WoW Catalcysm - Uldum to be new 5 man dungeon

Zarhym has recently posted on the Cataclysm forums that a new 5 man dungeon will soon be announced.

Uldum (pronounced: /uːl'duːm/), also known as the Land of the Titans" is an ancient desert located on the southern coast of Kalimdor, surrounded by the Un'Goro Crater in the north, Tanaris Desert in the east and Silithus in the northwest. It is the homeland of stone-cat people known as Tol'vir and is rich with Titanlore. Somewhere in Uldum is a some sort of superweapon.

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A concept map of the dungeon was shown at Blizzcon 2009 giving a basic layout








Stone cat people, Titan's, Superweapon! Need I say more? Blizzard will hopefully release more details soon.

South Korea Starcraft gamers accused of match rigging

*Breaking News from the BBC website*

Police in South Korea are investigating allegations of match fixing by professional players of sci-fi-themed strategy game StarCraft.

The game, made by World of Warcraft developer Blizzard, is enormously popular in South Korea.

Leagues of professional players compete in televised tournaments and receive coaching and sponsorship.

However, some players and officials are alleged to have accepted bribes from gambling websites to rig the games.

There has been little coverage of the event in the country's mainstream media but the Korea Times website claims that the Korea e-Sports Association filed charges against individual players and coaches in March 2010.

According to the newspaper StarCraft accounts for 70% of so-called "e-sports" activities in South Korea.

A spokesperson from the Korean Embassy in the UK told the BBC that there had been no official statement from the Ministry of Culture but did confirm that an incident had been reported to the police.

Website Gamepron said the news was being compared with the 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team were found to have deliberately lost games

Blizzard Pet store causes protests!

"The Blizzard Pet Store has just been updated with a couple of fun new choices that you can get for your characters. Continuing in the theme of cute, miniaturized bosses, we have Lil' XT, and the CelestialSteed is the first-ever mount to be available through the service." It was anounced yesterday. Opinions are now flying all around Azeroth about the Celestial Steeds flying all
around Northrend.

Much of the talk in the trade chat around the servers, much of the grumbling I saw on othersites and on Facebook, complained about the commercialization of ingame items. 'They're destroying the game for profit,' or 'I can't believe they're just letting people buy their way through the game,' others complain. The heated debate has been raging for hours now, and there's not hint at it stopping any time soon. Maybe it will peter off when the 50,000 person queues in the Blizzard store lessen.

What do I think about the whole shabang?

The playerbase has been paying for additional content /fluff pretty much since video games began. Remember buying that Special/Collectors Edition with the extra gun/armor/map (whatever) or DLC (Downloadable Content) . Ultimately 'what can I get for my extra $10?' is a personal choice.

In today's society people generally strive to be different, stand out from the crowd an individual. Whether this is driven from a basic psychological need or not is up for guys like Dr. Phil to decide :) Driven by the need for bragging rights or individuality, this addition revenue stream is nothing new and will always be a part of gaming. How else is Blizzard supposed to compete with the likes of Farmville!

At the end of the day I have to agree with one quote I saw on a blog "It probably doesn’t matter beyond me just saying “Eh, I think it’s too expensive” and then I move on and forget about this tomorrow."

Personally, I feel sorry for the poor Lil' XT no-one seems to give a hoot about him. Which ever way you feel about this, one thing is for sure: Blizzard must be laughing all the way to the bank with all this ruckus!

What Light through Yonder Window Breaks? Windscape - Interactive Windows

A very clever yet geeky idea for jazzing up your pad. The innovative guys at rationalcraft.com introduce 'Windscape'. Real windows are interactive - unlike a painting on the wall. When you move your head in relation to a window, the view outside shifts up/down/left/right. If you want to see something in the window’s right periphery, you can move your head left to bring it into view.

Winscape features include:

1. • Custom Winscape software with configurable screen parameters
2. • Two HD plasma displays for great contrast and wide viewing angles
3. • Video playback resolution of 1920x1080 with sound
4. • Still-image resolution of 4096x4096
5. • Fully embedded in the wall for aesthetics and silent operation
6. • Tracking of one person in the room for proper perspective presentation
7. • Scheduled on/off
8. • iPhone and web control of sleep/wake/scene selection

"Ok so how much?" I hear you cry. Price-wise, they are targeting $2500 to $3000. Hell if you can pay $25 for a virtual horse then this is a bargain!

They have lots of scenes to choose from or if you are really creative you can make your own (with the right equipment of course). What would I choose? Hmm maybe they can get some scenes of Minas Tirith or Rivendell? Or maybe a trip to the London Dungeon for a more scarey scene. The possibilities are endless.

What scene would you choose?

Life is a game - what's your highest score? Game-Life Intergration

Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon University Professor, takes game-life integration to the extreme, describing a world chock-full of sensors, where you could earn experience points from a toothpaste company for brushing your teeth, or tax deduction points from taking public transport to work instead of driving. Companies and even the government could have a vested financial interest in engaging consumers and citizens through game-like elements.

Prof. Schell, also looks at world of game development which will emerge from the popular "Facebook Games" era. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (which gives out the Oscars of the video game industry) recently awarded FarmVille the title of social game of the year. The game has more than 79 million monthly active users on Facebook, making it the biggest online game in the world. And yet it wasmade in a matter of weeks.

Activision recently made a worrying risk assessment of World of Warcraft, claiming the MMO giant could be toppled - rendered "obsolete" - by the emerging social gaming scene. "We also compete with other forms of interactive entertainment," said Activision in its 10-K annual report, "such as casual games like iPhone applications and other mobile phone games, and games developed for use by consumers on social networking sites.

Games and real life are colliding in unique ways. One professor at Indiana University, Lee Sheldon, replaced the traditional grading system in two of his game design classes with a system that was based on experience points (XP). Students began the program as avatars at level one, which corresponded to zero XP and a grade of 'F'. They gained XP by completing'quests', 'fighting monsters' and 'crafting'-- in other words, giving presentations, sitting quizzes and exams, and handing in projects. Like in most MMO's , the students were grouped into 'guilds' and had to complete quests solo, as guilds, or as 'pick up groups' with members of other guilds. "What they are missing is that we are teaching the gamer, social networking generation," he says. "I have no doubt the students will respond positively to any number of non-game-related lasses taught in a similar manner."

Schell said that in the past, and even today, game makers obsess over creating fantasy, an escape from the real world, a disconnect. But thesedays, value of "realness" is rising. "We live in a bubble of fake bullshit, and we'll do anything to get to what is real" he added, "There's this hunger for reality," citing Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore's book Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. Organic food, reality TV, McDonald's Angus Burger -- they're all billed by their purveyors as more "real" than the average product, and recent game successes feed the consumer's hunger for the real, Schell said. These trend-changers aren't only about psychological trickery. What these products have, from Wii Fit to Mafia Wars to Achievements, is the ability to break through to reality. Wii Fit happens on screen, but it can change your real-world physique. Facebook games let you interact with real-world friends. Achievements give you bragging rights in the real world.

Towards the end of the speech, he envisions the potentials of augmented reality. Schell took this game-life integration to the extreme, from health insurance companies giving extra benefits for walking to work instead of driving by use of a pedometer; to the government giving tax break rewards for reducing your carbon footprint. It could also be a world fraught with "crass commercialism," Schell said. An example of this already in the marketplace is Adidas Originals first Augmented Reality experience in footwear.

You don't believe any of this is possible?

Take a look at this video in which Pranav Mistry from TED is doing amazing things with The Sixth Sense. Mistry's work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world.

Please take your time to watch the video and post your thoughts in the comments.

Bioshock 2 Team resurrects X-Com for PC & XBox

Though the X-Com series is well-regarded for its tactical, turn-based strategy gameplay, 2K Games Australia has decided to go in a completely different direction with the latest entry in the franchise. Developed by 2K Marin, the team behind BioShock 2, the new X-Com will be a first-person shooter.

X-Com, the classic 90's turn-based strategy game pitting mankind against alien invaders, is
set to make a comeback as a first-person shooter, courtesy of the 2K studios behind BioShock 2.

"With BioShock 2, the team at 2K Marin proved themselves as
masters of first-person, suspenseful storytelling, and with XCOM they will re-imagine and expand the rich lore of this revered franchise," 2K president Christoph Hartmann said. "Players will explore the world of XCOM from an immersive new perspective and experience firsthand the fear and tension of this gripping narrative ride."

It's funny, for years, people kept repeating the same rumour, that 2K Boston and Ken Levine would be making a new X-Com game. Don't think anyone expected it to come from 2K's other BioShock studio. Actually, I don't know if anyone honestly expected this at all.

WoW Cataclysm Class Preview / Paladin

MMOChampion have added the Class preview for the Paladin

Cataclysm Class Preview: Paladin