Consortium
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Get your Consortium gems!
Lots of stuff is happening on the First of May today (do we really have to remind you that that video is NSFW? consider yourself reminded) -- not only did Children's Week start and the Diablo3.com countdown end, and not only is it a holiday for some Blizzard employees, but if you're Friendly or higher reputation with the Consortium, it's time once more to grab your free back of gems. Unlike last month, we don't have to refer to them as "gem stickers" -- thank God the whole HKO Insider thing only lasted a day.If you've got the rep, just stop by Gezhe at Aeris Landing in Nagrand, and he'll hand you a bag of free gems, quality dependent on reputation level. You'll still need a Jewelcrafter to cut them up, but hey, free gems is free gems.And rabbit rabbit, by the way. May is here!
3D@Home Consortium aims to get 3D in the home
If you were still refusing to believe that the 3D push was on, um, it's on. Announced at NAB Show, 22 international firms (including some pretty major players) have launched the 3D@Home Consortium, which aims to "speed the adoption of 3D entertainment in the home." Led by Disney, Philips and Samsung -- and joined by Thomson, IMAX, TDVision, 3DIcon, Corning, Planar Systems, QPC Laser, SeeReal, 3ality, DDD, In-Three, Quantum Data, Sensio, Fraunhofer Institute IMPS, Sim2, Setred, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Holografika and Volfoni -- the non-profit alliance is focused on "creating and publishing useful technical roadmaps, developing educational materials for consumer and retail channels and facilitating the development of industry standards and their dissemination." From the outside looking in, it seems these folks are sort of jumping the gun, but given that we've already seen a 3D format compatible with legacy 2D systems and a successful live 3D broadcast here in the past 48 hours, maybe being ahead of the curve isn't such a bad thing.
Breaking News: Ethereals better than Goblins!
After looking back on my post about disliked races in WoW again and talking to some friends of mine, I can't help but notice one of my favorite races gets quite a bit of hate! Which is funny, because one of the races I greatly dislike(but didn't make my list) are sort of their 'competition' and get quite a bit of love!There are a lot of similarities between the Ethereals(like) and the Goblins(dislike), which is rather neat! It's interesting to see the two races somewhat rubbing against one another. Competition is fun to watch. Even more fun are the differences, though. I imagine that's where the opinions are formed.Read on to discuss the Barons of Bling and the Planar Princes!
Insider Trader: Jewelcrafting, the final stretch part 2
Last week, Insider Trader began the journey from 300 to 375 jewelcrafting skill. While we were able to avoid using recipes that required faction reputation or that had to be farmed, the cheapest methods to 375 from about 365 may require a bit more effort to obtain. If you are like so many other craftsmen, stuck with 375 seeming far away and expensive, then carry on through the break to examine ways to not only maximize your skills, but to attempt to make a profit while doing so, rather than running on a loss. Featuring several distinct ways to reach 375, you will find that you have many choices to suit your own needs, your guild's needs, and your server's market. In addition, I've put together some links for further reading that you should find helpful. Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For more guides to maximizing your chosen profession, check out the final stretches for Leatherworkers and Alchemists alike, as well as part one of Jewelcrafting's final stretch. For a complete list of profession guides, feel free to peruse our directory.
Reminder: get your free, um, gem stickers
Listen, our corporate overlords have forced us to write about Hello Kitty Online starting today, but there's something you should know about another game that rhymes with "Mold of Forcraft," so we're going to try to sneak this news under the radar.We just wanted to remind you that the Consortium -- wait, I mean the Sanriotown Town Council is offering their free bag of, errr, gem stickers today to anyone with Friendly or higher reputation. It's a new month today, so stop by Gezhe of Aeris Landing -- um, I mean Cinnamoroll of Cafe Cinammon -- and claim your free gem... stickers. Man, this sucks.Whoops, I mean we all love Hello Kitty Online and can't wait to keep playing and writing about it. Please kill me.
Insider Trader: Leatherworking, the final stretch
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.If you have ever rolled a druid, rogue, shaman or hunter, it is quite likely that you ended up choosing leatherworking as one of your professions. Because it can be a valuable source of gear for the leather and mail-wearers, it is a common choice. If this is the case, you are going to want to hit 375 skill in order to make your end-game epics. If however, you chose leatherworking as a companion to skinning in order to make money, you will only need to reach about 325. Once there, you will be able to convert any type of skin into its available higher form in order to maximize your profits. Still, leatherworking, like any profession, can be an extremely costly skill to cap. This week, Insider Trader will be taking an in-depth look at some of the best ways to reach 375 from 300. Hop through the break for tips and analysis.
Unobtainium: Rare, ridiculous, and remarkable reputation schematics
Or"There's no such thing! Is there?"Engineers have among the greatest freedom to choose our allegiances throughout Azeroth and Outland. While Jewelcrafters and leatherworkers spend hours and days making a name for themselves with the Furbolgs of the Timbermaw, or the druids of Cenarion, Engineers remain free. No such slaves to the grind of reputation, we. For what could we learn from the various factions of the lands? It's little they can teach us, and little we would gain from the work done. No, our main choice of faction has always been to join M.E.G.A. or to take our lives in our hands and join G.E.E.K.With few exceptions. There are several factions we can seek out whose expertise in Engineering allows us to learn a thing or two (quite literally) from them. In this lecture we will discuss where an enterprising Engineer can go to learn some of the rarest schemata known: those derived from earned reputations.The factions with which you'll need to work are the Zandalar Tribe of trolls in Stranglethorn Vale, the Cenarion Expedition, predominantly in Zangarmarsh, and the Consortium, predominantly in Netherstorm. Zandalar trolls will require you to join their battle against Hakkar, the Blood God, and his priests in Zul'Gurub. This will require a raid 20 strong, though if you've mastered the art of flying you'll likely find you need somewhat fewer than that to be effective. The Cenarion Expedition has agents posted in the western barrens of Hellfire Peninsula, but the main camp can be found further west in Zangarmarsh. They offer work mostly in and around Zangarmarsh itself, including, most prominently, reputation earned from delving into the Coilfang Reservoir: Underbog, Slave Pens, and Steam Vaults. Consortium reputation can be earned in Auchindoun, but only in the Mana Tombs, and that only until you've reached Honored. Beyond that you'll need to visit Nagrand for Ogre beads or, ultimately, Netherstorm for a variety of work.
Get your gems!
It's that time of the month again, ladies and gents. It's the first of March, so the Consortium has a fresh round of gems to hand out! If you're new to level 70(or Outland in general), each month you can travel to Aeris Landing in Nagrand and receive a packet of gems. How many gems is dependent on your reputation with the Consortium.Personally, I've never had very good luck with these guys. I'm Exalted on two characters and all they'll ever give me is a handful of junk and some slightly better junk. I actually think the game is working against me when it comes to gems. I have the same luck with Prospecting. I know everyone says Prospecting is an amazing source of money, but I'm confident it only works for them because all of the awful gems are used up on me.But enough QQ. Go! Get your gems! Make sure to leave comments lying about those Stars of Elune you got. It'll make me feel better if you just say you got a few Talasites.
Your Consortium bribe, uh payment is ready
Just a friendly reminder for those of you who have Friendly or better reputation with the Consortium that it's that time of the month again to collect your gems. I just got back from my run to Nagrand to hit up Mr. Swirlybandages for my bag. I was particularly excited because I had just hit Honored with that faction. And you know what I got? An Azure Moonstone and a Shadow Draenite. Uh...okay. I guess I'll try not to spend the 40s I'm gonna get for these on the AH all in one place. Hope you all get luckier this month.
Jaffe comes out for a unified game console standard
Vocal support in the industry for a single-console solution continues to gather steam, with roustabout game developer David Jaffe airing the case for an uber-system on his blog. On the surface, his arguments have some merit, but we feel the the case for a "unified" console begins to break down when you really examine it. If you will, let us play a bit of devil's advocate with Jaffe's case:"We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every TV is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?"Jaffe seems to be forgetting that VHS only became the monopoly "standard" after a bloody battle with JVC's Sony's competing Betamax format (edit: brain fart). There was no consortium of companies deciding what would be "best" for the market -- competition simply decided that one format was overwhelmingly better for the price. Sony had similar near-monopoly control in the PlayStation 1 and 2 eras, and it was competition, not cooperation, that brought it about. And for every cooperation success story like DVD, there's a flop like Phillips/MCA's LaserDisc format.As for television signals, they require a monopoly of sorts because of the limited broadcast spectrum. When you take that away, you get the channel-building, selection-expanding competition between cable, satellite and FIOS TV services.
Remember your gems
Once again, it's the first of the month, and that means it's your gem payday from the Consortium! Get your butt out to Aeris Landing and click on Gezhe for your Membership Benefits, which means a package of free gems to help you pimp your new season 3 gear or Zul'Aman epics. Depending on your Consortium reputation level, you get one of the following: Friendly: Gem Stuffed Envelope Honored: Unmarked Bag of Gems Revered: Bulging Sack of Gems Exalted: Bag of Premium Gems I meant to get my rogue up at least to Revered since last month, but alas, real life stepped in, so it's another Unmarked Bag for me. What's your haul for December?
Don't forget your gems!
Since it's the first of the month (or close enough), those of you with Consortium rep (which would be roughly anyone over level 60) should remember to fly out to Aeris Landing in Nagrand and visit Gehze for your monthly lot of free gems. The better your rep, the more gems you get, and the more likely they are to be blue-quality. Both of my high-level characters are merely honored, so I got a couple of Unmarked Sacks of Gems, each containing three or four uncut green-quality gems. Not huge, but hey, a few extra gold never hurt, and it's certainly enough to be worth flying out for every month. Blizzard originally had plans to have the gems come in the mail, but that was buggy and they ultimately scrapped it in favor of a monthly quest.The different rewards, depending on your Consortium reputation, are: Friendly: Gem Stuffed Envelope Honored: Unmarked Sack of Gems Revered: Bulging Sack of Gems Exalted: Bag of Premium Gems Maybe it's time to start grinding Consortium rep...any tips on that? Also, jewelcrafters, do you see a spike in your business around the beginning of the month? Just curious.
Dragontouched tells a good story in comic form
Hot on the heels of the great Hammer of Grammar, here's another up-and-coming WoW comic, called Dragontouched. Normally, I'm not much for story-based comics like this (I tend to like the humorous ones much better), but I have to say-- I checked out the first page, and didn't look up until I got all the way to the latest one. It pulled me right in.The style is a little simpler than some of the other "screenshot comics" ("machigraphica"?), as there's really no editing on the shots at all. But you can tell that Autumnflare, the creator, is getting better and better at this as they go along-- both the storytelling and the layout are improving with almost every new comic. And it is super cool to see all the lore integrated so well. The story feels like both a part of the WoW universe and an interesting new take on it. I especially like the Consortium dude-- he seems more shifty here than I've ever seen them ingame.So good stuff so far, and I'll bet there's even better things to come. Are we entering into a whole second generation of WoW comics?
Where to start with 2.1 content
The 2.1 patch this week introduced enough new quest lines, top-end raid content, flying mounts, and L70 solo & small group content to qualify as its own game. With a three day weekend looming I didn't even know where to begin. So I scoured the web and found the where to go and what to do to get me started. THE BLACK TEMPLE: Already planning to strut around Shattrath in your T6 Raid gear? Don't bank that T5 set too quick. The Black Temple attunement quest is ... epic. And it hasn't even been fully discovered so far. What is known is that you will have to slog through a great deal of the Burning Crusade raid content that comes before it: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshire Cavern, The Eye and The Battle of Mount Hyjal. And many of those raids require extensive attunement quests of their own. If you are still itching to begin, you can dig in with the Tablets of Baa'ri chain out of Shadowmoon Valley to start grinding that Ashtongue Deathsworn rep. NETHERDRAKE EPIC FLYING MOUNT: First, don't confuse this with the Swift Nether Drake top Arena teams are awarded with at the end of every season. That one has a speed increase of 310% and has an armored appearance. This is the normal epic nether drake with a speed increase on par with other epic flying mounts: 280%. What's special about this epic flying mount is that it can be obtained through solo and small group quests. No raid required. What is required is a great deal of dedication.The first steps on your journey is to dig yourself out of Hated reputation with the Netherwing clan and get all the way to Exalted. This is accomplished through solo, 5 man and 3 man daily quests. Head to the south east corner of Shadowmoon Valley and speak to Mordenai in the Netherwing Fields. A complete write up can be found here.
$500 million underwater fiber network to link Asia, America
Unfortunately for most, traversing back and forth to Asia from America on a regular basis isn't exactly in the cards, but thanks to a $500 million project agreed upon by a 17-member telecommunications consortium, visiting via fiber will soon be a whole lot snappier. Telekom Malaysia, along with 16 other firms, have awarded a half billion dollar contract to Alcatel-Lucent and NEC to construct a 12,428-mile link between the west coast of America and Southeast Asia. The aptly-dubbed Asia-America Gateway will connect the western US with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii, while also offering "seamless interconnection" with Europe, Africa, and Australia. Moreover, the project is being designed to provide a "more secure link for traffic" across the seas, as it avoids the hazardous Pacific Ring in hopes of dodging massive internet outages due to unexpected earthquakes. Best of all, the wait time for the undersea cabling to make an impact is fairly reasonable, as users should see "faster and more reliable service" when it becomes operational in December of next year.[Via Physorg]
Blue Notes: Alchemy is random, the Consortium are swindlers
One of the neatest-sounding profession changes in a while is the alchemy discovery feature, where an alchemist crafting things had a small chance to spontaneously discover a new, rare recipe. A lot of people are unhappy with exactly how rare these recipes are, though; Drysc responds: The discoveries aren't intended to be common, they're extremely rare in fact. It's really intended to be a bonus if you happen to get one, and not something every alchemist is guaranteed to see. They're so rare that if you're putting effort purely towards discovery you could be spending a lot of time and resources to simply be disappointed. If you do find one, it should be a happy discovery, and not a waste of time if you don't. What I'm saying is don't expect to discover one, but if you do then congratulations.This makes a lot of sense to me: it's more or less a waste of time to grind for them, so just go about your business and be happy if you get one. Like a world epic. Drysc elaborated:
A man, a plan, a faction
There are a lot of new factions in the Burning Crusade. Just by looking at WoWWiki's factions page, I can count thirteen, and that's combining all the opposed faction ones like Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Mag'Har/Kurenai, and Aldors/Scryers. With so many factions, it's nearly impossible to grind rep with all of them. So I've come up with a game plan. I have to get revered with Thrallmar, Lower City, the Sha'Tar, Cenarion Expedition and Keepers of Time to get my Mount Hyjal attunement, so those are a given. That alone should net me a couple of transmutes and alchemy recipes. Aside from that, I have two factions I am considering grinding to exalted: the Scryers and the Consortium. They both have excellent daggers available at exalted, and I'd like to be able to start the endgame off with some good daggers. The Keepers of Time also have a nice dagger, but they seem significantly harder to grind solo than the other two. Plus, the Consortium is a group of ethereal smugglers! How cool is that? After I've been 70 for a while, I may go back and do some exalted grinds to pick up alchemy recipes, but I doubt I'll be in any hurry. What factions do you want to grind out, and what reputation rewards are you lusting after?
DSM to kick copper speeds up to 100 Mbps
While everyone's getting all excited by that FiOS, fiber-to-the-home, fiber-in-the-home or even Google's alleged DWDM -- there's another futuristic bandwidth project currently afoot, the Dynamic Spectrum Management. The advantage of DSM -- which aims to replace DSL if its creators have their way -- is to use current copper wiring to create 100Mbps service in the home by futzing with the way that signals and packets are processed and transferred. Naturally, if DSM turns out to work, it would likely be a much cheaper alternative to digging trenches for fiber in the ground. In any case, this requires a fair amount of cooperation between those telecom firms who control the pipes, and so today, a group of tech and telecom companies (including the Israeli firm ECI Telecom and the Spanish giant Telefonica), have joined forces to try to work out all of DSM's kinks. The consortium announced that it will receive €8 million ($10 million) in grant money over the next three years from the Chief Scientist Office of Israel. [Via Reuters]
Apple joins consortium, iPhone rumoring churns
Thought you could slip one past us, didn't you Apple, just like you did with BAPco? Well, let's be fair, it wasn't entirely a low profile day for Khronos, the media software consortium that Apple just joined today along with the likes of Dell and Google (among others), and we do know it's not so much like insular Cupertino to lower the drawbridge and send out envoys to industry groups with goals as nebulous as creating open APIs for the "authoring and playback of rich media on a wide variety of platforms and devices." Other Krhonos members of note include, well, just about every major tech company around, but since that also includes names like Symbian, Motorola, Samsung and so on we'll hold on tight to the iPhone angle. Because really, at this point it's just easier than spending yet more time with the tea leaves and divining stick.[Via iPodWizard, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
