Some of you may have noticed that the forum is currently disabled, meaning you won't be able to reply to this or any other post

Unfortunately it seems we have been hit hard by spambots in the Ukraine (of all places) and our Q&A sign up is obviously not working

We are looking at other possible solutions to this, however the forum will have to stay locked down til a solution is found

Appologies for the issues and I will update with more info as and when we have a solution!

~Lonesamurai

NCsoft and developer ArenaNet have dropped a few details regarding the upcoming Guild Wars 2 mini-expansion, The Lost Shores, which contains a huge one-time event that will change the face of Tyria.

Starting on Thursday, November 15, players can dive into The Lost Shores, which among other things features a new zone accessible to all players of any level. It also includes: a new dungeon – The Fractals of the Mists (which itself features five mini-dungeons and a random format), an iceberg-based, vertical PvP map (within Kodan's Temple of the Silent Storm), new gear, crafting updates (and over 200 new recipes), and more.

The one-time event will start on Friday, November 16 and go through Sunday, although the entire weekend itself (starting on Thursday) is a free-trial period where those who have already purchased the game can invite along three friends who haven't.

Here's the full schedule from ArenaNet. Also be sure to check out the new screens for the expansion below.

• Thursday, November 15, 9:00 a.m. PT – Free trial period begins, update build is released
• Friday, November 16, 12:00 p.m. PT – One-time Lost Shores event begins
• Sunday, November 18, 12:00 p.m. PT – Final event stage begins
• Sunday, November 18, 10:00 p.m. PT – One-time event and free trial weekend ends

EA has announced that BioWare’s MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will become free-to-play in all territories on November 15^th.

The F2P system will allow players to experience all of the class storylines through to the current level cap – level 50.

Existing subscribers will be boosted with free Cartel Coins to reward them for their loyalty. Former subscribers who reactivate their accounts will also get some free coinage.

EA decided to abandon its subscription model for SWTOR after the game had spent eight months on the market. Subscriber numbers had been falling, so the publisher introduced a free-to-play aspect to the game in a bid to entice new users.

“I don’t know about whether it was inevitable but it seems that the market is definitely moving in that direction,” VP of BioWare Austin Matt Bromberg told MCV earlier this year.

“There may be subscription products in the future, maybe more niche products but for a big, broad game like Star Wars, it’s the right way to go.

“We are really hopeful that it’ll bring a new wave of interest and that was really our goal. Star Wars is a very big, broad picture and people love it and there are millions of followers and not all of them were familiar with MMOs as a category. A lot of them were turned off by the barrier that was subscriptions. We hope that lowering that barrier will encourage more casual players to try.”

Bromberg acknowledged that there has been an “explosion of free-to-play MMOs on the iPad”. And that this is something that has caught BioWare’s attention.

“The world seems to be moving towards tablets and devices so the thing we’ll have to figure out as game makers is how do you recreate the engagement that you can on a PC, on a tablet or a mobile?” he asked.

“There’s no question that the consumers are moving there and we have to follow them. A lot of people are working on it, including us.”

In a rather bullish release yesterday (5th November), Apple announced that in the week of the iPad Mini's launch, both it and the iPad 4 amassed a total of three million sales in just three days, doubling the 1.5 million sales of the iPad 3 in its first weekend in March.

CEO Tim Cook called the sales "record-breaking", adding: “We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis."

However, close analysis of the figures reveals some hidden details. At the time of the iPad 3's launch, Apple only targeted 12 countries in the launch window; the new devices target 34. Given a near-200% increase in market size from launch, a significant increase in sales is only expected.

In addition, while the iPad 3's launch was a single device, the iPad Mini's launch introduces two products at the same time. Interestingly, Apple's announcement offers no breakdown of sales for the individual devices, rather treating both as almost a single entity. Many analysts are taking this as a sign that the iPad Mini is, as many had predicted, a slow burner which is not yet drawing much interest; though it is hard to say for sure, as in absence of a breakdown it is impossible to state for certain whether the predicted "1 to 1.5 million" sales of the Mini were in fact achieved – and given the reports of a lack of queues for the new device (unusual for an Apple product launch) and constant rumours of high return rates, there's always the possibility that this is simply an attempt to hide potential embarrassment to the company.

In all cases, it was the WiFi-only version of the tablet that went on sale. Cellular versions of both products will hit the stores in a few weeks. Given that early Apple customers tend to be those who care more for a device's specifications than its price, in the absence of a breakdown the likely assumption is Apple may be keeping its hold in the top end of the market where the iPad 4 sits, but failing to make a dent in the cheaper 7 inch tablet market where they want to make an impact. What do you think?

[Originally Posted on Technically Motivated]

General

• Fixed a bug in targeting that was causing left-dragging to deselect/select targets incorrectly.
• Fixed a bug in targeting that was allowing users to deselect all targets using the select next target functionality.
• Fixed a bug with human female sword and pistol animations.
• Fixed a bug that was causing quickness to get stuck on players and enemies indefinitely.
• Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Melandru's Gaze that was rewarding the Mystic Staff instead.
• Fixed a potential bug with skill challenge conversations not closing for all parties speaking with the NPC.
• Fixed a bug in weaponsmith Destroyer recipes being swapped for Valkyrie and Berserker weapons.
• Fixed the Mystic Forge recipes for platinum and mithril ingot conversion taking cloth bolts instead of the appropriate ingots. This also fixes the issue with linen and silk bolt conversion recipes sometimes rewarding ingots.
• Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Immobulus requiring a defunct item. It now requires giant eyes instead.
• Fixed a bug with Rune of Divinity that was causing it to do 50% more critical damage than listed.
• Removed laughing audio from crafting stations in Divinity's Reach.
• Raised the maximum karma limit.
• Superior Rune of the Adventurer is now set to give 50% of endurance on heal.
• The character select screen now reflects hidden armor choices.
• Updated Rune of Earth [sic] and Rune of the Grove to have a 25% chance to grant 4 seconds of protection and 30-second recharge for superior runes, with 45-second recharge for major runes.
• We’ve relaxed our anti-exploiting system for loot and events.

 Camera

• We’ve updated the camera to reduce the amount of camera smoothing currently in the game in order to lower the frequency of related bugs. We’re still looking into other camera issues, but we decided to make this quick change because it greatly improves the gameplay experience.

 Events

• Fixed a bug that could block “Escort Order of Whispers agents to Jormabakke Stead” in Snowden Drifts from restarting.
• Fixed a bug that could cause duplicate versions of Agent Briathell to spawn in Snowden Drifts.
• Fixed a bug that could prevent the repair event for “Cascade Bridge” in Lornar's Pass from triggering.

 Caudecus’s Manor

• Closed map exploits.
• Updated the reward vendor for Caudecus's Manor to include the missing exotic light helmet.

 Citadel of Flame

• Closed map exploits.

 Twilight Arbor

• Upper Spider Path: Increased the attack range of the Nightmare Tree. The area attack and its effect now take place at the same location.
• Nightmare Tree Spider Path: The area attack now correctly does damage at the point of the effect.
• Forward Upper Husk Path: Added damage to the Nightmare Tree’s immobilize skill. Also added damage to the Nightmare Tree egg launch skill.

 Story

• Reduced the health of the final boss in “The Source of Orr.”
• Forging the Pact: Implemented changes to ensure that the cave section completes reliably.
• Pets and Walls Make Stronger Kraals: Fix for possible stall during the taming step.
• Battle of Fort Trinity:
  • You cannot pick up the water orb until you defeat all of the saboteurs.
  • It’s no longer possible to trap players by closing the fortress doors on them.
  • Fixed a stall during “Retake the docks” objective.
  • Fixed a stall if players did not choose a greatest fear earlier in Chapter 7.
• Lines of Communication: Batanga will now help you fight the Arcane Eye.
• Fixing Blame: Warmaster Gurnn should now kick off his cutscene correctly.
• Fixed a rare bug in “Shards of Orr” where Herboza would not become visible.

 World versus World

• The northernmost keep in all homelands has had its collision adjusted on the inner western gate.
• Numerous items have been disabled for use in World versus World to prevent exploits and imbalances. This includes the Experimental Teleportation Gun, ettin gunk, drake eggs, seed turrets, and more.
• Fixed WvW Orb of Power duplication on player disconnect.

 Profession

• Attributes gained from traits now apply to the downed state.

 Elementalist

• 

   Glyph of Renewal: This skill will now revive downed allies only, not dead ones.

• Signets of
  

   Earth,

  

   Fire, and

  

   Water: These signest have been updated to not fire at targets behind the player.

• Signet of Fire: This skill is now able to hit targets at its indicated range.
• 

   Signet of Air: This skill now displays a hovering signet effect over the user when activated.

• 

   Whirlpool: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 33%.

 Engineer

• 

   Grenade Kit: Grenade skills now have the same cast time underwater as they do on land.

• Explosives Trait Grenadier: This trait now gives a bonus to underwater grenade skills.
• 

   Big Ol' Bomb: This skill has been updated to be a blast finisher.

 Guardian

• We are moving towards retaliation being more of a counter to taking many hits rather than a general boon to keep up all the time. We also wanted to improve the combo finisher of the guardian, so we reorganized guardian greatsword skills to the following:
  • Skill 2:
    

     Whirling Wrath (10 second recharge)

  • Skill 3:
    

     Leap of Faith (15 second recharge)

  • Skill 4:
    

     Symbol of Wrath (20 second recharge)

• Updated
  

   Bane Signet and

  

   Signet of Wrath so they can’t be fired at targets behind the player.

• Updated
  

   Signet of Judgment to apply three seconds of retaliation upon activation with or without traits.

• Decreased the activation time of Signet of Judgment.

 Mesmer

• 

   Signet of Domination can no longer be cast on targets behind the mesmer.

• Added a much faster breakout for mesmer underwater mantras.
• 

   Phantasmal Warlock: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.

• 

   Chaos Armor: Decreased recharge to 35 seconds.

• 

   Chaos Storm: Increased recharge to 35 seconds.

• 

   Phantasmal Duelist: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.

• 

   Phantasmal Swordsman: Increased recharge to 18 seconds.

 Necromancer

• Updated
  

   Chillblains [sic] to properly function with the Greater Marks trait.

• 

   Signet of Spite can now be cast while on the move.

 Ranger

• 

   Crossfire: Increased casting time by 40 milliseconds. This was done to fix some glitches in the animation that caused problems with this skill.

• Removed the broken audio that played with Natural Healing whenever pets were in combat.

 Thief

• 

   Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%

• 

   Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.

 Guild Wars 2 Wiki notes

• Skill activation time is now shown in tooltips.
• Mesmer clones no longer leave floating weapons when they shatter.
• Guilds with leader with no access to guild functions have been fixed.