Online Gaming News

How To Play Poker With Your Rock Band Guitar September 29 @ 9 PM source

An anonymous reader writes 'Sean Lind over at PokerListings has written a really interesting piece on how to configure Rock Band (or Guitar Hero) instruments to use them as controllers for playing online poker. The instructions given in his how-to could really be used to configure the instruments for any game.' Or how about a genuine chording keyboard?

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Gamers Less Aggressive Toward Friends (PC World) September 29 @ 6 PM source

PC World - A new study published in the science journal Evolution and Human Behavior suggests men who play "violent" multiplayer games are more aggressive toward strangers than friends.

The Nickel & Dime Generation September 29 @ 2 PM source

Phaethon360 sends in a piece that looks at how quickly game costs can add up these days, now that DLC, microtransactions and standalone expansions are commonplace, writing, "If you were trying to the think of the most expensive games to play, Rock Band or a monthly fee MMORPG would come to mind. But Halo 3 is right up there, too." It's reminiscent of a recent post at IncGamers where the author tallied up how much he'd spent on World of Warcraft over the past several years, and was astonished to realize it numbered in the thousands of dollars.

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Are Twitter Updates from Games Annoying? (PC World) September 28 @ 10 PM source

PC World - Game On has completed level 10. Game On has completed level 11. Game On has completed level 12. Game On has completed level 13. Game On has nicked a Glass Evil Eye. Game On just found a Saraswati Statue. Game On is connected to multiplayer. Game On uploaded a movie. Game On will be back after using the toilet.

Microsoft agrees to invest in SKorea games industry (AFP) September 24 @ 10 AM source

AFP - US software giant Microsoft has agreed to invest more than 19 million dollars to develop South Korea's online games industry, a government agency said Thursday.

Hands on with Real Soccer 2010 (Macworld.com) September 23 @ 5 PM source

Macworld.com - Fans of the pitch can enjoy the latest in Gameloft’s critically-acclaimed Real Soccer franchise. Real Soccer 2010 arrived in the App Store this week with improved graphics, more teams, real players, and new modes—including a highly-anticipated real-time multiplayer feature.

NCSoft Drops GameGuard From Western Launch of Aion September 19 @ 6 PM source

chalkyj writes "NCSoft has announced that they will be dropping GameGuard from the western launch of their upcoming MMORPG, Aion. The flawed Korean anti-cheat software has been heavily criticized for employing root-kit like techniques and conflicting with many hardware configurations. The final straw is thought to have been the stability issues experienced by players during open beta and the community outcry it caused. The decision makes Aion, which recently announced over 400,000 western pre-orders, a real contender in the western MMO market."

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Blizzard Offers Look Inside WoW At GDC September 19 @ 12 AM source

Yesterday morning at GDC Austin, Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce took to the stage to finally give a peek inside the inner workings of World of Warcraft. Tipping the scales at around 4,600 people utilizing 20,000 computer systems and 1.3 petabytes of storage, Blizzard has created a raging behemoth. The Online Network services group alone has "data centers from Texas to Seoul, and monitor over 13,250 server blades, 75,000 cpu cores, and 112.5 terabytes of blade RAM. [Pearce] points out the picture of the GNOC (Global Network Operations Center) in their slideshow, a data core that even has televisions tuned to the weather stations. They use those to ensure that conditions of the data center are up to their standards; with only a staff of 68 people they ensure connectivity across the globe for the numerous WoW servers."

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Blizzard Offers Look Inside WoW At GDC September 18 @ 8 PM source

Yesterday morning at GDC Austin, Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce took to the stage to finally give a peek inside the inner workings of World of Warcraft. Tipping the scales at around 4600 people utilizing 20,000 computer systems, and 1.3 petabytes of storage, Blizzard has created a raging behemoth. The Online Network services group alone has "data centers from Texas to Seoul, and monitor over 13,250 server blades, 75,000 cpu cores, and 112.5 terabytes of blade RAM. [Pearce] points out the picture of the GNOC (Global Network Operations Center) in their slideshow, a data core that even has televisions tuned to the weather stations. They use those to ensure that conditions of the data center are up to their standards; with only a staff of 68 people they ensure connectivity across the globe for the numerous WoW servers."

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Major MMO Publishers Sued For Patent Infringement September 18 @ 10 AM source

GameboyRMH writes "The Boston Globe reports that major MMO publishers (Blizzard, Turbine, SOE, NCSoft, and Jagex) are being sued by Paltalk, which holds a patent on 'sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment' — a patent that would seem to apply to any multiplayer game played between multiple systems, at the very least. Paltalk has already received an out-of-court settlement from Microsoft earlier this year in relation to a lawsuit over the Halo games. If Microsoft can't fend off Paltalk's legal attacks, the odds don't look good for their latest group of targets."

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