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Posts Tagged ‘games’

To some the game of chess has died with the advent of computers, but I believe that chess set is not dead. Machines will never replace humans, because we care more about what fellow humans do than what machines can do.

In the early 1980s there was a prediction that the invention of VCRs and video rental stores would put movie theaters out of business within ten years. And yet, cinemas continue to be built, and continue to draw people inside. Families, dating couples and even friends all go to the movie theater to see the latest blockbuster.

Why are movie theaters still so popular? Because there is nothing that can compare to the smell of popcorn, the giant screen and the enthusiasm shared by the audience that cannot be replicated at home.

Every home has a television, if not more than one, and yet people still flock to see plays, ballets and concerts. In many cities people can go the theater and see a different play each week of the year.

Why do people still go to see plays or listen to live orchestras rather than simply watching television at home or renting a DVD? People attend the theater to see living people performing. There is an excitement you simply cannot get at home, a closeness and appreciation you are not able to feel through the screen of your TV.

No runner can beat a car, yet we still cheer as marathon runners cross the finish line. Machines have been made that can pitch a baseball with more accuracy and speed than a human pitcher, but no machine draws crowds the way a favorite athlete can.

No matter how impressive the machine, not one of them will ever receive their own baseball card, and no crowd will pay to sit in the stands and watch them play. We admire the skill and artistry of our fellow humans, knowing that when we watch them, we are seeing something truly impressive.

No matter how good animation and CGI become, they will never replace a human actor. Bugs Bunny might make us laugh, but we will never admire him the way we do Meryl Streep or Robert DeNiro.

Computers have been playing chess since the mid 80s, and can be useful when it comes to training. But they will never replace the feel of a chess set in your hands or the challenge of a real human being.

And we admire the winners, those with the best grasp of strategy (or brute calculations) because it was a human doing the calculating. Deep Blue will never earn the respect we give to players like Garry Kasparov.

Want to find out more about chess sets, then visit Fredrick Roughinsteen’s site on how to choose the best chess set for your needs.

Don’t kid yourself; you’re not going to be the first choice of a major game developer when you first start applying for video game beta tester jobs. However, if you follow the few simple tips below, you most assuredly won’t be the last!

Follow These Tips to Land More Game Testing Positions…

1. Make Contacts: Every person you talk to (whom works with video games) is a potential asset that you can use. This person could be the launching point from which you land that first big game testing job. This individual might be able to inform you about high paying testing jobs opening up; those of which aren’t being actively talked about. He/she could also pull strings with some important people and get you testing jobs when you need them most. In short, they could be your window of opportunity into the video game beta tester universe; hence, be as professional and as cordial as possible with every one you meet.

2. Don’t be afraid to test games for free. Testing video games for free, although hard to stomach, is a great way to get your foot in the door. Developers won’t have to worry about wasting money on another “newbie” tester because you’ll be testing for free. If you do a good job, not only do you have a potential employer, but you’ll have a great reference for future video game tester jobs.

3. Don’t Stop, Keep Going: Seeing that first video game beta testing paycheck in your hand may cause you to bloom with happiness and pride, but don’t let those feelings go to your head. Do your little celebration and then get right back out there and do what you’ve been doing; making contacts, applying for jobs, and completing testing assignments. The more video game beta tester jobs you complete, the more likely you are to land better, higher paying assignments in the future.

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be a video game beta tester? Are you ready to test games and not just play them? If you honestly think you’re ready, visit http://www.GameTestingParadise.com and find out how you can get started testing video games today!

Long term players may well have become aware of changes in the way Warcraft’s economy is working over the past fifteen months or so. The progression of wealth alongside character progression and profession is now completely out of balance.

The system is being swayed by the huge numbers of level 80 characters on most servers.

My situation is not unique. I have 16 level 80 characters (I level characters up by multiboxing 5 at a time) That may seem a lot, but I know several guild buddies who have three of four level 80′s levelled the normal way – and often a level 80 Death Knight as well.

But I still start new toons, and this follows a pattern.

Well, if you’re anything like me, you are trying a new class, race or combination of the two. At some point you give your character a profession, then, using the huge piles of gold from your main characters you level them up to say 225 in about 90 minutes. Buying stacks of low level items in the process.

However, at some point down the line I get bored of the characters.

Most of the time I stop. Never buying the mid range ingredients I need to level my profession. Sometimes even deleting the ‘toon to make space on the server for another. I won’t learn though. Chances are that I will repeat the whole process in the future, and buy my way up to a certain point with another alt later.

This is adding to the imbalance of the game. Crafting is now a huge gold sink. Until you max these professions out they make little that sells and are pretty much a universal waste of time. Especially when you compare them with gathering professions that will make you an absolute fortune. Blizzard know this, so expect a big change in patch 4.0

The Warcraft economy is going to change with Cataclysm. I predict the following.

Crafting professions will be overhauled. Items at low level will be tweaked to make them more attractive to buy. They will cost more to make, but the good ones will offer more than one skill point towards the crafters profession.

New huge gold sinks will be added. The biggest gold sinks ever. It is rumoured that there will be a skill needed to fly across the ashen wastes of Azeroth, and that might set you back between 5000g and 10000g. New speed perks for flight will also cost a fortune. More than your epic cost in the first place.

Archaeology will provide crafting materials that can be added at the manufacturing stage to alter the stat bonuses of many items made by the existing professions. These perks will improve the saleability of these items still further, and will provide some real variety and choice for both the crafter and the potential user.

Consumables will go up for level 81-85. Not just the graded step that they went up with Wrath of the Lich King, but a huge increase. Food, Drink, Ammo, repairs and in game flights (which you may well have to take before getting proficiency to fly over Azeroth) will cost exponentially more than the current equivalents in Northrend

The players will be forced to “ungroup” either from guild or (in my case) multibox setups to progress from 81-85. Instance in groups but level alone will be the way. This will prevent exploiting colleagues to rush through these levels. Blizzard are determined to make this a unique and exciting journey for players – not just the rush to level cap that previous expansions have been

Blizzard has the choice to either totally revamp the economy of Warcraft, or at some point in the future get rid of the idea of an in game economy altogether. The current system is uneven and is getting more out of kilter by the day. The laws of supply and demand have become unbalanced in a way that would not happen in the real world.

Luckily for those of us who enjoy the professions and economic parts of the game, Blizzard seem to have noticed this, and are putting some efforts into getting it right. If it fails however, then perhaps 5.0 will be the end of in game crafting and a proper economy altogether.

For more Warcraft news, and access to our free downloadable guides For the goldblog, click here For the best Warcraft gold guide avaialable then try The Warcraft Advanced Gold Guide

The end is coming for Warcraft gold guides. Soon the idea of reading from a PDF document while playing the game will seem as daft as boiling your shoes. They have served a purpose, now they need to make way for something better.

Let’s face it, reading a PDF document while playing is not really state-of-the-art is it? One minute you are playing, the next clicking on a pile of text trying to work out where to go to grind or farm materials, or what items might be cheap at the Auction house that day.

The term “guide” tells it’s own sorry story. A guide isn’t proactive, it just points you in the right direction. If you are hiking down the Amazon basin, a guide is useful, but it’s not going to do the hard yards for you is it?

Guides played a part once, but times change. The days of a text document, maybe with a couple of lines of LUA code you could cut and paste into the game (“whoopee doo” – yawn) has had it’s day, time to buckle up, and move on.

Then there are the guides that call themselves “systems”. Have you seen these? A system is a procedure you follow, using tools provided to achieve a result. Ok, fine, well the system in these guides seems to be;

1 – Refer to the guide provided

2 – What are you doing here? Get back to the guide!

If it’s auction house domination you are after then the guys at Norganna.org have got that covered. Norganna has a complete run-down of the whole auctioneer system. He even has his own Wiki. I have every guide I could find on the net and none (and I mean absolutely none what-so-ever) have the amount of good auctioneer information that Norganna has. Period. That shouldn’t suprise you. He wrote the application.

The auctioneer addon for example has its own website and even its own Wiki. I’ve bought every Warcraft gold guide I can find on the net and I’ve never seen anything in any of them that isn’t vastly inferior to the free information that Norganna.org give you for free.

Of course a couple add a little bit of technical help. Show you some macro code you can copy into the Warcraft GUI to do quick searches at auction and sell stuff one click. I’m not knocking that, it sounds good. But it’s hardly ground breaking is it?

Wouldn’t it be better if you had a real system? One that did all the work for you? You press a couple of buttons and Wham! Your server’s economy is exposed.

A system that is totally conforming to Blizzards terms and conditions yet gets right under the hood of your economy. So simple anyone could do it?

Imagine, no more grinding, no more farming, no “messin’ and guessin’” at the auction house’ A quick install, then a real system that does everything for you.

To take a look at the WoW-C Project click here Or if you’d prefer just Click for free guides

Let’s take a first look at what is happening “under the hood” of the first Warcraft movie. Many of the outline details are now available, so let’s see what we can expect.

Fanfare – The movie is being directed by Sam Raimi. His resume includes the first three Spiderman movies (he is rumoured to have walked out on the fourth) Scream and (if you are old enough to remember) the excellent Evil Dead. This inital announcement shows that this is no mini-budget tie-in or rip off. This is being seen as a major movie release with serious production and directorial values.

It is being written by Robert Rodat, He of “Saving Private Ryan” fame. Looking through Robert’s resume, it seems that action will play a very large part in the movie. However expect some pretty moving personal moments as well. Ryan was a rollercoaster of emotions. Fear and frustration (the stabbing scene while his buddy whimpered on the stairs still drives me mad today).

The location for most scenes is likely to be New Zealand. Again, the precedent is set with films like Lord of the Rings showing that this spectacular landscape can certainly become a realistic fantasy backdrop. It’s not difficult to imagine an “Azerothian” feel.

The earliest possible release is late 2011. That’s almost two years time. It is far more likely however that the film will be out in 2012. Why? Because this reviewer feels that whatever the expansion after Cataclysm is, it will be out in late 2012. My betting the two will be released together, and there will be a synergy between them. Expect Lore to be advanced and concepts inter-changed between the film and whatever the fourth expansion turns out to be.

At this early stage, one thing dopes seem certain. The film will be action based (as opposed to quest based) though whether we have Alliance verses Horde or either verses Scourge – or indeed a mixture of the two – remain to be seen. Of course, we could always have a new entity introduced just for the film.

So far no names have been mooted for the leading role (or roles). It is unlikely that the film’s producers have even got around to deciding themselves yet

Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, 300) are behind this movie. Good news in itself. There is no shortage of experience in making top quality action movies there then! Expect this to be a top notch production.

Now this site is up and running properly again, we will take the time every so often to keep you up to date with the progress of this movie. Expect star Bio’s and location shots as soon as we can get hold of them.

Discuss the latest with other Warcraft fans @ The Warcraft Blog We offer the best professional, downloadable Free Warcraft Guides as well. Free guides. Now that’s got to be a good thing!