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New 'Dungeons & Dragons' site manages the rules so you can just play
Dungeons & Dragons, the quintessential pen-and-paper game, is more popular than ever, thanks to Twitch channels like Geek and Sundry and podcasts like The Adventure Zone. But it's one thing to listen or watch a presentation crafted by seasoned gamers and another to actually run your own adventure. Players may get frustrated by the hundreds of pages of rules and quit before they've even had their first goblin encounter. Wizards of the Coast and social gaming firm Curse aim to fix this with the launch of D&D Beyond, a website and app intended to take care of all the fine print and number crunching, leaving dungeon masters and players free to focus on crafting a good story.
'D&D Beyond' takes the pen and paper out of tabletop RPGs
Despite all the newfangled ways one can play Dungeons and Dragons, there's something special about playing it the old fashioned way -- in person with a bunch of friends and a geometrical mess of dice. Still, if you want to modernize your tabletop adventure just a little, you'll have the option soon. Wizards of the Coast just announced that it's working with Curse to create an official digital toolset designed to replace the pen and paper character sheets of yore.
Twitch desktop app aims to make streaming more social
Twitch has long been more than just a video game streaming platform. In fact, it's starting to morph into a full-fledged, gamer-centric social network and marketplace. Just a few days ago, the company unveiled Pulse, which added a Facebook-like feed featuring posts from streamers and viewers. This spring, Twitch will also introduce the ability for users to buy and download the games being played by their favorite streamers directly on the page. Today, the gaming platform announced these and other features are also coming to the new Twitch Desktop App, which launches on March 16th.
Twitch brings video calls to its game communication app
Twitch wants to move beyond live streaming to cover your game communications, and to that end it bought Curse back in August. Just what is it doing with its newly acquired app, though? Well, now we know: Curse is rolling out desktop support for both video calls and screen sharing on top of its existing voice and social features. You and four other people can now see each other while you play, and share what's on your display if you want to brag about a victory or show vital info to your teammates.
Curse opens its doors to WildStar addons
Curse would like to become your one-stop shopping hub for all of your future WildStar addon needs. The site announced that it's expanding its focus to include addons for Carbine Studios' upcoming MMO. Curse will be supporting WildStar mods with a new version of the CurseForge platform, which purportedly will streamline tools and better fit players' needs. The site is also open to authors creating and submitting their own projects to fill up the categories. Speaking of WildStar, Bogotter has a first-hand tour of the Dominion adventure, Riot in the Void, which you can watch after the break. Which path will he take? Who knows, but it will almost certainly end in glorious disaster!
AionSource shutting down
It's been a good eight-year run for one of Aion's longest fan sites, but that run is over now. AionSource, a fansite operated by Curse, is shutting down over the next few weeks, first going into read-only mode before being shut down altogether. The site's current administrator has set up a new site for the community members who would like to migrate. No reason has been stated for the shutdown; the site is not the only fan site that Curse has shut down in recent years, most likely due to a lack of cash flow. Users are encouraged to back up forum posts and the like before the shut down, while site administrators attempt to copy over some of the most useful community guides. Our best wishes to the community organizers attempting to keep the group together through the move. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Blood Pact: Weak Aura strings for warlocks
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill dares to share her stash of Weak Auras with the internet. Since I primarily take my own screenshots, we've seen my Weak Auras in action already. I've talked a little about how this addon and TellMeWhen can accomplish some of the same user interface goals. Now, we finally get around to the big request -- let's see some warlock Weak Aura strings. The usual caveat applies here: these are my Weak Auras and they work fine for me within my own setup of playing a warlock that is unique to me. I'm sure someone will find my Burning Embers graphic irrelevant, but I remind you, to each her own.
Riot rules on League of Legends Elo-Boosting, alleged DDoS attacks
Riot recently celebrated the five-million-concurrent-players milestone, but it seems that not all of those players are on the level. League of Legends' competition committee has dropped the smack down on a number of pro players due to Elo-Boosting. The company defines Elo-Boosting as "the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else's account (a "client") for the purpose of artificially improving the client's Elo rating." Seven players and one coach, representing pro clubs that include Curse and compLexity, have had their accounts suspended for 14 days. Additionally, the cheaters have had their Season Two rewards revoked. Riot also issued a "first and final" warning to Good Game University general manager Sam "Hexo" Bouchard for allegedly using a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack to disrupt an opponent's internet connectivity. The LoL competition committee provides an example of Bouchard's antics and it also notes that he currently boasts the worst harrassment rating among all LCS North American players. [Thanks Officer Jenny!]
Slap a rocket on a pig: WildStar's modding and PGC community
At January's WildStar press event, I had the opportunity to chat with several of Carbine's developers about something near and dear to my heart: modding. During my personal demo, Jeremy Gaffney remarked offhandedly -- twice! -- that people don't really want to play the UI; they want to play the game. I know that he's right about some people, and I'm glad game developers are devoting resources toward designing a seamless blend of UI and gameplay that makes actually healing party members as fun or more fun than playing Grid-style healer whackamole. But whackamole or not, I do want to play the UI. I want to tinker. Fortunately, WildStar intends to accommodate me in a huge way. Read on for the scoop on WildStar's planned modding tools, player councils, and player-generated content.
Blood Pact: Taking care of your DoTs
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill admits to problems with DoT clipping (*gasp*) and finds a way to fix it. Every warlock has at least one damage over time effect to take care of. Destruction has Immolate. Demonologists flip between Corruption and Doom (Metamorphosis), though I suppose you could count Shadowflame off Hand of Gul'dan as one. Affliction is the "DoT spec," starring Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, with appearances of Haunt.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Will Korea dominate League of Legends, too?
When I first started following the League of Legends pro scene, I was introduced to top teams like Team Solo Mid and SK Gaming. As I watched matches and player interviews, the first thing that came to my mind was this: If Korea fielded a LoL pro team, it would be incredibly scary. When Riot Games added support for Korean League of Legends and OnGameNet began running regular tournaments, I had to check it out. Sure enough, big pro-gaming teams like StarTale and MiG started fielding pro League teams, and most of the things I suspected were true. Korean teams have amazing coordination and incredible mechanics compared to their western counterparts. This was put to the test last weekend during Major League Gaming's LoL Summer Arena, where Korean qualifying team Azubu Blaze utterly destroyed the other teams, losing only once to Curse Gaming. Most of the matches weren't even close. What's the secret to Azubu Blaze's dominance? Can it be reproduced in the West, or is League of Legends going to end up like StarCraft -- dominated by the Korean scene?
First signs of Google's new 'semantic search' spotted, put to good use
So, Google wasn't merry-dancing when it promised to update its search engine with new "semantic" algorithms. One of our readers sent in the screen grab above, which shows what happens when they search for "Howard Carter." In addition to all the regular links, there's a box on the right that seems to be distinctly aware of who that poor fellow was (er, happy birthday old bean). We haven't been able to replicate these results, which probably means it's a limited roll-out at this time. Nevertheless, if we're right, then this archaeologist's name will have wormed its way through Mountain View's constantly updated knowledge database, which we're told can link facts together rather than just match keywords. Carter's cause of death? Hmm, clearly the system still as a few things to learn about mummies and curses. [Thanks, Joseph]
Hellgate is cursed... in a good way
Just when we thought we'd be stuck in London forever, Hellgate Global took us across the world to the ravaged vista of Tokyo late last month. To celebrate the good times and charred corpses all across virtual Japan, the resurrected MMOFPS is bringing a set of new challenges for players to overcome. For those who scoff at curses and camping out on top of primitive burial grounds, Hellgate dares you to activate your Curse of Dawn mode and attempt to take out Imhotep and Anaksunamun. Those who do so will be on the receiving end of rewards beyond imagination. Also, in-game currency. Other challenges heading into the game include a guild battle system, and the return of Boss Time Attack. It's not all work and no play, as players will enjoy bonus supplies, free gifts at specific levels, and XP boosts. For a limited time champion monsters will drop lucky coupons, which can then be exchanged for rare items. These will only be in the game until the end October 15th, as luck can only last for so long. [Source: T3 Entertainment press release]
The Queue: Ancient memes for ancient connections
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Yes, that's right. I moved to California, land of actual broadband internet, leaving my dial-up and horrible mobile broadband far behind. Are you excited? I'm excited. I'm downloading games from Steam at 2MB/s. Do you know how long it took me to download stuff like that before? And how much I had to pay for it? Don't get me started, people. Josh asked: Did curse.com and MMO-Champion.com get hacked like the other gaming sites? They've reported that they're working through a hardware failure, not a security issue, so it doesn't appear that they've been hacked. We like Curse and we hope everything is back up and running soon!
Snag an Age of Empires Online beta key!
If you're an old school Age of Empires player, then you have fond memories of harvesting bushes for berries, scooting your peasants inside the town hall during an attack, and spreading your civilized society by the pointy end of your swords. Those good ol' memories are being made new in Gas Powered Games' Age of Empires Online, which is heading our way good and fast. Assuming that the thought of creating a civilization from scratch to dominate your enemies pleases your sensibilities, you can now grab a free beta key from Curse. Simply nab a key while they last, then head on over to the Age of Empires Online site to redeem it and download the beta client. We're looking forward to hearing how this MMORTS plays, so if you get in, make sure to give us your fair assessment!
Final issue of Curse of the Worgen now available
Curse of the Worgen is a pretty cool look at the worgen story and the lead-up to Cataclysm from the Gilnean point of view, and the series' final issue is now available. Not only that, but to celebrate this great series coming to an end, Blizzard has a treat for everyone: hi-res wallpapers of each of the Curse of the Worgen covers.
Waging WAR: Guide to addons
This week in WagingWAR Greg takes a look at the basic interface offered in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Well, he said he would take a look, but then he mumbled something about needing a blindfold first. Instead, he writes about all the great ways it can be changed via third-party add-ons and shows us why WAR's modding community really is just the bee's knees. Let's be honest with ourselves right off the bat and agree that the WAR default interface, although functional, is lackluster in some respects. That's not to say that the developers of WAR made a disastrous UI for us to play with; in fact, the truth is quite the opposite. The standard UI is functional, genre-standard, and provides all the necessary information at a glance. It gets the job done. It also offers a layout editor that allows for simple, easy customization. But sometimes, someone else's idea for a UI element is simply better. Thankfully, WAR supports the Lua programming language and enjoys a strong and talented modding community. Continue reading for the lowdown on what I consider to be the best of the best of what WAR's mod community has to offer as of patch 1.4.
World of Raids going offline in favor of MMO-Champion
It was announced in July that MMO-Champion had been acquired by Curse, which also owns World of Raids. It was unclear at the time what would eventually happen to World of Raids, given the obvious close proximity of content between WoR and Curse. While there were no details to be had, it seemed clear that something had to happen between MMO-C and WoR. Now, Kody, a World of Raids administrator, has announced that World of Raids will be going offline and that most of the page views will automatically forward over to MMO-Champion. At the same time, MMO-Champion will receive a facelift by the same designer who created the Wowstead design. According to Kody, the new design will not repeat any of the "mistakes" in the WoR design, although Kody didn't specify what those mistakes may have been. World of Raids will still be providing basic coverage until the final forwards are completed and the lights are turned out.
Curse acquires MMO-Champion
Yesterday, Curse.com announced the acquisition of MMO-Champion from its owners, Major League Gaming. Boubouille, the big dog over at MMO-Champion, is heading to the Curse team as well. This is some pretty exciting news for the Curse network! Curse, which already has one of the largest repositories of WoW addons and mods for download, as well as the venerable World of Raids outlet, adds on significant prowess in the WoW information community. With content from all three channeled into each other, you can expect big things from all involved. Read the official press release over at Curse or MMO-Champion. Some of the questions that I personally had about the acquisition were, happily and thankfully, answered by both World of Raids and Boubouille himself. Curse currently has a premium subscription-based service, and I wanted to know if we could expect something similar from MMO-Champion in the future. Boubouille answered on his website: I'm not going to bullshit you, premium might happen but it's really not a top priority for the moment. I would hardly call it premium, more like "Donator/Sponsor" for people who would like to help, I would also like to explore new features through that like user generated blogs or user groups on forums, etc ... But really, I don't see it happening in 2010. If I ever add a Premium feature to the site, it will be because it can bring something more without penalizing people who don't want to pay, it won't be just because I'm jealous of Ghostcrawler and want to buy a bigger yacht than his. If something is free today, it will stay free. It's that simple. Doesn't sound attractive or well-thought? Good, that's because we have no immediate plan to do that. Exactly my point. Secondly, what happens to World of Raids, now that two similarly positioned outlets are housed under the same roof? From World of Raids: What this means for World of Raids, and when it will happen, is still being worked out. I'll make sure to announce any plans well in advance though. We talked with Boubouille back in 2009, and the interview is definitely worth a read. Good luck to Boubouille at his new home and big grats to Curse for picking up a hot property.
New issues with Adobe Flash, Google search links could compromise your account
We have news of two new tricks hackers are currently using to steal WoW accounts. First, from Curse, comes news of a Google sponsored link that claims to lead to the popular addon manager Curse Client, but instead leads to a malware download. To be absolutely safe, you should always only download the client from http://www.curse.com/client. In addition, Blizzard is warning that Adobe Flash version 10.0.45.2 contains a critical vulnerability that could be used to install a keylogger on your computer in order to steal your WoW account info. You can avoid this issue by installing Adobe Flash version 10.1 Release Candidate 7, which does not appear to have the same vulnerabilities.
