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Guild Wars 2 beta? Not in 2008
Following our Gearing up for Guild Wars 2 article from earlier this month, ArenaNet has released news of their Guild Wars 2 Frequently Asked Questions segment of their website. While hardly any of these questions or answers on this FAQ are new to those of us following along at home, we do get word that there will be no beta in 2008.Previously, it was mentioned that a 2008 GW2 beta was a possibility, or at least a hope of ArenaNet. This was something that kept players anxiously awaiting any tidbit of news as we reached the beginning, and now the middle of the year. Yet in this FAQ, it is stated, "Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations of its quality. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it." Regardless of when the beta starts, you can bet we here at Massively will be all over that news.
[UPDATED] Blood Sport: Arena for dummies I
Arena Season 6 is just around the corner. For many players, it's simply another chapter in the controversial Arena saga. Some love it and thrive in the Arenas, while others loathe it. Whatever players might think, however, it seems like Arenas are here to stay. For those players who have only recently hit Level 80, or for carebears suddenly willing to take the plunge, there might be a lot of questions about these "Arenas" that everyone seems to be talking about these days.I want to do Arenas, how do I start?Forming an Arena team is similar to forming a guild. Once you are Level 70, you can purchase an Arena Team Charter from any Arena Organizer, such as "King" Dond in Nagrand, Steamwheedle Sam in Blade's Edge Mountains, and Bip Nigstrom in Tanaris. Of course, nowadays, it's easier to go to Dalaran and talk to "Baroness" Llana or Kanika Goldwell in the sewers.The cost of the charter depends on the size of the team you're creating, costing roughly 40 Gold per team member. A 2v2 charter costs 80G, a 3v3 costs 120G, and a 5v5 costs 200G.When you purchase a charter, you will need to give it a name. Don't worry about it too much at this point because you can change it later when you hand in the charter. Similar to Guild Charters, you select a Level 70 player, right-click on the Team Charter, and ask them to sign it. Once you have all the necessary signatures (one more for a 2v2, two for a 3v3, and four for a 5v5 -- you count as the first), go back to any of the Arena Organizers and turn it in. Finalize your team name before handing it in, and then design a logo for your team. Once you hand it in, you'll be able to participate in Arenas by talking to an Arena Promoter and queueing up for a match just as you would for a Battleground.
WAR Q&A posted on the Warhammer Herald
The Warhammer Herald is the Warhammer Online dev journal. It's always an entertaining read, but the latest post is also chock-full of great information, specifically surrounding the North American beta test.Reading more like a Q&A/FAQ than a simple letter, the post talks about how to get into the beta, why you haven't gotten in even if you think you should have, people who have won slots in the test who haven't been playing, and more. If you're at all curious about how the process works, give it a read.[Thanks, Yulian!]
FAQ for Mines of Moria site helps you unlock rewards
Now that everything seems to be working properly, you might be spending a lot of time playing the dice wars-style minigame at the official website for the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion. If you're like us and largely having a tough time getting the hang of the website's first game -- King Under the Mountain -- then you'll be glad to hear there's a nice little FAQ over on the official LotRO forums. It's still a bit early on, but there are a few pointers in there that anyone looking to up their King Under the Mountain skills should check out. It's also good for answering any burning questions regarding King Under the Mountain.The FAQ will have updates as more information is revealed on the other two mini-games -- Swing and Toss followed by Eleventy-seven Morsels -- so we'll be checking back from time to time! Now if you'll excuse us, there's a set of dice calling our names and they can't wait any longer.
All you need to know about WAR's keeps and sieges
There's a new FAQ at Ten Ton Hammer that looks at the keeps and sieges of Warhammer Online. It answers a nice chunk of questions that people might have about this aspect of the Realm versus Realm gameplay which was looked at in the February newsletter. The process involved in capturing a keep will be to first breach the exterior walls, then the interior walls, and finally to slay the Keep Lord.Along the way you'll be able to use a variety of siege weapons, and both the attacking and defending sides will find these siege tools useful. When the Keep Lord is taken out, all remaining guards at the keep will despawn, and the Keep Lord will respawn as an ally to the sieging party, ready for when the other faction tries to re-capture the keep. It's a big, messy circle. Check out the rest of the FAQ for more on how you can attack or defend a keep in WAR.
Age of Conan FAQ reveals system requirements
If you've been waiting with bated breath (much like us) for Funcom to finally release the recommended and required system specs for Age of Conan, then you'll be pleased to hear that the wait is finally over. It's about time too, we were starting to look into the cost of flying to Norway and raiding their offices Barbarian-style. Then when we thought about it, the cost of double-sided great axes and authentic moleskin trousers was just too much when combined with the plane ticket.It all works out in the end, since you can find the much-awaited required specs after the break.
Panasonic reopens Plasma Concierge to the masses this holiday season
Read enough horror stories lately to get you all scared about diving into the world of HDTV? Fret not, as Panasonic is reopening the phone lines to its toll-free Plasma Concierge service during the holidays. Usually, this line is reserved for those who already own a Panny PDP, but starting today, absolutely anyone can ring up the help line for a little one-on-one Q&A about flat panels. Reportedly, those on the other end will be happy to field any general / technical questions you may have, and unlike last year, the service will remain open until February 3, 2008 -- a full two months longer. Hit the read link for the digits, and be sure to grab some paper and a pen before you just start rattling off inquiries.
Everything you wanted to know about Phantom Hourglass but were afraid to ask
Sure, Phantom Hourglass is probably going to be the hottest game of the year -- or at least one of them, considering the Pokémon invasion we've experienced -- but do you know everything about it? IGN has put together a helpful FAQ for the highly-anticipated DS title that's just chock full of information. Some of it is pretty basic, like "Who developed this one?" (Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development! Interesting tidbit: this is the team's first handheld Zelda), but there are more complicated and subjective questions as well, such as, "I never played Wind Waker, will I be totally lost?" IGN says no, and hopefully relieves some tension for some of you in the process.They also get into the complex matter of the Zelda timeline, and the many delays this latest entry suffered prior to release. It's a nice recap for those of you dying for more scraps about next month's release. We recommend taking it in with a video or two. %Gallery-4748%
Blizzard posts a Voice Chat FAQ
European CM Salthem has posted a Frequently Asked Questions about the new voice chat feature coming in the next patch (which has got to be just around the corner, right?). There's not much new here, but there is a lot of Blizzard confirming what players have already discovered about the voice chat system. People will be one-click mute-able, and voice chat will be able to be disabled by Parental Controls. Blizzard also makes a few interesting points about bandwidth-- while they say voice chat won't have a big effect on those with high bandwidth connections, they say people who currently experience high latency will likely have bigger problems.And perhaps most disappointingly, they almost sound apologetic about the quality of the sound. They recommend multi-thread processors (as if that's something someone can really upgrade to without getting a whole new computer), and they acknowledge that third party applications will likely have much better quality.Not that their voice chat system is bad-- as I've said before (and as we found out in the voice chat survey), lots of players will definitely use it. But third party applications aren't going away anytime soon either.
"Leaked" FAQ for WotLK
Personally, I'm pretty convinced that the forthcoming expansion is going to be called Wrath of the Lich King, mostly because the title was listed by the USK, the German equivalent of the ESRB (see update 2 here). Now we have what purports to be a leaked FAQ for the expansion, allegedly briefly visible on wow-europe.com last night. I don't know whether this is real or not, but it's certainly interesting. Here's my favorite part (my emphasis): The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft; once certain criteria are met, players will unlock the ability to create a new death knight character, which will begin play at a high experience level. That answers the question about people having to grind the new class up through the levels. I only wish it was available for all classes. According to this FAQ, the DK will be available to both Alliance and Horde, and will "combine damage-dealing and tanking" as far as party role goes. A few other points of special interest (summarized): Level cap raised to 80 New profession: "Inscription allows the player to permanently enhance their spells and abilities and to create mysterious items of power to use, trade, and sell." New and existing characters will be able to customize dances (??) and hairstyle Northrend will be about as big as Outland and will take about as long to complete. Players will fight Arthas himself The full FAQ is after the cut, or you can read it at the source here (scroll down for English). Please do remember to take this with a grain of salt.
Talkiphone posts iPhone FAQ
TalkiPhone has posted their 101-question-long iPhone FAQ. The FAQ, which runs the gamut from "Are AT&T stores really going to open at 6PM on June 29th" to "Will the iPhone support Adobe PDF documents?" collects information from around the Internet and combines it into a single easy-to-search document. The FAQ is clearly a work in progress and some of their answers differ from what I have been led to understand, so take the information there with a wee grain of salt. You can always review our iPhone posts for more tidbits on the greatest gadget since the sliced-bread slicer.Thanks Chris
Calling the shot: mounting / not mounting flat-panel above fireplace
While the question of hanging your new flat-panel above the fireplace or mantel has been around for years, it's about time the issue was actually tackled and looked at from a safety and feasibility standpoint. Admittedly, there are literally dozens of factors that can go into making said decision, and while no answer will be right for everyone, hopefully the following will lend a hand in easing your frantic mind. Granted, the more affluent homes that are often showcased in marketing promos make hanging a TV look like child's play, and while you may be able to cough up enough dough to let an experience installer come in and handle the dirty work for you, there's quite a few things (and alternatives) to consider. Of course, safety concerns surrounding recalled TV mounts, heat generated from a raging fireplace, and the actual wall material should be inspected first and foremost. Additionally, you should certainly consider just how difficult running every last cable (present and future) from your components below through the wall will actually (not) be, and for those working sans an AV cabinet, you might want to ponder just where you'll be placing those game consoles, receivers, and media players without ruining the overall allure. Still, there's no denying the attractiveness of a flat-panel HDTV hung neatly on a living room wall, but be sure and hit the links below and do a little planning of your own before pulling the trigger.Read - HDInstallers - Safety ConcernsRead - Audio / Video Interiors mounting walkthrough
Popular Mechanics cranks out another ten HDTV myths
Truthfully, it's quite sad that these top ten lists of HDTV myths keep popping up, as it just reinforces the sad truth that many folks are still mystified by the prospect of HDTV. Nevertheless, Popular Mechanics has doled out its own version of the woefully popular rundown, and making the cut are the ever popular tall-tales that an HD set-top-box is somehow required to receive any HD programming, a 1080p TV is unquestionably superior to a 720p counterpart, and that an HDTV will magically convert all programming to stunning high-definition. Additionally, we shed a tear just thinking of those who still believed that all flat-panels are indeed HD-ready and that pristine video quality is only channeled through stupendously overpriced cabling. A few newcomers to the list involved 1080p panels that actually can't accept 1080p signals from a scaling player, and the unbelief that HD video can't be recorded onto standard DVD-Rs. Of course, there's no shame in being duped by a unintelligible big box employee or just not being up to speed on the HDTV minutia, so take a few and hit the read link if you're looking to clear up any lingering HD haze.[Photo courtesy of Chris Eckert/Studio D, thanks Matt]
Complete-my-Album FAQ
No Virginia, free iTunes Singles-of-the-Week and Discover-Downloads will not make it cheaper to purchase entire albums. And you only have a limited time, about six months, to complete each album after you purchase any track. These, and other fun Complete-my-Album FAQs, can be found at Apple's new FAQ document, recently posted. And what happens when you've purchased so many tracks that your final complete-the-album purchase price is less than the cost of a single track? You're out of luck. You can't complete an album that you've already paid that much for. Plus complete-my-TV-season isn't available. Bummer.
Developer FAQ reveals PlayStation Home launch schedule
Those of you who spent the weekend eagerly anticipating the chance to waste even more of your free time immerse yourselves in the new virtual world that is PlayStation Home now have a solid launch window to look forward to, thanks to a FAQ uncovered by Gamesindustry on Sony's developer site; according to the ten-page document, a closed 15,000-user beta will run from April to August, followed by an open beta for 50,000 people until October, with the service going live sometime before Halloween. The FAQ also clarifies some details that were omitted or glossed over during Phil Harrison's GDC keynote, such as integration with cellphones (hopefully not just Sony Ericsson handsets) and PSPs, and the fact that launching multiplayer games from Home and so-called "environmental persistence" will not be ready at launch. Specifically, this means that avatars will not initially be able to segue into cooperative gaming mode from within the Home environment, nor will their digital swag like apartments and cars exist when they're offline. Finally, this fact sheet also shows Sony playing both sides of the fence when it comes to in-world ads and commerce: the company is quick to reassure gamers that Home is primarily focused on socialization and entertainment and that advertisements will be kept to "palatable" levels, while in the same breathe wink-wink-nudge-nudging advertisers and content providers that there will be significant opportunities for them to capture plenty of gamers' hard-earned euros, dollars, and yen. So in conclusion, Home-lovers should be breaking out the Sharpies right about now and drawing a big circle around the entire month of October in their calendars; Home-haters may actually want to do the same, but only so they have a timetable to prepare their inaugural grey-goo or flying Wiimote attacks. [Warning: PDF link][Via Gamesindustry]
iPod Game FAQ
Apple recently posted an iPod Game FAQ to answer all your frequently asked (and not so frequently asked) questions about the iPod and its games. As you probably already knew, you need a 5G iPod or later to take advantage of the $4.99 games. You cannot, however, output the video to your TV as you play. And you can use localized game versions--change the iPod's language and the games will relocalize to that language. I hadn't realized that Vortex and Texas Hold'em were Apple in-house products. The rest (like Zuma, Tetris, and so on) are authored and supported by third-party companies.
Starting zone questions answered: Azuremyst Isle
So, want to take a break from the phat lewts in Outlands and try out one of the new races? How about Draenei? Here's the information you need to know so you can avoid asking ridiculously common questions in chat. The nearest mailbox is at Azure Watch, the first Draenei town. To learn Jewelcrafting, go to the Exodar. To get to the rest of Azeroth, take a boat from the docks just south of the Exodar to Auberdine. Your Heroic/Inpsiring Presence aura is working, it just doesn't display on yourself. Draenei Priests get for their racials Fear Ward and Symbol of Hope (mana over time (MoT?) spell for party). The low level character on an elekk has it as party of a quest; it's only temporary. You may need to kill a few furbolgs to get the Bristlelimb chief to spawn. You can only use the tree disguise by the flag. Anything I'm missing? Let me know. And remember the lessons of the past.
Starting zone questions answered: Hellfire Peninsula
Following up on yesterday's post lamenting Hellfire Peninsula chat, I thought it might be helpful to make a FAQ for each of the three starting zones: Hellfire Peninsula, Azuremyst Island, and Eversong Woods. I'll start with HFP, but look for baby zone FAQs soon. I only have experience on the Alliance side of things. However, if you want to contribute Horde FAQs (or any other FAQs) in the comments, please do, and I'll update the post accordingly.Update: added two more Horde questions.Update: more stuff for both factions For both factions: Where's the bank? Shattrath City. Shat-huh? Follow the road south out of HFP and into Terokkar Forest, then follow the road west. OK, how about the auction house? No AH in Outlands, I'm afraid. Blizz stated that they didn't want Azeroth to become too deserted, so they made it so that you have to go back to the old cities to use the AH. Where do I find Dreadcallers? The same place as the other demons for that quest; they just have a bad spawn rate. Be sure to kill the other demons too, since they're on the same spawn table. [thanks, Roger] Isn't there an easier way to get back to the old cities? I'm glad you asked! Yes, there is. There are free portals to all capitals from Shattrath, right in the middle of the city with the Maia Archon Naaru. No portals back to Shattrath though. [thanks, Tom]
Blizzard posts Burning Crusade FAQ
Well, this should cut down on forum spam. Blizzard his posted a pretty extensive FAQ on the ins and outs of installing BC, upgrading your account, et cetera. Points of interest include: What time will I be able to log in and play BC? You will be able to log in and play as soon as you have purchased your copy of the Burning Crusade, installed it, and activated your key. Many retailers will be open at midnight. Please check with your local store for more information. Will I need to install from the CD? Why? It will be necessary to have a Burning Crusade CD and a Burning Crusade authentication key in order to play The Burning Crusade expansion. There is content on the Burning Crusade CD that will need to be installed that was not included in the patches we recently released. Each account (in the event multiple are played by one person) will need its own copy of The Burning Crusade expansion to install the additional content, and be upgraded with the included authentication key. If I have the beta already, do I need to delete the beta and install fresh? When the game goes live, you will need to uninstall your beta client before installing the expansion. Use your computer's Add or Remove Programs function to remove it. If you do not see the beta listed there, just simply delete the Burning Crusade Closed Beta folder. Remember to back up any screenshots or UI settings that you may want to keep. The whole FAQ is reposted after the jump, for those of you reading from work.
Apple posts Vista FAQ
Apple support just posted a general Frequently Asked Questions list for Microsoft Vista at its site. Vista, which just launched, will be generally available for purchase in January. At this time, iTunes, QuickTime, Software Update and the iPod shuffle reset utility are all unsupported under Vista. However, secret TUAW elves (*kof*David C.*kof) who have been testing Vista report that iTunes and QuickTime 7 worked flawlessly under Vista even if they're officially unsupported. Apple promises to keep the FAQ updated over time as the facts change on the ground.
