Monday
Feb152010
Van Hemlock News for 14th February 2010
Jon Shute | Monday, February 15, 2010 at 12:08AM Van Hemlock News for 14th February 2010
- 360 Version of Trine Probably Scrapped | Game Rant
- Apparently, Playing Xbox Is Not An Infidelity Solution - Sex - Kotaku
- BioShock 2 hacking minigame could cause issues for colorblind gamers
- Blizzard: 70% in WOW don't pass level 10 News | MMO | Eurogamer
- Cataclysm release confirmed for 2010 in Activision Blizzard conference call
- Champions Online expansion is now free - Massively
- Dead Rising 2 date, 360 gets prologue News | Xbox 360 | Eurogamer
- Developer: Not Many People Hook Their PSP Up To The PSN - PS3 - Kotaku
- EVE Online | EVE Insider | Dev Blog
- Free Realms reaches 8 million registered accounts, nominated in Game Developer's Choice Awards - Massively
- Gamasutra - News - Microsoft Releases Sales Figures, Xbox Live Stats
- Heritage Key comes online as Second Life for Indiana Jones wannabes - Pocket-lint
- Left 4 Dead Blog
- NCsoft 2009 financials get high on Aion
- News: Official: Alan Wake PC canned - ComputerAndVideoGames.com
- NIS America has to rename Badman News | PSP | Eurogamer
- No, This is Not Confirmation of the 'Wii 2' - Wii - Kotaku
- On the PlayStation 3: On the Isolated SPUs
- Online Casual Games Spend Topped €1 Billion In Europe In '09 | Edge Online
- Original Guitar Hero Publisher RedOctane Shut Down
- Peter Moore excited for PS3 "Arc", not so much for OnLive
- Report: US Army Tried To Buy 360s For Training, Was Turned Down - Microsoft - Kotaku
- Sony: PS3 supply to be 'tight' over coming months
- Square Enix Probing Altered FFXIII Comparison Shots [Update] - final fantasy XIII - Kotaku
- The 2010 Console War, According To Activision - Activision - Kotaku
- The Beatles: Rock Band DLC 'All You Need is Love' coming to PS3, Wii
- The Escapist : News : FarmVille Developer Offers $42 Virtual Item
- The Escapist : News : THQ Franchises to Hit SyFy Network
- The Escapist : News : Videogames May Not Be an Addiction
- The Sims 3 confirmed for consoles | Games Industry | MCV
- Violent Games Assailed by Church of England | GamePolitics
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Reader Comments (4)
Thought I'd just put that "70% of WoW players" statistic into perspective using the actual quote from (what I believe to be) the original article.
“Our research shows that trial players who play World of Warcraft pass level 10 are much more likely to stick with the game for a long time. Currently, only about 30 percent of our trial players make it past this threshold. So anything we can do to improve the new player experience is a huge opportunity for us,” http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/11/only-30-of-new-wow-players-continue-after-level-10-says-blizzard/
Mike Morhaime is specifically talking about trial accounts, not people who have invested in the game by buying the first 30 days free. Personally I have contributed to that 70% statistic twice. signing up for trials when I'm looking for a little nostalgia (seriously easy with their streaming client) even though I have a lapsed account with high level characters.
Just a morsel of trivia RE the army using 360's for training. Apparently the armed forces have had a department for using gaming as training aids for a while now. Boardgames/tabletop games specifically designed to teach the implementation of battlefield tactics have been used for quite a few years I have been told.
Most entertaining podcast! Please can we have more where you two giggle hysterically! :-)
Just to give you a little more information about the Unwither ring on farmville, the item was being marketed as a valentines gift, buy this for the one you love, etc.
The basic premise of farmville is that you plant crops which take X amount of time to grow and cost Y to plant, after X amount of time you can harvest the crop, getting you a certain amount of money. After ANOTHER X amount of time (2X from when the crop was planted) the crop will wither, making it worthless. All this item does is make it so you don't have to ensure you are online between X and 2X from when the crop was planted, you can go and harvest the crop at any time after X.
I still think it is one of the most obscene items I've ever seen in a facebook app, but at the end of the day it is completely optional, and given that farmville isn't really competative in any way, doesn't really affect the "ballance" of the game at all.