Video Games

World of Warcraft Monopolizes MMOG Market

Posted in Blizzard, MMOG, MMORPG, MOG, Online, PC Games, WoW by ubersoldat on June 1st, 2006.

MMOG Chart has released updated figures concerning the state of the MMOG market, that is, a comparitive ratio of the number of subscribers of many MMOG to the whole MMOG market. It turns out, to little surprise that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) dominates the free market. But the extent to which WoW has possession of the market is quite startling. Holding 50.6% of all MMOG subscribers (indicated blue in the above graphic), WoW has an overbearing, exclusive grip on the market.

DotA 6.31 Map Released!

Posted in Blizzard, MOG, PC Games, Warcraft III by ubersoldat on April 20th, 2006.

Yet another DotA (Defense of the Ancients) map has been released! This time, it’s version 6.31, which claims to fix a lot of things. You can download it HERE. The change-log is as follows:

6.31 Changelog:
===============

* Morphling remake.
* Recoded Grow to not refresh cooldowns.
* Improved the top left Scourge terrain to make things a bit more fair for the Scourge side.
* Mac disconnect bug fixed (as far as i can tell from my limited mac testers).
* New Trigger prevents Furion or Ignis from teleporting into the base if no allied creeps are there.
* Leavers’ gold is now properly distributed throughout the game as they gain gold.

* Smokescreen duration decreased from 7 seconds to 6 seconds.
* Paralyzing casks now deals damage to creeps.
* Headshot doesn’t work on allied units.
* Reduced the Dual Breath’s range to match the animation, mana cost increased.
* Witchdoctor’s attack animation improved.
* Bounty Hunter wind walk damage and mana cost improved.
* Mask of Madness recipe cost reduced by 50 gold.
* Tossed unit takes less damage now, but damage improves with Grow when it is an enemy (thanks Mare05).
* Arcane Orb’s damage type is now magical (a nerf).
* Eul’s Cyclone duration from 5 to 4 seconds.
* Last word AOE from 500/600/700/800 to a constant 700.
* Scepter can now be made by anyone, but only improves the ultimates of the ones listed.
* Assassinate level 3 cooldown from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.
* Split Earth casting range increased from 525 to 650.
* Viper’s Poison Attack manacost reduced from 30 to 20.
* Necro’lic’s Level 3 Revenants are now spell immune.
* Leviathan’s Ravage from 250/350/500 to 200/300/400 damage and duration buffed from 1/1/1 to 1.4/1.8/2.2 seconds.
* Slithereen Crush area increased by 50.
* Nightstalker’s Base Attack Cooldown improved to 1.7 like most other heroes. Small armor boost as well.
* Greater Hawk’s Truesight is removed, but it gains Permanent Invisibility.
* Hand of God’s cooldown from 70 to 120 seconds. Manacost from 150/200/250 to 200/300/400.
* Aegis is now undroppable (this is probably temporary while a chargeless version is thought out)

* Fixed a rare bear item drop bug.
* Fixed a minor bug with Wild Axes that causes Rexxar to become slowed if they hit a unit with Frost Armor.
* Fixed a bug that allowed you to get two heroes by repicking during astral imprisonment
* Fixed a -sc pathing issue
* Fixed a minor bug with obs mode.
* Fixed a Spirit Breaker bug with charge of Darkness movespeed in -dm.
* Diabolic Edict no longer causes its caster to take return damage or get slowed from Frost Armor.
* Fixed a Timewalk error when trying to timewalk into Blackhole.
* Fixed various range neutral creep camp abuses.
* Fixed a bug with Lothar’s Edge that did “50!” text after breaking Windwalk.
* Fixed an observer mode bug, the old missle through fog vision.
* Fixed a bug with Astral Imprisonment where the int drain doesn’t get restored if the unit is dead 60 seconds after cast.
* Fixed a minor Haunt target buff bug.
* Fixed a bug with a fast “swaphero and repick” combination that allowed you to have two heroes.
* Fixed the damage area on Sanity’s Eclipse. It was a constant 325, unlike the effect and tooltip aoe.
* Divine Rapier recipe now costs 2 lumber instead of just 1.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Screens

Posted in MMORPG, Online, PC Games by Elliott Back on January 18th, 2006.

NWN II Screenshot

Check out www.pro-g.co.uk/media/screens/1536/0/ for more Neverwinter Nights 2 screenshots!

The Connection Has Been Lost

Posted in MMORPG, Online, PC Games by Elliott Back on January 7th, 2006.

iFElse has the sad last moments of Asheron’s Call 2 online, summarized by a loss of connection to the server. The game warned players, “this world will be shutting down in 2 minutes. Please log out” before they pulled the plug. On their website, they write:

Empyrean magic has once again fled this world. The battle for Dereth continues on a different plane now. As his final act in this realm, Asheron sealed every portal to contain the expanding horde and protect what is left of the races who called Dereth home.

As of December 30, 2005 the AC2 service is no longer available. Turbine and the AC2 development team would like to express our thanks to the many players who’ve been part of Asheron’s Call 2 over the years. We hope you’ve had as much fun playing the game as we did creating it for you.

It’s never easy to say goodbye to a place you’ve called home, but we hope to see all of you in Turbine’s other worlds.

World of Warcraft Coke Commercial

Posted in Blizzard, Collaboration, MMORPG, Online, PC Games, Television, WoW by Elliott Back on December 26th, 2005.

Coca Cola teamed up with Blizzard to theme a World of Warcraft coke commerical in China with singers S.H.E., also known as Selina Ren, Hebe Tien, and Ella Chen. Here’s a pictoral transcription of the commercial:

WoW Coke Commercial 01