n3rfed

I LOVSH ALL YOUSH GUYYYYYS

Oi! Wat...wat ar yoo starin' at? Git orf, ya grffttph. I tells ya.

ODDS AND ENDS #5

Chris Metzen apologises for the bipolar draenei and the intergalactic spaceships they rode in on. For a writer, contradicting oneself is especially embarrassing – continuity is a grail. The act is akin to a Formula 1 driver crashing the family Volvo. Or maybe not. But I need an analogy and that is all

3:43am

is offering. So, anyway, snaps to Metzen for owning up and explaining.

Now, what’s happen with the lore then? Well, the new lore is usurping the old. Not because lore freaks won’t mind. Not because it is in fact better lore. No. Because there’s book copies to be sold.

We've also woven all of this new lore into an upcoming novel by Christie Golden (author of Lord of the Clans) that depicts the draeneis escape from Argus and the RISE OF THE HORDE on Draenor.

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Google prepares for its conquest of the real world by practising with a virtual one.

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The school newspaper has an interview with the sexy new exchange student, BioWare.

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The Gods are returning to EverQuest II; Innoruuk heard to exclaim “Ahh, fu...”. Which is inevitable, when you think about it. There seems to be a certain lack of raiding excitement, of epicness, when there are no supernatural beings of truly cosmic power to kill and take their things. I only wish some other angles of the “OMG, Norrath is blown up, pure unadulterated madness with things mixed up, Gods nowhere to be seen, civilizations rising and falling, cats loving gnolls having moved on from dogs, etc” storyline would have been explored before this happened. There was some potential there.

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Shadowbane is Resurrected2Crush. Damion won’t be there - too busy playing Guitar Hero.

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John Carmack is toying with the idea of an MMO for your phone.

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Contrary to popular opinion, Mythic didn’t forget about Valkyries.

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Naxxramas Tier 3 sets are on display. Additonally, casters get a bird with a pole shoved somewhere uncomfortable, and someone, sometime, will need a new pair of pants once they see the Might of Menethil drop at their feet.

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Arthur Parker over at F13 scoops up the news that LOTRO will now have PvP and runs with it. This comes just a few weeks after it was announced a future module will introduce PvP to DDO. It seems someone at Turbine got over their fear of PvP in these licensed games. Thankfully, it was someone with sway.

And in reply to Arthur’s question of “Anyone care to guess what type of pvp system they can bolt on to LOTRO at such short notice?” – considering that the playable races are Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits, I’m going to go bet on it being Arena-type PvP. It’ll effectively be a place/building that can control who fights whom, and that offers a backstory of “honor” rather than LOTRO PvP being an offering of an adventure zone where you can gank Leg0lass for taking your spawn.

I’m giving 15-to-1 odds if anyone wants in on the action. “Not having enough time to implement an arena and resorting to a slapped on /duelling system” makes up the quinella favorite.

HEY BUDDY, CAN I BORROW SOME REP?

After the world event, in order to be attuned to the Naxxrammus zone (think MC/BWL), it requires honored reputation with Argent Dawn and 30g. If you're exalted with Argent Dawn, it's free.

That's the word/rumor/whathaveyou coming from a post on the Patchtimer forums.

Already nervously twitching from thoughts of, to use a technical term, the long-arse rep grind, players began to look for ways to speed up their race to exalted. They found it rather conveniently and easily in the form of an exploit.

I did it last night (as did half the raiding guilds on my server, lol). I'm usually not very fond of sploits, but on this one I said fuck that and fuck Blizzard. It's so worth it! Took us a while to figure out all the finer points, but those 4 hours spent in Scholo beat the shit out of 100+ hours of noxious glade farming.

We messed around with thorns and retribution aura, don't do it. It doesn't tag the illusions and only kills Jandice faster. While Drillborer Disk does damage to them, it doesn't seem to tag them either. It has to be a shield with a shield spike.
You also have to block their attacks to have the shield spike do damage, so you have to face them. Wear as much +block as you can, it's what gets you rep. I'm not 100% sure but it seems like shield block (skill) doesn't wear off right away. She spawns the illusion, they usually walk around for a few secons, I hit BS then shield block, they all attack at once and my SCT just spams block messages. I have improved shield block, dunno if this works for the standard one.

Bring lots of spiked shields! My epic shields broke after ~30 mins, a green one after ~20 mins. When all 3 shields were broken, my armor was at ~40%. Jandice was at 49%. I think you can get all 21k rep in one session if you bring 6-7 shields or a few shields and repair bots. Might have to evade bug Jandice towards the end though. Probably better to do it in 2 sessions.

If you bring a 5th person that can't heal or decurse, it's probably best if you have him hit one of the illusions on every cycle. Healer and decurser get rep from healing and decursing, the banish bait gets rep for being banished, but say a hunter just standing there doesn't seem to get any rep (if he's not banish bait).

BTW this is all over the place now, so it'll probably be fixed very soon.

 

And indeed it was. A hotfix soon followed.

For those of you that were busy doing something else, like saving kittens from burning buildings or rescuing orphans from trees, I’d suggest starting your tractor now. Or trying your hand at Dire Maul. At least we know that takes ages to fix.

WARNING: LINK TO LINK TO TOXIC STUPIDITY

We don't even get G4 here in Australia, so I'm lucky enough to ignore her.

But let me tell you something, America. How about we do a swap?

ARABIAN NIGHTFALL

If you did some Guild Wars reading throughout E3, you may have come across a snippet or two of information pertaining to the next expansion.

Funnily enough, it will have a name. A possible name has been offered up; Nightfall.

So, a medieval theme in Guild Wars, an asian theme in Factions, and a North African theme in Nightfall. Sounds somewhat familiar.

E306: ONE LAST PROD OF THE HORSE

Best video to come out of E3 this year.

Of note;
* Chris McKibbin, Co-Founder and President of Perpetual Entertainment, daring to call the SOE area the "Mythic booth".
* Grant "Rogue_5" McDaniel, Producer of Star Wars: Galaxies, constantly checking over his shoulder in case jaded crafters and other pre-NGE players decide to zerg him.
* I'll be damned if that comic creator doesn't at least look interesting.

E306: FOR THOSE OF YOU ALLERGIC TO SCROLLING...

...some updated E3 information is found here. You lazy slobs.

And so, E3 is over. Drunken game developers are now heading home, leaving L.A. to the usual bunch of drunks.

And I went the entire time without posting a booth babe picture. Hooray.

E306: REBELS WITHOUT A COST

Seen over at Abalieno's, NCSoft is bringing "free" MMOs to its PlayNC portal.

Free as in beer "C'mon man. It's only one hit. Here, take it. You can pay me later. Just have the money ready when I come knocking. Capice?".

Aimed at new MMO players as well as existing ones, the PlayNC portal invites players to try its games by putting them at an irresistible price -- $0.

The money, of course, lies in areas like micropayments -- while a great portion of each game is free, features like new items or character slots will come at a price. Some games may only offer lower-level gameplay for free, meaning that players are enticed into purchasing the game once they have become invested in a character. Two games from the PlayNC portal were playable at E3: Dungeon Runners and Exteel.

A worthwhile model, to be sure.

Not content with bringing down the establishment from the inside, NCSoft proceeded to rock out, stick it to the man, and lean heavily on the close friends of a fresh-faced, innocent Hollywood starlet.

It's like the 1950s all over again. I'm swooning.

THE ONLY THINGS STUNNED NOW ARE SCOUTS AFTER HAVING READ THE NEWS

The EQII Test Update #24 notes have been released.

Betrayers? Check. People who hate zone access quests? Check. People who find tradeskill societies confusing and pointless (i.e. me)? Check. Enchanters? Zomg, my watery pants, you got a check!

Everyone else? You miiiiight want to wait before Blackguard gets back from his boozy motel room frolics with Paris Hilton before lynching someone.

Preferably Paris.

E306: WAR. THE ABBREVIATED KIND.

So, about that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning game. GU Comics has some pictures. IGN has some words.

Rather than taking on a more predictable route, the Squig Herder has a unique method of creating and controlling the ravenous balls of meat that are Warhammer's Squigs.

When the herder creates a Squig, the Squig is so ungrateful that he actually eats his master. From inside the Squig's stomach, the herder can now poke and prod the Squig's brain to control his actions. For the most part this will involve a lot of jumping around and biting things. There area few specialized Squigs however; the battle ball Squig will roll over its opponents American Gladiator style. Once a Squig is killed, he spits out the poor herder who is then free to carry on as usual.

I'm feeling a strange burning sensation between my legs.

I think it's fanboyism.