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Shocker! Gamer behavior is actually quite predictable
Isn't it curious how you always crack open a beer before settling in for some GTA? Or how you tend to put an anxious hand over your wallet when logging onto PSN? No soldier, it is not curious. Not at all. But this is: Researchers at North Carolina State University claim they've found a way to predict your in-game behavior with "up to 80 percent accuracy." After analyzing the decision-making of 14,000 World of Warcraft players, they noticed that different players prefer different types of achievements. These preferred achievements clump together into statistically significant groups, known as "cliques", even if they have nothing obvious in common. So a WoW player who likes to improve their unarmed combat skills also, for some psychological reason, tends to want points for world travel. What's more, the researchers believe that clique-spotting can be exploited outside the rather specific world of WoW, in which case their method could prove lucrative to game designers, online retailers and pretty much anyone with an interest in predicting your next move. Want to know more? Then we predict you'll click the PR after the break.
AMD resurrects its 'FX' brand for speed freaks, lexicon lovers
We saw AMD's old "FX" moniker repeated on a leaked price sheet recently, but we couldn't be sure of its significance. Now AMD has confirmed that it is indeed bringing back the FX brand to denote hardware aimed at gamers and graphics enthusiasts. In keeping with its penchant for complicated taxonomy, the chipmaker will use the resurrected badge not on individual products, but rather on desktop platforms that combine top-of-the-range components -- including the forthcoming Scorpius platform that will consist of a 9-series chipset, HD 6000 Series discrete graphics and an unlocked eight-core Zambezi CPU. This is all part of AMD's efforts to square up to Intel and present itself as the PC gamers' choice, and to that end the company also revealed it is partnering with more games developers to encourage use of its HD3D, Eyefinity and Dual Graphics technologies. Full PR (excessive nomenclature and all) is after the break.
MSI gets a SteelSeries keyboard, builds the GX780 gaming notebook around it
The worst part about buying a fancy new gaming keyboard? It's hard to show the thing off if it never leaves your basement apartment. MSI's newly announced GX780 notebook combines a colorful backlit 102-key SteelSeries-designed keyboard with the (relative) portability of an 8.6 pound gaming laptop. The keyboard features 1,000 different color combinations, five lighting modes, 10 key simultaneous input, and a layout the company calls "The Golden Triangle" -- trademark pending, we're sure. The 17.3 inch notebook has some solid non-keyboard specs as well, including GeForce GT555M graphics, a second gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an impressive maximum 16GB of DDR3. No word on pricing or availability, but hopefully the MSRP isn't as colorful as that keyboard. Full press release after the break.
Gearbox helps man propose via Claptrap
You can add one more feature to the list of Borderlands' Claptrap's various robotic abilities. Along with "dancin' ... dancin'!", getting angry about overlooked awards and taking over the world, you can now list "proposing marriage." That's what the wacky automatron did for one Gearbox Software fan named Ben, who reportedly found love with girlfriend Tora by playing co-op through the loot-littered FPS. Ben contracted Gearbox to let them know how much he loved their game and the girl, and it responded by making a video for him featuring Claptrap (eventually) popping the question, which you can watch right after the break. And yes, though Ben's video of the magic moment is quite loud, she did say yes. Congrats to the happy couple, and if you're wondering where the cars live to go for a honeymoon drive, we hear Scooter can help getchu one.
Visceral Games hears disabled gamer, adding customizable controls to Dead Space 2
Spooky cathedrals, fun technology and lots of slimy necromorphs to dismember at will -- is there anything else you could possibly want in Dead Space 2? Well, Gareth Garratt, a gamer living with cerebral palsy, would like to see customizable controls implemented in the game. Garratt is trying to play the horror sequel on PC, partly by pushing a mouse with his chin, and is unhappy that he can't assign the "walk forward" command to a mouse button. Plenty of games allow for customizable controls, he says, so why can't Dead Space 2? Over 20,000 fellow players agree, and they've signed an online Internet petition asking video game publishers to make sure that all games offer customization for their controls. Here's the good news: Dead Space 2 dev Visceral Games has already heard them loud and clear. Executive Producer Steve Papoutsis tells Joystiq that a patch for the PC version of the game enabling full control remapping is on the way, and that "a number of folks on our team are so passionate about getting this fix done that they are currently working hard" on it. Papoutsis says the patch will fix a few other issues with the PC version, and that a release date will be announced "when the patch is fully tested." You can read his remarks in full after the break.
Gamers documentary now available for streaming
Back in November of last year, we came across an interesting documentary on gaming and MMORPGs. In the 60-minute film "Gamers," filmmaker Ben Gonyo explores today's online gaming culture in an effort to make it more accessible and understandable to a wider audience. For two years, Gonyo immersed himself in World of Warcraft and the gaming subculture to find out what it's all about. Although it touches on controversial issues like a player's potential obsession with his or her virtual hobby, the documentary's aim is to heave a mostly light-hearted tone. It includes interviews with gamers, game designers, comedians, celebrities and psychologists. Although the film aired on several TV channels, only a brief trailer for the film was made publicly available online. The full 60-minute documentary has now been made publicly available for streaming via the internet. Head over to the video stream at SnagFilms to watch the film and leave your own comments on the issues covered. International viewers should be advised that the stream may be restricted only to US residents.
Kinect rumored to have PC support in waiting
There's been no shortage whatsoever of PC control schemes using Kinect, but up until now, every bit of it has been without Microsoft's official blessing. Of course, the company eventually caved to the massive amount of hacking going on and confessed that it didn't have any hard feelings for those giving it a whirl, but is it really fixing to take things one step further with bona fide PC support? That's the talk emanating from South Korea, where game developer GamePrix has reported that at least one of its titles (Divine Soul, if you must know) is "scheduled to support Kinect." Continuing on about the game, the company's Jason Lim was quoted as saying that "Kinect will soon be available as a new PC controller," but naturally, we've our doubts. For starters, why wouldn't Microsoft be working with a more major developer if honest-to-goodness PC-Kinect interactions were planned? Secondly, there's a definite possibility that GamePrix could really be referring to unofficial support, which would make everything seem a lot more sensible. Either way, we'll definitely be keeping an ear to the ground for more, and with GDC under three months away, we ought to know the truth sooner rather than later. [Thanks, Rashad]
Gamer pays a buttload of cash to play an MMO on a huge screen
If you had $15,000.00, what would you do with it? Pay some bills? Maybe upgrade a few holiday gifts? Well, if you're the guy featured in this video from MMOsite, apparently the thing to do with all that spare cash is renting out the biggest honking video screen one can find and playing an MMO. Yes, indeed, for the low, low price of roughly 1,500 dollars a minute, you too can subject random passers-by to a raw display of your mad online skillz and leetness for a whopping 10 minutes. All joking aside, this guy has managed to pull off one crazy stunt -- being the first MMO gamer to get his game on across a gobsmackingly enormous freaking screen. (The second-longest LCD screen in the world, even.) As for the game of choice? If you guessed World of Warcraft, you'd be wrong. Apparently his online poison of choice is a game called Magic World Online 2. (Although after looking at the site, perhaps it's not that far off.) What's next? Well, we'll wait for the inevitable e-peenery of someone renting out the entirety of Fremont street's 1,500-foot long Las Vegas LCD skyscreen. For those who would like to see this particular display, the video is embedded behind the break.
Anti-Aliased: End of line
Yeah, it's exactly what you think it is. It's one of those columns where the writer announces that she's packing up and moving out. It's a column where the writer talks about how she's been here for two years and 199 days, and has written over 1,018 posts that have included over 534,580 words. It's a column where the writer says goodbye, wishes that she wasn't moving on, but knows that she must. Guys and gals, it's been an amazing two and a half years and it has been nothing but an honor to write for all of you. I know sometimes we all disagree, and I know I say some really insane stuff that leaves people going, "Wow, she really said that aloud?" But, I'm glad that all of you still come back to discuss gaming here on my column, despite some of our disagreements. Anti-Aliased has remained one of the most popular columns here on Massively throughout these two years and I am very grateful for your readership. As I prepare to leave Massively and say goodbye, I'd like to take one final look at the MMO genre as a whole. Plus, I have a surprise announcement to make at the end! Yay surprises!
Breakfast Topic: Are you a closet nerd or a flag-waving nerd?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. We all know about the idea of the overweight, basement-dwelling virgin, the idea that gamers and comic book nerds all look like the comic book guy from The Simpsons. Many of us know that is not the case. You even see people in trade chat calling each other "nerds" and "virgins," although the inevitable response of calling someone else a nerd in WoW is laughable. In my guild alone, we have a lawyer, an author and a chef, along with many happily married people with children. Some are openly proud of their nerdiness; some try to argue they aren't nerds over Vent. My girlfriend hides her geek from a lot of her friends. She watches anime, is a gamer and even dresses up for our local comic book convention, but many of her friends and work associates have no idea about this side of her. Me, on the other hand -- I let the geek flag fly. I wear my gamer T-shirts. I talk openly about WoW and other games with my friends. I still complain about the fact Firefly never got a second season.
Social gaming numbers on the rise, Farmville likely to go down in history
We've seen console gaming numbers as a whole dip somewhat over the past few months, but gaming numbers on the social networking side have been anything but down. A new report on the matter from the NPD Group asserts that a full 20 percent (that's 1 in 5, if you're counting) of Americans ages 6 and older have played a social networking game of some sort, and we're guessing that number would be far higher if people weren't embarrassed to admit the truth. Unfortunately, the report doesn't dig deep into what exactly they were playing (our Monopoly bucks are on Farmville), but we are told that "10 percent of social network gamers have spent real money playing these games and 11 percent indicate that they are likely to make a future purchase." Curiously enough, the gender split is just about even, with 47 percent of social networking gamers being female, 53 being male and 2.4 percent being unidentified beings from District 9. You heard it here first, folks: the console is dead.
Best Buy taps Future US for new game mag: @Gamer
Andy Eddy seems like a regular guy. He's got some sweet scruff and nothing on his Facebook page looks out of the ordinary, so -- wait, what's this? Apparently Mr. Eddy is "working at Future US in the Future Plus group on a new publication called @Gamer, the 'official games magazine of Best Buy.'" For real? It's news to us and certainly the first that Kyle Orland, ex-Joystiq blogger and devilishly handsome chap who noticed the blurb, has heard about it. While we're inclined to point out the obvious to Best Buy (uh, game mags are pretty dead, bro), we're interested in seeing how far this will go. Real editorial content or a glorified shopper's guide? We can't wait to find out! [Via The Game Beat]
Breakfast Topic: Is it time for a change?
This Breakfast Topic is brought to you by WoW.com's guest blogger program. Want to participate in a future call for guest posts? Read up on how to contribute, and keep an eye on the site for program announcements. I've played World of Warcraft before and absolutely loved it -- I loved it until it became a second job for me. Then when I quit cold turkey, it turned into a bad break-up. I wanted to play it again but didn't want it consuming all of my time. I wanted to level without hating myself for sitting on a chair until my butt hurt, then finding a pillow and valiantly continuing on. It's actually a deep, dark secret of mine (obviously not any more) that I never once got to the promised land that is level 80. I'll admit though, I had a lot of fun with the game. Hitting up instances and running through the well-written quests with friends was loads of fun. I wasn't a PvP god or anything, but I definitely had my good days back in my prime. I'll admit also that I still feel its callings now from time to time, and for all I know, I could be playing again tomorrow. This brings me to an important question. What is it that keeps World of Warcraft players going strong? I remember when I first broke up with World of Warcraft, I went through an awkward rebound phase where I looked for any game I could find that would replace it. The sad part of this search was that I found myself wanting other games to be like Warcraft. The truth is, it may very well be the best one out there. Even if it is the best, I want to know what gets people through the struggle of questing and grinding. As a semi-retired World of Warcraft gamer, I want to know if getting to the level cap is in fact worth the struggle. Is it the journey or the reward? What makes it all worth it to you?
Study: Average social gamer age is only 29 in the US
If you think that those silly social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars are full of teenagers, you're only half right. The average player of social games is actually younger than previously believed, according to a new study, but a little older than teenage: 29 in the US and 27 in the EU. That's an interesting conclusion, especially since the average gamer is actually a little older than that (s/he was 30 a few years ago and has been getting steadily older since then), and most people believe that social gamers on Facebook tend to skew even older. This survey by GamesIndustry.com, however, goes against that grain, and claims that while there are more females playing these games than males, they tend to be younger than expected. Peter Warman of that site says that the reason for this is that most such surveys don't poll any lower than age 18: "It is therefore not at all surprising that their average age is extraordinarily high ... Data from kids and teens is vital and should always be taken into account." If these surveys aren't representing anyone below age 18, then it's possible gamers, especially those playing social games on Facebook and elsewhere, are even younger than anyone's guessed previously.
Mad Catz Cyborg Rat: a guided tour (video)
We've talked up Mad Catz's Cyborg Rat before -- and even given it the hands-on treatment -- but even still, we thought it'd best to show you with the power of moving pictures all the crazy functions of this Franken-mouse (that's pronounced "Fronk-in-mouse," thank you very much). Check out the guided tour of the Rat 7 from the CeBIT show floor, and an explanation of the differences in each series iteration - after the break, care of global PR manager Alex Verrey. %Gallery-87356%
Why a Grand Theft Auto movie hasn't gotten off the ground (yet)
You know Gamer, right? That movie with a pasty-faced kid controlling human prisoners in a future game? Well, it turns out that the film almost ended up as a Grand Theft Auto joint. According to a recent interview with co-writer/director Mark Neveldine, "We [Neveldine and co-writer Brian Taylor] actually were going to be hired to write GTA. I am sure that was part of it. That was after we wrote and directed Crank, so I got involved with GTA pretty heavily, I didn't grow up with it." Neveldine claims that it was a "rights issue" that caused the silver screen adaptation of GTA to founder. "It was a movie originally directed by Ron Howard ... and because Rockstar Games made a video game, there is some battle of who can use the title ... you can't make it about the game." Back in 2008, Variety alleged that a GTA movie was on the precipice of production when the deal fell through, but we get the feeling that these folks are speaking about something completely different.
1C Games: 'Retail is forcing PC games out'
Russian publisher 1C Games is the latest in a long line to declare that the PC games market is dying, and its international publishing director Darryl Still tells MCV that retailers are holding the murder weapon. Still says that the drive to digital distribution these days isn't just due to gamer preference, it's due to the fact that retailers aren't supporting PC games the way they should. "You just have to head into a games store and look for their PC titles," he says, "and you'll see there is no focus, listings or promotions for them." Still says that he predicts the PC market will be completely digital as soon as 2011, two years ahead of estimates that say 50% of PC games sold in 2013 will be digitally delivered. He says that there's more profit to be made with PC games at retail, but that with all of the different providers aiming to release PC titles digitally, retailers very soon won't bother carrying them at all. We're torn -- for every treasured cloth map in a retail box, there are good reasons to stick with digital as well.
SteelSeries NP+ mousepad not made of steel, water resistant nonetheless
Here's one for those gamers who insist on angry looking peripherals with names like "Frag" and "Sentinel" and "Head$hot" (oh, dear). The SteelSeries NP+ medium to rough glide mousepad offers higher level of mouse-to-surface friction -- the perfect thing for enabling your wish fulfillment / blood lust in the form of first person shooters. Works well with either your optical or laser mouse, apparently, and sports a generous 17.7 x 15.7-inch surface. Best of all, it's Mountain Dew-resistant! Available in March for $25.
Fox & Friends gets 'fair and balanced' with Modern Warfare 2 discussion
Did you know that there's a murderer in your house ... right now? It's sitting there on your coffee table, in your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC. It's name is Modern Warfare 2, and it lets your eight-year-old child become a terrorist and kill people. Our pals at Fox & Friends got together for a "fair and balanced" discussion about the game's controversial airport scene, with the show's host Steve Doocy inviting Common Sense Media's Jim Steyer and /gamer's Jon Christensen into the fray. Unsurprisingly, Steyer makes the oft-cited connection between violent games and real-life violence. And when Doocy gives Christensen the final word, he cobbles together an anecdote about his friend the retail manager not selling copies of Modern Warfare 2 to underage consumers, which is met with, "You bring a game into a house, nothing to stop an eight-year-old kid from becoming a terrorist and shooting people" from Doocy. So far, we haven't received any reports of the game sneaking its way into people's homes or making parents blind and unaware of their children's actions, but we'll keep our ears to the ground.
Maingear's Axess HD Gamer PC looks to blow your mind, empty your wallet
Make no bones about, Maingear's new Axess HD Gamer (and by merit of its namesake, HTPC, too) is nothing if not a powerhouse for those wanting to pay an arm and a leg for a souped up gaming experience. You want specs? At its best, we're looking at an Intel Core i7 on a X58 chipset, dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT in SLI, up to 12GB of DDR3 RAM, Blu-ray, Windows Vista / Media Center, and two 3.5-inch storage bays supporting 320GB SSD or 2TB HDD. If you need more nerd cred, ghost of vaporware past Phantom Lapboard serves as one of the bundled input devices, as does the NVIDIA GeForce 3D vision kit and a 22-inch Samsung LCD. Starting price is $1,799, but if you wanna go for broke -- and whether not you can, you probably want to -- top configurations can run you well over $5,000.
