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Star Trek Online Advisory Board gets its own FAQ
When Star Trek Online announced the formation of their Advisory Council for fan input, the response was fairly unhappy, in the same way that the sun's surface is fairly warm. No one, especially the vocal forumgoers, liked the idea of certain fans getting extra input in the game's direction. Cryptic is aware of the negative reaction, and they're doing their best to ameliorate concerns by clarifying the intended purpose of the board. A list of frequently asked questions has just recently gone live on the official site, no doubt hoping to clear the air and mollify those who felt silenced. As the FAQ takes pains to reinforce, the intent was not to replace other forms of player feedback, but to use a different angle to get in touch with fans not active on the forums. The council itself will have methods for removing members seen as advancing a personal agenda over the wishes of others, and there will be methods to add new members based on a variety of factors. Star Trek Online's team does seem to have their heart in the right place, but unpopular decisions can be hard to bounce back from. It remains to be seen how the coommunity will react to Cryptic's explanatory olive branch.
Answers for the 'rents about the iPad
So my folks were here this weekend, and as you'd expect my Dad is really curious about the upcoming iPad, or as he likes to put it "his new 3G iPad". I convinced him that he should wait for April so he could get the new postpaid-data-ready iPad, which he could use anywhere, not just with WiFi hotspots. As we were talking, I began to realize that he didn't really have a clear idea of exactly what this gadget is -- and lots of you probably have parents in similar situations. So I put together this Q&A using actual questions my Dad asked throughout the course of the weekend. "So I can use it instead of my normal computer, right?" The iPad isn't going to replace your home computer. In fact, it's supposed to be like an iPod -- a mobile device you bring along but not a primary system. You manage your music and movies and everything over on your main machine (a Windows unit in my Dad's case) and then synchronize that data to your iPad using iTunes. "But what about Microsoft Works? Can I load that on?" Afraid not. The iPad is more like a mobile phone than it is like a computer. You won't be able to run Windows on it, or even the Macintosh operating system OS X. It has its own private system and can only run apps that you buy at the App Store. (Trust me, my Dad does not want to know from jailbreaking or Cydia.)
FAQ That: All about Global Agenda's Conquest mode
So what exactly makes Global Agenda cross the border from persistent FPS to full on MMO? Conquest, my friends! Conquest. And now that the NDA has been lifted, we're free to tell you all about this agency only mode. Global Agenda: Conquest mode is the game's take on a real-time strategy game versus an FPS. Your alliance of agencies can take ownership of the Global Agenda world and lay claim to valuable resources to build agent modifications, weapons of mass destruction, and even more fun little tools. But you must guard your territory carefully, as other alliances will have the option to siege your land, forcing you into battles for domination of the map. But how does Conquest mode work? What do you need to do to take advantage of this feature of the spy-fi shooter? Glad you asked! It's time for you to FAQ That!
Pilgrim's Bounty FAQ
Around the feast areas, at least on my own server, I've seen the same questions keep popping up about the new holiday, Pilgrim's Bounty. I thought it might be helpful to try answering them here. By necessity, these are a little general; if you want a closer look at getting the holiday achievements, please read our updated guide to Pilgrim's Bounty achievements. Help! Where do I go to get started? Go to any of your faction's major cities and find the feasting area. For Alliance, head to Stormwind, Ironforge, or Darnassus: for Horde, head to Orgrimmar, Undercity, or Thunder Bluff. While you can start the holiday in either the Exodar or Silvermoon, it's a little faster to start in any of the "classic" cities because you don't pick up any quests in their BC counterparts.
DSi XL FAQ: Sized up
Early yesterday, Nintendo of Japan announced the DSi XL (DSi LL in Japan), a larger, larger-screened version of the DSi. It's a big system, and kind of a big mystery, given that the only advance notice we had of the thing was a Nikkei blurb two days prior. While we can't answer the big questions, like how long this idea has been in the works, and whether a bigger handheld is a good idea as an alternative to the DS's continual miniaturization, we can round up what we know and can reasonably speculate about the DSi XL -- right after the jump. %Gallery-76864%
Halo 3: ODST miniFAQ
.nounderline a { text-decoration: none; } Whether you're preparing to drop right in or are wavering outside the enlistment office, this is your basic field guide to Halo 3: ODST. Jump to a specific answer by clicking on a question below, or view the entire FAQ after the break: Is ODST worth $60? What's in the box? Should I install either game disc on my hard drive? What's it like not playing as Master Chief? What are the new weapons in ODST? Will you show me the Achievements list? How many missions are in Campaign? What are the collectible Audio Logs, and how many are there? Is co-op play supported in Campaign? What are the basic rules of Firefight? How many missions (or maps) are in Firefight? Can I customize my character in Firefight? How many skull modifiers are there, and what does each skull do in Firefight? Does Firefight support online matchmaking? Is there new Halo 3 multiplayer content? Do I need to keep downloaded Halo 3 maps on my hard drive? Where are the hidden skulls in the new Mythic maps? How do I unlock Recon armor for Halo 3 multiplayer? WARNING: FAQ contains spoilers pertaining to names and descriptive elements of Campaign and Firefight missions, Achievements, and certain hidden/unlockable content.
FAQ That: Common answers to your basic Fallen Earth questions
We know. Life in Fallen Earth takes some getting used to. The virus has wiped out most of humanity, and there were nukes dropped in Asia because everyone was relatively sure someone over there designed the killer flu. What's left of humanity seems to be crowded into the Grand Canyon. We're all living in the shadow of a madman's legacy, and the world has - pardon the phrase - gone to hell in a hand-basket. It's not easy figuring out what to do with yourself in the post-apocalyptic world, but thankfully we here at Massively have been working on compiling a list of questions that should help make your first steps in this strange new version of Earth a bit easier. Need a hand finding your way around? Join us behind the break for the first official installment of FAQ That - our irreverent take on those first, painful days of Noob Chat in your favorite new MMOs.
Blizzcon 2009: Official Cataclysm FAQ
Blizzard's official Cataclysm site is going up and down every minute or two right now, but I managed to load their FAQ for the upcoming expansion, and there is plenty of interesting information in it. Barrens is split in two. Darkshore is flooded. New zones: Uldum, Grim Batol, the Sunken City of Vashj'ir. "More raid content" than previous expansions A new "Wintergrasp-like zone" called Tol Barad Archaeology, the new secondary profession, lets you "unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards" The new starting zones will be heavily phased, and will be similar to the DK starting zones Azshara is now a low-level Horde zone connected directly to Orgrimar Azeroth will be changed whether you buy the expansion or not I'm psyched. I'm sure we'll learn more about all of these details as Blizzcon goes by, so keep it locked on WoW.com. In fact, check out the live blog of the Cataclysm panel going on right now for more info. I'm especially curious about Archaology, and about whether they can keep their promise to have more raid content. Check out the entire FAQ after the break! BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
BlizzCon live stream order page up
Didn't get your tickets for BlizzCon? Planning to pick up the Internet stream instead, because you don't have DirecTV at home? Now's your chance -- the page has appeared to order up the official livestream in HD video straight from the conference. For $39.95, you get over 16 hours of video from the convention floor, as well as all the main stage presentations, tournament coverage, and even the Grunty the Murloc Space Marine pet. There's more answers over on their FAQ page if you have more questions.The video streaming as a test on the page suggests that both Level 80 Tauren Chieftain will be playing and Jay Mohr will be hosting again, though that video is likely from last year, and not necessarily indicative of this year's show. It looks like the HQ stream will also require you to install the RayV player, while the lower quality stream will likely be available just through Flash. You can also keep in mind that though this is probably an excellent deal (especially if you want that pet -- I know many people will pick up the package for that code alone), there will be no shortage of information from BlizzCon for sure, as we'll have plenty to go around as well. But if you were planning on picking up the Internet stream, order on up.BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon, you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there are some great looking costumes.
Jeff Hickman, FAQ, and Grab Bag are all about Land of the Dead
The Land of the Dead must be coming soon because Mythic has gone into marketing overdrive these past few days. Jeff Hickman just addressed the WAR community in an open Executive Producer's letter and we've seen the new RvR mega-zone featured in both an official FAQ and community Grab Bag.It's a bit strange seeing Jeff Hickman in print since he's usually on the front-lines doing live interviews. Also, WAR fans have gotten used to seeing Mythic GM, Mark Jacobs, deliver these kinds of letters in the past. Actually, Mark has been remarkably silent since March when he delivered his 6-month State of the Game and 1.21 patch highlight announcements.At any rate, you can find out pretty much everything there is to know about The Land of the Dead in these three recent articles. Want to know the ward requirements for the PQs, lairs, and dungeons? Curious about lockout timers? Wondering what the heck a "Vessel" is? Head on over and check these resources out!
WoW.com FAQ is up and running
First of all, I need to thank each and every one of you for participating in our Beta launch, and providing your comments, bug reports and suggestions. Keep them coming!We have had many questions today, which has helped us refine our Help Guides, and prompted us to write up a FAQ. Because this is a Beta test, you can expect that we will add to it as the site develops. We would also like to request that before you send in your questions and bug reports, you check out the aforementioned official FAQ to see if we've already written up answers. And don't forget to hop onto Twitter, because we're using our page as a platform for giveaways, news, and launch-related information!
Noblegarden FAQ
UPDATE: This guide has been revised for Noblegarden 2010. Noblegarden 2009 should be going live on the European realms in a few hours and then start popping up on realms elsewhere over the next day. Because so much of the holiday has changed and we've fielded a lot of questions from players about what's going on, we decided to write up a quick FAQ to the new (and vastly improved!) holiday. Help! Where do I go to get started? If you're Alliance, head to Azure Watch, Dolanaar, Goldshire, or Kharanos. If you're Horde, head to Bloodhoof Village, Brill, Falconwing Square, or Razor Hill. What am I supposed to do when I get there? There will be questgivers in all of these towns who will give you a new daily, The Great Egg Hunt, and A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket. The former will reward you with an item that will come in handy for an achievement (more on this in a little bit), but for both you're going to want to get started hunting down eggs in and around these level-5 towns. Once you've finished these quests, in order to get Noblegarden achievements done, you're going to need to be a dedicated egg hunter for a little while. What do the Brightly Colored Eggs look like? See the egg in the article's picture above? They're all variations on these colors and patterns and not generally tough to spot (although they are considerably smaller than the perspective in the picture makes them appear).
The best of WoW Insider: April 14-21, 2009
Patch 3.1 has been out for a week now in the World of Warcraft (in fact, patch 3.1.1 is coming out today), and players have tons to do -- we're all raiding Ulduar, playing around with dual specs, and leveling up through the Argent Tournament to become Champions of our own factions. In fact, there's a lot of new stuff in World of Warcraft, so if it ever gets overwhelming, worry not -- Joystiq's WoW Insider has you covered. Here's our most popular posts in the past week. News WoW Insider's Guide to the Argent TournamentIt's joustin' time in the World of Warcraft. Here's what you need to know. WoW Insider's Patch 3.1 FAQFrequently asked questions about last week's patch, answered just for you. Ghostcrawler on the mechanics behind Armor PenetrationOne of the game's devs talks about one of the tougher damage dealing mechanics to figure out. First day for Champions on the Argent TournamentThe very first class of Champions arises. Curse, WoW Interface band together to block WoWMatrixA small shakeup in the addon world leaves a few players hanging right around patch day. Features Wrath 101: Emalon the Storm WatcherThere's a new boss in the Wintergrasp Vault, and here's a quick guide to taking him down. The Queue: Service with a smileYou ask, we answer. That's how it works. How to get the Turtle MountWant to get your hands on the brand new aquatic mount? Here's a few tips. How to activate Ulduar's hard modesSure, anybody can raid Ulduar. But can you do it on hard mode? Lichborne: Top Death Knight DPS builds and patch 3.1With dual specs out, everybody wants to know which builds are best. Our Death Knight column breaks down which talent points to look for in patch 3.1.
WoW Insider's Patch 3.1 FAQ
Our own Elizabeth Harper has been hard at work gathering together all of the most frequently asked questions that we've received over the last few weeks regarding patch 3.1. Now that the realms are finally coming up, it's a good time to get these out to you all because many of you will probably be asking them soon, too!Our FAQ is listed below, and if you ever want to find it again just bookmark this page. It will always be there, and should there be a need to update it at any point, we'll be sure to do so! Thanks for sticking with us today, ladies and gentlemen.
iPhone 3.0 beta firmware FAQ
Does it work? Is it awesome? Will it enable WiMAX on your iPhone 3G? Will it give you an embarrassing rash? Many of these questions aren't addressed in our dear Ryan Block's 3.0 FAQ -- but the important ones are. Read on over at Engadget!
Glider down for the count
We knew this would happen after that last big Glider decision, but the judge's ruling has turned into action, and Glider has suspended their sales and operations. They're still hoping to bring it back up at some point -- there's still an appeals process to go through -- but that seems unlikely. Keep in mind that using Glider or any other botting software like it is a breach of Blizzard's terms of service and will most likely get you banned from the game.The company also has a FAQ up (which includes a PDF link to the latest ruling), and they sound hopeful there as well, saying that they'll know in a little while whether they'll be "back within a month or... gone for at least a year." Just in case you have (against Blizzard's rules) purchased and used Glider and are concerned that your information is being passed on to Blizzard, worry not -- they say that the ruling doesn't require them to give up any sales information, just shut down their operations and sales of the program.As Blizzard posted last month, they see this as a clear victory for both the company and players of the game -- Glider undermined both the wishes of the designers and the experience of other players in the game. Blizzard apparently feels the battle is over, while we're sure Glider is planning to continue the legal fight for as long as it takes. It seems unlikely that we'll see this software (or any bot software) back up for sale legitimately again, but if we do, we'll let you know.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Season 6 weapons as good as Ulduar drops
As an addendum to the recent Arena system FAQ posted on the forums, Kalgan addresses several concerns about the gear, the system, and questions of skill vs. gear. In a very forthcoming and transparent post, Kalgan admits that Blizzard "botched the ilvls" of the current Deadly Gladiator weapons by making them a full tier below the items from Kel'thuzad in heroic Naxxramas. At the time they designed them, Blizzard didn't account for how easily accessible Kel'thuzad would be. He promises they won't make the same mistake in Season 6, and that the new Furious Gladiator weapons would be equivalent to the items in Ulduar. Kalgan explains that the aim is to balance the accessibility of the items so that the number of raiders who have access to the best raid weapons is roughly the same as the number of Arena players with access to the best PvP weapons. He even goes so far as to say that Blizzard will make two tiers of PvP weapons if necessary. This might have been in the original plan as Hateful Gladiator weapons are in the game files but not available in the game.
iLounge Pavilion to host iPod, iPhone devs at CES 2010
The sharks are swimming the waters around Macworld Expo. They must smell blood: first we hear that Apple may be headed to CES, and now iLounge has announced that they're sponsoring a "pavilion" at next year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I've never been, but you have to think that there have always been at least some iPod and iPhone-related displays at CES, even if most of the hoopla is a few states away at Macworld. But now CES is making its move, apparently. With Apple pulling out of Macworld for good (and that event focusing on the Mac), CES and iLounge may be looking to get in on some of the iPod and Apple action. In fact, there's a FAQ for the event that says exactly that -- CEA heard that exhibitors were planning on skipping Macworld, and weren't sure about appearing at CES, so this pavilion is designed to pull exactly those people in. Obviously all of these events are almost a full 12 months off, and anything can happen in between now and then. But CES and iLounge apparently aren't wasting any time trying to nab some iPod-related attention away from IDG's Macworld sans Apple.
YouPlayorWePay claims to offer downtime insurance
I think this is a wild idea (even if it is something I wouldn't actually put my money in). We got tipped about a new site called "You Play or We Pay" and from the looks of it, these guys are offering none other than downtime insurance. That is: you pay a fee to them regularly, and then they "compensate" you for any downtime that your server has. They call it "third-party compensation," but that sounds like insurance to me.At any rate, we wouldn't quite recommend jumping in headfirst yet -- they haven't, as far as we can see, revealed any prices, and while you can register your characters, you can't actually get any sort of payout quite yet, as they say they're still working on the system. For all we know the site could be an elaborate scam at this point. But it is an intriguing idea, and if they're really ready to put their money where their FAQ is, these guys may have an actual business plan that depends on Blizzard keeping the servers up. Just like all insurance companies, they must have figured out that the servers stay up more often than not, and that there was money to be made there.It's quite an interesting plan, and we'll keep an eye on it to see if they ever announce a fee or explain themselves better. The math doesn't quite seem right here, but if somehow their fees are low enough and the payouts are high enough, it's possible that you really could be compensated for downtime by a completely separate company other than Blizzard. Very interesting.Update: The company has contacted WoW Insider, and we've requested an interview. Stay tuned.
UPDATED: Season 5 FAQ
Just like that, Arena Season 5 sprang upon Wrath of the Lich King. Even though Blizzard already made the announcement, it still feels kind of sudden. If Season 5 caught you with your pants down (we really hope not), then let's get you up to speed with what's happening in the latest and (hopefully) the greatest Arena season yet. Here's a quick FAQ about the new Arena Season 5.NOTE: Most of these answers are based on information taken from the Patch 3.0.8 PTR, such as gear availability and ratings requirements. If the items don't show up when servers go live today, this post will be updated when they finally do.At what level can I join Arenas?You can enter Arena skirmishes at any level, with brackets at Level 71-75 and 76-80. However, only Level 70 and Level 80 players may participate in rated Arena matches, acquire personal and team ratings, and earn Arena Points to purchase Arena gear. Only Level 80 players are eligible for end-of-season rewards such as titles and possible new 310% speed flying mounts, although none have been announced or found in the data files as of this writing.
