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TwitterWorld of Warcraft in the Simpsons
11 May 2007 No Comments
in Gaming, Made Me Laugh
Who the hell is running Sony? Part 2
01 Mar 2007 No Comments
in Gaming, Technology, Vice
I asked once, I’m asking again. After blackballing Kotaku, making Slashdot, Gizmodo, and half the tech blogs in North America, Sony relented and let Kotaku back into the fold. Oh, and basically confirmed the rumor that Kotaku had reported on.
This is the latest in a series of missteps by Sony. First, Sony Entertainment President Jack Tretton issued a “bounty” on any PS3s in the wild to the tune of $1200 per unit. Penny Arcade responded with a $13,200 per hour comic. Then, based on a disastrous presentation at E3 (actual sentence pairing: “Based on actual Japanese history. So here’s this Giant Enemy Crab.”), entrepreneurial webbies have remixed the speech into, well, stuff like this.
Since we now know that Sony execs actually can read, and tend to read people that write about them, you’d think they’d have been given a clue when vids like this show up on YouTube. Alas, it is not to be so.
I’ve sworn off Sony products. I’ve owned a Vaio, a DVD player, a PlayStation, and a camera. PlayStation was solid. The Vaio had it’s issues at the end; I sold it after getting too frustrated rebuilding it every 2 months. The camera we bought for our vacation crapped out within six months of purchase. The DVD player, after one year of use, would skip at exactly 1:12 into any movie. I refuse to spend $600 on a gaming console.
How many more people like me are they creating every day? Makes you wonder how long they have.
Burning Crusade Shatters Day-1 Sales Record
23 Jan 2007 No Comments
Call it a one day sales zerg.
Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade(TM) has broken the day-one sales record to become the fastest-selling PC game ever in North America and Europe, with a worldwide total of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of availability.
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“In addition to setting a new day-one PC-game sales record at our GameStop and EB Games stores, the expansion garnered more online pre-orders than any other PC game in our company’s history.” – Robert McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop Corp
World of Warcraft is arguably passing out “game” status to cultural touch-point, especially among the technical elites under 30. But MMOs, and games in general, still have a long way to go to rival cultural media points such as Seinfeld or American Idol, who’s audiences dwarf any base of players for a game. However, numbers like the Burning Crusade release are becoming more common and the barriers to being involved in these kinds of virtual worlds are lowering.
How long until a persistant, virtual nation or world is based on simple, approachable, pre-existing technologies? When will the barrier of buying a box disappear? Don’t want to install something? Want to check on your online assests? When the answer is “Fine, fire up a browser” the landscape could change overnight.
Still, it’s impressive to see the impact one game can have. 2.4 million copies at $39.99 USD is around $96 million USD (and no, I will not adjust for non-US sales; it’s a faux stat). In 24-hours. That’s better than most movies do in their lifecycle.
WoW expansion pack sold out at the publisher
08 Jan 2007 1 Comment
in Gaming, Made Me Laugh, Vice
Next week should be fun for Blizzard. Pre-orders for the expansion of the insanely popular MMO World of Warcraft, Burning Crusade, began a couple weeks ago. On Friday, Blizzard posted links to their online store where players could pre-order that expansion pack directly from Blizzard.
Well, it’s gone. That’s right, Blizzard, the company releasing the expansion pack, doesn’t have a single copy left more than a week before launch.
WoW Burning Crusade Delayed until January 2007
24 Oct 2006 1 Comment
The latest bump in my online drug will be delayed until January 2007 as Blizzard announced that the World of Warcraft expansion won’t be coming out this year after all.
Maybe I’ll have two level 60 toons to work with when the expansion comes out (as opposed to my single level 60 character, now).
Actually, my playing has tailed off lately; level 60 hasn’t been as fun as I’d hoped and, frankly, I can’t stand grinding yet another toon through the depressing landscapes of the higher-level zones. Why is everything above level 50 burned, broken, cursed, diseased, or undead? I don’t want rainbows and kittens but a little green and blue now and then wouldn’t kill the experience.
By the way, anyone on Medivh who has a guild that’s recruiting, I’m looking for a guild that can take a casual player (one to three nights a week) and can run high-ish end instances. Having more than 3 guildies above level 20 on per evening would be a huge bonus.
How to Know When You Game Too Much
21 Sep 2006 1 Comment
in Gaming, Spot the Sarcasm, Vice
You write articles discussing the hand-edness of video game characters.
You create distrubing art of video game characters.
You have a category for gaming on your.. web… sitecrap.
Care to Back That Up?
09 Aug 2006 No Comments
Expert: 40 Percent of World of Warcraft Players Addicted | TwitchGuru
Ah, yes, another “Games are The Ruin of Society” expert. In this week’s episode, the good Dr. Maressa Orzack. Dr. Orzack is the founder of Computer Addiction Services, which in no way compromises her objectiveness. She is “swamped” with addicted gamers coming into her addicted gamer treatment center, which is a hell of a coincidence.
World of Warcraft takes center-stage in this interview with TwitchGuru, a shocking turn for the press as it finally shifts its focus from the glamorous world of Hello Kitty console games and handheld, stand-alone Yahtzee units. Shining a dim light on the underbelly of the gaming world, Dr. Orzack absolves the gamer and places the blame squarely where it belongs; on the game company.
They design these MMOs to keep people in the game. I do think the problem is tied in with other things like family issues, but the games themselves are inherently addictive. That’s ultimately the cause of the problem. [emphasis mine]
Those poor victims of Blizzard’s dastardly plan to rule the world via subscription. Ah, then we get to my favorite part of the show; the numbers.
Well, let’s take World of Warcraft as an example. Let’s say there are around 6 million subscribers for the game. I’d say that 40 percent of the players are addicted.
Wow, 40%? 2.4 million people are addicted to World of Warcraft? Can any other drug, game, or activity claim a 40% addiction rate (besides the crack they are apparently handing out to researchers)? And how did she arrive at this statistic? We have no idea. There are no citations, no studies mentioned, just some number plucked from the air by a doctor with much to gain by propagating the idea of widespread, highly-contagious addiction to an entertainment media.
Now, do I think people can be addicted to video games? Sure, why not. People are addicted to the oddest things: food, gambling, spray paint. But, do I think that 40% of WoW players are addicts. Hell no. Of course the game is designed to pull you in, that’s its purpose. No one would pay $15 a month to play something that wasn’t compelling. But, at it’s heart, it’s a game and if you can’t let go of the game, the problem is you, not the game.
I'm guessing you play WoW
28 Jul 2006 No Comments
in Gaming
Kotaku posted an interesting chart today:
LFM…
Full size image
Stupid Evil Bastard: Blizzard unveils new male Bloodelf dance at E3.
12 May 2006 No Comments
in Gaming
The dance for the new race in World of Warcraft has made it onto the web. Thanks to Les (again) at SEB for the video and for feeding me more (relevant) news than almost anyone.