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Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Captain’s Log
Geez louise! It’s time for another installment of your favorite Thursday Star Trek Online column, Captain’s Log. Despite the lovely weather, the final volume of awesome, that crazy-good movie and a parasailing donkey, everyone seems to (still) be talking about one thing: the C-Store!
In last week’s Captain’s Log, we glanced at micro-transactions in STO on our way to discussing the game’s future in an increasingly freemium world. Readers had plenty of comments to share … and that was before Cryptic Studios dropped a hydrogen bomb in the form of new per-character services. Players erupted late last week, and the flames are still burning in a forum thread more than 115 pages long.
I would be remiss to gloss over the controversy, so let’s examine why folks are so upset at Cryptic this time. It’s not as if much else is happening in the pre-patch lull, amirite?
Continue reading Captain’s Log: Per-character C-Store services ruin everything ever
 Captain’s Log: Per-character C-Store services ruin everything ever originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Massively
Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond — your addons folder will never be the same. This week, Addon Spotlight reaches into the addon grab bag and pulls out some delicious randomness for you.
Looking over all the columns here on WoW.com must be amazing for you Cataclysm information hounds. All that cool new art, talent trees getting changed like crazy, new races and sound files … Too bad you’ll find no Cataclysm stuff in Addon Spotlight. Not yet, anyway — addons are currently disabled in the beta. For us addon junkies, then, we can only sit back, relax, drink 30 cans of Arnold Palmer and drift the night away. Or, I can recommend some addons. Both work for me.
Continue reading Addon Spotlight: Grab bag
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Addon Spotlight: Grab bag originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WoW.com
Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online
If the Season 1 patch for Star Trek Online pushed forward huge improvements to the game’s engine, Season 2 looks to expand into several areas players have complained were lacking. Cryptic has just released a preview page detailing several additions, including added Klingon PvE play and six additional levels. The new levels let players reach the coveted rank of Vice Admiral in the Federation and Lieutenant General in the Klingon Empire, bringing improved versions of Tier 5 ships to coincide with the new maximum ranks. While it’s not explicitly stated, it’s implied that the new ships won’t be mandatory upgrades, but rather options for players who want to fly some of the most iconic ships in the franchise’s long history.
Even with no other additions, the changes would bring new aspects of play, but the update also sees the launch of the Federation Diplomatic Corps (a separate leveling track of negotiation and social interaction) and a new minigame associated with anomaly scanning. Currently a passive form of resource gathering, scanning will be changed into a simple wave-matching game to help gather additional resources — making it somewhat more interesting than walking to a node and pressing a button. That’s still not getting into the special weekly content due to start arriving in August… there’s a good reason Cryptic has made a large page to summarize it at a glance. Star Trek Online‘s second major patch is targeted to hit later this month, with a first impression from testing available from West Karana.
Preview made available for Star Trek Online’s Season 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Massively
Less than a week away, Blizzard has released a few videos that really get your blood pumping to get hands on with the campaign. There are 3 videos we’ll outline here. While there are snapshots from the campaign video there’s not enough to piece anything together, no more than a movie trailer would.
Starcraft 2 News
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.
Starting tomorrow and lasting through the next week, I get the apartment to myself. Katie, the girlfriend who doesn’t really care for WoW, will be visiting some of her extended family up in New York. This means that other than work, I have nearly uninterrupted WoW time. The chance of my gearing up another character to go into ICC: very high.
Today in The Queue, you guessed it: Cataclysm Q&A! Plus I talk a little bit about what it’s like to work at WoW.com.
Chillypally asked …
“Is there any point farming for Frost badges anymore? Tier 10 is iLevel 251 and the first quests rewards are iLevel 272. Looks like we’re in for a vanilla to BC transition and not a BC to WotLK one.”
Continue reading The Queue: It’s Thursday
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: It’s Thursday originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WoW.com
Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, Patches, News items, Star Trek Online
If you’re playing Star Trek Online, odds are good that you’ve come by your affection for the game via a prior love of the series. While we haven’t had a new show on television in several years, almost every fan has fond memories of sitting down each week for the latest installments of the story. According to a new 10-question interview with Daniel Stahl, that’s exactly what the team hopes to replicate (pun intended) with the weekly episodes that are coming along with Season 2. Each one is meant to give players something new to look forward to on a weekly basis, ranging from first contact with an alien race to placing your ship in perilous situations.
Speaking of first contact, there’s more information on diplomatic missions, which seem as if they’ll not simply be standalone ventures but also components of existing content. (The once-dreaded planetary aid missions, for example, fall under their aegis.) One of the rewards for progressing through the diplomatic ranks is the chance to make first contact and define the first impression the Federation makes — something that any fan of the series will tell you is an important event. Star Trek Online players eager for more information on Season 2 can read the full list of questions, which include a preliminary target of the last week in July.
More details on weekly episodes in Star Trek Online’s Season 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Greetings all~
Some good news,
Character Transfer Maintenance 23/07/2010 04:00 CEST
Greetings Daevas,
As you well know by now, we had to delay the character transfers yesterday due to an unforeseen technical issue.
We have managed to correct the problem that was causing the transfers to fail and are ready to bring the servers down again to transfer all those that had queued prior to yesterday’s maintenance. If you queued prior to the 14th July your transfer will go through, there is no need to queue again, please make sure that your character meets the transfer requirements before the maintenance.
· You cannot transfer a character that is a member of a Legion. Your character must leave any Legion it belongs to before you transfer it to a different server.
· You cannot transfer a character that has more than 200,000,000 Kinah.
· Items in your account warehouse will not be transferred.
· You cannot transfer a character that has any items that are up for consignment with the Trade Broker.
The full eligibility and restrictions can be found here.
Please also remember that if the character name on your destination server is already taken, your character will be renamed and a character rename ticket will be placed in your inventory.
So we will be bringing the Aion Europe servers down at 4am CEST (3am BST) on Friday 23rd July, the maintenance will last for 3 hours. During this maintenance access to the NCsoft website will also be unavailable (NCsoft Master Account).
After this maintenance we will reopen the ability to queue for free character transfers.
– The Aion Community Team
So the free character transfers are back online. Servers will be down for a while tomorrow (friday) to catch up with the characters they should have moved on wednesday.
Quick fix there.
Enjoy! 
AionSource Community News
Filed under: Multiplayer, RTS, Starcraft II
StarCraft II‘s release is less than a week away now and many fans who want to get the upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel have been wondering about the particulars of activating the game on Battle.net and also the differences between the boxed retail version and the digital download version. A rep for the game’s developer Blizzard answered these questions in a forum post.
In short there are no differences between the digital download version of StarCraft II and the one in the boxed version, with the Blizzard rep saying, “All the files are exactly the same, but you obviously don’t get the box, DVD, or manual.” Also, If you get a boxed copy of the game and add the included key into your Battle.net account, “the option to download the client online will become available.” The game client is region-specific, however. As the Blizzard rep explains, “Therefore, in order for a player to log in and begin playing, both the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game license and the installed game client must be from the same region. If the game license and the game client don’t match, the player will be unable to login.”
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StarCraft II forums answer questions about game activation originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Big Download Blog
Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler’s latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we’ll keep you informed.
A couple notes. First, we’re going to start running The Daily Blues around 7/7:30 a.m. EDT weekday mornings now. And second, while we normally wouldn’t put a YouTube video with this post, we do try to include the latest Blizzard happenings, and that includes their other games. This trailer was just released and it’s bad ass. It was so awesome that Mat McCurley just bought the collector’s edition of StarCraft II.
Table of Contents
Continue reading The Daily Blues
Filed under: The Daily Blues
The Daily Blues originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WoW.com
Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, News items, Star Trek Online
Cryptic Studios and Atari have announced the availability of a new web-based minigame to complement Star Trek Online wherein players can compete to build ships as quickly as possible and see the results on a global leaderboard. The minigame, designed and developed by a marketing firm called The Game Agency, is currently live on the official Star Trek Online website.
In addition to the new Ship Shaper game, players may enter a sweepstakes to win a replica captain’s chair from the original Star Trek television series as well as Intel processors and retail copies of Star Trek Online.
Beam aboard Massively next week for an exclusive interview with Cryptic detailing both the Ship Architect and Season Two features.
STO launches Ship Architect minigame originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Culture, Multiplayer, RTS, Starcraft II
If you can’t show up at Blizzard‘s official midnight launch event for StarCraft II, it’s almost certain that you will be able to make it to one of the 3,000 events that are being held at GameStop stores in the US. The game retailer has announced that there will be lots to do and lots to gets at the events which start at 9 pm on Monday July 26.
The game will still go on sale at midnight that night but beforehand people who wait to get their copy of the long awaited RTS sequel can participate in a e “Choose Your Race” costume contest, a Starcraft original art contest and other events. Also, people who pick up their copy of StarCraft II at midnight will also get a “GameStop Boost Pack” with unnamed “savings” for GameStop, Alienware and Nvidia/EVGA products. Finally GameStop will begin a contest after sales of StarCraft II commence with prizes like 0 Gamestop cards, the collector’s version of the game and a trip to BlizzCon 2010.
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StarCraft II midnight launch events at 3,000 GameStop stores on Monday originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Big Download Blog
Every week, Gold Capped (from Basil “Euripides” Berntsen) aims to educate players about how to make money on the auction house. For the inside line on crafting for disenchanting, transmutation, cross-faction arbitrage and more, check in every Wednesday. Also, feel free to email Basil any comments, questions or hate mail!
I’ve gotten quite the mail bag of questions emailed to me. I’m going to select a few and answer them approximately whenever I feel like it. Remember when writing your question that if you want to remain anonymous, all you need to do is ask!
The first question comes to us from Mahgo, from Dath’Remar (US):
I am emailing your for some advice regarding making gold on the auction house. I have most professions at max level.
I currently use Auctioneer to undercut when I am selling what I make. Do you have any advice or could you please point me for some help regarding niche markets, or how to tackle the whole market?
Continue reading Gold Capped Ask an Auctioneer: My first mailbag
Filed under: Gold Capped
Gold Capped Ask an Auctioneer: My first mailbag originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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WoW.com
Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Captain’s Log
Welcome to another installment of Captain’s Log, in which we explore — and sometimes complain about — the uncharted depths of Star Trek Online. This is your captain speaking from behind a rickety card table in a basement somewhere in the murky New Jersey Nebula. Isn’t moving the worst?
Last week, we learned a little bit about Daniel Stahl, the brand new executive producer on STO. But not enough to prepare us for the crazy truth bomb with which he torpedoed the official forums. On Sunday, Stahl suggested that he could see STO going free-to-play. Seriously. I had planned to discuss the Cryptic Store this week anyway, and this fits in nicely, given micro-transactions’ importance to the free-to-play model.
Would Cryptic Studios’ switching STO from subscriptions to an F2P model be a godsend or a hellish nightmare? (Hint: It would wind up somewhere in the middle.)
Continue reading Captain’s Log: The C-Store and the perils of going freemium
Captain’s Log: The C-Store and the perils of going freemium originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Culture, Starcraft II
Ah, Comic-Con. In the last few years its turned from being fairly PC and video game free to a place where most of the major publishers are holding court. Who would have thunk it?
Big Download’s News Bits & Bytes – July 21 originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Big Download Blog
Engineering in Cataclysm – Enchants, Scopes, and Gems
The Engineering page released on NDA lift day lacked content because spells aren’t flagged as "Engineering" yet, however it looks like a lot of stuff is already here and there is enough content to give you a small preview of Engineering in Cataclysm.
The items with the biggest omg-epic factor are obviously the helms that I already posted 2 weeks ago.
New engineering-only enchants are available:
- Gnome-Matic Phase Fingers – Permanently attaches gnome-matic phase finger technology to a pair of gloves, allowing a skilled engineer to increase their haste rating by 340 for 12 sec. The gloves can only be activated every minute.
- Quickflip Deflection Plates – Permanently attaches quickflip deflection plates onto gloves, allowing you to increase your armor by 1500 for 12 sec. Gloves can only be activated once every minute. Attaching the armor webbing causes the gloves to become soulbound. An Engineering skill of 500 is required to keep the webbing active.
- Tazik Shocker – Permanently attaches a tazik shocker to your gloves, allowing a skilled engineer to deal 1654 to 2020 Nature damage to an enemy at long range. The shocker can only be used once every 45 sec. Can only be used on the engineer’s gloves, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Spinal Healing Injector – Permanently attaches a specialized injector kit to your belt, allowing you to inject a Mythical Healing Potion directly into your bloodstream for increased effect. Only a skilled engineer can activate the modified belt. Can only be attached to your own belt, and doing so causes the belt to become soulbound.
- Z50 Mana Gulper – Permanently attaches a specialized injector kit to your belt, allowing you to power-drink a Mythical Mana Potion for increased effect. Only a skilled engineer can activate the modified belt. Can only be attached to your own belt, and doing so causes the belt to become soulbound.
Scopes are also here:
- Gnomish X-Ray Scope – Attaches a permanent scope to a bow or gun that increases its ranged critical strike rating by 88. Attaching this scope to a ranged weapon causes it to become soulbound.
- R19 Threatfinder – Attaches a permanent scope to a bow or gun that increases its ranged hit rating by 88. Attaching this scope to a ranged weapon causes it to become soulbound.
- Safety Catch Removal – Removes the safety mechanism from a bow or gun, increasing its ranged haste rating by 88. Using this kit causes the bow or gun to become soulbound.
Last but not least, a couple of very interesting items were datamined on Cataclysm Beta servers. It looks like engineers will get a new type of items, very similar to gems.
They also seem to use a new kind of socket called "Hydraulics socket", at this point it could be anything, really, but it definitely seems that engineering will get some love in Cataclysm.
Cataclysm Video – Blanchy Questline
I couldn’t leave so many questions unanswered, here is a video of the Blanchy/CSI Questline! This is a playlist with 3 videos, click on the left/right to go to the next video.
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Comics
Dark Legacy Comics #246 and Teh Gladiators #147 + #148 are out.
MMO-Champion – News
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