Sounds quite nasty but Blizzard has recently filed three trademark applications surrounding this word, which means flood or big upheaval. The first one is covering computer games and mouse pads. The second application is for the entertainment services using this name and the last one seems to be consumer merchandise like strategy guides etc. Is this the name for the new currently unnamed MMO?
The following story is quite intriguing. Basically three kids aged between 13 and 18 have helped themselves to a neighbours Wii. Reasonably common occurrence but then it was pawned by one of the thief’s mothers who knew it was stolen. The mother is ironically cally Law and have been busted by the police. With poor judgement they will probably receive a various amounts of convictions. It is not known how they were caught or what they have been charged with.
Have you heard anything similar to this story recently that reeks of pure stupidity?
Rather infamous bit torrent site The Pirate Bay has just been sold. It has been bought out by an internet café company called Global Gaming Factory for $7.8 million. The new owners are planning on installing a pay for download system and to make sure copyright owners get paid. The original Pirate Bay crew will use their money gains to further fund freedom of speech and other associated ideas and foundations.
Do you think that people will use the new service?
Some people like to level up their characters in games slowly and to enjoy the experience. Others are impatient and have some money so they use the services of a power leveller or a gold farmer, you know, to get to where they want faster. Last year alone several billion Yuan (think big money) was made in these sorts of services in different games, but not anymore. Gold farming has been banned and the only thing you can do now is farm gold and to swap for virtual goods, not real cold hard cash via websites, PayPal or people advertising their services on Xfire or in game etc. The changes have been made to undermine gambling and other illegal activities.
Have you used a gold farming or similar service in a game? Will this stop the activities as we know it?
With numerous games in the Aliens universe being made recently like Aliens: Colonial Marines, some games may have been sacrificed for the greater good. It has been officially announced that it is no longer a product in development and remnants of threads will be closed off shortly on their forums. Sega confirmed this but also said they were excited with the work being done on Aliens vs. Predator.
Was there too many Alien games being developed at the same time to cause this development?
No need to sugar coat it, the government is taking one extra step now. With no 18+ classification for games and people turning to download them offline from foreign sites, Conroy and co want to be able to blacklist the 18+ or “bad games” to stop them from ending up on systems. Flash games will be targeted as well as physically imported copies it seems as well. In other news the results on the trial for the cleanfeed will be released around July and Conroy himself with the Australian government has been nominated for an internet villain award in Britain - "For continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition." May the best villain win and maybe they will come to their senses that the average gamer or net user does not want to be filtered.
Will they win the award? Will they be able to block 18+ games from entering the country? Is this a big waste of time, effort and money?
Zenimax would be recognisable as the parent company of Bethesda, makers of Fallout and Oblivion. These are now boosted with Quake, Doom and very soon Rage. John Carmack will be technical director and nothing is supposed to change in day to day operations. No sale price has been announced and everything is still on track for release before the purchase.
Ever since the crash and burn of 3D Realms and its never to be seen product Duke Nukem Forever also known as did not finish, there is word another title has cropped up that was in production. Take Two is in court trying to get back 12 million dollars from 3D Realms because they did not finish the game and it has been spilt that Take Two themselves were working on a title called Duke Begins being developed by a third party developer as noted in court documents. It is still all in court battle in a he said she said case with Take Two saying 3D Realms has money in an offshore bank account and that 3D Realms says never got any advances in money to develop and felt being squeezed by Take Two to force them to sell the IP to the Duke series. Duke Begins has had its development suspended and it was due mid 2010.
What do you think and will there be another Duke game released ever?
If you are unsure what the go is, let me explain. Activision's head honcho went and complained about Sony not selling enough of their PS3 consoles and that they might have to drop support for it. Sony has fired back with an interesting news release: "PlayStation has tremendous momentum coming out of E3, and we are seeing positive growth with more than 350 titles slated to hit across all our platforms, including many anticipated games from our publishing partners," said PlayStation spokesman Patrick Seybold, in a... well, strikingly non-scathing statement. "We enjoy healthy business relationships with and greatly value our publishing partners and are working closely with them to deliver the best entertainment experience." Not sure what the next move is, but will publishers join in a chorus for Sony to do something or will Activision be out on a limb.
Do you think Sony is going to lose the war of these generations’ consoles or will they rise above in the three way battle with the Xbox 360 and the Wii?
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