MY BODY IS READY!

Originally posted by Starpower

I would use all the money to buy lottery tickets

LOL. I'm sure your state would be quite happy with this choice.

I'd sort out as many people as I could (friends, family, coworkers) and then probably travel a bunch!

Originally posted by Brenelael

Because a certain poster was Necroing a bunch of old dead threads today and all of them got locked. That one was only a month old but it must have been locked with the rest of them.

 

Bren

Correct. I'll try to make it a bit more clear next time! Thanks.

We had an opportunity to check out the upcoming Menace of the Underdark expansion to Dungeons & Dragons Online at this year's PAX East and we've got the full report (and video!) for you.

Before we got into the actual content of the expansion, Fernando gave us a rundown of where things are now following the events of Update 13. In Update 13, players were introduced to the storyline that would connect Eberron to the Forgotten Realms with the new expansion and that particular story arc culminated with the opening of a portal from Lolth’s domain in the Demon Web into Eberron. The Spinner of Shadows, Lolth’s aspect in the realm of Eberron, escaped into the web and this is where players will enter and ultimately come out into the Forgotten Realms once the expansion goes live.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Dungeons & Dragons Online: PAX East - Menace of the Underdark Preview.

BioWare recently introduced their first event to Star Wars: The Old Republic with the 'Rakghoul Pandemic'. We discuss the new event in this week's column and offer our take on how these sorts of events can improve the overall game.

The Rakghoul Pandemic follows the story of the doomed voyage of the Stardream, a ship whose crew was stricken by the Rakghoul virus and ultimately crashed into the Dune Sea on Tatooine. Naturally, the infection has spread throughout Tatooine, especially amongst the Sand People, and players are tasked with uncovering the mystery.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Rakghoul Pandemic.

Some of our forums are particularly hostile (for example the SWTOR forums where the example originated) and so we tend to crack down a little harder on this sort of thing in them as things can quickly spiral out of control. This is why you may see 'Notices of Increased Moderation'. In this particular case, I think we may have been a bit oversensitive. While the title was certainly a bit sensational, the user did back up his opinion with more than enough substance. What we have a problem with is when people post that something sucks and don't really back it up in any way or are posting something sucks just to get a rise out of people and stir trouble. Again, I agree, this wasn't the case here and we apologize for the error. I've restored the original thread title.

As for mod edits in general, we do our best to avoid having to give users infractions, and to that end we'll sometimes edit out post content that may be against our Rules of Conduct if the majority of the post is otherwise fine. This lets us preserve said post content for the user and requires no formal action against the user.

If you'd like to get in touch with me privately (community AT mmorpg DOT com or mikeb AT mmorpg DOT com) with some examples of questionable edits or other moderator actions you'd like me to review and discuss with you I'd be glad to do so.

Everyone loves to take screenshots of their favorite games, and we want you to share them with us and the rest of the MMORPG.com community! To that end, we're back with our latest Screenshot of the Week feature, and we're looking to give out some cool swag. This week, we'll be focusing on World of Tanks screenshots.

Participating in our Screenshot of the Week is pretty simple. All you need to do is post your favorite World of Tanks screenshot in the comments below (please use sensible dimensions and don't break the thread!) between now and Sunday, April 22. We'll select our favorite shot on Monday, April 23. Make sure to tell us what we are looking at, too!

Why should you bother sharing your screenshots with us? The answer is simple: SWAG! Who doesn't love swag? This week, we'll be giving away an aluminum World of Tanks mousepad to our lucky winner.

Please only post a single screenshot. Duplicate entries will be disqualified.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Originally posted by spookydom

Originally posted by MikeB

Not sure about awards, but we do spotlight threads every week as part of our Community Spotlight, and users receive a unique title for being chosen for it.

Mike I went out last night, got a bit drunk. I seriously do not remember writing this at all. Do not know where that idea came from...........Yeah, I may be a weirdo:(

:D

That's ok, bro. Happens to the best of us.

p.s. I still want that cake.

Since this transaction is taking place on our forums I will have to impose a 1 slice tax on said cake. ;)

Originally posted by spookydom

Originally posted by MikeB

Not sure about awards, but we do spotlight threads every week as part of our Community Spotlight, and users receive a unique title for being chosen for it.

Mike I went out last night, got a bit drunk. I seriously do not remember writing this at all. Do not know where that idea came from...........Yeah, I may be a weirdo:(

You're not a weirdo. :) We're always looking for new ways to celebrate our users and awards are certainly a valid suggestion. I'm not sure I want to go down that particular angle, but I've suggested a number of other initiatives that I hope we can get the ball rolling on in the future.

Originally posted by Elikal

Originally posted by MikeB

We do ban 'shills' if we uncover them. However, figuring out who is a shill beyond any doubt isn't always easy. :)

With that said, if you suspect some foul play is going on with a particular user, please get in touch with me privately about it and provide me with any evidence of your claims you can. We'll look into it and take any action we deem necessary.

Thanks, that is good to know. I would never suspect someone, that just is not my nature. It is more a spirit of "play fair" I wish for. But it is good to know this is already the policy. :)

You know, what really angers me about this, is, I really never suspect people of ulterior motivations. Call me naive, but I rather believe someone is stubborn or dumb than believing in "shills". The very idea someone says an opinion because he is paid makes my stomach twist. I know little can be done, because prove is very hard to nigh impossible maybe. It just makes me both sad and angry to think people do that, partially because I feel so helpless to counter such a thing.

It's an unfortunate reality that such 'shills' do exist, but users do tend to jump to conclusions far too quickly and so we aren't going to just go ahead and ban someone on someone's suspicion. All we can do is promise to look into it and if we find enough red flags we'll take action. We do take this sort of thing very seriously though.

Please do not call out users on the boards. If you have questions for a particular user feel free to PM (but not harass) them!

Moving this to hardware where you may get more help!

We do ban 'shills' if we uncover them. However, figuring out who is a shill beyond any doubt isn't always easy. :)

With that said, if you suspect some foul play is going on with a particular user, please get in touch with me privately about it and provide me with any evidence of your claims you can. We'll look into it and take any action we deem necessary.

Not sure about awards, but we do spotlight threads every week as part of our Community Spotlight, and users receive a unique title for being chosen for it.

Originally posted by Thestache

Excitedstache is my cousin :P :P

 

The more excited cousin, clearly.

We've pored over your many awesome Rappelz screenshots for this week's "Screenshot of the Week," and today we're excited to announce the winning entry!

Congratulations to Glenzeil, this week's Screenshot of the Week winner!

The winning screenshot and Glenzeil's accompanying description can be found below:

"One of my favorite old memories, a GM event from late Epic 4."

For her awesome screenshot, Glenzeil has snagged herself one Death Tyrant Pet Card, 3 T-Protect, and 3 Summoning Scrolls.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Sure, people who have the time/money to go to PAX get into beta, but people who have been signed up since signups were available? Fuck 'em! They're too poor to go to PAX, so they probably don't have much money to spend in the cash shop anyway, right?

Way to slap people in the face there, Red5.

People who go to gaming conventions are always going to come away with cool goodies, it's part of the ritual so to speak.

Red 5 is actually awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we'll have FireFall keys for you guys 'soon'. ;)

Just a reminder: do not discuss free/private/emulated servers! Thanks.

Red 5 Studios was out in force at this year's PAX East and we were on hand to check out their upcoming sci-fi MMOFPS, FireFall. Read on for our full hands-on preview!

During my play session, I jumped into a freshly created Assault class named ExcitedStache. The game got off on a good foot on this alone, I must admit. If you haven’t seen FireFall before, you’ll instantly be struck by its visuals. The game features a vibrant cel-shaded style that is strongly reminiscent of Gearbox’s Borderlands.  I didn’t spend too much time with the game, but what was immediately notable about this MMO was the game’s verticality.

Read more of Michael Bitton's: FireFall: PAX East Hands On Preview.

This looked absolutely amazing. Thanks for the link! I can't friggin' wait!