Plagued if you do, damned if you don't!

One of the most amazing things about these fantastic games we play is the storyline. All too often though, as much as players are told they can influence and affect the world around them, they're relegated to the position of audience instead of storyteller.

The Lich King, Arthas himself, brought pain and suffering to the people of Azeroth this last week flinging zombies upon the world to create havoc and chaos. It seems that while some players embraced the opportunity to become part of the event, others found their play times disrupted. However, for every player that was frustrated by the invasion, as many found themselves enjoying Blizzard's creativity.

Players fought the zombies mercilessly, but succumbed to a zombie curse themselves once they found their target slain. While normally factions can not fight each other, the zombie plague allowed anyone zombieified to attack any non-zombie player. This led to griefing, in some instances by higher level players on their own allies.

The frustration, for most players, came from the fact that they were forced to participate, whether they consented to the battles or not. Participation came with sky high repair bills for armor and equipment, after multiple deaths in many cases, adding to the angst and defeat of those who wanted no part.

It has been six weeks since Warhammer launched and we are just over two weeks away from the launch of the Wrath of the Lich King.  Many WoW players set their account off to the side and picked up Warhammer.  Since most people can’t afford the time and money needed to play two MMOs, you may soon be forced to make a decision.  Do you keep playing Warhammer or drop it and pick up Lich King?

Fortunately for you, I am here to help you decide.  I have been playing both games alternately for 6 weeks now.  I have a level 80 in Lich King and a level 21 in Warhammer.  While I obviously didn’t experience everything both games have to offer, I feel I have played both extensively enough to give you a direct comparison.

Ultimately your decision on which game to play will come down to your playing style.  Do you like to do quests?  Do you like raids?  Do you like hard core PVP?  How about dungeon crawls?  I’ll try to break down the comparison via the various types of playing styles so that you can ultimately choose what is best for you.

As we inch ever closer to November 4th, I can't help but listen to the promises those running for office throw out, looking for yet one more supporter. It's not unlike the public relations game that is MMO development. Players are told what we want to hear, but, as in real life, the truth is that implementation is much harder than originally planned and old "features" are buried under new ones.

I'd like to say I've become immune to both politicians and developers, but the truth is, I'm a sucker for hearing what I want. Who isn't?!

Often we become hooked on games during the development stage, hearing all the great things developers have planned. Let's face it, everyone dreams big! Who doesn't want a developer who will reach for the stars? But when you're handed only the moon it's hard not to be disappointed in the delivery, no matter how fabulous it is.

I remember following EverQuest II from the early days of its development. One of their early features was a family experience system. You chose the members of your "house" and then shared experience with them when they were offline.

Type Less, Talk More with Vivox. Risk-Free Communication For Gamers.

It isn’t very often that you see a company gain such a successful lead so quickly in such a competitive space as online games.  Vivox has done just that with their voice chat technology. I was lucky enough to have a first hand look in September at Austin Game Developers Conference. They are touting the clearest and feature-rich quality audio conversation experience one can currently obtain for communication in online games.

As any online gamer knows, it is vital to communicate with your guild mates and those around you in-game as efficiently as possible.  There are typically three options immediately available in any online game.  The first is through body language and basic movements.  The second is the most common, through built-in chat windows that allow you to type in commands and directives that you wish your group to follow.

Both of the first two choices are tedious, lengthy, and often result in errors when your chat history is scrolling like crazy with others around you also trying to communicate.  How does the guild leader or those in command rise above the chaos at hand to actually lead the group into battle?  The third and final possibility is with their voice.  The problem in many previous software solutions has been poor voice clarity, difficult to set up and operate, and a high price point that only a few could afford to purchase.

If you've played an MMO at all, you're familiar with subscription fees. It's the service cost associated with the game. If you've played MMOs for any length of time, you'll be familiar with the expansion features that many MMO companies throw at players, often faster than we can chew through the content. In contrast, one of the biggest pushes in MMO delivery in the last few years is the content update. This occurs when studios update content and features in game without making you pay extra for the content.

When MMOs first came onto the scene we had patches and hot fixes that were more emergency maintenance than updates to content offerings. Now though, few games choose not to recognize what a huge boon to their community content updates are. There are even some studios that offer updates to their games exclusively via complimentary expansions. A game such as CCP's EVE Online has offered their content updates for free to paying subscribers.

"The Grind " - The process of engaging in repetitive and/or non-entertaining gameplay in order to gain access to other features within the game.

The grind, ladies and gentleman, is what MMOs, and most other games are all about.  You may protest, but you'd be wrong. 

If Tetris didn't have a grind from level 1 to level infinity, you'd complete stage one and get the "YOU WIN" screen!  If Mario games didn't grind you from 1-1 to 8-9 you'd get to the end of stage 1-1 and the Princess would fall into your arms, and Bowser would be even more pathetic than his multiple attempts at kidnapping have proven him to be.  If you could participate in whatever your end game happens to be at level 5 you're either playing Ultima Online or Dark Age of Camelot.  Two fantastic examples of how developers got "end game" right, but I won't drag you off into that thought just now.

My point?  As many developers and players have said - grind is all about mentality.  If *you* see killing 100 rats for Captain NPC-tastic and are frustrated when part 2 of the quest sends you off to kill 250, then you're playing the wrong game.  Because there are indeed games out there that present the grind in a different way.  Gamers just enjoy complaining that their particular game isn't the exact way they want it to be.  Developers have learned to ignore it, because without grind, you're playing a damn short game with no point, at a $15 a month subscription model.

From Missy Hatch over at Mythic:

We're taking all servers offline in 15 minutes at 6:45 PM EDT to fix an issue in which players would respawn at the same location where they died. We expect to return no later than 8:30 PM EDT. Please check back here for updates!

In this second installment in our hardware review guide, I am going to talk about the "GPU", otherwise known as the "Graphics Processing Unit".  This isn't so much of a review of a specific product as it is the history and general understanding of which component in your system brings you the graphics that you see on your screen when playing your favorite game, or simply working on a spreadsheet document on your desktop.  To view further information about components inside of your computer, visit our System Performance Guide !:

GPU Designers - ATI, NVIDIA, Matrox, and Intel

The existence of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) began in the 60s, well before modern personal computers came onto the scene. I'll skip a little bit ahead to the current era, which had its roots in the late 80s. During this time dozens of designers developed rival solutions, especially once the personal computer became a standard in the early 90s. Note that there are dozens of manufacturers of video cards, but they simply use existing GPU designs to market slightly different physical products.

Thanks to our resident forum moderator Kaolian for a few additions to the review! Click the "More..." link below for the rest of the guide!

New and Updated Wiki Articles:   Category:Void Storms World Event ; EQ2 Collection Quest Series ; Everfrost Quest Series ; Solusek Ro

New Items: Radiant Knuckles of the Knight ;  Radiant Dagger of the Tempest ;  Radiant Shortsword of Storms ;  Radiant Staff of Devotion ;  Exalted Symbol of Clouds ;  Explorer's Roundshield of the Guardian ;  Explorer's Towershield of the Stoic ;  Radiant Symbol of the Tempest ;  Radiant Helm of Devotion ;  Radiant Helm of the Nimble ;  Radiant Leggings of Devotion ;  Radiant Slippers of Devotion ;  Radiant Band of Clouds ;  Imperial Vambraces of the Soldier ;  Imperial Skullcap of the Gambler ;  Imperial Greaves of Vision ;  Imperial Earring of the Knight ;  Explorer's Tunic of Survival ;  Radiant Mitts of the Nimble ;  Radiant Pantaloons of Devotion ;  Radiant Bow of the Oceans ;  Exalted Knuckles of Prophets ;  Exalted Knuckles of Concentration ;  Exalted Great Staff of Prophets ;  Radiant Vest of Battle ;  Radiant Tunic of the Knight ;  Radiant Tunic of Mirrors ;  Radiant Spaulders of Elements ;  Radiant Shoulder Pads of Storms ;  Explorer's Tunic of Fangs ;  Explorer's Leggings of Grace ;  Explorer's Gauntlets of Battle ;  Explorer's Cowl of Beasts ;  Explorer's Breastplate of the Tempest ;  Explorer's Armguards of the Stoic ;  Exalted Sleeves of Storms ;  Exalted Band of the Soldier ;  Exalted Gauntlets of Concentration ;  Exalted Mitts of Concentration ;  Exalted Sabatons of Devotion ;  Exalted Shoulder Pads of Elements ;  Exalted Amulet of the Gambler

Updated Items: a brittle bone chip ;  Moonstrain Tunic ;  Lunar Thread Pants ;  Crescent Steel Cuirass ;  Crescent Star Tunic ;  Star Stone Idol ;  Lyrech Rivebow ;  Blood Rage Mace ;  Battlehammer of the Liberated ;  Bundle of Iofer ;  Gloves of the Winterwolf ;  Mammoth Tusk Earcuff ;  Frost Mage's Earcuff ;  Armguards of the Winterwarden ;  Ring of the Icegoblin ;  Gem Studded Collar ;  Amulet of the Winter Bandit ;  Icicle Crystal Necklace ;  Mammoth Tusk Longbow ;  Hammer of the Valkyrie Priestess ;  Orb of the Snowrainbow ;  Civean's Altar of Solusek Ro ;  Humble Altar of Solusek Ro ;  Summon Imp of Ro ;  Earring of Darkfaith ;  a broken-tipped javelin ;  Scroll of Friendly Orc Warrior Summoning

New Quests: Thar Be Wolves ;  Widding Us of Webclaw ;  A False Show of Support ;  Vengeance ist Rainscour's! ;  Scouting the Jagged Plains ;  Grolk's Revenge!

Updated Quests: Collars of the Ahroun ;  Dwellers in the Darkness ;  Lord Falish ;  Additional Samples ;  A Necessary Component ;  Recovery ;  Claws in the Darkness ;  Further Culling ;  The Legacy of Seth McMannus ;  The Avatar of Flame ;  Ritual of the Flame's Purification ;  Ro's Vessel ;  Ro's Infernal Device ;  Ro's Flame ;  Lord Gydak ;  Lord Dyana ;  Lord Benfield ;  Lord Byron ;  Zombies ;  Defiled Priest ;  Defiled Sentries ;  Defiled Keeper ;  Defiled Lancer ;  Defiled Squires ;  Defiled Knights ;  Rumble ;  A Pioneer without a Wagon

New Mobs: Rainscour ;  Marathan Allim ;  a human pilgrim

Updated Mobs: Shepherd Bainyn Fairwind ;  Seeress Miritha ;  Ormanthus ;  Moldosk the Bat ;  a Myr'dal savager ;  a Myr'dal ravager ;  a Lykulak shredder ;  a Lykulak gnasher ;  Philip Glaslow ;  an Ahroun blackclaw ;  Lord Falish ;  an Ahroun blackstalker ;  a dire worg ;  Spirit of Ro ;  a laved horror

New and Updated Areas: North Qeynos ;  Veksar

There were many vendors at Fan Faire .  Among them was a new dating service for gamers!  Guest Editorialist Drew Taylor brings us the story.

According to Chris and Bill Forton of Gamer Harmony, a new online dating service available specifically to the role playing/online gaming community, there is...to the sum of 10 million online gamers! The creators of this new revolution in online dating was inspired after an article was posted on a popular website regarding a couple divorcing due to the habits of the World of Warcraft playing husband. This spark of revelation inspired Bill, the founder of the dating site, to construct a website for those of us in the gaming industry to find a partner who can share their love of MMOGs. This is a quality that many gamers relish, and some look for as a criteria in partners to have, offers the chance to find that special someone who is both attractive and sensitive to their passion for games. The dating world is still mostly skeptical of finding true romance online, but in recent months has replaced the bar with the virtual, and this is yet another marriage of the two industries.