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A Nanjing Massacre survivor's story lives on digitally
On the morning of December 13th, 1937, Japanese troops pounded on the door of Xia Shuqin's family home in Nanjing, China. Thirteen people had taken shelter under this particular roof: Eight-year-old Xia, her mother and father, two grandparents, four sisters (one, four, 13 and 15 years old), and four neighbors. The Japanese army had ridden into the city on horseback that morning and faced little resistance; the Chinese army had made a full, chaotic retreat the prior evening, December 12th. When Xia's father answered the door, the Japanese soldiers immediately shot and killed him. They bludgeoned and killed her one-year-old sister. They raped and killed her mother. They killed her grandparents. They raped and killed her 13-year-old and 15-year-old sisters. And they bayoneted Xia three times in the arm and back.
Raid Rx: Best practices for healing heroic Chimaeron
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. Next big test on the raid list after taking down heroic Halfus is the heroic multi-face boss (commonly referred to as Chimaeron) in Blackwing Descent. No, Chimaeron isn't the dragons that are pictured above (although they're all in the same place). I haven't been able to get him down yet, since he is one tough dude. The reason why I've found Chimaeron more challenging than Halfus is because the Halfus encounter is over in a minute, if your raid can survive the initial rush. In Chimaeron, the healers are working overtime. We've been able to consistently get him down to the final phase. I imagine we're not the only ones who are still struggling with him (or it).
The bloody aftermath: RuneScape's Valentine's Day Massacre in numbers
Unless you had a really bad date that ended with fire and regret, "Valentine's Day" and "massacre" are typically not paired together. Of course this doesn't apply to RuneScape, which loves to break the rules and keep us guessing. RuneScape recently hosted a Valentine's Day Massacre as a tongue-in-cheek way to celebrate both the holiday and a PvP zone called the Wilderness returning to the game, and by all accounts, it was a huge success. Jagex reports that 625,347 players met their untimely end during the event, which spanned 48 blood-soaked hours. Before the massacre began, the company ran a contest to see who could predict the kill count, and one player carried away the top prize with a guess of 623,500. For anyone else who participated in the slaughter, Jagex is selling a limited edition t-shirt commemorating the event. Available in red, white, or black in the Jagex store, the tee says "I brought the Wilderness back" and can be purchased for $13.00.
The Light and How to Swing It: Surviving Chimaeron
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered! DPS classes love fights that are simple enough that they can focus on running their rotation optimally. It lets them stretch their legs and see how much damage they're truly capable of. Patchwerk is always the golden example of this style. Rogues, mages, and the rest didn't have anything to worry about except their own personal DPS. Fight mechanics only get in the way of a damage dealer doing his job. Every patch of fire or Whirlwind only serves to make him perform suboptimally. Healer-oriented encounters are the complete opposite. Instead of business as usual, healers are challenged to break out of their comfort zone and do things they've never done before. Casting DPS spells at Loatheb while his terrible aura persisted. Watching health bars glitter in the red as Leeching Swarm turned our own heals against us. Gathering orbs midair as we tried to save a dying dragon with our amazing throughput. Now, in Blackwing Descent, we are faced with yet another terrible foe: Chimaeron mixes elements from all of these fights to give us a truly unique healing experience.
Phat Loot Phriday: Black Ice
Today's item comes to us from the wild and strange land of Twitter, where Jezriyah suggested this might be the prettiest item in the game. Maybe -- but only if you don't count characters, as my Night Elf Hunter is pretty hot. Also, if you're not following WoW Insider on Twitter yet, now's the chance to do so -- you get to suggest items like this!Name: Black Ice (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: Epic PolearmDamage/Speed: 570 - 856 / 3.50 (203.7 DPS)Attributes: +108 Agility, +88 Stamina 2084 Feral Attack Power, if you're into that sort of thing, and you probably are -- this is one of the best cat DPS weapons for Feral Druids %Gallery-33600%
The Queue: Hard mode is hard
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Good afternoon, ladies and gents! Before we get started today I just want to thank everyone for participating in my Hawaiian Pizza poll. It was a silly, spur of the moment sort of thing, and it really made my day to see it creep up to around 11,000 votes! Thank you all very much for humoring me.Again, there are a few Ulduar spoilers in this post, but only minor. Be warned. Also, vote Alex.Adrexani asked...This has always puzzled me, Arthas is a Death Knight, Death Knights are dead, yet no where in lore do I see that Arthas died, so did he die or is he still alive?
Scattered Shots: A PvE gem and enchant guide for Hunters
Welcome to this week's edition of Scattered Shots, which is dedicated to shiny things and dust.So by now you've seen our normal dungeon gear guide, our heroic dungeon gear guide, our reputation gear guide, and our holiday gift guide. Between all of them, you should be able to put together a nice solid set of gear that should let you tackle 10-man Naxxramas pretty easily. But grabbing the gear is the easy part. To go the extra mile, you need to grab those gems and enchantments. Let's look at some of the best gems and enchantments you can take along to secure your place in the DPS charts in Naxxramas.
WotLK Beta Build 9138 Profession changes
More news from the MMO-Champion datamining of the latest Wrath of the Lich King beta patch – a few interesting, if not slightly meaningful, profession changes.First in the Fishing department, casting times of items which attach to your fishing pole have been lowered from 5 seconds to 2 seconds. While this might not seem like a big deal, people who fish for a few hours a week for farming materials will now have a few minutes shaved off their daily grinding.In the Alchemy department the Elixir of Shadow power, Elixir of Fire Power, and the Arcane Elixir all now last 1 hour, instead of 30 minutes.Finally, the enchantments of Massacre (increase AP by 110), Greater Savagery (increase AP by 85), and Scouragebane (increase AP by 140 against Undead) have all been changed to apply to 2H weapons only. There have been some previous times in the beta where I've seen some folks running around with Massacre on both 1H weapons. Looks like that won't be an option anymore.For those interested, the images are of potions from a Manaprincess giveaway we ran earlier this year.
WoW Radio runs CoT: Stratholme
Our good friends at WoW Radio have continued their beta instance-running ways -- previously, they've taken runs through Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, and after a short break (they're busy folks, pushing out great radio 24/7), they've done a run through CoT: Stratholme, viewable right there if you want to see it.We should warn you that there are spoilers, of course, and personally, I think I might not watch the whole thing -- I'd kind of rather experience the Culling of Stratholme on my own. But for those of you willing to take the plunge with the WoW Radio folks, enjoy. We hear there is some good lore commentary going on, and there's even a bug where, Totalbiscuit tells us, "all Gnome females are default naked." Shudder.Yeah I think I will pass, actually. But if you do choose to press play, enjoy the video.
Why all race Death Knights make sense from a lore standpoint
It seems like one of the biggest problems a lot of people have with Death Knights is the fact that they can be all races. Me, I say: Why not? The lore really isn't as bad as you might think. Sure, some of the retcons can get a little annoying, but despite the fact that non-Paladin races will get to be Death Knights, I don't think you really consider it a retcon, but rather an evolution in an ever-evolving story that opens up a lot of great story ideas and RP opportunities, and I'm really looking forward to it.
V-Tech game creator willing to abort game for a price
Australian Ryan Lambourn could have made his flash game based on the Virginia Tech Massacre and left it at that. However, the ensuing outrage and press coverage caused him to do something quite unusual -- hold the game for ransom. On his website he states that he'll take the game down from website Newgrounds if he receives $1000 USD, he'll take it down from his personal website if he receives $2000 and he'll apologize for creating the game for $3000.Danny Ledonne, creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, writes on Lambourn's site, "It would appear to me that Ryan has no intention of doing much other than making money and gaining immediate recognition after the Virginia Tech shooting. Inevitably, comparisons between SCMRPG and VTech Rampage are being made right now. Some bloggers despise both games equally whereas others recognize a level of commentary that SCMRPG attempted which was not evident in VTR. For myself I wish to point out that SCMRPG was never a for-profit endeavor and thus I never posted statements like that which is on the VTR game's homepage"The only thing gamers can hope now is when this news hits the mainstream press they take a restrained approach and recognize that this is not an "industry game," and it never went through the ESRB process. Lambourn responds to Ledonne's statement saying, "Danny, the donation thing is there as a joke against all the people commanding me to take my game down. I didn't think anyone would donate money to it and so far my paypal account has proven me right."
Columbine game scapegoated for Montreal shootings
The Toronto Sun (above) is one of a number of news outlets playing up the fact the Kimveer Gill, the shooter in a recent senseless attack at a school in Montreal, listed Super Columbine Massacre RPG as his favorite video game in a blog posting. At first glance, it seems like a natural connection -- a Columbine-style killer who was inspired by a game that lets you recreate the tragic events of the Columbine shootings. Yet while news outlets are quick to mention the game's scary name, or simply the fact that the killer "loved ... violent video games," no mainstream news source that I have seen actually looks at the game itself and why a disturbed, potential killer might be drawn to it.More than the crass, exploitative murder simulator that you may expect from the name, Super Columbine Massacre RPG explores the motivations of the Columbine killers and the aftermath of their attacks using quotes and source material from those involved. The game does let you control Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Matthew Harris, but doesn't come close to glorifying them or their actions. Rather, it shows the killers as confusing, troubled and deeply tragic figures.Is this game the call to murder that the paper's are implying? Or is it a game that creator Danny Ledonne says "dares us into a realm of grey morality with nuanced perspectives of suffering, vengeance, horror, and reflection;" a game that Ian Bogost of Water Cooler Games called "brave, sophisticated and worthy of praise from those of us interested in video games with an agenda;" a game that a blogger at The Pale Writer called "one of the only psychological explorations of the Columbine killers ever completed." The shootings in Montreal are obviously regrettable, but using the occasion to drag an important, intellectual, and well-made game doesn't do anyone any good.
