games don't have much of a postiive history on consoles, period. Of course, no one will ever forget the vaporware that was StarCraft: Ghost, but that was an entirely new game.

Adequately delivering a game like Diablo III to consoles seems a lot more plausible than if Blizzard were to attempt to bring StarCraft II over, despite their relative success with StarCraft 64. The main differences in terms of gameplay would be in the control scheme, but given the number of hack-and-slashers you can already play on consoles it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. What I'm more interested in seeing is how Blizzard integrates Battle.net with the console experience or even the controversial RMT auction house the game will feature.

What are your thoughts on Diablo III for consoles? Share 'em in the comments below!

• Purchasable Replica Dungeon Tier--meaning you can transmogrify your armor into Dungeon Set 0 and .5 tier from vanilla (and without class restrictions too!). These sets had been removed in Cataclysm and were unobtainable for a while.
• Numerous new mounts and pets.
• A large-scale PvP arena bloodbath.
• New quests tied to mini-games as well as professions-related quests: completing these will grant Darkmoon Prize Ticket which can be used to purchase vanity items and transmogrification gear.
• A petting zoo!

• The Faire is still accessible for only one week per month. Talk to NPCs in capital cities to be ported to the Faire's old location. Step through the portal to be taken to the completely new island and ride a bit through the woods before discovering the Faire at the bottom of the hill.
• The Faire has a bunch of mini-games and related quests, such as the Human Cannonball, Ring Toss, and Whack-a-Gnoll. To play, you'll need to get Darkmoon Game Token, found in Sack o' Tokens and Pouch o' Tokens purchased from Game Vendors located around the Faire. Upon successfully completing quests, you will receive Darkmoon Prize Ticket, useful for buying vanity gear. There are also profession-related quests that grant skillups, as well as items that can be looted from 5-man bosses that start Faire quests as well.
• The Deathmatch Pavilion is a large-scale arena event in the style of the Gurubashi Arena. Players compete to loot a spawned chest and eventually complete a trinket, Master Pit Fighter.
• There are some amazingly fun vanity items--which we cover in the following tabs.

• Rona Greenteeth claims to sell themed-food, but there's a good chance she's made the food from unsuspecting Faire goers, such as Forsaken Foie Gras and Stormwind Surprise.
  

• There's lots of fun details, which are covered more in-depth in our Preview Guide linked above. Stuff like: dancing bears, cafes with beloved NPCs from past expansions, a petting zoo, and a boardwalk.

Achievements

• Blastenheimer Bullseye
• Step Right Up
• Quick Shot
• Come One, Come All!
• Darkmoon Duelist
• Fairegoer's Feast
• I Was Promised a Pony
• Darkmoon Defender
• Darkmoon Dungeoneer
• Darkmoon Despoiler
• Taking the Show on the Road
• Taking the Show on the Road
• Faire Favors
• Darkmoon Dominator

WoW Patch 4.3: Alte Dungeon-Sets als Transmogrifikations-Vorlage beim Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkt Der überarbeitete Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkt winkt mit neuen Quests und neuen Belohnungen. Unter anderem kehren die Dungeon-Sets aus den Zeiten zurück, in denen Stufe 60 das Maximal-Level war. Die Items - auch als Tier 0 und Tier 0,5 bezeichnet - dienen als Vorlage für die Transmogrifikation und haben keinerlei Werte, entsprechen optisch jedoch den Originalen. Die Rüstungs-Teile werden ohne besondere Voraussetzungen wie etwa Ruf angeboten, kosten jedoch Gewinnlose des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkts, die man sich zunächst über Quests verdienen muss.

Kopfbedeckungen, Schulter- sowie Brustrüstungen kosten jeweils 75 Gewinnlose. Gürtel, Armschienen und Schuhe gibt's für je 55 Lose. Zumindest aktuell haben die Gegenstände zudem keine Klassenbeschränkungen. Ihr dürft Euch entsprechend auch mit den Set-Optiken anderer Klassen schmücken – sofern Ihr die Rüstungsklasse des entsprechenden Sets anlegen könnt und ein Item der entsprechenden Rüstungsklasse moggen wollt. In der folgenden Galerie seht Ihr die Dunkelmond-Sets im aktuellen PTR-Stand.

Mit der überarbeiteten Version des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkts, die mit WoW Patch 4.3 kommt, könnt Ihr Euch nicht nur die Zeit mit mehr oder minder amüsanten Minispielchen vertreiben. Für die Gewinnlose des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkt könnt Ihr Euch unter anderem Haustiere und Mounts leisten - ein gefundenes Fressen für Sammler. Angler hingegen erhoffen sich ein seltenes Seepferdchen.

Mit WoW Patch 4.3 soll der Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkt vor allem eines machen: mehr Spaß. Aus dem Grund haben die Entwickler den Event, der pro Monat eine Woche lang stattfindet, gründlich modernisiert. Vor allem sollen Euch jede Menge Minispielchen unterhalten. Und sofern Ihr diese absolviert, erspielt Ihr Euch Gewinnlose des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkt. Diese wiederum lassen sich in Nostalgie-Rüstung (Tier 0 und Tier 0,5) investieren. Oder in Haustiere und Mounts.

Welche Haus- und Reittiere es gibt, seht Ihr bei der Orcin Lhara, die Haus- und Reittiergewinne feilbietet. Für jeweils 90 Gewinnlose könnt Ihr einen Dunkelmond-Affen, eine Dunkelmond-Schildkröte, einen Dunkelmond-Ballon, ein Dunkelmond-Junges, einen Dunkelmond-Panzer und einen Dunkelmond-Zeppelin erwerben. Die Mounts sind etwas teurer: Dunkelmond-Tanzbär und Schneller Waldschreiter schlagen jeweils mit 180 Gewinnlosen zu Buche.

Apropos: Wer auf Luftballons steht, aber noch fürs permanente Dunkelmond-Ballon-Pet spart, der sollte dem Gnom Carl Aufseß einen Besuch abstatten, der seinen Wagen die Hauptstraße hinauf und hinunter zieht. Dort erhaltet Ihr für zehn Silberstücke grüne und gelbe Ballons sowie einen Dunkelmond-Luftballon. Diese Ballons lassen sich zumindest während Eures Besuchs auf der Dunkelmondinsel beschwören. Der Dunkelmond-Ballon für 90 Gewinnlose hingegen kann überall in der Welt herbeigezaubert werden.

Ein kleines Goodie gibt's für fleißige Angler: Laut der Webseite El's Extreme Anglin' könnt Ihr mit viel Glück aus dem Gewässer rund um die Insel ein Seepferdchen-Haustier ziehen. Allerdings braucht's Geduld: bis das Pferdchen im Netz war, hat El rund 700 Mal die Angel ausgeworfen - pures Glück also. Dafür werdet Ihr mit einem putzigen Seepferdchen belohnt, dass in einer Wasserblase hinter Euch durch die Luft gleitet. Mehr dazu erfahrt Ihr auf elsanglin.com. Alle anderen Pets und Mounts seht Ihr in unserer Galerie.

Patch 4.3 für World of Warcraft peppt den Dunkelmondjahrmarkt auf. Das Ingame-Event wird auf eine eigene Insel verlagert und um neue Quests sowie Minispiele erweitert. Wir haben der Insel auf den Testservern zu Patch 4.3 einen ersten Besuch abgestattet.

Der Dunkelmondjahrmarkt verändert sich mit Patch 4.3 – das Event bleibt zeitlich zwar auf eine Woche pro Monat begrenzt, dafür gibt's aber mehr zu tun. Neue Minispiele wie Ringwurf oder Duelle mit ferngesteuerten Panzern. Und all das findet an einem neuen Ort statt: einer eigenen Insel nur für den Jahrmarkt. Auf die Insel gelangt man denkbar einfach. An den bekannten Standorten des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkts stehen Portale. Klick und fertig. Auf der Insel angekommen lassen sich dann Gewinnlose durch zahlreiche Aktivitäten verdienen. Einige davon sind mit Spielen verbunden, andere beziehen Eure Berufe mit ein.

Wer beispielsweise 15 Archäologie-Artefakte abgibt, erhält neben Gewinnlosen auch fünf Archäologie-Fertigkeitspunkte – vergleichbare Quests gibt es auch für verarbeitende Berufe wie Lederverarbeitung oder Schneiderei. Für die Teilnahme an Spielen benötigt man in der überarbeiteten Fassung des Dunkelmond-Jahrmarkts übrigens Spieljetons. Die gibt's ebenfalls als Quest-Belohnungen oder gegen einen kleinen Goldbetrag. Für Gewinnlose könnt Ihr Euch beispielsweise Haustiere, Mounts oder Nachbildungen des T0-Sets kaufen. Wir werden Euch demnächst auch einen Video-Rundgang über die Jahrmarkts-Insel zeigen, vorerst hier aber die ersten Screenshots.

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!

From mogs