World of Warcraft

Blizzard recently previewed the upcoming features that Battle.net will provide. "Fully integrated, user-friendly, and fast, the all-new Battle.net makes it easy to find and play games, opening the world of online gaming to generations of players." The preview was tailored to StarCraft II, however they mention how it will affect all of the current and future games, certainly Diablo III. Key features touched on were an "always-connected experience" that will allow players to chat with friends, unlock achievements, and receive game updates (think Steam); Arena matchmaking that will make more sense than World of Warcraft's system; A social network that will span all games on Battle.net; Support for community-created addons.

Since the inception of World of Warcraft, and MMOs in general, finding a group to run dungeons has been the bane of the majority of players, with the exception of tanks and healers. Although Patch 3.3.0 has been live since early December, only until now have I been able to use it extensively. Despite this I will give a brief explanation of the new system. The major feature is the cross-realm instancing, which works exactly like cross-realm battlegrounds. Players queue up as one or more roles (tank, healer, dps) and should they choose, as the dungeon guide (party leader).

As gamers, we live in an exciting time. The technologies that drive the games we play are advancing at a break-neck pace to the point where we have created entirely new kinds of games in the last few years. One such example is the MMO game. Though many principles of the "genre" have been set since the dawn of online gaming, the rise of publicly available high-speed internet connections has allowed it to flourish into one of the defining examples of modern gaming. But like any new genre, MMOs have a long way to go in defining themselves to the point where the moniker is actually a useful tool. So what can we, as gamers, do to stay for-armed against the trappings of a bad MMO?

Modern Warfare 2 was the biggest launch title spanning over all forms of entertainment. It beat out the last Harry Potter book, 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached",” and even The Dark Knight's sales figures. Big games like Modern Warfare 2 attract scores of players online, and in this melting pot of competitive gaming, players are often berated in every form. This goes over the line occasionally, bordering into hate speech and verbal threats. This is a growing trend in online communities, like Xbox Live, Steam, Playstation Network, and games like World of Warcraft.

update: servers are becoming more or less, available.

Likely to be the last major content patch of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, except perhaps a pre-Cataclysm event patch, 3.3 adds new features and content. Largest on the list are the Icecrown Citadel dungeons, namely the Frozen Throne raid dungeon with the now standard 10/10(Heroic)/25/25(Heroic) versions. Also added are three five man dungeons: The Forge of Souls, Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection, all with heroic mode versions of course.

Major feature additions are cross-realm dungeons, which work exactly like cross-realm battlegrounds, and greatly improved quest tracking. And like all patches there are numerous tweaks, nerfs, buffs, bug fixes and so on.

Earlier today Blizzard announced the World of Warcraft pet store.  At first I thought it would be a really cool idea.  A little shop inside WoW that had pets for me to purchase.  Boy, how wrong I was. I never would have imagined that it would be a section of the Blizzard store that allows you to use real life money to purchase in-game pets.  In-game non-combat pets are pets that follow you around in-game and do nothing. Hit the jump to find out more.

I'm sure you people enjoy your carpel tunnel. October 27th was the opening release day for Torchlight via Steam and if you know what I mean by the carpel tunnel comment, then you'll know what kind of game you're in for. We've got plenty of baddies to slay, tons of special abilities to use, and a massive list of items and scrolls to go through. Read on to find out what Torchlight is about.

I'm aware it's Wednesday, but having to take over others responsibilities when they leave is a tough job and you're not always ready for it.  This time, while I was completely ready for it, things happened at the last minute that stopped me from posting this.  Hold me to it if I'm not on time next week.  Yes, this is the Monday Morning MMO News report done on a Wednesday morning, I hope it's just as informative today as it would've been on Monday.

Today marks an important day on this year's calendar.  That's right, first day of Fall.  But if you're a nerd, I mean like a real WoW nerd, today isn't just the first day of Fall, but patch day!  A cool patch day to as Patch 3.2.2 goes live re-releasing the evil Onyxia as an actual threat yet again to the World of Warcraft community.  Hit the jump to read more.

World of Warcraft faction changes are now live! The fee will be $30.00 USD with a 60-day cooldown. Sadly this service does NOT include a server transfer, yet Blizzard does point out that the restriction for having characters on both factions on PvP servers has been lifted.

There is an extensive FAQ and Translation Table on the World of Warcraft website that details this service.