Microsoft Launches Official Xbox LIVE iOS App
In a move that introduces yet-another app to their mobile ecosystem, Microsoft has just launched the official Xbox LIVE iOS app. This move brings Xbox LIVE Companion to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and allows users to hook into their Xbox LIVE community on the go: they can send/receive messages, change their avatar and profile, compare achievements, and look through their game library. Read the full story by Kit Dotson on SiliconANGLE.
Tavelogue Azeroth: The Darkmoon Faire and Patch 4.3 The Hour of Twilight
The Darkmoon Faire had some upgrades come World of Warcraft patch 4.3 and now it has its own island. With the advent of the Hour of Twilight patch, you can now visit the Faire out in their strange recesses–but you can’t fly there–and there’s a great deal of weird things going on.
Get tokens, get shot out of a cannon, have your fortune read.
A lot of things for any anthropologist to get up to.
Star Wars: The Old Republic Gameplay and Impressions
The Star Wars: The Old Republic beta weekend has finally drawn to a close and now there’s a plethora of information spreading across the net about the game. By and large, it looks like the game is pressing the cut scenes and the storytelling very hard.
The game has been described as a “solo MMO” with powerfully excellent voice acting and a strong themepark element. In fact, much of the game feels like it pressures the player to remain solo except for the intermittent “HEROIC” quest.
Also: Lightsabers.
Microsoft Sells One-Million Consoles in Best Sales Week in Xbox History
It looks like Microsoft and Xbox 360 has managed to break their own records again with the “best week in Xbox 360 history” where the company moved almost 1 million consoles. Along with that they’ve moved 750,000 Kinect peripherals during that Black Friday week as well.
Nice to see that the almost-7-year-old console is still a workhorse. Kit Dotson at SiliconANGLE has the story.
Girl Gamers and Sex: Online Games Make it All Better
Just because this little Forbes article about a survey of gamer culture couldn’t go to waste. Plus, who doesn’t love a little superhero action?
SiliconANGLE: Activision Falls Down on the Job of Social Media
Looks like Activision is out for blood—or perhaps trying to get blood from a stone—and not sure what they’re trying hard to get into the social scene. However, their Call of Duty: Elite social service seems to be having a lot of trouble.
Kyt Dotson over at SiliconANGLE has the scoop:
According to an article published on GameIndustry (registration required) the service has been down from almost the day of its inception. The developer studio for the social media interface, Beachhead, is said to be working “around the clock” attempting to correct the issues, but it’s leading only to further instability in the game itself.
Activision’s Daniel Suarez, the VP of publishing for Call of Duty, conducted a long interview with Joystiq …
Steam’s Customer Database Hit, Credit Card and User Information at Risk
Earlier this week, it was announced on SiliconANGLE that Valve’s Steam forums had been defaced and the user database behind them had been stolen; now, it looks like it’s spread further than that and the customer database behind the Steam service itself had been compromised.
A message sent by the head of Valve, Gabe Newell, warned all users to change their passwords and to watch their credit card statements as the database of customer information appeared to have been stolen by the attackers.
“We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums,” wrote Newell in a message displayed on the Steam forums. “This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game …
DC Universe Online Goes Free-to-Play, Arrives on Steam’s Doorstep in a Basket
The much-anticipated and mostly successful rival to City of Heroes, DC Universe Online has gone free-to-play and is now available on Steam for download. This is true of the PC version (reviewed on GameOgre here) as well as for those users on the PlayStation Network. The free-to-play version is very similar to the pay-to-play version and free players have a very similar experience except for limitations on number of character slots, bank slots, and inventory—as well as not having access to most trophies.
Access will be tiered between three levels called Free Access, Premium Access, and Legendary Access.
The Premium Access, which stays for the lifetime of the account, is unlocked
…
Travelogue Azeroth: Dia de los Muertos and Skeleton Dancers
The MMO game anthropologist strikes again as he visits the event that World of Warcraft is doing for the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) all two days of it. It’s one of the shortest world events in all Blizzard and comes and goes without notice by most.
It does have an achievement!
Don’t miss out, and while you’re at it, culture yourself.
Travelogue Azeroth: Halloween and Subtextual Narrative
So, someone decided to visit Azeroth and give a little bit of a dialogue about the Halloween event. It’s a little strange in there – but in some ways it could be seen as a proxy for real streets and real events.
Hey, virtual worlds have anthropologists too.
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