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WoW Moviewatch: Hallow's End Special
The Myndflame team is back with a just-in-time release for this year's Hallow's End. The Myndflame community collaborated on this machinima, and I think you can see the results of a team effort. Those folks are already known for their humor, and the Hallow's End Special isn't a let down. The basic setup is that it's Hallow's End, and everyone should have a good, scary costume. Thrall is having a bit of a challenge, and finds a book to help him on his way. (One minion tells us that his mom used to make him pretend to be scared of Thrall's costume.) I have to admit, my first thought was "Aww, poor Thrall." But, it turns out all right in the end. Like I said, Myndflame's already known pretty well for bringing the funny, and they didn't disappoint this time, either. I'm always amazed with how much emotion they get into the relatively static faces of WoW, and how their angles set up the humor of their work. Go and see it for yourself on Myndflame! Lastly, I'm fairly certain no actual kittens were harmed in the production of this movie. %Gallery-35793% Previously on Moviewatch...
Breakfast Topic: Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween, everybody! The World Event happening today IRL is the basis of our favorite game's Hallow's End festivities. This is the day when we are officially allowed to knock on strangers' doors and hope their Innkeeper will give us some treats. This is also when we can dress up as, well... anything, really, and not have anybody look at us funny. This is actually a great opportunity to do a little bit of cosplay even if you're not really into that kind of thing. I mean, why not dress up as your favorite WoW character? In fact, some people thought that was such a great idea they decided to make Warcraft costumes for everybody.What do you have planned for this Halloween? Will you be dressing up as a Warlock in Tier 5? Or maybe an Orc with the Arcanite Ripper? If you do plan on dressing up as somebody -- or something -- from Warcraft, don't forget to send in your pictures! While some of you might still have some last minute Hallow's End Achievements to pursue, I hope you get it early today so you can go out for what usually is a fun-filled night in many places. This is one of the few times that I'd actually recommend not playing the game for a little while. I mean, RL tricky treats and flimsy masks have got to be on everyone's agenda, right? Ending the day not plastered on Dos Ogris might be an Achievement for some, while I certainly hope nobody gets Out With It outside the game today. Whatever you have planned for Halloween, we at WoW Insider hope you have a blast! %Gallery-32199%
The DS Life: A young Hylian boy
Halloween is only a day away -- do you have your costume ready yet? Still looking for video game-inspired ideas? How about Dr. Kawashima from the Brain Age series? Phoenix Wright? Travis Touchdown? How about Mario?Need a female costume? Maybe you can dress up as one of the ninja sisters from the WarioWare games? Midna or Rosalina? Peach or Samus? Mama? Struggling for a dog outfit? Well, there's always K.K. Slider. Or, um, Nintendogs?And when all else fails, whether you're a boy, girl, or puppy, there's always ... Link! We've featured several costume variations of the young hero -- Phantom Hourglass Link, Four Swords Link, and, of course, Hugging Girls Link -- but today's photo puts an actual kid into the green outfit! Slip into your Pegasus Boots and dash past the post break for the image!See also: Top 5: Spooky Gaming Moments
Caption Contest: Naked man who is also a computer; eye bleach not included
We really don't know what to say. We're sorry? That just doesn't seem to cut it. Maybe these captions will bring a small semblance of comprehension to this screwed-up reality we now find ourselves in. Please add your own in the comments, we can get through this together.Josh: "The Robocop program had seen drastic budget cuts in recent years."Chris: "iFixIt's teardown of ASIMO revealed what many had suspected all along: it's just a naked white dude with a motherboard duct taped to him." and "Please don't play Crysis - the GPU is like RIGHT on my nipple."Joe: "Mobile computing means different things to different people."Paul: "There are lots of great ways to stay warm this winter. This one is lame."Richard: "Unfortunately, Jim slightly misread the TSA's new less-annoying laptop bag rules."Darren: "Um, no -- those aren't mathematical equations written on my bedroom wall..."Laura: "Gaultier proves, once again, that pants are extraneous."Don: "Hello, Starbucks? Do you let folks use your power outlets? Great."Nilay: "It's the liquid-cooling system I'm most proud of."Thomas: "Hey ladies, watch what happens when I hit the defrag button."["Thanks," sgt_easton]
DS Daily: Planning a costume?
We've looked at a couple of things lately -- cosplay and crafts -- that serve to remind us that the official Day of Costumes is just around the corner. Are you dressing up for anything this year? If so, gonna incorporate something from the gaming world? Must confess that we are indoctrinating the boychild early ... my chubby baby is gonna be a moogle for his first Halloween. I'm going to just prep some cards with moogle information that I can hand out every time someone asks what he is, which will probably be about every four seconds.
Guild Wars Halloween art contest announced
It's that time once again for players and fans of ArenaNet's Guild Wars to break out the creativity for the Guild Wars Halloween Art Contest 2008. Last year's contest conjured some amazing images of costumes, sculptures, paintings and more from the dedicated GW community. This year, the concept is the same: Dream up your own way to bring a Halloween twist to Guild Wars.The prizes this year include a Guild Wars-themed Razer Death Adder Mouse, a VisionTek Radeon HD3650 video card, signed copies of the Nightfall Collector's Edition, GW Series 2 skill pins, skill and character slot unlock keys and much more! Get your entry in by 12:00 Noon PST on Monday, October 27th, 2008. From there, the winners will be announced on or before November 3rd, 2008 and will be posted on the Guild Wars main site. Check out the complete rules for more details. Good luck!
Official WoW costumes for Halloween
Have you ever wanted to be a fearsome Orc? Maybe you wanted to wear your Season 2 Warrior helmet out on the street? Or maybe you figured it was time you need to dual-wield WoW's legendary weapons in real life, like some other folks? Gosh, maybe you just want pointy ears. Turns out, this Halloween is going to be your chance. Not only do you get to enjoy the real world holiday in game, but you get to enjoy the game in your real world holiday. Amythys of Mug'Thol tipped us off that Costumes Inc. has a series of licensed World of Warcraft costumes on sale. Licensed means they're official and for real -- note that the artwork on the ears is Blizzard's own art. Some of them are obviously tailored to be friendly to folks who don't know the game. The Season 2 Warrior helmet mask is titled as the "Wild Beastman Mask." And, oddly, there are three versions of the Arcanite Reaper -- one handed, standard, or long. Thunderfury makes an appearance, and it looks sweet. Of course, there's requisite elf ears available in both the Night and Blood varieties. Check it out in the gallery. %Gallery-32199%
Collector's Edition and Blizzard Events items will become "Bound to Account"
Jeff Kaplan a.k.a. "Tigole" announced today that the following items will become "Account Bound": Murky Tyrael's Hilt Murloc Costume All Collector's Edition pets This is an interesting change to say the least. Blizzard will set this change in motion on the Beta first, and if everything goes smoothly it'll go live (no word if it will happen in Wrath of the Lich King or patch 3.0.2).Kaplan notes that with this change Collector's Edition pets will no longer disappear when you put them into your pet spell book. The spell will still be added, but you will be able to send the pet item around to your other characters on your account. He does point out that if you've already put your pet into the pet spell book, you won't be able to be refunded the pet on the beta. Of course, that does not apply to the live realms – since the pet spell book isn't implemented in live.
Dear Mario, please come to the castle, I have made some awesome cosplay
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Amazing_Peach_Zero_Suit_Samus_cosplay'; It's been a while since we last checked in on Swedish/Japanese student Jenni Källberg, a.k.a Queen of Nintendo cosplay, but here are her two most recent creations: Zero Suit Samus (actually revealed last month), and her take on Princess Peach. What is it that elevates Jenni's cosplay above others? Simple: the outfits are obviously beautifully made, the props are brilliant (we really need a giant Goomba now, though yes, we know it isn't actually that size), and there's a sense of humor about her work. Well, Raccoon Mario's sudden appearance made us laugh, anyway.Oh, and who hasn't encountered this problem? Just looking at that picture frustrates us!%Gallery-32071% Want moar cosplay? We've seen creative folks dressing up to pay tribute to all sorts of DS games, including Nintendogs, Zelda, Professor Layton, Advance Wars, The World Ends With You, and even, um, Brain Training.
Show and Tell: Early but eerie
In the fine tradition of American retailers, we'd like to get started on Halloween a little early this year. We've got pumpkins, costumes, and parties -- all things just ripe for you to undertake yourself once the holiday rolls around. Doing something gaming-related yourself? Make sure you let us know!Also, hey -- if you're looking to get started early on your spooky plans this year, maybe some of these will help get the (ooshy gooshy layers of) brain cranking out some ideas.%Gallery-31461% 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.
Tauren needs ticket to BlizzCon
One good thing that's come out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week is that the WoW community is showing all kinds of creativity in dealing with Blizzard's mistakes. Last week on the podcast, we talked about "DizzCon," an event being organized by players who couldn't find tickets, but still want to go to Anaheim that weekend, and now here's the story of AreEss. He wasn't able to get tickets either, but is now offering a deal to anyone who has an extra -- he'll pick you up on his drive to Anaheim from Cleveland (or "The Cleve"). And as if that wasn't a great enough deal, he's also buying food on the road, and he's going to be wearing a handmade Tauren costume the whole time (which, apparently, you may have to help with -- that might be a dealbreaker right there).He's now moved over to a blog (and adapted the great name "BlizzCon Cow"), and starting posting how it's going, complete with pictures of the costume and some how-to info on making it. If I had a free ticket, I'd totally hook the guy up, because clearly he really, really wants to be at BlizzCon. Hopefully he'll keep us updated on how it's all going, and especially if he's able to find a ticket -- it'd be great to see him at the WoW Insider meetup.Creativity like this just shows how committed Blizzard's fan community is -- even when things go bad, the community steps up to make events like BlizzCon something even bigger than Blizzard ever planned them to be.
Ask Cryptic touches on player-created content
Every time Cryptic puts up a brand new Ask Cryptic article we have a tough time picking only one or two answers to talk about. However, this week was pretty easy. The very first question presented asks about how deep Champions Online will delve into the concept of player-created content, whether it be mods or actual in-game content. Jack Emmert responded reasonably by mentioning that the Nemesis system, costume creation, power selection and power customization features are merely the beginning. Apparently we that we can, "look to see [Cryptic] continue to open the door for more player-generated material." Which really makes us wonder what that means for Star Trek Online.We must admit to this being an exciting proposition. It's our hope as comic book and MMO nerds that there's a future where we can submit completely unique costumes to go through moderated approval for each of our crazy characters in Champions Online. Or even custom animations! That would be unequivocally and unabashedly awesome. Don't disappoint us now, Cryptic.
Samsung Costume hard drive concept appeals to the ladies
Not that Samsung is actually looking to pump this out into beauty salons worldwide, but there stands at least a mild chance that sophisticated females shopping for new compacts would also spring for some storage. Joongoo Lee's Costume is a sleek, deliberately styled 2.5-inch external hard drive that looks entirely at home mixed in with various makeup components. Additionally, the bundled dock is equally sexy, though we can only hope there's a USB 2.0 port somewhere on this thing. Though this is just a concept, we wouldn't put it past Samsung to turn into a reality -- after all, it did just produce pink and blue BlackJack IIs. Your soft side is showing, Sammy.[Via PCLaunches]
The Daily Grind: should your gear determine your look?
There's a story from City of Heroes of how a veteran player, who'd chosen bright and shiny medieval-style armor for his character, mercilessly teased a newbie by boasting of how he'd gotten the armor in an epic loot drop. As any CoX player knows, your costume has nothing to do with your powers. Although powers can cause obligatory aura effects, such as a fiery glow, and some powers give you a weapon, the character's physical appearance is almost entirely up to the player.By contrast, games that involve gear (such as WoW and AoC) give you the chance to show off the uber loot you've gone to the trouble of getting. The plus side is that everyone can see your cool stuff; the downside is that the very coolest stuff tends to be worn by everyone who can get it, resulting in hordes of people who look much the same. The best gear for any given stage of the game isn't guaranteed to be what you'd like to wear, appearance-wise. You either have to compromise your character's looks or their abilities. Even gear-centric games tend to let you make some concessions, such as making your helmet invisible. Would you like to see more changes along these lines? Would a piece of uber gear still count for as much if people couldn't recognise it? Is it simple common sense to have your gear determine how you look, or is that an outmoded game concept that should be abandoned in favor of optimum customization?
The Daily Grind: Would your dress up as your MMO character?
As much as many of us probably have an invested amount of time and love in our in-game avatars, would any of you dress up as them? We don't mean dress up poorly, unless that's just your thing. We mean would you dress up as your avatar on a professional level? The whole nine yards with a custom tailored costume sparring no infinitesimal detail. If the answer is no, then we have to wonder what it would take for you to do such an unthinkable thing: Money, cookies, maybe death threats?This is all especially relevant due to the fact that Massively will be running the MMORPG costume contest this year at Dragon*Con. While we're on the topic of that, we should mention that there is an extreme lack of Warhammer Online costumes out there, so bring the waaagh! We certainly hope that some of you out there aren't too opposed to dressing up and puttin' da Gork in it!
Worldwide Invitational 2008 contest signups begin
The date of the World Wide Invitational in Paris creeps ever closer and closer. Of course, the biggest thing we're looking forward to is all the new WotLK information courtesy of the playable WotLK demos and Developer panels, but the contests should be pretty fun too. If you're planning to enter one of them, the signups are beginning. Submissions for the fan art and machinima contests are being accepted via web form from now until June 17th, so that leaves you a little under one more week to finalize your submission. As for the dance and costume contests, registration will be open from June 16th to June 20th. Remember, some of the contests are only open to certain European countries, so check the rules to make sure you're eligible -- and remember, if you're not, you may be eligible for the contests at Blizzcon 2008 instead. Good luck with your entries, and we'll see you in Paris!
Illusionary Tactics: Orb of Deception
Welcome back to Illusionary Tactics, where we look at items or quests that can make you look like something you're not, for fun and profit (profit not guaranteed). The Orb of Deception is probably the first item I think of when I think about things that belong in this column. It's just so...deceptive! What does it do? It makes you look like a member of the opposite faction, for five minutes on a 30-minute cooldown. The transformations are determined by your race and gender, and are as follows (thanks, Excorsism):
WWI costume contest announced
Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational contest is becoming quite a production. They've just announced another contest as part of the lineup: a costume contest! Just to recap, let's see what has been announced: Fan art contest Machinima contest Actual gameplay contests, in Warcraft III, Starcraft, and WoW Hands-on play of Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King ...and now a costume contest. The fourth annual WWI will be held in Paris, on June 28th and 29th. So you have just over a month to scrape together your best Curator suit and learn how to say "gallery rules will be strictly enforced" in that disaffected, slightly psychotic robot voice. Get cracking! I want to hear your costume ideas in the comments.%Gallery-5529%
The beauty of MMO fashion shows
As our MMOs get more immersive in regards to graphical environments and especially character models, it is an inevitable progression to introduce fan-driven beauty contests into the mix. Fansites and forums are always finding new ways to boost the community in our MMOs, and competition is a natural element of our favorite games anyway, so why not combine the two? This type of community-based event showcasing the beauty of in-game graphics tends to be something that can most effectively be done in an MMO, and works quite well as a distraction from the typical killing, looting and questing.So are these in-game character beauty contests an extension of roleplaying, or are they focused more on the competitive aspect? Do you think they're trying to over-compensate for real-world qualities as a form of escapism? Are they simply good-natured fun, and a way to pass the time? Regardless of the reason, they're becoming more popular with each new MMO. In fact, we anticipate one of these in Age of Conan very soon.What becomes even more fascinating though is the conversion from in-game character beauty contests to real-world costume contests. Many players are willing to take it that extra mile for the love of their game, and this certainly isn't a new phenomenon. We've seen this for decades with Star Trek and Star Wars conventions, but are MMOs replacing this type of event?Check out the gallery below for a walk down the runway of MMO fashion shows.%Gallery-22997%
WiiMan is a human Wiimote
While we're not adverse to posting completely kickass examples of cosplay, sometimes the hobby makes us speechless for all the wrong reasons. Take, for example, WiiMan -- the white fabric-clad manboy, with a Wiimote decal on the front of his costume. Oh, and let's not forget the cape.One cool thing about Wiiman, though, is that the Wiimote on his costume is wired to work like an actual Wiimote. Of course, that's one of those things that sounds better in theory than in practice, because feeling up some guy in a superhero costume (or watching him feel up himself) while playing Wii is something we tend to avoid.Still, we admire WiiMan's dedication. It's not everyday you see a man dressed as a functioning Wiimote, amirite?(Note: We know some circles won't consider this as official cosplay, but it's close enough for our standards.)[Via Gemaga]
