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WoW Rookie: Weapon mastery
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. Having the right weapon can make a world of difference in a players leveling experience. Last time on WoW Rookie, we looked at the types of weapons that each class can use and where to train the skill for them. Now just because you can use a weapon, doesn't mean you should. This week we'll examine what to look for in a weapon. It's pretty important to keep your hands full. You have a four weapon slots at the bottom of your character sheet: Main Hand, Off Hand, Ranged, and Ammunition. Two handed weapons take up both the main hand and off hand slots. The off hand may hold a weapon if your class can dual weild, a shield, or an off hand item that either adds to your attributes or looks cool (such as Bouquet of Red Roses or a Dark Iron Tankard.) I recommend something useful when adventuring, though it's fun to see what folks come up with when roaming the city.
Age of Conan's system designer explains combat stats
One of the most difficult things about getting up and running in a new MMO world is figuring out what all the stats mean, how they relate to one another, and which ones you should focus on gearing to achieve the greatest return for your character. There's been a distinct lack of clarity with Age of Conan's itemization up to this point, and Funcom System Designer Jayde recently made a post on the official European boards in the hopes of clearing up the confusion.What's most interesting to us is the way that they've designed their system so that there are separate statistics for PvE and PvP. The goal, according to Jayde, is to provide a reasonable parity between high and low leveled characters so that players of all sorts can compete on the same battlefield. You're still not liable to beat a fully-decked out level 80 when you're fresh out of Tortage, but you'll actually be able to do damage without having all your attacks parried, blocked, or resisted, as happens in many other MMOs. Jayde has promised a more complete guide to Age of Conan's stats in the near future, and we anxiously await seeing what the amateur statisticians make of that.
The Nintendo Channel becomes The Stat Channel
Have you ever recommended a game on the Nintendo Channel? If so, you'll know that you have to answer a series of inquiries about the title. Whether the game is more "casual" or "hardcore," for example, is one of the burning questions your Wii will ask you regarding the software you wish to rate.While such arbitrary categorizing is useless for the most part, Nintendo has compiled the data into some nifty pie charts. This way, you'll know exactly how hardcore and manly the game you're playing is. You can also find some interesting usage data about each game. For example, did you know that Wii Sports has been played for over twenty-four million hours? Now that's a lot of Wii Sports.As far as we know, this accounts for only North American data, and even lessening that scope, only people who've agreed to share their information (remember that disclaimer you said "yes" or "no" to after downloading the channel?). With that said, such usage statistics can't be considered accurate. Now that we've given you a caveat, go ahead and check out the stats to your little heart's content. To view them, just click on the information for the game you're curious about and scroll down until you find the pertinent information.
MMObile: extensions of our social and gaming networks
How many times have you wanted to check on your game stats, switch skill training, or buy something at an auction house while you were nowhere near your computer? We have a host of mobile devices and services available to us with speed increases every year, but still connections to our online social networks are quite limited when we're not in front of our computers. Shouldn't more companies focus on allowing our mobile devices to act as extensions of our computers and consoles? That's what Tom Sperry, CEO and President of Exit Games Inc. thinks. He lays out his vision for how things can improve, in this scenario:
Mages and Rogues jump in Arena stats, while Hunters fall behind
Vhiari, keeper of the Armory stats, has updated once again, this time taking a look at Arena performance across all three rankings and all of the classes contained within. The 2v2 comparison (showing Arena rankings, across the bottom, with the percentage of players in each class at that ranking) tells the overall story: Mages are seeing major gains in the Arena, as are Rogues, which Vhiari speculates may be at the cost of Warlocks (who took a small tumble). And just as last time, Hunters continue to struggle in all three brackets -- 5v5 has the same situation as above, but in less extreme amounts.Of course, these are stats, and what these stats actually mean is up to you (and more importantly, up to Blizzard -- this is just a sign of who's getting which rankings at which levels, and this could be the result of many different things, so there's no reason to expect buffs or nerfs based on just this information). Still, it's a pretty clear look at just who's winning out there, for whatever reason -- the stats say Mages have done well the past few months, while Hunters continue to struggle inside the Arenas.[via WoR]
China's forgotten gamers
Frank Yu over at Gamasutra wrote a piece recently that didn't exactly slip through the cracks, but was certainly overshadowed by more pressing concerns that affected online gaming in Asia. Yu's 'China's Forgotten Gamers' -- from his China Angle column -- is a look at the invisible population of gamers in the country that industry demographics simply cannot account for. In North America and Europe, subscriptions, registered downloads and box sales provide an accurate picture of who's playing a given title; China is a different story altogether. Credit cards are nowhere near as prevalent among the Chinese as they are abroad; box sales have largely been a failure due to piracy. Added to the mix is the fact that not everyone can afford to play games legitimately, and so some Chinese gamers find ways to play outside of the system. Although the reported numbers of gamers playing the various titles in China are large, Yu says, "In China, we track game players by subscriber or registration numbers, or by the amount of money they spend giving companies revenue. If they don't register or pay money, they are somewhat invisible to the industry or, from the business viewpoint, irrelevant."
Where Is HD? integrates VOD into listings
Not too much to say beyond the title, but everyone's favorite high-def lister has now begun to integrate video-on-demand offerings into the lineups. It should be noted that VOD listings aren't totally implemented just yet, so if you see a few holes in your own carrier's list, rest assured that plugs are on the way.
Has Growl been changed or not?
Ever since it was reported that in 2.4.2, threat generated by Growl would no longer scale with pet attack power, Hunters have been trying to figure out what that means. Will it only scale with Hunter attack power? Is there any way to get Growl's threat up? Just what is the relationship between the threat generated by Growl and the stats listed on both Hunter and pet? The Mystic Hunter has been working to try and figure things out, but the stats he's found have actually been more confusing than clarifying -- he did a series of tests on the Live server and then on the Test server... and found them to be the same.Say wha? Mystic found that threat is clearly scaling with Pet AP, and not with Ranged AP (he shot RAP way high using the Core of Ar'kelos and a few other gear pieces, and had no noticeable affect on threat generated by Growl).So not so fast on that Growl change -- if it is going to be implemented in 2.4.2, it hasn't been put out there yet (which, considering that the 2.4.2 testing is supposed to be almost over, makes us think it won't happen this patch at all). Of course, if the fix doesn't come out, then the original problem is still there. These Growl issues are turning out to be a huge headache for both Hunters and Blizzard.
GTA IV statsplosion! Xbox Live and US 360 sales detailed
Rockstar continues its statistical assault, putting down its scientific calculator and giant sacks of money just long enough to share some Grand Theft Auto IV data with us, by way of Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog. First, Microsoft wanted to share some GTA-related Xbox sales data (Europe can't have all the fun, right?): Xbox 360 console sales "went up 54% week-over-week"; retailers say that the Xbox 360 release accounted for more than 60% of all GTA IV sales in the first week; sticking those two together, retailers say that "roughly 40% of new 360 console sales" went out the door with a copy of GTA IV. Now for the really interesting stuff: Xbox Live stats. We already knew GTA IV took the top spot on Xbox Live (and apparently helped the service break the "1 million concurrent users" milestone), but know we know how: more than 2.3 million people played on Xbox Live, unlocking more than 12 million achievements, and setting "a new record for time played," with your average gamer investing more than four hours in the game's first week.Without decent info to compare and contrast these numbers with, they're little more than trivia. Regardless, here's our best apples and oranges comparison: in the first nine days after the release of the Call of Duty 4 map pack, that game logged some 30 million hours of play so, if GTA IV had 2.3 million users spending an average of four hours with it in the first week, we're clumsily calculating something like 9.2 million hours versus something like 23.3 prorated hours for CoD4 ... or something. We warned you it was apples and oranges. Now you tell us: how much time did you spend with GTA IV?
Where Is HD? adds HD-ready channels to listings
Your favorite HD locator has been updated yet again, barely a week after colored genres and printouts appeared. This time, the refresh brings in HD-ready channels, which are networks that do not currently produce any bona fide HD content, yet are apt to make the switch in short order. For example, here in the frigid town of Barrow, Alaska, we see that 5 StarMAX and Independent Film Channel HD are both being included for the 99723 zip code as HD-ready. On a related note, a listing of HD News is now available for those fervently checking their listings on a daily basis.
Q1 2008 plasma shipments up 56% from a year ago
It's no surprise to see that the LCD sector is doing quite well; plasmas, on the other hand, have certainly been on the downward trend. According to new data from Displaybank, shipments of PDP modules managed to slide 15-percent during Q1 2008 compared to the always high Q4 of last year (you know, those holidays tend to do that), but the intriguing stat is the year-over-year: it's up 56-percent. For what it's worth, pricing for plasma panels is on the skids as well, and while the 40-inch segment accounted for just over half of all shipments, the 50-inchers claimed another 25-percent. In case you haven't noticed, quite a bit of shaking up has gone on in the plasma industry here recently, and while LG Electronics took back over the lead in Q1, anything is fair game from here on out.
Where Is HD? adds colored genres, printable listings
Yeah, we're still not thrilled that Where is HD? lists TBS HD, TNT HD and other stretch-o-vision networks as broadcasting 100-percent high-def material, but aside from a few minor gripes, it's still a fairly useful service. Recently, the HD locator tool has added in colors to differentiate between genres (locals, sports and movies currently), and just in case you feel like printing your listing out and posting it up for grandma to peek when she house-sits, there's an option for that as well. Now, if only we actually had a domicile in 96740...
Spending on home video nearly even with last year
Despite the fact that consumer spending on the whole has dipped of late here in the US, it seems that the home video sector has been able to withstand major setbacks. Reportedly, American consumers spent some $5.6 billion on rentals and purchases through the first three months of 2008, which is just a 0.3-percent drop from the same quarter a year ago. It was noted that Q1's figures were boosted by 400- to 500-percent growth in high-definition disc sales, which amounted to around $150 million. Lastly, it's said that Blu-ray sales accounted for somewhere between 5- and 8-percent of all home entertainment sales for Q1 2008, and of course, demand for Sony's now entirely-more-relevant PlayStation 3 continues to head upwards. Thirsty for even more stats? Check 'em out in the read link below.[Image courtesy of DevotedDVD]
Vhiari posts Tournament Realm ratings data
Vhiari has released some interesting stats about the Arena Tournament realm over on his Blogspot site. What he did is take the top 5000 (due to "Armory limitations," he says) personal ratings in each bracket, and then charted them according to classes. Keep in mind that this is the Arena Tournament realm (the live realm data is also available separately), so this is more an indication of what players are doing so far on the tournament realm rather than class viability in day-to-day situations.But keep in mind also that Blizzard is watching the Tournament realm closely for PvP balance, so what we see here could have some hints into the future of Arena changes. Mages especially don't make out too well on the 5v5 chart, and Hunters don't appear to fare much better. Warriors, as you might expect, are off the charts, but comparably on 5v5, Druids aren't at that level. Rogue placement is a surprise, too, but Vhiari just says in the comments that that's more an indication of how many people rolled rogues on the TR rather than a signal that Rogues are rocking 5v5.Interesting stuff. Unfortunately, the data is a little too fuzzy to pull off any serious conclusions (even if Mages aren't getting high ratings, this chart does nearly nothing at all to help us figure out why that might be), but it's an interesting look at what's happening on the TR so far.[via WoR]
CCP releases EVE QEN, says 250k subs by Q2, and plans Gross User Product report
CCP has released their Quarterly Economic Newsletter for the 4th quarter of last year in EVE Online, and the word is "growth." They saw big increases in trade volume and value all over the place on the market. Which isn't surprising, considering how much their population surged late last year, thanks in large part to the well-received Trinity expansion. And the growth isn't done -- CCP expects to see 250,000 subscribers by the end of Q2 2008.There are lots of great numbers in here -- apparently only 9% of players are out in low sec space (much lower than I'd thought). Jita is still a madhouse (no duh -- you'll already know that if you've ever tried to go in there on a weekend). Finally, they've introduced a new tracking variable, called Gross User Product, that is the value of all services and goods produced in a period of time, minus the amount of goods and services consumed. In other words, a GDP, but for a virtual world. They don't have a figure yet (because it has to be tracked over a period of time), but the next QEN should have some even more interesting information on how we might track virtual economies in MMO games.
Gankbang: For those times you really need an ego boost
While not a new site, Gankbang has recieved a push on a few different realm forums recently and it seems few know about it. A shame!Gankbang pulls character stats from the Armory and compiles them into a fun little searchable tool. It gives you the option of breaking down your search by class, talent spec and specific stats. You can also choose to search by specific realms, factions and battlegroup. You don't have to pick through those things if you don't want to, a WoW-wide search works as well.The most obvious use of this tool is to stroke your ego when you come up in the top ten of a search. I'm pretty sure everyone who's been to Gankbang before has done that at least once. Another good use of the tool is to find the players of your particular class who either know what they're doing, or at least are doing really well in the end-game. As a shadow priest, it was fun to do a few searches(shadow damage, spell haste) to see who's on top, and use their Armory profile to see what's available to me. If you're on a friendly, homely server, those people on top might have some good advice for you too, if you're in need of it.It has a few issues, though. Due to Gankbang's update frequency and that of the Armory, your stats may not always be current if you have multiple sets of gear. In addition, while Gankbang strips most buffs when grabbing character data, there are a few things that slip through. For example, a search for melee crit on warriors has the number one warrior listed with 116% crit.Oh, by the way, if you're not showing up on a search? You can add yourself manually by using the link at the top of the Gankbang website.
Shocker: Amazon's Blu-ray BOGO boosts BD rankings
We know, it's tough to believe, but Amazon's recent Buy 1 Get 1 free offer on Blu-ray titles has skyrocketed a number of BD films to the top of its curiously named DVD rankings. Granted, we saw the exact same thing happen to the red camp just days ago, but just in case the dead horse needed one more thumping, it's pretty safe to say that lowering disc prices will net a hefty gain in sales. At one point earlier today, the entire top ten list consisted of Blu-ray films, and currently, a majority of those positions are still being claimed by BD titles. So before you jump all down the other camp's throat about sales figures, you may want to give the lion's share of credit to lower prices, plain and simple.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Half of US households own a digital television
We already learned that some 28-percent of US households were rocking at least one HDTV back in March, but now the Consumer Electronics Association has come forward with new figures showing that over half of American abodes are home to a digital television. According to revamped CEA projections, around 32 million DTV units will ship out next year, with 79-percent of those being HD sets. 'Course, the downside of this is that a good chunk of America still isn't prepared for the DTV cutover in 2009, but thanks to all the advertising that will likely be taking place over the next year and change, we'd say they've got plenty of time to get on board.
Virtually Overlooked: Virtually Overloaded with year-end stats
For the last Virtually Overlooked column of 2007, we thought that we would take a momentary break from our normal routine of extolling our favorite old games. Instead, we're taking a look back on the year of speculative game-wanting. After the break, you'll find the last year of Virtually Overlooked, including the five special Virtually Overlooked Week features (but not the polls or other ancillary posts) boiled down into a pile of numbers. To be honest, this survey was inspired by personal curiosity. I wondered just how many games we had covered, and how they broke down. Did I really talk about as many Konami games as it felt like I did? Am I really as obsessed with the Turbografx-16 as I seem? Were the VO columns written by others a lot more popular than mine? (Thankfully, no.) Head past the break for ... you know, numbers and stuff!
Warcrafter does the heavy math on your character's stats
Amanna is the latest blogger to bring up Warcrafter, a nifty little online application that is basically the Armory on speed. It'll not only pull up your character, your gear, and your talents, but it'll use all of that information to calculate everything you'd ever want to know about your stats, including DPS, crit percentage, spellpower, and even where all of those things come from. It'll even go into your spells, and calculate the average heal or average damage of your most-used spells and abilities. Warcrafter tells you everything it can calculate about your character, directly from the numbers pulled out of the Armory. Fascinating to see.There is also a sandbox page, which is everything an aspiring theorycrafter would ever need to make up the character of their dreams. Punch in a class, race, and gear, and then go to town shifting around buffs, weapons, talents, and anything else you'd want to check. Cerberus is an attentive creator, too-- if there's a calculation off or a piece of gear missing, he seems more than happy to add it in. I only hope that we don't crush the site with our exposure.The sandbox page mentions something about "locking" the character, and it would be cool to have a quick permalink setup for created characters (we could have someone show off all the buffs/gear needed to get the Ghost Wolf taming cast time down, or show off the highest possible spellpower available in the game so far). But other than that, Warcrafter is a great piece of web-based software. Very cool way to inspect every single aspect of your character out of game.
