The Debrief - Awards 2012 Video Games

Debrief last year, so it takes a quite special, whatever common this season: a debriefing of 12 months with 6 play video games rated among the press and acclaimed by the players. What catch up if one of them is not part of your collection!

Guild Wars 2

Expected since many years, Guild Wars 2 is definitely the massively multiplayer role-playing game of the year (well, y 'has not been that much). In detailed and diverse environments,Guild Wars 2 gold players embody six races unite to fight against a common threat. Many good ideas are a breath of fresh kind that turned around in circles. Available on PC and Mac.

Game designer talked about the class balance of Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 game designer Jonathan Sharp published a blog about the class balance, in which he talked about the design ideas of game class balance and various game class design direction.

He said that:

Quote

Class balance philosophies

We normally try to employ metered and controlled balance changes with each pass, rather than huge reductions or improvements to classes. We want to get all classes on the same playing field, and we want to avoid “whack-a-mole” style balance. HUGH increases and HUGE decreases lead to meta instability, and thusly, we try to make multiple small tweaks rather than putting in massive changes that we have to later correct.

When designing and balancing the classes, we try to make sure that class roles and identities stay intact. So, in doing so, we make sure that there are rules and boundaries outlining the capabilities and weaknesses of each class.

Warrior

We want the Warrior to be capable of good melee damage in a sturdy body. They can still do some decent damage at range, but they aren’t as good at it as the Ranger (with their pet). They have a hard time taking enemy boons down, and instead, have to just go through them with raw force. They may have a hard time with enemy conditions, and may need to ask for ally help in order to keep themselves free of hampering conditions.

Guardian

The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health. They focus on area control and punishing enemies for the position on the battlefield. We want them to feel very powerful when their boons are active, but if those boons are removed, they will start to feel pressure. They can remove conditions more easily than the Warrior, but share the Warrior’s need to be in melee range to dole out maximum damage.

Ranger

The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets. We've balanced the class around the idea that you always have a pet with you to aid in any fight. The fact that the ranger can have multiple pets allows them to combine their pets in ways that most impact the current fight. We want the Ranger to have some of the evasion enjoyed by the Thief, as well as the mobility other classes employ. The class is able to deal physical or condition damage, and it can do this in melee or at range.

Engineer

The Engineer is a highly versatile class. While it doesn't have the long range capabilities of the Ranger, or the melee capabilities of the Warrior or Guardian, they are comfortable at medium ranges in most fights. They have a lot of control, and use their boons to keep themselves (and allies) alive in a fight. They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Thief

Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage. They can be very fragile if you counter their stealth with area of effects or large stacks of conditions, but they trade this fragility in order to have some of the highest burst damage in the Guild Wars 2 gold game. They are able to help allies through traps, venoms and the mobility to flank most encounters.

Mesmer

Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals. They need illusions to accomplish some of their highest damage and control, and without the illusions, they become fairly fragile. They can deal with enemy boons better than most classes, but enemy conditions can often be a problem. They share some of the stealth and mobility that the Thief enjoys, but suffer from a low health pool if you get past all their tricks.

Ele

We see the elementalist as the king of versatility. The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elementalist. The Ele boasts some of the best team support and control abilities in the game, as well as some great area of effect damage.

Necro

The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

Going forward

Tank vs spike vs physical DPS vs condie DPS. We want to keep making balance changes that allow all classes to have various builds they can use. We don’t want tanks dominating the gw2 gold game, and we don’t want spike builds dominating. It’s healthy to have multiple types of builds in the meta, so we’ll be improving the balance to facilitate a healthy meta.

AOE balance. We feel that in PvP some AOE builds are too strong for the opportunity cost, and we’ll be bringing those in line in the next few patches.

Guild Wars 2 festive discounts, save your money here

Guild Wars 2 festive discounts, there are discounts Guild Wars 2 items on sale.

Today and tomorrow is the Guild Wars 2 items big discount activity, so players do not bought yet should seize this opportunity. More Guild Wars 2 gold and CD Keys are cheap for unprecedented. We also accept several payment methods such as: Paypal&Moneybookers , Credit Cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Blue card and so on),  Pay safe card ,Western Union and Pay by mobile phone etc.

Here we insurance that we will delivery with 15 minutes after you finished your order. Come here to choice what you like and enjoy the amusing game.

Guild Wars 2 improvements dungeon "Fractals of mist"

ArenaNet is working on improvements to the dungeon "Fractals of fog." End of January 2013 will see a patch that bereint the re-entry problem when the connection is lost and bring a change for the fractal-step restriction.

ArenaNet made ​​in the end of November 2012 held AMA round (Ask Me Anything) points out that some improvements are also introduced with the November update dungeon "Fractals of fog." Now the lead designer Isaiah Cartwright delivers on the official Guild Wars 2 site relevant to the planned dungeon-changes that will come into play end of January 2013.

On the one hand is working on the problem of re-entry of a group member after a disconnection. If a gw2 gold player loses connection in the dungeon, he can not join the group. Under the new system, a re-entry to be no longer a problem.

Another issue is the size levels of the dungeon and the achieved level of a fractal character. Currently, the level targeted for the group after the player with the lowest fractal level. This procedure is for the player who has not played the dungeon as often hard to find a group. The level restriction is now slightly modified, whereby a group search is simplified. There Guild Wars 2 gold players can come together with different fractal levels. The group then decides himself for any fractal level. Upon completion of the dungeon then the level of each character is increased by 1 if the selected fractal level is below or at the same level. Players that are above the level obtained, although no step increase, but karma for their help.

Further information is available in the article by Isaiah Cartwright on the official website.

D Lottery to test new technology, broaden games

The state Lottery Commission gave approval Wednesday to a test of high-speed data technology for video lottery establishments.

The lottery's administrators & commissioners depicted it as the gate for providing new sorts of legalized gambling across South Dakota.

10 locations will be the 1st recipients of the digital subscriber lines — DSL, for brief — linking their video lottery terminals with the state agency's central computer.

Read the Farm Forum classifieds updated daily. >>

The DSL technology will permit info to be exchanged in genuine time and make doable new gw2 gold games, such as progressive slot-machine jackpots offered in casinos.

Establishment operators also may offer a number of distinctive games on a single terminal making use of the DSL connections, lottery director Norm Lingle stated.

"This really is kind of the gateway to the future for our strategic plan," commissioner Roger Novotny of Pierre mentioned.

The test project will cost the lottery an estimated $38,000.

The technology would be fitted over about six weeks in January & February, stated Clark Hepper, the lottery's new deputy director. He is spearheading the project.

If the pilot proves successful, Lingle said, lottery administrators will ask the commission subsequent December for approval to go statewide to 1,500 establishments.

Full roll-out would expense an estimated $290,000 for equipment and programming.

For the moment, the principal purpose of the DSL technology is to replace the method used by the lottery agency to check nightly on the level of everyday action played on each video lottery terminal.

The lottery's computer strategy at present gathers that details by making telephone calls to each terminal.

Lingle mentioned other benefits would be the creation of what he explained as a loyalty program and a players' club approach to track willing video lottery prospects. gw2 gold players club services & promotions mostly are provided by Deadwood casinos and other casinos all through the nation.

Jukeboxes increasingly use DSL technology rather than vinyl records or CDs, with much wider musical selections possible, Lingle mentioned.

He stated DSL "just opens the door" to future purposes that aren't attainable with dial-up communications.

Coming Soon To WvW (updated 12/14)

Wintersday is coming and along with all the other goodies there will be a few updates to WvW. Some of these changes are the result of forum feedback while others are part of our longer term plans for WvW. Here’s a quick preview of what WvW will get for Wintersday:

Advance notification of new builds (updated 12/14 – see below)
In order to allow WvW players to make good decions about siege placement, assault timing, etc. we’re adding a new build pre-announcement. This will be in the form of a message broadcast to all players some time before the current build expires. Because this notification is tied to one of the final steps in our build process, and those final steps take a variable amount of time, we won’t be able to say exactly when the current build will expire. Instead, the message will provide a window of time in which the new build will become available.

Update 12/14: This feature is still coming but due to some unforeseen technical difficulties it won’t be ready in time for the Wintersday build. We’re working to resolve the remaining issues and will turn on the new build advance notification system as soon as it’s ready.

Alt+F4 is no escape
If someone that you’re fighting disconnects during combat (via Alt+F4, killing the client process, etc.) their character will be instantly killed, death penalties will be applied, and XP & loot will be handed out as usual.

No more insta-build walls & gates
Destroyed walls and gates will now rebuild when they reach 10% health rather than on the very first repair. This means that when attackers down a wall or gate defenders won’t be able to instantly rebuild it. Walls and gates which are destroyed can still be damaged if they have any health.

Breakout events
We’ve added a new event type to WvW called Breakout events which trigger when one or more teams have been pushed completely out of a map. They’re designed both to help gw2 gold players break out of severly camped portal keeps and to provide assistance in establishing a foothold in each map. Here’s what designer Matt Witter has to say about them:

Break Out Events are special WvW events that will happen when a team has lost control of all defensive structures, not counting supply camps. An NPC commander will appear in the team’s start area and an event will start that prompts players to gather around. Once enough players are in the commander’s presence he will summon his trusty dolyak to give all allies in the area full supply. He will then lead the charge to the nearby objective and give players protection and assist with building siege to assault the objective with. Those benefits, along with a defensive boon that he applies to all nearby allies, makes the attacking gw2 gold players a force to be reckoned with. Defenders will have their work cut out for them, as once the gate or wall piece is destroyed the commander will move to the tower lord inside and attack anyone in his path.

These changes are just a small part of what the WvW team has been up to lately. As you may have already heard, we’re hard at work on some larger updates that we plan to deliver in February. We’re not quite ready to talk about the details yet but as February gets closer we’ll start to reveal more of our secrets.
Happy Wintersday and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

Hugely multiplayer online games continue to thrive in this zero cost-to-play era

Confident, tons of men and women canceled their monthly subscriptions to substantial-budget hugely multiplayer online gw2 gold games, on the other hand they're not saving that profits. Instead, gamers are shifting to free-to-play games like League of Legends & World of Tanks.

That change will stimulate a continued growth in global MMO revenues, according to economic analyst firm SuperData Research. The think-tank expects the industry, especially on the strength of zero cost-to-play, to reach $9.5 billion by 2015.

"I recognize that there is a number of debate over incorporating League of Legends [in our data] since you could only establish characters within a short timeframe & play with a more confined number of players," SuperData business development manager Sam Barberie told GamesBeat. "However for analysis and competition purposes men and women are apt to group it with MMOs, in particular because you are nonetheless building & leveling up a character. Our details come directly from publishers and developers, so it's type of a two-way street of each them & us considering a game to be MMO."

SuperData pointed toward 2012, where F2P games out-earned pay-to-play titles in all 12 months. This new model is here & it is where the money is at.

League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) from developer Riot Games, is the best example of how profitable free-to-play is for a number of companies. Riot sells players different skins for their characters — in conjunction with other in-game goods — to help personalize the player experience. This paired with the gw2 gold game's recognition as a competitive eSport, which is continuously bringing in new players, generates major profits for the developer.

World of Warcraft nonetheless makes more income than just about any zero cost-to-play game, but it also has pushed out all competing subscription-based titles. So while the conventional $15-a-month games have a clearer path to huge revenue gains, it's also a market that is almost impossible to crack.