Category: PC Gaming

Blizzard Bans Over 320,000 Battle.net Accounts

Blizzard has swung its mighty banhammer to the tune of 320,000 banned accounts. The offenders were apparently up to no good in Diablo II and Warcraft III. It’s also interesting to note that a lot of the bans are a result of the community policing itself. Here’s a quote from Blizzard’s forum post:

Many account closures come as the direct result of tips emailed to our hacks team by legitimate Battle.net users. If you come across a hack, find a site responsible for distributing hacks, or have a replay of a newly available hack, please report this to our hacks team at hacks@blizzard.com or through our Hacks Report Form at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&tag=hacksform

It’s great that the community helps sort itself out…but I have to wonder if some players are viewed are narcs.

Source

Coffee Talk #126: Would You Pass on a Console Due to Child Labor?

The National Labor Committee (NLC) posted an interesting report on a Chinese factory that makes several Microsoft products — including Xbox 360 controllers and remotes. As you can imagine, the factory’s conditions were deemed horrid. Children as young as 16 allegedly work shifts exceeding 15 hours in an extremely small space without air conditioning. The workers allegedly sleep 14 to a room and can only take sponge baths.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Sergio Martinez achieving boxing greatness at 35, the disgusting tale of Edwin Valero, or the first round of the NBA playoffs, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

The National Labor Committee (NLC) posted an interesting report on a Chinese factory that makes several Microsoft products — including Xbox 360 controllers and remotes. As you can imagine, the factory’s conditions were deemed horrid. Children as young as 16 allegedly work shifts exceeding 15 hours in an extremely small space without air conditioning. The workers allegedly sleep 14 to a room and can only take sponge baths.

Microsoft corporate vice president Brian Tobey claimed that Microsoft inspects the factory regularly. He recently stated on the company’s corporate blog that, “We take the allegations raised this week quite seriously. Another comprehensive on-site audit of the facility will be conducted next week, with a specific goal of investigating the allegations raised in the NLC report. In addition, we will have monitors on site pending the results of the inspection.”

There are loads of products we buy and use that are manufactured under harsh conditions like the ones pointed out by the NLC. My question for you today is this: If you were aware that a gaming product you want was built in a factory that exploited teenagers and had inhumane working conditions, would you still buy it?

Blast From the Past: Reset Episode 7

This was a particularly fun episode of Reset to put together. The first clip features two of my closest friends in the business, the second clip has Zoe and me playing around in Vegas, and the last one is about Ultimate Spider-Man! Check yourself before your wreck yourself (I have no idea where that came from).

Part 1 — Here’s a roundtable discussion from a Konami event. While it wasn’t a drunken adventure like the Midway table of truth, there’s some good stuff here. Journalists Robert Workman, Christian Nutt, and Chris Kohler speak out on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare.

Part 2 — Zoe and I played in a Las Vegas poker tournament that promoted the game Stacked. She got to hang with poker pros Daniel Negreanu and Evelyn Ng (sexy!), while I hung out with poker…personality Bill Filmaff.

Part 3 — The last clip of this episode is all about Ultimate Spider-Man! I love the comic and enjoyed the game. Let’s take a look back at it before it was released.

Blast From the Past: Reset Episode 6

Superheros, new consoles, and Konami — this episode of Reset has a lot going on! The second clip is particularly amusing when viewed through the retroscope; predicting PlayStation 3 factoids before launch is always good fun. Anyway, check it out!

Part 1 — I love X-Men Legends. Action-RPGs are some of my favorite games and I’m a comic-book nerd, so the game is perfect for me. Naturally, I was excited to check out X-Men Legends II at an Activision event.

Part 2 — Good friends EGM Mark and 1Up Jane return to talk about the PlayStation 3! It’s great hearing thoughts and predictions made before the systems launch, knowing how it eventually played out. See who was right and who was wrong in this Yahoo! Studios clip.

Part 3 — Kat Hunter gets the skinny on a slew of Konami games at a San Francisco press event. From Castlevania to Karaoke Revolution to Crime Life, there’s something for everyone in this clip.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I’d like to say that I’m going to jump right back into Final Fantasy XIII this weekend, but considering that I’ve been back in America for 14 hours, that’s probably not happening. I need to settle down, adjust to Pacific time, catch up on a ton of email, etc. When I need a mental break (i.e. escape from reality), I’ll probably jump back into Civilization: Revolution on my iPhone. Outside of that, I don’t see myself doing much heavy gaming. Of course I could always be convinced to play some Uno this weekend. Ha!

How about you guys and dolls? What are you playing this weekend?

Blast From the Past: Reset Episode 5

The first clip of this episode was the season’s most popular. A bunch of girls parading around in bikinis equals traffic. Who knew. Anyway, here’s the show!

Part 1 — I went down to Vegas to catch Sony Online Entertainment’s “Quest for Antonia” modeling contest for EverQuest. I was totally rooting for the gamer girl to win, but she fell just a tad short. Check out these interviews with the contestants, as well as lots of footage of them strutting their stuff. Oh, I almost forgot! Blair Herter was one of the judges in this contest.

Part 2 — Here’s a fun clip for fans of Quantic Dream and Heavy Rain. It’s about the company’s previous title, Indigo Prophecy. I was high on the game from the start and it ended up being one of my favorites for the original Xbox. It’s fun taking a look back at it and seeing how the company’s style has progressed with Heavy Rain.

Part 3 — My pals EGM Mark and 1Up Jane return to Yahoo! Studios. This time we talk about the political heat games were getting at the time. Remember, this was around GTA “Hot Coffee” time. Soon after that, other titles were getting scrutinized. Gettin’ Up: Contents Under Pressure, 25 to Life, and The Sims were just a few of the games feeling the heat (make a Power Station joke please).

Coffee Talk #125: Your Asian Gaming Vacation

Thanks for keeping the site going while I’m away. My trip is almost over and things will be back on a regular schedule soon. For now, I wanted to ask what you’d do if you had one week in Asia. For the sake of context, I’m going to assume you’ll want to include some gamer-related activities in your Asian vacation. Would you want to checked out the Internet cafes in Taiwan? Visit game companies in Japan? Or maybe catch a professional StarCraft match at a stadium in Korea?

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, JR’s excellent chipotle ketchup, Gilbert Arenas’ adventures in a halfway house, or Tiger Woods’ return to golf, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Thanks for keeping the site going while I’m away. My trip is almost over and things will be back on a regular schedule soon. For now, I wanted to ask what you’d do if you had one week in Asia. For the sake of context, I’m going to assume you’ll want to include some gamer-related activities in your Asian vacation. Would you want to checked out the Internet cafes in Taiwan? Visit game companies in Japan? Or maybe catch a professional StarCraft match at a stadium in Korea?

There are so many different and diverse gaming activities in Asia. In some countries, consoles are king. In other countries, online gaming at Internet shops is where it’s at. Professional gaming in Korea is one of the most unique phenomenons I’ve ever come across; pro gamers have corporate sponsors, have their own baseball cards, and are pretty big celebrities in the country. So if I had to pick, I’d love to watch a professional train for a tournament and watch him/her compete in it.

Now it’s your turn! What would you do during your Asian gaming vacation?

Blast From the Past: Reset Episode 4

For the longest time, this was my favorite episode of Reset. The first segment is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s also a little nostalgic since I ended up living with two of the people in the clip. Anyway, please check it out and let me know what you think!

Part 1 — Ah, the “Table of Truth”! At the time of this Midway event, I was annoyed that all the people available for interviews were publisher producers. I was hoping for people from the dev teams. I called an angst-filled audible and decided to talk about these Midway games with my journalist friends…but I waited until they were sauced. Watch EGM Shane Bettenhausen, G4TV Ted Regulski, and super freelancer Christian Nutt talk about games over several drinks. I love this clip and I really hope you enjoy it.

Part 2 — This was a fun Atari trip to Austin. I interviewed Shiny’s David Perry on The Matrix: The Path of Neo and Atari’s Kyle Peschel on TimeShift. I know a few of you are longtime Dave Perry fans. I’m pretty sure my arm was really sore from interviewing two really tall dudes. Ha! That’s what I get for preferring stick mics over lavs.

Part 3 — Here’s a week in the life of me! I went to three press events in a week, starting in Austin, going to Chicago, and ending up in Las Vegas. I got some flack for this segment for being too “insider”. I thought it was kind of neat to show people what it was like to attend a press event and hear some of the stuff I actually say to journalists. It’s a little long, but it’s a different kind of fun too. I vaguely remember a bunch of us getting hammered in downtown Austin. The bus back to the hotel broke down and we had to hang out on the lawn of an office park for a couple of hours until a replacement came. Good times.

Blast From the Past: Reset Episode 3

From San Francisco to Hollywood to Redwood Shores, this episode of Reset has some interesting variety. It starts out at a new developer studio started by former Blizzard employees, goes to the hippest videogame store in America, and ends up EA’s campus.

Part 1 — Kat caught up with Flagship’s Bill Roper (ex-Blizzard) to talk about the company’s debut game Hellgate: London. While we all know how the game and company ended up, it’s interesting to take a look back at it through the old retroscope…and this segment.

Part 2 — Kat and I paid a visit to Acme Games, the coolest videogame store either of us have ever been to. Acme offers a unique experience that’s way different from going to GameStop. Naturally, this stylin’ game store is in Los Angeles.

Part 3 — Three games. Three journalists. Three times the fun! I went to EA’s campus to check out Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, The Sims 2: Nightlife, and The Godfather. Game Revolution’s Ben Silverman, Game Informer’s Billy Berghammer, and GameSpy’s Willy Tuttle weighed in with their opinions on the games.

Coffee Talk #124: Gamer vs. Jet Lag

Technically, it’s coffee time where I am so the column name still applies. Ha! As expected, jet lag is totally kicking my ass. I didn’t believe in jet lag for the first 25 years of my life. I thought it was a sissy excuse for tired people. Then I did a quick work trip to Tokyo and was disoriented for several days after I returned. For all of you younglings reading this, it only gets worse as you get older.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Jim Carrey’s next girlfriend, Fusion Garage’s JooJoo tablet, or the Yankees and Red Sox taking 12 hours to complete three games, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Technically, it’s coffee time where I am so the column name still applies. Ha! As expected, jet lag is totally kicking my ass. I didn’t believe in jet lag for the first 25 years of my life. I thought it was a sissy excuse for tired people. Then I did a quick work trip to Tokyo and was disoriented for several days after I returned. For all of you younglings reading this, it only gets worse as you get older.

Anyway, gaming has been great with trying to deal with jet lag. Some people just stare at the ceiling until they fall asleep. I find EV training in Pokemon productive and repetitive, which usually helps me catch some Z’s. This trip I’ve been playing the hell out of Civilization Revolution for iPhone. Yes, I’ve played the game essentially the same way for over a thousand times, but I still love it. The repetition is soothing and it helps me relax.

When you guys and gals deal with jet lag or insomnia, what do you do? Is there a certain game you play? Maybe a graphic novel you bring with you on the road? How about web browsing on your phone? Let me know (please)! Maybe I’ll incorporate your techniques into my jet-lag fighting regimen.