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Funeral crashing and elf orgies: the definitive guide to two decades of WoW drama A chronological journey through the controversies, feuds, trolling, and epic drama connected to the popular MMORPG.
[Ed.: The following article first appeared as a series of Reddit posts by Rumbleskim and lifelongfreshman.] WoW was an immediate hit when it first came out in November 2004. It followed on the heels of games like Everquest and Ultima Online, but completely reinvented the MMORPG formula, with more player conveniences, far greater variety, graphical fidelity, and storytelling. It was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnating genre, and went on to dominate the MMORPG genre for two decades. Tens of millions of people have now inhabited WoW’s fantasy world of Azeroth through nine expansions and several spin offs, which you know makes for plenty of notable drama.…
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‘Experiment 12’: the disturbing result of 12 indie devs taking turns to make a game Our look inside the strange chaingame made by 12 different indie developers.
I played No Man’s Sky with an astronomer to separate its science fiction from facts An infinite gaming world, but is any of it based on scientific fact? We sat down with one of the world's leading astronomers to put No Man's Sky under the intergalactic microscope.
Gaming’s most persistent myths and urban legends, debunked From blowing in cartridges to Lara Croft nude cheats and the secret Windows95 devil program. I’m sure you believe in at least one of these falsehoods.
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Here’s how to learn Japanese simply by playing retro video games People say playing video games will get you nowhere in life. Here's how to have some great retro fun and prove them wrong.
Learning Japanese is hard and most people eventually give up when they realize they have to actually read books. You’re not some kind of loser who reads books, right? Fortunately, there’s another way. You can learn Japanese by doing what you already love. That’s right, playing video games can help you learn Japanese. You’ll still need to put in some work learning grammar and vocabulary, but video games can act as great supplemental reading material for people learning a new language. Here are 5 ways that you can learn how to read Japanese with retro video games. 1. Animal Crossing (N64) Watch this video on YouTube Animal Crossing was first…
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Teen secretly spent $20k of mom’s savings on Twitch celebs, and the streaming giant thinks that’s just fine Twitch ignored the distraught mother and then silently deleted the evidence—or so they thought.
Could Watch Dogs’ smart city ever become a reality? A smart city, driven by the Internet of Things. Is Watch Dogs merely a sci-fi vision, or a real glimpse at the future?
You can now play 10,000 Amiga games in your browser for free, on archive.org Take a nostalgia trip with some real retro classics.
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Top 5 most controversial Street Fighter characters It's impossible for a franchise to have lasted this long without a few controversies under its belt. Let's explore.
Street Fighter is still one of the most beloved fighting game franchises. First released in 1987, it didn’t really explode into the mainstream until its sequel in 1991 which caused something of a gaming revolution. Street Fighter was THE game to play at the time and many of the people within the fighting game community will always fondly remember Street Fighter II. The game was innovative with characters that we hadn’t seen in fighting games at that point and unique mechanics, many of which are still in play today. Related: The ultimate history of fighting games Naturally, it is impossible for a game to have lasted this long without a…
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Catacombs: the inside story of Square Enix’ canceled shooter It’s always a great shame when a game is cancelled, but much more so when a genuine original is lost.
Media calls for VR safe spaces Everyone will finally be safe in places where nothing can hurt you to begin with.
Why is hating games a prerequisite for video game criticism? Smug elitists take issue with the idea of video games as art.
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That time the Japanese adapted Crash Bandicoot and completely butchered it The classic PS1 game was much different in the Land of Rising Sun, which completely misunderstood the franchise.
If there’s one thing Japan is great at, it’s video games – but that usually applies to video games conceived and developed in Japan. When it comes to localized Western content for a Japanese audience, the results can be mixed. In the case of Crash Bandicoot for the original PlayStation, the Japanese version was unquestionably inferior to the Western version. Crash Bandicoot’s success in the West was because of two very simple ingredients. First, the overall tone of the game is the perfect blend of 90s edge. For example, the titular character is an edgy late Gen-Xer/early millennial with a distinct attitude. Crash may look kind of lame nowadays, but…
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When nightmare mode isn’t enough: 5 ways to add difficulty to your game If you haven't sent a controller hurtling through the air straight into the middle of your flat screen TV, you aren't being challenged enough.
The world of video game vinyl Down the video game record collection hole.
10 Xbox things to remember on Xbox’s 15th anniversary Did you know the console was almost called 'Odyssey of the Mind'? Really.
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Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack sucks. Play N64 games these 5 ways instead You can pay Nintendo $50 to play N64 games on your Switch, but you shouldn't.
You can now play Nintendo 64 games on your Nintendo Switch with the “Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack” if you upgrade your membership to $50 per year. If there weren’t a million different ways to play old games from 1996, this might have been a good deal. But unless you’re the most extreme Nintendo fanboy or you have no choice but to play games on your Switch, there’s not much of a reason to give Nintendo your money, especially considering how awful this service is. Why You Shouldn’t Buy The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack Nintendo 64 games were released over 20 years ago, so you’d expect flawless emulation,…
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Turn your Excel spreadsheet into an RPG with Arena.Xlsm Just because you’re stuck in Excel all day doesn’t mean you can’t do some questing.
The many, bizarre emotions of FIFA 15’s emotion engine Thanks to FIFA 15’s new Emotional Intelligence, all 22 players on the pitch can now employ 600 new emotional reactions. It's... not always the most natural-looking thing.
Leave me alone: speaking out against the rise of co-op The once separate worlds of singleplayer and multiplayer are merging – but there's nothing wrong with playing alone.
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Finish Him! The innovative violence that fueled Mortal Kombat’s success A journey from its start as a failed experiment to re-birth as a predestined success built by the vision and innovation of its Midway Games developers.
We are now almost 30 years out from the 1992 release of Mortal Kombat, perhaps the most famous franchise in the vast genre that is fighting games. The iconic video game series offers endless lessons to developers who would like to take the same path. Get the best computer science help to free some of your time as you focus on developing personal projects. False starts Mortal Kombat started as an experiment that never saw the light of day in the way it was envisioned – a video game adaption of military science-fiction action film Universal Soldier (1992) featuring Jean Claude Van Damme. As Midway Games developers John Tobias and…
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‘Experiment 12’: the disturbing result of 12 indie devs taking turns to make a game Our look inside the strange chaingame made by 12 different indie developers.
Mario and Sonic: a tale of two mascots Super Mario Odyssey and Sonic Mania reflect the histories of their star characters almost too well.
The Mission: the most bizarre soccer game ever made "Once you have acquired the ball it is used as your main weapon against the Ninjas."
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Gaming’s most persistent myths and urban legends, debunked From blowing in cartridges to Lara Croft nude cheats and the secret Windows95 devil program. I’m sure you believe in at least one of these falsehoods.
Rumors and videogames have gone hand in hand for years now. From school yard bragging about your uncle who works for Nintendo, to the almost constant leaks that seem to plague new releases. We’re all suckers for a lie or myth, and even with a healthy dose of skepticism, I’m sure you believe in one at least of these falsehoods. The Myth: Blowing in Game Cartridges Makes Them Work The Truth: We all know this one. Blowing into game cartridges was meant to clear the dust off the pins, and allow you to continue playing. In reality it was the removal of the cartridge from the console that helped. Blowing…
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A conspiracy of silence: How NDAs are harming the games industry Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) have long been a fact of doing business in video games - but their enforcement can have wide-ranging, negative effects.
These are the most controversial games of all time, according to science We’re sitting here with a beautiful big dataset from Metacritic. It's time.
Seditionis: Tower Defense reinvents while making love to the classics Seditionis harkens back to classic tower defense games while adding gripping new features—and we can't stop playing.
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It’s true: 4 scientific ways video games make you better at sex 1.2 billion people regularly play video games. The earth is also rapidly becoming overpopulated. Coincidence? Maybe not.
No matter how many pounds you can press or miles you can run, you will never be able to compete with a gamer in the sack. Video games train more of your senses, faster, and in just the right ways to please the opposite sex. Think I’m being facetious? Read on. Gamers last longer A study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that a positive relationship exists between gaming and traits that are beneficial in the bedroom. The study, headed by Dr. Andrea Sansone of the University of Rome, asked nearly 400 gamers about their sexual function. They found that gamers have unlocked some real-life perks: enhanced stamina…
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Are your kids experimenting with Minecraft sex? YouTube is brimming with videos of Minecraft sex targeted to kids.
The craziest things people ever did to persuade parents to buy video games Kids can be very creative when they want something.
Top 5 most controversial Street Fighter characters It's impossible for a franchise to have lasted this long without a few controversies under its belt. Let's explore.
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Former WoW Team Leader: “This won’t stop. WoW gamers are leaving for good. “ Mark 'Grummz' Kern acknowledges explosive leak and writes about failures of AAA culture and why World of Warcraft is dying.
[Editor’s note: On July 11th, an anonymous user claiming to work at Blizzard posted a massive letter about the state of the sinking ship that is World of Warcraft. People generally seeing the leak as authentic now have even more reasons to hold that belief, because Mark Kern, the former team lead for the celebrated classic era of WoW, has reposted the leak and commented that it rings true. He also in reply posted his own perspectives and experiences and elaborated on what’s happening at Blizzard.] Supposedly this is Blizzard leak about the current state of WoW. It may not be legit, but the attitude described about monetization and how…
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The making of WipEout Forget Lara. There was only one true herald of the Playstation generation. Real 3D, real music, real gaming. The future, after years of waiting, was finally now.
What your MMO says about you We've got you figured out.
The 24-year feud that has dogged Star Citizen The story of two men, several ambitious space games, and an ongoing feud that has rocked a community of over a million fans.
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These are the best basketball games of all time The 2K franchise hasn't always dominated the field.
When it comes to basketball games our minds naturally go to the 2K franchise, and there is a good reason for that. The 2K franchise has reached such a level of popularity that it’s almost unthinkable for it to take on a worthy competitor. But beyond graphics and visuals, there are many things that make a basketball game great. If we base our review entirely on graphics, obviously some of the latest games would get the top best NBA game places. No, the graphics are just here to make the game look good and help the player get into the suspension of disbelief; the gameplay and how the game feels…
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The best (worst) Watch Dogs multiplayer trolls Watch Dogs online has been designed to drive you nuts and here's a compilation of some amazing moments.
What to make of Star Citizen Star Citizen’s most vociferous detractors claim that it’s all a scam; its defenders maintain that everything is totally fine. The truth, as is so often the case, is not so simple.
40 memorable nude gaming moments This article should not be viewed by anyone... anywhere... ever.
