Video Game Examiner

With 6 different races, 20 different classes and endless customization, you will strike out in an adventure in a new world to bring fame and fortune to your name.

Is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning a World of Warcraft Clone?

It is hard not to recognize the similarity in races and the cartoonish graphical style of Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft and not compare the two.

However, while World of Warcraft was released years before Warhammer Online, it is actually more of a clone of Warhammer than Warhammer is a clone of World of Warcraft.

The Warhammer pen and paper roleplaying game was the inspiration of the original Warcraft realtime strategy game. Not only did the Warhammer RPG influence the basic Good vs Evil structure of the game, it also had a large influence on the graphical style of the Warcraft series.

Playstation Network

I'm not sure why the masses love these games so much as you can point out any run-of-the-mill RPG and get basically the same experience. I'm glad the 360 is getting a divergence in genres, but it's sad to see its sales come from such a bleh' game. Ah well, the stupid console wars sales in the East will shift back to the PS3 soon enough. If it must be known, I am rather looking forward to the new Star Ocean and I believe that it will bolster sales of the 360 in Japan even further. I thought Star Ocean 3 was good, even with its kick in the groin ending. So I figure four to deliver more of the same. I hope that title finds its way to the Playstation 3...but hope only goes so far, you know. - "Oh my gawwwwwd, someone is interested in my generic game! Squee! I am sure I am not at all a generic heroine" source: Media Create This week in PSN downloadables The following was unveiled on the Playstation Network.

Warhammer Online Open Beta Thoughts

If you've been following the game, you've probably heard about the comments from IanC, one of the Community Relations people - where he said that some of the posts from users were "borderline sociopathic". The post has since been edited, and many sites are implying that he called the gamers sociopathic in general, when the post was really saying that people who make death threats because they can't log in to a beta test sound like sociopaths... It's a shame that his comment has attracted so much attention - yes, it's not the kind of talk you expect from a person whose job is to talk to the community, but everyone has bad days, and seriously - how does one comment like that detract from the quality of the game? GOA will be running the same version as Mythic, and even if you don't like the community team, it's not like you'll be seeing them on a daily basis in game.

Online content and services via game consoles will generate $8

The ability to download new content or play against others online extends the lifespan and the potential audiences," I wrote.

Free-to-play games have already created junior economies in Asia. Frank Yu recently wrote on GameSetWatch that "winning--or gaining power--in online games in China is as much about purchasing items as it is about skill or hard work." He adds:

If designers and developers had other business alternatives to monetize their games, they would if they could. For now, they design the games to painlessly help users spend ever larger sums of money on virtual items. I'm sure Western publishers are looking at and exploring this model as well.

Console developers would be well served to figure out more monetization methods in order to avoid falling prey to PC and browser-based games.

Faceless no more: Social networking comes with a price

When he learned she played sports, he began showing up at her games.

Police officers eventually posed as the girl online and arranged a meeting with Mr. Ling where he was arrested.

"Police are concerned there may be other victims," read the official press release.

To celebrate the end of school, a fourth-year University of Toronto student, who has a private Facebook profile, posted in a public events section a map to his Collingwood, Ont. cottage and left his cellphone as the contact information.

It should not be that easy to uncover personal information, says Scott Ford. Presented in late August with a digital profile generated from information contained on his Facebook page and his account with the school friends re-connection site Where Are You Now? (WAYN.com), Mr.