olympics-2010
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EVE player wins silver medal at the Winter Olympics
It's not every day you run across an Olympic Medalist in your favourite MMO, much less gank them and take their stuff. For some EVE Online players, that opportunity may be closer than they think. With the conclusion of the recent Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, it came to light that one of the medal winners is not just an EVE player but also an avid PvP junkie. Casting off the stereotype of MMO gamers as unfit and demotivated, Kjetil Jansrud is a professional alpine skier at the peak of physical fitness. Competing in this year's Winter Olympics, the Norwegian EVE player took the silver medal in the Men's Giant Slalom event. Kjetil Jansrud is better known to his friends in "hirr" corporation as "NThraller", the Caldari ECM specialist. As part of Morsus Mihi alliance, he takes part in roaming PvP gangs and full-scale territorial warfare. In conjunction with the news of NThraller's Olympic win, JumpOnContact has taken an interesting look at the demographics of EVE players and MMO gamers in general. According to CCP, the average age of EVE players is around 27 and most players have some kind of degree-level certificate. The EVE community is made up of everything from high-paid professionals to students but did you ever expect to see "Olympic Medalist" added to that list? I know I didn't.
New in-game Winter Olympics reward discovered?
Even though Ghostcrawler promised us a moose during last week's Twitter developer chat, we haven't heard anything official or otherwise about an in-game reward for the Winter Olympics. Many people are expecting it as such a reward would follow the most recent Summer Olympics where everyone was able to earn the Spirit of Competition. Wowhead, the official armory, and other sites are listing now a Competitor's Souvenir that was added in patch 3.3. The Souvenir has an item ID number of 37298, whereas the the Gold Medallion from the Summer Olympics has an ID number of 37297. For the mathematically challenged, this new item is numerically next in line from the previous in-game Olympic tie-in. This lends credence that this Souvenir could very well give people a non-combat companion reward during this year's Winter Olympics. We don't have much of an idea of what pet the Competitor's Souvenir could give us. It's likely that the pet will be activated on the servers when the Souvenir becomes available during the Winter Olympics on February 12th, 2010. Of course, that's assuming the Souvenir really is for the Winter Olympics. It's entirely possible the Souvenir is for something else, but the evidence we've found points strongly enough in the direction that it's related to the upcoming games. *A couple people have pointed out that the Competitor's Souvenir was an item on the Chinese servers back in '06, however it still has just shown up on the US servers, just at the right time...
Mario & Sonic head to the Winter Olympics later this year
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games is finally "official." Sega announced this morning that Nintendo's mascot and Sega's cross to bear will compete on Wii and DS in virtual Vancouver, Canada, with all their friends (and "new faces").As part of Sega's release, it stated that the original Mario & Sonic at the Olympics has sold over 10 million units globally. The latest casual cash-in will support the Wii Balance Board and feature Alpine Skiing, Speed Skating and many other events. That's all good, but will pairs figure skating deliver tension and romance between Sonic and Mario on par with the classic ice-skating movie, The Cutting Edge? We hope so ... not, we meant not.Update: Teaser trailer embedded after the break.
Sega acquires 2010 Winter Olympics license
Sega has licensed the rights to produce games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, taking place in sunny Vancouver, Canada. 1UP notes that more official information will soon be made available on the official website. Of the official games.This licensing agreement brings credence to the rumor that a Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics game will be revealed soonish. Expecting to compete in those Olympics? Start intense training for all that "A" pressing and waggling now.
