Weekend links

Leipzig has been cancelled (the games convention, not the city), wonder if Cologne will take its place. I read it here first.

Pester Flimgoblin, starting his blogging career at War of Alts. He found us at Games Day!

Pwnsan has put up a ton of unlock guides, for how to get those nifty pocket items. Nice work… I’ll have to decide what I want and go for it.

Word of Shadow talks about the idea of a joint account. It’s not 100% new to the table, but I think it’s an awesome idea and that companies really need to work on some of their subscription models. Why not have joint accounts? Then my husband might be tempted to play MMOs again for lesser expense.

Wide Eyed Newb makes an important point. If you enjoy a blog post, comment on it. It really perks us up if we get comments, and that goes for all bloggers!

Over at Player vs Developer, you can join in a discussion about whether the free content coming to WAR is really an expansion. I agree that it really isn’t, it’s just extra content, a la many other MMOs. Common Sense Gamer also quite sensibly points out that the two MDPS classes were taken out of the game to get it released in time, adding them back doesn’t really count as adding new conent, but in restoring it. I’d like to add LotRO to the games discussed as a game that has had frequent content added but in knowing what an expansion really is with Mines of Moria! That’s not to say I’m not looking forward to the Land of the Dead and Slayers though.

The sky is falling! No, Mark Jacobs announces official forums. And there’s a CS grab bag, and there’s some news on 1.1.1

/random has alerted me to the coolest Valentine’s cards, via geekadelphia and Hawty McBloggy.

Oh, and go watch the Bloodbowl trailers!

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Links labours lost

The Economist reckons that Google’s Lively was a flop. I know I haven’t been back to it after the first excitement of playing with virtual lava lamps, there are easier ways to chat. Bruce Everiss also comments on this and discusses other ways Google could extend its business model.

The sixth guild highlights is now up on the GOA site and discusses keep taking, it also highlights the Humberton Blackguard, another guild we know of from our Dark Age of Camelot time.

It may not have escaped your notice this week that there’s some small controversy about Mythic not crediting developers that no longer work for them. The complaint was made anonymously by an ex-Mythic developer that had put in some work on Warhammer Online. The International Games Developers Association call this ‘disrespectful’. Mark Jacobs spoke to MTV Multiplayer and had the following to say:

If you really think that we’re doing something wrong, at least have the balls to stand up and go ‘Hi, my name is so-and-so…[Leaving the person out of the credits] could be a mistake. I’m not saying it’s not happening. I just don’t know who the heck this person is. So come out, stop hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and the legal shield of ‘I’m going to sue EA.’

Scott over at the Broken Toys blog adds that it’s not him. Apparently he’s been asked a lot!

Kotaku points out some of the vagaries of multi-million dollar AI systems. If you happen to be shopping in a Target (US store) and you wanted to buy World of Warcraft but find they’ve sold out, you’ll apparently be pointed to Paws & Claws Pet Vet as an alternative!

Did you miss the Spore links? We did, here’s some more news about it. Spore is out for the iPod.

New iPhone comes loaded with pictures of the girl who made it. Who knew that working on a factory line could be such fun?

Blogger xntrek writes an open letter to Mythic from Gamenesty International about the end of the closed beta.

Dev blogs – Justin Webb has posted a bunch of vids from Leipzig on his blog. Go watch them; WAR tattoos, Leipzig ladies, T-shirt delivery (did I mention I love free T-shirts!?) and Warhammer Online winning the Best Online Game title. Iain C also posts about Leipzig and mentions T -shirts all too teasingly – check out his pics from the event – they’re really good. And Josh says something about PAX, something about it being the last time WAR gets shown off before the launch.. hrrm, forgetting Games Day UK, obviously but I’ll forgive him. Oh look, Jeff Hickman said the same at the start of his exclusive PAX blogs for Ten Ton Hammer. As if it’s not bad enough that the CE headstart starts during Games Day UK!

Massively also have been talking to Mythic at PAX about the content of the next patch with lots of new features for the open beta (auction houses, graphical improvements, pathing fixes etc). They’re planning to breadcrumb their interview over several articles as per usual so keep checking back.

Mark Jacobs stops by Warhammer Alliance to give an update on the work they’re doing post-preview weekend.

Steve Jobs is still alive (cue song) despite Bloomberg publishing his obituary. Oops.

And finally, a last minute welcome to Warhammer Tank, a blog devoted to.. well, you guess!

Sir Links-a-lot

Leipzig Links

The Games Convention blog gets to GOA. It’s in German, I haven’t asked my husband to translate yet.. but I currently am in love with the line:

Wir haben es getan. “WAAAAAAAAGH!!!!” Es soll dann auch T-Shirts geben. Jippie!.

(Note to all GOA/Mythic types going to Games Day – we love T-shirts – arbitrary ;p)

Here’s a cool video from Leipzig about living cities, showing a Bright WIzard running around Altdorf. Oh, and Josh Drescher gives a commentary!

If you’re going to dress up, pick a cool class to dress up as. Here’s a good example from Leipzig.

What’s the future for Warhammer Online after September 2008? Paul speaks at Leipzig and says there’s a 3-year plan currently in place.

Sterntaler (one of the german CMs) posts some video of the GOA/Warhammer stand in Liepzig. (He mentions T-Shirts and free stuff prominently, which I know Arbitrary will find intriguing!)

Sausage and Sauerkraut – lunch is good at the Games Convention it seems. Lunch is important. More photos from Leipzig can be seen here (incl. Age of Conan booth babes – because I’m good to you – arbitrary).

Player vs Developer compares the WAR trailer to the WoW one, both released at Liepzig. Rock, Paper, Shotgun also mentions them in the same breath, but gets to use the word ‘phwoarhammer’ – we’re depressed we didn’t think to use that one, so credit where it’s due. Is it just us though, or was that a handful of Order chars taking on an entire Destruction army. Nerf!!

And, of course, Warhammer Online wins Best Online Game of the show.

General Links

Neurotic women are more likely to blog. No comment. Actually, that reminds me, there’s a new livejournal community for WAR-ladies.

Gnomeo and Juliet. No comment. Actually, sounds awesome ;p

Ablegamer takes a look at Warhammer Online from a different perspective – what does it have to cater for the disabled player.

This is my current favourite review of Warhammer Online – it covers a lot of ground, while not being too in-depth, and it sounds like a group of friends honestly discussing the game. This I like.

We loved the gamespy pre-NDA impressions of WAR, here’s their actual beta review.

MMORPG.com has an interview from GenCon Indy with Robert Mull, Community Relations Director for Mythic. There’s a short intro here, and then a longer video.

Useful tools for Warhammer Online. WarDb (basically Thottbot for Warhammer Online) if you want all the info/spoilers broken down, and the combat parser (though if I am going to use that kind of thing I’d rather have one on my desktop than have to go through a website).

This is Massively’s collection of videos showing the /special emotes for each race. They’re what WAR has instead of /dance to give you something amusing to do while you’re waiting for people to run back from the graveyard.

Olympic Link: Matt Slater (a BBC commentator) claims that Beach Volleyball is a great sport in its own right, and he doesn’t just watch it for the girls in bikinis — he may be the only one 😛

Ok, this may be down right now but it’s supposed to be back online today so I’ll link it anyway. Tiny Adventures is a D&D Facebook app – it lets you create a char, equip them and set them off on an adventure. Sounds fun to me!

And now.. the newsletter

With thanks to one of our readers, cb, who forwarded me hers to read!

• The newsletter starts with the news about release date and pricing
• As of 28th August, European players will be able to pre-order the regular/standard edition of Warhammer Online and receive headstart and in-game bonuses
• Almost all of the European CEs have been reserved, but there are still some left
• The second WAR trailer is due out on 19th August and will be shown on MTV and Game One after 5pm. After the debut it’ll be available on the European WAR website as well as at the Games Convention in Leipzig. ps. it’s over 5 mins long!
• The Leipzig Games Convention is on 21st August and the WAR stand has 360m2 of space devoted to it. Iain C, Jeff Hickman, Paul Barnett and Mark Jacobs will be there, offering prizes for puzzles and challenges.
• Mythic is returning to its name of Mythic Entertainment
• Links to E3 coverage
• Intro to Gunbad (dungeon in Badlands) with three wings, each with three PQs, as well as instanced wing bosses, as well as a big boss once you’ve completed all three wings
• Guild beta opening and what’s being tested (all pairings through tier 2, mounts, etc)
• Little overview of Rune Priest and Squig Herder (yay!)
• Screenshots of some named NPCs and some more generic ones (ie. bankers)
• Grab bag on the Magus
• Screenshots, beta journal, podcasts, and Paul’s video phone blog as detailed below

Because it was forwarded I didn’t get to see the pics included. But that’s a quick summary for now!