Reserving Your Character Name for Guild Wars 2

 

Ever since we announced the Guild Wars 2 Pre-Purchase program and Headstart Access, we’ve had a lot of questions about how name reservation will work for existing Guild Wars players. Here’s how it will work:

 

Character names in the Guild Wars universe work differently than they do in most other MMOs. Whereas in most MMOs character names are unique only within their world/server, in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, character names are unique across the entire game. In Guild Wars 2, when a player acquires a name like Wizardex, he or she is acquiring it across all worlds. Clearly this places more importance on grabbing the name early.

 

Today no one actually has the name Wizardex, because all character names from the original Guild Wars were two words or more. All one-word names will be up for grabs at the start of the Guild Wars 2 Headstart Access period. But there are currently 20 million two-word names in use by existing Guild Wars players. We need a policy that allows dedicated players to hold on to their established names, while freeing up the bulk of names for the rush of Guild Wars 2 players who will come into the game at launch.

 

 

 

 

Thus our policy will simply be as follows: to preserve your character name from Guild Wars into Guild Wars 2, you must be an active Guild Wars player (more on that below), and you must create a Guild Wars 2 character with the same name as your Guild Wars character during the Headstart Access period or on launch day.

 

After launch day (and after we work through support tickets filed on launch day), we’ll free up the millions of unclaimed names for new Guild Wars 2 players to use.

 

To implement this name reservation system, we need to build a list of the character names of active Guild Wars players that we’ll reserve through launch day. We actually need to build that list a few weeks prior to the launch of Guild Wars 2.

 

So we’ll use the following very generous definition of active: Guild Wars players will be considered active—thus having their Guild Wars names reserved and available to claim during Headstart Access and on launch day—if they have logged into the game at least once between January 1, 2012 and the day we build the name reservation list.

 

We’ll warn the community before we build the list, but that’s irrelevant, because there’s no reason for anyone to wait. If you want to reserve character names from Guild Wars into Guild Wars 2, log in to the original game now so we know you’re active!

 

We’ll see you in-game,

 

The Guild Wars 2 Team

Source:  ANet blog post

So yeah, what do you think?

I read on twitter this morning, with great sorrow, that anotehr great station has been lost in the DAB market in the UK, due to the crazy licencing hoops we have to jump through here in the UK that are not only hurting the radio biz, but also the artists of bands

 

 

 

—

 

Amazing Radio ceased broadcasting nationally on Digital 1 at midnight on Monday. This letter explains what happened, and why we think it is important for all of us who love radio and care about music.

 

 —

 

Let’s be honest.  Some of you will have said ‘Amazing Who?’  Others will go ‘serves them right, their model was crazy’.  Others will be sad to see something new disappear from the airwaves, but assume it was never viable as a concept.

The truth is more complicated. Amazing Radio did not go off the air because our model failed. We have been growing very rapidly for two years and broke even in January. We have very supportive shareholders who understand that we have a long term, very audacious plan to reinvent the music industry. We are about to raise $30m in Silicon Valley to expand internationally and in the UK. Transmissions ceased because we were unable to secure acceptable terms for an extension of our contract.  We could not close a US funding round with uncertainty about our UK broadcasting licence. We remain grateful to Digital 1 for taking a risk with us when we launched in 2009, and we hope to resolve the dispute and get back on the air. Certainly the astonishing reaction from listeners and musicians, erupting spontaneously within an hour of our announcement, confirms that people want us back on DAB.

 

Why should you care about this?  Several reasons: -

 

The music industry is broken.  The old model doesn’t work any more. Major labels have withdrawn from A&R. The industry needs help finding the new talent. That’s what we do.

 

Musicians need an outlet.  The UK has an incredible live music scene, and technology allows bands to record to a higher standard and lower cost than at any time. But there’s no point having an MP3 nobody hears.  We have given thousands of bands their first radio play and first revenues.

 

DAB has to work. It’s important for the whole radio ecosystem and the Government needs the cash from analogue switch-off. The incredible reaction to our departure shows people want to use DAB to find new things. (Not just simulcasts of FM).

 

It’s good for GDP.  Creative industries are the fastest-growing part of the UK economy. The industry needs to work together to find the next Adele, the next Radiohead. We are (now) an important player at the start of that process. And our expansion will create even more jobs.

 

It’s good for young people. Music provides a creative outlet and focus for anyone. It’s democratic and (because of digital technology) accessible – if there’s a route map for talent to develop.

 

It’s good for radio.  We don’t compete for your audiences – we only ever expect to be a niche, and we’ll never take advertising. But we will find the music you’ll be playing next year.

 

We hope you see merit in these arguments and will wish us well, as we continue to expand. When we get back on the air, we hope you’ll find some new music you love. (Thousands have).

Source: Amazing Blog

Amazing Radio are still up and going online, however they were a big player on the DAB radio network and an example I planned to follow with The Saniarium.FM too

Good luck to them

– The story continues in Kingsmouth with all new characters, storylines and missions, Funcom teams up with major websites all over Europe for massive key giveaway –
 

Durham, USA – May 15^th, 2012 – Funcom is excited to announce that the next Beta Weekend for its upcoming modern-day massively multiplayer online game  ‘The Secret World’  will start on May 18^th at 9am PDT / 6pm CET and run until Sunday May 20^th at 11.59pm PDT / May 21^st 8.59am CET. During this Beta Weekend players get to pick up where they left off with the same character they played during the first Beta Weekend, as they get to meet all-new characters in Kingsmouth each with their own unique missions and storylines.

The best way to gain access to the Beta Weekend is to pre-order  ‘The Secret World’. This grants access to all Beta Weekends leading up to launch. Funcom is also teaming up with major websites all over Europe this week to conduct a massive giveaway of keys for this weekend only, and this is a great way for gamers to have a look at the game before pre-ordering.

Sites running this exclusive giveaway include  Buffed (DE),  JeuxVideo (FR),  PC Gamer (UK),  Gamer (NO),  Daily Rush (DK),  Fragzone (SE) and  Peliplaneetta(FI). Gamers in North America can get a key from the major MMO gaming site  Curse. Visit  the game’s official website for a complete list of partners.

Funcom executed a successful first Beta Weekend from May 11^th to May 13^th, both in terms of player numbers, feedback and technical stability on both client and server side. The company is also encouraged by the fact that this Beta weekend saw higher player numbers, longer play-times and higher return visits than for beta week-ends conducted for its previous MMO,  “Age of Conan”. Funcom also teamed up with the world’s largest gaming site GameSpot to bring thousands of keys for the first Beta Weekend to its readers. During the Beta Weekend  ‘The Secret World’ featured as the most popular game overall on the site, and as of today the game has a higher number of active followers on GameSpot than any other massively multiplayer online game in development.

“The results from the first Beta Weekend are very encouraging,” says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. “The majority of the feedback we have received from players is very positive, and also looking at it from a development perspective the Beta Weekend was undoubtedly a major success for the company.”

The international gaming press has also been playing  ‘The Secret World’ for the past week, and many of them have provided their impressions. Leading gaming site GamesRadar says in their preview that they have  “…just started to scratch the surface of  ‘The Secret World’, and already, we’re awfully impressed.” Leading MMO site ZAM says in their preview that  “…  ‘The Secret World’ is a tremendously immersive experience that will invite you in to stay.”

You can find a list of coverage  on the official site.

Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.

Now THIS, you have to see

If you liked films like Cloverfield, you will love ths film

This is all about teenage angst, family problems and lack of money and the corruption power can manifest (lots of metiphors in this film)

Hell if this was a Marvel film, I would expect Spidey to come swinging in reminding kids that, "With great power comes great responsibility" and its true

Three teenage guys find an alien artifact (which is convieniently left out there in the plot and never cleaned up and I am actually happy about it) in a sink hole in the ground.  The object makes a strange noise and gives them all a nose bleed and then throws them out of the hole and collapses the sink hole.  The three then start manifesting telekenysis and other cool superhero powers, however, things go bad when one of the three, played by the very cool Dane DeHaan starts considering himself an apex predator and basically shit hits the fan

Considering this is 90% filmed from one of the main characters handycam (which he floats round him like a worker bee) it gives an extra dimension to his power AND I'm sure made the cinematography a LOT easier to film   BUT, it gives you a good look into not only his life (including his abuse from his drunk dad and also the anguish of his mother dying from cancer or similar), but also the small time where life is good, he's enjoying not only his power and the confidence it gives him, but also the fun of being accepted (although it is short lived)

This is a great film and will definitely be gracing my dvd/bluray collection

a cool 7.5 outta 10! Buy it, we want a sequel!

Blizzard has unwrapped Diablo III’s auction system, revealing both in-game gold and real-money auction houses.

Players will be able to switch between the two houses as they wish, which are separated into three regions independent of one another: The Americas, Europe, and Asia. The full corresponding countries for these regions (and what features and functionality they’re limited to at launch) are listed in the official Diablo III auction house FAQ.

Those who utilize the real-money auction house will take on certain transaction fees when selling items.

For equipment, Blizzard will take a $1.00 transaction fee for each item. Commodities such as gems, dyes, and recipes have a 15 per cent fee on them. Players can transfer real-money earnings to their Battle.net account, or transferred out to Paypal for a 15 per cent transfer fee as well.

Diablo III arrives May 15th for PC and OS X.

Source: MCV

We will be joined in IRC and live on air by

"Dreamkiller, the 2011 Independent Artist Music Awards ROCK BAND OF THE YEAR, is a melodic rock band that fuses rock and the idea of a rock musical and targets this towards a commercial audience."

Jim will be joining us live on air this evening, answering you questions from IRC, Facebook and twitter

Make sure to join us aswell to get some requests in! The Live request system both on the website and in IRC @ irc.sanitarium.fm port:6667 #sanitarium.fm for live show discussion

Also, keep an eye on this thread for future youtube videos and info about the band and for any ramblings from the band themselves

Yes indeed, Sunday Night Showcase LIVE!!! with your host, LoneSamurai!

Sunday 29th April, 9pm til Midnight GMT, 4pm til 7pm EST.

See you there
~Lonesamurai

Special Character Distribution Launches with New Pokémon TCG Expansion, Online Showing of ‘The Rise of Darkrai’

 

LONDON, UK —April 26^th, 2012—Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version video game players will get the Pokémon of their dreams, and give their opponents nightmares, when The Pokémon Company International kicks off a special character distribution event next month featuring the Mythical Dark-type Pokémon, Darkrai. The elusive Darkrai comes equipped with a special attack and special Ability that send opposing Pokémon into a frightful scenario when used together. Specific details about the special attack and special Ability will be revealed when the Darkrai character distribution begins May 9^th.

 

Coinciding with the Darkrai character distribution is the retail release of the Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Dark Explorers expansion. This brand-new expansion features Darkrai-EX and an intimidating lineup of other Darkness-type Pokémon such as Zoroark, Umbreon, and Sableye that will knock your opponent’s lights out! The Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Dark Explorers includes more powerful Pokémon-EX cards that inflict serious damage during battle, including Tornadus-EX, Kyogre-EX, Raikou-EX, and Groudon-EX.

 

Darkrai also stars in a full-length feature film, The Rise of Darkrai, coming to www.pokemon.co.uk/ex on May 9th. Pokémon fans can watch Darkrai battling Dialga and Palkia while Ash races to save a town from being thrown into another dimension. Check out the movie, find out more about the Darkrai character distribution, and view Pokémon TCG: Black & White—Dark Explorers cards at Pokemon.co.uk this May!

 

To participate in the Darkrai character distribution event beginning May 9^th via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service, players will need:

 

· Wireless broadband Internet access
· A Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Nintendo DSi XL, or Nintendo 3DS system
· A copy of the Pokémon Black Version or Pokémon White Version game
· No more than 11 Wonder Cards in their possession

 

To find out more about Pokémon, visit www.pokemon.co.uk.

DO WANT!!!

… and CAN has   Win!

Cross-posted at Techically Motivated – Our Motivation is Highlighting Tech Innovation

New promotions offer existing and returning players easy path to discover latest updates

 

LOS ANGELES (Apr. 20, 2012) —  Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas, today announced two new promotional campaigns aimed at rewarding the  FINAL FANTASY® XIV community and reintroducing former players to the updates, content additions and improvements that have been made to the lands of Eorzea. The Legacy Campaign will introduce several benefits for loyal subscribers and The Welcome Back Campaign will encourage adventurers who played FFXIV in the past to rejoin and experience the latest sweeping changes made to the lands of Eorzea.

 

The Legacy Campaign will be offered to players who have been subscribers of  FINAL FANTASY XIV for at least 90 days between January 6, 2012 and the start of the version 2.0 beta testing. Legacy members will be able to lock–in a lowered subscription rate of $9.99 and also receive an exclusive in–game Chocobo mount at the launch of 2.0. Detailed information on the subscription rates are:

 

Membership Tiers Price Billing Cycle Max Playable Characters
Per World Max Playable Characters
Total
Legacy $9.99* 30 Days 8 40
Entry $12.99* 30 Days 1 8
Standard $14.99* 30 Days 8 40

 

Additionally, as a gesture of appreciation to the game's most dedicated community members, the names of these Legacy members will be included in the credits of version 2.0.

 

The Welcome Back Campaign is an invitation for players that hold inactive accounts to rejoin their friends on Eorzea during a 10–day free–to–play window between May 9 (8:00pm PST) and May 20 (11:59pm PST). Returning players will be able to experience the Seventh Umbral Era content and try out major new additions to the game including the job system introduced in Patch 1.21 as well as the content that will be introduced in Patch 1.22 like the battle against the fierce primal Garuda. The Welcome Back Campaign will be an incredible opportunity for players to re–immerse themselves in the realm of Eorzea.

 

For additional information, visit  http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com and  http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com.

Yeah, I won't be giving it another go, are you?

Nick Fury is director of S.H.I.E.L.D, an international peace keeping agency. The agency is a who's who of Marvel Super Heroes, with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When global security is threatened by Loki and his cohorts, Nick Fury and his team will need all their powers to save the world from disaster.

Well damn, THIS, This is the Superhero movie of the year…  Yes, we still have Dark Knight Rises to come (and hopefully that will be just as awesome), but damn, Avengers is just concentrated Awesome on the big screen…

There is a very good reason this film is the movie ambrosia we've needed on the big screen for a couple of years now and his name is Joss Whedon.  Thor was perfectly made by Kenneth Branagh, Iron Man was brilliantly crafted by Jon Favreau.  But this…  This is the superhero mash up we've needed since the first XMen movie way back in 2001 and since the kickstart of the Superhero movie, Blade in 1997

Hulk, played this time by Mark Ruffalo, is one of the stars of this film and absolutely hillarious!  Yes the film is serious, but its Marvel and its a comic book film, it NEEDS some fun and Hulk is just amazingly funny, but in a believeably scripted and directed way

Tom Hiddleston is amazing as Loki, the main bad guy for this film and carrying on his cry baby, pissed opff at adopted daddy and brother, vengence!  But, as a British actor, he looks badass and wears that suit near the beggining brilliantly, he looks badass!

Chris Hemsworth is back as Thor and is fantastic, Chris Evans is back as Cap. America and comes across as the time lost soldier from a different age that brings a moral centre to the team.  But as usual, the stand out performance comes from Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/IronMan… 

We also have to remember, this is the end of Phase 1 of the story arch and the start of Phase 2 leading into IronMan 3, Thor 2 and Captain America 2, leading upto Avengers 2 with the big boss reveal at the end of this on…

"SPOILER ALERT!!!"

Thanos!

Yup, the typical comic/tv/cartoon storyarch of Cosmic Cube to Infinity Gauntlet story, here we come!

The other major plt point that brings the characters together, the demise of Agent Phil Coulson!  Clark Gregg has been a lynchpin character in this story arch and I'm sorry to see him go, I honestly loved his character (glad he has now been bought into various cartoons and comics, thank you Marvel!)

… and as a comic book fan that was raised on these characters…  I can't fucking wait!

10 out of 10 guys!  Watch It!

The Arena.Net blog has been updated with new information for participants in this weekend's first beta event. Information includes both the EU and NA server lists and requirements for transfer to servers outside of a player's purchase zone.

When you log in to the game for the first time, you will have the opportunity to pick any available server, or home world. If you choose to select a home world that is in a different region from where you purchased your game, you will be logged out for a short period of time while your account is moved to your new region. Once you have selected a home world, all the characters you create will play on this world and will represent it in our world-versus-world (WvW) format.

Read the full blog post on the Guild Wars 2 site.