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Choose My Adventure: Star Wars Galaxies wrap-up
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of posts and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months are up, we'll do it all over again in a new game! This week I wrap up my time in Sony Online Entertainment's Star Wars Galaxies here on Choose My Adventure. From the basics of character creation onwards through the first steps in this familiar-yet-strange land and more, you all have had a chance to see some of the many things to do in this world. For those who are joining us late, our readers chose my locale, server, gender, race, tied on profession (class), and gave me great advice along the way. In this week's column I get a chance to sit down and record my overall impressions of what I've seen. All caught up? Great! Join me behind the break as I look over my weeks spent in Star Wars Galaxies! %Gallery-97914%
Talkcast tonight, 10PM ET: Macworld Expo 2010, the aftermath
We're live tonight, with those of us who are sad not to have been at Macworld Expo 2010 (yes, that mostly means Kelly... I'm already saving my pennies for next year!), and hopefully some of us will be able to scrape together enough energy to give some live wrapup action. As per (recent) tradition, I'm sure we'll hear the word iPad once or twice, we'll chat about the first TUAW booth experience, and how all the technology bringing live floor reports behaved, or didn't. Not to mention we'll have all sorts of other things to talk about, since you'll be there with your own burning topics, right? We'll kick things off at 10pm Eastern (7pm Pacific); hopefully those in the Pacific time zone not celebrating some sort of arrow-based holiday can join us. Once you sign in on Talkshoe, you'll be able to call in with your own phone and chat live with TUAW bloggers and listeners. (Pro tip: This is my favorite part, interacting with all of you. So make it worth my while to be hanging with you tonight, OK? OK!) To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then!
The best of WoW.com: August 25 - September 1, 2009
We're still reeling from everything we saw at BlizzCon a few weeks ago over at WoW.com, from all the news we heard about the next expansion, Cataclysm, to everything else about Icecrown and the anniversary celebration in the upcoming patch 3.2.2. There's a ton of big news lately over on the site, but here's our most popular posts for you to browse through. Don't forget to hit the costume galleries -- we've got tons more pictures like the gem above. News Patch 3.2.2 Onyxia achievementsAchievements from the second go-round of the big bad dragon fight for the game's 5th anniversary. BlizzCon 2009: First impressions of Cataclysm racesOur staff breaks down their first impressions of the new races announced in the next expansion. BlizzCon 2009: The Guild's Michele Boyd and Jeff Lewis hands-on with the WorgenTwo stars of The Guild webseries take on the playable Worgen demo available at BlizzCon. BlizzCon 2009: The Cataclysm trailerThis is where it all began -- the expansion trailer revealed at BlizzCon's opening ceremony. Battle.net conversion to become mandatory soonWith the onset of the new Battle.net, everyone's going to have to move over eventually. Features BlizzCon 2009 Insider Trader: Cataclysmic professionsThis big feature (here's part two and part three) takes a look at what's new with professions in Cataclysm. BlizzCon 2009: Bingo failOur bingo card for BlizzCon fails again. We need to stop making these so hard. BlizzCon 2009: Costumes, part twoHere's a roundup of all the costumes we saw on the show floor. What does Blizzard have planned for an ingame launch event?We know there's going to be a launch event for the new expansion, but what will it look like? Guildwatch: "ur name is remembered"Here's our weekly look at guild drama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms.
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all MMOs, including WoW! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. Champions Online Press NDA lifts: See our impressionsThis last weekend, press had the opportunity to spend my time within the Champions Online beta. After playing more than I would safely recommend, I bring you my personal takeaway in an effort to get out as much crunchy information goodness on the upcoming MMO as possible. Five free to play MMOs that are ahead of the classTimes are tough, the wallet is tight, and you still need a game to play. But what free games can you wrap your hands around that just don't suck, right? That seems to be the trouble with free to play games -- many selections all with very low quality. But the market is not as bad as you might think. There are certainly some gems out there in the free to play market, just waiting for you to wrap your hands around them and play. Finding them however, hasn't always been easy, until now. Massively's post-launch interview with Free RealmsFree Realms has launched, the floodgates have been opened and the servers have multiplied like little fluffy bunnies. Despite a slight delay, the launch's feedback has been predominantly positive. Not only is this rare for an MMO launch these days, considering the factors, but it's also a testament to the team involved.
GDC09: Best of show (to me)
This year's Game Developers Conference has come to a close, and I just wanted to take a second here to reflect on what I got out of the show. I literally can't count the number of times I've been asked, "So what was the best thing you saw so far?". I was even asked this by a random guy in the Men's restroom at one point. Dude, I'm trying to pee, seriously. So these questions inspired me to write up my thoughts on what I enjoyed the most. This isn't meant to be a complete review of every single panel and every single game company present at the convention. It's an opinionated, slightly biased rundown of the best and brightest from an old jaded gamer who doesn't pay any attention to anything but MMO news. So ... there's that.
Player reactions to dual specs
Just in case you haven't been following what people have been saying about the dual spec system lately, Slashhug has a terrific post up covering all of the concerns and thoughts about the new system and how it will affect groups and raids. It's long, but he covers all of the bases, from how hybrids with two specs will affect which players get chosen for groups, to loot and how that will work (the same -- main specs first, offspecs if needed), and even soloing and why dual specs will be a blessing for classes who are normally built more for group play.There's not a lot of new complaints or answers in here -- lots of it has already been discussed on the forums and in our own posts. But Slashhug does a great job of wrapping it all up into one big tasty dual spec sandwich, so you can catch up on all the thinking about dual specs so far. The bottom line, in terms of player reaction, is that dual specs will allow you to do more with your class than you can with just one spec. If you want to heal, you can still heal, or if you're built for tanking, you can still do that. But in groups where things don't quite fit (you've got a few tanks and your DPS is a little low, or your Priest could use a little extra help healing for this boss fight), dual specs will let you make the necessary tweaks right then and there, and excel that much more. Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
Day 2 BlizzCon 2008 coverage from WoW Insider
BlizzCon 2008 came to an end, yesterday, drawing to a close ground zero for World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo players fandom. Another solid round of panels, interviews, and presentations for fans of Blizzard's numerous games fleshed out the second and final day of the event. WoW Insider, Massively's big sister site, was onhand to get all the info you want to hear about. So ... here it is: BlizzCon Day 2. WoW Raids and Dungeons PanelWe'll be blogging the Raids and Dungeons panel live from the floor of BlizzCon, which should prove to be awesome. Full updates will be behind the break, so make sure you keep up! It will be starting in just a moment. WoW PvP PanelWe're liveblogging the PvP panel from the floor of BlizzCon. Updates start after the break. WoW Insider meets The GuildWe here at WoW Insider have been big fans of The Guild since day one -- way before Felicia Day sold appliances or hung out with Dr. Horrible, we knew she and her show were something special. And so, when we finally got a chance to meet The Guild today at BlizzCon, we made sure to take it. Day 2 class panelI know what you're thinking. "Didn't we have a class panel yesterday?" Well, of course we did, but as exciting as it was we had to come back for a second helping. We're live on the BlizzCon show floor, bringing you the latest class news and information straight from the developers' mouths and starting... right now! Gallery: BlizzCon 2008 Art Gallery
Warhammer Online launches!
The long wait is finally over! Warhammer Online is now live, and players around the world are settling in to their first day of widespread waagh! Massively will be providing tons of new content all day long on this much-anticipated title. In order to kick things off, though, we want to be sure you know what we have to offer from the past. Massively has been talking about WAR since we launched last year, and in that time we've racked up a lot of great content. Even discounting our Massively goes to WAR series, we have an impressive number of words to offer up. Check out these posts, and click through below the cut for even more! Happy waagh day! A World of Warcraft player's guide to Warhammer OnlineWarhammer's a brand new world, with a lot of different sights, cultures, and expectations. To help you out as a brand new WAR player, we've compiled a guide to ease that transition, in the same tradition as our guides to Age of Conan and Guild Wars. WoW players, welcome to a brand new world ... one without gnomes! Picking Mark Jacobs' brain about the Warhammer launchWe talk a bit about the long, hard road that the Mythic team has traveled to get where they are now. We also go over the team's launch plan, Jacobs' decision to start blogging publicly, and more on World of Warcraft's role in the industry. What makes Warhammer Online special, by Paul BarnettThe man himself was kind enough to elaborate on these notes, for a feature encompassing the things that make WAR special. These are the things that Barnett has noticed players going ga-ga for, especially players that have jumped into MMOs in the past. From the Tome of Knowledge to little things like inventory management, check out the 11 things that make Warhammer the game it is today - in Paul Barnett's own words. The early days of Mythic EntertainmentA snippet from our Massively goes to WAR series back in June, covering the long distant history of Mythic as a startup. Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out all of our previous Warhammer Online features, and don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
Tuesday morning at WoW Insider
It's Tuesday morning and the hamsters that run the servers are being fed by Blizzard, which means all the realms are down for extended maintenance until at least 11:00 a.m. PDT. There is no patch 2.4.2 to look forward to when the servers go back up this afternoon, but that might not be that bad of a thing. Usually patch days mean add-on trouble and serious server stability issues. Those spell disaster for anyone expecting to enjoy the evening.While the servers are offline, go ahead and get your WoW fix from us! We've got a few dandy articles to entice you and keep your WoW addiction in full swing. Take a look at the official and unofficial patch notes for patch 2.4.2. Highlights include reduced cooldown timers, changes in the hand specifications of some weapons, and new polymorphing mechanics. A talented rogue was able to tank the seventh boss in the Black Temple, Mother Shahraz, by stacking insane amounts of avoidance and agility. Take a look at the video of the encounter, definitely worth watching if you have a minute. SK-Gaming killed M'uru (the next-to-last boss in the Sunwell Plateau) over the weekend. M'uru dropped some nice loot for them. Check out what they got in their world first kill. Did you know Blizzard launched a new and improved online store? The best part about it is that if you buy something, you can click a little check box that gives you a chance to be selected to participate in a beta. I ordered a tee-shirt over the weekend, and have my fingers crossed that I'll get in a certain beta test pretty soon (I could care less about the tee-shirt, naturally). Sean Forsgren recently profiled one of my favorite add-ons, Dr. Damage. It's a great tool that gives you very useful statistics about all your spells in the form of extended tooltips. Take a minute to look into it now, and get it all downloaded and setup for when the servers come back online later today. When the severs do come back online, WoW Insider will let you know. Hopefully there won't be any major stability issues tonight, but if there are, we'll be covering that too. Enjoy your downtime!
Tuesday morning maintenance
Sometimes I feel like Blizzard chooses a handful of random servers to Ice Block every few days – not letting players on, and giving a (hopefully) short window when the servers will be offline.If you're on the unlucky servers of Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, WildHammer, or either of the Tournamenet Servers, you're going to have at least two hours of downtime from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 7:00 a.m. PDT. Blizzard will also be doing rolling restarts across all realms this morning.For those of you waiting to get your morning fix of WoW, fear not. There are several pieces of news and entertaining reads to catch up on.New WotLK alpha screenshots – Did you know that WotLK is in alpha, and the first batch of new screenshots has been leaked? We've got them confirmed from an inside source and mirrored here for your enjoyment.As a tank, I hate to pug. Our Warrior columnist Matthew Rossi agrees with me. Check out his enlightening piece for One reason tanks won't pug. And I hope the subject of his piece, Primula, enjoys his or her new found fame as one lowly ninja-looter.Do you have a life outside of WoW? Not that I do, but if I did I would be a casual player and appreciate Robin Torres' advice from WoW, Casually: Finding groups fast. Just remember that they don't always have to be random pug groups.Two pieces of Season 4 gear have been accidently enabled by a GM on the live realms. You can check out the new stats and have look at them. They remind me a bit of the Ori from Stargate, so I have to ask: Hallowed are the Ori, anyone? Hopefully the bosses at Blizzard are a bit more understand than the Ori and will let the GM that made this mistake keep his job.And finally you can check out my new favorite column of the week, [1. Local] by Lisa Poisso. Lisa takes a look at all the comments posted on WoW Insider and rounds up the best of them for us to marvel over. I know that I've sent her a few lately.Happy Tuesday everyone!%Gallery-21057%
Connect08 Wrapup: LotRO lowdown, Jumpgate juicies and D&D delights
Codemasters' Connect08, held last Friday and Saturday in Birmingham, was an interesting event in a number of ways. We Europeans rarely feel much love from Stateside publishers -- we're shuttled off on to our own servers, we have to wait longer for patches and news, and we're even not sure we're even being listened to half the time. That's why it was great to see not only an event for European players (I met people who'd travelled from Italy, Holland and Germany to be there) but also a major news announcement on my home turf.Of course, Codemasters aren't the only ones doing this -- NCsoft have a blockbuster event next weekend, and have held others in the past, plus Blizzard occasionally run the odd knees-up in that Gallic pays du vin to the south. Here's hoping we'll see more of the same.Connect08: The coverage you don't want to miss Lord of the Rings Online Volume II, Mines of Moria, was announced; we investigated the teaser site, got you more information (including pixplz) and topped it off with a Q&A and interview with producer Jeffrey Steefel. Jumpgate EvolutionWe previewed this upcoming title from NetDevil and quizzed president Scott Brown on the game. More on its way in coming months! Dungeons & Dragons OnlineAll your burning Monk desires are sated with the player Q&A and preview, which also talks about the crafting changes. Tonsure-tastic! %Gallery-18531%
WoW Insider Weekly
Wondering what to do on this lazy Saturday afternoon? Why not enjoy some of our terrific weekly features from the past week? Here they are, all in one post. It's a week's worth of WoW Insider content, all served right up for you.Two Bosses Enter: Moam vs. Hakkar the SoulflayerI completely agree, Elizabeth-- Batman can (and has, multiple times) beat Superman like a drum.Sunday Morning Funnies: The beginningOur new weekly look at the best in Warcraft comics.Arcane Brilliance: Fun with utility spellsWhy else do you roll a mage in the first place? To mess with people!Addon Spotlight: Comix - the returnThis is definitely an addon that some people really hate, and some people really love.Officers' Quarters: A case of the blahsHow to shake the ennui from your guild.The Art of War(craft): Idyllic Arathi BasinZach takes you into my favorite battleground for some fun and strategy.Shifting Perspectives: So you're thinking of playing a DruidThink our new Druid blogger sounds familiar? He's none other than Big Bear Butt, right here on WoW Insider.Build Shop: Warlock 43/0/18Chris dissects one of the most "feared" builds around-- Affliction.The Light and How to Swing It: Ret gear part 1Stuff to wear when you're going Ret.Guildwatch: Worth every wipeIs the drama worth it? Ask a guild after they down Gruul for the first time.Blood Pact: The final stretchBringing Warlocks home to 70.Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn: The story beginsWoW Insider presents a new standard in graphic storytelling for the WoW universe.World of WarCrafts: Murloc Fin SoupA brand new column about making things in real life for and by Warcraft fans.Well Fed Buff: Winter's Veil BarkOur other new column, about RL cooking, breaks out a tasty snack for Winter's Veil.Totem Talk: Gearing up Elemental 66-69Get the gear you're going to be tossing for all those phat epix.Blood Sport: Gearing up for ArenasWhat to wear in there.WoW, Casually: December 14-20 and Feast of Winter's VeilFun things you can do this week in just a short time.Insider Trader: Hawking wares via the webAn interview with Elite Fish Vendor.The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking knicknacksTasty tidbits about tanking.Ask WoW Insider: Are you who you play?When you get in a car accident, you don't say, "His car hit my car!" You say, "He hit me!" Weird, right?Phat Loot Phriday: Delicious Chocolate CakeIt makes you happy. Do you really need to know anything else?
