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Because Leveling is so 90's. Teamline5.com

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I feel that the future MMO should walk a different path from the traditional route especially in means of leveling. Some, if not most people see leveling as an essential part of any MMORPG. And who am I to argue? I sincerely believe that as well. But I have a different view on leveling. Now, by no means am I a game designer or do I have any real knowledge or experience of designing a game. So I may sound like one of those "I-know-everything-about-politics-x/y/z-for-president" blogs. I realize that and yeah, I'm going to take that risk and just share my 2c. Note: Images have very little to do with content, I just did not want to deliver a wall of text for our readers. The images are a comic relief to entirely too serious post, hope nobody minds.I am going to strictly speak in terms of my own experience of gaming since I cannot assume and speak for other people. And I am also going to use two very influential game in our age as my subjects for comparison and contrast. One of which is World of Warcraft and the other being the Sims series. Now, I can sit here and boringly list everything they did right and wrong, but that would be ridiculous and frankly, that is not the point of this entry. As mentioned before, leveling is one of the most important element to an MMORPG. So I will focus on that of these two games; leveling. While the genres of these two games may differ, I think they handle leveling quite similarly and both very effectively. But wait, Sims doesn't really have leveling. Yeah, that's where I am getting at. Some of you would have already realized, the key word here is character development which is something beyond just couple of digits that states your current level.For anyone who's played WoW as long as me would know that by the time you hit max level, it means very little. In fact, levels mean nothing at all for an arena enthusiasts because everyone else is max level. So it just becomes this obsolete element that holds very little meaning anymore. But even at max level, there are still leveling going on. Professions, gears, faction reputation to grind and everything else becomes part of the "new leveling" to push the character development further. One of the most brilliant player I knew told me that it made no sense how you have to level your guy, and level him again once you hit max level. This statement holds a key insight to the problem. Anyone who's ever thought about raising an alt and then abandoning that idea would know; time. Games like WoW, or any MMORPG for that matter always moves forward at a rapid pace. Your character is practically never optimized which means your main character is never optimized ever. But you try. So when you realize that you still have a lot to work on your character and you think of raising an alt, it's not a pleasant thought. I mean, you would like to try different things, but think about all the time you must invest not only to level it, but gear it as well in equipments that is up to date with current flow of the game. That is a lot of work just to make sure that the damn character is viable for current content.Yeah, I'd fight him.Let's go back to the origin of leveling. I remember when I was little, the way I would differentiate an RPG and a non-RPG game would be the leveling factor. It was that simple to me. In an RPG, you would level and your guy would learn cool new moves. In other genres, you did not. The first generation of MMORPG like Ultima Online, Lineage and Everquest kept true to this format. Leveling was just so essential. In fact, due to the lack of content, leveling and gear was just about everything these games had to offer back then. But here we enter an age where the gamer culture is more mature than ever before. We are also now much more busier in 2010 than the year before, and the year before that. All I am suggesting is another form of leveling which is delivered through character development which seems similar, but significantly different.You see, leveling in its current format is something that is forced by the game. There's really no gun to your head saying you must level, but you can't enjoy let alone experience the content altogether otherwise. Leveling is mandatory of any MMORPG to date and really, as a player, there's no escape from it. Let's pause here for a second and think why is leveling so important to an RPG. What is the point? Why do we need it? Yes, it unlocks cool abilities and more stats and it progresses your character yada yada. Some would even say that by leveling, you can learn your class/character. But aren't you always learning? When you enter an instance after max level, and you discover something while tanking, healing, DPSing. Do you not learn something there as well? Learning is just part of everything, leveling gives you an opportunity to learn because it forces you to play but that is not the primary focus behind leveling. WoW: Low level players anticipating to strike the impossible; Hogger.Then what is the point? Is it not to create a connection? A sense of attachment. A sense of value to one's character. It keeps the player coming back and feel more personally related to the character. Is it any more than that? And if that is true, are there alternative ways for an MMORPG to address this? Of course there is and that is through non-linear type of leveling; is something vastly different than leveling. The idea is that of Sims and WoW after max level. First off, with this design, all content is available to players and the world is for you to discover. You can fish, you can tailor, you can cook, you can do quests for titles, pets, you can do anything you want to in order to enhance and enrich your experience of the game. I feel that this way, the game is much more dynamic and interesting than the boring linear format of leveling. And would you not say this would accomplish the same as what leveling does, creating a connection?I always envied players who would compete in a fishing derby, find all sorts of rare cooking recipes and just...be so in to the game. They seemed to get full 15 dollars a month value out of the game than I could ever accomplish. And those guys, really enjoyed the game and had a great connection to their character. It was something of a value to them. Try ridiculing their in-game activities and/or their character at all and they would get defensive. I mean how dare you? They spend time and effort on their character. This is their children, their other self, their esteem. I think this is best explored in Sims because for those who love Sims, man they love Sims, they can play that for hours. And they are so into it. The engagement level is incredible.Typical Sims Cover ArtNow, for players like me (the less interested in character relation) benefit from this format as well. I often wanted to try out many other classes in WoW but the thought of leveling it and gearing it always really turned it off for me. This was actually a really big issue to me because I like trying different stuff. I'm sure I'm not alone in this because there were many players who wanted PvP Tournament server to be active throughout the year. This is why I like DotA so much because I have the choice, the power to play any of ninety-seven heroes. For the same reason, I liked Fury because I can just go and try things out with very little limitations.WAR: Dwarven Rune Priest and Chaos Chosen (man, leveling in this game sucked)In the end, I feel that the future MMORPG should find an alternative way of leveling to keep the players more engaged in the game. I think with this character development format we can see satisfaction from many groups of gamers out there. I mean, think back to all the unsuccessful games to date. There are many factors as always, but the category of "brutal leveling" never fails to disappoint, being on the list of "why it failed" sheet of every one of these games (ie. Warhammer, Age of Conan). The keyword of the digital age seems to be engagement now and keeping that tight connection with your target audience is really a tough thing to do.

Vhell guests on Live On Three today to preview the IEM Global .. Teamline5.com

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Live On Three returns to normal after last week's special Silent Gamers Cup broadcast, where Tim "DaHanG" Fogarty took out Shane "rapha" Hendrixson from the lower bracket. The event saw over 100,000 unique viewers, 250,000 total visits, an average of 4,000 concurrent viewers, and astonishing 2400 days (not hours) of watching time. We thank everyone for tuning in, and are pleased to say that the VOD's for the event should be released on Monday.This week we will be covering the TeamLiquid StarLeague 2 Finals and previewing the Intel Extreme Masters Season 5 championships this week. The TSL S2 finals will be between Protoss hero Tyler "NonY" Wasieleski and Zerg mastermind Christoph "Mondragon" Semke, vying for the $10,000 grand prize in a grandiose best of 7. The final starts at 2 PM EST, and at the conclusion of the event, the winner (NonY or Mondragon) will be coming on Live On Three for a post-game interview. Commentators Blake "Chill" Muzar and Sean "Day[9]" Plott may also show up. The IEM S5 championships start this Tuesday at CeBIT in Germany, with the best players and teams across North America, Europe and Asia come together to compete for $170,000 in Quake Live, Counter-Strike 1.6 and WoW PvP. The aforementioned Silent Gamers Cup winner DaHanG will be joining the show to go over his win last week, his bootcamp in Germany thus far, and how he feels going into the finals. Prominent journalists in each of their respective game's will be coming on to preview all the action this week, with HLTV.org's Marc "Nix0n" Winther (CS 1.6), Major League Gaming and BlizzCon broadcaster Jared "vhell" Coulston (WoW) and TeK-9.org's Liam "crow" Crowley (Quake Live).Tune in at 21:00 GMT at djWHEAT.tvOther news topics:- ESL announces new partnership with Dell and Intel, keeping Intel on as head sponsor among speculation they would be dropped - H2k releases their CS team and SpawN's comeback is over quite soon, retiring once again. He will now serve as the team's coach, who just raided the entire Begrip squad - Frag eXecutors gain entry to the IEM finals due to Asian team UMX not being able to attend. Now placed in Group A, may have created the biggest group of death in Counter-Strike history - Team Pandemic ceases operations for good, cites economic issues - Stracraft 2 patched twice, more impressions

The Girls Of WoM, Counter Comping At IEM, Facts About European.. Teamline5.com

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Some of you know me, most of you don't (judging by the hit counter my blog had on Gameriot anyway). I'm Yiska, 22 years old, German, fat, bad at the game, been asslicking Inflame and Hydra pretty much the same, Americas bane, not black (obviously) - what a shame. Lame. At this point you realize Bodi brought me here for three reasons: I make Yog and Marcxo sound eloquent and intelligent in comparison, I'm not afraid of embarrassing myself (more on that later) and I'm European. I started doing WoW coverage and vomitting in the blog entry section here on Gameriot in August which kept me from pooping in the comment section on WoM for the most part. I am probably the person with the most comments on this glorious site. I won a couple of blogging contests with Eurospective, embarrassed myself on WoWverload and ArenaCast, trolled Americans on the MLG live blog (and got stomped when Azael outplayed Inflame), got turned down as a writer here for a chick, wrote for compLexity (for example about psychology in WoW) and GotFrag. I recently became the editor in chief on hydramist.net (we are still searching for writers) and I will be free loading at Cebit as the "team manager" for coL.Black. I'm considered an insider of the European scene simply because I have way too much freetime for this kind of stuff. Why you should still be reading this blog is simple: I will be showing tits later in this blog. During my time here on Gameriot I made this video and I feel it?s kinda relevant again these days: So counter comping? Talking to players from the participating teams is always exciting. I can anticipate strategy choices before they happen and maybe guess how it will turn out, and when the games are done, realize that I'm god awful at this game. It's important to note that I do have secrets about other teams and the comps they will run which even my team coL.Black doesn't know and it would really be cheap to sell them out like that unless you are willing to trade pictures of their sisters. I stare into your soul, pro player who wants to remain unknown. What I can tell you though is that every single European team is able to switch it up with a different comp and that 3 out of 5 teams practiced that off comp actively. This is not really such a special situation though. Even back in the days when Nihilum Plasma was hot, the team always had Warrior/Mage/Druid with Divine Inflame on War and Paperkat on Mage prepared and played it on a high level. The notion that it takes an immense amount of practice to be good at a comp or even a class could be proven wrong at this event if the comp is either a counter comp and/or does catch the opponent team off guard. This is not because WoW is skillless but because the hardest part to play the game isn't learning your keybinds or remembering the strategy. Once you played against outstanding players of that particular class, an amazing player will understand what beats him and adapt it into his play. Positioning, if you are playing the same role in the comp, is most likely the same. The only substantially different and hard part is to practice this jaw dropping coordination that we saw for example from Button Bashers at MLG Anaheim. There are players on this planet who are just so talented that they can pick up a class and be top notch within weeks. For example if General Another decided to play Mage again today, he'd most likely be top 3 in Europe by Friday. Caliph Kalimist once told me that Another is just different. While he himself can absorb what about 4 or 5 players on the battle field do, Another seems to grasp most actions of every single player on the battlefield at all times. Fun but not really relevant fact: Do you remember that HON (now BB) won the last Global finals? Hours before Venruki randomly sat down at Xom's PC, logged on his Rogue and played with Another and Orly and they 3-0?d HON in a mirror. Again this might come across as a European jerking fest, so I will just go ahead and say that I do feel that for example Sodah is one of those freaks of nature as well. So are probably Veex and Valrath too. There are players however who got where they are through hard practice and those most likely aren?t multiclassing. These players tend to lose their skills rather quickly without a sufficient amount of training such as I will post a short Zilea special. I missed this: Yiska out.

Why Now Is The Best Time To Play A Priest. The Return Of The D.. Teamline5.com

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Who the hell are you?If you don't read the Priest forums on Arena Junkies or play on BG9, you might be asking this question. I'm Arterian, and I've been playing Priest in the arena scene since Season 2 and have achieved Gladiator each season since I made arena my main focus in S3, and also achieved Furious Gladiator in 3v3 on Rampage running RMP. Anyways, I'm one of this week's guest writers, so let's get to it.I have always loved playing a Priest.Something about finding that perfect balance between offensive and defensive play has always appealed to me. I don't think it's possible to do something more fun in arena than to swap to a target that is on top of you when you're at 30% HP and start chain casting damage into them to assist your partners for a clutch kill. However, my favourite part about playing a Priest this season is that now more than ever, Priests need absolutely zero raiding gear to be viable. Last season, I had to go through the unsavory business of pugging and "reserving" a Solace of the Defeated and picking up PvE leggings to help push my Warrior/Mage/Priest comp to it's potential. This season, as both Shadow and Discipline I am not using a single piece of gear obtained from raiding on my Priest besides the rep ring that almost all serious PvPers can be found wearing. In fact, I have only killed the first boss in Icecrown Citadel on my Priest, and it was only to help a friend's raid so he could grab a Bryntroll.I replaced my Solace with the Purified Lunar Dust trinket from badges, as it is much better for a Disc Priest where you often spend up to 20 seconds without casting a single defensive spell, where stacks of the Solace's buff would fall off, and it also isn't gimped when you're being CC chained. The trinket is also great as Shadow, as it provides the perfect amount of regen needed to last between mana cooldowns without gimping your damage by using the regen main set pieces over the crit pieces. Before using this trinket, I was advocating using Mooncloth main set pieces spec'd into meditation because of some of the long games I've had against some of the top teams, including games against Ming's RMP where we lost a few times because I went oom using zero regen gear. With Lunar Dust and Full Satin main set, I can take as long as I need to set up a kill, and still drop someone in only a few seconds with crits that come fairly often. As a PvP only player playing as a class that uses almost exclusively PvP gear, I am very happy with the resilience changes and how competitive non-raiders can be with PvPers that also raid.you've no doubt been frustrated more than once by a bug that has been around since the most recent patch that causes your combat log to stop working. Addons like Afflicted or Interrupt bar that read the combat log and inform you when certain abilities are used, may suddenly stop working in the middle of a match, and stop working until you relog. Thankfully, the author of Gladius has come up with a simple addon that spams a macro to refresh your combat log, which allows your addons to work normally and reliably. Until someone figures out what is causing the bug, this fix should do the trick in making sure all your tracking addons run smoothly.I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog. Have a great weekend!

There's No Other Name: NERD RAGE!, Free Movie Tickets NOW! Teamline5.com

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Epic Drop 2/26/10: Saved by Blackwater, Bad tipper banned? T.. Teamline5.com

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H2k com nova equipa Teamline5.com

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SpawN aposenta-se novamente Teamline5.com

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WoWverload interviews Twixz, Another, Nòónia and.. Teamline5.com

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IEM: World Championships Preview, Priest Tips from Trance, SC2.. Teamline5.com

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As the other writers have said, Blackrock has been the worst server to play on due to latency issues. Vicious Cycle has taken quite a few hits to our raiding team because of this, the lag has forced us to halt raids and attempt whatever boss is more "doable" with the handicap. With some of our raiders having to practice for the upcoming ESL Global Finals Tournament, we've really been struggling to fill raids. If anyone wants to raid with the #1 PvE/PVP guild, send an application to Trancey on Blackrock or check out: http://www.viciouscycle.usIn other Blackrock-related news, it sadden me to hear that the most prestigious guild in Blackrock's history, Nurfed, has transferred to Lightning's Blade due to the latency issues. Being a top 10 US progression guild on the biggest lag-fest of a server is not enjoyable, and I don't blame them for leaving. But, many of them have been friends of mine since the Vanilla WoW days and losing Nurfed brings our talent pool down a couple notches. Blackrock's crowned jewel will be missed. The ESL Global Finals are on the horizon, March 2nd-March 4th, and this marks an anniversary of one of the most legendary tournaments in WoW arena history. At last year's ESL Global Finals, Orangemarmalade stunned the world with his 1v2'd of the opposing Korean RMP during the Grand Finals. His miraculous play inspired thousands of gamers to be better players and has turned his team, Button Bashers, into living legends. I found this in-depth analysis of Orangemarmalde's 1v2, it only seems right to dedicate a video to such a legendary play that has changed many gamers around the globe:I expect to see more inspirational moments next week at the ESL Global Finals!If you're looking for my song list, please check out my new blog on Starfeeder!My Starfeeder blog mentions my thoughts on StarCraft 2 Beta, review of SC2 Patch Notes, and comparing WoW vs SC Players. There's a clip of Jp and I owning the #1 team(vibe and seksi) on the 2v2 ladder with some overpowered mother ship tricks.This weekend, MLG/GotFrag is hosting a shoutcasted stream of EG.Louder vs,. Artosis with Jp McDaniel and Day[9] shoutcasting. SC fans, Tune In!

Epic Drop 2/25/10: Man saved by Toyota? NASA & Senate throwd.. Teamline5.com

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Heavy Rain: Is it a good thing? Bonus: Top 5 Female Winter Ol.. Teamline5.com

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I got the chance to play a bit of Heavy Rain the other day, and must say I am a little on the fence as to whether or not its a good game. Don't get me wrong, Heavy Rain is a visually stun, masterfully written game, but I just can't help but feel a little disappointed in the game-play.Before we move forward please take a look at this video, I feel it portrays a decent amount of what I will be talking about in the rest of this blog. A couple of things that become immediately apparent even after playing only a couple of minutes of the game are that Heavy Rain is one of the best looking games to date. Graphics wise this is the most realistic game I have ever seen, the character animations, although sometimes flawed are for the most part completely believable, and when played on high-def this game is really stunning. The dialogue in this game is also top notch. But where Heavy Rain really falls short is in game play. Most of the story aspects of the game are told through cut-scenes, the majority of which are interactive. You are given multiple dialogue and action choices, the end result of which will ultimately determine how the game plays out. The amount of these cut scenes is pretty overwhelming, I soon found myself wondering when the actual game was going to start. However, once the actual game play did commence I was soon wishing for more cut-scenes as the main gameplay element in Heavy Rain is quick-time events.Quite possibly the worst idea in video gaming history, quick-time events are used by developers to make a cinematic aspect of the game feel more interactive by forcing the player to quickly mash a series of buttons to play out the cinematic. As an element of game play, it is among the worst. When you're not conversing with the richly deloped characters or taking in the aw-inspiring visuals of the world around you, you will be mashing buttons.Now there are two ends of the spectrum as far as this argument is concerned. There are some that believe story is the most important aspect of video games, and should be put before all else. And there are others who believe that without inter-active, and entertaining game play a video game is more like an interactive movie. Now I started off this blog by saying im not entirely certain on what side of this debate I lie. I have never been able to enjoy games that have a poor story, however I would rather watch a well written movie than play a well written movie masquerading as a poorly designed video game.Heavy Rain is like the video gaming's Avatar. Except this time around they put all of the budget into the writing, and visual effects, and none into the action. Canadian / American Ice Dancer (she was born in Canada but skates for the U.S) Tanith Belbin takes the #1 spot because...well...do I really need to explain why?

neo e co. na IEM World Finals Teamline5.com

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What WoW Has Done To The MMO Industry Teamline5.com

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It's evident from the number of MMOs that have come out in the past few years that the MMO market has bloomed - a full blown sector of the market. Many companies have idolized the WoW model which has been enormously successful and has generated money for Blizzard beyond their wildest dreams. Other developers are looking to get into the market not only because of a financial opportunity but also a new way of transmitting their ideas into a continuous, massive and changing world. Now one can imagine that this is great because MMOs are a lot of fun to play as they are a way for you to connect with your friends and have goals that you can accomplish together. Not only that but there is character progression that can continue for years, competition in-game and avenues to set yourself apart from the rest. However anyone whom keeps up with the MMO market knows that most if not all of the MMOs that have come out have failed and WoW is always the last man standing. Did you ever wonder why people get over-hyped about Warhammer, Vanguard, Darkfall and other titles that have come out (people even bought Age of Conan...)? People are happiest when they have choices! Players don't want to have to "just play WoW". A lot of us would be more happy with three (or more) top MMOs to choose from that let's us pick what universe(setting), what styles of gameplay and such that we prefer. But right now the market is overly dominated by the titan WoW which tries to do everything but fails in a lot of ways because you can't make a game that covers everything.The key to what WoW has done for the MMO industry is setting certain expectations of what conditions meet success (getting a large subscriptions base and how). Easy Mode: World of Warcraft was the first MMO to really introduce no negative side effects for failing hard. In WoW if you die you just run back to your corpse in 2-3 minutes and pay some gold which is easy to farm. WoW easymoded it down so much so that when you die (fail) there is no side effects and you can only win. Other MMOs have introduced some level of penalties for death or other ways to make sure that players were both learning and playing well. Take FFXI for example; you die and you lose 10% of your experience which at later levels means hours of work down the drain. Now such penalties as 10% experience on death sound stupidly annoying right? Most people who play WoW as their first MMO are babied. That 10% meant that you had to concentrate, you had to be skilled and you had to play well all of the time. Not only this but it prevented really bad players from playing the later stages of the game because they just couldn't deal with negative consequences (though for the case of FFXI it has also easymoded itself recently). The penalty means that you have to be skilled; and even then I think MMOs don't have to take the extreme of FFXI but there should be some sort of learning curve, a way to force the player to learn from making mistakes. The problem however is that people have played so much WoW that any system that involves penalties is incredibly painful because being baby sitted by an easy system is so ingrained in their expectations of how games should work. You even see this leaking into console gaming; respawn points are getting more and more frequent. Sure this is a good model for making money because your mom, your sister and your cat can pick up and play the game and enjoy the game despite having no ability as a player. I would like noobs to be able to play too, but there needs to be some method to reinforce learning to play well in the early stages of the game. Challenge is a good thing. Focus on Endgame: Let's face it, in WoW no one except some random autistic kid cares at all about leveling. In fact you can ask most of your friends if they enjoy it and they will 9 times out of 10 say it is a tedious grind (there is a reason Blizzard is steadily implementing faster and faster experience gains). You want to rush to end-game and then you want to join a raiding guild, do your dailys, grind your achievements or struggle your way up an unbalanced pvp system. The game is entirely focused on the content of getting to end-game then progressing your character as fast and far as you can gear-wise. The game revolves around this end-game gear grind and not much else. Sure you get to see content(story?) but most people don't raid ICC in a raiding guild to see how cool Arthas is story wise but rather to feel challenged and to get gear. I think the up and coming Star Wars MMO and the ancient FFXI did something right in that leveling is a huge part of the game. Leveling should be something that makes your character part of a story; adventures that are epic should take place as you level and you should be able to share these with your friends. The progression of your character should not focus entirely on end-game but with WoW's stranglehold on the market a lot of developers are caught up in this end-game centered reality. It's time to wake up and realize that WoW's model is very superficial and devoid of the most of the RPG elements that are supposed to be in a MMO"RPG". Leveling can be just as large of a part of the game as end-game. As a side note Cataclysm does seem to aim to address this somewhat so I give Blizzard credit and I don't make the assumption that they are in any way idiots about designing a game but rather that developers need to keep these things in mind.. Your friends are all playing WoW: Even if an amazing MMO that comes that is competitive, well designed and has interesting things to it that are different from WoW ? it is hard to go and play them. Well we play MMOs to be with friends, to achieve goals with friends, to make friends, etc. MMOs are just as much social as they are a video game. Your friends are all likely playing WoW and their friends are likely to be playing too. If you want to go play another MMO you have to convince some of your friends to abandon their WoW social networks and come play with you. Some of you may have tried this with some of the MMOs I mentioned at the start but since those "failed" your friends will be even more reluctant to pack up and move to something worthy that comes along. There are a lot more problems WoW has created for the MMO industry but this is already rather TLDR so I'll tackle them in the future. Keep your eyes on Star Wars and Global Agenda ? don't forget there are other MMOs out there ? don't give up hope just because of recent "failures". Don't forget your expectations are based on WoW but it's possible to go outside the box - a large limitation to you enjoying other games is your comparisons and expectations. I know there are others out there who are waiting patiently and hoping for options to come so that we have choices in what we play, I am with you! and hopefully the developers out there can hear us. Poli

PGL primavera é anunciada Teamline5.com

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Hunter 3.3.3: What Are We Missing? Teamline5.com

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L5.br com três novos reforços Teamline5.com

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[HoN] An Introduction, Balance Changes pt. 1 Teamline5.com

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Hey everyone. Glad to be here writing for Too Bad Its Me. A little bit of background about myself -- I've been playing HoN for about 8 months now with well over 600-700 games under my belt. I had never played DoTA prior to HoN, so I started out as quite a scrub and although I've progressed a lot, I wouldn't call myself much more than "above average". You can find me spending my time in 1700+ BD/BP matches and the occasional IH/scrim. I have a great fascination with competitive HoN play and although I've only managed a few scrimmages with some of HoN's top talents, I enjoy watching them duke it out regularly in the tournaments. If you'd like to look me up on HoN, my account name is Archatype.PrefaceFrom a competitive standpoint, HoN is progressing nicely. Sponsors are emerging all over the place and tournaments are held on a regular basis. The replay system as well as the great shoutcasting networks from sites such as honreplays.org and honcast.com make the competitive scene easily accessible to viewers. Furthermore, S2 Games has made it clear that they intend to do their best to promote the game's competitive integrity. Balance patches would suggest they are heading in the right direction. Recently however, my in game experiences and replay trolling have led me to believe that the balance within this game could be much, much better. Some notes:- In my balance suggestions I've focused on trying to tone down some of the overpowered heroes and buff up some of the underpowered ones in order to create a middle ground where competitive picks are more diverse and less predictable. These suggestions are less focused on controlling the "meta-game" (push vs. turtle vs. gank etc) than they are on making heroes equal. I don't believe that buffing a ganker or adding a gank hero to the game will necessarily make teams play that way; that type of influence lies more in game mechanics and items, in my opinion.- One of the biggest problems I think with HoN right now is that the carry position is monopolized by a few heroes. Many hard carries have been made obsolete with recent additions of / buffs to other ones. Personally I think S2 took an erroneous approach to their balance of carries by literally overbuffing many of them. I think nerfing the ones that are too powerful instead would achieve balance faster because essentially carries compete against each other for space in the competitive scene much the same way support heroes, initiator heroes, and et cetera do.- Some of my changes may involve reverting previous S2 changes. This isn't so much laziness as it is genuine disapproval for a patchnote. Often times S2 gets it wrong. I refer you to a recent patch where Defiler got her movespeed bonus back after it was removed maybe 4 or 5 patches earlier and is now a pretty damn well-balanced hero. Sometimes a previous iteration of a hero fits better with the current meta-game.- Keep in mind I'm dishing out a lot of nerfs and buffs here, so please read through the entire changelog before you post gripes. Nerfing someone that you might not have thought needed a nerf might actually be important in light of some of my other nerfs.Intelliegence Heroes- No changesOne of my favorite heroes in the game, pretty well balanced in my opinion.Stay tuned, AGI and STR heroes to come soon.

What does it mean to be, 3000? the team of fnatic NOT attendin.. Teamline5.com

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What Does it Mean3000 is more than a number. It is a way of life. An exclusive title earned by only a billionth of the WoW population. A distinction awarded to only the best WoW teams in WoW to have existed.I am proud to introduce a new steppingstone in BG9 dominance - an acclamation for BATTLEGROUP 9's TOP TEAM on completing their conquest of the WoW arenas! This past weekend, the 3000 barrier for season 8 was shattered by the WLD of "a new chop." I welcome the 3000 rating clubs newest members, Hoodrych and Nadagast.The competition on bg9 is much more intense than you may think. Picture this. You are the smartest person in your class of 150 students, public school in a low class community in Alabama. You get accepted into MIT after being valedictorian of your school. Upon arriving, you don't understand anything and fall behind after the first day. You then realize "WoW, I'm quiet dumb, maybe I should transfer to a community college where ratings are more easily attained."Many flock to bg9, but like that of most elite organizations, there are more applicants than there are successful gladiators. It is not a place for the weak, the unprepared, the clicker, or the retarded. Relentless Gladiator's from battlegroups ranging from shadowburn to vindication have already had to transfer off due to being unqualified to buy the gear from battlegrounds. This makes the title of a "3000 rated" player all the more monumental. It is not every day one gets to see the birth of a new 3000 team. If you see these guys in game, make sure to offer them your congratulations.I have no doubt those of you on bg9 are familiar with this WLD. Regardless of whether you are queuing at 1:00 A.M or 1:00 P.M, there is a high probability of running into them. Unlike my team, who earned our titles through talent alone, this team serves as a prime example of "nature vs nurture". They are the most active team on the battlegroup, and therefore the highest rated. They practice more than anyone, putting in hours and hours a day, and the results don't lie. Even though none of the players posses any natural talent, they have managed this incredible achievement - to take #1 on the most prestigious battlegorup likely to ever have existed. Let this serve as a lesson to all of the low rated arena players. This proves that even YOU, 1500, have the capabilities to be a 3000 rated player. Sure, it may take you much longer, and you are probably going to have to put in a lot more work, but If you want it badly enough, then you can overcome your inherent disadvantages and becomes - 3000.Fnatic Not Attending ESL GermanyGermany looks to be an exciting event. But, alas, a lack of insight on our behalf has lead to some very angry sponsors. Sorry to say, the RLS of fnatic will NOT be attending ESL Germany. It is a shame because we had a very easy group, which I am certain would have been dominated.You may have heard news of Woundman's recent methamphetamine relapse. At ESL Edmonton, I found his suitcase stuffed full of Sudafed sealed away in coffee containers from his parents business. I found it odd, but it never crossed my mind that they were being used to create narcotics. It was not until we were about to go to sleep that I noticed something was wrong. Woundman was NOT in the hotel room. This was peculiar because he usually goes to bed at 8 p.m. and it was 5 am in the morning. There was also a huge batch of methamphetamine lying in the bath tub. I walk outside, and there is Woundman, running down the sidewalk. The hotel room also became unusable and cost fnatic $14,000 which is why we aren't going to germany.On another note, the team of EG may not be attending either. Apparently Pookz and Azael find each other disagreeable and argue constantly, leaving Tenderloin in the crossfire. After one especially heated argument, Azael knocked pookz's coffee out of his hand and Pookz, who hits the gym every day with protein supplements, renounces his friendship with azael and declares that he would not be attending germany with him. However, in the chance that they ARE attending, it would be with our rogue Woundman. Azael, who switches teammates faster than chump john switches into his birthday suit for minor, seems particularly keen on using Woundman who's methamphetamine enhanced reflexes allow him to vanish vanishes and sap vanishes. No final decision has be made yet, but he seems excited to go. We wish him the best of luck in germany.Australian Players of WoWI have never played with any australians before, but from my observations, they are all surprisingly good in arenas. Even though they claim they have "900 latency at all times," they are still faster than most of the players I see. Not saying all australians are good, but most of them are. The ones on bg9 in particular are at the top of their class as players. Some examples like Faction, Houndus, Hotspot, Faction, Uckington, Neilyo are some of these players. All surprisingly good at their classes, and high rated in arenas. You have to question why this is the case. I have never seen a truly terribad australian, however I have seen boat loads of terribly bad americans and europeans.One of the first things you will notice with australians is that they are all ********. Not only do their accents make them naturally sounds like ********, but they are actually bags of ****. Faction, one of the best australian players, is an example. If you ever talk to an australian in vent, you can never tell if you're being insulted. It is one of the drawbacks to using one for your team. But if you get a hold of a good australian, you will not be disappointed. They usually have no lives and have perfectly geared characters.

Epic Drop 2/24/10: Death at Seaworld, Say bye to Hummer, Demo.. Teamline5.com

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Nintendo to dominate the summer with Mario Galaxy 2 & Metroid .. Teamline5.com

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Soltec anunciam o seu fim Teamline5.com

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Drmayo: Rising Star Or Fence Jumper? Tournaments In S8 Gear, A.. Teamline5.com

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Back from boot, and keeping oneself entertained with limited r.. Teamline5.com

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So I know I said id be done with the pit, but given the fact that I find GRs blog system to be very solid, my desire to continue writing, and reading all of your oh so entertaining posts, ive decided to retract that statement. That being said, WoW is still no go. Even if i wanted to play (and when it comes to pvp i do) I cant possibly do so due to the fact that the net connection here on base is hardly better than Dialup and I am currently using a netbook. On that note, living on base. I graduated from US Navy Boot Camp (RTC, Great Lakes) this month and have shipped out to my home town of San Diego where I await class up for A School. So far joining the Navy has been the best choice ive made in my life and I am enjoying every moment of it. So I am limited to a Netbook (which i love), a horrible net connection, and limited time constraints. What is a gamer to do? Well I refuse to join the hardcore addicts and play wow at 1300-5000 MS (even if i REALLY want to lvl my 76 UD rogue to 80 and pvp). I also refuse to cave in and join the consolfa...enthusiasts in playing FPS games (MW2) on a controller. So this leaves me with the challenge of finding resource light games that are entertaining and worth the cost. As such I have turned initially to Diablo 2, always a faithful standby. But while DLing the 1.5g game, it dawned on me that now that I am no longer broke as hell, I can actually legitimately own Torchlight! Soooooo 4 days and a starbucks membership later (they have much better net) I have DLed Torchlight. For those that dont know, Torchlight is a lightweight beautifully rendered singleplayer Diablo clone. Featuring 3 classes with absurd customization via talents and gear (you could make a battlemage outta the destroyer (warrior type), or a magical ranger outta the pure mage class.)A solid list of difficulty modes keeps the game challenging for all players, and an endless dungeon unlocked after you complete the main story give the player a great deal of content to grind through. In addition shared stashes allow you to find powerful items (and enchant them to be even better) and give them to other characters you may have on your account. For those with limited options such as myself, Torchlight is damn near perfect, it runs flawlessly on my netbook (1gb ram, 1.6ghz processor, onboard video, 250g HD) due to an inbuilt netbook mode, its independence from internet play allow me to enjoy it without the hardships of our crappy network, and it offers enough content and instant gratification to keep me hooked for long periods of time just like diablo 2 In the future I plan on investing in additional cheap, but solid games such as The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, Plants vs Zombies, and (i think) Grade. All this coupled with the fact that ive been going out on the town almost every chance i get to see all the cool **** i couldnt afford before (zoo, balboa park museums, movies, imax movies, maybe a symphony this weekend...) has kept me surprisingly entertained. Will I play wow again? Most likely, but not anytime soon. MAAAYBE when Cataclysm comes out but it all really depends on what im doing orders wise and housing wise. So until then I will continue to write about the various gaming adventures I partake in for you all until i get kicked out or get bored. Its good to be back reading GR even if I can no longer partake in WoW.

Epic Drop 2/23/10: Text saves lives, Climategate vs. the law,.. Teamline5.com

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Hello and bye for a bit. Teamline5.com

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Hello Gameriot.Nah, you won't ever get rid of me.Truth be told I've been actually thinking about an idea that works. I mean you'll notice that all the successful blogs on this site (or anywhere) follow a formula and if they deviate to heavily they get the trolls at their door.Slapnuts' Epic Drop is the best example of this on the website. Everyday I know exactly what I am going to get from this (a mainstream hot chick, 5+ entertaining news stories, his own personal right wing opinion on them and links to some funny videos [or film trailers if possible) and it evidently works as he's currently the biggest blog traffic wise after World of Ming.This isn't even limited to GameRiot and it's community.RayWilliamJohnson is one of youtube's biggest stars (his competitors include but is not limited to sxephil, Fred and ShaneDawson) and one of the biggest factors of his success is routine:Every single episode you get reviews of viral videos (though it's more commentary) all wrapped up in predictable jokes and a lovable personality. Not only that but the information is all given to you in a very speedy way (notice the way all users named edit the 'ummms' and awkward silences out of their vlogs Bodi).You also, in every single vlog, get the chance to be featured in it. If you post a video response to suggest a QOTD (question of the day) then you might be edited in to the newest video and if your response is funny enough you it is shown in the next video. I haven't seen any other vlogger allow his audience to participate as effectively as RayWilliamJohnson lets his.So so far I've learnt that to be a successful vlogger/blogger you need to have routine and utilising audience participation is a good idea.But what else does it take to be successful vlogger/blogger (not including good writing style/lovable personality)? Thankfully celebrity reporter WHATTHEBUCK has the answer (warning: This man may be the campest man alive):So I need to be covering something that has wide appeal (or a niche market that no one else does)? Well that seems obvious...I'll return at the start of March with ideas, I might be vlogging and I might ***** out and just blog regularly, we'll see...Sorry about again talking about my blog and not actually posting up a hell of a lot of content. Hopefully the links to RayWilliamJohnson and sxephil make up for that as they're two of the best vloggers in the world.See you at the beginning of March =)

H2k perde equipa? Teamline5.com

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Golf For Charity Teamline5.com

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During the Summer I like to participate in a variety of charity events (I would love to create something like Child's Play but I am aware of my limitations) and this is something most of you might hate but there is nothing to lose. If it makes you feel better, remember that I am giving away free movie tickets as my next giveaway.Regal Entertainment Group and Variety - The Children?s Charity of Eastern Tennessee have been given the honor by Sony Pictures to present the Hot Ticket Event ?Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D?, The 3D footage for the movie was shot over six concert nights in five locations -- Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Seattle, Foxboro, and Indianapolis -- using a total of 22 3D camera rigs. Chesney is the most popular live music act of the 21st century, having sold over one million tickets in each of the past 8 summers and selling out stadiums in Boston, Seattle, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco. Kenny Chesney will be making a live appearance at the theatre to introduce this spectacular 3D Movie Music Event.Planning the ?Hot Ticket Event? to benefit Variety ? The Children?s Charity is well underway. We are pleased to announce the event will be held on April 14th, 2010 at the Regal Pinnacle Stadium 18 at Turkey Creek. This Hot Ticket event does not open to the public until April 21st. It is our goal to make this one of the most spectacular events in the Southeast. Through your support and that of other generous sponsors, we are building the foundation for what the Knoxville News Sentinel said is ?becoming Knoxville?s biggest annual star studded charity event?.Proceeds from the ?Hot Ticket Event? help to provide assistance to special needs youth in the Knoxville community and East Tennessee at large. Your sponsorship is extremely important. Sponsors receive premium exposure depending on their level of contribution. This includes media and marquee name recognition and tickets to the VIP Reception. With a sponsorship level of $5,000 and above you will be invited to The Regal/Business/Charity Partners Golf Tournament. The Golf Tournament will take place the following morning April 15th. I will forward more details on the Golf Tournament soon. Thank you for your anticipated support.$15.00 - Variety Member ticket price at Member Discount$25.00 - General admission ticket sold to the public.$1,000 - Sponsor (Logo on Sponsor Sign, 4 General Admission Tickets)$5,000 - Ticket Sponsor (Logo on all tickets and banner, 4 VIP tickets)$10,000 - Presenting Sponsor (Logo above event name on all media and signage, 8 VIP tickets).*ViP Ticket- High end restaurant meet and greet with appearance by kenny Chesney prior to admittance.*General Admission Ticket - Food and beverage in Pinnacle lobby beofre red carpet Kenny Chesney appearance and prerelease movie screening. I understand this is not for everybody but there is always a chance (and hope too) that someone might read this and find it helpful and wishes to participate. It is fine if you wish to donate just one dollar. Times are tough and we need to help ourselves as well; It's the intention and spirit that counts. Feel free to PM me and I will take your info and someone will be in contact with you.

kHRYSTAL cria nova equipa Teamline5.com

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Day One DLC - Hurting consumers and not retailers? Teamline5.com

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The used game sales business is huge. Gamestop for instance makes a profit margin of nearly 50% on used titles. Their overall profits are supported by used games to the tune of around 20-30% so anything that would affect used game sales will certainly affect their bottom line. Not to mention all the other smaller retailers that dabble in the used game business, some even exclusively. A recent piece on GameIndustry brought up EA's recent move towards day-one downloadable content and how it and other measures of curbing used-game sales may actually hurt consumers more than the retailers being targeted by such tactics. EA, if you haven't noticed with titles like Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age and the upcoming Bad Company 2, is using a new tactic called "Project Ten Dollar" which aims to entice more new game sales with downloadable content at launch. Unfortunately if you don't buy these games new you don't the luxury of such a benefit and you have to buy the content separately, aka the "ten dollars". Chipsworld MD Don McCabe and Marc Day, CEO of SwapGame both note the reality may be consumers taking the hit for these practices more so than retailers. Retailers can simply adjust their prices to take in account the added cost of the DLC vouchers. This is an easier hit to them than to consumers who suddenly may find the value of their trade-ins dropping. Say Gamestop for instance sells "x title" at $40 instead $50 because of the ten dollars in day one DLC. Who do you think is going to take the loss? The consumer will as they won't get as much money as they could from their trades. Less money for trades means less money for new games in return. Don McCabe noted that EA might want to be a bit a concerned as their franchise sports titles in particular are often traded in for the latest and greatest in the next year's title. Hitting such a market could affect how many copies of the new games sell. Bonuses are all fun and games until someone loses money. SwapGame told GI that a majority of their trade-ins end up going for credit towards new games. Making games less valuable without the added content makes for tougher choices when it comes to what new games to buy. At what point does this DLC toe the line in the form of "must have" content and gameplay aspects intentionally left behind to entice new games vs. that of content which is merely an added bonus. Right now we seem to be walking the line of the later but is what is stopping the former? A move like that will really piss off consumers when it comes to reselling their used titles.To battle rampant PSP piracy for instance, Sony is requiring the latest SOCOM on PSP to be registered via the PSN with a voucher included to play multiplayer online. Used buyers of the game will have to pay an additional $20 just to play the game online. That is a really significant handicap. How long before others follow suit? Personally I don't trade many of my games in. From time to time I may move some old titles, maybe once or twice a year, and I may put it towards a new game or two. I don't buy used games from Gamestop because I think their prices and trade-in values are a joke, but at the same time I respect their right to make money off of used titles. For the most part though I would rather cut out the middle man and sell my games on Craigslist or eBay which generally offer a higher return and cut out the middle-man. I understand the game industry is looking at any way possible to make a profit but attacking used game sales and lessening their value may not be the wisest of decisions. When you buy a house and sell it down the road you don't have to give the cut back to the builders. For publishers and developers to feel they have some sort of entitlement in this regard is a bit concerning. To me the wise decision is to make high quality games that users want to buy right away and or plan to keep on their collection buy offering post-launch DLC to everyone and added re-playability (think Team Fortress 2).I just figured I would pass this along as something to consider. As someone who doesn't sell many games and buys a lot new and doesn't mind the DLC this doesn't bother me much. For heavy used game swappers however this may be something to think about.Applaud the "bonus" content if you will but consider the ramifications it may have down the road.