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Incantor brings World of Warcraft to real life (hands-on)
There's plenty of cool stuff to see on the floor of this year's TechCrunch Disrupt, but nothing's likely quite so eye-catching as Incantor, a mobile game that utilizes your smartphone and, naturally, a magic wand, to bring fantasy-style action to the real world -- or as the game's creators put it, to "bring World of Warcraft to real life." The wand speaks to your handset via Bluetooth, detecting your gestures and generating "spells." Hold your phone in portrait, and you'll get personal information, including your character level, spell bag, etc. Flip it to landscape, and you'll get a Google Map overlay, showing you other players in your area. There are 13 different game play modes in all, and you can play as a group or solo. Moveable Code was only showing off one wand at the show, but the company expects to make 10 available in all, representing different classes. Interested parties can find out more at the Kickstarter link in the source below. Beta testing will begin in early Q4, with widespread availability coming by year's end. The wand, which offers up feedback based on gameplay (including interactions with other players), should run you around $60 when it hits the market. You can play the game sans phone, but we're told its not quite as fun. Either way, sparring, quests and games capture the flag should get people outside a bit more than PC-based MMORPGs. Sunscreen, however, is not included. Check out a video of Incantor's creators demonstrating the game after the break.%Gallery-155977%
5 monk abilities that should have you excited for Mists of Pandaria
When I was younger, Easter was a time of good food and great gaming. While my parents and relatives discussed boring adult stuff in my aunt's living room, my brothers and I would flee with our cousin to their basement, where we'd play Mortal Kombat II on SNES all night. I was always Liu Kang, my younger brother was normally Reptile, and I'd always win the first few matches by backing him into a corner and repeatedly bicycle kicking him until he died. Or blocked. Once he became a preteen, it was usually the latter, and I haven't beaten him in a fighting game since. The long-distance flying Martial Arts kick has been a staple in video games ever since video games became a Thing, and I'm particularly pleased to announce that Blizzard has done it due justice in Mists of Pandaria with Flying Serpent Kick. It won't allow you to abuse dated wall mechanics or give you a false sense of pride, but it's one of a number of awesome monk abilities that fit in well with the monk archetype in gaming in general while staying true to WoW's form. Hopefully, these five monk abilities will have you excited for WoW's next expansion. 1. Expel Harm Normally, heals aren't something that I typically call exciting or cool, unless they're the total awesomeness that is Healing Rain. This is especially true given the relative homogenization of healer classes in Cataclysm and the existence of the healing holy trinity. Expel Harm isn't your normal heal. Instead, what Expel Harm does is heal you (or, if glyphed, your target) for a small amount, and then it does 100% of the healing done to the closest enemy target as damage.
Beta Testing 101: How to write a good bug report on the forums
If you're in the Mists of Pandaria beta, chances are good that you've encountered a few bugs by now. As a beta tester, it's not just your job to sit there and play through the game. You're also expected to report the bugs you happen upon in your travels through Pandaria. Blizzard has provided beta forums for feedback and bug reporting, so you've got a place to jot those bugs down. Once you've found and identified a bug, you should write up a brief report so Blizzard knows that there's a problem and can fix the problem before release. Before you scamper off to the beta forums, however, there's a proper way to write these bug reports so that Blizzard knows what you're talking about and can take appropriate action. If you write a bug report incorrectly, you're not helping matters any -- and in some cases, you can even confuse the situation and make it worse. So how do you write a good bug report on the beta forums?
Beta Testing 101: 5 things you should always report
Have you made it into the Mists of Pandaria beta yet? Being a beta tester isn't about simply playing through a free sample of the game. If you're expecting a completed product when you log in, you're in for a surprise. What you are playing is a not-quite-finished version of the game, and it's highly likely you'll run into your fair share of bugs as you're wandering Pandaria's gorgeous hills and valleys. As a beta tester, it's your job to report those bugs you find in game, so that they can be fixed before the game goes live. However, not every error out there deserves a report. Things like NPCs that are marked with a PC or NYI tag are things the developers already know about -- they're just placeholder models. Music isn't yet implemented into Pandaria yet either, but the developers know about that, too. So what makes a bug a bug, and what kinds of bugs should you report?
World of Warcraft server blades help you save the children, feel slightly better about yourself
If you're going help save the world, you might as well get a little something for yourself at the same time, right? World of Warcraft fans listen up, because Blizzard wants you to help them help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it's willing to give you a fairly unique piece of WoW memorabilia for digging deep. The game developer is once again auctioning off World of Warcraft server blades. This time, the company's offering up 2,000 HP p-Class blades that were recently retired when it upgraded its backend hardware. The blades, which have gone up for auction on eBay, have been fitted with a clear case bearing the WoW logo and a plaque featuring a slew of developer signatures. One-hundred percent of proceeds will go to help the research hospital.
Know Your Lore: Where is WoW's story headed in the distant future?
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Because of the way we experience the setting, the story of World of Warcraft progresses in bursts. It's fair to think of each expansion as a new series, and the patches as episodic, in the same manner as British TV series such as Doctor Who or Turning Evil. Therefore, each expansion brings new settings, new dangers, and a new, overarching storyline, while each patch is an advancement of that storyline, bringing it to a conclusion with the ultimate patch of each expansion. In this way, Patch 4.3 is effectively a multi-part episode concluding the story of our confrontation with Deathwing. I bring this up because with Mists of Pandaria, we're going to see a whole new place and explore it. In essence, it will be an expansion that introduces a great deal of new -- new lands, new peoples, new experiences. While it will still be part of Azeroth and still part of the unfolding storyline, it's also a change to switch gears and get away from the familiar. In a game like WoW, it's necessary to introduce new elements in this way to keep the setting engaging. It may be hard to relate now, but Ragnaros, Ahn'Qiraj, the Old Gods, the Silithid, all were introduced in World of Warcraft and not any of the RTS games. Look at the Warcraft III map of Kalimdor. You'll notice pretty much everything south of Feralas is blank on it. This puts me in mind to speculate on the future of the game and where the lore is going to take us. Not just in Mists, of course, as I expect that much of the lore of the expansion is well and truly fleshed out already, and I'm as eager as anyone to see it. But we've got expansions down the road and trends to consider. None of this absolutely will happen ... but some of it might.
Raid Rx: Healing the Spine and Madness of Deathwing
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. This is it. This is the final encounter of the expansion. Everything you've ever worked for and fought through has led to this point. This is the moment you get to help rid the world of Deathwing. First, we need to ground this oversized lizard. Immediately after the conclusion of the gunship (part two), you'll be parachuting onto Deathwing's back. We'll go over the different obstacles and what you and your healers need to do to get over the proverbial raid hump. (To the raiders who do 10-mans, you'll have to adjust the numbers a bit. I'm not as well versed on 10s, so you'll have to bear with me as I draw up assistance for the 25-man version.) To attack the Spine of Deathwing, we need to peel off those metal plates on Deathwing's back so that we can really weaken him further. Our healing goal here is to ensure that our tanks live. Apparently, Deathwing has all sorts of little defenses that he'll use to try to shake us off; there are several threats on this fight that healers need to be aware of. You're on an extremely narrow field of battle here, so movement's going to be really limited. What did you expect, though? You're fighting on the back of a former dragon aspect.
Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?
WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs. With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you're racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let's deal with some housekeeping. Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.
Spiritual Guidance: The priests of BlizzCon 2011
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast. This past weekend, BlizzCon 2011 brought a plethora of announcements for World of Warcraft. Players can now look forward to pandas, a dramatically new talent system, a Pokémon-style minigame, and lots more. Priests in particular are in for radical changes with the new talents, and while I suspect some of you would like to hear my perspective on things, I'm going to wait a week and see what else unfolds from the blues as they respond to some of the more obvious questions the community is asking. This also gives me the opportunity to follow through with my original plans of introducing you guys to some of the priests I met at BlizzCon 2011.
About the Bloggers: Dawn Moore
About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more of our staffers in earlier About the Bloggers profiles. Today you'll be meeting Dawn Moore, admirer of Dwarven hunters in-game rocks. What do you do for WoW Insider? Since January 2010, I've been one of the two columnists covering Spiritual Guidance, WoW Insider's biweekly priest column. I write specifically for the two healing trees, holy and discipline, since Fox Van Allen stole 1/3 of my job covers shadow. In addition to my column, I also unofficially cover the news and articles WoW Insider publishes on the Warcraft movie, since I keep a pretty watchful eye on the film industry. Periodically, I also write feature articles on random topics such as vegetables and superhero costumes.
Breakfast Topic: How do you choose your spec builds?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I confess that when it comes to my specs, I am incredible lazy. I'm not dual-specced. I don't have a PVP spec. I'm just a standard PVE frost mage. I didn't even change to arcane when arcane was the only way to be a "proper" mage. I'm not into theorycrafting, and I would rather let someone else do all the work. I poke around the internet for awhile, find a spec I like, and copy it. I then stick with that spec until major changes are made and I have no choice but to fix the spec. Some of my good friends are the total opposite. They loiter on theorycrafting websites, crunch the numbers, and constantly tweak the numbers until their spec seems ideal. A few days later, they are ready to tweak some more. Where do you fall on this spectrum? Are you a theorycrafter who loves the numbers game and could spend hours trying to devise the perfect spec? Would you prefer to sit back and yank someone else's perfect design? Or are you somewhere in the middle? Do you study the builds and then come up with something of your own, roughly based on the work you've seen?
What's happening in the Whispering Forest?
Every now and then, an Easter Egg is found in game. Blizzard loves its pop culture references, secret nooks and crannies, and everything in between. Recently, this popped up: a secret grove, hidden in the Whispering Forest of Western Tirisfal. While it's unknown when they spawn (I've heard every six hours or so, but I'm not sure), a troupe of faerie dragons slowly flies to this mushroom ring and begins to sing. Tendrils of golden light flow and meet in the center of the circle, while ethereal music notes float all around. A beautiful little piece of music accompanies all of this, lasting about two and a half minutes. The infected animals of the Whispering Forest even come around to witness the performance. After they're done, the dragons leave and despawn.
Breakfast Topic: How would you spend one day as your character?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. What if you could trade skill sets with your favorite toon for a day? I would port myself to my job, instead of sitting in mind-numbing traffic for 40 minutes. When I got to work, I would pop Mirror Image so I could have four people doing my work for me (because, you know, I'm glyphed for it!) while my water elemental and I sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. If anyone came looking for me, I'd go Invisible and Blink myself the heck out of Dodge. Lunch would be no sweat -- I'd just whip up some cakes and be good to go. I'd take advantage of the moment and turn my boss into a sheep (or a penguin). And when the two o'clock doldrums hit, I'd do the Time Warp and make the rest of the day go by until the time came to port myself back home again. Once home, I'd set the water elemental to watch the children (making sure that it's set to passive, of course) and conjure up some more cakes for dinner. I have to confess though, I would be getting the better end of the deal, as I think my poor little mage would be less than thrilled to be dropped into Twilight Highlands with nothing more than a quirky sense of humor and a penchant for the written word. If you could trade places with your character for a day, what would you do?
World of Warcraft Starter Edition lets you reach lvl 20 for free, Night Elf Mohawk still only available to Mr. T
If there was one thing, one thing, keeping humanity safe from total enslavement to the grind of World of Warcraft, it was the fact that you have to pay to play the game for longer than a couple of weeks. Well, now we're all doomed. Blizzard is replacing its 14-day WoW trial with a so-called Starter Edition of the massively multiplayer life usurper, which lets you reach level 20 without shelling out a penny. Of course, like any good gateway drug, this freebie is capped at the thoroughly insufficient 20 number and is sure to agitate folks into buying the full product. One small step for a software company, one giant leap forward for global obesity rates.
Breakfast Topic: Azerothian technology
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. It began in the Burning Crusade with the helicopters. They quickly became the must-have item for every fashionable Azerothian and Outlander. In Wrath, we saw the Mechanohog come about and the murmurings began. In Cataclysm, engineers continue to be able to make more modern looking weapons and the goblins ride around on their mechanical trikes. The goblin starting area has been described, both affectionately and derisively, as Grand Theft Auto: Isle of Kezan. At what point does modern technology in World of Warcraft go too far? How far can gnomish technology really go? Is the game becoming too "steampunky?" Is that even a word? Do you feel that introducing items from modern-day Earth into Azeroth interferes with the immersion of the game? Is it impossible to properly roleplay when someone just roared past you on what appears to be a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar attached to it? Or do you just shrug it off as gnomish eccentricity? Are the items properly introduced with a logical argument for why they exist, or are they there for the sole purpose of giving engineers something to do (and a way to make money hand over fist)? Do you personally own one of the mechanical vehicles, and, if you are a roleplayer, how do you work it into your storyline? Have you ever wanted to write for WoW Insider? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions, and be sure to sign up for Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider. The next byline you see here may be yours!
Breakfast Topic: Guild achievements and you
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. We are now a good 6 months into guild achievements. As a guild leader, I think the concept, as executed, is great. Although we're casual and we run all content, trying to get certain achievements has provided us with incentives to level toons, level professions and to work together. Every week, I post to the guild web site, a tally of what we're working on and how far along we are in finishing an achievement. Doing all the Burning Crusade heroic 5-mans made people run the regulars to get enough honor to get their keys. People went into instances they didn't know existed. Attendance at our retro raid nights spiked when we announced that we needed this run for the guild achievement. We're small so the 25-man achievements will probably elude us, but people take a look at what still needs to be done and they help make it happen.
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.
Breakfast Topic: What real-life skills has WoW helped you develop?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I've never been a hunt-and-peck typist, but these days, my fingers can fly across the keyboard. It has certainly served me well in my employment. I can successfully type out full paragraphs with one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse. You can't see it, but I'm doing it right now. Are you impressed yet? Okay, probably not. I'm willing to bet that any of you can do it, too. But what other skills have you acquired through playing WoW? If you run your own guild, you may have become an effective leader and a whiz at organization and planning. Raid leaders may have to become experts at dealing with conflicting personalities and steering their cohorts toward the common goal. Dealing with guild drama might have you thinking should have a degree in social work by now. Playing the auction house might have inspired you to go into the stock market (and if you have earned a fortune doing this, please share your tips with the group!) Or maybe you've just learned to suck up your disappointments and handle them without having to resort to QQ and name-calling. Have you acquired an impressive skill through WoW that you might not have developed otherwise?
Free Kinect keyboard emulator lets you WoW while AFK (video)
World of Warcraft is a lot of things to a lot of people, a whole lot of people, but it's never been much of an immersive gameplay experience -- casting Plague Strike doesn't seem all that unholy when it's triggered by frantically tapping a key on a keyboard. Moving an arm would be at least a bit more involving, and with the Flexible Action and Articulated Toolkit, or FAAST, from the USC Institute for Creative Technologies, that's just what you can do. It's basically a software layer over your Kinect, built over OpenNI, that recognizes a skeleton and enables about 20 different motions to be mapped to key presses. This means you can lean forward to walk, raise your right arm to perform an action, and then sit down to take a breather after all that exertion. It's currently versioned .03, so don't expect miracles, but it is available for free at the other end of the source link. It's also demonstrated below, but don't tarry too long: guild meeting starts in five. [Thanks, Tommy]
GameString demos its streaming, custom World of Warcraft UI by raiding on an HTC Desire (video)
We're still not ready to apply the label "Gaming 3.0" here (or to anything, for that matter), but despite its boasts, GameString's making a compelling case for cloud-based play time. We've already seen the company bring World of Warcraft to Google TV, but now the company's showcasing its take on a challenge we've seen a few times before -- streaming a playable version of WoW to a mobile phone. (Gotta get 'em out of the house somehow.) The trick here is a streamlined UI overlay that makes for a every touch-friendly experience; there's translucent "thumbstick" spots and larger buttons for spells. The setup in question here is its Adrenalin Host Server from approximately 80 kilometers away (geographically) and an HTC Desire running over a home network that's 2Mbps down / 2Mbps up. And while there's some notable lag and parts of the interface that's still too tiny to really use, it's still an Alpha build that seems functional for all but the most intense of moments. See it for yourself after the break.
