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The Queue: Ziebart vs Sacco
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.Sometimes late at night when the sun is down and the moon is up, the writers at WoW Insider sit around the campfire and talk about things. Weird things. Like owning a pet snake and cat at the same time (Sacco), or how putting together a desk can be a pain (Alex). More and more often these days there has been a little friendly feud going on between Alex and Sacco. You can read their little quips at each other over a few posts. So today in the Queue I want to ask you: who would win in a writer cage match? Alex Ziebart or Mike Sacco? %Poll-27017% Also, I'd like to thank all of you who left questions not about the crazy delicious Hawaiian Pizza yesterday. You gave me something to work with!Blinger asked..."Will the emblems of Heroism be really useless now? If there is no more badge gear I need, have plenty of Frozen Orbs I can throw a stick at, is there going to be any point in me ever doing the current Wrath heroics again other than just to help out mates all of which are in the same boat anyway? Or will it be likely that there will be some form of Heroism to Valor exchange?"
Show and Tell: And buttons for all
Buttons are important to gamers. Usually, they're our primary method of input, and while some systems (why hello, Nintendo) may be moving us away from that tradition, we'll always have a soft spot for those little buttons.But we're not talking about those sorts of buttons today. We just like 'em. No, we're taking a look at the other sort today, the kind you wear. Badges. Pins. Sometimes, they can be just as important as the buttons on our handhelds and controllers -- if you want to display your likes and dislikes, anyway. And badge-making has long been quite the thing among the crafty gaming contingent. Take the guided tour of our selection of game-related buttons here, or dip into the gallery below wherever you'd like. You might be surprised at what you find.%Gallery-38307% Show and Tell is all about fan stuff, so long as it's Nintendo-related. We love to see your collections, your crafts, your frosted creations, your t-shirts and swag of all sorts.Just snap a few pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest. Not a handy type, but found something neat? Send us a link instead.
A brief history of Club Nintendo Awesomeness
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/A_look_back_at_Club_Nintendo_s_greatest_gifts'; By now, you've no doubt heard: Nintendo is rolling out Club Nintendo in the U.S. by the end of 2008. Wahey! Yeah, we know that Japan (generally speaking) gets the most excellent items when compared to elsewhere, but listen here, bub: it's free stuff. We're not about to complain, and nor should you (if you want to feel sorry for somebody, Australia's Club Nintendo scheme has gone AWOL, and check out South Africa's piss-poor Stars Catalogue).Anyway, as these are happy times for North Americans, we thought we'd reflect on some of the bestest Club Nintendo gifts and trinkets from both Japan and Europe to date -- some of which could end up in the U.S.! Hit the gray button to start DS Fanboy's whirlwind Club Nintendo Tour of Wonders! NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; }
WoW Insider contest: Enter to win a custom art badge for BlizzCon
Shyka, who we posted last week was making and selling custom-made BlizzCon badges to show off your character at Blizzard's big event, was thrilled to see her work on WoW Insider, and in return, kindly offered to make us a custom badge of our own (since we'll be there live at BlizzCon all weekend long). But due to the warmth of our hearts (and the fact that Weblogs, Inc. policy clearly states that we can't accept swag like that), we're passing the badge on to you -- Shyka has agreed to make one custom BlizzCon badge for one of you lucky readers.To enter, just put a comment on this post sometime before midnight Eastern on Friday, September 12th -- you can say anything you want, but we'll ask you: what will be the most awesome thing you could see at Blizzard's big event? You may only enter once, and one winner will be chosen in a random drawing to pick up one of Shyka's badges (valued at $40). Make sure to use an email you check often, so we can get in touch with you if you win. Please note: you must be a resident of the United States (sorry EU and Canada folks), and 18 or older to win. Official contest rules are right here.Please also note that this is not an official BlizzCon ticket -- this is just a custom art badge to show off your character at Blizzard's big show in October. If you want to go to BlizzCon, you'll need to have already purchased a ticket, although you can definitely win the badge even if you aren't going to BlizzCon. But then, how else will you show off the cool character art Shyka will custom make for you if you win? Good luck!
Badges unbound
Badges of Justice: I love them. It's brilliant that you can go to a raid, down a boss, and have everyone walk away with a piece of an epic (albeit a fairly small piece). It really cuts back on the angst of not having what you want drop, as well as giving Blizzard a way to provide for uncommon specs without too much loot table bloat. And with the relatively recent system that has all raid bosses dropping badges, and some pretty great new badge rewards, the system is now quite strong. However, in my view, they do have one defect: they're soulbound. Now there's a strong argument to be put for the concept that if a character can't do a raid, they shouldn't get the reward. And I certainly agree that badges should not be salable on the AH. However, I do think we should be able to send them between alts. I have one character who needs very little in the way of badge gear, and correspondingly rakes in badges like nobody's business by tearing through Karazhan. My character that really needs the gear is typically not taken on raids, or not "A-group" raids anyway. It would be nice to be able to send all my badges over to that toon to get an undergeared character geared up, without being able to give them to just anybody on the AH.
Epic gems are 15 Badges after all
Remember a few weeks ago when it was discovered that the Armory was listing the new Badge of Justice-reward epic gems at 10 badges each? Yeah, turns out that was just an Armory bug (which we knew was a possibility). They're 15 Badges after all, as they were on the PTR. The way we know this now is that Proudmoore-US, first in all things Shattered Sun, has done Discovering Your Roots enough times to unlock Shaani, the vendor who sells you the gems. Thanks, Proudmoore! Grinding for knowledge. And everyone else, get on that quest. It's a fun one -- everyone gets a pet so they can pretend they're a hunter for a little while -- and you'll help your server along.Assuming the epic gems sell for around 500 gold, which seems reasonable given the order-of-magnitude increase in price between uncommon and rare gems, this yields a 33 gold per Badge conversion rate (if you buy gems with your Badges and sell the gems; they're not bind-on-pickup). That's right on target in terms of gold per hour. I figure it takes about 20 minutes on average to earn a Badge, which means 100 gold per hour -- pretty much the same rate I make through dailies or grinding. And given that any activity that earns you Badges (i.e. raiding or heroics) gives you a chance at gear as well, it looks like the PvE endgame is fairly rewarding right now.
Epic gems dropped to 10 Badges?
Among the many fine things that can be bought with Badges of Justice in this post-2.4 world of ours are epic gems, the same kind that drop in the Black Temple and the Sunwell Plateau. They are sold by Shaani, who appears once your realm reaches phase four, and the uncut, un-BoP gems sell for 15 Badges of Justice each. Or at least, that's what we thought. Sharp-eyed tipster Herid noticed that according to the Armory (screenshot above), the price of the gems is 10 Badges of Justice -- a 33% reduction in price before they even go on sale yet!Of course, this could just be an Armory bug, so I did my level best to check it out for myself, by logging on to Proudmoore, the only server yet to have reached phase four. However, I learned that although Shaani spawns when phase four is activated, she doesn't sell gems until the Alchemy Lab is completed, much like Smith Hauthaa and the Anvil. So I can't confirm this with anything more than the Armory data at the moment. Proudmooreans, get going on Discovering your Roots, so we can uncover the truth of this gem-price-drop rumor.If it's true, Badges of Justice might be worth more gold than we thought, depending on what the price of these epic gems stabilizes at.
Where's the badge vendor, and other IoQD questions
It is now day two of patch 2.4, and the madness is still well underway. The Isle of Quel'Denas is swarming with aggressive players (most of them seem to be mages for some reason) racing each other to the Wretched and the Sentries, not to mention people desperately seeking tanks, healers, and CC for MrT runs. (Alright, not many people are calling it MrT yet, but we're trying to make it happen.) And the Shattered Sun Offensive is progressing; my server is now 59% of the way through phase one.What's all this about phases, you ask? Well, as people do the daily quests on IoQD, the Shattered Sun Offensive begins to retake the island building-by-building, in four phases. When that percentage progress (which you can see on your own server by talking to the NPCs who give the daily quests) goes up to 100%, we enter phase two, unlocking a trade supplies vendor and more quests. Repair vendors and the coveted badge vendors (and T4 -> PvP vendors) are not available until phase three, which Vaneras estimates should take a month or so to get to. This phase also brings ammo vendors, and still more quests.And phase four will supply the island with a proper inn, complete with mailbox, and reagent vendors, as well as even more quests. So: there is no repair, ammo, or reagent vendor, no badge vendor, no inn, and no mailbox -- yet. If you want to hasten their coming, bring in any level 70 characters you might have and do the daily quests that are currently available. Oh, and the portal for that one quest is at 48,44 or so. I have now dealt with 95% of the questions I see in IoQD General (ah, memories of Hellfire Peninsula in the first week of BC).
Badges for dailies
Originally, there was only one way to obtain Badges of Justice: Heroic bosses. Now there are a couple more: Heroic daily quests as well as raids. Still, there hasn't been a way for the die-hard solo player to get their hands on some badges -- until now. The Shattered Sun Offensive (SSO), the new faction associated with patch 2.4, assigns many daily quests (to help you fill the new 25-dailies-a-day limit). Several of these quests reward you with Shattered Sun Supplies, a box which contains a high-level green item, and also -- coming to my point -- has a chance to contain a Badge of Justice.According to Wowhead, there are seven dailies that reward Shattered Sun Supplies. Some of them are apparently only available during certain phases of the SSO effort, so let's say you can do five of these per day. I don't have numbers on how often the supplies contain a Badge, but let's say it's a 50% chance, based on one comment that Badges are contained "more often than not." So on average, you could get 2.5 Badges per day just by doing these daily quests, which means 60 days to get one of those snazzy new 150-badge weapons. That's a long time, but arguably justified by the fact that these quests are probably pretty easy. Overall, this is, in my opinion, an excellent enhancement to the Badge system. Your thoughts?Update: Suzaku questions my hypothetical 50% drop rate in a comment. Obviously, the impact of these badges will depend on how frequent they are, and we just don't have solid numbers on that yet. Not to mention it may change during testing.
Dress yourself completely in Badge loot
Our awesome friends over at MMO Champion have discovered more about the new loot that have been previously uncovered, revealing the prices of Badge of Justice loot from the much-awaited Patch 2.4. Prices start at 45 Badges for off-hand frills, a moderate price jump from the 25 Badges of the original loot and 35 for the two new items from Patch 2.3. The as-of-yet-unnamed rings (creatively named "Sunwell Badge Loot - <insert class archetype here> Ring") cost 60 Badges while it takes 75 Badges to purchase belts or gloves. The high prices are a precedent set by Patch 2.3 with such items as the Amani Mask of Death or the Battlemaster trinkets (75 Badges).Of course, with better gear comes a higher price, and some armor pieces go for a whopping 100 Badges. What's truly cool about the new Badge loot, however, is the availability of Main Hand (and Two-Handed) weapons, which top the price list at a staggering 150 Badges! The good news is, Badges of Justice are dropping everywhere now, with the patch notes stating that all raid bosses now drop Badges of Justice, including the 25-man ones, who drop 2.More Badge loot-y goodness after the jump.
Backpack Invaders
A new Space Invaders game and a big milestone mean that Taito gets to start milking their original cash cow anew. The latest item to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the dusty old shooter is a set of nice-looking pinbadges. Numbering thirty badges and costing thirty(-five) dollars, this set includes each individual Invader, the player-controlled cannon thing, the monster from the arcade game's sideart, and several neat logo pins. We especially enjoy the "I (heart with '30th' inside it) (one of the Invaders)" group.If you're going to put a bunch of holes in your stuff, you might as well celebrate an awesome game series while you're at it. These pins will ship in "late May" from NCSX.
BlizzCon: Tales of ticket pick up
It's the day before BlizzCon, and the WoW Insider team got the chance to stand amongst the throngs to get our badges. The challenge was, of course, that the lines themselves were crazy, wondering out the door without much organization. The mood in the convention center can be described as calm expectancy. I expected more excitement, but I think the ordeal of waiting in such long lines wore the excitement right out of us. Tomorrow we'll be out there in line, looking for more shining faces, and bringing you all the latest. For now we sit waiting for the meet up to begin.
Dockstar 2.0 brings screensaver, widget and more badge options to Mail.app
Mail.app junkies who demand more from that little red Dock badge - rejoice! Dockstar, the go-to app for adding up to 5 new notification badges to Mail.app's icon that we've mentioned before, has received some great new features for a version 2.0 upgrade. New in this version are features like counting messages in nested folders, counting flagged, junk or total messages, sound notifications for each badge and even a screensaver and Dashboard widget.Check out the changelog for more details, or snag a new copy. A license costs a mere $8.[via Hawk Wings]
Digital Cube working on "world's smallest" UMPC
While we think we've found the undisputed champion of world's most bizarre UMPC, the company most noted for its broad array of DAPs and PMPs is purportedly "working on the world's smallest ultra mobile PC." Sadly, there's not a lot of details aside from that shown on the ginormous Digital Cube sign hoisted up at CeBIT, which explains the unsurprising inclusions of GPS navigation, wireless internet, mobile TV, and a media player. The splash screen proudly proclaims its ability to handle Windows XP, and while we can't be certain just yet, we certainly wouldn't put it past this outfit to just rebadge an existing unit and call it their own -- of course, it's not like that design scheme looks remotely familiar or anything. Nevertheless, this presently generic (and mysterious) handheld computer will hopefully be out for the masses here soon, so we'll be sure to snag some hands-on action with the bugger if the opportunity arises.[Via SlashGear]
Badges of Honour back at Blockbuster
For you fellow Canadian fanboys out there, Blockbuster Video is carrying the "Badges of Honour". For a toonie, you can get your hands on one of five limited edition badges, from GRAW 2, to Guitar Hero II to Halo 3. Proceeds are going to be donated to the Children's Miracle Network, so its definitely for a good cause. They will only be available until Sunday, April 1st, 2007, so next time you're renting something over at Blockbuster, pick up a couple badges to help show gamers care.[Thanks, DjDATZ]
Space Machine GPS-306 lands in North America
If you've yearned for an Asian-based GPS, but didn't feel like worrying over those annoying import duties or changing out the maps, Space Machine apparently feels your pain. Contrary to its title, this device actually doesn't include the marked highways on Jupiter and Mars, but it does manage to include NAVTEQ maps of North America in case you're traveling there, and also features a 3.5-inch QVGA touchscreen, integrated MP3 player, automatic re-routing, turn-by-turn voice guidance, SiRF Star III GPS receiver, 256MB SD card, car mounting kit, headphone jack, and a carrying case to boot. While most rebadgers actually take the time to slap their own logo on there, the GPS-306 apparently still rocks the Holux GPSsmile 51 motif, right down the "Holux" branding atop the screen. Nevertheless, we do appreciate the effort of importing the unit for us, and those attracted to the name more than its functionality can pick one up now for $399.95. [Via NaviGadget]
Scalpers want $1K for pair of E3 badges
Earlier this morning we received word that a pair of E3 badges was being auctioned on eBay. According to our tipster, the starting bid was $300. Unfortunately, the auction was pulled before we could get a look.However, moments ago, we were tipped off by another reader who had discovered a similar sale on craigslist. As it turns out, it's the same pair of badges, now being offered for $1,000! Here's the post:"I have a pair of E3 Badges I am selling. I had these posted on Ebay but the ESA pulled the auction. Purchasing these will get you onto the show floor of E3 2006. My manager and I will fly down to L.A. and pick up the badge holders with our ID's. You will not have to show ID at any point from there on out. Our travel expenses are included in the badge price. The pair of badges is $1000 obo. Please email me with any questions. Thanks. "What's a chance to be the first on your block to see the PS3 and Revolution in action worth to you and a friend?[Thanks, T & Eric]
