the-forge
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Hearthstone: The Forge livestream
The Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft livestream detailing The Forge mode happens today! Right now, in fact. What are you waiting for? It's linked above. This is the mode of the game where you are given cards at the start and must build your deck from what you are given, so if you want to see just how it works now is your opportunity to do so! For questions, commentary, and community, make sure to mosey on over to the livestream Reddit thread, which goes live at the same time as the event. Sounds like a splendid way to spend your Friday, if you ask me. As long as it won't get you fired.
Hearthstone live stream scheduled for July 26
Blizzard has announced a new Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft livestream scheduled for 10:00 am PDT Friday, July 26th on their Twitch.tv channel. The broadcast will focus especially The Forge in Hearthstone, one of the four game modes available. The Forge mode in particular is designed to test players' deck-building skills, by providing a set of cards at a match's beginning from which the participants must then build the deck they use in the match. Once a player has completed their set of Forge duels they are allowed to keep the cards they used to build their decks. So far this particular mode has not been showcased, so this Friday's Twitch.tv cast will be the first we've seen of it in action. The developers also plan to discuss some of the evolution of The Forge, and how they've tweaked and changed it since the mode was first announced. Make sure to mark your calenders for 10:00 am PDT this coming Friday, and learn all about The Forge mode in Hearthstone.
EVE Evolved: Trade hubs of New Eden - Caldari and Minmatar
A natural consequence of EVE Online's sandbox style market system is that eventually the players will form trade hubs around the most heavily used areas. Before the four empires began gearing up for war, the main trade hub of New Eden was in Yulai, the CONCORD headquarters system with super-highway stargates into the heart of each empire's space. When the super-highways were dismantled, Yulai became more difficult to get to and its popularity as a trade hub dissolved. It was eventually superceded by Jita, a Caldari system in The Forge region. But while Jita is EVE's biggest and most notable trade hub, it's not the only one by a long shot. Smaller hubs have always tended to erupt around centres of population and activity such as popular mission-running systems or the borders of warzones. Understandably, it's traders who reap the largest benefit from knowing all the best trade hubs. Trading in multiple regions can reduce the risk of competition and increase the volume of their sales. In this two-part series, I look at some of EVE's biggest trade hubs, what can be found there and how to use them to your advantage as a trader. In today's first part I look at a few of the biggest Caldari and Minmatar trade hubs.
EVE Evolved: Trade hubs of New Eden - Caldari and Minmatar page 2
Home to over two hundred people on an average evening, the system of Hek in the Metropolis region is one of the biggest Minmatar trade hubs. The safe route from Jita to Hek is a whopping 19 jumps, putting the system far enough away that a trade hub is very much required. The route between Jita and Hek is often heavy with industrial traffic and has historically been a prime target for suicide attacks against Tech 1 industrials.
Fantasy sports and MMO games
The Forge tackles an interesting question: are fantasy sports MMOs? Some of the more traditional sports fans would probably deny it, but Matt echoes a great case made by Charles Hudson: they feature repetitive gameplay, a combination of luck, skill, and strategy, and there is the obvious social element. I don't know if I would call fantasy sports "virtual worlds" (so this is likely the last you'll see of them on Massively for the foreseeable future), but it's definitely true that both fantasy sports and MMOs share the same type of social gameplay that's made them both so popular.Now, Matt says they also have a story, and to a certain extent, he's right. The real allure of sports is knowing all the stories behind it-- that Brett Favre's father passed away right before he played, or that the star hockey player is leaving right after the game ends to go see the birth of his baby. Behind all the stats, sports is one big storytelling session, and Sportscenter is the biggest daily soap opera of all time.But I don't think it's the story element that pulls in fantasy sports players-- it's the competitive element. The numbers all break down, and at the end of the year, you have a clear ranking that says who's better than who at predicting sports outcomes, and by how much. There is a certain amount of that competitive draw in PvP, but MMOs, I think, are far too distant from the actual numbers to make a sports fan happy. They may be interested in story, but at the end of the day, the game comes down to runs, strikes, and outs, and I think that's the way they like it.
