gold
Latest
Amosu brings golden handsets for a price
Gilded, diamond-studded, or just plain ol' gem-encrusted handsets must be popular as Amosu has now pimped the LG Prada to new designer heights. We're not too finicky on 24K gold plated stuff, but if that type of shine floats your boat and you're willing to shell out £499 (roughly $1,000) then you're home. Also featured in the glittering store are the likes of the Nokia 8800 "Sirocco Edition," Sony Ericsson W880i, and even an iPod for good measure. To see more pics of garishly gilded goodies, just follow the yellow brick road link.[Via Slashphone]
Blinged out iPod Shuffle doesn't come cheap
For the small price of 248,000 Norwegian Kroner (around $40,000) you can pick up a concentrated mix of gold, diamonds, and... iPod Shuffle. There's not a lot more to this blinged out creation: why anyone would want to place forty gees worth of precious carbon on a $99 gadget, we'll never know.[Thanks, Eirik S.]
Dead Head Fred goes gold, will eat your brains on the 28th
D3Publisher has just announced that their zombie-licious game, Dead Head Fred has gone gold and has been sent off to the factory. The title will ship out on August 28th, so fans of the walking dead won't have much longer to wait to get their brain-eating on.The game has gone through a fairly length development cycle, originally being shown at E3 2006, but it appears the wait has done it well. Generally the previews have been very favorable, and the brutal zombie nature of the gameplay looks like a nice mix-up to the upcoming PSP game lineup (which is a bit RPG heavy). Dead Head Fred should be a good pickup when it comes out in a couple weeks. In the meantime, check out the above trailer.
Gresso unveils Avantgarde collection, pricing
Gresso's Avantgarde collection finally sees a release date, pricing, and some sketchy product info. Starting at only €5, 000 for the Luna (roughly $6, 900 dollars) or €7, 000 for the Sol (about $9, 700) your money'll get you a pretty slick looking handset crafted from African Blackwood, steel, and lots of gold. Both handsets run Windows Mobile ( the site is decidedly thin on specs) pack a 2 megapixel camera, and a 320 x 240 screen. Pretty simple stuff considering the money you have to fork out to pick one up and sadly without some diamond encrustation going on, we'll have to pass. Look for these to land in the 4th quarter this year.[Via SlashPhone]
Profession costs
Over on the WoW-Europe forums, Highlander (of Terenas-H) has done an interesting analysis of the relative costs of leveling the crafting professions, assuming you buy all the required materials from the auction house. His pricing data is from WoWEcon, so it should be a reasonable average of costs on the various realms. Above you can see a chart I made from his numbers, showing the cost to get each profession to 300 as well as the cost to take it to 375. Blacksmithing and Enchanting are, by a significant margin, the most expensive. While Highlander correctly points out that most smiths and enchanters will procure the materials by their own means (mining or disenchanting) rather than buying them, those mats still have an inherent value (i.e. they could be sold at the AH), and therefore I think it's fair to say they are just as expensive as they look. Note that there is no number for the 300–375 part of jewelcrafting because Highlander says costs vary too much to give a solid estimate. For the raw numbers and more discussion, take a look at Highlander's post.
Lair is gold, flies onto PS3s August 14th
PlayStation.Blog has been updated with the latest info on Lair, and the news is good. According to the post, Lair has gone gold for it's North American release and is on track for the August 14th launch over here. There is still some work to be done in regards to localizing the game for European and Asian audiences, but for North American audiences our flying dragon epic is only a couple weeks away.Also, they mentioned another cool tidbit that while there won't be online multiplayer, there will be full online leaderboards and they will be international across all territories. Not quite compensation for multiplayer action, but a nice addition regardless. Finally, we'll be able to show those funny-talking Germans who's the best at aerial dragon combat!
Life of a gold farmer gallery
You may recall Julian Dibbell's recent piece in the New York Times where he traveled to China and visited some World of Warcraft gold farming operations -- giving us a good look at life on the other side. However, just as interesting as his words is his recent publication of pictures from the trip on Flickr. If you take the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, then this gallery has quite a bit more to say than the original article.[via Game Girl Advance]
Xexoo gilds a 2G iPod Shuffle, charges a bundle
iPods have long been the token of desire for customizers, and while we've certainly seen tamer flavors before, Xexoo's gilded 2G Shuffle is nothing short of overkill. The company -- which makes its ends by coating DAPs in precious metals and charging incomprehensibly high prices for them -- is now getting set to smother Apple's most diminutive player in 18-karat gold. Thankfully, the blinged-out Shuffle isn't the only thing you get for €14,000 ($19,320), as those imbecilic wealthy enough to shell out for this superfluous luxury will also receive a black wooden box and a certificate of authentication to sweeten the deal. Oh, and don't forget to add in the gold-finished dock while you're at it, cool?[Via CNET]
Shuttle's XPC SG33G5M barebone sports HDMI, VFD display
If you like your PC hardware to be wrapped in only the glitziest, most showy enclosure that money can buy, Shuttle's latest XPC isn't exactly numero uno, but it can certainly hold its own if you aren't willing to spend a fortune. This SFF chassis is built around Intel's G33 Express chipset, can accommodate up to 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, touts an HDCP-compliant HDMI port, and also includes a snazzy integrated VFD display on the front for wowing your guests. Additionally, you'll find onboard GMA 3100 graphics, a 7.1 audio chip with Dolby Digital Live! and DTS Connect certifications, gigabit Ethernet, an infrared remote, I.C.E. heatpipe cooling system, and a 250-watt SilentX power supply. Mmm, hot stuff for "just" €328 ($453).[Via CaseDesigns]
Avoiding gold-selling scams
Tobold has an interesting post up on getting scammed by businesses claiming to sell in-game gold or items. While, yes, it's easy enough for them to take your money and hand you some in-game cash, it's easier still for them to take your money and then not bother doing anything else. (And try to explain that to your credit card company when you dispute the charges...) And once you've lost real money to such a scammer, what's your next recourse? Well, a lot of people will call customer service and complain -- Sony cited frequent customer service calls as one of the reasons they legitimized the trading business with their Station Exchange. But Blizzard's not going to be able to do anything but snicker when you call and complain that a gold-seller took your money and ran, so, really, buying gold could just leave you with a hole in your real and virtual pocket. The only way to be 100% sure you get what you pay for is obvious: don't buy gold in the first place.
Microsoft releases Windows Home Server to manufacturing
If you've been itching to get your hands on a new flavor of Windows, or if you're just sick and tired of being teased by that release candidate, the wait for Microsoft's Windows Home Server is drawing to a close. Reportedly, the firm has released the software to manufacturing, where it should flow down and hit pre-fabricated boxes "in late September and early October." According to Joel Sider, senior product manager, the move to RTM means that the company has "wrapped up WHS and handed it off to its internal distribution teams and hardware partners." Additionally, Iomega and Fujitsu-Siemens were added to the list of OEM partners that already included HP, Gateway, LaCie, and Medion. Notably, there won't be a great many alterations in the final release compared to RC1, as the main change stated (aside from squashing a few stray bugs) was that the "domain for remote access is now homeserver.com." Hold tight folks, Windows Home Server will be coming your way soon, and the brigade will be led by HP's forthcoming MediaSmart Server.[Via ArsTechnica]
Making money in BC: Mine!
GeneriKB, whose money-making guide from the official Professions forums I read with interest back in the days before I had a single level 60, is back again for a guide for this brave new world (of Warcraft). Unlike his previous three-stage philosophy (two gathering profs to 40, switch to one gathering and one crafting until 60, and then switch to two crafting), the recommend procedure in volume 3 of GeneriKB's "Guide to MoneyMaking" can be summed up on one point: Mine Why? Well, crafting's a lot harder to make money off of now that the good stuff mostly requires a nether, and farming mobs, skinning, and herbing are all not terribly efficient in terms of gold per hour. The reason mining is so efficient is because you get not only ore, but also motes of earth and fire as well as green and the occasional blue gem -- it's the blue gems that really push it over the top. Also, ore is pretty valuable because it feeds three professions -- mining blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting. Check out the guide for his recommendation on how best to sell each specific type of ore. Genny claims he makes 200g per hour circling Nagrand in mining loops (and fishing the pure water on the elemental plateau), which is certainly better than I've ever managed to make.Well, there's one thing I've found that makes more, actually: playing the auction house. That is to say, finding an item that's priced under the market rate, buying it all out, and relisting it at market rate or slightly above. This usually yields a very high amount of gold per hour, but you need a certain amount of starting capital, and there is some risk involved (the going rate for your item may not be what you thought it was). Furthermore, I am not an economist, but I suspect that this practice would end up raising the price of various things over time, which may not be a desired effect. But anyway, playing the AH may turn out to be more efficient than mining. What do you think?
Jabra's Cara Gold JX10 Bluetooth headset
The gilded touch hasn't evaded the mobile realm entirely, but it has been a tick since we've seen anything (well, anything worthwhile) come through that was Midas-approved. Bucking that trend is none other than Jabra, who is apparently readying a Cara Gold JX10 headset designed by Jacob Jensen. Reportedly, the device will be limited in production, will weigh less than ten grams, and will tout DSP technology to reduce background noise whilst chatting. Additionally, it should last through about six hours of talking before needing a recharge, and while we aren't much on wearing a BT earpiece around in public anyway, we'd be extra cautious with a $300 iteration. Check out a closeup after the jump.[Via Slashphone]
Mail system changes (ftw?)
In a change that didn't quite make the 2.1.3 patch notes, the behavior of in-game mail has been tweaked in order to help ensure that monetary transactions made via mail are legitimate. To give Blizzard more time to check mail-based money transfers, mail sent with coins attached will now take an hour to arrive (yep, just like all other mail). Now, before you get upset about this, let me add that transfers of both money and items between characters on the same account will remain/become instant. So you can shuffle things around between alts and bank characters faster than ever -- this change only applies if you're sending coin through the mail to other players.Though I doubt this change will stop in-game gold-selling completely, it's good to see Blizzard continuing to be proactive about the issue.
Exclusive Interview: Wowhead and Affinity Media
I was actually running Wailing Caverns with a few guildies from IctfB on last Friday night around midnight when I heard the news: Wowhead had sold for $1 million to Affinity Media, the company that supposedly ran IGE, the notorious goldsellers. We'd received a tip from someone who claimed he used to work for IGE, and we rushed to get the story up and also make sure it was right-- word was that Affinity didn't own IGE any more, and that Wowhead had maybe sold because of that.Still, in the week or so since, players have had plenty of questions. Did Wowhead sell out to goldsellers? Did Affinity really sell IGE and are they really out of the goldselling business? And why did Affinity want to buy yet another database when they already owned both Allakazham and Thottbot? And perhaps most importantly, what kind of changes would come for Wowhead?WoW Insider got a chance to sit down for an exclusive chat with both John Maffei, president of the ZAM content network at Affinity Media, and Tim Sullivan, CEO of Wowhead, to talk about Affinity's past, the sale of Wowhead, and what's coming next. They wanted to clear up questions, and we wanted to get answers. To read the full, exclusive interview, click the link below.
What are the gold farmers up to now?
I'm sure you've heard that Blizzard's anti-spam additions to the game have caused gold selling spammers to change their tactics. However, it certainly hasn't stopped their activity -- they're still out there, spamming us with raid invites, says, and messages over general chat channels since they can no longer do so in whispers. Lately I've been joining their raid groups to see what they've got to say, and, of course, report them. However, earlier today in one goldseller raid, I noticed that instead of listing their full site name, they're telling you to visit, for example http://www.i*****.com/. i*****.com? What? Is that even a valid domain name? My questions are soon answered, as later in the message, the spammer explains that the ***** stands for something else, which does turn it into a valid domain name. But I have to ask -- why are they doing this? It just makes it more difficult for their potential customers to figure out where to go, so I presume there must be a reason they'd do this. So, even though there's nothing official from Blizzard, I have to think that they're doing something that causes trouble for the spammers if they use their full domain name. Are they flagging people using known gold-selling domains in chat for further investigation? Since we haven't heard anything from Blizzard, we can't say for certain. But until we hear something, there's room for speculation.
Now you're silversmithing with power
We've wasted our lives. What have we been doing all these years, while we could have been learning to work with gold, silver and platinum jewelry, and sharing handmade Nintendo jewelry with our friends and loved ones? Oh, right, going to school and having jobs. And also actually playing games.Third Project Juno has made some stuff that we would actually consider wearing, including a lot of Zelda jewelry. Our favorite is the D-pad necklace pictured here.[Via Wonderland]
Pentax celebrates with gold-accented K10D GP DSLR
What do you do if your camera takes home the prestigious Camera Grand Prix 2007 award? Why, you kick out a limited run of 5,000 units to let everyone know about it, that's what. Pentax is proving quite the celebratory bunch, as it has found yet another reason to don the party hat and unveil a fancy looking (but otherwise standard) K10D. The Grand Prix Package comes with the body, a battery grip, a commemorative strap, and the latest firmware pre-installed, and Pentax even applied a special dark brown rubber to the body to make sure it stood out. Additionally, a few logos and indicators are gilded to signify the limited-edition status, and the prominent serial number on each one completes the package. Don't expect to snap one up immediately though, as Pentax is keeping the pricing and available deets on the DL for the time being.[Via AmateurPhotographer]
Who's buying all that gold, anyway?
Really, I'm curious. Who's buying this stuff? I've seen goldsellers advertising gold in amounts of up to 11,000 -- for over $1600. Perhaps you're doing a double-take at that number, but it's not a typo -- I do mean sixteen hundred dollars. Now, I paid $50 for the game itself, another $50 for the expansion, $15 a month to play, and the occasional $25 to move characters around, which means I've spent over $500 on this game in the two years I've played it. That already seems like a huge amount of money to me -- but if gold sellers are out advertising $1600 worth of gold, that must mean that at least a few people are interested in spending that much. All I can think of are the cries of agony that surely follow when the buyer is inevitably banned from the game. Blizzard does keep track of gold transfers, and I imagine that transfers in such high amounts set off red flags in their system. So what happens when you've just spent $1600 on virtual property that Blizzard has politely reminded you belongs to them? (Yes, Blizzard does hold on to the idea that all in game items are their property, and thus cannot be bought or traded for real money.) I can think of less risky ways to invest!
Is real money for game items in our future?
No, this isn't something Blizzard is telling us -- they're still out there fighting with the issue of people buying and selling gold. However, Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer of Lord of the Rings Online, who seems to think that in the future, how MMO's handle the secondary market of gold, item, and character sales is going to have to change. In an interview with Eurogamer, he says:But, we all know that something will happen in the next two to five years to business models in general, so we're paying attention to what's going on [with the secondary market]; watching what's going on with Sony Station whose servers support and manage this.Does Steefel have a point? In the long run, is the only way to fight the secondary market to legalize it and integrate it with our games? But even if you look at Everquest II, where Sony provides an official method for selling gold, items, and characters for real cash, there's still a secondary market. And I've got to say, if Sony's method doesn't stop secondary market gold sales, I've got to wonder if any method of legitimizing the trade will. And while we wait to see what Steefel decides to do with Lord of the Rings Online, we can watch Blizzard approach the problem in their own way -- in the courts.[Via Joystiq]
