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Bashiok, Blizzard community manager recently posted this on

Bashiok, Blizzard community manager recently posted this on battle.net to address some peoples thoughts on the Diablo 3 endgame:

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and... Read All Bashiok, Blizzard community manager recently posted this on battle.net to address some peoples thoughts on the Diablo 3 endgame:

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.

We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."

Few things.

1. We are a "ways out" from PvP. Dang. I was hoping that would come soon. Oh well, hopefully when it drops its really awesome. Kind of wonder if Blizzard bit off more than it should have releasing Diablo 3 when it did? Oh well the game is great and hope PvP adds quite a bit.

2. 1.0.4 Wonder what this will entail? More drops? Eagerly anticipating.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6019511928#17

What are your thoughts on Diablo 3 and its endgame? Still a great game or needs love?

Adam Ellis, a Portland blogger recently wrote about his

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/7502685008_f0cb10deec_o.jpg

Adam Ellis, a Portland blogger recently wrote about his early and some recent experiences with video games. Its a well written post about Final Fantasy 6, 7 Earthbound, Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Fun read and the art helps give it personality.

http://www.booksofadam.com/2012/07/i-want-to-play-game.html

To everyone in the United States, Happy 4th of July!

As I was considering what I wanted to talk about for todays

As I was considering what I wanted to talk about for todays Retro Tuesday I decided to talk about one of my favorite video game movies. When I was a wee lad I dreamed of competing in a video game tournament*. To be crowned the best in all the lands on Nintendo would have been one of the coolest things to happen to me. Video game companies like Nintendo understood this and released a few video game TV shows and movies to capture this, one such movie was The Wizard.

The Wizard was filmed in 1989 and stars Fred Savage, Christian Slater, Beau Bridges, Luke Edwards and Jenny Lewis. A bit of movie trivia, Jenny Lewis who played the love interest of Fred Savage in the Wizard... Read All

Kingsburg: Protect The Kingdom!

This weekend I played a cool strategy board game called Kingsburg. In Kingsburg you are in charged with the protection of your city each year from Orcs, Goblins and other fantastical creatures. You collect resources from allocating your dice roll to certain advisors that grant you resources. For instance, if you allocate 1 to the Joker you can obtain a victory point. If you allocate a 2 to an advisor you can collect a gold resource. These resources can be spent building things that grant you abilities that can help you defend your city or grant you other bonuses. The game lasts 6 "years" and the person that collects the most victory points wins. and our game lasted... Read All This weekend I played a cool strategy board game called Kingsburg. In Kingsburg you are in charged with the protection of your city each year from Orcs, Goblins and other fantastical creatures. You collect resources from allocating your dice roll to certain advisors that grant you resources. For instance, if you allocate 1 to the Joker you can obtain a victory point. If you allocate a 2 to an advisor you can collect a gold resource. These resources can be spent building things that grant you abilities that can help you defend your city or grant you other bonuses. The game lasts 6 "years" and the person that collects the most victory points wins. and our game lasted about 2 hours. Its a very strategic game and as such I had to adjust a few times to eek out second place. Yay for not losing! Or is second place the first loser?

My strategy focused on buildings that netted me a high defense score so I could survive the invaders. I then netted a few more soldiers by purchase or a dice roll placement so I could beat the invaders to gain a few bonus resources. I didn't lose a battle as if you do the penalty is the destruction of one of your buildings or a loss of resources. If you have the same soldiers/defense as the invaders have attack power its a "push" and you don't win or lose anything.

There are a lot of buildings to chose from and each one gives you special abilities and bonuses, again I went with defense and as such was never defeated by enemies. You could lose the battle a few times and still win the game though. One thing I lacked was having a handy amount of resources. The winning player built buildings to increase his economy and spent the latter half of the game on defense. This proved to be a great strategy because he out built me by nearly double and won the game by an impressive lead.

Kingsburg is a solid game and I recommend you give a try. Its a bit daunting to try it but after a few rounds its not too bad. That said, rolling the dice and allocating your roll to the correct advisor is more strategic than it sounds. Many times I made the wrong choice but it wasn't too bad as you roll for resources often.

Awesome video game store window art. The album(2 shots

Awesome video game store window art.

The album(2 shots total):

http://imgur.com/a/lWLnO#D7ezW

Has anyone ever tried and a It looks great and seems to

http://i796.photobucket.com/albums/yy248/brinelol/1.png

Has anyone ever tried OCTGN3? It seems to be a great graphical card game emulator. That is you can play a lot of different cards games with it online (e.g. Magic: The Gathering and a bunch more

It looks great and seems to be an awesome way to build decks and test them out (or mess about with that latest rare before buying a case to get it :)

Our Interview with Steve Ellis of Rainy Day Games

After the first few minutes of meeting Steve Ellis it’s apparent we share an unadulterated love for gaming. Steve Ellis runs Rainy Day Games, a local game store that sells many classic games, miniatures, RPGs, card games and puzzles. I was able to sit down with Steve so we could talk about gaming.

Rainy Day Games started 14 years ago after Steve and his business partner Jeff met playing Magic: The Gathering. Steve dropped the idea of starting a store together and the idea stuck. Both decided to forgo being paid at first and continued to work day jobs during the first few years. In looking back, Steve is happy they did this as it helped the store get on it’s feet. One... Read All

So the big Summer Sale is coming up on Steam. People

So the big Summer Sale is coming up on Steam. People projected it to start yesterday, but it hasn't yet. What games are you looking to snag?

I have a massive wishlist, I'm hoping to find the Fallouts going for cheap, maybe Skyrim. While I've played them all extensively, the experience is so much better on PC.

I read a cool article on gearboxity that featured the new

I read a cool article on gearboxity that featured the new Gunzer from Borderlands 2. They interview Paul Hellquist, Creative Director for Borderlands 2 as well as Scott Kester the Concepter Designer and Jonathan Hemingway the Game Designer. The article is note worthy because it traces the evolution of the Gunzer design over the project. I don't see that in interviews so it seemed radtacular.

*snip*

"The Gunzerker started as an action skill in a long list of potential action skills. The draw of dual wielding in our gun-centered game was immediately very strong. It was an idea that was kicked around during the development of the first game but with all of the other major... Read All