A number that will live in infamy. And memes. Seriously, so many memes already!

I myself picked up the game this morning and still ran into the cursed Error 37.  And after multiple attempts, got finally got through the terms and conditions and created my character.  Then I promptly ran into something a dastardly different error calling himself 311702.  Apparently Blizzard is pumping mass healing potions into their downed servers.

Now having always-on DRM is a completely logical choice by Blizzard – the fight against piracy is not without it’s innocent bystanders lost – and I know within a few days I’ll be happily / savagely clicking on skeletons waiting as my Witch Doctor poisons every skeleton in the dank dungeon I am.  Just because a scant few jerkoffs still pirate games doesn’t mean the rest of the world should suffer.  Maybe I don’t always want to play at home.  What if I wanted to go to Starbucks and slay Shambling Horrors while sipping a mochiato while The Shins play over the store speakers.  Diablo 3 would suck the bandwidth out of the place faster than you can say “Stay awhile and listen.”

And the cry of thousands of tables being flipped were heard on May 15th, 12:34AM, due to Error 37.

Diablo 3 is not Knights of the Old Republic, a massively multiplayer online RPG.  It’s a single player game with multiplayer.  I shouldn’t have to force myself to sign up for a very MMO-esque online connection if I want to play by myself.  With that said, this issue isn’t one I’m going to start an entire army against (Retake Diablo?) but it’s still a lingering and important issues game publishers will have to tackle in the future.  Doesn’t anyone the issues with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 and the crippling connection issues the PC version of the game came with?

I realize a week from now this will all be but a faded memory, but I pray that Blizzard will have learned from the barrage of angry phone calls, merciless memes made towards them and the thousands of angry, angry Tweets.  I still think there is a better solution in the war against piracy than what we currently have.

Problems Plague Diablo 3 Launch originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 15, 2012.

You’d think I would have been able to quit Lord of the Rings Online by now, been able to cancel my subscription and put aside that money for Diablo 3.  Maybe even just have been satisfied with playing Skyrim to hold me over.  But no.  At most, I might go on a three month hiatus.  Or I might just let my characters gather dust because I’m having a love affair with Dragon Age: Origins.  But no matter what, I always come back.

I’ve had my time on World of Warcraft, Aion, Rift and many others.  Each MMO offers something slightly different, but when the shine of the newness of it all has worn off, I am left with no reason to continue playing.  Guilds fall inactive,people stop logging in, and the social aspect of the game just falls flat.

From day one, Lord of the Rings Online has had the single best gaming community I have ever had the pleasure to encounter.  In the beginning, it was almost impossible not to make a new friend every time you logged in.  I can remember more than once when a passing level 50 saved my arse from being handed to me on a silver platter.  I also remember encountering another player that had their eyes set on the same ore vein that I did, but one of us would send an IM to the other asking if they really needed it.

And yes, there were the bad moments as well.  A group of chuckleheads would swoop in, making short work of the enemy mob you were slowly fighting your way towards.  Before you knew it, the respawns from the units they killed were after you.  But, more often than not, a similar group might notice what you were trying to do and wait for the respawn of the mob with you, so you didn’t die horribly when it finally popped up.  It is those moments of consideration and kindness that stand out in my mind.

Even when the game went free-to-play, it was still the same at its core.  Sure, the influx of new players and the inevitable changes that followed made me cringe inwardly, but I stuck around.  Those friendly players seemed fewer, and the spam in general chat seemed to skyrocket.  But, given time, the community came back around.  (I am proud to say any time I’ve seen someone begging for gold in any chat channel, they have been politely, or not so politely, told to sod off.  People were helpful, but you still had to earn what you wanted.)

Long story short, Turbine, you have my thanks.  You have created the only MMO that I have remained loyal to for these last five years.  You created a game that fostered a strong sense of community, and I think Tolkien would have been proud of the giving, loyal and kind people that your game attracts.

To five great years, and many more to come.

And PS: your game doesn’t look half bad either.

Five Years of LOTRO: A Lookback and a Thank You originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 14, 2012.

MajorNelson has said that in its first week Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition had sold more than 1 million units globally. He also mentions that there’s been a total of 5.2 million online hours played, 4 million multiplayer sessions, and a total of 2.4 million multiplayer gaming hours.

They’re certainly impressive number and we’ll have to wait and see if it knocks The Walking Dead of the top of the charts.

Minecraft breaks digital sales record on Xbox Live Arcade originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 14, 2012.

Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

Given the push back on Bioshock Infinite and other extremely anticipated titles, Eidos’ announcement that the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot will be delayed until 2013 isn’t exactly big news. The question is, are these titles all being pushed back because they need more QA love or are they still this incomplete? Either way, this Tomb Raider reboot is looking to be really slick, so I’m willing to give them all the time they need to ensure it lives up to the awesomeness of the original series.

Tomb Raider delayed until 2013 originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 14, 2012.

1. The Walking Dead
2. Trials Evolution
3. Fable Heroes
4. Fez
5. Awesomenauts
6. Pinball FX2
7. Bloodforge
8. I Am Alive
9. NBA Jam: On Fire Edition
10. Castle Crashers

Check out the review of the first episode of The Walking Dead if you’re still not sure zombies are your thing.

The Walking Dead shuffles into top place of Xbox Live Arcade originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 11, 2012.

“Following the news last week that that Inside Xbox in the US was to cease production, the team in Europe has been investigating what makes most sense for them and the Xbox Live community as they continue to strive to deliver the latest gaming and entertainment news for users across the region,” Major Nelson said.

As such, they have decided to move away from the current first-party produced content model and transition to a third-party content model, which will provide timely and locally-relevant content to users across more of the EMEA markets. Whilst this means that the Inside Xbox brand will effectively be retired in Europe, the focus remains on continuing to provide the Xbox LIVE community with the latest and best in games and entertainment news and information.

Dan Maher, aka MrPointyHead summed up the situation in a Tweet: “So, to be clear and succinct: Inside Xbox is no more, as are our jobs. Your support during the last four years has meant the world to us.”

Microsoft discontinue Inside Xbox in Europe originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 9, 2012.

Check out the interview below with CEO Rob Bartlett as well as the entry form to win a 3 month Advanced membership.

What is WTFast?

WTFast is a service that helps you to kick butt in online games!  We accelerate your game’s online connection to make sure that the game is responsive and actually does what you tell it to.

How does WTFast work?

Your local Internet provider, and a bunch of other Internet providers across the web, decide what to do with your game data.  WTFast basically takes over your game data so we can decide what to do with it instead to get the best performance.  We use our proprietary software and global network of servers to accelerate your game data.  We are like a global ISP for online games.

Why don’t I just buy a faster internet connection?

Usually a faster internet connection gives you a bigger ‘pipe’, which will help you download big chunks of data faster, but in most cases this does not have any impact on your game data.  When you are playing online games, you are not actually downloading that much data; if nothing else is changed, a bigger pipe won’t help improve game lag.  Your ISP also only has control over their local network, once your game data leaves their network, your game data is out of their hands.

 How much does it cost?

WTFast is free to try, if you like the service, it is only $5.99/mo for a basic membership.

What MMO games do you support?

All of them!  We just released our new database driven game engine, enabling us to support over 800 PC based online games.  We now support both TCP and UDP based games.  Our new engine is in beta so there are still some games that need to be tweaked but overall results have been great.  We are taking customer feedback to tweak games as needed.

Would WTFast be useful in games other than MMOs?

Yes.  WTFast helps you to click faster and reduce your latency score and it also helps to smooth out your gameplay.  Gamers who experience lag are familiar with characters ‘running on the spot’, unexpectedly teleporting across the screen, or suddenly finding themselves in a pool of lava!  WTFast helps fix these problems so you can play your online games as they were intended.  Obviously these improvements benefit all online games.

What sets WTFast apart from other proxy services?

We have the best software engine and server infrastructure in the world.  WTFast was specifically designed and optimized for gaming, we take over and optimize your entire game connection.  WTFast is not just a 3rd-party proxy program with a pretty wrapper.

Traditionally proxies are what “bad guys” and hackers use to hide what they are doing in online games.  We have made a very clear distinction between WTFast and traditional proxies; WTFast is a game accelerator, not something you use to hide in online games.  Our game engine offers a significant level of customization so we can provide a solution that both gamers and the game publishers will be happy with.

What features and functions can subscribers look forward to in the future?

Nothing we can talk about right now but our goal is for WTFast to be the ‘must have’ tool for all gamers.  We continue to push our technology development towards this goal, we have great things lined up for the future!

Interested in giving the service a shot? Enter the contest below for a chance to win a 3 month Advanced membership ($30 value).

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Rob Bartlett of WTFast.com (plus free subscriptions!) originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 8, 2012.

Yes, it’s gritty, it’s raw, and it follows no real format; but this was mainly a test run to see if anyone would be interested. Comments would be awesome so we know if this is something we should keep doing. Future episodes will sound better, with less awkward pauses, non sequitur segues and probably some obnoxious intro music. Let us know what you like, what you don’t like, and if this is something you’d like to see us continue doing.

The GamingOgre podcast uses hosting provided by Soundcloud. 

GamingOgre Podcast – Episode 1: The Worst Idea We’ve Ever Had originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 7, 2012.

SteelSeries has teamed up with us to get you super hyped about Diablo III, and they’ve sent us a killer prize pack to get you ready to click some minion ass!

(Hopefully) You’ve previously read my reviews for the Diablo III Headset as well as the Diablo III Mouse, so you already know how much ass this stuff kicks. Now we’re giving both of them away along with a QcK Mousepad featuring the amazing looking Demon Hunter so you can take on the master of evil with the ultimate advantage!

You know you want to win all this badassery. That’s like $200 worth of demonic face-stomping goodness!

To enter, simply check below. Contest will end next week so I can hopefully get it out to you in time for May 15th’s Diablo III launch!

EDIT: Unfortunately, this has to be restricted to US only – unless you’ve got someone in the US we can send it to who will send it overseas for you. :p

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Evil lives, but you can destroy it with this SteelSeries prize pack originally appeared on GamingOgre on May 1, 2012.

More information will surface as we get closer to the release date, but for now things look really good and I think it’ll be a pretty fun little fighter. I’m still not sure why it took this long for Sony to get out an alternative to Super Smash Bros though.

Here’s the newest Dev Diary from the PlayStation Blog about PSASBR (Have I mentioned the awkward title yet?) showing a little more in-depth information about the upcoming title.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a thing that was announced originally appeared on GamingOgre on April 30, 2012.