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Tunes for toons while raiding
We've talked about listening to music while playing the game before. While the "actual" game music is pretty good (I've gone back and forth between having it on and off during the time I've played, and at this point I'm in an "on" phase, so I can hear all the new Northrend music). But Lazaragh on Jubei'thos wants to know about a specific situation: what do you listen to while raiding?Personally, while I'll often have a podcast or a movie on while playing solo or sometimes running five mans (if I'm feeling particularly awake), I tend to have to focus while raiding, so I usually turn the background noise off and listen to Vent or just the audio queues ingame. Any more than that an I get distracted. But there are all kinds of answers in the thread, from trance to pop to metal (Dragonforce FTW!), and pretty much across every genre that you can think of. What might be most interesting about all of this is that the music apparently has no effect on gameplay, though it'd be interesting to see the raiding performance of people who listen to music while playing against people who don't.Maybe an enterprising raiding group can do an experiment and figure that out. I'd guess it's just personal taste, but it does seem to me that even if you say your attention isn't divided, the music has to be a little distraction. Maybe it's just me. What kind of music do you raid with?
Online games become a hot issue in Israeli politics
Throughout the recent American presidential campaign for Barack Obama, online gaming played a fairly important role. Not only did Obama use in-game advertising, but some of his appointed staff are vocal World of Warcraft players. The politicians of Israel have taken note of the effectiveness and popularity of Obama's campaign strategies, and are implementing a bit of online gaming into their own upcoming national elections.Israel's ruling Kadima party will soon release an online game that chides former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. it doesn't seem to be an MMO-type game, but more of a flash-based online game, we're guessing. Yet with the popularity of political campaigns in Second Life and more politicians coming out as dedicated WoW players, will the day ever come where these debates get more heated? Can you imagine watching the future president battling his opponent in the Battlegrounds?
What rights should we have to our virtual goods?
Are you aware of your property rights as they pertain to the virtual goods in your favorite MMO? Are you aware of the laws in your country as they pertain to virtual goods? Heck, do you even read the EULA?It seems like these lawyer-speak agreements are becoming more prevalent lately, as we impatiently click the 'agree' button in anticipation of playing the latest MMO. In fact, even older games are reinstating their EULA on the loading screens, forcing players to click through before entering their world. The reason for this basically boils down to inevitable litigation as gaming grows in popularity.
Cryptic reveals first Star Trek Online in-game trailer
This download is for all of you -- us included -- who've been patiently awaiting the arrival of some in-game footage of Cryptic's Star Trek Online. Everything you're seeing in this trailer is in-game footage and while the art direction is a tiny bit "cartoonish" for our tastes it's certainly not bad by any means. Though we do have to admit that EVE Online looks like it may trump Star Trek Online in terms of shockingly beautiful objects floating around in space. It's still early though so all bets are off. In fact, for all we know there could be some crazy black holes or binary star systems just waiting for the chance to grab ahold of our jaws and slam them to the floor.We do have to admit that the combat looked pretty well developed for a game that just got announced. The fact that there's both space-battles and in-ship battles being shown in the first trailer gives us hope for an earlier-than-expected release date. We guess that we'll just whittle our time away with some superhero MMO until that time comes. Right, Cryptic?
Huxley in-game footage reminds us of something
It's not a bad thing that Huxley gameplay looks a lot like Unreal Tournament III, but it is a bit disconcerting for anyone interested in the MMOFPS in regards towards its possible uniqueness. The fact that what we're seeing in this video amounts to a standard deathmatch is probably the biggest reason for the comparison. While we professed our enjoyment of Huxley's recently released cinematic trailer, neither that nor this look into the game have told us why Huxley is any different than the many other FPS and MMO games currently proliferating across the market.Don't get us wrong, though. We're always interested in different experiences here at Massively, so you can expect us to be playing Huxley whenever it manages to wash up on our shores. We're just hoping that the experience amounts to more than running around beautifully rendered worlds shooting things up, because that can be found elsewhere.[via Rock, Paper Shotgun]
Breakfast Topic: How are you celebrating St. Patrick's Day in game?
Today is St. Patrick's Day, and I'm sure my Irish Catholic grandmother will be proud of me when I show her this Easter holiday that I've managed to write something up on this Irish celebration. In fact, pictured above is my Irish leaning main character Osullivan overlooking the green river in Chicago. My friends in Defenders of The Pass over on the Eldre'Thalas server have teased me for years with green beer, and today, I'm going to have one and salute them all. /cheers!While there isn't any official World of Warcraft holiday for St. Patty's Day, festivities are bound to be popping up everywhere. Perhaps some merry drinking, maybe a few kisses to a stone, or maybe everyone rolls a red headed female dwarven warrior and dances around a bit.Besides my real life green beer that I'll be enjoying (most likely a Budweiser Select with green dye), I'll have to saunter over to a tavern and pick up some sort of Potent Ale. I think I'll drink it right before I go off to pull Archimonde, no doubt causing everyone to yell in bewilderment over vent. What are you doing in game for this St. Patrick's Day? And if you can, share with me and tip back the ol' glass at 9:00 EST tonight!
In-game XMB in '08, swears Sony
Now, we love beating a dead horse as much as the next irate Amish farmer (don't be offended; most Amish don't use the internet so defending them would be kind of silly), but a lot of people don't like hearsay and rumor and tend to wait for official confirmation before busting out some bubbly and causing a catastrophe. We've got it for you, though -- at CES, Sony reps confirmed that in-game XMB is slated to hit your console as an update sometime in '08. It's a pretty rough confirmation, as there are still over 350 days left in 2008. That could mean a lot of waiting.What we have to point out is that other games technically have this feature -- Singstar has an in-game buddy list so you can check on your friends, messages, and the like. Super Stardust HD allows for custom soundtracks. This begs the question -- do we need in-game XMB across the board, or do developers just have to implement a feature in their titles to allow something similar? Older games can obviously get patched. Still, we suppose getting all the games at once under a universal update could be the best move.
The Daily Grind: In-game holiday gifts
The holidays are upon us, and you know what that means! That's right -- lots of pie to be had! No, seriously. It means 'tis the season to be on the lookout for cool things for friends both near and far. Of course, as obvious as it seems, one of the things we've heard bandied about is the idea of giving in-game gifts to in-game friends. Know a raiding Resto Shaman in WoW who is always complaining about bag space? Why not get them either a Healing Potion Injector or a Mana Potion Injector! For games with player housing, you can always craft up something nifty for their in-game house. Have a collector on your list? You can't beat non-combat pets -- or whatever it is they're collecting. We think one of the best gifts we've heard suggested is the gift of time. Now we're not just talking about timecards (although those are always pretty awesome in our opinion) -- we mean making time to help friends with a tough quest, or running a mission/instance that's proven problematic for them. Of course, you could always just take the easy way out like my guild does and just send each other cards in real life! It's always nice to see snailmail that isn't all bills at this time of year, and it's pretty cheap to do. (Of course, be warned if your guild is anything at all like mine, you may not get some of the holiday cards until Valentine's Day...)Now that we've given you some of our ideas, what kinds of things will you be thinking about giving to your in-game friends? Do you have anything you've been crafting up for your guild-mates? Is there something that you'd like to get as an in-game gift yourself? Or do you think the whole idea is totally nuts and we should really get out more?
Today's most Pamela Anderson Free video: WoW Baywatch intro parody
This World of Warcraft video features a parody of the opening titles to Baywatch, but takes Pamela Anderson out of the mix and replaces her with a buxom female in a bikini. There's a dwarf too, making you wonder who they could rescue in a case of drowning, but hey ... the heart is in the right place, even if the legs are short. Apparently Hasselhoff is nowhere to be found either, dammit.It's gotten to the point where we'd rather watch WoW machinima than actually try and spend hours, days, weeks, and months grinding out levels. Someone is probably working on a Heroes episode with WoW characters right now as you're reading then. In fact, is it you? If so, get back to work and let us know when you're done.
Virtua Fighter 5 only for PS3 next spring
There was a time when Virtua Fighter 5 was considered a strong candidate for an arcade port to the Xbox 360, but that multiplatform hope's been dashed with the official announcement that VF5 will appear only on PS3 in the spring of 2007. Sega's technical fighter is a Sony exclusive once more.While home-console online play remains doubtful at this point, next-gen PlayStation owners can now securely look forward to facing off as El Blaze and Eileen (the new luchador and monkey kung-fu artist, respectively) along with the other 15 fighters, decked out in all sorts of items purchased in the in-game store with prize money earned through in-game matches.VF5 will support up to 720p HD resolution and will be featured in game footage in the SEGA booth at E3 (South Hall, Booth #946) later this week.[Thanks, Matt; also via Joystiq]
