http://www.realpoor.com/ Where Internet drama can cost you your job! 2009-11-20 17:28:14 -0500 This is from a blizzard worker himself. Link is included at the bottom, credit goes to wryxian on the wow forum blizzard employee. We wanted to give everyone a very early heads-up that, in response to player requests, we re developing a new service for World of Warcraft that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. There s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it. As with all of the features and services we offer, we intend to incorporate the faction-change service in a way that won t disrupt the gameplay experience on the realms, and there will be some rules involved with when and how the service can be used. The number of variables involved increases the complexity of implementing this service, but we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out. We ll go into much more detail on all of this here at www.wow-europe.com as development progresses. In the meantime, we wanted to let you know that because this type of functionality requires extensive internal testing well in advance of release, you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward. Updated: 01/07/09: Due to the many questions that have come up with the announcement of this new service, we wanted to take the time to answer the ones we can at this point in time. Q. Will we be able to switch between the races on our own faction? A.. No. Players ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Changing_your_Faction_in_World_of_Warcraft_a236.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Changing_your_Faction_in_World_of_Warcraft_a236.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Changing_your_Faction_in_World_of_Warcraft_a236.html coinshopcollector 2009-07-05 04:48:12 -0400 While the big number of MMORPGs has succeeded in recent years, many of those games could not capture enough interest to keep the game running. Some of them have been shut down even before they came out of development. Here is the list of 7 significant and promising massive multiplayer online games that haven t survived the initial hype. Asheron's Call 2 First victim was Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings, a sequel to 1999 s fantasy MMORPG Asheron's Call. The game was released on November 22, 2002 and shut down three years later, on December 30, 2005 mostly due to lack of sales caused by a poorly coordinated marketing campaign and an insufficient retail presence. Also, game received negative reaction from fans, who were frustrated by the radical changes in gameplay and the game world, claiming that Asheron s Call 2 was a sequel in name only. Everything from content and graphics to gameplay dynamics was changed greatly from its predecessor, so the fans stayed with the original game. Seed Aiming for a different approach in MMOs, Seed was focused on character interaction and politics rather than combat that was entirely removed from the game design. Beta testing of the Seed game started on February 1st, 2006 with open beta in April 2006. The game was released to the public on May 2nd, 2006. However, due to lack of finances, game developers Runestone decided to file a bankruptcy, which led to game closure in September 2006. Promising concept and creative comic book-like design (see the picture) unfortunately never got second chance and Seed was shut down forever. Perhaps players still prefer games with grain of combat. Auto Assault Inspired by Mad Max series and Greek Mythology, Auto Assault was a MMO that combined vehicular combat with role-playing elements. Players were allowed to explore a post-apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles and tanks. Despite positive reception and promising concept, game ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Promising_MMOs_That_Didn___t_Survive_the_Hype_a224.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Promising_MMOs_That_Didn___t_Survive_the_Hype_a224.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/7_Promising_MMOs_That_Didn___t_Survive_the_Hype_a224.html windshell 2009-06-08 05:09:02 -0400 Although raised too much controversy on our forums because of significant amount of spam it has induced, Darkfall Online, described as MMORPG that combines real time action and strategy in fantasy setting, is surely one of the most anticipated titles in 2009. Yesterday, the Non Disclosure Agreement for Darkfall Online has been finally lifted, in preparation for next week's highly-anticipated launch. Also, besides NDA lift, a complete information on the game's pricing and system requirements is given to current and potential player base. European launch of Darkfall Online will happen next Wednesday, February 25th. Players from North America are welcome to participate in the European launch, with ability to migrate servers once the North American servers come to life. Apparently, that will happen soon after the European launch. Game developers state that they have had people from all over the US and Canada playing Darkfall without any problem. Game servers are located in Germany and distance does affect ping-time. So let s here some details on finance first. Payment Options In the next couple of days the Darkfall pre-orders will open up and stay up until Darkfall's launch on February 25th or until they are sold out. If the pre-orders are sold out, more Darkfall copies will become available on the launch date February the 25th. If they are also sold out, developers promised to offer more copies every few days as they upgrade their capacity. The pre-order consists of the Darkfall client download along with a month of play starting on February 25th. The full cost for this is 42 Euro (53 US$). It s interesting that this amount WILL NOT be charged during the pre-order. Only initial 2.52 Euros (3.17 US$) non-refundable payment will be charged in order to activate the process. The remainder (or 39.48 Euros/49.73$) of the pre-release price will be billed on release, February 25th. Players will be free to cancel the purchase any time before the ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkfall_Online_is_Out_____With_NDA_Lifted_and_System_Requirements_Given_a193.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkfall_Online_is_Out_____With_NDA_Lifted_and_System_Requirements_Given_a193.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Darkfall_Online_is_Out_____With_NDA_Lifted_and_System_Requirements_Given_a193.html windshell 2009-02-19 05:41:10 -0500 Risks of using a RuneScape Bot I have been botting to make an review on how to bot safe and how you can risk yourself being banned. Now I'll be talking about what Jagex has up their sleeves to stop these botters as myself. It is all in the script, you'll have to find a good coded script with reflection, color isn't much good as your risking it even further...choose wisely if you bot. It was all good until I was banned. I was botting for 4-8hrs a day with breaks (30 minutes or so + breaks)....then I admitted afk training which I thought was okay with Jagex since they said how you can watch a movie and fish atm time etc....well you can but not away the computer. This is an offence under Rule 7 (Macroing or AFK training....10 day ban hammer). Once you have been caught...they'll start monitoring your other accounts. This is bad if your a botter, all botted accounts will get banned. Now I have botted new accounts, this time multiple skills then only one skill (Not so obvious now :P). Jagex finds out bots by getting reported, staying on more then 30 minutes without break (the longer the more risks you'll take), multiple bots using signed instead unsigned or logging out at randoms everytime which is mostly the school random. Now I have seen 2 people so far that are insane botters (50+) who get invisible NPC's...one has gotten an ID when right clicked the other one haven't. I'm guessing the other person has gotten the updated invisible NPC. These NPC's are the next new system detections I believe....either that or Staff Mods who are spying on those suspicious people who aren't humanly enough. Recently people who has been Nexus has been getting the 10 day hammer and 1 has gotten the perm hammer. I think Jagex is cracking down on bots once again! Its only getting harder and harder every time but people always find a way to pass that. Do not bot guys...eventually it'll be a ban! Updated News: Jagex will be working on the Bot dection program. Well thats what the forum (Bo ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Risks_of_using_a_RuneScape_Bot_a189.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Risks_of_using_a_RuneScape_Bot_a189.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Risks_of_using_a_RuneScape_Bot_a189.html asdasdasd 2009-02-09 05:44:41 -0500 Despite its popularity, MMO genre is far from being perfect. MMO games don t offer anything spectacular for some time. Instead, most of them are ultimately based on outdated and flawed gameplay mechanisms, like grinds, slow leveling, non-transparent combat, etc. There are priorities however, and some of them are listed in this article. Also, this article is not directed against MMO games and their developers. It just gives a subjective overview of features that deserve to be fixed. Subscriptions We play because we pay. Most of MMOs are created for the primary purpose of getting players to play regularly and therefore to pay regularly. But what if we pay only one-time cost for a videogame? That is much more friendly to players who want to sample more games, and therefore much more friendly to the whole gaming industry. It turns that players actually feel compelled to play because they're paying and not because they're actually enjoying certain MMO game. Not to mention that subscriptions are unnecessary once you ve paid for the game, and that they re expensive for some players worldwide. However, it s not likely to expect that game developers will give up on this lucrative well, but at least they can make subscriptions a bit cheaper. Static Content When you kill a boss in game, soon you ll figure out that nothing has changed. If you look better, you ll see that he'll be respawned really soon. If you look behind you, you ll notice other players waiting in a line to kill him. Well, that s the big curse of MMOs. They are frozen in a static state. The evil is never destroyed. All players are apparently heroes, each unable to induce any sort of meaningful change in the world, forever unable to save it because that would just screw up everything for the next guy who waits in the line to finish same quest. Maybe the answer lies in building the stronger bosses and forcing the grouping as a priority tool ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/5_Things_to_Fix_in_MMO_Games_a188.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/5_Things_to_Fix_in_MMO_Games_a188.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/5_Things_to_Fix_in_MMO_Games_a188.html windshell 2009-02-05 05:46:29 -0500 Some of the MMORPG titles were eagerly anticipated, but once they came out of Beta, they caused a lot of disappointment to players. Sometimes it s about content flaws, but sometimes game can be perfection, but developers are too busy estimating profit, so they re often forgetting armies of devoted fans who are actually the most important source of that profit. Here is the list of well known MMORPG titles that didn t fulfill the expectations and that disappointed in one way or another. Star Wars Galaxies This game was one of the first and certainly, one of the biggest disappointments in history of MMO games. The game that should become the best MMORPG ever, actually ended up as a mediocre title. The game was released on June 20, 2003 without Jedi class and space combat that were the essence of Star Wars world. Also, the game quests were boring with lack of real adventure content. The combat system was flawed and future changes to it, including reduction of playable professions, ruined what was so far a decent game. The game developers completely changed the game's mechanics few times causing a real mess and confusion among player base. Some of those changes apparently came too late. In August 2005, developers reported that they had sold 1,000,000 boxed copies of the game, but in early 2006, unconfirmed reports showed that only 10,363 subscribers were playing the game. The game was in decline, losing majority of players due to many wrong decisions made during the development after the game has been released. Matrix Online Matrix Online is another franchise that should become outstanding MMORPG, but unfortunately it didn t. Reasons are many flaws that followed (following?) all players who decided to take red pill at the Matrix Online release in 2005. Game was reported to be extremely buggy, with crashes, random disconnects, being stuck in walls and falling through the world, to name only a few of them. Besides t ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Biggest_MMORPG_Disappointments_a170.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Biggest_MMORPG_Disappointments_a170.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Biggest_MMORPG_Disappointments_a170.html windshell 2008-11-27 06:10:12 -0500 When you start playing MMORPG, you ll probably join a guild after a while. There are many reasons to join one: to gain status, items and above all to be safer in the world of MMO game. But, sometimes player want to leave the guilds. Here are some usual reasons that you ve probably heard of or used before. As you ll see most of the reasons are objective, but some of them are subjective and lack reasonable explanation. Check them all and judge yourself. 1. Going AWOL This is the most mysterious reason for sure. These are guild mates who just disappear without a single word. What s even weirder is that they disappear not only from the guild, but also from the game. They might have even deleted their character and canceled their account. A sort of cold-turkey without telling anyone about that. 2. Taking a Break School, work or family sometimes deserve more attention than devoted players currently give to them. Or sometimes, players are just burnt out and tired of their favorite game. However, the chances of this players coming back are small, so the break or leave becomes permanent. However, this is the better way to leave, because at least one guild mate will know what happened with you and will explain when others notice your absence. 3. Real Life Issues Although aforementioned school, work or family also belongs to the real life issues, there are cases that can be described as emergency, when someone has to leave game quickly. This can be permanent leave or just temporary absence, depending on what s happened. Mostly, players leave short note to one or more of their guildmates if they have intention to get back in certain period of time. But often this type of leaving can become AWOL if the issues are more serious or ask full involvement of player who left. 4. Drama Induced Leave This is either the player who is drama queen, or a player who is just sick o ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Usual_Reasons_Why_Players_Leave_Guilds_a163.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Usual_Reasons_Why_Players_Leave_Guilds_a163.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/10_Usual_Reasons_Why_Players_Leave_Guilds_a163.html windshell 2008-11-07 06:21:40 -0500 The long expected Patch 3 for Age of Conan is finally out. It introduced some important changes and fixes to trade skills, combat mechanics, massive PVP and GUI functionality, but the most important change is certainly PvP Consequence System. So, let start with this major update first. PVP Consequence System Major new gameplay feature within this update is a new consequence system for PVP or the notoriety system, which aims to bring deeper meaning to PVP and introduce real consequences for your actions. This means that the players will now run the risk of becoming a criminal or even a murderer depending on their actions in PVP. For example, if you take part in anti-social actions in PVP, which means picking on weaker players, you will get murder points . Acquiring those points will eventually change the attitudes of NPCs in the world towards you. Murderers will be outcast from society in new outlaw camps at remote locations in various different playfields. Players with murderer etiquette will still have access to vendors and will be able to travel through these camps, but they will be labeled as dangerous individuals. This label, however, isn t permanent. It will be possible for those who are labeled to redeem themselves, through solving specific quests to lower their murder points until they receive amnesty and loose the status of a murderer. But, until then, other players can hunt down and kill murderers to punish them for their crimes. Sounds exciting and refreshing, right? This system will introduce a great new dynamic to PVP gameplay for sure. It depends only on how members are ready to become infamous. Trade Skills Changes Another important set of changes is connected with trade skills. Brand new types of armor and weapons are introduced with this update. There are so called Base , Culture and City armors and weapons recipes, which give weapon and armor-sm ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Age_of_Conan_Patch_Finally_Arrived_____With_murderers_and_criminals_a162.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Age_of_Conan_Patch_Finally_Arrived_____With_murderers_and_criminals_a162.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Age_of_Conan_Patch_Finally_Arrived_____With_murderers_and_criminals_a162.html windshell 2008-10-30 06:22:50 -0400 If you live in one of the few countries in the world where you have access to unlimited Internet at acceptable speeds and monthly costs, you probably won t find this as a trouble. But in the rest of the world, playing MMOGs causes additional and unwanted costs. Consumption of bandwidth, especially where it s limited, can be real pain and can cause additional costs that are not included in game you bought. If you're an average user on capped access, example, you probably have up to 20GBs per month to allocate among all of your Internet usage. If you re such user, downloading a 2GB World of Warcraft patch isn't something you can just do easily. It's something you have to plan for including every day and even next month. For you, even smaller downloads of 500MB have to be handled with caution. MMOGs generally don't use a lot of bandwidth in actual operation. The quantity definitely rises in busy areas with lots of players, for example where are large numbers of mobs, or raids, or if you're using voice as well. Most of the MMORPG content is already on your hard-drive communicating with server when needed. The real problem is getting that content onto your hard drive in the first place. The most efficient and cheapest method is the optical disk (CDs or DVDs), where large amounts of data can be installed to the drive in several minutes. If the content of the MMOG is dynamic, that might be a problem. Player installs the core on the HDD, but what comes later in patches and content updates takes more place on your hard drive, more time and of course money, especially if you re capped user. On a capped Internet connection, you have a limited number of hours per month. However, it s not easy to spot all add-ons and installations, although users with caps are used to frequently monitor their Internet usage for the month. If you go too far and spend too much, for the rest of the month you ll be without in ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Hidden_Costs_of_MMORPGs_and_Virtual_Worlds_a156.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Hidden_Costs_of_MMORPGs_and_Virtual_Worlds_a156.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/Hidden_Costs_of_MMORPGs_and_Virtual_Worlds_a156.html windshell 2008-10-23 06:40:15 -0400 Blizzard has announced the minimum and recommended system requirements for the World of Warcraft upcoming expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. Check out this article to see does your PC fulfill all of them. If don t then you still have time until November 13, when expansion hits retail, to upgrade your PC. It can be seen that system requirements are showing a general rise. But still they re not too demanding as some of the recent MMORPG hits like Age of Conan or Warhammer Online. Windows System Requirements To play WOTLK on your Windows PC you ll need following: Operating System this time includes both Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) Regarding Processor, you ll need: Minimum: Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ Recommended: Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 Memory: 512 MB of RAM will be sufficient for XP users, while Vista users will need 1GB. However, Blizzard recommends 1 GB of RAM for XP and 2 GB for Vista users. Video Card: In order to play, you don t need a beast video card. Minimum required is 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better. For smooth play, developers recommend: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM, such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better Sound will require DirectX-compatible sound card or motherboard sound capability For those who prefer apples here are the requirements. Mac System Requirements OS: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer Processor: You ll need minimum: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor, but it s recommended to have Intel 1.8GHz processor or better for smooth experience. Memory: You ll also need minimum 1 GB of RAM or recommended 2 GB of RA ... http://www.realpoor.com/articles/World_of_Warcraft__Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_System_Requirements_a146.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/World_of_Warcraft__Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_System_Requirements_a146.html http://www.realpoor.com/articles/World_of_Warcraft__Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_System_Requirements_a146.html windshell 2008-10-09 06:45:37 -0400