Oslo, Norway Terrorist Anders Behring Breivik played Call of Duty, World of Warcraft
According to Anders Behring Breivik’s Facebook profile, now deleted but immortal in an archived PDF form, the Norwegian terrorist was a gamer, playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The terrorist was responsible for killing more than 80 (the number continues to rise) youth camped on the island of Utøya. While his motives are unclear, Anders Behring Breivik tweeted a John Stuart Mill quote, “One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests,” days before the attack, and uploaded a YouTube “manifesto” (see 2083 A European Declaration of Independence.zip if you want to read the plagiarized document) including the following image:
According to his manifest/diary, he viewed “Call of Duty, Modern Warfare” as “a good alternative as well” to marksmanship training:
I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I played MW1 as well but I didn’t really like it as I’m generally more the fantasy RPG kind of person – Dragon Age Origins etc and not so much into first person shooters. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else. I’ve still learned to love it though and especially the multiplayer part is amazing. You can more or less completely simulate actual operations.
While the link between violent video-games and real-life violence is subject to much debate, the use of ultra-realistic games as effective simulator trainers, either for flying airplanes, carrying out military missions, or learning other skills, is indisputably an issue. In today’s world, when one can lookup how to make bombs online and practice shooting in Call of Duty, anyone could become a one-man-terrorist.
Kotaku has more commentary on the role of Video Games in this act of terrorism . For more general information, see At Least 80 Dead in Norway Shooting from the New York Times and Follow Up of the Day: Norway Attacks Suspect Identified.
Update: Slashdot has published The Oslo Massacre and Violent Video Games: the Facts, decrying “media hysteria” about the role of videogames in committing this act of terrorism.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 “Map Packs” Sell Over 20 Million
Although it was speculated that the Modern Warfare® 2:
Stimulus Package, which cost 1200 Microsoft xBox live gamer points (~$15), would fail due its premium pricing (also known as high cost), a press release delivered today from Activision assures us that this and other DLC packs for the Call of Duty series have been a massive success, selling more than 20 million units in total.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug 02, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced that during the quarter ended June 30, 2010, life-to-date map packs for the Call of Duty(R) franchise surpassed 20 million units. Call of Duty remains the #1 best-selling first-person action franchise in the U.S. and Europe, according to The NPD Group, Charttrack and GfK, and has consistently raised the bar for the video game industry with its innovative and engaging online multiplayer experiences and downloadable content offerings. The most recent map pack for the franchise, the Call of Duty(R): Modern Warfare(R) 2 Resurgence Pack, was released on June 3 for the Xbox LIVE(R) online entertainment network and on July 6 and 7 for the PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system and Windows(R) PC
That’s $300M of revenue from a few tiny pieces of downloadable content for a popular game. To me, that proves that DLC-premium-added videogames have a working business. As long as your game is popular enough, you will be able to aggressively release and price DLC.
What do you get for your $15? Microsoft describes the “Stimulus Package” DLC as:
The best-selling Xbox 360 game of all-time just got bigger, with more epic multiplayer content, first on Xbox LIVE! The Stimulus Package delivers 5 additional action-packed multiplayer maps featuring a variety of locations: “Bailout,” a multi-level apartment complex; “Storm,” an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; “Salvage,” a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars. Two legendary fan-favorites from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare return, including “Crash,” a war-torn urban environment; and “Overgrown,” which features a massive dry creek bed.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author had an investment interest in Activision-Blizzard common stock.
Battle.net Platform Rivals Steam
Battle.net has launched an electronic games distribution system to rival competitor Valve’s Steam platform. If you head over to Battle.net and sign up for an account, you’ll find a gorgeous online registry for storing your games and serial numbers:
If you click on one of your games, you are presented with the CD key and download options to download the game for Windows or the Mac:
Currently, the Battle.net game management platform supports World of Warcraft accounts and StarCraft, StarCraft Battle Chest, StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warcraft Battle Chest, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and the Diablo II Battle Chest.
I don’t see a way to purchase games directly from Blizzard, but it’s obvious next step. Once you can buy Blizzard games online at the Blizzard Store and have them automatically populated into your Battle.net account for download, I’ll be happy. For now, Battle.net provides a nice backup system in case you lose or damage the game discs. No more mailing for replacements!
Diablo 3 announced by Blizzard
Wow, you need to head right over to Blizzard’s new Diablo 3 page right now, where they’ve announced the next version of the famous RPG Diablo, and new classes, the Witch Doctor and Barbarian! There’s a new trailer, which is also pretty interesting. Check it out:
From the writings of Abd al-Hazir
Most believe the fearsome witch doctor of the umbaru race a legend, but I have seen one in battle with my own eyes. And it was difficult to believe, even then. He dispatched his opponent with terrifying precision, assaulting his victim’s mind and body with elixirs and powders that evoked fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits. As if these assaults were not enough, the witch doctor also had at his command the ability to summon undead creatures from the netherworld to rend the flesh from his enemy’s body.”
In my journey to catalogue the various denizens, civilizations, and fauna of our world, I have traveled far and wide, but never before have I been struck with such dismay as when standing upon the ramparts of the ancient fortress of Bastion’s Keep. I came to see firsthand the barbarians, those near-legendary, immense, relentless, dual-wielding furies of combat dwelling upon their sacred Mount Arreat.
DotA Allstars v6.52 released!
Last night, Icefrog made public his latest version of DotA Allstars, and there are a LOT of changes in this update. For instance, ownership of items is now tracked so when you steal an item from your team it is “muted,” unless of course the person has left the game. All hotkeys can now be remapped, and recipes can now be bought with a full inventory!
You can download DotA 6.52 (not AI) here. Check out the monstrous change-log as follows:
6.52 Changelog
===============
* Rewrote all item code and systems. It now supports things like properly tracking item ownerships, fusing recipes with a full inventory as well as fixing a lot of older miscellaneous bugs and usability issues, and setting groundwork for other things in the future
* Fixed all CustomKey problems. All hotkeys in the game can now be properly remapped to any other hotkey
* Map strings are now properly allocated to allow players with different language versions to play with each other without having to download multiple maps themselves. This means, for example, that you can play or watch games with your English version of the map with someone using a Chinese, Korean or Russian translated version of the map without any problems. The maps for the other languages will be posted on getdota.com alongside the English version for each release
* Lowered side angles on Bristleback
* Agility Morph and Strength Morph can now be clicked on directly for one-time use
* Morph interval is smoother when it levels (same overall rate though)
* Improved Elder Form attack animation
* Improved cooldown progression on Soul Rip
* Rewrote Timewalk to keep constant speed (so its not slow motion when you click nearby)
* Dark Rift can now be cast by targeting minimap
* Increased AutoQuills release requirement on Bristleback from 200 to 300
* Improved cooldown progression on Primal Split
* Improved initial AI on Dopplewalk image to make it less obvious when it’s created
* Sonic Wave cooldown no longer improves per level in non-scepter form
* Reduced Reverse Polarity AOE a little
* Reduced Dragon Knight’s Breathe Fire manacost
* Undid a portion of the cooldown buff done on Elder Dragon Form last version
* Increased Huskar’s attack range from 350 to 400
* Lowered Puck’s attack range from 600 to 550
* Increased level 2 and 3 Purge’s damage to summoned unit
* Lowered Faceless Void’s strength gain
* Improved Faceless Void’s cast animation time
* Increased level 3 Insatiable Hunger cooldown
* Lowered Sand King’s base armor
* Improved cooldown progression on Spirit Bear
* Lowered movement speed on Beastmaster’s Hawk
* Increased Abaddon’s movement speed slightly
* Scream of Pain manacost is now constant on all levels
* Increased Primal Roar cooldown by 10 seconds
* Lowered Living Dead bounty and increased their magic resistance
* Decreased Timelapse cooldown
* Increased Immolation damage on level 3 Primal Split’s Fire panda
* Lowered Sven’s agility gain
* Improved Huskar’s attack animation time slightly
* Scaled the movement bonus on Chemical Rage (lower at level 1, level 3 remains the same)
* Lowered Scepter upgraded Doom’s cooldown
* Increased cast range on Drunken Haze
* Changed Fatal Bonds from damage to HP loss (numbers adjusted to keep it at the same effectiveness)
* Lowered Medusa’s attack animation time
* Lowered Will O’ manacost
* Undid manacost change on Level 1 Reaper’s Scythe
* Slightly reduced Rikimaru’s cast animation time
* Scattershot gives vision on the area it is cast on
* Flesh Heap now works with denies
* Lowered cast range on Neutral Dark Troll’s Ensnare
* Increased cooldown on Neutral Dark Troll’s Raise Dead
* Items now have muted form when carried by non-owner (aside from a few exceptions like regeneration and leaver items). -pm can be used if you want to allow pooling in your games
* Improved basic item’s descriptions layout and presentation (133979)
* Flying Courier cannot carry Observer Wards from enemy base
* Lowered transmute bounty on previously untransmutable creeps (lvl 6)
* Change Sange and Yasha recipe costs and bonuses it gives as well as fixing some minor inaccuracies with it
* Flying Courier can no longer carry Aegis
* Added Blades of Attack to the Goblin Shop
* Increased the Fountain’s bottle autofilling range
* Increased Diffusal Blade’s agility bonus by 5 (carries through to Manta Style)
* Lowered Black King Bar duration slightly
* Increased HP loss rate when Armlet is activated
* Improved Lina’s projectile and visuals (170933)
* Added allied only overhead cast effect for Assassinate (203083)
* Listed maximum targets for Wrath of Nature in the tooltip (212395)
* Added special effect when Berserker’s Blood is stacked at a high level (176376)
* Added special overhead allied-only text to show duration while channeling Unstable Concoction (196859)
* Added a sound effect when Culling Blade kills a hero
* Added new Power Treads icons for the agility and intelligence versions (207886)
* Added an allied-vision only visual effect for Weave (139374)
* Lowered volume on creep horn sound
* Improved Dragon’s Tail’s visual effect (192582)
* Added a new visual effect for Soul Assumption
* Improved King Leoric’s visual effects (180737)
* Changed Mana Void visual effects (211058)
* Removed status buff icon for Hunter in the Night when it isn’t affecting him
* Puck and Clinkz now have a chance to get an alternate “fun name” like Ursa
* Fixed a fatal error problem when upgrading Flying Courier after reloading from saved game
* Fixed some overhead text effects that would show through fog of war
* Fixed a bug when either of Rot, Sand Storm or Storm Seeker are in the same area
* Rewrote Juxtapose and Dopplewalk image creation to fix a rare minor bug
* Fixed a minor bug with moving Lothar’s Edge while not in cooldown
* Fixed an exploit with Lanaya
* Fixed Phantom Edge to properly stack with Magic Resistance like the others
* Fixed a bug with Primal Roar that could occur when used on blinkers
* Fixed a control loss issue in recent versions with Sand King when Burrowstriking
* Rewrote Reverse Polarity to fix some rare issues with it stunning but not pulling
* Fixed some minor bugs with Assassinate
* Fixed World Tree and Frozen Throne towers not sharing bounty with allies
* Fixed Sand Storm not affecting sleeping neutrals properly
* Fixed the interruption requirement to leveling up Storm Seeker
* Fixed a minor bug with the damage of Invoker’s Tornado not syncing accurately with the cyclone effect
* Fixed a minor bug with Dagger and Aegis creating blank dummy items in base
* Fixed Centaur’s Return from triggering off on ally attack order
* Fixed a rare issue with not properly creating Haunt images (DonTomaso)
* XL Mode changed to have 4 hero removals per side instead of 3
* Minimap now does a special ping to allied players when a unit uses Scroll of Teleportation or Boots of Travel
* Improved Scroll of Teleportation code to armor enhance the building you are teleporting to when you click in the area instead of only when directly clicking on the target
* Various other map performance optimizations
* Added lots of music modes. You must have music enabled to use these. Use ‘-music xxx’ where xxx is one of the following added options: off, random, nightelf1, nightelf2, nightelf3, human1, human2, human3, orc1, orc2, orc3, undead1, undead2, undead3, other1, other2, other3, other4, other5
* Added a new mode -poolingmode(-pm) to allow pooling
* -lvlup now allows a number after it to level up faster in test games
* Reduced delay on End Game scoreboard for Sentinel victory
* -roll without specified number now does it out of 100
* Added command -list for use in -sd to show the pick options again
* Changed follow allied unit range to move closer to the target
* Restored and fixed previous issues with -unstuck
* Added a time delayed warning message when the game is in -test mode (some people have been abusing private chat to activate it before using -ah to clear the screen in order to use test commands to cheat without anyone knowing)
* Added commands -rollon and -rolloff incase people spam with roll. Default is on
* Added single player commands -killall/-killsent/-killscourge (169041)
* Added a new mode -observerinfo(-oi) to display extra information for game broadcasters/observers when you hover over player heroes
* Initial creep waves in -ap now spawn 30 seconds later
* Added single player test command -time xx to set the time of day
* Improved the text display on courier death
* Added a new single player or -test mode subcommand (-noherolimit) that lets you get multiple heroes, primarily for video editors that have been requesting it
* New Invoker story from the contest (Ike_Ike)
