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The Secret World's first content update is coming July 31st
Back in the day, avid mystery fans relied on getting monthly doses of case-solving goodness from magazines such as Ellery Queen. Today, the same can be found in The Secret World. Delivering on its recent promise of monthly updates, Funcom has released the details for July's free content update in true mystery magazine style with Issue #1: Unleashed. On July 31st, TSW players will find a number of new missions featuring a best-selling author, a daredevil, and even a crazy cat lady. Another mission will explore a character who may be more than she pretends to be. Two current dungeons are also getting a new nightmare mode; if you thought Ankh and Hell Fallen were challenging before, just wait until you test yourself in this mode. Another upcoming feature is a cross-dimensional marketplace. Not only can players group and play together cross-dimensionally, but soon they will be able to buy, sell, and ship items across dimensions as well. Unleashed is just the first of many updates. Issue #2 for August's update is already in the works and will be revealed soon, so stay tuned! And keep an eye on the ongoing construction in London, Seoul, and New York as new tenants prepare to move in. [Source: Funcom press release]
Diablo 3 auction house now has gems and other commodities for real money
Blizzard has pushed patch 1.0.3b live in Diablo 3, and in addition to a few random bugfixes with General chat and the tutorial sequences, the patch brings another wrinkle to real-money spending with the game. You can now buy various in-game commodities (including gems, dyes, and crafting and leveling materials) with real money, which means Blizzard has turned an unofficial black market for items in Diablo 2 into a very official real-money market in Diablo 3.Gold sales still aren't live, but Blizzard says it hopes to enable real-money purchasing of in-game gold in the future. In the meantime, however, you can now put money into your Battle.net account and buy away, or try to sell your in-game items for real money. For better or worse, it's game on.
Gold Capped: Spirit of Harmony crafting limitations
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The Spirit of Harmony is going to be the limiting factor in a lot of craftable items in Mists of Pandaria. Just take a look at all the recipes it'll be a reagent for -- some 153 so far, and they haven't even finished designing the professions. The interesting part of this is that the Spirits (and the Motes you can turn into Spirits) are going to be bind on pickup, which means that you can't trade for them. Does this means that you will not be able to level a profession up to the new maximum skill level without farming Spirits and Motes of Harmony yourself? Will it mean the end of readily available, entry-level crafted PvP and PvE blues?
Drama Mamas: Guildie vs. guildie at the Auction House
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. I don't think we've had Auction House drama before. How delicious interesting. Hello ladies I have played WoW on and off since vanilla, but I always seem to return at the tail end of an expansion. I came back this time 3 months ago and decided to start fresh- new server, new faction, new toons. I have alot to prepare for the release of MoP like this but I thought I was doing pretty well. I joined a really great guild who has an unwritten rule that we don't undercut others on the AH, and alot of the members go as far as waiting until others have sold their items before listing the same thing. As such we're all pretty open with our gold making 'secrets' with each other. I have a friend who, like me, has two gathering professions on his main, which are also the same as mine. He was complaining that nothing was selling well anymore this late in Cata, so I shared with him a few of the things I gather and sell, my main money maker was something I specifically told him sells a little slow but does sell, so don't get carried away putting too much on the AH at once. Very quickly I found he was flooding the AH with what I suggested to him, undercutting me by 10-20g each time and soon enough things were selling for less than half of what they were before. I pointed out to him, again, he does not need to flood and undercut so much, but he did not listen.
The Daily Grind: Are black market auction houses a good idea?
With World of Warcraft's upcoming Mists of Pandaria comes an interesting addition to the game: a black market auction house. This new type of auction house will allow Blizzard to post rare items from the game for bidding only (no buyouts), and is obviously intended to be a massive gold sink for those who have more money than sense on their hands. While the intent of the black market auction house is understandable, what it's selling has players hotly debating over whether this is a good idea or the spawn of Evil and Mrs. Evil. Raid gear, ultra-rare pets, and other hard-to-attain goods could become easily available for those with large pocketbooks. So let's put it to the bright minds at Massively Labs (that's you): Are black market auction houses a good idea? Is Blizzard setting a trend here or cutting its own feet out from under it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction
Have you ever wished MMO developers could put away their checkbooks, pluck out the best bits of their respective MMOs, and weld them together to construct the megalopolis of MMOs? We do too! So today, we're launching a brand-new opinion column, MMO Blender, in which the Massively writers will mix and match their favorite features from existing MMOs for your amusement. But do our choices create a perfectly honed machine or a lumbering, speechless frankenstein of an MMO that deserves to be put out of its misery? First up: Livestreamer extraordinaire and Contributing Editor Jeremy Stratton with a potent, sandboxy blend of Fallen Earth, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and more. Wet your whistle after the break and look for more MMO Blenders from the rest of our staff in the coming weeks!
Apple I fetches $374.5K at Sotheby's auction, Steve Jobs Atari note goes for $27.5K
Here's an update for all the collectors of vintage Apple Computer-wares out there. If you'll recall, it was a few weeks back when Sotheby's announced it would auction off an Apple 1 motherboard, cassette interface and its BASIC programming manual, originally set to fetch upwards of $180,000. Just this week, the hand-built piece of computing history from 1976 was sold to one lucky phone bidder for an even more massive $374,500. As Apple Insider notes, the computer is one of six that's accounted for out of 50 that are likely still out there -- ensuring these will only remain for folks with deep pockets indeed. Past that, a hand-written note from Steve Jobs during his time at Atari was also on the auction block, garnering $27,500 even though it was only estimated to sell for less than half that price. Knowing the cost of collecting a premiere piece (arguably) from the fruits of Woz and Jobs, it certainly makes that new MacBook Pro with Retina display seem like a grand bargain in comparison. Details at the links below.
The Daily Grind: How do you prefer to get your money in-game?
No matter what game you're playing, you need money. Luckily, pretty much every game on the market also has multiple options to earn that money. There are things to beat up and quests to be done, but usually there are other options beyond that. Playing the auction house in World of Warcraft, running teleportation services in Final Fantasy XI, or any number of business ventures in EVE Online allow you to make your money however you see fit. Some players find that manipulating auction house prices and playing a virtual stockbroker is the most fun path to riches. Others prefer to just make their money through quests, and if they wind up a bit poorer for it, so be it. So how do you like to make money when you're playing a game? Is it more on the intricate market manipulation side of things, or is it a fairly straightforward practice of just clearing content? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breakfast Topic: How would you change the Auction House?
The Auction House has undergone several improvements over the years, but it still has room for more, else we wouldn't need addons to get it to do what we want. Blizzard does tend to incorporate addon features into the game, and I'd like to see a few more integrated into the AH. Frinka over at Warcraft St listed some features she would like to see added to the Auction House. My favorite is what she calls Offers or Bounties. Basil Berntsen calls these Buy Orders. Buyers would post an item they would like to purchase with the price they would like to pay. This way, buyers wouldn't have to keep searching the AH for the things they need to show up, and sellers could reduce the relisting of items. I think that a bid option would enhance the system. The buyer would post a preferred price, but there would be an ability to bid as well. Giving the sellers the ability to make an offer would make the Buy Orders used more often. Yes, you can get in trade chat and say "WTB [insert item here]" -- but, you know ... trade chat. Also, the buyer and seller have to be online at the same time for it to work. Trade chat offers the benefit of no AH fee but otherwise has too many obstacles to be very useful. What changes would you like made to the AH?
South Korea to make virtual item trade, bots illegal
Do you want to buy and sell virtual items? Do you live in South Korea? If you answered "yes" to both of those questions, you'd better get it out of your system prior to next month (or be prepared to do it illegally). A new law is being developed that will ban real money trading and block gold- and item-farming bots. The South Korean Ministry of Culture says that "the main purpose of games is for entertainment and [they] should be used for academic and other good purposes," according to a report at Eurogamer. This is bad news for gold farmers, RMT fans, and Blizzard, which has come under fire for Diablo III's real-money auction house over the past few weeks. The Ministry of Culture went on to say that RMT "contribute[s] to many problems in society, including teenage crime."
Diablo III pulls trigger on NA real-money auction house
While Diablo III released weeks ago, Blizzard's held off from launching the game's controversial real-money auction house in North America for its own reasons. All must be good on the studio's end, however, because the auction house has gone live in the game as of today. Unlike the traditional in-game auction house, the real-money variant deals in actual currency (such as USD). Players can sell their hard-won goods for cash, which can then be either spent on the auction house, sent to their own personal PayPal accounts, or converted to Battle.net Balance credit. The real-money auction house requires additional setup if the players have not attached a PayPal or authenticator to the account. Blizzard does take its cut, and business must be good: There are reports of items going for over $200 already.
Diablo III to benefit from big brother World of Warcraft's features
Over on the Diablo III forums, player Matthest posted a thoughtful list of 35 improvements that he wanted to see added to the game. Lo and behold, his list was picked up by the game's CM and treated to a point-by-point response that revealed several upcoming changes, including those inspired by World of Warcraft's design. Coming to the game is a lock for the action bar, font size changes, the ability to sell damaged items, social and quick join improvements, and tweaks to the game's auction house interface. The team's also considering allowing players to resize and move the chat window. Not all ideas were embraced, as the devs had reasons for keeping them out: "We're really trying hard to avoid quickly bloating the game options, and since [numerical countdowns] would be an option, we're cautiously approaching it and a few other toggle/option requests."
Apple I up for auction: buy a bit of Apple history for the bulk of your net worth
Attention Apple lovers: here's your chance to get your hands on an original piece of company history, but the past has proven that you better have a lot of extra cash lying around. Sotheby's auction house is offering a working Apple I computer, which is the original design that was built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak back in 1976 -- by hand. It's expected to fetch between $140,000 - 180,000, and those dollars buy you a mobo, cassette interface and the original BASIC manual to get you programming partying like it's 1979. This isn't the first Apple I to hit the auction block, but with only 200 of the things in existence, the winning bidder will join the upper echelon of Apple enthusiasts. So, if you've got cash to burn and fancy yourself the ultimate fanboy, head on down to the source link for the full details. [Thanks, Deepa]
Diablo 3's Battle.net down again; June 12 targeted for real-money auction house [update]
Update: It appears the issues are coming to an end, at least for the moment. Diablo 3 servers are coming back online and some of auction house features have returned. The real-money auction house is still targeted for a June 12 release, according to an in-game message.Original Story: The toughest boss in Diablo 3 continues to be the game's dreaded 'Error' codes, as Blizzard's Battle.net service has gone down for the count again this afternoon after being down all morning for scheduled maintenance due to the release of Patch 1.0.2. Blizzard says that it is aware of the issue, and is "currently investigating the cause.""We're aware of an issue that is affecting our authentication servers, which result in failed or slow login attempts," a message in Diablo 3's 'Breaking News' module currently reads. Attempts to log into the game yield the message that servers are down for maintenance.Blizzard is also working on the Auction House as well - commodities sales have been down since last week, and the Auction House itself was down for a few extra hours today, past the planned maintenance. The real-money auction house has been delayed indefinitely, but the in-game notification for the feature noted a new target date of June 12, since last night.In the meantime, until the servers come back up, feel free to do exactly what a few select Joystiq editors are doing: Rocking back and forth in a corner, mumbling something about Belial being behind this treachery.
Diablo 3 auction house delayed
The auction house in Diablo 3 won't debut on May 22 as planned. Blizzard's community manager Micah "Bashiok" Whipple posted on the Blizzard forums saying the recent server woes have forced the studio's hand. We'll hear later when the new auction house launch date is.If you were trying to log into Diablo 3 yesterday, you may have been unable to – the same errors experienced on launch day seemed to have resurfaced in North America and Europe. Whipple called out the achievement-earning bug – which either didn't unlock achievements for players or didn't carry earned achievements over multiple logins – as the culprit, and said Blizzard is working on a fix, though servers are all go right now. "We greatly appreciate everyone's support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one," he concluded.
Five top tips for your first few days of Diablo III
Diablo III officially launched at midnight last night, opening the floodgates on what is possibly the most pre-ordered PC game in history. It's been almost 12 years since the previous game in the series launched, and it's still going to this day. Whether you've played previous games, have taken part in the Diablo III beta or are taking your first steps into Sanctuary today, everyone starts with a clean slate. In this article, I give my top five tips for spending your first few days wisely in Diablo III. #5 - Spend most of your time on one character It seems like a bit of a no-brainer to initially focus on one character, but in Diablo III's case, there's a special reason to do it. You'll likely finish normal mode around level 20-30, and until then, you'll get a new skill almost every level. It's only when you've completed normal mode and moved on to nightmare that the challenge really starts and you will have picked out an effective set of skills. Your last active skill unlocks at level 30, and from then on you'll gain a combination of two to three runes or passive skills every level until you hit the level cap at 60. Read on for four more tips you should keep in mind as you start playing Diablo III.
Wowscan: A new tool for making gold
I have had my hand in the cookie jar that is the Auction House a few times during Cataclysm, and if there's one thing I learned, it's that information is your best friend. I downloaded Auctioneer / Auctionator to spot cheap bids and track how my own sales were doing. I browsed The Undermine Journal for data like average prices, standard deviations, and recent auctions. Even WoW Insider's own Gold Capped column helped me identify potential markets and provided general advice. All of these things made my profits possible. Well, a new tool has entered the mix: Wowscan. I have to admit, at first it struck me as a bit too much like The Undermine Journal. Certainly Wowscan works very similar in that it scans auction data and posts it on its site in a searchable format. Now, I'm no Basil or even a Fox, but after some experimentation it seems to me that there are a few advantages and disadvantages to a site like Wowscan in comparison to TUJ. First of all, and probably the biggest difference that I've noticed, is that Wowscan has the ability to compile all of its realm data into one searchable list. For example, if you wanted to find the absolute cheapest auction of Reins of the Swift Spectral Tiger, all you have to do is select All Realms and search for it. From all of my dealings with TUJ, I have never found the option to search all of the realms at once. Since most of my use of TUJ was focused on a single realm, searching multiple realms at once never really became an issue for me. This function becomes valuable when you are looking to buy an ultra-rare item and don't care how much money you have to spend on realm transfers to get it.
One dollar and fifteen percent
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. Before we begin today's Lawbringer, I wanted to give you all your homework for next week's topic. Greg Boyd wrote an excellent article over at Gamasutra about improving the game industry's security and data privacy issues. Blizzard is one of the companies out there with huge online security concerns but seems to get by fairly well. I will examine Blizzard through Boyd's seven steps and show how Blizzard is leading the charge and how other game companies could benefit from Blizzard's trials and tribulations. Fifteen percent is going to be the new number that people will be talking about for a good, long time. Why? Blizzard has set a standard in the American markets for real-money auction house cuts and fees. With Diablo III literally bursting from its hellish mother's writhing, pestilence-ridden birthing sack, players will soon be entering the world of Sanctuary and wearing out mice so fast that the stress on the peripheral market's demand crushes a generation of hopeful clickers. Diablo III will consume a lot of people's souls for a while, so it's best to get them all prepared now, not later. Blizzard has begun the arduous process of educating the playerbase about these new and radical systems coming with Diablo III. The real-money auction house is the big ticket item here, proving a safe and secure place for players to interact and auction items, much like they currently do in the seedy, potentially dangerous gray markets for virtual item trades and sales. Going to these sites is the equivalent of going to gold sites, to compare it to a WoW phenom, with the same risks and hazards coupled with the same instant gratification. Why have a company with which you have no recourse have your credit card information, when you could give it to Blizzard instead? At least you know where they live.
TERA's new launch features section adds economic changes
TERA's May release date is less than a month away now, and En Masse Entertainment is filling the days leading up to the big event by unveiling a series of new launch features. Today's piece is focused on a number of adjustments that have been made to the game's economic system. For starters, the trade broker has been vastly improved with "robust search features," while private stores have been abolished in order to make the broker the true hub of the game's economy. Enchanters will be pleased to know that the penalty for failing an enchantment has been removed, so while an enchantment can still fail, it won't weaken the target piece of equipment in the process. And to top it off, the currency demoninations have been changed up to prevent players from having to deal with astronomical amounts of gold. The full details, as well as previous new launch features, can be found over on the game's official site.
How I made 3,000 gold by level 30
I rolled an alt a few weeks ago -- nothing special like the Ironman Challenge, but I had a moment where I wanted to level a character from 1 to 85 on another realm just for the heck of it. So I picked a random realm, medium population, and rolled a worgen. Why a worgen? Well, it had been a while since I'd played through the worgen starting zone, and since I'd recently seen just about everything the Horde had to offer on the 1-to-60 front, I wanted to replay the Alliance experience again. So I rolled a worgen -- no heirlooms, no gold from outside sources, just me and the quests, like the old days of vanilla WoW. The most important part to me was that I was going to forgo buying any upgrade gear from the Auction House, instead using only what dropped from quests or instances. Call it a moment of vanilla nostalgia if you will, but that's exactly what I had to do on my first character back in 2004, so I was going to do it again. I expected it to be tough; I expected it to take a while before I could even afford a mount at level 20. I was so, so wrong. By the time I hit level 30, I had a little over 3k gold on my random alt, with little to no effort on my part. And I'm going to tell you exactly how I did it. It all started with a pair of boots.
