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RIFT players set record for most in-game weddings in one day
It wasn't but yesterday that we ran our feature on the gaming achievements of the Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer's Edition 2012, but between then and now, a new MMO-related record has been set. As many of you know, RIFT recently added marriage to its plethora of features, allowing players to make the ultimate commitment in Telara. Well, the ultimate commitment besides joining a raiding guild, at any rate. A press release today announced that RIFT players banded together with the goal of setting the record for the most in-game marriages in a 24-hour span. We're not certain what the previous record was if there was one at all, but RIFT players managed to set the bar with a staggering 21,879 marriages performed between noon on February 14th and noon on February 15th. RIFT executive producer and Trion Worlds CCO Scott Hartsman is pleased with the outcome, stating in the press release that "Ascended Weddings were a great way to lift the veil on RIFT's new 'Gatherings' feature, social experiences that bring players together in new and interesting ways." He goes on to add that "[the studio] looks forward to expanding this great new gameplay element in the always-evolving world of Telara." So congratulations to all of the lucky couples. Enjoy your new ball-and-chain! [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
Achievement Unlocked: A look at the Guinness world records of online gaming
We're just over a month into the new year, and already we've got plenty to look forward to: The Secret World is expected to hit in April, TERA will follow shortly in May, and Guild Wars 2 will be out... sometime this year (we hope). But before we all start looking toward the future, let's take a moment to look back at some of the gaming achievements of the past. Thanks to the handy-dandy Guinness Book of World Records 2012: Gamer's Edition, we've got a quick compendium of MMO-related records from the past year and then some, so if you're at all interested in the shortest-lived MMO to date or the longest time anyone's spent playing MMOs from inside a crate, join us as we take a stroll down memory lane to take a look at some notably (in)famous MMO achievements.
Tell us your most epic MMO stunt and win a copy of the Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer's Edition!
The Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer's Edition is complete, highlighting the best scores, most jaw-dropping achievements, and every "first" you can imagine in the gaming world. On the book's home page you'll find a big yellow "Buy The Book" link, but hold on. Don't click that quite yet, even though it's a great read. If you'd love to have a copy of the book we'll save you some money and let you do a little bragging at the same time. Guinness World Records has provided us with two copies of the Gamer's Edition to share with a couple of our readers. All you have to do is enter to win one by leaving a comment here telling us about the biggest highlight of your MMO gaming time. It can be your first big achievement, your most impressive battle, or your most epic fail. Impress us, make us laugh, make us wince in sympathy. No matter what you do, do it by this Friday, January 20th, at 5:00 p.m. EST. We'll choose two winners once the deadline hits and send out the books right away. As always, read the contest rules for eligibility information, and best of luck!
OSU Buckeye Bullet 2 sets new battery-powered speed record
Ohio State's Buckeye Bullet 2 has just set a new battery-powered vehicle record after hitting a speed of 291 mph averaged over two separate runs done back-to-back in opposite directions. Yes, it's technically slower than the two-way land speed record of 300.992 mph the original Bullet set back in 2009, but that car was powered by hydrogen fuel cells. This year's model instead was developed in partnership with boutique Monaco-based electric car manufacturer Venturi and replaced the fuel cells with lithium-ion batteries from A123 Systems. It's also apparently a testing prototype for a new car that's coming in 2011. Will that car hit these kind of world record speeds? Probably not, but we're not letting that dash our newly formed geek fantasy of seeing it drag against a Tesla.
Twenty-eight-year-old Asteroids high score beaten
America gets a bum wrap sometimes, but you should keep something in mind. You should remember that America's the sort of country where a 41-year-old locksmith from Seattle can spend 58 hours of that most precious gift of life scoring 41,336,440 points in Asteroids to break a 28-year-old world record. We're not sure what that implies about this great land, but it implies it very, very hard. It's a staggering accomplishment Koku Gamer brings word of, and one that leaves us with just one question for John McAllister: We've waited two and a half days, would you please come help us get our keys out of our car now? Our dog looks very sleepy.
Guinness World Records 2010: Gamer's Edition out today
What's the highest grossing arcade game of all time? What's the longest anyone's spent playing an MMO? You'd know the answers to these and many more questions about the extremes of the video game world if you had a copy of the Guinness World Records 2010: Gamer's Edition. Or if you clicked over to the press release announcing that the book is out today in the US and will be out January 21 in UK. If you'd like more peeks into the book before you decide whether to buy into this celebration of gaming's most excessive numbers (and most obvious marketing), Guinness posted some preview pages here. And if you want to beat that MMO record, it was 16,799 hours. In Runescape. Have "fun!"
Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams accept Guinness World Record awards
Apparently there were a few Blizzard blokes at E3 last week, even though we didn't see them wandering the floor at all. Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams were both there to accept their awards for world records from Guinness after making it into the 2009 Gaming edition. World of Warcraft picked up a record for the most popular MMORPG in the world (with, as you probably know, 12 million players), and Starcraft gained recognition for being the best-selling PC strategy game, with 9.5 million copies sold worldwide. Neither of these awards are really that much of a surprise -- both games have already garnered tons of other awards, and both games are already squarely in the pantheon of the best and biggest PC games ever sold. But being recognized is always nice, we're sure.They honored a number of other extremely popular games and services as well, including two big Activision Blizzard titles: Call of Duty 4 was recognized for being the most-played online video game, and Guitar Hero was recognized for being the best-selling rhythm game series (though Red Octane, the game's original publisher, was honored, and they've only recently been acquired by the Activision overlords).Congrats to all the award winners, as if they even needed it. Something tells us the millions and millions of dollars in revenue from all of these games was probably a nicer reward than Guinness recognition. Just a guess.
Tosog goes 0 to 70 in 28 and a half hours
Rumor has it that the record for leveling from one to seventy has been broken yet again. Tosog of EU Kil'jaeden has reportedly maxed out in one day, four hours, and twenty-nine minutes. This was posted in a thread where Athene boasted a (NSFW) new video (NSFW) on how he went from 1 to 70 in 1 day 19 hours 39 minutes.Both are inarguably amazing feats of power leveling. How did Tosog do it? Well, if you speak German, you tell me:
Seagate claims world record for magnetic recording density
While researchers in academia have the luxury of playing around with exotic technologies like nano-clusters, shape-shifting lasers, and nanomagnetic vortices, the engineers at Seagate know that they actually have to profit off of their research, so for now they're sticking with traditional magnetic recording techniques in order to push the limits of hard drive capacity with new and exciting storage densities. Using now-standard perpendicular recording heads and media manufactured with current production techniques, the company recently demoed drives with a record-breaking 421Gb/in² data density, which should allow for 500GB 2.5-inch notebook drives, 2.5TB 3.5-inch desktop drives, and 1-inch to 1.8-inch consumer electronics drives that can store between 40GB and an impressive 275GB, starting in 2009. Looking beyond perpendicular recording, Seagate researchers say that the still nascent Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and bit patterned media techniques should eventually allow mind-boggling densities of up to 50Tb/in², which is surely more space than anyone could possibly need, ever. (We know that last part's actually untrue, but we just included it so that future generations perusing our archives can have a good, hindsight-enabled laugh at our naïveté).
The bestselling games of all time
Gaming Steve's asking the question "What is the bestselling video game of all time?", and better still, he's found some answers. Super Mario Bros. takes the Guinness Book of World Records' accolade, helped in no small part by its bundling with the NES.With innovative title The Sims taking the PC top spot and Pac-Man walking off with the coin-op crown, it's unsurprising to see that all three games have given rise to spinoffs, sequels and copycats galore. However, while Mario's still running riot, you don't see much of Pac-Man nowadays. The lesson to publishers? Bundling games, repurposing content and milking franchises may see you clear to the top spot, but you'll have to work jolly hard to outsell Mario.
