Have you got what it takes to burn the rope?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Game Update 44 is live with a new raid zone, the Shard of Hate. To celebrate, there is a quest available in the various starting cities for players of all levels. There are a number of quest givers and two quests.

Dispelling the Hate is offered to good-aligned citizens:

• a worried halfling in South Qeynos at 732,-20,177
• a worried froglok in North Qeynos at 314,-21,12
• a worried froglok in Kelethin at 433,91,163

The Power of Hate is offered to evil- and neutral-aligned citizens:

• a delighted human in North Freeport at -31,-20,-300
• a satisfied darkelf in Neriak at -18,11,76
• a delighted human in Gorowyn at -18,11,76 (ground level)

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

There is a good write-up in the Sun-Sentinel of the World of Warcraft RMT court case that Antonio Hernandez has filed against IGE U.S. in Florida. He’s filed it as a class action suit which means that the court case could, if successful, involve a pay-out for every one of World of Warcraft’s ten million subscribers.

“This loss of time, conservatively, amounts to hundreds of thousands of hours of subscriber time and causes the irreparable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft,” according to Hernandez’s lawsuit. “The economic harm incurred by this loss of time is in the millions of dollars.”

This will be critical as IGE have already argued that Hernandez can’t show loss which would mean there is no case. They’ve also stated that they are not selling gold – which IGE most certainly is but IGE U.S. may not be – that is, Hernandez is suing the wrong company. The key is the class-action component, if Hernandez can show that the gamers have suffered loss.

Needless to say Blizzard (and every other big gaming business) will be watching this like a hawk.

No surprise that the Google ads on that page are for buying WoW gold – I’d have thought they would watch for negative articles when doing the keyword matching !

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Edit: All three mini-games have been released. For a list of all the deeds available from the Mines of Moria mini-games and how to get them, see our summary.

I lost the entire evening on Unlock the Mines of Moria, the new “social gaming web site” promoting the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion. I was immediately relieved to see that US and European players were not herded into separate pens but instead were allowed to mingle – although they have to go to their respective message board systems if they want to post tips and tricks.

The Flash website promises three mini games and the first one went live on March 31st: King Under the Mountain. If you want to earn deeds (or play multi-player, for that matter), you need to register with an email address. This does not tie in with your LOTRO account although speculation is that you will be rewarded a key that can be used to gain in-game rewards once the promotion has finished. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s that day again – take everything with a grain of salt lest you be fooled. With that warning out of the way, here are my personal favorites for April Fools’ Day.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announces its long-awaited return to console gaming with World of Warcraft: The Molten Core and offers a new Bard Hero Class as a part of Wrath of the Lich King.

WowInsider announce that they are becoming HKO Insider and covering the very popular MMO Hello Kitty Online.

Just as this popular party accessory holds at its core a delicious payload of candy, so too does its history hide a fascinating tale of war, destruction, faith, rebirth and the ultimate triumph of good over evil: The Diablo Loot Piñata

Guildwars has changed all player-controlled characters into stick figures.

LotRO announces the Fowl-Peoples as a new race for the Battle of Amon Hen update, complete with Chicken Coop housing.

The Sony sites are coming back with “You don’t have permission to access / on this server,” maybe their idea of a joke?

If you see any other gaming pranks for April Fools, leave a note in the comments so we can all share in the fun.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.