2
Oct

MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News

First CBT Event for RIFT:Storm Legion Strikes October 5

Posted:

First CBT Event for RIFT:Storm Legion Strikes October 5


Trion Worlds today announced its first closed beta event for Storm Legion, the highly anticipated first expansion to, RIFT, will kick off on Friday, October 5, and is slated to conclude on Sunday, October 7. Those who've pre-ordered the expansion are automatically entered into this and all subsequent beta events. The additional events are planned throughout October leading up to the November 13th launch of the expansion.

Marvel Heroes Closed Beta Registration Begins

Posted:

Marvel Heroes Closed Beta Registration Begins


At the first day of the new month, Marvel Heroes has posted its first community blog entry announcing the opening of its closed beta registration, giving potential players a chance to take part in testing Marvel Heroes before the rest of the world gets ahold of it.

Guild Wars 2 Halloween Diorama Contest Preview

Posted:

Guild Wars 2 Halloween Diorama Contest Preview


As the step of Halloween is coming near, ArenaNet team is going to celebrate Halloween with a special arts and craft contest that known as the Guild Wars 2 Halloween Diorama Contest. Do you like chances to win graphics cards and other goodies? That's a perfect chance for Guild Wars 2 fans to have fun in this holiday.

League of Legends Season Two World Championship

Posted:

League of Legends Season Two World Championship


The biggest eSports tournament ever is only weeks away as League of Legends' Season Two nears a close. Top teams from all across the globe will collide in Los Angeles to compete for their share of the $2,000,000 prize pool, the largest in eSports history.With the stakes higher than ever, twelve teams from China, Southeast Asia, Korea, Taiwan, North America, and Europe will meet to battle on the Fields of Justice beginning October 4th through 6th in the World Playoffs.

Dragon's Call II Server 2 to Come

Posted:

Dragon's Call II Server 2 to Come


Ray Media launched Dragon's Call II Open Beta just several days ago, and now we catch the information that Server 2 is already in full preparation in order to be open days later, since the amazing good beginning of Server 1 works remarkably, and exceeds its operation team's expectation, at the very first second, when the server kicks off, players rushed into the game, some even levels up to twenty-five in only hours like the rockets fly!

C9 Slayer PvP Skill Build by Rei

Posted:

C9 Slayer PvP Skill Build by Rei


I am a PvP only player and will not be willing to limit my points for PvP skills to get the extra PvE skills!
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMORPG Reviews

MMORPG Reviews

New video about Gameglobe

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 09:31 AM PDT

Square Enix and Bigpoint have launched the 1st video of Rune Vendler, the game director of Gameglobe. The video shows Rune guiding players through Gameglobe, different levels, and displaying the content that can be created. In the video, Rune highlights that the game allows users to "create their own experiences and toy with making levels [...]

Kha’Zix, the Voidreaver has arrived to League of Legends

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 08:55 AM PDT

League of Legends has released a new champion, Kha'Zix, the Voidreaver. Kha'Zix is a flexible jungle assassin, that excels at surprising enemy champions and quickly dealing massive burst damage. Moreover, his unique evolution gameplay allows him to adapt to different enemy team comps and strategies by customizing his abilities over the course of the match. [...]

Planetside 2 exclusive press tour with the game developers

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 05:08 AM PDT

We were lucky enough to be invited to an in game press tour of Planetside 2 where we were introduced to Maggie Krohn, Game Designer at Sony Online Entertainment and our personal guide for our journey into the world of Auraxis. We were guided from our Skype conference call to hook up into game and [...]

Bigpoint is going to release three of its titles in UK and Ireland

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 04:02 AM PDT

Bigpoint is going to release this fall, three of its titles in the United Kingdom and Ireland the hand of the UK games distributor Contact Sales and its PC games publishing arm Excalibur Publishing. Battlestar Galactica Online, Drakensang Online and Pirate Storm, will be available in UK and Ireland stores for £ 9.99. Each box [...]

Age of Wushu unveils its North American launch date

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:32 AM PDT

Age of Wushu has announced that is going to be released in North America on February 1, 2013. Also, Snail Games will offer players premium access to closed betas as well as exclusive content through select pre-order packages, that brings a full version of the game, unique items, and ensures access to the beta that [...]
Posted by Shri Krishna
1
Oct

General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

After 30 Years, Is It Time to Bid Farewell to CDs?

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 12:35 PM PDT

Compact DiscHistorians have a handful of dates to argue over and ultimately choose as to which represents the birth of the compact disc (CD), but for the sake of this article, we'll go with October 1, 1982.  It was exactly 30 years ago today that Billy Joel's 52nd Street became the first commercially available CD, which not coincidentally launched at the same time as the first commercial CD player, Sony's CDP-101. Over the years, music players and PCs would benefit from the introduction of the CD into the mainstream market, but is it time to move on?

Many already have. Hardly anyone carries around portable CD players anymore, which have long been replaced by digital music/media players. Tablets and smartphones, which also serve as digital repositories for album collections, further distance the average user from physical media. If that's the case, why do they still exists? Like everything else, it comes down to money.

In late 2011, Gartner predicted that consumer spending on physical music (CDs and LPs) would drop from $15 billion in 2010 to $10 billion in 2015. Despite the decline, that's still a log of money, and more than the $7.7 billion Gartner predicted online music would account for in the next three years. At some point, the two will switch places.

"In the past 10 years, CD sales, the largest revenue stream for the industry, have eroded, while the online music revenue share is rapidly increasing," Gartner noted. "Digital downloads and streaming music services — referred to as subscription services — are the clear drivers in the online music industry for the coming years."

Sony CD Player
Released on October 1, 1982, Sony's CDP-101 was the first commercial CD player.

On the PC side, broadband Internet connections and cloud distribution services like Steam are fast replacing optical disc drives (ODDs), a trend that hasn't gone unnoticed by ODD makers. Sony, for instance, recently decided to pull the plug on ODD production and will stop producing drives for PCs next month. Heck, most Ultrabooks don't even ship with an ODD.

Are you still using CDs, either for music or to install applications on your PC? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Daily Deals 10/1/12: 23" HP LED Monitor, 64GB Waterproof Flash Drive, and More

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 12:26 PM PDT

23" HP W2371d monitor

logicbuy

Top Deal:
The top deal today is the HP W2371d 1080p LED-backlit LCD monitor on sale for $150 with free shipping from HP Direct (normally $200). The monitor has an 8,000,000 to 1 dynamic contrast ratio along with a 5ms response time. Furthermore, purchasing two of these monitors will cost $290 as opposed to $300. 

Laptops:
15.6" Dell Inspiron 15R laptop with Core i5 3.1GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 1TB hard drive for $550 with free shipping (normally $801 - use $150 coupon code: 52M3R113NS8KSB).

Desktops:
Gateway FX6860 Gaming Desktop with Core i7 3.4Ghz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 1.5TB hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 6750 for $780 with free shipping (normally $1,000).

Hardware & Peripherals:
64GB Centon DataStick Waterproof USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $40 with $2 shipping (normally $50).

Netgear NeoTV Pro 200S 1080p HD Wireless Media Player for $70 with $2.29 shipping (normally $100).

PC Makers Suck at Marketing and Selling Ultrabooks; IHS iSuppli Slashes Sales Forecast

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 11:55 AM PDT

UltrabooksIt doesn't matter how badly Intel wants its Ultrabook initiative to succeed if the chip maker's hardware partners aren't up to the task. According to IHS iSuppli, they've fallen way short up to this point, and as a result, the market research firm cut its near-term shipment forecasts from 22 million units globally to 10.3 million units. That's a 53 percent downward adjustment, and PC makers have only themselves to blame. How so?

Put simply, high prices and nebulous marketing are holding Ultrabooks back.

"There once was a time when everyone knew the 'Dude you're getting a Dell' slogan. Nowadays no one can remember a tag line for a new PC product, including for any single Ultrabook," said Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS. "So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel Ultrabooks into the mainstream. This is especially a problem amid all the hype surrounding media tablets and smartphones. When combined with other factors, including prohibitively high pricing, this means that Ultrabook sales will not meet expectations in 2012."

Not meeting expecations is one thing, but Ultrabook sales aren't even coming close to previous projections. The same will be true next year, as IHS iSuppli slashed its forecast for 2013 from 61 million Ultrabook shipments to 44 million.

In order to turn things around, IHS iSuppli believes that PC makers have to get a larger number of Ultrabook systems down to around the $600 range. To be fair, prices have been falling in recent months, but there are a large number of models that still sell for around $1,000 and not nearly as many that sell in the $600 to $700 range. Low cost tablets aren't helping Ultrabook sales, either.

Asus Ultrabook

"With the economy languishing, Ultrabook sellers may have trouble finding buyers at the current pricing, especially with fierce competition from new mobile computing gadgets such as the iPhone 5, Kindle Fire HD and forthcoming Microsoft Surface," Stice added.

There's still hope for the form factor. As prices come down, new technologies like Intel's Haswell platform will bump up performance while also reducing power consumption and adding features like Intel Identity Protection Technology.

For more on Ultrabooks, be sure to check out our four-way Ultrabook roundup.

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Ikea Seeks to Enlighten Customers by Selling Only LED Lighting by 2016

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 11:28 AM PDT

IkeaA survey by Wakefield Research reveals that most American consumers are still in the dark about LEDs, so Ikea has made it the company's mission to enlighten them by selling lighting products that are LED-only. The bold initiative is being rolled out over time. Ikea's goal is to switch its full lighting range to 100 percent LEDs by 2016, which means the furniture store will sell only LED bulbs and LED lamps.

"LED is a light revolution. With household electricity bills continuing to rise rapidly and global energy consumption increasing, a small LED bulb can have a very big impact. It uses much less energy than a traditional bulb and brings a lot of home furnishing potential to the home. Building on our belief that everyone should be able to afford to live more sustainably at home, we will make sure our LED prices are the lowest on the market," says Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ikea Group.

The advantage of LED lighting is that it lasts much longer than traditional fluorescent light bulbs and consumes far less energy, especially over the long run. Energy savings comes at the cost of higher up front pricing, though Ikea claims it will sell LED light bulbs at the lowest price on the market, making it a more affordable option for the average consumer.

LED Bulbs

Getting back to the survey, Wakefield Research found that only 27 percent of Americans realize that LED bulbs can last 20 years, and only 34 percent understand that they use less energy.

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Survey: Half of U.S. Adults Own a Smartphone or Tablet, Most Use It for News

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 09:37 AM PDT

iPadWant to know why hardware and software makers are putting so much emphasis into the mobile market? It's because the mobile market is a ginormous freight train that keeps picking up passengers along the way. According to a recent survey by Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) and The Economist Group, 22 percent of all adults living in the U.S. own a tablet, 44 percent own a smartphone, and half of them own either one.

These devices aren't just used for fun and games, either. News consumption remains an important part of what people are using their mobile devices for, which is putting it lightly. Based on the survey, nearly two-thirds of tablet and smartphone owners -- 64 percent and 62 percent, respectively -- use their mobile devices to check news at least weekly, tying statistically with other popular activities, like email and playing games.

"Mobile users, moreover, are not just checking headlines on their devices, although nearly all use the devices for the latest new updates. Many also are reading longer news stories - 73 percent of adults who consume news on their tablet read in-depth articles at least sometimes, including 19 percent who do so daily. Fully 61 percent of smartphone news consumers at least sometimes read longer stories, 11 percent regularly," PEJ says.

Rupert Murdoch and wife Wendi

Mobile and online access is something major news corporations have struggled to fully take advantage of. Many have erected paywalls, which isn't always a popular option among readers who feel they should be able to get their news for free, or at least for less than what some subscription-based outlets charge. Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch once said that "having a free newspaper website is a flawed business model" and predicted the end is nigh for such sites. He's also been very outspoken against news aggregators and once toyed with the idea of removing News Corp. content from search engines.

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Posted by Shri Krishna

MMO and SEO News from Gameforumer.com

MMO and SEO News from Gameforumer.com

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm – Blizzard talk balance issues and banelings

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:21 AM PDT

The StarCraft IIs, they are a-changing. After two years, Blizzard have finally got the competitive balance of their space-set RTS just right. But just as they've massaged the numbers into place, just as they've buffed and nerfed it in the right spots to make the world's premier e-sport, they've decided to smash it all up. [...]
Posted by Shri Krishna

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm – Blizzard talk balance issues and banelings

Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:21 AM PDT

The StarCraft IIs, they are a-changing. After two years, Blizzard have finally got the competitive balance of their space-set RTS just right. But just as they've massaged the numbers into place, just as they've buffed and nerfed it in the right spots to make the world's premier e-sport, they've decided to smash it all up. [...]
Posted by Shri Krishna
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