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The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth
What a difference a year makes, eh? One year ago, and you didn't have to put up with me yammering at you every Friday like a hyperactive badger with a personality disorder. One year ago, and we weren't free-to-play-anything, Turbine was its own company, the festivals were nowhere near as cool as they are today, and shrews freely roamed the land without fear of reprisal. So in my last Road to Mordor (of the year, stop rejoicing over there!), I thought it'd be great to look back at the wild rollercoaster that was 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. I also thought I'd get an easy column out of all this, but that was before I had to read through 1,337 posts and my eyeballs began to lose pressure. January Stuff happened. Let's move on.
The Road to Mordor: Luck be a lady tonight
During this past week in the wild world of Lord of the Rings Online, we were treated to a snippet of exceptionally good news: The LotRO lotteries are back. Some of you might be indifferent to this news, some might be overjoyed, and some -- I'm guessing -- are totally puzzled about what this all means. Considering how many new players have immigrated to LotRO this year and how long the lottos have been out of commission (several months now), it wouldn't surprise me if a player hadn't even heard of these at all. Simply put, the lotteries are a "for fun" bonus that Turbine implemented to give all players a chance to win some nifty in-game items. These winnings can include anything from beer to gold to housing items to mounts. It really depends on your luck and how generous the devs are feeling any given week. Some of the lottos have huge payouts, while others deliver prizes as silly and paltry as a single lump of coal. So if you're new to the LotRO lotteries -- or just need a refresher course -- hit the jump and let's suss this thing out!
Another Mog Bonanza coming to Final Fantasy XI
The Mog Bonanza is coming back for another celebration of a new year in Final Fantasy XI, giving players the chance to earn insane prizes without doing anything more arduous than guessing a number correctly. Of course, it's a five-digit number that you only get one real shot at guessing right, so there's a good cause behind the quality of prizes -- mountains of gil, Empyrean weapons, and unique furnishings for your in-game home. As with prior events, you get prizes as long as you guess the last number correctly, with better prizes awarded the more digits you get correct. Marbles go on sale for the price of 2000 gil starting on December 22nd, and with a grand total of 10 marbles per character, you can at least ensure that you wind up winning a statue -- or try to go for broke with maximum possible earnings. Take a look at the full list of prizes on the official site, and start guessing your numbers now, as it's a chance to earn fantastic Final Fantasy XI prizes for just a little bit of work.
EVE Evolved: Gambling away all your ISK
EVE Online is said to be a game in which you can do literally anything you set your mind to. It doesn't matter whether your ambition is to climb the alliance ranks, become the scourge of low-security space or even just fly around space telling jokes. If you can conceive of an idea that can be carried out in-game, it's probably a perfectly viable way to play the game. Over the years, players have come up with a number of unique and unconventional gameplay styles. Most of them began as ways for the pilots involved to make ISK or gain notoriety, but some were created just to see if it could be done. I've seen everything from player-run graveyards for the victims of piracy to players renting kill-boards for ISK, and yet the EVE community never ceases to amaze me with the new ways people find to play the game. The most recent development to blow me away is SOMER.blink, a website where players can gamble their ISK to win fabulous prizes. Gambling in EVE is nothing particularly new; players have been wagering ISK on everything from lotteries to hands of poker for a long time. What makes SOMER.blink special is its absolutely flawless execution. Almost everything is automated, from the transfer of ISK into your account balance to the prize lotteries themselves. The website itself is even accessible from outside EVE once ISK has been deposited in your wallet. I've spent hours so far blinking away on lotteries and losing quite a bit of ISK, but I'll be damned if it hasn't been fun. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look into the addictive phenomena of Somer.BLINK and try to explain where all my damn ISK went.
Exploring Eberron: Six things to do on your first day in game
So you've given into temptation, downloaded DDO onto your hard drive, and decided to see what all the hubbub was about with Turbine's quirky MMO-that-could. Good for you -- personally, I think you're in for a terrific time. Of course, there's a small but steep learning curve at the start of the game, which I envision claims the lives of many gamers who run all willy-nilly into said wall screaming, "Where is the auto-attack keyyyyy?" You want to avoid that. You want your DDO experience to be face-smashing-wall free. Therefore, I have pulled myself out of a Fun Dip coma (soooo much sugar) to cobble together six vitally important tasks to perform on your first day in game in order to save the princess. Or make your life easier, I don't know. I'm assuming that you've already made your first character and are itching to test drive that bad boy or girl and see how quickly you can die. Man, I bet you really wish Rubi were back already, huh? Wish harder, dude!
EVE Online turns 7 today, BIG corp runs huge anniversary lottery
On May 6th 2003, a little online space game by a relatively unknown independent Icelandic games company was officially released. Fast forward seven years down the line and that little company is a megalithic giant in the games industry. Spanning four countries and leveraging hundreds of staff, the company has begun to expand its portfolio with a console MMOFPS and a new MMO based in the World of Darkness setting. Under CCP's development, EVE Online has stood the test of time and enjoyed a steady increase in subscriptions. At EVE's sixth anniversary last year, they announced having reached 300,000 active subscriptions with a peak concurrent user total of 53,850. Some time in December of last year, the number of EVE subscriptions finally surpassed the number of citizens in CCP's home country of Iceland. That number rose to 330,000 active subscriptions by March of this year, with a peak concurrent total of 56,021. With the Tyrannis expansion around the corner, EVE is sure to see the same characteristic growth this year too. CCP took the time to start a congratulatory thread on the EVE forums to mark the day. To celebrate, they're also donating massive prizes to EVE's oldest and most respected player-run lottery. The BIG lottery's anniversary draw is open now for entry and closes on Sunday, May 16th, with a live prize drawing the following day. The first place winner takes home a colossal 25 billion ISK prize, with the second place reeling in a huge 10 billion ISK. CCP is sponsoring prizes of a year's free game time, a battleship model from the EVE store, a copy of the new EVE: The Burning Life novel and an EVE T-Shirt. Not to be left out, E-ON Magazine is offering the latest four issues of the magazine plus a copy of their EVE Strategic Map booklet. Finally, EVE player "Ash Tre" is sponsoring the contest with a pack of faction cruisers. From all of us here at Massively, happy birthday EVE Online!
EVE player run lottery offers some of game's rarest ships
One of the things we really like about EVE Online is how the sandbox encourages all manner of player-run services and ventures. Sure, some of them can be risky, but others have been quite successful. A few of these projects are starting to become a mainstay of the game and some players have really made a name for themselves by establishing such ventures. A good example of this is EVE Online player T'Amber who is known for running lotteries. Big lotteries. The current (and fourth) "Ships of EVE" lottery that T'Amber is running is no exception and has tons of prizes, including some very rare ships in the game. Ticket prices are reasonable at 10 million ISK each, particularly in light of what can be won. 1st place is a whopping 228 ship collector's fleet, featuring one of virtually every Tech I, Tech II, and Tech III ship across the game's four races, along with their faction variants (including the pirate faction ships). The collective value of this prize fleet is many billions of ISK. Just as appealing to some players as winning first prize in this lottery is coming in second -- and getting a "Mimir". Blueprints for these rare cruisers were only given to members of Pandemic Legion for winning EVE Alliance Tournament VII this past September. Indeed, the "VII" is emblazoned on the ship's hull, commemorating the tournament victory. There are very few Mimirs in the game and Ships of EVE 4 might be the only chance most players will have of obtaining one.
EVE Evolved: Trading: Tips and tricks, part 2
If you spot a market manipulation in progress and have some of the item yourself, take advantage of it by repeatedly listing the items on the market in small amounts. When small and medium rigs came out, the first producers made an absolute killing on them too.
EVE Evolved: Trading: Tips and tricks
So far in this guide to trading in EVE Online, I've covered the jobs best suited to new players and some of the more advanced trading techniques like margin trading, market speculation and price manipulation. This is by no means the entirety of what can happen in EVE's marketplaces, but serves as a good foundation for those trying to break into the trading game. In the hyper-capitalistic world of New Eden, the markets are hugely competitive and any edge you can get will help. With that in mind, this final part of the guide will cover a few of the tips and tricks I've learned over the years that have given me an edge in the marketplace. Some are common sense rules that most traders will learn eventually and will be invaluable to newer players. Others are more closely-guarded secrets that I've gleaned from years of gameplay. What is a cyclic product and what do you do when you spot a price manipulation? In this final part of the trading guide, I dish out some of my personal top tips for budding marketeers.
Lottery system in my.LOTRO updated
Turbine began the Lord of the Rings Online player lottery just over a month ago on my.LOTRO, and player response so far seems to have been very positive. After all, who doesn't like freebies? Turbine has used my.LOTRO's first month to gather player feedback, and now they are implementing some changes to streamline and improve the lottery system. The first change is sure to be welcome for those who don't want to miss any opportunities: a regular lottery schedule. Gone are the sporadic start and stop times -- my.LOTRO now has a schedule that includes three lotteries for all levels, plus a welcome wagon lottery three times a week especially for level 1-15 characters. The items you can win from the lottery remain a secret. They're random, but guaranteed to be useful to the specific character that you entered. However, lottery loot has undergone a little upgrade -- the site promises even better prizes from here on out. The new changes are in effect now at my.LOTRO.com.
Final Fantasy XI plays the moogle lottery
1-2-3-4-5 might not be the combination on your luggage, but it could fetch you a tidy sum of gil or some rare items in Final Fantasy XI in the near future. The third iteration of the Mog Bonanza event is incoming, and those five digits might be the key to riches. Or to irritation at having thrown money away on a ridiculous gamble. Starting on December 24th, all characters who have been in existence for at least 45 days may purchase a Mog Bonanza marble, which then is inscribed with five digits of the player's choice. On January 29th, 2010, a set of winning numbers will be chosen. Of course, you might argue that your odds of getting exactly the right five numbers are rather low (1 in 100,000 or so), which is true. But luckily for everyone involved, it's easier to win than matching the whole number. The best prizes go to those who match all five numbers, but even if just the last digit of your chosen numbers match the picked numbers, you win a reward. Your odds of that are about 1 in 10, which isn't a bad deal. For the full rules and the details of the rewards, take a look at the official page, and start dreaming of high-powered artifacts and buckets of gil in Final Fantasy XI. (We recommend 8-1-5-1-6, if you're so inclined.)
Turbine begins LotRO Lottery on my.lotro
Turbine is encouraging North American Lord of the Rings Online players to give my.lotro a try if they haven't yet, by offering some in-game rewards in the form of a lottery. Players just need to log in to my.lotro to see what drawings they are eligible for, enter, then check back after the drawing to see if they won. The lottery system is character based, which opens the door for more personalized prizes. While we all love in-game cash and items, things specific to your character are even more fun -- some lottery drawings will give "specific rewards based on a character's class, race, level, etc.," so take that into account when you choose which of your characters to enter with. Because my.lotro is currently in beta and Turbine is anxious for players to test it out and give feedback, the current lottery system is a daily event through the end of the month, and winners will receive a level-appropriate amount of silver and two bundles of fireworks delivered via in-game mail. Good luck to all who enter!
Only six days left to buy your Mog Bonanza marbles!
Adventurers of Vana'diel, you only have six more days to throw your gil at the popular virtual lottery, Mog Bonanza! Yes, that's right, the Mogs are once again offering up fabulous prizes for anyone willing to purchase a few lottery marbles!This year's grand prize of gil has changed, however, from a flat rate prize to a percentage of the proceeds generated from marble sales. For example, rank 1's gil prize will be half of the proceeds from marble sales divided equally amongst all of the people who won the grand prize and chose gil as their payout.Otherwise, the contest has remained pretty much as is, with items like the Kraken Club and Novio Earring making appearances once again on the grand prize list. Even if you don't match all six digits, there are still plenty of lucrative prizes to leap at, making purchasing marbles totally worth it.Marbles are 2000 gil a pick and can be purchased from Bonanza Moogles stationed at all of the ports of the capital cities and the Chocobo Circuit.
Figureprints lottery is over
Blizzard has posted on the official WoW site that the Figureprints lottery is over, and though there are no big news items over on the Figureprints site, all mentions of the lottery have disappeared also, so it looks like if you've been waiting for demand to clear up over there to order your figure, now's your chance. Figureprints is a company we've covered extensively here at WoW Insider - they'll make little custom statues of your character with a 3D printer. A print will run you $129.95, but if you're willing to pay for it, you can have a custom-made real-life souvenir of the toon you've spent so much time playing in game.The last time we talked to the guys over there they were working on all kinds of ways to make printing the figures easier and better, and it looks like they've found a few: Blizzard says that better methods have led to increased production, so even if you haven't heard from your lottery entry yet, odds are that you will soon. Unfortunately, they still haven't landed on a way to print out Hunter and Warlock pets to go along with those figures (their site still says they're working out how best to do it), so if you want Battlecatlol to go with your Hunter, Hemanlol, you'll have to wait a while longer.Of course, like Rossi, you might still be saying to yourself, "what's the point?" But if you do want one, now's apparently the time to come and get it.
BlizzCon ticket lottery opt-in now available
If you're interested in trying for one of the 3,000 BlizzCon tickets being sold by lottery, and you had a Blizzard Account before the evening of August 12th, head over to the Blizzard Store now, as Opt-ins are open. You should able to put yourself in to the drawing on the Account Management page. The opt-in period will last until the evening of Sunday, August 24th, and you will have an equal chance of getting a ticket no matter when you sign up. After the Opt-in period is over, 1,500 accounts will be chosen at random for a chance to buy up to 2 tickets. Be sure your contact information is up to date so they can contact if you win. Good Luck, and we'll see you at BlizzCon! [Thanks for the forward, Jeff!]
BlizzCon ticket lottery details out now
So Blizzard apologized for Failoc and the ticket fiasco, offering up 3,000 more tickets to the massively popular BlizzCon 2008. I'd like to think Mike Schramm's insightful essay on the ticket travesty (along with the public's general uproar, of course) had a bit to do with that, and now Blizzard has announced the method by which fans can purchase a ticket to the hottest show in Anaheim this October.Learning from the experience, Blizzard announced early on that the next batch of 3,000 tickets would be sold via lottery, giving everyone a fair chance at attending the event. There are quite a few limitations, such as having an active Blizzard Account that was created on or before August 12, when the first batch of tickets sold out. Note that a Blizzard Account isn't the same as your World of Warcraft account or an account for other Blizzard games. It's an account made specifically for their online store, so wannabe attendees who haven't created an account are flat out of luck.Also out of luck are residents of countries that aren't the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, or South Korea. So yeah, all you Blizzard fans in Zimbabwe, I'm looking at you. Alright, the Philippines isn't on that list, either, so we're all on the same unwelcome boat. Just like the Wrath Beta, Blizzard will hold an opt-in period for Blizzard Account holders and will pick 1,500 lucky chumps from those who opted in, allowing the purchase of up to 2 tickets each. Learn more about the details on the BlizzCon lottery through their BlizzCon FAQ.
Blizzard responds to the BlizzCon ticket problems
Tamara Chuang from Blizzard's hometown Orange County Register has been following the BlizzCon ticket story here at WoW Insider, and she finally heard back from her queries to Blizzard about what happened earlier this week. The Q&A is up on her blog right now -- Shon Damron of Blizzard's PR team responded to a few questions about what happened on Monday and Tuesday at Blizzard and what they'll do differently to sell tickets to their events in the future.Not surprisingly, Blizzard says they just weren't prepared for the demand -- last year, tickets sold much slower, and the close release date of the next expansion, in addition to the growth of WoW over the past year and, on the horizon, interest in Starcraft II and Diablo III, pushed fervor for tickets to a high. Blizzard thought by adding in more space and selling more tickets they'd account for demand, but they say a review of the entire process is now in order.Damron says a lottery (like the one they plan to use to sell the extra 3000 tickets) will be a definite possibility. We'll have to see exactly how that process works as Blizzard sells off the rest of the tickets for this year's BlizzCon, but it does definitely sound to us like they are taking serious considerations to make sure that buyers of BlizzCon tickets, many of Blizzard's biggest fans, don't go through what happened earlier this week again.
Blizzard 'reevaluates' BlizzCon space, announces ticket lottery
Blizzard president Mike Morhaime has issued a public apology on behalf of the company for the recent BlizzCon fiasco -- the "Wrath of the Ticke-Ting" -- which left thousands of F5ers empty-handed after two days of strenuous clicking. "As a result of this week's events, the excitement that many of you felt about the show has turned into dissatisfaction and disappointment," Morhaime writes in a statement posted on various Blizzard-operated sites. "Due to these circumstances, we've reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale."We don't know where Blizzard plans to squeeze the additional load of freaks and geeks -- worst case scenario: dump some mobile buildings in the parking lot and load 'em with free diet soda and chips ... and dip -- but we do know that the only way to become one of the fabled "3,000" is to sharpen your Sword of Last Resort and spill some virgin blood upon the Alter of Actilizzard toss your name into a hat and hope it gets pulled. That's right, "To avoid the issues many of you faced this week, we'll be selling these 3,000 via a lottery," Morhaime explains (read: the servers still can't handle the force of 10 million clicks). Further details will be posted once Blizzard figures out how it's gonna work. Suggestions?
Forum post of the day: Beta buying blues
Now that Blizzard has confirmed that beta keys from Blizzcon 07 and Worldwide Invitation 08 will be used to get into the Wrath of the Lich King test, they've become a pretty hot commodity. Sure they're for sale on eBay ranging from about $200 to $600, but what are they worth. I kind of wish I'd been able to go to one of those events to guarantee a spot in the beta. This same thing happened during the beta release of the Burning Crusade. Cheesytacos of Dragonblight thinks it's unfair to folks who win the beta lottery that folks are selling their beta keys for profit. For those willing to part with their keys, the sale price is at least worth the price of admission. I have to admit, it's well, annoying that folks who went to Blizzard's little soirées are granted passes into the new content. We come across the issue of property ownership many times in WoW. In general the assumption is that all things WoW are not actually the property of the players but of Blizzard. Are beta keys the property of the key holders to do with what they please until activation?
And the winning Mog Bonanza numbers are...
That's right Vana'diel adventurers, the numbers you've been waiting for are finally here! The mogs, under the strict supervision of Square-Enix, have drawn the winning numbers for the first ever Mog Bonanza lottery in Final Fantasy XI!If you want to check the numbers, just log in and check out the message of the day that will appear for your server. If you miss it for some reason, you can always type in /smes into the control panel to see it again. It's important to check your marbles though, because you can only redeem your prizes until August 1st. If you have a winning marble, simply take it to your nearest Bonanza Moogle at a city port (Port Bastok, Port San d'Oria, Port Windurst) or the Chocobo Circuit and they'll redeem your marble for your prize!The good gentlemen over at Pet Food Alpha have put together exactly how many winners there have been for your viewing pleasure. Over 837,000 marbles have won the rank 5 prize, Miratete's Memoirs, alone! That's a lot of marbles, kupo![Thanks, Fusionx!]
