The Funeral of WoW Gold

A new Developer Diary video for the Knights of the Old Republic massively-multiplayer game has been released to the public, and it’s promises of MMO grandeur are great, indeed, boasting both new in-game footage, and promise of a Bounty Hunter class.
Watching the developer diaries and the press releases for this game tells you one thing: This isn’t going to be your standard MMO. What it unfortunately does not tell you is whether or not you should get your hopes up. The entire project seems to be very story-centric, and the developers mention time and time again how each character will be creating their own saga, with individual class quests and plot-lines to follow, reactive NPCs who convey emotions compellingly, and expansive choices that affect your character throughout the game.
Certainly there’s no developer who has a better track record for success with exactly those goals than Bioware. With a very successful Knights of the Old Republic RPG and the more recent and celebrated Mass Effect (as well as the upcoming and highly anticipated Mass Effect 2), if anyone can pull off the type of in-game immersion, it’s Bioware.
But is that degree of immersion going to be a selling point in an MMORPG?
Many years ago when I was playing Ragnarok Online, I marveled at the online community and the fact that story was an absolutely inexistent factor in the game. They plopped you into the middle of a world and you began to hit things with a stick, until you had hit enough things that you could hit them with a bigger stick. And it continued until you and several friends all went after the biggest thing you could find with all different kinds of sticks and went to town on it.
More recently, the market-dominating World of Warcraft ( Buy wow gold ) has been pushing stories and plots at us, but in a very subtle way. It is as if it hands you a tiny bowl of pudding with some experience and quest rewards at the bottom of the bowl. If you are like many online gamers, you hear the promise of experience and quest rewards and promptly dump the pudding on the ground, and World of Warcraft does not scold you for it.
Even more recently still, Age of Conan, which probably one of the more story-centric MMO’s that I have seen, tried to convince several thousand subscribers that they are the chosen one(s). And many players complained about the dialog trees that had to be navigated prior to receiving a quest, so much so that it had to be addressed by the developers.
I would love to see the KoToR MMO be as story centric as early claims suggest. It would be a wonderful change of pace to be chained to an MMO because of it’s superior storytelling and dynamic scenarios, rather than guild-roles and the inhuman compulsion to grind. I would love even more to see it pulled off well, where players do not feel like they are being force-fed giant wads of story, but instead are being treated to desserts of sub-plot. I have confidence that Bioware will try their hardest in this effort, and that die-hard fans will love it regardless of flaw, but I fear that this may not be the market that truly benefits from storytelling.
It’s early, but it looks like it could be shaping into the type of MMO where it might not matter. No amount of optional story or cheesy cutscenes will detract from a good online gaming experience.
No word yet on when this game will be released.

The online gaming subsidiary of Chinese Web portal Sohu.com filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Tuesday in a possible step toward offering its games in the
U.S.

Changyou.com plans to operate massively multiplayer online games in the U.S. from a base it opened there in January, according to a statement the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The planned listing follows a boom in online games in China that has slowed only slightly in the economic downturn. China’s online gaming market was worth 20.8 billion yuan (US$3 billion) in 2008, an increase of over 50 percent from the year before, according to iResearch, an Internet consulting firm.

Changyou itself has seen explosive growth on the back of its massively popular martial arts game Tian Long Ba Bu, which means “Heavenly Dragon: The Eighth Episode.” The game has launched in Taiwan, Hong Kong and several Southeast Asian countries since it was first released in China in 2007.

Changyou’s revenue rocketed from less than US$10 million in 2006 to over $200 million last year, the company’s filing said.

Online games, a relatively cheap form of entertainment, have outperformed other industries in recent months as rising unemployment leaves players in and outside of China with more free time, analysts say.

Their fastest growth in China has come in the country’s less developed western region as Internet access spreads and telecommunications infrastructure improves, said Guo Chenggang, an analyst at research firm JL McGregor.

But while Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft has been hugely successful in China, cultural differences could pose an obstacle in the U.S. for Changyou’s games, which do not emphasize the detailed quests and dungeon conquering that U.S. players like, said Guo. Chinese games tend to focus on duels between players rather than tasks achieved against game-controlled beasts or characters, he said.

World of Warcraft’s dominance and the small size of the online gaming market in the U.S., where console games and offline PC games are most popular, could also create difficulties for Changyou if it launches its games there, Guo said.

“It might be risky for Sohu,” he said.

Changyou expects its IPO to raise $48 million, which will go toward general expenses including possible acquisitions, its filing said. Sohu will retain a 71 percent stake in Changyou.

No one from Sohu or Changyou was immediately available for comment.

(IDG, the parent company of IDG News Service, is an investor in Sohu.)

NEW YORK (AP) — With banks around the world foundering, the idea of moving your bank account to another planet might have some appeal.

Interstellar banking isn’t here yet, but at least you can pretend. The publisher of the online science-fiction game “Entropia Universe,” set on the planet Calypso, received a banking license from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority last week and plans to open a real bank within a year, albeit one without physical, walk-in branches.

Players of “Entropia” already exchange real money for a virtual currency that is used for their expenses on Calypso. And virtual money they make in the game, through hunting, mining, trading or other activities, can be cashed out into real money. The virtual currency, Project Entropia Dollars, has a fixed 10-to-1 exchange rate to the U.S. dollar.

By setting up a real-world bank, Sweden-based publisher MindArk PE AB gains the protection of the Swedish government’s deposit insurance for these accounts, up to about $60,000 for each customer.

MindArk also plans to offer standard bank services like interest-bearing accounts, direct deposit of paychecks, bill payment and lending, said David Simmonds, the company’s business development director.

The company isn’t clear on what type of lending it will engage in, but Simmonds said it wasn’t planning to make the sort of risky investments that have foiled other banks.

The banking license also means regulators will gain more insight into possible money laundering in the virtual world. Simmonds said the company is already keeping an eye out for such activities.

The economic activity in “Entropia Universe” was worth about $420 million last year, about the same as the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, population 110,000. The game has 850,000 player accounts, though not all of them represent active players.

“Entropia Universe” is unusual in allowing a free conversion between its virtual currency and real money. Most online games, like “World of Warcraft,” prohibit the sale of virtual items and money for real cash.

Market Prices at the auction house are constantly fluctuating, two of the base products of wow gold grinding in the outlands can almost double in value in the space of a few hours. This can leave you kicking yourself if you sold something only for it to appear at twice the price of what you put it on for in an hours time.The auction house isn’t the only way though, sometimes you can sell a large amount of something (10+ stacks) for near the auction house value and without it taking its cut. It is always a good idea before selling anything on the auction house to advertise it in the trade channel for the price even a little more than you where going to put it on the auction house for. You will get a few annoying people offering you ludicrously low amounts, just ignore them and stick to your guns, it will pay when someone wants to buy all you have for more than you were going to sell it for in the first place.
Netherweave Cloth.
This drops nearly everywhere in the outlands, its price varies widely, however on most servers it fluctuates between
4g and 10g, a good time to consider selling this on any server is between 7-8g, it might not be the best price you could get for it, but you wont lose precious wow gold in auction house deposits. The best part is that there is always a high demand for Netherweave Cloth, so can nearly always sell this in the trade channel. To pick up Netherweave Cloth I suggest killing the Trolls in the Warmaul Compound in North West Nagrand, There are plenty of mobs to kill and you generally get 1-3 pieces of netherweave per kill, plus you get some Warmaul Beads, which are excellent for getting your rep up with both Kurenai and the Consortium.
Sunfury Signets & Arcane Tomes
Both these drop very regularly in Shadowmoon Valley, these both go for large amounts in the auction house especially since scryers is currently an overplayed ffaction, so many more people are buying these over the Aldor. You can pick up a lot of these grinding just west of the Scryer town in Shadowmoon Valley, between the two bridges there is a road heading south, there are two paths, one has a huge of the blood elves in groups of three and close together that you need to kill, it may be easier to do this in a group of two or three, however if you are soloing take the path a little further on, up towards Eclipse Point, here the blood elves are spread out, and not in groups, Not only will you pick up silver, netherweave and the two Scryer hand ins for these but you will also notice a high drop rate of greens and even the occasional blue, all these can usually be sold on the auction house or even disenchanted.

Have you ever said to yourself “If I had a level 80 toon, I could own all of these guys in PvP!” Well, now is your chance. Blizzard has been kind enough to grant us with two (2) Arena Tournament passes to give away. Obtaining one of these passes grants you access to a special server where you get to create a premade level 80 character with PvP gear, enter the Arena Tournament, and eventually compete to win $100,000 (and other in-game stuff - a special Armored Baby Murloc pet and “The Vanquisher” title!).

The rules for entry are simple:

You must already own the latest version of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and have an active account in good standing.

You must be ready to play by next Tuesday, March 24th - this includes finding and joining an arena team.

You must be a registered member of The Escapist or the WarCry Network. To sign up, CLICK HERE.

This is a limited-time contest. Entries submitted after 9:00 AM EDT on Friday, March 20th will be disqualified. Winners will be chosen in the morning on Friday the 20th, and contacted at the email associated with their Escapist / WarCry account. If you are one of the winners, you will need to respond to these emails ASAP to accept the prize.

What is a 15 hour session of World of Warcraft without a sugar filled, cavity inducing, and caffeine loaded soft drink?  My days of WoW have come and gone, but I can easily recall the many late nights fueled by my lust for
Alliance blood and that sweet, sweet nectar of life, Mountain Dew.

Blizzard announced today that this summer, you’ll be able to see World of Warcraft characters in a new place — the beverage aisle.

The Mountain Dew Game Fuel will launch in two World of Warcraft inspired flavors, Alliance Blue (wild fruit) and Horde Red (citrus cherry).

I can picture the scene at Store 24, I reach down for the Horde flavor and I am met by a member of the filthy Alliance and in that moment PvP has created an entirely new meaning.

This marketing scheme also begs some very interesting questions; does my in-game loyalty bind me to a particular flavor?  Will I be hated based on the drink I hold?  Will World of Warcraft guilds and raids bleed into the real world?

Blizzard promises more details soon.